Three chapters left in the book of Revelation to study, and I pray that this study has been a help to you and encouragement to you as you personally study the book of Revelation. It's a wonderful book. It's the greatest book on prophecy in the whole Word of God. And I love teaching the book of Revelation. I really do. I cherish this book, and there's just so much truth in it, so much... Every time I go through it, every time I read it, teach it, whatever, I pick up something new from it, and I'm thankful for the book of Revelation. We're in Revelation chapter 20 tonight and we'll read the entire chapter and then we'll come back and do our study sheet with it. Remember just to highlight from the The last chapter in chapter 19, verse 11, heaven opens for the second time in the book of Revelation, and Jesus Christ comes back with His armies following Him from heaven, and they come down and they apprehend the Antichrist and the false prophet. They throw Him, both of them, into the lake of fire, and there they are, and now we approach chapter 20. And it says, "'And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled. and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan, shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. 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. 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. 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. and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." a very revealing chapter, a very eye-opening chapter, and a convicting chapter. Every time I read it, especially the last verses of this chapter, I get under personal conviction about witnessing and being more of a witness to lost people. Because if they're not found written in the Lamb's Book of Life, they're not going to heaven, and that's just a Bible fact, and we need to do our part in witnessing for the cause of Christ. Let's look at our study sheet tonight now, and look at this chapter and try to open it up and try to expound on it to help you better understand what's going on in it. The reign of the Antichrist is over. Remember in chapter 19, he's in the bottomless pit. The reign of the Antichrist is over. For seven years, he masterfully deceived, deluded, and damned souls to the pits of hell. His miracle-working false prophet calls all to receive the Antichrist's mark, name, or number of his name, and once this was accomplished, the mark The marked were damned forever. This is the way the age of the tribulation ends. For seven long years, the Antichrist convinced all that he was the Messiah, and a strong delusion permeated the age. Many followed his pernicious ways, and in the end, like the followers of Jim Jones and David Koresh, they all met their fatal end. The Antichrist and the false prophet also meet their doom, and both are cast into a lake of fire. The outcome is a bloodbath like this world has never seen. The battle of Armageddon has left millions of mutilated bodies on the battlefield of Megiddo. Why did this battle occur? Like every other major occurrence, it was written in the Word of God before it was ever manifested. In Isaiah 34, 2, about this battle. It said, "'For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies. He hath utterly destroyed them and hath delivered them to the slaughter.'" And that's a prophecy out of the book of Isaiah about something yet future to us during the tribulation. Joel chapter 3 verse 2 says this, "'And I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my land." In Zephaniah 3, verse 8, this one verse of Scripture always just reveals so much about God to me. "'Therefore wait ye upon me,' saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey.'" For my determination, now this is God speaking, my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms to pour upon them mine indignation. Even all my fierce anger for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy." A lot of people don't know that side of God. They don't even believe in that part of God, that character of God. But that's how God feels about this world by the end of the tribulation period. The scene is so horrific and large that the Bible details the burial and clean-up from this battle. In Ezekiel 39, verses 8 and 9, it says, "'Behold, it is coming, and it is done,' saith the Lord God. "'This is the day whereof I have spoken, and they that dwell in the cities of Israel "'shall go forth and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, "'both the shields, the bucklers, the bows, and the arrows, and the hand-staves.' and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years." At the end of tribulation when they gather all the weaponry that was used in this final battle of the ages, they gather them all together and it takes them seven years. The heap of weaponry is so large to get them all burned. Then again about the bodies in Ezekiel 39 verses 11 and 12, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea, and it shall stop the noses of the passengers. And there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude, and they shall call it the Valley of Hamangog. And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land." There's so many dead bodies after that massacre by the Lord that it takes them seven months to gather all the bodies together and bury them. I'm thinking of the Holocaust. And I'm sure some of you have seen the pictures of those Jews and how they just trenched ditches and just pushed those bodies with bulldozers into those ditches and covered them over. And they were burying those Jews, but one day the Jews are going to do the final burying. Now in chapter 20, The Lord is ready to establish His kingdom and His rule over the nations with a rod of iron. Chapter 20 covers the return of Christ, His thousand-year reign, the final battle with Satan and his destruction, and the judgment of the great white throne. So, for a thousand plus years are recorded in the 15 verses of this one chapter, chapter 20. Let's consider the