Chapter 20, here are 15 verses.
We'll read 12 of them, and I'm going
to preach on the last judgment of the
unsaved dead.
I want to preach about when skeletons come
out of their closets and when chickens come
home to roost at this judgment, when sinners
receive their wages, when people get what's coming
to them.
And I saw an angel come down from
heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit
and a great chain in his hand, and
he laid hold on the dragon, that old
serpent which is the devil, and Satan, and
bound him a thousand years, and cast him
into the bottomless pit, and shut him up,
and set a seal upon him, that he
should deceive the nations no more till the
thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that
he must be loosed a little season.
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon
them, and judgment was given unto them, and
I saw the souls of them that were
beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for
the word of God, and which had not
worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had
received his mark upon their foreheads or in
their hands, and they lived and reigned with
Christ a thousand years.
But the rest of the dead lived not
again until the thousand years were finished.
This is the first resurrection.
Blessed is the holiest he that hath part
from the first resurrection, on such the second
that hath no part, but they should be
priests of God and of Christ, and shall
reign with him a thousand years.
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan
shall be loosed out of his prison.
Then comes the last rebellion, after the thousand
years are over.
Now skip to verse 11, 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.
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 are written in the books according
to their works.
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 one according to their
works.
And death and hell were cast into the
lake of fire.
This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the
book of life was cast into the lake
of fire.
Now there are two themes that run throughout
the Bible, and they are akin.
They belong together.
One theme is that your sin will find
you out.
In the Garden of Eden, God said to
Adam and Eve, In the day you eat
thereof of the forbidden fruit, in the day
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
And again, in Ezekiel, the Lord says, The
soul that sinneth, it shall die.
In Numbers 32, 23, Moses said to the
half-tribe of Manasseh, the two tribes and
the half-tribe, He said, If you will
come and help your brothers to take this
land, well and good.
If you don't do that, if you don't
come and help them at all, you have
sinned against God.
Listen now.
Then he said, But if ye will not
do so, ye have sinned against the Lord,
and be sure your sin will find you
out.
Your sin will find you out.
When you come into the New Testament, it's
the same way.
In Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin
is death.
In Galatians 6, 7, and 8, the Lord
put it in these words, Be not deceived,
God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap.
I say one clear theme through the Bible,
sin must be punished.
It doesn't pay the sin.
You can't get by with sin.
The way of transgressions is hard.
It's coming.
And then another theme akin to it is
judgment.
Judgment is coming.
Jesus said, God hath delivered all judgment to
the Son.
In Acts chapter 17, Paul stood on Mars
Hill in Athens.
I stood there two weeks ago yesterday.
Yes, two weeks ago, three weeks ago yesterday,
I stood on Mars Hill where Paul stood
and preached.
There's a plaque and there is the language
of Paul's discussion on Mars Hill and on
great brass bronze plate.
I said, Paul stood there and he said,
At the times of this sequence, God winked
at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to
repent, because he hath appointed a day into
which he was judged the world by that
man whom he hath ordained, whereupon he hath
given assurance to all men in that he
hath raised him from the dead.
Judgment time coming, God said.
And that's the way it is again.
In Romans chapter 14, the Lord brings up
this subject again and gives plain word.
For it is written, As I live, saith
the Lord, Every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God, so
that every one of us shall give an
account of himself before God.
And verse 10, For we shall all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ.
Judgment is coming.
Actually, that theme runs through the Bible.
In Hebrews 9, 27, the scripture has it
this way, And as it is appointed unto
man once to die, and after this the
judgment, death and then judgment.
In Philippians chapter 1, verse 9 to 11,
about Jesus, it is said, Wherefore God also
hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name that is above every name, That is
the name of Jesus.
Everything should bow, both things in heaven and
things in earth and things under the earth.
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God
the Father.
I say, I thank God that one of
these days every step knee is going to
bend.
Oh, you may be too proud to pray
now, you won't bend.
Or you may be now one of these
infidels that doesn't believe Jesus is God.
You say he was a good man.
You say the Spirit was on him.
You say that in some special way he
revealed God.
No, Jesus is the mighty God.
The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
I say, Jesus is one with the Father.
I am my Father one.
He is as much God as the Father.
He is the Creator.
All things were made by him.
Without him was not anything made that was
made.
And I thank God the time is coming.
You are going to bend that step knee
and bow that stubborn neck before God and
confess that Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father.
He said, hear everything in heaven.
Well, the angels do not mind how proud
they are to tell it.
The angel that came to tell Mary, you
are going to have a son and he
will be the son of the highest.
And the Lord God will give him the
throne of his father David.
The angel was glad to tell Joseph, troubled
in a dream about Mary, how she is
pregnant and I did not know how and
I thought she was poor.
And the angel said, that which was conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost.
The angel was glad to tell those shepherds,
watching their flocks by night on the hills.
I looked out over those fields where the
shepherds were the other day in Bethlehem.
I do not know whether that that they
parted out were the ones, but it was
one of those fields around Bethlehem and I
saw them all.
And so the angel was glad to tell
it.
You need not tell me the angels are
mind-boggling me.
Oh, I think when Jesus was born and
that angel said, unto you this day is
born in the city of David a Savior
who is Christ the Lord.
Then the Bible says there was suddenly with
the angel a multitude of the heavenly host.
You know why?
Well, I think every angel was saying, Lord,
let me tell it.
I want to go too.
Let me tell it.
I want in.
And so the Lord said, okay, just leave
the gates open and everybody go on and
leave heaven.
Go on down there and tell it.
