The Judgment Seat of Christ — Leonard Ravenhill

The Revelation of Jesus Christ and the Final Destiny of the Lost

And very often you notice preachers call this the book of the revelation of st. John that is not the title. It's the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's called to the scholars the apocalypse or again the revelation means the Unfolding it they're taking away of the of the veil as it were.

I find the book of the revelation a book of mystery a book of majesty and the book of misery because it shows me the Final stage of lost men that forever and ever they're going to be cut off from God.

That if there are a million roads into hell. There's not one road out that if they continually sing in heaven worthy as the lamb in hell. The only thing they sing is the harvest is past the summer is ended and we're not saved.

And I suggest you in these awesome days of such Universal chaos in morals in politics in economics. That may be every day this coming week. You should read the 17th and 18th and 19th chapters of the book of the revelation.

The Blessing of Hearing the Prophecy

You know this book has an imprint on it that no other book has in the whole of the Word of God. Because in chapter 1 verse 3 it says blessed. Is he that readeth and they that hear? There's a lot of people that read but they don't hear.

Blessed is he that readeth and heareth the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time Is at hand let's go to the 20th chapter in this book Revelation 20 and reads from verse 11 and I saw a great white throne and Him that sat upon it from whose face the heavens and the earth fled away.

And there was found no place for them and I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works and The sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell were delivered delivered up the dead which were in them.

And they were judged every man according to their works and Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death and Whosoever was not found written in the book of life Was cast into the lake of fire.

The Judgment of Believers' Works

Step over a minute into the third chapter of Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians chapter 3. And we read there from verse 9. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 9. For we are laborers together with God. Here God's husbandry.

Here God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder. I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon.

For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid Which is Jesus Christ? Now if any man build upon this foundation gold and silver precious stones wood hay stubble. Every man's work shall be made manifest.

For the day shall declare it Because it shall be revealed by fire. And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide Which he buildeth thereupon he shall receive a reward.

If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss. That he himself shall be saved. Yet, so as by fire. Now back to Revelation chapter 20 again the judgment Of the sinners. I saw a great white throne Typical obviously of purity.

And him that sat upon it now now we read these things and they kind of slide over our minds. But listen to the awesomeness of this from whose face the heavens and the earth fled away and There was found no place for them.

And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened. Various titles have been given to this Awesome event. John Wesley called it the greater size. Billy Sunday in his wonderful way called it payday Sunday a Cowboy preacher preaching on he called it the last roundup.

You could call it if you like a date with destiny. No better still or more awesome still you could call it a day with destiny. Or if you like you could call it your day in court. Now this book begins the book of the revelation by telling us these things will shortly come to pass and that was 2 ,000 years ago.

The Word of Judgment and the Call to Eternal Perspective

In a very brief, but very brilliant biography of one of the greatest preachers that ever preached in America or England. The biographer says that this man well, he had strange habits and one of them was to carry in the right-hand pocket of his coat a handful of precious stones a diamond an emethyst a sapphire a ruby an Emerald and so forth.

To add to his strange ways he would walk into a park where people were going up and down and he would put his hand in his pocket and and Take one of those precious stones. And then he would hold it up to the light of the Sun and he would lower it and higher it and seek this different shades from it or different illuminations from it and People would go past particularly children, and you know they they do this you know how they do that.

You know I don't mind people doing that. If they want to point to their own heads, that's okay. They point to mine. It's something else, but The children were doing this you know there's something strange about that man and and There's an old saying that Potter and this Potter.

Preachers don't usually criticize singers. They criticize preachers. Singers criticize singers. Potter and this Potter. And these preachers were sitting around a table one day eating in England and they began to discuss this famous preacher.

And one of them said I heard him the other night. He was awesome. He lifted us into eternity. He has a vast vocabulary. I Had to do whether I was in the body or out of the body. And then my little boy said he'd seen him in the park playing again like a child plays with marbles playing with precious stones.

