Well, you know, normally I keep my Canadian
citizenship a secret, but Dr. Stoll has told
you and basically told the world now that
I am a Canadian citizen.
Even though, yeah, thank you, thank you.
But I do need to say that in
my heart, I'm an American.
I married an American.
My children are Americans.
My brand new grandson is an American.
I needed to work that in somewhere.
So people always ask me, what is the
difference between you Canadians and Americans?
Well, I should be in a position to
be able to tell you that you Americans
are very forward.
We Canadians are rather shy and bashful.
I was about 21 years old.
I went to Dallas, Texas and met this
young woman.
And coming from Canada, I was very formal
as we Canadians are.
I always called her Miss Westerland.
One day, the perspiration came to the palms
of my hands, and I said, Miss Westerland,
do you mind if I call you by
your first name?
She looked at me and she said, why,
no, she said, as a matter of fact,
I wouldn't mind if you called me by
your last name.
Ever since that time, I learned it only
takes two to get married, an eligible daughter
and an anxious mother.
And just so that I have a good
ride home tonight, I do need to tell
you that my wife's maiden name is not
Westerland.
And of course, to have the friendship that
we have with the Moody Bible Institute here
at the church and the friendship of Dr.
Stoll.
And I just need to say this, and
I say this in all sincerity, that no
one I've ever met seems to have the
gift of leadership and the gift of being
able to minister to people like you do,
Dr. Stoll.
And I know I should call you Dr.
Stoll, but for the purpose of this story,
Joe is going to have to do.
Where did Joe learn all this?
Well, you heard it tonight, didn't you?
Hackensack, New Jersey.
Hackensack, New Jersey, in a jewel store.
First year of college, stacking stuff on the
shelf, a woman came in and insisted that
she buy a half head of lettuce.
He got into a real argument with her,
was very, very upset, marched into the manager's
office and said, you know, there's a crabby
old woman out there that wants to buy
a half head of lettuce.
And he just said that, and suddenly he
noticed that she had walked into the office
with him and it was standing right next
to him.
So he turned to her and then said
to the manager, and this charming woman would
like to buy the other half.
Later on, the manager commended him for his
ability and his great sense of friendliness and
ability to work with people.
And he said, you know, Joe, because of
your gifts, I'd like to promote you as
manager in our store in Detroit.
Joe said, Detroit, Detroit has nothing but wicked
women and hockey players.
Manager said, wait a moment, my wife is
from Detroit.
Joe said, oh, really?
Well, which hockey team was she with?
He said, diplomacy,
diplomacy.
Well, tonight, in keeping with the theme of
Founders Week and our hope that is referred
to in the Gospel of John, I would
like to speak on the topic of the
judgment seat of Christ, specifically your eternal reward,
the bema, the judgment seat of Christ.
The Bible says in the book of Revelation
that there will be tears in heaven, but
God shall wipe away all their tears.
Many people read that passage of scripture and
they say that that seems to be inconsistent.
Tears and heaven simply do not go together.
And oftentimes we've speculated as to why there
might be tears in heaven.
We may not know for sure, but it
is my conviction that the reason that there
will be tears in heaven is when we
begin to think of the way in which
we lived in light of all of the
blessings that God has given to us.
Well, might we weep on the other side
of the celestial gates?
When you speak of the judgment seat of
Christ, and now to be clear, and I'm
going to be clarifying this throughout the message,
I'm talking about born-again Christians standing in
the presence of God.
If you are listening today and you've never
consciously trusted Christ as your Savior, you will
not be at this judgment.
You will be at another one that is
described in the book of Revelation as a
terrifying, terrifying judgment.
But this is for believers.
But I discovered throughout the years that it
is very difficult to speak on the judgment
seat of Christ because we have so many
misconceptions that have been built up throughout the
years that it's almost impossible to get people
to take this seriously.
For example, one misconception is people say, well,
when I accept Christ as Savior, doesn't Calvary
cover it all?
And the answer is yes, Calvary does cover
it all legally and judicially.
When you receive Christ as Savior, you are
credited with a righteousness of Christ that is
yours as a free gift, and Calvary covers
it all.
But that doesn't mean that God does not
deal with us still as his children and
discipline us.
There was a couple in the New Testament
called Ananias and Sapphira.
They schemed to lie and God smote them
dead.
I believe that they were Christians.
I can imagine them arriving in heaven and
saying, why all this?
We thought that Calvary covered it all.
