Judgment of Believers (SS Open Forum)

Introduction to the Open Forum and Ground Rules

0:05 This adult Sunday school class was held on Sunday, May 10, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:16 Now, for several months, it was arranged that Mr. Garlington, who has been ministering Sunday evenings over at the church in Englewood, where Paul Gordon, one of the students in the academy, has been regular pulpit supply for some time, it has been arranged that he would minister, that is, Mr. Garlington, all day today, morning and evening, and so he is not present to conduct the class. For any who are visitors with us, Professor Garlington, who is one of the academy instructors, has been leading us in this adult class in a verse-by-verse study of the New Testament, and we are presently in 2 Corinthians.

0:58 But now, when he is not teaching, on an occasional basis, we have a session that we call our, open-ended forum, in which there is opportunity for you, as the people of God, to ask questions and introduce subjects for discussion that may be of concern to you. We would prefer, at least as a starting point, that the questions arise out of the regular ministries of the church, perhaps matters that have been raised in your minds during the regular Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday evening expositions, or other matters pertaining to the New Testament. or other matters pertaining to our church life, but we do not limit the questions to that, and the only ground rules are these, that the one who leads such discussions makes a judgment as to whether or not he feels the discussion of the given question raised would be in the interest of general edification. The great principle that stands over all of the public meetings of God's people is articulated in 1 Corinthians 14, saying, let all things be done unto edification. And so a judgment must be made as to whether a discussion of a given question would fit within that framework. And rarely has a question been raised which in the judgment of the one leading the discussion would not be unto edification, but in case that should happen, we wouldn't want anyone to feel he was being put down,

2:27 or that the question was unimportant. You may have a question which is a very burning issue to you, and one which demands an answer, but it would be more appropriate to give the answer in private, personal, pastoral counsel than in a public assembly of God's people. And then the second guideline is to remember that this is a time of instruction under leadership. It is not a free-for-all.

2:52 It is not opening the door for debate. It is giving you an opportunity, as it were, to direct the aspects of biblical, biblical truth that will be taught and opened up and, in many cases, applied in some detail. So, with those general guidelines before us, perhaps there are questions that some of you have had for some time, or perhaps arising out of recent aspects of truth opened up here in the assembly, or questions of a general nature. The opportunity is yours to ask the question, and then we'll proceed, God helping us, to discuss that.

3:32 That question with our Bibles open before us. All right? Is there someone? Yes.

Reconciling 2 Corinthians 5:10 and John 5:24: The Believer's Judgment

3:38 Pat?

3:49 Yes.

3:54 All right.

3:56 The question is, 2 Corinthians 5.10, and how it can be reconciled, or how is it related to John 5.24. So let's read, first of all, the two texts in question.

4:12 If you perhaps back up to verse 9, the apostle says, wherefore also we make it our aim, and literally, we are ambitious. Now, there's a form of ambition that is wicked and ungodly. There's another form of ambition that is a very holy attitude and disposition. And Paul speaks of being ambitious, that whether at home, that is, present in the body, or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him, that is, unto Christ, for this desire, this ambition to be well-pleasing to Christ, in this context, is intimately connected with this reality, for we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. And so the apostle says that his ambition to be well-pleasing to God is vitally connected, in this context, with the reality of his future presence, and unveiling at the judgment seat of Christ. Now, the question is, how does that teaching square with John 5 and verse 24? So let's read the other text in question, John 5 and verse 24.

5:40 In a setting in which our Lord is asserting some of the most stupendous claims concerning himself, he says, verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say unto you, he that hears my word and believes him that sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. All right? There is, at least in the mind of Pat at this juncture, an apparent contradiction. Now, what is your own understanding of the reconciliation of that apparent contradiction, Pat?

6:25 Do you have any? All right. So, the first thing we must establish is, what does our Lord mean when he says we will not come into judgment? That's the key in the John 5, 24 passage, is it not?

7:02 Now, does it mean we will not appear before God in the judgment day? Can that be the meaning? How do we know that can't be the meaning?

7:13 Just read a few more verses in John 5, and what does it say?

7:18 Look at verse 28. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which how many that are in the tomb shall hear his voice? All that are in the tomb shall hear his voice and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment. So, here you have a general resurrection leading to a, I'm sorry, a resurrection that is called, in the one instance, a resurrection of life, the other a resurrection that is characterized by judgment.

7:55 So, here you have even a distinction made in the resurrection of the just and the righteous in that one is called a resurrection of life and the other a resurrection of judgment. But when we turn to other passages, we discover, Revelation chapter 20, that even those who come forth to the resurrection of life will stand before, the judgment throne of God. Revelation 20, verse 11. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat upon it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them.

