Judgement & a New House — Robert B. Thompson

Father, as we come unto you this day, Lord, we are so appreciative of your goodness, Lord, your love toward us, and all the wonderful things that you do. We just appreciate them, Lord. And we pray this morning, Lord, for every household in which there are difficulties, Lord, and tensions, we pray you will come and solve these things, Lord, by your presence.

Just give us wonderful victory in you, Lord. We pray for the children in the children's church, you'll be with them, be with Liz and the other teachers. We remember our young people and the adults on the Camper-E Lord, we pray your hand will be on them right now, and that you will keep them safe on the highway, Lord, just keep every one of them healthy and safe, and Karen Borman, as she returns from Camp Cedar Crest, Lord, give her safety on the highway.

We thank you, Lord, and we know that you do wonders among us, and this morning we pray we will behold wondrous things from your word, and Lord, only the Holy Spirit can do that, so we pray you'll add Jesus as each one has need, and we thank you in his name, amen.

You may be seated. We'll turn in our Bibles to 2 Corinthians, and we're going to read chapter 4, verses 13 -18. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 13 -18, and they'll be up on the board in a minute, and you can read out loud with us.

There we go. Alright, it's up on the screen. You would be so kind as to read together with me. It is written, I believed, therefore I have spoken. With that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.

All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

The Outward Man Wastes Away, but the Inward Man Is Renewed

I wonder how many here are feeling that their outward man is wasting away. June does. Well, Lord bless June. Well, Paul here is talking about the numerous afflictions and problems and pains that he had suffered in the ministry, and in the preceding verses he tells how through those pains the life of Jesus was brought to other people.

And that's what he's talking about here, how the life of Jesus is brought to other people through his suffering. And he says, for this reason we do not lose heart. We do not become discouraged, even though we have a lot of trouble.

You know, the Christian life, let me tell you, it takes a lot of guts. It takes strength. It takes toughness. The right kind of toughness, the toughness that Jesus had. Not the toughness of swearing and violence and profanity, but the toughness of being like a tough metal that is put under pressure and doesn't break.

That kind of toughness. And it takes that to be a Christian. To be a real Christian and to keep your integrity, to take up your cross and follow Jesus is a full-time occupation. Boy, you've got to be prepared for the good times and prepared for the hard times and just stand and keep it going.

Have you found it like that? But he says, inwardly, inwardly, in the inner man we are being renewed. The outward man has a lot of afflictions, but the inward man is being renewed. Because when we're afflicted, we pray, we obey the Lord, and then he feeds our inward man with his body and blood.

And that is eternal life. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. Now, that's easy said, but hard to do. Especially when you get in problems. It is very easy to fix your eye on the problem and not on Jesus.

Especially if the problem comes from the behavior of other people. I don't know how many times I have said to people who come and they want counsel and they say, well, this one's doing this, that one's doing that.

You ever been there? And I have a standard prescription. Get your eyes off the person and get your eyes on Jesus. You know, of course, in trivial things, oh yeah, tra-la-la, I can do that. But let me tell you, when you think you're being treated unjustly, or when you're fearful, or you see things that you want, the possibility that they're being removed, it's very difficult to let go of what you're trying to grasp and look at Jesus.

When there's anything in our life that comes up that causes our rest, our peace, to be disturbed, then we find that we can't look to Jesus. We keep fastening on this problem. Often times it's because the thing we're trying to grasp as an idol is something that comes between us and God.

And God doesn't want anything between us and Him. I'll tell you the truth. We can be at peace in any situation. Nobody can take your peace unless you allow them to do so. It may seem Pollyanna or it may seem impractical, but it's not.

You think about it. When people take our peace, it's because we feel we're being treated unjustly, which is the way life is. Or we're afraid of something they're going to do, or whatever, and we lose our peace.

And the way to peace is to get our eyes on Jesus. When you can't do it, pray. And God will remove the situation, people that are troubling you, and whatever else it may be. I think sometimes we don't believe that God has the power to deliver us.

Or He doesn't care whether we're delivered or not. He doesn't know we have a problem. But you know, the Lord Jesus Christ has so much power that being delivered, whether it's from sickness or from trouble or from demons, is not a problem of power.

