Bible In A Year - Revelation (part 4)

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Jet Tour Of Hebrews (part 5)

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Okay, this morning brings us to our final until next time section on the book of Revelation It also marks the time that we finally did get through the
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Bible in a year or two or three or four However long this is taken So that we can start over At any rate turn with me if you will to Revelation chapter 17
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What we have in Revelation chapter 17 and 18 are sort of a parenthesis that goes in These two chapters do not follow chronologically with the rest of the book
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So that we have just gone through all of the judgments We got to the end of the trumpet judgments and the bowl judgments and that's at the end of chapter 16 and then
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Chronologically the events of chapter 19 begin immediately after the events of chapter 17 or 16
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Excuse me. There's no gap in here judgment is being poured out upon the earth and The return of Jesus Christ in triumph and glory is about to happen and Judgment is coming but chapters 17 and 18 are
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Inserted to tell us what is being judged Now we have skipped over a lot of things we could spend years months years
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Studying the book of Revelation and still only scratched the surface But we've touched on a number of things and what has happened
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During this period of time that we call the tribulation and then the great tribulation
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Which is the last three and a half years of that There has been a worldwide government There has been a worldwide economic system.
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There has been a worldwide religious system set up and as Time goes by and all of these things begin to collapse the whole system is imploding in on itself and Everything begins to collapse and that is what is
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That is what is laid out in chapters 17 and 18 and the first thing that it talks about is how
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Babylon the great and she's identified as Babylon the great the mother of harlots and the of the abominations of the earth
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This is world religion. This is the world religious system led by the false prophet and as All of this happens on earth.
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It's characteristic of mankind that when bad times come we turn to Religion, we don't necessarily turn to God, but we turn to religion
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That it's truly said, you know, there are no atheists and foxholes and that tends to be true You know when someone's shooting at you
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It tends to focus your attention and that's what's happened on a worldwide scale There has been in the past the previous seven years from the time that we're talking about right now
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There's been unprecedented disaster Natural disaster disaster caused by human beings upon each other there have been wars which make all previous wars pale by insignificance
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There have been earthquakes that redefined the term earthquake All kinds of things have happened.
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There's been mass kill offs of all sorts of livestock and animals and and Flora and fauna not to mention human beings the population of the earth is radically reduced from what it was and As a result of all of this people are driven to certain things and they've been driven to this one world government
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Anybody who can come along and say, you know, I feel your pain and I can I can get you out of this
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You know, he gets followed and then also a worldwide religious system and in the
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Bible The worldwide religious system is likened to Babylon and Because Babylon has been a center of false religion throughout history the where did it all start besides the
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Garden of Eden we have the flood right and then only about a thousand years after the flood
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When God said, you know go forth be fruitful and multiply populate the earth Everyone's gathered together at the at Babel To build the
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Tower of Babel where we're going to build this tower and we're going to reach up to heaven you know, we are going to make ourselves like God and it all starts there and It's way outside The the realm of what we can talk about but you you hear things about that the
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Chaldean mysteries Have you ever heard that term the Chaldean mysteries or an individual interesting individual named
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Nimrod? And an interesting individual named Ishtar Now you may wonder where the mother -baby cult got started it got started at Babel with Ishtar and Ishtar had a son named
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Tammuz and one of the idolatrous practices that the Israelites followed for which they were roundly judged was
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Ishtar and Tammuz worship you can read about that in the Old Testament So defiance of God and and Moses of the sort of Are not
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Moses, but when it says let us let us go down and see what what they're doing
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James Boyce James Montgomery Boyce commented that this is sort of a little bit of divine
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Poking fun that God had to lean way way over and maybe get out the the divine magnifying glass to see this little tiny tower
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That the that the that his creatures were building down there on earth, but they were going to try to reach up to heaven
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It was the first great humanistic effort. You know, let us make us a name. He said and And Nimrod who was the leader of all of this was
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Noah's great -grandson we have very short memories and And pagan worship had started and so The Bible also calls her the harlot which is a metaphor for false religion is used throughout all of the
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Bible Cities are referred to as being harlot cities Nineveh was called that Tyre was called that a
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Babylon herself The real physical Babylon was called that and Jerusalem was called that unfortunately, and so This worldwide religion has has attained great authority.
