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| #13 Our subject is one of the most fascinating in all the Bible. World Blackout Coming! A thousand years of darkness. When God finally, fairly, and justly deals with the sin problem in His universe. Every now and then a judge sentences someone to an impossibly long prison term to express horror or outrage about the crime. Or, a jury hands down a sentence of three or four life sentences in a row. But through that unimaginably impossible sentence, society expresses anger and disgust for particularly terrible crimes. Are you aware that a time is soon coming when a Judge will hand down a sentence of 1,000 years – and the criminal will serve out every day of that sentence? Now granted, people’s opinions about the 20th chapter of Revelation and the Millennium can be very confusing. People have argued and debated about the 1,000-year prophecy for centuries. In fact, once a bishop got so upset about Revelation 20, he tore it out of the book of Revelation. And it didn’t get back into his denomination’s Bible for hundreds of years. This is such an important subject, let’s get out our Bibles and discover WHAT’S NEXT as the Voice of Prophecy SPEAKS! Let’s start with the Book of Revelation, Chapter 20, and follow carefully: <Revelation 20:1-3> First firm fact about the millennium we can nail down: God has a plan to deal with the greatest criminal this universe has ever known when the Devil will be imprisoned for 1,000 years. Chained up. (Amen?) Second fact: Bible prophecy tells us after Satan is in prison for 1,000 years he’ll be paroled. “Released for a little while.” But his parole proves that even after 1,000 years he hasn’t reformed. He’s still the Devil; up to his same old tricks. Third fact, according to Scripture, the millennium is tied in very closely with the resurrection at the Second Coming of Jesus. In fact, the millennium is bound by two separate and distinct resurrections: 1) the resurrection of eternal life at the beginning, and 2) the resurrection of damnation at the end. Jesus said in John, Chapter 5, Verse 25: “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and [all] those who hear will live.” There you have it – resurrection. But notice how Christ explains this in the 28th and 29th verses: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.” Two resurrections. First, the resurrection of those who have done good, and second – the resurrection of damnation. Revelation 20:5, 6 says good people rise in the first resurrection: “...This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” Paul told the Thessalonians, <1 Thessalonians
4:16, 17> So this first glorious resurrection morning is for whom? The first group of dead people. The dead in Christ – the righteous. They’ll be raised first. And all of us Christians who don’t die, and who are still alive at Christ’s coming will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air! On that day, Jesus’ promise will finally be fulfilled, <John 11:25> So all the righteous dead sleeping in the grave will be raised from their graves when? As Jesus returns. Isaiah even tells us the words Jesus shouts, with a voice of thunder: <Isaiah 26:19> What a glorious day at the cemetery: angels scurrying about with little babies, reuniting them with their parents! Cemeteries will be the happiest places on this planet! The most moving, touching scene ever in history! Christ’s wonderful promise made so long ago will be fulfilled: <John 14:2, 3> All the saved on resurrection morning finally rise up to go to Paradise, to be with Jesus. Which leads to our next major point to nail down. What’s next? What will we do up there in Paradise for 1,000 years? Ah! A crucial question, for it has something to do with God’s plan to close the book on the sin problem. In Revelation 20:6, prophecy reveals an amazing insight about what we DO during the millennium. Listen: “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” We’re priests (or judges) who reign (or hold court) for 1,000 years. What does this mean? Aside from Heaven, aside from the unspeakable joy and getting acquainted with everyone...aside from the travel and glory, John gives this unique insight as to what we saints do for God during the millennium: <Revelation 20:4> Before God eradicates sin and burns up this ball of mud, God first insists that every human being who has ever lived on planet Earth clearly understand why He’s going to destroy it. And we help God finally resolve the sin problem. The 1,000-year millennium opens up a new all-together different final phase to the last judgment that began in 1844. God won’t carry out His “strange act,” His final, ultimate “sentence” of judgment destroying sin and sinners – until ALL the universe sits as grand jury and together renders the verdict – and understands WHY God must do this. God waits until YOU understand. So, Revelation 20 describes this time when God amazingly includes mortals in the final verdict. Feeble men and women – you and I – are assigned the solemn task of judging fallen angels and the wicked unsaved. Before God finally annihilates them in the “executive phase” of Hell fire, this 1,000 year period is when the “sentencing of the wicked” takes place. I’m not making this up. Paul states: <1 Corinthians
