White Throne Judgment Rev, 20:11-15

Last week, as you recall, we went over this schematic for the shuttle, space shuttle, right? It was a little complex. Anyway, we talked about this and went through the sequence of resurrections and judgments and went through various details on that and covered thousands of years all in a matter of minutes.

And anyway, what I'm sure it came to, as a lot of folks found that chart to be a bit complex, and as a matter of fact, we became concerned that there might be a new syndrome starting as a result of that, and so we want to be careful about that. The chartophobia, okay? So we'll back off from presenting charts quite that complex and intense here, and look at the White Throne Judgment this morning. This is a challenging passage in this regard.

As you look at it, we've been through the tribulation period and lots of cataclysmic things happen on earth. As we have gone through Revelation, we've looked at chapter after chapter of this tribulation period, this time to come. This White Throne Judgment, however, falls into a different category. It's not simply cataclysms here on earth. It is instead something that takes place where people's futures are locked into a circumstance that is definitely not good, and it makes it difficult.

But let's take a look at the passage. It's in Scripture, it's there for a reason, and as we go through it, we'll have some tough questions, but because we know it is inspired Scripture, it is the truth. And it's going to lay out some things for us that we'll want to be sure to take a look at. Okay, one thing, just as we look at this, we mentioned this name White Throne Judgment, and we'll be seeing the sequence there. What I want to get clear is when this is happening, because last week we looked at a fairly complex diagram.

This is the first coming of Christ, this is the event that essentially we're celebrating this month with Christ's first coming and Christmas time. The church age, the rapture, and notice I put this little green arrow, that's without putting numbers on it, that's an estimation of, okay, we're probably close to the time when the Lord will take the church home to be with him. The tribulation period, which although Revelation spends a great many chapters on it, the truth In terms of the total sweep of time, it's fairly short. Then the millennium, the thousand year period where Christ will reign on the earth. And then this white throne judgment comes at the end, and that's the time when we're going to be reading about and studying about this morning.

Now, John has seen some incredible things as he's described his his visions of heaven and on earth, as he's gone through the book of Revelation. They have really been amazing things, haven't they? He's about to see something that I'm sure is no less startling than the things that he's seen before, if not even more so. He records for us here that he sees a great white throne, and he starts off like this. Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them." Now, he records that he sees a great white throne.

Now, we've read about thrones throughout the book of Revelation. As a matter of fact, as we've gone through it, there's been various places where that name, thrones, has come up. But this one's unique. Thrones are always, however, places of authority. Places, in this case, great authority. Sitting on a throne means to hold a place of recognized authority, and that throne here means that exactly.

In the New Testament times, the Jews had synagogues, if they were away from the temple area in Jerusalem, they had synagogues. As a matter of fact, they had them throughout wherever they were in the Middle East or the Mediterranean, wherever they were located, they had these synagogues, these meeting rooms. And it turns out that a great many of these synagogues actually had a place for a synagogue ruler, and it was a great white throne.

However, what John's describing here is a little bit different, but it nonetheless is something he had seen some semblance of before, but likely never the magnitude like this. Here's an example. This is a synagogue in Doris, which is on an island not too far from where John was writing the book of Revelation. And this one here is a little broken. Matter of fact, it's actually quite rare to find one that's in a whole piece. But so John had seen a white throne before, but this was something he had not seen before.

Here's this with some reconstruction because of the broken pieces. The drawing gives you the idea of what it would have looked like. Can you imagine being a furniture mover in those days? Oh, I'd like to have it over here. No, that's no good. Move it over here. How about back there? That wouldn't work. Anyway, these were very heavy.

So John has seen these before, having been in synagogues and having been a Jew. He's seen these white thrones that the synagogue ruler would sit in. This, however, was something extraordinary. Now, think of it. What John's describing isn't simply called a throne.

It's white. Now, we've seen throughout the book of Revelation things described as white. Most of those places, and there are a few exceptions, most of those places where we see the word white in Revelation, it is referring to righteousness. It's a repeated picture of righteousness, and that's no less true here. You see, what's going on here is that the Lord is not simply standing there acting as judge, superimposing himself in opposition, but he is a righteous judge. And that is why the throne is white. It pictures the absolute whiteness, the absolute righteousness of Christ. The righteousness of Christ is not something that he has or has gained. It is fundamental to his character. The next thing is we notice that this throne is not just a white throne, it's a great white throne.

