Thank you. Thank you so much. I hope especially those of you who are newer amongst us since
the warmth and sincerity of our welcome. I'd like to really thank Wendy Truax for her ministry
at the piano today and tonight especially since she was all alone over there helping
us with our congregational singing. Thank you, Wendy.
This has been some day, I'll tell you. This morning as I was preaching in the first service,
talking about the infinite and the impossible, there was a spider up here on the pulpit that
traversed from this side across here all the way to this side. He went back and forth at
least three times. Down over the side, did any of you see him who sit down here on this
side? I could just see all of your eyes following the spider all over the pulpit. I properly
disposed of him the moment I said amen in the benediction after the first service. I
gave him a ritualistic burial about a half an hour ago.
So what a day. Well, this evening we are going to have a prophetic overview of things to
come. This is in preparation of the Minnesota Prophecy Conference which will begin two weeks
from today in five churches throughout the Twin Cities area including our own. Next Sunday
we'll have some more details as far as the topics are concerned and we'll review again
the speakers who will be here. Dr. Lehmann Strauss will be with us that first Sunday
morning on the 15th. Dr. Strauss is an old friend of mine. I've known him for a number
of years now. I suppose that Dr. Strauss must be in his mid-seventies. He pastored back
in Pennsylvania as well as in the Detroit area for a number of years and since the early
1960s has been traveling full-time as a Bible teacher representing the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dr. Strauss is going to bring along his wife Elsie who had a stroke I think two years ago.
She is paralyzed on her left side. You'll be able to meet her, a wonderful Christian
lady and yet she is with her husband as much as possible in his travels. Lehmann and Elsie
Strauss are his special people. He has written a number of books. How many of you have books
by Dr. Strauss? Well, there are some of you that do. You'll become better acquainted with
him in this conference. He has written a book on prayer called The Sense and Nonsense of
Prayer that I think is one of the finest, most practical books on prayer that you'll
find anywhere. And then Sunday evening, two weeks from tonight, Dr. John Walvard will be
speaking for his first message. He'll be here twice with us in the conference. Dr. Walvard
is the president of Dallas Theological Seminary and he has been the president since about
forever. It's been a long time. I think perhaps, well some of you Dallas grads, how long has
it been? Do any of you know? It's been at least 25 years I think that he's been the
president of Dallas Theological Seminary, articulate spokesman for the scriptures and
for the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have a great week to look forward to. And because we're
going to be discussing some ideas and terms that may be unfamiliar, especially to those
of you who are newer amongst us, I thought it might be helpful before we get to that
week to review the scheme of things as we understand them from what the Bible teaches.
I would like to say at the start that there are those who disagree with us on some of
the minor points of what I'm going to talk about tonight. And that is fine. There is
room for disagreement on some of these secondary issues. And we're happy to discuss those with
others who may disagree with us. Obviously we believe and we teach what we believe to
be right. And if we were to be convinced otherwise, we would teach otherwise. What I'm going to
share with you tonight is the teaching of Grace Church, Roseville. And so you'll know
where we're coming from at least. We may have some in our church who would disagree with
us on the fine points of what I'm going to say, but I think all of us would agree on
the major things that we'll talk about. You will notice, can you all see that all right?
I tried to keep the lights low enough this evening that you might be able to see the
screen. You poor people right down here in the front. Do I do a fair job hiding it? Can
I do better? As you will notice, the title of the chart up there is the Pre-Millennial
Scheme of World Events. You will notice this word first of all, pre-millennial. We'll talk
about the millennium and define the idea tonight, but it's just good for you to know right now
that there are other schemes of future events. There would be another position called the
All-Millennial Scheme of World Events. There may still be a few people around who believe
in a post-millennial scheme of world events. They're pretty much overboard now because
world events have completely disproved their particular theory, which is that the world
will get better and better and better than Jesus will come, and the world just isn't
getting better and better and better. It was very popular until World War I, and then after
that it kind of went downhill fast. The position that we adhere to is pre-millennialism, and
you'll see what that means as we work through our chart tonight. It is important to understand
that prophetic revelation, like all other revelation, is progressive. And so there is
no single passage in the New Testament or Old Testament which delineates the scheme
of things that we're going to present to you. What we have to do is take the whole and study
it and then draw from that the outline or scheme of things as best we understand them
to be. So there is no single passage in the New Testament that says this and this and
this and this will happen in that order and so on. Prophetic revelation is progressive.
