Turn back to the book of Revelation
chapter 20. In this last service, we considered
the first resurrection. Now, I know that the Scripture
clearly states, according to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, And
verse 16, it says this, that the Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with
the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. That word first there means first
in time first in place and first in order. That's what that word
means, first. The first resurrection of Revelation
20, verse 5, the first resurrection, that word is a different word,
first. It means the foremost, the best,
the chief. It means a standing up and recovery
of spiritual truth, the first resurrection. In John 3, 3 we
looked at just a moment ago, Jesus answered and said unto
him, that is, Nicodemus, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except
a man be born again, born again, That word, born again, means
brought forth, regenerated from the first. Except a man be born
again, regenerated from the first. He cannot see, he cannot know
what it means, the kingdom of God. So, verse 5, we looked at
a moment ago, but the rest of the dead live not again until
or while the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection,
John said. Verse 6, Blessed and holy is
he that hath part 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. Now this blessing, blessing and
holy. The word blessing there means
happy. Happy. Joyful. John 13, 17 says, If
ye know these things, happy, blessed. Or ye, if ye do them,
blessed, happy. God's people are Happy in the
Lord. Happy that Almighty God called
Him out of darkness. Thankful. Lord, thank You. Thank You that You showed me
mercy. That You didn't leave me to myself.
Blessed. Blessed are You. Blessed and
holy. Sacred, pure, and blameless is
what that word means. Blessed and holy. your holy people."
How? By the imputation of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. His righteousness is our righteousness. Happy, blessed, and holy is he
that hath part in the first resurrection. Hath part. Blessed and holy is
he that hath part, hath. That is to say that holds, that
possesses, that has a relation. Blessed is he that hath. Part means an allotment, a share. Blessed and holy is he that holds
or possesses a relationship or has a relationship or an allotment
or a share. This phrase, half part, blessed
is he that hath part, is a phrase that is peculiar to John the
Apostle. He wrote under the inspiration
of the Spirit of God, speaking of Peter, but Peter being the
object, John wrote this in John 13.8, Peter saith unto him, speaking
to the Lord Jesus Christ, I tell you what, just turn over to John
13.8. There is something about the eyes looking upon the words
of Scripture. When you look and you see what
it says, John 13.8, the Lord had told him he was going to
wash their feet. And Peter said unto him, he said,
Lord, you know, you'll never, you know, you'll never do. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt,
verse 8, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him,
If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. No part The word part actually
has to do with fellowship. You have no fellowship. I don't
wash you. If I wash you, no part. Luke
10.42. Let me read this to you for the
sake of time. Mary, the Lord told Martha. When Martha complained, Mary
set the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Martha said, Lord,
would you tell my sister Come over here and help me." While
she sat at his feet and listened to his words, he said, Mary hath
chosen that good part, that good fellowship. 2 Corinthians 6,
verse 15, What concord, what accordance hath Christ and Belial,
that is, worthlessness, or what part, what fellowship hath he
that believeth with an infidel, with an unbeliever. Amos 3.3
says, How can two walk together except they be agreed? If a man
is not agreed with the Scriptures concerning the glory of Almighty
God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, I have no fellowship
with him, no fellowship, no part with him. A fellowship, it's
a part. An unbeliever and a believer
has no fellowship in the gospel. There is no part, there is no
fellowship there. An unbeliever may speak of religious
things, but they know not the God that the believer loves and
worships and serves. Blessed is he, John said, blessed
and holy is he that hath part, has fellowship with Christ in
the first resurrection. in the regeneration because of
the Lord's resurrection. His resurrection and our fellowship
in Him. There is the first resurrection. When He was raised, we were raised. And in regeneration, He reveals
that to us. Blessed is He that hath a part. On such, the Scripture says,
the second death hath no power. Now, this second death, You know
that we're going to die. You know we're all going to die.
Every man, unless the Lord Himself comes back and receives all of
His own, Paul says, the dead in Christ are going to rise first.
And we which are alive on this earth, we'll meet them in the
air. Unless Almighty God comes back,
I'm telling you that everybody in this congregation this morning
is going to die. You're going to die physically.
