Participants: Pr. David Asscherick (Host),
Series Code: DP
Program Code: DP000018
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00:14 Let's begin with our paragraph right there at the top.
00:17 It says: The word "gospel" means "good news", 00:20 or "good tidings", the whole Bible is filled with good news. 00:25 Even the subject of hell rightly understood is good news, 00:30 there have been, down through the ages, significant 00:33 misunderstandings about the subject of hell, in this lesson 00:35 we will seek to cut through these misunderstandings and 00:39 preprogrammed pictures, in order to arrive at Bible truth. 00:42 If we let the Bible speak we will surely succeed, let's go 00:46 to the book of Revelation 20. And in order to properly 00:50 understand hell we're going to have to look at hell 00:53 in its chronological context, and that is how it relates 00:56 to the issue of the Millennium. How many of you have heard 01:00 that term before "The Millennium" in reference to 01:02 the Bible? 01:04 It's a very simple word, it comes from 2 words: 01:06 "Mille", which is 1000, and "annum", which is "years", 01:09 "one thousand years". We're in Revelation 20:1. 01:13 John says "Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven" 01:16 "having the keys to the bottomless pit, and a great" 01:18 "chain in his hand, and he laid a hold of the dragon", 01:21 who's the dragon? Satan, "that serpent" 01:24 "of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for" 01:27 "a thousand years. " Now, the word "millennium" does 01:29 not actually occur in the Bible, but it comes from this idea 01:32 of 1000 years, "mille", 1000, "annum", years. 01:34 1000 years, so he was bound for 1000 years. 01:36 Verse 3: "And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him" 01:40 "up". Aren't you glad to know that 01:42 Satan's going to be shut up some day? 01:45 [Audience] Amen. "...shut him up and set a seal" 01:47 "on him so that he should deceive the nations no more" 01:51 "until the thousand years are finished. But after these" 01:54 "things he must be released for a little while. " Verse 4: 01:58 "I saw thrones", John said, "and they that sat on them" 02:01 "and judgment was committed to them. " 02:04 "Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded" 02:07 "for their witness to Jesus, and for the Word of God. " 02:09 Serious business to follow the Lord, "who had not worshiped" 02:12 "the beast, nor his image, and who had not received the mark" 02:14 "in their foreheads or in their hands, and they lived" 02:17 "and reigned with Christ for one thousand years. " 02:19 Verse 5: "But the rest of the dead lived not again until" 02:22 "the thousand years were finished, this is the first" 02:25 "resurrection. " Verse 6: "Blessed and holy is he who" 02:28 "has part in the first resurrection, over such" 02:31 "the second death has no power, and they shall be priests" 02:35 "of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him" 02:38 "for one thousand years. " So you see that time several 02:41 times: one thousand years. Now, you'll notice something, 02:45 the Bible speaks of the second death, let me just be very 02:50 plain with you, right at the outset, the second death 02:52 is hell, that's what hell is, hell is the second death. 02:56 Think of that for just a moment, if you have a second death, 02:59 what do you have by definition? You have a first death. 03:01 And why does the Bible make the point of saying 03:03 "this is the first resurrection"? 03:06 Because there are, in fact, 2 resurrections. 03:08 Look at your study guide there, it says: The clear teaching 03:12 of Scripture is that there are 2 resurrections. Jesus Himself 03:16 affirmed this in John 5:28, we've already quoted that 03:18 verse for you in our last presentation, when Jesus said 03:21 "Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in the which" 03:23 "all who are in the graves will hear His voice. " 03:27 "Some will come forth to the resurrection of life, " 03:29 "and others to the resurrection of condemnation. " 03:32 So there are 2 resurrections, and we get that right 03:35 from Revelation 20 where it says "this is the first" 03:38 "resurrection. " So what we have here, 03:40 very simple, the Millennium is a period of time, 1000 years, 03:44 that is bookended, that is to say, on this end you have 03:47 a bookend, so to speak, and on this end you have a bookend, 03:50 and those 2 bookends are the resurrections. 