After Death the Judgment
“AND I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works …. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12, 15).
Would to God that the Judgment might be written upon the hearts of men and women today, that they might see the impending danger that is hanging over every unregenerated soul! There would be a turning to Jesus Christ and a seeking of refuge under the Blood. There would be sins of a lifetime washed away. There would be souls redeemed through the power of God.
The mercy of God is long-suffering, “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3: 9). But there is a day coming when the mighty God, the Creator of Heaven and earth, will sit upon His throne and will assemble the unsaved dead to stand before Him. John saw the Judgment, and he wrote: “I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them” (Revelation 20:11).
Every sinner will one day stand before the Judgment Bar of God. He is going to cause His omnipotent power to raise the dead, when He will summon the great and small to stand before His throne to be judged according to their works; and He will destroy the wicked with everlasting destruction from His presence. God means exactly what He says. He will not be the lowly Nazarene, the Lamb of God, at the Judgment. The God of mercy is also the God of Judgment; and the day will come when the sinners who have refused to bow their knee to God will be turned into hell. God’s Word is true. He says, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17). “The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Revelation 21:8).
A mighty judgment will come forth from the Throne of God, a sentence that will sound in the sinner’s ear throughout eternity. “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1Peter 4:18). God’s truth is eternal, and the Christ-rejecter will face it through all eternity if he does not get right with God here.
You will reap what you sow. If you have sown to the flesh, you will reap corruption. If you have sown to the Spirit, you will reap life everlasting. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). It is true in the natural, and it is just as true in the spiritual. You will face the truth in eternity. It is not what you reason in your mind; it is what God says.
God Demands Repentance
You will repent or perish. Those who are living in sin and expect to slip into Heaven under the garb of Christianity are deceived and will be eternally lost unless they repent. Salvation comes only through repentance and forsaking sin. God says, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19).
If God should weigh your soul now, you would be found wanting unless you have the Blood of Jesus Christ on your soul. On the day of judgment it will be no excuse for you that you looked at some professed Christian who did not possess the real thing. God is laying judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet, and He will lay bare and uncover every sin.
God Today Has a Record
All the sins that have been committed are recorded unless they have been forgiven. God says that every man shall be judged according to his works.
No matter how much you try to forget sin, you cannot blot it out; and the time is coming when the sins that you are calling little will stand before you as a mighty mountain wall. You cannot climb over it or around it; there is no way to escape it. Your sins are written, and they will stand against you on that day. God says the things done in secret shall be proclaimed from the housetops. The sins that are hidden now will be uncovered before the whole world.
You may be excusing yourself and putting off getting right with God because you are having a good time in the world and the world speaks well of you, while the sins in your heart constantly condemn you. You may think they are covered; but there will be an awakening at the Judgment when all will stand in their true condition, as God sees them.
This salvation gives you power to live above sin. God says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1John 1:9). When you are asked if you are saved, you can boldly say, “Yes, I know I am saved.” You have the witness in yourself. God says, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7).
It is folly to try to evade the truth of God’s eternal Word. The time is coming when all must die. God will sever the brittle thread that holds the soul and body together; for He says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9: 27). There is a delusion today that after a man dies he goes into a state of nonexistence or annihilation. This is not true.
Jesus Recorded an Instance
God’s Word teaches that there is an eternal hell. Jesus did not call the incident in Luke 16 a parable, but it would have been as much the truth if it were a parable. He said there was a certain beggar named Lazarus who was laid at the rich man’s gate. He died and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. He had a sense of feeling there, and he cried, and said, “I am tormented in this flame.” That which does not exist cannot be tormented. This is real. God’s eternal Word stares every hypocrite and false professor and unbeliever in the face and tells him that he will go into eternity without hope unless he repents and turns to God.
The rich man cried: “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” Abraham said, “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” “Son, remember!” The memory of his sins will haunt every unsaved soul throughout eternity. His whole life and record and catalog of sins will pass before him, and he will be speechless. There is no excuse for sin.
Men make their boast that they do not fear the judgment of God. But the great day of His wrath is coming. That day will burn as an oven. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31), the “Judge of all the earth.” Judgment will be poured out upon the people who have rejected God and spurned His mercy.
Men mock at God now; they blaspheme His name; they laugh at the salvation of Jesus Christ. But the time is coming, God says, when “I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind.” God’s mocking will be terrible. They will call for the rocks and mountains to fall upon them, and to hide them “from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Revelation 6: 15-17).
“I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him” (Luke 12:4, 5).
Today His arms of mercy are outstretched still. His love is reaching to the whole lost world. God says, “Why will ye die?” Why do you spurn the mercy of God? There is no reason. No one has ever been able to answer that question.