The Two Judgements | The Great Awareness Church

Last week we had a really good service and and then we had a great um ministry time afterwards and and uh this has nothing to do with what I'm preaching on. This just just happened. So um it was a good day, you know, and afterwards I'm driving home and man, the devil just started messing with me and I'm like and it bothered me. I'm like, how could the devil be messing with me?

I'm on such a high, you know? I'm like, I know he has no authority. How can the devil be messing with me? And it kind of went away.

And then yesterday, man, messing with me again. Today, this morning, messing with me again. And you know, it's like, [clears throat] and I always used to wonder how this could happen to Elijah. Elijah calls down fire from heaven at Mount Carmel, right?

Destroys 400 prophets of Baal. And then Jezebel, a woman, just says, "I'm going to kill you by tomorrow." and he runs away like a scampered, you know, whatever after he just called down fire from heaven. He used to always blow me away.

How could that happen to someone when they're in the middle of whatever, you know, and and I wanted to see last week what what happened? Because when you start a church, you know, this this is only about four months old, this church, when you start a church, you put everything into it and you just want to see progression, right? So we had people, more people. We had people at the altar.

We had, you know, ministry that that outreach. There's people here today from that outreach. It was just, it was just so good, man. Here's the ticket.

It just came to me this morning. When you have that moment, all of a sudden, you start how the devil gets in is you think about how great it is. You've turned it off of God and onto you for a moment. just a little bit of pride comes in and that's all the devil needs to sneak on in there and start messing with you.

Okay? So, at the end of the day, this isn't my church. This is God's church. And if you're here today, it's because God called you, not because Brian called you.

I didn't call you up say, "Hey, come on." Okay? I didn't even know you were coming. half of you.

Um, some of I did and I actually did call you guys up, but you know, um, [laughter and clears throat] but most you are here because you're here and God draw you. And, and the message that I have today is a message that preachers don't want to preach on because it can be a tough message. And man, God sent a couple cardinals this morning. I was all Rob told me a story which affirmed that I needed to preach it.

So, so, um, I don't care if you don't like it. This is what God wants me to preach. So get get mad at him. Don't get mad at me.

In [clears throat] Ecclesiastes, Solomon, the wisest person who ever lived, summed up his whole life and summed up everything in Ecclesiastes 12 um verses 13 and 14. And he says this, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Okay? And we're not supposed to judge anyone. And a lot of people when they speak about judgment today in the church, they only talk about how we're not supposed to judge people. And we're not.

Okay? How can I sit there and say this uh LGBTQ person is wrong when when when there's adultery? Okay? And you say, "Oh, well, I'm none of those things."

If we just think it in our hearts, okay, Jesus said on a sermon on the mount, if someone cuts you off in traffic and you cuss them out in your head, you've committed murder. Actually, murder according to Jesus, right? So, even the thoughts we think okay um condemn us. And but we're not supposed to judge other people because we're all sinners, right?

Including the preacher boy up here. I'm no better than anyone out there. Okay. However, God is a judge.

Okay. He is the creator God and he is the judge and there will be a judgment day. Okay? And we have to talk about these things sometimes in the church and not just talk about the feel-goody stuff.

Okay? And so, like it or not, we're going to talk about it today. Okay. In Matthew 24:25, Jesus is asked by his disciples, "What's it going to be like when you come again?

What's it look like when you come again?" And he shares with them in Matthew 24 and 25, how the end times are going to look. In Matthew 25 uh 31-46, Jesus talks about this judgment day. Okay?

This time when he's going to be sitting on the throne and judging all of humanity, okay? God is the jud he gave all judgment over to his son. So here is Jesus. Now these are all red letters.

When the son of man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him. Then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right hand but the goats on the left.

Then the king will say to those on his right hand, "Come you blessed of my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.

Then the righteous will answer him saying,"Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison or come to you?" And the king will answer and say to them, "Assuredly I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me."

