Now the message this week was
prompted, as I said earlier, by the study that we were doing
in Romans 10 last week, that verse at the end of Joel, chapter
2, verse 32, that Paul quotes, whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be delivered. And I've entitled the message
Judgment and Deliverance. That study got me thinking. Judgment
in the prophets is clear. You read these minor prophets
and it's judgment, judgment, judgment. But it's always judgment
and then salvation from judgment. Deliverance from judgment promised. God is the same. God is the same
always. He's the same yesterday, today
and forever. God is still a consuming fire. You all stand in peril of eternal
judgment. We all do. We all stand in peril
of eternal judgment. Do you realize it? People don't
realize it. Do you realize the peril that
we're in? Do you feel that position that you're in? Do you sense
it? Do you know it? to feel this condition of being
in a place of judgment. I'll give you a trivial little
example, but the other morning, having thought that all of my
affairs with Her Majesty's revenue and customs were perfectly settled
for at least another six months, and that the tax bill I have
to pay for the work I did last year is not due till the 31st
of January, I got a letter through the Post the other morning saying
I owed them £2,000, and you know, HMRC are not very nice about
it when they write to you. They basically tell you, you
owe us £2,000, and if you don't pay up by the 31st of July, we'll
start legal proceedings against you. It's like, hold on a minute,
I haven't said yet I'm not going to pay it. But you know, it sends
a, as trivial as it is, it sends a shiver down your spine. shocked,
I'm in debt, HMRC, and I phoned them up, you must, this is something,
oh, oh, oh, I see what you mean, oh yeah, all right, I understand
now. Please, don't any of you worry, it's absolutely fine,
I'm just using it as an illustration of the fact that, you know, these
things really make you feel uncomfortable, this sense that you owe something. Oh, how much greater is the sense
of what we owe to the law of God, the debt that we owe there. What about our eternal sin debt
to God? This society in which we live
seems to have completely lost any touch, the friends that you
associate with, the neighbors you associate with, have no sense
of the reality of God, of his law, of his justice, of his holiness,
of our sin, of our absolute eternal sin debt that rests upon us.
You say, well, most people don't pay any attention. I know they
don't. Everyone just seems to get on with life without any
concern for death. But you know, that's no comfort
to us. That's no comfort that the majority don't seem bothered
about these things. That's no comfort to us that
there's only a handful of us considering the judgment of God
this morning. Jesus said in Matthew chapter
7 and verse 13, he said, enter ye in to his people. Enter you in at the straight
gate. That's a narrow one. He said,
for wide is the gate. And broad is the way that leads
to destruction, and many there be. Oh, we're in a minority! Yeah, Jesus said it. Many there
be that go in the wide gate that leads to destruction. That's
not a trivial thing. That's a serious warning to us. A serious warning. The way to
eternal life has always been a narrow way, and few there be
that go in there at. If you think The legitimacy of
a church rests on the numbers of people that go to it. That's
a very, very false assessment to make in the light of what
the scriptures tell us about the truth of God, about the broad
way that leads to destruction with many on that road. You can
go to the United States of America and you can go to these great
big mega churches with 6,000 or more in the congregation and
multiple services because there are so many people, so many there. It's a broad way leading to destruction. And the narrow way is where you
find the little groups with a hundred or less. sitting around, but
what is the mark of their truth? It's the gospel that they preach,
it's the word of God they preach, it's the faithfulness to the
message of this book, the whole scripture, the whole counsel
of God. You may say about this judgment, and your flesh no doubt
feels this, are people really as bad as the scripture says?
Are they really that bad? You know, everybody we come across
every day, do they deserve hell? Isn't that what the flesh says?