8:31 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne and the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books according to their works. The sea gave up the dead that were in them, death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them and they were judged every man according to their works. Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.

8:56 This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire. And then, of course, that other great passage in Matthew chapter 25, in which our Lord speaks of the judgment of the last day under the figure of the shepherd, separating sheep from goats. Verse 31, When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all the nations.

9:31 He shall separate them one from another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He shall set the sheep on his right hand, the goats on the left. The king shall say to those on the right hand, Come. He shall say to those on the left hand, Depart.

9:46 So, whatever the words mean, come, not into judgment, they cannot contradict this teaching. And we've only given a specimen, sampling of the passages in the New Testament. And there are key passages like Daniel chapter 12 in the Old Testament that speak of all of God's creatures standing before him in the day of the final judgment. So, the words, come not into judgment, cannot mean that they will not stand before God, in the judgment of the last day.

10:22 Can't mean that, because that would contradict the overriding teaching of the Bible. Now, what do we call that when we try to get the general teaching of the Bible on a given subject? What's the term that we use for that? Yes, the analogy of faith.

10:36 So, whenever you read that, the analogy of faith, that's a non-biblical term used to describe the overriding teaching of the Bible on a given subject. So, when we ask, when we ask the question, will all men, including believers, stand before God in the day of judgment, the overarching answer of the Bible is an unqualified yes. But now the question is, what difference will there be in the judgment day with respect to the righteous and the unrighteous? All right?

11:15 And there again, the overarching teaching of the Bible is equally clear, that for the unrighteous to come into judgment is to come into a judgment leading to what? The sentence, depart from me, I never knew you. Now, when we apply that great principle to this passage, the one who hears the word of Christ, believes him that sent him, has eternal life, and in this context then, the opposite of eternal life is what? Coming into judgment.

11:52 You see how the two are set up in opposition to one another? Has eternal life and does not come into judgment. So, the coming into judgment in this passage is the antithesis of having eternal life. Therefore, we know from John 5, 24, it is not saying he does not stand before God in the judgment day, but he will not stand to receive the sentence of eternal life because, because he will stand there one possessing the gift of eternal life.

12:26 All right?

12:28 What did I say? Oh, I'm sorry. He will not receive the sentence of eternal death. Thank you.

No Condemnation for Believers: The Doctrine of Justification

12:34 I was thinking the wrong word. Okay? Now then, we can bring to bear upon that such passages as Romans 8 and verse 1.

12:44 There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Presently, for us who are believers, in that sense, the day of judgment is past.

13:05 And it passed when our Lord died upon the cross in our place and was, as it were, the recipient of the sentence of death and judgment and hell that was legitimately ours. In that sense, it already fell upon us in our substitute, in our representative. So if it were to fall upon us in our persons in the day of judgment, God would be unjust. He would be exacting penalty twice, which a holy and a just God will not do.

13:38 So that in terms of any thought of legal culpability, liability to the wages of sin which is death, legal punishment for the breaking of God's law, every last iota of that has been borne out of us. Every last iota of that has been borne out of us. Every last iota of that has been borne out of us. Every last iota of that has been borne out of us.

13:55 Every last iota of that has been borne out of us. Unborn by Jesus Christ. And if there was one thousandth of a gram of that unborn by Christ, then we've had it.

14:07 You feel the weight of that? So when Jesus says, he that hears my word, believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, one of the qualities of that life is it doesn't have the one billionth of a part of judgment in it in terms of God's wrath against our sin. in terms of God's wrath against our sin.

14:29 All right? Are we clear on that? The whole doctrine of justification is bound up in that. That we are not only forgiven, but we are declared righteous before the law.

14:39 So righteous that God can find no more fault as to the demands of the law, the legal demands of the law. God can find no more fault in the humblest, weakest believer in the day of judgment than he can find in his son right now.

14:56 Well, you say, wait a minute, Pastor. That's the truth. That's the truth. That's the gospel.

15:02 That's the gospel of justification. All right? Anyone unclear on that? Or anyone feel you've got a verse that disputes that?

15:11 Or can we assume that we're all agreed on that? All right. If we are agreed on that, then whatever appearing before God in the day of judgment means, we must never think of it as believers with any of that sense of the dread and the horror of theigns, the accountability of a guilty criminal before a righteous judge. All right?

The Frightening State of the Apostate (Hebrews 10)

15:38 Are you satisfied, Pat? All right. But now someone picks up Pat's question and says, well then, what will the judgment mean for us who do not come into judgment in that sense? Well, that's a good question.

15:55 And I don't know how much of that was discussed last week because I wasn't here.

16:00 So perhaps we ought to just... Is that a matter of concern that you'd like to open up briefly?

