Salvation From 30,000 Feet - Part 3 - Jay Loyd

Welcome to the official podcast of the Church

of Christ Wheeler area. We're so glad that you've

tuned in for today's message. Whether you're

on your morning commute or if you're relaxing

at home, we're here to share the strength and

truth of God's Word with our community. If you're

in the neighborhood, we'd love to meet you in

person. Come see us at 1500 South Allen L. Bean

Boulevard right here in Wheeler, Texas. We gather

every Sunday morning at 1030 a .m. and in the

afternoon at 230 p .m. We meet again on Wednesdays

at 7 p .m. Right now, let's open our Bibles together

and dive into today's sermon. Taking a look at

salvation from 30 ,000 feet, getting that broad

overview so that we can better understand salvation

and so they can better equip us to understand

other things of the Bible and that's what we're

going to talk about this evening. Whenever we

look at our diagram we said at the beginning

we're going to start from the time that we're

a sinner and we want to study salvation all the

way until the resurrection of life or the resurrection

of condemnation that Jesus talks about that day

when all that are in the graves are going to

hear the voice of the Lord and some are going

to be resurrected to life and some are going

to be resurrected condemnation and that will

bring to completion God's redemption work here

upon the earth. Well this evening we want to

go a little bit further in that as we go back

and review kind of what we've where we've come

from whenever we look at ourselves as sinners

and again if you're here tonight and you are

a sinner as we talked about you can't save yourself

there's no good thing that you can do because

God is perfect He's perfect in His holiness He's

perfect in His righteousness God is the standard

by which we are all judged and measured and I

know you're tired of me telling you this but

I'm going to say it again don't look at me and

think as good as me you may be and if you are

God bless you but you know how much that's going

to get you as it goes in a dollar and you can

get a cup of coffee with it because it gets you

nowhere because before God how you compare to

me makes no difference to God It's all about

you and God and He's perfect and you're not and

once you're not perfect you can't go back and

be perfect again. You can fill your life with

all types of good works and things like that

but you're still in the guilt of your sin. Now

we might look at that and think well surely it

just seems like if you do more good than bad

God's gonna you know He's gonna love you and

He's gonna count you righteous. But God's holiness

is so perfect. God's holiness is so majestic

that just one sin, one sin separates you. from

that holy God and you're living under the condemnation

of sin and death and so because of that you need

to be justified. To be justified means to be

pronounced as righteous and you can't do enough

good where one day the Lord's going to look at

you and say okay you're righteous. That day will

never come in your life. The only way that you

can be declared righteous is by giving up yourself

and coming to the cross in belief and repentance.

and being baptized with your Lord or being baptized

into the Lord's death so that the Lord's death

becomes your death the Lord's death becomes the

payment for the penalty of your sin and now God

can look at you and say your sins have been paid

for you are now righteous and then you become

a saint but the story of salvation doesn't end

there because whenever the Lord justifies us

and He saves us, He does so for a purpose. And

we talked about that last, this past, last evening.

And that the purpose for which God saves you

is not so that you can just go to heaven. Again,

we think that salvation is all about us going

to heaven. Salvation Going to heaven is a big

part of salvation, but there is even a greater

purpose in our salvation. You see, whenever we

make our salvation all about us going to heaven,

who are we making salvation about? Us. Who should

salvation be about? Who should everything that

we do in faith be about? God. And so there's

a greater purpose to our salvation in not just

us going to heaven, but as we studied last evening,

that we be fruitful to glorify God. God saves

us to glorify Him. God saves us to glorify Him

by being fruitful, by doing good works. As Paul

said, that He saved us by grace through faith.

and that his workmanship created in him in Christ

Jesus to walk in good works which God before

ordained that we should walk in them before you

and I were ever around, before creation was ever

around. God in eternity past determined in his

mind, I want to save a group of people that is

going to walk in good works and be fruitful in

righteousness to bring glory to me. And that's

why He saved you. Now obviously, if we do that,

we can go to heaven. But if we don't understand

that principal purpose of salvation, then we're

going to misunderstand a lot about what we're

going to talk about this evening. In Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 12:13–14

