Judgments: Ch 48 Israel & Nations Ch 51 Great White Throne
Hal Molloy · Jun 8, 2003
Major Bible Themes (2002-03), No. 49
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826225655046

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

we're going to try and tackle two chapters at once today. So we're going to look at the Judgment of Israel and the Nations, Chapter 48, and also Chapter 51, the Judgment of the Great White Throne. Now, since we have covered Israel back here a couple weeks ago, we're not going to be talking about Israel this morning. So our focus this morning is going to be on two things, and looking at the distinction between the judgment of the nations and the great white throne judgment. So that's where we're going.

So the big question in theological circles are, what are the major judgments of God? And then the question is, as you take a look at the the major judgments of God, the question comes up as to whether the judgment of the nations, which is specified in Matthew chapter 25, verses 31 through 46, is any different than the great white throne judgment in Revelation chapter 20. As you saw last week, when we looked at the resurrections, we looked at the theology of the Amillennialist, we looked at the theology of the Postmillennialist, and we saw that they believed that the resurrections, that there was just one general resurrection, and that was at the end of this world, and that everybody would be raised simultaneously, whether they be just, unjust, whether they be and they equated that general resurrection to the first resurrection, the second resurrection, so they combined all of the resurrections into one general resurrection. Now, what they also do, as we looked at that chart, they combine the judgment of the nations with the judgment of the great white throne. So they put those two together and say that they're one judgment. Let's take a look at an overview of all of the judgments of God, the major judgments of God. As you see in the chart, there are eight of them.

The first major judgment was was at the fault. And Adam and Eve disobeyed God. I should say Eve, it was all her fault, right? And disobeyed God and took Adam down with her. And so what was the judgment? How did God judge him? They disobeyed God and God judged them. What was the judgment?

Well, one thing is they fell from the state they were in. Okay. They fell from the state they were in. Very good. They died spiritually. So they died spiritually. Okay. And they got kicked out of the garden. They got kicked out of the garden. Okay. And what else? The earth would have wings. Okay.

It was judgment upon the entire earth. Pain in childbirth? Very good. The judgment was devastating. It impacted every single person in this world, you and me included. It was the most pervasive, if you will, judgment of all. Because, as it says in Romans 5, 12, for by one man, sin entered into the world. the sin nature entered into the world. And what? And death by sin. Because death has passed upon all men, for all have sinned. So that judgment was a judgment of condemnation. Death and condemnation to all of the progeny of Adam and Eve. every single person, including you and me.

So it was by far the most far-reaching judgment of all. Then, man in his sin nature, now you see man in his sin nature in just six short chapters in the book of Genesis, which is a relatively short period of time historically. Because if we take the age of the earth anywhere between 6 and 10,000 years, the flood was 1,600 years after, about 1,600 years after Adam. In 1,600 years, God looks down on the earth and looks at man and said that his heart was evil continually. I'm going to wipe out man. And it was only eight righteous souls that survived the flood. And he gave man 120 years to change his mind. And no one changed their mind. Isn't that interesting? 120 years and that one person changed their mind. So there was just the eight souls, Noah, his wife, and three sons and their wives.

Then came the judgment of the cross. Here was one of the greatest judgments of all, because here Christ then took the penalty for your sin, and He took the penalty for my sin. And so now, when you come to the cross, now you have two men. You have Adam and you have Christ. And there's a comparison in Scripture especially in Romans chapter 5, between these two men. One brought sin into the world, the other brought righteousness into the world. One brought death into the world, the other brought life into the world.

We're talking about spiritual life and spiritual death. So there's a tremendous contrast between the two men and the two judgments. Okay, good, excellent question. Why is the cross a judgment? And who's getting judged? Okay, so what's happening? Who's getting judged at the cross?

Okay. Satan is. Who else? Okay. And so, now, we have the Lord Jesus Christ, who is absolutely righteous, right? In him was no sin. right? No sin. He takes your sin, my sin, the sins of the entire world, right? And He becomes sin for us who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God.

And so He takes the entire, He takes the acts of sin, right, all the deeds of sin, He takes the believer's sin nature and he gets judged for it. Tremendous judgment. He takes your judgment and my judgment, your penalty and my penalty on that cross. So Christ is judged for you and for me. He's our substitute on your behalf and on my behalf. Tremendous judgment. It's a good question.

Okay, then we come to the Tribulation period, which we've looked at, Daniel's 70th week, and we've gone through Daniel's 70th week, and we took the book of Revelation, if you remember, and we went through all of the seal judgments, trumpet judgments, and the bowl judgments, and we saw where each of those judgments fell, and we didn't go through all of those judgments. Vern took a year to go through all of those judgments, and we didn't repeat any of that. But we saw the tremendous judgment that God pours down on this earth.

And he calls this, the Tribulation, the Great One. That there hasn't been a time, as the Lord says, the Lord Jesus Christ says, there hasn't been a time, nor there ever will be, where there will be such a great judgment. Okay, then at the end of Daniel's 70th week, at the end of the Tribulation period, The Lord Jesus Christ is going to return, His second coming, in terms of coming with His saints. In the rapture, He comes for His saints, and the saints are caught up. He comes with His saints, and He's going to rule and reign on this earth for 1,000 years, the millennial kingdom. When He comes at His second coming, He's going to gather all of the nations, and He's going to judge them. And we'll be looking at that in a minute.

And then at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, he's going to take Satan, who was let loose. Satan, the false prophet, the Antichrist, was in the Lake of Fire during this Millennial Kingdom. Satan was in this bottomless pit during the Millennial Kingdom. He's going to be let loose at the end of the Millennial Kingdom for a short season, for a short period of time. He's going to have a large following that follow him and God then finally judges Satan, puts him into the lake of fire with the false prophet and the Antichrist or the beast.

So that's a judgment to come. Following that is the Great White Throne Judgment, where all the dead are raised and stand before the Lord Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne. And they're judged, and the books are opened. And we'll look at that in a moment. And they're judged.

Then the last major judgment is on this earth. And as Lisa said, you know, God judged the earth at the fall. And there's thorns and thistles, et cetera, et cetera. and then God is going to purge the earth. Now, some Bible expositors believe that this earth is going to go poof, it's going to be annihilated, a new heavens and a new earth, new in time, new in quality. I personally don't believe that. I think that God is going to purge this earth But we're going to get to that when we go to talk about the last chapter.

And we'll talk about that in detail. So right for now, we're going to take a look at the judgment of the nations and compare it to the great white throne. So I want you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 25. Let's start in Matthew 24 because I want to set the stage here. Let me say this as just an introduction as we go through this comparison. We're going to find that there is a tremendous distinction between the Judgment of the Nations and the Great White Throne Judgment.

We're going to see that the timing is different, that these judgments occur at different times, that the subjects, those who appear before the judgment are different. We're going to see that the reasons for the judgments are different. So we're going to look at all of these distinctions between these two judgments. And there are tremendous distinctions between these two judgments.

Now, so the question comes up is this. If there are distinctions, and if we go to Scripture and we see these distinctions between these two judgments, and they are distinct, then how come these great theologians say, no, they're one and the same judgment? How come? How can they possibly do that? Have any guess?

One says that one's going to happen immediately after the tribulation. That's the judgment of the nations. And we're going to see that the great white throne judgment is immediately after the millennial kingdom, after the 1,000 years. But Bible expositors and teachers put them together. They say they're just one judgment. they say the timing is the same. We look at scripture and say the timing is different.

So, how come? How come they can do that? Okay, certainly true, not being dispensationalists. But think of it. I mean, think, as you're reading scripture, how can they say, by looking at scripture and seeing that one judgment immediately follows the tribulation, and the other one immediately follows the thousand years, what must they do to make those one judgment? Skip the millennial kingdom. Skip the millennial kingdom. And why? What do they do?

What I'm looking for is what they do is they spiritualize scripture. They say, see, it really doesn't mean a thousand years. What it really means is this. So they have to spiritualize what scripture says. as opposed to taking just a plain, literal interpretation of Scripture. Okay? So that's the reason.

