When We Stand Before Jesus

The great missionary, C. T. Studd, wrote a poem which went like this, Only one life, which will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last. And the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5.10, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Listen, friends, there is a coming day review for everyone who has ever lived, a judgment for the saved, which is the bema seat for believers, and a judgment for the lost, which is the grand decise, as John Wesley called it, or the great white throne judgment, where the judge of all the earth will sit.

It'll be a terrible, solemn courtroom scene where evidence is presented, cases will be reviewed and tried, sentencing carried out, for the sentencing of the law must be carried out, shall not the judge of all the earth do right. We see this terrible scene in Revelation chapter 20, And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven 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 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.

But for believers, we shall stand before Christ at the Bema seat for review, the judgment seat of Christ for believers. It's not a terrible throne of justice, friends, where cases are reviewed and sentencing carried out, but the Bema seat for believers will be more like a flower show at the county fair, where blue ribbons are handed out for excellence, and where Christ will review our life by unrolling the great blueprint of our life. And as it lays before us, he'll point to it and say, just according to plan, where a life's works are tried by fire for testing and review.

We see this in first Corinthians in chapter 3 and verses 11 through 15, which read, 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, hay, stubble, every man's work should 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 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. I wonder, will we stand there with regret as our sins of omission are brought before us, how we failed to pray when we should have, how we failed to give money when we could have, how we failed to minister to others in need when we should have. I'll never forget when I was a teenage boy, my mother had an elderly neighbor who was dying, and this lady enjoyed music, and at the time I played the guitar, and this dying lady asked me to come to her house and play the guitar for her to help take her mind off her pain.

But I didn't go. Not because I could not go. I didn't want to go sit with an old lady.

I went out to hang out with friends instead. She died a month later. On my homiletical mentor's desk, Dr. Stephen Olford, in his study, there is a plaque with one word carved into it, and that word, friend, is others.

How many sins of omission will be stacked up like a great mountain before us as we stand in the shadow of our lack when the testing of the fire reveals our life, whether it was lived unto self or lived unto others, all for the glory of God? I wonder, will our life be gold, silver, and precious stones that reflect God's glory, or will our life's review turn out wood, hay, and stubble while we stand there knee-deep in the ashes of a wasted life and then bend down to scoop up those ashes, to press them into his nail-pierced hands? Years ago, I pondered this scene of the judgment seat of Christ, and I wrote the following poem. I'll close this message, friends, with it, in the hope that whatever days are left to us to live on this earth, that we live it for others and the glory of God. And on that day when you review the moments of my life, my thoughts, my deeds, every word I spoke since knowing you, and all is placed into the fire for testing and review, will what remains be gold and silver or ashes heaped with hay? The day will declare to what degree I lived my life for you.

Let us pray.