I've told you before, preaching these sort of one-off sermons is challenging because I'm not preaching through a book on Sunday morning, obviously, and so what do you preach? And I usually go with what has been impressed upon my heart lately, and the last Sunday school lesson that we had together in the fellowship hall for the summer was regarding judgment, death and resurrection, judgment. And so I've been thinking about that since then, before then. So Revelation 20 verses 11 through 15 is our text. Today we all need to be reminded that we will die. I don't know why we have to remind ourselves of this. It's a fact of nature. Everything around you dies. It gets hot in the summer here in Texas and your grass dies. Everything dies. We're going to die. It's appointed unto man, wants to die, and then comes judgment. So we will all one day stand before God in judgment. In 1866, Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon on Revelation chapter 20, verse 11, called The Great White Throne. And in his introduction, he referred to the controversies that often come with the book of Revelation. And he said that the interpretation of the obscure elements of the book quote, will not be a profitable task for unconverted persons. Better far to meditate upon the atonement than be guessing at the little horn, and better far to know the Lord Jesus and his power to save than to fabricate an ingenious theory upon the number of the beast. Right? And so there's a lot of that goes on with the book of Revelation. But here in chapter 20, verses 11 through 15, we have a subject that if you are an unbeliever, you should care about this. I've met unbelievers that care about the identity of the Antichrist. I've met unbelievers that try to figure out every little detail in the book of Revelation, but they don't think too much about this. And this is the section that they should be thinking about. It's also the section that we all should be thinking about, because one day we too will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ in judgment. We will. We're not gonna be judged for sins, but we are, nevertheless, our lives are appraised, and we'll see this as we go through the text today. Our lives will be appraised on that day, and we will stand before Him. We'll certainly find out whether or not our profession of faith is real. That will certainly be discovered. So on this text, Spurgeon was making an exception. He said that if we would look at this text now, In this life, look at this reality, the reality of judgment, right now in the Word of God, perhaps when we die and stand before the Lord in judgment, we will not be afraid to look on that day, if we look at it now. If we consider it now, it's better to be fearful now, and face the reality of it now, than to die, stand before Him in judgment, and then be trembling on that day. So we're looking at four characteristics of the judgment in the text. The first characteristic is the throne. Let me just read verses 11 to 15, and we'll come back and work through it. Verse 11. 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. 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. So the first characteristic of the judgment we're looking at is verse 11, and that's the throne. What does this represent? Revelation 20, verse 11, you have a great white throne and him who is seated on it. The throne represents power and dominion. Anytime you're looking at any throne, whether it's a human throne or this throne in the book of Revelation, you're looking at a representation, a symbol of power and dominion. The Lord Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He has all power, all authority. Matthew 28, verse 18 says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me. In the book of Daniel, all the nations of the earth are given to the Son of Man. He has all authority. I know that in our culture, we like to think the President of the United States has great authority. He has nothing compared to the authority of King Jesus. Nothing. This throne represents all power and dominion. I'll remind you that even though this text is focusing on the unbeliever based on verse 15, because of what's happening there, we will all stand before the Lord Jesus in judgment. 2 Corinthians 5.10 says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 13. Each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. So even as believers, we're not being judged for our sins. Our sins have been dealt with with Christ. Our sins have been separated as far as the east is from the west, buried in the deepest sea. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. So all of that is true. When we stand before him in judgment, as Christians, we stand there like sort of an appraisal is going on. What have you done for me? What have you done out of love for me? And then we're, there's awards given for that. But then when we, we're focusing on, it all happens at once. I'm not doing this whole thing that some branches of theology do when they say, well, we got, okay, a thousand years, got this judgment, another thousand, then this judgment. I'm saying it all happens at the resurrection. Timing really doesn't matter all that much. You just got to know the fact and meditate on the fact that you will stand before the Lord Jesus in judgment. Isaiah 6 verse 1, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. When you stand before him in judgment, it's going to be just as real as sitting in this room. It may be even more real. It'll be the most real moment in your life. When you are standing before Jesus Christ, we'll talk about why I say that in a minute. You're standing before Jesus Christ in judgment, that is gonna be the most real moment you've ever experienced. It may be more real than even sitting in this room. Just like you're sitting here right now. You'll stand there before him on the day of judgment. Revelation 19 verse 11, we also learn here in the text, it's a white throne. White is symbolic also of victory and dominion. Whenever you had a victorious king, he comes back, he's riding a white horse. When he does that, it symbolizes his victory and his dominion. Revelation 19 verse 11, then I saw heaven opened, behold a white horse. The one sitting on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. On his robe and on his thigh he has the name written, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, that's verse 16. King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He judges and he makes war in righteousness. He never wages an unjust war. He's declared war against sin. He's declared war against sinners. Colossians says you can be an enemy of God through wicked works. There's coming a day when he will complete all of that. There'll be a resurrection we'll talk about in a moment. And in that day, all accounts will be settled. All accounts will be settled. Those who are right with God enter into eternity. All those who are not are cast body and soul into hell for all eternity. The people that you know, your family members, some of you are your children, some friends, some neighbors, some coworkers, strangers that you've never even met, They will be cast into hell for all eternity from this glorious throne, this power and dominion. He has the authority and he is just and he is right to do it. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? White also symbolizes holiness. Isaiah 6, of course, the emphasis there, that throne is holiness. He is completely without sin. Your rebellion against God has a price. If you are here as an unbeliever this morning, you've never repented and placed your faith in Christ, your rebellion against King Jesus and his laws and his rule and dominion and reign has a price. When you offend an eternal God, there's an eternal hell to pay. I'm not saying that because I enjoy saying that. I'm saying that because the scriptures say this. Unless you repent, you will perish. This is not a light thing. This is the most important thing that you have to do with. Don't be thinking about what you're gonna do when you leave here today. Don't be thinking about the football game later. Don't be thinking about any of that, because all of it's garbage. Just think upon this moment, because this moment will happen for you. The throne represents power and dominion, and it's called the Great Throne. When I was a kid, I used to think of this. There used to be a track, the Chick track, that was real popular. This was your life, at least when I was a kid, that was popular. It's like a cartoon booklet. They had this sort of drawing of the Great White Throne Judgment, and they had the throne, it was a big throne. Right, and you've got sort of like faceless, like God is sitting there, I guess, on the throne is what that's supposed to be. And you got all these little tiny little people down below. That's not the idea of the great white throne. The idea of the great white throne is, is it's great because of the one who sits upon it. No throne is as great as this throne. I don't care if you're talking about the king of England, right? And the throne that he is crowned king on, right? Coronation happens, whatever. That throne is nothing compared to this throne. I don't care what throne you wanna talk about on this planet, there's no throne like this throne because this throne is the throne that the king of glory, Jesus Christ, sits upon and all will give an account to him. not just the citizens of one kingdom or the other, but all will give an account to him. He is the one who sits on it. Revelation chapter three, verse 21 says, the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. Jesus is the one who is seated upon this throne. John chapter five says, truly, truly I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. When the resurrection happens, they will all hear the voice, all the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. And those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, in verse 27 of John 5, he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. It will be Jesus Christ, he will be the one seated upon the throne. Now if you are an unbeliever here today, I'll just say this, that if you live your life as if God has never given a command, You live your life as if there is no law of God. You do whatever you want, you do it when you want, and you walk in constant rebellion against God, you break his laws. You steal, you lie, you look with lust, you commit adultery, you do all the things that are laid out in the Ten Commandments, and you live as if there is no God, even if you might say there is a God, but you live as if he's never given a law. It's one thing to live like that and then go stand before God in judgment. It's terrible, because now you're going to be judged in a courtroom where all that's true. The one who wrote the law is going to judge you, and the law will judge you. But it's something else altogether. When you not only do that, but then on top of that you add insult to injury, because you've rejected the sacrifice that was made for you, so that you can be made right with God. The one who laid down his life for sinners is the one who's seated on the throne. Think about what that means. You reject the law on one hand, but you rejected Christ on the other. And when you die and you stand before God, you're going to see Jesus. Because he is God in the flesh. And there he is, the one you've rejected. Think about what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of a living God when you not only break the laws of God, but you've rejected the one who paid the price so that you could be made right with God. You are in serious trouble. You should be afraid of that. That should cause you to lose sleep at night because you have no guarantee that you'll live to see tomorrow. None. Many people die all the time with an expectation they're going to live to see the next day. Or they die that day thinking they're going to see the end of that day, and they never do. This is serious business. You are one heartbeat away from eternity. You are one heartbeat away from standing before Him in judgment. You need to be, this needs to bother you. It should not be that it's like, okay, I go to church on Sunday, I listen to the guy yell at me for half an hour, and then I go home or whatever, and I just live my life any old way I want to live. That's ridiculous, especially in the light of our text. You will stand before Him one day in judgment. If you knew you were going to a human court tomorrow, on Monday, today, you'd be thinking about it. Right? You ever been to court? Right, Cody? You ever been to court? You know, it's true, that you start thinking, even if you're not even there on trial yourself, but if you're there as a witness, you start thinking about it. Am I wrong? You need to be thinking about this now. Even if you're a believer, you should be thinking about it. I wanna hear, well done now, good and faithful servant, enter into your rest, right? You know, I don't wanna waste my life chasing after garbage. I wanna be spending my life, investing my life for the sake of the gospel. No matter where you are here this morning, it should be something you think about. You will see him one day. The third characteristic here about this throne is that with this throne, this is a final judgment. There is no other that comes after. This is it. This is it. Right now, courts go on, City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, you know, whatever, Austin. These courtrooms, they meet every day. and they have to keep on meeting every day, right? Every business day they meet. And it just keeps going on and on and on. This is the last one. There is no more after this. From his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. All of the earth will be gone. You are going to be standing in a courtroom where there's literally nowhere else to go. In a human courtroom, you might go run somewhere. You might run out the door and go hide in the bathroom, right? You're not gonna do that with this because there's nothing left. There's nowhere to hide. Go back to Revelation 6 for a minute. You certainly want to. Revelation 6, verse 15. Then the kings of the earth, and the great ones, and the generals, and the rich, and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. This is as judgment's taking place, calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on us. "'Hide us from the face of him who's seated on the throne "'and from the wrath of the Lamb, "'for the great day of the wrath has come, "'and who can stand?' "'His judgment's unfolding, they're looking to hide. "'Judgment has unfolded, now there's nowhere to hide. "'There's nowhere to hide from his face. "'You are left standing alone.'" 2 Peter 3, verse 10, "'But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, And then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. There's no place to hide. You are left alone. You will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ in judgment. Your pastor will not be there. Your elders will not be there. Your friends will not be there. Your family members will not be there. You will be there alone. There'll be no saying, well, I was a pastor's kid. There'll be no saying, well, I went to thus and such church. There'll be no saying, I'm an American. You will be alone, standing before the God of this universe. Judgment is final. Verse 12, the second characteristic of the judgment as a whole is the defendants are in the courtroom. 