Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the gravity of the Judgment Seat of Christ, highlighting the finality of judgment for both the righteous and the unrighteous. He describes the book of Revelation as a profound revelation of Jesus Christ, underscoring the eternal consequences of one's actions and the reality of hell for those not found in the Book of Life. Ravenhill warns that all will stand before God, where their deeds will be revealed, and stresses the importance of living a life that reflects true faith and obedience to Christ. He calls for a deeper understanding of God's majesty and the seriousness of judgment, urging believers to consider their motives and the eternal implications of their lives. The sermon serves as a sobering reminder of the accountability each person has before God.

I want us to read from the book of the Revelation, and very often you notice preachers call this the book of the Revelation of St. John. That is not the title. It's the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. It's called, to the scholars, the Apocalypse, or again, the Revelation means the unfolding, the taking away of the veil, as it were. I find the book of the Revelation a book of mystery, a book of majesty, and a book of misery. Because it shows me the final stage of lost men, that forever and ever they're going to be cut off from God. That if there are a million roads into hell, there's not one road out. That if they continually sing in heaven, worthy is the lamb, in hell, the only thing they sing is, the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we're not saved. And I suggest to you in these awesome days of such universal chaos, in morals, in politics, in economics, that maybe every day this coming week you should read the 17th and 18th and 19th chapters of the book of the Revelation. You know, this book has an imprint on it that no other book has in the whole of the Word of God. Because in chapter 1 verse 3 it says, blessed is he that readeth and they that hear. There's a lot of people that read, but they don't hear. Blessed is he that readeth and heareth the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand. Let's go to the 20th chapter in this book, Revelation 20, and read from verse 11. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it from whose face the heavens and the earth fled away, and there was found no place for them. 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. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell were delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death, and whosoever was, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire. Step over a minute into the third chapter of Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 3, and we read there from verse 9. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 9. For we are laborers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon, for other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it. Because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what thought it is. If any man's work abide, which he buildeth thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Now back to Revelation chapter 20 again. The judgment of the sinners. I saw a great white throne, typical obviously of purity, and him that sat upon it. Now we read these things and they kind of slide over our minds, but listen to the awesomeness of this. From whose face the heavens and the earth fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened. Various titles have been given to this awesome event. John Wesley called it the greater size. Billy Sunday in his wonderful way called it payday Sunday. A cowboy preacher preaching on it called it the last roundup. Destiny. Or better still, or more awesome still, you could call it a day with destiny. Or if you like, you could call it your day in court. Now this book begins, the book of the Revelation, by telling us these things will shortly come to pass, and that was two thousand years ago. In a very brief but very brilliant biography of one of the greatest preachers that ever preached in America or England, the biographer says that this man, well he had strange habits, and one of them was to carry in the right-hand pocket of his coat, a handful of precious stones. A diamond, a nemethist, a sapphire, a ruby, an emerald, and so forth. To add to his strange ways, he would walk into a park where people were going up and down, and he would put his hand in his pocket, and take one of those precious stones, and then he would hold it up to the light of the sun, and he would lure it, and hire it, and seek this different shades from it, or different illuminations from it. And people would go past, particularly children, and you know, they'd do this, you know how they do that, you know. I don't mind people doing that. If they want to point to their own heads, that's okay, they point to mine, it's something else. But the children were doing this, you know, there's something strange about that man. And, and there's an old saying that Potter envies Potter. Preachers don't usually criticize singers, they criticize preachers, singers. And these preachers were sitting around a table one day, eating in England, and they began to discuss this famous preacher. And