Eternal Judgment

In the Middle Ages, as the Renaissance unfolded, guilds began to be developed for specific trades. And the idea of a trade guild was multifaceted. It was to thoroughly train an individual for that particular trade through apprenticeship, but it was also to ensure a standard of quality, also to pass on knowledge, so that there'd be a continuation of this trade, and also then to ensure market, much like modern co-ops or things of that nature, where they would combine efforts to make sure their product makes it to market. These guild perspectives were the same, no matter what the guild was, whether it was a printing guild, whether it was a butcher guild, or a clothing guild, or clockmaking, or whatever it happened to be.

And as it worked out, what normally happened is that they would accept as apprentices young children. And usually these children would be between the ages of seven and nine. In most cases, because the families needed the money, but also because to start them young, and by the time they graduated out, if you will, of the apprenticeship program, they would be at an age to start to be employed full-time. But in order to be placed in these guilds, the fathers generally had to pay for their children to be apprenticed. They had to find an apprentice that'd be willing to take them on, that could take them on.

And as you might imagine, this was, could be, quite expensive, especially if it was a more sought-after trade, or a more restricted trade. Each guild could set the number of apprentices they had, so so many clockmakers, so many shoemakers, and so forth. And then this way, they were able to control the number of craftsmen in the occupation. Trade wouldn't become so diluted that no one could make a living at it.

Each guild oftentimes had its own uniform in order to be easily determined in the marketplace. So the shoemakers would have one particular outfit and butchers and so forth down the line. And as you can see, if we go back to the previous screen, you can see many of these shields look very similar to family crests, because most people were not highly educated. And so oftentimes, they would also have these crests to help identify them.

But there were standards that were set to making sure that those wishing to be admitted into the guild were radically trained, that they had a certain body of knowledge that they had to cover and master before they could take on the work full-time. And while there was supposed to be a set number of years that the apprentice was to serve and practice, there was no set time period. And at times, this became problematic, actually, that the masters of a particular house would not allow them to move forward, simply because he knew he could control their employment. But there was a set amount or a set body of knowledge that was to be completed. And so then the expectation would be that after all of that learning, every aspect of the apprenticeship program that they went through, that they would be a master of the trade.

In all culture, there is a product or a consequence, a continuation of what has gone before. And words can oftentimes affect that or reflect it. In the cases of guilds, one word that we have in our modern vocabulary that was developed that reflected a level of achievement is the word masterpiece.

In a modern context, this word identifies a piece of work that encapsulates the best a particular person can do at the end of their career, the pinnacle of their achievement. The original use of the word masterpiece was to reflect this ending of the apprenticeship, this conclusion of the training. An apprentice had spent years with the master, and the apprentice was to learn every aspect of it. So if it was a painting guild, they learned how to prepare the canvases, they learned how to prepare the paints, because those were all mixed by hands.

They learned how to make the brushes. They learned every aspect of the trade. And so then at the end of their apprenticeship program, they had to submit a work worthy to qualify them for the title of master. Hence, it was a masterpiece that was submitted. This work would show if the apprentice was proficient enough to set up his own shop to be his own master. And considering this, then, are you a master of divinity?

We are very much like those trade guilds in a lot of ways. We have a certain body of knowledge that we're trying to master. We have certain skill sets that God is looking for, and God is calling us to be perfect. We are to be masters of the work He has called us to perform. And the Bible gives us many titles, whether it's priests or kings, whether it's sons or daughters, saints, and so forth.

And all of those are titles worthy of aspiring to. But in order to become any of those things, what needs to happen? What needs to change in order for us to be what God wants us to be? Well, we find the beginning of that answer in Genesis 17. And in Genesis 17, we have the story here. We're not going to read the whole thing. I just want to highlight one verse.

But we have the story here of the covenant being made between a Brahm at the time and God. And in any covenant, there was an expectation of obligation from both parties. Party 1 was to provide or do X. Party 2 was to provide or do X. And they were to support mutually one another. But God makes a statement here concerning this introduction I'm giving here today that is, to me, very intriguing, but also to me makes a very strong connection. And so Genesis 17, verse 1, when Abram was 99 years old, the Eternal appeared to him and said, I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be blameless.

That's the new King James. In the King James Version, it says, be perfect. And for many people, it's very intimidating, overwhelming. The Hebrew word there is talmim, which means, among other things, to be entire. It can also mean to be complete, without spot, or whole. It's the same word that's used throughout the Old Testament, especially when it's talking about the sacrifices Israel was to give. The animals brought before them were to be perfect. They were to be without spot, whole, complete. And being blameless, then, is also connected to judgment in Scripture, but not in the way that most think, even as God talks to Abram here.

Let's look next at Hebrew 6. This is what we've been covering in these series here. This matter of going on to perfection, and as I've done at the beginning of each of these sermons, I want to go back and read that section, just to have it planted in our mind, as we review each aspect of this. Hebrew 6 and verse 1 then simply says, Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of the resurrection of dead, and of eternal judgment.

