Judgement Day, Part 3

Tonight we want to continue our study in the book of Revelation, the 20th chapter, and we're going to finish the 20th chapter this evening. But we will go back to it over the next two weeks. And I'll tell you more about that in a moment. But tonight, our plan is to finish the judgment. Of the great white thr. I don't know if you know or not, but there are seven major judgments in the scripture. I thought I might give them to you this evening. The first one took place at Calvary.

We call that the judgment of sin. It took place in 30 A. It was a time in which Jesus Christ bore the sins of the world in his body. He became sin for us, the Bible says, that we might be made the righteousness of God.

In him God judged sin fully, and God judged sin finally at Calvary. That was judgment number one, the judgment of sin.

Number two is the judgment of self. That takes place on earth. The time of that judgment is today. The judgment of self goes on throughout the believer's life as an individual who has given his life to Christ. Who has accepted what Christ has done on the cross spends time judging himself? The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11:3, for if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

If we are careful to evaluate our own lives, our own spiritual state, we'll avoid chastening of the Lord. So that's a second judgment: the judg of sin, number one, the judgment of self, number two.

Thirdly, The judgment of That's the third major judgment in scriptures. That takes place in heaven. And the time is after the rapture. John 14 talks about the time in which Christ is going to take us home to be with Him. The Bible details in 2 Corinthians 5. 10. That we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that we may receive that which is done in our body, whether it be good or whether it be bad. It's called the Bim judgment. The Bima was a platform at the Olympic Stadium where Where those who were victors and those who were to receive their rewards would ascend that platform, stand at the Bhima judgment, and receive.

The victor's crown, and what's going to happen for believers is that they will be judged according to their works. The believer is not judged according to their sin because those are taken care of, they are all been wiped away by the blood of Jesus Christ. So a believer will be judged according to his works, and therefore the things that he has done for the Lord will be rewarded in glory. The fourth judgment is the judgment of Israel. That takes place on earth, and that takes place at the time of the end of the tribulation.

Ezekiel 20, 30 to 44 talks about the fact that when Christ returns at the end of the tribulation, he's going to purge out the rebels. Of Israel and take the remaining believers into his kingdom. That's the fourth great judgment, the judgment of Israel. The fifth great judgment is the judgment of the nations that happens on earth. And that time is also at the end of the tribulation. It's recorded in Matthew 25, verses 31 to 46, where the Lord separates the believing Gentiles. From the unbelieving Gentiles, and the believing Gentiles enter into his kingdom, and of course, the unbelieving Gentiles are cast.

Into Hades. And then the sixth major judgment is a judgment of Satan and his demons that takes place at the end of the millennial kingdom of Christ on earth. Jude 6 tells us, And the angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness.

Unto the judgment of the great day. God has planned a special judgment for Satan and his angels. It takes place at the end of the millennial kingdom, and we know that hell is reserved for Satan and his angels. And in Revelation 20, verse number 10, Satan himself is cast into the lake of fire. And the seventh great judgment is the judgment of the unsaved. That too happens at the end of the kingdom. The place for that is somewhere. out the present heavens and the present earth. It's recorded in Revelation 20 verses 11 to 15.

And that is where we are in our text this evening. This is the last. Judgment. It's the day where man finds himself in God's courtroom, where God Himself will pronounce the verdict upon man. And it says in Revelation 20, verse number 11, And I saw a great white throne, and him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every one of them, according to their deeds. And 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. That last phrase, the lake of fire, is going to be The major thrust of tonight's message as well as the next two messages. Why? Because People today have a misconception of hell. A lot of people don't even believe in the existence. Of hell. One year ago, in January issue of U. S. News and World Report, there was An article entitled Hell Hath No Fury. It records These words. It used to be pictured as a literal place of fiery torment and outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Modern, politically correct hell is much more benign, embarrassing, and even cartoonish. Says one observer, hell has disappeared and no one noticed. True, more people believe in hell than they did 50 years ago. They just envision it differently. Commonly, people are picturing hell as, number one, a literal place.

Early Christians could easily have pictured a fiery place of torture, living as they did with the graphic fear of burned and pillaged homes and villages. In the 15th century, Dante's Inferno helped to cement hell as a vertical chamber of horrors. Puritan Jonathan Edwards fervently preached this fiery furnace to New Englanders in the 18th century. It is a hell that evangelical Protestants and some conservative Catholics still imagine today. Some view hell as separation from God. The revised Catechism of the Catholic Church says hell is not a place nor a God-ord punishment, but a free and definitive choice that man makes to separate himself from God.

A view shared by Christian apologists C. S. Lewis. Augustine of Hippo's fifth-century belief that hell was separation and also a place of torture was widespread in the 17th and 18th centuries. Others believe in total destruction. Modern theologians such as John Stodd Philip Hughes contend that a loving God could not inflict torturous, eternal punishment on his people, no matter how sinful they may be. Thus, they adopt the second death theory.

