The Last Judgment in Scripture

Transcript

GR 2055
10/28/2018
The Last Judgment in Scripture
Revelation 20:11-15
Gil Rugh

We're moving toward the end of our study in the book of Revelation. I was hoping the Lord would come before we are done and there is still hope that that could happen. But, if not, we are prepared whenever that day is.

We are at the end of Revelation 20, and as we have noted a number of times, the book of Revelation lays out the sequence of prophetic events. It doesn't change what God revealed in prior history, recorded centuries earlier in the Old Testament, particularly the prophetic areas, but it does arrange it for us and then it adds more information. It is important for us to keep in mind, later revelation does not change prior revelation, but it can clarify it. Some make the mistake of thinking later prophetic truth changes the prior prophetic truth. But that's not the case. It will all come true and come about as God said.

I just want to refresh your minds on the resurrections and judgments of Scripture, so if we could put that chart up on the resurrections. We are concerned here with particularly the resurrections on this chart. You'll note here is the first resurrection. Of course Christ's resurrection is the first resurrection and foundational for all other resurrections, but this is the first resurrection, the church at the rapture. And connected with a resurrection is a judgment. So, we as believers when we are resurrected will appear at what is called the bema seat of Christ, the judgment seat. Not to determine our eternal destiny, that has been settled when we believed in Christ, but it is a judgment of rewards for faithfulness to Him.

Then at the Second Coming of Christ to earth at the end of the seven years, before the establishing of the kingdom, there is a resurrection of Old Testament saints and a resurrection of tribulation saints. Tribulation saints, those who have believed in Christ during this period of time and then Old Testament saints. All church saints from this period of time were resurrected and judged here. So, you have the Old Testament saints and tribulation saints raised from the dead. They will be judged at this time and rewarded for their faithfulness. Again, they are not judged for their eternal destiny, they were saved when they placed their faith in the God who revealed Himself to them in the Old Testament Scriptures. Like “Abraham believed God” in Genesis 15, “and God credited it to him as righteousness.” Salvation has always been by grace through faith in the revelation God has given.

There is also a judgment here of living people to determine who would go into the kingdom in physical bodies, but we are primarily concerned with resurrections. So, we have a resurrection of believers here, comprising all the church.

Then we have a resurrection of Old Testament saints and tribulation saints resurrected here. This together forms the first resurrection, and that was mentioned in the first part of Revelation 20:5, the last statement, “this is the first resurrection.” It's a quality of resurrection; it's a resurrection to life. All those resurrected at this resurrection, of this resurrection, are saved people; they are going to spend eternity in the presence of God.

There is one resurrection left, and that is the resurrection to condemnation, the resurrection to judgment and sentencing to eternal hell. That occurs after the thousand-year kingdom, first phase of the eternal kingdom.

So, the kingdom begins here with the coming of Christ, His establishing His throne. That kingdom will never end. But Revelation 20 reveals something that had not been revealed before anywhere else in Scripture, that there is a thousand-year period at the beginning of this kingdom where certain things will be accomplished. That enables us now, when we go back and read Old Testament prophecy and prophecies about the kingdom, we'll read there certain things that the prophets wrote about that would be true of the kingdom that will particularly be fulfilled in this first thousand-year phase.

Other things that are written in Old Testament prophecy will be fulfilled in the phase after the thousand years. Terminology can be confusing. This kingdom is eternal, the first phase of the eternal kingdom is a thousand years. Sometimes we'll refer to the eternal phase of the thousand years because there are no other time markers given to us as something will happen in the next thousand years or the next five hundred years. But it is an eternal kingdom. But certain things that the Old Testament prophets just prophesied about this kingdom that would go on for eternity. Isaiah didn't know about a thousand-year phase at the beginning, but some of what he wrote will be fulfilled at that time.

