Revelation chapter 20. Our text will be found in verse
11 to verse 15. The Apostle said, and I saw a
great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the
earth and the heavens fled away. 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 written in the books according
to their works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hail delivered up the dead which
were in them. And they were judged every man
according to their works. And death and hail 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. The title of the message this
morning is five truths concerning judgment. Five truths concerning
judgment. And as all our previous study
of the book of Revelation, we have now come to the end. Remember
that there are seven visions in this book of Revelation. Each one makes a complete circle,
makes a complete declaration of the gospel from the time of
Christ's first incarnation. It comes around all the way through
the dispensation of grace in which we live now until His second
coming. And now we have come to that. God, in grace, during this dispensation
of grace, calls sinners, draws them to Christ, and then He comes. He comes in judgment, in final
judgment, in which all the elect saints, believers in Christ,
shall be gathered into eternal glory and rest with Christ forever,
and the wicked shall be cast into hell forever. and suffer
the judgments of wrath and wrath of God for eternity. Today in
our text we will focus on the latter of these, which is the
final judgment. The Lord brings into view the
final judgment. Like when this judgment, when
this has brought up many questions fill our minds concerning this
judgment. Like, when will this take place? When will this take place? Who
will be judged? Will there be more than one judgment? Will God judge the wicked and
then judge his saints based on different works or different
things? Will there be one standard or
two standards by which men are judged? That's how our court
systems are. Aren't they judged by different
standards? Well, you're a female. You should be judged differently
than somebody else. We know this is not justice.
Justice doesn't look at anything but the law. Just. Now, if men would stop looking,
at the opinions of men and just rather focus on scripture, many
of these questions could be very simply answered. Probably not
to the satisfaction of their minds, but they could be easily
answered. Easily answered. The Word of God is not vague
concerning judgment. Now, we don't know the full experience
of this because we haven't experienced it yet. These things are yet
future. But yet there are certain things
that are very clearly stated in our passage, plainly revealed
to us about this last day. In that day the Lord Jesus Christ
will appear. He will come in great power and
with great authority and He will judge all men. His throne is
said to be here, a great throne, a great throne. This speaks when
Christ comes, He is coming in great power and authority. This is a picture of His authority,
His dominion. When this King who sits on this
throne comes, He will not be limited as our governments are. We don't execute judgments in
other places because we have no authority. Yet when He comes,
He will execute authority and judgment over all His creation,
over all men. His throne will be pure. That's why it's a great white
throne, is because it speaks of its holiness, of its purity
in judgment. When Christ comes to judge, He
will judge in a strictly holy and just manner. It will be a
holy judgment. And His throne. He is seen to
be King, Absolute, and Sovereign. In other words, when He comes,
His judgment will be final. Final. In this day, none shall be able
to escape or elude His judgment. None will be exempt or be able
to delay His judgment when it comes. The Scripture says that all men. He said, I saw the dead, small
and great, stand before God. The sea gave up the dead. Death
and hell gave up the dead. Everybody is going to be there.
Not one is going to be exempt. You will not miss this day. You
will not miss it. Every one of us will be there.
The Scriptures are clear. heaven and earth are fled away
where will you hide that's what it means when he's showing you
a picture that when heaven and earth flight flight flies away
and only thing is standing is the throne of god and where then
will the souls of men or the bodies of men high you won't
be able to hide anymore and be with a high I saw the
dead small and great. In Matthew 25, and we'll go there
a little bit later, but Matthew chapter 25, our Lord speaks of
this day. He said, "...when the Son of
Man shall come in His glory, and the Holy Angel with Him,
He shall sit on the throne of His glory, and before Him shall
be gathered all nations." All nations. Does this not clearly show us
who will be judged? Did that answer that question?
Who will be judged? Who will stand before? Will you
stand before God's judgment throne? You bet you will. Every one of
us will. Not one exemption. Every one
of us will stand and be judged at this bar. And I'll tell you this, when
He gathers all nations, our Lord says He separates them, goats
and sheep. So this, believer, is true of
us. We will stand before that day just as much as the wicked.
