The Judgment of Apostates

Judgment is coming upon the earth.

! The world goes about their daily lives as if nothing is amiss.! They assume that the future is unknown and unknowable.

The Bible, however, is quite clear about the future. And that's judgment. Judgment is coming. Now that is not a message that unsaved people want to hear.

Actually, it's not a message that some saved people want to hear. This is especially true for Christians who have unsaved family members. In a somewhat worn out cliché, we say that judgment delayed is not judgment denied.

Cliché or not, that is a true statement. Judgment is coming. Let me say also that the timing of God's approaching judgment is right on schedule if we are referring to His schedule.

It may be off everybody else's schedule, but it's on His schedule and that's all that matters. Now how can we be sure that judgment is coming? Well, of course, the major reason is because God's Word tells us so.

That would be enough right there. But I would suggest another proof, and I suppose it's connected to God's Word. Well, it is connected. Judgment has come before.

A sweeping judgment on the earth. God has sent His judgment fires, and we could add here His judgment waters.

That is how Noah would refer to God's judgment. He sent a flood. Listen to what Jude has to say about judgment.

I'm reading verses 14, 15, and 16. It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds, which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him, these are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts.

They speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. I guess the hallmark of our age is the world in which we live is that of political correctness.

And we are surrounded by people who pretend to exercise tolerance even for the most filthy and aberrant sins among us.

About the only thing people are intolerant of today are evangelical Christians. You notice that? We call our culture postmodern, and in a setting such as ours, it is taboo to criticize another's beliefs or attitudes.

Peter Graham once said, society today bends over backward to keep from offending anyone except God.

And the mention of hell is unpopular. The idea that God would come down and judge people is ridiculous given the fact that people are, after all, basically good and decent.

I haven't found that passage in the scriptures. Sadly, these ideas have spilled over into the church. Even in conservative circles, the mention of hell is an embarrassment for those who still cling to the idea of an afterlife in heaven.

The method of getting there is totally false and unbiblical in their thinking. The prevailing belief system, the prevailing attitude today in how to get to heaven I call justification by death.

You die and you go to heaven. People believe that. Every religion believes that. People without religion believe that. Well, he's he's better off now.

Maybe not. Maybe he's in unspeakable horror now. But people believe you die, you go to heaven. I call that justification by death, not justification by faith.

Now, over and against all this, we have the plain words of God. He is very straightforward about the reality of divine judgment. God has judged in the past.

He's judging now. And he will judge in the future. Now, we can be certain of that. The New Testament actually speaks more about future judgment than it does about future joy in heaven.

The final form of God's divine judgment is connected to the second coming of Jesus Christ. The Bible very clearly teaches that at the end of the age, the Lord is going to return and he's going to execute judgment upon the earth.

I love what John MacArthur is talking about the global warming people. He said, well, they're absolutely right and they don't know how right they are.

In fact, God's going to melt the earth with fervent heat. All the elements are going to bring it. He's going to destroy the universe. He said, warming is coming. In Acts 17.31, we read this.

He has fixed a day, talking about Jesus, He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness, well, that's God the Father, through a man, that's Jesus the Son, whom He has appointed having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.

The Father raised the judge of the universe from the dead, thus verifying who He was. All His claims. Now, no one knows the day or hour of Christ's return.

A lot of people say they do. They write books. They go on YouTube. It's amazing on YouTube. I've been looking at the rapture of the church since about 2010, and it's going to be in 2011.

And then those disappear. No one knows the day or hour. If anyone comes and tells you they know the day, the hour, they don't know.

They do not know. But one Bible teacher has said this, there are four events in history that have happened or will happen exactly on time.

Not late, not early, by one second. The birth of Christ, the incarnation, was exactly on time.

The death of Christ was exactly on time. Christ's resurrection was exactly on time. And Christ's return will be exactly on time.

I don't know what it is. I do find myself at the farm out, you know, putting food out for the birds or feeding the cat, which is available for adoption, by the way.

Tripod, we nicknamed him because he's got three legs. I do find myself looking at the eastern sky because it's going to split open one day and there's going to be a trumpet and the voice of the archangel and what a day that will be.

There is a fixed moment yet future when Christ will most definitely return. I've said this before, I'll say it again, I'll say it until I die. Because I have people challenge me, they don't believe Jesus is coming back.

They believe we're going to him, but they don't believe he's coming back. Let me tell you why he's coming back if you've never heard me say this. The last view that the unsaved world has of Jesus Christ is that of a criminal hanging on a cross in a Jerusalem sky covered in blood and spit and all manner of corruption.

