What Happens When We Pass? - 3 THE FINAL JUDGMENT

 

What Happens When We Pass? - 3

THE FINAL JUDGMENT

… based on The Revelation 20:11-15

Thursday, on our way back from visiting Marty & family in eastern PA, 

Kathy & I stopped in Shanksville, @ the Flight 93 Memorial.  I can remember only a handful of times I have been in such a moving-emotional-somber place.  

Speaking above a whisper was totally inappropriate.  

Some of the displays I honestly could not look at, listen to, or watch.

On the morning of 11 September 2001, 40 passengers & crew boarded United Airlines Flight 93 in Newark International Airport in NJ bound for San Francisco International Airport in CA.  No one could have imagined when that Boeing 757 took off @ 8:42 that they had less than 82 minutes to live.  

But isn’t that the way that most people pass?  

My Dad finished breakfast, went & sat down, & had a fatal heart attack.

Let’s face it; we’re all going to die.  Me, you, everyone.  

It’s kind of a scary thought isn’t it … knowing that we’re going to die, 

& there’s nothing we can do to prevent it?

Christians believe that when Jesus rose from the dead that He conquered death. (2 Timothy 1:10) He defeated the enemy of life. (1 Corinthians 15:57) 

And because we believe in Jesus, we too will live again. (John 14:19) 

We believe that we will be raised from the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:52)

We believe that our life here on earth is under the control of Jesus. 

(Ephesians 1:22) We believe this world is not the end; it’s not our home.  We’re refugees & strangers here. (1 Peter 2:11) That’s why Jesus’ followers remind each other to not be afraid of anything in this life … even death. (John 16:33)

This is what we’ve been talking about the past few weeks … 

death is not the end of our existence.

“Everyone must die once, & after that be judged by God,” (Hebrews 9:27) … 

which is what we’re going to consider this morning.  And then next week I’m going to answer the question … how will followers of Jesus be judged?

Now we’ve talked about Hell & the Devil.  Satan is alive & well on the planet earth; or perhaps I should say that Satan is alive & “sick” on the planet earth.  And his days are numbered. (The Revelation 12:12) But right now, he’s like a wounded beast, & wounded beasts are dangerous animals to be around.

But even though he’s “the ruler of this world” (John 14:30), nevertheless, 

Jesus said, “I have been given all authority in heaven & on earth.” (Matthew 28:18)

Satan isn’t ultimately in charge … Jesus is.  So, even though Satan is out there roaming around, (1 Peter 5:8), God is the one we ought to fear with a holy awe, for He has the power to reject those who have rejected Him.  Jesus said, “I will show you whom to fear: fear God, who … has the authority to throw you into hell.  Believe me, he is the one you must fear!” (Luke 12:5)

Jesus said, “Those who reject me publicly, the Son of Man will also reject.” 

(Luke 12:9)

So, with all that as an introduction, listen now to Good News as written by John in The Revelation, to us who have gathered here for worship.

Within our hearing now comes the Word of the Lord …

“Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sits on it.  Earth and heaven fled from his presence and were seen no more.  And I saw the dead, great and small alike, standing before the throne.  Books were opened, and then another book was opened, the Book of Life.  The dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.  Then the sea gave up its dead.  Death and the world of the dead also gave up the dead they held.  And all were judged according to what they had done.  Then death and the world of the dead were thrown into the lake of fire.  (This lake of fire is the second death.)  Those who did not have their names written in the Book of Life were thrown into the lake of fire.” 

(The Revelation 20:11-15)

Jesus said … “How happy are those who hear the word of God & obey it!” 

(Luke 11:28)

May the Lord grant that we may engage in contemplating the mysteries of His Heavenly wisdom with really increasing devotion, to His glory and to our edification. Amen

I’ve been a Pastor now for 50 years.                                                 

And because of my calling I’ve been around death … a lot.  Now something that I’ve often observed is that when someone dies, that person’s loved ones want to believe that their relative or friend went to “a better place.”  

In that regard, I’ve heard things like … “He wasn’t a very religious person, 

but deep down, he had a really good heart.”  It’s almost like they’re trying to convince themselves that that’s what the criteria is for getting into Heaven.

When it comes to death & eternity, it’s human nature to hope for the best & avoid contemplating the worst.  But Scripture assures us that … 

there’s going to be a day of judgment.

