If I asked you what's certain in life, you might say death and taxes. But there's something even more certain than death – what comes after it. Today we're looking at the most sobering reality in all of Scripture: the great white throne judgment.
Revelation 20:11-13 "Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away... And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened... and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds."
The scene we just read occurs at the end of human history, and it will be the firsthand experience of every unbeliever in human history. Let me tell you what makes this judgment inescapable.
Verse 13 says, "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it." The sea is where you throw things you never want recovered. I remember a friend scattering his father's ashes in the ocean as a symbol of letting go. What goes into the sea never comes back. But the Bible says one day the sea is going to vomit up the dead at the voice of God, and those who have been dead for hundreds, even thousands of years, will have their day in court.
Every single one of your co-workers will stand before the Judge of the universe. Every single one of your neighbors will stand before the Judge of the universe. Every single one of your children will stand before the Judge of the universe. There are no exceptions.
Notice who's standing there: "the great and the small." It's not just the Hitlers, the Stalins, the notorious sinners. It's the great sinners and the small sinners. Your local mechanic will stand before God. The teenager bagging groceries will stand before God. The farmer in the remotest village will stand before God.
There will be those on that day who were lost in the far country – they lived lives of total iniquity. But there will also be those who were lost in the church. False converts who will say, "Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name?" And Jesus will say, "I never knew you; depart from me, you doers of lawlessness."
On that day there will be millions upon millions who said they would give their life to the Lord "later." Countless millions who wanted to pace out the end. But here are two realities you need to know: First, you cannot time out the end. Your life is a vapor – you don't even know what tomorrow looks like. Second, by and large, people die the way they lived (Ferguson). They rejected God during their life, and they reject Him to the very end.
On this day of judgment, there will not be a single ounce of mercy, not a drop of grace – only justice.
But here's the hope: Revelation 20:15 says, "And if anyone's name was not written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." That little word "if" changes everything. You need to know – is your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life?
How do you know? If you believe in Jesus Christ and bow down before Him. God is commanding – not inviting, commanding – all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness.
1. How does the certainty of judgment change your urgency about sharing the gospel?
2. What does it mean that God "commands" rather than "invites" people to repent?
3. How confident are you that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life?
Stay dialed in.
