to you this morning about that
great white throne judgment. You'll find my text in Revelation
chapter 20. Revelation chapter 20 verse 11. And I saw a great white throne. and him that sat on it, from
whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place
for them. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God. And the books were opened. And
another book was opened. which is the book of life. And
the dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the
dead which were in it. And death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man
according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. In that great day, when God judges
all men, we will be judged of God upon the grounds of strict,
exact justice and we will everyone receive exactly forever that
which is our due on the basis of strict justice. Now, while
the word of God constantly warns the wicked of the terror and
judgment of that great day, nowhere in Holy Scripture is the day
of judgment spoken of with regard to believers as a time of dread
and fear to terrify. But rather it is spoken of as
a day set before believers full of hope and expectation, anticipation
of joy and great glory. Let me give you one example.
We won't turn there and read it, but you'll recall how that
in first Corinthians chapter four, the apostle Paul writes
to speak to those who accused him of being a false prophet,
a false teacher, one who was a self-appointed preacher. And
so Paul writes to them and he says, it doesn't mean a thing
to me that you judge me. He says, that doesn't mean a
thing to me. He said, I don't even judge myself. And then he
begins to speak about things he'd experienced and God had
done for him. He said, but that, that doesn't justify me either.
He said, however, I'm going to meet you. at the bar of God,
and that's all right. I want to meet you at the bar
of God, everything will be set in order. Everything will be
going to be set straight. So that in the New Testament,
whenever believers speak of the day of judgment, whenever it
is spoken of in reference to believers, it is not something
to be dreaded, but rather something in which to be delighted. Now,
I want you to understand that if you believe on the son of
God, If you are washed in his blood, robed in his righteousness,
accepted in him, then Lindsay Campbell, you have nothing ever
to dread from God, no more than Michael and Michelle would have
from you. Well, that don't make good sense.
That doesn't make good sense. Not only does it make good sense,
that's what the book teaches. Now, as we look at this matter
of the great white throne judgment, let me call your attention to
five things, some of them I will mention just briefly because
we have gone over them recently. First, we have set before us
in scripture a gospel revelation, and this is it. The Lord Jesus
Christ, who died as our substitute, is sure enough coming again. Now, I thought about all the
various texts I might point you to to refer to this, but I want
this morning for us to look at the oldest reference to it. The
oldest reference to Christ's second coming. It's back in the
book of Job, chapter 19. Turn back there if you will.
Job is the oldest book in the Bible. It was probably written
by a man who lived in the days of Abraham or before. This man,
Job, was God's faithful servant. And this is what Job said when
his accusers spoke against him. In Job chapter 19 in verse 25,
he said, I know that my Redeemer liveth. and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. What a word of faith. The Lord
Jesus hadn't even come the first time yet. But Job said, he's
my Redeemer. He's my Redeemer and I know that
he's alive because he is life. And I know that in the last day,
when everything is finished, when all the purpose of God has
been fulfilled, Jesus Christ, my God, my Redeemer will stand
on this earth and I'll see him with his eyes. That is a remarkable statement
made by this man who didn't have any of the scriptures to give
him any knowledge. All he had was the word of mouth
testimony been passed down since the days of Adam. Job says, I
know he's coming. He came once in weakness. He's
coming again in power. He came once in humiliation.
He's coming again in glory. He came once to be despised.
He's coming again to be exalted and admired. He came once to
suffer and die. He's coming again to conquer,
where he shall reign forever, where once he was despised. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I
will come again. The apostle said, the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven. The Lord shall be revealed from
heaven. Behold, he cometh, and every
eye shall see him. Now that's a fact that can be
known only upon one authority, and that's the revelation of
God in the gospel. That's all. So how can you account
for that? God revealed it. How can you
believe that? God revealed it. What evidence
do you have of that? God revealed it. But I need something
besides that. Then go to hell. That's where
you're headed. That's exactly right. So, oh,
but you can't say that, folks. I'm telling you, you'll either
bow to God's revelation or you'll perish in hell forever. That's
exactly right. Now, here's the second thing.
