Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, go therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to go teach all nations, bringing you Christ teachings through australian and international speakers. And here is today's presenter, Pastor Wayne Humphries.
We want to thank you, Lord, that we can come together on this sabbath day and praise you through word and through the beautiful songs that we just heard. And Lord, I ask that as we open your word this morning that your Holy spirit will be here to guide and influence our hearts and our minds, that we might know more of your love for us. Heavenly Father, we invite you to be here amongst us as we share this morning.
And I pray particularly, Lord, that the words that I speak will be your words and not my own. In Jesus name I ask it. Amen.
Friends, I want to invite you this morning to open your bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 13. And we're going to read a verse or a passage, a couple of verses, verses two to four that are particularly meaningful to me, but they're going to be meaningful for what we're going to be preaching about this morning as well. Romans, chapter 13, verses two through to four.
Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God. And those who resist will bring judgement upon themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.
Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good and you will receive praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.
For he is God's minister and avenger, to execute wrath on him who practises evil. And the point of this verse, I believe, is that for those who want to escape the fear of being on the wrong side of the law simply need to do good. Now, I particularly love.
One of the things I love is driving my vehicle through a speed trap and recognise that I'm not speeding because I can wave to the police. I can say hello as I'm sailing past because they've got nothing on me. And those who know will understand why that is meaningful to me.
The Bible is saying to us, if you want to not be fearful of the judgement, fearful of the things that are happening in the world, then do the right thing. It's good advice, isn't it, from scripture. As those who know have been coming along regularly.
We've been doing a series on what we call the three angels messages, which is the message of the foundation of the 7th day Adventist Church. And we've looked at the angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach with a loud voice to every nation, tribe, tongue and people. And we've looked at what it means to fear God.
We've looked at what it means to give glory to him. But we also now know that the hour of his judgement has come. So the next topic for today and for the next time, this is the judgement, part one and part two.
Friends, I don't want to be striking fear into your hearts because you'll know that this is a part of the gospel. Let's read it. Revelation, chapter 14, verses six and seven.
Turn with me to revelation, chapter 14, verses six and seven. And we'll read our key verses this morning. Revelation, chapter 14, verse six.
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue and people saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgement has come, and worship him who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the springs of water. Now, normally when we think of judgement, we cringe. Whoa.
But friends, in this particular message, this judgement has been produced in the terms of the gospel, in terms of good news. So we're going to be looking at that this morning. The Bible reveals that the judgement is not an event, but rather it is a three stage process.
The first part, or the first stage, is the judgement that is occurring before the second coming of Jesus Christ. The second part is during the 1000 years, and the third part is the executive phase of the government after the 1000 years. Now, I know a lot of people might say, pastor, how can you possibly say that there is a judgement going on on earth before christ comes again? Friends, I will give you the first clue to the answer to that question.
And it is found in those verses that we just read, because we see in verse six that this angel is flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth. So the angel is flying, it is going out with a loud voice. Everybody in the whole world can hear it or should be hearing it.
It should be going forth like lightning to the entire world. And in the second verse, in verse seven tells us the content of what that message is. The content is, number one, fear God.
Number two, give glory to him. And number three, for the hour of his judgement has come, has come, which means the judgement hour has arrived while the gospel still goes forth to the entire world. And we're going to see this being brought out a little bit more as we progress this morning.
The judgement process that we are going to be studying today concerns only the first part of those three parts that I've mentioned to you a moment ago, because it is the part that it concerns us right now. It is relevant to us today. And we call it in the advent world, it's called the investigative judgement or the pre advent judgement, if you want to call it that, because it is happening during the sounding of the first angel's message, which is happening right now.
Now I want you to notice something interesting in this last part of verse seven that we read a second ago. And it said there, give glory to him for the hour of his judgement has come and worship him who made heaven and earth and the sea and the springs of water. These three messages that we are seeing today, or the first one that we're looking at in particular, all revolve around the same concept.
