WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.480 We are in a summer series on parables, 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:06.960 the parables of Jesus, and we've been looking at 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:09.720 kingdom parables in particular. 00:00:09.720 --> 00:00:13.720 So in Matthew 13, there are seven parables. 00:00:13.720 --> 00:00:16.440 After the parable of the sower, where Jesus says 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:19.800 the kingdom of heaven is like this. 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:22.800 So we have this series of metaphors of short stories, 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:25.640 which is what parables are, where Jesus very specifically 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:27.760 says this is what the kingdom of God is like, 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:29.080 the kingdom of heaven is like. 00:00:29.079 --> 00:00:31.279 So we've been working our way through those. 00:00:31.279 --> 00:00:34.119 We have done five of them, six of them actually, 00:00:34.119 --> 00:00:35.879 because there's an extra one in Mark. 00:00:35.879 --> 00:00:38.920 And so today we look at the final two, the last two. 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:42.719 And as we've said, parables are short stories, 00:00:42.719 --> 00:00:45.200 taken from things that are very normal, 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:48.119 normal life type stuff for a first century person. 00:00:48.119 --> 00:00:52.560 And here we've got, again, agriculture, a farmer. 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:55.320 And today we add fishing as well, 00:00:55.320 --> 00:00:57.679 fishing with nets, which is a very normal activity 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:00.079 for a first century person, as we still do things 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:01.439 like that today. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:05.040 But in these two parables, we do not have an easy task today, 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:05.879 not at all. 00:01:05.879 --> 00:01:09.159 We have a very difficult task, because you probably 00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:11.200 clocked it already, if you were reading along 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:14.640 with these parables, that they are about divine judgment. 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:17.039 So these are parables that teach us something 00:01:17.039 --> 00:01:19.960 about judgment, about God's final judgment, 00:01:19.960 --> 00:01:23.519 and about the concept and the reality of hell. 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:25.680 That's really what these parables are about. 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:27.560 So we have a hard thing to talk about today, 00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:28.840 not easy at all. 00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:30.960 Let me just say a few disclaimers, 00:01:30.960 --> 00:01:33.439 a few things by way of introduction about this. 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:37.079 One is, first, in the city of Edinburgh, 00:01:37.079 --> 00:01:40.280 in a city like Edinburgh, many of you who are from here, 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:44.000 who are from Scotland, will know very well 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.480 that for probably four to five generations now, 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:51.040 more and more people, and now most people in our city, 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:55.040 would say something like, if God is truly loving, 00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:57.280 how can he send people to hell? 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:00.200 If God is truly loving, how can he be a judge 00:02:00.200 --> 00:02:01.519 at the same time? 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:04.879 And ever since World War II, more and more people, 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:07.599 generation after generation, have thought that, 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:10.680 and have said that, and also at the same time, 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:13.120 more and more churches have taken that line of thought. 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:14.800 And so there are many, many churches, 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:17.560 over the past three to four generations in our city, 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:22.039 that have come to set God's love against God's justice. 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:26.080 And in doing that, have decided, have determined, 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:29.080 that the concept of hell, the reality of judgment, 00:02:29.080 --> 00:02:30.560 is not real. 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:33.560 And the grand irony, there's so much we could say about it, 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:35.680 and this is not all we wanna say about it, not at all, 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:38.600 but one of the great ironies of that is in the hope 00:02:38.600 --> 00:02:41.680 that denying the judgment of God would lead 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:45.200 to filling up the churches, it did the exact opposite. 00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:47.080 Denying this idea, denying this reality, 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:49.640 has actually emptied so many of the churches. 00:02:49.640 --> 00:02:52.000 And the reason for that, and this is really the thesis 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.400 of our sermon today, of what these parables 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:59.400 are talking about, is that good news has a context. 00:03:00.520 --> 00:03:03.560 And the context of good news is bad news. 00:03:03.560 --> 00:03:07.200 And if you take away the bad news, you don't have a message. 00:03:07.200 --> 00:03:08.240 You don't have good news. 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:09.280 You don't have anything to talk about. 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:11.599 You don't have the gospel at all. 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:14.800 The second disclaimer by way of intro is, 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:19.080 at the same time, we wanna come to the Bible 00:03:19.080 --> 00:03:20.640 and teach what the Bible teaches. 00:03:20.640 --> 00:03:23.240 And at the same time, we never wanna come to a subject 00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:26.360 like this, the reality of divine judgment 00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:28.520 with a smile on our faces. 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:31.000 We don't want to, I am smiling now. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:35.200 But I don't wanna come today and think that this is a subject 00:03:35.200 --> 00:03:37.219 we come with a sort of happiness. 