Bible Survey - Revelation 19-22

Last week's handout, and I think there's still a few available if you're interested in looking. Last week's handout had several different charts in it, and we'll make reference to that. Yeah, I got it turned on. It's as on as it gets. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see, is that coming up? Yeah, it's starting to come up.

And so we had this kind of an outline by chapters, and We got through chapter 18, and so today we'll do 19, 20, 21, and 22. And the quick outline of those chapters is on the top half of your handout for today, the one, number 51, Bible survey, December 28th.

And the quick outline is in Revelation 19, 1 through 10, we have final praises on the heavenly scene and the marriage supper of the Lamb. We have in the last part of that, verses 11 through 21, the second coming of Christ with the armies of heaven and doom for the beast and the false prophet. Revelation 21 through 10, the millennial kingdom and Satan bound for a thousand years, freed briefly then doomed. And then the last half of Revelation 20, verses 11 through 15, the white throne judgment of the unsaved dead of all time. And there's some minor exception to that we'll take a look at.

The New Heavens and New Earth is begun in Revelation 21, first nine verses, and then continues on to describe the New Jerusalem from 2110 to 225, and then Revelation 226 through 21, the final words of Jesus, the Spirit, the Bride, and John. So we're going to not cover that all in detail, of course, but it starts off with, and you see it on the bottom half of your handout, the wedding and marriage supper of the Lamb, something that begins in the last part of the Gospels and continues on through the Epistles. I see you get something jumped a page here, 2 Corinthians 11, 2. But what we see there is the relationship between Christ and the church, is the relationship between husband and wife. And that begins even in John 14, 1-3. And let me read that. Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you.

These are words very similar to what a groom would say to the bride upon their beginning in engagement. The tradition was to have about a year for the groom to get a house together, basically. and build it. And so Jesus is using words very similar to that. He says, If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. So I can imagine these disciples here at the Last Supper hearing these words and being rather puzzled because these are words that are A groom would say to a bride, and imagine they didn't understand what he was talking about until sometime later. This event in verse 3 where he receives us is called the rapture. That's a Latin term. Many other New Testament passages refer to or describe the rapture.

As the father of the groom told the groom the time to go get his bride, And bring her to the house of the father for the wedding so the father the father capital F Will tell Christ the bridegroom at the right time go get your bride Go get your bride One of the things that Was a part of the Jewish wedding tradition is that everybody surrounding the bride Looked upon themselves as having a responsibility to present a the bride to the groom, holy and blameless.

And so what you see is that terminology, let's look at the top of page two, that terminology in Ephesians 1-4, just as He, the Father, chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. So that holy and blameless term comes up again In Ephesians chapter 5, starting with verse 23, For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, he himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless." And he uses similar terminology in Colossians chapter 1. So everyone had a part in presenting the bride as holy and blameless, even the groom presenting her to himself as holy and blameless. And that is what Paul says, and I'm sorry for the reference, in 2 Corinthians 11. It says, For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.

So ultimately this marriage supper of the wedding and the marriage supper of the Lamb are the culmination of a relationship that is first addressed and begun at the end of the Gospels. That's when Christ begins to talk about the Church, the body of Christ which would begin on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2. So in Revelation 19, 7 and 8, let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.

It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Last week is in the book revelation. We had ten points of here's how we approach it to understand it correctly and one of those points is just what you see here where he describes, you know, what is the You know linen bright and clean It's the righteous acts of the Saints. So that's what it that's what it means. We are not left to guess okay, the next thing that shows up is the last part of of chapter 19 verses 11 through 16 is what we have quoted here. And this is describing the second coming.

So I saw heaven open and behold a white horse. Now what's the significance of a white horse? Yeah. You would have kings and high officers, generals. who would ride a white horse. So it's conveying that message. And the Lone Ranger. Yes, you got that right. And the Lone Ranger.

And he who sat on it is called faithful and true. Something we pointed out earlier in our study of the Gospel of Luke is that When the Bible says called, it doesn't mean necessarily that that's the name that people use. For example, in Matthew, it talks about Christ will be called Emmanuel, God with us. Did anybody ever come up to Jesus and say, hey, Emmanuel? Didn't happen, right?

