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00:00 [Music]
00:19 Dearly beloved Covenant Church and all our viewers around the world,
00:22 thank you for joining me for our midweek Bible study.
00:25 It's always a joy and a delight to bring this to you.
00:29 I get to study the word in a little bit more depth
00:33 so that we can bring you a significant, meaningful word.
00:38 We try to make these midweek Bible studies a little bit more chewy,
00:42 try to put some meat out there so that the hearers can go a bit deeper
00:48 knowing the Scriptures and understanding a little bit more God's intent for the church
00:53 and for us as born-again believers.
00:55 So what we want to take away from this is not just knowledge,
00:59 we want you as a hearer to search the Scriptures.
01:02 You know, the Bible says that those of the Bereans and those of Thessalonica
01:09 were more honorable because they searched the Scriptures.
01:13 It's important for you as a person to search the Scriptures,
01:16 know your Bible, understand all of the--as many of the covenants
01:20 and the many things that have been promised unto us by God.
01:24 And so in the last number of weeks we've been dealing with judgments.
01:29 Two weeks ago we finished with the judgments of the throne of David.
01:33 Last week we started the judgment seat of Christ.
01:37 So this teaching is the judgment seat of Christ, part two.
01:40 Part one was introductory, just introducing some of the overtones
01:45 of what the apostle Paul was saying to the Corinthian church,
01:50 acknowledging the fact that these men and women were in horrendous persecution,
01:56 horrendous persecution.
01:58 And so he was telling them, you know, you're giving your lives,
02:02 you're dying for Christ's sake, but there is a reward system
02:07 after we are saved, after we go into heaven.
02:12 And he was explaining to the church what that reward system is.
02:17 And so we'll start with the Scripture reading from 1 Corinthians 3:15.
02:24 And he's saying in 1 Corinthians 3:11,
02:32 "For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid,
02:37 which is Jesus Christ."
02:39 So Jesus built on the foundation of the law and the prophets,
02:43 Moses and Elijah.
02:46 And that foundation he built his ministry.
02:49 The church which the apostles are building on is the foundation of Jesus Christ.
02:54 So you have the first foundation, and then it is buttressed,
02:59 it is embellished, it is enhanced by the foundation of Jesus Christ,
03:03 who is the word.
03:05 The church is built on that foundation.
03:07 It's solid.
03:09 And then he said, "Now if any man build on this foundation,"
03:13 this is the foundation of Christ, "gold, silver, precious stone,
03:18 wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest."
03:25 Anything you do for Jesus, whatever you're doing for Christ,
03:28 is going to be made manifest.
03:31 There are people in this church, for example,
03:34 we'll never ever get to know them, but there are men and women,
03:39 particularly women, who spend per day, hours and hours laboring in deep prayer,
03:48 laboring for this pulpit to be free, to be liberated,
03:51 so the word of God can be dispensed without being chained,
03:57 without being limited.
04:00 We'll never get to know these people.
04:02 We know they are there,
04:05 but individuals like that could be labors of love that are gold ministries.
04:13 Not every pulpit ministry, if any, would be a work of gold.
04:19 And so sometimes we try to judge a thing by what we see with our eyes,
04:26 not by what is needed by the spirit.
04:30 And so again, don't take for granted that a person that is behind the pulpit
04:36 is gold, silver, precious stones,
04:38 and that you that's not behind the pulpit, you're not gold, silver, or precious stones,
04:42 and therefore you want to pursue a pulpit ministry
04:46 because you want gold, silver, and precious stones.
04:49 People behind pulpits may not even--
04:52 their work might be wood, hay, and stubble,
04:55 which we'll go into defining certain things later.
04:58 And so every man's work shall be made manifest, verse 13,
05:02 for the day, which is the judgment seat of Christ, shall declare it,
05:07 because that work will be revealed by fire, which is God's fire.
05:11 The fire will try every man's work of what sort it is.
05:18 If any man's work abide which he had built thereon,
05:22 that person will receive a reward.
05:26 And if any man's work shall be burnt by that fire,
05:30 that person will suffer loss in terms of the reward.
05:36 However, the individual will be saved.
05:41 The fire will not consume their salvation.