Now we've heard this word before. Remember in the past when I've talked about a loud voice? That word that's translated loud, that's also the same word here, megas. It is an impressive white throne. It is overwhelming and overpowering. So we look at this overwhelming, overpowering, righteous authority coming from this throne. That's the picture.

Think about it. Human beings here on Earth, what do we try to do We try to figure out, how can I manipulate my way around the situation? We come to some person of authority and we'll try to, okay, who can I hire to get me the influence I want? What can I do? People try to be persuasive, people try to exert power and influence.

This, however, is a throne of such greatness, a throne of such authority, a throne of such righteousness, that man will have nothing to say. Nothing to say. There will be no manipulating this. There will be no way around it. There will be no overpowering or overcoming it. This will be the Great White Throne, the place of ultimate authority that is overwhelming in its power and absolute righteousness. John also says that he saw him who sat upon it, the Great White Throne, that is, We have to ask, who is the him? Who is this him? Why did he put it that way? Why is it John writes him who sits on the throne? We have a specific answer about this. Here's what our Lord says to us. In Matthew 28, 18, Jesus came up and spoke to them, that is the disciples. saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. And then in John 5, 21, 22, and then 27.

For just as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so even the son gives life to whom he wishes. For not even the father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment to the son. And he gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. So this very one sitting upon the throne is Jesus Christ, by authority of the Father. He is the Lord of glory, the one by who his very nature is totally righteous and just.

He has been given all authority for judgment, including this judgment we are about to read of in more detail. But before we read more detail about this judgment, let's take a look at the startling thing that John says about heaven and earth. Interesting the way he puts it. Regarding the one who sits upon the Great White Throne, John provides further information about him, further description.

He says this, "...from whose presence heaven and earth fled away, and no place was found for them." With a stroke of a pen, John writes that this judge on the White Throne, this Great White Throne, is the very same one from whom heaven and earth has just fled away.

Can you imagine that? whoosh, and everything we see is gone. Skyscrapers, overpasses, gold bricks, bank accounts, gone. Continents, oceans, mountains, gone. Planets, suns, stars, galaxies, gone. All the material universe is done away with, like that. All that both physically supports and limits us, right now, is gone. Now, we remember the physical support, don't we? But the truth is, this world is also limiting to us as well, isn't it? It's limiting. It's all gone.

This is the one before whom it flees away. Now, we'll be reading about this more in detail as we get into Chapter 21, but John is making quick mention of the fact that this world, this universe, is going to pass away. Then the Lord will create a new heaven and a new earth. Now, there are several passages that talk about this heaven and earth passing away and or the creation of a new one.

And here are several before us here. What's interesting here is even the space where they stood disappears. There wasn't a place for them. Can you imagine all these massive, huge things that we look on as so immense that we're limited and restricted to this one little planet here, okay? So massive and huge, it just flees away. It's gone. Amazing. Just gone. Now, good question to ask, why a new heaven and a new earth? Why not just make do with the old one? Why not just keep the old one and proceed? Well, there's a few reasons.

One thing is that this earth has been a place of rebellion. We read about that first in Genesis 3. And in fact, the Bible records chapter and chapter and chapter again of what's wrong and what has been going on wrong on this earth and the rebellion that took place. As a matter of fact, even these chapters we've been reading in Revelation have extended even up until the very last years. Remember, the final time right before this was Satan's rebellion. It's a rebellion from the beginning to the end. From the earliest chapters of Genesis to the last chapters of Revelation, we read about this rebellion. Now, that's for the earth.

How about heaven? From where did Satan rebel? From where did the angels rebel with him? From heaven. That's where they had a place. That's where the rebellion began. What did Satan say? I will be like him. Repeatedly he says, I will, I will, I will. Seeking to take the place of God.

Furthermore, Satan for centuries has had, of course, a domain upon the earth, and he's had access to heaven. That time will be cut off, but he's had access to it. You see, this heaven and this earth have been contaminated. They do not have the perfection that is necessary to carry out what God sees taking place in the future. So they're going to be swept away, taken away, As John describes it, they're going to flee away to make place for the new heaven and the new world. Verse 12, and let's read on through 13 as well.

And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead, which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every one of them, according to their deeds."

Now notice the description here, before this awesome throne scene. Notice there's nothing else around to distract. All the things of this earth, they're gone. They're no longer an issue. It's now just the judge and the judged, or the ones to be judged.

The Greek structure here conveys the idea of the dead ones. These are the ones being dead. It stands in contrast to what Paul writes about the dead in Christ. You notice that? There are the dead ones and then those that are dead in Christ. Paul makes the distinction. These are not the dead in Christ, they're just the dead ones.

