End of Life, End of Times: The Final Verdict for Humanity Revelation 20:11-15

Since March we have been working our way through a sermon series titled end of life end of times

What I've been doing is taking us through the events that are going to take place chronologically in the end times

We saw the rapture of the church the events of the tribulation that that include the rise of the

Antichrist and false prophet God's wrath poured out on the earth The promised place that Israel holds in the end the return of Christ and the 1 ,000 year reign of Christ on this earth

Then last Sunday, we saw something very sobering The most severe judgment is that God is going to destroy the entire universe after the 1 ,000 year reign of Christ The whole universe will be will experience an explosion

That we are unable to comprehend and then an event comes that all of creation is working toward that is the final judgment it is true that one knows his or her destiny when one dies as the righteous go to heaven to be with the

Lord and the unrighteous are Separated from the goodness of God in hell

But what takes place at the final judgment is much more than one's eternal destiny being determined at the judgment what people experience

Will be like in heaven or in hell will be decided as people all through history will stand before God at his judgment seat

Okay, so in other words Unbelievers are gonna have a different experience in hell.

It's based on degrees and we're gonna see that Believers are gonna have a different experience and it's based on degrees of reward.

So there's degrees of reward and then there's degrees of Punishment. So at this time I encourage you to turn in a

Bible with me to Revelation chapter 20 We will be looking at verses 11 through 15

What we're gonna do is we're gonna begin by reading this text together and then we will dive in to the text so Revelation 20 verses 11 through 15

This is John's vision Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it

From his presence earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them

And I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne and books were opened

Then another book was open, which is the book of life and the dead who were judged

By what was written in the books according to what they had done and The sea gave up the dead who were in it death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them and they were judged

Each one according to what they had done Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire

This is the second death the lake of fire and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life

He was thrown into the lake of fire Here's a big our big idea this morning

Every human who has ever lived will hear the final verdict from the perfect judge

Every human who has ever lived will hear the final verdict from the perfect judge

And we will see two realities that everyone will experience in Scripture this morning

So what we read Just right now in this text in Revelation is that all humanity stands before God at this final

Judgment, which is at a time. We do not know Sometime in the future what the text says is that everyone stood before God as he sat on the great white throne

There are a few questions. We need to ask here number one Why is it called the great white throne and which person of the

Trinity? sits on this throne as the judge So the let's first ask answer the great white throne

The color white is a symbol of purity we know this from our world

Whenever you go to a wedding what color is the dress that the bride wears? It's a white dress.

It's meant to Symbolize her virginity The Lord says in Isaiah 118 though your sins are like scarlet.

They shall be as white as snow Our sins leave a stain but God washes our sins with white snow

This symbolizes the purity that has come from the cross In the winter whenever you see all the snow in the fields and and it dazzles and it it looks so fresh

I mean think about how Christ has Washed our sins that he has made them as white as snow

When we believe in Christ this purity happens to us our sins are forgiven

God is holy Which means that he is entirely pure.

He is entirely set apart from sin earlier in Revelation 4 verse 8

The angels in heaven say of God. Holy. Holy. Holy is the

Lord God Almighty Almighty God is holy and this white throne represents his purity

And what we are going to see is the people who stand before him at this judgment the great white throne

They are not pure They are filthy. So that answers the first question about why the throne is white

But what about the second question? Who is it that sits on the throne? Earlier in Revelation in chapter 4 the living creatures.

These are angels I believe and the 24 elders. These are humans. They praise

God the Father as he sits on the throne Then in Revelation 5 the

Lamb Jesus Christ appears and as we learned a while back He was the only one who was able to open the scroll and when he opened the scroll this revealed

What was going to happen in the end times? And then the events Unfold and we've seen those events for the last three months as we've gone through our sermon series at the end of Revelation 5

Everyone praises Jesus saying to him who sits on the throne and to the

Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever What we see here is

God the Father is on the throne and the Lamb Jesus is with the

Father What we see in Revelation 20 verse 11 is a judgment throne and this role as judge

Belongs to the second person of the Trinity Jesus Christ We know this from John chapter 5 verses 25 through 29

This is such a fascinating passage. I'm gonna read it right now. Listen to this closely here This is what

Jesus says during his ministry. He said this Truly truly I say to you an hour is coming and is now here

When the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God Okay, so imagine the graves the dead will hear the voice of the

Son of God and those who hear will live For as the father has life in himself.

