"For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." Ecclesiastes 12:14
God has appointed a day in the which He will judge the world. Respecting this day several things are noticeable.
All shall be judged.
Saints and sinners,
great and small,
living and dead,
the servant and his master,
the prisoner at the bar and the judge who sat on his trial,
the assassin and the assassinated,
the seducer and his victim,
the invader and the invaded,
the hireling and his oppressor,
the king and his subjects,
the fool and the wise man,
the persecutor and the persecuted,
the apostate, the hypocrite,
the child of God and the child of the devil, shall all be there!
No one shall be so mighty, and no one shall be so lowly—as to elude the eye or the sentence of Him who shall sit upon the throne of judgment! What a massive multitude will this be—when prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, saints of all ages; when sinners, liars, infidels, blasphemers, moralists, and murderers—shall all be there; when the sea and the dry land shall give up their dead; when death and hell shall deliver up the dead who are in them; when all who lived before the flood, all who have lived since the flood, and all who shall have lived to the end of time shall stand before God! This will be the first and the last assembly—in which are found every person whom God ever made.
To God, it is a certain and fixed day. He has appointed it. Acts 17:31. Nothing can hasten it; nothing can retard it.
The purpose of God concerning it is fixed, unalterable.To all creatures, it is an unknown day.
"Of that day and hour knows no man; no, not the angels of heaven."
The day of judgment will be THE great day. It will be the greatest day in the annals of the universe! It is the day for which all other days were made. This day is so well known to inspired men, that they call it the day, that day—as preeminent over all others.
It will be the LAST day. After it, time will be no more—time will cease to exist. Duration will no more be measured by seconds, minutes, days, months, years, centuries, cycles; but all will be boundless, shoreless, fathomless, unmeasured eternity!
It will be a day of astounding exposures. Villainy will be covered up no more. Every disguise will be taken away. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hidden, that shall not be known.
It will be a day of intense excitement. There will be no listless spectators of those scenes. Every faculty of the intellect and of emotion will be aroused to the highest possible exercise. Men may sleep under sermons concerning the judgment, but they will not be dull when they go to judgment!
It will also be a day of final separation. The precious and the vile; the wheat and the tares; the sheep and the goats; saints and sinners—shall no longer mingle together. The separations of this day will be final. The righteous and the wicked shall part that day to meet no more.
It shall be a day of despair to all the unregenerate. Everywhere sinners will be crying to the rocks and the mountains: "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb!" Was ever despair more dreadful than this?
This will be a day full of surprise. Not only will it come unexpectedly, but its awards will fill both saints and sinners with astonishment. So Christ teaches at length in Matthew 25. The wicked will be amazed that they are lost. They will be especially surprised that God sets no value on their self-righteousness. The sons of God will receive more honor than they ever asked or thought of. The sons of Belial will receive more wrath than they ever feared. Christians will marvel why they are saved. Sinners will wonder why they are not saved. Many will be lost—contrary to the opinions formed of them by their neighbors. Many will be lost—contrary to the opinions they had formed of themselves!
"For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." Ecclesiastes 12:14.
The judgment is coming!
The Judge stands at the door!
The time is short!
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Please, if you read this blog and you have never taken the time to repent of your sins and put your trust and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I urge you, I beg you to do this today. The Bible says that today is the day of salvation.
150,000 people died worldwide yesterday and I bet most of them thought they would live to see today just like you believe you will see tomorrow.
Repent and trust Him today.
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Very often, at the end of a church service, there will be a time of what is called "invitation." This is when people who feel that the Lord's Spirit has spoken to them through the preaching of His Word may come to the front of the church and pray with, or receive Biblical counseling from, the pastor or another spiritual leader. The area between the first row of seats or pews, and the pulpit, is sometimes called the "altar." During funeral services, it is often the place where the coffin is set, as well.
Sadly, for many people, the first time in their whole lives they come to the altar is when they are wheeled there in their own coffin. Possibly even more tragic, though, are those who attend funerals, and are unaffected by the graphic illustrated sermon on display. I have seen people attend the funeral of a loved one who died prematurely due to drug or alcohol abuse, or due to the effects of an immoral lifestyle. As these people pass by the coffin to pay their last respects, they seem to be grieving or seriously shaken (and no doubt they are). Then, they proceed out of the church and immediately return to the type of actions and lifestyle which caused their loved one's death.
Surely, these people do not think that they are the exceptions to God's rule that people do not live forever. "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" (Hebrews 9:27). What seems more likely is that they have the attitude of the people who heard the prophet Ezekiel's warnings. "Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off." (Ezekiel 12:27)
The Israelites in this passage of Scripture thought there might be truth to the prophet's warnings that judgment would come upon them, but, since he had been prophesying for a while, and nothing had happened yet, God's judgment must be far off. They even had quaint little sayings and proverbs which made a mockery of the seriousness of God's impending judgment. God's response to this, relayed through Ezekiel, was that the consequences of our sins are always nearer than we think. "Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord GOD." (Ezekiel 12:28) It was about six years after this prophecy that the Babylonians broke through the city walls of Jerusalem and brought disaster and destruction upon God's people.
Do not wait for some mythically future "right time" to respond to the Holy Spirit's invitation. When you are prompted by Him, move with urgency. Generally speaking, there are two things that keep people from confessing and forsaking their sin, and from calling upon the Lord for forgiveness. One is pride. ("What will people think of me?") The other is procrastination. (“I'll get right with God one day...”) When David returned to the cities of Israel, gloriously victorious in his wars against the Philistines, the women of Israel sang a song, comparing him to King Saul. They sang, "Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands." (I Samuel 18:7). If you are putting off the invitation to respond to God's Word in your life today, my song to you is: "Pride hath slain his thousands, and procrastination his ten thousands." Do not presume upon God's grace a day longer. Call upon Jesus Christ this very moment.
Preach it!
We are not promised the draw of our next breath, but are promised a Day of Judgment -
Thanks Ministry Addict!
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