THE court has assembled. The judge has taken his seat. The assizes are about to commence. The oath is being administered to the jury. "You shall truly and justly try and true deliverance make between the prisoner at the bar and His Sovereign Lord the King.”
The first man tried had committed robbery. He had not robbed the king. It was a poor old widow with whom he lodged, but in robbing the widow he had broken one of the king's laws. When the judge pronounced sentence, it was according to the penalty attached to the breach of that law.
Did it ever occur to you, my unsaved reader, that is exactly what will happen in your case if you appear at the Great Assize. 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 law, the way you have treated the sovereign commands of God.
“Ah! you say," I am not a common criminal, I have done my best to keep all man's laws and God's." Let us see. The charge sheet containing some of your crimes is found in 1 Tim. 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 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? Have you not often said, "Oh! I don't care what anybody says, I mean to do as I like"?
“Ungodly and sinners.”
Do you again plead "Not guilty"? Be careful; as sure as you say that, another count will be charged against you. What!
"Liars and perjurers." For listen!
"ALL have sinned." (Rom. 3:23.)
If all have, you have. Look back at your past history. Do you mean to 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 time when you were growing up. Scan closely your private and public life, and tell me if you can say honestly, "I never deviated in the smallest way 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. How could he? He was there to administer justice. The man was sentenced, and had to undergo his term.
“Oh!" you say, "I am one of those people who do not believe in judgment." Now, what would you think of a prisoner whose case has been tried? Witnesses have been called; books have been produced which prove his guilt beyond a doubt. The jury has pronounced him Guilty. The judge is proceeding with his sentence when he is interrupted by the prisoner.
“My Lord," he says,” I am one of those people who do not believe in judgment. I think a man ought to do what he likes and be responsible to nobody. Besides I never injured the king personally, and I do not see what it matters about breaking his laws.”
“Perhaps you do not believe in judgment," the judge might reply," but his Majesty the King believes in judgment. The policeman who arrested you, and the witnesses who testified against you; the gentlemen of the jury who have pronounced you guilty; they all believe in judgment. I, his Majesty's judge, believe in it. The warder 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.”
“Oh " you say, "that man must be a fool." Exactly; but if you think because you have injured nobody, and are as good as your fellows, you will never come into judgment, you also stand in a similar condemnation.
Let me urge you to take your Bible, and find Dan. 7:99I 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. (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 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.”
Then find Rev. 20:12-15: " I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God: and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
If you die in your sins you will surely and certainly appear there. You may be a small sinner or a great sinner in your own estimation. The great point is not what you think, but what your Judge has determined. For one sin man lost an earthly paradise. One sin is enough to shut you out of the paradise of God forever. 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 only one way of escape. 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. "God... now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." (Acts 17:30.) "This is His commandment, That we should believe on the Name of His Son, Jesus Christ." (1 John 3:2323And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. (1 John 3:23).) Let me urge you to plead "Guilty." Repent, cast yourself upon the clemency of God, fix the eye of 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 5:24.)
Only thus can you escape judgment.
God says there is judgment to come. I believe it, because God says it.
God said it.—The flood came. God said it. -Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. God said it.—The Jews were scattered. It all came true. 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 Revelation. Put your finger on them. Look up into God's face. You dare not say, “I do not believe in judgment." H. N.