one of them said, I heard him the other night, he was awesome, he lifted us into eternity, he has a vast vocabulary. I hardly knew whether I was in the body or out of the body. And then my little boy said he'd seen him in the park, playing again, like a child plays with marbles, playing with precious stones. A hymn writer wrote about the Bible, and he called it a golden casket where gems of truth are stored. It is the heaven-drawn picture of Christ, the living word. There are roughly three-quarters of a million words in the Bible. I suggest that like that man selected his stone and lifted it up to the light of the sun, that we select one word out of this golden casket, and that word is judgment. And we hold it up to the light of eternity. And you can tell God you're not concerned about what this preacher says, but say Lord, give me some new illumination on this awesome fact of judgment. I thought repeatedly this week of that awesome sermon, one of the greatest ever preached in America. Back in the 1700s it was preached by Jonathan Edwards. We're told he brought his manuscript and he had a candle there, and he wasn't very good looking, and he had a big nose, and he thumbed and he read with monotonous, you know, routine. He read that sermon, sinners in the hands of an angry God. And people fell off their seats and they clung to the pillars that were holding the gallery up. And he didn't say, oh friends please excuse me, I never meant to embarrass you like that, there's some psychological phenomena going on here. But while they were laid out, he just lashed them with the word of God. And people cried out in their despair. There was a reason for it, because before he had prayed over and over and over again, oh God, stamp eternity on my eyeballs. I don't know anybody else that ever prayed it, maybe we said it. But you know, if God should stamp eternity, or even judgment on our eyeballs, or if you like, on the fleshy table of our hearts, I'm quite convinced we'd be a very, very different tribe of people, God's people in the world today. We live too much in time, we're too earthbound. We see as other men see, we think as other men think. We invest our time as the world invests it, we invest our money. We're supposed to be a different breed of people. It must have been very awesome in the days of his flesh to get up one morning and say, well I'm not going to work, I don't know who this man is, but I'll tell you what, I'm so stale and dried up, and I've been to the synagogue and the temple, and those old boys mutter, and they quote about somebody coming, and they don't believe he's coming. You know, Enoch says, that said, Jude records, that Jesus will come with 10,000 of his saints. Why did he come that way the first time? Why did he come sweeping through the sky when it was as black as night over Jerusalem? Why didn't he come with 10,000 saints? Why didn't he come with a sound of trumpets? Why didn't he capture the world like that? He didn't come that way. And when he did come, they couldn't believe that somebody clothed in flesh and blood, walking around without to eat and sleep and do everything else like we do, was the Son of God. But he began to stir Jerusalem. And you might have gone into the, into town and say, well I've been on business in Jericho, you know, I've got to look after affairs. What are you excited about? Oh, we went to see this man Jesus, this, this fellow that the synagogues are disturbed about, and the, and the priests are criticizing. And you know, he does amazing miracles. Why? Why, he unplugs deaf ears, and he casts the demons out of people, and he cures leprosy. And you know what he did yesterday? He actually raised a man from the dead. My, that must have excited them. Jesus going to the tomb and saying, roll away the stone. He didn't roll it away. He gave wine at the feast, but he said, you fill the water pot. There's some labor we have to do. You put the water in the, in the water pot, I'll turn it into wine. You roll the stone away. And then he cried with a loud voice, loud voice. My, that would have excited me. I don't know about you, I'd have hit the ceiling I think. He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, as Campbell Morgan says. He said, Lazarus come forth. If he'd just said, come forth, all the cemetery would have come, and it wasn't time for them to come yet. So he just said, Lazarus come forth, and he came forth. He was alive, but boy, he was bound with gag with, and on his face, he had great clothes, he could only shuffle. His hands were tied, and that's true about 95 percent of believers today. They're alive, but they're gagged, they're bound, they've still got great clothes. And Jesus says, loose him and let him go. We're bound by superstition. We're bound by the theology of our grandfathers or something. But the church is gagged and bound. She needs release in this awful hour in which we're living. And the only one that can bring that release is Jesus Christ himself. Why, even the disciples, well what do you think about him after now? He, he's even raising the dead. And Jesus says in John 5, 28, listen, don't marvel at this. Oh, if this stirs your way, I've got a word for you. He says, the day is coming in the which all who are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God, did