God’s Purpose in the Variety of Testings: Preparation for the Judgement Seat

God's Purpose in the Variety of Testings: Preparation for the Judgement Seat

Let's take our Bibles, if we will, with me turn together to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. This evening, 1 Corinthians chapter 4. And we want to begin the reading in verse number 1. The Apostle Paul says, let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Yay, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified. But he that judges me is the Lord. Therefore, judge nothing before the time. Until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then shall every man have praise of God. And we'll conclude the reading there in verse number 5.

We read of the coming judgment of the Lord, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then shall every man have praise of God. This is a time in which, as Christians, the Lord will judge us at the judgment seat of Christ, the Bema Seat. He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness. He will reveal the very motives behind the words and the deeds that we've done in this life.

As I was preaching and preparing for the message this morning, I thought about the fear of the Lord. I thought about the fear of the Lord and how there is a very obvious lack of the fear of God in the hearts of the wicked. Those who know not God, they don't fear God. They don't live in the consciousness that there's a judgment coming. In fact, that's why there were scoffers, mockers in my implication and Peter's writing in Noah's Day, but also in the last times that there will be scoffers. There will be mockers that will come and we'll say, where is the promise of His coming? Everything just continues on like it always has been. There's no sense of an accountability to God. There's no sense of the fear of God. The Bible makes it very clear that's one of the characteristics of those that don't know God, that don't fear Him.

The wicked don't fear God. They don't have any reverence toward the Word of God, toward the idea that there is a God who is sovereign and is watching over and He is taking and keeping record and is going to judge the hearts, the thoughts, the words, the actions of men. One day every idle word, every deed that's been done will be judged. Just whether we're talking about really the, whether it's been done for Christ or not at the judgment seat or whether we're talking about the great white throne judgment. There will be a judgment and by man's works he will be judged, even at that judgment. And ultimately this is the work of God that we believe Him who may have sent, right? And the one ultimate sin that will send the person to hell. When He comes to fear that judgment, great white throne judgment will be, you rejected Christ. You rejected, this was the work of God that you believe on Him. Believe on Christ and you rejected Him.

For the Christian though, we've been talking about the testings, God's purpose in a variety of testings that He brings to our lives. That purpose is to deepen that consciousness. I believe God wants to deepen the consciousness of Him in everything that we do that we may fear Him, but we may desire to glorify Him in all that we do. That we may love Him with all of our hearts. We said this morning that God is testing or proving our mettle. We might say He's proving. What is in you? Like the heat, the tea bag, and the water? What in you is going to come out? He's proving that mettle. He's testing it. He's testing our faith. He's trying our faith. What kind of faith do you have? Does the Lord say, oh, ye of little faith? Or what does the trial reveal? What does the trial reveal about our faith?

And then He also intends to improve, not only to prove, but to improve our life by what He is bringing to us. Everything He brings to my life is intended to shape me and conform me more to the image of Christ. That's God's purpose in that. But we said this morning, the hindrances to that will be pride and the lack of the fear of God. It'll be pride in my heart that will keep me. Well, because of the pride in the hearts of Israel, they stiffened their neck, didn't they? They stiffened their neck. They hardened their hearts against God's dealings and they wandered around in the wilderness, didn't they? They wandered around because of the hardness of their hearts.

But God intends to purge out any hardness in us, any stiff neck, any self-will so that we might say, not my will, like we have in the bulletin today, not my will, but Thy will be done. Knowing that God's will is what is best for us. God's will, God's way is the best. So without the fear of God, we miss the point of the trials. Without the fear of God, we miss the point of the trials.

But as we are reading here tonight in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, what was it that was primary in Paul's thinking? God is my judge. God is my judge. I will answer to the Lord when He comes. I will give an account to Him. What do you say in verse 3? He says, what you think about me doesn't really matter that much. He says, with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you. What I am more greatly concerned about and what weighs heavier on my heart than what the Corinthians think about me is what God thinks of me. What Christ will say of me at that day. That's what I'm concerned about. That's what is ever present in my heart and mind. I want to be approved unto God. I want to be approved unto Him.

He says, I'm a steward with the other apostles, but a steward of the mysteries of God. I have been entrusted. This is not my word. This is God's word. But I've been entrusted as a steward to faithfully dispense the mysteries, the gospel to you. And of course, in the second epistle to the Corinthians, he's going to spend a lot of time talking about and referring to those that stood in judgment of him as an apostle. He's going to spend a lot of time talking about it and even going to have rebukes for them because of their proud approach to so many things, not viewing it through the lens of God's word and the fact that we're going to all stand before Him. It's not that Paul was above being brought into question, but it was the fact that the arguments made against him were very carnally minded as he would point out.

