Great White Throne Judgment,
Revelation chapter 20. Well, John has seen some marvelous
things through the book of the revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He has seen our Savior in different
situations. He's seen Him in different characters. And now he sees him as the judge. It's wonderful to behold Christ
as the one who saves sinners, and indeed we do behold Him that
way. We must always be mindful of
His death for us, that death which put away all of the sins
of His people. And it is wonderful to think
of Him as the one who seeks and finds the lost. And we love to
meditate upon His saving grace to us, and we should always do
that. To behold His blood as that which
made ransom for our souls, the blood which covered our infinite
debt of sin, the blood that paid our debt in full, that blood
which brought in for us everlasting righteousness. How wonderful
it is to remember that we as the people of God, we're clothed
in beauties established by our Savior, established according
to God's demands, God has a standard whereby He has said He will accept
His people, and that standard is perfect righteousness. And
in the Lord Jesus, we have been given that righteousness, for
He brought in everlasting righteousness for us by His death upon the
cross of Calvary. Oh, how wonderful it is to behold
our glorious Lord as being our Savior. It's also magnificent to see
Him as the Judge. Now those of us who are the people
of God, we need not be fearful of Him as being the Judge. I'm going to speak about the
Judgment this morning, but I find no verse in the Scriptures where
any of God's people were ever fearful of meeting God and standing
before the Last Judgment. All of the people of God look
forward to the day when we see Him, we have no dreads, we have
no fears, we have no doubts as to our position in Christ Jesus,
for He is our righteousness. We know that all of our sin debt
has been retired and full, and God will not bring up against
us any of our sins. You think about what the scripture
says about the sins of God's people. They've been buried in
the depths of the deepest sea. God has said, and here is a The
covenant of grace promise, he says, all of your sins and your
iniquities, he said, I will remember no more. Isn't that marvelous? Now we
remember our sins, at least a few of them, because we don't have
any awareness of the vast number of our transgressions against
God, sins that we daily commit against Him. And then there are
things that we ought to do that we don't do, sins of omissions. So we don't know how many our
sins are, we just know they're great. We know there's a multitude
of them. And yet, God says, concerning
all of the sins of His people, in that day, in this day of judgment
that we're going to be talking about, He says, all of our transgressions,
they will be looked for. They will be sought for. God
Himself, in His omniscience, being all-knowing, He will search
and He will not find any transgression registered against His people. Oh, how marvelous. So even as
the people of God, while we love to think of our Redeemer as being
our Savior, and we rejoice in Him who is our Savior, as we
think of Him as being the Judge, when He as One writer said, Don's
his black robe of justice and all nations are made to stand
before him. We can think about that day and
do so with boldness. With boldness, because with boldness
we shall appear before the judgment seat of our Lord Jesus with no
fear, no dread. You say, but Jim, aren't you
fearful of God bringing up against you your failures and your transgressions? Aren't you fearful that the Lord
will bring to public view all of your sins against Him? Haven't you been listening to
what I said? God said, I won't remember your sins anymore. I
won't remember your iniquities. That's why in 1 John chapter
4, we can look to the day of judgment with boldness. With
boldness. I shall stand before my God. My God who has all penetrating
eyes. Who sees everything as it really
is. And He sees us who are His people. He sees us justified. by the bloody death of the Lord
Jesus. And therefore in us He sees no
defilement. There's no filthiness in God's
people. Now, to us, to ourselves, we
look at ourselves and we say like did the Apostle. He said,
O wretched man that I am. He said, I know that in me, that
is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I know that. And when
I look within, I don't find anything good. Do you find anything good
when you look within you? You say, well, but I do find
that I have faith. Well, me too. I do have faith. I do believe the Lord. I do love
Him. I love Him. I love Him, the Scripture
says, because He first loved me. But I do love the Lord. The
Scripture says, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let
him be anathema maranatha. I do love the Lord, but I don't
love Him like I ought to. And I don't love you like I ought
to love you. In myself, I'm a failure. and your failures, and when we
look within, that's what we see. We see failures, but God doesn't
see any failures. He sees the beauties and the
perfections and the obedience of His only begotten Son. That's
what He sees in us. And you see, that's the reason
when we leave this world and we go to be with the Lord in
glory, He's going to say to each of us, and he's going to say
