The future judgment, especially for ministers.
Hi.
Welcome to today's little lesson.
In the last few little lessons, I think five or six, we've been talking about the future
judgment, judgments at which people stand before God and give an account, and He reacts
and He rewards and He condemns.
And we're looking specifically at judgments of which scripture speaks of, judgments that
will be attended by Christians.
And today is going to be the final judgment we're going to look at.
I initially talked about two future judgments, and this third one could be the same as the
second one.
Or, it might be a judgment exclusively reserved for those whom God calls into vocational ministry
service, people that God has called and appointed to be, for example, pastors and teachers and
evangelists and prophets and apostles and missionaries and there are other categories
as well, people that serve God in a vocational way.
And the truths that we're going to look at and try to unpack today, I'm sure also have
application to those who are not called to vocational ministry, simply because they're
principles that emanate from the character of God and what He's revealed in general about
Himself, His fairness, His righteousness, and the future judgments that are coming,
okay?
So don't think as I talk about this judgment that all ministers are going to experience
one day, and if you're not called to be a vocational minister, that somehow doesn't
have any application to you.
Actually, I have no doubt it has application to you, and so listen closely, okay?
Because we're all ... God has prepared good works from the foundation of the world that
for all of us, that we should walk in them.
You just may not be called to full-time vocational service, but all of us are called to specific
good deeds, so what we read today from the Bible has application.
In Corinthians, Corinthians was a problem church that Paul had planted, and one of the
problems was there were divisions.
They were fighting over who their favorite teachers were.
Some were saying, "I'm of Apollos," who was a great teacher.
Some were saying, "I am of Paul."
And so, in trying to straighten out their thinking and give them the right perspective,
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3 in verse number 5, "What then is Apollos?
What is Paul?
Servants through whom you believed.
Even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one, I planted, Apollos watered."
And so Paul came and founded the church, Apollos came in afterwards and encouraged the saints
and taught, and so he watered those seeds, those gospel seeds.
But Paul gives the glory and credit to God, but he says, "But God was causing the growth."
So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes
growth.
That's a great message.
I'll pause right here just to say, too many times, Christians are enamored by their favorite
teachers and they need to realize that your favorite teachers are nothing.
Give glory to God.
If you've got a teacher that you like, who helps you understand something and is anointed
or whatever, well, then give praise to God, because it's all ... that's where the praise
belongs.
Now, "He who plants and he who waters are one," Paul said, so why are you chopping us
up and picking favorites?
We're on the same team.
But he says, "However, each will receive his own reward according to his own labor."
That's based on the fact that God is fair and He's not really dealing with anybody,
generally speaking, as a group.
He deals with us as individuals.
But then Paul uses this metaphorical analogy.
He says, "For we are God's fellow workers, but you, the Corinthians, are God's field."
He's already talked about how he planted and Apollos watered.
Then he brings up another analogy, "You are God's building," and he's going to build on
that building analogy in the next paragraph.
He says, "According to the grace of God, which was given to me," which again, Paul's always
saying, "Give God the glory, give God the credit.
We are nothing."
But, "According to the grace of God, it was given to me, like a wise master builder,"
he's like the general contractor, "I laid a foundation."
That's what apostles do, plant churches, "and another," probably speaking here of Apollos
and a few others, "is building on it."
But Paul says, "Each man must be careful how he builds on it, that foundation, for no man
can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
Now listen to this.
This is where it gets very interesting.
"Now, if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, or precious stones," actually,
he didn't say or.
He said, "gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident,
for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire."
And the fire will test the quality, not the quantity, interestingly enough, but the quality
of each man's work.
Now, I don't know if you notice in those building materials, there were six that Paul listed
there, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, three are very valuable things,
gold and silver and precious stones.
The other are relatively common things and not near as great as value as gold and silver
and precious stones: wood, hay, and straw.
The three that are valuable are non-combustible, incombustible, and the three that are not
survivable are very combustible, wood, hay, and straw.
You light a match, they're burned up.
And so he says, "God's going to test the quality of each man's work the day, that day, when
He tests it."