Using 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Revelation 20:14, and Ezekiel 18:4, they build a case for annihilationism. Theorizing that wicked man's end is the second death of destruction and not eternal torment.

Other people believe hell is the here and now. For many, the hellish realities of Hiroshim and the Holocaust picture hell right here on earth. Says philosophy professor Barry Cogan, the main concern is retribution in this life. The hottest fires of hell probably burn in the human heart in the harmful ways we treat each other. End quote. Although images of hell still capture the imagination, some people are concerned that hell without fury is not only unscriptural, but also gives us no persuasive reason to be moral.

U. S. News and World Report tries to give us the different pictures of what people believe hell to be. It was John MacArthur who wrote these words: Preaching that downplays God's wrath does not enhance evangelism, it undermines it. One survey of evangelical seminary students revealed that nearly half, 46%, felt preaching about hell to unbelievers is in, quote, poor tast. Very few churches ever preach on hell. Very few evangelists ever mention Hell, they don't want to deal with that issue. Leslie Woodson wrote a book entitled Hell and Salvation.

Says this: Throughout the examination of the concept of hell in the evangelistic mission of the church, we have been impressed by several things. First, is the scarcity of recent or contemporary writing and preaching on the subject.

During the first 1 years of the Christian era, the Church was almost obsessed with the joys of heaven and the horrors of hell.

Since that time, interest has waned until, following World War II, hardly anything of serious consequence has been undertaken in the field. One is fortunate to find a paragraph, or even a sentence, in a theological work or printed sermon which relates directly to the subject of hell. The investigator is doubly blessed if he discovers a whole chapter or even several pages in any kind of writing. With rare exception, the churchgo can attend worship for years without hearing a word about hell. The scarcity of materials gives us our first clue that the subject of hell is taboo in many quarters and ignored in others.

Think about that. When was the last time you heard a sermon on hell? When was the last time you read a book on hell? When was the last time you had a conversation about hell? We live today and people tell others to go to hell as if that is going to scare them. We say it as if hell doesn't even really exist. But it shows you how much we have minimized the teaching of what the Bible says about the eternal damnation of one's soul.

The cults reject the biblical doctrine of hell. Christian science teaches that no final judgment awaits man, and that hellfire is the ravings and imaginations of mortal error. Jehovah's Witnesses teach that it is absurd to suppose that God would perpetuate existence forever in torment. They teach that the second death is extinction.

Seventh-day Adventists teach that sinners will go to hell, but they will be annihilated. What do you believe? About hell. William Shedd said, The age which is most reckless of law and most vicious in practice. Is the age that has the loosest conception of penalty and is the most inimical to the doctrine of endless retribution. Isn't it interesting that the one who spoke about hell the most is hardly ever quot? And that is Jesus Christ. In fact, in the very first sermon he preached, he mentioned hell.

In the very last sermon he preached. He mentioned hell. In fact, as you read through the gospel account of the messages of Christ, he had a lot of emphasis on the fiery hell. Can you imagine coming on the scene? No one hardly knows you. I mean, you've done some miracles, and people kind of are excited about who you are and what you've done, but they really don't know who you are. And you come on the scene, and the first thing you talk about is.

Hell. Wonder how that would go after today. Is if you were asked to be a guest speaker someplace and you decided to speak on hell, I wonder who would come. Christ said these words in Matthew chapter 5, I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court. And whoever shall say to his brother Raq shall be guilty before the Supreme Court. And whoever shall say, you fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. It was Ari Torrey who said, meditate concerning hell.

He said, meditate upon it and its practical, personal bearings. until your heart is burdened by the awful peril of the wicked, and you rush out to spend the last dollar, if need be, and the last ounce of strength you have, in saving those imperiled men from the certain awful hell of conscious agony and shame to which they are fast. Hurry. When was the last time you spent time meditating on hell? When was the last time you did a Bible study on hell? When was the last time you dived deeply into the scriptures to see what the Bible says?

About hell. The truth were known, most of us don't want to even talk about that. We don't even want to read about that. It's too gory, it's too nasty. It's too ugly. Yet the Bible has a lot to say about hell. So tonight, as we look at the Judgment Day and those who are thrown, literally cast into the lake of fire, we need to come to an understand.

Of that great judgment day that will soon be here, in which Christ Himself will judge the unbelieving world. According to their de, because their names are not written in the land's book of life. It needs to be emphasized, the words of Christ in Luke 12, verse number 5. I will warn you whom to fear. Fear the one who, after he is killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Christianity teaches that we are to fear God. We are not to fear man. We are to fear God. Man can only kill your body.

God can take your body and your soul and cast it into hell. So you fear the one who could do that versus the one who could only kill your b. And yet, so many times, we don't fear God. In fact, we have minimized that by the doctrine of universalism or the doctrine of annihilationism. Meaning that somehow man is just going to go out of existence. And this has become a more popular teaching in this dec than in the decades previous, and it becomes a more popular teaching as time goes on. Or universalism that somehow God is going to, at the very end, redeem man.

