We have been brought to God, who is not only the judge of all but also a God of love, grace, peace, hope, comfort, patience, and knowledge. The sermon explores these seven attributes, emphasizing God's unique, irrefutable, and irrepressible love, and His all-encompassing grace manifested through Jesus Christ. It highlights that God's peace is won through Christ's sacrifice, and our hope is steadfast because our forerunner has entered heaven. The message concludes by affirming that while God is the judge of all, He judges believers not as a penal judge for their sins, but as an umpire at the judgment seat of Christ, where service is examined and rewarded.
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Again we shall turn to the Hebrews chapter twelve. And verse twenty-two. But ye have come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels. I might say that most commentators linked the General Assembly with the angels, not with the church of the firstborn. so it should read to an innumerable company of angels of the general assembly and to the church of the firstborn which are written in heaven and to God the judge of all.
May the Lord bless to us again this reading from his precious work. Last night we somewhat concluded our subject in relation to we have come to the church of God registered in heaven. This surely is the secret to have our names written down in heaven. And those who belong to the church of the firstborn, their names are undoubtedly written down in heaven. The Lord said to the disciples, one day, don't rejoice in your ability to do certain things, but rather that your names are written down in heaven.
And Paul writing to the saints of Philippi are mentioned, odious and syndicate, and others whose names are written down in heaven. So we thank God for those who belong to the church of the firstborn and whose names are written down in heaven. Now a subject this morning as he continues to examine things to which we have come to is to God the judge of all. It was a wonderful thing when God came to us. When the word became flesh and pitched his tent amongst us. When our Lord Jesus Christ vacated heaven, he thought it not something, did he grasp that to be an equality with God, but he emptied himself, drew upon himself a form of a bond servant, and was made in the likeness of men.
It was a wonderful thing when he came to us. Sometimes saying, Jesus, my Savior, to Bethlehem King, born in a manger to sorrow and shame. Oh, it was wonderful, blessed be his name, seeking for me, for me. A wonderful thing when God came to us. But what a thrill to look back in our own experience and you and your experience for the day when you and I came to God. Conversions then. undoubtedly the happiest day in a person's life, when they are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God's love, when we came to God.
This morning I would like to talk to you about seven attributes of God. This is what we have been brought to, the great Jehovah, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the omnipotent one, the eternal one, and you and I have been brought to him. First of all, he is a God of love. I need not remind you of this, but our God is a God of love. Men look upon God as being a hard and an austere God. I spoke to a man one day. It was a time of a awful war in Biafra.
And Vietnam was going on. And this man was blaming God for everything from earthquakes to wars. Men is an absolute fool. He just does not know who and what God is. But the word of God tells us that he is a God of love. Second Corinthians, thirteen and verse eleven. This is one of the attributes of God to whom we have been brought. His love is unique. You and I have certain individuals that cross our pathway that we have a special love for. There's something in them that responds to us and us to them, and we have a particular affection for certain individuals.
But God's love is unique in that he loved the unlovable. There was nothing in us to draw God toward us. But he and his kindness, in his love, made a motion toward you and me. And so Paul says, Scarcely for a righteous man would one die. But for adventure for a goodness, some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward us. In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Three things Paul mentions. in that chapter in the Romans that we were ungodly that we were sinners and that we were without stress and yet in that condition God came in and he manifested his love toward us his love is unique his love is irrefutable there are many today and they try to refute the love of God but I love the poem which says concerning those who try to refute the love of God, the atheist, and men of such caliber.
The poet says, mock on, mock on, vulgar, russell. Mock on, mock on, says all indeed. You throw the sand against the wind, and the wind, it blows it back again. And every sand becomes a gem, reflected in the beams of iron. Blown back, they blind the mocking art. but still in Israel's past they shine so bright. The items of democracies and mutants' particles of light are but sand upon the seashore where God's brightness is made known. Yes, they say God's love is not for real.
This was the angle adopted by Satan to our first parents. Has God said? He just can't believe God all the way was the infant by Satan. And he is a master of deception. And sad to say, many today still doubt the love and the motive of God. His love is unique. It is irrefutable. But it is also irrepressible. In the book of the Song of Solomon, chapter A, there we read, His love that many waters could not quit. Neither could the floods grasp. Satan tried his utmost to eliminate the Lord Jesus at Calvary.
