[MUSIC PLAYING] Good OK now, try to duck. Good. Good, good-- Good morning. [APPLAUSE] Does that make you want
to put boxing gloves on? Yeah. Not me-- any of you
do that, box, fight? Wow-- good. Don't mess. Would you turn in your Bibles
please to the book of Jude this morning? Listen, as we're
getting started, I just want to underscore an
announcement that was given. It's a very interesting
time culturally. We've been called at 100%-- you can open at 100%. But society is still
sort of just waking up. I think we're at 50%. We're in the green, I
think, now societally. So as we are emerging from
this, the challenge we find is a church is we used to have
a huge volunteer base a lot of servants, like the work on
Bible Island, and now we don't. And so what that
means is parents who want to bring their
children and check them in to Bible Island can't
as readily, because we just don't have a people who
will serve in that capacity. So if you have been
itching to get involved and to serve beyond
just attending, that would be a good place. We just want to put a
pitch in for Bible Island. That's at this campus, our Santa
Fe campus as well as-- not that I expect you in here to go
to Santa Fe and do that, but you might-- it's a nice drive-- or our West Side campus. Anyway, we're always
looking for help. Before COVID, we had
hundreds of volunteers, and they're just not
around as much anymore. So anyway, if that's
something you all feel comfortable of
doing, we'd applaud it. All right? So the book of Jude-- you'll notice the
title this morning. It is such a welcoming
title, isn't it? Gloom and Doom-- most preachers
would not deliberately use that title,
especially of themselves. Nobody likes to be called a
doom and gloom type of a person. We think of somebody who's a
pessimist, a downer, joyless, even filled with despair. When people talk about
doom and gloom preachers, they usually roll their eyes. It's very, very negative--
yeah, those guys. It's always seen as a put-down. I guess my question is, where
are such preachers today? I haven't heard lately
of many preachers who will speak about judgment,
speak about a final hell that the Bible talks about. Rarely do I hear
that talked about. There's not much gloom
preaching that I hear-- not that I'm advocating that. But what I do hear-- whether it's on radio or
TV-- a lot of is how to be successful-- I hear sermons on that-- how to be the best
version of yourself, how to make your
dreams come true, how to be a prosperous
type of person. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't like preaching
on the subjects that are in front of us all the time. And Jude is a short
book, so we're not going to be doing this long. But when it's plainly
presented in the biblical text, I am not going to skip over it. If it's uncomfortable
for me, so be it. If it's uncomfortable
for you, so be it. It's in the biblical text. And here's what I discovered
about this week's passage. Those two words, gloom
and doom, perfectly describe the subject matter in
the little paragraph beginning in verse 12 down to verse 15. In four verses, Jude
reminds us of the danger that apostates
are to the church. That's the gloom. They bring the gloom. And then, after that, he speaks
about the future judgment that those false
teachers will incur. That's the doom. So the false teachers
bring the gloom. God's going to bring
to them the doom. So let's look at that. I think you'll readily see that
as we go through these verses. Verse 12-- "These"-- speaking of these apostates-- "these are spots in
your love feasts, while they feast with
you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds
without water carried about by the winds, late
autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled
up by the roots, raging waves of the sea
foaming up their own shame, wandering stars for whom
is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." That's pretty gloomy. That's the gloom. Now the doom-- "Now Enoch, the
seventh from Adam, prophesied about
these men also saying, 'Behold, the Lord comes with
10,000 of his saints to execute judgment on all, to convict
all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds
which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all
the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken
against Him.'" Can you see how it easily
falls into two parts? He talks, first of
all, about the gloom that these people
bring, and he describes them using natural phenomena-- and then the doom of the future. So it's divided into
present and future, or as I put it in the outline,
the current jeopardy-- that's the gloom-- and
then the coming judgment-- that's the doom. But here's the thing-- neither one of these
subjects, gloom or doom, are even acknowledged by
the unbelieving world, by the modern mind. The modern mind set does
