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WHAT SORT IS IT?"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." (I Cor. 3:11-15) This, as you likely know, is the future event called the "judgment seat of Christ" in Romans 14:10 and II Corinthians 5:10. This is when our service to God is judged. Your sins were judged at Calvary when Jesus paid for them on the cross, but your service is judged when you stand before the Lord one day and give account of your stewardship. What's so interesting here is that a holy God will be judging us, not unholy men. We won't be judged by society, or by the government. Nor will we be judged by the brethren and their vain traditions. It is none other than a holy God who judges us, and it specifically says that he will examine our service to see what "sort" it is. That's the same God who said that he doesn't look on the outward appearance, but on the heart in I Samuel 16:7. That's the same God who told you and I to not judge by appearance, but to judge "righteous judgment" in John 7:24. That's the same God who did a full soul scan of Nathanial and said "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" (John 1:47).God looks much deeper than man, and he looks for things that man OVERLOOKS. That's why the Judgment Seat of Christ is necessary; it's going to even everything up and balance the books. It's going to reveal the TRUE works of every believer.Let me pass on to you five areas of balancing, revealing and sorting that are going to be addressed, all of which mean pretty much the same thing, just different ways of saying it. Although this is only a sampling of what the Judgment Seat of Christ will be like, I think it can give us a pretty good idea of what's coming. If I were to use only one word to describe this judgment, I think the word TRUTH would pretty much say it all. God wants to be worshipped and served in TRUTH, so now is the time to fine-tune ourselves and be "men of truth" (Exo. 18:21), lest we find ourselves weighed in the balance and found wanting in that day. After all, it's going to be a day of . . . I. QUALITY MORE THAN QUANTITYI read the other day about a preacher who started his church with two hundred people several years ago, and he's now having to expand with a building program because God has so "blessed" his ministry. What he failed to mention was that most of those people were stolen from another church. That's alright; judgment is coming, and TRUTH will be the standard where QUALITY will be far more important than quantity.Tell me something: How many members belonged to the church at Ephesus? How about Galatia? What about Thessalonica? Philadelphia? Laodicea? Isn't that something!? God doesn't seem to think that emphasizing SIZE is a good thing. He's more interested in the SORT. Twice Paul mentioned "the church that is in their house," which doesn't indicate anything very large, yet the quality was just as worthy of the name "church" as any other group of believers, and maybe even more so.II. SUBSTANCE MORE THAN SYMBOLISMAnyone can build and enhance an image for themselves, but the substance almost always falls short of the image. I saw Elvis Presley say that very thing in an interview. He said the image is one thing, but the man is something else. The Judgment Seat of Christ will balance all that out and yield a true report.I remember a certain police investigator in a cop show saying, "It looks like he shot himself." Then when his assistant told someone that the man had shot himself, the investigator said, "No, I said it LOOKS LIKE he shot himself." You see, there can be a huge difference between symbolism and substance.Laodicea's symbolism is that she's "rich, and increased with goods" and has "need of nothing," yet God says her substance is that she's "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." (Rev. 3:17) Look at John 12, verses 4-5: "Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" Okay, now that's the symbolism. The symbolism is that Judas cared for the poor, and he promoted that image himself. But look what God weighs in and says in verse 6: "This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein." That's the substance! Oh man, you talk about a gap fact! The largest gap ever is the huge gap between symbolism and substance! Socialists and communists enjoy the symbol by helping the downtrodden masses, but the substance is that they'll do it with YOUR MONEY in exchange for votes, and THEY'RE the reason that most of them are downtrodden in the first place! Obama said we need to spread the wealth around. That's the symbolism. The substance is that he's now worth about seventy million bucks and it's only YOUR wealth that he believes in spreading around. Liberals are liberal with YOUR money, not theirs. III. POWER MORE THAN PUFFAnyone can huff and puff, but not everyone has real power. Paul said in I Corinthians 4:19, "But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power." I recall a certain big, bad wolf who huffed and puffed but didn't have as much power as he thought. "A big mouth don't make a big man."It's truly sad that the stereotypical Baptist preacher is a loud blabbermouth instead of a humble, quiet-spirited man. That's probably the number one reason why I just don't care for preacher fellowships and all this pulpit swapping. Too much puff and not enough power! If I want to be loud and mouthy, God help me to save it for the pulpit, and may it be perfectly balanced with truth and power, not just a bunch of puff that has to be sorted out at the Judgment Seat of Christ.IV. HEART MORE THAN HABITYou know, we can train ourselves into habits. I once had a doctor tell me that it takes, I think, twenty-one days to form a habit. Now, don't get me wrong; habits can be good, but habit without heart is not good. Look at Revelation 2:2-5: "I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." Do you see that? They had the habit, but they had lost the heart. Their works were good works, but they weren't the best works, because they weren't the "first works" that came from the heart and not from mere habit.That means you can do the right thing with the wrong motive, just as some of the kings of Israel did the right thing, but not with a perfect heart (II Chr. 25:2). Now is the time to make sure the motive is right. Now is the time to sort through our lives and make corrections so that God doesn't find as much in the day of judgment.V. FAITH MORE THAN FORCE Alright, just one more verse and we'll be done. II Corinthians 9:7: "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." Do you see that? He said, "or of necessity." He doesn't want us to give out of necessity, but rather out of faith. That's why he spoke of sowing and reaping in the previous verse. He wants us to sow our service in faith just as a farmer plants his crop in faith, fully anticipating a good harvest. We are told in Hebrews 11:6 that it's impossible to please God without faith. So everything we do needs to be with faith, not with force. Don't tell me how short my hair has to be or what I can and cannot eat. Give me scripture so I can form my own Bible convictions by faith in the word of God (Rom. 10:17). Then the "sort" of my service can be right in God's eyes here and now, and I can be honored instead of ashamed at the Judgment Seat of Christ. May I serve God with righteousness, not mere rules, with faith, not force.Okay, I'm finished. I've said the same thing several different times and ways, but hopefully the Spirit of Truth has gotten his message across. May God bless his words.