Trinity Baptist Church - The Final Judgment of Sin

The Sin Problem

The Final Judgment of Sin

Revelation 20:11-15

The logical conclusion of our study of the "sin problem" is to explore the final culmination of the problem and what happens as a result of it. Sin comes to its ultimate end in a future event called the Great White Throne judgment. We read about it in

Revelation 20:11-15

This is, without question, the most sobering and serious scene in all of the Bible because the Great White Throne Judgment is the day appointed for sinful man to appear before God. The accumulated sin of the world demands justice, and in this scene God sits in perfect judgment on the sins of all mankind for all time.

God's perfect justice has been wronged, but never has His justice done wrong. God is just. He sets the standard. He deals with violators of that standard. And God's final judgment on sin results in those sinners being condemned to hell for all eternity.

And here we discover that those who refuse to deal with their sin in the way that God has presented through the gospel of Jesus Christ by His divine grace will instead, experience God's divine justice.

In other words, man makes a choice concerning Jesus and God's justice acts in response to that choice. Sin creates a debt and God either finds satisfaction for that debt through the payment made by Jesus or He extracts payment from the sinner. But one way or the other, justice will be served and it is that final justice that we read about here in these verses.

The absence of detail is surprising. In fact, this judgment is presented in a surprisingly small number of verses. The language is stark and plain, with very little embellishment. There are no gory details. It is missing the adjectives that could be employed. Instead, It is a plain, simple, straight-forward message of judgment upon sin.

one immediately notices some familiar similarities with trials held on earth and we'll look at those in a moment. But we also see some very obvious differences. For instance, there is no debate about guilt or innocence. There is a prosecutor but no defender. There is an indictment, but no defense for the charged.

There is a presentation of the convicting evidence but no rebuttal. There is testimony with no cross examination. The condemned stand before an utterly unsympathetic judge and no jury, they receive a sentence with no appeal, a punishment with no parole, in a prison with no escape.

Here the Bible tells us about an event that will happen in a place unknown to us between earth and heaven, between the world as we know it now and the new heaven and the new earth. It is where all unredeemed human beings will eventually arrive. All of human history who have died in their sins apart from the knowledge of God will be there.

It will happen in spite of the fact that down through the centuries, since man first sinned in the Garden, Satan has attempted to mislead man about the reality of this day. He has done his best to convince men that there will be no final judgment.

He has deceived sinners into believing that they can live any way they want without fear of retribution. He has assured them there will be no future punishment, no time of sentencing, no moment when they stand before the judge of all the earth.

or any man-made religion that has a God who demands no accountability is all part of Satan's deception. Evolution's popularity is also based on that deception. It suits man just fine that he came out of some disorganized chaos.

It suits him just fine that he emerged out of some random division of cells in the middle of some cosmic ooze. In fact, that's great news because if there is no God, then there is no one to whom he must answer. There is no one to sit in judgment, and therefore, man is free from the fear of judgment. He can sin as he pleases and then just pass out of existence.

But that's not the case. That is the deceiving lie of Satan. His deception says there is no God and there is therefore no accountability, or that the God who exists is not a God who is going to judge us. If there is a God at all, He's a happy-go-lucky god and when we die, everyone lives happily ever after.

But if these verses are true, then all of those are the lies of the enemy intended to lead sinful mankind into a devil's hell.

And I will tell you, the Apostle John must have been

to his very core as he sat out there on the isle of Patmos and put his pen to the parchment to write down this vision. How it must have affected every emotion of his being as Jesus reveals this vision of the resurrection of the ungodly, their appearance before Almighty God and their ultimate delivery into an eternal lake of fire.

A simple outline will help us understand what happens. First, let's look at

1. The Scene

verses 11-12

In one brief, straightforward, unembellished statement, John sets the scene. He sees, first of all, a great white throne. Nearly fifty times in the book of Revelation, thrones are mentioned. The book opens with a throne in chapter 1 verse 4, now it closes with a throne.

But this is a very different scene from what we find at the beginning of the book. The throne of chapter 1, along with the throne seen in chapters 4 and 5, is the throne of God in heaven. It is a place of majesty and praise from which God rules and reigns. It is surrounded by angels and the redeemed who worship God for the beauty of creation and sing His praises for the unbelievable gift of redemption.

But we see none of that here. This is a throne of judgment. It is a throne found somewhere between the destruction of the present heavens and earth and the yet to be revealed new heaven and earth.

And somewhere in the nothingness of that moment, the Judge of the Universe sits upon this throne. It is called a great throne, perhaps not so much because of its size, but because of its significance. It is white because of purity and holiness and righteousness.

