Here Come Da' Dead

Great God, I come before you by the blood of thy dear son Jesus. I ask for your spirit to attend the preaching of your word. I ask for you to manifest your pungent presence among us and work in hearts tonight and come and disturb folks.

Lead some poor sinner here this evening to the very brink of eternity. Lift the lid off that bottomless pit and open their ears so they can hear the screams and cries of the damned if they are heading to hell. Then let hellfire flash upon their soul as a warning to repent and turn to you.

Open someone's eyes and let them see a bleeding and dying Christ on Calvary, hanging there with his arms outstretched and squirming there beneath the awful weight of sin. Awaken an alarm and save some sinner here tonight, I pray in the strong name of Jesus, Amen. My Bible says that, and it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this to judgment.

But there's a coming day, friends, when all mankind will stand before the throne of God and give an account of themselves at the final judgment. We see a vivid picture of this from the book of Revelation as found in chapter 20, beginning in verse 11. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.

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 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 not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. It's a great roll call of the ages as every person who has ever lived is summoned before that terrible great white throne.

That throne is so in its majesty that heaven and earth flee from it. Look at that judge who sits on that throne. See his holiness and authority.

Just looking at him fills you with dread. Listen to the march of the feet as they approach that throne. Here they come.

Here come the dead. Look at that mass of humanity as it marches toward that throne. Here come the dead from every civilization.

Here they come from every walk of life. Here they come. Look at them.

Here come the dead. The small and the great are there. The rich and the famous.

The somebodies and the nobodies. Here come the dead. They must all stand before that judge who has eyes of fire.

His books are opened and lives are exposed. Every mother's son will be examined beneath the intense scrutiny of that judge. Here come the dead.

Here come the Roman emperors. There's Julius Caesar and Tiberius, Caligula and Nero who fed Christians to the lions in the Roman Colosseum. Here come the world rulers.

There is Cleopatra, Napoleon and Alexander the Great. Here come the pimps and pornographers who trafficked in women. There stands Hugh Hefner who ruined generations of men with his perverted magazine Empire.

There stands mass murderers like Hitler and Stalin and Saddam Hussein. There are the great discoverers like Columbus and Marco Polo. Here come the famous Hollywood actresses and actors who clutched their Oscars in life.

There stands Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. There stands the rock stars who ruined generations of young people, influenced them to drugs and Satan worship. There's Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Here come the superstar singers. Why, there's Elvis and Michael Jackson, Sinatra and Crosby. There stands the billionaires of each generation who made money through God and life.

There stands the philosophers. There is Plato and Aristotle, Buddha and Confucius. There stands the atheists, Voltaire, Darwin and Karl Marx.

Here come the drug dealers and beer barons who ruined the lives of families. There stands the captains of industry and the heads of state. American presidents are there and English kings, popes and emperors.

There stands Pharaoh who stood against Moses. There's Bloody Mary who butchered Christians. There stands the great minds of all of history, Einstein and Edison, Nietzsche and Freud.

Here come the dead represent the art world. There is Matisse and Monet, Renoir and Picasso. Here come the literary lions, Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Flaubert and De Mausson.

There are the famous poets, Shakespeare and Poe, Keats and Shelley. Here's the great composers, Mozart and Beethoven, Bach and Chopin. The sports world, even a sports world is represented here.

Why, there stands Muhammad Ali and Babe Ruth, Arnold Palmer and Michael Jordan. There they are, there they stand, the small and the great, as they stand before God and books are opened. Each of their lives is exposed, revealed and reviewed.

Books are opened, evidence is presented and cases are reviewed. Verdicts are handed out for there sits a holy God and a broken law and the sentencing of the law must be carried out upon all guilty lawbreakers. One by one they stand before that great white throne as the judge of all the earth does right.

Free will by no means clear the guilty as they stand before God. A red glow flashes behind them as that lake of fire spits and sputters with terrible destruction. It's a heavenly courtroom scene complete with its participants.

The great white throne symbolizes purity and the holiness of God. Christ Jesus is the judge seated on that throne and if I may so speak the angels are the bailiffs in charge of the books. Satan is the prosecutor, the accuser of the brethren.

I hear a voice of authority as it calls my name. There I stand, trembling before that throne and before that judge. My sins accuse me.

My sins are stacked up and rise against me like a black mountain before me. There I stand by the dark shadow of my sins. I did in life sins of commission, sins of omission, willful sins, presumptuous sins.

My mouth is stopped as my sins accuse me. The strictness and severity of God's unbending law is held up against me as a holy and righteous God drops his palm line on me. He measures me and I fail that test for all of sin and come short of the glory of God.

A guilty sentence hangs over my head like the sword of Damocles ready to descend at any moment. My knees knock together like door knockers. The blood drains out of my face and my mind races back to a story I heard as a young boy.

It's a story about a man traveling through the city of St. Louis and it's a Sunday and he is a Christian so he parks his car at a downtown church and goes inside to worship. Once he's in there he realizes he is the only white person in an all-black church so he takes his seat on the back row. Up on the platform is the well-dressed elderly pastor who's speaking on his subject for that Sunday morning.

His subject is heaven. He begins a sermon by saying, some folks call heaven paradise, other folks call it Abraham's bosom. I like to think of heaven this way.

Here is Jesus just returned from his earthly ministry. He stands there at the pearly gates and old Gabriel greets him. Hello Jesus, sure is good to see you Jesus.

We sure missed you up here Jesus. Good to have you home Jesus. But wait who's that with you? Is that that thief from the cross? Oh no sir we can't have no thieves up here.

He's not welcome here. Jesus replied, never you mind Gabriel, never you mind. And just then Jesus put his arm around the thief and declared he's with me.

That's the story I'm thinking about is I stand guilty before that great audience and before that great white throne. My sins condemn me. I'm guilty as charged as I await the sentencing of the law as the verdict is about to be read.

I can see the red glow behind me of that burning lake as it flashes hell upon my soul. But just then there's a disturbance in the courtroom as my defense attorney, my advocate rises to his feet. He comes beside me and puts his arm around me and in a loud voice he declares let him in he's with me.

But then a shout of hallelujah rings out in that courtroom as I enter into God's presence forever and ever. There stands my loved ones and friends to greet me. It's a reunion unlike any on earth.

Bless God for his mercy and his son for his blood. The hallelujah chorus stands up to sing and the spirit and the bride say come and let him that hear it say come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.