Facing the Day of Judgment God's Way

The Most Solemn Fact in History: The Day of Judgment

0:03 I begin this morning by asking each and every one of you, young and old alike, those who regularly attend this assembly, those visiting among us, I say I begin by asking each and every one of you gathered in this place a very simple, yet profoundly important question. And the question is this, within the entire scope of the history of the world, past, present, and its future history as described in the scriptures, within that entire scope of the whole history of the world, what is the most solemn and sobering fact upon which you and I focus our attention? What is the most solemn, the most sobering fact in the whole scope of human history upon which your mind, my mind, can fasten its attention? Of all the things that have ever happened since God spoke the universe into being by the word of His own

1:30 power? Of all the things that have happened in the world since God spoke the universe into being by the word of His own power? Of all the things that have happened in the rising and falling of the nations, everything that is happening right now in the tumult and convulsion of the nations, and all that will happen in the future as the future is described in Holy Scripture, among them all, what is the most sobering fact upon which you and I can fasten our minds? I want you to think about that for a moment. The most solemn, the most sobering fact in the whole sweep of history. Well, I'm going to be bold to assert that it is this fact,

2:28 the fact that every single human being, from Adam to the last person conceived before the

2:38 return of the Lord Jesus, every single human being, from Adam to the last person conceived before the return of the Lord Jesus, every single human being, from Adam to the last person conceived before the return of the Lord Jesus, every single human being, from Adam to the last person conceived before the return of the Lord Jesus, every single human being, from Adam to the last person conceived before the return of the Lord Jesus, every single human being, from Adam to the last person conceived before the return of the Lord Jesus, every single human being, from Adam to the last person conceived before the return of the Lord Jesus, every single human being, from Adam to the last person conceived before the return of the Lord Jesus, every single human being, from Adam to the last person conceived before the return of the Lord Jesus, every single human being, from Adam to the last person conceived before the return of the Lord Jesus, every single human being, from Adam to the last person conceived before the return of the Lord Jesus, every single human being, from Adam to the last person conceived before the return of the Lord Jesus, every single human being, from Adam to the last person conceived before place, of all the billions who now live and have ever lived, every single one without exception, and in the presence of the living God and of His Son, the appointed Judge, and at the end of that stance before Him, into the horrific, unthinkable pains of everlasting hell, are brought into the glories of heaven and the presence of God and of the Lamb.

4:00 In other words, I'm asserting that the most sobering, solemn fact in all of history is the fulfillment of those words spoken by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 25, 46, These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but, the righteous into life eternal.

4:28 Now I ask you another question. Has this fact ever become to you, to you, to you, to you, each of you, has this fact ever become to you the focus of serious personal concern and deep reflection?

4:49 Has it ever become to you the focus of deep concern and deep reflection? Or have you, like many, thought by thinking, not thinking about it, it will never come to pass? Or by dismissing it, I'll make it go away?

5:14 With focused concentration of mind and heart reflected on this most solemn, serious fact in the whole sweep of human history? Well, if you have. And if you have any accurate awareness of who and what you are as a creature accountable to God, yet a sinner deserving the wrath of God, you cannot think of that coming day without a legitimate sense of dread and of deep terror.

God's Way to Face Judgment Without Terror

5:53 Unless, blessed unless, unless you have discovered and embraced God's way, of facing that day without terror and without dread of its consequences. And that wonderful possibility is our subject for the preaching of the Word this morning. I want to preach to you on God's way, God's way of facing the day of judgment without terror and dread of its consequences. And I want to do so directing your attention, to Romans chapter 8, and in particular verses 33 and 34. For in these verses we have set before us God's way, God's way, not man's way, God's way of facing the day of judgment without terror and without dread of its consequences. Again, hear the reading of these two verses. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

7:09 It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Those of you familiar with the contents of the book of Romans will know that from chapter 3 and verse 21 onward, the Apostle Paul has been...

7:40 He has been expounding the wonderful and manifold provisions which God has made for guilty and depraved sinners. In all of those chapters, 321 right down to the very point at which I broke into the reading at verse 31 in Romans 8, Paul has been opening up layer upon layer of God's marvelous provisions in grace. For...