The Father will not permit that to be the last view the world has of Jesus Christ. It will not permit that. I'm convinced of that. He's coming back.

And he makes a promise to us that when it happens, it's going to happen quickly. People say, well, when I hear that trumpet, I'm going to get saved.

No, you're not. Ain't going to happen. Ain't going to happen. There are seven features of coming judgment taught in the pages of the New Testament.

The first two features are that judgment will be general and public. No one is going to be able to hide from this judgment, though men will try.

In fact, when the Lord returns, there will be the largest prayer service, prayer revival in history.

Lost people around the globe are going to cry out in prayer, praying to rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of the wrath of the Lamb of God.

It will be a huge prayer service, praying to rocks and mountains. Muslims have a jump on us. They pray to a rock now in Mecca.

We are all responsible for our sins. We know that. Either we have been judged at Calvary and are hidden in Christ in the atonement, or we will be judged at the great white throne.

But judgment is coming. Third aspect of judgment is it's just and impartial. No one will escape this judgment.

It will include people who have been extremely wicked. It will include people who outwardly manifested great self-righteousness. It will include people who did some pretty neat things.

Now, when I was a kid, growing up in the early 50s, some of you remember those days in here? We had to go to school one Saturday, three Saturdays, I think, and get a polio shot.

Remember those days? And I kid you not, that needle was about that long. And my mom caught me. I kept giving my place in line. I thought I was being a gentleman. I did not want a shot.

I don't like shots. And Dr. Salk, of course, invented the polio vaccine. Saved billions of children from the iron lung.

Remember the iron lung? Dr. Salk died an agnostic Jew. On his death, he said, I don't believe in God. So where is he?

Well, I can only let Scripture speak to that. I'm not his judge. Judgment is also intended as a warning. When God promises divine judgment, he intends it to be a warning to draw people out of their sin and into a relationship with Christ.

I mean, no one's going to stand before himself. I didn't know judgment was coming. He's told us. Judgment is designed to produce fear of his approaching wrath.

God warns the lost that judgment is coming in order to draw them out of their bondage to sin. He is giving even now a final offer to repent in Matthew 10, 28.

Do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

God is gracious, patient, long-suffering, offering people the opportunity to repent and be saved. Because there's also a passage that says, but you would not because your deeds are evil.

a fifth feature of God's judgment is based upon his divine law. No one has ever been able to keep God's law.

In fact, no one has been able to keep God's law for one second. The heart of the law is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and spirit.

No one has ever loved God with all. We've loved him partially, but never with all. Like Dr. Sproul used to say, we all live in continual need of a Savior who has fulfilled that.

The Bible says hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. The Bible says all have violated God's law, therefore we are all guilty and deserving of punishment and death.

We are in Christ, will not be judged based upon the exacting and righteous demands of the law. Christ has fulfilled the law for us.

But those apart from Christ will be judged based upon the perfect requirements of the law. And their rebellion will be put down.

Another thing is judgment is spread out. If you're counting this as number six. it's spread out over several events.

It will begin immediately after the rapture of the church. Now this is my theology. It is the beginning of the seven year period known as the tribulation.

During that time God will unleash the wrath of his fury against the ungodly. It will come in a series of judgments known as the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments of revelation.

This period of judgment will culminate in the battle of Armageddon in which the Lord will establish his kingdom on earth. Satan will be bound and Christ will rule from Jerusalem for a period of one thousand years.

At the end of that period, Satan is going to be released for a very short period of time. Dr. MacArthur suggests maybe thirty minutes. We don't know. And he will lead fallen humanity.

There would be lost people. He will lead fallen humanity in one final rebellion. And in a very short period it will be crushed by Christ and Satan and his demons and the unsaved shall be judged and cast into the lake of fire.

I've heard Dr. MacArthur say, will we be fighting battles for the Lord? He says, no. He didn't need us to fight his battles. We're going to be observers. And he said, and I want on the front row. I hope I'm not behind him because he's like six foot four, six foot six.

And the results will be damnation. God's judgment will result in eternal damnation for those outside of his saving grace.

Warnings of coming judgment are intended for all the unsaved. prophet. They are especially directed at apostates and false teachers.

I heard a guy the other day, not part of the lesson, but he said, you know how to identify a false teacher in the 21st century? Turn on TV. If he's talking about how many Rolls Royces he has and how many Mercedes and how many jets and how many houses and he names universities out after himself, that's a false teacher.

That's a false prophet. He was getting pretty close to home on that last one. To our home. Apostates and false teachers face a rougher judgment.

These are those who claim to represent God but do major damage to the cause of Christ in the church. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews had to say.