you get that? From Adam, wherever he is right now, in the, in the sands, in the dust, all who are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God. You see, Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life, and I believe he did rise from the dead. Not because of that long list in 1 Corinthians 15, but away at the end of the book of Revelation, he says, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and hell. Don't you believe that old bachelor in Rome? You don't know who he is? Well, it's the Pope. He says he has the keys, not on your life. Jesus has the keys of death and of hell, and of the voice of the Son of God. Won't that be amazing when he says, rise, all that are in the sea and all that are in the grave. I crossed the Atlantic, I guess, about 18 times on the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, United States, and after dinner at night, when people went to smoke and drink and dance and everything else, I walked up and down the deck and almost every time I crossed it, I looked overboard and I said, hey, you down there, you're going to get up one day. You buccaneers who died in the Spanish Main, stealing treasures, and the folk that sank in the Lusitania, and the people that sank in the Titanic, and the people that sank in all the great ships during the war, are the voice of the Son of God, they're going to rise. Millions of them, billions of them, trillions of them, and they're all going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ. That's going to be a spectacle. Oh, where is it going to take place? I don't know. You see, this book of the Revelation is not only at the end of the Bible, but it deals with the end of time, and then it deals with things that happen at the end of the time. And it's the only book in the world which is authentic. And everyone that is dead is going to hear the voice of the Son of God. Look for a minute at that sixth chapter in the Revelation. Look at verse 12. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, O there was a great earthquake, the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, even as a fig casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a straw when it is rolled together. And every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bum, and every freeman, they hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day is In the end of the book of the Revelation, it says of the redeemed, which is in the other judgment, that they're going to come, and they long to see his face. Again, Fanny Crosby, blind for 84 years. And when somebody said to her, it's a shame a great Christian like you is blind. You can't see the sunset. You can't see the lovely flowers. You're at such a disadvantage. Oh no, she said, I'm at a great advantage. You know, she was the first woman in history, in American history, she was to address the joint, what do you call them, different sections of congress. She addressed the senators, and she addressed the congressmen, and she addressed the whole government. The first woman in history, a little blind woman. And they said, and you never see the sunset. God has denied you so much. She said, my dear, I've a great advantage over you. What's your advantage? She said, don't you realize the first face I ever see will be his face? Do you wonder she wrote so many hymns about his face, seeing his face? That will, that will leave a spellbound when we see his face. But here, the great men, the rich men, the mighty men, the rulers. I saw the dead, small and great. Every king, every king that's ruled over England, the caliphs of Baghdad, the maharajahs of India, the multimillionaires, the billionaires. They're all going to stand one day, can you imagine it? At the judgment seat of Christ, to give an account for the deeds done in the body. Well, of course, if you have a judgment, you must have a judge. I do not have any pictures of Christ in my home, because I don't think you should make any great likeness of any graven image, and nobody knows what Christ was like. You see pictures of Jesus as a baby, you see him as a young man, you see him sometimes on the back of an animal riding into Jerusalem, that there's a picture I've only ever seen once, and it was so grotesque I didn't look a second time. At the voice of the Son of God, they're all going to rise and face the eternal judge. What will he be like? In Australia they show me the picture that they have, a beach, beach cross, there's somebody, Beecher, painted a picture of Christ in Australia. He's got lovely blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and a lovely flaxen beard. Well, I don't think that was a picture of Jesus. And the Chinese have an interpretation of Christ through their artists. And there are some dreadful pictures, I think, that have been given by the great masters, so-called. And they've given us pictures of Jesus, but I'll tell you what, it's a very different picture in the Word of God. I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ needs a new revelation of the Majesty of God. This is what? This is the King of Kings, and he's the Judge of Judges, and it's the Tribunal of Tribunals, and there's no Court of Appeal after it. The verdict is final. There'll be no biased judgment. Two