Guest Pastor- Alex Feliciano

Good morning, family, good morning, family all right there

we go I am so excited to be here today amongst you umm for

several different reasons. Well, first of all, just to be

with you guys again obviously I love being here.

I think so. Let me make sure test it's on

test. There it is test.

There we go. All right.

And then secondly, I have my brothers amongst me, my, my

brothers. I love them so much.

My brother Josh and his family's here and my brother Wes and his

family. Wes has joined us before here,

but now he's with his family, his kids, his wife and Josh has

his wife and his daughter amongst us also.

So I am so excited. They're both local to the area.

Hint, hint, you know, so if you please feel free to love on them

as well. And guys, it's a beautiful

church here. These guys are awesome.

But today I just wanted to give John Michael asked me to bring

the sermon today. And I always ask him like, hey

man, you know, is there anything you want me to preach on?

Is there anything you want a topic you want me to talk about?

And he usually kind of guides me a little bit and he gave me, as

you guys know, he can be a bit long winded.

He gave me a long winded speech about something.

And I the take away for me was figure it out, which is fine.

But I was like man, you know, where do I go with this?

So I was praying and I'm like, man, I don't really know.

I'm not I come from a Calvary Chapel background.

If anybody knows, it's very chapter by chapter, verse by

verse. So we are not very good at

topical. So I'm trained in kind of a

verse by verse. Here's Galatians chapter 2.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

Galatians chapter 3. So when it gets topical, I can

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

be, oh man, I don't know what to do.

But I was praying and I was talking with my wife and we

started talking about different names and what they mean and

stuff like that. And so we're talking about, you

know, our girls names. We have faith, grace and hope as

middle names. So then we were like, well, what

is another name? And she said, you know, we talk

about God's faith and grace and hope.

But you know what's something we don't talk about his judgement.

And I was like, you know what, you're right, how he's righteous

in his judgment. And I it just like a light bulb

and I was like, you know what, that's what it is.

So I started praying and this is the the sermon that God has gave

me. So today's topic is going to be

God's. The title is God's judgment, a

Holy Land and certain reality. So judgment is one of the most

avoided subjects in modern Christianity, yet is one of the

most repeated themes in Scripture.

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible declares that God is not

only loving and merciful, but also holy, righteous, and just.

If God were not a God of judgment, he would not be a God

of justice. And if there were no judgment,

then evil would have the final word.

But Scripture assures us it will not.

Many prefer a God who comforts but do not want, a God who

confronts. Yet the same God who saves is

the God who judges. Judgment is not opposed to love.

It is demanded by holiness. A God who never judges evil is

not loving. He is indifferent.

But Scripture presents judgment not as speculations, but as

certainty. Shall not God avenge his own

elect? Luke chapter 18, verse 17.

Luke 18:17

So number one, God's judgment is certain.

Hebrews Chapter 9 verse 27 says it is appointed unto men once to

Hebrews 9:27

die. But after this judgment,

judgment is unavoidable. Every person, regardless of

status, wealth, power, or reputation will stand before

God. Every single one of us will

stand before God. There are no exemptions.

Kings, servants, believers and unbelievers, pastors and

congregants, each and every one of us will stand before God.

All will give an account. Death is not the end of

accountability. It is the doorway to it.

No one escapes disappointment. You can forget about what the

doctor says. You can skip your dentist

appointment, but you're not going to escape this one.

The world may deny judgment. Culture may mock it, but God's

Word declares it plainly. Judgment is coming, Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 12:14

12 verse 14 says. For God will bring every work

into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or

evil. 2nd and Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10 says.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so

that each one may receive what is due for what He has done in

the body, whether good or evil. Romans chapter 2 verse 5 says,

Romans 2:5

But because of your heart and impenitent heart, you are

storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's

righteous judgment will be revealed.

God's patience should not be mistaken for indifference.

Judgment delayed is not judgment denied.

In other words, you can continue on in your ways.

And just because you feel like nothing's happened doesn't mean

you won't receive the penalty of your sins #2 God's judgment is

righteous. Genesis 18 verse 25 says will

Genesis 18:25

not the judge of all the earth do right?

Human justice is flawed. Courts make mistakes.

Can you believe that judges can be bribed?

