God's Supreme Courtroom of Justice

Amen. It is a joy to serve you tonight, to serve the Word of God to you. If you have a Bible with you tonight, would you find the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation and Chapter 20. In just a moment, we'll read at verse 11, Revelation Chapter 20. And I urge you tonight, as you hear the Word of God, think about yourself first. And then if you know you've come to King Jesus on his conditions, you see the ongoing first John evidences in your life that you truly know him as far as a saving knowledge of him is concerned. Then think about others secondly. But think about yourself first.

Many years ago, I was preaching an evangelistic outreach meeting in India. There were, I don't know, about 20 different churches involved. And the pastors would all be sitting behind me while I was preaching. One of those pastors one evening invited me to his house the next night for dinner. And his wife and he welcomed me in. And they just said, as I was seated, we want you to make yourself totally at home here. Consider this home your home. But the pastor said, I want to give you one warning. Whatever you do, don't wander out into our backyard. Because we've discovered some cobras in recent days and killed them.

And if one of those cobras were to strike you, you'd be dead within an hour. And there's not a hospital close enough. So I didn't wander into the backyard. Now, I want to ask you a question. Was that pastor giving me that warning out of love and compassion and concern? Or would you say he was a harsh and a cruel man for giving me that warning? Well, the answer is obvious. And here in Revelation chapter 20, the God of the universe himself expresses his compassion, his goodness, his love, his gracious concern toward us by warning us that there is a judgment.

There is wrath that is coming upon every man, every woman, every young person who refuses or neglects to turn away from their ways, their sins, their idols, to turn away from them being the king of their life and to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and commit themselves to him and put their confidence in what he has done, what we have sang about tonight as the only hope to save us from this judgment, this wrath to come. This is the word of God. And God describes the awesome day when the holy judge of the universe will call his Supreme Court into session.

This is the most serious and sobering day of all human history when all the unconverted, when the hundreds of millions of unrebeamed must stand before the judge of the universe in all of their many sins which will be exposed. And they will experience the deadly strike of the undiluted wrath of God and the holy vengeance of God at what we call the great white throne judgment. Now, have you ever studied the book of Revelation? In many ways, it's a book of mystery. But it's also a book of majesty because it speaks of the coming King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

But friends, it's also a book of misery because it speaks of a coming judgment on all those who have never come to King Jesus on his conditions. Let's read it. John is on the Isle of Patmos. He's been arrested for the cause of Jesus for the gospel's sake. And God gives him the revelation of the Lord Jesus and near the conclusion of that revelation. He says in verse 11, "Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened.

And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it. And death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one, according to his works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire." This is the second death. "And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." There was an ancient Roman emperor. His name was Brutus. And he discovered a conspiracy to overthrow his throne, his reign.

And in the investigation of that conspiracy, he discovered that his own two sons were the ringleaders of that conspiracy. Now, the sentence for treason against the Roman emperor was certain death, execution. But these are his own two sons. So as the trial began, the crowd begged the emperor to relax justice and show mercy. Even his own two sons pleaded with him, calling him all sorts of endearing names, trying to get some sympathy from their father. But it was Brutus' duty to sit on the court as a just judge and execute pure justice. He was compelled by the Roman law to judge his own two sons and sentence them to death by execution.

It was said in the trial that the father was lost in the judge. The most powerful feelings of a father were overruled by his sense of duty as a judge. Now, this is the time period in human history where God offers salvation to sinners. But he offers that salvation on Jesus' terms, not our terms. But those who reject Jesus' terms, or they neglect to come to Jesus on his terms, one day all opportunity ends, and they must face the unmitigated justice of a sin-hating God. And in that day, the Lord Jesus is going to execute his justice and holy vengeance far more powerfully and precisely and permanently than Brutus ever could.

Now, we're already kind of feeling uneasy, aren't we? Brother Eddie, he was pretty tough on Sunday morning and Sunday night. But last night was pretty good. But now, here he is. It's Tuesday night, and he's preaching on final judgment. We don't even like to think about the idea that the holy God of the universe is going to cast hundreds of millions of people into an eternal lake of fire. Because in our human flesh, we tend to be insensitive to the brevity of life, the inevitability of death, the reality of God's wrath, and the eternality of hell.

