Light on the Hill

Pete: We'll give you everything you need to know about the Great White Throne Judgment next on Light on the Hill. There's coming a time when the unbeliever will stand before Jesus and be judged once and for all. If his or her name is not found in the Book of Life, he or she will be cast into the lake of fire. While it's not pleasant to even think about, it is a reality for all too many and something we have to talk about. The stakes are just too high.

Today on Light on the Hill, we'll take you to the end of Revelation chapter 20 and read about this Great White Throne Judgment. Here's Pastor James Kaddis.

James Kaddis: We know that God will judge people on the basis of their works. He will. On this day, that's exactly what's going to happen. Let's read it. I'll show you what I mean when I say that. Look at this in verse 11. It says, "And 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." Verse 12: "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."

There's a lot to talk about here, so let's do this as concisely as we possibly can. Understand there's a lot of stuff happening. First of all, as I said, death is the great equalizer. You can be the richest man in the world, but I've never seen a person die and have a big old U-Haul following their hearse. It doesn't work that way. When you're dead, you're dead. Nothing stays with you. That's how it goes. It's done. You're finished. Even if you can manage to take things to the grave, there's plenty of grave robbers that are taking that stuff right out of the grave.

There are all kinds of stories about that, but when you die, you die, and it's a great equalizer. If you die a poor man or you die a rich man, you die a big man or a small man, you die a poor woman or a rich woman, you die a big woman or a small woman, it doesn't matter. Death is the great equalizer. When you go before God, you go before God on the basis of your merits. God will judge you based on whether or not you fulfilled His law perfectly. That's the way it works.

If you've received Christ in your life and you say, "God, I trust You for my salvation," then God will judge you based on the works of Christ, not your works, but on Christ's works. So when you go before God and God looks at you and He says, "Enter into the joy of your Lord," or you're raptured because you're part of the church, you are in that position because God recognized the righteousness of Christ and He applied that righteous life to your life.

Guess what? Your jacked-up life and my jacked-up life have nothing to do with the salvation that we have. It is the meritorious action of Christ. It is God's merit. It's Christ's merit that we get credit for. It's His action that we actually get the credit. So here's what it says here. He says He's got two books. He's got one set of books. It's multiple books, it's plural—lots of books. Then He's got another book. It's a single book. The single book is the Book of Life. That's the book that has our names in it.

Mind you, we're not there. So He's not there to look at that book and to say, "I see your name there. Come on in." It didn't work that way. We're already with Him. It's a done deal. We've been with Him for a long time at this point. We've been enforcers in the millennium. All of that's been happening. Time's gone by fast when you're having fun.

Here's the thing. When these people go before the Lord who don't know Him—the small and the large and the great and those that are wealthy and not wealthy—all those people go before the Lord. The Lord's going to do one thing. He's going to open up that book and He's going to say, "Are you in the Lamb's Book of Life? No, you're not. Okay." The book goes away. There it is, gone. Guess what? I can't judge you based on this book. If your name is in this book, the Lamb's Book of Life—use your imagination, this is a Bible, but you know what I mean—then you're not there. You're bypassed.

Your name is in the Lamb's Book of Life. It's a wrap. But God will look at that book and He'll say, "No, your name is not in that book, so I have to judge you by these other books." What are the other books? The other books are the books that record every single sin that every single person has committed. Every single sin that every single person has committed.

Now, some people might say, "James, that's not fair. What about the people who've never heard the Gospel? What about the people who've never heard about the Lord?" The Bible makes it clear: they don't have an excuse. Romans says it; they're without excuse. You want to know why? The very creation of God speaks. Forget the creation. Let's just assume that creation never says a word about God. The Bible says that God has embedded within every human being the awareness of what is right and what is wrong. Not righteousness per se, but the awareness of what is right and what is wrong.