The hem writer Wrote about the Bible, and he called it a golden casket where gems of truth are stored. It is the heaven-drawn picture of Christ the Living Word. There are roughly three-quarters of a million words in the Bible.

I Suggest that like that man selected his stone and lifted it up to the light of the Sun. That we select one word out of this golden casket and that word is judgment. And we hold it up to the light of eternity.

And you can tell God you're not concerned about what this preacher says, but say Lord give me some new illumination on this awesome fact of judgment. I thought repeatedly this week of that awesome sermon one of the greatest ever preached in America back in the 1700s.

It was preached by Jonathan Edwards. We're told he brought his manuscripts, and he had a candle there, and he wasn't very good-looking and He had a big nose. And he thumbed and he read with monotonous you know routine he he read that sermon sinners in the hands of an angry God.

And People fell off their seats, and they clung to the pillars that were holding the gallery up. And he didn't say oh friends. Please excuse me. I never meant to embarrass you like that. There's some psychological phenomena going on here, but while they were laid out. He just lashed them with the Word of God.

And people cried out in their despair. There was a reason for it because before he had prayed over and over and over again. Oh God stamp eternity on my eyeballs. I Don't know anybody else that ever prayed it.

Maybe we said it. But you know if God should stamp eternity or even judgment on our eyeballs. Or if you like on the fleshy table of our hearts I'm quite convinced we'd be a very very different tribe of people.

God's people in the world today. We leave too much in time. We're too earthbound. We see as other men see we think as other men think. We invest our time as the world invested we invest our money. We're supposed to be a different breed of people.

Christ's First Coming and the Resurrection of the Dead

It must have been very awesome in the days of his flesh to get up one morning and say well I'm not going to work. I don't know who this man is, but I'll tell you what. I'm so stale and dried up. And I've been to the synagogue and the temple and those old boys mutter and and they called about somebody coming.

And they don't believe he's coming. You know Enoch says that said Jude records. That Jesus will come with 10 ,000 of his Saints. Why did he come that way the first time? Why didn't he come sweeping through the sky when it was as black as night over Jerusalem?

Why didn't he come with 10 ,000 Saints? Why didn't he come with a sound of trumpets? Why didn't he capture the world like that? He didn't come that way and When he did come they couldn't believe that somebody clothed in flesh and blood.

Walking around that out to eat and sleep and do everything else like we do was a son of God. But he began to stir Jerusalem. And you might have got into the into town and say well. I've been on business in Jericho.

You know I've got to look after affairs. What are you excited about? Oh, we went to see this man Jesus this this fellow that the synagogues are disturbed about and the priests are criticizing. And you know he does amazing miracles.

Why why he unplugs deaf ears and he cast the demons out of people and he cures leprosy. And you know what he did yesterday. He actually raised a man from the dead. My that must have excited them. Jesus.

Going to the tomb and saying roll away the stone. He didn't roll it away. He gave wine at the feast. But he said you fill the water pots. There's some labor we have to do. You put the water in the in the water pots.

I'll turn it into one. You roll the stone away, and then he cried with a loud voice Lazarus. My that would have excited me. I don't know about you. I'd have hit the ceiling I think. He cried with a loud voice Lazarus as Campbell Morgan says.

He said Lazarus come forth. If he just said come forth all the cemetery would have come and it wasn't time for them to come yet. So he just said Lazarus come forth and he came forth he was alive. But boy he was bound with gagged with it and on his face.

He had grave clothes. He could only shuffle his hands were tied and that's true about a 95 of believers today. They're alive, but they're gagged they're bound they've still got grave clothes. And Jesus says loose him and let him go.

We're bound by superstition. We're bound by the theology of our grandfathers or something. But the church is gagged and bound. She needs release in this awful hour in which we're living. And the only one that can bring that release is Jesus Christ himself.

Why even the disciples. Well, what do you think about master now? He he's even raising the dead and Jesus says in my in John 5 28 listen don't marvel at this. Oh, if this stirs you wait, I've got a word for you.

