_Where is the God of Judgment_?
THE prophet had been complaining of the priests for neglecting to inform
and correct the people, and of the people for disregarding GOD’S
teaching. Reasoning and remonstrating with them, and supposing them to
attempt self-justification, he tells them at last that they have wearied
the LORD with their words—by which he means their acted and thought words
rather than what they spoke—and in answer to the question, which he knows
they would put, “Wherein have we wearied Him?” he says, By presuming
licentiously that GOD is indifferent alike to good and evil, and has no
moral likings or dislikings—“When ye say every one that doeth evil is
good in the sight of the LORD, and He delighteth in them,”—or, if it were
otherwise, that at least He does not act upon His feeling—“Where is the
GOD of Judgment?” the manifestation of the discriminating, the rewarding,
or punishing LORD. I do not propose to enlarge upon the text in its
historic relation to the Jews, but, applying it to ourselves, to show,
first, that the question, “Where is the GOD of Judgment?” is one which we
Christians often ask in perverse unbelief, or in sad infirmity; and,
secondly, that the question is one which in a better sense we should
often ask (as we do not), in order to discern His operations, to become
acquainted and impressed with the truth, that there is a judgment of all,
_here_ and _hereafter_.
“Where is the GOD of Judgment?” I say that this question is often asked
in perverse unbelief, or in sad infirmity. Practically, we too often
ignore the idea of judgment altogether. Our reason suggests to us, that
if there is a moral governor of the world, then surely good will be
approved by reward, and evil marked by punishment. The Bible plainly and
most positively assures us, that, as rational and responsible creatures
of GOD’S hand, we are subject to a judgment which His goodness, His
truth, His justice, His holiness, cannot omit to pass on our every act,
and word, and thought; that as purchased servants of CHRIST, we are set a
certain work to do, with the express understanding that we shall be
faithfully dealt with according to our treatment of that work, and are
put upon a probation whereof at the end CHRIST _must_ take account, for
He has been made LORD and Judge for that very end, and has received a
commission from the Father, which He may in no single instance depart
from. Yea, more than that, it tells us that the immediate effect on us,
of all our good and evil, is _itself_ a judgment, contributing to the
formation of the character which shall adapt us, and so consign us, to
heaven or to hell. I say reason and the Bible so instructs us; and yet
we practically ignore the judgment. Of course I do not mean that we
strike it out of our creed, that we do otherwise than assent to it in
theory, that we altogether forget it in practice, but that we do not make
it the ruling principle of our lives—the impelling or restraining
influence of every thought and deed. Am I not right? Reflect, dear
brethren, how many wrong things you do or desire, with little hesitation,
with no compunction, with no fear of judgment! Reflect, too, how many
good things you pass over or forego, or will take no trouble to attain,
through want of consideration of the reward that belongs to them, and
which therefore you are losing! How ready are you to taste each cup of
pleasure, to be engrossed with the pursuits of this world, to withhold
what you should part with, to do what is wrong, to omit what is enjoined,
in forgetfulness of the fact that for all these things GOD will bring you
unto judgment! How impatient, too, under trials, how slow in spiritual
work, how little interested in the love and attainment of godliness; as
though these things were all loss, and suffering, and uninviting toil; as
though there were no recompense of reward! Yes, there is something in
the best of us, and much in the most of us, of practical disregard of
judgment. Of course we know (and are in a measure influenced by the
knowledge) that by and by we shall stand before GOD, to be blessed or
cursed—that it is necessary, therefore, to secure a good hope of
acceptance, and to make our peace with GOD through JESUS CHRIST, and that
this is to be done by keeping all the ordinances of religion, and obeying
in spirit the whole moral code, and striving to love and serve the LORD
now; or at least by repenting of all that is amiss, and praying earnestly
for pardon and quickening of our faith, before we die. But still, it is
not a _judgment_ that we contemplate—a real scrutiny of our life’s
ways—an actual weighing of us in the heavenly balance, that we may be
rewarded or punished for those ways, and accepted or rejected according
to our actual state. We are wont to consider GOD as an arbitrary Being,
not absolutely bound by any laws, or promises, or threats, but free to
treat us as He will, and disposed, for CHRIST’S sake, to be favourable to
us—if we ask Him—without any regard to what we have been doing, and what
we actually are. I am not sure that you will admit this. But, brethren,
to help you to do so, consider how general is a vague trust to CHRIST’S
merits—and GOD’S goodness on account of those merits—to cover all
excesses and defects of duty, to accept any kind of character, as though
there were no rule of reward, and no necessary qualification for heaven!