12 verses 13 through 14, the preacher Solomon

said, let us hear the conclusion of the whole

matter. Fear God and keep His commandments, for

this is man's all. For God will bring every work

into judgment, including every secret thing,

whether it be good or evil. So as the preacher

goes through Ecclesiastes and he says, All of

the things of the earth are vain. All is vanity

and troubling to the spirit and you can pursue

those things all you want and it's just going

to be a continually grasping of the wind. And

so there's no truth, there's no reality in this

world, of this world that gives meaning and purpose

to life. That basically the preacher said our

time here is just a waste of time. So Have a

little bit of fun while you're here if that's

all life is about. But at the very end of the

book he says that life does have meaning and

life does have purpose. And why does life have

meaning and have purpose? Notice what he says

in verse number 14 because God will bring every

work into judgment including every secret thing

whether good or evil. We're gonna be accountable

We're gonna be accountable and So you see that

he says this is the conclusion of the whole matter

Fear God and keep his commandments for this is

man's all so in other words the preacher says

the meaning and the purpose of your life in my

life is Rooted in the fact that we're going to

be accountable to God As you lived your life

today, did you ever stop and think about your

accountability to God? Did you even think about

the judgment day today? The preacher says that's

the one truth that should be the foundation of

our meaning in our... existence here is that

we're going to be accountable to God and then

therefore we should fear Him and keep His commandments.

And so that brings us to a spiritual reality

beyond this realm of flesh that speaks to us

that we're going to be accountable and it's implied

that if we're going to be accountable there's

going to be some type of reward, some type of

consequence for how we live in this life. The

Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5 verse number

10, for we must all appear before the judgment

seat of Christ. Did you think about that today?

That there's coming a day just as sure as you

and I are sitting here today and breathing the

air that we're breathing. That we're going to

stand before Jesus and we're going to give an

account. That each of us will receive the things

done in the body what he has done, whether good

or bad. Paul says that again in Romans 14 and

in verse number 10. He says, Why do you judge

your brother? Why do you show contempt for your

brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment

seat of Christ. Now we're going to look at these

texts a little bit later, a little more in depth,

but what Paul is saying in both of these instances

is that understanding that you're going to stand

before Christ in the day of judgment should affect

how you live in this moment right now. And if

we don't give thought to the judgment, if we

think that, well, you know, I've obeyed the gospel,

I've been baptized, judgment is taken care of,

it's not something I need to worry about. It's

something that we need to be concerned about

every day. And I want to illustrate tonight how

a misunderstanding of salvation can lead us to

some very grave misunderstandings about just

judgment. I had someone send me a video here

about three or four weeks ago, and the title

of the video was, Why is God going to judge Christians

if we're already forgiven of our sins? Think

about that for just a moment. That that question

is born out of a view of salvation that makes

judgment almost seem Unconsequential and irrelevant

like it's a waste of time In other words, I've

obeyed the gospel and I've been baptized Therefore

all of my sins are forgiven which means that

I'm going to go to heaven So why do I need to

stand before Jesus and be and go through all

of my works? Just to tell me what I already knows

gonna happen. I'm going to heaven Is that what

the Bible teaches I want to talk this evening

mainly about some misconceptions of judgment

and then tomorrow evening we're going to get

into what judgment is going to be. I want to

address these two misconceptions this evening

and maybe these are misconceptions that you think

and I'll be honest with you these are some misconceptions

that I once held about judgment because I had

a view of salvation and then I'd read these passages

about judgment and just think well you know that

just doesn't work out and so then rather than

Looking at my view of salvation and thinking,

you know what, I may not be understanding this

right. I tried to take judgment and to distort

it into something as that question implied. It's

really just a formality and not something that

I have to be concerned with because after all

I want to have confidence in my salvation. I

want to have assurance in my salvation and many

times we think having confidence and assurance

in salvation means that we have no concern for

judgment and that's just not right. If your view

of salvation causes you to look towards the idea

of standing before Christ in the day of judgment

as something to not really be concerned with,

your view of salvation is incorrect. Here is

the popular view of where I say popular and again

you may not have even heard of this and I hope

you haven't but if you haven't you probably will

and especially some of our young people because

it's a view about salvation that if you were

to go to the internet and Google and AI to try

to find out information about the judgment seat

of Christ this is what you're going to be told.