people at least have said to me this week, there is no justice in the earth today. Maybe there isn't. But I hang on to a word that says, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? The Apostle Paul got a picture of Jesus, not with a lamb in his arms, not like the stained glass windows in our so-called cathedrals, where Jesus looks pathetically feminine. He sees Jesus and he says, here he is, he's the King Immortal, Invisible, the only wise God to whom be praise and glory forever. So we're going to see the King of Kings, he's the Judge of Judges, in the Court of Court. In the final Tribunal, there is no Tribunal after this. This is finished. And when I hear people singing, you know, put your hand in the hand of him that walked on the water, forget it. Or the new song that's out, shake hands with Jesus. Listen, when you see Jesus, you're not going up and say, hey buddy, I'm glad you died for me. When you see Jesus, you'll be almost paralyzed with fear, unless you have a glorified body and a glorified mind. Who is writing the book? This is a revelation to a man on an island, on a devil's island. The worst place, the gathering of the scum of the earth, and here he is. And if you'd gone to him that morning and seen him sitting on a rock contemplating, you might have said to him, well John, I didn't expect to find you in this hellhole with all these demon-possessed men. And here you are in the Isle of Patmos. He said, no I'm not, where are you? He said, I'm in the Spirit. He was in the Spirit when this enormous revelation was given to him. The picture of Jesus here is not the picture of a pathetic individual pushed around by anybody who wants to push him around. I think sometimes we think we're going to march up and say, well you know Jesus, do you know how many years I served you, and how many souls I won for you, and how many sermons I preached for you? Oh no, no, no, no, no. Well what will he be like in heaven? Well I'll tell you what the book says he'll be like. It says his hair is as white as snow, his feet are like burnished brass, his face is like the sun in its strength, his eyes are living coals of fire, his tongue is as sharp to edging swords. And here is John who used to lean his head on the bosom of Jesus and hear that divine heartbeat. The man that I believe knew more about Jesus than anyone else. And when he saw Jesus there on his throne in his majesty, with his face brighter than the sun, with his feet like burnished brass, with his eyes like flames of fire, with his tongue majestic and his voice like the sound of many waters. John the man who had walked with him and talked with him for three years says, that when I saw him I fell at his feet of dead. What do you think you and I are going to do? We see there's a judge in all his awesome majesty, in all his glory. And we have a picture here of the unholy dead, small and great, standing before God. And when they see him in his awesome majesty, no they don't worship it, they're terrified. This is a great exposure. Someone called me last night and said, be sure you listen to 60 Minutes tomorrow night. Because you see, the Shah was interviewed I think, I believe by 60 Minutes, and he said, I'll tell you everything that Henry Kissinger told to me. And Henry Kissinger says to the ABC or whoever organizes the 60 Minutes, if you put that on I'll sue you for I don't know how many million dollars. But he said, instead of that let me come on on the 20 Minutes and you can interview me. And so they said, all right. But this week he reneged. He said he won't come. And I understand tonight they're going to tell us what the Shah said, and the agreements he made. Oh yes, Mr Kennedy got away with it, whatever happened at Chappaquiddick. The little girl that was drowned, or was she murdered, or was she pregnant, and snuffed away. But Mr Kennedy forgot one thing, it's going to be exposed at the judgment seat of Christ. They couldn't find the 18 Minutes on the tapes of Mr Nixon. Well I'll tell you he's got a perfect record of them. And they're going to be read out one day before millions. You say Mr Raymond, I couldn't stand up there or anywhere else. I'm so nervous. If a few people look at me, I want to tell you something, there'll be a thousand million or trillion people when you stand there at the judgment seat, without your wife to lean on, or your husband, or your preacher, or a friend. And it's, Paul is writing in the 14th chapter of Romans, and he says we, so he writes off even to believers at the judgment seat. We must all, there's no exception, we must stand at the judgment seat of Christ. You can't send your lawyer, you can't send a representative, you can't send a preacher who says, well I understand this person who's always falling up and down, and in and out, and it isn't the way they were. I'll explain it to you. And the Lord says you won't do anything of the kind. Can you see those millions of unholy dead? All the criminals that ever lived, every prostitute that ever went on the, on the tour? Can you, can you think of all the men who make millions out of pornography? Can you think of the pimps who pollute those little girls that go to West 44th, West 42nd Street in New York, and they go to all the hell holes? Can you imagine when God takes all their