Sermon on Lord's Day 19 Q&A 52⤒🔗

52. Q. What comfort is it to you that Christ will come to judge the living and the dead?
A. In all my sorrow and persecution I lift up my head and eagerly await as judge from heaven the very same person who before has submitted Himself to the judgment of God for my sake, and has removed all the curse from me.[1] He will cast all His and my enemies into everlasting condemnation, but He will take me and all His chosen ones to Himself into heavenly joy and glory.[2]
[1] Luke 21:28; Rom. 8:22-25; Phil. 3:20,21; Tit. 2:13, 14. [2] Matt. 25:31-46; I Thess. 4:16, 17; II Thess. 1:6-10. God the Holy Spirit and our Sanctification

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 28:1-8; 15-26; 58-68; Revelation 6:1-8; I Thessalonians 5:1-11

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Hymn 50:1,7
Psalm 96:8
Psalm 12:4
Psalm 1:1,2,3
Hymn 57:3,4

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

There is so much speculation about the future. Things of the past are fixed, they’re done, they’ve happened, and so there’s very little room for speculation about the past. But the future: it’s wide open for our imagination to roam where it will…. And it does.

Of all the doctrines of the Christian faith confessed in the Apostles’ Creed, the confession about the return of Jesus Christ is the first that pertains to the future. Like anything else about the future, we find the subject intriguing. Imagine: Jesus on the clouds of heaven, then the dead in Fremantle will rise from their graves, and so will the thousands buried under the rubble of the collapsed buildings of Turkey’s earthquake. Truly, it grabs the imagination! What will it be like? How will it happen? When will it be? We’ve got so many questions, and we’d love just as many answers. So books about the end abound…. And people take action too; I gather there’s a group convinced that Jesus will come back in four months time, at the turn of the millennium, and so they’ll be in Jerusalem for the New Year – because that’s where they expect Him to appear…. I trust that we for our part do not think that the turn of the millennium is a special day on God’s calendar; let’s remember that the Lord Jesus will come at a time we don’t expect, like a thief in the night…. Our Saviour could appear this evening, or as we’re engaged in our New Year’s party, or … it could be in 500 years time….

We don’t know when He’ll appear. But there’s much speculation about when it might be. And how it will happen. So we hear of pre-millennialism, and we hear of post-millennialism. We hear of a 1000-year reign, of Christ setting up His throne in Jerusalem, of Jews returning to the Lord and His Christ. There’s speculation about the Signs of the Times, about the significance of earthquakes and wars, of pollution and global warming and salination and you name it. We’re told also: Christ can’t come back yet, because all the evils mentioned in the Bible have not yet occurred….

How, brothers and sisters, do we arm ourselves against all this chatter? What are we to think about the return of our Saviour? What will it be like? When should we expect Him?

The antidote to all the speculation on the topic, congregation, is a proper understanding of the role given in Scripture to the doctrine of the covenant. For that reason I want this afternoon to open with you the Bible, and look at the return of our ascended Lord in the light of the covenant.

I summarise the sermon with this theme:

Christ’s return shall be according to the promises of the covenant

1. the events before His coming
2. the events after His coming

The Events Before His Coming←⤒🔗

That Christ comes back is beyond all doubt for anyone who takes the Bible seriously. After all, the angels on the day of Jesus’ ascension spoke these words to the disciples: ‘This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven’ (Acts 1:11). Meanwhile, the Lord rules from heaven over all the earth; from His place at the right hand the ascended Saviour is King of kings and Lord of lords.

According to what principle, now, does the Lord rule over all the world? Certainly, He rules over all for the benefit of His church, He is busy gathering His church from every tribe and tongue and nation. But has the Lord revealed by what pattern He is ruling?

As it turns out, He has. We read a portion from the Lord’s words to Israel in Deut 28. What was very clear from these words is that God’s actions in the midst of Israel are directly connected to Israel’s actions. That’s to say: God claimed Israel for Himself and established with this people His covenant. Then God said to His own: if you obey, I will bless; "Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country," etc. Equally, if you do not obey, I will curse; "Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country." We know the history that followed. When Israel obeyed God’s commands (as in the days of David and Solomon), things went very well for the people; they prospered and lived in happiness and peace. But more often Israel chose to ignore God’s commands, with as result that the history recorded in the Old Testament tells us time and again of the difficulties the people found themselves in, be it the difficulties of famine or of plague or of war or of oppression. Think of the horrors of the book of Judges, think of the unrest and the wars and the famines in the days of the kings, think of the climax of God’s judgment in the exile. It’s to be fixed in our minds: all those difficulties were nothing else than God being faithful to the covenant He made long ago: if you listen I will bless, but if you will not listen I will curse.