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It's dominating all peoples All multitudes all nations all tongues and yet there will be total destruction
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Total destruction of the world religious system because Antichrist will turn against the world religious system he wants people to worship him not any other
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God and So Babylon is destroyed and that is recorded in chapter 17
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And in this case Babylon When it says Babylon the mother of harlot said that's referring to this religious system now
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We get to chapter 18 where Babylon was referred to again and very probably in chapter 18
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Babylon refers to a real place not necessarily where the ruins of the ancient
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Babylon happened to exist and In Iraq, but at least it's it's a physical place and it's it's the center of the world's economic system
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Right now New York City is is one of the great centers of the world's economic system It's the center of the
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United States economic system. Certainly And you could make an argument that it's the center of the world economic system as well well during the tribulation period on a scale unprecedented before there's going to be a
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Worldwide economic system and if you want to buy and sell if you want to trade if you want to engage in business you will have to be a
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Part of this and you will have to have the mark, you know If you don't have the mark you can't trade you can't buy you can't sell
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You have no way of getting anything that you need unless you're a part of this system.
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And so This the Babylon spoken of in chapter 18 becomes the capital of the
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Antichrist And it's the hub of his economic and commercial empire now it's going to be destroyed as well and the whole system that it supports is going to be destroyed and It's not like this is a big surprise.
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They've had plenty of warning first of all, there are the hundred and forty four thousand Jewish evangelists that have been going around preaching, you know repent and The two witnesses that we talked about two weeks ago they've been preaching repent and There have been there's been an angel flying, you know proclaiming woe from the skies
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So plenty of warning and yet they refused to repent the the more disastrous things become the more individuals dig their heels in By the time by this time in the chronology of things people are well aware that it's an almighty
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God who's up there sending all this judgment upon them You know, they have long since Become disabused of the idea that maybe this is just really really bad times or you know
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Isn't it terrible that we're having all these natural disasters following one on top of another now they they fully understand
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That there is a God he's really there and he is judging them But their reaction is to shake their fist in his face
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Even while they are looking for The caves to hide in and calling for the rocks to fall on them and hide them from this wrathful
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God Nonetheless, they refuse to repent and beg him for mercy And that's what's happening.
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That's what's going on. And so The chapter outlines some reasons for judgment first of all this capital city is the dwelling place of demons because you remember bound demons have been released upon the earth and they were released near This place wherever it is and This city has influenced all nations.
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The entire world has followed her example and She has no self -control at all.
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It's a place of total immorality and Sins have been heaped up but God remembers
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God doesn't forget God keeps accurate books and He is going to extract retribution because he is he is qualified to do that We are told as individuals as Christians.
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We do not take our own retribution. That is to be left to God because God has all the facts
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God is capable of doing this and It's going to happen. It's about to happen and So there's going to be total judgment.
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It says Babylon receives double for all of her sins there's
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Torment and mourning there are all kinds of specific plagues and it says everything is burned with fire and There's been a lot of speculation about what does that refer to?
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It's been suggested that perhaps this refers to thermonuclear activity If you've seen pictures of the aftermath of what happens when you drop an atomic bomb, that's exactly what it looks like But again,
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I'll point out a lot of these things that you read about particularly when you're reading about all of the judgments that are poured out, you know, the the the bold judgments and the seal judgments and the trumpet judgments
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It is certainly possible that God could use natural phenomenon to bring about a lot of those things
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But it is also equally likely That what's being described is direct divine intervention miraculous intervention and so What I'm saying here is when you study revelation don't spend a whole lot of time speculating on how is this thing going to be?
