We haven't even gotten to God's Word yet. God's Word, Revelation chapter 20.
Now, I was hoping to pause and deal with the issues of the millennium this week, of Revelation 20, verses 1 through 6. And that's often, if you're not familiar with that, that's often how people define which camp they fall into related to the book of Revelation. But we're going to— we're going to pull a Dennis Johnson, who in his commentary basically said, listen, I can tell you what I think about the Millennium up front, or we can go through the whole book and then I'll tell you at the end. And I'm going to do that. We're going to pull a Dennis Johnson because I feel like— I think in God's providence, walking through the entirety of the book will then allow us to go and say, okay, great, there's so many different interpretations of this.
How do we interact about those interpretations? So that is one reason. The second reason is, in dealing with Revelation chapter 20, I began to see that verses 11 to 15 are some of the most significant verses in the Bible. That is not an exaggeration. They, if true— and they are true— redefine everything in our lives.
So in order for us to kind of fully experience the claim this text places on us, would you join me in standing for the reading of God's Word this morning? Don't always do this, but we felt like it was uniquely appropriate for this particular text.
Revelation chapter 20, verse 11. This is God's Word. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.
From his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne And books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it.
Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. And then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
And then chapter 21, verse 1, and then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. And a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
This is God's Word.
And Father, we pray, we pray every week, but we pray this week desperately. Lord, give us the gift of revelation today. Allow us to see.
Lord, help my inability to communicate the immensity and weight of such a text.
Lord, may it be that as we leave, we will feel the reality of the throne and the one seated on it, and then by the Lord's grace, the joy of our salvation. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may take a seat.
Well, I struggled with how do you begin talking about such an immense text, and then I found it. Tupac.
Tupac Shakur was a rapper, if you didn't know, and at one point was accused and then convicted of assault, but maintained his innocence vehemently by most accounts, and then released a rap, a profane rap that I'm not recommending you listen to, but the rap had a memorable lyric in it that was repeated constantly. And it both reflected, I think, American culture, and I think kind of burned this line into American culture. And the line was this: "Only God can judge me." And everybody nodding, I know that you listen to Tupac now, or did pre-con— okay, so pre-conversion.
So you've all been revealed. I took a note. And that's the line: "Only God can judge me." Now that both, I think, reflects American hearts but was a unique encapsulation of it because All of us, if we're honest, are a little bit like Tupac, right? We come out and we do not want others to judge us. Perhaps the only verse that most Americans know is, "Judge not lest ye be judged," right?
"Don't you be judging me." Or in the words of Esqueleto in Nacho Libre, "I don't know why you always have to be judging me," right?
We come out, we do not want others to judge us. We don't want them to question our decisions. We don't want— to be put under the microscope. We want to be freed from all that. And so kind of what we say in response often is, "Only God can judge me."
Hey, but our text today has a response to our culture, and the response is this: He will.
6 · Structural transition establishing the sermon's organizing framework as a series of questions about the judgment
That's the text. Only God can judge me. He will. Are you ready? We're going to walk through a series of questions today to kind of work through the text.
7 · Exposition of verse 11 identifying the one who judges as the one seated on the great white throne, connecting this throne to its earlier appearance in Revelation 4
And the first question is this: Who judges? It says, verse 11, "Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it." Right? This is the throne that begins Revelation in Revelation 4 in the sense of they have those letters to the churches and the visions start with this vision of the throne. So this vision is not new. We have seen the throne before.
We've seen the one seated on it before.
8 · Exposition of the cosmic imagery in verse 11b, explaining how the fleeing of earth and sky represents the shattering of all separation between God's throne and created reality, making God's presence the sole reality in the universe
But something new occurs. "From his presence earth and sky fled away, and there was no place— no place was found for them." Okay, so what's happening? So here's what's happening. In Greek thought, there were kind of three planes of existence: the world, the underworld, the world of the dead, and the heavens, which is the world of the gods.
And so variously, sometimes somebody from the world of the gods would come down to the normal world or go— you know, some interaction like that. But this is utterly different. Verse 11, the imagery is this, that the separation between the world and the heavens is shattered. And he, God, rolls up the sky.
And he, the language is almost that he appears simultaneously everywhere, or perhaps, Rather, the reality of the throne is the only reality in the universe.
9 · Exposition showing how Revelation 11's seventh trumpet announcement of the kingdom becoming God's is fulfilled in chapter 20's judgment scene, interpreting this as the answer to every Lord's Prayer for God's kingdom to come and will to be done on earth as in heaven
This is what was foreshadowed in Revelation chapter 11. Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet and there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. Meaning this, those two planes of existence, The kingdom of the world has become— there's no separation between the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ. It's all fully, finally, completely under the rule of God. Him ruling now in this moment.
