The Judgment Seat of Christ — 2 Corinthians 4-5

0:00 I'd like to pause and pray again. You'll understand that my prayer's a little desperate. The projector's not working, I have a little... I have to go to plan b on this message. The Lord help.

0:14 I did have quite an elaborate display of slides to go and and, well do pray for me that the Lord will give me grace just to be able to remember the message of the slides and be able to preach it. It's a great message. Sometimes, maybe we're distracted by the slides. Also, there's this this matter of the broken vessels, you know, maybe I feel a little more like a broken vessel this way. Father, thank you for your love.

0:41 Thank you for the lord Jesus. Thank you that you know best about everything, father, and and, now we pray that that as I give this message that, I'd be able to speak your word in faithfulness, lord, and and that it would be clear and and that we would all benefit from from the the wonderful witness of scripture concerning our own lives and concerning the future. Assure a certain future we have in heaven. Thank you for your word and the wonderful, revelation that you've given us. We we pray your blessing in Jesus' name.

1:21 Amen. Well, my message is to be on second Corinthians chapter five. I'm going to try to review two or three points out chapter four. My objective being to pick pick up a kind of a lead in from chapter four into chapter five. And and so, I'm going to start by reading the tenth verse of chapter four.

1:54 It says, always caring about in the body, the dying of the lord Jesus Christ that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies. And so they say, well, how is the life of Jesus going to be manifested in our bodies? Well, it... The the logic is that that if we are if we are dying with Christ, if if we're caring about his the dying of the lord Jesus Christ, then the life of Jesus will be that will be shown forth in our lives. Now, I I believe that this idea of dying is is kind of yielding my will to God's will.

2:40 For instance, am am I willing to to yield what I want to do in order that I could do what God wants me to do? And in that sense, it's a choice and I would call it a moral test. I'd like to make that point because as we as we go further along in our message, I I want to list some of the ways that God looks at our lives. One of the ways is that that life is a moral test. Our lives are moral are a moral test.

3:15 That is God puts tests, choices in our lives. And and among them is whether I'm willing to give up myself in order that I can can live out Christ in my life. So that's the first point. Second point is verses thirteen and fourteen of chapter four. Now, I'm wanting to stress the idea of faith, and so I'm just gonna start at the end of the thirteenth verse.

3:44 We also believe and therefore speak knowing that he who raised up the lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you. So we have the resurrection and we can lay lay a hold of it or enter into it through faith. We believe. We believe and therefore we realize it's true. Now I believe that the thought of this verse is is the idea of the rapture and and of course the most the most descriptive set of verses on the rapture would be first Thessalonians chapter four verses 16 through 18.

4:28 I'll just quote them. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. So in in your mind, just kind of visualize here's the Lord up in heaven and and and the Lord descends from heaven and and I believe into the clouds and and and so he he comes with great power and authority and and he gives the shout and the bible says, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. They're the the first part, but then it uses the word then, then we which are alive remain. So apparently, immediately after that, after the dead are raised up, you and I are are are the living believers are raised up and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

5:26 Now that's in keeping with what we're going to find in in the fifth chapter, and so it's it's it's sort of a a lead into it. Now the third point I want to make is verses seventeen and eighteen, of the fourth chapter. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we do not look at the things that are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporary temporary but the things which are not seen are eternal. So so if I were going to kind of label what this is about, it it... It's this, that that this life is a temporary assignment and it's a preparation for a more permanent assignment that God's going to give us.

7:08 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, We have a building from God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven. And so so my physical body is is called an earthly house by God and it and it's... Then it's said to be a tent. So what is it saying?

7:43 Like, think it's kind of like Dave just said, I I am a spirit. I I have a soul and I dwell in a body. And and and so it's giving us an invitation to to look at our bodies as just simply a temporary dwelling place in which we we live. Now now perhaps the first thought that would come to my mind is is that that since it's called a tent that it it's it's something that a traveler would use. Right?

