Sermon notes from 29 March 2017
Revelation 20 verses 11 - 15
The last ever court case. Many of you have seen court cases on the television when the defendant is asked the question - `guilty or not guilty`. At this court case there is no making of a plea. You will receive a punishment however. What happens after you die? "It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment." (Hebrews 9 verse 27) To live without Christ is dangerous, to die without Christ is disastrous. "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." (Hebrews 12 verse 6) Judgment for the saints - does it consist of wood, hay and stubble - because if it does it will be burned up. (1 Corinthians 3 verses 12 and 13) The great white judgment. For those who have never received Christ as Saviour will be gathered around the throne. What sort of day will it be - a day of recollection. The books will be opened and things will be brought to mind. Reminded of times in your life when God has drawn near, God has spoken into your life, when you have been in trials and troubles. When disease devastated you. You called out to God, you asked for him to help you and he did but somehow you forgot all about it when things changed for the better. Those times will be recalled on that day. There were days when you faced operations in hospitals and you called for someone to come and pray with you, that God might help you. You promised great and wonderful things when all this was over but you forgot about God. Times when God helped you, heard you or maybe even held you. Somehow miraculously God came and restored a measure of health and strength. You are here tonight in the land of the living. This day will be a day of recollection. Rememberance - when God will point to days when tears were shed for you. When the scriptures spoke to you, God came down and you heard his voice. You will remember times when people encouraged you to come to the gospel mission. When they knocked on your door giving you an invitation. All will be remembered at the white throne. May mean nothing to you now but this meeting is being recorded for eternity. You have heard the gospel message in times past, when the Spirit of God was tugging at your heart, pleading for you to be saved. Day of recollection but also day of reverence. There will be reverence for the God of heaven sitting on the throne. This is an age when God`s scripture is ridiculed. Men are trying to disprove the scriptures. We are living in an age when God`s servants are mocked, despised and ridiculed. We are living in a day when God`s day is desecrated. God only asks for one day in 7 but man doesn`t give it to him. Man is at enmity with God. It will be recalled on that day. A young man said to his pastor `I often hear my granny crying for me in the place of prayer and I am still not saved.` The Pastor looked at him and thought for a few moments, then he said "if your granny`s prayers don`t get you into heaven they will scald you in hell." Fortunately that young man was led to Christ a few months later and he regretted all that he had said against his granny. Men and women are being remembered in prayer every day but it means nothing to them. You might say `I am my own person, no one will ever tell me what to do.` Either you are a child of the Father in heaven or a child of the devil. There is coming a day at that great white throne when your heart will be filled with reverance. Look back to the days of Noah when the ark was being prepared. The Spirit of God was moving amongst the people. "Noah found grace in the eyes of God." He was moved by fear to build the ark. If we are ever going to see revival in our land we need a reverence for God. The Spirit of God moved in Noah`s generation at that time. They refused to listen. Can see them as Noah was building the ark. He told them the judgment and wrath of God would be poured out on men because of sin. Noah was warning the people. Can see the people laughing at him. There came a day when the doors of the ark were closed. The dark clouds gathered and the rains came down. There was no more laughing. Judgment had fallen on this world. There is coming a day when God will wipe the smirk of this world`s face. They will cry for the rocks to cover them. "As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the coming of the Son of Man." (Matthew 24 verse 37) Not trying to scare you. The scriptures teach there is a great white throne. Those who rejected Christ will be there at that throne. There is a warning for you from God`s word to be a believer. It takes a man or woman with conviction to trust Christ as Saviour. To turn their back on the world. If you have received Christ you will never be at this great white throne. The Bible tells us of the straight and narrow way and few there are that find it. God can change you from the inside out. Many shall say on that day "Lord Lord open unto us" and the Lord will say "depart from me." (Matthew 25 verses 11 and 12) It will also be a day of remorse. The one sitting on the throne is the one who died on Calvary. In Acts 17 we read that God had already appointed a judge for that day. He despised the shame. When the soldiers set him at nought, when his back was lashed like a ploughed field, when they nailed him to the cross, with all its brutality, lifted up, knocked into the ground, every bone in his body was knocked out of joint. We can never imagine the sufferings he had at Calvary. He despised the shame for you and me. Do you understand how much God loves you? If you don`t realise now, when it comes to that scene it will be too late. God loved the world of sinners lost. Sin ruins lives. Drink ruins lives. Gambling, adultery, smoking - sin will take you further than you ever want to go. Sin will cost you far more than you ever want to pay. Sin will leave you in a hopeless and helpless state unless Christ comes into your life and changes you. You will never be any different. He despised the shame for you. He took the blame for you. He took your sins on his own body. You need to understand you have a debt you cannot pay. You might have a few pence in your pocket, even have 10 million pounds in the bank but you could never be delivered from your sin. You cannot get to heaven by praying, going to church, living a good and perfect life or by doing good works. If you can get to heaven by any of these things Jesus would never have needed to die on Calvary for you. He suffered the wrath and judgment of God. He was "wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities." (Isaiah 53) He hung on Calvary`s tree for those hours for our sin. He endured the pain. There was a thirst at Calvary. Hell is an awful thirst. Luke 16 rich man opened his eyes in hell and asked "send Lazarus that he might dip his finger in water and bring it to me." Calvary was darkness for 3 hours. A place of abandonment. Christ went through the very pits of hell for me. He endured all the pain at Calvary`s cross to save you, to make you fit for heaven. Do not dismiss Calvary lightly. It will be a day of remorse, you will have rejected his love, his mercy, his offer of salvation. He paid the price for your sin and on the third day he rose again. He is the one who comes to live within you when you receive him as your Saviour. He takes up residence there. A Christian is someone who relies completely on Christ. The Spirit of God comes to live within them. "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 5 verse 14) It will be a day of revenge. I could have preached from John 3 verse 16 or from the Psalm "he lifted me out of the miry clay, he set my feet on a rock and gave me a song in my heart." (Psalm 40 verses 2 and 3) I could have told you all about the great price of heaven, the vengeance of God that will fall on that day. If you don`t want to receive Christ now God will not allow you to receive him then. Why would Christ want to receive you? He has done it all. What you are turning away from is Christ himself. When he has opened the door of heaven, invites you to come, pleads for you to come. There will come a day of revenge. God will pour out his wrath on that day on people who have rejected Christ. See the pain as the tears fall down his face as he prays - "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." The devil is not worried that you are listening to the preacher or concerned that you will leave tonight the way you came in. He will be happy if he can keep you on that religious pathway you are on. You will finish at this great white throne. He doesn`t want you to be saved. God wants you to be saved. The devil wants to take you to that place called hell. God has done everything he can to stop you from perishing. Maybe the devil has your mind a million miles from here. He doesn`t care you are perishing. If we are not saved we will perish and for all eternity. We will all spend eternity somewhere. Heaven will be filled with sinners saved by grace. There will be no more mercy at this judgment throne. The day of opportunity will be long gone. A day without mercy. A day of vengeance. You don`t have to be found at this great white throne. The sacrifice has been made. All you have to do is trust him, take a leap of faith. The invitation is still going out tonight. If you were to come and trust him you could be saved. You could go out that door tonight and have Christ with you because he has promised to never leave you nor forsake you.
No comments:
Post a Comment