When we pray the Lord's Prayer, "His kingdom come, let his will be done on earth as it is in heaven," this is the fulfillment of every Lord's Prayer ever prayed in history.
10 · Application contrasting God as the ultimate judge with all the lesser judges the culture fears or seeks approval from—culture (Babylon), government (the beast), and false teachers (the false prophet)—freeing believers from those evaluations
Now, let's take a moment to remember how much of a contrast then this is with previous sections of Revelation. Who judges? Well, the answer is not the culture. It's not Babylon you have to worry about. It's not her representing the culture around us, the media around us, friend groups, high school, extended family, whatever.
Don't worry. In a sense, this text is saying, listen, don't worry about them judging you. It's not that you need to be worried about. Nor even the government, right? The government represents worldly governance in opposition to Christ.
And ultimately, even though the Lord sets up governing authorities and can use them in limited ways for good, in the end, the government's evaluation of you is not the final evaluation of you. Neither is it a teacher, right? The false prophet led many astray, and it reminds us that the ultimate judge is not a teacher or a writer or a speaker or even a pastor. The ultimate authority is someone very different.
11 · Theological claim directly confronting American individualism and self-determination, asserting that self-evaluation and being 'true to yourself' are irrelevant compared to God's evaluation
And let me just insert then, as Americans, the American mindset is that no one can tell me what's right for me.
I got to listen to my truth. I got to be true to myself. Listen, in the end, it will not matter if you've been true to yourself. It will not matter if you judge yourself well What will matter is the evaluation and judgment of the one on the throne.
12 · Personal story about teenage desire for peer approval through wearing a chain, illustrating how awareness of a higher authority (his father's judgment) eclipsed peer judgment and prevented foolish action
And when you are aware of a higher judgment, all of a sudden those other judgments begin to fade away. I have a confession. Back in, I think, the '90s, if I remember correctly, in our church there were some guys that were, like, trying to be cool in high school, and they were trying to be a little gangster and a little cholo or whatever. And they bought, and listen, if you were not from El Paso, right, or somewhere like that, this is gonna be inscrutable to you, but guys were buying the chain. You know what I'm talking about?
The chain, so the baggy jeans and the chain, right? Go from here to here, and you would like kinda walk in and be like, oh yeah, what's up, homes? Like this, like you know what I mean? And you'd walk different with the chain, like, mm, come on, like, you know? And so I, as a skinnier than I am now homeschooled kid, while at the store one day saw a chain.
And under the influence of desire to be cool, I thought, "That's what I need." So I took my money and I purchased a chain, took it home. And the time came where there were going to be a number of youth kids, you know, out at somebody's house hanging out, and I thought, this is the perfect opportunity to wear this chain. But I knew something. I knew I would have to put the chain on, walk out of my room, and my mom and dad would look at me before I left. And when I bought the chain, my mom was like, oh my gosh.
You know, I could just tell, but she's like, well, it's his money. It's not drugs, so let him get, you know. Sure, but I knew I was gonna have to walk past my dad, and in that moment, the reality of walking past my dad in a chain and baggy jeans, like, became a reality to me. Also the reality that this is my dad. Also the reality that I live here.
And also the reality that chains are incredibly stupid. Somehow all of that came to me in the moment, and the chain I bought, I never wore because Even though I wanted to be judged cool, well, there's a different judge in the end that I cared more about.
13 · Application of the personal illustration to the broader point, specifying multiple sources of human judgment (social media, work, relationships) that become irrelevant when God's judgment is central, framing this awareness as liberating rather than constraining
Similarly, this text lands on us that way. Listen, what America thinks of you, or your friends think of you, or people on Instagram think of you, or your job thinks of you, or your boss thinks of you, or your ex-girlfriend, boyfriend thinks of you, none of that will matter on the last day. There's only one judge.
And in a way, that's actually incredibly freeing. It allows you to go, like, "You know what? If I'm following Jesus and people are like, 'That's stupid. That's backwards,' you know, like, whatever, man. Like, I'm thinking about a higher judge."
14 · Structural transition moving from the first question to the second, marking a major shift in the sermon's progression
All right, first, who judges?
Second, who will be judged?
15 · Exposition of verse 12 emphasizing the universal scope of the judgment through the phrase 'great and small,' interpreting the imagery to mean that absolutely every person without exception will stand trial before God
Verse 12: "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life." life. Now, again, this is like in many things in Revelation, these are images, but they're images meant to communicate a deep spiritual reality that everyone who is alive and everyone who dies, every single person, the text says small and great, or great and small, that phrase occurs throughout Scripture to emphasize everybody. No one escapes the this trial.
