In this sermon, the speaker shares a dream he had where he found himself standing before the great white judgment throne. He expected to receive praise for his good works, but instead found himself alone and filled with terror. He realized that each person's records are stored and will be brought out for judgment according to their works. The speaker reflects on the files he saw in his dream, including those of people he had preached to, books he had read, and things he had viewed. He is shocked to see that everything is recorded in exact detail, causing him to tremble. The sermon emphasizes the importance of standing before the judgment throne and being accountable for our actions.

Let's pray. Lord, we ask you to be with us as we have asked of you. Through your spirit which brings life, work through your word. We ask for eye solve, eye medicine that we might see. And we ask for ears that will understand and hear what you have to say. Amen. Let's read from the word of the Lord in the last book of the Bible. Revelations. 20 from verse 11 to the end. Revelations. 20. Verse 11. 21. 22. 23. 24. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. And another book was opened the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things written in the books. The book of life and the dead were judged according to their works by the things written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one according to his works. Then death and Hades were crossed into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is judgment day, the final judgment. So it tells us that the Lord appeared and he was on a great white throne. White, symbolic of purity and holiness and righteousness. He who sits on that great throne. It says from his face, the one who sat on the throne, the earth and the heavens fled away. And the earth found no place to hide. And the heavens. The face in that the earth and the skies fled from, what must his face have been like? Even though we don't have the ability to understand it fully, but what face must it be if the earth and the heavens fled? On the final judgment day, each one who has resisted God, who has not repented, who has not utterly surrendered to Christ. They will find that the earth underneath them will suddenly want to flee, but it cannot find a place. Those eyes, think of his eyes, which must be so bright. And so penetrating that the earth and the sky cannot find a place to hide. It is amazing. We take Jesus lightly. Superficially. We are superficial. We play around with God like a cat plays with a mouse. But in fact, we should fear him. If the earth, the rocks, the mountains, the hills are to flee just because of seeing his face. And then he says, I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before the judgment throne. And the Bible says that every single person will give account before God. I remember the story of a certain man who lived a very respectable life. But he would, his attitude was, well, let the sinners repent. Their sins are so awful. They the ones that should repent. And I am very moral and I am very just. It's not me, but them who need to repent. And he would say, I have no fear or doubt about standing confidently before the throne, the final judgment throne. But God was gracious to that man. He gave him a dream. Where he saw himself standing before the great white judgment throne. His expectations were that he would receive praise and that the one who sat on the throne would say, you've lived a good life. And be very considerate regarding his good works, which he's done before God and people. And then he saw himself standing alone as the crowds just melted away and disappeared. And he found himself absolutely alone. And then a great terror fell upon him and he trembled. Standing completely alone before this great throne. And then he found that there was a door beside him and out of that door came a person. Was tall, serious, not smiling. Coming before the same judgment throne where this man who was dreaming this dream was standing. And then as he looked at him, he said, but I know this man. He's been my tailor. He's the one who would sew my suits. Or make my suits. And this man trembled a lot. And then this man that he saw spoke. Saying, Lord, I tailored a suit for him. But he never paid the full amount. And then he pointed at this man with his finger. And he said, and it's been years that he's done this. He's never paid me and by now the money has devalued and it was 66 German marks, the value of it at that time. He said, but Lord, he gave me only 60. What was I to do? Because even though it wasn't the complete amount, this money I needed desperately. Because should I not have received and accepted this 60, I would have found myself with nothing and all my hard work would have been in vain. And then this man, this tailor then opened a door to the side and was quiet. And this man received such a shock and while still in the state of shock, yet another door opened. And a man came in. And he knew him very well. And he too came up before the great white judgment throne of God and he also had a very serious expression on his face. Saying, Lord, I was in great need. I needed money very much at that time. Not just a little amount, a large amount. And he had just one cow which he owned. And he said with a broken heart, I had to make the decision to part with this only cow. The only one. The value of that cow in German mark was 300. However, this man, pointing to the other, this man here standing next to me, he only gave me 200 mark. And then he disappeared. This man disappeared. And he was speaking the truth. And this man who was the accused, he felt terrible. He felt the sentence upon me, felt the judgment and the accusation because he had taken it lightly. He thought, well, I've got such a bargain, I can pay 200 instead of the 300, which it was, which was its worth. And a sense of conviction of judgment upon him was so terrible, he felt and knew that the one on the throne was going to cost him away forever. And he said to himself, I am destroyed. I can never enter into heaven. And then he woke up from his sleep. He woke up sweating profusely. And he was wet with sweat. And at that point, with great haste, he got dressed and rushed to those very people and paid his debt immediately. Saying at the same time, Lord Jesus, be merciful to me. Wash me in your blood, oh Lord. That experience changed his life completely. And he said, oh Lord, I thank you. Thank you, oh God, for forgiving my sins. Now John says, I saw the small and the great, all standing in front of this great white throne. And right then, at that very moment, the books were opened. You see, God does write in heaven. He writes everything, nothing is left unrecorded. And it is in storage so that each person, their records will be brought out and a person will be judged according to their works. The Bible tells us that after death you die once and thereafter the judgment. And that each one will have to give account before God. In Ecclesiastes 11 we read that it says, rejoice young man, do whatever you feel like doing. Whatever comes to you. Whatever makes you feel good or much happy. Any pleasure you can have, nobody is forcing you. But know this, that for all these things you will still have to stand before the judgment throne. Very often I think of people. I think of the ex-DSS pupils, all the old pupils of the mission school, where are they? Do they realize that they too will stand before the judgment throne and there will be that fiery judgment as they stand before him to give account. And the children here, young people here, even if you stole just sugar or you had a fight, you argued with your... You're fighting with your sibling, you're scratching, you're getting irritated and all of that is recorded for you will give account before the judgment throne. God records it all for when it happens, at that very instant the books are opened. And you will know for yourself, this is my name now, this is what's written about me. A certain young man also had a dream. But when he related it, he said, actually I wasn't asleep and we then saw that it was actually a vision which the Lord had given him. He experienced coming into a place which was, where there was a huge space in this room. But there was nobody in this house, in this building. And as he looked at the walls which were so huge and so long, he could hardly see the end of it, it was also windowless. And he saw in this vision that the wall was made for him to sit on, to sit on the throne, to sit on the throne, to sit on the throne, to sit on the throne, to sit on the throne. It was just full of filing cabinets everywhere, from the bottom to the top. Now you know what a file is about. If you go to a state hospital, they'll say, where is your file? And they have a file that keeps all the records of your health and your past visits. And these files were from the bottom right to the top of the ceiling. And then he saw that there was a man sitting on the throne, sitting on the throne, sitting on the throne, sitting on the throne, sitting on the throne, sitting on the throne, sitting on the throne, sitting on the throne. And he saw that the folders were neatly laid out in alphabetical order. And as he looked at one, he saw that it held the records of all the girls that he had slept with. All the girls that he had loved. All those girls he had had affairs with. And he said, oh, he pulled out the file, opened it, and read page after page. He said, I was greatly shocked. Because all those names, I recognized them instantly. Nobody told me. But I felt for myself and I recognized and knew for myself where I was. Because in all these files, his life was recorded. And every moment of his life, every single day, every moment was recorded in these files. The big ones and the small ones of his sins. And as he related this version, he said, I got such a fright because things were recorded about my life of things that I had forgotten and I thought were gone. And so I returned that file to its place. But he said, I felt inquisitive as to the rest of the files. What could be written there, he thought. And so he just grabbed and he relates, he says, I just started reading them. Some things made him happy and he could rejoice. And some things made him so ashamed, so embarrassed, he wished he had a hole to hide in. He was so embarrassed and ashamed. To such a point that he glanced around, lest there should be anybody else who might be reading his file with him. Then he said, so nobody is watching and looking on? He saw nobody. Stretched out his hand. And he took out yet another file. The title of the heading on that file was Friends. And it was written there that these were friends where I'd broken their trust and had betrayed them. And he said things were written that astonished and amazed him. Now after that, he just felt this pressing urge to read further. He just felt it in himself even though there was no one. As he took another, as he took another, it was written, books that I've read. And he said, All that he had viewed, because all of it was in this file, every viewing, whether it was a book, a magazine, TV, the internet, all the things that he had ever watched and looked at. These files shook him to the very core of his being so that he trembled. Then as he looked, he took another file. And what amazed him and shocked him was that everything written in the file was recorded in exact detail, accurate to the letter. Nothing was changed. Another file was written on it, the title, My Voice and My Shouting and My Getting Upset with My Siblings and with Other People. And he said, I felt compelled. And he said, I felt compelled to read all of it and it related every occasion where he had got upset, angry. It was recorded the way in which I had answered back to my parents. And he said, I could achieve or feel no peace. I was trembling in such a way that I was overwhelmed. For these files were in such quantity, it was far above what he was able to even imagine possible. And he said, all these files, all these details written about him, he said it was a load, a weight that pressed him down. And he said, what can so much have been written and recorded and detailed in the files about me and I'm only 20? He has such a lot of, so many things taken place. He said thousands upon thousands of millions of things were recorded there. And each card, each file explained exactly the truth. He said, what astonished me too was that the handwriting about these records was in my own handwriting. I wrote it down. And he signed it off. In other words, he had signed saying that each one is exactly true. Then he said, I took another file and on it the label was lustful thoughts. This so shocked him. He felt that his heart was pounding. He got the cold shivers. And he relates that that particular file was very detailed and very thick. And he related, when I read these things, it was the greatest shock to me. My whole being was trembling with this judgment upon me. And he said, I felt sick. In the way that all of my life, every detail had been recorded. And he said, every single item, all the fine details was recorded. There wasn't anything left out. And he said, then anger arose within him. He had one thought in his mind. Not a single person on earth should ever read these files. And he said, not a single person dare enter into this huge hall and read my files. I'm going to destroy them. He felt like a person driven insane. I took