Now last week in chapter 19 and
verses 11 to 21 we saw another vision of Armageddon. It doesn't
use the word Armageddon but we've seen altogether five or six of
these. They're pictures of the end battle and what's the battle
between? It's the battle between the righteousness,
the holiness, the rule of God, the unrivaled rule of God, and
the lie of Satan. When did he first tell that lie?
Probably in heaven to the angels, but we first read of it in the
Garden of Eden, when he said, has God said? Has God said? We've seen it in Chapter 6, at
the end of Chapter 6. We've seen it at the end of Chapter
9, and then in the end of Chapter 11. We've seen it in Chapter
14, where it's actually called the Battle of Armageddon. No,
sorry, I'm wrong. Chapter 16, it's called the Battle
of Armageddon, where they're gathered together for the Battle
of Armageddon, and then in Chapter 19. And in chapter 19 we saw
the total final victory of Christ and his people over the armies
of the beast and the false prophet, which you know, the beast and
the false prophet, these are not mythical creatures, it's
this world that Satan has manipulated to do his bidding and tell the
lie of Satan. and give the delusion of Satan.
The beast, you remember, is that unified world power. We're all
one great, lovely, utopian mass of humanity. And the false prophet
is all of his false ideas, his false notions, the lies that
he says. And we saw it come to an end.
And it came to an end without a blow being struck. Just the
sharp sword of the word of his mouth. You know, there he is
with all of his people gathered together for battle, and there's
not a blow struck, but Christ is victorious. The sharp sword
of the word of his mouth comes and slays them all. So surely
that's the end of everything then, isn't it? Well no, it's
a new vision. Chapter 20, I think, we come to a new vision, it seems
that way. A new vision. And this vision
of chapter 20, because we are now getting to the end, in a
sense, the rest of the book is the final seventh vision of the
book, and this chapter 20 covers the time from Christ's ascension
after his crucifixion and his resurrection, raising from the
dead, his ascension to heaven, it covers that time to the end
of time, to the final judgment. It's the days in which we live.
This chapter 20 covers the days in which we live. Now, chapter
20 has been greatly misused. Chapter 20, again and again,
has been greatly misused. the millennia. We've got pre-millennialists,
we've got post-millennialists, we've got amillennialists. All
of these things, all of these things, they produce weird and
wonderful interpretations, which are just absurd nonsense. The great majority of those that
call themselves Christians, evangelical Christians, actually are what's
called pre-millennialists. What does that mean? They believe
that there's this literal thousand years, and Christ comes at the
start of it, and he goes to Jerusalem, and he reigns in Jerusalem with
his people for a thousand years, in literal Jerusalem, you know,
in Palestine. And all the time this fallen
world is going on, but Christ is reigning in Jerusalem. It
just staggers me that so many supposedly intelligent people
believe such nonsense. It's abject nonsense. I used
to think it was a case of, well this is hard to work out. There
are those who believe this, there are the post-millennialists who
believe he comes after the end of the thousand years, There
are the amillennialists, and I make no mistake of letting
you know, I clearly am in the camp of the amillennialists,
which means that there isn't a literal thousand years, there's
a symbolical thousand years. I'm an amillennialist, and I
think that's the truth, and that's the right way to come at it.
But all of these things, they do, and they get the most bizarre,
absurd notions of how things should be. And they draw pictures,
and they write books, and it's just abject nonsense. And do
you know something? Satan loves it. They're not variations,
you know, oh well some think this, some think that, others
think other things. No, it's nonsense. Let's be under no delusion. I'm not going to, out of respect
for our Presbyterian so-called brethren, say, oh, they're entitled
to... They're not! They're wrong! They're
just plain wrong! This is not what it's teaching.
And anybody who objectively reads this as it is... With the mind
of Christ we'll see that what they say is absolute abject nonsense,
and it's nonsense that Satan loves. And why does he love it?
