{"id":19013,"date":"2019-12-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-15T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-064-the-chain-and-reign\/"},"modified":"2019-12-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T06:00:00","slug":"revelation-064-the-chain-and-reign","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-064-the-chain-and-reign\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 064 – The Chain and Reign"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19013","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 064 - The Chain and Reign","sermon_date":"20191215","sermon_month":"12","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":7378,"sermon_slides":7379,"sermon_mp3":7381,"sermon_id":"121519131455694","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"20:1-4a","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Chain and Reign\n\nRevelation 20:1-4a\n\nLesson 64\n\nGood morning.\u00a0 After that worship I feel like I should do my Christmas message today, but I won\u2019t do that to you.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to the Book of Revelation, chapter \u00a020 taking a look this morning at verses 1-6 of Revelation 20, taking a look this morning at verses 1-6.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is The Chain and the Reign.\u00a0\u00a0 I appreciate everybody\u2019s prayers for Anne\u2019s surgery, things seemed to go well, that\u2019s what the doctors told us, but she\u2019s got a couple of screws in one of her fingers and it hurts a lot so if you can keep praying for her with pain management we would appreciate it.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not just us that needs prayer.\u00a0 In our bulletin you\u2019ll see an insert there of people with all kinds of health issues and it\u2019s always wonderful to go into those circumstances with God\u2019s people behind you in prayer.\n\nRevelation 20:1, we have, in our study of the Book of Revelation, completed the tribulation period.\u00a0 Can you believe that?\u00a0 The tribulation period is over; we finished chapter 19 last week which is the return of Jesus to the earth in what is called the Second Advent of Christ.\u00a0 And we can take chapter 19 and divide it into different pieces but we concluded last time with verses 19-21 where Christ returns to the earth and He dispenses with the beast and his armies and the false prophet.\u00a0 In fact, if memory is right I don\u2019t think we read verse 21 last time.\n\nLook at that, chapter 19, verse 21.\u00a0 It says, \u201cAnd the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.\u201d\u00a0 Now that doesn\u2019t read like a typical Christmas verse, does it?\u00a0 At Christmas time we celebrate His first coming, this is a reference to His second coming where He returns. He is that rider in the white horse; He kills instantaneously the various armies that will approach Him at this time with a sharp sword protruding from His mouth, which is His spoken word.\u00a0 And there are so many dead bodies that the birds come and begin to feast on the carnage of the deceased.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how chapter 19 ends.\n\nNow let me just for a minute, let\u2019s go back up to about the ten thousand foot level and let\u2019s remember where we are in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 Revelation chapter 1:19 I believe is there to give us an outline of the whole book.\u00a0 John was told this back in the first century on the Island of Patmos, \u201cTherefore write the things that you have seen, the things which are, and the things that will take place after these things.\u201d\u00a0 Number one, \u201cwrite down the things that you have seen,\u201d that\u2019s the vision of the glorified\u00a0 Christ that John saw.\u00a0 It\u2019s a reference to the contents of chapter one.\u00a0 Then he is told to \u201cwrite down the things which are,\u201d that\u2019s chapters 2 and 3, the seven letters to the seven churches.\n\nAnd then he was told to \u201cwrite down the things that will take place after these things.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s chapter 4:1, taking a right all the way to the end of the book, the futuristic section which is the longest section of the Book of Revelation but that\u2019s the section that we have been slowly working our way through.\u00a0 In fact, there\u2019s a literary clue that you\u2019re moving into that futuristic section because it says in Revelation 4:1, \u201cAfter these things.\u201d\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t John told to write down the things that will take place \u201cafter these things\u201d\u00a0 meta tauta<\/em> in Greek,\u00a0 \u201cafter these things.\u201d\u00a0 When does that section start?\u00a0 It starts in chapter 4 verse 1, \u201cAfter these things.\u201d\n\nSo once you get to chapter 4 all the way through to the end of the book you\u2019re in that third and final section of the book.\u00a0 And that section is so long we have to divide it into three parts.\u00a0 Number one, events before the tribulation period starts, chapters 4 and 5.\u00a0 Number two, the events of the tribulation period itself, chapters 6-19. Congratulations, we actually finished that section, having made it all the way through those various judgments and culminating in the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And now we\u2019re in the third part of that third section where we learn about four things that will happen after the tribulation period ends.\u00a0 Those four things are: number one, the Kingdom of God, chapter 20, verses 1-10.\u00a0 Number two, a terrible judgment for the unsaved called the Great\u00a0 White Throne Judgment, chapter 20 verses 11-15.\u00a0 Number three, the destruction of this earth, Revelation 21:1.\u00a0 Now if you\u2019re a believer in global warming that\u2019s when you\u2019re going to get your global warming.\n\nAnd then this earth is going to be replaced by a new heavens and new earth in which dwells righteousness, chapters 21 and 22.\u00a0 And so this morning we\u2019re just\u2026 and by the way, that\u2019s what they look like on graphic or chart form. \u00a0You see the second coming and you look to the right there and you\u2019ve got Kingdom, Great White Throne Judgment, The New Heavens and New Earth, which can\u2019t come into existence until the present heaven and earth are dissolved via fire.\u00a0 So we\u2019re moving into that first of the four events that will happen when Jesus Christ comes back, something that Jesus instructed us to pray about two thousand years ago when He told His disciples to pray this prayer, \u201cThy Kingdom\u201d what? \u201cCome.\u201d\u00a0 What is it we\u2019re praying for?\u00a0 Well, here\u2019s the answer.\u00a0 Revelation 20:1-10 is an answer to that prayer request.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s where we are moving into this morning.\n\nSo you can take the information about the kingdom, which is\u00a0 yet to come, and you can divide it into three parts.\u00a0 Number one, there is information about Satan, verses 1-3.\u00a0 And you could subtitle that unit the great chain.\u00a0 [Revelation 20:1, \u201cThen I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. [2] And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; [3]\u00a0<\/sup>and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it<\/em> and sealed it<\/em> over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.\u201d]\n\nNumber two, there\u2019s information about the saints, verses 4-6.\u00a0 [Revelation 20:4-6, \u201cThen I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw<\/em> the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. [5] The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. [6] 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..\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s your future and my future, and we can entitle that the great reign.