And so again, each of these shows a progression of going on to perfection. And so today then we come to this aspect of considering eternal judgment. What does that mean? And in light of the introduction, what does it have to do with how or what we're to become?

Well, before we look more deeply at this matter of eternal judgment, let's go back and consider this matter of perfection a little bit more. Let's go next to 1 Peter 5 and verse 10. And we find this matter of perfection is not what we think humanly. 1 Peter 5 and verse 10. Perfection as a Christian is about an outlook and a behavior versus singular actions.

And we'll elaborate on that thought more as we go on here. But we're to strive for perfection. As God told Abram, he told him to become perfect. It has to be an attainable thing, or God would never ask it of him. So in 1 Peter 5 and verse 10, Peter here records for us, "...but may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you, that it is through Christ that we become perfected." One of the interesting points made by motivational speakers, these success gurus, is that in order to achieve something, whatever that is, whatever we want to succeed at, it could be sports, it could be business, it could be education, it could be any number of things, in order to succeed, a big, big, big part of it is that the person must believe that it is possible to succeed and that they view it as already having succeeded at it.

There is no doubt. Do you see yourself as being able to be perfect before God? If not, why not?

This is a biblical principle, though. Let's look at Proverbs 23 next.

How we think in our minds, as I just said in different words, how we think in our minds, oftentimes greatly influences what we actually do. If you tell a young child they're stupid their whole life, they will begin to believe it. You tell them they're ugly, you tell them they're worthless. Conversely, if you motivate them, tell them how much they love them, that they're capable of so much, we respond to these things internally that we picture in our minds. Proverbs 23 verse 7 speaks to this matter. It says, for as he, or as the King James says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So back to my question, do you see yourself as being able to be perfect before God?

If not, why not? In Romans 4.17 we read a similar statement. Let's read that next.

Romans 4 and verse 17, because we look at this now not from our perspective, as we think in our heart, but rather what God sees, how God views this. And this speaks to this matter of perfection.

Romans 4 and in verse 17, Paul here records, speaking about, again, Abraham, as it is written, I've made you a father of many nations, in the presence of him whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. Now, we covered the aspect of resurrections in last week's sermons. Paul then adds to this topic rather of resurrections, this additional element of God viewing things that don't currently exist as though they do. In God's mind, his whole plan of salvation is finished. It is just a matter of time. In God's mind, you and I are there. It's just a matter of whether we're part of the process.

Too often, the problem we have is that we think we're going to do something perfectly out of the gate without mistake or error, which is just not humanly possible. I mean, think about growing up. How long it takes us to master a skill? How long did it take you to learn to tie your shoes? Or to learn how to put English together in a way that most people would understand? Or to do any number of things? We try, we make a mistake, we try, we make a mistake, we build on all of those things until we finally master whatever skill it is. It's really no different spiritually speaking. The perfection that God is talking about is possible with practice in all aspects of our lives, but not just any practice. It takes perfecting practice.

In Luke 21 verse 19 there on the screen, Christ talks about impatience we possess our souls. Let's just read that rather than me just quoting it. Luke 21, and in verse 19, that oftentimes too we're impatient with ourselves. We think if we're not perfect right away, then it's not going to happen. It's always interesting to read these various success stories, if you will, individuals that have dedicated a huge part of their life, and suddenly they're overnight sensations. Most people don't see the decades of work, the decades of persistence, the decades of solitude that went into them getting to that point.

Luke 21 and verse 19, Christ here says, by your patience possess you your souls.

So think of it this way. If God is patient with us, how patient are we with ourselves?

God is amazingly patient with us, and I'm grateful for that. But patience can also mean wrestling with God. That's the reference there of Genesis 32. God wanted to see what Jacob would do. Jacob was known as a supplanter, the heel that he grabbed coming out of the wound, and then the deception he had with his brother Esau. And then all that was done in the midst of working with Laban, how he was corrected time and time again, and I think God wanted to see if he had learned anything. And so they rustle all night, and Jacob, to his credit, prevailed. He would not give up until the man of God, as it says there in Genesis, put his hip out of place.

Which is incredibly painful if you've ever dislocated anything.

He still would not give up, and he asked for a blessing. That patience, that determination, that stick-to-itiveness. 2 Corinthians 6 there says very much the same thing, that in our patience, we achieve these things. That patience is the beginning of a list of things that we're to master. We don't always control, and yet it brings to us a possession of all things.