not even acknowledge this as being valid or true. Hell is not politically
correct, and never has been. This is the age of tolerance. This is the age of acceptance. And for some people, hell is
a theological embarrassment-- even to some evangelicals. And there are no false teachers,
because we live in a postmodern world where no one can be
absolutely sure of anything. So for somebody
to stand and say, this is right,
that is wrong, this is true, that is false is to
the modern mind an illusion, because truth is not objective--
it is purely subjective. That's the modern mindset. In such an environment,
discernment is not welcome. To have discernment
and say, actually, I hear what y'all
saying in our culture, but this is right
and that is wrong, this is true and that is false--
that kind of discernment is not welcome. And yet, Jude provides
that discernment in spades. We have seen that so far. This is a very
hard-hitting book. Now, what we uncover here,
beginning in verse 12, are some word pictures. Jude is giving us many parables
to illustrate spiritual truths. It's like he scours the sky,
and the land, and the sea, and compares false teachers
to five natural phenomena. Why does he do that? He wants to show
his readers just how dangerous these people are. These people who have
still embedded themselves within the church body,
these are like a cancer to the body of Christ. Now, as we are
getting into this, I'm just imagining
that, for some of you, this is the first time
you've been back to church for like a year. So you're thinking, man, yeah,
I'm going to go back to church. I really need to
come back to church. I got to be encouraged,
built up, strengthened-- and then this sermon. It's like, oh great,
gloom and doom. I want you to look
at it differently, if that is what
you come in with. I want you to think
about it this way. God loves you so
much that he wants to warn you of these things. God loves you and cares
for you so much that he is willing to tell you truth. And one of the most loving
things you can ever do is tell people the truth. And He does that. So we're going to begin
with the current jeopardy. And what I want to show
you in these verses are five reasons
that these people that Jude is talking
about-- five reasons they are so dangerous. And look at how
they're described. They're worrisome spots,
they're waterless clouds, worthless trees, wild
waves, wandering stars. Let's begin with the first. There are worrisome spots,
for he says in verse 12, "These are spots in
your love feasts, while they feast with
you without fear, serving only themselves." This speaks of their
defiling nature. Ever get a spot on your shirt,
or your blouse, or your dress? You say, I'm going to pull out
the white shirt this weekend, honey. I've been waiting for
a special occasion to wear this white shirt. Then you have a cup of
coffee or you eat spaghetti, and you get a spot on it. And then you say-- we
say, when that happens, every time I wear this
shirt, that happens. Every time I wear something
white, it seems to attract it. This is why I wore black today. When you get a spot on a piece
of fabric like a white blouse or shirt, the rest
of it is clean. It all looks good, but you
don't go out in public thinking, well, the rest of
it looks good-- it's this one spot-- because when you're out in
public, what do they look at? The spot-- right. Even though there's so
much other material that's still intact around, nobody-- all the focus, all the
attention is on the spot. I think that's-- partly, here,
the idea is that these people embedded in the church that Jude
is writing about are drawing attention away from the main
thing and onto themselves, like the spot. Verse 12 says, they
are spots in your feast "while they feast with you
without fear, serving only themselves." They're making it
all about them. Now, a note about
the love feast-- the love feast was an early
church way of doing church. It was a very common
church service. 2,000 years ago, early
Christians would get together, and basically, the
order of service was a time of worship,
instruction in the Word, then we take the elements
together of the Lord's Supper, then we have a potluck. People would bring food, because
many people in the community were poor, and those who had
food or were wealthy and could cook even more would bring
food to these love feasts, and everybody could eat of them. The problem is these things
started getting abused. So you can, on your own, read
1 Corinthians 11 sometime where Paul says, you know, your
love feasts are out of control. One person comes drunk. Another person comes
and gobbles the food before anybody else can get it. And so eventually,
what happened, history tells us, is the love
feast as a church service went out of form, was
out of vogue, just got washed off the scene