We take the study of the whole and then we pull back from that and look and see what
it says. You'll notice the first item on the scheme that we have is the church age.
I'd like you to turn with me to the book of Ephesians in the third chapter. Some of
you may have editions of the Bible that have notes at the top of the page, titles or summary
statements of what's on that page. That was especially popular years ago. And you may
have in there something like in the Song of Solomon, for example, God loves the church.
Or in the book of Isaiah, you might have the church in the wilderness. The facts are that
the church did not exist in the Old Testament. The Old Testament does not mention the church
at all. It was not revealed then. The church is what is called a mystery. Mystery. Now
what does that mean? Well, we'll find a definition for it right here in Ephesians 3.
Paul says, For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles,
if indeed you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you,
that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery. So Paul is saying, I have
received a revelation from God. And the content of it can be described in those two words,
the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. And then he says, and by referring to this when
you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations
was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles
and prophets in the Spirit. So there he defines what a mystery is in this New Testament sense.
It is some truth that has not been revealed in previous generations, but which has now
been revealed by God in this age. Now he says, to be specific, this mystery that he's talking
about, the mystery of Christ, is this, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members
of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. In the
Old Testament, God dealt with whom? With the Jews, with Israel. Those were His chosen people.
That nation was the focus of His dealings on the earth. In this age, God is no longer
dealing with Israel as a nation, but God is dealing with all men, women everywhere, whether
Jew or Gentile. Now, whether one is Jewish or one is Gentile by his ancestry, he can
be related to Jesus Christ through faith and made a partaker of the body. Now he calls
it the Church a little bit later on here in the text. He says in verse 8, To me, the very
least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches
of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery, which for ages
has been hidden in God, who created all things, in order that the manifold wisdom of God might
now be made known through the Church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
There he's talking about spiritual beings. He is saying that God is making manifest to
these spiritual beings His wisdom through the Church. So the term is used. It's used
elsewhere of course in Ephesians. So we're introduced here to this very term, the Church
Age in this age in which we live now, an age which began with Pentecost, which we'll let
the cross represent here, an age which began when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost
and dwelt believers, and which will conclude on the day of the rapture, which we'll talk
about in just a moment. All believers who have been saved during this age, there's some
2,000 years now, have been incorporated into the Church, the body of Jesus Christ. Now
I think you understand that when we use the term Church, often we're referring to a local
fellowship of people. But in this sense, the term Church is not used in a local manner,
but he's speaking about all of those who've been called out during this age to belong
to God. And one of the distinguishing marks of believers in this age is the presence of
the Holy Spirit in us. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit did not indwell all believers.
He came upon certain believers for periods of time to accomplish certain purposes, but
He did not automatically indwell all believers. And I personally am of the opinion that that
same thing may be true in the tribulation period once the Church has been taken out.
However, in this age, the Holy Spirit of God indwells every person who believes in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now He has to, for a reason. And that is that He indwells us so that He
might unite us to this spiritual body of people. The Holy Spirit is putting us together as
a body. He is building the Church, the body of Jesus Christ. It's still being built today
around the world. Most of the Church is in heaven. Some of us are still on the earth.
But until that day of the Rapture, the Church is going to be gathered together.
Now let's talk about the term Rapture for a moment. What does that mean? Now before
you turn to your concordance and find out how many times the word Rapture is used in
the Bible, let me forewarn you that it's not used at all. You say, then how can we believe
in a doctrine, the word of which is not even used in the Bible? Well, let me ask you this.
Do you believe in the Trinity? Look it up in the concordance. It's not there either.
You see, we have sometimes fashioned words to describe a truth which the Bible teaches.
The Bible may not use that precise word itself, but the teaching is there and we use this
word to describe that teaching. Thus we have the word Trinity, or really I think better
tri-unity of God. Now the word Rapture likewise is not found in the New Testament, but it's
a word that does describe something the New Testament certainly teaches. And the key passage
without doubt is 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I'll explain in a moment how we get the word
Rapture, but first let's read what the apostle Paul says beginning with verse 15.
