Amen and amen. Please turn with me in chapter 19 to the verse number one. This is where we were last week, wasn't it? What we had was the heavenly worship Remember what verse one speaks of here, this great multitude of people. You can read the verse for yourself. This great multitude of people, and they're singing a song. And they're singing about salvation and glory and honor. These are things that these people are attributing to God. And remember who these people are. It's you and me. You're saved. This is A representation of what you and I, dear believer, will be doing in heaven someday. When we get there, we will see the Lord judging and what will be our conclusion? That salvation or salvation was all of God. He deserves all the glory. He deserves the honor. Now remember, we saw that word honor this morning. Where the husband is said to honor the wife. And the word honour means you're placing value in something. It's value that you perceive it to have. And that's what it'll be like when we're in glory. We'll give honour to God. We'll see His value. He's a saviour. He's glorious. He's honourable. He's powerful. He's the Lord, the only true God. His judgements are right and true. and so on and so forth. What a song that will be. And so last week, I trust you enjoyed it with me as we thought about this song that's been sung in heaven. And as refreshing and all as it was to consider that song, our attention now is taken away from the heavenly worship to see a heavenly warrior. Look with me, please. At verse number 11, the song It's now finished. And John said in this animation, verse 11, and I saw heaven opened. And behold, a white horse. So paint the picture in your head now, all right? A white horse. And he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. I've heard it said before that sometimes that's why you had King Billy placed on a white horse. He was depicted, never had a white horse I believe, but depicted in those pictures as being a great deliverer, a great helper. But men and women, this picture is not painting any regular man. It's painting a picture of Jesus Christ, who is genuinely the true warrior for good. Look with me at these words, verse 11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And white horse speaks about the purity. No blemish here. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true. What that means is he's trustworthy. That can be said of no man. No man. Because everyone, we're unfaithful at times, we're untrue, only Christ is faithful and true. And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. So this person on this white horse, he's trustworthy, but he's a warrior. His power and ability to judge and to make war. This is his God-given rights and position. This warrior isn't someone you want to be in opposition against. Look at verse 12. John saw his eyes and they were as a flame of fire. These are penetrating eyes. They penetrate through all the lies, all the darkness, all the rubbish. They burn it and they can see with great clarity. And on his head were many crowns and we sang about those crowns just a moment ago. And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. That's an interesting phrase there. There's a name on him somewhere. And John, I don't know if John couldn't read it or he couldn't see it, but either way we're left with this impression that even when we're in heaven, even when we're glorified, we still won't fully comprehend and understand the glory of this Christ. We still won't be as gods. We still won't be equal to God. We're still lacking in understanding. Come to verse 13. Because verse 13 talks about the clothing he's wearing. And note the kind of clothing this is. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood. That's not usually how we depict Christ, is it? This warrior on a white horse. And he's got raiments on, dipped in blood. Why are they dipped in blood? I don't think on this occasion it's referring to the cross. I think on this occasion it is referring to him being a warrior and this is not the first war that Christ has fought. He's got his work clothes on, his war clothes on. He's fought before and that's true right through the Old New Testament. The Lord's been battling and fighting. He's a warrior. I don't worship some pygmy God in heaven. I don't have some wee statue that's fixed to one place. I don't have a heavenly Santa Claus that just does you good. I have a warrior God who saves, who loves, who delivers, and who conquers. He's the King. That's the kind of God we worship tonight. Look at verse 14. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And so John sees the armies of heaven following after this champion. And they're all pure, and they're all white, and they're all clean. Because they're washed, and they're forgiven. Then verse 15. Here's the only sword we read of. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword. that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth upon the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of the Almighty God. When the day of battle comes, it's Christ who has a sword, and it's John sees a sword come out of his mouth, and what that means is it's battle language that Christ will fight, not with weapons, not with nuclear weapons, men and women. He speaks with his voice. It's the Word of God and when God speaks, creation crumbles. Can't stand against the Word of God. And so he rules now with a rod of iron, because those who weren't saved, they didn't listen to his gracious tones of invitation. And when the invitation was graciously offered but turned down, now the Lord then comes with a rod of iron to judge. It's a very fearful scene here. And look at the end of verse 15. We're told that he will tread the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God. What does that mean? The winepress in the Old Testament, because remember much of Revelation, the imagery is taken out of the Old Testament. And in the Old Testament, I'm new actually, people, farmers would have had, husband men would have had a stone bath, okay? A stone and carved out a big, bathed in the middle of it, and all the grapes would have been put in there. And every grape that was put in, people would have got in with their bare feet, and they would have tread the grapes down. They would have crushed the grapes. And so the grape juice came out, and that's how they had the grape juice. And that's the idea of the imagery here. The Lord says, I will tread the winepress. All those who have rebelled and would not bow to Christ and would not accept the salvation, The language is very clear, pressures them now. That's the God I present to you. The God who will deal with sin. I don't know about you, but I was scared of my wits tonight to not have him as my savior. In case this day comes very soon, when he treads the grapes, crushes them. Men and women, this is shockingly serious stuff. For the same one who says I will you know, tread the winepress, is the one who himself went into the winepress of God's wrath. That's what he was doing on the cross. He was paying that penalty. He was taking that fierceness. He was taking that being trodden down for you. And there we see the love of God. He has prepared himself and has already come to be your saviour and take your punishment, but if you don't appear to him and pray to him, Lord, take my punishment, forgive me for my sin, what you're saying is, I take the punishment myself. The Lord's warning you here. This day is coming. Now read on here, verse 17. Actually, Don't skip out verse 16, let's read verse 16. And he, that's this heavenly warrior, and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, king of kings and lord of lords. There's no king, no lord above this one. He is the supreme. Actually, in verse 13, as well, I should have pointed out in verse 13, at the end of verse 13, he's also called the Word of God. And that clarifies it. We're talking here about Christ. Because in John 1, verse 1, he is said there to be the Word of God. It's referring to Christ, and there's no ambiguity about that bit. Then come to verse 17, then. Because here's this king, heaven's opened, John sees this warrior, heavenly warrior, and before the heavenly warrior gets started, there is an announcement made by the angel, verse 17. John said, And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of the heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God. Now think about this a minute. You see that language? On to the supper of the great God. There's also another supper in Revelation. It's the supper of the lamb. It's the supper of the bridegroom. When the Lord says, he'll bring his brides and they'll sit down to supper and feast and joy. But here is another supper. And John, in seeing this animation before him, he sees the angel proclaim, there to all the fowl of the earth, get ready. It's going to be a feast. For God is about to slay all those who are with the devil, who would not bow to Christ and live for sin. Read verse 17, And I saw, and think, could this be you? And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, And so on. Before the battle even begins, the angels making it clear there's only one conclusion to this battle. Only one conclusion. Man will lose. And God will conclude all creation. Verse 19. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war. So think about this. Here's the forces of darkness. They're all gathered together to make war. Just keep that in your head. It's important for later. Verse 19, And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. And so again, in an instant, the battle's over before it even begins. The enemy's taken. At the end of verse 20, these both were cast alive into a lake of fire, burning with brimstone. There's that lake of fire, and a part of darkness cast unto it. Verse 21, and the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. Now just keep in mind here, keep in mind this is an illustration, an animation, On the judgment day, I don't foresee, literally, the Lord having a big sword, slaying people, souls dying, and birds fitting in their flesh. Remember, remember, remember, this is figurative language. It's a symbolic, it's a picture being painted, like I've said to you a thousand times, but just to help you understand it, if you were to paint a picture of World War II, you would have the British bulldog in its mouth, you would have the German eagle dead and wounded, but the bulldog severely wounded too, but victorious. That's the idea. There was no bulldog, no eagle fighting in World War II. It's a picture, an illustration. And that's what John's seeing here. That brings us then to chapter 20, where I want to major on tonight. Chapter 20, men and women, is a fiercely debated chapter right throughout, well, not throughout Christian history, that is not true to say, but in recent centuries, this has been debated over as to what it means. And I want to look at it tonight. So remember what we've seen already, we've seen this heavenly warrior, he makes war, And he's victorious, the chapter ends. Then we come to chapter 20. And would you read just the first couple of verses with me here? Verses one and two. 