1 Thessalonians 1.3 talks very similar to the patience of our hope as in Christ. And to me, that even goes back to Romans 4, as God talking about things that don't exist, but also many of the other things that we've touched on, even to this point. So with this concept of perfection in mind, let's connect it back to Hebrews 6 and matters of judgment. Let's go next to Matthew 11. Christ here was condemning many of his day because they had heard him, they had seen him, they had witnessed the things that he had done, they had heard the stories. And in the midst of all these powerful examples, these amazing miracles and whatnot that were done, they simply refused to change. And so Matthew 11 and verse 20, he says to them, he began to rebuke them because they weren't repenting. Verse 21, so he says, "'Woe to you, Corazin, woe to you, Bessadia, for the mighty works which were done in you, if they had been done entire inside of they would have repented long ago and sacked cloth and ashes.'" These were cities that were not only unrepentant, but they were also ignorant of God's ways, and they received the consequences of that. But Christ is saying, look, if I had explained to them what I'm explaining to you, they would have quickly and easily repented. Verse 22, "'But I say to you, it would be more tolerable and tired and sighted in that day of judgment than for you, because to not know and do in ignorance is different than knowing and refusing.'" And so he says, verse 23, "'And you, Capernaum, who were exalted to heaven, he brought down to the grave, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, they would have remained until this day.'" And Sodom was the height of debauchery. We still use that term today.

But it was because they didn't know any different. Verse 24, for he says, "'It will be more tolerable for them in the day of judgment than for you.'" Let's look at the next verse there. Matthew 12, across the page or so, Matthew 12 and verse 41.

He continues this thought, this time with Nineveh. And he says, "'For the men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

The queen of the south will rise up as well in the day of judgment, and this generation will condemn it.

For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.'" Again, they didn't act on anything they knew. This patience also involves doing, and these groups of people were not doing anything. But we're talking about going on to perfection here. In this matter of judgment, especially as Matthew touches on it here, this matter of judgment, the word talks about a process of investigation or a tribunal.

That's not always a bad thing. Sometimes we'll have hearings in our government so that people understand what's happening all too easily. They can turn into political wranglings, but still, the purpose is to understand, to collect information, and that's much what that word is talking about.

But if we're talking about judgment from Scripture, what does that mean? Does it mean the same thing? Is there more to it? What does God's judgment look like on whether we're perfect or not?

We're not talking about judgment on one aspect of our actions. We'll develop that thought more as we go along here, but rather judgment regarding our eternal life. The idea of judgment, though, can be scary, especially when we're talking about eternity. Most don't know, and even many of those that do know, many won't even care that there's something like a judgment to come. But what does eternity mean to a human mind that can only understand a physical timeline? The point of history is so that there would be a me. That's the way most people view it. History didn't matter until I was born, and then after I'm dead, I don't care. Sure, right? We're very self-oriented with these things. But let's look at Isaiah 57 there. We're looking at something beyond our comprehension, and we can grasp aspects of it, but not fully, because we're outside of a true reality.

We look at someone like God, and we say, well, how could he have lived forever without a beginning?

That's outside of our understanding, isn't it? Everything, every one that we know has had a beginning. To consider someone who is not is beyond our comprehension. But even how God lives, Isaiah 57 and verse 15, it says here, for thus says the high and lofty one. Notice, who inhabits eternity. God lives in time. God is not a product of time.

He is not bound by the constructs of time. He lives in time, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit to receive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite ones. We struggle with what it means to understand these things. But God is living in a completely different realm, a different level of existence. He lives in eternity. We even struggle to understand the magnitude of what we have discovered about the universe. The more they look, the more they find, and then they have more questions. Every time they look at what they think is a dark part of the universe and focus their telescopes on it for a time, they find hundreds, if not thousands and thousands of other galaxies that they couldn't even see. And then to ponder these nebula and all these just amazingly things we find in the universe around us. All that God has even tucked away just on this planet.

It's been said that we know more about the surface of Mars than we know about the deep ocean.

We still are finding out things down there that they've never seen before, understanding things that they've never put together. Then we're just a little dot in one arm of that galaxy, the Milky Way.

But the physical is finite, isn't it? No matter how long, no matter how large, it has a beginning, it has an end. What God is offering is eternal beyond the physical, way beyond what we could understand. What does it mean to live forever?

We have no idea. We struggle to understand how old we are right now.

Right? No matter what age you are, you think you're so young.

You know, you're 18, you're 20. And then your body says, no, no, you're not.

What God is offering is far beyond this life. Physical events and time spheres have no meaning, no concept. When eternity is considered a million years, it's just a second.

I heard an apocryphal story, if you will, at one point. Years ago, some of you remember the name Dr. Hay. Dr. Hay had an office at the administration building out there in Pasadena. And oftentimes, because many people knew that's where the headquarters main offices were of Worldwide Church of God, you'd have all kinds of people show up with all kinds of ideas, all kinds of agendas. And one day, this one individual showed up, and he wanted to talk to Mr. Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong was either unavailable or out of town, so they asked Dr. Hay to speak to this person. Well, the long and short of it was that he determined this person was demon-possessed.