“Everyone must die once, & after that be judged by God.”

Or as we just read in our Scripture passage … “the dead, great & small alike, will stand before the throne.  Books will be opened & … the dead will be judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.”

Scripture is perfectly clear about this, & yet, because most people take for granted that they’re going to Heaven, they assume that they will not have to face judgment.  You know, judgment is for “evil people”.  

And let’s face it … most of us don’t think that we’re all that bad.

By the way, we’re not the only ones who think that.  Certain religions believe that they’ll escape judgment because they’re going to be reincarnated.  So, they’ll get to come back again & again & again & again …

until they, presumably, get it right.

And then there are the vast majority of people who believe they haven’t been really all that bad, & as a result, won’t be condemned to Hell.

Sure, they’ve done some questionable things … but they’re NOT categorically bad people.  Bad people are the guys in prison, right?  And the reason they believe they are actually nice folks is because they compare themselves with those around them.  And they figure … “hey, I’m better than this person, or that fellow.”  And because they generally compare themselves with those that they don’t really like, they come out looking pretty good.  

“I may not be Mother Teresa or Billy Graham, but I’m certainly not 

Adolph Hitler, or that mean old grump down the street either.”

Jesus actually told a parable that dealt with this kind of attitude.

“Once there were 2 men who went up to the Temple to pray: 

one was a Pharisee, the other a tax collector.  

The Pharisee stood apart by himself & prayed, ‘I thank you, God, 

that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else.  

I thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there.’” (Luke 18:10-11) 

Paul warns that that’s not the way to judge ourselves.  He writes that some people “make up their own standards to measure themselves by, 

& they judge themselves by their own standards!” (2 Corinthians 10:12)

But the truth of the matter is, when we find ourselves standing in God’s presence someday to be judged … we’re going to be all alone.  And God’s grading scale isn’t going to be on a curve.  His requirement for entrance into Heaven is perfection. (Matthew 5:48) And what that really means is … 

none of us are going to make it into Heaven … on our own merit. (Galatians 2:16)

Scripture teaches …

“There is no one who is righteous, no one who is wise or who worships God.  All have turned away from God; they have all gone wrong;

no one does what is right, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12)

When the great prophet, Isaiah, found himself, in a vision, 

standing in front of the LORD, he immediately recognized God’s holiness, which in turn, made him realize his own complete unworthiness.

And falling to his knees he cried out …

“There is no hope for me!  I am doomed because every word that passes my lips is sinful, & I live among a people whose every word is sinful.  And yet, with my own eyes I have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:1-5)

You see, when Isaiah saw God, he didn’t think about comparing himself with his neighbor.  He didn’t compare himself with his relatives, or with the guy who lived down the street, or even with the worst possible person he could think of.  All Isaiah could see was the purity & holiness of God … & he immediately recognized … God is pure & I am not … God is holy & I am not.

The Psalmist wrote … “If the LORD kept a record of our sins,

who could escape being condemned?” (The Psalms 130:3)

And that’s what it’s going to be like at the judgment.  People will see God in all of His glory & holiness & purity.  And suddenly all the failures 

& shortcomings & sins of our lives will appear before us.  (Ecclesiastes 12:14)

God is holy. (Leviticus 19:2) God is pure. (Leviticus 11:44) And we are not.  

“Everyone has sinned & is far away from God’s saving presence.” (Romans 3:23)

Isaiah writes, “All of us have been sinful; even our best actions are 

filthy through & through.” (Isaiah 64:6) Even the best things we do are sinful.

We have this ridiculous misconception that we haven’t done anything really bad.  We’re nice to our neighbors.  We throw a buck in the Salvation Army kettle every December.  We haven’t committed murder or adultery or any of that evil stuff.  We quickly forget Jesus’ words in His Sermon On The Mount, when He taught that when we get angry & call someone, 

“You good-for-nothing!” or even think lustful thoughts about someone … we’re guilty of committing murder & adultery. (Matthew 5:22,28)

I want you to notice what John doesn’t say.  He doesn’t say that “those who had committed murder were thrown into the lake of fire; 

those who had committed adultery were thrown into the lake of fire.”

The statement in Scripture is … “those who did not have their name 

written in the Book of Life were thrown into the lake of fire.”

Let’s talk about this “Book” for a moment.

