I invite your attention to Ecclesiastes
chapter 12. The book of Ecclesiastes chapter
12. My text is verses number 13 and
14. My subject is the final judgment. This book of Ecclesiastes. The name, well you'll see the
word ecclesia in that name. This book is what a preacher
had to say to a congregation. And what he has learned is that
in wealth, in fame, in the seeking of pleasure, there's no happiness. Everything was vanity and just
something that was to be blown to the breeze. Solomon had opportunity to try
it all. It was vanity in his wisdom,
vanity in his wealth, vanity in his riches, vanity in his
fame. True happiness is found in nothing
on this earth. And then Solomon concludes, verse
8, Ecclesiastes 12, ìVanity of vanity, saith the preacher, all
is vanity. And moreover, because the preacher
was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yea, he gave
good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.î
Thereís a whole book of them. The preacher sought to find out
acceptable words, and that which was written was upright, even
words of truth. The words of the wise are as
goads and as nails fastened by the masters of the assemblies,
which are given from one shepherd. And further, by these my son
be admonished of making many books there is no end. and much
study is a weariness of the flesh. Here's my text. Let us hear the
conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every
work into judgment with every secret thing. whether it be good
or whether it be evil. Dear God, keep His commandments,
because one day you're going to be judged, and the day of
that judgment is the final judgment. There is a final judgment, and
we all will be there, and every work Every thought, every imagination,
every intent, it's all going to be judged. No one, no thing
will be overlooked. It's a final judgment of all
people, of all things. We're going to be considering
here seven marks regarding this judgment. Number one, Holy Scriptures
speak of a final judgment on the judgment day. Second, Holy
Scriptures speak of the final judgment by several names. Third, all these names refer
to the same judgment. Fourth, all mortals will be judged
at the final judgment. Fifth, the judge at the final
judgment will be God. in the person of Jesus Christ.
Sixth, the results of the final judgment are everlasting. And seven, let us hear the conclusion
of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man
because God's going to judge us, every one of us. by whether
or not we rightly and properly feared Him and kept His commands. So let's go to that first point.
And I have you, you have the outline that is there before
you. Point number one, Holy Scriptures speak of a final judgment on
judgment day. And I want you to note the singular.
A final judgment, singular, on a final judgment day. singular. The Scriptures do not
speak of future judgments on future days. It is singular,
both with regard to the judgment and to the day. Jesus and his
apostles called it the day of judgment. Repeatedly, Jesus said
so, the day of judgment. Jude, a half-brother of our Lord,
calls it the judgment of the great day. The judgment of the
great day. I don't know if you've heard
the song, but I recall in my youth hearing people singing,
there's a great day coming, a great day coming, there's a great day
coming by and by. And speaking of that great day
and judgment and we're all going to be there. We all will be gathered
there in the judgment of the great day. There are some great days that
are mentioned in Scripture. There's the great day of the
creation. That was actually six days, but
consider that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. What a great day that was. When
God stepped out of nothingness that was all around Him and said,
Let there be an earth and a heaven around it. And there it is, just
as God said. There's another great day. Just a few days later, in the
early morning of our existence on this earth, a great day when
Adam sinned against God and plunged our entire race into sin and
death and spiritual death. Oh, it was a great day. It was
a terrible day, but great consider the consequences. One man's deed
affected all the human race. There's another great day. Our
brother Chris read about it this morning, the birth of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a great day that was!
