Download Life, Death, and Resurrection

SERIES:
66 Revelation - History's Last Chapter 1996
MESSAGE:
Life, Death, and Resurrection
SPEAKER:
Skip Heitzig
SCRIPTURE: Revelation 20:5-6; 20:11-15
TRANSCRIPTION
I've found that finding a book that is really kind of comprehensive about Revelation is difficult. It's more
difficult to find a church that will take a congregation through the book of Revelation---that's very, very rare
indeed. And yet there are so many questions about it and about the last time, the last things, the last
judgment, what will it be like, what will judgment be like. There are still many Christians who suffer under the
idea that there's one final judgment where every single person, saved and unsaved, stands before God at one
time, when in effect, we find in the book of Revelation that the judgments are separated by a thousand years.
The righteous are redeemed and resurrected. The thousand year millennium comes and then comes the
resurrection of the unjust. Today we're gonna look at a few verses in Revelation chapter 20, verses 5 and 6
and then 11 through 15 about the resurrection.
We come really to one of the great questions in life and it's a question about death. What happens after
death? Where do we go? Do we cease to exist, are we conscious, is there a real heaven, is there a real hell?
Or is death simply a warm tunnel and a bright light for everybody, saved and unsaved? What will happen? Time
Magazine had an interesting cover story recently. It was called "Does Heaven Exist?" I mentioned it to you a
couple weeks ago. They asked people this question: do you believe in the existence of heaven, where people
live forever after they die? The answer they got back: 81% said yes and only 13% said no. Then they asked this
question: do you believe in hell, where people are punished forever after they die? 63% said yes and 30% said
no. So all in all there seems to be an underlying belief in life after death, heaven and hell. At the same time,
there's a hunger to know more about it. When Rutgers University in New Jersey decided to start its class that
they called "Death and the Afterlife", they had to limit the enrollment to 100 people when over 400 people
signed up almost immediately. There's a growing interest. Even Hollywood is getting into the act with its series
"Touched by an Angel" that is explicitly religious in nature and its spinoff show called "Promised Land".
Questions of the afterlife are showing up in shows such as "The X Files" and "Chicago Hope" questioning
about spirituality, about beliefs, about heaven and hell. Even feature films are brushing up with eternity,
especially the bad side of it. For instance, "Jason Goes to Hell". How's that for a movie title? I wanna go see
"Jason Goes to Hell"! It's called "The Final Friday". It grossed 15.3 million dollars in ticket sales. The computer
industry has a CD-ROM out, a game called "Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller". It's a PC game. It's for your
computer and it suggests a relationship between hell and Washington, D.C. I didn't make that up!
For the most part, hell among most Americans is simply a laughing matter. It's just an expletive in a sentence.
It's not even thought about much except just as a fill word. John Brown wrote this, it's very up front but I
think you'll get the idea. He said, "It's not unlikely that within the last 24 hours, you've heard someone say
'what the hell are you doing?' or 'I sure as hell will' or 'who in the hell do you think you are?' That word hell
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has become a conversational byword in our day. Good friends even dare to say playfully to one another, 'go to
hell.' They surely don't mean go to the place of punishment for the wicked after death, though that is how the
dictionary defines the word hell. But why use the word hell? Why not instead say 'what the jail are you doing?'
or 'I sure as school will' And why not say 'go to Chicago'? If hell is really the place for eternal punishment of
the wicked after death, how come it is used so lightly millions and millions of times each day? Why is there an
apparent lack of seriousness about this word? Why is a word so heavy with meaning used so indifferently?
Why do people pretend the place doesn't even exist?"
Here's our approach to these verses today and this is the reason I didn't even put an outline in your bulletin
because this outline is so easy you don't need to even write it down. Here's the outline: we all live, we all die,
we'll all be resurrected. Simple enough? We can all remember that outline. That's the approach we're gonna
take. The word live life, the word dying death, second death, the word resurrection, all of these words are
used in these verses. We all live, we all die, we'll all be resurrected. Let's look at these verses together
beginning in verse 5: "But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is
the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second
death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years."
Verse 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."
