Chapter 20: 11-15

^“11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. ¹³ And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. ¹⁴ And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. ¹⁵ And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Wow, what a response to last week’s break! God always knows what He is doing. It seems like a lot of people needed the encouragement, as did I. Today we will venture back into the Revelation. We will look at some of the most somber words in the history of man, and as yet, there is a chance for people to avoid being a part of this event. This event, the one we are about to explore in Revelation 20, is going to happen. God says it will, and there is no avoiding it without Jesus as Savior.

We humans are a funny group. God designed life to mimic the realities of eternity. As such, we have a court system, there are judges, and these judges execute judgments. We have multiple levels of court, and a Judge’s words are final. There can be appeals, but for the vast majority of court cases, the judgments are final. In man’s courts, your past is taken into consideration as to what kind of citizen you have been, what contributions you have made to society, and on and on. But you are judged based on the Law books, and you are sentenced according to the guidelines in those books. God set up life so that we have no excuses; we see His patterns right before us every day.

We live in a time where people think that no one has the right to judge them. And, if they find that you are a Christian, they love to point out that the Bible says to ‘judge not.’ Matthew 7:1-2 reads this way,

“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”

The premise is that we are not to be hypocrites in our judging; be honest. When we judge others, understand that we will be held to the same standard. The idea is judging must be honest, careful and that we are to first judge ourselves correctly before we judge others. But at no point are we told not to judge.

Our entire life is built on judging. Most will not go to a restaurant unless they have 4+ stars on Google; this is called judging. We make judgments about clothing brands, shoes, cars, houses, and the lists go on. We love contests; they judge one contestant better than the other as long as both play within the rules and keep in bounds.

The Judgment of the Judgment, Matthew 27

In verse 50 in particular, we see these words: “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.” Jesus died. He had spent a long night in front of the High Priest, then Pilate, then Herod, then Pilate again. Sometime around the 9 o’clock hour in the morning on that fateful day, He was placed on the cross (the time of the morning sacrifice), and He ‘gave up the ghost’ at about 3pm that afternoon (the time of the evening sacrifice).

Jesus is the end of all blood sacrifices. He is the First and the Last of all that was required by a perfect God to redeem ALL of the imperfect men from Adam to the very end. Thus, in Jesus, God has judged judgments. He executed His judgment on Jesus so that He would not have to execute His judgment on you and me.

In 2 Peter 3:9, we see these words of hope: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

God did not want anyone to perish; that means to get to the judgment we are considering today in Revelation 20. He was not wanting any to perish at all. He was so adamant that He sent Jesus, God in the flesh, as a man; and He, God, executed His wrath on Jesus so that you would have the option to avoid the Revelation 20 judgment. Notice very clearly that the verse says that God wanted ALL to come to repentance. For those that do come to repentance we can find joy in verses like Romans 5:1-8,

“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Look at the first verse, we are ‘justified,’ declared righteous by our faith in Jesus; and with this justification, we have peace with God. Later in Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”  In Jesus we now have the spiritual birth; and as such, we are no longer under condemnation before God. Later in that chapter, we are told that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. God judged the judgment and provided a way, at great expense, for you and me to avoid any kind of judgment at all.

The Final Judgment, Revelation 20:11-15

First of all, it cannot be avoided; no one will be able to hide from God’s eyesight. All will be exposed. There, both the dead and the living are judged. Notice once again that all are there, and there is a level ground; the small and the great are before God. Then the books are opened; these refer to the 66 books of the Bible. These are, and all will be judged by the things written in the books (see verse 12). See John 12: 47-49,

“As for anyone who hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not receive My words: The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. I have not spoken on My own, but the Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it.…”

Notice that Jesus tells us that the ‘words I have spoken will judge him on the last day.’ The spoken words of Jesus are written in the books of the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, these are the spoken words of Jesus. It is these words by which people are judged. Notice that He also tells us that there is a ‘judge for the one who rejects me.’ Notice that there is a distinction made here: some will reject His words, then the contrast is also true; some will accept His words. Thus, those at the judgment in Revelation 20:11-15 have chosen to be there by rejecting Jesus’ words.

