For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God?For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?For the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God: and if it begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?
3 sermons cite this verse
See how easy it is to play with our minds, phone the number, sign the ticket, send the dollar bill, and think we did it? God says, Listen, it's time for judgment to begin at the house of God. That means it's time for judgment to begin with me. It's time for judgment to begin with you. And the only way in which we will make a radical impact in our culture, as we're going to see in the coming weeks, is by being the kind of worker who really works, the kind of teacher who really teaches, the kind of father who really fathers, the kind of elder who really cares. You say, what? Don't you realize there are 250 million people here? Yeah. Well, how do you change the world? Just one person at a time. Can you imagine if we were able to mobilize a company like this to concerns like this? What an amazing difference it would be. And we wouldn't need to have our evangelical leaders quoted in the New York Times this week, letting the Republicans know that the five million people we represent are not going to like them anymore, and we won't be able to support them for this and for that. Big deal. Big deal. …
If a few drops of wrath do sometimes so distress the minds of men in this world, so as to be more dreadful than fire, or any bodily torment, how dreadful will be a deluge of wrath; how dreadful will it be, when all God’s mighty waves and billows of wrath pass over them! Every faculty of the soul shall be filled with wrath, and every part of the body shall be filled with fire. After the resurrection the body shall be cast into that great furnace, which shall be so great as to burn up the whole world. These lower heavens, this air and this earth, shall all become one great furnace, a furnace that shall burn the earth, even to its very centre. In this furnace shall the bodies of the wicked lie to all eternity, and yet live, and have their sense of pain and torment not at all diminished. O, how full will the heart, the vitals, the brain, the eyes, the tongue, the hands, and the feet be of fire; of this fire of such an inconceivable fierceness! How full will every member, and every bone, and every vein, and every sinew, be of this fire! Surely it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Who can bear such wrath? A little of it is enough to destroy us. Psalm ii. 12. “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.” But how will men be overwhelmed, how will they sink, when God’s wrath is executed in so dreadful a degree! The misery which the damned will endure, will be their perfect destruction. Psalm l. 22. “Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” …
He by whom you will be sentenced! God will judge the world by this Man, Christ Jesus! He it is who will come in the clouds of Heaven and before Him shall be gathered all nations! And when those who have despised Him shall look upon His face, they will be terrified beyond conception! Not the lightning, not the thunder, not the dreadful sound of the last tremendous trumpet shall so alarm them as that face of injured love! Then will they cry to the mountains and hills to hide them from the face of Him that sits upon the Throne! Why, it is the face of Him that wept for sinners, the face which scoffers stained with bloody drops extracted by the thorny crown, the face of the Incarnate God who, in Infinite Mercy, came to save mankind! But because they have despised Him. Because they would not be saved. Because they preferred their own lusts to Infinite Love and persisted in rejecting God's best proof of kindness, therefore will they say, "Hide us from the face," for the sight of that face shall be to them more accusing and more condemning than all else besides! How dreadful is this Truth of God! The more you consider it, the more will it fill your soul with terror! Would to God it might drive you to fly to Jesus, for then you will behold Him with joy in that day! This destruction, we are told, began at thesanctuary. Suppose the Lord were to visit London in His anger—where would He begin to smite? "Oh," somebody says, "of course, the destroying angel would go down to the low music halls and dancing rooms! Or He would sweep out the back slums and the drink palaces, the jails and places where women of ill-repute congregate!" Turn to the Scripture which surrounds our text. The Lord says, "Begin at My sanctuary." Begin at the Churches! Begin at the Chapels! Begin with the Church members! Begin with the ministers, the bishops! Begin with those who are teachers of the Gospel! Begin with the chief and front of the religious world—begin with the high professors who are looked up to as examples! What does Peter say? "The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begins with us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely are saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" …