Darren Tappouras - Class 2: Confidence at His Coming

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   All right, let's begin. Good morning, everybody. A warm welcome is what we really need this morning. There's a saying, and I'll see if you guys can finish it off for me. There are only two certainties in life. Death and taxes, that's right. That's what we're led to believe anyway. Well, for us, brothers and sisters, that's not quite true.

2. 0:25

   So, when it comes to death, many of us may not actually die. If the Lord returns before we die, then that is not necessarily a certainty for us. The other one, taxes, well, I can see you about that privately afterwards, if you like. There are loopholes and a few.

3. 0:47

   So, for us, death is not a certainty, but one thing is a certainty, and that is the judgment seat. And that's why it's such a fascinating subject. I've just put up a few verses to introduce our subject, and we're going to look at these verses in a bit more detail throughout the week, but just as an introduction this morning to express or to emphasise a point.

4. 1:09

   2 Corinthians 5 verse 10 says, we must, and I've just underlined that there, we must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. That's an imperative. It's something that is absolutely going to happen. Hebrews 9, it is appointed, and the NIV's got destine for us who are believers. It's appointed for us to die once, and then the judgment.

5. 1:30

   So, it's something that is looming for all of us. It's something that's real. It's something that all of us will face. And so, it's, I think, important that we sort of get a handle on what it's all about. Our first session this morning is more of an overview session, so I'm not going to actually prove my thesis this morning.

6. 1:49

   I'm just going to give us, I suppose, an overview, and as I've done there, just look at verses from a high level, I suppose. And then, as we go through the week, we'll sort of drill down a little bit more and have a look at those verses in a bit more detail. I asked a question the other night in our introduction session.

7. 2:07

   What feelings or emotions sort of flood your mind when you hear that word judgment seat? Is it something that is positive and something that you sort of respond to in a positive way and feel an anticipation for? Or is it something that fills you with dread? And I can't answer that for everyone, and a lot of my statements might be generalizations I appreciate, because I don't know everyone's particular outlook on things.

8. 2:32

   So I'm going to suggest that for a lot of us in the brotherhood, it's one of dread or terror when we hear about this. And if it is dread or terror, or something we're really apprehensive of, then, as I suggested, there's this disconnect in our sort of professed desire for the return of Christ, and this idea of facing the judgment seat, which we're terrified of.

9. 2:59

   So there's some disconnect there. So we want to sort of explore that a little bit this week and see if that's genuine to feel that way, and if that is really the way that God wants us to think about this subject. You know, imagine, it depends on your, again, I'm being very general in my sort of statements, but if your idea of the judgment seat is one of a sort of interrogation, sort of an inquisition where your whole life is minutely examined, leading up to a verdict at the end based on what goes on in that process, then it's understandable that you would be pretty terrified of that sort of event.

10. 3:39

    Imagine if you're on trial for anything, even if it's a minor sort of issue, the very fact, you know, from time to time in my job I have to go to court, and it's a pretty sort of scary thing when you're in court, in particular when you're waiting for a verdict to be handed down.

11. 3:56

    I remember the images of Chappelle Corby, if you remember that, when she's in Indonesia and she's in court there and she doesn't know what's going on there. The judges are all talking there in Indonesia, and you can see this bewilderment on her face, and then it's finally sort of explained to her that she's guilty, and all of a sudden she bursts into tears.

12. 4:14

    You know, there's a real emotion there, isn't there? There's a horror in her face as she waited for that news to come through. And if you're honest, if that's the view of the judgment seat that you have, then of course that's going to be a terrifying event. How could anyone really stand that?

13. 4:31

    I'm also going to question whether that terror of the judgment seat that many of us feel is really a genuine first century feeling that our early brothers and sisters had. And there are quotes like this. This is a well-known one. I've picked this one out from 1 Thessalonians 4, where Paul says, when someone we know and love in the truth dies, he says, we don't sorrow as other people do, who have no hope.

14. 4:59

    Our sorrow is different. Of course there's sorrow that we will miss that person, and miss their company, and all the practical ramifications of their death, etc. But it's slightly different for us, because we believe that they'll be raised again from the dead. And he says, comfort one another with these words. However, can you really be comforted if you're there at the gravesite of a friend who's died, and you know the next waking moment is a minute examination of their life in detail, leading up to a verdict of whether they're going to be in the kingdom forever or rejected forever.

15. 5:34

    You know, this is sort of, I'm trying to get right down to reality here. Can we really have that comfort and really have that solace at the gravesite if we believe they're in such jeopardy, and they've got to face this sort of rather terrifying event that awaits them. So, these are some of the issues that I want to try and look at over the course of our week.

16. 5:58

    I raised the issue last night that when I did these studies somewhere else, two people came to me, one from the rest home, one who had been associated with the Christophian rest home in Adelaide, and another one in Brisbane, and they both said the same thing. They said that the oldies, call them oldies with respect, of course, the oldies at the rest home are terrified of the judgment seat.

17. 6:19

    And these are people who have been in the truth all their life, committed their lives to the truth, really, and raised families in the truth, and here they are in their twilight years, and they're absolutely terrified of the judgment seat. And I don't see that correlation with the first century approach to the return of Christ, where Paul makes statements that I'd rather be absent from the body and present with the Lord, and just that anticipation of Christ's return.

18. 6:44

    This judgment seat seems to cloud that, and as I said, and make that sort of disingenuous to some degree. Again, I'm being general, and if you're some people here that have absolutely no issue with the judgment seat and whatever, then just accept my words in that general way. Here's a letter to the editor in the Christadelphian magazine that I came across.

19. 7:06

    I don't know any of the people in this letter, so I'm putting it up there. It's purely just a letter that I came across, but the person who wrote it says, Dear Brother Michael, he says in the May article, it was timely. He says, Some years ago, I sat at the bedside of a well-known, very experienced brother as he was dying.

20. 7:23

    So he's a well-known, experienced brother, so he assumes someone who's been in the truth for a long time, and he's dying. He was crying, this brother, because he was terrified of the judgment seat. I tried to show him that he had tried to walk not after the flesh but after the spirit, and as a brother in Christ, he was uncondemned and had nothing to worry about.

21. 7:41

    The brother had spent much time arguing about the atonement without apparently applying the principles to himself. I suggested that those who pray that we will be worthy fall into the same category. As Brother Chris states, none of us will be found worthy, only accounted worthy. Walter Harris Barone, I don't know who these people, who he's writing about or who he is, but that's just another piece of evidence, I suppose, that this is a general reality in our community.