In 2nd Corinthians 5 and verse 10 Paul says for

we will all appear before the judgment seat of

Christ. Romans 14 10 will all stand before the

judgment seat of Christ. Now we have over here

in our heading the Bema. What is a Bema? It's

not a car. That's a beamer. This is a Bema. The

word, the Greek word for judgment seat is Bema

and it's a raised place mounted by steps. It's

a platform, a tribune used of the official seat

of a judge. And so it was a platform that the

judge would sit on, and so in this picture of

Christ's judgment, Christ is going to be seated

on what is called a bima, a judgment seat, and

people are going to come before him for judgment.

But what I want to point out is, is that our

understanding about salvation influences our

understanding about judgment. And I want to illustrate

it. Again, going back to the idea, why is God

going to judge us if He's already forgiven us

of our sins? What's the judgment for? And so

the idea is, if I've obeyed the gospel, or in

denominational circles I have accepted Jesus,

then I'm saved. And I've always been told I'm

to have confidence and assurance in my salvation

So since I've been forgiven here that means I'm

going to heaven And so whenever I go to heaven

How does this judgment seat thing worked in if

it's already determined going to happen to me?

So if you do some research on what the judgment

seat of Christ you'll get something like this

The Bema seat takes its name using imagery from

Paul's day. During the ancient Olympics, the

judge sat along the finish line. His purpose

was not to determine whether or not the participants

actually ran the race. If they got that far,

then they completed the course. But the judge

at the Bema seat determined how they came in

first, second, and so on, and he handed out the

rewards. That is the imagery that the Bible gives

us of the believer's judgment. It is at the judgment

seat of life that Christ meets out the rewards,

not the punishments that we earn in life. In

other words, the judgment seat of Christ is not

a place of judgment, but of reward. And in this

idea, if you are standing before the judgment

seat of Christ, you're already saved just because

you're there. You're a winner because you ran

the race. And so just like the judge in the Olympics

would stand up on this platform and give out

the awards to all of the winners, Jesus is going

to stand up on the platform and He's going to

give each one of us our reward. That when we

come before the judgment seat of Christ, we're

not coming before a judge to be judged in a judicial

sense, we're coming before a race official that's

going to give us our ribbon for running the race.

And again, that's a very popular view of judgment.

And it's a view that I've encountered among the

churches. Because it is a view that is consistent

and works well with an idea of salvation that's

not right. Whenever you look at the Bema, How

is it used in Scripture? If you want to understand

how a word is used in Scripture, obviously the

best thing to do is to look at every place where

that word is used. And so what we're going to

do real quickly is just kind of make a run through

the New Testament where the word DEMA is used

sometimes and see if it has anything to do with

a judge just simply handing out rewards. Well

whenever we go to Matthew 27 19 while he Jesus

was setting on the judgment seat the Bema his

Pilate's wife sent to him saying Now when Jesus

was standing before pilot was Jesus standing

before pilot to get a ribbon Was Jesus standing

before pilot to get an award no He was standing

before pilot to be judged by pilot according

to the cries of the Jewish mob that delivered

Jesus there. It wasn't a place of celebration

because he was a winner standing before the Bema.

It was a very somber and sober occasion as he

stood before the one who was going to make the

decision about his life or death. Again in John

John 19:13

19 verse 13, when Pilate therefore heard that

saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in

the Bema, the judgment seat. Again, not a place

for reward, but a place of judgment. In Acts

Acts 18 · chapter mention

chapter 18, verse number 12, when Galio was procounsel

of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against

Paul and brought him to the judgment seat. When

Paul was preaching the gospel and that Jewish

mob came and got him and they drug him before

Galio, did they bring him there because they

wanted Galio to give Paul a trophy? No. They

brought him there to be judged. And he drove

them from the judgment seat, again in the same

context. Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes,

the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before

the judgment seat. This judgment seat was not

a place of reward. It wasn't a place of celebration.