We all live, we all die, we'll all be resurrected. But not everybody lives the same way. Not everybody dies the
same way. And not everyone will be resurrected in the same way or capacity. Let's think of that first one: we
all live. I know that sounds obvious. So obvious, you think, you don't even need to make a point of this. But
we do because, though we all live, not everyone who has life lives the same way. You see, the Bible speaks
about life three entirely different ways. There are three words that the Bible uses for life. The first word is
bios. We get the term biology or biosphere from it. It means the material world that is around us, standard of
living, possessions. It focuses on the externals. And the New Testament rarely uses this word when it
mentions life. It's used, but rarely, and almost always negatively. For instance, Jesus said there was the seed
that fell among thorns. It was choked up by the pleasures of this life. The biological life choked up the spiritual
life. Then John used it when he said the pride of life. All that is of the world is not of the Father and he
mentioned the pride of life. Now this is where most people spend almost all of their thinking and energy.
Though in terms of the New Testament, it's not as important as other forms of life. This is where most of us
spend all of our thinking and energy is on biological, physical life. In one poll, people were asked, if you could
change one thing about yourself, and about your life, what would it be? Almost universally people spoke about
their appearance. They didn't say their personality, their character, as much as their appearance. They
mentioned they'd like to change their weight, their body type, their hair, their face, and their age. And the
book concluded, after writing this poll, basically Americans want to be thinner and live longer. That's where
almost all of the focus of people is---biological life.
But the Bible uses another word. It's the word pseuche. It means your conscious life, your inner person, your
personality. Jesus said whoever wants to save his life, pseuche, must surrender it, must lose it. Then there's a
third usage and this is probably the most prominent. It's the word zoie which is really a theological term. It
shifts the focus from earth to heaven. It's life in the eternal sense. Down in verse 12 it mentions life in this
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term, the Book of Life. The books were opened and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.
Zoie. It is often used with the word eternal or everlasting. Everlasting life, eternal life. It means age abiding life.
And it doesn't just mean forever and ever and ever unending. It means a quality of life that begins now. It's not;
I hope I have eternal life after I die. If you're a believer you have it now. It's a quality of life. It's a quality of
existence that will continue for all of eternity. That's why Jesus said he who hears My word and believes in
Him who sent Me has everlasting life. It begins now. it just lasts forever.
How do we get this kind of life? Everybody has biological life. Everybody has that mental conscious life. What
about the life that is eternal life? You get that by a new birth. Just like you were born once physically to get
biological life. Jesus said unless you are born again you will never see the kingdom of God. It comes by the new
birth---being born spiritually from above. Also, I want you to look down at verse 5 because this word is used
of unbelievers as well, interestingly enough. It says, "But the rest of the dead did not live again". It's the same
root word, zoie. "Did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." Who
are the rest of the dead? Well we know that the saints of the New Testament have been resurrected, we saw
last week, the Old Testament saints have been resurrected, and the tribulation saints have been resurrected.
They're already in their new bodies. So this has to be the rest of the dead---the unbelieving dead who will be
raised, as we see at the end of the thousand years, when they're finished, they're raised in resurrected bodies
and they are judged. Here's the point: when we talk about eternal life, we mean it as a Christian, biblical
concept. We're talking about the spiritual life that we have in Christ. At the same time, we realize every single
person has eternal life. Not the same kind. The question is not do I have eternal life; the question is where will
I spend my eternal life? Everybody will live forever. The human soul goes on and on and on. There are two
things that live forever: the Word of God and the soul of man. It will never cease, it will never end, there will
always be a consciousness.
