1. "True implies false, and false, well, it sounds negative and hurtful. Truth sounds proud and seems to expose the person speaking of it to opposition and criticism. So we today prefer softer ideas. We want rounded corners on our words."

2. "People seem quite confident today that nothing is true, I guess, except that statement."

3. "The Bible stands athwart, across, against in the way of the bandwagon of our own self-serving ignorance of the truth."

4. "A basic truth that we must understand when we read our New Testament is that the last day has begun in Christ. Satan now stands bound. He is bound to retreat before the preaching of the Word and the spread of the gospel."

5. "Why does God allow me to be tempted like this? Friend, for His glory through you, so that you can see something more of His strength, of His sufficiency, of His goodness, of His power, of His provision, and so yourself become a grounds for displaying that aspect of God's goodness to others."

6. "No powerful person can buy their way out, can pull strings and use influence. No small person can simply hide. None have so little that they can avoid judgment, none so much that they can escape it."

7. "Graves and seas are but prisons. And death the guard whom one day shall obey God's order to open these prisons and bring forth all these captives to face the final judgment of God."

8. "People only appear to get away with stuff and that for a short time. The truth is that everyone will be judged."

9. "Don't be scared of death. Don't fear persecution. Don't let threats intimidate you. Even threats from your own flesh."

10. "Will you trade the pleasures of this passing world for the pleasures with God forevermore? Will you bear your own sin on that day the books are opened, or will you see it nailed wholly to the cross?"

Observation Questions

1. According to Revelation 20:1-3, what does the angel do to Satan, and what is the stated purpose of binding him in the abyss?

2. In Revelation 20:4, who does John see seated on thrones, and what specific characteristics does he note about those who "came to life and reigned with Christ"?

3. What does Revelation 20:6 say about those who have part in the first resurrection regarding the "second death" and their future role?

4. According to Revelation 20:7-9, what happens when Satan is released after the thousand years, and how does God respond to the attack on "the camp of God's people"?

5. In Revelation 20:11-12, what does John see happening at the great white throne, and what are the "books" that are opened?

6. According to Revelation 20:14-15, what is the "lake of fire" called, and what determines whether someone is thrown into it?

Interpretation Questions

1. The sermon argues that Satan's binding began with Christ's earthly ministry rather than being entirely future. How do Jesus' statements in John 16:11 ("the prince of this world now stands condemned") and His disciples' authority over demons support this interpretation of Revelation 20:1-3?

2. Why does the sermon suggest that the "thousand years" should be understood as a figurative period representing the time from Christ's ascension to His return, rather than a literal 1,000-year kingdom? How does the pattern seen in Revelation 7 (hearing 144,000 but seeing an uncountable multitude) inform this interpretation?

3. What is the relationship between the "first resurrection" in Revelation 20:5-6 and the spiritual regeneration Paul describes in passages like Ephesians 2:5-6 and Colossians 3:1? Why would this connection give believers assurance that "the second death has no power over them"?

4. The sermon emphasizes that God's brief release of Satan (Revelation 20:7-9) displays God's glory through Christians who rely completely on Him. How does this connect to Jesus' teaching in Mark 13:18-20 about the days before His return, and what does it reveal about God's purposes in allowing trials?

5. In Revelation 20:12-15, people are judged "according to what they had done" from the books, yet salvation depends on having one's name in "the book of life." How do these two truths work together, and why does this passage demonstrate that all people need a Savior?

Application Questions

1. The sermon began by noting how modern culture avoids speaking with conviction because "truth implies false, and false sounds negative." In what specific situations this week might you be tempted to soften or avoid declaring what Scripture clearly teaches? How can the certainty of God's judgment in Revelation 20 give you courage to speak with appropriate conviction?

2. Knowing that God has bound Satan and that "no temptation has seized you except what is common to man" (1 Corinthians 10:13), how should this change the way you respond to a specific temptation you are currently facing? What would it look like to rely on God's provision of "a way out"?

3. The sermon challenged the myth that "people get away with stuff." Is there an area of your life—whether in your thoughts, finances, relationships, or use of time—where you have been living as though God doesn't notice or won't hold you accountable? What concrete step of repentance can you take this week?

4. The sermon listed many ways Christ's reign is evident in the local church: care for the lonely, encouragement for the weary, teaching for the uninstructed, and faithful service by members. Which of these ministries could you participate in more actively to demonstrate that "Christianity is worth it" to those around you?

5. Revelation 20:15 states that anyone whose name is not in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire. Is there someone in your life—a family member, neighbor, or coworker—who needs to hear the gospel call to repent and trust in Christ? What specific opportunity can you create this week to share that message with them?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Ezekiel 38:1–23 — This passage prophesies God's defeat of Gog and Magog with fire from heaven, which Revelation 20:8-9 directly references as fulfilled in Satan's final destruction.

2. Daniel 7:9–14 — This vision of the Ancient of Days on His throne with books opened provides the Old Testament background for the great white throne judgment scene in Revelation 20:11-12.

