to consider the future, okay? John chapter number 18, and this is not usually what I would be doing. I like to go through contextually and deal with all that's going on there. We good, what's up? Having trouble? It isn't starting up. Well, that's an easy fix. YouTube's going though, right? Alright, so what you need to do is go to open another tab, do what we used to do. Right to run the live stream from my account. You just got it. Alright, and it'll just be a little bit late. That's okay. As long as we're going on YouTube, we're good. And then our page right down at the bottom. Cool. Put that down at the bottom. So somebody's in the nursery, they can see. Alright, cool. Amen. All right, so John chapter number 18, we're gonna look at verses one through... Somebody say a number, did you say 15? 18, 11, that's right, yes. How'd you know? That's where it's broke up at. All right, mine doesn't have the breakup things. Mine's like a your notes only Bible. And so, see, so there's only a few little notes in there. my notes and I write them in pencil so later if I disagree with myself it's easy to change it so I find that a whole lot easier than whiting out other people's notes so anyways John chapter number 18 yes 1 through 11 is what we're looking at here that's actually where I have the line drawn for where I'm stopping here so my my my I could totally run a rabbit in this passage, but we're going to leave that rabbit alone. We're going to chase the other one. Okay. So when Jesus had spoken these things, or these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Kidron. Where was the garden? into the witch he entered and his disciples. And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place, for Jesus oft times resorted thither with his disciples. Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon as he said unto them, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he. If therefore you seek me, let these go their way and that the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake of them which thou gave or of them which thou gave us me. Have I lost none? Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and smote the high priest servant and cut off his ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter, put up thy sword into thy sheath. The cup which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your word today. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to open it this evening and and to consider these things. Lord, we pray, Father, that you'd speak to our hearts, that you'd have our way or have your way rather with us. And father, that we would apply these things to our lives or that we consider the fact that every knee shall bow. And we just pray your blessing now on the service in Jesus name. Amen. So I kind of gave it away in the in the prayer there. We're taking what happens here. You guys, I hope you picture these things, you read it, and I'm not trying to talk about like, you know, contemplative mysticism. I'm just saying you just consider. I usually, as I'm reading the Word of God, I kind of picture it happening. Not like I'm, you know, doing some sort of mystical thing, but just simply, hey, they've, y'all remember where they came from? Chapter 17, what was going on? the upper room praying, right? And then they finished and they said, let's go into the garden, and there they're praying as well. If you read the parallel passages, you'll see that the Lord's praying and the disciples falling asleep and all of these things, but in this passage we see here it just kind of skips to the point, right, to what happens in the garden. Judas comes and the Soldiers will say the folks the servants here that have the the swords and they're gonna be the ones who are going to They're gonna arrest him right so here they come into the garden and they say They show up and Jesus says Who you looking for? I'm paraphrasing of course who you looking for so we're looking for Jesus of Nazareth and then when he tells them that it is that he is the one they're looking for now notice there it says I am he now I'm not going to try to make a big deal out of the fact that the word he is in italics because it needs to be there that's why it's there but the fact is he said I am and then also recognizing he that you're looking for right I am he that you're looking for. But when he identified himself, notice what happens. You have an involuntary reaction. I don't think, and you can give me reason why you may think it to be so, but I don't think they found out it was Jesus of Nazareth and thought, I think we need to bow before him. I don't think they did that. it was an involuntary reaction. It's interesting, some involuntary reactions in history, that would be a fun study to do at some point. There's one in Revelation, in fact, when the lamb is found worthy to open the seals of the book, and then we see that there's praise in heaven and all of these things, and then, all of a sudden, it echoes. what they said, you know, you're worthy to receive power and glory and honor and so on, and it echoes, and every creature in heaven and on earth, everywhere, echoes that same thing. Saved people, lost people, animals, everything. It's in every creature. They all echoed it. That's a pretty cool involuntary response, isn't it? That's pretty neat. But tonight we're going to focus on the involuntary response that took place then, and that will take place in the life of every single person at some point now, in eternity, and or in eternity, and that is that everyone will bow