Because all of that lunacy distracts from the central message of Christ
and the salvation that he has accomplished. That's the key
message. Christ and the salvation he has
accomplished. So, with that in mind, let's
look at this. Let's interpret it. The way we've
interpreted the whole book has been an amillennial interpretation. Spiritual symbolism. Has it not
been, to the believing mind, has it not been a very satisfying
interpretation? It has, hasn't it? It fits. It
fits, it works. You're not, you know, you're
not kind of falling into, I could almost liken it to some Hindu
theology, you know, where the world was created on the back
of a giant turtle, and an elephant did this, that, and the other,
and it's blatant nonsense, it's just stupid, isn't it? You just
wonder how anybody with a brain can believe it. And it sort of
gets into that realm. But what we have done, with an
amillennial interpretation, it's satisfying to the believing heart. It's true. Anyway, let's see
this. Verses 1 to 3. The angel, the
key, the chain, and the pit. the chain, and the pit. I saw
an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless
pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the
dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound
him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit,
and shut him up, and set a seal upon him that he should deceive
the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled,
and after that he must be loosed a little season. We've seen through
these visions the immense power of Satan. Be in no doubt. You know, be in no doubt. He's
immensely powerful. It appears as if he's got unstoppable
power of deceit, and why I say that is look at the world, how
deceived it is. Look at the world as a whole.
There is almost universal worship of his beast, and the infatuation
of the world with the delusions of his false prophet. Isn't it?
It's everywhere, all around us, the people you know, that you
live next to, that are members of your family, that are across
the billions that inhabit this world, almost universally worship
the beast of Satan and the false prophet, the lies of his false
prophet. And what is it all based on? It's based on life without
the justice of God. Just exactly as they tried to
set up at the Tower of Beth. Let us build ourselves a tower
to heaven that needs nothing to do with the justice of God,
that needs nothing to do with the blood of a Redeemer. That
was his objective at Babel, to defeat God. Why has he still
not succeeded, when he's so powerful, and out of the seven billion
they say live on this planet at the moment? I wonder how many
are actually true, true, true Christians. Not anti-Christ,
Not the hordes of Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy that we've
seen have a Christian influence, but they don't know the truth
of the gospel, they're the whore. They're the whore that has gone
after idols, that has committed spiritual fornication with idols.
Now, why has he still not succeeded? Before Christ came and redeemed,
Satan, we've seen in previous visions, stirred up five empires. to try and form a worldwide,
remember them, Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, the Chaldeans, Persia,
and the Greeks. And then in the time when John
was writing this, the Roman Empire. We've seen them. That was Satan's
doing. Well, God allowed it. God allowed
it. But Satan stirred them up. He deceived them against the
things of God. And he made them go against Israel. Time and again they attacked
Israel to crush God's people and it reached its peak with
the Chaldeans when they came and utterly destroyed Jerusalem
and they took that which was the nominal people of God away
into captivity and then Rome came and Rome subjugated the
whole land and All of that around the time of Christ and his ministry.
And in that Old Testament period, Satan accused the Old Testament
saints, you know, Abraham, Isaac, the many, many thousands of true
believers, Caleb, Joshua, I can't name them because there's too
many that are not named. They'd gone to heaven. And why
had they gone to heaven? They'd gone to heaven on the
basis of the salvation that Christ would accomplish. They'd gone
to heaven on the basis of the blood of the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, in the justice of God. And Michael,
the archangel, fights with Satan to say, you've got it wrong,
you cannot accuse them, because this is going to happen, but
it hadn't yet happened in time. And you saw in chapter 12 how
Christ comes of the woman. Christ is born of the church,
of the woman, of the people of God. That's why God preserved
that line right the way down. And he tried to devour him, and
he couldn't. And Christ went to the cross, and he thought
he had his victory. But at the cross was the point
where Christ defeated him, and where Christ bound him. Because
at the cross, when he thought he was destroying God's seed
that would bring redemption, in that very destruction God's
seed was destroying Satan, and was accomplishing redemption,
and was paying the price of justice. With such power, why has he not
won? Well, in chapter 12 and verse
11, We saw that Christ was taken up to heaven, and it was the
blood of the Lamb that overcame him. The blood of the Lamb overcame
him. And from that point, as the next
verse of chapter 12 tells us, the devil knew that his time
was limited. He only had a limited time. And
here, in chapter 20, verses 1 to 3, we see his powers limited. An empowered messenger of God,
an angel, comes down from heaven, having a key And he comes down
into the realm where Satan prowls around, seeking whom he may destroy,
and he comes to bind him. Who is this angel? Well, it could
just be an empowered messenger of God. It may be the Lord Jesus
Christ. I don't have any argument with
anybody that says this again is Christ, and I'll tell you
why. Because in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 29, Jesus talking
to the Pharisees, they're accusing him of casting out demons by
the power of the devil. And he says, if the devil's casting
out devils by his own power, then surely he's divided against
himself. You know, it's like the army
of a country where all its troops start shooting one another. It's
just silly, so that's Christ's argument. He says no, he says
I'm going to have my way, this is Christ, he says I'm going
to come into the strongman's house and I'm going to tie him
up. I'm going to restrict his ability to do things. So yes,
he said he was that one. When he died on the cross of
Calvary, we read in Colossians 2.15 that he made a show of his
enemies openly. He bound them. He took them captive. He led them captive. He tied
them up. Maybe it is the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a perfectly reasonable interpretation. Here is Satan prowling around.
