From His Heart

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At the judgment seat of Christ, the rewards will be determined. When God puts the flame to your life, whatever is left—if there's gold, if there's silver, if there's precious stone—if it's there, you're going to be rewarded.

But if there's nothing left, you yourself shall be saved, yet so as through fire. For all eternity, you will have nothing to show for your years as a Christian. There is nothing to show to the one who died for you in agony and blood.

There is tremendous truth in this.

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There is hope that you always dream. Love he can heal every scarlet. True, real love, real hope from his heart.

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To live a Christian life that stands to be rewarded by God is to live here on this earth with heaven on your horizon. And that's the title of today's message on this edition of From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. The lesson is from Pastor Jeff's 4-message series, Forever and Ever: the reality of Eternal Heaven and Eternal Hell.

Pastor Jeff will not mince any words here. It's a straightforward, honest, and often ignored message that you hear from the pulpits in America. But there are some encouraging words he'll share, in fact. Three encouragements for those who are certain their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Now, this is part two of this third message in the series Forever and Ever. Open your Bible to 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, as Pastor Jeff helps us to determine if we're being honest with ourselves and God about knowing for sure that heaven is on our horizon.

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I want to share with you three encouragements for those of us who are certain that our final destination is heaven. John said, "I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may know K n o w know that you have eternal life." So when you know you have the assurance of heaven, three encouragements.

Number one, the assurance of heaven changes our perspective on problems. Our perspective on problems shifts when we look at it from a different lens, knowing that our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life and that heaven is our final destination. In 2 Corinthians 4:16-17, in the Easy to Read version, it says, "That is why we never give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. We have small troubles for a while now, but these troubles are helping us gain an eternal glory. That eternal glory is much greater than our troubles." Jesus said, "In the world you have tribulation, but be of good courage. I have overcome the world." Job said, "Man is born for trouble as sparks fly upward." That's just the way it is. But when heaven is your final destination and you have that assurance and certainty, it changes how you look at problems.

First of all, we know that God is at work in our problems. James 1:2-4 tells us, "Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." God is at work, and He is going to use this. Secondly, because heaven is on the horizon, not only do we know that God is at work, but we also know that the best is yet to come. Paul says in Romans 8:18, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Encouragement number one: the assurance of heaven changes our perspective on problems.

Encouragement number two: the assurance of heaven takes away the fear of death. It says about Jesus, "Since then, the children share in flesh and blood, He himself likewise also partook of the same." He became a human being because we are human beings. He took on flesh and blood so that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver those who, through fear of death, were subject to slavery all their lives. So what happens to a Christian when he dies, when she dies? The Bible makes it clear: absent from the body, present with the Lord. When a Christian dies, that Christian goes immediately to be with Jesus. There is no waiting period or holding area. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Paul expresses this desire in Philippians 1:23, saying, "I have the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better." When a Christian dies, he goes to be at home with Jesus. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:8, "We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord." You remember, "The world is not my home; I'm just passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue." I am living with heaven on the horizon.

Then, encouragement number three: the assurance of heaven reminds us of the Bema judgment. You may ask, "What is that?" The Bema judgment, spelled B-E-M-A, is found in 2 Corinthians 5:10. It states, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, the Bema of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad." Romans 14:10 and 12 also speak of this, saying, "For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God." We are going to stand before the Bema of God one day.

Now, the Bema was a raised platform. They have one in Corinth, and when you visit the ruins in Corinth, you can read about what happened in Acts chapter 18, where the magistrate took his place on the Bema. It was a place where judgments were rendered, speeches were made, and victorious athletes and returning warriors received their awards, rewards, wreaths, and accolades. This is what a Christian has in his or her future: the Bema of Christ. Notice that this judgment is only for Christians. God has two judgments.

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You're going to be in one of two judgments, and there's no getting around it. So if you give your heart and life to Christ, you're going to one day stand before the bema, the judgment seat of Christ, and he is going to judge you. If you don't receive Christ, then at the end of it all, Revelation 20, verses 11 through 15, you're going to stand at the end of time before eternity begins. New heavens and a new earth. You're gonna be judged at the Great White Throne Judgment.

Everyone at the Great White Throne Judgment is going to the lake of Fire. They're gonna be judged according to their deeds. And hell is not the same for every person. Hell is awful for everyone, but there are degrees of hell. And if you're a believer in Jesus, everyone who stands at the bema is going to heaven. No man can lay a foundation other than one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. You have the foundation in your heart as a believer, and you're gonna stand before him, and it's an evaluation of your works as a Christian.

God doesn't look at your life from the time you were born until the time you were dead. He looks at your life from the time that you were born again until the time you died. He looks at what you did and, as a Christian, what you did in your Christian life. Now, everyone at the Great White Throne Judgment is going to be experiencing a judgment of condemnation. Everyone who goes to the Bema judgment is experiencing a judgment of commendation. It's a judgment to determine rewards.