Now we are at the end of that thousand years, we have a resurrection, and it is a resurrection of unbelievers. Remember during this thousand years, just to review, Satan was bound, he was put into the abyss, chained. With him would have been his demonic angelic followers. So, they were not free to go roam through the world deceiving people. Christ is sitting on the throne of the world, ruling and reigning over all the world. The curse has been removed from the creation—the desert blossoms like the crocus, the animals now are not violent. So, a little child can play with the poisonous asp, snake. They will not hurt nor destroy throughout the whole kingdom.

What does happen, everybody who goes into this kingdom is a believer in Jesus Christ. The unbelievers were executed at this point, so only believers go in. But those who had trusted Christ during this seven-year period and survived to the end, many die as martyrs, those who go into the kingdom in their physical bodies, we saw that in Matthew 25 where Christ said to those who were believers, “enter into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the earth.” They will have children and we are going to have a tremendous population explosion. But remember, during this seven years billions of people have died. Now we have an earth in which there is no death except for special cases. No pain, childbirth with no pain. No child death. No cancer, no diseases. A perfect world with perfect social environment. No poverty. Just ideal.

But at the end of that thousand years, Satan is released from the abyss, Satan and his angels go about now to deceive the world as Satan makes one final attempt to overthrow Christ.
And what happens? You have a perfect world, perfect in the sense the curse has been lifted and so on, You don't have environmental disasters and that, and you have all the unbelievers from around the world in a mass movement.

We're talking about some migration happening to the south of our country, people moving in large numbers, relatively speaking. Here you are going to have the hordes of the world, unbelievers moving toward Jerusalem with one intention—we will overwhelm King Jesus and dethrone Him. And remember what we said this period serves to demonstrate—the sinfulness of the human heart. The problem of human beings is not their environment, is not their social condition, is not poverty, is not injustices. It is a “heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things.” In their inner being they are in rebellion against God and desire to break free from Him.

So that demonstrates that even without the devil present to deceive people, even with perfect conditions, when given an opportunity, the unbelievers of the world would rather serve their master, the devil, than Christ. So that is what is being accomplished primarily here, revealing that mankind's problem is the human heart. Not saying there is anything wrong, and human government has a role to play in taking care of citizens and so on, but you don't resolve the problem. It's not if we feed them, if we clothe them, if we do make the world a more just place they will be more ready to receive the Gospel. That is something that is beginning and has begun to corrupt evangelical Christianity. It has affected missions in other places in the world—we can't take the Gospel to them until we take care of their dire circumstance, their poverty, their social conditions. No. You can give them the best environment possible under the rule of the Son of God Himself, but when given a choice they choose to reject Him.

So, fire comes down from heaven and this mass of people is consumed by fire. Revelation 20:9, “They came up upon the broad plain of the earth, surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.” We know where we are, because the capital of the world is Jerusalem, “and fire came down from heaven and destroyed them.” This is not a series of battles like Armageddon in Revelation 19 that occurred in connection with the Second Coming of Christ to the earth to establish His kingdom, this is a mass move of all unbelievers now to break free from the rule and authority of Christ. And fire comes down from heaven and they are destroyed, killed. Now it is not over for them, they are physically executed by this fire.

Now verse 10, we have a judgment occur of the devil and with him would have been his angels; we'll note that in a moment. “The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone.” Brimstone, as you have in your margin, is sulfur, burning sulfur. You know something of that putrid smell of burning sulfur, sort of makes-you-sick kind of smell. This is fire and burning sulfur, it is a horrible place. The devil and his demons would be cast there. So, before they were confined in the abyss in Revelation 20:1-2 for a thousand years, this is their final sentencing to an eternal hell.

Come back to Matthew 25. They are cast into hell, that is what this fire is, it is eternal hell. And the judgment that occurred at the Second Coming of Christ, unbelievers, those who had not trusted Christ during that seven-year period will be executed. And Jesus says to them in verse 41, “He says to those on His left,” they have been sorted between believers and unbelievers, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” What we want to note here is, this fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. Now all of those, because of our sin we have as our spiritual father in our fallen state, the devil. So, we are doomed to the same destiny that was appointed to him for his rebellion against God. That's what came upon mankind when Adam joined Satan in his rebellion against God with his disobedience. The same destiny prepared for the devil and his angels has been prepared for those who are of their father the devil, as Jesus characterized the unbeliever. You are of your father the devil, and you always want to do his will, follow him in his disobedience.

