Christ Performs the Work of Resurrection, Judgment

Review of the Series and Doctrine of Christ's Person

0:00 Our study in the Word of God today marks the resumption of a series in which we have been engaged for some 18 Lord's Day mornings entitled, Here We Stand. The substance of this series is basically that of a broad overview of the most essential issues of the Christian faith. taking a clue from the words of Luther who having expressed his understanding of the word of God in a number of books and treatises and having been asked if they represented his teaching he pointed to them confessing that to the extent that they were his writings they reflected that which he believed the scriptures to teach

0:48 and then he said here I stand so help me God I can do no other And so here we stand with our Bibles in our hands, confessing, I trust to one another, to the confessing church, and to the world, that which we understand the word of God to teach concerning the most essential issues of our faith. The goal of the series is one of seeking to confirm established disciples, to initiate babes in Christ, and then to inform those who, as it were, look in, wondering what it is that we believe and confess as the people of God. Thus far, we have considered several major areas of our faith.

1:35 First of all, the book we believe and obey. Secondly, the God whom we worship and confess, the God of absolute perfection, unrivaled sovereignty, infinite goodness, and the God who exists in the mystery of the three in one and the one in three. We are now engaged in the third and what will prove to be the most extensive area of concern, namely the salvation we receive and proclaim. The great theme of this book is the mighty work of God in redeeming sinners by his grace, and it is therefore proper that if there's any imbalance in the treatment, it should be when we consider the subject of the salvation we receive

2:24 and proclaim. The first major heading under this was a consideration of the objects of this salvation. Upon what or upon whom does this salvation terminate? And we saw from the scriptures that the objects are twofold. The major object is man. The secondary object is God's creation.

2:45 Now we are contemplating what for me has been one of the most wonderful exercises in sermon and preparation for years, we've been contemplating together the central figure in this salvation, the person of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is vital for us to recognize that the whole weight of redemption rests upon the shoulders of the Redeemer Himself. And the success of that Redeemer and the efficiency he knows in the work of redemption will rise no higher than his ability and sufficiency as to his person. To state it more simply, success in the office of Redeemer

3:32 is dependent upon the suitability of his person to the work of redemption. The success of the young man who would help his school in the first football game this fall is dependent not so much upon his being highly motivated, though that does enter in, but upon his ability to perform the functions of his assigned role. And if he's an offensive tackle, I don't care how much motivation he has, if he's 5'2", 103 pounds, there will not be much success for the poor running backs that try to go through the hole that he opens for them. It can't be done.

4:12 His efficiency as an offensive tackle is in great measure dependent upon the competency of his person to perform that role. And if he's going to be up against guys anywhere from six feet to six foot three or four, anywhere from 200 to 240 pounds, he better bring a little more than sincere motivation to that position or I wouldn't want to be a running back behind him. Now, I use the crude illustration because it's these things that cause the truth to stick in our minds. And no amount of sincerity on the part of our Lord, no amount of genuine compassion for sinners will do if He is not adequate for the mighty demands of redemption as to His person, there will be no efficiency in the work of redemption.

5:01 and therefore it is vital for us to have clear, distinct biblical views concerning the central figure of our redemption, the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Having underscored the importance of this doctrine, having given a simple statement of that doctrine, we are now engaged in a contemplation of the biblical basis of the historic doctrine of the person of Christ. The Westminster Shorter Catechism wonderfully summarizes all that the Scripture teaches concerning the constitution of the person of Christ. In that definition we are led to know that he is true God, he is true man, one person in the two natures forever.

5:47 Any deflection from any one of those elements leads to a misunderstanding of who Christ is, and ultimately to a misunderstanding of the salvation and redemption He has come to effect on behalf of sinners. Well, what is it in the Scriptures that has caused the people of God through the centuries to confess their Redeemer to be true God, true man? One person in two distinct natures forever. Well, it's that question to which we're addressing ourselves.

6:22 And we're looking now at just that first element of the doctrine of Christ's person. How do we know that he is true God? We brought in the first group of witnesses, the text of Scripture in which he is called God in such a way as to mean nothing less than a full ascription of deity. Then we brought in the second group of witnesses, the texts and passages of Scripture in which Jesus Christ is seen either possessing or exercising characteristics or attributes peculiar to Godhood.

