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Choosing Your Judgment!
This morning I want to talk to you about choosing your judgment. I want to make this clear to all of us: WE WILL ALL BE JUDGED BY JESUS CHRIST! I realize that the word “judge” is a bad word today in our culture. But I want to assure each of us that we will all be judged whether we want to or not.
The good news is this: YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR JUDGMENT! That’s right you have a choice. There are only two types of people in the world today—those who have Christ as their Lord and Savior and those who don’t. Either way both types of people will be judged.
So this morning I want you to be aware of three realities:
I. You will be judged by Jesus Christ!
John 5:22
The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,
John 5:27
And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
As I mentioned before, the word “judge” is not a kind word these days. But I will tell you this—it is a biblical word. I love you too much to not be honest with you and tell you that you will be judged by Christ one day.
You say well, “pastor I am saved so I won’t be judged, right?” Wrong! You will be judged also. Now let me explain the two judgments in Scripture.
II. You will be judged at one of two judgments!
First, let’s look at the judgment for the believer. Many Christians realize that once they are saved they are saved forever. That is true. Many Christians then think that they will never be judged. That is NOT true! All Christians will be judged at what is called the “Bema seat” of Christ.
In Christ’s day they had bemas, which were raised, throne-like platforms. Kings and judges would sit on these thrones when they made judgments or speeches.
Now let’s look at two main passages which speak of this bema judgment.
2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Now Paul is speaking in the context of Christians. And so the word “all” in this verse means all Christians. Every Christian will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Now the nature of this judgment is not to decide who goes to heaven or who goes to hell.
All those involved in this bema judgment are going to heaven. The question is what rewards, if any, will you receive? This judgment is an evaluation of how faithful you have been to God’s will for your life. How you have used the gifts and talents God has given you.
And so it does matter how we live our Christian lives. We can’t just say well “I am in” so I will just live however I want to live. A passage in 1 Corinthians makes it clear that all true Christians can’t lose their salvation, but they can fail to receive any rewards.
1 Corinthians 3:10-15
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
Now let’s talk about the other judgment spoken of in Scripture. It is called the GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT. Now the words GREAT WHITE may conjur up feelings of fear at first as we think of the great white shark or something. And you know what? Those words should strike fear in our hearts. The Great White Throne Judgment is the judgment that all those who reject Christ will have part in. There is no escaping this judgment apart from Christ.
Listen to what God’s word says about this judgment in Revelation 20:11-15
Revelation 20:11-15
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Now there are 4 facts I want all of us to be aware of concerning this Great White Throne Judgment.
- Jesus is the judge! (v. 11)
- All people without Christ will stand before this judgment! (v. 12a)
- Those without Christ will be judged by all their deeds! (v. 12b-13)
- All those without Christ will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire! (vv. 14-15)
III. You can choose your judgment!
You say well, “doesn’t God love everyone?” Yes He does. You say well if God loves everyone then He would never send anyone to the Lake of Fire for eternity. God demonstrated His love for all of mankind by sending Christ to die for your sins on the cross. Most of us are aware of John 3:16
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
But why did God have to send Christ to die for your sins? Because we are all sinners. Listen to what God says about all humankind:
Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
In this context the all means everyone without exception. So the bad news is that all have sinned and cannot save themselves. You can’t work your way to heaven. But the good news is that through Christ we can be saved.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now I want to tell anyone here who has not trusted Christ as their Lord & Savior, that God desires that you be saved. Listen to God’s word again in 1 Timothy 2:4
1 Timothy 2:4
who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
And so you can choose your judgment. Right now I want you ask all of us which judgment you will take part in. Because God has made it clear that you will take part in one of these.
If you are a Christian, then you should be thinking about how you are living your life in light of the fact that you will be before the bema seat of Christ.
If you have not accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior then I invite you to do that today. In a moment we will be singing a song. If God is working on your heart then please feel free to come up and share that with us. If you need to talk about something that God is doing in your life or you need godly counsel and you don’t want to come up here then please feel free to walk out the back and go into the open room. We have people waiting to help you and guide you through the Scripture, no matter what you may need.