05:44 And so we are saved by faith.
05:47 It is the grace of God that is by faith, the Bible says.
05:52 So when you accept Jesus as your personal savior,
05:56 he comes into your life, you are baptized,
06:00 you receive the Holy Spirit, you begin to live a righteous life,
06:04 you fulfill the judgments of Christ,
06:09 which is chapter number 6 of Hebrews,
06:12 which are the six doctrines of Christ, rather.
06:16 You fulfill those, you're walking in the faith.
06:18 It is important for you then to work for Christ, to serve.
06:23 And there are so many things that you can do
06:26 that enrich the ministry of the church through what we do for Christ.
06:31 So the apostle Paul is telling these Corinthian people
06:34 that you might be giving your life,
06:37 you might be dying because of persecution,
06:40 but remember there's a reward system.
06:42 So the first one is gold, silver, precious stones.
06:47 No matter how intense the fire is, whether it's physical fire or God's fire,
06:52 no matter how intense the fire is,
06:54 those three entities only get better with fire.
06:59 Wood, hay stubble, fire consumes that and burns that.
07:05 And you can see that, for example, in the making and the creation
07:09 of the tabernacle, all the works of gold and silver,
07:14 all the works of iron and brass,
07:17 all of those were works that were works of a furnace.
07:22 And so wood, hay and stubble were needed to start the fire.
07:28 And so wood, hay and stubble are important.
07:31 They are fire starters.
07:34 But if you have wood, hay and stubble, if you start a fire,
07:38 a fire doesn't last forever.
07:41 It's like wood. So you need more wood, more wood, more wood.
07:45 And so it's not like wood, hay and stubble people are necessary.
07:48 No, we need wood, hay and stubble people to keep the fire going,
07:53 to keep the revival going, to keep the church going.
07:56 You need those people.
07:58 But those works don't come into great eternal rewards.
08:05 And so the Bible says every man's work will be judged,
08:08 will be revealed, will be tested by fire.
08:12 So I did a study of fire in preparing for this
08:16 and went through just about every scripture in the Bible
08:20 that has to do with fire, which is God's fire.
08:24 And so the first one you will find is in Genesis 4,
08:31 where Cain and Abel bring their sacrifice to the Lord.
08:36 And Abel's sacrifice was more excellent.
08:40 It was accepted and Cain's was rejected.
08:44 And so we know that because God would accept an offering.
08:52 And the way we knew an offering was accepted is because God
08:56 would send fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice.
09:00 You see this in 1 Kings 17 with Elijah saying,
09:08 "The God that answers by fire, let him be God."
09:11 And so way back before there was a requirement for sacrifices
09:17 to be made, when men made sacrifices to see if God approved
09:23 of their walk and their life, the way they knew that God approved,
09:27 fire would come from heaven and would consume that sacrifice.
09:32 And so the first fire we see is Abel's sacrifice.
09:36 That is implied as opposed to said.
09:40 The next time you'll see God's fire is in Genesis 15, 17.
09:47 When God cuts a covenant with Abraham, Abraham is put to sleep
09:52 in that chapter.
09:54 And the Bible says that God cuts the covenant, a furnace
09:58 and a smoking flask move between the pieces of the sacrifices
10:03 that are there.
10:04 There were five animals that were put on that altar.
10:09 Five is the number of grace, so Abraham was being given grace.
10:14 But five was also releasing in Abraham the five-fold ministry
10:19 that was in him to be birthed in the earth at some point.
10:24 And so because Abraham's fire would be limited, would have
10:28 to be fueled, and you'll see this later in a similar chapter,
10:32 Abraham's fire would have to be fueled by wood, hay, and stubble.
10:36 God didn't need this covenant to be fueled by wood, hay,
10:42 and stubble all the way until Jesus came.
10:45 God sent his fire to secure that eternal and earthly contract
10:51 into eternity.
10:53 The next time you will see God's fire is in Genesis 19, verse 44,
10:59 where God rained fire from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.
11:04 And so two angels with God come and meet Abraham.
11:08 Abraham gives them something to eat in Genesis 18.