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, this is 1 Thessalonians 4, 15, that
we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who have
fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then
we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air. Now the event that is described in these verses is what we call
the Rapture. You will notice that verb caught up in verse 17. The word Rapture comes from
the Latin verb that is used here. Obviously the New Testament was written in Greek, but
like many English words, this one comes from the Latin. It means exactly the same thing
as this word caught up in the Greek. It means to seize or to snatch. That's simply what
the Rapture is. It is the seizing or the snatching away of the church. Thus you see the arrow
comes down and then curves back up indicating that the Lord Jesus Christ will come into
the atmosphere of the world as described here, but he will not come to the earth. He will
not descend to the Mount of Olives. He will simply come into the atmosphere of the world
and will manifest himself to his people. Now how all of that will take place we are not
told, but we are told this, that with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet
of God he will give a shout and his people, whether dead or alive, that is those who have
been saved during this age and who are part of the church, will be caught up to meet him
in the air. From other texts we know that that will involve a complete change of our
bodies so that the bodies that we have now will be changed and made like his body of
glory. We will be with the Lord, it says here, from that point and forever. So that is the
Rapture of the church. Now this term, or this event rather, is also called the Day of Jesus
Christ or the Day of Christ Jesus or the Day of Christ. All of those terms are used in
the New Testament synonymously with this event, the Rapture.
Let's just look at an example or two and turn just back a few pages to Philippians chapter
1. Now you need to notice the wording of this because there is a very similar phrase we
are going to talk about in a moment. The similarity in the phrase is confused to some people.
Notice in verse 6 he says, Philippians 1, for I am confident of this very thing, that
he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the Day of Christ Jesus. So the Apostle
Paul is saying, I am confident that God is going to continue working in you until that
day of the Rapture, the Day of Christ Jesus. And then in verse 10 he says, so that you
may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until
the Day of Christ. So he is praying for them here that they might approve things excellent
in order that on the Day of the Rapture when they are caught up to be with the Lord they
may be found sincere and blameless.
And then again in chapter 2 verse 16 he says, holding fast the word of life so that in the
Day of Christ I may have cause to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. And
so the Apostle is looking forward to the Day of Christ, the Rapture, when he will appear
before the Lord and receive his reward and because of the work that he has done be rewarded.
And in that day be able to glory not in himself but in the people that he has led to Christ
and founded in the church in Philippi.
Now this term is not used but the event is mentioned once again in Philippians. It might
be good to look at that in chapter 3 verse 20. He says, our citizenship is in heaven
from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform
the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory. And so he's talking
about the instantaneous process that will take place, that change, that metamorphosis
that will occur at that moment when Jesus calls us out of this world to be with Himself.
That is the Rapture of the church. And at that point the church will be completed. There
will still be people saved in the tribulation period but at that point the church of Jesus
Christ will be completed. No more people will be made a part of this elect body, the church.
Only a certain number whom God has chosen according to the New Testament are going to
be a part of that body of Jesus Christ. And once that body is completed there will be
nothing to keep us any longer in the world. I believe the only thing that keeps the Lord
Jesus Christ from coming now and taking us out is the fact that there are still some
who must yet believe in the Lord Jesus Christ be saved added to the church. I believe the
moment the body is completed, when that last individual known only to God trusts the Lord
Jesus Christ, there will be immediate movement in heaven to remove the church from this earthly
scene.
Now following that will be an event that the Apostle Paul mentioned in chapter 2 or suggested
in chapter 2 but which he mentions in other places. You'll notice our chart says the
saints with Christ in heaven. The first thing that is going to occur there will be the judgment
seat of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 for a moment. We'll
just pick out one verse that deals with this subject. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse
10. The Apostle Paul is here dealing with our being pleasing to the Lord on that day
when we are present with him, at home with him. And he says in verse 10, for we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds
in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
And when he says we must all appear, he is not talking about all people of the world
of all ages. He is talking about we believers, we who are in the church in this age, we who
are in Christ. He is talking about the church. And he says that we must appear before our
Lord at this judgment. It is not a judgment to determine whether we enter heaven or have
to go to hell. Thank God that determination was made back at the cross when Jesus died
for us. He took our hell for us. We who belong to the Lord Jesus, we who are in Christ through
faith in him, never have to worry about hell. Jesus took our hell for us.
