Eternal Judgment - Part 2

So we're still in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 2, dealing with eternal judgment. We got probably two-thirds of the way with the judgment of believers last week. We want to finish that and then move on to the judgment of the unbeliever in the great white throne judgment. So let's read again. In fact, let's for a change read from chapter 6 verse 1 through verse 8. So Hebrews chapter 6 reading verses 1 through 8. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame. But the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to be cursed, whose end is to be burnt. So we're in verse 2, at the end of verse 2, eternal judgment. And we said last week that eternal judgment consists of two parts, the judgment of believers for rewards, and then the judgment of the unbeliever to condemnation. The great white throne judgment for the unbeliever, the beamer seat judgment for the believer. And remember that if we look at the chart, we have the judgment of believers. We have no time scale. The Bible doesn't tell us when that's going to happen, so we have to go by deduction and by assumption. We assume then that if the believers are going to come back, and in my understanding, we have the rapture and the resurrection at this point, and then seven years to the Lord's return. When we return with him, he sets up his kingdom. As you'll see in a moment, one of the rewards is that believers are given authority over cities during the millennium. And so if the believers are going to be given various levels of authority based on their faithfulness, then that determination must have been made before the millennium begins. And so what we can clearly deduce then is that the judgment of believers is somewhere between the rapture and the Lord's second return at the end of seven years, somewhere in this seven years, and that's why we have it up there. Then the saints come down with the Lord. The Lord comes, the scripture says, Enoch prophesied, and he says the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints. So we come with him, and he sets up his kingdom, the battle of Armageddon and the kingdom for a thousand years. At the end of the thousand years, and this we know exactly because the book of Revelation is pretty specific as to when that happens. At the end of the thousand years, we have then the great white throne judgment. Now, and of course the resurrection, the second resurrection, the resurrection to death, the first resurrection here at the rapture, the second resurrection of the unbelievers here at the time of the great white throne. Now the question obviously is why does it have to wait until the end of the thousand years? Well, it's pretty simple because during this thousand years, there are still going to be unbelievers living on the face of the earth. Christians are going to be ruling, and they're going to be ruling unbelievers. These are people who survived the seven years of tribulation, who survived Armageddon. At least two-thirds of the world's population are wiped out during the tribulation, and so there's only about a third or maybe even less of the world's population left. But they are unbelievers, and they will be ruled over during that millennium. During that thousand years, we assume that they will continue to have children. While the Christians are now in eternity, in the sense that they have received resurrection bodies, they don't grow old, and so we are like the Lord. The Lord at the moment is not in time. He's outside of time. He is eternal. We will then have eternal life in the true sense, so we will be outside of time. But those who are still part of this world will be limited by time, and we assume they're going to live 70 years, 100 years, whatever they do, and they will live and die. They will, during that time, have opportunities, we assume, again, that they to believe on the Lord Jesus and to be saved, and many will reject him. And then remember that at the end of the thousand years, Satan is loosed. Satan is bound for this thousand years here. Satan is loosed. He deceives the nations. The nations then rise up in rebellion against the Lord, and the Lord then puts down that rebellion, and then the judgment. So those who live during that thousand years need to be judged, and so obviously the Lord could set up a judgment somewhere in the beginning here for those who are dead at this point, and then another one, but clearly it's all in one, and so the final judgment of the unbelievers waits until there are no more unbelievers, until all unbelievers have died, and then finally the final judgment happens. That's the only reason why there's this period of a thousand years between them. Now let's go back then to—so to remind you that we looked at some of the principles of judgment, that judgment is certain, it is final, Jesus is the judge, his judgment is righteous. The judgment is for believers, not for salvation, but for rewards. And then we looked at the three main texts that deal with this judgment, and I'm not going to go over those again—Romans 14, 10 through 13, 2 Corinthians 5, 9 through 11, 1 Corinthians 3, 11 through 15. That's where we got to last week. Now the thing that we want to start off on then this evening is, what are the things that Christians—so we're back and dealing with the judgment of believers—what is it that he is going to judge believers for? What are the issues that he's going to judge? And we can guess at various things, but there are certain