The Earthly Kingdom of Christ

Lord, thank you once again for the opportunity you give us to study your word Lord, we are a blessed people to be able to understand what you will do in the future and that your promise of coming again will be fulfilled in a timetable known only to you But yet, Lord, as your children, we trust in your arrival and all that will take place when you come again And to that time, help us be faithful, faithful to you and faithful in our ministry, wherever you have put us, that others will hear the gospel of Christ and give their trust and complete love to the heaven, to God of this heaven

We pray in Jesus' name Amen On Sunday mornings, we've been studying the disciples' prayer One of those petitions, thy kingdom come, is one that we've already covered And the longing of every believer is for the arrival of the kingdom of God Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven That's the prayer of the believer He wants God's rule on earth as it is in heaven And I trust that that is your longing this evening, that that's exactly what you want to see happen, because tonight we're going to see the answer to that petition We don't know when God's rule is going to come to earth

We know that one day we'll be translated out of here and we'll go to heaven and we'll be with Christ and we'll come back to earth with him again We don't know when that time is going to be, but we know that tonight, as we look at the earthly kingdom of Christ, this is the answer to the petition in Matthew 6, thy kingdom come And it will introduce for us the eternal kingdom, because the apex of human history is the eternal kingdom of God But before there is an eternal kingdom, there is an earthly kingdom And this is what the believer longs for

All throughout the Old Testament, it was all about the coming king and his kingdom That's why Jesus was so rejected when he came, because he wasn't a king like they thought he was going to be a king They pictured a whole different kind of kingdom than what Jesus offered when he arrived the first time And so they would cry in Luke 19, we will not have this king rule over us because this is not the kingdom that we want But there will come a kingdom It will come as God has prescribed it But even as far back as Deuteronomy chapter 30 verses one to five, it was all about the coming kingdom of God

And all throughout the Old Testament, you can read about it in 2 Samuel 7, about the Davidic kingdom, the promise to David Psalm 2, Isaiah chapter 2, Isaiah chapter 11, Isaiah 35, 40 to 48, Jeremiah 23, Jeremiah 33, Ezekiel 34, Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Hosea chapter 3, Joel chapter 3, Zephaniah chapter 3, Zechariah chapter 14, all anticipate the coming of the kingdom of God, the king that will rule on the throne of his father, David, and will bring peace and harmony to the people of Israel That will come one day It will come when the earthly kingdom of Christ has been established

The Bible says that Christ is a king Over in Revelation 1 verse number 7, he's called the ruler of the kings of the earth In Daniel 4, 7, he's called the king of heaven In Matthew 2, he's called the king of the Jews In John 1, 49, he's called the king of Israel In Psalm 24, verse number 7, he's called the king of glory Revelation 15, 3, the king of the nations In Jeremiah 10, 10, he is an everlasting king And in 1 Timothy 6, as well as Revelation 19, he is king of kings and lord of lords The kingdom of God, the earthly kingdom of God, is only good if he's your king

If he's not your king, it's not good news, it's bad news And I trust tonight that Jesus Christ truly is your king Sometimes I think it's diminished the kingship of Christ in our gospel presentation But our Lord is a king, and a king has supreme rulership over his subjects And so when we present the gospel, we present the king of glory, the king of the nations, the king of kings and lord of lords, the one who's the king of the Jews, the one who is the ruler of all the kings of the earth He is an everlasting king He is an omnipotent king, and he rules over all

And so we present that king to people that they might learn to subject themselves to the leadership of the supreme sovereign ruler of the universe Psalm 103 says that he has established his throne in the heavens and his sovereignty rules over all He is the king And so we present the king to people Why? Because the kingdom is going to come And when the kingdom comes, the king will reign And when the king reigns, he rules with a theocracy It's a dictatorship, of course

Dictatorship is the best form of government, as long as the dictator is a righteous one, right? If he's an unrighteous one, you got problems But if he's a righteous dictator, which Jesus Christ will be, then everything runs as he has designed it, in purity, in holiness, and in righteousness There's no injustice, right? It's all done, all decisions are done from a just standard, because our God is a just God