You say, then what is this judgment for? Well, this judgment is for rewards. It is a judgment
which will determine the faithfulness of our works for the Lord Jesus Christ during our
lifetime upon the earth. You say, well, I would think that God would give us our reward
the moment we get to heaven. Well, I would remind you that when we get to heaven there
are no more moments in the first place. To be in his presence is to be in eternity. Those
who have been with the Lord now, let's say 2,000 years, have not been there any longer
than those who went to be with the Lord this afternoon. That is hard for us to imagine
being in our space-time dimension where we are, but there is no time in heaven. The fact
is that the saints who are now with the Lord have not yet been judged for their works upon
the earth. Down here where there is progression of events and the impacts of our lives fall
out not only in our own generation but hopefully in generations to come, God is waiting for
all of those things to happen so that when we do finally get to be with the Lord that
the full measurement of our lives can be determined. The full worth or, sadly, the full worthlessness
of our lives may be determined. We will receive reward or suffer loss there according to how
we have lived for the Christ now. So that is the judgment seat of Christ. Only the believers
of this age, the church age, will be at the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You say, won't that take a long time? That is millions of people. Well, I remind you
again that there is no time in the presence of the Lord. So it is not going to take a
long time. No. You say, how is it going to happen? I don't know, but it is an individual
judgment. That will then lead us to the next event which takes place in heaven, and that
is the marriage supper of the Lamb. I'm not going to go into detail about that, but following
that time of our examination before the Lord we will enter into our marital relationship
with Him. We will become, in reality, the blessed and glorious bride of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, it looks like we just lost our bulb.
What did I tell you about this age? Sam, could I get your help? I see you over there. There
is an overhead in room 101. We should have prayed, shouldn't we? This is one of those
impossible situations. We should have prayed about it first. It must be a little warm here
because of this rather confined area. I better talk quicker or else I'll blow my warm breath
out that way. Maybe that would help too. All right, so that is the judgment seat of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, on the earth there will be some other things taking place. Following
the rapture of the church will come on the earth what is called the tribulation. In the
world right now we have tribulation or affliction, but this will be a period of time that is
referred to as the tribulation. You'll notice it lasts seven years. That is mentioned not
only in the book of the Revelation, but it's mentioned as well in Daniel. That period of
time is divided into two sections each three and a half years or 42 months or 1,260 days.
Technically the last half of it is called the great tribulation because the suffering
upon the earth will be greatly intensified during the last part of the tribulation period.
This begins what is called the day of the Lord. That is the similar phrase to the day
of Christ that I mentioned earlier. But you need to distinguish the day of the Lord from
the day of Jesus Christ. The day of the Lord is a deeply meaningful prophetic term that
is used way back in the Old Testament. It embraces both a time of judgment when God
will deal with the wickedness of the earth along with a time of blessing when God will
pour out his blessing upon the earth. We'll come back to this in a moment.
The day of the Lord is a very broad term. It includes both judgment and blessing. The
judgment portion of that is called the tribulation. Thanks Sam. If we get too much of this, we'll
switch our overheads. During this time of the tribulation, there will be upon the earth
one particular leader who will come to the front. At least this seems to be true in the
western world. He is called in the Bible the Antichrist or the lawless one.
Would you take your Bible and turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 where we have one of the key passages
regarding this figure. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Beginning in verse 3, the apostle says,
let no one in any way deceive you for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first.
Now what will not come? He's talking about the day of the Lord. He says it will not come
unless the apostasy comes first. That is the falling away from the truth. And the man of
lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every
so-called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying
himself as being God. And so there is this one whom we may call the puppet of Satan who
is also called the beast in the first half of Revelation chapter 13 who arises to become
the political and eventually the religious leader of the western world. This Antichrist
will be very vicious against all who believe in the Lord. His particular wrath will be
expressed toward the Jews, the nation of Israel. During the tribulation period, Israel will
go through the most difficult time of persecution that it has ever known until this point. Even
worse, I am sorry to say, than the time of Hitler's reign in Europe in World War II.
The Jewish nation will be persecuted, but on the other hand, God will divinely watch
over his people. Antichrist will in the first three and a half year period seem to be a
figure of peace on the surface. And many will allow him to become their ruler because he
seems to have all the answers for world peace. That is the person that our world today is
hungering for. Somebody who can bring the fractured world together, who can put down
the terrorism, who can put down the war, and who can bring about a peace for mankind. Well,
that person will come. That person will be Satan's man, the lawless one, the Antichrist.
Then during the last three and a half years, his true colors will be revealed. He will
no longer even appear to be a man of peace, but a wicked man of war. He will oppress the
Christians, and as I say, especially the Jewish people.
