Every Christian will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of their stewardship and receive recompense for their actions, whether good or bad. The sermon explains that this judgment is not about salvation, which is secured by Christ's sacrifice, but about the quality and quantity of works performed after salvation. Using passages from Romans and Corinthians, it clarifies that while believers are fireproof and cannot be lost, their works will be tested by fire, leading to either reward or loss. The ultimate motivation for running the race well is the constraining love of Christ, urging believers to live faithfully until the end.
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In closing out the thoughts that I've had upon my heart, I thought this morning that I would much more shift gears and turn to an end-time event. We have not completed our race yet. The Apostle said, so run that you may have seen. We're all running our race. Some of us are nearer the end than others. We don't seem to know who that person is or who those persons are. But one thing is obviously and absolutely certain that we're going to be with the Lord. And when we get there, we're going to give an account.
It is our stewardship. You remember that in First Corinthians chapter four, the Bible says it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. And not everyone agrees who are Christians about the Bema or steps or as we call it judgment seat that I would like to present to you what I believe the scripture teaches and when I have completed my message I want you to think about it in the event that you've never looked at it quite like that please give it some thought as we read the scriptures together starting if you will at the book of Romans start sneezing, please, forgive me.
I've got hay fever start up this morning. It's not anything that's catching, it's just annoying. Two of my little grandchildren are what I call half-breeds, half-American, half-Canadian. And their parents... had them to give me a gift one time. It said, for Grandpa's dripping spinner, my nose, they gave me handkerchiefs from his little pals. Speaking of that, they seem to like to go out and watch Grandpa work on the airplane.
I do my own maintenance. I was out at the field, and just across from Meacham Field, which is the old Fort Worth Airport, where American Airlines, a very large airline, was born, had its birth there. I was off to the side of the airport. They're talking to a Christian friend of mine who's a vice president of Avemco. Avemco is the United States' largest aircraft insurance company. And Dennis Breen is a lovely Christian. And in his office, I walked in one day and he had a plaque there, it says, Loseeth not thine airspeed, using the King James English. Lest the ground shall rise up and shall smite thee. Pretty good.
Pretty good proverb. Reading from the book of Romans chapter fourteen and verse ten, But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou saideth not thy brother? Keep in mind that there are some supposed contradictions here. Why dost thou judge thy brother? We're told in First Corinthians, if you'll compare with me now, so we'll see that there are at least some assumed or supposed contradictions. First Corinthians chapter five, he says, in verse three, for verily, I verily as absent in body, but present in spirit have judged already.
And then he says in the end of that chapter, verses twelve and thirteen, what have I to do? to judge those who are without. Do not ye judge those who are within? Some very erroneously have thought that the words of our Lord, when he said, Judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge you should be judged, what measure you meet it should be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the being that is in thine own eye, and considers not the moat that is in thine own eye, and thine eye, or considers the moat that is in thy brother's eye, and not consider the being that's in thine own eye? or how will thou save thy brother let me cast out the moat that is in thine eye and behold a beam is in thine own eye thou hypocrite i believe what the lord is teaching there is that when hypocrisy is present judgment is null and void he is not saying we're not to judge otherwise there's a contradiction paul says do not need judge them that are within but those who are without god judges here why dost thou judge thy brother it's obviously in the sense of condemnation.
Why dost thou judge thy brother, or why dost thou set it not thy brother? That is, you render him null and void. For we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, say, the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then, every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Brothers and sisters, we are going home, but don't forget we're going to give an account of our stewardship. It's the life that we've run. We've appreciated the thoughts from the book of Psalms, thirty-two we were hearing this morning. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin. And what that's talking about is a positional aspect of God's judgment. That is to say, God has judged him. It's like Psalm one oh five. Thou has not dealt with us after our sins. And the word after is to be understood as according to our sins. God has not dealt with us according to our sins. If he had, he'd have killed every one of us. And the reason that we understand he has not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities is because he dealt with the Lord Jesus. And if he dealt with him, he won't deal with us over it. But as a member of the family of God, as a member of the body of Christ, where there is true membership.