How rare is the conviction, that while CHRIST’S merits are indeed the
only ground of our acceptance, and GOD’S mercy is exercised on account of
those merits, yet the merits and the mercy are applied to us on condition
that we do certain works, and attain to a certain character in the
strength of the Holy Spirit given to incline and enable us; that we are
to be rewarded or punished, accepted or rejected, strictly according to
the terms of that condition, and that the inquiry into its observance, in
the scrutiny of our past lives and of our present state, in the
pronouncing of them such as they were appointed to be, or the opposite,
and the bestowal of the reward or punishment, is a strict judgment, in
the passing of which the Judge has no room for arbitrary favour, no
option, if I may so speak, to do otherwise than, in view of the evidence,
to apply the fixed law—life for those whom it approves, death for those
whom it condemns.
Oh! there is a GOD of Judgment, and to us Christians there is no other
GOD. CHRIST is full of merits. GOD accepts those merits, and is full of
mercy on account of them. We cannot magnify the merits too much, nor
rejoice too much in the mercy; provided (but provided only) that we
remember that they are applied by rule, and that we must observe the
rule, and be sure that GOD will in no wise, and in no case, depart from
it. Trust to CHRIST’S merits; hope for GOD’S mercy, but count most
surely on judgment, as you are most surely the objects of it.
But, secondly, fully believing that there is a GOD of Judgment, the
questions arise, Where is He? In what court does He sit? When does He
judge? The common notion (and my remarks have hitherto fallen in with
it) is, that He is only in a future world, and that He will not exercise
His office till the last day. The notion is founded on a truth. CHRIST
sits on the throne of GOD now, to send down grace, to intercede with the
Father, to rule the Church. At the last day, and not before, He will
leave that throne, and come forth in His glorious majesty to judge the
quick and the dead, and to dispose of them in their appointed eternal
abodes. We have a work to do, and a day set us to do it in, and account
will not be taken of it, and the hire given us, till the day is over.
There is a character to be formed ere we can enter heaven, and space, and
opportunity, and power, are vouchsafed us for forming it. Respecting
these, then, judgment tarrieth. And even when our individual time is
over, when our work ceases, and our probation closes, there are others
left to work and fashion themselves for eternity; and GOD has appointed
that we, without them, shall not be made perfect. There is to be but one
glorious descent from the throne, one general resurrection, one great
assize, one gathering of the saints into the highest heaven, one opening,
and then one shutting for ever of the lowest hell. When our day is over,
we must, probably, as others do, sleep a night in the grave, and then on
the morning of the Resurrection shall appear the GOD of Judgment. But
surely, after all, there must be an earlier judgment! When the body is
laid down, and begins its sleep, the soul does not lie down and sleep
with it. “The body returns to the dust,” we are told, “but the spirit
goes back to GOD who gave it;” and lest we should imagine that this is
but a figurative way of describing a suspension of the spirit’s life, we
are informed in many places not only that it continues greatly alive and
awake, requiring a place of conscious abode, but that it is at once
disposed of by GOD, and in a manner which shows an immediate judgment of
it. As soon as Lazarus died, he was carried to Abraham’s bosom, and
there was comforted: as soon as Dives died, in hell (a place of misery of
some kind) he lift up his eyes, being in torments. “This day shalt thou
be with Me in Paradise,” was the promise of Him, Who could not promise
idly. To be absent from the body is, for the saint, to be present with
the LORD, and a vision showed St. John the souls of the martyrs living
and pleading beneath the altar. What does all this teach us, but that
the GOD of Judgment meets us at the gate of death, and there and then
judges and disposes of us? It is somewhat speculative to inquire what is
the nature of the judgment. It is beyond us to understand how an
immediate judgment is compatible with a future one. We know not whether
GOD at first privately intimates what He will at last publicly pronounce;
whether this is the actual, that only the formal decision; whether the
scrutiny is now made, or only rehearsed; whether the soul is actually
tried, or only committed for trial, and in the mean time so dealt with by
immediate imprisonment, or liberation on pledge to appear, as to hint,
rather than plainly declare what shall be its ultimate fate; whether it