So when it says called, it doesn't necessarily mean that's the sound, the name that people stick on there. And it's a clue to look deeper. What does it mean? Not just what does the sound come out like? So if he's called faithful and true, it doesn't mean that people came up to Jesus and said, True! Faithful! But rather it's making reference to his character. Okay, so he who sat on is called faithful and true, and that refers to his character.

And in righteousness, and that's more about his character, he judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire. Okay, so does that mean his eyes are on fire? Or what does that mean? What does it mean when you say the eyes are a flame of fire? Yes, he has piercing judgment.

So it's not about what does it look like. That's one of the other points we made in Revelation. It's not about what does it look like. Frankly, it looks rather strange. Because that's kind of our Greek mindset, is what does it look like? And the Hebrew mindset was, what does it mean? Sometimes we have people, you know how they're feeling and thinking by looking at their eyes. Sometimes they have that fiery... Yes, and it doesn't mean that flames are coming out of their eye sockets, right? Yeah.

Okay, now, Dennis, on his head are many diadems. Does that mean he's got a big stack of crowns? Again, it's not what does it look like, it's what does it mean. How could Christ have many diadems? What's that pointing to? Yeah, it's his accomplishment in and through us. You also have a sense of the significance. There are a lot of people with a crown, but if you have someone with many crowns, it implies a higher position, ruler over all type of situation. So the crowns are not, you know, he's wearing a whole bunch of crowns all stacked on top of one another, but the crowns being multiple and many is indicating, you know, great royalty, great status and position.

Yeah. You know, war is terrible, but this says in righteousness. Yes. And yes, war is terrible. In this case, it's going to be, you know, we think of war and of course there's a lot of collateral damage. People that get hurt that, you know, were not intended, you know. Christ, however, will have a very different approach. He can wage war and there's no collateral damage. Okay, next one.

He has a name written on him no one knows but himself Okay, what's a what's a why would he have a name written on him and why would only he know Yeah, Stan That's right, we're given a name that only he and we individually know and So, very interesting things.

One of the things it says is that there are things that are not revealed or not revealed yet. And the other thing, in the Bible, when you talk about a name, is it just a moniker, a sound that we attach? It has to do with character. It has to do with character. So he's got an understanding of character that only he understands. The whole line that you had last week where it says, he knows, and he intimately knows, and this name probably has to do with intimacy as well, because he has this personal understanding of your character, and so the name is fitting. He says, He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called, here's the called thing again, right?

The Word of God. Now, where is the Word of God referring to Christ? Where else does that show up? John chapter 1, right? He is, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So you have that, and it says, in the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, we're following him on white horses. Who does that include? That includes us, right? And also, heaven will empty, so to speak, of angels. Spiritual beings in heaven will come down to earth.

So, and then, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, we're following Him on white horses. Okay, so, if the armies are on white horses, what does that tell us? Yeah, what you see here is righteous, and just like the white horses would be ridden by kings and emperors and generals of high standing, we have a high position. We have a high position is what that's telling you.

But let's ask one other thing. Are we there to engage in the war? So you have these armies, but who's doing the fighting? Christ. Isn't that something? Yeah. Usually you think of an army, well everybody's going to go out and fight and have standing, but it only talks about Christ being the one who actually engages in battle.

How could that be? Well, the same way as you had in the Old Testament, when a servant panicked when he saw the Assyrian army coming in the Old Testament. And Elijah said, well, just open his eyes. Yeah, so that he can see. Yeah. And there are several places in the Old Testament where we're told, Hezekiah was told, don't plan for war yourself. And Moses, back in the crossing of the Red Sea, was told, stand and see what the Lord will do. Scripture often refers to the fact that our position is often to have the faith to believe that God will produce the righteous end result. And so, yeah, this is really extraordinary.

What you see here and what you see even in the Old Testament, Zechariah 14, is Christ at His second coming, He does all the fighting. Yeah? Well, doesn't that have to do with the sword? And the fact that the sword is His word? Yes. And so it's the same basic word that created the entire universe, so why wouldn't it be able to do any harm? That's right, yeah. And that's what you see in verse 15, the next point, yeah.

