A hymn. What a blessing, some
of these hymns. The hymn writers were given grace
to write such beautiful words and truths. If you will open
your Bibles with me tonight to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17. I'm going to read the message
that we have recorded here by the Apostle Paul. preached in
Athens on Mars Hill. In Acts chapter 17, he begins
in verse 22. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill and said, you men of Athens, I perceive that in
all things you are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the
unknown God. whom therefore you ignorantly
worship, him declare unto you. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Neither is worship
with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth
to all life and breath and all things. and hath made of one
blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the
earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the
bounds of their habitation. That they should seek the Lord,
if happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be
not far from every one of us. For in him we live and move and
have our being. and certain also of your own
poets have said, for we are also his offspring. For as much then
as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the
Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone, graven by art
and man's device. In the times of this ignorance,
God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Because he hath appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they
heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and others
said, we will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed
from among them. how be it certain men clave unto
him and believed. I'll stop my reading here. I
don't need to tell us tonight that there's a lot of talk at
this time about COVID-19, the virus. There's many people talking
about this as you turn on your television, listen to the news,
you are bombarded with much about this virus. And there's some
talk, along with the talk about the virus, about the judgment
of God. And someone asked me last week
about the judgment of God and this virus and pretty much asked
if I thought this was the judgment of God. And I tried to answer
scripturally, of course, and thoughtfully And I did so like
this. Is the question, is this your
question? Is this the judgment of God? Then of course my answer is no. This is not the judgment of God. Why do I say that this is not
the judgment of God? I say this because the judge
is not here. His tribunal is not set up, and
all men are not assembled before the judge of all the earth. This
is not the judgment of God. I want us to consider five truths
about the judgment of God that we see in this passage that I've
just read, especially in verses 30 and 31. Let me read those
verses again. And the times of this ignorance
God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent,
because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised
him from the dead. I want us to consider these five
truths about the judgment of God from this passage of Scripture. I know that there are other places
in the Word of God that we may read about the judgment of God,
but I want us to just concentrate on these five truths that we
read here about the judgment of God in these two verses. First, God has appointed the
day of judgment. This is what the scripture here
tells us in verse 31. He, that is God, has appointed
a day in which he will judge the world. It is God who has
appointed the day of judgment. In Hebrews chapter nine and verse
27, we read, it is appointed unto man once to die, but after
this, the judgment. Those are two appointments that
every man is going to keep. Now, I've met some people over
the years who seem to always be late. When they have an appointment,
they always seem to show up late. But here are two appointments,
my friends, that every man is going to keep. It is appointed
unto man once to die. Who is it that has appointed
the death of men? It is the Lord. You know, in
Job chapter 14, I won't ask you to turn there, but let me read
two verses from Job chapter 14. The first verse says this, man
that is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble. Now that's just a testimony,
God's testimony, the truth about man's life in this world. Man
that is born of woman is a few days and is full of trouble. Then in that same chapter in
verse four, we read, still speaking about man, this is what we read,
seeing his days are determined. His days are determined. Not only his days, the scripture
here says, his days are determined, the number of months are with
thee. Speaking of God, the number of
months are with thee. Thou, God, thou hast appointed
his bounds that he cannot pass. Who appointed the day of a person's
death? God did. And who has appointed
the day of judgment? It is God. It is God. In John chapter 12 and verse
48, the Lord Jesus spoke these words. He that rejecteth me and
receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him the word. The word that I have spoken,
the same shall judge him in the last day. So if the question
is, is this virus the judgment of God? Then of course the answer
is no. No, why? Because the judge is
not here. The tribunal is not set up and
all men are not appearing before the judge of all the earth. There
is a day appointed. Our Lord spoke of that day as
the last day. Now we've been in the last day