But Paul says he was a steward of the mysteries of God. He said, your judgment is not what ultimately matters. My judgment is not ultimately what matters. What ultimately matters is that the Lord is going to judge us all. The Lord is going to judge us all. My name, Daniel, reminds me that God is my judge. God is my judge. But even though one day I will stand before Him, every one of us individually will stand before the Lord. And really what people thought of us ultimately is not what matters. It's what God will say about us. What Christ will say to us that day when we stand before Him at the judgment.

What have I done? Have I done anything that will stand through the final trial, the final fiery trial of judgment we might say? Will anything come through this and not be wood, hay, or stubble? So, will anything come through and be gold, silver, or precious stones? Will anything that will come through the fire and stand as gold, silver, and precious stones be the product of what God put in me and shaped me to be as I responded to Him through the trials here? In fact, every trial that I face is in its own going to reign as a judgment from the Lord. It is a test from the Lord. It is a fiery trial of us, speaking of my faith to see. Who are you, Daniel? How do you think?

We said this morning, we can be viewed even as a failure. We could fail. And people may even think, well, that guy's a failure. But at the end of the day, I should not be more afraid of failure than I am of pride and more abhorrent of looking bad in the eyes of men than I am of displeasing God. If I'm not learning that through the trials, then once again I'm missing the point of the trials, right?

Look, in Titus 2:13, though, Titus 2:13 says what we are to be looking forward to. Titus 2:13 shows us what our view is to be. We are to be, Paul says to Titus, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. We are to be looking forward. No matter what we're doing here on earth, the Lord could come back at any moment. He could come back while we're at work, while we're at sleep, while we're at play, while we're doing any number of things. He could come back at any time.

Paul said to Timothy that there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the righteous judge shall give me at that day. When He comes, I'm looking for Him to come. And when He comes, there's a crown of righteousness, which the Lord shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all of them also that love His appearing. While I fear God, I must also love His appearing, love the appearing of Christ.

The judgment seat, yes, will there be things burned up, of course there will. But also if I am walking with the Lord through the trials of life, I can have a loving confidence that my judge is also my Savior and that as He's working in my life, what is He doing? He's preparing me to meet Him. He's preparing, yes, I've already prepared Him once it's to meet Him because I'm in Christ, right? But I want to meet Him, not with, I don't want to just meet Him and get to the judgment seat. I want to meet Him with joy, right? I want to have some sound with which to greet Him. I want to have some gold, silver, and precious stones to say, Lord, I want to present these to You, but this is all about Your grace that You'd brought these things in my life as You taught me and You taught me everything that I know and everything that I was able to do and everything You did through me was all of Your grace and I want to lay these at Your feet.

Well, in that day Paul says, the righteous judge, well the righteous judge is Christ, He's going to judge us one day. He's going to judge our works, what sort they are, right? He's going to judge them. There will be a fire, the pastor, once again, that word in the Greek, we saw this morning the trying of your faith in James, it's that trying is the word that was used in the metallurgy of testing the metals, right? Trying what kind of, what kind of metal is this? What kind of metal is this?

Jesus said in Revelation 22:12, if you turn over there with me, Revelation 22, verse number 12. And behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be, according as his work shall be, not just his words, many will say of course, Lord Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, but the Lord is going to judge the works. He's going to judge righteous judgment.

I believe there will be in the day of judgment, there will be certainly some that are not at the judgment seat of Christ that maybe we thought would be there because by all, by God, it may be that they were prominent religious figures in the community, but the Lord knows what do we read tonight. It is in that day that the Lord will make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shall every man have his praise of God. The Pharisees loved the praises of men more than the praises of God. They cleaned the outside of the cup.

I don't know about you, but I've just been dumbfounded by people that I thought I knew and time revealed that the people I thought I knew, that what image they presented was not the reality of who they are. That's not who they are, but the Lord knows exactly who you and I are. He sees. He sees the hidden counsels, the resonate of the heart and the Lord will come and no individual escapes the judgment of the Lord.