11:12 They then start walking towards Sodom and Gomorrah,
11:15 and God then says, "I can't hide this from Abraham,"
11:18 and shares with Abraham, "I'm going to destroy the cities."
11:21 And Abraham says, "Can you destroy the cities if there's 50 righteous
11:25 and came all the way down to 10?"
11:27 God said, "If there's 10, I'll spare the cities for the sake
11:32 of 10 righteous."
11:34 They couldn't find 10 righteous people.
11:36 And so God went his way.
11:39 The two angels went into the city of Sodom and Gomorrah.
11:42 God, Lot, his wife, and the two girls, their husbands refused to come.
11:48 They went out into the plains of Zor, into the mountains,
11:52 and the Bible says God's fire came and consumed those cities.
11:59 The next time you will see God's fire is in chapter number 22,
12:06 verse 6 through 7 of the book of Genesis.
12:12 You will see significant fire there.
12:15 And so Abraham and Isaac are going up to the mountain because God wanted
12:20 Abraham to sacrifice his only son, which was Isaac, the covenant son.
12:26 And so Isaac says to his father, "You have the wood, you have the fire,
12:31 the flame, where's the sacrifice?"
12:33 And so the fire is important for the sacrifice.
12:38 In chapter number 3 and verse 2 of the book of Exodus,
12:45 when Moses is in the wilderness, Moses sees a bush that is on fire.
12:51 It was the fire of God that was on a physical, perishable element,
13:00 a simple bush, but the fire of God, which came on that bush,
13:06 for the purpose of God, the purpose of God will not consume a perishable
13:12 in the earth.
13:13 So when God puts his fire on you, you are a limited, perishable being.
13:19 You will not be consumed.
13:21 God's fire will quicken and make you whole.
13:25 And so when Moses turned aside to see this wonder of a fire on a bush,
13:31 but the bush was not consumed, he turned aside and God spoke to Moses
13:36 out of that fire.
13:38 The next time you'll see God's fire is in Exodus 13, verse 21, verse 22,
13:45 and verse 23, where God put a pillar of fire at night to lead the children
13:52 of Israel through the wilderness.
13:54 And that pillar of fire is seen throughout the journeys of the children
13:59 of Israel.
14:00 In the 40 years they were in the wilderness, that pillar of fire
14:05 could be seen.
14:06 It was a giant, giant streetlight.
14:09 So it was also a giant heater to warm them in the treacherous cold
14:16 temperatures of the desert, the clouds in the treacherous heat
14:21 of the desert.
14:22 So the temperature range in the day, it could be as high as 40,
14:27 45 degrees Celsius, and at night it could dip to zero, minus zero.
14:34 And so God was then giving them air conditioning so that their journey
14:38 into the promise could be comfortable.
14:41 God will always give you comforts in leading you into gaining your promise
14:46 and rewards of his covenants.
14:50 And then Leviticus chapter number 1, verse 7 through 8, is the priests,
14:57 Aaron and his sons' censers, where they would offer incense
15:02 in their censers.
15:04 That was the fire of God that was given.
15:07 That fire was where God came down, ignited the sacrifice when Moses
15:13 built the tabernacle.
15:15 That fire was never to go out.
15:17 So wherever the children of Israel went in the wilderness,
15:20 a priest was responsible to make sure that that fire never went out.
15:27 It was that initial fire that was on the altar for the sacrifice.
15:32 It was that fire that was used to light the candlesticks in the holy place,
15:39 the seven candlesticks.
15:41 That fire was never to go out.
15:43 There must always be a custodian in the church, a custodian in your family,
15:49 you as a custodian, as a person, where the fire never goes out in your life,
15:54 never go out in your life.
15:57 The next time you see this fire is when Joshua went to Jericho.
16:07 They were given an instruction.
16:09 You must burn the city of Jericho with fire.
16:13 Everything in the city must be burned with fire, every house,
16:17 every habitation, every animal, everything that's there,
16:22 every person that's in there must be destroyed,
16:25 and everything must be burned with fire because Jericho is the time.
16:30 The Bible calls Jericho the devoted thing.
16:33 The word "devoted" is set apart.
16:36 Set apart is the time.
16:39 So Jericho was the time for what's coming.
