In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of personal accountability before God. He describes a scene from the book of Revelation where God is depicted as sitting on a throne, surrounded by 24 elders. The speaker highlights the significance of what is not seen in this scene, suggesting that it represents a moment of individual judgment and personal responsibility. He warns that there will be no external help or pity on this day, as it is solely between each individual and God. The sermon also touches on the idea of God's providence and how He will pursue and shape the lives of believers.

It's a tremendous privilege for me to be with you here this afternoon. It's a tremendous privilege. You know, there's a lot of conferences on seeking God. A lot. But my and large men talk a lot about seeking God. There's not many men who seek Him. So much can be said and so much can be taught. When the only thing that needs to happen is for a great emptiness to come into your heart and the realization that only God can fill it, then you're driven like a madman. You'll find no peace, you'll find no rest until He moves upon you. Young men, what you need is more than what can be given you here. Young women, the same. You know what you need to do. You need to seek Him. And that is part of sanctification. God will spend the greater part of the rest of your life creating and revealing need. If you belong to Him, He will not allow you to be satisfied by any lesser thing. He will drive you. He will take away and rob you of all satisfaction and lesser glories. If you belong to Him. And He will make you seek Him. Sometimes in conferences like this I so appreciate them, but other times I just want to scream. Just go seek Him. He will be found by you. One of the great problems in the 21st century is we speak much about what God has done. But few men know the reality of what He will do, even in this present age. Let me just say this before I go on to my sermon, which is sort of a departure from what this conference is about. God can so move upon you in prayer that He will become the most real thing. So real that you do not know whether He has come to bless you or kill you. He could put everyone at this moment on this floor. He could raise everyone up to joy unspeakable. But don't think He is just a correct way of thinking or a letter on a page. If you see few men with the reality of God in their life, it is not God's fault. It is that men by and large are so entertained with so many things. Even good men entertained by good things. They do not recognize that the only thing is His presence, His power. This is eternal life, to know Him. In my life I have found that there are two ways in which the pursuit of God is initiated and is continued. The first is by thinking great thoughts of God. By studying Scripture, not in just a passing. Many of you memorized Romans 3.23 as one of the first texts you ever memorized as a Christian. But you could plant yourself in that text for an eternity of eternities and not exhausted. There is nothing common in Scripture. You have been called to leave the trinkets of this age and to seek out great thoughts about God. The greater He is before you, the more you will seek Him. The other way in which God will both initiate and continue growth in your life is by breaking you into a million pieces. By encompassing you with His strong arms of unconditional love. By cutting you off and cutting you out. By taking away and adding to His providence in your life. There are many evidences that would tell us whether a person is born again or not. But one of the greatest evidences in my opinion is the inescapable providence in the life of a believer. God will chase you down. You will belong to Him. He will have it no other way. He is a very, very jealous and zealous God. So if you belong to Him, you will seek Him. Not simply because He has given you a new nature, even though that may be the basis of it. Not simply because He has put the Spirit to dwell in your heart. But His providence will demand it of you. He will take away your ministry. He will take away earthly joys. He will do anything at everything, sparing no cost, so that you will belong to Him. Now, this afternoon, I've got just a lot of pages of notes that I want to go through. It's not something I usually do, but I want to talk about eternity. I want to talk about eternity. And I don't know what it is, but usually in conferences like this, I'm so often drawn to young people. Young people who have been brought up hearing the Word of the Lord. And not recognizing two things about what they've been given as a privilege. One, it is a great privilege. The other is it a terrifying responsibility. So I want us to go to the book of Revelation, chapter 20, verse 11. Then 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 books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which are written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in them. And death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds. Then 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 fire. In genuine Christianity, it begins with a crisis. A confrontation. We see this perfectly in the example of the Apostle Paul. On his way to Damascus with certain plans. And his entire life, not simply his life, we can use a broader term. His entire reality is pulverized and replaced. So that he is left without eating or drinking, because literally everything in his life has collapsed. I understand, and it's quite a popular thing to say that the Reformers were always saying, Semper Reformando, which means always reforming. But we are always in need of a continuing and ongoing crisis of reality. We constantly need something to break through and bombard our lives with truth. With reality. With eternity. Because one of the things that the enemy does so well is to draw our thoughts away from that which is not eternal. From that which does not matter. It's nothing more than a pauper's dream. It comes and it goes and we worry about it so much and we forget that we are all standing with half our feet over the brink of eternity. We need passages like this. We need to understand that this is not a matter of mere convenience or a better life. It is a subject of life and death. It is a subject of eternity, of heaven and hell. It needs to be burned into our hearts and burned into our minds because the devil has won when he has made you think about more temporal things. So we'll look at our text. I want to begin with the first word, then. He says, then I saw a great white throne. Then. Literally, it's and. And I saw a great white throne. And that and links us up with the verses that proceed. And what's going on in the verses that proceed? Well, there is something that has to be done by divine providence before there can be a new heaven and a new earth wherein righteousness and joy dwells. And what must be done? The devil must be cast out. He must be judged. Nothing good can arise until he is dealt with. He's like a cancer, a malady, malignant