22. 8:06

    He's a senior brother on his deathbed, and he's in tears because he's terrified of the judgment seat, and that I think epitomizes a lot of the, I suppose, negative feelings that we have about the judgment seat. I talked about this the other night, so I'm not going to go into this again, but examine your own feelings about the judgment seat, honestly, and I said one of the windows into my personal feelings comes from this back porch test where over the years I've heard this sort of rustling around in the backyard or some sort of noise, and I think, is that the angel?

23. 8:44

    Is this the kingdom? Has Christ returned? And when it turns out to just be the crazy dog we've got, or the boys getting home late, or whatever it is, there's almost a relief that comes over me, and I think, why? That's not right. That's not right. What's going on? And I have thought about it and think this idea of the judgment seat that I was sort of conditioned in and sort of came to believe is probably at the root of that, and hopefully we'll make more comments about that as we go through.

24. 9:15

    In my studies, I'm focusing on what I've called normal believers. Do you think you're normal? Who's normal? Normal? I'm normal. What do I mean by normal? I don't think that's normal. Yeah, that's right. I once read, normal is a setting on your clothes dryer or something. That's the only thing that's normal. What I mean by normal is those of us in the...

25. 9:39

    Scripture presents that there are people that are, for example, sheep in wolf's clothing, not genuine at all, and they're there for their own ends. There might be psychopaths or narcissists or whatever. There's a whole range of different things and there could be people like that. You know, there could be people sitting here that are running a meth lab at home and some sort of...

26. 10:00

    I don't know. I don't know what you do in your own time. But I'm just talking about normal people that are... That's pretty normal. Yeah, that's pretty normal. Okay.

27. 10:16

    And there are, in the truth, there are also exceptional people as well and, you know, we look at the Apostle Paul, for example, as exceptional, someone that we sort of... We wouldn't... We understand he'll be in the kingdom and we don't sort of have a problem with that. And there probably might be people in your life, a grandma or grandpa or whatever, and you think, of course they're going to be in the kingdom.

28. 10:33

    And there are some people... There's a brother in my ecclesias, I say if... I used to say, I don't say it so much now, but if he's rejected, I'm not even bothering to show up, sort of thing. So there's something we think they're just so saint-like and they're so wonderful that they'll be in the kingdom.

29. 10:47

    But the rest of us probably feel we're just normal believers. And yes, we believe in God's promises. We believe in the promises to Abraham. We believe in the kingdom of God on earth. We've been baptised into his son. We've submitted to that call. We've submitted to the call of the gospel. He that believes and he's baptised shall be saved.

30. 11:06

    So we've responded to that in our life. We acknowledge in our life that God's ways are right. We don't profess to get it right ourselves all the time, but we acknowledge that God's ways are right and we live in hope of the kingdom and we want to do what's right, genuine. We do generally want to do what's right.

31. 11:22

    It doesn't mean we get it right, we make lots of mistakes, we do stupid things, we look back on our life and think, why did I do that? What an idiot I was and all those sort of... We have all those feelings of guilt, et cetera. But by and large, that's the normal target audience that we're really focusing on in our studies this week.

32. 11:41

    Just a few background comments before we sort of delve into it. One of the difficulties of this subject is there's no actual chapter that gives us a nice sort of dissertation on the judgment seat. There's no chapter like that. We have a chapter on the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul deals with the reality of the resurrection, sorry, and he deals with objections to the resurrection, he deals with why there is a resurrection, the process of the resurrection, all those sorts of things, and gives us a really nice sort of slab of scripture that you can go through and follow the argument through.

33. 12:17

    It's really helpful. Sorry, brother? We'll get to Matthew 25 and I'll have some cautionary comments about parables being our guide, but we'll talk about that as we go through, so thank you, that's true.

34. 12:31

    But to find just a nice sort of straight dissertation is not quite there. Like, you've got Romans 6 for baptism, for example. So you've got that nice, you know, baptism being essential and the purpose of baptism and what it represents and all those sort of things. With the judgment seat, we don't quite have a nice step-by-step process in that way.

35. 12:56

    So it makes that job a little bit harder and in fact, the references we have of the judgment seat, even the two I put up there this morning, are what, I say this respectfully, they're almost throwaway lines. They're sort of, Paul or Peter or whatever is really talking about something else and they're dealing with some other issue and they throw in a statement about the judgment seat and that's what we have to extract, those little nuggets, if you like, that are thrown in here and there in the epistles to give us our literal sort of base, underlying base for the judgment seat.

36. 13:29

    So that's a bit of a challenge in itself to try and get that. And as I said, thanks for the reference to the parables because this, this for me, was something that I had to work through because most of my perceptions of the judgment seat or ideas about the judgment seat came from parables and even when I was growing up in the truth as a young person we put on plays about the judgment seat, most of the action in the play would really come back to parables and even the lines in the play would come back to parables about what the master would say, well done or whatever the phrase was or however it happened, it was all usually based on parable language.

37. 14:09

    Now, just a caveat about parables, there is a, there is an issue with parables, isn't there, when it comes to literal interpretation of God's word. Now, we know that as Christadelphians, for example, we read the parable of, you know, Lazarus and the bosom of Abraham and there's, you know, obviously that's not literal even though it reads pretty literal and it reads straightforward.

38. 14:35

    As Christadelphians, we're not sort of literal fundamentalists in the way we interpret the Bible. We say, well, there's layers here and there's, the Lord's getting across a particular lesson or something. So, we have to use some interpretive sort of processes as we look at those things and we, and basically when it comes to interpreting the Bible we look for consistency and we look at a complete holistic approach to the Bible, to the, to the, to the subject and we look at hints within the passage itself that there's, you know, there's, they're not literal and they're supposed to be understood in another way.

39. 15:12

    Many, I'm just trying to think of other parables too, that's probably the most obvious but you've got parables that talk about Beelzebub and the, you know, the God of the fly and the God of the demons, the parable of the seven spirits filling the house, there's parables that have built into them everlasting fire and, and, and there's everlasting hellfire and destruction, all these sorts of things.

40. 15:32

    Now, we, we know that we have to interpret those parables in a particular way and that they contain, usually there's one fundamental lesson that the parable contains and of course there's lots of interesting subsidiary issues involved with it but there's usually one fundamental lesson that the Lord's putting out there and it's usually responding to interaction with the crowd or, or perception, you know, that he's going to be king now or, or whatever it might be or he's going to set up the kingdom now so, they're, they're things we've got to look at.

41. 16:01

    Now, also, when it comes to parables about the judgment seat particularly, there is, if you took them all literally, there's a lot of contradiction and I'll just put a few of these up now and we'll come back to them later on. As I said, my last session next Friday, God willing, I'm going to look at objections to, to sort of, the thesis that I'm going to present but, during the week I'm just going to put these on and deal with them rather quickly.