3. John 5:24–29 — Jesus teaches about two resurrections—one to life and one to judgment—which illuminates the distinction between the first resurrection and the second death in Revelation 20:4-6.

4. Ephesians 2:1–10 — Paul describes believers as those who were dead in sin but have been made alive and seated with Christ in heavenly places, supporting the sermon's interpretation of the first resurrection as spiritual regeneration.

5. 2 Peter 3:3–13 — Peter describes the coming day of judgment when the heavens and earth will be destroyed by fire, reinforcing Revelation 20's teaching that no one will escape God's final reckoning and encouraging holy living in light of that certainty.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Introduction: The Modern Discomfort with Truth and Certainty

II. Myth Number One: Who's to Say? (The Binding, Thousand Years, Release, and Defeat of Satan)

III. Myth Number Two: People Get Away with Stuff (The Great White Throne Judgment)

IV. Myth Number Three: Christianity Just Isn't Worth It (The First Resurrection and Reigning with Christ)

V. Closing Appeal: The Call to Repentance and Trust in Christ

---

Detailed Sermon Outline

Danny Shea sent me this the other day from the contemporary poet, Taylor Mali.

In case you hadn't realized it, it has somehow become uncool to sound like you know what you're talking about. Talking about or believe strongly in what you're like saying?

Invisible question marks and parenthetical you knows and you know what I'm sayings have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences even when these sentences aren't like questions.

Declarative sentences so-called because they used to like, you know, declare things to be true, okay? As opposed to other things that are like totally, you know, not.

They've been infected by this tragically cool and totally hip, interrogative tone. As if I'm saying, don't think I'm not a nerd or I'm a nerd just because I've like noticed this, okay? I have nothing personally invested I'm just like inviting you to join me on the bandwagon of my own uncertainty.

What has happened to our convictions? Where are the limbs out on which we once walked? Have they been like chopped down with the rest of the rainforest, you know? Or do we have like nothing to say? Has society just become so filled with those conflicting feelings of meh that we've just gotten to the point where where we're the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since, you know, a long time ago.

Now, no, oh please, no.

One of the worst things ever to happen to me, my pastor here at Capital Baptist Church, people are clapping at the beginning of a sermon on the final judgment. Friends, I shared what I knew would be a humorous piece with you because it's funny exactly because it's so true. Because you understand exactly what that poet is talking about. Maybe we are inarticulate and uncertain today because we have become uncomfortable with the whole idea of truth. We don't like it.

True, you see, implies false, and false, well, it sounds negative and hurtful. Truth sounds proud and seems to expose the person speaking of it to opposition and criticism. So we today prefer softer ideas. We want rounded corners on our words. Softer ideas we think make better neighbors and more peaceful societies.

You understand this idea is not only popular, it's also respectable. Carl Popper, one of the most widely read and influential political philosophers in the last century, explained his commitment to this in his two-volume magnum opus, the Open Society and its Enemies. His conclusion to this two-volume work, chapter 25, is entitled, Has History Any Meaning? And he answers the question decidedly, no, it does not. And in fact, he says, it must not.

I quote, History has no meaning, I contend. Although history has no meaning, we can give it a meaning. It is we who introduce purpose and meaning into nature and into history. History, Popper argues, must not have a purpose, a meaning, because the moment you claim that it has and that you know what it is, then you pose a threat to the open society. As we know it.

As a native of Vienna, Austria, born in the early part of the 20th century, Popper was painfully aware of how such thinking could be used to bring in totalitarianism, whether of Adolf Hitler or Karl Marx. So the answer, he says, is to deny that history has any meaning at all, that life has any transcendent purpose at all. And this, I have to say, fits in well both with the heart of humanity and the times in which we live.

Friends, we today are sensitive to absolutes, to argument, to authority. Today Christianity isn't so much rejected as it is dismissed. It's not argued against so much as it is assumed to be obviously false. Or better, perhaps, to be some combination of irrelevant and unworkable. People seem quite confident today that nothing is true, I guess, except that statement.

Anyway, this is a world in which we live and move and breathe. This is a world in which poets like Taylor Mali can just notice the sort of humorous outliers and indicators in our speech. And it is into this world that God's revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ comes and in His Word written. Now, much of the Bible is acceptable even to many who are otherwise skeptical. People dying for their faith instead of killing for it, thinking that God wants them to help the poor and marginalized, bringing fulfillment and happiness, finding satisfaction among difficult situations.

All these things and more have been applauded by Popper and so many other non-Christians. But there is no way to get around the fact that the Bible stands athwart, across, against in the way of the bandwagon of our own self-serving ignorance of the truth. Because in the Bible God informs us, He speaks to us and teaches us, and nowhere is the antagonism to the spirit of our agnostic age more apparent in the Bible than in this book that we've been studying since the spring, this book of Revelation. Let me invite you to turn there now to that book which is a testimony to God's rule over history, to His purposes in life. And let me invite you to turn to our study passage, Revelation chapter 20.

