Transcript

Revelation 20, let’s go there tonight and we’re going to look at the great white throne judgment. We’re not able to do an exhaustive study of this great doctrine or everything that’s involved in the chronology of end time events and we’re not going to die over those mountains anyway, but there’s a sobering and glorious truth here and, actually, you know, Revelation wasn’t written for lost men. Now, certainly there’s a warning here for lost men but moreso it’s an encouragement to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. As end time events unfold, there will be just awful and vicious persecution of genuine Christians and much, if not most of it is going to come from those who claim to be Christians. You understand that, don’t you? The institutionalized, the harlot church and others coming together to persecute the true believers in the true church. But there is an end coming for them because our Lord and our Savior is the absolute final Judge of the universe.

Let’s look at it together there in Revelation 20, verses 11 through 15. John sees the vision and he says and he writes,

11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

The great white throne judgment. I want to talk just a moment about the Judge and then, secondly, about the judged, and then lastly, the judgment. First of all, let’s notice the Judge and we see much about him because of the way the Scripture describes the throne itself. Verse 11, John says, “Then I saw a great white throne judgment.” The word “great” is used there because it wants you to understand that this is a throne like no other throne and the one sitting on the throne is like no other judge. I talk here about the height, the height of this Judge. He is one who is greater than any municipal judge or city judge or county judge or state judge or Supreme Court justices of the United States. There is none like him. There is none worthy even to be compared to him. As the heavens are higher than the earth and as the sea is deep and as anything you can compare in the entire universe, he’s greater than all of those put together. He’s more powerful than a thousand locomotives combined together. He is the one who sits on the great white throne. You take all the power that has ever been known to man, that man has ever been able to figure out in God’s designed and ordered universe, all the powers of nuclear energy can’t come close to the Judge who sits on the great white throne. Take all the armies that have ever marched on all the earth, all the ammunition and all the weapons of war that these armies could amass and put together, none of them can come close to the height and the greatness and the power of this Judge. All the universe, all of it put together is but a spark, a weak flicker compared to the blazing flame of his power. A great white throne.

I believe John wants us to grasp that the awesomeness of Christ on this throne just puts everything else in absolute insignificance. That’s hard for us to think about, isn’t it? It’s hard for us to put into our minds, but as Christians are persecuted and as the book of Revelation teaches so many are martyred for their faith, John wants you to understand something that our Savior is the one who is the greatest of all, who will sit on the greatest throne of all, and who will judge all mankind. It’s very simple and it may be corny in some circles and maybe Southern Gospel music sings it in some folksy way but the point is, we win. Our Savior is the Judge. Our Savior is the final authority. It’s a great white throne. In Matthew 28:18, Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” The height. All authority. Certainly he has all power but even beyond that, he is the one who possesses all authority to render judgment.

Well, let’s go a step further. Not only the height, but secondly, the holiness. The holiness of this Judge and this throne. I’m mentioning both terms because they, in this sense, I want them to be viewed as one. In Daniel 7:9, Daniel writes seeing this day and he said, “I kept looking and thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with fire.” Look at the metaphors used there to emphasize the holiness of this throne of judgment.

Now, let me back up to the word “holiness” for just a moment. Holiness is a word we can’t completely wrap our minds around because it is the very expression of the one true God, but holiness has two aspects that I think we need to try to grasp. One thing is that in every way that we have communicable attributes, that is attributes similar to some of God’s attributes, he is in every respect immeasurably superior to us. Everything that we are and everything we know that is good, God is that same thing but immeasurably greater. And then there is those incommunicable attributes, those attributes and aspects of God that are of God only. He shares them with none of his creatures, with none of creation, even not with the human being who he makes in his own image. There are things about God that are beyond description and beyond finding out and beyond comprehension. He’s exceedingly great. His holiness is above all and, of course, this speaks of his ethical nature and his uprightness and the righteousness of his throne. Daniel said, “I saw him and his vesture was like snow.” That’s purity or holiness. And the hair of his head was like pure wool, again speaking of purity and holiness. “His throne was ablaze with fire,” Daniel said. His throne is one of awesome purity and holiness. I just hope even though we rest with great security in the sufficiency of the grace extended to us through the Lord Jesus Christ, I just hope there’s a sense of humility before this throne. I just hope there’s a sense of insignificance as we think about this throne and the one who sits upon it.

