Okay, now we're looking back
at Romans chapter 14. And I want to begin with verse
9, because verse 9 sets the table and builds the foundation for
the instructions that follow here, verse 9. To this end, or
to this purpose, the Lord Jesus Christ died. He not only died,
Thank God he didn't stay dead. He rose from the grave the third
day, and he revived, that is, ever living to make intercession
for us at the right hand of the throne of God, having ascended
up on high, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of
the living. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one who is the worthy judge, he is the honorable judge. We read of him in Genesis 18,
shall not the judge of all the earth, Do right. Now he is our judge. He is our
judge. We read in John 5 verse 21, the
father hath committed all judgment unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Judgment is not our business.
That is about judging one another or setting in judgment upon another
believer. And that's what he's talking
about in the contents of Romans 14. But here's the bottom line
in all things. The Lord Jesus Christ is lowered
by the eternal, unchanging, immutable decree of God. God had made that same Jesus
the Lord Jesus whom you crucified, God hath made him both Lord and
Christ. Now that was the bottom line
in Peter's sermon there on the day of Pentecost that's recorded
in Acts chapter 2. He is Lord of all by his atoning
death upon the cross. Upon the cross the Lord Jesus
Christ didn't make a down payment for our sin. The Lord Jesus Christ
upon Calvary's tree put away all of the sin of God's people
of His elect. It says in Acts 20, 28 that He
bought the church with His own blood." Now think about that,
God bought the church with His own blood. Our sin was judged
in Christ and having put away our sin, He owns us. Our Lord
says this, you are no more your own but you were bought with
a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your mind. He bought us with His own precious
blood. We are redeemed. That is, we
are bought, we are delivered from all of our sin by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood cleanses us from all
our sin. Now, the Lord did that exclusively
and only for His elect. for his people, for his church. He said, I laid down my life
for my sheep. Now all of this, verse 9, to
this end Christ spoke, died, rose, and revived. All of this
is according to God's eternal purpose. The Lord Jesus Christ
dies the appointed death. Remember Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. No one
took His life. He laid down His life for the
sheep. And all this happened by the
eternal purpose of God. The Lord our God dies the appointed
death for the appointed people. for the appointed purpose and
end, that is, to put away our sin. His purpose, God's eternal
purpose, which He purposed in Christ, is an eternal purpose. Everything that unfolds in time,
that's where we live. We're creatures of time. Everything
that unfolds in time, God hath decreed from the beginning. God, known unto God in all of
His works from the beginning. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world by the decree of
God. Now we know in time, in the fullness of time, He came
and He laid down His life for His people. Christ died according
to the eternal purpose of God. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
died according to the Scriptures, remember? 1 Corinthians 15. how
that Christ died in fulfillment of all Holy Scripture, every
type, promise, shadow, every ceremony, every law, every sacrifice,
under the Old Testament, all having a shadow or foreshadowing
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, thank God,
it says there, He rose. He rose from the dead. You remember
Romans chapter 4 verse 25, He's delivered for our offenses and
raised again because He justified us. Now had He not justified
His elect, had He not justified His people, had He not put away
their sin and justified them by His blood, He would not have
come forth from the tomb. But having finished the work
the Father gave Him to do, Putting away their sin. Sin had no longer
a claim on Him or on us. And God raised Him from the dead.
And then 40 days later, He spent 40 days as the risen Savior. establishing the fact that everything
he said, everything he did was accepted of the Father in the
fact that he gave infallible proofs of his resurrection from
the dead. At one time he was seen of 500
brethren at one time. But after 40 days he ascended
on high and he is seated right now. Seated right now. He ever lived to make intercession
for us. Those Apostles watch the Lord
Jesus Christ defy gravity and ascend to glory. And the God-man
mediator is seated right now on the throne of glory, wherever
that is. I don't know where it is. I know
he, wherever the throne of God is, he's sitting on it. Ruling
and reigning, controlling all things, all events. for this purpose that he might
be Lord of heaven and earth, Lord of all men living and dead,
Lord of all men, believers or unbelievers. Now he is our Lord,
but he's also the Lord of all men everywhere. Whether they
acknowledge his Lordship or submit to his Lordship doesn't bring
into question his authority, he's Lord. He is Lord of all
things in heaven and in earth. And He is appointed Lord by the
eternal unchanging decree of God. Believers do lovingly, willingly
own Him and confess that He is Lord. Remember what Thomas said
after the Lord was risen? And the apostles said that the
Lord appeared unto us. He said, I won't believe that
unless I see him and touch him. And when the Lord appeared to
him, you remember what Thomas confessed? My Lord and my God. And that's what we confess. The
Lord Jesus Christ is our Lord. He's Lord of all things. He's
Lord of our salvation. He's Lord of our righteousness.
