The Apostle starts out talking
about wanting to be joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. Going
to be with the Lord Jesus. But we're still home in this
body. We're still in the flesh. We've
still not been clothed upon with that body yet. Mortality's not
been swallowed up into life. And one of these days it will
be. But he says that God's one that brought these things in
us that makes us desire to go be with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Makes us desire to be clothed upon with that heavenly house
that the Lord Jesus has made for us. But we're still at home in this
body. This is where we're at. This is the life that we live.
This is the place God's called us. This is the way we're, we're
absent from the Lord right now. Still in this body and since
we are we walk by faith. We don't walk by sight We don't
walk by what's going on around us because if we did We'd either
despair or we would be say so discouraged And we'd be so taken
up with the world and the things of the world that did just trouble
us all the time But he says in verse 8 we are confident We're
confident of this very thing That I am willing rather to be
absent from the body than to be present with the Lord. So
we labor, we endeavor, we spend our lives seeking Christ. Spend our lives wanting to be
believers. Spend our lives laboring for
our Lord Jesus Christ. Praying, trusting, believing,
hoping, embracing, hearing the gospel, enjoying the gospel,
enjoying His Word. And so we endeavor to do that,
to be accepted of him. And here's what he says, and
why he does that. Because we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the
things done in his body, in his body, the body we're in now,
according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad, knowing
therefore, the terror of the Lord. Knowing what it's going
to be to face Christ with Christ or outside of Christ is therefore
knowing the terror of the Lord and being outside of Christ.
We persuade men, we persuade them, we seek to convince them
That when we are made manifest under God, our preaching, our
lives are made manifest under God. And I trust that what we
preach and believe and do before you is also made manifest and
clear in your own conscience. This is what the apostle says.
Now, I want to talk today about that verse 10, for we all must
appear before the judgment seat of Christ. I want to talk about
the day of judgment. The day of judgment, the judgment
seat of Christ. And God says there's a day in
which all men must appear before Him. He told Paul in Romans,
Paul said in Romans 2.16 said we must all face God. All must face Him. That God has
called us to face Him. And I know this will be, you
know, we ever been in a courthouse when you're in the courthouse
and the judge comes to sit on the bench and everybody has to
rise while the judge sends his bench. Then when he sits down,
everybody else sits down. This is going to be the greatest
holding of court ever in the universe of the world when all
must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. It will be the
greatest appearance that's ever been seen in all the universe
of the world. Every man, every woman, every
child will have to stand at this judgment seat. Adam will stand
there and all of his descendants will be there too. And he'll
see all of them at one time. We must all appeal And I know
this man's greatness, it doesn't exempt them. It doesn't keep
them from being there. They won't be exempt from the
judgment bar, they won't be exempt from Christ's tribunal. Captains
and kings, presidents, great men of the earth and the lowest
men of the earth. Those it's not worth the salt
that goes in their biscuits and those who think they, the earth
trembles when they walk. Those that say when they speak,
people jump. They're all gonna have to stand
before the judgment seat of Christ. They'll be brought in trembling,
trembling before the Lamb's throne. That's what the scripture said.
They'll all say, hide us from the face of him that sits upon
the throne. And I tell you something else,
we're all going to appear in our own bodies, in our own persons. We're not going to go there by
proxy. Somebody's not going to stand for us. Now look over here,
keep 2 Corinthians 5, look with me in Luke chapter 12. Look in
Luke chapter 12. I've had this message for quite
some time. Haven't preached it, but I felt
like that. This would be the day the Lord would have me to
deal with this subject But look what he says here in Luke chapter
12 In verse 15 And I Lord said unto them take
heed and beware of covetousness and For a man's life consisteth
not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. Everything
that we are, that's not our life. That's not our life, what we
possess, not our life. And he spake a parable unto them,
saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself,
saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow
my fruits? And he said, this is what I'll
do. I'll pull down my barns and build
greater. And there will I bestow all my
fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul,
thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease,
eat, drink, and be merry. But God said, but God said, you
fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then, then,
who shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he
that laith up treasure for himself and don't have any riches towards
God. His heart's not rich, he's not
rich in faith, he's not rich in commitment, he's not rich
in the gospel, he's not rich in love, He's rich in this world,
and he's got his mind on this world, but he has no heart for
God. And I tell you something, on
this day, all of our investments, when I was in Ireland, there
was two or three people, every day, they checked the stock market.