We’re going to be covering it in our study in Luke, Lord willing, next Sunday morning and that’s the transfiguration and during the transfiguration, the Gospel writers talked about him having a whiteness like no launderer on earth can produce. A holiness. It speaks of absolute perfection. Absolute righteousness. Perfect justice. And because of his perfect purity, his judgments are rendered in absolute perfection. Now, wouldn’t that be great to have a judge today who could render judgments in absolute perfection? His rendered decisions cannot be averted and they cannot be altered. His rendered decisions are without partiality and without prejudice. They will be perfect decisions with perfect retribution and punishment for the guilty. And these perfect decisions, of course, are extensions of his very and holy character. None in the universe, now listen, none in the universe will dare to question this throne’s judgments. None in the universe will dare to appeal anything of this throne’s decisions. There will be no appeal. They will be no questioning. There will be no objection. You see in courtrooms today, “I object, your honor.” There will be none of that on this day. Why? Because the throne of holiness. There are no holy thrones on earth today. Every creature of the universe will be indelibly focused on this unbelievable event as all the universe is sweepingly filled with the white radiance of holy justice. It’s a great throne.

John says not only that, it’s a great white throne. Then he says it’s a throne. He wants us to understand it’s a throne. There’s one who sits on this ruling chair; the one who sways the scepter of authority over the entire universe and all that is and that one, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ. And this speaks of his propriety. When you think about a great, the greatest, the highest of thrones and seats of judgment, when you think about the whiteness or the holiness of that throne, there’s only one who properly, there’s only one who it is fitting for him to be on that throne and there is only one in the universe who could possibly in propriety sit on that throne and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 25:31, Jesus said, “when the Son of Man comes in His glory, then He will sit on His glorious throne.” This is none other than the Jesus who on the cross had nail scarred hands, and the Jesus who walked the earth with dirt on his feet and wearing sandals, and the Jesus who had nowhere to lay his head, and the Jesus that they spat upon, and the Jesus that they punched in the face, and the Jesus that they crushed those long, hard Judean thorns down on his head, and the Jesus in which they plunged the spear in his side, and that Jesus in which they drove the nails through his hands and through his feet, and the Jesus they mocked and ridiculed and said, “You can save others, save yourself. Come down off the cross.” This is the one who will sit on the throne. It’s his throne. John 5:22, “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.” It is a throne of propriety and it is a propriety that he and he alone sits on this judgment throne.

Keep your finger in Revelation 20 and go to Colossians 1, if you would. Colossians 1 and we’ll just briefly look at this description of the preeminence and the qualification of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul is writing to the Gentile church in Colossae, he says in Colossians 1, first of all in verse 16, speaking of Jesus, “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him.” All other thrones, dominions, authorities in the spiritual heavenly realm or on earth have been made by him, through him, and for him. So he is the only one that it is right to sit on the throne. Then scooting on over to verse 17, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

In verse 16 Paul said he is the Creator of all things. It’s only right that he sit on the throne. Then he’s the Sustainer of all things. Scientists can figure out something of how God designed and ordered the universe and we have the law of gravity and the law of thermodynamics and on on on we can go with all the masterful descriptions, at least to our human capabilities, of how God designs and structures and holds together the universe, but the Bible says those are not impersonal laws but the very things that hold the universe in place to this moment and the very reason things do not unravel in total chaos before our eyes this very moment is the present personal power of Jesus Christ. He holds all things together and my, the brazen ingratitude and blasphemous spirit of mankind today that we live our lives as if God is maybe somewhere off somewhere doting around in senility and not aware of what’s going on and we kind of have the world to ourselves, and we are fools. Christ himself holds everything in order. As a matter of fact, the only reason we don’t plunge straight into hell is because of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that holds us.