\n\nAnd then a thousand years will elapse and there\u2019s information about sinners at the end of that time period, verses 7-10, stunningly and staggeringly there is a great revolt, verses 7-10, and God is allowing that to happen as we will see in our studies to teach humanity a specific lesson.\u00a0 [Revelation 20:7-10, \u201cWhen the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, [8] \u00a0<\/sup>and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. [9] \u00a0<\/sup>And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.\u00a0 [10]\u00a0<\/sup>And 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 ever.\u201d]\n\nSo we have the great chain, 1-3.\u00a0 The great reign, verses 4-6.\u00a0 The great revolt at the very end of the reign, verses 7-10. So we move first of all into something called the great chain and we have a prisoner, verses1 and 2, and then we have a description of a prison.\u00a0 Notice this information about the prisoner.\u00a0 \u201cThen,\u201d meaning this happens right after Jesus returns, \u201cThen I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand,\u201d we\u2019ll go ahead and read verse 2 also, \u201cAnd he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.\u201d\n\nLook at verse 1 and you see an angel coming down from heaven.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know who that angel is, it\u2019s just an unnamed angel.\u00a0 A lot of people think that angel is Jesus, I personally don\u2019t think that but you\u2019ll find a lot of good commentators moving in that direction .\u00a0 But you\u2019ll notice this angel has a key which allows entrance into a place called the abyss, sometimes translated as the bottomless pit.\u00a0 Sometimes the abyss is used of death.\u00a0 Romans 10:7 that word \u201cabyss\u201d abouso<\/em> in the Greek, is used of the grave.\u00a0 It says, or \u2018Who will descend into the abyss?\u2019 (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).\u201d\u00a0 But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s how the word is used here.\u00a0 I think it is referring to a place of incarceration for fallen angels.\u00a0 That\u2019s how it\u2019s used earlier in the Book, in Revelation 9:1-2 and verse 11, it\u2019s translated as either the abyss or the bottomless pit.\u00a0 [Revelation 9:1-2, \u201cThen the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. [2] He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke.\u201d\u00a0 [11] \u201cThey have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon.\u201d]\n\nThat\u2019s where a horrific horde of demons emerge during one of the trumpet judgments, to torment people on the earth for five months.\u00a0 And when we were in that section I tried to make the case that those were actually the fallen angels that sinned in Noah\u2019s day but left their natural abode and consequently they are incarcerated there for that very moment in history when God would allow them out of the abyss to torment mankind.\n\nSo the abyss I think is some sort of temporary place of incarceration, a holding tank if you will, for the fallen angels.\u00a0 And that\u2019s who this good angel has the key to.\u00a0 He has the ability to open up this abyss or this bottomless pit because that\u2019s where Satan is going for a thousand years.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice also that this angel has a great chain in his hand; it\u2019s not just a chain, it\u2019s the Greek word mega,<\/em> which you recognize\u2026 mega, a mega chain, a massive chain.\u00a0 And I just bring this to our attention because many people think that they can take on Satan today through their own power and they can\u2019t.\u00a0 Simply to place him in this abyss is going to require the work of an angel and an angel who has not just a chain but a mega chain or a massive chain.\u00a0 And obviously when you understand this you understand the power of Satan above and beyond us.\u00a0 And then we start to appreciate why God says \u201cput on the full armor of\u201d what? \u201cof God.\u201d\u00a0 [Ephesians 6:;11, \u201cPut on the full armor of God<\/strong>, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes on the devil.\u201d]\u00a0 We don\u2019t contest Satan through human power; he\u2019s far more powerful than we are.\n\nBut look at verse 2, it says, \u201cAnd he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.\u201d\u00a0 This angel \u201claid hold of\u201d Satan.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting that it describes him laying hold of the dragon and then it defines the dragon as \u201cthe serpent of old,\u201d Genesis 3, or the devil or Satan himself.\u00a0 And I bring this to our attention because a lot of people have this mindset that the Book of Revelation is so symbolic you can\u2019t understand it.\n\nAnd I will concede that the Book of Revelation is symbolic but every single symbol in the Book of Revelation can be identified and it can also be interpreted if you know some basic rules.\u00a0 Sometimes the Book of Revelation will speak figuratively, other times it will speak plainly.\u00a0 When it\u2019s speaking figuratively it\u2019s sort of obvious that it\u2019s figurative because a symbol is identified in the passage.\u00a0 You just look for certain clues, spiritually, sign, like or as, and other clues.\u00a0 And when you run into those clues nine times out of ten John Walvoord says this happens about 26 times in the Book of Revelation, nine times out of ten the context that you\u2019re working in will identify the symbol for us.\u00a0 And so we don\u2019t have to guess as to who the dragon is, we don\u2019t have to guess as to who the serpent is, it tells us right there in the passage that we\u2019re dealing with Satan himself or the devil.\n\nI like what Henry Morris writes in his commentary on the Book of\u00a0 Revelation.\u00a0 He says, \u201cIt must be stressed that\u00a0 Revelation, the title of the Book, Apokalopsis, means unveiling and not veiling.\u201d\u00a0 God did not give us a book that\u2019s so complicated and so sophisticated that people can\u2019t understand it.\u00a0 In fact, this\u00a0 book, as we have studied, promises a blessing to whoever will read it and whoever will heed it.\u00a0 Why would God associate a blessing with understanding this book and say ha, ha, ha, you can\u2019t understand it!\n\nAll of the symbols in the Book of Revelation, I believe, can be easily understood and therefore we know exactly who this dragon is\u2014it\u2019s Satan himself.\u00a0 And you look there at verse two and it talks about how Satan, at this time in history, will be bound.\u00a0 [\u201cAnd he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;\u00a0\u00a0 Revelation 20:2] \u00a0\u00a0You\u2019ll notice the expression \u201cand bound him.\u201d\u00a0 Now that is what Satan doesn\u2019t want to happen in history.\u00a0 This is one of the reasons He doesn\u2019t want the Book of Revelation taught because it spells out his doom.\u00a0 And currently he is not bound; he is running the world system.\u00a0 The Bible calls him \u201cthe prince of this world,\u201d \u201cthe god of this age,\u201d \u201cthe prince and power of the air,\u201d \u201cthe one who the believer wrestles with,\u201d he \u201croams about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.\u201d\n\n[John 12:31, \u201cNow is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2 Corinthians 4:4, \u201cThe god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Ephesians 2:2, \u201cin which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYour adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.\u201d 1 Peter 5:8, \u201cBe of sober spirit<\/em>, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.\u201d]\n\nIn fact, 1 John 5:19 tells us that the whole world lies within his power.\u00a0 [1 John 5:19, \u201cWe know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of<\/em> the evil one.\u201d] And that\u2019s how it\u2019s been since the fall in Eden.\u00a0 And that\u2019s\u2019 how it is today, and that\u2019s how it\u2019s going to be all the way until the end, until the return of Jesus Christ to the earth.