He says the day is coming in the which all who are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they Shall rise. Did you get that? From Adam wherever he is right now in the in the sands in the dust all Who are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God.

You see Jesus says I am the resurrection and the life and I believe he did rise from the dead. Not because of that long list in one Corinthians 15, but a way at the end of the book of Revelation. He says I am he that liveth and was dead and behold.

I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and hell. Don't you believe that old bachelor in Rome? You don't know who he is. Well, it's the Pope. He says he has the keys not on your life. Jesus has the keys of death and of hell and at the voice of the Son of God.

Won't that be amazing when he says rise. All that are in the sea and all that are in the grave. I Cross the Atlantic I guess about 18 times on the Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth United States and. And after dinner at night when people went to smoke and drink and dance and everything else I walked up and down the deck and almost every time I crossed it I looked overboard and I said hey you down there.

You're gonna get up one day. You Buccaneers who died in the Spanish Main Stealing treasures and the folk that sank in the Lusitania and the people that sank in the Titanic and and the people that sank in All the great ships during the war are the voice of the Son of God.

They're going to rise. Millions of them billions of them trillions of them and they're all going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ. That's going to be a spectacle. Where is it going to take place?

I don't know. You see this this book of the Revelation is not only at the end of the Bible. But it deals with the end of time and then it deals with things that happen at the end of the time and it's the only book in the world, which is authentic and Everyone that is dead is going to hear the voice of the Son of God.

The Wrath of the Lamb and the Terror of Final Judgment

Look for a minute at that sixth chapter in the Revelation. Look at verse 12 and I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal or there was a great earthquake the Sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became as blood and the stars of heaven fell to the earth even as a fig cast a third untimely fit a tree cast a third untimely figs when she is Shaken of a mighty wind and the heaven departed in a scroll as a scroll when it is rolled together and every mountain and island removed out of their places and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men of the chief captains and the mighty men and every bum and every Freeman they hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fallen us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and From the wrath of the Lamb for the great days come in the end of the book of the Revelation.

It says of the redeemed which is in the other judgment that they're going to come on and they long to see his face Again Fanny Crosby blind for 84 years and when somebody said to her it's a shame a great Christian like you is it is blind.

You can't see the sunset. You can't see the lovely flowers. You're at such a disadvantage. Oh, no. She said I'm at a great advantage. You know, she's a she was the first woman in history in American history blind though.

She was to address the the joint. What do you call them different sections of Congress? She she addressed the senators and she addressed the congressmen and she addressed the whole government the first woman in history a little blind woman.

And they said and you never see the sunset. God has denied you so much. She said my dear I have a great advantage over you. What's your advantage? Yeah, she said don't you realize the first face I ever see will be his face.

Do you wanna she wrote so many hymns about his face seeing his face that will that will leave a spellbound when we see his face. But here the great men the rich men the mighty men the rulers. I Saw the dead small and great every king every king that's ruled over England the Caliphs of Baghdad the Maharajahs of India the multimillionaires the billionaires.

They're all gonna stand one day. Can you imagine it? At the judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the deeds done in the body. Well, of course if you have a judgment, you must have a judge. I Do not have any pictures of Christ in my home because I don't think you should make any great Likeness of any graven image and nobody knows what Christ was like.

You see pictures of Jesus as a baby. You see him as a young man. You see him sometimes on the back of an animal riding into Jerusalem, but there's a picture I've only ever seen once and it was so grotesque.

I didn't look a second time. At the voice of the Son of God, they're all going to rise and face the eternal judge. What will he be like? In Australia, they show me the picture that they have beach beach croft or somebody beach.

Painted a picture of Christ in Australia. He's got lovely blonde hair and bright blue eyes and and a lovely flaxen beard. Well, I don't think that was a picture of Jesus. And the Chinese have an interpretation of Christ through their artists.

And there are some dreadful pictures I think that have been given by the great masters so-called and they've given us pictures of Jesus that I'll tell you what it's a very different picture in the Word of God.