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:41.480 One of the things, one of the reasons on the flip side, 00:03:41.480 --> 00:03:45.080 I think that many people in our Western world 00:03:45.080 --> 00:03:48.040 have left church at times, maybe having grown up in church, 00:03:48.040 --> 00:03:51.280 is because of an overemphasis on this topic. 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:53.500 Something where this is being, 00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:55.840 hell is being talked about all the time. 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:58.800 And every single week, it seems to be the same theme. 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:02.719 And that's sometimes accompanied with a sort of happiness 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:04.800 from the front, a sort of an obsession 00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:07.639 with wanting to talk about the reality of divine judgment. 00:04:07.639 --> 00:04:08.719 And I don't think that's the tenor 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:09.920 that the Bible gives us at all. 00:04:09.920 --> 00:04:13.680 We come knowing that this is really difficult 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:17.639 and that there should be, there must be a natural aversion 00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:19.560 to talking about it, to thinking about it. 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:21.399 There's a hardness in this. 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:22.680 And so we don't come at all today 00:04:22.680 --> 00:04:24.759 with smiles on our faces. 00:04:24.759 --> 00:04:28.040 R.C. Spruill, one of the more well-known theologians 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:30.120 that passed away fairly recently 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:32.120 in the evangelical world, 00:04:32.120 --> 00:04:35.560 one time he was up at a conference in a panel 00:04:35.560 --> 00:04:38.759 and he was asked, what doctrine in Christianity 00:04:38.759 --> 00:04:40.399 do you struggle with the most? 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:44.120 And he said, that's easy, it's the doctrine of hell. 00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:47.480 Exactly, exactly, of course. 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:50.640 It's not a happy topic, it's not an easy topic. 00:04:50.640 --> 00:04:56.640 Third, will you consider this question? 00:04:56.640 --> 00:05:01.439 What would it look like to let the reality of this doctrine 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:03.520 sink into your heart today? 00:05:03.520 --> 00:05:05.040 What would it mean? 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:07.040 What can it do for you? 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:08.800 Thinking about this, thinking about the reality 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:10.840 of this doctrine, one writer writes, 00:05:10.840 --> 00:05:14.160 I've always believed in hell in my mind, 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:18.560 but I've tried never to let the doctrine penetrate my heart. 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:21.720 Now what if it does? 00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:23.400 What if the reality of divine judgment, 00:05:23.400 --> 00:05:25.640 a judgment that we all face, that we all deserve, 00:05:25.640 --> 00:05:27.640 would really sink into the bottom of the heart? 00:05:27.640 --> 00:05:31.240 And I think, here's the thesis, here's the big idea. 00:05:31.240 --> 00:05:33.120 I think if you will allow that to happen, 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:35.200 if you will consider it today, 00:05:35.200 --> 00:05:36.640 then one thing that can happen 00:05:36.640 --> 00:05:39.280 is it will bring you straight to God. 00:05:39.280 --> 00:05:41.800 You will find that you will experience 00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:43.720 the love of God in your life 00:05:43.720 --> 00:05:46.240 and the beauty of the gospel, 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:50.280 the fact of Jesus, the greatness of the good news, 00:05:50.280 --> 00:05:52.280 more than you ever have. 00:05:52.280 --> 00:05:54.800 Thinking about this can do that. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:57.440 And so let's do it for a few minutes together. 00:05:57.440 --> 00:06:00.200 We've got two parables that Rowan read for us 00:06:00.200 --> 00:06:02.200 and they are about the same thing 00:06:02.200 --> 00:06:04.800 with just a slight bit of nuance. 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:05.800 And so let's think about them. 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:07.400 First, we're just gonna think about the fact, 00:06:07.400 --> 00:06:09.200 the reality of judgment. 00:06:09.200 --> 00:06:12.080 And then secondly, I'll give you very briefly 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:14.639 three aspects of judgment that come out 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:16.159 of these two parables. 00:06:16.159 --> 00:06:20.120 So first, the fact, the reality of God's judgment. 00:06:21.639 --> 00:06:24.479 All right, so we see that these parables are about that. 00:06:24.479 --> 00:06:25.319 Let me show that to you. 00:06:25.319 --> 00:06:28.599 We've got another parable about a farmer 00:06:28.599 --> 00:06:32.240 who is sowing seeds in an agricultural setting. 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:35.120 And in the first parable, we've got a field of wheat. 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:38.079 So seeds for planting wheat have been sown 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:39.279 and they're growing. 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:43.319 And then in the night, an enemy comes that hates the farmer 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:45.799 and he sows another seed. 00:06:45.799 --> 00:06:48.919 And the text in the ESV translates that as weeds. 00:06:48.919 --> 00:06:51.479 That is the word weeds in the Greek, 00:06:51.479 --> 00:06:54.359 but almost every commentator is pretty much 00:06:54.359 --> 00:06:57.199 in unanimous agreement that what's being talked about here 00:06:57.199 --> 00:07:00.919 is a very particular weed called Darnell. 00:07:00.919 --> 00:07:02.919 Darnell, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. 00:07:02.919 --> 00:07:05.759 Darnell sounds like a name to me, 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:10.000 but Darnell is a weed also known as false wheat. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:11.639 And so false wheat, we still have it. 00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:14.199 False wheat was very present in the first century. 00:07:14.199 --> 00:07:17.639 And false wheat looks almost identical to wheat. 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:19.399 It's poisonous. 00:07:19.399 --> 00:07:22.680 And when it gets sown into a field with wheat, 00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:26.240 the roots wrap around each other and grow together. 