03:53 The first resurrection takes place at the beginning of 03:56 the Millennium, the second resurrection takes place at 03:59 the end of the Millennium. Now let's just cut right 04:01 to the chase, the first resurrection is the resurrection 04:03 of the righteous, that's why it says "Blessed and holy is he" 04:08 "who has part in the first resurrection. " 04:10 The second resurrection then, would be the resurrection 04:13 of the wicked. Now think about this for just 04:16 a moment: when Jesus returns there will be 4 groups 04:19 of people, you might have heard me say before, there will be 04:21 2 groups, but I want to make it a little more complex, 04:24 and a little more accurate. In the past we've said there 04:26 are 2 groups of people, the wheat and the tares, 04:29 but we're further going to subdivide the wheat and 04:32 the tares into the living and the dead, so there will be 04:34 4 groups of people. You have the righteous 04:36 living and the righteous dead, and the wicked living and 04:39 the wicked dead. Every single person that 04:41 is living or has ever lived, can fit into 1 of those 4 04:43 category: either the righteous living or the righteous dead, 04:47 or the wicked living or the wicked dead. 04:49 So far so good, so let's look at the 5 evens that begin 04:52 the Millennium. We know that the Millennium 04:55 takes place here at the time of the first resurrection, 04:58 then there's that period of 1000 years where Satan is bound, 05:00 and then the second resurrection comes at the end of the 1000 05:02 years, let's try and put this together. 05:04 The second coming is the event, the first event, that commences, 05:08 or begins, the Millennium. What is it everyone? 05:11 The second coming of Christ. There are many evidences 05:14 that we could give to this, but let's just look at 05:16 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17: [text on screen] 05:28 So is someone going to be alive when Jesus returns? 05:32 Just like Elijah, and just like Enoch, they will go 05:34 to heaven without seeing death, the theological term for that, 05:37 the technical term for that is they will be "translated", 05:42 that is, they will be lifted from here to there without 05:46 ever having to pass through that experience of death. 05:48 So notice what it says: [text on screen] 05:58 And someone tells me: "Tell me please, what does the word" 06:01 " 'asleep' mean in this context in the Bible. " 06:03 [Audience] Death. That's exactly right. 06:05 Notice the next verse, verse 16: [text on screen] 06:15 So that is to say that those who had fallen asleep with their 06:18 faith in Jesus, they will be resurrected first. 06:23 That's what we just read. "Blessed and holy is he" 06:26 "who has part in the first resurrection, on such" 06:28 "the second death has no power", and that's exactly what Paul 06:30 says here. The dead in Christ rise first, 06:34 not second, but first. Notice verse 17 [text on screen] 06:49 So, when Jesus Christ returns, the resurrection of 06:52 the righteous takes place. So those are the first 2 events 06:57 that begin the Millennium, all we're going to do is very 07:00 simple, we're going to look at 5 events that begin 07:02 the Millennium, and then 5 events that end the Millennium, 07:04 and you'll be able to see that basically you have this period 07:07 of 1000 years, here's the 5 events that commence the 07:10 Millennium, here's the 5 events that end the Millennium, 07:12 and in the meantime, the Devil's on a 1000 year vacation 07:16 where he's shut up. Okay, so the resurrection of 07:19 the righteous takes place as we have already said. 07:22 The next is the translation of the living righteous. 07:25 Let's go back to those 4 groups of people, the righteous living 07:28 and the righteous dead, we've already dealt with those 2 07:30 groups of people. What happens to the righteous 07:33 living when Jesus returns? The Bible says they are 07:37 translated, or caught up, with God into heaven. 07:40 They are translated. What happens to the righteous 07:45 dead when Jesus returns? Resurrected. 07:47 So we've already dealt with 2 of our 4 groups. 07:50 4 groups of people: the righteous living and 07:53 the righteous dead, the wicked living and the wicked dead. 07:55 We've already dealt with 2 of them because those that had 07:58 fallen asleep in Christ are raised from the dead, and those 08:00 who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord are going 08:03 to be translated to heaven without seeing death, 08:05 and "Oh Lord, when the saints go marching in, I want to be in" 08:08 "that number". So see, we're just working 08:10 our way through this in a methodical manner. 