Dr. Hay, being Dr. Hay, he was always intrigued by these things, so he didn't want to just dismiss this individual. He was going to ask him some questions. And so he did. He started asking him different things. And this demon understood that he knew that this was a demon possessing this individual. But one of the questions that's always stuck with me, this person relayed, was that Dr. Hay asked him how old he was. And he says, I don't know. And he said, what do you mean, you don't know. He says, well, before God created man, there was no time. Which is an interesting thing to consider, isn't it? Before he created physical, there was no time. That's part of what Isaiah 57 means here. God lives outside of that. He created time. Time is a physical construct.

And we try to wrap our head around that, don't we? Nothing physical is eternal. Nothing physical even approximates eternity. Nothing physical will ever be eternal. We even read that in 1 Corinthians 15, flesh and blood cannot inherit. Eternity by its very nature, by the enormous vastness inherent in the word itself, transcends all of that physicality. And that's what God is offering.

While we can grasp certain elements of eternity, we can't comprehend it because we've never lived it. It's like trying to describe marriage to somebody who's never been married. Or parenthood to someone who has never had children. Or any of these things that we can ponder.

Mr. Schmidt, my remote here is not advancing. Could you move that to the next one for me?

Up. Looks like the battery.

I forgot to plug it in, so he'll take care of that for me.

So let's go to 1 Corinthians 2 next while he catches that up with me. 1 Corinthians 2.

Part of the reason why we can't understand this concept of eternity, and even in general, why mankind cannot understand spiritual things, is because that's outside of what we can understand physically. God has placed enough understanding with us. We call that spirit in man. He's given us a different brain, if you will, a different amount of understanding of the physical world around us that we can ponder certain things. We ponder why we even exist, what happens after death, questions like this that the philosophers we've covered this before ponder. In 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14, it says here, But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

So if we try to go and talk to someone who does not have God's Spirit about the Sabbath, about the Holy Days, about tithing, about anything that God reveals from his word, they're not going to understand it. It's like Alyssia talking Spanish to me.

I don't understand it. I don't speak it. It's a different language completely.

This is very similar here. God is speaking to us in his language, and if he does not reveal it to us, then we're not going to understand it. So there's not a condemnation to the world. We'll come back to that towards the end of the sermon. But the uniqueness of the human mind is that we are almost but not quite capable of comprehending the eternity. It's just outside of our reach in many ways.

But even assuming the entirety of the universe is as old as the cosmologists tell us, and they're not in complete agreement. Some say 10, some say 12, some say 15 billion years. How long is that?

You know, you're 50, 60, 20 years old, whatever happens to be. I mean, we try to wrap our heads around that, but it's just seemingly incomprehensible compared to whatever length of time we're comfortable with. But it's still just a few fleeting seconds of the endless vastness of eternity.

And so we struggle with these things. So let's go to 2 Corinthians 4, the next verse on the list there, next book. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 18.

Paul then sort of turns this and looks at it from God's perspective. So it's not, God's truth is not understood by the natural human mind unless God's Spirit is working with them. And so then let's turn this and look at it more from God's perspective. While we do not look at things which are seen, but the things that are not seen, we look at the Sabbath. Okay, it's a time period, but what does the Sabbath look like?

What does a Holy Day look like? What does the Holy Spirit look like? What does, you know, we look at so many of these concepts, we can't grasp them physically, can we?

They're discerned. And so we're looking at these things which can't be seen by the, and then seeing them as if they are. It says, for the things which are seen are temporary.

This life, time itself, it's all limited. He says rather, but we look for the things which are eternal that transcend all of this. And so our perspective should be different in the world.

We're not chasing the things that they're chasing. We're not limited in the scope of understanding that they are. We're not fixated on the politics or whatever's going on in the world around us. We know that's all temporary. And so then we come back to this concept of time. That when we're young, we seem to have all the time in the world. That at six and a half, that half is important, at six and a half, we think life will go on forever. But when we get to be 70 or 80, we begin to wonder how much we have left. And it's all passed in a flash. It was just yesterday I was graduating college and getting married. But the reality of eternity is always there, isn't it? Never leaves us. We wonder, though, we oftentimes get too preoccupied with this life. How we're going to pay bills, whether the kids are going to do okay in their life, you know, fixing the car next week, or vacation, or whatever it happens to be. We spend our week longing and working for the weekend, and then it's over in a flash, and we're back into it again. Another month disappears, another year is gone, and before we know it, as I mentioned, we're sort of at the end of our life looking back. We don't like to think about death. And so mankind has in the back of its mind this question of what happens after death as we covered last week. But we're not left without hope. The creator God, the God who created us, the God who inhabits eternity, who designed our human mind to be almost capable of understanding eternity, has given us the knowledge of what eternity can mean to all of mankind. Knowledge that has to be revealed, as we read a moment ago.