But the covenant did not cease with the coming of Christ. True, the Jews are no longer the special covenant people. In the New Testament dispensation, the covenant is made instead with the spiritual seed of Abraham, with believers and their seed. And because the gospel has spread over the face of all the earth, many from over all the world have come to faith in Jesus Christ. Well now, with these believers and their seed God has established His unchanging covenant. And that in turn means that the saints of the New Testament dispensation have also received –like Israel of old- God’s promise of blessing upon obedience and His promise of punishment upon disobedience. Indeed, if it should be that believers and their children should turn from the Lord, if in other words they would break the covenant God established with them, God will pour out His wrath upon them - covenant wrath. And this wrath is expressed in the New Testament in terms borrowed from the Old Testament, ie, this wrath is expressed in terms of earthquakes, of wars, of the sun being darkened, of the moon turning to blood, and so on. So the plagues prophesied in chapters of Scripture as Rev 6 are the plagues also mentioned in the Old Testament, the plagues Israel experienced when they turned from the Lord, were unfaithful to His covenant.

The chapter tells us of a white horse, whose rider has a bow in his hand and a crown on his head; this ruler went out conquering and to conquer. That is: here is one nation rising against another, making war against another – even as God prophesied upon covenant disobedience in Dt 28. The chapter tells us of a red horse, whose rider took peace from the earth so that people would kill one another. That is: here is the notion civil war, of rebellion – even as the Lord mentioned in Dt 28. The chapter tells us of a black horse, whose rider had in his hands a pair of scales to weigh food for sale. The price is exorbitant; a litre of wheat for a day’s wages. Here is the famine foretold on covenant disobedience in Dt 28. The chapter tells us of a pale horse, and the name of the rider was Death, with Hades following behind. The rider has power to kill with sword, with hunger with death and by the beasts of the earth. Here are the plagues of Dt 28 again, war and hunger and pestilence and being overrun by wild animals. You see: the plagues that God prophesied in the Old Testament in response to covenant disobedience appear on the pages of New Testament Scripture as well. For the promises of the covenant –blessing on obedience and curse on disobedience- forms the pattern for who the ascended Saviour rules the world.

Well now: what is it that has happened in the New Testament dispensation? Paul says that the gospel has been proclaimed to the ends of the earth in his day . Col 1:23: "…the gospel which you heard … was preached to every creature under heaven" (cf Rom 16:26; II Tim 4:17; Mk 16:20). But how have people responded to that gospel? Some rejected it, others accepted it. Those, now, who accepted that gospel: have they and their descendants maintained the covenant God made with them and their seed after them? We know enough of history to know that men have time and again turned away from the gospel. In one of his first letters, those to the Thessalonians, Paul wrote that the falling away had to come before Christ could return (II Thess 2:3). That falling away has come, yes, it appeared already in the days of Paul. His last letter, the second to Timothy, relates this: "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world" (4:10). And: "Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm" (4:14). And: "Hymenaeus and Philetus … have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past" (2:17f). And so I can continue. Paul makes it clear that already in the first generation of New Testament believers saints fell away from the Lord and His service. Well now: to fall away is to break the covenant made with believers and their seed, and on such falling away, on such apostasy, on that attitude of rebellion and lawlessness there necessarily had to come the wrath of the God of the covenant.

Indeed, through out New Testament church history there has continually been covenant people breaking that covenant, children of believers wanting nothing to do with the Lord and His service; always in the course of New Testament history there has been that attitude of rebellion, of lawlessness, of knowing it better than God Himself. So it is too that throughout New Testament history the world has seen so many of God’s chastisements, so many expressions of His covenant wrath, a wrath provoked by the thousands who fall away, the children of a believing generation that want nothing to do with the Lord and His service. Apostasy is a continuous theme in our dispensation, and that is why earthquakes and wars, famines and disasters are also persistent themes in our dispensation. This is what it means that history is church history. Would that we would learn to read both history text books and the newspapers in light of God’s covenant promises!

Can we say, then, that much must happen yet before Christ can return; there must first come wars and earthquakes, and we must be persecuted and imprisoned? Not so, beloved. It was 2000 years ago, when the New Testament was first written, that the church was told that there must come apostasy before Christ can come back. That apostasy with its resulting horrors has occurred, and that is why Paul expected the Saviour to come back in his day already (cf I Thess 5:6). That falling away has continued through the centuries, and is even now occurring. So it is not for us to say that Christ cannot come back yet. He surely can. And He will, as soon as "the number of the elect is complete" (Art 37). And when that is, we do not know, and certainly cannot even begin to guess. That is why we are not to imagine that the return of Christ will surely be in the hazy future far off. No, "the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night," (I Thess 5:2), and I have yet to hear of the thief who tells his victim ahead of time when he’s coming. Hence the instruction of the apostle: "let us not sleep..., but let us watch and be sober" (I Thes 5:6ff).

Since that is so, congregation, it is for us to be ready to meet the Lord, now. That means that each and every one of us needs to make it our business to be repentant of every sin of which we’re guilty. One can hide things from people, one can mislead people too, but none of us can hide a thing from the Judge who weighs the hearts. He comes at an hour we do not expect; "When they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them" (I Thess 5:3) – unannounced. "And they shall not escape." Let no one think that repentance can wait till tomorrow, that fixing up a broken relation can be done next week, that resolving a grudge can wait till next month. We are deceived if we think that we need to see much more of wars and persecutions and earthquakes and apostasy before Christ can come back. Make no mistake, beloved: the Lord of lords most certainly can come back this evening, and that fact gives urgency to the need to be ready. And please: do not now busy your mind with whether your neighbour is ready for the Lord; busy your mind with that only after you are sure that you are yourself ready to meet the Judge.

