More now?
Well, I'm, uh, doing something.
You're writing again?
That's right, yeah, I've got something.
All right, well listen, I want you to
take just a little bit of time here
before you go and do your sermon and
tell us about what's happening in Israel.
I know you've been there many, many times
and, uh, back to last year, how many
times have you been there?
Well, I figured up in a period of
14 months, I was there four times.
Four times.
Well, why don't you just, uh, give us
a little bit about Israel.
Fine.
You know, uh, the mood has really changed
in Israel from what was true before the
1973 war, and, uh, I could see it
particularly this last year, and, uh, I've pondered
many times, prayerfully, what this means in God's
timetable.
But, uh, there is, there's not the sureness
and the, uh, confidence in the average Israeli
that there used to be.
And the average Israeli is, uh, really wondering
whether the dream of having, uh, a homeland
is worth all the hardship they have to
go through.
And the young people are questioning this.
But, of course, the vast majority are sticking
it out, and there's a growing sense of,
uh, uh, patriotism that's even overcoming this tremendous
personal hardship that each Israeli has to go
through.
It's the highest taxes in the world, and
so forth.
But, uh, as I see their sense of
isolation growing, and that's what is hardest for
them to take, not just the economic problems,
but, uh, as I see each Israeli feeling
alone in a world where he's surrounded by
a sea of, uh, Arab people that they
know are hostile toward them, and they see
that there's only one nation that they can
count on for help, and they don't know
how long they can count on that.
That's the United States.
Uh, there, there's a growing uneasiness there.
And I believe as, as we look at
the prophetic scripture, we can see that this
is something that has to come.
Because in God's prophetic plan, the Israelis will
never really search and be open to know
who their Messiah is, or even look for
him, until they're really under the greatest stress
that they've ever been in in their history.
And I believe that stress is setting in.
And I believe the stress that we see
happening now may well lead them to accept
a guarantee of defense from the man that
the Bible calls the Antichrist.
And I believe that the stage is being
set for that, possibly right now.
But also, I see this, and this is
the exciting thing to me.
There's a growing openness to the claims of
Jesus of Nazareth.
I have to be careful to qualify that.
If, if those who believe in Jesus come
over there and try to get a Jew
to convert culture, they're not interested.
And I mean by that, uh, some missionaries
that are there, and those who are interested
in talking to Jews about Jesus, too often
think they have to force the Jew to
become a Gentile, and enter a Baptist culture,
or a Presbyterian culture, or something like that,
before he can really be a true believer.
Well, the Bible says nothing like that.
So if you come to a Jew, and
you don't talk about whether his culture's wrong,
there's nothing essentially wrong with his culture, the
way he lives, the way he's been brought
up.
But you talk to him about the Messiah,
about their own prophet, you don't talk about
an institution or an organization, you talk about
coming to a personal relationship with a man,
Jesus, and show how all the prophets give
witness that he is the Messiah, then they're
interested.
As a matter of fact, while I was
making a movie over there last November, the
director of, the Jewish, Israeli director, said that
he was really excited because some young people
from Europe came by his door in an
apartment where he lived, and they asked his
wife if she would like to buy a
book, and they said, we're going door-to
-door selling it.
And she said, well, what is the name
of the book?
And so they told her the Hebrew name,
it's the Hebrew translation of the late great
planet Earth.
And she said, well, I really would like
to have it because my husband's working on
the filming of that, and that's the one
that's going to be released, of course, in
May with Orson Welles.
And so she bought a copy, and she
said, tell me, do many people buy a
copy of the book?
And they said, almost every door we knock
on, they buy a copy.
And this means that thousands upon thousands of
these are out.
Now, this is just one aspect I know
about what's happening in Israel.
But I believe that there is a growing
openness, if approached correctly, and that there's, at
the same time, a growing sense of isolation
and insecurity.
So this is something I hope we can
develop in one of the future times down
here.
So let's tell them that you're going to
be back here at Melody Land on May
the 1st, Sunday evening, 530 p.m. That's
May the 1st.
And I'm really excited about the message that
God has given me.
I'm going to call it the Books of
God.
And I've never seen anything in a commentary
or in print or anything on this, and
yet I was electrified as Dan and I
were driving over here, and we found that
God keeps a number of books which have
tremendous impact upon us.
For instance, did you know that God has
a bottle that he keeps your tears in,
and he has a book which writes every
hardship he allows you to go through?
That's just one thing.
And do you know that you look the
way you do because God had written all
your members in a book?
Listen, he's got a lot of books, and
there are two of them that really make
a difference, the Book of Life and the
Lamb's Book of Life, two different ones.
Well, we'll be back for that sermon May
the 1st.
Let's welcome him back, all right?
Well, I'm thrilled
to be back at Melody Land.
You remember the last time I was here,
we prayed for a young man named Bill.
And I want to give a report.
The next morning after we prayed for that
young man, I told you he was a
man who had studied Greek here in the
Melody Land School of the Bible.
They were so sure because of the diagnosis
of this man that he was shot through
with cancer that when they operated on him,
they removed his lymph glands.
They took him for a biopsy, and they
found absolutely no cancer at all, found that
nowhere in his body he had been riddled
with it two days before.
And he wanted me to pass on his
eternal gratitude to this body of believers who
all joined together and stormed the throne for
him.
And I pass my thanksgiving to you, too.
Tonight I want to talk about the judgments
of God.
Now, I don't want to make this a
real heavy message, but you know, God really
laid this on my heart.
I was going to talk about something else,
and all of a sudden this got laid
on my heart.
And I know that when God does that,
I can't argue with him.
So here we go.
Turn to John, chapter 5, verses 28 and
29, the gospel of John, chapter 5.
Many things that I'll refer to in the
message tonight are found in the book that
I wrote a couple of years ago called
There's a New World Coming.
And I'm not trying to sell books.