history and empties it? When every man that ever walked the streets of ancient Babylon with all its lust? Or Corinth, which was just one colossal cesspool of impurity? All that happened at Las Vegas last night is going to be thrown on the screen in eternity? Every judge that sits in the high court, he's going to be judged one day by an infallible judge? How long will it take? I don't know. And I don't think the redeemed will see all the unholy dead judged, but they, the unholy won't see the, the holy people judged. They won't be there. It says the books were open. What books? You say, well Mr. Raymond, I don't, I won't be in serious trouble because, you know, I don't have a good memory. Well I'll tell you what, you'll have one that day. I didn't find the statistic because, because in one sense I didn't have time. But in Montreal, a few years ago, they, they, they put a kind of little electric gadget on the mind of a man, and they began to turn his mind back, back, back, and he could recite everything from about, the day he was seven years of age. It was all stored up there in the repressed complex of his subconscious, if you like. And they unfolded everything. There's nothing lost. It was all brought to the surface. Well if a doctor can put his finger on a man's mind and restore his memory, what do you think the Son of God is going to do? Oh there's going to be some awful, awful, awful revelations. Oh there's going to be some weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Oh yes, Mr. Kissinger, you're going to be totally exposed. What you and Mr. Nixon did, lying so long that we were not bombing Cambodia when we were ripping children to death. When we were baptizing them with fire and napalm and taking the skins off their bodies. I'd like to preach a series of sermons on this because, you know, the Word of God says there's going to be a judgment of living nations too. There are at least seven judgments coming up, just as there are at least five crowns for the believers. You say, well I'm not quite sure about this, you know. My, no, your memory isn't faulty. Everything you've done, every idle word you've spoken, every action. Let me say it here in case I forget later, I remember one day when I was talking with Dr. Tozer, as we used to talk together so often, he said to me one day, you know Len, I'm not really too worried about what I've done. I'm not too worried about the judgment even on my Christian life, which I'll have I know. But he said, he said it's the things I could have done that worry me. The things that I missed. We're not going to be judged just because of what we've done, we're going to be judged for why we did it. Not for the action, for the motive. What motivated your giving? So you'd have a plaque with your name on? Or you'd be at the top of the list for giving money? Why, why, why? What's the motive behind it? Going back to the unholy dead, they're going to stand small and great before God. Sometimes I look at my Encyclopedia Britannica and I think, oh that history is going to pass before me in flesh and blood, at the judgment seat of Christ. I'll be interested to see Julius Caesar and Tiberius Caesar. I'll be fascinated when Pontius Pilate stands before Jesus, I think you'll feel less comfortable than Jesus standing before Pontius Pilate. They're all going to stand there. The secret archives of our hearts and lives are going to pass before. Well you say again, I still hang on to the fact my memory isn't good. You know, it says the books are open. I don't know what the books are. I think the books of the ten commandments for one thing. I think the book of memory for another thing. You see, this memory is an amazing thing. But you know, memory will last into eternity. Oh I don't think the redeemed will remember their sorrows and heartaches, but I'll tell you what, the unholy dead will remember every time somebody put a tract in their hand. They'll feel it through eternity and wish to God it was there. They'll remember that they heard their mother's prayers. They'll remember every sermon. They're going to remember everything. Because one day a man in hell prayed. It was the wrong place to pray. He prayed to the wrong person. He prayed to Abraham. He got the wrong answer. Some remember in their lifetime that you had good things. But I don't want my brothers to come here. But Jesus says remember. Memory is eternal. It will never die. If you're an unfaithful man a thousand million years, you say well I came this morning, my wife wanted me to come, but I don't think I'll come again. I don't like this kind of stuff. Well friend let me tell you lovingly, go to hell and live with all the scum of the earth. You like to drink, go with the drinkers. You like to lust, go with the prostitutes. In hell, if you're given to lust after women, you'll have that lust, but there's nothing to satisfy your lust. If you drink, you'll thirst, but there's nothing to satisfy your thirst. You'll give a king's ransom for one drop of water. There isn't even a drop of water, never mind that precious wine you drink. When in God's name is the church going to open a heart again, and open a mind again, and see again that every man, I cannot, whether he flies his own private Learjet, or how many millions he has, or rules over