One fella told me, he said, I lost $47,000 this week. I'd like to
make that in a year. Another one said, well, I'm afraid
to even look. Three guys, three men that I
was with checked the stock market every day to see what their investments
were and how much they was losing, how much they was making. But
on this day, when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ,
all investments will absolutely mean nothing. Diamonds that people
show off. Look at this. Oh, that's what
a diamond that is. Oh, I've never seen such a diamond.
A diamond will just be another rock. And gold that everybody's
clamoring after will just be absolutely nothing, be like dust. Money will be no more than tissue
paper. And the energy that men and women
use to fulfill the desires of all of their covetousness and
flesh will be all regretted on that day. And when men stand
to make excuses for themselves, they'll just be empty words that
God won't even listen to. That's what it'll be. And you
might be afraid of poverty now, and you may be Greatly afraid
of lost relationships that grip you here and bother you here
But because you face God the nakedness and poverty of soul
will be exposed for everybody to see We must all appear before
the judgment seat And we know I tell you this we know that
there's going to be a judgment You know why we know there's
going to be a judgment because God said there's going to be
a judgment For he cometh, the Lord cometh, to judge the earth. And look at Daniel. Look at Daniel
7. Daniel's last... Go to Ezekiel
and then Daniel's right after Ezekiel. But look at Daniel 7.
Look at Daniel chapter 7 verse 9. The scripture said, and God
said in Ecclesiastes, that God will judge everyone. All must be judged. Of all the
things that they've done, whether they be good or whether they
be bad. And look what Daniel 7, 9 says. And Daniel saw this, and I beheld
till the thrones were cast down. And the ancient of days did sit,
whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like
the pure wool. His throne was like the fiery
flame, and his wheels, his movement was as a burning fire. All thrones
are going to be cast down on that day when Christ ascended
his throne. And I'm going to tell you something about this
here, a man's conscience makes you know that there's going to
be a judgment. Every man's conscience that pays attention knows that
there's going to be a judgment. Romans 2.15 says the conscience
meanwhile accuses or excuses a man. Now what does that mean?
That means when a man does something that he thinks good and thinks
it's right, his conscience will approve that and say that's good. But when he does something that's
wrong, something that condemns him, something that he knows
wrong, his conscience will accuse him. And what that tells me is
that that's just a foretaste of the judgment we're going to
have. If your own conscience bothers you, and your own conscience
condemns you, and your own conscience sets in judgment on you, imagine
what it's going to be for Christ to set in judgment. Huh? And oh, listen. And why is it
that judgment must be? Why is it that there must be
a judgment? Well, I'll tell you why. There's got to be a day
of retribution. There's got to be a day of retribution
that God may render to everyone according to His work. According
to His work. You know it says there that you
know that we all are going to have to face Him and then, oh,
He said, what a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. I know this is not a comfortable
subject for people, but it's a subject that's got to be a
payday someday. The wages of sin is going to
be paid. The wages of our life are going
to have to face them. Our lives are going to have to
all face them again one of these days. And then all the things
that we made to be secondary and all, you know, every time
we put off God, every time we put off Christ, every time we
put off the gospel. What we taught and instructed
our children and all these things, we're going to all have to face
it one of these days. And I'll tell you why, because
things aren't equal in this world. Things are not equal in this
world. Do you think things are equal in this world? The more
wicked you are, the more you prosper. You know any godly millionaires
or billionaires? Do you know anybody, any politician
that's godly? The wickedness appears if they're
rewarded for their evil. And the righteous, we suffer
as if we are the ones being punished. And that's what people feel like
when they see a believer suffer. They say, what's he done that
God's treating him any such way? A fellow kept telling me, you
deserve this, you deserve this. And I finally got here and I
said, I quit saying I deserve anything. I deserve nothing. If I got anything, God gave it
to me. And all I'm telling you, buddy,
I know this, there must be a day when God's justice will be vindicated
and a day of righteous punishment and reward according to what
men do in this world. And you know who the judge gonna
be? It says here that we all must prepare before the judgment
seat of Christ. Our Lord says the Father has
committed all judgment into the Son's hands. And it says in Acts
17 31 that our Lord Jesus Christ God has appointed a day in which
He, the Lord Jesus, will judge the world in righteousness. And
I tell you that man that was judged by me, will be their judge. That man that men hung on, we
all hung on a cross and he died there and humiliated there and
shamed there, that's going to be the man that went from the
cross to his throne and he'll sit there as the man that was
on the cross, now he'll be on the throne. And he'll sit there
as the judge. And I tell you why he's going
to be the judge, because he's fit to be judge. He is fit to
be judged. You know why? Because he took
manhood and Godhead. He was both human and divine. And he was a man that lived without
sin, that pleased God, satisfied God. And so he's able to, in
his human nature, and in his Godhead, it makes him fit to
be the judge. And being a man, when we face
him, everybody faces him, you'll be able to see. You'll be able
to look at your judge. You'll be able to see his face.