He knew the great import of that event, and he tried his utmost to destroy the Lord Jesus. He had tried it right through the ages as he sought to destroy the seed royal. He tried it when the Lord was born to destroy the children from two years of age and under. And this was the last opportunity at Calvary. For his love, the men of waters could not quench, neither could the floods grant. Beloved saints of God, not only is his love unique and irrefutable and irrepressible, but God's love is incomprehensible. You and I will be learning for the eternal ages more and more about the love of God.
And so again we say with a point we love to trace his toiling footsteps here amidst the desert sand, bear in memory all his sorrow, thorn-clad head and pierce it head, learn his love beside the manger, learn it by the stormy wind, by the well and in the garden, by the cross and in the grave. He is a God of love. You and I have been brought to God. He not only is a God of love, but he's a God of all grace. This is the second attribute that we may contemplate this morning found in First Peter, five verse ten.
He's a God of all grace. I love that little word all. As we mentioned yesterday, are we not all ministering spirits? Tremendous things are involved in that little word all. And God, says Peter, is a God of all grace. Now you and I know that grace was manifested to us in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. You and I would never know anything about grace apart from the timely intervention of God's beloved Son.
And so Paul says, ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are not ignorant of it. We know experimentally something about it when we experience conversion. Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even though he was rich, yet for our sake he became full. And the disciples, as they observed the movements of the Savior, they saw man who was absolutely balanced. To our shame, we are all unbalanced. Some go in for truth through the exclusion of grace and vice versa. But the disciple said concerning the Lord, And we beheld his glory.
The glory, as of an only begotten of a father, full of grace and truth. He was baptized. Now you and I have been the recipients of that grace. Why says Paul to the Ephesians that by grace We are saved through faith. That not of our sins. It is the gift of God. Grace came in. Sin abounded. Grace did much more abound. And so we can sing heartily this morning on the other times. Pardon from an offended God. Pardon for sins of deepest God. Pardon be stored through Jesus' blood.
Pardon that brings the rebel not. Who is a pardoning God like me who has grace so rich and free? We are saved by grace. Paul says we are justified freely by his grace through the redemptive work which is in Christ Jesus in the Romans chapter three. In Washington, D.C., just a week past, I said there was a lad twenty years of age, a very smart boy, he was an accountant. We looked at certain scriptures and at the end I said to him, I will write these scriptures out for you. He said, sir, you don't require two. They're already up here. A very smart one.
And as we looked at certain scriptures, he was quite disturbed about his soul. And finally he said to me, he said, sir, it's far too easy. Far too easy this program of salvation. I feel that I should do something to receive this salvation. Well, I said, you cannot do anything. It might be, in your estimation, too easy, but it sure was not easy for God. It costs God everything to establish his plan of salvation. But I said, my dear friend, you cannot add to what Christ has done.
You must completely surrender yourself and give yourself over to God. Isaid, Paul says, to him that worketh, is the reward not reckoned of grace but of death. But to him that worketh not, but believe it in him that justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. In other words, you try to work your way to heaven, you get nowhere. But if you capitulate and just believe in what God says, then you can be saved. So I took him finally to the book of the Revelation chapter twenty-two. Whosoever take it of the water of life freely.
He said, I can see it there. It's a gift from God. That is a magnificent book. Yes, thank God. We are justified freely by his grace. And we shall be glorified in grace in a day to come. We have been brought to the God of love. We have been brought to the God of all great. But the third attribute of God that we may contemplate is that he is a God of peace. This is mentioned again by the apostles in the fifteenth chapter of the epistle to the Romans, verse thirty-three. You and I are warlike. We are vigilant.
We are pugnacious in our pursuits, in our sins. children of wrath, even as others. And we do not know anything about peace in our sins. But it's possible for a man to be brought to God, the God of peace. That's the reason why he came to us. That we might come to him and enjoy this peace. look says through the burrows of mercies of our God where by the day springs from and how did visit us to give light to those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and guide our feet into the way of peace I was going to Boston one day while working at the Prudential Center in Boston and going through Westboro Massachusetts I saw a large placard and a picture of the president then John Fitzgeneral Kennedy And there was a picture and just one phrase, the lowest picture, winning the peace is a lonely battle.