42. 16:28

    For example, what is the, I suppose you can ask the question, what is the, the ratio of those who are accepted and those that are rejected? I could do an exhortation and pick one parable out to support a particular view. I could say, well, let's look at the parable of the ten virgins, you know, five are rejected, five are foolish and five are wise.

43. 16:50

    Therefore, I can make this whole exhortation that in this hall here, half of you guys are going to miss out of the kingdom, the other half are going to be accepted. I've got the Bible to prove it, I've got the ratios there in the parable of the ten virgins and it seems intuitively, if you just stick to that parable that there's sort of some, sort of weight to that.

44. 17:10

    But then you look further on and there's other parables. So you go to the parable of the sower, there are three grounds that are unproductive, there's one ground out of four that is productive, that is sort of bears fruit. The parable of the talents, and here we've got, this is an interesting comparison, the parable of the talents and the parable of the pounds are so, so similar in the way that they work and yet there are some major differences in them.

45. 17:34

    The parable of the talents, two are actually accepted, so the whole ratio changes from the virgins parable, doesn't it? Because two are accepted, two are found worthy and only one is rejected. So then my exhortation changes, so it's pretty good news everyone, one third, you guys are going to be rejected and the two thirds are going to be accepted.

46. 17:57

    Okay, so then the ratio changes. But then I go to the parable of the pounds and in fact nine are accepted and only one is rejected. So that gets even better, just you guys in the front row here. I'm only joking of course. So you can really twist these ratios to make any lesson you want out of it.

47. 18:13

    If you delve into the literal aspects of the parable and try and extract sort of a literal picture of the judgment seat from parables. The penny a day parable, well, that's awesome because everyone who works in the garden seems to be saved in that one. They all get the one penny, all get an equal reward.

48. 18:33

    Regardless of how long they've been working in the field. And there's no one mentioned there has been rejected at all. So I could do a pretty uplifting exhort on that one. The wedding garment even is better. The message goes to the highways and the byways and every man and his dog, that's probably not right.

49. 18:50

    Every man's there, everyone's there. And it seems to be one gentleman doesn't have the appropriate preparation and he's rejected and cast into outer darkness. They go, well, that's pretty good. There's thousands of the people in this massive feast and only one is rejected. I'm liking those odds. So again, it's just a little illustration of trying to make too much out of a parable and you can do that.

50. 19:14

    Here's another, and this is one of the big points I'm going to harp on throughout the series, is the order of events because I think this is really important. Look at the difference in the order of events that the different parables portray. For example, the parable of the talents, you just go through and list what happens in that parable.

51. 19:33

    Everyone's gathered, so there's a gathering, or you're brought to face the judge, if you like. You give a count, which is a judgment concept we'll talk about later. You receive commentary from the Lord about the account that you've given, and then you're either rejected or accepted. So there's a, and that, when we put on a play, as young people, that's pretty much the order, the way we sort of did it, wasn't it, as a presentation.

52. 19:59

    However, you come to the sheep and the goats parable. Now, may I say about the sheep and the goats parable, yes, it's a parable, but I put a little bit more weight on this parable because it is a parable about the judgment seat, specifically referring to, it's actually depicting the judgment seat, not depicting someone who's gone into a far country and gives his money to his servants or other sort of analogous type things.

53. 20:27

    It is about the judgment seat. It's not complete at all in any way, shape or form, and it lacks a lot of detail really, but in a sense it is about the judgment seat, so it has that little extra edge to it. But the process is rather different. You're accepted or rejected right up the front, right at the very start of the process.

54. 20:46

    So the judge separates you as a sheep or a goat. There's no delay in that at all. And then the reason is given afterwards, once they're rejected, they say, why Lord, why are we accepted, why are we rejected? And then they receive later on in that process reward and punishment as well, and we'll talk about that as we go through.

55. 21:05

    So there's, again, a limitation to parables illustrated in that even the order of events, you can't really just take one parable and build a whole picture of the judgment seat on that. Does that make sense? Is that reasonably clear? And this is going to be really important in a moment. I've got lots of other illustrations.

56. 21:25

    We'll run out of time if I do go through them all, but even the differences in response. You know, in the parable of the talents, the accepted actually have to give an account and tell what they've done. So they have to actually speak up their own endeavours. They've got to actually present their case and say, you gave me one talent and I did this with it, or you gave me five talents and I did this with it.

57. 21:50

    And yet the parable of the sheep and goats, those are accepted in that parable, don't even know what they've done. There's this sort of like, when did we see this or do that? So you can see the difference there and you can build something on either of those, you can build a whole sort of picture on just either of those responses, yet they're quite different.

58. 22:08

    They're actually sort of mutually exclusive almost and yet they're presented in the parable for us to try and digest. And all the aspects, if you're going to take some things in the parable literal and literalise it, then you've got to do it to every aspect of the parable. You can't just pick and choose things that are literal.

59. 22:27

    And there's things there that, you know, for example, in the parable of the pounds, there's this other group that are standing there as the judgment seat's going on, they're throwing in comments. They're going, oh Lord, but you've already given him, he's already got ten pounds and what are you giving him more for?

60. 22:43

    Well, at the judgment seat, is there going to be people doing that? People yelling out from the sidelines? I don't think parable, and actually in the parable of the pounds, there's three groups when you consider it. There's another group who get called in and slain, slain, slain, slain, slain, slain, slain in front of the Lord.

61. 23:00

    So there's the accepted, the guy gets cast out, and then this other group who get called in and chopped up. So again, how do you tie all those aspects into your picture of the judgment seat? Okay. And also, one of the things in the parables, we won't dwell on this now, but it's like a zero to a hundred type thing.

62. 23:21

    In all the examples of the parables, you either have achieved 100% responsiveness to Christ, you've either doubled your talent, or you've done nothing, you've sort of buried it in the ground. And it's sort of like you think, well, where's the tolerance levels here? How does it all work? Because none of us really feel that we're going to be, you know, achieving 100% success with our talents, for example.

63. 23:47

    And most of us think we haven't done zilch either. So where is there any, is there tolerance there? Because you only get this either end of the spectrum explaining the parable. And that's an interesting point we might come back to. My only little hint there is that Jesus says in the parable of the talents, or the Lord says in the parable of the talents, he says to the guy who did nothing, he just buried his talent in the ground, he says, why didn't you at least put it in the bank, you know, get some usury or get some interest on it?

64. 24:16

    So I Wikipedia interest in the Roman times, and interest in Roman times pretty much like it is today, about 4-7% was the interest that the money changes would pay you. So I thought, that's interesting, he says, if you had only done 4-7%, I accept the 100%, but even 4-7% would have been better than nothing, sort of thing.

65. 24:37

    So again, I'm not making a big point out of that, but I just found that sort of interesting that the parables only give you these extremities, you know, there's 5 foolish and 5 wise. Yes, mate? I think the parable of the miners actually gives the whole range, like from 10, 5, 1, like so you go from Which parable is that, sorry?

