I always think about that 23rd
Psalm that you prayed there. That's such a precious, precious
passage of scripture for the sheep. And we're talking about
in the 10 o'clock hour. Well, let's turn in our Bibles
to Revelation chapter 20. Revelation chapter 20. We're
going to talk about judgment and the first resurrection. Judgment
and the first resurrection. Beginning at verse 4, now we've
come to this point, this is the last, the seventh vision that
the Lord gave to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos concerning
the last days. The last days being the time
of his first coming up to the time of his second coming. We
can call it the new covenant age. We can call it the church
age. Many things like that. The new
covenant, the church, the time that was begun with his ascension
into glory after he'd finished the work of redemption and was
inaugurated, you might say, at Pentecost when Peter stood and
preached the gospel. And 3,000 souls were saved. Continued
on as the gospel was shot out into the Gentile world. Christ
has been seeking and finding and saving his sheep all along.
And it'll reach until the second coming of Christ. And here in
this 20th chapter, John saw an angel come down from heaven,
having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain. That's
Christ in his power. his power to save we know about
his power to save his people but his power to control all
things even the bottomless pit which is this earth that's what
this is it's not a big hole in the ground somewhere uh... and i told you last week hell
is not below your feet hell is eternal separation from god and
so this great chain which he bound satan Verse two says, he
laid hold of the dragon, the old serpent, the devil, bound
him for a thousand years. Up to the time of the new covenant,
Satan had been loosed on earth to deceive the nations. And really
what we understand about that is there was very, very little
truth being preached, even in Israel. Because even though the
truth was there, the gospel was there in the Old Covenant, not
in the Old Covenant itself, but in the sense of the types and
the pictures, the priesthood, the tabernacle, all that, there
were very few who believed it. And it's because God, in His
judgment, set down these things in this way for His glory and
in His wisdom. But then when Christ died on
the cross, you can read about this all over the scripture,
but one of the passages that we refer to was John chapter
12 verses 31 and 32, when he said, now is the prince of this
world cast down. That's when Satan was bound.
And you think about this, it means Satan's power was limited. God limited it. And the new covenant
began and the gospel began to be preached all over the world.
Out into the Gentiles, the apostle Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.
And people were being saved. Now, we don't get the impression
that it was the majority of the world. It wasn't. Still, it was
very few compared to the population of the earth. But churches were
being established in Galatia and Corinth, Thessalonica, Ephesus,
the seven churches of Asia, Asia Minor in Revelation, all of these.
And think about us, we have the Gospel. Though there be few,
we still have the Gospel. And Satan was bound, he was limited. But in the end of the age, he
will be set free, he'll be loosed for a little season. And look
at verse four. John writes, 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, for
preaching the gospel, and for the word of God, and which had
not worshiped the beast, that's false religion, and false governments,
neither his image, Neither had received his mark upon their
foreheads." The forehead is a metaphor for the mind. The mark of the
beast is false religious doctrine opposed to the one way of salvation
in Christ. You can call it free willism,
you can call it works religion, whatever you want to call it. Much of it comes under the name
of Christianity, but it denies the truth. of Christianity, which
is the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. And what it
says when he says they did not receive the mark upon their foreheads
or on their hands, hands representing their works, he said they didn't believe this
false gospel. Now, we all start out that way,
but God doesn't leave his sheep in that false religious darkness. He brings us out. And that's
called the first resurrection. We're gonna see that. He says,
they didn't receive it and they lived and reigned with Christ
a thousand years. That's the new covenant time.
And it says, but the rest of the dead lived not again until
the thousand years were finished. That's the unbelievers of the
world. And then he says, this is the
first resurrection. We're gonna talk about that.
And he says in verse six, blessed and holy is he that hath part
in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath
no power. The second death is eternal damnation. That's a consignment under the
judgment of God of eternal death and damnation. Eternal alienation
from God. But they shall be priests of
God and of Christ. Which means, just like the priest
under the old covenant, we have free access into the Holy of
Holies by the blood of Jesus Christ. And it says, and they
shall reign with him a thousand years. How will we reign with
him? We are his ambassadors. He's the king of kings. Christ
is the Lord of lords. We are his ambassadors. We preach
his word. We stand for his glory. We point
sinners to Christ. Now there are two things that
we need to understand about these three verses. And that is, number
one, this judgment. He says in verse 4, that judgment
was given unto them. Now what kind of judgment is
he talking about? He's talking about gospel judgment. Gospel judgment. Here he's not
talking about the final judgment or the great white throne judgment.