No doubt referring to this struggle with totalitarianism, communism. Winning the peace is a lonely battle. My mind went back to that lone hill of Calvary where winning the peace was a lonely battle. When all the forces of heaven, earth and hell were marshalled against that lone combatant our Lord Jesus Christ. Winning the peace was a lone battle. And as we heard sung in the past meeting, he suffered, he bled, he died alone. It was a costly battle.
And so we possess today a peace which passeth all understanding. Three brothers make one day. One brother rejoiced, he says, I have the peace of God. Brother number two says, I have more. I have peace with God. Brother number three says, I have more. I have the God of peace. We have been brought to the God of peace. The fourth attribute of God is that he is a God of hope. found in Romans fifteen thirteen he's a God of love he's a God of all grace he's a God of peace but says the Apostle he's a God of hope Paul said to the Ephesians he where without God without Christ without hope but since we have come to God then we have in our breath a hope Colonel Robert Ingersoll, America's famous agnostic, he says, is there beyond this silent night
an endless day? Is death a door to light? We cannot say. The timeless secret locked in fate we cannot know. We hope and will, poor man. She had no hope for eternity. And when his brother was buried, there was no minister to handle the word of God. And as Robert Ingersoll looked into that grave, he was moved, and he made those famous words. Death is a narrow veil between the cold and barren peaks of three continents. We strive in vain to reach beyond the height.
And the only answer to our call is the echo of our way. No hope for eternity. What a contrast of ingressul with Job. He says, I know that my redeemer liveth. And on the latter day shall stand upon the earth. And though after my skin wounds destroy my body, Yet in my flesh I shall see God. You and I this morning should be the most happiest people on the face of this earth. Because we have a blessed hope.
We have a steadfast hope. We have a purifying hope. Paul said to Titus, Looking for that blessed hope. And the appearing of the great God. And our Savior Jesus Christ. Brother than sisters, it's a blessing, Lord. And when we see the darkness intensifying and the evil one and his cohorts moving with amazing rapidity, we thank God that we have our feet on hologram and nothing can really move us if we pin our faith in what God is. He's a God of hope. He cannot lie.
And we know that this is a steadfast hope. because the forerunner has entered in ahead of us. And the writer to the Hebrew says, this is a steadfast hope. Our forerunner has already reached heaven. And that picture there in the Hebrews is taken from, no doubt, the Mediterranean, where Allah's ship would come in to the harbor and could not really go right in because of the shallow draft And they would drop the hook, the anchor, into a small boat. And then that small boat took the anchor right to land.
And they pulled the ship in by this method. It couldn't go in on its own sail. Our forerunner is already there. Our anchor has already been dropped in glory. And he's pulling us home. It's a steadfast hope. But it's also a purifying hope. This hope within him purifies himself even as he is pure. Firstly, we have been brought to the God of all comfort. Second Corinthians, one verse three. Again, we inject that word all because God injects it right there.
Be a wonderful thing to know him as a God of comfort. But he is the God of all comfort. He sat down with a friend who had just lost a loved one. And it was a happy experience just to bring that scripture to bear upon the friend sorrowing. I said, God has passed through a similar experience. God knew what it was to lose a son in death. When he did bear out sins on his own body on his feet. Our God has all these experiences and is able to enter in and administer the BAM of Gilead.
He is the God of all comfort. No matter what our tribulation might be, beloved saints of God, there's a person in heaven and he's the answer to all our troubles. And he can help us in every area. of spiritual life. He's the God of all come. Sixthly, we have been brought to God and he's a God of patience. And he sure has shown a lot of patience toward us. The disciples should have been teachers. There was still there.
We certainly are no different from the disciples. We should be spiritual giants. And to our shame we confess how little we know of this book. After studying this book for over thirty years now, I confess how little I know of this book. God has shown great patience toward me. And we must confess we know so little about God. We know so little about the Lord Jesus. To our shame. That was the burning desire of Paul that I may know him. The power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death.