Do they really deserve hell? They're quite nice people. Aren't
they nice people? Do I deserve hell, as I am? Is that right? The Bible is full
of warnings of judgment to come. It's full of warnings. Full of
warnings of punishment for sin. Full of warnings of eternal condemnation. We read Joel chapter 2, the whole
of it, just three chapters in Joel. But chapter one is a chapter
of judgment coming. Why? Because the people have
been warned again and again and again about their sin, about
their false religion, about their idolatry, about their claiming
to be the people of God and flying in the face of everything that
God said. And God's saying, I will bring judgment. His word has
always said, I will bring judgment. And he uses instruments to bring
judgment. And in the first half of chapter
two, blow the trumpet That judgment is coming. How does it come?
It comes by the instrument of a foreign army. Nobody's quite
sure when the book of Joel was written, but it was probably
about 800 years before Christ was born. And it may be talking
about the Assyrian armies overrunning the northern kingdoms. It may
be talking about the Babylonians coming and overrunning Judah. But God is bringing judgment
by His instrument. He brings agricultural judgment
in that the land which was flowing with milk and honey and good
fruits is swept through by plagues of locusts. Because you read
that in verse 25, in God promising deliverance to His people, He
says, I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten. he says that army comes and he
says the land looks like the Garden of Eden before they get
to it and then you turn round when they've swept through and
it's a wilderness it's just stripped bare This army comes, army of
locusts, army of whatever it is. God brings judgment on sin. He promises it. He promises eternal
condemnation. He promises that Jesus himself
said that the fires never go out. The fires of torment. The
fires of torment. Whatever that is. I don't know
literally what that is. It doesn't appear to us what
that is. But it sounds dreadful, and it's God's just judgment
on sin. And the same in this prophet,
Joel, but many of the other minor prophets. It's just what God
promised back in the books of Moses, Leviticus 26, summarizing
it. If you do my commandments, I
will bless you. But if not, I will bring terror
upon you. I will bring judgment on you.
But why should God's judgment be so severe? Isn't that what
the flesh naturally thinks? Why should God's judgment be
so severe? Because God is not a man like
we are. Because God is holy. Because
God inhabits eternity. He dwells in infinite, pure light. He's a purer eyes, we read in
Habakkuk, than to behold, to look on with condoning sin. He cannot do that. What is iniquity? It's the transgression of the
law. 1st John chapter 3 verse 4. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
the law. For sin is the transgression
of the law. It's crossing the line that God
has put down. It's disobedience to God's rightful
rule. It's right there in the Garden
of Eden. Before the fall, God said, this is my line. Do not
cross it. In the day that you eat thereof,
you shall surely die. day that you eat thereof you
shall surely die and they did not physically not in their flesh
but in their spirits in their communion with God they died
and so have all those who have come from Adam and Eve and that's
all of us we're all in that same way we're all sinners disobedient
to God's rightful rule and as if that wasn't clear enough that
it was set there in the Garden of Eden, and God expelled them
from the Garden of Eden. And this is all so graphic of
God's view of sin. And that sin was disobedience. That sin was heartening to the
voice of Satan. That sin was rebellion against
the rule of God. But if we had any doubt about
where we stand, the sin debt has been documented in the Scriptures. The sin debt's made clear. You
know, you can look at creation around and see that there's a
mighty God that made all things, but God, to make no doubt, gave
the law to Moses. And it's documented in his word.
All of that law, all of that law. Let's just think of the
Ten Commandments for a moment. Let's just think of those. The
first four are to do with our relationship with God as God,
and then the rest with our relationship with our fellow men and women.
