Two Judgments

A sermon by Keith D. Wallace

Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:    

Two things we see that are guaranteed from this verse.  First, we will all die someday.  Second, after we die we will be judged.  Contrary to popular belief there are seven judgments in the Bible.  Most people when they think of judgment they think of one judgment where God will take a person's good works in this hand and their bad works in this hand and weigh them out.  If the good outweighs the bad the person goes to Heaven.  If the bad outweighs the good the person goes to Hell.  And if they are the same the person goes to Purgatory or gets reincarnated or some other bunch of junk that isn't true.  Today we're going to look at two of the seven judgments listed in the Bible:

    1. The Judgment Seat of Christ for the saved Christian

    2. The Great White Throne Judgment for the unsaved person

The first thing we need to take a look at is just who is the judge anyway?  Well let's see what the Book has to say.  For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: John 5:22  OK, there we have that just as plain as the nose on your face.  Doesn't take a scholar with alphabet soup after his name to realize that the Judge of all mankind is Jesus Christ.  And just what kind of judge is He?  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; 2 Cor 5:21  Uh oh, the One that will judge our lives--our sin-filled lives--never sinned.  That would make Him the perfect judge, the righteous judge.  Alright, now that we understand that, let's take a look at the two judgments mentioned above.

1. The Judgment Seat of Christ

2 Cor 5:10 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. 

It is very important for you to understand that this judgment is NOT for those who died without Christ.  This judgment is for Christians, true born again Christians to be specific.  Only the saved will receive rewards for their works.  The lost will be judged according to their works also, but for a different reason and for a very different outcome which we'll go into later.

So we see in 2 Cor 5:10 that Christians will receive for good and bad things done in the body.  What you receive will depend on what you did since the time you accepted Christ as your Saviour.

1 Cor 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 
13 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. 
14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 
15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. 

Starting off with verse 11 we can see that the most important thing is for you to have the right foundation to build your works upon.  If you don't first have Jesus Christ as your foundation your works will not have anything to stand on.  Therefore we can see by verse 11 that the Judgment Seat of Christ is for those who have trusted Christ as their Saviour and made Him their foundation.  Once you trust Him, He becomes your foundation and now your works will stick instead of just sinking down into the sand and profiting you nothing.

12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 

A Christian can do two things.  He can build good works (gold, silver, precious stones) on his Foundation of Jesus Christ by studying his Bible, witnessing to the lost, praying, giving to missions and following the commandments the Lord gave in His Book.  These are the works that will be rewarded.  Or a Christian can build bad works, or fruitless works on his Foundation (wood, hay, stubble).  These works would be sin, wasting time on worldly things, not witnessing to the lost, not reading his Bible, neglecting prayer, not giving to missions, etc.

13 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.

Alright, so you're going to get up there and the Lord is going to bring back everything you did, said and thought since the time you were saved and He's going to set all that stuff on fire.  Everything that amounted to wood, hay or stubble is going to be burned up right there in front of you.  You're going to see every chance passed up to tell someone about Jesus, every chance you had to support a missionary, every idle word and every idle thought will be burned up right there in front of you and your Saviour.  The works you did for the Lord is all that will remain through the fire.  And those will be your rewards.

Notice though that verse 13 says that fire is going to try your works for what sort they are.  What kind, quality, what sort it is.  You'll be rewarded based on not just the works themselves but the motivation for the works--why did you do them?  Why did you go to that prayer meeting?  So people would think you're some great prayer warrior?  Why did you put that money in the offering plate?  To have other people see how spiritual you are?  Why did you hand that tract to that guy?  Because your pastor was with you and you needed him to see how great a soul winner you are?  Or did you do these things because you love Jesus and you wanted to do something for Him?  What sort it is, not just what you did, but also why you did it.

14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.  

Very simply as stated above, the good works that make it through the testing of the fire will be the rewards.

15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. 

