I would like to read a couple of Scriptures. One is in Romans 14.
But thou, why judgest thou thy brother? Or again, thou, why dost thou make little of thy brother?
For we shall all be placed before the judgment seat of God.
For it is written, I live, saith the Lord, that to Me shall bow every knee, and every tongue shall confess to God.
So then, let each of us give an account concerning himself to God.
And also a verse in 2 Corinthians 5—a few verses. We will start in verse 9.
Wherefore also we are zealous, whether present or absent, to be agreeable to Him.
For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of the Christ, that each may receive the things done in the body, according to those he has done, whether it be good or evil.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but have been manifested to God, and I hope also that we have been manifested in your consciences.
Let us go to the Lord in prayer.
Lord, we stand before You this morning. We all come by the precious blood of Christ and worship You together. I just want to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord over this place and over our hearts.
Lord, we praise You that You have risen from the grave. You are alive, You have ascended, and all power and authority are Yours. Lord, we fix our eyes on You and worship You together.
I pray that You would meet us in this time with Your Word and speak something directly into our hearts. In Jesus’ name, amen.
I have been sharing on some things to do with the kingdom, and this time we want to look at the judgment seat of Christ, as you can tell from the two Scriptures that we read.
When I was telling someone the title, he said, “Not a happy message, huh?” But it can be. Still, this is something serious. This is just like the Scripture said: we are all going to be there. We must all be manifested before that judgment seat of Christ.
We looked before at the principle of gift and reward. Basically, your salvation is the free gift, but there is a reward for us Christians to run after and to gain. At this judgment seat of Christ that we are talking about, this is when the reward is determined—not your salvation, but the reward.
We also looked before at a picture of the kingdom age and how everything unfolds. We all have different ideas on raptures, resurrections, and the timing of the very end—how it happens. But no matter what our ideas are, we are all going to be at this judgment seat of Christ.
It does not matter how much you understand. You are going to be at the judgment seat of Christ. It does not matter if you believe that all Christians are exempt from any more judgments. It says in the Scripture very plainly: we Christians must all be manifested at the judgment seat of Christ.
Sometimes I get into discussions with people about the end times. But actually, if there is a disagreement, the one disagreement I will talk a long time on is the principle of gift and reward.
When it comes down to raptures and timings and things like this, I do not feel it is too worth arguing. I think it is interesting. I think it is fun to study the Scriptures. But to really debate, I would not spend too much time with you.
But the gift-and-reward principle is essential, even for our Christian walk: to know without a doubt that you are saved. We are saved by grace through faith. There are absolutely no works that have to do with it. This is essential.
This will actually affect the way that you live your Christian life. To understand when the rapture happens may or may not affect you much. Whether you are ready or not—that is what matters.
To know that there is a reward to run after as a Christian, even though you are saved, even though you have heaven secured—to know that there is a prize, that there is a pleasing of the Lord—this is essential. This will affect the way you live your Christian life. It will also affect the way you understand the Scriptures.
As you read through, many things are confusing if we do not understand the difference: there is a gift that is free, but there is a reward that is earned. This is a very important principle.
We spent the whole time talking on this because I feel this is really essential and will affect us. But to understand what the first resurrection is, or when certain things happen—if you do not get it, if it is all confusing—what matters is, am I ready to meet the Lord? Am I ready?
We are all going to be at the judgment seat of Christ, whether you know when it happens or not. So today I did not bring any charts. I do not have anything to show. I actually want to get into mainly this: let us all be ready.
Because if we are watching, watching does not just have to do with the Lord’s imminent return and rapture—the first rapture of the overcomers. Watching also, as it is mentioned in the Bible—and we will read it—means that we have to watch because we may fall asleep at any time. We may pass away. And if we are watchful, we are ready to meet the Lord.
A few things just to mention: we are going to look at some of the parables and pictures of the judgment seat of Christ, but I want to say something up front. There are three future judgments of people that are coming, and we should not confuse these together. When you read the Bible, you do not want to confuse these three together.
Just to mention the other two quickly: two of them are for unbelievers; one of them is for believers. The one for believers is the judgment seat of Christ that we are talking about.