Come back to Revelation 20. The devil now is thrown into the lake of fire, and since it was prepared for the devil and his angels and their activity ceases, we know the demons are joined with this sentencing as well. It also says “where the beast and the false prophet are also.”

Turn back to Revelation 19:20, “the beast” is referring to the political ruler during this seven-year period, prior to the return of Christ to earth to establish His kingdom. He is killed at the Second Coming of Christ and cast into hell with the false prophet who directed the world's worship to him. We talked about that and looked into the details in Revelation 13. “The beast was seized and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had the mark of the beast, those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.”

So, they were cast there a thousand years earlier. This fire does not consume them. We are eternal, human beings, are eternal as angels are. We had a beginning but we will have no end, so physical death is not the end for humanity. Physical death brings a separation of our spirit from our body. James 2:26, “The body without the spirit is dead.” When the immaterial part of a person leaves their body, they have experienced physical death, whatever “the physical cause” is—a heart attack, a stroke, cancer, getting hit by a car, something. What happened? The spirit leaves the body. It goes either to Hades for unbelievers, Hades is the temporary holding place of unbelievers. It is a place of fiery suffering, but there they await their final sentencing to an eternal hell. Believers leave the body, their spirit, and go to be present with the Lord.

So that is sort of an overview. People who don't interpret prophecy literally as we do, taking the book of Revelation, just unfolding it for example, just generally say there will be a general resurrection, happens all at one time. And then we go into eternity. If you were Roman Catholic background, Lutheran background, one of the major denominations, that generally is their view—amillennialism, that there is just going to be a general resurrection. You say, we never talked about it. That's why they don't talk about it, they don't interpret literally and it is hard to get any definitive view of understanding it. Once you move away from literal interpretation, even figures of speech have a literal significance and meaning. There is such confusion generally in those situations. They don't talk much about it, they just say some day Christ will come and we'll move into eternity. But God hasn't given us these details just for something for us to do, they are something for us to know and to have our conduct shaped by.

What we come to now is the last judgment of Scripture. It is the final resurrection, it is the last judgment. They tend to combine all the judgments into one; we've seen there is a series of judgments. This is the last judgment of Scripture, it is the Great White Throne. The Scripture has talked about judgments before, but it hasn't always clarified or sorted them out. Everything that was prophesied about judgment will happen as it was said, but now we have gotten more details of when these judgments occur and who will appear at these judgments and so on. For example, we're not told anywhere else in Scripture that Satan would be bound for a thousand years at the beginning of the eternal kingdom. That truth about the kingdom, it doesn't change anything that was prophesied before, but as Isaiah, if you would ask him “what do you think about that thousand-year millennium?” He would have said, “I don't know anything about it. Christ is going to come, He'll establish a kingdom. Here are things that are going to happen in His kingdom.” And we can find that in the prophecy he wrote. Now we know some of those things will happen in the first thousand-year phase, some of them will happen in the following eternal kingdom that follows the thousand years.

Let's pick up with verse 11. You'll note the end of verse 10 is crucial, “They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” When we come to the Great White Throne we have to talk about hell. We're not going to go into great detail because we are going to focus on this judgment, but we have to talk about it. Perhaps the most unpleasant subject and the one people least want to hear about….I don't go to church to hear about hell. I preached a sermon at a funeral several years ago and I talked about Revelation 21 and 22, it was a believer's funeral. And I talked about the glories that God has prepared for us, and being in God's presence, and everybody is sitting there, you could just tell they loved it. Then I said, that's not the whole story, there is something else you have to know. Not everybody is going to this glorious heaven. There is an eternal hell. And I went on to talk about that. Afterwards some made very clear how offended they were that I would talk about hell at a funeral, people going to that place.

