© 1998 "Yes Lord" Ministries
Leader's Guide for Revelation Lesson 11
The Great White Throne Judgment
Rev. 20:11-15
Open with Prayer.... and, as always, you do the praying.
Suggested Visual Aid:
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The title of the Visual aid for this lesson is THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT.
I wrote these words in Purple at the top of the Visual aid.
(There will be 4 Columns but do not write them on the board yet, just the title now)
Opening Comments and Review:
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Then I turned to the class and said: "Well, tonight we are going to study about that well known judgment about which many people are confused....The Great White Throne (GWT) Judgment.
But, before we begin, let's put this GWT judgment on our timeline so we can know exactly
WHERE and WHEN in the History of mankind it belongs.....
Now, as you have done in previous lessons, put the time line on the bottom of the Visual aid. I began by saying "ok, the world begins here when God created it and everything..." and I drew a circle to represent the world, creation, and the beginning of our history.... then I drew a long line across the bottom of the Vis. Aid and began to put the MAIN events on it... basically, the same ones as last week....As I drew the time line and put the symbols on it, I made brief comments. Most of these comments I will NOT include here as you are a sharp leader and know what to say... but... I did have a NEW comment which IS appropriate to the lesson tonight.... otherwise, for the most part... I will just tell you what I noted on my time line. And, of course, I used little stick figure drawings... but.. On the timeline here I will just use symbols and letters... you may use whatever you prefer, of course..
Adam and Eve are here! (Drew two little stick figures..which I am indicating for you with two exclamation marks on your sample timeline below). As I put a big circle with an X inside it on and around Adam and Eve, I said: "You will recall they Sinned and because of their sin, all of the sinful, hurtful, and evil things which resulted from that initial sin will finally be punished at the GWT Judgment. (on the timeline, this circle and the X around Adam and Eve are represented by (!X!)
Then I put the FLOOD on the Chart (F on the timeline below).
A of course represents Abraham and the beginning of the Nation of Jews.
T (which is really a RED CROSS) represents the death and resurrection of Jesus for the sacrificial atoning payment for sin for any and all who will choose to accept His gift of salvation and forgiveness by that sacrifice.
Then I began to involve the class in this time line by asking:
What AGE begins here? = Church Age.
YES. So I boxed in the segment of time in Green and wrote, in Green, CHURCH AGE
What happens at the END of the Church age? = Rapture ....(Green R)
Then what happens after the Rapture of the Church? = The BEMA JUDGMENT of the Christians.......(GREEN B)
Then I asked these questions but did NOT write anything on the board:
We have studied about the Bema Judgment.
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Who is judged at the Bema? = Christians
Who is the Judge? = Jesus
What is being Judged? = Deeds (Works)
Why? = To see if the Deeds were done with right attitude, purposes, motivation, etc.
How are they Judged? = By FIRE
Why are they Judged by Fire? = Fire purifies... therefore, anything that is sinful (wrong motives, etc) in the works will be burned up and destroyed. Hmmmmmm.
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Does the Bema Judgment determine if a person is saved or not? = NO
Why? = It is for Christians, they already ARE saved. So, this is not judging to determine Salvation but judging works which were done AFTER salvation.
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What is the purpose of this judgment of works? = to Determine REWARDS....
What will be the result of rewards or lack of rewards at the Bema? = will determine what a person will be assigned to do and etc. during the 1000 years and eternity......
Great!
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Now What happens AFTER the Bema? What horrible period of time do we put on our timeline now? = The 7 Years / the Tribulation / The time of Jacob's trouble.
(Put this on the time line in BLACK using a box or brackets and writing in the words "7 Years")
Who does this 7 year period of time mainly involve? = Jews ....and gentiles who were not saved at the time of the rapture. But MAINLY this period of time is a fulfillment of prophecy in the Jewish History ....
Then I said:
"We have studied the 7 years so will not spend time much time here now except to ask, ...
(Note to Leader: the next few questions are OPTIONAL.... if you don't want to ask them because you think it might start WW3 in your class, don't! I just put them in because this is what we did in our class. Of course, ALL of the questions in the leader's guides are always optional!... these are just MORE optional.....)