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brought about the point is that God is judging and he's judging in very severe ways that have never been duplicated before and We can very safely leave how he actually does this in his hands and so here we have all of these things absolutely certain destruction the whole system is collapsing in on itself and the result is
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Worldwide repentance No It's worldwide mourning why because all of this is bad for business
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All of this is bad for business You You remember the the reaction of the of the citizens with when
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Jesus visited the demoniac you know instead of saying isn't this a marvelous miracle that This man
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Jesus Christ has put this man in his right mind, you know for the first time in our memory
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He's sitting here. He's clothed. He's had a shave. He's had a bath, you know, he's in his right mind
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Isn't this marvelous instead of concentrating on that? It's oh, no, this is bad for business we've just lost 2 ,000 pigs or however many it was and And it's the same type of reaction here, there's no mourning there's no repentance repenting for sin
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Among the world leaders of the world and the kings of the world. No, it's bad for business and that's the reaction they focus on and so all of these people who are who are specified as having as mourning about all of this it starts off with the
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Kings and the leaders of the world and then the merchants and Then interestingly enough it specifies the shipmasters and the sailors because there's no business for them anymore
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There's nothing to transport So the guys that are in the transport business are out of a job but in heaven
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There's great rejoicing There's great rejoicing because this judgment is complete 100 % justified because Babylon Babylon has deceived all nations and it's now totally 100 % destroyed.
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Okay, that brings us up to chapter 19 So take a look at chapter 19 and it starts off after these things
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I heard a great voice of many people in heaven saying Hallelujah Salvation and glory and honor and power unto the
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Lord our God for true and righteous are his judgments He's judged the great harlot who did corrupt the hurt the earth with her fornication and have avenged the blood of his servants at her hands and they said hallelujah and her smoke rose up forever and ever and the four and twenty elders and The four living creatures fell down and worshiped
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God that sat on the throne saying amen hallelujah and Came out of the throne saying praise our
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God all ye his servants and all ye that fear him both small and great and I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and like the voice of many waters and like the voice of many peals of thunder saying
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Hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth This by the way is the passage that inspired one of the passages anyway that inspired handle to write the hallelujah chorus
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But there's this great rejoicing that goes up in heaven Because first of all full salvation has come
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It's about to wrap up Jesus is right on the verge now of actually appearing on earth and Justice has come what he's done is true and righteous
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Because what's been going on throughout all of human history. God is saying leave it alone. I will take care of it in time
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And now it's all coming. It's all coming to a close. It's all coming together
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The rebellion is is ended and God is in control. God really is in control.
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I Mean people go around singing God is in control I wonder if they what would happen if they really if they really understood what that phrase meant
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If you really believe that God is in control, it will have a profound effect upon your life
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And the marriage of the Lamb is complete The church by the way is the bride of Christ's and the marriage of the
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Lamb the marriage supper has taken place and So we're about to go we at first starting with verse 11.
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We go into the through the glorious return of Jesus Christ Now Historically The Bible is most of you are aware by now that the
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Bible is in Complete opposition to the world's view of things You can just you can just write it down.
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Whatever the world thinks about the way things are going The Bible will say it's going the other way but throughout history
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We have always taken the view that man started out down here and it's been slowly clawing his way up to here right
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Things are slowly getting better That's the exact opposite of the Bible's view. The Bible's view is that man started up here
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He was created Innocent no sin sin didn't exist in the universe and it's been downhill ever since since the fall and The the view that things are getting ever better We're moving towards man -made utopia you know after the
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Revolution comrade things will be better things will be different and And but it doesn't work our own experience tells us that things are not getting better They're getting worse and that's the biblical view the biblical view is that things will eventually become wonderfully better, but only after they become unimaginably worse and This of course is one of the big criticisms that we get of the whole pre millennial view is that it's very pessimistic and it is
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The pre mill pre -trib position is quite pessimistic Because we basically we hold the position that things are going to get much much worse before they get better that until Jesus Christ comes man will be on a continuing downhill slide and the slide is getting steeper as We're as we're charging downhill.
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And so we are not to be surprised that man wax worse and worse
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We are not supposed to become complacent now We are to resist evil whenever it is in our power to do that but nonetheless
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Overall, we should not be surprised when the situation gets continuously worse because the
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Bible promises us That's exactly what's going to happen until Jesus Christ comes But then we still have what's laid out for us in Revelation That assures us that at the very end it will all be set, right?
