Condemnation According to Works

Okay, we're going to continue on in chapter 2, and this morning we're going to pick it up in verse 6. And so, your first page there of your notes and of the slide here just kind of gives you the big picture as to where we're at. We're talking about this group of moral Gentiles who thought they were better than the group of pagan Gentiles that was described in chapter 1. they thought they were better than them, and so Paul is writing to say, hey, you know what, you're still under the condemnation and judgment of God. Just because you might be a little more moral and have these thoughts that because you're judging others that you're going to escape the judgment of God, you're absolutely wrong. You're still going to come under the condemnation and under the judgment of God.

This morning we're going to look at the judgment is going to be in according to works and there's going to be no partiality with God. That really stands out in verse 6 and then very clearly as well in verse 11 where we're going to see there about there's no partiality with God. And then verse 7 through 10 is going to talk about the judgment that is going to be according to works.

Alright, come on in. As we look at this section of scripture this morning, it's an ancient way of arranging material called a chiasm. It's interesting, verses 6-11 show this pattern of ABC and then CBA, which is described in ancient literature as a chiasm.

Verses 6 and 11 go together. Verses 7 and 10 go together. And then verses 8 and 9 go together. And 6 and 11 show, as we mentioned already, the impartiality of God. 7 and 10, those who are persevering in good work. And then 8 and 9, those who are selfish and are not obeying the truth. So let's read through this section here this morning. Verse 6. down through verse 11 of chapter 2. Let's start in verse 5.

But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds, to those who by perseverance and doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality and eternal life. But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation, there will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. But glory and honor and peace to every man who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for there is no partiality with God."

So as we look at that, we see verses 6 and 11 really communicating a similar thing. Verse 6 reads, Who will render to every man according to his deeds? And verse 11 says, For there is no partiality with God. We see that we're really communicating a similar. Every man is going to render to every man, and then there's no partiality with God.

So that would be kind of the front end and the back end of this, what's called a chiasm. So when we look at verse 7 and verse Verse 10, they're also very similar to those who, by perseverance and doing good, seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life, but glory and honor and peace to every man who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So those are the ones that are doing right. Those are the ones that are persevering and doing good, and they're receiving glory and honor and peace for doing good. And verse 8 and 9, then they go together.

But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation, there will be tribulation and distress of every soul of man who does evil, for the Jew first and also to the Greek." So those are describing those people that are selfishly ambitious, they're not doing what it is that's right, that the Lord would have them to be doing, not obeying the truth, basically going their own way and doing their own thing. So that's how that is described, the kind of pattern of this section of Scripture, of these verses. So if we break it down a little bit more, it's interesting.

In verses 7 and 10, this describes those that are persevering and doing good. They're seeking for glory, they're seeking for honor, they seek for immortality, and there's no partiality described there. So the result is eternal life, the result is glory, the result is honor, and the result is peace. When we look at the opposite, when we look at verses 8 and 9, those that are selfishly ambitious, they are not obeying the truth, they are obeying unrighteousness, they are doing what is evil, there's no partiality, and the result there is wrath, indignation, tribulation, and distress.

Just a little comparing and contrasting of these verses there. Again, the similarity of these verses was really really struck me, kind of jumped out at me. Verse 7 and then verse 8, look at these. Verse 7 is describing, in a sense, the ones that are doing good, and verse 8 is describing those that are not doing what's right. Both of them start out, to those who, to those who, and this one says, who by perseverance and doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, the result is eternal life. Who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, the result is wrath. Just looking at the similarity of how these verses are laid out, I thought it was interesting.

The reason that I put in verse 9 here that there will be tribulation, and those of you like myself that have the NAS, yours says there will be. How many have the NAS version? Several of us do, myself included. There will be tribulation, but for those of you that have the KJV, that's not there. There will be is not included. And it's inserted. Right. Here's where I thought it made a difference.

For those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, the result is wrath indignation, tribulation, and distress. Well here, if you take it the way the NAS has it laid out, it seems like the result doesn't start until you come to tribulation and until you come to distress. I think the way the KJV reads it a little bit better, that the result of their selfish ambitions, and if they're not obeying the truth, and if they're obeying unrighteousness, the result is wrath, and indignation, and tribulation, and distress.

