The Judgment Seat of Christ

Years ago, I visited the ancient ruins of Olympia, Greece, where the very first Olympic games were played. And there among the ruins, I saw a raised platform where the Olympic judge sat, who handed out the wreaths to the contestants of the race. This raised platform is known as the bima seat, or the judge's seat, and it was there that the ancient athletes competed for their crowns, and whoever was the victor would approach that raised bench with the judge sitting on it and lean forward to receive his reward for his great achievement of winning the race.

And there is a judge's bench, friends, which awaits all mankind, for the Bible declares in Romans, for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and that is my subject this morning. My message is entitled, The Judgment Seat of Christ. I want us to look at this judgment seat, or bima seat, this morning.

Our text is Romans chapter 14, and it further declares, For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue confess to God. So then, every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. Every person who has ever lived will stand before that throne of judgment, and for the wicked dead it will be a time of terror where the judge of all the earth makes his enemies his footstool.

The great white throne of judgment is all thunder and hellfire. It's a time where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Weeping speaks of sorrow and great grief.

Gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and regret. The great white throne is white because who sits there, his very name is holy. That throne is great because it speaks of a throne of authority, majesty, and power.

The apostle John was banished to the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. It's a rocky, barren island. I have visited it.

I actually went to the cave where tradition has it that the apostle John received the revelation of Jesus Christ, which is the book of Revelation. A Greek monk told me that John was a very old man at the time, and there's a nook in the cave where he laid his head as he received the revelation. He related it to his scribes about him who immediately copied it down.

Now I don't know if that's true or not, but it makes sense. At the top of that cave is a painting of an open Bible with a dove above it. We will look at this final judgment of all mankind this morning, friends.

This is a solemn subject, and it should garner our greatest attention, so lend me your ears as we turn in our Bibles to the book of Revelation in chapter 20. We will read about this great white throne judgment which John Wesley called the grand of size. We will be in verses 11-15.

And bear in mind, friends, that this throne is so terrifying in nature that even the earth and sky flee from its presence. Here now is the Word of God, and may the Holy Spirit attend the reading of His Word. And I saw a great white throne and Him that sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.

And I saw the dead, a small and great, a stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, 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. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Jesus spoke of this terrible day of judgment when He said, The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is a day of terror to those who die in their sins and stand before this judge, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus warned of this coming day when He will judge the hearts of men.

Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me, In that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in Thy name have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.

Let me tell you, friends, the worst words in the world that any person would ever want to hear are those terrible words from the lips of Christ Jesus, I never knew you. Depart from Me. How horrible it will be for those who stand before the judge of all the earth and learn that their name is not in the book of life.

Unlike what the Puritan Bible commentator, Matthew Henry, has to say about this book of life, he wrote, The book of the scriptures, the statute book of heaven, the rule of life, this book is opened as contained in the law of touchstone by which the hearts and lives of men are to be tried by their works. Men shall be justified or condemned. God will try their principles by their practices.

And it's true, friends, what a day it will be when all of mankind is dragged before that throne of justice and every man is held up against the strict and severe law of God. God requires perfection to get into His heaven, but no man is perfect for when sinful man is held up against the strict law of God, he will fail that test. Listen, friends, I know I'm a sinner and I need a sin substitute in the person of Jesus Christ, and so do you, friend, so do you.

Like I said, that day for the wicked dead will be all thunder, terror, and hellfire. For when the wicked stand before the judge of all the earth, they are standing there to be sentenced for their crimes. For the sentencing of the law must be carried out.

A man is a guilty rebel who has sinned and rebelled against the sovereign, and justice must be satisfied. God must punish sin, and those who stand there in their own merits will tremble in that courtroom scene as their guilt is exposed and their sins found out, and they will shriek and cry in anguish as angels bind them hand and foot and cast them into the lake of fire. But when believers appear before the judgment seat of Christ, it will be different in character from when a believer stands before that FEMA seat.

It's not a time of punishment for crimes committed, but rather it's a time of rewards for faithful service. It's more like a county fair where blue ribbons are handed out for excellence. It is there we will receive our rewards as our life is reviewed and all passes into the fire of testing.

We see this in 1 Corinthians 3, beginning in verse 12, which declares, For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man built 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 will 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. How we live our lives now will determine our rewards then. How will it be, dear friend, when you stand there and your life is reviewed and all passes into the fire for testing? Will you stand there with the gold and silver and precious stones of a life lived unto Christ? Or will you stand there and kneel deep in the ashes of a wasted life and bend down to scoop up the remains of that wood, hay, and stubble and press those ashes into his male, pierced hands? It makes me cringe to think of it.

Oh, what regrets I'll have on that day. I remember hearing Leonard Ravenhill say, when we stand before Jesus, He won't be looking for medals on us, but scars. I remember reading about the words of C.T. Studd and Stephen Oldford used to say this all the time.

This poem he'd say, Only one life, which will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last, and as I lay dying, how good it shall be if the lamp of my life has been burned out for thee. Oh, friends, every minute of our lives should be on fire for Him. How we shall regret we didn't live more for Him.

How we will regret we didn't pray more, witness more, thank Him more, praise Him more, and believe Him more. When we stand there, friends, before our Savior and Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, what a day shall it be. There is a poem I have always liked which refers to this time of the believer's judgment.

The title of the poem is His Plan for Me. Let me read it to you now. 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 checked Him there and I would not yield my will.

Will there be grief in my Savior's eyes, grief though He loves me still? Would He have me rich and I stand there poor, stripped of all but His grace, while memory runs like a haunted thing down the paths I cannot retrace. Lord of the years that are left to me, give them to Thy hand. Take me and break me and mold me to the pattern that Thou hast planned.

Listen friends, picture this in your mind. Picture Jesus with a blueprint in His hands that He rolls out. That blueprint before us represents our life.

It's a picture of our life lived every step of the way and we hear His words as He looks at that blueprint and He says, just according to plan. What a joy it is to live for Him, friends. What a great privilege we have as followers of the Lamb.

Our lives should be lived with our eyes on eternity. What a difference it would make if this were so. How can this world consume us and our time when Christ poured out His blood for us so we can live forever with Him? Dear friends, what a call this is to live for Him in light of eternity and to redeem the time for the days are evil.

Let me ask you, are the days we're living in evil? Well then, are we redeeming the time? Time is a commodity once spent that can never be recovered. How we would have wished that we would have gotten rid of our rotten television and all our sports and entertainments which drew us away from Him, which took time away from prayer, which took time away from sharing Christ with those perishing souls around us. We get so busy and wrapped up in our business that we forget what is vitally important, and that is the worth of a soul.

I'll never forget his face. He was a young man who was doing some work on my house. He was part of a team of three men, but oddly, he was always the one who got there early and who I had the most time with, but I was too preoccupied at the time and too busy to talk much with him.

About three weeks after this, I was reading the obituaries in my town's paper, and his face appeared before me. I was shocked. He had died a young man in his early thirties.

I had just spoken to him a few weeks earlier, and now he was in another world. I felt terrible. Not once had I shared my faith with him.

Not once had I witnessed to him about Jesus Christ. I will have to face Jesus and explain my lack to him on that day. I will have to tell him why I didn't witness enough for him, why I didn't live enough for him.

Oh, friends, how we should be consumed with eternity. Life is short. Our time here is but a shadow fading, a leaf in the wind.

I will end this message with a poem I wrote regarding this very subject. It is called On That Day. And on that day, when you review the moments of my life, my thoughts, my deeds, every word I spoke since knowing you, and all is placed into the fire for testing and review, will what remains be gold and silver or ashes heaped with hay? The day will declare to what degree I lived my life for you.