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It's going to all be set right and that's what's in view here That the the solution to the world's problems is the return of the king he's going to set up an absolute monarchy and there will be total justice upon the earth and so Our it's our job and God's people throughout all of history have anticipated the return of Jesus Christ to reign
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We don't always get the timing, right But we always anticipate that and one of the hallmarks of The New Testament age in particular is supposed to be the imminent return of Jesus Christ We are to anticipate his return at any moment and That's why they say they're very careful to set out that the return of Jesus Christ for his
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Saints is not preceded by any kinds of signs Otherwise, we would be waiting around for the signs, wouldn't we?
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And because that's just the way we are, you know But since you know
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The the return of Jesus Christ to rapture the church and take us out There's not going to be any
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Preceding signs of that. It's just the trumpets gonna blow and we're gone like that and so we're to look for his imminent return and There's there's all kinds of reasons for this
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First of all, they're the promises of God in Scripture all through Scripture God himself has promised that I'm going to set everything, right?
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Jesus also made promises Said I'm going to come back
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You know, I'm going to leave but I'm going to come back. He promised us there's also the guarantee of the
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Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ will return and The inspired writers wrote repeatedly the
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Holy Spirit had the inspired writers write repeatedly that Jesus Christ is coming back
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Don't worry. Don't be concerned You know, don't Don't wring your hands.
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Jesus Christ is going to come back and Set everything right and if he doesn't return all of these promises turn out to be false
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And if those promises are false, then the whole thing is false isn't it and God's plan for his church requires that he return and God's plan for the nation's require
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Jesus to return There's supposed to be judgment for the Gentiles They're supposed to be salvation for national
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Israel All of those things require the return of the King and so the return of the
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King is laid out for us Starting in verse 11 of chapter 19 said and I saw heaven opened and Behold a white horse and he that set upon him was called faithful and true and in righteousness
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He doth judge and make war His eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself and He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called the
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Word of God and His armies that were in heaven followed him upon white horses clothed in fine linen white and clean 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 the winepress and the fierceness of and wrath of Almighty God And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written
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King of Kings and Lord of Lords and This is John's vision of the returning
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Christ Now notice first of all, he's on a white horse and that is throughout history that's been the symbol of conquerors
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The the it's you know, too I don't want to cheapen this but you know Any kid that used to watch
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Westerns knows the good guys are always on the white horse, right and Wearing the white hat. Well, here comes
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Jesus Christ, and he's what he's right. Is it this a literal horse? I don't know But he's conquering he is at the head of his army again, the symbol the symbolism is is the armies as John knew them which would have been the
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Roman legions and in those days the general led from the front Not from some headquarters, you know ten miles behind the lines the generals basically got out in front drew the sword set forward and there they went and That's what
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John is is visualizing here Jesus Christ is leading his heavenly army and he's in front and He's got this name.
