This sermon delves into the concept of the final judgment, emphasizing the importance of surrendering to God and living a life devoted to Him. It explores the idea of standing before the judgment seat of Christ, where every aspect of one's life will be examined, from devotional practices to words spoken and actions taken. The sermon highlights the need for a deep prayer life, sacrificial giving, and obedience to God's will, pointing to the eternal consequences of our choices and actions.

And very often you notice preachers call this the book of the revelation of St. John, that is not the title. It's the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's called to the scholars the Apocalypse, or again the revelation means the unfolding, the taking away of the veil as it were. I find the book of the revelation a book of mystery, a book of majesty, and a book of misery. Because it shows me the final stage of lost men, that forever and ever they're going to be cut off from God. That if there are a million roads into hell, there's not one road out. That if they continually sing in heaven worthy as the lamb, in hell the only thing they sing is the harvest is past, the summer is ended and we're not saved. And I suggest to you in these awesome days of such universal chaos in morals, in politics, in economics, that maybe every day this coming week you should read the 17th and 18th and 19th chapters of the book of the revelation. You know this book has an imprint on it that no other book has in the whole of the word of God, because in chapter 1 verse 3 it says, blessed is he that readeth and they that hear. There's a lot of people that read but they don't hear. Blessed is he that readeth and heareth the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand. Let's go to the 20th chapter in this book, Revelation 20 and read from verse 11. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat upon it from whose face the heavens and the earth fled away and there was found no place for them 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 and the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell were delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Step over a minute into the third chapter of Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians chapter 3 and we read there from verse 9 1 Corinthians 3 verse 9 for we laborers together with God ye are God's husbandry ye are God's building according to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon for other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble 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 if any man's work abide which he buildeth there upon he shall receive a reward if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss that he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire now back to Revelation chapter 20 again the judgment of the sinners I saw a great white throne typical obviously of purity and him that sat upon it now now we read these things and they kind of slide over our minds but listen to the awesomeness of this from whose face the heavens and the earth fled away and there was found no place for them and I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened various titles have been given to this awesome event John Wesley called it the greater size Billy Sunday in his wonderful way called it payday Sunday a cowboy preacher preaching on it called it the last round up you could call it if you like a date with destiny or better still or more awesome still you could call it a day with destiny or if you like you could call it your day in court now this book begins the book of the Revelation by telling us these things will shortly come to pass and that was 2,000 years ago in a very brief but very brilliant biography of one of the greatest preachers that ever preached in America or England the biographer says that this man well he had strange habits and one of them was to carry in the right-hand pocket of his coat a handful of precious stones a diamond an amethyst a sapphire a ruby an emerald and so forth to add to his strange ways he would walk into a park where people were going up and down and he would put his hand in his pockets and and take one of those precious stones and then he would hold it up to the light of the Sun and he would lower it and higher it and seek this different shades from it or different illuminations from it and people would go past particularly children and you know they they do this you know how they do that you know I don't mind people doing that if they want to point to their own heads that's okay they point to mine it's something else but the children were doing this you know there's something strange about that man and there's an old saying that Potter and Miss Potter preachers don't usually criticize singers they criticize preachers singers criticize singers Potter and Miss Potter and these preachers were sitting around the table one day eating in England and they began to discuss this famous preacher and one of them said I heard him the other night he was awesome he lifted us into eternity he has a vast vocabulary I hardly knew whether I was in the body or out of the body and then my little boy said he'd seen him in the park playing again like a child plays with marbles playing with precious stones the handwriter wrote about the Bible and he called it a golden casket where gems of truth are stored it is the heaven-drawn picture of Christ the Living Word there are roughly three quads of a million words in the Bible I suggest that like that man selected his stone and lifted it up to the light of the Sun that we select one word out of this golden casket and that word is judgment and we hold it up to the light of eternity and you can tell God you're not concerned about what this preacher says but say Lord give me some new illumination on this awesome fact of judgment I thought repeatedly this week of that awesome sermon one of the greatest ever preached in America back in the 1700s it was preached by Jonathan Edwards they're told he brought his manuscripts and he had a candle there and he wasn't very good-looking and he had a big nose and he thumbed and he read with monotonous you know routine he he read that sermon sinners in the hands of an angry God and people fell off their seats and they clung to the pillars that were holding the gallery up and he didn't say oh friends please excuse me I never meant to embarrass you like that there's some psychological phenomena going on here that while they were laid out he just lashed them with the Word of God and people cried out in their despair there was a reason for it because before he had prayed over and over and over again Oh God stamp eternity on my eyeballs I don't know anybody else that ever prayed it maybe we said it but you know if God should stamp eternity or even judgment on our eyeballs or if you like on the fleshy table of our hearts I'm quite convinced we'd be a very very different tribe of people God's people in the world today we leave too much in time we're too earthbound we see as other men see we think as other men think we invest our time as the world invested we invest our money we're supposed to be a different breed of people it must have been very awesome in the days of his flesh to get up one morning and say well I'm not going to work I don't know who this man is but I'll tell you what I'm so stale and dried up and I've been to the synagogue and the temple and those old boys nutter and and they quote about somebody coming and they don't believe he's coming you know Enoch says that said Jude records that Jesus will come with 10,000 of his saints why did he come that way the first time why didn't he come sweeping through the sky when it was as black as night over Jerusalem why didn't he come with 10,000 saints why didn't he come with a sound of trumpets why didn't he capture the world like that he didn't come that way and when he did come they couldn't believe that somebody clawed in flesh and blood walking around that had to eat and sleep and do everything else like we do was a son of God but he began to stir Jerusalem and you might have got into the into town and say well I've been on business in Jericho you know I've got to look after affairs what are you excited about oh we went to see this man Jesus this this fellow that the synagogues are disturbed about and the and the