8:10 For guilty, hell-deserving sinners. And he has demonstrated and explained how God has in the person and work of Jesus Christ and by the ministry of the Holy Spirit made it possible for boys and girls, men and women of any background, of any particular enmeshing in this or that sin, he's made it possible that they might be right with God, given a just title for heaven, and be given a personal fitness for heaven. That's what Paul has been expounding in chapter after chapter. And when he's done, it's as though his own mind implodes with the weight of what he's been writing and he backs off and says, what in the world shall we say to these things? His own mind and spirit are exhausted in a kind of spiritual ecstasy, in this display of the marvelous grace and saving mercy of God extended in the person and work of the Lord Jesus and by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And in the midst of his reflection upon these things, he asks a series of what we call rhetorical questions. Questions that are made, are calculated to make the reader think

9:36 and thinking to reflect upon the right answer. Just as I began this morning with a rhetorical question, I began with a question calculated to force you to think and to reflect upon this great and weighty issue. And as he begins to do that in this passage, he brings us immediately into the theater of the divine courtroom. When we come to verse 33, we find the apostle with this question, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

10:15 And there he uses the language of the courtroom, where formal charges are made against a criminal. We find the verb used this way in Acts 19.38 and 23, 28 and 29. And as Paul thinks of the courtroom of heaven, in which God the supreme judge sits upon the throne, a courtroom in which there is no higher court of appeal.

10:46 The judge is infallible. The judge knows the secrets of men's hearts. The judge knows every word. All who have ever lived have ever spoken.

10:58 He knows every single deviation from his law. Yet Paul says, with respect to a certain group of people, who in the very courtroom of God, shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, it is God that justifies. The supreme judge has declared them righteous. Who will come along and tell him he has not acted righteously in declaring them righteous?

11:26 Who will come along and say, ah, but judge, you declared them righteous, but you overlooked this bit of evidence. He's the God before whom all things are naked and open. You see, there is no overriding, there is no appealing to a higher court. And so the apostle says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

11:46 It is God that judges. The supreme justifies. The supreme judge has made his sentence. Who will overrule it?

11:55 And then verse 34, who is he that condemns? Who will come along and issue a sentence of condemnation that will neutralize God's sentence of justification? And he answers by saying, it is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us. So in this particular passage, we have Paul giving to us God's way of facing the final court in the presence of the omniscient God with the confidence that we shall come away. Now how in the world did he get there? How can we get there? What is God's way, God's way, not man's way, but what is God's way of being able to face that awesome court with no dread and no terror?

Not Denying Sin or God's Justice

13:07 Well let me answer by two negatives briefly and then three positives, alright? First of all, negatively, it is not the way of denying the reality of our sinfulness and hell deservingness. It is not the way of denying the reality of our sinfulness and our hell deservingness. This is what some attempt to do.

13:34 In answer to the question, who is he that condemns? They would say, well there is nothing to be condemned. There is no such thing as absolute moral standard. There is no such thing as real bona fide guilt and hell deservingness.

13:50 But you see the problem is the man who wrote these words is the man who wrote from chapter 1 and verse 18 onward to chapter 3 and verse 20 demonstrating that the entire human race without exception is all under sin. All in a posture of hell deservingness. For example, when he comes to his summary statement of all that he has been writing from verse 18 of chapter 1 all the way through to chapter 3 and verse 8, now his summary, verse 9 of chapter 3, what then? Are we better than they?

14:28 No, in no wise, for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and of Greeks that they are all under sin. And then he marshals texts from various parts of the Old Testament, and then his summary statement, verse 19, now we know that what things soever the law says it speaks to them that are under the law. Now notice the particularity that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. He said there is not one mouth that appears in God's courtroom that if he or she is dealt with in terms of the reality of his or her sin, not one mouth that is not stopped. A piece of duct tape is over the mouth. There is nothing to plead. Our guilt and its evidence is overwhelming.