And if you don't take the plain, literal interpretation of Scripture, then, as Lisa says, you're not dispensationalist. You don't come up with a dispensational model. You come up with another model. But you must, to come up with another model, you must spiritualize Scripture.

All right. Matthew 24. Look at Matthew 23. We're working back. In verse 37, here's the Lord Jesus. He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets in stone, them who are sent into you, how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings and you would not. You will not. So here is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Messiah and He is coming for Israel. He says, I desire to gather you as a mother hen under her wings to gather you. You are my people.

I am your Messiah. I am your King. You willed not. Your will was to reject me. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate, for I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth till you shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. So he's going to say, you've rejected me, but there's going to come a time that you're going to not reject me and say, Blessed is He. And that time is coming.

And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came to Him to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. So what's the Lord Jesus Christ saying? He's looking at the temple and he's saying, there's not going to be one stone in this temple, physical temple, there's not going to be one stone left upon another. He's predicting the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

And then in verse three, as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately saying, listen to the three questions that the disciples have. Three questions. Tell us when these things shall be. What do you think that these things shall be referred to? What was he just talking about? The temple being destroyed. Not one stone left upon another, etc., etc. And so the disciples say, Okay, tell us when these things shall be. Then, in verse 4, here's a second question.

And what shall be the sign of thy coming? So that they know that he's going to come back a second time. They want to know the sign. And the thing is, the word sign here is a miraculous sign. What is going to be the sign of your coming? And the end of the age. What's going to be the sign of the end of the age? Now, I have to tell you something about this word end of the age.

The word end here is, in the Greek, It's the word Suntalia, S-U-N-T-E-I-L-A, if you want to do it in English, Suntalia. That word, Suntalia, means a heading up of events, a consummation of what are all of the events that are going to happen at the end time.

And so they understand Daniel's prophecy They understand Daniel 9.24 through 27, and Daniel 9.24 through 9.27, as we looked at a couple weeks ago, was all of the events that were going to happen with respect to Israel.

And so they're saying, what's consummation? When's that going to happen? Now, I want you to notice. the three questions and the order in which they're listed. The first question is, when shall these things be? That is, the destruction of the temple. Second question, what is the sign of your coming? Third question is, what is the sign or when shall these, what's the consummation, the end of the age? of the consummation of events. Now, let me ask you a question.

In terms of what we've studied, in terms of the sequence of events, are the sequence of events in terms of prophecy consistent with the questions that are being asked here? In other words, are these questions chronological, the way things are going to happen in the future. In other words, is this coming going to be before the consummation of the age, Daniel's 70th week? Do you understand the question? The answer is no. They ask the questions out of sequence, in terms of chronologically. Now, look what happens when the Lord Jesus Christ answers their questions. He puts them in the right chronological order.

Now, the one thing that he doesn't do, or let me say this, he answers all three questions, but Matthew only records the answer to the last two questions. the sign of his coming and the end of the age. He doesn't answer, Matthew doesn't record the answer to the first question, but Luke does. In chapter 20 of Luke, Luke records the answer to the first question. We're not going to go there.

But the question is answered. And when the Lord Jesus Christ answers those questions, he answers them in chronological order. And so we come down to verse 4, and look how he answers them in chronological order. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall come and deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that ye not be troubled.

And for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. You see that word end? It's not the word syntholia. It's not the consummation of events. That word end is telos, what he's saying, but the end of the consummation is not yet. So in the English, unfortunately, they translate two different Greek words into the same English word, and so it's hard to see what it's really saying. So the Lord Jesus Christ is answering the question, here's going to be the consummation or the simphilia of events. And he goes down them. He starts listing them. He says, but the end, that is, the end of those events is not yet.

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes at places. And all these are the beginning of sorrows. And they shall deliver you to be afflicted, and shall kill you. and shall be hated for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise and deceive many. And iniquity shall grow cold.