the file, pulled it out. And he said to himself, I must burn this file. Then he said, I took the file and I threw it down so that it would be cast away. And he said, not a single page fluttered. It all stayed together. The whole file remained in its perfect condition. He said, because I started in the corner, taking each file and throwing it down, wanting it to be destroyed. The file was like rock hard, like steel. And he said, I was totally overcome, overwhelmed. I had no strength left. And he had to return each file in its right place. He said, I stood there with my forehead against the wall. And I said, oh, in exclamation, in a gasp, and it wasn't finished. It was then another file where it says the people whom I had preached to, whom I had witnessed to about the Lord. And he said, then I was happy for a bit, but it was so thin and so little that was written. And then it was the end. And he said, tears just came. They just poured down. As his tears streamed down, he said, I felt such pain in my heart. These things shook me and I trembled. And I wept for I was desperately ashamed. And he said, not a single person dared enter into this huge room. And when his streams of tears were coming to an end, he heard the sound of another person coming. And it was the Lord Jesus coming in. And he went straight to those files. And he says, I looked at him. And as he gazed upon this, he said, he went straight to his most wicked files. And saw the Lord Jesus reading it. And then Jesus turned around to him and their eyes met. And he relates, when I looked at him, I saw that his sorrow was far greater than mine. And his weeping was far above my own weeping. And it was as if though he was starting with the most wicked files, reading through them. He said, Lord, why do you read these files which were written by my hand? And he turned and he looked at me. And then I noticed that though his eyes had been weeping, his eyes looked as if though they were full of pity. He said, I could only look down and hide my face with my hands. And again, I wept like a little child. And then he saw the Lord taking more files. And as he was looking at these files and saw my signature, he then signed his signature on top of mine. With a red pen, as if though it was blood red, his signing upon my signature. His name, Jesus. And covering his completely. And he relates that after he had finished, he said, it is finished. He says, after that, he took me out of that room. There was no key for that room. He said to me, there are still other files which you are going to write. And then as we have read in our text, he sitting upon this enormous great white throne, he opened the books. Consider how it would be, think if your life would, in all its minute detail, would be exposed and revealed right now. And he said, the Lord said to him, as you are now leaving this hall, you are going to continue writing files. And I wonder too about us, we in this hall, what will we continue to write when we have left here? And he said, and though it is written here that the Lord wrote every detail, he said, I saw it that I wrote every single detail. And indeed, remember, you are writing files. You are signing your own warrant. Now let me leave that. But I don't want it to be lessened in any way. Go with it. Let it be around your neck. Let it be like something that hangs around your neck always. Like those who were Jewish. And know that you continue to write and it is being recorded in the books of heaven. And then it is written here, they were judged according to their works. Now a final point. He said, another book came, another file. When that book was opened, it was written the names of those who were recorded in heaven. Remember the incident when the disciples came back rejoicing after having been sent out to go and proclaim the gospel. They rejoiced that demons would leave people, healings took place. But the Lord rebuked them saying, don't rejoice over that. Rather rejoice that your names are written in the book of life. Is your name recorded in the book of life? And so Jesus was saying, don't be happy and rejoice in miracles that have been performed through you. That's not your source of joy, rather that your name is recorded in the book of life. So that when the names are read out, will your name be called? I wonder how you would feel if the list of those written in the book of life is being read and you're waiting, you're waiting for your name and your name is not called out. What would you feel? There's nothing wrong with me. It doesn't help to have a false hope like the man in the beginning of that illustration, which I related, where he stood before the great white throne and then a person came and accused him of this. Another person came and accused him. And Jesus said that many will come saying, Lord, Lord, but I will say to them and shaking my head saying, but your name is not recorded. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. So you see that iniquity is what you are living. If unrighteousness, that which is evil, because that is being written, even if you say, but I have things are fine with me. But every act of wickedness, the fruit of your saying, I have turned to the Lord is also recorded. Jesus carried your sins. But you've got to come to him. You need to come prostrate before him saying, oh Lord, I have sinned. Be merciful to me, a sinner. Truly repent. With a broken hearted sorrow. And that you call out to him and say, Lord, let me never ever do that act, that sin again. Let's bow our heads. Lord, we hear that you will return on the final day on your great white judgment throne. And that every single person ever, whoever existed in this world, even those who are dead and buried or under the sea, everyone shall be made to stand before you. Lord, may we be like that man with the heart of repentance who ran to those whom he owed and had a debt with to pay up his debt. So that when the books are opened and it is read out. That Lord can be said of us that, yes, indeed, we had sinned greatly, but you had forgiven us for we had come to you with broken hearted sorrow. Lord, we know that you have said in your word that he who covers his sin, he who hides his sin shall not prosper. Only he who confesses and departs from his sin will be justified. Lord, may it be that every single person here might find that grace. By confessing our sins and by parting from them. And Lord, I ask that by your Holy Spirit you would write this as a deep impression in the depths of our hearts. So that this picture would not be removed ever from our understanding. That we may have a heart unto wisdom. Work our Lord, for you have promised that everyone who is burdened and heavy laden should come to you and you will give them rest. Amen.