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His name is faithful and true And that's in cold total contrast to to Antichrist Antichrist is all about lies and deception and So are the the false prophet and and and Satan himself
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Jesus Christ is true and He's faithful He says what he means and he means what he says and he carries out exactly what he promised he would carry out and That is true whether you're a believer or non -believer if you're a believer
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Jesus Christ will do for you exactly what he said he would You'll be with him and you will reign with him as we're going to see if you're an unbeliever
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You get judgment because that's what he promised you. Excuse me
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Faithful and true he's faithful to his word. He's faithful to his character and he wages war
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He wages war this is not the suffering servant This is not the one who came to seek and to save the lost
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This is not the one who came to To call sinners to repentance all of those things were characteristics of him at his first Advent this time
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He's waging war. He's the warrior king and He is the executioner of unbelievers
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Because his enemies are the hardened sinners they refuse to repent in spite of all of this that's happened and It's not that there haven't been people going around proclaiming repent and believe there have been and so here comes the warrior king
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He comes in righteousness His motives are 100 % pure 100 % right all previous conquerors throughout human history
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Have had hidden agendas they wanted power for themselves whether it's
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Alexander the Great or Caesar or Napoleon or whoever you can name more modern times
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Adolf Hitler Joseph Stalin Paul pot You know men evil men
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Conquering the world for evil purposes Jesus Christ comes in righteousness His motives are 100 % pure 100 % right
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He's got blazing eyes nothing escapes his notice no place to hide
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No place to keep a low profile You know in times of change that's the
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Bureau one of the bureaucrats mottos and times of change keep a low profile Can't do that here Because Jesus Christ sees everything and he's got many crowns on his head
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It says now this is an interesting reference to what was done when and those in this time when some king
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Conquered another one What you would do is you would take the crown of the king you had conquered and you'd put it on your own head
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Symbolizing that you know, I'm now in charge and Jesus Christ has all the crowns
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From all the kingdoms of the world He's conquered everybody He is the one undisputed ruler of the earth
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Consider consider what it must be. It's going to be like Because there's going to be individuals on earth who are believers and It's very very hard for them during this period of time
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You know, they're cut off from the world's economic system because they haven't taken the mark They're almost starving
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They have no resources. No medical resources they're in hiding if they stay alive at all and just imagine what this is like you wake up some morning and You wonder am
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I going to get through today? That's the question you've had in your mind every day that you've woken up for the last seven years
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Am I going to make it through this day? And all of a sudden it gets light and it gets light in a way that it's never gotten light before this is not the
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Sun coming up and you look up and There he is
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There he comes and his army is spread out behind him And you realize that you know, you feel like jumping up in the end zone and going.
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Yes, you know at the end Because here he is Here he is
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And notice what else about him he's got a he's wearing a robe dipped in blood and This is not the blood of his sacrifice.
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This is not the blood of salvation. This is the blood of his enemies This is the blood of his enemies that spattered his robe the blood from previous battles and he's come for the last battle and His name is the
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Word of God now compare that with John 1 1 in the beginning was the Word and Notice also
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This is how he slays It says and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that it should smite the nations.
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He slays with his word And notice also this entire army.
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He's the only one that's got a weapon. Nobody else has a weapon
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Now we're all there This heavenly army consists of Saints throughout all of history
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You know, it's it's the Old Testament Saints. It's the Church Age Saints It's the martyrs of the
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Tribulation Period. We're all there. We're all there and we're just the cheering section
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That's all we're there for is to cheer him on Because he slays with the word of his mouth and apparently this this is instantaneous
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You know, it's it's it's an exaggeration to call this a battle. This is not a battle. It's an execution because apparently he speaks a word and His enemies are done for right there.
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And so he strikes down the nations and no one escapes The armies were gathered together at Armageddon and they're all dead
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Revelation uses the the names Gog and Magog To describe this arm to name this army and this is roughly a 200 million man army and suddenly they're all dead
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You know, we have gone from a period of time. You remember right after the Rapture There was not a single believer on earth
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For that brief period right after the Rapture and now we've gone to a we've gone completely full circle
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There's not a single unbeliever on earth The only people that are left alive on earth are believers
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Because it's the victory is absolute and total it's the day of the Lord it's this brief but very catastrophic and Millions are dead
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Along this battlefield area this the valley of Megiddo the plain of Megiddo is about 200 miles long and There's dead people all over there
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It's going to take seven months to bury what remains, you know The call goes out to all the birds that are still alive on earth come feast
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You know on the great feast of God and what's left after all of that takes place is going to take seven months to bury and so What happens the
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Antichrist and the false prophet are apparently taken alive? Because it doesn't speak of their deaths, but they are thrown into the lake of fire.
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This is the first mention of the lake of fire in the Bible the place that is prepared for Satan and his demons, but the
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Antichrist and the false prophet are consigned there and Everyone else that was gathered for the final battle is killed instantly and so the battle is over and The nations are judged and Jesus Christ Establishes a literal earthly kingdom and now
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I'll say again. This is pre millennial pre millennial eschatology That's what we hold to here but What's what are the characteristics of this and we have to we need to move ahead here?