Christ has all power. When Jesus is around, it's the demons that do the praying. The demons that panic. Sometimes we strive, or people will come to the altar for deliverance. I've prayed for people with problems of alcohol, as an example.

Could be cigarettes, could be anything. You probably have too. And they don't get delivered. They come and they say, I want to be delivered from alcohol. I want to be delivered from violence. I want to be delivered from lust.

I want to be delivered, whatever. And they come and they're prayed for. Are you listening to me? And they're not delivered. And I'm going to tell you why that is. It's because we have in our personalities what is called ambivalence.

That is, we do but we don't. We do but we don't. We do want to get delivered but we don't want to get delivered. And that runs very deep in our personality because in one part of our personality we genuinely wish to be delivered.

But in another part of our personality, we don't want to let it go because it's too much a part of us, or it gives us pleasure and we can't conceive of life without that particular characteristic. And it's not a question of power.

The Saints’ Judgment and Spiritual Deliverance

God made man to be his judges, his judges. That's why in 1 Corinthians 6 it says, the saint shall judge the world. And again it says, the saint shall judge the angels. And I like the 149th Psalm, and I'll tell you why I like it.

Because you can stay in bed and do all this. You don't have to strain. The 149th Psalm says, let the saints sing for joy upon their beds. And they have in their hand a two-edged sword. And in their mouth are the high praises of God.

And then it goes on and says, they will judge the nations. All this while they're lying on their bed. It is not a question of strife or intense religious activity or anything of the kind. All the power is there in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And what he is waiting for is for us to make a judgment. And when we make that judgment, the spirit will, if we're living in Christ and doing our homework, praying, reading our Bible, we're not deliberately disobeying God, that power is there.

And what the Lord is waiting for us is to say, that alcohol does not belong in me. It does not belong in the kingdom of God. It belongs in the lake of fire, and the rest of the destructive things of mankind.

And from this point on, I do not, how shall I say it, I do not justify its presence in my personality. Because one fellow at one time wanted to be delivered from alcohol, but when we got down to the basis, the reason he never did was because his father had committed suicide.

And he still couldn't forgive his father. Well, he couldn't forgive the world in general, because his father had committed suicide. And I'm not blaming the guy. I'm telling you, I'm talking about justifying.

As long as you justify something that you want deliverance from, whether it's rage or lust or whatever it is, as long as there's one scintilla of justification, well, it really isn't that bad, or other people do it, there's other people, Christians that do it, or the pastor does it, or whatever, or like cigarette smoking, it's not in the Bible, or whatever, you'll never get delivered.

I mean, we could get four preachers from Houston, Texas, with deliverance ministries, and you still wouldn't get delivered. Now, an unsaved person might, or someone that the Lord was trying to coax into his presence, but once you become a saint, you don't get these easy stuff like the sinners do.

The Lord doesn't roll out the carpet for you because you're not a prodigal. You're a member of his household, and he treats that older brother differently than he treats the younger ones. They treat you differently because you're a Christian.

And he expects more from you. And if you're a true Christian and a true saint, you have the power of judgment. So you have that. That's what man was created for, the angel's sin, and God's disgusted with them.

And so he has created a race out of the dust, and made them his throne. That's what we are. We represent God and his creation. And when we make a judgment about something, I got down to the place where the disciples, Jesus said to them in John 22, whosoever sins, you forgive or forgive them.

Whoa, that's heavy. Of course, he said that after breathing on them the Holy Spirit, so it's not something we can do in our flesh. When we take a notion, I'm talking about people who are following the Lord, and who are not running around the countryside trying to do marvels, but are walking in the sobriety of the Christian walk, and in the faith that God has given them, who are spiritual instead of religious.

Because sometimes we confuse religious activity with spirituality, and they're quite different. But when a spiritual person is walking with the Lord, and for himself or someone that has bound, what happens is a judgment must be made.

A judgment must be made. And the spirit realm must understand that these two people or three people who are praying do not justify the presence of this spirit in a Christian. And when that thing is done rock hard, the spirit realm has to obey because it's the Word of God.