this based upon the obedience of Christ Jesus, he's going to
say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Because the
obedience of the Lord Jesus, that's our obedience. That's
our obedience. So I don't dread the day of judgment. If you dread the day of judgment,
There can be only one reason why you would dread that day. You're looking to something within
yourself to which you think God is going to look, and then He's
not going to be pleased with you. Listen, there is one, one
with whom God is well pleased, and that's His Son. Right? When our Lord Jesus was baptized,
this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye Him. And God, He's well pleased with
Christ Jesus and He's pleased with all who are in Christ Jesus. And we've been in Him from old
eternity. God has always viewed His people
as being one with Christ Jesus. This is illustrated in many ways
in the Scriptures. The Savior said, I'm the vine,
you're the branches. They're one. One sap. One sap. One light connects the
branches to the vine. And our Lord Jesus and His people,
we're connected as one. The Scripture uses this illustration. He's the head and we're the body. We're connected to Him. He's
our life. The Scripture uses this illustration
in Ephesians chapter 5. He's the husband and we're the
wife or the bride. And our Lord said, these two
are one. We're one with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And His obedience? That was our
obedience. And His death? That was our death. And His burial? That was our
burial. And His resurrection? That was
our resurrection. His ascension? That was our ascension
as well. And as He is seated in the heavenlies,
even so, we are also seated in Him. And so as the people of God,
as those who love Christ Jesus, as those who fully rest in the
Savior, for all of our righteousness, and for the removal of our indebtedness
of sin, and for our full acceptance with God, we can look to the
judgment without any fear. And as the Scripture says, have
boldness in that day. But to those who know Him not, it will be an awful day of reckoning. I can't imagine reading in the
Word of God any more solemn words than that of the judgment, the
last judgment, when all nations are made to stand before God.
You see, as I read the Word of God, I find four things to be
effectual. You know what effectual means?
Gets the job done. Okay? Here they are. The call
of God unto salvation. The effectual call. There is
a people in this world who belong to God by free and sovereign
grace. He chose a people unto salvation. These people God ordained unto
everlasting life. These people have been redeemed
by the bloody death of the Lord Jesus. All of their sins have
been paid for. The Spirit of God based upon
the work of Christ Jesus, and as a result of that work, the
Spirit of God comes to these people and he deals with them
in saving, sovereign mercy. And he draws these people unto
Christ Jesus. It's called the effectual call
of grace. It gets the job done. David put
it this way in Psalm 110 in verse three, thy people, thy people,
they shall be willing in the day of thy power. Willing to do what? Willing to
come to Christ Jesus. Why? Because He makes them willing.
He draws with an effectual love. There's this wonderful, wonderful
call of grace that goes out to the souls of His people, right
to the heart. Oh, now preachers give forth
the general call of the gospel. We say, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, come to the Savior. Rest
in the Lord Jesus. Oh sinner, believe on Him. And I give forth that call this
morning. but my call is not effectual.
My call won't get the job done. I can't penetrate your heart.
I can't convince your innermost being of the things of God, of
the beauties of Christ Jesus, of your own defilement. I can't
convince you of the holiness of God and that God is unapproachable
by you and your condition. I can't convince you of that.
Only the Spirit of God can do that. And when He does that, that's
called the effectual work of God in the soul. You see, there
is the necessity of God's work within us. Indeed, there's been
a work done for us by our Lord Jesus, and now the Spirit of
God, He must do a work within us, and He shows us that the
work salvation, the work of reconciliation, the work of making us righteous,
the work of putting all of our iniquities away. He convinces
us that work has already been done to God's satisfaction by
the Lord Jesus Christ, the substitute of sinners. And the Spirit of
God draws us. He draws us to the Savior. It's an irresistible drawing. It's a powerful drawing. And
you don't even know you're being drawn. You don't know what's
happening. The only thing you know is, I once was blind, now
I see. I once was lost, but now I'm
found. And if somebody asks you, well,
what has happened to you? I can't rightfully explain it. I just know I didn't have an
interest. And now I do. I didn't see how
God could be holy and righteous and just and justify me, but
now I do. Through the substitutionary death
of that blessed Son of God, Son of Man, through His obedience
unto death, God makes me righteous. I understand that now. On the
basis of Christ and Him crucified, God receives, God accepts me. It isn't about me accepting Him. It's about Him accepting me.