a city, the great of the earth, and the scum of the earth, and the the unbelievers, they're going to spend their time in eternity. They're going to live there forever and ever. The good book says where they're wormed I'll snout. It will be awesome when we see the founders of these cults stand before God. The founder of Jehovah's Witnesses, as they call themselves, Russell, a man who wasn't very moral. And he's going to stand there, and people up there will scream, put him into the lowest hell, and turn the temperature up. Now listen, don't you worry about it. The judge of all the earth will do right. Hell won't be the same for everybody. Some will be beaten with a few stripes, some with many stripes. But I'll tell you what, I'd rather be the least in the kingdom of God than be the greatest in the kingdom of the devil anyhow, both in time and in eternity. I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened. You know some people today have great memories. When Themistocles was the mayor of Athens, he could recite the name of every person who lived in town, and there were 20,000 of them. I think it was Cyrus, the king of Persia, knew the name of every man that was in his army, and he never had to be reminded it. He faultlessly could recite the name of tens of thousands of people. The famous Sir Walter Scott, the great writer, the night before he was five years of age, so obviously he was just in four, and the night before he was saying prayers at his grandma's knee. And his granny said to him, now Walter, you tonight, do something else for me. Instead of just praying your prayer, recite a psalm. And he wasn't five years of age. Maybe granny was shamed, asked him. He recited the 119th psalm. That's one way from keeping, from going to bed early. The 119th psalm from the mind of a little boy, not five years of age. Oh, we wish we could scrub some things out there in eternity, at least lost men and women will. We read in the sixth chapter there of the book of the Revelation. They said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come, and who is able to stand? It says in the ninth chapter, verse six, in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it. They shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. I believe there'll be a day when a man will put a gun to his head and blow his brains out, and to his amazement he'll still be living. He'll throw himself from the top of the Empire State Building, or the top of a rock, into the valley, he'll still be living. They shall seek death, but they shall not find it. There's an awesome aspect for you. Men seeking death and they shall not find it. Do you remember that second psalm where it says, concerning men that God, he that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh, God shall have them in derision. Can you think a man plagued with every sin he's ever committed? Sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit. Sins against God, sins against men, and they're pursuing like the hounds of hell that are baying after him. And he said, if only I could die and get out of this. And yet if he tries to die, he will not die. And the scripture says, he that dwelleth the Holy God, now he's ceased to be a God of mercy. In the fourth chapter of the Revelation, you have a Christ on the throne, you have a rainbow over the throne, which is a covenant sign of mercy. You have four and twenty elders, but there's nobody here sharing justice with Jesus. He sits supremely on the throne. There's no four and twenty elders, there's no sea of glass, there's no rainbow of mercy. Mercy is gone forever. I care not how twisted and corrupt your life is this morning, you could be the most sensuous man. A soldier said to me one day, do you really believe that God, can God forgive every sin I've ever committed? I said, he sure can. That is, if you repent of your sin and you plead for the blood of Christ and you ask for mercy. But he said, you know what I'm haunted with? I was in the army so many years in other countries, and he said, I'm horrified to tell you this, but he said, maybe I've got about thirty children around the world. I've had sex with so many women, he said, that maybe I'm the father of thirty children around the world. Can God forgive all the rottenness, the corruption of my life? He can. Why? Because this morning, Jesus is on the throne of mercy. He shall find grace to help. But when we see him here, he's not on the throne of mercy, he's on the throne of justice. That tender Christ who went about doing good, and he kissed little babies and blessed people. Now, ah, there's nothing more beautiful than a little lamb. There's nothing more terrible than the wrath of the lamb. And one day God's mercy is going to be cut off, and then it'll be the wrath of the lamb. Can you think of all the tribes and nations? Can you think of Pharaoh standing before Jesus Christ and having to account for the massacre? Can you think of Herod the Great having to account for the massacre? Can you think of Hitler having to account for the massacre of, we're told, of six million Jews? Did you this morning, I mean, I know you had your tribulation, the bacon was burned, and some other tragedy happened, but did you think this morning that somebody for Christ's sake is going to lose his head in Cambodia or Vietnam or Russia? Do you think that Stalin ever dreamed that all the bloody purges he made, he'd have to answer for every precious drop of blood he ever spilled? The Psalmist David says, store my tears in thy bottle. I believe that nobody ever spilled a tear, whether it was spilled in, in compassion for souls, or it was, it was spilled because of a broken heart. It never fell to the ground, it was stored by God, and God's going to count them out one day. And people may cry, the Jews perhaps may cry, of Hitler, God scourge him, scourge him, turn the furnace up in hell. But listen, God doesn't need any reminders. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? If a man has to be cast away from God with his own sin and misery forever and ever, if his inner being, as it were, is torn with lust, if his mind is tortured by his wickedness, well what do you think it would be like if you killed six million people like that? God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing. I think one of the great tragedies of our day is that when Mr. Nixon was in office, 18, Dave Wilkerson told me one day when we were talking, he said Len, do you know that 18, 5, 10, 15, 18 different preachers went to Nixon, and not one of them ever got through to him? Watergate was not just a political tragedy or an economic tragedy, it was a spiritual tragedy. There was no Elijah to go there, there was no Nathan that went to David. And I think we'd better watch this business of, you know, God loves you, God loves you, and all the bumper sticker sloppy evangelism. Will you remind people of the goodness and the severity of God? Will you remind them that there's a day when mercy is cut off forever? Will you remind them that people pray in hell but nobody ever answers? The dead, small and great, are going to stand before God in that awesome day. And the book of memory is going to be open, and the Ten Commandments and other books that God has, they're going to be open in that awesome day. And there's no mercy. Mercy has gone forever. People will be saying the harvest is past and the summer is ended and I'm not saved. That great scholar Daniel Webster was once asked, what is the greatest thought? You have a colossal mind. What is the greatest thought that has ever traveled down the corridors of your mind? He said, I've thought many great things but the greatest thing that I've ever thought of, the most awesome, the most terrifying, the most shattering thought I've ever had, is my personal accountability to God one day. We all, without exception, must stand there. And I'm dealing that and leaving that section. I could stay longer. Remember, there's going to be a judgment of the living nations and so forth. There's going to be a judgment of angels. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, I guess, he says, don't you know that some of us are going to judge angels? But you see, the thing I'm really saying, I got through my introduction now, let me get to the business here. 1 Corinthians 3, this is the judgment of the believers now. We are laborers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builder thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. If any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work. Notice what it says very carefully here, what thought it is, not what size it is, not the quantity but the quality. If any man's work abide which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved yes as by fire. So Jesus said as it were, or the spirit puts these into little pockets, he says your life can be wood or hay or stubble or your life can be silver, gold or precious stone, and the fire shall try every man's work. Do you know this will be very, very significant to the people at Corinth? Do you know why? Because not too long before this was written, the whole city of Corinth was devastated by fire, and there were people whose houses were built with beautiful pillars of granite, and there were people whose houses were made totally of marble, and the poorer people their houses were made of just out of straw, and some people had houses made out of hay, and some people have houses made out of clay and straw and stubble. And when the fire swept through the city, everybody's house, if you had a house made of wood or hay or stubble, every house was devastated, and it was in ashes. But the houses that were made of precious stones, they were still standing though they were scorched too. And Paul is writing here and he says when you go to the judgment seat of Christ, even as a believer with all your work, they're either wood or hay or stubble or silver or gold or precious stones. Now let's visualize, we give a man over here ten thousand dollars and he invests it in wood. The next man is given ten thousand, he invests it in hay. The next man has ten thousand, it's in stubble. The man over here has ten thousand, he invests it in gold. Wouldn't get much at five hundred dollars an ounce, would he? And the next man at Silbury wouldn't get too much at twelve dollars an ounce. And the other man in precious stones. Now, this is your life's work. Your life's work is wood, hay, stubble, and the fire. Remember our God is a consuming fire. Sure God is love, but God also is a consuming fire.