But God's judgment is perfect. He sees what no one else sees.

He knows motives, thoughts, secret actions, and hidden sins.

God will not judge unfairly, no one will be condemned unjustly,

and no sin will be overlooked. His judgment is not emotional,

it's not impulsive, and it's not corrupt.

It is holy and true. God judges in perfect

righteousness. He does not judge by empiricism

or partial information. His verdicts are flawless.

You know, a judge can see someone and say that guy looks

innocent and maybe take into account, hey, he looks like a

friend of mine. He looks like somebody I know

and go from there. We know that to be true, right?

We know that there are times that my my cousins, I had a

cousin that did something really bad in Pennsylvania, but it

turned out that he didn't do it, but he was always into some

trouble. But the judge at the time, this

was years ago. This was probably 20 years ago.

The judge at the time was like, I'm going to make an example out

of you because you're people coming from New York.

I'm tired of it. So I'm going to make an example

of you. 50 years. And she gave him 50 years.

Now he didn't do 50 years, but she did.

And that just goes to show you what that that person is flawed.

Even though she has the authority to do that, even

though she's given the right to, that doesn't mean that she did

the right thing. Even as a judge, she made a

mistake. But God is holy, imperfect,

righteous in judgement is not something he does.

It is who he is. He is righteous in his

judgement. Psalms Chapter 9 verse 7 through

Psalms 9:7–8

8 says, but the Lord sits and throne forever.

He has established his throne for justice and he judges the

world with righteousness. He judges the people with

uprightness. Romans chapter 2 verse 2 says We

Romans 2:2

know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who

practice such things. Revelation chapter 19 verse 11

Revelation 19:11

says then I saw heaven open and behold a White Horse, the one

sitting on it's called faithful and true and in righteousness He

judges and makes war. It is imperative we understand

his righteous judgment means no innocent person will be

condemned and no guilty person will escape God's judgment will

silence every objection. In other words, nothing you can

do is going to is going to prevent this from happening.

Those of us that are saved, we look forward to that day.

Those of us that are not should be apprehensive about that day

#3 we're rolling along. My, my wife was concerned.

She said 10 pages and I was like, yeah, she's still worried.

I don't blame her. Number three, God's judgment is

personal. Romans chapter 14, verse 12.

Romans 14:12

So that every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

Everyone of us shall give an account of himself to God.

We will not answer for our parents.

We will not answer for our spouses.

We will not answer for our pastors.

We will not answer for our churches.

We will answer for ourselves. No excuses will stand.

No blame shifting will work. The question will not be what

did others do, but what did you do with the truth that you were

given? You can't say, well, the church

hurt me because the Lord will say, but what did I do to you?

You can't say, well, my parents hurt me because Jesus will look

at you and say, What did I do to you?

Are my truths no longer truths because of the actions of

others? Are you going to be able to look

at Jesus and say, no, no, this person hurt me.

That's why I did that. That's why I stopped.

No, you can't do that because what in Christ did Christ do

those things to you? No, human beings are flawed.

We all fall short of the glory of God.

We shouldn't be putting our trust and our faith in man.

We should be putting our trust and faith in God.

God's judgement is individual, it is intimate, and it is

unavoidable. CS Lewis once said there are

only two kinds of people. In the end, those who say to God

Thy will be done and those to whom God says in the end thy

will be done. In other words, there's those

two people. One person says to God, whatever

your ways, I want it and I want to follow your ways.

And the other person who God is going to look at them and say

you wanted this, you wanted separation from me.

I granted to you. Go forward.

Matthew chapter 12 verse 36 to 37 says you can be sure that on

Matthew 12:36–37

the judgment day you will have to give account of every useless

word you have spoken. Your words will be used to judge

you, to declare you either innocent or guilty.

Galatians chapter 6 verse 5 says every man shall bear his own

Galatians 6:5

burden. And Revelation chapter 20 verse

Revelation 20:12

12 says the dead were judged according to their works.

Family, faith, church membership or religious activity cannot

substitute for a personal relationship with God.

And I don't mean the spiritual, you know, Jesus is my boyfriend

type of relationship. James chapter one verse 27 says

religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father

is this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and

to keep oneself unstained from the world.

And people go, oh, I can do that.