Propriety. He is the worthy one to sit on the throne. He is the Creator of all things, the Sustainer of all things and notice what he says in verses 20 through 22, the Savior of all things. He says, “and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” There is a sense in which the death of Jesus on the cross is going to redeem back for God the very universe that’s been corrupted and polluted by sin.

Then verse 21, he gets down to the elect of God, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 21, “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” He is the one who created all life. He created the laws for all life. He came in wonderful grace and redeemed for his Father a people that they would know and love and who would know and love him and glorify him for all eternity. He is the only one who has the right to sit on the throne and the right to measure out the justice and retribution necessary for the lawbreakers of planet earth. Earthly kings sit on thrones that are deficient in both power and in purity, but not Jesus Christ. He is invincible as well as infallible. His throne is founded by right right and supported by might, his own righteousness and his own might. He is King of kings and he is Lord of lords.

Now, one other quick cross-reference. Would you turn to 1 Corinthians 15? 1 Corinthians 15 because this is a text that gives us a real cross-reference clarification of all that’s going to be happening after this great white throne judgment. 1 Corinthians 15, look at verse 22, if you will. 1 Corinthians 15:22 and we’ll go down through verse 29. “For as in Adam,” that means if you’re just born of your father, who was born of his father, who was born of his father all the way back to the first Adam who sinned in the garden and passed on this corrupt sin polluted nature. “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” Now, let me just add a comment there. I believe in the federal headship of Adam in the sense that there is a sense in which you are legally condemned in Adam. You are judged and condemned in your father Adam. Now, some people have a problem with that but they don’t seem to have any problem with the fact that you are free and liberated and redeemed in Jesus. You don’t get the headship of Jesus if you don’t get the headship of Adam. You see, we change headships when we’re converted. We go from father Adam, condemned in the federal headship of Adam, to our new father. And Paul in Romans 7 speaks of it as a marriage, a new husband, Jesus. We were married to the law in Adam, now we’re married to grace in Jesus Christ and this second marriage is a far better marriage than the first one. The first one didn’t work out good at all. We stayed condemned under the law, but the second one is working out beautifully. So I don’t need to chase these rabbits. I need to get on with my point..

Look at verse 23 now of 1 Corinthians 15, “But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,” now notice this, “then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.” Now, that includes the great white throne judgment when he will judge those who are unsaved, they will be cast into the lake of fire, and then he will be abolishing and removing all rule, all authority, in effect, all sin.

Then verse 26, “The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” And we know from our text that’s going to be thrown into hell. Verse 27, “For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, ‘All things are put in subjection,’ it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him.” Verse 28 now, “When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son,” that’s Jesus, “Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.” It’s a powerful picture here. After the great white throne judgment, I can’t tell you the exact timing or chronology, all of heaven and earth is made brand-new, purified and glorified. All sin is banished. All rule and authority opposed to Christ is banished. Death and hell or death and Hades are banished. And Satan and the antichrist, the false prophet, they’re all banished. All evil is gone. It is done away with, sealed up forever in a bottomless pit. And then Christ will then, listen, he will remove himself as our Mediator and we will be finally presented to God no longer to need Christ as our Mediator but we will glory in him as our Lord and our brother forever and ever. And I’d never really thought about that before, that there is coming a day. You see, all of our lives, excuse me, all of our lives, we have been absolutely dependent upon the faithfulness of Christ our high priest and Mediator, but there will be a day when we are transfigured or glorified and we will be there with the Lord because we will have been presented. It’s as if Jesus, excuse me, said, “Lord, I’ve taken all that you have given me in authority, I have accomplished perfectly what you sent me to perform and accomplish. I have redeemed for us, literally, the heavens and the earth and a people and now I present them to you absolutely perfectly in my own righteousness.” And the mediation of Christ will have ended but yet the glorification and the worship and the honor of Christ, of course, will continue forever and ever and ever.

