Open our Bibles to Romans chapter
14. I titled the message this morning,
the judgment seat of Christ. And we know the day of judgment
is coming. And I want us to, we'll begin
here at Romans 14 and look at a number of scriptures. We might
be taught what God's word has to say about the judgment seat
of Christ, that we'd have the right attitude about it. as we
go through our journey here below. So we'll begin this morning in
Romans 14 in verse 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother?
For why dost thou set it not thy brother? For we shall all
stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written,
As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every
tongue shall confess to God. We looked at this last week,
Paul's question Why do you harshly judge your brother about a matter
that doesn't make any difference to salvation? You know, we do
that. We harshly judge our brother
about something that just doesn't matter, doesn't contribute or
subtract anything from our salvation. He says what we've done is set
our brother at naught. And what that word means is we've
despised our brother. We've made our brother to be
nothing so that we're looking down our nose at him. And nothing
could be more contrary to grace. I covered this last week, but
let me just make this point one more time that might set our
minds and our hearts. This does not speak of making
a judgment about someone who is preaching a free will doctrine. This does not involve making
a moral judgment about the moral law of God, immoral behavior
and those kinds of things. But this has to do with meets
and days and things that just don't matter to salvation. Nothing
could be more contrary to grace than setting our brother at naught.
And besides that, Paul points out to us, our brothers and sisters
don't answer to us anyway, do they? No, we all answer to Christ. Paul says we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ. And that's why I want us to look
at this morning and pray the Lord to give us an understanding
from his word what this judgment seat of Christ means. First of
all, let me tell you what it does not mean. I think we should
start there. There are many people who say
this judgment seat of Christ is a second judgment. They say
there is a first judgment where people will be found guilty and
sent to hell or they will be found righteous and innocent
and be brought into heaven. And then they say there'll be
a second judgment before the judgment seat of Christ where
they will answer to the Lord for how well they served him
here on earth. Those who served him the best,
they say, will get special recognition. They'll get bigger mansions or
a place closer to the Lord or something like that. Now that's
wrong. All that is, is works. It's just
using works as a way to improve our situation in glory. And that's
evil. I mean, more than being wrong,
that's evil. Nothing is more evil than thinking
that we can do something to improve upon the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. How is it that we think we can
do something to improve upon what Christ has done for us or
what He's made us in Him? Sinners, all we can do is sin
that we cannot add to perfection, can we? And there's just something
wrong with someone who wants rewards in heaven. If we know
Christ, how can we want anything other than If we know Christ,
how can we want any other perfection, any other righteousness, any
other work but Him? If we know Christ, He must be
our heart's desire. Everyone in glory will be all
alike. The judgment seat of Christ is not to get, you know, some
a house on the hill and others a slum house somewhere, you know.
Everyone in glory will be exactly alike. We'll all have on the
same wedding plan the righteousness of Christ Himself. We'll all
have the same reward. Abraham, our father, according
to the faith was promised. We'll all have the same exceeding
great reward. The Lord Jesus Christ. Look over
at Matthew chapter 19. Our Lord taught this so plainly.
This is immediately after. I mean, you just sometimes I
picture, you know, what, what went on in our Lord's earthly
ministry of his disciples. And I'm often, Sometimes I wish
I could have been one of those disciples, and often I'm thankful
I'm not, that all my silly things I would have said would be recorded.
But this is right after this rich young ruler went away from
our Lord because he could not part with his riches. Matthew
19, verse 27. Then answered Peter, this man
walked away. Our Lord said, with men, this
is impossible. Salvation is impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we've
forsaken all and followed thee. What should we have therefore?
Now, you know what Peter's asking here. This man wouldn't leave
all, but we did. You know what he's asking? What's
in it for us? I don't want to ask what's in
it for me, but what's in it for me? That's what he says. And look
how our Lord answers here. Verse 28. And Jesus said unto
them, Verily I say unto you, that you that ye which have followed
me in the regeneration, when the son of man shall sit in the
throne of his glory, in this judgment seat of Christ, ye also
shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands,
for my name's sake shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit
everlasting life. But many that are first shall
be last, and the last shall be first. And then the Lord explains
what he meant there with this parable in Matthew chapter 20.