We are accountable for the life that we live. If you listen to some people, once you're saved, it doesn't matter how you live. I remember a good friend of mine, a Christian friend of mine, that I felt very close to and loved dearly, was saying one day on a radio broadcast, I'm saved and saved eternally. And now that I'm saved, I can get out and do all the things that I want to do. I can drink all the liquor I want to drink, and I'm still going to heaven. I can get into all the trouble I wish I can do all, and he named a whole bunch of things, and boy, you could just almost feel the radio vibrating. People were getting so angry out there in the radio audience, you could just hear it.
He said, you know, and the reason I can do that is because God changed my want to. I don't want to do it anymore. That's pretty clear, wasn't it? Lester rolled off. Lester was a personal friend of mine. He read his Bible through every year on his knees word by word. I spent time with Lester. I was camp pastor for him down at the Lighthouse for Boys in a coastal canal years ago. Lester came and stayed in our home, had a series of meetings with us. I flew his old airplane back in nineteen sixty. We were good friends. And when I separated from the Baptist name, it disturbed Lester in a sense that he said, Don, I want you to meet me in Fort Worth and come down and tell me why you did this. And so Jerry Crick and I went down and spent forty-five minutes with him. prior to him speaking to a Bible conference of over a thousand people.
But he wanted to hear us. And my wife said after that, that she used to hear him on the radio some thirty, maybe twenty-five to thirty days after we had that session with him, that he began to speak on his radio. When he would take up the subject of the family of God, he would say he'd be glad when all the denominational walls are broken down. And I thought that was a wonderful thought. So maybe it had some effect in his thinking. So what I'm getting at now is the fact that someday when we cross that finish line, we will give an account. Some have thought we won't. Let's look at these scriptures together. I want you to compare this one in verse ten with the one in second Corinthians chapter five. There are many verses that I would like for us to look at.
We'll try to go quickly because I certainly want to leave plenty of time for Brother Glenn. I was originally supposed to be here, and then I begged off because of my conflict of schedule, and as you know, I've just blew and messed up everything. So anyway, you're stuck with me, and Plain would have had plenty of time, but anyway, I'll try to get done real quick. Romans chapter fourteen and verse ten, compared to second Corinthians chapter five, and we'll look at verse ten. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he has done whether it be good or bad. Now we've read these two verses. Let that be a platform or basis for which we shall build and then come back and hope to do some expositional study right out of those single verses in each chapter.
While we're at it, now let's go back since we've read both of them and both of them seem to indicate something very similar. Let us go this time, if we will, to the book of First Corinthians. First Corinthians chapter four, please. Let a man, verse one, so account of us as the ministers of Christ. Now this is not the word diaconia or diaconos in the noun form, or it is not the word doulos, which means one who's purchased to serve or slave. Not the word for deacon, the word for slave, but it is the word. It's the word that means someone who is under the deck of a boat or a ship and he's rowing.
And ancient history, and I don't put a lot of stock in that, but ancient history shows that many of those people were actually chained, C-H-A-I-N-E-D, chained to their position so that they were chained to that service of growing. They're down there in the center of the keel on a platform, and they sit there, and that's all they could do. Couldn't get away. And beloved, if there are any chains on us, there are chains of love. He bound us up with his love. And here, as the ministers of Christ, it's the word for under-roar. You see the ship going, but you don't see the fellow out there in the public display paddling it or rowing it.
He's under the deck. It's the word, pupo, meaning under. Great is meaning to row. He's an under-roar. And then he says, as stewards of the mysteries of God, that is, those who have been given the house laws. What is his house? What is his law? That's our word for steward here. And we're not legislators making the rules for the house. We're administrators dispensing those rules of the house. Moreover, it is required in stewards of the man to be found faithful. But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of men's judgment. For he says, yea, I judge not my own self, for I know nothing by myself. That is, I don't know the final aspect of judgment by myself.