There's no struggling with it. And we've known in past time when there used to be moral deliverance, people would vomit and get Kleenex and vomit into the Kleenex and belt and everything else. Well, if this buoys up your faith, I don't guess there's any problem in it.

But you know the Lord said, be still and come out of him. That's the best way to treat the demons. Don't talk to them. They love to talk and they love to reason. Just make a judgment. Resist the devil.

You don't rebuke the devil. You resist the devil. And you resist him by drawing near to God and by making a judgment. Choose this day. See, God has given mankind a will, and we determine how much sin we're going to put up with in our life.

We make that judgment. We can go through a lot of religious antics, get prayed for fast and do whatever we want to. And that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. Usually all those things help us to pray and get intense.

But the action starts when you make a judgment and you say this is not for me and I do not justify this in my personality whether it was in my father and mother or whether everybody's doing it or what is contrary to the word of God and I will not justify this.

Address Jesus. Don't do a lot of talking to the devil because they're liable to interpret that as worship. They want attention. Do your talking to Jesus. Just make your declaration. Lord, I judge this thing as wrong and I don't want it in me anymore.

See what happens. No question of power. You're not wrestling with the devil. In one sense we do. Ephesians 6. It's a struggle because it's a daily struggle but the struggle is not one of power. It's one of truth.

It's one of truth. Christ has all power. But the issue that Satan works on is truth and deception. And that's why we struggle is trying to each day find out what God's will is by presenting our body a living sacrifice.

Find out what the truth is for the day and walk in that truth. And the wrestling match comes because the evil spirits are trying to convince us as they did Eve that God's way is not best or whatever. That's the struggle.

The struggle is not one of power. God retains all power. And He's given it to Jesus Christ. And our job as Christians is to seek truth. Seek truth in our own life and in the lives of others as God leads.

Fixing the Eyes on Jesus Rather Than on Problems

So, when we are beset round about with problems the idea is to get your eyes off who's doing what. Even off Satan. It's become fashionable in the faith movement to attribute everything that we do not enjoy as being from Satan.

Oh, this is a this is a very misleading kind of thing. Because that's exactly what Satan wants. We fix our eyes on Jesus. Let's do it right now. Fix your eyes on Jesus right now while I'm talking to you.

Look at the Lord. Say, Lord I'm going to quit looking at all my worries and my problems. Fix your eyes on Jesus. He's the solution. Hallelujah. Such power, such power, such power. That's why the demons cried out in panic.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary. For what is unseen is eternal. Don't waste your life on the visible. It's necessary and we have to cope with it.

But it's not really all that significant. Now, remember, Paul did not write in chapters. So, I want something here I overlooked. Our light and momentary, verse 17 in chapter 4, our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

Now, the fifth chapter tells us what that glory is that's being achieved by our afflictions. This is it. Chapter 5. This is the eternal weight of glory that's being achieved as you and I experience the sufferings of Christ.

It says that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death. And that death that we experience, that death to the Adamic nature, achieves something.

There's something being accomplished, something being built. And it's so fantastic that our problems, Paul says, are not worthy to be compared with it. Not worthy to be compared with it. It's a surpassing weight of glory that we're working on.

They used to sing, I'm working on a building. Well, we're working on a building. Do you all see that? I lost some of you. In 2 Corinthians 4 .17, our light and momentary troubles. How do your troubles seem to you right now?

Heavy and eternal, huh? Compared with what God is doing for you, they are light and they are momentary. Oh, they're distressing while we're in the flesh. That one's not going to last forever. We're on something eternal here.

The Heavenly Dwelling and the Resurrection Body

And that eternal glory that far outweighs our troubles is described in chapter 5. Paul did not write in chapters. Now, says the old Jew who was beset round about with every conceivable problem, we know that if the earthly tent, what is that talking about?

The bod. Now, we know that if the bod we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God. Now, in John 14 .2, there's a venerable verse. Venerable. It has the patina of age upon it. It says, In my Father's house are many mansions.

In God's house. Now, the word mansion, properly translated, is a room or a dwelling room or a room in which you dwell. That's the proper translation. And by the way, for Margaret's benefit, let me say that that's the way the Valera translates it is abiding place.