I can go visit people and I can go give to the widows.

But it also says to get keep yourself unstained from the

world. And what does that mean?

What does that mean to keep yourself unstained from the

world? Well, James expands on that in

chapter 2. You see that faith was active

along with his works and faith was completed by his works and

the Scripture was fulfilled. That says Abraham believed God

and it was counted to him, counted to him as righteousness,

and he was called a friend of God.

You see that a person is justified by works and not by

faith alone. And in the same way, was not

also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she

received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

For as the body apart from the Spirit is dead, so also faith

apart from works is dead. That's James chapter 2, verse 22

James 2:22–26

to 26. You see, Abraham believed God's

promise and his words and did what God called him to do.

Your faith produces righteous works, but apart from God, any

good works you do are meaningless.

You can give to all the organizations you want, but that

will do nothing to contribute your right to your righteousness

in the sight of God. You will be judged either by

having faith in God or not. So he expounds on what pure and

genuine religion looks like, right?

And that's not just saying you're a Christian, that's

trusting in His word and doing His work and in completing what

He's called you to do. You will see the acts that pour

out of you because you're clearly committed to God.

It's like what CS Lewis was saying.

Those of us that say thy will be done, we lean on God, we lean on

the Holy Holy Spirit, and those righteous acts pour out of us.

It's not something that comes necessarily naturally out of us,

but it pours out of us through the Holy Spirit.

And this is not about, well, you doing the works, doing the

works, doing the works. No, that's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying that if you are truly bought in, and this is something

that me and my wife were talking about recently being bought in,

if you're truly bought in into the things of Christ, in the

things of God, if you're truly bought in, there's a natural

reciprocity that happens, right? There's things that change in

within you and you get called into the things of God and a

passion begins to grow in you for the things of God.

And you say to yourself, well, what do I need to do?

What do I need? How do I need to speak?

How do I need to act? What are the things I need to be

speaking to people about? You know, the Great Commission

is just not something that God is in the Bible.

It's a command. And you start to say to

yourself, wait a minute, that's a command.

And you should say, well, I have peace and joy.

God has changed me, who I am. I was destined for hell and he

saved me. And I would want to share that

with the world. And those are the types of

things that we're talking about. That should be something that's

that's just boiling out of you. Just as this, this desire to

share the word of God, to share the gospel because it's what

saved you. It is the good news, and if not,

you have to ask yourself, why is it not burning inside of me?

Why is this passion not within me?

The disciples, the apostles, they gave their lives, they laid

down their lives for Jesus. Why am I not?

If I'm a disciple of Jesus, why am I not desiring to go out and

give the word as much as possible #4 God's judgment

reveals the seriousness of sin. Romans chapter 6 verse 23 says

Romans 6:23

for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is

eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sin is not a small thing, it is rebellion against a holy God.

Judgment reveals how seriously God takes sin, not because he is

cruel, but because he is holy. Because sin is a rebellion

against God, we deserve judgment.

We deserve it because we've rebelled against God the same

way when your children rebelled against you, you punish them,

right? You punish them because they've,

they've committed an act of rebellion.

Now, of course, there are times where we extend grace to our

children like God extends grace to us.

And by the way, parents, that's a great lesson to give your

children. If I sometimes the girls will do

something and I'll be like, you know what?

It's OK. You can have it because God is

gracious to me. I'm going to be gracious to you.

Not always, but you know, every now and then you throw that in

there. If sin were harmless, there

would be no cross. There would be no need for a

cross. If sin were trivial, there would

be no judgment. The reality of judgment shows us

the death of our need for redemption.

Now listen to this. RC Spro once said every sin is

an act of cosmic treason, a willful act of defiance against

the authority of God. And when I read that, I thought

to myself, wow, that is powerful.

An act of cosmic treason. In other words, this doesn't

this doesn't isn't a mean thing. Sin is a rebellion against God

on a cosmic level. We know that to be true because

when Adam sinned and he fell, didn't God curse the earth?

This affected not only Adam, this affected Adam, this

affected Eve, this affected everyone after Adam.

This affected the ground, this affected the earth, affected

everything. And when you So when you think

about that sin, it's just not something trivial.

It's not just something that we all do.