things that are given to us very clearly in Scripture, and we're going to confine ourselves to those. The first one is in—hang on, where am I now? Oh, sorry, I skipped the slide. So the first one is in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 5. And I have many, many scriptures this evening, as usual, when we deal with these topics. So 1 Corinthians 4 verse 5, and it's in the context of people judging Paul, and saying, well, Paul has bad motives, and Paul has an agenda, and so on. So he says, Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the heart. Then each one's praise will come from God. So he says, don't judge things before—now, it doesn't mean that we don't judge what people do. There's many scriptures that deal with the fact that the very church of Corinth, Paul rebukes them because they were not dealing with sin that was happening, this man who was doing this terrible stuff. And so we must judge people's actions. The problem is, it's hard to judge people's motives. We can see what people do, and that gives us an idea of their motives. But he says, don't judge those things before the time. But when the Lord comes, he will reveal the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the heart. So he's going to judge, and then he says, each one's praise will come from God. And obviously, if there's going to be praise, we've said there's going to also be rebuke. And so he is going to open our hearts. We're going to see what the motives are. Remember that the things that we do may not count. Remember, if we go back to Dead Works, one of the very first studies in Hebrews 6, verse 2, and that is that I may be doing the right things, but I'm doing it with the wrong motive. Remember the Pharisees? They're giving money to the poor, but they're sounding a trumpet. And he says, you have your reward. And so the things that we do are either count for rewards, or they don't count. They count if they're done with the right heart, with the right motive. But if they're done with a selfish motive, to draw attention to ourselves, to enhance our position with one another, to show off, or whatever it may be. Sometimes out of frustration we do things, and we may do the right things, and so on. So those are the things that God will judge. He will judge the secrets of our hearts. He will judge the hidden motives that drive us. And of course, that's a serious thing, because we can fool one another by doing the right things, but we're not doing them for the right reasons. God will judge the reasons why we do certain things. The next one in Romans chapter 2 and verse 16, in that day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. And so the previous verse dealt really with motives. This verse deals with secrets, those skeletons in the closet, those things that we never dealt with, those sins that we never repented of. Now remember that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses of all unrighteousness. This does not deal with sin that we have dealt with. This deals with sin that has not been dealt with. Because that's the problem, is that we often continue in sin. We don't repent. We don't change. We don't confess it to the Lord. We continue because we say, well, you know, there's grace, and it's going to be fine. But those are the things that God will judge. Now what are the secrets? Well, the secrets are not necessarily things that we do. They are things that we think. The things that we do are not secret. I mean, anybody—well, I guess we do certain things in secret, in the dark. Those things will be judged. But I think that this primarily deals with the things that happens in our minds. The unforgiveness, the hatred, the bitterness, the lust, the envy, the greed, all of those things that happens in the mind that people can't see on the outside. Those secrets will be brought out. How do I prevent them from being brought out? Well, by dealing with them, by bringing them to the cross, and by putting them under the blood, and repenting and turning away from them. And so the secrets of men will be revealed. Next one is in Matthew chapter 12, verse 36. Every word will be judged. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. Every idle word that men may speak, we will give judgment—we will give an account for. And remember, we touched on this when we dealt with the book of Matthew many years ago. Notice he doesn't say every word, but every idle word. What does every idle word mean? Well, it's those words that are unimportant. It's those throwaway words, those words that we just say without thinking. You know, there's certain things that we say, and we put a lot of thought in them. We really think about what we're saying, because they're important things that we're saying. I don't stand up here and throw around idle words. You know, the words that I speak while I'm preaching are thought about. I've prayed about them. I've studied the Scriptures. I've prepared my heart that I might be able to speak weighty words, words that are serious, words that are important. But when we talk to one another, we just talk about whatever. Those are the idle words, the words that we just chitchat, words that we just throw out there. And sometimes they're just about the weather, and about the ballgame, or whatever it is. And sometimes they are words that hurt other people, and we don't even think about it. We just say it without even thinking. And those are the words. Obviously, all the words are going to be judged, but it's even