Well, if you look at it, what does the robe stand for in all these descriptions? Because the robes are described from beginning to end in the book of Revelation. What does the white robe mean? In other words, it refers to righteousness, the white robe, right? So his robe alone is dipped in blood. Whose blood is it? Yeah, his own, representing his own.

In other words, Christ's power is so great that he doesn't need assistance. A general goes out and commands armies, and if there wasn't any army to command, he Couldn't get anything done, he'd lose the war, right? He has to rely on lots of other people. Christ is exactly the opposite.

We accompany him, but he does all the fighting. And that's plenty adequate, and that gets the job done. You think of Christ's response when the disciples wondered, well, who's going to enter the kingdom of heaven? He said, it's part of enrichment. He said, with men, this is impossible. With God, It's God's doing.

The idea of the sword coming out of the mouth comes from Isaiah. Again, we've said 70% of Revelation, the book of Revelation, is out of the Old Testament. And that's one point that comes out of the book of Isaiah. So that with it, he may strike down the nations. Now, that word nations is other places translated Gentiles. So they look at the context, but that's the picture. What we see from looking at the whole breadth of the Old Testament and New, is that the Gentile nations will come against Israel.

And Israel will get the picture, only God can save us. And in the end, those who survive to the end of Israel will be saved. He will rule them with a rod of iron and that is from psalm chapter 2, okay, psalm 2 And he treads the winepress with a fierce wrath of God. That's from Joel chapter 3 and Then at wrath of God the Almighty and hit on his robe and on his thigh He has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords, okay Christ's Christ's kingship will be king of israel and the king of kings and lord of lords title is his rule over the gentile nations and as a matter of fact the emperors going a couple of empires back would have this title they find the title king of kings and lord of lords on the dinner plates for the royalty.

They've got silverware from the Persian Empire that has that title on it. Okay, let's take a look at the next one, top of page 3, the Millennial Kingdom. And we make minimal mention of it because what's there in Revelation is brief. The background for the Millennial Kingdom goes back into the Old Testament where virtually all of the prophets mentioned the Tribulation and or this Millennial Kingdom. Revelation 20, 1 through 10, is where it talks about it and it doesn't go into lots of detail because you got all the detail in the Old Testament passages and some reference to it in other New Testament passages. But two things that come out of that Revelation chapter 20, first 10 verses, is 1. Satan will be bound during this time. And 2. The kingdom will last for a thousand years. Six times it says the kingdom will last for a thousand years. That's the first time that gets revealed.

Yes? There is... it just says he's bound. There are places where It talks about where the fallen angels are kept, that are bound, and the two words are Tartarus and Abyssos, or the Abyss. So, presumed to be in those places. Yes, yeah. He bound and away. not present, not able to have access to anything on earth or anything in heaven. I understand that the deeper meaning of the words that are used there is that the idea of a deep dungeon and in chains.

Yes. Yes. Like a prisoner that if you wanted to rescue him you just wouldn't be able to get to him. Yeah. He's in a deep dark place. Way down and deep hole. The abyss means a bottomless. Right? A bottomless. Yes. Do we know how long that is? No. It just says briefly. And then doomed. Essentially, he is released to stir up a final rebellion which is put down. Here's the interesting thing.

Right now, the believer's enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil. So what's going to happen during the Millennial Kingdom? Will there be the devil around? No. Will there be the world system, the fallen world system? No, because Christ will reign. The only thing that there will be to contend with is the flesh. Just the flesh. No Satan. You can't say the devil made me do it during the Millennial Kingdom. No Satan. No world system.

Where do the desires of the flesh come from? I thought they came from Satan. No. Actually, it's because those are three different entities. The world, the flesh, and the devil. They're in cahoots, but the flesh is the sin nature as it operates in and through the body. Okay? In and through the body. So that's the sin nature, and actually, you know, human beings will be capable of sin with Satan completely bound, and with the world system being non-existent. The flesh will still be present. Yeah. Now, it doesn't say Satan and his angels are in power. Yeah, isn't that interesting? Are they existing?