because of the abuse that happened within them. Now, the second mark here
after worrisome spots are waterless clouds. He says in the next
sentence, "They are clouds without water
carried about by the winds." I think that speaks of
their false promise. They promise you stuff, but
they don't produce anything. Clouds promise rain. When you see a cloud bank come
in, it portends refreshment. It's going to rain. It's good for the crops,
good for the grass. One of the great things I
love about New Mexico Summers are the clouds
that roll through, the big puffy cumulus clouds. And you're hoping that it's just
going to have this rain burst. We love that. I love that. What I don't love
is when the clouds come carried by the wind,
and it blows in all the dust, and then there's no water. They're promising me something,
but they're not making good. They're not delivering
on the promise. In Proverbs 25:14,
we're told, "Whoever falsely boasts of giving is like
clouds and wind without rain." False teachers are
like big puffy clouds-- all vapor, no water;
all bluster, no benefit. I've always loved the
story of the church service-- the country
church service where the preacher came
to church ill-prepared for his sermon, didn't
study that week very much. And he tried to make up
for his lack of preparation by pounding the pulpit,
yelling, moving around a lot, holding his Bible up so
people went, yeah, yeah-- like a pep rally-- but not really much substance. So after the service,
some of the people were really excited about that,
and they were getting together in groups and talking about it. And some even said the preacher
really preached up a storm. Well, they asked one of
the older church members-- an elderly Native American man--
what he thought of the sermon, and he gave six words. He said, high wind,
big thunder, no rain. It's all bluster,
but no benefit. It's all cloud. It's no rain. That's the idea there--
waterless clouds. Third is the description
of worthless trees. Now, get this--
"late autumn trees"-- verse 12-- "late autumn trees
without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots." You can't get any more
fruitless than that. This speaks of their
barren profession. Now, the autumn time is the
last opportunity for harvest. It's before the winter comes,
before the hard freeze. So you really want to have
a good autumn harvest, because if not, you might
face starvation in the coming months. But it's interesting
that the text describes them as being
not just dead, but what? Twice dead-- how does that work? It's sort of like
Princess Bride. He's not dead--
he's mostly dead-- not all dead, but mostly dead. Isn't dead dead? So what does it mean to be twice
dead how can you be twice dead. I think what he means is these
are trees that are fruitless and trees that are rootless. Because they're not
connected to the ground, there's no life-giving
coming into them. Therefore, there's
nothing going out of them. They don't produce any fruit
because of the root system. They're pulled up by the roots. Now, this happens
to be the opposite of the description of the
godly man or woman spoken about in Psalm 1. They're planted by
the rivers of water, who has fruit given in its
season, and whatever he does shall prosper. This is the opposite of that. And from a distance,
I suppose these trees look like any other trees. You're coming up to a grove
and you go, oh, there's a tree. And then you get closer and
go, there's no fruit on it. And then you look and
go, well, because it's been pulled up by the roots. But it's just
still sitting here. So people can be like that. They can look the
part, sound spiritual, sound very sincere about their
belief system, and yet be dead. Jesus said, "Every plant which
my Heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted." Do you know how many people
sit in lifeless, dead religious systems? So many-- and let's
narrow it down. Do you know how many people
sit in lifeless dead churches? Well, it's a church building,
and they sing songs, and they get together,
and they do stuff. They mean well and
they're very sincere. Yeah, but where's the life? I found a website. This is the Center for
Contemplative Spirituality. And they say, quote, "We come
from a variety of secular and religious
backgrounds, and we each seek to enrich our journey
through spiritual practice and study of the world's
great spiritual traditions." Oh, it sounds so
noble, so positive. "We desire to draw closer
to the loving Spirit"-- so generic-- "the
loving Spirit, which pervades all creation
and which inspires our compassion for all beings." In other words,
we're taking what we like from that religion, and
what we like from that system, and what we like from there,
putting it all together. Even though they all
contradict each other, we just kind of like that
