Your Final Exam - Mark L. Hitchcock

dr. mark hitchcock is our speaker today he serves as associate professor of bible exposition here at DTS he earned his Bachelors of Science from Oklahoma State University his Juris Doctorate from Oklahoma City University School of Law in 1984 and he turned a theological education finish to THM and a PhD here in 1991 and 2005 respectively you still see it serves as the senior pastor of the Faith Bible Church in Edmond Oklahoma a position he's held since 1991 and he has served really for the last number of years since 2006 here with a Seminary in an adjunct capacity he commutes from Oklahoma City Edmond Oklahoma down so he can spend a portion of his week every week with us we deeply appreciate that dual commitment to his church into the seminary he's authored over 20 books primarily on endtime prophecy and speaks across the country and internationally in churches and conferences he is married to his wife Cheryl who's here with us this morning they have two sons two daughters-in-law two grandsons and one granddaughter aside from reading and studying he loves walking lifting weights and playing golf it's been a privilege to be with him both here at the seminary and then on the road in various conferences and opportunities he always does a great job representing the seminary representing the Scriptures mark thank you for being committed to DTS as well as to the local church would you join me in welcoming dr. mark hitchcock well it's great to be here with you it's it's always a privilege to speak here at chapel at DTS and I appreciate the opportunity to do that here with you this morning and speaking of appreciation I do want to take this opportunity to thank dr. Bailey for his wise godly leadership of the seminary I'm not trying to run you off anytime early I know you're not leaving here till till June next June but I'm not going to be speaking in Chapel probably between now and then so I just wanted to take this opportunity to publicly thank you for your leadership of the seminary of you Shepherd of this seminary with wisdom and faithfulness and I'm deeply grateful just personally for your friendship and encouragement one of the the main reasons I'm here teaching at the seminary because of you and your encouragement in my life so I just I can't say enough about you and your leadership and friendship and my thanks to you so I'm I pray God's good handed blessing will continue to rest upon you and your family thank you brother we appreciate you as the chaplain mentioned a bit ago he asked me to speak on the topic of endtime prophecy and he didn't have to twist my arm too much to get me to do that I like that talking about Bible prophecy because the study of Bible prophecy really since I was a young man has really had a profound impact on my life and I believe that often we need to focus on the end in our lives we need to regularly think about the end and where our lives and where history is headed I mean Stephen Covey wrote that well-known book you know 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and one of those habits is begin with the end in mind that's interesting even a secular person has this idea of you need to begin whatever you're doing with the end in mind and I think that's also a habit I would say of a highly effective Christian is to begin with the end in mind to have an eternal perspective and I think when we have that eternal perspective it has a comforting purifying energizing influence on our daily lives and so what I want to do in our time together here this morning is I want to begin with the end in mind and that to do that let's turn in our Bibles to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verses 9 through 11 actually we'll just look at verse 9 and 10 but I want to bring a message I've entitled at your final exam now this is not your final exams next week you might wish I would speak on that maybe I'll have some answers for you ride some inside information I'm sadly I probably wouldn't be of much help for most of your exams but what we're talking about here today is the real final exam some day that all of us are gonna face in heaven let me read here in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 beginning in verse 9 the Apostle Paul says therefore we have as our ambition whether at home or absent to be pleasing to him for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may be recompense for his deeds in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad my lord ride his Eternal Word on our hearts this morning one of my favorite stories is a story from the late 1800s it's a story about a Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show was a very big hit in the late 1800s in America in fact it was such a big hit here in America they took it on the road and actually went overseas and now one of the the biggest stops was in was in Berlin Germany and this show that the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show had all kinds of aspects to it but really the star of the show was Annie Oakley um Annie Oakley was known as little sure shot in fact she was probably the first female a superstar in show business and she was incredible incredibly accurate in shooting they could someone could flip a coin in the air 27 yards away and she could shoot it out of the air she could shoot playing-cards out of the air from some distance someone would throw up she could put a rifle on her shoulder with a mirror and shoot back over her shoulder anybody that took her on was defeated easily but the key