"Judgment Day"

You have surely heard the expression:  Judgment Day..  What is it?  Is it real?  Will it really happen?  We’ve heard a bit about it in popular culture.. Hollywood has even had its proverbial crack at the matter in “Judgment Day” (1999) starring Ice-T and “Terminator 2:  Judgment Day” (1991) starring that great theologian, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But what does the Bible have to say about Judgment Day?  There are really two different judgments spoken of in the Bible:  The Great White Throne judgment (for people who have not trusted Christ) and “The Judgment Seat of Christ” for people who stood with Christ in this life. 

The Great White Throne Judgment

Revelation 20:11-15 says “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 the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell 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.”

Let’s take a look at that:

The books were opened.  We know that God is omniscient.  That is to say, He knows everything.  He always has and he always does (present tense intentional).  He knows eternity past and eternity future.  He knows the inner-most feelings of your heart.  And he certainly knows all of your words and deeds for the entirety of your life.  The books will be opened and we don’t know exactly how God will do it, but he will expose or “lay open” all of it.. whether it be good... or whether it be bad.

Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.  My friends, if that isn’t a sobering thought, I don’t know what is.

The Judgement Seat of Christ

II Corinthians 5:10 reads “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
Now Paul tells us that all will appear before the judgment seat of Christ.  He was writing to Christians at the Church of Corinth.  All Christians will appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ.  People who accepted Christ’s offer of salvation and repented of their sins will know about the bad they did in this life.  And they will receive Heavenly rewards according to the good they did - according to the “kingdom investments” they made. 

Matthew 6:20 says “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal…”

Friends, there’s no doubt about it:  there will be great reward in Heaven for those who made kingdom investments.  And what is kingdom investment?  When you are undertaking for people, when you’re obedient to God’s commandments, you’re laying up treasure in Heaven. 

Matthew 25:34-47 speaks of the sheep and the goats; the goats will be to the left, and the sheep to the right.

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. ”

When you called on widows, when you gave a drink to a thirsty person, when you made an anonymous gift to a person in need, when you visited a prisoner, when you stopped to help a stranger, God was aware.  And you will receive rewards as if you had done these things for Christ Himself. 
At the end of a day, it is worthwhile to consider how you spent that day God gave you.  Today, I made a couple of kingdom investments.  I witnessed to a person without Christ.  I prayed with a couple of sisters in Christ who just needed a word of encouragement.  (and I certainly am not sharing this to elevate myself or give myself some kind of a pat on the back.  To the contrary, I give God the glory that He spoke into my heart that I should do these things.) 

Those are things for which God will reward me.  But today, there were also a lot of careless words spoken.  There were unpure thoughts.  There were purchases made that probably could have gone without.  Those things will not stand the test of time.  The only things that really matter in God’s economy are the kingdom investments - and frequently that involves people.

The Christian need not fear judgment.  If we have confessed with our mouths the Lord Jesus, and if we believe indeed that God hath raised Him (Jesus) from the dead, we are saved!  Hallelujah!  We have nothing to fear. 

But we have every reason to follow Jesus’ commandments:  Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”  These are the things which we should “be about” in this life - not only because we wish to receive good rewards, but we should seek to live out these fruits of the spirit out of love for the one who took our just reward (death) upon Himself on our behalf. 

I wouldn’t be telling the whole story, though, if I didn’t say this.  The person who has not repented of sin and placed trust in Christ has every reason to be concerned.  This is one of the saddest word pictures in the Bible found in Luke 16:19-31:

19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 

20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Even now, the rich man spoken of here in the Bible is suffering in the torments of Hell:  still in darkness, still alone, still begging for a drop of water to cool his tongue.  And if someone could tell him that he would be freed from that awful place in a million years, he would rejoice.  But the sad truth is that Hell is his all time future.  There will be no mercy once the Sinner has breathed his last, crossed over that great divide and found that his name was not in God’s book in Heaven.  Only regret, only heartache and perhaps worst of all, permanent separation from the One who paid his sin debt.  But it’s too late.  He’s there now and he’ll be there ten million years from now, with no possibility of parole or pardon.

I encourage you, my friend, if you’ve not turned from your sin and trusted Christ as your savior, do it while His spirt is speaking into your heart.  If God is speaking to your heart, don’t turn away.  The Bible tells us in a very sobering way that “My spirit shall not always strive with man...” (Genesis 6:3a)  That is to say that you don’t have control over God’s spirit, which is the only way you’ll ever be convicted of your sin - the only way you’ll ever realize you need God.  Once God takes His hand off of you after you’ve rejected him over and over, your heart will harden to the Gospel.  So many women and men are suffering in Hell because they committed the unpardonable sin which, contrary to popular theological opinion is this:  rejection of Christ. 

Don’t reject Christ.  Realize what He did for you on Calvary and receive Him unto yourself.  If you’d like to give your heart to Christ, click here for more information from a source I deeply trust:

http://www.theencouragingword.org/discover-jesus

Praying this writing meets you with happiness and peace of heart,

Rudy