16:04 I don't want to take you where you don't want to go. I said this is your class and I don't want to take it back. Yes, Tim, you had a question.

16:16 Yes. To the apostate. Yes, Hebrews 10. Let's look at that passage and you'll notice that here he is dealing with the frightening state of an apostate.

16:29 Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 26. For if we sin willfully, and that does not mean if a believer commits sin, it's a sin in which his will complies with it, because in any sin your will complies with it. The good that I will I do not, the evil that I will not, that I do. I do it.

16:52 And that's an act of the will. So this willful sinning is not just the fact that I willfully spoke an angry word or willfully did something even far worse than that as a believer. But in the context, there is at least a strong suggestion as to what willful sin is. If we sin willfully, after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fierceness of fire, notice, which shall devour the adversaries.

17:28 So he's speaking of a judgment that is directed to the adversaries of God. A man who has said it not, Moses, Lord, died without compassion at the word of two or three witnesses, of how much sorer punishment think you, shall he be judged worthy? Now notice what this willful sin involves, or at least leads to. This is either a description of the thing itself or of its inevitable sequel.

17:54 Who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know him that said, that vengeance belongs unto me. I will, recompense, and again the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

18:18 Now what he's doing here is describing the frightening end of one who has come within the orbit of the gracious influences of the gospel. He has heard of the Son of God in his saving mercies, has even made a profession and outwardly identified himself with the people of God. And in that sense, through the blood of the covenant, he has been set apart, unto Christ and his people. And now he turns away from all of that, as many of these Hebrew Christians were tempted to do, and says in essence, no, the blood of Christ is not the only means of a sinner's pardon.

18:56 He counts that blood an unholy thing. He tramples underfoot the Son of God himself. The only way he can go back to Judaism as a system is to walk over Jesus Christ crucified. And he's, he stomps right over him and says, I don't care.

19:13 And then he counts the blood of the covenant, an unholy thing, and all the overtures of grace that were pressed upon him by the Spirit who attends the preaching and ministry of the word. He does despite to that. Well, such a person shows himself to be something other than a true believer who counts the Son of God precious, who counts the blood of the covenant precious, who counts the Spirit of grace precious. And for such a one, there ought to be a prayer, a fearful looking for of the judgment of God upon his adversaries.

19:45 Yes, Tim. To the Christian community. Right. Good.

20:03 Exactly. If we're ever contemplating turning away from Jesus Christ, his blood and his Spirit, no matter what we profess to have known or experienced in the past, God says you go in that direction and you'll come under the frightening canopy of the vengeance of Almighty God. You're going to be a believer. And you're going to be a Christian.

20:27 And you're going to be a Christian. But clinging to Christ, in spite of all my failures and my sins and my weaknesses, looking only to Christ, and seeking to walk in obedience to the Spirit of Christ, then those threats say nothing to me. I have nothing but the comforts of the gospel. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

20:51 These things I write unto you, that you may not sin, if any man confess his sins, and that you may not sin, if any man confess his sins, and sin. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Satan hath desired thee, Peter, to sift thee as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. When thou art turned again, strengthen thy breath. You see, for the person who in the midst of his felt weakness and sin and even failure is clinging to Christ, pursuing the direction of the sanctifying influence of the Spirit, he need never come under these kind of terrors. Those terrors are there for the man who looks in the direction in which they are plastered, as it were, in conjunction with it. Despise the Son of God, His blood, His Spirit, vengeance, judgment, wrath. So the minute you start looking in that direction, that's when these warnings ought to be held over us and we ought to feel something of the pressure of those warnings.

Purposes of the Final Day for Believers: Vindication and Stewardship

21:51 All right? All right, now, where were we? We've got coming around now. All right, what will that final day hold? Well, we know it doesn't hold the terrors of judgment. Well, what then does it hold?

22:06 Can you think of some passages that give us some light? There are a couple in the Gospels, give you some hints. Jim? All right. And to what did you have, were you making reference, Jim?

22:49 All right, so the point you're making is that in the day of judgment, the judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ, the judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ, the judgment or the appearance of the true people of God at the judgment, the judgment throne of God or of Christ, will be a public vindication of the fact that they are truly His people. Now, that's a very good point. That's one of the purposes of that final day. Notice the point that Jim has made for us in the Matthew 25 passage. When he separates sheep from goats, then we read in Matthew 25 and verse 34, then shall the king say to them on his right hand, those who have been separated as his sheep, come ye blessed of my Father. Notice he doesn't say, come you who have saved yourselves by your good works. No, no. Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

23:45 You are the recipients of the sovereign, eternal, electing blessing of my Father. But now that sovereign, electing grace of God always results in the regeneration and sanctification of the people of God. And how does their regeneration and sanctification come to expression? In a changed life and pattern of behavior. So then our Lord goes on to describe that pattern of behavior. Notice, I was hungry, you gave me to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me to drink. I was a stranger, you took me in. Naked, you clothed me. I was hungry, you gave me to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me to drink.

