HANDOUT FOR SERMON: THE END OF LIFE AND TIME.                                                      April 10, 2022 Manchester, TN

INTRODUCTION: Let us begin our discussion today at the END!  I mean the very end, the end of life and the end of time. Let us begin at the end of the New Testament in Revelation 20:10-15. Let us read. This picture is important because we get so focused and burdened by all the hopes and dreams on THIS EARTH that we are sometimes loose our focus on the judgment and on eternity.

Everyone I bump into wants to and even expects to go to Heaven. It seems most have hopes and dreams of a place called “Heaven.” But is everyone getting ready and preparing for the judgment?  Think of all the wonderful songs and hymns that have been written and which we sing that remind us of a place called Heaven, the eternal abode for the people of God.

In verse 12 of Revelation 20 the words “the books were opened” are found, – I am interested in these books. One of these books is “the book of life.” Either your name is in the “book of life” and you are saved or there may be faint spaces or traces where your name used to be but has been taken out or it never was ever entered in the book of life! However, there is not just “the book of life”, this passage tells us there are other books! We will be judged by Christ through the things that are in those books.

SIMPLE THINGS STATED ABOUT THE JUDGMENT, General Scripture about heaven:

Hebrews 9:28 Jesus is coming again.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 He will appear in the clouds.
John 5:28-29 All the dead will be raised.
1 Corinthians 15:51-54 The living will be changed.
2 Peter 3:10 The world will be destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:10 Each individual will appear before Him in judgment.

LESSON                                                                                                                                                            1.WHAT ARE THE BOOKS THAT WERE OPENED?

“The Lamb’s Book of Life”

Revelation 21:22-27
Philippians 4:3
Revelation 3:5
Luke 10:17-20

“The Divine Word of God”

John 12:44-48
Romans 1:16-17
Romans 2:15-16
2 Timothy2:8-13

2.HOW WILL WE BE JUDGED?                                                                                                             If only we truly believe:

This will change us and our thinking greatly.
Each of us will be judged by our choices (good & bad ones).
There is NO way we can do enough good deeds to outweigh our bad deeds and choices.
There is HOPE for all of us and there is great hope in the intentionality of righteousness based on the mercy and grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus for sin.
How do I know those things? Revelation 20 Where God explains the judgment to us.

How will Jesus look at me in the judgment?                                                                                       Jesus will look at me “through the pages of His words (the words of Jesus/His teachings for us).  John 1:3-14 Jesus became the Word, a man full of grace and truth. We are commanded to have the mind & heart of Jesus Philippians 4:5-7

The words of Christ are preserved in the New Testament for OUR BENEFIT!                   The words of Christ provide hope, mercy, direction, redemption, forgiveness, freedom rules, instructions, commands and non-negotiable things!!! Do YOU believe Christ and strive to follow Him? Am I willing to strive to walk in the light as He is the light, 1 John 1:6-10? Jesus Christ is called “the Word” in John 1:1-4.

Take the Gospel of Jesus and put it in your heart!                                                            Hebrews 8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.”

SUMMING UP:  Read: 2 Peter 3:10-18

The world will be destroyed so you must prepare for the judgment, and you do that by guarding and protecting what you have.  Guard and protect Jesus and all He stands for in your heart. From 2 Corinthians 5:10 we learn that each one of us will appear before Jesus Christ in judgment. Jesus will open His divine word, His teaching, and use that to measure your life.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ – is the pattern!  He will take His word and lay it “on top of our lives and compare it” to His full measure of His stature, Ephesians 4:13  So how will you do in the judgment?

I plead with you to: Spend time with the words of Jesus and learn how to be a Christian, how to have the mind and heart of Jesus Christ and learn how to follow in the footprints of Jesus.