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First of all, he's going to establish a kingdom that's going to last for 1 ,000 literal years the term 1 ,000 years appears
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I Believe it's ten times. I Didn't count them all exactly but in chapter 20
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It talks about reigning a thousand years bound a thousand years Till the thousand years should be fulfilled
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But this kingdom is going to be set up and one of the purposes for this kingdom is
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The final fulfillment of all of the promises that God has made to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and renewed to David and it allows the fulfillment of Prophecies like the prophecies that were given when
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Jesus Christ was born He shall be great shall be called the son of the highest and the
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Lord God will given to him the throne of his father David and in case you missed it that hasn't happened in human history yet And I know people tend to spiritualize this they say well, that's a spiritual throne, but David didn't rule over a spiritual kingdom he ruled over flesh and blood and The angel
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Gabriel told Mary that her son would sit on David's throne well, that's going to happen it happens here and So what else goes on Satan and all of his demons are bound
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They are not permitted access to the earth. They are confined they're tossed into the they're tossed into jail if you will and The kingdom is populated by believers who have survived the tribulation
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Now there's a hundred and forty four thousand Jewish evangelists that were sealed and they were guaranteed They were going to make it through the tribulation.
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And so they're those guys Then there are also other Jews that have believed during this period of time men and women both
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Children there are Gentile believers who have not been martyred who will make it through this period of time
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And so this group of people are going to populate this new kingdom Now we will also be present from time to time
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We being Church Age Saints Old Testament Saints Tribulation martyrs, but the difference is that we have glorified bodies now
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The people that have that are populating the kingdom on earth Have the same bodies just like you and I have and they're going to do the same things that we do
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They're going to get married. They're going to have children There's going to be a population explosion like nothing you've ever seen because all of a sudden nobody's dying
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You know Everything is good. We they're living a long time Talks about you know, somebody's going to die at the age of three or four hundred years old and they say oh this poor young guy died question
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Excellent question. The question was for the recording. What about the children of the people that populate the kingdom?
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Is the gospel preached to them? The short answer is yes, it is. It's the job of their parents to preach to them and I'll address that a little bit further down the road because There's a rebellion at the end of all of this and That's where some of the rebels are going to come.
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We'll see that in just a moment There's absolute justice on earth because Jesus is ruling with a rod of iron
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You know, there's never going to be a bad court decision There's never going to be an
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Incorrect rendering of anything that has to do with justice because there will be absolute justice on earth
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Absolute justice on earth. There will be a truly perfect environment if you want to call it that With the exception that the human that the population of the earth they still have
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They still have the the the fallen The the fallen gene if you will which they're going to pass on to their children that their children are not automatically saved and we'll get to that in just a moment and Saints are going to reign with Jesus.
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We are promised First of all Old Testament saints are going to our promise that they will reign. That's Daniel 727 the
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Apostles and by extension that the Apostles were promised that that they will reign that's
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Matthew 19 28 New Testament believers are promised that we will reign with him that's 1st
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Corinthians 6 2 2nd Timothy 2 12 and also Revelation 2 26 and Finally the tribulation martyrs, that's
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Revelation 6 9 chapter 7 verses 9 to 17 and 12 11 all of those groups of people will be reigning with him on earth and Then the rest of the dead
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The rest that is unbelievers will remain dead until the great white throne judgment and we'll address that in just a moment
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So now back to back to what happens to the believers who survived the tribulation
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Well, first of all the the individuals that survived the tribulation and go into the
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Millennial Kingdom. They're all saved They're all believers because if you're an unbeliever you're dead at this point
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So they enter the Millennial Kingdom, but they are not glorified They still have they are still the sin nature is still present
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And so they have children they live they marry they procreate in the normal manner and their children they pass the sin nature along to their children just as our fathers did to us and their children have the same obligation the same need to repent and believe and You would think
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You would think that well, you know All I have to do is look around and they see all this perfection
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Around them and their parents are preaching the gospel to them and they can look around and see how great everything is and There's no temptation because all of the demons and Satan are all bound
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They're not permitted to come to the earth. And so obviously they're all going to get saved, right? wrong
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If there's an ultimate answer to the argument that well if we put people in a good environment
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Then they will be good Here's your answer You have a thousand years of absolutely perfect environment
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Not pretty good. Perfect No injustice It's perfect because Jesus Christ himself is ruling here.