They revolve around worship. Who is it that you are going to worship? Who is it that you are going to be loyal to? Who is it that you are going to give your allegiance to? And it tells us that God is the one who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the springs of water. That's talking about creation, isn't it? So to have a look at the beginning of this judgement, we need to go back to creation to get some sort of contextualization.
So that's what we're going to do this morning. So I want you to come back with me to Genesis, chapter two and verse seven. Genesis, chapter two and verse seven, so we can begin to have a look at this process of what this judgement is all about.
Genesis two seven says, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. So we see it's a two step process that's going on here. The Lord formed man from the dust of the ground, which is part one, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, part two.
And the combination of what was formed on the ground and the breath of life from God combined together created a living being. You know, it's significant, this particular verse, because when we see God going through the creation process for the rest of Genesis leading up to this time, we see that there was a different process that God actually executed in order to get these things happening. The land separating from the sea, the light and the sun, the vegetation, the fish in the ocean, the land animals.
How did that happen? God spoke and it happened. But in this particular case, we see the Lord formed the man of the dust of the ground. So he actually came down here and he got down on his knees and he gathered all the dirt up together.
And I can just imagine the love that was going through his head. I'm going to make him just like this, and I'm going to make him just like that. But when he had finished actually forming the man, he was still lifeless.
And so God leant over into his nostrils and he would have almost whispered as he was breathing, and he said, wake up, wake up. And when Adam opened his eyes for the very first time, the first thing he would have been looking into would have been the face of his creator bending over him. And it just went better and better from there until the unfortunate events that occurred in the future when Adam was created.
And since then, all men and women are born. We all use the breath or the energising force that God has given us in combination with our five senses. What are our five senses? Taste.
Touch, smell, eyesight and hearing. These gifts that God has given to us that we might experience the world, that we might know about our environment, that we might learn to love others, that we might learn to taste beautiful food. Can you imagine what the food tasted like in the garden of Eden? You know, I've had some beautiful ladies from Stanthorpe church make me some apricot jam.
Now, I don't know if those of you know or not, but I love apricots int and the apricots that come from Stanthorpe, I don't know, there's just something about them. When you bite into them and you get that juice in your mouth, it's just like an explosion of this beautiful apricot flavour that I used to remember from my childhood. God has given us these senses that we might experience the world.
God has given us our combination of our five senses to experience the world over time so that we can develop a self identity or a character, if you want to put it that way, something completely unique to ourselves. There is no other person in history, in past or in the future, that is an individual that is exactly the same as each one of you in thought, attitude and behaviour. How does that make you feel? You know, there is roughly 7 billion people on earth at the moment and there's been that many or more throughout the history of time.
But never has there been a single individual that is just like you are God. Sees you as being individual and unique. It's kind of like when God gives us his breath to animate us, to give us a part of his life.
It's like when you bring a new computer home and you lift the lid up, if it's a laptop, and you start pushing the keys and plugging everything in, but nothing happens. It's not until you actually take that power cable and you plug it into the wall and you turn that switch on that the life giving electricity flows through that cable into the computer. And all of a sudden, and the lights come on and the discs start whirring.
And that's where the real frustration begins. But you get the idea what I'm talking about, don't you? Unless it's plugged into that wall, nothing's going to happen. And unless God bent over and breathed the breath of life into Adam, he would have stayed there as an inanimate object.
So we see that God forming the man of the dust of the ground, and breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. The combination of these two things and the gift of our five senses, sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing, gives us the ability to develop the attitudes, behaviours and the characters of each one of us. Now, what we're going to do now is have a brief look at the other end.
What happens when we die? Let's have a look at ecclesiastes chapter twelve and verse seven. And let us see what the wisest man that ever lived in history says about what happens in the process of when we actually pass away when we die. Ecclesiastes twelve seven says these words, then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to goddess who gave it.
So it's kind of like a reversal of what we saw in Genesis a minute ago. The body and the breath combined together makes life. But Solomon here is saying, when the spirit of God, or the breath of God, is removed from the body, it ends up undoing the creation process.