And He accepts me. He receives even me through Christ
Jesus. And I believe Him. I'll tell
you what's happened. That's the effectual call of
grace. That's the first thing I know that's effectual. I'll
tell you something else that's effectual. Death. Death. That's effectual. It will get its job done. The scripture says it is appointed
unto men once to die. You do have an appointment with
death that you will keep. And I promise you, even like
effectual grace will not take no for an answer, neither will
death. Job says God has set a boundary
we can't pass. I don't know when I'll arrive
at that boundary. And you don't know when you'll
arrive at the boundary set for you. We just know there is one
set. And we are immortal until God is finished with us
in this world. And then we die. Death is always
effectual. And it is interesting in this
very text, and I'll read it in just a few moments. It's the
last thing that will be destroyed. Death in the grave. Death in
the grave. Four effectual things. Grace. Death. Resurrection. Resurrection. It is going to be effectual.
The Lord is going to raise these bodies. And He's going to raise
the bodies of the just and the unjust. He's going to raise the
bodies of the righteous and the wicked. Look here in this text. Revelation 20.11, And I saw a
great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the
earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for
them. And I saw the dead, the dead, I saw the dead who were
small, who were insignificant, and the great, the great, the
mighty. I saw them, they stand before
God. And the books were opened, and
another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead
were judged out of those things which were written in the books
according to their works. He saw the dead stand before
God. That's a resurrection. The dead
are going to stand again. The body is going to be resurrected.
That's the way they're going to stand. The bodies of all the
dead. Those who knew God, those who
hated God. Those who loved the Savior, those
who despised the Savior. Resurrection will be effectual. Our Lord Jesus is coming again. He's coming again in power and
great glory. And all of the bodies of all
who have died ever since Abel died, he's the very first man
who died a physical death. The body of Abel is going to
be raised. You say, but nobody can find
his body. God knows where it is. God knows where the specks of
dust and his bones are. God will raise him and all others
who have died. He'll also raise Abel's brother
Cain. All who have died. there's going
to be an effectual resurrection. Those who believe the gospel,
those who despise the gospel. Those who love the grace of God
and those who said, I don't have any use for the grace of God.
Those who believe in one God, who rest in this one God through
Christ Jesus, who worship God through the Savior by one Spirit,
those who believe this one Gospel, their bodies are going to be
raised and the bodies of those who said, I have no use for religion
whatsoever, their bodies are going to be raised too. Resurrection
will be effectual. You are coming back. And you're not going to come
back as something different. Your body is coming back just
as it is with your identity. Job said, the worms devoured
this body, my flesh. Yet in this body, in my flesh,
I shall see God. All the bodies of all who have
died can be raised again and they will still be who they were
when they died. And whatever spiritual condition
they were in when they died, they will remain being when their
bodies are raised. There have been people who have
been dead for thousands of years. Many of them in glory. As with
Abel. And Abel will still be Abel.
And when His body is raised, we will say, because I think
we will know as we're known, we'll say, well, there's Abel.
It's brother Abel. I've read about you, Abel, in
the book of Genesis chapter 4, and I've read about you in the
book of Hebrews chapter 11. Good to meet you, brother. Isn't
it a wonderful salvation in Christ Jesus? We'll see him. His body
is going to be raised, and Abel will still be Abel, and Cain,
he will still be Cain. He will still be a hater of God. And he will still be one who
hates the people of God. There won't be anything different
about that man, about Cain. You see, death... Death, it changes
our existence in this world, but it doesn't change our standing
before God. If we die in grace, we'll be
raised in grace, we'll always be in grace and always be with
Christ Jesus forever and ever. But if we die graceless and godless
and Christless, We'll be that way forever, and if you die in
that condition, when you're raised, you'll still be in that condition.
Resurrection is effectual. Everybody's going to stand up
in their bodies again, and stand before God. Grace is effectual. Death is
effectual. Resurrection is effectual. And
judgment is effectual. You're going to stand before
God. You're going to stand before
God. You won't stand before a committee.