Tonight, I want to go through the sequence of events that lead to the earthly kingdom of Christ, and that take us beyond that kingdom to the eternal state, which we will talk about next week But for the earthly kingdom of Christ to come, the first thing that happens is the revelation of the Son Revelation 19, verses 11 and 16, there is the revelation of the Son Listen, when Jesus Christ comes, we know it will be visible, for every eye will see him We know that it will be vengeful, because he will tread the great wine press, and he will destroy all those who oppose him

We know that it will be victorious, because our Lord never loses We know because the Bible says so And so, when we understand the visible, glorious, all-powerful coming of the King, when Revelation 19 happens, it happens when the earth has become dark, the heavens have begun to fall, and the King returns The armies have already gathered together to destroy the nation of Israel, to destroy the people of God, for the great war of God, and the King returns And in Revelation 19, 11, it says, And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat upon it is called Faithful and True

And in righteousness he judges and wages war, and his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems Many diadems speaks of the fact that he rules all the kings of the world anyway And it's an anticipation of his ruling all the kings of the nations On his head are many diadems His name written upon him which no one knows except himself He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses

And from his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron He treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty And on his robe, and on his thigh, he has the name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords The revelation of the Son begins the earthly kingdom of Christ Because once there's the revelation of the Son, there comes then the retribution upon sinners The retribution upon sinners And it's in verse 17

And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice saying to all the birds which fly in heaven, come assemble for the great supper of God, in order that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of commanders, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies assembled, to make war against him who sat upon the horse, and against his army You'll notice that there's an angel

That angel, it says in verse 17, stands in the sun It could be that the reason the earth grows dark is because this angel shadows the sun In other words, it is so large, it causes the sun to go dark so that those on earth only experience darkness It could be We don't know that, but he stands in the sun And this call is to the birds Why? Because it's in anticipation of what's going to happen in a matter of moments The war's going to be over in a matter of milliseconds And therefore, they call the birds to come

Now, it's interesting to note that if you were with us in our study of the book of Revelation years ago, that we told you that the birds migrate through the land of Israel every year And there are more pilots, Israeli pilots, killed by birds in the history of Israel than were ever killed in combat And so Israel has designed a way through gliders to determine the flight path of all the birds that migrate through the land of Israel They do that so they know how to fly their planes and when to fly their planes

And therefore, why do I tell you that? It's because when the angel calls them, they already know where they're going to go because they've been there before, see? And so they know the place And the angel calls them together because they are going to feast And the Bible says very simply this, they will eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of commanders, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses, and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great And the question comes, and I told you last week, that it's the flesh of all men

Is that all unbelieving Gentiles? It could be that all unbelieving Gentiles will die in the great battle of the great war of God And it's the souls of those who die in that battle that are the goats of Matthew 25 in judgment It could be, Zephaniah 1 says, that all the inhabitants of the earth will die That is, all the inhabitants, all the unbelieving Gentiles will die

Now, does that mean they are all killed in that battle? And the souls of those Gentiles then, unsaved Gentiles, are the goats in Matthew 25 that the judgment happens with, as we saw the judgment of the nations last week? It could be We don't know for certain We don't know who's going to be alive We know that there will be believing Gentiles that are alive and believing Jews who will be alive at the end They are the sheep of Revelation chapter, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 25 And we know that 144,000 Jewish evangelists stand on Mount Zion in the end, Revelation 14 verse number 1

So we know that believing Jews will be at the great judgment of the nations And we know that believing Gentiles will be there because they will be the ones who populate the earthly kingdom of Christ, right? They'll be the ones who will enter into the kingdom But the unbelieving Gentiles will not They are the goats And therefore, we know that when this retribution comes, we know there's going to be a judgment This is the prelude to the judgment

So the angel calls all the birds together because there's going to be a feast, the great supper of God, and God is going to cause the birds to have their fill of the flesh of commanders and the flesh of horses and the flesh of the mighty men, the flesh of the small men, the flesh of all men, it says, those who have rebelled against the Messiah And then it says in verse number 20, and the beast was seized And with him, the false prophet who performed the signs in the presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image