priests are criticizing and you know he does amazing miracles why why he unplugs deaf ears and he casts the demons out of people and he cures leprosy and you know what he did yesterday he actually raised a man from the dead my that must have excited them Jesus going to the tomb and saying roll away the stone he didn't roll it away he gave wine at the feasts that he said you fill the water pots there's some labor we have to do you put the water in the in the water pots I'll turn it into what you roll the stone away and then he cried with a loud voice Lazarus my that would have excited me I don't know about you I'd have hit the ceiling I think he cried with a loud voice Lazarus as Campbell Morgan says he said Lazarus come forth if he just said come forth all the cemetery would have come and it wasn't time for them to come yet so he just said Lazarus come forth and he came forth he was alive but boy he was bowed with me gagged with it and on his face he had grave clothes he could only shuffle his hands were tied and that's true about a 95% of believers today they're alive but they're gagged they're bound they've still got grave clothes and Jesus says loosen and let him go what we're bound by superstition we're bound by the theology of our grandfathers or something but the church is gagged and bound she needs release in this awful hour in which we're living and the only one that can bring that release is Jesus Christ himself why even the disciples were well what do you think about master now he he's even raising the day and Jesus says in my in John 5 28 listen don't marvel at this oh if this does you wait I've got a word for you he says the day is coming in the which all who are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they shall rise did you get that so madam wherever he is right now in the in the sands in the dust all who are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God you see Jesus says I am the resurrection and the life and I believe he did rise from the dead not because of that long list in one Corinthians 15 but away at the end of the book of Revelation he says I am he that liveth and was dead and they hold I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and hell don't you believe that old bachelor in Rome you don't know who he is well it's the Pope he says he has the keys not on your life Jesus has the keys of death I love the voice of the Son of God won't that be amazing when he says rise all that are in the sea and all that are in the grave I cross the Atlantic I guess about 18 times on the Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth United States and an after dinner at night when people went to smoke and drink and dance and everything else I walked up and down the deck and almost every time I crossed it I looked overboard and I said hey you down there you're gonna get up one day you Buccaneers who died in the Spanish Main stealing treasures and the folk that sank in the Lusitania and the people that sank in the Titanic and and the people that sank in all the great ships during the war are the voice of the Son of God they're going to rise millions of them billions of them trillions of them and they're all going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ that's going to be a spectacle oh where is it going to take place I don't know you see this this book of the revelation is not only at the end of the Bible but it deals with the end of time and then it deals with things that happen at the end of the time and it's the only book in the world which is authentic and everyone that is dead is going to hear the voice of the Son of God look for a minute at that sixth chapter in the revelation look at verse 12 and I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal oh there was a great earthquake the Sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became as blood and the stars of heaven fell to the earth even as a fig cast a third untimely three cast a third untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind and the heaven departed and a straw as a straw when it is rolled together and every mountain and island removed out of their places and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men of the chief captains and the mighty men and every bum and every freedman they hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fallen us and hide us from the face of him that sitting on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great days come in the end of the book of the Revelation it says of the redeemed which is in the other judgment that they're going to come on and they long to see his face again Fanny Crosby blind for 84 years and when somebody said to her it's a shame a great Christian like you is it is blind you can't see the sunset you can't see the lovely flowers you're at such a disadvantage oh no she said I'm at a great advantage you know she's a she was the first woman in history in American history blind though she was to address the the joint what do you call them different sections of Congress she she addressed the senators and she addressed the congressman and she addressed the whole government the first woman in history a little blind woman and they said and you never see the sunset God has denied you so much she said my dear I have a great advantage over you what's your advantage she said don't you realize the first face I ever see will be his face you wanna she wrote so many hymns about his face seeing his face that will that will leave us spellbound when we see his face but here the great men the rich men the mighty men the rulers I saw the dead small and great every king every king that's ruled over England the Caliphs of Baghdad the Maharajahs of India the multi millionaires the billionaires they're all gonna stand one day can you imagine it at the judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the deeds done in the body well of course if you have a judgment you must have a judge I do not have any pictures of Christ in my home because I don't think you should make any great likeness of any graven image and nobody knows what Christ was like you see pictures of Jesus as a baby you seem as a young man you seem sometimes on the back of an animal riding into Jerusalem that there's a picture I've only ever seen once and it was so grotesque I didn't look a second time now the voice of the Son of God they're all going to rise and face the eternal judge what will he be like in Australia they show me the picture that they have the beach beach cross or somebody beacher a painting the picture of Christ in Australia he's got lovely blonde hair and bright blue eyes and a lovely flaxen beard well I don't think that was a picture of Jesus and the Chinese have an interpretation of Christ through their artists and there are some dreadful pictures I think that have been given by the great masters so-called and they've given us pictures of Jesus but I'll tell you what it's a very different picture in the Word of God I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ needs a new revelation of the majesty of God this is what this is the King of Kings and he's the judge of judges and it's the tribunal of tribunals and there's no court of appeal after it the verdict is final there'll be no biased judgment two people at least have said to me this week there is no justice in the earth today maybe there isn't but I hang on to a word that says shall not the judge of all the earth do right the Apostle Paul got a picture of Jesus not with a lamb in his arms not like the stained-glass windows in our in our so-called cathedrals where Jesus looks pathetically feminine he sees Jesus and he says here he is he's the King immortal invisible the only wise God to whom be praise and glory forever so we're going to see the King of Kings he's the judge of judges in the courts of courts of courts in the final tribunal there is no tribunal after this this is finish and when I hear people singing you know put your hand in the hand of him that walks on the water forget it for the new son that's out shake hands with Jesus listen when you see Jesus you're not going up and say hey buddy I'm glad you died for me when you see Jesus you'll be almost paralyzed with fear unless you have a glorified body in a glorified mind who is writing the book this is a revelation to a man on an island on a devil's island the worst place the gathering of the scum of the earth and here he is and if you'd gone to him that morning and seen him sitting on a rock contemplating you might have said to him well John I didn't expect to find you in this hellhole with all these demon possessed men and here you are in the Isle of Patmos he said no I'm not where are you he says I'm in the spirit he was in the spirit when this enormous revelation was given to him the picture of Jesus here is not the picture of a pathetic individual pushed around by anybody who wants to push him around I think sometimes we think we're gonna march up and say well you know Jesus you know many years I served you and how many souls I won for you and how many sermons I preach for you oh no no no no no now what will he be like in heaven well I'll tell you what the book says he'll be like he says his hair is as white as snow his feet are like burnished brass his face is like the Sun in its strength his eyes are living coals of fire his tongue is a sharp two-edged sword and here is John who used to lean his head on the bosom of Jesus and hear that divine heartbeat the man that I believe knew more about Jesus than anyone else and when he saw Jesus there on his throne in his majesty with his face brighter than the Sun with his feet like burnished brass with his eyes like flames of fire with his tongue majestic and his voice like the sound of many waters John the man who had walked with him and talked with him for three years says that when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead what do you think you and I going to do we see there the judge in all his awesome majesty in all his glory and we have a picture here of the unholy dead small and great standing before God and when they see him in his awesome majesty no they don't worship it they're terrified this is a great exposure someone called me last night and said be sure you listen to 60 minutes tomorrow night because you see the Shah was interviewed I think I believe by 60 minutes and he said I'll tell you everything that Henry Kissinger told to me and Henry Kissinger says that to the to the ABC or whoever organizes the 60 minutes if you if you put that on I'll sue you for I don't know how many million dollars but he said instead of that let me come on on the 20 minutes and you can interview me and so they said all right but this week in Renning he said he won't come and I understand tonight they're going to tell us what the Shah said and the agreements he made oh yes Mr. Kennedy got away with it whatever happened at Chappaquiddick the little girl that was drowned or was she murdered or was she pregnant and snuffed away but Mr. Kennedy forgot one thing is going to be exposed at the judgment seat of Christ they couldn't find the 18 minutes on the tapes of mr. Nixon well I'll tell you he's got a perfect record of them and they're going to be read out one day before millions you say mr. Raymond I couldn't stand up there or anywhere else I'm so nervous if a few people look at me I want to tell you something there'll be a thousand million or trillion people when you stand there at the judgment seat without your wife to lean on or your husband or your preacher or a friend and it's a Paul is writing in the 14th chapter of Romans and he says we so he writes on even to believers at the judgment seat we must all there's no exception we must stand at the judgment seat of Christ you can't send your lawyer you can't send a representative you can't send a preacher who says well I understand this this person was always falling up and down and in and out and you didn't know why they were I'll explain it to you and the Lord says you won't do anything of the kind how do you see those millions of unholy dead all the criminals that ever lived every prostitute that ever went on the on the tour I can you can you think of all the men who make millions out of pornography anything of the pimps who pollute those little girls that go to West 44th West 42nd Street in New York and they go to all the hellholes can you imagine when God takes all the history and empties it but every man that ever walked the streets of ancient Babylon with all its last or Corinth which was just one colossal cesspool of impurity all that happened at Las Vegas last night is going to be thrown on the screen in eternity every judge that sits in the High Court is going to be judged one day by an infallible judge how long will it take I don't know and I don't care because we're not going anywhere I think one of the joys of eternity will be that the redeemed will will see all the unholy dead judge but they the unholy won't see that the holy people judge they won't be there it says the books were open what books you say well mr. Rayner I don't I won't be in serious trouble because you know I don't have a good memory but I'll tell you what you'll have one that day I didn't find the statistic because because in one sense I didn't have time but in Montreal a few years ago they they put a kind of little electric gadget on the mind of a man and they began to turn his mind back back back and he could recite everything from about the day was seven years of age it was all stored up there in the repressed complex of his subconscious if you like and they unfolded everything there's nothing lost it was all brought to the surface well if a doctor can put his finger on a man's mind and restore his memory what do you think the Son of God is going to do oh there's going to be some also awful revelations oh there's going to be some weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth oh yes mr. Kissinger you're going to be totally exposed what you and mr. Nixon did lying so long that we were not bombing Cambodia when we were ripping children to death when we were baptizing them with fire and napalm and taking the skins off their bodies I'd like to preach a series of sermons on this because you know the Word of God says there's going to be a judgment of living nations too there are at least seven judgments coming up just as there are at least five crowns for the believers you say I well I'm not quite sure about this you know my no your memory isn't faulty everything you've done every idle word you've spoken every action let me say it here in case I forget later I remember one day when I was talking with dr. toes as we used to talk together so often he said to me one day you know Len I'm not really too worried about what I've done I'm not too worried about the judgment even on my Christian life which I'll have I know but he says he said it's the things I could have done that worry me the things that I missed we're not going to be judged just because of what we've done we've got to be judged for why we did it not for the action for the multitude what multidated you're giving so you you'd have a plaque with your name on or you be the top of the list for giving money as well why why what's the motive behind it going back to the unholy dead they're going to stand small and great before God sometimes I look at my encyclopedia Britannica and I think all that history is going to pass before me in flesh and blood at the judgment seat of Christ I'll be interested to see Julius Caesar and Tiberius Caesar I'll be fascinated when Pontius Pilate stands before Jesus I think you'll feel less comfortable than Jesus felt standing before Pontius Pilate they're all going to stand there the secret archives of our hearts and lives are going to pass before well you say again I still hang on to the fact my memory isn't good you know it says the books are open I don't know what the books are I think the books of the Ten Commandments for one thing I think the book of memory for another thing you see this memory is an amazing thing but you know memory will last into eternity oh I don't think the redeemed will remember their sorrows and heartaches but I'll tell you what the unholy dead will remember every time somebody put a tract in their hand they'll feel it through eternity and wish their God it was there they remember that they heard their mother's prayers they remember every sermon they're going to remember everything because one day a man in hell prayed it was the wrong place to pray he prayed to the wrong person he prayed to Abraham he got the wrong answer some remember in their lifetime that you had good things but I don't want my brothers to come here but Jesus says remember memories