And the multitude of the heavenly host said,
Glory to God in the highest.
Peace on earth.
Angels were mind-boggling me that Jesus, everything
in heaven.
Saints walked up in heaven and everything on
earth.
I'll be glad when principalities and powers and
kings bow before Jesus.
Boy, they'd better.
Thrones are going to be falling down.
All the university buildings will be razed.
The capital of Washington will fall to pieces.
I saw the other day the Tower of
London and Buckingham Palace and the changing of
the Queen's Guard.
That'll all be gone.
A great stone cut out of a mount
without hands will come down and smite them.
It's a world empire.
It's the governments of this world.
And they'll be ground apart and the wind
will blow them away.
And the kingdom of our Lord and his
Christ will become the kingdoms of this world.
The scripture makes it clear that one of
these days the Lord Jesus, every knee in
the air, and then in hell, down in
hell.
God lift the lid of hell and every
sinner in hell will bow their knee before
Jesus Christ.
Well, you know, Jesus said to the Pharisees,
they said, Are you the Son of God?
When he was on trial.
And he said, You've said it.
We'll show you by the whole time.
We'll put you on the roof.
Do you say you're the Son of God?
He said, Thou said it.
And you shall see the Son of Man
coming in the clouds of heaven with power
and glory.
Who are these same wicked Pharisees?
Yes, they're going to see him.
And don't you remember in Revelation the scripture
says, Behold, he cometh with clouds and every
eye shall see him.
Heaven and earth and hell, every eye.
And all the nations of the earth shall
wail because of him.
Now let me tell you, they shall look
on him whom they pierced.
And everybody in hell.
Wicked Nell's Parade that said that Jesus may
have been the bastard son of a blond
German soldier in the Roman army.
And Mary was kind of a camp follower
hanging around the soldiers and got pregnant.
And Jesus may have been that illegitimate son.
And God, one day that dirty blasphemer will
bow the knee.
He'll be in hell unless he repents.
But he's going to bow the knee.
And that pink bishop in Oxnard with bishop
robes that said that God in Old Testament
had demanded judgment and demanded atonement as a
dirty bully.
I'm going to see him.
Oh yes, I know you good Methodists.
The principal bishop, presiding bishop.
And in Washington and just retired the other
day.
But he's going to bow the knee to
Jesus.
He's going to weep and cry for rocks
and mountains to fall on him unless he
repents of his sins.
Let me tell you now, the blasphemers and
those who want to steal the crown of
deity of Jesus and spit in his face
and trample on the feet of the blood.
Every day he's going to bow.
I'm saying this one theme blessed are through
the Bible.
Judgment day is coming.
I'm glad it is.
I'm glad it is forever Christ rejecter and
forever blaspheming tongue and forever unbelieving heart.
All right.
Every day he shall bow, the scripture says.
All right.
So now we're talking tonight about sin coming
to judgment.
Now there are three simple things I'll be
saying tonight.
Let's get the outline.
First of all, which of several Bible judgments
is the one I read about in Revelation
20?
Which of several Bible judgments?
The second part we'll talk about is who
will be judged in that judgment.
And the last part, on what basis will
it be judged?
How will people be judged at this judgment?
Oh, God, I need you tonight.
I wouldn't ever want to go anywhere without
thee.
Lord, I can't preach acceptably and with blessing
unless thou dost breathe upon me.
Never mind about pleasing anybody, Lord, but thee.
But, oh, help me be true and let
the words be thine and the power thine
and the results thine and suitable thy power
and mercy.
And give us souls now.
Lord, tonight give us souls.
Amen.
Well, first of all, then, which of several
Bible judgments is this judgment in Revelation 20?
Listen to me.
There was one judgment when Jesus hung on
the cross.
Did you know that was a great judgment,
the greatest of all?
When Jesus was on the cross, that's when
I was judged.
All my sins, all the sins of everyone
who puts his trust in Jesus were that
they put on Jesus.
And he who knew no sin was made
sin for us, that we might become the
righteousness of God in him.
Christ died for our sins, according to the
Scriptures.
The Bible says, with his stripes we are
healed.
That God has laid on him the iniquity
of us all.
Ah, Brother Deacon, back when Jesus hung on
that cross, that was a great judgment.
God turned his face away.
God said, all right, let him die, because
he's become officially the greatest sinner in the
world.
All the sins of John Rice and Bud
Lyles and Dr. Kittler and all, every preacher,
every deacon, every drunkard, every harlot, every infidel.
All the sins was all laid on Jesus,
and Jesus died.
Jesus was properly being judged.
Let's put it this way.
I was judged that day.
My sins came to judgment, and the punishment
was death.
All right, he ought to die.
And I died.
Well, you say, no, you didn't die.
It was Jesus.
But he was dying in my place.
He took my place.
My sins were judged that day.
Oh, I thank God.
Judgment's already passed, as far as I'm concerned.
That's why in John 5, verse 24, the
Bible says, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
I like that, verily.
I like that truly, truly.
When God's going to say something real big,
sometimes, you know, a big train goes through
the mountains, sometimes it'll call a double-header
engine.
And God says, boy, I've got a big
train coming now.
I'm going to hook two engines on to
it.
Verily, verily, he said.
Truly, truly, he said.
I say unto you, that's when he said
to John, the naked name was verily, verily,
I say to you, you must be born
again.
Well, now, here he said it.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
heareth my words, and believeth on them that
said unto me, hath everlasting life, not going
to have as it now, and shall not
come into condemnation, but is passed from death
to life.
Not come into condemnation?
No, condemnation's already fallen.
