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00:00:01
No More
14 Plays2 years ago
Vernon Takes us through the scripture on why you, as a believer in Christ, are no longer under judgment. You can stand confident "in Christ" on the Day of Judgment. There is no more judgment...period. No more.
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Transcript
Introduction and Judgment in End Days
00:00:03
Speaker
This is your host Vernon Terrell with Grace Ministries International and it's time for Walking Free. And welcome back. This is Vernon Terrell and I'm glad that you joined this edition of our podcast. And today I want to talk about
00:00:33
Speaker
this idea of judgment and really this end-days judgment. Man, you look around. I don't know about you. I look around and I see all the crazy stuff going on in this world and I'm sure our parents said the same thing and their parents and it's like, oh man, the world is coming to an end. Jesus is coming.
00:00:55
Speaker
But you know, every day when I listen to the news or read something on a news clip and, and see all the craziness, it's like, yeah, this is exactly what was predicted and what the last days is all about and what's going to be happening, which is just sad.
Assurance of Jesus' Return
00:01:19
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Uh, there's just horrific things going on.
00:01:23
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And the Lord said, he is coming back. That's something that we can bank on, count on. I mean, the disciples thought, yeah, it's like going to be in their lifetime. And it wasn't. And I keep thinking it's going to be in my lifetime. I don't know. No one knows the day or the hour that the Son of Man is going to come. No one knows that.
00:01:50
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But boy, oh boy, you look around and you just see the craziness. And I was thinking there's a school of thought out there and I was there and I had this belief at one time that, you know, well, I better get my act together as a Christian because Jesus is coming and he's going to judge me for how I lived this Christian life.
00:02:20
Speaker
As a believer, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to get some, get a whooping or, or I'm going to lose some type of reward in heaven, or I'm going to get some cool stuff in heaven, all because of my behavior. And there's this judgment that's going to come on me, uh, uh, at the, uh, at the end.
00:02:49
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And you know, if you just look at it, just I want to just highlight, just look at a couple of things and give you something to think about. I've mentioned this maybe one or two times before in the past, but it just hit me again. I said, man, we got to talk about this. And. I want to tell you up front.
Judgment and Belief in Christ
00:03:14
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That as I see it, there's no more judgment.
00:03:19
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You as a believer in Jesus Christ are not under any judgment because the judgment fell on Jesus. All judgment fell on Christ. And you're in Him. I'm in Him because we believed. The most famous verse in the Bible, John 3 16, for God so loved the world,
00:03:48
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that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Everybody, anybody who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. And we often stop there, but we need to keep reading. It is so vital for God did not send the Son
00:04:18
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into the world to judge the world. That wasn't the mission. But so that the world might be saved through him. That was the mission. And we need to keep reading verse 18. The one who believes in him is not judged. Whoa. Hold on to that one for a bit.
00:04:48
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The one who believes in him is not judged.
New Creation in Christ
00:04:54
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Isn't that amazing? The one who believes in him, is that you? Have you believed in him? Have you received Christ into your heart? Have you received his free gift of forgiveness in life? According to verse 18,
00:05:16
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You're not judged. The one who does not believe has been judged already because simply he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment that light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil.
00:05:40
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For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds will be revealed, I love this, as having been performed in God. Do you know that in Christ, your deeds are good. And when you do sin, when you do miss the mark,
00:06:10
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It's covered by the cross. Your very default, your brand new default, your brand new creation only does righteous things. You have to choose against your own nature to sin. And absent that, it's all righteous. Everything is righteousness.
00:06:41
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That's the power and the incredible transformation that happened to you because of the cross. You are brand spanking new. And it's so incredible that those who believe are not judged. That's why when you read the book of Hebrews,
00:07:09
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Hebrews chapter four verse 16 says, let's approach the throne of grace with what? With confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need. We can come boldly and in confidence. Hebrews 10.19 says, therefore brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy place, how? By the blood of Jesus.
00:07:40
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and He continued, don't throw away that confidence. It has great reward. You can stand confident that there is no more judgment. You can stand confident that Christ paid it all and that when He said, it is finished, He meant it. There's nothing left.
00:08:04
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You're not gonna improve on it, you're not going to, there's nothing that was left off the cross that, oh, well, you know, yeah, that one was missed. Nope, it was all there. That's why 1 John encourages those who are listening and some reading this epistle, something, a sermon, 1 John 2.28, now little children remain in him, that word abide in him.