The Lord help us to make some shortcuts into these avenues of divinity. The Lord help us to know more about God and more about our Lord Jesus Christ. May our prayer be in the language of the hymn writer more about Jesus. Would I know? God has shown great patience with us, brethren. And God has shown great patience with the world. For two thousand years he has waited for the public manifestation of his son. This is one area that I cannot understand. But I certainly attribute to the fact that God is a God of patience.
That he would listen to men's blasphemes and malign the name of his son. But he shows patience. Why? Not willing that any should pass, but that all should come to him and love. He is a God of patience. On the seventh attribute is that he is a God of knowledge, mentioned by Hannah in her prayer of praise in First Samuel two three. God is a God of knowledge, he says, and by him actions are way. God is able to give the proper analysis.
We sometimes misinterpret the motives of our friends through our shame. But God perfecting knowledge, God is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are way. Now says the writer to the Hebrews, we have been brought to God the judge of all. It's one thing to be brought to God and appreciate these seven attributes that I have mentioned. But we have been brought to God the judge of all. Again notice the word all.
As to the character of the judge, God, we know that he is a righteous judge. Abraham said, shall not the judge of all the earth do right. Sometimes we are confused as we think of this thing. I sat down recently with Brother McClellan from Gaul, Ontario, and we just talked about this thing. And we both confess that we are sometimes confused. as why God takes certain individuals home. When you think of the great Robert Murray McChain of Scotland, a man who led thousands to Christ, and he died at the age of twenty-nine years of age, his pulpit in Dundee Museum Scotland is absolutely round or hollow, I should say, with the tears that this man shed in his love for souls God took it home.
I listened to the great Harold Lacey from Wales. One of the most outstanding preachers I've ever listened to. It took him one night to read John seventeen, just to read the chapter of the Lord's high priesthood. He died at forty-seven years of age with cancer of the liver. And I heard him preach six weeks before he died. On his great heavy coat that he was a man that was ready for heaven. And he preached on the book of Hosea the wooing God. The wooing God. Why would God take a man like the great Harry Moorhouse home to heaven at thirty-nine years of age?
There are certain areas we just don't understand. But we always come back to this thing said by Abraham. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? God knows what he's doing, and not till the loom is silent and the shuttle ceased to fly. Will God unfold the canvas and explain the reason why? The dark threads are as needful in the skilful weaver's hand as the threads of gold and silver for the pattern he must fly. He is a righteous judge. Paul takes up his pen and he tells us the character of the judge.
He says, God has appointed the day in which he will judge this world and righteousness by that man who beheld him, the man Christ Jesus, Acts chapter seventeen. We know the character of the judge, righteous. Now it says that he is the judge of all. Who will he judge? Well, we know, beloved, that he's going to judge sinners. In gospel activities, we always must keep coming back to the balance in gospel, which is salvation or judgment.
And it always was great pain. that we read Revelation twenty to back home the word of God in relation to the sinless predicament that if they reject the law of Jesus Christ they'll stand before his judge Revelation twenty John said and I saw a great white robe and him that sat on it from whose face the heavens on the earth pass away He's going to judge them. In Luke thirteen, our Lord is in confrontation with the Pharisees. And he says to them, Ye say, Lord, Lord.
They enjoyed religious propriety. They could address him as Lord. And they say, We have eaten and drunk in thy name. Lord, we partook of the communion table. We drank. Why are we broke bread? They enjoy religious privileges. And they say, Lord, you taught in our streets religious instruction. The Lord says, I never knew. We might go through the motions and address God in prayer, say Lord Lord.
We can even break bread and drink wine. We can even go and have religious instruction and be lost. We must have our name written down in heaven. The Lord will say to them, I never know. Depart from me. He cuts it into everlasting judgment. He's going to judge sinners. It's not for the sins. But God will judge the unconverted because they rejected his son. The gospel hinges on the rejection of the acceptance of Jesus Christ.