So he has granted the son also to have life in himself In his humanity and he has given him authority to execute judgment

Because he is the Son of Man Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment

That day is coming The future judgment that Jesus was talking about in his ministry is the final judgment

The judgment we are looking at right now in Revelation 20 What the end of verse 11 says is that earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them

And no place was found for all humanity The Disappearance of the earth and sky is a mention of what we saw last

Sunday. That is the destruction of the universe The present cosmos.

It's it's just gonna it's gonna be gone 2nd Peter 3 describes that as we saw

It will cease to exist. This universe will cease to exist and everyone will be raised from the dead

The dead of course will be raised right before the destruction and then the judgment will follow and Jesus said that in the passage we just read in John 5

Both believers and unbelievers will be raised from the dead with a body that will not be able to die

And that's hard to imagine right because all we know are bodies that perish if someone lives to be a hundred years old we're impressed that that's that's quite a feat a day is coming when

People will be thousands and thousands and thousands of years old Time will go on forever

You'll be a million and it's hard to imagine a billion years old But not so in this life and this judgment will be a good thing for believers

But a very bad thing for unbelievers Believers will have an indestructible body that will live in in bliss with God forever

On the other hand unbelievers will have an indestructible body that will never perish

Even though those condemned forever forever will wish they could cease to exist

So they won't be able to die now. We see people in this light there They're in so much agony and and they're so Disappointed with life and in so much despair that people take their life and it and and they do this as an escape from this life and obviously

Which which it's it's a horrible thing to take you once one's own life but a day is coming when

People won't be able to take their life. Their suffering will be so severe but in hell people will not be able to end their misery and these indestructible bodies

Will experience This once this final verdict at the judgment is delivered to them the last number of servants

Had been very sobering and this one might be the most sobering of all This is game set and match

For people for all eternity, right? There's no going back In this life if you do something wrong, you could you can make up for it, right?

You could do better next time Once God delivers this verdict, it's too late now in verse 12

The dead who have been raised will stand before the throne And what the text says is that great and small will stand before Jesus and what great is small means is this is everybody

It doesn't matter who you are The final judgment is going to be the great equalizer of all human history

There are many down through history who lived in royalty and There are also those who have been peasants and and they fed the scraps they were fed the scraps off of people's tables

Kings Queens presidents will all stand before the throne and Everyone will get precisely what they deserve because God's judgments are always 100 % accurate

No one will be above the law You think about how many people get away with things in this life a day is coming when no one will get away with anything

Because the judge they're standing before guess what? He doesn't need a jury. He already knows everything and He's gonna give his judgments 100 % correctly

Planet Earth is a place where there is so much injustice and we are rightly outraged when someone commits a crime and is not punished or someone is thrown in jail when no crime was committed both

Happen right criminals go free innocent people get thrown in jail What kind of a world is this?

But our anger at injustice should always be controlled a fruit of the Spirit is self -control

Galatians 5 22 Whenever we see injustice we must keep in mind the judgment

It's so important for us always to be reminded of this future judgment that is coming No crime will ever go unpunished as the

Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12 19 beloved never avenge yourselves But leave it to the wrath of God For it is written vengeance is mine.

I will repay says the Lord So this is referring to the future judgment

The Lord's gonna repay everyone according to what they have done every wrong will be righted

And I remind you when we get outraged about an injustice we must remember our own sin

Right if we got what we deserve we would be in hell right now, but because of the grace of God in Jesus Christ We are free our sins are erased his righteousness is our righteousness

Every sin is either paid for in one of two places either at the cross of Jesus Christ or in hell forever

Praise be to God that Jesus went to the cross on our behalf What verse 12 tells us is that as people stand before Christ books will be opened?