part of her show always was she'd asked for a volunteer from the audience to come up they'd have a big cigar that had been lit for a while with some ashes on the end and she'd have them put this cigar in their mouth and from some distance away she'd shoot the ashes off with a 45 pistol as you can imagine people didn't normally volunteer for that a lot so she always had her husband there in the audience Frank Butler and if nobody else volunteered then he would volunteer now he probably treated her pretty well during the week out but that was probably a good marriage but anyway he would come up and do this well when they're in Berlin Germany in 1899 to everyone's surprise Kaiser Wilhelm volunteers to come up and be the one to have the ashes shot off the end of the cigar so he comes up and the crowds kind of even thinking man this is something else you know and so they're they're excited and she's pretty nervous and he comes up there puts the big cigar there and sure enough she shoots the ashes right off the end there but he's elated you know it's an exciting moment and of course as everybody knows you know 15 years later Kaiser Wilhelm plunged the world into World War one and the carnage and all that came from now and as the story goes Annie Oakley actually sent a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm and asked him if she could have another shot and as again as the story goes she never heard back from him I don't think about that but I like that story because like Annie Oakley when it comes to life here on earth you and I only get one shot we don't have any dress rehearsals there's no do-overs there's no mulligans life on earth is brief but it counts for all of eternity and you and I only get one life we only get one chance there's no rewind there's no replay so you and I need to take dead aim with the one shot at life that God has given to us randy Alcorn puts it like this at death we put the signature on our life's portrait the paint dries the portraits done ready or not and then according to the Bible each one of us will stand before the Lord to give an account of our lives to give an account of what we did with that one shot God gave us at life in that time what they were going to come and stand before the Lord is going to be what I like to call our final examination the Bible calls it the judgment seat of Christ and that that judgment that final exam is going to determine your life and my life for all of eternity like we have this idea sometimes everybody's life is going to be the same an eternity even for believers there's going to be differences in eternity based on how we've lived now I mean you think about God is just just issues going to be degrees of punishment for those who are lost they're going to be degrees of reward and eternity for those who know and who loved and who served Jesus Christ so what I want to do in our time together is answer four simple questions about this coming final exam I want to mention the participants who's going to be there the period when's it going to happen the purpose why is it going to occur and then finally just a little bit about the preparation how do we get ready for this final examination just to put this text in its context here in 2nd Corinthians 5:1 through 8 the Apostle Paul has been talking about life after death he's been talking about the intermediate body that will have our new but or the intermediate state that will exist in and the new body that we will have someday in heaven and so this whole prospect of life and death causes Paul then to think about the coming judgement so he says in verse 9 therefore we have as our ambition whether at home or absent to be pleasing to him so the focus of life is not success but it's to please God I'm our aim with our one shot that we have at life is to please God and he says in verse 10 for or because so he's going to give the motivation or the incentive to live a life that pleases God and that motivation or incentive is the you and I someday will stand before the Lord for a final examination now he starts out here in verse 10 talking about the participants these three key words here powerful words we must all now the word we they're Paul obviously includes himself and my understanding is the judgment seat of Christ this judgment is for believers only this is not the same I believe as the great white throne judgment in Revelation 20 verses 11 through 15 that's where the lost of the ages will someday appear before God and really the most horrific scene in the Bible and they'll ultimately be cast there into the lake of fire but this is a judgment here for believers in Jesus Christ and you notice he says we talking about believers must and the idea here is it's not optional now this is an obligation it's a necessity and so every person here every person listening to this message will appear at one of two future judgments we there appear as a believer at the judgment seat of Christ or a lost person at that terrible great white throne and then he says we must all appear nobody's exempt appalled himself knows that he'll be there as well but then notice the plural we must all switches to the singular later in the verse that each one may be recompense for his deeds according to what he has done so he switches from the plural to the singular this is going to be an individual judgment I'm in Romans 14:10 it says we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God so then each one of us will give an account of himself to God some one put it like this years ago every one of us has