And from this throne comes absolute righteousness. It is the dazzling, blinding, blazing, pure, holy, divine throne of the presence of God where He sits in utter and absolute judgment. The immensity of it is both incomprehensible and overwhelming.

John's attention is immediately drawn to the One Who sits upon that throne. Throughout the book of Revelation, God is the one sitting on the throne.

We see Him there in chapter 4, verse 2 as John describes the colors and sounds and experience of seeing God on the throne.

The same thing is seen in chapter 5 as He is praised by those around the throne. In chapter 6, while God's judgment is poured out on the earth during the Tribulation, there are those who cry out to be hidden from the presence of the One Who sits on the throne.

In chapter 19, verse 4, it says that the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne. So the judge who sits on the throne is none other than the eternal and almighty God.

And from other verses in Scripture we come to understand that where God sits in judgment, Christ sits in judgment also. In fact, the great reality of the identity of Jesus Christ is found in His words: "I and the Father are one." So if God is on the throne, so is Christ on the very same throne.

In fact, in chapter 22 we see the throne referenced as "the throne of God and of the Lamb." He and the Father are one, their sovereignty is co-equal and co-existent and co-eternal. And as John looked at this Great White Throne, this "One" he sees sitting on that throne is God revealed in Christ who now sits in judgment upon sin.

Then, an amazing thing happens. Before the face of this One on the throne, "the earth and the heaven fled away because there was found no place for them." That is an incredible statement.

From the very presence of the One on the throne, earth and heaven fled away. Let's think about that. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He populated it with Adam and Eve. They sinned and through the sin of Adam, the whole universe was cursed.

labors under the burden of sin until Christ returns to earth and establishes His kingdom. There, He lives and reigns for 1,000 years. During that time, the earth is restored and refreshed. The desert blooms. Mountains are flattened out. Valleys are filled in. The lion and lamb lay down together.

But it is still the same sin-cursed universe. And a sin-cursed universe is not appropriate for eternity. Remember, anything sin touches dies. So it has to be destroyed and replaced. And that's exactly how chapter 21 begins.

Revelation 21:1

So John sees this Great White throne and the One upon it and that's all there is. Everything else is uncreated. It's gone! It's like it never happened! There is no place for the heaven and the earth to exist. That doesn't mean they went somewhere or they were remade or reshaped. They were uncreated. They literally go out of existence in a sudden, violent termination of the known universe.

Just like our earthly bodies, God never designed it to last forever anyway! It can't. It's very temporary. By the way, notice, they "fled away". That's exactly what Jesus said would happen in Matthew 24:35 when He said, "Heaven and earth will pass away." That is repeated in Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:33. Jesus said it would happen and here it happens.

Now I know science comes along and says, "Matter can't be destroyed." They say it can only be altered. But I would remind you, they didn't create it, God did. And the same God who can create matter can uncreate it.

I get tickled by all the tree huggers and environmentalists who are worried about us destroying the earth! Just wait till they see what God does to it!

Dr. Donald G. Barnhouse said, "There is to be an end of the material heavens and earth which we know. It is not that they are to be purified and rehabilitated but that the reverse of creation is to take place. They are to be uncreated. As they came from nothing at the Word of God, they are to be sucked back into nothingness by the same Word of God."

What an amazing scene this is as the whole universe disappears. And there in the middle of the nothingness between the end of this universe and the new heaven and the new earth, the Eternal God sits on His Throne of Judgment.

Next, verse 12, John saw "the dead." Obviously, there are no living people left. After all, where would they live? Heaven and earth are gone. You say, "That's hard to comprehend." No, that's impossible to comprehend. But there's nobody living left.

But John says, "I saw the dead." Who are they? Well they can't be saved people. The church was long ago raptured out. At the end of the Tribulation, the Old Testament saints were raised and ushered into the Kingdom. The martyrs during the Tribulation have already been raised as well.

So anybody that had a relationship with God is gone on to their eternal reward and that means there is nobody left but the dead unbelievers and that's who he sees. Billions of ungodly sinners from all of human history are all brought to the great white throne. It is this mass of humanity who lived since the fall of man that does not know God and had no use for God.

John describes them as "the great and the small." The somebodies and the nobodies. Position means nothing. God is no respecter of persons. The judge has no favorites. The rich and the famous stand along with the poor and the obscure.

