The kingdom life, a life under God’s ruling, will be a judgment to Satan. When the man-child is fully formed within the woman, God will be able to judge the world and bring in His kingdom through His judgment. When God comes to judge, He will first judge His children, those in the church. I have no intention to speak a threatening word, but I would like to say that we, as God’s children, should never think that today we can behave in any way or live however we want. No, there will be a day when we will be required to stand before the Lord and be subject to His judgment.
One day the Lord will come back, and He will come to judge us. It will be the overcomers who, by submitting to His authority, will bring Him back. The overcomers submit to God’s authority, shut Satan’s mouth, and enable God to execute His judgment. On the day of judgment He will first judge us saved ones. The time will come for judgment, and it will begin from the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17a). God will judge all the saved ones first. After judging the saved ones, He will judge the world (2 Pet. 3:10). After He has judged all kinds of people, this judgment will bring in His kingdom (1:11). His first way to bring man into submission to Him is through the gospel; when this is almost done, He will come to judge in order to bring in His authority and kingdom.
Today in the age of the gospel, the age of grace, God allows man to do whatever he desires, but this does not mean that He does not care or consider. He is the Lord of the universe, the Lord of creation, the Lord who governs the universe. He will judge the rebellious ones. However, there is a basic requirement: among His created ones He must save a group of people who submit to His authority and who allow Him to execute judgment. If there is not a group of created ones who submit to His authority, He will have nothing to say. Hence, He is always waiting for this matter. Even until today He still has not come back to judge the earth because there are not enough overcomers to allow Him to begin this judgment. He has been waiting for enough overcomers to be raised up so that Satan can be put to shame. At such a time God will come; the Christ of God will come. He will come to judge the earth, the world, and bring in His kingdom by judgment. His judgment will begin from His house; He will first judge His children, the saved ones.
In the future God will judge not only our conduct but also our work (1 Cor. 3:10-15). After a Christian is saved, he is accountable before God in two aspects. One day the Lord will judge us regarding how we conducted ourselves after we were saved; when He comes, He will also judge us regarding how we worked and served Him after we were saved. Some brothers and sisters have an attitude, thinking in themselves, “As long as I do not commit great sins, it should not matter if I commit small mistakes. It should also not matter if I watch a movie once every two weeks.” Today we can tell ourselves and others that it does not matter, but one day Christ will come, and His eyes will be like a flame of fire. He will not only look at our face, but like a flame of fire, His eyes will look at us in our heart (Rev. 1:14b). He will ask us, “Did you go to watch a movie that day?” At that time we will not be able to say, “It does not matter.” Every saved one will be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done through the body according to what he has practiced, whether good or bad; those who practice good will receive a reward, and those who practice evil will receive punishment (2 Cor. 5:10). We should not say that it does not matter. I do not dare to say such a word. One day the Lord will judge us. He said, “Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me” (Rev. 22:12). We should never think that the Lord’s word is a joke.
There was a believer who was very cold toward the Lord. One night he had a dream. He dreamed that he was watching a movie at a movie theater. As he was captivated by the movie, at the happiest moment there was great thunder and lightning in the sky, and there was a voice saying, “Christ has come!” He was frightened to the point that his entire body trembled, because Christ came when he was sitting in a movie theater. At the very moment when he became frightened, he woke up and discovered that it was a dream. He was soaked with sweat and said immediately, “Thank the Lord that this is only a dream. If I am actually watching a movie at the Lord’s coming, I will be in serious trouble.” Although this was only a dream, it should give us an indication.
Today we may think that it does not matter if we are loose in certain areas, but one day Christ will come, and we will all stand before His judgment seat. One day we will all stand before Him whose eyes are like a flame of fire. The word in Romans 14 is even more vivid. It says, “We will all stand before the judgment seat of God...Each one of us will give an account concerning himself to God” (vv. 10-12). This is truly not an easy matter. Sometimes when our children have done something wrong, we say to them, “What have you done wrong? Tell me yourself.” Usually, they are not very willing to disclose their wrongdoing clearly. However, this will be the situation when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ in the future. It may be difficult for us to tell the Lord what we did in the period of time before we saw Him. It will be unacceptable to tell Him, “That day I went to watch a movie; I still loved the world very much. Although I knew that You loved me and that I should have loved You, the world was lovelier than You.” Neither will we be able to tell Him, “Since You desired that I love You, why did You create the world to tempt me? If You had not created the world, I would have loved You very much. I loved the world with good reason. This is not a serious matter anyway.” I would like to ask, will we be able to tell the Lord this on that day? At His judgment seat we will have to tell Him item by item all that we have done. Hence, it is not true that as long as we are a Christian, everything will be all right.
One day we will stand before the judgment seat and tell the Lord all our past living, walk, and conduct. It is because of this that even the apostle Paul said that he dared not examine himself, but He who examined him was the Lord (1 Cor. 4:3-4). He said, “Do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then there will be praise to each from God” (v. 5).