08:13 [text on screen] 08:17 So now we continue, 1 Corinthians 15:51, this is 08:20 exactly what the apostle Paul says: [text on screen] 08:27 "sleep" - what's the a reference to? We will not all die. 08:30 [continues to read text] 08:37 Second time we've seen that tonight, notice verse 52: 08:39 [text on screen] 08:54 So that takes place at the last trump, he says we won't all 08:58 "sleep", but we will all be changed. 09:02 So, second coming of Jesus: the righteous are resurrected, 09:04 the translation of the living righteous, the wicked living 09:08 are slain. That is to say, the Bible says 09:11 that they are destroyed with the brightness, or the glory, 09:14 of His coming. On one occasion Moses was 09:16 on top of Mount Sinai and he said to God: "God, I want" 09:19 "to see what You look like", and God said "I'll show" 09:21 "you what I look like on 3 conditions, number 1: I'm going" 09:24 "to put you in the cleft of the rock. Number 2: I'm going" 09:26 "to put My hand over you, and number 3: you have to see" 09:28 "only My back parts because no man can see My face and live. " 09:32 The idea is that if God just decided to make an appearance 09:35 tonight in this room, in this unmuted glory, everyone of us 09:40 would be immediately, instantaneously vaporized 09:43 because of the amazing consuming fire of the glory of God. 09:49 Very simple. So what happens to the wicked, 09:51 those who are alive when Jesus returns, they are slain either 09:54 by the cataclysm of the events surrounding the second coming, 09:57 or by His glory. Notice this from 10:00 1 Thessalonian 1:7,8, very simple, easy to understand. 10:04 [text on screen] 10:24 According to this verse is it important that we obey the Lord 10:27 Jesus Christ? Not in order to be saved, 10:29 but because we have been saved. Verse 9: [text on screen] 10:39 So those who are alive and remaining of the wicked, when 10:42 Jesus returns in His resplendent glory, they are destroyed 10:46 with the brightness of His coming. I can quote you another 10:48 text, 2 Thessalonians 2:8, but you can just write that down. 10:52 This is 1 Thessalonians 1:8, but 2 Thessalonians 2:8 says 10:56 the same thing. So we've dealt with 3 of 10:58 the 4 groups. In fact, actually we've dealt 11:02 with all 4 if you just think about it. 11:04 So what happens to the righteous living when Jesus returns? 11:09 They're called up and translated. What happens 11:12 to the righteous dead when Jesus returns? 11:14 Resurrected. What happens when to the wicked 11:17 living when Jesus returns? Destroyed by the brightness 11:19 of His coming, and what would happen to the wicked dead? 11:22 Nothing, they would just stay there. 11:24 We'll come back to that in a minute. 11:26 Incidentally, there's going to be a second resurrection, 11:29 who do you think will come up in the second resurrection? 11:32 Think about it, if the righteous come up in the first 11:33 resurrection, who would come up in the second resurrection? 11:36 The wicked, so there's no point in anything happening to 11:38 the wicked dead at this point, because they're going to stay 11:40 dead through the 1000 years, and at the close of the 1000 11:42 years they'll be raised from the dead. 11:45 In fact, let me just show you that very quickly, go back 11:47 to Revelation 20, what I'm trying to do here, instead 11:52 of keeping you in suspends and then saying "Aha! Drama! ", 11:56 I'm just giving you the whole picture right from the Bible 11:59 so you can see it plain as the noonday sun. 12:01 Revelation 20:5, it says: "But the rest of the dead", 12:08 that would be the wicked, "did not live again until the 1000" 12:11 "years were finished. " There it is, let's continue on. 12:14 So these are the 5 events that commence the Millennium: 12:20 [text on screen] 12:33 So far so good, this is very simple. 12:35 Notice that it says that Satan is bound with a chain. 12:41 I'm reading in Revelation 20:1,2 "Then I saw an angel coming" 12:44 "down from heaven having a key to the bottomless pit, and" 12:47 "a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, " 12:50 "the serpent of old, who was called the Devil, and Satan, " 12:53 "and he bound him for 1000 years. " 12:55 We're going to ask a very legitimate question here: 12:58 is Satan bound with a literal chain? What are these chains 13:00 that bind Satan? Is it realistic to expect that 13:04 a spiritual being would be bound with a literal chain? 