The Judgment Seat - By Wayne Weaver

I wish you could see the little picture I drew on my paper. Here I have sketched out a little seat. On top it says "eternity," and a little red line trickles off to the right that says "life." On the other side, however, are numerous black lines that lead to "death." This is the judgment seat of Christ.

We all have to appear before that judgment seat. A day is appointed for us, as described in II Corinthians 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."

I was thinking about this message as I drove down the road, and as I looked at the people in other cars I wondered what they would present at the judgment seat. We all must give an account. On that day we will stand naked in front of God, and this document detailing our lives will be opened and what we have done will be told. There is a certain time, a certain moment that is appointed unto you to arrive at the presence of the judgment seat of Christ. Every one of us will be stripped of all our religious clothing. You might look as if you are a very good Christian but you will be stripped down from everything you have on the outside. You will be stripped down from everything that you have on the inside. We will stand before Jesus one day to see what of Christ there is in us.

As I drove I wondered, "Does that person in that little red car even know there is such a judgment seat? Does that man in the blue car have Christ?" Then my mind went over to Asia and India, the remote areas in other countries that have never heard the gospel. I thought also of Ted Turner, who made the statement that the Christian life is only for losers. There are men that have died before, like Hitler and Stalin, men of that degree that have done great harm and evil in this world. Then we have our current president of the United States, president Clinton, who we don't know whether he is true or false when he speaks, but at the judgment seat of Christ he will be standing there. They will all be unveiled in the presence of Jesus.

Believers and non-believers alike will stand at that judgment seat. We might look as if we're very good Christians, but on that day everything will be stripped down and what is of Christ and what is not of Christ will show.

. I call it the "great meltdown," when everything we cover ourselves with is melted away and God shows us who we really are. All will be made manifest at that time.

In the parable of the marriage feast in Matthew 22, the king arrives at the banquet and finds a guest without proper clothes. "Friend, how did you get in without a wedding garment?" he asks. The guest is speechless. He wore modest clothes, went to the right church, and thought he looked just right. Somehow it didn't occur to him that he wasn't ready. But the king says to "Bind him hand and foot and take him away. Cast him into outer darkness." There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth on that day, for many are called but few are chosen.

Some of us reading this message might hear those very words the king said to the guest. Unless our lives are full of the power of Jesus and our sins are forgiven and under his blood, we will stand condemned at the judgment seat.

In Daniel 7 the prophet talks about the throne where the Ancient of Days sits with a thousand times ten thousand standing before him. A fiery stream issues forth from him, and the books are opened and judgment is set. It's a powerful picture of a righteous God who doesn't tolerate sin. We should tremble before him.

About seven years ago I got a speeding ticket and chose to stand before the judge. The day before the court appearance I began to get nervous, and the next day as I drove to the courthouse I was nervous indeed. When I was called before the judge and asked how I pleaded, my voice shook and I was trembling. This was only a man and my offense was only a speeding ticket. Imagine Christ as the judge and all the sins of our entire lives as the offense!

That day foretold in many, many scriptures is fast approaching. The New Age movement, the expansion of the United Nations, and the movement toward a one-world monetary system are all signs of the end times. The day is coming when the big old fingers of the enemy are going to loom over us to squelch us down, to take away the rights of Christians, to usher in the events described in Revelation.

Let's look at the judgment seat. It stands big and it stands tall. There we come walking as individual souls destined for eternity--to be forever with the King, or to be forever banished to hell where there is no healing and no mercy. We need to be warned of this coming moment, and we need to warn others. There are people in India who have never heard this message. And, sadder to say, there are professing Christians who go to church Sunday after Sunday who have never heard this message. They will get before the judgment seat of Christ and ask, "Why has nobody told us?" Others there will remember the day when they walked out on a message like this.

Tonight those in the world are partying, drinking, and numbing their bodies because they are so full of sin. They are preparing their account. They will stand at that seat: disobedient souls, rebellious souls, young and old souls, Baptist souls, Catholic souls, Lutheran souls, Pentecostal souls, Mennonite souls, Amish souls, and Crossroads souls. Every Holy Ghost resister will be there. Every TV evangelist will be there. All will be there. Someone with pen in hand is recording all that goes on in preparation for that day.

