Transcript

Let’s go to 2 Corinthians 5 this morning as we have another installment in this series “The Return of Christ.” I purposely to have three more after this one. We’ll look at 2 Corinthians 5 and then we’ll go to Revelation 19. We’re going to talk about the Judgment Seat of Christ and the Marriage of the Lamb. Both of those. I’m going to view them as one whole because I’m convinced they come right after the other, maybe so much together that you would call them one. The Judgment Seat of Christ and the Marriage of the Lamb.

First of all, 2 Corinthians 5:9-10,

9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Now Revelation 19 and you want to keep your Bible ribbon, by the way, in 2 Corinthians 5. We’ll be over there a few more times and looking at some other verses also but there more than others. Revelation 19:7-8,

7 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

In the ancient Jewish world, when they would have a wedding they would actually have an engagement period for one year before the wedding ceremony itself called the betrothal and when you were betrothed to someone, that was a binding commitment. When the groom picked you out, the fathers gave their permission, that groom made a dedicated commitment to be your groom and the girl to be his bride and that was as binding as marriage. They probably had a bump or two along the road of that year. You know, just figuring things out and getting ready for it but the marriage was for certain. Then once the wedding day came, no matter what had happened in the preceding engagement or courtship, that’s always a day of joy and a day of celebration.

I’ve done a lot of weddings and I’ve attended a lot of weddings and I’ve never seen a time when it wasn’t a day of joy and a day of great celebration. That’s what they’re intended to be. That’s why you have that illustration used repetitively in the New Testament particularly of our relationship with Christ. We are the bride, he is the groom. He is the husband, we’re like the wife. God wants to emphasize the great glorious intimacy we have with him and also the coming day of celebration. There is coming a marriage of the Lamb. I’m not just going to attend that, I’m going to be a part of that. We are the bride and we will be married to the Lamb. Now, we’re betrothed right now. We’re engaged. It’s binding. It’s settled but the day for the marriage is coming.

Well, before we get to that particular aspect, let’s look at the aspect that comes right before it and that would be the chief part of the first parts of my outline and that is the Judgment Seat of Christ. The Judgment Seat of Christ is something of a day of reckoning for the righteous. It’s a day where Christ will bring his children together and evaluate and examine and reward accordingly. First of all, let’s notice the place. Where is this going to be? Where is the place that this Judgment Seat of Christ will take place? First of all, let me talk about the place in time. How does it fit chronologically. Can’t be dogmatic here. Can’t be absolute but here’s what I believe the Bible teaches. There is going to be the great rapture of the church. We talked about that last time we were together. That gathering together of the saints of God. The Bible makes it very clear we will meet him in the clouds. We will meet him in the air. It’s very specific. A nature, literal interpretation tells you this is not a meeting on the earth. We’ll be raptured to meet the Lord in the air.

Then after that, I don’t know how it all unfolds exactly but there will be the Judgment Seat of Christ. Luke 14:14 shows us that resurrection and reward go together. Luke 14:14, “and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Of course, he’s referring to righteous deeds you do in private just for the glory of God. You don’t announce them to other people and God says when you do those things just for the glory of God and to honor the Lord, those are recorded and you’ll be rewarded in heaven. So he says when the resurrection comes, the rewards are coming so we see them connected together. Now, if the church is raptured just before the tribulation, then that time of the Judgment Seat or this examination period for all of us should follow right after that rapture.

Another section of Scripture, Revelation 19:6-9, “Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him,” here it is, “for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” Here’s where I think this Revelation passage ties into 2 Corinthians and Romans 14 where we’re at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Here it is, verse 8 of Revelation 19, “It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” I believe that’s implying that we receive rewards and blessings based on the righteous acts we perform for the Lord while we were his down here on earth in these mortal bodies. We’re not talking about earning your way into heaven, that’s settled. We’re talking about rewards when you get to heaven as a child of God.