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. Now what does that mean? What's that talking about? And tonight, rather than just giving you my view, because I do have a view on it for sure, but I'm going to give you the three main views on this text and let you decide. Because I'm going to be very frank here tonight. Whatever view you hold doesn't concern me all that much. But what I want to show you in a moment or two is the meaning of this portion. That no matter what view you have, you will agree with me. But sometimes we get so caught up, what does the thousand years mean, that we forget why the text was written? Why is Revelation written? To mystify you? No. To reveal Christ. Do not forget that. And there's no chapter where that's as important as chapter 20. Let me say this. When I was a teenager, maybe 20, I think 19 or thereabouts, I was reading and a man directed me to read this. It was a very helpful book. It was Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones called Great Doctrines of the Bible. And for me at that age, it was so significant in directing my entire Christianity, to be honest. And here's what he said. and I'm verbatim here, I didn't check this out, but it's as I remember it. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, listen, when he came to the doctrine of end times, he said, listen, dear reader, you number one, you study theology proper. Get to know your God. When you've got a grasp of theology, study Christ, Christology. And when you have a reasonable grasp of Christ, Then study Soteriology, that's the doctrine of salvation. And when you've got that to some degree, you've got a foundation, then at least go to Ecclesiology, which is the study of the church. And when you have those four, then give some time to consider Eschatology, the doctrine of end times. And the point he's making is this. Don't read the Bible and jump to number five. Don't jump to studying what's going to happen at the end time. Get the other four first. Saturate your heart, your mind, and your love on the person of God, and not a son, and of salvation, and the church that he's brought you into. Soak all that in, love it, live it, breathe it, feed upon it. And when your heart is bursting with all of that excellent doctrine, well then come to the doctrine of last things and understand you'll never get it right. There's no view perfectly right because the Lord is coming like a thief in the night when no man will know. I say that to preface what I want to move on to just now. Chapter 20 here and the verse Two, it speaks about the devil being bound for a thousand years. What's that all about? I have to give you all three views to help you come to your own conclusion on this one tonight. This is described as the millennium. The millennium is a Latin word made up of two words, mill, meaning thousand, and the last part, annum, which means year. So, thousand years, millennium. And there's three different views on this, the amillennialist, the postmillennial, and then the premillennial. Let me look at these three views with you, how they interpret this chapter, okay? The A, millennial, amillennialism. And the word millennial, you know it means a thousand years, you've got that. But when you put the letter A in front of it, what that means is no, no millennium, no thousand years. And so what the amillennialist believes is that when the Bible talks here about a thousand years, the thousand years is symbolic, not literal. as any other number in Revelation. Like the 144,000, that wasn't literal either. And now there's this, no reason to take this number literal when every other number is symbolic. So with that being said then, what the Amillelius believes is that the thousand years simply represents the whole New Testament era. From when Christ ascended when he died and rose again and took the throne right to the very end of time. That's the thousand year period. Not literally a thousand years, but a period of time. That's all that it means. In that period of time then the devil is bound. Now what does that mean? Well verse 3 tells us what it means. Look at verse 3. And cast him, here's this devil, he's bound. And cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him. For what reason? Now don't miss this. We've been told that he should deceive the nations no more. till the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that, he must be loosed the little season. So there's a period of time here where the devil is described as being bound. What does bound mean? It means he won't deceive the nations. It's not literally that this devil has chains wrapped around him and he's put in the corner of the pit and there he's staying. This is an animation. It's a picture. And it's describing him as being bound for the purpose of not deceiving the nations. And so the AM millennialist takes from that, that during this New Testament period, the devil can't deceive the nations. What that means is, when the New Testament period began, Peter went and preached the gospel to Cornelius. And for the first time ever, the Holy Ghost began to save people who were not Jews. And so people of all nations, all kindreds, all tongues all over the world are being saved. They're being brought into the kingdom of God. That blanket deception upon the nations is gone. All kinds of people are now being saved in the New Testament period. But the end of this New Testament period, coming near the end, the devil will be loosed for a wee while. And that deception will come upon the nations again. And the devil will be busy deceiving and blinding, and there'll be a great multitude who are haters of God, there'll be great persecution, great problems. Then will come the end when Christ finishes the world, that's