Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Corinthians 11, verse 29. I'd like to direct our thinking
today on the subject of judgment or punishment versus discipline
or correction in the Christian life. In other words, what part
of it, if anything, when things happen to us is judgment? Which
part of it is chastisement or discipline? And there is a very
significant passage in 1 Corinthians 11 concerning the Lord's Supper
that'll get us started here. Let's look down at verse 29 through
32. Let me say, first of all, that
the main Greek word to judge is krino, krino. And there are
several versions of this word with different prepositions in
front of it in this passage. It's very interesting. But let
a man examine himself, that's the word dia, Crinno, and so
let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that
eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself, not discerning, that's another variation of Crinno,
not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause, many are weak
and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge
ourselves, that's the pure word, Creno, if we would judge ourselves,
we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are
chastened of the Lord. Now this is a new word, chastened.
that we should not be condemned, and that is the most severe word
with Krino, that's katakrino. Kata means down, so this is to
judge down, to condemn. If we are chastened of the Lord,
that we should not be condemned with the world. I believe this
is a very significant passage because it tells us that we as
Christians, when we do something wrong and the Lord has to correct
us, that's chastening. It's not judgment like the rest
of the world will experience. We know that our judgment for
sin took place at the cross with the Lord Jesus Christ one time,
one place and time in history that our judgment was done with
for sin. So what happens now in our lives
is not really judgment. It's chastening or discipline
to correct us, to help us to live as Christians like we should
in the Lord's sight. So I would like for us to spend
a few minutes on a subject. I think it's a significant one.
The Christian concepts of judgment versus discipline. There's a
real distinction there. Anytime you have, a hierarchy
with a person or something in authority and someone under that
authority. And when you also have a system
of right and wrong, a set of rules, a set of law, then you
have this opportunity and requirement for judgment along with correction. Let's think about it for a minute
and all the different aspects of society before we think about
it as far as God in us. First of all, you've got teachers
and students in a school setting, don't you? You have a set of
rules. If those rules are broken, you
just can't let things go or you'd have chaos. So there is correction. The world hates the word judgment,
so you don't see that much anymore, but really the correction has
a part judgment in it and a part correction, doesn't it? Because
you've got to set the standards to the kids to know that if they
do something wrong, they're going to get punished. Now, punishment's
not the same now as it used to be. We're not going to get into
that. But in one way or another, you're going to punish the kids
in school for doing something wrong, whether it's just time
out or whatever they do. And then you're also, you're
after two things in all of this. You've got an authority, you've
got someone under that authority, and you've got a set of rules.
When they're broken, you're going to judge, part of judgment is
a deterrent for the future, that the children won't do that thing
again, or other children watching this child won't do that thing. Part of it's a deterrent, part
of it is correction for their own good. Now the extreme example
in a school setting, after you try to correct, to correct, correct,
you finally give up at some point, and what do you do? You expel
the child. That is the catechreno. That
is the ultimate judgment. You're done correcting, and now
you're just saying, he can't get along with everybody else.
He's ruining the whole crowd. He's expelled. I don't know anybody.
how that works these days, but it always used to work that way.
Now, take it to the in the home situation. You've got a parent
and a child, and you've got a set of rules in the household. If
the child breaks those rules, you're going to punish in some
way. You're going to punish slash
correct. It's both of these things together.
And a good parent is always after the correction as much as punishment. And it's not just anger spilling
over from the parent to the child. That's part of the punishment
phase, but it's the correction that you're after with the child.
So the same thing happens in the home setting. What would
be an ultimate judgment in that case? Well, some parents have
actually disowned children. And they, not as a young child,
but they have disowned their child. And that would be a catechreno,
ultimate judgment. You have the same thing in sports.
And we could go on and on about sports stories, about teams punishing
or chastising their players for different violations, either
fining them or making them, suspending them for a few games, or ultimately
kicking them off the team. Now get to the employer and employee,
for those of you at work. You know that your employer has
a means of disciplining employees. And usually in these days there's
a, you have to go in writing with discipline before you can
ultimately fire anybody. But you know that your employer
has HR rules on how they can discipline their employees. They've
got to if the rules are broken. The ultimate judgment in that
case is to fire someone, to be done with them, to say, I can't
deal with this any longer. You're uncorrectable. Then we
have the government and citizens for violating the laws of the
land. You could be fined. You could
be imprisoned. You could be in, we know that
the prisons, a big part of the prisons is to reclaim the criminals,
to correct them, to teach them, to bring them back into society.
