The End Times Scenario - Session 6 - Chuck Missler

[Music]

So, we're going to talk about events

after the rapture

in heaven. Everybody that makes their

little charts, you've seen our charts,

talk about what happens on the earth,

the 70th week of Daniel and this and

that and Armageddon and D.

But I want to focus on what happens to

us. So, we're not down there watching

that, or if we are, it's I I like to say

it's from the mezzanine.

One of the first things that happen when

after you're raptured,

you'll discover you have an appointment.

And it comes from 2 Corinthians 5:10.

We all will appear

before the bema seat of Christ.

Don't presume that has anything to do

with sin.

It doesn't say that our sins are taken

care of 2,000 years ago on a cross. We

need to understand that. We need to

understand the security that's in our

justification.

If you have any confusion about

justification,

you want to take a look at the book of

Romans.

It's interesting. I should have made a

slide of this, but I'm going to indulge

in some paraphrases here that'll blow

our timing probably. I'll let her

editors panic over that. Um,

in the book of Habac, there's a little

verse which as you read the book of

Habac, sort of incidental to the theme,

it seems. It says the just shall live by

faith and it will that would obscure

going you know fade back in obscurity if

it wasn't for the fact that the apostle

Paul takes that verse and builds three

epistles around it.

Who are the just?

Paul writes the definitive statement of

Christian doctrine that we know is the

book of Romans. the most profound piece

of logic and reasoning on the planet

earth in any language. Book of Romans is

incredible. But it deals with who are

the just? It's all about justification

and it nails it in a lot of ways.

The just shall live by faith. How shall

they live? Paul, and by the way, in the

book of Romans in the first chapter, he

uses that verse as his cornerstone to

build the the the epistle on. Well, how

should they live? He takes in the third

chapter of Galatians, you discover the

epistle of the Galatians is built on how

shall you live, not by works but by

faith is the point.

And then of course the third the just

shall live by faith. How shall they live

by faith? And you get to the epistle to

the Hebrews and in chapter 10 verse 38

or 39 I think it is um he quotes the

just shall live by faith and it's the

verse just before the hall of faith that

we know is the chapter 11 of the epistle

of the Hebrews. People say, "Well, Paul

didn't write Hebrews."

I think he can prove he did. The Romans,

Galatians, and Hebrews are a trilogy on

Habach 2:4.

And the reason it is because I think

it's the guidepost for us in today's

world for a lot of reasons, and that's a

whole another thing I'll leave you to

explore and get into. But u

so the Beimma seed is a key topic here.

So and then of course we have the other

event that occurs before the second

coming maybe just before the second

coming is the marriage of the lamb and

these two events are deserve special

focus and u so as we look at these there

is of course uh three judgments that we

have highlighted I don't won't get into

a whole those are easily studied

directly just by getting into the texts

of them so we don't have to hit that too

hard. The beimma seed of course is the

focus I want to get into about rewards

and the crowns and assignments. People

that question came up in the Q&A. What

are what are we going to do? I don't

know. We'll see. And the kingdom

parables and the talents and all that.

And the call of the bride. Wow. See, I

think that that's probably too strong. I

suspect

that the

call of the bride is the result of the

bezen.

which is the favorable end of the

spectrum if you will. And with the sheep

and goat judgment, we've talked about

that. But the more you study that, the

more questions it raises. And of course,

the great white throne is the final

judgment of the unsaved at the end of

the thousand years where they're

resurrected. Strangely enough. And then

after all of that, we have the new

heavens, new earth, and new Jerusalem. I

want to talk a little bit about this

Beimma seat. People say the Beimma seat

is just it's not a a judgment seat. It's

where they give athletic awards. I don't

know where that came from. Pilate judges

Christ in Matthew 27 from his beacy. Um

Herod when he smitten by worms in Acts

chapter 12 is sitting on his bema seat.

The word beimma in the Greek is a

judgment seat. It is a seat from which

the ruler of the the governor whatever

rules from. The idea that it's just an

athletic thing is some kind of euphemism

that somewhere along the way some pastor

emphasized and has been picked up. But

if you take the trouble to check it in

the or any of the appropriate and most

of us use strongs and there's nothing

wrong with Strongs but the reason you

have it available to you there's no

royalties to it. So it's perfectly

usable but it's not authoritative. If

you get into serious lex exoggetical

work, you're going to use theer or some

of the other there's other lexicons that

are considered far more authoritative.

Strong is not here to knock it, but just

be aware of the fact it isn't the final

uh adjudication of what a word really

means. There's some better sources

around and they're not expensive, but

they're around. When Gallo is sentencing

Paul in Acts 18, he's doing it from a

beimma seat. Fesus in his trial and his

sentencing in Acts 25 is doing it from a

beacet. The beacet is exactly what it

says. It's a judgment seat and Jesus is

going to be on the bea seat. Now,

admittedly, what he's doing is not

punishing. He's not giving out

sentences. He could be. He's authorized

to. No, that's not what's going on. The

judgment seat of Christ is the term used

in Romans 14 and also 2 Corinthians

5:10. Now,

2 Corinthians 5:10, for we must all,

that includes you and me.

We will must all appear before the

judgment seat of Christ. Why?

That everyone may receive the things

done in his body according to that he

hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Your works are going to be judged, but

not in the sense we use the word works

normally. I believe you'll get a better

clear clear feeling here if you use the

word fruit bearing. Some of us have

borne a lot of fruit and some of us

borne no no fruit. There's a fruit

issue. It's a it we're going to see the

details here of the beacet. It's

authoritative verse is 2 Corinthians

5:10, but its procedural verse is in 1

Corinthians 3. And we'll take a look at

that, okay?

Because one of the things we want to

know when we leave this conference and

you start heading home,

one of the things I hope you'll carry

with you

is a examination of your priorities

daily,

moment by moment.

They should be they should countenance

the fact that you and I are heading for

a final exam.

Those of you that have been in college

remember the times you'd pull an

allnighter. You kind of slept it off

during the semester, but the final exam

was tomorrow.

So, you got a lot of coffee ready and

you crammed to do as to be to show as

good as you could the next day on the

final exam. How many of you have crammed

for a final exam, won't you? Okay. Well,

all of us are doing that right now

whether we realize it or not because we

haven't. The good news is we don't know

that the exam is necessarily tomorrow.