The burned up works will be loss for the Christian.  You'll see what could have been  You'll be staring in the face of the One who died for you and have so much of your life burned up.  Time wasted on watching football or baseball or sitcoms or reading magazines or going to movies or spending money on boats, cars, campers and fishing trips instead of tithing and giving to missions.  Don't sit there and say "well I'll just be happy to be in Heaven".  No you won't!  When you stand before the One who died for you and you have nothing to show for your 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 or even over 50 years of life as a Christian you won't be thinking how great it is to be in Heaven.  You'll be thinking how much time you wasted on yourself instead of serving the One who saved you from an eternity in Hell!  How about it?  Are you going to be empty handed in front of your Saviour?  Is anyone going to be in Heaven because you told them about Jesus?  Are there going to be people from other countries in Heaven because you supported the missionary that led them to Christ?  If not, you better get moving while you still have breath in your lungs!  You better start witnessing to folks.  You say "I don't know how".  Do you have a Bible?  Does it have John chapter 3 in it?  Then read it to them.  Do you have arms and hands?  Give them a tract and pray for them.  Do you have money?  Any money at all?  Give it to missions!  Don't stand before your Saviour with the biggest bonfire ever seen and have nothing to show for your life.  Get busy for the Lord!

but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire

Nobody at the Judgment Seat of Christ will go to Hell for the works they did as a Christian.  You may suffer loss of rewards and be more ashamed than you can imagine, but you will still be saved from Hell.  It says so right here.  Don't let anyone tell you different when God Himself told you so already in the verse above.  Once you're saved you're going to Heaven no matter how much of a waste your life turns out to be.  Like it or not, it's the truth.  And you can tell that to Jimmy Swaggart and all his "you gotta keep yourself saved" buddies.

That's the judgment for the Christian in a nutshell.  Now we're going to cover the judgment for the sinner who dies without trusting Christ.

2. Great White Throne Judgment

Rev 20:11  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. 
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, 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. 
13 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. 
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. 

This is the judgment most people are talking about when they talk about "the" judgment.  Here is a list of three questions and answers that I'm going to explain about the Great White Throne (GWT) judgment.

    A. Will people be tried for their works at the GWT?

    B. Will Jesus weigh their good deeds against their bad?

    C. Will they still have a chance to get to Heaven if they've done enough good works?

Verse 12 says the dead will be judged out of the books according to their works.  Jesus is going to say "Open the books and let's see what he did".  The Lord is just and fair and He's going to give these people the opportunity to try to show why they should be allowed into Heaven.  You're going to have people from street bums all the way up to the rich and famous standing there trying to look righteous in front of a Holy and sinless God and their works are nothing but filthy rags in His sight.  Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.  Once they are done pleading their case the Lord is going to say "Does his name appear in the Book of Life?"  And they're going to look and say "No Lord, his name does not appear".  And those people are going to say:

    Lord, Lord, I was baptized!

    Lord, Lord, I was confirmed!

    Lord, Lord, I gave to charity!

    Lord, Lord, I spent 60 years helping people in India in your name!

    Lord, Lord, I spoke in tongues!

    Lord, Lord, I was the vicar of Christ!

    Lord, Lord, I went on three pilgrimages to Mecca!

And the next thing they'll hear is the worst possible thing anyone could ever hear.  The Lamb of God who came to earth and allowed Himself to be beaten and cursed and spit on and hung on a tree and then died for them is going to say, "I never knew you, depart from me ye that work inequity."  And they will bow down before Him and exclaim "Jesus Christ is Lord!" as it says in Phil 2:11.  Then they will be cast into the lake of fire where they will burn forever and ever and have no rest day or night.

Everyone reading this words right now who dies without trusting Christ will appear at this judgment.  If you find yourself at this judgment it is too late for you.  You are 100% guaranteed to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire only after you have bowed down and worshipped Jesus Christ the Lord.  Once you die, you have no more chances.  Your fate is sealed and you'll pay for your rejection of Christ forever in a Lake of Fire.

So the answers to the questions from above are...

    A. Will people be tried for their works at the GWT?    Yes.  But not for rewards.

    B. Will Jesus weigh their good deeds against their bad?    No.  Because they can do no good until they have Christ as their Saviour.

    C. Will they still have a chance to get to Heaven if they've done enough good works?    No.  The only way to Heaven is through Jesus Christ.  Not through works of self righteousness (John 14:6, Eph 2:8-9, Titus 3:5).

But wait!  If you're reading this you still have a chance to avoid this judgment!  It's not too late for you if you still have breath in your lungs!  You can trust Jesus as your own personal Saviour right this moment and you can live with Him for all eternity and escape the damnation of the Lake of Fire.  Won't you put your trust in Him and Him alone now?  Why wait until later?  You may not have a later for as Prov 27:1 says Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.  2 Cor 6:2b says behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.  Do it now, place your faith in Jesus and ask Him to save you before it's too late.

Christian, are you working for the Lord?  Will you receive rewards or loss at the Judgment Seat of Christ?  Prov 27:1 applies to you too.  You may not have much time left until you will be standing in front of Jesus.  Make use of what little time is left and get busy for the Lord so that you will hear Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.