The Day of Christ

Turn please to the book of Romans chapter 14. Romans chapter 14 in verse number one. Romans 14 verse 1. Him, the idea here I guess is a continuation from chapter 13, but him that is weak, in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

For one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth. For God hath received him.

Who art thou that judges another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike.

Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Now I think we could skip to verse 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then, every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.

Let not then your good be evil spoken of, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edify another.

For meat, destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for that man who eateth with offense. Now, down to chapter 15, verse 1, we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Now, the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus, that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. I didn't realize there were this many people here.

I appreciated the way the conference started off this morning by taking us to the eternal realities in the future that we have as believers. I really think that we are easily bogged down and what I would call ground bound. We look down a lot, don't we? When we look down, we get discouraged.

We look around a lot. And when we look around, we get discouraged. We look backward a lot.

And when we look at our past, we get discouraged. But can we not just, maybe just for today, keep looking to the future? Because our future, brethren and sisters, is absolutely bright. Our future not only is secure in Christ, but it is glorious in Christ.

If we could get our eyes off of all of the things that keep us down and fix our eyes on the truth of Scripture that point us forward, I believe that will serve as a motivator for our service today. The world is battling for our affections. You may see the world in its different formats and its different facets in the Scriptures in a different way that I do.

But our brother John brought before us the idea of the Babylon world. The Babylon world is the world of religious confusion, the world of ecunimism, the world that is portraying closeness to God and putting forward relationship with God, but setting aside the truth of God. That's the Babylon world.

And the Babylon world is battling for our affections. The Egypt world is the world of self-sufficiency, the world of politics and the world of pleasure. And that world, needless to say, with its material possessions and its temporal enjoyments is battling for our affections.

The Sodom world, now all of these things I'm giving you are pictures of the world in the Scriptures. The Sodom world, which is a picture of the world in its immorality, in its debauchery, in the changing of morals to try and suit the base instincts of man. That's the Sodom world.

And it's battling for our affections. And when we focus on the world, even if you're focused on resisting the world, even if you're focused on rebutting the world and protesting against the world, it still brings you down. You see, we are told in the New Testament that Demas, his problem was that he loved this present age.

He loved this present world. He had gotten sucked in and his affections now were not placed on eternal things and they weren't placed on Christ, but they were placed on the values of this world. Demas, his affections were affected.

Effected, affected. Somebody tell me, I can't move on until we get this right. Affected, with an A, thank you very much.

The man who speaks three languages says, his affections were affected. You will remember, of course, that James says that friendship with the world is enmity with God. What is he saying? The word friendship there is really the phileo, it's the brotherly love.

It's the love of the world that is enmity with God. And again, it's the world having to do with our affections. John says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, doesn't he? Why? Because it is the world that is battling for our affections.

Now, how can we overcome the world in all of its different aspects? But to have our affections set on something completely different, right? If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Your dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.

I am convinced that not just a glance, I know on Sunday mornings you're thinking about the Lord Jesus. I know on Sunday mornings you're thinking about maybe even the coming again of the Lord Jesus. But then we go back to doing everything else, right? Some of us on Sunday mornings, as soon as the bread has passed, you know what we're thinking? Pizza ranch, gotta get there.

It's the best buffet in town, right? That's what we're thinking. What we need to do is we need to train ourselves through the scriptures to focus on the eternal and to focus on the heavenly so that our affections will begin to be, can I say it, wooed toward the important things. Now, what are we doing in 2022 that's actually going to matter in the future? I'll give you a chance to think about it.

What did we do this past week that will actually matter in a coming day? Our brother Scott was talking today about the day of the Lord. That is one of the days in scripture. Now, I hope to not spend too much time wasting time, but we'll go with this anyway.

That is one of the days in scripture that is a prophetic day. According to the Bible, the day of the Lord is the time period where the Lord is intervening in the affairs of earth directly through the tribulation and through his kingdom that will be set up on the earth for a thousand years. I take it from the ministry of our brother Scott that he is a dispensational believer.

I am too. In order to interpret the Bible correctly, you have to see its dispensations because the Bible interprets itself dispensationally. But as we're looking at it, you will understand that the day of the Lord entails the tribulation, it entails the kingdom.

And in the day of the Lord, there will be the burning up of the elements with fervent heat. That's called the day of the Lord. The day of God is also another day in the scriptures that we need to be aware of, but the day of God is linked with eternity.

It is after everything is offered up to God, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. It is after the great white throne judgment. It is the day in account of which the elements will be burnt up with fervent heat.