those idle words, those words that we said, well, you know, it's not important. It's just, I was just speaking. I was just freewheeling. We will give an account for even those words. And so every word that we speak, we need to be careful that we're speaking those things that are to edification, exhortation, and comfort, that we're speaking words that are helpful to others. This would include words that we say in anger. This would include words that we say in jest. We many times say things as a joke, but there's really something behind it. There's really a knife in the joke. We will give an account for those things. And so obviously, again, we have the blood of Christ. We are able to confess, and he is able to forgive us. The problem is that so many times we just talk. We never even think about what we have said. Sometimes we realize what we've said because the person comes back at us and says, you know, what you said to me there, that really affected me one way or the other. Sometimes we know that. Many times we don't know because the words are just out there, but he says we will give an account for those. Matthew 25, verse 34. These are works of mercy. Now this is a difficult passage, and I'm not going to get into the detail. Otherwise, we'll never get through this study this evening. But this is the judgment of the sheep and the goats. As I say, I'm going to confine myself just to this aspect this evening. Then the king will say to those on his right hand, so these are the ones who are saved. On the left hand are those who are not saved. Now, this is a difficult judgment because this is a judgment, a difficult judgment to place on the map because it does not really fit into any of the other judgments. And so I'm not going to get into that, and don't get yourself all tied up in that. Just let's deal with what he says to those who are saved. The king will say to those on his right hand, come you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So they're saved. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger, you took me in. I was naked, you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer to him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? Now, before we look at the next few verses, this passage is often quoted by those who do social work in the sense of churches that feed the poor and look after the destitute and those kinds of things, and they say, well, you know, this is what, you know, we've got to have a program for the homeless around here and those kinds of things. That is not what this is dealing with, and you'll see that in a moment. So they'll say, Lord, when did we do these things? So these are practical works of charity, practical works of mercy, where we help those who are struggling, those who are disadvantaged. When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king will answer, here's the key to the whole passage, the king will answer and say to them, assuredly, I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. So who did they do this for? The brethren. This is not doing things for unbelievers. Now I'm not saying we must be careless or not care about, you know, about the, you know, the homeless around us, you know, who are unsaved and who are, you know, drug addicts and all sorts of things. Of course we need to care about them, and as I've said before, I really don't know how we deal with that. I don't understand that. But what I do understand is that we have a responsibility to the brethren, to Christians who are struggling financially, who may be in prison. Are there Christians in prison? Yeah, there are. Should they be there? No, they shouldn't. Well, obviously some get saved when they're in prison, but others were saved before, and yet somehow they did the wrong stuff and ended up in prison. Helping those who are lonely, helping those who are financially destitute, helping those who are in some kind of trouble. We have a responsibility to the brethren. That's where it begins. The problem is that Christians worry about, you know, all the prisoners in the prison system, all the homeless out on the streets, all the people who don't have food. No, that is not our primary responsibility. Our primary responsibility is for Christians who find themselves in this situation, and when we minister to them acts of mercy or works of charity, we're doing it to the Lord. Remember the principle that whatever we do to one another, Jesus says, if you give a cup of water to one of these, you've given it to me. Jesus says to Paul, I'm Jesus whom you are persecuting. So, when we persecute the church, we're persecuting Jesus. So, whatever we do to the body of Christ, we're doing to him. So, we have a responsibility to care for other Christians. How far does that responsibility go? Well, that's another huge subject, and I don't want to go there because we'll get off track, but we have a responsibility, particularly those of us who live in a prosperous country, and we say, well, we have inflation, and gas prices are up, and every time we go and buy groceries, it's another 10 bucks, and the list goes on and on and on. But in comparison to others, we are very privileged, and we have a responsibility to those believers in other countries, and in this country, who are not as well off as we are. And so, we will be judged for those things. Now, here's where the rubber meets the road. The problem is that as Christians, we say, well, you know, I'll be judged for my holiness. I'll be judged for, you know, whether