13:07 I think the answer is no. What we discover, according 13:10 to the Bible is that Satan is bound with a chain of 13:14 circumstances. In the same way I might say 13:16 "Oh, I'd love to have lunch with you, I'd love to be able" 13:18 "to come over, I'd love to be able to do such and such, " 13:21 "but my hands are tied. " Are my hands really tied? 13:24 No, what I'm saying is that circumstances beyond my control 13:26 are making it difficult for me to work you into my schedule, 13:29 or for you to work me into your schedule, so I say 13:32 "Oh, my hands are tied", but my hands aren't really tied. 13:34 So when it says that Satan is bound, it means that He's bound 13:37 by a chain of circumstances. Think about that first just 13:39 a moment. Satan's job is to deceive and 13:43 to destroy human beings. Oh, but wait a minute, where are 13:47 all the human beings at this point? 13:49 Well let's go down our 4 groups of people, where are the 13:52 righteous living? They've been caught up. 13:55 Where were the righteous dead? They've been caught up. 13:59 How about the wicked living? They've been slain. 14:02 And what about the wicked dead? They remain dead. 14:04 So where is everyone? They're gone at this point. 14:07 You're going to say "where are they gone? " 14:10 We're going to talk about that in just a moment, but if no 14:13 one's around for Satan to deceive, and to destroy, 14:16 and to harass, then he would be bound by a chain 14:18 of circumstances because there's nothing he can do. 14:22 I mean, the idea of binding Satan with a literal rope, 14:24 or a literal chain is not exactly what the revelator 14:27 had in mind. Notice Revelation 6:15 describing 14:30 the second coming, it says: [text on screen] 14:41 This is a horrific scene describing the second coming 14:44 of Jesus for those who have not put their faith in the Lord. 14:47 [text on screen] 14:56 Notice it doesn't say "the wrath of the lion". 14:58 Gentlemen, I dare say that if you were walking through 15:01 the woods with you sweet friend, perhaps your wife, or maybe 15:04 just a special friend, and a lamb jumped out on the pathway, 15:07 and you say "Baaaaah! " and ran cowering in the opposite 15:10 direction, I don't think that things would ever be the same 15:13 between you and your spouse again. [Audience laughs] 15:15 Notice it says here: "from the wrath of the Lamb". 15:19 What's going on here? They hadn't put their faith 15:21 in Jesus as the Messiah, so now, when He returns, they're afraid 15:24 of Him. Absolutely amazing. 15:26 Verse 17: [text on screen] 15:33 The rocks are falling, it's a great cataclysmic, catastrophic, 15:37 cacophonous event, the rocks are falling everywhere. 15:40 The Bible says in Peter that the rocks were melting with 15:42 fervent heat, there's a great earthquake, and the people 15:45 are literally running to the rocks saying "Hide us from" 15:47 "the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath" 15:49 "of the Lamb. " Next verse is Isaiah 24:19, 20: 15:54 [text on screen] 16:02 This is describing the second coming, [continues to read] 16:26 So when Jesus returns, it is a cataclysmic, catastrophic event. 16:32 This was described in many different ways, in both the Old 16:35 and the New Testament, it says a great earthquake, or as 16:37 a mighty thundering, it says that every island and mountain 16:39 is disappearing, it's going to be an absolutely amazing event. 16:44 Isaiah 24:22: [text on screen] 16:55 This is describing the Millennium event, 16:58 Jesus Christ returns, the earth is put into a state 17:00 of disrepair, it is utterly shattered and destroyed. 17:03 The wicked go down into the grave for 1000 years, but notice 17:07 it says "after many days they will be punished. " 17:11 You're getting it. So you should be able to fill 17:13 all of that in there, look at your study guide at the bottom 17:17 of page 1, it says: The Bible describes the earth 17:21 as being a bottomless pit. This phrase comes from the Greek 17:28 word "abussos", let's see if we can find that. 17:30 It's right here, this is the word: [text on screen] 17:32 The Greek word, when it says the earth is like a bottomless 17:35 pit, is that word right there: "abussos", and what 17:38 English word does that sound like? "Abyss". 17:41 That's what you'd write there. 17:44 This is very important: Not coincidentally the word 17:47 "abussos" is used to translate the condition of the earth 17:51 in Genesis 1:1, where it says "the earth was without form" 17:55 "and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep". 