These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone Do you know the lake of fire is unoccupied at the moment? The lake of fire is unoccupied at the moment The unbeliever, when they die, they go to Hades, which is a place of torment Their soul goes to Hades, a place of torment But the lake of fire is a place where body and soul suffer forever Okay? And those who go to the lake of fire don't go there until Revelation 20, verse number 15, except for the false prophet and the beast or the antichrist They become the first occupants of the lake of fire

And the Bible says they're seized They're seized and they're thrown into the lake of fire The leaders go first Leaders go first And there they go to the place of eternal torment We know the false prophet is an individual We know that the antichrist is an individual Both of them are demon possessed, but they are human people who are leaders of religion and leaders of political powers of this world But they are seized first and they are cast into the lake of fire

And then the Bible says this, and the rest were killed with the sword, which came from the mouth of him who sat upon the horse and all the birds were filled with their flesh You know what? It's not so much a war as it is a word Think about that It's not so much a war It's a word. I mean, there really is no, no warfare. I mean, think about it He's got a sword that comes from his mouth He speaks the word and it's over It's over in a matter of milliseconds It's done because he speaks the word and it's over And this, you have the retribution of sinners

Then we have, of course, what is known as the great judgment of the nations in, in Matthew 25 And he puts the sheep on his right, the goats on his left And we talked about that, that last week And those believing Gentiles and those believing Jews will go into the kingdom Those unbelieving Gentiles, of course, will not They will go to the place that's prepared for the devil and his angels, which of course is the lake of fire The lake of fire was never prepared for man It was prepared for the devil and his angels That's what Matthew 25 says But man goes there

Man goes there because he will not believe in the Messiah He will not submit himself to the authority of the Lord of the universe And therefore they go to a place that was prepared for the devil and his angels because they sided with the devil and his angels See? So you move from the revelation of the sun to the retribution of sinners to the removal of the serpent Revelation 20 verse number one, and I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss The abyss is mentioned seven times in the book of Revelation and a great chain in his hand Is this angel Michael? We don't know

It doesn't say that It could be, but we don't know And this angel comes and he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years This is the first reference to how long the earthly kingdom will last a thousand years And the Bible says that this angel will take this one who was called the dragon 12 times in the book of Revelation He's called the dragon because of the ferociousness, the beast likeness of Satan himself He is called the serpent of old because it takes you way back to Genesis chapter three

He is called the devil, the diabolos, the liar He is also called Satan, the accuser of the brethren These names are also given in Revelation 12 to describe Satan himself and the angel, whoever this angel is, takes him, binds him and binds him for 1000 years And the Bible says, verse three, and threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him so that he should not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed After these things, he must be released for a short time

Isn't that interesting? He'll be bound for a thousand years and then he will be released for a short time for there to be an earthly kingdom of Christ Sinners must be dealt with That's happened for there to be an earthly kingdom of Christ The antichrist and the false prophet must be dealt with for there to be an earthly kingdom of Christ Satan himself must be bound He too must be dealt with Why? Why? Because you see something very unique happens in the earthly kingdom of Christ People are born You have Gentiles and you have Jews who go into the kingdom They do not have glorified bodies

You will. I will Those of us who come back with him, we are the armies that come back on white horses We come back with glorified bodies We'll talk about that in a second But there are Jews and Gentiles that enter the kingdom And of course, they will marry They will have children And over a thousand years, there'll be lots of children that are born But at the end of that thousand years, Satan will be released He must be released Why? Because sinners must be dealt with

You see, it's unique to understand that one of the reasons there is an earthly kingdom, outside of the fact that God has promised because of his character, a land for Israel and a king and a son of David He's made that promise He's going to keep that promise, right? And so for him to come back, he is faithful to his word That's He's also faithful to those that he said he would destroy So he's coming back to do exactly as he said he would do

