Standing at His Bema Seat

When a believer dies, his soul goes back to the God who gave it, and he will stand at a future judgment seat, where Christ will review his life. We see this in Romans chapter 14, beginning in verse 10. 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. That is a very sobering thought to me, friends, that on that day, in which my life is revealed and reviewed by my Christ, I shrink at how little I have done for him with my life.

When I was a young man, I visited the country of Greece, and I went to Olympia, Greece, to the site of the first Olympic Games. And as I walked around that field, I saw an ancient stone bench, which my tour guide explained to me was the bema seat, or judgment seat, where the judge sat who handed out wreaths to the winning athletes who competed for the prize. That's what a bema seat is.

And in the book of Revelation, we see the great white throne judgment for the wicked dead, which will be a day of terror and alarm as the sentencing of the law is carried out, and those whose names are not found written in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire. There will be a lot of screaming and hollering and weeping and gnashing of teeth on that calamitous day, friends, when God punishes sin, for shall not the judge of all the earth do right? The wicked dead will tremble on that terrible day, but for those who die in Christ, it will not be a day of dread-filled terror. My Bible says in 2nd Corinthians in chapter 5 and verse 10, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

This leads me to believe that the bema seat for believers won't be a terrible judgment where we will be punished because our sins are under the blood of Christ. No, friends, that day of our review will be more like a flower show at a country fair where prizes and blue ribbons will be handed out for excellence and faithfulness. It will be a day review of our lives lived for Christ.

I'm reminded of the poem of C.T. Studd, which reflects this. Only one life, yes, only one, soon will its fleeting hours be done. Then and that day my Lord to meet and stand before his judgment seat.

Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. And those lines, friends, make me ponder our passage today found in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in verses 11 through 15. The title of my message today, friends, is standing at his bema seat. I want each of our thoughts to go to that future event in eternity which will affect every one of us.

Just imagine, friends, the Lord of glory seated before us. And there we are standing before our Redeemer. And he is ready to reveal and review our life as was lived on earth for him.

Oh, what a tremendous day that will be. It's been said that on that day when we stand before our Lord, he won't be looking for medals on us but scars. I envy the persecuted Chinese believers and third world persecuted Christians who've lost everything for their testimony in Christ and have suffered imprisonment and torture for him.

How shallow my own life will be in comparison to that kind of believer who suffered persecution and even martyrdom for the Lord Jesus Christ. How meager will the shadow of my life be in comparison to those suffering saints who lost it all for Christ and the sake of the gospel. We think we've done God a favor if we teach a Sunday school class or serve on a deacon committee.

Let me read us our striking passage of scripture at this time, friends, and may the spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word. For other foundation can no man lay than 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 hath built thereupon, 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. I will stop there, friends.

If that solemn passage doesn't stir you, I don't know what can. We must ask ourselves now, have we lived sacrificial lives in light of eternity and its rewards, or have we lived for this world and its pleasures? How many hours spent before television sets watching godless entertainment, and how many hours spent on golf courses chasing a little ball around? We'll compare to the hours spent on our knees and in our bibles. How many tracks have been handed out? How many souls have we shared the gospel with? How many hours of prayer and intercession did we labor in anguish over the sins of society and the perishing? Did we flitter away the time god gave us in laughter and amusements as we live for ourselves, or did we get some scars from being a witness of a crucified christ? What will our lives look like as we stand before him on that day who has the eyes of fire, and our life's works are reviewed? Our actions will be shown to us, which were done in the body, and our motives revealed to us, which were behind those actions, and they're all placed into the fire.

What will remain? Will it be the gold and the silver and the precious stones, which reflect a life lived for his glory, or will we stand there knee deep in the ashes of a wasted life, and bend over and scoop up those ashes, and place them in his nail-pierced hands? Oh, what are we living for, a christ or ourselves? We can say with our lips we live for him, but that day will bring it to light. There will be no excuses accepted on that day, friends. All I can think about as I ponder our passage today is how short life is, and how little I have done for him, and the sake of the gospel I am ashamed.

When we stand at that bema seat, all the things we didn't understand here will be explained there, for all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. I believe, friends, that when we stand before him and that day, Christ will unroll the blueprint of our life and say just according to plan. With that thought in mind, friends, I want to end this message with a poem, which I pray will grip our own hearts with the immense urgency of losing our life for his sake and living in light of eternity.

Here now is that poem, and may we feel conviction from it. Oh when I stand at the judgment seat of Christ and he shows his plan for me, the plan of my life as it might have been, had he had his way and I see how I blocked him here and I checked him there and I would not yield my will, shall I see grief in my savior's eyes, grief though he loves me still? Oh he'd had me rich and I stand there poor, stripped of all but his grace, while my memory runs like a haunted thing down the paths I can't retrace. Lord of the years that are left to me, yield them to the hand.

Take me, make me, mold me to the pattern thou has planned. Let us pray.