Somebody said if your best days are behind you, then you're lost. If your best days are ahead of you, then
you're saved. What that means is if your whole life is simply what I'm doing now and I look back and go I
remember the days, oh that's what I'm living for is the past memories and that's it, if you've got nothing to
look forward to in terms of the kingdom and glory, there's a good chance that you're lost. But if the best is
ahead, there's a good chance that you are not lost but saved. So we all live, but we also live differently. Some
have spiritual life because they're born again. Some just have biological life. That's all they live for. Second point
to be made is we all die. And again, I know this sounds elementary but you'd be surprised how many people
forget that. They go through life thinking they're immortal until a funeral of their friend or family member and
it's all of sudden like, oh yeah, this is part of it. People live and die. I remember watching a television program
called "Eternal Life: the Battle Against Aging". Basically about people that don't want to face up to the fact
there is such a thing as aging and death. It was everything from plastic surgery to liposuction to cryonics,
freezing your brain or your body until they can figure out a way to thaw it out successfully. There were even
three people who were interviewed on the show who swore that they were immortal, that they would never
die physically, they would just go on living. They actually believed that in this present state they were
immortal. Death seems so unreal especially to us who are Americans because we watch people die all the
time in movies or on television. Oh yeah, he died. Oh yeah, he died. Well, five people died in that show. Or
people who have really died live on---on the silver screen. We can still see John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe,
though they're long gone, they are still living in their films. Or people's music. They've died. Roy Orbison, John
Lennon, Jim Morrison, and others. Their music lives on.
But death is real. It is a part of life. One person said and we've told before that the statistics of death are
pretty remarkable. Every one out of one dies. That's been the going rate for some time. Death is mentioned
394 times in the Bible simply because it's a fact. One of the most famous Scriptures of all is in Ecclesiastes: "To
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everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven, there is a time to be born and there is a
time to die." Hebrews underscores that whole issue with a little more seriousness when it says in Hebrews
9:27: it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes the judgment. So from the beginning of the Bible
to the end, the death knell sounds. It's part of life. That is one appointment all of you will keep---your
appointment with death, whenever that is. However, here's the dividing line. Most people like living, think only
about physical death, just like they think about physical life. That's it. Physical life, physical death, death ends it
all. But everyone doesn't die the same. It's mentioned a couple of times here: the second death. In verse 6 and
also the end of chapter 20 verse 14 and then also look at chapter 21 for just a moment verse 8: "But the
cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have
their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
So there is death physically but there's also something called a second death, something worse than physically
dying. Death simply means separation when you die physically. Your soul or spirit is separated from your body
but there's a further separation called the second death. That's the separation from the presence of God
forever. It's a lot worse. You've heard the old saying there are two things in life that are inevitable. What are
they? Death and taxes. One person commenting on this said, death and taxes may be inevitable but death
doesn't get worse every time Congress meets---taxes do. But death can get worse. When you stand before
God and you are unprepared, it can get a lot worse. Back in the Garden when man fell, before that God said
now in the day that you eat of this fruit, you will surely die. And that death was not just, you're gonna kick the
bucket and decay in the earth, but they brought death and corruption upon the human race and ever since
that people have died physically but many have died spiritually as well. So it's not just a simple passing away, as
we like to call it, oh he passed away, you pass on to something else, you pass through to something else.
That's the reason why we ought to make choices while we live physically and we think about spiritual matters
and the idea of death ahead of us, which is inevitable, and about the possibility of a second death.
The great British historian and philosopher Arnold Toynbee said man alone has foreknowledge of his coming
death and possessing this foreknowledge, he has a chance if he chooses to take it, of pondering over the
strangeness of his destiny. He has at least a possibility of coping with it since he is endowed with the capacity
to think about it in advance, to face it, to deal with it in some way that is worthy of human dignity. So we all
live but then there's another kind of life---spiritual life. We all die but there's a second death that's mentioned
here. And thirdly, more to our point, we'll all be resurrected. The first resurrection we see is in verses 4
through 6. We read that last week but we sort of skipped over this part. That happens before the thousand
year reign of Christ on the earth. After the thousand years, Satan is released, there's a rebellion, and Jesus
ends it all. And after those thousand years is another resurrection. It's the resurrection of all the lost, all the
unsaved, all the ungodly from the fall of man onward. That's mentioned in verses 11 through 14.