It might be a week later. we got a whole

week we didn't count on or whatever.

See, now here's the procedure and it's

in 1 Corinthians 3. And it's also a

passage that is widely misunderstood. So

bear with me on this. Paul says, "For

other foundation can no man lay than

that is laid," which is Jesus Christ. No

surprise, but that sort of sets the

stage here. Now, if any man build upon

this foundation, and then he lists two

groups of things in your printed version

in your Bible, it probably isn't set out

for you as well as it might. I've done

it here with a semicolon. There are two

groups of things here. The top one,

gold, silver, and precious stones um are

are not. So, we have wood, hub, is

combustible, and gold, silver, precious

stones will survive fire. And so,

they're non-combustible.

And that metaphor is being used because

they're going to use the metaphor of

fire to separate the two.

Okay?

And the gold, silver, precious stones

are things that the Holy Spirit achieved

through you. You didn't do it. He did.

But you get the credit for it because

you were yielded to him and you

responded to him. And that results in

favorable result. It's called fruit

bearing.

The wood hay stubble is that which you

probably thought was a good idea.

But it didn't stand the test of the

metaphor of a fire here

because it goes on every man's work

shall be made manifest for the day that

is the beac day the day shall declare it

because it shall be revealed by fire and

the fire shall try every man's work of

what sort it is.

I want you to notice what's being

judged. The man is not being judged

as his fruit bearing is.

And this is going to emphasize that in

the next few verses, but I want to just

put it up right here in front.

If you visit me in Idaho, I have an

office there.

And on the one wall is my corporate brag

wall. It has certificates and

achievements and companies that I've run

and what have you. all the all the my

work prior to going house full-time

and there's a sign over that wall there.

All these we call it a brag wall. Most

most executives who spent 30 years

somewhere have some moments from it on

the wall and it says wood hast double.

The other wall which by the way was

slightly larger and I'm glad of that is

littered with briefing packs and what

have you and published books and stuff.

And the sign over that is gold, silver,

precious stones. I made cracks about

that once and some actually made little

signs for me. So I actually put them up

like that because it's obviously out of

1 Corinthians 3. That's probably wrong

because some of the things on the gold,

silver, precious stones are probably

things I did. The Holy Spirit didn't.

But okay, I'll leave that leave that one

alone. But I want you to notice this.

They're using the metaphor of fire to

separate these two groups

be revealed by fire. But it's the it's

the fruit bearing that is being judged,

not the person. And that's going to be

made clear in verses um 16 and following

or 15 and excuse me 15 14 and following.

If any man's work abide

which he hath built thereon, he shall

receive a reward.

Yes, there are rewards. It's amazing to

me

of all the things that my wife and I

have published.

I think I'm being correct here. The most

controversial thing that we've published

is a book called The Kingdom Power and

Glory.

And what a firestorm it created a couple

years ago, especially in certain

uh segments of the Christian community.

and fortunately a relatively small

segment but a vocal segment um were

really upset because they knew somehow

that everybody in heaven's equal.

The idea of rewards was somehow a big

controversy.

We were calling Christians to

accountability. Yes, we were. Well,

shame on us.

One of our board members summarized it

so beautifully. If you throw a rock into

a pack of dogs, you can tell which one

you hit by the one that screams the

loudest. And there were certain um

uh good friends that were really upset

and led sort of a rebellion and they

were shocked that we would publish a

book without their permission somehow.

That was that in itself was I think

rather provocative. Fortunately,

we have very close friends. In fact, one

of our board members and is is active

with the International Standard Version

Bible. So, I had access to that whole

team. George Jacobus who was the guy

that did the New American Standard Bible

which has got a great reputation

obviously he's the he's also the

chairman of the ISV group and Dr.

William Wely happens to be a close

friend and these guys jumped into the

fray and they answered for us some of

the mail that came from um the

self-appointed critics. And so we

weathered that storm I think quite well

thanks to them because it turns out that

some of our insights came from

exogetical discoveries of the Dead Sea

Scrolls. So we were on sound ground it

turns out but that's a whole another

piece of the story. But what fascinated

me aside from all that is the storm that

arose because we had the audacity to

suggest that Christians are going to be

held accountable. We're saved by grace.

You're teaching works. No, we're not.

Not in the sense that Galatians is

dealing with it. No, no, no, not at all.

If a man's work abide which you hath

built there on, are you bearing fruit

for the king? I do that with an audience

sometimes. I get up there and say, "How

many are saved?" and all my hands go up

and I say, "Uh, what have you done with

it?" I get this blank stare,

you know, as if there's that God might

have a purpose and you're being saved.

He certainly does to magnify his name

and you can give a lot of collective

generalized answer and that's fine.

That's true. But there's also, I

believe, a very specific calling and you

can build a whole case in that area too.

And that's the other way I sometimes do

it. How many are saved? All the hands go

up and says, "How many know what your

calling is?"

It's interesting to see the number of

hands cut in half.

If there were 90% per personage, 30%,

well, I guess I know my call. You

haven't thought of it that in those

terms. You have a calling and a great

discovery in life is to find out what it

is. And it's not to be a pastor

necessarily. It's not to be whatever.

It is it is unique to you.

And the Lord knows

where he would prefer you to be. and you

want to listen and be sensitive.

And I think I probably would have gotten

into the full-time ministry a lot

earlier if I had been listening.

And um anyway,

it goes on here, if any man's work shall

be burned, he shall suffer loss.

It's like a fire. In other words, it got

burned up. It's gone. And but he himself

shall be saved yet as fire. In other

words, with a shirt on your back, maybe

kind of thing. In other words, the

flavor is pretty straightforward here.

If any man's work abide, he'll receive

reward. If any man's work shall be

burned, he'll suffer loss. But so you

don't misunderstand. So you don't make

this siological.

This is not to do with his salvation.

It has to do with his um productivity

for the Lord. Not a salvation. You

didn't earn your salvation. Jesus paid

for a 100% of it. And by the way, if you

try to add to that, that's blasphemy.

If people are trying to talk you into

adding to your justification, that's

blasphemy because it impinges on the

completed work of Christ.

At the cross, he says to Telsti,

paid in full.