And verse 13, who shall endure until the end. Those who shall endure until the end shall be saved." At the end there is telos again, the end of the tribulation period. Okay, so this sets the stage. So he answers the question in reverse order. He puts question number three. He answers that before the sign of his coming. And then he answers that second question.

Verse 29, Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. So here is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then he goes through some parables. And he continues on in this discourse. Now I want you to flip over to Matthew 25 and verse 31. So that sets the stage for Matthew 25. So in verse 31 it says this. When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory.

And before Him shall be gathered all the nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats." Now, question. Who is He separating? Okay. People that came through the tribulation. And you're right. We'll see in a minute. They will be believers and non-believers. But are these live people or dead people? They're live people, right? These are nations that have survived the tribulation period. Verse 32, And before him shall be gathered all the nations, and he shall separate one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.

And then shall a king say unto them, on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." What do you think that kingdom is? Is that eternity? Now, doesn't it make sense that here comes the Lord Jesus Christ in all His glory and he has the nations before him, and he separates them, one from another, sheep on his right hand, goats on his left hand, and we'll talk about the sheep and the goats in just a moment, but the ones on his right hand, he says this, come, enter into the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So in God's plan, he had a kingdom planned for them.

Come enter into it, okay? I mean, doesn't that make sense in just a literal, plain interpretation? Okay. Verse 34. Verse 35. And he gives the reason why they're entering into the kingdom. and you gave me food I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was a stranger and you took me in naked and you clothed me I was sick and you visited me I was in prison and you came unto me then shall the righteous answer him notice that little word he's talking to the ones on his right hand the sheep and who are they? the righteous notice that little word They are, it defines who they are. They are the righteous. They are the just ones. They have been justified, declared righteous.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry and fed thee, or thirsty and gave thee drink? And when saw we as a stranger and took thee in naked, and they clothed thee? Or when saw we sick or in prison and came unto thee? And the king shall answer them, verily, verily, I say unto you, it is as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me." Okay. Scene. Lord Jesus Christ. All of the sheep, nations are all divided. Sheep, goats.

He says to them, come enter into the kingdom of heaven, because when I was hungry you fed me, in prison you visited me, etc. He goes through the letter. And the righteous say, when did we ever do that? They didn't have a clue. How do you explain that, that they didn't have a clue? Excellent. Excellent answer. It was just the fruit of their righteousness. They were just walking by faith. And the Holy Spirit was working through them. And they weren't striving to do any of this.

So, the same thing is true with us. When we're striving, to do something, then you have to start thinking, who's doing the doing? We're to be, not necessarily do. The Lord will do the doing through us, but we're to be. We're to be who we are. We're to walk by faith. Okay, so keep on going. Verse 40, The king shall answer and say unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Oh, excuse me. Oh, here's my next question.

He says, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these, the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Who are the brethren? Who are these brethren? I mean, you've got the sheep and you've got the goats, and he says, inasmuch as you've done unto me, as to one of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me.

OK? OK? Israel, the Jews? Does that make sense? That they are his brethren? And you have He started out with 144,000 that were sealed, and many more Jews believed. And so you have all of these Jewish believers before him, too. So there's how many groups of people? Three groups of people there. And one of these, the least of my brethren, you've done unto me. OK. Then verse 41. Then he shall also say unto them on his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and ye gave me no food. And I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink. And it was strange, ye took me not in naked. Ye didn't clothe me, sick, and in prison. Ye didn't visit me. And then they shall answer him, saying, Lord, notice what they call him. Huh? Lord! Lord! When saw we thee hungry, or a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or etc.?

And then, verse 45, Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me. So these people rejected the witness of the Jews during the tribulation period. And they didn't know it. But they were rejecting. Because these Jews, they're being persecuted.

There is tremendous persecution upon anybody who would name the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? During the tribulation period, if you got the mark on your forehead, 666, there's a mark on your hand, and if you don't have that mark, you're in trouble, and you're being persecuted. Verse 46, "...and these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Okay.