Then he will also say to those on the left hand, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me food, no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not take me in.

Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me." Then they also will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them, saying,"Assuredly I say to you, and as much as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Like my new mug, so I'm not doing the the thing. Um, I got that as a gift. So, you might be tempted to say, "Oh, cool.

All I have to do is do good works. Okay? If I do good things, then I get to go to heaven. I can live how I want and just do good works.

Except you got to take the whole Bible. You can't just preach out of one little part and then ignore all the other parts and spin the doctrine the way you want. Okay? In Romans 6:23, Paul very clearly states that the wages of sin is death.

Okay? Jesus also in Matthew 5 27-29, we just touched on it a minute ago. Um he says this is Jesus again. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you.

For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. So Jesus clearly is stating here that there is a hell and that sin will get you into that place. Okay? So it's not you can't just do good works and hope that that all fixes it.

Okay? We're going to talk about that in a minute. But then there's John 3:16. Okay?

[clears throat] For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever would believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life. That's like the most beautiful passage that I can even think of because that's the way home. All right? That's how we get to heaven and not to hell.

God made a way for all of us. Now we don't have to poke out our eyes. Okay? We just have to repent and ask Jesus into our heart.

Now, judgment day looks a lot different. Okay? If you ask Jesus into your heart, you get written in what's called the lamb's book of life. Okay?

Now, um, judgment day looks different. Revelation 20 verses 11 through 15 John describes what he sees which is this same judgment day that that Jesus was just talking about. Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it from whose face the earth face the earth and the heaven fled away. That was Jesus.

He's on a great white throne and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead small and great standing before God and books were open and another book was opened which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in them in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and the death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one according to his works.

Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. So if you've accepted and that lake of fire, that's all eternity.

That's hell. It's all eternity. All eternity in hell, all eternity in heaven. What makes you what makes a difference if you ask Jesus into your heart?

If you repent of your sins and ask him into your heart. So, we're going to ask at the end of this service if you've accepted Jesus. Okay? Have you really asked him into your heart?

Have you really repented of those sins? If not, let's nail that down today. We got to nail that down today. Man, it's very important.

But but God's made a way and all creation will have to face what's called judgment day. What's called the great white throne judgment. All of creation. But for Christians, we get another judgment.

Okay? This one's not for whether you go to heaven or go to hell. This is for rewards. Okay?

Um judgement. And a SPEMA seat was a raised platform where they would sit on there and judge the races and stuff that happened down below. Okay. So, this is for believers only.

So, likely in my mind, it doesn't say when exactly it's going to happen. In my mind, it's it's going to happen after the the judgment day when it's all the believers are up there. Okay? And then we're going to have the judgment seat of Christ.

And it's important for me to lay down something real quick. The day you ask Jesus into your heart, when you ask him to forgive you and you repent of the things you've done in the past and you've laid that down, it's done. You're not going to get judged on that again. The Bible's very clear that he's just to forgive and to forget.

Likewise, you've got to walk in that freedom. Okay? If you're still beating yourself up for something that happened 20 years ago, okay, that you've already repented of and you've already asked him to forgive you, okay? You're that's the devil.

You're holding on to something that God's already taken away. You don't have to beat yourself up on that anymore. Okay? It's gone.

You're free. Walk in your freedom. However, once you're Christian okay? There's still going to be a time when God's going to sit down and we get rewards for the things we do good and and we'll lose the rewards for the for the things we've done bad.

God's going to live. God's going to judge how we lived as Christians. So that's why it's so important for us to not take grace flippantly. Okay?

I know Christians that say, "Hey, we're above the law. Grace says we're above the law. The law has no hold, no bearing on us." Okay?

Which is technically true. Um but what that mean that doesn't mean that we now can do any sinful thing we want. Okay? Paul spends most of Romans explaining de debunking that, okay?