The two for unbelievers: one is for unbelievers who have died, and the other one is for unbelievers who are still alive when the Lord physically returns.
The one for unbelievers who have died is called the great white throne judgment. This is in Revelation 20. If you read Revelation 20, it happens right after the thousand years. Then there is this great white throne judgment.
It is for unbelievers because even though all the books are opened of their lives and their works are judged, one thing determines the whole judgment. It says in Revelation 20, whoever was not in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death—what we commonly call hell.
So the whole determination of the great white throne judgment—even though your good and bad are exposed, and your bad way outweighs the good; there is no comparison—even though all that is manifested, if you are not in the book of life, you are cast into the lake of fire.
That judgment is for unbelievers. That is what we mean when we say we have passed out of that judgment. We will not come into judgment—not that judgment, the judgment that decides heaven or hell. Believers are already free from it.
So, like in John 5:24, He says that if you have believed in Christ, you have eternal life and you will not come into judgment. You have passed out of death and into life.
Believers have not passed out of physical death, but the second death—what the Bible calls the second death, the spiritual death, the eternal death—you have already passed out of it. You will not go into that eternal death. You will not go into that lake of fire, the second death, or hell. We have passed into life.
So we believers have a constant, joyful ground that we stand on: I am saved. I am forgiven of my sins. I am not going to pay the penalty of hell. I have passed out of this. The Lord Jesus paid the price at the cross.
All who believe on Him receive eternal life. They will not be judged for the judgment of hell. So when you read that judgment in the book of Revelation, do not confuse it with the judgment seat of Christ that we believers must all go to.
Another judgment for the unbelievers is the judgment for those unbelievers who are still alive. This is in Matthew 25, beginning at verse 31 through the end.
This is where the account is given: He separates the nations like a shepherd would separate sheep and goats. It says this is when He comes down in all His glory and sets up His throne here on the earth.
When the Lord is finished battling the Antichrist and his armies, there are some people still alive on the earth. When He comes and rescues Israel, He has already judged the church.
The battle between Him and the Antichrist is like nothing. The armies are immediately killed. The Antichrist and the false prophet are thrown alive into the lake of fire. It says in the book of Revelation that these seem to be the first people thrown into hell.
Otherwise, people go to the place of the dead, which is Hades. By the way, at the great white throne judgment, Hades is also emptied out and thrown away into hell. There is no more Hades. No more death. Death and Hades are cast away.
But at this judgment in Matthew 25, just to say very quickly, it is not a judgment of believers. People are judged according to how they treat the Lord’s brethren.
Remember, this is after the tribulation period—the great tribulation, right before the Lord physically returns. There is this great tribulation, or in the Old Testament it is called Jacob’s trouble, where the Jews are persecuted and the Christians are persecuted.
There are some Gentiles during that time, some unbelievers, who are actually kind to the Christians and the Jews. When the Christians and Jews are hungry and thirsty because they cannot find places to buy food, cannot get water, are naked, imprisoned, or sick, some of these unbelievers will treat them kindly and be good to them.
When these unbelievers are gathered together, they are still alive. They have made it through all of this, through the seven bowls of the wrath of God that almost nobody can survive. These people are alive on the earth, and He gathers them together.
“How did you treat My brethren?” That is what they are judged according to. If you are a believer, you are His brethren. But these are judged according to how they treated His brethren.
There is no question about, “Did you believe in Jesus?” There is no determination on anything like that. How did you treat My brethren? Those who did not care about His brethren during the tribulation period are sent on to eternal punishment.
The others are brought into the kingdom age. They are kept alive. They are the ones living on the earth. You know how the Lord mentions in one of the parables about somebody being put over a certain number of cities as a reward? But who lives in the cities? It is these sheep nations that enter into the kingdom.
These are humans on the earth. They are unbelievers, but they enter into the thousand years. They are not getting eternal life or heaven because of how well they treated somebody, but they do stay alive and enter into the thousand years, where they are ruled over by the overcomers.
Now, if all that is like, “Whoa, that is way confusing,” just let us not confuse those two judgments with what we are talking about today. I want to talk about something that is just for Christians.