to sing solo before God you can get into choir and you can sound pretty good right but you got to sing solo before God someone else put it like this yo the line at the judgment seat of Christ is gonna be single-file as each of us go and stand before the Lord and give an account of ourselves to him by the way did you know the one group of people that are going to be judged more severely at the judgment seat than any other group it's teachers letting out many of you become teachers James says as such you'll incur a stricter judgment Herta guys say years ago if you're at the judgment seat and there's a line there with a lot of preachers in it go get in another line it'll go quicker and because those who teach the Bible are held to a higher standard Erwin Lutzer he is a really good book on the judgment seat of Christ but he captures the drama this scene this is sobering he says imagine staring into the face of Christ just the two of you one-on-one your entire life is present before you in a flash you see what he sees no hiding no opportunity to put a better spin on what you did no attorney to represent you the look in his eyes says it all like it or not that is precisely where you and I will be someday that's true we all have to be there someday for that final exam now the second question we'll just hit this very briefly is when is this final exam going to take place I'm over in now first corinthians chapter 4 verse 5 a few a few pages earlier in our text the apostle paul says don't go on judging for the before the time but wait until the lord comes we'll bring to life two things hidden in darkness some will expose the motives of men's hearts so it's when the Lord comes that this judgment will take place I'm at the end of the Bible in revelation 22 Jesus says behold I am coming quickly my reward is with me to give to every man according to what he's done so the first order of business I believe after the rapture after we're caught up to heaven to be with the Lord is the judgment seat of Christ or this final exam that you and I will face so this final exams on God's schedule it's already in the class syllabus if you will it's not gonna be a pop quiz it's not gonna be a surprise it shouldn't be to us it's one of these days the Lord's gonna come we'll be caught up to heaven and the first order of business again is to stand before him and to give an account of our lives to him now that brings us to the third question here an important one the purpose of this notice he says so that each one may be recompense for his deeds now before we look at what the purpose of this judgment is let me just say briefly what it's not the purpose of the judgment seat or the famous seat is not to determine if we get into heaven the issue at the judgement seat is not where you will spend eternity but is how you will spend eternity the issue at the judgment seat is not salvation but the issue is rewards every one of us here know this but it's good to remind ourselves that salvation is based completely upon Christ's work for us and our rewards then are based on our works for Christ after we become a believer so salvation is by belief rewards are then based on our behavior someone told me years ago and I don't know if this is true or not maybe some of you know this years ago in the registrar's office here at DTS that a sign used to hang there that said salvation is by grace graduation is by works now I don't know if that sign was hanging there but that would be a good sign to have there it takes a lot of works to get through so we're saved by God's grace but if you're gonna graduate and receive the rewards that God has for us it's going to take work so the purpose of the judgment seat is not to determine if we get into heaven that was decided here on earth when we trusted Christ as our Savior so you say well what is the purpose of the judgement seat well it says here it's so that we can receive a recompense so that we can receive a reward the purpose of the judgment-seat is for your life and for my life to be reviewed by the Lord and to be a reward at our service as a believer to be evaluated so it's an evaluation of works as a believer to determine the degree of reward now when he says here according to what we've done whether good or bad the word bad here I don't think refers to our sins I mean it's a it's a word in Greek that has more the idea of worthless and so I don't think our sins will be an issue at the judgment seat of Christ Christ paid for our sins in full at the cross there's an old there's a poem that I love to quote this time of year it's taken from the little poem you'll mary had a little lamb it's a beautiful poem about the coming of Jesus says mary had a little lamb his life was pure as snow everywhere the father led the lamb was sure to go he followed him to Calvary one dark and dreadful day and there the lamb that mary had washed all my sins away Jesus's Mary's lamb if you will who came to die for us to wash away our sins so there's no condemnation at the judgment seat for our sins but there's a valuation for our service the issue there's not going to be punishment but praise so if you say well you say well if these bad works aren't sins then what are they I got this years ago from someone and who said these are bad good works in other words what makes them bad or worthless is that they're things maybe not not done with one hundred percent pure motive in other words they're good things in themselves but maybe tainted in some way by motive they're not worthy of reward in other words they're non