First one, you shall have no other gods. Oh, do you know we
set up gods in our hearts, in our flesh, all the time. You
shall have no other gods but me. To break that rule is to
break the commandments of God, to be a sinner. We do it all
the time by nature, it's what we are. You shall not make any
graven image of God, because you'll get it wrong. You'll get
a wrong picture. You will deface the image of
God. You will portray God as a lie, as not the truth that
he is. You mustn't make any graven image
in your heart, which idolaters do, in bowing down to their false
gods of religion, you mustn't do it. You mustn't take the name
of God in vain. You must not, why? Because his
name is about his gracious salvation, and we mustn't take his name
in vain. Sabbath rest, it's there, the fourth one, keep the Sabbath
day holy, it's not talking about a day now, but it is talking
about gospel truth, and to To break the Sabbath, for us now,
is to break the Sabbath rest that we have in Christ, which
is to do violence and deny the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is sin in the eyes of God. We saw last week, somewhere,
talking about the people who had not obeyed the Gospel. To obey the Gospel is to hear
it, and to believe it, and to trust Him. Then our relationships
with others. Honour your father and mother.
Honor your parents. How is that flouted in this day
particularly, like never before? Honor your father and mother.
that your days may be long in the land. Respect for God's order
in society. You shall do no murder. You shall
not kill means you shall do no murder. You shall not commit
adultery or any other sexual sins. You shall not steal that
which does not belong to you. You shall not lie. You shall
not be false. You shall not tell untruth. you
shall not covet. Paul said he thought he'd kept
all of those laws until he heard the one that told him he shouldn't
covet, and then he knew he was guilty of all. And you may say,
like the rich young ruler, all of these have I kept from my
youth upwards. And Jesus said to him, right,
go then and sell all that you have and give it to the poor.
And he went out sorrowful, because he couldn't do it, because in
his flesh, he coveted, he coveted, he grasped hold of, he kept that
which he thought was his. And you may say, well, I've never
killed anybody. Maybe true. Have you killed anybody
in your heart? Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount,
expounds the law, and he says, it's not just the things that
you do outwardly, but it's the state of your heart. For you
who've hated another person in your heart have as good as killed
them. If the means had been there,
if you thought you could have got away with it, you would have
killed them in your flesh. This is what Jesus is saying.
He says you may not have actually physically committed adultery.
He said if you've looked on another woman to lust after her in your
heart, you've as good as committed adultery in the eyes of God's
law. We're rebellious against God. rebellious against him,
by nature, and he's sovereign. God is sovereign over all these
things. You say, is God being too severe? It's not up to you
to decide that. It's what God has said. In Matthew
20, verse 15, Jesus says this, can I not do with my own what
I will? It's in a parable, but he's speaking
of God, who is sovereign over it. God says, can I not do with
my own what I, this is God's. This is God's. He's created it.
He's sovereign over it. He rules over everything. It's
His rules. It's His law. It's His standards.
Can I not do with my own what I will? God created, he sustains,
he judges. This world is not a democracy
in respect of the things of God. You know, we don't vote for how
we want God to be. We don't put the God in power
that we would like there to be, so that he's nice and kind to
everybody that we think's okay. God is who He is, and He's sovereign
over all these things, and God must condemn sin, and God must
exact a price for sin. Psalm 7 and verse 11, you've
heard it quoted before, it's in the Psalms, God is angry with
the wicked every day. Romans 1 verse 18, the wrath
of God, listen to this, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven. God is sovereign over these things.
Judgment is coming. As John the Baptist, when he
was baptizing out in the wilderness at the start of his ministry,
and all the folks were coming out to him from Jerusalem to
Jordan to be baptized, and he said to the religious sects,
he said, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the
wrath to come? There's wrath coming. There's
judgment coming. A sin debt is documented in the
Word of God, in the law of God. It's documented there, but so
few feel it and know it and agree with God. You see that sin debt
is just and we're all brought in guilty before God. Romans
3 says this, Romans chapter 3 and verse 19 where Paul in the first
two-and-a-half chapters, three-and-a-half chapters of Romans has been delineating
the case, the legal case of God against mankind, that all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God. He delineates that
case, and then in verse 19 he says this, Now we know that what
things soever the law said, that I've just been talking about,
it says to them who are under the law, Oh well that's not me,
I exempt myself from that. I'm afraid not. You live in God's
world. You are subject to God's law.