You ever notice that as you read in there thinking okay? I know I know that there's a there is a book of life, right? All the redeemed throughout history are in the book of life, but what are these books?

Well the Prophet Daniel in the Old Testament also describes these books He had a vision in Daniel chapter 7 verses 9 and 10, and this is what he said he said as I looked

Thrones were placed and the ancient of days took his seat His clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool his throne was fiery flames its wheels were burning fire a stream of fire issued and came out from before him a thousand thousands

Served him and 10 ,000 times 10 ,000 stood before him the court sat in judgment and the books were opened

Okay, so we've heard of the book of life And we'll talk about that in a moment, but these books plural are not the book of life these books record as the text says in verse 12 of Revelation 20 they record what people have done in the body

These books record every sinful thought all sinful language and every evil action

This knowledge should make one very careful about how we live Everything has been written down Matthew 12 36 says that we will be judged for every careless word.

We have spoken All right, everybody on planet Earth cringes when we hear that I Heard it described by a pastor one time that everyone has a file

Everyone has a file and in this file Are all the deeds that one has ever committed?

And I'll tell you now and explain it in more detail later that this judgment the great white throne judgment

Only has unbelievers, and I will talk about the judgment for believers a little later

The judgment known as the judgment seat of Christ But this great white throne judgment this judgment for unbelievers is going to have only evil deeds in this book

Now you might say Don't unbelievers do good things Right because there's only there's only evil deeds in these books that are opened at the great white throne judgment

And the answer is well the unbelievers do do good things but even good deeds not done for the glory of God are sinful as Romans 14 23 says whatever does not proceed from faith is sin and If you don't know the

Lord you don't have faith. You don't have the Holy Spirit The only deeds recorded is one's favor in one's favor are those done that please

God And no work ever done by an unbeliever is pleasing to him now the motivation

For an unbeliever in doing good things. I mean we see people. I mean sometimes an unbeliever is generous

They're kind they they will help an old lady across the street You see things like this

When these good things are done. It's not to please God right and therefore it doesn't pass

The test and the motivation is to make oneself look good or to be accepted by Society or to make someone feel better a

Man centerness and pride is the source not God's glory. We're seeing this right now by the way, right? If you say something that is not politically correct.

What do they say you need to repent and Then what happens the people repent and okay now we accept you you're one of us

What kind of a what kind of a system is that and where did this morality come from right? It didn't come from this book

It came somewhere else and we see that right now it the focus is man centerness and Pride and none of it is done for the glory of God.

It's all done to please man And how empty is the praise of man?

So when these books are open the evidence will be very clear that these people these unbelievers

Who never received Jesus Christ they are deserving of hell and some people's works will be worse than others as I mentioned earlier, there are different degrees of punishment for example

Adolf Hitler Will have as we can imagine a very large and significant punishment in hell

His punishment will be worse than an end than an unbeliever who was a law -abiding

Citizen, but never did anything for God's glory Right God gives everyone their do what they are deserving of it's not like everybody has the same experience

If you do worse, you're gonna get worse if you don't do as bad It's not gonna be as bad and we see that in our criminal justice system

If someone takes a life, the punishment is very severe if you steal a candy bar from the store

It's not nearly as severe So Jesus mentions these different degrees of punishment in hell and let me give you a little evidence for this

Matthew chapter 10 Verses 14 and 15 Jesus said that the judgment for those who rejected

Christ's disciples call to repent as Christ was in their midst will be more severe than Sodom and Gomorrah And this is why their rejection of the clear revelation of Jesus Christ while he was on the earth

Was worse than the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah That's because they had more information and so the punishment is more severe

So based on the works of unbelievers in this life, there will be different degrees of punishment

It's going to be bad for everybody in hell, but especially for those who are very evil

God gives everyone what they deserve Then in verse 12, we learn of another book.