It was a place where you stood before someone

who had the power of life and death in their

hands. In Acts 25 and verse number 6, when he

festus had remained among them more than ten

days, he went down to Caesarea and the next day,

sitting on the judgment seat, they commanded

Paul to be brought. And then Paul said, I stand

at Caesar's judgment seat where I ought to be

not rewarded, but judged. Therefore, when they

came together without any delay, the next day

Festus sat on the judgment seat and commanded

the man to be brought in." When you look at these

other New Testament references where the word

Bema is used, there is no reference whatsoever

to that idea that we just read a few slides back,

is it? It was not a place of reward. It was a

place of judgment. And so whenever Paul is talking

about standing before the judgment seat of Christ,

he didn't speak that reality to the Romans and

the Corinthians in order to create within them

some type of celebratory heart in anticipation

of a reward. He spoke that to them as a truth

that was to bring sobriety to their thinking

so that they would act act right as Christians.

And it has to have the same effect on us today.

Well, again, in investigating this, even though

in the New Testament the word always refers to

a place of judgment, Did some investigating maybe

there's something in in historical writings that

refers to this that maybe when Paul uses this

he's not using it in the normal sense that it's

used in the New Testament and maybe it's possible

that it is just you know that it is a an athletic

understanding But this is what I found there

is no ancient primary historical sources that

state that the It's the specific location where

athletic winners were rewarded. There's not any.

There's not any. I'll confess, I used AI on this.

You know, you pull this stuff up and you get

all of these people telling you, oh, the Bema

is an athletic award thing and the judgment seat

of Christ, we're all going to be rewarded. And

then you type in, okay, what are the historical

sources for this understanding? None. In fact,

that's a copy and paste from what I was told.

There are none. There is no historical record

that says that the judgment seat was just simply

a place of reward. and that there is no direct

archaeological reports that identify a structure

explicitly labeled as Abema dedicated to or primarily

used for awarding rewards and prizes in ancient

athletic games. In other words, in all of their

digging, they didn't dig something up and say,

oh look, okay, here's this stand, here's this

athletic facility, and then we find something

that says there's nothing. There's nothing. So

we might ask, well why do people come up with

this idea? Well really what it is, it's a reading

into and an overstatement of a few statements

that some people made along the way about rewards

in athletic events that in no way spoke certainly

and specifically to the term judgment seat meaning

reward only. And in fact, here is an archaeological

find. That's a Bema. The Bema or judgment seat

was a promise elevated platform located in the

center of the ancient Agora in where? Corinth.

Where was one of our references to the Bema?

Second Corinthians. that when the Corinthians

heard Bema, that's what they thought of. And

that wasn't a place where athletes were rewarded.

It served as the official tribunal where Roman

cons - proconsuls and magistrates sat to address

the public, preside over legal cases, and deliver

judgments. And so if our view of salvation takes

the judgment seat of Christ and makes it into

something that the Bible says that it's not,

then my view of salvation is wrong. You see,

so many times we can take, whenever we hold a

certain biblical view that's in, that conflicts

with clear biblical teaching, The general rule

of Bible interpretation is if it violates clear

biblical teaching then you need to go back and

you need to change your view. But sometimes our

view about salvation gives us so much assurance

and so much confidence we don't want to change

it so what we're going to do is we're going to

take things about the judgment and we're going

to distort them to fit our distorted view of

salvation. Don't do that. Don't do that We're

going to stand before Christ and Christ is not

going to give you a participation trophy He's

going to judge you He's going to judge you Well,

let's go back to 2nd Corinthians 5 verses 9 through

11 and just look at the context and the context

will show to us clearly that the judgment seat

of Christ, that reality is to bring sobriety

to our minds where we live the way we're supposed

to live. Therefore we make it our aim, whether

present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.

Paul said, my aim in life, whether I'm with you

or I'm not with you, is I want to be pleasing

to Him. Well, Paul, why do you want to do that?

What does the word for mean? Four is always making

a statement that refers back to the... four gives

the reason for the previous statement. Why did

Paul say that he always wants to be well pleasing

to him? Because Paul knew we're all going to

appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Do

you see how that the truth of the judgment seat

of Christ influenced the way that Paul lived?