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Revelation 11:15 says, \u201cThe kingdom of the world has become the kingdom<\/em> of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.\u201d\n\nThat\u2019s what\u2019s happening in the book.\u00a0 Satan is being as an unjust, unlawful possessor being evicted and Jesus Christ\u2019s kingdom is finally coming to the earth and being imposed.\u00a0 That\u2019s why when you go through the book of\u00a0 Revelation, as we\u2019ve pointed out, it sounds an awful lot like the book of Exodus.\u00a0 Sores, plague six. \u00a0Exodus, first bowl judgment, the book of Revelation.\u00a0 Rivers to blood, first plague,\u00a0 book of Exodus.\u00a0 Third bowl judgment, the Book of Revelation, darkness, ninth plague.\u00a0 Book of Exodus, fifth bowl judgment Book of Revelation.\u00a0 Frogs, second plague, Book of Exodus.\u00a0 Sixth bowl judgment the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 Hail, seventh plague, the Book of Exodus.\u00a0 Seventh bowl judgment the Book of Revelation.\n\nIt\u2019s almost impossible to study the Book of Revelation without noting the parallels to Exodus.\u00a0 Why the parallels?\u00a0 Because the Book of Revelation is the same theme as the Book of Exodus but it\u2019s in a global form.\u00a0 In the Book of Exodus God is taking His people out of 400 years of Egyptian bondage.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s happening.\u00a0 And in the Book of\u00a0 Revelation God is taking the whole earth out of all of the bondage that it\u2019s been in for all of these millennia and Satan is finally being evicted and God\u2019s Kingdom is coming to the earth in response to the prayer \u201cThy kingdom come.\u201d\n\nAnd when you start to understand this it saves us from a lot of silliness, silly talk, foolishness, even in Christian circles, about bells going around binding Satan.\u00a0 Why would you do that?\u00a0 It\u2019s going to take \u00a0a strong angel with a great chain to bind Satan, only when Jesus comes back.\u00a0 You can\u2019t bind Satan.\u00a0 In fact a lot of Christians you\u2019ll listen to them pray, they\u2019ll say Satan, I bind you from this event, Satan, I bind you from that event.\u00a0 What a silly prayer that is.\u00a0\u00a0 How about a prayer for divine protection in Satan\u2019s world.\u00a0 That might be better.\u00a0 But the reality is we don\u2019t bind Satan, we don\u2019t give him a black eye and run him out of town.\u00a0 We\u2019re on defense against him.\u00a0 What the Bible says is resist the devil and he will flee.\u00a0 James 4:7.\u00a0 [James 4:7, \u201cSubmit therefore to God.\u00a0 Resist the devil and he will flee from you.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 But resist him, 1 Peter 5:9.\u00a0 [1 Peter 5:9, \u201cBut resist him, firm in your<\/em> faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 So that you will be able to resist in the evil day, Ephesians 6:13.\u00a0 [Ephesians 6:13, \u201cTherefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.\u201d]\n\nWe are not on offense, we are on defense and that\u2019s how it\u2019s going to be until Jesus Christ returns.\u00a0 But once that return is accomplished how things change and this world is no longer in Satan\u2019s dominion, it\u2019s no longer in Satan\u2019s grasp as Satan now is incarcerated for a thousand years.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a chart that I\u2019ve used many times as we\u2019ve studied the Book of Revelation together.\u00a0 Satan\u2019s defeat doesn\u2019t come all at once, it comes in stages.\u00a0\u00a0 And here we are at number six on a list of seven in terms of his defeat, his demise, and it\u2019s his binding.\u00a0 He\u2019s going to be bound from deceiving the nations for a thousand years.\u00a0 And that in and of itself is not even Satan\u2019s final demise because God, as we will see, verses 7-10, has one more great purpose for Satan.\u00a0 God only keeps Satan around long enough to use Satan for God\u2019s\u00a0 purposes.\u00a0 That\u2019s how sovereign God is over Satan.\u00a0 That purpose has not yet been served and once it is served we will reach number seven where Satan finally will be thrown forever into the Lake of Fire; his career at that time will be completely over.\n\nBut if you look at verse 2 you have the binding of Satan and then\u00a0 you run into this very interesting expression, \u201cfor a thousand years.\u00a0 The Greek word for thousand years is \u03ba\u03b9\u03bb\u03bb\u03af\u03b1 [killia<\/em>] so those in early church history \u00a0who believed in a future rule of God on earth that would last for a thousand years got the name killias<\/em>, after this Greek word killia<\/em>.\u00a0 The talked so much about this coming one thousand year reign of Jesus Christ that they begin to call themselves and get the label chiliasts.\u00a0 And today we call them premillennialists.\u00a0 We just switched the vocabulary around.\u00a0 You say well where does that name come from?\u00a0 It\u2019s Latin.\u00a0 When they started to debate these things in Latin the Latin title stuck.\u00a0 \u201cmilli<\/em>\u201d means a thousand annum in Latin means year or years.\u00a0 You take those two words together, millennium, in Latin you put them together you get the designation millennium.\u00a0 And these folks were called what we would call today premillennialists.\n\nYou say well what is a premillennialist?\u00a0 It\u2019s someone who believes that Jesus comes back first (pre) and then the millennium or the thousand year period starts.\u00a0 That\u2019s the doctrinal position of Sugar Land Bible Church.\u00a0 We are premillennialists.\u00a0 Christ comes back first and then the kingdom starts.\u00a0 Now doesn\u2019t that make sense, because the return of Christ is given in chapter 19 and the millennial kingdom is described in chapter 20.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it takes a PhD in theology to understand that chapter 19 comes before chapter 20.\u00a0 In fact does anybody here disagree with the fact that chapter 19 comes before chapter 20.\u00a0 I think we would all agree with that.\u00a0 This is giving a chronology; Jesus comes back first, and then the kingdom comes.\n\nThat also saves you from a lot of silliness in Christianity where ministries are having conferences entitled \u201cKingdom Builders,\u201d building the kingdom, let\u2019s bring in the kingdom.\u00a0 Why would you go to a conference like that?\u00a0 I\u2019m not building any kingdom.\u00a0 The very best thing that I\u2019m doing as a New Testament Christian is I\u2019m winning souls who are inheritors of the coming kingdom but I have no interest in building any kingdom on the earth.\u00a0\u00a0 What I\u2019m interested in is praying \u201cThy kingdom come\u201d where Jesus Himself will establish His kingdom.\u00a0 And it\u2019s shocking how many people have been hoodwinked by the idea that the church is somehow building the kingdom of God.\u00a0 You can\u2019t even get Christians to agree on what they\u2019re going to have for dinner that night; are you going to trust Christianity today in its apostate state with building God\u2019s kingdom?\u00a0 No, that\u2019s nonsense, we\u2019re not building any kingdom.\u00a0 We\u2019re praying \u201cThy kingdom come.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus will establish His kingdom when He returns to the earth.\n\nNow against this view is something called amillennialism and it\u2019s been the dominant position in the church, going back to the fourth century,\u00a0 \u201ca\u201d is what we would call an alpha privitive, it\u2019s a negation, it\u2019s like saying I\u2019m an atheist, the \u201ca\u201d in front \u201ctheist\u201d means you\u2019re denying God.\u00a0 An amillennialist is someone who says there will be no future reign of Jesus Christ on the earth.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because we\u2019re in the reign of Christ now.\u00a0 So rather than wait for Jesus to come back and establish His long-awaited kingdom they say well He already started a kingdom in the first century and we are living in between the two advents of Christ and the kingdom is happening now.