And therefore, what we today know as death occurs. Now, the hebrew word in ecclesiastes, in this particular instance is ruach, and ruach means wind or breath. So it's the same concept that we saw in Genesis.
This word is in reference to the same wind or breath, or this energising force that God gave us at creation or at birth. At death, our brain ceases to function and the breath returns to God and our bodies to dust. Now, you might ask me, what's this got to do with the judgement? Friends, hang in there.
We're getting there. I promise you, we're getting there. So after we've discovered what happened at creation or birth and what happens at death, we can ask ourselves this question.
At death. What happened to the self identity we were talking about? What happened to the character? What happened to the experiences? What happened to the uniqueness of us that makes us who we are? What happens to the characters, the personalities that we developed over time using the gift that God has given us of his own breath, his own energising life and our five senses? Now, friends, this is where the concept or the biblical doctrine of the state of the dead overlaps with the judgement. They are connected to each other.
One doesn't make sense without the other. And certainly the judgement does not make sense unless we understand exactly what happens when we die. Did you know that during our lives God keeps an exact record of every thought, every word, every motivation and every deed? Did you know that this might have been some nebulous idea that's been floating around in your mind and you didn't sort of think too much about it because you don't.
We don't like to think about that, do we? God knows every word, every motion, every action that we do. From the time our thought processes commence and our reasoning powers begin to function, everything we do, say and think is recorded faithfully in the books of heaven. That's a frightening thought, isn't it? It frightens me too.
But friends, I want you to remember that this judgement idea was given to us by the first angel in the context of the gospel. So there must be some good news here somewhere. We're getting to that too.
And you might also ask me, pastor, where does the Bible say such a thing? How can this possibly be true? I mean, every single act, motivation, thought, word and deed? Let's have a look at some. We'll do a short survey of some verses to find out that our actions and our thoughts and our deeds are going to be judged. Friends, I want you to turn with me to two Corinthians, chapter five and verse ten.
Second Corinthians, chapter five and verse ten. Whenever I say any of these startling type of statements, I always want to make sure I back it up with what the Bible says. Very, very important thing to do.
First Corinthians. Sorry, second Corinthians, chapter five and verse ten. Are our actions going to be judged in heaven? This is what the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians.
For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each 1 may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. So what does this say? Who needs to appear before the judgement seat of Christ to answer for their actions? When Paul says all, what does he mean all? When he says all, is he just talking about the people that are alive with him at the time? No, he's not. He's talking about everybody that's ever lived from the time of Adam right down to today.
Friends, Paul is talking to us. We must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ. It's a bit unsettling, isn't it? Matthew, chapter twelve, verses 36 and 37.
Let's see what that says. Matthew, chapter twelve, verses 36 and 37. These are the words of Jesus himself.
But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgement. For by your words you will be justified. And by your words you will be condemned.
I didn't particularly like that verse when I first read it. I thought, I wish Jesus didn't say that. But he did.
Because my words sometimes come back to haunt me. By your words you will be justified. By your words you will be condemned.
Friends, it doesn't finish there. Come back with me to ecclesiastes chapter twelve again. The wisest man who ever lived wrote this book.
And this is what he says. Ecclesiastes, chapter twelve, verses 13 and 14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God and keep his commandments. For this is man's all. Verse 14.
For God will bring every work into judgement, including every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. Every secret thing. Is there anything that we can think or say or do that God is not aware of? We all stand before the judgement seat.
So we see that our actions are going to be judged, our words are going to be judged, our works and even our secret things that we don't think anyone sees. All these are going to be judged at the end of time. Friends, it's not over yet.
Revelation 2012. The Bible builds a very distinct picture about what is going on here. Revelation, chapter 20 and verse twelve.
And we read these words and I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened. I want you to notice that plural books, books were opened.
And another book was opened. So now we have a singular another book was opened, which is the Book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books, plural.
You notice that the singular book there is given a title. It's called what the Book of life. Here comes the good news.
Here comes the good news. The Book of life. Now, we might ask ourselves, this all sounds a little bit far fetched, pastor.
