The Judgement Seat of Christ - Part 9

I still believe in the majesty of that eternal court, with the king of kings and the lord of lords and the judge of judges. I still think there'll be an awesomeness about it, so majestic. You see, there's no possible, there's no possibility of any rehearsal. And what? There's no possibility of any repetition, because again, this is the final judgment. And to some, God will say, come ye blessed, and others, he'll have said, depart from me. I don't believe there'll be any envy. I won't do it, but I could, I could remind you that there are at least five, five crowns to be given in reward. Paul says that, that the lord will give him a crown of, of righteousness, which he says, the lord will not only give to me, but all them that love is appearing. There's a crown for the martyrs, those who will die today and have died other days. There's a crown to be given to them, crowns, crowns, crowns. We won't all be the same in heaven. There'll be great distinctions in heaven. You can't think that the dying thief, he'll be in heaven all right, because he said, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And I'm sure enough, God will do that. Jesus said he would, but he'd wasted his life. Take just one character, John Wesley. He was saved soundly when he was 35 years of age. Turned 35 round, he makes 53, put 53 and 35 together, makes 88, the time he died in 1891. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there have I, though vile as he, cast all my sins away fine. But are you suggesting that the man who got in on the last tick of the clock is going to have the same reward as John Wesley? Yeah, Wesley made an awful lot of money. Do you know what he did with it? He built orphanages, he built churches, he printed Bibles, he printed hymn books. There was no time wasted in his life. He was methodical, systematic. He went to dinner with the greatest man in English literature, and the man said, now you've finished dinner, let's fold our legs under the table, he said, or, you know, cross your legs under the table, and let's just have a nice time of conversation. And Wesley said, I'm sorry, I have to go. Oh, but it is not yet nine o'clock. No, it's not. Well, why are you going? He said, I have an appointment in the morning at four o'clock. At four o'clock? Tomorrow morning? Every morning of my life, he said. With who? With God. He disciplined his life, he disciplined his body in eating, he disciplined his hand in his pocket. We shall stand at the judgment seat of Christ. An awesome prospect for any of us. But the hymn writer says, the eternal glories gleam afar, to nerve my faint endeavor. So now to watch, to work, to war, and then to rest forever. We had a lady in a church that I pastored, actually, I was assistant pastor, and the lady was the wife of the pastor, Dr. Fawcett, and she didn't have a great voice, but they often asked her to sing, and she used to sing the same old hymn every time. And the last verse of that hymn said this, he was not willing that any should perish. Am I his follower? And can I live longer at ease with these souls going downward, lost for the lack of the help I might give? He was not willing that any should perish. Master, forgive and inspire us anew. Banish our worldliness. Help us to ever live with eternity's values in view. Said that great man who birthed that revival, God, stamp eternity on my eyeballs. You know, if we can't live as a different breed of people on this earth, we've no right to live here. We shouldn't be affected by changing customs, or changing styles, or changing opinions, or whether the stock market goes up or down, or whether the clouds are gathering for... that doesn't make any art. We ought to live every day as though we come out of another world into this world with the power of that world upon us. To live, and speak, and move, and have our being in Jesus Christ. It's going to be an awesome day. Have you kind of figured how you'll get on when you stand there? Before all the saints of all the ages, and you and I, to stand there alone on the dais and be judged for the deeds done in the body, for every aspect of our lives, for our praying, for our giving, for our living, for our talking. No, it's not so simple to be a Christian after all. It's a majestic thing. I remember crossing a square in the city of Bath in the 1940s. I saw two very fine young ladies. Well, one was a young lady, the other was only a girl, and they were erect, and beautifully dressed, and they marched across that square, and I thought there's something different about those girls. And then when I went round the other side, I discovered it was... they were princesses at that time. Our present Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth, and her sister Margaret. It was the princesses of the royal family, and you know there was a dignity about them very different from anybody else who walked. And the Word of God says, as he was, so we in this world. We ought to live eternity conscious in time, ready to be cut off at any moment. Supposing you were cut off in this moment, would you like your life story read before all the millions in eternity? Do you think you might shrink when you hear how God used David Brainerd, or John Wesley, or some little washerwoman down there that has a life of intercession? Or a little woman in Ireland, and she had two shops. And this shop, it paid all the family expenses, and this shop, she saved all the money for missions. And she sent one, two, three, four of her children to the mission field, and she financed them all. Man, she's going to have a reward one day, isn't she? Because she was doing it as unto him. And I don't care, there's no burden too heavy, there's no situation too hard, for the one that you love. And if we're love-controlled, love-motivated, love-energized, it'll be all right when we stand up there. Because if there's anything about love, one thing about it, it's obedient. And if we get back to a people who are really baptized with obedience, submissive to the total will of God, not concerned about human opinion, not asking for more to spend prodigally on ourselves, but say, oh God, I want this life of mine adjusting so I, when I stand in your awesome presence, as James says, we shall not be ashamed as it is appearing. Let's pray.