I'm just trying to tell you that, you
know, the Lord was so working on me
and in me when I wrote this book
that every time I read it, God speaks
to me.
And that's something, I want to tell you,
that he'll speak to me through something I
wrote myself.
But this is a paragraph-by-paragraph analysis
of the book of Revelation.
I think it's the most important book I've
written.
So I go through and see the things
that get at my heart and cause me
to really look at Jesus.
Now this book has been out for a
while, so it's at a reduced rate now.
I just encourage you, if you haven't read
it, to read it because of the importance
of that message to what's happening in our
world today.
Now when I was here last time, we
talked about an update of how we can
know, and how I'm absolutely sure, that we're
on a countdown toward the coming of Christ
for his own, and that his coming is
very near.
All about us in the newspaper and the
events that are happening all about us, we're
seeing a precise pattern of events that were
predicted by the prophets long ago, all coming
together.
So there is no doubt that this pattern
is simultaneously coming together, and that's what is
unique.
It never has before simultaneously come together with
all of these pieces of these predicted events
fitting together.
And so I start off, based on what
I said the last time, with the fact
that Christ's coming for his own, for those
who have believed in him, is very, very
near.
I believe the next significant event in prophecy
is not going to be something I'll read
about in Newsweek, probably be in there, but
we won't be there to see it.
I think the next significant event on God's
prophetic calendar is going to be the sudden
snatching away of every believer in Jesus Christ.
I believe that's very, very near.
And that's what we call, what has been
called theologically, the rapture, and as you know,
I call it the great snatch.
Now, in John chapter 5, verses 28 and
29, we read these words.
Jesus is speaking.
He says, "...do not marvel at this, for
an hour is coming in which all who
are in the tomb shall hear his voice,
and shall come forth, those who did the
good deeds to a resurrection of life, and
those who committed the evil deeds to a
resurrection of judgment."
In the original Greek, it doesn't say deed.
I'm reading from the New American Standard Bible.
In the original Greek, it has a definite
article before the word good and the word
evil.
The good and the evil, because there are
certain acts that we can perform that God
considers the good, and there are certain acts
that we perform that he says they are
the evil.
He's speaking of certain definite things here, and
we'll go over what that is as we
develop into this study.
Now, the good, what good thing can I
do to inherit eternal life?
When he says, "...those who have done the
good shall have a resurrection of life.
Those who have done the evil shall have
a resurrection of damnation."
Well, that question is answered for us in
John chapter 6.
Hold your place here and let's just look
at it.
It's just a page or two over.
What's the good?
John chapter 6, verses 28 and 29.
The group asked him.
They said, "...therefore to him, what shall we
do that we may work the works of
God?"
This was an honest question.
They wanted to know how they could have
a relationship with God.
What would God require of them?
What did Jesus say?
Jesus answered and said to them, "...this is
the work of God, that you believe in
him whom he has sent."
I'm going to amplify that more.
But what is the good thing that we
can do?
Believe that Jesus Christ took our place on
the cross, took the guilt for our sins,
and he took the judgment of God against
himself for those sins.
And when we believe that, we have forgiveness
of sin, eternal life, we receive a new
birth, a new nature which wants to follow
God.
And as we depend upon the Holy Spirit,
he empowers us to follow him.
Good works result, but they're never the basis
of why we're accepted with God and why
we'll be in the resurrection of life.
What's the evil?
John 3, 18 explains that.
Let's look at it.
"...he who believes in him is not judged."
I want you to remember that, because we're
going to talk about judgment.
"...he who believes in him as the one
who bore his judgment is not judged, but
he who does not believe has been judged
already."
In other words, the one who checks out
of this life and has not believed in
God's provision of forgiveness through Jesus Christ does
not have to wait until the last judgment
to know he's been judged, because it says
he's already been judged.
And it says, "...because he has not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son
of God."
And this is the judgment that the light
has come into the world, and men love
darkness rather than light, for their deeds were
evil.
Men won't come to the light to receive
a free gift because their deeds are evil,
and the pride of man will not let
him submit to a free gift from God.
Now, looking again at John 5, 28 and
29, verse 29, Jesus said, "...those who hear
his voice and all will someday, those who
did the good to a resurrection of life,
and those who committed the evil to a
resurrection of judgment."
All right, there we have two different resurrections,
the resurrection of life and the resurrection of
judgment.
Which one will you be in?
You know, the thing that requires real Bible
study is to learn how to rightly divide
the word of truth.
Not dissect it, but rightly discern it.
The scripture urges us, study to show yourself
approved to God, a workman who does not
need to be put to shame, rightly dividing
the word of truth.
And I can really see the necessity of
that in this verse here, because Jesus makes
a general statement and he does not explain
it.
He says there will be a judgment wherein
there will be a resurrection of life and
there will be a resurrection of judgment.
But you know, as you study what the
scripture says intently, you find that the scripture
shows that the resurrection of life has several
stages.
In other words, it occurs in several stages.
It doesn't occur all at the same time.
You know, when I first became a believer,
I had the common idea that almost everyone
who approaches the Bible has at first, and
that is that there's going to be a
final judgment and everything's going to take place
at one time.
If you are a believer, you're going to
stand there and there are unbelievers and believers
are going to be there.
And there's going to be a separation between
believers and unbelievers.
And when you get to the judgment throne,
you're going to be judged as to whether
you made it or not.
Well, scripture doesn't teach anything like that, not
at all.
So I want us to look at the
resurrection of life for a minute, a little
bit more of a detail.
Hold your place in John and turn with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 20
through 24, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 20
through 24, where it says, But now
Christ has been raised from the dead, the
first fruits of those who are asleep.
For since by a man came death, by
a man also came the resurrection of the
dead.
For as in Adam all die, so also
in Christ all shall be made alive.
But each in his own order, that's the
thing I want to stress, each in his
own order.
Christ the first fruits, after that those who
are Christ at his coming.