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:28.599 And so that's why you cannot go out into the field 00:07:28.599 --> 00:07:30.120 and pull up Darnell, 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:32.399 because you will just pull up the wheat before the harvest. 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:34.639 You won't have any wheat at the end of the harvest 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:35.480 if you do that. 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:38.200 So the commentators are pretty much unanimously agreed 00:07:38.200 --> 00:07:39.560 that that's what's happening here. 00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:43.600 There is false wheat, poisonous, fake wheat planted 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:45.600 all throughout this field. 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:49.360 And the field here, everybody pretty much agrees 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:51.960 with this as well, is the world we live in, 00:07:51.960 --> 00:07:54.480 this human life that we're walking through. 00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:56.040 So the field is the world. 00:07:56.040 --> 00:07:57.640 It's our lives, it's this human life. 00:07:57.640 --> 00:07:59.439 It's life in the city of Edinburgh. 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:01.800 And we could say that about everybody in their cities 00:08:01.800 --> 00:08:04.280 across the world, their towns, their villages. 00:08:04.279 --> 00:08:07.519 And in this world, God is king, God is creator, 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:09.599 Jesus has come. 00:08:09.599 --> 00:08:11.639 The kingdom has been brought. 00:08:11.639 --> 00:08:15.119 And yet the enemy, the enemy Satan from the very beginning 00:08:15.119 --> 00:08:17.719 has come into the world, come into the human space 00:08:17.719 --> 00:08:21.199 and sown false wheat, seeds of sin and death 00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:23.199 and destruction and rebellion. 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:24.759 And that's the false wheat. 00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:27.519 And Satan has come and he's done that. 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:30.919 And so sometimes commentators will come and say, 00:08:30.919 --> 00:08:33.759 this is all about the church. 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:36.919 And how in the church, we have this mixture 00:08:37.879 --> 00:08:41.679 of people who are repentant, who are citizens of the kingdom, 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:43.519 who have given their hearts to Christ 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:48.000 and people who are nominal, meaning in name only Christians, 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:51.200 just practicing religion, not, you know, it's weeds 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:53.720 and wheat all mixed together in the midst of the church. 00:08:53.720 --> 00:08:57.120 And while there's some truths there, 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:00.360 I don't think that's what this parable is about. 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:03.439 And I think D.A. Carson, he says it like this, 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:08.040 this parable does not address the church situation at all, 00:09:08.040 --> 00:09:09.760 but instead it explains how the kingdom 00:09:09.760 --> 00:09:13.840 can be present in the world while not yet wiping out 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:17.400 all opposition against the kingdom of God. 00:09:17.400 --> 00:09:19.480 That must await the harvest. 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:22.640 The parable deals with eschatological expectation, 00:09:22.640 --> 00:09:25.040 not ecclesiological deterioration. 00:09:25.040 --> 00:09:28.840 All right, what that means is that this is about 00:09:28.840 --> 00:09:32.060 the end of history, eschatological, the end of time, 00:09:32.059 --> 00:09:34.959 not ecclesiological, the church, the local church. 00:09:34.959 --> 00:09:37.599 It's saying that in the field is all the world. 00:09:38.679 --> 00:09:40.679 And this is ultimately about the fact that one day 00:09:40.679 --> 00:09:43.279 God is gonna come in divine judgment, final judgment 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:47.279 at the end of history and separate the wheat from the darnel, 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:49.319 the wheat from the false wheat. 00:09:49.319 --> 00:09:54.319 That means Jesus is saying that this present state of life, 00:09:55.159 --> 00:09:57.679 in this present state of life, the kingdom of God 00:09:57.679 --> 00:09:59.519 and the kingdoms of this world, 00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:02.000 everything that stands in opposition against God 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:06.120 are growing together, are right alongside one another. 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:08.120 Now, one of the questions that might come up with that 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:10.200 is why doesn't God just bring justice? 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:13.440 Why doesn't God just end all opposition 00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:15.480 to everything that stands against the kingdom right now 00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:16.320 in this very moment? 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:18.320 And the answer is I don't know, 00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:23.399 but what this tells us is that God is being patient 00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:27.879 with every act of rebellion, every sin, every person, 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:29.440 every kingdom that stands against him. 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:32.160 God right now in this present age is being patient. 00:10:32.160 --> 00:10:34.080 He's giving time. 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:36.720 One way to think about this is this is telling us 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:41.160 that though God could come in immediate divine judgment, 00:10:41.160 --> 00:10:45.200 instead he exhibits patience to let prodigals come home again. 00:10:46.160 --> 00:10:48.240 And that's really the basic meaning of this parable. 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:50.600 There's this simple fact in it, 00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:53.080 that there is a reality to divine judgment, 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:55.760 that it is coming and that at the same time 00:10:55.760 --> 00:10:59.080 God is incredibly patient with us in this present age. 00:10:59.080 --> 00:11:01.160 That's the first parable, the second parable, 00:11:01.160 --> 00:11:02.240 the parable of the nets, 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:03.960 and we only need to spend a minute on it 00:11:03.960 --> 00:11:05.280 because it's so simple. 