Every ruler, every billionaire, every quiet person that keeps to themselves, every loud person with a million friends, all of them will be there, including you.
16 · Cultural observation illustrating America's obsession with judging others through celebrity news, sports analysis, and high-profile trials, diagnosing this as an attempt to elevate ourselves by comparison
Now, in our American culture, we— well, I think our national— people argue about what our national sport is. What's the national sport of America? Is it football? You know, whatever.
Baseball? The baseball fans are losing, but I'm rooting for you guys. It's fun. You know, the national pastime of America, the national sport of America is judging, right? We love to judge.
We pore over celebrity news judging their hair, judging their relationship, judging their jobs, judging their relation— you know, the person they're with now. And all the guys are like, "Yeah, what my wife does on, you know, watching Bravo is so stupid." No, you just judge the front office of the Dallas Cowboys and whether Dak is a decent quarterback and what you would have done on third and long in the playoffs, right? This is America. America loves to judge others. We have networks devoted to it.
Why? The entire world was watching a stupid celebrity trial we had no real stake in. Why? Because we want to make ourselves feel better in relationship to them. Like, I'm not that crazy.
Like, honey, I mean, you know, I used to think I'm crazy, but look at this guy, you know?
17 · Personal story about missing jury duty, illustrating the shift from casual familiarity with a courthouse to fear when becoming accountable to a real judge, paralleling the shift from playing religion to facing God's actual judgment
Look, this is the reality. When I was in Mock Trial in high school, we went to the courthouse downtown all the time. So, you know, first the courthouse is a little intimidating, but then you kind of get used to it. Then it just becomes, oh, we go practice mock trial at the courthouse, you know? After hours, say hi to the security guard on your way up.
You know, kind of talking with, chatting with your friends on the way up. But then, years after being in mock trial, I missed a jury summons somehow. I put it by my bedside table and it fell in the crack, and then I missed my jury duty. So then I was summoned to the courtroom to explain myself. And so I remember walking to the courthouse, and the courthouse would look so friendly and familiar, all of a sudden started to feel a little different.
You know, security guards that I would wave at, all of a sudden I'm like, are they going to arrest me now or— Maybe later, you know? You start to feel the reality of, like, I'm going to be in front of a real judge. We're not playing anymore. Like, that's the reality.
18 · Direct application to middle and high school students warning that judgment is individual, not corporate—you cannot slide into heaven on your family's faith or church attendance—using the image of group projects where some get credit they didn't earn
I will stand there. You will stand there. And you will be accounted for individually, not as a group, right? You won't be your family that kind of comes together. Listen, if you're in middle school or high school, You got to remember this.
You're not going to come as a family and, like, your mom and dad's faith is like, "Well, you guys get kind of over the line, so you guys are in." And you're like, "Phew." Now you slide in with mom and dad.
Neither will you slide in with your church. Because you have sat here in these seats today or for years does not mean that Cross of Grace corporately will be called to account corporately and we'll just kind of have a group grade and you're like, "Phew." Like the person in the college group— you know, the college group that didn't really do their part but got the A anyway, if you're hoping for that, it's a no. You will stand before the throne.
19 · Exposition of verses 12-13 explaining how people are judged according to their deeds recorded in books, with death and Hades imagery showing no one escapes
Question 3: How will they be judged? And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had 'And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.' Now, the death and Hades imagery is used— it's using Greek imagery to make a point, right? Remember the three planes. It's saying, listen, the underworld people, they're not safe from the judgment either. Like, in other words, it's almost as though God and the throne are crashing through all the planes of reality, And the dead are summoned as well, every single one of them.
And the books are opened. Now, there's two books going on here. First is— or a book or set of books is a record of deeds, a record of actions. So people are judged according to what they had done. Now, this is on one level good.
The rumors about you that aren't true will finally be dispelled on the last day, right? You won't be judged according to that. You know, that's not going to happen. Instead, you'll only be judged according to what you've done. Well, somebody could say, "Well, listen, is this going to be a fair trial?
Is it going to be an impartial jury? You know, what if the jury's being unduly influenced here?" You know, we're Americans. We're like, "We know our rights. We're going to hire the best lawyer." Well, let's think about this. First, the judgment is made with full and complete knowledge of your life.
Look, God is omniscient. He sees everything. And Scripture says— Scripture actually goes further. He sees through everything, right? Jeremiah 17 says this: I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.
He sees through all the bluster, all the facade. He searches hearts and thoughts.
20 · Vivid exposition of the comprehensive nature of God's knowledge and the absolute standard of judgment—not relative comparison to others, but absolute comparison to God's character and perfect justice
Look, what this means is this. The imagery here is vivid. The books of everything you've said to your spouse will be opened.
