Sermon Text: Revelation 20: 11-15

It's a sad thing today that we are seeing in our society. Especially at this time of the year, I think it's very very sad. You say this morning, "Well, Pastor, what is it that you are seeing that's so sad?" That which I'm seeing which is so sad is to see the world in which we are living rejecting, refusing, and denying the Word of God and Its teachings.

There are some wonderful teachings in this Book; some precious teachings in this Book. This Book is the book that has literally changed my life. I know there are dozens and dozens and scores and scores of people here this morning who could give that same testimony. Yet when you look at the world in which we are living, by and large, you see that world today rejecting, refusing, and denying the Scriptures. Yet that does not change the truth of the Scriptures. It does not change the fact that this morning as we gather here and as we worship God and as we hold this Book in our hands, we hold the literal, holy, infallible, inerrant Word of God. And with that, beloved, there is responsibility.

So, consequently, this morning, I want us to look into Revelation chapter 20. We are going to begin reading with verse 11 and read through verse 15 as we look at the Great White Throne Judgement.

Not too long ago we were looking at the Judgement Seat of Christ; that judgement seat where the Scripture teaches the Christian appears. The Great White Throne Judgement is another judgement that you find taught in the Word of God, but it is not the Christian who appears at this judgement seat. It is all of those who have lived in the world, who decided at some point in time in their life that they didn't need God. They didn't have time for God. They weren't interested in God. So, don't bother me with this God business.

There's coming a day, there's coming a point in time when every individual who has lived on this earth who never received Jesus Christ as Saviour, will stand before God in judgement. Just as every Christian who has ever lived on this earth will stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ. Stand with me, if you will please, for the reading of Scripture from verse number 11 in Revelation chapter 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; and there was found no place for them.
(12) And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
(13) And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
(14) And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
(15) And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Notice that we have the Scripture speaking about when Jesus Christ will sit upon another throne, not the Judgement Seat of Christ which takes place in the heavenlies during the tribulation, which is a seven-year period of time here on earth. After that Judgement Seat of Christ there is another judgement that will come at another point in time. That judgement seat is called the Great White Throne Judgement.

I think we need to see a couple of things in relationship to this judgement because today we live in such a day of skepticism that many many people will simply say, when they read this passage of Scripture, "That can't possibly be so." Beloved, listen to me this morning. The Word of God makes it very clear that there are distinguishing factors in various judgements that will take place upon this earth. The Word of God is absolutely clear that all men will stand before one of two judgements. The Word of God is very clear there. There is no possibility of error, because the Word of God very clearly teaches the Judgement Seat of Christ which I have made reference to (which sometimes is called the bema seat) and then here the Great White Throne Judgement which we are looking at this morning.

The Word of God speaks of several different judgements. The Word of God speaks about the judgement of sin at Calvary. That's why Jesus went to Calvary's cross where He took the burden and responsibility of our sins. Sin was judged at Calvary. That's why Jesus died and shed His blood on Calvary's cross. That's what the Easter season is all about when we remember the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and His resurrection. At Christmas time, we are reminded of the birth of Christ. But we definitely have that judgement of sin at Calvary's cross taught in the Word of God.

There's another judgement that the Bible teaches. The believer can judge themselves. You and I can judge ourselves as the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts as we deal with our daily living. Where is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is abiding in who? Every believer. If you are sitting here this morning and you have received Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you have a peace in your heart that when you die you're going to heaven. You can say that, "I know in whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day (II Timothy 1:12)." You have a peace in your heart that you have received Jesus Christ as Saviour. The Holy Spirit is abiding in your body this very moment.

The Scripture says, "greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world (I John 4:4)." Now who is in the world today? The Devil is in the world. Satan is in the world. But the Holy Spirit is in the believer and it is because of that restraining force that the believer has in this society today that you see any resemblance of sanity in our world today. That's why Jesus said that the Christian is the salt of the earth and the light of the world. But that's another message. There is that self judgement that you and I have the responsibility of understanding. We judge ourselves as God speaks to our hearts.

Then there is the life of the Christian. There is another judgement.

You will find in the Scripture that there's the judgement of nations at the return of Jesus Christ which then includes at that time the judgement of Israel. Then remember there will be the judgement of fallen angels which is a judgement that the Scripture teaches. And then finally you have this Great White Throne Judgement.