There is another book called the book of Life. In it are listed the people who, from the time of Adam and on, were known by God to have been the recipients of the redemption. These are the ones who accepted the free gift of God. Romans 6:23,

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Again, in Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Salvation is a gift offered to mankind by a loving, merciful and kind God. Sadly, billions over the 6,000 years of man’s existence have rejected the free gift. This is their judgment. Since they rejected God’s free gift of justification and the end of condemnation, they will have to suffer their judgment and be condemned forever.

Many will say that the punishment does not fit the crime – what kind of ‘loving God’ torments people for eternity? The kind of loving God who is also Holy and requires perfection. This is one of the things that people don’t get. God can only fellowship with perfection as a Holy and perfect God. You and I cannot be perfect in and of our own powers. We must have perfection imputed to us, given to us, accounted to us by One who is perfect for us. That person is Jesus; He is perfect for us. He offers perfection to us in Jesus, and those that reject Jesus must be put away.

Thus, at this judgment, all whose names are not found in the book of Life go to the lake of Fire forever. No exceptions, no appeals, no excuses and no adjournments. What a sad day that will be in the short history of man. It will be a solemn day. I suspect there will be lots of tears and weeping, lots of begging and pleading. Just thinking about it hurts me and causes chills. Lest you think God to be heartless, we find this summary of God’s emotions right before the flood. See Genesis 6:6,

“And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”

Nonetheless, His holiness required judgment, and God is able to balance the two – His love and His holiness. Make no mistake, only faith and trust in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection will save you from this final judgment. Jesus is the answer; He has been since Genesis 3:15, and He is still the answer today. Call on Him today.

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Revelation Chapter 20: 7-10

“Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and 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, whose number is as the sand of the sea. ⁹ They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. ¹⁰ The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

This has been a tragic week for some of my closest friends and me. Over the past 7 days or so, I have had 2 friends die. Both of them relatively young, one less than 40 and another under 60. It reminds you that life is fragile and fleeting at best. These men both knew the Lord as Savior and served Him. One was a dear pastor of a conservative Baptist church, an excellent Bible teacher who has been plagued with illness for some time. Both men went home to see Jesus, and they will never be ill again.

We shall go to see them one day. I must admit that comprehending this all can be difficult. I am no stranger to death; I have buried my share of family members, and as a Pastor I have done many funerals. But these two deaths hit me. One is that I am not much younger than this dear Pastor who died this week, and the other is why them? I know that the Lord is in charge and His plan is perfect. My questions do not change the perfection of His plan. But this Pastor was a good man, a good dad and good friend. The last gesture of friendship he did was to buy me a study Bible about a year ago. He was an excellent Bible teacher, and we need more men like him around.

I do not write these things to cause any kind of dissention, but to show that Pastors have to deal with real emotions, and we are real people. We don’t always have it all together. But, as we discussed last week, we who know Jesus as Savior are going to a place that has no pain, no suffering and no death. We have a ‘hope’ the apostle tells us that transcends the tragedies of life, that transcends funerals and disease and death.

One day soon, death will be dead. Cemeteries will be a thing of the past, doctors will be poor, no wood needed for caskets, and GM won’t be able to sell hearses. One day soon, both death and taxes will no longer be sure things. Jesus changed the course of history when He got up out of the grave, and we are simply waiting for history to catch up. I will see these dear friends again, and then we will never miss each other again. Soon and very soon we are going to see the King. Will you be going with us?

Over the past 2 weeks, we have explored the good things of the Millennial Kingdom: lions eating straw, kids playing with snakes, wolves and lambs together, living to 100 years old will be normal, and there will be peace, no one will learn war, Isaiah 2:2-4:

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Sadly, it is not all ‘rainbows and unicorns’ in the Millennial Kingdom. As we can see in our passage from Revelation 20:7-10, Satan is released from the Bottomless Pit and is able to raise an army from the nations on the earth with which to launch an attack on Jesus and His empire. This attack will be executed by people that Satan is able to recruit from people who for 1,000 years have lived under the rule of Jesus. The rule where He stopped wars, settled scores that were millennia old, brought peace and solved the issues of men. A reign of righteousness, no scandals, no deceit, no cheating, no lies, no evil at all. Yet, Satan is able to raise an army from the population of earth. This army will include millions and maybe even billions of people. Notice that they are described as the ‘sand of the sea’ in numbers.