Begin OPTIONAL Optional Questions:
What happens near the end of the 7 years? To the 144K? = they appear in heaven so seem to be raptured from the earth (Rev. Chapter 14)
What happens after that? What does the Angel reaper (Who is probably Jesus) on the Cloud do when He swings His Sickle and reaps? = reaps people
Who are they????? ...=. hmmmm. ??Probably those who were SAVED during the 7 years ?? And are going to escape the final extra horrible end time events and the Battle of Armageddon.....
What does the other angel do when he swings his sickle and where do they go?
= reaps those who did not choose to serve God and throws them into the winepress of God's wrath (which is probably referring to the Battle of Armageddon)
This Ends the OPTIONAL Optional Questions
Now Back to "normal" class questions...
"What happens at the end of the 7 years? What BATTLE takes place? = Battle of Armageddon
And after the Battle of A.... what happens? = The Judgment of the Nations (Brown J)
Then I asked these questions but did NOT write anything on the board:
Who is the Judge at the Judgement of the Nations? = Jesus
Who is Judged at the Judgment of the Nations? = The Nations
And what are the 2 main categories of Nations? =
............1 The Nation of Jews
............2. All of the Gentile (Non-Jew) nations
What happens to the Jews? = can enter the Millennium if they didn't take Mark or worship B1
On What basis is the judgment of the Gentile Nations? What is being judged? = their WORKS
Specifically what works? =
........................1. Whether they Helped and/or Protected Jews during the 7 years
........................2. Whether they took the mark
........................3. Whether they worshiped the Beast (B1)
And what 2 Groups of people are there going to be at this judgment? = Sheep and Goats
Who are the Sheep? = Those who helped the Jews or did not take mark and did not worship B1
What happens to Sheep? = put on Jesus' right and are allowed to enter the Millennium
What happens to Goats? = put on Jesus' left and thrown into lake of fire.
Then what period of time begins? = the Millennium / the 1000 years.
(I wrote 1000 y on the board in ORANGE and put an orange Box around this time segment)
Then I asked the class: And what happens at the END of the 1000 years? = Satan is let loose from the BP (Bottomless pit / abyss) and stirs up a bunch of people to rebel against Jesus.
How many decide to rebel? = A huge crowd.... as many as the sands on the seashore...
What do they DO? (Rev.20:9).. = "they marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the City (Jerusalem) He loves."
What happens? Do they overthrow Jesus or.... = God Jesus wins
How? (20:10) .. = fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
And what happened to the devil who caused all this trouble? (20:10) = he was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur...
How long will the devil be there? = forever and ever.
The devil is an angel and we know that hell was created to punish the angels who fell. So it is logical that he is there. But are there any PEOPLE who are in the lake of burning sulfur? = YES
Who? Name at least 2. (20:10) = B1 (Antichrist) and B2 (false prophet) ....
Hmmmm. So does this mean that when God says that unsaved people (unforgiven sinners) will be in the lake of fire, He really means it? = YES
Is Hell REAL? = Yes!
Hmmmm.
Ok. What happens NEXT? After the rebellion has been put down and the devil has been thrown into the lake of Fire, what happens next? = GWT judgment
(Put this on the vis. Aid. I wrote GWT in purple and drew a little purple throne.....)
And after the GWT, what will happen on our time line? = Eternity begins
How LONG does eternity last? = FOREVER AND FOREVER
Hmmmmm....
By now your time line at the bottom of your visual aid looks something like this:
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O_(!x!)_____F___A___________T(_____church age_____)RB<_7 Years_>J(___1000 y___)GWT~~~~~~~
All of this making of the timeline and doing your review should have taken NO LONGER than 5 or 10 minutes!!!
