September 26, 2006

• God’s Judgment & Yom Kippur by Pastor La Fayette Scales – Rhema Christian Center, Columbus Ohio

  I wish you could have been here tonight to hear Pastor La Fayette Scales. He gave a message that is so necessary for this time between Rosh Hashanah (the New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).

  Pastor Scales had us turn to 1 John 5:11-13 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

  This is one of the Epistles of John. John outlived all the 1st century apostles, most of whom had been martyred. John’s teachings so disturbed the leaders of the time that he was outlawed to a little island called Patmos where he wrote the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  Pastor Scales said that you can’t keep a good man down!

  1 John can be divided into three parts: Chapters 1-2 – the Light of Jesus.
                                                          Chapters 3-4 – the Love of Jesus
                                                          Chapter 5     - the Life of Jesus

  Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World. By believing the testimony about Jesus that God gave us, we can gain eternal life through His Son, Jesus.

  Success is a progressive delineation of our preordained existence. Our life is a like a journey with parts of the journey being progressively revealed to us through our dreams, visions, and goals that God gives us. God speaks to us through pastors, teachers, evangelists, His Word, our Spirit, our dreams, our visions, and through the revelation given to us by the Holy Spirit.

  Unlike those of the world who think that success means what physical possessions we can accumulate during our physical life – success for us is eternal life. All the things that we can accumulate on earth will burn up, for they are not eternal. We need to set our priorities right.

  God wants that all should come to Him, that all should have eternal life. He gives us time to seek out His Son – Jesus.  1 John 5:12 points out that we have a choice if we have the Son (Jesus) we have eternal life, if we don’t have Jesus, we don’t have eternal life. This one verse is the definitive argument against those who say that there are many ways to get to God, and that Christianity is only one path. They are liars, for Jesus himself has told us that He is the Gate, and that only through Him can we have eternal life. In Him we become new creations. 1 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

  We will have a New Spirit, a New Destiny, a New Eternal purpose. Some things do not change when we are in Christ – if we are bald before, we will be bald after, ugly – ugly, false teeth-false teeth. Yes, God may restore these physical characteristics in some people, but in many they will still be bald, or ugly, or have false teeth after salvation. But there are many things that do change. They will have a New outlook, a New purpose, a New destiny. Acts 17:28 For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

  When we have life in Christ, we have an adventure every day. There are no chance appointments, no accidental encounters. All is predestined by God, he brings people into our lives for us to influence them towards Himself. We will plant and water. He will increase.

  In Verse 13 it shows us that a lot will start, but not everyone will finish. In the last days there will be people who have switched belief systems due to the world’s pressure and idolatry. They will be persuaded that there are other ways. But this is NOT TRUE. There is one way to eternal life, Jesus is that Way. There is one door, our Lord and Savior. The thief (satan) comes to kill, steal and destroy. He will try to pull believers away from the truth of God.

  There is only one way to the Father’s House, and that is through Jesus. A lot of people are believing lies.

  During this period of Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur is a time when believers need to be searching out the truth about themselves, asking the Holy Spirit what needs to be cleansed in us. In these last days we are going to begin to see God’s Judgment on the earth – it will begin in our own house (ourselves as temples of God), and then move toward the corporate house (the Church). We need to be asking ourselves if we are doing what we were designed to do. Are we righteous and holy, or are there areas that we need to repent about. We need to judge ourselves so that we will not be judged. We need to begin to evaluate ourselves using God’s basis of Judgment.

  2 Peter 3:10-13 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

  We were asked to repeat the term DAY OF THE LORD. Pastor Scales told us that we know that there is a prophetic future. That the flesh will be burnt up, and in light of that we need to ask ourselves: What kind of people ought we be?

  He mentioned that our physical possessions will be burnt up. In all the funerals that he has officiated at he has yet to see a Ryder truck follow a hearse to bring a person to the Kingdom of God. The Egyptians tried to bring their possession into the next life, but it didn’t work. Robbers came and stole the items and many of the things in the tombs are now museum items. You can’t take it with you. So many of us have our priorities wrong.

  Life is a Person and His Name is Jesus. Yes, we can like nice stuff but stuff cannot be our priority. If God commands us to give our stuff away, we need to obey Him. God told Pastor Scales to hold everything he owns gingerly – loosely. We are to distribute God’s stuff where God wants us to distribute it (all that we “own” is really God’s stuff). Psalm 24:1 The earth is the LORD’s and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. We don’t own our stuff, we are just the stewards of God.

  In Holy Conduct – (2 Peter passage above) – we have a compelling desire in our heart to be pleasing to God, the fear of the LORD. A healthy dread of displeasing God. We just want to please Him. There are consequences if we don’t. Pastor Scales pointed out that his mother had to singlehandedly raise several children on her own, holding down two jobs. She was a wonderful person as long as you obeyed her, but she also could be a stern disciplinarian if there was disobedience. Pastor Scales grew to fear the consequences of disobedience, but mostly felt her love.

  Godliness – (2nd Peter passage above) is Godly character, acting like God. We are not God, but we can imitate Him. We are not Omnipresent – we are just present. God can be all places at once and not be diminished. We are not omniscient – we don’t know everything, but the Holy Spirit will reveal to us what we need to know through the Word of Knowledge. We are not all powerful, our power is limited. We are given the gift of discernment through the Holy Spirit.

  Hebrews 9: 23-28 Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another–He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him. He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

  This passage mentions three appearances of Christ.  1st appearance – He hath appeared. This is a Historical Fact. Jesus came and died for our sins. Pastor Scales referred to a song we sung during praise and worship – “He came from Heaven to earth, from the earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to sky, now we lift Your Name on high.” This is good theology. Jesus died a perfect sacrifice for our sins, then was raised from the dead.