We know he does. Read Job, the early chapters
of Job. Where have you been, God says to Satan? Going to and
fro in the earth, doing the things that he does in the earth. Ah,
right, have you considered my servant Job? Peter tells us that
Satan is like a roaring lion, going around seeking whom he
may destroy. But the angel comes. Is it Christ?
I think it could be, with a key and with a chain. What are they?
They're symbols of restraint. Symbols of restraint. I remember
when we lived in Barrow-in-Furness. And there was a scrapyard that
was a very, very ugly, horrible dump of a place. But it had all
sorts of car parts. And when you were in the state
of poverty that I was in at the time, trying to keep old bangers
going, any old scrapyard was a good place to go to get new
brake parts or whatever else it was. And the guy would say,
oh, there's one down there. Take your spanners down there
and take the bid off and give me a fiver for it when you come
back and that will be fine. But I remember on this dirty,
filthy, horrible eyesore of a scrapyard, there was a whopping great big
wooden dog kennel. And he had a great big Alsatian
dog, a German Shepherd dog. And it was on a chain about 20
to 25 feet long. And it was the most vicious dog
without exception that I have ever seen. And whenever you used
to go down there, it used to tear towards you as if it was
going to tear a chunk out of your leg. And when it got to
20 feet on the chain, bang! It nearly pulled its kennel over,
but it stopped it. And you could walk by it, 22
feet from its kennel, and it would look like it was going
to tear your throat out, and it couldn't, because the chain
stopped it. You could go, you can't bite me now, can you? Right
up to it, and it couldn't get you. As vicious as it was, because
it was on a chain. Do you get the picture? Pretty
vivid picture that, isn't it? Yes. You see, you see, This is
where God has put Satan. In 2 Peter 2, verse 4, it says,
God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to
hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved
unto judgment. This is the bottomless pit. This
is what Hoxhamer calls the proper temporary abode of the devil
and his demons. That's where he puts them. Does
that mean that they don't wander around in the earth as roaring
lions seek it? No, they do that. They have a
certain liberty, but it's the liberty of the chain that God
has put on them. That dog could do what it wanted
within twenty feet of its kennel, but it couldn't do anything beyond
the limit of that chain. We've seen the key and the bottomless
pit in chapter 9 and verse 1 where Satan is given the key to release
that plague of demonic locusts, do you remember that? This is
the spirit of the age. Note this, the key is God's to
give and it's God's to take back as he will. The chain is God's,
to determine its length. The power is God's, to give to
his angel, to restrain Satan as much as he ordains. Take comfort
from that. As we walk through this life,
Peter says beware, Satan's there prowling, but don't despair,
beware but don't despair, because he's on a chain that God has
determined the length of. What's the nature of the restraint?
You see, it's a binding. It's an imprisoning. It's setting
a seal, meaning that it's pretty strong. I mean, it wouldn't have
been much good if the screws holding that dog's chain, the
wood had rotted and one of these days it had come free and it
had got you, that wouldn't have been very good. But this is a
seal set by God. He's limited in one way. What's the limitation? It tells
us in verse 3, look, set us free. What's the nature of the restraint? It's that he should deceive the
nations no more. What does that mean? Deceive
the nations no more as he had done before Christ came with
his Old Testament empires. He'd deceived the nations. They'd
risen up against the people of God. They'd tried to devour the
Christ child when he was born. He didn't, he wasn't, he was
limited in his ability to deceive them. Deceive them concerning
what? Deceive them concerning divine
justice. Who out in this world outside
of the people of the living God who believe his word knows anything
about divine justice? Who, outside of the people who
believe Christ, know anything about the salvation that Christ
has accomplished? And God's people? And all of
these things? No, he deceived the nations,
but he couldn't any more, as he had done in Old Testament
days. And which nations are we talking about? Right? Look down to verse 8. It tells
us which nations we're talking about. Gog and Magog. The nations which are in the
four quarters of the earth. Gog and Magog. For what purpose?