You'll be able to see him on his throne. You'll be able to
see a man sitting there. And I tell you what, the scripture
says every eye shall behold him. Every single eye shall behold
him. That's what he told them fellas in Justin. He said, there's
gonna come a day when the Son of Man's gonna come in glory
and every eye, every eye is gonna see Him. And because He's God,
He's of infinite knowledge. He understands every case that's
brought before Him. You remember Solomon. He had
them two women. They brought a baby before Him.
They was arguing over whose baby it was. Whose baby it was, Solomon
said, I'll tell you, bring me a sword. And he laid that baby
down there and he drawed back that sword and he said, I'll
tell you what, I'll give each of you half. And mother said,
oh no, no, no, no, no, give it to her, give it to her, give
it to her, let her have it. And Solomon knew right then who
the mother was. She'd rather see the mother woman
have it as to see it. Now Solomon, our Lord Jesus said,
there's a much, much greater than Solomon here. If Solomon
was to judge like that, imagine how wise Christ is going to be
in judging. And not only that, but he's infinite
in power to execute offenders. He has a rod of brass and a rod
of iron. And he's infinite in wisdom.
And so he'll be able to render perfect justice and judgment.
The scripture says that he has seven eyes that go before him.
And that means he's infinite in wisdom and knowledge. He sees
all and he knows all. And I'll tell you something else
about why he's fit to be judged. He's so wise that he can't be
deceived. And he's so strong there ain't
nobody going to resist him. Well, when in the world is this
Day of Judgment going to come? Well, our Lord said in Matthew
26, 24, 30, 60 says, That day and that hour knoweth no man,
not even the Son of Man, but my Father which is in heaven.
I don't know when that day is going to be, but I do know this,
that there is coming a day. Coming a day. And I know it can't
be very far off. Why can't it? Because the love
of many shall wax cold, because iniquity abounds. How many times
have you said in your life, I don't see how much longer the world
can stand. I don't see how much longer things
can go as they are. I don't see how much more wicked
it can be. In my opinion, this is just my
opinion, I'm going to quit preaching and tell you my opinion. My opinion
is that when they legalized homosexual marriage, that that was the last
straw, that's the straw that broke the camel's back. And there's
no turning back. Sodom, the days of Sodom and
Gomorrah are before us. The days of Solomon and Gomorrah
when men lust after men and women lust after women, and they leave
the natural affection and they act like brute beasts, you tell
you that it cannot be long before our Lord Jesus Christ folds this
earth up like you fold up a tent, an old garment, and say, well,
this old garment's worn out. I'm going to put it away. And
when that day comes, All men and all women of all ages will
be brought forth to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
don't know how long judgment is going to take, but it ain't
going to take long. It ain't going to take long.
