The Judgement Seat of Christ - Part 5

I care not how 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 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? Can you think of Herod the Great having to account for the massacre? Can you think of Hitler having to account for the massacre of, 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 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 spilled in compassion for souls or 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 6 million people like that? God should 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, 18, Dave Wilkerson told me one day when we were talking, he said Len, do 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'd 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'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, 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's no mercy, mercy is 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've 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 with 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 1 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 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 builder thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon, for of the 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 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 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 as by fire. So Jesus, 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. Do 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 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 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 $10,000 and he invests it in wood. The next man is given $10,000, he invests it in hay. The next man has $10,000, it's in stubble. The man over here has $10,000, he invests it in gold. Wouldn't get much at $500 an ounce, would he? And the next man at silver, he wouldn't get too much at $12 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 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 hymn writer says, from earth's wide bounds and oceans farthest coast, through gates of pearls streaming a countless host, singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Hallelujah.