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Now it is time to continue with the main part of our visual aid. So, I said:
Well, let's look now at the GWT judgment in more detail. We have found out when it occurs Which is ??? When? = at the end of the 1000 years and before eternity begins
At this point, I wrote the title of Column 1 on the chart which is
"WHEN IT OCCURS and WHO ATTENDS"
and I put, as the first item in column 1,
"begins at the end of the 1000 years and before eternity begins"
So now your Visual aid will probably look something like this:
THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT
WHEN IT OCCURS
and WHO ATTENDS
Begins at the end of the 1000y
and before eternity begins
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O_(!x!)__F___A________T(___church age___)RB<__7 Years__>J(_1000 y_)GWT~~~~~~~
Then I contnued asking questions of the class and recording many of the answers on the board...
Who attends? (Rev. 20:12) = the dead, the great and the small (Record this on the vis aid)
And why are they there at the GWT? What was their problem? = They did NOT choose to serve God before they died (Also write this on the vis aid under column 1)
And how far back in time do we go to get these people? = All the way back to the beginning of time... all the way back to the time of Adam and Eve
Will Adam and Eve be there at the GWT? = No
Why? = Because they confessed their sin and God covered their sins by sacrificing an animal and making them clothes to cover them....
(Note to Leader: At this point, briefly Explain to your class that this blood sacrifice of the animal was a TYPE which pictured for them what Jesus would do in the future. Also explain to your class that this is WHAT the temple sacrifices and services and etc. (Both before the birth of Jesus and again during the 1000 year reign in the Millennium) were ALSO meant to do... to PICTURE Christ and what His death sacrifice would do....)
Then continue by asking: What are our sins covered with today (if we confess our sins and ask Jesus to forgive us)? = the Blood of Jesus' atonement sacrifice.
Write a summary statement of this discussion on the visual aid, under column 1. (I wrote):
"all who have not been covered by the Blood of Jesus which paid the penalty for their sins"
Then Spend a few more minutes here discussing (without writing anything on the board) that the ONLY way to be saved is to confess sin to God, and ask Him for forgiveness, and to accept Jesus's free gift of His life sacrifice as payment for your sins. Everyone who does this is SAVED and will NOT be at the GWT judgment. Everyone who does NOT do this WILL be at the GWT Judgment... because ALL unconfessed sin and all Sinners MUST be punished! Discuss WHY this must be = because God is a Holy God and can NOT tolerate, abide with, fellowship with, etc. anyone or anything that has unconfessed sin, that has sin that has not been atoned for.....
By now your vis aid will look something like:
THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT
WHEN IT OCCURS
and WHO ATTENDS
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Begins at the end of the 1000y
and before eternity begins
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.........Who attends?....... =
The dead, great an small
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All who did NOT choose
to serve God before they died
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all who have not been covered
by the Blood of Jesus
which paid the penalty for their sins
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O_(!x!)__F___A________T(___church age___)RB<__7 Years__>J(_1000 y_)GWT~~~~~~
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Now begin Column 2 by writing it's title on the board: "WHAT IS JUDGED"
Ask, Ok, so at the GWT Judgement when the people are judged, what is it that is being judged?
..............................=1. Unconfessed unforgiven Sin and
..............................=2."What they had Done" (20:12)
And what else? There was something about their name being or not being in a book. What book? (Rev. 20:12,15)..... =3. If name is in The Book of Life
(Write these 3 answers on the board as 1,2, and 3...leaving space so you can write some details under #1 )
Yes! At the GWT, Unconfessed unforgiven Sin, and "What they had done" are being judged and also the Book of life is checked to see if their name is in it..
Let's look at some of this in more detail.... and let's begin with SIN
Ask questions about sin, based on the scriptures they read in their homework.
You will probably ask such things as ?What IS sin? Give me a definition!
(Then write 2 or 3 of the definitions which they give you on the board). They will probably be something like: "missing the mark", etc. and as you do this, briefly discuss WHAT sin is).
Then Ask them to name some specific sins, based on what they studied in their lesson. Have them give you a LOT of examples... but only write a few of them on the board....under column 2.... (of course, the more board space you have, the more you can write... so use your board space)
By now your vis aid may look something like this...(and, YES, Column 1 is still on the board! I am just putting the information for column. 2 here, since that is what we are talking about now....)
THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT
WHAT IS JUDGED
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1.Unconfessed unforgiven SIN
Sin is "Missing the Mark"
....disobeying God
....lawlessness
....all wrongdoing
.......etc...
Examples of sin:
...knowing to do good and not doing it
...despising your neighbor
...hates his brother
...murder
.......etc
2. "What they had done"
3. If name is in the Book of Life
O_(!x!)__F___A________T(___church age___)RB<__7 Years__>J(_1000 y_)GWT~~~~~~
Then say....... Yes... SIN and the "What they have done" will be judged...and the question of whether their name is written in THE BOOK OF LIFE has to be answered.
But HOW will God know that these people have committed the sins they have committed? And how will He know what Works (good and bad) they have done? And how will He know if their name is in the "Book of Life"?
= He has kept BOOKS and Records of all of these!!! .... He has DETAILED and COMPLETE books on EVERY person who will be at the GWT.
ARG! Yes! God has Books.... lots of books! And He has kept records of EVERYTHING!!! And in your lesson you studied about these books. What are they? Let's list them... and then we will briefly discuss some of them.
At this point, put the Title of Column 3 on the Board.....THE BOOKS ARE OPENED !!!
Then say...
By the way, Who is NOT at the GWT? = all those who chose to serve God.... and confessed their sins and have been forgiven of their sins.
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Did God have books on those who are NOT at the GWT Judgment? = Yes
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Why are they not being opened now? = because when a person's sins are forgiven... they are forgotten and will never be held against them.... because JESUS paid ALL the penalty for them!
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WOWOWOWOW! Praise the Lord.
But these people at the GWT have NOT chosen to serve God and have NIT repented of their sins and have NOT accepted Jesus' atoning sacrifice..... so what is going to happen to them? Are their books going to be opened? = Yes
Are they going to be judged? = Yes.
Yes, they are. So let's see now WHAT these books are that are going to be opened and what they CONTAIN...
Then ask the class to NAME the books (and as they name them, you write them on the board
under column 3:
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God's Book of Life
Lamb's book of Life
Book of Laws
Book of Deeds (the "What you have done")
Book of Conscience
Book of Words
Book of Secret Words
After you have written all of these BOOKS on the board, then begin to discuss them.
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The first thing you want to do is to help your class determine with certainty whether or not the GOD'S BOOK OF LIFE and the LAMB'S BOOK OF LIFE are the same or different books. Based on the scriptures they had in their home work, reason with them until they understand that they are different books and then determine what the purpose of each is. Also, help them to understand that having these two separate and different books (God's Book of Life and the Lamb's Book of Life) is a double check to be sure no mistake has been made. Of course, God does NOT make mistakes, but this is just one more confirmation to those standing before the GWT that they HAVE SINNED and have NOT asked for forgiveness and, therefore, their sins have NOT been atoned for and, therefore, they are responsible for and will have to pay the penalty themselves for their sins-- since they did not accept Jesus' gift of paying for their sins for them before their death
After you have finished the discussion re. God's Book of Life and the Lamb's Book of Life, then have your class tell you, based on the scriptures they studied in their homework, what is in each of the other books and what their purpose is.
The main points you want to emphasize while discussing these other 5 books (did you notice that there were 7 sets of books in all! Amazing.... hmmmm) are:
The Book of the Law contains the 10 Commandments and all the other Laws of God... including those related to the temple worship, rituals, sacrifices, etc. etc. etc. Be sure that your class understands that KEEPING ALL of the LAWS will NOT earn salvation... because, even if they did keep all of the laws (which no one ever has done, so this is academic or a moot point anyway), they would still have the sin nature...which must be covered with the Blood of Jesus, so unless they had asked God (Jesus) to be their Lord and Master and to cover their sin nature with His blood and make them Righteous (sinless in every aspect), they would still have the body of SIN and therefore couldnot /cannot live (abide) with and fellowship with The Holy God....
Re. The Book of Deeds.... be sure your group understand that this includes both GOOD deeds and BAD (sinful) deeds. Help your class understand that even though many people think they can get to heaven by being Good and kind and more honest than dishonest, they are WRONG!!!