Paul describes this in Hebrews 6, 1, and 2. We've been covering all these sermons, the fundamental doctrines that will lead us to this perfection that God is desiring in us, that leads us to eternal judgment that shows God in His Word taking us beyond this life to a true reality. Now all that can be very abstract, can't it? So let's see if we can bring this down to something a little more concrete. What does judgment mean when you think about it in Scripture?

To oftentimes judgment means the decision reached after considering every sin that you've ever committed from the time you were a little baby until you draw your last breath. Is that what God is doing? How many sins have you committed in your lifetime? I've only committed two.

Indifference and rebellion. But in terms of application, how many? All right. If judgment is then this cataloging, if judgment is a balance sheet that God pulls out and says, okay, let's look at your life. If He was going to read every sin and then do that for every person, how much time would that take? It would take forever. How many billions of people have ever lived? What are we up to? Almost 7.4 billion now currently on the face of the earth, plus all the billions that have gone before. Is judgment then considering every sin we've committed? I've put a little simple formula up there. Every sin that we've committed. And then determining the severity, because stealing a candy bar is a whole lot worse than killing someone. No? So you have to determine the severity. And then deciding whether the good outweighs the bad, if you've done enough good things to offset that. And then hopefully God throws in some mercy there. And at the bottom of it, the good outweighs the bad, and perhaps we can get eternal life. That's Satan's perspective. That's the world's perspective. Satan wants us to see God as this displeased parent who is looking for a reason to punish us. But we know that's not the case, don't we? What happens to our sin when we repent? What does God say He does with that sin? He removes it as far as east is from the west. So go back to those images of the universe. How far is that? And if the cosmologists are right, and that universe is still expanding, then it just gets further and further away.

So we know that's not the case, but what is eternal judgment? Judgment is God will exercise. It is not as the world practices it. When we read of judgment in the Bible, we should see it as a joyful thing, that we should be very excited. And we're not going to cover even a fraction of the verses today that talk about judgment. That could be a Bible study for yourself at some point. But let's put this with something concrete. How many of you have graduated from high school, college, or some other form of advanced learning? Probably just about everybody here. Okay. How many thousands of hours of work did you put into classes, and studying homework, and taking tests, and maybe even outside work like labs, or other things connected to it? All of that before you were able to go through the graduation ceremony. Depends on the degree, two-year programs, four-year programs. High school was 12 years of cumulative work. And so we get to the end of that, and we graduate. Now, is there a minimum requirement for graduation? Everyone has to have a 4.0, or you do not graduate.

That's a pretty tough bar, isn't it? Some do, but it's the few. There is a minimum requirement for graduation, isn't there? You get all F's, you can't graduate. You have to master the core elements, the core topics, the core information before you can move on. Some classes you will do better than others. Just because of your interest? I excelled at lunch. That was one of my...

I liked the social sciences, I liked art, I liked those things, I didn't do so well in math. I did the minimum there, and then didn't do any more. Some classes are more interesting than others. There are a few classes I took that knew would stretch me. I probably would not do very well on grade-wise, but I liked the content. I liked the teacher. Some classes require more towards the core. Some classes are what we call electives. They don't go towards the core. They're just filler classes to expose you to other aspects of knowledge or whatever it happens to be. But at the course, at the end of your course of study, you received recognition of achieving a milestone goal. And most people then celebrate. You have a graduation party, an achievement party. Made it through the course, succeeded, and it's a time of recognition. Why do we not see eternal judgment the same way? God is not looking for us to fail. He's looking for us to succeed. He's looking at things that are not as though they are. Why would he tell a brahm to become perfect if it was impossible? He didn't tell him it because it was impossible. He was telling it to a brahm because it was possible. And so it will be with God's judgment.

Only God's graduation day will be far more than a few years of study. Some of us have put decades and decades behind this. Some of us are fairly new to us to this aspect of living God's way of life. But whatever the case is, that it will end up being most of our life. But the rewards are greater than any diploma. God's judgment is really a decision. Have we mastered the core material?

Are we able to show him a masterpiece that we know a fair amount of everything that's required to be a master of divinity? That we understand his way of life? That we know how to practice it? We know how to teach it? If only an example. But we've mastered that core. And so we see then judgment is really a decision on God's part. Not as to whether or not we qualify. That's been determined over time. We've mastered the program over time. But God is then looking for that at that time period of judgment of where we individually fit within his family.

Before we come back to that thought, let's go back to Genesis 22 there on the screen.

Because I also find intriguing in Abraham's life how long God worked with him before he made a statement that we're going to read here. In Genesis 17, if you'll remember, he told a Brahm to become perfect. And so in Genesis 22 we have here the story of God telling Abraham at this time to sacrifice Isaac. This was the son of promise. This was after 25 years of waiting for God to work out this covenant that they had agreed to. This was during the time after the time period of when Abraham and Sarah thought, well maybe God isn't going to work it out the way he said. Maybe he needs our help. And so then Abraham had a son through Hagar and all the mess that that created. And so we come down to God telling Abraham, go sacrifice your son. And then in verse 12, after the trek of three days, after leaving the other men, after taking the wood up, after binding Isaac, putting him on there, whatever conversations they had, Abraham raises the knife and as he begins to strike, God stops him. So verse 12, do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him.