We will all stand before Him in strict, holy judgment. Pure is His throne. Holy is His
throne. Sovereign is His throne. Great
is His throne. And we'll all be there. however we must see that there
will that both will appear before this great white throne all will
be judged but there will be two distinct outcomes the righteous
shall enter into eternal glory and the wicked shall enter into
eternal damnation that's the two outcomes of this
judgment The righteous shall enter into glory, and the wicked
shall be sent into everlasting darkness and hell forever. Both will appear, the verdict
will be just, and you listen to this, it will be final. When Christ judges all men in
this day, there will be no parole. there will be no appeal. Why? Because his judgment's right. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do what? Right. And if it's right, why
would he correct it? There's no correction. There
is no such thing as purgatory. That would define his judgment
as being unjust. imperfect. Well, I know I sent
you to hell, but I'm changing my mind now. You've done enough
and you come on up. No. No, his judgment's final.
Because his judgment's pure. The apostle says this in Romans
2, he said, Thinkest thou, O man, that judgest others, and doest
the same things? Shalt thou escape the judgment
of God? Let me ask you, have you done
any judging lately? Have you made any judgments? I tell you,
you should make some judgments. You should. You shouldn't go
into things blindly. You make judgments every day. Should not God make judgments?
Being your judge? Think that you will escape somehow
the judgment of God? No, you won't. despises thou the riches and
goodness of his forbearance and long-suffering not knowing the
goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance but after thy hardness
and impotent of heart treasures up for thyself wrath under wrath
against the day of wrath Revelation of the righteous judgment of
God who will render every man according to his deeds To them
that are patient to by patient continuance in well-doing Seek
for glory and honor and immortality in life But unto them that are
contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness
indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish every soul of man
that doeth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile honor
and glory and peace to every man that worketh good both to
the Jew first and also to the Gentile you listen for God is
no respecter of persons you got that God does not take into account
your person Isn't that what we do, how we judge? We take into
account relationships. We take into account things that,
you know, if I was judging my son, obviously I'd be more lenient,
because he's my son. I would defy justice in order
to have mercy on my son. God cannot do that. He cannot
show mercy at the expense of His judgment, of His justice. Cannot do it. He will not do
it. Here in this world, the saints
are misjudged. That's just true. The saints
are misjudged. We are judged as fools. In this world, you're judged
as a fool. To do what we're doing here is foolish. That's the world's
standard. The preaching of the gospel is
to them that perish foolishness. The enemies of God, the false
prophets of this world, preach to tell that salvation by grace
is foolishness. They oppose us, who preach salvation by grace
through faith in Christ alone. But when Christ comes, when He
judges, He'll make all things right. He'll settle every score. That's what judges do. when you
are offended and you go to the judge you expect the judge to
make it right this is exactly what christ will do in this day
he will make all things right he will set all things right
in this day and so then believer let us as
the scripture exhorts us to do Rejoice and look forward to the judgment
of Christ. This should be our attitude as
believers in Christ. If we are made righteous by the
righteousness of Christ and God is going to receive us as Christ
and righteous as Christ, we should look forward to that day. Not with fear, but with reverence
and love, seeing that we shall receive what we deserve, even
what Christ earned in our stead. This day should be a day of joy
for the believer. For the believer. We should look
forward to it with great anticipation. Go over to 2 Peter. Go to 2 Peter
chapter 3. 2nd Peter chapter 3 look at verse
10 he's speaking about the coming
this coming day this great white throne judgment that is to come
and he says this but the day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with a great
noise and the elements melt with fervent heat the earth also in
the works thereof that are therein shall be burned up seeing then
that these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought
you to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for There
it is. "...looking for and hastening
unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens shall
be on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements melt with fervent
heat." What kind of people should we be? We should be people looking.
We should be people hastening toward that day. "...seeing He will come Let us
then who are washed in the blood of Christ, clothed in the righteousness
of Christ, look forward to that day and live every day with this
fact in view. He will come. He will come. And all this world, its objects,
its systems, its governments, its relationships, its treasures
will at once be dissolved and destroyed. You know, this thing, it comes
as a thief in the night to the lost. See, it's not going to
come as a thief in the night to us because it doesn't rob
us of anything. When Christ comes, He's not come
to rob us. He's come to give us what He earned in our stead. But to the lost, this day is
going to come as a thief. It's going to rob them of everything
they love, this world, the pleasures, the lust, the passions, the things
of the world. It's going to burn before their
eyes and they're going to be, they're going to weep like those
merchants. Remember in the previous chapter of Revelations, those
merchants weeped when the whore was destroyed. Not us. Not if we look for His coming.