Now the word first fruit in the in
the illustration here makes us project back to
the order of the Jewish harvest.
And I believe that that's the best way
to understand how the resurrection of life takes
place.
You know, in the Jewish harvest, they had,
first of all, when they would harvest the
grain, the first fruit, this would be a
token of the harvest that would be cut.
They would bring it before the Lord at
the temple and they would offer it to
the priest and it would be called a
wave offering.
That is they would wave this token of
the harvest before the Lord, give thanks to
him for that.
And it was a, it was considered a
guarantee of a full harvest.
And then after the first fruit, there was
the wave offering.
That was the second part.
Then there was a third part of the
harvest, which was the general harvest where there
would be a great harvesting, but there would
always, the Lord said, don't completely harvest every
field, leave the gleaning.
And the gleanings were the, the grains and
so forth that were left by the cutters.
And it was left for the people who
were the poor and the poor people would
come and glean from the field.
So that was the last part of the
harvest.
Now I believe that we can see this
fit into the order of resurrection and the
order of judgment.
Christ is the first fruit.
But inseparably united to the first fruit was
the wave offering, which was brought out of
that.
And then the harvest, then the gleaning.
I believe that the wave offering is going
to be the rapture.
That's the second stage of the resurrection of
life.
Let's look at a verse on that.
Look at John chapter 14 with me, verses
1 through 3.
A very familiar passage.
Most of us have heard this, especially if
we've ever been to a funeral, because it's
a comforting passage.
But Jesus said this, verse 1 of John
14, Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many dwelling places.
If it were not so, I would have
told you, for I go to prepare a
place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive
you to myself, that where I am, there
you may be also.
And you know the way where I'm going.
Of course, he went on to answer some
more questions where he said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life.
No one can come to God except through
me.
Now, this was the promise that Jesus himself
left to his apostles and all who would
believe through their words, and that includes us.
That he was going to prepare a place
for us.
And where is that place?
It's in his Father's house.
And he's preparing dwelling places for us.
And he said, he is coming to take
us to those prepared dwelling places.
I know right away that there has to
be something special happen here, because according to
Matthew 25, which we'll look at not now,
but in a moment.
When Jesus comes back in the second Advent,
he is coming back to the earth, visibly
and personally.
It'll be at the end of a seven
-year period where there's a global war.
And he will come to put down all
of the armies that will be in battle
around the Middle East.
It'll spread to the whole world, but the
focal point will be in the Middle East.
The horrible war that's predicted, the Russians will
invade the Middle East, along with the Arabs.
Then the great hordes of Asia, led by
Red China, I believe, will come in.
The West, including the United States, will be
involved in that.
All of this will culminate with the battle
of Armageddon, at which time Christ will return
to keep man from destroying all life on
this earth.
That's the second Advent.
He will come to the earth.
But at that time, he does not take
believers off the earth back to his Father's
house.
What does he do?
Well, within just a moment, he keeps them
on the earth.
And they go into a kingdom that will
last a thousand years on this earth, and
they will dwell with him here for a
thousand years.
So when he comes in his second Advent,
the visible personal return to the earth at
the end of this great global holocaust, the
believers will stay with him on earth.
But he says of the believer in the
church that he will be taught to be
with him in his Father's house, which is
not on the earth, it's in the Father's
house.
So that tells me right there, hey, there's
something that needs to be correlated here.
It tells me that these two events are
not the same event.
Of course, there's a lot of other evidence,
but it tells me that these two events
are not the same.
The coming from Christ's church, that is all
who are believers now in this time, is
to take us to his Father's house.
His coming back to the earth in a
visible return is to set up a kingdom
on the earth and to keep those who
survive that period as believers, as mortals, to
go in and repopulate the earth and set
up that kingdom.
So these two events are not the same.
This is what you call rightly dividing the
word of truth by comparing scripture with scripture.
Now, when Jesus comes to take us to
the Father's house, what's going to take place
there?
This is actually the second stage of the
resurrection of life.
Who's going?
Who's going to go in this?
It'll be a secret coming because Christ says
that he'll come in the twinkling of an
eye and catch us up to meet him
in the air.
1 Corinthians 15 verses 51 to 53 and
1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 15 to 18.
Those two passages tell us he comes suddenly,
without warning, and catches us up to meet
him in the air and then takes us
to the Father's house.
And there we are to dwell with him
in the mansions he prepares.
But what else takes place during that time?
Well, first of all, we know it's only
those who are in Christ who take part
in this resurrection, the rapture.
Look with me at 1 Thessalonians chapter 4
for a moment.
1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 15, page 315,
if you have the same New American standard
I do.
1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 15 and following.
It says, For this we say to you
by the word of the Lord, that we
who are alive and remain until the coming
of the Lord shall not precede those who
have fallen asleep.
The Lord himself will descend from heaven with
a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
and with the trumpet of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain will
be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
The important thing is it's the dead in
Christ.
That is a technical phrase that's used in
the New Testament only, and it's only used
after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it's
never used of an Old Testament thing.
The dead in Christ refers to all of
those who have believed in Jesus Christ since
his glorification, that is his death, burial, and
resurrection.
Because you see, the Holy Spirit after that
began to do something he had not done
before in God's working with man.
That is, the moment we believe in Jesus
Christ, we're miraculously taken by the Holy Spirit
and baptized into a living organic union with
the very person of Jesus Christ.
That's unique to this time, to this age
that we live in.
Not true before.
Now they were saved, of course, in the
Old Testament, but they did not have the
privilege of being joined into the very body
of Jesus Christ.
That's not just an illustration.
The scripture says we're bone of his bone
and flesh of his flesh.
So the one who is a believer in
Jesus Christ since his resurrection is said to
be in Christ, and that means to be
in union with him, to be part of
him, in a mystical and yet actual way
be in union with the very person and
the body of Christ, bone of his bone
and flesh of his flesh.