Now, secondly in verse 9 of Revelation 19, he says, “Then he said to me, ‘Write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”‘ And he said to me, ‘These are true words of God.'” I believe this text presents the Lord and his bride, the church, as already being in heaven together when the millennial kingdom begins and the Second Coming occurs. We will already have been there and have enjoyed the Judgment Seat period and the marriage of the Lamb and then following that, the beginning of the millennium, I believe, is what is figured in the Marriage Supper. So I view those as two things: the marriage is one thing and the Marriage Supper is another thing.

In 2 Timothy 4:8, Paul writing to his young understudy, Timothy, says, “in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,” notice, “will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” So here Paul says that day and I believe that’s the resurrection day, the rapture, that day will be followed quickly by a time of receiving rewards for our labor and faithfulness to Christ after we became a child of God.

So we have that very, very clearly here that the place, I believe, in time is right after the rapture of the church. Secondly, what about the place in space? That’s B. In other words, geographically, I guess you could say, but it’s bigger than anything physical. Where is this going to happen? Well, there’s a great mystery there. The one thing we can say is it’s happening somewhere in the heavenlies. It’s hard for us to conceive of heaven and the literalness of it because the physical aspect of it is not like the physical realm here. There are physical things there, of course, but the heavenlies can include things that are not physical also. But there is a literal physical part to the heavenlies where we will be before our Lord and we will be judged. 1 Thessalonians 4:17, “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them,” where? “In the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”

Turn back to 2 Corinthians 5, if you would. Did you keep your Bible ribbon there? 2 Corinthians 5 and notice what Paul says here as we look at verses 1-8. “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house,” that’s talking about these mortal bodies, “we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent,”this body, “we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord – for we walk by faith, not by sight – we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” Then he talks about in verse 10 of that very section, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” What is this context? There is going to be a place where we’re absent from this physical realm and we are present with the Lord in the heavenlies and there we will all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ.

That’s the place in time and in space. II. The participants. Who will be participating in this day of accounting before the Lord? Well, for the Judgment Seat of Christ, first of all, we have the head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the chief participant. He’s the Judge. The head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. John 5:22, the Lord said, “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.” Christ is the one with whom you will answer. Christ is the one. Romans 10:14 calls this very thing the Judgment Seat of God. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul calls it the Judgment Seat of Christ. I’m convinced it’s the same thing but what Paul wants to point out is that by calling it the Judgment Seat of Christ and then the Judgment Seat of God is that this is God’s judgment but he’s given it all to be administered through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So he will be the Judge during this Judgment Seat period.

Now, secondly, the participants are all those who are believing children. Those who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and those who are the children of God because they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. These are present at this great momentous time when there is a reckoning with God and we’re going to give an account, the Scripture says, about what we did for the Lord while we were upon the earth. Now look: there’s going to be a separate judgment for unbelievers. The Judgment Seat of Christ here is only for those who are saved and who believe, the children of God. Then later on at his Second Coming, there will be the Great White Throne Judgment which will be for those who do not know the Lord. But this one is a time of examination, clarification and rewards of God’s children but not for the unbelieving lost. As a matter of fact, in the text we’ve looked at a couple of times already, 2 Corinthians 5, those who are said to be at the Judgment Seat of Christ – now listen – are also those who have been swallowed up by life, picturing the new birth, the birthing of life that comes in when you’re converted, when you believe and those who are at the Judgment Seat of Christ are also those who’ve received the pledge of the Spirit of God so that can only mean saved people. Lost people haven’t received his Holy Spirit. He doesn’t live in them.

So these are the ones who are going to be united with the Lord instantly at his coming in the air or in the clouds and then there’s going to be what I like to call a great family meeting. Have you ever had a family meeting where dad says, “We’re going to all meet together. We’ve got things we need to talk about.” Well, that’s what this is. It’s a great family meeting of the children of God and our head, our elder brother, presides over the meeting, our elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. But all the participants are those who are already saved. The Bible says this is not a judgment of unbelievers but this is an evaluation time for those who are believers.