8:19 It's not somebody that's going to settle down in one place. He's he's on a spiritual journey. We could say we're on a on a spiritual pilgrimage through life and and this body is just a tent that's made made for doing that, for for for traveling through life and and not not to spend so much attention on the tent, but but the journey, the spiritual journey that we're on is the important part. So that's that's perhaps the invitation to us. Then then the stress is that it that it's it is a temporary dwelling place.

8:58 It it's one that is a is a preparation for a permanent one. Now I I did I did think about this that that I don't wanna take my body too lightly. After all, it's God given, so so we speak of it as a tent. But I was I was reading a missionary book yesterday evening, and and when I got into this book, the lady told how at some point in her Christian experience, she was having her personal bible study and she read Romans 12 verse one and it says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. And so and so this tent is sort of a holy tent.

9:51 Okay. Understand it's a temporary tent, but it's like it's like a a dwelling place of God where he dwells within us. Kind of a neat thought. It's a temporary dwelling and it says, if if this tent, this earthly house is destroyed, it's just speaking of death, isn't it? If if it's destroyed, well then, guess what?

10:14 We have a we have a a fine permanent home in heaven that we can go. Now that permanent home is not speaking of heaven itself because it says in the heavens and the second verse says, from heaven. And so it's speaking about the spiritual or heavenly body that we will possess when we're up in heaven. Now there is this time when the when the when the the dead person... If person dies in this life and and then he goes up there.

10:46 There's this time before the rapture where he doesn't have a body up in heaven. Now we'll talk about that a little bit more because we're gonna get it get into it a little bit further down the chapter. But but it is interesting that that in the second verse, it says it like this. We were earnestly... We groan earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven.

11:13 So so we're we're we're kind of saying that that this passing from the one state to the other state is as simple as changing clothes. It's just as we're we're gonna be clothed with the with the these this heavenly body which god is going to give us. Now the the third verse is is I believe just a kind of a warning. I know there's some different thoughts about how to take the third verse, but but it seemed like the the the one that that more commentators... The view that more more commentators took was that it's a warning to unbelievers lest they should believe that the promises that God gives are to be taken for themselves.

12:08 So this is how it says it. If indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. If indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. So so God is God is saying to us, you know, or saying to, I believe to the unbeliever, just be careful that that you've re... That you've been saved, that you've trusted in the lord Jesus because if you if you haven't trusted in Jesus, this is this is a false hope for you to have.

12:58 Watch out. Make sure that you have indeed trusted in the Lord Jesus as savior because all the promises of God here in this chapter are for us if we have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. The fourth verse, for we who are in this tent groan being burdened not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed that mortality may be swallowed up by life. So he's simply saying here that we're not looking to die, that's not what our purpose is that we would die. Our purpose is rather that we would live.

13:40 It would be living forever in this eternal home up in heaven. And and that would... What it... Then that is what God puts before us here. Now I'm gonna take verses five through eight kind of together here.

13:56 I I think I'll put the label of confidence on on these verses. Confidence. It's something we all desire, isn't it? Well, that's what these verses are about. Now now he who has prepared us for this very thing is god who also has given us the spirit as a guarantee.

14:18 So we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So this truth of what it's like to pass from this scene into the next scene and and the confidence that we have, we've been prepared for it by God himself. So that's what it says in the beginning of the fifth verse. Now he who has prepared us for this thing is God.

14:56 So we might ask this question. So in just in what way has God prepared us out? What is this all about? Well, of course, one of one of the ways, perhaps the primary way is that the lord Jesus died on the cross so that so that we could have this as a hope so that our sins could be forgiven and and this blessed hope would be placed before us. That's one way that he repairs us.

15:21 Another way I thought about it was was god god has given us the revelation of what is going to happen to us here in the scriptures. So so that by doing that, he's prepared us for it. It gives us this confidence that we would have. I wonder if we ever... Have we ever stopped and really pondered the wonder of the revelation that God has given us.

15:47 I know that many of you have, but just stop and think of of the wonder. I mean, just think. God has told us what's gonna happen when we die. I mean, for for the the man without god and without without hope in this world, he has no sense of what's what's gonna happen then but but god has told us what is going to happen. He's prepared us for it.

16:09 Now one of the... Perhaps one of the acts of God's preparation is that he's given us the Holy Spirit. That's the last part of the fifth verse. Who also has given us the spirit as a guarantee. In in the first chapter of Ephesians, the spirit is said to be the earnest of our of our inheritance and and it's kind of that that idea of of a down payment on a house or or a certain...

16:39 A when you would purchase the house, you'd put whatever, dollars 500 down and say, this is earnest money. This is to make sure that you know that we're in earnest about this. And so God has given the Holy Spirit to us as an earnest or a guarantee that what he has said about the future is going to happen. We are going to be with him. I think that's kind of a precious thought.

17:29 We're living in our in our temporary dwelling, our tent. We're living in this and and we're not in the presence of the lord. Am I sure? And the answer is, I have confidence. How do I have confidence?

17:43 Because god has said it. Of course, this leads into the idea of faith. And so the next verse says, for we walk by faith not by sight. We walk by faith not by sight. This is such an important principle that we realize that that god has said it and we can believe it, but we do have to believe him.

18:08 We do have we do have to trust what god says just because god says it. Now, having having said these things, then he summarizes the thought. He said, in the eighth verse, we are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. The first thought is we're confident. That's the confidence of faith.

18:33 Thank God that we have this confidence. The second thought is, it's even a little bit more than confidence. We're just really looking forward to it. We're well pleased with the idea that we're going to be with him in heaven. And then in the last part of the verse, he kind of he's kinda spells it out.

18:51 What does this really mean? He says, to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord. It just, I mean, it's it's like that's a definition. What what does it mean to be absent from the body? Well, it means to be present immediately with the Lord.

19:11 That's the confidence of of the person who is trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as savior. Now if we have this confidence, it should lead to a character in our lives and that's what the ninth verse says. Okay? Therefore, because this is true, because we have this confidence, therefore, we make it our aim whether present or absent to be well pleasing to him. So so if if I know that I'm going to stand in his presence, yeah, I do wanna make sure that what the way I'm living my life today is is going to be pleasing to him.

20:00 It's kind of it's kind of like this idea of stewardship. Matter of fact, we could say it like this, life is a stewardship trust. I believe you could look at like this and say, every one of us has been granted exactly one life to live for the Lord. I was pondering the parable of the talents particularly the one in Luke because in the Gospel of Luke, in the parable of the talents, each person is given exactly one talent or one Mina, I guess is what it is. Each one is given exactly one talent and the Lord says, now go and use it.

20:46 So why... There's sort of an equality expressed in this idea that everyone's gonna get the same thing. Well, if you were to go to the other parable of the talents, each one got different. This one got one talent, this one got five, that one got 10. And it is kinda telling a different story in this other parable.

21:11 It's talking about the fact that each one of us has different abilities and each one of us has been granted different opportunities in life and we're going to get different results from that. But here in Luke, well, in Luke chapter, excuse me, I think it's Luke chapter 14, No, Luke chapter 19. In Luke chapter 19 when it tells that each one has the same and I believe the idea is simply that each one of us has exactly one life to live for the Lord and what will we do with that life? Well, we live it for him And so it's a stewardship trust. Now, if I say it's a stewardship trust, I'm implying some things by that.

22:01 So if you're a steward, you have the responsibility for something that you don't actually own, somebody else owns it. And isn't that exactly true of our lives? We think of ourselves as owning it but the answer is no, God's the one that owns that life. He's given to us to be stewards over it. It's something he owns and we're responsible for him, to him as to how we live our lives.

22:54 It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. That's the basic requirement that you're faithful to what God has given you to do. Well, that's what our verse is saying, isn't it? Therefore, we make it our aim whether present or absent to be well pleasing to him, being faithful to do what he would have us to do. Now, principle of stewardship is this, it's accountability.