sealing of Satan to begin with. The first sight John sees is an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. We read that in the opening verses. The angel lays hold on Satan and binds him with this chain and cast him into a bottomless pit for 1,000 years. The purpose of this binding is so that Satan cannot deceive the nations anymore during the thousand years of Christ's reign. It is interesting to note that the Lord uses one angel to apprehend and cuff the one who has been on the loose for six thousand years. the one who deceived the entire human race through the ages. Now, he is thrown bound into the bottomless pit by an angel of no specific distinction. Satan was once the most perfect creation of God, and the highest exalted cherub who outshined all other angelic creatures. God delights in bringing to naught the abased by using the exalted servants of the Lord." Now, let's consider the seating of the servants. Years ago, Peter questioned the Lord about sacrifices made by the disciples and what would be the reward would be for such great sacrifices. In Matthew 19, verses 27 and 28, "'Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee. What shall we have therefore?' And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the regeneration talking about the second coming of the Lord and Him sitting on His throne, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So He promised those twelve disciples that they would be sitting upon twelve separate thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Number two, the Lord went on to tell them that not only would they be seated upon thrones, but also everyone that sacrificed for His sake. In Matthew 19, verse 29, He said this, "'And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, father, mother, wife, children, or lands for My namesake shall receive a hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life.'" This is what verses 4 through 6 of chapter 20 describe. The Lord will seat the saints of the church age and the tribulation period upon thrones around this world to govern all nations during the kingdom age of Christ." Paul alluded to this rhyme when writing to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 6, he said, shall judge the world. And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?" Revelation has already recorded this reigning in chapter 5. In Revelation 5, 9, and 10, he said this, and they sung a new song, saying, Thou worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. Now, there's not a lot said. in chapter 20 in specifics about the kingdom age or what's known as the millennium. That word millennium is just a big Latin word. It comes from a Latin word, millennium, which just means a thousand years. And Jesus Christ is literally, according to the Word of God, is literally coming back to this world physically, visibly. Not going to be any faith in that day because He's going to be seen by sight. He's coming back and He's going to sit on the throne of His Father David in the land of Israel and rule for one thousand years. But He's ruling from that one spot, but all around the world, He'll have us seated all around this world reigning over. I don't know, cities, states, I don't know how He's going to divide it. But we're going to be reigning with Christ during that thousand-year reign. All that the politicians have coveted after, we're going to get. What about that? And we don't even have to run for office, don't even have to lie to get there. We're just going to be seated on the thrones, and we're going to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years. That's going to be exciting. Now, there's not a lot said in this chapter about that thousand-year reign, but the Word of God is full of Scripture that covers the millennial age and what it's going to be like. It may be, if the Lord will lead that way, I've been thinking about that a lot lately, It may be that we do a study on just the kingdom age and to find out things that are going to happen during the millennium. Number four on your study sheet, the thousand-year reign is mentioned six times in verses 2 through 7. There's been much debate concerning the interpretation of 1,000 years. It is to be interpreted literally as 1,000 years of a little reign of Christ upon this earth. There's actually, you won't believe how people destroy the Word of God. They get to that where it says 1,000 years, 1,000 years, and he says it six times, 1,000 years. They say, well, he didn't really mean 1,000 years. I mean, they just lift something out of the Word of God and completely destroy it. They say they didn't have, I read one commentator one time, says they didn't have big numbers back in those days when the Bible was written. So whenever they would say a thousand years, that just meant a big amount of time. That really helped me. You know what he meant? He meant 1,000 literal years. I believe the Bible so much that when he says in the evening and the morning were the first day, the second day, I believe it was 24-hour period times that God created. And a lot of people say, oh, God couldn't create it all that's created. Yes, God can. And God did. He did it in six days and rested on the seventh. Amen. All right. Now, let's consider the second coming of Satan. After the thousand years has expired, and let me just stop right here. I did a study years ago. This was not long after I was saved. I was studying, and the preacher's name was Jim Modlish, and he was a great Bible teacher. I don't know if Jim is still alive today. I've lost track of him. But he was doing a study about the different dispensations. And he was showing that with each dispensation that God dealt with man, that a characteristic of God and man was revealed. One of the greatest studies that I've ever done on dispensations and why did God... divided up the way, like the dispensation that we're living in now is known as the age of grace or the church age. And we know what that's all about, it's to reveal the holiness