By the way, if you don't believe me, let's do an experiment. How many of you parents still have children of a tender age? Quick show of hands. Okay, you can run this experiment. It's a fun experiment to run. Matter of fact, some of you don't even need to run this experiment because you'll already be able to identify with what I say. Remember how we talked about the fact that kids are born with sinful natures and we don't ever have to teach our kids how to lie, cheat, and steal? They're just hustlers by default and they've got a very respectable hustle, and they develop it very, very quickly. It's our job as parents to curb that and shut it down.

How about this? Go to your child. Make sure that they're both there by your side. If they're close to the same age, it's even better. Go to them and say this: "If you do this one thing"—make sure it's something each of them can do that involves the same amount of effort, the same amount of merit, everything—"If you do this one thing, I'm going to give you both a reward." "All right, yeah!" So they come back, they do their one thing. Make it an easy thing. And they go, "Okay, we did it!" In my case, they'll say, "Baba, we did it! What's our reward?" "Oh, well, you both get different rewards." "All right, we don't have to share!"

"Okay, honey, I'm going to take you to McDonald's through the drive-thru and buy you some French fries." That's not a reward; that's like saying I'm going to reward you by poisoning you, but that's a whole other story. You've got to take advice from me. I'm a health expert. I'm going to take you to McDonald's and buy you some French fries. "All right, that's so great!"

The other sibling comes out. "Oh, do I get French fries too, Baba?" "Oh, no, no, honey. No, no, no. I'm actually going to sit down with you and we're going to look at all kinds of videos of the best amusement park, and then you can pick what amusement park you want to go to. I'm going to take you there for the whole day." How much do you want to bet that the one who got the French fries is going to lose their mind? What are they going to say? "That's not fair!"

Well, how do you know what's not fair? How do you know what's not fair? It's because God has put a sense of judgment in your heart. You understand how it works. By the way, you understand that this is why the argument of equity that's being used in the whole critical race theory is such a demonic argument. You understand why that's so ugly? Because the argument of equity does exactly that. The argument of equity says, "Well, you didn't do the same thing that that person did, but because you're black or because you're this color or that color, or because you come from this background or that background, we're going to give you way more to kind of make you guys equal." No, it doesn't work that way.

It's such a demonic lie because what it does is it directly attacks God's justice. It attacks the judgment of God. So the Bible says everybody's going to know. God already has put that in them. I don't have to sit there and teach it. It's really interesting. That's why Richard Dawkins is beginning to call himself a cultural Christian. Did you know that? He's actually beginning to call himself a cultural Christian, meaning he's trying to separate his belief in God or his acknowledgment that God exists, but he's also saying that there's a sense of morality that he can't quite explain that he adheres to that is in essence the same morality that would be matched up with what Christianity does in the culture.

Is that Richard Dawkins admitting that he has the sense of right and wrong that's been put in him by God so that when judgment day comes, if he rejects God and believes that his own works will get him where he needs to go, that he's going to go to hell? Yes. It's a heavy thing. So no one has an excuse. For the people that actually reject Christ, that means they get Moses. And what does that mean when they get Moses? They get the law of God thrown at them. The reality of it is, did you break the law of God? If you broke the law of God, guess what? You're going to hell.

It's that simple. It's not a hard thing to bring up, and that's what's happening here. It's a heavy statement, guys. This is critical stuff to understand because watch what happens here. This is really heavy. Verse 13: "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works."

Think about this. If every man is judged according to their works, that basically means that they are all in hell. You cannot be judged according to your works and actually expect to go to heaven. Remember what I said? I pointed this out to you earlier. Your righteousness—not your wickedness, but your righteousness—to God is as a dirty menstrual cloth. Your righteousness to God is nasty. It's ugly and smelly and useless and all the other things. It doesn't work. If your righteousness is nasty to God, what is your sin? What is the infraction?

Do you understand there is no way in the world you can earn your way into heaven? I think there's a lot of technicalities that I in many ways kind of despise in modern-day evangelism tools. Even the typical crusade speech that gets given to people: "You must, you must trust in God, ask Him for forgiveness, ask Him to come into your life, and repent, and then you'll go to heaven." Wait, hold on. Where does it say "repent"? It actually says to trust in God for your salvation.