6:58 Eternity of existence, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence. These are what the theologians would call incommunicable attributes of God. That is something that cannot be imparted to another. And so when we see him possessed of these characteristics, we are warranted in identifying the one who possesses the distinguishing characteristics of God as being essentially and truly God.

7:30 Now we've been considering for several weeks the third group of witnesses. We've called in those witnesses in which the Lord Jesus is seen performing works which only God can perform. Works which only the might and power of God can effect. The first was creation.

7:52 The second, providence. The third was the work of salvation. salvation. And now this morning, and this ends our review, we come to consider this fourth witness in that third group of witnesses, demonstrating the Godhood of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.

Explanation: Resurrection and Judgment Are God's Exclusive Work

8:10 And it is this. He is not only declared as performing the work of creation, a work of God, the work of providence, a work of God, the work of salvation, a work of God, but he is seen performing the work of resurrection and judgment at the last day. Now in thinking through this element of biblical truth, I shall first of all seek to explain the concept, and then secondly demonstrate the facts, and then thirdly expound the dimensions of deity manifested in our Lord's work of resurrection and judgment. Now you're going to have to think, and as you've been reminded many times in this place, the price you pay for refusal to think about the great issues of your

8:55 faith is either continued unbelief or crippled Christian experience. And so gird up the loins of your mind and contemplate with me what it is that has led the people of God to confess their Lord as true God, as he is seen performing the work of resurrection and judgment at the last day. First of all, then, an explanation of this concept. That man, the creature, shall be raised from the dead to stand before God, his creator, in judgment, is a fact known only by divine revelation.

9:34 Now, you don't need a revelation from God to know that man will die. Every time you kids are in a car with your mom and your daddy and you pass a graveyard, you know what I want you to say to yourself? I found it to be a great discipline for me through the years. Satan, you're a liar.

9:50 Every single tombstone is an eloquent and urgent proclamation. Satan, you are a liar. He said to our first parents, You may disobey God, but you shall not surely die. God said, In eating, dying, thou shalt die.

10:12 and every tombstone and every graveyard and every cemetery is an eloquent declaration, Satan, you're a liar. Now, you don't need a book from God to tell you that we're all going to die. Who's in the graveyard that you pass on the way home from this place? People that were little kids just like you are a few short years ago, who played hopscotch, rode their bikes in the street, complained when they were asked to do the dishes and take out the garbage and pull the weeds in the garden.

10:45 They were kids just like you. They were little infants like some of those in the arms of our parents whose diapers needed to be changed and who needed to be fed with bottles and Gerber's mushy food.

10:59 But they're all dead.

11:02 You're going to join them and I'm going to join them. And there need be no divine revelation to assert the universality of death. It is a fact common to human observation. But now what happens after we die?

11:16 It is a fact of what we would call natural revelation, that man by virtue of conscience has some forebodings that he is going to give an account to God after he dies. Romans 1 and 2 make it abundantly clear that men do not need a special revelation in terms of the Scriptures to know that they are accountable to God. That we shall all die is something observable to the naked human eye. That we are accountable to God is something discernible on the basis of conscience, if the conscience has not been seared.

11:51 But that we shall actually be raised from the dead with a body that in some way is a continuity of the same body that went into the grave, and that in that resurrected body we shall stand before the God of the universe to give an account of the deeds done in the body. No one can know that fact on any other basis but divine revelation, that God has been pleased to reveal it is true in His written Word. And God has revealed that. And Romans 14.12 is the most succinct statement of a truth that is scattered from Genesis to Revelation.

12:28 So then, Romans 14.12, every one of us shall give account of himself to God. What a comprehensive text. Every one of us, individuality, shall give account, certainty, of himself to God.

12:52 There's the statement. And what is given in a succinct statement in Romans 14, 12 is graphically described in the book of the Revelation, chapter 20, verses 11 through 15. I will not take the time to turn to the passage. Many of you are familiar with it, where John in graphic language shows the sea giving up the dead that are in it, and the graves opening up and yielding their dead, and they stand before the God of the universe and are judged out of the books.

