When your life on earth is through, you're going to stand before God and you're going to give an account for every word you ever spoke, every thought you ever entertained, and every action you participated in. The Bible calls that day judgment day.
And judgment Day is exactly what Daniel is talking about in Daniel chapter 12, verses one of the judgment. One day we will all be judged. That's what Daniel was saying. Many people don't like that concept. Many people don't want to report and give an account to God, but they will nevertheless.
One of my favorite verses in Isaiah. Isaiah 33 22 says, For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He will save us. With these four statements, he describes God as our judge, our lawgiver, our king and our Savior.
Notice, though, that the judge comes first. Before God shows you the grace of God, God shows you the sin of man. And that comes because he is the judge. Isaiah had seen him on his throne, the throne of judgment. Isaiah six one through 5.
In the year of King Josiah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty exalted, the train of his robe filling the temple.
Seraphim Those are angels. I am his plural. In Hebrew a seraph is one angel, a seraph. The seraphim are many angels. Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings with two. He covered his face with two. He covered his feet with two. He flew. One called out unto another. They're speaking Antiphonally there. And they say saying Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of host. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold trembled at the voice of him, who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. Here he sees God exalted on his throne and it takes his breath literally, he says.
Notice how he responds in Isaiah, he says. Then I said, Woe is me. I am ruined because I'm a man of unclean lips. I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of host. It did something to him when he saw the judge of all the earth that Abraham talked about.
I want you if you can. And I'm sure you can't. I want you to imagine a flame which could not be brighter. That which cannot, of course, be any less bright than it is.
I you to imagine a flame which is so wantbright that it is infinitely bright. That it could not be brighter. But it always been like that. From eternity to eternity.
I want you to remember that Jehovah, the Great God of Scripture. The Lord is one God. And yet there are three who are God and that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. And he is holy. I want you to remember that when Isaiah saw the Lord in the temple, as John chapter 12 tells us, it was the Lord Jesus Christ that he saw.
And I want you to know that history is moving forward to this enormous, enormously wonderful day. History is moving. The clock is ticking. The days are being ticked off on the calendar, but they are all moving forward to this day. And even in God's book, ladies and gentlemen, the language cannot fully convey to us.
The wonder and glory and immensity and power of that day and how we will feel and how startled and moved when at last that great day breaks.
On February 8th this year, it was 50 years since I was first ambushed by Jesus in the Little chapel, the Allegheny Mountains of Western Pennsylvania.
And in those almost 50 years of literally thousands and thousands of hours of prayer, meditation, silence, solitude, living in monasteries, caves, deserted places, I am now utterly convinced that on judgment Day, the Lord Jesus is going to ask each of us one question and only one question.
Did you believe? That I loved you. That I desired you. That I waited for you day after day. That I longed to hear the sound of your voice. The real Christians, they will answer, Yes, Jesus, I believe in your love. And I tried to shape my life as a response to it.
But many of us who come to church faithfully every Sunday are going to have to reply. Well, frankly, no, sir. You never really believed it. And there's a difference between the real believers and the nominal Christians that abound in our churches across the land.
No one can measure like a believer the depth and the intensity of God's love. But at the same time, no one can measure like a believer, the effectiveness of our gloom, pessimism, low self esteem, self-hatred, discouragement and despair that block God's way to us.
Do you see why it is so important to lay hold of this basic truth of our faith? Because you're only going to be as big as your own concept of God. Remember the famous line of the French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal.
God made man in his own image. And men returned the compliment. We often make God in our own image. He wanted to be as fussy, rude, narrow minded, legalistic, judgmental, unforgiving and loving as we are.
I would suggest that from this moment until you put your head in the pillow tonight, you have to focus of your inner life.
Rest on one truth, the staggering mind blowing truth that God loves you just as you are and not as you should be, because nobody in this building is as they should be, that God loves you, not the person next to you.
Not that God loves Billy Graham, Mother Teresa. Not that God loves the church, the world, not that God loves in some vague way the whole human race, but the truth that God loves you in such a way that he'd rather die than be without you.