23:22 And the place where you'd pick that out in scripture is the parable in Luke 16, the parable of the unfaithful steward. So in this parable, steward is accused that he's wasted his master's goods. And so the master calls him and come here. And he stands in front of his master and the master says to him, give account of yourself. Give account of yourself because you can't be a steward any longer.

23:51 Give account. And so this is the the... One of the basic ideas of stewardship is there is a time or a point of accountability. Now I have mentioned three points. One was life is a moral test.

24:09 The second one is life is a temporary assignment. And the third one, life is a stewardship trust. So life is moral test and it's only through faith that we're gonna be able to operate correctly in this moral test. The second one, life is a temporary assignment, but remember it's a preparation for a permanent assignment. And finally, life is a stewardship trust where we have been given the responsibility to a life that really belongs to God, but he's given us the responsibility to live it.

24:55 Will I be faithful? There is a day of accountability. So if we were to look at our lives in the way that God looks at our lives, those three points that I've given, it's gonna make a difference on how we live our lives. It will make a difference on how we do it. Now, we've been talking about accountability and that's the lead in to the tenth verse, which perhaps is the climax to the whole chapter.

25:23 The tenth verse. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. So here we have the judgment seat of Christ. Now before I start talking... Well, first of all, judgment seat of Christ is about accountability and about reward.

25:51 But before I really get into them, I want to make a statement about what the judgment seat of Christ is not. The judgment seat of Christ is not the judgment for our sins. It's not what the judgment seat. And you say, wow, where where does the judgment for my sins happen then? And of course, the answer is very clear.

26:14 The judgment for our... My sins occurred on the cross. Jesus is the one that bore the judgment for my sins. And so and so the judgment seat of Christ has nothing to do with me being punished for my sins. It has nothing to do with that whatsoever.

26:31 It's rather God making an evaluation of our lives and giving us the true picture of how we lived our lives. It's of a accountability and it's a point of rewards. Now the actual expression, the judgment seat of Christ, I believe it's only used in one other place in scripture and that's in Romans chapter 14. So let's turn to Romans chapter 14. And we're going to read verses 10 through 12.

27:35 For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. So so the context of of the of this portion is is that early in the chapter, some some... The the issue is brought up of whether whether you consider that the Sabbath day is an... Is a day to be to be celebrated as the Sabbath day or whether every day is alike.

28:19 It's like a non critical issue in Christianity. It does say early in the chapter that each one determine. Excuse me. I was trying to get the exact wording of how it says it. Let...

28:39 It's the end of fifth verse, let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. So a person needs to try to be before the Lord as to what he would have, but they're non critical issues. The other one was whether to eat meat or not. And so these are issues that are non critical and he's saying don't judge one another on non critical issues. We're not talking about the fundamental issues of Christianity, we're talking about issues of how you live your life.

29:08 And so so he says, don't don't judge one another. Don't don't you know that we're all gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ? In other words in other words, he's the one that's the judge. You leave you leave this... That kind of judging to him.

29:23 Then he adds this quotation from Isaiah 44. As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. Interesting, isn't it? That this is applied to the judgment seat of Christ, gives us a little bit of a sense of of the sobriety of the judgment seat of Christ. There'll a bowing the knee before him at that point.

29:48 And then the final statement is, so then each of us shall give account of himself to God. So we're saying the judgment seat of Christ is a point of accountability where we'll stand and our lives will be examined before God. Now exactly how will that happen? What will this be like? The detail of that I believe is given in first Corinthians chapter three.

30:16 So let's turn to first Corinthians chapter three. And I'm going to read verses 11. Now this doesn't mention the name of the judgment seat of Christ, but it does say in the thirteenth verse, the day will declare. And I believe it's that it's speaking about the day of the judgment seat of Christ. Verse 11, for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

30:51 So so whatever we're gonna talk about after this, we're talking about those that are on the foundation of Jesus Christ. They're they're those that are... Have trusted in the Lord Jesus. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, Each one's work will become clear for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is. So let's be clear that what is going to come under consideration are our works.