they make us feel good, and you're OK and I'm OK. Problem is they're dead. There's no life. There's no life change. There's no capacity
for transformation. So they're worrisome
spots, waterless clouds, worthless trees. He goes on. They're wild waves-- verse
13-- "raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame." This speaks of their
destructive nature. If you spend any time
on an ocean at all, you learn to respect it. Oh, you love it. You enjoy the sound. You enjoy the smell, the sights,
but if you spend much time on the ocean, you learn
to respect because of the power that can be there. I love the ocean. I grew up going a
lot to the ocean. I grew up surfing. I love waves. I love formed waves. I love waves-- when
you see them build, and then they build more, and
then they come to a crest, and then they
break, and then they form a line on one
side or the other, and you know that's a right
break or a left break, and it's great for surfing. Formed waves are great. Storm waves are not so great. Now, I can't be sure,
but I'm guessing that, when Jude wrote this as a
description, he had in his mind a passage from the
book of Isaiah. 57 verse 20 says, "But the
wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose
waters cast up mire and dirt. 'There is no peace,' says
my God, 'for the wicked.'" If you go to the
beach after a storm, the health department in
the state of California tells you don't go in the
water for about two days. And that's because the storm
has churned up human pollution. You go to the beach-- you'll
find hypodermic needles being washed ashore. You'll find trash. You'll find flotsam, jetsam, all
that stuff that is out there. And the water is toxic. So the idea is these
people stir stuff up. They stir up the mud. They stir up the filth. They stir up the debris. Formed waves are productive. Storm waves are destructive. So they're worrisome
spots, waterless clouds, worthless trees, wild waves. There's a final fifth
description in verse 13-- they're wandering stars. He says this--
"wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness
of darkness forever." Here's the interesting thing
about this description-- stars don't wander. Stars are on a fixed orbit. So fixed are the orbits of
stars that the ancients would navigate by them. You could look at a winter
sky or a summer sky, and you knew where
constellations were, and you could go in different
directions on land or sea based upon your
reading of the stars. But there is a phenomenon
that we call a shooting star. It's not actually a
star as much as it's a piece of debris, or space
dust, or even a meteor. And when it gets close to
our atmosphere, it burns up and it shows as a bright
spot, a streak across the sky. And whenever somebody
sees a shooting star, what do they say? Help me out. What do they say? Make a wish. You see it. You go, phfoom, and
what do you say? Ooh, ah-- right? Am I right? Do I have this wrong? This is what I do. I don't know about you. When I see a shooting
star, I go, wow. I say wow, or ooh,
or ah, or awesome. But how long does it last? It's over now. It just happened. It's over. And you have to have your
eyes up to even see it. And then, after that-- nothing, because it's--
they're reserved for them-- the blackness of
darkness forever. Now, I think where
he's going with this. Many a teacher-- there's
been many a bright star that has come to a pulpit
that has ended up a burnout. Like fireworks-- some people
go, wow, whoa, ooh, ah. Did you hear that? I've never heard that before. Well, maybe you never heard
it because it's actually not in the Bible. Some dude just made it up. And you got the oohs
and the ahs going, but-- so? If you try to navigate
by a fallen star, you'd be dead or lost. Compare that to Daniel 12. Daniel 12-- "Those
who are wise will shine like the brightness
of the heavens, and those who lead many to
righteousness like the stars forever and ever." Now, those are fixed stars. That's what you want to be
like-- not a shooting star, not a firework-- woo-- but just stay shining. Let people navigate
by your life. Now, before we move
on to the next-- so that was the gloom. Now we get the doom. Before we get there, let
me ask this question, because this is pressing. How does this happen? For those of us who are Bible
believers-- we love Jesus, we follow Jesus,
we're disciples, we're all in, we're so
happy for the Gospel, we've been so transformed
and given new life-- we don't understand
anybody who's tasted that could ever
walk away from that. How does that happen? Well, I could give you about 30
different reasons the Bible has for why that happens. I've discovered about that many. I won't do that. We don't have time. But I want to give you a few. Here's a few reasons
why this can happen-- number one, persecution. People just do not want to
pay the price to follow Jesus, especially publicly. Popularity is just