\u00a0 As my friend, Thomas Ice likes to say if this is the kingdom then I must be living in the ghetto section of town.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 Because you clearly don\u2019t see the description happening in the world today regarding what the kingdom will be like.\n\nIn fact, when the kingdom comes people who happen to die at the age of 100, Isaiah 65:20 talks about how everybody is just going to kind of sit around and way wow, what a tragedy such a young man died.\u00a0 [Isaiah 65:20, \u201cNo longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his days; for the youth will die at the age of one hundred. \u00a0And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred will be thought accursed.\u201d]\u00a0 \u00a0Can you imagine somebody died at age 100 and yet today if\u00a0 you make it to age 100 you\u2019re considered fortunate or even to some extent lucky.\n\nSo against the view of premillennialism is amillennialism and everything that\u2019s promised about the kingdom simply gets deliteralize, it gets repackaged, oh, that\u2019s just talking about the reign of Jesus in your heart, those sorts of things.\u00a0 And a close kissing cousin of amillennialism is postmillennialism, which basically teaches almost the same thing except for the idea of progress, that the church is going to Christianize the world, and in face, we\u2019re going to get so good at Christianizing the world that we\u2019re going to set up the kingdom of Christ for Christ now while the King is absent.\u00a0 And we\u2019re actually going to become so successful at running this kingdom for a thousand years that Jesus will return at the end of the kingdom, post, postmillennialism, and He\u2019ll come back and say wow, you guys have done such a great job setting up the kingdom for Me, I\u2019ll take over from here.\u00a0 That\u2019s what you call postmillennialism.\n\nAnd people get into this subject and they say it\u2019s just pie in the sky, why bother people with these details?\u00a0 It\u2019s relevant because it shows you what the church should be doing now.\u00a0 If I were a post-millennialist I would be preaching a lot of sermons on social justice, bringing in kingdom conditions, structural bias, universal health care, all of these kinds of things when the reality of the situation is this world is not going to get any better, in fact, it\u2019s going to go from bad to worse.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not expecting kingdom conditions even to materialize on planet earth until Jesus Christ brings them in, then you\u2019re going to get\u00a0 your social justice and it\u2019s not the kind of social justice you\u2019re talking about, by the way, at the university.\u00a0 You\u2019re going to get social justice Jesus style and if you\u2019re worried about poverty and structural bias and all these things are going to get fixed in an instant.\n\nPeople criticize our view and they say well you\u2019re just preaching why polish the brass on a sinking ship?\u00a0 The reality of the situation is as a Christian you can have influence over all kinds of things but those things restrain the hand of evil.\u00a0 They slow down the hand of evil. I think we should vote and \u00a0\u00a0we should be politically active and every time we go out and vote we should take note of the new world order but the reality of the situation is whether you like it or not the new world order is going to come and it\u2019s not going to be permanently cataclysmically dealt with until the return of Jesus Christ.\n\nAll the way back in the fourth century Augustine, who began this idea of amillennialism, said this:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cthe saints reign with Christ during the same thousand years, understood in the same way, that is, of the time of His first coming\u201d see that?\u00a0 \u201cand \u00a0therefore the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of heaven. Accordingly, even now His saints reign with Him.\u201d\u00a0 [The City of God<\/em>, trans., Marcus Dods (NY: Random House, 1950), Book XX, chap. 9, p. 725-26.]\u00a0 I wish that were true.\u00a0 I wish when I picked up my newspaper and read about Christians being martyred all over the world that they weren\u2019t being martyred all over the world, that they were reigning with Christ.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But amillennialism denies that, it deliteralizes it and it makes it look as if what\u2019s happening now\u00a0 represents kingdom conditions.\u00a0 Augustine, I won\u2019t read the whole quote, it goes on and sort of derides those that were deemed chiliasts towards the end of that sentence.\u00a0 Who are the chiliasts?\u00a0 Those were the first two centuries of the church where they held to a literal kingdom that would come one day, not through human agency, not through human instrumentality, but directly through the return of Jesus Christ.\n\nNow you gotta love John Calvin, right pastor; I mean, everything John Calvin says must be true, right?\u00a0 Let me tell you something about John Calvin.\u00a0 John Calvin, although he made contributions to Christianity when the Reformation movement started in the 16th<\/sup> century he absorbed, he didn\u2019t invent it, but he absorbed the Augustinian doctrine of amillennialism.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why you can go into a Reformed church today and they may be very good on certain topics but they teach a Roman Catholic eschatology without even being aware of it.\u00a0 Because Calvin, as did Luther, absorbed this teaching and never corrected it.\u00a0 And God would have to raise up other, post reformation, to restore a literal interpretation to the church in the area of Bible prophecy.\n\nToday you can go to a Reformed church and\u00a0 you can hear something exactly like this: Kenneth Gentry says, \u201cThe proper understanding of the thousand year time period in Revelation 20 is that it is representative of a long and glorious era and it\u2019s not limited to a literal 365,000 days.\u00a0 This figure represents a perfect cube of 10, which is the number of quantitative perfection.\u201d\u00a0 [Kenneth L. Gentry, He Shall Have Dominion: A Post Millennial Eschatology <\/em>(Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian economics, 1992), page 335.]\u00a0\u00a0 I give him an \u201cA\u201d for creativity because I thought seven was the number of completion.\u00a0 He just made it to ten, ten cubes that supposedly teach the entire meaning that the thousand years are happening now.\n\nYou see, they have a big problem with this number one thousand.\u00a0 In fact, as we go through this passage what you\u2019re going to see is this number, a thousand years, is not mentioned just once, it\u2019s mentioned six times in these ten verses.\u00a0 Now why would they have a problem with the number one thousand?\u00a0 Because if the kingdom is taking place between the two advents of Christ the last time I checked how many years have there been since Christ\u2019s first coming?\u00a0\u00a0 At least two thousand years.\u00a0 The problem is the Bible says a thousand.\u00a0 So they wave a magic wand and all of a sudden a thousand becomes two thousand or whatever you want it to be.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is a thousand means a thousand!\n\nYou say well how can you be so certain of that?\u00a0 Let me give you four reasons: Number One, John knows how to say a short time and a long time.\u00a0 In fact, in verse 3 it says \u201cSatan will be bound and released a short time later.\u00a0 Gentry is trying to argue that a thousand just means a long time.\u00a0 Well guess what folks.\u00a0 God knows how to say a long time; He knows how to say a short time.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t do that here.\u00a0 He gives you a concrete number.\n\nNumber two, when the Greek word year or years is attached to a number in the Greek text every single time it always refers to a literal period of time.