15:28 So God's way of facing that day without dread and terror is not the way of denying the reality of our sin and our hell deservingness. Paul spends almost three chapters demonstrating the reality of our sinfulness and our hell deservingness. Furthermore in chapter 5 in verse 12 he demonstrates that the entire human race was piggybacked on our first father Adam. Wherefore as through one man sin entered into the world and death by sin for that all sinned in that first one.

16:04 And the word sin, death, condemnation are a trilogy of reality applied to every single son or daughter of Adam. So unless we want to make a fool out of Paul when he says who is he that condemns? We cannot in any way think that Paul has joined the ranks of those who seek to contemplate such a thing as a day of judgment if indeed there will be one and say I have no fear, I have no dread by denying the reality of their sinfulness and their hell deservingness. There is a way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death. And all of the modern psychological descriptions of aberrant human behavior that make them various psychoses and would blame shift none of these overturns the clear teaching of the word of God. All are under sin all are under condemnation all will have their mouths stopped in the presence of Almighty God. But then secondly the way, God's way of being able to face the day of judgment without dread and terror is not the way of denying

17:33 the holiness and the justice of God which necessitate the punishment of the sinner and his sin. Do you follow me? There are some who seek to come to some measure of peace when they think of the future and if there's going to be a day of judgment they're not too disturbed because they've tried to persuade themselves. There is no such thing as holiness and justice in God that necessitate if God remains as God He must punish the sinner and his sin.

18:10 But you see this couldn't be Paul's way because in that passage where he begins by demonstrating universal sinfulness look at his language in chapter 1 in verse 18 For the wrath of God the outgoing energy of divine holiness and justice in the presence of sin the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. The wrath of God is revealed. There is in God without in any way being tainted with what wrath so often is in us a pure active energy of combined holiness and justice that goes out to punish sin and to punish the sinner. And so the words judgment occur again and again in these early chapters chapter 2 and verse 2 we know that the judgment of God is according to truth. Verse 5 You treasure up wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Verse 9 Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that works evil

19:36 the Jew first and also to the Greek. Verse 12 For those who have sinned without the law shall perish without the law as many have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law. Verse 16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men according to my gospel throughout these previous chapters. Paul has made it plain that there is a God of burning holiness and inflexible justice who will sit upon that throne in the last day and he will not wink at sin nor will he overlook the connection between the sin and the sinner. So when this man comes in chapter 8 and dares to hurl out this challenge to the whole moral universe who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns?

20:42 How did he come to this place where he personally and he believes all who have come to this place as he did with him can face the day of judgment with no dread and with no terror? Well as we have seen it is not the way of denying the reality of our sinfulness. It is not the way of denying the holiness and justice of God that necessitates the punishment of the sinner and his sin. But now positively note from our text it is the way comprised of three things.

Focusing on the Unique Person of Christ Jesus

21:19 What are they? Number one, it is the way that focuses upon a unique historical person who was given an exclusive office and function. It is the way that focuses upon a unique historical person who was given an exclusive office and function. No sooner does he ask the second question in this context who is he that condemns?

21:51 And in the original there is no verb, it is, you just see the words Christ, Jesus, who died. Yea, rather, who was raised, who is at, who intercedes. When Paul hurls out the question how can sinful, guilty, hell-bound sinners who have sinned and who have sinned and who have sinned and who have sinned and who have sinned and who have sinned and who have sinned and who have sinned God has judged them, who have sinned and who have sinned has called them to the middle in the cruciate of God's kingdom. Christ Jesus Christ Jesus Christ Jesus Jesus Jesus

22:48 Christians Christians Christ emotional attachment between a grandfather who was Grandpa Newton, and he only had daughters, and my father wanted to make him happy that the Newton name wouldn't die with him, so if it got stuck with me, it'll die with me. I did not give the name Newton to my son. But it had some significance, and my father's middle name was Albert. He thought it was the height of pompous pride for a man to make his son a junior, so he just gave me his middle name. And so there's some significance, but there is no significance in terms of identifying me in office or function. But when we read the words Christ, Jesus, those are not verbal tags by which this person can be distinguished from Peter the Apostle or John. Those names point to a unique historical person who was given an exclusive name. Office and function. And I found in recent months tremendous joy whenever I find particularly

23:56 in Paul's letters these words, Christ, Jesus, to think what it meant that from the pen in the lips of this self-righteous Pharisee who thought his calling in life was to blot out this new religion, to hear him say, Messiah, Jesus. Yeshua, Mashiach, Yeshua. What a marvelous work of grace because Paul understood that those were titles that point to this unique historical person who was given an exclusive office and function. Think for a moment of the name Jesus.