The internet viewing history of everything you've ever seen online will be unrolled. The record of every text you've ever sent, every word you wish you could take back, everything you should have done but did not do, all of it will be fully and completely there. And the judgment then is made according to the perfect and true standards of justice in God himself. Like, all this talk of, like, "Well, what if the jury gets influenced? What if there's undue influence in the jury?" Look, this is the one judge in history that's not going to be unduly influenced by anything, that truly and finally and fully upholds the standards of justice that so often in this world are not upheld.
Look, often we We judge ourselves in relationship to other people, right? One of the reasons we love to watch celebrity meltdowns or Bravo or whatever is that we can look at somebody else and go, "I'm not like them. I'm not that bad. I feel better about myself." Maybe even in your family. You're like, okay, well, I'm better than my spouse at least.
Well, listen, I have a record of wrongs my spouse did, and, you know, and I could make a great case about against my spouse, and I could make a great case against my family that I grew up with, and I can make a great case against my boss, and I can make a great case against my ex-friend or ex-boyfriend. Listen, on that day, you're not gonna be asked for all of the documents you have for your case against anyone else. The only person that you'll give an account for is you. And you will be judged not in relationship to others, but in relationship to Justice with a capital J, Truth with a capital T, Righteousness with a capital R, and the character of God.
21 · Extended exposition establishing the standard of judgment as God's law written on hearts and revealed in Scripture, summarized in the commands to love God and neighbor
And you could say, "Well, wait a minute.
What if I didn't know all this stuff?" Listen, This judgment is made according to the law of God, both written on our hearts and expressed clearly through His Word. Romans 1 says that every person, every person has, in a sense, the knowledge of good and evil written on their heart, that we know what is right, we know the good we ought to do, we do not do it because we suppress it and we choose to do something else. Injustice instead of justice, unrighteousness instead of righteousness. And then, essentially, the law of God in Scripture, the Ten Commandments, the teaching of Jesus, just help make obvious, in a sense, what we already know to be true. And what is this standard?
Okay, it's summarized by Jesus. The law is summarized this way in Luke 10:27: "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your soul, with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." That's what the Ten Commandments is about. First several are about loving God and not putting other things in his place. Now listen, that is incredibly important in and of itself. We were made by God.
We were made for God. We were made with beautiful handiwork. And when human beings say, "You know what? I rebel instead of rejoice in your rule." It's the source of all injustice. When you say, "I'm going to be on the throne instead of God," like Adam and Eve did in a sense, and every Adam and Eve after them, when you say that, not only is it cosmic treason, it is the source of the brokenness, injustice, pain, and evil that pervade the world.
And then that brokenness is walked out in our relationship with others. Sometimes we can see that even more clearly, right? For example, the Ten Commandments say don't murder. Well, Jesus says, hey, listen, the same God in Jeremiah 17 that knows your heart knows when you wish you could kill somebody. And you're thinking, well, I've never thought that.
Careful. The book's going to be open, right? Well, maybe that was, you know, maybe I had that, you know, that one coworker. You know, that's going to be the reality. What about adultery?
Jesus says, Not only does God see when you commit adultery, he sees when you wish you could.
Then even the Ten Commandments: you shouldn't steal, great. You shouldn't take what's not yours. Have you ever done that? Have you ever taken credit, taken something that didn't belong to you? Have you, in the commandments, been guilty of envy and wished you could?
Like, would you steal it if nobody would catch you? And then the dos were summarized in— in other words, those are the do-nots and the dos are summarized in love your neighbor as yourself. Love the Lord your God, love your neighbor as yourself. What does that look like? For example, Micah 6:8, "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God?" Meaning that what the Lord requires of us is not unreasonable.
It is to act justly, to help others, to be kind, to walk in humility. And here's the reality. When we compare ourselves to the law of God, any of it, love God, love your neighbor, guilty. Ten Commandments, still guilty. Micah 6:8, guilty.
22 · Hypothetical illustration showing that even if people write their own moral code apart from biblical standards, they still cannot live up to it, demonstrating universal guilt and the reality of conscience embedded in human hearts
But here's the thing, people are like, "Well, I don't know if I agree with all that." You know, okay, I've heard a pastor use this and I've used it and I've never found anybody that can say that this is untrue.
If you took every person and asked them to write their own moral code down, your life code, what should people— how should people act? Right? It's warped by sin, but even if you could— Take that warped thing and get it down. "Well, I don't think people should cheat. I don't think people should, you know, think about cheating.
And I think people should always be fair, should give credit, should do their part, should help their— you know." Well, because if you wrote down your own moral code, if you had somebody write it down and say, "Okay, pause. What's your verdict of your own life? Guilty or not guilty?" Nobody can even live up to the moral code they make for themselves. This is the reality. It's embedded in our hearts.