For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder,
which went out early in the morning to hire laborers in his vineyard.
And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he
sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third
hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And
he said unto them, go ye also into the vineyard and whatsoever
is right, I will give you. And they went their way. And
again he went about the sixth and ninth hour and did likewise.
And about the 11th hour he went out and found others standing
idle. And saith unto them, why stands ye here all the day idle?
They say unto him, because no man hath hired us. He saith unto
him, go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is ripe, that
ye shall receive. So when even was come, the lord
of the vineyard said unto his steward, call the laborers and
give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
And when they came, they were hired about the eleventh hour,
they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they
supposed that they should have received more. And they likewise
received every man a penny. And when they had received it,
they murmured against the good men of the house, saying, These
last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal
unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. And
he answered one of them and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong. Dost
thou not agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is and go thy
way. I will give unto this last even as unto thee. Is it not
lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine I evil
because I am good? So the last shall be first, and
the first last. For many be called, but few chosen. This is what our Lord taught
by this parable, that Everyone who trusts Christ and everyone
who trusts Christ serves him. I told you this last week, every
believer has a stewardship. The Lord's given us something
to do in his kingdom. And everyone who trusts Christ,
they'll serve him, they'll follow him, they'll love him, but they're
all going to receive the exact same payment. And it won't be
a payment of works, will it? It'll be a payment of grace.
It won't be a payment of what we've earned by our works. It'll
be the payment of what Christ has earned for his people. That's
why I said there will be no degrees of glory. Everyone will be made
perfect. You can't be made better than
perfect. Made just like the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll have his
righteousness that he earned and his obedience as a man. We'll have everlasting life that
Christ earned for his people by his death for them. So there's
not going to be degrees of glory. The judgment seat of Christ is
not to dole out varying degrees of benefit and glory. Here's
the second thing that the judgment seat of Christ is not. Now, there
are some who say this judgment seat of Christ is the judgment.
They say that judgment, the wicked will be found guilty, cast into
hell because they have no faith in Christ. And they're right
about that. But then they say that the righteous, God's elect,
I guess it's going to be a big screen or something, you know,
and God's people are going to have all of their sin displayed
in front of all of creation. And every open sin, every secret
sin of thought, word, and deed is all going to be made known
to everybody. After all that sin and depravity
and wickedness and lack of faith is declared and shown for all
of creation, then they say that Christ, the judge, sitting upon
his judgment seat, will pass down the sentence. And he'll say, yes, they did
all this, but they're not guilty because I paid for it, because
I put their sin away. And then they will enter into
heaven. And they say, that's going to be embarrassing. And
they're right. If that would happen. Oh, how
embarrassing that would be. So that's that. Or don't commit
these sins and don't think these awful things. So you won't be
embarrassed someday. Well, this just works, too. I
mean, that's the only thing you say about that just works. What
that is, is trying to control a child of God with the law not
gross. trying to control a child of
God's morality by what they do instead of the grace of God and
the love of God. You look in Revelation chapter
20, I'll show you that will not happen to a believer in judgment. Our sins, the sins of God's people
will not be brought up in judgment. I can make good on that with
two scriptures. First one, Revelation chapter 20, verse 11. And I saw a great white throne.
This is the judgment seat of Christ. I saw a great white throne
and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled
away. And there's found no place for them. And I saw the dead
small and great stand before God. And the books were opened
and another book was open, 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. John tells us here, everyone
will be judged out of two books. And I told you this in our study
in Revelation. This is not actual books. These things are representative.
Books are used to show us something that is written down. So it can't
be changed. It can't be forgotten. Janet
told me this week, she said, I understand people like these
electronic things, you know, look up on their Bible. She said,
I like the pages. So I know that hadn't been changed.