I'm convinced, of course, that he did

not get a bargain deal.

He died for every one of your sins

and yours and mine.

The price of your sins was eternal

separation from God.

The price of your sins were eternal

separation from God and my sins.

That causes me to be convinced

that Jesus did not get that for free and

he didn't get a discount. He didn't get

a collective deal.

I think he had to pay for each specific

one

of yours and yours and yours and and

mine.

Wow.

That creates a bizarre opportunity

because next week

I will somewhere along the way sin.

I'll stumble. I'll do something wrong.

And when I do,

I have the opportunity in quotes

to add to his suffering on a cross 2,000

years ago

because the sin, my sin of next week,

whatever it might be, he paid for on

that cross.

So, I have a connection outside the time

domain with his suffering.

When I mess up,

it adds to what he's enduring.

Well, let's move on.

We have another issue here that is a big

um area of discussion among the scholars

and I'm indebted to Arnold Frenbomb

who's one of the really great scholars

in the Jewishness of the scripture who

points out that there's a distinction

between the marriage of the lamb and the

wedding supper

because the marriage of the lamb

traditionally occurs in the

father's house.

Idiomatically here that would be in

heaven.

That's where the marriage actually takes

place apparently.

Not to be confused with the supper that

follows it that may be colllocated isn't

necessarily

you're going to have the marriage in one

situation and the ancient practice and

the other something else. And the thing

we learn is that John the Baptist is a

friend of the bridegroom. He's not part

of the bride, but he's a friend of the

bridegroom. And he's present.

And if he's present, that means it's

after the second coming

because there's there's evidence that

the Old Testament saints don't get rap

get resurrected until the second coming.

That creates some confusion. But that's

when we break through that confusion to

discover that the body of Christ are

those that are prior to and so forth.

The point is the marriage supper happens

on the earth. So the two events that may

be separated topologically, separated

geographically if you will. And so

that's that's a suggestion. I I don't

want to say it so assertively that it

sounds like that's our teaching. It's

just a possibility that helps uh resolve

some apparent confusion.

And I'm indebted to Fuckenbum for that

insight which changes the perspective

about the married supper because that

gets to be a pretty hot topic in several

of the illusions by Matthew

because on several occasions he talks

about a guest that's at the wedding

supper who isn't supposed to be there

and they forcibly exclude him.

And as the uh ISV people point out, the

idioms that are used there in the Greek

by Matthew that are translated the outer

darkness are misleading because that's

not the way in Greek you would speak of

the outer darkness. It's a very strange

construction and it's a relative

adjective. They're in places that are

less illuminated is what it's really

saying. And the idiom seems to be to the

first century reader being in the

father's house would be being in the

temple. But be but in the temple but not

in the presence of the sheckchana the

glory of God. And if you were in the

temple unless you were the high priest

and only on one day a year were you

allowed in the holy of holies.

The holy of holies was there all the

time with veiled and once a year on yum

kipur you went through an elaborate set

of procedures if you were the high

priest to go in and officiate.

And um they actually had under the

traditions they had a rope tied around

your ankle. If you had a heart attack or

something they could drag you out

without going in there was the idea. No

one was allowed in there except the high

priest and he only on once a year on

Kapur. So it was considered obviously

the holy of holies.

And uh so the analogy is the same thing

is that you can be in the house of God,

but you're not necessarily entitled to

be in the presence of the Shecha.

That's the flavor of the passage there.

But that's a different perception than

most of us have when we read in English

that they were in the outer darkness

because that sounds that we jumped. I I

I'm like most of them for most of my

teaching years. I jumped, you know, the

outer darkness. that's Ghana or that's

the, you know, that's Hades or what have

you. No, I made the same mistake most

people still make today. I'm indebted to

the uh uh uh the ISV guys who and I've

since checked them with others now. I I

think I get I think I get into this sep

yeah separate events. The marriage takes

place in the father's house. The

marriage supper takes place in the

kingdom

and uh it includes the Old Testament

saints which are resurrected at his

second coming.

And that includes John the Baptist, a

friend of the bridegroom. You can check

that in Matthew 22 in the first dozen

verses. So

this leads to a basic doctrinal

division.

For 400 years, theologians have jumped

into one of two camps.

Some of them are Calvinists.

Calvinism

emphasizes eternal security.

They also have a very interesting

concept of the persever perseverance of

the saints.

And what they end up doing is arguing

that you know you're saved if you

persevere to the end.

If you don't persevere to the end, that

just proves you weren't saved. That's

the way they deal with that. So the

theologians label that experimental

predestinarians.

You're predestined, but you don't find

out whether you're predestined until you

get to the end. If you persevere to the

end, then you were predestined to be to

make it. If you don't make it, that just

proves you weren't predestined in the

first place.

That's not very helpful.

Okay? We'll tell you whether you won the

race or not after the race.

You know, it doesn't quite That's why

they call exper it's experimental

predestination.

You don't know about the predestination

until after the game's over, so to

speak. Well, the Armenians have a

different point of view.

And they argue that only those that

persevere to the end are saved, which

means their salvation is conditional.

It depends on their performance.

Boy,

does that impinge on the sufficiency of

Christ.

See that each one has serious problems.

And for 400 years, most of the Christian

groups have allied themselves with one

of these or the other. And the honest

scholars recognize there's problems on

both side of that fence. But that's

that's a fence that's gone right up the

middle of Christianity because they've

overlooked the middle ground

because they're both true in what they

were and they're both wrong in what they

deny.

And if you go if you what you do,

there's a middle ground. For lack of a

name, I'm just going to call it the

overcomer view. Okay? There are

Christians and some overcome and some

don't. Overcomers view emphasize eternal

security in the sense of justification.

We try not to use the word salvation

within the institute because it's

confusing.

The word salvation can mean many things

in many contexts.

I was saved from a burning building last

week.

That's got nothing to do with siology.

I can be saved in another sense. But

we're obviously talking siologically in

terms of salvation and the and I'll come

I'll come back to a minute. But first of

all, the first thing we need to

recognize that our security in Christ is

100%

accomplished by him.

I've contributed nothing. I'm the

beneficiary of what he's done for me.

