In this sermon, the preacher reflects on the concept of judgment and its significance in the Bible. He mentions a hymn that describes the Bible as a golden casket filled with gems of truth, particularly focusing on the word "judgment." The preacher emphasizes the importance of understanding the quality of our actions rather than the quantity, as our works will be judged by God. He references a sermon by Jonathan Edwards and highlights the contrasting experiences of heaven and hell. The preacher encourages the audience to read specific chapters in the book of Revelation to gain a deeper understanding of judgment. Finally, he refers to 1 Corinthians 3, discussing the judgment of believers and the importance of building upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.

I want us to read from the book of the Revelation. 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 is 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 2000 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, a nemesis, 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 pocket 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 do this you know they do that you know. I don't mind people doing that. If they want to point to their own head 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 envis potter. Preachers don't usually criticize singers they criticize preachers. Singers criticize singers potter envis potter. And these preachers were sitting around a 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 a game like a child plays with marbles playing with precious stones. A hymn writer 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 quarters 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. We'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 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. But 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 live 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 invests it. 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 mutter 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 ten thousand of his saints. Why did he come that way the first time? Why did he come sweeping through the sky when it was as black as night on the Jerusalem? Why did he come with ten thousand saints? Why did he come with a sound of trumpets? Why did 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 about to eat and sleep and do everything else like we do was the Son of God. But he began to stir Jerusalem. And you might have gone 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 fellow that the synagogues are disturbed about 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 feast. But he said you fill the water pot. There's some labor we have to do. You put the water in the water pot I'll turn it into wine. You roll the stone away. And then he cried with a loud voice. Loud voice. 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 bound with gag on his face. He had grave clothes. He could only shuffle. His hands were tied. And that's true about 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. 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. What do you think about Master now? He's even raising the day. And Jesus says in John 5, 28. Listen. Don't marvel at this. Oh if this stirs you away I've got a word for you. He says the day is coming in which all who are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they shall rise. Did you get that? From Adam wherever he is right now 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 1 Corinthians 15. But away at the end of the book of Revelation he says I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold 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 and of hell. And of 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 crossed the Atlantic I guess about 18 times on the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, United States. And 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 going to 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 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 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 casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a straw when it is rolled together and every mountain and island were moved out of their places and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bum and every freeman they hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fall on 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 is come. In the end of the book of the Revelation it says of the redeemed which is in the other judgment that they are going to come 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 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 was the first woman in history, in American history blind though she was to address the joint what do you call them different sections of congress she addressed the senators and she addressed the congressmen 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 Do you know she wrote so many hymns about his face, seeing his face that will leave a 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 ruled over England the Caliphs of Baghdad, the Maharajas of India the multimillionaires, the billionaires they're all going to 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 likeness of any grave image and nobody knows what Christ was like You see pictures of Jesus as a baby, you see him as a young man you see him sometimes on the back of an animal riding into Jerusalem but there's a picture I've only ever seen once and it was so grotesque I didn't look a second time and 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 showed me the picture that they had Beechcroft or somebody Beecher painted a 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 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 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 or the new song 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 and 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 hell hole with all these demon possessed men and here you are in the isle of Tadmos he said no I'm not where are you? he said 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 going to march up and say well you know Jesus do you know how many years I served you and how many souls I won for you and how many sermons I preached for you oh no no no no no well what will he be like in heaven? well I'll tell you what the book says he'll be like he said 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 are 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 him 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 Cha was interviewed I believe by 60 Minutes and he said I'll tell you everything that Henry Kissinger told to me and Henry Kissinger says to the ABC or whoever organizes the 60 Minutes 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 the 20 Minutes and you can interview me and so they said alright but this week he's running he said he won't come and I understand tonight they're going to tell us what the Cha 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 he's 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 million 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 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 person who's always falling up and down and in and out and he didn't know where they were I'll explain it to you and the Lord says you won't do anything of the kind can you see those millions of unholy dead all the criminals that ever lived every prostitute that ever went on the tour can you think of all the men who make millions out of