That brings us to our second point: what shall happen after His return?

The Events After His Coming←⤒🔗

The return itself, congregation, will turn out to be according to the promises of the covenant. For those who have broken God’s covenant, that return will be most awful, will mean for the reprobate that they will be cast eternally into the fires of hell. That’s why they will seek to escape from the Judge of all the earth, will cry for the mountains to fall on them, and for the hills to cover them … (Rev 6:15). And for the believers it shall be covenant blessing; they shall receive the bliss of Paradise restored, life with God forever.

Judgment←↰⤒🔗

Judgment. Scriptures tell us that the books will be opened, every deed done by each individual will pass in a flash before the Judge. And each person will have to render account for every deed done, for every word uttered. All must explain why they did what they did, why they said what they said; all must justify themselves before the Judge of heaven and earth. But let it be fixed in our minds, congregation: not a single person shall be able to justify himself! Those with faith in Jesus Christ shall be justified by the blood of the Lamb, while those who despised the Son of God in this life shall not be justified at all. In a word: what shall be judged on the last day is whether one’s deeds have demonstrated obedience to the covenant God made, or disobedience to that covenant; what shall be judged is whether one has accepted the covenant obligations or rejected them. And it is those with faith that have accepted the covenant obligations, and those with no faith who have rejected them. So it is that those with faith in Jesus Christ receive life eternal, and those with no faith are cast into everlasting hell. In the words of the catechism: "He will take me and all His chosen ones to Himself into heavenly joy and glory" but "will cast all His and my enemies into everlasting condemnation." Allow me to expand on those two options.

Hell←↰⤒🔗

According to our LD, the future set aside for the enemies of God and His people is "everlasting condemnation." What is this ‘everlasting condemnation’ actually all about? This: it is the curses experienced on this earth on covenant breaking drawn to their ultimate degree. Take the time at home to read through the entirety of Dt 28, and notice how the section in that chapter dealing with curses on covenant breaking mentions punishments of greater and greater severity, punishments harder and harder to bear. It ends up at the end of the chapter like this: "the Lord will give you ... a trembling heart…, and a languishing soul...; night and day you shall be in dread.... In the morning you shall say: ‘Would it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say, ‘Would it were morning!’ because of the dread which your heart shall fear...’ (vss 65ff). And what now is hell? Says Jesus: hell is that place where men ‘will weep and gnash their teeth’ (Mt 25:30). And that, beloved, is the final punishment of Dt 28 intensified! What is hell? The chastisements God promised in Scripture upon covenant breakers are but a foreshadowing of the terrors of that awful place! Hell is unending covenant wrath; that’s what makes hell so terrible!

Christ comes to judge, and you and I do not know when He’ll His Day will be. We do know what will happen on that day. He will cast all "His enemies" –and that’s those who reject His covenant- "into everlasting condemnation." That’s why now is the time to ensure that none of us rejects the covenant God has made with us; now we still have opportunity to answer with faith to the demands God has laid upon each one of us in our baptism. Well does Jesus tell His disciples –and so His people of all ages- not to fear persons (for the worst they can do is kill the body) but rather to fear God. For, said Jesus, God is able to "destroy both soul and body in hell" (Mt 10:28). And He will too if those whom He has claimed as His children persist in rejecting the covenant He made with them.

Heaven←↰⤒🔗

Our LD speaks also of the other side of the coin. All His and my enemies He shall cast into everlasting condemnation, but "He will take me and all His chosen ones to Himself into heavenly joy and glory." What this heavenly joy and glory is? This: it is the blessings experienced on this earth upon covenant obedience drawn to their ultimate degree. Take a moment at home to read that section of Dt 28 listing the blessings God promises on obedience to the covenant, and compare that with the bliss of the New Jerusalem described by the Lord in Rev 21 and 22. Just as hell with its weeping and gnashing of teeth is the extension of the covenantal curse pronounced in the Old Testament, so also heaven with its joy and glory is the extension of the covenantal blessings promised to Israel in the Old Testament. God promised blessings in city and field, blessings on the fruit of the body, the fruit of the ground, of the animals, etc, etc. Abundance there would be, with resulting happiness and opportunity to praise God spontaneously. And exactly that is what Scriptures say also about the heavenly joy that awaits the saints of God. For there shall be no more tears and no more sorrow. And there shall be no shortage of fruit from the land and no concerns about the fruit of the body. Covenantal blessing, perfected.

"He comes to judge the living and the dead." No one knows when the Judge will return; it could be tonight. No one wants to miss out on the fullness of the covenant blessings the Lord promises for those who love Him. That is why we want today to be ready. For "His covenant stands from age to age unbroken" – whether the promises be of blessing or of curse, in this life or the life to come. Amen.