I don't know if this is something that we can really kind of get our teeth into. Is it absolutely true? Friends, I will put to you that there is a very powerful precedent for this idea of these books, revealing the character, our Lord and saviour, our redeemer, Jesus Christ, lives in heaven. How do we know him? How can we know where he was born, what his mission was? How can we know the plan of salvation? How can we know his centrality in all of these things? Friends, it is written in a book.
This book reveals to us Jesus Christ. In fact, the last book, the Book of Revelation, I believe, is a title that should be applied to the whole Bible. It's called the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So Jesus Christ resides in heaven, but this book that we have with us now reveals to us his character, his attitudes, his words, his works, his salvation, his redemption, everything that he has done on earth, every suffering that he went through. It reveals his death on the cross. It reveals why he died.
It revealed how it relates directly to each one of us. And it's all there. So you may know who he is.
So he is in heaven and his book is on earth. Friends, we are on earth. Why could we not have books in heaven revealing the same about us? It's a beautiful precedent, friends, and it brings to our minds the reality of the truth of what the Bible is telling us.
We have a book that reveals Jesus Christ and he has books, plural in heaven that reveal us, our attitudes, our works, our words, as we have seen in the previous verses. So we know what is written in the books. We know that these books, plural, are maintaining every action, thought, word and deed and every motive for such that we experience during the entirety of our lives.
It is a map of our characters, if you want to put it that way. But what about this book, the one that is entitled the Book of Life? What's that one all about? Does the Bible reveal anything about this book? Because this book, friends, is the truth of the gospel in terms of the judgement. Let's have a look and see what does the Bible say? As we always do.
If we come across some sort of idea, we go to the scripture to see what the scripture says. Let's all be good bereans today and do the same thing. Turn with me to the Book of Philippians, chapter four and verse three.
And we are going to see whether the Bible actually reveals to us anything about this book. Singular. This book of life.
Philippians, chapter four and verse three. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. So Paul is not only revealing to us that he understands about the book of life, he also is revealing to us what needs to happen that we might be in that book of life, because he's listing off the names of the ones who have been faithful to Jesus Christ and have their names written in that book.
How long has the book been around for? How long has it been there? Come with me to Exodus chapter 32, because we're going to find evidence in the scripture that Moses knew about the book of life. Exodus, chapter 32. And I want to read verses 31 and 32.
I'm sure most of you know exactly where I'm going with this. Exodus, chapter 32, verses 31 and 32. This is Moses having a conversation with God, and he says these words.
Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, oh, these people have committed a great sin and have made for themselves a God of gold. Yet now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray, blot me out of your book which you have written. Moses, we know, was a type of Christ, and he stood as a mediator between the children of Israel and God, or the Hebrews and God.
And as he stood there, he said, Lord, these people have committed a great sin, but please forgive them. But if you can't forgive them or you don't forgive them, then I will give myself as a substitute. Blot me out of that book that you have written.
Did Moses know about the book of life? He absolutely did. Turn with me to the book of Daniel, chapter twelve and verse one. We're going to see more evidence of this book of life.
The last chapter of the Book of Daniel, chapter twelve and verse one. And here is Daniel describing the second coming of Jesus Christ. And he says, in Daniel, chapter twelve and verse one, at that time, Michael shall stand up the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people.
And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time, your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. And again, Daniel gives us an idea as to what people need to do or the position that they need to be in in order to have their names written in their book.
He calls them your people. Therefore, they had a relationship with their redeemer, Jesus. Christ to have their names written in that book.
Turn with me now to revelation, chapter three and verse five. Revelation, chapter three and verse five. We see another evidence at the other end of the Bible.
You'll notice that we've kind of bookend the Bible. There are evidences of this book of life revealing itself all through scripture as well. But revelation, chapter three and verse five tells us these words.
He who overcomes, who he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments. We know what that's about, don't we? The righteousness of Christ. And I will not blot out his name from the book of life.
But he goes on. And this is the part of the gospel, this is the part of the good news. But I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.