Another thing I want to mention is this: everything will not be brought up at the judgment seat of Christ. Not everything.
If you have confessed your sins, the faithful and righteous God forgives you, and He washes you clean from your sins. If you are washed clean, you are really clean. It is not covered, and then at the judgment seat of Christ it will be brought up again.
So if, even while we are talking about this right now, you feel some conviction concerning sins or other things—sins of commission, sins you have done, or sins of omission, because you have not done what you ought to have done—if we repent now and confess our sins, we will not be judged at the judgment seat of Christ for those things.
But whatever we do not deal with now will be exposed in that time. If there is something where we are wrong with the Lord now, it will be brought up right then.
So everything will be manifested except what has been washed away by the precious blood of Christ. I just want to mention that up front so everybody is not hanging onto their seat, thinking about all the sins of their whole lifetime coming up.
As believers, we have the precious blood. We can, right now, this moment, be washed clean from all our unrighteousness and all our sins.
Let us look at this in Matthew 25. I actually want to read this. This is the parable of the ten virgins. I think this one is not as familiar to some, so it is quick and easy for us to read together.
This is Matthew 25:1.
Then shall the kingdom of the heavens be made like to ten virgins, that having taken their torches, they went forth to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were prudent, or wise, and five foolish.
They that were foolish took their torches and did not take oil with them.
But the prudent took oil in their vessels with their torches.
Now the bridegroom tarrying, they all grew heavy and slept.
But in the middle of the night there was a cry, “Behold the bridegroom; go forth to meet him.”
Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their torches.
And the foolish said to the prudent, “Give us of your oil, for our torches are going out.”
But the prudent answered, saying, “We cannot, lest it might not suffice for us and for you. Go rather to those that sell, and buy for yourselves.”
But as they went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and the ones that were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.
Afterwards also the rest of the virgins came, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us.”
But He answering said, “Verily, I say unto you, I do not know you.”
Watch therefore, for you know not the day nor the hour.
Now, in this picture of the judgment seat of Christ, these ten virgins are believers. These represent believers. Not only believers, but believers who have fallen asleep.
The Lord has tarried; the Lord has delayed His return. So while waiting for the Lord, some believers have fallen asleep. I do not mean spiritually falling asleep. I mean we have passed away; we have died.
Just like the Lord said about Lazarus, “He has fallen asleep.” But the disciples did not understand, and they said, “If he is asleep, he will get better.” But He said, “He is dead.”
In the Bible, falling asleep is what we Christians do because we will be raised. We will wake up; that is definite. These ten virgins fell asleep. This is a picture of believers who have died in the Lord.
When He says at the end, “Watch therefore, for you know not the day nor the hour,” that is what I mean by watching. It does not just have to do with whether the Lord is going to rapture tomorrow. It has to do with whether I leave here and get in a car accident.
Watching has to do with this: we do not know how long we have. As believers, we need always to be ready. Even if your beliefs on the return of Christ have you thinking that we have a hundred more years, you still need to watch, because you may fall asleep before the Lord returns anyway.
You do not know how long your days are. So I feel this is an urgent thing. We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, and we do not know when it will happen.
These foolish virgins, if they had known they were about to fall asleep, they would have gotten ready. If they had known when their time was, they would have gotten ready. But we do not know.
The wise virgins always stayed ready. They always had the extra oil. Now, oil in the Scripture almost always is the Holy Spirit. As believers, we all have these torches with oil. We all have some oil. We all have the Holy Spirit. But do you have extra oil?
Meaning, are you filled with the Holy Spirit? I am not talking about a one-time experience where people would say, “I got filled with the Spirit.” I am talking more like the seven, sometimes called deacons, in Acts. They were choosing seven people to wait on tables, and they said they had to be men filled with the Spirit.
This is a state of being. This is a way of a Christian. It basically means that you have this vessel. Every one of us has this container, and what is inside of it? If it is empty of everything else, it will be filled with the Holy Spirit.
I think some of us are actually in this case, where other things are trying to fill up our containers.
The way to get filled with the oil is to go to those people who sell the oil, right? Like it says to the foolish virgins, they had to go and buy the oil. But how do you buy the oil? You have to sell everything.