That comes at the end of this chapter. But here he's talking
about gospel judgment. That gospel judgment in righteousness
concerning the salvation of sinners by God's grace through the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the damnation of sinners who continue in sin
and unbelief. The gospel is a judgment. The
gospel tells us that he that believeth shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. By nature, our judgment is off. In other words, we could say
it this way. By nature, in our lost, unregenerate state, we
don't know right from wrong when it comes to salvation, when it
comes to a right relationship with God. We think that we can
attain or maintain salvation or a right relationship with
God by our works, our wills, our efforts, but that's darkness. And when God the Holy Spirit
brings us under the preaching of the gospel and gives us life,
life from the dead, you hath he quickened who were dead in
trespasses and sins. He gives us life, gives us eyes
to see, ears to hear, hearts and minds to understand and know
and believe the truth. He sets forth judgment within
our hearts and in our consciences. Now we know right from wrong.
Now we know that the only right way to be accepted, to be saved,
to be right with God is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and
not some pretended righteousness that we try to work up. And we
judge it this way. Only those who are in Christ
are right with God. Those who don't know Christ Their
works and their efforts are evil deeds. That's our judgment. Now
let me show you some scripture that'll show that. First of all,
the scripture that Brother Mike read in Isaiah 42 is a prophecy
of that. If you'll look back there in
Isaiah chapter 42 in verse one, he's talking about Christ here,
the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, as God's elect. In the covenant of grace, the
father chose the son to be the savior of his people. He put
all of the responsibility of the salvation of his chosen people
upon Christ. And Christ willingly took that
task upon himself. And listen how it reads. Behold
my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth,
You remember that's what the Lord said at the baptism of Christ. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. I have put my spirit upon him
and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. What do you
mean? He's gonna bring the gospel to the Gentiles. The gospel which
shows me what's right and what's wrong when it comes to salvation
so that I can make a proper judgment. which I cannot do in my unregenerate
state. People today, well, I'll just
tell you this in my own history. When I was in seminary, I really
didn't know the truth, but I thought I was searching for the truth. This was back in the 70s when
I was a young man. And in all of my studies, listening
to all my professors and all the preachers, we talked about
Jesus, we talked about history, we talked about the Bible, mainly
to criticize it. But it dawned on me, and just
to make a long story short, if it's not too late, it dawned
on me, as I was going through all of that, On the whole, most people who
claim to be Christian and who claim that Jesus was the only
way of salvation, when it was all over but the shouting, they
really believed that if a person tried to live a good life and
be a moral person, that person was gonna end up in heaven. And
I thought, well, Well, if that's the case, then why am I here?
Why am I here in seminary trying to lead people to Jesus? Things
like that. And that's what most people believe. And you don't have to go very
far to find that out. Just go to a funeral today. I've
never been to a funeral where somebody was preached into hell. Even if they didn't go to church,
didn't do the things, they didn't get baptized, they're all gonna
end up in hell. And I know the preacher, he don't wanna make
anybody mad and things like that. But we really believe, well,
you know, in fact, I had a man tell me one time, studying for
the mission field. He said, he said, well, you know,
if people, if they never hear the gospel, they never hear about
Jesus, never read a Bible, but if they try to live a good life,
they'll be okay. And I asked him, I said, well,
why go tell them about Jesus then? Just leave them alone,
they're better off without it. That's the thing about it. See,
that's the kind of judgment that we have before God opens our
eyes and shows us the right way, which is Christ crucified and
risen from the dead, His blood, His righteousness alone, and
the wrong way, which is every other way. And that's what happens. Look
at verse five of Isaiah 42, or verse four. He shall not fail
nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth and
the isles shall wait for his law. He's gonna set judgment
in the earth. Now Christ did that himself on the cross. He
set judgment in the earth. He died under the judgment of
God for the sins of his people charged to his account. And he
satisfied justice. He brought justice and judgment
into the world. He established righteousness.