For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

25 plus years later, God says to Abram, now I know. Did he not know before? All that he had been through, all that he had done. I would argue that he did. This was not a singular moment. This was a culmination of the last 25 plus years and goes back before that. When he left Ur, when he did the things that God told him to do, going down to Egypt and everything else, we view judgment as this singular point. And God's looking at the totality of our lives. What are we doing? Are we mastering the curriculum? Are we following the instruction? And even better, are we applying it so that it changes us? So when you have that diploma, you go out to get a job.

Employer asks you about that, don't you? Where's your degree? What was your degree in?

You know, what sort of projects did you work on? If it was a hands-on type of diploma, an engineering job, you know, you go apply for an engineering job, they want to know what sort of engineering internships or projects or whatever that you've worked on. God wants to know by the end of the time when we graduate, if you will, can we take the core curriculum and apply it?

And so in that regard, then, God is more deciding on where we fit.

And so in all of this, we have a responsibility.

So let's look next at Matthew there.

Matthew 16.

In the parable of the workers in the vineyard, the lesson is that at the end of the day, everybody got paid the same.

And that didn't seem fair to those who bore the heat. They go out at eight o'clock, the master of the vineyard shows up, they'll do this in some parts of the country, drive up to the corner and you'll say, I need day laborers. Who wants to work?

And you'll get some hands up. Yep, yep, I'll do it. So here's the agreed upon price. Here's what we're doing. They all go out to the field, they start working. So he sees in that parable, he doesn't have enough guys. So he goes back to get more, and he still doesn't have enough. So he goes back to get more. The agreed upon price is all the same. Whether they started at eight o'clock, whether they started at noon, whether they came in at three o'clock. So they all quit at five, and the ones that started at eight say, well surely he's going to pay us more because we did more work and we bore the heat of the day. And he says, nope, you all get paid the same.

That's salvation. There is no degree of salvation. We're either saved or we're not.

In the end, that's what we're paid, if you will. What's different is what Matthew 16 here talks about. Matthew 16 verse 27. He says, for the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to his works. He will not give salvation according to his works. Salvation cannot be earned. We only show God what we do because he is offering us salvation. We do that through our obedience to his law, his instruction, how we treat one another, and so forth. But the reward, what God will have us do in his kingdom, depends on a large degree as to what we do with the calling he has given us. Some people excel, some people not so much, some of it will depend on talent and ability. But again, salvation is salvation.

And God then will assign us. But let's look at James chapter 1 as well.

James 1 and in verse 12, James talks to this matter of approval.

James 1 verse 12 says, blessed is the man who endures temptation. Blessed is the man that through the course of his life, learns to rule over sin. That was the instruction to Cain. If you go back to Genesis 4, God told Cain that he needed to dominate those desires or they would rule him. So James is saying much the same. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive a crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. That at the end of the life, God says, you're approved.

He's not going to say, well, this sin and this sin and, you know, throw in man, subtract this good work, as I said with that earlier little simple equation. That's not how God views this.

That through this approval process of what we do with our calling now.

So I have a little question up there. How long does it take God to judge an individual?

The concept is that he does it quickly. At the end of our life, we're resurrected, however that plays out, depending on where we are in God's plan of salvation. He comes to a decision in a few minutes and then makes his determination. Well, for some people, that's going to be problematic, isn't it? If you've never had the understanding of God's way of life, what are you judged on?

Some people have been part of the body of Christ longer than others. They've had more time to overcome, to learn, and so forth. But let's consider another aspect of this. 1 Peter 4.

I talk about this aspect of it being part of our calling now. 1 Peter 4 and verse 17 shows us this, where Peter simply says, for the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God.

We are already being judged. That's why it's important that Paul talked about that in Hebrew 6. This is part of our calling now. This is not something nebulous off in the future. This is not an eternity we can't wrap our mind around. This is an aspect of understanding that we're qualifying. We're not obligating God. We're not earning salvation. But we are seeking to be approved.

That we're accountable now. And so then it says, time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Once a person's mind is open to the truth, if they do not obey the gospel, then Peter's asking, not a rhetorical question, he's asking a serious question here.

There's nothing worse than to be given a gift, such as a calling, and then to turn away from it. Scripture says there is no more sacrifice for that.

We have both an opportunity and a responsibility here. We have an opportunity to be called by God now in this age. Scripture talks about this being the first resurrection, the first fruits, that is a better resurrection. There's a blessing that comes from it. And the blessing is because it's harder now. We're fighting against so much opposition. It won't be as hard in the millennium. It won't be as hard in the second resurrection. So that's the opportunity. We're called now, but we also have a responsibility to do something with it.