If you are sold out for Christ, you will be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you sell your all, then He will fill you. But if you have things in your container from the world, if you have things distracting you, if you have things to do with sin, or things that are natural and good but you have not given them over to the Lord, then they fill the vessel.
It can be your family that you love so much. But if your family does not go through the cross and become consecrated to the Lord—even if you have the cutest little baby that smiles all the time—it is not worth it. Family must be given to the Lord.
With the Lord, we live our family life together with the Lord, and it is joyful and wonderful. We do not have to hang onto it ourselves. The things of this earth that we have to live in and do—work and play and whatever we do—do not have to be something without Christ.
We sell it all to Christ, and then we walk with Christ in this world. We walk with Christ in our jobs. We walk with Christ in everything.
But I think the biggest thing that fills up our vessel is selfishness—self. This can touch into everything. It can touch into the reason we do anything.
If we are filled with ourselves, then there is no room to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Is it worth it, on the day of the judgment seat of Christ, to stand there before the Lord with your vessel full of rocks? And you have to go away because you still have not sold all; you have not emptied out your vessel?
Specifically, if you find yourself motivated in all kinds of areas because, “I just want to do this,” we have to ask ourselves before the Lord, “Is this just my selfishness?”
I am afraid to mention too many specifics because, for one person, they may be doing something the right way, and another person may be doing it and it is completely terrible. But if you look at the motive behind what you are doing, are you sold out to Christ?
Is there something in your life that you feel is holding you back from following the Lord with your whole heart?
For example, some people have told me they feel they should be doing something, but their spouse will not let them, or they are afraid of failing.
Now, it is true that sometimes you have limitations, but we are not limited in following the Lord. Paul was limited in prison, but he was not limited in following the Lord.
It is true: if you feel, “I need to go away as a missionary to some country, but I am limited because of this,” that limitation may be good. Your feeling may be wrong. Limitation is okay.
But when there is no limitation and you actually can follow the Lord, we have no excuse. There is nobody who is going to stand next to you at the judgment seat of Christ for you to point at and say, “It is their fault.”
When you stand there, your wife will not be there. Your husband will not be there. Your friends will not be next to you. Nothing will be there. It will just be you, and you will stand there naked before the Lord.
We all have to be manifested there, but we will not be there with everybody else. We will not be able to blame anybody. If you have limitations, that is different. But if you are filling your vessel because you desire something else besides the Lord, then you have to answer for it.
But the other five virgins were wise. They got ready. They were watching at all times, and when they fell asleep, they were ready. So when they woke up and the time for the wedding feast came, they actually entered in.
On one side, there is fear and trembling, and there is always being ready. But on the other side, there is a wedding feast. These are joyful. These are wonderful. They are going and entering into this.
It is a joyful, wonderful thing that the believer expects and wants. We actually want to be at the judgment seat of Christ and see Him smile and enter into the wedding feast.
So one problem we may have is that something is filling up my heart, occupying my desires. I find myself wandering into many other things, and I am not doing them with the Lord.
Another parable right after this is more familiar. I will just mention it: the talents given to the bondservants.
The Lord gave some of His substance, some of His money, to His servants. Now, all these servants are Christians because they are His bondservants, and also He gives them something of His substance. He does not give unbelievers anything of His substance. So these are all believers.
If you remember the story, one person was given more: five talents; one person was given two; one person was given one. When the Lord returns, He brings them before Him, and they each have to give an account of what they have done with what the Lord gave them.
Just like us, we have all been given some grace, some measure from the Lord, and we will be judged on how faithful we have been.
The first one was given five, and he was faithful. He used it. It says he trafficked with it. He used the money, and he got money back. So there were ten.
When the Lord came, He said, “Well done, good and faithful bondservant. You were faithful in a little, and now I give you many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”
The second person had two talents. He was faithful with it. The Lord said the same exact thing: “Well done, good and faithful bondservant. You were faithful in the little bit that you were given, the little measure. You used it. So I am going to put you over much more. I am going to give you many more things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”
Do you see this? At the judgment seat of Christ, there is, “Enter into the joy of your Lord.”
But the third one had one thing from the Lord. So at least all of us Christians have something. But this bondservant—the Lord calls him wicked and lazy.
