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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Right, it's been a few weeks since I've been able to say
this, but let's open our Bibles of First Corinthians chapter 3,
shall we? All right, First Corinthians
chapter 3. I'm thankful for Brother Denwood
being here the last couple Wednesday nights and for filling
the pulpit. I'm thankful that he didn't
preach the same, you know, text that I've been preaching.
You know, he did that on Jude. I think once or twice he
preached from Jude while I was in the book of Jude.
But he we're in First Corinthians and excited about
that tonight. And you know, they say there's
two things that are certain in life.
You know what those are, right? Death and taxes, right?
And certainly that is the truth. But I would say to you tonight
that maybe we could biblically change that just a little bit
because there's another certainty that the Bible tells
us about, and that's death and taxes.
And here's the third one, judgment that death is certain,
but also that the judgment to follow is also very real as
well. And you know, people are very
concerned about judgment today, aren't they?
You talk about judgment a lot. People get uptight immediately.
They'll say things like, well, don't judge me or nobody can
judge me, or only God can judge me.
And sometimes people say only God can judge me.
Like that would be the better thing.
To me. That seems like that would be a
lot worse, wouldn't it, that someone else judging you.
Because God knows everything, doesn't He?
You know, or you can't judge me until you walk a mile in my
shoes or anything like that. Listen, we should not have a
judgmental spirit in the sense that we are constantly trying to
judge others in an unrighteous way.
I'm certainly not saying that tonight.
But what I am saying is this, that you can be sure that after
this life there is a judgment to come.
And this is a topic that comes up in First Corinthians chapter
#3 And so I, I want us to look at some of the confusion that
there might be about the judgment.
And because every, every single person who has lived in this
world will have to go through the process of the judgment.
But yet not all judgment is the same.
In fact, we find that there are two different judgments that the
Bible talk about. And so I want us to look at both
of these here tonight, hopefully give us a little bit of help and
a little bit of understanding about this issue of the
judgment. So First Corinthians chapter 3,
we'll begin in verse #11. And the word of God says this.
For other foundation can no man lay.
Then that is laid which is Jesus Christ.
Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver,
precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall
be made manifest. For the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try
every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide which he had built there on, he shall
receive a reward. If any man's work shall be
burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved
yet so as by fire. Now you may not know exactly
what's going on in this text, but you got something
immediately from what we just read, and that's this.
This is serious. What we're talking about here is
no game. What we're talking about here is
no joke. And just to be able to remind
you, because I know it's been a few weeks since we've been in
First Corinthians chapter #3 and really the book of First
Corinthians in general, that Paul is talking to a church that
does not get along. They don't get along with each
other, and worst of all, they don't get along with the Lord
because they're not following the commands that the Lord has
given them in His word. And so Paul is writing to them
and he's trying to set some things in order.
And so as we started chapter #3 he was telling them that they're
carnal. Remember this, that they were
worldly. Sure, they were Christians in
name, but they weren't living like Christians.
They were living like the world. And so he was expounding on that
for a while, and then he talked about the fact that, you know,
some plant and some water, but that God gives the increase.
Remember, we talked about the fact that when it comes to the
ministry, when it comes to helping others, we're all
involved. It's not just the pastor's job,
Amen, to be able to do the work of the ministry.
But really, in a sense, we're all ministers, aren't we?
Every single one of us are ministers in our own way of the
gospel. And so Paul is trying to use
some illustrations to help them understand who they ought to be.
And so he uses the example of a vineyard.
But then he also uses the example of a building, and
that's really kind of where we get into the conversation where
we are here in chapter #3 because he says in verse #9 we
are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry.
Ye are God's building and then he says according to the grace
of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I've
laid the foundation and another buildeth there on, but let every
man take heed how he buildeth there on.
And so he starts this conversation.
Here is he's using this illustration of a building.
He says this, how you start the building is important, but then
how you finish is also important.
Now, that's not really deep, is it?
I mean, I think we all kind of understand if you're building
something, you want to start right and you want to finish
right. But he uses this as an
illustration and he says this, he says that there's, if you're
building, you want to make sure the foundation is right.
You want to make sure that it's strong and it's secure.
And that's why if you watch people pour a foundation today,
they don't just pour concrete. But before they even pour the
concrete, what do they put? They put rebar, they put iron
there. What's the purpose of that?