Now the judgement that is taught in Revelation chapter 20, verses 11-15 is called Great White Throne very simply because of its massive size. Can you believe that all of the people who have lived in this world since man came into the world will be judged at this particular judgement if they do not know Jesus Christ as Saviour? Now that is a massive amount of people. We are told that there are approximately 5 billion people in this world today.

Time out here for just a minute; I just want to make this point. We hear that communism is dead and we don't have to worry about communism any more. Just for your information, the largest country in the world today is the country of China; one billion people in population. Do you happen to know what communist China is all about? It's still about communism. So, this idea that communism is dead and that there is no such thing as communism as a threat to this world anymore is absolutely a lie born in the pits of hell. There are one billion people in a country controlled by communism; one fifth of this world's population. How in the world are we allowing this kind of thinking to exist without any type of refutation? But that is another thought for another message someday. Nevertheless, it's called massive because of the number of people who will be involved in this particular judgement that we see in Revelation chapter 20.

The Scripture before us this morning is probably one of the most awesome passages of scripture in the Word of God, when you really get right down to it. It is a real sobering thought that man is going to have an ultimate meeting with God; every man. Daniel Webster, who of course was a great American statesman of some years back, was asked this question by a number of government dignitaries he was meeting with, "What is the greatest thought that has ever passed through you mind?" Very quickly Daniel Webster replied, "My accountability to God." Stop and think about that. But think about this, that not only is Daniel Webster accountable to God, you are accountable to God, just as I am accountable to God. That, beloved, as the teenagers would say today, is an awesome responsibility.

What I want us to do this morning, for the few moments we have here, is just sort of visit here on this matter of your accountability and my accountability to God. What we're going to do is look into this passage of scripture that we've read and we're going to see what this passage is actually teaching and saying. When you stop and sort of sift through it and begin to pull it apart and begin to examine it, then you begin to really ask yourself the question, "What is this passage of scripture saying?"

Look in your Bibles with me. How many brought their Bibles today? Let me see your Bibles before we go any further. Amen, that's great. Let me say this to all you visitors who are with us this morning. We are just delighted that you are here. You are attending, this morning, a Bible-preaching church. The Book that we emphasize in this ministry is the Word of God, the Bible. So, we're interested in what the Bible is saying; not what some editorial page is saying, this morning, in one of the newspapers or what some magazine article said this past week, or whatever. We're talking about what the Bible says. So, look with me in the Word of God.

Let's look at verse 12 in the scripture we read today and notice the word "dead."

(12) And I saw the dead, small and great, ...

It doesn't matter if they were known around the world. It doesn't matter if they were known to just maybe a handful of people or just to the mother or woman who they call mother. "..., small and great, ... It doesn't matter if they were intelligent. It doesn't matter if they were non-intelligent. It doesn't matter if they were physically strong or if they were physically weak. It doesn't matter if they were financially great or if they were not financially well, as the world today would say "situated." It doesn't matter whether they were great politicians or they were great whatever. No, small and great, dead; those who were dead.

Now, learn a truth, if you miss everything I say this morning. You who are sitting here this morning, if Jesus tarries His coming, will someday die. You cannot refute that. That is undeniable.

(Hebrews 9:27) And as it is appointed unto men once to die, ...

So, we're dealing here with a subject of those who will one day be dead. So, that applies to all of us. That applies to all of us. Now notice verse 13 with me, because in verse number 13 we have a little further description.

(13) And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

In other words, it does not matter where these people might be who are dead. There will be a judgement that they face if they have lived on this earth.

Many years ago in the city of Miami, Florida, in the little church where I was saved, the Bird Road Baptist Church, 8400 Bird Road, out on the southwest end of Miami, there was a man who attended the church that my wife and I attended. He worked for a construction company. The construction company that he worked for was in south Florida, the company that was building all of the artificial lakes. The construction companies discovered after World War II that if they could fill in a lot of the land out in the southwestern quadrant of Dade County, which was the southwestern part of the city of Miami, they could build houses, because in south Florida there, the land is basically at sea level or even a couple of feet below sea level. If they could build that land up to about seven, eight, or nine feet above sea level, then when the hurricanes would come and what have you, they would not be under water.