So at the end of the day of the Lord, the elements are burnt up with fervent heat. At the end of the day of the Lord, the Lord Jesus calls all the dead from the graves to stand before the judgment of the great white throne. And then he delivers all up to God the Father and then begins the day of God, where God is all in all.

You can call it the eternal state if you like. The day of the Lord and the day of God. But what I wanna talk to you about is the day of Christ.

Your future and my future with Christ. What's going to happen to us? Do you ever ask that question? I know most of us ask that question when we're pulling our hair out in despair, right? Whatever is going to happen to us, right? You can see I still have the hair up here, but I pull it out in the back when I'm worried. Tell you what's gonna happen to you.

The Lord is coming. The Lord is coming. We've been hearing about it in prayer this morning and we've been considering it even in the ministry this morning that there is coming a day and it could be today when the Lord Jesus will come again for his people and you will go.

Every born again believer on the Lord Jesus makes up the church which is his body and when he comes, the body, the bride will be raptured home. The imagery is really in John chapter 14, where you see that he says, if I go, I will come again and receive you onto myself that where I am there you may be also. Of course, it's the idea of a groom and a bride.

Of course, it's the idea of the groom going to prepare a place for that bride and absolutely, it's the picture of the groom coming back for the bride so that when everything is prepared, they can be together forever. That's what's going to happen. Now, throughout the New Testament, you get different aspects of the rapture put forward to us.

Paul will tell us much about it in 1 Thessalonians chapter four. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. Voice of archangel, trump of God, the dead in Christ shall rise first.

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together. Once I start this quote, I can't stop it. Caught up together with them in the air to meet the Lord in the air.

So shall we ever be with the Lord. Comfort one another with these words. Paul says we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

Paul says our citizenship is in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior who shall change our bodies of humiliation and fashion them like unto his body of glory. The Lord is coming. But then what's going to happen to us? Then what's going to happen to us? According to the Bible, I'm convinced that while the tribulation is taking place on earth, there's something tremendous taking place in heaven.

There are different events, I would suppose, that you could say are taking place in heaven. In the Father's house, the bride is being prepared to be presented at the wedding and at the wedding supper. But one of the events in the preparation for this is what we would call in the New Testament the judgment seat of Christ.

And that's what I really want to talk to you about today because I am concerned that a lot of the things that we do are just not going to matter in eternity. A lot of the time that we spend is a waste for eternity. But let's think about it.

Let's think about it. I'll go through a few of them. Perhaps I can get six of them before I get down.

I don't know what time I got up, so I'm gonna plead ignorance. So if you were to turn with me, don't do it because it takes too much time. If you were to go to 1 Corinthians 3, you will find in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul is dealing with something specific.

Brethren, look at the beginning of the chapter. He's dealing with people who are carnal. These people are carnal and it is evidenced in their lives by the divisions that manifest themselves among them.

The divisions in the assembly showed that these brethren were not behaving in a spiritual way and their carnal minds were taking over, right? So if their carnality meant that Paul had to address a lot of different things. Now, in 1 Corinthians, he is going to address the immorality that was a result of their carnality in 1 Corinthians chapter five. But in 1 Corinthians chapter three, he's going to remind them, he's going to remind them what you teach and what you build into the assembly in a coming day is going to be examined.

Now, remember, it's in the context of carnality and disharmony and disunity and divisions because he says, if you build in gold, silver and precious stone, the fire tests it, it'll withstand the fire. But you could build in wood, hay and stubble. And when the fire tests it, it burns up and it brings in the idea of suffering loss and yet being saved so as through fire.

So now you remember the passage, I'm going to tell you what it means. It means that here and now, today, 1 Corinthians is a local assembly epistle, by the way. It's not talking about the body in 1 Corinthians chapter three.

It's talking about building in to the local assembly. The building in is the teaching. Really, it could be the exercising of your gift, developing your gift and functioning in the capacity that God would have you to function in the local church.

As you are functioning in that capacity, you are building in to the assembly. And you can build in things that will matter for eternity or you can suffer loss. I think suffering loss is simply that a person builds in whatever they build in during their lifetime and they get to the judgment seat of Christ and they see that it is the fire that is going to try the works that they had done and that they're expecting to get a reward, but because they never took the time and they never considered and they weren't exercised spiritually to build in the gold and silver and precious stone and they just built in wood, hay and stubble, they suffer loss.

Now, he's still going to heaven. Scott convinced me that the judgment seat of Christ takes place in heaven because we're going to heaven because of the blood of Christ not because of the works that we do, but it is possible. In fact, I'm gonna go a step further.

If the teaching you give in the local assembly is dividing the believers over non-doctrinal issues, you're gonna suffer loss. I think the context would support it. Flip over a page, 1 Corinthians chapter four.