Another verse that adds a little light here, Romans 14:10, “Why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” Who is he talking about there? He said, “Believers, don’t go around with an arrogant, self-exalting, judgmental spirit.” Now, we know there are some places the Bible tells Christians we have to judge one another if our purpose is to glorify God and do good for the brother and so it’s certainly good for the church. But all this petty bickering and judging on biblical non-essentials, he said, “Be done with that because we as Christians have our time of all sitting before the Judgment Seat of God.”

Alright so the participants: the Lord, the head of the church and those who are saved, those who are believers. III. The purpose. The purpose. I’ve jotted down three of these. You might come up with more from the word of God but these three are definitely going to be there. 1. To manifest integrity or to reveal, make open or apparent those works that were genuine or had integrity. The Greek word for “integrity” has a picture meaning behind it and it means “without cracks.” Why would the Bible use the word for integrity, a picture word that means without cracks? Here’s what that means: it means that in the old days, they would have a vase that sometimes would have some cracks in it and the merchant would be deceptive and he would fill those cracks with wax and then paint over the outside like it was just a perfect vase, a perfect pot. So he had no integrity and the vase itself had no integrity. It was damaged. It was just filled with wax and painted over. But what God is saying is, real integrity is when you peel away the paint and put the fire to it and the wax melts away that it’s still solid. There are no cracks there. Well, that’s what the Lord’s going to do. He’s going to reveal the reality of all of our works. Some of you sitting under my voice this day have done about everything that you’ve done in the church for yourself. That will be revealed on that day. The motives and the intentions of the heart will be exposed and there will be no argument. He will manifest the integrity of our works.

1 Corinthians 3:13-15 bears this out so clearly. It says, “each man’s work,” now listen, “will become evident.” It will be exposed for what it really is. “For the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality,” there it is again, “of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” You know this is the passage where the context is that he’s talking about ministers primarily and he says, “Men of Apollos, we built a foundation.” What he means is, “We’ve brought the sound, true doctrines of God to you folks at Corinth. We didn’t peddle in philsophies and worldly stuff. We didn’t follow the trends of the days of the fads to get you interested. We gave you the truth of God. Apollos and I have laid a foundation of gold, silver and precious stones.” Now he says, “Other ministers are going to come along but make sure when they come along they build properly with quality and they don’t build something that’s wood, hay and stubble but they continue to build with gold, silver and precious stones.” That means pure and true doctrine.

While he’s talking to ministers primarily, this truth applies to all believers that God will test with fire and you know what happens when you have wood, hay and stubble if that’s what you’re building with in your Christian work and fire is put to it? It’s gone. It will just go up in flames but things like gold and silver are purified by the fire. They’re not affected by it. God said, “That’s the way I’m going to test it.” Hebrew 4:12 says, “For the word of God is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” So here we are: the rapture has occurred; we’ve met the Lord in the air; there’s some kind of great holy family meeting with all the saints of God and the Lord Jesus himself in figurative language brings a fire test on all of our labors after we were saved and serving him on the earth. It will be exposed. It will manifest that which has integrity and, of course, manifest those works which were not genuine.

I want to back up for just a moment and talk about the uniqueness of this Judgment Seat of Christ. I’m calling it a great family meeting but the Bible uses the phrase the Judgment Seat of Christ but you need to understand that there are two primary Greek words for “judgment.” Two primary Greek words. One is kriterion and it means what you would think it means, you’re evaluating, it’s the criteria, the standard. It’s used of a law court. It emphasizes often the place where judgment is given to determine if you’re innocent or guilty. That’s kriterion but this word in 2 Corinthians 5 that we’ve been looking at, the Judgment Seat of Christ and in Romans 14, the Judgment Seat of God, that’s not the word kriterion, it’s the word bema and the word bema is a very different word. It has the idea of a platform where one of honor or dignity rewards others. As a matter of fact, the scholars point out that this is the word that would be used for the platform during the Grecian games in Athens when the President of the games would sit on the platform and those runners and athletes who competed and won, they would come up to the platform and he would place, it was more like a wreath on their heads and that would be their reward for overcoming and achieving. So it wasn’t a judicial judgment, it was a place of administering rewards.

