If you want to turn in your Bibles to the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, please. 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. I think that the text of Scripture in Hebrews 10 that Brad read to us is one of my favorite in all of the Bible. And the reason it is is because it shows us in the clearest language that the basis for our faith and assurance does not lie within us, but in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to scripture. According to the scriptures, that's what it's all about, isn't it? God has spoken, he has performed his word, and now he holds forth His accomplishments for us that we might believe Him. Now today what I want to do is I want to look at the second part of last week's message on the judgment seat of Christ, the judgment seat of Christ. And this is part two. And I chose Matthew 7 last week. for reasons which hopefully you'll see connected to this because it was obviously Christ's own account of what will happen on that day, that day of judgment. And how many, the majority of people will not find the narrow way, but they will be on the broad way that leads to destruction. And as we saw last week, the broad way, according to the Lord Jesus Christ, is the way on which those who are the workers of iniquity are found, the workers of iniquity. And only those who do the will of my father, Jesus said, enter the narrow way, the way of salvation, the way of life, the way of heaven. Christ is that way. He's the only way. That's how narrow it is. And no one can come in the narrow way with anything of their own. That's how narrow it is. Someone gave the illustration a long time ago that it's so narrow that unless you're stripped utterly naked, you cannot get in this way. In fact, it's so narrow that not only do you have to be stripped, but you have to be clothed in the righteousness of God. That's how narrow this way is. Someone said, that's being very dogmatic, that's being very narrow-minded. That's because God is dogmatic and God is narrow-minded. His truth is the only truth. There's no such thing as your truth, my truth, and everybody else's truth, as the world likes to say. Well, that's your truth. Anything other than what God has said is false. That's narrow, isn't it? And anything but Christ and Him crucified as the way of salvation is a way that leads to destruction. That's narrow, isn't it? And so that's the emphasis of Matthew chapter seven. And to do the will of the Father, as we saw last week, was what Jesus told us in John chapter six and many other places was to believe on Him whom God has sent. Now to tie this down and bring you up to speed from that sermon last week, I wanna look at John chapter five and verse 24, and I wanna connect the words of John 5, 24, 23, 22 through 24. Look at this in John chapter five, verse 22. He says, for the father judgeth no man, How does he judge them? Because he has committed all judgment unto the Son. That's why it's the judgment seat of Christ. That all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He's equal with God. We must honor the Son. How? How do we honor the Son? Well, he goes on. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. And verse 24 tells us how. Verily, Jesus said, verily, most assuredly, this is true, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life. So to honor the Son, by which we honor the Father is to honor Him in believing His Word. If you believe His Word, you believe Him. You can't believe Christ without believing His Word. There's no believing Christ in some ethereal way where we can't define it. God specifies what it means to believe Christ. It's believing the Word of Christ. And the word of Christ tells us the Father has sent him. And so we believe that word and therefore we believe God. We believe on God in the Lord Jesus Christ and everyone who has been given that faith has in present possession everlasting life. They have already passed from death to life and they shall not come into condemnation. In the judgment seat, at the judgment seat of Christ, there are two outcomes. Those who enter life and heaven because of salvation in Christ, and those who do not enter life and do not enter heaven, but are condemned because of their own works. God is going to judge men precisely according to justice. He's going to hold them up to and measure them by the plumb line of his own law, by their own works. But all those who have come to see by God's grace and trust, by God's grace, the Lord Jesus Christ as the one whose blood cleanses them from all sin, as Brad just read in Hebrews 10, and sanctifies them, makes them holy before God and perfects them because of his one offering. Those are those who honor the Son. Those are those who obey the gospel. And that's what doing the will of the Father is in scripture. And so I want to start with the review of what we talked about last time because I want it to be clear in our minds. The other thing I want to point out from last time that we saw at the judgment is that according to Romans 2, verse 16, judgment will proceed on the basis of not the law, but the gospel. And the implications of that are is that in the gospel, God holds men accountable to his law, but that God has answered his own law, both its demands for our obedience and its demands for justice. in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that answer that Christ gave is a complete answer. It is a perfect answer. It is an eternal answer. So that by His own blood, He obtained eternal redemption for us. He sanctified us by that one offering. He perfected forever those the Father sanctified, and it was by the will of God. So that's on the one hand. In Christ, we have answered the law. We've fulfilled it. We've honored it. And therefore, it says in Romans 3, 32, that it is by faith that the law is established. It's only in Christ that the law is honored. No man has honored it. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And there's only one way to honor and to satisfy God's law, to fulfill the obedience of that law, and to answer its demands for justice because of our sin. Christ had to come. Christ had to be made under the law. He had to take willingly, lovingly, obediently the sins of his people in obedience to God in order to satisfy for their sins and to remove and take away their sins and in doing so fulfill all righteousness. And that is imputed to all in Christ. In Adam, all die. In Christ, all shall be made alive because of his righteousness. Now, that's the only way to answer the law. That's the only way to honor the law. That's the only way to come before God and to appear before him. We have boldness to enter into the holiest. That's the secret place. That's the presence of God by the blood of Jesus. You heard it in Hebrews 10, verse 19. And because it is by his blood, Because it is by His blood, the Lord says, therefore, let us not only come boldly by His blood, but let us not waver, but in the full assurance of faith, you see, the full assurance of faith, because it all rests on Christ. I'm gonna just go back and read the verse before that, because it's so powerful. Let me reread what Brad read in verse 20 of Hebrews 10, by a new and living way, which he, Christ, has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. So who did it? Christ. How? His broken body. on the cross, and having a high priest over the house of God. He not only died, he rose, he took his place at the right hand of God. As our high priest, he makes intercession for us. He appears in the presence of God for us. Now, which part, what part did you contribute here? Notice the next words. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. You see, that's where the heart is. It's in the way we think about what God has said. And the conviction in our conscience of the truth concerning Christ is the work of the Spirit of God. We cannot produce this faith. The faith that Jesus said, those which believe his word have, and have therefore passed from death to life, shall not come into condemnation, have a present possession of everlasting life. That faith we cannot produce. Blind men can't open their own eyes. Our eyes, our spiritual eyes are blind until the light of the gospel shines at the command of God. So now look at me, I'm reading this so that you will see that our faith and the assurance of faith depends entirely on outside of us righteousness. Not the subjective experience, but the outside of us accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that that makes sense. Look at 2 Peter, the book of 2 Peter in chapter 1. I want to read this to you. I've said this many times before, that faith is the gift of God. Scripture says it. Acts 18.27 says they believe by grace, for example. Acts 3.16 says the faith that is by Him, by Christ. Philippians 1.29 says God has given us faith, faith. And so, and Ephesians 2 says that we're saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves is the gift of God. But here, look at 2 Peter 1, verse 1. He says, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have, notice this word, obtained. Do you know what that word means? It means it was allotted to you. This is your portion. This is your lot. In the Old Testament, they would decide things by casting lots. And the outcome would determine what God's will was in the matter. And then when they went into the land of Canaan, God divided that land up and said, this is your lot, that's his lot. This is your other, the other man's lot. Faith is the lot of God's elect. It's the allotment, the giving out, the portioning out by God of His grace to them to see and know Christ. Notice here, what does this faith do? We have obtained like precious faith, you have obtained like precious faith with us, and the words are in the righteousness of God, of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. The way it's worded in the King James Version, unfortunately, it obscures the fact that Christ is our God and Savior, and that our faith is in His righteousness. So I recommend you look at that. In fact, it says it in the margin here, I'm looking at it, of our God and Savior, in the margin of my Bible, And the word through is in, in the literal translation, and you can look that up in your own time. So God is telling us here that the faith that he gives, the saving faith, is saving, why? Why is it saving? Why is our faith saving? Is it because we have a sincerity in what we believe? Or is it because we believe it firmly? I mean, we're really convinced of this. Does that make the difference between saving faith and non-saving faith? Not at all. It's not that psychological activity within us. It's not that subjective action of faith that makes faith saving or not saving. It's not the intensity of our commitment. That does not determine whether faith is saving or not. If you have faith as the grain of a mustard seed, Jesus said, you can say to this mountain, be cast into the sea. It'll be done. No, faith is saving because Christ is saving the one we believe. And this is so essential. If we can get this, he that believeth on me, the scripture says, whosoever believeth on him, So faith by its very definition, according to scripture, rejects itself as contributing to salvation, but it's the God-given grace to see that Christ is all in salvation. So here God says that's allotted to God's people. He gives it, and it's a gift of grace. You can't produce it. You can't open your own eyes. You can't raise yourself from the dead. You can't produce spiritual understanding. It comes by the Spirit of God. And when God gives life, you do not resist it. When God gives life, he raises you from the dead. You embrace it. You understand. You're persuaded of this. You lay hold upon the Lord Jesus Christ as a sinner who has no other hope. Now, I say all that to try to persuade you to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, to look to Him. He's the straight, the narrow gate. He's the one before whom we must stand in judgment. And