You won't stand before a bunch of preachers. you'll stand before the Lord
God of glory. Now, all judgment has been committed
to the Son of God. We know that. All judgment's
committed to Christ Jesus. He has earned that right as the
Son of Man to judge everyone. Ron read to us there from Matthew
chapter 25. The Lord of glory, He is coming
back, and then before Him will be gathered all nations, as everybody. We've got to appear before the
Lord. And you know in almost every
religion, and I'm talking about false religions, of course, But
in almost every false religion, they all acknowledge this, there's
going to be some sort of judgment. And you know yourself there's
going to be a judgment. We know it from the book of God,
and we just know it in our own conscience. I've got to stand
before God. There is some kind of tribunal
that I must face when I leave this world. And you're right. You've got to face God. This
is effectual. Just like the resurrection is
effectual. Just like death is effectual.
Just like grace is effectual. Judgment is effectual. You go
in there. And me too. Now with the people of God, as
I've already indicated, it won't be a dreaded day for us. It would
be a wonderful day. But it would be a dreaded day
for many people. You know, John throughout the
book of Revelation, he has set forth this day of judgment already. Back in chapter 6. He said He
talked about the kings, and He goes all the way down to those
who are nobodies in this world, going to stand before God, and
they'll see the Lamb in His wrath, and they'll call on the rocks
and the mountains to fall on, hide them from the face of Him
who sits upon the throne. Listen, you may go to the judgment
kicking, and hollering, and crying, Saying, I don't want to go, or
you may go with joy and boldness in Christ Jesus, but either way,
you're going. And me too. Now, you'll notice this in verse
13. The sea gave up the dead which
were in it. Death and hell were delivered
up. They delivered up the dead which were in them. And they
were judged every man according to their works. and death and
hell were cast in the lake of fire, there's the end of death
and hell, and hell there being the grave. They're coming to
an end. There is coming a day when there
will be no more death and there will be no more graves. Isn't
that wonderful? This is the last enemy who's going to be conquered.
Here is Christ the conqueror. He's already in this very chapter. He's already conquered that great
enemy of our souls, Satan. He bound him. He bound him by
Christ's substitutionary death on the cross. He bounded, He
restricted His goings at the end of this age for a little
while, a little season the Scripture says. Our Lord is going to release
Him so that He'll gather together Gog and Magog. That is, He'll
gather together the enemies of God who are going to oppose the
people of God. And then there is Armageddon
all over again. And all of a sudden, the Lord
is coming back. He's going to bring everything
to an end. John has already set this forth. And our Lord Jesus, when He comes
back to defeat His enemies, He's going to raise the bodies of
His people. Those who have died, and then
those who are with Him, we will be raptured up. Those who are
alive and remain to the coming of our Lord will be raptured
up to meet Him in the air, and then the air will be immediately
changed in the moment in a twinkling of an eye, and then we're all
coming back, and then the spiritually dead will be convened against
Him. He will defeat them immediately. having already put, as the Scripture
says, the devil away forever. And then we stand before Him.
And here's all of the people of the world standing before
Him. In verse 15, Whosoever was not found written in the book
of life was cast into the lake of fire. Here are two groups
of people. Those whose names were written in the Lamb's book
of life from before the foundation of the world. And those who are
lost and dead in their own guilt, in their own sinfulness. They
died without Christ Jesus. And here are the two groups.
to be judged. The scripture says the books
were open. What are these books? We need
books to remember. But God doesn't. But this is
for the benefit of us. I'm sure this is figurative and
symbolic. And here's what it shows us. The accuracy, the accuracy of
this judgment will be absolutely fair. The books are open. What
books? Well, I would venture to say
the Book of God's Law, which has two tablets. The Book of
God's Law as it pertains to our relationship with God, our dealings
with God, and the Book of God's Law as it pertains to our dealings
with each other. They're two tablets of the law. The first part of the law has
to do with our responsibilities to God. The second part of the
law has to do with our responsibilities to one another. The books of
the law are going to be open to either accuse us or to say
you're righteous. The book of God's law. Another
book that's going to be opened up is the book of God's remembrance.