It will reveal the quality because He's going to put it through a fire.
So he said, "The day will reveal it."
It's not evident now so much to those who are not so discerning.
They think there's a lot ... these certain ministers are doing a great work, because
look at the size of their church, for example, or look at how many followers they have, or
how many views they have on YouTube.
Wow, they're popular.
They must be the great ones.
But maybe not so necessarily in the eyes of God, and it may not be evident now, but it'll
be evident later when those works go through God's fire.
So I always kind of like to imagine this conveyor belt that when ministers die and appear before
Jesus, which all of us must, there beside us are all of the things that we've done,
all our ministerial works, all of our building of the kingdom, quote unquote, sometimes.
So we put it on the conveyor belt and Jesus pushes the button and that conveyor belt lurches
to life and it starts taking all of our works towards this flaming furnace, and in our works
go.
And then we walk around to the other side, when the conveyor belt brings those things
out of the furnace and we see what's left.
Well, we'll find out then, if we built with wood, hay and straw, all that comes out is
ashes.
"Wow, buddy, you thought you were doing something, but you really weren't doing much of anything."
But if it comes out the other side, gold and silver and precious stones, well then, whoa,
it endured the fire.
The quality was tested and it was proven to be good, and so you are rewarded.
Now I'll keep reading so I don't get ahead of the Bible.
"If any man's work, which he has built on, it remains," that is, after it goes through
the fire, "he will receive a reward.
If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss."
Loss of what?
Loss of reward, loss of honor, loss of, "Well done, good and faithful servant," from the
Lord.
But listen to this, here's a little bit of encouragement, "but he himself will be saved."
So yeah, this is not a salvation judgment.
We're not trying to judge your salvation.
Now, you believed.
You were doing some stuff, but maybe your motives weren't pure.
Maybe you weren't teaching the truth, and so you're teaching manmade doctrines just
because they were more popular and they got you more views and more money, and so forth.
So that all got burned up.
Sorry, but come on in.
You're saved.
Paul says, "Yet so as through fire," we can say by the skin of your teeth, okay?
So that's a bit sobering.
And as I said at the beginning of this little lesson, don't think that just because you're
not called to vocational ministry that this has no application to you because like I said,
we're all supposed to be doing good works.
And so your motives aren't important, that building on the foundation is important with
the truth.
There are so many that are out teaching their own ideas because they're popular and it builds
their ministry, and it all looks great now, but when the work's through the fire, it's
going to be a big disappointment.
So ministers are supposed to teach the oracles of God.
That is what God says.
That's what ministers ought to be saying, pastors, preachers, teachers, evangelists,
even the gospel has been so corrupted.
You so rarely hear anyone even mention repentance and so forth anymore.
What kind of gospel is that?
Well, it's no gospel at all.
When it goes to the fire, bunch of ashes come out the other side.
All those converts who prayed that little prayer at the end and accepted Jesus as their
personal savior, it all comes out as ashes.
Well, too bad, but at least you get a ticket into heaven.
All right, so this, like I said, could be the same as the second judgment that we talked
about in this series, but it could be an exclusive judgment just for ministers.
And in this context, that's kind of how it sounds, doesn't it?
Sure it does.
Okay.
So many who are first now will be last then.
And many who are last now will be first then.
People you've never heard of who have served God faithfully in hidden and seemingly insignificant
ways, their quality is so precious to God, it's gold and silver and precious stones.
And they'll be hearing, "Well done, good and faithful servant.
And you were faithful in a few things.
I'll put you in charge of a lot here.
Rule over 10 cities."
All right.
If you've never been to DavidServant.org, why don't you check us out there?
I've written some books over the years and I'm getting ready to start another one here
pretty soon.
But there's a book there called The Disciple-Making Minister.
I wrote it for ministers.
It's been translated in, I think, 30-some languages and distributed around the world,
but it's also on DavidServant.org, and lots of good stuff there.
It's all free, so for your spiritual edification, check out DavidServant.org.
Until next time, may the Lord bless you.