enters at once into a state of actual, though partial, experience of joy
or misery, companying with GOD, with CHRIST, with holy angels, or with
Satan and evil spirits; or whether it is left in an antechamber where it
but anticipates the future reward, and actually receives none of it. All
this is mystery. But certain we are, brethren, that death, is in some
sense the time of judgment, and consequently that in some way, at the
very moment of departure from this life we are confronted with the GOD of
Judgment. Oh, that we could feel this! What a precious time and talent
it would make our life; what an awful antechamber of GOD’S presence! How
we should be deterred from doing evil; how stirred to do good! How
should we be watching, staff in hand; how resolutely should we do our
work, how patiently should we suffer! Could we then be at home in the
world, prone to sinful pleasures, distracted or engrossed by worldly
cares, indifferent to sin and holiness? No, it would be impossible!
Could we be idle, if we knew that our work would so soon be scrutinised?
Could we delay the cultivation of a grace necessary for heaven, if we
knew that the time for acquiring it might so soon be over? Could we
hazard the interests of eternity, if we knew that we were separated from
them, not by a wide and lasting world, not by many, many years of
forgetfulness in the grave, but only by a thin veil, through which they
might even now be albut heard and seen, which the next moment might be
rent in twain, which at the most, in a few short years, will be wholly
taken away! Oh! brethren, we can risk our eternal hopes when they seem
distant—we dare not, we could not, if we felt them close! Behold, the
judge is at the door! Watch, lest it open and reveal Him! Behold the
messenger is coming; be ready, for He may be sent to summon you to the
presence of the GOD of Judgment!
But we have not yet the full answer to our text. GOD is everywhere. He
fills heaven and earth with His presence. And He is the same everywhere,
and at all times; the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; and so He is
the GOD of Judgment, exercising judgment even in this life. It cannot be
otherwise. It belongs to His very essence to love righteousness and hate
iniquity. When He wills, it is done; when He feels, He acts; what He
hates, He shrinks from—and if He shrinks, is it not judgment? What He
loves, He clings to—and is not His presence favour, and support, and
blessing? Brethren, I have often exhorted you not to shut GOD out of
this present world as if He belonged only to the future. Live in the
world to Him. “Wherever we live, we live unto the LORD.” Live in the
world by Him. “The LORD is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests
be made unto GOD.” And live in the world, under Him: for “The eyes of
the LORD are over the righteous, and the face of the LORD is against them
that do evil.” Yes, the GOD of Judgment is _here_. You know it was so
in Old Testament times. The deed of righteousness then brought its
immediate reward; the deed of sin its punishment. Murmur or disregard
drove away the pillar of fire, repentance and prayer brought it back.
You think it otherwise now perhaps, but “I am the LORD, I change not.”
The children of Israel were carnal babes, GOD therefore showed Himself to
their natural eye. _We_ are men in CHRIST, and the vision, therefore, is
to our faith. It was with perishable toys that _they_ were pleased: He,
therefore, rewarded or punished them with temporal things. It is
differently, _in a measure_, that He deals with us; but not altogether
differently. It is a mistake to suppose that GOD’S favour was always
testified to the Jews by prosperity, His displeasure by adversity. Think
of Abraham, of Job, of Moses, of Joseph, of the ungodly in great
prosperity, and you will see the mistake. Temporal circumstances were
more often, then, the tokens of spiritual, but the spiritual has always
been the reality; and in comparison with it, the token, not always
afforded, is immaterial. Oh! do not suppose that when the Man CHRIST
JESUS came on earth as the messenger of grace, the GOD of Providence
departed. More real and constant is His presence now, and more
invariable His action. In respect of our service of CHRIST and
candidateship for heaven, there is a sense in which He leaves us unjudged
till the end. But, in another sense, as He must, from His very nature,
be always judging, so are we Christians the special objects of His
judgment. No winking at _our_ ignorance, no long-suffering with _our_
sin. Enlightened and enabled, we are responsible, and immediately made
to answer, for all that is wrong; and, specially endeared to Him, we are
immediately rewarded for all that He approves. And this judgment is
visible, if we will but look for it even in our temporal circumstances.
