Date: March 26, 2023

Bible Text: Revelation 20:11-15 |

Series:

Perhaps the most unenviable task any preacher ever has to perform is to preach on the topic of hell. Beyond the fact that eternal torment is beyond the current culture’s ability to grasp, even many Christians are finding it difficult to fathom. The discomfort is warranted. No one wants anyone to end up on the wrong side of eternity. Even the LORD expresses his heart about hell when, in Ezekiel 33:11, God instructs the prophet with this, “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” There’s simply no room to make light of what awaits those who reject God’s kind offer of salvation through the gospel of Jesus Christ. No one, not even God, revels in the death of the unredeemed.

This Sunday we approach what I believe are the most difficult five verses in all of Revelation. In Revelation 20:11-15, we read of the Great White Throne judgment where those whose names are not found in the Book of Life of the Lamb are condemned to the Lake of Fire. This glimpse at the very last day has stood as a warning to every generation. In its painful description of the final judgment there is a call to the reader to repent and avoid this judgment altogether, to stand in awe of the presence of God and receive that which Christ has done to save any who turn to him in faith.

Series: Great & Amazing—Revelation (Part 2)
Todd Dugard
Message: 29–Books were opened
Harvest Bible Chapel
Text: Revelation 20:11-15
March 26, 2023

I avoid the great white throne judgment of God by…

…standing in awe of his presence (v. 11)

Isaiah 51:6b
2 Peter 3:10b

To make yourself available to experience awe in the presence of God, it must be…
You alone
You and a few
You and the church

…admitting that what I do will not save me (v. 12-13)

…prioritizing my eternal destiny (v. 14)

Five correctives concerning hell:
(1) God doesn’t delight in condemning people to hell.
Ezekiel 33:11
(2) No, everyone is not saved in the end. That would be unjust.

I Don’t Want to Be a Universalist (Christianity Today) https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/march/mouw-heaven-cheap-i-dont-want-to-be-universalist.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=article&fbclid=IwAR2ZC5O8Bsns2aKynM2-dAcL3KJJzd-UKkV0b9DFxr5o0pIEVGlolTxdSMQ

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened―C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce.
(3) Nor are people annihilated, but instead face eternal torment.
(4) Imagery aside, hell’s greatest horror is that it is the absence of God.
(5) Denying that hell is a thing simply delays the inevitable.

…receiving that which Christ has done to save me (v. 15)

1 John 1:9
Acts 4:12

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