And stop looking to the things of the world. Stop holding on
to them. Hold on to Him. Look for His
coming. Look for His coming. Let us then,
what type of people should we be? Then seeing that all of these
things will be dissolved, we should be people looking for
the coming of Christ. Hastening for it. The day of
His return. but i tell you you without christ
you should be you have no cause to rejoice because you have no righteousness and i do pray that god would
use this even now to move you move with fear and trembling
and fall before his feet pleading for mercy. Only in Jesus Christ can you
be cleansed and made righteous so as to look for this coming
with joy. Now then, let me get down to
the meat of the message here this is the introduction now
let me just give you these five points things that five things
that we know about judgment now there's a lot of things i don't
know i just i just tell you i don't know i don't know much but let
us grab a hold of by faith the things we do know the things
that we do know there are five things that i want us to see
five lessons and the first one is this christ is coming that we know
that this week no jesus is coming Don't be taken in by those teachers
who fill the shelves of most bookstores as professing believers
and try to determine when Christ is coming. Pay no attention to
them. Give them not one ounce of your
thought or energy toward those who try to suppose to know when
Christ is coming. these fools you know why there's
so many of these books because when they don't get it right
they've got to rewrite it that's why there's so many when their
prophecies don't come true they say oh see this is what's happening
over here and look what's happening over here surely he's coming
at this time and then when he doesn't come what do they got
to do well I made a mistake you know we gotta look at some other
things over here and over here they'll write another book attention to them. You know what
God calls them? False prophets. False prophets. Isn't that what he said in Deuteronomy?
He said, if a man presumed to speak in my name and it doesn't
come to pass, guess what he is? He's a liar. He's a liar. False prophets. I don't care if they claim to
be Calvinists. That man did exactly what a false prophet would do.
He predicted something that didn't come to pass and God said he's
a liar. Leave him alone. And you should leave him. Leave him
alone. In fact, believer, we are never told to look for signs
of his coming. You know that? In scripture,
we're never told to look for signs. Jesus said this, a wicked
and adulterous generation seeketh what? A sign. But no sign shall be given them
except What? Jonah. As Jonah was three days
and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man
be in the heart of the earth. And what sign do we have of his
coming? He rose again from the dead. That's what sign we had. He rose
again, who said, I am coming again. I am coming again. Jesus promised to come. fulfill
the prophets which He did, and the only sign we need this is
His resurrection. The sign of Jesus Christ that
He died according to the Scriptures. He rose again according to what? The Scriptures. We know then that He is the Christ,
and there is none other name given among men whereby we must
be saved. None other name. None other name
given. There is no other God, there
is no other Savior, but Christ the Lord. What sign? As Jonah was three
days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son
of Man be in the heart of the earth. And He was. What other
sign do you need? You don't need any other sign.
You don't need one. And what was his word to his
disciples while he was here? What was the Word of Christ by
which He comforted His disciples concerning their coming sin? They were about to sin. They were about to deny Him.
Peter was going to deny Him. The disciples were going to flee
from Him. And He knew they were going to
be in trouble. He knew they were going to be heartbroken by what
they did. He knew their sin was going to
overwhelm them. And what did He give for comfort?
He said, let not your heart be troubled. Have you sinned lately? Have
you forsaken your master? And you know what he says to
you? Don't let it trouble you. Why? I go to prepare a place
for you. my father's house of many dwelling
places were not so it told you i'd go to prepare a place for
you and when i'd go that were if is better translate when when
i go and prepare a place for you uh...
will i will come again and receive
you onto myself that where i am you may be also is there any
vagueness in the desire of christ here is there any vagueness as
to what he wants to do as what he's purpose to do He said, I
will come. I, just as sure as I leave this
tomb and head to glory, I will come again and receive you unto
myself. Where I am, you may be also. Don't let your heart be troubled.
