In my office there are four beautiful book shelves that Bro. Kjeldgaard made for me more than thirty years ago. Not counting their decorative tops, they give me about 100 feet of shelf space, and they are overflowing. Filling those shelves are between 2,500 and 3,000 religious books. In contrast, and in addition to those books in my library, I also have my King James Bible sitting on my desk within touching distance and right below my eyes. It is always there, unless I am going to church. Over the years I have given away or burned hundreds of books to make room for newer and better books. But there is one book which has always been there and which will never be replaced: my King James Bible. If there is ever just one book in my library, I can tell you right now it will be my King James Bible. Let me emphasize this – in addition to, or perhaps in contrast to my library, there is my Bible. I will return to that parallel in a few minutes, but first let’s set the stage given to us in our scripture.
“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.” This great event takes place near the end of the Bible – near the end of everything as we know it. It follows the thousand year reign of the Messiah with all of its wonderful perfections. It comes after the final foolish military battle initiated by rebellious humanity against God. Then “the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” For all intents and purposes, there is nothing left of the original creation, except for God and the souls of every human being who ever lived.
“And I saw a great white throne” and its glorious occupant – Jehovah Elohim. There has never been a larger or greater throne than this throne. There has never been a more gloriously white throne; glistering in all its beauty. It may be the throne which is described in Revelation 4 as being surrounded with a wonderful rainbow. It is probably the same throne Isaiah saw when he heard the words, “holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts.” It is the royal chair which Psalm 47 calls, “the throne of God’s holiness.” It is a throne as appropriate to Jehovah as your favorite chair is appropriate for you.
And before this throne and the Almighty Being who is seated on it, “the earth and the heaven fled away.” Please don’t think of this scripture as some sort of religious poetry; spiritual allegory; church-speak. Besides the applications and lessons which might be taken from this description, this will all become a part of literal history – “The earth and the heaven fled away.” Whatever else it might mean, those billions of souls will be absolutely naked and defenseless. It will be just them and God; it will be each of them as individuals and the holy righteous Judge. There will be no lawyers to lean on; no one will be hiding behind their momma’s aprons. There will be no bosses, or governments or superior officers to blame for their deeds. None will be able to use their wicked fathers to explain the facts which will soon be revealed. There will be nothing and no one but God and the sinner. God and you.
“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.” “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God” as He was seated on this glorious throne. Everyone who has ever lived will be there – from Cain, to the Pharaoh of the Exodus, to Pilate and to Stalin. And this Judge, this God, is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ – the one who died on the cross. “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” – John 5:22. And “all power (and authority) has been given unto Christ Jesus both in Heaven and in Earth.” Before this Judge, toward the end of earthly time, shall stand every human being who has ever lived. You will stand, with head hanging low, either at the Bema seat judgment of the saints or at this judgment – before you are cast into the lake of fire – verse 15.
“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.” Here is where my message for you today begins.
The Lord has, at his finger tips, a vast library of information about you and the rest of humanity.
Pretending for a few minutes that Jehovah is not omniscient, even though He is. He knows all things. There is nothing He doesn’t know. But pretending that Jehovah doesn’t already know all things, we’ll let the Bible tell us that He has a library of books containing the biography of everyone of us, with detailed records of everything about our lives. I am not going to fret about how it will be – hard back books, spiral bound note books, papyrus scrolls, microfiche, short-hand notes, or computer generated text complete with pictures. In some fashion or other, there will be a library of information available to the righteous Judge. “And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” The biography of every individual who has ever lived will be in that vast library.
Each of those books will have been written with complete DELIBERATION. Every word in those books will have been written carefully, consciously, cooly and intentionally. Many people’s lives have been made into human-written biographies – sometimes over and over again. Why is a second biography of George Washington or Alexander Hamilton needed? My library contains three or four biographies of Charles Spurgeon. Why? I read just Friday that the son of Andrew Fuller didn’t think other biographers had done justice to his father’s life, so he wrote one himself. Different observers and different authors see things differently, so they emphasize different things. But the omniscience of God, coupled to His other attributes, demands that what He records is without bias; without prejudice, and without any preconceived opinions. There is only one edition of your life. The library of God is filled with nothing but facts.