Yet am I not hereby justified? Even in this I'm not. In other words, I don't know anything against me at this point. But he said, I'm not even justified in that. Why? Because he doesn't see it all. Paul doesn't. Yet am I not hereby justified? In other words, I'm really not justified in this. But he that judges me as the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time under the Lord come. Now that doesn't contradict chapter five or chapter six. What he's getting at is don't make a final assessment as though this is the Bima, the steps, the judgment seat. until the time come because in the first place we don't know the motivations behind people's actions we can judge the actions if somebody hits somebody in the face we can say yeah he hit him in the face we may not know why he hit him in the face and so here I believe he forbids judging motives judge nothing therefore before the time come unto the Lord or before the time unto the Lord come who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts And then shall every man have praise of God.
I'd like to begin in my platform this morning is by saying every Christian is going to have praise of God. There will be no Christian that will not have praise of God at the judgment seat. Now remember the judgment seat, the English expression, comes from the Greek word B-E-M-A, meaning literally fifth. And at the Greek athletic game, the judge of the game would ascend up the fifth. He would start up. And by the time he reached the vantage point where he was to judge the games, he had a depth perception that was increased immeasurably. If I stood on the ground, and you know this, where the metric system is closing in on us tighter and tighter all the time, but when I was running track in high school, it was all in feet and yards and stuff like that, you see, things that we learned then.
And so if you ran the quarter mile, which was the quarter mile dash, they had the two-twenty dash and a quarter mile, We had eight lanes out there, and those lanes were staggered so that you didn't line up at the starting line all like this abreast, and then the gun inspired and everybody goes around, because the one on the outside lane would have to travel farther. So to make sure he only traveled full hundred and forty yards, he was way up there. The man on the outside lane was way up there somewhere. And the next one here and here, right on down to the starting line was the one on the inside lane. And so if the judge of those races would stand... right down on the ground level, he could not judge it adequately because somebody might on the back side step a little bit inboard from his lane, shorten his distance, and get there quicker, win the race.
In that sense, because of the lack of depth perception. But remember, the word BEMA, meaning steps, means that place where the judge of the games would ascend up, and he could look down on the field of activity and accurately judge every person's race. Did they run it according to the rules? A man may have crossed the finish line first, and he ascends up the steps to get the laurel reed. But he's rejected. Why? Because the judge saw him step out of his lane. He didn't run quite four hundred and forty yards. So I'd like to let this be platform. Let this be basic. Let this be foundation. Every child of God is going to have praise of God. There will be no Christian that will not have praise of God.
But I would like to suggest also we're going to see there's another side as well. Every Christian is going to have some loss, too, brothers and sisters. Let us look at it. You can see in chapter three of this same epistle, Paul is saying there, As a wise master builder, verse ten, As a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds upon it. But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon. Now, if it doesn't matter, then why take heed? For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, and what is the foundation? He's already said Jesus Christ.
If any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. I would suggest that the fire is the word of God. Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. I suggest that the fire is the word of God. And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. That is, the character and quality. Some have thought, and let me pause here, some have thought that since he's going to be judging the character and quality of our works that we've done as a Christian, then how much we've done doesn't count. May I say to you, I do not believe that for one moment. Let me explain. If I have X number of days, X number of weeks, X number of months and years to accomplish something for God...
And if I can use the modern term, I goof off and don't apply myself. My beloved friends, that's time wasted. You've heard someone say when you say, well, what are you doing? I say I'm just killing time, but the chill time is through end your eternity. We are all stewards of time as well. And so do not be deceived into thinking that, well, it doesn't matter how much we do, just long as we do it right. It does. If I could have accomplished ten bushels full, but I only accomplished five bushels full, You know, there's going to be an accounting of that because God knows how much we're capable of busheling, if I may put it that way. Yes, it is sort, but it's a mount as well.
This is emphasizing simply the sort here. If any man's work abide which he has built there upon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned... He himself shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved yet so as. And you make a note in the margin of your Bible, if you would, it is the preposition D-I-A, D-I, meaning through. So notice it again now. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved yet so as through fire. What he's saying is that every child of God is fireproof. Because we are, we're told in Ephesians too, his workmanship, Created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has foreordained that we should walk in them. Everyone that's born again is fireproof.