David in the Old Testament committed sin and
was even forgiven by God.
But after he was forgiven, he was still
judged for his sin.
He might say, well, doesn't Calvary, doesn't the
blood of Christ?
Of course, in those days, it was the
blood of goats that represented the blood of
Christ.
But he could have said, well, I thought
that this was taken care of.
What's the big deal?
Could I simply say that God judges justified
sinners?
And when we sin deliberately and when we
live our lives the way we want to
live them without reference to him, we are
thereby disciplined by God.
Let me give you a second misconception in
some people's mind.
They say, well, you know, our good works
can't have any possible value because they're always
mixed with doubtful motives.
And that's true, isn't it?
There are very few things that we do
with an absolutely pure motive.
One day I was walking or I should
say I was driving along the street and
there was this car off to the side
of the road and a woman was walking
along the street.
So I stopped to ask and her car
was out of gas.
And I said, I'll take care of it.
And I went to a local garage filling
station and got some gasoline, had to actually
buy the can in which it was placed
because, of course, they wouldn't trust me to
bring it back.
And when I took the gasoline there and
began to pour it into her car, standing
there in my suit, I have to tell
you, in all honesty, the thought crossed my
mind.
You know, I wish all of the people
at Moody Church could see me right now.
You see, we always have these doubtful motives.
But I want you to know today that
our works after our salvation are precious to
God because Jesus makes them acceptable to God
the Father.
Now, listen to this carefully.
If you've never trusted Christ as Savior, it
is true that our works are completely non
-meritorious.
It is not by works that we are
saved.
Don't ever think that you can be saved
by works.
But having believed in Christ and having trusted
him, we are saved unto good works.
And these good works are precious to God.
So let me give you a third misconception,
and this one probably is the most popular
of all.
I can't tell you the number of times
I've heard something like this.
People say, well, isn't it selfish to even
talk about receiving rewards?
After all, we should serve God just because
we love him.
And then always this follows.
Aren't we just going to take our crowns
and cast them at the feet of Jesus
anyway, implying it really doesn't matter whether we
do well or poorly at the judgment seat?
My dear friends, I do not believe that
the crowns that are mentioned in the New
Testament are medallions.
They are actually metaphors for positions of responsibility
in the coming kingdom.
And furthermore, in the text that we're going
to be looking at tonight, it expressly says
these words, we should please the Lord for
we shall all stand before the judgment seat
of Christ.
The real motivation is to please Jesus.
That is the real motivation.
But in light of pleasing him, we are
honored, as we'll see tonight.
One day, a man said to me who
was not living for the Lord, though he
claimed to be a Christian, he said, you
know, if I get to heaven and if
I can just sit in the back seat,
I'll be happy.
That sounded so pious.
I said to him, what if God wanted
you to sit in the front seat, to
use your analogy?
But the reason that you're in the back
seat is because you were displeasing to Christ.
You wouldn't want to sit there then, would
you?
You know, it's interesting, whenever you find a
person who says, so many people who say,
well, you know, when I get to heaven,
I'll be content to just live in a
shack.
Many of those people are not at all
content to live in a shack on earth,
but they're convinced that they're going to be
satisfied with a shack in heaven.
Let me tell you something.
The motivation to do well at the judgment
seat of Jesus Christ bleeds from the pages
of the Bible.
You find, for example, Abraham looked for a
city which have foundations, whose builder and maker
is God.
You find that Moses, who for the hope
that was set before him and enduring all
of the afflictions of Egypt, it says, because
he looked forward to the reward, seeing him
who is invisible.
We look at Jesus.
The scripture says he was willing to suffer,
who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and
is set down on the right hand of
the throne of God.
Why?
Because you see, having a reward and doing
well at the judgment seat is so tied
in with pleasing God.
Now I want you to forget that someone
is sitting next to you, and I want
you to just have this little dialogue with
me, because I want to ask you a
question.
You really do want to please Christ, do
you not?
Wouldn't it be wonderful if he were to
say to you, or to me, well done,
thou good and faithful servant?
Now I'm convinced that not all Christians will
hear that, but I hope that you're among
those who say, at all costs, that is
exactly what I want to hear.