Repentance is the fruit of the salvation that God has given you. Do you understand that? Your willingness to repent is something that changes when God has already regenerated you. Your repentance does not earn you the merit of salvation. As a matter of fact, if you say that you refuse to repent, then maybe you have not trusted in God because your trust in God will be the very thing that will drive you to a place of repentance.

So when an evangelist says, "Trust in God and then repent," in essence, I think what they mean to say in most cases is, "Put your faith and trust in God and allow the renewal that's taken place in your heart to drive you into the direction that you're living." Understanding that there's still as a Christian not a single thing you can do to earn salvation. You can't. Your righteousness as a Christian is nasty. Your ability to work your way into heaven is non-existent. It'll never happen.

It's a heavy thing to say because these people have no hope. These people who have not put their faith and trust in God—this is why I think it's such a crack-up when people say, "Well, if God was such a loving God, then He wouldn't send people to hell." Actually, He doesn't. He went through a lot of trouble to make sure you don't go to hell, but you basically told Him to go to hell, and so one day you're going to hear the words from Him: "You go to hell." And it's the truth.

There are so many people busy being angry at God and flipping Him off. "I don't agree with God, and God is so loving, blah, blah, blah." Okay, look, let me just share something with you. I'm going to be, and forgive me if I sound a little off the chain by saying this, a little crazy by saying this, maybe a little out of control. I'm telling you this right now. There's no way in hell—in literal hell—I would ever sacrifice my son for any of you. And I'm not saying that in a tough way, like, "Well, what kind of a pastor are you?" I'm the kind of pastor that loves his baby. There's no way in the world I am sacrificing my son.

As a matter of fact, if you want to come and take my son into my house, you're not walking out of my house alive. And I'm making sure that's not happening. I am making sure. You cannot run faster than 1900 feet per second, I can tell you that right now. There's no way in the world, no way in the world, no way that you, if I'm alive, are going to take my son at all. It's not happening. I might let you borrow my—no, I'm just kidding. Maybe the dog. You can borrow the dog. But not even the dog. No way it's happening. There's just no way.

You want to know why there's no way? Because I love my son. I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose my son. And I'm certainly not going to give up my son like that. There's no way that's happening. Yet God went through the trouble of sacrificing His son. He did it intentionally. If you've ever heard this worship song that talks about God's love being reckless—"Oh, the reckless love of God"—throw that song in the place that it belongs: in the trash can. That song is a pit-of-hell song.

You want to know why it's an ugly, nasty song? And I'll say it to anybody's face. Because God's love was never reckless. It was intentional. He intended to sacrifice His son that we might be able to have salvation. So the people that wave their fist at God and go, "Oh, you did it, You're sending us to hell." No. He actually intentionally, He intentionally sacrificed His son. That's not a reckless love; that's an intentional love. Love isn't reckless. That's a bogus—if you've ever heard that guy's explanation on trying to explain why he wrote that song, the explanation is worse than the song itself. It's ridiculous. That's why worship leaders are not theologians. I'm sorry, there are some guys that kind of, I don't know, anyway, I'll just leave that be.

But my point is this. My point is, God's love was very intentional. No one will ever be able to argue that God sends people to hell. He doesn't. God is just and He's righteous, and we send ourselves to hell because we bet on the fact that we think our righteousness can get us there, and our righteousness, God makes it very clear, is not worthy.

So He's given us a way, but people don't listen. Look what it goes on to say. "So the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death... were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works." Verse 14: "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. And this is the second death."

Think about this. Those that have died, have already died and they don't know the Lord, they are thrown in this temporary hell-holding space, sometimes referred to as Hades. As deeply painful as that place is, and as permanent as it may seem, it doesn't become permanent until it literally gets thrown in the lake of fire. At this point, after the Great White Throne Judgment, guess what happens? It all gets thrown in the lake of fire. It all gets thrown in there.