eternal it will never die if you're an unsaved man a thousand million years you say well I came this morning my wife wanted me to come but I don't think I'll come again I don't like this kind of stuff well friend let me tell you lovingly go to hell and live with all the scum of the earth you like to drink go with the drinkers you like to let's go with the prostitutes in hell if you're given to lust after women you'll have that lust but there's nothing to satisfy your lust if you drink you'll thirst but there'll be nothing to satisfy your thirst you'll give a king's ransom for one drop of water there isn't even a drop of water never mind that precious wine you drink when in God's name is the church going to open a heart again and open a mind again and see again that every man I cannot whether he flies his own private Learjet or how many millions he has a rules over a city that's great of the earth and the scum of the earth and the the unbelievers are going to spend their time in eternity they're going to live there forever and ever the good book says where they're warm dieth not it will be awesome when we see the founders of these cults stand before God the founder of Jehovah's Witnesses as they call themselves Russell a man who wasn't very moral and he's gonna stand there and people up there will scream put him into the lowest hell and turn the temperature up well listen don't you worry about it the judge of all the earth will do right hell won't be the same for everybody some will be beaten with a few stripes some with many stripes but I'll tell you what I'd rather be the least in the kingdom of God than be the greatest in the kingdom of the devil anyhow both in time and in eternity I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were open you know some people today have great memories when Thomas Thomas Stockley's was the mayor of Athens he could recite the name of every person who lived in town and there were 20,000 of them I think it was Cyrus the king of Persia knew the name of every man that was in his army and he never had to be reminded that he faultlessly could recite the name of tens of thousands of people the famous Sir Walter Scott the great writer the night before he was five years of age so obviously was just in four and the night before he was saying prayers at his grandma's knee and his granny said to him now Walter you tonight do something else for me instead of just praying your prayer recite a psalm and he wasn't five years of age and maybe granny was shunned asked him he recited the hundred and nineteen psalm that's one way from keeping from going to bed early the hundred and nineteen psalm from the mind of a little boy not five years of age oh we wish we could scrub some things out there in eternity at least lost men and women will we read in the sixth chapter there of the book of the Revelation they said to the mountains and rocks fallen us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who is able to stand it says in the ninth chapter verse six in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it they shall desire to die and death shall flee from them I believe there'll be a day when a man will put a gun to his head and blow his brains out and to his amazement he'll still be living he'll throw himself from the stop of the Empire State Building or the top of a rock into the valley and still be living they shall seek death but they shall not find it there's an awesome aspect for you men seeking death and they shall not find it you remember that second psalm where it says concerning men that God he that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh God shall have them in derision can you think of them playing with every city's ever committed sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit sins against God sins against men and they're pursuing like the hounds of hell that are baying after him and he says if only I could die and get out of this and yet if he tries to die he will not die and the scripture says he that dwelleth the Holy God now he ceased to be a God of mercy in the fourth chapter of Revelation you have a Christ on the throne you have a rainbow over the throne which is a covenant sign of mercy you have four and twenty elders but there's nobody here sharing justice with Jesus he sits supreme down the throne there's no foreign twenty elders there's no sea of glass there's no rainbow mercy mercy is gone forever I cannot out twisted and corrupt your life is this morning you could be the most sensuous man a soldier said to me one day do you really believe that God can God forgive every sin I've ever committed I said he sure can that is if you repent of your sin and you plead for the blood of Christ and you ask for mercy but he says you know what I'm haunted with I was in the army so many years in other countries and he said I'm horrified to tell you this but he said maybe I've got about 30 children around the world I've had sex with so many women he said that maybe I'm the father of 30 children around the world can God forgive all the rottenness the corruption of my life he can why because this morning Jesus is on a throne of mercy he shall find grace to help but when we see him here he's not on a throne of mercy he's on a throne of justice that tender Christ who went about doing good and he kissed little babies and blessed people now ah there's no nothing more beautiful than a little lamb there's nothing more terrible than the wrath of the Lamb and one day God's mercy is going to be cut off and then it'll be the wrath of the Lamb can you think of all the tribes and nations can you think of Pharaoh standing before Jesus Christ and having to account for the massacre anything of Herod the Great having to account for the massacre can you think of Hitler having to account for the massacre we're told of six million Jews did you this morning I mean I know you had your tribulation the bacon was burned and some other tragedy happened but did you think this morning that somebody for Christ's sake is going to lose his head in Cambodia or Vietnam or Russia do you think that Stalin never dreamed that all the bloody purges he made he'd have to answer for every precious drop of blood he ever spilled the Psalmist David says store my tears in my bottle I believe that nobody ever spilled a tear whether it was built in in compassion for souls or it was it was still because of a broken heart it never fell to the ground it was stored by God and God's out one day and people may cry the Jews perhaps may cry of Hitler God scourge him scourge him turn the furnace up in hell but listen God doesn't need any reminders shall not the judge of all the earth do right if a man has to be cast away from God with his own sin and misery forever and ever if his inner being as it were is torn with lust if his mind is tortured by his wickedness well what do you think it would be like if you'd kill six million people like that God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing I think one of the great tragedies of our day is that when when when mr. Nixon was in office 18 Dave Wilkerson told me one day when we were talking he said Len you know that 18 5 10 15 18 different preachers went to Nixon and not one of them ever got through to him Watergate was not just a political tragedy or an economic tragedy it was a spiritual tragedy there was no Elijah to go there there was no Nathan that went to David and I think we better watch this business of you know God loves you God loves you and all the bumper sticker sloppy evangelism will you remind people of the goodness and the severity of God will you remind them that there's a day when mercy is cut off forever will you remind them that people pray in hell but nobody ever answers the dead small and great you're going to stand before God in that awesome day the book of memory is going to be open and the Ten Commandments and other books that God has are going to be open in that awesome day and there's no mercy mercy has gone forever people will be saying the harvest is past and the summer is ended and I'm not saved that great scholar Daniel Webster was once asked what is the greatest thought you have a colossal mind what is the greatest thought that has ever traveled down the corridors of your mind he said I thought many great things but the greatest thing that I've ever thought of the most awesome the most terrifying