I preached or didn't, whether I preached the gospel or not. I'll be judged, you know, for whether I was involved in sin or not. Yes, we'll be judged for those things, but we will also be judged for what we do and how we treat other Christians, particularly those who are disadvantaged. Just think back at the first church. These days, and I don't know what our church—I have never analyzed how our budget works in terms of how much money goes where. I have some ideas, and that's really not the point. But the point is that most churches today, and I'm just saying the average church in America, probably spends 70 percent of their budget on buildings, building bigger and better buildings on sound systems and what have you, what have you. 20 percent or 25 percent goes to the ministry, to the pastors, and 5 percent goes to missions and to the poor. That's the way most churches operate. In the New Testament, 90 percent of the money—now, we don't have exact numbers. We can just look at the general stuff we have in the Bible. But about 90 percent of the money went to the poor. About 10 percent went to the pastors, to the full-time ministry. They were not only pastors. Some were apostles, some were teachers, and so on. Zero went to buildings. Now, is it wrong for us to have a building? No. God has blessed us with this building, and we thank God for that. But when the building becomes the priority, and when more money goes to the building than goes to the ministry and to those who are disadvantaged, there's something wrong. And so we are judged, then, for our works of charity. First Peter chapter 1, verse 17. Let's start in verse 16 to get the context. Because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourself throughout the time of your stay here in fear. The Father judges without partiality according to each one's work. What is the context? The context is holiness. Be holy, he says, because the Father judges according to our works. You see, holiness has become an optional for most Christians today. I just posted a few lines on Facebook, and I've had many, many responses to that. And a vast majority of people who've commented—not just people who've liked, but people who've commented—have commented to the fact that they never hear anyone preach about holiness anymore. And that's true. It just is not preached anymore, because it's not popular. It's not what people want to hear. People want to hear, you're great, and you're wonderful, and God's got a wonderful plan for your life, and you're going to prosper, and everything's going to be great. But the message of the Bible is holiness. The message to Israel in the Old Testament was be holy, because God is holy. The message in the New Testament is being holy, and he says we will be judged for our holiness. You see, the problem is that we say, well, you know, I'm saved, and that's all that matters. As we'll see in a few moments, it's not all that matters. The fact that we are saved does not give us permission to live unholy lives. Remember, Paul says, should I continue in sin? Because there's grace. He says, God forbid, God forbid. So holiness is a thing we'll be judged for. And then the final one that we'll be judged on that I've got here is faithfulness. Matthew 25 verse 21 and 23. This is the parable of the master who goes away and gives talents, and the Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Remember that what he required from the one who had five talents, what he required from one who had two, and what he required from the one who had one was different. He didn't expect five from the one who had one. He just wanted another one. He didn't expect five from the one who had two. He just wanted another two. The guy brought another two, and he is judged because of his faithfulness. He's not judged on percentage. He's not judged on success. He's not judged on profit. He's simply judged on faithfulness. The servant who took the one and buried it is rebuked because he was slothful. So we will be judged on how faithful we are with what God has given us. And remember the problem with the guy who had one. He says, well, I've only got one. What do I do with this one? And he goes and he buries it. And that's the problem is we say, well, you know, I can't preach like Billy Graham, or I can't do this, I can't do that. So, you know, I don't have much. And so I'm just going to sit on what I have. No, whatever you have, whether it's a half a talent, whether it's a tenth of a talent, God is going to require you to be faithful with that that he's given you, whether it's a lot or whether it's a little. He's obviously expecting more from those who have received more, and he's expecting less from those who received less. But at the end of the day, there's simply one question, and that is, have I been faithful? If we, it doesn't matter how, what the numbers are. Preachers are, as we said before, preachers are all about these, this number thing. How big is your church? And how many people have you baptized this last year? Those, God's not, never going to ask us those questions. Certainly, from the preacher, he's never going to ask that. What he's going to ask is, have you been faithful? Have you been faithful? Now, remember the problems. If we can't be faithful in the little, how will we be faithful in the much? Where does faithfulness begin? Faithfulness begins in my prayer life. It begins in my reading the scriptures. It begins in being faithful to the meetings. It begins by being faithful in