00:11:06.759 --> 00:11:10.759 Fishermen, in the first century, they cast a net, 00:11:10.759 --> 00:11:12.200 and one of the ways they would do this 00:11:12.200 --> 00:11:14.320 is they would take two boats, 00:11:14.320 --> 00:11:16.480 they would tie the net between the two boats, 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:19.120 and they would run the boats alongside each other 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:21.840 and scoop any fish they could at the bottom of the lake 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:22.840 up in the net. 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:24.720 And then it says they pull these fish up 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:27.800 and they separate the good fish from the bad fish. 00:11:27.799 --> 00:11:31.399 That's actually a reference to ceremonially clean fish 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:33.120 and ceremonially unclean fish, 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:35.319 according to the Old Testament law. 00:11:35.319 --> 00:11:37.399 But we're told by Jesus very directly, 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:40.159 that's not really what he's talking about. 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:42.759 Because he says that the fish here stand for 00:11:42.759 --> 00:11:44.079 what the angels will do, 00:11:44.079 --> 00:11:46.359 the angels will come at the end of human history, 00:11:46.359 --> 00:11:49.159 final judgment, and separate, 00:11:49.159 --> 00:11:51.199 separate the wicked from the righteous. 00:11:51.199 --> 00:11:53.159 Good fish, bad fish, the wicked and the righteous, 00:11:53.159 --> 00:11:54.679 that's the language that's used. 00:11:54.679 --> 00:11:58.359 And in both parables, the very end of that separation 00:11:58.359 --> 00:12:01.000 is that the bad wheat will go and be burned, 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:03.079 and then in the second parable, 00:12:03.079 --> 00:12:07.719 the bad fish, the wicked, will be sent into the furnace. 00:12:07.719 --> 00:12:10.039 All right, so that's the picture, that's the image. 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:13.279 The reality, the fact that this teaches 00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:14.359 about divine judgment. 00:12:14.359 --> 00:12:17.239 Now, it's not an easy thing. 00:12:17.239 --> 00:12:18.639 It's not an easy thing to think about, 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:20.359 it's not an easy thing to talk about. 00:12:20.359 --> 00:12:23.359 But let me just bring a little bit of application 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:25.759 before we move to the second thing. 00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:28.440 There's a sense in which we come to the reality 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:30.240 of Jesus' teaching. 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:33.879 And there's first, I think, a simple thing we've got to do, 00:12:33.879 --> 00:12:37.360 and that's if you today are a follower of Jesus, 00:12:38.759 --> 00:12:41.320 then we've got to take the humble step 00:12:41.320 --> 00:12:44.519 of simply coming, yielding, submitting, 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:49.320 of recognizing the reality of the frequency 00:12:49.320 --> 00:12:50.800 in which Jesus talked about, 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:54.639 talked about divine judgment and the reality of hell. 00:12:54.639 --> 00:12:55.919 And we've got to yield to that, 00:12:55.919 --> 00:12:57.839 we've got to submit to that. 00:12:57.839 --> 00:13:01.519 And it's been pointed out by so many people 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:04.639 before, well before me, that while we all, of course, 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:06.799 have an aversion to this idea, 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:08.639 this concept of divine judgment. 00:13:09.559 --> 00:13:11.799 At the same time, there's a couple of things we need to say 00:13:11.799 --> 00:13:13.759 about it philosophically or practically 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:16.799 to make some sense of thinking about its reality. 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:19.519 One is this, we live in a time 00:13:19.519 --> 00:13:21.919 where there's a culture wide rejection of the idea, 00:13:21.919 --> 00:13:24.240 the concept, the reality of divine judgment, 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:28.399 that God's, the God who was loved couldn't possibly be, 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:30.679 at the same time, the divine judge. 00:13:30.679 --> 00:13:33.240 And it's just important to say first, 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:38.240 that in terms of how recent that total culture wide 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:42.000 rejection of the concept of divine judgment is, 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:44.240 it's as it's a cliche now, 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:47.000 it's about five minutes old in human history. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:48.879 That there's hardly ever been a culture, 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:50.000 hardly ever been a religion, 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:53.639 hardly ever been a people group in all of human history 00:13:53.639 --> 00:13:56.320 that did not in some sense believe 00:13:56.320 --> 00:13:58.840 that the world would end, life would end, 00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:01.120 with some sense of judgment. 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:05.000 That people have done bad things and deserved judgment. 00:14:05.960 --> 00:14:09.120 Very recently in human history has this come about. 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:10.799 It's also important to say that, 00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:12.679 and this has been pointed out by sociologists 00:14:12.679 --> 00:14:15.519 and many, many others pastors before me, 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:18.199 but that when you talk to different people groups 00:14:18.199 --> 00:14:19.759 from different cultures, 00:14:19.759 --> 00:14:23.960 they will all struggle with Christianity in different ways. 00:14:23.960 --> 00:14:25.079 So in the Western world, 00:14:25.079 --> 00:14:27.960 a lot of people struggle with this idea, 00:14:27.960 --> 00:14:29.439 the idea of divine judgment, 00:14:29.439 --> 00:14:31.639 but in non-Western spaces, 00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:34.079 in cultures all across the world of different spaces, 00:14:34.079 --> 00:14:36.919 this is not the thing that they struggle with. 00:14:36.919 --> 00:14:39.360 The sense that there's ultimately a justice 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:40.799 that's going to come into this life 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:42.720 and bring everything to rights. 00:14:42.720 --> 00:14:45.439 It's actually not what most people group struggle with. 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:46.880 It's a very Western issue. 00:14:47.880 --> 00:14:49.760 In other people groups, other cultures, 00:14:49.760 --> 00:14:51.840 the more of the struggle is how in the world 00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:56.040 could God just lavish mercy, lavish forgiveness? 