Now, the text says, let’s go back to Revelation 20. Revelation 20 says, the last part of verse 11, great white throne and him who sat upon it. We’re still building on how it is proper, there is a propriety of him to sit on the throne, “from whose presence earth,” you could say even face, “from whose face earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.” So awesome, so awe inspiring, so overwhelming is this throne that literally heaven and earth flee from its presence. Can you even picture that? When we’ve got a hurricane coming up the East Coast and you can see in some of those video clips of maybe just a brittle oak leaf being blasted across by those 100+ mile an hour hurricane winds. That’s kind of what comes to my mind and that’s what the text wants you to picture. Heaven and earth, poof, they’re gone. And do you know what’s left? A great white throne and masses of unredeemed humanity standing on nothing. Just them and the great white throne and him who sits on the throne.

2 Peter 3:10, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” Quite possibly referring to the same awesome event. There is no place found for heaven and earth. Now, what we get here is, I’m incapable of expressing except just to say, sovereignty. He comes in, the throne is established, he sits on the throne, and everything moves and is banished out from his presence. His great white throne needs no foundation to support it. By the way, Jesus is the cornerstone. His great white throne needs no building to shepherd it, or shelter it, rather. And there is no provision to sustain it. It stands by itself.

Well, the Judge, the height, the holiness, the propriety of this Judge on the throne. Let’s notice secondly the judged, and under the judged, let’s think, first of all just for a moment, I cannot give you everything that might be possible in this description but let’s look at a few things. First of all, who will be judged. Who will be judged. Look at verse 12, “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.” Now, go to verse 15 right quick, “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life,” now, that’s the Lamb’s book of life, the record of all the redeemed of the Lord. All of those saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, their names are recorded there. These books are the books that contain the written sins of those who will be judged at the great white throne so there is a huge difference there in the books. Now, some of it is a little difficult. I wish I could tell you with absolute certainly exactly what all the books mean and all the text and the Scriptures. Maybe some smarter men than I can straighten me out on that one day, but I do believe this text shows there is a difference between the books that judge at the great white throne, of course, and the book that has the register of all of Christ’s redeemed in it.

Now, these are those, of course, who are unsaved; those who are not Christ’s. Those who are saved will have already appeared at the judgment seat of Christ to be rewarded for deeds done in the body. Their judgment has long been passed. As a matter of fact, their judgment was passed when Jesus hung on the cross. But now these have not come to Christ. Hebrews 9:27 speaks of there is appointed unto men, to man to die once, and after this comes the judgment. So who is here? The lost from every age are here. All are resurrected to face final judgment. The text says the small and the great are here. All classes of people from the highest of the high, to the lowest of the low, the wealthiest and the poorest, from the Pope in Rome to the most insignificant unknown country preacher in the backwoods of Alabama. All will stand equally before him on that day.

You know, there are two places where the ground is always absolutely level: at the foot of the cross, and at the great white throne judgment. Anyone can come to the cross. Anyone can come to Christ. I don’t care where you’ve been. As a matter fact, I do care what you’ve done. I hope you haven’t done some things, but in the eyes of an all loving, gracious God, you can come to Calvary’s cross and find salvation. You can turn to Christ and know he will cleanse your sin. I mean, the ground is level there. You can’t say, “Well, this person was raised right and they’ve been in church and they’ve come up from a noble family and their father and grandfather and great-grandfather were great and godly men, and their mothers were matriarchs of the Christians.” It doesn’t matter. I don’t care where you come from, from the wrong family on the wrong side of the tracks with the most grievous and vile and sinful background, you can come to Calvary and receive grace and forgiveness. The ground is level at the cross. But the ground is also level at the great white throne. It doesn’t matter what you claimed. It doesn’t matter what you performed. It doesn’t matter how you worked. It doesn’t matter if you trotted all over Rome with the funniest clown suits and hats and gowns made known to man, you will stand at the great white throne if your faith is not resting alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is salvation in no other name. There is no other name that has been given among men whereby we must be saved. All who are not saved will stand there on that day. The wealthiest and the most powerful will stand right beside the weakest and, in man’s eyes, most insignificant. The ground is level at the great white throne.