We have a general resurrection set before us in scripture. Look
in verse 13 of our text, Revelation 20 and verse 13. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them. And they were judged every man
according to their works. Hold your hands here in Revelation
20 and turn back to John chapter five. John chapter five. Our Lord Jesus is speaking in
verse 28. I specifically use the term a
general resurrection because most people these days have been
taught to believe that this thing of Christ's second coming is
going to be divided up into different stages and different things for
this group, different things for that. The scriptures never
teach any such thing. Here in John chapter five, verse
28. Marvel not at this. That is,
don't marvel when I tell you I'll speak the word and dead
sinners will live spiritually. For the hour is coming. in the
which, look at it now, the hour, not plural but singular, the
hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall
hear his voice. And in that singular hour, at
that singular time, they shall all come forth, they that have
done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Now, I offer no argument,
no proof for what I'm preaching. I'm simply declaring to you the
plain facts revealed in Holy Scripture. Those who rebel against
them, mock them, despise them, and ignore them, do so to their
own eternal ruin. But I assure you, the Son of
God is coming again, and when he comes, everybody's gonna see. Not only that, your conscience
tells you you must as well. God so written it on your heart
with the finger of God in creation that you can't deny it. First,
all who have died in faith shall be raised up from the grave. The dead in Christ shall rise
first, the apostle says. All will be raised, but the saints
of God will have a distinct priority in the resurrection. The dead
in Christ will rise first. I've often heard preachers say,
I don't want to die. I want to live till Jesus comes.
I'll be here in the rapture. Well, two things wrong with that.
The book doesn't say anything about that kind of rapture. And
the other thing is, the dead in Christ are going to rise first.
They have the distinct priority. Only a brief, momentary priority,
but a distinct priority, so that our Lord wisely and graciously
prevents any glorying in anything that you and I do or experience
in this world. All the Old Testament saints,
every one of them, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Mother Eve and Father
Adam, every one of them, gonna rise up first. All the martyrs
who have been slain for the testimony of our Lord Jesus, all who sleep
in Jesus will rise up and then immediately the living shall
be translated. Paul said, we shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye. These old preachers, this is
gonna take a while. No, no, we're talking about God now. We're
not talking about science fiction. We're not talking about something
that men get together and figure out. God Almighty, in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, Christ shall come in his glory. As he
comes, the dead will rise and all the living will be translated
and meet the Lord in the air. As he descends in the brilliance
of his glorious second advent, we will go out to meet him. And
we will return with him and with all the saints who have gone
before as he burns up the earth, destroys the wicked, and makes
all things new. Oh, what a day that will be indeed. And then, and then, there's going to be a great day
of reckoning. After the Son of God has gathered
all the ransomed bodies of his elect from the earth, after he
has destroyed this present world with the brightness of his coming,
all the wicked shall be raised up as well. But for you who believe not,
there is no music in the resurrection, just terror and dread and judgment. Your body and soul, now united
in rebellion against God, will be united in horror. If you die without Christ, you
listen to this preacher. If you die without Christ, you
die without hope. and eternal damnation will be
your portion. Your resurrection is called in
our scriptures, the resurrection of damnation. Immediately after
the resurrection, we must all be judged by our God according
to the record of our works as it is revealed here in Revelation
chapter 20. Look at the text again. It is
appointed unto me and wants to die, but after this, the judgment. Verse 12, I saw the dead, small
and great, big shots and little shots, stand before God, everybody,
and the books were opened. And I believe I'd underlined
this next one, maybe many times you got space for, and another
book. Oh, thank God for that other
book. Another book was opened. which is the book of life. And
the dead were judged out of those things which are written in the
books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them. And they were judged, every man,
according to their works. The judge is Christ himself, the God name. Preacher, I thought we were going
to have Christ judge believers at the beam of judgment, and
then God would judge everybody else. God is Christ. Christ is
God. and that one to whom all judgment
has been committed is Jesus Christ. The Father judgeth no man, the
Savior said so, didn't he? But has committed all judgment
to the Son. God has put everything in his
Son, and Jesus Christ, the Son, whom we, by our wicked wills
and wicked hands, have crucified yonder at Calvary 2,000 years
ago, will be the judge before whom we must stand. That one
whose gospel we have despised, whose blood we've trampled underfoot,
whose covenant we have mocked, that one against whom we have
sinned in grace and against whom we have sinned in justice, that
one whose law we despise and whose gospel we despise will
be our judge. And then the books. The basis
of judgment are the books. Our Lord opens the books. And folks standing in front of
him will scream and holler and wail like little babies, terrified,
and cry to the rocks. Come follow us! Hide us from the face of the
Lamb. Don't let him see us. But he's got the books open.