So the bema seat, the bema platform, the judgment that is mentioned here is not that place of judicial power, it’s a place where we are going to be rewarded or be where rewards we could have gained had we been faithful to the Lord. This is not a place of finding out whether or not you’re going to be condemned in your sins or saved for eternity. That was already settled when you put your faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That’s done. That’s settled. But there are rewards for your service to Christ while you labor on this earth. So with condemnation forever past, this great family meeting, this is what the Bible calls the Judgment Seat of Christ, this bema platform that Christ will administer rewards is a place where we will have rewards given or taken away and it has no reference to salvation at all.

I just meditated on this for a while and thought about how thorough this is going to be and how revealing this is going to be. The Bible says the heart is desperately wicked. Jeremiah says that. The Bible says the heart is deceitful beyond all things so we know very well it’s very easy and it’s all too common in church history and even certainly in our modern age for people to put on for long times a good religious front but it all be a deception but I’m telling you that the omniscient eye of Jesus will quickly and irrefutably expose all works on that day as to their integrity. So many Christian ministers and Christian workers that are highly praised and celebrated in this world will be left on this day with nothing at all. They’ll be left on this day with little more than the stench of smoke because the fire of Christ’s impeccable evaluation will expose the genuineness of what they were doing while many who were unheralded and unacclaimed in this world, I think are going to be greatly rewarded on this day for their genuine hearts because by the power of the Holy Spirit they toiled to serve the Lord in faithfulness. Preachers who toiled to preach the true Gospel, win true converts, progress them in true sanctification and build true churches for the glory of God. I say that because I just left a group in London like that, guys who are pouring their hearts out and discouraged most of the time and doing the best they can and they’re just kind of the off-scouring of the religious elite of the Anglican Church of England who has almost no attendance in their churches either. They just have the power because they have state money.

But this day will expose integrity, the genuineness of the Christian worker. This will be a day of infallible and irrefutable reckoning of the works of believers. No excuses. No explanations will be given or offered. His verdict of our works will be of such impeccable dignity that none will dare even speak anything more than these words, “Yes Lord, your judgment is true.” I do not know but I presume that there’s going to be some tears of regret on this day and certainly there’s going to be some tears of great joy. All that ever faithful, every enduring nursery worker. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year. Kept those babies in the nursery so that moms and dads could listen to the preaching of the word of God. I believe they’re going to be greatly rewarded on that day. That small group leader. Nobody much saw it but they prayed over their role; lifted those names to God; tried to love everyone in their class and minister to them; taught the word the best they knew how and encouraged; tried to reach out and enroll the lost. Year after year. Year after year. Listen to me, friend: don’t you be discouraged. There is going to be great reward on that day. If your heart is right, if you’re doing it for God’s glory.

“Pastor, how do we know our hearts are wicked? How do we know we’re doing it for God’s glory?” There will be an abiding awareness and when something doesn’t go your way, you’re not too upset about it because you were doing it for the Lord’s glory anyway. We’re tested like that, aren’t we? There’s not a Christian worker in this church that doesn’t have to repent fairly regularly of, “O God, get me out of this thing.” Amen? “O God, remind me it’s not about me, it’s not about my work.” I’m telling you, brothers and sisters, it’s just all too common that men join churches today that they might have their own little minister in the church. Brother, you don’t have a ministry and I don’t have a ministry, it’s Christ’s ministry that matters. And so-called successful pastors are pastors who are able to coddle and comfort, if you will, and to welcome all those things in the church. I’m telling you, this day is going to expose the intentions of the heart.

That dear one in the ministry or in the church family who lived minimally in order that they might give through God’s church and for God’s work will be greatly rewarded on that day. I was very aware of some brothers there in Europe who, and you’ve got to understand they can work and work and work and witness and witness and witness and labor and labor and labor and have 20 at best. That lonely discouraged pastor faithfully laboring in the middle of nowhere. Of course, he’s expected to administrate the entire church program, counsel the troubled, visit the sick, marry the living, bury the dead, wrestle with malicious matriarchs and demonic deacons and then, of course, he’s got to be a flame of fire in the pulpit on Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night or he’s not like John MacArthur. “He don’t preach like Adrian Rogers.” Look at those guys’ schedules. Their church is treating them right. All they had to do was study and preach. Those pastors, man, my heart goes out to them. That’s why I’m thankful you let me spend a lot of energy encouraging those brothers. They feel like a failure most of the time. They are tempted to quit. They are tempted to just give up and go through the motions in the flesh. They see so many other pastors get ahead that way but then they repent again of that temptation and they stay at it only because they want to serve and honor their Lord. I believe this one is going to receive great glory on this day, great reward on this day.

Well, it’ll manifest integrity. I’m telling you it’s over on that day. I’ll be shown and you’ll be shown. It will be what it is. I think it might be shocking. “Well, I thought she was the sweetest, kindest, dah, dah, dah. Always giving.” Yeah, and she thought she was too. It wasn’t for the glory of God. I can tell you that I’ve been in the same church for 34 years and I believe I’m getting pretty good at knowing when it’s real and when it ain’t. I’m telling you that the key is: do you get irritable and disgruntled when you don’t get your way? That exposes the idolatry of my heart and your heart. Aren’t you glad we get to repent and start over again, amen? I sure am.

Not only that, secondly, another purpose of this great family meeting, this Judgment Seat of Christ is to motivate faithfulness. In the context of Paul saying we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, the verse before that, 2 Corinthians 5:9 he says, “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.” Paul says, “This reality motivates me to want to be pleasing to the Lord in my life down here.” 2 Corinthians 5:11, he says, “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.” When he says “knowing the fear of the Lord,” I believe that’s misinterpreted often. What Paul is saying there is that he’s writing to the Corinthian church where he had lots of false teachers come in and try to undermine his leadership and what Paul is saying there is, “Though many come in and slander me and many accuse me or us,” I use Paul’s team, “of being insincere and not having genuineness.” He said, “What we’re actually doing, we’re really functioning in the fear of the Lord.” In other words, “Our motive for all that we do in our ministry is to reverence and please God, the fear of the Lord. We know what that is.” Paul’s not saying he’s perfect at it but he’s saying, “That’s the motive for my ministry.” He’s saying, “The only motive I have in persuading men and preaching this Gospel is to please and glorify God.” He says, “Knowing that I’ll stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ motivates me on to faithfulness.”

I believe the Spirit of God just popped these two verses in my head at this point. First of all, ministers are going to have a greater accountability on this day and the Bible warns, “Don’t let many of you become teachers because you’ll incur stricter judgment.” That doesn’t really refer to just teaching Vacation Bible School or whatever, it means the office of teacher, the pastors of churches. Be careful that you might desire something like that. There’s an accounting for the souls of men when you take that office. It’s a stricter judgment. Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them,” now watch, “for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.” That’s the Judgment Seat of Christ. Ministers will be answerable in a unique and greater fashion than others.

But then, of course, church members and all believers. Philippians 4:17. Paul says, “Not that I seek the gift itself,” the church at Philippi had sent him some nice gifts. He said, “but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.” I believe Paul is saying there is a day, the Judgment Seat of Christ, where there will be an accounting and a rewarding so first of all, he says, ministers and pastors have the highest accountable on this day because they’re going to lead my work in ministry but church members likewise should support that and you’ll be held accountable for your involvement along with your ministers. You’ll give an account too. Be for sure, Romans 14:12, “So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.”

Motivate faithfulness. You know that we keep up with basketball a little bit at my house and I was just reading the other day about Pat Summitt, the now retired basketball coach at the University of Tennessee for women’s basketball. I just jotted down a few things about Pat Summitt. Of course, he resigned a couple of years ago due to early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type. When she resigned, she had 1,098 wins and 208 losses. 84% winning percentage. She’s known to be tough as nails but one of the things that jumped out to me was later in her career she revealed that a great part of her drive…I like to read about people who accomplished a lot and see what their motivation is. She shared that a great part of her motivation was to please her daddy. Her daddy grew up in that generation in the South where men just didn’t share their feelings. Do you know what I’m talking about? They just didn’t share their feelings and she shared that he’d never said to her that he loved her. She sort of spent her whole life wanting to please her daddy and hear that and praise the Lord before he died, he hugged her and said, “I love you.”