those who stand before him, who defend themselves, who bring in their own defense what they've done, they are lawless. They're workers of iniquity. And the reason they are is because they unlawfully try to use the law to justify themselves when the gospel plainly declares, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. So I'm reviewing still on Matthew chapter 7. I want you to be convinced of that. Now, holding that verse in Romans 2.16 in our thoughts, that judgment will proceed on the basis of the gospel. The verse in Romans 2.16 says, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Now, holding that in our thoughts, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Second Corinthians chapter five, if you'll just make this obvious note, it's in chapter five. That means it's in the context of the big part, the larger part of this book of Corinthians. And the context is very important. Now, my claim here is that the context of 2 Corinthians 5, and not just 2 Corinthians 5, but judgment, and not just judgment, but everything in scripture. The context is God's eternal work in Christ, the gospel. And so when 1 Corinthians 15 says that the gospel is how that Christ died according to the scriptures, that he was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures. The Apostle Paul is saying, this is not something I invented. God said this previously. This is not only a New Testament doctrine. This is an Old Testament doctrine. This is what the scriptures have said. And so we see that the context of scripture is the gospel, the gospel of our salvation. And so that's the context of this chapter. It's the context of 2 Corinthians and every other book of the Bible. But if you look at the book of 2 Corinthians, I'm not going to do that now, but I just want you to see that As I meditate and listen to this being read and read it over and over again, I see some things here. One is, this was obviously written by Paul to the church, not only at Corinth but Achaia. So it was written to the church. And that's another point to be made about scripture. God is speaking to the church. So whenever you see words such as us, for example, in scripture, And we, he's talking to believers. But he gives the message to them so that to the unbelieving world, in which there are many of God's elect, they also will hear the words from those who understand and know the truth, to who the Spirit of God has revealed God's mind in Scripture. So it's written by Paul, the apostle, on the authority of Christ sending him, and with the knowledge and the inspiration of the Spirit of God, to the church. And it's to instruct the church, but mostly to instruct them for their comfort. In the first part, it says that God is the God, the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our tribulation in order that we might be able to comfort those who are in any trouble. So it's a message of comfort through the instruction that is in this book. And as you read it, you see the apostle proving to the Corinthians that Christ sent him, that he is a true apostle. And one of the reasons is that Christ sent him. Another reason is that he preaches the gospel. And another reason is that the effects of the preaching of the gospel, which take place in the hearts of the Corinthians. God himself has proved the evidence that this is authentic by writing on their hearts the epistle of the gospel. That's in 2 Corinthians 3. Another thing that he does is the apostle is writing to correct the Corinthians, but he does it in a way of comfort and he emphasizes in this book that it's out of love that he writes to them. He tells them, whatever I've suffered, it's for your sake. Whatever I'm comforted in, it's for your sake. Whether I'm beside myself, people think I'm crazy, it's towards God, but it's for your sake. The reason I didn't come to you was so that I might not come to you sorrowful and make you heavy, the people from whom I should be joyful. And I'm joyful only if you're joyful. So he says these things to the Corinthians because of his love. And when you take all these things together, what you see is in the book of 2 Corinthians, like all of the epistles, and note this well, this is Christ writing to the church. We think of it as the apostle Paul, but these words, even though Paul writes them concerning his own experience, must be taken up and applied in a much more prominent way as the very words of Christ concerning himself towards his people, so that he speaks of his father as the father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our tribulation. He identifies with his people as the us. And he also speaks to them that his sufferings were for them and his comfort that came through his sufferings were also for them. And that he writes to them and to us in love, Even though he has to correct it, he does it so that we would know his love for us and so that we would be joyful. So the Book of Corinthians, the context is the gospel and is spoken concerning Christ. And even though the apostle is the one who authoritatively speaks in Christ's behalf, he's just an ambassador. He's an ambassador of the sovereign who sent him to the people designated by the sovereign with the message of the sovereign. So that's what this book is about. Now, in this book, he especially does this in chapter three. And what he does in chapter three is he brings in the fact that And this was important, because like the Hebrews, and like the Corinthians, and like the Galatians, and like so many of the people to which Paul wrote, they had a problem. They couldn't get around it. The old covenant was there. And it was screaming. And their conscience was wounded. And they were terrified by the testimony of God's own law. How can I? How can I? believe anything other than what God has said in his law. But that's the very thing that the gospel does. It holds God's law up and honors it. And the very thing that exposes us guilty and brings and pronounces condemnation upon us and curses us, God says, that's required. You have to fulfill this. And then he points to the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he provided in grace and love. And he points to the Lord Jesus Christ, who in his own love willingly was made under the law and bore all that the law required for us in fulfillment towards God, and then bore all of our sins against God in our place. taking our sins as his own and bearing the punishment for them, that's the gospel. Taking the law and the context of our guilt and owning it and taking it from us and lifting it from us and bearing it as his own and answering God in all of his justice to the very delight and the pleasure of God according to his eternal will and scripture and Christ did this by himself. Now, that's what that's what the New Covenant is about. Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, for example, is a book about those better things. And I could walk you through every chapter, he shows you Christ, the son, is the culmination of everything spoken in the Old Testament in chapter one and in chapter two, Christ, the man, not angels, but Christ, the one who was the captain of our salvation, the high priest, He's the one Moses represented, but Moses was not the high priest. He was not the apostle. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're in his household if we believe on him. And the reason that those Israelites fell in the wilderness is because of their unbelief. They didn't see Christ. They continued to hold to the law and thinking that they could defend themselves before God by that law and fulfill what was necessary to enter Canaan by their own obedience, but they continuously failed. And God kept holding up to them, Joshua the captain. Because Christ, the captain of our salvation, was by the will of God, because it seemed good to God, it was therefore necessary that he should be made perfect through sufferings. He himself would overcome our enemies, our sins. and conquer them and bring us into the land of rest by completing the work of our salvation and all that he did. And this is Hebrews chapter four. We enter this rest through faith and having entered by faith, trusting Christ works, completed salvation. We cease from our own works as God did from his. And he goes on and talking about the priesthood, how Christ is the eternal priest. And because he's the priest, the covenant is given under his priesthood. And because it's under him, therefore, this covenant is sure. And he fulfilled it in his own blood. Now, this is the book of Hebrews. But here in Second Corinthians three, he does the same thing. He says, now, this law, this covenant, it charged you with guilt. It required your obedience and you failed. You utterly failed, and therefore it pronounces, it serves you. It's the ministration of condemnation and death. It demands obedience, but you're already a sinner. It promises life for obedience. You have no hope. You can't keep it. It condemns you to eternal damnation, and there you lie, helpless in your sin and inability to remove it and to fulfill any of God's law. And that law cries loudly. And what is the result of this law? This pronouncement of our guilt and condemnation and the wrath of God. Terror! Fear! Horrible! It's horrible! And these things are real. This is not just, it's not a straw dog that God creates in order to, you know, goad you with it. This is real. This is real. And so in Second Corinthians five, where we're going to be looking at it here and look at verse 10. In Second Corinthians five, he says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, the Corinthians. They heard Paul talking about the new covenant and in talking about that, he told them, look, the Israelites in the wilderness, when Moses came down off the mountain and received the law from God, his face was glowing. And they were afraid, didn't want to come near to him. So he put something over his face to hide the glow. And after a while, the glow disappeared, but he kept it on there. But what this represented was, number one, is that the Israelites, because they couldn't see past the law, They had to have this veil over them. They couldn't perceive that in the law, God also foreshadowed Christ and the gospel, and the sacrifices of it, and the demands of it. And so you see this in the Old Testament, there was this arc of the testimony, the arc of the covenant. And inside of it was the law, the tables of the law, and the manna, the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. And all of those were in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who was the high priest. He's the one who was the bread of God. He's the one in whose God's law was in his heart to fulfill it, to do it. And it was so much in his heart that there was not a shadow of a difference between God himself and the Lord Jesus Christ in his desire, in his delight, in his joy, in his earnest pursuit of honoring God and honoring him in a keeping of his law in every part of it. It's demands for our obedience and it's demands for justice in our disobedience. This was in the heart of Christ and then over the Ark of the Covenant was the mercy seat where the blood was sprinkled and Christ is represented by all these things. so that we see that in the law itself it foreshadowed the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Israelites couldn't see that when they saw Moses coming down off the mount. All they could hear was the thunderous cry of the law that said, don't come near, stay back. The law itself was saying, do not come here for salvation. Don't trust in your own obedience. Don't imagine that you have a defense in what you do. That's the unlawful use of the law. You see, this is lawlessness to trust in the law. That's why Jesus said to those who stand before him in judgment, you workers of iniquity, you practicers of lawlessness. It means that you not only disobeyed, but you've committed idolatry. You've made yourself capable of doing what only Christ could do.

