Lord, since ancient times judgment day has been a sobering, but welcome reality to Your people. It is a time of perfect justice for all ending in perfect peace for your people. Lord, considering the state of our modern world we all join in saying: Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen
GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST, THE JUDGE OF ALL CREATION
TEXT: John 5: 19-24
Dearly Beloved By Christ:
The peak of the church is about 35 ft off the ground. The great walls surrounding Babylon were between 40 and 100 ft. tall. Their foundation extended 25 ft underground. They were made of mud brick which gets rock hard when subjected to fire. The smallest circumference of those walls was ten miles, other accounts have them doubled in size. At the top you could race 2 chariots around the entire top of the city walls! It was a wonder of the ancient world. It was impregnable.
The Euphrates river ran right through the city under the walls. They basically built the wall over the flowing river and had metal fretwork extending down into the river to prevent attack by boat. The inhabitants felt totally safe behind these walls. So safe that when Belshazzar was king in 539 BC and the huge army of Darius, king of Persia, besieged them, they had a huge drunken feast one night. These words, written by God, appeared on the palace wall: “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin” which basically meant: “Your kingdom will fall.” It did, too, that very night. Darius stopped up the river with dam diversions upstream, the river dried up, and his soldiers walked under that fretwork and took the city. Their judgment day had come.
Today the world scoffs at judgment day. Our “walls” of protection are medical technology which will prolong life and technology which will solve all our problems and even interface our brains with computers through nanotechnology so that we’ll live forever digitally! That’s the rationale of many. But judgment day is inescapable. Nothing lasts forever except God.
I
Scripture speaks about the end times a lot. There will be wars and rumors of wars. Famine, pestilence, moral depravity, and spiritual tyranny will run rampant. It will come as “a thief in the night” when no one expects it. People will be pushed to the brink by other people and God’s children will suffer. God will be forgotten, abused, and mocked. Nature will rebel as well. And then Christ the perfect Judge will appear in the sky to weigh each soul.
When I was little I feared judgment day. It was scary and unknown. I don’t fear it any more. Why? First, because it is a time, the only time, of perfect justice. God knows all things. He reads all hearts. Justice in America is about the courts, the legal system, and judges who are sinners too. We all know of people who are guilty as sin of crimes who buy off judges and escape justice. The innocent suffer and the guilty live the high life. The newspapers report on it literally every week. And we shake our heads and silently cry.
But on judgment day no one will escape. No deed will go unpunished. With God there is no grey area. Everything is black and white. Even one unrepented sin consigns the sinner to eternal hell fires. Since we’re all sinners, too, that’s sobering. Our perfect Judge, Christ, doesn’t make mistakes. But, but, never forget that Jesus is also our Savior, through grace alone, isn’t He?
II
“Moreover, the Father judges no one. But he has entrusted our judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”
Only Christians plead repentance for sin. Only Christians are covered by His holiness and judged against the perfection that Christ earned for us and now gives to us through faith. Jesus is our Best Friend. So, this same Jesus will look at you and say: “Not guilty!” “For to judge you guilty would be to repudiate My life’s work of saving you!”
I long for such a day. Justice will prevail and I will enter heaven by grace alone. As Ps. 23 says: “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” The ancient believers had a slogan for this triumphant longing. It was the Greek word: “Maranatha.” It means: “Come, Lord Jesus.” And this is why you don’t have to fear judgment day. Amen
THE peace of God which….
Pastor Thomas H. Fox