Whatever Bible you're looking at, you'll find it appropriately very near the end. So just open the back cover and turn in a couple of pages and you'll find yourself there. While you're turning there, let me just remind you of what we've seen in this book. And if you're already at that book, if you're used to getting around your Bibles, you might want to just go on and open it up to Revelation 1 and I'll walk you through real quickly what we have seen so far in our study together in chapter 1. We have this normal preamble and greetings because this was first circulated as a letter.

And then it moved into the first vision of Christ reigning. John is on the Lord's Day and the risen Christ appears to him. Chapters 2 and 3, we saw these letters addressed to seven churches. Then chapters 4 and 5 gave us a vision of heaven, God on His throne, ruling history. Chapters 6 to 8, we saw seven seals being broken open, revealing God's plans for history.

Exactly what Paul warned of is exactly what God was revealing. Here to John. Chapters 8 to 11, we studied the blowing of the seven trumpets, declaring God's judgment on the world. And so you can see that pattern in this book of increasing clarity. You have the seals broken on the scroll, and then the trumpets proclaiming, declaring what was in the scroll.

And then as the judgments continue on, we see in chapter 12 this interesting vision of the woman and the child and the dragon. That's a character that keeps recurring in this book. And then in chapter 13, the vision of the two beasts, the one representing persecuting government, the other representing false religion. And then chapter 14 presents an island of salvation in the sea of judgment. And then in chapters 15 and 16, we had the last of these series of seven judgments, the seals open, the trumpets that declare, and now finally, the seven bowls that are poured out in chapters 15 and 16.

Chapter 17 to 19 we considered a couple of weeks ago. We saw Babylon, the world system opposed to God, judged. And then in the rest of chapter 19 over the last couple of weeks, we've considered two very different meals. First, the wedding feast of the Lamb, and then the meal we considered last week, the great supper of God in which His enemies are totally defeated.

And today, today we come to chapter 20, the culminating presentation of judgment in this book of Revelation, with Satan being bound and martyrs reigning, Gog and Magog and the great white throne. As we come to this last and climactic vision of judgment in the book of Revelation, let me share with you some words of Graham Goldsworthy that I found this week that I think well summarize what we must keep in mind about the last day that Scripture prophesies and that this chapter is so prominent in many Christians' thoughts about.

Goldsworthy writes, what the Old Testament apocalyptic portrayed as the single event of the day of the Lord is described in the apocalyptic visions of Revelation from various angles. No one-word picture could suffice to convey the totality of the brilliance and the gloom, the glory and the horror, the joy and the dismay of the day of the Lord. Each series of visions is built upon by the next until the desired effect is achieved. Let me emphasize again that Revelation was written not for the armchair prophets with their charts of historical events and their intricate diagrams of the end of the age.

This is not rightly dividing the Word of Truth. This is not what the book of Revelation means.

No, Goldsworthy writes, but for the harassed subsistence level first century Christians of the Asia Minor province, it was written to bring them both warning and reassurance. To encourage them in their struggle and to liberate them from fear of the enemy within and without. With a genius for composition that is nowhere surpassed in the biblical literature, John's inspired mind leaves no stone unturned and yet avoids the unnecessary and obscuring details that so many modern readers wish to read into him. The message comes to us in an unfamiliar dress, but that it should not be taken to mean that it is impossibly complex. In fact, so far, is this book from being obscure that we have seen the book of Revelation address issue after issue that affects us today as we've been studying through it.

And in our chapter today, I think we see that again. This passage exposes some common modern myths about life, part of that mindset that we've identified of uncertainty. So, before we get on with those, let's listen to this portion of Scripture in its own words and in its entirety. And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

He threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore. Until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life. And reigned with Christ a thousand years.

The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, that they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.

And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.

The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Now friends, after studying this passage, I'm quite certain that I will not be able to answer all our questions about this chapter. I am quite certain that you will not even necessarily be convinced by all the answers I do give you about the questions I attempt to answer about this chapter. But I pray that as we consider this chapter today, things that you and I believe that just aren't so will be revealed to us. And I pray that those of us who are Christians will be built up to trust God more.

And to make sure of our own calling in election, and to praise God more for His many goodnesses to us.

We'll consider this chapter in terms of three commonplace myths about life among people today. And because of the way the chapter is divided, I'm going to spend most of my time in the first myth, so please don't be scared if you're taking notes, all right? The first myth, myth number one.

Who's to say? Who's to say? Understand what I mean? I mean, tell a kid in school to do something and you might hear back, says who?

Suggest to a friend at work that a sexual affair they're considering is wrong and they may well respond, says who?

Discuss with your siblings some wrong another family member has done to you and they may ask, who's to say? Suggest that some course of action our district government takes is immoral and your neighbor may simply dismiss the concern with an argument ending, who's to say?

Many people today like the idea of determining the meaning of the words someone else has written.

And many resist what they feel is the tyranny of suggesting that there are absolute standards by which everyone will be judged, and what's worse, that those standards are known and unchangeable. But rather they assume that there is no final arbiter, there is no final authority.

Well, the words we see in this chapter about Satan being bound and even finally defeated are the most complete and utter rejection of this kind of popular relativism. Look again at the way our chapter begins. Verse 1, and I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the abyss, holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations any more until the thousand years were ended.