And this is it. You're under the law that every
mouth may be stopped. You know? Shut up. What do you
say an excuse? hand over mouth, nothing to say,
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty
before God, guilty of sin, and he must exact judgment. We're all brought in guilty before
God. All either know their guilt before
God now, or you will do. On that day, come that day that
Cliff was talking to us about earlier in John chapter five,
that Jesus was speaking about, in that day, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, when the graves shall be
opened, then we'll know where we stand before God. You despise
God's rule, you put self first in everything, your actions one
to another are all tainted with sin, and God demands perfection,
absolute perfection. And we try to be good and we
try to do right and all our righteousnesses are filthy rags. Isaiah 64 verse
4. And we have nothing that we can
bring with which to justify ourselves. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews
chapter 10. I mean this is speaking particularly
to those that claim to be believers walking out on Christ if they
thought of it. But nevertheless the principles
apply to us all without exception, verse 26 of chapter 10. If we
sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of
the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but,
these are the words I want you to take note of, a certain fearful
looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour
the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses, of how much sorer
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know
him that hath said, this is God speaking, vengeance belongeth
to me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord
shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God, because God is a God of
judgment. But he brings some to know their
true state under that law. Those who are, as Hebrews 2 says,
all of their lifetime subject to fear because of the fear of
death. Why? Because we know it's appointed
to man to die once, and then the judgment. We know that, he
brings some to know their situation. You see, the fact that God is
going to punish sin is testified by the fact that he has punished
sin in the past. You say, when? In the flood. In the flood of Noah's day. They
were going about, they were marrying and giving in marriage, they
were just carrying on their normal everyday business, and God looked
down from heaven and he said, this of that generation, which
was exactly like everyone around us today, exact, no different. Oh, we're so much more sophisticated.
No, we're not more sophisticated. They were just like us. In fact,
I would say that they were probably significantly more sophisticated
in their hearts and minds. They were nearer to the creation.
They were nearer to the original gene pack that God created, if
I can put it that way. We've been diluted and corrupted
a lot more down many, many thousands of years. They were marrying
and giving in marriage and God looked down from heaven and this
was his verdict. The thoughts and intents of their hearts are
altogether evil continually. That's what God says about this
generation. That's what God says about you
and me in our flesh. The thoughts and intents of his
heart is altogether evil continually. Why? Because altogether we break
his sovereign rule. We defile his standards. We corrupt his creation all the
time. I'm not talking about sort of
eco-nonsense when I say corrupt his creation. I'm talking about
the way that God created man in his own image, and the image
of God he stamped in him, and our sin corrupts that every single
day. He judged them in the flood.
In a day, he took Noah and his family into the ark, and God
shut him in, that picture of Christ. And the only safe place
to be was in that ark. And all life in which was the
breath of life, breathing air, everything that wasn't in that
ark perished in that flood. God did it. Ah, you believe in
myths. You believe in myths. I'm sorry,
you just look all around you. The creation is full of evidence
of it. Full of evidence of it. It really
is. They're talking about discovering
lots of shale gas under Britain. How do you think it suddenly
got there so quickly? Great flood came. Then there
was Sodom. Great sin. Terrible sin. Perverse sexual sin. God judged
them for it. God judged them. He came down.
He had to take out his people from that place before he could
pour out his vengeance upon them. But he punished them. He destroyed
them. Lot's wife, who came out and was told not to look back,
and she looked back because where her heart was, was there. And
to show them, she was turned to a pillar of salt. In Egypt,
God sent the plagues. And he sent that most terrible
plague, the death of the firstborn. And every firstborn had to die.
And the only firstborn that didn't die were the ones that were in
the houses where a lamb had died in the place of the firstborn.
And the doorposts were painted with blood. And the angel saw
the blood and passed over, the angel of death. But the judgment
came upon them. And then, the various things
that happened to Israel. The Assyrian and the Babylonian
armies coming. Rome coming in A.D. 70. All God's
judgments. All God's judgments. But why
has he not judged us yet? Why has he left us to carry on?