24:24 me, sick you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, fed you, or thirst and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king shall answer and say to them, Truly I say unto you, inasmuch as you did it unto one of these my brethren, even the least you did it unto me. In other words, our Lord here is publicly demonstrating to the entire moral universe that when he set these people apart and said, These are my sheep, my true people, he was not playing games or merely juggling the record books. He had done something in them that had so attached them to himself and to his people that their basic lifestyle was to be a game. It was a manifestation of their life of obedience to the law, the essence of which is what? Love.

25:30 He that loves fulfills the law. And so here is the public, as it were, vindication of the activity of our Lord in marking them out and claiming them as his own. They are not his sheep because they did these things. They did these things because they were his sheep.

25:52 See the difference? Doing the things did not make them the sheep. Doing these things were the manifestation that they were his sheep. Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. And when he brings them, what does he do? He transforms them as well as forgives and justifies them. So you have this passage which gives one of the indications of the purpose then of that final day of judgment. The final day of judgment. The final day of judgment. The final day of judgment. All right? Can you think of another purpose? Pretty much in this vicinity. I think, Ron, you had your hand raised. Okay. Okay. Beginning with verse 14. Matthew 25. For it

26:41 is as when a man going into another country called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. Unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his several ability, and went on his journey. And then you remember the ultimate end of this passage. We won't take time to read it all. But when there is the reckoning. Verse 19. After a long time the Lord of those servants comes and makes a reckoning with them. He that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, you delivered me five talents. I've gained five. The Lord said, well done, good and faithful servant.

27:20 You've been faithful over a few things. I will set you over many. Enter into the joy of thy Lord. He that received the two talents came.

27:28 And we have a similar structure there. And he is rewarded. And then the man with the one talent is revealed to be a wicked man. A man who never had any attachment in love and obedience to the master. And so he is declared to be what he really is. He is called a wicked and unprofitable servant. And he is cast into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now you notice then.

27:58 The only two conditions are blessedness and reward or outer darkness. Now there are degrees of reward. The man who had the five talents and returned five was set over five cities. The man who had two and returned two was set over two. So you see in that final day there is going to be a reckoning in terms of faithfulness to the stewardship of gift and opportunity. But whatever that reckoning is. The reckoning is it results not in grief but in blessedness. And that's the point that we must make. The notion that in that day believers will stand there wringing their hands and wailing and all the rest over missed opportunities. I can find personally no justification for that in the scriptures. That the sight of our returning Lord for those who are his own will be a sight of joy. Now there will be degrees of joy. And what will the degrees

Degrees of Reward and Heavenly Capacity

28:59 of reward be? I'm not sure. I have some ideas and I have some theories. But we're not here to discuss my ideas and theories. The Bible gives us as far as I know very little information as to how all in heaven can be perfectly happy and yet there be levels of blessedness in the area of reward. But I think the answer lies somewhere in the area of capacity. You can take a six year old. to hear the New York Philharmonic, and he can be blissfully happy, particularly when the timpani go toward the end.

29:38 He loves the noise of the drums. And he may like a certain flair when the trumpets are blasting away. Well, he has a capacity to enjoy that particular musical work of art that makes him perfectly happy to the level of his six-year-old capacity. But now if Mr. Hushins were there, or some of our other musicians, whose ability to understand all of the intricacies of that composition and all of the delicate balance of the various sections, the woodwinds, the strings, the brass, the percussion, and all the rest, his capacity to enjoy that is far greater than the six-year-old. But at the end, the six-year-old claps just as vehemently as Mr. Hushins does. They're both perfectly happy.

30:23 But the capacity, you see, for enjoyment of that is tremendously different. Well, that's my own...

30:32 I did give you a little theory. I said perhaps I shouldn't, but I did. But it lies, I think, somewhere in that direction. All right, Pat?

30:40 All right, that's John?

30:54 Yes.

31:02 That's right. Yes. When all the...

31:04 Good point. When all the remnants of sin are purged from us, which they will be the moment the spirit departs the body, if we get glorified in two stages, which most of God's people get, I like to think of it in two stages, the people alive at the Lord's return get it all in one stage. But if we get glorified in two stages, the first stage involves the complete purging from every last cell of our souls of the remaining or the remnants of corruption. We join in the language of Hebrews 11 and Hebrews 12 the spirits of just men made perfect.

31:43 So from that moment on, all envy, all the green-eyed monster is killed in us. And all grief. He shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. There shall be no sorrow.