And for believers right now, we already, we know what it is
for Christ to see us and know us. But when that day comes,
He'll see and know everything, the things that you didn't know
anybody knew, our Lord Jesus Christ knows. And I tell you, it can't be far
off, and all the elect will be gathered in, and the time's always
ready. But I want you to, and I'll tell
you something, what will this Day of Judgment be like? I know
it's going to be a great trial. Look in Revelations 20. It's
going to be a great, great trial. Look in Revelations 20. Oh, what
a trial this is going to be. They have these trials, you know.
When O.J. was tried, when they tried O.J. Simpson, that's all you've seen
on television day and night. A lot of people got famous for
that and got TV shows out of that and became well known for
that. And then they have these great
trials and they put on all these people on trial and everybody
watches and everybody sees how this thing's going to turn out.
And we see men that we know is guilty, they walk out of the
courtroom because they've got a good lawyer. And men who are innocent, they
get thrown in jail because they don't have a good lawyer. But
oh, what a great, great trial this is going to be. Look here
in Revelation chapter 20 in verse 12. 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. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it. And death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every man,
according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. A lake of fire. You see these volcanoes and they
erupt and that fire comes out of them and that lava goes running
down those mountains. slaughtering everything in their
presence, burning houses, killing people. Oh, you think that's
something? God's got a whole lake of fire that's untold people in this
world is going to be put in that lake of fire. And you know who's
going to put them there? God's going to put them there. And when men die in this world,
they escape the courts of law. But in the last day, they'll
be summoned to stand before God in His court. They'll be called
by a great trumpet. The trumpet shall sound and the
dead in Christ shall rise and all that's in the dust and all
people will be raised up and there'll be a gospel trumpet
that sounds and men don't hear that gospel trumpet. I preach
it every week and if I don't, somebody else here does. When
that gospel trumpet is sound, repent and believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if you don't hear that gospel
trumpet, you'll hear that trumpet that says, come and stand before
me when that last trumpet sound and everyone's brought forth. That's a very troubling thing
to think about. But there's going to be a trumpet sound. Going
to be a trumpet sound. Saddest trumpet music I ever
heard is Taps. Taps will move me when I hear
Taps, I just about cry every time. Taps is something. But boy, this trumpet here, this
trumpet here is going to be an awful trumpet to hear. And the
judge, he'll ascend his throne. And he'll sit on the throne.
And you remember when Paul was preaching before Felix and Felix
trembled? And he said, almost thou persuadest
me to be a Christian. And how will a sinner bear it
if even Felix couldn't bear Paul's preaching? And Joseph's brethren
who sold their brother into slavery. And when they found out when
Joseph said, it's your brother Joseph. They all got scared to
death at his presence and was troubled at his presence. If
his brethren was troubled at his brother's presence, how will
it be before the Lord Jesus Christ, before God? With the Lamb of
God will become the life. And our Lord Jesus, when he put
Paul down on the Damascus road, he said, Saul, Saul, it's hard
for thee to kick against the bridge. Who are you? I'm Jesus of whom thou persecuted. And then that day, our Lord Jesus
said, I'm the one that you rejected. I'm the one you despised. I'm
the one you sinned against. I'm the one you used my name
as a byword. I'm the one you used my name
as a curse word. I'm the one that you used my
name and just thought that I was no more than somebody to be a
doormat. for you to wipe your sins on
and to hope guarantee you going to heaven no matter what you
lived or how you lived. That's who I am and now you gotta
face me. You're the one that lied on me.
You're the one that lied to me. You're the one that helped break
my body. And now you gotta face me. Oh, what a day that'll be. What a day that'll be. It'll
be a comfort to the righteous. It'll be a blessing to the righteous.
Those who trust Him and Him alone in His blessed righteousness.
Then He'll come in splendor and great glory. when he first came
he was obscured by the flesh he appeared the first time he
appeared to put sin away by the sacrifice of himself the second
time he appeared without sin and we will all stand and he
said the judgment will then be started that he then shall be
the judge and all he came here as a prince in disguise and men
didn't see but all for us that are believers this is the lover
of our souls That's who sits on the bench. There he sits on
the bench and he bears in his body the marks of our redemption. And when we stand there we'll
not fear and we won't be condemned. You know why? Because there's
therefore now no condemnation. To who? Them that are in Christ
Jesus. There's two sides to this trial.