In I Corinthians 3, Paul tells us to take heed how we build God's building, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Some will build on that foundation only wood, hay, and stubble. Others will lay gold, silver, and precious stones. Every man's work will be tried by fire, and all that is worthless will be burned away. Our work will be tested to see what sort it is, not how big it is.

Even those who go about God's work with great zeal will see much of what they do go up in smoke, because their motivation is of the flesh and not the Spirit. A successful preacher up in Chicago had a dream one night. An angel came to him and asked, "How is your zeal?" He said, "Oh, my zeal is fine--I'm on fire for God. We're converting souls. The world is changing." The angel reached into the preacher's bosom and pulled out all of that zeal and poured it into a bucket. Then he put fire under the bucket and melted it down into a hardened crust that broke into 11 pieces when poured out.

Using a scale of 100, the preacher measured the 11 pieces of his zeal. The first piece, bigotry, was 11 parts. The next, personal ambition, was 22 parts. Love or praise of the people was 19 parts. Pride of the church was 15 parts. Love of authority was 12 parts. Pride of talent was 14 parts. Next to last was love of God for 4 parts. Finally was love of men for 3 parts. Out of all his zeal that made his church grow and beckoned souls to the Lord, only 7 parts were of God; the other 93 parts were wood, hay, and stubble. How much of our desire to do good works comes from similarly selfish motives?

I believe the judgment seat of Christ will be something like that preacher's dream. God will light a fire under what we thought were good works and burn off all the wood, hay, and stubble. All those testimonies we gave will be burned to see if they were real or not. All those times we cried in prayer just so others would see will be exposed. Leonard Ravenhill said we could stand before the judgment seat of Christ for a million years, because God is in no hurry. He will let us sweat it out. He will melt us down to see who we really are.

In Matthew 25 in the parable of the talents, the profitable servants are given rewards but the unprofitable servant is thrown into outer darkness where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth." Jesus goes on to talk about the final judgment when he will separate the sheep from the goats and welcome only the sheep into his kingdom.

But we must let Christ do the separating, and be the separating , for we cannot tell of ourselves the sheep from the goats. I'm reminded of the illustration of the sheepdog that helped the shepherd gather the sheep. The dog was trusted by the sheep, but one day a sheep come wandering in and the dog attacked and tore it up. It turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.

In Matthew 10, Jesus sends out his disciples to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils, and preach the kingdom of heaven. Jesus gave us that same commission before he returned to heaven.

Notice the strong word Jesus gives to those places that don't accept the disciples' message. "Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city." We know about the judgment cast down on Sodom and Gomorrah: God opened the heavens and burned the place completely. But the judgment on the cities that reject the disciples will be even worse. Why? Sodom and Gomorrah had no Bible, no tent meetings, no Jesus, no salvation. Those people weren't given Holy Spirit power for a changed life. They were never offered an altar call and never heard the message you are hearing now. So the judgment will be even worse for those who have been given all these things but still reject God.

How dangerous it is for us to sit and reject the gospel message, to reject the call from hypocrisy to reality and from hidden sin to holiness! This is reality. I will stand before God one day, and he has an account of everything I have ever thought.

Our only hope on that day is the work of Christ. The Bible says we should have our lives filled with the power of God through the Holy Spirit, that we should have "boldness to come to the throne."

Perhaps you are like the fig tree Jesus saw on his way to Jerusalem. It stood there in all its beauty and pomp, with full green leaves beckoning to those passing by. Jesus went over to get some fruit but found it empty. He cursed the tree. "You're not a fig tree. You have no fruit." The tree withered at his judgment.

Some of you might be standing in pomp and beauty like that fig tree. You look marvelous. "I am a holy man. I am a holy woman," you think. But if Jesus came to your tree tonight, would he find fruit? Or would he curse the tree?

If you know that through God's mercy you are prepared for that judgment seat, then rejoice and work to bring others to repentance. If you know, on the other hand, that your Christian walk is one of hypocrisy with no real fruit, then fall on your knees and beg God's forgiveness before the judgment overtakes you.