Does that make sense? A little bit of how the difference is there. Any questions about that? Okay. It sounds like what Pat Robertson said. What did he say? I don't listen to Pat Robertson. He said that Sharon's stroke was because he's doing evil to the Jews. Okay. It's not what the Lord has in mind for them to divide their country. Okay. And so he quoted scripture. Okay. Did he use this? He didn't, he used something out of Job, but this fits. It's all through the Bible. Sure, sure, sure.

Okay, so verse 9 and verse 10, the result is going to be tribulation and distress for every soul, and then the result of verse 10, glory and honor and peace for every person, for those who do evil, for those who do good, the Jew first, also to the Greek, and the same thing is said in verse 10, to the Jew first. I just thought it was interesting how these things were so similar in the way that the verses were laid out that we're looking at this morning. Okay, any questions?

We'll look at these in a little more detail now, kind of dive in, now that we see the big picture. Okay, so verse 6 to look at specifically, God who will render to every man according to his deeds. And let's say, I want to ask the question, when is God going to render to every man according to his deeds?

And we talked about this a good bit last week. And so I wanted to kind of go back to it, maybe give a little bit more clarification and also give opportunity if there were any questions or thoughts from last week. So, I know we just kind of blew through a lot of information last week.

If we looked at verse 5 again, But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds. So, last week what we stated was that the day of wrath is talking about the judgment of the nations, which takes place at the end of the Tribulation Period. I wanted to make a distinction that I did not make last week. You see there at the end of verse 5 that there's a Day of Wrath and the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God. So, the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God is referring to the Judgment of the Nations and also to the Great White Throne Judgment.

It can be referring to both of those there. Because we talked about this last week, Paul is writing this in his mindset of the imminent return of Christ. So he's saying, listen guys, you're storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath. And he is thinking that Jesus is going to come back very soon. It could have been the next day or that day when Paul was writing that. So you're storing up wrath for this time period of the tribulation and the judgment of the nations. That would be the immediate context of what it was that Paul was writing, what he was expecting. but it hasn't happened yet.

So then the question was, these people have died, many unbelievers have died since that time frame, and what are they storing up wrath for? They're not going to go into the tribulation because they've died. So they're storing up wrath for the Day of Wrath, which is also the righteous judgment of God, which is the great white So they're not storing up wrath for the tribulation and the judgment of the nation, because they died. They cannot go into that event, so to speak. But they're storing up wrath for the righteous judgment of God, which is the Great White Thorn Judgment.

Does that make sense? Are there questions? I know that gets a little bit tricky, a little bit confusing. The judgment of the nations is the sheep and the goats. That's right. We read through that. We read through Matthew 25, 31-46 last week. That's the separation of the judgment of the nations.

How much of that timeline that you gave us last week do you think Paul understood at the time he was writing it? Well, the Church Age was a mystery in the Old Testament. I think Paul... I think he was growing in his understanding of the Church Age, but I think it was a process, he was growing in his understanding of it. I think he understood the Rapture, because he talks about that in Thessalonians. So, yeah. What do you think about that, Al? How much of that timeline did... I don't have it, I should have pulled it up again.

I think he fully understood the entire timeline, because he understood the Old Testament, which talked about the Day of the Lord, and the Day of the Lord... This is the tribulation period in the Millennial Kingdom. And so, there's more information on the Day of the Lord, on the tribulation period, excuse me, on the Millennial Kingdom, in the Old Testament, than there is in the New Testament. So he understood that completely. He understood the tribulation period. And here he spent three years in the desert with Christ, getting revealed to him the Church.

Any other questions? I wanted to get some time to sort through what we talked about last week a little bit, if there were any questions. Alright, let's continue down through here in verse 6. Okay, verse 6 is a quote from the Old Testament, and it's Proverbs 24, verse 12, and in Psalm 62, verse 12 as well. I won't take the time to read those, but just to make a note and make a point of that.

