Settle Out of Court, Part 2

Those who die without placing their faith in Jesus will face Him in judgment.

It would have been infinitely better had they settled with Jesus while they still could. Settle out of court. While there's time, go back to the judge's chamber and admit, I'm guilty. I'm a sinner. I can do nothing of myself. I deserve punishment. I'm under the verdict. I'm on my way to hell.

Save me! Perhaps you've heard the phrase carpe diem. It means seize the day. It's a phrase used to encourage people to make the most out of life. Phrases like that sum up the prevailing philosophy of our age. And while we should take advantage of every opportunity we have, we also need to live our lives with the realization that the afterlife is real. Both heaven and hell are real. And everyone ends up in one of those places. On our last broadcast, Stephen Davey began a series entitled, Is Hell for Real? He didn't have time to complete lesson one in that series, so we're bringing you that right now.

This message is called Settle Out of Court. It's one thing for the Bible to say that somebody gets thrown into hell because he wasn't good enough to get into heaven. People will buy that line of reasoning. They weren't good enough to get into heaven. They didn't follow the rules or didn't join the right church, didn't do the right things.

Maybe they were a mass murderer. Yeah, he wasn't good enough to get into heaven. It's one thing to say someone isn't going to heaven because they don't deserve heaven. Listen, it is an entirely different thing to say that someone is going to hell because he deserves hell. That is offensive.

Utterly offensive to every generation to believe that hell could possibly be deserved. Later on, John will tell us why. But here in verse 11, he informs us of this unforgettable setting which involves a great, a white, and he mentions it's a throne. This isn't a desk for dialogue.

This isn't a couch for therapy. This isn't a stool upon which some wise counselor may sit or some teacher. This is a throne from which will be delivered the king's verdict. John makes reference to the king. Look at verse 11. He speaks of the one, him who sat upon it, capital H. Now we have to go outside this text to know which person of the Godhead is instrumentally involved in the judgment of humanity. We know from a number of verses that God the Son shares the throne with God the Father.

It's the place of authority. We know that he's seated on the throne. Revelation 22 refers to the throne of God and of the lamb.

Paul wrote to the Colossians in chapter 3, verse 1. Therefore, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. That means he's seated at the place of authority. He represents the triune God in this unique way. The writer of Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 12, wrote that Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. It's a reference to the throne being shared by the Father and Son, the Spirit hovering there as well, a reference to the triune God certainly being in place. The Apostle Peter wrote that Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God having gone into heaven, 1 Peter 3.22. They share the throne as equally divine along with the Spirit, God in three persons we sang great truth.

We believe it not because we understand it but because the Bible delivers it. Now, although they share the throne and all three persons equally divine, they yet have unique functions. We talk about the economic subordination of the triune God. Ontologically, they're equal. Economically, as it relates to function, they are subordinate. So you have Jesus doing the will of the Father and you have the Spirit glorifying the Son.

It doesn't mean that they're less equal than the other. They have unique functions and one of the unique functions of God the Son is that he will be the judge. Jesus Christ himself said in John, chapter 5, verse 22, not even the Father judges anyone but he has given all judgment to the Son. Jesus Christ then is the judge.

And by the way, this court can't be held if the judge is dead. He's alive, resurrected, ascended, seated. In fact, it's this truth, by the way, of the resurrection of Christ that turned cowards into crusaders, isn't it? You have these apostles or disciples before they got promoted. A few months earlier, what are they doing?

They're denying him and running. Here's Peter cursing so that people would be fairly certain that he had nothing to do with the Galilean, covering it up. Now, just a matter of weeks later, he's boldly preaching the gospel. What changed him? The judge is alive and he's seen him.

It's more than that. Acts chapter 10 informs us that after Jesus arose from the dead, and this is actually Peter preaching. I'll quote his words. He, Jesus, ordered us to proclaim to the people and solemnly to testify that this is the one who has been appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. Of him, Christ, all the prophets bear witness that through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sin. So he's telling people he's the coming judge and you need to believe in him so you can be forgiven of your sins. The irony is this, the one who now receives people who will, he then will forgive their sin will be the same one who will judge them who do not. By the way, I don't know if you caught it.

I'll read it again. Peter said, and he ordered us to proclaim to the people and solemnly to testify that this is the one who has been appointed by God, the father, as judge of the living and the dead. Didn't Jesus know that his followers weren't supposed to say things like that, that he's going to judge the world? Didn't Jesus know that we were just supposed to keep our hearts open and our mouths shut?

Didn't Peter know that? He said, no, I'm under orders. We've been commanded to go, haven't we? And in the process of making disciples, we're to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit and to teach them to observe all I've commanded you and lo, I'm with you always.