You can read the obituaries in the paper, I'm that age, I read them and check the “Rs.” You read there and they say now they are with the angels. And sometimes they are on a golf course in heaven. But they'll say all these wonderful things. Does anyone ever stop and talk about . . .? I pulled an article I had put in my file, a question was written to one of these question and answer things in the paper. And the person wrote and said, “what is your view of heaven? What do you think about it?” I appreciated the answer of the person who was to answer the questions. The individual in the paper said, “quite frankly I haven't thought much about it.”

Isn't it amazing? And what people do think about eternity is I'm going there. I also have collected statistics, and they will talk about how many people believe in heaven and how many people believe in hell. Then they will say, it is interesting. Out of the percentage of people who still believe in hell, the majority of them don't believe they are going there. And that's the way it is, everybody just assumes I'm a good religious person, I'm a good person. Stalin, Hitler, those kinds of people deserve to go to hell, mass murderers, those kinds of people. But good people, religious people that are doing their best, they are trying to make the world a better place. But the only way we know about heaven, the only way we know about hell, is the God who is sovereign over all His creation tells us.

So, we come to Revelation 20:11, “Then I saw a Great White Throne,” a Great White Throne. It is great. We bring this word over into English, we just translate it. It is a mega throne, denotes something of its awesomeness. This is the final throne of judgment. It is white, denoting its purity, its holiness, its righteousness, true justice, truth. The two problems we have in talking about hell—we have such a limited view of God's holiness, and secondly we have such a limited view of our sinfulness. We'll talk about it, I know I'm not perfect, but I don't deserve to go to hell. Well, we are not the judge. Do you know who judges the seriousness of our sin? God. We won't sit as judge at this judgment, God will. We have a rather shallow view, God's holiness, and of course He is holy, but He doesn't expect me to be like Him. And yet if we read His Word, He says, “you shall be holy for I am holy.” He calls His children saints, which is literally holy ones. We are to be like Him, we must be like Him or we cannot dwell in His presence in eternity. Where will you dwell if you don't dwell in His presence? Where the devil and his angels will be, in torment day and night, forever and ever. It is endless.

“Then I saw a Great White Throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence heaven and earth fled away and no place was found for them.” We'll talk more about heaven and earth fleeing away when we start Revelation 21:1, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away.” We were told down in Revelation 20:11, “they fled away,” they passed away, they are gone. We'll talk about what that means, whether it's a reconstructed earth or it is a totally new creation. We'll talk about that as we start Revelation 21. But you see here the transition that is occurring. Christ is still on the throne, “heaven and earth fled away, there was no place found for them.” The people associated with this earth, there is no place to go. They are left before the throne of Almighty God. “I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne.”

Come back to Daniel 7. We studied this when we studied Daniel, I know it is fresh in your minds. Daniel 7, we have been back to this chapter a number of times in connection with our study of Revelation. And here you have an example of a prophetic chapter that includes a lot of material but the timing of it being how it unfolds is not as clearly revealed. You have the major empires of the world in the opening part of the chapter, culminating in verse 7 with the Roman Empire. Then you had ten horns in verse 7, “ten horns on its head.” We noted there is a break in there where the Roman Empire has passed out of existence as a ruling empire. But it will come back into power with the ten-nation confederacy. So there you don't get any timing set for you because as you read this you think that must have happened. And some people who don't take prophecy literally just say that was probably ten Roman emperors, then one of those . . . They pick out ten possibilities and then one. Then what happens? “I kept looking until thrones were set up, the Ancient of Days took His seat, His vesture was white like snow.” We are at the kingdom. More than that, we are at the end of the thousand-year phase of the kingdom as Christ is going to rule and reign forever. We say, how would you know all this? Well everything he said is going to happen, just as he said. We know that down through the first four empires, there is now New Testament revelation, the coming of Christ is broken into two parts. Here Daniel doesn't talk about the first coming of Christ at all, he just talks about Him coming to rule and reign, the end of all earthly empires. So, if you don't let later Scriptures clarify, you just pretty soon end up with a confused jumble. Obviously Christ didn't set up His throne to rule and reign.

