The Day of Separation Part 1 |

About this sermon

Introduction: As we come to the end of the Olivet Discourse, we come to our Lord’s declaration of a great day of separation. When Jesus returns to the earth, all those alive on the earth will be judged. All humanity, all nations, will be brought before the Son of God. Some will enter everlasting life. Some banished to everlasting judgment. That great day of separation is a day that will manifest the saving grace of God, and the just judgment of God. THAT DAY IS COMING, AND JESUS WANTS THE WORLD TO KNOW THAT THAT DAY IS COMING. THAT DAY IS COMING, AND HE WANTS HIS PEOPLE TO KNOW THAT THAT DAY IS COMING. And this is not rare on the part of Jesus. Jesus spoke a LOT about judgment. John MacArthur — “No one in Scripture spoke more of judgment than Jesus. He spoke of sin that could not be forgiven, of the danger of losing one’s soul forever, of spending eternity in the torments of hell, of existing forever in outer darkness, where there will be perpetual weeping and gnashing of teeth. No pictures of judgment are more intense and sobering than those Jesus portrayed.” If Jesus spoke a lot about judgment, and if the Bible speaks a lot about judgment, why doesn’t His church speak a lot about judgment? It is troubling to see how UNCOMFORTABLE many professing believers, and many supposedly evangelical churches are with the SUBJECT OF JUDGMENT. The whole “church growth movement” that has been popularized by many megachurches involved the playing down of, or the elimination of, what PROFESSING CHRISTIANS considered the “unpleasant” aspects of the biblical message. One of the reasons why so many unbelievers are confused about God’s people discussing judgment — “who are you to talk about judgment, only God can judge sinners!” — is because the church has often neglected to speak on the subject clearly. You see this, sometimes, even in the context of a worship service. You see it in preaching, where any mention of judgment is immediately followed with several statements meant to take the edge off that biblical declaration of judgment. You see it in music, when sometimes a sermon that has dealt with a passage that emphasizes the judgment of God, is followed by a song that does nothing but comfort the people who just heard the sermon about judgment. WHY? Why are people ashamed to declare what God has so clearly declared? Why do we find OURSELVES sometimes ashamed to talk about God’s judgment — both His judgment on the sins of our time, and His judgment of sinners at the end of the age? I want to think about that today. I want us to recognize that Jesus has, again, arrived at the end of an answer about His return, and as He finishes, He tells us about the judgment of the nations. He tells us about a judgment that precedes entrance into the kingdom that He ushers in. AND I WANT US TO CONSIDER WHY SO MANY PROFESSING CHRISTIANS ARE HESITANT TO SAY WHAT GOD SAYS ABOUT THESE THINGS. A FEW REASONS: Sometimes the people ashamed of the judgment of God are strangers to God. We must always begin with the fact that regeneration produces a new WORLDVIEW. If someone is born again, they might find themselves unfaithful — for a time (in a moment) — to speak the truth. But believers will be characterized by an identification with the truth that they cannot and do not deny. People who don’t know God attempt to make God in their own image. The aspects of God’s character that they don’t like, they distort, or they eliminate. And it when comes to the subject of the judgment of God, or any other revelation of God’s character, error exists on both ends of the spectrum. GOD IS SOMETIMES PRESENTED AS IF HE DELIGHTS IN JUDGMENT WITHOUT MERCY. GOD IS SOMETIMES PRESENTED AS IF HE IS LIKE A PERMISSIVE PARENT WHO WOULD NEVER JUDGE HUMANITY.

Topics

• Marriage