But if we're just involved in a surface inspection of the Old Testament, you see the judgment and the wrath of God throughout the Old Testament. Think about Noah's flood. When God drowned an entire world of sinners under his just wrath, except for Noah and his immediate family. Consider Sodom and Gomorrah when God rained down fire and brimstone on those two immoral, wicked cities. Or we could go to Pharaoh's army. The entire Egyptian army was drowned under the wrath of God as God enclosed them into the Red Sea. And you're thinking, brother, Ed, that was Old Testament. God was a God of wrath, and he was just kind of angry back then.

He kept losing his temper back then. He was a God of justice and wrath back in those days. But now he's a God of love, grace, and mercy. Friends, he was a God of grace then. Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord. He was a God of mercy then. Lot experienced the mercy of God as he was literally dragged out of Sodom and Gomorrah. He was a God of love then. The Israelites experienced the amazing love of God as they were delivered through the Red Sea while the Egyptians were drowned under the wrath of God. And dear friends, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And this God of grace and love and mercy is equally a God of holiness, justice, and wrath. Do you know there are multitudes of verses in the New Testament speaking about the coming wrath of God? The Lord Jesus said, "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish under the wrath of God." The Lord Jesus spoke about a wide gate of counterfeit conversion. Many people have tried to come to Jesus on their own conditions or some watered down preachers' conditions. And they've actually entered the wide gate of phony conversion. They're walking on the broad road of religious deception.

And they're in grave danger of Jesus saying to them, depart from me. I never knew you to cast them into an eternal furnace of fire. 20 verses after John 3, 16, the Bible says the wrath of God abides over some people even in this room tonight. In Colossians 3 and verse 6, the Bible says because of sin, the wrath of God is coming. New Testament, 2 Thessalonians, speaking of Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, it says one day he will be revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and those who have not obeyed the gospel and the gospel terms. I'm submitting that this God is a God of love. But that's not all the truth.

That's only part of the truth. God is also holy, holy, holy. And he's also a God of justice and wrath. So tonight, I pray you'd think about yourself first. Others only second. As we take a sobering look at God's Supreme Court of Justice, we're going to look at the courtroom, the judge, the defendants, the attorney, the evidence, the verdict, and finally, the sentence. Would you look at the courtroom in verse 11 of God's Supreme Court of Justice? We see it at the beginning of verse 11 when John says, I saw a great white throne. Now, why does John mention a throne? Well, a throne pictures to us the sovereign purpose of this courtroom.

Because this throne is the place where the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and the judge of judges declares his final judgments and verdicts on millions of souls of people. Now listen, this could have been a throne of grace to which these people could have come in genuine repentance and saving faith for the salvation of our souls. This could have been a throne of government before which they could have bowed their lives to the lordship of Jesus so that they might be converted.

This could have been a throne of glory before which they could have worshipped the Lord with their lives, with a heart, as we heard last night, that is boiling over an adoration of Jesus and allegiance to Jesus. But because they have rejected the throne of grace and government and glory, it has become a throne of judgment and condemnation. Are you aware tonight that one day the entire intelligent universe is going to bow before Jesus and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? Everybody in this room is going to confess Jesus as Lord one day.

You either confess him as Lord unto your conversion or you will confess him as Lord unto the eternal condemnation of your soul. When he says, "I saw a great white throne," he's describing to us the sovereign purpose of the courtroom. Oh, but notice secondly, the strong power of this courtroom. John says, "I saw a great white throne." Why does he call the throne a great throne? Because the one seated on this throne has all authority in the heavens and on the earth. The one seated on the bench of this courtroom has a throne of omnipotent, royalty, and unchallenged sovereignty. Oh, we've had many earthly thrones.

Throughout human history, many different kings and presidents and prime ministers and potentates, all sorts of different dictators and despots, but all of their reigns have been limited in power and duration. They have all ended either in death or disgrace or some other type of dethroning. Oh, but the one seated on this throne is infinitely mighty and sovereignly strong in his power and authority. Why is this throne called great, Brother Ed? Because the one who's seated on it has infinite greatness. But not only the sovereign purpose and the strong power of the courtroom, notice verse 11 again and see the sinless purity of this courtroom.