I know that that's a book, something that can't be changed. It can't
be forgotten. You can always go back and look
it up. Well, this shows us how exactly God will judge every
work of me. Not one of them be forgotten.
Not one be left out. And the wicked will be judged
out of the books, out of the books of their works. The Lord's
recorded every one of them, and he will give them exactly, no
more, no less, he'll give them exactly what their works have
earned. And all their works are sinful,
so they will be cast into hell. But the righteous will be judged
out of the second book. When the book of man's works
is opened, the page for a believer is blown. There's nothing there.
There's no record of any sin there. There's no record of anything
that they did because the blood of Christ has blotted it all
out. So they'll be judged by the Lamb's Book of Life. Their
names are recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life. God wrote them
there in eternity. He chose those people in divine
election before anything was created. And those people will
enter into heaven because Christ has made them sinless. He made
them not guilty and perfectly righteous. He's put their sin
away by his sacrifice. So there won't be anything to
bring up in judgment. Nothing there, none of their
sin will be remembered. What did the father say? Their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. So he won't remember
anything to bring it up. Now you stay there. Let me read
you this passage, Jeremiah chapter 50. There'll be nothing for them
to remember because the blood of Christ has took it away. This
is what God says of his people. Jeremiah 50 verse 20. Those days
and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Judah
and they shall not be found for I will pardon them whom I reserve. See, there's not going to be
any sin for God to bring up with a judgment display before all
of creation, is there? Because the blood of Christ is
taken away. So all the Lord will say is well done. Well done. You think about our failure and
our weakness and how you hate to even say what we've done is
serving the Lord, isn't it? And he'll say, well done. Well
done, my good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of the
Lord. Now that's a summary of what
my first point is this morning about a believer appearing before
the judgment seat of Christ. The judgment seat of Christ is
judgment, is de-judgment. There's just going to be one.
And we know that Christ will be the judge of all men. The
judgment seat of Christ is where he judges all men. For the Father
judges no man, our Lord said, but hath committed all judgment
into the hand of the Son. We know the judgment seat of
Christ is the judgment because it's universal. John says here,
the small and the great all appeared before this great white throne.
The Apostle Paul said, we shall all stand before this throne.
This judgment is universal. Everyone must appear here. And
the verdict at that judgment will be final. There'll be no
appeals because there's no higher court to appeal to. This verdict
will be final and eternal. However we die in this life is
how we will spend eternity. Look over a page in Revelation
chapter 22, verse 11. He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him
be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. However it is we die, that's
how we'll spend eternity. If we die in our own works, we're
going to die unrighteous. We're going to die filthy. If
we die in Christ, we're righteous. If we believe Christ, we're righteous
right now. We're holy right now. And that's
how we'll spend eternity. Now look over to Isaiah chapter
45. This is the passage that the Apostle Paul quotes in Romans chapter 14. In that
day, we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
I'm confident there will be many pleas. There'll be many arguments,
but there's just one that's going to be accepted. Only one plea
will be accepted. It's Christ. His righteousness,
His obedience, His blood, His person. Isaiah 45 verse 23. I swore by myself, the word has
gone out of my mouth and righteousness and shall not return that unto
me, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear that
everyone's going to bow before this throne, the judgment seat
of Christ. And here's the wicked before
that throne. Verse 20, the Lord says, assemble yourselves and
come drawn here together. You that are escaped to the nations.
They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image.
and pray unto a God that cannot save. Tell ye and bring them
near, yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this
from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? There is no God else beside me,
but just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. I don't
care what people may plead. There's no salvation There's
no righteousness. There's no acceptance. There's
no life. There's no peace outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh,
they were religious, but their religion, I will say their religion
is an idol. When he talks here about their
God is little G. It's a God that cannot say the
idol of self-righteousness cannot say neither can any other idol
men make up cannot say trusting in anything other than Christ
alone. must lead to damnation, because the only plea that will
be accepted in that day is Christ. And Christ is the plea of the
righteous. Look at verse 24. Surely, shall
one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall
men come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall
glory. See, this is the only plea that
will be accepted in that day of judgment. It's Christ. Our plea must be Christ alone.
It's His obedience, not mine. It's His blood, not my sacrifice.
It's nothing about me. It's all Him. This matter of
representation is one of my favorite subjects in the Word of God.
It brings such peace and joy in my heart to know I can stand
before the all-seeing eye of God. No fear. Because when he
sees me, he sees Christ. I stand in him. When the father
sees me, he'll see me in all my filth and all my wretchedness
and all my weakness. And he sees his son. That's the plea before this judgment
seat of Christ. The only way we can stand accepted
is to be in Christ alone. The righteous, Isaiah says, will
say, This is my plea. The only righteousness I have
is the Lord Jesus Christ. The only obedience I have to
claim is His. Almighty God says if that's our
plea, we'll be found not guilty. Now here's the question I want
us to ask this morning. How'd that happen? Huh? How does someone who's a sinner
by birth A sinner by choice, a sinner by practice, a sinner
through and through. How does that person become sinless? How do they become not guilty?
Well, it's through union with Christ. It's through union with
Christ by faith in Him. The Apostle Paul said, being
justified by faith. Not justified by our works, but
through faith in Christ. That's how we have peace with
God. It's through our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Matthew chapter
3. This matter of representation
is important. You can't understand how man
became lost, how it is you and I became lost, and how it is
we might be saved except through representation, through union.
How is it that we're made sinners? Well, we're made sinners not
when we first sinned, not when we first told a lie. We were
made sinners through union with Adam. We were in Adam, so what
Adam did, we did. Well, that's the same way God
makes His people righteous. It's through union with Christ.
If we're in Christ, what He did, we did. And that's our righteousness
before God. And I can show you that in Matthew
chapter 3, verse 13. Here John the Baptist has been
down here baptizing. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him,
saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? Now you can understand why John
was reluctant to go back here. You understand that? This is
the Lord of glory has come to John and said, I want you to
baptize me. John said, that's not right. You should, I need
to be baptized of you, but look what our Lord says here. Verse
15, Jesus answering said unto him, suffer to be so now for
thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered
him. The Lord said, not it becomes
me to fulfill all righteousness, although he's the only one who
can. But what did he say? It becometh us to fulfill all
righteousness. Now, again, let me start out
by saying this is what this is not. This is not me and Jesus
doing both of our parts in order to make me righteous. It's not
what he's saying at all. This is Christ doing everything
it took to make his people righteous. Christ made his people righteous.
They were in him. He did obey God's law perfectly.
He did everything perfectly. And all that time he was doing
perfectly because people were in him. So in that sense, we
fulfilled all righteousness. Everything Christ did, he did
as a representative of his people. He didn't have to do something
to make himself righteous, did he? He is holy. He's the holy
son of God. So everything Christ did, he
did as us. So his people did everything
that he did. When Christ obeyed the law, everyone
who believes him did too. When Christ died to satisfy the
law, we who believe died in him. And now what the Apostle Paul
said, I am crucified with Christ. It's not like I died. I did die
in Christ. So the law has no more claim
on me. The law is not hunting me down, looking for me, because
the law is already satisfied by my death. When I was crucified
in Christ, when he died, I died in him. So the law is satisfied. And that is how every believer
stands accepted, stands before the judgment seat of Christ,
because he made me perfect. His righteousness is my righteousness.
His obedience is my obedience. We're innocent, holy, so there's
no reason for anyone who believes Christ to fear the judgment.
As a matter of fact, the believer has every reason to look forward
to it. When we stand before the judgment
seat of Christ, who are we gonna see? Finally, the Savior comes to
us. We'll stand in the sense that
we're righteous, we're holy. We've been made not guilty in
Him, but we've seen what we're going to do. We'll bow to Him. We confess. This is my Savior. This is the one I believe. This
is the one who saved me. This is the one who loved me
and washed me and gave himself for me. And we'll spend eternity
worshiping Him. We have every reason to look
forward to that moment, don't we? That's the moment we'll begin
worshiping Him perfectly for eternity. That's the moment we
will have in our possession everything God promised us, everything he
purposed for us, everything Christ earned for us. In that day of
judgment, every believer will stand. The Apostle Paul told
the church at Rome and Philippi the exact same thing, that when
we see him, everyone, every believer and unbeliever, righteous and
unrighteous, everyone will bow the knee and they'll confess
Jesus Christ is Lord. The unbeliever will bow and confess
he's Lord and he's right to damn me. They'll have to confess that.
Every believer will confess that Jesus Christ, the Lord, is my
righteousness. That's the only reason I'll be
accepted. So look back at our text in Romans 14. This was Paul's
point. Let's not judge each other anymore.
Let just this be the end of it. Because our righteousness It's
not in the things that we do or we don't do, is it? Our only
righteousness is Christ. It's what he did for his people.
So if we're going to judge anything, you want to be the judge of something?
Judge this, that we don't put a stumbling block. We don't do
anything to stop anyone from coming to Christ or seeing Christ.
Verse 13, Romans 14. Let us not therefore judge one
another anymore, but judge rather this. that no man put a stumbling
block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way." Friends, somebody preached Christ
to us. You who believe, somebody preached
Christ to you. I know where many of you grew
up. Somebody took the time to create
a place for the preeminent thing, which is Christ, to preach Him
worship him. We're just not going to let,
we're just not going to allow it. Brother Henry was so strong
here. Oh, I thank God for him. He was
so strong. We're not going to let anything
take our attention away from Christ, from preaching Christ.
All he cared about was preaching Christ so that people would know
him. Eric, now it's our generation. Let's make this place You want to judge something,
judge this. I'm not going to allow myself to get in the way
of that. God, by His grace, has revealed
His Son to me. I'm so thankful. Oh, wonderful.
Oh, I'm so thankful. Human language can't express
it, can it? Don't we want that for somebody else? That's what
Paul's saying here. Judge this. We make it our business
to preach Christ, so people might know Him. If you look back over
at 2 Corinthians chapter 5, this is the only other place in Scripture
that the judgment seat of Christ is mentioned. And Paul says the
exact same thing to the church at Corinth. Slightly different
language, but the same thing. 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, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade
thee." That's why we preach the gospel. See, Paul is saying the
same thing in the judgment. The only plea that will ever
be accepted, the believer's only plea, is Christ. But this is
what he says, that everyone may receive the things done in his
body. According to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Now you can look at that and
scare yourself to death, can't you? Everything we've done in
these bodies of flesh is sin. Everything we've ever done in
these bodies is wicked and deserves to be damned. Just in this time,
I've been preaching for 29 minutes, there's been enough sin in me
to damn me for an eternity of hells. Just an infinite number
of hells. Everything we've done is sin. The only way we could
have done anything good is to have been in Christ. So that
what he did, we did. So his works are our works. Paul
says, he says appear here that we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ. That word means to make manifest.
In the day of judgment, every believer will be made manifest. Everyone will finally see them
as what they really are. Everybody will finally see them
as God sees them, as righteous in Christ. Now the only way sinners
like you and me can be made righteous is to be joined to Christ by
faith. Salvation is by grace through
faith. There's no salvation without
faith in Christ. It's a heart faith in Him. But
here's the thing about faith. Faith in the heart will work. It will now. Faith without works,
the apostle says, is dead. The only way any of us can work
and serve the Lord is in these bodies, right? It's the only
body I got. If I'm going to serve the Lord,
it's going to be in this body. Where there is faith in the heart,
there will be evidence of faith, evidence of genuine faith by
the way what we do. And when Christ judges the earth,
he will be justified. All will stand before his judgment
seat. And he's going to be justified in saving his people. He's going
to be justified in damning people who do not believe him. He's
going to be justified because there's going to be evidence
in these bodies that we're followers of Christ. What's in the heart
is going to come out, not be perfect, but it's going to come
out. And I can show you that in Matthew chapter 25. Here our Lord describes people
standing before the judgment seat of Christ. Verse 31 of Matthew chapter 25. When the son of man shall come
in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he
sit upon the throne of his glory. And for him shall be gathered
all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. For I was unhungered, and that right there tells you
our works have nothing to do with it, does it? The kingdom
was prepared from the foundation of the world. For I was hungered,
and you gave me meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. Naked, and you
clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me.