13:23 So fundamental is this concept that every human being will give an account to God in the day of judgment that when the writer to Hebrews wants to prove a strict relationship between one event and another he uses this common understanding of the relationship between death and judgment as the basis of an illustration or an analogy Look at Hebrews chapter 9 verses 27 and 28. Hebrews 9, 27. And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die and after this judgment, so Now, Christ also having been once offered to bear the sins of many,

14:09 shall appear a second time apart from sin to them that wait for him unto salvation. Now, the principle that he's trying to establish is this. As surely as Christ has once suffered, and following that once for all suffering, he will appear again to consummate redemption. That's the point he's trying to establish, and he's going to use an illustration.

14:33 And his illustration is this, As certainly as it's appointed unto men once to die, and then judgment must follow, so Christ, having once died, shall come again to receive his own to himself. In other words, when you're trying to say something is very, very certain to happen, you may say it this way, As surely as night follows day, thus and thus is going to happen. Now that's exactly what the writer to Hebrews is doing. He says, As surely as it is commonly understood that following death there is judgment, so following the once for all offering the Son of God, there shall be His appearing with the consummate blessings of grace and redemption.

15:13 Now furthermore, the Bible everywhere assumes and asserts that only God has the right and the ability to execute this judgment. What power can raise all of the dead of all of the ages in all situations but the mighty power of God that spoke worlds into existence out of the womb of nothing? Scripture everywhere assumes not only the fact of resurrection and judgment, but the fact that only God can perform the deeds necessary to execute that judgment. Only God can raise all of the dead.

15:52 Only God has the power to join the departed spirit with the thus resurrected body. Only God has the omniscience demanded to display all of men's works from all ages, in all circumstances, even to the thoughts of the heart. And then only God has the omnipotence demanded to execute the sentence and to consign men to hell or to usher them into his presence. In other words, the resurrection and judgment and its demands are such that only a fool would say that any but one possessed of the fullness of Godhood could perform it.

16:35 You follow the line of reason? Now the point that we're making this morning is simply this. The Bible everywhere teaches that Jesus Christ is adequate for that very task. And if he is adequate for that task, it must be because he is God, possessing all that is necessary to raise the dead, to join their spirits to their bodies, to stand them in his presence infallibly and without one slip of memory, to execute a perfect judgment based upon perfect knowledge, and then with almighty power against everything that the wicked will desire to do.

17:18 to secure their being consigned to the pit of everlasting earnings, then to usher his own into his eternal and blessed presence. Now that's the issue that's before us. Now I want to demonstrate the fact. I've asserted, now he who asserts must prove.

Demonstration: John 5:17-29 Opened

17:40 And the key passage, setting forth the Lord Jesus as the Resurrector and Judge of the world, and therefore proving that he is God is the fifth chapter of the Gospel according to John. Mr. Fisher made a passing reference to this principle and assured you that at some time subsequent I should be opening up the passage in greater detail and that's precisely what I want to do this morning.

18:10 Now just a word about the setting of this passage. Our Lord has healed a man on the Sabbath. Verse 9 of John 5 Straightway the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.

18:29 Now that's what our Lord did. He had the audacity to heal a man on the Sabbath. The Jews, they don't like this. Verse 10 So the Jews said unto him that was cured It is the Sabbath and it's not lawful for thee to take up thy bed.

18:42 They're bothered with what Christ has done. And so they want to know on what basis Jesus dares to break their laws about what constitutes proper Sabbath-keeping. And so our Lord is going to address Himself to that issue. Verse 16, And for this cause the Jews persecuted Jesus because He did these things on the Sabbath.

19:05 Now you've got the picture. He healed on the Sabbath, the Jews didn't like it, And now the Jews are opposing the man, and they would also persecute Jesus. Now our Lord is going to vindicate and demonstrate the rightness of this act. Verse 17.

19:19 Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work. For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only break the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. What is our Lord's response to their accusation? Look, Jesus, you've got no business healing on the Sabbath.

19:44 Jesus' answer is this. He says, first of all, I sustain a unique relationship to God. He is my Father. He didn't say our Father worketh or your Father, but he said my own Father worketh until now.

20:04 What I do, I do in the context of an utterly unique relationship with the Father. And then secondly, he claims this parallel performance, his works with the Father. My Father worketh even until now, and my working runs in mathematical parallelism to the working of my Father. So he has a two-fold claim.

20:31 He claims unique identity with God as his Father, and this unique similarity or parallelism between his work and the work of the Father. Now, they didn't like that, because they understood exactly what those two claims meant. And the verse tells us, verse 18, They sought to kill him, because he called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. They got the full force of his words.