Now I gotta say that there are a lot of religions that promise their followers a resurrection. A lot of Christians
don't know that. They don't have a leader who rose from the dead but many religions will promise a
resurrection of sorts. Here's the big difference. It's always a spiritual resurrection---never physical. They'll
promise that the body will decay but the inner person, the higher self, or whatever they call it, will live on but
the body decays never to live again. That's the difference. Jesus said, however, this: the hour is coming in
which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth those who have done good to the
resurrection of life those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. Did you know that the
word resurrection is used about 40 times in the New Testament? It's the word anastasis and it invariably
means a rising of a corpse from the grave. Not a spiritual metaphor of renewal---something literal. When Jesus
said Lazarus, come forth, it wasn't come forth in a sense. He got up! A physical, literal rising from the dead.
And so when they bury us in the ground, we'll be back. The question is when? And the question is where? Will
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it be before that thousand year reign where we'll rule and reign with Christ in glorified bodies for a thousand
years or will it be at the end of those thousand years when the books are opened and those who stand there
will be consigned to judgment? I've been at funerals of people who frankly have no interest in spiritual things.
They don't care about God at all. You could see it in the way they lived and yet, at the funeral, all of a sudden
people get spiritual at funerals. And they go, uh-oh, death. Better get spiritual. And so the minister will even
get up and eulogize this person saying, he's gone to his eternal reward! And I wince when I hear that. I'm
thinking what reward did he go to? It may be very, very different from what the minister had in mind.
When a person dies, any person, saved, unsaved, the soul leaves the body. The body's left to decay but the
soul, the real you, continues in a conscious state. If you're a believer, you're with the Lord. If you're an
unbeliever, you're separated from Him and we'll see that in just a minute. It all depends on what that person
did when they were faced with the gospel of Jesus Christ as the provision for their sin. If the person said yes I
will receive Christ or no I will not is the determining factor of heaven and hell. Now in the Old Testament,
the word for hell is often the Hebrew word Sheol. In the New Testament it is Hades. Two different words,
usually describe the same thing. It is the abode of the dead and a lot of people think that Hades is where all
the bad people go. In effect, Hades in the New Testament, Sheol in the Old Testament, is the place of all
departed spirits, good or bad. Before the resurrection that place was divided into two areas, two arenas, two
compartments. One was called Paradise or Abraham's bosom, Luke 16. The other was called just generically
Hades or torments. Remember the story Jesus gave, it wasn't a parable by the way, it was a story, about a rich
man and a guy named Lazarus and the rich man fared sumptuously and didn't think about God or anything else
and he died and the poor man Lazarus also died and Jesus said the rich man went to Hades and was
tormented. He was in torments. Lazarus, the poor guy who begged at the table every day, he went to
Abraham's bosom where he was being comforted. And it says being in torment, in Hades, the rich man cried
out Father Abraham, get me out of here and send somebody to talk to my brothers! You've heard the story.
You know the story. He said there's a great gulf fixed. I can't go over there and nobody can go over there to
where you're at and nobody over there where you're at can come over here. It was a place where there was
a fixed gulf, there was no escape, there was consciousness, there was torment, there was recognition, there
was communication, and that was the place called Hades.
Now when Jesus rose from the dead, He took with Him all of the souls that were in Paradise and took them
with Him to heaven in the presence of God. So now when a believer dies, though the body decays, the person
is immediately in the presence of God. You don't just die and fall asleep in your soul for a thousand years.
You're immediately in the presence of God. Paul said for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. I have a desire to
depart and to be with Christ which is far better. He said to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5, to be absent
from my body is to be present with the Lord. As soon as this body dies and there's a separation of the soul
and the spirit, I will immediately be with the Lord. So right now we're waiting. We're waiting for the first
resurrection. You might say our part, the Rapture of the church, when we are conformed instantly, translated
the dead in Christ rise first, we're translated, then the Old Testament saints, Daniel 12:2, and the tribulation
saints, the first part of Revelation 20, receive their resurrected bodies at the end of the tribulation period,
right before the millennium. But as the kingdom starts, all of the Old, New Testament saints, all of the
tribulation saints, are in glorified bodies. However, for the unbeliever that's not so. The unbeliever is kept in
torments, that side of Hades, until after the millennium. Beginning in verse 11 comes that resurrection which
is a resurrection to judgment.
Now let's talk briefly just about what we read in verses 5 and 6. "But the rest of the dead did not live again,"
we'll get to that in verse 11. "This is the first resurrection," that is speaking about what we read last week in
verse 4 about being raised up to reign with Christ for a thousand years. "Blessed and holy is he who has part
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in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of
Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." If you were to die today, God forbid, but if you were to die
and, you know, maybe not God forbid, maybe, you know, God has His time, you have an appointment but,
whenever you die, your body will immediately begin to decay. But you will be in the presence of God and your
body goes into the grave awaiting the resurrection. Jesus told the two women, Mary and Martha, the grieving
sisters of Lazarus, your brother shall rise again. She said I know he'll rise again. The resurrection, the last day.
Three times in John 6, Jesus said whoever believes in the Son of Man has everlasting life and I will raise him up
on that last day.
What does that mean? What will that be like? What will we look like? Well Paul said in Philippians 3, He will
transform, and listen how he describes our flesh, our bodies, and our lowly bodies. He'll transform our lowly
bodies so they will be like His glorious bodies. That's the reason, folks, that when a Christian dies, in the Bible
it's called sleep. And Christian death is called those who sleep in Christ. It's not like well you die and you just
go into unconscious state until He comes. No. The reason it's called sleep is because, as sleep is followed by
an awakening, death is followed by a resurrection. It's temporary. You're gonna get up again. You'll be back
again. Taking a nap is no terror. Of course when you're a kid, taking a nap is seen like a punishment, isn't it?
What did I do wrong? When you get older and you say you have to take a nap, it's really? That'd be great! You
have no more to fear of death than you do of taking a nap if you are a believer. You will wake up and it will be
a resurrection, the first resurrection, of righteousness. You'll be rewarded and you'll rule and reign with
Christ for a thousand years. I'm looking forward to the resurrection. I've thought about it often. This model,
this body, has been great but think of the new one coming. And some of you, though you do try to fight the
wrinkles and the age and the pains, you know, go for it, but you know you'll lose that battle. You can postpone
certain things but it's a losing battle.
Paul said that our body is like a tent. It's a great metaphor. Our body is a tent! We're gonna cash it in one day
for a permanent dwelling place. That's the difference. The tent and the permanent dwelling place. Camping is
cool but it gets old. After awhile if you're in a tent for a long time, you'll start groaning a little bit--complaining. I wanna get out of here. I wanna have a home again. That's why Paul said we groan in our bodies.
My father, the older he got, I would go home and visit him, especially in his later years, and I remember I could
hear him get up. He'd groan. When he'd go to sit in his chair out in the dining room---he'd groan again. And
get up and groan. The other day I was picking up a piece of paper off the floor and guess what. I caught myself
doing it. And then I thought, it's ok, it's Scriptural. We groan. Someone asked an old Christian man, how old
are you? He said I'm on the right side of seventy. And thinking he meant under seventy, they found out he was
75. What do you mean? You said you were on the right side of seventy. He said, the side closest to heaven is
the right side because of what's ahead.
Well what will it be like, what will our bodies be like in the resurrection? Turn briefly, quickly, to 1
Corinthians 15. It is a question that has been asked even from the early church. Verse 35: "But someone will
say, "How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?" Foolish one, what you sow is not
made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain---perhaps
wheat or some other grain." In other words, the resurrection, our bodies will be so different that, though a
seed is connected to the flower that produces it, you know, there's really no comparison, right? The seed that
goes into the ground, though connected, though related, will look nothing like what is going to come out of
the ground. It's going to be an amazing transformation. Verse 38: "But God gives it a body as He pleases, and
to each seed its own body." So there'll be some changes that are radical, but it continues as the same life form.
A wheat seed doesn't become barley, flax, doesn't become corn. It's still related but it looks very, very
different. So our resurrected bodies will have some kind of continuity with these bodies but be radically
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different in appearance. Verse 39: "All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another
flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies," in
other words, heavenly realms and of the earth, "but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the
terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars;
for one star differs from another star in glory." In other words, there's a difference between a mountain and a
star, a rock and a comet. Verse 42: "So also is the resurrection of the dead."