After that, he must be set free for a short time. And that being set free for a short time there in verse 3 is picked up again if you look down in verse 7. When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves.

But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. All right, I just want to defensively say again, I cannot answer all your questions about this chapter. But I want to tell you four particular things I want us to look at in these verses.

These are, if you will, as a note taker, sub points to my first point. All right? My first point is this myth that who's to say? And I've got four points inside this about this text I want us to look at. One, the binding of Satan.

Two, the thousand years. Three, the release of Satan. And four, the defeat of Satan. I think that will show us clearly who's to say.

Number one, the binding of Satan. People have wondered if this binding is something present or something future. I mean, is John being shown by this vision what will happen someday in the future, or what has happened in Christ's coming? Certainly in the future Satan will be finally judged. We see that here in verses 7 to 10.

But is there such a thing as a binding that's different than that final judgment? Well, that's what this chapter seems to teach. Here in verses 1 to 3, do we see anyway in which Satan has even now already been limited before he is finally judged? I think the answer is yes. A basic truth that we must understand when we read our New Testament is that the last day has begun in Christ.

Satan now stands bound. He is bound to retreat before the preaching of the Word and the spread of the gospel. He is bound much against his own will, in one sense, to bless God's He is bound to face the coming judgment. That's why, of course, during Jesus' earthly ministry, we see Jesus say of Satan in John 16, the prince of this world now stands condemned. That's why the demons in the Gospels are always so scared of Jesus, because they understand that he has come to bind them now, not to finally judge them.

As some demons, I think, in Matthew 8 were wondering, not quite that time yet, but yes, for a binding to take place, not yet being cast into the lake of fire, but Jesus and His disciples were given power over these demons. Since the earthly ministry of Christ, the gospel has spread and is spreading and will continue to spread around the world. The great binding of Satan has been in the earthly ministry, death, resurrection, ascension of Christ and in the pouring out of His Spirit.

Now, very practically, brothers and sisters, we live in this time of blessing. We live in this time of God's exercising devil binding, devil restraining authority. So are we in a fallen world still? Oh yes.

See God's kindness in His restraint of Satan at every hand. 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, no temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. Brothers and sisters, be confident of the way God uses His sovereign power for the good of His saints.

As He says in Romans 8, for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose. In fact, we as Christ's disciples have authority too to bind Satan. Jesus says to Peter in Matthew 16, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. And is that just to Peter?

No, we see two chapters later in Matthew 18, Jesus says, Again, to all of His disciples, I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loose in heaven. He's referring there to the power that God gives to bring new life, liberation from the bondage of Satan and sin through the preaching of the gospel and the ministry of Christ's Holy Spirit. Now some people may object saying that Satan is in no way bound today. We know from 1 Peter 5 that it said that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Jesus, when He was in His earthly ministry, found people who were possessed by demons.

Can we describe this as being bound? I think we can. Consider, for instance, Jude 6, where we read of the angels who did not keep their positions of authority, but abandoned their own home. These He has kept in darkness bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great day. Friends, are not the demons bound now by their rebellion against God, bound now by God's sovereignty, bound now by God's will to ultimately and finally judge them on that day they're being kept for?

Are these not the demons who we see working their destructive ways on the pages of the New Testament in individuals' lives? And do we not see that they have been decisively limited, bound by the coming of Christ and even that their doom has been spoken, that they are bound even by Christ's apostles as His gospel and His Word is preached and declared.

That's the binding of Satan. Number two, that brings me to the question of when Satan is bound. When is Satan bound? Verse 2 here says, For a thousand years.

Though he doesn't say which ears those are. Before I answer that question though, let me make some other broader comments.

Friends, bear with me while I do some in-house cleaning at this point.

I don't know that lives have ever been given over this issue of the thousand years, the millennium.

But certainly fellowship has been broken and cooperation's ended over disagreements on this matter of this thousand-year period, this millennium, mentioned repeatedly here in this chapter. It is therefore necessarily an important issue.

But let me ask you a question.

Is it a sin to have a Baptist church?

Is it a sin to have a Baptist church?

By requiring something for membership which we don't believe to be necessary for salvation, baptism, we are dividing Christ's body over certain kinds of non-essentials. Certainly we would say we want to work together as Christians. As much as we can with all evangelicals, people who believe the same gospel that we believe.

But when it comes to being in the same local congregation, the same church, we understand that we need agreement on those things that are essential for salvation, who God is, what our situation is, who Christ is, what He's done, what we must do in order to be saved. But then there is also this somewhat grayer category of matters which are not essential for salvation but which are essential for the local congregation to work together. Issues exactly like baptism, or what we're going to do about how the church is run, church government, or what we're going to do about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, how we understand they must work in our body and in our public meetings. Or what we understand our relationship to the community is. Are we fundamentally here to make sure the schools on the Hill are better?