But ultimately, if you give up on those people, you execute
them. So that's the ultimate of judgment
there. So there's all kinds of examples of judgment and correction
in our society. And even though most people do
not abide by what we believe as Christians with having to
do with judgment and God's law, they're perfectly aware of the
fact that in society, there's laws that have to be abided by
and that there's consequences if they're not. All right, the
rest of the time, let's talk about God and us, about his system
of judgment and discipline. The thing that's different, well,
many things different about God's system, but one of the main things
that's different about God's system is that he treats Christians
and non-Christians differently. And we have our judgment phase
of this correction paid for forever at the cross. That is not consideration
in God's dealing with us from day to day. The judgment for
sin has been paid for, it's done, it's not a consideration. But
what is a consideration is our correction as Christians from
day to day, and to sanctify us, to make us be what we should
be. The foundation is still that there's right and wrong, that
God's in control, and that we need to be subservient to that
system. As we already said, the word
for judgment, main word is krino. It means to pick out or choose. It shows a separation, a discrimination
between things. To judge is to pick something
over another thing, whether it's for right versus wrong, whether
it's for election versus reprobation, it's judgment. To judge, to bring
to trial, to pass sentence or condemn, to administer justice,
It implies right versus wrong. And the noun form means a dispute,
a decision, a judgment, a verdict, mostly in the sense of an unfavorable
verdict or a condemnation and subsequent punishment. And then
there are these variations of that word that we've been talking
about. Anacrino means to examine, to examine ourselves. Diacrino
means to discern, evaluate, or doubt. Catechreno means to condemn
or pass judgment on. Remember, two weeks ago, the
pastor, I think it was two weeks, the pastor led us in a marvelous
sermon on no condemnation, Romans 8.1. That's this verb, that's
verb catechreno. There is no condemnation to us
who are in Christ Jesus. It's a wonderful, wonderful concept.
The Hebrew words are dayan, which means to rule or regulate, to
judge. And it means essentially the
same thing. The main Hebrew word is shafat,
to judge, condemn, punish, to defend, or rule, or litigate. Now, let's talk about the difference
between man's judgment and God's judgment. In all those scenarios
that I recounted to you earlier, school, government, and sports,
and home, all of those scenarios, you want to keep what some people
refer to as short accounts, don't you? When somebody does something
wrong, you want them corrected immediately. and you want them
to not go, you know, when you're a manager at work, they tell
you that it's just not acceptable to let the whole year go by and
then it's time for performance reviews and you call the guy
in your office and you say, you know, Back 11 months and two
weeks ago, you did this, and that really was wrong, and we
need to talk about it now. Well, that's a little old, and
that's not going to be very effective. You know, what do they say with,
oh, the other example I didn't give you was with our pets. Our
pets also need some judgment and correction. What do they
say about how long your memory span is for your dog? Is it five
minutes or so? If you catch something that he
did wrong, you know, an hour ago, it's probably too late.
So definitely with employees, we want short accounts. Well,
with God, it's amazing how patient he is about judgment for non-Christians. And we'll look at a few passages
here. But the Bible is pretty clear about the fact that he
stores up judgment for the lost. It's a scary, awesome, fact but
it's true it's not always that way though because god judged
the egyptians with moses very quickly in time but with a lot
of the lost non-christians he is storing up judgment for that
one day of judgment which is going to be awesome for them
awesome in the wrong way so God is not constrained in his own
rules to execute judgment immediately. That's the big question and observation
that the lost have about the world that doesn't make sense
to them. When somebody does right, he should be rewarded immediately
for doing right. When someone does wrong, he should
be rewarded immediately for doing wrong, we think, but it doesn't
work that way. And in fact, I'll take you through
a Psalm that shows that very clearly. So God's judgment is
mostly delayed, and it's to be accomplished at the day of judgment
for the lost. and then it carries on for eternity
with the consequences. For us as Christians, it's a
totally different situation. Our judgment has been accomplished
with our Lord Jesus Christ at the cross and our sin has been
paid for. And that's the great hope and
the most wonderful thing about Christianity is that fact. Let's
look at a few scriptures about Christ as the judge. Let's turn
to John 3.17. What did Christ come to do the
first time? John 3.17, for God sent not his
son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might be saved. The Lord Jesus came the first
time not to condemn the world, that final day of judgment, that's
later, but he came to judge Satan. He came to pay the price for
our sins so that we would be saved. That's what he came for
the first time. Now, but the second time, what's
he coming for? Let's turn to John 5, 22. For the Father judges no man,
but hath committed all judgment under the Son. What a significant
verse. All judgment's been committed
to the Lord Jesus Christ for the day of judgment, all of it.
And so the Father has delegated all of that to the Son. Now look
at Romans 2.5. This is where Paul's turned his
attention to the Jews and telling them, don't get so, you know,
so encouraged in your piety because you're going to be judged also.