But also to understand that there will happen during the thousand-year reign of Christ upon earth, there will be people who will not outwardly, but inwardly rebel against the king To prove, to prove that in a perfect environment with a perfect king and absolutely no satanic influence, man will still rebel and sin against God

If two people, Adam and Eve, created sinless, lived in a sinless environment and still chose to sin when tempted, what do you think will happen to thousands upon thousands, literally millions of people who live in this earthly kingdom of Christ who have sin natures, right? They're born with sin natures They'll never be able to say, well, the devil made me do it because the devil's bound He can't go anywhere They can never blame it on Satan because he's nowhere around They can only blame it on their own sinful nature and character

And so there comes in the third aspect of understanding the earthly kingdom of Christ, the removal of the serpent But he will be bound for a thousand years, but he must be released for a short time We'll look at that in a moment Then comes number four, the reign of the saints slash the ruler or the rule of the savior, the reign of the saints and the rule of the savior and the earthly kingdom of Christ described in a very brief statement in verses four down through verse six reads as follows And I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given to them

And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus, because of the word of God and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand And they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years The rest of the dead do not come to life until the thousand years were completed This is the first resurrection Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection over these

The second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years Now you need to get that They will reign with him for a thousand years Who will reign with Christ for a thousand years? Well, we know that Daniel chapter seven tells us that old Testament saints will reign with Christ for a thousand years We know from Matthew 19, 28, that the 12 apostles will reign with Christ on thrones overseeing the 12 tribes of Israel

We know from first Corinthians six and second Timothy two, that the new Testament saints, the church age will also reign with Christ for a thousand years So we know that there are old Testament saints who reign We know that there will be new Testament saints that reign And we also know that there are the 12 apostles who will reign We also know that those who have been beheaded during the tribulation, the martyred tribulational saints, they too will reign with Christ for a thousand years Remember Revelation chapter two, verse number 26, it reads as follows

One of the promises given to the overcomer, and he who overcomes and he who keeps my deeds until the end to him, I will give authority over the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces As I also have received authority from my father and I will give him the morning star In other words, as the son has received authority from the father, so the son gives authority to the old Testament saints, to the new Testament saints, to the tribulational saints, to the 12 apostles to rule in the millennial kingdom with a rod of iron

We have the opportunity to rule in this earthly kingdom of Christ We will have what is called glorified bodies Now how this all works itself out, I have no idea, but we're going to have glorified bodies and those Gentile believers and Jewish believers who entered the kingdom are going to have earthly bodies Okay Like you and I have today, earthly bodies that will grow old Although, although the Bible tells us that there'll be no infant mortality during the tribulation, no one will die as an infant If anyone dies, they will die at a hundred years of age

And by the way, if they die before a hundred years of age, they, the only ones who do are unbelievers No believers die during the millennium How do we know that? Because there is no resurrection of millennial saints That's how we know that The Bible speaks of no resurrection of millennial saints, those who give their life to Christ in the millennium And throughout the old Testament, it talks about how the king will rule in Jerusalem and, and there'll be 10 Gentiles on the coat of every Jew saying, take us to your Messiah, that they might see the Messiah and come to believe in the Messiah

Because in the millennium, people will be saved the same way they're saved today The same way they were saved in the old Testament, by grace through faith in Christ alone And so people will come and they will get saved All right And when they get saved, they'll believe in the Lord Jesus Christ There'll be believers in the king, but no believer will die in the millennium because there is nowhere in scripture, a promise given to resurrect millennial saints Nowhere

Only the unbeliever will die in the millennium, which will add credence to the fact as to why people need to give their life to Christ In fact, if you read Isaiah 65, the, the, the, the phraseology of what is said there is that the ones who died before a hundred are the ones who are accursed That is they're unbelievers So if they die at a hundred or before the age of a hundred, they have proven themselves to be unbelievers Others who give their life to Christ will live through the thousand years upon earth In other words, men will live a long time in the millennium