Read this, “I kept looking until thrones were set up, the Ancient of Days took His seat. His vesture was like white snow, the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire.” This is like the description in Ezekiel 1 where Ezekiel saw the throne of God coming, God on that throne and you have the wheels burning with fire and so on. “A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him. Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, myriads upon myriads were standing before Him. The court sat, the books were opened,” and that's where we are in Revelation 20, we're going to read that when we turn back. The books were opened.

Come down to Daniel 7:13, “I kept looking in the night visions, behold with the clouds of heaven One like the Son of Man was coming. He came up to the Ancient of Days, was presented before Him, to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” So, the Old Testament prophets can talk about the kingdom as the kingdom, later revelation reveals there is a thousand-year period in which some things will happen and then the following period of that eternal kingdom where the other things will take place. Here we are going to have the judgments, this final judgment.

Go to John 5, Jesus during His earthly ministry, being rejected by the Jews, but He warns them of coming judgment. We're going to pick up with verse 22, “For not even the Father judges anyone,” John 5:22, “but He has given all judgment to the Son.” And we saw that in Daniel 7. The Ancient of Days, the Father is present, but the Son of Man comes before Him. And we know now, there is a clarification, not just to rule the kingdom but to exercise judgment to determine who is going into the kingdom, who is excluded. He has given it all to the Son “so all will honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me,” that's the dividing line, not hearing His Word. You can sit here week after week and hear the Word of God and go to an eternal hell. It's the one who hears and believes, places their trust in Him alone. Sadly, there have been people here that have sat and heard the Word week after week but have died and gone into an eternal hell.

I sat with a man and he had been here for an extended period of time. And I sat with him and he said, “Gil, I'm just not ready to make that decision. I'm not ready to place my faith in Christ.” To the best of my knowledge he died in that condition. He had heard it, I sat several times and explained it to him. That last time I sat with him he just said, I am not ready to place my faith in Christ. That was his decision. It's not that he heard it, he heard it, he went to Indian Hills, he heard it, he heard it. Sure, I'm sure he is in heaven. Hearing the Word won't get you to heaven. Hearing the truth and believing what Christ has done for you.

“He has eternal life, does not come into judgment.” These are the different kinds of judgments. “Every knee shall bow, every tongue will confess,” we must all stand to be judged. But we will stand at a different kind of judgment as believers, the bema seat, a judgment of rewards, not a judgment to determine our eternal destiny.

He gets into this. “An hour is coming,” verse 25, “and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, those who hear will live. Just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave life to the Son to have life in Himself. He gave Him authority to execute judgment because He is Son of Man.” Again, a connection to Daniel 7, the Ancient of Days … His throne and the Son of Man comes before Him. And there they are joined … the Son of Man as they honor the Father. And He is given all judgments.

Come to verse 26, “Even as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave the Son to have life in Himself. He gave Him authority to execute judgment because He is Son of Man. Do not marvel at this. An hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice.” He is calling a resurrection, He is calling these dead bodies back to life. Their spirit will move back into those bodies. That includes believers and unbelievers. Note, “They will come forth, those who did good to a resurrection of life, those who committed evil to a resurrection of judgment.”

Here we have two kinds of judgment connected to the resurrection. You'll note the resurrection is to judgment, they are raised to be judged. That's why we pointed out the different resurrections and the judgments associated. The first resurrection is a resurrection of life. That was described that way in Revelation 20. The other resurrection is a resurrection of judgment. We say it is by their deeds. Every judgment of Scripture is based on deeds, but no one is going to heaven because of their works. But their works reveal the condition of their hearts.