The reference there to Hebrews 11, we're not going to read any one verse there, but just a reminder there to look at those individuals as faithful who were judged in this lifetime. None of them have been resurrected yet. We know that from Scripture. And yet God calls them faithful. Look at their lives. It's a mixture of good and bad at times, isn't it?

David did some horrible things, but he also did some amazing things. And one of the most amazing things was he yielded to God in spite of his sins when he was called out on them.

He said, yeah, I'm wrong. And he changed.

God is looking at that. What are we doing with what God has given us?

When Peter stated that judgment must begin at the house of God, he was directing his comments to those whom God is calling. So how do you know if God is calling you? And that's not just a question to those that are not baptized. That's any of us to be reminded. How do I know God is calling me?

How do I know God is working with me? Well, let's look at Matthew 3, verse 8 there.

Here in Matthew, we have the example of John the Baptist, and he's out baptizing in the River Jordan. And he's beginning to get a name. Individuals are coming out from Jerusalem and all other cities there around Judea. Some of them are curious. They simply want to see and hear what John is saying. It's the viral thing of the day. Some truly are moved by what he's saying. They're hearing bits of it. They want to hear more. And so you get this mixed group that are coming out, and amongst them were the Pharisees. And John had enough of God's Spirit to be able to look at these individuals and knew they were not serious about anything he was talking about. So he calls them out on it when they come out. In verse 7, he's saying, Who warned you of the wrath to come? Why are you here? So in verse 8, he puts it to them. He says, If you're going to be here then, bear fruit worthy of repentance. And that's all of us. Certainly at the beginning of our calling, to know that we need to go through baptism, but it never stops to show God that we are indeed repentant. It requires a change in behavior. How do we know that that's working in us?

Where are we grieved when it is shown out to us that we're doing something wrong according to God's Scripture? Does it pain us? Or we move deeply when we read God's Word to know that He's talking to us individually, and that the things we read He holds out are just beyond comprehension in many regards. And yet He loves us so much. He's put all of this in place so that we can be in His family. Are we excited and fascinated by what He is offering?

I've had conversations with people that are just truly sad when they get to a point when they think they don't need to be taught anymore. I've had people tell me that. I am beyond that. I've said, oh boy, I told one individual, I hope somebody slaps me if I ever say that, because if that's ever the case, then I've stopped learning. Do you see yourself as God sees you? Not as you see you. We see all of our weaknesses. We know what's in our heart. And while we need to address that, do we see ourselves as God sees us? Remember, He looks at things that are not as though they are.

We're in His kingdom. Do you see yourself that way? Do you see the need to change and overcome your carnal nature constantly? Do you desire to become like God?

Those are all aspects of our calling. And I mentioned how God is looking at where He wants to place us. And let's look at that in John chapter 14, that we're preparing for something beyond this life. And judgment is about where we fit, then, in that life. Not a spreadsheet, looking at our accountability, our sins versus our good works. And hopefully the good works outweigh the sin. John 14 in verse 2, Christ gives us a different perspective. In verse 1 to back up, He says, Don't let your heart be troubled. Don't worry about these things. How many people have you heard say, I hope to be in the kingdom? That's not a position of Scripture. Going back to what we talked about in the introduction, I talked about if you don't see that as a reality in your mind, it's probably not going to happen. Or it's going to be much harder to get there.

Christ says, Don't let your heart be troubled. Verse 2, In my father's house are many mansions.

Some translations can put that as rooms. Some can put it as offices. By extension, then it would be authority. That Christ is preparing these things in God's family.

I'm preparing them. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.

Where do you fit in God's family? We don't have a clue, do we? But do you ever think about that?

What would you like to do?

We look at that universe and it's just truly astounding.

There are a lot of things I'd like to understand. I don't have the mind to understand right now. I know enough to know that I have no clue.

But judgment and development of the people of God must take place now, during this age, so that as a group we assist Him in judging those to come. And again, it's not this spreadsheet, this balance sheet, it's to teach them so that they can rule, they can develop the mind of God, so that they can be in His family.

God has structured all of that, the spiritual and the physical realities that we know, so that there are these different areas of responsibility. What is it going to be like when Revelation 22 is fulfilled? All of mankind has either made the choice to be in his family or not.

The face of the planet is burned once again, completely. God brings New Jerusalem down, and then what? I don't think we're going to sit on our hands. Why would God give us such a creative mind as His, that we're just going to sit around? He's got something in mind. I have no clue what it is.

I find that exciting. We are never going to be bored.

Let's look at Hebrews 2 there next.

I mentioned earlier that we can glimpse these things, but there's so much that we don't know.

Hebrews 2 and in verse 8, it says, You have put all things in subjection under His feet. Speaking of mankind in general, He set in motion this physical creation. He gave us stewardship over it.