Romans 2.5 says, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart
treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of God. So Paul is telling these
unrighteous Jews who love to condemn everybody else and judge
them and doing the same things themselves, he says, don't you
know that you're treasuring up, you're storing up judgment for
yourselves, and it's gonna happen on judgment day. You're storing
it up day by day, and it's not happening to you yet, but it's
going to. Now Acts 17, if you will. Acts 17, 30 and 31. And the times of this ignorance
God winked at, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, that's
Jesus, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that
he has raised him from the dead. So there is that day coming. The Old Testament speaks about
it as the day of the Lord. The New Testament speaks of it
as the day of the Lord. And it's coming, the day of judgment. Then Revelation 20 and 12, where
we really see a description of the day. Revelation 20, 12. says, and I saw the dead, small
and great, stand before God. And the books were opened. And
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the books, according to their works. So that's what'll happen
in the end time, is the day of judgment for those whose judgment
has not happened already at the cross. And then let's read Psalm
73, a portion of it, because it just is so true these days
that it seems like the wrong is rewarded and the right is
not rewarded. And we see it every day. We see
it with evil men in the world. We see it all around us. And
we need to understand this as Christians and not let it, make
us so unbelieving of what's going on in the world. Psalm 73, 1
through 20. Truly God is good to Israel,
even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet
were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was
envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no bands in their death, but their strength is
firm. They are not in trouble as other
men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore, pride
compasseth them about as a chain. Violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness.
They have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt and speak
wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily. They set
their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through
the earth. Therefore his people return hither, and waters of
a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the
Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly,
who prosper in the world. They increase in riches. Verily
I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. Woe is me, poor guy. If I say
I will speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation
of thy children. When I thought to know this,
it was too painful for me. Now here's the verse. Until I
went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end. Surely, Thou did set them in
slippery places. Thou castest them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation,
as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors? As a dream,
when one waketh, so, O Lord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt
despise their image." So that's the end of unrighteousness. There is nothing anybody does
in this world that's not gonna get paid for in the end. All of the unrighteousness of
all these unrighteous people and politicians and leaders and
business people milking people out of their own money and so
forth, it's all going to get judged. We have no doubt about
it. Well, for Christians, Now, I
did want to re-mention the fact that God can judge the lost at
any time he wants. He doesn't have to wait until
the end. I mean, that part will be there,
but he can do some pre-judgment as he did with the Egyptians.
You can read that in Exodus 7-4 and in Numbers 33-4. It's very
definite that he was judging the Egyptians for their treatment
of the Israelites. For Christians, God provided
a sacrifice and a substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a God of single judgment,
no dual punishment. He's not unjust, he's just. So
when we have been judged at the cross, our sin has been judged
at the cross, it is judged, it's done. So we will never be judged
as far as punishment, ever, with that having happened. What about
now? And what does happen? Well, first
of all, just a little side of it, we're gonna go into correction
or discipline. But before we do that, let's
look at a few interesting scriptures about our role in the end times
as far as judgment. In the end, we may be involved
a little bit as judges ourselves. Turn to Matthew 19, 28. And Jesus said unto them, now
the them here is not us, it's the apostles. So you can't get
too excited about this one, but it's setting the stage. And Jesus
said unto them, verily I say unto you, that ye which have
followed me in the regeneration, when the son of man shall sit
in the throne of his glory, Ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel." So the apostles, at
least, are going to take some role in judgment themselves.
But now turn to 1 Corinthians 6, 2 and 3, and this includes
us. I certainly don't Understand
it, completely understand it, or even a little bit understand
it, but here it is. 1 Corinthians 6, 2 and 3. This is in the context
of, he's talking to the Corinthians, saying, shame on you. Why in
the world would you take your fellow church members to court
to try to get something out of them? Can't you solve this yourselves? After all, he says now, do ye
not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world
should be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest
matter? Know ye not that we shall judge
angels? How much more things that pertain
to this life. So he's saying, come on, get
it together. You're going to judge angels in the end, and
now you can't settle a dispute between you and your brother
and church. You also know, of course, that the end time will
be a time of reward for Christians, let's turn to 2 Corinthians 5,
9 through 11. Whereof, wherefore we labor,
that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. I thought
you said we wouldn't have to go through that. No, I didn't
say we wouldn't have to appear at the judgment seat of Christ,
but that our punishment was taken care of. That everyone may receive
the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether
it be good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto
God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. Now, just keep going with me
here, keep that thought. So there's gonna be something
happening before the judgment seat of Christ with us. All right,
are we, does that concern us? First Corinthians three, please. Tell us a little more. 1 Corinthians
3, 11-15. For other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man
build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood,
hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest. For the
day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire.