17:58 In the Septuagint, now, the Septuagint is the Greek 18:01 translation of the Old Testament, so the Greeks, they 18:05 translated, in the days of Jesus, they didn't always 18:07 read the Old Testament in Hebrew, they took the Old 18:09 Testament, which is originally written in Hebrew, 18:11 and they wrote it in Greek, and when they 18:14 translated those verses there in Genesis 1, it says 18:17 "the earth was without form and void", they used that word 18:19 "abussos". The idea is of a great abyss 18:23 without form, and void. We've given you several texts 18:26 there at the bottom that corroborate that. 18:28 Basically, John the revelator saw this earth absolutely 18:32 thrashed and trashed after the second coming of Jesus. 18:36 To him it looked like a great bottomless pit. 18:39 Mountains had been laid to waste, islands had disappeared, 18:42 there was no man, total destruction reigned, 18:45 we've already seen the rocks and the mountains are falling, etc. 18:49 This raises the question we've actually already answered: 18:51 is there anyone alive on earth during the Millennium? 18:54 What's the answer? No. Now, you might say "Yes, " 18:56 "someone is alive", but who would that be? 18:59 Satan and his angels. Notice the top of the 19:01 second page of the study guide. The earth is desolate following 19:05 the second coming, Satan and the fallen angels are left alone 19:07 for 1000 years to contemplate the willful result of their 19:11 rebellious experiment. The righteous are in heaven, 19:15 but what are they doing there? That's a good question, we're 19:18 going to see that in just a moment, go back 19:20 to Revelation 20:4. 19:29 "And I saw thrones, and they that sat on them, and judgment" 19:34 "was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of them who had" 19:37 "been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for" 19:40 "the Word of God, that had not worshiped the beast or his" 19:42 "image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on" 19:45 "their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ for" 19:48 "one thousand years. " Notice it says that judgment was 19:50 given to them, very interesting. Look at this prophecy from 19:54 Jeremiah 4:23-24, Jeremiah in vision says: [text on screen] 20:03 That sounds like creation doesn't it? 20:05 The problem is he's not talking about creation at all, 20:07 and you'll discover that here in just a moment. 20:10 [continues to read] 20:32 So is this talking about creation? Not at all, 20:34 this is talking about destruction, but when Jeremiah 20:37 perceived it, when Isaiah perceived it, when John 20:39 the revelator perceived the earth after the destruction 20:41 that had commenced at the second coming of Jesus, it looked 20:44 to them like the earth probably looked in the beginning, 20:47 just a void, vacuous mass. He says in verse 27: 20:52 [text on screen] 20:59 Something is going to happen at the end of the 1000 years. 21:04 Jeremiah 25:33: [text on screen] 21:10 "lamented" - that means no one's going to be crying for them, 21:12 no one's going to be crying for them, [continues to read] 21:18 It's just a very ugly picture, a terrible picture. 21:20 So there are the 5 events: [text on screen] 21:30 So far so good, we're doing great. 21:32 So there's our 1000 years, here's the first part, 21:34 come all the way down and here's the second part with the second 21:37 resurrection. We did ask the question, 21:39 the righteous are in heaven, but what are they doing? 21:41 Well, we've seen in Revelation 20:4 that they are 21:44 looking at books. Let me show you a very, very 21:48 interesting verse that many New Testament Christians are not 21:51 even aware exists, it's found in the little book 21:54 of 1 Corinthians, see if you can find that in the New Testament, 21:56 1 Corinthians 6. So you have: Matthew, Mark, 22:00 Luke, John, Acts, Romans, and then 1 Corinthians 6. 22:04 Very unusual verse, an interesting verse, Paul was 22:06 writing to the church at Corinth, and they were suing 22:09 one another. Paul writes a letter of rebuke 22:14 to them and he says something very interesting in 22:16 1 Corinthians 6:1: "Dare any of you, having a matter against" 22:21 "another, go to the law before the unrighteous and not before" 22:25 "the saints? " Verse 2: "Do you not know that the saints will" 22:29 "judge the world? "According to Paul, are the saints going 22:34 to judge the world? If you think that's amazing, 22:37 look at what he says next: "And if the world is going" 22:40 "to be judged by you, are you not unworthy to judge in" 22:42 "the smallest matters? " In other words: "Hey, listen, " 22:45 "why are you taking one another to court? You're going to judge" 22:47 "the whole world, stop messing around with these trifling, " 22:50 "little, silly, matters. " And look at verse 3, this is 22:52 absolutely out of this world: "Do you not know that we" 22:56 "will judge angels? How much more the things that pertain" 23:01 "to this life? " With a raising of hands, how 23:04 many people knew that we would be judging angels? 