loving one another. These are the simple things that every one of us can do. And if we say, well, you know, I can't preach. I can't do this. I can't do that. Well, you can pray. You can read the scriptures. You can be in the meetings. You can be an encouragement to somebody. Just give them a smile. You can be faithful in those things. And there is a reward for those who are faithful. And of course, a rebuke for those who are not. So the Lord's response is, the Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord. Well done, good and faithful servant. The one who had five and brought another five receives these words. The one who had two, brought another two, receives exactly the same words. So there's no bigger praise for the one who had five and brought another five than for the one who had two, brought another two. The level of the Lord's approval and commendation is exactly the same, because it's not on the numbers. It's not on success. It's based on faithfulness. Now, we're going to transition and deal with what are the rewards. And of course, this is a question we often ask. We say, well, you know, what will we be rewarded with? And the problem here is that if I'm working for rewards, there's already a problem with my motive. We ought not to be working for rewards. We should be working out of gratitude, because the Lord has saved us, and He's already given us so much. And so because He has blessed me, I want to bless Him. So we really shouldn't be driven by rewards. But there are rewards, because the Lord is faithful. And clearly, if there's going to be condemnation on those who have been unfaithful, there has to be some reward for those who are faithful. Here we see some of that. We see the words, well done, good and faithful servant, a wonderful blessing. Enter into the joy of your Lord. In plain English, Jesus is saying, you make me happy. Now, what greater thing can we do than make the Lord happy, than give the Lord joy, and to enter into the joy of the Lord. So this is part of what we receive. It's just those words. And that's probably more important than anything else that we receive. It's just the Lord's approval. We spoke about that last week. But there's another thing in here. You'll see in the third last line, I will make you ruler over many things. So clearly, if this is before the millennium, then this is during the time of the millennium. This may extend into eternity, because we don't know what heaven's going to be like. We don't know what we're going to do in heaven. We're not going to sit there and do nothing all day and just look at each other. We certainly know we're going to worship him. Certainly, he's still going to be running the universe. And remember, he's using the angels to run the universe. We'll be part of that whole process, I believe. The Scripture doesn't quite tell us. But here's the principle. If we've been faithful in the things he's given to us here and now, he will make us ruler over many things in the life to come. Whether that's in the millennium or in eternity, that doesn't matter. So ruler over many things. Wonderful. Luke chapter 19 and verse 17. And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you are faithful in a very little. Have authority over ten cities. Again, one of the parables dealing with a Lord who calls his servant to give an account for what they've done. In this, I believe, is a hint as to the millennium. So that during the millennium, those who have been faithful, the other one gets to be over five cities, if I remember right. So in the millennium, those who have been faithful will be given responsibility over literal cities. Now remember what's going to happen in the millennium. Jesus is going to be the king. He's going to set up his rule, and his headquarters, the capital city, is going to be Jerusalem. Under him is going to be David, as he's sitting on the throne. And then there's going to be Israel, and then there's going to be the church. And he's going to literally run the world. That's what the Antichrist wants. He wants to rule the world. Or when he comes, he will want to rule the world. And we see that there are all sorts of men in this world who are trying to control and dominate the world. But nobody is going to actually run the whole world at any time. Neither China, nor Russia, nor America, or any other great nation will ever have control over the whole world. But Jesus will. Now how is he going to actually run the world? Well, he's going to need people. He's going to need people to be running cities. He's going to need people to be running the police force, because the scripture tells us that those who disobey are going to be judged. And so there's a judicial system. There's going to be judges. There's going to be mayors in cities. There's going to be governors. There's going to be all sorts of levels of government and of authority. And clearly, what he is saying is, if we've been faithful in this life, he will appoint us at different levels of authority, depending on our faithfulness in the millennium. Now that's a wonderful thing. We shouldn't have any ambition for political power in this world, because it doesn't matter what party it is, or what government it is, it's all corrupt. But his kingdom will be a just and a righteous kingdom. And to be part of his kingdom will be a wonderful thing. And so we'll get to rule with him. Revelation 2, verse 26. And he overcomes and keeps my words until the end. To him I will give power over the nations. So there's three scriptures that we've looked at that say basically the same thing in different ways. I will give him power over the nations. So the previous verse we saw, he will rule over ten cities. Here he's talking about those who will rule nations. And so we've touched on that. All right, 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 8. Here's another reward. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day. What's that day? The day of judgment, the day of his appearing. And not to me only, but to all those who love him and who've loved his appearing. So there's a crown that we—and I guess of all the rewards, this is the one that we know the most about, or that most people know about, and that is that there's going to be a crown. It doesn't tell us any more than that. There's a few other verses which we'll look at in a moment. The idea that one is going to receive a bigger crown than the other one, there's no scripture for that. Maybe it's going to be that way, maybe it's not. Maybe if we've been a little faithful, we get a small crown. If we've been very faithful, we get a big crown. I don't know. It doesn't tell us, but there is going to be a crown. I believe that this is a literal crown. And I believe that the crown is not symbolic of power. Remember that in this world, at present time, the crown is a symbol of authority. And so the Queen of England, who's turned 96 today, I believe, when she sits in the throne—and you see that at the opening of Parliament twice a year—she sits in the throne and she wears the crown. The crown is too heavy, she can't wear it anymore because she's too old, and so somebody holds the crown there or it's on a pedestal next to her. But the crown is a symbol of her authority. The crown here that he's talking is not the crown of a king, but it is the Stephanos. It is the crown of the overcomer, the crown of the victor. So when a general goes into war, and he comes back successful, and he's won the battle, he is crowned. It doesn't make him the king. It's simply the victor's crown. It's the crown of reward of someone who has been faithful. So Paul says, I'm waiting for that crown. Revelation 3:11, Behold, I'm coming quickly. Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. Revelation 4:4, Around the throne were twenty-four thrones. This is now in heaven, in the end. And on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders—remember, the twenty-four elders represent the church, in my understanding—clothed in white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And so these are representatives of the church, and they are crowned. So we've seen a few scriptures that say we have crowns. Verse 10, The twenty-four elders fell down before him, who sits on the throne, and worships him who lives forever and ever. And they cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For you have created all things, and by your will they exist and were created. And so the crowns are not for us. The crowns are for him. You see, when Jesus came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, they cut off palm branches, and they threw it at his feet in a form of worship, in a form of adulation. When we get to heaven, well, there's not going to be palm branches. We won't be able to take something with. As I prepare to go to England, I take a small gift for the various people that host me, that put me up where I sleep. But when you go to heaven, you can't take a present with and say, Well, I'm going to give Jesus this present. And of course, the motive may be good. I mean, we love him. He's done so much for us. I want to show him that I love him by giving him something. But we don't get to take anything with because there's no pockets in the shroud. So when you die, you leave everything behind. So what will I give him? Well, I can give him what I get then, but what I get on the other side. And when I get a crown on the other side, I'll have something to throw at his feet. And so, Lord, it's not me. It's you. You saved me. You gifted me. You called me. You enabled me. And you saved me. And so they worship him, and they throw the crowns at his feet. The problem, of course, is that if we've been unfaithful, then what do we give? We stand there, and we have nothing to cast at his feet. We have nothing to give him except the praise of our lips. All right, I'm going to come back to this as we when we close, and I'm going to rush through the next because I don't want to spend another evening, so we may go a few minutes over. So let's deal with the great white throne judgment. I've told you where it fits in, and the book of Revelation is very specific at how it happens. So we're going to look at these verses, and I'll make a few comments as we try and move through it. Revelation 20, verse 11, Then I saw a great white throne, that's where the name comes from, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. He is awesome. He is fearful as he sits upon that throne. Remember, this is Jesus, God. The Father gives judgment to the Son. This is the one who died for us, but now he has become the judge, and he's a fearsome sight. Verse 12, And I saw the dead. Remember, we said those who are unsaved at that point, they are the dead. They are brought back to life, but they are still the dead because they're under the sentence of death. I saw the dead, small and great, so kings, presidents, and beggars, small and great, nothing to do with your weight, standing before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. So