31:56 All of the rest. And then when we get our resurrection body, so in that condition, there will be the ability to enjoy, as it were, someone else's greater stewardship of responsibility and capacity for even the enjoyment, perhaps, of God and of the glories of heaven. I don't under...

32:13 I mean, those are mysteries before which our minds just stagger. But it will be a wonderful thing to know that this guy that got the reward of...

32:21 of being over a few cities, he wasn't sitting there calculating how he could come up to his buddy over there that had five. Yes?

Mercenary Mentality vs. God's Grace in Reward

32:54 Mm-hmm.

32:59 Yeah.

33:05 Yes. Well, like every...

33:06 like everything else, Beth, there is the... there is the golden mean and often a virtue is just half a degree away from a vice.

33:17 Now, if the mercenary mentality so predominates and is attached... attached to a rather carnal ambition, the idea that I'm going to upstage everyone in glory if I really get with it here and now, that makes all such mercenary mentality sheer wickedness.

33:36 Sheer wickedness. Unbounded, undiluted wickedness. But to recognize that anything for which I receive a reward is really God rewarding His own work in me. And the old writers are always careful to point this out, that this is part of the...

33:54 this is part of the amazement of grace. According to Philippians 2, verses 12 and following, He works in us to will and to work for His good pleasure. If...

34:05 not Ephesians, Philippians 2, and then Ephesians 2, 10, we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God before ordained that we should walk in them so that any good work we perform is the fruit of grace that God would reward what He has worked in me. I mean, that's grace upon grace. So, if we understand that, the crass, selfish, mercenary mentality can't exist in the presence of grace. It can't exist in the presence of grace.

34:34 But, laboring for a proper sense of reward is certainly a biblical concept. The apostle says, henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord hath promised to all those that love Him. But he recognizes it's the crown of a righteousness which is an alien righteousness. It's not his own.

34:56 It's the righteousness of another. Whether it's imputed righteousness or imparted righteousness, it is all the work of God's grace. And therefore, nobody's going to be strutting around heaven, as it were, with his head heavy with all his crowns, saying, hey, wouldn't you like to blow on my crown here a little bit and polish it up a little bit? Every picture in heaven is that the glorified beings are prostrated before the throne, casting their crowns before the Lamb and before Him that sits upon the throne.

35:26 So that at any point there is that mercenary mentality, that's wickedness. But that we should be spurred with a sense of stewardship. Moreover, it is required of a steward that a man be found faithful. Well, Paul had that sense.

35:42 I have a stewardship. I have a certain deposit of talent, whether of ability, time, and opportunity. And there is debate as to what the talents really are or what they are comprised of. But certainly, that's in the direction of the truth.

35:55 Opportunity, talent, gift, privilege. And I, as one who loves my Savior, want with all my heart to be true to that stewardship. Not that I might boast, but that I might hear His word. Well done, thou good and thou faithful servant.

36:15 Okay?

Judgment of Ministers' Work (1 Corinthians 3)

36:18 Yes, Michael?

36:26 Yes. All right. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. I'm glad that passage came up because this is one that is often abused.

36:39 And here, looking at the setting of a passage and the universe of discourse. That is, the context, the flow of thought is so vital. What is the great problem that Paul is addressing in these opening chapters of 1 Corinthians? Anyone remember?

36:59 Way back when we were in 1 Corinthians?

37:03 What's the problem he's addressing?

37:07 Charlie? All right. There was this a party spirit in which people were aligning themselves with various ministers. Look at chapter 1 in verse 10.

37:21 I beseech you, brethren, through the name of the Lord Jesus, that you all speak the same thing. There be no divisions among you. Be perfected together in the same mind, same judgment. It hath been signified to me concerning you, my brethren, by them that are the household of Chloe.

37:35 There are contentions among you. Now this I mean. Each one of you says, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, I am of Christ. And he's going after that issue of the party spirit and this dividing over the various ministers of Christ.

37:51 Well, in the process of doing that, as so often is true in the Pauline literature, one thought opens up another and opens up another and then he comes back to the direct issue in hand. And in chapter 3, he comes back to that issue. Verse 4. For when one says, I am of Paul, the very language you see we found in chapter 1, I am of Apollos, in another, I am of Apollos, are you not men?

38:17 What then is Apollos? Now see, he wants to show them that when they line up behind their special pet preachers, they are conducting themselves like men of the world. Men of the world who have their champions. Men of the world who are willing to cut each other's throats in standing by their champions.

38:36 You see this particularly in an election year. All right? Well, he wants to show them the folly of the world. He wants to show them the folly of the world.

38:42 He wants to show them this from another perspective. So he asks the question, what then is Apollos? And what is Paul? And his answer is, they're simply ministers through whom you believed and furthermore, each as the Lord gave to him.