So the idea here is that God is going to render to every man according to his deeds. The idea here of rendering is simply to pay off, recompense, pay back. The idea here is of reimbursing a person for doing something. God is going to render to every person according to their deeds. So, every man, this is showing that there is no partiality with God.

In the specific context, every unbelieving moral Gentile, which is what the context is talking about, but also when you talk about God rendering to every man according to their deeds, it's all people regardless of nationality or belief. In the specific context, we're talking about the unbelieving Gentile moralist, but everybody's going to be recompense for their deeds. In that sense, you can even say that believers are going to be recompensed for our deeds at the judgment seat of Christ. God's going to look at our works and say, were they done in the Spirit or were they done in the flesh? But I think in our immediate context, it's talking about the unbelieving moral Gentiles. It's driving home the point of no partiality with God here. He's going to render to every man according to their deeds.

Now this gets a little bit tricky and a lot of people can misinterpret this. What's being described here is a general system of God governing the world. And we see this very same thing in the Old Testament, where God punishes evil and He rewards righteousness. That's what's being described here.

It's not talking about that a person is saved by works. And many people are going to say, well, it appears here that those who are doing good, those are the ones who are receiving eternal life. Those who don't do good, those are the ones who are not receiving eternal life. So you have to be careful about that. But it's very clear from other passages of Scripture that it's not talking about a way of salvation.

Look at Romans 3. We're going to come to this verse down the road here. Not too far away, probably. So, chapter 3, verse 28 says, For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. And we know that, that salvation does not come by works. Salvation only comes by faith. So, when we look at this verse here, where God is rendering to every man, or rendered to every man according to his deeds, let's not get confused that he's talking about salvation by works here. And we know that works always comes from a heart of faith. That's always the way that it is, too.

Jim, you have to turn back to Romans 1. I mean, the issue is if you read the scripture out of context, you can't come away from this with anything that works saves, right? I mean, if you were just to look at these verses, what other conclusion could you make?

Right, that's right. Already in Romans 1, 17, he says, for in it is the righteousness of God revealed from faith that faith is good and it just shall be by faith, right? So, I mean, there's a foundation that Paul is building on here that we tend to forget because we're months hence, right? That's right, yeah. But let's go back to Romans 1 and set the foundation as has been said already by Paul. That's right, that's right. Because you could conclude that until you come to Romans 3 that you don't know by what basis it works, but in fact he's already established it. Already established it, yeah, that's great. Everybody catch that? He's already driven home this point that it's not of works. He's already driven that point home in chapter 1, verse 17. Great. Thanks, Bob.

I was just saying, that's what the skeptical do. He or she will take you to places in scripture and interpret them out of context. It's really crucial that we remind ourselves of that. You just can't do that. That's right. I think that's why a lot of churches have a hard time teaching Romans. Because they don't drive home that and understand that Paul is establishing that foundation first. And then he goes on to talk about good works. I think it's difficult for pastors even to teach Romans.

That's been my experience. You always have to take scripture in context. So it's chapter 1, he's established a point. Chapter 3, he's reiterating a point that's already been established. So let the Bible commentate on itself. Commentate on chapter 1, commentate on chapter 3.

Any other thoughts? Questions? I don't know, I don't know what the English, English sentence, the seven, verse seven. Okay. I don't, like, does it mean that they are persevere, no. Persevering? Persevering. Uh-huh. In, like, doing good works or something. Uh-huh. Or is it that they are, um, they are, looking for the glory and honor in the good works. For themselves, you mean? Uh-huh.

It's like you have idea what goodness or good is, so you are, not that you are trying to do it, but you are looking at it and seeking glory and honor. So are you asking, are they looking for that glory and honor and immortality for themselves? Or are they looking for it in relation to God? They are trying to do good, or they are just looking at good and thinking that honor and glory and everything is there. Yeah. I think what you're saying is that, are they seeking eternal life in, let's see, where are you?