What's interesting is that it doesn't even mention them. My guess is without leadership, the hierarchy is scattered and they're of no effect, at least. But it doesn't even mention them. It's like they're not even worthy of consideration. Because the Bible does refer to a hierarchy the leaders bound they're powerless The next one that we have down here is that this chart on the book of life and back when I first came to Holly Hills The book of life showed up I taught through revelation we started right after 9-eleven And every time the Book of life was mentioned. I postponed until this chapter 20 Event and and even since I've modified this chart.

So what the picture is this as you go through the Old Testament The book of life refers initially to just physical life the book of life in ancient times was citizenship in a city, particularly. Example, Paul was a citizen of what city? The Apostle Paul was from Tarsus, but where was his citizenship? From Rome. And he had that Roman citizenship even though, so far as we know, he'd never been there until later in his life.

So citizenship was in a city, that's one thing. Book of life in any city is the list of living non-criminal citizens Okay, if a person committed a major crime or they died their names were scratched off the citizenship Yes, yes, yep So you had the book of life was the list of living non-criminal citizens. That's what the book of life initially referred to. And so that's why you see it initially just used as a listing of those who are physically alive.

And then it transitioned during the last part of the Old Testament. And you'll see millennial life and following that eternal life is implied. By the time you get to the New Testament, the Book of Life always refers to eternal life. Always refers to eternal life.

And the action there is either not written or included. Your name is included or not written in the Book of Life. Some people will talk about blotting your name out from the Book of Life, but that reference that we have there in Revelation 3-5, where he says, I will not blot out your name, that's ume. In other words, it's an emphatic, I will not even, with the slightest possibility, blot your name out.

So it's actually a promise of assurance and not a threat. So anyway, that's the transition on the book of life. It starts off in the Bible with one definition, and then it moves into Millennial life, and by the time you get to the New Testament, it's about having eternal life. The list of living citizens. And by the way, as a citizen of heaven, is there anyone who is not living, spiritually speaking? who has their name in the book of life.

Your name is there because you have eternal life, right? Now, why do we bring that up? Because it's brought up in Revelation 20, verses 11-15. And those who appear at the white throne judgment are there for two things. One, their name is not in the book of life. And that's why they're there. You and I will not be at the white throne judgment. They won't be there. So one, their name, if they're at the White Throne Judgment, to be shown, here's the Book of Life, your name isn't here. You're not here. You're not a citizen. You're not a living citizen. So that's why you're here. And then what other book are they looking at, or books? Right, the Book of Works. And on the one end, the book of works says you don't have anything saving in all of what you've done. None of it will save you. And two, that people will be serving eternal punishment because they refused the grace and payment of the Lord. And I say punishment because it will be different for different ones.

Jesus talked to the Jewish leaders, and he says, if you do not believe, this is John chapter 8, if you do not believe, you will die in your sins. So it's a positional thing, and for an unbeliever, they are in their sins positionally. And we have a similar statement in Ephesians chapter 2, first three verses. The unbelievers are dead in their trespasses and sins. So there's a positional statement there regarding sins.

Yeah? You think of Jesus' words when he did his works in some cities and they didn't believe. And it was said, Woe unto you you had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have turned you and you get the idea of a worse punishment. Yes, there are about 11 passages where Jesus makes reference, and it's funny only he does, makes reference to it's better for this one than that, in terms of judgment.

Yes? The Book of Life and then the other books talk about the works. So there is record of what people have and haven't done. Now let's turn that around, this particular passage and talk about it. Are believers going to be judged for their works? Not judged, rewarded. Ah, yes. It's a judgment of evaluation for rewards. But this is a judgment of condemnation. And a judgment of punishment. That, because we believe, will not be subject to that.

Yeah? That's why they say good works, right? Because it's supposed to differentiate between the two. Yeah, we could go into it. There's dead works, right? There's dead works, there's good works, there's lots of different biblical definitions as to what those works are. Pardon? Faith without works is dead, right? So you have different definitions and characterizations of works.

And so for the believer, it's an evaluation. And the question is, what can I reward you for? Right? Yes? For rewards. There are five crowns that the New Testament talks about. Five different crowns. And then there are three different rewards that are given. That's a quick summary. So the motivation, this comes out of Revelation Chapter 22. The motivation is the Lord wants to reward us to the maximum. He's motivated to reward us to the maximum. That's what he wants to do.