And so he cites Moses throughout the New Testament in order to prove that Moses himself said, do not do that. Habakkuk said, the just shall live by faith. Abraham was saved by grace through faith in Christ, in his work. And David also said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin because he imputes righteousness, the righteousness of Christ to him. So all of that is contained in this context. And I want you to see that.

But because the Corinthians couldn't see that clearly, Paul amplifies, he shines the light brightly on the new covenant, the gospel of his grace. And he says this in 2 Corinthians 3, he says, talks about their minds being blinded in the Old Testament. But he says, but we, in verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 3, we all with open face. It's revealed now. We come openly. We agree with the gospel. Yes, we're sinners. Yes, God's law condemns us, justly so. And it's terrifying to us and we have no hope. That's true. But more importantly, God has provided what God requires in his son.

He says in verse 18 of Second Corinthians three, we all with open face notice beholding as in a mirror or a glass the glory of the Lord. Not like Moses, but avail to hide them from the glory of the law, that condemning law that serve them with death. No. Here, rip it off. God has revealed the bright light, the illumination of Christ in the gospel to your heart. He's written it on your hearts. You see, and notice in 2 Corinthians 5 now. Look at verse 7. We walk by what? Faith. We walk by the light of the gospel that concerns Christ. We do not walk by what? Sight. that physical, fleshly, natural ability to understand and perceive things, that can't help.