00:14:56.040 --> 00:14:57.400 And so we've got to recognize 00:14:57.400 --> 00:14:59.880 that we come from a cultural standpoint 00:14:59.880 --> 00:15:03.880 and that our cultural aversion across a city like Edinburgh 00:15:03.880 --> 00:15:07.400 in the history of ideas is only about five minutes old. 00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:09.880 Now the second thing to think about here, 00:15:09.880 --> 00:15:11.000 and we'll move on after this, 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:13.640 is just to say that when you really think about it, 00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:16.279 the sense, whatever it may mean, 00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:21.279 of judgment, an ultimate eschatological end of time judgment, 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:26.759 where the divine triune God brings all things to right, 00:15:26.759 --> 00:15:28.639 makes total sense of this life, 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:30.439 the life that we live in right now. 00:15:31.399 --> 00:15:32.519 Let me put it like this. 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:38.600 Imagine a world where a person commits murder 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:43.399 and the murderer goes before the judge in the courtroom 00:15:43.399 --> 00:15:47.079 and they are proven to have murdered somebody 00:15:47.079 --> 00:15:48.519 without a shadow of a doubt. 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:54.399 And the judge says, you're guilty, here's your sentence. 00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:57.000 And the perpetrator stands up and says, 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:00.279 how dare you sentence me? 00:16:00.279 --> 00:16:02.399 How dare you judge me? 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:03.919 Don't you know that this is an infringement 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:06.439 upon my freedom, upon my rights? 00:16:06.439 --> 00:16:09.559 How dare you come and judge me? 00:16:09.559 --> 00:16:12.600 I'm the only person that can define who I am 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:14.800 and what's right or wrong, it's relative. 00:16:14.800 --> 00:16:17.040 It's only what goes on in my heart. 00:16:17.040 --> 00:16:19.399 This is an infringement upon my freedom, right? 00:16:19.399 --> 00:16:22.560 Now, none of us, there's not a single person in this room, 00:16:22.560 --> 00:16:24.200 I doubt a single person in our city 00:16:24.200 --> 00:16:26.440 that would come and look at the human court. 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:30.800 And when trials, when convictions are offered 00:16:30.800 --> 00:16:34.040 in the human court based off criminality and sin 00:16:34.040 --> 00:16:37.120 and public wrongdoing, would ever say that it's unjust 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:40.600 and wrong for a person to be condemned for a crime. 00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:43.159 And in the same way, we've got to ask, boy, 00:16:43.159 --> 00:16:45.360 do we think that if the human court, 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:48.759 if the human court has the right to say, this is wrong, 00:16:48.759 --> 00:16:51.279 this is unjust, this deserves judgment, 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:53.360 that the God of all the arts, the judge of all the arts 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:55.240 does not have that right. 00:16:55.240 --> 00:16:56.639 The king, the judge of all the arts, 00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:59.639 the one who is most infinite, most holy, 00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:01.320 the one who sets the moral standards, 00:17:01.320 --> 00:17:03.399 objective standards for all of human existence 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:06.360 doesn't have a right to say, this is wrong, 00:17:06.360 --> 00:17:08.120 this deserves to be judged. 00:17:08.119 --> 00:17:10.479 And we've got to simply use our rational, 00:17:10.479 --> 00:17:13.119 philosophical capability to think about that. 00:17:13.119 --> 00:17:14.039 It makes sense. 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:18.919 God is infinite, God is holy, and every single act of sin, 00:17:18.919 --> 00:17:22.119 every single act of rebellion, every single rejection 00:17:22.119 --> 00:17:24.679 of the moral order as God has made it, 00:17:24.679 --> 00:17:27.479 deserves justice and judgment. 00:17:27.479 --> 00:17:29.959 And that makes entire sense if we look out 00:17:29.959 --> 00:17:34.959 and think about the reality of objective moral order of sin, 00:17:35.039 --> 00:17:37.919 of our expectation of the human courtroom, 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:39.720 it makes sense of the divine courtroom, 00:17:39.720 --> 00:17:41.960 it makes sense of all that we would experience 00:17:41.960 --> 00:17:44.440 or read about here in the Bible. 00:17:44.440 --> 00:17:46.840 I appreciate one author I was reading about this. 00:17:46.840 --> 00:17:50.279 She says this, the one truth that allows me 00:17:50.279 --> 00:17:55.279 to accept the justice of hell is the indisputable certitude 00:17:56.180 --> 00:17:58.240 of the goodness of God. 00:17:58.240 --> 00:18:00.360 And while the notion of hell is incredibly difficult 00:18:00.360 --> 00:18:04.080 for me to grasp, Jesus Christ with nail-scarred hands 00:18:04.080 --> 00:18:06.320 is worthy of my complete trust. 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:10.119 His goodness causes me to look ultimately not to hell, 00:18:10.119 --> 00:18:11.720 but to the cross. 00:18:11.720 --> 00:18:15.679 Now, secondly, these parables draw out for us 00:18:15.679 --> 00:18:19.399 just three quick aspects of some of the principles 00:18:19.399 --> 00:18:21.679 we can think about what divine judgment really is 00:18:21.679 --> 00:18:23.039 and we'll finish up, okay? 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:25.639 So let's look at that. 00:18:25.639 --> 00:18:29.000 Look, I hope this will help you. 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:31.079 These three aspects, these three principles that we see. 00:18:31.079 --> 00:18:33.439 I hope this will help your soul today. 00:18:33.439 --> 00:18:36.279 I think it can, I really think it can do that. 00:18:36.279 --> 00:18:37.480 If you'll allow it. 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:41.680 The first thing to point out here is in both these parables, 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:46.480 that moment of judgment comes about 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:49.079 and there's this mention of fire, 00:18:49.079 --> 00:18:53.480 of burning the darnel, the false wheat and the one parable 00:18:53.480 --> 00:18:56.039 and then of putting the bad fish into the furnace 00:18:56.039 --> 00:18:58.160 and the other parable. 00:18:58.160 --> 00:19:00.399 Now, what do we learn? 00:19:00.399 --> 00:19:04.359 One thing I wanna say about this is what this draws us to say 00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:08.519 is quite the opposite of what it might first seem. 00:19:08.519 --> 00:19:11.479 And that's that when we see these references to fire, 00:19:11.479 --> 00:19:14.799 to burning, these images, these classic images of hell 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:16.639 that we have in our cultural image, 00:19:16.639 --> 00:19:19.719 it's very important to point out that these are metaphors. 