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And, although many people think that God is going to put all they did on some kind of big scale with all the good deeds on one side and the bad deeds on the other and IF the scale shows that there were MORE good deeds than bad... they WIN and get to go to heaven, they are WRONG! .
These incorrect views are NOT what God says is the requirement for entering heaven!!!
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Soooooo......
The ONLY requirement for entering heaven, according to what God tells us in Rev.20:15, is ??
= whether or not a person's name is written in the Book of Life!!!
YES ! Absolutely correct!!!! The Bible says the requirement to enter heaven is not based on works... it is not based on doing good deeds.. it is not based on being or doing anything EXCEPT.... whether or not a person's name is written in the Book of Life!!!
AND How does a person get their name written in the Book of Life? It is NOT by doing good deeds or being nice or by being less bad than someone else, or by having your good deeds outweigh the bad!
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No!... it is ONLY by.....CHOOSING TO SERVE GOD and therefore preventing your name from being blotted out of God's Book of life.
When a person confesses their sins and asks forgiveness and accepts and trusts in Jesus' Blood Sacrifice to pay the penalty for his or her sins BEFORE they died... then they had their name written in the Lamb's Book of Life and are promised that their name would NEVER be blotted out of GOD'S BOOK OF LIFE.... BUT.. If they did not do this, then when they died... their name WAS BLOTTED OUT of God's Book of life... So, at the GWT Judgment.... when their name is looked for in the Book of Life... it is NOT THERE!!!!! So, they are condemned to Hell....forever.....!!! No deeds... no good works... no crying and tears... no promises to do better.... nothing will now be able to pay their penalty for sin... nothing will let them escape the punishment of sin.... Nothing!!! ... If their name is NOT in the BOOK OF LIFE! They are doomed to eternity in Hell, in the lake of fire! It is tooooo late to change their mind. They had their chance but blew it. Now it is tooooo late!
Let's Read it again....Rev. 20:15 "IF ANYONE'S NAME WAS NOT FOUND WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE, HE WAS THROWN INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE!".
......into the lake of fire.....into the lake of fire.... into the lake of fire......
Re. The Books of Conscience, the Book of Words, and the Book of secret words ...
be sure that your group understands that in these books are recorded ALL of the words, secret or otherwise, which they have ever spoken!!!... and all the times that their conscience told them to not do what they were doing.... have been recorded....
EVERY SINGLE WORD.... EVERY SINGLE EVENT... everything is recorded.
God overlooks NOTHING! God knows EVERYTHING! NOTHING is secret from God!!!
Things are bad....very bad...worse than bad... beyond bad !!!..... for those who thought they could outsmart God... or who thought that God would overlook sin and sweep it under the rug.... or for those who thought that there was no God, no heaven, no hell......
There is a heaven. There is a real literal hell. And there is a God who is sooooo Holy that He can NOT abide with, look upon, ignore, or tolerate sin. He just can't! It is His HOLY Nature. He just can't dwell with sin! And, God was soooooo aware of and concerned about this, that God came as Jesus, the Son, to pay the penalty for sin and to allow us an escape route from the horrible consequences of sin (eternity in the lake of burning sulfur). He did everything He could to prevent this awful moment from happening!
And many did accept God's offer of forgiveness and salvation and confessed their sins and turned from them and chose to serve and obey Him before their deaths (or before the Rapture, whichever should occur first). And those who did... are NOT at the GWT Judgment because their names ARE recorded in the Book of Life! So, all those books of sins and deeds and law breaking and secret words and etc. are NOT opened for them... they have been closed forever and will NEVER be opened!....and they are not punished for them at the GWT...Why? ....because Jesus has already paid the penalty for them!!! (But.... at the BEMA, there will be some reckoning for the thoughts, deeds, etc. done AFTER their salvation.... BUT this reckoning has to do with attaining or loosing rewards, and does not concern or determine whether they go to heaven or hell, as is the case at the GWT judgment.) In fact, they (those who chose to Serve God) have already begun to spend eternity in glorious peace and happiness and joy and with delights that we can't even imagine.....
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But... those at the Great White Throne Judgment did NOT choose to serve God. They did not choose to let Jesus pay their death penalty for them. They choose to serve themselves or the devil or B1 or their work or their money or their..... (you fill in the blank)... they choose to serve anything or anyone EXCEPT God. And now it is time to stand before God and to receive the punishment that they deserve... the punishment that God wanted them to not have to experience.
By now the 3rd column of your visual aid probably looks something like this: (of course, the other columns are still here... this is just what you probably have under column 3... with any additional notes or comments beside each book as were appropriate.)
THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT
THE BOOKS ARE OPENED !!!
God's Book of Life
Lamb's book of Life
Book of Laws
Book of Deeds (the "What you have done-- Good and Bad")
Book of Conscience
Book of Words
Book of Secret Words
O_(!x!)__F___A________T(___church age___)RB<__7 Years__>J(_1000 y_)GWT~~~~~~~
Now write on the board as the heading of column 4......
........ WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE GWT JUDGMENT?
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Then turn back to your class and ask this as a question directly to them:
What are the Consequences of the GWT Judgment? (20:15)
= "If anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
When they give you that answer, write it in BIG RED LETTERS under column 4....
Then just stand there, looking at what you have written on the board, and Let this thought sink in for a few seconds.
(By now your column 4 looks like this:)
THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT
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WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES
OF THE GWT JUDGMENT?
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"IF ANYONE'S NAME
WAS NOT FOUND
WRITTEN
IN THE BOOK OF LIFE,
HE WAS THROWN
INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE."
O_(!x!)__F___A________T(___church age___)RB<__7 Years__>J(_1000 y_)GWT~~~~~~~
Then say: Let's pray
Close with prayer. And you do the praying. My closing prayer was something like this:
Oh Father God,
....What we have learned about the GWT Judgment is soooo horrible!!!!
....BUT we know that it is also right and necessary because You are a Holy God and CANNOT abide with sin.
.... so.. We know that what happens at the GWT has to happen....
....BUT.. it is so tragic and awful and so unnecessary because YOU have provided a way for mankind to escape the penalty of sin
.... Yes....
....There really IS going to be a judgment for EVERYONE who does NOT choose to serve you.
.... and....There really IS a hell! And it IS a place of eternal fire and suffering.
.....And as the old hymn says: "...and oh... what a weeping and the wailing.... as the lost were told of their fate.. They cried for the rocks and the mountains.. They prayed but their prayer was too late..."
...Oh Father, we all know friends and have family members who WILL BE at that GWT judgment If they don't repent, and confess their sins and accept Jesus' sacrifice and make Him their Lord and Master and King. We pray for their souls. We pray that you will open their eyes, their ears, their hearts, and give them another chance to hear the gospel and to turn from their sins and choose to serve You instead of what they are now serving..... Oh Father, help them to see the consequences of the path they are now on and to turn from it and to You!...before it is too late!
...And, Father, if there is anyone in this room... anyone doing this lesson, this course, who has NOT yet surrendered his or her life and soul to you, I pray that they will do it NOW. ...so that they will escape this GWT Judgment and the eternity in Hell.
...Thank you, God, for caring so much about our fate that YOU... YOU DIED !!!... in my place, in our place... and paid the penalty for my sin... for the sin of anyone who will accept your gift. Oh, what a glorious gift! What an Awesome God! Thank you!..... thank you!..... thank you!
...And now as we leave this class tonight, I ask that you give each one of us Your sense of urgency to reach those whom You will put in our paths this week and in the weeks, months, years --or-- whatever time we have left... to tell them of the way to escape hell and to spend eternity with You.
....Father, use us as Your servants to proclaim the good news... that Jesus has paid the death penalty... that hell does not have to be their eternal home....if they will just choose to serve You!
....We love You! We thank You! We praise You.... now and forever!
..................................................................And we pray this.....In Jesus' Name.....Amen.
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As your class leaves, as always, be available to talk with or pray with anyone as the need may be.
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