This is what the disciples received. And remember, after he was received
up into heaven, they also received the promise of that angel. The
angel said, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus
you had taken from you shall return in like manner. He's going to come again the
same way you've seen Him go, in glory. The Lord Jesus Christ
shall come again. He's gone to the cross. He suffered
the just for the unjust, that He should bring us to God by
His death. It was not vain. His death has
accomplished our redemption. His death and righteousness has
reconciled us to God. And if he that endured the cross,
despising the shame, is set down on the throne of God, be not
weary and faint in your minds." Don't be weary concerning your
troubles. Don't be faint in your mind concerning your troubles.
Why? He's coming again. He's coming. Look for Him, Paul said. Wait
by faith, knowing that we are strangers and pilgrims in this
land. And soon Jesus will come and
gather us to Himself. I like this passage. It says,
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, the trump of God. And the dead in
Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet him
in the air. So shall we ever be with the
Lord the end. That's it. When he comes, that's
it. Should you not look forward then
to his coming? That's it. I'm gonna bring you to myself,
just like I promised. Wherefore comfort you one another
with these words, is what Paul said. Our Lord, He first came
in weakness and humility, born of a virgin's womb, in poverty
and humiliation, but He's not coming that way again. He's not coming that way again. But now having obtained our redemption
he will come the second time as the omnipotent god in strength
and in the riches and splendor of his glory and person shall
be seen by everyone secondly this his coming will
be swift and sudden when he comes it will be unexpected it will
be unexpected the world will not know it but to us it should not be unexpected
we should be expecting we should be expecting his coming our lord jesus christ said this
about those false men who tell us to go the crisis coming back
at this such-and-such a time he said this There shall lo men
will say to you lo here is Christ believe it not For there shall
arise false Christ and false prophets and show you great signs
and wonders in so much as if it were possible They should
deceive the very elect you see believer as we're looking and
knowing Christ is coming We're not to be looking at wonders
of people this guy comes to you, and he's he's able to perform
miracles this guy He can heal the sick he could even raise
the dead and then he tells you hey Christ is coming over here
Don't believe him. Don't believe him. These signs and wonders are only
going to get greater and greater as the time approaches. And Jesus
said, if it were possible. Thank God it's not possible to
deceive the very elect. It's not possible because we
know whom we have believed, right? We're not going to be deceived
because we're looking for a certain one. And when a man speaks of
someone that isn't Christ, we know. It's not possible because
we know whom we have believed. And we're looking for Him. He
says, "...for as the lightning cometh from the east, out of
the east, and shineth unto the west, so shall the coming of
the Son of Man be." When He comes, everybody's going to know it.
You don't have to guess. No secret raptures here. No multiple raptures here. When
He comes, everyone's going to know He's here. And Jesus said
this, when I come it's going to be like this. As in the days
of Noah, they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving
in marriage. What were they doing? They were
expecting tomorrow. You don't get married unless you're expecting
tomorrow. Everything's going to continue the same way it's
always been when He comes. He said, even so shall the coming
of the Son of Man be. And He says this in verse 44,
that same passage there, He said, be ready. You who are looking,
we should be ready. Are you ready? Are you ready
for His coming today? Are you ready for Him to come
in swift judgment today? Are you looking forward to Him
coming today? You should be, if you're a believer,
you should be. You should be expecting it, waiting for it,
anticipating it. Be ready. Behold He cometh, the
scripture says. Let us who then believe on Him
rest in our salvation in Christ. Rejoice and look for Him. Let
us expect Him to come, even because He promised. I know people say,
well it's been two thousand years since He went away and everything's
the same as it was. You listen, it's not the same
as it was. Why, I'm not the same as I was, and neither are you. It's not the same as it was because
the law has been done away with. I tell you, He is coming. and what are we to be doing in
this time that he's before he comes exactly what we're doing
now preaching the gospel declaring the gospel because he has yet
a people that must come that must come and look for him he
said other sheep i have which are not of this fold them i also