This is not just an act, a throwaway act.

Oh, I made a mistake, I messed up.

Oh, I'm so no big deal. I'll just ask for forgiveness

later. No, this is an act of cosmic

treason on a level of divine and a level of of of beyond our

rationale that we can even understand against God.

Isaiah 59 two says, but your iniquities have made a

separation between you and God and your God, and your sins have

hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Those who continue and sin separate themselves from God to

the point where he can't even hear them anymore if they don't

turn to Christ. James chapter one verse 15 says

then the desire then desires when it is has conceived gives

birth to sin and when it is fully grown brings forth death.

We all know that the wages of sin is what death.

Habakkuk chapter one verse 13 says You are of purer eyes than

to behold evil. God judges sin because His

Holiness cannot coexist with it. Judgment is proof that sin

matters. It should matter to us also.

If it matters to God and we are Christians, it should matter to

us. And we should say to ourselves,

we need to not do those things that cause us to be in

separation with God #5 God's judgment is tempered by mercy.

James chapter 2 verse 13 says for judgment will be merciless

James 2:13

to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Judgment is not God's desire, it is His response to unrepentant

sin. God's heart is mercy.

That is why he sent his Son, because He's merciful and He

wants us to be in a right relationship with Him at the

cross. Judgment fell on Jesus so mercy

could fall on us. Every sin was judged either on

Christ at the Calvary, at Calvary, or on the Sinner at

final judgment. There is no third option.

There is no third option. It's either we put our sins on

Jesus or the sins fall on us. We let him wash us clean, or we

pay for the things that we have done.

Those who trust in Christ do not escape judgment because they are

innocent. They escape because Christ was

judged in their place. The chief end of mercy is not

that man may be relieved, but that God may be glorified.

It is not sufficient to dwell and be satisfied satisfied with

God's mercy. We must glorify Him in

everything we do because of His mercy.

So when we're talking about sin and sinning against God on a

cosmic scale, how much more is His mercy for us?

When we think about that, when we think about the the the how

grand sinning against God is how much more is his mercy for us

that he sent his one and only son to die on the cross for us,

that those of us who were in active rebellion against him can

be made whole, can be brought into the family, can be adopted

into Christ. Ezekiel chapter 33 verse 11

Ezekiel 33:11

says. I have no pleasure in the death

of the wicked. He doesn't want to send the

people down there. They have chosen that.

And that's the thing that people forget.

They think that it's it's not, it's not an act of grace when

Jesus gives the people over to God, gives them over to their

hearts desire, but it is it is an act of grace because he

wouldn't be a merciful God if he just stood there and said no,

you're going to serve me right. Nobody likes to be told what to

do, right? Us, man, we don't like to be

when our boss says, when you walk through the door and you're

like, this is what you're going to do today, right?

You know, hey, let me get in, let me get my cup of coffee.

Let me sit down, let me look at what I got going on.

We don't like to be told what to do.

It's better when the boss comes and says, hey, man, come on, let

me come to my desk. Let me here's what we got going

on and you guys work it out together and you say, OK, this

is what I'm going to do. Here's the game plan is what I'm

going to do. Nobody likes to be, hey, did you

get those things done? Hey, did you get that?

Imagine if God was like that. Imagine if God was like, you're

going to serve me because I said so, because I'm God.

Is that mercy? Is that grace?

Is that loving? That's not loving.

And we know that God is love, right?

Psalm chapter 103, verse 8 says the Lord is compassionate and

Psalms 103:8

gracious, slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness.

The cross is where justice and mercy meet.

Judgment was satisfied so mercy could be extended.

God is not only the God of mercy, He is the God who

delights to show mercy even at great cost to Himself.

Number six, God's judgment calls us to repentance.

Acts chapter 17, verse 30. And we're going to park here for

Acts 17:30

a little bit, so bear with me. Judgment is not meant to terrify

us into despair. It's not meant to you to be

scared and say, Oh no. It is meant to awaken us to

repentance. God warns because he loves, He

delays judgment because he desires salvation.

Today is the day of grace. Tomorrow is not promised.

I don't think I have to remind all of us are.

Most of us are adults here. And even for the children that

are here, not nothing is promised.

