Are You Ready for the Judgment Day? Part Three

Jesus is spoken of in Acts 17: 31. It is stated the Father “…has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

The connection between our instinctive fear of death and the associated judgment is spelled out by many. After the agonizing death of the Greek Empire, Epicurus wrote, “what men fear, is not that death is annihilation, but that it is not.”

The German theologian Richard Niebuhr reminded his readers near the end of World War II that the fear of death was chiefly the result of another fear — the fear of judgment.

Daniel Webster, the great American jurist, declared the most significant thought ever to cross his mind was that of his personal accountability to God.

A recent survey conducted by “Psychology Today” revealed that most Americans “still ache to believe… there is something beyond our personal and collective reach.” That is, we believe in life after life.

In light of that, you carpet your mind with this question: “Are you ready for the judgment day?”

Don’t fret over the thought, just make sure you are prepared for it and rejoice.

We are a calendar conscious culture. You have an inexcusable and inevitable date with God which no person can avoid.

God’s judgements are not always immediate, but they are certain. Messina, Italy displayed rare beauty physically but moral bankruptcy. On December 25, 1908 the local press defied God. The city had grown wicked and irreligious. The paper, “Il Telefono” published a sacrilegious and abominable parade. In it they dared the Lord to make Himself known by sending an earthquake.  It was a mockery of Jesus’ birth.

Three days later, December 28, 1908, the ground began to shake. In the moments that followed 84,000 citizens died. God’s judgements aren’t often that swift, but they are that certain.

Establish your faith in Jesus by asking His forgiveness and consigning your will to Him. Affirm your faith commitment in Him and henceforth follow Him.

“There is therefore no condemnation (judgment) to those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1).

Are You Ready for the Judgment Day? Part Two

Each of us shall have to give an account before the Lord. In the choir of life we can fake the words — but someday each of us will have to sing a solo before God.

The standard for this judgment is the “righteousness of Christ.” The basis is Christ’s righteousness, not our good works. That is a fundamental misunderstanding in our society today. Many people live wondering if they have done enough works to get into heaven. The answer is an emphatic NO! No one has. The basis for this statement is found in Revelation 20: 12. The key to understanding this passage and the judgment is found in the terms “books,” plural, and “book,” singular.

“The books” contain an inventory of the good works of persons. Notice, in verse 12, rather than being the source of our gaining admission to heaven they are the foundation for our condemnation. We are judged, that is condemned, by our good works, they are so inadequate.

Our salvation is based on our name being written in “THE Book of Life.”

The consequence of this judgment on those whose name isn’t in the Book of Life is noted in verse 15, “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” Not a pretty picture!

In the old west when frontiersmen saw a prairie fire sweeping toward them it struck terror in their hearts. They learned there was only one way to safety because there was no way to outrun such a fire. They would start a fire on the downwind side of where they were. When it quickly burned off they would move into the burned over area. When the destructive prairie fire reached them they were in a safe zone that had already been burned over.

Jesus Christ is our safety zone. On Calvary He was judged for us. In Christ we are safe from the coming judgment.

However, we should have known that. Ephesians 2: 8,9 clearly says it is “not of works,” but it is “through faith,” and “it is the grace of God.”

Those who by faith in Christ have their name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life have no reason for fear because, “There is therefore no condemnation (judgment) to those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1).

Jesus said, “…he who hears My word and believes on Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death into life” (John 5: 24).

Are You Ready for the Judgment Day? Part One

The very thought of ultimate judgment is an encouragement to think and do right. Question: “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right” (Gen. 18:25).

King David gave insight as to how this is possible: “O Lord, You have searched me and know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it all together … Such knowledge is too wonderful for me…”  (Psalm 139: 1 – 6).

We have a tendency to think that if we got away with a thing in the moment of it’s happening we have escaped judgment for it. Not so! It lingers on God’s record. There is physical evidence of this. It is said every sound ever made is still reverberating in the universe. Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” and Christ’s “Sermon on the Mount” are still out there reverberating and someday technology may advance to the point they can be recorded. Fascinating, isn’t it?

Get the sequence involved in this story. In the December 1958 issue of Reader’s Digest the following was reported. In England in 1953, thousands of British TV viewers were amazed when their favorite program was interrupted by a test pattern from a Houston, Texas television station. The superimposed image was from station KLEE-TV in Houston. It had traveled thousands of miles without satellite aid all the way to England.

Here is the amazing part of the story. That occurred in 1953, but station KLEE-TV had been completely dismantled in 1950, three years before. The signal not only traveled approximately 4,000 thousand miles, but was actually broadcast three years earlier. Scientists now believe that not only previous sounds, but sights, may someday be recaptured technologically. 

If science can do that God will have no difficulty providing an accurate record for your judgment.