So, let us take into consideration some numbers. In 1300 AD, the earth’s population was about 432,000,000; by 1900 AD it was about 1,600,000,000; by 2000 AD it was 6,000,000,000; and today 7,700,000,000. As you can see, we grew the earth’s population by 1.7 Billion in the last 19 years. Let that sink in. Imagine then what the population will be in the 1,000 years of the Millennial Kingdom when there is no war, people will live to at least 100 and there are no wild animals to kill you.

The Evil in Men, Jeremiah 17:9

Wow! Even without Satan, men will be evil at heart. Even spending 1,000 years with Jesus and His righteous and just reign will not change the hearts of men. They need to be born again. Look at our verse, Jeremiah 17:9:

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Notice God’s assessment of men’s hearts, their core beings; they are “deceitful” and “beyond cure.” Paul puts it this way in Romans 3:10, “There is none good, no not one.” Many people will say that if they saw Jesus, then they would believe; and if they heard Him speak, they would believe. We have built an entire generation of Christians around signs of God’s and not the Word of God. But Abraham makes a stunning assessment of man’s heart in Luke 16:29-31:

“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ ‘He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

In the account, the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to witness to his brothers. Abraham tells him that his brothers have “Moses and the Prophets,” meaning the written Word of God, and these are enough. The rich man insists that if one were to come back from the dead then they would believe, and Abraham says NO! If they will not believe the written word, then they will not believe even if one is raised from the dead.

The Millennial Kingdom will see the nail-scarred hands of Jesus every time He raises them; they will know that He is the King of the World who brings in peace and heals their disputes; they will see the Risen Savior on TV, in the NEWS, on FB, on YouTube and on and on; and yet Satan will find billions of dissenters to form a formidable army bigger than any human army in existence right now.

The heart of man is horrible. We don’t want to bow to anyone, even God. But those of us that are transformed by Jesus’ salvation understand the need through the Holy Spirit to be submissive to the Lord. We can appreciate, though not totally in our flesh, the salvation that was bought for us. We adore our Saviour, we love Him, we cherish Him, we honor Hm, and we long to see Him and fall at His feet. But we do not sow these things out of our own hearts; we have been given a new heart by God through salvation in Jesus, and that heart can appreciate Jesus. The natural man does not appreciate Jesus. You need to be born again; the message has not changed since John 3.

But here we have clear evidence that man’s heart is the problem. In-born sin is the problem, and not that the Devil made me do it. It does not appear from the text in Revelation that we are exploring that Satan has to do a lot of persuading. He is able to raise a vast army in a very short time. Evil hearts will follow evil leadership. The physical presence of Jesus will make no difference. This time they will defy Him face to face as they follow Satan.

Rebellion is not Tolerated, Revelation 20:9-10

They try to invade Jerusalem. Even 1,000 years from now, it will still be the center of the world. God sends fire down and consumes these men. Many of them would not have remembered God’s wrath from the Tribulation. Many would have assumed that Jesus’ meekness was a sign of weakness, and they are going to be wrong. Fire will fall from Heaven and consume them, then Satan will be put into the Lake of Fire forever to be tormented there.

There is not much to go on about here other than, don’t defy God; you cannot win. Satan has already lost, and those who follow him will lose as well. Jesus is the ONLY WAY. God told us in Genesis 3:15 that the ‘Seed of the Woman would crush the head of the serpent’; job done and over. Head crushed and Satan gone. I will leave you with the words of Abraham to the rich man: “They have Moses and the Prophets.” Jesus said this in John 5:39,

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”

Jesus is the very core of the Bible—from the Creator in Genesis, the Rock that followed Israel in the Wilderness, standing in the Fire with the three Hebrew men, the Baby in a Manger, the Savior on the cross, the resurrected Saviour or the King on the Throne of David—the entire Bible is about Jesus. He will give you a new heart, one that can see Him and His ways, one that will love Him, serve Him and honor Him; you just need to submit and ask.

All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca