If you want to turn there, 2
Corinthians chapter 4, read a few verses. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and let's
begin reading about verse 13. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 13. Paul said we have the same spirit
of faith according as it is written. I
have believed, and therefore have I spoken. We also believe,
and therefore speak, knowing that He which raised up the Lord
Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us
with you. For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
abound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not,
but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a foremore exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God, that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with
our house which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed,
we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle,
this tent, this body, we groan, being burdened Not for that we
would be unclothed, but clothed the phone, that mortality might
be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for
the selfsame thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest
of his Spirit. Therefore we are always confident,
knowing that while we are at home in this body, we are absent
from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by
sight. We are confident, I say, and
willing, rather, to be absent from the body, and to be present
with the Lord. Wherefore we labor, that whether
present or absent, we might be accepted of him. For we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one
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 to your conscience. My text is really found here
in verse 10, the Day of Judgment. The Day of Judgment. The Judgment
Seat of Christ. We must all appear before the
Judgment Seat of Christ. That's the Day of Judgment. And
there's no doubt the Bible teaches that there is a day of judgment.
It says that all through the Old and New Testament. God has
appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom He hath ordained. In the day in which God shall
judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. The hour is coming in
which all that are in the grave shall hear His voice and shall
come forth. They that have done good unto
the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto
the resurrection of damnation. The day, the last day of the
Lord. Sometimes it's called the day
of Christ. I imagine because it's His coming,
He will be the one to judge, He'll be the one to speak and
raise the dead. Sometimes it's called the Day of the Lord, and
sometimes it's called the Day of God. It's the last day of
the history of this world. Brother Wayne read it this morning.
This is the will of Him that sent me. that all the Father
gives me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again
at the last day. So the Bible teaches there is
a day of judgment. This seems to be the order of
things as best I can determine by reading the Scripture. Our
life is appointed to us. The day of death is appointed
to us. We live that out to our appointed hour. We die. The Bible
says saints fall asleep. And it seems that the Lord sends
His angels. I don't know if it's protection
to guide them, to carry them, as He did Lazarus, to take the
souls up to heaven to be with the Lord in the presence of the
Lord. It's called the Father's house or Abraham's bosom. And it don't seem like there's
any time lapsed in their dying and their appearing there in
heaven. He says you're in Artex. He says to be absent from the
body is to be present with the Lord. It's a long way, humanly
speaking, from earth to heaven. But it's close in the spiritual
realm. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. And there the saint will dwell.
The Bible calls it sleep, it calls it rest, to be with Christ,
having the desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is for
better. And there they will remain with the Lord until the day of
resurrection in which the Lord Jesus shall bring all of His
saints that are in heaven back with Him and raise the dead bodies
of the saints and change the saints that are here. Then everybody,
the saints and the lost, And all nations, and the sea will
give up the dead, and the grave will give up the dead. And the
nations will come and appear before the Son of God. Before
Him shall be gathered all nations. Now that's my understanding of
what the Bible teaches. There is a day of judgment, a
resurrection. The Bible declares it. The nature
of God demands this, doesn't it? Not only does the Bible teach
it, but the very nature of God demands this. We're His creatures. We're His human creatures. And
though we're fallen, we're yet responsible to our Creator. He's
the judge of all the earth. And being so, it's required of
Him to judge His creatures. To judge them at the last day.
And that brings us to something else. Our conscience bears witness
of a day of judgment, doesn't it? God has given assurance to
all men of that day of judgment. And even those in heathen lands
that have no Bible, that never heard the gospel, their conscience
is this fact that this life doesn't end their existence. That they
must give account of themselves to their Creator. So the Word
declares that there is a judgment day. The very nature of God is
the moral judge of His creatures declares there must be. And the
conscience declares there must be. So our text says here, we
must all appear. We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ. And in verse 9, the apostle tells
us that we labor. We labor in faith, we labor in
love, we labor in hope that we may be accepted of the Lord. And that word accepted means
well-pleasing. We do that here, don't we? Don't
you want to be accepted right now? Don't you want your worship
to be accepted? Don't you want your giving and
your effort on His behalf and for His glory to be accepted?
Well, we do, don't we? If we love our parents, we want
to please our parents in all that we do. And Paul says, so
we labor because we love Him and because we fear Him that
all that we are and all that we do may be pleasing in His
sight. You know what I want to hear
in that day. I want to hear it now and I want to hear it in
that day. And I know this is by grace.
There is no merit of man enters into this. It is all by grace.
But here is what every child of God wants to hear. Well done,
thou good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a
few things, just a few things. And that is when we will take
the crowns as it were and cast them before His feet and say,
Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory for Thy mercy
and for Thy truth. So Paul said here, we labor. We want to please Him. We want
to be accepted of Him now and surely there at the judgment.
And then verse 10, He tells us we must receive the things done
in our body according to what we have done, whether it be good
or bad. And this raises a question in
our minds, doesn't it? What will it be to give account
of ourselves? We must all give account of ourselves
to the Lord. What will it be to receive for
what we've done according to that which we've done, good or
bad? And it raises this question.
Will anything bad that the saints have done be revealed at the
judgment? And before we get too hasty and
say no, we need to consider this, don't we? this very deep scripture. We don't know exactly what it
means to receive the things done in the body, whether it be good
or bad. I've checked the commentators
on this, and nobody is for sure what does this mean. What will
it mean to receive for the good? What will it mean to receive
for the bad? But we know this from other scriptures,
The judgment seat will not determine whether a person is saved or
lost. This judgment seat of Christ
is not to determine whether a saint is justified or condemned. If this was so, how could anyone
look forward to that day with any joy and confidence or expectation? It's evident that this apostle
was longing for that day. You can see it in the text that
I read to you. He had it in his heart a desire,
I'm willing, I'm longing, I'd rather be absent from the body
and to be present with the Lord. And Peter tells all saints to
be looking and hastening unto the coming of the day of God. And John closes his book with
these words, even so, come Lord Jesus. But if this judgment seat
was to determine whether a man was lost or saved. If our good
works were laid in the balance with our bad works, and if our
bad works outweighed our good works, we'd be damned. Or if
our good works outweighed our bad works, we'd be saved. Who
could look forward to a day like that? Who is it that thinks more
worse of themselves than anybody? Is it not believers? Who can
see sin in themselves when nobody else can? Is it not believers?
If we had to look forward to that day thinking, there's when
my salvation will be determined by my good or my bad, I'd despair,
wouldn't you? Whatever we read in this difficult
passage of Scripture here, we must come to this conclusion,
that that day will not be a day that will determine a person's
destiny, but only reveal it. We have difficulty with this
passage here in verse 10. Everyone shall receive the things
done in their body, whether it be good or bad, for it raises
questions in our minds, doesn't it? Will any sins of the saints
that they have committed be exposed in that day? Will any evil thing
that they have done be revealed? Is that what this means? If so,
what will they receive in that day for the evil? Well, we don't
know, do we? We don't know. What we do know
is this, that we must interpret verse 10 in the light of some
other scriptures, as this. Salvation is by grace and not
by works. By grace, or you say through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And the
Bible clearly and dogmatically declares that, doesn't it? Peter
assures us in Acts 15.11 not only that we have been saved
by grace, but we shall be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now would the Word of God teach
us dogmatically and clearly that we are saved by grace here? Only
to have us to find out that after all, we are saved by works. in regard to our sins, the bad
things that we've done, the bad things that we think, the bad
motives that we may have. What do we read about such things? We read this in the scriptures,
that they are blotted out, that they are cast behind God's back,
that they are cast into the depths of the sea. that all transgressions
are forgiven, that the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses
us from all sin. These are plain and easy scriptures
to be understood. And we must weigh, verse 10,
in the light of those other scriptures. We also read such scriptures
as this, there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. And he that believeth is justified
from all things. And he that heareth my word,
and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and
shall never come into condemnation." And also we read this, that we
are accepted in the Beloved, that we are complete in Him,
and that we are made the righteousness of God in Him, and that He is
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. and that he will present the
saints to himself, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that they will be holy and without blame before him in love."
And all of these things are taught us in the Bible clearly That
we can look forward to that day, even the dead judgment, with
confidence, knowing that we're not taught one thing about salvation
here, and experience something else yonder. That we're not saved
by works here only to find out that our evil works condemned
us yonder. So why am I going into detail
about this? Because I don't completely understand
this verse, do you? How in the light of what I said
can we receive the things done in our body even if it be evil? Now let's suppose, really suppose,
that our text teaches what it seems to teach. That there are
things the saints have done, the evil that they have done,
either in secretly, hard sins or open sins, that they must
give account of in that day. And brothers and sisters, the
Scripture seems to teach that, your doesn't. And we've got to
be careful of trying to explain these things away because we
can't see how that could be. Just because we can't see how
it can be is no evidence that it can't be that way at all.
If He says that, then we must consider it in this light. So
let's consider then, just for a minute, is this so? Is something
here that we're not seeing? Maybe so. But it seems to teach
that all of us are going to go up to heaven, stand in the presence
of Jesus Christ, and He will judge even the secret things
of our life. And we will receive for what
we've done the good and the evil. And therefore, in the light of
that, consider this. This is a good thing. If this
is so, this is a good thing. The final day, the final judgment
will settle everything. This is the final day of history,
the last day. It's here that every account
must be completely and eternally settled. Throughout eternity,
the wicked will look back upon this day and know with assurity
that their eternal destiny had been justly and unchangeably
revealed. And nothing can ever change that.
That day revealed that and it fixed that. And the righteous
can look back upon this day and know that any and all charges
that could have been brought against them have been brought
against them and answered and settled. Nothing has been swept
under the rug. Nothing has been forgotten. Nothing
has been overlooked. The last day has completely and
thoroughly justified their eternal blessings and life. The court of heaven settled it
itself, and there is no other appeal. then by all means, let
that day come. Let it manifest everything that
we've done, good or bad. Let angels witness it. Let devils
witness it. And let all the world witness
it. The saints have been finally and eternally cleared from any
and all charges that could be brought against them. That's
what that day will prove. That's what that day will manifest.
I don't want to go out into eternity with some nagging thought, as
it were, that something's creeping up after me. Something's following
me. Something hasn't been found out.
There's going to be further investigation. There won't be anything like
that because this last day will settle it forever. This is the
last judgment. Everything will be exposed, good
or bad. Boy, if a guy can make it through
this judgment, he's got her made, ain't he? He's got her made. If a guy can't get through this
judgment, there ain't no appeals. Ain't no appeals. This will settle
it, won't it? This will settle it. It'll settle
it. And secondly, consider this, when we think that we'll stand
before our Lord and give account of all our deeds, good or bad,
and receive for those deeds. At this point in our life, we
don't want anything that's bad to be exposed, do we? I don't want you to know anything
bad that I've done. I'm going to hide it if I can. Wouldn't it be awful if we had
windows on our hearts? Nobody would be here today. And
I wouldn't be here if any of you were here. I'd be here if
nobody else was here. Wouldn't it be awful to walk
around in public with windows on your mind? Wouldn't that be
embarrassing? I couldn't bear to think about
it. Your motives were exposed. Your thoughts were exposed. You
look at somebody, I know what you're thinking about me. Oh,
I love you so much. I see what you really think about me. I
saw that lust. I saw that blasphemous thought.
What'd be awful with it? It'd be awful. We hate the evil
now that is in us, the evil we think and the evil we do. But
why is this? Well, it's because of our sinful
condition. We are too proud for people to
see and know and discover our faults and our felons. But you know, it will be altogether
different in that day. Altogether different. Do you
imagine Spurgeon said that there's a Bible in heaven? He said probably
so. We hope so. And if there is,
do you think David could go and read the Bible? Do you think
he could read Psalms 51? Do you think Peter could go look
on the Bible and see where he denied the Lord and swore? And yet, would he be ashamed
in that day? No. What makes us ashamed is
now, the condition we're in now, when we're like the Lord Jesus,
when we're holy, when we're without any blame before Him, everything
will be different. It'll all be different. Christ
was made sin for us. He bore our sins in His own body,
the shame of it. You think He remembers that?
You think He's forgotten bearing that sin? But do you think He's
ashamed of it? No, He bore the guilt once and
He's never forgotten it, but He's not ashamed of it. If the
saints are confronted with the evil deeds in that day, so be
it. So be it. They won't be ashamed
to own the truth or give an account of them to their Heavenly Father
or to the Lord Jesus, their Redeemer and their Judge. They'll own
them. If He says at the judgment, here's
what you did once upon a time, I'll say, truth Lord, I did that. I did that. And angels will listen. And devils will listen. And saints
and sinners will listen. Well, I own it. But it will only be for a moment.
And we won't be ashamed. That'll be the truth. But then
Clared, does this answer every question
about this text? Are you satisfied about the text?
No, and I ain't either. I ain't either. But that's the
best I can do with it. That's the best I can do with
it. I don't want to deny it. But I don't want to look to that
day in despair, because we have union with Jesus Christ now,
and neither now or then will change that, will alter that. And if we do indeed have to stand
there and give account and confronted with some things, so be it, so
be it. We'll not be ashamed there as
we are now. But what about the unbelievers?
Oh, Paul said this. Paul made this statement. Knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Saints will
give account, but grace will follow them there. They will
receive some way or another perhaps, but mercy will follow them there.
And grace and mercy will win the day. But what about the ungodly? What about those who are not
in Christ? What about those who aren't in union with Him? What
about those whose grace and mercy won't follow? Paul said they'll
experience the terror of the Lord. They'll see His frown. They'll hear His voice depart.
And they'll have to depart. Angels will see to it. Lord,
where do they go? Where can they go? There is but
one other place besides heaven. Then go to it. They won't go. Then angels herd them up, round
them up, bind them and cast them into the lake of fire. The terror
of the Lord. The same Jesus, the Son of Mary,
who says, Come, ye blessed of my Father, will say to them,
Depart from me, ye cursed. And that day is coming. That
day is coming. And thank God for it. Thank the
Lord for it. And brothers and sisters, I'm
looking forward to it. Looking forward to it. I ain't
looking forward to anybody getting what's coming to them. That's
not why I want to go there. I don't want to look at some
saint and say, boy, you're getting it when the Lord comes. I don't
want to tell a lost sinner, man, you're in trouble when the Lord
comes. I'm longing for that day though, aren't you? Come, Lord
Jesus. And the reason we can face it
is because we are indeed in Him, and in Him now, and in Him forever. Bless His name. Let's pray.