The bondservant says, “Lord, I know what You are like. You are mean. You reap where You have not sown. You come and take the crops when You have not done all the work. So I knew what You were like, and I was so scared.”
“I had this substance from You, so I hid it in the ground so nobody would steal it, because You are such a terrifying God. You are such a terrifying Lord, and I am afraid of You. If I try to do something, I know I will fail. So I was scared of losing the substance, and I hid it.”
How many Christians are afraid of failing, and so we bury our grace and do not use it? We have failed so many times, and we feel God is a mean God, a harsh taskmaster. It is not true.
God is like a Father who loves to see His children succeed. If you fail seven times, He will pick you back up. You just have to cry out to Him. He is not harsh. He does not want us to fail.
Our Lord Jesus is like a friend. He comes alongside and helps us come through. But many of us are burying our grace because we failed before in the past, and we are afraid of failing again. We are afraid of not making it.
We are afraid that if we do try, it will be mixed with carnality and the Lord will not be pleased anyway. The Lord can handle our carnality, because as we try, He will bring the cross to mature us. But if we do not try, He cannot mature us.
How many of us have gone to a prayer gathering, or even here on a Sunday gathering, and stuck our grace in the mud? We feel, “Oh, if I pray, somebody will think something bad of my prayer. If I try to sing, I will be off key. If I read the Scripture, I am so nervous I will mess up.”
Or we are at a prayer meeting and so conscious of what other people might think that we will not pray. Or we will not even go to a Bible study or prayer gathering because we feel, “What is the point?”
The point is, you need to be faithful—not just in church gatherings, but however the Lord leads you to serve Him. These are bondservants. If we give our lives to the Lord, He owns us anyway, but we have to willingly serve Him. He has given you substance anyway. You have it inside.
So at the judgment seat of Christ, one thing we will be judged for is: What did you do with the grace that I gave you?
How many of us can say, “I am walking in the full measure of the grace that God has given me”? I do not mean how mature you are. I mean, if I know I should be living this way, am I trying?
How many of us can stand before the Lord right now and say, “I am using the substance He left. I am using it. I might be falling flat on my face, but I am trying. I am using it”?
The Lord is our friend, remember. He is not a harsh Lord. This bondservant is wicked because he thinks the Lord is wicked. If you think God is so mean, God is so harsh, that is a wicked heart of unbelief.
Believe on the Lord Jesus, and He will deliver us. He will bring us through, and He will show us how to serve Him.
There is another picture I want to share from 1 Corinthians 3. I shared on it another time before. In this picture, we are shown how we have a foundation of Christ, and the question is: how are you building on that solid rock of Christ?
You are saved. You have the Rock. You are standing on the ground of Christ. But what materials are you building with?
This is especially for those who are actually trying. But if you do not try, you are still building. When you do not try anything, you are still building with your own materials. Whether you sit still or whether you are active, you are building something.
If you are using God’s grace, then it is something pleasing to God. The account in 1 Corinthians 3 is a picture of the judgment seat of Christ.
As a believer, we have the solid Rock. We are saved. What each one builds on this will be tested by fire on that day, on the judgment day. If what you build passes the test, you shall receive reward.
But if it is burned up, it says we will suffer loss. Yet we will be saved. It says right there in 1 Corinthians 3, “He shall be saved; but so as through fire.”
Your materials are burned up, but the foundation of Christ can never be burned up. So you will be saved.
At this judgment seat of Christ, another thing we will be judged for is this: What is the substance of what you are doing?
This applies to everything in our lives. What material is it? Is it of God or is it of man?
This has to be able to apply to a brand-new Christian as well. It cannot just be that only somewhat mature Christians, who have learned to live by the life of Christ rather than by the flesh, can understand it. If you are a brand-new baby Christian, you may not know the difference in some of this.
From whatever we have been shown by the Lord, we have to walk in that amount. So if I know that, for me, doing certain things—or doing them prayerlessly—is wrong, I need to be faithful.
This is like Matthew 7. Some Christians are mentioned who say, “Lord, Lord, did I not cast out many demons and do good works and do this and that? Did I not do this in Your name? In Your name I did this. In Your name I did this.”