It strengthens the foundation. It makes sure that it's going to
be strong for many, many years to come.
And if you don't have a good foundation, it doesn't matter
how good the building's materials are after that, the
thing's going to fall. But then he uses the
illustration or he says further, it's not just the foundation,
but it's what you build on top of it as well.
If you have a good foundation, but you use bad materials, still
going to have a bad house. In fact, the only thing you
might have left is the foundation because everything
else is going to get swept away. And So what we just read here,
if I could summarize it in this way, Paul is saying this, when
it comes to the Christian life, Jesus Christ is your foundation.
When it comes to the Christian life, there is no other
foundation other than Jesus Christ.
But then once you have that foundation, you say, well, how
do you get the foundation of Jesus Christ?
Well, you asked Jesus Christ to save you.
You weren't just born a Christian.
You just didn't come out of the womb as a Christian because you
were part of a Christian family. That the Bible makes it clear
that every single one of us must call upon Jesus Christ to save
us. But then after that, it says
this. Then you got to live your life.
And so how do you do it? Well, you have the right
foundation. You're saved.
But then you got to build right after that.
That means you got to live your life in a way that's honoring
and pleasing to the Lord. And that's where this topic of a
judgement comes in. And that's what I want us to
look at tonight. But oddly enough, I really want
us to move away from First Corinthians chapter #3 for a few
minutes. And I'll explain why in a
moment. But why don't you go ahead and
turn to Revelation chapter #20? OK, put your ribbon there in
First Corinthians chapter 3 if you have one, because we're
definitely going back. But go to Revelation chapter
#20. Because I want to be able to
explain to you what First Corinthians chapter #3 is
saying. But before I do that, I kind of
have to tell you. What it's not saying.
Because there might be some confusion about the judgment.
Well, what judgment are we going to be learning about tonight in
First Corinthians chapter #3 Well, I have to be able to 1st
show you what the other type of judgment is because everyone
will be judged. Neither one of two judgments.
There's two different judgments. And I want us to be able to look
at that. Say, Pastor, it doesn't sound
like it's a very big deal. Well, it's a very big deal
because each one is significant for a different group of people.
So let's go ahead and look at this, this first judgment.
Again, not in first Corinthians 3.
Right now we are in Revelation chapter #20 the first judgment
is the great white throne judgment #1 the great white
throne judgment. So look at Revelation chapter 20
and verse #11 and it says this. And I saw a great white throne,
and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.
And the books were open, and another book was open, which is
the book of life. And the dead were judged out of
those things which were written in the books.
According to their works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them, and they were judged every man according to
their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
You say, pastor, what we read in First Corinthians chapter 3, it
sounded serious. That sounds even more serious.
And the answer is you're absolutely right.
The great white throne judgment is quite severe.
And I want us to look at some of the characteristics of it very
quickly. And the first is this, it is for
unbelievers. The great White Throne judgment
is for unbelievers and there's very, there's many reasons that
it's clearly for unbelievers. You can even start with the
verse before that we just read. We've started verse #11 go up to
verse #10 Look at this. And it says in the devil that
deceived them was cast in the lake of fire and brimstone,
where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be
tormented day and night, forever and ever.
So who was the first one who was cast in the lake and fire?
Well, that would have been the devil, right?
Well, we already find out. Well, this isn't so good, is it,
if the devil himself has been placed into this lake of fire?
I believe that this was for unbelievers, because there's
that white throne, and white stands for purity, and there's
Jesus Christ, the ultimate judge there on the throne.
And the Bible says that when the throne and its whiteness and
when Jesus Christ there is revealed, what does it say?
It says that the face of earth and heaven fled away.
Why? Because they could not stand
before Him. They had no standing before Him
because of their own unrighteousness and the ultimate
reason. We understand that this is
unbelievers in verse #13 it says the sea gave up the dead which
were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were
in them. Those who had died previously
without Christ have now come to their ultimate judgment.
And this is that moment for that.
This is a moment, by the way, that no one will escape.
Did you notice that it said that all stood in verse #12 both
small and great, meaning this, that this is the Princess and
the poppers, That this is royalty and those who were on
Skid Row. This are those who have power
and prestige and cachet. And this is also those who have
never had a dime or who have never had a friend or never had
any type of power or ever been in the halls or quarters of
power. This is the small and the great.
