ETERNITY?

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened.”

THERE is a time coming when we shall all stand before the great Judgment bar of God. There will be no Mediator at the right hand of God the Father. There will be no mother, brother, or sister there to plead for you. They will be giving an account for themselves of the attitude they took toward the one who sits on the throne, and His Son, Jesus Christ.

      The millions who have lived on earth during all the ages will appear again to meet their earthly record before God. The glorified of the First Resurrection will be there – not to be judged but to sit with Christ on His throne.

      Sin is an infinite evil, and the judgment that God has pronounced against it is dreadful. The threatenings of God against the workers of iniquity are awful, but God will reckon with men, and recompense into their bosom the full deserving sum.

      The wrath of God is not like the wrath of men. God is to be feared. The wrath of Jehovah, the Lord God omnipotent – how dreadful must be the wrath of such a Being when it comes upon the sinner to the utmost, without pity or mercy or moderation, His wrath who made Heaven and earth by the power of His will, who spoke and it was done.

      Immediately after death, the wicked are cast into hell, as the rich man was (Luke 16: 22, 23); but the full consequences of sin will not be executed till the Judgment. Final judgment will then be poured out upon the ungodly, and that without mixture.

      “The wrath of God” will be poured out in fiery indignation. Then shall men know that God is God and that His Word is true - “eternal judgment,” “everlasting punishment,” “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord,” “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,” “for ever and ever.” They shall know how great that majesty is which they have despised and how dreadful that wrath is which they have so lightly regarded.

      At the Judgment Morning, God will reckon with this old world. The whole race will be judged. He will not exempt one. Every soul will give an account of himself to God (Romans 14:12). You may cover your life from the world here but God will judge it there. There is nothing covered but shall be revealed.

      You may hide in the desert, you may call for the rocks and the mountains to fall on you and hide you from the wrath of God, but you will never be hidden. The Spirit of God will search you out. You will be summoned before the throne of God in that day.

      The sinner is under condemnation. The Word says you are condemned already because you have not believed in the name of the Only Begotten of the Father. That condemnation is resting upon the world today.

      Their iniquities are marked before Him. They are all written in a book, and at the great Judgment Day, God will reckon with them and they must pay the utmost farthing. He will not spare, neither His eye pity, in the day of His wrath. Then He hears not the sinner’s cries and prayers. God says, “When I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear.” The day of mercy has passed (Isaiah 65:12).

      You will give an account here or hereafter. You had better bow your knee here, because it will be by force then. “Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.” Do it now and be in peace, or put it off till God calls you to bow at the Judgment Bar. Then you will hear that awful sentence, “Depart from Me, ye cursed.” That will be followed by a final and eternal separation.

      “And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20: 15).