The King James translation of mansion is archaic. And no modern translation uses the mansion. This is the mansion here. This is our mansion. Our dwelling place is right here. And it's much better than a mansion in heaven because it comes down and clothes you and becomes part of what you are.

Now, if that isn't better than a stationary house, you're going to have your mansion on you. There are some ocean creatures that carry around their house. Do you know any of them? A snail carries around his house.

And there's kinds of crabs that scurry along on the beach looking for a house until they find one and then they enter into it. Well, think of yourself that way. Better to have a house like a little crab that you can carry around with you than one you're stuck in.

Alright. Well, you say, I don't know. I had in mind a pretty fancy house. This doesn't sound red hot, but Paul said it's a fantastic... The Greek there is really unusual. It's a great and indescribable house of glory, weight of glory.

You're putting weight on your house every time that you experience the sufferings of Christ, whether it's a minor disappointment or whether it's a choice that you have to make because you know it's God's will.

Whatever it is, every time you do that, you put weight on your house. And you're going to be clothed with that someday. So that's important. Because this is your resurrection here. Today, you're shaping the nature of the resurrection that you will have.

It's the law of sowing and reaping. And it cannot be abrogated by mercy, grace, or anything else. This is it. Now we know that at the earthly tent we live in, the old bod, is destroyed. We have a building from God.

An eternal house in heaven. Well, that sure sounds like a mansion built up there, doesn't it? On some kind of foundation. I don't know what foundation you build on in the spirit realm, do you? I don't know.

Not built by human hands. Meanwhile, we groan. Somebody groan. There you go. Several people groan. They groan all the way to church so they're in practice. Meanwhile, we groan. But what Paul groans for here is not the ordinary Christian groaning.

Now don't you think that if you groan you ought to groan scripturally? Just finish the best thing you'd ever want to read on the battle of Waterloo. Oh, it just goes down to bullet by bullet. I mean, and it's thoroughly researched by an Englishman.

The story of Waterloo. Now that wasn't a battle. You never heard of one that was. Why did I get on that? Where was I going with that? I got off on it. Huh? Still can't hear. And sure enough, and I've read this.

Kenneth Roberts goes on to this in his stories of war. And you can find it in the military. You can find it in the schools. You can find it in the church. You can find it in business. That you try to get something going and people get so occupied with their own glory and prestige and honor that it fouls up the whole operation.

And that's why Waterloo was as bad as it was because there were a number of officers in there who were doing crazy things based on their own self glory. Drives me nuts. The injustice of it all. And that's because we can hide.

Judgment, Resurrection, and the Exposure of Hidden Deeds

See, we can hide. I mean, you look at somewhere in there. We were over there looking at the in Hawaii. USS Arizona. And you know the whole story. The admirals and all. They were caught off guard. I wonder sometimes about that.

You know, if they're really doing their homework or whatever. But that's the way life is. But see, you can hide. You can hide. You can be an absolute snake. And you appear to everybody as Oh, Mr. Joe Swell.

Or Miss America 2001. But in the day of resurrection what you are is there for everybody to see. Now if that isn't perfect justice. I mean, you have your shot here. You can do it. But the thing is, you can't hide.

You can hide here. But you can't hide there. In Daniel, the 12th chapter it says in the second verse, I believe. And many of them that sleep in the dust shall arise. Some to life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

And these generals and everything that have messed up battles and cost the lives of thousands and thousands of men because they were afraid if they did differently they wouldn't have gotten the credit for the operation and this kind of thing.

In that day shame and everlasting contempt. What a day is coming. What a day is coming. That I will not be found naked. Verse 4, for while we are in this tent we groan. Well, we groan for the wrong things today.

We groan because we're not happier in the body we have. Not that we wish to be unclothed. Paul wasn't groaning wishing he was dying. He said that to be clothed with our mansion from heaven, our heavenly dwelling so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

This body. The doctrine of the catching up of the saints has eclipsed the resurrection. You ask people who believe in the rapture and say is it necessary to be resurrected to be in the rapture? See what they say to you.

I mean we've lost the vision of the resurrection. They think they're going to be raptured before they're resurrected. It isn't going to happen. It's not scriptural. You have to be resurrected first. That's the issue.

