Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. I'm going to ask you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I believe God would have me do this. Oftentimes in a service you sense different things and there's different things that God would lead to do. And this is what He's led me to do this morning in 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

We're going to begin reading and this morning I would like to do something I guess maybe a little different. I'm going to try to stay real calm. And by the way, I don't apologize. I would be worried about a pastor that doesn't get passionate when he preaches to be honest with you. I don't apologize for that.

I don't get probably as energetic as some, but I know I do some. But I am very sincere and I just passionately want people to see what God has shown me and what God's Word has to say. Because God's Word changes people. Preachers don't change people. If preachers change people, they'll change back. Usually when they change back it gets worse.

God changes people. But I want to give you the facts this morning. It would be kind of like we're at a court case and my job is to sit on the stand and give you the facts.

And that's what I would like to do this morning. I'm not going to try to manipulate the facts or manipulate you. I'm just going to give you the facts. This morning we're going to preach on the judgment seat of Christ.

What is it? Why is it important to me? We obviously know that the judgment seat of Christ is for believers. It is not to be confused with the great white throne judgment. Now I have preached on that here before.

An entire message centered just on it. The great white throne judgment is when those who have not been saved, who have rejected Christ, will be judged. The judgment seat of Christ is for those of us that are saved and we will be at the judgment seat of Christ.

Two very different things. The believers' sins, our sins, those of us who are believers who have been saved, our sins have all been dealt with at the cross. And every one of us ought to thank God for that. At the judgment seat of Christ, however, you and I will give account of the way we spent our life as a believer. And it would be unfair to not let you know what will be happening to each of us that know Christ. Second Corinthians chapter five and verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Lord, we need your help today and Lord, as we take, Lord, these four different passages of scriptures that we'll be sharing. And Lord, we just give the facts of the judgment seat of Christ. May our people realize what a motivation this ought to be in your name we pray.

Amen. Number one this morning, I want to give you the plan. This is the plan that God's laid out for the judgment seat of Christ. Now, I don't know, I guess and maybe I'm saying this out of ignorance because I haven't necessarily studied out this particular thing to say I've studied all the angles, but I believe that the great white throne judgment will come first and then will come the judgment seat of Christ. So that's what I believe. Now, I might be wrong.

You've got a different verse. You show me that I'll be fine to admit. I always admit when I'm wrong, but I believe that the judgment seat of Christ will come after the great white throne judgment. So you have to understand in my mind what will be happening. You will have just had to watch many of us our family and friends who we had chance to witness to.

We will have just had to watch them be cast into hell. And now it's our turn to give account for our life. I want you to notice number one, the plan is this in verse 10. For we must all appear.

That's the plan. The plan is that all of us will appear before God. You cannot wish that away. You cannot say, well, you know, I just want to get on to heaven. Let's just get on to eternity and the wonderful things and it will be wonderful and everything about heaven will be wonderful. But we must all appear now.

Listen to me. The judgment seat of Christ should be one of the greatest motivations in your life. If you really stop and consider what the judgment seat of Christ will be like, you won't give up a bus route unless God wants you to.

You're not going to you're not going to quit serving and quit witnessing and and get less involved if you really think about the judgment seat of Christ, where in that day you look at the individual that gave his life for you and you will then give an account for what little or much you have done for him. Now, I've got an illustration at the end that I can really try to explain the difference between the great white throne judgment in the judgment seat of Christ. This will be the culmination of your life's work for God. It will all be coming down to this, the judgment seat of Christ. So who will be judging?

What is it called? The judgment seat of Christ. The Bible says all judgment was given to the son. Now, number two, the protocol. All right, preacher. OK, we're all we all must appear. There's no getting out of that. All of us have have to appear.

OK, what's the protocol? What's going to happen that day? And look at, if you would, at Romans Chapter 14 and we're gonna look at a couple of different passages.

Just going to give you the facts and we'll let you go home this morning. Look at Romans Chapter 14, verse 11, if you will. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Look at verse 11. What is the protocol, preacher?

Number one. First, there will be a time of submission. The Bible says every knee shall bow. A time of submission. Could you just try to look above our reality right here in this sin cursed earth and our sin cursed flesh?

And can you and I just try just for a few minutes to look beyond that and to think what it will be like. To see our savior face to face. And get down on our knees. Out of an act of submission to his greatness.

Submission. Every knee shall bow. Second, it will be a time of adoration. Say, why is that, preacher?