24:41 Remember when it was given to him? Well, Joseph is scratching his head. What shall I do? Mary, this noble, pure woman to whom I'm engaged, she's pregnant.

24:53 And I don't want to think the worst of her. And as he's wrestling with what shall I do? I'm a righteous man. I don't want to do more than is necessary in terms of dealing with the apparent sin in which she's been involved.

25:07 What do I do? And the angel appears to him and says, Fear not to take unto you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is not from sin, some Roman soldier, from some guy down the street, but is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jesus. Why?

25:29 For, here's the rationale for the name, for it is he who will save his people from their sins. Jesus, Jehovah, saves. That's the name to give him for he is Jehovah, incarnate. He is the God-man, constituted in Mary's womb as the theanthropic person.

25:57 As much God as though he were not man, as much man as though he were not God, the two natures in the one person join forever. He is Jesus. And Paul says, when I think of the courtroom in the future and all of my sins, I'm able to say in this, in this triumphalistic language, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.

26:25 Who is he that condemns? Christ, Jesus. I do not fear the day of judgment because there is this unique historical person called Jesus of Nazareth, conceived by the Spirit in the womb of the Virgin, bringing to his work, his Savior, all the reality of a true humanity and all the virtue and worth and power of undiluted deity. Jesus.

27:02 I love the little acronym that I heard years ago. Jesus just exactly suits us sinners. Trivial and trite, but blessedly true. He would not exactly suit us sinners.

27:22 If he were not a man, it is only as man that he can live in obedience under the law. It is only as man that he can identify with us whom he would save. It is only as man that he can die and undergo the terrors of a death under the anathema of God. But he is Christ, Messiah, the long-promised prophet, priest and king, God's anointed one.

27:53 God's final prophet to teach us infallibly. God's final and ultimate priest to offer a once-for-all sacrifice for his people and to intercede that they might receive all the benefits of the death that he dies on their behalf. He is the anointed king to reign over us and to defeat all of his and our enemies. Paul says, in coming to know Christ, Christ Jesus, I am able to say, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

28:33 Who is he that condemns the way, the way that God has given that we may face the day of judgment with no dread and no terror is first of all and fundamentally it is a way that focuses upon a unique, historic, historical person who was given an exclusive office and function. Mark it down, mark it down my unconverted friend. If you are ever to experience God's way of taking the day of judge, contemplating the day of judgment without dread and terror, you must have personal dealings with this unique historical person who was given an exclusive office, office and function for he said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. But now secondly, God's way that we may face judgment with no terror and dread of its consequences is the way procured by four distinct activities of this unique person in his exclusive office and function. God's way

Procured by Christ's Substitutionary Death

29:58 is procured by four distinct activities of this unique person in his exclusive office and function. Look at the four. It is Christ Jesus, number one, that died, yea rather, number two, that was raised from the dead, number three, who is at the right hand of God, number four, who also makes intercession for us. Would you face the day of judgment with no dread and no terror while not hiding yourself from the reality of your sinfulness and hell deservingness and not hiding yourself from the burning holiness and justice of God? Then you better take seriously these four distinct specific activities of this unique person in his exclusive office and function. Paul said it is by a spirit wrought understanding and personal grasp upon this person in the light of these four distinct activities that enable me to say who is he that condemns, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect. Let's spend a few minutes

31:28 on each of them. First of all he says, it is Christ Jesus that died. The Bible is clear that when he died as Christ Jesus he died a substitutionary death under the wrath and the curse of Almighty God. Here's the language of Scripture, 2 Corinthians 5.21. He, God, made him, Jesus, to be sin for us. One who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Galatians 3.13 Redeemed us from the curse of the law being made for us for it is written Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.

