Introduction:
The Last Trial in History (Rev 20:11-15):
- The Judge. (Rev 20:11)
- The Trial. (Rev 20:12-13)
- The Sentence. (Rev 20:14-15)
The more you know, the more you reject, the more you suffer.
Matt 10:15 - Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
Matt 11:20, 24 - Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. "But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”
Heb 10:29 - How much worse punishment,do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:04-01:05
Revelation 20.
01:06-01:16
Following the millennial reign of Christ we studied last week, we saw earth as it was meant to be.
01:17-01:25
And following those thousand years, Satan leads a revolt with all of the unredeemed on the earth.
01:27-01:46
And after that revolt is squashed, Satan is cast into the lake of fire with the Antichrist, a false prophet, and then every God-rejecting sinner from all of history will be resurrected to stand trial.
01:48-01:51
Remember, all believers are resurrected before the Millennium.
01:52-01:58
The Bible says at the end of the Millennium, all unbelievers will be resurrected for trial.
02:00-02:04
we're going to be talking about the last trial in history.
02:07-02:11
At this trial, there will be no defense.
02:13-02:14
There will be no appeal.
02:15-02:18
There's no grounds for complaining.
02:19-02:21
There's no outcry of injustice.
02:22-02:31
At this trial, a sentence will be passed and it will be immediately carried out.
02:33-02:42
And concerning this trial, concerning this passage, you know, Satan, his tricks haven't changed, like ever.
02:43-02:54
And even in the very beginning of creation, Satan sought to deceive mankind regarding God's judgment.
02:54-02:56
You remember that scene, Garden of Eden?
02:57-02:58
Did God really say...
02:58-03:22
I remember Eve was like, "Yeah, we're not supposed to have anything to do with that tree, because if we do, God says we'll die." And Satan says, "You will not surely die." And you know, right now, I know, getting up and speaking on this passage right now, Satan is whispering in people's ears right here, saying, "This stuff isn't true.
03:24-03:32
You surely will not die." And He's continuing to try to deceive you regarding the upcoming judgment of God.
03:33-03:35
But God has promised to judge.
03:37-03:43
And He's going to judge righteously in what is known as the great white throne judgment.
03:44-03:45
This is it.
03:46-03:58
This is the most sobering, the most intense, the most heart-wrenching passage in the entire Let's talk about the great white throne judgment.
03:58-04:01
This is the last trial in history.
04:01-04:05
And first of all, following the text, we need to take a look at the judge.
04:06-04:09
Look at verse 11, Revelation 20.
04:09-04:24
John says, "Then I saw a great white throne, and Him who was seated on it, From His presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
04:25-04:30
Over 50 times in Revelation we see a throne, a throne, a throne.
04:30-04:42
Well, seated on the throne is God Himself, but many times throughout Revelation, we see that Jesus Christ shares the throne with His Father.
04:43-04:47
You know, we saw that back in chapter 3, verse 21.
04:47-04:49
We'll see it again, chapter 22, verse 1, verse 3.
04:50-04:52
Jesus shares the throne with His Father.
04:52-05:01
So when you see this image in your head of this great white throne, you're like, "Who's sitting on it?" Well, the answer primarily in this passage is Jesus Christ.
05:03-05:13
Because Jesus said, John 5, many other places in the New Testament, He has been given the authority and the power to be the judge.
05:14-05:17
So this is Jesus Christ seated on the throne.
05:20-05:22
We saw the throne back in chapter 4.
05:23-05:30
And we just sang some of the verbiage of Revelation 4 with a Revelation song.
05:30-05:37
Around the throne - you remember Revelation 4 if you've been with us through this series - around the throne was a rainbow.
05:39-05:44
And if you recall, we discussed the rainbow as a sign.
05:45-05:48
It's a picture of God's grace in the midst of judgment.
05:51-05:56
And when you get to Revelation 20 and we see the throne again, there's no rainbow.
05:59-06:00
Because there's no grace here.
06:01-06:01
This is it.
06:03-06:04
The day of grace is right now.
06:07-06:43
coming, then it's over. So John then speaks of, I guess for lack of a better term, "uncreation" - did you see that? From His presence, earth and sky fled away. It's this new heaven, a new earth is going to be created. We're going to talk about that next week. But in this vision, it's like He sees the one seated on the throne and His glory is like radiating and as His glory goes out, it absolutely washes away.
06:44-06:52
Actually, the Bible says, "melts and disintegrates everything in its presence." Can you see that picture in your head?
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It's just like He radiates His glory.
06:55-06:58
Everything before Him just melts away.
07:00-07:02
It's a process of uncreation.