For me to add to his gift is to

challenge his gift is to is to impugn

his gift. No, it's his gift by grace. By

grace are you saved through faith. So

the security I have security because of

him. And I'll elaborate that in a little

bit here. But we do make a distinction

here between entering heaven

and inheriting heaven.

You can enter the promised land but you

don't necessarily inherit it. And those

lessons are taught in Kadesh Barnea.

They're all through the Old Testament

and they are taken advantage of by the

epistles especially the epistle of

Hebrews and so forth. So there's a

distinction between entering

if I invite you to my home. We have a

little cottage at the end of the runway.

And if I invite you to my home, that

gives you entrance admission into it. It

doesn't give you the right to rearrange

my furniture. Now, if on the other hand,

you were to inherit my home, it's yours.

There's a difference between entering

and inheriting.

When Ron and I go to the States for some

major conference, we'll go to a hotel

and we'll sign in. And that gives us

access to our room.

But the last time I looked, I don't

think Ron and I have ever inherited one

of those hotels. Okay.

I used to travel with a a dear friend,

Australian by the name of Hilton

Nicholas. And he was fun to travel with

because he'd always sign Hilton

Nicholas. And the room clerk would look

at that and panic. Is that Nicholas

Hilton? He never said he was, but they

would just lean over backwards and he'd

always get the best room and he just

smiled because he realized that they

were confused.

He was a fun guy to travel. Unique guy

in many ways. But anyway, um, no,

there's different entering and

inheriting. And that also implies, by

the way, there's a high variation in

rewards.

And that's the purpose of the beimma

seed is to provide the rewards.

There'll be losers and winners there

both. In fact, I think there's a

spectrum from nothing to a lot and every

one of us will be somewhere in the

middle. There's some things we that went

well and some things didn't. And so the

uh Dr. Earl Roacher, he loves to come

into the situation. He says, "I've been

saved. I am being saved and I will be

saved. And he says that in a way to

deliberately confuse the students. What?

What do you mean? I've been saved. And

by the way, I'm being saved and I will

be saved. And he says that to highlight

the fuzziness of the paradigm of the

verb. So I want to talk about the

paradigm of a thing we call salvation.

Now, justification

is the past tense of salvation. My

justification was taken care of 2,000

years ago on a wooden cross erected in

Judea.

Done entirely by him, not me. I didn't

contribute anything to that.

Important to understand the difference.

It's a gift from God of everlasting life

that's received by faith alone in Christ

alone.

That summarizes our sariology. That says

it all. That one sentence.

Everlasting life received by faith by

faith alone

in Christ alone. He didn't get help from

his mother.

And I won't start on that in case

there's Catholics here. I I try to find

something to offend everyone. I've got

several of you on this weekend so far

and I haven't picked on the Catholics

yet.

There is a present tense of salvation

that we call sanctification. The word

just means set aside.

Sanctification.

That's I'm a work in progress. If you've

watched my teachings over the last 30 or

40 years, you've noticed I've learned

things along the way. I've had to redo

my Matthew commentary, I think two or

three times.

And there's been other places where I've

made colossal mistakes. And I we and

what we we don't sweep under the carpet.

You'll see it come out with a title an

alternative view and we'll explain whoa

I didn't you know the idea that whatever

and we try to highlight the Luke 21

thing is a big one because most fairly

sophisticated uh exed miss the fact that

the Luke 21 is not the Olivet discourse.

It's very similar but different

different audience different conclusion.

So anyway the point is we I'm a work in

progress. So are you.

Praise God. He's not finished with any

of us. And the good news is what he

starts, he finishes. Wow, that's cool.

The work process involves the faith and

the works of the believer.

My works impact my sanctification. My

works do not impact my justification.

They're very distinctively different.

And of course, like every verb, it's got

three got past, present, future. the

future tense for lack of another label

we'll call glorification

and that's the result of the previous

aspects and that occurs at the

resurrection

if I die tomorrow I'll be with the Lord

but not with my resurrection body

that'll occur according to 1

Thessalonians 4 when the dead in Christ

rise first and we that are alive remain

join with him so that we'll use that as

their milestone when we inherit our

okarian whatever that means and so forth

three just three three terms

All believers will be glorified. That is

being resurrected and given a body like

Christ. But some will have more glory

than others.

There are people that gone down in

history whose records are phenomenal.

We can't possibly compete with them.

And there are others that are saved. But

I think there's going to be some real

big surprises.

I think one of the guys that's going to

be expecting nothing is the thief on the

cross. I mean, he hung there and in the

last 10 or 15 minutes, whatever, he got

saved. He took this out when the one

priest was criticizing Christ says, "No,

we get we're getting our just desserts."

And Christ turns to him and says, "This

day you'll be with me in paradise." And

I'm sure his expectation of the thing is

that I was saved for what, the last 10

or 15 minutes of my life. I certainly

don't have any fruit. And I think the

Lord's going to surprise him. He says,

"Stand aside for a minute." And he'll

line up.

All the people on death row

that came to the Lord because of his

testimony.

So hope for all of us.

Okay. So we have the past tense

separation from the penalty of sin.

The present tense is separation from the

power of sin

and the future tense is separation from

the very presence of sin.

Past tense separation from the penalty

of sin.

We call that justification.

Jesus Christ

by his act on your behalf has created a

separation from any penalty that you've

incurred by your conduct. He did took

care of that. It's done deal.

The present tense is separation from the

power of sin. The unbeliever has no

choice. The unbeliever is in bondage to

sin.

If you are saved, you are no longer

necessarily in bondage to that sin

because you have access to the Holy

Spirit. And whatever it is that's

dragging you down, you have a

supernatural resource to take advantage

of

because the power of sin no longer has a

hold on you if you use the resources God

has given you. And boy is there

controversy wrapped up in that summary.

Separation from the power of sin. We

call it sanctification.

And the future tense is separation from

the very presence of sin. The

astonishing thing is that once we're

there with him and once we're uh

resurrected and all that that we are

going to be separated from the very

presence of sin.

Some people speculate they we may have

some police work to do during the

millennium or something but those are

speculations.

So we have justification

if we can avoid it because that causes

confusion. We use justification,

sanctification or glorification. All

three of those are the parodym of a

verb.

So we just justification is for us.

Sanctification is in us. Justification

declares the sinner righteous.

Sanctification makes the sinner

righteous.