what must bring must bring let us then be about our father's
business not looking for signs and wonders wars and tribulations,
but rather preaching the gospel and looking for Christ to come
and receive us unto Himself. Secondly, we know this, the dead
shall be raised. The dead shall be raised. This
will not be secret. As His coming shall appear from
heaven, so will the resurrection of the just and the unjust be
visible to all. When Jesus Christ comes in His
glory to judge all men, He will raise them from the dead and
judge them. They will all stand before His
holy bar. Look at your text here. He said,
I saw a great white throne. Him that sat on it, from whose
face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was no place
found for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand
before God. You see, God is going to raise
all men to stand before Him in judgment. Now, this is the order
of it. We have an order the Scripture
gives us. The dead in Christ shall rise first. an order in
this thing those who have died in faith gone before us they're
going to be raised first and don't you think this is going
to be kind of a an awakening for everybody when they when
they rise from the dead it will it's not gonna be secret their
bodies physical bodies that have been ground for able Evil, He's
going to rise from the dead and everyone from Him forward are
going to rise. They're going to come. All the
believers in Christ shall be raised from the dead. When He
comes, their souls and their bodies then will unite together. Now the souls, we know where
they're at right now. They're in glory with Christ. That's
what John says in the first part of this chapter. He says, I saw the souls of them
that were beheaded. Where were they? They were in
heaven. But one day their bodies will rise and join with their
souls and they will stand before God. Then we which are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them. Then there will be the resurrection
of the unjust. There will be those who were
in the graves who did not believe. Their bodies shall be raised
from the dead. Their souls, which are now in hell, shall be joined
together with their bodies. And those who are remaining in
the earth shall be caught up as well before this judgment,
but they're not going to be translated like we are. We will receive
a body like unto Christ's body, a righteous body, a holy body. righteous soul but they're going
to go as they are unrighteous there's going to be a great resurrection
and when he calls them to judgment there is no place for them to
go there's no place to hide there will be no refusals no
refusals Then we come to this the third one Christ will judge
them. We know that we know he's coming
in judgment We know he's coming to receive his righteous and
to damn the wicked He we're all going to be raised from the dead.
We're going to stand before him and then he will judge he will
judge The scripture says and the books
were open Another book which will open which is the book of
life and the dead were judged out of those things Which were
written in the book according to their works The sea gave up
their dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up their
dead which were in them and they were judged every man according
to their works You got that because everybody's going to be judged
according their works The promise of God is that it
is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, what? The
judgment. The judgment. The judge is Christ,
the Son of God, to whom God has committed all judgment. The same one by nature we all
have defied and rejected. And when He comes to judge, it
will be strict, it will be just, and it will be final. Now the
language here is very important. He said the books were open.
Now God doesn't need a book. He don't need a book to remember.
But this is to show us the exactness of His ledger, of His memory,
of His mind concerning sin, concerning judgment. This should strike terror in
the hearts of every wicked man that every sin, thought, and
imagination that you have done is recorded. Every work of evil deserves hell. But how many works of evil have
you done? How vainly men think obedience
is just something outward. And forget that the Scriptures
tell us that the Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. You can put on a show on the
outside. God doesn't just judge that. He judges also your thoughts
and motives. How many scriptures can I give
for this? The very first ones, obviously, in Genesis 6, when
he said, The Lord saw that the thoughts of the imagination of
the hearts of men were evil only continually. Continually. In Matthew's Gospel 15 in verse
19 and 20, he said, For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornication, false witness, blasphemies. These
are the things that defile a man. You remember David convicted
of his own sin. He said, Lord, if thou shouldest
mark iniquity, who should stand? You pay attention to your text.
God does mark iniquity. Every iniquity. But what was David's comfort?