00:08:34
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so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not draw back from him and shame that is coming. You see, this little word abide, it's where you live. Where is your abode? Are you going to abide in him? How do you do that? By receiving and believing in Christ, receiving his forgiveness, you're then grafted in. You've got a new location, a new home, a new abode.
00:09:01
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but those who don't abide in him will shrink away, draw back from him in shame and is coming. That's not you believer in Jesus. You can stand confidently
00:09:15
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that everything was paid for by Jesus. He took all judgment. All judgment landed on him. That was the mission because he came to save the world, not to judge it. He is coming as judge. Mission one was to save the world.
00:09:41
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And we have the opportunity to enter into that, into that deliverance by simply receiving it, believing it. That's all he asked. Receive him. Let him take it. Have you done that?
Life and Freedom in Christ
00:09:59
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Have you received his life?
00:10:03
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Simple, wasn't easy for Jesus. He bore it all, but for us, he just says, come to me, all of you who labor in a heavy burden and I'll give you what, rest. That's what we need. Too many Christians are running around like chickens with their head cut off trying to please God when they'd only realize that God's already pleased because of Jesus.
00:10:32
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He's pleased with you. That's why 1 John 4, 16, one of my favorite verses says that we need to first know and believe the love that God has for us. Do you believe? Do you know it? Do you believe it for yourself that God loves you? You can stand confident that there is no more judgment.
00:11:00
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Oh Vernon, but now everyone's gonna run amok because now you're talking easy believism and hyper-grace and yeah, I guess I am a little bit on hyper-grace because you can't out sin God's grace. God's grace is greater than all our sin, Paul told us in Romans chapter five.
00:11:22
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And then he said, look, that's, you know, we're not saying that, you know, now you can send more to get more grace. That's just stupid. He didn't say it quite like that. What he said in Romans six was, hey, don't you know, you were baptized into his death. You were immersed into his death, burial and resurrection. You died to that old life.
00:11:51
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You were raised a brand new creation in Christ. That old self was crucified, gone.
Understanding the Judgment Seat of Christ
00:12:01
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You can be confident. You entered in.
00:12:05
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to a new home, a new abode in Christ. And in Christ there's righteousness and forgiveness, redemption, reconciliation, holiness in life, all wrapped up in Christ. And you can stand confident in that. You see, we know that
00:12:35
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And I hear this a lot about Romans chapter 14, verse 10, and you'll hear folks talk about Romans 14, and hey, but we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Have you heard that one or seen that particular one?
00:13:04
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He says, again, that verse, it was in verse 10. He goes, why do you judge your brother or your sister? Or you as well, why do you regard your brother or sister with contempt? For we will all appear before the judgment seat of God. Because as I live, every knee will bow, every tongue will give praise,
00:13:33
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to God, so then each one of us would give an account of himself to God. And we hear that, and we keep thinking, well, okay, well, does that mean that now I'm going to have this movie of my life and all of my bad decisions,
00:14:01
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Is that just gonna come back and play out in front of the heavenly host? And then I'm going to have to give an account for every single act and fault? No. He says, if you go back to Romans 13, 11,
00:14:23
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goes, do this knowing the time that it is already the hour for you to awake from your sleep for now what? Salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed. The night's gone. The day is near. Let's rid ourselves of the deeds of darkness. Put on the armor of light. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't make provision of the flesh.
00:14:48
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And then he says in verse one, we accept the one who is weak in faith, but not to have quarrels over opinions. And we all get into these sidetrack issues.
00:15:00
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He says, we're not to judge the one who eats this and doesn't eat that. He tells us to be fully convinced in our own mind. That's a whole nother podcast for a whole, for a different day. And it's a powerful one that we will definitely camp on. But he's saying, you know, for you, why do you judge your brother or why do you hold them in contempt?
00:15:30
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We're all gonna appear for the judgment seat of God and each one will give an account of himself to God. Do you know what your account's gonna be? The issue here is that person who you saw is weak in the faith is just as righteous as you are. That person who eats meat or doesn't eat meat, they're just as righteous as you are. You're gonna give an account to your heavenly Father
00:16:01
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and actually you're gonna see yourself and them as you really are in Christ, as holy and righteous, redeemed and reconciled. That's the type of account that you're gonna be giving, thanking God, wishing you could have seen the real you while you were in the here and now on this planet.