We're not going to turn to this passage,
I have another one in mind, but do
you remember 1 Corinthians chapter 3, where the
apostle Paul says that, he says it's like
a building, and he says there's gold, silver,
and precious stones, and wood, and hay, and
stubble, and what he's saying is, is that
our lives and our ministries, and the context
there is ministry, our lives and our ministries
are, as it were, he's using the analogy,
going to be turned into these substances, and
then it says that the fire will come
and test every man's work of what sort
it is, and he says that there are
going to be some who are going to
find gold, silver, and precious stones, and others
will be shown, their lives will have been
shown to be nothing but rubble.
Now when you think about that analogy, you
realize a number of things.
First of all, the difference in size between
wood, hay, and stubble.
You could have this whole auditorium full of
wood, hay, and stubble, and it would be
not nearly as much valuable as a handful
of gold, silver, and precious stones.
So it isn't just a matter of quantity,
how much we do.
It has to do with our motivation.
That's the first thing we learn.
The second thing you realize is that the
naked eye sometimes can't tell the difference.
You and I don't really know how much
gold or silver there is in a person's
life.
It's very difficult for some of us to
really tell the difference between gems, or also
on the other hand, such things as junk.
It's hard for us to know the difference,
but the fire is going to declare it,
the scripture says.
You can imagine how all of our works,
all of our motives, all of our actions,
translated into wood, hay, and stubble, they're torched.
And then the passage says, there will be
some people saved, and the NIV, which I'm
going to use tonight, uses this terminology.
It says they will be saved having just
come through the flames.
They will arrive in heaven and have nothing
to show at the judgment seat of Jesus
Christ.
Now before we turn to the text tonight,
I want you to realize that if standing
before Jesus, and the recognition that we will
give an account to him, if that does
not motivate us to holy living and diligence,
perhaps nothing else will.
Now with your Bibles, I want you to
turn now to 2 Corinthians actually, the text
for tonight, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10.
2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10.
It says in verse 9, so we make
it our goal to please him, whether we
are at home in the body or away
from it, verse 10, for we must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that
each one may receive what is due him
for the things done while in the body,
whether good or bad.
Wow.
Three characteristics of the judgment seat of Christ.
Three characteristics.
First of all, I want you to notice
that we will be judged fairly.
We'll be judged fairly.
You say, well, where is that in the
text?
I want you to underline, if you're in
the habit of underlining your Bible, the name
of Christ, the word Christ, we will be
judged at the judgment seat of Christ.
Why do I say that?
Isn't it wonderful to know that the one
who is going to judge us is the
very one who saved us, the one who
loves us.
I am comforted to know that Jesus is
going to wish us well at the judgment.
He is not there to condemn.
He is not there to fall fine.
He really does want to offer us praise
and he does want us to be very
generously rewarded.
And so the Jesus who loves us, and
he's going to be fair because he's our
brother.
You know, the scripture says that he said
to Mary Magdalene, he says, I go to
my father and to your father and to
my God and your God.
You know that God had one son, the
Lord Jesus, and there is none like him.
He is the unique son, but the Lord
wanted to bring many sons into glory.
The scripture says, and just like Adam and
Eve were to rule over the world.
So God wants Christ to rule with a
bride, which is the church.
And Jesus loves the church.
And we can be assured therefore, that because
our judgment is done by him, it will
be exceedingly fair.
Remember the scripture says that all things are
naked and open unto the eyes of him
with whom we have to do what a
sobering thought.
Do you realize that standing there in the
presence of Christ, everything will be known.
There will be nothing that will be hid
from him.
Nothing.
All of the contexts of life will be
understood.
The person who abused a child, as well
as the child who misbehaved because of the
abuse, all that will be taken into account
because there will be no extenuating circumstances.
The judgment will be done by Christ and
it will be fair.
Some of you are asking the question, well,
does this include all the things that we
ever did in our lives?
The judgment seat of Jesus Christ is based
on what you have done since your second
birth, since you have been born again, rather
than your first birth.
One day a woman wrote to me and
told me how she was involved in pornographic
things that even now continue to have bad
and harmful and sinful repercussions.
And she said, can I be rewarded to
at the judgment seat now that she was
converted and out of that lifestyle?
And the answer is yes, because even the
apostle Paul, who was really a murderer of
the church, he expected to do well at
the judgment because what Jesus is saying, I'm
going to judge you on the basis of
what you did with your time and your
talents and your treasure since you came to
know me and since I saved you.
So first of all, it will be a
fair judgment, will be judged fairly.
But secondly, notice we're going to be judged
individually.
And there is a phrase now I want
you to underline in the middle of verse
10, for we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ that.