Are they seeking glory and immortality and eternal life? And because they're seeking that, they're doing good in order to obtain that. Yeah, because they're seeking, I mean, if you seek it, I mean, you cannot really be good out of yourself, but you are seeking, you are trying to seek what that is. Yeah, so I understand your question to be they're seeking that, And the way they're going to obtain it is by doing good works, persevering in good works.

Was that your question? Essentially, it was like, it was either you are trying to do good works, and that's how you sort of like, that's how you seek the glory, or you are just looking at the general character of good works or what that is. And by looking at it, you're actually doing good. So why don't you just explain seven? Yeah.

The idea here of persevering, or patient continuance, and doing good, is one of under-abiding. We're abiding under, in relation to things or circumstances, like a steadfast consistency. So these folks are, it's describing these people that are doing good, who are patiently continuing in the circumstances that they're in, and they're abiding under these circumstances of steadfast consistency. That's the idea here, coming across with perseverance and patience.

So they're abiding under what? Under Christ? In Christ? They're continuing on in their good works. It doesn't necessarily drive home their relationship. Persevering and doing good. So, I don't know if it's... I'd say they're abiding under what it is that their actions. I mean, it certainly is coming, it's stemming from a relationship.

For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Sure, because it says, for sure it's talking about believers, because it says that they're going to receive eternal life. No doubt. That's right. It's always based on faith, but we're looking at the overall principle of God's dealing with mankind, where he's rewarding righteousness, and he punishes evil. There's sort of an understood thing here, that this abiding under is the relationship with the Lord. Is that what you're saying? It is, and so this is coming from a relationship with the Lord.

But I think what he's driving at is that these folks are doing... Yeah, the source is the Lord, but these folks are... I'm not sure he's driving home the source of the Lord, I think he's driving home their actions, because he's addressing a group of unbelievers. And so he's saying, these folks who are doing good, their result is going to be eternal life. These folks who are not, their result is going to be eternal damnation. That's right. That's right. Right. Yeah. Like, I see this in a different way that Paul is saying, you know, if you do good, you'll have eternal life. And if you don't, then you have, you know, indecation and rationalization and anger. Sure.

But who does good? Nobody. You know? I guess I'm seeing it as, this isn't, this is a hypothetical person. who could do good by patient continuance and doing good, seek your glory, honor, immortality, because who can do that? So it's not the Christian, it's nobody. That's how I see it. So then, you know, it's anybody who attempts to, but they're never going to follow through.

Well, I was just going to take us back to Romans 1 again. Remember, Paul said, even in verse 16, before 70, I'm not ashamed of the gospel crisis, the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believes, to the Jew first, then to the Greek. And then he says, but for in it is the righteous, God revealed it from faith to faith. So I think where you're going here, and I'm anticipating you've got it on the board now, these Old Testament examples, the principles of faith. Sure.

I mean, what did Noah respond to? The cross? Noah wasn't responding to the cross, he was responding to what God had revealed to him, right? The same principles there for Abraham, or for any of the others, for Daniel. What are these people responding to? Not the cross. I mean, they are ultimately responding to the cross, but they're responding by faith. And what's faith? Faith's very simply believing what God has revealed.

It's that simple. or that difficult. Sure, yeah. The power of the flesh, as Rachel said. In the flesh, nobody gets it done, right? Yeah. But again, I think what Paul's calling us to, to remind us, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who brought us unto salvation by faith, right? And oh, by the way, you know, we got these people working wrong deeds, and these people working right deeds, but Paul's not giving credit for right deeds.

I mean, it's all filthy rags, right, before God. Sure. It's the principle of faith. Right, that's right. That's where you're going, I think, right? That's right. Yeah? You still have to deal with where it says eternal life. I still don't understand. Yeah. Because it sounds like you're saying one thing, and I understand what Bob is saying, and I agree with it.

But he's comparing verse 6, when God's rendering according to the deeds, you know, on the one hand, eternal life, on the other hand, wrath and indignation. So is that for the believer in one and the unbeliever in the other? Or the good deeds and the bad deeds by believers?