6:2, 3> See friend, God wants to secure His universe so that… <Nahum 1:9> Guaranteed sin-less forever. How can He do that? It must become crystal clear – once and for all – to every created being that’s ever lived, that God is just. He’s good. He’s fair. For 6,000 years Satan has leveled the accusation God is unfair. The 1,000-year millennium must finally put this false belief to rest. But how? Why do we need to judge the evil angels and the wicked sinners? Haven’t they been judged before Christ comes? True, in the sense that they didn’t get to go to Heaven. But have you ever wondered what your reaction might be up in Heaven if you looked for someone you expected to find there only to discover he or she is lost forever? “God, how come?” You might call the fairness of God’s justice into question. Wonderful, merciful God! During the millennium, He opens the records of all the lost for our inspection. God patiently sits there and waits for US to make up our minds He was right in judging every person the way He did. We investigate the evidence to see why He judged the way He did. Before He gets rid of sinners, the most guarded secrets hidden in each evil person’s mind will be exposed out in the open. And as we inspect the records, we’ll be left with only one response: “God, we agree with your love and justice. We bow in tears and worship.” <Revelation 16:7> But, wait a minute! How do the wicked get to settle their score with God and have their say whether God’s just and fair? They’re all dead! Revelation 19:21 describes when Jesus comes the impact destroys them – flattens everyone who rejects God. “And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse...” The splendor and brilliance
of millions of angels and God and Jesus is so overpowering, 2 Thessalonians
2:8 says “the wicked are destroyed by the brightness of His coming.” “And at that day the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. [That means every one of the wicked is now dead.] They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall become refuse on the ground.” The righteous, remember, went up to heaven with Jesus at His second coming. But all the unsaved who are alive when Jesus comes are slain by the brightness of His coming. So we can nail this down, too. All the wicked are now dead. Revelation, Chapter 20, Verse 5: “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished...” Now we’re going to see from Scripture an amazing revelation how God finally resolves and ends the sin problem in His universe, forever. How the wicked will have their day in court. They get their turn to “judge” God, too! But first let’s quickly review events that prophecy reveals take place at Christ’s coming: 1. Jesus returns with all the holy angels. (Mat. 25:31) 2. The dead in Christ rise first. (1 Thes. 4:16) 3. The living saved are caught up to meet Jesus in the air. (1 Thes. 4:17) 4. The saved go home with Jesus and rule with Him for 1,000 years. (Rev. 20:4, 6) 5. The unsaved are slain by the brightness of Christ’s coming. (2 Thes. 2:8, Jer. 25:33) 6. The wicked dead stay dead during the 1,000 years. (Rev. 20:5) 7. Satan is bound for 1,000 years by a chain of circumstances – because he has no one to tempt or destroy! (Rev. 20:2) 8. Since all the righteous are in heaven, and all the wicked are dead, everyone is gone! Everywhere, there is ruin. (Jer. 4:23-26) Let’s look at what prophecy tells us is happening on Planet Earth during the millennium? The Bible tells us the truth! This earth, during the millennium, becomes the Devil’s prison. Satan is chained up to this abyss, “bound” for 1,000 years. How is he chained? A simple chain of circumstances: it’s impossible for him to go anywhere. There’s no one left to tempt. No one to destroy. There’s nobody here. The saved are with Christ for the thousand years. The wicked are all dead. So this earth becomes his prison. And remember, this is important, too, in God’s final plan. Because ever since creation, Lucifer jealously wanted to show everybody how he would rule a world. Now God finally gives him his chance! The watching universe is able to see in vivid detail – as if you were watching a movie – what kind of a ruler he really is when given complete control of a planet! But it looks like a war zone! Destroyed. Curls of smoke and the stench of death. Chaos. Like a bombed out bottomless pit, if you will. In fact, a little word study: the Greek word “bottomless pit” in Greek is abussos or “abyss”. That’s the same word used in Genesis 1 when God first created the world out of chaos – “without form and void”. The prophecy of Jeremiah foresaw this bottomless pit during the 1,000 years. <Jeremiah 4:23> See it there, friend? It’s coming, complete world blackout on this abussos or “bottomless pit.” It’s going to be totally dark! <Jeremiah 4:24-26> Pretty grim and miserable place to take a 1,000-year holiday, wouldn’t you say? Satan has nothing to do but wander to and fro over this dark, devastated, lonely planet and think. I’ve tried to
imagine Satan there all by himself. Everything is pitch black as the old