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And then what happens? Satan is released at the end of the thousand years and he resumes his activity and he deceives and foments rebellion and The unregenerate descendants of the
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Millennium Kingdom citizens join the rebellion there's a thousand years of perfect environment and they still haven't learned anything and It's a big number verse 8 says
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Verse 8 says and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth
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That's the four points of the compass Gog and Magog to gather them together to battle and the number of them is as the sand of the sea
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This is a big number of people that have chosen to rebel and so there is
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The final final battle that takes place and that also is essentially an execution
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Verse 9 he said they went up on the breadth of the earth and compass the camp of the Saints about and the beloved city that's
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Jerusalem and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them and now 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 and then we come to the great white throne judgment now
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I Want to wrap up here? We got to move kind of fast but one of the points of discussion among theologians concerns the the resurrection it is generally characteristic of our millennial theologians that they see one resurrection only one premillennial theologians see two there is a a resurrection that applies to the
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Saints and And This this sort of is staged.
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It's not all in exactly the same instant, but there is a there's a resurrection for the just and a resurrection for the unjust and We can preach a whole lesson on that so We'll might address that later, but notice some things about the great white throne judgment.
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First of all, the subjects are the dead. I Means unbelievers because believers are alive
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Believers have been alive for the last thousand years Even if they were already killed, you know
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If you are a resurrected Saints you had your glorified body and you've been moving around on the earth and then the the only other folks that are left on earth all the unbelievers were killed at the end of the of the rebellion and So all the believers are alive
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The subjects here are the dead Jesus Christ is the judge and all unbelievers from time to time will face judgment
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Their bodies will be reconstituted if necessary you know the sea gave up the dead that are in them and This mention is specifically of the sea is because if you know the hardest place to get a body back would be the sea
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Particularly if you've been there a few thousand years But miraculously their bodies are reconstructed and they face
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Jesus Christ and there's been a lot of speculation about what the form of this judgment will take
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But it's going to be bad. Whatever it is and as a little kid,
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I sort of had the the vision of this long line of people and Now I I think it's going to be you and Jesus The unbeliever and Jesus and that's the only two that are there and you're the individual
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The unbeliever is facing Jesus Christ alone With no one else there
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The answer he's judged according to his deeds and the standard is absolute perfection
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Matthew 5 48 In other words, you did not this individual.
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It's that's here Did not repent and believe did not place his faith in Jesus Christ and so he has chosen to be judged upon his deeds and there he is and So the the here's here's the standard, you know, whether it's written up there or what
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I don't know But it's absolute perfection be perfect is your father in heaven is perfect Were you perfect?
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Well, I did pretty good job. No, no, were you perfect? Did you ever make one error and then the sentence is pronounced the lake of fire for eternity and Lots of speculation also of the nature of the torment of the lake of fire.
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Is it real fire? We don't know But it's certainly a place of torment It's a place of isolation.
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It speaks of it being in darkness But that the individuals that are there are self -aware and They have unending sorrow and unending misery it's not the kind of a place that we want to go and then by contrast
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The rest of the book in chapter 21. He talks about the new heaven and the new earth
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Because the old earth in the old heavens that means the starry realm up there are all passed away and we're going to have a new heaven and a new earth and We get the idea it's new in a qualitative sense it's new of a different kind It's not simply the next thing in a succession of things if I come in one
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Sunday and I say hey You know, we bought a new car. Well You know that the new car has got you know wheels and an engine and it's it's just the latest one in a succession of Vehicles that that Dallas and I have owned but now this is this is not the latest in succession
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This is something completely new it completely supplants what has been there previously it is new in principle
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And there's a new there's a new Jerusalem. That is its capital. That is the dwelling place of the redeemed and God himself will dwell among his people
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God is no longer out there somewhere transcendent He is now with us
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He's manifesting himself physically in some manner We're not quite sure what they will involve a lot of light.