He's even going to redeem Satan and the fallen angels. That has also become a very Popular teaching in the recent decade. Somehow, when it's all said and done, a God of love and a God of mercy and a God of grace is going to bring everybody together, and everything's going to be okay because God is just so good and so kind. And on the surface, that appeals to us. I mean, after all, why would God want to punish his creation forever and ever and ever and eternal damnation after they've suffered for a little while?

He'll bring them out and redeem them, and they'll be okay. That kind of appeals to our modern emotion. Or they just go out of existence, they've suffered enough. They no longer will exist. You say, well, who teaches that? Who believes all that? Well, we told you about what the Jehovah's Witnesses teach, Christian science, and you'll notice that most people in Hollywood are part of the Christian science religion.

I mean, after all, if there's no hell, there's no damnation, there's. It's only something in our imagination. Who wouldn't want to be a part of that religion, right? So, Hollywood is filled with people who want to be a part of that religion. Amazing thing. I want to read to you a verse that's very, very start. Christ said, There will be weeping and gn of teeth. Listen, when? Here it is. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. There, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being cast out.

That tells me that the very last thing the unbeliever sees Is Abraham and Isaac in those in the presence of God as they are being cast out into utter darkness? The very last image they will see. Is the image of those who gave their life to Jesus Christ and will be with him forever. And that image will haunt them for all eter. Hell is described as a place of darkness, a place where the word never dies, as fire, as banishment because people are cast out, as separation because they are isolated forever and ever.

Luke 16 talks about the fact that they are tormented, that there is weeping and wailing and gn of teeth. And the Bible says in Revel 20, verse number 15, that they are thrown there.

Why are they thrown there? Why are they not just placed there? When you get the garbage out, do you place the garbage or do you throw out the garbage? You throw out the garbage. In the Gehenna, the garbage dump, the lake of fire. Is God's cosmic dump. And there He will dump forever those who have rejected His name. That's why Am says in Am:, pre to meet your God. Are you prepared to meet your God? If you were denied tonight to stand before him, what would you say? I dreamed that the great judgment morning had dawned and the trumpet had blown.

I dreamed that the nations had gathered to judgment. Before the white thr. From the throne came a bright shining angel, And stood by the land and the sea, And swore with his hand raised to heaven that time was no longer to be. The rich man was there, but his money had melted and vanished away. A pauper he stood in the judgment. His debts were too heavy to pay. The great man was there, but his greatness, when death came, was left far behind. The angel that opened the records, not a trace of his greatness could find.

The gambler was there and the drunkard, and the man that had sold them the drink With the people who sold them the license, together in hell did they sink. The moral man came to the judgment, but his self-righteous rags would not do. The men who had crucified Jesus had passed off as moral men too. The soul that had put off salvation Not tonight I'll get saved by and by No time now to think of religion At last he had found time to die And oh, what a weeping and wailing As the lost were told of their fate They cried for the rocks and the mountains They prayed But their prayers were too late How many people do you know who have put off knowing Christ as Lord and Savior?

The Bible says, ex you rep, you will likewise perish. Repent. And belie the gospel. The Bible says, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Not at all. That's why he said, Whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Many years ago, in the city of Chicago, there was a saloon called the Gates of Hell. It was close to a church. In fact, it was right around the corner. From a church, the church's name was called Calvary Church. Someone asked a young man for directions to the gates of hell. Saloon. And the young man, in giving directions, said, just go right by Calvary and you will come to the gates of hell.

If you go by Calvary, where Jesus died, and do not receive him as your personal Lord and Savior, you too will come to the gates of hell. Do you know Christ as your Savior? Do you know Christ as your Lord? I think of the testimony I gave you during our testimonial time about my niece, who at the age of 20 Being raised in a Christian home, daughter of a pastor, she's traveled to Israel. She's toured with musical groups singing about the love and grace and mercy of Jesus, but never relinquished her life to Christ until just last month.

She didn't want to burn in hell. Do you? Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Do you know for certain that he is your Lord? I trust that you do. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for the Word of God. We thank you, Lord, that you have told us. How to escape the fires of hell. As you said last time together, you've got to pass through a lot of gates to get to hell. You got to reject the cross of Christ. You got to reject the shed blood of Christ. You to reject the gospel. You got to turn your back.

On the grace and mercy of God, you got to say no to God. Man would have the audacity to say that God sent him there. No. Man goes to hell because that's what he chooses. The Bible teaches that. Unless you rep, you will likewise perish. Our prayer, Lord, is that none of us would be duped by the devil. That we would know for certain that Jesus Christ is our Lord. And that, Father, we would give our life to the work of the gospel. Forgive us, Lord, for our indifference to hell. Forgive us for laughing at jokes about hell.

Forgive us, Lord, for m fun of those who go to hell. When your word is so clear that there's nothing funny about it, for it's those people. Who will be eternally separated from their Maker. Lord, may we, as your people, endeavor with all of our hearts to persuade the ungodly. Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. In Jesus' name, amen.