Tomorrow's not promised. I know that there are people

here who are actively dealing with loss.

I know enough people here that are actively like, as we speak,

have lost somebody recently. So we know that tomorrow is not

promised. Don't wait for tomorrow to get

right with God. Don't wait for next week to get

right with God. Tomorrow, today, you don't even

my dad always used to say when he preaches, he'd be like, I'm

not even promised the next minute.

I could lose my breath up here and pass away right in front of

you guys and then my mom would be like, no, no, he says that

all the time too. I'm like, mom, we're good.

So God's patience has a purpose. The times of ignorance.

God winked that. That's in Acts chapter 17 verse

Acts 17:30

30. This does not mean God approved

the sin or overlooked it without concern.

It means God exercised forbearance.

He restrained immediate judgment to allow time for revelation and

repentance. Romans chapter 3 verse 25 says

Romans 3:25

for God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin.

People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus

sacrificed his life shedding his blood.

This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back

and did not punish those who sinned in times past.

I don't need how much how much more clear it has to be.

God's justice and mercy meet in the cross.

In Christ. God dealt with sin once for all,

satisfying His righteous judgment while offering

forgiveness to those who believe.

For those of us who believe, our sins are washed away.

That's glorious. You guys look so excited.

There we go. All those who cling out to Jesus

are made righteous in the sight of God.

My filthy rags are made new, there's a new wineskin on my

heart and I am indwelled with the Holy Spirit.

That's amazing that we are indwelled with God because of

our our belief, our faith in God.

That's it. All it takes is faith in God

that to believe is in who he says he is.

Now there's a new era of accountability that has arrived,

it says. But now this phrase marks a

turning point in redemptive history.

With the coming of Christ, ignorance is no longer an

excuse. Truth has been revealed, the

gospel proclaimed, and responsibility increased.

That's for everyone. Everyone in this room has heard

the gospel message. Nobody has an excuse.

Nobody has an excuse before God. Everyone here has heard the

gospel, and if not, I'll present it in a little bit so that then

nobody can really have an excuse.

God's patience in the past doesn't give us permission to

keep sinning, but now at the right time, His call to turn to

Him is clear, urgent, and for everyone from the youngest to

the oldest. Our responsibility is now to

turn to Christ. Hear what God says.

When the time came for me to show you favor, I heard you.

When the day arrived for me to saved you, I helped you.

Listen. This is the hour to receive

God's favor. Today is the day to be saved.

2nd and Corinthians chapter 6, verse 2.

Repentance is a command, not a suggestion.

God now commands. That's in Acts Chapter 7.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

In the verse of Acts we read. Repentance is not optional

advice. It is the divine command.

God does not negotiate with sin, He demands repentance.

God once overlooked the ignorance of past generations,

but now He calls everyone everywhere to turn from sin and

to follow Him. The right time has come, he

said, and the Kingdom of God is near.

Turn away from your sins and believe the good news.

Mark chapter one, verse 15. So what is the good news?

What is the good news? The good news is this, that God,

knowing from the beginning of time that we would be sinners

and that we would turn to sin, sent His one and only Son who

took the form of a man and lived amongst men and was sinless.

And for us, even though he we didn't exist at the time, He

knew that you, each and everyone of you would exist.

And He wanted to love you and he wanted you to be in good

standing with God himself. And He knew that you would rebel

against him. He knew that you would turn to

your sinful ways. He knew that you would invent

ways in your heart to sin against Him.

But in his omniscience, in his omniscience, He wanted to love

you. And so as Jesus, he came down

and he lived amongst men and he was sinless.

And the only thing that can wash away sin is blood.

Because again, it's cosmic defiance, it's cosmic rebellion.

And in order to be washed away, they had to be perfect blood.

And Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary to wash away

not only my sins, my acts of rebellion, but yours too.

And the only thing that's required for you is to believe

what He said and what he did. That's it.

In your heart, you believe that he died on the cross of Calvary

and that he resurrected. And he sits at the right hand of

the Father currently, in all his righteousness, in all his glory.

He's not dead. He is alive.

And we wait for the day that we can be united to Him.

That is the good news of Jesus Christ.

And if you believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth,

you will be saved. You will be saved for the day of

redemption. That's it.