He got up every day with a great sense of accountability

towards Jesus, and he said, in this day I I want

to please the Lord. Did you want to please the

Lord today because you know that you're going

to stand before the judgment seat of Christ?

That each one may receive the things done in

the body according to what he has done, whether

good or bad. Before the judgment seat of Christ,

Jesus is not going to deal with just the good

and all the winners. He's going to consider the

good and the bad things. Notice the next statement,

knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. As

we said the other evening, when you see the word

therefore, ask, what is it there for? And again

it points back to what's previously been said,

that this idea of terror of the Lord is tied

directly to the fact that we're going to stand

before the judgment seat of Christ. Now again,

we live in a world of Christianity today where

these things are almost scandalous to us. You

mean I've got to be afraid of the Lord? Yes.

You do. Because here's the thing. If you don't

have a true genuine fear of the Lord, you will

never fully appreciate the goodness of His love

and grace towards you and the salvation that

He extends to you. You will never take seriously

serving Him and being fruitful to Him and glorifying

to Him. And whenever we talk about terror here,

it's not a paralyzing terror and it's not a panic.

In fact in the New King James and the King James

version the word terror here about a lot of people

they think that's kind of a stronger maybe in

translation than what it should be. But just

a good healthy genuine fear to know that I'm

going to be held accountable for the way that

I live. So therefore every day I want to live

in a way that pleases Him. And that's not bad.

That's not bad at all. Whenever we read in Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12, whenever the preacher was telling

us there at the very end, we're going to stand

before the Lord in judgment, we're going to be

judged, he said our duty is to fear God and keep

His commandments. Because fear is the foundation

really out of which all of the other characteristics

that we experience with God flow. Well, let's

look at Romans 14, 10 to 13. Here in Romans 14,

10 to 13, you had some people at Rome that were

condemning their brothers. You had some people

at Rome that were showing contempt for their

brothers. One group was looking at one group

and saying, you're wrong. You're going to hell.

And the other group was looking at the other

group and saying, y 'all are just a bunch of

dumb people. You don't matter. So how's Paul

going to fix that? Notice what he says. Why do

you judge your brother? Why do you show contempt

for your brother? For we shall all stand before

the judgment seat of Christ. You know whenever

you're passing judgment on your brother or whenever

you're holding your brother in contempt you need

to understand this first before you say a word

and form an attitude towards your brother. There's

going to come a day when you're going to stand

before Christ and he's going to be looking at

you and he's going to be forming an attitude

about you. Wouldn't that change the way you look

at other people? For as it is written, as I live

says the Lord, every knee shall bow, every tongue

shall confess to God. Again, the word for. For

we shall all stand before the judgment seat of

Christ. Well, why did Paul say that? He said

it because it is written as I live says the Lord

every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall

confess to God. I think that's a reference to

a passage in Isaiah 45 verse number 23. The statement

every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall

confess to God is a statement that implies that

everyone is going to be held accountable to the

Lord. So Paul knows we're going to all stand

before the judgment seat of Christ because the

scriptures tell us every knee is going to bow

and every tongue is going to confess. So then,

I should have put a circle around so, then each

of us shall give an account to God pointing back

to this statement, therefore let us not judge

one another anymore. The reality of the judgment

seat of Christ as a place of judgment where you're

going to stand one day and be held accountable

and where I'm going to stand one day and be held

accountable is a truth that we have to embrace.

And if we have a view of salvation where when

we think of the judgment seat of Christ it doesn't

bring sobriety to our mind Where when we think

about the judgment seat of Christ it doesn't

create any urgency within our heart to serve

the Lord And we just kind of step back and say

oh well That's just a formality because I already

know where I'm going if that's our view We're

wrong The second misconception or not this leading

into the next misconception is that Christ is

the judge. Now we may look at that and think,

well duh, it's the judgment seat of Christ. We

all know we're going to stand before Christ.

But you know what? Not everybody thinks that.

Not everybody thinks that. I'll explain that

to you in just a moment. John 5 -22, the Bible

says, the Father judges no one but has committed

all judgment to the Son. 2 Corinthians 5 -10,

it's the judgment seat of Christ. Romans 14,

verse number 10, it's the judgment seat of Christ.

