Some people ask: After believing in the Lord, we practice humility and patience, love our enemies, bear our crosses, abandon worldly things and we work and preach for the Lord and so on. We have achieved a little change. So why must we accept God’s work of judgment in the last days before being able to be cleansed and saved?

Answer:

We can love our enemy, bear the cross, overcome our body, and spread the gospel of the Lord. These are positive behaviors coming from our belief in the Lord. Our exhibition of such good behaviors signifies that our faith in the Lord is true. These good behaviors may appear correct to people, as if these are in line with the word of God, but it does not mean that we are practicing God’s word and following the will of the heavenly Father, it doesn’t mean that we have quit our sinful nature and become sanctified. There is a reason why we cannot just look at people’s good behaviors by appearance. We also need to look at their intentions and ultimate purposes. If our intention is to obey God, love God, and satisfy God, this kind of good behavior is practicing the truth and obeying the will of the heavenly Father.

Question 10: There are some people who go by the Lord Jesus’ word: “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (Jhn 16:8). They believe that after the Lord Jesus rose to heaven and on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended and worked on men. It should be God’s work of judgment. Then what exactly are the differences between the work of judgment in the last days done by Almighty God and the work of the Lord Jesus?

Answer:

Since you acknowledge that what the Lord Jesus did was redemptive work, and He brought to us the way of repentance, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” then what is the basis for you to determine that the Holy Spirit did the work of judgment of the last days when He came at Pentecost? You merely based on what the Lord Jesus said, “For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (Jhn 16:7-8), and dared to determine that the Holy Spirit had come to do the work of judgment in the last days. Is there any basis in the word of God? Had the Lord Jesus ever said, “The Holy Spirit has come to do the work of judgment in the last days”? The Lord Jesus had never said this. The Lord Jesus clearly said, “And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (Jhn 12:47-48). The message of the Lord Jesus is very clear that judgment is not His work. When the Lord Jesus returns in the last days, He will then express the truth to do the work of judgment. To be sure, it is wrong for us to refer the work of the Holy Spirit in the Age of Grace as God’s judgment work. Naturally, it requires the moving, enlightenment, and illumination of the Holy Spirit for us to attain true confession and repentance of sins. However, confessing and repenting before the Lord in bitter tears, it is the result of the Holy Spirit’s work, which is entirely different from God’s work of judgment in the last days. Let us read two passages of Almighty God’s words, and we will understand what judgment really means.