The debt's already paid.
Punishment's already meted out.
The sentence has already been served.
The death penalty's already executed.
The blood's already poured out.
The sinner's done bad, pure sins.
I thank God, that's paid.
That's all settled.
Jesus was judged for my sins and paid
my debt.
That's wonderful.
In the American Standard Version, that translation is
a little better.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
heareth my words, John 5, verse 34, and
believeth on them that said unto me, hath
everlasting life, and cometh not to judgment, but
is passed out of death into life.
You know, a fellow who comes to a
jeopardy and get tried again for the same
thing he's done, been tried before and punished
for it, you know.
If a fellow, if he tried me and
said, I'm fined a hundred dollars, I'm paid
the fine, they don't go arrest me and
say, Come and try you for this, it's
fine.
Done been arrested, done been proved guilty, done
been paid the fine.
Well, Jesus has paid the fine, and it's
all done.
That's one judgment.
That's not the judgment here.
This is a judgment for those that wouldn't
accept that judgment and let Jesus take our
place.
Well, let's see.
There's another judgment the Bible tells about, and
that's a judgment of, at the judgment seat
of Christ, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 3.
The Bible says there, Paul says, a wise
master builder.
I came to Corinth to have revival.
I got two people saved.
He said, I laid the foundation.
He said, Christ is the foundation, or the
foundation to no man lay.
I got you saved.
Now I said, now take heed how you
build on that foundation.
For he said, there's coming a great time
of testing, whenever man's work shall be tried
by fire.
He said, take heed how you build.
Those terrible precious stones, the three kinds, won't
burn.
Oh, wood and stubble, those three kinds will
burn.
For he said, the day shall declare for
it will be manifested by fire.
All right.
But he said, if a man's work be
burned off, he'll receive reward.
He'll be saved if sort of a fire,
he'll not receive reward.
But if a man's work survived, he'll receive
reward.
Now then, that's a judgment of Christians, up
in heaven, already in heaven, in glorified bodies,
a judgment for rewards of Christians.
Who's going to reign over ten cities?
Who's going to reign over five?
Who's going to be a street sweeper?
Who's going to be a garbage collector?
You've got to be somebody else besides rainers
up there, and that'll be a judgment of
Christ.
That's not the same as this one.
No, no.
There's another judgment mentioned in the Bible.
It is often confused with this last judgment
of them saved, the white throne judgment.
It ought not to be.
That's discussed in Matthew, chapter 25.
Note the words carefully.
When the Son of Man shall come in
his glory, so this is at the second
coming, when he comes back to reign.
When the Son of Man shall come in
his glory and all the holy angels with
him, then shall he sit upon the throne
of his glory.
That's the throne of his father, David, at
Jerusalem.
That's Mount Zion, where he climbed so many
steps to get up to the top of
it the other day, in Jerusalem.
And Jesus is going to set up his
throne and reign in Jerusalem.
When the Son of Man shall come in
his glory and all his holy angels with
him, then shall he sit upon the throne
of his glory and before him shall be
gathered all nations.
The word for nations in the Greek is
the same as the word for Gentiles, and
evidently what it means is all the Gentile
people but the Jews.
There will have been a great persecution in
the tribulation time, and those that were for
God will side in with the Jews and
help protect them.
Those that were for the Antichrist will help
kill out the Jews.
And then there will be joy, and before
him shall be gathered.
And those on the left hand, he'll say,
depart from me into everlasting fire prepared for
the devil and his angels.
Those on the right hand, he'll say, come
ye blessed of my Father, in the head
of the kingdom prepared for you, and Christ
will reign with them on the earth.
Now notice, that's a judgment of people alive.
That's a judgment of Gentile people alive on
the earth after tribulation.
It'll be at Jerusalem, and those who are
lost will be sent on to hell, and
those who are saved come in to live
on this kingdom on earth with Jesus during
the millennial reign.
That's not the same as this judgment.
Now here's another judgment.
I saw a great white throne and Him
that sat upon it from whose face earth
and heaven fled away.
That's all fear out in space.
The one we talked about, Matthew 25, is
that Jerusalem, this is out in space.
The one in Matthew is when He comes
at the beginning of His reign.
This judgment's when the thousand years are expired,
and later, out in space, a great judgment.
And will you notice, all right, then this
is the judgment of the unsaved dead at
the end of the millennial reign of Christ
on earth.
Now let's see.
I've said who's to be judged, but let's
prove it now.
Who's this to be judged in this judgment?
Who's this to be judged?
Not Christians, but lost people.
Now how do you know?
Well, because it says, I saw the dead
fall in great sin before God.
Now if you can find who's alive and
who's dead, you'll know who's going to be
judged.
All right, come back to the first of
the chapter, and the scripture says, I saw
an angel come down from heaven having a
great key at the bottom of his fist,
a great chain in his hand, and he'd
hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which
is the devil and Satan, and bound him
a thousand years, and so on.
Now verse 4, And I saw thorns, and
they sat upon them, and judgment was given
them.
And I saw the souls of them that
were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and
for the word of God, and which did
not worship the beast, neither ascended, neither received
his mark in the forehead, nor in the
hand.
Now notice, I saw those of them that
were beheaded for the witness of Jesus.
Now let's see what happens.
Girls, what happens when a fellow gets his
head cut off?
Does he go downtown and go to work
then?
Huh?
What does he do?
He's dead, isn't he?
All right.
So he said, I saw those who were
beheaded for the witness of Jesus, so they
died.
Is that right?
Now listen.
And they lived and reigned with Christ a
thousand years.