The rest is just flying up in the air. It's the resurrection that counts. That's what counts. That doctrine's been lost because we have concentrated on the ascension. The reason is that appeals to our carnal nature and that's why we have.

We think oh boy I'm out of here. There we are. It's all lovely. Up we go into air conditioned comfort. No more bills. You can take all your credit cards throw them out and let other people pay them. That appeals to us naturally.

But the resurrection what is that? That's bad news because the resurrection is the central doctrine of the gospel. We lost it but it's coming back. It's coming back. Hallelujah. So what is what? Now it is God who has made us for this purpose.

God is making you and me so that he can clothe us and has given us the spirit as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. Now the Holy Spirit that we have now is a down payment on what is ahead and what is ahead includes our body.

Now it would be a wonderful thing to have your body animated by the Holy Spirit rather than by blood because blood is corruptible but when your body is animated by the spirit of God oh like wow you'll never be tired again.

But you still sing praises on your bed because even though you're not tired God doesn't want us to get in the way when he starts judging. We just pronounce the judgment and God executes it. He doesn't want us around working our own wrath.

When God gets ready to exercise wrath he uses the lamb not the lion the lamb the angry lamb. That's what God wants is angry lambs so they don't do any harm. Alright now Isn't that nice? Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

Now that's nice. We live by faith and not by sight. We are confident I say and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. Now I have to stop there for station identification. That's an important concept.

Home with the Lord and the Meaning of the Heavenly House

I had a revelation about that about what it means to be home. And it had nothing to do with a fancy house or anything else. It was a sense of well-being in the presence of the Lord. We think about mansions because that's all we can conceive because that's what our experience dictates.

But a mansion does not make a home. Let's say for example that you were raised in a fairly nice neighborhood and you had grown up there into your teens and you had become to be eighteen and then you went off and you joined the military.

So maybe you're away from home for five years. We'll say you're away from your home for five years. And in the meantime your family suffered a financial reverse and they were forced to move. Their house was foreclosed and they had to move out to a a very poor area.

They still had a house but it was nothing like the house that they had. Very meager two-bedroom house for seven people and living just wasn't the same. They lost their car. They had an old car. They and the family dog moved out there and new people moved in to the nice home that they had with the circular drive and beautiful car and nice neighborhood.

And then you came back and you came and you knew of course by mail that what had happened but anyway you wanted to you wanted to see the old place where you'd been raised in this nice neighborhood. And you came and you walked up to the circular drive and you came up and there was a beautiful bronze polished knocker on the door and you knocked on the door and strangers came to the door.

You just wanted to see what it was like. I sometimes would like to go back to see what it looks like on Crest Avenue in West Haven. But it's not home. And you would know that you were not home. Why is that?

Because a home has nothing to do with a nice house. And you knew of course where your family had moved to and so then you went out into across the tracks so to speak and there came the family dog bounding up to meet you wagging his tail.

And there came your father and your mother and your sisters your brothers to embrace you. You were home. You see that? How many see that? Is that true? That's why mansions do not mean anything. That is what's home.

What's home is Jesus and your loved ones. That's what makes a home. Praise the Lord. I'm getting maudlin up here. Whoa. Where's the Kleenex? That's too real to be funny. Alright. Home with the Lord. And the Lord gave me a revelation about that.

The sense of being home and while we're here we're never completely home. You'll see what I mean. With the Lord there's a sense of rightness. This is where I belong. That's what Paul was talking about.

Not his home with his family up in Antioch. Was that where he's from? No it wasn't Antioch. Tarsus. Alright. We prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord because the man was suffering in prison.

So we make it our goal to please Him whether we are at home in the body or away from it. And then verse 10. This is a very important verse. It is not preached correctly in many instances today. Christians cannot accept this for what it says.

It's unfortunate because the fear of God has been removed from the churches. And the fear of God a healthy fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And without it you're foolish. And so we have a foolish nation because it's being preached today that no Christian has anything to fear from the judgment seat of Christ.

The Judgment Seat of Christ and Accountability

Let's take a look at it. For we must all... Now when it says that when Paul says that and he's talking to the church in Corinth he means all of us. And then in the 11th verse he said we know what it is to fear the Lord.