reward Abul and of course God knows not only what you and I do but why we do it a God knows our motive and that's a very searching thought I'm back in first Corinthians 4:5 again Paul says you know don't go and judging before the time wait until the Lord comes who will bring to light the things hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts that's a searching thing for all of us to think about why we do what we do there's a store about a group of children who were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch years ago and that the head of the table was a big pile of apples and a nun had made a note and posted it on the Apple train it said take only 1 and remember God is watching when you get to the end of the line there's a big pile of chocolate chip cookies and one of the students there had written another note and it said take all the cookies you want God's watching the apples now we all know God's watching the cookies and the apples right I mean God knows everything and and think about this this morning the omniscient eye of God not only sees to us but sees through us I mean God knows our motives he knows why we do what we do now a lot of you are probably thinking at this point well I'm not going to get anything I'm gonna fail the test I'm gonna fail this final you will every believer get a reward at the judgment seat um I used to think that we would and I used to think that many believers would walk away empty-handed because you know at my best I can't think of anything that I do 100% for the Lord without some of mark Hitchcock in it unless maybe I just do it fast enough or I don't have time to think about it but but any reward we get will ultimately be purely due to the grace of God but that last statement in 1st Corinthians 4:5 each one's praise will come from God it's in the singular their God I believe is going to find something to reward in the life of every one of us who are believers and that's good news for us and and by the way at the judgment seat I think the overall mood at the judgement seat is going to be one of joy in the book of Jude it says we're gonna stand in his glorious presence with great joy now I want to answer one question quickly some people will often say well you know our rewards really that big a deal I mean I don't care if I get a reward or not I mean just being in heaven is gonna be good enough so why should I worry about getting a reward well that kind of a response can sound very humble and pious but I actually think it's unbiblical rewards remember our God's doing they're not ours now we're not the ones that made this up and receiving a reward from God ultimately is a sign of God's pleasure and approval with our life here on earth and we want to we want to please God and we want his approval more than and those rewards will be a reflection of God's approval so I think the Bible tells us that the rewards that God offers are priceless treasures that God expects us to desire and we have the opportunity by what we do now and how we live to assure ourselves of infinitely greater reward in the life to come and as I mentioned earlier I think there's going to be vast differences among God's people based on our degree of sacrifice and faithfulness to the Lord in this life so rewards are a big deal to God and someday when we stand before him there gonna be a big deal to us I can promise you though are there gonna be a very big deal one other question is the whole notion of serving God for rewards can seem kind of mercenary you know kind of working and living this life to get a reward in the future you can kind of see mercenary at best or narcissistic at worst and look I would agree in Scripture the major motivation the major reason we serve God and others is because of our love for them but I do think that serving for rewards is a motivation that the Bible lays out for us and think about Moses he had a reward mindset in Hebrews 11 it says he put aside the pleasures of Egypt because he was looking for the reward Paul and in Philippians 3:14 says that he's pressing on toward the prize that he will receive at the upward call of God in Christ Jesus so I think laboring for rewards is biblical now what are these rewards going to be that will receive look there's a lot in the Bible we don't understand there's a lot of mystery I think there's a lot of mystery about rewards but let me just mention quickly three things that I think the scriptures tell us will be part of the rewards we receive the first one is praise again first Corinthians 4:5 says each man's praise will come to him from God now we think all the time about praising God and I would never ever think of saying that God is going to praise me if it weren't in the Bible but it says each one's praise will come from God one writer puts it like this what an incredible sentence God will praise each one of them not the best of them nor few of them and/or the achievers among them that God will praise each one of them and that includes you and me now all of us here have been praised I'm sure at some time in our life by someone we greatly respect maybe as a parent or a teacher or an employer and we think about how much that means to us to receive complement or to receive praise from them by the way let me just say this is an aside we ought to do that more often we all enjoy it we ought to be praising our spouse and our children and our grandchildren and our students and those who teach us more often we all enjoy that encouragement that we receive but one of the people in my life I've respected more