That's the judgment of the nations in a capsule. Now let's read the passage on the Great White Throne Judgment and see if we see any distinctions. So turn to Revelation chapter 20. Let's start at verse 4, just to get it into context. Revelation 20 verse 4, And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them.

And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus. These are souls that were martyred during the tribulation period. And for the word of God, and who had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received the mark his mark in their foreheads or in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ, how long? A thousand years. Okay, so we're going from here, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

So at least we're talking about the Millennial Kingdom. But the rest, verse 5, but the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished, this is the first resurrection. And we talked about that when we went through the resurrection, that those who are resurrected here is the first resurrection, and the resurrection here at the end of the Millennial Kingdom is, if you will, even though they call it the second resurrection, it's a resurrection to the second death. So in verse 6, blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection, on such the second death has no power. But they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Verse 7. Now, key. When the thousand years has what? Ended. Notice. When the thousand years has ended, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is the sand of the sea." And now I want you to go to, and it talks about Satan and the false prophet and the beast. I want you to go to verse 11. Now this is the end of the thousand years, right?

And I saw a great white throne. Now, was there a throne in the judgment of the nations? Do you remember when we read it? He sat upon his throne there, and he was judging the nations. So similarity is, he was on the throne, throne of judgment, And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged. out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. Question. In the judgment of the nations, what was the judgment based on? When I was thirsty, you gave me drink. When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was in prison, you visited me. Remember?

What was it judged on? I mean, it was outwardly, outwardly it would appear that they were judged on their works, right? But the question is, what was the source of those works? They didn't know they were doing them, right? Right. They didn't know they were doing them. So it came from the heart. It came out of their walk by faith. And Christ called them righteous. So it would appear that they were being judged on their works, right? But the reason why they went into the kingdom was because of who they were. They were righteous.

So the books are open. Verse 13, And the seed gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead that were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works." Question. Who is appearing before this? Who are the subjects before this judgment? Okay. The dead, right? Do you see any living before this? before this judgment. You see the distinction here?

The sea gave up the dead. Hades gave up the dead. These are all dead people who have been resurrected. So these are dead people from all ages, from the beginning of the world till the end of the world. They're all those who have died. There's no living Judgment of the nations, who were they? Living or dead? All living. No dead people. Distinction? Big distinction. Distinction in subjects? Big distinction. Distinction in time?

Judgment of the nations immediately after the Tribulation in those days? Great White Throne? Right after the thousand years have ended? Bang! Great White Throne. a difference in timing of a thousand years, right? Okay. Verse 14, And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. Question, all of these people who are dead, who appear before the great white throne, Where do they go?

Why? From the context of scripture here, how do we know? How do we know that? Okay, so everybody that came out of Hades It's talking about all the dead that were raised from all the sources. It talks about those sources right here, that they, from those sources, were cast into the lake of fire. Right?

So it sounds like everyone that appears before the Great White Throne are cast in the lake of fire. And whosoever was not found, written in the book, of life was cast into the lake of fire." Can I ask somebody to read verse 15? If you look at the Greek, it says this, and if anyone was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire. Does anybody have a New American standard? Roger, you have New American? Yes, it's very close to what you said, and if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Okay. So here's Craig's question from 16 weeks ago, whenever it was.

Doesn't it sound like there's people at this great white throne and And there's a distinction. If your name isn't written in the book, then you're cast into the lake of fire. And if your name is written in the book, then you're not cast into the lake of fire. Doesn't it appear that you could translate that that way? But the preceding verse talked about those who were before the great white throne, where they came from. And it said that those were cast into the lake of fire. So the question is, is there anyone before the great white throne that isn't cast into the lake of fire? Let me just say this in terms of a conditional sentence in Greek. This is a conditional sentence in Greek.

The best way to translate a conditional sentence is this. is that there's the condition part and there's the result or the conclusion. If then, if then. We take the conditional part. If the condition is true, then the conclusion is true. If the condition is false, then If the conclusion is false, that's the simplest way to translate. This is a first-class conditional sentence. There are four classes of conditional sentences in Greek. Don't worry about that.