Even if you're here and you're not a Christian, you're like, "I don't know if I agree with any of this," there is a thing in your heart that's going like, "Well, I'm a little nervous, though, where this is going," right? That's the reality.
23 · Extended exposition of verse 15 addressing what is at stake in judgment—eternal blessing or eternal judgment—contrasting biblical eschatology with materialistic worldviews
Question number 4: What is at stake in judgment? "And if anyone's name was found not written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." Now, there are two books, remember, the book of deeds, now this book of life. The book of life is what determines our eternal destiny.
And notice how different this is. Notice how different this is. Our world thinks of reality as just a dot, and whatever you do here and now, you just do it and pop, you're done. Scripture's view is that this life is a dot with an infinite line extending out from it. That human beings were made to live forever, and they will.
That's directly opposite the world's kind of metaphysical materialism, that the world only believes in what is right in front of us. But all of us deep down have the knowledge. Scripture says, "God has put eternity into the hearts of men," meaning that we all know that there is something out there beyond the grave. What is? Well, it is eternal blessing or eternal judgment.
There is clarity in the preceding passages that while a lake of fire is a metaphor, meaning, like, is there a literal lake of literal fire? How does that even work? You know, is it like an oil spill kind of fire, or is it like all the fire, you know, the water, you know? Okay, the metaphor is meant to communicate, to press a reality into us. That is this: there is a place of justice and judgment in which human beings which live forever will endure justice forever.
Now, what is it? We're not given all the details, but what we see just here should make us shudder. And the reality is that often with folks, there's a conception that the Old Testament God is kind of like the grumpy, angry, fire and brimstone God But the New Testament version of God, which is Jesus, is like new and improved. Meaning, like, if you go and you always use, like, a laundry detergent, and you tried this other one years ago, but then you go to the store and it's like new and improved, new formula, or new great taste, you're like, well, maybe, you know, you try it. It's not as though the New Testament is the new and improved version of God.
He's the same God. You may be surprised to learn the person that speaks the most about hell in the Bible is Jesus. In fact, over— in fact, 20 times Jesus likens judgment to a fire. Take Luke 16 as an example of Jesus teaching. A rich man is taken to hell for his injustice and evil, and he longs for relief, and none can be found, and no escape door exists there.
Now, this is— let me acknowledge this— Even in the room you can kind of feel like, "Oh, man, I wonder what the other people in this room think of this. You know, this feels pretty harsh, pretty intense." I remind you over and over again, church, the Bible is an equal opportunity offender. Every culture in world history, you take their kind of way of life and you match it up to the Bible, it's going to always press and confront in different ways. And this happens to be one of the places that our culture Our culture finds it incredibly offensive that a man in the sky would judge them at the end of their life, but has no problem judging other people all day.
It's us that we won't want to admit are placed under this.
And we should actually rejoice. Like, hey, you're going to be placed under a true and good standard of judgment. Like, awesome, you're going to get a fair trial, great. But this is what's at stake. Randy Alcorn sums the Bible's teaching up and encourages us, church, not to be God's editors.
Would this be an easier text to preach out loud in America if we just struck verse 15 out of it? Like Thomas Jefferson, taking our penknife, slicing out the verses that don't land well with us. Alcorn sums it up this way: "Yes, hell is dreadful, but it is not evil. It's a place where evil gets punished. Something can be profoundly disturbing yet still moral.
Hell is moral because a good God must punish evil." He must, church. If He did not, would He be good? Alcorn continues, "Much more is at stake than the doctrine of hell and the question of universalism. We don't own the Christian faith. It isn't ours to revise." If— he continues— God's Word wasn't meant to be given away piecemeal, leaving the next generation with leftovers.
If we go on decade after decade parceling out fragments of the faith, What will be left when we abandon truths Christians once died for? Will we no longer have truths worth living for?
24 · Transitional reframing of the purpose of hell's inclusion in Scripture—not to taunt or terrify, but as a merciful warning to save people from it, depicting Jesus teaching about hell with tears and pleading
What is at stake? Eternity is at stake. Now, ask yourself, why then? Why then would this be in the Bible? Such an uncomfortable, kind of a scary, a terrifying doctrine.
Why would this even be in the Bible? Why would Jesus talk about hell more than anyone else in the Bible, to save us from it.
He is not bringing this knowledge to be like, "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, you're going down." He brings this knowledge with tears in his eyes pleading with us to turn away.