He was beheaded, so he died, and I
lived.
So what's that?
A resurrection, isn't it?
That's a resurrection.
All right.
But the rest of the dead lived not
again till the thousand years were finished.
This is the first resurrection.
Now notice here, two resurrections.
And the next verse said, Blessed and holy
is he that hath heart in the first
resurrection.
On such the second death hath no power.
Now some people, they were beheaded, they suffered,
now they're raised from the dead, and they
reigned with Christ a thousand years.
They were raised.
The first resurrection then takes place when?
At the beginning of the thousand years, so
he can get up and reign with Jesus
a thousand years, all of us Christians.
Is that right?
But the rest of the dead lived not
again till the thousand years were finished.
This is the first resurrection.
All right.
Now when is the second resurrection then?
Not until the thousand years are finished.
You see that?
All right.
And blessed and holy is he that hath
heart in the first resurrection.
On such the second death hath no power,
but they shall be priests of God and
of Christ, and shall reign with him a
thousand years.
And now then, a thousand years go by.
When the thousand years are finished, I saw
a great white throne in the southern end,
and the earth, and the heaven, and the
death, and hell delivered the dead in them,
and they were churned.
The dead stand before God.
Now who is this that has been dead
all the thousand years?
And now they're brought to judgment, the unsaved.
All the Christians have already been raised up
at the beginning of the thousand years.
Now there are two resurrections.
The first resurrection, the Christians, and the second
resurrection, lost people.
The first resurrection, now don't think it's all
in one little spot.
Jesus is the first fruits of them that
rose from the dead, isn't he?
All right.
So Jesus was a part of the first
resurrection, and then there come of this rapture
when he says, Trumpets on, not be right
now.
I don't care, fellas.
Let's just take the roof off if a
ghost Jesus comes tonight because we won't need
this.
You people are not saved.
We'll need it.
Well, so then that's a part of the
first resurrection, isn't it?
That the rapture of the Christian dead will
be raised, they'll be changed, and we'll be
raised.
And then when Jesus comes back to reign,
and these were beheaded during the tribulation time,
and they live and reign, that's all part
of the first resurrection.
That's Christians, and all that's before the thousand
years.
Is that right?
And who is the second resurrection?
Lost people.
All right, so here in Revelation 20, I
saw the dead fall in great stand before
God.
They're lost people, and they come out of
hell.
Death and hell delivered up the dead that
were in them, and the sea gave up
the dead that were in it.
Ah, then many a graveyard will be opened.
Suddenly dirt will fly.
There'll come out that old body, and then
the soul dragged out of hell to bring
it up and stand before Jesus.
I don't wonder that the Bible says that
he will cry for the rocks and mountains
to fall on and hide them from him
that sits on the throne.
I don't wonder that the Bible says that
they'll hide themselves in dens and caves of
the earth.
Jesus is going to call people out to
judge them, the unsaved dead, out of hell,
their bodies, their souls, out of the graves,
their bodies, and sunken in the sea, torpedoed
in war and drowned in fishing schooners and
so on.
And God will bring together the scattered bits
of ashes and make again the bodies and
they'll come out and souls come out of
hell and these will come to judgment, the
last judgment of the unsaved dead.
Who's in this judgment then?
Unsaved people.
Well, where will we be?
Well, we'll be there.
You know, I'm going to be at that
judgment, but I'm not going to be judged.
I'm going to be there as a witness.
And two or three scriptures that make that
clear.
One thing is the Bible says, Jesus said,
the man of Nineveh shall rise up in
the judgment and condemn this generation for they
repented of the preaching of Jonah.
Well, the men of Jonah repented, the men
of Nineveh, so they're saved and they're going
to rise up as witnesses, so I'll be
there too.
And God will say, John, why did you
preach on, let's see, March 11th, was it?
March 11th in the Woodcroft High School auditorium,
did you preach?
And I'll say, yes, Lord.
And he'll say, was this man there?
And I'll have perfect memory then, and I'll
say, yes, Lord, he was there.
And the best I knew, and with great
burden, and even with tears, I pleaded for
people to be saved.
I'll be a witness.
That's right.
And the mother who couldn't want her boy,
she'll say, yes, Lord, that's right.
Yes, he ought to go to hell because
he's had every chance.
I grieve about it.
Jesus does too.
But the mother will say, Jesus, I'm on
your side.
He ought to go to hell if he
won't repent.
And the last witnesses were going to be
there.
Christians would be there to witness, but not
to be judged.
Somebody said to them, aren't you scared about
that judgment?
No.
No, you know, right next to the sword
of the Lord office in Wheaton for many
years, then next to the police department.
See, the police department.
They moved, now I've got another building but
it's in the same block.
But I'm not scared.
I'm not on trial.
I'm behaving for myself.
They haven't got any case against me.
And so, the Lord hasn't any case against
me but it's He that condemned us.
It's Christ, that God, yea, rather, that is
risen again.
And He's paid for my sins and they
are paid for.
And all right, this is the judgment of
the unsaved dead.
Another thing, the Bible says that comfort people
with these words.
It says, that in Christ shall rise first,
we that are alive and remain shall be
brought together with them to meet the Lord
in the air.
And listen now, so shall we ever be
with the Lord.
Oh, hallelujah.
I've been away from Him for all of
that.
I want to see Him.
I'm tired of this business.
I'm amongst strangers.
I'm a stranger here.
I can tear it.
But tonight, oh, I'm not at home in
this world.
I want to see Jesus and be with
Him.
But He's promised that where I'm there you
should be also.