But what He tells them is, “I do not know you, you workers of lawlessness.” Now, the Lord knows everybody. He knows unbelievers, right? So it is not that He does not know them, but He does not know them in what they are doing.
Even as in 1 Corinthians 13, he says, “If I give out all my goods for food and deliver up my body to be burned like a martyr, but I do not have love, what do I profit?” It is worthless.
So the substance of what we are doing actually really matters. In the light of Christ, He can shine on us and show us that even though we are doing this good work, it does not count.
Sometimes we pray, “Let this day count for eternity. Let this thing I am doing count for eternity.” The way it will count for eternity is if you do it with the Lord, by the Lord’s grace.
If we do it in Christ, it counts. If we do it by our own strength, it does not count. It will be burned up.
The judgment seat of Christ is coming. But before it comes, all of us have the Holy Spirit inside of us, and we are all able to be examined by the Lord today.
You know, we say that if you are sharing a message, the message has to first be shared to you, right? It has to work on you first.
These months, I feel like I have been living in the light of the judgment seat of Christ more than ever, and daily having the light of the Holy Spirit shine through my heart, showing things that I have not dealt with.
The Lord judges the intents of your heart, the motives. He judges the thoughts of your mind.
How many of us are ready for the judgment seat of Christ right now? If we stood before God this moment, do we feel that we are ready? Do we feel like, in His light, there is nothing to confess now?
Do we feel like, “I am walking in the full grace that He has given to me, and I am okay”? Do we feel comfortable in our conscience right now?
There is grace right now. We can confess our sins right now and be washed clean by the precious blood. You can consecrate your life right now and sell out all, and He will fill you.
Then you have the oil ready to meet Him at the judgment seat of Christ. Everyone in this room will be manifested right then. All of us will be there. You will not miss it.
But we can be watchful today and be ready right now.
If we are faithful, this is a wonderful day.
I feel like we forget that this is coming. It becomes a teaching, and we drop it. It becomes something to understand or not understand. But this is something to live by. This is something to daily be ready to meet the Lord.
At the same time, this is to be a joyful day.
The Apostle Paul was fearful and trembling, and he was also eager and expecting. This is a contradiction of the Christian life, but it works.
On one hand, we are standing before God with fear and trembling, wanting to be exposed and right and clean at all times, and faithful—faithful to Him.
On the other side of it, we have this joy in front of us of hearing Him say, “Well done, good and faithful bondservant.”
Can you see the Lord’s eyes, with joyful tears, looking at you and smiling and saying, “You were faithful. You did well. Enter into the joy of your Lord. You have brought Me joy. Come, be with Me.”
This is our crown. This is our joy. This is what we are all after. This is what makes it worth it.
We love Him so much because He loved us and He died for us, and we want to please Him. We want, on that day, to stand there and see Him smile. We want that crown. We want to please Him.
This is not selfish. This is something where we love Christ so much that it is worth it. Nothing in this world is worth anything else. We run this race toward the goal, for the prize. This is our upward calling.
I do not know if I have got it, but I want it. I want this. This is what we are after. This is the joy of the Lord.
This is a wonderful thing. I want to please the Lord.
So even when we consider the judgment seat of Christ, remember: it is a family judgment. We are His children. We are not there afraid of hell. We are there because we want to please our Lord.
We are there with eternal life already, but we want to see Him smile. We do not want to miss out.
I just want to share that I believe the Lord’s heart is really loving toward us. He is really our friend, and He wants to carry us through and prepare us.
This is not so hard. It is impossible, but with God it is possible. God is making it possible for everyone in this room. There is much provision.
Let us pray and commit ourselves to the Lord.
Lord, we want to confess to You that we love You, and even though our lives have not shown it, You know deep down. You have put love in our hearts to respond to You.
Lord, I pray for all of us that we will not be numb to You. We stand before Your light right now, those eyes of fire shining through.
Lord, we just want to be washed clean by the precious blood. We want to have real dealings with You, Lord.
So we pray You will not leave us alone today, that You would bring us all to be ready to meet You and to have that expectation of Your return. In Jesus’ name we pray.