00:19:20.919 --> 00:19:24.799 That instead of coming and saying fire, fire, fire, 00:19:24.799 --> 00:19:26.519 instead what we have to do is we have to realize 00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:29.319 these are metaphors and that means that we've gotta be 00:19:29.319 --> 00:19:33.119 incredibly modest and reserved about what we say 00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:35.000 about the concept and reality of hell 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:36.559 and the divine judgment. 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:39.719 There are three words that are used in the Bible 00:19:39.719 --> 00:19:42.239 that are sometimes translated hell. 00:19:42.239 --> 00:19:45.079 The King James Version translated these three words 00:19:45.079 --> 00:19:46.639 as hell every single time, 00:19:46.639 --> 00:19:50.679 but actually only one of them is properly translated hell 00:19:50.679 --> 00:19:53.959 and it's the Greek word gehinom or gehina 00:19:53.959 --> 00:19:55.599 and it's used from time to time, 00:19:55.599 --> 00:19:58.879 but not always when referring to judgment in the afterlife 00:19:58.879 --> 00:20:02.839 and gehinom, gehinom was an actual place 00:20:02.839 --> 00:20:04.399 outside the city of Jerusalem. 00:20:04.399 --> 00:20:07.480 It was the city of Jerusalem's rubbish dump 00:20:07.480 --> 00:20:10.279 where you would go and cast your rubbish. 00:20:10.279 --> 00:20:14.000 And Jesus actually when you read the word hell in the Bible, 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:16.799 it's the word gehinom, which is a reference 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:20.439 to this trash dump, this place outside the city. 00:20:20.439 --> 00:20:23.199 And what Jesus is doing there is he's offering you a metaphor. 00:20:23.199 --> 00:20:25.559 He's saying divine judgment, the experience, 00:20:25.559 --> 00:20:28.279 the reality of it is like that. 00:20:28.279 --> 00:20:31.559 It's like being cast out of the city 00:20:31.559 --> 00:20:33.720 into the place where the rubbish has gone. 00:20:33.720 --> 00:20:36.240 It's like being cast away. 00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:39.000 These references to fire, it's like that. 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:42.399 And so we've got to be first very, very modest, 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:45.799 very, very modest, very, very careful 00:20:45.799 --> 00:20:49.159 about coming to the Bible and thinking that we know 00:20:49.159 --> 00:20:51.599 fully the reality of what this is talking about. 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:53.000 And so there have been so many times, 00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:54.919 I think so many instances where churches 00:20:54.919 --> 00:20:57.720 have maybe overdone this, taken it too far, 00:20:57.720 --> 00:20:59.919 talked about it too specifically, 00:20:59.920 --> 00:21:02.840 and instead there's so much that we don't know. 00:21:02.840 --> 00:21:05.320 Instead what we have in the Bible is this, 00:21:05.320 --> 00:21:08.240 that divine judgment and the consequences of judgment 00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:12.720 are a reality, a reality that are only pictured 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:13.759 for us through metaphors. 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:16.720 And these metaphors tell us something like this, 00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:20.560 that this experience is one of utter loss, of total loss. 00:21:21.800 --> 00:21:23.800 One of the things that's helpful here 00:21:23.800 --> 00:21:25.840 is thinking about the other parable 00:21:25.840 --> 00:21:27.880 of the rich man in Lazarus. 00:21:27.880 --> 00:21:31.320 The rich man goes into Hades hell, 00:21:31.320 --> 00:21:34.320 the condition of death, and we're told that 00:21:34.320 --> 00:21:37.480 he tries to speak, he calls upon Lazarus to come 00:21:37.480 --> 00:21:38.320 and help him. 00:21:38.320 --> 00:21:43.320 And in that passage, the rich man has got no name. 00:21:43.520 --> 00:21:44.760 He's just the rich man. 00:21:45.840 --> 00:21:47.120 He doesn't have a name. 00:21:47.120 --> 00:21:49.880 Lazarus has a name, but he's just the rich man. 00:21:49.880 --> 00:21:50.720 Why? 00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:53.160 And it's because when he went into this condition 00:21:53.160 --> 00:21:56.000 of death and judgment, he lost his self. 00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:58.680 He loves stuff so much in this life 00:21:58.680 --> 00:22:01.559 that the only thing that he has left in death 00:22:01.559 --> 00:22:02.519 is his idols. 00:22:02.519 --> 00:22:05.839 It's the utter loss of a sense of self. 00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:08.160 And we've got to be really modest, really careful 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:09.000 about what we say about it. 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:12.680 What we can say, according to these metaphors, 00:22:12.680 --> 00:22:15.400 is that it's real and it's terrible. 00:22:15.400 --> 00:22:16.400 It's an utter loss. 00:22:16.400 --> 00:22:18.599 It's a real sense of loss. 00:22:18.599 --> 00:22:20.839 Secondly, the thing of three. 00:22:20.839 --> 00:22:23.920 We learn here also that there's this clear picture 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:27.039 of separation that goes on. 00:22:28.759 --> 00:22:31.000 The final judgment is an act of separation. 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:34.240 And so in both of these parables, at the end of history, 00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:37.600 God clearly separates the wheat from the terrace. 00:22:37.600 --> 00:22:39.840 He separates the good fish from the bad fish, 00:22:39.840 --> 00:22:41.880 the wicked from the righteous. 00:22:41.880 --> 00:22:42.920 Separation from what? 00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:45.400 What kind of separation is this? 00:22:45.400 --> 00:22:47.960 Some people often will talk about how hell 00:22:47.960 --> 00:22:50.240 is being separated from God. 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:52.519 And I don't really think that's what the Bible teaches 00:22:52.519 --> 00:22:54.680 at all. God is omnipresent. 00:22:54.680 --> 00:22:57.240 God is the maker of all spaces. 00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:00.480 And instead, the separation that we're being told about here 00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:03.440 is a separation from the kingdom of God. 00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:05.440 These are kingdom parables. 00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:06.799 And living in the kingdom of God, 00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:09.119 life in the kingdom of God is utter peace. 00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:10.200 It's utter joy. 00:23:10.200 --> 00:23:11.680 It's everything you were made for. 00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:13.279 It's total homecoming. 