Two sides to it. There's a dark side. There's
a bright side. There's a dark side and a light
side. The dark side is this. When the wicked are brought to
be judged, God will open the books. He read it to you. He'll open the books. There's
a book that's called God's Book of Remembrance. Over in Malachi, it's called
God's Books of Remembrance. And you know who's in that Book
of Remembrance? Everyone who feared the Lord and thought upon
Him and talked about Him. That's in the Book of Remembrance,
in the Book of Remembrance. Then there be the Book of Conscience.
God will open that book of conscience and he'll say every time that
your conscience accused you and you quieted your conscience.
And then he'll open that book of conscience and he'll say,
there you trusted your conscience. And look where your conscience
got you. Let your conscience be your guide. Where did your
conscience guide you to? All of them books will be opened.
And there's the book of everything that you've ever said, thought,
or done. And what can you plead when them books are open? What
can you plead? And I'll tell you, what can you
say? And our Lord will say, why shouldn't I pass the sentence
of death? Why shouldn't I pass the sentence of death? You spent
your whole life without me. You spent your life sinning.
You spent your life careless. You spent your life without thought
of me. You spent your life without regard
for me. So why should I not pass sentence? You know you're guilty. And you
hear that blessed Lord Jesus say, depart from me, you cursed
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devils and his angels. And oh, a man then will start
when death and hell and all of them are brought up and they're
cast down, men will bear an eternity of wrath, an eternity of wrath,
but he'll not endure one drop of injustice. God's justice will
be absolutely right, perfect and perfect. And I tell you something
here, men can appeal to a higher court. You sentence a man to
death here in the United States of America, and they spend millions
of dollars making appeals, making appeals. Sometimes they go all
the way to the Supreme Court. But at this judgment, there ain't
no higher court to appeal to. No higher court. But now here's
the light side. Here's the good side. The Day of Judgment will be a
bright, happy, joyous day for His sheep. It really will. It
really will. The world may have mocked us,
called us fools, say we were superstitious, say we were weak,
that we were nobodies, that we were fools for believing what
we believe. That the Bible is a myth. The
Bible has no truth in it. It's just a book of superstitions. But I, Lord Jesus Christ, will
take us by the hand and let the whole world know and the whole
world see these are mine. And he will confess his own.
My sheep, get over here on the right hand side. Get over here.
And he'll confess his own. And I tell you, whosoever believes,
the scripture says, shall not be ashamed, shall not be brought
to shame, shall not be confounded. He said he shall come to be glorified
in his sight and admired among all them that believe. And it
says God is not ashamed to be called their God. And He says that in the ages
to come, He's going to show the exceeding riches of His kindness
and grace towards us through Jesus Christ. And you know what
else is going to be for us as believers? The judge is going
to be our lawyer. The judge is going to be our
advocate. My little children, I write unto you that ye sin
not, but if any man sin, we've got an advocate. Who is he? Jesus Christ the righteous. Oh, when we stand before Him,
you know what He's going to plead? He's going to plead His own blood
for the sins. He's going to say, these are
the travail of my soul. I bought them with my blood.
They sinned. Oh, yes, yes, yes, they sinned. But my soul was the offering
for their sin. And they trusted me for the offering
of their sin. They trusted me that I put all
their sin away. And I tell you what, He'll vindicate
them of all accusations. All accusations. No matter what
anybody says about them in this world and how they're misrepresented
and all the things that were said about them. They might have
been called troublemakers, cult leaders. I say, well you split
that family, that mother and father and that you split those. They believe what you said and
they believe the gospel and they trusted Christ and the rest of
their family didn't. And now you split families and
you tore up families and you say that's what the gospel does?
We'll be called proud, hypocritical. But oh listen, on that day, You
know what our Lord is going to say? Righteous, just, uncondemned,
holy, without blame, and without spot, and without blemish, before
men in love. That's what's going to happen
to us. Oh my! I'll tell you what, He'll clear
all of our days before the world, and He'll wipe all the tears
from our eyes. wipe all the tears from our eyes.