07:04-07:27
You see, with the new heavens and the new earth coming, Jesus isn't going to get duct tape and staples and kind of take this broken world and say, "Let's see how we can fix this up." Actually, according to 2 Peter 3, He's going to absolutely vaporize this world.
07:30-07:31
He's going to create a new one.
07:32-07:41
Like, "Well, wait a second. What about the believers who were on the earth during this time?" Well, obviously, He's going to remove them first, right?
07:43-07:46
Some other rapture-type event? I don't know.
07:48-07:55
But that's the judge, and everything melting away before His awesome glory.
07:58-07:59
So every trial you need a judge?
07:59-08:01
Well, number two, let's talk about the trial itself.
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Let's talk about the trial.
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Look at verse 12.
08:07-08:13
John says, "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.
08:14-08:24
Then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.
08:25-08:28
And the sea gave up the dead who were in it.
08:29-08:43
Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done." So in the trial, first of all, let's talk about the defendants.
08:44-08:50
You know, somewhere between the end of this world and the beginning of the next world, like, what did that look like?
08:50-08:53
There was no world. It's gone at this point.
08:53-09:03
It's like this vast nothingness, and literally the only thing you see is the throne and the defendants.
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And John witnesses the verdict that will be passed on the unredeemed.
09:13-09:17
Now if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, I have some incredible news for you.
09:18-09:19
You are nowhere in this seat.
09:20-09:34
If you have received Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin, if you've been born again, the Bible says in Romans 8.1, "There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." You're not here.
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You will never face God's judgment.
09:38-09:41
This is not for you.
09:41-09:43
But let's talk about who is mentioned here.
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First of all, verse 12, mentioned first, are the last living unbelievers at the end of the millennium who die in Satan's last revolt.
09:53-10:04
Mentioned second, and this is verse 13, "Every single other sinner from all of human history." Look back at the text, verse 13.
10:04-10:15
First of all, it says, "The sea gave up the dead." Before the sea was uncreated, God resurrects every person who died in the water.
10:18-10:32
Then He says, "Death and Hades gave up the dead." Death is just another way of saying "the grave." Meaning people who died and they didn't die at sea or in the water, they died, they were buried on land.
10:34-10:41
Hades is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word "sheol," which means the realm of the dead.
10:44-10:47
The word "Hades" is used ten times in the New Testament.
10:47-10:56
And every time, it refers to a place of punishment where the unredeemed go, where they're awaiting trial for this moment right here.
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That's what Hades is.
10:59-11:01
Luke 16, Jesus talks about it.
11:04-11:08
So all of these unredeemed souls are given resurrection bodies.
11:09-11:16
We saw that last week, verse 5, the second resurrection that will be destroyed forever in the lake of fire.
11:18-11:19
So what's the basis of the judgment?
11:21-11:24
We've got the judge, we've got the trial, we've got the defendants.
11:24-11:25
Are you in the scene?
11:25-11:27
What's the basis of the judgment?
11:27-11:30
The Bible says God opens up all of these books.
11:33-11:42
We see that God's judgment is based - He says it twice, you can't miss it - His judgment is based on what they had done.
11:44-11:46
What they had done. Every sinful deed.
11:49-11:53
Every wrong thing you've ever done.
11:54-12:00
Those of you sitting here and listening to this podcast later, if you have not received Christ, understand what's going to happen here.
12:00-12:04
Every wrong thing you've ever done, God has it recorded.
12:07-12:11
Every evil thought you've ever had, according to Romans 2.16.
12:12-12:15
Every evil thought, God has it recorded in His books.
12:18-12:25
Every evil word you've ever spoken, according to Matthew 12.37, laid out in His books, He's got it all written down.
12:28-12:31
perfectly described in full detail.
12:33-12:38
And by the way, God doesn't need the books.
12:38-12:40
He's omniscient, right? Doesn't God know everything?
12:42-12:48
So, if God's omniscient, why does He have the books?
12:51-12:54
Well, it's a simple answer. Because this is a trial.
12:55-12:56
And what do you need at a trial?
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You have the judge, you have the defendants, what do you need?
13:00-13:02
You need evidence, right? You need evidence.
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What am I being charged for? God says, "I have it all written down right here." Perfect, full detail. A testimony to everyone.
13:12-13:13
God has the evidence.
13:15-13:33
And you know, as a pastor, I've been doing this over two decades, and I meet a lot of people in various settings, and those of you who are Christians, you can totally relate to this, but when you meet somebody and start talking to them, you can kind of get a sense about where they are with the Lord.
13:34-13:36
You know what I'm talking about? Not perfectly.