Isn't that good news? So there are books that record every word, action and deed. But there is also a book where our names can be written. And when we have a relationship with our lord and saviour, our redeemer, Jesus Christ, he promises that he will stand before his father and before our angels, before his angels and confess our name.
This Jesus Christ is not only the judge in the judgement for those who have a relationship with him. He is also the defence attorney, the advocate. How would you like to go to court knowing that your defence attorney was also the judge? That would be a good thing.
Especially if you knew that that judge had already paid the penalty for you. Can we see how the gospel, the good news is coming into this now? The good news of Jesus standing on our behalf. But friends, I don't know if you recognise it or not, but we've actually created a problem here.
I'm going to express this to you right now. Let's just do a short summary of what we discussed so far. Number one, we've established that the first phase of the judgement occurs before the second coming.
The first angel's message has told us that very clearly. The second thing that we have established is that all humanity from Adam forward must appear before the judgement seat. They must appear there in one form or another, at one point or another.
With no exceptions. That includes each one of us sitting in this place today. Number three, the Bible is also clear that those who have died in Christ throughout history lie in the dust of the earth or waiting for the call of Jesus at his second coming.
Is that not true as well? That's absolutely true. So. .4.
The Bible clearly tells us in revelation chapter 22 that when Jesus returns in the clouds of glory, his reward is with him. Is that not true as well. So then if his reward is with him, then the judgement has been completed.
Because he knows who's going to get the reward and he knows who is not. He knows those who have received the seal of God in their foreheads and he knows those who have decided to receive the mark of the beast. He knows his own.
So here's the problem. If the dead in Christ are in the graves until Jesus comes again, how can they appear before Christ's judgement seat before his second coming? There seems to be a real inconsistency here, doesn't there? And this is one of the arguments that some people will use in order to prove that when you die, you don't really die, you go straight to heaven, which is not what the Bible says, but it's a good argument. How can we possibly appear before the judgement seat of Christ before his second coming, when those who have given their lives to him lie in the dust of the earth awaiting his call at the second coming? Can you see the problem? So what is the answer to this problem? Before we go right into the answer for this, I want you to have a look at some of the resurrections that have actually occurred in scripture before Christ ascended to heaven.
Turn with me quickly to Luke, chapter eight. Luke, chapter eight. And I'm going to look at verses 52 to 55.
It's the story of a resurrection that Jesus performed on a little girl. Luke, chapter eight, verses 52 to 55. Now all wept and mourned for her.
I this is the little girl that died. But he said, do not weep. She is not dead, but sleeping.
And they ridiculed him knowing that she was dead. What did Jesus mean when he said she was asleep? He was dead. She was dead.
He also said that Lazarus was sleeping too as well. I like this little discrepancy. You might recognise that when Jesus says someone is sleeping, they're awaiting the resurrection.
When someone is dead, they're awaiting the second resurrection. But that's another story. Do not weep.
She is not dead but sleeping. Verse 53 says. And they ridiculed him knowing that she was dead.
And verse 54. But he put them all outside and took her by the hand and called her, saying, little girl, arise. Then her spirit returned and she arose immediately.
And he commanded that she be given something to eat. Now let me ask you a question. When that little girl was resurrected from the dead, did she still know who she was? Did she know who her mother and father were? Did she know who her friends at school were? Did she understand the things that she liked and that she didn't like.
She was resurrected with exactly the same understanding of her character, her likes, her dislikes, her friends, her family, her mum and her dad. Everything was exactly the same. And she began to relive, to continue to live her life as though it had not been interrupted by death.
Is this not true? What an interesting concept. Her spirit returned. God gave back to her all the experiences and the memories that she had had before when she was resurrected.
Doesn't the spirit of prophecy tell us this? When we are resurrected at the second coming, says Ellen might, the current of our thoughts is going to be resumed as it was when we went into the grave. Let's have another look at a very powerful example. And we don't need to go past this one.
Luke, chapter 23 and verse 46, just a couple of chapters further down in the same book. Luke, chapter 23 and verse 46. This is in the context of Christ having been nailed to the cross, and he was at the point of yielding up his life.