Oh, what shocks of hell will seize your heart then? Every crime, every sin, everything in you that nobody
has ever known but you and God, immediately will be opened before
your eyes and before your conscience, everything. He said, I don't understand that.
I don't even pretend to. I just know it's so. I'm told
that when a person has a, what folks call a near-death experience,
your whole life flashes before you. Everything flashes before
you. Well, this is not going to be
a flash. It's going to be permanently fixed in your conscience. Now, when we speak of God using
books, I realize that God Almighty is the omniscient God. He doesn't
need a book to help him remember your sins. But these books are
representative and figurative. And they tell us plainly that
the judgment of God in that great day will be a judgment based
upon the court record, upon court justice, according to the record
of your crime. and everybody will get exactly
what the book of justice demands he gets. With the opening of
these books, every offense is seen, and Daniel saw that. He
said, judgment was set, and the books were opened. What books? Well, there are many
set forth in the scriptures, the book of God's omniscience,
in Malachi 3. The book of God's remembrance.
He not only knows everything, he remembers everything. The
book of God's creation by which God took his finger and wrote
on your heart his law that you cannot escape from. Gave you
a God consciousness that you cannot deny. I know psychologists,
and psychiatrists, and atheists, and infidels, and political scientists,
and all the other folks in this age in which we're trying our
best to push God out of the picture altogether. So when a fellow
has religious thoughts because he's raised in religion, he's
this because he was raised that way, he's that because he was
raised that way, or he had some traumatic incident happen in
his life that made him come to have some religious experience.
Let me tell you something. God Almighty took his finger
and wrote his name and his law on your heart. And that's the
reason when you are scared to death, you're scared to death.
That's the reason when you're terrified, not of drawing your
last breath, but of awakening in eternity! God said it's gonna
happen, and you can't escape it. Just try. I don't care what
you drink, I don't care what you take, you're not gonna escape
it. God has written the book of providence and the book of
his law. He's written the book of the
gospel and by all these he says you shall be judged. And then
he's written that other book I've been referring to, conscience. I visited over at Eastern State
Hospital a good bit Friday. And I've observed, though I know
very little about it, I've observed a lot of mental illness over
the years being a pastor. And I've never yet met anyone
who's had mental anxiety who will not acknowledge that the
most tormenting thing in the world is conscience. That's the
problem. Doctors keep trying to play with
your head to get rid of your conscience. Conscience. This is what men and women will
suffer in the fires of God's wrath forever. A keenly awakened,
damning conscience. But blessed be God, there's another
book. There are some against whom no
crimes, no sins, no offenses are found, not even in the book
of God's omniscience and the book of God's remembrance. Turn to Jeremiah 50 and verse
20. These are men and women whose
names are found written in the book of life by God himself before
the world began. And this is what God says now,
Jeremiah 50 verse 20. In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for. Oh, glory, and there shall be
none. How do you like that? And the
sins of Judah, and they shall not be found. For I will pardon them
whom I reserve. It's what God says. He opens
the books. Here stands Ron Wood. Come on in. No sin. No iniquity. How come? Because God says, I,
even I am he that blotteth Life transgressions. Can you get hold
of that? When God blocks them out, they
go. They go. This book of life. contains the
record of our election from eternity. It contains all the stipulations
of the covenant agreed upon by our covenant surety. And it contains
all the fulfillment of the covenant by that surety. It contains a