32:22 second page そして In 1 Corinthians 15 I preach to you by which you are saved for God and to our saving Spirit, saved if you hold it fast. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Or in the well-known language of that precious chapter from the Old Testament, Isaiah 53, 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one of us to his own way, and the Lord has made to strike upon him the iniquity of us all. This is why in this very letter, when Paul has turned from demonstrating universal sinfulness and condemnation, he says in Romans 3, 25, this one whom God set forth to be a propitiation, that is a sacrifice that turns away wrath. And how does he turn it away? He turns it away from God. He turns it away by swallowing it up in his own person. Some of these biblical truths are captured beautifully

33:31 in our hymnody, and I know of no hymn that captures the sweep of it more beautifully and more soundly than one of my favorite hymns. O Christ, what burdens bowed thy head, our load was laid on thee. Thou stoodest in the sinner's stead, didst bear all ill. For me, a victim led, thy blood was shed. Now there's no load for me. Death and the curse were in our cup. O Christ, was full for thee, but thou hast drained the last dark drop. Tis empty now for me. That bitter cup, love drank it up. Now blessings draft for me. Jehovah

34:23 lifted up. His rod, O Christ, it fell on thee. Thou wast sore stricken of thy God. There's not one stroke for me. Thy tears, thy blood beneath it flowed. Thy bruising healeth me. The tempest's awesome voice was heard. O Christ, it broke on thee. Thy open bosom was my ward. It braved the storm for me.

34:53 Thy form was scarred. Thy visage marred. Now cloudless peace for me. Jehovah bade his sword awake. O Christ, it woke against thee. Thy blood, the flaming blade, must slake. Thy heart, its sheath must be. All for my sake, my peace to make. Now sleeps that sword for me. It is Christ Jesus that died for me.

35:25 Not some innocuous, undefined death, but death for the anathema of God. That that will fall on your head if you do not get into the Christ upon whom it fell. He met the God of burning and inflexible holiness and justice head on at the cross. There was no diminution.

35:55 There was no turning aside from anything. Nothing of the Father's full fury against the sins of those for whom Christ hung as surety and as substitute. That's why Paul can say, now who in the world is going to condemn me? Christ Jesus died.

Procured by Christ's Resurrection

36:18 And in his death, all of the righteous anger of God against my sin was swallowed up in the forsakenness of Jesus. But then he says, Yea, rather, more than that, something in addition, and in a sense the language almost says even more wonderful, that was raised from the dead. And all four Gospels set forward in straightforward, unadorned, simple narrative that when they came to visit out of love their crucified and buried Lord, they all found an empty tomb. And what's the significance of the empty tomb? The significance is this. The Bible points to a major answer.

37:14 Two directions, Romans 1, 4. He was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. The open tomb says something about the vindication of Christ, person, Son of God with power. And Romans 4, 25.

37:34 And Romans 4, 25 says. He was delivered from the dead. And Romans 4, 24 says. delivered up for our offenses, but raised on account of our justification, it is the validation that the payment was made in full.

37:46 Vindication of His person, validation of His work, so that when I look by faith and by sanctified imagination into that empty tomb, I can with bunion say, that burden on my back, what happened? It came off. It came off and rolled down and went into the mouth of the open tomb. And I saw it no more.

38:14 Hallelujah. I saw it no more. Raised for our justification. I like to think of the empty tomb with my funny imagination as God's echo chamber and amen room to the cry of Christ's triumph from the cross.

38:33 You remember that in a way that is not revealed to us, when our Lord Jesus sensed that the full payment of sin had been made. And from the shrouded heavens and the horror and darkness of forsakenness, He begins to sense again the light of His Father's countenance and His language is no longer, my God, my God, but it's going to soon be, Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit. And somewhere in that, in that transition, He has given the awareness that He has paid the full penalty. And from the cross, He cries, Tetelestai! It stands! Accomplished! It is finished!

39:21 And heaven is silent. And then people watch. They come and take down His bloody, battered, contused form. They lovingly wash it, wrap it, put it in a tomb.