The lie of the pit of hell that says a child of God could be lost. My beloved friends, will someday be fully proven to have had its origin in the devil. Because what the Lord does, he tells us clearly, whatsoever God does it forever, nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. And God does it that men might fear before him. So you see, when God saves a sinner, he saves him or saves her forever. For whatsoever God does, it is forever. And you can see that you and I are fireproof. That is, we come right up to the fire and the judgment of God's word judges. And we ourselves are fireproof, but the works that we've done may not be fireproof.
He gives a tremendous suggestion here, gold, silver, precious stones. They seem to be enhanced by the fire. But look at wood, hay, and stubble. They usually are consumed by the fire. If any man's work abide which he is built thereupon, he shall receive an award. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. That individual will suffer loss of the things that he has or has not done. We will be judged for what we've done, and we will be judged for what we have not done. When I could have done something for God and did not do it, that will be judged as well. Notice another passage in Corinthians. has many thoughts about the demon, for as I'm concerned. Chapter nine, First Corinthians.
Verse sixteen. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. For of necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, have a reward. But if against my will a dispensation of the gospel, is committed unto me. What is my reward then? Thirdly, that when I preach the gospel, I make the gospel of Christ without charge that I've used not my authority in the gospel. Then, if you will, in verse twenty-four know you not, that they who run in a race run all, but one receives the prize, so run that you may obtain. And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we are an incorruptible.
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I as one, not as one that beats the air. I'll pause a moment to say this, out of which my past I'm not happy about, but in five years of fighting, I used to box years ago. I never did shadow box. Now, there's some of these great, big, fancy guys, and, you know, of course, they're the winners. Maybe that's where I missed out, but they get out there, and boy, they're just doing all their fancy dance stuff, and they're punching in the air. But you know what? I never did knock anybody shadow box, and I couldn't, never did. I just felt wasting my time. And I will say this, maybe there's some value in actual boxing to do that, but in the Christian life there's not. That's what he's saying here. Therefore, so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beats the air, not as I just punch it in the air, but I keep my body under and bring it into subjection, lest by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be judged and considered unsuitable or unfit.
to run the race. A castaway. Some have thought this word indicates that Paul feared he could be lost after he was saved, but obviously no verse ever contradicts another. And he's made it very clear in many other passages that he would never be lost. It's not even suggesting it. And the word doesn't mean loss, doesn't even suggest loss. It is never used in the sense of loss, but in the sense of tested and rejected for use. And so that there may be something that could come up in our life that would cause us not to be able to be used as God had intended. Now that doesn't mean if a person has been in some sin whatever and has been forgiven, the he or she cannot do anything for God.
Please keep in mind. I don't know of a Christian like that. When there's a Christian can do nothing for God, I believe God in faithfulness takes them home. Now there may be some that don't believe that, but I think First Corinthians chapter eleven makes it abundantly clear, for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep, and I believe that means death. I believe John fifteen speaks of this. If we're not bearing fruit, there's a sovereign right to take us home. So that as long as we're still here, it makes me think we must be bearing some fruit. Now you may not see any fruit in my life, but the fact that the Lord still leaves me here makes me believe from John chapter fifteen, our Lord speaking in the upper room, that Donald is still doing something that God is pleased with. I mean, it means very little.
In your opinion, maybe it's nothing, but you don't have the seeing eye that God does. Keep in mind that here Paul is not fearing he would be lost, but rather put on a shelf so to speak that he couldn't serve in the capacity for which God laid hold to him. Then if you will, let's turn to the book of First Corinthians, I'm sorry, First Timothy chapter five. Maybe earlier in the chapter. Let's go earlier in the chapter and pick up a thought there. Maybe we will start at chapter five, then I'll go to another place. In chapter five of First Timothy, verse twenty-four and twenty-five, some men's sins are opened beforehand, going before to judgment.
And some men they follow after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand, and they that are otherwise cannot be hid. Some men's sins are opened beforehand. Going before the judgment. Keep that in mind. And some they follow after. Now back to our two passages. And there's passages that we started with earlier. Let's go to... Well, maybe I'll tell you what we'll do. You think, well, Donald, you're getting confused. Well, probably that's right. Go to First John. I want to look at a verse in First John and also in Second John. First John Chapter Two, please. First John Chapter Two.