since the Lord Jesus Christ came. Understand that. But my friends,
how many last days are there? There's one last day of every
month. There's one last day of every
year. And yes, it is true. There's
one last day for this world. That's the day that God has appointed
in which He shall judge the world. The day of judgment is appointed
by God. Now, I like to read about God's
appointments. I really do. I like to read in
the scripture about God's appointments. And one appointment that I love
to read about is found in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. And verse 9, where
the apostle, speaking to believers, speaking to children of God,
he said, For God hath not appointed us unto wrath, but to obtain
salvation by Jesus Christ our Lord. There are people in this
world, my friends, thank God, there are people in this world
who are appointed not to wrath, but rather to obtain salvation
by Jesus Christ. Who appointed them to obtain
salvation? God did. Who appointed the day
of a man's death in this world? God did. And who has appointed
the day of judgment? God. He is the one who has appointed
the Day of Judgment. So that's the first thing, the
first truth I bring to us from this passage about the judgment
of God. The second truth is God has given
assurance unto all men of the Day of Judgment. You don't have
to doubt. Man doesn't need to doubt. He
doesn't need to wonder about this. No, the Scripture, Paul
speaking to these people, These people who were known for their
learning, and yet Paul said, I perceive that you're in all
things too superstitious, too religious. Why? Because they had so many different
idols there. You see, man without the word
of God, without the written word of God, there's no depth of ignorance
to which he may not come, my friends. And to think that God,
when we look at our own bodies and see how he has made us, how
is it that man could ever imagine that he could make an idol out
of gold or silver or stone, carve it in any way, and that would
be a representation of the all-wise God who has created us, created
man. No, my friends, God has given
assurance unto all men about this day of judgment. You say,
how did he do so? He did so, the apostle Paul says,
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, picture this. These people here who were listening
to him, when they heard about the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
This divided his audience. This divided his audience. And
listen, that's what always happens when the gospel of Jesus Christ
is preached. Always. The apostle Paul said
that we are a saver of life unto some and a saver of death unto
others. And always when the gospel is
preached, the congregation is separated. And that's what happened
to Paul's congregation here when he mentioned that God has given
assurance unto all men of this day of judgment by the resurrection
of his son. Now, he preached the gospel.
I said the gospel always separates the crowd. And yes, the gospel
of Jesus Christ is a very important part of the gospel. You remember
in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the apostle wrote to the church
there and said that I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you. And it is the gospel whereby
you have been saved. And then he gives them this gospel
message, 1 Corinthians 15 verses one through four. He said, I
declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. Now that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he
was buried, and that he rose again from the dead. You see,
the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a very important part of the
gospel message. The gospel is good news. I can't
remember exactly how it was that William Tyndale, one of the first
men to translate the Greek gospel, the Greek testament into English,
how he translated that word gospel. But I remember it had something
to do with dancing and singing and things like that. The gospel,
the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news to sinners. And the
gospel is how that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures. Gospel is the good news of the
person and work of Jesus Christ, our Lord. His death, his burial,
and his resurrection is all part of this gospel message. Christ,
we know, as the apostle tells us here, and as he told that
crowd back then, Christ did not die as an example. He died according to the scriptures
for our sins. What does that mean? Well, you
know all through the Old Testament. Think of all the patterns, all
the pictures. Think of Abel's lamb. Think of
the goat on the great day of atonement there in the tabernacle. And think of those lambs which
were slain every day, two lambs, morning and evening, according
to the law of Moses. And all of those patterns and
all of those pictures We're showing a lamb, a sacrifice, blood being
shed as a picture, just a picture. Because in Hebrews chapter 10,
we are reminded it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats
could take away sin. We know that. No, but what that
blood of the bulls and goats could do and did do, it pictured
the blood, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes, it did. Yes. He didn't die as an example. He is an example to us as his
followers, as disciples, but he died as a sacrifice for our
sins. Remember the Apostle John said
it like this. He said, herein is love. You
want to know what love is? Here it is. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us. and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. In other words, he sent him to