Now that tells us that this particular part
of the resurrection of life only applies to
the believer of this particular time in the
church.
So when Christ comes secretly before that seven
-year holocaust, I believe, which we call the
tribulation, he is coming to take those who
are alive now, and I believe I'm looking
on the face of many of you who
will be part of that.
Suddenly one moment you're here and the next
moment you see the Lord face-to-face
and you look down at your body and
you say, wow, it's glorified.
Well now I'm glad you clapped about that
because I think any one of you could
get excited about a new suit of clothes,
but what about a new body?
Philippians 3, 19, 20 and 21 says it'll
be exactly like Christ.
Won't wear out, won't hurt, can't get any
disease.
You're shaking your head, one that gave testimony
a while ago.
Be nice to have one that doesn't hurt,
won't it?
And that's going to happen in the twinkling
of an eye.
And those who have believed in Jesus Christ
since the day of his resurrection will be
raised from the dead at that time.
But what about the Old Testament saying?
Not yet.
I'll show you when.
But only the church will be part of
the rapture.
The living will be caught up to meet
him alive, changed from mortal to immortal without
seeing physical death.
The dead believers in Jesus, since his resurrection
will be raised from the dead, their bodies
will be raised incorruptible and joined to their
spirits which are with Christ right now, consciously
waiting that moment.
Now what does take place, though, after that?
Well, in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses
10-15, it tells us what's going to
happen as one of the things during that
period.
This is one of the judgments of God.
This is called the judgment seat of Christ.
What happens at the judgment seat of Christ,
and who will be there?
Verse 10, according to the grace of God
which was given to me as a wise
master builder, the apostle Paul said, I laid
a foundation.
Another is building upon it.
But let each man be careful how he
builds upon it.
For no man can lay a foundation other
than the one which is laid, which is
Jesus Christ.
He's talking about an imagery of a spiritual
temple that's being built.
The foundation is Jesus himself.
And he says on that foundation is being
built a spiritual temple which is made up
of living people, you and I, and all
of those who have gone before us who
have believed in Jesus.
They're being built on the foundation which is
Jesus Christ.
And he says now in verse 12, now
if any man builds upon the foundation with
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,
you know he likens each one of our
lives as an individual temple too.
There's a corporate temple and there's an individual
temple.
Now he says he switches to the individual.
And he says if anyone literally builds on
that foundation, each one of our lives has
a foundation when we believe in Jesus Christ.
And that foundation is the only one that
will make us into the family of God
and the temple of God.
And that's Jesus himself.
But he says if anyone builds on that,
silver, gold, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,
two kinds of building material.
And then he says that after we build
that each man's works, verse 13, will become
evident for the day will show it because
it is to be revealed with fire.
And the fire itself will test the quality
of each man's work.
If any man's work which he has built
upon it remains, he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work is burned up, he
shall suffer loss.
But, and this is one of the most
important buts in the Bible, if you'll let
me emphasize it here, but he himself shall
be saved, yet so as through fire.
He himself shall be saved.
Now we're talking about a judgment at which
everyone who stands there will what?
Be saved.
There's none lost at this judgment.
Not one.
You know why?
Because Jesus said in John chapter 6, verse
40, this is the will of him who
sent me, that of everyone who beholds the
Son and believes in him will have eternal
life, and I myself will raise him up
in the last day.
Now if he doesn't raise one up that
has beheld him and believed in him, what
has he not done?
He has not done the will of the
Father.
And let me tell you something, if you
haven't seen it already, that's impossible!
It's impossible!
He will do the will of the Father,
though the earth go into pieces, though the
universe go into smithereens, he'll do the will
of the Father.
He came to do it, and he says,
I will raise him up on the last
day.
But some of us are going to have
the smell of smoke on our toes.
Sometimes, I'm sure each one of us, build
with gold, silver, and precious stones.
Sometimes all of us build with wood hair
straw.
The aim of our lives should be now,
before we get there, to build with gold
and silver and precious stones.
Next message I give in this place, May
1st, is going to be on the books
of God.
Don't miss that.
I'll tell you, God's blowing my mind with
this.
He's keeping a lot of books.
It's exciting what he puts in there, and
it's even more exciting what he says he
blots out for the believers, not the unbelievers.
Some names are being blotted out.
But of the believer, he says, their sins
and their lawless deeds I will remember no
more.
That means he hasn't got a book on
it, thank God, because in Psalm 130, verses
3 and 4, David said, If the Lord
should mark iniquity, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with God that he
might be reverently trusted.
So, thank God, his bookkeeping has its specific
application.
But you know, I think of the books
that are being kept on us, every one
of us is one day going to stand
alone before Jesus Christ.
Alone!
And we'll never feel as alone as we
are that day.
We'll stand before him as in a new
body, which won't just be disintegrated by his
presence, but we're standing there with nothing but
ourselves.
And the books are open.
And before us is the one who pages
through it, and we look at his hands
as he goes through, and we see scars
on them.
We know those are the scars that are
the token that will never be put to
eternal judgment.
They're also, if we really understand, the greatest
reason why we ought to serve him with
all our heart and might and soul right
now.
Out of love for one who loved us
and gave himself for us.
That's the only acceptable motive, by the way.
Everything we do for him out of thanksgiving
and love for what he's done is gold,
silver, and precious stone.
Everything, praise the Lord, you got the point.
Everything we do with a motive that we're
not trying to gain God's acceptance, but we're
just thankful that we are accepted through Jesus
Christ.
And we come with the right motive, and
we just trust him and let the Holy
Spirit work through our personalities and our talents.
We let whatever talents we have be given
over to him, and then if the motive's
right, everything we do, everything God through the
Spirit of God does through us is gold,
silver, and precious stone.
Every time we trust him when there's a
hardship that comes, you lose your job, someone
dear to you falls sick, someone dies, some
unexplainable thing.