But there is forgiveness with thee. There is forgiveness that
thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul
doth wait, and in His Word do I hope. So God will come and
He will judge. He will judge righteously. He
will judge according to the sins of men, their works. And the
only hope for any man is Christ, the Word of God. Now, fourthly,
this we know. The righteous shall inherit heaven. the righteous shall inherit heaven. The elect of God, the redeemed
of Christ, shall receive their full inheritance. Now all the
elect of the Father will be judged in the same strict manner and
strict holiness as all other men. How then shall we who know we
are sinners, because the elect know this, we know we are sinners,
How then shall we receive heaven? Justly receive heaven. You listen. Here's the only reason you will
receive heaven. Because Christ bore your sins
in His own body on the tree. Here it is. Your sins are not
going unjudged. I told you God cannot show mercy
at the expense of His justice. So what God has done for His
people is He has taken our sins, our guilt, and imputed that to
Christ, His Holy Son, and upon the tree, He actually suffered
all the hell we deserved. Judgment was rendered for our
sins on Christ. So we did not escape judgment
for our sins. But the only hope is that Christ
bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Seeing He was made
sin for us and God justly punished our substitute in our sin, seeing
His blood has then blotted out our transgressions as God says,
a thick cloud. A thick cloud. He blotted them
out. You see the books. It's a picture. Our sins written down, yet the
blood has blotted them out. They can't be seen. When the
books are open, you know what's going to be written next to our
names? Nothing. Nothing. there will be no negative demerit
against us. Why? Because Christ took it away
and nailed it to the cross. Having made peace with God by
His blood. But not only this, not only will
it be blank, it will be full of righteousness. Remember, it's
judged according to their works. Now, if there were nothing there,
then what merit do we have to receive heaven? We would have
no merit. We would have only done exactly
what we were required to do. But rather than that, in these
books are written every positive work of righteousness that Christ
has done. So when the books are open and
your name is read, guess what he's going to read? Righteous! Righteous! Righteous! You're righteous. He took away
your sin and put down the righteous works of Christ as your own.
with his holy garment on i am as spotless as the holy the elect the sheep of god remember
go to go to uh... let's see this in this vivid
picture go to go to jet uh... matthew chapter twenty five i
got one more point after this but matthew chapter twenty five
uh... see that see the picture how
the lord lays it out for us Matthew chapter 25. He told us
in verse 31 that he's going to come and sit on his throne and
before him verse 32 All nations will be gathered and what is
he going to do? He's going to separate everyone into two groups. He's going to separate his sheep
from the goats his sheep from the goats and And you listen
what he says. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, his sheep, come you blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Why? For when I was hungry, you gave
me meat. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and
you took me in. Naked, and you clothed me. Sick,
and you visited me. I was in prison, you came unto
me. Aren't those all positive things? And what are the answers? When did I ever do any such thing
for you? I have only done evil. I have
only sinned against you. When? Listen, you did it when He did
it. You earned it because He earned
it. It's yours because it was prepared
for you. It was prepared for you. Because we are righteous only through the merits of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As we all sinned in Adam, we
were made righteous by our federal head. And so when our sins are
sought for, you know what God says, He says this, Those days
and at that time as his final judgment He will say the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none the sins
of Judah and they shall not be found God comes in judgment. He opens the book sees your name
and he says well No sin Look only righteousness Come
on. Come here. Come here. And we know that this, the merit
of this, the root and cause of our acceptance is this. Our names
were written down in the book of life before the foundation
of the world. At the end of this thing it says
in verse 15, whosoever was not found in the book of life. casting a lake of fire, which
is the second death. You see, I will inherit the kingdom
of God because my name is written down. Because Christ suffered for my
sins, because Christ rose again for my justification, He prepared
a place for me, and He will come again and receive me unto myself,
and when I am there, He will draw me in, welcome me in, for Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. And the last thing we know about
this judgment is the wicked shall be damned. They shall be cast
into the lake of fire. To all those who are outside
of Christ, I have no comforting message for you. I do have this. Today is the
day of salvation. Why will you linger When Christ said to you who are
thirsty, come and drink freely of the water of life. Come to Christ who has established
all the righteousness you need to stand in that day. I pray that God would keep you,
that God would move you, because in that day, you who are without
Christ, you're going to be found wanting. The judge of men does
not require your best. He does not require your sincerity. He demands righteousness. And
the only one that can give it is Christ. Why will you not come,
other than you defy the judge of all the earth? You do not
believe in the judgment of Christ. That's why you won't come. If
you believed in the judgment, you would come. You would come.
If you knew anything at all about it, you'd come. And if you continue to trust
in your works, your will, your religion, you'll be eternally
damned, and that verdict will be final. So what do we know about the
judgment? We know this, Christ is coming. We know the dead shall
be raised. We know that he will judge all
men. And the righteous shall be brought to heaven and the
wicked shall be damned. That's what you need to know
about judgment. Anything else is some just frivolous. That's
what you need to know. I pray that God even would reveal
it to your hearts now. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.