the most shattering thought I've ever had is my personal accountability to God one day we all without exception must stand there and I'm dealing that and leaving that section I could stay longer remember there's going to be a judgment of the living nations and so forth there's going to be a judgment of angels Paul says in 1st Corinthians 6 I guess he says don't you know that some of us are going to judge angels but you see the thing I'm really saying I got through my introduction now let me get to the business here 1 Corinthians 3 this is the judgment of the believers now we're laborers together with God near God's husbandry a God's building according to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation and another builder there are but let every man take heed how he buildeth there on for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it should be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work notice what it says very carefully here what sort it is not what size it is not the quantity but the quality if any man's work abide which he has built thereupon he shall receive a reward if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet as by fire so Jesus there as it were or the spirit puts these into little pockets he says your life can be wood or hay or stubble or your life can be silver gold or precious stones and the fire shall try every man's work you know this will be very very significant to the people at Corinth do you know why because not too long before this was written the whole city of Corinth was devastated by fire and there were people whose houses were built with beautiful pillars of granite and there were people whose houses were made totally of marble and the poorer people their houses were made of just out of straw and some people had houses made out of hay and some people are houses made out of clay and and and straw and stubble and when the fire swept through the city everybody's house if you had a house made of wood or hay or stubble every house was devastated and it was in ashes but the houses that were made of precious stones they were still standing though they were scorched too and Paul is writing here and he says when you go to the judgment seat of Christ even as a believer with all your works they're either wood or hay or stubble or silver or gold or precious stones now let's visualize we give a man over here ten thousand dollars and he invested in wood the next man is given ten thousand he invested in hay the next man has ten thousand it's in stubble the man over here has ten thousand he invested in gold wouldn't get much at five hundred dollars an ounce would he and the next man at silver he wouldn't get too much at twelve dollars an ounce and the other man in precious stones now this is your life's work your life's work is wood hay stubble and the fire remember our God is a consuming fire sure God is love but God also is a consuming fire and all our lives time from the moment you began to witness for Christ all your service all your labors for him they're going to be shown oh now listen listen none of the the filthy world none of the outcasts of hell are going to be there won't it be wonderful that you get there or will it when you see all the redeemed of all the ages when you look there and say you know there's Abraham I didn't think he'd look quite like that but he's going to be there all right and all the saints of all the ages are going to be there a him writer says from earth's wide bounds and oceans far this coast through gates of pearls streaming a countless host singing to father son and holy ghost hallelujah you know there used to be an old hymn and maybe not 10 people here could recite it and tell me the first verse but everybody knows the chorus when the saints go marching in you know they dance to that down in bourbon street that hellhole with all its prostitute they dance to it every every night when the saints go marching in they shuffle their feet listen that's for the redeemed it's not for that bunch of scum of the earth it's for the redeemed when the saints go marching in can you imagine them going in from earth's wide bounds from oceans far this coast through gates of pearls streaming a countless host singing to father son and holy ghost hallelujah a multitude which no man can number I'm gonna open the gallery and see all the saints of all the ages man I'll be thrilled to look on Isaiah and Jeremiah and those major prophets and those minor prophets and Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and Acts well everybody in Acts anyhow and the Apostle Paul and Titicus and all those strange characters won't it be wonderful and say see those are the men who walk with Jesus see there's Paul he gave his colossal intellect to God he wrote about 14 epistles he went over Asia Minor he didn't sit in a jet and say you know how good the Lord is to me and I know sorry he was last to the post 195 times he was in weariness and fastings and painfulness and tribulation and distress and famine and peril and nakedness and sword in tribulation amongst false brethren in perils of the deep you think that man's gonna get two ounces of reward for a life like that if you want to get rewarded grace is free but rewards are not free people say you're talking about work sure I am because God did Jesus did you know that some saints again are gonna judge the earth well that'd be an awesome task I I won't want to be one maybe I never will maybe I will maybe maybe God will ordain I should do it can you see the Holy Dead all lined up there all the Saints in the Old Testament all the Saints in the New Testament I hope the Lord I can't give him any advice I think I've tried to impress sometimes but I can't give God any advice I'd like to see a pocket full of those gorgeous people who prayed oh my won't that be wonderful you know when you see a political convention they have a sign up from Cincinnati or somewhere maybe there'll be signs in heaven these these are the prayer warriors these are the great sufferers these are the travelers these are the missionaries these are the failures well anyhow there's there's gonna be all kinds of people listed in that great day it's gonna be an awesome thing and here is a man he his life is just made of wood very beautiful ten thousand dollars wouldn't do much from a stack of mahogany these days would it but when the fire goes to it what you have all you have is that wood going down until you've got ashes maybe up to your ankles and that's all that is left I heard a woman say not long ago well praise the Lord I'm glad I don't have to account for anything when I go to heaven there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus wait a minute you can never isolate the scripture by itself there's no condemnation for past sins I'm you mighty glad this morning I think sometimes I don't wonder that God keep had to keep saying to Israel remember that was the bondsman in Egypt remember your sin remember your iniquity did you get up this morning and thank God you were pure then you thank him that that's devilish fever you used to have for sniffing cocaine or drugs or something that he broke the fetter of it are you really glad you're not a prostitute now you're gonna be a part of a bride of the Lamb are you glad he's removed from your heart covetousness and bad temper and all those creepy horrible things that used to master you a man's life all his ministry it showed you see the difference between the wood and the hay and the stubble and the silver and the gold and the precious stones wood hay and stubble and above the ground they catch the eye silver and gold and precious stone are below the ground nobody sees them there's a lot of public ministry in that day that's gonna go down in ashes my brother you say well it doesn't say that the Christians are going to be judged out of the book yes I think it does where in Malachi it says that God has a book of remembrance and I think it would do you good before you go to bed every night this week to ask God what did you put in your book this today from my life it doesn't necessarily have to be some outward act you could worship God on a tractor you could worship God it's not the best way but you can do it still the fire is going to take the big showy life of that man and burn it and it's only going to be a bunch of ashes wood hay well if you put $10,000 in hay you get a lot yeah and you get a lot more ashes too when the fire got to it and stubble you could buy half the stubble in Texas maybe for $10,000 but boy you'd have a mess when the fire got to it instead of ashes to your ankles or ashes to your knees it would be up to your nose maybe and you couldn't get your way out that that's what lives are going to be like wood hay stubble I used to have trouble with these boys always begging you know and it makes you wonder if some Christians do have hearts of flesh that they won't send the money to keep their jets going you know I believe every dime that ever came into a gap here every dime that ever came to Oral Roberts anybody else is going to answer for it at the judgment seat of Christ one day Jesus talked about these men who will go and take widows houses well that's what they're doing now they're not satisfied that you give while you're living that ask you to hand your house over to them and leave this in your will and if you do you'll get a better place in heaven don't believe it for a moment a life from hell they're going to give an account to God in that day but I believe we're going to give an account to a brother was telling me this week when he got baptized it was a kind of a sudden thing and he went down into the water there and suddenly realized he had his wallet in his pocket although not many pockets get you know not many wallets get baptized we kind of say Lord you look after my sins I look after the rest every penny you earn since you became the property of Jesus Christ you'll give an account of before God he doesn't just take your sins he takes yourself he takes the government of your life there's an awful lot of money being wrongly invested you know what I think I may not be right I usually am but I may not be quite right in this but you know what I think I think that now the crunch is on the nation I think it's going to get worse and worse this is going to be the roughest year we've ever lived I thought some of you three years ago that an important man called me late at night and said brother Abner the next three weeks in American history over them next three weeks we're going to live will be the most important in American history one of the most famous preachers in the country called me at nearly midnight and said you know what I've come to this conclusion God Almighty is already taking his hands off America for a simple reason we've had so much light and rejected it Carter can't make a move to the right if he makes it to the right it's still to the left every move he makes there's a counter move that makes him sink further and further in the mire and it's not only true that we live in a world of bankrupt politics we live in a world and this is the most tragic of all of a bankrupt church is it awesome to think that all this stuff we sing all that will be glory for me friend you've got one big stumbling block let me rush through this time's going your life is wood the fires gonna come hey the fires gonna come to it stubble the fires gonna come to it but what if your life is silver and gold and precious stones what is gold a sign of gold I believe there is a sign of our devotion to God you wouldn't get much gold for $10,000 today and I could have a small induction crucible here and put your $10,000 worth of gold and press buttons and it moves and moves what happens when you burn gold nothing all you do is change it from solid to liquid but you don't reduce it can you see all the Saints of all the ages and Leonard Raybill is standing there before a Christ of those eyes are full of holiness where the place is breathing holiness where there's all the majesty of an awesome God and he reads the record of my poor life before all the Saints of all the ages and he puts the fire to my devotional life I'm not just a good showman I sure like to preach because God called me to preach and I don't care how I preach I don't care whether you believe me either I'm not responsible for that I preach out of my heart all I believe not die for it but say am I just a showman what's my what's my secret life like we were talking just earlier yesterday I guess about the woman that came with an alabaster box of ointment you know I read that story for years and heard it preached on before ever I realized she came for one reason only she came to worship Jesus how do you know because she brought the most sacrificial gift that she had how do you know because she never said a word while she was there how do you know because she said I won't wash his feet with water I wash them with tears I won't dry his head and his feet with a gorgeous towel I'll wipe his feet with the hair of my head and she poured out that costly fragrance and then she wiped his feet again so what happened the fragrance she poured out on him came back on her why is my life more fragrant because you don't take time to be holy because you think if you stuff all the stuff you get to the gaffey which I'm sure is good or some other Bible school that this is no no no no no God isn't gonna measure your intellect the size of your hat he's gonna try with his fire my devotional life I think again of a statement dr. Tozer made to me once he said lend you know what he said we'll hardly get our feet out of time into eternity and gaze on eternity be what we bow our heads in shame and humiliation and say my God look at all the riches there were in Jesus Christ and I've come to the judgment seat almost a pauper for God has not barely given us Jesus Christ he's given us all things and because there isn't enough joy in the house of God we need entertainment because entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy because there isn't enough power in the house of God people are always looking for the last scientific development and their ass hair stands up when they see some fancy show on TV I think before we point the finger at the world we better turn to the church and say look we better all get sackcloth and ashes and humble ourselves and say Almighty God when I see the church in the New Testament they didn't have stately buildings they didn't have paid evangelists they didn't have a lot of money they didn't have organization they didn't come get on TV and beg but I'll tell you what they did they turn the world upside down and I'm embarrassed to be part of the Church of Jesus today because I believe it's an embarrassment to a holy God most of our joy is clapping our hands and having a good time and then afterwards we're talking all the drivel of the world Oh to be lost in him to be consumed in him we mentioned this week a little frail woman my dear boy that's in South America many of you heard him preach Paul I think he has every book that Amy Wilson Carmichael wrote about 30 of them he drenched himself in in her teaching she was a fine little Irish woman she had a curvature of the spine the last three years of her life they have to lift her in and out of bed change of diapers she was helpless but she loves 350 little children she wrote this from subtle love of softening things from easy choices and weakenings not that's a spirits Lord but not not that the spirits glorified not this way the crucified from all that dims thy Calvary Oh Lamb of God deliver me you know we're all the blood and laughter and happiness there's an old saying in the world laugh and the world laughs with you I change it I say laugh and the church laughs with you but weep and you weep alone you go so near to the heart of God we sang it our Friday we'd a marvelous Friday night prayer meeting I wouldn't have taken that Friday night meeting for $10,000 God came and we were broken and humiliated before him you get so near to the heart of God that you share his grief over a world and over a backslidden church that we have today can he share his sorrow with you oh yes you'll get filled with the Holy Ghost and get the bank balance that's all right if you do God will hold you to account for it but are you big enough to say Lord in this crucial hour in human history let me fill up the sufferings of Christ are you prepared to take challenge demon power and say listen I've moved into the place where the Apostle Paul was when he said I glory in tribulation in necessities in reproaches because if you're gonna get mature in God all the dwarfs around you will criticize and sneer at you and say you're trying to be holier than the rest of us are