pornography can you think 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 hell holes can you imagine when God takes hold of history and empties it when every man that ever walked the streets of ancient Babylon with all its lust 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 see all the unholy dead judged but the unholy won't see the holy people judged they won't be there it says the books were open what books you say well Mr Raymond I won't be in serious trouble because you know I don't have a good memory well I'll tell you what you'll have one that day I didn't find the statistic because in one sense I didn't have time but in Montreal a few years ago 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 he 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 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 well I'm not quite sure about this you know my memory 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 Tozer 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'd 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're going to be judged for why we did it not for the action for the motive what motivated your giving so you'd have a plaque with your name on or you'd be at the top of the list for giving money 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 Vitanica and I think all that history is going to pass before me in flesh and blood at the judgment seat of Christ I'd be interested to see Julius Caesar and Tiberius Caesar I'd be fascinated when Pontius Pilate stands before Jesus I think he'll feel less comfortable than Jesus 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 are 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 they got it because 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 son remember in thy lifetime that you had good things but I don't want my brothers to come here but Jesus says remember memory is 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 lust go with the prostitutes in hell if you're given to lust after women you'll have that lust but there's no 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 her heart again and open her mind again and see again that every man I cannot whether he flies his own private learjet or how many millions he has or rules over a city the great of the earth and the scum of the earth 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 won't die off now 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 going to stand there and people up there will scream put him into the lowest hell and turn the temperature up but 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 opened you know some people today have great memories when Themistocles 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 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 he was just in four and the night before he was saying prayers at his grandma's meet 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 maybe granny was shunned asked him he recited the 119th psalm that's one way of keeping from going to bed early the 119th 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 fall on 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 top 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 a man playing with every sin he'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 the 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 supremely on the throne there's no four and twenty elders there's no sea of glass there's no rainbow of mercy mercy is gone forever I cannot out twist it and corrupt your life as 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 said 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 thirty children around the world I've had sex with so many women he said that maybe I'm the father of thirty children around the world can God forgive all the rottenness the corruption of my life he can why because this morning Jesus is on the throne of mercy he shall find grace to help but when we see him here he's not on the throne of mercy he's on the throne of justice that tender Christ who went about doing good and he kissed little babies and blessed people now there's 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 will 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 a massacre can you think of Herod the Great having to account for a massacre can you think of Hitler having to account for a massacre we're told of 6 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 ever dreamed of 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 spilled in compassion or it was it was spilled because of a broken heart it never fell to the ground it was stored by God and God's going to count them 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 killed 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 Mr. Nixon was in office eighteen, Dave Wilkerson told me one day when we were talking he said Len do you know that eighteen, five, ten, fifteen, eighteen 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 stickers sloppy evangelism will you remind people of the goodness and the severity of God will you remind them that there is 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 are going to stand before God in that awesome day and 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 is no mercy mercy is gone forever people will be saying the harvest is past and the summer is ended and I am 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 travelled down the corridors of your mind he said I thought many great things but the greatest thing that I have ever thought of the most awesome the most terrifying the most shattering thought I have ever had is my personal accountability to God one day we all without exception must stand there and I am dealing that and leaving that section I could stay longer remember there is going to be a judgment of the living nations and so forth there is going to be a judgment of angels Paul says in first Corinthians six I guess he says don't you know that some of us are going to judge angels but you see the thing I am really saying I got through my introduction now let me get to the business here one Corinthians three this is the judgment of the believers now we are labors together with God your God's husbandry your God's building according to the grace of God which was given unto me as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation and another builder thereon but let every man take heed how we build a thereon for there is foundation no man laid and that is laid which is Jesus Christ if every man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble every man's work shall be made manly first for the day shall declare it because it shall 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 you have 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 says it works or the spirit puts these things 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 do you know this would be very very significant to the people of 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 had houses made out of clay 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 arguing here and he says when you go to the judgment seat of Christ even as a believer with all your works there you can buy 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 invests it in wood the next man is given ten thousand he invests it in hay the next man has ten thousand it's in stubble the man over here has ten thousand he invests it in gold wouldn't get much of five hundred dollars an ounce would he and the next man at silver he wouldn't get too much of 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