the second coming. And when Christ comes a second time, he takes evil, wickedness, the devil, he casts them into hell, and he brings his people home. The end. Get that? Let me recap that really quickly, there's an awful lot there. But the New Testament period, Christ came the first time as a babe, the thousand year period, the New Testament period goes on, then comes the end, the devil's loosed, he deceives again for a while, and then Christ comes and closes creation, that's it. Second view on Revelation 20 is the postmillennial view, which believes much of what I just said there, that this is not literal. It's figurative language. It's the New Testament period. And the only difference between the amillennial view and the postmillennial view is this. And I hope I'm not frying your head here. Try and stay with me. But the postmillennial just believes that in that 1,000-year period, that things will get better and better there. A lot worse and worse and worse. And truth being told, I think most of us would love to believe that. That we would love to see an era here, the New Testament period, where the gospel is preached throughout the world. And it will be in every area of the world, and souls will be saved, and more and more people get saved, and by the end of the New Testament period, when Christ comes back, the world is virtually all convert to Christ. That would be lovely. And there's some people who believe that. There were Puritans who believed that. There were Reformers who believed that. May not put the exact words, but that was their belief, that things will only get better. Lovely view, and I trust that will be the case, that would be excellent. But let me give you the third view here, which is called the pre-millennialist view. And pre-millennialists are very different here. When they come to a thousand years, so I'm referring to the thousand years in verse two. This is view number three. View number three, the pre-millennial says that that's a literal thousand years. That Christ came and was born in Jerusalem and lived and died and ascended. And there is the New Testament period, but at the end of the New Testament period, Christ will come again. But when he comes, it's not the end. Not the end. When he comes, he will set up his throne in Jerusalem, and he will reign literally, physically on earth for another thousand literal years. And during those thousand years, the temple will be rebuilt, the sacrifices will be recommenced for learning purposes, and all of these events that we're reading about will take place. So for the pre-mill, the second coming isn't the end of it all. It's actually the beginning of a thousand-year reign. And then comes the end, when the thousand years are up and the great battles. And there'll be literally sinners on earth and sea of people on earth and everything happening there. So there's the three views. And that's how the three views come to Revelation 20. Now, just to be fully transparent here, I suppose I align mostly with the first view there, the amillennialist. I see the thousand years here, and that's only my opinion. You don't have to share it with me. There's things that I've said to you that we have to agree on, like the person of Christ and the way of salvation. But what view you have of Revelation 20 is fine by me. It's fine, 100%. I'm not going to argue with you. As a denomination, we take that position, and I wholeheartedly agree with it. I see that thousand years being symbolic. The devil is bound. He's not deceiving nations. That's why he put missionaries everywhere preaching the gospel. So with those three views there before you, and whatever you've grasped of it, take your own view, whatever view you feel most clearly represents what the Bible teaches, that's fine. Let's set that to the side now. I ran through that as quick as I possibly could, because I want to get out of the way. Because truth being told, it just hinders us getting to what's really been said here. What is really being said in this chapter? Would you go with me? To verse nine. Okay? So a thousand years is up. The battle has commenced. Verse nine, and they went up, that's the enemy. The darkness, the powers of the devil. And they went up on the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about and the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And that's the key portion. Revelation 20, whatever view you take is teaching us Christ wins. Christ wins. That's all that's been taught here. Don't be distracted by the thousand years and all these details. Christ wins. And look at verse 10. What happens here to the devil and the powers of darkness? Verse 10, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. So it was a battle. And the battle concludes very quickly. And the devil is cast into hell forevermore. Verse 11. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth, the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God. Now can I ask you a question? Where's the devil? He didn't get a go before the judgment throne. The fallen angels, they're not brought to the judgment throne. This is just human beings, just people. The devil, there was no judgment throne, just cast in the lake of fire, he's gone. He's there for all eternity. No hope, no rest, just damned, that's it. But there is a people, human beings, and they stand now before the judgment throne. Look at verse 12. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened. And another book was opened. There are two books here. Remember, there's not literally going to be a book that day. It's this figurative language. I think, again, every view would agree on that. God doesn't need books, men and women. We need books because we can't remember everything. God doesn't need books. This is just a picture to help us understand the scene. God knows it all. And I saw the dead, verse 12, 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 so these books are opened, and God judges people according to how they live. Your book's opened. Your life is read out. Every deed, every thought, every action. Every moment of every day and it's all exposed. It's as if it's written on the wall. Everything you've ever done and all of heaven can see and hear all of your deeds read out. And how will you stand that day? People say, well, I get the judgment throne. I'll give God a piece of my mind. No, you won't. So embarrassed. So ashamed. And completely guilty of all your filth. of all your wretchedness, of all you have been doing throughout your whole life. It's all there to say. So what happens then? Being judged according to your works. Look at verse 14. Death and hell. Can I just explain what that means? At least in my view anyway. The death is a reference to the grieves. The graves open up, all the dead, the bodies of those who have died. I can't explain this, I can't explain all of this, but all I can say is that God will resurrect every individual. And your body will come before you in eternity. And hell, that's talking about those who have already died. Their bodies are in the ground and their souls are in hell. And the body and the souls reunited on that judgment day. And look what's said in verse 13. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, body and soul was cast into the lake of hell. Like a fire. That's solemn stuff. And like I said to you a moment ago, I would not want to be sitting here today with that even being a remote possibility for me. I wouldn't want to be here tonight and think that there's any chance of that being me. I would flee to Christ and pray, Lord, forgive me for hell's too real, too serious, too awful, too sore. Save me, save my family, save my friends, and I'll tell other people the gospel. You can't read that tonight and not at least think, what if that's me? My body resurrected, my soul brought out of hell, reunited, and cast into the lake of fire forevermore. It's a dreadful scene, men and women. But when we come back next week, we're gonna come to chapter 21. In chapter 21, we see the other side of the coin, a new heaven, a new earth. Those who are saved, those whose names are found written in the Lamb's Book of Life, enjoy heaven together. So what I say in closing tonight, When studying Revelation, the book of Revelation I mean, it's all too easy to lose sight of the main purpose of this book. And the main purpose of the book is to reveal who Christ is, His victory, and that is a call for you and me to bow before Him, to make Him your Lord, to live in obedience. That's what this book is about. It's calling you. Follow Christ, the holy warrior. Follow Christ, the savior, the judge of all the earth. Don't miss it. Don't miss it. Whatever view you take of the book of Revelation, remember this, everything you read is to motivate you to bow before Christ. Do that tonight, because what we read this evening is a preview of what's going to happen. So we preview of that day and you have to stand back and consider, will I be with the devil and his angels cast into hell? For this is coming. Listen, for thousands of years, the Lord said the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem and it happened. For decades, Noah preached that the flood was coming and it happened. For millennia, God has been saying, I am coming to wrap up creation, and there will be a people brought to heaven who have received Christ here on earth, and a people who will be cast into hell. It will happen. And where will you be? So tonight, you must choose either to live A life, an undisciplined life of just living for the here and now, for the pleasures, for the lusts of this world. or you choose to do what a disciplined person does. What would a disciplined person do? Someone who's disciplined, they will choose to do what's maybe not so appealing now so that they have better benefits hereafter. For example, a disciplined person will go out and work, not because they love work, but they might go to their work and they work hard all week because they know at the end of it there's a reward. There's their wage at the end of the week. Or you do, you train your body, you work out, whatever. It's not as nice, but you do it for the reward at the end. And you and I, we ought to call upon the Lord and say, Lord, give me grace, save my soul, enable me to turn away from immediate gratification of sin and pleasure, turn away from that that my body wants now, that I may have a better future. Lord, save me from myself, from my sin, from my wretchedness, from the devil's plan for me. Lord, Lord, Lord, save me and keep me and bring me home to heaven. The Lord says, but whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Tonight, you've seen what's going to happen. And when the day that it happens, you'll remember sitting in Lauren Free Church. And when the word of God was opened and the spirit of God was speaking, and you fully understood that someday you're gonna stand before God, and you walked out of church, you didn't get saved. And when you stand there and your books are opened and that wee bit's recorded in April 2024, you're back in me again. You'll not be shouting at God, and you'll not be giving anybody a piece of your mind. You'll stand there, completely ashamed. Hell. Don't leave tonight without Christ. Choose wisely, and get us sorted tonight.