23:08 That's going to be new information for a whole lot 23:11 of people. Does Paul say that the saints 23:13 will judge the world? Does Paul say that the saints 23:16 will judge angels? Absolutely! So here's what's happening: 23:19 all the wicked: dead, slain or remained in the grave; 23:24 the righteous are in heaven because this earth is an 23:28 absolute desolate wilderness, and they're in heaven judging. 23:33 You say: "What? They're in heaven judging? " 23:36 That's exactly what the Bible says, look at it again in 23:39 Revelation 20:4. John says: "I saw thrones, and they that" 23:46 "sat upon them, and judgment was committed to them. " 23:51 So here the righteous are judging. 23:54 You say: "In what sense are they judging? " 23:56 Very simple, I'll give you the quick answer. 23:59 When you get to heaven there are going to be 3 surprises, 24:01 number 1: that you're there. [Audience laughs] 24:06 Number 2: people that you were just sure were going to be there 24:11 aren't going to be there. Beloved, it's not uncommon, 24:14 it's not something that you don't know, even just recently 24:17 we had this very well known, White House counseling 24:21 evangelist in Colorado named Ted Haggard, and there's these 24:25 accusations against him, and boom, it turns up that he's 24:28 probably using crystal meths, and hiring male prostitutes. 24:31 Now, the jury's still out, but those are the charges against 24:34 him, there's going to be a lot of people that said: 24:36 "Oh yeah, he's bound for heaven", and I'm not making 24:39 a judgment on Ted Haggard, what I'm showing is that people may 24:41 be living the religious life, but you don't know what's going 24:44 on behind the scenes. I can fool you, but I can't fool 24:47 the Lord. But then there's going to be 24:50 other people who you thought were absolute jerks your whole 24:52 life, and you thought: "No way! I'm so glad I'm going" 24:55 "to heaven, I'm not going to have to be with that guy. " 24:57 And you're going to be walking down the golden streets one day, 25:00 you're going to look across... "No! Johnny Stanton made it" 25:05 "to heaven?! " [whistles] "Johnny, what happened? " 25:09 He's going to tell you this powerful story of how he was 25:12 converted and he's so sorry for all those times he beat you up 25:14 on the playground, and stole your lunch money, whatever 25:17 it was. [Audience laughs] So there'll be 3 surprises 25:19 when you get to heaven, number 1: you're there; number 2: 25:21 people you thought should be there aren't going to be there; 25:24 and people you thought would never make it are going to be 25:26 there, and we're going to have questions in heaven. 25:29 I have questions right now. Someone asked just the other 25:32 night: "Well, what about all the aborted babies? " 25:34 Hey, I don't know the answer to that question, but God knows 25:37 the answer. Before I became a Christian I 25:40 had a job for 3 years taking care of people with 25:43 developmental disabilities, Down Syndrome, Autism, and other 25:46 things, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and I had good friends, 25:48 but most of them had mental capacities of 2-7 year olds, 25:51 and I was friends with these people, and I always wondered 25:53 after I became a Christian "how will God judge them? " 25:56 We're going to have questions. So someone you just thought 25:59 for sure was going to be in heaven, turns up not there. 26:01 You're going to say "Well God, what gives? " 26:04 He's going to say, "Well, come here and I'll show you what" 26:05 "gives, take a look in the books. " 26:06 We'll be going over the books, not to change any of God's 26:10 judgments, but to say "Just is true are Your ways, " 26:14 "O King of saints". We're going to say 26:17 "But God, we've always had this question... ", and I know every 26:20 person in this room had this question: "what about" 26:22 "the Devil, You knew the Devil was going to fall, why did You" 26:25 "create the Devil... ", of course, God didn't create 26:27 the Devil, He created Lucifer, and Lucifer, by his own choice, 26:30 created the Devil, but you know what I'm saying. 