Then John further describes the dead ones as great and small. This is a phrase he's used before in Revelation, and we find that great and small, or the reverse, small and great, used throughout the Bible and even into the Old Testament. It's a long established tradition of Jewish usage. But like the Greek for the dead ones, this also can be understood as the great ones and the small ones. And what's the idea, having died, They're from every range of human status and stature, but it doesn't matter. They're still all coming before the same throne. The dead are those physically dead, having died the first death.

They were brought back for this time of judgment by a resurrection of sorts, though it's not one to rejoice over. We're told that these dead include the small and the great by human earthly measure, but when it comes to this judgment, such earthly differences will mean nothing at all. The playing field, if you will, will be totally level. Now let's clarify something here. We've got this resurrection of the dead, but there are those who will not be here, and we need to understand that. This isn't the judgment day as if there was just one. There are those who will not be at this scene.

And let's take a look at those. First of all, we have those who have believed of this the church age. That's us. We put our trust in Christ. We're not going to be here being judged. We won't be subject to this judgment. We know for certain that those of the church age are not included in this judgment.

Because 2 Corinthians 5.8 and Philippians 1.23 tell us that for a church-age believer to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord already. Not resurrected at this time, but long before. There isn't some extra path or extra step for those of the church. The church is not included there.

They've already been judged, not for condemnation, but for reward. Secondly, Those who are judged out of the tribulation period and were sent directly into the lake of fire, that includes the beast and the false prophet. It includes those judged for having the mark at the end of the tribulation period. They were sent directly into the lake of fire. We know that from Matthew 25. Aside from these two major groups, all the dead of humanity of all time will be at this judgment. if they are not believers, or if they've not already been judged at the time at the end of the Tribulation.

One of the things to notice here, all the things that human beings strive for and put so much effort into won't matter here. No, they won't. Wealth and position won't matter. It won't be a matter of having died with the most toys. You still won't win.

There will be many who will gather together at this great White Throne that will have been very, very religious while on Earth. This world may have even considered some of those who will be judged here at the White Throne to have been religious icons, people that thought, oh, this person certainly is a most spiritual person. Some of them will be here, I'm afraid. Being religious is not what counts, is it? Only faith in Christ will save, only believing. Being religious doesn't get it. We'll talk more about it in a bit.

Verse 13 gives us some insights about the source of these dead who appeared before the great white throne. The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which are in them. Those who died at sea or were buried at sea are included here. And by the way, the ancients had a particular abhorrence of having died at sea or being drowned in the ocean. We're also told that death and Hades give up their dead as well.

Now these pair are mentioned in Revelation chapter 1 and in 118 we read that the glorified Jesus Christ had the keys of death and Hades. Now we know that keys means having unique access and unique authority over something. Death is the event of the separation of the earthly body from the soul. Hades is the place for those souls who are not yet judged, as we see them here. Most specifically, Hades at this point holds those awaiting this final judgment. Then we read, especially in verse 12, of the books which were opened. Now, these books being opened indicates that this is not a shoot from the hip, best guess kind of judgment.

God isn't going, eh, about like that. This is very objective, very specific, very factual. Let there be no mistake, let's get the books out. Let's get the records. It's going to be on the basis of fact, and truth, and reality. Not on the basis of God's best guess, or how does he feel about you, or grading on the curve. Now, one of the things to note too is while we call these books in truth, while John was writing the book of Revelation, and in fact throughout the whole Old Testament, New Testament period, they didn't have bound books like we think of. They had scrolls. So really this is the format John's talking of anyway.

But let's look at verse 14. then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. Now, verse 14 says that both death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. Paul has told us in 1 Corinthians 15.26 about death.

He says, the last enemy that will be abolished is death. You see, it won't be a matter of our going into another universe with more death continuing, with death going on and on and on. He said, no. An end. This is an enemy. It's going to be abolished. As a matter of fact, that word qatargeo means put out of business. Death is put out of business. Won't that be good? Enough of it. Death will have been stopped. Cut off.

Notice that Hades will also be delivered into the lake of fire. You see, Hades has been and continues to be, and will for a time continue to be, the place holding those who are yet unresurrected. And it will include all this time those who are unsaved. That will also be terminated. No place for it. No use for it anymore. Because all souls by this time will have been dealt with. Sorted out, if you will. its use will have been ended, and so it also will be gone."