Everything will change, but we're going to have glorified bodies We're going to reign with Christ We'll rule with a rod of iron We couldn't rule with a rod of iron if we didn't have glorified bodies because we'd have sinful natures, right? If we were, the people of those days are going to have sinful natures We're not going to have a sinful nature We're going to have a body just like Christ's That's important The Bible says these words in Philippians 321, Christ who shall are going to have a body like the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 John 3, 2

And it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him for we will see him as he is So we're going to have a glorified body What is a glorified body like? Well, the only way we're going to know that is if we study the scriptures and know what the Bible says about the body of Christ, right? So we know from Luke 24 that Christ could appear and disappear at will So in your glorified state, you could appear and disappear at will That's amazing

That's kind of scary for those who can't appear or disappear at will, right? We also know from John 20 that Jesus could walk through walls and walk through doors So not only can you appear and disappear at will, you can actually walk through any wall you want to walk through That is pretty cool. I don't know what you think about that We also know from Luke 24 that Christ could transport himself, listen, by a thought, by a thought Luke 24, verse number 31 We also know in Luke 24 that he could eat fish and honeycomb So when you're glorified body, you'll still be able to eat

We also know from Luke 24, 40, that he could sit down with the disciples and show them the scars in his hands We know from Luke 24, 32 that he could speak and be understood We know from Acts 1, 11 that he was incorruptible We know from Acts 1, 11 that he was powerful And we know from John 20, verses 5 to 7 that he was glorified

So in other words, in the glorified body, you can eat, you can talk, you can feel like Christ, you can see like Christ, you can be like Christ, you can do what Christ did in his glorified body when he was here during those 40 days after his resurrection and before his ascension That's what a glorified body can do And that's the kind of body you're going to have when you come back with him on white horses and you rule and reign with him in this earthly kingdom, this millennial reign, which is a thousand years Six times in seven verses, it says a thousand years

That's how long we know the earthly kingdom of Christ will last And so we also know that there ought to be certain conditions in the kingdom Let me give them to you briefly, okay, because you're going to want to know this The political conditions We know that from Psalm 2 and Daniel 2, that there will be a universal rule of Christ He rules the entire world We know that from Psalm 72, it is an absolute rule That is, our God will not tolerate any rebellion, no rebellion in the millennium

That's why Satan must be released at the end of the thousand years, because no one dare rebel outwardly because our Lord rules with a rod of iron But inwardly, because of their sin nature, they rebel The problem is they can't organize their rebellion until Satan is released Once Satan is released, he then organizes the rebellion for one last battle against the Messiah That's later on in Revelation 20 It's also a righteous rule according to Isaiah 11 verses 3 and verse number 4 Our Lord is a righteous God He is a righteous judge and everything he does is pure and right and holy

We also know about the spiritual condition of the earthly kingdom Israel will have a prominent place in that kingdom Why? Because they've been promised a land They've been promised a king And so Israel plays a prominent place in the earthly kingdom of Christ They'll be brought together They'll be regenerated They will be converted In fact, the new covenant of Jeremiah 30 says there will be no Jew that's unsaved in the millennial kingdom Every Jew will be saved in that millennium Every Jew born in that millennial kingdom will be saved

The new covenant of Jeremiah tells us that all of them will believe and all of them will know him and all of them will follow him Why? Because that land and that king are designed specifically for the land of Israel and for the people of Israel And there's been years of rebellion against the Messiah, years by the Jewish people, but not in the millennium They will believe Only Gentiles will disbelieve and rebel inwardly, ultimately outwardly to rebel against the king of the Jeremiah 23.6 says, in his days, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely

The only time Israel will dwell in safety is in the millennium They will not ever dwell safely in the tribulation They won't Oh yeah, there'll be a peace treaty Yes They'll have a covenant with the antichrist, but they will never dwell safely The only time there will not be walls in Jerusalem is in the millennium, not the tribulation, the only time And that's the promise because the king, the promise of Israel dwelling in safely is always associated with the Messiah and the throne, always