\u00a0 That, by the way, is how you know that the creation days of Genesis 1 are six literal twenty-four hour days.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t just say yom<\/em>, the Hebrew word for day, it says first day, second day, third day.\u00a0 And you go right on through Hebrew Bible and you\u2019ll see yom<\/em> connected with a number is always a literal day.\u00a0 That\u2019s how it works here, killia<\/em>\u00a0 <\/em>connected with a number, years I should say connected with a number always refers to a literal period of time.\n\nBeyond that, number three, if thousand doesn\u2019t mean thousand and it means whatever you want it to mean what are you going to do with every other number in the Book of Revelation?\u00a0 Pandora\u2019s box is opened at that point.\u00a0 Two witnesses doesn\u2019t mean two witnesses, nor does the expression seven thousand people or four angels, or seven angels, or a hundred and forty-four thousand Jews, or twelve thousand Jews from each tribe, or forty-two months or one thousand two hundred and sixty days, all of a sudden every other number is up for grabs.\n\nAnd beyond that as we saw with the example of the dragon or Satan, when God wants to be under\u00adstood symbolically he tells you it\u2019s a symbol.\u00a0 For example, we already saw Revelation 20:2, it talks about the dragon and then it identifies who the dragon is, \u201cthe serpent of old,\u201d who is the devil or Satan. \u00a0[Revelation 20:2, \u201cAnd he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 So we know the dragon there is a symbol because the symbol is defined or identified in the very passage.\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s not what you have with a thousand; it doesn\u2019t say a thousand but by a thousand we mean something else.\u00a0 It just gives you a concrete number.\n\nSo what can we conclude from this:\u00a0 Here\u2019s the [can't understand word].\u00a0 Ready?\u00a0 This is what you go home and people say what did you learn at church and here\u2019s what you tell them.\u00a0 You tell them a thousand means a thousand in Revelation\u00a0 20.\u00a0 And then\u00a0 you tell them that chapter 20 comes after chapter 19 and they\u2019re going to say that is a really deep philosophical church that you go to.\n\nSo we see here that Satan is bound for this one thousand year time period.\u00a0 Now when you go down to verse\u00a0 3 it continues, and it says, \u201cand he threw him into the abyss,\u201d the temporary place of incarceration for fallen angels, \u201cand shut it<\/em> and sealed it<\/em> over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.\u201d\u00a0 So he is bound and he is in that condition for a thousand years.\u00a0\u00a0 And as he is in that condition for a thousand years he has no ability to deceive the nations.\n\nNow prior to this time of a thousand year incarceration Satan, Revelation 12:9, was deceiving the whole world.\u00a0 [Revelation 12:9, \u201cAnd the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan<\/strong>, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.\u201d]\u00a0 And yet here is coming a time in history where his deceptive power over the nations will be curtailed; in fact, it will be completely eliminated.\u00a0 It will be completely eradicated and that becomes another reason why we could not be in that thousand\u00a0 year time period currently.\n\nWould you say that the nations today are deceived?\u00a0 They\u2019re totally deceived!\u00a0 And yet this is talking about a time period that when the nations are no longer in a state of deception.\u00a0 I mean, we don\u2019t even have in our own United States government a common sense approach\u00a0 to things any more, do we?\u00a0 I mean what are we all worried about?\u00a0 Instead of doing something for the American people they want to impeach the President of the United States for something he never did; this is absolute insanity.\u00a0 It\u2019s absolute deception.\u00a0 How could we be in a time period when the nations are no longer in\u00a0 a state of deception?\n\nBut the day will come after this thousand year time period has run its course where Satan will be released for a short time.\u00a0 Notice the word \u201cshort time,\u201d it\u2019s the word allegos<\/em>, meaning short, where we get the word oligarchy, ruled\u00a0 by a small number of people, short, small.\u00a0 So apparently God is going to let Satan out of his place of incarceration for one final hoorah, and when we get into that section I\u2019ll be explaining exactly why God allows it.\u00a0 But for now I want you to see that the only reason Satan is even around is God is using Satan for His own purposes, as we study verse 3, the prison.\u00a0 \u201cAnd he threw him into the abyss, and shut it<\/em> and sealed it<\/em> over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.\u201d \u00a0[Revelation 20:3]\n\nAnd I hope you\u2019re not getting your theology from the movie Rocky, where Apollo and Rocky are fairly equally matched and they\u2019re duking it out and we\u2019re not sure who\u2019s going to win, and you\u2019re kind of sitting at the edge of your seat because you don\u2019t know who\u2019s going to pull this out.\u00a0\u00a0 As I mentioned before, this is Rocky one, the good old day; now it\u2019s rocky twenty-seven or something, where their great grandkids are fighting.\u00a0 But in the good old days you\u2019d sit there on the edge of your seat.\u00a0 My dad took me to see that movie Rocky back in the 70\u2019s and you don\u2019t know who\u2019s going to win.\u00a0 That\u2019s a doctrine called dualism.\u00a0 A lot of people look at the contest between God and Satan through a false lens of dualism.\n\nThe reality of the situation is the Book of Ezekiel tells us that Satan is a created being.\u00a0 It says that in Ezekiel 28:13, and verse 15.\u00a0 [Ezekiel 28:13, \u201cYou were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets was in you.\u00a0 On the day that you were created they were prepared.\u201d [15] \u00a0<\/sup>\u201cYou were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you.\u201d]\n\nThe point is this is no contest; you know exactly who\u2019s going to win.\u00a0 The only reason God allows Satan even to sit in the present day and in the abyss during the thousand year period God is going to use Satan for one more purpose.\u00a0 That\u2019s one of the reasons we sit around throughout the ages in eternity and glorify God at His plan and His program, because only God could take the work of His arch enemy, Satan, and use it strategically in human history for God\u2019s own purposes.\u00a0 This is why the Bible is very clear that not all things are good but \u201call things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to His purpose.\u201d\u00a0 [Romans 8:28]\n\nThere, in the year 2019, may have been a lot of things in your life that didn\u2019t go right, financially, health wise, and isn\u2019t it great to be in the arms of Jesus Christ and to know that He can take every circumstance, good or bad, and use those strategically for His ultimate purpose, conforming us into the image of His Son.\u00a0 A lot of us waste our time trying to figure out what is God\u2019s purpose for my life?\u00a0 Here\u2019s the purpose, Romans\u00a0 8:29, \u00a0to conform us to the image of His Son.\u00a0 [Romans 8:29, \u201cFor those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become<\/em> conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;\u201d]\n\nAnd God, what I\u2019ve discovered in my life doesn\u2019t waste anything, even things I\u2019ve done in my life that I wish I hadn\u2019t done God can use that to conform me into the image of His Son.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t tell me everything is good but He uses all things together for good.\u00a0 And we\u2019re going to look back in eternity and see the hand of God in everything, even how He strategically allowed Satan the upper hand it\u2019s seen during certain times in human history.\u00a0 It is interesting here to me that God takes the unholy trinity\u2026who\u2019s the unholy trinity?