Look at verse 6. He says, I the Lord have called
thee in righteousness. You could say justice. And will
hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant
of the people for a light of the Gentiles. That's Christ.
Judgment, this is gospel judgment. Let me show you another passage.
Look at Hebrews chapter 11. This is talking about Noah. In Hebrews chapter 11. And you
know the story of Noah. How Noah was told by God to build
an ark because God was gonna destroy there. He was gonna bring
judgment into this world by destroying the world by flood. And look
at verse seven of Hebrews 11. It says, by faith, Noah, being
warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, that
is with a respect and a faith in God, prepared an ark to the
saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and became
heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Noah, preaching
the gospel, condemned the world. What does that mean? Noah's not
the judge of all things, is he? Christ is. But Noah, as an ambassador
of Christ, preached the gospel which tells people, look, you
bow to the Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope or you're condemned. He that believeth is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already. It's a judgment. One more scripture. Look at 2 Corinthians 2. 2nd Corinthians chapter 2, look
at verse 14. Now this is what this is about,
this is gospel judgment that he's talking about. Verse 14
of 2nd Corinthians 2, Paul writes, now thanks be unto God which
always causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the
savor of his knowledge by us in every place, everywhere we
preach the gospel. For we are unto God a sweet saver
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. In other
words, God's gonna get the glory either way. God's justice is
satisfied either, is going to be enacted either way. And verse
16, look, to the one we're the saver of death unto death. That's
the unbeliever. To the other, the saver of life
unto life. It's a separation, it's a judgment.
And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many
which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of
God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. Speak we of Christ. Now go back to Revelation 20. This is the judgment that is
given to the people of God. Gospel judgment. What separates
and distinguishes the people of God from the world? Well, it's the gospel that we
believe. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1, to those who are perishing,
it's foolishness. To those who are being saved,
it's the wisdom and the power of God in Christ. That's what
separates us. The preaching of the cross. The saver of life unto life.
John, he saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness
of Jesus. In other words, they were martyred
because they preached gospel judgment. They preached a gospel
that separates the sheep from the goats. Martyred, smitten
for their faith in Christ and their witness of the gospel.
And it says, by the grace of God, they refused to worship
the beast. They refused to blend in with
false religion and take that as their mark, their mind, their
doctrine, their hope. False doctrine, the evil way.
They were like the Apostle Paul when he saw it as given him by
the Holy Spirit. Everything that he counted as
being good and righteous and acceptable with God Before he
now counted but dung that he may win Christ and be found in
him. That's that gospel judgment.
That's what brings us to understand what's right and what's wrong.
And it says here, it says they lived and they reigned with Christ
a thousand years. Those who were beheaded, those
who were martyred, they're with Christ right now in their spirits. What a place to be. Just like
he told that thief, today you'll be with me in paradise. And when
he comes again, they'll return with him in glory. And then those
who are alive on the earth, they'll be caught up in the heavens to
meet with him. And they'll be all together.
That's when we'll be glorified together with Christ. And then
the judgment that's been on earth, that gospel judgment, will be
revealed in every place universally. And at that time, people will
understand what it means to be right with God and what it means
to be condemned under the law. But that's the gospel judgment.
We'll look back here. Look at verse five again. It says, but the rest of the
dead lived not again until the thousand years, that's those
who died in unbelief, were finished. Some use this verse. To support
the idea that there are two physical resurrections. You all have heard
that. Dispensationalism. There's gonna be a resurrection,
then a thousand year reigns, and then another. That's not
what this is teaching at all. There's only one final resurrection. Christ is coming again one time. He will call up his people unto
himself. That's the rapture. That's a
good word. And then he'll judge the world
in righteousness, all of that. And all of this is set forth
in the scriptures clearly. But when he says they lived not
until the thousand years were finished, the word until, really
it means while. It means while and states that
while this period of time is going on, These remain spiritually
dead. So what's it talking about? It's
talking about those who are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins and
remain so throughout the New Covenant times. They live and
they die in unbelief. That's what he's talking about.