But just remember that if the condition is true, then the conclusion is true, and we're concluding. If anyone's name was not written in the Book of Life, conclusion is true. If anybody's name is not there, then the result, conclusion, I say condition. If the condition, if anyone's name is not written in the Book of Life, then the conclusion, then they're cast in the lake of fire.

That's all that's saying. It's not implicating that there are other people before the throne than those who come up from the dead, from all ages, who are, if you will, unrighteous, even though it doesn't say unrighteous. I want to show you a passage of scripture that you could come to the same conclusion. First of all, let me ask you a question.

In the eternal state, and here's new heavens, new earth, heavenly Jerusalem has come down. In that eternal state, are there any unbelievers there? For sure? The children of which people? Sure, there are. There are people. The millennium, you mean? Okay, so help me to understand your question. You see why we've never gotten along after all? No, not true. Hold it for a minute.

Just turn to Revelation chapter 21 and look at verse 27 and look what it says and there shall in no way enter into it now it's talking about the heavenly Jerusalem right? new heavens new earth this is the heavenly Jerusalem in eternity future enter into it anything that defiles neither he that works abomination or maketh a lie, but they who are written in the Lamb's book of life." Doesn't it appear that in eternity, future, that there are those who are works of abomination, they make lies, and those are not going to be allowed into the heavenly city, right? who's written in the Lamb's Book of Life can enter into the Holy City. Doesn't it appear that way? Yes or no? See, it would appear that way, but all it's saying is this, is that the reason why they won't enter into the Holy City is because they're not there.

They've been judged. They're in everlasting punishment. They're in the lake of fire. And that's why they won't be there. Okay. The books. Very quickly. The books are opened and they're judged out of the books. One thing that's interesting is this. There's the book of life. We know there are at least two books, because it's plural. So we know there's at least two books.

So there's the Book of Life, and it tells us the Book of Works. Why would these people appearing before the Great White Throne, all of the dead, from all of the ages, the unrighteous dead, why would they be judged on their works? What is God showing them? Why is He opening up the Book of Life and the Book of Works.

Okay. Here's Sue's answer. Absolutely. They were trusting in their own righteousness, in their own works. Right? How many people say, I'm a good person, and God will look down upon me with favor because I'm I'm moral and I'm this and I'm that. So they're there because God shows them that they're judged out of their own righteousness and that righteousness doesn't meet His righteousness and it falls short of His righteousness and falling short of His righteousness, there's a penalty and the penalty is death. for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." All have sinned and come short of the righteousness of God, and the wages of that sin is death.

Now, the book of life. Here's what I believe in the book of life. Because as you go through the book of Revelation, it talks about the book of life and it says, that was written before the foundation of the world. Isn't that interesting? The book of life written before the foundation of the world. So a bottom line, now you can search this out for yourself, it's not agreed by everybody here in this fellowship, and I can tell you that, but as you go through the book of life, Old Testament, New Testament, you'll find that no one is ever written into the Book of Life, you'll only find that someone is blotted out of the Book of Life. And you find out the Book of Life is written before the foundation of the world, and that says to me that God writes into the Book of Life every single person.

Every one. Absolutely. So if you err, you err on the side of grace, you know. And what grace is, I mean, that is tremendous grace that God has written into everyone's name in the book of life. And he won't blot it out until the final rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's grace.

Yes, and those people appearing before the Great White Throne, God is showing them that their name has been blotted out, that their name is not in the Book of Life. Now, in terms of something I said, as you go through the Book of Revelation, you'll find two statements in there that says someone's name has not been written in the Book of Life, okay? And it refers to the Antichrist, the only one that's name that has not been written into the Book of Life. Question why? Think about it. Let's close.

Father, we are thankful. We are just so thankful for your matchless and marvelous grace. And we are here today because of that grace. And we thank you and praise you for your son. And thank you and praise you for your glorious plan and your eternal purpose in terms of revealing your glory to us and sharing that very glory through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for it. We pray for the hour to come. In Christ's name, amen.