If you want to read more about him and more about the Tribulation period, you can do that
by reading chapters 6 through 19 of the book of the Revelation. You will find that the
word tribulation is used in that text. It's used also in Matthew 24, so this is a Bible
word. The tribulation is the period of judgment that will conclude the age in which we now
live. As you look back through the history of the world, you can delineate ages, certain
administrations of God in the world. It is interesting that every one of those ended
with the judgment of God of some sort. This age will be no different. The judgment of
God will fall upon the world, and it will be catastrophic. It will be something like
the day of the flood when the world as it is will cease to be because of the judgment
that will come. During this period of tribulation, over half of the world will die because of
the plagues that God will pour out upon the world. Over half of the population of the
earth will be killed through those plagues. Antichrist will bring great pressure upon
the Jews, and it would seem that right toward the end of the seven-year period, he will
surround the city of Jerusalem and seek to absolutely annihilate the Jews. And it will
be at that very moment when the sign of the Son of Man will be seen in heaven. And the
heavens will be rolled back like a scroll. The Lord Jesus Christ and His army will burst
through the sky and enter into this world. And at that point, the Lord Jesus Christ will
come back to the earth. And thus you see the arrow that comes all the way down to this
line indicating that He is coming back with His saints to the world to destroy the powers
of the Antichrist and to bring to an end this time of terrible tribulation. That will occur
with the Battle of Armageddon.
Let's go on to the book of Revelation for a moment. We've mentioned the return of the
Lord Jesus Christ in chapter 1 of Revelation. Jesus is seen by the Apostle John, but in
His introduction to that vision, these are His words in verse 7.
Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced
Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him, even so, amen.
He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him. That is not describing the rapture.
It is rather describing His second advent or His return to the earth. You will recall
when He ascended back up into heaven from the Mount of Olives, two angels stood by the
crowd there, and they said, This same Jesus, which you have seen taken up from you into
heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go away.
What were they talking about? Not the rapture, because that had not been revealed yet. That
is another aspect of the mystery which the Apostle Paul revealed. It is called a mystery,
by the way, in 1 Corinthians 15.
No, they were talking about His return to the earth, when He will come back to the Mount
of Olives from where He left, and He will establish His reign. But in coming to the
Mount there will be this great battle of Armageddon that I had mentioned. Turn on into Revelation
to chapter 19.
I am not going to take the time to read all of these verses, but beginning in verse 11
we have Christ coming out of the open heaven. He is coming upon a white horse as faithful
and true as King of kings and Lord of lords. He is coming with His army. You notice there
is a sharp sword that comes out of His mouth. He is not coming to save. He is coming to
judge the world, the ungodly, the people of the earth.
It says in verse 17, And I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice,
saying to all the birds which fly in mid-heaven, Come, assemble for the great supper of God.
In order that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of commanders, and the flesh
of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and those who sit on them, and the flesh of all
men, both free men and slaves, small and great.
So here is called an event, the great supper of God. It is not a supper for men. It is a
supper for the birds of the air, to come and to consume the carcasses of those who will
fall in the battle that will take place when Jesus returns to the earth.
There is an earlier word in Revelation regarding this battle in chapter 16. The preparations
are being made for this battle. The armies of the earth are coming together at a particular
point in Palestine. And it says in verse 14 that there are demons actually involved in
gathering the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great
day of God the Almighty. And then in verse 16, and they gathered them together to the
place which in Hebrew is called Armageddon, Armageddon.
Literally that means the Mount of Megiddo. If you go to Israel today on a tour, they
will take you to the Mount of Megiddo. It is not a very imposing mount and yet it is
commanding in the sense that it's right at a critical point in a large valley, the valley
of Ezraelin. It is a valley that is very far across. When the Jews took over Palestine
through the agreement in the early part of this century, it was a large mosquito swamp.
That was about it. Today it is a fertile plain. The Jews have drained it. They have taken
the rocks out of it. And it is the breadbasket of Israel, that large plain of Ezraelin. On
that plain there have been some of the greatest battles of world history fought. Napoleon
stood on the Mount of Megiddo. Over 150 years ago he looked out and he said, what a great
place for the armies of the world to fight. Well I believe that he had some knowledge
of what he was saying. He was not ignorant of the Bible. In fact he was right because
it is in that large valley where these armies will converge. They will come together to
come against Jerusalem. And then it will be at that moment that the Lord Jesus will come
on his white horse to destroy those armies. And the great supper of God will be called
and the birds will clean up the mess. In the Old Testament it suggests that the blood will
run from the valley. So great will be the carnage there as these human armies seek to
battle against an angelic army. That will be the second advent, the return of the Lord
Jesus Christ with his saints, the battle of Armageddon. All of that takes place at this
point after the seven years of tribulation. So just to review, we are now living in the
church age. The next event on God's calendar is the rapture of the church. There are no
signs that need to be fulfilled as far as scripture is concerned before this takes place.
This is an imminent event. I-M-M-I-N-E-N-T. What that means is that it can happen at any
moment. Nothing has to happen first. We are eagerly looking for the return, or I should
say technically the rapture of the church, his return for his people. We then will be
in heaven and will come back with him to the earth at this point along with his angelic
army. On the earth the tribulation will be poured out, a time of terrible suffering,
but a time as I suggested earlier in which many people will be saved. During this time
144,000 Jews will be sealed, throughout the earth preaching the gospel and multitudes,
millions of people who haven't had the opportunity to hear in this age will hear the truth in
this age. Do you realize today that at least a quarter of the earth's population, over
a billion people, at least that many, have never had the opportunity to hear the gospel
of Jesus Christ? I believe it is they especially who will be the objects of evangelization
by God's evangelists during the tribulation period. I do believe that in 2 Thessalonians
2 that those who have heard in this age and who have rejected the truth, I mean knowing
the truth and who have rejected it, that they will not be able to believe in the tribulation
period but will be turned to the lie. I don't have time to go into that. The return of the
Lord Jesus Christ to the earth will bring about the millennium. Now you see this word
pre-millennial. This is where the word comes from. We believe in the personal, visible
return of the Lord Jesus Christ before the millennium so that He then can reign upon
the earth for a thousand years. You say where in the world is that taught in the Bible?
Well, we're right here at Revelation. Look in chapter 20. Let's begin with verse 1.
1. And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain
in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan.
So there's no mistaking who this individual is. And bound him for a thousand years. Notice
that. Is Satan bound today? Well, those who take the all-millennial position say yes,
Satan is bound today. I have a very hard time with that, but that's what they claim. We
believe that the Bible teaches this is a future event. That Satan is free today as the prince
of the power of the air to work his evil in the world within boundaries that God has said.
But that there's a future day coming when he will be bound. This angel also says, threw
him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him so that he should not deceive
the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed. After these things,
he must be released for a short time. And so Satan is going to be bound at this point.
He will be put into the bottomless pit, unable to work his evil upon the earth any longer.
And then in verse four it says, and I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment
was given to them. 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 worshiped the
beast or his image and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand.
All this refers to material covered in the revelation. And they came to life and reigned
with Christ for a thousand years. At this point, all of those who have died in Christ
in the church age will be resurrected. At this point, all other righteous people, those
who've died believing, whether in the Old Testament back here or those who've died
in this period of time will be resurrected so that they will be able to enjoy the reign
of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the earth. That is the resurrection that is mentioned here.
But he says in verse five, the rest of the dead, that is the wicked dead, the ungodly
dead did not come to life until a thousand years were completed. And we'll see why in
a moment. He says, 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
will reign with him for a thousand years. And when the thousand years are completed,
Satan will be released from his prison. Now let me just talk briefly about this time of
the millennium. Obviously the word means a thousand years. We understand this to be a
literal thousand years, not symbolic, not to be spiritualized or allegorized away. We
take it to be literal. During that thousand year reign of Christ, there will be peace
upon the earth. That will be true because righteousness will dominate, not ungodliness.
The earth will experience a time of prosperity like it has not known since the fall of man.
And so these are great days that are coming, days prophesied in both the Old and New Testaments.
You know in Isaiah 9 it says, his name shall be called wonderful. And it goes on to say,
and the government will be upon his shoulders. It goes on to say there too that he will reign
as David's son, as his seed. This is the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, the millennium
upon the earth. And then it says Satan will be released from his prison and will come
out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth. Gog and Magog,
together them together for the war. That is the battle that is mentioned here in our chart.
The number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain
of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. What do you suppose
that is? We understand it to be Jerusalem, right? And fire came down from heaven and
devoured them. You say what is taking place here? Well remember that there are some people
who are resurrected to enter the millennium, but there are some believers, now listen closely,
some believers who will live through this time of tribulation, having been saved here
at some point. They will live on through the tribulation and will enter into the millennium
in their natural bodies. Not resurrection bodies, but natural bodies. And they will
have families. In other words, in this thousand year period, because of the peace, because
of the prosperity, the population of the world will mushroom. So that the population of the
world will probably become far greater than it is today at four plus billion people. Go
like that. These people who will be born during that time will have the opportunity themselves
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who is reigning visibly on the earth or to reject
Him. They will not be able to reject Him openly, but in their hearts they can. They can pretend
to follow Him. Why you say is Satan loosed to come out again after this thousand years?
It is so that he can gather together all of the false people upon the earth, those who
have not believed truly on the Lord Jesus Christ, but who have only pretended to follow
Him. And it says here that there will be a great number of people like that, like the
sand of the seashore. He will gather them in one great final rebellion against God,
and they will be supernaturally destroyed. Fire will come down from heaven and devour
them, and that final rebellion will be put out. Now I need to make an adjustment here.
We will go on just to finish chapter 20. And the devil, it says, who deceived them was
thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone. That's what's called on our chart eternal
hell. The devil is actually the third inhabitant because it goes on to say that the beast,
that's the Antichrist, and the false prophet are there also. They were put there before
the thousand years when Jesus came back. Those two individuals are the first two to inhabit
the lake of fire, the eternal hell. It would seem that they are there alone for the thousand
year period. Then Satan is cast into the lake of fire after this final rebellion, and it
says they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. And then it says, and I
saw a great white throne judgment, and that is what is mentioned here. I saw a great white
throne rather, and him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away,
and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead. Now these are the ungodly dead who
were not resurrected earlier obviously. He says, I saw the dead, the great and the small,
standing before the throne, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which
is the book of life, and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the
books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death
and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and they were judged every one of them according
to their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second
death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life,
he was thrown into the lake of fire. The great white throne judgment is a judgment
where no believer will be. Only the ungodly, only the lost, will be brought before the
Lord to be judged at this point. Do you say, why are they judged here, not earlier? Well,
for the same reason that we're waiting until the rapture for our judgment. God is allowing
all of the ungodliness and all of the evil influence to accumulate from every man's
life so that he will have a full measurement of all the wickedness of every person. And
then according to what he sees the works of that life to be, that person will receive
his level of punishment in the eternal hell in the lake of fire.
A very awful and awesome thought. May I interject at this point that in the most recent edition
of Moody Monthly Magazine, there is the most graphic description of hell I have ever read.
Not a long article, a brief article by John Thomas, a writer from Florida. But he writes
compassionately but forthrightly regarding hell and what it really is. He covered some
things that I have never heard or thought about before. I would encourage you to get
a hold of that magazine and to read that article. We cannot talk about this awful place lightly
and casually. It is a place of eternal torment where the wicked and the evil angels and Satan
will be forever and forever. And then following the great white throne judgment, as it says
here, will come the new heavens and the new earth. That is described in Revelation 21
and 22. And so we have covered a lot of ground here
tonight in this prophetic overview. I hope that it helps some of you who are newer to
be able to place some of the terms you are going to hear in the Bible conference in a
couple of weeks. The church age, the rapture, the tribulation, the millennium, the second
coming of Christ, the battle of Armageddon, the new heaven and new earth, the great white
throne judgment. You say, what good is it for us to study
prophecy? Well, I think there are several advantages. In the first place, it is a great
stimulus to us to serve the Lord Jesus Christ with expectation. It gives us a blessed hope
to anticipate His return. And standing before Him at last, trial and trouble all past, all
of that makes everything that we may endure for Him now worthwhile. It will be worth it
all when we see Jesus. That is one thing. Secondly, I think it is a great motivation
for soul winning. When we begin to understand the awful future of those without Christ,
surely it must do something to our hearts to provoke us to be faithful witnesses for
our Lord to seek to win them to Christ. And third, the study of prophecy is a great
purifier of our lives. He that has this hope in Him purifies Himself, says John, even as
He the Lord is pure. It causes us to desire to live holy and godly lives in light of what
is coming upon this world in which we live. So as we enter into this time of study in
a couple of weeks, I hope you will find great profit in it. That you will be here for every
service and that you will absorb the truth as it will be proclaimed by these gifted and
dedicated men of God who are coming. I would like for us to close now by singing a hymn.
It's one of the more contemporary popular numbers based upon the truth of Christ's coming,
number 250. John Peterson wrote it, Jesus is coming again.