You know, the principle of salvation is always based on faith. That's already been established. But I think what he's addressing here is, he's taking it to the next step. He's saying, okay, salvation is always based on faith. He said that in one, he's going to reiterate it again. in chapter 3, but to this group of people he's saying that if there's going to be patient continuance, and if you're going to be seeking after glory, and if you're going to be seeking after honor, and if you're going to be seeking after immortality, he's just addressing the practical. He says, you know what, that's going to be in addition to your faith. That's going to be in addition to your faith, and the result is simply going to be eternal life. I think he's just being real practical with this group of people and saying, you know what, you're not obeying the truth, you're seeking after unrighteousness, this is going to be the end. If you're persevering, you're seeking after honor, you're seeking after glory, this is going to be the end.

I think he's just dealing in practical terms, not necessarily dealing with are you walking by faith, have you put your personal faith and trust in God, or not? That's the way I'm looking at this passage. Yeah, he's describing... this context is describing a group of unbelievers. Certainly verse, you know, chapter 1 was this... let me back up, he wrote this letter to the church in Rome, to a group of believers, but he's describing unbelievers. in chapter 1, and he's describing unbelievers in chapter 2 here.

Yeah? The commentary in this study Bible agrees with what Rachel said, not that that's a final authority, but I just thought it was interesting, because if anyone persists in doing good deeds, that is, lives a perfect life, he will receive eternal life. No one can do this, but if anyone could, they would give him life, since God judges according to what a person does. Yeah. That's a good point. Sure.

In the context, it's a condemnation according to divine standards. You know, this is the divine standard. If you could do this, then you would have eternal life. But it ends up turning around and being a condemnation because you can't. I mean, it could be looked at that way, I don't know. Right. It's definitely a good possibility. Hypothetical situation, sure.

Can't we obtain this? Can't we obtain doing good, glory, honor, immorality? But if it's out from faith, sure, then no problem. And we certainly don't seek glory, honor, and eternal life. I mean, I don't think... I don't know that people who believe by faith... We're seeking the glorified Lord, aren't we? Seeking to honor God. I think maybe what Rachel's saying sounds right.

Yeah. Bob? Well, I don't disagree with that. No, not at all. It's not what you do, it's who you are, right? And when you know who you are, what you do isn't an evidence of who you are, right? There's no capability of working into eternal life, right? No, none whatsoever. Sure. I mean, none of us can achieve this by working hard.

Right, right. So, I mean, Paul's kind of sandwiching. Keep in mind, this is the meat and the cheese. I mean, the bread is Romans 1 and Romans 3. You understand what I'm saying? So, the sandwich, and this is the meat and cheese in the center where we're looking at kind of the details of all the things we've put on the sandwich. is, in fact, the salvation by faith, Romans 1, and ultimately you're only justified by faith, Romans 3. But now you're going down this path of showing how inadequate the flesh really is, and I think this is a standard that can never be met by works, right? But still, you know, God's reward of good deeds is only by the faith... Absolutely. That's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. It's tricky. You know, it's a tough passage. I'm thinking about, what if I were somewhere, and just talking to a group of unbelievers? Let's put ourselves into those shoes of talking to a group of unbelievers. And for me to say, hey, you know what?

Those who seek glory, and those who seek honor, and those who are doing right before the Lord, your result is going to be eternal life. you know, in addition to faith. See? I think that's appropriate to say. And for me to say, hey, you who are going to reject righteousness, you who are going to reject the truth, your end is going to be this.

I'm just talking in practical terms with a group of unbelievers. I think that's appropriate to talk to. Not that the hypothetical, you know, Paul speaking hypothetically, Isn't that right? I think that's also a very good approach to this passage. I would contend there's a substantial percentage of unsaved Gentiles who are on a works ethic and are counting up their good works for ultimate salvation. Who are unsaved. Sure. Absolutely. Yeah, no doubt.

I think one of the keys though in understanding this passage, because I've got the next set which is talking about the walk. And I'm going through this. And so, and it's what you said in the beginning, Jim. Where and when is this? And this is at the righteous judgment of God. This is either at the judgment of the nations. This is happening right then. Or it's happening at the Great White Throne. And the Lord Jesus Christ is judging man.