And then he concludes this section by simply saying this is the
first resurrection. Now, what is the first resurrection? Well, the first resurrection,
to put it simply to you, it's the regeneration and the conversion,
the new birth of God's people. It's connected with the resurrection
of Christ. Turn to Ephesians chapter two. Somebody said that in order for
us to enter heaven's glory, there are two things that we must go
through. Two things that must happen,
let's put it that way. Number one, all legal obstacles
must be removed that would hinder us to come to God and to be accepted,
to be saved. And all righteousness must be
established. That's the ground of salvation.
That took place in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And it was all in, Christ is
our representative, our surety, our substitute. That's what he
is. And he did all of this for us. And here, if you'll look at Ephesians
chapter two, when it talks about how Christ died for us, was buried
for us, and raised again for us, and he accomplished Redemption
in our place, look at Ephesians chapter two. It says in verse
four, it says, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ. Now the quickening means giving
us life. But how did he do it to us together? Now, I don't know, I can't give
you an exact date that I was born again. You know, people
in false religion talk about that, you know, their spiritual
birthday. I don't know. It wasn't when I walked an aisle
and got baptized, all of that. I know it happened in time. But
I know we all were not together born again at that time. I know
the Apostle Paul was born again before me. You understand that,
don't you? So how is it that we were quickened
together? We were quickened together as
a body when Christ was raised from the dead. When he died,
we died. When he was buried, we were buried.
He was our representative. When he arose again, we arose
again in him. Now that's the legal aspect,
the legal aspect of salvation, the ground of salvation. That's
why we say that the imputed righteousness of Christ is the one and only
ground of our justification before God. And that has to take place. It took place on Calvary. That
is the ground of our justification. Righteousness was established
in time. That righteousness upon which God has justified all of
his people was accomplished in Christ on Calvary. And we know
it was successful because he raised him from the dead. So
he says in verse five, by grace you are saved. Verse six, and
hath raised us up together and made us sit together when Christ
ascended, we ascended in him in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. Now there's the ground, salvation. And also, there's
the source of spiritual life. And here's the second thing that's
got to happen. We've got to have a legal right
established to be saved, to be right with God, to be justified.
That's the imputed righteousness of Christ. That's the ground
of salvation. And then we must be born again by the Spirit.
We must be given life within, spiritual life within. Christ
said you must be born again. And that's called a resurrection.
That's what John is calling the first resurrection. here in Revelation
20, but look across the page at Ephesians chapter one. He speaks of this, the work of
the Spirit. In Ephesians one, he speaks of
the work of the Father in salvation. God chose us before the foundation
of the world. He speaks of the work of the
Son in salvation. He established the ground of
it by his work on the cross, his obedience unto death. And
then he concludes with the work of the Spirit in salvation. And
that's the first resurrection. And it's called a resurrection.
Look at verse 17 of Ephesians chapter 1. He says that the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
Him. Now that's when judgment comes
to our hearts. That's when judgment comes to
our conscience. Right judgment. Verse 18. The eyes of your understanding
be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his
calling, what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power
to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty
power, listen, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly
places. Here's what he's saying. The
very same power that brought Christ out of that grave in His
resurrection is the same power that brings you and me who believe
out of the grave of our dead, spiritual deadness, out of the
grave of our darkness. It is a resurrection. It's a
new birth. It's giving life to the dead.
And that's what he's talking about here in the first resurrection.
Listen to it again, Revelation 20. He says in verse four, these
thrones, judgment, the gospel was given unto them. And I saw
the souls that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, for
the word of God, which had not worshiped the beast, neither
his image, neither had received the mark upon their foreheads
or in their hands. And they lived and reigned with
Christ a thousand years. Why is it? that we have not received
the mark of the beast in our foreheads, in our minds, in our
hearts, or on our hands, our works. It's because we've been
raised from the dead in the new birth. We've been given spiritual
life from the dead. We've been given new hearts.