Paul says in Acts 11 -31, he's appointed a day

on which he will judge the world in righteousness

by the man whom he has ordained and he has given

assurance of this to all. Raising him who? Jesus

from the dead. Jesus is going to judge. 2nd Timothy

4 verse number 1. I charge you therefore before

God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge

the living and the dead at his appearing in kingdom.

So the Bible is very clear that Christ is going

to be the one sitting on the judgment seat. Which

leads me into the next misconception that I want

to talk about and it's this misconception that

in judgment Jesus is going to be standing by

us and God is going to be on his throne and in

judgment Jesus is going to be standing there

and he's going to be pleading for us to God He's

going to be interceding for us to God and He's

going to implore God's mercies upon us and then

God is going to look at Jesus in the day of judgment

and say, okay Jesus, I'll let Him in. Well there's

several things wrong with that. And obviously

the first one is God's not going to be on the

throne in judgment. The way God is going to be

on the throne in judgment is in the person of

Jesus Christ So if we take Jesus Christ and we

put him up there who's gonna be with us? We're

gonna be by ourselves We're gonna be by ourselves

You mean I'm going to stand before Jesus in the

day of judgment all by myself? Well, if He's

on the throne, and I'm standing in front of Him,

who else is there to be there? You see Hebrews

9 27 28 the scriptures tell us and as it is appointed

for men to die once but after this the judgment

so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of

many to those who eagerly wait for him he will

appear a second time apart from sin. What the

Hebrew writer is saying is that the Lord has

died for sin once and then after that the judgment

and then whenever the Lord comes in judgment

He is going to come apart from sin. What does

that mean apart from sin? What it means is is

that whenever the Lord comes back the second

time He's not going to come back to deal with

our sin He's not going to come back and bear

our sin and make another atonement for our sin

and offer another sacrifice for our sin, because

He's already done that. When He comes back the

second time, it's going to be to return not as

Savior, but He's going to return as Judge. and

bring the final realization of salvation to His

people. And again, I know that's not a comforting

thought to think in judgment, I'm going to be

standing all by myself before Jesus Christ. Well,

when we go into judgment, we'll hopefully have

some things with us. We'll talk about that tomorrow

night. But so far as Jesus being by your side

and you think that all through this world you

can live the way that you want to, because I

know when the judgment comes, Jesus is going

to beat me there and Jesus has got my back. No,

that's just not right. When he comes again, He's

not going to come deal with your sin. He's already

dealt with your sin. He's already dealt with

my sin He dealt with your sin and my sin over

two thousand years ago and from that time He

has been pleading with you and reaching out his

hand towards you to accept the price that he

paid for you and don't think that all your life

and all my life we can reject that sacrifice

but then in the day of judgment we're going to

stand there and he's going to bail us out. He's

not. He's not. That's why your decision today

whether to be a Christian or not is so important

because if you have it in your mind have it in

my mind that someway somehow these things are

just gonna all work out that's not true that's

not true you see when the Bible talks about the

judgment of our Lord it's always referred to

as righteous judgment he will judge the world

in righteousness the Lord the righteous judge

You see, and this is what happens when we make

salvation all about ourselves. We think the most

important thing in salvation is that we get what

we want. And so we come up with these ideas that

we believe we can get what we want by sacrificing

the righteousness of God. That some way, somehow,

with a nod and a wink, The Lord's gonna say it's

okay Everybody makes mistakes No Sin has to be

paid for and the mercy of God has provided that

sacrifice Today and if you reject that sacrifice

the Lord's judgment will purchase and He's gonna

look at you and he's gonna say you have not had

your sins paid for You're lost. And so again,

you know, I've heard of some pretty creative

pictures of how judgment is going to work. Where

some way, somehow we can be the best version

of ourselves here. We can be true to ourselves.