before him. Alright, so just going to look at a few passages now. Something that we often try in our systematic theology, we try to separate certain things, right? Like we like to separate the certain judgments. But I'm going to say that there are many passages that speak of judgment, and we try to separate it but recognize that contextually the judgments are generic in a sense, and I'll explain. Who's heard of the judgment seat of Christ? Anybody? Okay. Who's heard of the great white throne judgment? All right. From a theological perspective, systematic theology, we try to take those two things and separate them. Now we recognize that the judgment that Christians stand at is different than the judgment that the lost stand at, okay? So we generally try to separate those two, but let me bring them back together for you for just a minute. First of all, the great white throne. Who is on the great white throne? God is. God is. Who is going to judge the deeds of everyone? God is, Jesus is. Now, just from the perspective, simple perspective, of what it is specifically, okay? It's a throne, right? Is the throne also a seat? Is it a seat of judgment? Okay, so I'm not trying to say that Christians and the lost are judged together at the same time, but they're judged from the same seat, from the judgment seat of Christ, or also known as, at that moment, the great white throne at the end, right? So in the book of Isaiah, and chapter number 45, we have it quoted. often actually in the New Testament. Isaiah chapter 45 and verse number 22, let's jump over there real quick. Isaiah 45 and verse number 22 says, Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none else. I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth and righteousness and shall not return that unto me. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue shall swear. Surely shall one say in the Lord, have I righteousness and strength even in him? even to him rather shall men come and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory now this passage is what is regularly quoted in the New Testament every knee will bow every tongue will confess right um notice that he includes both the righteous, who have their righteousness in God, and the incensed, right? Those that are angry with him, that don't like him. They're going to be ashamed. But every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess. What are they going to confess? Well, there are several passages that bring up this thought that we're going to stand before God someday, and then we're going to bow. before him someday. Romans chapter 14. And this is, again, I'm bringing these things up from a perspective of the judgment in general, okay? Now understand that if you're here and you're really theological and thinking, understand that I'm not trying to diminish or change the separate judgments or anything like that. All I'm saying is when it speaks of us standing before God in judgment, The fact is it applies to both saved and lost. We're all going to stand before him in judgment. The question is how you're going to be judged and what your justification will be, if you have any. So, Romans chapter 14. Verse number 10, it says, but why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set it not thy brother? For we shall all stand before the Christ. Now we would generally say, this is speaking to Christian as it says, brother, I understand that brother isn't always Christian. Sometimes it's countrymen. your fellow believer, your brother in Adam. So in some case, isn't always a Christian. Okay. And here's this verse 11 for it is written as I live, say if, say if the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. Now remember who was in that group in Isaiah chapter, uh, 45. Both those who have their righteousness in him and who else, those who were incensed against him. It says, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Turn to second Corinthians, this is another passage, second Corinthians chapter number five. Another commonly used passage here, referring to the time when we're all going to be in front of God's judgment seat and in front of the judgment seat of Christ. Verse number nine, wherefore we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body. According to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. But we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. And we could go on and on through this chapter. Again, this knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. It goes on to talk about how we're ambassadors for Christ. We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Recognize here that Paul, though he's speaking to the church at Corinth, he's also speaking to those among them who are lost. In the context, he tells them, be reconciled to God. right? In this same passage, we have this statement of, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new and all things are of God and speaks of this reconciliation that we have and the ministry of reconciliation that we have. But the fact of the matter is, as we came to this passage to see, we're all going to appear before him. We're all going to be in front of him and and every knee will bow." Now, this passage doesn't say to us that every knee will bow, but we know that we're all going to be in front of him, and we know that he said that we're all going to bow. In Philippians chapter 2, I just want to read like from the beginning of the chapter. It's it's good stuff. It's not all Right in our topic, but it's good stuff So let's look from the beginning of the chapter chapter 2 verse 1 if there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any Fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfill you my joy that you be like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in loneliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being formed in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen. We find that, and by the way, I know that a lot of times people will read that, then they'll read verse 12 and they're like, uh-oh, what do we do about that? And then the answer is in verse 13. So we'll go ahead and read it since I brought it up. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And then he goes on. dealing with our interactions with one another. But again, we go to this passage to point out the fact that we're all going to stand before God someday. And by the way, everyone will recognize Jesus Christ as Lord. Everyone will. The question is, will you do it before it's too late? Will you do it before it's too late? You see, we have to recognize that someday we're going to. But there's a judgment, there's a point at which we appear before this same judgment seat and we no longer have the opportunity to do so for our justification. By the way, it's him. Sounds not working. Sounds like it's working to me. Tell him to turn up the volume. What do we have the little dots moving on the thing or the online? Yeah, I'm asking him are the are the things moving on the screen for the sound? Tell him to take his phone off of silent. Yeah, it is. I don't know what I can do. Tell him to change the feed to another feed. There's three different feeds going right now, so one of them's got to have sound in it. Which one? It's barely doing it. All right, well, I'll just hold it up here. How's that? Maybe he thinks it's not loud enough. I don't know. It's plenty loud out here. He's got to go inside out of the traffic and turn his phone up. I turned it on right here in front of him. You can hear it. So must be something with those those cheap Google phones. I don't know. Or what do they call them? Android. Don't get an iPhone. He'll be alright. I'm kidding. Where were we? Man, right in the midst of this. No, it's fine. He's just going to have to look at one of the other feeds. I'm sure the sound's fine, I'm sure. Because it's picking up according to the computer. We're not streaming on Facebook on our encoder, right? It's down on another tab. So Facebook should be picking up just like normal. So if he goes to one of the Facebook feeds, he can get either a church feed or my feed. So, or take his phone off the silent. We're going to stand before his throne. Thank you, brother. We're going to stand before the throne of God. And the question is, will you recognize Jesus Christ as Lord before or at that point? Now, the final judgment, we don't see that described as them recognizing him as Lord. We see the judgment taking place and the penalty being executed. However, we know that according to the Word of God, every knee will bow. So at some point during that judgment, it will happen, it's just not recorded there in Revelation chapter 20, which we're gonna go to in just a moment. We talked this morning about sin, and we defined sin, sin being the transgression of the law. We talked about how sin, man, we looked at all kinds of examples of sin this morning. The fact of the matter is, we're all sinners. The fact of the matter is, we will not be able to stand before God in our own righteousness. The very first passage we went to after our text was Isaiah chapter 45. And in Isaiah chapter 45, remember what it said about their righteousness? No. In that passage, it said about their righteousness. Let's go back there real quick here, Isaiah 45. Verse number 24, it says, Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength. You see, the only way that we're going to be able to stand before God and pass the judgment is to have His righteousness. And the only way to have His righteousness is for our sin to be dealt with, atoned for, and then we have to be granted His righteousness. This takes place when we accept Him, when we receive Him as Lord. Now don't get all mixed up in words here. We're simply talking about at the moment that you realize that you're lost sinner and you need salvation, that you need the work of Christ at Calvary, and then you accept what he's done for you. That takes your sin and settles that account. And then it puts his righteousness on your account, in its place. Make sense? And then there's this whole matter of having your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life, right? Let's go to Revelation chapter 20, and we're not gonna try to get real doctrinal. We're just gonna bring up this alternative option if you don't wanna bow before the Lord. We have another option, Revelation chapter 20. After all of our future prophecy that we're looking at takes place, the final thing that happens before this heaven and this earth is, or well, as this heaven and this earth is passed away, we find here in Revelation 20, verse number 11, 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 open. And another book was open, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in those books, or 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. Now let's see where their works get them. 