39:30 It's finished. People might say, no, no. He's finished. He's finished.

39:35 He's finished. He's finished. He's finished. He's finished.

39:39 He's finished. He's finished. He says, it's finished! What's finished?

39:47 He gives the cry of triumph, my work is done. I've paid the full price. But God's going to validate that He truly died. No swoon theories will take root in any thinking man, so God allows him to be in that grave as prophesied three days.

39:56 And then, Easter morning, He comes out of that grave. And as I say, I like to think of that empty tomb as God's echo chamber and God's amen chamber. And as I say, I like to think of that empty tomb as God's echo chamber and God's amen chamber. And as I say, I like to think of that empty tomb as God's echo chamber and God's amen chamber.

40:11 And as I say, I like to think of that empty tomb as God's echo chamber and God's amen chamber. God's Son said, It is finished! Easter morning, God bellows out, Hallelujah! Amen!

40:23 It is done! it is done! And He raises His Son And He raises His Son from the dead. Now you better know that.

40:30 Now you better know that. If you want to face the day of judgment without dread and fear, without dread and fear, in your weakest moments, in your weakest moments, in your moments of greatest doubt, in your moments of greatest doubt, in your moments of greatest awareness in your moments of greatest awareness of the truth, of the truth, sin that still clings to you, and you think of that awesome day when you'll face this great God. How can you say, who is he that connects?

40:56 Who shall lay anything to my charge?

41:00 Yea, rather, he was raised from the dead.

Procured by Christ's Session at God's Right Hand

41:04 And in a risen Christ, and in the reality of his resurrection, we have the confidence that indeed his work is done. But then thirdly, it says, who is seated at the right hand of God. And when we trace out the scriptures as to the significance of what the writers, the theologians call his session, is being seated at the right hand of God, there are many strands of biblical truth, but let me suggest that there are two that dominate. As with his resurrection, it was vindication of his purpose, person, and it was validation of his work, so his being seated at the right hand of God.

41:44 Points, on the one hand, to the total, complete nature of his sacrifice. It is done, the completed sacrifice, and secondly, his being officially installed as the messianic king. Hebrews 1.3 says, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

42:08 In Hebrews chapter 10, the writer to Hebrews says, every priest daily stands, ministering, offering sacrifices, but he, when he offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down at the right hand of God. His being seated points to the accomplishment of his work of sacrificial death, and then it points to his being officially installed as the messianic king. In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul's prayer for the Ephesian believers, that they would be given spiritual illumination and understanding. An insight to some great realities.

42:47 The third is this, what is the exceeding greatness of God's power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and seated him at his own right hand, far above all principality and power, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in the world to come, and gave him to be head over all things to the church. And there, in Acts chapter 2, Peter points in this direction. He says that this Jesus...

43:15 Jesus, whom you crucified, whom God has raised from the dead, God has exalted him to his right hand, and his first act of messianic kingship was to send the Spirit to fill the company of his new covenant assembly. You want to face the day of judgment with no dread and fear? You better understand something of the session of Jesus. He sits at the right hand of God.

43:46 I'd be truly sure that there's nothing lacking in a full atonement for my sins. I think of my Savior sitting. He's sitting. He's sitting.

44:02 No more sacrifice. He doesn't rise up and cut himself up into a million pieces and appear on every Roman Catholic altar today. He is seated. He is seated.

44:14 He is seated. One sacrifice for sin forever. And I'm not nervous about Iraq. And I'm not nervous about the U.N.

44:23 We pray. We prayed this morning.

44:27 And I'm not nervous. There's someone who's the Lord of the nations seated at the right hand of God, to whom the Father said, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies the footstool of your feet. And though the nations gather and the great ones and the kings of the earth gather and say, let's break their cords, cast their chains, what does God do?

44:49 He that sits in the heavens shall laugh. I've used the illustration. There's three or four little cockroaches should meet me on my front stoop when I go home today. Rear back and their hind legs and say, hey, buddy, what you doing going in this place?