In 1 Corinthians chapter four, I'm kind of lost up here, by the way, because my Bible, I got a new Bible and I don't have any notes in it and I'm like a lost little puppy up here, but it's still the Bible. So, in 1 Corinthians chapter four, we have another aspect of the judgment seat of Christ. This time, it's talking about stewardship and it's talking about the motives and the motivation that will be gone into at the judgment seat.

Paul is talking about other people judging him and he's saying, I can't even judge myself because when it comes down to it, I'm not gonna be judged in man's day or by man's judgment, but I'm looking forward to that day when he shall judge me and he is able to expose or to enlighten the hidden things of darkness and he is going to reveal the counsels of the heart and he is going to determine whether or not I was faithful with that which I had been given. So, the idea of stewardship in the scriptures is very simple. Somebody gives you something to guard.

It's now your responsibility to keep it, to guard it. Now, in the sense of stewardship from God, it's not just that you're going to keep it and hide it, wrap it in a napkin and put it in the earth so that nobody can touch it. You're going to use it for the Lord and in using it for the Lord, it will produce results.

That's the stewardship that we have been given. The truth that we have been given in the scriptures is a part of our stewardship. The gift that you have been given to function in the local assembly, to build up the believers is a part of your stewardship.

Now, what's going to be assessed at the judgment seat of Christ is whether or not you use that gift or you use this truth or you value that which God has committed to you for his glory. You see, he's the only one who can judge that. I hope we know that.

But when it says he's going to judge the hidden things of darkness and that he's going to reveal the counsels of the heart, he's not talking there about the hidden sins that believers have committed. He's talking about the things that you've done for him that nobody knew were for him. He's talking about the motivation you had for doing these things.

And it's in that context, we rush along now, it's in that context that he says every man shall have praise of God, right? So you flip over again to chapter nine and you will find that there's another aspect of the judgment seat of Christ that is likened to a race, rewards for a race, right? And Paul is talking about a reward for focus, being able to focus on that task that God has for us, not only focusing on it, but being able to set aside all other things so that your only focus is what God has for you to do. And there's a faithfulness connected with this focus. But when you look at it really closely, it's going to be the setting aside of everything that hinders you from focusing on Christ.

I'm not saying that you can't plant corn and still be focused on the Lord. And I'm not saying that you can't go fishing and still be focused on the Lord. But I am saying that a lot of you are tangled up in things that have distracted you from your service.

Did I sound like a cranky old grandpa? Yeah, a little bit. I am a grandpa. There will be a crown.

I take it that 2 Timothy is really almost a parallel passage to 1 Corinthians 9, because it has the idea of running a race. And Paul says, I have finished my course. I have kept the faith, right? Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the righteous judge shall give me in that day.

And not to me only, but to all them that love his appearing. What's he saying? He is saying it's not the level of gift that will be rewarded at the judgment seat. It's the faithfulness with how you ran the race.

Your race is not the same as the race of the apostle Paul. Your race is not the same as my race. And you're probably doing better in your race.

But the fact is this, he will assess your faithfulness and focus on that day. You go forward to 2 Corinthians. I think it's 2 Corinthians 5. And you find that the deeds that we have done in this life are going to be gone into.

The things that we have done in our body. So if 1 Corinthians 4 is the motives, then 2 Corinthians 5 are the actual deeds. But again, it's not going into the sin.

It's the idea of whether we have done things that are valuable or worthless. This really is the challenge for us, isn't it? He's talking about we are laboring. The idea is that we are ambitious.

That whether we are present or absent, we may be well pleasing to him. That's really the expected goal of every believer. I hope we understand that today.

There is no middle ground. You are expected to want to please him. Now we get distracted and we become, can I say cold at heart? And there are entire periods of our lives that we can look back on and say, I am quite certain that there was nothing pleasing to God in that part of my life.

But our desire should be to look forward and starting today to please him. So whether we are present or absent, we are ambitious to try and please him because when we get there, he's going to look at what we had done. And there are certain things that we have done and he's going to say that was valuable for eternity.

That's the good. And there are certain things that we have done and he is going to say that, worthless. I can't help but be impressed with the fear of God.

When you consider that, I can't finish without talking about, I probably shouldn't finish without talking about the passage I read, but I can't finish without talking about 1 Peter chapter five, because my overseeing brethren always need encouragement. According to the book of Hebrews, the brethren who are shepherding the flock are going to give an account for how they did it, for what they did. According to 1 Peter chapter five, they are to do it of a willing mind, not of constraint.