Romans 2, verse 4. Or despise us thou, the riches
of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, He's long-suffering. He's giving space, knowing that
the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. He is even now
giving you space for repentance, giving this world space for repentance. Don't you fear the living God,
into whose hands it's a fearful thing to fall? We should do.
We as the, if you're a believer, it's right to fear God. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the
Lord, that filial fear, that childlike fear of God our Father,
a fear of offending him, a fear of walking out on him, a fear
of this flesh of ours deceiving us. Do you not fear the living
God? Scripture says what you will
do when God comes in judgment on your sin, on my sin. This
is what God says. This is what Jesus said to the
world, this world in which we live. He said this, they go about
as if they have no concern for judgment to come. They go about
as if they can vote on whether they want to believe what God's
word says or not, whether they're going to take any notice of it
or not. They go about as if they're autonomous over their situation.
He said, come that day, when God comes in judgment, then he
said this, they shall begin to say to the mountains, fall on
us, and to the hills, cover us. God's judgment is real. I know
this is a solemn message, but it's the message of scripture.
A message of judgment coming for sin. Does it cause you sorrow
for sin? For offending God? Or does it
just cause you remorse and fear for what will happen to you?
Paul talks in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 10 about two forms of
sorrow. He says there's a godly sorrow
which works repentance to salvation. Repentance to salvation, not
to be repented of, not to be undone. But the sorrow of the
world, the sorrow of the world just works death. The end result
of it is just death. Does it cause you to fear? Does
it cause you to fear? To fear God for his goodness
in preserving you so far, given who he is, given how much he
hates sin, and to fear him for his severity in the justice and
certainty of his judgment. I wonder whose side you take
when it comes to your sin. When it comes to my sin, whose
side do we take? Do we take God's side in respect
to it? Do we say, yes, He's right? He
is. He's altogether just. If you
do, that's called repentance. And His goodness leads you to
it. The goodness of God leads you to repentance. Repentance
is God's grant, His gift. Acts 11 verse 18, To the Gentiles
God hath granted repentance. To some of the Gentiles to whom
the gospel was preached, God has made a gift that they might
repent and hear his word and submit to him. Joel in this chapter
pronounces certain judgment for sin. Certain judgment. He pronounces punishment at the
hand of their enemies. At the hand of plagues of locusts
in chapter 1. It's just and it's certain. But
look at verse 12. This is Joel, chapter 2. He's
pronounced judgment is most definitely coming, and that's what he says
today to this world, to you, to me, to the people all around
us that we know. But listen also. Therefore also
now, saith the Lord. turn ye even to me with all your
heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, repentance, and
with mourning over your sin and your state before God. And rend,
tear, tear your heart, you know, people in religious show The
Jewish people in religious show, they'd fast to make themselves
look ill, and what a good work they were doing for God by fasting.
And they'd tear their clothes, because you know, they'd read
in the scriptures of people tearing their clothes in sorrows. And
he says, don't tear your garments. I don't want to see your repentance
in just an external show. Tear your heart, not your garments. Be converted in your heart, as
it's written elsewhere. It's not just external circumcision
that God wants. Circumcise your hearts. It's
your hearts. Cut off that evil flesh in your
hearts. Turn to the Lord your God, for
he is gracious and merciful and slow to anger. He's giving space
for repentance. He's of great kindness. He repents
of the evil. There's a way of salvation. Who
knows if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him,
even a meat offering and a drink offering, and to the Lord your...