21:03 They knew exactly what he meant when he claimed this unique relationship to the Father and this parallel working with the Father. Now what does the Lord do to that? Does he say, now look folks, you misunderstood me. I'm sorry, I was careless in my language.

21:18 Does our Lord neutralize that claim as they understood it? Does our Lord in any way dilute that claim? No, look at verse 19. Jesus, therefore, in the light of their reaction to his claim, answered and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself.

21:38 He's enlarging on the second part of that claim. But what he seeth the Father doing, for what things soever he doeth, these the Son doeth in like manner. You see what he's done? He's taken the little phrase, My Father worketh and I work, which has so offended them because it reflects this parallel working between the son and the father based upon a unique relationship, and he expands it.

22:05 He says, has this bothered you? I'll give you more. I'll give you more of the same. And now he enlarges upon that claim.

22:13 The son does nothing of himself. But so intimate is this relationship that it's though the son is catching the first intonations of a father's movement, and he's imitating. I remember some years ago when we had a classic example of this, and I think it was right in this place when we met here before going to the other building. One of our families, no longer with us, they've moved to another area.

22:35 They had several little ones, and one of the boys, he was only about three or four at the time, and he was really locked into the sermon. He was really listening. And his father told me a humorous instance that happened. I was describing something in which I was gathering different things together, and when I gathered them together, they were going to be right here, and then I was going to speak to them.

22:55 And he sat there and his hand was just following every motion of mine as I brought everything together and then his dad said, when I brought it all together like this and brought my hand up, every motion was just about a millisecond behind mine. He just sat there wrapped up in the whole thing and just...

23:10 What he was seeing his pastor doing, that he was doing also. You see what our Lord is doing? Using, of course, human terminology. The Lord Jesus doesn't need physical eyes to see what the Father is doing.

23:23 But there is this perfect parallel between the work of the Father and the work of the Son because of the unique relationship between the Father and the Son. Now follow as he goes on. The Son loveth, the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And greater works than these will he show him that he may marvel.

23:47 For as the Father raised at the dead, have you marveled that I have healed a man on the Sabbath? And have you been upset and offended because I claim to do that work based upon my unique relationship to the Father and the exact parallel between the Father's works and mine? He'll show you greater things than these. And what is one of them?

24:06 Verse 21, As the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom he will, for neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgment unto the Son, that all may honor the Father even as they honor the Son. Oh, now gird up the loins of your mind, and if you get hold of this argument, it is one of the most powerful attestations to the Godhood of our Lord Jesus. Here's what he says. He says, now you Pharisees are all upset.

24:40 I've healed a blind man, and I've done it on the Sabbath. And I say you have no grounds to be upset, because I sustain a unique relationship to God as my Father. and there is this parallel between his work and mine, and to demonstrate this reality, I'll tell you something more. Not only do I heal a blind man because of this relationship to my Father and his works, but as the Father alone has power to raise the dead and give them life, that power is to be found in the Son.

25:14 Then furthermore, everything connected with raising men and judging them at the last day has been delivered unto me for what end? Verse 23. That all may honor the Father. You see our Lord's argument?

25:30 He says that the announcement made in time. God could have held it off till the day of judgment. And then made known that Christ would be the judge. But He says that the Father has made known in time that the Son is the judge because anyone who knows anything about the concept of judgment knows that only God can do that work.

25:51 Therefore, if the Son is going to do it, He must be God. And if He's God, then you give Him all the honor as God that you give to the Father as God. There's His argument. Do you see it?

26:03 Do you see it? The whole purpose for which judgment is given to the Son according to this passage is that men may know beyond a shadow of a doubt who Christ is, and knowing who He is may render all of the homage and worship and love and obedience that is due to the One who is God.

26:32 This passage then becomes, in my own understanding of the Scriptures, the most powerful declaration that the work of resurrection and judgment is a manifestation of the Godhood of Jesus Christ. And he goes on to amplify that claim coming to a climactic statement in verses 28 and 9. Marvel nodded this, for the hour cometh in which all that are in the tomb shall hear His voice. And the antecedent proper noun is the Son in the latter part of verse 26 and again in verse 27 because He is the Son of Man And that indefinite pronoun goes back to that antecedent noun Marvel not at this the hour cometh in which all that are in the tomb shall hear His voice

Supporting New Testament Witnesses

27:28 that is the voice of the Son of Man, and shall come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment. What is taught in this passage that I have sought to open up before you in these few moments, is confirmed very, very clearly in a number of other passages in the New Testament. Let me just give you the references quickly. We read one this morning, Matthew 16, 27.