It's like Moses one day, old chorus said, Moses, you just
take too much on yourself. We're going to start running
this outfit around here. We're going to start making the
judgments. We're going to start telling
everybody what to do. We're going to start telling
everybody how to do it. And Moses says, well, I'll tell you what,
you'll be here tomorrow. And everybody that's on the Lord's
side is going to be over here. And everybody that ain't is going
to be over there. You know what happened to those felons? The
earth opened up and swallowed them. As old Barnard said, God
sent him to hell without giving him a chance to pack a suitcase.
Oh, listen, our Lord Jesus Christ,
he's going to absolve all of his elect, all of his sheep,
all who trust the Lord Jesus Christ. He will absolve them
before men and angels and say, I find no fault in them. There's
no fault in them. And He'll say, come, you blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation
of the world. And not only that, He'll bring
to light their good works. He'll say, you know, you fed
the hungry, you visited the sick, you visited them in prison. And they'll say, where did we
do these things, Lord? He said, as much as you did it
to one of the least of these mine, you did it to me. And oh
my, you that have mourned and wept in secret before me and
have love for me, you rejoice right now. You rejoice right
now. And He'll have His people to
set in judgment. I want you to see this. Look
over in 1 Corinthians 6. You need to see this. His people
will set in judgment upon the whole world. He'll have his people. This is
going to be one of the things that's going to be awful. It's
going to be awful. My mother, my father, my own
children, if they don't trust Christ, will sit in judgment
on them. God will use us look what he
said in first Corinthians 16 6 2 Chapter 6 in verse 2. Do you not know that the Saints? Shall judge the world and if
the world shall be judged by you Are you unworthy to judge
the smallest matters? Oh My God said I'm well, you're
gonna judge the world and How's he going to judge the world?
I believe that our Lord will set us up, and the world had
all of its reasons and all of its excuses and all that, and
He's going to set all of His elect up and say, now this is
why they're mine, and this is why you're not. These men and
women right here, the very fact that they were no better than
anybody else. The only difference that was
made was made by Christ himself. And he'll say, the only difference
in them and you is the difference that I made in them. And they've
trusted me. And he'll raise us up as men
and women that the whole world be judged by just looking at
us, seeing us. And I know this, the day of judgment
is a day of comfort to the saints. Say, oh, you just, oh, I'm so
weak, I'm so weak, I have such weakness of grace. And we become
trouble because we're so weak. And I know this, whatever He
put in our hearts, it'll pass inspection at that day. It'll
pass inspection. And those who have had unrighteous
judgment by men and women in this world, Christ will judge
things over again. And he'll give a righteous sentence. Well, I want to ask you this
question and wind this thing up. Now, I mean, this is serious
business. And I hope you're listening to
me and I hope you're taking me serious. But how in the world
can I be acquitted at the last judgment? How can I be acquitted
at the judgment seat of Christ? How can I be acquitted? How can
I, when I face the judge, be acquitted of all my sin, all
my guilt, all my rebellion, all my unbelief? How can I be acquitted? That's why Paul says, therefore,
knowing the terror of the Lord, that's why we persuade men, knowing
the terror of the Lord. Well, I tell you, here's the
first way you can be acquitted. You have to be found in Christ. You have to be found in Christ.
Paul said, I want to win Christ. I want to be found in Christ,
not having my own righteousness, but the righteousness of God,
which is by faith in Jesus Christ. You've got to be in Christ. How
do you get in Christ? You go to Christ seeking for
mercy. You go to Christ asking Him to
forgive you. Go to Christ and say, Lord, I
hear that you receive sinners. I hear that you'll clear a man
of all guilt. I hear that you'll forgive a
man of all of his sin. I hear that you'll declare a
man righteous. I hear that you, Lord Jesus,
that you'll make me stand before you without fault, without blemish,
without a spot. And I can be that now. Oh, that you, I hear that by
you, a man can be justified from all things. That's what they tell me. And
you yourself told me that if I come to you, if I labored under
this awful sin, and I labored under a guilty conscience, and
I labored under whether I was a believer or not, if I labored,
come unto me all you that labor, and you're laden heavy, then
I'll give you rest. And how can I be acquitted? Humble
yourselves before Him. Seek His mercy. He giveth grace
to the humble. He saveth such as of a broken
heart and a contrite spirit. And the fact is, be nothing,
have nothing, know nothing, come before Christ as you are without
anything to bring. In your hands no price you bring,
simply to Christ you cling. And oh listen, look at Psalm
139. Get Psalm 139 with me. You know the scripture says if
our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. Oh, lay out your life for Him.