be that one sacrifice that does please God, that does satisfy
God, that does remove, take away the sins of his people. Yes,
the death of Christ is part of the gospel message, but so is
his burial. In Isaiah chapter 53 in verse
9, we are told he made his grave with the wicked. Yes, he did. His resurrection was also declared
in the Old Testament scriptures on the day of Pentecost. The
Apostle Peter is there preaching. You can read about this in Acts
chapter 2. But he begins to quote from Psalm
16, and then he tells those to whom he was preaching. David
wrote the psalm. But David wasn't speaking about
himself. He was speaking for Christ in
that psalm. And this is what he said. And
the way Peter said, well, listen, David, King David, his tomb is
still here. The remains, the dust of his
body is still here. No, he was writing for Christ
when he said, these words, Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my
tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh, that is,
his body, shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell. Now what does that mean? Did
Jesus go to hell? No, no. Thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell. It's a way that speaks of the
body and soul being separated. And the Lord Jesus Christ knew
that God would not leave him in that condition, the body in
the grave and the soul separate from the body. No, thou wilt
not leave my soul in hell, neither, listen to this, neither wilt
thou suffer thy Holy One. The Holy One, the Lord Jesus
Christ. You won't suffer Him to see corruption. You know, our bodies, when the
Lord Jesus came to Mary and Martha, their body had been in that tomb
for four days. And she said, when he said, the
Lord said, remove the stone, Martha said, Lord, by this time,
the bodies already began to deteriorate. There's already a smell, there's
a stench going to come out of that tomb. His body saw no corruption. The Holy One of God, Holy One,
He did no sin. He knew no sin, and Him was no
sin. Yes, my friends, the resurrection
is a very important part. And God, Paul says, God's given
assurance unto all men that there's going to be a day of judgment,
and He's given that assurance unto all men by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. And as I said, this separated
Paul's congregation It separated into three divisions. Some mocked. Some just began
to make fun. Well, that's ridiculous. That's
foolish. Never heard of such a thing. That's impossible. With
man, it is impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. And yes, not only did he raise
the Lord Jesus Christ from the grave, but there's going to be
a resurrection, my friends, when all the bodies that are shown
in this world are going to come forth and be reunited with the
souls that have left them. Yes, some mocked, and then some
procrastinated. And that's so typical, isn't
it? I'll think about that. Tomorrow,
what did one of those men before whom Paul stood as He was a ruler,
Roman ruler. He said, when I have more time,
I'll call you back. And I'll think about this on
another day. And there's no evidence, my friends,
that that man ever heard the gospel again. But there is evidence
that his wife, at least, that she was in that city of Pompeii
when the volcano erupted. And all of those people there,
those Romans, were destroyed. Yes, some mock, some procrastinate,
put it off. I think about it. I'll consider
this another day, another time. Oh, but some believed and claimed
the scripture said some believed and they claimed they were not
going to let Paul go. He had brought the gospel to
them. and they desired to stay with him, hear the gospel, hear
the preaching of the word of God. That's a miracle of grace,
isn't it? When God saves a sinner, the
same power, Paul tells us in Ephesians 1, the same power that
God put forth in raising the body of Christ, that same omnipotent
power is put forth in saving a sinner. and giving life to
one who is spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. Oh, a miracle
of grace. Well, this always takes place
when the gospel is preached. Some rejoice, some procrastinate,
and some mock. Now, the third thing we see here,
God will judge the world in righteousness. This is the third thing that
Paul speaks of about the judgment of God. God will judge the world
in righteousness. What does that mean? Well, it
simply means it's going to be a righteous judgment. And contrary,
now listen, contrary to what most people, I assume, most people
think, that it's going to be a judgment to see if your good
works outweigh your bad works. if your good deeds are more than
your bad deeds. Now, my friends, this is a righteous
judgment. It's not to determine if a person
is righteous or unrighteous. That's already been settled.
That's already been settled, my friends. When a person leaves
this world, when death comes to a person, all of those who
are clothed in the righteousness of God, they are righteous. They're declared righteous. They're
justified. Yes. And they're forever righteous. And those who leave this world,
who are not clothed in the righteousness of God, who have rejected Christ,
as he said here, they will not be made righteous. They will
not be made righteous. They will be forever separated
from God in hell. Think about this. The Lord Jesus
Christ, just before he went to the cross, I believe the night