The devil, by the way, is already there. And everybody that says, "Oh, I'd rather go to hell, I'm going to party with the devil." You're not going to see the devil. You're not going to hear the devil, you're not going to experience the devil. As a matter of fact, you're going to be alone in hell for not the rest of your life, but for eternity. And it will never, ever, ever be removed from you. Why? Because you must be in that place of incarceration because you have demonstrated your desire to rebel against God, and nobody who desires to rebel against God can ever be released from that place because they will bring destruction. More on that to come.

"And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." In other words, God is reiterating something. He's saying if you don't have Jesus, if Jesus' perfect life is not what you're using to take credit for, you're in hell. People ask all the time, "Why does it have to be a permanent incarceration? Why does it have to be that way?" I'll tell you why it has to be that way. It has to be that way because rebellion will destroy every good thing that God has.

Can I give you a little bit of parental advice? This is important, especially parents with younger children. I always feel out of place when I say I'm going to give you parental advice, but this is built on a sound conclusion. This is actually based on the Scriptures, and it's something that the way you apply it is different with every child. Every child is different, so you have to treat every child differently.

Children are destructive. Can I get an "Amen" on that? Children are destructive. If it can be destroyed, my children will find a way to just tear it up. When my baby was born, when my son was born, I could see it. You know that something is coming. My dad was the one who demonstrated this very powerfully when he first laid his eyes on my 19-day-old daughter. He looked at her and he said with this very strong Middle Eastern accent, "She will have a strong personality," meaning she's going to be a hell-raiser, literally.

"No way, look at her, she's so quiet and she's cute and she's giggling." My dad goes to be with the Lord and literally it's almost like—not even a month—like a few days after my dad goes to be with the Lord, it's like what happened? She is, I mean, if you put her in a match between her and her six-year-old sister, she's beating her six-year-old sister every single time. She is just a tough little girl, and I kind of like that about her. I like the toughness in her.

My son, when he was born, I told this to my wife. He couldn't have been more than two hours out of his mother's womb, and I looked at him and I looked at my wife and I said, "He's going to be a literal Dennis the Menace. He's going to be an All-American Dennis the Menace. He's just going to be nuts." My goodness, at 20 months, he has found new and creative ways to destroy things. New and creative ways to—everything's a ball to him. You know what I'm talking about?

Here's the thing I've learned. You cannot discipline a child for child behavior. Understand what I mean when I say that? Okay. I told my wife, "Babe, you don't need to move my car out of the driveway. We'll just park it kind of far away. You can move your car. We'll let the kids play in the driveway. My car's so far out of the way, common sense will prevail, the kids won't do anything." Thank you for laughing. I needed that. Oh no, if you can find a sharp object and write on the side of the car, they'll do that. They'll take their bikes and go as fast as they can and ram into the car. I've done that so many times, I even have it on video for the court hearing—no, I'm just joking.

Here's the thing. I can't judge them for that. I can't. It's child behavior. If a kid holds a porcelain cup and throws it or drops it, guess what? They're not getting disciplined for that. If I put a permanent marker in their hand and they write on my wife's white van, I cannot judge them for that. What do you expect? You don't give a three-year-old a permanent marker. You give a three-year-old a permanent marker and they're like, "I'm writing everywhere." You just don't do it. It's crazy. There's grace all over the place with stuff like that.

Now, my six-year-old breaks a cup. Six-year-olds do it all the time. They're six. They do things like that. They drop things. They're—they do it all the time. But guess what? I will not show my six-year-old grace when she drops the cup after I have told her four or five times, "You are not to pick the cup up." So now she drops the cup and the cup breaks. She's not getting penalized, she's not getting disciplined because the cup was broken. I expected the cup to break when she held it. She's getting disciplined because I told her on multiple occasions, "You are not allowed to pick it up."

There's no grace. There's a consequence, and the consequence will be swift and it will be harsh and it will be severe. And you will think about what you did, and it's not going to be fun. Here's why. I cannot afford for my children to embrace rebellion. If my children embrace rebellion, my children will also embrace death. If my children embrace rebellion, my children will embrace suffering.