This is one. I've already mentioned and that is the book of life This book of life is described throughout the

Bible Old and New Testaments and in every place It describes the names of everybody who is righteous in God's sight

Everybody who has been redeemed throughout history Now let's look at what will happen to those

Who are not written in the book of life? What verse 13 says is

The dead will be ushered to stand before the throne. The text says the sea death and Hades will give them up and what

I take this to mean is that Those lost at sea if you think about it many thousands and thousands and thousands of people have died in the ocean

Or in the Great Lakes or in all these places throughout the world throughout history The sea is going to give up the dead who were in who perished there and they will have their bodies resurrected

And those in the ground will be raised and Hades which is the present hell Will give up the souls of the dead to be reunited with their bodies

But this time as I already mentioned they will receive a new body that will never perish but will be prepared to suffer forever and Once the curse through all history received their new bodies

What will happen is that they will go to their Residing place forever and this is the end times hell known as the lake of fire

Okay, so right now nobody is in the lake of fire. There's a present hell that's a holding place for everyone who never knew

Christ who never believed in Christ and So Hades it's called Hades here is gonna give up These the souls of these and they're gonna be reunited with their body and then they will be sent to the lake of fire at the final judgment as unbelievers stand before Christ at the judgment

Their works will show that nothing was done for the glory of God. Nothing was done to please God Isaiah 64 6 says the works of unbelievers are as a polluted garment or the

NIV says they are filthy rags before God none of the works will pass the test and Therefore when these books are opened

They record every day all the deeds None of the deeds will be good deeds in God's in God's sight and therefore their names will not be written in the lambs book of life

This is what John writes in verse 15 this is very sobering he says if anyone's name

Was not found written in the book of life. He was thrown into the lake of fire

So we see it right there This book that's in heaven

So every human who has ever lived Will hear the final verdict from the perfect judge and the first experience is that unbelievers will be left in a state of forever

Hopelessness. Okay, so that's the that's the first point of this sermon There's two points here. The first experience is that unbelievers will be left in a state of forever hopelessness

And thankfully there is an experience where one can avoid this dark Future this this this future of despair and that is the second experience

Believers will be left in a state of forever joy So every human who has ever lived will hear the final verdict from the perfect judge and believers

Their experience will be that they will be left in a state of forever

Joy, and we'll see this in a different passage Paul Paul describes this in 2nd

Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10 So this eerie hopeless judgment will not be the case for believers

As I already mentioned there is a different judgment here and it's known as the judgment seat of Christ Some call it the the

Bema seat and that comes from the Greek word for seat, which means

Bema and John chapter 5 verses 28 and 29. We already looked at this passage, but I'll read the end of that passage again

Jesus said an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out and Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment

Okay, so there's a resurrection of life and there's a resurrection of judgment Believers will share in the resurrection of life

And what we just saw was the resurrection of judgment but Romans 8 1 says

It says this about believers in Christ. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus There is no condemnation

What sweet words those are? So the judgment is a judgment of life since those who are at this judgment will experience eternal life

The Apostle Paul Describes this judgment in 2nd Corinthians 5 10 and this is what he wrote

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ So that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body whether good or evil

Everyone at the judgment of life will have their names in the book of life and Words cannot describe how sweet that is how precious that is to know that your name is

Written in there if you have a sincere relationship with Christ This book is referred to as the lambs book of life in Revelation 21 27.

I heard it once said that The names written in this book are written in blood

Because Jesus himself has written these names in his book And the only reason these names are there is because he shed his blood for everyone written in the book of life

So is your name written in there ask yourself that question today? Your name is only written in this book

If you are if you know that you are a sinner and your only hope is to believe in Jesus Christ who paid the penalty

For your sins the only way to salvation is through Jesus death and resurrection

When the Apostles were spreading the gospel After Jesus ascended to heaven they said there is no name under heaven and given among men by which we must be saved

Acts 4 12 when Jesus during his ministry when he was talking to his disciples

He said I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me to have your name written in this book is so wonderful and and during Jesus ministry

Jesus said this to his disciples his disciples had all this power Because they were given the ability to cast out demons

They were given the ability to heal and do all these things on his behalf Because of the power of the

Spirit working through them and Jesus said this as they were impressed with their power that they had he said in Luke Chapter 10 verse 20 do not rejoice in this that the spirits that the demons are subject to you

But rejoice that your names are written in heaven How wonderful it is?