We can live out our authentic life all the time

rejecting Jesus and then somehow we're going

to stand before Jesus and He's going to say,

enter in good and faithful servant. We're just

being deceived We're just being deceived Psalm

9 7 to 8 but the Lord shall endure forever. He's

prepared his throne for judgment He shall judge

old in righteousness and he shall administer

judgment for the people's in his uprightness

folks God loves us God loves us and he wants

us to be saved. In fact, we had this day to day

because God wants us to be saved Not willing

that any should perish but that all should come

to repentance But this is one thing God won't

do he won't sacrifice his righteousness For you

for me or for anyone to go to heaven because

before God is going to be true and faithful to

us, he has to be true and faithful to himself

or he is not God. He is not God. So if we think

some way that corners can be cut if we think

some way Compromises can be made if we think

some way that awesome things can be overlooked

and it's all gonna work out in the end God's

gonna pull a few strings make a few no He will

not sacrifice his righteousness because if he

sacrifices his righteousness, then he's not God

And if he's not God then we're all doomed anyway

The only way that we can be saved is for God

to honor His righteousness You know we live in

a world today where we all feel entitled where

my situation is special and we expect people

to make compromises and we and to make concessions

for us God can't do that He can't So what about

mercy and righteous judgment? You know sometimes

I think we have it in our mind and again I thought

about this well in order for the Lord to have

mercy He's gonna have to kind of turn his head

away from what's right and wrong In order for

the Lord to be merciful he's gonna have to sacrifice

a little bit of righteousness because to be merciful

He's gonna have to let some things go But that's

not true God can be merciful and he can be righteous.

God's mercy in judgment cannot violate his righteousness

in judgment. We must trust in the gift of God's

mercy now, the payment for your sins by Jesus

Christ for his mercy in judgment to be righteous.

And what I mean by that statement is in order

for God to be righteous in judgment and still

show us mercy, What he has done is he has extended

his mercy to us now in the person of Jesus Christ

It's God's mercy that he provided a payment for

our sin So that he can accept us as righteous

and still be righteous himself And so that's

how God saves us by His mercy. Not by Jesus standing

in judgment and He has our back in judgment,

but by sending Jesus to the cross. So that whenever

we come to judgment then the Lord sees us and

he sees someone who has put their faith and put

their trust as he sits there on that throne with

the scars of his hand Reminding us of that time

that I heard about him dying for me But I thought

not now it can wait it'll be okay God loves me.

And I let it go by. And all Jesus can do is be

righteous. You rejected my payment. I have to

reject you. He takes no pleasure in that. As

the prophet says, God does not take pleasure

in the death of the wicked. But it has to be

done Because the Lord is righteous You cannot

spend your life rejecting the gift of God's mercy

The payment for your sins by Jesus and then expect

his mercy in judgment It would not be righteous

because your sins would not be paid for And so

whenever we look at our outline there's coming

this day, right Jesus is with us in our justification.

Jesus is with us as we live every day to be fruitful

to the glory of God, but there's gonna come a

day when the person that's right here and right

here is gonna be sitting right there and you're

gonna be right there. What will it be? What's

your answer gonna be? What's your answer going

to be as to why on June? I forgot what today's

date is June the 18th When that old guy from

Arkansas was up there just ranting and raving

about how that I need to accept the Mercy of

Jesus and the price for my sin and I sat there

and I thought oh You know, maybe later Maybe

later. Oh, I don't really have to do that because

you know God loves me and I put it off and I

put it off and I put it off you see that putting

something off is just like anything else that

you do in life the more you do it the easier

it becomes so that you begin to just subconsciously

reject the Savior folks this is real again There's

going to come a day just as sure as you're sitting

there and I'm standing here that we're going

to be standing right there. What will it be?

What will your answer be? God extends his mercy

to you right now and if you want God's mercy

and judgment that mercy has to be righteous and

it can only be You make the decision to put your

trust in the blood of Jesus as the payment for

your sins and to be buried with him in baptism

into his death. Thank you for listening to today's

sermon from the Church of Christ Wheeler area.

We hope this message encouraged you and strengthened

you in your faith this week. Don't forget the

door is always open at 1500 South Allen L. Bean

Boulevard. at 10 30 a .m on sundays 2 30 p .m

on sunday afternoons and recharge with us midweek

on wednesdays at 7 p .m for more information

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we hope you have a blessed week and we'll see

you next time