Do we judge our faithfulness by how much our non-Christian neighbors appreciate us? Is that our final and guiding standard? All of these things are questions that sincere Christians disagree about. And they are things of such seriousness in deciding how we will order our churches that Christians have found themselves necessarily breaking into Lutheran and Anglican, Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Baptist, Methodist, Charismatic, Pentecostal.

But friends, I think that millennial views need not be among those doctrines that divide us. Now, 60-70% of you may be sitting there thinking, Mark, what are you talking about? But 20-30% of you are sitting there thinking, oh my goodness, I might resign my membership. So I just want you to understand this. That's why I've set this up.

I am suggesting that what you believe about the millennium, how you interpret these thousand years, is not something that it is necessary for us to agree upon in order to have a congregation together.

The Lord Jesus Christ prayed in John 17:21 that we Christians might be one. Of course, all true Christians are one in that we have His Spirit, we share His Spirit, we desire to live out that unity, but that unity is supposed to be evident as a testimony to the world around us. Therefore, I conclude that we should end our cooperations together with other Christians, whether nearly in a congregation or more at length in working together in missions and church planning and evangelism and building up the ministry, only with the greatest of care, lest we rend the body of Christ for whose unity He has prayed and given Himself.

Therefore, I conclude that it is sin to divide the body of Christ, to divide the body that He prayed would be united.

Therefore, for us to conclude that we must agree upon a certain view of alcohol, or a certain view of schooling, or a certain view of meat sacrifice to idols.

Or a certain view of the millennium in order to have fellowship together is, I think, not only unnecessary for the body of Christ, but it is therefore both unwarranted and therefore condemned by Scripture. So if you're a pastor and you're listening to me, you understand me correctly if you think I'm saying you are in sin. If you lead your congregation to have a statement of faith that requires a particular millennial view, I do not understand why that has to be a matter of uniformity in order to have Christian unity in a local congregation.

Now, with those statements about how divisive our conclusion on this matter of the millennium should not be, let's consider what is meant by the thousand years here. All agree it must stand for a long period of time. It's a thousand years. All agree it must stand for a limited period of time. It's not a figurative representation of eternity.

Because we see in verse 7 it ends. All right, this is a period that ends. Okay, can we get more specific than that? Many Christians have thought so. Many have taken this to be exactly 1,000 years.

So Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Cyprian, a number of early church pastors thought this taught a literal, one thousand year kingdom of Christ upon earth. Now just to cut to the chase, I think that this view is based on reading the Old Testament prophecies in a way that the New Testament doesn't do. I don't think that's how the New Testament leads us to interpret the Old.

So for example, a classic example of this, how are we as God's people to understand God's promise to Abram in Genesis 13:15 where he and Lot are looking over the plains and Lot chooses the certain land and he goes and Abram chooses this other land and God says to him in Genesis 13:15, All the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.

How you answer that is going to affect how you read Revelation 20. What does that forever mean? Forever.

How is this promise to be fulfilled? There are scores of other promises like it. It's not just there. It's many, many times in the Old Testament over the next centuries, the same promise was given to Abram's descendants. Now, some Christians take these to be fulfilled in a Jewish occupation of that same land today in the modern nation state of Israel.

Or in a kingdom that will exist at some point in the future? But there are still questions. Will that kingdom include Christians? Will that kingdom last for a thousand years?

Will that kingdom be eternal?

If that kingdom ends after a thousand years, was it really a literal fulfillment? Of God's promise to Abraham, of giving him the land forever.

I think 2 Samuel chapter 7, another promise that God makes in the Old Testament, is helpful for us in understanding how we're to read and interpret this promise of the Lord's. In 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 13 and again in verse 16, God promises that David's kingdom will be established forever. That promise is widely and I think correctly understood to be fulfilled not in an eternal earthly kingdom ruled over by physical descendants of David right now and stretching on unendingly into the future.

Rather, that kingdom is the prefigurement, the shadowy preview of the fuller fulfillment of the kingdom that we see in Christ reigning over His people and His kingdom stretching on into eternity. Now, if this is how promises about David's rule forever are understood to be fulfilled, couldn't this also be how promises about Abraham's land should be understood to be fulfilled? Not as less than, but as more than, this and more. That's the pattern we see in the Bible. We've seen it in this book of Revelation.

Remember back in chapter 7?

Where John hears of the 144,000 from every tribe of Israel that's redeemed. That's what he hears. That's the prophecy. That's the prediction. But then he turns and he looks and what does he see?

Revelation 7:9, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. Oh, but what about the 144,000 of Israel? They're all there. They're all there. I think 144,000 stands for more than that anyway.

I think it means a lot of a lot of a lot. But they're all there. But there's just a lot more there too. That's how God tends to fulfill His prophecies. Now, as well-intentioned as it is, and as many great Christians of the past whom I respect and friends whom I have today whom I love and learn from who hold this idea that there is a future exact 1000 year kingdom to come, I myself cannot be persuaded that this is the most obvious meaning of the text of Scripture.