For everyone who listening to this who has a relationship with Christ We should be rejoicing that our names are written in heaven we shouldn't be rejoicing over our talents or rejoicing over Other things that we so often get excited about we should be rejoicing about our names are written in heaven

This book in heaven has your name and your name can never be erased

Jesus said in John chapter 10 that my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me

I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand

So if your name is written in this book, it will never be erased and those names who are written in this book the book of life will have evidence that they were saved and Let me be very clear

We receive entrance into heaven only because of what Christ did on our behalf

He did it 100 % of the work for us Through his perfect life his

Sacrificial death on the cross and and his glorious resurrection. We bring nothing to the table

However, our works are important because they give evidence that we truly were saved

When you believe in Christ the Spirit is given to you and for the first time you are able to do works that please

God As I mentioned the unbeliever doesn't have works that please God But the believer does have works that please him and when your aim is to please

God with your obedience that can only come From the Spirit's work in your life and 2nd

Corinthians 5 10 mentions This faithfulness that is there

What the verse tells us is that this judgment will be a judgment of works Is that verse says each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body whether good or evil in The end the judgment for unbelievers will show that they had no works that were pleasing to God And therefore they will be cut off from God forever on the other hand believers will have some spirit generated works

When you come to faith in Christ you start to do things you never did before You live life differently

You don't do certain things because you want to please God and you do other holy Things in their place because you want to please him

You have a mission in life that you didn't have before You have joy and peace that carries with you no matter what the circumstances in your life are

You treat people better and you even have compassion on your enemies Nobody in the world has compassion on their enemies, but believers do and you enjoy

God in all of life Like you didn't as a as an um as an unbeliever

This is the life of walking in the spirit and think about it. I mean we have such nice weather right now

If you if you can go through your whole day or weeks and months without ever giving Thanks to God for his creation and all the wonderful things you get to enjoy

I mean, that's a problem right there. That's how the world lives But if we can go through our days and say what a wonderful God he is and that's evidence that you know the

Lord and you enjoy him in a way in a way that an unbeliever can't and What unbelievers do is they worship the creation?

They don't worship the Creator So you are able to do these good things by the power of the

Spirit for the glory of God But believers also do evil things we sin and that's what 2nd

Corinthians 5 10 says And when we sin what happens is that we lose reward?

But at this judgment every believer will have some works that prove their true faith in Christ Some will have more and some will have less and the

Lord will reward accordingly remember he gives everyone according to what they deserve

So those who are most faithful in this life who never get recognized But who know that the

Lord will reward them in the future. Those people are gonna have a great reward in heaven I remember before I became the pastor of this church.

I went to this little church in Graston, Minnesota And I don't know if any way you know where that is.

It's not it's right by Bram that area and There was one man who was keeping this church alive

He would go to a nursing home. He would pick up all these Elderly people he would bring them to the church, and that was about 80 90 % of the church and and this guy

He wasn't a preacher, but he led the hymns He he led them in prayer and he they had because they couldn't afford a pastor

They would have have someone fill the pulpit every week and one of the weeks I filled the pulpit And they would

I don't know how they afforded to pay these pastors because they didn't it's such a small church I mean, I'm not kidding

It was like 12 or 15 people in the church at this time And I was amazed at the faithfulness of this one man, and I'm thinking this guy's reward is gonna be great in heaven and And the pastor who has thousands

May have much less of a reward We don't think of things the way God does do we?

But I was blown away by that and I think God showed me that he's like Seth. It's not about the numbers It's about the quality.

It's about faithfulness to me, and so that's my approach here at this church

I want to be like this man who was faithful, but anyway in Matthew chapter 12 verse 33

Jesus says that a tree is known by its fruit and believers will be those who have good fruit

And there is still sin in the life of a believer because our sinful nature does not go away

Until we enter the presence of God But every believer has at minimum some good fruit and Jesus describes the growth of believers in this way in Matthew 4 8 he said other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain growing up and increasing and yielding thirty fold and sixty fold and a hundred fold

You know, so you notice what he said there there's different levels What this text tells us is that some grow more than others some are more faithful than others and Those who grow more those who are more faithful will receive more rewards from the

Lord Jesus Christ At the final judgment and for all believers your experience in heaven will be wonderful Everyone will have a fullness of joy

But some will experience a greater Joy in heaven because of their faithfulness here in this life.

And so this should motivate us to live for him And run hard after him while we are here and what the experience of this future judgment will be is described in 1st

Corinthians chapter 3 Verses 14 and 15 and this is a very sobering passage if you if you are familiar with it

This is what the Apostle Paul wrote he says if the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives

He will receive a reward if anyone's work is burned up. He will suffer loss

Though he himself will be saved but only as through fire

All right, so there's in this life. There's people who they appear to have all this all this work that's been done and yet Much of the work has not been done for the glory of God and that work will burn up and Others their work will survive as it's tested by fire

So we want to build the right way by following closely what Jesus has commanded

So that we will be rewarded for our faithfulness and the more faithful we are the better experience

We will have in heaven Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 and 20 he encourages us to do this

He says do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven Where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal for your for where your treasure is there

Your heart will be also so the more we treasure God and Follow him in this life.

The more we will be able to treasure him in the next life. I once heard

Theologian John Piper say like he was quoting 17th century theologian

Jonathan Edwards And what he and what he said is that everyone in heaven will have fullness of joy.

Okay, so imagine a imagine a glass Psalm 16 11 promises that in the presence of God there is fullness of joy

Okay, but what if for some the glass is bigger than someone else, right?

So your capacity for joy is greater So no matter how big your glass is it's going to be full but some are gonna have a bigger glass

So they're so their capacity for joy will be Greater and I think that's true.

If you if you if you do the math of Scripture, that's that's what you come up with So just as in this life mature believers are able to enjoy

God more than a younger believer So in the next life those who are more faithful in this life will be able to enjoy

God more in the next So you can see here. There's a lot on the line. It isn't just going to heaven

It's what do we want our experience to be like in the age to come and Jesus says?

Go after it Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Don't slack off here Be faithful to me while you are here and you will be rewarded for it

So as believers we should rejoice that our names are written in heaven But also remember that God will reward us for our faithfulness.

And so may we be faithful So as we conclude here Every human who has ever lived will hear the final verdict from the perfect judge and we have seen two vastly different experiences for humanity

Unbelievers will be left in a state of forever hopelessness While believers will be left in a state of forever joy this final judgment will come in the future and And the

Lord is going to give everyone His due Genesis 18 25 Says that in Isaiah 30 verse 18 says the

Lord is a God of justice Blessed are all those who wait for him

All right. This is delayed. It's coming, but we need to always keep it in mind as we live our lives so This concludes this sermon

And I just want to call it if anyone here does not know Christ. You don't want to face This judgment this great white throne judgment in the future.

So believe in the Lord Jesus Christ this day and if you are a believer Pursue faithfulness to him with all you have through the power of the

Holy Spirit This is coming so prepare yourself for it

Now next Sunday is the last sermon in this surprise sermon series if you haven't been with us before In March we were going through the sermon series on Matthew and then the corona virus hits and and I decided to Divert in a different direction

And so we've done a sermon series on the end times and so next Sunday is the last Sermon in this sermon series and then we will pick back up in Matthew chapter 5

Where we were at the beginning of March, but at this time, what's? Bower heads in prayer father in heaven

What a wonderful God you are Lord and what a wonderful judge you are Lord you will render Each one his or her do

And so Lord may we live faithful lives while we are here You call us to do so Lord we've been warned we've been encouraged today

And so may we listen to this and may we live with with this in mind? and if we live with this in mind our

Story will be a good story and the final verdict will be a good verdict And so I pray that that would be the case for everybody in this room anybody who can hear my voice right now