Our resurrection bodies will be so radically different from these physical bodies we have now just as an
earthly body and a heavenly body are different. A rock and a comet. What are those differences? Let me give
you four in these verses. There will be a difference in durability. Now I can't give you a picture of what you're
going to look like but I'll tell you what the Scripture says. There will be a difference in durability. Verse 42.
We're sown in corruption, or decay, we are raised in incorruption. As soon as a baby is born, he's on the
march toward death and even the healthiest body deteriorates before death. And once you die, you'll
deteriorate very rapidly after death. Remember when Jesus came to Lazarus' tomb and said roll away the
stone? You know, Martha figured this out. She said, Lord, he's been in there four days and by now he stinketh!
That's the King James. Only four days and his body was so decayed even elaborate Egyptian mummification
cannot stop the decay process. So different in durability.
Second, there will be a difference in potential. It says right after that: "It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in
glory." Let me give you a better translation. Our bodies now disappoint us, but they will be raised in glory.
Ever since the fall, the body and the mind have been reduced in the capacity of doing the will of God. That will
be over. So a difference in durability, potential, three, there will be a difference in power. Notice: "It is sown in
weakness, it is raised in power." Right now, bones still break. Right now, diseases can still be caught. Right
now, even germs of a common cold can stop an adult dead in their tracks. But not then. There will be a
difference in form. It says "it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." We have a natural body right
now and it works well on earth within certain parameters, certain temperature parameters, and so forth. It's
made for this environment. It's adapted for this environment. It's not made for a heavenly environment. The
Scripture says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Remember when Moses said God, I just
want to see You, that's the only request I have. Just let me look at You. God said, Moses if you do that in your
flesh, you'll die. You need a whole different body and a whole different ability to do that and this flesh and
blood that's not possible.
Verse 48: "As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so
also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the
image of the heavenly Man. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;
nor does corruption inherit incorruption." So we'll have a heavenly body instead of a spirit just inhabiting a
body of flesh, it'll be a heavenly body somehow connected, in relation to, our previous body but it's going to
be different. Somebody said, well how will we look? Better. Right? Just having a new body's gotta be an
improvement. Durable, potential, a raised, resurrected body. I'm also asked the question, will we recognize
each other in heaven? And Spurgeon answered that by saying well do you think we'll be dumber in heaven
than we are here? I mean, if you can do it now, don't you think you'll be able to do it then? In a glorified state?
Finally we'll close with this: the resurrection of the ungodly. We go back to Revelation 20. This is the
resurrection after the millennium. The saints have already been raised. The New Testament, Old Testament,
tribulation saints have already had their glorified bodies for a thousand years, reigning with Christ, and now
comes a judgment. The white throne judgment. Not that of the believer but the unbeliever. Verse 11: "Then I
saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it," it just sounds ominous from the start, "from whose face the
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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." This is the
most serious, the most sobering, setting I think in the entire Bible. The final judgment of unbelievers. The
language, notice, is plain, straightforward, there's no embellishing, there's no gory details, you'd think that you
could write a lot more gory details than this---it's not. It's just simple, straightforward, the facts. It is a
courtroom scene but it's unlike any earthly court scene. For instance, there will be no debate about guilt or
innocence. There will be a prosecutor. There will be no defender. At this courtroom scene, there will be a
judge but no jury. There will be a sentence without appeal, there will be punishment without parole, there will
be jail without escape. You say, are you sure this is all biblical? Well we just read it but listen to what Jesus
said. He called it, in John chapter 5, there will be a resurrection of condemnation, or damnation. Daniel called
it the awakening to shame and everlasting contempt.