38:59 I planted, Apollos watered, God gave the increase. Neither is he that plants anything, neither he that watereth, but God that gives the increase. Now who wants to go around saying, I'm following a nothing? And the guy over here says, I'm following a nothing.

39:15 Well, Paul says, you'd see the stupidity of that. He said, well, that's in reality what you're doing. I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollos.

39:22 He said, who's Paul? He's a zero. Who's Apollos? He's a zero.

39:28 If any blessing is come, it's because God was pleased to give the increase. He then that plants, he that waters is nothing, God is everything. But that's not the full story about ministers. Now he that plants and he that waters are one.

39:44 Now if they're one in purpose and vision, why are you splitting up into parties behind them? That's the last thing they're laboring for. He that plants and he that waters are one, but though they are one in goal, purpose, and vision, each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. Follow closely.

40:06 We are God's fellow workers. Now who are the we in the context? All Christians in general or these Christian workers in particular, who are the we?

40:18 Hmm?

40:20 Christian workers in particular. Not all believers in general because notice the distinction he makes. We are God's fellow workers. Ye, that is you people at Corinth, the rank and file of God's people, you are God's husbandry or tilled land.

40:38 He uses two images. You're God's building. You're God's field. You're God's building.

40:44 We're both masons and plowmen. All right? So here you have the workers of God who, if you think of the church as a tilled field, they're the ones who go out, some plow, some put the seed in, but if there's any fruit, it's because God's been working on the soil and God's been working on the seed. Or he says, if you find a beautiful building erected, somebody had to dig deep for the footings, somebody had to lay the foundation, someone had to raise the superstructure.

41:15 And we are the various workers with differing functions. All right? Now, verse 10. According to the grace of God which was given unto me as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, but another builds thereon.

41:29 But let each man take heed how he builds thereon, for other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. But if any man builds on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, those are permanent commodities, wood, hay, and stubble, those are instable, non-permanent, combustible materials. Each man's work...

41:55 Now, notice, in the context, each man is not every individual believer, but each man, that is, each one who has worked on the building as an official worker, be it Paul who laid the foundation, be it Apollos or Cephas who worked on the superstructure, each man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it, and it's my own conviction that that day is the day of judgment because it is revealed in fire, and the fire itself shall prove each man's work of what sort it is. If a man's work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, yet he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire. And what he is saying, in different terminology and interpretation, different imagery, is what our Lord taught in the passage we've already considered. A workman whose work comes with him into the day of judgment, those who have built into the church true materials, who have been instrumental in God's hands of building true believers into the living temple of God, will receive a reward for that labor. But if in that day, through shoddiness of method, as so often happens, in our day, or carelessness with the message, what appeared to be

43:21 a man's fruit in the work of the church does not stand the test of the last day, he will suffer loss as to reward. He will not be rewarded for work that was not really the work of God by the Spirit through him. Whereas he himself still stands as a saved man in that day, but there will be a lesser reward. So here you have the degrees of reward motif that comes through again.

43:52 All right, Michael? Yes. Would you want to add anything to that passage and the way we've handled it, Pastor Nichols? Yes.

43:59 Mr. Waldron? His work. Yeah.

44:17 His labor and his work. Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Am I not seeing Jesus our Lord?

44:22 Are not you my work, Savior, the Lord? Yes. His work. His work is not the things he's done for the good, but his labor as a minister for the gospel.

44:31 Yes. And that's a good parallel passage, the 1 Corinthians 9.1. Is that satisfactory to you, Mr. Worthy?

44:39 Yes. Good. All right. Yes.

44:43 Charles? Yes. Well, just as if it were possible for me to take wood, hay, and stubble and build a little dollhouse, all right, and then I spray-paint it with a metallic paint so it looks like it's a nice little metal house, and then I put on, put on an asbestos suit on myself, and then I'm asked to walk through a fire, maybe there's a bunch of leaves, all right, and spend at least two minutes in it. Now, if I come through the other side of that, what's going to happen to my little dollhouse made of wood, hay, and stubble?

45:23 It's gone. But I come through. I'm preserved. But I've suffered the loss of my little dollhouse.

45:29 Well, there are those who seem to be building up the church of Jesus Christ, but they are not building it up with gold, silver, and precious stones. They are building it up with inferior materials, and that will be fully manifested in the day of judgment. Now, I would commend to you, we have in our library, and I don't think, they may be still in print, but certainly we have it in our library, Dabney, the great southern theologian, has a masterful exposition of this particular passage in one of his volumes, Discussions Evangelical, and Theological. And it is a masterful treatment of this, and he applies it to what he saw beginning in his day, and of course, it's become rife in our day, that when people use means, methods, he called it in his day, measures, new measures, to get people under the sound of the gospel and into the profession of the gospel and into the church, and then they say, oh, look what great work we have done. Well, the day of judgment is going to show that much of that is nothing but wood, hay, and stubble. And it's only when we commit ourselves to God's methods and God's message that we have any grounds to believe that God will build on that foundation gold, silver, and precious stone. Yes, Ms. Hiller?