13:36-13:45
None of us can see in anyone's heart, but you kind of get a sense based on how they talk, what they talk about, how they spend their money, what their hobbies are, some of their passions in life.
13:46-13:51
When you spend time getting to know people and talk to people, not perfectly, but you can get a sense.
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I really think that this person is a sincere believer.
13:57-14:01
This person doesn't seem like they want anything to do with the Lord or Bible or church.
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I just really don't get any impression that they have any spiritual sense about them.
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And I don't know about you, but I've been wrong before, right?
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Have you? Have you ever been wrong?
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But that's the thing here.
14:19-14:22
God knows exactly where you are.
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You might be able to fool me.
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And you might be able to fool your grandma into thinking you're some super spiritual person.
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But on this day, you are not fooling the judge because he has it all written down.
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Perfectly described in full detail.
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By the way, there are no secrets.
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No secrets.
14:48-15:02
That thing right now in your life that you're doing, you're involved with, that person you're involved with, that habit you're involved with, that thing that, as far as you know, nobody knows about, and it's a secret.
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Well, God knows.
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God not only knows, but He has it written down.
15:09-15:13
And apart from Jesus Christ, you're going to stand trial for that.
15:15-15:17
Have you ever been busted for something?
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And you know you're guilty, and everybody else knows you're guilty.
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Have you ever been... come on, just show of hands.
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Confession time, this is going to be healthy.
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How many people here have been busted?
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And you're like, "I am so busted, and I know I'm busted, and everybody knows I'm busted." How many people here?
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Yeah, yeah. So we kind of know that feeling, right?
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You know what I was thinking about when I was working through this passage?
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As I'm going through college, I worked at Walmart.
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I don't covet, but I worked at Walmart when I was going through college.
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And a lot of times, there was a loss prevention guy.
15:52-15:56
And he's basically the undercover store security guy to catch people stealing.
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And he would just dress like anybody else.
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And he's pushing the cart.
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He acted like a shopper, but he was really employed to catch people stealing.
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But he would often grab me.
16:06-16:24
He goes, "Hey, I need you to take your vest off and come with me, because we got a guy." And I'm like, "Well, why do you need me?" He goes, "Because I think this guy's going to try to punch me and I want you to grab him." And I'm like, "Oh, it's time for my lunch." But anyways, so we went through this so many times.
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That we'd get the guy and we'd take him to that little room in the back of the store.
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And the loss prevention guy, then when we sat the guy down, the loss prevention guy would lay everything out for the person.
16:36-16:39
He's like, "Okay." He goes, "Here's what you did.
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I saw you walk down the aisle with the oil filters and you had that pocket knife that you took from the aisle with the knives and it was in a box.
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And I saw by these oil filters, you took it out of the box and you put the box behind these filters.
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Actually, I have it right here.
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And then you looked around to make sure nobody was looking.
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Then you doubled back through this other aisle, went through the camping aisle, and then you snuck out register 17 thinking.
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And I used to watch the person's face while this guy was giving blow by blow by blow, and the guy was just like, "I got nothing to say.
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He knows, this guy knows every single movement that I've made for the past ten minutes, and I'm so busted." And if you can sort of understand what was happening in that story, that's just a taste of what's coming in the great white throne judgment.
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When God says, "I know exactly what you did.
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Here it is." And there's no excuse.
17:45-18:02
God's like, "Here's exactly these thoughts you had, these attitudes you had, these words you said, and you're just sitting there..." So besides the book of sins, In the center of sins, there's another book that's going to be opened.
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I'm sure you saw that, the book of life.
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We've talked about this so many times in Revelation.
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It's been mentioned in 3.5, 13.8, 17.8, 21.27.
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We're going to talk about it again.
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But this book is written and talked about.
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It has every name of every person who's ever lived and scribed in it.
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When you reject God's grace, your name is blotted out of the book.
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Just jot this reference down.
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Exodus 32.33 Exodus 32.33 That's what the Lord says.
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You reject Him, He blots your name out of the book.
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And if your name is not written in the book, You will be eternally condemned.
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And that takes us to the last point today.
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We see the judge. We see the trial.
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This is it, people. This is the sentence.
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It says, "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire." This is the second death.
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into the lake of fire." So the sentence is passed.
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It's immediately carried out.
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Now, this is one of my most favorite parts of the entire Bible.
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Some of you guys know this, but you're going to hear it again.
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But this is one of my favorite parts of the Bible.
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It says, "Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
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The grave and this temporary place of punishment for sinners who were awaiting this moment are thrown into the lake of fire." And I have to ask myself, what in the world did that look like?