People, when they see the way we interact with our children, will oftentimes think that we're actually being pretty strict when in reality, we're doing the things that God has called us to do. My children are not allowed to unbuckle their seatbelt unless they get permission to unbuckle their seatbelt. We can be parked in the driveway and not moving. They are not allowed to unbuckle their seatbelt unless they get permission. If they unbuckle it without getting our permission, there's a consequence for it.

Why? Obvious safety reasons, right? There's things and rules that we put in place because rebellion will lead our children to destruction. If my children feel comfortable about rebelling right now in the moment that they are in, can you imagine, can you imagine how comfortable they're going to become with driving themselves straight to hell?

By the way, can I just tell you this right now? This is why I am staunchly against screen time for children of a really young age. You limit—if they're two years and under, don't put them in front of a screen at all. You'll destroy their minds. You'll just—do not give them any screen time at all. You put them in front of a screen, you're going to destroy the way they look at things. You'll destroy their lives.

When they're past that age, you limit it substantially. None of our children own iPads. None of our children are allowed to pick up our phones. None of our children do any of that, and the only real screen time that our children actually get every now and then is if we're going to watch a cartoon or a movie, and most of the time, there's some kind of learning thing tied to that. And even then, we break up the times in between it. You want to know why? Because I am not willing to allow my child's mind to be destroyed. And if I can actually have it my way, I probably won't even let my children ever play video games.

You want to know why? Because behavior like that encourages the mechanism of rebellion. Because screen time will teach a child to get so inundated in what they're doing and in the moment, that when they're asked to stop or pause and do something else, they will not do it because they're so eager to satisfy the lust of their flesh that's been built up by the drug you just gave them, that they will not listen and rebellion will destroy them.

On that same level—this was not a parenting class, by the way—but on that same level, with that same understanding, identify the things that are happening in your life that encourage rebellion. Just like we identify screen time with children and we say you don't get any of it, identify things in your life that are contributing to the rebellion and destroy them. Get rid of them. Throw it away. Remove it from your life. Because if you don't, it will destroy you. Amen?

Pete: Pastor James is leading us verse by verse through Revelation here on Light on the Hill. To hear this message again, visit LightOnTheHillRadio.com or OnePlace.com. It's also available through the Light on the Hill app. Light on the Hill is made possible through the generosity of our listeners. If the Lord is leading you to support this ministry, please visit LightOnTheHillRadio.com to donate or you can give through the Light on the Hill app.

I also want to mention the new book written by Pastor James. It's entitled "The Last Book: A Guide to Revelation Part 1." As the world heads toward its final chapter, the Bible has already revealed every detail. The Book of Revelation is God's message of warning, hope, and promise to prepare us for what's coming. In "The Last Book," Pastor James takes us through Revelation chapters 1 through 10 and shows us why we must live wholeheartedly for God, anchored in truth and awake to the times. You can order a copy today at LightOnTheHillRadio.com or Amazon.

Pastor James, today you spoke about the Great White Throne Judgment. I think this served a much-needed wake-up call to people who are listening right now, perhaps even some that realize their name is not in the Book of Life, but they want it to be. Would you lead those people in a word of prayer to trust in Christ?

James Kaddis: It's a really simple prayer, and I would encourage you to posture your heart in a way that matches what I encourage you to pray over. Again, you have to believe in your heart, and that is really the work here. It's putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. So let's pray.

Father in Heaven, I believe You. I put my faith and my trust in You. Jesus, come into my heart. Forgive me of my sins.

It's that simple. If you've prayed that prayer, I know that God in Heaven has heard you. And I want to pray for you right now. Father, anybody who's prayed that prayer, encourage them right now. Build them up. Remind them, show them, Lord, that You are working and that You're moving in their lives. Bless them, Father. Overwhelm them with Your blessing. We love You and thank You, and we ask these things in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Pete: Amen. If you prayed along with Pastor James, welcome to the family of God. Share your news with us. We would love to hear it. You can email us through our website, LightOnTheHillRadio.com, and join us next time for Light on the Hill when we'll begin to hear about the new Jerusalem. What awaits those who have trusted in Christ is amazing. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.