record of complete satisfaction made by blood atonement, a record
of eternal life promised by God himself on the grounds of justice
satisfied and righteousness brought in. The question is raised, well,
will God judge his elect for their sins and failures committed
after they were saved? Oscar was telling me about some
gay who here recently wrote an article. He said, now God, when
Christ died for us, he died for all of our sins up until we were
saved. Now we got to take care of those
afterwards. Well, you're in a peck of trouble. You're in a peck
of trouble. The Lord Jesus died for and put
away. all the sins of his people, past,
present, and future. The only reason such a question
is ever raised is because there are many who try to retain the
threat and fear of the Roman doctrine of purgatory. And by
threatening you with some fearful punishment in the last day, they
hope to hold over God's saints the whip and terror of the law
to get you to do what they think you wouldn't do otherwise. But
there is absolutely no sense in which you who trust the Lord
Jesus Christ shall ever be made to pay for your sins. Listen
to me now for this one great reason. God says they don't exist. Say, but that's good enough for
me. But what about what I do? God says they don't exist. But what about my thought? God
says they don't exist. But what about saying God says
they don't exist? I blotted them out. I blotted
them out. And here's a glorious reward. Look at Revelation 22 verse 11.
Those who are found according to the record of God to be perfectly righteous. You heard
me right. Those who are found according
to the record of God, being judged according to their works, being
perfectly righteous, will inherit eternal life and everlasting
glory with Christ. Because they've done good. Nothing
but good. Perfect good. Without any spot
of sin. Without any wrinkle of infirmity.
and they being free from all transgression, now walk into
glory upon the grounds of strict justice. That's how, Mark Henson,
you'll enter into glory, on the grounds of strict justice. Look
at verse 11 of Revelation 22. He that is unjust Let him be
unjust still. He which is filthy, let him be
filthy still. Won't be any changes made. He
that is righteous, let him be righteous still. He that is holy,
let him be holy still. Who are these righteous ones,
perfectly righteous? Why, none by nature. None of you, not from the front
to the back, none of you. That beautiful little granddaughter
of ours, not even her, not even her, or yours, none of us. Well, who then is righteous?
Those who are chosen of God, washed in the blood of Christ,
renewed by his spirit, given his righteousness and his righteous
nature. And now they stand before God
on the grounds of justice without sin. having been made perfectly
righteous. But then lastly, our text speaks
of a great, graceless retribution. All who are found guilty of any sin, because you see, Up in Washington,
they talk about big ones and little ones, and we do too. We've
been psychologically manipulated to think that way. But all sin,
Rex, is infinitely evil before the infinite God. All sin. You see, your problem with God
is not that you commit adultery or that you cheat on tests. That's
not the problem with you and God. The reason you behave as
you do as a sinner is because at heart you hate God and your
heart will not bow to him. And if God finds sin on you, then you'll be cast forever into
the lake of fire. One by one, the Lord Jesus will
call you before his bar and you'll stand right there. And he'll
say, depart, you cursed, I never knew you. And he'll call his
angels and he'll say, bind them, hand and foot, and cast them
into outer darkness. And as you're cast forever into
outer darkness under the wrath of almighty God, trembling, terrified,
horrified, cussing God with every breath, your conscience will
say, amen, God is right, and nobody will pity you. Nobody. Nobody. God will show forth his
glory in the saving of his elect. And he will show forth the glory
of his justice in the damning of every rebel. And you will
acknowledge that it's right. Now I bid you, for Christ's sake,
for your soul's sake, your way to the Son of God. Find mercy
in him or you will forever bear his wrath in hell. Amen.