And in verse 46, he said, and when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last. It's an interesting turn of phrase, isn't it? He breathed his last.
Christ was hanging on the cross. The Jews didn't want anyone on the crosses during the festival that they were about to keep a passover. So they asked Pilate to take him down.
So Pilate sent the soldiers. And what the soldiers used to be careful of is sometimes they'd take someone off the cross who hadn't died yet, and so they would get up and run away and continue to live. So they had a habit of breaking their legs with a big club so that they couldn't run away to make sure that they did expire.
But when those soldiers saw Jesus hanging on the cross, they didn't break his legs. Why didn't they break his legs? Because they saw that he was already dead. Now, let me ask you a question.
These soldiers, these men of war, these military men, did they know a dead body when they saw one? Do you think there would have been punishment waiting for them had they have let Jesus go? Jesus had expired. His human body had passed away. He was effectively dead.
So much so that the roman soldiers didn't bother breaking his legs, because there was no need. Jesus went into the tomb. And if you use inclusive reckoning, from Friday night to Sunday morning, he was in the tomb, as he said, three days and three nights when jesus was resurrected on the resurrection morning, which, incidentally, is the greatest event in the history of the universe, did he know who he was? Did he know his mission? Did he understand what he had done? Did he know what he had to do next? Did he remember his disciples? Did he remember Mary and Martha? All these things that he had experienced in his previous life came flooding back to him.
In fact, we rely on this because Jesus understanding of what it's like to be human allows him to be able to interact with each one of us and act as our high priest, our saviour and our redeemer, because he has experienced all these things himself. So when he came out of that tomb, the current of his thoughts resumed exactly where they were. Before he knew what his mission was, he knew the next step.
He knew he had to spend time with his disciples. He knew he had to explain to them the words that he had been giving to them before he was crucified, to put them in the picture, to prepare them for the great job that they had of going to the entire world to commence the building of his church founded on his blood, based on his sacrifice. Yes, friends, he knew exactly who he was.
The spirit of prophecy. In my favourite devotional Maranatha, page 310, says these our personal identity is preserved in the resurrection. Though not the same particles of matter or material substance as went into the grave, the wondrous works of God are a mystery to man.
The spirit, the character of man, is returned to goddess. Notice she doesn't say the consciousness, but the character, the character of man is returned to God, there to be preserved in the resurrection. Every man will have his own character and friends, every woman will have her own character as well.
God, in his own time, will call forth the dead, giving again the breath of life and bidding the dry bones to live. The same form will come forth, but it will be free from disease and every defect. Is this not good news? It lives again, bearing the same individuality of features, so that friend will recognise.
Friend we know recently a very public figure passed away. His name was Prince Philip. Very sad event.
I'm sure the queen is still suffering keenly after being married to him for, what was it, nearly 70 years or something? 73. 73 years of marriage. She was married to him ten years longer than I've been alive.
When we see a video recording of him on the television speaking, is he alive or is he dead? Is he alive or is he dead? Some people say alive, some people say dead. I will put to you, in reality, he is dead. But on that video is a perfectly preserved representation of who he is.
His sight, his eyes, his way of thinking, his receding hairline, his interesting sense of humour, the sound of his voice, everything is perfectly preserved on that video. So we can see him as though he was alive. Yet we know in reality, he is not alive.
He has passed into the grave. In reality, I would say that God's recording system is infinitely more sophisticated than paper and books. Those in the Bible use the idea of a book and books to express God's recording system, because that's what they understood of the day.
If the Bible was to redescribe God's recording system of our lives in today's culture, with what we know, it would most likely be in the sense of a Blu ray HD video recording. Isn't that fair enough? And I would suggest to you that in reality, God's actual recording system is much more sophisticated than that. But we know that when we see Prince Philip on that screen and we can watch whole television documentaries about him, it's almost like we are reviewing his entire life.
We know who he is, we know he was married to. We know about his attitudes, his behaviour, his works and his words. Here, friends, is the answer to our problem, because we have just been through quite a laborious process of showing that God is recording every single action, word and deed, even the public things and the secret things from us.