John Phillips writes, "There is a terrible fellowship there, the dead, small and great, stand before God, dead souls are united to dead bodies in a fellowship of horror and despair. Little men and paultry women whose lives were filled with pettiness, selfishness and nasty little sins will be there. Those whose lives amounted to nothing will be there, whose very sins were drab and dowdy, mean, spiteful, peevish, groveling, vulgar, common and cheap. The great will be there, men who sinned with a high hand, with dash and courage and flair. Men like Alexander and Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin will be present. Men who went in for wickedness on a grand scale with the world for their stage and who died unrepentant at last. Now one and all are arraigned and on their way to be damned. A horrible fellowship congregated together for the first and last time."

All the ungodly sinners of all human history. And what are they doing? Verse 12 says, they are "standing before the throne" as in the courtroom of eternity, the Judge says, "Will the prisoner please rise and approach the bench to be sentenced."

That's the scene. The scene gives way to

2. The Summons

verse 13

The second feature in this astounding vision is the actual calling and gathering of all these criminals. They come from the Old Testament age, the New Testament age, the time of Tribulation, the time of the Kingdom as they are summoned from their cells.

Since death they have been tormented in a place of punishment and separation from God, and now they are called to appear before God. Verse 13 gives us one detail in particular as "the sea gave up the dead who were in it."

the way, that has to happen. Remember, the sea is uncreated along with everything else and as that sea goes out of existence, out of it comes forth all the resurrected bodies of the ungodly. And I think the sea is mentioned here to let us know that the ones we would assume to be the most difficult to raise are raised. They may have been chewed into pieces by a great white shark, but they'll be raised.

All the lost who ever drowned and were never recovered, all whose bodies drifted out to sea and sunk, all who ever fell overboard, all who died in the universal Flood, all who went down with the Lusitania or the Arizona or the Titanic and all the rest, all that ever perished in the sea will raised.

And then, notice, death and Hades delivered up the dead that were in them. That's a reference to every other place where the dead are. Up they come as the sea and the grave and Hades, pictured here as monsters that have swallowed the bodies of all generations, are now forced to regurgitate their victims.

The grave, Hades, death, the sea, he covers all the possibilities. There's no more sea to keep them. There's no more earth to cover them. There's no more death to hold them. There's no more Hades to imprison them. The whole universe is uncreated and everyone comes to the great white throne.

And notice, at the end of verse 13, we are told that each one is judged. That implies individuality. Every one of them is judged and nobody escapes. We see the scene and we see the summons.

Thirdly I want us to notice

3. The Standard

verses 12-13, 15

Notice the phrase in verses 12 and 13, "according to their deeds." That little phrase tells us a great deal about this judgment. First, it tells us God is an immaculate record keeper! As a matter of fact, He has kept perfect and comprehensive records of every person's life. In fact, at the end of verse 12 it says they were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds.

That means God is going to render His decision directly from the record of everything that every person has ever done. It's all in the books. Omniscience has recorded it all.

God has kept perfect, complete, flawless, comprehensive records of every person's every thought and every word and action throughout their entire life. And sinners are going to be judged on the basis of their deeds, as recorded in the books.

That phrase also implies there is a standard against which these works will be evaluated. So what is God's standard? Matthew 5:48 says, "Be perfect." 1 Peter 1:15-16 says, "Be holy even as your Father in heaven is holy."

In Galatians 3, the Apostle Paul writes, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them."

So God demands perfection and He is so insistent that even if you've just broken one law one time, you are cursed. And at this judgment, these people will have the record of their works held up against that standard. And Romans 3:23 sums up the condemnation, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

So all unbelievers will be judged according to their deeds. And I just want to insert, we know this is the ungodly because believers will not be judged according to their deeds. Our sins have been covered by Christ, and in Him, we meet the standard!

See how important is the doctrine of justification? In salvation, our position is so altered that we stand perfect before God. That's the only way we can pass the test! And as we saw last week, our works will be evaluated also, but for rewards and not condemnation.

On the other hand, the works of the ungodly will be judged to see how they measure up to the standard. Were they perfect as God demanded? Were they as holy as God? Did they ever violate any of God's laws or standards? And no one will meet that standard.

They will be judged on their thoughts and words and actions, and according to verse 12, it's all recorded in the "books". So what are those books? They are the record of every thought and every word and every deed of every sinner.

Now keep in mind, it can't be the righteous because their sins are remembered no more, buried in the depths of the deepest sea, no longer in existence. And now, the sea is gone and everything buried there with it. But of the ungodly, every sin is remembered. Every sin is in the books of the unrepentant.

The record, by the way, for each person will be unique and so will the punishment. That's an important thing to think about. Hell is not like some great big hole where everybody gets thrown into the same place with the same level of torment. No. Every person's life will be evaluated uniquely and every person's punishment will be consistent with that unique evaluation.