of God and the love of God and to offer salvation to man. But he made this point about the millennial age, the kingdom age. During that thousand years, Satan is bound. There's no influence of Satan whatsoever during that thousand years. And still, even without Satan tempting, without Satan offering temptation and trying to make man sin, man still sins. because his heart is evil. And he said what that is, that dispensation is set alone for is to prove to man that the judgment, that man was wicked all by himself. Man would have sinned no matter if Satan had a showed up or not, because the heart is deceitful continually. And we'll get into that, but I just thought I'd throw that out there. After the thousand years has expired, Satan will be loosed out of his prison. During the Kingdom Age, men will not learn war anymore and peace shall reign upon the earth. This does not mean that all shall agree with the reigning of Christ and his people. Christ will rule with a rod of iron and all will obey his rule of peace or suffer the consequences of a righteous reigning king. There would be commands and laws for man to obey during that time. In Isaiah 2 verse 4 he says, And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." During that thousand-year reign, there's not going to be one war fought with Christ sitting on the throne of David. In Zechariah 14, verses 16 through 19, it shall come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the king. the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if that the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no reign, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles." Now, in the context of this prophecy in Zechariah, that is a prophecy of the future reign of Christ, When He's in Jerusalem, there's going to be a command go out worldwide that all nations have to come to Jerusalem to worship Jesus Christ during the Feast of Tabernacles. And if they don't come, God says, I'll cut your reign off. What about that? He's going to rule it with a rod of iron. It's going to go His way, or it won't be any way. Alright, number three, the millennium began with the earth being populated with saved people. But as time goes by, the children born during this age will have free will to choose without any interfering influence from Satan at all. Doubtless, some will keep the laws of Christ simply because they are made to, not because of a willing heart to learn about the King. The heart of man without any temptations from the devil is wicked and wayward in and of itself. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Who can know it? When Satan returns from his imprisoning pit, he will find very fertile soil to spew and spread his propaganda once again. And many will follow him to do battle against the Lord and his saints at the end of the millennium. Satan will find a willing army whose number will be as the sand of the sea. Wow, that's just, that's just blows my mind. Jesus Christ on the earth, no influence of Satan. And when Satan pops out of the pit, he gathers up a multitude of people that are just too innumerable, you can't even number them. The armies of Satan align themselves, believing they have the advantage, as they surround the city of Jerusalem. Multitudes upon multitudes, led by their fierce commander, as he breathes out threatenings, will willingly gather to make war with the saints of God and the king of kings and the Lord of lords." As they assemble under the tirade and proud lofty threats coming from Satan, a single bolt of fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them all, leaving only Satan in all of his glory. As he stands there without anyone to back him, Not one follower left to encourage him in his march against the people of God. The saints will squint their eyes as they behold the one that gave them so much trouble throughout the ages." And this is what we'll say in Isaiah 14, verses 16 and 17. He's speaking directly to Lucifer in this passage. "'They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider these saying, is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of the prisoners? When we see him all by himself at the end of the millennium, we'll squint our eyes and look at Satan and say, this is the guy. This is the one that did all of this? You think about the millions of people that He has deceived. into hell. Think about the nations that he has caused to worship false gods. The Chinese worshipping the fire-breathing dragon. Think of the churches that he has split right down the middle and tore all to shreds. Think of the families that this one individual Satan has devoured and conquered. And there he's going to stand. at the end of his time. And we're going to say, he did all of that. It's going to be something to see him in that day. It's going to be a sight to behold. And then, number seven, in one final swoop of the hand, Satan is cast into the lake of fire to join all of his cohorts where they will spend eternity, never to be loosed again. Hell was prepared for him in the beginning, and he will finally be awarded his long home of torments. His two companions of the tribulation have been there for a thousand years, waiting for his arrival. The three practiced deception, and now the deceived are damned for all of eternity. They thought they could win through their trickery, But the Lord is holy, and only righteousness will triumph." Now let's look at the sentencing that John saw at the end of chapter 20. Number one, John's attention is now drawn to a great white throne. I'll tell you what let's do. Just for scriptural emphasis, let's go back to chapter 20, and let's read these words again before we study it. and pray that God would burn these words in every one of our hearts to help us be more determined to be witnesses for Jesus Christ. Revelation chapter 20, some of the most sobering verses in all of the Word of God. And I'm going to try to draw it out just briefly for you as we read through it. John writing, he says these words, and