But this is talking about a second death, this second death. This
second death is actually the result of spiritual death as
being born in Adam. And the second death, and we're
going to look at verse 14 of chapter 20, it says, "...and
death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." This is the
second death. So we don't have to wonder what
the second death is. The second death is that eternal
judgment of Almighty God cast into the lake of fire. And we'll
deal with that subject of the lake of fire, Lord willing, when
we get down to chapter 14. But all who were beheaded for
the witness of Christ, who worshiped not the beast, neither his image,
neither received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands,
all who lived spiritually, reigned with Him, all who were alive,
they lived, regenerated by the resurrection power of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The second death, that is the
lake of fire, had no power over them. It had no privilege to. No privilege to. If something
is mine, and that's mine, I have a privilege to that. I go and
I walk in. Whenever I go home, I leave here
and I go home and I don't have to knock on the door unless the
door is locked. You know, I can't get in. I have a privilege to
it. That's your home. Where you live,
you walk in there. If that's not your home, you
don't have a privilege just to walk in. I may be your best friend. You know, I love you and you
love me, but I'm not going to come over to your house, Gary,
and just walk in the house. You know, that's how people get
shot. Stuff like that. No privilege. Those, the Scripture
says, blessed and holy is he that hath part, hath fellowship
in the first resurrection in Christ, on the second death,
has no privilege to, no control over, no right to. Their souls
are not subject to God's wrath in the lake of fire. Why? Because
the Lord Jesus Christ has borne God's wrath for them. And God's
wrath for all that the Father has everlastingly loved, God
Almighty, Father, Son, and Spirit has everlastingly loved. The
wrath of God has been spewed out upon the Lord Jesus Christ. shall be priest unto God and
of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." Now, I
told you this morning, I was going to look a little bit more
at 1 Peter 2, 9. It says, "...but ye are a chosen
generation, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world." You know that. Ephesians 1, 4 clearly states
that Almighty God has a people. that He has chosen, selected,
chose out of, chose all that He was pleased to choose, set
His affection on one and left another to Himself. Why? Because
goodness that He saw in them? Absolutely not. There was none
that did good. God looked to see if any did
seek Him. None of them did. Why did He
set His affection on one and pass by another one? Why? Because
he pleased to. And that ends it. That ends it.
You say, well, that doesn't make sense to me. Well, it's still
the truth. Whether or not a man believes
it is by the grace of God. God give a man a heart for that. And I'll tell you this, if Almighty
God gives a man a new heart, he's going to bow to the Word
of God. He's going to bow to it. You
leave a man to himself and he'll bow up. That's what Stephen told
him over in the book of Acts last Wednesday. He said, you
stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, you do always resist
the Holy Ghost. Always. 2 Peter 2.9, your chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, ordained by the Spirit of God
Himself, regenerated by the Holy Ghost to offer up daily offerings
in Christ, a priest. That's what a priest does. He
offers sacrifices unto the Lord Himself. Turn with me to Hebrews
13.15. Let me share something with you
that was a real help to me. Hebrews 13.15. by Him, that is, by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13, 15, By Him, therefore,
let us offer up the sacrifice of praise to God continually,
that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. Now that phrase right there,
those two words, giving thanks, that is actually Confessing. Confessing. But where it says,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise, that is the confession
of our guilt and our need of the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone
says, well, let's just praise the Lord, as I've said before.
People say, let's just praise the Lord. Well, this is what
they mean normally. Let's raise our hands, sway back
and forth, Probably close your eyes, put your head back a little
bit, and look sanctimonious. Now, you know, it's funny, but
it's the truth, though. That's what people say. Let's
just give the Lord a round of praise and claps and stuff like
this. What is it to praise the Lord?
Let me tell you what it is. It's to have a heart of confession. Lord, this is what I am by nature.
And I need You. Lord, help me. the praise of
our lips that confess, let us therefore offer up. How many
can actually praise the Lord? Only a believer. The Scripture says, ye are a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood. that offers the sacrifice of
praise, the confession of what we are by nature. And I need
of Him. He said, you're a holy nation. It's what Peter said in 1 Peter
2, 9. A holy nation by the imputed
righteousness of Christ. A peculiar people purchased. A peculiar people. I know people
look at a believer and they say, yeah, they're peculiar, all right,
what they believe. That word peculiar. Purchased. That's who you are. Purchased.
That you should show forth the praises of Him, the virtues of
Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. These are going to reign with
Him a thousand years. Well, back in Revelation 20 verse
7, And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed
out of his prison. The Scripture set forth in its
first few verses is Satan, by the Lord Jesus Christ, bound,
hindered, what it means, hindered, from deceiving the nations, the
elect out of every nation, by the Lord Jesus Christ, as the
bride's federal head. Now, you think about this. Everything
that he did for us, Carl, God applies that to us. He walked
perfectly before the Almighty God and His law. He walked perfectly. He said, I do only always those
things that pleased Him. And when the Lord in that day
will say to His sheep, well done, well done. Oh, in that day, we'll
see perfectly. We will thank Him throughout
eternity. Casting, the Scripture says,
casting our crowns before Him. The glory that is our crown. Christ Himself shall be the object
of the saints' praise forever. Well done. Thy good and faithful
servant, perfect, justified before Almighty God. Satan was bound
and the Lord Jesus Christ as their federal head, His life
of obedience to the law and death to atone for the sins of his
people, bound Satan from deceiving all that the Lord had everlastingly
loved. Well, at the expiration of that
thousand years, that indefinite future, Satan is going to be
loosed, the Scripture says, according to verse 7. He is going to be
loosed out of his prison. going to be no longer bound,
that is to say, as he was for the thousand years. Now, he's
being bound right now. You know that. God is called
out out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. He's called
His people out. He bound him. He bound him by
his birth. He bound him by his life. He
bound him by his death. He bound him by his ascension. He bound him as his priesthood.
He bound him. He's bound. He is our divine
representative and He is bound to be able to keep God Almighty
from calling you out of darkness. He can't do it. He can't. He
can't. He can't do it. He is bound. Now what shall He do when the
Scripture says God is going to loose Him? God is going to loose
Him. I tell you, whenever I hear someone
speak of how powerful Satan is and how powerful God is and they
compare it to that, divine battle, and then I say, you know, just
hush. That's blasphemy. You speak of God Almighty. He's
God Almighty. He's God. He's God. When the
thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of the prison. I think a jailer walks up, you
know, and you've got somebody. Kevin is sitting in a prison
cell, you know. He is behind bars. And the jailer comes up
and unlocks the door and opens it up. And the prisoner walks
out and says, I could have got out any time I wanted to. I could have done that any time
I wanted to. No, he couldn't. Why? He was bound. He had to
be loosed. God Almighty loosed him. What
is he going to do? Well, verse 8 says he will go
out to deceive the nations. which are in the four corners
of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle,
the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. Now, this religious
deception is manifest in what is called Gog and Magog. Now, this Gog and Magog was spoken
of in Ezekiel chapter 38. Actually, it was called, it was
a prince and his kingdom is what it was. If you want to go back
and read Ezekiel chapter 38, you can see where it was actually
a prince and his kingdom. But Gog and Magog is set forth
in this Scripture right here. It doesn't mean, I know I've
heard just like you, Gog and Magog, that's Russia and China. It's never set forth. I'll tell
you what it's set forth as. You go back and read it in Ezekiel,
you are going to find that it is set forth as being the general
enemies of Almighty God and His people, Gog and Magog. The purpose of Satan's deception,
he is loosed out of his prison at the end of this thousand years
and he goes out to deceive the nations which are in the four
corners all over. the world, Gog and Magog, the
general enemies of God. Why? To gather them together
to battle. That's the purpose of this deception. The grand purpose of religious
deception is being set forth clearly right here. It is Satan's
purpose to awaken literally the spiritual warfare and hostility
against the Church, the Bride, the Kingdom of God. Look back
at Revelation 16.14. That's what this says right here.
Revelation 16.14. They are, well, you look at verse
13, ìI saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth
of the dragon, mouth of the beast, out of the mouth of the false
prophet. And they are the spirits of devils, working miracles which
go forth unto the kings of the earth, and the whole earth,"
why? "...to gather them to the battle of that great day of God
Almighty." All of the false religions of this day have one purpose. It is not to evangelize the world.
You know, men stand up and they, you know, Benny Hens Jimmy Swaggart,
as I said the other day, and Billy Graham and all this, we
are wanting to evangelize the world. And they are preaching
a false gospel. They are preaching a free will
message, which is absolute rebellion against Almighty God, who has
said that salvation is by the grace of God. All religions,
lump them all together, I don't care what you call them, There's
only two messages. It's either free will, or so-called
free will, works religion, or it's salvation by the grace of
Almighty God. I don't care what you label it.
Call it whatever you want to put it on the shingle on the
outside. I don't care what it's called. If it has anything to
do with a free will, with something you have to do to be saved, it's
a false religion. It's a lie. This is what the
Scripture says. Salvation is by the grace of
Almighty God. God chose. God redeemed. God regenerates. God keeps. Salvation is of the Lord. And
what does God's people have to do as far as meriting their salvation? Nothing. By grace are you saved. Through faith it's revealed to
you. Not of works. Why? A man would
boast in it. I was baptized. So what? I walked down the aisle. So what?
I have been faithful. Salvation is by the grace of
God. He will go out to deceive the nations which are in the
four corners of the earth. God can make to gather them together. False religion says we are going
to evangelize the world. They say that salvation of the
masses is our object. No, it's not. No, it's not. It's not the good of mankind
because they preach not the gospel, the power of God. False religion
is the tool of Satan to war against God and against God's people.
How do you know that, Marvin? That's a mighty bold statement.
Well, just read verse 8. They shall go out to deceive
the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog
and Magog, to gather them together, the number of whom is the sand
of the sea, to war against God Almighty." The reason that false
religion hates the gospel of Christ is because the head of
false religion, Satan himself, manifests his hatred through
false preaching. He manifests the number of whom
is as the The sand of the sea. Obviously, we see that during
this thousand years, the time that Satan is bound, he has a
great following because now at this little season, according
to verse 3 here, it is a little season, a period of time in which
he is going to be cut short, he has a rallying of the deceived. What is he doing? Now look at
the wording. It says to gather them together. They're there. They're there. They're on every
corner. They're in every shape. They're
in every form, under every name. Paul says, any man, if an angel
from heaven preaches not the gospel, the message that we preached
unto you, let him be what? Accursed. Let him be accursed. He's a liar. He's a deceiver. He's a liar. And the Scripture
says, And they went up, verse 9, on the breadth of the earth,
and they compassed the camp of the saints round about, and the
beloved city. And fire came down from God out
of heaven and devoured them. They went up on the breadth of
the earth, compassed the camp of the saints, They encompassed
them round about. The reason that false religion
went up, rose up in this little season on the four corners of
the earth is because God Almighty has given them exactly what they
want. I want you to turn to 2 Thessalonians
2. I'm going to show you something that I'm sure you may have seen. It was just brought to my understanding,
I guess, in a very real way as I was studying this particular
message. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Before I read, this is what the
Scripture is saying. Satan is bound. during this time
as to his ability to hinder Almighty God. And God justly, He justly
calls His people out. Someone say, well, you know,
the Lord just, you know, He just decided to show mercy to someone,
so He just, you know, called them and left another to themselves.
Let me tell you something. What God's people owed, God paid. They rebelled against Almighty
God. The judgment, the sentence, The wages of sin is death. And Christ himself was made sin
for his people, and he justly paid their debt. Justly. God is a just God. And he justly
having paid their debt, Satan had no hold on them whatsoever.
And he bound him as to his ability to be able to keep the Word of
Almighty God in power, in just power. God comes to them in power,
but He's a just God. He called them out of darkness
because He had the right to call them out of darkness. He's got
the power and the right. He's able to keep you from falling. Why? Because He's paid the debt
of all that His people owed. Now, in a little season, at the
end of this time, Here again, this is my opinion.