Justification removes the guilt and

penalty of sin. And sanctification

removes the the growth and the power of

sin.

And so

but the basically I didn't include and I

probably should have included more on

eternal security

but the one if we have a study called

eternal security that hammers this

I think for two hours there's plenty of

there but you quickly discover that our

security depends entirely upon Jesus

Christ not us on him

but more than that It depends entirely

upon the father.

That's especially true after John 17

because he hands that responsibility to

the father because he's going to leave.

And finally, in fact, most conclusively,

our security hangs in the Holy Spirit

whose job it is is to seal us.

And I don't think we're more powerful

than the Holy Spirit. And his job it is

to seal you. He may take you out of the

ball game. Ananas and Safara found that

out. I don't think they're unsaved, but

they certainly were pulled out of the

game for lying.

It didn't undo their salvation, but it

certainly terminated their ministry.

And there's other examples of that

because eternal security

is a testimony to the sufficiency of

Christ.

If you attack the eternal security, you

are in effect inadvertently attacking

the sufficiency of Christ.

Many people don't realize that

and we have the paradigm of salvation.

But we discover something else. Paul is

totally paranoid. He lived his life in

anxiety.

Well, in Romans 8, we have not received

the spirit of bondage again to fear for

we receive the spirit of adoption

whereby we cry, "Aba, Father." The

spirit itself beareth witness with our

spirit that we are the children of God,

if children and heirs, heirs of God and

joint heirs with Christ. If so be oops

there's something there condition if so

be that we what we suffer with him

that we may be also glorified together.

See this is where the I I often threaten

to give a talk about why Christians most

Christians when they get to heaven are

going to be disappointed. That's a great

talk title because that'll smoke out all

the fundamentalists. What what what's

Mr. Trump do now?

And so most Christians when they get to

heaven will be disappointed. Why do I

say that? Because they've been

mistaught.

Many people teach that if you're saved,

you're going to rule with Christ. It may

shock you to discover that's not in the

scripture.

When it speaks about that, there's a

footnote. If so be that we suffer with

him.

See, the condition of ruling with him is

conditioned upon our faithfulness.

If we're saved, we're saved. Don't

misunderstand me.

But the rulership

is apparently somehow conditional

because we're joint hes with Christ. If

so be that we suffer with him that we

may also be glorified together. If so

be. That's interesting. That's a little

disturbing there with that word if

there. But I want to focus on the last

verse of 1 Corinthians 9 because this is

Paul talking obviously.

He says, "But I keep my uh keep under my

body and bring it into subjection,

lest that by any means when I have

preached to others

I myself should be a cast away."

Now, it's an unfortunate translation

there with a castaway term because what

it uh adokamos really is it's not

standing the test, not approved. Um it's

usually used of coins if they're

authentic or not. That which does not

prove itself as it ought. It's unfit for

it's unproved. It's furious. The proper

uh translation would have been

disqualified.

Castaway is not really the right

translation here. That I myself should

be disqualified.

Well, what on earth is Paul panicked

over his salvation? Absolutely not.

Because he wrote the book on eternal

security. It's called Romans chapter 8.

And I challenge you to read that chapter

and when you get to the end of it that

you have any doubts about your

salvation, read it carefully. It's a

it's a I I you want to put a tab in your

Bible. I check it about once a day to

make sure it's still there. Romans 8:28

and all that. Romans 8:28. For we know

that all things work together for good.

Who them are who they who are the called

according to his purpose.

What are the three most important words

in that verse? The first three. We don't

suspect. We don't hope. know, we know,

we know that all things work together

for good to them who love God and who

are be called according to his purpose.

So what is Paul panicked over?

What was he afraid of?

Because he wrote the book on eternal

security. We talked about that.

The issue is entering versus inheriting.

And I told you I've already put this in

here. The whole idea that that uh

entering is one thing, inheritance is

another. Inheritances are privileges

that'll be widely variable like rewards.

There are two kinds of inheritance.

There is a kind of inheritance you

cannot lose.

Claronomia, it's a it's a you will never

lose your son. The prodigal son never

lost his sunship.

He went and misbehaved, blew his

inheritance. No question. But he didn't

lose his sunship. There's part of that

you cannot lose. So don't let me confuse

you.

But it also includes a conditional

earned reward. Typically, an inheritance

is conditioned upon some conditions,

being obedient.

And you can ask Esau about that.

You can ask Reuben about that.

You got example after example after

example, not the least of which is

Moses.

After 120 years of faithful service,

he didn't get to enter the promised

land. No, he was allowed to look at it

from the hill. He didn't make it.

Didn't make it. He's got another chance,

I think, in Roman in uh Revelation 11.

But see, sanctification should lead to

partaking in Christ.

And partaking should lead to um

overcoming. That's why I like we call

this the overcoming view if you will

which of course leads to inheriting and

that's what you and I are going to find

out about at the beimma seat

and uh for we are made partakers of

Christ

if we if we hold the beginning of our

confidence steadfast to the end

partakers of Christ the Greek term is

metagoy

partaker that's one who shares in a

companion comrade partner in any work

office or dignity. Medcoy

and uh you're a medicaly. There's a big

word there. If if how do you know you're

a medical if we hold the beginning of

our confidence steadfast in the end.

There is a prize, a reward for hanging

in there.

Your hanging in there doesn't create

your justification. Jesus took care of

that. But you're hanging in there is

where you get rewarded by our king.

And uh what is it that we must hold

steadfast to the end? How do we become a

medicoy?

Glad you asked. There are seven letters

that Jesus explains that to you. And

each letter concludes with a promise to

the overcomer. Some of you are

overcomers and there may be some of you

that at least for a while are overtaken.

And we'll get inheritance. Inheritance

came typically to the firstborn son by

virtue of his birth. That was the basic

pattern. Whether he actually secured it

depended upon his obedience and his

father's choice. That's the Old

Testament pattern again and again and

again and again. So your inheritance is

subject to conditions and it's subject

to obedience.

The Abrahamic inheritance was based on

the divine oath and that was also

conditioned in turn in part by

obedience.

inheritances were forfeited in the Old

Testament in the land of Canaan.

It was it was their inheritance and

that's so uh all through the Torah and

it was merited by obedience.