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We know we know that and believers will see him as he is and right now we know that human beings cannot look on God and live and believers will worship him and believers will serve him and Perhaps most astounding the
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Lord will serve believers as a reward for faithful service Jesus gave a parable to that effect when he was here on earth and It says they're going to be no tears or crying
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There's no death. There's no mourning. There's no pain There's the complete and total absence of sin
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Nothing associated with sin is there and all of those things tears crying death mourning pain
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All of those things are connected with sin the fact that we are sinners You know, why do we die?
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Why is there death in the universe? There's death in the universe because of sin. Yes, Daniel the
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That is the general That is the general answer that is given whenever that question arises.
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The question was What about the tears? He said he's going to wipe away the tears. Well There is a period there is a period of time.
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There is a sense in which believers are going to be judged we're going to stand before God and Give an account now
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Our eternal destiny is not in the balance at this point but Jesus is asking
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Like the merchant that went away. I gave you X talents What have you done with what
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I gave you give an account with what you did with the life? that I gave you and we will see our failures and And That will be an occasion for tears
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But now those tears are wiped away and when things are recreated There's no crying there
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You know the time for crying is past So there's going to be in in the new heaven and the new earth once everything is recreated
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There's no more. There's no more tears there. They're gone. It's a question back there We yeah
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That's a good question, but it's I Can't give you a good firm answer on it the question was will the functions of the angels change and the best answer
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I can give you is Yes, and no The functions of the angels will not change in their fundamental function, which is the worship of God and To cry holy holy holy and that's going to go on because God is to be worshipped
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Now will their mission change? We're not told
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We're not told we could speculate and say probably because everything else has changed
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It would be reasonable to assume that their missions might change somewhat do but their fundamental function that of worshiping
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God and Calling attention that he is to be worshipped will not change because that's going to go on.
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Yes God Believers are judged. Oh, you mean in chronology?
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Yeah, there's some speculation about that again The the usual answer is that short shortly after the actual physical resurrection
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There will be a the Bema seat judgment and a Bema seat is a place of reward a
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Bema seat is is the is the judges stand in an athletic contest if you will and We will we will be called before Jesus Christ and We will be called it to give an account and Yeah, I mean at the time of your death
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Again, there's a lot of discussion My personal view is that it's after the resurrection
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Now Dave, did you have a Oh? Joyce Have no
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I've God's going to take care of you and what they were going to tell you. I don't know Yes, he certainly did but he takes care of us constantly whatever happens
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Yeah Did you have something else to say Dave? Okay, well, we're about out of time
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We're about out of time, but fortunately I'm also out of notes and And so we have reached the end for now anyway
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Because the the book of Revelation is so rich so full so complete I would recommend to all of you and encourage you to Study this somewhat on your own
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I would encourage you to get and read MacArthur's Revelation commentary now this applies to all of his commentaries on on the
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New Testament John is extremely readable and So any one of you can pick up John's commentaries and read them and get a lot out of them
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It's that they are not I don't want to criticize. I'm not criticizing when
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I say they're they're not what you would consider scholarly works a Scholarly work being one that's so obscure.
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You can't understand what the author is saying, you know John's writings are not like that and so I would recommend to you very strongly that you that you read his commentaries
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Another book is called things to come by J. Dwight Pentecost which covers
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Not just the book of Revelation. It covers a great deal about eschatology Both of those would be a very great value to you
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And I would encourage you to go along in studies like that. Let's close in a word of prayer our
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Heavenly Father We confess right away that when we read
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Revelation There's a lot there father that we don't understand and yet.
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It's clear that You are going to set everything, right? That you have given us the book of Revelation for our encouragement
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That you have given us the book of Revelation to reveal yourself and your son to us
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That he will come back and the next time he comes back it's going to be in glory and And not as the suffering servants.