Judgment Day

Acts 17:31 “because He 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.”

In a sermon delivered by pastor D. James Kennedy on Judgment Day. He stated that, unfortunately, it is a day which many people try not to think about, and certainly most of them don’t think about it with the happy anticipation The fear of judgment and the possibility of hell, we are told in an article in the Sun Sentinel a few years ago by David Briggs, has lost much of its fury in the modern age, some sociologists say. Surprising to no one is the fact that not as many people believe in the possibility of judgment and hell as did a few hundred years ago. There are not many people who tremble about it today. 

 

The Bible makes it very clear that God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world by that Man whom He hath appointed, Jesus Christ, and He has given assurance of that in that He has raised Him from the dead. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the most thoroughly proved event of antiquity, sustains the truth that God is going to judge the world, and that, by Christ. 

 

I remember talking to a man who said that when he goes to the Judgment, he is going to tell God he was a good man and he tried to keep the Commandments. Now he wasn’t a Christian and he didn’t believe in this Jesus “fellow,” but he was nevertheless good and quite sure God would let him into heaven. I said, “My friend, you know you have quite a surprise coming. Just about the time you find yourself telling God why you don’t believe in this Jesus fellow, you are going to realize that the Judge you are talking to is this Jesus fellow.” 

 

Revelation 20:11 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.”

 

All judgment has been committed to the Son that He may be equal with the Father. So, it is before Christ that people will stand. For the sake of believers, that is only appropriate. Since Christ was appointed to be the Savior and since He humbled Himself and came into this world and became obedient unto death and suffered and died upon the cross and descended into hell, and finally was raised again, He must be our full Redeemer to consummate the salvation He purchased on the Cross. So finally, at that great day, Christians are vindicated and proclaimed as His own and are given their rewards for faithful service and are taken into heaven. If Christ were not the Judge, He would be an incomplete Savior, for He would not have finished the work. 

 

1 Corinthians 15:25-27 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted.

 

Also, we are told that Christ must reign until He hath placed all of His enemies beneath His feet. Therefore, for the unbeliever it is altogether appropriate that the Judge be Christ—Christ, the one whom they have mocked, whose name they have taken in vain as blasphemy ten million billion times over; Christ, the One that they have laughed at; Christ, the One that they have scorned, is the One who will be their Judge, until at length all of His enemies are placed beneath His feet, and every tongue shall confess that Christ is Lord of all. 

 

John 3:35-36 “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

 

Every human being, at last, will realize that he is being judged not by the Father or the Holy Spirit, but by the God-man—the One who understands our frailties and our temptations. Christ is the One who not only has a divine nature that gives Him perfect knowledge of all things, but also has a human nature. He is the one that has endured all of the temptations we have endured, yet without sin. And so, no one can say that God does not understand. 

 

It is a great fact. If there were no judgment, all of the inequities and inequalities of life would be left unresolved. The wicked prosper. The righteous often are maimed or poverty stricken or imprisoned or tortured or killed. Somewhere there must be a balancing of the scales. Someday there will be perfect justice with no legal technicalities, and everything will be brought to light and perfect justice will reign. What a day that will be, my friend, when all things are brought to light.