16:43 In other words, if you'll believe me for the promised land,
16:48 whatever you see in Jericho, if you'll give that to me first,
16:53 everything else is yours freely.
16:56 You have to have faith that I'll give you the rest.
17:00 And so Achan didn't have faith, so he took a Babylonian garment,
17:05 which is of gold and silver, and so he had to be killed.
17:10 And the reason he was killed, because Achan wanted his now,
17:14 he couldn't walk by faith.
17:16 He wanted to walk by sight.
17:18 And anything that is not of faith, the Bible says, is sin.
17:22 And so fire then leveled that whole field because fire is the equalizer.
17:28 You'll see fire used in Judges 6, verse 21,
17:34 and also in chapter 7, verse 20, in dealing with Gideon,
17:39 where Gideon was offering his--he was threshing wheat in a winepress,
17:45 and the angel of the Lord called him a great man,
17:48 and Gideon couldn't believe he was great.
17:50 And so a long story short, Gideon then took his father's bullock
17:55 and offered it as a sacrifice, and the angel of the Lord,
17:58 which is God himself, put fire on that water
18:02 and consumed the sacrifice.
18:04 As a deliverer, God's going to put fire on every sacrifice you make,
18:10 whether it's a dollar offering, a $10,000 offering.
18:13 We had a guest speaker a few weeks ago from Cape Town,
18:17 Pastor Winnie McDonald, and she said something
18:20 in a presentation that I'd never heard before.
18:23 We don't give in equal measures.
18:27 We give in equal sacrifice.
18:29 That was life-changing, because a person that is giving a dollar--
18:34 that's everything--might be a greater sacrifice
18:38 than someone who's giving $10,000 who has $10 million.
18:43 So it's not equal measure.
18:46 It has to be equal sacrifice, and I love that very much.
18:51 And so you might be bringing your sacrifice, whatever it is.
18:56 The fire of God is the equalizer.
18:59 It's the fire of God that accepts your sacrifice,
19:03 empowers your sacrifice, and empowers your future.
19:08 Number nine of this list, Elijah in 1 Kings 18:24-25
19:16 and also in 18:38, where Elijah said,
19:21 "The God that answers by fire, let him be God."
19:25 And so the fourth purpose of Baal, 450 of them were dancing
19:29 and cutting themselves on the mount called Mount Carmel.
19:33 Elijah just relaxed the whole day,
19:35 but when it came to evening, he then took a bullock,
19:39 built the altar, took a bullock, cut it in pieces,
19:42 put water, 12 barrels of water on the altar,
19:46 a barrel for each tribe.
19:48 It's the washing of water by the word on the altar.
19:51 Prayed a simple prayer, a handful of words.
19:54 The fire of God came from heaven and swallowed up that offering,
19:59 and all the people bowed down and let God be God.
20:03 And then Elijah then killed all the prophets of Baal
20:07 because once God answers by fire,
20:10 you can't let the things live that have put you back.
20:14 They are things that--I mean, God will take your sacrifice,
20:18 but you have to go back and kill all the false prophets of poverty,
20:23 all the false prophets of ignorance,
20:26 all the false prophets of filth and dirt and so on.
20:32 God will take your sacrifice and answer by fire,
20:34 but there's things that you as a person that you have to kill.
20:38 And with your prophetic anointing, which is the sword of God in your mouth,
20:42 there's things you have to kill and you have to destroy.
20:45 I need an amen from everybody out there.
20:47 Number 10, Elijah in 2 Kings 2, and verse 11.
20:55 The enemy had come in and surrounded Elijah.
20:58 He didn't panic.
21:00 His servant was panicking, and Elijah prayed the prayer,
21:03 and he said, "God, open my servant's eyes."
21:07 And when his servant's eyes were opened,
21:09 he saw all around them chariots of fire.
21:13 These are an angelic branch of the heavens,
21:18 the warring branch who war with the fire of God.
21:22 And so they are always around us.
21:25 The fire of God is invisible.
21:28 When it's need to be visible, God will open your eyes to see that.
21:33 Number 12, 1 Chronicles 21, and verse 26.
21:39 A plague had come into Israel because David began to raise up an army
21:46 and number the army.