and evil. And there'll be nothing of a new heaven and a new earth until God deals with him. But then, after he has removed this great obstacle so that he may go on and create a new heaven and an earth, after he does this, he turns his attention toward wicked men. And this is what you need to understand. If you're here tonight and you do not know Christ, you do not know Him, and you go on not knowing Him until either He returns or you die. Know this. After he has dealt with the devil and put him out of the way so that he can create a new heaven and a new earth, something still must be done. He has to get rid of you. He has to cleanse creation of you before the new creation can begin. Now, I don't know if many of you have listened to this story or seen it on television or read it. The Ebenezer Scrooge. And Ebenezer Scrooge is transported into the spirit world and he's privy to a conversation of some people talking. And they're talking about this horrible man, this wretched man, this unloving man. And he can see that this man is bad and that no one cares whether he lives or dies and that when he shows up, it just ruins everyone's fun. And he's wondering, who is this man? Only to discover with terror that the people are speaking of him. Imagine that you're privy at this very moment. Unbeliever. To a conversation between God and the elect angels. And they are talking about a malady, a malignant tumor, an evil, a vice that must be dealt with before the new heaven and the new earth can be created. And you're thinking, who is this? And then they call your name. They're talking about you. You must be dealt with. You must be removed. You who have rebelled all your life against God. You who have rejected His Savior, His only begotten Son. You who would not turn if you are not terrified. It's only because your eyes are blinded. It goes on and he says, Then I saw a great white throne. Literally, in the Greek, he says, I saw a throne. Now this throne, literally, is a throne seat or a chair of state having a footstool. It's a magnificent thing. And there is a sense in which everyone on the face of the earth, like John, needs to see a throne. Those of us who are believers, we need to see a throne. We need to constantly be beholding a throne. Even in these times that we're living in the United States of America and all the confusion and convulsion in this world, we need to constantly have our eyes upon a throne. It's like Isaiah when the good King Uzziah died. He saw also the Lord high and lifted up, seated upon a throne. The believer needs to constantly have that in view. And in that there is great encouragement, even in the light of our own failure and sin. Because He is Lord even over me and my sanctification. And He is working everything for my good. But at the same time, the unbeliever needs to see a throne. Oh, if you only knew what you are doing, you would stop it. You need to see a throne. Why? Because it is a tribunal bench. It is a judgment throne. In one place in Scripture, Paul tells us that it's the judgment seat of Christ. In another place, he tells us it's the judgment seat of God. Nevertheless, there is a throne. You will stand before it. You will be judged. Take it as a certainty. Take it as an absolute certainty. Take it as the most certain thing that's ever going to happen in your life. For it is appointed unto man once to die. And after that, the judgment. Now, the Scriptures tell us that Christ, the Son of God, in His earthly pilgrimage, that He stood before a throne, a judgment seat of a man called Pilate. But it shows us here that one day, Pilate, in the greatest of the kings of the earth, will stand before a judgment seat that belongs to Christ. Pilate judged Him wrongly. Pilate trifled with Him. Pilate did not know who was standing before Him. In the same way, you have gone years and years and years nonchalantly hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ and not realizing how you trifle with the Son of God. The same blood on the hands of Pilate is on you. It says it was great. It was great. He said, I saw a throne. I saw a great, white throne. Now, it was great in every sense that you can use the term great. It was great in appearance. It was great in its dimensions. It was great, and this is important in the Hebrew idea especially, it was great in mass and weight and infinite significance to this throne. And I want you to think about the word significant, because there is so much in your life that is absolutely insignificant. And the most significant thing that is going to confront our future age is this throne of infinite mass and weight. It's infinite in compass, in extent, strength, rank, eminence, esteem, virtue, authority and power. It reaches everywhere. It's like Isaiah when he says, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and His train filled the temple. There was no place in that temple where you could stand that you would not be standing upon this robe of sovereignty and power. There is nowhere you can flee that this judgment throne will not call you back, even if it has to grab you by the nape of the neck and drag you before it. Now, the greatness of the throne is absolute, but it's also seen in comparison to what's going on here. And I think if you'll just contemplate on this for a second, you will see the magnitude of this throne. Now, we know from this text that every man, woman and child, from Adam to the last one born at the coming of Christ, an immense multitude of billions upon billions upon billions of humanity all standing together. But when John gets a glimpse into the room, he doesn't even recognize them. He doesn't even see it. All he sees is a throne. That throne is so large that all of humanity dwindles to nothing before it. So that the words of the prophet ring true, even in the mouth of John the Revelator, that the nations are nothing. They are like a drop in the bucket before God. It was great. The greatness of that throne is described in Isaiah 66. Thus says the Lord, Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. The older I become and the more I look at the marvels of this world, scientific marvels, I'm absolutely astounded at the power of God. A while back I was watching a Discovery Channel program. It had this Bengal tiger who had killed this very large sort of antelope or deer right by the bank of a river. And it left it there and this immense crocodile came up and grabbed the antelope and then drug it into the water and was carrying it off. The Bengal tiger returns and sees it without one moment's hesitation, leaps into the water, thrashes this immense crocodile and then grabs the antelope. Now, it's in a swamp and so the top of the water is covered with sticks and limbs and leaves and moss. And so this gigantic tiger with just the muscles in its neck grabs a hold of that antelope and flips it completely out of the water and then swims to it and grabs it again and throws it further into the water, lifting the entire animal. And I just marveled at the power of deity. This is the One