Well, we must all appear, Paul says, to the Corinthians. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, every one of us will appear, that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad. That's what Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We must all, as believers, appear before the judgment seat of Christ. This Bema Seat, in the New Testament, this Bema Seat was really a raised platform where a figure would be seated and they would render judgment in certain legal cases or they would be, maybe even athletic events. In the Olympics, the judge sat along there at the finish line and his purpose was to determine whether or not the participants ran in the race, but if they got that far, then they completed the course, but the judge at the Bema Seat determined how they came in, first, second, and so on and so forth, right? Which one? First place, second place, so on and so forth. How did you run, not whether you were in the race or whether you finished the race, but how was the race?

Paul talks a lot about how we run, doesn't he? We need to run, not as uncertain as one beating the air, right? We need to run, and we need to press in our Christian walk toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. I have really loved that little phrase we see in Hebrews, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, looking unto Him, looking in the idea there, as I've said many times before, looking away from all this unto Him, looking away from myself. What is the saying? If you look around you, or you look inward, you're going to be discouraged and you're going to be depressed. I can't remember the exact phrasing, but you probably heard the same expression before. Don't look around you. Don't look within you. Look up. Look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He is the one who never fails.

But we must all be judged. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Looking at Romans 14, if you will, verse 10, Romans 14 and verse 10. Paul once again has said, I'm a steward of the gospel, but in so many words he says, I'm going to be judged for my stewardship. I'm going to stand before the Lord one day. He will judge me. He will reveal the whole story and then show every man, myself and everyone else will have their praise of God. Not looking for the praise or the judgment of man and looking for the praise of God.

And here in Romans 14, verse 10, now, of course, he's talking about the ultimate judgment. This doesn't mean that we don't exercise discernment. But we must exercise discernment in this world. We must judge between right and wrong, but we're not the final judges, are we? But Romans 14:10, here's this question. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

Even when we… Well, the Bible makes it very clear that there are times where we might go to a brother, but even before that we need to judge ourselves. Like Paul said, about those that were observing the Lord's Supper, we ought to judge our own selves, right? Well, we're not the final judges of ourselves, but we ought to examine ourselves, right? Before we even think about speaking to a brother about something in his life, and even then, ultimately, there may be times where we have to say, you know, I can't continue in fellowship if there's a disobedient brother or say that instance, that case. But at the same time, even if there's someone that is in disobedience, I've still to pray for them. I'm not the final judge to say, well, I'm not even going to think about you, have anything to do with you ever again, but no, even in that, we just commit that individual to the Lord's judgment. We commit that individual to the Lord because it is not our place ultimately to judge. We have to have discernment, yes, but we must be careful even in that.

All of our words, we said a moment ago, a few moments ago, every idle word is going to be judged. How we think is going to be brought into judgment. Remember what Matthew, we read there in Matthew 12:36, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. And that includes what we type on our phones, what we type on our keyboards, what we write, every word that we utter or we print. That's a loaded thought, isn't it? Every word will be brought into judgment one day.

Thank the Lord, like I said this morning, like we were seeing from God's word, if the Lord brings in the trial, He can fix us of something we have said or done that we shouldn't have done. Thank God, we can confess that and just get it under the blood. But it's kind of like that nail driven in the door, right? You can pull the nail out but the scar is still there, isn't it? It's forgiven, but look at what Christ took for you. Look at what He, and that's something the one who judges us and everything we've said and done is the one that was nailed to the cross for the offenses that we've committed against Him, for the sins we've committed, for all our failures nailed Him there on that cross.

And He, I don't know. I mean, when we look in the Lord's face, will we even be able to look straight at Him, I mean, in that day, when we think of those things that will not be able to pass through the fire and yet, I don't know when we stand before Him what it will be. But I know that we can be reminded that He loves us. Even though He is our judge, He is our Savior and He loves us. Isn't that amazing? All in spite of all that we have done and even nailed Him to the cross, it is possible for Him to say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Paul said, I'm a steward. And stewards must be found faithful, right? Stewards must be found faithful. That doesn't mean that Paul never failed at anything. That doesn't mean there's nothing of Paul's that will be burned up at the judgment seat of Christ.

Oh, that we would be motivated by the fear of God, but even the love of God is ours to glorify Him. We talk about our taste buds changing, right? Your taste buds change over time. I used not to like coffee, I like coffee now, for better or worse, I like coffee. Well, and spiritually speaking, as we mature in Christ, should we not, we have no excuse not to be being conformed to the image of Christ. Hopefully, when we were a child, we thought as a child, we spoke as a child, but now, hopefully we're growing up in Christ and we're thinking better than we used to think, right? We're thinking with the mind of Christ about things. And by God's grace, being good and faithful stewards, more and more so, may that be evidence in our lives that we are, that we're learning, that we're letting the fiery trial of our faith purge out the elements in our lives that are undesirable to Him, that are undesirable to the Lord and that will not stand in the day of judgment.