you sure you don't have time for basketball I'll go and see a baseball game no maybe you don't that's that's nobody's business but yours and God's you discover this the men who have been most heroic for God have been the men with the greatest devotional life I remind you again that one day I was in the Bible School of Wales and dear mrs. Reese house her husband was dead now we stood on the terrace there and she turned back she said you see the room there I said yes I see that room that door yes daddy meaning a husband went through that door at six o'clock in the morning and he stayed there till six o'clock at night every day for 11 months except the one day that his mother died we've mutilated all the hymns most of Charles Wesley's hymns out 30 stanzas now they've about six we've done that with other things you'll see a little board up in homes in offices sometimes only one life to assume be passed only what's done for God will last that's not what the point wrote the point wrote this only one life to assume be passed only what's done for God will last and when I am dying how glad I shall be if the lamp of my life has been burned out for thee you think all Christians die happy not on your life they dies miserable of sinners some of them why because I've misused my time and I've misused Lord if you only spare me to do this some of you prayed that on a hospital bed some of you women when you thought you were dying giving birth to a child said Lord if you spare my life I'll do this Sunday have you done it the only thing that will tie me in victory continually through the blood of Christ is my personal devotion to him the Son of God my adoration that I give him my tribute every day it's more than my service it's more than giving my money that I love him and I adore him and I magnify my I take him as it were by the feet for all the people who worship Jesus the woman came and bought an alabaster box of ointment and she was at his feet she was at his feet and every occasion that woman if you follow the story through when he appeared in the upper room they seized him by the feet you get a little bit further in the book of Revelation or if you go to the sixth chapter again you find there it says at the end that the four and twenty elders now they fell down at his feet you wonder Matthew Bridges wrote that lovely hymn crown him with many crowns the lamb upon his throne crowning the Lord of spheres the potent aid of time crowning the Lord of love crowning the Lord of Spirit power a scepter sways from pole to pole that war may cease and all be prayer and pray the one thing that's wrong with that world outside is it thinks it's done with Jesus Christ it hasn't even started with him yet but he stands at the end of the trail for every man rich or poor bottom of a three black or white intellectual or ignoramus what your devotional life this morning would you would you like Gabriel to hand me the book of your devotional life for the last month and read it to this fine audience the gold is going to be tried for our devotional life the silver what is a silver I guess you can interpret different ways I like to interpret it this way the book of father says the tongue of the just is as choice silver yeah every idle word you've spoken even since you were saved God has a kind of you know he doesn't need a tape recorder but he has an eternal record of it you know the gossip the slander the criticism the prejudice you know when somebody upset you and and instead of being quiet yeah you spilled out just was on your heart at that moment can you think of all those awesome work can you think of all the words we preached to thousands of people over the years and we're going to answer it and the fire is going to be put to them well will they be hay and stubble or or will they abide the fire the fire shall try every believers work silver gold precious stone well what are the precious stones well when I read that I think of the I think of the breastplate that was on the priests the priest in the Old Testament it was divided into twelve each stone was a different stone each stone had the name of the tribe on it and he went into the holy place to pray with a breastplate on him oh well how do you handle this how do you handle this you know why the world is poor and sick outside because we really don't know how to pray that's why because we're satisfied we've left our lousy living and we don't drink and lust and damn ourselves every day and now we're Christians and we're so content and so happy and so satisfied I've said it many times I said again this morning that no man is greater than his prayer life I don't care about his organization and it's these boys all have a what is it a mailing list hmm doesn't worry me let me live with a man a while and share his prayer life and I'll tell you what how tall I think he is or how majestic I think he is in God supposing I could say to Gabriel this morning Gabriel hand this book down oh let's let's preview eternity here we are millions of people all the prayer bodies America has produced some of the greatest praying pace in a Portland at a floor harder than that and at the side of his bed when he he knows he used to pray and pray and pray and when they washed his body for burial he had great big hooves on his knees like camels like history says that James in the Bible had knees at least tradition says that well it's a living fact that Payson had them and when they were washing him somebody said what abnormal knees they're calloused they're heavy with calluses yeah because he used to pray at the side of his bed with energy and in that hard floor he wore two grooves like that about six or seven inches long where he used to pray and make intercession praying patient of Portland many of you can buy the book if you haven't read it I think it's in the book still there praying Hyde John Hyde I met somebody used to hear him pray and told me what an amazing thing it was to hear him pray in India you know we think we've got a message you've got to drop it here and run there and catch a plane here and go there and say no no that's not the greatest ministry it's good God has ordained it but the greatest ministry I'm sure is the ministry of intercession let's ask Gabriel to hand the book down let's look at all the apostles and all the saints of all the ages there's Finney look there's Finney with his amazing revival there's William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army there's John Wesley here are all the great heroic figures we've all read about them and here they are all watching what while the book is handed down and somebody's going to read the record would you would you volunteer and say well I'll be happy if you read my record to this multitude supposing I say Gabriel handed the record for 1724 and I opened the book there I read 1724 I go down the B's David Braynard just a young American died at the age of 28 all he possessed was a cowhide that he had tanned and he wrapped himself in it and put a rope around him and he he rode over the Susquehanna River there and and he followed the Indians and he had tuberculosis and he says I got up this morning and the Indians were still committing adultery there and still drinking there and still beating their tom-toms until shouting like hell itself he came out of the teepee he was sharing and he said there was nowhere to pray so I went out in the forest and he said I Nelson the snow was up to my chin and it was a half hour after sunrise he weighed about 95 pounds no he didn't have a heater with him or anything else he he was just there in the frigid snow half an hour after sunrise and he said I did so wrestle in prayer he says in his archaic English I wrestled in prayer for for about 12 hours the sun was setting and then I could only touch the snow with the tips of my fingers the snow was up to his chin when he started praying and he and he makes intercession of little body that weighed 90 pounds until the sweat of his body melts in the snow well God pity us we can't get folk to our churches and and we've got velvet cushions on the seats and we've got nice stuff on the floor so our darling little knees won't get hurt and boy we can't get we can't muster a corporal's guard to pray in the average church praying patient of Portland John Hyde the great intercessor David Brenner when God opens that book of intercession when he puts the