Remember, Ezekiel spoke of that. I'll give them a new heart, God
said, a new spirit. I'll cause them to walk in my
statutes, my directions, which is the gospel. We believe the
gospel. We've been given the gift of
faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. That's the first
resurrection. That word first actually means
foremost. And listen to what he says in
verse six again. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in
the first resurrection. We're blessed of God. We're graced
of God. We're objects of His mercy and
His love and grace in Christ. We've been blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. All the blessings,
all the benefits, all the gifts of salvation have been freely
and fully given us in Christ Jesus. And we can't say we earned
one of them. We can't say we deserved any
of them. That's the mark of the beast
if you say that. You understand that? And holy. What does it mean to be holy?
It means to be separate. It means to be distinct. It means
to be set apart. Holy brethren. Do you think that
that describes us in our character and conduct? As if we're holier
than thou? No. What is it that separates
us from the world? It's the gospel. Things related
to the gospel, but you can't see without the gospel. And that's
what he's talking about. That's the first resurrection.
That's the judgment. And he says in verse 6, he said,
On such the second death hath no power. Death has no power. The grave has no power. Condemnation
has no power. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. We've already been judged. When? On the cross. When our Savior,
our surety, our Redeemer, our substitute died for our sins,
paid our debt in full. We don't have anything to pay
now. There's no debt. It's been canceled. It's been
wiped out. The only debt we have is a debt of love to God. We
owe Him all of our love, all of our devotion, all of our worship. And the second death has no power.
He says they shall be priests of God and of Christ. Oh, think
about it. Look over at Hebrews chapter
10. You know, when I was going through
religion, we talk about the priesthood of the believer. And I don't
know who taught me this, I don't know where I heard it, but here's
what I used to think it was. I used to think, well, we all
get in a group and we read the Bible And you
say what it means to you and I'll say what it means to me.
We all have that right because of the priesthood of the believer.
Well, that's not what it means at all. Here's what it means. Look at Hebrews chapter 10 and
verse 19. Now, here's a verse that tells
you the priesthood of the believer. Now, he'd been talking about
the death of Christ. He says, by one offering, he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. His one offering
did that. So verse 19, having therefore
brethren boldness, liberty to enter into the holiest. Me? You mean I can have boldness,
liberty to enter into the holiest? You remember back in the old
covenant when you had the holy of holies? You know what happened
when anybody entered there when it wasn't their right to do so?
Dead. Even old, who was the king when
Isaiah, what was his name, in the year that, Yeah, when he
died, what did he do? He just went into the holy place,
not the holiest of all, but the holy place to burn incense and
he got struck with leprosy. What's the holiest here? It's the very presence of Almighty
God. And you mean that I or you sinners,
that we can have boldness to enter there? How? By the blood of Jesus. A new
and living way, which Jesus Christ hath consecrated, made new. You
didn't make it new. You didn't make your way. Somebody
says, well, you gotta make your peace with God. You gotta get
right. No, he did it. For us, through the veil, that
is to say his flesh, and having a high priest over the house
of God, That's Christ. Let us draw near with a true
heart, a sincere heart, in full assurance of faith. What is that?
The assurance that I have in Christ. Looking to Him. Having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience. There's where that judgment comes
in. What is your conscience? It's your own personal courtroom,
whereby you excuse or accuse yourself. And how do people do that? By
nature, we accuse and excuse ourselves based upon our doing,
our works. Oh, I know I'm going to heaven.
On what ground? What's your reason? Well, I gave
my heart to Jesus and got baptized and I've got a Sunday school.
That's an evil conscience. That's wrong judgment. To have your heart sprinkled
from that evil conscience is a heart sprinkled by the blood
of Christ. That's the Spirit's application of the truth of God's
work in Christ, to put away my sins and to make me righteous
in God's sight. And our bodies washed with pure
water. My righteousness, my purity, my cleanliness, my worthiness,
however you want to say it, Where is it? It's not in me, it's in
Christ. It's in Christ. That's judgment
and the first resurrection. And those who have been born
again by the Spirit, who have been given that gospel judgment
written on their hearts and their consciences, you don't have to
fear the second death. We'll talk about that later on.
We can have boldness in the day of judgment. I'll show you that.
That's something, isn't it? How? Through Christ. Crucified
and risen from the dead, the Lord our righteousness. Okay.