They are to do it not for money, not for personal gain. They are to do it as being examples to the flock. An overseer who is truly doing the Lord's work will not be domineering and he will not be lording it over the Lord's people.

You can read it, it's all in the Bible. But he says, when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory which fadeth not away. Crown, glory, crown for faithfulness.

I will probably be the first to confess, I don't know how overseers feel when the sheep go astray. I don't know how overseers handle it when some of the sheep are difficult, but I do know this, you will be rewarded for faithful shepherding. I wanna encourage you.

The Romans passage is the last one I'll give you. I think that's six if you've been counting them. If you haven't been paying attention, then you won't be able to tell the difference.

I think that's six. What's going on here is not the idea of receiving someone into the assembly. Please don't bring this passage into assembly reception.

It's not about receiving someone into the fellowship. It's about receiving each other without bickering together. The idea, you find it right at the start.

I will go to my notes now. This passage is bookended by these two thoughts. The idea of loving your neighbor.

So love your neighbor as yourself precedes chapter 14. When you come down to 15, it is pleasing your neighbor instead of yourself. So remember those two things should be kept in mind when the context is being put forward here.

God values you loving others more than yourself. And God values you setting aside your self-interest and your preferences so that you personally can please others. Now, I think that is a way more difficult than showing up to meeting.

Some of you have a hard time getting to meeting. It's time to shake up a little bit. You should be at the meetings, please.

This is my cranky old man rant, just for a second. What is more important than meeting with the Lord's people? Oh, but when I go to meet with them, it's a boring time. Be there, prepare, bring what you have, help them.

I know some of them seem pitiful and unhelpable. I don't know, but come, help us. Brethren, we're holding on by a thread in some places because people are going out and doing other things on meeting night.

Now, on a more positive note, He wants us to do for others before ourselves. And that frames the entire conversation when it comes to these meets and no meets, right? By the way, when it comes to me, if you're inviting me over, it's always meet. You don't have to guess.

I will have meet, okay? But you see, these are things that were not doctrinal. It wasn't a matter of doctrine, but it was still splitting the assembly. You see, God's desires, they would be of one mind and one mouth.

What's that mean? In unity, in harmony, moving together, speaking the same thing, thinking the same thing, united around Christ and kept together by the unity that is afforded by the doctrine. And when the doctrine was taught from the scriptures, it would strengthen them, it would build them up. And then someone comes in and says, but I can't eat meat.

And the other guy says, well, we don't need you. Ooh, that's a bad attitude, isn't it? Now, I understand there are no people with a tender conscience about eating meat here today. But here's the warning is that our preferences, our little pet preferences can be absolutely dangerous because they start as preferences, right? So I prefer this and you prefer that.

Leave me alone and I'll leave you alone. And that preference will get along just fine, right? But the preference soon becomes political. And I'm not talking about Republicans and Democrats.

I'm talking about trying to get people on my side who agree with my preference so that we can prove the other people wrong, right? So the preference becomes political and then it becomes petty. You know what that means? It means once we're divided into two different sides, then everything that the other side does is wrong, right? I watched here today and I'm looking around at the brethren and I see there are some and I can say, well, that was good what Scott had to say, but you know, he's Canadian. So I'm not sure, I'm not sure if I can side with him.

And then you think, well, Meakin, he's Irish and I'm not sure if I can side with him. And Jennings, he's American and I'm not sure if I can side with him. And Dolly, he's from Wisconsin and I'm not sure if I can side with him.

And if I remember right, skates is all of those. Yeah, yeah. So he's probably the only guy I can get along with, right? We love each other or we don't.

I'm gonna tell you this much, just to be a little bit real. We're not gonna be fighting over meat, but I don't care if you're vaccinated or not either. And if you have certain things that you like to eat and you think that I'm going to die from my bacon and bologna, have faith to yourself before God.

You're not my wife, you don't get to tell me what to eat. And she's going home on Wednesday and I'm gonna have pizza ranch. It's good to think about these things and maybe a little laughter helps us, but that's not what I meant to do.

What I mean for us to do is this, stop disputing over things that don't matter, okay? Because disputing soon becomes despising. We look down on our brethren and it's not too much longer after we begin to despise each other that we're destroying. And we don't have any to spare.

We need everybody. You see it? I think now, just so you know that I'm not, that I do take Bible study seriously. I think what's really being taught here is that you shouldn't judge me and I shouldn't judge you.

The Lord will judge me and the Lord will judge you. So for my meat or no meat, I will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. But it is also in the context of making sure that rather than standing up for my rights and my preferences, that I am willing to give in in humility and please others more than myself.