31:50 So there are some things that are more value than other things, but the main the main point the main point made is is is it must be able to to to stand up under the fire of of God, of the examination of God. And so if if what we have done is for the Lord and and he has been pleased with it and our motives are right and and we we haven't we haven't there there isn't some great sin associated with it, then then it'll stand up. It'll be the gold, the silver, the precious stones. But then there are how much of our lives are are really wrongly motivated and and spent for ourselves rather than for God? Yeah.

32:44 Wood, hay and stubble won't won't won't stand. I I had enjoyed an illustration. There was a man named Walter Potter that used to be significant years ago, early nineteen hundreds was was a was a gifted teacher in Chicago area. And and Walter Potter, he he he was he was used to bless the saints of God. And and so Walter Potter had a had a dream.

33:15 So I'm not trying to make a big thing of dreams, but this was... But I... But this makes a good illustration. So he had a dream. So in this dream, there's this bonfire that's over next to him and it's just burning.

33:26 I mean, it's burning like it's got gasoline on. I mean, it's just burning up and it's just a terror... Almost a terrible fire. He's he's sort of frightened by it. And he looks over to the Lord and he says to to the Lord, what is this?

33:40 And the Lord kinda looks at him, shakes his head and says, it's your works, Walter. It's your works. They're they're being burned up there. They were all done for yourself. They weren't done for the Lord.

33:51 And and I I always kind of enjoyed it especially he was someone that that that was was... He was a godly man, but but it was... We had to say, oh, okay. So, yeah, I understand. You do have...

34:06 You would have a sense of loss, wouldn't you? You'd have a sense of loss. Okay. So so now it says, if anyone's work is burned, he suffers loss. Now he...

34:16 There's no judgment associated with himself, but but what what might have... The Lord might have said of our lives, well done, good and faithful servant. He might have said that, but he can't say that. And so there's a sense of loss in in what we've done because it wasn't for the Lord. If anyone's work is burned, he suffers loss.

34:38 I I guess I skipped the fourteenth verse. If any one's work which he has built on endures, he receives a reward. So that would be like the well done good and faithful servant. And so finally, kind of the clincher about the... Is the last half of the fifteenth verse.

34:55 He said he will suffer loss but he himself will be saved yet so as through fire. So that's saying to me, this doesn't have anything to do with my salvation. That has to... That's depending completely on the work of Christ. This has to do with with God with God evaluating my works and and...

35:16 Now there there's a couple of positive sides to to this judgment seat of Christ that I just like to point out. So one of the positive sides to it is that we have to understand that we already have our glorified bodies at this point when we get to the judgment seat of Christ. We already have our glorified bodies. And so we're going to see we're going to see this this judgment seat of Christ through God's eyes. We're gonna see it the way he sees it.

35:51 And and there's not not gonna be any sense in our souls of, I didn't deserve that. You know, nothing of that. We'll we'll understand fully that what... That when God says, you did that all together for yourself, that that can't stand the fire and and and it's swished away. Well, we'll say, that was just that was just and right.

36:13 It was god that pronounced that. We'll have a sense of the righteousness of god in it. Now, there's another there's another positive side of it because because so how many have something in their past that they just hope nobody knows about? Some sin in their past. No show on hands for this one.

36:43 So so so when when all is revealed in the judgment seat of Christ, there'll be nothing hidden. There'll be no sense of boy, what if anybody finds out about that? That won't be. So everything is totally revealed and in the end, there's no residual feelings to it. We just, yes, it was judged righteously and and so so I I think that's a a good feeling actually.