Every time we just say, Lord, I don't
understand this, but you said you cause all
things to work together for good for those
who love you and are called according to
your purpose.
You do what I call SOP, the Believer's
Standard Operating Procedure.
First, you claim Romans 8, 28.
That covers everything.
Then you give thanks, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5,
verse 18, and everything gives thanks for this,
whatever's happening at that moment, is the will
of God and Christ Jesus concerning you.
And then the third part of standard operating
procedure should be claiming a specific promise to
answer your problem and then putting the burden
on God and leaving it there.
He is, listen, he gets excited about that
and that's gold, silver, and precious stone.
Malachi chapter 3 says he's preparing a book
of remembrances.
I better not get too much into books
or I'm going to give away the whole
thing.
Now he knows though, and he's got a
way of remembering, but everything that we do
that is contrary to his word and his
sin will be wood, hay, and stubble.
And you know, most of it starts with
motive.
We do something good with the wrong motive,
it's wood, hay, and stubble.
That's the thing that really terrifies me, knowing
the terror of the Lord.
I'll tell you one reason, because I can
fool everybody else, but I never can fool
him.
Never!
That's why I look at things as there's
divine good and there's human good.
Divine good are all of those things I
have happen in my life with the right
motive and trusting the Lord to work through
me by the Holy Spirit.
Human good may be the same work, but
with the wrong motive, and you lose.
I just pray to God that I don't
send a bunch of smoke signals up when
I get there.
But I'm sure, as Jesus kind of talked
about this, he said the first shall be
the last, and the last shall be first.
You know, I'm sure that the people who
will have the greatest bonfires will, in many
cases, be guys like me who are out
front a lot.
Because, you know, in human terms, we look
at the person who's gifted by God, and
that's a great gift.
He didn't earn it, he didn't deserve it.
Look at the guy who's up front, and
we think, wow, he's going to get a
lot of rewards.
You may see the biggest smoke going up.
You know, it doesn't mean a thing if
a guy's used of God and out front.
Yeah, it's praise the Lord, but a spiritual
gift will operate even when a guy's got
the wrong motive, thank God.
A spiritual gift will operate because God gave
it, and he says the gifts and calling
of God are without repentance.
So it'll work, but he won't get a
reward.
But I think of the dear saints.
I think of, you know, some of the
reasons why I'm still alive, and I bet
Ralph could tell about the same thing, and
all of us, Pastor Cook, that one of
the reasons we're still alive and breathing is
because there are some, I can just, I
just think of one.
There's an elderly lady in church, and that
woman prayed for me to the day she
died, Jewish lady.
No one ever saw it.
It was in the closet, in private, but
every day she prayed for me that I
would make it through seminary, that I would
keep rolling in the ministry every day.
And there are people like that who pray
for all of those who are standing out
in front, or else they wouldn't live very
long.
I hope you pray for me, by the
way.
You know why?
Because you'll accumulate gold, silver, and precious stones.
Some people we've never heard of, a little
old lady in tennis shoes, will come up
there, and there's going to be the biggest
pile of gold, silver, and precious stones.
You know, the scripture says that at the
wedding feast of the Lamb, which will take
place later, that there are robes which reflect
the righteous deeds of the saints.
Now, we're all going to have a robe,
but Jan was telling me that she thought
the robes would have gorgeous ornamentations of those
who had, you know, really walked with God,
and had the right motives, and trusted Him.
You know, the thing is, we're going to
have to wear these clothes forever, and right
out there is going to be an example
of where we were in this life.
They'll demonstrate where we trusted Him.
Of course, we'll have resurrection bodies, the old
sin natures will be out, so there won't
be any jealousy or anything like that.
It just will be a demonstration that God
has.
Now, that's what's going to take place at
the judgment seat of Christ.
The next major judgment will take place seven
years after Christ comes to take His Church
secretly and instantly out of the world.
While we're going through judgment of rewards, on
earth there will be all of the tribulation
that's described chronologically in the Book of Revelation,
and many other passages.
At the end of that seven-year period,
Christ Himself is going to come personally back
to this earth and stop the warfare that's
there.
And what will He do immediately after He
returns?
Turn with me to Matthew chapter 25, please.
Matthew chapter 25, verses 31 and 32, says,
"...but when the Son of Man comes in
His glory, and all the angels with Him,
then He will sit on His glorious throne,
and all the nations will be gathered before
Him, and He will separate them from one
another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from
the goats."
Then He gives the most unusual basis of
judgment here, because He talks about a special
breed of men that He calls His brethren.
All right.
Who are these men who are His brethren?
Well, you can search the Scripture high and
low.
The only thing you can come up with
is they have to be Jews.
But I believe a particular, especially a particular
breed of Jews, it will be the 144
,000 Jewish witnesses who will all have a
price on their head during the seven-year
period.
They'll be the greatest witnesses this earth ever
saw, like 144,000 Jewish Billy Grahams all
turned loose at one time.
And the Scripture says their ministry will be
incredible.
It says a multitude out of every tribe
and nation and tongue will stand before the
throne of God who have come out of
the great tribulation and have washed their robes
white in the blood of the Lamb.
Where'd they get the message?
They're introduced in Revelation chapter 7, where that's
found, 144,000 Jewish witnesses, all who will
be hunted relentlessly down by the Antichrist.
Now, the way Jesus judges these people here
is by the way they treated or mistreated
these witnesses.
You see, the only way these witnesses can
survive will be by the support of those
who believe their message.
You know why?
Because everyone's going to be required to receive
a number, the number of the name of
the Antichrist.
And if you don't have that number, what
can't you do?
You can't buy or sell or hold a
job.
So how will these men survive?
By those who believe their message, because it
speaks of them as being in prison and
they didn't visit them, of being naked and
without clothes, of being without food and without
water.
See, this is a very special situation.