Who knows if he'll find a ransom? Who knows if there will be a
way for you to escape the just judgment to come? Turn. God is
graceful, gracious. God is merciful. He hasn't forgotten
overlooked sin, but he's done something about it. And so we
see the sin-debt documented in the scriptures, the sin-debt
felt in repentance by those he calls, and the sin-debt cleared
for some. The sin-debt is cleared for some,
for his covenant people, for his elect, for that multitude
which no man can number, verse 32, and it shall come to pass
that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
delivered. How is this? How does this work out? For in
Mount Zion, And in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the
Lord hath said. And in the remnant whom the Lord
shall call, there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. And for them There is deliverance from this just judgment
of God on his people. There's deliverance in Mount
Zion, in Jerusalem. Where's that? It's in the kingdom
of God. That's the kingdom of God that Jesus spoke about, that
he preached, went everywhere proclaiming the glad tidings
of the kingdom of God. There is deliverance in Mount
Zion and Jerusalem. There is deliverance in his king,
the king of his kingdom. There is deliverance in that
suffering servant, in his sin-bearing substitute, there is deliverance,
there is deliverance from sin. Because in his son, God has fully
satisfied his justice for everyone that he put in him. Job 33 verse
24, then he is gracious to him and says, Deliver him, the guilty one,
from going down to the pit which he justly deserves. Deliver him
from going down to the pit. Why? What's happened? I have
found a ransom. What is the ransom? The ransom
that God has found so that his people might not go down to the
pit is his son. His son, bearing sins penalty
in the place of his people. People may not be moved today
by this message. People may regard it as irrelevant
to them. But come the judgment, come that
day, how they will lament the fact that they've ignored the
watchman's warning about these things. In Ezekiel, God talks
about watchmen, preachers, proclaiming the warning of judgment to come.
And he says, how people will lament the fact that they didn't
heed the watchman's warning. And how, if you've known repentance,
and if you've come to know that there is deliverance in Zion,
you'll rejoice. What a day of rejoicing that
will be, at the good news of deliverance. But how is it grasped?
Deliverance grasped then, finally. Deliverance grasped. Who will
be delivered from God's just judgment? There's judgment coming.
But God is merciful and slow to anger. And there's deliverance. Who will be delivered from God's
just judgment? His elect. It's in Zion. Mount
Zion and in Jerusalem. It's His elect. In that remnant
whom He shall call. Those judged in Christ. Those
whose sin debt was paid in the blood of His cross. In the precious
blood of the Lamb of God on the cross of Calvary. So does that
exclude me? You might be saying, some might
be saying, does that exclude me? Is it not very elitist, this
thing about the elect? Who are his elect? How do we
know them? Verse 32, whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. Whosoever shall
call on the name, does that exclude anybody here or anybody listening?
Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.
Those who have been delivered shall call on the name of the
Lord, in crying for salvation, in crying to the God who is gracious
and sovereign, and in calling, they show their election. Look
at 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians and the first
chapter. And verse four, well, verse three. Remembering, says Paul, without
ceasing, Talking to these people, your work of faith, they believed
the gospel of God's grace. Your labor of love, there was
the fruit of love from God's spirit within them. And your
patience of hope, their hearts and minds were set on things
above where Christ is. Their hope in our Lord Jesus
Christ and in the sight of our God and Father. Well, what conclusion
does that bring Paul to? Knowing, verse four, brethren,
beloved, your election of God, knowing that God has saved you,
knowing the election of God towards you. And look at the effect,
the powerful effect that it had, verse nine, for they themselves
show us what manner of entering in we had unto you. When the
gospel was preached, it came into them and they believed it.
And what did they do? They turned to God from their
idolatrous false religion to serve the living and true God
and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the
dead. Even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. Deliverance is grasped in belief
of the gospel of his grace. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I
know there's barely a week goes by when I don't quote it, you
know it so well. Jesus said, come unto me. all
you that labour and are heavy laden, under the certainty of
the judgment of God. And he said, I will give you
rest. I will turn none away. No man
can come unless the Father draws him. But all who come, any who
come, I will in no wise cast out. Whosoever will, let him
take of the water of life freely and drink. Whosoever Has he given
you a will to believe his word concerning judgment and to trust
his Christ concerning deliverance?