\u00a0 The unholy trinity is the three entities we\u2019ve been studying in the Book of Revelation, the beast, the false prophet and the dragon.\u00a0 God has His trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Satan has his trinity, beast, false prophet and Satan.\u00a0 And how God takes that unholy trinity and divides it.\u00a0 The two entities called the beast (that we saw last week)\u00a0 are put into the Lake of Fire.\u00a0 Satan, Revelation 19:20 does not go into the lake of fire, as we\u2019ve looked at, he goes into a completely different place called the abyss.\n\n[Revelation 19:20,:1,\u00a0 \u201cThen I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. [2] And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; [3] and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it<\/em> and sealed it<\/em> over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.\u201d]\n\nWhat is God demonstrating here?\u00a0 He is sovereign over the satanic trinity that deceives the world.\u00a0 And you know, the breaking down of the trinity is something Satan tried to do with God\u2019s trinity.\u00a0 In Matthew 4:3-4, Satan testing Christ, God the Son, it says, \u201cAnd the tempter came and said to Him, \u201cIf You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.\u201d [4] But He answered and said, \u201cIt is written, \u2018Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.\u2019\u201d\n\nHad Satan succeeded in that particular temptation he would have driven a wedge between God the Son and God the Father.\u00a0 And Satan\u2019s attempt to divide the trinity in the earthly life of Christ did not succeed.\u00a0 And here is God at the end of human history saying two can play at that game, I\u2019ll take the satanic trinity and cut in two.\u00a0 You two\u2014the Lake of Fire; you two\u2014into the abyss.\u00a0 And just point after point after point after point we see God is succeeding where Satan himself failed.\n\nSo we move away from the great chain and now we move into the great reign and we see two things here under the great reign.\u00a0 Number on one, the resurrection of the just and number two, the rule of the just.\u00a0 Take a look at Revelation 20 and notice, if you will, verse 4.\u00a0 \u201cThen I\u201d that\u2019s John, \u201csaw thrones and they that sat on them, and judgment was given to them.\u00a0 And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead \u2026 and they came to life\u201d and then it goes on and it says, \u201cand they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.\u201d\n\nNotice first of all the resurrection of the just and look what it says in verse 4, \u201cThen I saw thrones,\u201d every time I read that it always is striking to me because I want it to say, or I think it should say, \u201cI saw a throne,\u201d singular.\u00a0 But it doesn\u2019t say that.\u00a0 It says, \u201cI saw thrones,\u201d plural.\u00a0 So this is not just speaking of the reign of Christ individually over the earth; this is also speaking about the reign of the believer over the earth as we will be functioning under His delegated authority for a thousand years.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t just say throne, it says \u201cthrones.\u201d\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that what Jesus said to the disciples in Matthew 19:28.\u00a0 Does it not say, \u201cAnd Jesus said to them, \u201cTruly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne,\u201d singular noun, \u201cand you also shall sit upon twelve thrones,\u201d plural, \u201cjudging the twelve tribes of Israel.\u201d\n\nI mean, Jesus at the beginning of His relationship with His twelve told them you\u2019re destined for a throne, you\u2019re destined for authority.\u00a0 And this theme is played out as we move through the Book of Revelation, Revelation 3:21, Jesus says, \u201cHe who overcomes I will grant him to sit down with me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Revelation 1:6 tells us that \u201cHe has made us to be<\/em> a kingdom, priests [to [<\/sup>His God and Father\u2014to Him be<\/em> the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.]\u201d And you say wasn\u2019t that sweet, isn\u2019t that nice?\u00a0 It\u2019s just a title with no authority\u00a0 until you read Revelation 5:10, then you figure out the authority that a priest will have in the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 Revelation 5:10 says, \u201cYou have made them to be a kingdom of priests and they will reign upon the earth.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s your destiny.\n\nNotice the future tense of the word \u201creign,\u201d you\u2019re not reigning now but you will.\u00a0 And your reign is not going to be just located somewhere in heaven, but it\u2019s going to be on this earth.\u00a0 This is our destiny in God.\u00a0 This is why Paul is so irate with the Corinthians, who were suing each other before pagan unbelieving courts.\u00a0 And they were destroying their testimony in Christ by fighting amongst unbelievers.\u00a0 And how did Paul rebuke the Corinthians?\u00a0 Did he say you guys must not be Christians to act like that!\u00a0\u00a0 What he says is you\u2019ve lost sight of your identity, you\u2019ve lost sight of your destiny in God.\u00a0 He says in 1 Corinthians 6:2-3, \u201cOr do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute<\/em> the smallest law courts? [3] \u00a0<\/sup>Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?\u201d\n\nYou can\u2019t work out your little squabbles and tiny differences amongst one another to such a point that you have to go in front of unbelievers to get them to solve the problem, because apparently there\u2019s no one wise enough amongst you to figure these little tiny things out?\u00a0 Don\u2019t you understand who you are?\u00a0 Don\u2019t\u00a0 you understand your authority? Don\u2019t you understand your position? Don\u2019t you under\u00adstand\u00a0 your destiny?\u00a0 Don\u2019t you understand that you are going to rule and reign alongside Jesus Christ for a thousand\u00a0 years?\u00a0 Then get it together folks, handle these little problems.\u00a0 We ought to do that given our authority that\u2019s coming in Jesus Christ.\n\nIt says there in verse 4, \u201cThen I saw thrones and I saw the souls of those that been beheaded\u00a0 because \u00a0them that set on them\u201d watch this now, \u201cand judgment was given to them.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019re not just on a throne but you\u2019re actively judging.\u00a0 And then he goes on and he says there in verse 4, \u201cAnd I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God, and of those who had not worshipped the beast and his image, and not received the mark on their foreheads or on their hands, and they came to life\u2026.\u201d\n\nWhat is that talking about?\u00a0 This is the last phase of the resurrection of the righteous.\u00a0 We know that it\u2019s the end of time, Daniel 12:2, there\u2019s going to be two great resurrections. A resurrection unto life for the believer, a resurrection unto damnation for the unbeliever. \u00a0[Daniel 12:2, \u201cMany of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and<\/em> everlasting contempt.\u201d]\u00a0 And Paul, in his resurrection chapter, as he is explaining this analogizes it to Christ\u2019s resurrection being firstfruits, an analogy that Jewish hearer or reader of Paul would immediately understand because in Judaism, and you can find this in the Book of Exodus, Leviticus and many other places that the Jews did not just have one harvest, they had three.\u00a0 Firstfruits was the first harvest and that was always a happy time because that harvest guaranteed the rest of the harvest.\n\nSo firstfruits came in and then would come the general harvest \u00a0for the bulk of the nation.\u00a0 And then following that general harvest would be the gleaning.\u00a0 I want to say it\u2019s around Leviticus 19 verses 9 and 10, the part of the harvest that was left for the poor.