“What’s going to happen to me at Judgment?”

Steve Brown:
What’s going to happen to me at the Judgment? The answer to that, and other questions on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Welcome to Key Life. Our host and teacher is Steve Brown. He’s nobody’s guru, but he does have honest answers to hard questions about the Bible. God’s grace changes everything, how we love, work, live, lead, marry, parent, evangelize, and worship. Now, here’s Steve and Pete Alwinson from ForgeTruth with street-smart Bible teaching for real life.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Peter.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey man, how you doing?

Steve Brown:
I’m doing good.

Pete Alwinson:
Good.

Steve Brown:
Better now that you’re here.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Well, I’m doing good, but you had a rib thing.

Steve Brown:
Oh, that’s right. I was drinking and you know, I fell and it was actually, I’m a teetotaler. So, don’t send me letters. I’m kidding around, but I did. Have you ever had this thing with your cartilage?

Pete Alwinson:
I’ve never hurt my ribs like you have, man. I hear it’s incredibly painful.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, it really is. And your wife at our board meeting, who’s a nurse and very helpful in terms of physical things, told me to quit being a wuss, just to let it heal.

Pete Alwinson:
I think she said it’s going to take a lot longer than you think.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, she did. She said about six weeks. So, I told Jesus if he really loved me, he wouldn’t have let this happen.

Pete Alwinson:
Ha ha ha ha.

Steve Brown:
And all he does is laugh at me, so I’m not getting a lot of sympathy. But I’m learning to deal with pain.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
With less cussing and spitting than ordinarily. By the way, that’s Pete Alwinson. He comes in on Fridays and has been doing that for years. And we answer questions. If you haven’t checked it out, check out ForgeTruth.com great podcast there. It’s mainly for men, but if you are of the fairer sex, they’ll let you go on that website too, and you’ll be glad you did. Pete, as I said, comes in and we answer questions on Friday and we love your questions. You can ask a question by picking up the phone and calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE, 24 7, and we record your question and sometimes put it on the air or you can send your questions to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

in Canada, it’s

P.O. Box 28060

Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

Or you can e-mail us at [email protected] and all of those places are places where, if the spirit moves, you could send a generous contribution to Key Life. And if you do that, we’ll be as faithful with your contribution as you were in the giving of it. And we’ll make sure that your gift is used for those who can’t afford to give. And if you’re not called to give, we get that. Just say a prayer for this ministry. Pete, why don’t you lead us in prayer and we’ll get to these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
You got it. Let’s pray together. Our Great God, what a joy it is at the end of this week to come into your presence and to just thank you that we get to be your children. Thank you for coming after us when we had hard hearts. Thank you when we were rebellious, that you stuck with us and held on to us, and you never let us go. Thank you that you loved us before we loved you. Thank you that you continue your work in our lives. And so, we honor you. And Holy Spirit, thank you for taking the truth and the power of the gospel and getting it into our hearts and changing us forever. We give you praise and we look forward to this week-end meeting with your people in church, Lord. And we pray that you would be with our pastors and priests and teachers, leaders, worship directors, all those that you have appointed to bring us into your presence. May they teach the word clearly and accurately. And may we hear your grace and grow because of it. And now, we just ask that you would use this time of Q&A. We give you praise now. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Pete, this is an e-mail. What will happen at the Judgement? Scriptures say.

That God has put our sins in the sea of his forgetfulness and they are removed from us as far as the East is from the West.

If God has forgotten, will it be brought up again?

Pete Alwinson:
I’m pretty sure mine won’t, but yours might.

Steve Brown:
You know, we judge judgment on the basis of the judgment we experience in time and space. In heaven, that’s going to be a whole lot different. It won’t matter.

Pete Alwinson:
Mm-Hmm.

Steve Brown:
It just won’t matter. Everybody is dysfunctional. Everybody is sinful, everybody has failed, everybody has a secret they haven’t told anybody else. And that’s universal, and the Scripture says that. Now, that’s the kind of thing we try to hide, we try to ameliorate, we ask for forgiveness, we feel guilty, there’s regret, all of those things. In heaven, none of that will be possible.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Every time a sin comes up, and you realize that Jesus died for that sin, and you’re forgiven, that’ll be a time of dancing and rejoicing. And don’t worry about it. Trust me. You and I have been pastors for a long time, and we’ve heard a lot of confessions. Everybody is as sinful as you are. And yes, we know exactly the sin you’re talking about. So, yeah, not that kind of judgment. A judgment of praise and adoration and dancing and rejoicing and partying because of redemption and forgiveness.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh. Well put and that, and so that, that is a fearful question. And you’ve just taken the fear out of it. And that’s, that’s the way it should be.

Steve Brown:
Well, God took the fear out of it.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
But we really do, we always interpret judgment, this side of heaven. And on the other side of heaven, it’s another deal. And it’s

Pete Alwinson:
that’s right

Steve Brown:
it’s gonna be no shame.