66. 24:57

    The parable of the miners is the 19th. Is that the same word as pounds, is it? No, like in the one you've got, he gives 5 pounds to one guy and he gets 5. Yes. He comes to another guy and he gets 2. But the parable of the miners is he gives 1 to everyone, one person gets 10, you've got to get 5.

67. 25:15

    Yeah, that's true, actually, that's true, isn't it? Yes, yes, in that particular, that's right, that's right. So you have got a gradation of results there, that is true, that is true. That is a good point. Alright, what I've done is, as I've asked around the place, the brotherhood, particularly my own meeting, I've asked people of coming to contact with about this subject and said, well, what are your views on the judgment scene?

68. 25:41

    And pretty much I've narrowed it down to two views that exist in the brotherhood. Now, there are sub-views and other interesting ones, but predominantly there are these two particular views on the judgment seat. As I said, there are these other subsidiary views. I've had people say the judgment seat maybe happens outside our time and space, sort of experience, the physics of our universe, somehow we're taken outside of that and judged, and the judgment happens then.

69. 26:10

    Because there are some logistic issues, we might get to some of those with some of these views. I've had other ideas where people say, and this is quite common, the angels get involved, I don't know if you've heard that, a lot of the plays have the angel taking people through their life and etc.

70. 26:25

    There's no evidence really for that. The angels are there on a periphery basis, but judgment has been given to the Son of Man because he is the Son of Man, given to Christ because he is the Son of Man. So he is the judge, the angels aren't the judges, so that may be a response to the logistic problems, but it isn't really necessarily anchored in the Bible so much.

71. 26:47

    But by and large, I've narrowed these views, these are just my labels that I've made up, so they're not official doctrinal labels, but I've got a view here called the short view, which I'll call view number one, short view of the judgment seat, and another one called the long view. Just trying to narrow it down.

72. 27:02

    And we'll go and we'll look at these views this morning very quickly. The short view, and I think you can almost, I can almost tell sometimes, I don't want to sound like I'm putting people in boxes or anything, but I can sort of almost tell the view that someone's going to hold almost just by their background or looking at them or whatever.

73. 27:25

    I don't say that in a wrong way. There are certain camps that sort of develop sometimes, particularly young people are probably more likely to fill the short view. And it's more positive, I suppose, and the emphasis of the short view is based on grace. And it sort of runs along the argument and the idea that our sins are forgiven, that we're saved by grace, not by our own works, and that we're in Christ and that we're covered by the blood of Christ, etc.

74. 27:57

    So the idea of a drawn-out process of examination going through minute detail of our lives doesn't seem to gel and make sense. So that's probably the rationale behind the short view. It's based on what we might call recognition. Like the Lord says, you're a sheep or a goat. He doesn't need to sort of, you know, shave it to find out whether it's a goat.

75. 28:19

    Yeah, it's you're a sheep or a goat. There's no half goat sheep things. It's a, you're a sheep or a goat and that's how the Lord sees you. You're one or the other. And he says words like I knew you or I never knew you. It's pretty simple. You're in the book of life, you're not in the book of life.

76. 28:33

    We don't need to sort of drill down and work that all out. As I said, I'm being very general, but the outlook for that people who hold the short view is usually a positive, more of a positive view of the judgment seat because it's based on grace, I suppose, and they think, well, based on grace, I've got more chance of this working than the other one.

77. 28:52

    And the parable, I suppose, that those people would gravitate to would be the parable of sheep and goats because that sort of depicts that style of judgment seat, sheep or goats process, like a culling process that happens very quickly. The long view, and probably in the ecclesia that I've grown up in, people like my dad, sort of the old school guys, they're pretty much anchored into the long view.

78. 29:18

    And the long view is that it's based very much on works. That works are very much an important part of the judgment seat process. Yes, our works are examined. And by works, we mean our life actions, if you like. All our life actions are examined. This idea of we give an account for what we've done, which we saw pop up in the parables as well, that we have to give an account for our stewardship or whatever it might be.

79. 29:41

    And again, I'm being very general here, and you may disagree with this, but I find that those who hold that view are probably, probably leaning towards that they're probably not, maybe they're not going to make it or not everyone's going to be there. And there's more of a negative feel to that view.

80. 30:00

    Because you can understand why, can't you? Anyone, you know, if you examine one hour of my life, it's pretty much going to come up that well. So you can understand that there's sort of implications there. But it would be based, again, on scriptures, based on the parables, particularly the talents, for example, where this idea of giving a count happens.

81. 30:19

    Now, before I delve in and give you my opinion on these two views, I just have to say, it's really hard. Even in the brotherhood, there's not a lot of discussion about the judgment seat in a written form, in some sort of documented way. Usually, anything you hear in the judgment seat is usually a talk given by a brother who's smashing the rostrum and yelling out at you or something.

82. 30:49

    So there's not a lot of detailed type analysis that you can get hold of. But you might be tempted to think, well, I'll go to Kurong or I'll get on a website and I'll try and find what, you know, non-Christadelphian writers say about the judgment seat as well. And I have to say, there's not a lot of helpful information even outside.

83. 31:07

    And probably the limitations of the non-Christadelphian writers are the fact that they believe in heaven going at death, most of them. So there's this real strange situation where a judgment occurs as you die and you're either sent to heaven or to hell. So there's some sort of judgment. And then other theological branches have an end time later on where you're brought back from heaven, back to the earth and reunited with your body and then there's a judgment.

84. 31:34

    And it's sort of rather confusing. I mean, I don't even see how that really works properly. Also, I suppose a lot of evangelical writers come from a Calvinistic background. I don't want to look at theology this morning so much, but Calvinism is a particular branch of Christianity that takes the sovereignty of God to an extreme and says God has chosen certain people already in his foreknowledge and those people he will then bring events about regardless of anything to bring them into his purpose.

85. 32:07

    And it sort of warps the whole idea of the judgment seat as well. But this to me is probably the biggest lack in looking at resources from outside the brotherhood. The idea of the purpose of God in all this. And Christendom, that's our sort of fundamental base for everything, isn't it? God has a purpose with the earth.

86. 32:28

    He's got a purpose with us. His purpose is to fill the earth with his glory. We use terms like God manifestation, for example. He's working in our life. He's bringing many sons to glory. All these ideas. And the judgment seat's got to be part of that purpose because it's not something outside that.

87. 32:44

    And that's one of the problems with the judgment seat. Is it something outside the normal plans that God has for us? Because it seems to be a little bit disparate there. So it's got to be tied in with the purpose of God and God manifestation if you want to use that phrase. Even as I said, there's not much in the brotherhood about the judgment seat because most of our early writers are looking at the reality of the judgment seat from a doctrinal point of view.