26:32 "Why did You allow that to happen? " 26:35 There's not a person in this room who hasn't asked that 26:37 question. So we say "Hey God, what about" 26:40 "that one? " He's going to say "Let me show you. " 26:42 Notice it said in 1 Corinthians 6 that we would 26:44 judge angels. Lucifer was a fallen angel, 26:47 so we're going to be looking at the decisions that God made, 26:50 and God's going to say "Hey look, I didn't do everything" 26:52 "in a corner, I'm not trying to hide these things from you. " 26:55 "Take a look at the decisions and the judgments that I've" 26:57 "made, and you tell me if you would have done anything" 27:00 "different. " And the Bible says in 27:02 Revelation 15 at the end of all this we will cry out: 27:05 "Just and true are Thy ways, O King of saints". 27:07 But this tells us something awesome about our God, 27:09 He is not going to administer a terminal judgment until He is 27:12 totally satisfied that all of the citizens of His kingdom are 27:14 satisfied that He has made just, and true, and loving judgments, 27:19 because if that wasn't the case sometime throughout 27:22 the ceaseless ages of eternity, we might wonder why God did 27:25 this, or this, or this, or this, and if we don't have good 27:28 answers, we may be tempted to serve God out of fear. 27:34 But this is not a proper reason to serve God, it's not a proper 27:37 motivator. God will only accept the service 27:39 of love. So we will be in heaven going 27:41 over the books and reviewing, this is what's called a judicial 27:44 review. Any attorney can tell you there's such a thing as 27:47 as judicial review, and that's what's going to be happening 27:50 with the righteous in heaven. Now, there are 5 events 27:52 that close the Millennium, and you write in your study guide, 27:55 let's see how quickly we can do this. 5 events. 27:57 So, at the end of the Millennium the wicked are raised. 28:02 We already read that in Revelation 20:5, I'll read it 28:05 for you again very quickly: "The rest of the dead live not" 28:08 "again until the 1000 years were finished. " 28:11 So, here it comes, the end of the Millennium, the wicked are 28:13 raised. Number 2: Satan is set free. 28:16 Think about that, that makes such good sense. 28:18 It's not as though Satan is bound with a literal chain, 28:23 he was bound by a chain of circumstances because there 28:26 was no one around to tempt. But if all of the wicked are 28:29 suddenly raised to life, is he not released from those 28:32 circumstances that bound him? [Audience] Yes. 28:35 Because there would be people to tempt and to harass. 28:40 Notice, number 3: [text on screen] 28:44 You picked that up in 21 Revelation, I'm reading 28:47 quickly: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth", 28:49 verse 1, "for the first heaven and the first earth were passed" 28:52 "away and there was no more sea. " 28:54 "Then I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming" 28:57 "down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned" 29:00 "for her husband. " So the New Jerusalem begins 29:02 to descend, all of the righteous are in the New Jerusalem. 29:05 Powerful, the New Jerusalem descending, John saw it as 29:07 a bridge prepared and adorned for her husband. 29:10 So, the wicked are destroyed. You say: "What? The wicked" 29:14 "are destroyed? I missed that part", go to Revelation 20. 29:17 You've got to see this, this is absolutely, fantasbulously, 29:19 Biblically powerful. Revelation 20:7, it says: 29:27 "Now when the thousand years have expired Satan will be" 29:30 "released from his prison. " Question: what releases him 29:33 from his prison? The resurrection of the wicked, 29:38 so now there are people to tempt. 29:40 So the Devil begins to marshal them all together, and what 29:42 does he do? Verse 8: "He goes out to deceive", 29:45 he's right back to his old games, he didn't repent, 29:47 he had 1000 years to think about his foolish and unwise 29:50 decisions, and the moment he's given another opportunity, 29:53 he's right back to the same old, same old: deceive, deception. 29:57 It says: "He goes out to deceive the nations which were in" 30:00 "the 4 corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather" 30:02 "them together, who's number is as the sand of the sea. " 30:05 Think of it, every single wicked person who has ever lived 30:09 is alive at that moment. Every one of them is alive 30:12 right then and there, every person who hadn't put their 30:15 faith in Jesus Christ. Verse 9: "They went up on" 30:18 "the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of" 30:20 "the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down" 30:23 "from God out of heaven and devoured them. " 30:26 They're going to try and take the city by force. 