And those books, along with the judgments which come as a result of their evidence, will both be ACCURATE. Those books won’t record good intentions; they will record works precisely as they were carried out. And when the dead are judged out of those things which are written in the books, their judgment and punishment will fit their deeds – “according to their works.” Can anything – God does be anything but scrupulously correct? Meticulously accurate?
Let’s say that your car needs work and some mechanic tells you that the repairs should cost about $250.00. After you think it over, you give him authority to go ahead with those repairs. Three days later he calls to say the work is complete. You get a lift over to his shop, carrying your check book. When you ask him what you owe, he hums and haws before saying, “Let’s make it $400.00.” Whoa there. He can’t quote one thing and then just pull another random, higher number out of the air. You demand an explanation, and because he is honest he gives you a detailed list of all the parts he had to use, and their cost, and then he explains exactly how many hours it took to get the job done. When you have the accurate and specific details, you may still be a little shocked, but at least you know that the charge is appropriate, and that he even gave you a small discount.
The details in God’s library are accurate to the penny, so to speak. There is no indication in this scripture that anyone will raise a finger or even an eyebrow, when the Lord utters His decision questioning the details. There will not be a single word of protest, because the facts will be so plain. “GUILTY.”
Furthermore the records in these books, will be COMPREHENSIVE – complete. In the next chapter, Revelation 21, Christ Jesus, the Alpha and Omega of whom we spoke a couple weeks ago, promises His blessings to certain people. But then in verse 8 He says, “But 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: which is the second death.” It makes sense that the omniscient God would know about every murder that has ever taken place. He knew about Cain’s murder of Abel, and about every subsequent murder – even down to this morning’s deliberate abortion of a tiny, unborn baby. In these books every sexual assault is recorded, identifying the sinful criminal. There will not be any mistakes; there will be no misidentification when it comes to this judgment. Certainly all the major crimes are included in these accurately recorded books.
But when that verse in Revelation 21 refers to “all liars,” it implies that these books contain EVERY sin. These books are not confined to major crimes like treason, murder and kidnaping. Every lie, every mean or unkind word, every act of malicious gossip, whether or not it was true, all these are in God’s books. Every angry tone, every slammed door, every petty theft, every act of shop-lifting, even every grape stolen and eaten in the grocery store – these are all recorded in this vast divine library. Every thought of jealousy, wish for revenge, every satisfied smirk at the pain your enemy has felt – they are all here. These books are complete from the first act of infant rebellion to the last sinful act of the dying miser.
Can you imagine the emotion what will fill that void-filled judgment hall? Perhaps the day will begin with a feeling of relief as billions of people, who had been suffering for years in hell, will be called by name and brought out. Many of them, during their lives, had been fed the lie that their punishment for sin would be temporary. As they are brought out of hell, they may experience a bit of hope. But it won’t last long. They will be brought into the blinding Shekinah glory of the Son of God, striking fear that most of these people have never experienced before. If they can see the face of their Judge at all, it will not be a smiling, forgiving, joyful face. Their temporary relief and hope will turn into terror as they begin to understand what is taking place. Hell is not the end; hell is not the worst of the worst. “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”
When Paul was arrested while in Jerusalem’s temple, he was brought before Ananias the high priest before being thrown into a Jewish prison. By this time he was a notable person. Paul was a curiosity to some, like some sort of circus freak. He was a spectacle with his preaching about sin, righteous and judgment. And Felix, the Roman Governor, decided he wanted some of that religious entertainment. Acts 24 tells us, “After certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” When Felix heard that he would some day stand before the divine Judge, he shook with fear. And when the jailor of Philippi began to see that the earth-shaking God was coming for him, he trembled. When Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, was shown that God’s judgments were on the horizon, “his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and this knees smote one against another” – Daniel 5.