That we what it means is we're above the law. That means we're held to a higher standard than the law. We're supposed to the law shouldn't even matter to us because we're already living way better than the law. Do you understand?

It's not about us having free reign to do whatever we want. It's about us holding ourselves to his standard because we're now we're Jesus Christ. We're his and we should be out there. Okay?

And Jesus is watching. The thing you're doing in silent that you don't think anyone's seeing, Jesus sees. Okay? He sees it.

And the thing with the beaced is that everyone's going to be there. So if you harm someone, you know, I was thinking about this. My brother and sister, okay, they cheated once in Monopoly, okay? And I lost because of it.

and they're probably watching. They need to repent, okay? Because it's going to be brought up at the judgment seat of Christ. Um, [laughter] but but seriously, um, everyone will be there.

So, so that Christian guy you stole from, he's going to be there. That's kind of crazy to think about, but but it's actually it's actually a truth. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 5. Okay.

It says this, "Therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the councils of the heart. Then each one's praise will come from from God." Okay. Um so the judgment seat of Christ is scriptural.

It happens in Romans 14. Okay, let me get there real quick. I got a lot of scripture I'm hitting today because I want this to be God saying it, not me saying it. Okay, Romans 14, we read this.

But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.

So then, each one of us shall give an account of himself to God. Okay? So, there's a time where, lucky us, we get to be judged by the things that we've done. Okay?

Our good deeds are going to be rewarded and our bad deeds will burn up, but we'll still be in heaven. We don't lose our salvation. Okay? John uh Paul further clarifies this in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.

And again, I'm just reading the Bible. According to the grace of God, which has was given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw, each one's work will be become clear for the day the judgment will declare it because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss.

But he himself will be saved yet as though through fire. So, your good deeds, man, you get rewards. And I don't reckon this is like the rewards you get when you go to the arcade and you know, you you spend like $20 to get a bunch of tickets and you go and you get this little Chinese fingerpull thing or something like that, right? The God who I serve is does exceedingly abundantly above all things.

I thinking I'm thinking it's going to be some nice rewards, right? I think it's going to be some fun stuff. Doesn't say what it's going to be, but I'm pretty pumped about it. All right.

We're gonna get rewarded for the good deeds we do. But note this, only the deeds we do in Jesus Christ. Okay? So, if we go out there doing a good deed and then we go on Facebook and tell everyone about the good deed, and look at us, okay?

We're doing it for ourselves. If we're out there working really hard, but we're doing it to try to prove to people that we're a godly man or a godly woman. And I've been there, okay? When I first got saved, I was I was working really hard, you know, doing all these works so that people would say, "Hey, he's a good guy."

I was trying to prove, you know, to and and some some can relate to that. Trying to prove to a heavenly father, you know, that I'm good enough. All right? I was already good enough.

When he when he saved me, he he already justified me. I'm good just as I am, Brian Peter. I don't have to do any extra works. That said, I have to build on that foundation.

My relationship should grow with Jesus such that the works overflow from the love of my heart. Okay? That's how works should grow. They should come out of the love of our heart.

Um, so the good deeds, they need to be built on the foundation of Christ. when we do things to be seen by men. Okay, Jesus says that's not good. In Matthew 6, and this again Jesus saying, "Not me, man."

Matthew 6 1-4, read this. Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your father in heaven. What reward is he talking about?

He's talking about that judgment seat of Christ. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be done in secret.

And your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. That's that be a seat judgment. We're going to be rewarded openly. Okay?

So your good deeds that flow from your foundation you get rewarded for your bad deeds get burnt up except for the ones you repent of. Okay? Because I believe the Bible is very clear in first John. Okay chapter 1 John 1 chapter nine.

If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, I don't believe God is going to cleanse us and forgive us and then also burn that up at a second judgment. Okay? That's just not how it works.

Once he he saves you, all of your past is is is is gone. Okay? It's gone. You don't have to beat yourself up over it anymore.