To gather them together to battle. And the number of whom is as
the sand of the sea. In other words, you can't count
the grains of sand on the seashore, and you're just as incapable
of counting these people that he's stirring up. Gog and Magog. can you buy a ticket to the land
of Gog or the land of Magog? No, it's a picture of the heathen,
it's a picture of the lands who throughout history have been
heathen in respect of the truth of God and the truth of Christ.
They're in the four quarters of the earth, picture language,
but you know they're far-flung. If you look at it from, if you
physically from Israel, there's the temple court in the middle,
and then there's the Holy of Holies, and then there's
the temple, then there's the temple court, then there's the
city, and remember in that earlier vision it said give the city
to the Gentiles. Although it was populated by
Jews, Pharisees, scribes, all of those people, yet Christ said,
this is a people that draws near to me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. They weren't the true people
of God. They were only symbolical of the people of God. They were
affected by the oracles of God, but they didn't believe the truth
of God in the gospel of his grace. And then as you go further and
further out, you get into these more and more heathen lands that
kept coming to try to destroy Jerusalem and the people of God,
unless God raised up one of their rulers. You remember who he did?
Cyrus. Cyrus the Persian. 200 years,
at least, before he came to power, God says in Isaiah, Cyrus my
servant, heathen king, Cyrus my servant, I will raise up.
He's in control of it all. But the ones that are beyond
that, it's the nations that are heathen, the outer peoples, the
ones that have never ever had any historical influence, by
the Christian gospel. There are nations like that.
You may say there's lots of false Christianity. There's Roman Catholicism,
there's Eastern Orthodoxy, Greek Orthodoxy, all of these different
things. There's Anglicanism, there's
this kind of high church Protestantism, there's various widespread denominations
of so-called evangelical Protestants. There are relatively few true
believers amongst them. But nevertheless, you will hear
the Pope talk about Christ dying for the sins of his people. They
even use that terminology, even though their acts and everything
else deny the gospel that they preach. But the gospel has had
an effect on them. Gog and Magog are the ones beyond
that, that have never ever been influenced by it. After Christ
has come, Satan wants to deceive. Do you know he's furious? Didn't
we read it in chapter 12? When Christ had gone back to
heaven, it says he was furious. He was furious, and he wants
to make war with the people of God. And how does he do it? He
wants to deceive Gog and Magog to unite in world power against
God's people. Who are God's people? The church,
the true church. What is the true church called
in Galatians 6? The Israel of God. The Israel
of God is the true people of God. And how long is he going
to prevent him from doing it? God is going to prevent him from
doing it. God is going to stop him from deceiving Gog and Magog
to come against the people of God. For a thousand years. A
thousand years. Let's look at a thousand years.
Is it literal? Or is it symbolical? Is it literally,
you know, like 1066 to 2066, is it literally 1,000 years?
Or is it symbolical? Well, remember, one of the keys
is not to mix that which is literal with that which is symbolical
in the same vision. You get into all sorts of a mess
if you try to. So, in this vision, there's a
key, there's a chain, There's a pit, a bottomless pit. Are
they literal or symbolical? Is there an angel with a whopping
great key in his hand? Is there an angel with a great
big clanking chain of the type that used to tie up ships? Is
there a place called the bottomless pit? If so, where in this physical
world could it possibly be? making it clear enough. Clearly,
those things are symbolical of restraint. They're not literal.
There isn't a literal key, there isn't a literal physical in this
world chain, there isn't a literal bottomless pit. So, as they are
symbolical, so the thousand years is. Remember, in Scripture symbolizes
completeness. It symbolizes worldly perfection. There are ten commandments for
this world. There are ten plagues on Egypt.