So if Jesus is going to be at
that judgment, I'm going to be there too.
I'll say, Jesus, can I bring you a
glass of water?
He'll say, well John, hand me that record
book right there or something.
I'm going to be there where Jesus is.
We Christians are going to be.
We'll be there but not to be judged.
We'll be there to see judgment done and
to bear witness against those who go to
hell.
All right, this is judgment.
Now, how will it be judged?
First we've said this is the last judgment
of the unsaved dead.
And now then, it is the unsaved judged.
Now how, on what basis will it be
judged?
Well, the Scripture says, I saw the dead
small and great stand before God and the
books were open.
And they were judged out of those things
written in the books.
God has record books.
I'm glad He has.
I don't remember very well.
A lot of things I don't remember.
I go back and I see in the
Sword of the Lord 15, 18, 20 years
ago something I told there.
And I'm glad I have it written down
because I've forgotten how it happened since then.
And I don't remember well.
God has the record put down in the
book.
You know how we are when we feel
bad about our sins?
Oh, first we feel bad about them.
That's why we feel relieved we got out
of it.
And that's why it seems funny.
And that's why you get to bragging about
it, your sins.
Then I heard a preacher say the other
day, well, when I was on the devil's
side I made a good hand.
I was trying to make a hand for
the Lord like that.
I felt like telling him, well, don't brag
about your low down sorry cuss and spit
on Jesus.
Don't brag about it.
Nobody's ever a better preacher because he's a
sinner.
Nobody's ever, no woman's ever a better wife
because she was a harlot.
Do you know that?
No man's ever more pure and holy because
he's whoremonger and infidel and drunkard.
Do you know that?
No.
Don't brag about your sin.
They're all in the record book.
I'm just saying.
And God, they look still pretty black.
They're just as black as they ever were.
Yes.
God has a record there.
Books, record books of sins.
Record books of sins.
All right.
According to their words, how are you going
to be judged?
Brother, you're going to get exactly what you
deserve.
Somebody said, by the way, I don't know
what's coming to me.
Brother, you'll get it then.
Line upon line, stripe for stripe, burning for
burning, and eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth.
You'll get it then, exactly what you've got
coming to you.
That's right.
Let me tell you, everybody goes to hell.
They get what they deserve.
That's right.
Those who go to heaven don't.
I was in Bombay, India, I believe it
was, and a Hindu man came to me
and I had great joy in seeing how
the power of God in the scriptures.
I preached at a certain Anglican church in
Bombay.
They had five services a day in different
languages.
One of them at the Canary's language service.
They had me preach and they had an
interpreter to tell what meant and we had
four people, say four men and a woman
were saved.
The first one to hold his hand for
prayer was an elder in the church who
helped leading the worship service.
They had, on the credit program of that
formal service, they had 18 items before they
got to my sermon.
Oh yes, but they were nice and pious
as you people here.
They could put on the dome too.
Yes, sir.
Well, I've got to start to say, one
of the elders who was in the Canary's
language and I couldn't understand it.
One of the elders who led the principal
part in leading in that service was the
first man to hold his hand and wanted
to be saved.
And so, all right, he went back yonder
and then some others and a woman, the
mother of the assistant pastor got saved and
the organist had the organ back in the
balcony and the choir in the balcony and
their formal service and bless their hearts, they
tried to follow through.
Even after we had an old-fashioned dynamite
earthquake, it was kind of a soul-winning
service but they wanted to end it properly.
So they had a song a certain hymn
at the close.
They were in trouble.
They tried to sing it but the organist,
he's a gray-headed man, scholar, college man,
he was down here back there getting saved.
He let this organ come on down here
and getting saved.
Well, I'll start to say, that elder went
back yonder and I went back after a
little bit to inquire and see how it
was getting along.
And he said, he said, Dr. Rice, he
said, why my Hindu friends, why would they
be lost because they're Hindus?
He said, some of them as good men
as I am.
I said, they're not lost because they're Hindus
and you're not saved because you're a church
member.
You're lost because you're a dirty sinner and
they're lost because they're sinners.
That's all.
And I said, if you don't get born
again you go to the same hell they
would if they don't get born again.
Well, he looked shocked at that and remember
now, he had just been taking the leading
part in that formal responses, reading back and
forth in this formal Anglican service.
And I, and so what of that?
He was greatly puzzled at that.
And so I turned to Romans 6.23
where the wages of sin is death but
the gift of God's eternal life.
And I read in the fifth chapter of
Romans, so then death passed upon all men
for that all sinned by one man's sin
entered the world and all have sinned.
And so he went into that and I
said, everybody that goes to hell gets exactly
what he's deserving.
He walks up to the tickle funda and
pays his own fare to hell in wages.
Wages, you're in those, don't you?
But I said, everybody goes to hell but
he rides on a free pass.
He rides on a free pass.
And I told the man, he rides on
a pass and the good native worker sitting
by says, free pass, free pass.
Oh, that's what.
And this cultured man in an Anglican church,
a leader, educated man, he said to me,
when I'm not blessed, let's see, then I
believe, I believe you mean, he said, that
everybody goes to hell gets justice and everybody
gets to heaven goes by mercy.
I said, yes, that's right.
Well, he said to him, I want mercy.
Ah, you should have heard him praying that
publican's prayer, God be merciful to me, a
sinner.
And he was saved.
Now, let me tell you, everybody goes to
heaven, you earned it.
Don't squawk.
Go ahead, you bought your ticket, go on
to hell if you deserve it.
But if you want something free for nothing,
that's for those who trust Jesus.