Yes. Yeah, we will all be judged. There are about 50 places in the Old and New Testament where it talks about people being judged for their works, and some of those are believers and unbelievers, some of those are just believers, and some of them are just unbelievers. But about 50 places, ultimately we put it together, the Bible teaches that both believers and unbelievers will be judged on the basis of works. But for believers, it's an assessment for reward. How can I reward you? Which is really cool. Think about it. The Lord rewards us for us just being used of Him. For what He does in and through us. That's just phenomenally gracious.

Early in our Christian walk, we often learn the verses in Ephesians 2, for by grace are ye saved through faith, that not of yourselves, not of works lest any man should boast. But then we often don't memorize the verse that goes after, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which He before has prepared for us. So the attitude changes. So now I may do the same good thing, but the motivation for it is because God has been gracious to me, and shown love and mercy to me, I ought to be gracious and show love and mercy to others. And you do that through whatever compassion ministry thing that glorifies God that he brings into your life for you to do. So the works don't look any different on the outside, but the attitude and motivation that produces the works is. And sometimes only Well, maybe all the time. God only really knows how it fit into his overall plan. So Scripture talks about some building on gold and silver and some wood and hay and straw type of thing.

Let's see. I went through this last week. This is the color version. I think it got copied in black and white. on page five of your handout. Future Things. This is a simplified version I worked out with Nancy, because I had one previously that looked like a wiring diagram for the space shuttle. And Nancy said, yeah, I can't even comprehend this thing. So too much detail. Must have been done by an engineer.

But this one here, in other words, what you see is the present heaven, and then the present earth, Then the lake of fire We could make that a little more complex, but we won't So what you see is the lake of fire does the lake of fire exist now Yes, because Jesus said that the lake of fire is was prepared perfect tense For Satan and his angels so already in existence So is there anybody there? It's not occupied. It's already prepared. Looking at it and reading the passages, what I suspect is the Lord said, okay, it's prepared. It's waiting for your time.

When Satan and his angels for whom it was originally prepared when they rebelled. Yes? It would have to be prepared because Revelation 20, this is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the fire. Does that happen right then, at the great white throne? At the white throne judgment, yeah. That's the last and final judgment.

So what we see here is in the present heaven, We see the rapture of the church, which could happen at any moment, or the Lord could wait a while. We have the present heaven, the rapture of the church, the taking up of the church, first those asleep in Christ and then those who remain. Asleep in Christ is the term that Paul uses for those who are believers who have died. And then We have the second coming of Christ, which we just looked at in the last half of Revelation 19. And so we will be included in that, coming with Him. And what we see on this present earth, following the seven-year tribulation, is the 1,000-year kingdom. This is the 1,000 years mentioned in Revelation 20, 1 through 10, six times.

And then what you see at the end of the tribulation period, the first occupants of the lake of fire are the beast and the false prophet and those who receive the mark of the beast. If you receive the mark of the beast during the tribulation period, you're unsavable from that point forward.

Isn't that something? Notice here on this earth, people can do all kinds of awful things and then turn around and even at the last minute, Like my grandmother, died around age 87, became a believer only a few weeks before she died. And yet, she'll be saved from this lake of fire. But those who take the mark of the beast are unsavable. It's irreversible. They go directly to the lake of fire.

Yeah. That's very similar to what the angels were given. A one-time chance. Yeah, a one-time window. You choose now, and that's where you're going to spend eternity. And thereafter, their wills are fixed. Their wills are fixed in place. So then there's this thousand-year reign of Christ. We could go into lots of detail about what that is characterized by. The reality is the Old Testament details a great many things about what that millennial kingdom will be like.

The Jews will be empowered universally by the Holy Spirit to know and live out the law. The question, are we empowered by the Holy Spirit to know and live out the law? No. So the empowerment by the Holy Spirit is different for us, in terms of what it means, we who have died to the law, than it will be for those Jews populating the Millennial Kingdom. So they're empowered universally by the Holy Spirit to know and live out the law. we're empowered to live out apart from the law, the righteousness of Christ.

