What is the Gospel? A Series, Part IV

When the End Comes

A Sermon,

Preached on the Lord's Day

in

SANTA ANNA, July 15, 2007

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Throughout the scriptures, judgment is inexorably linked to the Gospel of God. Here the Apostle Peter makes such a forceful and clear statement of this link, that the importance of it cannot be denied. Vain religionists and false professors tend to divide mankind into two groups – First, the professing Christian (all of whom they believe to be saved), and second, the profane secularist or atheist (who they believe to be the lost). The Apostles, however, consistently divided mankind into three groups:

The righteous – not righteous in and of themselves, but them who are made righteous by the work of Christ done on their behalf and imputed to them. These are those who are clothed in white, purified by the blood of the lamb, separate from the world and from unrighteous professors.

The unrighteous professor – he who calls himself “Christian” and who professes to believe despite all evidence to the contrary. This man sleeps in false comfort and blindly walks into eternal peril with nary a concern for his eternal well-being. In this group we place all false-brethren, all the disobedient, the followers of all false religions, and all those who follow and believe a lie.

The world – all those who live on like there is no God, who neither profess Him nor do Him service, who serve their carnal man every day of their lives, and who scoff at any imminent judgment. Some of these have received and rejected the Gospel, and theirs will be a severe judgment – some have never heard the Gospel, nor have they sought the God of Creation as nature demands – their judgment is sure, but will not be as severe as both the unrighteous professor, or the atheistic worldling, both of whom have rejected the Gospel.

Writing in the mid-40's a.d., Peter foresees the coming persecution of the true Church by the Jews, which will amplify the final judgment against the Jews, which at this time was only about 25 years away. The Emperor Gaius (known as Caligula), now dead, only a few years before this sermon, declared himself to be God, and had commanded that a statue of himself be placed in every temple in the empire – including the Jews Temple in Jerusalem. Knowing that such an act would start a Civil War among the Jews, the philosopher Philo and some other Hellenistic Jews had attempted to dissuade Gaius from such a foolish act. Herod Agrippa finally convinced Gaius to reverse the order, because Herod would have been the one to have to restrain or defeat the Jews if Gaius' order were to be carried out. From this, we can know that the tensions between the Jews and the Greeks, and the Jews and the Romans, were nearing an explosion. Civil War could break out at any time, ushering in the events prophesied by Christ a little over a decade earlier. Peter and the Apostles knew that their generation of Jews would not pass (Matt. 24:34) without the judgment beginning “at the house of God”. That judgment was still on the horizon when Peter determined to use the promise of it to make a point: If God is certain to bring Judgment on the Jews for unbelief and for rejecting the Kingdom of Christ, what hope, then, could there be for those who, having the opportunity to receive the Gospel, do not obey it? If the righteous are scarcely (barely, or with difficulty) saved, where shall the unrighteous professor or the worldly sinner appear?

We now need to examine the layered meaning and fulfillments of the judgment which begins at the “house of God”. To do so, let us define the different bodies referred to as the “house of God”, and then we will look at how judgment begins with them.

The first “house of God” refers to the people who at this point called themselves “Jews” and who considered themselves to be the children of Abraham and of the promise. This “house of God” is represented by the Temple in Jerusalem, and is, when this verse was written, soon to be rejected and abandoned by God. The Temple represents the people and the religious system, which will be destroyed except for an elect few individuals whom God will save as a testimony. This “house of God” is to be utterly destroyed, with not one stone left upon another, as promised by Jesus Christ. We discussed this destruction and the ramifications of it in the last part. This judgment is coming within the generation of those Jews who heard and rejected Christ, and though it is literal, it is a type which is to be fulfilled as a sign to the professing Christians, who are the second “house of God” we must examine.

The second “house of God” - professing “christianity”, will also face a similar day of judgment. The pattern of this second house, its building, habitation, fellowship, apostasy, and ultimate rejection, will follow the pattern of the Jews. When professing “christianity” falls away from Christ, rejects Him as King, stones and crucifies Him afresh by imbibing and accepting every manner of false philosophy and doctrine of devils, Christ will bring a powerful enemy (typified by Rome) to surround, infiltrate, and destroy the professing “church”. This house is exhorted to examine itself, that it be in the faith. To a few it will be given to recognize that they are naked and in need of clothing, blind and in need of eye-salve, hungry and thirsty and in need of spiritual food and water. A remnant out of professing “christianity” will be saved – these are those who are made righteous by Jesus Christ, and are the third “house of God”.

The third “house of God”, the third “Temple” in every sense, is the Body of Christ and the habitation of God. This household will also be judged, but this house will be found faithful. This house must undergo persecution and suffering, chastisement and correction, rejection and even death. “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” (Matt. 10:25). Christ said:

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

(John 15:18-20)

This third house is called the “household of God” in Ephesians 2:19 and Galatians 6:10, and just as the first two houses are often referred to and personified as “women”, so this third house is also referred to throughout scripture as the righteous “woman” with whom the dragon is wroth, and because of this wrath he “went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17). Because of this great enmity between the dragon and the woman, it is said that the righteous are “scarcely” saved. With great difficulty, through trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, through tortures and deliverances, through temptings and wanderings, though bonds and imprisonments, through rejections and loss, through great tribulation, these persevere to the end and are the saved.

We can all agree that the final house, the true House of God, called Spiritual Israel and the Bride and Body of Christ, will be saved. ALL of this Israel shall be saved (Rom. 11:26). Our warning then, as it must, goes out to the second house, the one which is nigh on destroyed, that of professing “Christianity”, and it is to them the warnings in these scriptures are written. The parables of Christ spoke of the warning to the House of God (to each to whom it must apply). I will mention a few:

1. There are ten virgins (all Gospel professors), 5 who are wise and 5 who are foolish. The 5 wise are accepted of Him, while the 5 foolish are denied by Him. The wise are they who apply to Christ for true spiritual knowledge instead of resting on carnal knowledge and temporal reasonings. The wise rightly apply this spiritual knowledge and, in obedience, follow Christ as a Shepherd withersoever He goeth, showing forth that they have really believed the true Gospel, have accepted Christ as husband, and have accepted the promises of Christ as one with Christ Himself. The wise virgins recognize their need of the bridegroom, and wait for Him with their lamps filled with oil. They do not put off until tomorrow the obedience of today. They do not “plan” to obey sometime in the future, because they know that when the day comes, there will be no more time to obey. They do, by faith, what is required of them, and do not submit to carnal fears – knowing that the fearful shall not enter into the Kingdom. There are five virgins who are wise and five who are foolish. We are not to ascertain from this element of the parable that fully half of the religious professors are wise, because this is not the case. The numbers are halved here to make a point. Each professing Christian is either one or the other. Each is a wise virgin or a foolish one; each is either a faithful servant or an unprofitable one; each is either wheat or is a tare; each is either a sheep, or is a goat. The wise virgin may err and fall asleep, but she sleeps lightly, anticipating the cry that will be made, “The Bridegroom Cometh!”. The foolish virgin supposes promises to belong to her, that only belong to the wise. The foolish virgin sleeps, as if she has nothing to fear even though she has no oil in her lamp, and cannot go out to meet the bridegroom, unless he comes another night when she plans to be better prepared. Maybe she says to herself as she lays down her head, “tomorrow I will buy oil, and I will prepare myself. If not tomorrow, maybe the next day”. The foolish virgin assumes she is in a good state, since all of the virgins sleep. She compares herself with others, instead of comparing herself to the marriage contract she hopes to enter.

2. There are wise and faithful servants, and there are wicked and unprofitable servants (all Gospel professors). The wise and faithful are given gifts and authority. The wicked and unprofitable are thrown into outer darkness. These designations are important. When we call some servant “wise and faithful”, we have his works and deeds in view. When we call a servant “unprofitable”, we have his works and deeds in view. While it is true that the true Christian does no good work for his salvation, and could do no work toward that end; and while it is true that apart from Christ who works in him to both will and do according to His good pleasure, he could do no good work acceptable to God at all, we also recognize that the evidence that Christ has worked in a man is shown through works. The wise and faithful man is called a servant, but as a servant he is both wise and faithful. He is wise in that he keeps his masters commands in mind, and obeys them as his rules of life and living. He is faithful in that he obeys them because they are the commands of his master. He has taken Christ as master, because Christ is ultimately and perfectly wise and faithful. There is no loss in remaining faithful and obedient to the One who knows all things, created all things, upholds all things. It is wise to be faithful to such an one as Jesus Christ. The unprofitable servant gives lip service to his master, but profits his master nothing. His design and goal is always himself. He seeks self first, and the cause of God and Truth second, if at all. He desires to be seen as spiritual and true, but his motives always are selfish, such that even his works and service serve selfish designs. He wants Christ because he wants heaven, but he would have heaven without Christ. The design of God in the Creation is the glorification of Himself, and it is here where we see the unprofitableness of the wicked servant. His works do not glorify Christ, and if the Glory of Christ is the thing of highest value, then the unprofitableness of the wicked servant is shown to be exceedingly and eternally unprofitable.