I used to think of this as just, well, we trust in God's word, we don't trust our senses, which is true, but most specifically, he's talking about here the faith of the gospel versus the sight of living under the delusion that somehow we can perform what God requires. All right, so that's the context. Do you see it here? And notice after verses 10 and 11 in 2 Corinthians 5, he gives us this context again. He says in verse 11 at the end, he says, I trust also we are made manifest in your consciences. So he's laying everything on the table. We're not gonna put this veil on. We're not gonna hide. We don't live in order to prove to the appearance of men that were the Lord's people. That's what the false apostles did.

Well, I'm gonna give you a letter, a resume, a recommendation. I'm gonna tell you all about what I've done, everything. I got several books on my shelf at home. I can prove to you I'm a theologian, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The apostle Paul didn't say anything like that, did he? You are our epistle. written with the Spirit of God, known and read of all men." It's open now. God has openly shown you are His. He's going to make those of the synagogue of Satan come and bow down before your feet and know that Christ has loved you. And it's not for works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy that he saved us.

So he says this, he says in verse 12, in 2 Corinthians 5, we commend not ourselves again to you. We're not saying these things to you in order to puff ourselves up before you, but to give you occasion to glory on our behalf that you may have somewhat to answer them with glory and appearance. Which would be the Jews, right? Or others like them who trust the law. Verse 13, but whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God. Or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. And we talked about that last week. Christ died. His people died in his death, they died to sin, they died to the law, they died to death in the death of Christ. Therefore, they're justified from sin, justified from the law, they're justified to eternal life because of Christ. Everyone for whom Christ died, died and are justified. That's what verse 14 is saying. If one died for all, then we're all dead. Verse 15, and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves. Those who died with Christ live, but unto him which died for them and rose again. That's the gospel, isn't it? This is the context. And he gives the gospel in much clearer terms in the verses that follow. But I just try to establish this now. Now I want you to look at verse 10 with me. He says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. All right, we already saw in Matthew chapter seven that there's two ways, the narrow and the broad ways. We already saw that there are most people, many, who go in the broad way and few go in the narrow way. And that's important, isn't it? It's important because we shouldn't be surprised that faith is so scarce. Because God's will is that he gives it according to his grace. And that shouldn't make us think, well, I mean, is God really being fair? Or, I mean, shouldn't he give faith to everybody? Those kinds of thoughts. Always answer those thoughts with God does, God is good alone. He's the only one who's good and he's all good and he does what's right in every situation. And he does it according to righteousness, he's holy, he cannot lie, he can't do wrong. But what he's saying here is that there's these, in the larger context, there are two groups in Judgment Day. And it's because of this that what we read here, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. The Apostle Paul is drawing from the context, isn't he? And what is that? Well, it's the context we came from, which was the law, to the context in which the gospel declares Christ is our hope. And he says in verse 11, therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. All right, so what is this terror then? What is this terror? It's the terror of the law, isn't it? Isn't that the terror? It's the terror of God's wrath. His unmitigated justice poured out upon men, which is eternal damnation. That's terrifying, isn't it? That's horrifying. In Hebrews chapter 12, he says it this way. Hebrews chapter 12, he says about Moses, Moses himself. Now this is Moses. I'm sure that you wouldn't claim to be as good as he was. He says, so terrible was the sight of giving the law that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. He wasn't just like, well, I'm kind of bothered by that. My conscience is irritated. No, he was quaking in his boots. Look at 1 John 4. 1 John 4, he says this. He says in verse 17, herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. And we, in verse 16, we have known and believed the love that God has to us. That's the perfect love that casts out fear. And what is it that we know about God's love? Well, he says in verse 10, for example, here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and did what? Sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. So the love of God is known in the propitiation God made in his son. Christ himself was made the propitiation for our sins. That's the love of God made known. That's God manifesting his love and that's the love we know is in the sacrificial death that God gave and that Christ gave of himself for our sins. So when we know the terror of the Lord, what do we do? Well, that's what the law declares. But what does the gospel do? It removes the sting of death, which is sin. It removes the strength of sin, which is the law, in the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that the terror is removed, isn't it? Isaiah chapter 12 says, in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee. Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. I gotta read it to get it right. Let me read it to you. Isaiah 12, he says, and in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee. Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. You see, the fear is removed. The terror is removed. Why? Because God himself made himself my salvation. He became my salvation. Abraham told Isaac, my son, God will provide himself a lamb. Jehovah Jireh, he provided what he required. He sought to it and he's seen in it. And this is what God has done in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we knowing this terror, the apostle Paul knew this terror. Everyone who knows the gospel has known the terror of the Lord. But knowing this terror, what do we do? We persuade men. How many times in the book of Hebrews, for example, in chapter three, he says, why did they fall in the wilderness? Because of unbelief. And in chapter six, he says, look, if you turn from this, it's impossible to return, to turn you again to repentance. If you turn away from the blood of Christ, in chapter 10, he says the same thing. If we sin willfully after we receive the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversary." So these things are showing the warnings that are interlaced with the gospel to exhort us to flee for refuge to Christ. And so that's what he says here. Listen, listen all of us, each one of us. God's law requires perfect obedience. In every part you have failed and it's impossible for you to do what God requires. It's impossible because you are corrupt in your heart and you can bring forth nothing but sin from yourself. There's only one hope for you, Christ. You must be found in Christ, not having your own righteousness, but the righteousness of God, which he established in his obedience unto death. Now, that's what the gospel is. That's the context. That's the message of what Paul is saying here. But then there's, but he says here, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. That every one of us must give account the things done in his body according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad. So what is this talking about for the believer then? I see that for the unbeliever, it's exhorting them that look, if you're not in Christ, flee to Christ. If you're outside of Christ, you have to answer God in your own person. You won't survive. But here he's saying, we must all appear. So what does that mean then? What does judgment mean for the believer in Christ?