Now, John gives us a clear definition here. He tells us that the second death is the lake of fire. And by the way, that's one of the things we've talked about in Revelation. John is a very consistent writer. People look at the Revelation, and many people get real confused. The truth is, as I look at it here, and as we've talked about, well, this was over a year ago, Revelation is really easy to interpret, and the reason is John is very consistent in his word usage, and in a great many places, and we passed out an entire sheet of these kinds of places, he says, this is this, this is this, this is this, and this is another instance of that. The second death is the lake of fire. So you're not guessing, what is it? He lays it out very clear, this is what it is. So we have these references to the second death.

And again, this is an example of John's consistency. He keeps talking about it. Finally, we're going to read about it again for the last time in the next chapter as we get into that. But John is one of these incredibly consistent writers, and this is an example.

He talks about the Lamb, and the Lamb is always Christ. And he's the only New Testament author, by the way, that calls Christ the Lamb. About 30 times in the book of Revelation. When he talks about the sword coming out of his mouth, he uses a special Greek word for that sword. John is consistent here as well.

The second death is always meaning this introduction into the lake of fire. Now, that leads to the obvious question, what's the first death? The first death is the physical death. The second death is the lake of fire, as John has told us. So the first death is the physical death that separates the body from the soul. The second death places those judged souls into the lake of fire. So John spelled it out here.

The first death, physical death, separates the soul from the earthly body. That separation is two Hades. Get the point? The separation of the body and the soul, the separation is to Hades. The second death, which is only for unbelievers, separates the soul from the presence of God. That separation is to the Lake of Fire. One of the things we've talked about here is, the New Testament talks about death. The communication is death means separation. Very important. Death means separation. It's not annihilation, termination, Those sorts of things. Death means separation, and this is no exception. Let's look at verse 15.

And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Now John comes back to the matter of these books, and so will we. The books are records, and they provide the opportunity for facts to be revealed. They are factual, historical records for each person.

Now, you have on the backside of your handout this table, and I hope you don't see it as complex as the one we looked at last week. It won't be chartophobia, okay? But this table here kind of breaks it out. The Book of Life, as it is shown early in the Old Testament, frequently is referring to physical life, and the Jews would talk about somebody being blotted out from the Book of Life as an expression, a way of saying, basically, they're going to die physically.

But as we proceed through the Old Testament, we find more reference of it to actually looking ahead to this millennial life that Jewish believers would have. and so being included in the Book of Life in that sense. Now, one of the things to remember, and the reason why we see the Old Testament using the Book of Life term often in this way, it was common among the ancient folks to have for a city a table or a record of all those who were living in that city. When someone died, or moved away, they would block their name off of the record list of those who were residents of that city. Those who were living, okay? And so the application was easily made to block somebody out of the living, meaning basically that they're no longer alive. Now as we get into the New Testament, we find a real interesting transition taking place.

And as you look down the table, one of the things you find all of a sudden we see the Book of Life referring to eternal life. And it either is talking about being included in eternal life by having your name in the Book of Life, or excluded by having your name blotted out. So that ends up being made clear there. What we find is these verses either refer to being blotted out of the Book of Life or being written in or kept in.

There's a breakdown for each one of those. That's the pattern. It talks about one or the other. Okay, nice table, you say. That's fine, Vern. But how is it decided whether someone goes into the Lake of Fire or not? We've got these books. We've got these deeds. You have the records. You've got the Book of Life, you've got the book that apparently records people's individual deeds. How is this all decided? Well, let's take a look at the things we know from Scripture. First, we know that those who are going to spend eternity with the Lord have already been resurrected and judged for rewards in the first resurrection, such as we saw last week.

And that consisted of three stages, as we recall. There was the first fruits, the main harvest, and the gleanings. That amounted to the first fruit was Christ, the main harvest included ourselves, those of the church age, and the gleanings, those at the second coming of Christ, who are Old Testament saints or tribulation saints. So those three stages. And it reflects the Jewish harvest.

Those have already been judged. We know that. Secondly, those who are not going to spend eternity with the Lord have either been sent to the Lake of Fire already. Remember, at the end of the Tribulation, there are those, certainly the Beast and the False Prophet, but also the others from the Tribulation period who took upon the mark. They also were sent directly to the Lake of Fire. So, they're not going to be judged here because they've already been judged.