He calls them, it's because of the time
that they're special and because he calls them
his brethren.
You see, these who are standing there, some
of them were believers who became believers during
the tribulation.
And yet he doesn't call them in the
same category as he calls these others.
He said these are his brethren in a
special sense, special relationships.
Now, there's another thing that I want to
point out that's very important.
Matthew 25 verses 31 to the end of
the chapter is the judgment of the Gentiles.
Because when Christ comes back to the earth
to set up his kingdom, he's going to
judge the Gentiles separately from the Jews.
Now, how do we know that?
Well, he says here in verse 32, all
the nations will be gathered before him, ta
ethne, in the original Greek, and that can
be translated either nations or Gentiles, and both
mean the same.
Nations plural in the Jewish Bible always meant
all you guys that are not Jews.
But it also means Gentiles.
And so he's saying here he will gather
all Gentiles before him and he's going to
judge them.
Those who have become believers, and they will
demonstrate whether they were believers or not by
the way they treated Jesus' witnesses, the Jews,
all of those who are believers will go
into the kingdom.
We'll connect this with Revelation 20 in just
a moment.
They will go into a kingdom which will
last a thousand years on earth as mortals.
They will reproduce.
They will have children.
Apparently this kingdom starts with only believers because
the unbelievers here are judged and cast off
the earth in the place of judgment.
So here we have the judgment of the
Gentiles.
Well, what about the Jews?
At this same time, Ezekiel chapter 20 talks
about another judgment which the Messiah Jesus will
take.
Ezekiel chapter 20 verses 34 through 38, page
1184.
Chapter 20 verses 34 through 38 says, And
I shall bring you out from the peoples
and gather you from the lands where you
are scattered with a mighty hand and with
an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out.
I shall bring you into the wilderness of
the peoples.
You know where that is?
The Sinai.
He's going to put them back out in
the Sinai.
And this is when he comes to set
up his kingdom.
And he says about the Jews, he says
in verse 35, I will bring you into
the wilderness of the peoples and there I
shall enter into judgment with you face to
face.
This is when he comes back.
As I entered into judgment with your fathers
in the wilderness of the land of Egypt,
so I will enter into the judgment with
you declares the Lord God.
And I shall make you pass under the
rod and I shall bring you into the
bond of the covenant.
I shall purge from you the rebels and
those who transgress me.
I shall bring them out of the land
where they sojourn, but they will not enter
the land of Israel.
Thus you will know that I am the
Lord.
Here's the judgment of the Jews, a judgment
of the Gentiles, Matthew 25, a judgment of
the Jews, Ezekiel chapter 20.
They're separate.
Now that tells me something else.
Once again, rightly dividing the word of truth
since the resurrection of Christ and the giving
of the Holy Spirit.
What does the scripture say about the Jews
and the Gentiles?
Huh?
There is no difference.
There is no difference between Jew and Gentile
today.
Read Ephesians.
Then why does he judge the Gentiles and
the Jews separately here?
Because the church is done gone seven years
before.
That's why.
This is another one of the things that
one of the evidence is that the rapture
occurs before the tribulation, not after.
And so he's back to dealing separately with
the Jews and with the Gentiles.
Now another point says in Zechariah
chapter 13.
I hope you don't mind me referring to
all of these guys back in the Old
Testament.
Just think of how embarrassed you're going to
be one day when you're up in heaven
and Zephaniah comes up and says, howdy, you
ever read my book?
Now you get, you know, it won't matter
if you read mine, but his is a
little heavier.
Now, Zechariah chapter 13, verses 18 or I
should say verses 8 and 9.
God says, It will come about in all
the land, declares the Lord, that two parts
in it will be cut off and perished,
but the third will be left in it.
And I will bring the third part through
the fire, refine them as silver is refined
and test them as gold is tested.
This is the tribulation.
They will call on my name and I
will answer them.
And I will say, they are my people.
And they will say, the Lord is my
God.
One third of the living Jews apparently will
survive and become believers during the tribulation and
will go into the land and be brought
under the covenant that was sworn to Abraham,
like Ezekiel 20 says, I will bring them
in the bond of the covenant.
What covenant?
The covenant he made with Abraham, which cannot
be broken.
That one day he would make a nation
of these people, a nation that to the
man would swear allegiance to the Lord God
and would follow him in faith to the
letter of his word.
So that's the judgment at the second advent.
Very quickly, I know some of you are
a little restless, but I'm almost to the
end.
At this point when the judgment of the
second advent is going on, this is when
all of the Old Testament dead are raised.
Daniel chapter 12 tells us that.
Okay.
Just glance at it.
Good old Dan chapter 12.
This is one through three after Daniel predicts
the great war that leads to the battle
of Armageddon.
He says in chapter 12, now at the
time, at that time, Michael, the great prince
who stands guard over the sons of your
people will arise and there will be a
time of distress such as never occurred since
there was a nation until that time.
And at that time, your people, everyone who
has found written in the book will be
rescued.
And many of those who sleep in the
dust of the ground will await those who
everlasting life.
Let's see.
I'm sorry.
Many of those who sleep in the dust
of the ground will await these everlasting life,
but others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
All right, here it's talking about the resurrection
of the old Testament saints, which occurs at
the visible personal coming of Christ at the
end of the tribulation.
And there they are raised to be in
glorified bodies.
And apparently there's going to be glorified people
and mortal people on the earth and that
kingdom at the same time, because of the
old Testament prophets said, David, my king shall
reign out of Jerusalem.
And the Messiah will also be there as
the son of David.
Now, what a time this earth is going
to have.
Boy, there is a new world coming that
will go on for a thousand years.
And that closes us in on that final
judgment.
Look at Revelation chapter 20, Revelation chapter 20
verses four through six gives the interlude from
the second advent to the last judgment.
It says, and I saw thrones and they
sat upon them and judgment was given to
them.
