Our Aim to Please Him, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In 2 Corinthians 5-9, Paul says that we make it our aim to please God, for we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. So how do we aim to please God when only Christ's blood can satisfy Him? If the Gospel teaches that Jesus did the work on our behalf, what is our role in pleasing God? Today, Pastor Rich answers these questions, explaining our call to please God within the context of the grace of the Gospel. You're listening to the third part of a message titled, Our Aim to Please Him. It was first preached on April 6, 2014 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.

To hear the whole message, you can visit delightingrace.com. The word judgment seat is the word bimah, which means it's raised. It's on a raised platform, signifying authority and final word. And we will stand. So after the celebration, we get up from the banquet table and the Lord Jesus comes to me and He puts His arms around my shoulder. He says, Rich, come over here. Now, let's take a look at your life in all the ways that you were able to glorify our Father through the gifts that He entrusted to you.

So wait a minute, you're going to look at my life? The word appear, it says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. It means to be fully known in detail where all pretense is blown away. Does this prospect bring you delight or dread? It's a challenging question because He says the purpose of the bimah seat, He says in verse 10, that each one may receive the things done in the body. That each one may receive the things done in the body. Again, who is standing before the bimah seat of Christ? It is those of us who are in Christ. Our justification has been taken care of. We are already accepted before God.

That's not the issue here. The issue here is your stewardship of the things that God has entrusted to you. The receive the things done in the body, what is that?

That's stewardship. Life, if you are a Christian, life is a stewardship and your physical being is entrusted to you for God's pleasure. All the stuff of life is entrusted to you for God's pleasure as an instrument in the Redeemer's hands. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4 7, what do you have that you did not receive? You see, it's not yours.

It's not about you. It's entrusted to you to bring glory to the one who is the point of life. So picture yourself standing there with Jesus in full review of your redeemed life, in full review of your stewardship of the things that he entrusted to you. Consider 1 John 2 28.

Here's what the apostle says, and now little children, Christians, and now little children abide in him. That is the imperative of this verse. Abide in him. Why? That when he appears, a definite thing, when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

So how do I take care of that? I abide in him. I make him the point of my life, private and public. So here I am standing. The celebration has just begun because the celebration will continue through all eternity, but the Lord takes me aside and we're standing there at his beam seat and says, Rich, let's look at the review of your life. I was a little bit artistic liberty here, but hopefully this emphasizes the point.

My life is going to be reviewed. And you say, Rich, how was the stewardship of your time? How did you use the time I entrusted to you to please the Father? Say, Gary, how did you use your relationships to please the Father? Ken, how did you use your intellect to please the Father? Bob, how did you use your industry to please the Father?

Oh, you're saying he's going to pick on me next? Rich, how did you use your wealth to please the Father? You see, because it wasn't yours. It was entrusted to you. And as we're looking at that, when we review our life, because, you know, the time is coming. Your life is going to be reviewed as a Christian, as you stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Your life is going to be reviewed. And as you go through that review, are you going to get the sense that you lived to serve your own gratification?

Or are you going to get the sense that you invested it for his pleasure? We make it our aim to be well pleasing to him, knowing, first of all, that we are stewards. Secondly, there is accountability. There is accountability.

And he is the point. In early 1990s, when George Bush, George Bush number 41, for that matter, John Sununu was his White House chief of staff. And a reporter asked Sununu if his job was difficult. And all of us would assume, yeah, it's an extremely difficult job to be the chief of staff for the president of the United States. And that was the reporter's assumption. He quickly answered, no, it's not difficult. The reporter thought Sununu had misunderstood the question, so he asked again and got the same reply. Sununu then explained why he felt his job was easy.

I have only one constituent. He knew his job was to please the president and nobody else. Christians, do you recognize how liberating it is to make it your ambition to be pleasing to him and nobody else? You see, you want to know what makes the Christian life hard? It's when I try to please him and myself at the same time, or I try to please him and myself and others at the same time. We are masters at sabotaging our own walk of faith. But if we look through that scope, scopeo, fixed on the objective, rescued from the distractions, we make it our ambition. It is our aim to be well pleasing to him. One constituent, one audience, one opinion. That brings us to the third point.

We make it our aim to be well pleasing to him, one, because we are stewards. Number two, because there is accountability. Number three, because there will be justice. There will be justice.

Now, this is a slightly different point here. There will be justice, which says in verse 11, knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, the terror of the Lord. The word there is phobos, knowing, understanding, oida, the terror of the Lord, meaning an accounting is coming for all.

Finish the verse. Hebrews 9, 27, it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this, running in fields of daisies. Judgment, every person will stand before the Creator, no exceptions. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, and for those, the word terror is phobos, the word in which we get fear. Okay, and it means, you know what it means? It means terror.

That's what it means. Hebrews 10, 31, what does Hebrews say about the Lord? It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Why? Because He is holy and He is just and there will be justice. Our God is a consuming fire.

There is only one opinion that counts. Why does this matter? Because the thing that matters most to God is reconciliation. Therefore, the thing that matters most to man is reconciliation.

There's no substitute. The truth of the matter is, if you're under the sound of these words and you are not surrendered to His grace by faith, then you will receive His justice. You need to know this morning, that matters a great deal to God and it matters a great deal to you. Bill Cosby said, I don't know the key to success but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. Who are you trying to please in your life?

Who is your life being lived for? The first duty of every man is to find not his freedom but his master, Peter T. Forsyth. You see, this is the focus of our investment. As Christians now, we recognize that the focus of our investment is to live the glory of the Gospel.

Live the glory of the Gospel. He says, we persuade men, therefore knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. We convince men. We plant the seeds of truth. We invite men to acknowledge and to consider the seeds of the truth of the Word of God. This is far beyond just dialoguing with somebody and saying, okay, well that's the truth you have, well good for you.

I'm glad you have your truth, here's my truth. No, that's not the apostles' approach. The apostles' approach was, there is a holy God and you and I will one day stand before that God. In the light of that, loved ones, we are instruments in the Redeemer's hands because we are stewards and there is accountability and there will be justice. We are instruments in the Redeemer's hands for His pleasure. My question to you this morning, is that your aim?

Philotime, oh my, is that the earnest ambition of your heart and mind? Do you love the honor of being well pleasing to Him, recognizing that you are a steward and that there is accountability and that there will be justice? If you recognize that this morning, then I invite you, I call you to invest yourself with abandon. And be prepared and looking forward to that day when you stand face to face with your Creator Redeemer and you are able to hear the words, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your Master's joy. May we make that our aim this morning. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on Weekdays at 10 a.m.