there are two sets of books. The one is the book of life. The other one, he just says, are the books. We'll see what that is in a moment. The dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. Now, we touched on this. Why are they unsaved? Why are they condemned? They are condemned, first of all, because they did not accept God's offer of forgiveness. That is what determines whether, and we will see in a moment, he speaks about the book of life, what gets me into the book of life? By believing on the Lord Jesus. God so loved the world that he gave, that whosoever believes in him will not perish. This is the perishing that he's talking about, but will have everlasting life. So I get eternal life. I get into the book of life by believing on him. If I don't believe on him, I am not in that book of life. Now, let me move on, and then maybe I'll come back. So the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one according to his works. So this is the second resurrection. There's 14. Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire. Now, notice he says the determining factor is whether your name is in the book of life. And yet twice, he says, they are judged by the works. And of course, the other books contain their works. So God is keeping a record. The book of Romans says that we store up, or that those who are unbelievers store up for themselves wrath, treasure up for themselves wrath against the day of judgment. So every time somebody sins, an unbeliever sins, it gets written in the book. Remember that if the believer says an idle word, it's written up. So when the unbeliever sins, whether it's Putin killing thousands of people, every one of those misdeeds is written up. Or whether it's the little boy who steals a packet of chips from the store, it's written up. It's all there. And we say, well, what's the point if I'm judged whether I'm believed or not believed? So what's the point of keeping a record of all these things? And why are we judged by their works? You see the third last line, the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. And then each one according to his works at the end of verse 13. Well, the reason the works comes into it is simply as evidence or proof that they were not saved. Remember by their fruit, you will know them. Now here's the problem. They say, well, I went to church, I gave money to the poor, I prayed, I read the Bible. So I'm saved. And God says, but your name's not here. And he says, well, it should be there. And then God says, well, let me open the other books. What did your life produce? Here's the sins that have not been washed away. And so it's simply God proving his case. God proving the case. Because remember, we know that the Christian has an advocate with the Father. Jesus is ever living. We'll see this later on in the book of Hebrews, ever living to make intercession for us. So he is our advocate. He is our sacrifice. He's paid the price for us. But on that day, we have no advocate. We have no savior. We're not we, but the unbeliever. And the one who is the advocate, who is the lawyer, the public defender, now becomes the judge. And there's no one to do. And so he says, here's what your life produced. And of course, his case is watertight. The wonderful thing about God's judgment is that it is a hundred percent accurate. I think many of us have been inundated on the news by the case with Johnny Depp and the woman he lived with, whatever. And what will the result be? Who knows? By everything I can see, they're both guilty. Somebody said they deserve each other. The sentence should be, they need to just live with each other and beat each other up. But be that as it may, there is no way that judgment that comes out whenever it's going to be in a week or two weeks, three weeks, that it's going to be a hundred percent righteous. Because nobody knows what happened. Because he said, she said. And it's only who can ever convince the jury more in their direction that's going to win. And hopefully nobody wins, because no one should win. But God knows, and his judgment will be 100 percent right. We've seen so many cases recently of people who've been in prison for 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and now there's new evidence or DNA or whatever, and it's proven that they were never guilty. That's not going to happen. Nobody's going to end up in hell in a thousand years time, and there's going to be new evidence. And so God's judgment is going to be 100 percent. It's going to be accurate. It's going to be exact. Nothing is going to be unrighteous and unfair. All right, let's move on. Revelation 20:14, death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire, and anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now this is the final hell. This is Gehenna. Now Revelation 21 verse 8, the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, lions shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Again, you say, well, you know, why doesn't he say the unbelievers? Well, he does say the unbelieving, but why does he not say the unsaved? Why is he listing these things—murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers? Are there not Christians who have done these things? Of course, Paul says, and such were some of you, but we've been washed, we've been forgiven. But the fact that these people continue in this lifestyle is evidence that they are not saved. Yes, they are condemned because of their sin, but they're condemned