before Whom you are going to stand. Psalms 99.5 says, Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool. Holy is He. You are invited to worship at this footstool. Because make no mistake, you will be judged at it. You will be judged. It's a thing that rings in my mind. It's a thing that gives me a fright and a start when I put my little children to bed at night. They too will stand at the judgment throne of God Almighty and they know not what awaits them. And all the pleading and all the tears and all the prayers of their Father cannot avail against their stubborn will unless God has mercy. Now, the greatness of this throne, in a sense, is demonstrated to us. And where does the greatness come from? It comes from the One seated upon the throne. You see, there's nothing about heaven, in a sense, even worth talking about, except that it is touched by God. Except that it has to do with God. That's why this music about gates of pearl and streets of gold, it's upsetting to me. I don't care much for it. I mean, there are men on this planet who can buy gates of pearl and make their entire compounds and their mansions out of solid gold. That is not what makes glory, glory. It is God who makes glory, glory. And never forget this. It's also God who makes hell, hell. But the One seated upon this throne is the I Am. There's no one like Him. Try on this side of judgment to measure up your opponent. Compare him to a bear or a lion or a great wave, a tsunami. Try to compare him to an F5 tornado and it will all fall short. He is compared to no one. And so when you try to size up your opponent to determine whether or not you really want to go to judgment with him, beware, take the full force of all this world and combine it into one power and it's nothing before Him. He's the I Am. He's the Alpha and the Omega. He's eternal. Listen to me. There will never be a changing of the guard. If you do not like this divine administration, then realize it will not change. Do not wait another president or another royalty or another election. There will be none. And I dare say that the inhabitants of this world ought to know something. If there were an election, the infinite and most glorious beings of heaven would outvote the sons of men because they have seen Him. He's the Ancient of Days. Don't think that He's like me, feeble or crippled. He's ancient in His wisdom, ancient in His strength. He's not an upstart God. He's the eternal God. He's the invisible God. He's the blessed God whether you go to heaven or not. I can't quote Tozer accurately on this, but I can get enough of him in there to put his name on it. And as he said this, if all of the men were to go blind, it would not diminish the glory of the sun and the moon and the stars. If every man on earth were to become an atheist, it would not diminish the glory of God. He'll gain nothing from saving you. Blessed God, the Mighty One, the Holy One. One of the greatest mistakes that is made is that you attribute holiness to sinlessness. Now make no mistake, He is sinless. And that is one aspect of His holiness. But know this, He is holy in that He is separate. He is distinct. He is not. In other words, you don't know what you're going to encounter. But there are enough warnings in Scripture to let you know what you are going to encounter is holy. And there is none holy like the Lord. He's the God of gods. So make your gods. He'll tear them down. He's the King of kings. He's the Lord of lords. He is the Possessor of earth and heaven. He's the Blessed and Only Sovereign. He's the Lawgiver. He's the Judge of all the earth who will do right. And He is the One that must be feared. Isn't it amazing that God can get more wisdom out of the mouth of a pagan king than He can most contemporary preachers? Because He said this through Nebuchadnezzar, But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me. And I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever. For His dominion is an everlasting dominion and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, What have you done? And it is a white... I simply believe that John is using this word simply because there's not another word. I think the idea here is the color of white is representing a perfect holiness, a moral excellence, an unmingled purity, an unwavering, invincible justice. But white doesn't really seem to fit. I define this term based on what I see in Daniel 7-9. I believe that John saw the white hot flames of God's brilliant holiness. I kept looking until thrones were set up and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His vesture was like white snow and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames. Its wheels were a burning fire. It is a brilliance that you dare not see with the naked eye. You see, apocalyptic language, the language that is used in the book of Revelation, the language that is used among the prophets, I think is the language of the wild man. It's the language of a man, a prophet, who has had an encounter with God that is so great that his mind cannot comprehend it, nor does his language give him enough strength to describe it. And he's left there with mouth open, gaping, trying to find terminology, blazing like the midday sun in all its glory. It's not even the foothills of the fire of His holiness. It goes on. It says that it was white, that it was great. But there is something to be learned here, not by just what John sees, but there is something to learn here from what John does not see. I want you to go for just a moment to the book of Revelation 4. Verse 1, After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I heard like the sound of a trumpet speaking to me, said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things. And he says, Immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and one sitting on the throne. And he who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardis in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance. Around the throne were 24 thrones, and upon the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white garments and gold crowns on their heads. Out from the throne come splashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne, there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes, and in front and behind. Now that's a different description of the throne than what we have in Revelation chapter 20. First of all, notice in Revelation chapter 20 nothing is said of the appearance of the One seated upon the throne. God has spent a good many centuries revealing Himself to men. All the days of your waking life, God has been revealing Himself to you. Telling you over and over and over, either by the laws written on your heart and the conscience bearing witness, or by preachers faithfully preaching the Word of God, God has been revealing Himself and revealing Himself and revealing Himself to you. When John comes in chapter 4, God is revealing something. But here on judgment, all revelation is over. Nothing is there. The knowledge of God is gone. There will be nothing to learn. Nothing to hold to. Nothing to believe in if you already have not learned and held to and believed in. One of the greatest judgments God can ever bring upon a people is to take His knowledge away from them. And here when they look forward, they see nothing of a saving God. Also, notice that there's no rainbow representing any sort of covenant or promise. He has given you promise after promise after promise. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. It is as though for the last 2,000 years angels have been circling the globe with six wings flying, crying out. He died! He died! He is risen indeed! Come and eat and drink! Promise after promise after promise after promise. And you said, no, no, no, no! I don't care! The greatest thing in all creation. The greatest thing in all human history. The greatest thing in all the minds of all the godly creatures in glory. And you don't care! Also, notice that the smaller thrones that were placed around the throne in chapter 4 have all been removed. It's as though God is looking at you saying, this is between Me and you. No one comes with you on this day. No one stands beside you on this day. There will be no glance of pity. There will be no help from outside. It is just between you and Me. One of the most important things about this is God will be able to say to you, I told you to listen. I told you to prepare. I warned you and warned you and warned you. Now there is no help. You know, in our educational system today, it seems like everyone can spend the entire semester flunking and then they can go to the professor and ask for make-up work. There ought to be something I can do! And always the answer is, yes, certainly there is. We can find some way to help you. We are going to go to the most compassionate, loving being and He is going to say no. No. You look to those who are sitting on those 24 thrones and try to find them, you won't find them. If you catch them in an alleyway somewhere, or you catch them in a corridor of heaven, they'll run from you. God has told them to withdraw. You're alone. Notice also, there's no angelic choir with joyful singing. Not one voice of gladness can be heard. The silence is terrible and terrifying, filled with questions. What is this? But you don't want an answer because you know what it is. Your heart's been screaming this at you ever since you can remember. And now it all comes back with clarity. You see, for all your life, God has given you His truth, but your wicked, ungodly, evil heart has pressed it down and suppressed it and restrained it and said, I don't want to hear. I don't want to hear. But now even that is pulled back. Notice that there's no more lightning and thunder. You say, well, finally, some relief. All these Christians and all these preachers always storming and yelling and talking about judgment and thunder and lightning and law. Finally, that's all over. What you don't understand, and many people don't understand this, because they'll look at the Law of Moses. They'll look at that mount and they'll say, law. And then they'll look at the New Testament and say, grace. I look at that mountain and say, yes, grace. But New Testament, greater grace. Because you see, even the law was grace. Even the thunder and the lightning was grace. It was God crying out, listen and live. It was God saying, be instructed. You don't want thunder and lightning? The thunder and lightning that precedes a storm can be the very thing that saves you from the storm. But now all thunder and lightning are gone. There's no warning for you. What comes upon you comes upon you like a flood and there is no remedy. You can be the fleetest of foot and you will not escape it. You can be the most enduring swimmer, but you will not be able to escape its torrents. It's coming for you. Make no mistake. It's coming for you. Also, the seven torches representing the Spirit of God are gone. The only medium, the third person of the Trinity, able to take the Gospel to you, able to speak to you a word, able to draw you, He's gone. His ministry has been withdrawn. Now you can hear all the promises. Now you can hear all the warnings. If there were warnings, if there were promises, but it will be to no avail because there will be no ministering Holy Spirit there to make it real or to recreate or to condense. Also, there is no celestial pavement marking your way back to God. There is no sea so calm that it looks like solid crystal. Now it's just fury. The road has been broken up and retracted. You don't know where to go. And the calm sea across which you could have walked by faith is now a tsunami, a torrent to engulf you and send you to hell. Also, there are no angels ready to fly with burning coals in order to cleanse the guilty. There is no lamb in this picture of the throne looking as if it had been slain. And there is no trumpet saying, draw near. But rather you hear, depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I never knew you. When I look at my culture and the brilliant men of my day, I know that all the things I'm saying, please know this, I know they seem absolutely absurd, like I'm a by-product of some ancient, long-ago Victorian heir, a fool screaming out mythology and trying to convince men of a ghost. But I take great heart in that my Lord told me it would be that way. I stand not upon my own intellectual capability or my ability to judge my culture. I stand upon this. Jesus Christ really was God in the flesh. And everything He says is true. But other preachers, I don't care about other preachers. I care about Him. Well, who do you think you are? A lone island out there? No. Go back through history. Cut a mark all the way from the beginning and you will find these are the things men of God have always told people. Now, who is upon the throne? As I've said before, in some parts of Scripture it tells us that it is the Father upon the throne. Other parts of Scripture we read that it is the Son upon the throne. And this is a good lesson for all the budding exegetes and theologians out there. If you're trying to figure out exactly who it is, Father or Son, seated upon this throne, you are entirely missing the point. You are straining at a gnat and you're missing the greater, more important matter. What He's telling you is God in all the fullness of Deity is seated upon that throne. And that God has appointed a day when He will judge all men through His Son, through the man Christ Jesus. And He will judge them in righteousness. Now, notice this. That He stabbed. It's one of the most powerful things. Every time I turn on some news channel and I see the nations and the politicians and the captains and great men of this age raging and strutting with all their supposed power, I realize He sits. He sits. Even in the most amazing day of creation, even in the middle of the chaos of judgment, He sits upon the throne. The psalmist said this. Why are the nations in an uproar and the people devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His annoying, saying, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. I