Abiding in Christ and Boldness at His Coming (1 John 2)

46:57 Yes, 1 John 2 and verse 28. And now, my little children, well, let's back up to verse 27. He's been speaking now about the activity of antichrist, and it's very interesting when people talk about, you know, we must be in the last days. John was ahead of them.

47:32 Verse 18. Little children, it's the last hour. It's the last hour. It's the last hour.

47:41 Isn't that interesting? And in a sense, every epoch of the church from the time the Lord came and the establishment of the church under the apostles was a reality. It's the last hour. It's the last hour.

47:53 Any of the events that need to come to pass prior to the coming of the Lord can come to pass in any generation so that no generation can afford the luxury of saying, oh, my Lord delays His coming. We're to live in the expectation of the coming of our Lord. Well, then, in the light of this, he says, and as you've heard that antichrist is coming even now, there have arisen many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last hour. I know you'd like to know what that means.

48:23 And so would I. But nonetheless, it is stated. And one of the evidences of the activity of antichrist, notice, is that people defect from the truth. They went out from us, but they were not of us.

48:38 For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might be made manifest that they are not all of us. You say, well, boy, if they go out and they were a part of us and we shook their hand and said, how you doing, brother? How you doing, sister?

48:55 And they said their amen with ours. I mean, that's frightening. They were among us. We thought they were a part of us.

49:02 Now they've gone and this shows they never had the root of the matter. That's scary. How can I know that I'm not such a one? And I'll notice the consolation, the beautiful pastoral wisdom.

49:13 You have an anointing from the Holy One. You who are the true people of God. And you know all things. And I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it, and no lie is of the truth.

49:25 Who is a liar? But he that denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the Antichrist. Even he that denies the Father and the Son.

49:32 Whosoever denies the Son, the same hath not the Father. He that confesses the Son hath the Father also. As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning abide in you, you shall abide in the Son and in the Father.

49:51 Now what is that? That's a call to what? A call to perseverance. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Father and in the Son.

50:05 And this is the promise which He promised us, even life eternal. Life eternal is promised to those who believe and to those who persevere. Because all who truly believe do persevere. Right?

50:18 We all agree? Okay. These things I have written unto you concerning them that would lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you have received of Him abides in you, and you need not that anyone teach you.

50:30 But as His anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide, or abide ye. Now here's a problem in terms of translation. The imperative and the indicative form of some Greek words are exactly the same when you write them out. So you don't know whether He's giving a command or making a statement.

50:50 So this is, the anointing is teaching you to abide in Him, or as it has taught you, abide ye in Him, and now, my little children, abide in Him, that if He shall be manifested, that is, if He shall come, we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is begotten of Him. So what is the contrast between believers who abide in Him and are not ashamed, and believers who don't abide and are therefore ashamed, or is it a contrast between believers who abide and apostates who don't abide? What's the contrast?

51:32 First or second? Do you all see it? Just by reading the entire passage, and it ties in beautifully with John 15. In John 15 there are only two alternatives, abide in Christ or burn.

51:45 No middle ground. Abide or burn. Now you see, current evangelical teaching has said there's a third alternative. You have Christians who abide and are fruitful, those who don't abide and they're ashamed, and then those people that aren't in Christ at all, and then they'll burn.

52:04 But Jesus only knows two alternatives, abide or burn. And John knows only two alternatives, those who manifest that they do have the Spirit because they continue in the truth, particularly the truth of who Christ is, as the only Savior of sinners and therefore the one in whom we must abide by the continuance of faith. And when He comes, there'll be no shame because all the imperfection of our works covered in His blood and His righteousness will meet Him with joy and we'll not be ashamed at His coming. The shame at His coming, if you trace that concept through such passages as Matthew 10, is the shame of the impenitent.

52:48 Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of Him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father. It's that sense of shame that leads to rejection from the Savior toward those who are ashamed of Him. All right? Yes, Stowell.

53:37 Oh, all right, good. Another parallel passage. That's Romans 10 and verse 11. Whosoever believes on Him shall not be put to shame.

53:46 All right? Yes, Mitch.

No Chastisement for Believers in the Final Judgment

54:05 I would answer by saying at this juncture, Mitch, I see nothing in any of the passages which deal explicitly with the doctrine of the judgment of God or the judgment of believers that indicates that chastisement will be meted out on that occasion. Now, there may be, but I'm not aware of any. Yes, Tom? Well, in that, we shall receive the deeds done in the body.