I Believe that the Church of Jesus Christ needs a new revelation of the majesty of God. This is what this is the King of Kings and he's the judge of judges and it's the tribunal of tribunals. And there's no court of appeal after it.

The verdict is final. There'll be no biased judgment. Two people at least have said to me this week there is no justice in the earth today. Maybe there isn't but I hang on to a word that says shall not the judge of all the earth do right?

The Apostle Paul got a picture of Jesus. Not with a lamb in his arms not like the stained-glass windows in our in our so-called cathedrals where Jesus looks pathetically feminine. He sees Jesus and he says here he is.

He's the King immortal invisible the only wise God to whom be praise and glory forever. So we're going to see the King of Kings is the judge of judges in the courts of courts of courts. In the final tribunal there is no tribunal after this.

This is finish. And when I hear people singing, you know, put your hand in the hand of him that walked on the water forget it. Or the new song that's now shake hands with Jesus listen when you see Jesus you're not going up and say hey, buddy I'm glad you died for me when you see Jesus.

You'll be almost paralyzed with fear unless you had a glorified body in a glorified mind. Who is writing the book? This is a revelation to a man on an island on a devil's island the worst place the gathering of the scum of the earth and Here he is.

And if you'd gone to him that morning and seen him sitting on a rock Contemplating you might have said to him. Well John I didn't expect to find you in this hellhole with all these demon possessed men and here you are in the Isle of Patmos.

He said no, I'm not. Where are you? He says I'm in the spirit. He was in the spirit when this enormous revelation was given to him. The picture of Jesus here is not the picture of a pathetic Individual pushed around by anybody who wants to push him around.

I Think sometimes we think we're gonna march up and say well, you know Jesus, you know many years I served you and how many souls I won for you and how many sermons I preach for you. Oh, no, no, no. No, well, what will he be like in heaven?

Well, I'll tell you what the book says. He'll be like. It says his hair is as white as snow. His feet are like burnished brass his face is like the Sun in its strength. It's eyes are living coals of fire.

His tongue is a sharp to engine sword. And here is John who used to lean his head on the bosom of Jesus and hear that divine heartbeat. The man that I believe knew more about Jesus than anyone else and when he saw Jesus there on his throne in his Majesty with his face brighter than the Sun with his feet like burnished brass with his eyes like flames of fire with his tongue Majestic and his voice like the sound of many waters.

John the man who had walked with him and talked with him for three years says that when I saw him I Fell at his feet as dead. What do you think you and I are going to do we see there the judge in all his awesome majesty.

Exposure, Accountability, and the Books of Judgment

In all his glory. And we have a picture here of the unholy dead small and great standing before God. And when they see him in his awesome majesty, no, they don't worship it they're terrified. This is a great exposure.

Someone called me last night and said be sure you listen to 60 minutes tomorrow night. Because you see the Shah Was interviewed I think I believe by 60 minutes and he said I'll tell you everything that Henry Kissinger told to me and Henry Kissinger says to the to the ABC or ever whoever Organizes the 60 minutes if you if you put that on I'll sue you for I don't know how many million dollars.

But he said instead of that let me come on on the 20 minutes and you can interview me and. So they said all right, but this week in running. He said he won't come and I understand tonight. They're going to tell us what the Charles Charles said and the agreements he made.

Oh Yes, mr. Kennedy got away with it whatever happened at Jaffa critic. The little girl that was drowned or was she murdered or was she pregnant and snuffed away, but mr. Kennedy forgot one thing. It's going to be exposed at the judgment seat of Christ.

They couldn't find the 18 minutes on the tapes of mr. Nixon. Well, I'll tell you who's got a perfect record of them and they're going to be read out one day before millions you say, mr Amen, I couldn't stand up there or anywhere else.

I'm so nervous. If a few people look at me I want to tell you something there'll be a thousand million or trillion people when you stand there at the judgment seat without your wife. To lean on or your husband or your preacher or a friend and it's a Paul is writing in the 14th chapter of Romans.