Our motives, as we even indicated by Paul here in the text, they're going to be judged. He says in verse five, the Lord, when He comes, will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness. We've been going through Revelation starting not too long ago with the children in our Bible class at home, their homeschool Bible class, we've been going through the Book of Revelation. And we just were talking about what it is to reveal something. And you know, they like to play these games where you have a group of kids over here on one side and the group on the other side and you have a sheet or blanket or something pulled up and held between both sides and this side sends one child forward and the other side sends a child forward. And when the blanket is dropped, it's revealed who's standing on the other side and you have to say the name of the person on the other side before they say your name. Who can say the name quickest? Well, revealed that which is covered, Paul says, that which will bring to light the hidden things of darkness.

There may be things that to men's eyes are hidden but they will not be hidden in that day. They will be revealed. There will be no covering and yet we need to be conscious in the fear of God and love for God even now that nothing is hidden to His eyes now. He sees it all, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. He sees it all. There's not a word the psalmist says, Psalm 139. In my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether, You know everything behind what I'm saying, You know the motives, You see it. Oh, if that thought, our minds and our hearts could be truly captivated by in everything that we do, how it would transform our thinking that He hears all I say, He sees all I do, right? The children's song, my Lord is with me all the time. He sees, that's true.

The man stopped by our house the other night said he'd played Santa Claus for many, many years, my wife. Well, he said something to the effect of he told this child, I know back in July you did, you wrote on the wall with crayons and you did this and that and the other because the mother had told him what he did and he said, he knows when, how does the little song go, better watch out, better not meet up, all those things and my wife said. And that made that child think, but ultimately God is the one that sees all we do. He knows it all, I mean, Santa Claus is just make-believe, but really that's kind of robbing from what actually God does, right? He sees all that we do. Well, and it's true. We need to have that in our thinking.

Look over with me in Ephesians, chapter six, Ephesians, chapter six, verse one, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. God sees what children do. Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, what a powerful verse, doing the will of God from the heart, doing God's will. That's judgment seat mindset. I am a steward, whether I be a child, a father, a servant. Yes, I am a steward in what matters more than being seen of men is that I am seen of God. I am being watched by Him in everything that I do. He observes it all. He's with me all the time. Whither can I flee from His presence as the Psalmist says.

Will, with good will doing service as to the Lord and not merely to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. In other words, we can serve the Lord no matter where we are in life. We should serve the Lord. If we're a child, if we're a parent, if we're a servant, if we're a husband, wife, single, whatever the case may be, serve the Lord. As stewards, Paul is a steward of the mysteries of God with the apostles, but each one of us are stewards. And we're to be found faithful. We're to be found faithful for we will give an account one day of how we have managed our stewardship, how we have been stewards of the grace of God in our thoughts and motives and words and actions.

And I think of once again the Pharisees, how they loved the praise of men more, as we said, than the praise of God. But turn over with me to one more passage. I want to look in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse number 1. It's obviously here in verse 2. We just mentioned that phrase looking unto Jesus, but in verse 1, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, examples. Noah, Abraham, Sarah, you know, we have all these different ones that went before us. Let us lay aside every weight and let us lay aside every weight, but also the sin which doth so easily beset us. What causes us to hang on to that sin in our lives. Let us lay aside and let us run, or we might even say so that we can run with patience. That's what we needed this morning, wasn't it? We saw this morning, that's what God is trying to teach us through the trials. Patience, let us lay aside the sin that God is bringing to our attention that we need to lay aside. And every weight that He brings to our attention, lay that weight aside, lay that sin aside so that you can run with patience.

And we're running this race, right? We're running this race and we're in the race and we see the finish line, but let us strive to run well, to run with patience, to race, to beset before us. Well, all we do that is we're looking unto Jesus. Well, we can only run this race with patience as we keep Him in view. If we're looking at ourselves and we're looking all around us, we'll be exhausted, we'll be discouraged, but let us look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. Running this race with patience means taking up your cross daily and following Him, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

As God reveals sin in our lives, if God exposes failure in our lives, as God exposes character flaws and our need of patience and our need of His character, let's just lay aside with simple childlike faith in that, which He says, put it off. Put off the works of darkness. Put away those things. Lay them aside. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make not provision. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill it in the lust thereof, right?