fire to their prayer life their devotional life I'll tell you what there'll be nothing lost it won't be wood it won't be hay it won't be stubble I discovered this poem just yesterday it's called his plan for me I didn't have time to memorize it when I stand at the judgment seat of Christ and he shows his plan for me the plan of my life as it might have been had he had his way and I see how I blocked him here and I checked him there and I would not yield my will will there be grief in my Savior's eyes grief though he loves me still would he have me rich and I stand there poor stripped of all but his grace while memory runs like a hunted thing down the paths I cannot retrace Lord of the years that are left to me I give them to thy hand take me and break me and mold me to the pattern that thou hast planned it's going to be an awesome day when I was at school I said about two-thirds back there there was a kind of a level here then there were some seats up here and I sat in a first little gallery as it were and you know I didn't mind school too much but I was very envious in those days of the school captain he lived he worked just across the aisle from me he was the best soccer player and I wanted to be that he was the best at cricket and I like cricket he was the best runner we had and I like running and he was a very good artist that he was quite a brain and you know if I could ever save up my stomach aches I saved them till the day before the final examination but my mother was smart she knew I was saving them up I don't know how and I get up that morning and say mother oh I I don't feel good at all I I think I should stay at home she said okay you can stay at home tomorrow but not today but today was a day of judgment and you know that the things will be put down on the board there and as soon as they were down Renton would get it his name was rent money he'd get his pay and he dashed through it money was through the first two or three subjects before I'd even got got the things read oh he and another guy that were there they used to say boy it's exams and they knew they'd be number one and number two and every year I was at school they were number one and number two on the chart when it came out these boys were always at the top they had no fear of the judgment they were prepared for it I still believe in the majesty of that eternal court with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and the judge of judges I still think there'll be an awesomeness about it so majestic you see there's no possible there's no possibility of any rehearsal and what there's no possibility of any repetition because again this is the final judgment and to some God will say come ye blessed and others he was said depart from me I don't believe there'll be any envy I won't do it but I could I could remind you that at least five five crowns to be given in reward Paul says that the Lord will give him a crown of righteousness which he says the Lord will not only give to me but all them that love is appearing there's a crown for the martyrs those who will die today and have died other days there's a crown to be given to them crowns crowns crowns we will all be the same in heaven there'll be great distinctions in heaven you can't think that the dying thief he'll be in heaven all right because he said remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom and I'm sure enough God will do that Jesus said he would but he'd wasted his life take just one character John Wesley he was saved soundly when he was 35 years of age turn 35 round it makes 53 put 53 and 35 together makes 88 the time he died in 1891 the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day and there have I no violence but he cast all my sins away fine but I am suggesting that the man who got in on the last tick of the clock is going to have the same reward as John Wesley yeah Wesley made an awful lot of money do you know he did with it he built orphanages he built churches he printed Bibles he printed him books there was no time wasted in his life it was methodical systematic he went to dinner with the greatest man in English literature and the man said now you finished dinner let's fold our legs under the table he said oh you know cross your legs under the table and let's just have a nice time of conversation and Wesley said I'm sorry I have to go oh but it is not yet nine o'clock no it's not well why are you going he said I have an appointment in the morning at four o'clock at four o'clock tomorrow morning every morning of my life he said with who with God he disciplined his life he disciplined his body in eating he disciplined his hand in his pocket we shall stand at the judgment seat of Christ an awesome prospect for any of us but a hymn writer says the eternal glories gleam afar to nerve my faint endeavor so now to watch to work to war and then to rest forever we had a lady in a church that I passed it actually I was assistant pastor and the lady was the wife of the pastor dr. Fawcett and she didn't have a great voice but they often asked her to sing and she used to sing the same old hymn every time and the last verse of that hymn said this he was not willing that any should perish am I his follower and can I live longer at ease with these souls going downward lost for the last lack of the help I might give he was not willing that any should perish master forgive and inspire us anew banish our worldliness help us to ever live with eternity's values in view said that great man who birthed that revival God stamp eternity on my eyeballs you know if we can't live as a different breed of people on this earth we've no right to live here we shouldn't be affected by changing customs or changing styles or changing opinions or whether the stock market goes up or down or whether the clouds are gathering for that doesn't make any art we ought to live every day as though we come out of another world into this world with the power of that world upon us to live and speak and move and have our being in Jesus Christ it's going to be an awesome day have you kind of figured how you'll get on when you stand there before all the Saints of all the ages and you and I to stand there alone on the dais and be judged for the deeds done in the body for every aspect of our lives for our praying for our giving for our living for our talking no it's not so simple to be a Christian after all it's a majestic thing I remember crossing a square in the city of Bath in the 1940s I saw two very fine young ladies well one was a young lady the other was only a girl and they were erect and beautifully dressed and they marched across that square and I thought there's something different about those girls and then when I went around the other side I discovered it was they were princesses at that time our present Queen of England Queen Elizabeth and her sister Margaret it was the princesses of the royal family and you know there was a dignity about them very different from anybody else who walked and the Word of God says as he was so we in this world we ought to live eternity conscious in time ready to be cut off at any moment supposing you're cut off this moment in this moment what would you would you like your life story read before all the millions in eternity do you think it might shrink when you hear what how God used a David Brainerd or John Wesley or some little washer woman down there that has a life of intercession or a little woman in Ireland and she had two shops and this shop it paid all the family expenses and this shop she saved all the money for missions and she sent one two three four of her children to the mission field and she financed them all man she's gonna have a reward one day isn't she because she was doing it as unto him and I don't care there's no burden too heavy there's no situation too hard for the one that you love and if we're love control love motivate devoted motivated love energize be alright when we stand up there because if there's anything about love one thing about it it's obedient and if we get back to a people who are really baptized with obedience submissive to the total will of God not concerned about human opinion not asking for more to spend prodigally on ourselves but say oh God I want these this life of mine adjusting so I when I stand in your awesome presence as James says we shall not be ashamed that is appearing let's pray