And he is our Lord and he is our God. We worship Him. The Lord Jesus Christ is God,
our Savior. We worship Him as God. Now, if
He's not God, we're idolaters, because we own and worship Him
as our God, God our Savior. We own Him and confess Him as
Lord, and we know this, it is only the Lord Jesus Christ who
has made us to differ. The only reason we love Him is
because He first loved us. The only reason we bow to His
authority and receive Him as Lord and God, our Righteousness,
is because we say with the Apostle Paul, I am what I am by the grace
of God. Believers do right now. in Christ
stand complete. We're completely justified. I'm not going to get one whit
more justified nor sanctified than I am right now. Because right now we are in Christ
and what's true of Him is true of us. We're going to see that
in just a minute. Now having established that For to this
end Christ dispurposed the Lord Jesus. Christ died and rose and
revived. He ascended on high that He might
be Lord of all, the dead and the living. He's every man's
Lord. Now, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, seeing
that He is the righteous judge of all men. Now, the question
is asked, verse 10, why would you put yourself in His place?
Why dost thou judge thy brother? Now, he's talking here about,
he's talking about family talk. Remember, we are members one
of another. We're in the body of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Why would you sit in judgment
on your brother? The only reason you would do
that is because somehow in your self-righteous mind you think
you're somewhat better. That's the only reason you sit
in judgment. Now talk about sitting upon judgment of another believer. The only reason that you would
sit in judgment upon them is because you think you're somewhat
better. None of us are better. We're to esteem others better
than ourselves. I'm to think more highly of you
than I do myself. Now, let's not get caught up
in this Pharisee attitude as the Pharisee prayed, Lord, I
thank you I'm not this, I'm not that, and I'm certainly not like
that publican. Well, he was much worse than
that publican because that Pharisee justified himself. And the Lord
said, those who justify themselves before God, he said, that's an
abomination unto me. Why do you set judgment on your
brother? Why would you set your brother
at naught? And just ignore your brother. Why would you ignore
your brother? The only reason you would do
that, and all of us are prone to this. All of us need to work
on this. The only reason we would set
a brother at naught, and count him not as a brother, or to set
in judgment upon another believer, is because we think we're somewhat
better. And we're not. We're all sinners
saved by grace. So let us not judge one another
anymore. Look what it says down in verse
13. Let us not therefore judge one another. Let's not do this
anymore. Let's make it our goal, our aim,
our ambition. Never to judge another believer
anymore. Thinking, well, I'm more spiritual.
You know, I have more understanding. If you do, it's only because
God has given that to you. We have no reason to boast and
be full of pride. We're all sinners in the same..."
You know what fellowship is? We're all sinners in the same
ship. Fellowship. We're all fellow
sinners in the same shape. Sinners saved by grace. And then
he says this, "...for we all shall stand before the judgment
seat of Christ." Now, there's another parallel verse over here,
you don't need to turn, I'll just read it to you in 2 Corinthians
5, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 10, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 10, For
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now,
it's mentioned there two times, the judgment seat of Christ,
that everyone may receive the thing done in his body, according
to that he had done, whether it be good or whether it be bad. Now, what is all this about?