21:48 He wanted to know how many troops he had, and God was offended by that
21:53 because all of David's life he walked by faith,
21:56 knowing that the Lord is my shield, the Lord is my buckler,
22:01 the Lord is my strong man, the Lord is my fortress,
22:04 the Lord is fighting on my behalf.
22:07 And David, when he began to count the number of soldiers,
22:11 he was then beginning to lean on the arm of flesh.
22:14 And the Bible is clear.
22:16 Cursed is the man or the woman who leans on the arm of flesh.
22:20 And because David wanted to number his soldiers and say,
22:25 "We'll win this battle because we have more troops than they have,"
22:28 God said, "I'm offended by that.
22:30 You have leaned on the arm of flesh.
22:32 You have not walked by faith and trusted in me."
22:34 There are three things coming, three and a half years of famine.
22:38 You'll be running from your enemy for six months
22:41 or three days of plague in Jerusalem and in Israel.
22:45 And David said, "I'm too old to be running around the world.
22:48 I've been through a famine before.
22:51 It will destroy our economy.
22:53 It will destroy the gains we have made.
22:55 No famine.
22:56 I'm an old man now.
22:57 I don't want to be in the wilderness running away from place to place,
23:00 hiding in caves in a tent here, da-da-da, trying to find food."
23:04 He said, "I'll take the three-day plague."
23:06 And an angel was unleashed and killed 70,000 people.
23:10 And to stop the plague, David went to Onan's threshing floor on Mount Zion.
23:17 The threshing floor of wheat is where it is--
23:22 wheat is potential revelation knowledge.
23:25 It's revelation knowledge in seed form.
23:29 The threshing floor brings revelation knowledge in seed form.
23:34 It has to be broken.
23:37 All the revelation in seed form have to lose their individual identity
23:42 and made flour.
23:44 That flour then has to be kneaded with a K--K-N-E-A-D--kneaded
23:52 and made into a dough.
23:54 That dough has to be put into the oven and baked.
23:58 Once the bread is baked, it can never go back to an individual wheat kernel,
24:03 so it can claim its individual contribution.
24:07 As a church, every person comes as a wheat kernel.
24:11 And if every person wants individual identity, we won't be a church.
24:15 So we all bring our wheat together.
24:18 We all get our wheat crushed.
24:20 We all make flour, and we create one loaf.
24:24 This church is one loaf.
24:26 The body of Christ, Jesus said, "I am the bread of life."
24:29 It's one loaf.
24:30 When he served communion, he broke the bread,
24:32 and he broke the bread for communion from one loaf.
24:35 We are one body, one loaf.
24:38 And so for this act here, when David got Onan's threshing floor,
24:44 and he built an altar there as a sacrifice,
24:48 Onan then said, "Just take it."
24:50 And David said, "I cannot give anything to God that will not cost me.
24:56 This has to cost me.
24:58 I have to pay a price for what I've brought on the nation for the last three days.
25:04 I have to pay a price for the widows I have created.
25:07 I have to pay a price for the children that will be raised without a father."
25:12 And he took out of his personal income, his personal--
25:16 he took out the national treasury from his personal income
25:20 and paid Onan the price per square meter of that.
25:25 Because the second thing is, if he didn't pay for it,
25:30 Onan would have owned that altar place,
25:33 and David would have to come and rent it another time.
25:37 But he paid the price once.
25:39 If you pay the price once, and you paid hard,
25:43 you paid with gold, you paid with your blood,
25:46 you paid with sacrifice,
25:48 where you paid the price, you will own forever.
25:52 And that's the place, historically, on Mount Zion,
25:56 where on the day of Pentecost,
25:59 when the Holy Spirit fell in the upper room,
26:02 the cloven tongues of fire that David initiated at Onan's threshing floor,
26:07 that fire repeated on 120 heads.
26:12 120 is 12 multiplied by 10.
26:17 12 is the foundation, 10 is the Ten Commandments.
26:22 All in the upper room, men and women,
26:25 the power of God fell there in God's fire.
26:30 Two more, or four more, you'll see God's fire in Ezekiel,
26:35 chapter number 1, verse 13 and 27,
26:39 where God's fire came to Ezekiel.