I saw a great white throne and Him that sat on it. From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away? There's no heaven, there's no earth. Matter of fact, according to 2 Peter chapter 3, according to the book of 2 Peter chapter 3, the earth completely explodes And all of those that have been in hell for all of these years are unearthed. And there they stand, and notice this, and there was found no place for them. Let me ask you something. Here's this great white throne, God sitting on that throne, God in judgment. The earth and the heaven exploding and just completely disintegrating. There's all these millions of people standing there. What are they standing on? There's found no place for them. They're standing on nothing. They're standing in eternity. They're standing, and the only thing holding them up is the power of God in judgment. And I saw the dead, small and great, look at it, 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. The sea gave up the dead which were in it, the death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death in verse 15, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire." That word, cast, I did a word study on that one time, and it literally draws the picture of throwing it away as dung, throwing it away as refuse, worthless. Now, let's study the sentencing that John saw. John's attention is now drawn to a great white throne. The heaven and the earth are gone and now the judgment of the dead is set. The heavens and the earth have been dissolved. And the removal of the earth discloses all the unearthed souls that have been in hell for millennia. There they stand, on nothing, hanging in midair before the throne of God, awaiting their final sentencing according to the books that contain the awful facts of their entire lives from the day they were conceived until the day they died without Christ. They went to hell because of their non-belief in Jesus. Now, and the question has often been asked, and I was asked this one time, and no doubt God had to give me that thought and that answer. Some people have asked, well, they're already in hell, now why are they being judged? I had somebody ask me that one time, and just immediately this thought came to my mind. They're going to be judged according to their works, and mine went to this Revelation 20. You think about Adolf Hitler. He went to hell not because of the Holocaust, not because of the wars. He went to hell because he rejected Jesus Christ. That's why people go to hell, because of refusing to believe in Jesus Christ. But then Adolf Hitler is going to be drawn up before this judgment bar of God, And all of the influence he had, all of his works, are going to be judged according to the books of God. And God is a meticulous bookkeeper. He's got things in His books that we forget. Now watch this. Where are we at? They went to hell at the bottom of verse…page 4. They went to hell because of their non-belief in Jesus. Now their lives as a lost, dead person will be judged to determine their degree of punishment for all of eternity. And the Bible does speak of degrees of… degrees of punishment in eternity. He told one group, he said, you shall receive the greater damnation, referencing the fact that some people are going to suffer a greater deal of punishment than others. their influence on other people's lives, the times they were dealt with by the Holy Spirit in their unseen conscience, and yet they rejected and shunned those convictions every time a bad or foolish thought went through their minds, the times they did things in secret as though as they thought no one was looking, it is all recorded in God's books. There will be no mistakes, no misunderstandings in that day. The one who knows the thoughts and intents of every heart will be the one to read the books aloud. Every abortionist that called himself a doctor will hear his book read. The children he murdered will be in the background as they watch him stand before the judge. Every enlightened soul that demanded their rights and ranks in society as a sodomite will hear their life story read, revealing how they believed the lie and rejected the truth. The wholesome, good individual that prided himself on his goodness and reputation among men will stand as his unrighteousness is read by a holy God. As they spent their allotted time on earth, some sins were forgotten, and some were seared over with a hotly iron conscience. But now they stand in eternity before the One who created them, loved them, sent His Son to die for them, pled with them, and was rejected by them. Their books are now open. The truth of their lives, written by the author of truth, is revealed. Thus, the book of Revelation. Number three, there is another book, the book of life. Down through the ages, as men trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior and were born into the family of God, their names were written down in this book. As a final judgment, this book is open and it is discovered that the judge was right in his sentencing. Their names were not found in his book. The sentencing is over. Now the time to pay for their crimes has come. It is done. And the verdict is final. No plea bargains, no parole, no pardons will be extended. Their torment has now become eternity." Wow, what a chapter. A sobering chapter. Will you agree with me about that? Very sobering chapter. And I pray that God will use these words to help us that are saved truly to be witnesses of the saving grace of God to others. Thank God I'm saved. You know what he told the disciples one time? They came and, boy, they were so excited. They had been out exercising some of that newfound power that he'd given them. They came out and said, wow, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. He said, don't rejoice in that, but rejoice in the fact that your names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's what we need to be shouting about is that our names, I know my names recorded over in heaven, amen and amen.