The Judge Is Coming | Matthew 16:27-28 | An Expository Sermon by Dr. Richard Caldwell

Scripture

• Matthew 16:27–28

About this sermon

Introduction: The everlasting destiny of every human being hinges on ONE RELATIONSHIP. What is your relationship to the Son of God? Hold on to the life that you were born with — hold on to the life you can know WITHOUT Christ — and you will lose it. You will lose your soul forever. Lose that life, exchange that life, for the sake of Christ — believe the gospel of Christ and trust in Him for life — and you will find life. The life you will find is eternal. Our Lord has just taught His disciples that truth (vs.24-26). And now, in the verses we have before us today, He gives the truth that underscores the URGENCY of that decision. He gives the truth that underscores the WEIGHTINESS of that decision. THE REASON WHY WE MUST TAKE UP OUR CROSS AND FOLLOW JESUS FOR LIFE IS BECAUSE A JUDGMENT IS COMING. JESUS WILL BE THE JUDGE AT THE END OF THE AGE. We will either meet with Jesus DURING OUR LIFETIME — PRIOR TO THE TIME OF THE JUDGMENT — on the terms of mercy, on the ground of grace, or we will meet with Jesus IN THAT DAY on the ground of judgment. Jesus will either be your Savior or Jesus will be your judge. He will either reward those who have trusted in Him for life and have served Him, or recompense those who stand before God based on their own works. When that truth is known, then the man or woman without Christ has a decision to make. Either he will continue on his current course — with judgment as his certain end — or he will turn from himself, and his sin, and this world, to receive God’s mercy to sinners in His Son. Have you ever done that? Have you ever repented and trusted in Jesus as the Christ, as the Son of God, as YOUR Savior — the Savior of repentant sinners? This is the truth we see today in our verses, five truths about a disciple’s devotion. Where you have true repentance, and a genuine following after Christ, you have godly sorrow and holy love. And so, we can also say, five truths about the sorrow and the love that leads to life. • TRUE DEVOTION IS A MATTER OF FAITH AND URGENCY (vs.27a) When repentance takes place, it always goes like this: God warns, and God promises, and the repentant sinner believes. And when the repentant sinner believes, he DOES NOT DELAY. Christ has just taught about the need for life. He has just talked about THE TRAGEDY OF MEN FORFEITING THEIR SOULS for a fool’s treasure. And then the first word that follows is the word “FOR.” “CONSIDER ALL THAT I’VE JUST SAID ABOUT THE SOUL, WITH THIS TRUTH IN MIND, THERE’S A JUDGMENT DAY COMING.” There is a day coming when the cost of the selling of your soul for the wind will be REQUIRED of you, and will be on display for the whole world to see. There is a day coming when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. ESV Revelation 11:15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." And IF YOU BELIEVE THAT, you turn to Christ. You take up your cross and follow Christ. When Jonah declared the judgment of God, the sinners in Nineveh heard it, and believed it, and repented immediately. ESV Jonah 3:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you." 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish." 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. There is no indication that the attitude was, “Well, he said 40 days, so let’s live it up for the next 39.”

Topics

• Hell & Judgment