All sinners in hell will be completely miserable but not equally miserable. The punishment fits the crime. And each crime brings the eternal judgment according to the nature of that crime. That's why the books were opened. The judgment fits the record and God is absolutely and exactly and precisely just.

And then verse 12 says, "And another book was opened which is the book of life." Now these books are like the books of many ancient cities where they recorded the crimes of citizens just as we do today. If you have a criminal record, it's on file somewhere.

In ancient times, they did the same thing. They kept criminal records on file. But in addition to the record of the criminals, they also had a book that contained the names of faithful, loyal citizens. They had a registry for the city and if you were a loyal, upstanding, person, you were in that book.

And there at the great white throne of God, John sees both kinds of books. There is a book of criminal trespasses against God and there is also a book with the name of loyal citizens. That means God has a book that contains the names of all those who believed in Him and were saved by His grace.

Moses talked about that book and God said, "The names of those who have sinned against Me are erased from the book." In Psalm 69:28, the psalmist prayed that the names of his enemies would be blotted out of the book of the living and not written with the righteous.

Jesus told His disciples in Luke 10:20 that they should rejoice because their names are written in heaven." What a special book! And John sees that book as it was opened in heaven.

And I think what the Lord is doing is just encouraging John at this unbelievable scene of judgment regarding the security of our salvation as He makes this very deliberate distinction between those who are in the book of life and those that aren't.

You see, the only way you can erase the record of your sin is to have your name in the book of life. There is just one way to get into heaven and that is to have your name in the book. And here we find multiplied millions and billions of people whose names are not in the book of Life.

Instead, as we read in verse 12, the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds

The implication is that none of their names were in that other book. In fact, verse 15 says there name wasn't in the book of Life. And I'm guessing many are going to be shocked! Some are going to stand before God that day and ask, " Is my name there among the record of those whose sin has been forgiven and covered by the blood of Jesus? Am I among the listed among the loyal?"

But this is the day and event the Lord spoke of when he said many will say, "Lord, Lord, have we not done this and that in Your name?" And He says, "But I don't see your name! I never knew you! Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity."

If they have been summoned to the great White Throne, you can know for certain they are not in the book of Life. Why? They chose to arrogantly strut their way to hell believing they were too good to go there. Rather than admit their guilt before God and receive His forgiveness, they chose to stand guilty and condemned before the Judge of eternity.

That means a sinner can either acknowledge his guilt, repent and ask God for a complete pardon by grace based on the substitutionary death of Christ or he can go to trial after he dies and be judged, as verse 13 says, according to his works and whether or not he has met God's standard of perfection.

You either plead guilty now or later. You can plead guilty now, cast yourself on the mercy of a gracious judge and receive a guaranteed pardon, or you can keep pleading innocent and some day you'll stand before God and be pronounced guilty.

And keep in mind that final comment in verse 15. "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

One final thing I want you to see in this text.

We have the scene, the summons and the standard by which they are measured. That leaves us with one other great reality, and that is

4. The Sentence

verses 14-15

Anything that has to do with the ungodly dead is destined for an eternity in the lake of fire. So what is this lake of fire? Like everything else surrounding the Great White Throne Judgment, it is something outside and beyond this created order as we know it.

Remember, everything known is gone. Earth as we know it will cease to exist and give way to a new heaven and a new earth unlike anything we've ever understood or can even comprehend.

And the same is true in regards to eternal punishment. Just as there is an eternal heaven already prepared outside the universe as we know it that is beyond our ability to comprehend, there is also an eternal dwelling place for the damned and it defies our comprehension as well.

is described as a place of fearful, frightening, horrifying pain, agony and torment where the condemned are thrown alive, a lake of fire in which you can burn forever but never die. The Bible uses several key terms to help us appreciate its severity.

For instance, it is described as a place of

- darkness

In Matthew 8:12 as well as Matthew 22:13, it is called outer darkness. It is a darkness so intense you can almost feel it.

In fact, in 2 Peter 2:17 and Jude 13 it is called the blackness of darkness, as if to say it's not just dark but it's black dark. It's not going to be a place of light because light speaks of life, and fellowship, and being able to see things. Instead, it is the blackness of darkness with the absence of anything good or anybody else to see or be with.

Secondly, Scripture talks about

- the worm

Isaiah is the first one to mention "the worm that does not die". Jesus Himself used that phrase three times in Mark 9. Some believe the worm is a reference to eternal memory and conscience.

It may well be Scripture is telling us one of the greatest components of eternal suffering is a fully informed accusing conscience that is absolutely relentless and pictured as a worm that continually gnaws away.