And he says we so he writes off even to believers at the judgment seat. We must all there's no exception. We must stand at the judgment seat of Christ. You can't send your lawyer. You can't send a representative.

You can't send a send a preacher who says well I understand this this person was always falling up and down and in and out and it didn't the way they were. I'll explain it to and the Lord says you won't do anything of the kind.

Can you see those millions of unholy dead? All the criminals that ever lived every prostitute that ever went on the on the tour. I can you can you think of all the men who make millions out of pornography?

Can you think of the pimps who pollute those little girls that go to West 44th West 42nd Street in New York? And they go to all the hellholes. Can you imagine when God takes all the history and empties it?

When every man that ever walked the streets of ancient Babylon with all its lust. Or Corinth which was just one colossal cesspool of impurity. All that happened at Las Vegas last night is going to be thrown on the screen in eternity.

Every judge that sits in the high court is going to be judged one day by an infallible judge. How long will it take? I don't know and I don't care because we're not going anywhere. I think one of the joys of eternity will but the redeemed will.

We'll see all the unholy dead judge. But they the unholy won't see the the holy people judge. They won't be there. It says the books were open. What books? You say well, mr. Rainer. I don't. I won't be in serious trouble because you know, I don't have a good memory.

Well, I'll tell you what you'll have one that day. I didn't find the statistic because because in one sense I didn't have time but in Montreal a few years ago they they they put a kind of little electric gadget on the mind of a man and they began to turn his mind back back back and he could recite.

Everything from about the day was seven years of age. It was all stored up there in the repressed complex of his subconscious if you like. And they unfolded everything. There's nothing lost. It was all brought to the surface.

Well, if a doctor can put his finger on a man's mind and restore his memory. What do you think the Son of God is going to do? Oh, there's going to be some also off awful revelations. Oh, there's going to be some weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Oh yes, mr. Kissinger, you're going to be totally exposed. What you and mr. Nixon did lying so long that we were not bombing Cambodia when we were ripping children to death. When we were baptizing them with fire and napalm and taking the skins off their bodies.

I'd like to preach a series of sermons on this because you know The Word of God says there's going to be a judgment of living nations, too. There are at least seven judgments coming up just as there are at least five crowns for the believers.

You say I well, I'm not quite sure about this, you know, my I know your memories and faulty. Everything you've done every idle word you've spoken every action. Let me say it here in case I forget later.

I remember one day when I was talking with dr. Toz as we used to talk together so often. He said to me one day, you know, then I'm not really too worried about what I've done. I'm not too worried about the judgment even on my Christian life, which I'll have.

I know but he says he said it's that it's. The things I could have done that worry me the things that I missed. We're not going to be judged just because of what we've done. We've got to be judged for why we did it.

Not for the action for the motive. What motivated your giving. So you you'd have a plaque with your name on. Or you'd be the top of the list for giving money us. Why why. What's the motive behind it going back to the unholy dead?

They're going to stand small and great before God. Sometimes I look at my encyclopedia Britannica and I think all that history is going to pass before me in flesh and blood. At the judgment seat of Christ.

I'll be interested to see Julius Caesar and Tiberius Caesar. I'll be fascinated when Pontius Pilate stands before Jesus. I think you'll feel less comfortable than Jesus felt standing before Pontius Pilate.

Oh going to stand there the secret archives of our hearts and lives are going to pass before. Well, you say again I I still hang on to the fact my memory isn't good, you know, it says the books are open.

I don't know what the books are. I think the books of the Ten Commandments for one thing. I Think the book of memory for another thing. You see. This memory is an amazing thing. But you know memory will last into eternity.

Oh I don't think the redeemed will remember their sorrows and heartaches. But I'll tell you what the unholy dead will remember every time somebody put a tract in their hand. They'll feel it through eternity in which the God it was there.

They remember that they heard their mother's prayers. They remember every sermon. They're going to remember everything because one day a man in hell prayed. It was the wrong place to pray. He prayed to the wrong person.