Devil’s walking all over this earth – nothing to do. So here
he is on this banged up, burned out, broken down, bottomless pit, kicking
at things. Suddenly he looks down and sees the upturned face of a man
– slain by the glory of God. He recognizes the man. Someone he knew
well: Joe Cool! He was a good citizen, everybody liked him. Honest. Paid
his debts. People were attracted to him. Revelation 20 is trying to tell us tonight: don’t postpone your decision for Jesus Christ – don’t put it off! It will be too late during the millennium. So in review, the
events that take place during the millennium on earth? 2. All the unsaved are dead, slain by the brightness of Jesus’ coming. 3. All the saved are in heaven, reigning with Christ. 4. Satan is bound on this dark devastated planet to reflect on his rebellion. Someone asks, will Satan change after 1,000 years of solitude? Will he have regrets? There are “Churches of Satan” who worship the Devil NOW, because they believe Satan will be converted during the Millennium. Will he? You see, one of God’s crucial reasons for putting the millennium into His prophetic timetable is to help us understand something. God’s going to demonstrate to the universe that, given another chance, any evil being would still make the same decision. They’d choose the same master. They’d still reject God! And now here it comes – a second chance. For the Devil and for the wicked. Notice carefully what happens, and profoundly what it tells us about God, when the millennium closes. What does Bible prophecy say? <Revelation 20:7,
8> Where do all these wicked people suddenly come from? How can they be in this battle if they are all dead? Ah! Remember, Revelation 20:5, “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished...” So, right here God raises up “the rest of the dead” in the second resurrection – the resurrection of damnation, at the end of the millennium – for the unsaved dead. <Revelation 20:8> And what a sight as they come up from their graves identically the same: still with pain, sickness, in wheel chairs; still cursing. Swearing. Doing drugs. and drinking. Toting guns. Horrible! An awful mess of humanity. Anti-God. They are the “lost.” Revelation 21:2 says at precisely this same time the Holy City, New Jerusalem, with Christ and God’s saints inside and all God’s holy angels, comes down from heaven to earth at the end of the millennium! Zechariah 14 describes how God prepares a special landing place for it, over there where the Mt. of Olives is located outside Old Jerusalem. The gorgeous New Jerusalem comes down – God’s eternal, splendid city. “Whoa,” think the wicked, “Awesome. Amazing.” This City becomes the focal point, the final target of Satan’s last cunning campaign of conniving. Notice: <Revelation 20:7,
8> Satan is loosed because when the second resurrection raises up the wicked, that automatically triggers Satan’s release from being chained up in this bottomless pit. He’s free again to tempt. To fool, to dupe and beguile with his old, scheming bag-of-tricks. He’s the same ol’ Deceiver. Hasn’t reformed. Hasn’t changed. He goes out to deceive these billions of wicked people. “Listen up, Idi Amin. Listen up, Hitler. Listen up Judas and Benedict Arnold and Jezebel and Sennecharib! Look at you. You’re resurrected from the dead. Know who raised you from the dead? I did! See that city over there? I was once a great prince in that city. They threw me out. Didn’t treat me right. I want you to help me capture it and we’ll rule!” We’ve still got a chance! Verses 8-9 say billions listen to him and somehow he convinces them they can take the city. They haven’t changed either. Again they choose Satan as their leader. So, they start marching. Advancing closer to this massive city. This mighty army in earth’s last cosmic final battle of Armageddon! Verse 9 says: “They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city...” Can you picture them? All of the wicked of all the ages. Satan the grand marshal lines them all up with devastating nuclear weapons, atomic missiles, B-1 bombers, loaded to the nuclear teeth with smart bombs and anthrax and all their explosive destructive weapons that could shatter that city into smithereens. Picture all these evil men and women, raised with the same diseased bodies, same evil characters, still cursing and swearing and everything else. Satan gives the order, “March! Take the city!” But suddenly God intervenes with the final cosmic “moment of truth”: Now God unveils His “strange act.” All these billions of wicked men and wicked angels stop in their tracks, the Bible tells us, because now it’s the wicked people’s chance to judge God. Jesus starts to ascend above the city, high up in space, suspended there, and begins to radiate in glory and majesty and power. I personally believe Philippians 2 describes this scene and how something like a fantastic instant replay on a cosmic video screen, where every evil eye mysteriously sees in “virtual reality”, his whole life portrayed in 3-D cinerama! They see their whole evil, wicked life and what they are really like when they stand before God and before the saints, and before that Holy City filled with all the holy angels. They see the awesome difference. They see the saints with perfect bodies, perfect health, perfect happiness, full of love and joy and smiles and radiant with holy glory. And they see themselves, their wretchedness, their misery, their ugliness, their hopelessness. You see, God is now giving the wicked their chance to judge Him, too. And the record says in Philippians 2:10-11, that becomes the molten moment, the flashpoint, of total self-realization for the wicked, “God, You were RIGHT!” “That at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and those on earth,
