Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org. So thanks for joining me for this podcast.
When I'm teaching for 45 minutes or so on Sunday morning, and even in our harvest group, so we go in deeper and study, there's some things we may not get to, so occasionally you ask me a question, and the question just came in, which was, what was it? About the great white throne judgment. That's right. So will we be there, and what is the purpose of the great white throne as opposed to the, what we read in the epistles is the Bema Seat or the judgment of rewards.
Right. It doesn't seem to me that Christians would be present at the great white throne judgment, because that is a judgment that happens in the afterlife. Basically, if your name is not found written in the book of life, you're cast into the lake of fire. Bottom line is if you're at the great white throne judgment, there's no more chances. There's thousands of chances before death, none after, so this is the final judgment.
You say, why even have it? Maybe to prove why you're there, because it says the books are open, and a book is open, which is the book of life. So the Bible doesn't tell us what the books, plural, are. We could guess maybe one is just the book of the law, the commandments we've broken. Maybe another book is a record of all the times we heard the gospel. We don't know, but it will make an airtight case as to why you're at this judgment, and the last thing God wants is for anyone to face this judgment, but it is going to happen, and that is for nonbelievers. Now, sometimes believers get confused, because we read, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. We think, oh, that means I'll be at the great white throne judgment.
No, this is speaking of a different judgment, and it's not even a judgment. We can almost think of it as an award ceremony, if you will. It's called the Bema Seat, and the idea was where you would reward someone. Say like in an athletic game, oh, here are your laurel leaves, or in modern times, here's your gold medal or your silver medal. So you know, you ran the race well, and you're rewarded. Now, when we stand before this judgment, we're going to be evaluated a lot on what our motives were. Every man's work will be tried to see what sort it is, what motivated us to do those things, but you know, the Bible promises a crown of life. Henceforth, there's laid it for me, a crown of righteousness for me, and all that love is appearing, and the crown of life is given to those who get through times of testing and temptation.
So we're going to be rewarded there. So bottom line is, Christians will stand before the Bema Seat of Christ, as it's called, to receive rewards, or in some cases, not receive rewards, it says. Because everything we do will be, in a sense, tested by fire, that you know, whatever we build upon using the gifts and talents that we have in our lives, whether it's wood, hay, stubble, or precious stones, gold and silver, those things endure the testing or the proving that God will test and prove the things that we do in this body. And I just love the fact that Jesus says, well done, good and faithful servant.
It's not necessarily what the rest of the world sees, it's what He sees that matter. Because remember the woman who put in the widow's mite, the smallest, most insignificant copper coin into the treasury, and Jesus singled her out and said she has put in more than all the rest. In His eyes, that one act of faithfulness and faith using what she had was more significant. So it's a challenge to all of us to use what God has given us for His glory with the right motive, and that is to bring glory and honor to Him with our lives.
So I hope that helps clear up the question or gives you a clear answer. Don't worry about the great white throne judgment, but be concerned about the bema seed because we don't want to come empty handed before the one who gave everything for us. You know, Paul said he wanted to have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God. So that's the great time where God will reward us. And you know, sometimes Christians serve faithfully behind the scenes, and no one knows what they do, but the Lord knows, and that's why the Bible says that we are to be faithful in the little things and not be weary in well doing, for in due season we will reap if we faint not. So God's noting all that you do for Him, and He'll reward you for it one day. And we don't need to fear the wrath of God, that judgment, because the wrath of God fell on Jesus at the cross instead of on us. Aren't we so grateful?
Everybody, Greg Laurie here. Thanks for listening to our podcast. And to learn more about Harvest Ministries, please subscribe and consider supporting this show. Just go to harvest.org. And by the way, if you want to find out how to come into a personal relationship with God, go to knowgod.org. That's K-N-O-W-G-O-D.org.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-12-10 23:48:35 / 2023-12-10 23:51:06 / 3