And I saw the souls of those who
had been beheaded because of the testimony of
Jesus and because of the word of God
and those who had not worshiped the beast
for his image.
This is talking about the raising from the
dead of the tribulation saints.
You see, they were beheaded for not worshiping
the beast who is the antichrist.
And it says, and had not received the
mark upon their forehead and upon their hands.
And they came to life and reigned with
Christ for a thousand years in the image
of the harvest of Israel.
This is the gleaning.
You see the great harvest takes place with
the raising of the church and the raising
of the old saints, but the raising of
the tribulation saints is like the gleaning.
Now he says that they are raised and
it says in verse four still, and they
had not received the mark upon their forehead
and upon their hand.
And they came to life and reigned with
Christ for how long a thousand years.
Now, let me tell you something.
There is a very important rule of interpreting
the Bible that Martin Luther left.
We better listen to it in this day
and hour.
Martin Luther said, when the sense of the
scripture, or I should say, when the literal
scripture makes good sense, don't seek any other
sin.
And what he meant by that is don't
allegorize something that's stated in scripture as a
fact, unless the context demands that it's an
allegory or a parable.
This is not stated as an allegory or
a parable, but as a fact of future
history.
Some people want to make the thousand years
a thousand days and say, well, Peter said
that isn't a thousand years with God like
a day and a day like a thousand
years.
Well, Peter said it's like that.
He didn't say that it was.
And he said, that's only with God, not
man.
We still have to live it out.
So when God says a thousand years, I'm
just dumb enough to say that's what he
means.
But when we get to the judgment seat
of Christ, we'll see who was dumb.
And I don't think I'll have any smoke
on that one.
Now it says that during that verse five,
the rest of the dead did not come
to life until the thousand years were completed.
This is the first resurrection.
In other words, it's finished at that point.
The first resurrection is the resurrection of life.
And all who are believers are raised in
those stages.
Christ, the first fruit, the waves do, the
harvest, the gleaming.
Then the first resurrection is over.
The rest of the dead will not come
to life for a thousand years.
Who are the rest of the dead?
Only unbelievers.
Only.
Now that's brought out, says in verse five,
verse six, blessed and holy is the one
who has part in the first resurrection over
these.
The second death has no power, but they
will be priests of God and of Christ
and will reign with him for a thousand
years.
And that's only the beginning, but we will
reign with him on earth for a thousand
years.
Now he says, and when the thousand years
are completed, Satan will be released from his
prison.
Know why the earth is going to be
so great during that period?
First part of the chapter says Satan will
be bound for a thousand years.
We have no idea of the degree of
spirituality that people will have during that thousand
year period.
With Satan bound, there'll be no more world
system, this elaborate, organized spirit of the age
that he has had over the earth, which
he himself is the king over, the world
system, as Jesus calls it.
That won't be here because Jesus will be
in charge of this earth.
He'll set up the standards and the moods
and the spirit of the age.
The Holy Spirit will cover the people as
water covers the seashore, it says that people
will be a child at a hundred years
old in Isaiah 65, 20.
Apparently there'll be no one died during this
period except unbelievers.
And so this will be a marvelous period.
But at the end of that thousand years,
we're told that the devil will be released
and allowed to go on the earth again.
Now, why would God do that?
Well, it's obvious if you find those who
at the end of a thousand years will
follow him and he will bring about a
revolt, which will never get off the ground
because before it can, God will call the
end.
That'll be it.
But why does God allow this?
Well, to show that apparently the children of
those who start this, which will all be
believers, some of them will be unbelievers, even
with Jesus personally on the face of the
earth ruling and Satan will just bring what's
out in their hearts because there'll be such
universal righteousness, it'll be hard to be bad
during that time.
And so God just lets it be revealed
outwardly what he sees on the inside by
letting Satan go and stir up a rebellion.
That's it.
That's his last act.
And then what happens?
Well, scripture says in verse 11, I saw
a great white throne and him who sat
upon it from whose presence earth and heaven
fled away and no place was found for
them.
I saw the dead, the great and the
small standing before the throne and the books
were open.
Notice it's plural.
And another book was opened, there's another, which
is the book of life and the dead
were judged from the things which were written
in the books according to their deeds.
And the sea gave up the dead which
were in it and the death and Hades
gave up the dead which were in them
and they would judge every one of them
according to their deeds.
Death and Hades were thrown into the lake
of fire.
This is the second death, the lake of
fire.
And if anyone's name was not found written
in the book of life, he was thrown
into the lake of fire.
You know something?
Horrible thing.
I can't read this lightly.
Every person who stands at this judgment is
condemned.
The last judgment will have no believers there.
Only unbelievers.
All who stand here will be cast out
of God's presence forever into a place called
the lake of fire.
Some theologians try to air condition this passage
in modern times.
Maybe it's because they know they're going to
go there in their guts.
But this says it's a lake of fire.
And let me tell you something.
If it isn't literal, then it must mean
something that's just as bad as a lake
of fire.
That's good enough for me.
I don't want to go there.
But it says that all will stand here.
You know, the most terrifying thing to me
is that every person who has ever lived
is going to be bodily resurrected someday.
Now, we all believe that the believer will
be bodily resurrected.
But this says, and the rest of the
scripture says so, that the unbeliever is going
to be raised from the dead bodily.
And he will stand before that last judgment
in a body of corruption.
But in a body which can experience pain.
And it says the books are open.
And another book, which is the book of
life.
And one is called the book of deeds.
The book of works.
As I bring this to a close, I
want you really to think with me for
a moment.
Why is this judgment necessary?
And why and what is going to be
said to these people?
Says they will be judged according to their
work out of the book.
Well, I can put together what the scripture
says and come up with what's going to
happen there.
I believe God and the one who's on
this throne will have nails, nailed sword hands
again.
Jesus, he said he's going to be the
judge of the living and the dead.