Actually, when this passage was written, John would have been thinking about a scroll.  “Their name written in the Scroll of Life.”  (I have this fear that future translations of this section will be, “those who did not have their name written in God’s kindle were thrown into the lake of fire.”)  

Is it just me or does that lose something?

John writes … “The dead were judged according to what they had done.”

The “dead” (νεκρους) here refers to unbelievers.  And they were judged because of what they had done … & hadn’t done during their life. (Romans 1:19)

Now when we honestly stop & truly think about that … 

that’s a frightening thing.

Remember Jesus’ words? …

“Whatever is covered up will be uncovered, & every secret will be made known.  So, then, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in broad daylight, & whatever you have whispered in private in a closed room

 will be shouted from the housetops.” (Luke 12:2-3)

I don’t know about you … but I’m not at all excited for everybody to hear about all the things I’ve done/said/thought throughout my life.  Now granted, there are a few things that I’m proud to put on my eternal resume.  

But there’s also a whole lot I’d just as soon nobody knew about.  

And there’s probably a bunch of things in your life you’d just as soon that I, or no one else, were aware of either.

So, what about that?  Does our Scripture passage teach that all of our past is going to be an open book? … Well, no, not necessarily for all of us.

Listen again to what John wrote.

“Books were opened, (that’s the bad news), 

& then another book was opened, the Book of Life.”  

(This is the Good News, in the total sense of those words!)

What is this Book of Life?  Well, even though the Book of Life is only mentioned a few times in Scripture … it’s a very significant book.  The Psalmist thinking of wicked individuals writes … “May they be blotted out of the Book of Life, & may they not be recorded with the righteous.” 

(The Psalms 69:28)

Only those that God counts as being “righteous” will be listed in His Book of Life!  And it’s only those individuals who will make it to Heaven.  

Their salvation is certain.  “The Lord knows those who are his.” (2 Timothy 2:19)

At another point in The Revelation we’re warned … 

“All people living on earth will worship the beast, except those whose names were written before the creation of the world in the Book of Life 

which belongs to the Lamb that was killed.” (The Revelation 13:8)

Okay, let’s do this step-by-step.  The Book of Life belongs to the Lamb 

that was killed. (The Revelation 5:12) Who is this Lamb that was killed? … (Jesus)

Alright, whose names are written in this Book of Life?

Paul writes to the Church in Philippi,

“… help those women; (Euodia & Syntyche), for they have worked hard 

with me to spread the gospel, together with Clement & all my other 

fellow workers, whose names are in God’s Book of Life.” (Philippians 4:3)

In other words, everyone who belongs to Jesus is in that Book.

Everyone who has come to faith has their name in it.

If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, & that God raised Him from death; 

(Romans 10:9), if you have repented of your sins, confessed Jesus as your Lord & Savior … then your name is in that Book.  

And, if you belong to Jesus … your sins are all forgiven. (Romans 8:1)

“Happy/blessed are those who wrongs are forgiven, whose sins are pardoned!  Happy/blessed is the person whose sins the Lord will not keep account of!” 

(Romans 4:7-8)

If you’re listed in the Lamb’s Book of Life, your sins have been blotted out.

Scripture teaches that when God forgives our sins they are taken away as far as the east is from the west, (The Psalms 103:12) & buried in the very bottom of the sea. (Micah 7:19) Our sins have been forgiven!  

“The blood of Jesus purifies us from every sin.” (1 John 1:7) 

And God will never count them against us ever again.

Now, of course, we’re talking about believers here, those who have come to faith.  But all others who stand before Almighty God will be “judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.”  

And that’s going to be a terrible/frightening thing.

(Believers are also going to face a judgment, & I’m going to talk specifically about that next week.)  But in the meantime, let me just highlight a couple of other things about this passage.  John writes, “I saw a great white throne.”

A throne is a symbol of power & authority & justice & judgment.  

And those are all excellent images of God.  

The throne is “white” which is a Scriptural term indicating holiness. (Isaiah 1:18)

Now the next obvious question is … who exactly is seated on this throne.  Again, Scripture is helpful here.  Almighty God/Jesus is on this throne.

(John 14:9)

Try to picture this terrifying scene.  Here stands a person who has either openly denied Jesus’ divinity or existence, or is depending solely upon his/her own righteousness to save them.  And now they’ve died.  