can hardly bear listening to most Christian radio and Christian news because you would think every day the world's coming to an end. The secularists and the materialists and everybody else are coming to steal our children. They're going to throw us all in jail. They're going to burn all the Bibles. God says, let them come and see what I do for My people. And that's why you should be looking to the throne instead of conservative politicians. One of the reasons God's judged this country is because many of the so-called Christians have turned their eye more toward conservative politicians than they have the God upon the throne. The church in a way, not the church, but Christianity in America is like the ugly girl at the school dance. She'll dance with anybody that looks her way. Every person that calls the name of an evangelical or a Christian, we're ready to dance with them. Cut the rope and let them all go. Turn our attention toward Heaven where God is reigning. So He sits upon the throne. And He is so great that the multitude is subdued by His appearance. If the full measure of all the strength of all the creatures in Heaven and Hell and the earth were to revolt against God and come at Him with their full force in one concentrated area of the throne, it would be as though the weakest of them was standing alone. It would be like a mite beating its head against the world of granite. But most of us, we worry about persecution not because we think the Kingdom of God is going under. We worry about persecution because we don't want to suffer. And we don't want to suffer because we think more about comfort than we do holiness. Let's go on. Whose presence, earth and heaven, fled away. The Greek word literally means to flee away, to seek safety by flight. Now, the very important thing here is from whom are they running? From whom are they running? They're running from the One who sits upon the throne. From the face or countenance of the One seated upon the throne. Sice says this. Now listen, this is very, very important what he says. This throne, for those in judgment, this throne has an awful occupant. There is no name, no figure, no shape, but only an awful, mysterious, and composed presence which can be nothing less than the One unnameable, indescribable, eternal Godhead. Here there is nothing but the naked presence of almightiness. And so dreadful that the very earth and heavens seem to flee into nothingness before it. This is often repeated, especially in the book of Psalms. In Psalm 75 it says, when I select an appointed time, it is I who will judge with equity the earth and all who dwell in it will melt. Now notice, here is something very, very important. It is one thing for inhabitants or men to melt at the injustice of a cruel tyrant. But this verse betrays our wickedness in that we melt before the equity of God. We melt before the justice of God. Now if I get an abate at times in evangelism and things, and someone says certain things to me, I'll say, well, men do not seek God. Well, why don't men seek God? Well, that's easy because God is good. And they'll absolutely say, well, that's preposterous. Why would someone not want to seek a good God? I say, only if they're evil. And the reason why you do not seek a good, loving God is because you're neither good nor loving. And so men melt not before the cruelty of God, but before the justice of God. The blazing white holiness of God. Psalms 97.5 says, The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. You will melt before Him. Well, you say, okay, let's just do it then. Get done with it. Therein lies the problem. It is an eternal melting. Well, destroyed once and then we're done with it. No. It is an eternal destruction. What does all this mean? I want you to listen to me. Those of you who are brave at heart and still convinced that you're going to be able to stand against this God, imagine that you're being brought to the throne room of God. You're walking down the corridors that lead to the throne room of God. And all of a sudden, you hear the most terrifying squeals and screaming of the greatest beings and things of all. You're marching confidently through the corridor saying, I will meet this God. I will stand up against Him. But as you're making your way there, the greatest things in creation are running the other way screaming with terror. How does that make you feel? What hope do you think you have? Things that could crush you a million times over and yet they run with terror. The earth and the heavens will flee away from Him. And then imagine this. As you enter into the throne room, everything that you've ever given your life for is being marched off to eternal destruction. Heaven and earth. Heaven and earth. Do you live for earth? Do you live for this shadow land? Do you live for this shadow on a cave wall? Do you live for this thing that's a dream, a vapor, and not even a reality? And will you throw away eternal reality for the sake of what's not real? And there was no place found for them. There's an argument here among theologians. Some say that they believe that the heaven and earth will be totally and completely destroyed and a new heaven and earth will be put in its place. Others believe that the heavens and the earth will be melted down to their most basic elements and out of that God will resurrect a new heaven and a new earth. Regardless of the two views, this is certain. The present order, created order, will pass away. It will. And it will never be remembered again and never come to mind. Isaiah 65. So all these things. Oh, I want the fame of men! It won't be remembered. The sky will vanish like smoke and the earth will wear out like a garment. Isaiah 51. And like a garment, they will be rolled up and changed. Hebrews 1, 11 and 12. The present created order will be burned up with fire. 2 Peter 3, 10-13 says, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up. What does that mean for you? This is not to be pondered theologically. This is not to turn this into a religious discovery channel of the end of the world. The question is, what does it mean for you? It means the earth and all that's in it is passing away. But the one who does the will of God remains forever. If we need to hear a word today, it is that we must live for that which is eternal. But we must judge and discern what is eternal. Not by a materialistic age and not by the whims of a pietistic culture. We must determine what is eternal by the will of God. Because within the will of God, it can be just as much eternal for me to fast weeks or to pray or to preach the Gospel or to die a martyr, or it may be just as much the will of God for me to take a vacation with my children and wife and rejoice in them. It is the doing of the will of God. I am so afraid, and I know this is kind of running a rabbit, but I am so afraid of our extremes. We're either extremely over here or extremely over here. Instead of learning to discern how to be full and how to be empty without being empty. How to live