We either receive him or we say, not for me. He'll judge sinners. But thank God he will also judge Satan. Satan on his cohorts are going to be judged by God's men. And what a moment that will be when that arch-enemy household, the liar and the murderer from the beginning, that old serpent, the dragon chief, is finally incarcerated with the beast and the false prophet in the bottomless Haven will sigh with relief.
But he finally is cast out. Never more to give God any more problems of his beloved people. He's going to judge Satan. He's the judge of all. So he will judge sinners. He will judge Satan on his emissaries. But he's also going to judge the same. That comes right back to our doorstep, brother and sister. He's going to judge the saints of God. But there are two kinds of judges in the world. There is the penal judge, and there is an arbitrary judge, like an umpire or a referee.
In the bench, in the law courts, there sits a judge. That's the penal judge. But you take a flower show or a dog show or some other kind of show, this category, then the judge who passes his judgment is arbitrary. He selects the best dog or the best blossom in that particular examination. So there are two kinds of judges. You and I will never face God as a penal judge. The sin question has been settled forever at Calvary. He says, thy sins and thy iniquities, will I remember no more.
Now that's something that you and I can do. If someone does something to you unsavory, I trust that you and I forgive them, but we never forget. We're like the old elephant. We never forget. We should, but we can't seem to do it. But God says, thy sins and thy iniquities, will I remember? No. So, brethren and sisters, you and I will not be judged by God in a penal capacity. Our Lord, he bore the judgment, and you and I go through it. But he will judge the saints of God. Arbitrarily, he will be, as it were, like an umpire. And so, in more scriptures, and time doesn't permit to look into them, but just very quickly, he will judge his people at the judgment seat of Christ.
It won't be the great white throne of judgment. That is for the unbelievers. But you and I one day will stand at the judgment seat of Christ. And there is our appearance in Romans chapter fourteen. We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Inevitably, unavoidably, you and I will stand at the judgment seat of Christ. That is our appearance. No evasion. Then Paul mentions in First Corinthians chapter three our examination. And he says that we must be careful now how we build.
We either build on that solid foundation and the outcome at the judgment seat of Christ the day shall declare it. Whether we have built in for eternity gold, silver or precious stone. or whether we have produced down here a lot of bulk, word A and stuff. He's going to judge us in relation to our service. The Lord helped us to build for eternity in the area of the gold, the silver, and the precious stone. Our appearance, Romans, verse fourteen, our examination, first Corinthians three. Then in second Corinthians five, it's our manifestation.
and we shall receive things done in the body, whether good or bad. Our Lord will judge us according to our activity, and He will reward us accordingly based upon our service down here. Maybe this is where Brother Willie should take over with his very famous message as far as I was concerned, the heavenly investiture back in Alexandria in Well, God is going to give crowns for faithful service, and we have no time to look into that. Maybe I shouldn't, just in case he takes up the subject sometimes, he is a part of the past.
But it shall be our manifestation. We shall receive things done in the body. Again, it's God judging his own. Revelation twenty-two is our compensation. Three times we have the word in relation to the Lord's coming. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keep us the seeing of this book. That is our responsibility. Behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me. God is a God of compensation. And if you and I do something for him, he certainly will reward us and with manifold blessings. It's our responsibility.
in relation to Christ's coming? It's our compensation in relation to Christ's coming. But finally he says, not the responsibility and not the compensation, but it's the law himself. Surely I come with you and I should retire now from this building rejoicing in the fact that we've been brought to God, the judge of all, shall we pray? Father, we truly thank you this morning for all thy kindness toward us. Truly thou art gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.
We thank you for our friends who have come out this morning to listen to thy word. We pray that something said from thy word might be retained in all our hearts, that we might bring glory to thee and to thy son. Pass this now with thy blessing, for we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Again, let's try our chorus. I'm sounding now like a bullfrog with blood and guidance. Let's try our best in this chorus. He's the Savior of my soul, Lord Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul, and the meeting will be open. He's the Savior of my soul, Jesus.
Lord Jesus, He's the Savior of my soul. He's my Lord, my life, my own. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, He's the Savior of my soul. He's my Lord, my life, my all.
Remember, that was a Mexican tune, and the words put to that by Brother Bill McDonald in Chicago.