You say, why do you say this is only non-believers and not believers? Because the first resurrection takes place
before the millennium. We're already in glorified bodies, already ruling and reigning with Christ, and Jesus said
this: he who believes in Me is not judged but He who does not believe in Me is condemned, or judged, already
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Also Jesus said, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life and shall not
come into judgment but passes from death to life. Now folks, you know as well as I do that ever since the
beginning of history, Satan has deceived people into believing that this will never happen. That there will never
be a judgment, that there will never be a final accounting, never a day of reckoning, the philosophies of man,
this post-Christian era, all of the ideologies of men, including the theory of evolution that we came from a
mass of protoplasm and God didn't make us, there is no God, there is no Judge, there is no judgment, which
means you can live any way you like and just pass into oblivion. He's done a great job in deceiving people that
there will never be a judgment---but there will be. He's even done it in churches. There are many so-called
religious or spiritual people that believe in what I would term the Oprah Winfrey god. The benign grandfather
who sits in the sky and is just sentimental and everybody come on in no matter what. That is the idea that
many people have concocted of God. Here it's very different. It's sobering but it says the dead are there, verse
12, the dead, small and great, standing before God. The somebody and the nobody. The rich and the famous,
the poor and the obscure, all in a terrible fellowship together. A final judgment. All unredeemed people. That's
what this is. Unredeemed people standing before God apart from Jesus Christ. The kind of people who said I
don't need Jesus. I'm good enough. I'll stand in my own works, my own record. Really? Well, the books are
opened. Everything you've ever thought, said, or done---perfect record. You'll be judged accordingly. You're
either judged in Christ or you're judged apart from Christ with your own record.
So they're standing sort of like a court. Will the prisoner please rise and approach the bench? And now we
understand what it means in Hebrews 10 when it says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God.
This is a fearful sight. The books are opened, probably the Law, perhaps the book of works of people, the
records, but also it says, notice, the Book of Life is opened. The implication is they're looking for names to see
if they're in the Book of Life and they're not. And everyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into
the lake of fire. In the ancient times, there was not only a record of wrongs in the courtrooms; there was
another book of loyal citizens. And so the books are opened. And imagine the scene: Jesus even talked about
it. There's Jesus with His nail-scarred hands looking through the books, trying to find the names. It's not that
He doesn't know they're not there. This is that final demonstration of those who say I'll stand in my own
works. Jesus said He will say to them, depart from Me, you cursed! This is Jesus, the Savior, the loving One.
He said I will say to them, depart from Me you cursed ones into eternal fire prepared for the devil and His
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angels. No doubt, a person would tremble at that and Jesus said they will say to Me in that day, now wait a
minute, Lord! You know, we prophesied in Your name. We've done wonderful deeds in Your name. We've
gone to church in Your name. We've supported this work. And they'll go through their little litany. Jesus will
say, but I never knew you. Depart.
Oh how those words must ring forever and ever in the ears of those conscious, resurrected ungodly. I never
knew you. I never knew you. I never knew you. Forever. Perhaps the reason that believers will not be present
at this scene is that we wouldn't be able to hear. We wouldn't be able to bear hearing somebody we know
turning to us and saying, why didn't you tell me about this judgment? Why didn't you tell me there was
forgiveness for my sins in Christ? Why didn't you have the guts to let me know? But this is the judgment of the
unbelieving, of the condemned. The great point to be made is simply we all live, we all die, we'll all be
resurrected but there's a big difference in how. We all have life but not everybody's been born again to
spiritual life. We all die but you don't have to face the second death. We'll all be resurrected but Jesus said
some will be raised to life; some will be raised to condemnation. A simple axiom that I have remembered that
helps me in this is this: if you're born once, you'll die twice; if you're born twice, you'll die once. You're born,
obviously, here you are. But if you're born twice, born again, John 3, you'll only die physically---die once. But
never spiritually, never the second death. You'll be resurrected into life. So if you're born twice, you'll only die
once. But if you're only born once, you are here, you are present, you have biological life, but you're never
born again, you'll die twice. Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once. There will be a resurrection of
everyone. The state, the consciousness, will be eternal and what's the hope of the Christian in all this? We
read about it. A new body---a resurrected body. The hope of the Christian is expressed in the epitaph that is
on Benjamin Franklin's grave in Philadelphia. He wrote it himself. The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer, like
the cover of an old book, its contents worn out, stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here food for worms.
But the work will not be lost for it will appear once more in a new and more elegant edition revised and
corrected by the Author. A new book. A new turning point. Always hope for the believer. Spread the hope to
those who are hopeless, who don't know Christ.
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