because they did not accept forgiveness that comes through the Lord Jesus, and this is just evidence of their unsaved state. Revelation 22 verse 15, outsider, dogs and sorcerers, sexually immoral, murderers and idolaters, whoever loves and practices a lie, saying the same thing. Matthew chapter 25 and verse 41. Now, I'm going to look at three scriptures quickly, and the point of these scriptures is simply that hell is forever. There are many, and again, we've run out of time, we don't have the time to get into detail, but there are many variations on the theme that hell is not forever. Some say, well, you know, there'll be a time when God says, well, that's enough, and he's just going to wipe everything out, and that's going to be the end. There are others that say, well, there is really no hell. There are many, many Christian preachers, very popular today, this idea that there is no such thing as hell. And then we touched on the word annihilationism, which Jehovah's Witnesses believe, but many Christians also believe, and that basically says that if you're unsaved, God just wipes you out. You're just gone. There is no trace of you, there's no memory, there's no nothing, that's the end. That is not what the scripture teaches. So Matthew 25, 41, he will also say to those on the left hand—remember, we looked at those on the right hand—depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Everlasting fire. It simply means what it says. It's not temporary, it's not going to burn up, run out of fuel after a while, it's everlasting, it's eternal. Matthew 25, 46, and these will go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. There is no end to it. Revelation 14, 9, and a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast in his image and receives his mark in his forehead or in his hand, he himself shall be also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out in full strength into the cup of his indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment—sorry about all those verses, but we need the context—the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. And they have no rest, day or night, who worship the beast in his image and whoever receives the mark of his name. These are not different in the sense of other unbelievers. These are just one category of unbelievers. The judgment is the same, and it is eternal. It never stops. Now, the point is that hell was never made for believers. Sorry, here's one more. Revelation 20, 10, the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are. This is where the unbelievers will also go, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. A whole bunch of scriptures that deal with that. God's desire is not for anyone to end up in hell. The teaching that God chooses some to be saved and chooses some to go to hell is an indictment against the very character of God. It's saying that God is an ogre. He's a perverted individual who causes thousands of kids to be born every day and to grow up so that he can put them in hell. That is not our God. And so 2 Peter 3, 9, the Lord is not slack concerning his promises, some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. It is not God's will for people to go to hell. Plain, simple. They go to hell because they choose to. 1 Timothy 2, verse 3, for this is good and acceptable in God the sight of our Savior, who desires all men to be saved. He desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth. There is no reason why someone should end up at the great white throne judgment. There is no reason anyone should end up in hell, because Jesus paid the price for us to bypass, to escape all of that, and to escape the judgment. Let me close with this hymn, but we now go back to the believers, because this is our primary concern, is when I come before him, will I have something to give? And this is one of my favorite hymns, but also I don't think we sing here, but must I go and empty-handed, thus my dear Redeemer meet, not one day of service give him, lay no trophy at his feet. Must I go and empty-handed, must I meet my Savior so, not one soul with which to greet him, must I empty-handed go. O ye saints, arouse, be earnest, up and work, while yet this day, year the night of death, O take you, strive for souls, while yet you may. Must I go and empty-handed, must I meet my Savior so, not one soul with which to greet him, must I empty-handed go. Father, you've done so much for us. Lord, you've loved us and saved us and given your Son, the Lord Jesus, to die for us. Jesus, you've shed your blood, gave your last breath of life in order that we might be saved. Lord, we pray that we may not stand before you ashamed on that day, but Lord, that we may hear those words, well done, good and faithful servant. Lord, that we may receive a crown, that we may be able to lay at your feet and say you are worthy because you have done it all. And so, Lord, we've said many things this evening. We've covered a lot of ground. I pray, Lord, that your Spirit would write these things upon our hearts. And as we go to bed, Lord, that even in the night hours, you will make these things clear and plain to us, that they may become realities. Lord, as we've said, this is one of the principles that we build our Christian lives upon. And we pray, Lord, that this may be true. In Jesus' name, I pray. Pray that you'd go with us, keep us and protect us. Pray for those who couldn't make it tonight. We pray that you'd be with them also. In Jesus' name, I pray.