Peter Brandon emphasizes the significance of the believer's body before the judgment seat of Christ, highlighting the church's triumph over the devil's domain and the importance of building one's faith on the foundation of Jesus Christ. He explains that while the church will be taken into the air, the world will face tribulation, and believers will stand before Christ to have their works judged, not their sins. Brandon warns against the dangers of sectarianism and urges believers to ensure their church affiliations are based on scriptural principles rather than personal preferences or charismatic leaders. He reassures that believers will be judged in grace, and their works will be tested by fire, with only what is built on Christ enduring. The sermon calls for a return to biblical foundations in church life to avoid loss of reward.

I won't go through all the aspects of the body because we want to deal with a vast subject and that is the body of the believer before the beamer and that means the judgment seat of Christ. But before we get there you'll remember that we finished with the coming of the Lord last, yesterday morning and we noticed two things that we were going to meet him in the air and we were going to meet him in the clouds. Now what's the significance of those two facts? The air is the domain of the devil. Ephesians chapter 2, he is the prince and the power of the air. Well that's the last place we would ever imagine for the church to be taken. But the Lord Jesus said in a place called Caesarea Philippi and that was gentile country, please note that, he said upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not against it. Peter had confessed him to be Christ the son of the living God and in response to that wonderful acclamation he said that remarkable statement, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now the local churches that we build according to the word of God we all have to confess that the enemy has prevailed against that. Look at the mess we've made over the years, all the labels, all the sectarianism, all this has hindered the progress of the gospel. But the church that Jesus Christ is building, Satan will never touch that. And he will take that church when it's complete right in the domain of the devil and he will say it again, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and not one of us will be lost, we shall all be there. And Satan will see the many-sided glories of that church that he has been building for 2,000 years. Now that's why he takes it into the air. The cloud speaks of his presence. Wherever you find God in the Old Testament and the presence of God is manifested there's the Shekinah glory, the cloud. When the Lord Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration you will remember when the disciples said let's make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses and one for Elijah, God gave those disciples a dramatic object lesson. The Shekinah glory came down and they were in it to show that there was only one person that they must build a tabernacle for or a booth and that was the Lord Jesus. When he went back to heaven we saw on the ascension that a cloud received him out of their sight. Notice the cloud received him out of sight and from that moment they trusted him by faith. But when he comes again a cloud is going to bring him into sight and what a sight that will be. Just imagine if the Lord came now it would just be Lord Jesus Christ and we would see him like that, the cloud. Now what happens after the church is taken? What happens to the earth? Well let's turn to two Thessalonians chapter two and we shall see. And when the church is taken there will be a period approximately seven years and it's called in scripture the tribulation and halfway through it's called the great tribulation. The most dramatic thing in world history will take place and we're going to see a little of that right now. Two Thessalonians chapter two. Now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the day of Christ or it should be rendered as the day of the Lord is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means that that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that the man of sin that's the evil man that's going to come be revealed the son of perdition. Now that's why I've been saying over and over again if we have come right to the end times there's going to be a great falling away and you want to say to your own soul right now as you're sitting in this tent Lord save me from being a backslider. Now I want to say this I believe there's a young man here I believe the Lord has revealed this and he was once living in first love but he's slipping and he's slipping rapidly and he's losing that first love and he's becoming a stale dead Christian and he's become very critical. Now that's the sign of the last days and we've all got to be very careful about it and notice what it says who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God that's the man of sin. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you I told you these things and now you know that now you know that what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time that means the one who restrains for the mystery of iniquity that already work only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked be revealed meaning the wicked one shall be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming even him whose coming is after the working of satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved and for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion that they might believe a lie. Now after the church has been taken there will be raised up by satan a man and this will be probably the greatest man that ever lived apart from the Lord Jesus and he will be actually personified by the devil and there will be on earth a reactment of the trinity the man of sin and there will be the false prophet and behind the false prophet there will be the power of the devil and therefore on earth you will have a trinity of evil and then these terrible things will take place he will make or the false prophet will make an image i'm quoting now from revelation 13 and that image of the beast will actually live you say will it be a genetic man we don't know will it be the result of genetic engineering we don't know but it does say that he will live and then there will be coming over the western world that is the people that have had the gospel and rejected a terrible sense of delusion and this is the only time in history that it's happened God sends them that delusion they had the gospel they rejected it and now this delusion comes and they worship the ugly man of sin instead of God and in those days there will be a number it will be a computerized world 666 and you won't be able to sell or buy until you have that number at the same time during that period there will be an enlightenment among some of the people of Israel and there will be the 144,000 and they will be the genuine Jehovah's Witnesses now can you see what the devil is doing it's trying to imitate what God wants to reveal in the future upon the earth and you've got these people that call themselves JWs they're not Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses will be Jews and all the tribes are mentioned there in Revelation 7 and they will get their eyes open that the one that they crucified was the Messiah and these people will be marvelously filled with the Spirit and probably they will be under the leadership of the two Witnesses and we read of those in Revelation chapter 11 and they will go throughout all the world and preach that the King is coming now isn't it strange if you read a lot of our modern songs it's all about majesty but for the Church of God it's not so much Jesus the King but Jesus as Lord the King is going to come and reign over the earth and that's in relation to the world and in relation to Israel but they will preach that the King is coming and there will be millions that will be saved during that period but not from the enlightened nations probably from the Muslim world and the Hindu world and they will suffer because if they haven't got the number 666 they will be martyred and thousands will die and then when the King comes to reign these people will be resurrected and they will enjoy that kingdom that he will establish upon the earth and then during this period when the King