He says, "I saw a great white throne." That indicates to us the pristine purity and inflexible justice of the one who is residing on the throne. The holiness of this great white throne judge is as pure white as the blaze of a trillion sons. He is majestic, he is transcended in his holiness. And when the Bible says God is holy, it means he's infinitely set above you and me in our humanness, in our fallenness, and in our sinfulness. You see, dear friends, this throne is not stained with one single sin. It's not defiled with one single injustice because the one who's reigning on this throne is perfect holiness and inflexible justice.

He is the one who is holy, holy, holy. And because God is holy, holy, holy, he despises sin. He absolutely detests sin. He has a holy animosity. He has a just hostility fixed against any and every sin. This is why his wrath abides over people in this room tonight who have not been converted to him. Oh, there's been many earthly thrones throughout history, but all of them have been contaminated in various levels with iniquity, ignorance, and injustice. But the one seated on this throne has no iniquity. He has no ignorance, he's omniscient. He has no injustice. He is the God who dwells in unapproachable light.

He is light and in him is no darkness at all. Do you see the courtroom? I saw a great white throne. Oh, but look at the verse again and notice the judge. John says, I saw a great white throne and him who sat on the throne, notice this, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. Who is this awesome, holy, perfectly just judge who is seated in such majesty, such majestic holiness that the heavens and the earth are fleeing from his very face. Do you know who it is? It's none other than God in the person of God the Son. The Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the great white throne judge. That's what he said in John five and verse 22.

The Father has given all judgment into the hands of the Son. Second Timothy four eight calls Jesus the righteous judge. John 17 tells us God is appointed today in which he would judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. And he's given assurance of this by raising that man from the dead. Well, who is that man? Yes, the God man. The Lord Jesus Christ. You see the great white throne judge must be fully God for no one else is qualified to make these final judgments except God himself. But the judge also must be a man, a perfect man. A man who was tempted in all points like we're tempted, but without sin.

And there's only one person that fits that bill. He is the God man. He's the Son of man who came the first time to seek and to save that which was lost. But he comes the second time to judge and condemn those who remained lost. And that tells me that everyone who can hear my voice in this room tonight, everyone in this county, everyone in this country, everyone in this world has an appointment with Jesus. You've got a date with Jesus. You can either embrace him as your Lord and your savior, or you will face him as your judge. And what is Jesus going to look like on that awesome day?

Is he gonna look like a little plastic baby in a manger scene? Is he going to look like a lowly carpenter's son from Nazareth? Oh no, John described him in the first chapter. Said his head and hair are as white as snow. His eyes like a flaming fire. His feet as fine brass. His voice as the sound of many waters. And out of his mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword picturing judgment against his enemies. And listen, when John, the beloved apostle, the very John that laid his head on the breast of Jesus at that last supper, but now John sees the exalted, glorified Christ. You know what the Bible says? He fell out like a dead man.

And he'd still be laying there if Jesus didn't raise him up. Well, if this was the response of the beloved John, when he saw the exalted, glorified Christ, what will be the response of the millions of unconverted people who must stand before Jesus? I'll tell you what their response will be. They will be absolutely overwhelmed and filled with horror as they stand in the nakedness of their own sinfulness before the blazing holiness and justice of the great white throne judge. And do you know there'll be no place to hide that day? Did you notice the second half of verse 11? The heavens and the earth fled from his presence.

That takes care of everything. There's no place to hide. Revelation two said, "The kings of the earth, "the great man, the rich men, the commanders, "the mighty men, every slave and every free man " hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks "of the mountains and they said to the mountains "and the rocks," listen to this, "fall on us and hide us from the face of him "who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the," lamb, who's the lamb?

The Lord Jesus, "for the great day of his wrath has come "and who is able to stand?" You see on this day at the great white throne judgment, there's no place to hide because Jesus has incinerated the known universe. The entire contaminated existence has gone out of existence and now the scripture says there's no place to hide. Now when Adam and Eve sinned, they try to hide. But how can you hide from omnipresent God? How could a man hide from the omniscient God who knows everything? The omnipotent God. Oh, there's no place to hide.

When the judge issues his final summons, every unconverted soul will be compelled to appear before this great white throne judgment. And that brings me to the defendants. We find them in verse 12 and in verse 13. Notice the beginning of verse 12. Here are the defendants, "And I saw the dead, small and great standing before God. "And verse 13, the sea gave up the dead who were in it, "and death and Hades delivered up the dead "who were in them, and they were judged each one "according to his works." Now, why does it say the small and the great? Well, John is describing all the unconverted people, whether they were well known or unknown.

The so-called significant of this world to the so-called insignificant. He's describing every single person, whether they were religious or irreligious, whether they thought themselves to be moral or immoral, those who never came to King Jesus on his conditions, those who never entered through the narrow gate of authentic conversion. They never bowed their life before the lordship of Jesus Christ. And now they must stand before the holy bar of justice without one ounce of mercy. Not an ounce. Because they are no longer potential objects of the mercy of God. Who's going to be compelled to appear that day?

All these Hollywood stars, TV celebrities, music icons. They'll all be there that day. Every one of them that were not converted to Christ. Standing next to them, homeless beggars that lived in obscurity. Who'll be standing there before the great white throne judge? Every single president of the United States that never came to Jesus on his conditions will be standing there lost that day and right next to him, some pauper, some homeless man who was never converted to Christ.

There'll be doctors and lawyers and businessmen and career professionals with all kinds of degrees behind their name, but they never came to Jesus on his terms and they are standing there lost that day and just nearby an illiterate man who couldn't even read or write. But he never came to Jesus on his terms. All unconverted alcoholics and drug addicts who never repented like I witnessed to week after week at the mission of Hope and Mobile.

If they don't truly repent and savingly believe on the Lord, they'll be standing there lost that day and very close by will be a little elderly lady who never took anything stronger than an aspirin their entire life. But she never came to King Jesus on his conditions. Oh, it's gonna be an awesome day, friends. Think about the abortionist who made hundreds of thousands of dollars killing babies and never repented and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

They'll be standing there lost that day and just nearby will be a couple who went down to the abortion clinic every Saturday and walked up and down with their picket signs and protested people, sinners, sinning, but they never came to Jesus as a lost bankrupt sinner. They never turned from their sin and savingly believed on the Lord and they'll be standing there lost that day. Think about all the millions of unconverted soldiers that died on the battlefield, no matter what country they were from. Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, American. If they never came to Jesus on his terms, they'll be standing there lost. You do believe that, don't you?

You don't go to heaven because you're a patriot. You go to heaven if you repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, right? There'll be the upper class, the middle class, the lower class, the no class, those who never came to Jesus on his conditions, all those who lived for all the cheap phony substitutes that the world had to offer. They just lived for the things of the world. They lived by what the world says was important and unimportant, by what the world proclaimed was significant and insignificant.

There'll be immoral sinners who were engulfed in all manner of immorality and iniquities and standing right next to him, some moral man who thought he was too good to go to hell. But he'll be standing there, lost that day. There'll be procrastinators who knew they never came to Jesus on his terms, but they kept saying, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, but tomorrow is a day in the calendar of a fool and it'll be too late. They'll be standing there, lost, unconverted to be judged. Think of the world religions, over a billion Hindus worshiping 33 million false gods.

If they don't repent and believe on the true and living God, the Lord Jesus, they'll be standing there, lost that day. Millions upon millions of Buddhists, millions upon millions of Muslims who are worshiping the moon God, Allah. If they don't repent and believe on the Lord, they'll be standing there, lost that day. Almost one billion Roman Catholics, I was raised in it. You get sprinkled by a priest and you're supposedly saved and then you do these sacraments to keep what happened when you were a baby, which is nothing. Nothing times nothing equals nothing and they're worshiping another Jesus, a false Jesus, a false gospel, a works gospel.

And if they don't turn from their sacramental religion and embrace the Jesus of the gospels, they'll be standing there, lost that day. And the most tragic crowd of all will be lost Baptist. Millions of lost Baptists who repeated a prayer, who raised a hand, who took a walk to a platform or a preacher and had a religious experience but never entered through the narrow gate of authentic conversion. Oh, it's gonna be a universal call. Did you see that in verse 13? And the sea gave up the dead who ran it and death and hell delivered up the dead who were in them. Brother Ed, why does the verse say death and hell?