Well, before we get started, let's remind ourselves what the Lord has already told us. As Brad read earlier, where the remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Full remission has been made and God therefore says, I will not remember their iniquities. I will not remember their sins anymore. God himself will not remember, that's his promise, that's his word. So we're not going to be judged on the basis of our sins then, because in Christ, our sins have been put away. He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, Hebrews 9 verse 26. He did this when he offered himself to God. Christ loved us and offered himself to God, a sacrifice. For a sweet-smelling savor to God, God took such delight in his offering, in obedience, in blood, in answer to his justice, that God could not be more delighted. And how dare anyone pretend to come along and add to or contribute to that or to replace it with something else. This is the only hope you have, and this is what we're trying to persuade you. We're ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, be he reconciled to God.

But so for the believer then, what does this judgment mean? It can't mean being judged for our sins. We have eternal life. We've passed from death to life. We shall not come into condemnation. What does it mean then? Well, there's two places scripture speaks to this, I think, that are helpful. And one is Matthew chapter 20. Matthew chapter 20, he shows us here that there's a parable given that helps us to see that, first of all, and here's the message of this parable. that the reward that God gives to His people is not a reward of merit on their part. It's not a reward for their good works, but it is rather a reward of His goodness by His grace. This is very important.

Matthew 20 gives the parable of a vineyard owner, a master of a vineyard. He says in verse one of Matthew 20, the kingdom of heaven is like a man that is a householder which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. When he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into the vineyard.

And he went out about the third hour, 9 a.m., and saw others standing in the marketplace, and said to them, go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. It will be right. And they went their way, and they trusted him. Again, he went out about the sixth hour, noon, and the ninth hour, 3 p.m., and did likewise. And about the 11th hour, this would have been 5 p.m., there's only one more hour to work. He went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, why stand ye here all the day idle? They said, because no one has hired us. He said, go, go ye also into the vineyard and whatever is right that shall ye receive.

So when even was come, the Lord of the vineyard said to his steward, call the labors and give them their hire beginning from the last to the first. When they came that were hired about the 11th hour, just work one hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more. They thought they were worth more. They had labored all day, by the way. And they likewise received every man a penny, precisely what God said he would give them.

When they had received it, they murmured against the good men of the house, saying, these last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, which have borne the burden in the heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and he said, friend, I do thee no wrong. Didn't you agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is and go thy way, go your way. I will give to this last even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me, and here's grace, sovereign grace, to do what I will with my own? Isn't that right? If I had $100 and I wanted to give $100 to my granddaughter and give you nothing, wouldn't it be right for me to do that? It's mine. You can't complain. It's not yours, it's mine.

And then he puts a point on what he told this man. He said, is your eye evil? Because I am good. David told his men, he says, no. When they wanted to say, don't let these people who stayed behind and guarded the stuff, don't give them anything. We were the ones who risked our lives. And David said, no, no, no, no, no, no. He that stays by the stuff and he that goes to the battle, they were both given grace by God. The one given victory, these others, God gave them the same thing. You divide evenly. The spoil will evenly be divided. The principle is set up by the son of David here in the most emphatic language.

Life, salvation, heaven, the inheritance is not by works. It's by promise. It's by grace. It's on the basis of righteousness established in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right. Look at Matthew 25. This is the other thing about judgment. So first of all, what we are given is an inheritance. It's not a payout of earnings in glory. At judgment, the believer is given the reward of grace. Since faith is the gift of God, since the fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit and not our production, then this is all of grace.