the fourth King the man of sin known as the Beast is reigning it's called a 10-toe kingdom I don't know if it will be just 10 toes there may be many more kingdoms but that is the last part of the image that Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar saw and during that period there will be great tribulations they will start with the seal judgments they will move into the trumpet judgments and then they will move right into the vial the bowl judgments and a good part of the population of the earth will be destroyed and during that period the earth will be overturned and overturned and overturned but there will be a purpose in it through this overturning it will get creation into a state where the King can reign and that's when you have upon this earth the desert blossoming as a rose when the King will come with all his saints and reign over this earth for 1000 years well what happens to the saints when that happens now we're going to turn to the scripture and see what happens when the saints stand before the judgment seat of Christ now would you turn please to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 now there are many things I've missed out concerning that period of tribulation but if I go into the details we won't really see the study that I feel the Lord laid on our heart 1 Corinthians 3 verse 4 for while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Paulus are ye not carnal who then is Paul who is Apollos now bear that in mind because that's important verse 9 for we are 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 is laid which is Jesus Christ now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood haze 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 hath built thereon he shall receive a reward and if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet by fire now immediately the church is taken we shall meet the Lord Jesus in the air and then we shall be brought into paradise some believe into the father's house but we're not going to the details of that and all Christians will stand before the judgment seat of Christ now there are five thrones mentioned in scripture I'm not going to share the five with you because it would confuse you but the two main thrones are as follows all Christians will be will stand before the judgment seat of Christ all unbelievers will stand before the great white throne can I repeat that all believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and the unbelievers in the final day of judgment I'm quoting from revelation 20 will stand before the great white throne now for the believer he has passed from death unto life therefore a believer can never be judged for his sin note this there are two kinds of people in the world number one the people who believe and their sins are upon Jesus and he has borne their judgment the people who do not believe they are still in their sins waiting for judgment can I repeat that two kinds of people those who really believe and repent and their sins are on Christ and he bore their judgment so God cannot punish them again and those who are still in their sins and still under judgment now when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ and please get this in your mind we shall stand there in grace and God will deal with us in grace when the unsafe person stands before the great white throne they will not be there in grace but he will deal with them in judgment but your judgment is already passed why Christ bore it for you therefore you will always stand before the Lord Jesus for the whole of eternity before him in grace and mercy now isn't that wonderful secondly when you stand before the Lord Jesus you will have a glorified body you won't stand before him with this body you couldn't do that you will have a glorified body so there's no idea of you going to hell or judgment it's a matter of judging your life's work now first of all he's going to judge our motives now what was happening in Corinth if you were in Corinth you would meet a little group and you would say are you Christians oh yes we are born again but why are you meeting like this well we're of Paul oh yes you see he believes in the one body and we've seen that great truth we're of Paul then you would meet another group and they were truly born again and you would say well what are you we're a thesis of Peter you see here's a Jew and here's a man that sticks to the scriptures and we believe we should be totally and absolutely separate we're Peter then you would find another group and they would be born again and they would say something like this oh yes yes we're all in the same assembly but we love Apollos he's an intellectual he's got a brilliant mind he's a wonderful orator and then would you believe it there was another group that seemed to be superior to all the others and they were saying something like this we're of Christ not Christ crucified we just follow the teachings of Christ you see we've got higher knowledge four groups instead of building upon Jesus Christ they were building upon gifted men now all that's going to be burnt up at the Beamer now I want to share this with you there are four ways in which you can join a church now note this this is vital you can join the church because of your parents granddad went along to that church and my parents have gone along to that church and I'm going along to that church at the Beamer that will all be burnt up each person must have his own conviction concerning the church that he should join or you can go to a church because you like the practices some people like it very solemn that's why I go some people like it very noisy you know like that and that's where I'm going oh I love it you can have a little dance and you know really nice there's a great band I love it I'm going there all that will be burnt up then there are some people they like the preacher oh he's a great preacher he's a great teacher and unknowingly they're making an idol of the preacher and he draws the people he's got a magnetic personality he's got a wonderful grasp of the scripture and hundreds go oh they love the preacher they love their apollos that will all be burnt up well how should we join a local church we should read the scriptures carefully and we should associate ourselves with a local church that keeps to the principles of them and we say now the word of God says this and the word of God says that and the word of God says that now that local church as far as I can tell is the nearest church to the new church and then you join that church with conviction you see quite frankly dear friends we are not seeing people raised up with conviction and they just float and I'm amazed what has happened in the last few years now get hold of this book read it carefully study assembly life as it's seen in the word of God and then look around and find the church that's nearest to the book and when you see the church that's nearest to the book associate with it and have principle all the days of your life and then when you stand at the vena if it's built on Christ if Christ is the person that draws you there then you won't see your work burnt up if you build upon men it will now is that clear now what does it mean this fire is the Lord Jesus going to have a great fire and put us through the fire now in Corinth if the historians are right they had a tremendous fire about a hundred years previous to this and all the wood and hay buildings were burnt up and the buildings that were made of stone stood the test now the apostle is using that and he's saying when we stand before the Lord if we haven't built upon the foundation of Christ and his work it will all be better that's why make sure that the center of the local church that you join is the Lord Jesus and not a man and make sure that the local church that you associate with is placed four square on the word of God and obey the word of God now what is happening today may I share with you we are far more concerned with following the culture of the word and the culture of Christianity can I repeat that we are far more concerned following the culture of the world than the culture of Christianity and all of us must become people of the book now have you got that and all that's unscriptural and all that's not centered in Christ as the foundation of our faith and church life will be burned up so we want to start burning something up now before then because we can miss our reward