Alright, well if it doesn't mean this, then what does it mean? Well many of the earliest Christians who wrote about this 1000 years, those who were near in time and place and culture to where John wrote, understood this number to be figurative, representing the time basically from Christ's ascension, His incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension to Christ's return. This is how Jerome took it. This is how Augustine understood it. Another pastor from the early church who understood it this way wrote, Whether this matter is as we have interpreted it, or the thousand years are one hundred times ten, as some believe, or the thousand years are less than this, This is known to God alone who knows how long His patience is beneficial to us.

And He determines the continuance of the present life. Of course, we know from Psalm 90 and 2 Peter 3 that God isn't subject to time like we are. We're taught that with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. That doesn't mean that John's words here of a thousand years are meaningless.

Is significant. This number implies perfection or completion, wholeness, as in Psalm 105 verse 8 where we read of God that He remembers His covenant forever, the word He commanded for a thousand generations. A thousand means not one more than 999, but a really long time, far outlasting our lives. In this world. But we see this time is limited.

From this strange note in verse 3 that Satan now bound will be set free for a short time. So this is number 3 of those subpoints. This is the release of Satan. Right? So I've talked about the binding of Satan and the thousand years now, the release of Satan.

Just to try to clarify this. However much evil is increased and we're not told exactly what this means, it would be useless to speculate on it. But we, dear Christians, we should not worry about this.

Jesus has promised us in John 6:39, this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given Me. But raised them up at the last day. And again, a few chapters later in John 10 verse 28, He said, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. God is sovereign over Satan.

Satan will appear to flourish for a time. That's what we see here in the Verse 3, at the end of verse 3, after that he must be set free for a short time. And then again down in verse 7, When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from the prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, together for battle. And number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves.

What could it mean? That Satan is even temporarily released. I guess we see the answer here in these verses. This must be about as full a description as we get of it. It fits with what Jesus said in the Gospels when He taught about the end, in Mark 13 and Matthew 24.

It fits with what He said about the days close to His return being the worst days. Do you remember that in Mark 13, verse 18? How He described those days right before He returns. Those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning when God created the world until now and never to be equaled again. If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive.

But for the sake of the elect whom He has chosen, He has shortened them.

Friends, why? Why would God in any sense release Satan even for a time? I can only conclude that it must be to provide some ground of exercise and display of God's glory through Christians, as God is shown to be fully sufficient for whatever circumstances He calls us to follow Him through. We Christians triumph over the evil one by our faith in Christ. Every triumph we know is by God's strength and to His glory alone.

Why does God allow me to be tempted like this? Friend, for His glory through you, so that you can see something more of His strength, of His sufficiency, of His goodness, of His power, of His provision, and so yourself become a grounds for displaying that aspect of God's goodness to others.

God is glorified as we rely on Him completely in our prayers and in our lives.

And do note that God's triumph is certain. They may gather for battle here in verse 8. As we've seen in earlier visions in this book, back in chapter 19, verse 19, we saw that last week, and then back in chapter 16. Verses 13 and 14, but always the outcome will be the same. That brings us to number four, the defeat of Satan.

And the sub points, right? Binding of Satan, thousand years, release of Satan. Now, number four, the defeat of Satan. Who's to say? God's to say.

You see, the camp of God's people, as it's called here in verse 9, the church, the city he loves, will be protected.

Look there in verse 9, Just as God had predicted in Ezekiel 38, fire came down and destroyed them. And the devil is doomed. The ancient promise of Genesis 3:15 for the head of the serpent to be crushed is finally fulfilled. And you see it here explicitly in verse 10, the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Who's to say what's right and wrong?

God is.

Myth number two.

People get away with stuff. That's what people assume today. They assume it in their ethics and they assume it in their morality. They assume it in their beds and in their taxes. On their computers and in their words.

They assume it with their money and they assume it with their time. People get away with stuff. Each day's news seems to prove that any claim to morality is obviously hypocritical and self-serving for public consumption only.

But that's not what the Bible teaches. Look again here in chapter 28 verse 11. And I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened.

Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. The great white throne you see in verse 11 symbolizes purity and equity of the judgment of God and its certainty. And note what happens when God appears there in verse 11. Earth and sky fled from his presence.

Now, friends, if you've been reading the book of Revelation, you understand you can't read it as sort of one long chronological allegory. It's not like Pilgrim's Progress. It's not written like that. We've already seen creation dissolve away in this book. There have been earlier visions of this same event.

So earlier in Revelation, chapter 16, verse 20, every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. In fact, it sounds like what happened way back when the sixth seal was opened. In chapter 6 verse 13, which reads, the stars in the sky fell to earth. The sky receded like a scroll rolling up and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Sounds very much like the description we read elsewhere in the Bible.

2 Peter chapter 3 verse 10, the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Creation quails and flees before its Creator as through His judgments finally the eternal day dawns.

And note carefully in verse 12 who is there, the great and the small. No powerful person can buy their way out, can pull strings and use influence. No small person can simply hide. None have so little that they can avoid judgment, none so much that they can escape it. My non-Christian friend, the Bible teaches that everybody is wrong and that every wrong will be judged.