Okay, so at the end of that time, Satan and all fallen angels, demons, and the rest of the unsaved dead of all time will then be sent to the lake of fire. Saints who died during the Millennial Kingdom, there will be death, but it says someone who only lived a hundred years will have been thought to have had a short life. There will be death. I somehow think it'll be looked upon quite differently. But nonetheless, those who died during the kingdom then will be resurrected into the new heavens and new earth. So this is the simple version that I worked out with Nancy's help. So any thoughts, questions, ponderings?

The people who are marked with the Mark of the Beast are only those in the Tribulation who chose. Who chose, right. And their choice locks them in to, you know, notice, yeah, you get to eat because you took the Mark of the Beast, but that locks you into the Lake of Fire outcome. So not like unbelievers before, but just in that. Right, just during the Tribulation period. Yeah, it is not just an economic choice then, right? It's a spiritual choice that locks in their eternity. Yeah.

Okay, so people who then say that eternity does not consist of time, space and matter are incorrect because there would have to be space and there would have to be matter. Yeah, I think it's quite possible that our concepts of time and space are not necessarily transferable. Yes, you do and and you know exactly how that happens I mean a lot of people you know having in mind that somehow I You know we have somewhere down in the middle of the earth. You know you've got you know something and a lot of a lot of Kind of pagan Thoughts about the underworld and whatnot you know look to that kind of model and The reality is our concepts of up and down and space and time probably won't mean much when we get past this present universe. So there's probably at least two distinct eternities. Yeah, think about it.

For us, we get promised no more sorrow, mourning, crying, or pain. And yet on for into eternity, we will know that He is the Lamb. He paid the price like I never could. Yeah. The term of sleeping Christ has always just been an enigma to me because it means that they're asleep away from this body. But there's still a lot. Their soul is alive. Yes. So they're asleep in Christ. I would think they're awake in Christ.

I've looked at all the various passages and we'll say things like, well, he's with the Lord now or something like that. Again, as we were talking earlier with Stan, I think our time concepts probably don't work if we try to be too mechanical about it. Because think about that, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord instantly. So it's not like I'm in some separate limbo land.

I think an understanding of it that fits the various passages is that all believers from Acts 2 to the day of the rapture will be taken to that one moment of the rapture of Christ's coming. So someone like the Apostle Paul, right? He died about 67 AD. he would be brought forward to the moment of the rapture. So here's the Apostle Paul, and the next thing, after he closes his eyes in death, the next thing he sees is the Lord coming for him.

So I think that understanding helps. Yeah. Crystal? No. No. And that's the one thing. Before Abraham was born, I am. God sees everything in the eternal present. Our concepts of time. Even early in Ephesians, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Whoa! He hadn't even said, let there be light yet. And He chose us in Him.

This is mind-boggling. David and the Psalms say, you saw me in my mother's womb, you knit me together. And you've talked before a number of times about sometimes the literal words are to convey an idea and not so much to parse them. Our concepts of time and space, because we're stuck in a time tunnel, right? We look back on the past, and even back in history. And we look forward to a future where an awful lot is yet to be spelled out and clarified. We're stuck in the time tunnel, and God's not. Think about this.

He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, and He knew who was going to believe and who wasn't. Only those who believe are identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. So in order for that to be the case, God knows not from foretelling and foreknowing in our time tunnel sense, but because He sees all times as now, He then takes us spiritually back to the time of Christ's death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding, and then makes that effective in our lives at the time we believe. But we were chosen in Him that identification before He said, let there be light. This is some mind-boggling stuff. So for us stuck in the time tunnel, this kind of blows our circuits. We just kind of, woo! How does He do that?

Well, time is a created entity, unlike the open theist would say, Time is a created entity. You look at all your physics formulas, and yep, time is there. Velocity is there. But that only makes sense, because if the soul is eternal, and it pre-existed this creation, and it's going to co-exist somewhere, so that's either in the New Heaven or the Earth or the Lake of Fire. Because it is eternal, right? Again, these are concepts of time and space. They're limited. They're limited. We get to a place where we just can't get our minds around it. No, and that's one thing too.

It's great for us to explore different things and to try to gain some understanding, but we have to be careful that we aren't reducing things down to something that we can understand only. And that's pretty common in Christianity is to try to boil things down to something I can understand. of science for decades. I've wrestled with this idea for a long time, and I've come to the conclusion that no matter how much we exercise our brain, we'll never know all there is to know. It's frustrating in one sense.