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And you're going to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am, as a believer one day to give an account. So then each one will give an account of himself to God.

We're going to have to give an account of our motives. The Bible says in First Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 5, "Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will bring both to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts."

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And.

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And then each man's praise will come to him from God at the judgment seat of Christ our Lord, whose eyes Revelation 19 are as a flame of fire. He's going to look at us and he's going to evaluate our lives.

And we must all appear. The word appear means to be exposed. We must all be exposed before the Lord at the Bema judgment and to be recompensed according to what we have done, the deeds in the body, as a Christian, whether good or bad.

Now, the word for bad, phallos, can also be translated worthless.

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It's whether good or worthless. And 1 Corinthians chapter 3 gives us insight into what he's talking about. First Corinthians 3 says this: For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man builds upon the foundation, every Christian is building upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stone. Those are good things. Wood, hay, straw, those are worthless things. Each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire. And the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.

Now, have you ever heard somebody say, "Well, all I'm interested in is going to heaven"? You know, John chapter 14 talks about, "In my Father's house, there are many mansions." You know, in King James, there are many mansions. People are like, "There's just mansions in heaven." But I don't need to have a mansion. I can just have a shack, just so long as it's a shack on the outskirts of town in heaven. And I am fine with that. First of all, it doesn't say mansions; it means dwelling places. In my Father's house are many apartments. If it were not so, I would have told you. And really, you would be glad just to be in heaven, just to get there by the skin of your teeth. Why would you want to do that when you have opportunities to win rewards with the Lord?

Paul says, "Our ambition," verse 9, 2 Corinthians 5:9, "we have as our ambition, whether absent or present, to be pleasing to the Lord." We want to please the Lord. And so if you have as your ambition to please the Lord, you want to be able to stand at the bema judgment and say, "Master, this is what you gave me, and this is what I did with it." This is what I did with it. And no doubt we're going to see, as the Lord looks at every single one of us, we're going to see things burn up in our lives.

You know, it's interesting. Wood, hay, straw—those things aren't worthless of themselves. I mean, our houses for most of us are built with wood. Wood is a good thing, but it's not good when you test it by fire. Wood gets burned up. Hay's a good thing. You know, you feed cattle with hay and your horses with hay. Hay's a good thing. But it's not good when there's a fire because it's burned up. Straw—you can do stuff with straw. You make bricks with straw. Just ask Moses and the gang. They wanted to have straw so they could make bricks for Pharaoh. You can make straw hats with straw. You can do stuff with straw. But it's not good when you test it with fire. But what is, is gold and silver and precious stone. That stuff stands the test of fire.

Now, if you have as your desire to please the Lord, there's no way in the world you would ever think it's okay to live in a shack on the outskirts of heaven because you would displease the one who died for you in agony and blood. Can you imagine standing before the Lord at the bema and everything in your life is exposed, all the motives exposed? See, we can do things, good things, but we can do them with wrong motives. And you lose your reward for that. "Well, I'm preaching a sermon. That was a great sermon, Pastor Jeff." Yeah, but I did it for me. I did it for the acclaim of men. That's what Jesus got on the religious leaders. He said, "You pray long prayers just for appearance sake, and you do all this stuff to be noticed by men. And if you do that, you have your reward in full." That's it. You're noticed by men, but you don't get any commendation from me. So we can do good things, but we do them with the wrong motives. And it's not for God's glory; it's for our glory. Psalm 115, verse 1: "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory because of your loving kindness, because of your truth."

And so God is going to look at our lives and examine our lives. And you say, "This is making me nervous." Good. Makes me nervous, too. Paige Patterson is a dear friend of mine. I was conversing with him last night about this passage, and I said, "I just read Erwin Lutzer's book, Eternal Rewards, the Tears and Triumphs at the Judgment Seat of Christ." And I said, "The more I study the judgment seat of Christ, the more nervous and afraid I get about the judgment seat of Christ." He said, "Me, too. Me too." You know what 2 Corinthians 5:11 says right after he says, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to be recompensed according to the deeds which we have done in the body, whether good or evil." Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men.

I used to think that the judgment seat of Christ was just like an awards dinner. You know, I was in sales for a long time, and we'd have regional sales meetings, and we'd get together, and then we'd have the big awards time, and they would recognize the guys that did really well. And you'd be recognized, you know, in front of your peers. And, you know, you sold so much, and you're in this special club. And I had, by God's grace, I was blessed, and I had some good years. And so, man, I was looking forward to that time because I was like, "Man, this is gonna be great. They're gonna call my name. I'm gonna come up there." And I won one time; I won this briefcase. It was like $500. It was just this crazy briefcase. I remember talking to a friend of mine. I said, "Yeah, I won. I got this thing. They're gonna give me a briefcase. It's like $500." I said, "What idiot would spend $500 on a briefcase?" He said, "I have one." And I said, "Oh, okay." But I used to—I mean, it was just—I was just so looking forward to it.