The Exodus generation was promised an

inheritance but they failed to obtain it

at Kadesh Barnea. And that event at

Kadesh Barnea is the main theme of the

epistle to the Hebrews.

It's amazing how many commentators spend

all their time wondering who really

wrote the book rather than what it

really says.

See, Israel was in a sense God's

firstborn son. That's the way they're

identified when they first are come,

they go down as a family, but they come

out as a nation in Exodus 4. Israel's

called God's firstborn.

And yet only two of two million took

possession of their inheritance.

That's not quite true because there's

also a large number that were under 20

that weren't counted. But there they

they did get in, but the others were

taken in that generation.

See, even Moses was excluded because of

his disobedience at at Refodm.

So, Esau, ask Esau about inheritance. He

sold his inheritance for a bowl of

pottage. Ruman, Jacob's firstborn, blew

it because of his uh messing around with

the concubines and what have you. And

David warned Solomon about the same kind

of thing. And of course, there's a

generation of Israelites that were

forfeited because they were enslaved to

Babylon for more than a generation, 70

years. And so, inheritance, inheritances

include things that are merited.

Abraham, that happened of Abraham,

Caleb, and Joshua, of course, only two

out of two million. That's interesting.

Those are the two.

Often the second comes before the first.

It wasn't Cain. It was but Abel and

Seth.

Not Japheth, but Shem.

Not Ishmael, but I Each one of these was

the second was put ahead of the first.

Esau, not Esau, but Jacob. Not Manasseh,

but Ephraim.

Not Aaron, but Moses. Aaron was the

older brother.

Not Ilab, but David, and not the old

covenant, but the new.

Not the first Adam, but the last Adam.

That's the title of Christ.

Paul calls him the last Adam in the

sense that he's the he's the now what

can you lose your inheritance by in the

Old Testament

Esau Moses are examples

and u at Kesh Barnea God forgave them

for their lack of faith that people miss

that he forgave them for that

but he still didn't let him inherit

because he swore an oath did you ever

wonder why God swears an oath

because when God swears an oath he's

pointing out something that he's not

going to change his mind about he can

change his mind about other things at

least anthropomorphically

but when he swears an oath that's

something it's not going to change and

the writer to Hebrews makes a point of

that

many people misunderstand the book of

Hebrews because they don't understand

chapter 10 where Esau

goes to Jacob to get a blessing and

Jacob can't give it to him he's given it

to the other son right and so Esau goes

to Jacob and he's upset because he can't

get Jacob to repent.

The writer is making the point that the

senior is the one that's not repenting,

not the junior.

And so that people misunderstand what

follows is because it's the senior. It's

God that's doesn't repent because he's

sworn oath. We think of repentance of

the sinner changing his mind. No, it's

also anyone repent changing his mind.

And God doesn't change his mind because

he sworn oath. That's his point that the

writer is making.

And so um

at Refodm the second time after 120

years out Moses blows it. Of course,

Reuben loses his inheritance. In the New

Testament, the prodigal son is a good

example. He never lost his sunship, but

he certainly blew his inheritance. He's

still welcome.

Somebody come in and so forth. All that

was all cool, but get his inheritance

back. He'd already blown that.

Ananas and Safy weren't unsaved.

At least there's no evidence of that.

They certainly blew it and they were

taken out of the ball game.

And of course, Paul's paranoia is the

capstone of all of those. That's what

we've just gone through. Okay. So, in

Hebrews, let us labor therefore to enter

into that rest lest any man fall after

the same example of unbelief.

So, you can blow it. Can't lose

yourself. You can't lose your

justification. Don't confuse by that.

But you certainly can lose your rewards.

Let us labor that we can enter that

rest. Unlike the assurance that all

Christians have that they possess

eternal life and will be raised up to

enjoy the presence of God. That's given.

That's you can't lose that. But you're

certainly going to lose some other

things. They're partaking as a meto of

the Messiah and as a dominion over

creation is attained by doing his will

to the end. That's our calling. Now

these are believe everybody at the

Beimma seat are believers. Their

justification is not an issue.

Judgment will emanate from the beacet

with a a just recompense of reward for

works that is fruitbearing

both positive and negative is

appropriate and there's lots of verses

on that they'll be in your notes

the spectrum I think was if we think of

the beacet it's a spectrum in the

dimension of faithfulness

to the left is lack of faithfulness to

the right is more faithfulness in the

little diagram

we know there are at least five crowns

mentioned mentioned that might be one

crown with five labels on it or there

could be 17 different crowns that five

happen to be mentioned. We don't know

but there are five that are specifically

identified in the scripture and there

are these crowns that are promised.

There's a crown of life for those who

have suffered for his sake.

There's a crown of righteous for those

who loved his appearing. I love this

one. Do you realize that's for the

pre-tribers?

that love is appearing.

Not his coming of vengeance. It's

talking about the blessed hope,

the rapture, the crown of glory for

those who fed the flock. Have you fed

the flock? There's a crown for you for

that. A crown incorruptible for those

who press on steadfastly. These

obviously overlap.

These might be five labels for just a

crown.

Or there might be a whole bunch of

crowns and they picked five to talk

about. the crown of rejoicing for those

who win souls.

That's pretty cool.

The people that are on the left side of

the diagram, we we we call them

overtaken.

They mean well, but they fumbled.

Whatever. Haven't lost their

justification. They're still there.

They're at the beac seat. They're in

heaven. They have eternal life. Praise

God. Jesus will get all the glory.

That's cool.

But there's some that are overcomers.

They really

had a walk, as we call it, that uh

please the Lord. We'll call those the

overcomers. In fact, we don't call them

that. Jesus does. He has promises to the

overcomers. Seven of them in the seven

letters. There's a different one in each

of the letters that's relative to the

theme of that each particular letter.

The ones to the left are people that we

sometimes use the term carnal

Christians. They're certainly saved by

the blood of Jesus Christ, but their

lives don't seem to reflect it.

We call them carnal Christians. They're

Christians apparently. They're saved

probably, but you can't tell if they

were on trial for being a Christian.

There's not enough evidence to convict

them, so to speak. There's a sort of a

cynical faciousness there. Now, my

suggestion is a possibility, not a

teaching, but there's a there's a

suspicion that my wife and I are

increasingly drawn toward, but still

studying

that the right end of that spectrum

is the bride of Christ.