than anybody else was dr. Stanley to site and after doctor to Saint retired from here I'd spent as much time with him as I could I'd call him on the phone when I had hard Bible questions or just wanted to talk with him but inevitably somewhere in there he would pay me some compliment or say something nice to me and I can't tell you how much that meant to me to hear something from someone i esteem so highly to give me some kind of compliment or some kind of encouragement but I thought about that this week and I thought you know as great as that is stop and think about it for a moment the Lord of the ages the creator of the universe the shepherd of the stars is going to pray as you and he's going to praise me someday we stand in his presence I mean if that's all the reward we received that would be enough but there's another reward in Scripture I think of privilege the greater opportunity to reflect the glory of God I mean passages like Daniel chapter 12 and verse 3 and others I think that it has the idea that one of the rewards will be a greater opportunity to radiate and and give off the glory of God a greater capacity to do that you know there's an old illustration you know about a chandelier with different watt bulbs you know at 20 watt bulb and a 50 watt bulb and a 70 watt bulb they're all shining but a greater capacity to shine forth and emit light now maybe the way it is in our lives and I like what Warren wears B says about this he says everyone's cup in heaven will be full but some people's cups will be larger than others and I like that no one's going to feel like they got shorted somehow or their cups not full but some of us will have larger cups than others a greater capacity to reflect other glory of God and then one other reward is position greater positions and places of responsibility and service in the kingdom and Luke 19 jesus said some of you will rule over five cities and some will rule over ten cities one man I heard one time said you our lives now our training time for reigning time our lives in service today are determining where we will be slotted in our position of authority and ruling in the Millennial Kingdom and then on into I'm all of eternity but but really the key idea here is the person you are today will determine the rewards you receive tomorrow a your life and my life the way we live it now will impact our lives I believe for all of eternity so we've answered these three questions who's going to be at the judgment seat these church age believers it's going to be right after we get caught up to heaven and the purpose is to review and to reward us and we just take a few minutes here and talk about one final issue and that is the preparation or how to get ready for this final exam picture a Tuesday afternoon here in a few minutes you go to a class and the prof tells you that there's going to be a test on Thursday there's kind of a collective groan in the class right but then the prof says but I'm going to give you the the questions that are going to be on the exam there's a collective sigh of relief right everybody gets out their computer a pen and paper and begins to write down the test questions and I think in the Bible in the same way God has given us the questions in advance that are gonna be on our final exam again this isn't a pop quiz and it's already on God's schedule and I've gone through the Bible and isolated about 15 to 20 different activities ways you and I live that God will reward us for some done now don't despair I'm not gonna give all 15 here I'm just gonna give a sample but let me just mention a couple of things and and these are these are everyday things that you and I simple things these aren't sensational spectacular things they're simple things you and I can do every day let me just start list these we'll just look at two or three of them here number one is how we employ our god-given talents abilities and opportunities parable the talents in Matthew 25 the parable the mine is in Luke 19 the master has gone away and he's left us with his resources to invest and to maximize when he comes back he wants a maximum return on his investment whatever God has placed in your life in your disposal the gifts and the opportunities you have God wants you to maximize that investment he wants a return on it when he comes back and he's gonna reward us someday based on that and don't think that what you have isn't enough or it's not much I'm I love what Hudson Taylor said years ago a little thing is a little thing but faithfulness and a little thing is a big thing that's what God's gonna be looking for faithfulness number two how we run the race God's given us first Corinthians 9:24 says those who run in a race all run only one gets the prize run in a way that you may win so get in your lane if you will in life and run that race to the glory of God you don't have to run my race thankfully I don't have to run your race but we have a race to run we need to stay in our lane and run it to the glory of God years ago that back the year I was born 1959 the movie Ben Hur came out and the William Wyler was the director Charlton Heston was Judah ben-hur and most of you know the great scene in that movie I think there's actually been a remake of it recently as a chair of the big chariot race and to kind of make it look more realistic William Wyler sent Charlton Heston away for chariot racing lessons now I don't know where you do that but anyway I found somebody to teach him how to you know for horses across and learn how to drive a chariot so after some time