25 · Transition framing the central question of how anyone can be saved given universal guilt, using the continuation of Revelation beyond chapter 20 as the structural puzzle requiring resolution
Which brings us to question number 5: How can anyone stand before this judgment? This is the mystery of Revelation 20. Why does the Bible not end at the end of Revelation 20? Why isn't the last verse in the Bible, "If anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the fire"?
Everybody's guilty, everybody's been judged fairly, they're all gone, end of the Bible.
Why does it continue? Why does a new heaven and a new earth come down? Why does a holy city, New Jerusalem, come as a bride, a bride adorned for her husband? Why is there rejoicing? Why does God then dwell with some group of people for all eternity?
Why can that take place?
26 · Exposition of Revelation 7:9-14 answering how anyone can stand before judgment with joy—by washing their robes white in the blood of the Lamb
Revelation 7 answers that question. After this, I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. Remember, they're before the throne. And crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.
Okay, I don't get this. How can there be a group of people that see the judgment, that have the gavel ring over them, that respond to it with joy, with rejoicing, with crying out that salvation belongs to God and the Lamb? Verse 13 answers that question. One of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these clothed in white robes? From where have they come?" An especially relevant question coming from Revelation 20, from the judgment throne.
Who are these people that are rejoicing instead of wailing?
And John said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
27 · Theological claim presenting the gospel as the answer to the judgment problem—Jesus as both Lamb who died and advocate who intercedes, paying for every sin
Oh, church, this is why the gospel is such good news. This is why the word gospel means good news that the judgment is not, in a sense, an inescapable sentence to death. Rather, for this group of people, for those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, this judgment is an occasion for rejoicing.
This Lamb, as we saw in Revelation 5, offered himself in the place of his people. And that means this: anyone anywhere who done anything can dip their robes in the blood of the Lamb and find them turned miraculously white. Look, to change the metaphor back to the courtroom, listen to the language of Romans 8:33. Imagine you're there. Imagine books are open.
Imagine the Book of Life is being examined and sentencing is about to be issued. Listen to Romans 8, verse 33. 'Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?
Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is always interceding for us.' Imagine the scene that as books are open and you look helpless and hopeless to your lawyer, almost ready to ask, "Can anything be done?" You turn to find that your lawyer is Jesus Christ himself. And before the sentence can be issued, he says one more thing, "Your Honor, I paid for that sin." Well, what about March 22nd, 2012? Paid for that. What about March 13th?
Paid for that. 14th? Paid. 15th? Paid.
16th? Paid. Over and over and over again through every single charge. Until the gavel rings out and the judge's verdict over your life is not guilty. Redeemed, welcomed, ushered into the presence of God himself.
Man, this— amen.
28 · Personal illustration of a friend with obsessive thinking about his sins who finds joy through repeatedly applying Romans 8:33-34 to his guilt, demonstrating how living in awareness of Christ's advocacy produces happiness despite ongoing struggle with sin
So, I have a friend who has a thread of mental illness in his family. And one of the things that the threat of mental illness, you know, comes out in is an obsessive kind of thinking over and over and over in these loops about questions. So some people, it can be anxiety things. Some people, it can be other things. For him, though, it often is expressed in these endless loops where he'll think of his sins and feel hopeless and condemned.
Now, this is a condition that he's under the care of a doctor for and that he's doing treatment for, but there is an underlying spiritual dimension. Because part of his dilemma, he's described when he gets in these loops, is that when he thinks of his sin or his failure or his fault or his status before the Lord, he feels the reality that he cannot stand. And the problem with the loop in particular is— the reason the loop is deadly is that it's true. Some people are thinking, "Well, what if this happens? What if that happens?" Usually they don't.
But in this particular instance, he did sin. He was unjust. What does he then do with that? But you know what? This friend of mine, he is, I think, one of the happiest people I have ever met.
You know why? Because even though this can be a struggle and this obsessive thinking can be a struggle, he has an answer.
He has an answer.
When he, for instance, maybe yelled at one of the kids, and feels the weight of that and how utterly unlike the heavenly Father it is, and he feels condemned, he finds in the Bible an answer, which is this: "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, who is interceding for us." That any sin, any failure, any guilt can be answered over and over and over by the blood of Jesus. And Christ himself stands next to him as his lawyer, as his advocate, interceding.
So anytime he's like, "Well, what about— what about—" Jesus says, "No pain." "What about—" "No pain." And listen, my friend, I think one of the reasons he is the happiest— one of the happiest guys I know is because he lives much more than all of the rest of us do in the reality of the throne room and the joy in the not guilty.
29 · Structural transition to the sixth question about the effects of the judgment
Question 6, this will be brief: What is the effect of this judgment?