with all things and how to have nothing. Not false piety. Not everybody looks like a homeschooler. Just doing the will of God. Now, before you homeschoolers get mad at me, I homeschool. Now, He says, I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. The risk of being dramatic. John saw the necros. It is so powerful. Just that word. There's an edge to it. There's an ugliness to it. There's a nightmarish sound in that word. He saw the necros. He saw the dead. All classes and conditions of men. I want to go back to Ceas. I want you to listen to what he says. The great and the small. The big sinners and the little sinners. Rulers and subjects. Nobles and Flavians. The learned and the ignorant. The refined and the vulgar. The civilized and the barbarian. And emperors and beggars. All alike are there. But we read. We read of no white robes. No spotless linen. No palms in their hand. Now, listen to what he says. But naked sinners. And that's not the most terrifying part. But naked sinners before the naked majesty of enthroned almightiness. And they are awaiting their eternal doom. The Puritan writers in the Incarnation make much, as they rightly should, that when the Son of God became a man, He did not diminish His deity. But the glory of His deity was veiled in human flesh. And we all make much of, oh, that man could not even grasp the glory of God. And therefore, God became a man and walked among us. He took on flesh that we might know Him. Don't we realize there's an adverse to this? We rightly say that as the naked eye cannot look upon the naked Son without being burned in its retina and damaged forever, on that day, sinner, you will stand with no protecting film or fence between you and the majesty of God. And it will consume you. But now here's the most terrifying part of this passage. And I want you to listen. This is the only place in the Bible, the only place in all the Bible, where a writer, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sees you. You. This is you He sees. He sees you. Do you not hear what I'm telling you? This is the one place in the Bible where you are found. I often hear people say, oh, I wish I was in the Bible. I mean, even if Paul had just mentioned me in chapter 16 of the book of Romans like he did everybody else. Oh, I would love to be in... Wouldn't it be great to be in the Bible? You are in the Bible, but it is only here. John sees you. Maybe he saw your terrified, twisted face. In that multitude, you are a part of the dead. You say, why are you talking this way? Why are you trying to be so dramatic? How else do you want me to talk? If my child is about to walk off a cliff, wouldn't it be right for me to scream? If my wife won't listen to the doctor as he tells her she has a terrible malady and she wants to run out of the room, isn't it wise for me to hold her in the chair? How else do you talk about this if it's real? This is real. This is you. You are now dead. And you are standing naked before the naked majesty of God. It goes on. It says the great are there. Now I want you to know that when he uses the word great, it's the same word in Greek as when he describes the throne, but the meaning and the context is completely different. When he says that God's throne is great, he's talking about an absoluteness. It's not relative. It's not in comparison necessarily with something else. It is great. Absolutely great. But when he talks about great men, it is a relative term. Because men may be greater than other men, but before God, even all the combined strength and power and number of men is nothing, nothing, nothing. This is what the Bible says about men. In James 4.14, a vapor that appears for a while and then vanishes away. Psalm 62.9, men of low degree are only vanity and men of rank are a lie. You think you have some rank, some prominence among men? The whole thing you have is a lie. In the balances, they go up. They are together lighter than breath. And one of my favorite texts in the entire Bible, Isaiah 2.22, stop regarding man whose breath of life is in his nostrils, for why should he be esteemed? Basically, he's saying, why esteem a man? He's nothing more than a nose full of air. That's all he can count on. He can't even count on the possibility of having another nose full of air when that one wears out. But notice also the smaller there. The word is mikros. From the word is derived the English word micro. Now this is very important. We live in a culture, whether we want to recognize it or not, that hate the rich. We live in a culture that hate the prosperous. If someone's rich, if someone's prosperous, if someone's powerful, obviously they're corrupt. It doesn't even enter into our mind that they may have worked harder. So we're all about God got them. God finally got the rich. He finally got the powerful. He finally got the great big movers and shakers of this age that have ruined my life. They probably haven't ruined your life. They don't even know you exist. And we think God has gone after them. Well, He has. But also, He's going after the small. Your smallness won't help you a bit. But Lord, blessed are the poor. Yes, my creature. Poor in spirit. Micro. If you had to be viewed through even the microscope of the great men, you will still not escape God. The small will be there. And they will be there standing. All will be in attention that day. One of the things that so bothers me about me and about you and about praying is how nonchalant we are. Someone want to lead us in prayer? Sure, I will. Gracious Heavenly Father, what are you doing? You don't know much about the One to Whom you're praying. You don't do it that way. As it says in Malachi, take that service into your governors and see if they'll accept it. Talk to your governors with that tone of voice. That flippantly. You're just going to enter in? You're talking to a king. The king. You think about what you're going to say. But He's my Father. Yes, that is true. In more ways than you and I could ever know. But your Father happens to be God. The nonchalant attitude we have. But here, no one is nonchalant. Everyone is standing. And they're standing before a throne and they were told. That's the worst part about it. That's the worst part about it. Amos said, you are to prepare to meet your God. Christ told you, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and have to have no more they can do. But 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. Paul told you, we must all stand before the judgment seat of God and we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. You have been warned that you will stand and you will stand before Him. Prepare to meet your God. Because He goes on and He says, the books were opened. Now the plural here indicates something for me. That He is talking about volume. It is not a book briefly written. They contain the perfect and exhaustive record of the thoughts, words and deeds of every human being. You may be able to hide everything you've ever done and most certainly everything you've ever thought from the