88. 33:05

    They're not looking at the mechanisms. I found a very telling little reference in Robert Roberts' Christendom Astray. And he sort of says, he's sort of honest and he sort of says, it might be fancy that persons before the judgment seat would simply be paralysed and rendered powerless to even speak or to utter their minds.

89. 33:24

    And I think that's a valid point. isn't it? Anyone who's on trial for anything, imagine being on trial for your life. You're like, you know, back in the old days, particularly when you got hung, you know, when there's capital punishment, you were hung. Imagine waiting for the judge to give the final verdict or put the black little thing on their head or whatever they used to do.

90. 33:41

    It would be just horrifying to even be in that position. So imagine being before, you know, Jesus Christ himself and having your life examined in this way and having to give account. It's hard to even imagine you could, I mean, I, you know, I have trouble going to a job interview, let alone, you know, this, this is like, this is a very daunting, isn't it?

91. 34:04

    Robert Roberts suggests that maybe we're given some sort of, he says, given some supernatural power. He says, it might be remembered that there was power given to Daniel to stand on his feet and maybe this power will enable us to be calm and to be able to go through the process with some sort of, some sort of clarity.

92. 34:20

    So that's, that's one of his responses to that, that apparent anomaly, which I think he's at least trying to deal with and not, not pretending that it wouldn't exist.

93. 34:31

    The, our statement of faith, the BASF contains a clause on the judgment seat. Both, I think both the short view and the long view fit within that statement of faith and there's a doctrine to be rejected that says that the judgment seat is, is not just to hand out rewards but there is a, there is a determination that takes place in the life of, in the, in the, in the, as a result of the judgment seat.

94. 34:54

    I think that's sort of combating the idea of immortal emergence or, you know, universal salvation or whatever. But both views fit within the Christadelphian BASF. So, this is the, this is what we've got to deal with this morning very briefly. Which view is the one we're going to follow for the rest of our week.

95. 35:14

    Now, as Christadelphians, we know that just picking out a verse or even a few verses does not prove a topic, does it? Does not prove a position. Let me give you an example. And we, as Christadelphians, should be the most, you know, familiar with this concept. We don't believe in the, the Trinity, for example.

96. 35:35

    So, the Christadelphian might come along with, well, let's get, let's say Unitarian. A Unitarian, you know, might turn up with their, with 20 verses to prove that Jesus is not God, that Jesus is subservient to God, that Jesus worships his father as I, that Jesus obeys God. So, he's got all these, this list of verses that say, you know, Jesus is not God, he's a man.

97. 35:57

    The Trinitarian pastor turns up with 20 verses that he's got that are pretty strong, that say Jesus existed before the world began, Jesus and his father are one, Jesus created the earth and the world, the cosmos, you know, he's got these very strong verses that all, you know, 20 or so of these verses.

98. 36:14

    Now, the trick is, not just finding 20 verses that prove your opinion and sticking to it, the real, real Bible study means coming up with a model or a response that incorporates all those verses, even those verses that appear need to be contradictory and bring them all together under sort of a unifying model that, that, that, that you can then say amen to all those verses on either side of the ledger and say, yes, that all fits.

99. 36:46

    And for example, you know, we're indebted to, to, I suppose, our early brethren who sort of formulated the idea of God manifestation and said, well, Jesus isn't just a man, like the Unitarians say, and he isn't very God of gods, like the Trinitarians say, he is son of God, son of man. And he's, he's divine in that sense.

100. 37:06

     And he's also human in, in, in, in, in the very virtue of his birth. And, and we've got this sort of nice balanced view of, of who Jesus is. So I can read all the Unitarian verses and go tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, not a problem, but I can also read all the Trinitarian verses, you know, made in the, you know, the form, being found in the form of God, Philippians.

101. 37:23

     So, yep, I'm no problem with that. No problem with that. No problem with that. I can tick them all off and say, yes, that all fits our, our view of Jesus Christ as this very unique person that, that, that God has provided for us. So, so we, we, we can, we do that.

102. 37:38

     We, we understand that concept. We don't just simplistically grab a verse and say, well, that proves everything. Even our view of the supernatural devil, for example, you know, there's no verse in the Bible that you can show me that says the devil is a personification of sin in the flesh. There's no one verse that says that there.

103. 37:53

     And there's plenty of verses that talk about this devil person that comes out and sees Jesus in the wilderness or does this or that. But we then override that lip, those literal presentations of the devil with, with, with doctrinal principles. You know, that temptation comes from within in Mark seven, that every man is tempted.

104. 38:13

     James one, when he's drawn away of his own lust, et cetera. And, and, and concepts from the old Testament about the sovereignty of God and God's the one who creates evil, et cetera. We, we build this doctrinal base that then overrides some of these literal, what appear to be literal encounters with a, with a, with a person that is called the devil.

105. 38:31

     So, and we interpret in that way. So I'm just saying our, our job as Bible students is, is to, is to reconcile things. And that's really what we're trying to do. And God's presented his word in such a way that it's full of paradoxes and what might appear contradictions. And we have to compare scripture with scripture or Corinthians says spiritual with spiritual and, and arrive at a holistic conclusion that encompasses the whole, whole counsel of God from, from beginning to end.

106. 38:57

     So we have to do that when it comes to the judgment, to the judgment seat as well. And I say that because some people then, some people I've come across have fixed views on this. For example, you know, as I said, my dad's genre, if you like, or, or, or generation have been very much entrenched into this longer view.

107. 39:17

     And they hear about the short view, they've never, they've never heard of it before. They go like, you know, where's the stake? Where do I start putting fire together and burning these people? So, so, you know, there's this sort of, what, what's going on here? That's nonsense. But on the other side, I did a, these studies at an ecclesia near us and, and, um, they're probably a more layback meeting than, than sort of Gosford is, I suppose, a bit, bit more, um, sort of progressive in some ways.

108. 39:41

     And I started going through view one, the long view, and they're all looking at me like, that was weird as well. So they go, what? Really? You've never heard that before. And then one sister got really angry with me because she goes, stop talking about view number one. It's just nonsense. As if, as if that's going to happen.

109. 39:56

     And I, you know, that was an interesting experience for me because initially my, my Greek hackles sort of come up and say, well, you want me to just rip these verses out of the Bible, do you? I'll just get some liquid paper. So, so we had to sort of all work out our terms of reference and sort of work out where we're going here.

110. 40:10

     So, um, it's interesting that people have their, their positions already, and it often is a product of our environment and, and, uh, and our upbringing, et cetera. So, um, it's just an interesting thing. Um, now we've run out of time because Phil took way too long, but you know, we do forgive him.

