Eternal Judgement

Preached by Ps Jude Blayney

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Judgment = the result of judging, trying or passing sentence upon

Eternal = everlasting, but also "final, or that to which there is no appeal"

I. Who Will Do The Judging And How Will He Judge?

A. God
Hebrews 12:23 - "...to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in Heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect..."

B. Will be administered by Christ:

	Jesus is judge. Acts 10:42 - "And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead.
	Jesus will sit in the judgment seat and the secrets of men will be judged by Him. Romans 14:10 - But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

C. Will be judged in righteousness and with equity.
Psalm 9:8 - "He shall judge the world in righteousness, and He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness."

II. Why Must There Be Judgment?

A. Ungodliness.
Jude 1:15 - "...to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."

B. Disobedience.
Romans 2:8-11 - "...but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness; indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honour, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

C. Unrighteousness.
2 Peter 2:9 - "then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment..."

God's delivering of Noah and Lot demonstrates that God will deliver "out of temptations". In the world we live, however, we should not expect God to remove the unrighteous as He did in Noah's and Lot's time. At that time there was no Saviour. Today, we have a Saviour and the Holy Spirit is abroad on the earth. God is "...not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9), He wants to give everyone the maximum time and opportunity to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus the Christ. There are still instances, however, when God does seem to have brought judgment on individuals who have been particularly unrighteous in dealing with a believer or believers.

D. Unbelief.
John 3:36 - "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

E. Sin. Romans 5:12 - Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned..."

III. When Will Judgment Take Place?

Eternal judgment, like the resurrection, has three aspects. These aspects are:

A. PAST

	Sin John 1:29 - The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 2 Corinthians 5:21 - For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
	Satan Colossians 2:15 - Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. In ancient Rome a victorious Roman general was given a triumph or victory procession in which he rode in a chariot and the defeated general or king and his court or officers followed on foot, naked and in chains. This is the image this metaphor is intended to evoke in regard to how God in Christ stripped from the powers of evil their control over the lives of men and humiliated them.
	World John 9:39-41 - And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind."
	Man John 3:18 - "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Romans 8:1 - There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

B. PRESENT

Sinners Romans 1:18-32 - For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. This passage of scripture should dispel the mistaken notion that those people who have never been evangelized or heard the gospel will not be judged by the same standard as those who have been privileged to hear it. Ephesians 5:6 - Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Believers 1 Corinthians 11:31-32 - For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

C. FUTURE

Believers - will be judged for their works and rewarded. Revelation 11:18 - "The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth." 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 - "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." 1 Corinthians 4:5 - "Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God." 2 Corinthians 5:10 - "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." Only those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord will appear at "the judgment seat of Christ." As noted above, they will be judged on the quality of their works. Their salvation will not be at stake.

Sinners - judged for their sin and disobedience and punished. Matthew 25:46 - "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 - "...in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." As noted earlier "everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord" does not mean the annihilation of a person but rather that they will be cut off forever from the Lord and the joy and glory of His presence." Revelation 20:15 - "And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire."

IV. When Will This Future Judgment Take Place?

A. After death.
Hebrews 9:27 - And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment...

B. Last Day.
John 12:48 - "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him; the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day."

C. The "Day of Judgment".
Matthew 10:15 - "Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for that city!"

2 Peter 2:9 - ...then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the Day of Judgment.

D. The Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 25:31 - "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory."

2 Timothy 4:1- I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom...

V. What Are The Results Of The Judgment

A. Unbelievers - eternal punishment.
Matthew 25:41 - "Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels..."

Jude 1:7 - ...as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

B. Believers - eternal life and joy.
James 1:12 says that the believer is to be crowned with life!

John 11:25-26 - "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

James 1:12 - Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

VI. What Does The Certainty Of This Judgment Produce?

A. A motive for repentance as seen in Acts 17:31, 32.
Acts 17:31-32 - "...because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead." And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, "We will hear you again on this matter."

B. Holiness.
2 Corinthians 5:9-10 - Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

C. Prayer and Watchfulness.
Mark 13:33 - "Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is."

D. It should motivate believers to be diligent in presenting the salvation message to sinners.
Judgement and its prospect will bring us to Christ.

All the doctrines point to Christ. We learn about them to get a better understanding of Christ.

Today, society does not want judgement. It prefers to lay the blame on others, to shift the focus, to blame our past, our present, someone else's past, someone else's present. Now we all know that things of the past can hinder us and even cause us to have a weakness but God wants us to seek out the answer through Him. Judgement will come. If we keep our relationship with God in intimacy then we need not fear judgement butt rather accept it as a way to get closer to God.