Pete Alwinson:
Yep, that’s right.

Steve Brown:
No shame at all.

Pete Alwinson:
And that is, that’s big. No guilt and no shame.

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Pete Alwinson:
You know, guilt is I did wrong and shame is I feel wrong. I’m bad. And we just, grace will so wash over us. And we will see the glory of God. We’ll see and know that it’s real. And we just, we’ll be able to talk about it to the glory of God, whatever might come up.

Steve Brown:
And he gets the crown.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And when you read things like he separated our sins from the East and the West and that he doesn’t remember them anymore. That’s metaphorical language to refer to a reality. Don’t make that so literal that you think Jesus has a dementia problem and can’t remember things.

Pete Alwinson:
Right. Good point.

Steve Brown:
He can remember all of it.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s good.

Steve Brown:
Do you have to be right with God in order for Him to hear your prayers and answer them? Is it true that God doesn’t even hear the prayers of the unsaved?

Pete Alwinson:
You know, that is a good question and it is a Biblical question too. In Proverbs it says, that the unrighteous think they’re going to be heard and, and they’re not. And so, there is a sense in which those who think they have a claim upon God, aren’t going to be answered positively. It’s not that they can’t be heard, is that they won’t be answered.

Steve Brown:
And God does what he wants.

Pete Alwinson:
God does what, he’s sovereign over everything.

Steve Brown:
You know, you have to be careful when you start saying he doesn’t listen to the prayers of unsaved because if he wants to, he does. And even sometimes, will say yes to a pagan prayer. But frankly, I listen to my kids more than I do yours.

Pete Alwinson:
Well, that is true, right?

Steve Brown:
Well, we do, you know, if these are my children, you know, I’m going to, I’d give my life for them. I would, I’d listen to what they say, and I love them deeply and profoundly, and I like your kids a lot. I think they’re great.

Pete Alwinson:
Ditto. Exactly. Right.

Steve Brown:
And so, in that sense, I guess, God loves his own far more than he does those who are making an obscene gesture at him.

Pete Alwinson:
We think we’ve got God figured out, and we don’t. But it is true that, my point was that if an unbeliever thinks he can latch on to God and make God work for him.

Steve Brown:
Doesn’t work.

Pete Alwinson:
No. The New Testament says, hey, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. You know, so, but God does some strange things. Read the Old Testament.

Steve Brown:
I know.

Pete Alwinson:
In response to people.

Steve Brown:
God’s anointed was a pagan king.

Pete Alwinson:
I know.

Steve Brown:
So, you know, God does as he pleases and he does it right well. This is an interesting question. If the angels who left God were put in chains, where did the demons come from? I can’t imagine God creating evil spirits and have a hard time with Satan having the power of creation.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, so where do you go with that?

Steve Brown:
Well, you probably use Job as the example that Satan had a purpose in Creation and so do demons. And it’s to glorify God. It doesn’t feel that way. Jesus warned us about Satan. Paul was clear about putting on the armor of God. Jesus said to Peter, Satan has desired to have you, but I prayed for you, so be cool. That’s a literal translation of that text. So that, all of that fits into the reality of a created order. The end of which is to glorify the Creator, and even Satan does that, even though he doesn’t want to.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right. Yeah. And God did not create fallen creatures, he created perfect creatures.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. And they fell.

Pete Alwinson:
And they fell. And, but he created them with the capacity to fall. And so, that has to be clarified too. And ultimately there is much more. I think when we get to heaven and when we pass through this life, we will see, we’ll have the cosmic world, the unseen world will be so open to us.

Steve Brown:
It blows us away.

Pete Alwinson:
It’ll blow us away. There’s so much more.

Steve Brown:
You know, if we’d stood on Calvary when Jesus was crucified and our spiritual blindness had been removed, then we would have been amazed at what was going on in the battle.

Pete Alwinson:
Boy, that is so true. There is so much more. And that’s what the road, the Centurion and those who are on Golgotha experience, they said, whoa, something big is happening here.

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Pete Alwinson:
Couldn’t miss it.

Steve Brown:
Really big. What is legalism in the church and should it be tolerated?

Pete Alwinson:
No, it shouldn’t. It often is.

Steve Brown:
Legalism is when you forget the gospel.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
And you start making religion a moral improvement society.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
It’s not that.

Pete Alwinson:
Well put.

Steve Brown:
I got a letter this morning from a young guy who’s ordained, who sees revival taking place in the school where he is, but it’s a legalistic revival. And he says it’s not the gospel. And that’s kind of a shame.

Pete Alwinson:
It is. It’s when we’re trying to earn our way to heaven.

Steve Brown:
That’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
Or creating new laws that supposedly flow from the gospel.

Steve Brown:
Or please a God who’s already pleased.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
You know, that’s a good way to end this broadcast. To remember that God’s not mad at you if you’re a Christian. He’s already pleased. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.