Despite our text, this morning is the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians in chapter 5 and verse 10. Chapter 5 and verse 10 of Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians. 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. There is, we suppose, a considerable mystery about the details of the Last Great Judgment. There have been various theories propounded from time to time, especially nowadays, as liability of the Lord's true people to be brought at last before the judgment seat. And there have been rather curious theories likewise built upon the various Greek words which are used on this subject, rather curious theories which have propagated the idea that there are several judgment seats or places of judgment of different time in the eternal world. So how there can be time in the eternal world in the sense that we have time is something I for one cannot understand. But so be it. The word for judgment speaks in our text this morning. It is quoted very frequently from pulpits, from people who don't even know the Greek alphabet, but have borrowed their language from other men who are supposed to know it, along with the grammar. And they endeavor to tell us of this judgment seat is not the general judgment of mankind, but an institution before which only the Lord's people will be privileged to appear. When we refer to the 20th chapter of Revelation, we find a kind of a general judgment before a place which is called the great white throne. They say this is another judgement altogether. It isn't within a thousand years' distance of the one that we have in our text. And then there are other judgements which they suppose. And the net result of all these speculations is to seek to deprive the judgment which awaits all of us, not only of some of its significance, but also of some of its terrors. Paul goes on in verse 11, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, he persuades men. A very solemn sentence, indeed, which we shall come to presently. Now, some of us are old-fashioned enough to believe that there is only one judgment. This world shall end in one day, which we were informed when we were children, is the last day. And on the last day, there shall be judgment. A judgment throne before which all nations and all peoples and everyone who ever lived upon the face of the earth shall be gathered. I would even go further and I would say the devil will be there and all his fallen angels. We'll go even further than that and say all the angels shall be there too. And that the judgment shall have to do with them. where every creature from the utmost confines of time and eternity will be gathered there before the throne. They shall all be there to hear the final indication of the divine righteousness. Of course they've got to be there. Of course they've got to be there all at the same moment, else the judgment would lose meaning and its purpose. There is one judgment, one judgment day. Now the use or misuse of Greek words notwithstanding, let me remind you that this particular word about which they make such play in many directions We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that it is not the only time that Paul uses this word. It occurs again in his writing in the 14th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. If you will turn to that chapter, you will find something very, very universal about this judgment. The 14th chapter of Romans and verse 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set up not thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The same words. 2 Corinthians, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Or in Romans 14, 10. We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to thee, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then, every one of us shall give account of himself to God. He uses this universal expression. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. Paul quotes from the Old Testament that verse to the effect. as we believe that this judgment seat is a universal rendezvous for the entire creation on one great and tremendous occasion. We shall all be there brethren, along with the wicked, even as our Lord describes in And the Son of Man shall appear on the throne of His glory. Before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall divide them as sheep from the goats. He shall speak to those on the right side and to those on the left hand. I learn. Come, ye blessed of my Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the earth. prepared for the devil and for his angels. Now what can be more universal than that? Is it not perfectly clear and plain to us that the judgment is won and that all shall be gathered before Christ and the angels will sort them out who shall be there along with us. They shall be divided as the sheep are divided from the goats, and they shall stand there before the throne of God, each one in his lot, according to what category he is there, and the purpose for which he is there, before the throne of Christ. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. This is an event, an appointment, which all must keep. And it is not to be explained away in any fashion at all in order to fit in with certain popular theories of coming events in prophecy. This is an appointment which all must keep at one and the same time. to the wicked, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Then this event so far as the people of God are concerned must be held to consist with that assurance of everlasting life and that blessedness of immortality which is the theme of the earlier verses of this chapter. The judgment seat of Christ notwithstanding, we know, says Paul, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Moreover, we approach that judgment seat without fear, without trepidation, that is, in perfect confidence as to the outcome. For he says, we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. And therefore the outcome of the judgment, so far as we are concerned, if we are indeed and in truth the saved of the Lord, the outcome of this judgment Pastor Panos will be, can you, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So that when Paul says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, we must remember that this consists with what he had already described about the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. to which the true people of God earnestly look forward, or as Peter says in another place, looking unto and hastening unto the coming of the day of God. Despite the fact that on that day of God to which we, all of us are hastening forward, the heavens shall be on fire, the elements shall melt