In the parables there were ten virgins. There were ten talents. In the letter in Revelation chapter
2, I think it's the second one, to the church at Smyrna they're
going to go through a time of tribulation. How long is that
time of tribulation? Ten days. What does he mean?
From now until a week on Tuesday? No of course not, it's symbolical.
It's a time which is a fullness determined by God and a thousand
is a fullness determined by God because it's ten times ten times
ten. It's a long but a limited time. A long time but a limited
time. In the Old Testament the heathen
nations Gog and Magog, and you have to look at Ezekiel chapters
38 and 39 to see what I'm saying. In Ezekiel 38 and 39 there's
a lot about Gog and Magog coming from the north against Israel.
Clearly that was a historical fact in the prophecy of Ezekiel
but it's pictured here in Revelation 20 in the Old Testament Gog and
Magog repeatedly came against Israel in the New Testament in
the New Testament Gog and Magog is quiet regarding world history
because Satan is restrained not to deceive them as he did in
the Old Testament times since Satan was restrained in this
symbolical thousand years which well as we speak is probably
about 1980 years in fact, Christendom has spread. I'm not saying all
true Christianity but the influence, the historical influence has
spread like the Old Testament picture of Jerusalem and greater
Israel and in places the temple court has flourished. with true
believers. Think about it. Missionary spreading
of the gospel. Pockets of true believers all
over. Do you know, I believe that the
record of history that we have is very lacking. you know, we
sort of think of the dark ages when there were no believers
whatsoever and then all of a sudden the reformation came and William
Tyndale rose up and Martin Luther and so on and so forth and then
all of a sudden there were loads of Christians but before that
there weren't any at all. Do you know, I just don't believe
that. I believe God has always had his people in every age.
Think what the record of history will be concerning us and our
little group. Do you think there'll be one
solitary word in the annals of history, if this world goes on
much longer, about the fact that we existed? I doubt whether there'll
be a solitary word about it. And so I believe that there were
pockets of true believers, pockets of true believers throughout
the world where the missionary outreach, you know, started by
Paul, from Jerusalem out to Antioch and across the whole of the Mediterranean
and then from the Mediterranean onwards and right throughout
these islands and then across the seas to the United States
of America and to different parts of the world so that missions
have gone and preached there missionary spreading of the gospel
pockets of true believers all over why? all because Satan is
restrained for the thousand years there are even converts amongst
the citizens of Gog and Magog, are they not? Because where does
God call his people from? Every tribe and tongue and kindred,
including Gog, including those nations that have got no No history
in the sense that the Christianized world has a history. You know,
if you look, I mean, no doubt there were great empires, the
Chinese empire was great, and Indian moguls, and all of this
sort of thing. But in truth, There is no real history as there
is the history of the European countries and of that which was
under the influence of the gospel of Christ. There just wasn't
any history. Those that came into contact
with Israel in the Old Testament, those five great empires, and
then the Roman Empire. Outside of them, there's no history.
There's no history recorded. Yes, they existed, but they just
don't play a part. They don't play a part in God's
Word, they don't play a part on God's scene. They're just
not there. They're just not there at all.
Right then. Satan's restraint for this symbolical
thousand years. Meanwhile, look at verses four
to six, I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judgment
was given to them, and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded
for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and which
had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had
received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands,
and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Surely
that's the same time. Surely that's during the same
time. But the rest of the dead, those that weren't believers
in this life, didn't live. They stayed in a sort of a limbo
of death until the thousand years were finished. This is the first
resurrection. 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. this is absolutely clear. Let's
deal with it very quickly. During the same thousand-year
dispensation of the New Testament age, the souls of the saints,
believers, and you can see their characteristics in verse four,
look, The souls of them that were beheaded for the witness
of, it doesn't mean every one of them has to be beheaded, but those
that were persecuted for Christ. They've got the word of God,
and they're persecuted for the word of God. And they're the
ones that we've read earlier. They didn't worship the beast
in his image. They didn't have the beast's mark upon their foreheads.
They were outcasts from this world and all of its goings on.