Our brother went to some detail to speak of, he shall save his
people from their sins. And that had to do with that
great day when he was born. He was predestined and purposed
from the foundation of the world, but on that great day, a Savior
was born. There's another great day, 33
and a half years later, on Calvary, when Jesus fulfilled that prophecy,
He will save His people from their sins. When He died as a
substitute and a representative of God's people, and shed his
blood, and in his death he saved God's people. As another great
day, three days and three nights later, and he's raised from the
dead. What a great day that was. His
enemies are confounded. The devil is defeated. As another
great day, The day when Jesus ascends into glory and the Father
is there with all heaven, says, Come, Son, sit here on my right
hand and rule the nations. These are some of the greatest
days. They all had to do with this one man, Jesus. And then there's that day that's
coming. What a great day. It will be so great that His
people will shout, Behold, this is our God and we have waited
for Him. It is a day that will be so great
that the wicked will say to the mountains, Fall on us and hide
us. The Lamb is coming back and we
tremble because of His wrath. They never did that on any other
day. They will on the day of that
return. Because on that day of the return
of Jesus Christ, everybody, whoever lives, is going to stand right
there before Him and be judged. It is the judgment of the great
day. There has never been a day in greatness like this one. It
will be the only great day with regard to this subject that there
ever will be, the judgment of the great day. Point number two,
the final day will occur, or the final judgment will occur
on the final day. It will be the day when the Son
of Man comes, when He comes in that day. Now, let me say this. Note the singular again. Jesus is coming back only once. There will be no secret coming,
as some tell us, and then a public coming. No, no, no. There is
one coming in that day and every eye shall see him. He is coming
back in that day. Paul says, God now commands all
men everywhere to repent because God has appointed a day. God has appointed a day. I have an appointment coming
up next week. My physician sent me a text to
remind me, and I also have to answer a bunch of questions,
all right? Will we be able to make this
appointment? There's a great day coming, but
God's not going to send you a text about it. God will not ask you
if you can make this appointment. It's coming! It's coming! God
has appointed a day when He will judge the world by that man whom
God has appointed. God will judge the world, and
the judge will be a man, and the man whom God ordained was
given his credentials when God raised him from the dead. I think
I know who the judge is now. I know who the judge is. It would
be the man that God raised from the dead. And God has appointed
a day, and you will be there whether or not you are ready
for it. He would judge the world in righteousness
by the man whom he has ordained. Holy Scripture's third point
speak of the final judgment by several names. It is the judgment
in Hebrews 9, 27. It is appointed for men once
to die, but after this, the judgment. What judgment? The judgment. Did you not see the definite
article? The judgment. What judgment is that? There's
only one. The judgment, the one that comes after death. It is the final judgment at Jehovah's
throne for judgment, Psalm 9, verse 7. Jehovah has prepared
his throne for judgment. He shall judge the world in righteousness,
and he shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness.
God has already prepared his throne. Back in time now, roughly 3,000
years ago when these words were written, and God already had
prepared His throne, judgment day will not take God by surprise. His throne is already prepared. It is the judgment of the throne
of the Son of Man in Matthew chapter 25. When the Son of Man
comes in all His glory and all the holy angels with Him, He
shall sit on the throne of His glory. His glory. What is His
glory? It's God's glory because it's
God's throne. It's also the throne of the Son
of Man. The Scripture does not say the
Son of God, though He is. It's the Son of Man because God
said, I have appointed a man. to be the judge. And I show this
by raising him from the dead. And there he sits. And all the
nations shall be gathered there before him. Furthermore, this
is the judgment of the judgment seat of Christ. Twice Paul tells
us, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Every one of us. We shall all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. Fifth, the final judgment is
the judgment that the righteous judgment of God, 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1 verse 5, and then it is also called the great white
throne. The great white throne at the
end of this millennial reign of Jesus Christ on this earth, which he commenced during his
incarnation and which still continues, but when this time of the millennial
reign of Christ is over, he's coming back and God will sit
on his throne to judge, a great white throne. Preacher, I thought
you said it was the throne of Jesus' glory. It is. I thought
you said it was the judgment seat of Christ. It is. Well,
which is it? It is. Everything that the scripture
said it is. It's described by various terms,
but they all refer to the same judgment. All these names refer
to the same judgment. There are not different judgments. Now, I'm not going to dwell long
on this, but I will just let you know that I have stressed
the point thus far that there is only one judgment, one final
judgment on the one final judgment day. There are some who say,
no, there's more than one. Followers of Cyrus Ingersoll
Schofield say that there, and he wrote the books on it, and
said there are three judgments in the future, and three different
occasions, three different sorts of people will be judged, and
there'll be at least a thousand seven years between the three
judgments. Well, no, there's only one. Now
if you really want to hear something interesting, the followers of
Ellen Gould White, also born in the 1800s, has a whole religion
following her, Adventists. They had a prophet who said,
Jesus is coming back, second coming, 1844, they all got together
Jesus did not keep the appointment that the prophet had made, the
great disappointment. That's what they call it, the
great disappointment. Well, a face-saving feature was added
to the great disappointment by Miss White. She said, he did
come back. He did return. on into a judgment place to start
a judgment. And according to her and her
followers today, in 1844, a judgment began of a certain sort of people
that still continues now, what is it, 180 years later. Okay? This judgment is still going
on, and it will go on until the end of this age. Then at the
end of this age, They say the millennium will begin and there'll
be another judgment of another group of people that goes for
a thousand years. Are you following this? I mean,
they really believe this. Then when that thousand years
is over, Jesus will come back again. This is either the second
or third time, whichever. He will come back and there'll
be another judgment of still another group of people. Thousands of years separating
these judgments. Now, there's one judgment in
the future, on one day, with one judge, and everybody's judged. Everybody's judged. Number four,
all mortals will be at the final judgment. Paul says it is the
judgment of the world in Acts 17 31. God has appointed the
day on which he will judge the world. The psalmist amplifies
that in Psalm 9 8. He shall judge the world and
the peoples in it. In Matthew chapter 25 we read
it is a judgment of all the nations. And all the nations shall be
gathered there before Jesus. Stand before Him when He's on
the throne of His glory, and He shall step down from the throne
of His glory, and come down among all those who were there before
Him. All the nations gather before Him, and He'll start separating
them. Sheep on the right hand, goats
on the left. He'll be coming down. You, get
over here on the right hand. He'll go to someone else, you,
you get on my left hand. You're not going to go with the
sheep, you're going to go with the goats. It'll be a separation.