I thought about that and do you know a coach named Nick Saban. Do you know who I’m talking about? There was a documentary about him and he talks about washing cars at his daddy’s gas station and he said, “You’d better do it every bit of it exactly right or you’ll start over and do it all over again.” He revealed that, “I’ve spent my life making sure I’m pleasing my Daddy. Doing it the way my Daddy expected it to be done.” I thought, “You know, when the Spirit of God regenerates your heart, you begin a pilgrimage whereby from your heart you want to say, I want to please my Daddy. I’m motivated to want to honor my Father in heaven.” And the longer you go, the stronger it gets. Amen? The longer I serve him, the sweeter it grows.

Well, there’s going to be a great family meeting after the rapture of the church. There’s going to be a reckoning of the righteous on that day. There’s going to be a giving of rewards on that day and it’s written so that we might be motivated. Stay faithful, child of God. Listen, stay faithful. Listen, stay faithful, child of God. Don’t quit. Listen, let me remind you: don’t quit. I don’t care how it feels. I don’t care if you get discouraged. I don’t care. If I’m not going to quit, you’re not going to quit and we’re not going to quit because we’ve got our Daddy we want to please. We’re not going up there in terror and fear. It’s not that kind of meeting but we want to please our Daddy.

It’s going to manifest integrity. It’s going to motivate faithfulness. Thirdly, under the purpose, it’s going to magnify Christ. You know, the Bible uses the analogy of crowns for our rewards. It’s just an image; it’s just a word picture as such. The Bible speaks of us getting and incorruptible crown, a crown of rejoicing. The Bible speaks of us getting the crown of life. The crown of righteousness. The crown of glory. Now here’s what’s interesting: the Greek word for “crown” that we receive is “stephanos.” This word “stephanos” is very different from another Greek word that you can translate crown which is “diadema, diadem.” We are crowned with stephanos, not diadema. Diadema is the royal crown. It’s the kingly crown. It’s the imperial crown. That’s not the word used for our crown. Our word is stephanos. It’s a word for those who are granted honor because of distinguished service. When we get to the Judgment Seat of Christ, we get a crown that is a crown of merit, not a crown of majesty. It’s for the works we did while in the flesh. The diadema, the royal diadem, the kingly crown is for Christ alone. Ours in the victor’s crown because he won the victory for us. Revelation 19:12 says, “His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems.” Not stephanos, that’s the crown that we get. He gets the kingly, royal crown.

I believe there’s a key insight in Revelation 4:10. In Revelation 4:10 John sees a vision and he says, “the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,” and then it talks about, “Worthy are you,” and they are worshiping him and praising him and giving him the glory. I believe these 24 elders are symbolic of the raptured church glorified in heaven and here I’m convinced is this raptured, glorified church laying their crowns at the feet of Jesus. He wears the diadem, the royal diadem, the kingly crown, by inherent right. We sing the song, “Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all,” but in the truest sense, we can’t crown him with the royal crown, his Father has already given him the royal crown. It’s his by inherent might and by inherent right yet he, the one with the diadem, the royal crown, gives us the stephanos, the crown of achievement. You overcame.

Then we gladly turn and lay our stephanos at his feet. Why do we do that? Because we know it’s all grace. We’re up there on that Judgment Seat day and we’re rewarded for the works we did for the Lord and then we’re immediately reminded and slain in our hearts that every single tiny desire I had to serve God and every single tiny action I engaged in to serve my Lord was all a gift of grace. Grace is that concept of giving something that you in no way earned or deserved. Listen to me – are you listening, child of God? You don’t deserve to get to serve him. You serve him only because in grace he changed your heart and gave your old wicked body a new heart that would desire to serve him. You know, it’s all grace. It’s all grace. That’s why we turn and say, “O Lord, O Lord, you just rewarded me with the stephanos but I must put it back at your feet.”

In grace he saw us. In grace he sought us. In grace he came to us. In grace he died for us. In grace he was raised for our justification. In grace he sent Gospel preachers. In grace he convicted us of sin. In grace he convinced us of Christ’s saving power. In grace he sealed us by the Holy Spirit. In grace he sanctified us during this earthly pilgrimage. In grace he will glorify us at death or at the rapture and we will then appear at the Judgment Seat where we will receive something of a stephanos, a crown, a reward for our labors and we will turn back around to the one who wears the kingly crown, the diadem, and we will lay it at his feet for his deserves all the glory, all the praise and all the honor. After all, now listen: we do not serve him for the reward, he is the reward. He is the reward. It’s like the moment we get in heaven, streets of gold, gates of pearl, steaphnos rewards, it doesn’t matter, just let me look at him. He gets all the glory. It’s to magnify Christ.

Real quickly, IV: The party. I started not to use this word. I thought, “I don’t think it’s dignified enough.” It just seemed to be trite in a way but I thought, “No, parties can be good parties.” The Bible says there’s going to be the Marriage of the Lamb. I believe there’s the rapture, we’re caught up together in the clouds. Somehow things transfer over where we’re at the Judgment Seat, a great family meeting to receive rewards. Then after all that’s settled, the marriage occurs. My. My. My. My. Revelation 19:7-9, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” What does that mean? That means there’s a Judgment Seat and all that’s done. It’s all been done. All that’s been settled. We got through the bumps, the marriage has come. First the rapture, then the reward ceremony, then the Marriage of the Lamb. After the Marriage of the Lamb, there’s the Marriage Supper of the Lamb which I believe the redeemed Israel is invited to. It’s just going to be one great big magnanimous party. Isn’t that the way it is after the marriage ceremony? It’s kind of fun, isn’t it? Dance a little bit. Baptists dance a little bit. Don’t look at me spiritual. Some of you kids have been doing it a long time whether they should have or not.

It’s just going to be a great, great, great celebration. It’s going to be a great party. Jude 1:24 says, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,” now look, “and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.” Don’t forget the party. Don’t leave that out. But if you go to a party after a wedding, what do we call it after a wedding? The reception. We ought to call it the party. When you go to the reception, I haven’t ever been to one where only the bride was happy. The ones I go to, the bride and the groom are happy. I want you to know that on this day, Jesus the groom is going to be exceedingly happy. Do you know why? Because we are his reward. We are his reward. He gives us the stephanos for works done by grace while we’re here living for him on the earth but when we get to heaven the Bible pictures the Father as taking all of us up, having been redeemed and forgiven and cleansed and born again and made righteous by the righteousness of Christ and then the Father presents us to Jesus as his bride and it makes him exceedingly happy. Isaiah 53:10-11, “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him,” to crush who? To crush Jesus. “Putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring.” What does that mean? All those he’s going to save by being put to death. All those he’s going to save are being crushed by the Father. “He’ll see His offspring. He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” Look at verse 11, “As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied.” There is going to be deep joy in the heart of Christ when his perfected bride is presented to him at the Marriage of the Lamb.

So there is joy all around. If you ask the bride on this day, “Is this a day of great joy?” she’ll say, “Yes! My great joy is my groom.” But if you ask the groom, even Jesus, “Do you have great joy on this day?” He’ll say, “Yes! Yes, my great joy is my bride, my church, those I saved by my precious blood.” That’s the way it is with us in our weddings and that’s the way it will be with him. There’s going to be a great gathering up off the earth of the saints of God and meeting him in the air. There’s going to be a holy family meeting where rewards will be administered for deeds done in the body while we’re down here. There’s going to be the Marriage of the Lamb and it’s just going to be a great, great, great party. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Let’s stand together.