and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide which he hath built thereon, he shall
receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so
as by fire. I thought a lot about this passage
recently because I'm just trying to picture what it's going to
be like. So we will stand before our Lord at the judgment seat
of Christ. And that's not to do with our
salvation. That's to do with our works. And certain people have built
works that are of gold and good works. Certain people have built,
this is Christians, certain Christians have built just wood, hay, and
stubble. So the fire's gonna reveal it
at that time, and it could be that everything we've done, quote,
for the Lord, gets burned up because it was not done with
the right motives, it was not done according to Him, whatever
the reasons. So we could suffer loss, at the
judgment and yet to be saved but as by fire. What I believe
that says is that we Christians do have the possibility of being
embarrassed at the judgment and yet to be saved. I don't know
how else to take that, but I'd like to get your thoughts on
that at some time. But that's I still hold to the point in
scripture that our judgment has been taken care of as far as
sin leading to a lost state or a real condemnation or punishment. But there will be something going
on as far as rewards and the works that we've done. And then
there's the passage in Revelation 3.11 about crowns. Behold, I
am coming quickly. Hold fast what you have, that
no one may take your crown. In 2 Timothy 4.8, there's the
crown of righteousness, and in 1 Peter 5.4, there's the crown
of glory to elders. All right, let's spend the rest
of the time on discipline, chastisement for Christians. The passage that
we started off with in 1 Corinthians 11 is so interesting because it's the
only scripture I could find that has both words in it, judgment
and discipline or chastisement. And the equation that goes on
here is that for a Christian, judgment is discipline. 1 Corinthians 11.32, let's read
it again. But when we are judged, it's
the passive participle, present participle, which means it's
happening all the time. For when we are being judged, we are being
chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with
the world. So the ongoing lifestyle of a
Christian is one of discipline or correction by the Lord, which
is for us the only judgment we go through. That's what he's
saying. Then in Hebrews 12, we have a
little more on this fact. Hebrews 12, six, seven, and 10. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens
and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening,
God deals with you as with sons. For what son is he? whom the
Father chastens not. In verse 10, for they verily
for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for
our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. That's
the whole point of chastening with God, is that we would be
sanctified and that we would learn the better ways of God
in our lives to be sanctified. Hebrews 12.11 tells us that it
is painful. This is chastisement. It is painful. Now, no chastening for the present
seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. Now, so what does this mean to
us? God is our loving Father. He's in the business of chastening
us. He's already punished or judged Satan for our sins, and
they have been paid for, but he's in the business of chastening
his sons and daughters in life. In 1 John 4, 16 and 17, it says
that we're not to fear him. Let's turn there. 1 John 4, 16
and 17. fear in the wrong way. We're
to fear him in the right way, which means give respect, but
we are not to fear him as far as being afraid of him. 1 John
4, 16 and 17. And we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwells
in love dwells in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made
perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as he is, so we are in this world. And then what God wants us to
do as children is to confess our sins. We know that from 1
John 1, 9. We are supposed to, the thing
that we're supposed to be doing to be good children is to be
aware of our own actions in a Christian way and where we're falling short. and then confess those sins.
And then he obviously has forgiven us already, really, but he promises
to forgive us if we confess our sins because of the price of
the cross. So we go through life, we're aware of this, we're aware
of God's requirements, and we confess our sins. The whole passage
in 1 Corinthians 11 is saying, guys, if you would just examine
yourselves before you come to this Lord's Supper, You know,
the whole thing was they weren't treating the Lord's Supper right,
and they were getting sick. And that was God's chastening
of them. And Paul says to them, just be more aware of what you're
doing. Pay attention to what you're
doing. And judge yourselves. And that way, God won't have
to chasten you. That's, I think, the whole lesson
that we need to understand about Chase me. When you have a pet
and you want that pet to obey you, you want him to pay attention
to you. That's the whole thing about,
and really, that's what you want in school, and that's what you
want in your home, and that's what you want at work, and that's
what you want in the government. You just want people to pay attention
to the rules and pay attention to what they should be doing. I am not saying, this is not
intended to be legalistic, I am not saying that we have a set
of rules per se that we're, that that would just lead to legalism
and the wrong kind of thing. Please don't take it as that. But we have a loving Heavenly
Father who expects things of us through the word, and we just
need to pay attention to that. If we don't pay attention, don't
worry, he'll get our attention, and we'll go on. But it's so
wonderful just to think of the fact that we have no judgment
to contend with the rest of our existence, the rest of eternity,
other than the judging that is correction described in First
Corinthians 11.