That isn't a suggestion. That isn't for really good Christians. That isn't for people who join the church and everybody else doesn't have to sign on yet. That's for every one of us who know Christ. We have been commanded to tell our world the judge is coming who will judge the living and the dead. We cannot keep this to ourselves and Paul would say in 2 Corinthians 5, 20, we beg the unbelieving world to be reconciled to God.

Why? Well, for one, we want to glorify God and obey him. And yet the thing that moved Paul, the word of tears, was this idea of an unreconciled world being judged. There is a coming payday that is, a terrifying verdict so terrible that we would never wish this upon anyone. The scene is actually made more terrifying by what John writes next in verse 11.

Note at the beginning, we'll start there. Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it and I notice from whose presence earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them. In fact, there's quite a good debate among committed believers as to what God is going to do with the earth and the heavens. There are those who believe that he's going to burn the surface of it and sort of burn away, as it were, the effects of sin.

And they have a good argument. But John's vision here, coupled with numerous Old and New Testament passages, including primarily 2 Peter chapter 3, leaves little doubt in my mind that what will happen in between the ending of the kingdom and that brief period of time where Satan is judged and the earth is destroyed and this great trial takes place, that period of time where those things are happening between the kingdom and the new heaven and the new earth is this terrifying moment where the universe will be literally consumed by fire. Peter writes, the heavens will pass away with a roar.

The Greek word for roar is a word that delivers to us the sound of what that would make. It's a clap. It's a bang, so to speak. We believe in the big bang then. At the end, not the beginning.

It's this clap, this snap is how the word is intended to be spoken. And the earth, Peter says, and its works will be burned up. According to his promise, however, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Peter writes, the elements will be destroyed.

The word for elements is the Greek word stoicheion which refers to the atomic particles which are the basic building blocks of everything that is. It will all be destroyed. In fact, when Peter says the elements will be destroyed, the word destroyed is even more enlightening because the Greek word literally means loosed. It will come unhinged. The atoms will split, and what happens when atoms split? You have a nuclear explosion. The universe will literally come apart and explode as if it were one fiery, gigantic nuclear bomb. The heat from this universal explosion, Peter writes about, will disperse everything. John then says, and I think it's interesting, he says in verse 11, and from his presence, earth and heaven flee. Matter perhaps isn't destroyed, but yet it flees.

We do not know where in its unhinged state and perhaps what God will do then is he will collect it all and he will fashion a brand new earth and a brand new universe. So imagine then you have this explosion and all of a sudden there's nothing. You have a courtroom then that is suspended in space. You don't see earth below you. You don't see the heavens above you. There are no planets.

There are no stars. You don't see heaven except the redeemed who are seated upon their thrones, the hosts of heaven, Satan and his demons already having been sent to the lake of fire, and you have the unredeemed standing upon nothing, but they're standing before the great white throne. We can't even begin to imagine this scene. The prophet Daniel had a similar vision. He used different words.

He described it a little bit more thoroughly. He listened to his vision. I kept looking, Daniel says, until thrones were set up. The plural use of thrones implies that Christ's redeemed will play a role in this final judgment, if not passing sentence, but I don't necessarily believe we will, but we will at least play a role in observing and no doubt affirming with solemn unity the glory of God's justice and the righteousness of his verdict.

There won't be a believer going, oh, don't do that. We will all in one chorus say God is right. God is just.

He does what is right. Daniel says, I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the ancient of days took his seat. His vesture was like white snow and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames. A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands were attending him, that's us, and myriads upon myriads were standing before him. You can't help but notice the contrast between thousands who are attending him, those that found the narrow gate, and hundreds of millions times hundreds of millions standing before him.

Broad is the gate that leads to everlasting destruction. Compared to the millions upon millions who stand before him, Daniel says it's like there were just thousands attending him, and he said the court sat and the books were opened. See, you can't even begin to imagine this scene, can you?

I can't. Witnessed by John the Apostle as he's given a tour of the future and the end of planet Earth as we know it. This is a terrifying scene primarily to all of humanity who will observe this fiery explosion, who believe that somehow Earth belonged to them, it was their planet, and they'll see in that conflagration that this is in fact the hand of God. He created it, he destroys it, and he will remake it.

This is an unforgettable setting. Let me have you notice very quickly here before we stop for today, not just this unforgettable setting, let me show you an unavoidable summons. Look at verse 12. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened.

Look down at verse 13. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged. Now Hades, you see the reference there, gave up the dead. This would be the place where their souls are abiding. This is the place of torment.

It's referenced 10 times in the New Testament, always in relation to torment. When an unbeliever dies, their soul goes to Hades where it is going to await the summons to the final judgment. For the believer to be absent from the body is to be present with whom?