Each one may receive what is due him
for the things done in the body, whether
good or bad, it is individual.
In the book of Romans, chapter 14, the
apostle Paul says, why do you go on
judging your brother or why do you condemn
your brother?
For each of us shall give account of
himself.
Could it be any clearer than that?
Give account of himself to God.
It will be very individual.
Now that you know that I came from
Canada, I need to tell you that I
attended a Bible college in which listen up
now, Jerry Edmonds, in which all of the
student body was in the choir.
You did not have to go through any
kind of an audition to get into that
choir.
And that's how come I made it now.
Actually, I can carry a tune.
Mr. Edmonds will confess to that.
We sit together, but you don't want to
hear me sing a solo.
You really, really, really don't want to hear
me sing a solo and relax.
You're not going to ever.
You know, we think of ourselves as being
judged as a church.
We think of standing in the presence of
Jesus Christ and somehow hiding behind someone else.
And you can get by with that if
you're not a very good singer, if you
have a big choir.
But I want you to know today that
when you stand before Christ, my friend, you're
going to sing a solo.
You're on your own.
No attorney to put the best spin you
possibly can on it.
No use trying to rationalize.
No use trying to explain, not because you're
not allowed to, but because you will not
want to.
Because at that moment, you will realize it
is all reality.
It is you and Jesus.
And there you are individually judged without an
excuse, because everything is so thoroughly investigated.
You say, well, is it going to be
a public judgment?
Boy, when I think about that, you know,
Jesus did tell some parables in which he
talked about a public judgment.
He said, you know, take the talents from
this man who has been unfaithful and give
it to the bystanders.
And we say, well, that would be terrifying.
Imagine being humiliated in the presence of our
friends and in the presence of all these
people who are watching.
I want you to know that I've given
that a lot of thought.
I'm not sure that it is public, but
I do want to tell you this, my
friend, from my heart to yours, just take
it.
First of all, of course, we'd be all
in the same boat.
But second and more important, I really don't
believe it will matter.
It will not matter.
The only thing that will matter in that
day is the look on the face of
Christ.
What others have said about us, whatever others
believe about us, whatever embarrassment there is, whatever
hypocrisy, none of it will matter that we
are standing in the presence of the Redeemer
who loved us, who gave himself for us
and now is judging us.
And like someone playing the piano who cares
only what his teacher really thinks, what Jesus
thinks will be the only thing that will
matter.
Perhaps it will just be his look.
We will be judged fairly.
Take heart.
We will be judged individually.
But third, we will be judged thoroughly, thoroughly.
Now let's look at the text again, where
we must appear before the judgment seat of
Christ, that each one may receive what is
due him for the things done while in
the body.
Catch this now, whether good or bad.
Wow.
The Greek here, when it says we shall
appear, is phanero.
A scholar likened it onto being made manifest,
being turned inside out.
The imagery is, and you remember at least
some of us do when we were children,
somebody would say, do you have a penny
in your pocket?
No, I don't have a penny.
Oh, come on, you do.
And in order to prove that we didn't,
you remember how we as little boys at
least would pull out our pockets and turn
them inside out and reveal every last little
piece of lint.
We shall appear before the judgment seat of
Christ.
We shall be made manifest.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, it says that
all of our works will become evident.
The day shall show it.
It will be revealed by fire.
It will be a thorough judgment.
You say, well, Pastor Lutzer, will we see
our sins?
I don't know whether or not we will
see our sins.
Certainly if we do, they will be represented
to us as forgiven, because this is not
a time when Jesus is angry and he
is judging us in that sense, because there
is no condemnation to them which are in
Jesus Christ.
But I'll tell you the issues that I
believe are going to be the big ones
at the judgment seat.
It isn't so much the sin that we
ourselves have judged and we've taken care of.
It is all of those loose ends that
we have allowed to be on earth, where
there has not been reconciliation, where there has
not been restitution, where there has not been
repentance.
And you can't really go into heaven into
eternity until all these things are made straight.
The respected theologian John Murray said that believers
will want they will desire such a judgment
to magnify the salvation of Christ.
Here are two people.
They're Christians.
They get a divorce.
Bitter feelings develop.
Later on, the husband goes somewhere else, perhaps
lives with someone else, does not pay child
support.
You have all kinds of anger that begins
to go there.
And these are believers, but they can't even
be reconciled in any way, shape or form.
And they die and they go into eternity
with all that anger and with all those
loose accusations and those false accusations all still
floating around.