You see, since they would not bow before him as Savior, they will now bow before him as Judge. They passed up their day of grace. You know, the Scripture does say all men will bow before Jesus. The Scripture says in Romans 14:11, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” Did you hear that? Everything and everyone is going to give praise to God. As I have said many times, you will either praise God for all eternity by being one of his trophies of grace sitting on the throne of heaven and being glorified forever, or you will praise God as a judged sinner in hell, vindicating and illustrating the beauty and the perfection of his judgment against you in hell for all eternity. But everything and everyone will be about the glory and the praise of God. You can bow now to Jesus as Savior or you will bow later to Jesus as Judge. All will bow before him.

Well, that’s who will be there, all the unredeemed from all the stratas and cultures and heights and depths of human society from all the ages. Secondly, where will they come from? Well, verse 13 says, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.” First of all, he says the seas and I think what the writer, John, is trying to point out is no matter how deteriorated, how completely decomposed and disassembled the parts of what was once a son of Adam, God will give the word and every atom that was once in that man will come together. Life will be infused back and he will stand before the great white throne in judgment.

What a picture. He talks about Hades. Scholars disagree some but this is, I’m certain, a place of conscious torment. A place of suffering before the final throwing into the lake of fire, what we would call hell itself. And I can’t explain all that to you, all I do know is that there has been some very extra biblical gymnastics done by the Roman Catholic Church to teach a doctrine of purgatory. That’s not what this is teaching. There is not a place you may go in judgment until your family gives enough money to the church and prayers to get you out of it. When you come as an unbeliever to the place of the dead, your fate is sealed forever in torment. But nevertheless, these will be brought back from the realms of the dead, if you will, assembled back together. Look, if God can speak man into existence from nothing, it is nothing for God to speak and bring men back together, and they will stand there before him. Can you just fathom that? Listen, you can’t buy your way out of this one. You can’t bargain your way out of it. You can’t beg your way out of it. You can’t barter your way out of it. You can’t borrow your way out of it. Your fate is set. Who will come? All the dead of all the ages. All those who have not received Christ, even those who are left and living. Where are they going to come from? Wherever their bodies may have been. They will be assembled back together and set on the, before the great white throne judgment.

Why are they here? A couple of cross-references that I think are very important. Why are they here? I’ll just read these. They may be on your screen. Romans 1:18 through 22, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” That’s why they’re there, they suppress the truth of God. In other words, all men know something of a need to turn to God and his provision of salvation. All men. I don’t care how dark the culture they live in, how far separated from any Christian, Bible preaching, or scriptural revelation. All men know in their hearts they should turn to the God who is their Creator and find their salvation. So they willfully, listen to me, willfully suppress the truth. Willfully put it down and turn away from it. All this stuff we’re seeing in our country today, our country is on a wide- open locomotion train downgrade against God and against sanity and against decency and against morality. Why? Because we willfully suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

Verse 19, “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” Here it is, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.” That’s why they are there, they chose to turn away from the revelation God gave them.

You might say, “Well, pastor, how can it be fair that someone in Papua New Guinea back there in the dark jungles has absolutely no witness whatsoever of Christ and then one over here in Muscle Shoals, Alabama can turn on radios and televisions and visit churches? At least here something of Christ in the Gospels, how can that be fair?” Look, if one man is given one second of revelation, that’s more grace than he deserves. That’s more grace than he deserves.

I remember Albert Martens, a preacher up in New York State and, boy, you’re talking about a strong preacher, but rich, rich in doctrine. And Albert Martens said that he as a young man wanted to go to Africa to take the Gospel to the poor ignorant needy Africans there in the remote parts of the jungles of Africa. And he said, “You know, I went there,” and he said, “I found out something. They weren’t just poor and ignorant.” He said, “I found out,” and he screams it out, he said, “they were monsters of iniquity. They loved sin. They loved cheating. They loved lying. They loved sexual immorality and they knew it was wrong. They could tell you it was wrong but they loved it and they indulged in it and they justified it and they found their ways to justify it.” He said, “They weren’t just ignorant and away from God, they were monsters of iniquity.” And I’m not picking on the lost of the jungles of Africa. You go to any culture of any place anywhere on the earth and you’ll find men’s hearts are wicked. They choose to suppress the truth of God and they are accountable to God.