I was in prison, and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous
answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee unhungered and fed?
or thirsty and gave me drink? When saw we thee a stranger and
took thee in, or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick
or imprisoned and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and
say unto them, Verily I say unto you, As much as ye have done
it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it
unto me. Because they are his body. What
he did, they've done. They're the same body. Then,
verse 41, shall he say also unto them on the left, left hand,
depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for
the devil and his angels. For I was in hunger and you gave
me no meat. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a
stranger and you took me not in, naked and you clothed me
not, sick and in prison and you visited me not. Then shall they
also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee in hunger, or
a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did
not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying,
Verily I say unto As much as you did it not to one of the
least of these, he did it not to me. These should go away into
everlasting punishment, but the righteous under life eternal.
Now, the day of judgment, the Lord makes mention of works,
doesn't he? He talks to them about works,
their works of righteousness and their works of unrighteousness.
The evidence that the righteous had faith in Christ was what?
Their works. Their works didn't save them,
but their works were evidence of faith. And the evidence that
the unrighteous did not have faith in Christ was their works
or their lack thereof. Now, what were the works that
the Lord spoke about from his judgment seat? They were works
done for his people because his people are his body. And the
righteous did that. They served, they ministered
to the body of Christ by ministering to each other. If you would minister
to the body of Christ, look around you. You've got lots of options.
This is those who believe are the body of Christ. But the righteous
didn't remember doing those things, did they? They said, Lord, when
did we do that? They didn't remember. The Lord
remembered, didn't he? But they didn't remember. Their
genuine faith just worked by love. Well, we did because we
love one another. I didn't think it was a big deal.
But those words justified the Lord in saying, I'm accepting
these people. Their works showed the Lord had
done a work of grace in their heart. The fruit of it was opulence.
Now the unrighteous, they had works too, didn't they? But they
did not do these things for God's people. They did not have faith
in Christ. So all their works were works. They weren't a labor of love
and of faith. And the lack of these things justified Christ,
the damned They weren't damned because God didn't choose them.
No, they're damned because they had no faith in Christ. It wasn't
even their works weren't the issue. They're damned because
they had no faith in Christ. But their works, their evil work
showed they had no faith in Christ. Let me just make this warning
to us, because I know human nature, this is what we're going to,
this is what our minds going to do. Now, this is true. Our Lord
taught But don't take something that's true and use that to make
you look away from Christ. See what I'm saying? Don't look
for evidence that you're saved by saying, do I have these works?
Do I do these things? Don't try to figure out if you're
saved by saying, well, do I have these works of faith? No, you
look to Christ and you keep looking to him and you keep looking to
him and you keep looking to him and don't ever look away from
him. The only evidence we have that we're saved is this. Do I trust Christ? That's the
only evidence of faith in the heart. Do I trust Christ? See,
the righteous in the Lord's parable, they weren't looking at evidence
of their salvation to their works were they? They didn't even know
they did them. But they really did them. They really did do
those things in their fleshly bodies. They did them. But this
shows how their righteousness was not those things. They didn't
even remember. Their righteousness is Christ. And they were only
looking to him. They were only trusting him so
much. So they didn't even notice their
words. Oh, I wish God give me faith.
I didn't even notice those things. I think I'm doing, I think are
good. Their reward was not a reward they earned by their work. The
reward was the reward of grace, what Christ earned for them.