111. 40:28

     Um, so I'm, I'm not going to deal with all these, all the proofs for both positions today, but I'll just go through each position really quickly and then I'll tell you which one I'm, I'm going to follow. So we'll get, we'll get to that in a moment. Um, view one, as I said, the short view, the short view sort of says, you know, when, you know, aren't we saved by grace?

112. 40:48

     We're not saved by work. So why on earth are we having to go through our works and explain them in, in a sense? And, and it also looks at, as I said, the logistics of the long view and says, where on earth is this all going to happen? How long is this going to take?

113. 41:00

     There's how many millions of people have to be minutely examined. How is this all possibly going to happen? Um, and, um, and things like, you know, you know, Caiaphas, the high priest is going to be, it says he's going to be there at the judgment seat. So what if you're in a tent next to him?

114. 41:14

     How awkward that's going to be every morning you get up and, hey, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dead man walking, you know, like, like, he's, he's a goner, he's a goner. So there's logistical problems there. You know, there are some issues with that. So, um, and, you know, and, and I've heard, I've heard people say it could be 10 years, you know, and 40 years.

115. 41:38

     I think, well, that's a whole, your whole character gets developed in 10 or 40 years. So it's sort of like, rather than a snapshot of your life, there's another afterlife that you've experienced in Sinai. So, you know, do you get any brownie points for standing, standing back and letting someone, you know, use the toilets before you?

116. 41:54

     I don't know. Sort of, it's sort of, there are some definitely logistical issues there. And the, and the short view people say, yes, see, that doesn't make any sense at all. Um, and there is, and we've got to look at these, these, these concepts from, from 1 John. There's a couple of really powerful verses in 1 John that talks about the fact that we can have confidence and some translations have boldness, boldness at the judgment seat.

117. 42:17

     And that, that, to those of us who grew up on the, on the view, on the long view, it's like, well, that is just obviously sort of, that has to be sort of some figure of speech because there's no way you can have boldness or confidence at the judgment seat that, that who, who would ever have that?

118. 42:32

     Um, even the apostle Paul wouldn't have boldness or confidence in that sense. And yet John says we can have boldness, you know, at the judgment seat. We'll look at those verses, not just once, but he mentions it twice. 1 John 2 and in 4. So we'll look at those. Then there's a whole, what we might call it, a, a doctrinal-based argument.

119. 42:48

     And it's very valid to do that. We do it with the devil. Where you take the doctrinal concepts and say, well, those doctrinal concepts, given in a very plain, straightforward way, have to override sort of parables and things like that as well. So the doctrinal concepts are based on the atonement, the fact that we are not condemned.

120. 43:06

     You know, Romans 8 verse 1, there is no condemnation. That word condemnation is our word judgment. There is no negative judgment for those that are, you know, that are in Christ. And, um, and even the translators have sort of struggled with that. And they've, they've stuck that little phrase in that says that walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

121. 43:22

     But that's not actually in the original Greek there in verse 1. So, so it's, um, it, it, there is, there is quite a strong, I think, quite a strong body of evidence to say that this idea of having your works examined minutely doesn't seem to, to correlate with that, that, those doctrinal concepts.

122. 43:40

     There's also a whole body of evidence about our sins not being remembered anymore. And they're being put far from us as, you know, Psalm 103, far from us as the East is from the West, you know, like they're, they're, they're sort of totally remembered no more. And, and Hebrew says the same thing there, sins are remembered against us no more.

123. 43:57

     So there's a whole lot of verses like that. So we're not, our sins are forgiven. So why are they brought up again? And in the, in the, in the context of a judgment seat, if that's the case. And this emphasis from, you know, Ephesians 2 that says we're saved by grace, not by works.

124. 44:12

     And, and grace is the, the power of God through our faith and our, and our surrender to God, then he, he, he forgives of our sins. And there's many, many quotes that could look at that. So it's a, it's a, it's a really powerful argument, very strong argument. When you combine it with the, the sort of negative rebuttals that based on logistics and all those sorts of things, then you combine it with a doctrinal sort of base that runs through the New Testament.

125. 44:36

     You've got a pretty strong argument that the judgment seat should not and would not be a drawn out 10 year process of, of minute examination. So that, that seems to be a very, very strong argument. Then we go to number two, the second view of the judgment seat, what we call the long view.

126. 44:53

     And again, we have a lot of scripture to back the long view up. That's why this, this sister in this Bible class is yelling at me, don't talk about view two, it's nonsense. Well, you know, I have to talk about view two. It's there in, there is so much evidence for view two as well in the Bible.

127. 45:08

     Well, this idea, we're going to look at this phrase of called give account. It's actually a bookkeeping term, actually. It's like, you know, you keep account of, of stock deliveries or whatever. So this, this idea of giving account is, pops up in nearly all the judgment seat verses. We must give account. Everyone must give account.

128. 45:27

     You can't get away from this idea of giving account. So I won't deal with those now, but we'll look at them as we go through. This idea of our secrets being revealed. And again, again, we struggle to reconcile this with forgiveness, don't we? Our secrets are going to be revealed. It says over and over again, secrets are being revealed, inner workings of our heart being revealed.

129. 45:48

     You know, Ecclesiastes 11 and 12, we've got these beautiful little phrases that, you know, I think it's 11, it says, you know, enjoy the wife of your youth and eat and drink and enjoy the things that God's given you. And then it goes, but remember for all these things you'll be brought into judgment.

130. 46:02

     It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. So it's sort of like this sort of almost contradictory message there. So we want to try and deal with those as well. And this idea of even stricter judgment, you know, James 3 says, don't be many masters, it says in the A-B, but it means teachers. Don't jump in to be a teacher because you're going to receive stricter judgment.

131. 46:25

     Now, that means I'm a bit of an idiot, really. You think, why would I be a teacher when it's going to put me into a stricter judgment category, which means my likelihood of being accepted is going to be minimized and reduced dramatically because I'm going to get stricter judgment. So what an idiot am I?

132. 46:42

     What am I doing here? If you took that literal, it means that I'm going to be held at some higher level of account when I go through my life and my likelihood of being accepted is going to be, you know, dramatically reduced. And you'd have to be mad to be a teacher in any way.

133. 46:57

     So this is the view number two, the longer view, as I said, based on our actions in life. Now, here's some references to give account. Every idle word that man speaks, he shall give account. Romans 4, and every one of us shall give account of himself to God. We have to give account of what we've done.

134. 47:17

     We give account. We give account of our stewardship, et cetera. So this idea of giving account is genuine and real, and it's built into scripture. We can't easily ignore it either. Now, oh man, Phil, Phil.