We increasingly suspect, but it's

difficult to really prove crisply from

the texts that we know of that the bride

of Christ and the body of Christ are not

synonymous. The body of Christ is a

collective term for the whole group

that's at the bema seat. Our suspicion

is that the favored end of this group

are entitled to a label called the bride

of Christ. And we notice some strange

thing things about the bride of Christ.

The rest of us have imputed

righteousness from Christ. There's a lot

of verses about that. But we notice in

Revelation 19 and some other places that

the bride of Christ makes her own linen.

In other words, the lyn being idiomatic

of her the righteousness.

She apparently has some righteousness

that she earned. That's strange from a

you know from a a theological point of

view, but that that seems to be in the

text. So the point is this is something

that still needs more study. I call it

to your attention so you in your own

study can come to your own conclusions.

But the overcomers getting back to that

we have seven specific promises in this

of the seven churches. Um to eat of the

tree of life to not be heard of the

second death the hidden mana the white

stone the new name the power over the

nations the white reignment and assured

the pillar in the new each one of these

takes specific context from the letters.

So I'm not going to build on that here.

Just be aware of the fact there are

seven promises to the overcomers. But we

know from chat in revelation 21, they

shall inherit all things. That's

exciting. There are rewards for

faithfulness. Some are entrusted with

special privileges and some are not.

Some are some will reign with Christ and

some won't. Interestingly enough,

some are rich, some are poor. Some have

heavenly treasures of their own, some

not. So there are 12 areas that we

suggest may be part of the judgment

here. How we treat other believers.

Hebrews 6, Matthew 10 talks about how

you treat other belie. Are you supposed

to show preferential? Absolutely. That

may shock you.

You're supposed to show special

hospitality to the household of faith.

Didn't many people don't realize that.

How we exercise our authority over

others. Whoa. Some of us probably really

blow that one. How we employ our

God-given abilities is probably a

catchall for a lot of this. How do we

use our money, yes, that's in there.

Yes, that's in there. How we spend our

time, ouch,

that's more inelastic than money.

On Wall Street, they often say, "If

money is your biggest problem, you're in

great shape." Because they're talking

about health and other issues,

but how we spend our time. Ouch. I had a

I was traveling with a Jewish uh

financier involved in a project with him

and I said Bernie uh how many weekends

you got left? He looked at the kind of

strange well you do year about 50 and

you got what actu your insurance agent

will tell you probably got 20 years so

20 years that's about 50 weekends right

so you got about 50 weekends left

and excuse me I I believe that you got

about a thousand weekends 50 years 20

you call it I mean 50 weekends a year

and times 20 is call it a thousand

that's the way that's the way I said it

and he looked at me kind of shocked see

if I Say you've got 20 years, that's an

abstraction.

If I say you've got a thousand weekends,

that hurts because that sounds they tick

off. Yeah, that's right. So we It was

many years later I ran into him much

years many years later I happened to run

into him in an airport and when he

walked up to me he says, "Hey Chuck, how

you doing?" What have I got left about

900? I didn't know what he talking

about. He reminded me that that was a

little clip that I that he that reached

him in the sense that it made him

conscious of the fact that time is

inelastic. You don't know what the

number is, but it doesn't get bigger, it

gets smaller. Whatever it is, how we

spend our time, how much we suffer for

Jesus.

Boy,

I don't know if we in New Zealand have

much scare there. We suffer for Jesus by

being in New Zealand. Wow.

how we run that particular race which

God has chosen for us. Yes, it is a

race.

How effectively we control the old

nature.

Boy,

I usually don't use invective language

about other people.

But the language I use against inanimate

objects is disgusting. a drawer that

sticks or a tool that I can't find.

You I'd be embarrassed if you saw me in

those moments.

No, the old nature is there.

And so I say, "Praise God, it's just

what you said it was." But anyway, how

many souls we witness to and win to

Christ. That's not a surprise. You

expect that there. How we react to

temptation.

Temptation is not a sin. How we react to

it is

how much the doctrine of the rapture

means to us. Second Timothy 4,

your attitude to the rapture of

the church is an element of your report

card. That surprises me, but it's there.

Check it out. How faithful we are to the

word of God and the flock of God. And

that's no surprise. That's a catchall

for all the rest. But I want to give you

some caveats of this teaching.

We are not under the law.

There's nothing wrong with a Christian

celebrating

the Lord Jesus Christ or the father.

However, on Saturday,

on Shabbat.

So, for us to observe Shabbat as a

Christian is nothing wrong with that.

But there's a danger to it. If you are

trying to keep the Sabbath in the

Talmudic sense with 613 rules and all of

that because you're not under the law,

there's a very delicate thing there.

Some Christians like to to worship on

Sunday. That's fine.

Any day is legitimate. Sunday is

celebrating the resurrection day. Fine.

No problem.

I don't find any place that in the

scripture.

Paul talks about the first day of the

week to take your offerings there

because I don't want you to do it when

I'm teaching.

That means that you know he

that's that verse is often misqued out

of context.

We do know that the millennial temple

will not be open on Sunday

from Ezekiel 45:1.

The main point is don't put yourself

under the law. One of the things that

happens to Christians, they start

discovering the fantastic riches in the

Jewish traditions. They get into the

study of the seven feasts of Moses.

Fantastic, very fruitful, great.

But when they start doing that, they

pretty soon find themselves on a list

from

the fruits of Zion, these publishers

that publish materials to Christians to

get them to keep the Torah.

And there's a very subtle thing there

that occurs and it's very prevalent in

messianic fellowships where Gentiles are

starting to try to keep the law

dangerous because you may inadvertently

be impuging the completed work of

Christ. He is the fulfillment of the law

for the Christian and to try to keep the

law in that sense

as a subtlety you can be imputing the

completed work of Christ. So observing

those things is one thing. Trying to

keep them in a legalistic sense is

theologically dangerous.

The Messiah is the fulfillment of the

Torah. Jesus said so in Matthew 5:17 and

other places.

The other thing I want you to avoid a

works trip. There's many people that

take some of the things that we've

espoused here and they give they write

they publish a book with a list of 20

things you should do. Arranging chairs

at Sunday school or whatever. They have

the list of things you do. And each one

of those is a violation of what I'm

talking about because those are works of

the flesh.