with fire. We look for new heavens and a new earth. That is a new creation, a new spiritual creation wherein dwelleth righteousness. Again the Apostle John tells us we know that when he shall appear we should be like him or we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. So the Christian does not look to the judgment seat of Christ and his appearance there as being a challenge to his present faith and confidence and assurance. But rather the result of that judgment will confirm and establish his true position in Christ. We admit him to the eternal blessedness of that eternal world where he shall not only see his Lord but shall be like him. Or we shall see Him as He is. But the wicked shall also be there. Those who never believed on Him. Those who pursued their sinful way and their unbelieving way right down to the grave. Concerning many of these they shall be astonished. Christ says in that day that they are not on the right side. They shall say, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name done many marvellous works? And he will say, depart from me. I never knew you. Or, as in the 25th of Matthew, they will say, in the language of the Saviour himself, Lord, when saw we thee in hunger and fed, be not, or naked and clothed, be not. When saw we thee in prison and didn't come unto thee. Inasmuch as ye did it not to the least of these, my brethren, ye did it not to me. The judgment seat of Christ will be the place where all secrets are revealed. And the hidden motives of the heart shall be sifted and laid bare. Not that God needs to do this in order that He might know. But that all creation might know in each individual case and in each individual conscience how righteous is God and how true he is in all his ways. There must be this great general judgment before which we all appear because you see there is something that matters more than your salvation and mine. Something which far transcends any personal interest we might have in this matter. And that is the vindication of the name of God of every false charge and wicked imputation which has ever been laid against him. And remember this, that sin is always charging God with evil. and always challenging the goodness of God. That's the nature of every sin, from the first sin that the devil ever committed. He who was once a bright and glorious and superb spirit, one of the splendors of heaven, created in true holiness, yet did not remain in his first estate. And why did he not remain? Because that entered into his heart, into his mind, into his consciousness. the imputation that God was not good in that God had ripped or held something from him. For he wanted more than the pleasure of God had granted to him. This was the first temptation of the human race. When Satan transferred the thought from himself to implant it into the minds of Adam and Eve, But he said God doesn't know that in the day you eat the rod you shall be as God's knowing good and evil. And that's why he doesn't want you to eat because he isn't good. He's withholding something of good from you and therefore he isn't good and can't be good. And that's the nature of every sin. To claim that for ourselves which God has deserved. For his own sovereign pain and glory. Now we read in the epistle of Hugh This mysterious prophecy of Enoch Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Notice that the judgment shall sit for this reason amongst others, that all the hard speeches, the evil things which wicked men, ungodly sinners have spoken against him, that is against God, might be answered once and for all, and for all eternity. Remember how the Lord in the parable of the talent speaks about one man who said to his lord, I knew that thou wert an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not straw. And so I hid thy talent in the ground, and here it is again. Take that which is thine own, I owe you nothing. So the ungodliness of sinners would say even in time to the eternal God. You've made me and you want more out of me than you're entitled to expect. You want to reap where you have not sown, where you have not sowed and gather where you have not straw. Thou hast given me my life, here it is, take it again. You've got your own, you've got your own coil. You're not entitled to ask me for anything else. That's the nature of every sin of all ungodliness. God is entitled to ask for our worship, our praise, our seeking, that we should find in our joy and felicity, our peace and rest. In heaven's name, dear friends, has he not done enough to merit this response of the human heart? Come away to Calvary and see there who and what our God is. what his thought is concerning your eternal welfare and mine. Let us learn to bow in deep humility before him. Every hard speech that ungodly sinners have spoken against him will in that day recoil upon themselves and will be part of that weight that awful millstone around their necks which will sink them ever lower and lower in that abyss which is without bank or bottom. And their consciences will approve. But again we read in our text rather in the following verse Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade them. Now some will say, I thought the preacher this morning told us that we have no need to fear who are the people of God. Therefore now why should we have this word as the preacher overlooked that Paul said, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade them. This word terror is translated in more than one way. It can relate to that humble fear that we hold to God as his creatures and as those to whom he has shown favour. And it can also relate to that fear of terror which is borne by those who look to him not for salvation but in apprehension of the judgment which is about to fall upon them. In other words, there's fear and fear. There's a fear of deep humility and reverence And there is the fear of terror and of apprehension of coming judgement. Now our translators have these two meanings before them. They couldn't set both down in the text although both are involved in the word. And therefore seeing that so vast a portion of the human race Would in that day hear the dread sentence pronounced upon them, depart from me, cursed I never knew you. They thought it appropriate and right that in our English version they should put in this severe word which is a proper and true translation of the original and leave the rest of the chapter to reassure the true people of God that the fear that we have of that coming judgment is not the fear of apprehension as to its outcome but the reverence and godly fear which every true heart must feel as it contemplates not only the judgment that is to be but also