27:58 The Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father. Matthew 25, 31 and 32. The Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of His glory. Acts 10, 39 to 42.

28:13 Peter says it's an integral part of the Gospel. He has appointed us to preach that it is He who has been ordained of God to be the judge of the living and the dead. Paul preached it on Mars Hill, Acts 17, 30 and 31. God commandeth all men everywhere to repent because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained.

28:35 This is a part of the Gospel according to Romans 2.16. Paul says in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. 2 Timothy 4.1 I charge thee in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus who shall judge the living and the dead.

28:55 So from every portion of the New Testament comes the attestation that Jesus Christ will perform the work of resurrection and judgment and that the performance of that work is a monumental witness to the fact that He is God. Now having explained the concept, having demonstrated it from the Scripture, now thirdly, let me seek to expound several dimensions of deity that are of necessity manifested in the work of resurrection and judgment. First of all, the power to raise the dead by a word. Go back to the John 5 passage.

Dimension 1: Power to Raise the Dead by a Word

29:35 What is it that shall cause the graves to yield up their dead?

29:42 The word is very clear. Marvel not at this, verse 28 of John 5, For the hour cometh in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice and shall come forth. Now without going into subtleties that are neither biblical nor edifying, The scripture says there is some continuity between the body that went into the tomb and the body that shall come forth. Ah, but says the skeptic, don't you know that some people never had a tomb?

30:21 They were eaten by the beasts. They were consumed by sharks. They were blown to pieces upon battlefields. They were burned upon pyres.

30:32 They were cremated. how can there be a resurrection that has any continuity between the body that was and the body that shall come forth? Ridiculous! That's been the language of skeptics for centuries.

30:46 My friend, can you explain the continuity between that which was conceived in your mother's womb as an infinitesimal speck and what your mother held in her arms? You were conceived in your mother's womb and it was you that your mother held in her arms what was the relationship between the two? What's the relationship between that little boy that was 20, 30, 40 years ago and the man that now is? Do you have the same cells?

31:18 Science tells us no. But it's you, isn't it? Isn't it? Explain the continuity from conception in the womb to the wrinkled, crippled, arthritic, bald man that goes to the grave.

31:32 No one would be fooled to say, that's not the same person. There is a continuity, and I can't explain it. And I gladly revel in the mystery. I can't explain how after the body has long disintegrated, there is some continuity between the body that went into the grave and the body that shall come forth, and whatever is necessary to establish it.

31:54 You know what Christ needs to do to effect it? Just open His mouth and speak. That's it.

32:02 All that are in the tomb shall hear His voice.

32:07 Come forth!

32:10 And they'll come. You talk about power. You talk about omnipotence. And it's exactly that concept that the Apostle captures in the vigorous language of Philippians 3.

32:23 Look at it. When he speaks of the resurrection body here of believers, He's not thinking now of the resurrection body of the unconverted. Verses 20 and 21 in Philippians 3. For our citizenship is in heaven.

32:40 Whence also we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory. What will my glorified body be like? It will be like Christ's. but it will also in some way have a relationship to the body that is now a body of humiliation.

33:07 It's not going to be a body created entirely new ex nihilo, out of nothing. There's some continuity. Now there's a great difference and Paul argues that in 1 Corinthians 15. He says you put a seed in the ground, what do you get out?

33:20 You don't get 20 seeds. What do you get? You get a plant that bears fruit and vegetables. But there's some continuity between the seed and the plant.

33:28 There is similarity, continuity, and dissimilarity. And he says, you're a fool if you don't know that. He says, thou fool?

33:37 Thou fool? Now that's what we have here. It's the body of our humiliation that is going to be fashioned like his own. Now, on what basis?

33:47 Look. According to the working, whereby He is able even to subject all things unto Himself. That's it. What is it that enables our Lord to call forth the dead and to resolve with one mouth, one word of His mouth, all of the mysteries connected with the resurrection of the body, to unravel all of the perplexities bound up in all the theologians' tones concerning the nature of the resurrected body, one word from the lips of Jesus Christ will resolve all the enigmas.