And the sheep are called, you who are blessed by my Father,
and they are characterized as the righteous. And he will say,
come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Then, when they are gone, no one's left except these
on the left hand. And the judge will say, depart
from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for
the devil and his angels. But I want you to see that everybody's
going to be there. Everybody's going to be there.
Let me tell you, I never read that passage. I
never read that passage, but what comes to my mind, my children, my grandchildren, other loved
ones. I know this woman. I know where
she's going to be on that day. She and I are going to be together
on the right hand of the shepherd. And I'm going to be looking around,
where's my son? Where's my daughter? Where's my grandson? Where's
my granddaughter? Are they with me here on the
right hand of the shepherd? I was so blessed to see my Lord,
our Lord, save both our son and our daughter. I know where they're
going to be. I hope the same will be true
of my grandson and my granddaughter. that when I go looking around
at that final judgment, they can say, hey, Pa, here we are
with you. Oh, you that are here today,
where will you be on that day? When you look around for your
loved ones, on which hand of the shepherd will they be? It is a judgment of all peoples
divided on the right and the left. It is a judgment also of
the living and the dead, Acts 10, verse 42. The living and
the dead, both who are alive on the day when Jesus returns
and those who died before he came. It is a judgment of everyone. We shall all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. where every knee shall bow to
me, and every tongue shall confess to God, and where each of us
shall give an account of himself to God. For we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the
things done in the body according to what he has done, whether
good or bad. So therefore, we're all going
to be there. We're all going to be there.
No one will be excused from that day. Fifth point, the judge at
the final judgment will be God in the person of Jesus Christ.
Now to consider, we're going to develop this point. He is
identified as Jehovah in Psalm 97. Jehovah has prepared his
throne for judgment. Second, he is identified as God. because at the judgment each
of us shall give an account of him herself to God. Third, the judge is identified
as the Lord, the righteous judge. He shall judge righteously. Abraham says to the Lord when
the Lord is about to destroy Sodom, Abraham says, There are some
righteous people down there. Now, you will not destroy the
righteous with the wicked, will you? Shall not the judge of all
the earth do right? Yes, he will. Yes, he will. The judge of all the earth shall
do right. The righteous shall not be deprived
of their reward, and the unrighteous and the wicked shall not be deprived
of their punishment. And the judge will not be fooled
and will not accept a bribe. He shall judge righteously. The
judge is identified as the son of man. He has the human nature. He's Jehovah. Jehovah having
the human nature. He is in the person of Jesus
Christ. God has appointed a day in which
he will judge the world by the man whom he has ordained. The
judge at God's final day of judgment, the one who is Jehovah, the one
who is God, the one who is the righteous judge, that one will
be the God-man Jesus Christ. We shall all stand before the
judgment seat of Jesus Christ. We read in II Timothy 4.1 that
the Lord Jesus Christ will judge the living and the dead at His
appearing and at His kingdom. It is the judgment seat of Christ
where we read that every knee shall bow to Him as Jehovah,
every tongue shall confess that He is Jehovah, and everyone will
give an account to God by giving that account to the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. And then consider this. In John
5.22, the Father judges no one. Have you considered the profundity
of that statement? Is not the judge of all the earth
God? Yes. But it is not God the Father. The Father judges no one. No one! But the Father has committed
all judgment to the Son. That all should honor the Son,
just as they honor the Father. And he who does not honor the
Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Consider that. God the Father will not judge
you. The Father judges no one. He gives all that to his Son
and says, Son, you be the judge and I will see to it that they
honor you like they honor me. For every knee shall bow to Jesus
Christ, shall confess that he is Jehovah, and shall give an
account of himself to God by giving that account to Jesus
Christ. Jesus's preachers therefore declared
that Jesus commanded us to preach to the people and to testify
that it is he who was ordained by God to be the judge of the
living and the dead. Okay, now that's what I'm doing
this morning. Am I not telling you that your
judge will be Jesus Christ whether you be at that day among the
living or the dead? If you are alive, you're going
to be taken to the judgment. If you are dead, you're going
to be raised in the general resurrection, and at that resurrection, you're
going to the judgment. Every one of us. Peter says, Jesus commanded us
to preach it. Well, here 2,000 years later,
another preacher's standing up and telling you the same thing. Number six, the results of the
final judgment are everlasting. The righteous who are Christ's
sheep will hear him say, come, you blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