The Lord. The soul goes immediately translated to be with the Lord, the body goes in the grave. So he's telling us here that Hades delivers them, and he also says that death and the sea, what is he talking about there? That's not where their souls are, their souls are in Hades.

He's talking about their bodies. Just as every believer will have a bodily resurrection and reunion with their spirit, so the unbeliever is coming to that summons where their body will be physically resurrected, reunited with their soul that has been in torment and Hades, and together now, fitted for eternity, they will stand before God. Which means then they are fitted with immortal bodies that are eternally suited for hell, able to last in the lake of fire forever. No one is missing, no matter where their body was lying, no matter how decayed or scattered their dust. John references the sea, which is interesting, he's dealing probably in that with his own culture that believed if your ashes were scattered to the sea, even the gods could never collect them back.

And John says that's not true. God will collect it all, he knows where every speck of dust exists, he knows where every strand of DNA is located, and he will collect it by his summons to this moment of reckoning. No one will be able to stay in the grave and pull the dirt up over their face and hide. Those who've been killed by accident or those who've been able to die peacefully in their sleep, those who were burned on some fiery pyre or embalmed in some Egyptian tomb, those who were laid to rest in satin-lined caskets or those who were buried in rough-hewn pine boxes or wrapped in burlap or never got buried because they were eaten by wild animals, those buried in marble vaults surrounded by their treasures, they will all be raised by the judge as he calls forth every speck of their being, every strand of DNA from caves and jungles and vegetation and animals and tombs and ghettos and palaces. They are summoned.

Their bodies rise, reunited with their souls. And John writes here in this text, And I saw them, can you imagine what he saw? I saw them. He said, I saw the dead, the great ones, and the small ones. You notice that? In other words, he's saying, I saw the impressive ones. I saw the important movers and shakers, and they stood equally guilty with the world's derelicts and dropouts.

I saw the well-connected, but they had no strings to pull there. The politically savvy, the wealthy, they're standing next to the illiterate and the homeless. It is the great equalizer. The cross is the great equalizer for the redeemed. We are all equally sinful and we've come to Christ for salvation.

Those who haven't stand at this great equalizer. It is the great white throne of God. This is judgment day, and ladies and gentlemen, there's nowhere to run. There's nowhere to hide. Everyone is simply suspended in space before this terrifying scene. And you say to me, you're just trying to frighten me.

Is it working? I would rather frighten you with the truth than pamper you with some foolish promise that it really doesn't matter, that God will never do that, that hell is such a terrible place, I can't imagine anybody being there. I can't. But the Bible tells me it's true. There will be no anonymous Christians in eternity. Every Buddhist and every Baptist who played with their religion, who somehow thought that they were good enough to spend eternity with God, are in for a rude awakening. The deceiver said thousands of years ago to our first parents, basically the same message that is being delivered to your generation and mine, it's the same worldwide religious mumbo jumbo, but it was believable in rebellion, and Eve bought it. The message is basically, you're not going to die. You know what that means? You don't have anything to worry about in the future.

It's no problem. Don't even think about it. She ate. Adam ate. And what happened? They became afraid, and they ran and hid. With these brief phrases, we're told that the court of God's great white throne opens, and there's nowhere to run.

There's nowhere to hide. The judge is on his throne. The condemned are summoned. The prosecution is prepared. There is some defense we've learned in other texts that will come from the religious.

But wait a second. We did everything we did in your name. We went around saying the name of Jesus with everything we did, and he will say, I never knew you. There will be some attempt, but ultimately every mouth will be closed. No defense. The evidence will overwhelm every possible defense. Listen, don't demand a fair trial. Don't think you're going to stand before God and demand a fair trial. You will get it. You will get a fair trial.

The evidence will be overwhelming based on your deeds that you deserve hell, because your deeds have not been forgiven by Christ. Listen, you know what you need to do? There's only one hope. Here's what you do. Settle out of court.

Right? Amen? Settle out of court. While there's time, go back to the judge's chamber and admit, I'm guilty. I'm a sinner. I have no hope. I can do nothing of myself. I deserve punishment. I'm under the verdict.

I'm on my way to hell. Save me. Settle out of court. You can.

One day you won't be able to. If you stand at this courtroom scene, there is no settling. There is no plea bargaining. It's over. For the Christian has been brought to life by the work of God in his life, the initiative of his grace that you've responded to as well, saying yes. You will not stand before this great white throne, because you've settled out of court. That was an extremely important reminder from God's word. You do not want to find yourself standing trial in this scene that Stephen just described.

Your only hope is to settle out of court while you can. Jesus Christ paid the penalty of sin for all who placed their faith in him. I hope you'll do that today. This is Wisdom for the Heart, a ministry of Wisdom International. If you'd like to know more about the gospel and how you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ, we have a resource to help you. We call it God's Wisdom for Your Heart.

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