Isn't it difficult to believe you're worth the death of anyone, least of all the. All. Holy God. This moment. Do you truly believe that God loves you unconditionally as you are? And now as it should be. Do you? You know, I'm not a Christian in 20 years. Do you believe God loves you? He's not, replied. Oh, yeah, Yeah. No, not quite a while. It's like I've known that since childhood. Then watch the way they live. Lives of anxiety, fear, shame, guilt, low self esteem, remorse, self condemnation and self-hatred. Those they believe that God loves them in some vague, distant, abstract way. But they'd be hard pressed to say that right now the essence of their Christian life is a love affair and not just a symbol of affair, but what G.K. Chesterton called a furious love affair going on between Christ themselves at this very moment.
Do you honestly believe that with all the wrong turns you made in your past, the mistakes, the detours, the moments of sin, selfishness, dishonesty and degraded love that God has used them all to bring you where you are right now. And the word says you are standing on holy ground. This moment. Do you honestly believe that God loves you? The unworthiness and unworthiness beyond fidelity and infidelity, that He loves you in the morning sun and the evening rain without caution, regret boundary limit breaking point. No matter what's going down, he can't stop loving you. If you don't fully trust that you're living a life of illusion, superstition, cowardice.
You're projecting onto Jesus your own hateful feelings toward yourself. Assuming he feels about you, the way you feel about you and those you're worshipping a god of you and manufacturing a God who does not exist. There is one God of the Christian vision, the God revealed by and in Jesus Christ, who this moment walks directly to your seat, looked you straight in the eye and says, I have a word for you. I know your whole life story. I know every skeleton in your closet. I know every moment of sin, shame, dishonesty and degraded love that has darkened your past. Right now, I know your shallow faith, your feeble prayer life, your inconsistent discipleship. Nothing is hidden from my eyes. And my word is this. I dare you to trust. That I love you as you are and not as you should be because you're never going to be as you should be.
Now, the amazing thing about the human conscience is this. But even if you don't believe what I am saying, you believe what I'm saying. But even if you reject the truth of what I'm saying. There is rooted inside you, a conviction which you can suppress with the years, but which is there nonetheless, which is telling you that these things are so. And this truth is the truth which the Scripture will not let us forget.
Let me ask you to take a little test with me right now. Suppose that rear door opens. And Jesus Christ the crucified Risen Lord walks down this aisle, comes up to the podium and looks around for you. He was directed to your seat, looked you straight in the eye. What is Jesus face saying to you this moment? Is his face saying. I am so sick and tired of you, of your broken promises, your unkept resolutions, all your false starts, your hypocrisy. I've got my briefcase right here. We're going to look at your resume and you are in deep caca
If Jesus face could say only one word to you right now, would the word be repent? Or. Would his face say? Thank you. Do you know what a joy it is to live in your heart? You know how proud I am of you that after I chose you, you freely chose me for your Lord and Savior. Savior? Do you know how proud I am of you that you accepted the gift of faith that I offer to you? Do you have any idea of how grateful I am to hear that last Tuesday, when you were so uptight and strung out yourself, you still paused and took the time to smile at one of my little children who was so lonely and frightened in need of a smile.
You know the only time you break my heart. Is when you refuse to accept that every repentant sin of your past life is not only forgiven, but so entirely forgotten that I cannot remember what it was. Do you know that I've loved you from all eternity. And no matter what goes down, I can't stop loving you. What is Jesus face saying? What kind of feedback are you getting right now from the Risen Christ? If it's negative non affirming feedback, then quite understandably you'll find very little joy in any act of religion or worship. If this God who supposedly sees right through you is always reminding you of your sins, faults, hang ups and character defects.
Then you probably are thinking of picking your watch right now and saying, I wish that guy would stop. I want to get out to brunch. Why? Because for you, Christianity was always a moral code or an ethic. But it was never a love affair. A love affair. A love affair. God loves you just as you are and not as you should be because nobody in this building is as they should be.
0 Comments