And then we'll look at one single verse. in uh second john first john chapter two verse twenty six but these it says these things that i written unto you concerning those who seduce you but the anointing which you have received now notice there's not something that you hope to get someday he says you already have received the anointing which you have received of him abides in you and you need not that any man teach you But as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him.
And now little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. The very suggestion tells me there is the possibility of some shame. You may not look at that verse that way. Turn, if you will, to the second John. Verse eight, look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have lost, but that we receive a full reward. There seems to have been concern on the part of John that there is the chance of not getting full reward. There is the chance of having loss of reward.
And I believe that the premise that the judgment seat of Christ, the beam of the ship, whatever you want to call it, is going to be a pisocial is a wrong concept. Some kind of a massive heavenly ice cream supper. I believe that the Bema will be a place of absolute scrutinization of everything we've done, even down to the motivations which prompted those deeds or the lack of those deeds. Now looking at these two verses, I want to do a little study, word study there with you from the Brittany Testament. that might be helpful. That's Romans fourteen and also second Corinthians five. I want to show the difference that we have in the two. They're not exactly alike.
And the Holy Spirit inside these words, so I take it that, you know, that we should look carefully at them. In Romans chapter fourteen and verse ten, Why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set it not thy brother? For we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, the expression we have here is really not the word before. It's not co-meaning before. It's not in opium that I gave you recently standing in the face of the other night. But it is the word that means alongside. So he's saying here, for we must all stand alongside the Dima, the judgment seat, the step where Christ is who has looked at every aspect of our race that we've run.
And we're going to stand alongside him. What on earth could that suggest to our mind? Now remember, nothing is said in this verse of receiving anything. Now let's compare that with Second Corinthians chapter five, please. Second Corinthians chapter five. Verse ten. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to they have done, whether it be good or bad. The first thing I want to say, starting at the last and going to the first, in that verse, that the word bad translates the word kakos from the King James text.
Now, I will remember, I will be remembering this to you, that some other texts have a different word. But the text of Deceptus, the text of the King James has the word kakos. which is primarily and almost altogether translated E, V, I, L, evil. Now I've heard people say, well, there won't be any sin brought up at the judgment seat of Christ because after all the Bible says he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. You'd remember that verse, don't you? Hebrews chapter nine. But now once in the end of the age, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And we'll all agree that that's a wonderful verse, isn't it? And then, of course, that passage that we've already been hearing about this morning in our worship meeting, he bore our sins in his own body on the tree.
So since he put away sins by the sacrifice of himself, singular, and he bore our sins in his own body on the tree, plural, then someone has suggested the sin can't come up at the judgment seat. It's hardly been dealt with. Well, I have a question for that reasoning. Number one, if he put it away, why is it still around? Who's running the liquor industry? Who's running the whore houses? Who's there in the gold rings and the murder and the wars? That's the reasonable, brothers and sisters. The good that I would, Paul said. I do not. That which I would not. That I do. It did not do that which I would not. It is no more I that do it, but is that present him developing me.
I thought he put it away. Now remember, let's put... right things in right places and rightly divide. When it says he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, what does it mean? Beloved, from God's point of view, it's been canceled in all its judgment and power and condemnation. But it happens to be still around resident in us. That's right. What about sin? I see sin as the root. Sin as the fruit. I see sin as the parent. I see sins as the offspring. I see sin as the disease. I see sin as the symptoms of the disease. Sin is still very evident. All I have to do is go to the mirror.
Beloved, may I say to you, the greatest feature of the return of Christ in the air to catch me up will be this, that I will never, ever sin against Him anymore. I grieve the spirit. I quench the spirit. I've brought heartache to my Lord, and I'm sick of it. But praise God when He comes, I'm done with it. It's eternally behind me. Beloved, I would like to suggest that yes, sin has been put away. I agree with you. You agree with me. We all agree. But it doesn't mean that it won't be mentioned. Some of you say, well, there's things in hermitage, well, I remember them more.