What is all this about? Why would any of us set ourselves
up as a judge of our brother, a member of the body of Christ,
where to love and forgive one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven us, And then we know that the Lord Jesus Christ
is the ultimate final authority and judge of all things. But
let me read this scripture to you. I've got jotted down here
in Galatians 6. Don't turn, let me just read
it to you. Galatians 6 verse 1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, talking about a believer, you which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness, Considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted, bear ye one another's burden, and so fulfill
the law of Christ. For if a man thinketh himself
to be something when he is nothing, he deceived himself." So, good,
good, scriptural, scriptural advice. The Lord Jesus Christ
is our judge. We are accountable to him. John
5, 21, For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son, that all men should honour the Son, even
as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son
honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. Many fundamental religious people
use this verse right here, the last part of verse 10, "...we
all shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ." And that verse
that I just read a moment ago in 2 Corinthians 5, 10. Many
fundamental religious people use these two scriptures to try
to motivate people to obedience, to receive a bigger reward in
heaven. They use those two verses. to
try to motivate people to obedience in order that they might have
a bigger reward. Now that's what they say. That's
not what this book teaches, but that's what they say. They say
the more obedience here, the bigger rewards there. That's
what they say. I'm talking about the fundamental,
fundamental religious people. Mainstream, what we call mainstream
Christianity. The more obedience here, the
bigger rewards there. That is nothing but works religion
dressed up to look like salvation when it's not. It's nothing but
works. Nothing but works. You see, it goes all the way
back to Genesis 15-1 when the Lord told Abraham that I am thy
shield and thy exceeding great Reward. Now, I've pointed this
out before. You will not find one time in
the Word of God, not one time, whatever says and uses the word
rewards, plural with an S, rewards in reference to a believer. It's
always Christ is our reward. He is our reward. Now, if you
have Him, If you're united to Him by God-given faith, if you're
found in Him, you have everything He has. What else is there? I mean, He's everything. He's
everything in salvation. You see, Christ is our reward. So what then is this judgment
seat of Christ? Let's see if I can help us here. It is not to determine the judgment
seat of Christ. It is not to determine saved
or lost. We won't have to wait until the
judgment day to find out if I'm saved or if I'm lost. It's not
to determine if I'm saved or lost, that was determined in
eternity. And the salvation of the elect
was accomplished in time when the Lord Jesus Christ died. You
remember from Romans 5, 6? Being now justified by his blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through him. Being now, right
now, justified by his blood. Now can you get any more justified?
You remember Romans 8.1, there is therefore now, right now,
right now, no condemnation to those who are in the Lord Jesus
Christ. So this judgment here that he's
talking about in regards to believers, it will be a judgment of declaration
for the elect of God that their salvation was accomplished by
Christ and that we have already been justified by His grace and
glorified in Him. That's right. justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you would like to turn
to Matthew 25, it talks about this judgment seat of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Matthew 25 verse 31, 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
before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate
them one from another, as the shepherd divided his sheep from
the goats, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand." That's
his elect. That's his church on the right
hand and the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father inherit. Now an inheritance is a gift. Come inherit Christ, we are heirs
of God and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. Come ye blessed
of my father and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world. Now, if you go on reading there,
come ye blessed to my father, he mentions these different things. And the king shall answer, verse
14, and say unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, inasmuch
as you have done it unto me, you have done it to the least
of these my brothers. All those who claim they have
no works, if you read from verse 35 down to verse 39, all those
who claim they had no works were justified. Now, turn over to
Matthew 7. And all those who claim they
had good works, Remember, they said, Lord, when
did we see you naked? When did we see you sick? When did we see you in prison?
They said, we didn't have any good works justified by his grace. Now, in Matthew 7, all those
who claimed they had good works before him, listen to this message. Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."
Now, what is the will of the Father? Trust Christ. Many will say to me in that day,
in that same day we just read about in Matthew 25, Lord, have
we not prophesied in thy name? You see now, those who were truly
justified in Christ said, we don't have any good works. We're
resting in Christ. Those who did not know the Lord,
many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied? Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many will
say to me in that day, verse 23, Matthew 7, have we not prophesied
in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. I mean, we have clothed people
who needed clothes. We have fed the hunger. We've
had soup kitchens. We've done all these wonderful
things. They did all these things thinking
they were earning salvation. And then I will profess unto
them, I never knew you, and that can be rendered, I never loved
you. depart from me, you that work
iniquity." Now isn't it quite amazing? Those who said they
had no good work were justified, and those who said they had good
work were condemned. You see, salvation again we see
is by the grace of God alone. All judgment therefore is relative
to our union and relationship with Christ. What is true of
the head is true of the body. Now remember from 1 John 3, verse
17, let me just read it to you. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. How can
we have boldness in the day of judgment? Well Lord, wait a minute,
wait a minute. I went to church every Sunday.