So in hell, you're all alone with a gnawing conscience that replays over and over again your sin against God.

In addition to darkness and the worm, the Bible talks about

- fire

In Psalm 11, verse 6, the psalmist spoke of the wicked coming to fire and brimstone. In Isaiah chapter 30, God is described as coming in the judgment of fire.

From the very beginning of the New Testament we are introduced to the promise of eternal punishment. The first preacher that arrives, John the Baptist, promised when the Lord comes, He would burn up the ungodly with unquenchable fire.

Jesus warns of a fiery hell. In fact, He had more to say about Hell than He did heaven. He talked about the fire being eternal. He told about how the angels are going to gather the people from all across the world and they're going to sort out the righteous from the unrighteous and they're going to turn the unrighteous over to be burned.

Darkness, gnawing, unrelenting guilt, the worm that never dies, an unquenchable fire of torment, and there's more. It is a place of

- separation

In Matthew 8:12, as well as Matthew 22:13, we read the term "cast out" The idea is that of being banished out of a society or a city, a town, or a country. It included absolute separation and isolation.

Luke 16:24 says they will be

- tormented

Certainly, hell is a place of

- sorrow

The darkness, the worm never dying, the fire, in a place of banishment and separation and torment produces absolutely unbelievable and immeasurable sorrow that leads to the

- gnashing of teeth

What is that? In the Bible, the gnashing of teeth is always associated with anger. Both in the Old Testament, as well as the New, it is an expression of

uncontrollable anger.

So why are those in hell angry? Wouldn't you be? With whom are they angry? Oh, I don't know. Maybe themselves? After all, they are there of their own choosing! Maybe they'll be angry with Satan or demons. Maybe it is directed toward God. Perhaps it is anger that comes from conviction as was the case when Stephen was martyred. Those who killed him were convicted by his preaching and began gnashing their teeth in anger.

Can you imagine the frustration and anger and rage as you deal with the eternity we've described, with no hope or possibility of release and the conviction that comes as you realize it could have all been avoided?

There is one final word I want you to see, and it comes directly from our text in verse 15, and that is the word

- cast or thrown

verse 15

The same word is used back in chapter 19 verse 20 to speak of the beast and the false prophet who were cast into the lake of fire. It's used again in chapter 20 verse 10 where it describes what will happen to Satan.

The anti-Christ, the false prophet and Satan Himself, along with all the ungodly dead are cast into the lake of fire. Friend, that's exactly what's going to happen. Listen, no one will willfully and deliberately choose to jump into the lake of fire, but God will see to it that all those who rejected His Son are thrown into the lake of fire.

When the Lord talked about Hell, he used the word "Gehenna". Gehenna was familiar to the Jews because it referred to a valley southwest of the city of Jerusalem that was used as the city dump.

And in that valley, there was a fire there that never went out. It burned all the time. That valley was known for fire and smoke and maggots. Dead bodies were thrown there, the corpses of criminals and others who were not worthy to be buried.

So what you had in the Valley of Gehenna, with its filthy stench, and unending fire, and maggots eating the garbage and the filth and the refuse and the corpses, was the most frightening and fearful place you could ever imagine.

And when Jesus wanted to describe hell, that's the place he mentioned. He talked about a place where people threw their garbage. And He described it as a place where the fire never went out and the worm never died, but instead, fed on a constant flow of trash and garbage and death.

Hell is God's trash pile. It's where you throw the garbage. And you don't place it there. You don't carefully set it there. You throw it there. We use that same kind of language today. We "throw out the garbage," or "throw out the trash." It is the idea of removing the offense and odor and nastiness away from where you are.

And in that regard, Hell is nothing more than God's garbage dump and all who go there will be the burning, stinking, maggot-infested garbage of eternity. Now none of this is pleasant to think about. In fact, it is downright offensive. But it is a vivid reminder of the ultimate and absolute justice of God. And Amos had it right when he said in Amos 4:12, "Prepare to meet your God."

You may not like to hear it. You may not even believe it, but you're going to meet Him. You're either going to meet Him in the glory or you're going to meet Him at the Great White Throne. It's your choice.

You can either say no to God and turn your back on the sacrifice that Christ has made and look forward to a terrifying experience of judgment and the resulting punishment or you can come in humble repentance and faith to accept, by faith, the sacrifice of Christ.

But either way, the judgment of the great white throne is coming and those who are there will be there only because they have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ.

He gave His life to take care of the sin problem and either He will pay for your sins by His death on the cross, or you will pay for them for all eternity in a place called hell.

Let's pray.