135. 47:32

     We ask the question then, just to finish up. See, Suze will tell you I always say that, just to make everyone think, oh, it's nearly over. No, no, it really is, it really is. Just to finish up, what's a judgment seat achieving then, if our sins are forgiven? If we believe our sins are forgiven, we believe Christ died for our sins, we're covered in the blood of the lamb, et cetera.

136. 47:52

     We believe our sins are forgiven. What is going on then at the judgment seat, if it is this longer model? And the two theories that I've sort of extracted as I've asked people about it, one is called the unforgiven sin theory that says, yes, we're forgiven of our sins if we ask for it, but there are other sins that we don't even know about, like sins of omission, not commission, and sins we don't know about, or we don't acknowledge, or that we continue to do even though we've asked for forgiveness.

137. 48:19

     And they've got to be dealt with at the judgment seat. The judgment is like a mopping up process to clean up the sins that you've forgotten to mention in your list of, when you're offering a prayer. And the other theory, number two, is probably the most common one, it's called the proof of faith theory.

138. 48:32

     It says, well, your works are examined because they've got to give proof that you have the right faith, that your faith is strong enough that it's been seen in your works, so then we've got to look at your works in order to work out whether you've got faith, because we're saved by faith, not by works, but we still need to look at your works to work out whether you've got the faith. So let's quickly just go through these two, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on them, but you might want to talk to me about these later on.

139. 48:54

     The unforgiven sin theory. You know, is there such a thing as unforgiven sins? I question that whole concept. We are covered in Christ, our sins are forgiven. You know, when Jesus says to someone, to the lame man, your sins are forgiven, he doesn't say, all the ones you acknowledge to me are forgiven, the ones you forgot to mention, they're not quite forgiven, so maybe don't get up and walk. You know, so it's not quite, this idea of it's got to be mentioned in your list or else it's not forgiven, doesn't really work with me as far as scripture goes.

140. 49:23

     Yeah, in the Lord's Prayer it says, forgive us of our sins. Don't say, you know, oh, you didn't mention every single one, then, you know, maybe, it's a, we are covered in Christ, that atonement idea, particularly the Old Testament concept of the atonement is this covering, which is quite powerful. So our prayers, when we pray on a Sunday morning, the brother gets up and says, please forgive us all of our sins, is that just a, is that really not real? Is that just like, well, we just say it because it's a nice, sounds good and, but we don't really know if it really happens or not. I think it does happen. The, the proof of faith theory, it's probably, it seems to be right and, and you can tie it in with James and faith without works is dead and all those sort of things, but I'll make some more comment about it as we go through. I think there's a flaw, there's a tautology here, there's a circular argument that says, well, yes, we're saved by faith, but we need the works to prove our faith. The conclusion of that little syllogism is we're actually saved by our works. And, and, and, you know, if we've got some sort of barometer here that's got, well, here's the faith level. And if our good works that we do all add up, you know, when we've given money in secret and we've, you know, done this and we've done that and done all these good things and they're sort of good works that show that we believe it, all the bad things where we've done this or done that sort of negate it and, and we've sort of

141. 50:39

     haven't reached the faith level. So we've got negative six of bad works or whatever it is. To me, there's a tautology that's saying, well, yeah, okay, we're not saved by works, but we really actually are because at the end of the day, the works prove the faith. So I might make more comment about that as we go through. And in fact, this whole idea about faith, faith is something that grows. It's, it's something that is developed. You know, Romans says from faith to faith. I think it's quoting from Habakkuk, the just shall live by faith. Faith is something that develops. And so Abraham, for example, showed faith when he left, he left Ur. And at that point, I believe he's, he's a son of God. He's, he's like, he's a Hebrew, he's crossed over, he's, he's in God's realm of salvation. And yet James says, well, his faith was demonstrated when he offered Isaac. Well, that, that was a long time into his life. And, and is that, is that meaning that it wasn't until he offered Isaac that he really was going to be saved until he reached that maturity in his life? That's not right, is it? He was always a son of God. He was always in the, the pale of salvation. He was always in God's purpose. And he made mistakes. And he went down into Egypt and he lied about Sarah. And he did it again with Abimelech in Genesis 20. So yeah, he's up and down all over the place, but he was still a child of God. His faith was growing. And it wasn't that he sort of hit the faith level at Genesis 22 when he offers

142. 51:54

     Isaac, but before that, he was sort of getting there. That's not quite right. You know, Jesus even calls the apostles, oh, ye of little faith, when they were struggling with doubt, et cetera, even though he says your names are written in heaven as well. So you've got to, faith is something that grows and develops in our life, starts at our baptism and continues to grow. So in our study over this week, what we want to do is reconcile these ideas and try and come up with a view of the judgment set that keeps all these ideas in harmony and all of them can be agreed on. So things like a penny a day, for example, in the parable of the, of the field, everyone gets the same reward. How do we reconcile that with the pounds and the, and the parable of the cities where people get proportional rewards? This person gets 10 cities, this person gets five cities and the, the rewards are dished out on some proportional way as a recognition of the work that they've done and the results they've achieved. So how do we reconcile those things? The sheep and goats, we've talked about this, quick recognition as opposed to a detailed account. How do we reconcile those things as well? Now this is going to be one of our, in our last session, I'm going to ask you guys to reconcile these verses and if we can do that, then I, my job here is done or whatever. I'll feel, I'll feel that we've got some, we've connected in minds. Now these are two statements from the Apostle Paul, two from Paul's writings. In one of them, we

143. 53:16

     know very, we know this one pretty well, you know, for second, second Timothy four, he says, I fought the good fight. There's absolutely no doubt. There's no fear of the judgment seat here. He said, I fought the good fight. There is laid out for me a crown of righteousness. No doubt about it. Not just for me, but all those who love his appearing.

144. 53:32

     Absolute certainty, not a doubt in his mind. First Corinthians four though, it's, it's in a pretty complicated English here. So we'll read it later on from another translation, but Paul is saying here, he says, don't judge anything for the time. He says, I don't, he says until the judge appears, I don't even know whether I'm going to be, you know, looked on favorably. He says, I've got a good conscience about what I've done, but I won't know until the judge is here. You think, well, man alive, there's sort of a, there's a, there's a, there's sort of a contradiction here. One minute he's going, yes, I'm crown of righteousness, no doubt. And next minute he's going, well, I don't really know how I'm going to fare at the judgment seat. Now we're going to reconcile that they do reconcile. And once you get, once you get that, once you reconcile those two verses, you've got it. From my perspective, it's, it makes sense. So that's what, that's something we're going to achieve God willing as we go through because both of them harmonize. So how do we reconcile this? I'm going to give it all away now and then we'll, we'll have them to put some flesh to these concepts as we go through the rest of the week. How do we reconcile the short view, which is our salvation is based on faith, based on grace, based on recognition, based on acceptance in that straightforward way with the long view that says our life is reviewed in detail and our motives are researched and delved into, et cetera. And then we're rewarded based on our,