So, some very intelligent individuals got this idea that they could build man-made lakes. Now the only problem with that in south Florida is that you don't have the beautiful soil that you have here. You have coral rock. So, it became necessary to blast the coral rock loose and then they would bring these huge pieces of equipment in and they would scoop out the coral rock and place it in huge piles. Dump trucks would come in and pick it up and spread it all over that southwestern quadrant of Dade County and then they began to build homes in huge numbers. Westwood Lake was the first development where Ellie and I owned our first home when I was still working for Southern Bell Telephone Company before I surrendered to preach. Our home was built in Westwood Lake. The reason it was Westwood Lake was because they had built these huge 40, 60, 80, 100 acres of lakes and used all of the fill to fill in the rest of the property to build homes on it.

Well, this friend who was living in Miami at that time, attending the Bird Road Baptist Church, worked for one of those construction companies that set the dynamite that blasted the coral rock to loosen it. One morning, he and two other men went to work and went to the dynamite shed where there were literally cases and cases of dynamite. For whatever went wrong, we still don't know to this day, there was a tremendous explosion that was heard all over Miami, Florida. Those three men went out into eternity. They found a part of the Social Security card of one of those men. That was the largest part they found of any of those three men. They were very tragically killed.

The Bible says there is coming a day, regardless of where they die or how they die, they will stand before the Great White Throne Judgement. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. See, it doesn't matter. It simply doesn't matter. The Bible is very clear. It's very plain. It's very exact.

Take your Bibles and turn over to Matthew chapter 7 this morning. Notice verses 21 through 23. Here in these three verses of scripture there is a truth that I think we ought to see in relationship to what we are saying here this morning.

(21) Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
(22) Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
(23) And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

What we basically find here, beloved, is that there is all kind of scripture that will teach us and authenticate what the scripture is teaching in Revelation chapter 20. For some reason, people think that Hell is only for terrible sinners, as we would read in Revelation chapter 21. That is an absolute falsehood. The Bible does not teach that. The Bible teaches, beloved, that there will even be religious folks who will stand before the Great White Throne Judgement, because they're dead. One thing you need to remember is that religion never saved one individual from Hell. As a matter of fact, religion is sending thousands and tens of thousands of people to Hell. God in heaven help us to see this morning what this scripture is teaching us in relationship to a judgement in which God says all of those who die outside of Christ will stand before Him.

Now let me show you something else that I notice. I want us to notice the words "book" and "books." Notice in verse number 12.

(12) And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Now you will see here a set of books open and then one major book is opened. Now I've got to be honest and say that I cannot dogmatically tell you how many books are involved. But I can go to the scripture and I can tell you from the Word of God that we can affirm certain books. For instance, if you would turn to Galatians chapter 3 verse 10 you will find that the book of the law is mentioned there.

(Galatians 3:10) For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

What that's going to do is do away with the fellow who says I'm a good moral person. We have a lot of people who think they are going to heaven because they are good moral people. Listen, on the basis of what that one verse of scripture says, there are no good moral people when you measure those people by the law. All of us here this morning, every one in the world, every one who has ever been in the world since the beginning of man has fallen short of the law of God except God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. If you have offended in one point of the law, you are guilty in all. So, there are no good moral people according to the law of God. There are none. Galatians chapter 3 verse 10 settles that once and for all.

Look in Revelation chapter 20 verse number 12 and you see the verse speaking about a book that records works. Now, don't confuse this please, whatever you do. Don't confuse this with salvation by works. You don't work to get saved. Salvation is a gift.

(Ephesians 2:8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
(Ephesians 2:9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9 settles that once and for all. We do notice the scripture speaking about a book that records works. What is that speaking about? There is going to be a judgement of works as far as degrees of punishment. Let's be honest and say that we do have people who do live good moral lives here on earth; they do philanthropic things here on earth. Consequently they would not be as a Mr. Dahmer who was very infamously known in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin some years ago or a John Dillinger if you want to go back to prohibition days or if you wanted to go even into modern times as far as that which we see taking place today in our newspapers on a daily basis as far as some of the atrocities that are being committed by those who want to call themselves human beings. It has absolutely nothing to do with salvation. It is talking about those who die outside the Lord.

The thing that really troubles me about this is that when I stop and think about those who have heard often and refuse and rejected the gospel as compared to those in other countries who maybe have never heard, you can't convince me in my logical mind that there is not going to be a greater accountability for those who have heard the gospel again and again and again, than to those who have never heard the gospel. That is an awesome thought. When you stop and think, brethren, of the number of gospel preaching churches in this nation and yes, even until this day, gospel preaching programs in this country that men and women hear again and again and again and still reject Jesus Christ! I don't know that I want to be in that individual's shoes when they stand before God Almighty at the Great White Throne Judgement.