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. All of the works are read. For, I think, personally, you know, we can theorize and we can say that the works are judged to determine the severity of punishment. Sure, we can theorize on that. But I believe that one other very important reason that the works are read is to show that not a single one of those works were worthy of eternal life. You know, we quote it all the time, Ephesians chapter 2, right? Verses 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And it says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, which God hath before ordained, or created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. This is This is, that's God's business, the good works thing. He takes care of that for us, right? It doesn't mean that we don't do good works, just means that we, but he does them through us, after the whole matter of salvation is settled, right? The whole book of Galatians, again, dealing with this matter of beginning in the spirit, they were confused about being made perfect by the flesh, but we recognize that that we're made perfect in Him, that we can be born again. But at the same time, though you may say, well, my name is in the book of life, I'm born again, I know I'm born again, and I will not be standing at this judgment to be cast into the lake of fire. By the way, scripturally speaking, you look at 1 Corinthians, I believe it is, somewhere along the lines of chapter 6 there, judging the world, judging angels, we will be here at this judgment. So if you're if you're born again, you'll you'll be there. You just won't be there to be judged. At that moment, that judgments already happened for you. At that point, you're there to actually be a part of the judging. As he says, No, you're not that we shall judge the world. Are you not that we should judge angels that somewhere in here along the line as well. But for us, We're not exempt. We're going to stand before his judgment seat as well. We're going to give an account as well. Now, the account that we're going to give has more to do with what we've allowed him to do through us after we've been saved than it does to do with whether or not we're saved. As it says, it is appointed unto man once to die. And after this, the judgment of that judgment happens in a moment. It's not a standing before God in judgment, it's a instant judgment, right? How do we know this? If you looked at Luke where the rich man and Lazarus are mentioned, what do we find when they die? Came to pass that the beggar died and he's carried of the angels into Abraham's bosom. In other words, we're carried directly to our place, right? Or we're transported instantly to the other place, right? And it says, and the rich man died also, and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torment. So we find that that judgment takes place simply on the fact of your position. You instantly go where you belong. For the saved, as Lazarus, we find it's kind of a gradual progression to where we're going, right? The angels came and carried him. I picture the angels. Now, I don't think they were like, oh, here's Lazarus, let's swoop him up and, you know, off with Lazarus. I think it's kind of a, hey, it's time to go and take him along. And maybe it's a slow process, maybe it's a fast thing. I don't know exactly, but I kind of picture it as not so instant. It happens. Again, I can't verify, and you can't prove me wrong, so either way it goes. I'm looking forward to that day, and we'll figure it out then, and when we get to heaven, and it was instant, you guys can say, Pastor, you were wrong, and I say, yeah, it's okay, I'm here. So, not a matter of major doctrinal difference there. But for the rich man, it says, he died, and the very next thing you see, and in hell, he lift up his eyes. So I don't see anybody carrying him off. He just dies and he's there. Maybe because it's closer. I don't know. But that's the instant judgment of your temporary holding place. You know that the heaven that is now is our temporary heaven, right? Because it's going to pass away while this judgment is taking place. Don't ask me where we're standing. It's on nothing. He's God. He can do it, okay? So we're standing there, and the next thing we know, the judgment's over, and we look over, and hey, look, there's a new heaven and a new earth, right? Chapter 21, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven, and first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. By the way, for those of you that believe in some sort of a gap there, I think first means first, so there's your answer. No, I mean not in this passage, but in Genesis 1. First is first, not second, not third, but first. So, by the way, that's not the only answer for that. There's a whole other, lots more to discuss. So, the question tonight is, will you bow the knee before it's too late? And the second question is, are you ready to bow the knee when it's time? What are we going to get? For those of you that are saved, it's not a matter of heaven and hell. It's a matter of reward or loss. And by the way, what do we get to do with that reward? We get to carry it around? heaven for all eternity, right? You see Brother Klingemann with 40,000 crowns on his head and he's hunched over, he can't walk hardly because there's so many, and everybody gets to see what he did. No, no, no, no. Revelation chapter 4, they cast their crowns before him. So we get to recognize, of course, anything we've done, he was the doer of it. And so we give it back. Lord, you give it to me. But I give it back. You deserve it. As we already discussed, without him, I'm nothing more than a wretched, vile sinner. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word.