too important to them. What people think about them is
just way too important to them. So Jesus gave a parable
about a sower sowing seed, and these are different
hearts of people who listened to the message. Jesus said, when
persecution or tribulation arises because of the
Word, they fall away-- they stumble. So to follow Jesus would
be bad for my business. If I actually made a big
public deal about Jesus, it could hurt my business. It could hurt my status
in the community. It could hurt my
Instagram profile. Persecution is one reason. Another reason is
mixed devotion. Some people come
within our ranks, but they're fence-sitters. They kind of like, I'm attracted
to the Jesus who forgives me for my sins, and gives me
joy, puts a smile on my face, gives me purpose and meaning,
but there's a lot of fun stuff to do in this world. There's a lot of
cool fun awesome sins I still want to get involved
in, so I kind of want this, but I kind of want that-- because the world's cool. But you know John said,
love not the world-- neither the things
that are in this world. Whoever loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him. Jesus in that same
parable said, "The cares of this world, the deceitfulness
of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful." That is, that plant
becomes unfruitful. Did you know the Paul
the apostle actually had a minister, a colleague who
apostatized, who walked away, who detracted, who fell away? His name was Demas. And when Paul
writes about Demas-- 2 Timothy 4, one
sentence-- he says, "Demas has forsaken me, having
loved this present world." How'd you like to have your name
in the Bible like that forever? Demas has forsaken me, having
loved this present world. Some are just so
earthbound, they're just after this momentary
comfort, there's real no real draw to Jesus, and
spirituality, and discipleship. So persecution, mixed emotions--
another reason it can happen is because it's hard. It's just plain hard to
follow Jesus for some-- probably for all of
us, at one point. Jesus's teaching is hard. Am I accurate about this? You have ever read something-- I do, where I go, that's hard. I got to teach that? I got to live that? That's hard. You know that, when people
heard Jesus in John chapter 6, He gave a sermon? And it wasn't how to
have your best life now or how to be prosperous. It was a pretty hard message. And they said in John chapter
6, "This is a hard saying. Who can hear it?" And then we were told,
from that day forward, many of His disciples turned
back and followed Him no more. The demands were too hard. They were too hard for
the rich young ruler. They were too hard for Judas
Iscariot, because it's hard. Another reason that people
apostatize is because-- you might not like this when I
say it, but I'll explain it-- because they're not
paying attention. I know I sound like
your teacher, right? Class, you're not
paying attention. But you can fall away
because you're not really grabbing a hold of the truth. You're not paying attention. The approach is a
superficial approach. Hebrews chapter 2-- Paul the
Apostle, whoever wrote Hebrews, said, "Therefore, give the more
earnest heed to the things you have heard"-- listen-- "lest at any time
we drift away from them." Another reason it can
happen is laziness. Hebrews chapter 10-- "not
forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,
as is the manner of some, but do it all the more as
you see the day approaching." Some people just aren't
interested in coming to church. They want to distance
themselves from it. They don't want the influence
of people around them, an accountability kind of
influence in their lives. And that's just a few reasons. There's any number of reasons. The Bible has many more. I'll give you a quick rundown-- Satan's devices, and unbelieving
heart, a hardened heart, rebellion, bitterness,
immorality, disrespect of leadership,
not mixing God's promises with faith. That's just a sampling of
about those 30 or so reasons the Bible gives. In fact, let me
make this statement, because I believe it to be
true in summing this point up. The majority of those people
who are exposed to the Gospel will turn away from it. The majority of those
exposed to the Gospel will turn away from it. If you think of the parable
of the sower and the seed, have you ever looked
at that just in terms of percentages, mathematics? Of all the people that heard the
truth in that parable, only 25% bore any kind of fruit, and a
very small percentage of that bore what Jesus
called 100-fold fruit. No wonder that Jesus said,
"Wide is the gate and broad is the way that
leads to destruction. Narrow is the gate that leads
to eternal life, and very few enter therein"-- very few-- not most, not a lot-- few. No wonder Jesus said, "Many
will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord,'" and He will
