God's Verdict

Revelation 20:11–15 (NIV)

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.

The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Introduction: We have questions about the end, like, What is heaven like?, what is hell like?, Is there a heaven and a hell? What would life be like in heaven? Where do our loved ones go when they die? I have heard about a Great Judgment, will God Judge me?

This passage is a transitional passage that has huge implications on these questions. It is transitional because it moves from the 1st City to the 2nd City from Babylon to the New Jerusalem. From the old way that heaven and earth operated to a new way that heaven and earth will operate.

But to make that transition, some things need to be removed/cleaned, from the old in order for the new to emerge. This is what Judgment day is all about.

Let’s read the passage.

The Fleeing of Earth and Heaven -

Physically replaced? - No, this is about a new order of things.

Next week New - means better, renewed than the former. - Paul and New Creation

Peter also talks about the heavens and earths destruction, but like the flood only this time by fire - It is a cleansing for the purpose of restoring. - Hence the judgement of all people

2 Peter 3:10 LEB

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will disappear with a rushing noise, and the celestial bodies will be destroyed by being burned up, and the earth and the deeds done on it will be disclosed.

12 - God Holds Everyone Accountable.

Last week the Satan was defeated and removed from the earth, the week before that the Beast and the Beasts Prophet was removed from this earth, and the message before that, the Great Prostitute was removed from this earth. These are all enemies of Jesus, but there are a couple more things that Jesus needs to put under his feet before things are restored. That is sin and death.

1 Corinthians 15:23–26 LEB

But each in his own group: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming, then the end, when he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For it is necessary for him to reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be abolished is death.

The wages of sin is death so this also requires the removal of all sin.

We don’t like Accountability....

The story of when I didn't do my homework in 4th grade, I tried to cover it up, but then it was time to present, and I didn't have anything. The embarrasment of it all. - On one hand we often don’t like Accountability,

On the other hand we desire it deeply.

The Nuremburg Trials - There are moments of accountability that are higher stakes then others. - Moral

This judgment day was alluded to throughout Revelation - after seals, after, trumpets, after seals, after Prostitute, after the Beast.

People did not repent with all of the warning events - the plagues, people only repented when they saw Christians live out the Gospel even to the point of martyrdom, and they connected the dots of the warnings - They are a result of our sin and idols leading the world - Through the Gospel.

Most people live as though they are somehow accountable to God - This is called, “Being a Good person.”

Dostoevsky’s eminent saying in The Brothers Karamazov: “Without God all things are permitted.”

A number of apologist these days are pointing out to Atheists that they are borrowing their Ethics from the foundation of Western Society - Scripture.

We live as though there is a God.

Second The truth is we want a world that judges people for their right or wrong actions, and we want people to be held accountable, well at least other people perhaps.

We judge others based on their actions, but we judge ourselves based on our intentions.

The First set of books represents all of our actions.

When taking our actions and matched up to God’s Ideal - Every individual will fall short.

And, every person will be shown as not worthy to enter into God’s Kingdom of no sin, no pain, no death, no crying, because every person has been a source of pain, death, crying, etc...

Two perspectives.

People who are judged according to these books are judged in the manner we judge others. They receive the justice that they want others to receive for the wrong they have done. They are judged based on their actions, not their intent.

These people are actually receiving what they wanted, life led by the Beast, by Satan, by their Idols, things they worship instead of God, A life without God.

We have already seen throughout the book of Revelation what life is like controlled by these entities - Chaos, Pain, Plagues, when God removes his Common Grace. But here people receive the fullness of the result of what they wanted. And the result is eternity without God at all, no common Grace, no holding back the forces of evil, but the fullness of the destruction that their idols bring - This is hell, it is living outside the Kingdom.

13 - Our eternity is based on our allegiance to Jesus.

But there is another book. The Book of Life. This is a type of Judgment not devised by humans. This is a whole group of people who receive in the Judgment exactly what they don’t deserve. They will, next week we will see, receive eternal life with God, without evil, without pain and suffering. How did they get into the book of life according to Revelation? We have seen it so far.

Three instances of God having a scroll which lists the names of the righteous, Exodus 32:32-33, and Psalm 69:28. In both of these instances people are being, "Blotted out of this scroll," for being unrighteous (like white-out). In Exodus for turning to the Golden Calf - so Idol worship, and David requesting this blotting out happen as a result of his enemies persecuting him. Only in Daniel is there a more positive expression, that God is protecting his people from the destruction of the nations, and those written in His scroll will be protected connected with both people who were living at the time of nations being destroyed, but also those who died and raised from the dead.

In Revelation 3:5 they are people who conquer and dressed in White Clothers, Rev. 13:8 who worship the Lamb from the Foundation of the World, and Rev. 17:8 are people whose allegience is with Christ not the worldly powers (Beast).

Those who conquer, conquer by washing the robes in the Blood of the Lamb.

So how is one get in the book of life. Not by their actions, not by being “Good enough”, Not by their intentions, even though this is all good stuff, but Christianity, is not a religion of moralism, but of Grace.

We get in by.

Receiving Jesus to forgive our sins.

Trusting in Jesus’ righteousness to be our own.

Allegience to Jesus as Lord over other Lords.

- So again, our eternity is based on that decision every person must make. Allegience to Christ, or Allegience to anything else.

Chart distinguishing between.

14-15 - Death, Hades, the Abyss, The Heaven, Abraham's Bossom, and Hell/Death/Lake of Fire

16 - Application Point:

Trust Jesus for your salvation to avoid the second death.

Conclusions: