My Sheep Hear My Voice- Rev. 20:12

My Sheep Hear My Voice- Rev. 20:12

Before Jesus was crucified He told the disciples to watch and pray, something so simple, but they let their physical bodies take over and they fell back asleep. In these last hours of time you need to hear His voice. When He tells you something, it is very important, but most ignore my voice or just discuss it and go on with what they were doing. You will see many things start to happen shortly and if you do not hear and obey His voice,... it will mean death for some of you....Jesus has only your best interest in mind. Christ knows you heart, and if you are truly His you will hear His voice. He awakes many of you at 3am on the dot, but most will roll over and go back to sleep. There are a few who will get up and pray. Your day is filled with so many things and Jesus is the last thing many of you give your time to. But Christ needs to talk to you,... to fellowship with you and only when you are still and quite (3am) can you hear Him,... the rest of your day is so busy you do not have time for Him,... but you need to make time, for time is short and the Lord has instructions for you.

Revelation 20

The Great White Throne Judgment

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. Rev. 20:12

stand before God;... In a judicial sense, as guilty, condemned prisoners before the bar of divine justice. There are no living sinners left in the destroyed universe since all sinners were killed and all believers glorified.

and the dead... Are those who are spiritually dead because of their rejection of Christ. They will stand in their resurrected state before Jesus to be judged by Him.

in the books... These books record every thought, word, and deed of sinful men, all recorded by divine omniscience (see Dan. 7:9-10; the verse that is the source of this text). They will provide the evidence for eternal condemnation (compare 18:6-7).

These statements immediately call our attention back to the words of the Lord Jesus: "What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs" (Luke 12:3). And "There is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open" (Luke 8:17).

Remember that the Christian dead have already won their victory. Those were judged by Jesus at the Bema Seat. Now is this final fearful scene, where these include all unbelievers who have ever lived. This is the resurrection of judgment and they stand before Christ now at the White Throne Judgment.

The scope of the scene is chilling. The great mass of these unbelievers before God's throne includes everyone from presidents and kings, to paupers. There is no partiality with God as all will now face judgment.

Books is plural here. There are books which contain a person's every thought, word and deed. Nothing will be hidden. Think about the fact that God knows the secrets of one's heart. Those who didn't accept Jesus will have to stand or fall on their deeds. Of course, they will all fall if they didn't accept Him, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Christian's sins have been done away with by the blood of Jesus.

God has kept perfect, comprehensive and accurate records of every person's life (deeds), and those will be measured against God's perfect and holy standard.

Those who didn't accept Jesus will have to stand or fall on their deeds. Of course, they will all fall if they didn't accept Him, because scripture clearly tells us that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

book of life... It contains the names of all the redeemed (Dan. 12:1; see Rev. 3:5).

The Book of Life is the Lamb's Book of Life where the names of all believers are written who have accepted, believed and followed Christ. The Christian's sins have been done away by the blood of Jesus. Those Christians all have their names written in the Lamb's book of life and will not taste of the second death.

dead were judged… Their thoughts (Luke 8:17; Rom. 2:16), words (Matt. 12:37), and actions (Matt. 16:27), will be compared to God’s perfect, holy standard (Matt. 5:48; 1 Peter 1:15-16), and will be found wanting (Rom. 3:23). This also implies that there are degrees of punishment in hell (compare Matt. 10:14-15; 11:22; Mark 12:38-40; Luke 12:47-48: Heb. 10:29).

The Dead, Great and Small

The purpose of establishing the great white throne is to judge the dead. John wrote that the dead, great and small, stood before the throne. From other Scriptures it seems that all the righteous dead have been raised, including Old Testament saints, the dead of the Great Tribulation, and the church saints, the body of Christ (see Rev. 20:5). Thus it may be assumed that Rev. 20:11-15 refer to the judgment of the wicked dead, who according to Rev. 20:5 would not be resurrected until after the thousand years and will have no part in what is called “the first resurrection.”

At that judgment John saw books… opened, including a book called the book of life. The text does not state clearly what these books are, but the first opened books may refer to human works and “the book of life” is the record of those who are saved (cf. Rev. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:15; 21:27). The fact that these dead have not been raised before is evidence in itself that they do not have eternal life and that their judgment is a judgment of their works.

All final judgments deal with works, whether the works of Christians rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ or the works of the unsaved which are in view here. The question of who is saved is determined not in heaven but in life on earth. What is revealed here is the confirmation of one’s destiny by means of God’s written records.

Some view the book of life as the record of all the living and that when the unsaved die their names are deleted from it. A better view is that the book is the record of those who are saved whose names were “written in the book of life from the creation of the world” (Rev. 17:8). Regardless of which view is taken, at this time only the saved are in the book of life.