And so when you ever, you read about Israel dwelling in safety, safety in the old Testament, it's because their king is on the throne Until their king is on the throne, they will never be safe There's always something to fear And so God will take care of his people He will watch over his people There'll be the presence of Christ according to Psalm 72.19 There'll be the presence of truth, Isaiah 11.9, the presence of righteousness, Psalm 72.7, the presence of peace, Isaiah 2.4, the presence of joy, Isaiah 12 verses three to four, the presence and special power of the spirit of God, Joel 2.28

There'll be the presence of a new temple, Ezekiel 40 to 48 Everything in the millennium will be different than it is today Even the typography of the land will have been altered drastically in the millennial kingdom because of all the earthquakes that take place in the tribulation Remember every mountain flees away Every island is gone There are no more islands There are no mountains Everything is flat And it's all like it was back in Genesis chapter one and Genesis chapter two before the fall of man And that's the way the earth will be There'll be a restoration of the earth

There's going to be a complete renovation of the earth, or not a renovation, but a complete new heaven and new earth But there's going to be a renovation of that earth in the meantime, because the Bible says that the curse will be lifted according to Isaiah 11 verses six to nine, Isaiah 30 verses 23 to 24 We know the food will be plentiful There will be no shortage of food in the millennium, Joel 2 verses 21 to 27 And health and healing will be automatically evident throughout the millennium How do we know that? Isaiah 29, 18, Isaiah 33, 24, Isaiah 35, five and six

When the Messiah came the first time, he banished all disease, all illness from the land of Israel, because he was picturing to them the coming of the king and what the kingdom had to offer to those who believed in the king And so when Christ came the first time, he healed all who came to him Why? Because that's the kind of God he is Same will be happening in the millennial kingdom You won't have to go to the doctor in the millennium because you have the great physician who heals all things throughout the reign of that thousand years And in spite of all those things, there will be a rebellion

There will be a rebellion against the Messiah, because then you move to point number five, and that's the release of Satan, the release of Satan It says, and when the thousand years are completed, you got to ask yourself this question For those who do not believe in a literal kingdom of Christ, and they don't believe that there's going to be an earthly kingdom of Christ, then you can't tell me that Satan's been bound, right? Because he is the prince and the power of the air He goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour

So when would Satan never be bound if there is no literal earthly kingdom? And if there is no literal earthly kingdom, then, and we're in the kingdom today, where are the 12 apostles ruling over the 12 tribes of Israel? And where are the ultimate Old Testament saints ruling in the land today? You see, if you don't believe in a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ upon the earth, you have to do spiritual gymnastics throughout the New Testament to come up with a view that's contrary to the literal view of Revelation chapter 20 When it says a thousand years, it means a thousand years

It says it six times. I mean, how many times does the Lord have to say it for it to be true, right? Once But he said it six times to make sure you get it And after that thousand year reign of Christ upon the earth, then comes the release of Satan And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to see the nations which are in the four corners of the earth Notice, hell never changes anybody, right? Think about it

If you were to die and go to hell and live again, you still wouldn't change. I mean, Satan's the same way a thousand years later as he was a thousand years before, right? And it proves the point that your environment can never change your behavior, can never change your character, just can't do that It might change maybe the severity of acting out your character, but it'll never change your character Satan's the same a thousand years later as he was before he went in He was still the deceiver of the nations And when he comes out, he is still the deceiver of the nations

Satan is such a deceiver, he himself is deceived You know, he can read the Bible He knows what the Bible says He knows the end, but he is so deceived, he thinks he can change the end That's how deceived he is He's deceived himself into believing that he can deceive the nations of the world and defeat the king of the universe That is absolutely mind-boggling to me, but that's the way he is But he must be released Why? Because the rest of the sinners must be dealt with So comes the release of Satan He will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth

Then comes the rebellion of society In verse 8, it says, Gog and Magog gathered them together for the war The number of them is like the sand of the seashore And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, which is Jerusalem And fire came down from heaven and devoured them And the devil, the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also And they will be tormented day and night forever and never There comes the rebellion of society Someone has to organize them