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What did it look like for John to see the grave, to see death itself thrown into the lake of fire?
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What do you think that looked like?
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What was the personification of death?
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I don't know.
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we saw some manifestation of death thrown into the lake of fire.
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I get this fantasy, and you probably have fantasies too, this is mine here, but I get to thinking, maybe there are other things, other enemies of God and enemies of righteousness that are so personified that we see those things thrown into the lake of fire as well.
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Things like cancer.
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Things like abuse.
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Things like racism.
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Personified like death.
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Thrown into the lake of fire.
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I don't know if that actually happens, but I just have to wonder if we see death thrown into the lake of fire, are there other things?
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Some of you know my fantasy.
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That autism is personified as a thing like death, and that the Lord - this is my fantasy - and throws it into the lake of fire.
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But in my fantasy, as autism is heading to the lake of fire, it catches itself and doesn't go in.
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It's right on the edge.
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And it saved itself from being thrown into the lake of fire.
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And then the Lord motions to me and allows me - BAM!
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To finish the job.
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Hey, you've got your fantasies, alright?
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I've got mine.
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for every parent that we've met that has suffered.
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I drag him out, I want to kick him in again.
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But he sees, obviously the point is, the day is coming that there will be no more death.
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Because even death itself will be eliminated.
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Amen?
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Look at verse 15.
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"And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." It emphasizes the same point that he made earlier.
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You know, I heard somebody say one time, or one of two whosoever's in the Bible.
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John 3.16, probably the most famous verse in the Bible, says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." You could be that whosoever.
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The alternative is the King James translation of this verse that says, "Whosoever was not written in the book of life thrown into the lake of fire.
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You are one of the two whosoevers.
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And if you die without receiving Jesus Christ, you will experience the second death.
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Hell is described as fire.
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John 15:6 "Where the worm does not die." Mark 9:48 as a place of darkness and sorrow.
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Matthew 8, verse 12.
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It's eternally dying.
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It's always burning, never being consumed.
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Getting a glorified, resurrected body that's as indestructible as those who will enjoy theirs in heaven, this one will burn, but never be consumed." And of course, when we say things like that, somebody says, "How could a God of love do something like that?" "How could a God of love do something like that?" And the answer is, hey, hey, hey, God's love is not in question here.
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Okay?
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God's love is not in question.
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God demonstrated His love.
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Do you realize when Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross, He literally experienced the pain and suffering of hell on Himself?
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While He was on the cross, He experienced that separation from God.
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He experienced what it meant to be judged for sin, not because of His, but because of Mine, because of yours.
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Jesus willingly tasted hell in the most brutal and horrific way because of His love for you.
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So don't look at this passage and say, "How can a God of love do this?" God demonstrated His love.
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His love isn't in question.
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Your love for Him.
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See, that's the love that's in question.
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My love for Him.
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That's the love that's in question.
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God's love for us is not and never will be in question.
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God loves you so much that He offers His salvation as a gift to anyone who would come to Him.
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God doesn't have hoops for you to jump through.
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He doesn't have works or religious acts for you to do.
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It's a gift that He wants you to receive.
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And it doesn't matter who you are.
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It doesn't matter what you've done.
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You can be forgiven of your sin.
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Because Jesus Christ took your place on that cross.
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But, when someone would reject this grace, when someone can see what God has done, and say, "I'm not interested in that." Or when somebody would say, "You know what?
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I'd rather have my sin over your son." There is no punishment that's severe enough for a crime like that.
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No punishment could balance such a terrible crime than to have God give up His Son for you You spit in God's face and say, "I'm not interested." By the way, there are different degrees of punishment in hell.
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Did you know that?
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Did you know the Bible teaches that hell is going to be worse for some people than for others?
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What determines the degrees of punishment?
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Here it is.
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The more you know, and the more you reject, the more you suffer in hell.
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where you know about the gospel, but reject the worse you suffer.
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There are so many verses in the New Testament to talk about this.
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I just want to give you a couple here.
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You can look this up, do some more study on your own, and you'll see that this is absolutely true, and it's absolutely horrifying.
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But Matthew 10.15, as Jesus was sending out the apostles and saying, "If the people you go to reject you, Jesus said, "Surely I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town." He says it's going to be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment, because they didn't have ambassadors of Jesus Christ Himself show up at their doorstep.
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The more you know, the more you reject, the more you suffer.
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Matthew 11.
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Verse 20 says, "Then he began to denounce the cities Most of his mighty works have been done because they did not repent.
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Verse 24 says, "But I tell you, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and for you." Same principle.