Well, it's because death has the body and the grave but hell has the unconverted soul. This is why Peter said in second Peter, to nine, the Lord reserves the unconverted, the dead unconverted under punishment waiting for the day of judgment. But in this day, dear friends, God, the Son, the Lord Jesus who spoke this universe into being as the supernatural miraculous power to take these hundreds of million condemned souls out of hell and place them into resurrection bodies, that are perfectly suited for a lake of fire.

This is why Jesus said in John 5.28, all the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and there will be a resurrection unto damnation. Did you hear that? There'll be a resurrection unto damnation. Oh, I love John 10.27. The good shepherd says, my sheep, hear my voice. I know them. What's the evidence I know them? They continue to follow me. I give them everlasting life. Oh, but these millions of people were never his sheep. They never savingly knew him and they evidenced it by not continuing to follow him in an ongoing practice of their life.

They did not hear his voice in a powerful call of grace, but on this day, they're gonna hear his voice. They're gonna hear his voice. They're gonna know who is calling and they are gonna be compelled to stand at the great white throne judgment. It's going to be a universal call, but not only that, the end of verse 13 tells us that it's going to be an individual call and they were judged each one according to his works. Now, dear church members and visitors, we must understand that when genuine conversion occurs, it's because a person has a one-on-one life transforming encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ.

You don't get saved on the group plan at VBS or Youth Camp. You don't get converted on the family plan. You don't get in because dad's in or grandma's in. The only way a sinner is converted is if they have an individual one-on-one life transforming encounter with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Do you know damnation is exactly the same? Each one will be judged. That lost person will stand there individually accountable to the great white throne judge. And on that day, there'll be no alibis, there'll be no excuses, there'll be no blaming other people. It's my parents' fault or my grandparents' fault or it's a relative's fault.

There'll be no blaming your upbringing. There'll be no blaming a lack of education or an over-education. There'll be no blaming peer pressure from other people. There'll be no pointing the finger at the hypocrite lost church member saying it was their fault, no. No, this person will stand face to face with the great white throne judge and they will be individually accountable. The courtroom, the judge, the defendants, and then the advocate, the attorney in the courtroom. Well, you say, "Brother Ed, I had my Bible tonight, "I read the entire passage you read.

"I did not see a verse for an attorney." Now, we live in the United States of America, even the most vile criminal in the United States of America gets an attorney. Even if he can't pay for the attorney, he gets an attorney, amen? But the kingdom of God is not a democracy. It's a theocracy. And there is no advocate in this courtroom. There is no attorney. Why? Because this man, this woman, this young person has rejected, resisted, refused the only one who could have been their attorney. I'll tell you, I'm thankful tonight I have an advocate with the father.

John writing, this same John writing to born again believers, he says, "I'm writing to you so that you don't sin." But when you sin, when you sin, you have an attorney, you have an advocate with the father. But these people walk through their life and they never cast their life on the mercy and the grace of the attorney. So the one who could have been their attorney has become their judge. Oh, but that's not all. Notice the evidence. Did you see it in verse 12? And the books were opened. Oh, I hope you're thinking about yourself first. And others secondly, verse 12, and the books were opened.

And another book was opened, which was the book of life in the dead, that's the unconverted dead there. The spiritually dead were judged according to their works. And what is the evidence? It is the thousands of times that you shattered the 10 commandments. Every unclean thought, every selfish and sinful action, every selfish and sinful word, every selfish and sinful motive, now revealed in the blazing light of the holiness and the justice of the judge. And the record is absolutely precise. There's no mishandled evidence in this courtroom. Do you know the unconverted person will even be judged for every idle word?

They came out of their mouth. If you're here tonight and you've never come to Jesus Christ on his terms of Bible repentance and saving faith, do you understand that even the so-called good works that you do in your life will be sin to be judged at this judgment? You say, wait a minute, the good deeds I do for this organization and that organization, my neighbors, my friends, my workmates, they're going to be sin? Yes, because you did all of them with the wrong motive. You didn't do them for the glory of the Lord because you didn't know the Lord. And it will all be sin.

And the greatest sin of all at that great white throne judgment is the utter failure to obey the gospel and the gospel terms. But there's more evidence. He says in the second half of verse 12, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And God there, the word of God is describing the Lamb's Book of Life, the register of the redeemed, containing the names of all of those throughout the timeline of scripture history who ever came to the place that they did repent of their sins and their ways and their idols and savingly believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if you were to die in your sins and you were to stand before the great white throne judge, Jesus would open the Lamb's Book of Life. Now, why would the perfect judge open the Lamb's Book of Life? Is he opening that book? So let me see if your name's in here. I just don't know. Let me look, what's your last name again? No. He's the omniscient God. He knows everything. He's always known everything. He's never had to learn anything. By the way, every name that was ever gonna be written in that book was written when? When? The Bible says before the foundation of the world.

Now that Southern gospel song, there's a new name written down in glory. Oh yes, it's my nice beat, good harmony parts, false doctrine. There are no new names written down in glory. The omniscient God is not looking for your name because he doesn't know it's not there. He's looking to show you your name was never there because he is a perfectly just judge and the verdant.

Well, it doesn't matter how moral or how immoral you are, how irreligious or religious you might think yourself to be if you never came to the Lord Jesus on his conditions so that all your sin was washed away and you were robed in the perfect robe of Jesus, righteousness, if that's never taken place in your life, if there's not been genuine true Bible repentance and saving faith, that means you have never been acquitted and so the verdict must be guilty.

And there's no possibility of pardon at this point, no possibility of negotiation, dismissal or reprieve and listen, the religious but lost are gonna cry, but Lord, Lord, I get this and that and this in your name and he's gonna say, depart from me, I never knew you. The humanist, the atheist, the agnostic, they're gonna be standing there overwhelmed in terror as they stand face to face before the one they thought did not exist. The person who is trusting in his own human morality, his mouth is going to be shut as he sees his thousands of sins in light of the perfect holiness of God.

The procrastinator is going to be remembering her wasted opportunity to come to Jesus on his terms. The person that lived a self-centered life is gonna be overwhelmed with terror as they stand before the one who created them to live a Christ-centered life. The verdict must be guilty. And the sentence, verse 15, "And anyone not found written in the book of life "was cast into the lake of fire." Cast alive, "into the eternal furnace of fire." And even though it's a blazing fire, it's a black hole of fire, it's out of outer darkness.

Where there is weeping and wailing and a very gnashing of teeth, where the worm of an accusing conscience never dies, abandoned by God forever. I said forever. How long does it last? It lasts as long as God lasts. Now you may be thinking, that's not fair. I only sinned in 1520, 5060, 70 years, how many years I had on the earth. I only sinned in that period of time. Why would I be judged and condemned forever? Well, it's because in your fallen humanity, you don't comprehend the treason, the depths of the treason of even one sin against a holy God the way God does.

Because of our fallenness and sinfulness, we don't comprehend the gravity of even one sin against God. But God reveals himself in the scriptures. He says, I'm a holy God. I'm of two pure eyes to look on evil. He tells us that he hates sin. He must judge sin. He has a holy purpose to judge and punish every sin. And we're all sinners. If you've broken one commandment, you have shattered the entire moral law of God. I've had the joy of preaching a number of times in the Bronx, New York and Brooklyn, New York in the last few years. The pastor, one of those pastors took me to that 103rd floor of the Empire State Building.

Can you imagine hanging out of that 103rd floor window with a 10 link chain? How many links need to break for you to plummet to your death? Does it take five? Just one. That's what God says. And every single one of us deserve the undiluted wrath of God. And God would have been just and right to judge us and condemn us without even offering salvation. That's what he did to the angels who rebelled once. One act of rebellion. They were abandoned with no hope of salvation. And yet God in his grace and mercy has revealed himself to us. Everyone in this room, he's revealed himself to you in creation. I'm closing, listen closely.

The Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God. You ought to look outside and look around and say, some idiot says this is an evolutionary accident. This is ridiculous. We have a creator, he's created this universe. And the entire universe declares to us that creation has to have a creator. And if that's not enough, he's given you a conscience. Your soul's warning system that tells you what is true, what is lie, what is right and what is wrong if you would have only listened. But left to ourselves, we sear our own conscience. We ignore our soul's warning system. And yet if that was enough, God gave us the commandments.