54:35 There will be a conferral of reward in terms of faithfulness, but I see nothing that says there will be a conferral of rebuke and chastisement for unfaithfulness. The fine understanding of the biblical doctrine of chastisement is that it is bounded by this present state of affairs in which we are under the fatherly discipline of God. And until I find a passage, and I used to hold that opinion and live under the dread of it, but as I try systematically to read through the Bible and have through the years, I have searched in vain for a passage which, to my judgment, now, again, I'm not saying it isn't there, because there's much more light God will give me, I hope, before I go to glory, but I don't know of a passage which teaches that there's any chastisement of the believer in conjunction with the day of judgment and reward. Does anyone know of a passage? Yes. Mr. Bischoff?

56:00 That's right. Very good point. Yes, that even with regard to him, if the discipline results in his turning from sin, it'll be wholly positive, even with that man stooped to such depths of wickedness. Now, I hope for some of you that maybe have lived with a view that, you know, somehow God had a few spanking sticks stuck under the throne with your name on it, and in a wrong sense have lived under a sense of dread.

56:29 Now, that doesn't lead to license. You see, if you're under the constraint of grace, you want to do what Paul did. You want to be ambitious to please him. And if you can have him say you've been faithful in much, you want to be content with him saying you've been faithful in little.

56:44 Do you? How many husbands here can say you're content to say, well, I'm content if I can love my wife half as well as I am capable of doing? Every husband that's content with that, raise your hand. In the presence of your wife, I dare you to do it.

57:01 No. If you really love your wife, what is the attitude of your heart? I'm not asking what's the performance of your life, but what's the attitude of your heart? I want to love her and show my love to the maximum measure of my capacity by the grace of God.

57:18 Right? Huh? Is that true? All right.

57:24 Thank you, Abe. All right. Now, if there is love for Christ, the love of Christ constrains us. Christ loved to us.

57:36 And the reflex of our love to him, we love because he first loved us. Then we aim, not at a minimum, but the maximum. And we don't need, in that sense, some thought of being driven by if I really behave myself, then maybe God will burn up a couple of his whipping sticks that he's...

57:56 I don't see that concept in the word of God. Now, I'm open for further light, but I don't see it there in my present understanding. Yes. Tim, and this will have to be the last comment.

58:07 We've just about run out of time. Yes. Yes. Right.

58:18 So the point I would make there is that the bad will be in terms of a privation, not a positive application of chastisement. There will be a lessening of the reward. You see? And that can be receiving good or bad.

58:35 Yes. Mr. Nichols?

58:52 Yeah. That that could even be a reference to the separation between the righteous and the evil. And it would parallel with John 5 and those other passages. Yeah.

59:02 Yeah. Okay. Other passages. Colossians passage.

59:19 Yes. Excellent passage. To present you unreprovable before him. And to him who is able to present you faultless before his glory with exceeding joy.

59:36 Yes. The passage he rests at the revelation of the Lord Jesus, not affliction, the opposite of affliction, but rest. Yes. From affliction.

59:48 Yes. And the passage is which imperious hope, that we should have a deep hope. And one of the things that this doctrine does is it minimizes the Christian's hope. Yeah.

59:59 Yes. If the return of the Lord has both positive and negative connotations for you, it's though whatever hopes are raised at the joy of it are negated by the dread of it. Jesus, what manner of person do you want to be in all holy living and godliness looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God that is with and everything else? Yeah.

60:28 That's right. And all of those passages come in the context of the realism of New Testament epistles in which sin is a reality in the life of the people of God. Now again, people can turn that truth into lasciviousness, but that's their problem. And if they want to make a noose out of scripture and hang themselves, God will let them.

60:49 He's given enough rope in the Bible. But that's their abuse of it. And so, God does not allow the abuse of a truth to keep us from the precious consolations of that truth. Yes.

Conclusion: Longing for Christ's Return and Ambition to Please Him

61:02 Well, I hope this has proved helpful and will get you all digging. And I hope one of the practical results will be that we have a more wholesome biblical longing for the return of the Lord and a greater sense of ambition to be well-pleasing unto him. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you for the privilege of sitting in this morning with our Bibles open before us, looking to you and to your Holy Spirit to give us light and understanding and how we thank you for this blessed book which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway.

61:40 And, O Father, we do pray that there may come to each of us a renewed sense of longing so to walk as to hear your words well done, good and faithful to you. Amen. Amen. Amen.

61:56 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:00 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:04 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:08 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:12 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:16 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:20 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

62:24 Amen. Amen. Amen.