Someone has to put them together And all those people who throughout the millennium did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be Gentile people They will be the nations of the world They will come under the title Gog and Magog There's a lot of debate as to what that is, okay? And if you go back and you listen to the tape that we did numbers of years ago on Revelation 20, we go into eight reasons why Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38 is what happens in Revelation 20

And there's much debate as to what Gog and Magog is and does that happen during the tribulation or does it happen at the end of the millennium? Well, you know, all I can tell you is that if it's mentioned one time in the Old Testament and one time in the New Testament and where it's mentioned in the New Testament is at the end of the millennium, then Ezekiel 38 in Revelation 20 must be the same time That's just a natural, simple law of biblical hermeneutics And also in Ezekiel 38, it's the only time that it describes Israel dwelling in safety

And we know that happens when the king is on the throne But whatever Gog and Magog, we know that Magog is the grandson of Noah, and we know that that's the vicinity of Russia, and we know that whenever Israel's been attacked, they've been attacked from the north And so some people think, well, that battle's going to happen during the tribulation And maybe it does, and maybe it does All we know is we know this Satan gathers the people of the world and the people of the world covers the world like a blanket

The number of those who rebel against the perfect king in a perfect environment numbers in the millions It's as the sand on the seashore. I mean, that's incredible But Satan gathers them together he must do this because they must be dealt with So society revolts, society rebels, what they've held in for all these years, now they let go because Satan has been released And those who have pretended to be a follower of the Messiah will now be unmasked by Satan himself as he comes and gathers them together And then comes a destruction

Fire came down from heaven and devoured them. I mean, you know what? It's almost humorous because there really are no battles here The battle of Armageddon pretty much is not much at all because it's over in a matter of milliseconds because the Lord just comes and says the word, it's over, it's done At the end, he calls fire down from heaven and bang, they're devoured Immediately they're incinerated It's over, it's done You can't defeat the king of kings You can't defeat the Lord of lords

And then comes the most sober, the most somber, the most serious portion of scripture, Revelation 20 verse 11 to 15, which is the reckoning by our sovereign king And what does it say? It says this, and I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it from whose presence earth in heaven fled away Now the throne is great, not because it's big, but because of its significance Its significance This is the great white throne judgment of God It says, and I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it from whose presence earth in heaven fled away and no place was found for them

That tells you that the heavens are not infinite There's an ending to the universe For those who think that the universe just goes on and on and on and on and on, it's infinite No, it's not infinite because there'll be a new heaven and a new earth There's a lake of fire that exists outside of the present universe, right? Because the false prophet and the beasts were already cast into the lake of fire Satan is cast into the lake of fire and heaven and earth flee from the presence of him who sits on the throne

And if Jesus is omnipresent, that is, he's everywhere at once, there's no place he's not If for heaven and earth to flee from his presence, that means it must flee and go out of existence And that means it says down in verse, chapter 21, verse number one, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven, the first earth passed away They're gone They are no more Everything is like it was before Genesis chapter one, verse number one That's where it is It says, and I saw the dead, the great and the small standing before the throne and the books were open Now these are the unsaved dead

Okay? These are not the saved dead These are the unsaved dead How do we know that? Well, we know that because the old Testament saints, the new Testament saints, the tribulational saints, the 12 apostles are all ruling in the millennial kingdom They have glorified bodies, right? There will be no Jews who die in the millennium In fact, the only ones who die in the millennium are unsaved people So all those people are alive These in revelation 21 are, I saw the dead, great and small The only ones who are dead are those who are unbelievers This is the second resurrection

Remember back earlier in revelation 20, it says in verse number five, the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed Who's the rest of the dead? That's the unsaved dead Remember there are two resurrections There's the first resurrection, which has four phases And there is a second resurrection The first resurrection has four phases Christ, who was the first fruit of all those who will be resurrected According to first Corinthians 15, there's Christ There are the, uh, the, uh, uh, new Testament saints