And so in that regard, He has put all things in subjection, continuing, for in that He put all in subjection under Him. He left nothing that is not put under Him. But now we do not yet see all things put under Him. There's a reality yet to come of what will be put under mankind that we don't have yet. Rulership under Christ. A healed world during the millennium. And then beyond, whatever that means. Verse 9, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels. Temporarily, for a time, He was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God might taste death for everyone, which again we covered more last week. But we don't know everything now. We don't see everything now. And so we come to Revelation 19 there, where as a church, symbolically, we marry Christ. This marriage supper. And again, it's a time of celebration, isn't it?

Ideally, every marriage is. It's a wonderful time. A union of two people to now create a family that didn't exist prior to that. And all that they'll be able to do in the synergy of that relationship that would exceed anything they could do individually. So in Revelation 19, verse 9, He says, Right, blessed are those that are called to the marriage supper. There's a blessing again for us doing this now. And the indication in Scripture is that not everyone in God's family will be at this marriage supper. This is the first resurrection. That's part of the blessing.

He said, Blessed are those called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He said to me, these are the true sayings of God. And then it all goes from there.

But God's not done yet, is He? There are still billions, if not more, individuals in the grave. And we picture that in Days of Atonement. We picture that in other, or read about it in other sections of Scripture. We have untold billions who have lived and died, never knowing God's way of life, never understanding His truth, never having been called and given the opportunity to know what this life is all about. Some worry that they're forgotten. Others try to have God's word jump through all sorts of hoops to explain all of this, that they're being judged even though they don't know. And that's not fair at all, is it? And yet, as we covered again in the previous sermon in this series, God will resurrect them. He'll give them an opportunity to understand His plan of salvation so that they can make an informed decision, so that we can be there to help, teach them, and instruct them, guide them in God's way, so they as well can be approved.

They will have their chance, their first chance, not a second chance. They will have their first chance to be in God's family. And so I want to go back to that question. How long does it take God to judge an individual? Does He quickly come to a decision in a few minutes? Or is judgment a process?

Well, let's look in Revelation 20 there. If you're at Revelation 19, just a page over or so. Revelation 20 in verse 11, we read about what is called a great white throne judgment.

That time period when these billions will be resurrected. So it says, I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, everyone, no matter what their life was like, no matter how long or short, all of those things. It didn't matter. Everybody that had lived and died standing before God, and the books were opened. And the word there is biblios, for which we get Bible. The Bible is open to them. Right now it's not. It's confusing.

Or it's a collection of myths as they see it. Or they don't even know it exists. They don't have the Bible as an understanding of how life should be lived. God's going to open that to them. And another book was opened, which was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things written in the books. If they don't know it's there to begin with, how can they be judged? Again, it's not fair, is it? God is going to do this in order. He's going to show them before He judges them. And so then how long does it take, is my question asked? Well, Isaiah 6520 up there is the only hint we have in Scripture. And it simply gives an indication that that second resurrection will be about a hundred years. An infant, an old man, they'll live to be a hundred years. Well, that's a lifetime, isn't it? 60 years, 70 years, 80 years, 100 years. There's probably not a whole lot of difference. By the time we get to that point, we should know. We should understand. There's enough time that we can go through this. We can apply it, we can learn it, we can practice it, and we can show whether we value it or not. And so then we come to the conclusion.

Going back to my introduction, our trade is being a son or daughter of God.

We're being apprenticed right now. We've not yet graduated, but we are apprenticed in this way of life at baptism. And God has been training us ever since. He's led us through all sorts of instruction. He's corrected us along the way. He's exposed us to things that we didn't see initially. He's given us trials to master different aspects of his calling and understanding. And I look at this group of God's people and anyone that I would give this sermon to, I could say the same thing. I see a great number of masters in the trade. I see individuals who have weathered the storm, people who know their scripture, who have faithfully applied that knowledge, and who are being approved by God. Let's look at that in the last verse there in 2 Timothy 2. This judgment that we're talking about today is really a matter of God looking to see if we're approved. Do we have an understanding of his way of life sufficient enough to submit to him a masterpiece? That God would say, yep, you can do this. I see it. I see it in your actions. I see it in your heart. I see it in your thinking. I see it in your words. I see it in you. 2 Timothy 2 in verse 15. Be diligent to present yourself approved. If in high school a person decides to coast, it will show, and they may opt themselves out. College, it happens all the time. Most dropouts happen in their freshman year. This calling God has given us is a calling to be diligent. Notice to present yourself approved. That we do what is necessary. That God can look at it and see that his Holy Spirit is making a difference. That we're changing. That we're growing. That we're overcoming. To be approved to God, a worker who does not need to be approved, who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Judgment has indeed begun at the house of God. But God will judge all who have ever lived and died. We are working towards graduating into his family, and so will the balance of mankind in God's timing. He will give all the opportunity to know and understand that he is offering eternal life to those who will live in his law. May we all continue going on to perfection.