34:26 And He'll do it by the power whereby He is able even to subject all things to Himself. And He who does that is no angel. He is no archangel Michael. He is God, the eternal Word, who assumed to Himself a true and proper humanity and who as the God-man will be manifested as the judge of the world.

Dimension 2: Omniscience Essential to Just Judgment

34:51 The first dimension of deity then manifested in the work of judgment is that of the sheer power to raise the dead. Secondly, the second dimension of deity manifested in the work of judgment is the omniscience essential to a just judgment. The omniscience, the capacity of knowing all there is to know which is essential to a just judgment. Now our Lord's judgment will be perfectly just.

35:20 He is called in 2 Timothy 4.8 the righteous judge. Now what does that mean? Well it means that he must have perfect knowledge of all the deeds and thoughts and words of all men.

35:37 Secret deeds as well as overt deeds. In Luke chapter 12 verses 2 and 3 focuses upon that aspect of the judgment. What is spoken in secret shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. He must have a knowledge of all the words that have ever been spoken.

35:52 For Matthew 12, 36 and 37 says, By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. And every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. And then further, Romans 2, 16 says, In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men's thoughts. Men's thoughts according to my gospel.

36:15 Think of it. He must have perfect knowledge of all deeds, overt and covert, all words spoken publicly and privately, all of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Now you think of the billions of people who've lived and the multiplied billions of secret and overt deeds and words and thoughts. and our Lord will be able to recall them all without an ounce of effort.

36:44 Now add something else to this. To judge the deed righteously, the deed must not only be seen in itself, but it must be seen in its context. The Bible teaches that the deed becomes more or less sinful in terms of the opportunities that the sinner had, in terms of the light and knowledge he had received, and in terms of the ultimate consequences of his sin. Where do we learn that? Matthew 11, 21 and 22.

37:10 It shall be more tolerable in the day of Sodom and Gomorrah than for you. They had more opportunity. Their deed of unbelief is not a naked deed of unbelief. It will be judged as to its magnitude in the light of its context.

37:25 Opportunity. Our Lord says in Luke 12, 47, Light and knowledge enter into the judgment. He that knew not his Lord's will and did it not shall be beaten with few stripes. He who knew his Lord's will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes.

37:41 And furthermore, Matthew 18, 6 speaks of the consequences of our sin in causing others to sin. And only the eye of omniscience can trace the influence of the sinner's sin right up to the last day. Now, my friend, you want something to boggle your mind. You think of the judge sitting upon his throne.

37:59 Before him stands the shriveling guilty sinner. and he's going to make manifest to the whole moral universe that when he says, depart from me, cursed, this is not overkill. This is not like the bloodthirsty soldier who's become so drunk with killing that he goes into a village already conquered and already up the white flag and shoots men indiscriminately. No, no, my friend, listen.

38:26 When the Son of God says, depart from me, cursed, into everlasting fire, He will have demonstrated to every moral creature that that judgment is just. For the sinner's sin shall be brought before him. Every deed, every word, every thought, in the light of its opportunity, its light and knowledge, and the ultimate consequences of his sin.

38:51 Now who can do this but the omniscient God? Who but that one who has the mind of God, whose mind is infinite enough to encompass all there is to know of God. For this is the one who said in Matthew 11, No man knoweth the Father save the Son. Only the divine mind can comprehend divinity.

39:17 And it is that same mind that will be exercised in the day of judgment. I say the second great dimension of deity manifested in the work of resurrection and judgment is that of omniscience and it's attributed to our Lord. Then thirdly, the third dimension is that of an omnipotence essential to execute the sentence.

Dimension 3: Omnipotence to Execute the Sentence

39:43 When he speaks to the wicked and says, Depart from me ye cursed. Matthew 25, 41. Matthew 25, 46 says, These shall go away into everlasting punishment. Now follow the argument.

39:58 While on earth, while the sinner was on earth, the Lord Jesus invited him in grace and mercy to all of the privileges of salvation. In the days of his flesh, when he said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. When he promised him that comes to me, I'll in no wise cast out. from the time that He ascended back to the Father and sent the Spirit in power, He has preached by means of His servants who in His name quote His Word and expound the terms of His gracious covenant and bid and entreat and plead with sinners to forsake their sins and to cast themselves upon Christ.