3. He shall gather all nations, and shall separate them one from another – the sheep from the goats. Now all of these are Gospel professors. All claim to believe. But the sheep go in and inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world, having worked the works of God – not even knowing that they have done so. When they Christ an hungred, they gave Him meat: When they saw Christ was thirsty, they gave him drink: When they saw Christ a stranger, they took him in: Naked, they clothed Him: When He was sick, they visited Him: When He was in prison, They came unto Him. Now the sheep do not confess to know when they did such things. All they did was obey the commandments of Christ, and it is here where we find the key. When they did these things to the least of these their brethren, they did them unto Christ. Which is to say that they loved their neighbor according to the commandments of God. By keeping those commandments, they did these things unto Christ. They may protest that they only were doing that which was their nature as redeemed sheep, but Christ says that by doing these things they glorified Him. No man could do these things and be saved without God working these works through him. But let me say that no man will be saved who refuses to do these things. The goats, while protesting that they are ignorant of His righteous requirements of them, are commanded to depart into everlasting fire. They have rested on duties, and depend on them for salvation. Some will claim to have done mighty works, but they will depart into the fire. Some will claim to have believed on Christ, but they will depart into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Some will claim to have taught good things, and to have worked miracles, but they will depart into the fire. Christ never knew them, and He will say “depart from me”, these go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.

Note that for the righteous the judgment comes, and then eternal life. They depart into life eternal. The righteous are tried on earth, and are saved (though scarcely) and enter life eternal. The Kingdom was prepared for them specifically from the foundation of the world. Christ has passed through the judgment for the righteous, and His righteousness is imputed to those for whom He prepared the Kingdom. The ungodly sinner appears at the judgment immediately upon his death. No Kingdom is prepared for Him, only the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. The false professor enters what is called “the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 1:7), “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe” (2Th 1:7-10). Mark again that there are two kinds who are punished with this eternal vengeance:

1. Them that know not God (secular, atheistic, or pagan unbelievers).

2. Them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ (those who have heard, but who do now reject the Gospel by their actions).

This is the end that comes. This is the prophecy that is ignored by prophecy hounds and myth chasers. “We may”, they say, “be living in the last days”, and they go about planning for the last days as if the end hasn't come upon every man that has ever lived, except for the few that the Lord took outside of death. Once again, billions upon billions of people, more than the sands of the sea, uncountable billions of humans, have taken their turn on earth and in only the blink of an eye, they have passed on to their reward. Our lives here, prophetic cataclysms aside, are very, very short. Many of us have already lived the bulk of the years we will ever get. It is likely that one or more of you who hear my voice or read this sermon will likely pass to the judgment before this year closes. Each one of us must expect no different an end than that that is promised to all men, which is once to die. Better we spend this time seeking God's wisdom and understanding, mercy and grace, so that we avoid the second death. Some people seem so determined to avoid the first death that they never take the second death into account. They obey not the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ – yet they hope He will prevent them from even a corporeal death. It seems that the same people who hope to be raptured, or hope to be protected through any tribulation on earth, are the same people who reject the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. They see some “great tribulation” coming, but refuse the chastisement, correction, and great tribulation that comes from obedience. If they want to see the tribulation come, let them once be obedient to the Word of God; they will have all the tribulation they can handle. If they want to see tribulation come, let them reject the world and its dainties, let them walk away from the world system and all of its comforts and false promises, let them reject the wide way. If they were to obey the Gospel and separate from the world and all other suitors, then they will see tribulation today. The true believer, like Christ, “is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3) and needs not look for some future tribulation. God is in charge of this world, and He will allow whatever is necessary to perfect His remnant people, we need not burden ourselves with such prognostications. At no time will Christ, sitting in the Judgment, say, “You did well in your retirement plan, and you made a lot of great plans, so come on in to the Kingdom”. Neither will He say, “You prepared well for the great tribulation, and you warned as many people as you could – so come take eternal life”. Christ's bride look for the coming of the Lord, and love His coming – but we design to be found faithful and obedient when He does come... for us. Too much emphasis is placed on some prophetic corporate redemption, when for Christ, His promises are very, very personal. YOU must believe the Gospel. YOU must obey it. YOU must put off the old man, and follow Christ. YOU must obey His commandments, love His children, and examine yourself every day. There will be many sheep and many goats before the throne in the day of judgment, but you will only be one of them – and you will stand alone. Christ and His Word must be precious enough to YOU, that you take Him and receive Him as yours. If you do so, and proceed by faith, you will not “draw back unto perdition” but will “believe to the saving of the soul”.

Judgment is inexorably linked to the Gospel, and no Gospel can be the true Gospel that does not promise Judgment. It is fitting that our examination of the Gospel should end with a re-examination of the person of Jesus Christ:

“Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust” (Mat 12:18-21).

Christ is come to show judgment, and thus our identification of the Gospel as the Gospel of Jesus Christ, necessitates that His judgment be shown. I pray that all who hear or read these words will trust in His Name who has so graciously shown us justice in this life, before we face it in the next.

I am your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

 
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