Lay out your life for His glory. Quit making this world and all
that's in it your reason for being quit making making money
quit making Laying up earthly investments. Quit making this
life and all that's in it your reason to get up in the morning.
Start making Christ to be everything to you. Oh, look to Christ for
all you need. Look to Christ and this world
and all that's in it will become put in its proper place because
God, you'll understand, gave you everything you got. That's
what's another thing that's going to be awful in judgment. That
men and women is going to have to acknowledge that everything
they got, God gave it to them. They'll have to acknowledge if
they had good sense, God gave it to them. If they had a good
job, God provided it for them. If they got a good education,
God gave them the desire for that education. If they make
a good living, they'll have to face the fact that God said,
I gave you everything you've got. Everything you've got. I remember years and years and
years ago, my sister was at my house, and we just didn't even
have the brick on the house. About this time, oh my, 37 years
ago or something like that, she was at my house and she was going
on and on about how nice everything was inside and all that. And
she said, boy, you've done really good, ain't you? You've done
good." I said, no, no I haven't. I haven't done good at all. I
said, everything you see here, the Lord gave me. Well, honey,
I said, you had to have some part in it. I said, no, the Lord
gave me this. And she couldn't grasp it. She couldn't get it.
They got to make you to have a part in it. Now listen, here's
what I'm going to tell you. If what God gives us, those of
us that are believers in the grace of God, we're stewards
over what God gives. If God gave us something, we've
got to take care of it. We keep our homes. We try to
keep them clean. We try to keep them up. We're
even stewards over our bodies. We're stewards over what God
gave us. And that's what God says stewards. That's what he
called us stewards. I gave it to you in this world. Now you
take care of it. You know, don't be slothful.
Don't be one of them fellas that put your hands on your chest
and roll over in bed and say, I'll do it tomorrow and roll
over this way. And be slothful, whatever. And the next thing
you know, your place is growing up and everything. That's not,
he said, don't be like that. God gave us, he gave us to take
care of. He gave you an automobile, you
clean it, you wash it, you take care of it, you get the oil changed.
He gives you a house, you paint it. You scrub the floors, you
take care of it, you mow your yards, you take care of your
flowers. If you got a barn, you keep your
barns up. God gave us to do that. He taught us to do that. We're
stewards. So don't, we're not sending back
children to our thumb. God gave it to us, now let him
take care of it. That's not the way it works.
That's not the way it works in us being believers. If I said
I was a believer and I sat down here and I did not, and I just
twiddled my thumbs and said, you know, I'm saved by grace. It doesn't make any difference
how I think, how I live, how my character is, how my conduct
is. It makes no difference whether
I pray. It makes no difference whether I attend the gospel.
It makes no difference. I'm saved by grace, so I'm okay. So it don't make any difference.
Now, I know that I'm saved and I'm going to glory. So it doesn't
make any difference what I do Would you be foolish enough to
believe that Paul said that we labor we endeavor While we're
in this body And look what he said here Psalm
139 in verse 23 and 24 Search me Oh God and know my heart. Try me and
know my thoughts. Oh my. And see, and when you
do this and see, if there's any wicked way in me, lead me in
the way of everlasting life. Huh? Oh listen. That's why I say I'm not afraid
of the judgment. You know why I'm not afraid of
the judgment? I've been judged in Christ. I'm not condemned
anymore. But if you're not in Christ,
I wouldn't be in your shoes for 20,000 worlds like this right
here. Trust Him. Look to Him. Believe Him. And
do it for Christ's sake.