40:43 And what have sinners done? The voice of Christ has invited them to everything that is in their own best interests. And what have they said? In the language of Luke 19, we will not have this man to reign over us Sitting in this place this morning are men and women boys and girls who heard the voice of Christ dozens of times from this very pulpit pleading with you to do what?

41:13 Not to do penance for 20 years in hopes that God will somehow maybe help you to make it into purgatory and miss hell and eventually get to heaven? We've preached no such rubbish. We've preached to you that right now No matter what your sins have been, of thought, word, intent, and desire, and deed, no matter how much light you've sinned against, no matter what opportunities you've spurned away, what is our message to you? Our message is believing on Christ right now.

41:47 Your sins are pardoned. You're accepted in the Beloved. All is pardoned. You're washed.

41:54 You're cleansed. You're given the gift of the Spirit. You're made an heir of heaven. And what have you done with those overtures, those gracious invitations?

42:04 You've said, I will not.

42:07 I will not have Christ to reign over.

42:11 My friend, listen. If man have resisted the voice of Christ when he has invited them to everything that is in their best interest, what will their resistance be when He commands them to that which is against everything in their best interest.

42:34 If the resistance to that which is good has been so adamant, what will the spirit of the wicked be when Christ says, depart from me? It will be a spirit that says, no! I will not depart. I will not descend.

42:51 I will not go down. My Bible says they shall go into everlasting fire. Why? Because the omnipotent judge who sentences them shall exert the omnipotence and land them in the pit.

43:09 And then the horror of it, he who gave them existence and sustained their existence will sustain that existence through eternity, while everything in them cries out to go back into the womb of nothing.

43:28 Every heretic, every Russellite, every Aryan, every Universalist who said Jesus is not God, my friend, they'll see His Godhood exercised in their own damnation.

43:43 They'll see His mighty power exercised. When they deny the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, they are going to hear a voice that will teach them in an instant the tragedy of that heresy.

43:59 Every heretic who has denied that he is God will feel his power raising him from the dead. Everyone who denied that he was God because he said, I know not the time of my own return. speaking as to his humanity which was limited knowledge as we shall see in the subsequent exposition. Every heretic who seized upon a word like that and a word in which he says the Father is greater than I and says, aha, aha, he is not God they will meet him in that day as the omniscient one who will spread before them all of the denials of their unbelief and he will meet them as the omnipotent one who will carry out the execution of his sentence.

44:45 Oh, my friend, the tragedy that breaks my own heart this morning is that it will not only be heretics who denied that he was God, there will be some who sit in a place like this and who would even confess Jesus as God, but who have never obeyed him as the gracious God who commands you to repent and to believe and to cast yourself upon him, to take up your cross and to follow Him.

Application: Warning and Assurance in John 5:24

45:12 You've sat in a spirit of smug indifference, priding yourself that you were no Russellite heretic. You go to a Bible-believing church, and you believe what, my friend, listen, listen, listen. Unless you're vitally joined to Jesus Christ in the bonds of faith and love, unless you're indwelt by His Spirit and therefore transformed into a new creature, the Lord Jesus will manifest His mighty Godhood in your damnation. Now do you see why?

45:46 Coming around full circle to John chapter 5 as we close this morning. Do you see why? The Lord Jesus said, Marvel not at this. I'm going to show you greater things.

45:58 The Father gives all judgment to the Son that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father. And what is that honor? It is the honor, first of all, of faith in Him as the only Redeemer of sinners. Love to Him is the One who gave Himself to die the sinner's death.

46:23 Submission to Him as your only Lord and Master. That's what it means to honor Him even as you would honor the Father. And if you will not heed the overtures of His mercy My friend, you must obey The frightening pronouncements of His judgment But, O child of God I want to close with this positive note You and I should take courage If He is God And what He does as judge in the last day He does as God And when He says, Come ye blessed of my Father My work on your behalf is of such a nature that even the eye, the scrutinizing eye of perfect omniscience, can find no blemish in your record.

47:09 You're accepted in the Beloved. If He says, Come ye blessed, who shall appeal to a higher court and cancel His declaration? Hallelujah. To know that the One who is God will say, Come, come, ye blessed of my Father.