And some have suggested that God forgives, which could suggest a weakness. It never says that God forgives in that sense. No. But what he's saying, as I understand it, he's not going to be bringing it up to, Donald, you did this and this and this, and therefore you can't be saved. That has to do with my position in Christ, not my walk with Christ. Otherwise, there's no sense of going to the Bema that judgment sees. You will notice that in Romans chapter fourteen, we must all stand alongside the judgment feet of Christ. And I would suggest that you and I, looking at the life that we've lived, the race that we've run, the pipe that we've fought, exactly the way the Lord saw it.
You see, we will have already been changed, isn't that right? You don't think we're going to go to the judgment feet in these carnal physical bodies, this year. Oh, no, a thousand times no. We will have been changed in a moment. You know that I think most of us here were taught that when the Lord comes in the air, we're going to be caught up in a moment. What most of us taught that? I was. How many of us? Nearly all of us. And the truth is the Bible never says it one time. Never. A challenger. It doesn't. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not flee, but we shall all be changed in a moment. It's the change that's in a moment. It didn't say we'd be caught up in him.
Someone said, well, you know how fast we're going to go? I don't know. We'll go up just as fast as God wants us to go. That's how fast we'll go up. If it's in a moment, great. If it's slow, great. He's in control. Amen? He's in control. Beloved, we're going to be changed. When we get to the Bema, we will have been changed, and we're going to stand alongside the Bema. And I believe we'll be able to see the record that's been written of the life that we've lived. And I believe there'll be room for tears there. Somehow the book of the Revelation seems to think there's going to be some tears. He said, well, it's figured it's. Maybe it is. But usually the figure is less than the reality that it figures.
You look at the one in second Corinthians chapter five and verse ten, for we must all appear or be manifest before the, be our judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body. Well, Lord, you know what we're going to get there? Exactly what we sowed. Exactly. You mean, don't. The bad things, what does it say? According to that he had done, whether it be good or E-V-I-L, or you say, well, it's bad. Well, what's the difference? It's good or bad. Are you trying to say that bad is good? No, you're not. You say, no, I wouldn't say that, no. Then keep in mind, true qualities of entities will be received at the beam.
And you remember in the kingdom, in the thousand year reign, our station of place will be according to how we've run our race. To me, it's a tremendous incentive to get into this wonderful group, brothers and sisters, and run the race in the right way, because we shall give an account to our master. Another incentive is seen in the chapter. Verses thirteen and fourteen, for whether we be beside ourselves, it is to the Lord or it is to God, whether we be sober, it's for your cause, for the love of Christ constrains us.
For we thus judge it, one God's will, and all we're dead. What, Donald? The love of Christ constrains us. My beloved friends, not only the fact that I shall give an account, Romans chapter fourteen and verse twelve, not only the fact that I shall receive the things good and my body, good or bad or evil. But my beloved friends, his love constrains me to run. Does it constrain you? The fact that he could love such a wicked, ungodly sinner as this person standing here, that he could love me? How can my mind take that in? I have difficulty loving myself. And God loves me?
The Lord Jesus loves me. gave himself for me. His love constrained me. If he could love me like that, I should race up my boots and get out there in the fight and fight according to the rules. And so I would suggest this morning, and I want to shut it down now because we have time for this special and we have plenty of time for Brother Glenn. But you and I are running our race, brothers and sisters, and we haven't crossed the finish line yet. There's still time to redeem. There are years that the locusts have eaten, perhaps. But let's redeem the time, Ephesians five. Let's buy it up. Let's make sure. And I really haven't said a lot about or even hardly mentioned this golden asane.
Brother Glenn has really planted her cross. But I want to take a little swing at it now, Brother Glenn. But I feel like I'm there myself, you see. Though we have reached a certain number of years in life, brothers and sisters, God left us here for a purpose. We're not crossed that line. We're not over that hill yet. We haven't gone on to the glory yet. We're still here by God's sovereign grace. Let's make these moments count so that at the bema, at the judgment seat, he will be to the praise and honor and glory of the one who's suffered our sins in his own body. May God help us to press on in the race that we run, the fight that we fight, and the work that we do, that God will be pleased and honored and glorified.