00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:15.240 And so the separation that takes place here 00:23:15.240 --> 00:23:17.720 is a separation from the kingdom. 00:23:17.720 --> 00:23:20.319 It's a separation from peace, from shalom. 00:23:20.319 --> 00:23:23.720 And then the third thing and final thing here is that, 00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:26.159 and this is probably the most important, 00:23:26.159 --> 00:23:29.399 is I think these passages, these parables subtly teach us 00:23:29.399 --> 00:23:34.240 that hell is the choice, the choice we make 00:23:34.240 --> 00:23:37.519 of absolute independence from God. 00:23:37.519 --> 00:23:40.960 And so here, and you can't fully get this picture from here, 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:42.799 you've gotta read this in the light of the rest of the Bible. 00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:44.879 But in verses 49 and 50, 00:23:44.879 --> 00:23:46.639 we're told that at the end of human history, 00:23:46.639 --> 00:23:50.000 the angels come and they separate the wicked 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:51.119 from the righteous. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:53.480 And on first glance, you think, 00:23:53.480 --> 00:23:55.599 okay, what is the condition for going to heaven? 00:23:55.599 --> 00:23:59.200 What is the condition for being judged, divine judgment? 00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:01.759 And it's this idea of the wicked and the righteous. 00:24:01.759 --> 00:24:03.960 But when you read these two words 00:24:03.960 --> 00:24:05.920 in the light of the rest of the Bible, 00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:08.440 you learn about the actual condition, 00:24:08.440 --> 00:24:11.079 the actual condition, the separation. 00:24:11.079 --> 00:24:12.519 What is the grounds of it? 00:24:12.519 --> 00:24:16.920 It's the choice of being absolutely independent 00:24:16.920 --> 00:24:19.160 instead of dependent upon God. 00:24:19.160 --> 00:24:21.240 And so you've got something like Romans 00:24:21.240 --> 00:24:23.640 that teaches this really clearly. 00:24:23.640 --> 00:24:25.640 I like the way the same writer put it. 00:24:25.640 --> 00:24:28.680 She writes this, contrary to popular belief, 00:24:28.680 --> 00:24:32.279 hell is not a place where God sins those 00:24:32.279 --> 00:24:34.000 who have been especially bad. 00:24:35.480 --> 00:24:39.000 It is instead our default destination. 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:40.480 We need a rescuer. 00:24:41.640 --> 00:24:44.519 In the Bible, hell is not the place where the bad people go 00:24:44.519 --> 00:24:46.600 and heaven the place where the good people go. 00:24:46.600 --> 00:24:48.240 Hell is not the place where the wicked go 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:51.160 in opposition to heaven the place where the righteous go, 00:24:51.160 --> 00:24:52.640 the good, all the good guys. 00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:53.799 No, not at all. 00:24:53.799 --> 00:24:54.880 Instead, what's the condition? 00:24:54.880 --> 00:24:56.319 What's the difference? 00:24:56.319 --> 00:24:58.559 What's the separation all about? 00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:02.039 And the separation that we read about here is simply this. 00:25:02.039 --> 00:25:04.279 It's the separation between those who said, 00:25:04.279 --> 00:25:06.200 who came and said, 00:25:06.200 --> 00:25:11.200 I want to be utterly and totally free from God forever. 00:25:11.319 --> 00:25:13.519 I want my absolute independence. 00:25:13.519 --> 00:25:14.680 I don't want to depend on God. 00:25:14.680 --> 00:25:16.599 I don't want to recognize it. 00:25:16.599 --> 00:25:19.799 The separation is, did you say in this life, 00:25:19.799 --> 00:25:21.879 God, I want to be left alone? 00:25:22.879 --> 00:25:24.519 God, in the midst of his patience, 00:25:24.519 --> 00:25:26.679 in the midst of his longing to rescue you, 00:25:26.679 --> 00:25:29.639 in the midst of his desire to run out 00:25:29.639 --> 00:25:33.359 to the prodigal son and daughter and bring them home again, 00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:38.359 did you say, did a person say, no, I hate you. 00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:41.000 I want to be independent. 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:42.000 I want to be left alone. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:43.359 I want my freedom. 00:25:43.359 --> 00:25:44.959 I want my absolute independence. 00:25:44.959 --> 00:25:46.119 That's the difference. 00:25:46.119 --> 00:25:48.479 That's the condition of separation. 00:25:48.479 --> 00:25:51.079 And the issue is not, 00:25:51.079 --> 00:25:54.239 and the issue is not that sinners, bad people go to hell 00:25:54.239 --> 00:25:55.159 and good people go to heaven. 00:25:55.159 --> 00:25:57.279 Oh boy, not at all. 00:25:57.279 --> 00:25:59.919 Instead, what we learned here is the distinction is, 00:25:59.919 --> 00:26:02.399 did you come, will you come, have you come 00:26:02.399 --> 00:26:04.159 and run to the Lord and say, 00:26:04.159 --> 00:26:06.879 I'm sick and need of a physician. 00:26:06.879 --> 00:26:08.879 I need help. 00:26:08.879 --> 00:26:12.319 It's coming and rejecting absolute independence 00:26:12.319 --> 00:26:15.399 and leaning into absolute dependence. 00:26:15.400 --> 00:26:16.400 That's the separation. 00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:18.120 That's the condition. 00:26:18.120 --> 00:26:20.280 We see this finally in verse 50. 00:26:21.320 --> 00:26:23.720 Sometimes this is a little bit confused. 00:26:23.720 --> 00:26:26.240 But in verse 50, we learn about in this separation 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:29.880 that there will be tears weeping and gnashing of teeth. 00:26:29.880 --> 00:26:31.840 What is the gnashing of teeth? 00:26:31.840 --> 00:26:35.120 It's a Greek word that means rage. 00:26:35.120 --> 00:26:37.600 That means utter anger. 00:26:37.600 --> 00:26:41.280 And so what we have here is not so much sorrow. 00:26:42.320 --> 00:26:44.080 But in this act of separation, 00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:47.599 actually what we have here is utter rage at God. 00:26:47.599 --> 00:26:49.519 Complete anger. 00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:52.399 The total embrace of hatred for God. 00:26:52.399 --> 00:26:55.960 You see, the separation is all about the choice that we make 00:26:55.960 --> 00:27:00.439 to say, I want to be absolutely independent from you, God. 00:27:00.439 --> 00:27:03.480 And it's to say forever, I hate you. 00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:04.599 I don't want to know you. 00:27:04.599 --> 00:27:07.000 I don't want to be rescued. 00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:09.679 And that means that the call today, the invitation, 00:27:09.680 --> 00:27:14.039 is simply this, reject your independence. 00:27:15.720 --> 00:27:18.360 Come and be absolutely dependent on the one 00:27:18.360 --> 00:27:20.880 to whom you are actually dependent upon. 00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:22.680 You know, what do you have in this life 00:27:22.680 --> 00:27:24.400 that you've not been given? 