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In Hebrews 10.29, he asks, "How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified and has outraged the Spirit of grace.
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All of us say this, "You're responsible for what you know." You are responsible for what you know.
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And the more you know and the more you reject, the more you suffer.
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Typically when I share this, I get objections, a very common objection I get here is, "Hey, what about that guy in Africa?
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You hear that guy in Africa, that he's in some tribe in the middle of the jungle and he ain't never seen a Bible and he ain't never heard the Gospel?
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What about that guy?
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You know the Bible has an answer for that?
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The Bible very clearly has an explanation for that guy.
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But we're not talking about him this morning.
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We're talking about you.
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The question is not how much does that guy in Africa know, The question is, how much do you know?
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And I think it's interesting that as soon as we talk to people about their sin, their need for Christ, their need to repent, all of a sudden, there's some hypothetical guy in Africa that we get to talk about this guy all of a sudden.
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Like, how much have you thought about that guy in the past week?
30:12-30:14
Now all of a sudden, he's the topic of conversation.
30:15-30:15
Distraction.
30:17-30:18
It's not about that guy.
30:20-30:23
The Lord will righteously deal with that hypothetical guy.
30:25-30:26
But how much do you know?
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Because you're responsible for what you know.
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It's all written down in God's Book.
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And if you haven't received Jesus Christ, and if you won't, You cannot stand before Him on this day and say, "You know, I just never knew.
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I didn't know any of this stuff, God.
30:57-31:03
I didn't know this is how it was, God." Do you know what God will have written down in His book?
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He'll say, "June 16th, you were at 1233 Perry Highway, You eat 100, and some billy goat looking preacher told you exactly what was going to happen.
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You're responsible for what you know.
31:21-31:28
So this is bad news for many people on this day.
31:28-31:31
But, here's the good news.
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That day's not here yet.
31:35-31:38
And today, today isn't the day in court.
31:39-31:40
Today is the day of salvation.
31:42-31:43
Today. Today.
31:44-31:51
You can cry out to God and ask for mercy, believing that Jesus Christ died for your sin.
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You can do that today.
31:53-32:02
And if you do that today, you will never face the events that are outlined in this passage we looked at.
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I want you to bow your heads with me please as the worship team makes their way up.
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Everyone would bow their heads.
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The reason I'm asking you to bow your heads and close your eyes, we're not looking around.
32:20-32:23
Because truth be told in the great white throne judgment, we're not going to be looking around.
32:24-32:28
What God's doing with the next guy is about what God's doing with us.
32:30-32:32
If you haven't received Jesus Christ.
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I would ask, is there anyone here that says, "I need to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
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I need to cry out to Him for forgiveness so I don't face this day in court." Is there anybody here that would confess that?
32:57-33:03
If that is you, to acknowledge that before the Lord, would you raise your hand?
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Is there somebody here who would say, "I am crying out right now for mercy and forgiveness." Is that somebody here?
33:16-33:17
Raise your hand.
33:20-33:20
Thank you.
33:21-33:23
I see. God sees.
33:26-33:32
Father, we thank You for Your grace in Jesus Christ.
33:35-33:41
Father, this passage of Your Word is absolutely...
33:43-33:58
it's terrifying to think that there are some people that will roll the dice, thinking that they're going to get things squared away with You someday after they die, but this life and this time is for them, not for You.
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purchased the lie of the devil, you will not surely die.
34:12-34:17
Father, let the truth of Your Word permeate every heart here.
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Father, we thank You.
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In Jesus Christ, there is now therefore no condemnation.
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That You have taken the wrath You've taken the punishment that I deserve.
34:35-34:46
You've taken the judgment that I deserve, and you've put it on your son so that I could be pronounced not guilty, forgiven, free, adopted.
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Thank you.
34:51-34:57
Father, for those of us here who know You and know what's coming for the unredeemed, I pray that You would light a fire under us.
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That we would be Your ambassadors.
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to do as Jude tells us, to snatch some people from the fire, thanks to the glorious gospel of your Son.
35:13-35:17
And it is in Jesus' glorious and holy name we pray. Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Revelation 20:11-15
GROUP
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message? What stood out to you / what was new information to you?
Rev 20:11 - why was there no rainbow around the throne (see Rev 4:3)? What does this tell you about the Great White Throne Judgment?
Since God knows everything, why does He have the books of deeds and the book of life (Rev 20:12-13, 15)? What is their purpose?
How would you reply to someone who says, “How could a God of love cast people into the Lake of Fire?”
BREAKOUT
Pray for the lost that you know. And pray for opportunity for you to reach the lost that you know.