Do you mean to tell me that standing
before Christ, they're going to march into heaven
hand in hand, sing in the heavenly choir
and pretend that everything is OK?
No, I've known instances where Christians have slandered
other Christians, where Christians have stolen property that
really belonged to someone else.
It is absolutely a shame when you think
of what Christians sometimes do to Christians.
And there is separation and there is non
reconciliation and no attempt to make it right.
And when the judgment seat of Jesus Christ
takes place, that's where it's all going to
have to be dragged out and adjudicated.
That's why it says that if we do
not judge ourselves, we shall be judged.
This is serious business, very serious.
The Apostle Paul said in First Corinthians, chapter
four, verse three, and take it by faith,
it is there.
He sees discussing various things within the church
where you always attempt reconciliation, but sometimes you
don't get it.
And he said, judge nothing before the time
because the Lord is going to come who
is going to reveal the motives of men's
hearts, who will judge all things and reveal
the motives of men's hearts.
And then he says, all men will receive
their praise from God.
We're talking here about a thorough judgment.
You know, when the Bible says, for example,
dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, the Lord will
avenge.
It's not just talking about him avenging unbelievers.
That's actually truth for Christians.
That's why those of you who have been
hurt by other Christians, those of you who
are in situations where the wrongs have never
been made right, where there has been no
attempt to find truth and reconciliation and restitution
and forgiveness.
I want you to know that someday the
truth will come out and justice will be
brought to the situation.
Now you understand that I'm preaching things that
many people either ignore or disbelieve.
But I find it very interesting that many
people want to take that little word judgment
out of the judgment seat of Jesus Christ.
This is a time of adjudication.
And the best thing we can do is
live our lives for God and make sure
that in all of our relationships and in
all that we have done, we have tried
to keep things up to date because if
we judge ourselves now, we will not have
to be judged.
Notice how far we've come.
We're going to be judged fairly.
We're going to be judged individually.
We're going to be judged thoroughly.
And by the way, I've emphasized the negative.
I just marvel at all the things in
the scripture.
For example, it says a cup of cold
water given in my name, Jesus said, and
you will not lose your reward.
If you ask the question of what Jesus
will be looking for, all that we need
to do is to go through the scriptures
as I have in another context and look
at all of the times when it says
your reward shall be great.
Has God ever put you in a position
where you have to love somebody who's unlovable?
Did you rejoice over that?
You should because then you'll be like your
father who is in heaven, who loves the
unlovable, it says.
And furthermore, your reward shall be great.
Have you ever been fired because you love
Jesus Christ and because of on the job,
your witness for Christ got you into trouble?
Rejoice because it says if they say all
manner of evil against you falsely for my
sake, rejoice for great shall be your reward
in heaven.
I don't have time to say it all,
so I'm just throwing it out here for
you to just pick up on as quickly
as you are able.
But you know, when I talk about rewards,
it's not as if God is going to
give us, you know, a day's wage for
a day's pay or a day's pay for
a day's work.
Not bad at all.
He is going to be so generous.
He's going to be giving us things that
we could never possibly have earned or deserved.
But this life is like a college entrance
exam where Jesus is testing our faithfulness to
see where he will slot us in the
eternal kingdom.
You are faithful in that which is least,
you will be given more responsibility.
You are unfaithful here on earth in terms
of your finances.
Who will entrust the true riches to you,
Jesus says.
So God is, this is the test to
know the extent to which you'll be trusted
in the eternal kingdom.
Now, what I'd like to do tonight, I've
emphasized that will be judged fairly individually and
thoroughly.
I would like to leave you with three
explosive, hopefully life changing lessons.
Let me give you the first.
Remember that every day is either it is
either a loss or a gain so far
as eternity is concerned and the judgment seat
of Christ.
Every day is either a loss or a
gain.
George Whitfield, the great evangelist, who by the
way is buried here in the United States
and I want to get to his grave
sometime, but he was criticized greatly when he
was preaching.
I mean, he was criticized for preaching outdoors.
He had a conflict with John Wesley.
He was, the paper sometimes wrote against him
and he said this and this is what
he wanted on his tombstone.
I understand it never was written on his
tombstone, but he wanted it there.
The man George Whitfield was that day shall
declare.
Wow.
The man Erwin Lutzer was that day shall
declare.
Suddenly nothing but reality.
Some of you maybe saw the interview with
Diane Sawyer that Diane Sawyer gave to evangelist
Billy Graham.