God is holy and perfect, not subject to time, knows all, sees all, and all of us made in His image have sinned against Him. That is, we've turned and rebelled against Him. We have worked with our lives to serve ourselves ultimately rather than Him. And He's a good God. And because He is a good God, He will judge us all for every sin because He is good.

You realize that your own conscience, your own sense of justice, ultimately bears witness against yourself.

The Old Testament teaches us in Daniel chapter 12 and his prophecy, There will be a time of distress such as not happened from the beginning of the nations until then. But at that time your people, everyone whose name is found written in the book will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake. Some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.

We read of God's judgment in the New Testament as well elsewhere. Paul says in Romans 14, We will all stand before God's judgment seat. And he says to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Friends, graves and seas are but prisons. And death the guard whom one day shall obey God's order to open these prisons and bring forth all these captives to face the final judgment of God.

When those books that we read of in verse 12 will be opened. Again, the prophet Daniel has predicted this in Daniel 7:10,000 times 10,000 stood before Him. The court was seated and the books were opened. These books are the books of our deeds, a symbol of God's unfailing notice of all our ways. But we also read there in verse 12, there was another book, a book of life.

Friends, this is the book that Jesus mentioned to His disciples when they came back excited about their authority to bind the demons. And Jesus said, In Luke chapter 10, Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. So we read here in verse 12 of the judgment that Jesus foretold, A time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out. Those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. Oh friends, please understand that this resurrection here in verse 13 will not...

I want to be clear. This resurrection here in verse 13 will not be a good resurrection for you if you have no Savior.

If you go to stand before God on the basis only of what is in those books, those books of record of what you have done, this preacher could not stand.

And I know from God's book, none of you could stand either.

However, that may be. We will all have to stand. How many of these resurrected ones will come forward before the Lord in some sense reluctantly, sensing their doom? But then there will be no alternative. They cannot stop.

They cannot run. They cannot hide. They cannot cease to exist. Elsewhere in the book of Revelation people call on the rocks and the mountains to fall on them, but they fled away so they may come unwillingly, but they will come. Friends, this is a fearsome doctrine.

The governor Felix in Acts 24 says he got scared of it when Paul preached it. Because it strikes a chord in our conscience, even down to the base note of the doom we know we deserve.

But it also contains notes of supreme joy, that God is good and that the right will finally be completely vindicated. And those things that we've known to the depth of our being to be wrong and repulsive will be thrown away. So we read in verse 14, Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. Just like we read about in 1 Corinthians 15, the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Christ is victorious even over death itself.

Do not fail to hear in this picture, in this vision, in this account, the chilling notes of seriousness. So there in verse 14 is the lake of fire. Jesus said He would one day send as the unrighteous to with the words of woe, depart from Me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. So we see here in verse 15, if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Reflecting on this eternal torment, Augustine said, this pain perpetually afflicts but never destroys.

On this day, my friend, all will need a Savior. Friend, you must repent of your sins, turn from them, and trust in Christ. Have faith in Christ and His claims of what He has done as dying as a substitute on the cross, bearing God's judgment for everyone who would Trust in Him. Hear and heed that call to turn and trust. If you want to know more about what that means, speak to me.

I'll be at the door afterwards. Speak to any of the folks at the doors on your way out. We would love to tell you more of what it means to become a Christian. To take Christ as your substitute. That day of wrath, that dreadful day when heaven and earth shall pass away, what power shall be the sinner's stay?

How shall he meet that dreadful day, When shriveling like a parched scroll, the flaming heavens together roll? When louder yet and yet more dread Swells the high trump that wakes the dead, O, on that day, that wrathful day, When man to judgment wakes from clay, Be thou, the trembling sinner's stay, Though heaven and earth shall pass away.

People get away with stuff?

Oh no, they don't. Oh no, they don't. And friend, if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, take this message as God's kindness to you. He has sent this to you as fair warning of the day that is coming. People only appear to get away with stuff and that for a short time.

The truth is that everyone will be judged.

We'll conclude by considering myth number three, a myth that was tempting the Christians John knew and it tempts us today.

Christianity just isn't worth it. Christianity It just isn't worth it. We have to give up too much.

Sexual freedom, secret hatreds, the use of our money to serve ourselves, our time to do whatever we want with it. And that's not mentioning the rejections and persecutions we may have to face if we follow Jesus. Look again at verse 4.

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.

This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them. But they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. As the first line of that verse 4 is kind of like a summary for the verses to follow.

Just as Jesus taught, Christians will judge. Even now we are sitting in reigning judgment over Satan and his hosts. We are even now, we read in Ephesians 2 seated with Christ in heavenly realms. But coming to life here in verse 4, the first resurrection is our regeneration. That's why he can say there in verse 6 that the second death has no power over these.

Who does the second death have no power over those who have been born again? John sees here a vision of a physical resurrection. There's no question about it. But that physical resurrection stands for our resurrection to new life Spiritually. There's still a future physical resurrection of our bodies to come.

Our bodily resurrection will come as Jesus taught in John 6:40 on the last day. Paul certainly uses the language of resurrection about all Christians in our lives now. Colossians 3, Since then you have been raised with Christ. Ephesians 2, and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms. We were dead in our sins and transgressions, and now we are alive with Christ.