When the library of God is opened to the public… When the books are finally opened, there will not be one person with a defiant attitude. There will not be a single excuse uttered, or even thought, because there will be no question of guilt. Every heart there under the gaze of the righteous Judge will melt, not with repentance, but with fear. And they will hear the terrifying words, “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
I am at a loss to explain all this more forcefully. I wish that my words were able to bring us all into the fear of the Lord. It is my prayer that the Lord turn us all into Felixes and Belshazzars, but even more… I pray that the Holy Spirit bring us all to our knees in repentance before this holy Judge. But I must leave this part of the message as it is, before I move on.
Remember when I said that I have a library in my study at home? Didn’t I suggest that I would give up my entire library, if it meant I could keep my Bible? My library is important to me, but my Bible is vastly more important. The Library of Congress contains thirty-nine million books, but they are nothing before this book – Bible. And with that in mind, and with this scripture before your eyes, I am here to tell you that God’s vast library means nothing, if your name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
There is before all the books in God’s library – a single, most beautiful book, titled, “The lamb’s Book.”
It doesn’t matter what the books by Charles Spurgeon say, or the books I have by John Gill, or any other human writer. What matters is what the Bible says, because it is the only book written by the inspiration of God. I might be thinking foolishly, but in eternity, there may only be two books left, the Bible and Lamb’s book of life. Once the judgment of the wicked and unbelieving is completed, and those for whom it is due are cast into the lake of fire, that vast divine library will be superfluous. The only thing that will really matter in the day of judgment or in the eternal day that follows, will be that our names are in the Lamb’s book of life.
Our scripture says, “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.” On the shelves of the Lord’s library there is a volume with my name on its cover. And there is another with embossed with your name. Mine may be a thicker volume than the one with your name, because I am both older than you and my sins which are many – are many more than yours. But against that black bound volume bearing my name there is another. It may be bound in crimson red and on its cover, inscribed in gold, is the title: “The Book of Life.” And under that is the name of its Author – my Saviour – “The Lamb of God.” Ultimately, for me, it doesn’t matter what is written in the first book, because my name is inscribed in the second. Is your name written there, on that page white and fair?
One day, during Jesus’ earthly ministry, the seventy disciples returned from a mission trip excited about what they had seen the Lord accomplish through them. The Lord Jesus redirected their enthusiasm saying, “Rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” More important than great religious accomplishments is our registration in the Lamb’s book. And even more important than our litany of sins, is whether or not our name is in Christ’s book.
It is “the LAMB’S book.” Who is this Lamb? This book belongs to the Lamb “which taketh away the sin of the world.” He is the Lamb who was slain in the will of God from before the foundation of the world. The Lamb is the one who became the substitutionary sacrifice which purchased the salvation of those whose names are in His book. Those whose names are therein, have no need to fear the record in that extensive library of God, because they are under the blood of the Lamb of God.
Please turn to Revelation 22, and follow along as I read: “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”
The Lord showed His apostle a river – a river filled with the water of life. And I remind you that Jesus told the Samaritan woman – someone whose name was in the Book of Life – that He, Christ Jesus, was the water of life. This water of life, had its source in the throne of the God and of the Lamb. This is certainly the same great white throne which we saw in our opening scripture. And the people residing on the banks of this river, drinking of its eternal waters, feasting on the fruit growing along its banks, and basking under the light of God’s eternal Son, are enjoying these things because their names were written in the Book which belongs to that Lamb. Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God is source of it all.
Is your name in the Lambs book of life? I would quite sure of it, if you are living in humble repentance before God, and your trust for forgiveness and fellowship with Him is in the Lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. Can you say that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Is He your Saviour; your only hope for eternity? Accept His offer of grace and salvation by believing and trusting Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you’ll find that your name in the Lamb’s book of Life.