So in a very real sense, then, when God brings out the life records of the dead in the pre advent judgement, the dead become alive from the records played from the recorded media. In our understanding, the recorded high definition videos, the recording was done while they were alive, but the media is examined after they have died. And in this way, then the dead will appear alive before the judgement seat of Christ.
When they are judged. Let us turn to revelation, chapter 20. I want to read you something underscoring this point.
Revelation 20 1112. Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, whose face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God.
And what was opened? The books were opened. The dead were not questioned directly, but the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things that were written in the books.
Friends, I will put to you, as we have seen from Moses, as we have seen from Christ himself, he stands in our place when our names are written in that book of life. So when we see all these books being opened, we need not be afraid, because those who have a relationship with Christ, those who have cultivated their relationship with him, those who know him and understand him, and have repented of their sins and confessed and relied on Jesus to fill them with his Holy spirit, that they might be shaped into his likeness. Christ has written in their name in the book, and when their name is written in the book, Jesus also takes, so to speak, a big red stamp that's got forgiven on it, and he goes through the pages, forgiven, forgiven, forgiven, forgiven.
In fact, I will put to you that if the names that are written in that book of life are so meaningful that he doesn't even bother going to the books, because he is the one that stands before the father, as we saw in revelation chapter three a moment ago, and confesses our names. He confesses your name before the father and all the angels. He says, this person, this name, father, I'm standing in his place.
He has a relationship with me and I have paid his penalty. So when you look at him, don't look at him, look at me. And those who are not written in the book of life therefore pass to the judgement of their works and words.
Is that not good news? We see the angel in the first angel's message, flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel. And the part of the everlasting gospel is to fear God, give glory to him, for the hour of his judgement has come. And when we understand that there is a judgement coming, but Jesus stands on our behalf, not only is the defence attorney, but also as the judge.
And he says, as you stand there before me, don't worry, because I'm defending you and I'm also the judge. And not only that, I've also taken your punishment already. You've got nothing to worry about.
Is that not good news? Friends, we need to be very pleased, but also have a great sense of responsibility that God has delivered to his church. The responsibility of delivering this message to the world. It's a message of salvation, it's a message of hope for the future.
Friends, we need not be afraid of the judgement, so long as we have a relationship with Jesus. He is our defence attorney and our judge. I mean, it's almost farcical.
It's not even really a judgement, because we come in and Jesus says, I stand in your place for everything. You now have a right to the tree of life. You now have a place that I have been preparing for you.
I'm looking forward to spending the rest of eternity in your company. Isn't that what we all want? Isn't that what we want to tell the world? Friends, let us stand let us make sure that we remember who God is, what he has done on our behalf and not keep it to ourselves. But tell the entire world.
It is my prayer that each one of you will have your names written in that book of life. That you might be ready to receive his favour when your name comes up in that judgement. This is my prayer for you in Jesus name.
Amen. Heavenly Father, what a question this is. How shall we stand in that great day? I pray, Lord, that each person that has their head bowed here will recommit their lives to you just now, that they will be ready in that great day not only themselves Lord, but also those who by your power working through them, your power working through us, we might continue to shout this good news gospel to the entire world.
Jesus has sacrificed his life on our behalf. He stands before the Father on our behalf. He stands before the angels and all the intelligence of the universe on our behalf and confesses our name.
This one has been found righteous before me. I have paid his penalty. Lord God, I pray that the wonder and the power and the truth will sink deep into our hearts and minds, that we will kneel before you and say, Lord, what a great God that you are and that there will be nothing in our lives that we will withhold from you as we continue to seek to do your will on this earth in completing the delivery of this wonderful message to this world that is burdened with sin and pain and death.
Bless us and strengthen us as we go forward from this place today. It is my prayer. In Jesus name I ask it, Amen.
This message was made available by Pastor Wayne Humphries. For more resources like this visit. hiswordrevealed.life.
This programme has been brought to you by 3ABN Australia radio.