And listen, you can be on Forbes, a list of the people who
have the most money, or you can own more land than anyone else
on this earth. You can be part of a royal
family and have royal blood within your veins.
Listen, you will not escape this judgment.
This is a judgment for all who are unbelievers who have never
accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Acts chapter 17, verse 31. Because he has appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained, where if he has given assurance unto
all men in that he has raised him from the dead again, all
will be judged and will be judged by the righteous judge
Jesus Christ. Hebrews 927 You've heard me
quote. There's so many times here it's
been appointed unto men once to die.
But listen after this. The judgment, death, taxes and
judgment, they're all certain. And when we think of death,
sure, we think that that is part of life.
But listen, what comes right afterlife is judgment, and what
is to come for eternity ought to change the way we think about
this life and how we live this life.
Jesus, you say? Jesus wouldn't have talked much
about judgment. Pastor, the Jesus I know is one
who loved everybody. And my answer to you is this
Jesus loved everybody, and that's why he talked about
judgment. Quite a bit.
Why? Because He came to seek and to
save those who are lost. And Jesus talked about judgment
at great length. Why?
Because He wanted people to know that they didn't have to be
judged at this great white throne judgment, that there was
hope for eternity in salvation through Him.
And for example, just one example, John 5 verses 22
through 24. For the Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men
should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.
He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which
has sent Him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my
word, and believeth on him that has sent Me, hath everlasting
life, and shall not come unto condemnation.
But it's passed from death to life, meaning this, that those
who do not believe Him and those who do not believe his word will
find condemnation. And they will find condemnation
at this great White Throne judgment.
So the first characteristic is it's for unbelievers, but it's
also letter B, judgment of works for redemption.
So what's being judged here? We see who's being judged, but
what's being judged here And what's being judged is their
works to see whether they can be saved or not.
Now spoiler alert, can you save yourself?
Nobody in the history. Of Earth has ever been able to
save themselves. Did you notice what happened
here in this great White Throne Judgment?
Look at verse #12 it says, and I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God, and the books were open, and another book was
open, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of
those things which were written in the books according to their
works. Now I know I've explained this
before and so some of you have heard this, and so just forgive
me if you've heard this before and try to still lock into what
I'm saying here tonight. But the Bible makes it clear
that everyone to be saved needs to be written in the Lamb's book
of life. I believe that everyone, when
they are born, is written in the Lamb's book of life and then
when they expire from this earth and their names are finally
blotted out meaning. This is that you have every
opportunity to accept Christ, but yet when someone dies
without Christ, their name is blotted from that book.
So imagine with me for a moment, if you will, that someone is at
the great White Throne Judgment. They're called before the
righteous judge, Jesus Christ. Now listen, in this earth,
listen, you could bribe a judge. Now don't ask me how I know
that, but I'm just saying, you know, you can bribe a judge.
You can get a crooked DA, you know, you could have the cops
that could have taken shortcuts and maybe kind of I'm explaining
the Karen Reed trial anyway. So anyway, what I'm saying is
listen that that it's not always equity and justice here in this
life, is there? You know, you can have Lady
Justice with the scales and the the thing over her eyes as she
can't see. But you and I both know that
although certainly we're thankful to live in the United
States of America, there's no other country I'd rather live in
this country. But because government is run by
men, and men at their heart are corrupt, there is corruptness at
every level of power as long as man is man.
But I'm not talking about an unrighteous judge, and I'm not
talking about an unrighteous judgement.
What we have here is Jesus. Christ who sees all, who knows
all, and his very essence is holy, and you come before him.
And that person is called, and they have to see if their name
is in the Lamb's book of life. They know it's not.
Their name is not found. But then the Bible says the
books are open as well. So what are those books?
Well, the books are the deeds of life, and those deeds of life
are read 1 after another after another.
You know I don't know about you. But I wouldn't want the deeds of
one day of my life to be read. I'm talking about the sins that
I've committed, let alone the sins of an entire life.
Say, what will be the point of that?
Well, if their righteousness cannot be found in Jesus Christ
being in the Lamb's book of life, then they will have to
provide their own righteousness. See, that's the judgment of
works for redemption. Show the works that you have
done to be redeemed. So pastor.