And so when I would read 2 Corinthians 5:10, I'd say, "Yeah, the judgment seat of Christ. That's going to be wonderful." Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. And I thought, "Well, why would anyone be afraid of that?" Here's what Erwin Lutzer said in his book: "If we overdo the sorrow aspect of the bema, we make heaven into hell. But if we underdo it, we make faithfulness inconsequential." There's a tension between those two things.

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We have a healthy fear, or we should have a healthy fear, of having to stand before God one day to give an account of our lives. To have the God who can see all things. There is no creature hidden from his sight.

But all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Hebrews 4:13 tells us, and God is going to look at everything in my life. He's gonna look at all my motives, everything.

And I have to stand before him and give an account.

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Now, do you have to watch your sins before the Lord? Can you imagine that? I mean, God's saying, now, let's watch what you did here in this hotel room when you thought nobody was looking. Because my eyes saw that.

And you say, oh, no, I can't see that, Lord. That's not. We can't watch that.

Listen, he's not going to do that at the judgment seat of Christ. Why? Because there's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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You're not going to have to watch your sins parade before the Lord. But you will have to watch lost opportunities. George Whitefield was a great preacher in the 1700s. He said he wanted this on his epitaph: "Here lies George Whitefield. What sort of man he was. The great day will discover."

A little poem by C. T. Studd says this: "Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last." Amy Carmichael said, "We have all eternity to celebrate the victories. But only a few hours before sunset to win them."

Remember this too: at the judgment seat of Christ, everything is set for all eternity—the rewards. When God puts the flame to your life, whatever is left—if there's gold, if there's silver, if there's precious stone—if it's there, you're going to be rewarded on that. And God is a generous rewarder. But if there's nothing left, you yourself shall be saved, yet so as through fire. But for all eternity, you will have nothing to show for your years as a Christian: 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 40 years, 50 years, 70 years, 80 years as a Christian. And there's nothing to show to the one who died for you in agony and blood.

John said this in 3 John chapter 1, verse 4: "I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth." Let me tell you, the Lord Jesus has no greater joy than for you and for me to walk with him and to stay connected to him and to abide in him so that he can flow his life through us, so that he can use us to shine for Christ and to share what great things the Lord has done for us and how he had mercy on us. That is our calling from God.

If we will live like that, we can stand at the Great White Throne or at the Judgment seat of Christ, the Bema Judgment. With fear and trepidation, we can stand before the Lord and we can see the fire and we can see what is left. And we can hear him say, "Well done."

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You were faithful in a few things. I'm going to put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.

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If you feel that you haven't been faithful with what God has entrusted you, or if you sense that you've never truly known him, this is an invitation to pray sincerely, genuinely from your heart. Confess your need and ask Jesus Christ to change your heart, to come into you and make you a new person. How do you pray for renewal or salvation? You humbly admit your shortcomings before God and ask him for forgiveness. Acknowledge your sin, turn from it, and ask him to come into your heart, and he will do it. That's a promise. The promise is that when you genuinely ask Christ into your life, he will transform you and give you peace. The foundation is faith, of course, alone in Him.

For guidance on the next steps or to learn more, visit us at fromisheart.org, and click the "Why Jesus" link. Before we go, a quick reminder that this is our calendar year-end month, and we're hoping to receive over 25% of what we would normally receive all year long. If historical patterns are true, it's a critical month for us, no doubt. So thank you for your generosity this year-end, and we'd like to say thank you by sending you the book *The Heart is God's Home*. It's a 365-day devotional book from 39 pastors, including Pastor Jeff. That is really a keepsake quality book. It's brand new, just came out, and for sure the depth of what's inside will be a great benefit to your heart.

You can make your gift today at fromhisheart.org or call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253) to request the book *The Heart is God's Home*. Remember that God is as near as your own heartbeat. It's a reminder that no matter what you face, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

We also hope when you visit our website, you'll sign up for the Real Hope email encouragement letter. You'll get that in your inbox every Friday morning. You can also listen to the daily Real Hope minute from Pastor Jeff there. Plus, you can easily join Pastor Jeff on our social networks. The web address again is fromhisheart.org.

Well, I'm Larry Nobles, and a big thank you for being with us today. I trust you'll be right back here next time when Pastor Jeff will continue with the last message from the series *Forever and Ever: The Reality of Eternal Heaven and Eternal Hell*, by opening God's word and sharing real truth, real love, and real hope. From His Heart.

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There is treasure, there is bless love. There is hope that you always dream love. He can heal every scar.

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From his heart.

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From his heart is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out about that when you go to fromisheart.org.