\u00a0 [Leviticus 19:9, \u201cNow when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. [10]\u00a0<\/sup>Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God.\u201d]\u00a0 And the poor were always given dignity in God; they were always allowed to come and harvest for themselves but they couldn\u2019t do that if everybody took everything in the general harvest.\u00a0 In fact, if you\u2019re a student of your Old Testament you know that Ruth met Boaz at harvest number three, the gleanings.\n\nAnd Paul, when he uses this analogy say the resurrection unto life for the believer is going to have three phases to it, just like the Jewish harvest.\u00a0 Number one is firstfruits, that\u2019s Jesus and His bodily resurrection from the dead.\u00a0 Just as firstfruits guarantees everything else on the chain the bodily resurrection of Jesus guarantees our resurrection.\u00a0 We will rise because He rose.\n\nAnd then will come number two, the general harvest.\u00a0 What is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s the rapture of the church.\u00a0 Everybody that is part of the body of Christ, dead or alive, when the rapture happens, prior to the tribulation period even beginning, will immediately be transferred from mortality into immortality.\u00a0 And at that point you\u2019re given a brand new body. \u00a0Just like Christ came out in a brand new, or might we put it this way, resurrected body; it\u2019s still you, I\u2019m going to be able to recognize you, you\u2019re going to be able to recognize me but I think I\u2019ll look a lot better and so will you, because it\u2019s the body that God intended before sin entered the picture. \u00a0Didn\u2019t sin affect our bodies?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t Genesis 3:19 say to our forbearers, Adam and Eve, \u201cTo dust you are to\u201d what? \u201cdust you shall return.\u201d\n\nYou\u2019re going right back into the dirt from which you came.\u00a0 That\u2019s the consequence of sin.\u00a0 You say I don\u2019t believe you.\u00a0 As I like to say well I\u2019ll prove it to you, just get out your driver\u2019s license picture today and compare it to your yearbook picture in high school\u00a0 and you\u2019ll see exactly what I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0 We\u2019re laboring under a curse where the very body itself is deteriorating; at the rapture of the church you\u2019re given a body that God intended before the curse altered it.\u00a0 That\u2019s the general harvest.\n\nBut what about people that were believers before the church started?\u00a0 What about Abraham and Daniel and Noah and Job?\u00a0 And beyond that there\u2019s a lot of people that are going to get saved after the church has been removed.\u00a0 What\u2019s going to happen to them?\u00a0 That\u2019s what we\u2019re reading about here, the last phase of the resurrection of the righteous.\u00a0\u00a0 And those people that are resurrected in this particular sequence or cycle will be brought in resurrected bodies forth at the beginning of the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 And it describes this last group, Old Testament saints, Daniel 12:2.\u00a0 [Daniel 12:2, \u201cMany of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.\u201d]\n\nTribulation martyrs, they are folks that have been beheaded, Revelation 6:9-11.\u00a0 [Revelation 6:9-11, \u201cWhen the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; [10] and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, \u201cHow long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?\u201d [11]And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of<\/em> their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.\u201d]\u00a0 These are folks that died because of the testimony of Jesus during the tribulation period.\u00a0 That word \u201ctestimony\u201d is \u03bc\u03b1\u03c1\u03c4\u03c5\u03c1\u03af\u03b1 (marturia) where we get which word?\u00a0 Martyr.\u00a0 These are folks that died because of the Word of God.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know who the Word of God is, He\u2019s the one that\u2019s coming back on the white horse, Jesus Christ Himself, Revelation 19:13.\u00a0 [Revelation 19:13, \u201cHe is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.\u201d]\n\nThese are people that said no to the beast worshipping the system.\u00a0\u00a0 Revelation 13:4 says that the beast will demand worship from every human being and they said no, and they went to their grave on account of that.\u00a0 Revelation 13:4, \u201cthey worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, \u201c Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?\u201d]\u00a0 These are people that did not worship the beast\u2019s image; we know about the beast\u2019s image, don\u2019t we, Revelation 13:15, that statue that the beast will set up midway through the tribulation period, a statue that even speaks.\u00a0 [Revelation 13:15, \u201cAnd it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.\u201d]\u00a0 And these people say we\u2019re not going to worship that and they went to their graves because of it.\n\nThese are people that would not receive the mark on their right hand or their forehead.\u00a0 Revelation\u00a0 13:16-18, which pushed them out of the economic systems of the earth and they had to live like hunted people and common criminals during this terrible time period.\u00a0 [Revelation\u00a0 13:16-18, [16] \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, [17] \u00a0<\/sup>and he provides<\/em> that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either<\/em> the name of the beast or the number of his name. [18] \u00a0<\/sup>Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.\u201d]\n\nThis is the group we\u2019re talking about here.\u00a0 You\u2019re no longer under the impression of the beast, you\u2019re ruling and reigning alongside Jesus Christ for a thousand years.\u00a0 You see, the resurrection of the church has already been accomplished; the resurrection of Jesus was accomplished before that.\u00a0 But there are three phases of this harvest and the gleanings haven\u2019t happened yet.\u00a0 Old Testament saints, Daniel 12:2, tribulation martyrs are resurrected at this time.\u00a0 [Daniel 12:2, \u201cMany of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and<\/em> everlasting contempt.\u201d]\n\nAnd I love what it says there, verse 4, \u201cthey came to life.\u201d The Greek word for \u201ccame to life\u201d is The Greek word for \u201ccame to life\u201d is \u03b6\u03c9\u03ae (zo\u00eb).\u00a0 Now what do people who think we\u2019re in the kingdom now, \u00a0what do they do with this verse?\u00a0 You know what they do with it?\u00a0 They say this is just describing regeneration.\u00a0 I mean, all\u00a0 this is talking about is people that get saved today, they trust Christ, and they\u2019re born again, \u201cthey came to life.\u201d\u00a0 So you\u2019ll notice that kingdom now theologians who want the kingdom to exist currently, between the two advents of Christ, have to take this concept of \u201cthey came to life\u201d and they have to completely deliteralize\u00a0 it or spiritualize it.\u00a0 This, in essence, is what Augustine was teaching to do back in the fourth century, whose book is The City of God<\/em>.\u00a0 This is why Augustine was always looking with derision upon the chiliast or the literalist, or the people that were foolish enough to take these things in a literal sense.\n\nI didn\u2019t read the quote but you can back up in the notes and you can see the derision in the writings \u00a0of Augustine, towards the chiliast, and you can see that same \u00a0spirit of ridicule and derision in the writings of John Calvin who did not invent amillennialism but absorbed it and never corrected it.\u00a0 And may I just say to you that if you were to go to a Reformed church today and articulate your belief and a future thousand year kingdom and a future resurrection you would get the same spirit of antagonism and derision.\n\nBut here\u2019s the reality of the situation; zo\u00eb is not just found in verse 4. It\u2019s found in verse 5 where it talks about a terrible resurrection which will occur at the end of the thousand years for the unsaved \u00a0of all ages.