Notice what it says. Every knee shall bow to me. It'll be a time of adoration. It'll be a time when we see the savior and we realize that we will be giving account for what we've done. And we will see that all the things he promised us, he kept true. Everything that he said he would do, he did because that's what brought us to this point.

Did you get that? If it wasn't true about heaven, we wouldn't even be at the judgment seat of Christ. But heaven's true and everything that God said is true and everything in his word is true. And so literally that day we will bow at his feet and we will look to our savior and realize everything he did, he said he would do, he did. Everything he promised, he kept that promise. Everything he claimed would happen has happened and we are here now.

This is living proof that he meant what he said. He's a god of victory. It'll be a time of adoration. You think that you won't be adoring your savior on judgment seat of Christ day?

Yes, you will. Thirdly, there will be a time of confession. It says every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. Every tongue shall confess.

It will be a time of confession. I don't know about you and I think there are some things that the Bible just doesn't give you every detail about. And if God felt we needed to know every detail, he would have given every detail.

But he gave us what we needed to know. But I have a feeling that day when we face the savior at the judgment seat of Christ and we bow before his presence, I don't know about you, I think we're going to have heavenly bodies and we've been saved from our sins and everything will be different. But I believe the Bible says you shall be known as you were known and whatever. I believe that we will have memories probably of things in our life because I believe the Bible teaches later that he's going to review our life. I believe account for everything done in our bodies that I literally believe that moment we bow our knees, we are literally going to start confessing again. It's already been covered.

It's already been forgiven. But it'll be a time of confession at the judgment seat of Christ. Number three, I want you to notice the purpose. Why is all this happening? Why do we have to all appear? Why we bow before his presence and we confess and we adore him.

What is the purpose of all this? The purpose is this, for you to give an account for yourself. Notice verse 12, shall give account of himself. The whole purpose of this, the whole purpose of the judgment seat of Christ is for us to give an account for what we've done. Now look at me, if we didn't have to give account for what we've done, why would it matter what we do? Dear friend, I heard people say, hey, listen, our sins have already been forgiven. God died on the cross for our sins. Well, you know, if you look at it that way, why don't you just go out and just do a whole bunch of sin 24 hours a day?

Who cares? God's already forgiven it. Let me tell you why you and I as Christians don't do that because we will give an account to God one day for how we live. Do you see the difference? Let me tell you something, it does make a difference how you and I live on this earth.

It does make a difference what we do right now. Because we're going to give an account for it that day. Two things under this. Number one, we're going to give a personal account. And number two, we're going to give a pure account.

Now let me explain. The Bible says this in Romans chapter 14, verse 12, that many of you just looked at, that we shall give account of himself is what it says. It does not say you will give an account for anybody else. You will give an account for you.

I will give an account for me, a personal account. Listen to me, you and I will not answer for anyone else. You and I are not going to be responsible for anybody else's done. You are not going to be able to say, well, the reason I did such and such is because so and so did such and such, God.

No, listen to me, we will not have excuses blaming someone else at the judgment seat of Christ. You and I give account for us and nobody else. Ourselves. Notice if you would in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10 that we read first.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body. Your body. Not anybody else's.

Yours. You can't, you know what, we give excuses here on earth, well, I did this because I've had a rough life. Well, I did such and such because I have a dysfunctional family. You show me one family in this building that isn't dysfunctional. Now I've known some of you long enough, you think it's not, you're not dysfunctional, you are.

You're more dysfunctional than you think. We're going to give a personal account. Second, we're going to give a pure account and I want you to get this. Notice what it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10. We will receive the things done in his body. Now notice again in Romans chapter 14 and verse 12. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

Listen to me. When we get to the judgment seat of Christ, it will be a pure account. You and I would have the tendency to give a somewhat skewed view of ourselves. At the judgment seat of Christ, it's not going to matter what you think about yourself. It's going to matter what God thinks about you. At the judgment seat of Christ, oftentimes if you ask one of us, we might give a better account of ourselves than it really is. Let's be honest. I mean sometimes, you know, you can look in a mirror and think, well, I'll look a certain way. Then when you see a picture and you look at the picture and you're like, ugh, is that me? See, when you're looking in your mirror combing your hair, you see a better image than everyone else does. That's why I don't watch our TV broadcast right there.