Come back to Mark 7. It is not external things that are defiling. Doesn't mean you should do everything, but it is what comes out of the heart. This is what Jesus is talking about. It's not the food you eat, some people eat this food, that food, and that may be good for you or not good for you, but that is not what defiles you spiritually, because it doesn't get into the heart. Here is what He says in verse 20, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For within, out of the heart of man proceed the evil thoughts, fornication, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these things proceed from within.” It is Jeremiah 17:9-10, “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Who can know it?”

Only the Lord can search the heart, He knows the depths of our depravity. That's why I say part of the problem we have with talking about hell, we have no real concept of the depths of our depravity and how serious our sinful condition is. That's why you can be judged by your works, they reveal your heart. That doesn't mean a Christian never sins, but a Christian's life is different, our conduct is different. If it is not, quit fooling yourself, you are not saved. I know I'm saved, I just don't go to church, I don't read the Bible much, but I know I am going to heaven. I'm all right. Doesn't matter what you say, you are not the judge. He is. So, it is the heart. That's why He is going to judge the heart. He'll judge the motives of our hearts, even believers, we'll be judged on the motives of our hearts.

One more passage, come to Acts 17:30, “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.” Repent of their sin, turn from their sin, place their faith in the Savior He has provided. That's what the message Paul has presented to these Greeks in Athens at Mars Hill, the death and resurrection of Christ is what he is talking about as we will see. Why should you repent? “He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” Jesus Christ is the judge of all, His resurrection is a proof of that. He is the living Savior, He is the living judge. When they heard about the resurrection, some began to scoff because the Greeks didn't believe in it, but there were some who believed. So, the message goes on.

Come back to Revelation 20, the dead, the small and the great, there are no exceptions here. The richest man in the world will be here if he didn't believe in Christ, the most powerful ruler who ever lived will be here if he hasn't trusted Christ. “The dead, the great and the small standing before the throne, the books were opened.” Remember we saw that in Daniel 9, that's why I say this is the judgment here particularly focused there. “Another book was opened which is the book of life.” The book of life, we looked at that back in Revelation 3, it contains the names of those who have placed their faith in Christ, the elect of God, if you will. The name of every believer is in the book of life. “The dead were judged from the things which were written in the books.” Remember the books and the book. They are judged out of the books that are a record of their deeds, their works. “They were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds,” their works.

Now wait a minute, I thought we weren't saved by works. We are not, everybody at this judgment is going to hell. The book of life is here just to demonstrate their name is not there, their name is not written in the book of life. So, the book of their deeds determines where in hell they will be sentenced. There will be degrees of hell, evidently. So, we are filling it up from the bottom up, with the Antichrist, the false prophet, the devil and the demons being cast first. “The dead were judged according to their works.” Why? Their works reveal their character. James says that faith without works is dead. It's not a living faith, it's a dead faith. You show the genuineness of your faith by what you do, but be careful. You are not saved by what you do. We can do a lot of things that look good. Everybody that comes to this church brings a Bible, sits down, opens it up, studies with us, sings the songs, do things. But that won't save them. But we do those things because God has changed our heart and He says we are to fellowship together as His people, we are to study His Word. So, He is looking at our heart and the motivation of our heart. We just see each other as we are, God is looking at the heart, your heart as you sit there and what its condition is. He knows the thoughts of our hearts, what is going through our minds now, those who are disinterested, who don't like hearing this and will be happy to get out, and so on. That's why He is judging according to deeds.

The result of the judgment? “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The dead were raised.” Now all the dead that were raised and their spirits were in Hades, they have been joined back with their bodies, now they are cast into the lake of fire. It is called a lake of fire and it is just like when you go jump in a lake and you go under the water. You are immersed in it, it is all around you. If you don't swim well, it is a panic. But that's the picture. Only this lake is not water, it is fire. And there is a lot of discussion, is fire true? It is. We don't have time to go through the passages, but numerous times this is its general description. It is a lake of fire.