Well, that's easy. I just got to help out the poor
Pastor. That's easy.
I just got to be part of charitable causes.
That's easy. I just got to be nice to my
neighbor. That's easy.
I just got to not yell at my kids.
Well, there we all go right there, right?
That's it's easy. No big deal.
No, no. Here is the standard.
The standard is did you ever sin once?
And if there is one sin found to your account for your entire
life, there is no righteousness that's found within you.
What a sad thing that is. That's why the book of Romans
chapter 3 tells us all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not
one. There can be no righteousness
found within judgement of works for redemption.
What happens there prove that you can save yourself, every
single person. Listen, billions and billions of
people will be found wanting and without ability to save
themselves. So it will be at least what
there will be none for all of time.
So we see letter B, the judgment of works for redemption.
That's what the great White Throne of judgment is.
But then letter C, there's only one outcome because everyone's
guilty. What's the outcome?
Well, it says in verse #14 death and hell were cast in the lake
of fire. This is the second death.
You know, oftentimes we say the people die and if they die
without Christ, they will go to hell.
And there is some truth to that statement.
But ultimately the death and hell is the hell is really a
holding place, if you will, that for eternity there will be a
lake of fire. You say, pastor, what will that
be like? It will be like anything that
you can imagine. In fact, we would try not to
imagine because it's a place of torment.
It's a place of flames. And yet even though it's a place
of flames, the Bible says it's a place of outer darkness.
And perhaps worst of all, worse than the darkness that never
ends, worse than the torment, worse than the flames would be
this, that the presence of God is apart from them.
No, people today, even the atheists who complain about God,
don't even realize that God smiles upon them every moment of
every day. The fact that the sun rises
every day and falls every day, and has done so for nigh around
6000 years without ever stopping is a grace of God.
The fact that they can draw that next breath is a grace of God.
And we can go on and on about this tonight.
And that they will get, you say, well, why will he be apart from
them? Because that's what they wanted
in this life, to not have Jesus Christ.
And they will ultimately get their desire and they'll realize
everlastingly too late that they'll wish they hadn't had it.
I will say this tonight. If you're a believer, this ought
to move us to tell more people about Jesus, this reality
tonight that praise be to God, we don't have to be a part of.
Remember, there are two judgments.
Remember First Corinthians chapter #3 we're going to be
part of that judgment and we'll look at that in a moment.
But I want to show again what this is not so that we have an
understanding when we get to the judgment seat of what it is.
But thanks be to God that we don't have to worry about this.
Because the day you ask Jesus Christ to save you, the Bible
says you pass from death to life, that there was not this
progression in your life. Well, I'm going to make myself
better, and eventually I will be saved enough, or I hope that I
will someday. Listen, no.
The moment you got saved, the Bible says you were seated in
heavenly places the moment you got saved.
If you expire from this life at that very next moment, you'd
still be in heavy. Oh, Oh, really?
I mean, why would you say something like that?
I seem to remember a thief on a cross who didn't have time to be
baptized, who didn't have time to take communion.
Who do you have time to do any good works?
Who do you have time to do? Anything other than say, when
you get to the Kingdom, will you Remember Me exercising his faith
that Jesus was who he was? And what did Jesus say Today
you'll be with me in paradise. Oh, we got to tell more people
about Jesus. Spurgeon put it this way about
the reality of hell, the reality of the Lake of Fire, and the
reality of the Great White Throne Judgment.
Spurgeon said this If sinners be damned, at least let them leap
to hell over our dead bodies, and if they perish, let them
perish with our arms wrapped around their knees, imploring
them to stay. If hell must be filled, let not
one go unwarned or unpraed. For.
That'll to move us. It's real.
And, and we won't go there if we know Jesus Christ is our Savior,
but there are people we know who will, and we need to do
everything we can to reach him. Now, I know we took a little bit
of a detour here for the first few minutes because like I said,
it's not something a pastor usually does to say, hey, let's
preach on the text. Before I preach on that text,
let me tell you what the text isn't saying.
Let me take you somewhere else and tell you something
completely different, but really I need you to understand what
these two judgments are and so that you're not confused in
First Corinthians chapter 3. About what we're.
Looking at because what we just read in First Corinthians
chapter 3, you can go ahead and turn back there.