So he's including himself here. So this does apply to Christians and to the world. The judgment seat of Christ is the only judgment seat there is. Over in Revelation 20 we have another judgment we call the great white throne judgment.

That's too bad because that's the judgment seat of Christ also. That's the only judgment seat there is. Jesus said in John 8 the Father judges no man but has committed all judgment to the Son. The judgment seat of Christ began when the Lord rose from the dead.

As Peter says the time has come the judgment begins in the household of God and it will extend all the way on through the thousand year kingdom age and all the way through to the general resurrection.

That's all the judgment seat of Christ. Every creature must appear before Jesus Christ. The Father judges no man but has committed all judgment to the Son. So this is talking about as it says all. We must all.

Paul said that too didn't he in Acts. He said God has appointed a man by whom he will judge the world. Now when it says appear it does not mean in the Greek present yourself. Like you say well I have to appear in court next week.

It's not talking about that. The word appear here means be revealed or be made manifest. We appear as to what we are. We cannot con the Lord. Now notice carefully and apply this to yourself because it applies to you and there's no waiving of it.

Now I'll explain why in a minute. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now that judgment seat there in the Greek is the Bhima. Well it's being taught today that the Bhima is a sports award banquet where you go and some get a gold medal and some get a silver medal and some get a bronze medal and some get placed or whatever.

But everybody gets something good. That is not the way the word Bhima is used in the New Testament. It's used 11 times I remember and I checked them all in the Greek. Made sure it's Bhima and then to see how it was used in the English.

The word in its root meaning is step. And those of us we saw somewhere recently I think it was in church here. Yeah, we saw a picture of a pilot judging and there was these steps going up. That's the origin of the word.

The etymological basis of the word. Lexical basis I should say. Now, in the New Testament it says Jesus was brought before the Bhima of Pilate. And that's the way the word is used. It means a place where an accused person is brought for judgment.

That's what the word means. There's no getting around that. Now let's see what else it says. That each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body whether good or bad. Now, an honest, healthy understanding of that is critical because otherwise we get frivolous.

And that is exactly... Now I'm going to tell you where the frivolity sprang from and I'm almost through so please do not faint away. This is where the frivolity has sprung from. In John 5 .24 Jesus said, here's my word and believe on him that sent me shall not come unto condemnation but shall pass from death unto life.

Alright. Scholars have taken that as an axiom and deduced from that that no Christian will ever be judged. Makes sense, but it's not scriptural. Because then we go to 1 Peter 4 .17 and it said judgment must begin at the household of God.

So either the Bible contradicts itself or there's more to it than meets the eye at first glance. Are you with me so far? Because we need to know if we're going to receive the bad things we've done we need to know this is the case.

And may I say in passing if you have done some bad thing and you're worried about it right now then what you do is like I said you make a judgment about that. You can do it at the altar after I'm through.

You come up and you tell it clearly. Lord, this is what I did and I've got this in me and I judge it to be wrong. And if you will do that and if you will renounce it confess it, renounce it and denounce it it's not just good enough to confess it because that's just making a list of what you did.

To confess something without renouncing and denouncing it just to make a list of it. I don't want to deliver you. You've got to confess it name it clearly and then denounce it as being evil and then renounce it and say, God by your help this will never happen again.

If you will do that you have washed your robe in the blood of the Lamb and you'll never have to answer for it again. It's an eternal judgment. So, hang loose. But make sure you do your homework after the service.

Three Judgments: the Cross, Human Choices, and Indwelling Sin

Now, I'm going to explain this a little bit but I have to go into it more tonight because I'm running rapidamente out of time. Now, let me try to explain this. Now we're ready for three judgments. There are three judgments and this is where the confusion arises and I'll just have to hit it briefly.

You got it up there, Brian? Three judgments coming at us. I know it's up there because he saved it to three judgments is the DOS acronym. Alright, now I'll go on. There, I found it. The first judgment is the judgment of the cross.

Now this is where the confusion comes. Christians will not be judged. The first judgment that concerns us is the judgment of the cross. Now, by His death and atoning blood on the cross of Calvary the Lord satisfied the judgment of God on the sin of the world and 1 John 2 .2 says that the atonement was made not just for us but for the whole world.