Come back to Revelation 19:20, the last line where the beast and the false prophet were thrown into hell, “these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire,” alive into the lake of fire “which burns with brimstone,” burning sulfur. It is a lake of fire. Revelation 20:10, where is the devil cast with his demons? Into the lake of fire and brimstone, tormented day and night. Verse 14, “Death and Hades,” all those at this judgment were thrown into the lake of fire. “This is the second death,” the lake of fire.

The first death is a physical death, the spirit leaves the body, James 2:26, you are physically dead. This is the second death. It is true we were spiritually dead, but these remain spiritually dead. The second death he is talking about is eternity in hell. “If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

You see, the thing is not if your works were good enough, putting them on the scale, you are judged according to your deeds. But that doesn't determine whether you are going to heaven or not because “by your works no flesh can be justified,” God said. That's why Christ had to come. If you could be saved by works, even keeping God's holy law, then Christ died needlessly. Read the opening chapters of Romans. What a blasphemous thing to say, the Son of God, God made a horrible mistake. He sent His Son to this earth to die for our sins and He didn't need to. What an attack and charge against God. But that's what people are saying when they think they are going to be saved by works, Christ died needlessly. Well, it is His death and my works? That means Christ died needlessly, He didn't accomplish what needed to be accomplished. You are doing it.

So, our works manifest our character. People say, “you can't judge me.” Well, Jesus says you can. You know a tree by its fruit, good trees don't bring forth bad fruit. Read the Sermon on the Mount. People like to talk about the Sermon on the Mount, but you are not saved by trying to do good works. It has to come from within your very nature, you have to be made a new creature, a new creation in Christ. You have to become, as Peter said, “a partaker of the divine nature” because God is not concerned with the veneer we put on, He is concerned with the inner person we are.

“This is the second death.” First death, the separation of the spirit from the body, and we have already been separated from God by our sin. Now we are separated from God forever. The lake of fire, you are thrown into the lake of fire. Everybody is going to get a resurrected body, Jesus said that in Matthew 5. There is a resurrection to judgment, there is a resurrection to life. Everybody is going to get a resurrection body, a body in which that person will live forever. A final death is a separation from God, it is not annihilation. So, our glorified bodies, for believers, we get a resurrected body which we call a glorified body, a body that is prepared to enjoy the glory of God's presence forever. It is a body of glory. The unbeliever gets a resurrected body that is capable of enduring endless suffering and pain.

Now what the Scripture says is clear. The problem we have with such a teaching is more emotional than not that the Scripture isn't clear. The words of the Scripture are clear. Come back to Matthew 25. While you are turning there, listen to what I am saying. We are reading different writers and some who claim to be Bible-believing Christians and there are growing numbers that moved away from the doctrine of an eternal hell and eternal suffering, not because what the Scripture says is not clear, it is an emotional issue. Such a doctrine is too terrible, too horrible. God is a God of love, a God of mercy, a God of kindness. I just can't believe that He would make people suffer forever. You were born, live and die for 75 years and you live a sinful life and you never trust in the salvation He has provided and now you have to spend eternity for being a sinner for those 75 years? Doesn't seem fair, doesn't seem right. I don't think God will do that. You see we begin to decide here what God can do and what He can't do. He tells us what He will do. If we choose to reject that, why do we think God will bring sinners who place their faith in Christ into an eternal heaven of joy and blessing. Well He said it. Why do we say He will not inflict eternal punishment? Well, I don't like to believe that. Something is wrong.