the judgment that was and is but the place called Calvary. Where we see the pouring out of the utmost of the divine wrath and indignation against sin, that indignation which would have overwhelmed you and me in the due course of time had it not spent itself on our behalf upon that willing victim the well-beloved and only begotten Son, as He hung and suffered there. In the light of this fact, in the light of Calvary with its revelation of the utmost judgment of God, and how the righteous in consequence are scarcely saved, therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord, Knowing the terror of that last day of judgment, of the appearance of all men before that burning throne, we persuade men. Nor, day by day, can we frivolously, without thought of that coming judgment, pursue our life and speak our foolish and idle words, and give place to idle thoughts and waste of time, in view of the fact that we cannot, You are the fact that in the day of reckoning of every idle word that men shall speak they shall give an account. We ought to approach that eternal throne as we will approach it with deep humility and reverence and godly fear and see as our only hope in that day the bright shining countenance from which the beams of that eternal sun do shine, of Him who is our Friend, our Saviour, our Redeemer, our Bridegroom, the One who came so far to redeem. We may not lightly think of Calvary any more than we may lightly think of the eternal judgment, nor may we lightly think of the eternal fate of the wicked. or speak about it without some feeling in our hearts of the dread and awful nature of that event. So, says Paul, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Let us consider therefore, dear friends, that we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. But what means this? That everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. There is a great mystery here. Some have said, well, this only refers to whether we are believers or unbelievers. that the believers do things which are good and the unbelievers do things which are bad. But we know very well that even the good that we do as believers that is mixed with our own evils, that none of us can claim credit for any work that we do, that it is done perfectly and absolutely to the divine praise and satisfaction. that whatsoever God receives and accepts of our work on his behalf, he does so by grace alone and not by merit. The Lord knows how much of sin there is in the words of the man in the pulpit, how much in many pulpits at any rate of the desire to shine, the desire to do well, As many a man suffers agonies after he's preached a sermon. Not on the question whether he's spoken the truth or not, but how it went down with the people, and whether his credit has fallen or risen as a consequence. I suppose no man is ever entirely free from these thoughts. And it is carried out in all the labours that we do. How often even in the Sunday school class, or in the teacher's meeting, it may well be that our motives are mixed, not entirely to the glory of Christ, or whatsoever part we may have in any Christian service. There are hidden depths in the human soul, and there's no means of measuring the mixture of the motives in which we may engage in this and that and the next. In that day, dear friends, we shall know exactly what kind of persons we are. How shall it be that each individual conscience, over a long, long lifetime, we may have lived for 70, 80 years, some men have lived well over 100 years, and if of every idle word that they shall speak, they shall give account in that day, how long will the judgment take? And if we came one by one before the throne, in all our great hosts and generations from the foundation of the world, not counting even the angels and the devils, of whom there are myriads and myriads beyond number in calculation. If one by one we have to come before the throne and give an individual answer for everything And every thought of motive, how long will the judgment take? Well, if it went that way, I suppose it would take something like half of eternity. Maybe it could divide eternity into half. But something entirely different from that, I'll tell you exactly how long the judgment will take. Not only for me, but for all the world. But that's how long it will take. Before the island can quiver, it will be over. In one great flash of light, what we are and what we've done will be revealed to each individual conscience. We shall know exactly before the judgment seat what kind of persons we are. If it is possible for us to condemn ourselves there, we shall stand condemned in our own conscience. But as we look upon the face of Him who died for us, whom in life we believed, and whose name we loved and worshipped, as we look into that countenance we shall read there, in that same instant flash of revelation, burning into our conscience. We shall read there the assurance that we are His, that glorious countenance expands into its eternal smile. Come ye, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So it is that all sin shall be remembered in that one moment of truth before the judgment seat, all unrolled and unfolded from the everlasting memory of God. It shall be revealed in every individual conscience, and those who are turned away will know that it was just. and things under the earth. That is the angels of heaven. That is the inhabitants of the earth. That is the devils in the lowest hell. We shall all be there and every knee shall bow then and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and in the darkest caverns of the lost the name of Jesus will still command and everlastingly command. bowing down of the conscience and of the heart before him. Let us remember that, that in eternal hell, the light of conscience is not prevailing blackness and darkness forever. The light of conscience shall shine and the name of Christ shall be known as the most in all creation, He who occupies the throne and He who is worthy, and the conscience will acknowledge it even of the devil himself. Will that lighten his hell? No, it will make it worse. That will be the very element of hell, to know that He who sits upon the throne is pure and holy and just, and we are as we are in hell. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men that we are made manifest unto God. I trust also I am made manifest in your consciences. We have much to say on this verse as touching when this judgment shall take place and the circumstances which shall At the end of the world, we intend to give some time to this, this evening, God helping us. Amen. Now let us close by singing the hymn 846. on clouds of glory seated. Amen.