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, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. You remember the 2012 thing? Some of you remember that? My calendar was gonna end 2012, all that nonsense. I wrote a track back then. So you shouldn't be worrying about the year 2012, you should be worrying about Revelation chapter 20, verse 12. I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. You're gonna die, you're gonna stand before God in judgment, it doesn't matter who you are. Great or small? Great's talking about people that are without a lot of power, maybe like kings and presidents and emperors, tyrants and all those kinds of people. And then the small, people like me, right? Dirt poor, whatever, we're all gonna be standing before God on the day of judgment. There's no one who gets out of this. There's no free passes out of this. I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. So you've got these defendants, and the defendants, everyone, all, will stand before the Lord. There's no one here that's getting out of it. There's no one sitting here that's not gonna be there. You're all gonna be there. We're all gonna be there. Evidence will be produced. It says 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. I want you to think about this. Everything that you've ever done is written down in the courtroom of God as an unbeliever. Again, I've already said it. Say it again. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sins. The book is empty, as far as we're concerned, because our sins had been forgiven. We're in the book of life, if you're a believer, but if you're not, the evidence is brought out, and everything that you've ever done, ever thought, ever said, every idle word will be brought out in judgment, Scripture says. All of it will be brought to light. You say, well, nobody knows about this thing or that thing. You can guarantee God knows, and he's already written it down. You'll give an account for that. And you will not be found innocent if you read to the end of the section, you're in trouble. Evidence will be produced. Daniel chapter seven, verse 10, says a stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand thousands served him, and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The court sat in judgment and the books were opened. Romans chapter 2 verse 6. Very simple. He will render to each one according to his works. Every time you've lied. Every time you've stolen. Every time you've looked with lust, committed adultery in your heart. Every time you just had fornication, adultery, whatever. Every time you ever had a murderous thought towards someone. The Bible says it's the same thing as murder when you hate someone, right? All of these things are brought to light. Every time, every time you violated the holy day, the Sabbath day, right? Every time you've done one of those things. All of that's brought to light for the guilty. that are not in the book of life, who've not repented and come to Christ. Every one. Think about that for a second. We say the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. It's saying a lot. It's saying that the whole mass of sin that you commit in your life can be forgiven. That's a lot of sin. Think about your own life, however old you are. I'm 53. It's a lot of time for a lot of sin, and there's a lot of it. But the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all of that. It also deals with magnitude of sin. There's no sin that's so terrible that it cannot be forgiven with the blood of Christ. But he's able to forgive that too. So whether it's the great mass of sin that bothers you, Or whether it's one sin that's hanging in the back of your conscience, where you're like, I don't think God could ever forgive me of that. He's able to do that, but if you don't repent, and you don't place your faith in Christ, know this, the books will be opened. There will be no question, no doubt, whether or not this judgment is fair. You're not gonna be able to appeal this in a circuit court of appeals. This is it, it's final, this is the last one. Evidence will be produced. The third characteristic of this is, and it's really understood, but it's specifically mentioned here in 13 and 14, it's having to do with the resurrection. There's one resurrection. There's one resurrection with two destinations. If you look at chapter 20, verse 13, 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. So you have this resurrection that takes place. We talked about it in light of the 1689. There is a resurrection that will take place. Both the lost and those who are right with God will be resurrected at that time. It says there in the text, the sea gave up the dead who were in it. In other words, everywhere on this planet, wherever there's someone who's dead, they're going to be resurrected. It doesn't matter if their body is in the ocean. It doesn't matter if they're out in a grave somewhere. They will all be resurrected on that day. Death is speaking of the grave. It's talking about cemeteries, right? All the dead in the cemeteries will be resurrected. Think about that sometime next time you are driving by or you go to a cemetery. Imagine what that'll be like on that day. Hades, talking about hell. Their bodies, their physical bodies are in the grave. Those who have not come to Christ are in torment right now. Their souls are in hell. Their souls and their bodies will be reunited on that day and they will stand physically before the Lord Jesus Christ in judgment. and they were judged, each one, and it's reiterated and it's repeated to get the idea across, you're going to answer for your works. Each one of them. Every one of them. No one's going to be passed over according to what they had done. John chapter 5 verse 28 says, do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment, for those who are in Christ, their resurrection is a positive thing. It means that their body and souls are reunited and they will be in eternity forever in a perfected body with Christ. It's a wonderful thing. You get to Revelation 21, you read about some of that. 22, you read about some of that. But for those who are lost, you will spend eternity in hell, also in a real body, where the worm does not die. Weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth. You'll have a physical body that you'll experience pain in for all eternity. So the content, in verse 14, the contents of hell and the contents of the grave will be united in their eternal destiny. It's kind of repeating it, but the death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. All the contents of the grave, all the contents of hell will be cast into the final resting place of those who rebelled against God, and that is the lake of fire, eternal, it's not a resting place, it is eternal torment. 1 Corinthians 15, 26 says the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Death will be destroyed. Aren't you glad for that? The older you get, the more you get tired of it. Going to funerals, you have less and less friends your age as you get older. My wife's grandmother is 97 years old. And she said to her, I think Kim or someone of my kids said to her, Grandma, I hope you live to be like 110. Of course we want that for our sakes. And she says, oh, don't wish that on me. Don't wish that on me. Because as you get older, you have less and less. I mean, she's outlived her daughter. She's outlived her husband. She's outlived almost all of her friends. She's in Christ. She's ready to go. It's the right attitude for us as believers. 1 Corinthians 15, 54, and 55 says, when the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass a saying that's written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? For the Christian, there is no sting, because to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, and when we are resurrected to stand before him in judgment, we've already been with him, and now it's all just coming together. Our bodies and souls together, we stand before him in the final assessment. Revelation 1, verse 18. Jesus said, I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. He is so sovereign, he's sovereign over the grave and hell. Jesus Christ has that power and authority. I am so glad for that. I'll be glad for the day that nobody has to go out to an abortion clinic and stand out in front of the place and urge people not to murder their sons and daughters. That day's coming. Those people that run those places are on the wrong side of this equation. They take cash, credit, Venmo, PayPal, whatever, to do what they do to promote death. They are on the wrong side. They are on the losing side because Christ is king even over death. He conquered death. He rose from the dead. They are on the wrong side of this thing. And the fourth and last characteristic, it's sobering, it's real. It is what it is, as we say. Revelation 20, verse 15, eternal punishment. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. The word thrown has an emphasis on it. It's the idea, it's like thrown forward. It's not like they trip and fall in, right? They're being cast into the lake of fire. They're thrown into it. What's that like? We get a little bit of a picture of it over in Luke chapter 16. When it comes to eternal torment, we get a picture of it in Luke 16, 19-31. There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, who feasted sumptuously every day. Sounds like he was an American. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus at his side. He called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, Lazarus in like manner bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us. And he said, Then I beg you, Father, to send him to my father's house. For I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment. But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, No, father Abraham. But if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. He said to him, they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. In hell, there's memory. He remembers. They talk about things that have happened in the past. He remembers Lazarus, he remembers all of it. He remembers his five brothers, and suddenly he becomes evangelistic. I have five brothers. Send him there that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment. You know, you probably have friends. You probably have family members. They remember. They remember you in hell. They remember. And if you're here as a lost person, you might have the same thought. Who's going to tell my family member? Who's going to tell my best friend? Who's going to tell my husband, my wife, my kids? Who's going to tell them? God's not sending them back. God's not sending anyone else back. He sent Jesus back. Jesus came back from the dead. He rose from the dead. You got the word of God. You've heard Christ, right? You've heard the truth. You've heard Moses and the prophets. You're hearing this right now. If you die and you go to hell and you remember this sermon, know that you heard it here. My hands are innocent of your blood. I have told you, I've warned you. And by the end of this, I'm gonna tell you what you need to do to get right with God. You will hear it. If you go to hell, you'll have done like what Spurgeon said. You'll have done it with someone trying to grab your ankles while you're going by. People, you had a pastor for 24 years who has preached the truth to you. If you go to hell, over that, you've done it over his tears, his prayers, and his sermons. You will give it account before God. There'll be no excuse. It's a sad reality that people go there. I've got friends in hell. I've got family members in hell. I don't want any more to go. I am sure that there are people that I've preached the gospel to out on street corners, I know it. There was one guy in particular I remember. He was out there one week. We were preaching the gospel on the street corner in Syracuse. He was a bouncer for the bar across the street. He'd been listening. He'd been out there listening to us while we preached every week. The next week I come out there, he's not there anymore. His girlfriend worked in the bar next door. She comes over to us while we're preaching and she says, What do you got? I know nothing at this point. I'm like, what do you mean, what do I got? She says, I wanna know what you have. I wanna know your message. She says, that guy that stood on this corner and heard you before, he's dead. He went through a tree on his motorcycle. He's dead. I'll never see him again. She says, what do you have? Is that what it's gonna take to wake you up? Your boyfriend, somebody that you love, dying and going into hell, is that what it's gonna take? What will it take for you to wake up as an unbeliever? But believer, let me say this to you, what will it take for you to wake up? You're here now. You're here now. There's probably somebody praying in hell that you go talk to their friend, go talk to their family member. What are you waiting for? When you get more time, you'll never have more time. When you're making more money, you'll never be making enough money. Do it while you have breath. Because once it's over, we're not going to be doing that in heaven. You're not going to be sharing the gospel with anybody in heaven. They're all there because they've got it, right? It's a sad reality. Let it wake us up. We have, Leonard Ravenhill said, Lord, stamp eternity on our eyeballs. Let us just think about eternity. There was a guy over in Australia, in Sydney, Australia, he used to go around George Jenner, or Jenner, Frank Jenner, of George Street. And George Street, one of the busiest streets in Sydney, he would just go around, and it wasn't all he did, but he would write the word eternity on the sidewalk. And he did it all the time, every day. He has a shopkeeper on that street and he would write eternity on the sidewalk with just the hope that somebody walking by would see that on the sidewalk and at least think about eternity. If you did that, there would be more evangelism than what most people do in their lifetime. But he did more than that. He was also a street preacher. People don't know that, it's not well known about his story, but he was a street preacher. He preached the gospel on George Street. And he owned that shop, and he would go outside of his shop every day with one track. He had one goal, I'm gonna hand out one track today. And he'd go out there on George Street and hand out one gospel track. And he did that for years. People from all over the world came to Christ because this little old guy was doing this crazy stuff. And it became such a part of Australian culture that when the year 2000 rolled around, and out there in the harbor, in Sydney Harbor, they put the word eternity across the bridge in Sydney Harbor. You don't think you can make a difference? Care. Care about what's going on beyond the end of your nose. Care about the people that are around you, because you don't know how long you're going to be around. because they're gonna stand before God in judgment. I can't make you care. Pastor Randall can't make you care, but you've got enough here. There's tracts, there's all those things, although we're running low on tracts right now. There's tracts, we'll get tracts. Do something, hand out a tract, do something to warn people about hell, because it's deserved. 2 Thessalonians 1, 6 through 10 says, since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted, as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord, I'll come back to that, and from the glory of His might, when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at among those who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. The word says, it's translated in the ESV, away from the presence of the Lord. The punishment of eternal destruction actually is coming from the presence of the Lord. Hell is not eternal separation from God. It's an eternal awareness that you are in the presence of God, and you are receiving punishment from Him. He's not just leaving you alone in a dark place that's hot. It's coming from Him because He hates sin. Revelation 14, 9-11. Revelation 14, verse 9. Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast in its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day or night. He's worshippers of the beast in this image. Whoever receives the mark of its name. Get beyond the beast and all that stuff, the Antichrist stuff that's floating around because you're an American. But think about the fact that the wrath of God is being poured out. And it says there in the text that it's all happening in the presence of the Lamb. And don't miss the fact that the smoke of their torment rises up forever. Why is it rising forever? It's a testimony to the fact forever that God is a God of justice and righteousness. And when you walk in rebellion against Him, you will burn in hell forever, in the lake of fire forever, as a testament to the fact that He is holy. Run to Christ while you can. Run to Christ while you can, Revelation 21.8. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. They will continue on in their rebellion against God, even in hell. This thing doesn't die. The rebellion against God doesn't die when they get thrown into the lake of fire. They will continue to rebel against Him. Revelation 20 to 11 says, Why are they gnashing their teeth in hell? It's not just the pain. They're gnashing their teeth in anger against the God who threw them there. You will continue on in your hatred of God in hell. It's not like you're gonna get converted and go to heaven. This is over. He was gonna leave you as you are in your anger against him that you have right now. He said, I'm not angry against God. Then why are you walking in flagrant rebellion against him? Why do you keep doing it over and over? I'll finish, well, yeah, I'm finishing with this, more or less, this quote, sort of finishing. Isaac Watts, he had a sermon called The Nature of the Punishments of Hell. Here's what he says about it. A source of continued torment for the damned in hell is a fixed and eternal hardness of heart as will never be softened. Such impenitence and stubbornness of soul which will never relent or submit. The hardest sinner here on earth may now and then feel a relenting moment. And the most daring atheist may sometimes have a softening thought come across him, which may perhaps bring a tear or two to his eyes, and may form a good wish or two in his soul, and ring a groan from his heart which looks like repentance. But when we are dismissed from this body, and this state of trial and of hope, eternal hardness seizes upon the mind, the neck is like an iron sinew hardened more in the fire of hell. The will is fixed in everlasting obstinacy against God and against the glories of his holiness. If Moses and the prophets, if Christ and his apostles in the ministry of the word could not soften the heart of bold transgressors, what can be expected when all the means of grace and the methods of divine compassion are vanished and gone forever? It's not gonna get better. Revelation 22, 15, outside are the dogs and sorcerers, and the sexually immoral, and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. This is a fearful thing, to realize how terrible hell and the lake of fire are, but there is a way out. John chapter 3, Verse 16. You all know it. I'm not just going to do 16. I wouldn't have to turn there. Look at a couple of verses here. You don't have to go to hell. If you repent and believe the gospel, you can be made right with God. In John chapter 3, verse 16, It says there, what am I doing? For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. You know this, you've heard it from the time that you were a kid. You have it memorized. God so loved, he was motivated out of love. You say, this sounds like an angry God. Yes, but he's also a God of love. And what happened is, out of love, he sent his son. that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. You're at war with God, God's at war with you, but God out of love sent Jesus to die for sinners. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Look, because the world's already condemned, the condemnation's already there, it's there. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. If you will trust Christ, believe means absolute trust in someone that's trustworthy. If you will stop this nonsense of your life and you will just say, I'm done. I'm done running against Him. I'm done running from Him. I'm going to run to Him. I'm going to trust in Christ because I have no hope. If the books are opened, I'm done. I have no hope. But Christ died just for the unjust. He's just. I'm not. I need his righteousness. If you will run to him and you repent, trust Christ, God will save you. God will save you. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God, that one who you will stand before in judgment unless you repent. I urge you today, I don't have to say much here about the gospel. God in the flesh, Jesus, died for sinners and rose from the dead. Place your faith in him. If you don't, you've just seen your future. You don't need to call Californian psychics. You don't need to call whatever they're advertising these days. Your future has just been laid out for you in the word of God in Revelation 20. You will stand before him in the day of judgment. It's more sure than the fact you're going out for dinner afterwards. That is what's gonna happen unless you repent and place your faith in Christ. Let's close in prayer. Father God, we ask, will you be bold enough to ask, oh God, that you'd save somebody. Lord, would you save someone here, maybe a child, maybe a friend, a family member, someone who has not come to Christ. Help them to see that they will stand before you one day, and help them to see that the only way out is through Lord Jesus, what you have accomplished. what you have done on the cross for their sins. Let them run to you because you are a God of love who sent a way out. You didn't have to do that. We all deserve what we read about here. We all deserve hell. I pray, oh God, that you turn someone's heart to yourself. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.