I want you to consider that for just a moment. God prepared a
kingdom for his people before the foundation of the world. And come, and Jesus tells them,
come into this kingdom and come into eternal life. How do you explain eternal life? I have no idea. Eternal life. Think about it, folks. Going
to glory and being there for eternity, never ending. How do you explain something
that does not end? I have trouble explaining a thousand
years. It never ends, folks. The joy
and the glory of it all never ends. But on the other hand,
those who are on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into
the everlasting, everlasting, everlasting fire prepared for
the devil and his angels. How do you explain torment that
never ends, where the worm does not die and
the fire is not quenched? What is the worm? It's in the
conscience. For all the rest of eternity,
there's a worm gnawing in the conscience that says, remember
the day you heard that gospel back on the 9th of June, 2024? Remember that weekend you heard
the gospel? Two men came to Great Falls to
preach it. Remember? Remember all the times
you heard John R. Mitchell and Peter Minnie stand
before you and preach the gospel? Did you believe it? There's a
worm in the conscience that will torment some for all eternity. where the worm does not die and
the fire is not quenched and the smoke of their torment goes
up forever. It never ends, folks. It never
ends. I cannot explain happiness that
never ends. I do not want to understand torment
that never ends. But it's everlasting. No second
chance. There's no purgatory. There's
no limbo. There's none of that. It's for
eternity. There's no appeal, and the judge
never makes a mistake. Seventh and final point, let
us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Here it all concludes. Fear God. What is it to fear
God? It is not to dread Him. It is not to dread Him. I do not dread my Father. I do
not dread my Savior. I do not dread my Redeemer. No,
no, no. I am in love with my God, with
my Savior, with my Redeemer. What is it to fear God? To love
Him. to revere Him, to worship Him,
to reverence Him, to obey Him. What is it to obey God? Fear
God and keep His commandments. What are His commandments? Well,
the first one I would bring to you today is this. The first
commandment given by Jesus Christ in His ministry, repent, and
believe in the gospel. That was the beginning of his
ministry. Thirty years old, he's baptized and begins preaching. What's his first message? Repent
and believe in the gospel. That's the commandment I bring
to you. By the way, that is not advice
and that is not a suggestion. Repent and believe the gospel.
Forsake your sins. Believe the gospel. What is the
gospel? Jesus Christ. What is it to believe it? It's
to trust in Him. Jesus is the gospel. We believe
the gospel when we trust in Him. Fear God and keep His commandments. What are they? First, repent.
Second, believe the gospel. Repent. Forsake your sins. Be done with them once and for
all. All who repent of their sins,
will be redeemed from their sins. None of them will be punished
for their sins. Consider that. No one who believes
in Jesus Christ will be punished for his sins. Why is that? How can that be true? Does not
every sin have to be punished? Yes. Then preacher, how can you
say that if I believe in Jesus Christ, if I trust in him, I
will never be punished for my sins? Oh, it's quite simple. He was punished for them. He
took the sins of God's people upon Himself for their sins to
calibrate Him there, suffered the righteous indignation and
wrath of God against the sins of His people. And when I stand in that day
of judgment, And every secret thought I ever
had is brought up. There is one who will stand before
me because my judge will also be my advocate and says, I died
for that sin. Most parks will not be punished
for it. I died for that sin. Every sin
I ever did, there they are. And Jesus says, I died for that
sins. Come, you blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. And yet, there are some. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians
1, verse 8, Those who do not obey the gospel, consider his
words, they do not obey the gospel. The gospel is not only something
that you believe, it is something that you obey. What is it to
obey the gospel? Repent and believe it. Repent and believe it. You are
obligated to believe the gospel. If it sounds like duty faith,
I suppose it may be. But you are obligated to believe
it. You will be judged on whether
or not you do. It is your duty to believe the
gospel. It is your duty to repent. God
commands all men everywhere to repent. There is an obligation
on them to do it, and if they do not obey the gospel, what
do we read? They shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord. Punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord. I hope on that day when my Lord says, Come ye blessed
of my Father, I hope I can walk into that kingdom with my beloved Sandy by my side and my children and my grandchildren
walking with me. I hope my entire family is there
to walk together into that kingdom. I hope I do not look back and
see someone loved one still there. Some relative, some loved one. Folks, this is serious. This is serious. Parents, bring
your children to Jesus. Bring your siblings to Jesus.
Bring your parents to Jesus if they've never come. And let us
all be ready for that day of judgment. O God, our Father,
be pleased, we pray, to bless this word to your glory. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen.