I hope you are not waiting for our Savior to return to be judged by Him. I hope you don't believe you will come face to face with God, with Jesus there as your advocate as if standing in a court of law, God the judge, Jesus your lawyer, you the accused. This isn't going to be how it happens and if you think it is you need to study the word of God right now so you're not caught unaware having been waiting for your court date which will never occur.
Is Jesus our Advocate? Yes. Are we going to be judged by God? Yes. Will you be in a court setting able to plead your case? No.
We are accused. We need a lawyer/advocate. We will be tried. We will be judged.
We are not only accused, we are guilty. Our advocate pleads on our behalf, but not pleading our worthiness in the slightest. In fact, our advocate admits outright that we are guilty, and then He asks the judge to let Him stand in our place. Our advocate points to the sacrifice of His own sinless life on our behalf. Our advocate shows where He paid for our personal sins, each and every one. The judge accepts the sacrifice and allows that our advocate took our sins upon Himself and paid their price for us.
We do not know when our trial is because it takes place as we live. When we die, our probation period is over- we've no more opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as our Advocate. We accepted Him before our death, or we did not. While we live we must accept Jesus as our Savior, our Advocate, only then will we be sure when our trial takes place we are covered by His sacrifice, guilty, yet forgiven!
When will your trial happen? When will mine? For all we know in the blink of an eye right before Jesus stands up and His work as our advocate is over, before He takes on the crown of King, our trial will occur. We don't know. Just as we don't know if we will die before then. We live our lives without this knowledge for a reason.
Just imagine if you knew when you would be judged for your eternal life. How many people would live their lives very differently. How many would live dangerously until their trial date drew close? How many would live dangerously after their trial? Do you see the preposterous nature of us knowing? There would be no genuine truth, no life lived for love, but constantly for self first. We don't know. We must choose to live in love, to live in Christ and His love4reytg. Our lives now are being molded for heaven. How we live now, how we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit now, is how we will be later. Our spirit with the Holy Spirit, this is our hope.
All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, now and forever, AMEN!!!!!!!
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CHAPTER XIV. THE HOUR OF JUDGMENT
In his sermon at Athens, the apostle Paul said that God "hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained." Acts 17:31.
According to this, there was a time appointed for the judgment,--a definite day when it would come.
In Rev. 14:6, 7, the hour of judgment is announced by an angel, of whom the prophet thus speaks:--
"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come; and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."
In regard to this, we notice:--
1. The importance of the message. It is called the everlasting gospel. Being a part of the gospel, whenever it is given it must be heeded. But it has been asked, How can a proclamation of the judgment be any part of the gospel?
To this we offer two answers:
1. Every dispensation of God is gracious toward his people. But that which is gracious to the righteous may be everlasting ruin to the wicked. The Scripture says that when Noah and his family went into the ark, "the Lord shut him in." Gen. 7:16. This assured the perfect safety of Noah; but when the Lord shut him in, by the same act he shut all the others out. The psalmist praised him who "overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea; for his mercy endureth forever." Ps. 136:15. It was no mercy to Pharaoh and his host; they had forfeited the mercy of God. But it was mercy to the Lord's people; it was necessary to rescue them, if their enemies were destroyed. And so, without the judgment, God's people would never receive their reward.
2. The question is more fully answered by showing the order and nature of the judgment. It is in truth a part of the gospel--necessary to the perfect fulfillment of the purposes and promises of God. The gospel is revealed in Isa. 61:1, 2. These verses read as follows:-- The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." In Luke 4:16-21, we read that Jesus came to Nazareth, "and as his custom
was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, and stood up for to read." Opening the book of Isaiah, he began to read chapter 61, as quoted above, and read as far as to this sentence, "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord," and there abruptly stopped. Had he read the next sentence,--"and the day of vengeance of our God,"--he could not have said, as he did in verse 21, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears," because the time had not yet come to proclaim the judgment. But by this we learn that the proclamation of the judgment is a part of the gospel--but a part that was not yet fulfilled in the time of our Saviour's preaching. The apostles of the Lord took up the proclamation just as he gave it at Nazareth. Paul said, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. 6:2. But to Felix he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come--not is come. Acts 24:25. The preaching of the hour of judgment is come, was necessarily reserved to the last days, when the coming of Christ is near. It has been seen, by the prophecy of the beast with two horns (Rev. 13:11-18), that we are in the last days, and that the last message, given just before Christ comes to reap the harvest of the earth, is based on the facts that are now transpiring.
The question then naturally arises, Has the first message, of Rev. 14:6, 7, been given? Has a proclamation been made to the world of the nature of this judgment-hour cry. It surely has; a message in this very language was proclaimed to all the world between the years 1836 and 1844. It was very extensively preached in Europe and America, and also in Asia. Publications were sent to every missionary station on the globe. Those who preached it fully believed that it was a precursor of the coming of the Lord, as it really was. Yet they did not understand the nature of the messages connected with it, and immediately following it. This message of Rev. 14:6, 7 is a message of time. It was preached as a message of time by those who proclaimed it. It is true, they overlooked the
connection, and were therefore mistaken in the events that should succeed their work. But that mistake was altogether owing to the fact that they had wrong views of the nature of the judgment itself--the very same views that are even now held by the great majority of Bible readers. It is generally believed that the judgment does not take place until the Lord comes. But a reading of this chapter must convince everyone that that idea is not correct.
Four events are presented in this chapter, which stand in this order:
1. The declaration that the judgment is come.
2. The cry that Babylon is fallen.
3. The warning against the worship of the beast and his image, called the Third Angel's Message.
4. The coming of the Lord to reap the harvest of the earth.
This shows that the judgment comes while men are yet here on probation, and that the proclamation of its coming must be made before time closes, that men may prepare for the time when Jesus shall close his priestly work of intercession. The common view that the judgment cannot begin until after Christ comes is certainly incorrect.
In 1 Cor. 15:42-54, it is shown that the righteous are immortalized in the resurrection. They are raised incorruptible, glorified. In the very event of the resurrection, at the sounding of the trump of God, the change from mortal to immortal takes place, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. This refers to the righteous, for they alone have part in the first resurrection. Rev. 20:4-6 says the blessed and holy have part in the first resurrection; but the rest of the dead will not live again for the space of a thousand years. Now, inasmuch as the gift of God through Christ is eternal life, and Jesus brought immortality to light through the gospel, it is absurd to suppose that these blessings will be conferred before the judgment. It is surely absurd to suppose that the great boon of immortality and eternal life would be conferred on the saints of God, and that afterward they should stand to be judged. Again, Christ is specially the advocate of his people, and it is unreasonable to suppose that he would cease his work as an advocate, an intercessor, a priest, before the decision of the judgment was rendered, and leave them to pass through the ordeal of that awful event without a priest, without an advocate. Revelation 14 proves clearly that the judgment precedes the coming of Christ and the resurrection; and the resurrection of the righteous to glory and immortality is proof that the judgment has been fully decided in their favor, while the fact that the rest of the dead remain in their graves during the one thousand years, the fact that they are not raised when the righteous are, is sufficient proof that their cases have been decided against them. They have already been counted unworthy of eternal life, and will be raised to the resurrection of damnation to suffer the second death.
This again is strongly confirmed by Rev. 22:11, 12. At a certain time the Saviour will proclaim:--
"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be."
This gives the same order; every case is decided and fixed before the Lord Jesus comes to reward everyone according to his work. As far as the righteous are concerned, the judgment is fully completed before the Lord comes. But not so with the wicked; they are rejected as being unworthy of eternal life; but what shall be the measure of the punishment of each individual--whether with few or many stripes--will be decided by Christ and the saints, during the thousand years in which the unrighteous remain in the graves. Compare Rev. 20:2-6; 1 Cor. 4:5; 6:1-3.
Rev 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
1Co 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
1Co 6:1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?
1Co 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
To be continued…