45:03 You're not going in there. We're going to line up around the front door and keep you. I'd laugh at them and squash them. I'd laugh.

45:13 What is a phalanx of cockroaches?

45:17 He that sits in the heavens shall laugh. I set my holy king in Zion. In the midst of your enemies. He rules in the midst of that bunch there in New York, in the United Nations.

45:32 He rules in that place called the White House. And he rules in Beijing. And he rules throughout the earth. You say, what's that have to do with my salvation?

45:41 Well, it has lots to do. You'll then be able to go on as Paul does in this very chapter. And then he says in chapter 8, beginning in verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? We've got all this now.

45:54 And this confidence we can face the day of judgment without dread and terror. But will that condition remain? He said, who will separate? It's his confidence in the reigning Christ that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Procured by Christ's Intercession

46:08 And then he says, fourthly, that Christ intercedes for us. Who also makes intercession for us. And here again, the Bible points to the intercession in two directions that have tremendous importance for this confidence as we face the day of judgment. His intercession is both legal representation.

46:27 First John. Two, one, and two. If any man sin, we have an advocate. We have a lawyer.

46:34 In heaven, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And he is propitiation. He embodies in his person at the right hand of the Father all the virtue of the once for all sacrifice that he offered while here on earth. He is.

46:47 It doesn't say he made. He is propitiation. He embodies in his person representing me and you and all who trust him. And then it points to his sympathetic.

46:59 Effectual supplication. Peter, Satan has desired you to sift you as wheat, but I have made supplication for you that your faith fail not.

47:14 Wherefore, he is able to save to the uttermost. Why? Seeing he ever lives to make intercession for us.

47:25 Now, I know some would say, well, that's pretty stiff theology, Pastor. Well, I want to tell you something. If that's stiff theology, I want to have something more than sawdust when I anticipate the day of judgment. My sins are real and my sins are many.

47:42 And God's holiness and justice are real. And blessed be God, we have a Savior who's effected a real salvation that answers to every dimension of my need and of the character of God. And it is in the spirit wrought understanding. And the faith suffused embrace of Jesus in his unique historical person, in his exclusive office and function, dying, rising, sitting, interceding, that constitutes what the writer to Hebrews calls so great a salvation.

48:26 No wonder this way of enabling hell-deserving sinners. No wonder this way of enabling hell-deserving sinners. No wonder this way of enabling hell-deserving sinners. No wonder this way of enabling hell-deserving sinners.

United to Christ by Faith

48:33 To face the day of judgment without dread and horror is called so great a salvation. But now, thirdly and finally, not only is God's way the way focused on a person, the way rooted in these four distinctive acts of this person, but it is the way of becoming united to this unique person in the virtue of his saving activities.

49:03 You've got to be united to him. You see, all the blessings of that salvation have stored up in the Savior. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. You see, God doesn't ladle out the blessings apart from his Son.

49:20 He stored them up in his Son, and he says if you can get into his Son, you've got them all. And Romans 8, very interestingly, begins with this significant little phrase. Let's look at it. Romans 8, 1.

49:31 There is therefore now no condemnation to them. There is no condemnation to them that are where? In Christ Jesus. And how does the chapter end?

49:42 Nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

49:49 Everything that is laid out in this chapter is predicated upon a people who are in Christ Jesus.

50:00 And that's why the Bible uses this language. Even the familiar text, John 3.16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes into him, believing into Christ, it is engagement of person to person.

50:20 You see, saving faith is not tipping your hat to the fact Jesus died for sinners, Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus ascended, Jesus is seated, Jesus intercedes. I get sick when I hear people say if you'll confess you're a sinner and believe Christ died for you. If you'll confess you're a sinner you will be saved. No you won't.

50:37 The devil believes Christ died for sinners. That's why he tries to obscure the message of substitutionary atonement. It is not any facet of the work of Christ that is the object of faith. It is Christ himself.

50:53 It is Jesus. As Professor Murray has said in the closest to inspired language that I've ever found defining and describing saving faith. Saving faith. What is it?

51:07 It is self-commitment to Christ in the glory of his person and in all the perfection of his work as he is so freely and fully offered to us in the Gospel. Saving faith is self-commitment to Christ. It is engagement of person to person. It is your person.