But now the wicked, This shows you, don't look to your works
now as evidence of salvation. That's exactly what the wicked
did. They knew every work they did for God. They kept close
track of it. They said, Lord, when did we
not do these things for you? Why? We visited hospitals and
prisons and shut-ins. All the time. And we had a schedule
getting this going. We never missed a day. We never
missed a day of door to door witnessing. We had all kinds
of food and clothing drives to help the poor. We had rummage
sales galore. We could sell our junk, you know,
and give it to the Lord. We did all that stuff. They knew
every one of their words. What did the Lord say? They're
wicked. They're wicked. They're not righteous. Because they trusted those things.
They looked at those things as evidence of their salvation.
And they're so busy looking at those things, they didn't trust
Christ. See, that's why we who believe,
this is what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5. We who believe, we know that
day is coming. This is a real day. I know that
day is coming. And our Paul said, now in glory,
our only reaction to that will be to bow to new work. Paul told
the church at Corinth on earth, we've got a reaction to that
knowledge too. Our reaction on earth is to urgently,
urgently preach Christ because we know the utter terror of appearing
before God in judgment without a righteousness. We know the
utter terror of appearing before Christ guilty. So we preach Christ. We preach Christ. And I don't
want to be guilty of preaching the gospel, saying true things
and not compelling you. Come to Christ. Trusting right
now. Right. This is an urgent matter.
Come to Christ and trusting right where you sit. Let's make this
crystal clear and close. I'm not trying to scare anybody.
Saying, well, judgment's coming. I'm not scaring you doing something.
No. Nobody's ever scared in the kingdom. Nobody's ever frightened
in the kingdom of God. You come to Christ because you
need Him. You come to Christ because you
love Him. Because He's altogether glorious
and beautiful. You come to Him, not because
you're scared of judgment, but because you need Him. Because
you love Him. You come to Him in obedience.
God said, come. Now you just come. and you fall
down to his feet and beg him for mercy, because he's your
Lord. See, Scripture never speaks of
this judgment seat of Christ as something that a believer
should be scared of. I'm not using this to motivate
you to good works. Scripture always speaks of judgment
as something that the believer looks forward to with great anticipation,
knowing we must all appeal before the judgment seat of Christ.
actually comforts the hearts of our people. That's anticipation. It's not
fear. That, what he's done for us to
remove the fear of appearing before him in judgment, that'll
motivate you to come to him. That'll motivate you to serve.
That's all you need. One more scripture, 1 Thessalonians chapter
4, we'll close with this. This is what I was talking about,
how scripture speaks of this day, appearing before the judgment
seat of Christ, something that comforts the hearts of God's
people, to cause us to serve him out of love and find comfort
in mercy and grace. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 16. For the Lord himself, shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with
the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall
rise first. And we which are alive and remain shall be caught
up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air. This matter of judgment is so
quick. Paul didn't even mention it here that Christ is just going
to return and we're going to be taken with him. It's so quick
it's over. There's nothing to judge. You're
righteous. You're innocent in Christ. And
we'll be caught up to meet the Lord in the air So shall we ever
eternally be with the Lord. Work forward. Don't try to scare
one another to death with these words, but comfort one another
with these words. The Lord's coming again. When
he does, we'll see him as he is and bow before him. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, how we thank you for
the comfort and the instruction of your word. Father, I beg of
Thee that You'd take Your Word as it's been preached and You'd
make Christ plain and obvious to the hearts of Your people
that we might run to Him. Father, cause us to run to the
Lord Jesus Christ, to flee to Him and to find all of our peace
and hope and comfort and salvation in Him. Father, use Your Word
to bless the hearts and comfort the hearts Use your word to call
out your people to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we say with our brethren
who've gone on before, hasten, Lord, today. We know that the
day of the Lord comes quickly. And we say with your people,
even so come, Lord Jesus, that we might see you as you are and
not worship you so weakly faithlessly as we do now, but face-to-face. Lord, how we thank you for this
promise of your grace. And until then, Lord, make us
faithful to serve the Lord in our generation, to preach Christ,
and we pray you bless it in your glory.