That's it. Doesn't require you to crawl on

your knees. It doesn't require you to lash

yourself in the back. None of that.

John chapter 15 verse 22 says if I had not come and spoken to

John 15:22

them, they would not have sinned.

But now they have no excuse. We have no excuse.

Turn to Jesus, repent of your sins.

The command is universal. It says all men everywhere, not

just some, all men everywhere. And by all men he means all

women too. No one is exempt.

Repentance is required of every nation, culture, class, race and

individual. Everyone.

Children, adults, old people, young people, white, black,

Hispanic, Gloucester, New York, Newport News, doesn't matter.

The Gospel knows no boundaries. What God commands is for

everyone in every place at every time, because God's revelation

in Christ has exposed ignorance and called all to

responsibility. Paul declares that now God

commands everyone everywhere to repent, a universal summons in

the light of the gospel. Again, we're talking about on a

cosmic scale. He did something for us on a

cosmic scale. Of course the weights are

measured by that, but he's not asking for your sacrifice of

your children, which strangely enough, some people are more

willing to do. And I mean that genuinely some

people are more willing to do than turn to Christ.

They would rather genuinely literally sacrifice their

children. I don't mean that

metaphorically, I mean that literally kill their children

for whatever God they believe in rather than turn to Christ.

That's a that's just profound. Romans chapter 3 verse 23 says

Romans 3:23

all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

The Lord is not slow to do what He has promised as some think.

Instead He is patient with you because He does not want anyone

to be destroyed but wants all to turn away from their sins.

Second of Peter chapter 3 verse 9.

I didn't say that the Bible says that seek the Lord while He may

be found. Again I didn't say that.

Isaiah chapter 55. That's verse 6 and 7.

Isaiah 55 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 13, verse 3 says unless you repent, you will all

Luke 13:3

likewise perish. Again, I didn't say that.

The Scripture says that grace has an expiration date.

Repentance must happen before judgment, not after seven, God's

final judgment. Then I saw a great white throne

and Him who sat on it. Revelation chapter 20 verse 11,

Revelation 20:11

there is a final irreversible judgment.

This is not correction, it is conclusion.

In other words, you don't go to this judgment to sit there and

be corrected. This is the final judgment.

John chapter 5 verse 22 says the Father judges no one, but has

John 5:22

committed all judgment to the Son.

Jesus Christ Himself will judge. The Savior becomes the judge for

those who rejected salvation. Jesus, being fully God and fully

man, is perfectly righteous and impartial.

Unlike human judges who are fallible, he judges with

absolute justice and holiness. Because Jesus is the judge,

everyone is accountable to him. This includes believers and non

believers. Good news for those of us in

Christ, right? Because we are in communion with

Christ, because the Holy Spirit dwells with us, we will be

judged like if we were being judged by our own brother, by

our own Father, right? And what mercy would he give us?

I know that if my children were sitting before me and I was the

judge, I'd be like, free, get out of here.

You know I right, we wouldn't judge our own children that

harshly. But how much would you judge the

enemy, the person against you, the person who's done nothing

but bad towards you, the person who's done nothing but

rebellious acts towards you, who's done evil towards you?

If you had the ability to judge them, what would you do?

Now everybody's going to get on their Christian high horse and

be like, no, I'd be gracious. I'd be, I'd be so loving, right?

Yeah, yeah. If we had the opportunity, we'd

be like 30 years, right? He is merciful and has has

already borne the penalty for sin.

And that's for those of us that are believers.

He's borne the penalty of our sin.

We deserve judgment. We deserve to be righteously

judged, but God in his grace has taken that penalty for us.

Then the books Revelation 20 verse 12 says the books were

Revelation 20:12

opened and another book was opened which is the book of

life. Every life is recorded.

Deeds prove guilt. The book of life determines

destiny. So where will you be when he

opens the book of life? Where will your name be?

Will your name be on it? Will your name be on the good

side or on the wrong side of that?

The verdict Revelation 20 verse 15 says anyone not found written

Revelation 20:15

in the book of life was what cast into the lake of fire.

Matthew chapter 25 verse 46 says these then will be sent off to

Matthew 25:46

eternal punishment, but the righteous will go to eternal

life. This judgment is eternal, final

and unappealable. There's no appellate court.