51:36 Saving yourself upon his person in the glory of his person as the God-man. In the perfection of his work effected in death, resurrection, ascension and seated and interceding. You've got to get into Christ. And the way you get into Christ is believing upon Christ.

52:01 Going out of yourself into him by faith. And when you do. Then this very effect of self-commitment. Then this very epistle says some marvelous things happen.

52:12 Not only in union with Christ will all the virtue of what he's done in these acts be yours. But in a mysterious way as the Spirit of God comes to indwell you. You are so united to Christ that his death to sin becomes your death to sin. His being raised to newness of life becomes your resurrection to newness of life.

52:35 That's the whole truth of Romans 6. 1 to 14. So that to talk about trusting in Christ while still wedded to sin is nonsense. No.

52:47 If I have believed into Christ. Then in Christ I experience the virtue and power of his death. Of his burial. Of his resurrection.

52:59 Even of his ascension. And we are raised Ephesians chapter 2 to be seated with him. Well. I must bring this to you.

Call to Embrace God's Way and Feed on These Truths

53:10 I must bring this to a close. I hope I've demonstrated from the scripture God's way. God's way of facing the day of judgment. God's way of facing the day of judgment without dread and without terror.

53:27 And I say to those of you who are not in Christ sitting here this morning. Go back to that question. Have you grappled with this thought? A moment is coming.

53:39 As surely as a moment came when I got out of bed. Took my shower, shaved my whiskers, or put on my face, put on my clothes, brought myself here. A moment is coming dear people. When you and I will stand before the great God of the universe.

54:01 Can you face that day without dread and terror? Are you trying to face it your way? Or have you embraced God's way? You the people of God.

54:14 These are the realities upon which your souls must feed. And you are the people of God. This is why among all the things Jesus could have given us, by which to sustain and strengthen us in our wilderness pilgrimage, he gave but two visible enactments to sustain his people. Water and bread and wine to bring us back again and again and again to this central truth.

54:46 Bring near that day. And say, oh God. In the light of the day. In the light of what I am.

54:51 Having come through Romans 7. I know. I know. I know.

54:55 Something of that reality. And the agonizing, cry wretched man that I am, how can I say, who is he that condemns? There's enough to condemn an army in me. Christ died.

55:08 Hallelujah. Christ died. Christ is risen. Christ is seated.

55:12 Christ intercedes. Who shall lay anything to my charge? Bold shall I stand in thy great day. For whom shall I stand?

55:16 For whom shall I stand? For whom shall I stand? For whom shall I stand? For whom shall I stand?

55:22 For whom shall I stand? Who shall I stand? For whom shall I be in the day? God is standing in the day.

55:27 For who out to my charge shall lay? What to get the goosebumps thinking of the boldness of the apostle in this. He challenges the whole moral universe. Can you?

55:35 Child of God? If this is your resting place, you with Paul will be able to do the same. My final word is to my preacher friends. My brothers.

55:46 With all of our determination to teach the whole counsel of God. Teach our husbands how to love their wives. And teach our wives how to be submissive. We see what God has done.

55:54 submissive to their husbands and teach our people this and teach our people that. Don't let too many weeks go by without focusing on these nerve centers. The souls of your people will dry up for want of focused, concentrated attention upon Jesus and his saving work.

56:19 There's a subtle Pharisee left in every one of us. And it's only repeated sights of Christ and his saving work that drives that demon out of us.

56:37 More of that, God willing, tomorrow morning in the opening address. Well, I've said what I wanted to say. And now it's in God's hand to bring the fruit. Let's pray.

56:54 Father, what can we say when we have sought in some little way to bring our fickle minds, to focus upon realities that transcend our ability to grasp, that make us feel the pygmy-like stature of our inner being. But we pray that your spirit will help us, that we may with fresh faith and delight in you, grasp all the blessed realities of your way of facing that awesome day without dread. And terror. Be gracious to seal your word to our prophet and to your praise. We ask in Jesus' name.

57:51 Amen.