before maybe, John chapter 16 in verse 8, he promised that
he would pray the Father and the Father would give or send
another comforter. And that other comforter is,
of course, the third person of the blessed Trinity, God the
Holy Spirit. And in John 16, our Lord said
this, When he is calm, when God the Holy Spirit is calm, he will
convince, King James uses the word reprove, he will reprove
the world, but I believe a better word is convince. He will convince
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now in Romans
chapter eight, Paul said, now if any man have not the spirit
of Christ, he's none of his. And so I would ask you, has the
Holy Spirit come to you? Has he? Has he come to you? Has he convinced
you, first of all, of sin? What does that mean? It means
has he convinced you that you are a sinner? You're a sinner
by birth, a sinner by choice, and a sinner by practice. That's
what you are. And when God convinces you of
that, nobody's ever going to unconvince you of that. When
God the Holy Spirit convinces a person of sin, that I am a
sinner. As the scripture said, all we
like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. You know, the man in the Lord's
parable, this is recorded in Luke chapter 18. spoke of two men who went up
to the temple to pray. And one of those men, our Lord
said, went home justified. He went home declared righteous. Now it wasn't the man who stood
there bragging on himself, talking about how good he was, how many
good works he had. Oh no, it wasn't him. It was
rather the man who talked about how bad he was. and cried out,
God be merciful to me, the sinner. Now it's interesting that word
merciful there. God be merciful to me, the sinner. He's pleading for mercy through
a propitiation. Mercy that comes through the
blood of Jesus Christ, in other words. God be merciful to me, the sinner. would not so much as look up
toward heaven, smote upon his breast. The Lord said, he went
home justified. He wasn't the man talking about
how good he was. He was a man talking about how
bad he was. Why? When God the Holy Spirit
comes, he convinces a person of sin. Original sin? Absolutely. And yes, practical,
practice rather. We've all gone astray. And number
two, when He has come, He convinces the world of righteousness. Has
He come to you? Has God the Holy Spirit come
to you? Has He convinced you of your
sin? And number two, has He convinced
you of righteousness? That is, the righteousness that
God requires. The righteousness that God requires
for you to appear before Him, to be accepted by Him, Has he
convinced you that that righteousness that God requires, you cannot
render? But thank God, has he convinced
you that the Lord Jesus Christ, he was in this world, he was
obedient unto God's holy law, and what was he doing? He was
working out a righteousness, a righteousness that is imputed
unto all who believe, and therefore we are justified before God. as He convinced you of righteousness,
and then of judgment, when He has come, that your sins were
judged, your sins were judged in the substitute, and they'll
never be mentioned again. That final judgment. God's removed
the sins of His people by the blood of His Son, as a thick
cloud, as far as the east is from the west. He'll never bring
them up in judgment, my friends. Not at all. They're gone. They're
gone. He will remember them no more,
not even in the day of judgment. And here's the fourth truth that
Paul speaks about concerning the judgment of God here. God
will judge the world by the Son of Man. That is, by that man. And we know he means the God-man,
Jesus Christ. In John chapter 5 and verse 22,
the Lord Jesus Christ said, for the Father judgeth no man, but
hath committed all judgment unto the Son. He came, the eternal
Son of God came into this world, assumed that body, soul that
was prepared him by the Holy Spirit. He came the first time
to save sinners. He will come the next time. in
His glory, my friends. We read about this in Revelation
chapter 20. We read there, I saw a great
white throne and Him that sat on it from whose face the earth
fled away and heaven fled away. And there was found no place
for them. And then in that book of Revelation, we read this also. It tells us the kings of the
earth and the great man and the rich man and the chief captains
and the mighty man and every bond man and every free man hid
themselves in dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said
to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us. from the face of him that setteth
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." You know, he names
all those divisions. What is he talking about? He's
talking about everyone, everyone outside of Christ, everyone who
appears at this great judgment, my friends, without the righteousness
of Christ, pleads for the rocks and the mountains to fall on
them, to hide them from the face of him that sitteth upon the
throne. And who is that sitting upon that great throne? It is
this man, this man, the God-man, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. And here's the fifth and last
thing that he tells us about the last judgment, the day of
judgment. He tells us, God has commanded
all men to repent. all men to repent. What is repentance? Repentance is defined as a change
of mind. And that's true, that's what
it is. It is a change of mind. It's more, goes deeper than a
change of opinion. A lot of people change their
opinions, my friends. Well, this is a change of mind.