Now, there are those who did good through the tribulation period. And they get rewarded. But why did they do good? Because of their faith. they did good, and they treated the brethren, the Jews, and they visited them while they were in prison, and fed them, and clothed them, and it lists all their good works. And Christ says, come enter into the kingdom, which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

So if we're talking at that point, that this refers to that point, then it's not a hypothetical case. But if it isn't at that point, then, as Rachel says, it's got to be hypothetical. And as the margin in the Bible that Wendy read, it's got to be hypothetical. Does that make sense? Yeah. Hopefully everybody heard that. The way I'm going to teach my section next week is it's not hypothetical, it's at the judgment that is I gave some examples of persevering and well-doing. Jim and I have been talking about this. There are very few commentators that will address this passage, especially in verse 5. They just won't touch it. They don't. Nobody makes any comments about it.

Yeah, we spent hours on the phone, literally, the past two weeks, talking this thing through. Isn't it connected also to somewhere it says that the good works were prepared for us? Sure, in Ephesians, chapter 2 and verse 10. So it's like, who is doing the good works? Yeah, it's tough because in our mind, It's tough to make a distinction between doing good works for salvation and doing good works that come out from faith. I think Hal's point was great.

When you're standing there at this point of judgment and God looks and He's going to judge your works, which is what it says in Matthew. It says your works are going to be judged. In Revelation, the Great War Throne, it says you will be judged according to your deeds.

And so, if you persevered, if you sought after glory, if you sought after honor, if you sought after these things, then boom, your result is going to be eternal life. But, all of that comes from, out from a heart of faith. So, in Ephesians, it all comes about, we're created in Christ Jesus on two good works. So sure, works are always coming from the... good works before the Lord are always coming from the right source.

But we're talking about a different group of people, and we're talking about a different judgment at that point. So, we're talking about people who have persevered through the tribulation, who have done good during the tribulation, and that's... in fact, Passion of Ephesians is talking about those that are in the church age, where we've been placed into the body of Christ, we've been created in Christ to do good works.

So, it sends us a little different situation there. I'm just thinking, because the passage is so confusing, but we could just hardly say that Paul meant to confuse somebody. So, if you look at it from the point of audience, or those who hear it, what they were supposed to hear, because it does sound confusing, so what were they thinking? Right.

And if we come back to the idea that they're standing before the Lord at this point of judgment, like Hal mentioned just a couple minutes ago, Let's go over to Revelation. In chapter 20, look at verse 11. Revelation chapter 20 and verse 11. And I saw a great white throne. And him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds."

See, now that right there is, I think, it's tough for us to comprehend that phrase. judged according to their deeds, because in our minds, it's not based on works, it's always based on faith. Either you trusted the Lord as your personal Savior, or you haven't trusted the Lord as your personal Savior. So, when we get into these different phrases where we're judged according to our deeds, it's tough, and it gets tricky.

So, what happens is, it's literally someone is standing before the judgment of God. the Great White Throne Judgment, or the Judgment of the Nations, both say deeds. And God is going to look and He's going to say, oh, okay, you persevered, you sought after glory, and you sought after immortality, and you sought after honor, okay, eternal life.

And it comes out of a heart of, that comes out of a heart of faith. Sure, absolutely. Because no matter what the deed is, it can't be good unless it comes from that. That's right. It's always based on faith, but here he is addressing a judgment based on your works. It comes from faith. There's not an option of a good work unless faith is there.

That's right. The main thing is, standing at this judgment is strictly on believers, so there are no believers. At the Great White Throne. So there's no option for them to believe, to have the faith? That's right. And that's what the prophet Michael said, to show them that they need to perform the faith. Does that, Elishka, does that help you at all, or no? The last sentence of that verse? No believers are going to be at YFW. No, the Great White Throne Judgment is only for unbelievers. So, me giving the example of those who have persevered was a bad example. I should have read one of the verses that say those who have done their deeds have been wrong, or not obeyed righteousness, or not obeyed the truth.