145. 54:51

     what we've done. So how do we reconcile those two views? Well, instead of seeing them as two competing views, what I believe is they are two stages of the judgment seat process. And this, I believe, harmonizes everything. I believe, as we'll see, there is a short event where we are accepted or rejected based on the parable of the sheep and goats. And yet there is a secondary phase that we're going through where our life is reviewed. We do give accounts. We will receive rebuke from Christ for certain things. We will receive praise from Christ for certain things as a secondary process and we'll be rewarded as a part of that process as well. So these two views are actually two parts of the judgment seat. And that's why all the verses can eventually come together and all of them be, be agreed upon. So this is the normal view that when I say normal, this is probably the view that I sort of grew up with. The judgment seat took this process, took this stage. We give account to the judge. So we give account. We receive praise or admonition or maybe rebuke or whatever. And then we're either accepted or rejected. That's the normal sort of stages and process of the judgment seat that I sort of was sort of brought up with. What I'm suggesting is, having looked at all the verses, all we have to do is sort of transpose the stages a little bit and all the verses will work. We just change number three back to number one. We are accepted or rejected initially as stage one.

146. 56:27

     Yes, we still then have to give account of our lives. And yes, number three, we'll receive praise or admonition or rebuke in certain cases as well. And if just changing that order from one, two, three to three, two, one or whatever it was, I find all the whole, the whole, the doctrine of grace and salvation and, and, and salvation through grace and not by works and, and all the thing, all the, all of it comes together. And yet there's, and also there's a very, very wonderful purpose for stage two that is for our betterment, not nothing to do with, or not, not, not nothing to do with God, but not for God's benefit. It's for our benefit that we go through that process. Sorry, Bob.

147. 57:08

     Are you suggesting that the rejected go to stage two? That is, that is a good point. That is, I don't, I don't know that a hundred percent how that works, whether there's a, whether there's a, a smaller version of stage two for the rejected, like there is in the, the, the goats, because he does have an interaction with them in the parable of the goats. That would be, that's right. So I, my, my, my intuition says no, that, that, that would be for the, for the saints because the purpose of that is to refine us and to prepare us for immortality.

148. 57:34

     That's, that's what I believe, to be presented faultless before his presence with exceeding joy. That's, that's why we go through stage two. So that, you're right, I don't, I see the goats moved on from that, but I don't have absolute, absolute evidence of that. So, so putting those together, the stage one, those whose names are in the book of life, your name is in the book of life or it's not in the book of life. The sheep are separated from the goats. I knew you or I never knew you is based on grace, not on works. It's based on the fact that we are God's children, that we are forgiven of our sins. We are in Christ. We are covered by the blood of the lamb. All those, all those doctrinal concepts, the atonement, all those things that we, we believe in and hold dear. So I said, I haven't proved any of this yet. And I, I get that there's, might be some hesitation and hopefully as we go through the week, it might make more sense. The second phase, we give account, which is based on works. So yes, our works are brought up at the judgment. So you cannot deny that. I think I've got a list here maybe now that all the references to, you know, when I come and judge you, your works are going to be part of that process. We can't deny that. But it's not part of our in or out process, if that makes sense. It's not part of the verdict process. And that will be very important. Oops. And then we receive praise, et cetera. So the judgment seat, the jump ahead to where I'm going to go this week.

149. 58:58

     Judgment seat is the final phase in our development. God's working in our lives. We know now he's working in us. He started that work when his word sort of bore, sort of was conceived in our mind and was implanted in us. And that work is continuing in the chastisement of the Lord and the trials and tribulations that try our faith, et cetera. But the judgment seat is an intense version of that, where we are brought to the point where we can be given immortality and we can be let loose on the world. Because really, you don't want Darren DePores giving immortality. I'm telling you, it's not a pretty sight. Just me as I am given immortality to rule the world. There's certain perceptions I have. There's certain prejudices I have. There are certain views and points of view that I have that are not right, that have to be dealt with. And there are patterns of behavior that I have. There are things I've been brought up with that I think are right and that I think are wrong.

150. 59:57

     And those things are going to be dealt with by Christ as he goes through my life. And it's going to be for me to prepare me to be given immortality and let loose on the world. And that's where we're going to go. And that Psalm 139 is really, to me, the little summary. The end of Psalm 139 says, Search me, O God. Know me. And if there's any wicked way, lead me in paths of righteousness. And it's sort of this appeal to search me, God, and to open me up and to remove what you don't like.

151. 1:00:25

     Now, we do that now. We should be doing that now in our life. And that's what our Sunday morning is part of that process and our lives are part of that process. But we're really floored at it, aren't they? We're really floored. We can see everyone else's little quirks and idiosyncrasies. But ourselves, we find that really hard. And that's what the judgment seat will do for us.

152. 1:00:45

     And Jesus has this ability to really delve into the very issues of our heart. And I'm not going to deal with that all now. So it's the final phase in our whole development and our whole, you know, the whole process of God manifestation really will reach its pinnacle there. And the judgment seat will be the final fine-tuning of that. So what issues may be dealt with at the judgment seat, just to finish up? You know, things where we emotionally overact in our family life, in the ecclesial life. You know, all of us bring baggage of our upbringing and hereditary issues all to our life. And to think that we're really all going to sort of change somehow in our life now, become perfect people, is not realistic, is it? But it has to happen at some stage before we're given immortality. And it will happen at the judgment seat. We have a lot of, you know, we have inferiority complexes. And a lot of our, you know, ecclesial, even ecclesial divides and problems have come back to sort of personality issues and issues that we have with our own, you know, the way we view things and the way people view us. Double standards that we all have in our lives that we don't see. Blind spots. You know, how even we do with our own kids. We hold our own kids at a different, maybe a different standard than we hold other people's kids.

153. 1:01:58

     And we excuse our own kids who do this, whereas others we might have jumped down their throat. So that's all built into us. All these prejudices and things are built into us. And they'll all be dealt with. But at the judgment seat also, where we've done good, we'll be rewarded and praised. And I believe there'll be an actual reward for that. I think, you know, Jono's excellent exhort on Sunday, he looks at those issues about being generous with our money and doing those things in private. He says, I'll reward you. You'll be rewarded for those things. Now, this is real. It's not just under the general heading of immortality. There's evidence, as we'll get to in our third session, that we'll be rewarded for where we've done things that please God. So that's probably a bit of a teaser, I suppose, a bit of an overview.

154. 1:02:40

     And hopefully, as I said, we'll put some flesh to those arguments and delve into them a bit more as we go through. Thanks, guys. Jamin, thank you.