30 · Exposition of verse 14 showing that God's judgment is not capricious but purposeful, targeting death itself—the consequence of sin—for destruction once sin and evil have been dealt with
I just want to draw your attention to the fact that this is not capricious judgment. This is not kind of God having an angry outburst or, you know, you yelling at the kids, "Come downstairs and I'm just going to punish everybody. I didn't do it. I don't care." You know, it's not that.
Instead, we read in verse 14, "Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire." Now, that seems a strange statement. All of a sudden, well, like, aren't those concepts? Like, how is that being punished here? Well, remember, Hades is just kind of the Greek way of speaking of death or the underworld. Death entered the world scripturally when sin entered the world.
Right, Hades was that place where sort of souls existed waiting for judgment. And the Christian worldview, the Jewish worldview was like, yes, that death that dogs all of us, the loved ones we've lost, the fear we have of that upcoming medical test, the fear of a, pandemic, we fear that that source is in evil and sin, which brought death into the world. Now, here is the good news of verse 14. Once sin has been dealt with, once injustice has been dealt with, once evil has been dealt with, death will be no more.
31 · Exposition connecting Revelation 20:14 to 1 Corinthians 15, identifying death as the last enemy to be destroyed and positioning its destruction as the climax beyond even the defeat of the false prophet, beast, and dragon
1 Corinthians 15 pictures death this way.
It's Paul says, "The last enemy to be destroyed is death." And so, look, you might think it's great that God brought down the false prophet, and we clap and rejoice. We think it's great that God brings down the beast, and we clap and rejoice. Even that God brings down the dragon, and we rejoice. But the last enemy, the enemy that dogs us from our birth to our last breath, is death itself. And on that day when evil is cleansed, and sin is cleansed, death itself will be destroyed.
32 · Application of death's destruction to concrete realities of life in the new creation—no fear of medical tests, no watching loved ones die, no grieving children's deaths—framing judgment as kindness and mercy
No one in the new heaven and the new earth will fear a lab result.
No one will hold their loved one's hand as they pass away. No one will grieve the loss of a child. No one, not ever, not again.
What God does is incredible kindness and incredible mercy in cleansing the world of sin and evil and death.
33 · Structural transition from exposition to application, framing the conclusion as three questions about living in light of the judgment
All right, very briefly then, how must we live in light of this judgment? I just want to ask 3 questions for you at the end here.
34 · Application beginning with pastoral encouragement from 1 John 2:1-2 for Christians struggling with sin, assuring them that ongoing struggle indicates the Spirit's work and that they have an advocate in Jesus who is the propitiation for their sins
First is this: Are you sure you're ready for that day? One of the reasons this text is in the Bible is that we might ask the question, are we sure we're ready for that day?
Look, 1 John 2 provides both pastoral encouragement and pastoral warning. 1 John 2:1 says this: "My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, not only for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Right? Such a word of comfort.
Look, if you as a Christian are like, man, I know my life's a wreck. Sometimes I'm still a wreck. I feel like I'm failing. Maybe I'm kind of failing forward is the best I can do some years. As I look back on my life, I do see like, okay, the Lord has been at work and I've been growing in certain areas, but I'm just aware of, man, like, I shouldn't have done that.
And then you're in a fight or a struggle against sin. And I think, man, if you're in a struggle against sin, if you're in a fight against sin, I think Scripture would say, "You're in a good place. You're probably good in the sense that the Spirit of God is at work in you and you're battling your sin." Remember, friend, you have an advocate with the Father. When you blow it with your spouse or with your kids or with your work, you have an advocate.
Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus."
35 · Pastoral warning from 1 John 2:3-6 calling for self-examination, distinguishing between struggling with sin and a life pattern showing no evidence of knowing Christ
But 1 John continues with a warning. Verse 3, "By this we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments. Whoever says, 'I know Him,' but does not keep His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him.
Whoever says he abides in Him," Ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
Church, this is a pastoral warning from the Apostle John. Please examine your life. We're not talking about sinning and struggling. We're talking about a pattern of life in which you say with your mouth, "I know him," but the book of deeds of your life bears no evidence of that fact. That the arc of your life is not slow, perhaps painful, progressive conformity to the picture of Christ; it is conformity more and more to the world.
Look, I am pleading with you.
Look, some days, I was joking with somebody, some days as a pastor you're just the mailman. You're just trying to explain, "This is the mail. I didn't write the mail; this is the mail." But I feel the weight today, brothers and sisters, of warning you that if you and your life bear no resemblance to Christ, you must examine whether you are Christ's. You must examine yourself before it is too late. You do not want your first examination of that question to be on the last day.
I am pleading with you, and if that is true, you want to ask those around you. You want to ask them for help. You want to work through this question with them. There is no— I am not exaggerating when I say there is no more important question in the universe than this one: Are you ready for that day?