When a sinner is granted repentance, he will have a change of mind
about God. A lost person resists and hates
the thought of owning the Lord Jesus as his Lord. Submitting
to his authority is something a lost man resists. But when
God grants repentance and a man has a change of mind, his mind
has changed about God, it means that He acknowledges Him as His
Lord. It's no longer my will, but now
it is His will. And not only is there a change
of mind when God grants a sin of repentance, a change of mind
about God, but there's a change of mind about sin. You know,
the scripture in Hebrews speaks about the pleasures of sin for
a season. But yes, when God, gives repentance,
the mind is changed and he realizes that sin is not the satisfying
thing that he thought it was. And he realizes that it's not
only what I do, but it's what I am. Changes his mind about
sin. That sin strikes out against
God. Sin strikes out against God. Now he's described by the beatitude,
blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
And he begins to mourn over his sin, his sinnerhood. And when
a sinner is granted repentance, he will have a change of mind
about the world, the system of this world, the philosophy of
this world, what it's all about. Very little consideration of
others. Someone might ask me, why do
you keep saying preacher, why do you keep saying when God grants
repentance, when God grants repentance to a sinner, he will have a change
of mind about God. And when God grants repentance,
he will have a change of mind about sin. And when God grants
repentance, he will have a change of mind about the world. I use that term because that's
the scripture term. That's a Bible term. That's what
the Apostle Peter said in Acts chapter 5. Him, Christ, hath
God exalted. Where is he? He's at the Father's
right hand. He's exalted. All authority,
all power, both in heaven and in earth is given to him. He's exalted with his right hand
to be a prince and a savior. for to give repentance to Israel
and forgiveness of sins." You see, repentance is a gift, just
like faith is a gift, and always together. If you have faith,
you have repentance. If you have repentance, you have
faith. They always go together. They're
both produced because God has given a new heart. God has given
an individual a new heart. This is not the judgment of God,
not the judgment that will take place when the Lord Jesus comes
again. But second, and very briefly,
if the question is, is this virus a judgment of God, then we must
be very careful how we answer that. I'm not a prophet. I'm not a son of a prophet. And
it would be presumption on my part and it's presumption on
the part of any man to try to say that this is God's judgment
upon this sinful world. But this is what I can say. This
is what I can say about this coronavirus. Number one, it is
sin of God. And number two, there are some
lessons to be learned. You say, why do you say this
is sin of God? I know some people say, well,
my God wouldn't do that. I'm not talking about your God,
I'm talking about the God of the Bible. Talking about the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And yes, listen to this
verse in Amos chapter three and verse six. God asked this question,
shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? Now listen, shall there be evil,
shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it?
Now, that's not talking about moral evil. God's not the author
of sin. God cannot be tempted with sin,
neither tempteth he any man. God is a holy Lord God, but this
evil, can there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it?
This evil, of course, is speaking of afflictions and yes, judgments,
which whenever it comes is the order and the appointment of
God. So I can say that about this
coronavirus. It is sin of God. And there's
other verses. I don't have the time. And yes,
not only can I say that it is sin of God, but I would say there's
some less as many lessons. But here's three. Number one,
God's sovereignty. God's sovereign over this virus.
This is God's world. God's in control. And I like
that scripture that speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ in one
place. When he left there, they said
this, he did all things well. And that's true of God. This
is, this is of the Lord and he's sovereign. He's in control. Man
thinks he's so important, so big, so, so in control of everything. And then something comes along
so very tiny, so very small, you can't even see it without
a microscope. And it just stops. Stops the
world almost. God's in control. God's sovereignty. And number two, We learn there's
going to be a judgment. There's going to be a judgment.
Now these plagues like this have come along through the years. I was reading a good article
just a few weeks ago about Martin Luther and how the bubonic plague
came to Wittenberg when he was there as a minister. And yes,
many people there died in Wittenberg. Yes. All of these things, these
trials and evils as we would see, afflictions, they're all
sounding the same warn. Judgment is coming. Judgment
is coming. And number three, the third lesson,
Men should seek the Lord. That's right. Men should seek
the Lord. And thank God, listen to these
words. When I say men should seek the
Lord, what encouragement, what encouragement, preacher, do you
have for men to seek the Lord? Well, listen to this one. And
this is just one out of many. This is found in Isaiah, chapter
55. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord,
and he, that his God, will have mercy upon him, and to our God,
for he will abundantly pardon. Yes, men should seek the Lord.
Seek the Lord while he may be found, the scripture says, yes.
There are many lessons to be learned by this. But this is
not the judgment of God, but it does warn us that there is
coming the day of judgment. Well, I pray that the Lord would
bless this word to all of us here that are listening tonight,
those who are here and those who are listening in other places.
And let's not take the word of God for granted. Let's not take
the times when God gives us to come together for granted, because
we see now we're not able to. Let's be thankful. And Kevin
is going to come and sing in a very appropriate hymn. God
be with you till we meet again. And that number is number 82,
if you have your handbooks, number 82.