He prayed to Abraham. He got the wrong answer. Some remember in my lifetime that you had good thing, but I don't want my brothers to come here, but Jesus says remember Memories eternal it will never die.

If you're an unsaved man a thousand million years. You say well I came this morning my wife wanted me to come but I don't think I'll come again. I don't like this kind of stuff. Well friend. Let me tell you lovingly go to hell and live with all the scum of the earth.

You like to drink go with the drinkers you like to let's go with the prostitutes. In hell if you're given to lust after women you'll have that lust, but there's nothing to satisfy your lust. If you drink your thirst, but there's nothing to satisfy your thirst.

You give a king's ransom for one drop of water. There isn't even a drop of water. Never mind that precious wine you drink. When in God's name is the church going to open a heart again and open a mind again and see again that every man I cannot whether he flies his own private Learjet.

Or how many millions he has a rules over a city. That's great of the earth and the scum of the earth and the the unbelievers are going to spend their time eternal in eternity. They're going to live there forever and ever.

The good book says where they're warmed. I earth not. It will be awesome when we See the founders of these cults stand before God. The founder of Jehovah's Witnesses as they call themselves Russell a man who wasn't very moral.

And he's gonna stand there and people up there will scream put him into the lowest hell and turn the temperature up. But listen don't you worry about it. The judge of all the earth will do right. Hell won't be the same for everybody.

Some will be beaten with a few stripes some with many stripes. But I'll tell you what I'd rather be the least in the kingdom of God than be the greatest in the kingdom of the devil. Anyhow both in time and in eternity.

I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened. You know some people today have great memories. When Thomas Temestock Elise was the mayor of Athens he could recite the name of every person who lived in town and there were 20 ,000 of them.

I Think it was Cyrus the king of Persia knew the name of every man that was in his army. And he never had to be reminded that he thoughtlessly could recite the name of tens of thousands of people. The famous Sir Walter Scott the great writer.

The night before he was five years of age so obviously was just in four and the night before he was saying prayers at his grandma's knee. And his granny said to him right now now Walter you you tonight.

Do something else for me instead of just praying your prayer recite a psalm. And he wasn't five years of age, and maybe granny was shunned asked him he recited the hundred and nineteen psalm. That's one way from keeping from going to bed early.

The hundred and nineteen psalm from the mind of a little boy not five years of age. Oh. We wish we could scrub some things out there in eternity at least lost men and women will. We read in the sixth chapter there of the book of the Revelation.

They said to the mountains and rocks Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come and who is able to stand.

It says in the ninth chapter verse 16 those days shall men seek death and shall not find it. They shall desire to die and death shall flee from them. I Believe there'll be a day when a man will put a gun to his head and blow his brains out and to his amazement.

He'll still be living. They throw himself from the top of the Empire State Building or the top of a rock into the valley and still be living. They shall seek death. But they shall not find it. There's an awesome aspect for you.

Men seeking death and they shall not find it if you remember that second song where it says Concerning men that God he that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh. God shall have them in derision. Can you think a man played with every city's ever committed sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit sins against God sins against men?

And they're pursuing like the hounds of hell that are baying after him. And he says if only I could die and get out of this and yet if he tries to die He will not die and the scripture says he that dwelleth the Holy God now.

He ceased to be a God of mercy in the fourth chapter of Revelation you have a Christ on the throne. You have a rainbow over the throne, which is a covenant sign of mercy. You have four and twenty elders, but there's nobody here sharing justice with Jesus.

He sits supreme down the throne. There's no four and twenty elders. There's no sea of glass. There's no rainbow of mercy. Mercy is gone forever. I cannot out twisted and corrupt your life is this morning.

You could be the most sensuous man. The soldier said to me one day you. Do you really believe that God forget can God forgive every sin? I've ever committed. I said he sure can that is if you repent of your sin.

And you plead for the blood of Christ and you ask for mercy. But he says you know what I'm haunted with. I was in the army so many years in other countries. And he said I'm horrified to tell you this, but he said maybe I've got about 30 children around the world.