36 · Intensely personal pastoral plea stripping away all external religious credentials—church upbringing, Bible knowledge, worship participation, good deeds—as irrelevant if life bears no resemblance to Christ
Oh, friend, please, please. It doesn't matter if you've grown up in church. It doesn't matter how many years you have of Bible study. It doesn't matter if you can say all the right things. It doesn't matter if you've ever put your hands up in worship.
Doesn't matter that you've done this good deed and that good deed and this good thing and that good thing. It will not matter on that day if you say, "I know him," and your life bears no resemblance to him.
Please.
37 · Application drawing on R
Second, are you making right now count forever? I'm just going to end kind of with this push from R.C. Sproul on us, a great, now departed Bible teacher. And he talks about how our culture is a culture of here and now, of materialism, of what's right in front of us.
And the Christian culture is not a here and now culture, it's a now and forever culture.
And that means right now counts forever. What you do the rest of the day counts forever. What you do this week and this year and the next decade counts forever. Sproul says this: The unspoken assumption is that it's now or never because there's no ultimate future for mankind. Our Christian assertion is that there is more to our lives than now.
If there is not, then even the now is meaningless. But we say now counts. Why? Now counts because we are creatures who have an origin, and a destiny that is rooted and grounded in God. Look, let me just encourage you, church.
What you do in this life matters deeply. You are not just sitting around waiting for Jesus to pick you up. And if you are, I'm calling you not to do that. Look, Jesus is so clear that there are only two ways to invest your resources, which include, I think, as Americans, our time and other things. We either lay them up in Matthew 6, where moth and rust destroy, or lay them up in heaven where moth and rust will never destroy them.
Look, where you invest your money, where you invest your time, where you invest your career, where you invest your calendar, where you invest your life will either on that last day be wiped away and meaningless or will count eternally.
38 · Quotation from C
Look, C.S. Lewis has this great line where he says, look, when you look at those people around you, There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations, these are mortal. Their life is to ours as the life of a gnat, but it is immortals with whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit. Immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
39 · Application calling believers to evangelism based on seeing everyone as immortals headed for eternal destinations, diagnosing the people around us as living with guilt and turmoil beneath the 'only God can judge me' bravado, and urging believers to offer them the hope of the Lamb
Look, church, there is no way to look at the world the same after this text.
Your family members, your boyfriends or girlfriends, your coworkers, your neighbors, the person you pass in line at Walgreens— these people will live forever somewhere.
Won't you tell them?
Look, let me just say this. I think America is the "only God can judge me," but I think America at the same time lives with an immense guilt. I think every single person you talk to, even if they're like, "Yeah, nobody can judge me. I'm just living my life," deep down there is guilt. There is turmoil.
There is stuff that can't be resolved. There is all of this going on. Inside of the people around you, wouldn't you— wouldn't you want to offer them the hope of the Lamb?
40 · Conclusion with R
Look, let me just end with this. I'm going to end differently. Guys, so you don't need that quote. I'm going to end with Sproul. He says this.
He went back and he wrote that article in 1977, and 30 years later he reflected on it and whether the "right now counts forever" thing is true, and he says this. One thing has not changed in the past 30 years, and that is the fact that because God reigns, everything that happens today has consequences that last well into eternity. It is as true today as it was the first time I picked up the pen for my byline, that what happens right now counts forever. So, let the culture be paganized, Let the culture be barbarian, but let the church be the church and never negotiate the eternal dimension of life. Would you stand and let's end by singing.
41 · Closing prayer asking God to help the church live differently from the world because of awareness of eternity and the throne, praying for freedom to be counter-cultural, and interceding for those questioning their salvation to see the hope of washing their robes in the Lamb's blood
Lord, we— as we end, we pray that you would help the church to be the church. Lord, that we would live different than every person around us who does not know Christ because we know of the reality of eternity. We know of the reality of that throne. We know of the resolution to the question of how anyone can stand before the throne. May we be okay being weird in the culture, making choices that don't make sense to the people around us.
May we make them knowing that the only judgment that ultimately matters is the judgment on that final day. And, Lord, may that free us. And, Lord, I also pray for any friends here who do not know Christ, who even now maybe are questioning, "Do I really know him?" Who are looking at their lives and asking hard questions about what the— what is in the book of deeds and does it line up with their profession of faith? Oh, Lord, I pray that as we sing, they would see the hope of the gospel, the hope of that resolution, the hope that today if they, even in a moment of fear, find that they have No advocate before the Father.
They would hear the invitation of Revelation to come, come, wash your robes in the blood of the Lamb and go and sin no more. Be with us as we sing, Father. Amen.