You can work at the church on Sunday

mornings um and make it a work of the

flesh. Is it what the Holy Spirit led

you to do? Great. If it isn't, why are

you doing it? In other words, the issue

is don't get on a work strip. Don't make

your list of things you're going to do

for him. If they're of the flesh, they

can be uh u wood hay stubble even though

they have a nice spiritual label on them

somehow. Be careful. Walk by the spirit,

not the flesh. Easily said, but requires

care and focus. The epistle to the

Galatians

takes that cover to cover.

Avoid sin should not rain anymore. Yes.

Will you stumble? Obviously, the flesh

is just what the Lord said it is. But it

shouldn't rain over your life. If you're

an unbeliever, you have no choice. But

if you're a believer, sin should not

reign anymore in your life.

You walk with him. Don't fall behind or

get ahead of him.

There's some of us as as type A

executives that run the risk of getting

ahead of him. We're like Peter. Ready,

fire, and then aim.

If you're partakers of Christ, you want

to be a medicoy. And uh that's a term

you'll find here more and more within

the institute. And Jesus words there,

behold I come quickly. Hold that fast

which thou hast that no man take thy

crown. That's an injunction by the Lord

himself. And he's not talking about your

justification.

He's talking about your crown.

You have some crowns you've earned.

Don't blow them. Behold, I come quickly.

Jesus says, "Hold that fast that you

have. Don't blow it.

Carry it across the finish line

that no man take thy crown.

You can lose your crown. You can't lose

your justification, but you can't lose

your crown." And so if you the the the

kingdom, the power, and the glory, I'm

indebted. My name's on the book because

I helped in a trivial way. It's really

and 20 years of careful study by my wife

that really pulled most of that

together. So my name is on there with

with great deference to my partner. It's

an incredible piece of work because of

her diligence. We call it the

Overcomer's handbook.

That's a is a very very appropriate

subtitle and we supplement it with

studies. She has a series of her own. I

put mine on here. The origin of evil is

a two-hour study. The thy kingdom comes

introduction to all of this. You've had

the highlights of that in some of these

sessions. We take eternal security and

spend I think two full one hours on it

and hammer that and that's not an

optional thing. I used to figure well

that's you know different people have

different views on that but I've come to

the conclusion that unless you are

secure in your um position you can't

possibly be effective witnessing to

others if you're uncertain about your

own situation. It's a very interesting

prerequisite, if you will. And

inheritance and rewards. We get into

that in depth in two onehour studies.

And then, of course, your your

protection against heresy is the whole

council of God. We talked about that

when we opened the series. The challenge

of esquetology is that all should fit a

fabric and be consistent. If you got

something in your picture that doesn't

quite fit in, you've got more studying

to do. And as you know, we've got two

ministries. And I think I've given you

this perspective that the institute has

three avenues of study. We call it the

brian the word of God takes priority

over it all. But the times knowing the

times is the Issachar be like the sons

of Iskar who understood the times and

knew what they had to do. And of course

to balance all three of these things we

have little internal incentives that we

use. And I think as you know we've had a

we what we call end time scenario that

was this weekend and um

they they are they follow the three legs

and so what we um that which we had in

this weekend that had to do with

strategic trends or whatever is

outside it primary focus is really

primary to try to understand what we

think we know about the end time

scenario. So we will have annual cont uh

uh conferences where we try to take all

three elements and weave them together

and we'll call that strategic

perspectives.

But I'm drawn more and more to the idea

of tactical perspectives which is the

agenda you walk away from from any of

these as to what you're going to do

about it. And so I want to close with

something that just came across my desk

recently but I was quite touched by it.

There's an anonymous guy, I don't know

his name was, but he was threatened by

his tribe. They were going to kill him

for being a Christian.

And they did. And when they did, they

found na nailed

over his desk in his

room the following.

I'm part of the fellowship

of the unashamed.

I relate that I have Holy Spirit power.

The dy's been cast. I have stepped over

the line. The decision decisions been

made. I'm a disciple of his. I won't

look back. Let up. Slow down. Back away

or be still.

My past is redeemed. My present makes

sense. And my future is secure.

I'm finished with low living, sight

walking, small planning,

smooth knees,

colorless dreams,

tamed visions,

mundane talking,

cheap living, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence,

prosperity,

position, promotions,

plottits, or popularity.

Sounds like you went to seminary,

doesn't it? The all P's there. Yeah. I

don't need preeminence, prosperity,

position, promotions, plots, or

popularity.

I don't have to be right. First, tops,

recognized, praised, regarded, or

rewarded.

I now live by faith. I lean on his

presence. I walk by patience. Lift by

prayer. And labor by power.

My face is set. My gate is fast. My goal

is heaven. My road is narrow. My way is

rough. My companions few. My guide

reliable. My mission clear.

I cannot be bought, compromised,

detoured, lured away, turned back,

deluded, or delayed.

I will not flinch in the face of

sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of

the adversary,

negotiate at the table of the enemy,

ponder at the pool of popularity, or

meander in in the maze of mediocrity.

The guy was eloquent.

I won't give up, shut up, let up until I

have stayed up, stored up, prayed up,

paid up, and preached up for the cause

of Christ.

I'm a disciple of Jesus. I must go till

he comes, give till I drop, preach till

all know, and work till he stops me. And

when he comes for his own, he will have

no problems recognizing me.

My banner will be clear,

nailed to his wall before his execution.

Let's bow our hearts in a word of

prayer.

Father, we thank you for this time we've

had together

and we thank you, Father,

for the fellowship that we have in Jesus

Christ. And we thank you, Father, for

your presence here this weekend. We do

pray, Father, that the seeds planted

will bear fruit for the kingdom.

Father, we do

in our own small way try to echo this

commitment

of your African missionary.

We do pray, Father, that you would

through your Holy Spirit and through

your word,

help each of us to grow

in grace

and in the knowledge

of our coming king.

As we

go forth

committed to you

in every aspect of our life, help us,

Father, to prioritize each day

by you.

as we commit ourselves without

reservation to that end. In the name of

Yeshua,

our coming king indeed, the Lord

Yeshua Hamashiach, our Messiah indeed.

Amen.

[Music]