Wait a minute now, I've done this and Would you have boldness
before God, boasting and bragging on your works before God? You'll
hear Him say, depart from me, I never knew you. Now here's
this verse, herein is our love made perfect, that we may have
boldness in a day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in
this world right now. God speaks of every one of his
people in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is my beloved son. This
is what he says of every believer. Because we are so vitally one
and united with Christ, God speaks from heaven right now to the
heart of every believer and said, this is my well-beloved son in
whom I am well pleased. I'm well pleased with those in
Christ. Now listen to this verse. God has appointed a day in which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
whereof he hath given assurance unto us, unto his people, in
that he raised him from the dead. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again because he justified us. You see, we're already justified. Christ will present his church
in that day. At the judgment seat of Christ,
how shall he present us? Without sin and justified. You see, our account is cleared. Our debt is paid. Not only is
our account cleared and our debt paid, but we have been charged
and given to our account a perfect justifying righteousness. He
will present us without sin before God. Now we studied in Colossians
chapter 1 that He'll present us holy, unblameable, unreprovable
in His sight. That's how we will appear before
the judgment seat of Christ because that's how we appear before Him
right now. Now, you remember from the book
of Jude, don't turn, let me just get it for you quickly. In the
book of Jude, you remember verse 24, one of my favorite verses,
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to
present you, how does he present us? He presents us faultless. Before the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy, he is not ashamed to call us brethren.
To the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion
and power both now and forever. Amen. Now, we have no need to
fear God at the judgment seat of Christ because our blessed
Savior has fully paid our sin debt, has given us His righteousness,
and we stand complete in Him. Verse 11, Romans 14, as it is
written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to
me, every tongue shall confess to God, so then every one of
us shall give an account of himself unto God. Now, what do we confess? Turn over to Isaiah 45. Here's
what we confess. Isaiah 45. And here is our account. Here
is our accounting unto the Lord. Isaiah 45. The last part of verse
21. There is no God else beside me,
a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. Now
look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. I
am God, and there is none else, only just God and Savior. I have
sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness,
and shall not return. "...that unto me every knee shall
bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely shall one say, In the
Lord I have righteousness and strength." Now that's our account. In the Lord, that's our confession.
We have righteousness and strength. Now, whose righteousness we're
talking about? We're not talking about our morality.
I mean, your morality is just filthy, stinking rags. What we
confess here is Christ is the Lord our righteousness. He is
our strength. He is our salvation. Even to
him shall all men come, and all that are incensed against him,
they shall be ashamed. But he's not ashamed to call
us brethren. And we say with the Apostle Paul,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. We own him now, and
we own him forever, and confess him forever. Look at verse 25,
Isaiah 45, 25. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified. and shall glory all the seed
of Israel. Who is that? Who is that? That's his elect. That's his
chosen. So then every one of us shall
give an account of himself unto God. What is our account? Christ
and him crucified. Our account, our sin debts paid
in full. He's the Lord, our righteousness.
We stand in him. Verse 13, let us not therefore
Judge one another anymore. Christ is our righteousness.
Christ is our salvation. We're completing Him. Why in
the world? I know the reason, because we're
so sinful. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but
rather let us do this. that no man put a stumbling block
or an occasion to fall in the brother's way. Let us not be
a stumbling stone unto one another. Let us be a help stone, a help
stone. Let us encourage one another.
Let us love one another. Let us forgive one another. Let
us not criticize one another, beat up on one another, and judge
one another. We stand or fall. before Him. He's our judge. Now that's the
lesson. And I believe it's one that needs
to be heard. It is the truth of God.