The time is short. I don't know about you, but I'm… The things that are rapidly, I think, rapidly escalating in the world scene. Of course, I know there's many before us that thought the world was going to come back in their day and He didn't. But let's just say, if we're just talking about odds, we've got a lot higher odds that the Lord is coming back in our day than they did because we're further on in time, right? Let Him not, the Lord comes back in our lifetime. We need to be watching for His coming. He could come in our lifetime. He could come even today. Let's make sure that we live like we're on borrowed time because we are. Let us live as if we have a God to glorify because we do. Let us live in the fear of God. Let us quickly lay aside those things that He shows us through the fiery trial that's in our tea bag, we might say. It exposes us so that we can quickly let Him use the heat of the blacksmith to shape us into what He wants us to be. So that we might be able to meet Him with joy and not with shame-facedness.

Of course, I think we will have regrets as we look back over some things we've done or how we've done them. Yes, I understand that. But may there also be joy in our hearts? May there be joy in our hearts to be able to meet Him and say, thank You for what You've done in my life. Thank You for how You shaped my life. There's nothing good in me. But anything good in my life is because of what You've done, what You've done for me.

I don't normally, I shared this with one of you this week. I don't normally read things from anonymous sources, but I was really, my heart was touched by this this week. The person signed it, whoever wrote this and someone shared it with me. They signed it watchful believer. So I kind of like that. The Lord knows who they are. They said, in the end of this life when titles are stripped and reputations no longer echo in crowded rooms, there will be no audience, no comment sections, no critics, no admirers. There will only be you and God. The one who saw every hidden motive, the one who heard the prayers you whispered at midnight, the one who watched the tears you wiped away before anyone noticed. We spend so much of our lives trying to answer people, trying to prove ourselves, trying to defend ourselves, trying to be understood. We fear their opinions, we crave their approval, we shrink under their criticism. But eternity will not be measured by how many clapped for us. It will be measured by faithfulness.

There will come a moment when we stand before the holy judge not to impress Him, not to explain our brand, not to present our curated image, but to give account of our hearts, not just what we did, but why we did it. Not just what we built, but who we became. And suddenly the arguments won't matter, or the arguments won't matter. The status gained won't matter. The image protected won't matter. What will matter is this, did we love Him? Did we obey Him? Did we choose Him when it cost us something? There is both a holy fear and a deep comfort in this truth. I think that sums up the fear of God and there's going to be comfort at the judgment that I believe. There's going to be trembling, and there's going to be joy.

He says, it goes on to say, a holy fear because nothing is hidden from Him. A deep comfort because nothing is overlooked by Him. Every quiet act of obedience, every unseen sacrifice, every time you chose integrity over convenience, every time you forgave when it hurt, every time you walked away from sin when no one was watching. He saw it. In eternity, you won't be answering to the voices that misunderstood you. You won't be judged by the ones who misrepresented you. You won't stand trial before those who never truly knew you. You will stand before the one who formed you. And if your life was lived for His eyes alone, that day will not be terror, it will be reward, not dread, but homecoming. So live now with eternity in view. Let your choices be shaped not by applause, but by obedience. Let your character be formed not by trends, but by truth. Let your heart seek not the approval of crowds, but the smile of God. Because at the end of this fleeting breath called life, when time dissolves into forever, the only voice that will matter is His. And may we live in such a way that when we finally see Him face to face, we will not lower our eyes in regret, but lift them in love.

May God help us to have this eternal view as we go through these various trials, the viewpoints and know that His intention in the trial is not our pain. It is our understanding of the word, biblically, our perfection. It is our good, it is to complete us. And so that we will not be wanting anything that God has made available for us in His Son. And we'll be all that He would have us to be. All the reminder that He sees, He hears all I say, He sees all I do. My Lord is with me all the time.

Let's pray. Our God and judge, thank You for Christ, our Savior. Thank You that He died to redeem us unto Himself. And He is the same one who will be at that Bema Seat that day when we stand before Him. Every man must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Nobody gets a pass. Every one of us will give an account. Every one of us will stand before our Lord and Savior and our judge, Jesus Christ one day and give an account for our motives, words, and actions. How did we use them? How did we live? How did we respond to the trials and the intention of those trials for our betterment in this life? Lord, there are so many opportunities that lie ahead of us that are doors that will even be open to us in the times ahead of us that will really hinge on our response to Your dealings with us. We don't want to wander in the wilderness. We don't want to just go in circles. Lord, we want to move forward. We want to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Oh Lord, help me. Help each one of us, we pray to bring glory and honor to be faithful stewards. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.