37:39 And and the the answer is that that immediately that at the end of the current age, there's gonna happen this this rapture, which we've already described when the lord descends from heaven. And and the the believers are all gathered up into heaven, And so we're up here in heaven and down here in earth, those that are left in earth are going to experience a seven year tribulation period. Now after that seven year tribulation period, the Lord Jesus will return with his saints and the thousand year millennial reign of Christ will be set up and it will continue from that point. Now it's during this seven year period, at the end of the seven year period, you would find it in Revelation 19, it speaks of the marriage of the lamb. Now the place that we would put the judgment seat of Christ would be sometime after the rapture and somewhat time before the marriage of the lamb.

38:47 So that puts it some probably, in my opinion, it's probably immediately after the rapture that it occurs, but it's going to be sometime before the marriage the lamb. So that would kind of give us approximate time of when it would occur. I'm going to read now back in second Corinthians five. I'm going to read the eleventh verse. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.

39:23 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are well known to God and I trust are well known to your own consciences. So so I suppose that I'm not alone. I I have I have sometimes been rather terrified by this first knowing therefore the terror of the Lord and then and wondered what what does that mean? Knowing the terror of Lord, I thought I thought we would have no terror of the Lord. And I was reading I was reading in Bill McDonald's commentary and and and he said, now what you need, the label you need to put on that is the fear of the Lord.

40:00 And he said, this is this is like speaking about the reverential fear of the Lord and and we have to understand that that's can be a very sobering thing. It may be the beginning of wisdom, there may be a lot of things that it is, but it is the fear of the Lord. Now, I was trying to understand in my own mind just how am I supposed to understand this fear of the Lord? I thought, well, I was just reading in the book of Job. And so Job made some statements in book of Job that he regretted having made some statements about God.

40:45 And and he didn't feel like he was being treated justly by God. And and so so I'd like to stand before God and defend my case, says says Job. And and so finally, guess what? Job stands before God. Will he defend his case?

41:04 So so in the in the thirty eighth, thirty ninth and fortieth chapters of Job, God talks Job. He speaks out of the whirlwind to Job. It's really an interesting... The main theme that God seems to take it is, where Job... Where were you when I created all these things?

41:22 And God goes through all the wonders of creation. It's really a neat a neat story. So then at the beginning of the fortieth chapter, God has finished his message and God essentially challenges Job. I forget exactly the words that he used to challenge Job. But but but Job is like standing there before god and and and god challenges Job and Job says to god, I I had heard about you by the hearing of words but now I've seen you with my own eyes and I repent in dust and ashes.

41:58 And and that I think will will have a will have an essence. That's that's the fear of the lord. The apostle John was given a remarkable revelation. We have it in the book of Revelation. In the first chapter, he's he's given this vision of the lord Jesus Christ and his glory.

42:21 It's fantastic and and and and it describes the lord Jesus even with the sword coming out of his mouth. And and John is standing before him. And and when he sees this vision, it says, he he's... He describes it himself. He said, I fell on my face like a dead man.

42:44 But then he says, but he put his hand out and he lifted me up and he said, do not be afraid. That's the judgment seat of Christ. Well, I don't say that's the judgment seat of Christ, but that's... That I take it would be, yeah. It's gonna be...

43:01 There's gonna be some aspects to it that will not be comfort... Not be comfortable, but but but we'll we'll stand in his presence. Yeah. We'll probably fall down. Yeah.

43:13 I feel pretty certain he's gonna put out his hand and say, don't be afraid and lift us back up. Yeah. That's the time. One one last verse. It's it's, I'm just gonna jump to it.

43:30 Verse 14, for the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus that if one died for all, then all died. And he died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. Now now what is it that's gonna give me the motivation in my life to live for him? What is gonna do that? It's gonna be his love.

43:55 When I realized how much he died he did for me. And that he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. Beautiful. And then seventeenth verse, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have passed away.

44:53 And we thank you for that. It isn't all works being burned up. There's there's many... There'll be many blessed moments where they'll say, well done, good and faithful servant. Thank you, father, for that assurance.

45:06 We pray that you'd bless this message in Jesus' name. Amen.