What’s the verse?  “Everyone must die once, & after that be judged by God.”

And, uh oh, there’s Jesus, sitting on His throne in all His royal glory!  

And all of a sudden, this person’s life passes before their eyes.

Scripture teaches that there’s coming a time when,

“In honor of the name of Jesus all beings in heaven, on earth, 

& in the world below will fall on their knees, 

& all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Philippians 2:10-11)

Jesus’ Lordship will be acknowledged by all.  But then it will be too late 

to confess that He is Savior & accept His forgiveness.

So, what happens to those who stand before 

the “great white throne” of God?

Here’s how I tried to explain it, years ago, to the Youth Group in the Church I served in Niagara Falls.  I took them out into the backyard where there was a playground.  And using a seesaw we pretended it was a scale.  I took one of the girls, (Charlene), who was really sweet & everybody loved 

& sat her on one side, & of course, it went right down … GUILTY!

Then I had all these boxes that I had written on: Church attendance, 

youth group leader, VBS teacher, choir, school awards, & community stuff.

Lots of “good” things, & I piled them on the other side of the scale.  But nothing happened.  They didn’t tip the scales.  Her “sin” held her down.  She was found lacking, as far as getting into Heaven was concerned.  It doesn’t matter how many good things we have on that side … we are hopelessly outweighed by who we are, what we’ve done, & what we haven’t done. 

(Ephesians 2:8-9)

And that kind of describes what’s going to happen to those who are depending on anything or everything but Jesus to save them.  They’re going to be found wanting.  They’re going to come up empty. (Mark 10:21) God’s going to judge people … (unbelievers who have died) … “according to what they had done.”  And notice the past tense; “had” … “what they had done” … 

but it’s now too late for them to do anything about it.

Their names were not written in the right book … the Book of Life.  

And that’s the difference.

“Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life 

will enter Heaven.” (The Revelation 21:27)  

And Jesus Christ “is the Lamb of God, who took away the sin of the world!” 

(John 1:29)

So, the most important question that you will ever have to answer is … 

do you know the Lamb?  Did you hear what I asked?  It wasn’t …do you know about the Lamb?  I asked … do you know the Lamb?  Have you done business with God about your sin? … Have you accepted what Jesus did on the cross for you? … Have you acknowledged Him as your Savior, your only savior? … Has He become the Lord of your life? … You understand … it’s not what we have done for God that’s going to get us into Heaven … it’s what He has done for us. … Recognizing & accepting all of that is the key for entering Heaven.

“Then I saw a new heaven & a new earth.  The 1st heaven & the 1st earth disappeared, & the sea vanished ….  Nothing that is impure will enter the city, nor anyone who does shameful things or tells lies.  Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will enter into Heaven.” 

(The Revelation 21:1)

One final thing about judgment … God’s judgment is just.  Never forget that.

“The judge of all the earth has to act justly.” (Genesis 18:25) 

The final judgment is when all wrongs will be righted.  Injustice must be dealt with.  We’ve all said that haven’t we?  “Those people shouldn’t get away with that.  They ought to pay for what they did!”  (I always love the double standard here.  We want others to pay for their wrongs, but it’s okay if we slide by when we do something.  “Whew!  I got away with that one!”)

Well, the time is coming when God will right all wrongs, & He’ll do it justly. 

(Ecclesiastes 11:9; 12:14)

The Psalmist cries out …

“I know that your judgments are righteous, LORD.” (The Psalms 119:75)

God’s judgments are always right, 

no matter how it may seem, because only God can see into the hearts of human beings & all the circumstances of life. (1 Samuel 16:7)

On a sunshiny Tuesday morning 25 years ago, 44 people got on a plane in Newark, NJ.  4 of them knew that they would not live to eat lunch.  

But for the other 40 it was a typical day.  They had plans for that day,

& probably for the days, weeks, months, & years that lay ahead.  But 46 minutes later, everything changed.  They never reached San Franisco.

One Saturday morning 31 years ago, my Dad sat down to read the paper after eating a nice breakfast.  He never got to finish it.

So, are you absolutely sure that your name is in the Book of Life?

“This is the hour to receive God’s favor; today is the day to be saved!” 

2 Corinthians 6:2)

“How, then, shall we escape if we pay no attention to such a great salvation?” 

(Hebrews 2:3)

MARANA THA