I used to think it's because widescreen format, but I realized it was wide preacher format. But anyway, God's been keeping track. All the things you and I have or haven't done that we've forgotten about a long time ago, he has been keeping track. He watched everything you did for him. He's got record of it. Every little thing you did on behalf of God that nobody noticed that nobody saw that nobody thanked you for.

He's got it all written down. We will be given a pure account. Listen to me. At the judgment seat of Christ, it's not going to matter what you think about yourself. Second, it's not going to matter what anybody else thinks about you. All that matters is what God thinks. And God knows the whole story. It will literally be a pure judgment. It won't be skewed out of favoritism.

It won't be out of view because of certain character traits. God is pure. God is holy. And listen to me. The account that we will give, we will not get by with anything. We will not get by if something's forgotten or something was overlooked. It's not going to be a time where you get up and after God's done, you say, hey, you forgot about such and such that I did for you.

It's not going to be that way. He's going to cover all the bases. We're not going to fool him. He has always known us better than we know ourselves since the day we were born. You and I, when we give account to God, we'll be standing before somebody that knows the very inner parts of us. He knows our frame, the Bible says.

He holds our breath in his hands, the Bible says. You think we're going to come up with a good story there while we didn't do more for him? I guarantee you ain't one of us going to say one thing. Excuse the language.

Ain't not a word, but it is around here. I'm going to tell you, you don't go a day without hearing that around here. I'm going to tell you that right now. See how it's rubbed off already. We won't try to excuse ourselves. When facing his glory, we're going to stand in awe and we're going to keep our mouth shut. And as we give account for how we lived our life. There's not much we're going to have to say. I want you to notice, fourthly, the procedure.

All right. Well, as we stand before him, what's going to be done? Saint Corinthians chapter five, verse 10 said, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, in his body. What would be done in your body? It's what you did on earth. Does that make sense?

So what you're giving account for is what you did in your body on earth. Number one, it's going to be a time of reviewing. Now, I want you to turn to another passage. Hold your place there. You say where?

Well, everything everywhere I've mentioned. Just hold your place because I want you to see all the passages. First Corinthians chapter three.

You need to turn there. We're going to be dealing there just for a few minutes. First Corinthians chapter three. We will have a time of reviewing. First Corinthians chapter three, verses 12 through 15 give the account of the judgment seat of Christ.

And we're going to cover them. But I want you to notice verse 13 of first Corinthians chapter three. First, it says, every man's work shall be made manifest. For the day shall declare it. So first, there's going to be a time of reviewing. Everything will be brought back up in your life. Now, listen to me. The deeds that you did for the Lord and the deeds that you didn't do for the Lord. Are going to be brought back up.

Look at me. I personally believe our sins will not be mentioned. I've heard preachers say you're going to be in front of everybody and God's going to bring out every sin that you ever committed.

I just don't think that's going to be the case because if he brought it up again, that means he didn't forgive me the first time. It's not going to be a time where God brings up every sin. It's going to be a time where God brings up what you did or didn't do for him. It'll be a time of reviewing now that and I'll cover this later.

That could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing. Secondly, it's going to be a time. And I'm I think this ought to motivate you a time of receiving. St. Corinthians chapter five, verse 10 that you looked at. It says that we're all going to give an account that we may receive the things done in our body.

Time of receiving. Third, it just goes along with it. But I want you to see this in first Corinthians chapter three that we just turned to. It's going to be a time of rewarding.

That's why I need you to look at first Corinthians chapter three. You say, OK, rewarding. What am I going to be rewarded for? How do I how will I get rewards there at the judgment seat of Christ? OK, I'm going to give an account for what I did or didn't do for the Lord in my life while I lived in this body. I'm going to give an account.

So so how do I get rewards that day? Notice verse 12. Now, if any man build upon this foundation and he gives the list.

Gold, silver, precious stones or wood, hay, stubble. Verse 13, every man's work shall be made manifest, speaking of the judgment seat of Christ, for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire. The Bible says God is a consuming what?

All the works that you've done on earth supposedly for God. It's going to go through his refinery. He will be the judge of whether it is something that should stick or not. He's going to be the judge of whether it was really done for me or not.

He's going to be the judge that decides whether it was done out of a good motive or not. He is a consuming fire. And the Bible says that all of our works, gold, silver, precious stones or wood, hay, and stubble is going to be refined in the fire.

Now you and I know as well as anybody, it's common sense. Wood, hay, and stubble isn't going to last very long in a fire. It's going to be consumed. It's going to be burnt up.