So, it's just like, according to their bad deeds, one will get hurt... It's according to their... One will be the hell worse. But the last verse in that chapter says, anyone not found written in the Book of Life, It's according to their unbelief, coming back to faith versus lack of faith. It's their faith, and their lack of faith, and then their not obeying the truth, their pursuing unrighteousness.

Therefore, he says he's going to judge them according to their deeds. But their wrong deeds come out of a heart of unbelief. And their good deeds come out of a heart of unbelief, too. But we would testify to good deeds. What the world sees as good deeds, feeding the poor, and all the stuff that they do, if they're unbelievers, they're still unbelievers.

I didn't hear you address this, but what does the judgment seat, that seems to take Okay, let's look at that. Okay, let's look at that. 2 Corinthians 6, 9. Okay. 510. Yeah, so we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

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 presence. We are not again commending ourselves to you, but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, that you may have an answer to those who take pride in appearance, not heart. The judgment seat of Christ, therefore, we must all appear.

What that's talking about is when believers stand before the judgment seat of Christ. At the rapture, all believers are taken up to be with the Lord in the air, whether they're living or whether they're dead, and there's going to be the judgment seat of Christ. What's that passage?

1 Corinthians, it describes it more. Chapter 3. Let's go back to Chapter 3. Okay, let's go to... Jim, I may need to point out that Barth is that he's Judgment Seeker of Christ. Judgment Seeker is all one word. and Bhima means really good stuff. Yeah, what you'll see in the first print is you have to read the first rewards. Yeah, yeah. Barb, you really ought to do yourself a favor and get Hal's teaching on this in the second print because this was absolutely outstanding. It was one of the most informative Sunday School classes I've ever been into in my life. So look at Hal's teaching.

Yeah, that one is only for unbelievers. And the Bema, the judgment seat of Christ, is for believers. And it's for those believers who are raptured, who are alive or who are dead. Let's just read it real quick. I think it will help you understand a little bit more. Verse 13. Chapter 3, verse 13 of 1 Corinthians. Each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it. That's meaning that judgment day. Because it is to be revealed with fire, the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.

If any man's work which has been built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. And if any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. So the works of the believers, now this is a believer's works, only for believers are going to be judged with fire. And if our works remain, then we're going to receive a reward. If our works are burned up, they'll be as wood, hay, or stubble. So works that have been done in the flesh, those will be burned up as wood, hay, and stubble. Those whose works remain, then we will receive a reward, but not for ourselves. Not that we can just treasure up rewards for ourselves, but that we'll cast those rewards, just give them right to the Lord.

So that's the different judgements. Yes? Why is that not a good thing? If any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire." I'll have to give that some thought. In that instant, it's going to be burned away, and what we think of as ourselves, coming from ourselves, is going to be burned away and gone. Sure. As a worthless thing it is. Yeah. But our small little people will miss that. They'll see that being destroyed, and they'll be sad.

Isn't fire like a refining process, too? Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. That chart that Hal had, if you can get it from that particular teaching, was incredible. I mean, the visual of that was so perfect to see, because you had all this stuff piled up on a conveyor belt going through the fire. You know, I was a believer in what we thought was firework. And it goes through the conveyor belt, and on the other side is this little tiny piece of something that comes out on the other side. It was wonderful. And to visually see that, was perfect because, you know, we all think we have all these good works and they're coming from the right source, and then what really comes out is... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure, yeah, that's right, that's right, that's right.

And just to complete things, Tim, if I might mention, and I'll mention this, the judgment of the nations is described in Matthew 25. So that's the whole sheep and goats scenario. That's right. The three judgments, Great White Throne, of the believers, and of the nations, are three different times in history. That's right, that's right. Relate to different outcomes. That's right. Good questions, interaction, and tough passage, so I'm not sure if we've left any more or left more confused, so I don't know.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for our time, and as we said earlier, our dependency is upon you, that your Spirit will lead us and guide us into all truth, and so that is where our confidence can be, because you have said that. It's a fact, and so that's a fact that we can have faith in, moment by moment, all the time. And so, boy, might that be where our confidence and our sufficiency is in You and in what Your Word has said. And so, in Your name we pray. Amen.