say, "Depart from Me." You will not enter the Kingdom. So great subject matter-- that's the gloom. Now let's move on to the doom. Verse 14-- don't worry-- it's
going to end encouraging-- "Now Enoch, the
seventh from Adam, prophesied about these
men, also saying, 'Behold, the Lord comes with
10,000 of the saints to execute judgment on all, to convict
all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which
they've committed an ungodly way"-- as we noted on our
first message in Jude, he likes this word a lot-- "and of all the harsh
things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." OK, we've got to get
something out of the way. We've got to address this. Jude mentions Enoch. Enoch you remember
from Genesis chapter 5. He was a good guy. He's a godly guy. It says, Enoch walked with God. If you want something on your
tombstone, that's a good thing. He walked with God. But scholars note that Jude
is quoting from a source that is not a biblical source. They're quoting from first
Enoch, a non-biblical book, an apocryphal book-- some even believe a
pseudepigraphical book, meaning it was a book with
somebody's name on it, but written by somebody else. But he's quoting from it,
and that bothers some people. How can he quote something
that's not from the Bible? Well, I do it all the time. I will say, I read a
Gallup poll this week-- the Gallup poll said
this-- or here's an article from the Albuquerque Journal. And I'll quote it. And believe me, I'm not
saying the Albuquerque Journal is the inspired word of God-- far from it. Or I'll quote a website
or what a preacher said, and what I'm doing is
quoting a secular source-- or a believing source, but
not a biblical source-- to simply buttress a point. And so probably that
is what Jude is doing. And by the way, Paul
the apostle did this. When Paul the apostle
stood before Athens and preached in Acts
17, did you know that he quoted secular sources? Did you know the Paul the
apostle quoted from pagan poets to the men of Athens? He pulls this out. Listen to this and see
if you remember this. He said, for in Him, we live,
and move, and have our being. You ever read that in Acts 17? Paul is quoting a sixth
century BC Cretan poet by the name of Epimenides who
said that-- who wrote that. And then Paul said
to the men of Athens, for we also are His offspring. That is a quote directly
from a third century BC poet named Aratus of Soli. And when Aratus said, we
also are his offspring, he was referring to Zeus. So Paul pulls that
for the men of Athens because he is making a point
about the sovereign God, about Yahweh. So I think Jude is
doing that here. And so that's a side. Let's get back to the point. Jude said-- and
here's the quote-- "Behold, the Lord comes
with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment on all." Perhaps, when
Enoch said this, he was referring to the coming
judgment of the flood, because he lived right
before the flood. And the judgment that God poured
out on the Earth in his day was the flood. But what Jude is saying
is the final application of this prophecy will be in the
end times when Jesus returns. So here's the point
Jude is making. You can have all
these false teachers and apostates spouting this
off, and embedding themselves in the congregation, and
leading people astray, but what I want you to
know, Jude would say, is God will always
have the last word. God always has the final word. He gets, as God, the right
to make the decisive choice about their future. And in their case-- this case-- it is judgment. Now, you can see what
a crafty preacher I am, because I
said that we have two points to the sermon when,
if you look at your outline, there's actually 10. So I divided it
into five reasons why these people are dangerous--
that's the gloom-- and then five features of the coming
judgment-- that's the doom. But I'm going to go
through these very quickly. Something about this
judgment-- first of all, it will be personal. The coming judgment is personal. Notice it says,
behold, the Lord comes. God himself will
judge the world. He won't delegate this to
the judgment committee. It won't be judgment by proxy. He'll do it. It'll be personal. Now, do you mind if I gave
you a quick thumbnail rundown, maybe a one-minute summation
of the future judgment in a nutshell? Can I do that really quick? OK, so here's how it's
going to roll down. Here's how it's
going to come down. First of all, it's
going to begin-- the future judgment is
going to begin on Earth with a seven-year tribulation period,
called by biblical authors the worst period of
time in human history, described in the Book of
Revelation chapters 6 through 16 as judgments that are
seals, trumpets, and bowls-- cataclysms that happen
on the Earth that will culminate in
a battle called the Battle of Armageddon-- Revelation 16 and