It's already happened. Now, thirdly, we know that while not all will believe, that is, not all will put their faith in Christ for salvation, Christ did die for the sins of the whole world. That would mean that on that basis, all living will begin with their names in the Book of Life. They are physically living. And they are in the Book of Life because their sins have been dealt with. But as they die, if unbelieving, their names are blotted from the Book of Life. I should add to that point that those in the Tribulation who take the mark of the Beast have their names blotted out right away. Why? This blotting out is evident because of the mark they've taken. And Revelation makes that clear. The next thing.

Therefore, when they come to this great white throne judgment, they are judged on the basis of their works, but their works are all found to be unsaving. They are no match for the standard of absolute righteousness, which Christ can only give to the person by believing. A person can only have Christ's righteousness by believing. Since their names are not in the Book of Life, and their works do not measure up to the absolute righteousness of Christ, which can only be put to one's account by belief, these dead ones are sent to the only place they can go, the lake of fire. It's the place where they will be separated from God.

Previously, they enjoyed God's kind of general grace, if you will, while on the earth. But the Lord says, no, no, I've given you time, I've given you the opportunity, now, because you have have denied the specific grace to my son. I have no choice but to deliver you to the lake of fire.

In John 3.16-18 our Lord puts it this way. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to judge the world, that is the first time, but that the world might be saved through him He who believes in him is not judged. How about that? Not judged with regards to any question of condemnation. That's not the issue. We did talk about a judgment for believers. That's a judgment for reward. The issue of condemnation does not even appear. But he who does not believe has been judged already because he does not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God. That's the issue. That's the real point at question.

Now, let's get personal with this. This lake of fire, to be quite truthful, will include many whom you and I know personally, as well as a number of people that maybe we've just met or seen. It'll include people that we haven't ever met. So how do we respond to that? That's a big question for Christians, isn't it? How do we respond to that?

It's not called the Lake of Fire because they're serving salsa. It's not fun. Should we run about in desperation for these? Should we scream and yell to the unsaved about their desperate condition? Pounding them with words of threat and gloom? Should we do that? Should we be driven by guilt and sympathetic agonies? in anticipation of their eternal fate? Is that the way we ought to respond?

Maybe instead we should be apathetic and assume that the whole matter is out of our hands. Should we figure that it's God's job to deal with them and to settle within ourselves that we're not headed there, so why bother? After all, it's not our personal problem And we can't force a solution on them, so they have to believe. It's not ours to deal with. Should we take that approach? Or is there a different approach altogether that God has in mind?

Could it be that our beholding Christ will be the process which God uses to transform us from glory to glory? Could it be that Christ, our very life, will express Himself through us and to others as we walk with Him in such a way that we need not skew our perspective to one of these extremes or the other. Might it be that we needn't respond to this ghastly eternity that lies ahead of so many in our own strength and in our natural tendency to go to one extreme or the other? In the flesh, isn't that the way we go? We either get apathetic because that's a nice defensive posture, or else we feel like we've got to do it.

And so then we turn a church service into something to pound people over the head with. Is it possible that we would not, if we trusted the Lord in this, be tempted to bend the truth of the gospel to fit the expectations and likes and warped desires of the world? Is it possible that believers, if they realize that it is the life of Christ, appealing through them, that is going to reach those that he wants? Could it be that the very life of Christ in us, Paul calls it, this treasure in earthen vessels, is totally adequate to the task? Totally? Approaching the unsaved about their eternal fate is monumental, isn't it? It's huge. It's massive.

But is it possible that the life of Christ will do it in a way that we needn't strategize with either apathy or fearful desperation? Maybe the Lord's going to do it in ways that we can't humanly strategize. Is it possible that when Paul wrote about equipping the body of Christ for the ministry, that that is the means that he intended, that we be equipped, not desperate or apathetic. Might it be that he desires the very life of Christ to shine through us because we are equipped and we are beholding Him, and that that's the avenue that he desires to use to reach these people. Let's pray. Lord, as we read about this, it's a very desperate time, and it is sobering. In our own minds, we're tempted to be drawn in ways that we feel like may be a solution. Desperation, or let's make the gospel attractive.

Let's do something to polish it up. when in fact, Lord, you have in your life provided all we need, in your word provided all the truth we need. And Lord, we just pray that we, within our minds and in our hearts, recognize the adequacy of all that you have given us and blessed us with. And Lord, there's a lot about this white throne judgment that even in spite of what's been revealed, and we thank you for that, that is a bit overwhelming for us as human beings. And yet in your life and in your strength, it's adequate for every need, each moment of every day. And we just give you thanks for that adequacy. In Jesus' name, Amen.