November 19, 2006

End Time 3 (Saints Triumphant)

An old circuit riding preacher had finished his last meeting of the year before winter set in and made it impossible to travel across the hills of West Virginia. The church where he was leaving received an offering for him and wrapped it in a napkin. He sat on his horse and kindly thanked the people. As he rode down the road he opened the napkin and found $7.46. This was the only money that he would have to get through the winter. He wondered how his family would make it. He was so depressed he considered quitting the ministry.

But as he traveled he saw a barefoot girl in a flour-sack-dress dancing in the dusty road. He approached her and asked why she was so happy.  She replied that she had lived in the shack across that valley with her share-cropping family all her life.  Today they got news that the man who owned the property had put them in his will, and they were about to move into his mansion.  She asked him, “Wouldn’t you be happy if you were about to move from a shack in the valley to a mansion on a hilltop?”

Wouldn’t you be happy if you were about to move from a shack in the valley to a mansion on a hilltop?  You WILL be happy!  The shack you are living in right now is nothing compared to the mansion that God is preparing for you!  Before time began, God has been preparing a beautiful mansion for you to spend eternity with Him.  He has more than put you in his “will.”  His will is that you will live in heavenly mansions forever with Him!  And He has made that will a reality through his Son Jesus.  Because Jesus took your sins away and gave you the holiness God demands to enter the gates of his mansions.

So on Judgment Day, when Jesus comes to judge us all, You will be happy!  You will be happy, because when the Son of God’s voice calls you from the grave, you will rise to live with Him.  You will rise to live, because you trust in Him that He took your sins away.  Because of that God only sees the good works you have done to thank Him.  Any evil you have done will be forgotten.  You will be happy, because by God’s grace in Jesus, you won’t have to fear his wrath.  You won’t have to worry about Him looking at your sins and punishing you for them.

But God does NOT overlook sin.  Those “who have done evil” will rise to be condemned.  Those who refused to trust in a Saviour to take away their sins will have reason to fear.  They will have no reason to be happy, because God will see their sins, and since those sins keep them out of heaven, they will rise to receive God’s judgment.

A young woman, who had been brought up in a Christian home and who had known about God’s love in Jesus, later chose to take the way of the world.  Much against the wishes of her God-fearing mother, she insisted on keeping company with a wild crowd, who lived only for the passing moment and tried to forget the things of eternity. Again and again her family pleaded with her to turn to Christ, but she persistently refused to heed the admonitions. Finally, she was stricken with a very serious illness. The doctors did all they could for her, but it soon became evident that death was staring her in the face.  Still, she was hard and unwilling when urged to turn to God in repentance and trust in Jesus as her Saviour.

One night she awoke suddenly out of a sound sleep, a frightened look in her eyes, and asked excitedly, “Mother, what is Ezekiel 7:8 and 9?” Her mother said, “What do you mean, my dear?”  She replied that she had had a most vivid dream. She thought there was a presence in the room, who very solemnly said to her, “Read Ezekiel 7:8-9.”  Her mother reached for a Bible. As she opened it, her heart sank as she saw the words, but she read them aloud to the dying girl: “I am about to pour out my wrath on you and spend my anger against you; I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices. 9 I will not look on you with pity or spare you; I will repay you in accordance with your conduct and the detestable practices among you. Then you will know that it is I the LORD who strikes the blow.”

The suffering girl, with a look of horror on her face, sank back on the pillow, utterly exhausted, and in a few moments she was in eternity. Not in mansions with God, though.  Under his judgment.  If we reject God’s gracious love for us, if we refuse to trust Him for forgiveness, we will bring his judgment upon us.  God does not overlook sin!  Jesus took responsibility for it, and God poured his wrath out on Jesus for it.  So if we choose to take the rap for our sins instead of letting Jesus, God will have to take his wrath out on us.  We’ve judged ourselves.

In a small frontier town, a horse bolted and ran away with a wagon carrying a little boy. Seeing the child in danger, a young man risked his life to catch the horse and stop the wagon. The child who was saved grew up to become a lawless criminal, and one day he stood before a judge to be sentenced for a serious crime. The prisoner recognized the judge as the man who, years before, had saved his life; so he pled for mercy on the basis of that experience. But the words from the bench silenced his plea: “Young man, then I was your saviour; today I am your judge, and I must sentence you to be hanged.”

One day Jesus will say to rebellious unbelievers, “During your long time of grace, I was the Saviour, and I would have forgiven you. But today I am your Judge. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!”  On Judgment Day, Jesus, who is the Son of Man, our Saviour, will become our judge.  Why?  Because how we are judged is based on our relationship with Him.  Do we believe in Jesus as our Saviour or not?  He says in verse 30: “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just…”  Jesus will judge only as He hears.  If He hears you say, “I believe that Jesus has taken my sins away” then you will be judged on the basis that your sins have been taken away!  If He hears you say, “I don’t need Jesus to take my sins away” then you will be judged on the basis that your sins haven’t been taken away.

That’s terrifying for unbelievers.  “Those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”   Those who don’t believe in Jesus are going to have to stand before God on their own record, and when they do, their evil deeds will still be on their record, and very evident to all.

But that’s comforting for believers.  “Those who have done good will rise to live.”  Those who believe that Jesus has taken away their sin no longer have their sins held against them by God!  Their sins have been covered by Jesus’ blood, cast into the sea, forgotten about completely!  All God sees is the good works they have done as a thank you to God for his forgiveness!  They have done good, as far as God is concerned.  They have done God’s will by believing in Him.  John 6:40 says: “For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Friends, the Last Day is coming.  Believe in Jesus as your Saviour!  You Will Be Happy!  But not only then… you will be happy now!  Because Jesus has the Power to Give Life.  “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.”  The Word of Jesus brings to life.  Both now and in a time to come.  In the time to come, Jesus will bring us physically to life when He raises us from the dead.  And now, Jesus brings us spiritually to life when He brings us to faith.  He has the power to give life because He has life in Himself to give us.

So here is what that means for you and me.  Jesus is going to raise us from the dead one day – bring us back to physical life.  That is very comforting in times of sickness and death, isn’t it?  These frail bodies we have and the frail bodies of our loved ones who have gone before us will one day be raised in perfection!  That is comforting!  Hope-giving!  It assures us that any hardships that happen along the way to our bodies and lives will be for the best for our souls.

Jesus also gives us spiritual life.  We were dead in our sins, and He has brought us to life with his life and death on the cross.  He has removed our guilt.  We can know that on Judgment Day, nothing will be mentioned of our evil deeds and mistakes.  God doesn’t see them because of Jesus.  This gives us comfort today – it is our only way to deal with guilt and fear of God.  We have life that replaces that guilt!  We no longer need to fear God!  Our sins have been covered by blood of Jesus.  Cast in the sea.   Forgotten about.  You can be happy right now!  It is also comforting and helpful to us knowing that when we share the Gospel message with others, we know that Jesus can bring life through his words.  He can give people faith and strengthen faith.

And that, my friends, is why you will be happy from today to the day you meet God face to face!  The One who will be your judge then is your Saviour now.  Over in England, every day at noon a man by the name of Jim went to his church, sat down on the front row for five minutes, then slipped out.  One day his pastor asked why he did this. Jim answered, “The world wears me down, and so I sit here in church and bow my head and say, ‘Jesus, this is Jim. I need your help today.’ And He always pours new strength into me.

One day Jim’s pastor was called to the hospital.  Jim was dying.  When the pastor went into the room, Jim asked everyone else to go out. Then he said, “Pastor, when they brought me here, they thought I was unconscious, but I heard them say that I was going to die. They left me alone for a few minutes.  But I felt the presence of someone else in the room.  I looked around but didn’t see anyone. Then I heard a sweet voice saying, ‘Jim, this is Jesus. I’ve come to take you home with Me.  Don’t be afraid.  I’ll go through the dark valley with you.’” Then Jim said to his pastor, “I’m not afraid. I’m ready to go.” And within minutes he was gone. 

He had joined the rest of the saints in heaven.  The saints triumphant.  People who have been made saints, made holy, by the sacrifice of a Saviour who loves them.  People like you and me.  Trust in that Saviour!  When you do, you can be assured both now and on the last day, that You Will Be Happy! You will get to move from your shack in the valley to your mansion on the hilltop!  Amen.

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