The court has assembled. The judge has taken his seat. The trials are about to commence. The oath is being administered to the jury. The instructions are: "You shall truly and justly try, and true deliverance make between the prisoner at the bar and this sovereign state."
The first man tried was charged with robbery. He had not robbed the government: it was a poor old widow with whom he lodged.
But in robbing the widow he had broken one of the laws of the land. Pronounced guilty, his sentence was according to the penalty attached to the breach of that law.
Did it ever occur to you, my unsaved reader, that this is exactly what will happen in your case if you appear before the bar of God? You will be judged, not according to the way your thoughts, words, and deeds have affected yourself or your neighbor; the verdict will be according to God's holiness, the way you have treated His righteous commands and the Son of His love.
"Ah!" you say, "I am not a common criminal. I have done my best to keep all of man's laws and God's." Let us see. The charge-sheet of some of your crimes is found in 1 Timothy 1:99Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, (1 Timothy 1:9). Let me read the terms of the indictment: "Murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers."
"Not guilty," you reply.
Stop a bit! Are you quite sure that YOU did not break your old Christian mother's heart, and bring your father's gray hairs in sorrow to the grave by your godless ways?
"Lawless and disobedient."
"Not guilty," you plead.
Is that absolutely true? How often have you said, "Oh, I don't care what anybody thinks; I shall do as I please"!
"Ungodly and sinners."
"Not guilty"? Be careful! As sure as you say that, another charge will be placed against you. What?
"Liars and perjurers." For listen! "ALL have sinned" (Romans 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)). If ALL have, YOU have. Look back at your past history. Do you dare assert that since you were a child at your mother's knee you have never lied? Go over your school days. Look back at the years when you were growing up. Scan closely your private and public life. Now tell me if you can say honestly, "I have never deviated in thought, in word, nor in deed from absolute truthfulness." Before you reply let me remind you that the God in whose hand your breath is, says, "ALL have sinned." If you say you have not, you make Him a liar, and perjure yourself in doing so.
The other day a man was convicted. He had brutally treated his wife. She loved him and forgave him, and besought the judge to let him off. But could he? He was there to administer justice. The man was sentenced, and had to undergo his term.
"Oh," you say, "I just don't believe in judgment." So? Take the case of a prisoner who has been tried: witnesses had been called; books had been produced which proved his guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt.
The jury have pronounced him "Guilty." The judge is sentencing him, but is interrupted by the prisoner:
"Judge," he says, "I don't believe in judgment. I think a man ought to do as he pleases and be answerable to nobody but himself. Besides, I've never injured YOU, and I don't see how it matters about breaking laws."
"Perhaps you do not believe in judgment," the judge might reply, "but this court does! The policeman who arrested you, the witnesses who testified against you, the gentlemen of the jury who have pronounced you guilty,—they all believe in judgment. The warden who will now conduct you to your cell believes in it. And the moment those black doors close upon you, you, too, will believe in it."
Now, unsaved soul, what say you? "Oh," you say, "such a man must be a fool." Exactly. But if you think because you have injured nobody, and are as upright as your fellows, you will never come into judgment, you stand in a similar condemnation.
Let me urge you to take your Bible and find Daniel 7:9,109I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. 10A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. (Daniel 7:9‑10): "the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, AND THE BOOKS WERE OPENED."
If you die in your sins you will surely and certainly appear there. You may be a small or a great sinner in your own estimation. But with God there is no difference: ALL HAVE SINNED. For one sin man lost an earthly paradise. One sin is enough to shut you out of the paradise of God forever,—away from Him, subject to the second death. The second death is the lake of fire.
Will you risk your everlasting happiness by indifference? If you do, you will surely find yourself a prisoner at the bar of the Majesty on High to answer for your sins, and you will not be let off.
Listen! There is a way of escape—only one. You may have broken every law on the statute book and still be free if you now obey two.
Do you ask, "Which two?" I will tell you.
Let me urge you to plead "Guilty." Repent! Cast yourself on the mercy of God! Fix your eyes by faith upon Jesus, risen from the dead. Thus, and thus only, shall you never come into judgment, for it is written, "He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation." John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).
Only thus can you escape judgment.
God says there is judgment to come. I believe it because God said it.
God said it the flood came.
God said it—Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.
God said it—the Jews were scattered.
God said it—and in the fullness of time He sent forth His Son to redeem the world sold out to Satan by Adam.
It all came true. And now God says that JUDGMENT shall overtake the unbelieving, small and great. What He said He carried out in the past. What He says He will certainly carry out in the future.
Get down, then, on your knees. Read those verses in Daniel and in the Revelation. Put your finger on them. Look up into God's face.
You dare not say, "I do not believe in judgment."