John 3:19-20, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” Men choose darkness over light. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light lest his deeds should be exposed.” That’s why they are there. Men will be there and women will be there and teenagers will be there and boys will be there and girls will be there who wouldn’t turn to Christ because they loved sin and they loved wickedness.

When I’m witnessing to someone and I try not to be harsh and I sure don’t want to be haughty of spirit, but when I’m witnessing to someone and they give me an open door to talk to them, I will just try to simply tell them, “Look, you don’t come to Christ because you love sin.” This thing, it’s not a matter of ignorance, it’s a matter of wickedness. Now, sure, they need to understand the truth and we need to give them all the Gospel truth we can. There is this notion going around in evangelical circles for years that just give a person 2, 3, 4 verses and tell them to get saved. Well, give them 2 or 3 verses and tell them to get saved. And give them 2 or 3 more and tell them to get saved. And give them 5 or 6 more and tell them to get saved. My point is you just keep giving them all the Gospel truth you can because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ and we don’t know when God may move on their hearts, but the reason they don’t come to Christ is because they love sin. That’s why they’ll be at the great white throne. All of this poor pitiful this and poor pitiful that, it just doesn’t bear up. God’s not unjust. When he sits on this throne, calls them into full account, and judges them forever, he is perfectly just for they chose to love wickedness and not God.

Well, let’s go to III. The judgment. The judgment here that will be rendered. Actually, this judgment is not some kind of recent decision. You understand, there will be no season of discovery in this courtroom. No, this is just to hear the verdict. It has been decided because they didn’t believe on Jesus. “He who has not believed,” John said in John 3, “is judged already.” Already. Already. This day they will hear the confirmation. That’s the first sub point, the confirmation of what was already a realization. The Bible says in verse 12 and also in verse 15 that the books, the books were opened, and the books recorded the evidence that was against them.

Now, Jesus Christ is omniscient. He knows all and he sees all and he forgets nothing. Nothing. He has recorded everything and one day every man who is not saved will give an account, Revelation 20:12 here it says, of every deed. But the Bible says even more in Matthew 12:36, the Bible says, every word, every idle word, you’ll give an account of. Then the Bible says even more in Romans 2:16, every thought of men. He said he will judge the secrets of men’s hearts. Every thought, every word, every deed, the omniscient Lord will bring to account and to judgment. It’s a confirmation of the wrath of God and the standing of judgment that men have before a holy God.

Secondly, the consequence. The consequence. The first thing is just the exposure, the secrets of men’s hearts will be revealed on that day. Remember that night of sin that you participated in, it will be revealed on that day. Remember that toying and playing with iniquity, it will be revealed on that day. Remember the secret lust in your heart and in your life, it will be revealed on that day. The sins of heart and mind that you would not even dare tell your closest friend will be exposed on that day. Every man knows that of himself which he dares not tell his dearest friend. The Scripture says there will be nothing hidden that will not be revealed. All the secret sins, all the whispered things, will be thundered with holy clarity across the universe.

There will be an exposure and then, of course, there will be the final judgment. Verse 15, “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Friends, this is not a fairytale. This is not fiction. This is not a delusional writer in some kind of trance taking some kind of medication. This is the word and the will of God. Every single person who does not know Christ will stand before the great white throne judgment and what if the blast of the trumpet sounded tonight? What if the dreaded call was heard tonight? You know, we kind of feel like we can get bulletproof a little bit down here, don’t we? Kind of feel like we can be invincible. If we get things lined up, get our lives going just right and this and that’s okay, and got good doctors and got some money put back, I’m telling you, one moment heaven and earth will flee away and the great white throne is established and all men are accountable and it’s over forever. No wonder the Scripture says now is the acceptable time. Today is the day of salvation.

If you haven’t turned to him, if your trust isn’t in him, do that today. Turn to Christ today. Hope in him today. Rest in him today. Bring your all to him, all that you are, all your failures, all your sinfulness, all your weakness. Your inability to believe like you ought to believe, bring it to Christ today. Kneel at the foot of that cross and claim Christ as your only hope and your only salvation. Oh, what a wonderful promise. Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. What a promise. Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.

Let’s stand in prayer.