This was maybe two or three years ago.
She said, Billy, how would you like to
be remembered?
And Billy didn't really answer the question.
There was something else that was on his
mind.
And I remember in some of you maybe
saw it, he said, well, you know, I
would like to hear well done, thou good
and faithful servant, but I don't think that
he will, that I will.
And with that, he turned around with great
sadness and that was the end of the
interview.
I mean, I was watching and I had
a couple of thoughts, the same thoughts that
you would have if you had seen the
interview.
The first is, well, Billy, you know, you're
being more humble than you ought to be.
Humility is good, Billy, but you're overdoing it
just a little bit.
That's the first thing I thought of.
The second thing I thought of was, well,
Billy, if you're not sure whether or not
you're going to do well, you can fill
that one in.
You know, if the rights is scarcely besaid,
where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
How are the rest of us going to
do?
My dear friend, in this respect, Billy was
absolutely right.
The fact that he is famous or that
thousands of people came to know Christ through
his preaching will not enter into the calculation
at all, because he was gifted to do
this.
He was called to do this.
God supplied the grace that he might be
able to do this.
This was his calling in life.
And what God is going to do is
to judge us for the time, talents, and
treasures we use, even those of us who
do not have wide ministries, those of us
who have not had the privilege of preaching
to large crowds.
All of that will be irrelevant, because the
issue is faithfulness.
And that's why we can take a woman
like Elaine, whom we honor tonight as alumnus
of the year, and that's why we can
say to her with integrity that in the
day of judgment, she's going to be ahead
of a lot of us because she served
faithfully in obscurity.
That's going to be the issue.
And character is going to be the issue.
One day I was riding out on the
East Coast, and somebody took me to the
airport, and he was telling me about a
wife, his wife, who had a severe disease,
which meant that almost nothing that he did
was ever done right.
He lived with a terrible amount of hostility
and criticism.
And as he was sharing all this, as
we got to the airport, I turned to
him in the van, and I said, you
know, I don't expect to see you in
heaven.
Well, he looked around like this.
I thought he was going to hit the
cab that was just in front of him.
And I said, I'm serious.
I don't think that I will see you
in heaven.
And he was quite shocked because he was
a born-again believer, and I knew it,
and he knew it.
And I said, you know, in the day
of judgment, you're going to be so close
to Jesus, and I'm going to be so
much farther back.
I really don't know whether I'll see you
in heaven.
Well, some of you may know historically that
actually that's what, who was it, Wesley Sitt
of Whitefield, when he preached Whitefield's sermon.
But I meant it.
There are people who serve in obscurity, who
serve in difficult circumstances, and Jesus will say
to them, well done, thou good and faithful
servant.
You have responsibility over ten cities, because I
put you through the crucible of suffering, and
you came out like gold.
What an experience for those who are faithful
in the midst of suffering and difficulty.
But every day, students, every day, every one
of us, it's either a loss or a
gain, so far as the judgment seat is
concerned.
Secondly, what can we gain, really, if we
are faithful?
What can we gain?
Well, I think that the greatest thing that
we can gain is rulership with Christ.
Now, you know that this is a theological
controversy, which I'm going to avoid, because I
take the minority view in terms of the
interpretation of the book of Revelation.
Some people think that all Christians are overcomers,
and since the great scholars are on that
side, I need to tread carefully here.
But I have this view that not all
Christians are overcomers.
Now, it says in Revelation 3, verse 21,
he who overcomes, to him I shall grant
to sit with me on my throne, even
as I overcame and sat with my father
on his throne.
Did you follow that?
I need to say it again, because this
is breathtaking.
I'm not making this up.
He who overcomes, says Jesus, he shall sit
with me on my throne, even as I
overcame and sat on my father's throne.
That really means that we're going to be
sitting on the throne of God.
Not because of any New Age nonsense about
the perfectibility of human nature or the potential
of human nature.
It has nothing to do with that.
It has everything to do with the incredible,
undeserving grace of God.
But notice what it says, he who overcomes,
to him I shall grant to sit with
me on my throne.
Now, all of us want to be overcomers.
I don't believe that you would be here
tonight if you didn't want to be an
overcomer.
Those of you listening by radio, I don't
think that you would be listening to this
message unless you wanted to be an overcomer.
The problem is we all want to be
overcomers, but we do not want to have
anything to overcome.
And the minute God gives us something to
overcome, we immediately complain and we say no.