00:27:24.400 --> 00:27:26.440 What gifts do you have, the air you breathe, 00:27:26.440 --> 00:27:28.400 all the way to the hope of your rescue, 00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:31.759 that is not a gift, a gift from the living God. 00:27:31.759 --> 00:27:34.640 We are totally dependent in the call of the gospel, 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:38.840 the call today to reject, to get away from the separation, 00:27:38.839 --> 00:27:42.919 is to reject independence and embrace absolute dependence 00:27:42.919 --> 00:27:46.079 on the one to whom you are absolutely dependent. 00:27:46.079 --> 00:27:47.439 Let me close with this. 00:27:48.599 --> 00:27:49.799 Here's a thesis. 00:27:52.439 --> 00:27:53.679 Boy, I know this is hard. 00:27:55.159 --> 00:27:58.079 If you let the reality of divine judgment 00:27:58.079 --> 00:27:59.559 and the doctrine that we get from the Bible, 00:27:59.559 --> 00:28:04.559 from Jesus' teaching, impact your soul today in any way. 00:28:04.839 --> 00:28:08.199 If you think about it, I think it can, 00:28:08.200 --> 00:28:10.360 it has the power to bring you straight 00:28:10.360 --> 00:28:12.559 to the arms of Christ, into the love of God. 00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:14.759 Why? 00:28:14.759 --> 00:28:16.600 In the same sense that without some sense 00:28:16.600 --> 00:28:18.240 of divine judgment and justice, 00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:20.200 it's really hard to make sense of life. 00:28:20.200 --> 00:28:22.880 It's really hard to make sense of the courtroom, 00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:24.559 that it has any objective meaning. 00:28:24.559 --> 00:28:26.920 It's really hard to make sense of the question 00:28:26.920 --> 00:28:29.440 of whether there is any objective moral value at all 00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:33.440 in this world, without some sense of divine justice, 00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:35.319 in the same way, even more. 00:28:35.319 --> 00:28:37.439 If you don't have bad news, 00:28:37.439 --> 00:28:39.240 you have no reason to celebrate good news. 00:28:40.240 --> 00:28:43.839 If you can't let the reality of what you deserve, 00:28:43.839 --> 00:28:46.799 of recognizing that there really is something wrong 00:28:46.799 --> 00:28:50.480 with every single one of us, that we really have broken 00:28:50.480 --> 00:28:52.919 and stood against the justice of the world, 00:28:52.919 --> 00:28:54.919 of the world as God has made it, 00:28:54.919 --> 00:28:58.119 that we send against God's divine and infinite holiness, 00:28:58.119 --> 00:29:00.119 what reason do you have for a gospel? 00:29:00.119 --> 00:29:02.279 What reason do you have for good news? 00:29:02.279 --> 00:29:07.279 And friends, today, just meditating for a moment 00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:10.440 on the bad news, it can drive you straight 00:29:10.440 --> 00:29:12.119 to the arms of Christ to recognize the good news. 00:29:12.119 --> 00:29:16.519 And here it is, Jesus Christ, the judge of all the earth, 00:29:16.519 --> 00:29:18.519 came to be judged in your place. 00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:22.119 The judge of all the earth was judged for you. 00:29:22.119 --> 00:29:27.119 The judge, absolutely holy, infinitely righteous, 00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:30.039 he became your wickedness. 00:29:30.039 --> 00:29:32.879 He became your evil, he became your sin. 00:29:32.879 --> 00:29:36.200 He took your place so that you would never, never 00:29:36.200 --> 00:29:38.920 be judged for your injustices. 00:29:38.920 --> 00:29:41.319 You can stand before, every single person, 00:29:41.319 --> 00:29:44.119 we will be judged, we will be judged either in Christ 00:29:44.119 --> 00:29:45.440 or apart from him. 00:29:45.440 --> 00:29:47.960 And the invitation today is simply this, 00:29:47.960 --> 00:29:51.399 reject your independence and recognize Jesus Christ, 00:29:51.399 --> 00:29:54.319 the judge of all the earth was judged in your place. 00:29:54.319 --> 00:29:57.279 Look, let me challenge you to, without a sense 00:29:57.279 --> 00:30:01.319 of a divine lawgiver who is good, right and justice, 00:30:01.319 --> 00:30:03.920 well not the God of all the earth, you're right, 00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:07.319 it's very difficult to make sense of the moral order. 00:30:07.319 --> 00:30:10.200 And even more, you can't make sense of the gospel. 00:30:10.200 --> 00:30:12.119 You can't make sense of the incarnation. 00:30:13.240 --> 00:30:15.399 And the bad news tells you this, that Jesus, 00:30:15.399 --> 00:30:16.879 Jesus loves you. 00:30:16.879 --> 00:30:19.039 The cross says, Jesus loves you. 00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:21.480 He went to hell for you, he was forsaken for you. 00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:26.319 In the light of this doctrine, the gospel says, 00:30:26.319 --> 00:30:27.200 God loves you. 00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:31.319 And the cross says, God loves you. 00:30:31.319 --> 00:30:32.639 And you have a rescuer. 00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:36.240 Will you see that, will you come to him for that today? 00:30:36.240 --> 00:30:37.759 That's an invitation. 00:30:37.759 --> 00:30:39.159 Let us pray. 00:30:39.159 --> 00:30:42.960 Father, we come today to teach whatever comes up 00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:45.720 in your word and today you've taught us 00:30:45.720 --> 00:30:48.839 about divine judgment and so we recognize that, 00:30:48.839 --> 00:30:51.159 we don't wanna shirk that, we don't wanna run from that, 00:30:51.159 --> 00:30:54.799 we want to encounter hard things and be honest. 00:30:54.799 --> 00:30:57.639 We don't hide here, Lord, we don't wanna hide. 00:30:57.639 --> 00:31:01.759 So I just pray now, Father, for every single heart 00:31:01.759 --> 00:31:04.359 in this room and anybody that may be listening 00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:08.079 as well in line and just ask, Father, that you would help us, 00:31:08.079 --> 00:31:10.639 that you help us wrestle with the truth, 00:31:10.639 --> 00:31:14.000 the reality of injustice and justice, of sin 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:17.440 and what it deserves, that we would be modest, 00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:20.000 not pretending we know exactly what's gonna happen 00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:22.399 at the end of history, not pretending we know 00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:24.880 all about this reality, but instead, Lord, 00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:27.480 that we would know just what your word says 00:31:27.480 --> 00:31:30.920 and long to run to the arms of our rescuer. 00:31:30.920 --> 00:31:34.000 So in the midst of a difficult topic, we ask, Father, 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:39.000 that you would convict us that we need rescue, redemption. 00:31:39.280 --> 00:31:40.519 And so I pray for somebody today 00:31:40.519 --> 00:31:43.840 that they would be helped to run to the arms of Christ, Lord. 00:31:44.759 --> 00:31:46.280 That's our prayer, that's our plea, 00:31:46.279 --> 00:31:53.279 come Holy Spirit, we pray in Christ's name, amen.