Everybody ought to go to hell, but Jesus
died for us, so I got saved free.
That's the only way anybody gets saved, gets
saved free.
So, by grace, you're saved through faith and
that's not of yourself, it's the gift of
God.
Not of worthless any man should boast.
Oh, I said, I said, well, I said,
well, I said, well,
I said, well, I said, well, I said,
well, I said, I said, I said, well,
I said, I
said, I said, well, I
said, well, I said, well, I said,
well, I said, well, I
said, well, I said, well, I said, well,
I said, well, I said, well, I said,
well, I said, well, I said, well, I
said, well, I said,
well, I said, well, I
said, well, I said, well, I
said, well, I said, well, I said, well,
I said, well, I said, well, I said,
well, I said, well, I
said, well, I said, I said, I said,
well, I said, well, I said, well, I
said, well, I said, well, I said, well,
I said, well, I said, well, I said,
well, I said, I said, I said, I
said, I said, well, I said, well, I
said, well, I
said, well, I said, well, I said, well,
I said, I said, well, I
said, this
judgment and the things nobody knew, nobody who
would come out.
And she came to me and said, what
about the little ones?
She said, I got a quack doctor and
we had abortion and I murdered these little
unborn babies of mine.
What am I going to do about that?
And I said, those that were hated when
they ought to be loved will come to
mock you.
They'll stand at that judgment time and say
you should have loved us, we were the
gift of God and you hated us and
had us murdered.
But maybe the world doesn't know you're a
murderer but they do and God does, it'll
come out at that time.
Oh yeah, the secret sins that people don't
know about, God knows about.
Yes, God knows about it, that time's coming
out, yes it is.
How many secrets have been told to me
that others didn't know?
A woman told me from Atchison, Kansas, years
ago, so long ago now, I think nobody
could trace it.
And a woman, she said to me, Brother
Rice, she said, I've been married 20 years,
I have a 19-year-old daughter, she's
a beautiful, sweet Christian girl, and my husband
and I are both Christians trying to live
right.
But before I was married 20 years ago,
I went into sin, my husband doesn't know
it, nobody in the world but one person
knows it.
It haunts me.
You suppose God forgave me?
Should I go to my husband and tell
him about that sin more than 20 years
ago before I married him?
I should have told my sweet girl, she
thinks I'm pure and good, I feel so
guilty.
Should I tell her?
I won't tell her.
You confessed it to God, you've lived it
down, you've lived straight, don't hurt your husband,
you couldn't help it any, already you've been
true to him, you love him, you've been
straight and clean, don't hurt him with it,
never mind.
That daughter, don't tell him, no, God put
it under the blood, there's nothing else you
can do.
But I thought, ah, if a woman's so
distressed about that, you want to say, what
will you do when the universe is going
to hear your dirty life and the sins
you didn't want anybody to know?
Yeah.
Some man, some man in Peoria says to
his wife, I'm bound to go to, I
must go up to Galesburg for the weekend,
or I've got a call in Chicago or
St. Louis or somewhere else, and his wife
thinks so, the poor fellow that worked so
hard to make a living, I'm sorry, she
doesn't know about the other woman, she doesn't
know the weekend in a hotel and the
sins, she will know one day, God's going
to bring it out.
Somebody here put your hands in the cash
drawer, the register, you took money that didn't
belong to you, you're a dirty thief, you're
a dirty, crooked thief, people don't know it.
Maybe it was you bought some tools back
from the, back here from the caterpillar plant,
maybe that is it, or some material, but
God knows you're crooked, and it's going to
come out, secret things coming out, the things
nobody knows, the skeletons of memory will come
rattling out of the closets, and your sins
will come to face you, unsaved men, at
that judgment time.
Wait a minute.
Not only the sins that are secret, but
the sins that never happen except in the
heart.
The sins you would have done if you
could, but you couldn't, sins of the heart.
Don't you remember the Lord Jesus said, he
that lusts upon the looks of a woman,
to lust after her, hath committed adultery with
her in his heart.
Don't you remember the scripture says that he
that hated his brother is a murderer?
I didn't kill anybody.
I did carry a gun for one fellow
one time, cutting a wire on a ranch,
and I was left in great drowse, and
my father had to go to the mountains,
Rocky Mountains, for three months, and my older
brother had the farm, and all I had
was those horses and that ranch, and a
fifteen year old boy, and a neighbor ranchman
cutting the wires to try to get in,
and we were just about to have to
haul water for a whole village, and I
got the big twelve gauge shotgun, and I
loaded her up good, and rode by and
rode that fence.
I didn't shoot anybody.
Nobody showed up, just he's convened it, so
it sure would have been, if anybody had
gone home, they'd gone home with pants full
of lead, I'm telling you.
No, I didn't kill anybody.
I'm meaner than some people, they kill people
though.
Yes.
And if it were not for the mercy
of God, I'd have been in hell a
long time ago.
You know that?
Yeah.
I'm sure glad I've got somebody to accept
judgment for me.
The sins that you didn't commit!
I know some of you good women, you
didn't like what I said about the movies
last night, did you?
Some of you.
Well, if you enjoyed it, let's see, what
was it?
Wreck of the Bounty?
What are some South Seattle picture?
And who was it?
Clark Gable?
Robert Taylor?
Oh, this new one, Houston, who was it?
Some of these guys?
Ah, boy, wasn't he handsome?
Two-thirds naked.
And boy, didn't you like it if you
could just bend that heroin in the sarong,
a rag around the middle, that is, not
very high at the top, not very low
at the bottom, and so on.