he came back and William Wyler asked him he said Heston how are the chariot races chariot lessons going he said well they're going good he said I can drive the chariot now nobody goes but I don't think I can win the race and William Wyler looked at him with a with a twinkle in his eye and he said don't worry about it you just stay in the race I'll make sure you win that's what the director can do right and that's an encouragement for you and for me sometimes the race can be difficult it can be a grind McKeen it can be wearying but if you and I will stay in the race God will make sure that we win one final thing one final point here and we need to close but um how faithful you and I are in our vocation whatever that may be I'm over in Colossians Colossians chapter 3 and at verse 22 verse 23 Paul says this whatever you do do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance it's the Lord Christ whom you serve so whatever we do whatever our work is it's a student as a professor here many of you I know have work outside of the seminary whatever work we do we do that for the glory of God and God says someday if you've done that work well you're gonna receive the reward of the inheritance the famous pastor H a Ironside he was actually one of the founders here the cofounders of Dallas seminary when he was a boy he worked in a shoe shop for a man named Dan McKay and Dan McKay was a cobbler he made in repaired shoes and I'm Harry Ironsides job was to take these big pieces of leather and all day what he would do they would soak them in water and he would take him and just beat these pieces of leather till all the water was out of them because when they were dried out like that then they would last longer and it was just a monotonous job and one day he's walking down the street and sees a competitor in a shoe shop and he's putting wet leather on the soles of these shoes an iron said goes in and says why are you putting that wet leather on there he says I work at the place down the street and we had we pound all that water out and the guy looked at him and winked and he says they come back all the quicker that way Sonny so Ironside goes back and tells Dan McKay says hey why am i beating you know beating the water out of these these these hides this leather when you know the guy down the streets not doing that and here's what Dan McKay said he said Harry I don't cobble shoes just for the money I get from my customers I'm doing this for the glory of God and I think about that he's making shoes for the glory of God I expect to see every shoe I ever repaired in a big pile at the judgment seat of Christ that's good and and I don't want the Lord to say to me on that day Dan this was a poor job you didn't do your best here I want him to be able to say well done good and faithful servant and then he went on to explain that just as some men are called the preach he was called the fix shoes that only as he did this well with his testimony count for God and reflecting on those words later Ironside would say this it was a lesson I've never been able to forget often when I've been tempted to carelessness and slipshod effort I've thought of dear devoted Dan McKay and it stirred me to seek to do all I can for the one who died to redeem me look all of us will give an account someday to God for how we've done our work I'm all my sermons maybe they're in a big pile someday at the judgment seat of Christ maybe some of you if you've been a lawyer you're a pile of briefs that are there maybe you've spent a lot of your time taking care of young children may be a pile of diapers or dirty dishes or dirty laundry or whatever it is but expect to see your work in a pile at the judgment seat of Christ someday and whatever you do make sure you're gonna be happy to see it because you're gonna see it again someday I'm in the presence of the master well look that's just a few things those are just a few there there are many more but you can see here that what the Lord wants is just in our daily lives in the way we live for us to be faithful and what God's called us to do look a little things a little thing the faithfulness and a little thing is a big thing up to God the final exam for each one of us is coming and those are just a few of the test questions for you to think about but let's get ready and start cramming for the test so we can get in a take dead aim with the one shot at life that God has given you don't waste it take dead aim with it begin with the end in mind and so let's live today in light of that day so but something that all of us here some days we stand before the Lord can hear those words well done a good and faithful servant let's pray together father I thank you so much that our salvation is not based on what we do but on what Christ has done but our salvation is based solely on that that finished work of Jesus Christ but father I thank you that we have the unspeakable privilege to serve you with our lives to go out every day and to be laborers in your vineyard father I pray that the ambition and the aim of each person here will be to please you we wouldn't waste our one shot at life we'd take dead aim and use that one shot to bring glory to your great name father help us to begin with the end in mind to live today in light of that day as we wait the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ all God's people said

Channel: Dallas Theological Seminary

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Length: 33min 28sec (2008 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 13 2019