By Oswald J. Smyth, LL.D.
The Great White Throne is
set. The Judge is seated. Angels and archangels are in attendance. All heaven assembles. Unnumbered millions, in breathless wonder,
survey the fearful scene. With awe on
every face, they wait. Time’s final
drama is to be enacted. Nothing else
matters now. Everything of a secondary
nature has been forgotten. ‘Tis God
Almighty’s Judgement day.
Presently, amid the awful silence,
the Dead appear; sinners great and small, from every clime and race, sinners of
the deepest dye; murderers, sorcerers, liars, thieves, idolaters, adulterers,
drunkards, revilers, extortioners, blasphemers, Sabbath breakers, infidels,
atheists, agnostics, and criminals of the blackest type, along with those who
have neglected and forgotten God.
From the world’s great
battlefields where their dust has lain for hundreds of years, they come; from
ocean depths where ships were sunk long centuries ago; from graveyards
innumerable, long since forgotten, they come.
Oh, what a company! And how they
keep coming, millions upon millions of them, once the men and women of the
earth – summoned to appear before the God whom they have ignored and despised,
to render an account. They glance this
way and that, looking for a means of escape.
They call for the mountains to fall on them, and hide them from Him that
sitteth upon the Throne. But there is no
escape, no help. It is the day of their
doom.
And the books are opened, the
books filled with the record of their earthly lives. Very sin is recorded, every transgression
entered, every failure and neglected opportunity written down. Deeds long since forgotten, vile things
carefully hidden from the eye of man, all, yea, all are now revealed, and the
universe listens to the awful revelation.
Aghast they stand, terror-stricken they wait; dumb they hear. Finally, the Book of Life is brought. “And whosoever was not found written in the
book of Life was cast into the lake of fire,” (Rev.20:15). It is not now a question of the depth of
their sin; for all alike are guilty.
Only one enquiry, only one thought:
“Is
my name written there
On
the page white and fair,
In
the Book of Thy Kingdom –
Is
my name written there?”
In vain they search, in vain they
scan its pages! Their last chance is
gone, their final hope extinguished.
“And
oh, what a weeping and wailing,
As
the lost were told of their fate;
They
cried for the rocks and the mountains,
They
prayed, but their prayer was too late.”
My friend, will you be there? Are you still unsaved, and yet unmoved? And if so, will you not be warned today, now,
before it is forever too late? Do you
not know that you will be judged? God’s
Word is very plain. It says, “So then
every one of us shall give account of himself to God,” (Rom.14:12). No one else can appear in your place, nor
will you be judged for the sins of another.
You must answer for yourself. And
unless you are saved, you will certainly be present.
How will you be judged? On the basis of your attitude towards
Christ. Not morality or religion, but
relationship to God’s Son. “He that
believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he has not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of
God,” (John 3:18). Only one question,
therefore: “what did you do with Jesus Christ?”
“Well,” you reply, “I was a faithful church member, and lived a good
life.” That is not the issue. Did you accept Jesus Christ as your saviour?
That is the acid test. “He that
believeth shall not be damned.”
Who will be your Judge? Jesus Christ Himself, the One who longs to be
your Saviour. Listen to the Word once
more: “For the father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement unto the
Son,” (John 5:22).
A criminal was about to be run over
by a car when a man sprang out and saved him.
Later on he stood in the prisoner’s box, charged with a great
crime. The judge was the man who had
saved him from the car. The criminal
appealed to him, expecting that he would do for him again what he had done
before. “That day,” explained the judge,
“I was your Saviour; today I am your judge.”
And he was sentenced.
Some day – God grant it may be now
– you will own Jesus Christ as Lord of lords and King of kings. Will it be now or then? Now of your own free will, or then by
compulsion? Will you have Him now as a
Saviour, or then as a Judge? It must be
one or the other. Which is it to be? My friend, I bid you accept Him, and accept
Him – NOW.]
-oOo=========oOo-
This was taken from a Gospel tract written by Dr Oswald J. Smyth, and published
by every Home Crusade, Northern Ireland.
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