00:16:29
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That's what Paul says in Colossians chapter three, that in Christ, when we get to heaven, we're going to see Him as He is.
Resting in Christ's Righteousness
00:16:39
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But guess what? You're going to see you and all those others as you are in Him. Incredible. You see, but wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
00:16:56
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What about that verse in 2 Corinthians chapter five? And that verse is like whoa. I mean 2 Corinthians 5, 10, it's like you got some splannin' to do on that one. Because it says there, for we must all appear.
00:17:24
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before the judgment seat of Christ, all, everyone, so that each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body in accordance to what he's done, whether good or bad. Therefore, verse 11, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade people, but we are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known in your consciences,
00:17:54
Speaker
What'd he do with that? Think about it. Everyone, and that's believer, unbeliever, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body while on this planet in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad. Let me ask you a question. What's another Bible word for bad? Yeah, that's right, sin.
00:18:27
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What happened to your sin? That's right, Jesus took it all on the cross, forgiven, done, it is finished. What's left? Good, exactly. But what about those who didn't receive Jesus Christ, that we read in John three, verse 18. Verse 17 and 18, those who do not believe they're judged already, their deeds are evil,
00:18:56
Speaker
The scripture says there is none righteous, right? In fact, all your righteousness after your own self is like filthy rags. So when an unbeliever stands before God, there is nothing good. What's left? Just the bad. So this is talking about two distinct groups of people. Those who are good because they're in Christ and God made them good and righteous and holy.
00:19:24
Speaker
and those who are not in Christ, we say just in Adam, and there is nothing good in them, there's only bad. It's two distinct people, and therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade people to get a new abode, to abide in Christ, to receive Jesus Christ into their life,
00:19:55
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So all their sins can be taken care of and forgiven by the cross, and they can rest in Him knowing that God has made them good, acceptable, perfect in Christ.
00:20:15
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That's what it's all about. This is, the Christian life is not a life of trying to get more stuff in heaven. I mean, how silly is that? That I'm working down here to get more stuff. When the scripture says we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ, we are heirs and joint heirs.
00:20:40
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We're heirs of the king and joint heirs with Christ. That means we have co-ownership. He's given us the assets of heaven. Isn't that amazing? You don't have to worry, believer, to try to please God and to do more for God.
00:21:10
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You can rest. You can rest. And you can do stuff because you want to, because he's made you holy and righteous and loving and kind. So go be loving and kind and righteous and holy. Whatever triggers your heart to serve and to love, go do that. Because all you're serving and ministering is not getting you any more stuff. In fact, with that mindset, it's probably giving you more stress.
00:21:42
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lay that aside, realize that you are the righteousness of God in Christ and that there is no more judgment. There's only life and freedom and victory and rest for you. And if you go and quote, send and send and send and well,
00:22:11
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I guess you could do that. I mean, you're really going against your very nature. I think you'll be miserable. There are consequences on this planet for that type of activity. It's a misunderstanding of our heart. You see, you don't have a wicked heart because in that transaction, in that transformation,
00:22:40
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When your old self was crucified and you were given a brand new self, with that became a brand new heart. A beautiful, righteous, victorious heart that only generates beautiful, righteous, victorious thoughts. That's in you. You have everything you need, Peter tells us right now for righteousness and godliness and victory.
00:23:10
Speaker
You may not realize it. You may be believing a lot of lies that have been, you've accepted as true. And I just challenge you to start looking at those one by one as the Lord brings them up. And go back to just a solid, simple teaching of scripture that you're forgiven, you're made righteous,
00:23:38
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You are acceptable in Christ. You are valued in Christ. You are victorious in Christ and you are free. I hope this was an encouragement to you.
00:23:55
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that yes, with all the crazy stuff going on right now, and it seems like the Lord's coming is near. And it might be today, tomorrow, and it could be in 100 years from now or more. I don't know. But what I do know is that whether we're taking it up or we just die,
00:24:21
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a natural death, or what some call an accidental or untimely death, as believers, there is no more judgment because Jesus took it all.
Conclusion and Encouragement
00:24:36
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And you'll give an account. You'll give an account of how wonderfully righteous God has made you, how blessed you are, how grateful you are,
00:24:49
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and you can walk confident in the kingdom because of Jesus. I hope this will spur you on to not just talk about it, not just debate about it, but actually
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to walk it.