The 10 commandments, the moral law of God to reveal to us God's requirement for our life so that that would reveal as we said Sunday morning that we've utterly shattered those commandments and we desperately need a savior. And if that wasn't enough, God left the perfection of heaven and came to earth. Emmanuel, God with us. And lived a perfectly righteous life and then went to the cross as the voluntary substitute, the sinless sacrifice to receive the equivalent of this eternal wrath on behalf of and in the place of anyone who will come to him on his terms.

And if that wasn't enough, he saved an argumentative, arrogant, agnostic, alcoholic, rock and jazz drummer and stood him before you tonight to lovingly warn you about the judgment to come. So you see, as we close, no one's going to point their finger in the face of Jesus at the great white throne judgment and say, I'm going to the lake of fire and it's your fault. Oh no. Not after what Jesus has done. Imagine that you come down tomorrow with a nerve disease and your entire body, every nerve in your body is screaming in intense pain. You go to the specialist and they run the test and this specialist tells you it's terminal.

You're going to be in this intense pain and there are not enough drugs to cover the pain. And there is only one hope for a serum but it would cost the ransom of a king to purchase that serum. And sir, ma'am, your insurance won't cover it. Obamacare won't cover it. The government won't pay for it. And you say, doc, there must be something we can do. There must be some hope. And the specialist says, well, I don't know what I can do, but I'll see what I can do. And he goes away, one day passes, two day passes, three days, four days.

Finally he returns and he comes in, you have an appointment, he walks into the room, his hair is all disheveled, there's blood all over his coat. And you say, doc, where have you been? He said, I went to this foundation, this organization. I went to every place I could trying to raise money for the serum. I went and mortgaged everything I owned. And finally I got enough money raised for the serum, but I've just come from the funeral home. I had a terrible accident. My son, my only son was with me. And he's died. But I've got the serum. Take it. It'll cure you.

Now, can you imagine if you looked at that serum for about 50 minutes and then took it and threw it to the floor and pointed your finger in the face of the doctor and said, if I die, it's your fault. How ridiculous for it. Because the cross was not an accident. The lamb of God was planned to be slain from before the creation of the universe. And it pleased God the Father to crush his holy son as the sinless substitute. So no one will point their finger in the face of Jesus and say, I'm going to hell and it's your fault. Now I ask you tonight, can you look into the face of death and say it's no longer my enemy, but it's my friend.

I've looked into it twice in the last year and a half. Can you look into the face of your death and say it's my friend? Are you ready to die? You're not ready to live till you're ready to die. And only a life transforming encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ can make you ready to die. So then you're ready to live. There's one thing for certain, everybody in this room is gonna die. You're gonna die, every breath you take is a gift from God. And you have an appointment with death and there's one thing for certain after death, it's appointed unto man, woman wants to die and after this, the judgment. That's a sure thing.

And friends listen, there is only one valid preparation for that day. You know what it is? You need to settle out of court. And how do you do that? You start by confessing your criminality tonight. That you deserve the wrath of God because you are a living offense to God. Your life is a living offense to a holy God. You are a sinner and nothing but a sinner and you admit it, you confess it, you realize it deep within your being. You deserve nothing but the wrath of God but then you see that Jesus, God the son, took that wrath. If you'd come to him on his terms, the judge left the bench and died on behalf of the criminals.

Took the guilt, took the judgment, took the wrath of the condemned criminals. And if you'll turn from your sin tonight, if by faith you'll embrace Jesus as your savior, your king, putting your confidence in what he did alone at Calvary to take away the wrath you deserve. And if you'll commit your life to him, then that man, that woman, that young person has settled out of court. All sin taken away, all wrath of that sin and given the gift of the righteousness of Jesus. So I plead with you tonight. In Jesus name, settle out of court tonight. Seat the Lord while he may be found. Call on him, he's near.

Let the sinner, the wicked one, forsake his way and turn to the Lord Jesus. He'll be abundantly pardoned. God will have mercy on him. Let's pray together.