The Last Judgment

Hebrews 9 27 declares and it is appointed unto man wants to die but after this the judgment there is a fact that you cannot ignore friend and there is a coming event which you cannot escape and to which I refer is the last judgment every mother's son will stand before God and give an account of how he lived during his time on earth our life and how we lived it will be reviewed by Almighty God in the presence of angels and man life is short and eternity is forever and you will either spend eternity in the presence of God in a blissful heaven or you will spend a crisis eternity in the torments of a smoke and hell most folks live their entire life with no thought to eternity but soon they will die and be thrust into a world they are quite unprepared for we live in a land of sudden death where when two people die one of them dies unexpectedly and suddenly a car wreck a plane crash an infectious disease can remove you suddenly and without warning friend you can be gunned down by a madman at any moment or a sudden heart attack can remove you life is uncertain I was at my daughter's college graduation last December and the very next day I had a heart attack and for the next two months I was in the hospital touch-and-go and I had to have quadruple bypass surgery I could have easily died but God wasn't through with me yet but God may be ready for you friend are you prepared to meet God my message today is entitled the last judgment and my text can be found in the book of Revelation you can turn in your Bibles there now friends we will be in chapter 20 and in verses 11 through 15 here now is the Word of God and made the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word 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 a 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 I will stop there friends I want us to see six aspects of our text today I will first list them and then develop them one by one I want us to see God's throne God's majesty God's review God's justice God's book and God's judgment let's look at these one by one let's first look at God's throne our text describes the throne with two adjectives great and white great speaks of a throne unlike any other it's immutable it's changeless and the color white speaks of purity it speaks of God's attribute of holiness so it's a great and terrible throne friend and that takes me to our second point God's majesty God is a sovereign who holds the universe in his hands and here in our text we see the majesty of a great God that is so awesome that the earth and the heaven flee from his presence those God haters who shook their fists in the face of God while on earth and dared him to do anything about it will tremble before his majesty on that day a man once told me that he and his buddies were leaning against the wall at a 7-eleven store when a police car pulled into the parking lot with its lights flashing and its siren on and it made all their knees go to trembling a rebel before Almighty God on judgment day will have his knees go to knocking because of God's majesty number three God's review this last judgment will be like a heavenly courtroom scene where evidence will be presented cases will be reviewed books will be opened lives will be examined beneath the scrutiny of the judge of all the earth if I may so speak friends in this courtroom scene the angels will be the bailiffs God will be the judge and Satan will be the prosecuting attorney but the evidence is presented and the guilty are arraigned and tried in Romans it declares the hopelessness of this situation for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God the sentence announced upon the sinner is guilty just then a form appears in the back of the room and he asked to approach the bench it is my defense attorney Jesus he stands beside me and puts his arm around me and announces to the court he's with me and his righteousness is mine glory hallelujah well let's look at point number four friends which is God's justice sin is transgression against God's law and the sentencing of the law must be carried out upon all guilty lawbreakers God requires perfection to get to his holy heaven and no man is perfect when you are held up against the strictness and severity of God's unbending law if you stand there in your own merits you will fail that test you must stand in the merits of another the Lord Jesus Christ listen friends I know I am a sinner and I need a substitute for sin and so do you friend so do you the only hope that poor little EA Johnston has is that Christ's life is laid down and applied to me well let's look at point number five God's book years ago I went to the Isle of Patmos and I visited the cave where tradition has it that the Apostle John received the book of Revelation supposedly he was an old man at the time and he laid his neck on a ledge in the cave where sunlight was and it was there that he received the visions he related to his younger scribes who then wrote it all down above the entrance to that cave painted a dove in a book God's book here in our text is the book of life and if your name friend is not found written there then I'll be held to pay for you because you'll be bound hand and foot and cast into the boiling lake of fire and that leads me to our last point point number six God's judgment in Malachi we read for behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up sayeth the Lord of hosts that shall leave them neither root nor branch God's judgment here is spoken of as an oven when I was in high school I had a job at a local grocery store and part of my job was to take the boxes that the produce came in and break them down with a box cutter then flatten them out and stack them on a two-wheeler and bring them to the back of the store where a old cast-iron furnace was to this day I can still feel the heat of those white hot flames that singed my face when I opened that heavy door God's anger against sin will burn like that furnace God is a God who must punish sin when Christ was nailed up on that cross every stroke of the Romans hammer was an explanation point that God must punish sin God must punish sin God must punish sin listen friends you must be washed in the blood and born from above to escape God's wrath on sin my question to you friend is where will you spend eternity are you saved have you ever been awakened to your lost condition and shown your great danger of dying in your sins do you know that God commands all men everywhere to repent do you know what repentance is repentance means the love of sin dies and you must turn and forsake your most beloved sins if you want to be safe friend cast yourself upon a blood-stained Savior from sin the Lord Jesus Christ he is the only remedy and refuge for sin Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh on to the father but by me Jesus is the pearl of great price we're selling all for and losing all for us so he may be gained come to him and believe on him surrender all you are to all he is and he is Lord and he has a pure gospel promise to all who come in repentance confess and they are sinners and own them as their Savior and Lord all that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out I'm gonna sing a hymn friend and if God's been dealing with your soul through this message if you've been convicted of sin if you see your need of a Savior from sin then come to Christ friend for forgiveness of sin you come as a sin as I sang what can wash away my sin nothing but the blood of Jesus what can make me whole again nothing but the blood of Jesus Oh precious is the flow that makes me white as snow no other fount I know nothing but the blood of Jesus