They're the ones who died as believers. For them, they reign
with Christ in heaven. You remember what Jesus said
to the penitent thief on the cross who said remember me when
you come into your kingdom? When will he be with me in paradise? This day, this day. To be absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord. I long to depart,
Paul said, I don't know whether to go or whether to stay. But he said, I know this, that
to depart and be with Christ, because he's going to be with
Christ immediately, is far better. Those who believe in Christ,
when they die, they go straight to heaven. Those that you know
that were believers in this life, who have left this life, where
are they now? This is what John saw in his
vision. The souls of them that were beheaded
for the witness of Jesus. They're living and reigning with
Christ throughout that period. Don't cry for them. I love that
old, that hymn of Don Faulkner's, you know, don't stand around
my grave and cry. I'm not here, I did not die.
I've gone to be with Christ. That's right. When we say that
a saint has gone to be with the Lord, that's what we mean. We
get it from here. This is where it comes from.
But unbelievers, they go into the limbo of death. They stay
dead. And then it says in verse six,
how blessed to rise straight from physical death you know,
absent from the body, present with the Lord, and go straight
into the glory of heaven. The second death of the judgment,
of the final judgment, has no power. We're priests and kings
with God. Now then, loosed a little season. At the end of verse 3, we read
after the thousand years, Satan must be loosed for a little season. In verse 7 we read, and when
the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of
his prison. What was his prison? A restraint,
that he shouldn't deceive Gog and Magog. He's permitted to
deceive them once more. Gog and Magog, we see in the
next verses, encompassing the camp of the saints and of the
beloved city. And you can, again, I urge you,
have a look at Ezekiel 38 and 39, how it's a kind of a literal
prophecy concerning the history of the day, with these nations,
Gog and Magog, coming and surrounding Jerusalem. It's a symbol of godless,
anti-God, anti-Christ world, battling against the righteousness
of God. Are we living in that little
season today? I think we are. I wouldn't be
dogmatic about it, I might be proven wrong, but I believe we
are. What are some of the signs of
it? there are no national borders anymore. Remember we saw in Revelation
9.14 about the Euphrates? What was the Euphrates? It was
the historical boundary between the people that had been influenced
by the Gospel, by the Word of God, and those that hadn't. In
chapter 16, verse 12, we read in that final vial of judgment,
we read of the Euphrates being dried up. Sixth vial, I think
it was, wasn't it? The borders have gone. Do we
not see that in our day? Effectively, more and more. National
borders seem to be gone. The culture of Christendom, even
if it isn't true Christianity, it's a culture influenced by
Christendom. The world I was born into in
the early 1950s was a culture thoroughly... I'm not saying
everybody was a Christian, they weren't, there was evil all over
the place, but the basis of the culture was a Christian culture,
a Christendom culture, and it's been overrun with what we might
call Gog and Magog influence. What is it? Islam, Hinduism,
etc, etc. Am I being xenophobic and racist
in what I say? Not in the slightest. I don't
have any racial negative things to say about people of one race
or another, not in the slightest. I'm just pointing out the way
in which national boundaries and cultures have been completely
overrun. The biblical laws that form the basis of our society
have been turned on their heads. The justice system, if you were
to get a judge from the 1950s and show that judge the statute
book of 2016, they would be absolutely horrified at what they saw, as
to the way in which the laws and the principles of justice
that governed our society have been turned on their heads. I'm
not exaggerating with this, especially in the last 30 years. As true
churches, true believers, not the whore that calls itself a
Christian church, we appear to be lying dead in the street,
don't we? The churches all around that are thriving with their
new buildings and all the rest of it, we're lying dead in the
street. I think we're living in that little season. Do these
days scare you? It looks like Satan has been
loosed to deceive the nations. But remember, don't despair. it's a little season. And fire
from God came down and devoured them. Look, verse 9, they compassed
the camp of the saints about, oh, terrible, terrible, terrible,
it's all up for us, we're completely outdone. Remember the servant
of Elisha I told you about last week? But no, those that are
for us are more than those that are against us. The fire came
down from God. We don't hear of a blow being
struck. The fire of judgment of God came
down from heaven. The devil is cast without a trial
into the lake of fire. There's no need for one. It's
an open and shut case. He's clearly guilty of his deceit. Now then, We've got very little
time left, and there's this section on the throne and its two books.
I'll tell you what I'll do. I will very quickly give you
an outline of it, and we'll come back to it next time, which will
not be next week, but it will be in two weeks' time, because
I'm going to Merton next Sunday, and Harry is coming here to preach.