47:26 To know that all of my sins of thought and word and deed, sins in a context of great opportunity and great light sins in a context of long resistance to grace the scripture says the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses from all sin and it's in the very context of his work as a judge that he says in John 5.24 look at it verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me half eternal life and cometh not into judgment. There it is. If the judge says the terms of acquittal are these, hear my word, believe on him that sent me,

48:15 you will never come into judgment. That is, come into judgment in such a way as to receive the indictments of the judge, but rather come into judgment to receive acquittal formally, manifest before the whole moral universe so that what is now declared in the word and in the promise of every believing sinner, what is attested to by the inward witness of the Spirit, will now be formally declared in court before the whole moral universe. And angels and even, I believe, lost men will be forced to admire the contrivance of so amazing a plan of redemption that the judge himself, who will in all probability still bear as he sits upon the throne of his judgment.

49:04 The marks received when he died for sinners will manifest that their escape from condemnation was no legal fiction. It was no mere adjusting of the records without a solid basis. It will be manifest that because he bore the hell of believing sinners upon the cross, God is perfectly just and right in ushering such into His presence who have believed into His own dear Son. Oh, my Christian friend, true believer in Christ, the thought of Christ as judge should not fill you with dread, but in a sense it should fill you with eager anticipation.

49:46 Lord, hasten the day when you'll make me a monument of the sufficiency of the salvation of the judge. Oh, my friend, are you in Christ? Are you in Christ? Who is He?

50:00 He is God. How do we know He's God? He's called God. He possesses the attributes of God.

50:08 The third group of witnesses have told us He does the works which only God can do. Creation, providence, salvation, resurrection, and judgment. Is He your God? Is He your God?

50:22 not by an empty lip confession but in a relationship of true spiritual homage of faith and love and obedience if not may God grant that this very morning the posture of your heart will be that of Thomas who cried out upon the sight of the risen Lord my Lord and my God that confession alone brings you into union with this blessed Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we stand to say to our generation that on the one hand receives the inundation of such heresies as the Russellites, and on the other hand the heresy of a Jesus

Closing Confession and Prayer

51:10 who is nothing but the projection of a symbol of love, who has no fiery eye and no omniscient eye to bring every sin into judgment. Here we stand to bear witness to the Christ of Scripture, full of grace and truth, and in the last day full of fury, so that John says he will spatter his flowing garment with the blood of his enemies. If that's not your Christ, you better get rid of the Christ you have. He's an idol, and all idolaters have their part in the lake of fire.

51:42 You better bow before the Christ who is full of grace, but who one day will manifest that he's full of fury. the scripture speaks not only of the grace of the Lamb but of the wrath of the Lamb may God grant that you shall not experience that wrath let us pray our Father how can we ever thank you enough for giving to us a written revelation of your mind and will concerning men and our salvation. We thank you that we are able to know that which the human mind could never attain to

52:31 with its own unaided, unblessed efforts. We thank you that the things that the mind of man could not conceive nor would ever enter the heart of man have been revealed to us by the Spirit, the Spirit speaking in the writings of apostles and prophets. O God, we worship You for Your goodness in giving us this revelation. And Lord Jesus, we would ascribe honor and praise to You this day.

53:01 We worship You as the appointed judge of the world. We confess that we believe You have power enough to raise the dead, that You are omniscient and will exercise a righteous judgment, that You are omnipotent and able to carry the sentence to its full execution. We would honor You, blessed Lord, even as we honor the Father. And Holy Spirit, we thank You for ever opening our eyes to behold the glory of God in the face of Christ.

53:32 Blessed triune God, we worship You this morning. With all of our hearts we cry to You that everything that would hinder us from loving You and serving You as we ought may be purged away, may be conquered by the mighty power of Your grace. O God, Father, Son, and Spirit, bring rebel, indifferent sinners broken to the feet of Christ. May some find it difficult to go home and to laugh and to speak of light things if they are yet strangers to Your grace.

54:09 O God, trouble them now while the door of mercy still stands open. Seal to our hearts Your blessed Word, and may holy fruits be born from that Word, even until that day when our Lord shall speak, and the dead shall stand up and go away to judgment. Hear us, O God, in this our plea, and answer us to the end that Your name may be praised, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.