Some things I'll tell you. If it's my opinion, I'll tell
you this. Because if I make a statement that says, this is what this
Scripture says, I will, by the grace of God, do all I can to
show you in Scripture that what I'm saying is so. This is my
opinion. I think that very probably, we're
probably in that little season right now. I just, you know,
from what I see, some things going on. Some signs of what's
going on is going to be there's going to be a famine. of the
Word of God. And I tell you, you look back
a few hundred years ago, and there was a big difference in
what we see today, in my opinion. 2 Thessalonians 2, for the mystery
of iniquity doth already work. The mystery of iniquity. That
is to say, the secret desire of lawlessness. They have no regard for God's
Word, God's law, God's righteousness. But Paul is saying here, the
secret of lawlessness does already work. Someone says, yeah, but
I look around And I see all these places, you know, where the gospel
is not being preached. And it appears as though to me
that they're doing a lot of good. You know, they have like bake
sales, you know, for people that are hurt. You know, they'll have
fundraisers. And they're going to have this,
and they're doing a lot of good. They've got vacation Bible schools,
and they get the kids in there, and they're trying to help them. There's a lot of good that's
being done in the community, even in those places that's not
preaching the gospel. Really? Let me tell you what
the mystery of iniquity, the secret That which is not apparent
at this time, the secret, the mystery of iniquity, Paul says,
does already work. It's already alive and well.
Only he who now let it will let until he be taken out of the
way, until the Spirit of God removes the constraint and that
which false religion truly has a heart to do. that they are
allowed to do. In that little season, Satan
is going to be loosed and he is going to rally all false religion
against the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, how bad
is it going to be? I don't know. I don't know. Verse 8, And then shall that
wicked be revealed, that is, that lawlessness whom the Lord
will consume with the spirit of his mouth." You know, Psalm
46, verse 6 says, "...the heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved,
he uttered his voice, and the earth melted." This is the comfort
of a believer right here. When Almighty God says it's over,
He's going to speak and it will be over. "...and shall destroy
with the brightness of His coming. Verse 8, He shall bring to naught
all lawlessness by the manifestation of His coming. Look at verse
9, whose coming is after even Him. I want you to notice this
is in italics. It wasn't there. Whose coming, that is the mystery
of iniquity, the secret of lawlessness. Whose coming is after the working
of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, signs and
wonders that, but for the grace of God, would lead the elect
astray. Matthew 24, 24, listen to this,
ìFor there shall arise false Christs, false prophets, and
shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible
they shall deceive the very elect.î It looks so real. It looks so
promising. It looks so powerful. But listen
to what they're preaching. If they're not preaching the
Gospel, Paul says, Romans 1 16, is the power of God unto salvation.
Not signs and wonders and deceivableness and stuff. The Gospel. Why don't we have healing services
here? The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Why has
the gospel of free grace been preached by the grace of God
in this place for 50 years? Because that's the power of God
in salvation. How did God call you out of darkness?
The hearing of the gospel. That Word came into you, not
in Word only, but it came in power and much assurance. Verse
10, it says, "...all deceivableness of unrighteousness." Back to
2 Thessalonians 2.10, "...with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that are perishing, because they receive not the love of
the truth, that they might be saved. Satan, through false preachers
gathering them together, men of old, ordained, the Scripture
says, to condemnation. Is this too hard? No. It is the truth. It is the truth. Someone comes and pats you on
the back and says, I love you. I love you. Let me tell you who
loves you. A man will tell you the truth.
A man that will tell you the truth. A man that lies to you
doesn't love you. I don't care how much of a sheep
he looks like. He's a wolf in sheep's clothing. Satan through these false preachers
uses all of the energy and his skills to mislead and deceive
in them who are perishing. with the deceit, the deceit,
the deceitfulness, unscrupulous words, no moralness, no truth
to them through trickery and cheat. They manipulate the words. They use words that we hear and
we love and we respect, but they twist them. They rest the words. and make them say something that
they don't say. Deceivableness. Deceivableness. Because, that is, in return,
they receive not the love of the truth that they might be
saved. Look at verse 11 of 2 Thessalonians 2. For this cause, God shall
send them strong delusion, remove all restraints that they should
believe a lie. For this reason, for this act
of not receiving the love of truth, you know, whenever men,
as I've said before, stand before Almighty God and say, the reason
I'm not saved is because you didn't choose me. The reason
I'm not saved is because you didn't call me out of darkness.
The reason I'm not saved is because you left me to myself. It was
your fault. No, it's not. Leave a man to himself. What
does a man have to do to go to hell? I'll tell you what it is.
Let God leave him alone. Let God Almighty leave that man. Let him do exactly what he wanted
to do. If one of my children ran out
in the road after I told him, don't go out in the road, he
ran out there, Brother Scott, and got hit by the car. Lying there
on that road out there, he looked at me and said, it's your fault
because you didn't stop me. You did exactly what you wanted
to do. You did exactly what you wanted to do. A man or a woman
that dies in rebellion against Almighty God, this is grace. God wouldn't leave you to yourself.
God Almighty just called you a bran plucked out of the fire.
Deliver him from going down to the pit. I found a ransom. That's the grace of God that
doesn't leave a man to himself. For this cause God shall send
them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they
all might be damned, judged, who believed not the truth, but
had pleasure, they loved it, in unrighteousness. Oh, but look
at verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit, and belief of the truth whenever someone talks
about places like this place. And I don't know it as I ought,
I'm sure of that, but I guarantee you Brother Scott could share
a lot of things with me about how men and women have rebelled
against what's been preached in this pulpit for fifty years.
and speaks of that church, those people. Let me tell you something.
Paul says we're bound. We're bound to give thanks to
God for you, brethren, beloved, because God chose you to salvation. Chose you. And didn't leave you,
do you see? Didn't leave you. Well, in closing,
back in Revelation 20, verse 9, last part, It says they went up, well, first
part, they went up on the breadth of the earth and accomplished
the camp of the saints. All of a sudden, the mystery
of iniquity was made very apparent. It looked like, Mark, that they
were everybody's friends, everybody's buddies. We love everybody, you
know. We love you. We love them. Well, the Scripture
says that in that day, when God loosens Satan, lets him out,
to do what God has allowed him to do. They accomplished the
camp of the saints, the beloved city, beloved of God. And fire
came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. You know,
speaking of that Gog and Magog, this is one verse out of Ezekiel
38. Verse 22 says, I will reign upon
him and upon his bands. Remember I was telling you about
Gog and Magog. Gog means the prince. Magog means
the prince's reign or kingdom. It is a picture of Satan and
his kingdom, Gog and Magog. It says, ìI will reign upon him,
and upon his bands, and every flowing rain, and great hailstones,
and fire, and brimstone. Just as God destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah, He will certainly, by the word of His power, completely
destroy rebellion. What does God Almighty have to
do to completely put down all rebellion to speak? He uttered His voice. The heathen
raged and the nations were raised up. He uttered His voice. Rejoice, believer, because Almighty
God has called you out of darkness and kept you This final battle,
we talk about Armageddon. I told you, this Armageddon that
is spoken of, this battle has been raging from the beginning.
But there is going to be a final climactic destruction of all
rebellion against God. And what is the Lord going to
do? He is going to put them down. And it says in verse 10, And
the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire
and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and
shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." Here is Satan's
sure end. He now shall be where the Scripture
says the beast and the false prophet are. The lake of fire,
the beast and the false prophet, tyranny and religious idolatry
are going to be cast into the lake of fire, tormented, tortured
forever and ever before he was bound and his power was restrained
to be able to deceive the nations. But in that day, he will be powerless,
powerless. God Almighty will take him and
throw him into the lake of fire. And our God shall openly be shown
before heaven and hell to be who He is, the Almighty God and
His people victorious in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, we
are coming to a blessing. We've gone through this book
and we've seen how the struggles that God's people have had. The
book of Revelation, as I've said before, is the setting forth
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the seals, in the trumpets, in the
vows, in the judgments. It's the setting forth of how
God is keeping His people in this world, revealing to them
what they're really dealing with, what they're really encountering
day by day. And I know as we look around,
I know that it's hard to perceive, well, impossible to perceive.
But for the grace of God, what is actually happening? I'll tell
you what's happening. God's keeping His people. He
said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. We're
bound to give thanks. I thank God for every one of
you that God has been pleased to call out of darkness. I appreciate
Almighty God allowing me the privilege to be able to fellowship
with you, be your pastor. I love you. And by God's grace,
May God teach us continually as we finish through this book,
seeing how the Lord has been pleased to reveal Himself to
His people.