Malachi chapter 3 talks about that. The book of God's remembrance. Now, the sins of His people are
remembered no more, but the sins of all those who die in unbelief,
who die without Christ Jesus, fully remembered. God remembered. He'd never forgotten anything. Another book's gonna be open,
the book of conscience. The book of conscience. Romans
chapter one, or chapter two rather, which accuses us or excuses us. And I know that conscience is,
it's depraved like the rest of us, but still there's that voice
within us, and it accuses. You know what
I'm talking about. Because we all got one. And I'm
persuaded the book of the conscience is going to be open in that day. That book that it accused you. It accused you lots of times.
And you didn't listen. You didn't listen. Or maybe you
did listen. And I'll tell you another book
I'm persuaded is going to be open is the book of the gospel.
It's the book of the Gospel. The times that you heard the
Gospel of God's grace, you heard of Christ Jesus, you heard of
life in the Savior, you heard of forgiveness of sins, weren't interested. Well, go on in your disinterest.
One day the books are going to be open. But there's another book that's
going to be open. It's the book of life. It's the
book of life. One glorious book. You see, the other books, they
will be open in order to set forth the accuracy and the fairness
of God's justice and His judgment. And this book is going to be
open to set forth the sovereignty of His grace. that He showed mercy to whom
He would show mercy. He was gracious to whom He would
be gracious. Not all men are going to perish. Not all women are going to be
separated from God. Not all of mankind is going to
be cast into outer darkness. There is a remnant according
to the election of grace. And in that great and glorious
day, we will stand in the beauties of Jesus Christ. As the Lord
divides and He says, Here are the goats and over here are My
sheep. Behold, Father, I am the children
that Thou hast given Me. Behold them, washed in My blood,
clothed in My salvation and My righteousness. I bring them all
home to You safely. After all, we were entrusted
to Jesus Christ before the world began. God the Father gave us
as a gift to Him. And our names were written down
in the Lamb's Book of Life. Is your name written down? The
only way you can know is if you have cast your helpless soul
upon Christ Jesus in faith. And you believe Him. You trust
in Him. You rest in Him. And you look
to His bloody death as the only reason God should accept a poor
old sinner like you. John says, I saw a great white
throne. It's great. There's no throne
as great as this and it's white. It's absolutely fair. It's just
and it's a throne. And Him that sat on it is none
other than the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who earned the right to be the judge by His
substitutionary death. And there's one standard of judgment
in that day. And don't you miss this. God's going to judge this world
in righteousness by that man whom He appointed. And He showed
His appointment of Him by His resurrection from the dead. Our
Lord Jesus. And the standard in that day,
listen to me, is the same standard it is today. Righteous in Christ Jesus. That's the standard. And I think
of the words that were spoken to Belshazzar You remember, he decided he'd
have a party, that heathen king, and he sent word, hey, go get
some of those vessels we stole out of the temple in Jerusalem,
bring them in here. We've got to have enough goblets
to pass around so everybody can drink wine together. We're having
a party. He did that and as he did that,
they were all in practically a drunken stupor making fun of
the people of God and mocking God Himself. A hand appeared
and wrote on a wall. There was no body attached to
the hand, just a hand. And he saw some words written
up there and he sought out somebody who could decipher the meaning
of the words and Daniel was the one who was found and Daniel
said, I'll tell you what the words mean, you've been weighed
in the balances and found wanting. You lack. You're lacking. And in that day of judgment,
now you hear me, God's going to put us on the balances, on
the scales. And the only way we're going
to be accepted is if we balance out with perfect righteousness. You say, how good have I got
to be in that day? As good as God. And here's the amazing thing, in
our Lord Jesus Christ, we are. We are! Not in ourselves, in
Him who loved us and who gave Himself for us. Oh, what a day. He's coming again. He's going
to wrap this whole thing up. And I'll tell you what, if He
came today, He'd be just fine with me. In fact, the book closes out with
the Lord Jesus saying, Behold, I come quickly. And John, I'm persuaded, he speaks
as the representative of all of God's people. And He says,
even so, come Lord Jesus. I'm ready. I'm ready. You ready? If you're in Christ,
you're ready. You're ready. Let's sing a song
here.