So the martyrs here in verse 4 stand for all of those who have faithfully endured and persevered. That is all Christians. The part here stands for the whole. What is it? 2 Timothy 2:12 says, if we endure, we will also reign with Him.

Ah, friends, Christ reigns, and we have begun to reign with Him. Goldsworthy puts it this way: the New Testament shows that all the ingredients of the end are there in the gospel. Man's sin is judged in the person of Christ on the cross. The new humanity is resurrected in Christ and ascends to the right hand of God in Christ. Satan is confounded and cast out.

The decisive conflict has taken place. And the kingdom of Christ is victorious. The old age goes on, but it can never be the same again. All history subsequent to the death and resurrection of Christ is history at the end. Look again at verse 6.

Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them. What a wonderful beatitude. No power over them. None.

None. What a wonderful promise to us as Christians. Maybe you've come here this morning as a Christian wondering, Is it really worthwhile? Do I want to continue to endure this temptation, resisting it, rejecting it all simply for following Jesus?

Has the price seemed too high? My dear Christian brother and sister, take this vision to heart. Don't be scared of death. Don't fear persecution. Don't let threats intimidate you.

Even threats from your own flesh. But praise God that He has shown you the value of following Christ. Consider how we have seen Christ reigning in this this very congregation. He has provided children to the childless and jobs to the unemployed. And his work goes on.

He has provided teaching to the uninstructed and friendship to the lonely. He has provided care for the elderly and encouragement for the weary. He has provided answers to our prayers and counsel for our difficulties. He's helped us to bear our sorrows and our griefs and to share in rejoicing over His blessings. We have elders and deacons and members all faithfully giving themselves to serve each other for the building up of the body.

So Daniel thoughtfully leads us through the service this morning as Karen reads Scripture and Bill leads us in prayer and John and Pat help us with the music. You see, all being done in kindness, kindly to us, to this church, but all really gifts to God ultimately. And really all ultimately gifts from Him to us. Do you understand that? That God is at work in this.

So there is attending and giving and caring and praying. We've seen so many baptized here, like John and like Hans and so many more by God's grace. And Jay and Stella and Bonnie and so many others cared for through terrible trials. We've seen the wandering called back and the stranger brought in. And we've seen so many of our number even to the very gates of heaven.

And there is the supreme mercy of Christ giving us gifts of repentance and saving faith. Which faith God will account to us as Christ's righteousness, so that we may escape the second death that we have deserved, so that it has no power over us. And the glory for all of this doesn't go to this congregation. The glory for all of this goes to God and to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can multiply testimonies of God's faithfulness in Christ to us from every congregation of true Christians.

Friends, I was just looking at letter H in our membership directory to come up with that list. What could I do if I go throughout the directory? If we went throughout the faithful gospel-preaching churches in this city and around this country and indeed around the world, what if we were to hear the testimonies of praise to God for his faithfulness, to Christ for his reigning from every true congregation of Christians from the ascension to his return? Would time be enough to hear it all? How God has blessed us and shown His faithfulness and kindness to us in Christ.

Oh friend, how do you get to have a part of this first resurrection? Well you must, as you see here in verse 15, have your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life. How can you get your name written there? Our efforts cannot do it. Our gifts cannot do it.

Our talents cannot do it. Our family cannot do it. No, if your name is written there, it will be written, my friend, in the red blood of Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us, who gave His life as a ransom for many. Remember the words that we read just last Sunday when we gathered at the Lord's Table? He took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them saying, this is My body given for you.

Do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way after supper, He took the cup saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you. The blood that you and I may be called to shed in order to follow Christ. The blood being shed today by brothers and sisters we have in India, in China, in Burma, in Saudi Arabia, in Iran for following Christ, this blood that we have We have only temporarily. We have it only for a time.

We've actually forfeited it anyway by our sins. But the blood Christ shed for us need never have been spilt. He never sinned. And yet by spilling it for us, He has become our Savior, saving us from the judgment due us for our sins and freeing us from the righteous claims of God against us recorded in those ever-seeing books. Of heaven because our name can be found in the Book of Life.

Oh my friend, if following Christ appears worthwhile to you today, if your own soul is well, it is only because Christ has regarded your helpless estate and has shed His own blood for your soul. Will you trade the pleasures of this passing world for the pleasures with God forevermore? Will you bear your own sin on that day the books are opened, or will you see it nailed wholly to the cross?

Friend, be assured on strength of God's own Word, God will condemn everyone who sins except those who have taken Christ as their sinless substitute to stand in their stead on that most dreadful day, that day of judgment.

Let's pray together.

O God, we pray that by your comprehensive goodness that will not tolerate evil and sin and that will show mercy and grace. O God, we pray you will in love trap us. O Lord, show us in a way we cannot avoid our need and your full provision in Christ. Give gifts freely this day, we pray, of repentance and faith for our eternal good and for glory for you forevermore. We ask in the name of our Savior Jesus.

Amen.