But then the other side of the coin is, the only way we can know anything about God is what He chooses to reveal. That's correct. There's a difference. We try to use our rational mind to get to God, but the only way to get to God is to go through the open door that He's given and say, Here I am, here is my righteousness, here is my love and mercy and grace. I spent a whole year on grace a couple years ago in a Sunday school class and still didn't exhaust the subject. And you never will.

So the revelation that God gives us is from Him. And we believe it through His Word that we have available. That, by the way, is a big distinction between Christianity and Islam. In Islam, God is not revealed and He is unknowable. Right. He is totally other. Yeah, He is totally other. All He has revealed is what we must do. Right? Or not do. That's why all the surahs start out with for mercy.

They can't talk about love and grace. Yeah, they can't talk about God's character and those other ways. Let's look at page 6, the last shot out of here. This is a table of biblical judgments and resurrections. Lots of them. And rather than go into it in immense detail, because that would take up another hour that we don't have, I just would share something personally.

I became a believer at age four and a half. I had asked my parents, you know, how do you become a Christian? They said, well, I should wait. I woke my mom up that night and said, I've waited long enough. But one of the things I wrestled with, particularly when I got into my high school years, you know, I was doing a lot of weight lifting and all that stuff, but I had a rage problem. And so in my late teens, about 19, I just finally saw that this is just really dangerous.

And a part of settling on it was realizing God's going to take care of everything. I don't have to try to enforce or insist upon some resolution, demanding justice all the time, because in the end, God will deal with everything. Everything will be dealt with. And He will do it having judged perfectly. And there are some things I'm awfully glad that we have the grace of God. Because I look at it and I say, boy, otherwise I'd be in trouble. So everything will be dealt with. It's a valuable and important realization for believers to come to. That's right. And he will, I mean look at these judgments, he will deal with everything. Nothing will go by.

And typically what people get all cranked about, four things. Things I did, things I didn't do, things done to me, things not done to me. Those are the four things that people get all cranked about. And they get varying degrees of feeling guilty and angry and all sorts of other emotions get mixed in with that. But it's those four things. All of those will be dealt with. All of those will be dealt with.

Some of it's dealt with on the cross. Some of it's dealt with sometimes here. But a lot of times there's a lot of injustice that doesn't get addressed here, isn't there? Lots of injustice that doesn't get addressed. But in the end, everything will be dealt with.

No exceptions. None whatsoever. Yeah, Stan? So, a lot of people see that and they say that I really don't have to be engaged in certain aspects of this life because God's going to take care of everything and I don't need to do anything. There's a lot of religious groups that just totally remove themselves from the world. I don't think that's what... Yeah, think about it.

Did Christ Go in and deal during his life. Did he deal with injustice and things were wrong? Yeah, I just think of examples like you know clearing the temple Did he deal with every person who did something wrong? during his lifetime No, he didn't okay, so so the question is what does God want me to address? Right and what does God want me to leave to him? I? And where we have a responsibility to address things, for example, as parents, where we have a responsibility to address things, we ought to. But to presume responsibility where it isn't assigned to us is another matter.

I think of this high priestly prayer in John 17. I don't pray that you take them out of the world. I pray that you keep them from We have things to accomplish here in this life, but not just an asceticism of going off on the mountaintop. Yeah, we need God's Word and we need the Holy Spirit. We need the body of Christ to assess a lot of these things. And so, yeah, we're in a place of dependence. It's not our place. And what happens is people will get upset over things, often because they're taking on a responsibility that's not theirs.

So that's something that's good for Christians to ponder. What does the Lord want me to take responsibility for, and what do I just leave to Him? Well, let's pray and call it a year. Lord, thank you for the opportunity we've had over this last year to survey your word, to look from beginning to end at the things you've revealed intentionally, things you want us to know and understand, and even some things that we come to try to understand but realize, nope, that's a bit beyond us. And that's a good thing to arrive at too. We thank you for just looking at the last chapters of Revelation here, just to realize our difficult times coming for this world, yes. Our better times ahead, yes. And what do we have to look forward to? And we can take confidence in it and have a fixed and absolute and certain hope in these things. We just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.