Revelation 19-- when Jesus comes back. When Jesus comes back,
at the end of that, He's going to set up His Kingdom
that will be a 1,000-year reign of Christ on the Earth, during
which time Satan will be bound. At the end of that 1,000
years, Satan gets released, there will be one
final rebellion that, for some
reason, God allows, and then Satan and his
minions, his followers will be cast into the
lake of fire forever. After that will come what's
called the great white throne judgment where all
unbelievers stand before God to get the final sentence. So the first phase of
the judgment is firstly. The second phase of the
judgment is heavenly. That's the nutshell
theology of future judgment. So it's going to be personal. A second thing to note--
it's going to be coalitional. Let me do this for you. Notice it says, the Lord comes
with 10,000 of His saints. So yeah, He's the one
that's going to do it, but he's going to allow others
to be witnesses and even help Him carry it out,
because He's coming with 10,000 of his saints. I have a question for you. Who are the saints
He's coming with? Who are they? OK, I hear the church. I hear us. Any other guesses? Angels-- did I hear angels? So here's the answer-- I don't know. It's either us or it's angels-- or both. So He's coming back with us-- Revelation 19-- He's
coming back with us. Also, Colossians 3:4 says,
"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we will
appear with Him in glory." So it could be us, but
it could also be angels, because when Jesus spoke about
the future judgment, He said, and the angels are going to be
there to help administer that. That's Matthew 24, Matthew 25. And this in Matthew 13-- "Therefore, as the tares
are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will
be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will
send out his angels, and they will gather out of the
Kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice
lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire." So that fits with this text. So it's either us, or
the angels, or both. So that's why I
said, I don't know. But it will be coalitional. The third thing to notice--
it will be universal, because notice, it says to
execute judgment on all. Nobody gets a pass. No one believer escapes. Every unbeliever, everyone
who has said no to God will face this. Another important
facet-- and this is important-- it
will be equitable. It'll be fair. It'll be fair,
because we are told this-- "to execute
judgment on all to convict all who are ungodly." A better translation, a better
word than convict is convince. He will come and
convince those that He is about to judge of
the fairness of it. There'll be none of
this-- that's not fair. There'll be none of that-- not going to work
on judgment day. God will convince
them this is right. This is fair. It's an interesting
court scene that is described for us,
the Last Judgment, because it's going to be
not like an earthly court. There's no debate about guilt.
It's not like, wait a minute-- I object-- none of that. There'll be a prosecution,
but no defense. There will be a judge. There will not be a jury. There'll be a sentence,
but no appeal. There will be punishment,
but no parole. And the entire procedure will
be absolutely fair and right, because the Bible says, when God
judges, the anthems of Heaven will be this-- just and true
are your judgments, or righteous and true or your judgments. That's right. And they'll be fair, because
God is presiding over them. See, God has a
couple of attributes that no human judge has. God is omnipresent. He's everywhere at the
same time in all places. So that means God is the best
eyewitness of every sin ever committed by every person. He's also omniscient. He knows everything, so He just
didn't know what happened-- He knows motive. So it will be fair. And you should know
this-- in Revelation, when God judges at the
great white throne, it says the books are opened. The books are open. In other words, God has a very
complete, replete, detailed inventory of a person's life. The books are opened. And I can't prove this,
but maybe in those books is a record of every time
that person had an opportunity to give their lives
to Christ, every time they heard the Gospel
and said, no, I'll pass. That's brought up,
and that's brought up. It will be equitable. And finally-- and
we close with this-- this is the hardest one-- it will be eternal. The end of verse 13-- "for whom is reserved
the blackness of darkness for a week." I'm sorry-- for a decade. No-- I hate to tell you that,
but the word there is forever. You say, well, I have
problems with that. Join the crowd. It's not easy to
hear this-- forever. But I got to tell you this--
if hell is not forever, then Heaven is not forever. If hell is not eternal,