and of those under the earth, [even Satan and his angels] and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.” But the awful dramatic moment lingers a little longer. God now for the first and last time gives all those wicked a chance to see Him as He really is. Not that they’ll change. But He says, “You still don’t understand Me. Or, know Me. So I need to show you.” And the wicked watch transfixed as God no longer conceals His glory, but permits it to shine brighter and brighter. It becomes like intense heat, flames of fire to these wicked people. In anguish they realize how awful their sinful selves are compared to this fantastic and perfect Being. And they begin to turn and fight with each other, attacking Satan as the fire of God’s glory shines brighter, more powerful than ever. The whole earth erupts in seething flames – a great lake of fire. This is what Verse 9 is talking about. “And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.” Completely burning up all evidence of sinful life here on earth once and for all. It’s so hot, 2 Peter 3:10 says it melts the surface of the earth. Notice: “...The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” Even… <Revelation 20:10,
14, 15> Forever gone! The cosmic battle of the ages is over. Sin and sinners are no more. Only the saints and the Holy City are miraculously spared. Sadly, we may have relatives and friends, whom we love dearly, who will perish in that fire. There’ll be some agonizing scenes as they burn. The walls of the city are of transparent jasper, we’re told. The wicked might be able to come right up to the city and see inside. Maybe as one man runs up to the walls (and God’s glory is getting brighter and brighter, turning into fire and starting to burn him) he sees the very throne of God inside and the rainbow of promise encircling it. He sees the River of Life and the Tree of Life. Bright, glorious angels radiant and happy. Picture him seeing the streets of gold, standing spellbound wondering why he was such a fool to lose all that! Then picture that man suddenly freezing in his tracks...as he sees someone coming who looks very familiar. It’s his own wife and children! Oh, how he remembers how they prayed for him to give his heart to the Lord. But he never made his decision. Never said “Yes” to Jesus. Now the wall is between. He wants to escape the hot fire and he just goes to pieces and he falls down and screams and cries and begs that God give him one more chance. But there’ll never be another chance. He’s not sorry, really, for his choice. He’s sorry he got caught, and only regrets the awful result. It’s too late. Oh friend, I wish I could paint this picture so graphically and share this so tenderly, concerning surrender and its importance. I don’t wish to exaggerate; I’m not trying to scare you. True love must be your motive for choosing Jesus. But right now Jesus invites you to settle it with you and God! He pleads. I’m amazed sometimes the way we preachers downplay this business of hell fire, and we say well-meaning things to people we know should make a definite decision. Sometimes people are held back by possessions. Family. Jobs. Friends. Bank accounts. What comfort will those be if you’re on the outside looking in? Where are you going to be then, friend? At the end of the millennium, you and I are going to be in one of two places: either inside that City reigning with Christ, immortal forever; or, outside with the ranks of the wicked. Lost. Left out eternally. We have the opportunity today to make our decision, before it’s forever too late. But I haven’t quite finished yet. This isn’t the end – that flaming holocaust burning up the earth. Yes, there will be tears. How could it be otherwise? But, here’s the good news of the Voice of Prophecy: <Revelation 21:4> We’ll discover on another night that Hell fire isn’t forever, an eternal fry in the sky by and by – with people slowly burning forever. God’s saints won’t have to look on this ghastly holocaust scene forever. No. The fires go out and become ashes under our feet. And in Revelation 21:5 God says, “Behold, I make all things new!” A new heaven and new earth. Only this time, you and I will be there to watch! Friend, I’m here to tell you that no one seated here today needs to be caught in that lake of fire. My Bible says it’s being prepared for the Devil and his angels! Not people. The only way you’ll get there is if you choose NOT to be saved. CHOOSE to follow Jesus.
Now.
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