The Great White Throne

8-11-05

The Great White Throne

Revelation 20:11-15

11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

12 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.

13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

These verses describe the final event of all of human history.

God is putting the last period on the last sentence of the last paragraph of the last page.

This is the final judgment of all who die lost, never having repented and never having received Christ as their Savior.

This is serious, and we need to give our full attention to this matter.

It is not easy to preach about this awesome and final judgment.

I take absolutely no pleasure whatsoever in even thinking about ANYONE being thrown alive into a lake of fire for all eternity.

Also: God takes no pleasure in it either.

God never made hell for people…hell was created for the devil and his angels, and the people who end up in hell will be those who reject God’s way of escape, and never get saved.

God doesn’t send people to hell…sin does…and so we must accept His salvation from sin!

If we say no to God’s offer of salvation, then the only alternative is hell.

We cannot remain neutral.

God is love, and He loves us so much that He took our hell for us, and if we’ll repent of those sins for which He died and receive His payment, the Bible tells us that He will save us.

But He is holy and perfect, and if we don’t accept His payment for our sins then we have to pay for them ourselves.

What we are going to look at now is the darkest hour of human history; this is the supreme court of the universe!

All the lost will be judged, and after the verdict is read, it is final; there will be no appeals.

The sentence is either life or death—a death row and torture chamber wrapped up in one, with no end for all eternity.

This is not politically correct, and some simply won’t believe it, but their argument will be with God, not with me.

If I’ve ever preached a sermon direct from God’s Word, then this is it.

The sermon is about the Seven Aspects of the Great White Throne Judgment: The Courtroom, The Judge, The Accused, The Evidence, The Defense, The Verdict, and The Sentence.

1. The Courtroom

Verse 11 says, “And I saw a great white throne;” stop right there. These 3 words “great white throne” represent 3 things:

The first word is “Great” and that speaks of power.

The lost standing before this throne will be overcome with an incredible sense of power, awe, and fear.

Some will talk flippantly about what they’re gonna tell God when they see Him face to face.

OH NO THEY WON’T!

The person who never got saved will not be able to do anything but weep and tremble.

Their mind may go back to each time they took His Name in vain, but they won’t be able to use it in vain on this occasion.

They may think of jokes they told about hell, but there will be no joking on this day.

They may remember the way they used to think about hell, but the reality of what it’s really like will now sink in.

As they stand there waiting their turn before the Judge, they might remember they once jokingly said, “It’s Hell for company, and Heaven for climate…I always did prefer company to climate!”

But, there’ nothing funny about this courtroom.

Hebrews 10:31 contains a warning: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. “

And it says in Hebrews 12:29, “For our God is a consuming fire.”

How dare we think we could ever stand before God and be anything but speechless?!

Notice how this judgment begins with the disposing of the earth.

Verse 11 says that the “earth and heaven fled away.”

Every one will realize that everything they ever lived for on earth is gone forever.