And all those warm embraces, and you just
dreamed, wouldn't I like that?
Yeah.
And God woke you down as the harlot
you are inside.
Outside you're a respectable wife and mother, inside
you're as dirty as any prostitute.
You want what they want.
You see, God knows the heart, man does
not.
Yeah.
Coming to judgment for the sins didn't happen,
but what would have happened if you could
have had your way?
Your heart's desire.
Unsafe person, your heart's going to bring you
terrible shock at the judgment time.
Come and sin the judgment, and it's your
bad.
Well, somebody said, Brother Rice, you folks are
smart, what about you?
And suppose they say here, Brother Kittful, and
Brother, some of these other people, and they
say, listen, let's get a committee, and let's
send it there and see, and get up
Brother Rice's record.
So you come, you apply for it, and
there's Angel Gable, and you knock on the
door, and say, Angel, Gable, can I see
the record?
We got a man down here in Peoria,
and he's talking sharp play and making some
people mad.
He says that sinners that don't repent, they're
coming to judgment, all their deeds coming out,
and so on.
And he's talking so big, want to see
the record of John Rice.
Well, Angel Gable said, this is a little
unusual, you know.
Well, but I know we want to see
it.
So Angel Gable brings out a record, and
you say, is this John Rice's record?
Yes, that's right.
Only record we have of him.
You mean all this goodness and purity and
holiness, this is?
This is the only record we have of
John Rice now.
And you're a little smarter than these preachers,
so you say, you mean you used to
have another record?
Yeah, yeah I did, but it's all finished
up now.
What do you mean?
Well, the account's closed, and it's marked paid
in full.
Marked in blood.
But you want to see it?
And there's the man I used to be,
and the sinner I was, and the record's
in it, and it's parked in the blood
of Jesus, paid in full.
And it is Christ that died.
Well, is he the condemned?
It's Christ that died, that's risen again, and
is ever living.
And you start interacting about it up there,
and the Lord Jesus comes along and gets
you to my business right now.
He ever lived at the intercede for us.
Let me tell you, I'm sure that I'm
not getting what I deserve.
I preached on the Last Judgment at a
town down in Illinois, I can't think of
the name.
It was right, what's that town down there?
Little Danville.
At their revival meeting, Joy down there stayed,
and we got in the car and driving
home.
She was just a little bit of a
thing.
We're driving home, and Joy stood in the
car beside me, and I let her hand
around my neck, and play in the ear,
and then she'd pat me, and she'd say,
My sweet daddy, my sweet daddy.
I didn't mind that, I take that pretty
good.
And so we drove along, mile after mile.
I'll tell you the truth, some night in
a lonely hotel, I did not sleep so
good.
After I preached on the Judgment, I preached
on hell.
And I drove mile after mile, and didn't
say a thing.
Nobody talked.
It was a serious and awful time.
We had a good many saves that night,
but some weren't saved, and my heart was
burdened about the torment.
Cast into hell, a lake of fire.
Drove along mile after mile.
And after I saw her, I said, Daddy?
I said, Yes, dear.
She said, I'm sure that I'm not.
I said, I'm saved, aren't you?
I said, I sure am glad I'm saved.
Yes, sir.
Let me tell you, you don't have to
come for that Judgment.
What's going to happen there?
Well, now I'm going to go higher.
What's that for?
That's God's going to prove you could have
been saved.
God's not to blame.
God's going to prove it's all fortuitous.
You wouldn't take it.
The book of life.
I can see what people see.
Some man says, Let me see it.
Let me see it.
You're not a...
They don't want to see it.
And he looks and says, Oh, not there.
My name's not there.
And now everyone whose name's not in the
book of life is cast into the lake
of fire.
Lake of fire.
That's bad.
But now this is good news.
Thank God nobody has to come to that
Judgment.
I'm not going, for I'm already judged.
The God of death and the death page.
I'm not coming to Judgment.
You don't have to come to that Judgment.
You can come to Jesus now and say,
Jesus, if you'll take care of that for
me.
You see, you died for me, and it's
paid if I'll take it.
So I'll take it.
You can have it, Lord Jesus.
Turn your case over to Jesus, and you
won't come to that Judgment.
All right?
Do you want to be saved?
How many say, Brother, I want to be
saved.
Thank God I'm already saved.
I'm glad to say it.
I'm already saved.
Let's see your hands.
You know you're saved.
Hold your hand high.
That's wonderful.
Now, just a minute.
How many of you say, I earned it.
I deserved it.
Did you deserve it?
No.
You got what you deserved.
You didn't go to hell.
You got it by the grace of God
who loves sinners.
We ordained a young preacher, Joe Wilson.
He came out of modernistic denomination, came to
Calvert Baptist Church in Wheaton, and we ordained
him.
And so somebody, an old preacher on the
council, they're making it pretty tough, this young
preacher, they thought.
They tried to.
And so somebody said, Now, tell us how
I'm being saved.
And Joe Miller said, Saved by grace through
faith.
And the man, old preacher, said, What do
you mean saved by grace?
And Joe Miller said, That means God loves
the unlovable.
And God takes people to heaven who ought
to be in hell.
That's pretty good, isn't it?
That's your right.
And now you can be saved that way
tonight.
Tonight.
How do you do it?
You turn to Jesus and trust Him.
Listen to it now.
Him that cometh unto me, I will in
no wise cast out.
He said, Lord, I stand at the door
and knock.
If any man hear my voice and open
the door, I'll come in and sup with
him and he with me.
Behold, I'm at the door.
I'm knocking.
Jesus said, Open the door and let him
in.
Will you do that?
Let us pray.
Heads bowed for a moment.
I wonder, with our heads bowed, how much
they say, Brother, I have loved a friend
who is here tonight.
I'm afraid, unsaved, but in this building tonight.
Would you lift your hand?
Hold your hand just a moment.
Lord, some loved him.
Yes, I see.
And somebody else.
Who said, I've loved a friend in this
building.
I think they're not saved.
Lift your hand for your friend just a
moment.
Yes, I see there and there.
All right.
Who else?
A friend who loved him here, unsaved.
Yes, I see.
Thank you.
All right.
Now listen.
We'll ask God to save them.
Dear Lord, give us Christians courage to do
right and save some soul tonight.
Lord, save some soul tonight.
Wait, with our heads bowed.
I'm going to say, Brother, I'm not saved.
I'm a lost sinner.
I'm going to say, pray for me.
Are you concerned enough about your soul to
say, I want Jesus to forgive me?
Brother, ask Jesus to save me.
I will.
And he'll do it if you want it.
Would you lift your hand if you say,
I'm not saved, but I want to be.
Lift your hand.
Do you want to be saved?
Lord, help me.
Do you want to be saved?
Do you want to be saved, son, tonight?
That boy?
Do you?
Don't hold your hand unless you want to
be saved.
One here.
God bless you.
Thank you.
Here's another who wants to be saved.
Lift your hand.
Do you want to be saved?
Now, wait a moment.
You say, I want to be a Christian.
Ask God to forgive me.
Ask the Lord to help me trust him
tonight.
Anybody else?
Lift your hand.
Do you want that?
Now, wait a minute.
Christians, tonight I've been preaching to lost people.
I've been saying they'll come to that judgment.
I'm saying no Christians will come to that
judgment.
But we will.
But we'll come to a judgment.
We're coming to a judgment, all right.
It'll be up and heading.
It won't be about the doom of our
souls and going to hell.
That's already settled for a Christian.
But we're still coming to judgment to receive
the things done in the body, whether it
be good or evil.
All right.
How many Christians say, I'm saved, but I've
been living a shabby life, a kind of
worldly life, not powerful, not clean.
A young woman came today and said, me
and my girlfriend have been at grudges.
And every way we could, they say something
mean about the other, hurt the other one.
And we came forward last night, and she
did too.
And they were there loving each other today
in sweet and fellowship.
Oh, tonight, get the thing out of the
way and turn your back on sin and
come and get cleaned up.
Anybody?
How many Christians say, brother, I'm saved, but
I haven't met a very good Christian.
There's one.
Who else?
Lift your hand.
God bless the girl.
There's another one.
There's a man.
God bless you.
Who else say, I'm saved, but not a
very good Christian.
I want God to clean me up and
give me back the joy.
God bless you.
Amen.
Lift your hand.
There's one.
I see a lady.
There's another.
Lift your hand and say, pray for me.
A backslidden Christian, a cold-hearted, rather worldly,
fell in sin, forgot to pray.
You want to lift your hand?
Anybody else?
Say, I wish God...
Yes, I see the girl.
One younger.
Yes, God bless you.
There's another.
You want God to clean you up?
All right.
Now, dear Jesus, oh, help us tonight.
Lord, we are helpless.
And you're saved by grace, and Lord, we're
preached by grace too.
And you have to do the work and
get the credit.
Come in power and save.
Bless Christians.
Lord, carry on this moral revolution and clean
up the churches and Christians and make it
so Christians can pray and can bring lost
people out and give us a great breaking
out revival.
Lord, get these Christians out of the way
of the revival.
Help us to clean up and do right
for Jesus' sake.
Amen.
In a moment we're going to sing.
When there's time to sing, I want again,
let's have these pastors down here.
At the end of the aisle.
And I want them, some of you workers,
be ready now.
I want to go and say, I'm coming
to confess my backsliding.
I want to go and have a prayer
and confess to Jesus I've been cold and
worldly.
Ask Him to clean me up, fill me
with the Spirit, help me to be a
soul runner, live right.
And He will.
If we confess our sins, He's faithful and
just to forgive us our sins.
And while they come, anybody say, I want
to be saved.
Jesus is ready.
He loves you.
Will you come to trust Him?
Will you ask Him to be your Savior
and come?
I want to sing that.
Everybody stand just as I am.
Will you come then?
Will you come?
You have
to settle to God to clean up the
Christians.
I'm so sick.
I'm so sick of churches with no power
and churches that are disgraced in the community.
I want somebody to have the power of
God to win souls.
I'm sick of preaching to an audience.
I don't need it for a lot of
you cold-hearted Christians.
If you had the right kind of power,
you'd bring a lot of lost people in
here.
You know that?
All right.
Let's get right then.
Let's get right tonight.
Anybody here say, I'm sick and tired, bent
and whirled and half-hearted.
I want God to forgive me and clean
me up.
I'm going to have a good prayer confession.
Ask God to clean me up and fill
me with the Spirit and help me to
be a good soul runner.
Come on.
Anybody want to come be saved?
You come.
Tell us when you come.
Come on quickly.
Come tell the preachers.
Right in here to that inquiry room.
All right, we'll sing again.
We want to wear
the sin.
You ought to get cleaned up.
You ought to go home happy.
You ought to go home and say, thank
God there's nothing between me and Jesus all
fixed up.
You want to thank the armed services last
night after they came back to thank me
and said, oh, thank you, thank you.
Things are all right.
I'm happy, sad.
You ought to have this settled.
Will you do it?