But in Matthew 25, he says this. Notice this in verse 31 of Matthew 25. He says, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, all the holy angels with him, Matthew 25, 31, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. In verse 32 of Matthew 25, before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall, notice, separate one from the other as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. Now, one thing that you need to understand in scripture is that the goats and the sheep have always been goats and sheep. There's not this transformation of a goat into a sheep or a sheep into a goat. You're either the Lord's people or you're not the Lord's people. And the one who determines whether you're his or not is the Lord, not you. It's not by your will. It's not by your decision. This is God's work, God's choice.

The father has sheep. He gave his sheep to his son to save them. That's what the sheep are. And so these who appear as sheep here have always been sheep. And the sheep didn't know they were sheep until they heard the shepherd's voice. And when they heard the shepherd's voice, the shepherd said, I laid down my life for the sheep. And they rejoiced because God gave them faith. The joy and peace in believing. This is what he's talking about here. These two groups. There's Abel and there's Cain. Okay. He goes on. And it says here in verse 33, he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left, then shall the king, this is Christ, say to them on his right hand, the sheep, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from eternity. from the foundation of the world, and then he, now notice what happens here. And this is the part of judgment that 2 Corinthians 5, with respect to believers, is talking about. We know it's gonna be a reward of grace, but here, Christ himself is the judge. He's the one who's going to set before the onlooking universe, and particularly before the angels in glory and his father. He's going to stand up as advocate for them, and He's going to prove they are His sheep because they believed Him.

And the evidence of their faith is what follows here. It's the evidence of God's grace. He says, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for. I was hungry and you gave me meat. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger, you took me in. Naked and you clothed me. Sick, you visited me. In prison, you came to me. Notice the response of the sheeb. Then shall the righteous, this is what they're gonna answer. Lord, When saw we thee hungry and fed thee, thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in, or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick and in prison and came to thee? And the king shall answer and say to them, Verily, I say to you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.

You know what that means? That means that all of Christ's brethren are so united to Him that they're part of His bones and flesh and His body. They're one with Him. And whatever we do to the least of His brethren, we do it to Christ. And yet the sheep, they don't realize that. They have nothing in their own defense. Christ answers for them. And the answer he gives is the evidence that they understood and knew him in the gospel. Because as the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, the love of Christ constrains us. He wrote this epistle to the Corinthians out of love for them. And He beseeched them, I beseech you in behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God.

You see, the hungry, the meat, and the water, and the clothing here spoken of that Christ is talking about, is that provided in the Gospel? It's the thirst, the thirst quenching water of life. It's the clothing of the righteousness of Christ. It's the meat of the body of Christ broken for our life. It's all these things, those prisoners who are held captive by their sin and unbelief. He gives them light, the gospel.

Let me tell you about the Lord Jesus. And God allots faith to them in his righteousness. And then it's evident they're the Lord's. And the way it's seen is because they take that same gospel as all that's important in all of their life. And they pray, oh, Lord, reveal it to these.

Oh, have you heard about the Lord Jesus Christ, the great savior of sinners, who's able to do for you what you cannot do? Have you heard about the judgment of God that we must stand before Him in terror unless we're found in His Son? And have you heard that everyone who comes to Him will not be cast out? Have you heard that? That everyone who believes His Word, believes Him, and all who believe His Word, the Gospel, already have everlasting life? Because God is delighted with what He did for them.

Have you heard the cry of the publican who said, God, be propitious to me, the sinner, and that Jesus said he went down to his house justified? Have you heard those words? Do you know yourself to be nothing but sin, ungodly, even an enemy of God, that in your heart you're an idolater full of pride and full of lust, and you can't help it, but Christ can save you to the uttermost? Have you heard about him?

You see, this is the water, this is the meat, this is the clothing, this is the visitation that Christ speaks about. And every believer confesses from his with his mouth what he believes in his heart. And the Lord says, you did it to me. You did it to me. What grace. God attributing to us. The result of his work. and it's all of grace,

let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, your Son, the Lord of glory, what humility, what astute, what love, what obedience, what self-sacrificing grace that he would give himself to save us from the very thing that separated us and God. Oh, that we might hear this word and find this in our heart to be compelled by this message. God's persuasion, the light of the gospel, that we might come to him. In his name we pray. Amen.