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve? Who has trampled underfoot the son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace?

For we know him who said vengeance is mine I will repay and again the Lord will judge his people. And then we all know this one. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

God. I think people foolishly think Jesus is coming back as a baby in a manger. He's coming back on a horse of war to deal with the people that violated his bride who raped his bride for the 2,000 years she's been on this earth.

That's the church. So Jude tells us that judgment is coming. He lists three realities concerning the judgment to come.

First of all he says the Lord himself is going to come. Not going to send any proxy. Not going to do that. The Lord is coming back to judge. But he will not come alone.

Others are going to be with him and he will come to execute judgment. So this is what Jude says by the Holy Spirit in the first part of verse 14.

It was also about these men that Enoch and the seventh generation from Adam prophesied. The phrase these men refers to the apostates that Jude has been talking about.

Remember they've been with us since Genesis. Cain was an apostate. He had truth given to him by Abel, given to him by Adam, maybe given to him directly by God. We don't know.

And he walked away from it. We saw some of these people and others. Last time remember we talked about the natural phenomena of waterless clouds, wandering stars and such.

Even before the great flood of Noah's day when Enoch was on earth, he prophesied that God was going to judge false teachers.

years. The Spirit of God revealed things to Enoch concerning the flood and beyond the flood to a final judgment that would visit this planet through fire.

Remember, he's not going to flood the earth ever again, right? The whole earth. It's going to be a fire. Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way.

And of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him, these are grumblers finding fault. Following after their own lusts, they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.

This prophecy tells us that the Lord himself is coming to exact judgment. the return of Christ is so certain that Enoch spoke about it as if it had already happened.

And you know, you can talk that way in scripture as if it's certain. When the Lord returns, he will not be alone. He will bring with him thousands of holy ones.

And there's been some debates, okay, who are these holy ones? And one wing of the church and their theologians say they are believers and another wing says they're angels, holy angels that didn't fall.

You know what I think? I think it's both. I think for one thing is certain, wherever the Lord's at, the church is going to be at. So if he's in heaven, we'll be there, and if he comes back to earth, I think we'll be with him because he never leaves us, never departs us, we're going to be with him.

Christ is returning to ask you judgment upon all the ungodly that have ignored his commands and live lives in rebellion to him.

The verse says he is coming to convict them. That is an interesting word. In the Greek language it means to expose, rebuke, and prove guilty. He is coming for all those purposes.

And let me say that no one is ever going to go to hell without understanding, boy, I really deserve this. Because he's going to show them. He speaks here of all the ungodly, and that certainly includes apostates of every age, including ours.

Apostates will experience an even higher level of justice and judgment. Remember, an apostate is one that was exposed to truth concerning Christ, embraced the truth to a certain level, level, but short of salvation, and then rejected that truth that he had been exposed to and becomes an enemy of the Lord.

God will punish all their unrighteous deeds. In context, both their words and works betray them. The Holy Spirit gives an interesting description of the apostates that will come under judgment and condemnation.

He says, first of all, they are grumblers. You could use the word murmur. They murmur. That's the word who described those who murmured against Moses on the Exodus.

And any time you read that during the Exodus where they murmured against Moses, they weren't murmuring against Moses, they were murmuring against God. They were just afraid to call it that. They were afraid to call it that.

Apostates always find fault and complain about God's holy plans and purposes as compared to their own. Finding fault means to blame and it describes who is one who is always discontent and always dissatisfied.

You been around those people? It's not fun. It's not fun. Why were they this way? Because they wanted to follow after their own lusts.

This is often used to describe the unconverted. The apostates also used flattering speech in an effort to deceive and gain an advantage over their hearers.

Jesus spoke of false teachers when he said this in Matthew 15, 18, the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and those defile the man.

Now if we carefully examine Jude's words we discover that he addresses the who, what, where, and why of Christ's return.

The only thing Jude does not hear revealed to us is the when. Good reason he didn't know. that is solely for God to know. Let me close with Mark 13, verse 32, and on.

But of that day and hour knows no one, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. Take heed.

Keep on the alert. for you do not know when the appointed time will come. Dr. McBride said keep short accounts with God.

It is like a man away on a journey who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert.

Therefore, be on the alert, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning, in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep.

Remember the virgins that had no oil? And then the Lord says, but I say to you, I say to all, be on the alert.

We should be on the alert because he's coming for his church. And by the way, let me say, nothing has to happen prophetically for him to come.

Don't read into, well, they've got to build a temple, they've got to find the red heifer. No. That's Israel. The church, nothing has to happen for Christ to return.

Thank you.