mind and eyes and comprehension of men, but you will not hide it from God. 1 Samuel 2.3 tells us He is a God of knowledge. Job 37.16 says His knowledge is perfect. Psalms 147.4 and 5 says His understanding is infinite. Isaiah 40.28 says it is inescrutable. God alone knows the heart of all men. 1 Kings 8.39 God tries the hearts and minds. Psalm 7.9 God knows the thoughts of man. Psalms 94.11 And God will judge the secrets of all men. Romans 2.16 Now the dead were judged according to the things written in the books, according to their deeds. Now listen to that. Listen to that. They are judged according to their deeds. The Greek scholar A.T. Robinson indicates this. He says the plural indicates the full orb of their lives. It is all that they did and did not do in every area of their life. So many times here in America, in our culture, we have compartments of our lives. We have segmented our lives. We think that only certain parts of our lives need to be religious or certain parts of our life need to demonstrate piety. But God is going to judge you for the full orb of your life. A.T. Robinson goes on to say this has always been the case. We are saved by grace, but character at last is the test as the fruit of the tree. Now listen to this. Matthew 7. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Revelation 22.12 Behold, I am coming quickly. My reward is with Me to render to every man according to what he has done. Psalm 62.12 You recompense a man according to his work. Jeremiah 17.10 I the Lord search the heart. I test the mind even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds. Romans 2.6 Who will render to every person according to his deeds. 1 Peter 1.17 If you address his father, the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth. Brother Paul, how does this work out? It only works out if you understand the doctrine of regeneration. That no, we are not saved by works, but salvation is a supernatural work of God whereby a man is made into a new creature recreated in the image of God in true righteousness and true holiness. And if he has truly been born again, no, he will not be perfect. Yes, he will have frailties, but he will be known by his deeds. Are you known by your deeds? See says, and listen to this, Heaven keeps record of all the deeds of men and of all the thoughts and feelings under which they act. Myriads of humans, beings have lived and died of whom the world knows nothing, but the lives they lived, the deeds they wrought, the thoughts and tempers they indulged, still stand written where the memory of them cannot perish. Not a human being has ever breathed earth's atmosphere whose career is not traced at full length in the books of eternity. Yes, O man, O woman, whoever you may be, your biography is written. An unerring hand has recorded every item with every secret thing. There is not an ill thought, a mean act, a scene of wrong in all your history, a dirty transaction, a filthiness of speech, or a base feeling that ever found entertainment in your heart, but there is described in bold hand by its true name and set down to your account to be then brought forth for final settlement. If not clean blotted out through faith in Christ's blood before this present life of yours is ended, think ye that fear not God and make nothing of trampling of His laws, how your case will stand when those books are opened." Now in his most ancient hymns, John Newton comes out with something that's absolutely... well, a lot of Puritans thought this way. Just something to think about. You will be judged for everything you did. You say, okay, I understand that. You will be judged for everything you did not do. You say, well, I understand that. So what's new? This is just something to think about. Many of the ancient writers said, and also, you will be judged for everything you would have done if God's common grace had not restrained you. You see, the morality you do have, sinner, comes from Him. The only reason you do not make Hitler look like a choir boy is the grace of God given to you. Now I know this is drawn on, but let me just finish. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them. As I was meditating on this text, several passages in the Bible came to mind. I just want to go through a couple of them. First of all, the earth delivered over its criminals to be judged. We're all familiar with statements in which God tells His people, Israel, that the land would vomit them out. Like the land vomited out the Canaanites, and thus Israel possessed the land. So after Israel's idolatry, the land also, as it were, vomited them out. But now, it says that the sea gave up the dead which were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them. Now why did they do that? They did it by His command. God called them forth. God called to the sea. He called to the grave. He called for them to obey Him in turning the criminal over. It reminded me of something in 2 Samuel. Do you remember when Seba, the son of Beatri, rebelled against the house of David? And so the men of David went after him. And so he goes to the city of Abel Beth-Makkah. And he hides there. And so David's armies arrive and they're going to tear down the wall of the city. They're going to tear down the entire city. And a wise woman comes forward and she says, no, don't destroy this heritage in Israel. We will hand Seba over to you. Can you imagine the terror of that man when he heard that? Here's an entire army out there. And they want to get him. He is taking refuge in this city. And the city go out and they say, no problem, we'll go get him and turn him over to you. The terror of having no place to hide. The terror as those townsfolk tore down the door and grabbed him and drug him through the streets and threw him through the gates. Well, there is a son of David who's coming with an army. And that son of David will command the sea. And the sea will say, Lord, have no problem with me. Let Your wrath not come against me. I will give them up to You. And then he'll call to the grave. And the grave won't protect you. The grave will not be your friend. The grave will say, yes, Lord. Everyone hidden within my bounds, I turn over to You. And the sea and the land and hell itself and grave following hell will come after you and deliver you over to the son of David to be judged. Now it says, and they were judged, every one of them, according to their deeds. Of all this speaking I've done, if only I would have read this passage and the Holy Spirit would have given you sense to understand it. You would then flee to the cross with everything you have. He'll do what? What did you say? Every deed? Yes. Every thought? Yes. Everything in the dark? My dear friend, you have done things and thought things so vile in the darkness of either your own mind or your own room that you would be ashamed for the most wicked man to know of it. Now imagine it being exposed before the blinding, brilliant holiness. And death and hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. Death is the last enemy abolished. For the believer, it is a source of joy. For the unbeliever, it is a source of terror because it is simply a prelude to the unbeliever's destruction. They are thrown. I want you to look at that. Then death and hades were thrown into the lake of fire. Now here's the question. Who did the throwing? If I hear one more evangelical pastor say, if you go to hell, it won't be because of God. God doesn't throw anyone into hell. Well, listen to what Jesus said. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear the one who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Alfred writes about the second death. He says this, As there is a second and higher life, so there also is a second and deeper death. And as after that life there is no more death, so after that death there is no more life. Thrown into the lake of fire. I hear preachers so often, vile, liberal, friendly men, and they'll say things when they're asked about why they don't teach on hell. They say, well, we just want to teach the words of Jesus. Let me just set the record straight for just a moment. We would know nothing almost about hell if it were not for the words of Jesus. You can search all the Old Testament and you catch just tiny, bare glimpses of hell that we wouldn't even understand unless Jesus had said more. You go into the epistles. You go everywhere. You will find almost nothing on hell. Everything we know about hell comes from the words of Jesus Christ. So don't set Him against Himself. Don't make these evil statements because Jude tells us He's coming with the holy ones to set that record straight with you. Sinner, we would know nothing about hell unless the most loving, compassionate person who ever walked the planet screamed it out to us more than he talked about heaven. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. The book of life, the role of the citizenship of glory. That's why when preachers stand there and they say, come to Jesus to fix your marriage. Come to Jesus to get you a job. Come to Jesus. He'll heal you. Come to Jesus. He'll do all these things. If an unbeliever heard that and was illumined in any way by the Holy Spirit, I believe he would stand up and say, if you're going to give a gospel call, don't teep in it with that. It is enough that He died and that He died for me. You need to repent of your sins even if He sends you to hell because He's worthy of you repenting your sins. You need to believe in Him even if He sends you to hell because He's worthy of faith. You need to worship Him and serve Him though He never turn a gracious cheek toward you because He's worthy. But know this, no one has ever sought the Lord that the Lord has not been found. Seek Him while He may. Oh, my dear friend, as most of you know, I believe in sovereign grace, but our minds are so limited in understanding that doctrine that we must be very cautious that we do not in the name of sovereign grace preach in a way that seems only to protect sovereign grace. We must preach the full counsel of God. We must tell sinners, seek the Lord. We must tell them, press in. When someone comes to us and says, I sought the Lord, but He had no mercy on me. Say, that's a lie! Because He has mercy on all those who seek Him. Seek Him. When someone comes to us with an inkling of wanting God, let us encourage them saying, He who began a good work will finish it. Let us be careful that we're not so careful. Let us preach the full counsel of God. He is mighty to save. If you go to hell, you go there by your own doing. Seek the Lord. Now I want to finish just by reading this again from the author. Listen to what he says. Men don't talk this way anymore. Oh there, ye unbelieving men, ye dishonest men, ye profane men, ye lewd men and women, ye slaves of lust and appetite, ye scoffers at the truth of God. How can ye escape the damnation of hell? Then he goes on to another group. Ye men of business, ye whose souls are absorbed with the pursuit of gain, ye people of wealth without riches toward God, ye passengers on the voyage of life without prayer, without church relations, without concern for your immortal soul, your God, or the eternity before you. Hear this! Hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure, and your glory and your multitude and your prompt and your rejoicing shall descend into it. Now another group. More of you would fit here. Ye almost Christians, lingering these many years on the margin of the kingdom, looking in through the gates but never quite ready to enter in, intending but never performing, often wishing but still postponing. How many people do I have come to me raised in godly homes, always wishing, always intending, always seeking without seeking? Say, Brother Paul, how can you judge them? How do you know they're not seeking? Because of the Lord's promises. They're true. Those who seek Him find Him. Don't blame this on a hiding God. It had always blamed on hiding men. Hoping, but without right to hope. We're a country who only makes half quotes. Benjamin Franklin said everyone has a right to their own opinion. The problem is that's not all he said. He said everyone has a right to their own opinion if they can defend it, if it's reasonable. Everyone has a right to hope. No, they don't. Is it a reasonable hope? Is there evidence for your hope? Make your calling and election sure. The appeal is to you. How shall you escape if you neglect so great a salvation? Some of you, you've watched your fathers and your mothers. No, not perfect. Yes, full of frailty. But a sincerity of walk before you. A brokenness before you. How shall ye escape if you neglect so great a salvation? And then finally he says, ye who call yourselves Christians but have forgotten your covenant promises, ye Terahs and Lot's wives who have started out of the place of sin and death, but hesitate halfway and stay to look back, ye baptized Judas's and Phalim's who through covetousness and feigned words make merchandise of the grace of God, see ye not that your judgment now of long time lingereth not in your damnation, slumbereth not? And if there be anyone oblivious or indifferent towards these great matters, if while I speak you yawn, if there be anyone oblivious or indifferent to these great matters, asleep amidst the dashing waves of coming retribution, the message is to you. What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God. If so be that God shall think upon thee, that thou perish not. For if any one be not found written in the book of life, he must be swallowed up by the lake of fire. I know that I have preached a long time. What does that matter? With these kind of things, repent and believe. Seek the Lord. There is hope. There is always hope. Seek Him. He'll be found by you. He will. Father, you have shown pity upon one worthy of pity. I love your pity. I love your mercy. You are such a rock that when I fall, I do not fall off of thee, but upon thee. You are full of pity. You are a great God. Open the eyes of those who are blind that they may see reality as it's painted by your brush.