God says, don't you understand?
I want you to rule with me in
the coming kingdom, and you have to be
an overcomer.
So I'm giving you something to overcome.
Did you know that at the marriage supper
of the lamb, it says that the bride
is arrayed in white linen, which is the
works, the good deeds of the saints.
And there are two different garments you need
to make it to the marriage supper of
the lamb.
One is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, without
which one can enter into heaven.
And then the second is the good deeds
that allow you to have the privilege of
having something to wear at that marvelous wedding
feast.
Yes, my friend, we can inherit the kingdom.
We can rule with Christ.
What can we lose, you say?
Well, that's a long discussion and a controversial
one, but I'll simply say this.
Minimally, I believe that we can lose the
approval of Christ.
I do not believe that every Christian is
going to hear well done.
Some are going to see disappointment on the
face of Jesus, not anger.
No, we're not talking about that.
The disappointment.
Yes, I gave you so many abilities.
I gave you so many opportunities.
And look at what has happened to you.
Look at how you lived for yourself rather
than for me.
I cannot conceive of a situation in which
Jesus would say well done to everyone when
so many of us live so selfishly in
light of all that he has done for
us.
There is a story that comes to us
from India.
It's a legend about a wealthy Raja who
was riding along in the chariot, and suddenly
there was a beggar along the way, and
the beggar thought to himself, I wonder if
this wealthy man would stop and give me
some money.
So the beggar held out his bowl, and
much to his shock, the Raja got off
of his chariot and went over and said,
beggar, give me some of your rice.
The beggar was incensed.
I'm supposed to give him, this wealthy man,
some rice?
But the beggar did decide to at least
give him one kernel.
Raja said, beggar, give me more of your
rice.
And so the beggar, in anger, gave him
another kernel of rice, another grain of rice.
And then the Raja said, give me more
of your rice.
Now the beggar was just exceedingly in a
furious huff.
He took one more grain of rice and
gave it to the wealthy Raja, and then
left.
A little later, after the Raja had gone,
the beggar looked into his bowl, and he
noticed something glitter.
It was actually a grain of gold the
size of a grain of rice.
He looked more carefully.
There were just two more.
For every grain of rice, a grain of
gold.
And that's the gold that will survive the
fire.
As we say, Jesus, I want you to
have this, and Jesus, I want you to
have that, and I want you to have
my mind and my time and my talents
and my treasure.
I live for your glory.
Glory.
And for every grain of rice, a grain
of gold.
Now, because this message could be misunderstood by
some of you who have never trusted Christ
as Savior, I want to end by a
quick flash look at the final judgment of
those of you who have never trusted Christ.
There is a judgment referred to in the
book of Revelation as the great white throne
judgment, and listen carefully to its description.
I saw a great white throne, and him
that sat on it, before whose face the
earth and the heavens fled away, and there
was no found no more place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God, and the books were opened,
and another book was opened, which is the
book of life, and the dead were judged
out of the things written in the books.
And the sea gave up the dead which
were in it, and death and Hades delivered
up the dead which were in them, and
they were judged, every man according to his
works.
And death and Hades was thrown into the
lake of fire.
Do you say they were judged according to
their works?
Absolutely.
And you know what was discovered?
That their works could not save them.
And what happened in that judgment was, as
they stood there, and you can imagine the
religious types stand with the atheists, the committed
people and the uncommitted people, but they had
one thing in common, they were not good
enough to enter into heaven, and that judgment
only determined the degree of their eternal suffering.
What did they lack?
They lacked the only goodness that God can
supply as a free gift, the gift of
eternal life to those who stop trying to
think that they can go to heaven by
being good.
Of course it's better that you be good
than you be bad, but no one has
ever gotten to heaven by being good.
They've gotten there because they realize that the
only goodness that they can receive is the
gift of righteousness from Christ, humbling themselves and
freely receiving it.
And you today in this auditorium and listening
on the radio or driving along in your
car can say at this moment, Lord Jesus,
I transfer all of my trust to you
and receive your goodness.
And when you do that, you will begin
to do good deeds and you will be
at the judgment that we described this evening.
Would you join me as we pray?
And now Father, fully aware that someday we
shall see you face to face, to give
an account for the deeds done in the
body, whether good or bad, help us to
be faithful people, help us to be dedicated
people, help us to be generous people.
And Father, deal with us as seems good
in your sight, and let us not go
until we have met you on every single
issue that you bring to our attention.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.