Okay? But you're going to mess up. You're you're gonna mess up. Okay?

I mess up. At least two to three times a week. I have to get on my knees and repent for something that I've done. It could be someone cutting me off.

I said that example and I say something negative in my mind if I'm like no I'm an idiot, you know, or whatever whatever it is I'm saying and I gotta I got to repent of that. You laugh and you know you do it too. All right. So you will screw up.

So the key is repentance. Okay. If if if every time you're doing that and God brings it to your thing, you bring it into the light and you repent. Okay?

Then it's forgiven and you're not going to have it brought back up at the beac judgment. Okay? So if you do your deeds quietly from the love of God and you repent of your sins quietly to God and then openly to whoever you hurt, okay? Because sometimes our sins hurt other people.

So you got to go and apologize to them. Okay? Doesn't matter if they accept your apology. As long as you've apologized, you've done your part.

You can walk free. Free now and free down the road. Then the beacy judgment is going to be really pleasant for you. You're going to get a lot of rewards and almost nothing burnt up because you've already repented of all of it.

Okay? That's where I would like to be when it comes my time to be in front of and everyone's going to be there, man. So, we're all going to see it. 2 Corinthians 5:10 again talks about the the judgment seat of Christ.

says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad." So if you repent and you do your things from good, it's a good time. If you don't, if you're if you do good deeds, you only do them for yourself. If you do them only to be seen by others or if you don't even do good deeds at all.

If you do bad things, even bad thoughts and whatever and you never repent of them, then the beacy, you're still going to go to if you ask Jesus, you're still going to go to heaven, but you're going to have a pretty rough time at the beacy. Okay? Because everyone's going to see almost no rewards and lots of stuff getting burnt up. Okay?

Don't be that person. What's the key out? Repentance, man. Repent of the things you've done wrong and get that relationship with God so strong that good deeds are flowing out of it.

Okay? We're all going to stand before Christ. Why not have it a victorious time? Let's not judge each other because we're all sinners.

Okay? We all need a savior. None of us are better than anybody else. Okay?

So, let's run the race. Let's not judge each other. Let's focus on our own race. Okay?

And run in such a way that we get the prize. Okay? Let's run for the rewards. All right?

And as Gabe and Kelsey come up, I want to really um ask you to search your hearts today. Okay? If you do not know Jesus, I'm going to be right there. Okay?

I want you to come. All right? And I'll pray over you and we'll nail that down and we'll baptize you later and we'll it we'll we'll nail that down today. Okay?

If you do if you do know Jesus okay? I want you to start thinking about the things that maybe God's brought to your light, but you haven't repented of. Okay? Think about the things that you've done that have even if they've harmed people or even if they haven't harmed people, [music] the things that you know are wrong and you've done them that the things [music] you sneak, you know, when no one's around and you think that no one's seeing you and actually Jesus is there and he is seeing you.

Okay. Um bring it bring it to the altar. Repent of that. Lay it down because if you [music] repent of it and lay it down, you won't have to face it down the road.

you can stand up and be free from it both now and down the road. Okay, that's the best [music] place to be. Rise up from that time on your knees and start walking in the way that Jesus has asked us to walk. Okay?

So, contemplate on these things. Think on these [music] things. And if you feel led, come on down. Let's lay it down.

Let's let's take care of some of this stuff right now. We're here to do work today, okay? Okay, we're here to do work in our hearts and our own minds. And I just pray that you will you will >> [music] >> uh just understand that we're not to judge each other, but there is a judge and he will look at us.

Yes, [music] he looks down with you at love, but man, he he wants you to build that relationship [music] so that you're doing good deeds from his love, from his foundation, and that [music] you allow him into your heart to take away those things. And he will, as you build that [music] spirit, man, the the flesh is going to fall away. And so I I pray that you'll come forward and seek and leave it here on the altar [music] and just and just rise up to the way. He wants you to live [music] in Jesus name.