This text says there is an authentic future event confirmed by a substantiated past experience. That is, there is a day of judgment coming. Proof of it is the past event of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Two brilliant jurists, James E. Bennett of New York and Irwin H. Linton of Washington, D.C., have, over the years, studied the evidence supporting the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They have concluded that it is absolutely impossible for any man with a legal mind, and accustomed to sifting evidence to sit down and thoroughly investigate the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and come to any other conclusion than that Jesus rose from the dead.

That past evidence is proof positive of a coming future event — the judgment. With that as a backdrop to all of life rejoice over knowing Jesus in the forgiveness of sin and the gift of eternal life. Make sure both are true in your life.

You Ought to Pray

The Aboriginal Australians of long ago never associated conception with childbirth. Because of the time lapse between copulation and birth being separated by nine months they never equated the two. The act and the outcome were dissociated.

That same outlook exists in our society regarding two actions.

Many people never link an adverse action and the ultimate outcome in spite of Scripture linking them: “Be sure your sins will find you out.” Some seem to think that if a person sins and there are no immediate consequences, they get away with it. Often a repentant person does not suffer overtly because of a sin. But the sin itself was the discipline in that the act prevented the enjoyment of the moment had it been ideally spent.

Fifty-one years ago a young woman in our community was sexually assaulted and murdered. Using genetic genealogy police have now been able to connect the accused with a cloth from the scent by matching the genetic signature of a distant relative of the perpetrator. Normally after the lapse of such time the act would not be connected with the ultimate outcome. Not all crimes are solved, but all criminals reap the result before God.

From a more pleasant point of view some never associate a prayer offered and the deferred answer. Often the time lapse dissociates the two. The Bible is replete with stories of delays experienced in answered prayers. There are reasons for such.

Often God acts immediately to prepare things in order to answer a prayer. On other occasions time is required in order to prepare the one praying before God overtly acts.

Reflect on your prayers, old and new, and see if in retrospect you thought some were not answered and in reality they were. Some good things of today may actually be direct or indirect responses to prayers of long ago.

Give God time to be God.

God lovingly and wisely knows how best to respond to our prayers. It is incumbent on us to pray. His response is always to our advantage.

Have you had some prayers to which He answered “No?” Have you thanked Him for not giving you some things because He knew they were not best for you?”

“You ought always to pray, and not to faint.”

Of Jesus it is said, “He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart…” (Luke 18: 1).

Examples That Inspire

Hebrews 12: 1 – 4

As athletes are inspired by examples of the greats who have gone before them and the encouragement of those who watch them, so we believers have such sources of motivation. Hebrews 12: 1 – 4 is an example of this intended to inspire consistent and persistent faithfulness to the Lord.

The “great cloud of witnesses” is a reference to those noted in Chapter 11.  The word translated witness, “martus,” means one who bears witness by his death.  These persons were not listed simply as spectators, but as testimonial witnesses to the fact that God will see you through.

They are not there to be inspired by our action, but to inspire us by their action, their living and spoken testimony.  It is as though they are shouting such encouragement as, “God enabled us to be winners.  He will do the same for you.  Press on to the finish faithfully.”

They testify that you can’t win unless you run, so get in the race.  They testify that if you are in the race, run with endurance – don’t quit.

As witnesses, they are testifying to God’s sufficiency and His faithfulness.  They, not we, are examples.

The “weights” are spoken of as things which are not necessarily sins, but they do restrict us.  Athletes take off their warm-up when it is time to compete.  There are some things that are neither good nor bad, but neither are they helpful.  Cut them out.  A great athlete doesn’t choose between the good and the bad, but the better and the best.  Anything that hinders your spiritual progress should be abandoned.  Judaitic ritual and tradition was hindering them.  What hinders you?

A weight is anything, good or bad, that weighs us down, diverts our attention, saps our energy, or dampens our enthusiasm for the things of God.

Also noted is “The sin which so easily ensnares us….”  Anything that entangles you will not enable you to be a winner.  Every person has an area of vulnerability, a sin which easily ensnares.  Identify it, and ask Jesus to help you win over it.  Put it off like an unwanted limitation. “The” means a specific one.

Now comes the basic nitty and fundamental gritty of the race.

There is an exhortation to “run with endurance.”  Anybody can enter the most difficult race.   It takes endurance to finish.  The Bible is filled with examples of people who started and did not finish, such as John Mark and Demas.

Race translates the word “agon,”and is the root of our word agony.  This was not a passive idleness being advocated, but aggressive persistence.

Victory comes as a result of “looking unto Jesus.”  He is the chief, the primary witness.  This book is written to help us keep our eyes on Jesus.  Of our faith He is “the author”, that is, the leader or captain, and “finisher,” that is, the perfecter of our faith.  Jesus has run the same race course you are on. 

“Consider”, that is, analyze your own life as compared to His.  It is when we get to feeling life is unfair and unjust to us that we become discouraged.  When you know suffering is normal and fits God’s plan, you are motivated by it. Before us there have been “martus,” ones who bear witness by his death.