I do not say that the righteous are always what the world calls
prosperous, and the wicked always what the world calls unfortunate,
though that is not seldom the case, much more often than, in our rash
judgment, we suppose; besides, any kinds of temporal circumstances may be
made, and often are made, the sources of temporal reward or punishment;
but temporal things are not the best or the worst that GOD can give.
They are chiefly used by Him as means; and could I describe to you the
blessings which poverty and bereavement and disappointment and affliction
have produced, and the curses which have accompanied riches and success,
and immunity from loss and trial, you would see what effectual means they
are, and would readily exclaim, “_Here_ is the GOD of Judgment!” But
there is a better and a worse judgment. You know how GOD hardened
Pharaoh’s heart, because it was not softened; how He made Saul’s
perversity his punishment; how He stiffened Jeroboam’s arm that he could
not draw it in from the deed of sin; what a sinful security He brought
upon David for transgression; how Abraham grew rich by forsaking his
home; how Job resigned much and therefore received more; how Joseph,
fleeing from Potiphar’s wife, was made to prosper in all he did. These
things are types of great realities—specimens of constant judgments. GOD
stands over every man to watch what he does, and as soon as it is done,
He judges and rewards it. Ah! let the wicked tremble at this, and let
the righteous rejoice at it. A harassed or a calmed conscience may or
may not be an accompaniment of the judgment, but a judgment there will
surely be. Do you want an illustration? Why, then, should the man who
commits a trivial sin to-day fall into a greater sin to-morrow? Why
should a little resistance qualify for a great one? You say it is
natural. If you mean by that that is _spiritual_, that it is the acting
influence of GOD’S providence, I agree with you; but not otherwise. Man
is not his own destroyer, nor his own saviour. It no more follows
naturally that a man should fall into a great sin after a little one, or
should conquer a strong temptation after overcoming a weak one, than that
he should soil his garments or his flesh much to-day, because he soiled
them a little yesterday, or that he should float in a flood because he
has turned aside from a pool! It is a judgment that makes him sin again,
and a judgment that enables him to resist again. In the one case, it is
the angry withdrawal of grace, and the giving up to a reprobate mind, and
the delivery to Satan; in the other it is the approving increase of
grace, and the sending of angels to keep off the fiends. _Where is the_
GOD _of Judgment_! Where, brethren, is He not, and when not acting?
This world is the throne of judgment. Every moment is the trial time.
Every act, every word, every thought, brings down upon it, on the
instant, the sentence and the execution of the sentence! Think of this
and act upon it. The eyes of the LORD are over the righteous. The face
of the LORD is against them that do evil. Strive, then, each action to
approve to His all-seeing eye. Know that it is always Advent; that the
books are always open, and the judgment always set, and the sentence ever
ready, “Blessed—or Cursed,” and angels and demons looking out and waiting
for the signal of approach. The Last Judgment is the climax of the Death
Judgment, the Death Judgment of the Life Judgment. Gain GOD’S approval
here, and keep it here, and you shall not lose it hereafter. Forfeit it
here, and obtain it not again here, and you can never have it. There is
no condemnation for them that are in CHRIST JESUS. The rest are already
condemned; though the GOD of Judgment gives them yet the chance—(oh! let
them not trifle with it!)—that if they will appeal quickly, a fresh trial
may be granted; and if they have made CHRIST their Advocate, the former
sentence shall be reversed, and they, too, shall be blessed!
SERMON III.
THE WORLDLING REPROVED.