  2nd appearance of Christ – verse 24 Now He appears in the presence of God, where He ever lives to make intercession for us.

  3rd appearance of Christ is Yet Appear – verse 28 – the judgment.

  Jesus is doing in the Spiritual what the Physical High Priest of the Temple used to do on the day of Yom Kippur. The priest would make a sacrifice (1st appearance of Jesus), and then enter the Holy of Holies to plead for the redemption of sins (2nd appearance of Jesus), and then the Priest would come out and report whether or not the sacrifice was accepted (3rd appearance of Jesus).

  The priest would walk out this enactment of the life of Jesus year in and year out in Yom Kippur – but did not understand what he was doing. Jesus was a priest like the order of Melchizedek (Genesis 14). A royal priesthood, and He has engrafted us in Him.

  Verse 27 talks about Judgment – we will all be judged, we will all be evaluated. All the unsettled business will be dealt with. That is why it is so important for us to take it to the cross today – so that we can confess our sins, and be forgiven.

  David in Psalm 51 asks God to wash him, cleanse him and purge him. This is the work of Yom Kippur, and for us the most dangerous part of the prayer is to ask God to purge us of things He does not want us to be, do or have. We lay ourselves on the altar and ask God to cut out of us what is displeasing to Him.

  This purging is usually not so much the externals (although sometimes it is), but it is more the inner stuff in our lives: our motives, attitudes, the way we think, conditions that keep us from the fullness of God in our lives, what we say. Out of our heart the mouth speaks. We ask God to cleanse us from all uncleanness in our spirits.

  We want to do this BEFORE we die, before the judgment mentioned in Hebrews. So many of us have a false image of what happens when we die. We think we go to Heaven, sit on a cloud, eat angel food cake, get fitted for halos, but that is a wrong image.

  Pastor Scales spoke about entering Heaven like finishing an Olympic triathalon race. He said that we are all running the race God has set before us. We are to fight the good fight of faith, and finish the course. The race is not a race against another person – we all have our own course. The course itself is the competition. All the trials and tribulations that we face in our life, the temptations, the distractions, the day-to-day stuff on our course in the race, is our competition and at the end of the race we will win a crown. It could be a gold, silver or bronze. We are all to try and win the gold crowns. Jesus is there as our cheering section, encouraging us to continue on our race, to push harder, to finish and not grow weary mid race. He wants us all to win. The sad thing though is that many will not finish the race, many do not do their best, many waste so many years and advance very little. We will be judged and then cast our crowns.

  So many of us have never run a triathalon – we have never started, we would prefer to lounge around watching it on our big-screen tv’s, drinking our soda, and eating snacks. But in God’s kingdom we are not spectators. God wants us to run our race, he sends those of the five-fold ministry to encourage us. He gives us saints to encourage us, and spiritual gifts to help us. There is a great cloud of witnesses around us, hymns and His Word to prod us forward. Our coach is Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith, and He cheers us on.

  If we obey God we can all win the gold. God equips us for the race that we are to run.

  The Judgment referred to in the Hebrews passage above is a judgment for believers – and God wants us to all gain the gold. It is sad when athletes who could make Gold fail because they did not try hard enough.  If we fall short in any area we are to confess and ask for forgiveness and keep on pressing forward. Pastor Scales said that we should have a daily Yom Kippur – cleanse ourselves in the morning through prayer, cleanse ourselves in the evening through prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit how we should pray tonight. Ask the Holy Spirit where we missed the mark in our day-to-day life – were our attitudes bad? did we fail to do what we were instructed to do? were we prideful? arrogant? puffed up? angry? speak out of turn? We need to ask the Holy Spirit to shed light on our sins, and pray as David did, Psalm 26:2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my mind and my heart.

  Know that when the Holy Spirit answers this prayer, it will not be to condemnation, but evaluation. The Judgment that we are referring to here is for believers, but there will be another judgment that is very sad.

  Revelation 20:11-15 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And everyone not found written in the book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

  This is called the Great White Throne Judgment, and it is a tragic scene, a judgment not of rewards and commendation, but more like the judgment that we see today in our criminal courts. The evidence has been given, the jury deliberated, there is no plea bargaining, no deals, just judgment. There are books of works opened, and there is no smiling. Those who are not written in the book of life are cast for eternity into the lake of fire. You can’t hide from this judgment, and you can’t go back and make a different life choice.

  God gave us all a deal – salvation through Jesus Christ. He gave us a plea before we even get to the throne. Our plea bargain is the Blood of Jesus – take the deal!

  When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. God our Father is our judge, Jesus is our defense lawyer, and the Holy Spirit is the jury. The accuser of the brethren is there to try and condemn us, but we are covered by the blood of the lamb. The blood says righteous, justified, forgiven.

  We then started to pray, asking the Spirit of God to fall down on us, to search us, mold us, break us, so that we can be made anew. We want to go through the refining fires and become like Jesus, not go to the eternal lake of fire.

  Tomorrow Pastor Scales is going to continue his talk explaining benchmarks for the evaluation of what God sees in our judgment. We are so blessed to have this man of God come and teach us.

  I know that he is right, time is short as Pastor Don teaches, and we really can’t fool around anymore. God needs us working – there is such a harvest that He wants us to have, and the workers are few. Let’s spend time cleansing ourselves so that we can be ready to work in His field where He wants us to work.

  Have a blessed day,

  Heather

  • 6:09 am
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