26:42 You'll see God's fire in Daniel, chapter number 3, 22,
26:47 chapter 3, verse 24, chapter 3, verse 25, chapter 3, verse 26,
26:52 where Meshach, Shaddai, and Abednego were in Nebuchadnezzar's fire.
26:58 And so before they got into Nebuchadnezzar's fire,
27:01 Nebuchadnezzar's fire could melt gold.
27:04 And so these men refused to bow down,
27:07 and so Nebuchadnezzar then made the fire seven times hotter.
27:10 What he didn't realize, he was raising the temperature to God's fire.
27:16 And they took these three boys and put them in the fire.
27:20 That fire refined them as a gold ministry,
27:25 as a gold ministry, so much so that throughout the entire Babylon,
27:30 their God was made the only God
27:34 that all of the Babylonians could serve.
27:38 And then you'll see God's fire on the day of Pentecost
27:41 in Acts, chapter 2, verse 3,
27:43 when they were in one place in one accord,
27:45 and they appeared on each of them cloven tongues as of fire,
27:49 and they all began to speak with other tongues
27:51 as the Holy Spirit gave their mutterance.
27:54 And then God's fire is seen in 1 Corinthians 3,
28:00 verse 13 through 15, which is the judgment seat of Christ,
28:04 where God's fire is coming to test our work,
28:07 to see what we have done for Christ will last,
28:11 to see what we have done for Christ is meaningful,
28:15 to see what sacrifice we have made with God shifts the needle
28:19 on influence as to where we're going.
28:22 And then lastly, Hebrews chapter number 12,
28:27 and verse 29, a very, very powerful scripture
28:31 on which all of these other examples we gave hang.
28:35 Our God, God is a consuming fire.
28:41 So when fire comes in your life,
28:44 if it's demonic fire, you will survive.
28:47 If it's God's fire, it's to make you better.
28:51 It's to burn off all the chaff,
28:53 it's to burn off all the wood, the hay, the stubble,
28:56 the meaningless things in your life,
28:58 but it's to purify your voice, your gift, your anointing,
29:02 your contribution to purify your sacrifice.
29:06 And so when God sends you fire, it's not to destroy you, Joe.
29:10 It's to get you ready for the double that I intend to give you.
29:15 In the beginning, when that fire comes,
29:17 it's to make you better for what's coming in your life.
29:20 Every single person who is ready or is being queued for,
29:25 who is being lined up for reward in your life,
29:28 reward is preceded by fire.
29:31 Because you can't have a weak foundation for a massive blessing.
29:37 The blessing cannot be greater than the foundation.
29:41 If the blessing is greater than the foundation,
29:44 the blessing will be lost.
29:46 If the fruit on a tree is bigger than the tree,
29:49 it will destroy the fruit and the tree.
29:51 So the tree has to be bigger than the fruit.
29:54 Your reward is going to be big,
29:58 but the foundation has to be bigger than what God is going to give you.
30:02 And so, sisters and brothers, what we do for Christ will last.
30:07 It's needful we work for him.
30:09 It's needful we do the things that have to be done,
30:12 but always keep in the back of your mind,
30:14 is this a gold, silver, precious stone work?
30:17 If it's a wood, hay stubble, heavenly father,
30:20 please let my wood be perfected.
30:25 All diamonds, all diamonds are carbon based,
30:30 which simply means that before the diamond,
30:34 it could have been anthracite or bituminous coal,
30:40 which is carbon.
30:42 Before that coal was a tree, before that tree was a seed.
30:48 And so the wood that you're using to empower your life is carbon based.
30:53 So ask God, take my wood and make it a precious stone.
30:58 The minute you ask him that, you are going to exert,
31:01 God's going to exert pressure and heat to turn wood into a diamond.
31:07 Guys, it's great being with you this evening.
31:10 God bless you, let your work be gold, silver and precious stone.
31:14 Remember, the judgment seat of Christ is the doctrine
31:19 and the judgment of rewards.
31:21 Great is your reward.
31:22 Thank you for your prayers.
31:23 Thank you for tuning in with us.
31:24 We'll see you next time.
31:25 [Music]