There's no I think they made a mistake.

There's no, can I get another one or there's no null process

like they do here in in Virginia where you can say, well, they

didn't have enough evidence against me.

God is going to have all the evidence he needs, whether

whether you live the right way or the wrong way, whether you

turn to him or you rejected him. He knows your heart.

He knows what's really in there. And you can lie to man all you

want, but God knows. It's amazing how people think

they can lie to God and they just, they continue to think

they're going to get away with it.

You can lie to your parents, you can lie to your spouse, you can

lie to your coworkers, you can lie to to anyone you come

across. You can put up this facade, but

God knows your heart. God's judgment is not

speculation. It is not cruelty.

It is justice and it's not and it's not hopeless because mercy

is still available. Today is the day you can still

turn to the Lord. Now is the accepted, accepted

time. Behold, now is the day of

salvation. Second of Corinthians chapter 6,

verse 2. And this is not meant to scare

anyone. This is not, this is reality.

This is the truth. I'm not saying this because I

want people to scare you into coming to Jesus.

That's not how it works anyway, right?

You have to genuinely love the things of God and you don't do

that out of fear. You don't marry someone out of

fear. You develop love for that

person. That's afterwards.

You get the fear after you're married.

She's laughing a little too hard over this.

If Christ is your savement, if I'm sorry, if Christ is your

savior, judgment holds no terror.

For those of us that are Christian, we look forward for

this day. We look forward for his return.

We look forward for the day that we can stand before our God and

He accepts us and He calls us in there.

If Christ is not your Savior, judgment holds no escape.

That was my time. It's all good.

Choose mercy while it is offered because judgment is certain.

And again, the message is in to bring one of fear is for you to

contemplate and to pray and to think about where you stand with

God and your walk with God. Where are you?

Are you truly walking as God has intended you to be?

It's a new year, right? And we should be praying for his

will to be done in our lives. And like CS Lewis said, there's

going to be some of us that God is going to.

You're going to look to God and say that will be done.

And there's some of us probably here that God is going to say,

I'm giving you over to your will.

This is what you desire. And I pray that there's nobody

in here that's like that. But you know who knows?

I don't know the hearts of man. God knows the heart of man.

So that being said, let's pray. Dear Lord, we come before your

presence, Lord, and we thank you for today.

Lord, we thank you for this time that you have allowed us to come

and fellowship. Lord, we thank you for this

congregation. Lord, these believers and and

those that are here today. Lord, I ask that you just

penetrate their hearts and their minds with this thought, Lord.

And I just know that this is meant not only for them, but for

me as well, Lord. And I thank you, Lord, for

speaking truths and revealing truths to us when we need it,

Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here amongst us, Lord,

that has not turned to you, Lord, that you just open their

minds and their hearts to run towards you.

And it's just desire to have you in their lives or that they may

profess that you are not only their savior, but their God, and

that you are Christ the King, Lord in their lives.

Lord, going forward, Lord, I pray for the people in this

church that you know what's going on in their families and

in their devotional times and whatever is going on that you

just continue to draw them closer to you.

Lord, I pray for each and every person here that they just be a

beacon of light to the community around there.

Lord, in this church, just continue to grow in everything

that it does. Lord, I pray for Pastor John

Michael and his family, Lord, that you continue to bless him,

strengthen him, be with him, lead him, help him, guide him as

well as his wife and his children, Lord, and everybody

here that helps him. Lord Adam and all the leaders in

this church as well, Lord and their families that you just

guide them and strengthen them as they go forward, Lord.

Lord, I know that you give these type of sermons to help us.

Just re center Lord and just remind us of who you are Lord,

that you are just not a God of a book, but that you are the God

of all creation, Lord. And I just ask that you just

help us, Lord, and just in reminding us of who you are, a

righteous God who not only gives us mercy and grace, but judges

us, Lord, that we just be reminded of that constantly.

Not out of fear, but out of love for you, Lord, that you just

continue to just drive us as we go forward loving you and the

things of God. Lord, I pray that you just take

each and every person here home today safely Lord, and that we

may go forward this week and in this year.

Lord, just desiring you and all that we do.

Lord, we ask you all this in Jesus name we pray, Amen and

Amen.