There's not going to be anything left. But gold, silver, and precious stone, that fire just simply makes it better. So everything here on earth that you do for God, the judgment seat of Christ, it will pass the refiner's test. But everything you do out of vainglory or flesh, even if it's in God's name, you say. If it's wood, hay, or stubble, God's going to find out which it is.

He knows. Notice if you would, verse 14, if any man's work abide, in other words, if you've got anything left after going through the refiner's fire, the test by God himself, if any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. All God's people said, Amen. Verse 15, if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. That doesn't sound like a very fun heaven. What do you mean suffer? I thought we're not supposed to suffer in heaven.

I thought, you know, hey, we're not. You know, heaven's just going to be where everything's positive and everything's wonderful. Dear friend, when you faced with the knowledge that you should have done more. For your savior. That will be a loss. Lastly, it'll be a time of regret. And I say that to say this. Notice verse 15. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. Notice this last phrase. But he himself shall be saved. Yet so as by fire.

Here's the thing. Our works are going to go through the. The fire test. And God is a consuming fire.

He's the one. Our works are going to go through that test. But here's the best thing. You and I don't have to. We're going to have rewards for the things we did. We're going to lose rewards for the things we didn't. It's not like, hey, here's a reward for this.

You did. We're going to take one away because you didn't know. When you don't do something for God, there's no reward. So the things you do for God, you get rewards. The things you don't do for God, there's just no reward. And that's a loss.

You say, why is that? Because we believe that every reward we get. And the Bible gives a number of different crowns that we can earn by the way we live, the things we do. And we're all trying to do that. And let me tell you why you want rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. Because we believe we're going to form right back at our savior's feet.

And you want to have as much as you can to give him after he gave everything to you. So I don't know if there's going to be a time of regret. Oh, yes, I believe there will.

I know I am. I know I was talking with them, but Jones and his sons on Friday morning kind of planning out Shirley's funeral. Shirley's in hospice and obviously it's just a matter of days. And I sat down with Bud and his sons and they wanted to talk about the funeral and plan some things out. We begin to talk about some things. And one of Bud's sons, Jerry, he was just talking and he said, because my mom died in February in hospice, I went through all that with him. And he said, how, how do you deal with watching the pain, watching them suffer? And I, you know, I just told him some things about it.

I said, they do such a good job here at keeping them comfortable. He said, how do you deal with it afterwards? I said, I don't know. I said, Jerry, the hardest part is that. I remember things that I said. And the way I said them. And I said, I want it so badly to sit with my mom and just apologize. Again. I said, but I just couldn't.

Let me tell you something, living with regret is a hard thing. I believe you and I will regret not doing more for our savior. Now, at the expense of you getting a wrong picture of the judgment seat of Christ. Let me explain it this way and I'll let you go home. You got to picture two scenes with me. Now, one scene is this. It's a it's a court of law. Now, just listen to me.

I want you to get this. It's a court of law and a man is on trial for his life. Some of you watch court TV, so this would be easy for you to imagine. The jury has returned a verdict guilty. And the judgment by the judge is about to be passed. And that sentence is probably obviously going to be death. And there's a hush that comes over that courtroom.

And there's almost what you would call fear and awe and disbelief and tension waiting for the announcement. That's one scene. Second scene is a flower show.

Like what? A flower show. Let me let me put it to you this way. It's a flower show and everywhere there's beautiful plants on display. And the judge arrives.

That's going to judge who has the best flowers. And as the judge walks around from booth to booth and sees the flowers that individuals have grown, he's going to have maybe a word of praise for just about everybody's flower. Very beautiful. Very good.

Very good job. And he's going to go through that whole exhibit and really knowing that probably a limited few are going to get the rewards for the best flowers. And they're all waiting on that to be judged and there's tension there and there's excitement and different things. And the judge is getting ready to pass the sentence in the court of law that death will be given to this man. And over here at the flower show, the flower judge is getting ready to to share who wins best flower. Now, there's tension in both and there's judgment in both. But you've got to understand, in the court of law, an individual is being judged.

In the flower show, a man's accomplishment is being judged. It's not a matter of life or death. It's just a matter of accomplishment. Dear friend, you and I, if you're saved, the judgment seat of Christ will not be a matter of life or death for us. It'll just be a matter of accomplishment.

How dedicated were you? How faithful were you to me? God will say. But for our friends and individuals that don't know Christ, the great white throne judgment. The person will be judged. God bless you. You