But the throne and the two books. Let me give you a brief, brief
summary, and we'll come back and look in more detail next
time. There's only one return of Christ. There isn't that multiple,
there's not a rapture, there's not this return, there's only
one return of Christ, but there is an order within that return. The dead saints rise first, then
the living saints are taken up to meet him in the air, and all
the rest are raised for judgment. And that's the second resurrection
for the saints, the union of their souls with their new bodies.
The details are the subject of another study in 1 Corinthians
15 and 1 Thessalonians 4, and maybe we'll look at that in a
bit more detail next time. But here we see in these final
verses, 11 to 15, everyone, without exception, whoever lived, assembled
at God's throne of judgment at the end of time. For what does
Hebrews 9.27 say? It is appointed unto man to die
once, and then the judgment. Romans 14 verse 10 and 2 Corinthians
5 verse 10 both say exactly the same thing. We must all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ. We read also that it is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We read that
our God is a consuming fire. And we're going to be judged,
it says. Everyone will be judged. What's the measure of judgment?
The books. The books will be opened. And
the books were opened, verse 12. And they were judged according
to their works which were found in the books. The books. Symbolical,
again, but God has this infinite memory of everything that anyone
has ever done. You know, when you're judged
in an English court of law, I don't mean a British court of law,
I mean an English court of law, because it's different in Scotland.
In an English court of law, you are tried according to the law
of the land of England. When you write a contract, it
will be subject to English law, and I think it applies to Wales
as well. But English law in a court, that's the yardstick by which
you're measured, you're judged. And these books are opened, and
the yardstick is the righteousness of God. And works are judged
against the righteousness of God. And in verse 14, death and
hell were cast into the lake of fire. What are they? What's
that? Well I think it's referring to
verse 13, where death and hell delivered up the dead which were
in them. I think it's those that death and hell gave up in judgment,
those that lived this life with no knowledge of Christ. and no
desire for the things of Christ and rejected his testament it
says they were cast into the lake of fire and this is the
second death and it's dreadful and it should fill us with dread
but it's true because it's what it says here and in verse fifteen
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire clearly it's symbolism But nevertheless
it's horrendous because sin is horrendous to God. And all are
judged in accordance with the books of works, the record that
is kept. But did you know that there's
another book that is opened? Another book was opened, verse
12, which is the book of life. The book of life, we've heard
of this before. The Lamb's book of life. Verse 15. There are
names written in that book of life. Whosoever was not found
written in the book of life, the Lamb's book of life, they
were the ones cast into hell. The implication being that those
in the Lamb's book of life were not cast into hell. Their names
are written there. They're the elect of God. They're
the Israel of God. It's what the scriptures call
Jacob. his people look at Jeremiah chapter 50 and I'll close with
this Jeremiah chapter 50 and verse 20 in those days and in
that time saith the Lord and I think This final judgment is
what we're talking about. The iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for, and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah,
and they shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I
reserve. According to the election of
grace, God has saved his people. Is this day of judgment for believers
a day of dread? It is for everyone else. It is
for all outside of Christ. But for those who are in Christ,
This is a day of rejoicing. Let me remind you. There are those who claim to
be Christians who threaten believers that their lives had better be
good because we've all got to stand before the judgment seat
of Christ. And that little lie that you told, no I don't mean
that, that failing that you had, you're going to be called to
account for it before the judgment seat of Christ. That is wrong.
That is not according to the scriptures. The day of judgment
for believers is a marriage supper. A marriage supper. Everybody
goes rejoicing to a marriage. They better have to. There's
some horrible things going on in the family if they don't go
rejoicing. They hear that voice. Come, you
blessed of my father. Enter in to all that has been
prepared for you. Enter into that bliss. There's
one question I leave you with. Am I in that book of life? Second
Peter chapter one, tells us how we can make our calling and election
sure. Can we change God's mind regarding
whether we're elect or not? No, of course not, but what it
means is we can give ourselves assurance that we are among the
elect of God. What should we do? Come to Christ. Believe in Christ. Seek his strength
to follow him. Really, you can't boil it down
to anything simpler than that. Seek his strength to follow him. determine, as far as there's
any strength in your flesh, which there is none, but with his enabling,
by his Spirit, as Joshua said, choose you this day whom you
will serve. But as for me and my house, I will serve the Lord.