then Heaven is not eternal. If hell is not everlasting,
then Heaven is not everlasting, because when Jesus
described in one sentence in the Gospel of
Matthew chapter 25-- when He discussed hell and
Heaven, punishment and glory, He used the same word--
everlasting, everlasting; eternal, eternal. So if hell is not eternal,
then neither is Heaven. OK, so gloom and doom-- I want you to walk
away with two things. Number one-- just two little
thoughts as we close-- we don't judge you here. No matter who you are,
we welcome you here. We want you to hear truth. We want you to be
exposed to the Gospel. We want you to hear
what the Bible says. We don't judge you. That's not our role. God will judge you
and God will judge me. I'm not going to stand
before you a judgment. I'll stand before God. You will not stand before me. You will stand before God. So God will be the judge. We don't judge you here. We welcome you. Number two-- I want
you to know this, hear this-- judgment is
not God's happy place. I don't want you to think of
the great white throne judgment, and God's waiting for that. The day comes
like, hot dog, I've been waiting to judge
people for a long time. He hates it. He will do it, but he
doesn't want to do it. You know how I know that? It says He is not willing
that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. That's the heart of God. He didn't want that. [APPLAUSE] God said, "I have no"--
this is Ezekiel 33-- "I have no pleasure"--
says the Lord-- "in the death of the wicked." And then He says to his
people, "turn, turn, for why will you die?" Did you know that hell was
not prepared for "people? When Jesus spoke about hell, He
said it is everlasting fire-- that's eternal--
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Hell was not made for people. God didn't want to do it. I know you're thinking,
well, then why does He do it? Because God is pro-choice when
it comes to eternal matters. God will honor a
person's choice. A person says, I don't want to-- I don't want God in my life. I don't want God control in me. I don't want to have to
hang out with God forever. You don't have to. He won't make you. GK Chesterton said, "Hell
is God's great compliment to the reality of human
freedom and the dignity of human choice." God lets people choose. He will honor your choice. So the gloom that
brings the doom is something you don't
have to be a part of. I love what James said--
mercy triumphs over judgment. God loves to show mercy. God loves to pour favor
and loves to forgive. When somebody says, God,
forgive me, He goes, yes. I get to let that person go
to Heaven forever and escape damnation forever. I love that. That's what He wants. Now, remember I said that
some people turned away from Jesus because
they, said this is too hard, this is too hard,
and many that day followed Him no more? Jesus, after that happened,
turned to his 12 disciples and said, will you also leave? And Peter said, where
else would we go? You alone have the
words of eternal life. I want to ask you that question. If you're thinking
about, I'm done now-- I'm done with church
now, I'm done with God, I'm done with Jesus-- where are you going to go? Where else are you going
to go for forgiveness? Where else are you going
to go for hope, and peace, and meaning in life, and Heaven? Well, I'm-- just want to quit. Where else are you going to go? Don't go. Hang in there. Let Him protect you. Let Him preserve you. Let Him work with you. Lean hard into him. And if you are teetering,
come back to him. Let's pray. Father, thank You
for an opportunity to hear a very
difficult message. But thank You for
the opportunity nonetheless, because it shows
us that you've included this as a part of holy writ
to warn those You love, to tell the truth to people who,
because of our sinful nature there's any number of reasons
why a person could decide just to go back, to go
away, to apostatize-- whatever word--
but not to follow. We understand Your
heart through this. You love mercy. You love grace. You don't want
judgment to happen. You will do it because You must. You are holy. You are perfect. It's part of that
justice of God. We get that. But how relieved we
are to follow a God who loves to forgive people. And I pray for anyone who
has not yet come to the cross that they would do it today. If you're with us this
morning, give your life to Him. Do it now. Just say to Him, here I am. Here's my life. I give myself to You. I turn from my sin. I turn to Jesus. I believe that he died for me. I believe He shed
His blood for my sin. I believe that. I believe Jesus
rose and is alive. And just help me, Lord. Fill me. Help me to live for You-- in Jesus's name, amen. We hope you enjoyed this special
service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how
this message impacted you. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