\u00a0 And when those people are brought back to life it says this: \u201cThey came to life,\u201d verse 4.\u00a0 Verse 5, says the rest did not come to life, zo\u00eb<\/em>, until the thousand years were over.\u00a0\u00a0 And I\u2019ll tell you what\u2019s very interesting about his is Augustine, Calvin and even the Reformed movement today will tell you that that final resurrection is literal.\u00a0 The first resurrection is not literal; it\u2019s allegorical, but that last resurrection for all the unsaved at the end of the thousand years, that\u2019s a real resurrection.\u00a0 See what\u2019s happened here?\u00a0 You have to adjust your method of interpretation right in the middle of the verse.\n\nAnd this is how you know you\u2019re dealing with false doctrine, when you have to hold to concepts inconsistently, because it\u2019s the exact same verb, zo\u00eb.\u00a0 And if those folks are going to be literally resurrected at the end of the thousand years (and they are), then why would I take the same verb one verse earlier zo\u00eb and say it means something completely different, in this case not bodily resurrection but regeneration.\u00a0 Beloved, you\u2019d better be careful what theological system you\u2019re embracing because the Book of Colossians very clearly tells us that we ought not to be hoodwinked by a philosophy imposed on truth.\u00a0 And whatever your theology is you\u2019d better make sure it stands up according to God\u2019s Word, because I\u2019m not the one you have to answer to on this.\u00a0 You have to answer to God.\u00a0 We\u2019re accountable for the things we believe, the things we teach to our kids and our grandchildren and we teach to other people.\n\nAnd if that weren\u2019t enough you know what it says there in verse 6, \u201cBlessed and holy is the one who has part in the first resurrection.\u201d\u00a0 The word \u201cresurrection\u201d there is anastasis<\/em>, and do a word study \u00a0\u00a0on anastasis<\/em> and here\u2019s what you\u2019re going to discover.\u00a0 That word always means a physical literal resurrection.\u00a0 In fact, that word, anastasis<\/em>, is used to describe the resurrection of Jesus, which was literal.\u00a0 It never means regeneration, it never means being born again.\n\nAnd so what we are reading about here, what we are discovering is this is the last and final phase of the resurrection unto righteousness for the believer.\u00a0 This church has already been resurrected at least seven years earlier via the rapture; Jesus was resurrected before that.\u00a0 And you say wait a minute, pastor, it says first resurrection here; how could it be the first resurrection if the rapture already happened and Jesus already rose?\u00a0 Be careful with that word \u201cfirst.\u201d\u00a0 First doesn\u2019t always mean the first ever; if this word means first ever then Jesus never rose which would decimate Christianity.\u00a0 Sometimes the word first means first ever but sometimes the word first is used to describe a sequence, first in relationship to the second.\n\nIt\u2019s like when my wife calls me on my cell and she says \u201cfirst I need to go to the store, last I need you to pick up the laundry,\u201d and I don\u2019t say to myself well praise the Lord, this is the last time ever in our marriage I\u2019ll ever have to pick up the laundry.\u00a0 Now she might think that based on some of my behavior but that\u2019s another story.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not saying to myself this is the first time ever I\u2019ve gone to the store.\u00a0 She\u2019s using first and last not first ever and last ever but she\u2019s describing a sequence.\u00a0 When it says first resurrection and two resurrection are already transpired, Christ\u2019s resurrection and the rapture of the church, it\u2019s not saying first ever; it\u2019s saying first relative to what\u2019s coming after the thousand years when the unsaved of all ages will be resurrected.\u00a0 And so the resurrection of the just will be followed by the rule of the just and what a rule it\u2019s going to be folks!\u00a0 You say I\u2019d like to learn more about it.\u00a0 When you come back next week we\u2019ll talk about it.\n\nYou know, I\u2019m always looking for [can't understand word]\u00a0 into the gospel at the end and I can\u2019t think of a better one than this:\u00a0 What resurrection do you want to be involved in?\u00a0 If a person who is in Christ they\u2019re invited into that first resurrection, when you lived in history depending on which phase it is.\u00a0 But if a person is not in Christ they\u2019re going to be resurrected all right, but this will not be a resurrection unto life, this will be a resurrection unto damnation in the horrific Great White Throne Judgment that\u2019s described in Revelation 20:11-15.\n\n[Revelation 20:11-15, \u201cThen I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. [12]\u00a0<\/sup>And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and]<\/sup>books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book<\/em> of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. [13] \u00a0<\/sup>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, every one of them<\/em> according to their deeds. [14] \u00a0<\/sup>Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. [15] \u00a0<\/sup>And if anyone\u2019s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s very simple\u2026 which resurrection do you want to be involved in?\u00a0 If a person has trusted in what Jesus has done for them two thousand years ago then He becomes their head.\u00a0 He becomes the first fruits; His resurrection unto life guarantees yours, in this case\u00a0 yours being at the point of the rapture.\u00a0 But if a person has never trusted in Christ then they\u2019re still stuck under their remaining federal head, the first Adam, and the only resurrection they have to look forward to is the resurrection of the judgments.\u00a0 And you switch your position from resurrection B to resurrection A through simply trusting in what Jesus did for you.\u00a0 That\u2019s how easy it is.\n\nIt\u2019s what we call the gospel, good news, because Jesus did all of the work necessary to keep us out \u00a0\u00a0of the resurrection unto damnation.\u00a0 By doing what?\u00a0\u00a0 Through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension He bridged the gap between God\u2019s holiness and man\u2019s sinfulness, a bridge we could never build on our own.\u00a0 And He doesn\u2019t say to us now save yourself, He says I\u2019ve done the work, and you trust in what I\u2019ve done for you, and if you trust in what I\u2019ve done for you, not what you do for yourself, what I\u2019ve done for you then your future looks very bright.\u00a0 If a person has not done that then what is left?\u00a0 A fiery indignation in the Lake of Fire through participation in that last and final resurrection.\n\nSo becoming a Christian is not a twelve step process, it\u2019s a one step process where the Spirit convicts us of our need to trust in the salvation of Jesus and we respond in our heart of hearts as we respond to that convicting ministry by trusting in Jesus.\u00a0 That\u2019s what believe means.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a matter of joining a church, walking an aisle, doing good works, following New Year\u2019s resolutions, giving money.\u00a0 It\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where the Lord places you under that conviction.\u00a0 And you don\u2019t just shrug it off, you respond to it by trusting in Christ and that\u2019s what ties you into a blessed future.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Lord, we\u2019re just thankful for these ancient truths that at the same time are clear road maps of the future.\u00a0 Help us to be aware of these things, help us to walk these things out this week, help us to live these things, help us to share these things with others.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t