In fact, why don't you do that here over the next few moments.
What we read in First Corinthians chapter 3 is not for
the unbeliever. In fact, we're going to do a
little bit of compare and contrast.
So you see what's up there on the screen right now at home.
You can see that as well. You see what it says there.
We're going to actually compare with what it says here in First
Corinthians chapter #3 So what is this judgment?
And so #2 we see this is what we call the judgment seat.
It's not the Great White Throne judgment, but it's the judgment
seat of Christ. And then as we compare, we see
letter A. It's for believers, whereas the
Great White Throne Judgment is for unbelievers.
The judgment seat is for believers.
Well, why is that? Well, look at verse #11 it says
for other foundation. Can no man lay than that which
is laid, which is Jesus Christ? So everything that's being
spoken of in these verses is about those who have Jesus
Christ, their foundation, those who have asked him to save him.
And really the context of the whole book lets us understand
because who is he writing the book to?
He's writing it to the believers who are in the Church of
Corinth. And So what he's doing is he's
talking to believers right now and he wants them to know,
listen, just because you were saved and you're not going to
the great White Throne judgement, there's still a
judgement for us as well. Now that judgement is not about
whether we're going to go to heaven or not.
That's already been settled, but there's something different at
play and we'll look at that in just a moment tonight.
If you're a believer again, play pay close attention to this
passage. You and I will stand at this
judgement someday. Second Corinthians chapter 5,
verse 10 says, for we must all appear before the judgement seat
of Christ. Now how many or all that would
be all right, We must all appear again talking to believers
before the judgment seat of Christ, Second Corinthians 5-10
that everyone may receive the things done in his body
according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.
And that last phrase is a key according to that which he has
done, whether it be good or bad. And so that brings us to the
next contrasting point from our outline, and that's this.
This is judgments of works for reward.
You see, the judgement seat of Christ isn't about whether we
have redemption or whether we have salvation.
This is about this, what will your rewards be for what you've
done in this life after you've gotten saved?
So look at it. We really can kind of pay more
attention to this text now. Go back to verse #12 and see
what I mean. It says now if any man build
upon this foundation. Now what's this foundation?
It's Jesus Christ, right? So if any man build upon this
foundation, which is Jesus Christ, gold, silver, precious
stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made
manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be
revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of
what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he
had built, thereupon he shall receive a reward.
So this is a judgment about rewards, meaning this, that when
we are passed from this life and we are preparing for we are
about to go to heaven, there will be this time of judgment,
this judgment seat of Christ for believers.
And we will be judged upon the fact of whether we built right
after we got saved, and again, not whether we will be redeemed,
but whether we will be rewarded. How did you build on that which
you had? You know, when you were a kid,
you probably heard the story of Three Little Pigs, didn't you?
You know what did what you had? One that built with straw.
And he huffed and he puffed. He blew that house down.
Then you had the second one built with sticks.
And he huffed and he puffed and he blew the house down.
And the third built with bricks. And we know what happened with
that. Well, what's the moral of the
story? Well, you know, make sure you
follow building code. I think that's the probably the
moral of the story. But, but really the idea is this
is that you could have a good foundation, but you better build
on top of it, right? And there will be some who build
with proper building materials, and there will be others who
will build with things that are not proper.
They'll build with wood and hay and stubble.
So what's going to happen that there will be fire, this
judgment seat of Christ. It will be like we present our
life to the Lord, we will present our works to Him and we
will show Him what we did with the life of which He gave us,
and all of that will be placed in the fire.
How that works, I don't know. And it's, I'm not talking about
Hellfire, but you understand it will be placed in some sort of
fire. Fire is sometimes a picture of
purification in the Bible. And so here you see this fire
that comes. And Can you imagine if you had
just present a bunch of sticks and stone, or rather just sticks
and stubble? What are you going to have?
Nothing. You're just going to have ashes.
What happens if you have gold and silver and precious stones?
Well, as I've explained to you before that the fire only
purifies and makes better the gold and the silver and even the
precious stones. Gold and silver are refined
through a heating process, aren't they?
You need heat to be able to refine gold, to make it pure.
Precious stones often times can be heated to be able to bring
out their best properties, to change the colors in such way
that they become even more beautiful than they were before.
So we take the life that we built after Jesus saved us, the
works that we did, and we present them before the Lord,
and we give it to him, and it's judged.
Now what's interesting about this?
It's not about the quantity. Of the work.
But it's the quality of the work.
Listen, quantity is important. If you're building a house, you
probably ought to finish it, right?
I mean, it's probably a good thing to do if you're going to
build to finish. But I will also say this, if
you're going to finish, you want to finish.
Right. There's a lot of people that
just have a lot of activity. They want to do stuff, do stuff,
do stuff, do stuff. But listen, if the Lord's not in
it, what you're doing doesn't come to a whole lot.
Our church calendar is not as busy as other church calendars
are. I know some churches that you
could be here four or five nights out of the week.
Listen that that's between them and the Lord.
It's not for me to be able to say what they should be doing or
or what we should be doing, but I would just say that the Lord
has led me. I have been of the philosophy of
this is that we may not be here four or five.
Nights of the week. But what we do, I want us to do
well and I want us to do it for him and not just to get to the
place well. I've got to go to church
tonight. It's a Tuesday night.
We got this activity and it's a Thursday night.
We got to do this activity. It's a Saturday night.
We got to do that activity. And you and you.
Only reason you're going is because you don't want the
pastor you know texting you the next day saying where are you
because. You know, well anyway, you know,
yeah, we do that kind of thing, don't we?
But no, the idea is not just quantity or quantity, but
quality that you build, right? And so we want to make sure that
we build in a way that's honoring and pleasing to God.
You say, well, how do we build it?
It's about our works, man. It's about what we do in this
life. It's about, am I going to honor
God with my mouth? Yeah, you know the things that I
say. Am I going to live a life that
will tear people down or build people up?
Am I going to use the mouth that God gave me to be able to
glorify Him and praise Him to people?
Am I going to use the mouth that I have to be able to tell other
people about the gospel message? Am I going to use the mouth that
I have to sing praises to Him? Not just in church, but even
during the week that just praise spontaneously comes out of my
mouth and sometimes a song even comes out of my mouth.
And even if it's just in the shower, listen, God will hear
it. Thankfully, maybe we don't have
to hear it, but God will hear it.
That's OK that we're going to build with our mouth that we
build with our hands that the things that we put our hands on
or good and the right that we build with our eyes.
That the things that we look at that the things that we look at
on our computers and the things we look at on our phones.
And the things that we look at in the materials that we read.
And the things that we look at when people walk by and that we
make sure that we're looking appropriately and not
inappropriately, that where our eyes are building and that our.
Feet. Are building that we're going to
the right places and doing the right things listen that in
every area of your life and in my life we're giving God glory
see well I mean I'm pretty good most of the time do you ever do
you ever feel like that OK here we go all right I I've even
said. Stuff like this before, well,
you know, look. I'm a Christian.
I don't. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I
don't chew. I don't run with those who do.
OK, Kaylee thought that was funny.
Good. But I fill in the blank, Why?
Why would we say something like that?
Well, I don't sin as much as other people, so I'm sure God's
OK with this one. Sin.
And listen, I've had this thought process before in my own
life. That's like saying this.
I'm going to. Build a house.
And I'm going to use the best materials, but I'm going to make
sure at the end that I use no nails.
No, everything else would be in there.
I'm just not going to use any nail.
I'm just personally against nails.
That's my thing. You know, it probably would look
all right for a while. And I imagine a few storms, I
imagine the process of time, all of a sudden some things would be
exposed probably a lot more quickly than you thought.
Isn't the idea. If you have blueprints for a
house, you build it the way the architect says to build it.
The general contractor doesn't just get to decide however they
want to build it. And the problem I think that we
think is in the general. Contractor of our own lives, God
has given us as the master builder, the architect.
He has told us what he said. This is how you build your life.
Well, how did he tell me this? You're holding it in your lap.
He gave you the word of God. Is this how you build your life?
Well, I know what it said, but I don't like all of it.
But I'll do most of it. I'll be better than most people.
I'll be better than most people in my church.
Well, the people in your church aren't going to be the one
judging you at the judgment seat of Christ.
In fact, there are no rewards for being the best person in
your church. There's no rewards for being the
best. Person in your town or the best
person in your county, you know what the rewards are all about.