There are the old Testament saints and their tribulational saints Okay So the resurrection, the first resurrection has four phases The second resurrection has one face That's revelation 20, verse 11 to 15 The rest of the dead now are raised All the unsaved dead are raised All the, the bodies of the unsaved souls are raised and the souls and those bodies are put back together because everybody's resurrected Every body is resurrected These, this is the resurrection of the unsaved dead And it says, and I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne and the books were open

What books are those? Well, those are the books of all the deeds of the unsaved dead Everything they did that was good or bad The books were open Every record of every attitude, action, thought, word are recorded God records them all And another book was open, which is the book of life Well, the only names in the book of life are the names written there before the foundation of the world These people's names aren't written there And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds

And the sea gave up the dead, which were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead, which were in them And they were judged each one of them according to their deeds and death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire This is the second death, the lake of fire And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire This is that great white throne judgment This is where those people will say, I mean, can you imagine at this time you are, you've already been in Hades, your soul, you've died, your soul is separated from your body

You've been in torment in Hades, right? We'll look about that in Luke 16 when we get there in our study of Luke on Sunday mornings But you've been in Hades and all of a sudden you're no longer there because Hades gives up the dead, which are in it, right? So now you're, you're no longer in Hades, but where are you? Well, you're, you're somewhere in the midst of nothing before a throne

Can you imagine the thought process of the unsaved dead? I'm so glad I'm out of there. I must, I must be able to be free. I can, I can, I can make my plea before the judge. I can say what I need to say before the judge Now he's going to hear me My body's resurrected My soul is back together with my body and I'm standing for the judge. I am no longer in torment My torment is done. I've paid the price The debt's over And out come the books And you're the, you, you know, you know, you deserve better than what you just had

So you think, and that will be the cry of those who say, but, but we prophesied your name We cast out demons in your name We did many marvelous deeds in your name And Jesus will say, depart from me. I never knew you Now, can you imagine spending years upon years, millennia upon millennia in Hades, in the torment of your soul to get just one brief moment of reprieve, joined together with your body to stand before the King, hoping, pleading, thinking that I got a chance to make it The books are open and the book of life was opened Your name's not there

And the Bible says, if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was not placed in the lake of fire He was thrown in the lake of fire Folks, that is a harsh judgment by God, but it's a just judgment by God They are literally hurled into the lake of fire It's not like, I'm sorry, but you got to go, man Well, what can I say? I wish it was different No, you are picked up and you are slammed in the lake of fire because that's what you deserve because you rebelled against an almighty God So here you are thinking that you have a reprieve for a brief moment

Then when measured against this holy standard, you don't make it because the standard is perfection, right? And you weren't perfect You weren't declared righteous by the King because you didn't believe in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords And no matter how you plead your case, your name was not written in the book of life, the Lamb's book of life And you were thrown headlong to the lake of fire And what you experienced in the torment of your soul for millennia upon millennia upon millennia is nothing compared to the torment of soul and body together in the lake of fire

And that's why this is the most sobering scene in all of scripture because they will not enter into the kingdom of God But those who believe, those who were committed to Christ throughout the millennial reign of Christ, and for those Old Testament saints who had glorified bodies and New Testament saints with glorified bodies and tribulational saints with glorified bodies Oh, by the way, you'll be there You'll see it

You'll enter the new heaven and the new earth, the eternal state of God, the perfect state, no more sin, no more pain, no more tears, no more death, the perfect reality of the new heaven and the new earth And that's next week's topic Let's pray together Father God, we thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to understand the word of the Lord and to believe that, Lord Jesus, the plan you have is a perfect plan And our job is to tell people about the coming kingdom of God and the king that will sit upon the throne and judge with righteousness and truth and holiness

And I pray, Father, that all of us will be motivated to speak the truth to others They might come to grips with reality of their eternal destiny Lord, this life is nothing compared to eternity This life is not even a blip on a screen, the eternal screen of God compared to what we will do after this life And Father, I pray there's somebody here tonight who does not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, that tonight would be the night of their salvation, that tonight they would give their life to Christ because they don't want to spend eternity separated from the Lord Jesus

They will live with Him and want to be with Him forever We pray in Jesus' precious name Amen.