How will God judge them? God judges them according to the Law. God judges them according to their deeds and their works. Then it's interesting to notice that we can go to the book of Proverbs and read there, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7)." Isn't that an interesting observation? Next look at what the scripture says in Matthew chapter 12 verse 36 regarding our own words.

(Matthew 12:36) But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

The Bible is very clear on this matter of the judgement. You say, "Preacher, I just can't believe that it is possible that God could keep such a record. It's not possible."

I don't know how many of you would have been living back in the year 1955, but I'm sure many of you here today would have been. In the year 1955, a very interesting phenomenon took place. Ellie and I had just been married in 1954. In 1955, not married yet one year, in the papers in south Florida, an article appeared with a London, England dateline. Here is basically the substance of the article. While a large number of people did not have television sets back in 1955, there were tens of thousands of folks who did have them. One evening in London, England, across the television screens of some of those who, at that time, had television sets, came the call letters KLEE-TV. Now, the interesting thing is that KLEE-TV was in Houston, Texas and somehow that signal had gotten into outer space and was picked up by television sets in London, England. It stayed on the TV screen so long that some of the people got cameras and took pictures of it. When the BBC got a hold of this they were very interested in it. So, naturally, they called Houston, Texas and they wanted to find out about this station KLEE-TV. To their absolute amazement, they found out that KLEE-TV had left the air three years earlier. Now remember this is before Telstar days. Telstar had not even been thought about at this particular time. What basically happened was that those call letters KLEE-TV had bounced around in space and finally the picture and words flashed on television screens in London, England.

Beloved, if that can happen back in 1955, you can't tell me that God is not writing a record of your life when God and the Book says He is. There is no way that God cannot do this. So, therefore, when God says you and I will stand before Him, it is either going to be at the Judgement Seat of Jesus Christ as a Christian or it's going to be at the Great White Throne Judgement as a lost sinner. Then that is what God is going to do. That's exactly what He is going to do. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that! It doesn't take a Phi Beta Kappa! It doesn't take one of great intelligence to realize that what God says in this Book, He means! And God in heaven help us to heed it.

Let me give you one final thought. Notice one more time verse 12 and then verse 15.

(12) And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

(15) And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Eight times in the New Testament we read of the Book of Life. Notice what it says in verse number 15. Your membership at First Baptist Church of Rosemount is not going to get you to heaven. Your membership on the roll of some other church in this country or any other country, as far as that goes, is not going to get you to heaven. No, there must be a time in your life when you make a decision in your heart and life to receive Jesus Christ as Saviour, on the basis of the Holy Spirit working in your heart and life and drawing you to faith in Christ.

Now, God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to faith in Christ. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to faith in Christ. That is a decision that every individual makes for themselves. That is a decision that you must make for yourself. We need to emphasize, this morning, the subjects that the Bible emphasizes so that you can see your need of Christ, if you are here and you have never received Christ.   Beloved, the most important decision you will ever make in life is the decision to receive Christ as Saviour because it is that decision that determines your eternal destination and one of two judgements in which you will stand before the Lord God Almighty.

You might be here today and say, "Well, I thought, Pastor, you were too intelligent to believe in such places as Hell. How can one who has been trained at the university level and trained in all of that you have experienced, believe in such places?" Listen, listen to me this morning! This Book that I hold in my hand this morning is true. It doesn't really matter if you or I believe it. God has still said it and that makes it truth. If you have half a lick of sense, you will hear what the Word of God says this morning and you will do what the Word of God says you must do in order to know that you're going to heaven when you die. "But wait a minute, Preacher. I live a good life. Wait a minute. I give astronomical amounts of money to charities and to churches and all the rest of it." I'm sorry.

(1 John 5:12) He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

(John 3:16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

It is not joining the church, getting baptized, giving astronomical amounts of money, or living good lives. Not that any of that is wrong; it's right. But it does not bring one to faith in Christ. So, I ask you this morning, beloved, do you have a peace in your heart that you know Jesus Christ as Saviour? And if you don't have that peace, let me plead with you to come today. Let someone take this Bible and show you from the Word of God how you can walk out of the doors of this church knowing that there will never be a Great White Throne Judgement that you will stand before, because the Christian never stands before the judgement we have looked at this morning.

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