John chapter five, also in Philippians, also in
second Corinthians five, it says, every knee shall
bow and confess that Jesus is Lord.
That's the unbeliever as well.
They'll stand before the lamb who once died
for them.
The judge who judges every man will also
be the one who died, but they wouldn't
have had to come there.
And so if they stand before this awful
judgment, they're going to be judged by their
deeds.
And one of the books that will be
there is the Bible.
Paul said in Romans, men shall be judged
according to my gospel.
Where is it in the Bible?
Galatians chapter three, verse 10, cursed is everyone
who does not abide in all things written
in the book of the law.
In the Bible.
There are going to be a lot of
men there that said the Bible was filled
with error.
They're going to find that it isn't in
error when they stand and they're judged by
the very thing they tried to destroy.
Horrible.
And every deed that these people have done
will be evaluated.
And I believe the deeds that God will
evaluate most will be the ones that the
person thought were good.
The reason I believe that is because John
three 18 says he who believes in the
son is not condemned, but he who believes
not the son is what condemned already.
So he's already condemned before he gets there.
So why the judgment to demonstrate fairly to
every unbelieving man who stands there, why he
is judged and everyone who leaves that judgment,
though he is condemned forever will agree.
It was righteous, horrible thing to have to
agree to, but they will.
You know why?
Because I believe that the son of God
with an angel reading over a book that
will contain everything that this individual has done
will go over what he thought were the
best deeds that he did.
And then the son of God will read
from the word of God, Isaiah 64, six,
but all of your righteousnesses are as filthy
red in my sight.
And then he will read from John three
18.
He who believes on the son is not
judged, but he who believes not the son
has been judged already because he has not
believed in the name of the only begotten
son of God.
The only unpardonable sin on earth is to
die rejecting Jesus Christ.
There is no other.
Last thing, the Holy Spirit is often brought
up in Matthew 12.
That's something that could only happen in the
time of Jesus with an unbeliever doing it.
They were attributing to Satan the miracles that
Jesus were performing.
And those miracles were his, his credentials to
prove that he was the Messiah and the
savior of the world.
So rejecting his miracles then was tantamount to
rejecting his message.
And when they reject his message, what were
they rejecting?
Eternal life.
But John three 18 says there is only
one unpardonable sin, and that's to leave this
life, rejecting Jesus Christ and everyone who stands
there.
What will they be pleading?
Well, I believe that Jesus gave us a
preview of that horrible thing in Matthew chapter
seven, where some will be religious.
A lot of them will be religious standing
there at that last judgment in Matthew seven
24 or seven 22.
Jesus said, many will say to me on
that day, what day?
The judgment day.
Many will say to me on that day,
Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your
name and in your name cast out demons
and in your name perform many miracles.
Wow.
Listen, they wouldn't plead this if it were
untrue.
They're at the place where you can't lie.
No one will lie at the last day,
at the last judgment.
So they plead their words.
And what will Jesus say?
Then will I declare to them, I never
knew you depart from me, you who practice
lawlessness.
Can you imagine what that will be like?
Why are these people condemned?
These Matthew seven talking about why are they
condemned to the last judgment?
Because they were standing on their work, not
on believing in Jesus Christ.
John six 29, this is the work of
God.
What?
That you believe on him whom he has
sent.
If you're standing on any other ground, you
better get it right tonight.
Don't take a chance on that.
Only God knows the heart.
Only God knows the motive.
Only God knows what you're really resting your
hope of forgiveness and eternal life on.
But he knows.
You may be here tonight and you say,
this is awful.
I didn't want to hear this.
I was drugged here.
Well, you have my sympathy, but I'll tell
you one thing.
If I could, I'd scare the hell out
of you rather than have you go there.
Think of it.
That awful day when time is at an
end, and the son of God is sitting
on that awful white throne of judgment.
Person after person comes up and says, this
is your life.
And it seems as it is, not as
people thought.
And all who stand there have every hope
that was false stripped away.
And after every good deed that they thought
they could bring up, I paid my bills.
I was a good neighbor.
I always tried to keep the golden rule.
How often have I heard that?
I don't know Jesus.
I keep the golden rule.
Most of them don't know where the golden
rule is found in the Bible.
So how do they keep it?
Well, I was a good Mason.
No reflection on the Masons intended.
I was a good Baptist.
I was a good churchgoer.
I was a good Presbyterian.
I was a good Catholic.
Well, make a bit of difference.
There's only one thing that would have kept
him from being there, and that was that
he saw that he could never be good
enough by his own good deed for God
to accept.
And he came without one plea saying, God,
I can't keep your law.
I've broken it.
I'm a sinner, therefore.
And I understand that Jesus has died for
me.
I want to accept a gift of forgiveness.
Come into my life, and I want to
be the way you want me to be.
So I give Jesus the right to come
in and take over and make me the
way he wants me to be.
All who do that will never stand at
the last judgment.
But those who fail to do that will
one day, as sure as you're sitting here,
one day you will stand at that last
awful judgment.
Then it'll be too late.
And after everything has gone over, there will
be something that will rain in your ears
forever.
Depart from me.
I never knew you.
And there'll be no hope, no help, no
one to comfort because everyone will be isolated
in himself.
I remember guys used to say aboard ship
when I was there, oh, I'm going to
go to hell.
All my buddies are going there, and we'll
play cards.
But I remember after I became a believer,
I went back and I said, you got
to play cards, huh?
You ever seen a guy play cards in
a blast furnace?
Oh, just a thought.
Awful.
But no one has to go there.
No one.
The only one the scripture says that's qualified
to pronounce judgment on these people is the
one who died for them.
And he died for you tonight.
And if you will accept him right now,
you will be at a judgment where the
only issue will be whether you gain rewards
or lose them.
Put in your reservation for that one.
Oh, we
want to see to
reach out and that
we and
help
us to we
want to see oh
and say that
we love you
you