Did you build the way He told you to build?
I think often times the problem we have is we feel like we're
pretty good compared to what we used to be.
And that may be true, but God didn't call us to be better than
we used to be. God called us to be like Christ.
And that's where we have the problem, isn't it?
That's what the judgement seat of Christ is about.
Did you build the way God told you to build with the materials
that He gave you, with the tools that He gave you?
Did you build His way the great White Throne judgment?
There's only one outcome for the unsaved, it's the lake of fire.
But for us, there's more than one outcome.
What is it? Well, everything's put in the
fire. Verse 14 says if any man's work
abide which he had built there on, he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be burned.
He shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved yet so as
by fire. What that's saying is this is
there will be some that literally will be saved and
that's it. They'll have a hand of ashes at
the judgment seat of Christ. You say pastor saved and that's
it being. Saved is great, and it is.
Great, but Can you imagine Jesus Christ standing before you,
having given you the life and the opportunity and the tools
that he's given you and forever many years you lived after you
got saved. He said this.
Go and build well for me. I'll give you the tools.
I'll even give you the Holy Spirit to live inside of you.
I'll give you everything that you need.
Just build for me and build my way and bring me glory.
And you had that one task and that one goal and you stood
before him and all you had was ash.
Can you imagine how you would feel?
You remember how you felt when you brought home the report
card. You knew that your parents
didn't want you to weren't going to be happy about someone said
every year. All right, thank you.
It's not the invitation yet, Dan.
All right. It's, I had a bad habit as a
younger person to we had to get all of our papers sent home and
I would take out the bad ones and just leave the good ones for
my parents. By the way, that's sin just to
make sure everyone's aware of that and that I'm aware of that.
And so all through the quarter, my parents thought I was doing
really well. But then the rent came due and
they'd say, how did you get 100 on all your quizzes and you're
pulling a 75 in the class? And well, it was because they
hadn't seen everything. And listen, I just remember now,
listen, did my parents disown me?
They were always going to be my parents.
But you know what? I remember feeling shame my mom
worked to the bone just so that I could go to a Christian
School. The public schools were such a
mess in Tampa, such that for five different years, I believe
I would have gone to five different schools. 5th grade,
6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, 9th grade, all would have been
in different schools. My parents says you're getting
out of this. And my mom worked in a job that
she hated so that I can go to Christian School and she did all
that and I come home with those grades when I could have done
better. Listen, this was not an issue of
whether I had the aptitude to do it.
I didn't have the desire to do it.
You know what I remember just feeling, and I can feel it even
right now standing before you. Just embarrassment and shame
that they'd given me so much and I'd squandered it.
How much more do you think we would feel that standing before
Jesus Christ? He said.
I put you in the United States of America.
I put you in a country with more resources than almost any other
country in the world. I had you live in a time when
knowledge was so readily available compared to any other
time when the Bible was more. You can hold the Bible in your
hand anytime, anywhere where some of our forefathers would
have struggled to have a Bible in their home.
I've given you all of these things and this is how you
built. I can't even imagine the shame.
I can't even imagine. So what do we do that a build,
right? We build for him.
There's more than one outcome. Could be wood, hay and stubble.
Could be gold, silver and precious stone.
They could be a mix of the two. So well, at least.
If there's a mix of the two, it's not so bad.
Remember what what is the point of all this?
What are we building? We're building a home, if you
will. These are there was a foundation
and we're building on top of it. If you built with a mix of
building materials, both good quality and bad quality, is that
still a good building? No, listen, if you built a
shanty with marble countertops, it's still not a great dwelling.
And I'm afraid what many of us have are a mixture of great and
ornate and things that will burn.
And at the time it will be everlastingly too late.
You know, the people of Israel, by the time they got to the book
of Amos, they were all over the place.
Amos is one of the minor prophets.
They weren't listening to God. They hadn't listened to God for
a couple 100 years, give or take.
And there's an interesting verse, one that you're probably
familiar with whether you know it or not.
And Amos chapter 4, verse 12. Therefore, that's what I do unto
thee, O Israel. And because I will do this unto
thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel, prepare to meet thy God.
If you take one thing from this message tonight, and everyone
falls into one of these two camps, and that's this, whoever
you are, this life is all about the preparation for the life to
come. This life is all about the
preparation of life to come. If you don't know Jesus Christ
as your Savior, you need to ask Him to save you today.
