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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

John Diel

Misjudging the Judgment

Our most gracious, kind, and loving Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this wonderful opportunity to be with fellow believers.

Not a lot of people, O Father, get the privilege to be with real family every week, at least once a week.

You've given us this privilege even though we don't deserve it.

So we thank you for that, O Lord, and I know that this is a type of holy convocation.

And so Father, as we meet, as we talk about your holy word, as we talk about a holy God, We are people of unclean lips.

And so we ask, Lord, at this moment, that you please send your Holy Spirit to be with us, to cleanse us, to take away any hindrance that the devil might put in understanding the message that you have for us.

I pray Lord that you please put your words into my mouth and let your spirit work.

Take me out of the picture, O Lord, and just do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Thank you, Father, for hearing and answering our prayer, for we ask in Jesus' name.

But the title of our message, like I said, is Misjudging the Judgment.

You know, 1 of the most beautiful and now becoming a unique doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the doctrine of the investigative judgment.

Actually it's 1 of those doctrines that really grabbed my attention the moment I understood it.

And I think when I say it's beautiful, I can't even really do the justice of saying how beautiful this doctrine is.

However, I actually, through the investigative judgment, we see that God is first willing to investigate this all-knowing God, all-powerful God.

He is willing to condescend and investigate before He passes any sentence or judgment to make sure to let us know that He doesn't do things arbitrarily.

That before he passes on a judgment, he makes sure that everything else is clear first.

However, just like any doctrine, any beautiful doctrines of the Bible, the devil likes to distort any beautiful doctrine that we see in the Bible.

Marriage is 1 of those beautiful things that the time that I had gotten married, I've learned so much about the love of God like no other when I was single.

And it's so beautiful that the devil is really distorting it.

Often we end up, and once it's distorted, often we end up taking things out of context that it distorts the beautiful imagery found in the judgment.

For example, just take a little tour with me.

Where does, if we were to look at the type, where does the judgment take place in the sanctuary?

And judgment is based upon the law, right?

But if you take a look at the sanctuary, before we get to the most holy place, there is that door that you have to enter in.

And within that door you see an altar, right, the altar of sacrifice.

And after the altar of sacrifice you see the laver, and then after the laver when you enter into the holy place you see, what's on the right side?

And then on the left side you have the 7 candlesticks.

And then after the altar of incense you have a veil.

And lo and behold that's the most holy place.

We tend to forget that the moment we enter into the sanctuary we see none other than the mercy and the grace of God.

You see the mercy of God from the altar of sacrifice all the way to the laver which means that Jesus washes our sins away and then you enter in you look at the table of showbread the showbread actually reflects the the broken body of Christ which was broken for us and you look at the the lampstand and in the lampstand it reflects that the light which means the Bible says that that light is the life of man, which is the life of Jesus Christ.

And in that light, What's lighting that light are olives, olive oil, coming from a beaten olive, which has been pressed down, reflecting Jesus Christ being beaten down for us.

Then you go to the altar, which, the altar of incense, which reflects a smoke, which signifies the righteousness of Christ.

And before you can, and the veil also means something, it means the body of Christ, if you study the Bible.

And when you enter into that veil before you can even enter into the most holy place you need to take yourself an altar and what else I mean you need to take an incense and what else the blood of Christ the incense symbolizing the righteousness the life of Christ the blood symbolizing the death which paid for the penalty of our sin.

And once you enter in, not only do you go to the law right away, but what do you see there?

And when you open the mercy seat, and by the way, you know, the mercy seat, I can't even do any justice, but because of time, when you open the lid, before you see the law, what's there?

You have the bud, I mean, the Aaron's rod that budded, which symbolizes resurrection of the dead, and also the pot of manna, God's provision.

Many times, you know, especially in the beginning when I was I was trying to teach about the investigative judgment, I would just like pound everybody about the law and pound everybody about about about this judgment that I've neglected the mercy aspect.

There are people out there, however, who just focus on the mercy, and it's just about mercy and grace that they never lift up the law.

You see, we distort it 1 or the other and people tend to fall on 1 way or the other.

And if we actually look at the judgment even more, I mean there are verses that tell, these are verses that tells us about the judgment and oftentimes when read to people it scares people.

For example, Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 14, for God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.

I remember when I was young, you know, I thought the way the judgment would work is that my life, you know, is being recorded and then whatever it is that's being recorded, every single thing, every secret thing, somehow, you know, there will be a roll call.

Kind of like, like, like, maybe, kind of like this, but the way I saw it in my mind is, you know, we're lined up, you know, in 1 single line and everybody's being called and then somehow the way it's being reviewed is that God will reveal every single bad things and good things that you did.

It also continues on Revelation chapter 20 verse 12, and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.

Let's continue on, and behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be.

Matthew 16 verse 27, for the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels and then shall he shall reward every man according to his works." And so when we look at judgment, we see that we are judged according to our, based on our works.

Not only that, it's coupled with we are rewarded based on our works.

Yes, and indeed we are judged based on our works and we will be rewarded based on our works.

However, this is where it gets kind of murky for many.

Have you ever had the question, how are we judged by works?

Is it possible for me to do good works that I may pass this judgment?

You know, I remember a pastor misunderstanding the judgment.

He gave a testimony and he was saying, You know, when I was young, the way I thought about judgment, or the way, when I was a young pastor, the way I thought about judgment is, you know, you do good works, and then of course we're doing evil works, but the more good works you do, later on God will tally that, and if you're above, if your good works is above the bad works, then you pass the judgment.

And sometimes when we get the notion that, hey, you know what, we're rewarded by works, and this is how I was.

Man, The more good works I do, that means my mansion will be bigger in heaven.

The more offerings I give, the more money I give to the church, the bigger my mansion will be in heaven.

Do you see that there's a disconnect here somehow?

And actually, let's turn our Bibles to Luke chapter 15.

In Matthew chapter 25 verse 34 to 36, if you really look at it, the judgment seems to be based upon works, right?

When Jesus was separating the goats and the sheep, he was saying to the sheep, hey, you know what, you did this to me.

And then to the goats, you did not do this to me.

So, I mean, the judgment seems to be saying that, yes, it is based on our works.

However, we have a dilemma that if it's based on my works, then that means, you know what?

I can get more reward if I do more works?

This is where we get problems and we're going to look at different stories here that makes us think.

Let's turn our Bibles now to Luke chapter 15.

Luke chapter 15 is the story of the prodigal son.

I'm pretty sure many of you are familiar with it.

If not, you can read the whole chapter, because I don't have time to read the whole chapter, and I'm sorry about that.

But basically, what's happening here is, a man has 2 sons, 1 is doing all the bad stuff, and the other guy seems to be doing all the good stuff.

And we find ourselves in Luke chapter 15, beginning in verse 28.

So what happened in the story, before we read that, is the younger son did all the bad stuff and then after he did all the bad stuff he came home and when he came home the father threw a party for him because he came home now the other son you know he's been faithful to the father quote unquote and he's been working the field of the father, and now we find ourselves in verse 28, and the Bible says here, and he was very angry when he got home, and he was very angry and would not go in, therefore came his father not, his father out and entreated him.

Continuing on, and he answering said to his father, lo this many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment, and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I may make merry with my friends.

But as soon as this thy son was come, which had devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf." How many of you, You don't have to raise your hand.

But when I read this with a young mind, how many of you could sympathize with the older brother?

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Misjudging the Judgment

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