Look at Matthew 25, the last verse, and we don't have time to look at the other verses. Verse 46, “These will go away into eternal punishment, the righteous into eternal life.” Some try to say I don't think eternal punishment means forever. Well then, what does eternal life mean? In other words what you are saying is we are all going to nothingness? It really doesn't matter, we are all going to end up in nothingness, we will just cease to exist and it will all be over. We just won't be anymore, it will be like before we were born, we just weren't here. There is no eternal punishment, there is no eternal life. The words are just ways of talking. Then what are we doing? Like Jesus said, we might as well eat, drink and be merry. Enjoy every day to the fullest because there is no future. People say that, but that brings a meaningless life. What in the world is there? The book of Ecclesiastes is about that. I've been thinking we might have to study that book. But there is an emptiness, a meaninglessness to life. That's why people are religious, that's why they do things, they either block it out or they create a fantasy for the future. We come. I don't want to think about loved ones, I don't want to think about family members that may have died and may be in an eternal hell, and that's their future. I can't do anything about it, it doesn't help me to dwell on it. It should be emotionally overwhelming, but we don't ignore. And if we are believers, the worst thing we can do is, well, I don't want to embarrass them, I don't want them to think I am a religious fanatic. Do we take hell seriously? Do we believe this is the end for every human being who doesn't trust Christ? Think about how great the salvation God provided . . .

Come back to Revelation 20. Look at verse 15, and remember as originally written the Bible didn't have chapter divisions, it didn't have verses. Note the contrast here. “If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 21:1, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, the holy city Jerusalem.” He goes on to talk about the bliss, rather brief and to the point on hell. What else can you say?

Come back to Revelation 14, as you are aware, it is said that Christ talked more about hell than He did about heaven. He talks about people who are unbelievers, verse 10, this person “will drink the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger.” You see how it is stressed here, “the wine of the wrath of God mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger, tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, in the presence of the Lamb.” Satan doesn't rule hell, it will be no party. The Lamb of God rules, the holy angels oversee. “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night.” And he focuses particularly on those from the seven-year tribulation which has been what the bulk of Revelation is about. But this is the destiny we have seen of every unbeliever. It is more awful than anything I can think. How do I conceive of this? In a hundred billion, trillion, quadrillion years won't God relent? Well I hope not because it is the same God who promised me joy and blessing in eternity. Will He relent and decide someday, I saved Gil, I cleansed him, but he is no better than a vile, dirty sinner. He was guilty of his own rebellion against Me, he doesn't deserve heaven for eternity. I gave him five thousand years, that's enough, I'll just throw him into hell, too. I just have His Word, He promised and God is the God who cannot lie.

Now this is true, think of how great the salvation of Christ is. Remember hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. God never provided salvation for the angels who sinned, Hebrews 2. There is no Savior for angels, there is no salvation provided for them. God doesn't have to be merciful to sinners, but he does have to be just. The devil and his angels will be cast into an eternal hell. There is no Savior provided for them, Christ didn't become an angel to die for angels who sinned. Think how great the salvation was, why the Son of God had to come and die on the cross. We were so guilty, our sin is so terrible as an offense against God's holiness that it took the death of the Son of God to pay our penalty. That's why the book of Hebrews said there will be “no mercy who trample underfoot the death of Christ,” consider His death an unholy thing. You are beginning to see it from God's perspective, you say that is what I deserve. I am a trophy of His grace and mercy. We're not saved because we are better, we are not saved because we were less sinful. Our heart was just as wretched, just as totally depraved as the worst of vile sinners. God's grace saved us. We don't want to be embarrassed over the Gospel. It may cost you friends. I happened to pull out a quote from my file this morning before I came in while I was looking for something else. Spurgeon wrote it, he said, “I long ago said goodbye to my reputation because the truth I was presenting was not what many people wanted to hear.” So, the result of telling them the truth they didn't want to hear with slander and accusation.

So, we must be willing to say goodbye to our reputation. You may tell them the truth, in a man like we read about, Paul, in Acts 17. They sneered at him. That may be the response but we tell them the truth because we know what they need, we know the only cure provided in heaven and earth—one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He gave Himself on the cross. Those who hear and believe that truth are cleansed, forgiven, and rescued from the eternal hell and destined for the eternal heaven.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the greatness of Your grace, an infinite grace, an infinite mercy. We would pause, every one of us is unworthy. Some day we will proclaim in Your presence, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. How great our sin, how deserving are we for judgment. We thank You for loving us. I pray for any who are here who still are obstinate in their rejection of that love, that their heart might be softened, this might be a day of salvation for them. We pray in Christ's name, amen.