Why? Because there is something to
come after the Great White Throne Judgment and Revelation.
Chapter 20 calls it the second death, and it's real in the lake
of fire is real. If you don't know Jesus Christ
your Savior, you do not want to stand at that throne.
There is no one that can help you.
There is no amount of money that can get you off.
There will be no crooked judge that can be bribed.
It will be you standing barren in your trespasses and sins.
And there's no excuse you can give.
There's no one else you can point that.
Listen, the righteous judge will know you're guilty, and it
doesn't matter how good you are compared to other people, if
those books are open and there's one sin, you'll be damned for
all eternity in the Lake of fire.
But for those of us that are saved, listen, we need to spend
our life doing what? Preparing for the life to come.
You know what's so ironic about this?
And I was thinking about this today, and I almost wished I had
more time to think about it. But I think in a way, I don't
know that I could ever really wrap my head around it.
Most things in life, we have a lot of time to prepare for and
then the actual event happens and it happens quickly.
Isn't that the way life is? I think of our wedding, I think
of Bethany's wedding. I think of all the time that it
took to prepare. And like at our wedding, I just
think it was, it was all this time, all this effort.
And then we got married and it was a 3035 minute ceremony
maybe. And I remember walking out down
the aisle, we're newly married and we looked at each other like
that's it. Like it was like a like a year
of our life preparing this. It seems like should we go back
in and do this again? Because I was like, we need to,
we need to get our money's worth.
We can get our time's worth out of this.
You know what I mean? It seems to me that there was a
coach that used to be in this area who coached a fairly famous
football team that prepared for about 8 or 9 months for one
game. In about two hours, all of a
sudden, everything that have been built up came crashing
down. There's a lot of things that
happen in life that take a lot of effort, but then the actual
amount of time is nothing. You know what the amazing thing
about preparing for eternity is? We're actually preparing for a
short time. For something that's very long
time, it's the opposite. Well.
Pastor, how do you? Expect me to live like this.
Listen, it's just a little while.
And by the way, living like this isn't that bad.
In fact, it's better than living like the world says.
It's so much better. It's not well, endure, you know,
just endure this life and live like a Christian and it's not
going to be fun, but eventually you get to heaven.
It'll be good. No, no, it's actually being a
believer is pretty sweet in this life, but it can't even compare
to the sweetness of eternity. We have a very short time to
prepare for the life to come. How many of you would say that?
Don't raise your hand, but how many of you say this?
Just say this again. Not in your heart, not with your
hand. How many you say?
I can't believe how fast my life is gone and how little time I
might have. I feel like I was just a kid as
some of you think I still am a kid, but I feel like I was just
a 14 year old outside playing basketball and now I'm a 42 year
old who tried to play basketball a couple days ago.
Reminding myself I am not a 14 year old playing basketball
anymore because my elbow still hurts a couple days later.
We don't have long judgments. Real.
If you don't know Jesus Christ your Savior, get saved.
We beg you, get saved. And if we are saved, what are
you building? The fire will reveal it.
What are you building? Are you following your own plan?
Are you just happy that your building is better than someone
else's building? Or are you actually following
the building code, the specs and the blueprints that come from
God's word? Because that's the only one that
will qualify. When we get to that great, to
that judgment seat of Christ, did you follow his way?
We'll say, well, what's the big deal?
I'm still going to go to heaven. I'll leave you with this.
I can only think not just of the shame if I had nothing at the
great, at the judgment seat of Christ, pardon me, but I also
think of this, that if we do have gold and silver and
precious stones, think about this.
What would you do with them for eternity?
You think you're going to adorn your mansion in heaven?
I think that's going to be pretty well done, don't you,
because you get to Revelation 2122.
I don't think any of those things are going to need
additional adornment. I believe this honestly and
truly that all of those things will be cast back at Jesus feet.
How do you say thank you to Jesus Christ for a life that
he's given you? Well, probably the only real
tangible way we will is not in this life, but in the next.
When those gold, most silver and those precious stones that you
will hold more in your hand that you ever had in this life.
If you do well and say, you know what, Jesus, you take it.
I don't need this stuff because I have you for all eternity.
That's what it's all about. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.