30:30 Satan deceives them, he says: "Hey, we can take that city, " 30:32 "that's my city", who knows what he says to try and persuade 30:36 them in the ludicrous, ill-fated adventure; he says "we can take" 30:39 "the city", and when God looks down and sees that none 30:43 of the wicked are repentant - never forget this people, 30:48 never, never forget this: if anyone in this room is lost, 30:52 it will not be because God wouldn't accept you, but because 30:56 you chose not to accept God. There's not going to be anybody 31:01 that God says "I didn't like him, I didn't want her" 31:03 "up there. " No! If anyone is lost in this room, 31:07 or out of this room, it'll be because they said "I don't" 31:09 "want to have anything to do with God", God is a gentleman, 31:12 He will not twist your arm and make you do the right thing. 31:17 But like a rabid dog who knows he's going to die anyway, 31:21 one last chance, one last fix, and they begin to surround 31:25 the city to try and take by force what they wouldn't 31:28 receive by grace. 31:34 The Bible says that fire comes down from God out of heaven 31:36 and devours them. So the wicked are destroyed, 31:42 all the wicked who have ever lived try to take the city 31:45 by force. Verse 9: [text on screen] 31:53 What does the word "devour" mean? It means "destroy", 31:56 and then the earth is made new. You're in Revelation 20:14, 32:07 it says: "Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of" 32:11 "of fire. This is the second death. " 32:15 So if you have a second death, what do you know you have. 32:18 [Audience] First death. It's a mathematical [act], 32:20 theological truth, that is you have a second death, you have a 32:23 first death, and then notice verse 15: "Anyone not found" 32:26 "written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire", 32:28 what's the lake of fire? It's that fire that descends 32:31 from God out of heaven and devours them, then the very 32:33 next thing that you see, Revelation 20:1, John sees that 32:37 holy city, that wonderful city, the New Jerusalem descending 32:39 from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her 32:42 husband, right down on the planet earth, and then God 32:44 makes a new earth. You say "Whoa, wait a minute! " 32:49 "God makes a new earth? " Absolutely. 32:51 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. " 32:57 Absolutely powerful, and I could give...Lord have mercy, we could 33:00 go on, and on, and on, "the meek shall inherit the earth". 33:03 There will be people who have put their trust in Jesus, 33:05 there will be no pain, no death, no sorrow, no disease, 33:09 the Bible says the former things have passed away. 33:11 No war, no terrorism, no 9/11, no conspiracy theories, 33:16 no garbage, no trash. I'm tempted to say no 33:20 republicans, and no democrats either, hallelujah! 33:23 [Audience laughs] Only Christians. 33:25 "The meek shall inherit the earth. " 33:28 Praise God in heaven, I'm tired of this old place. 33:31 Everybody that's alive will be either inside that city, that's 33:35 the righteous, or outside of the city, that's the wicked. 33:38 I'm looking at your study guide: inside or outside. 33:42 At the close of the Millennium, following the resurrection of 33:45 the wicked everyone who has ever lived will be alive all 33:48 at the same time. What a sight that will be. 33:52 All of the righteous inside the city, the New Jerusalem, 33:54 all of the wicked will be outside the city, the New 33:57 Jerusalem, the Bible says that the walls of the New Jerusalem 33:59 are clear. Revelation 21:18, clear gold. 34:03 The righteous and the wicked will be able to see one another, 34:05 the wicked make an effort to overtake the city by force, 34:08 it is at this time that the fires of the vengeance of 34:10 the judgment of God descend upon them, and devour them. 34:14 Now hear, I'm going to tell you something that's absolutely 34:16 amazing from a Biblical perspective, that fire that 34:19 devours them, that brings about the second death, 34:22 that fire is hell. 34:26 That's hell! Let me just make this as plain 34:29 as can be: hell is not burning right now. 34:33 I don't know what you believed before, but I'm going to tell 34:36 you Biblically: hell is not burning right now, 34:39 purgatory is not burning right now, there's not one 34:41 scintilla, one iota of Bible evidence that says anything 34:44 about a purgatory, that's a tradition. 34:47 Also, this idea that hell is right now, and people are 34:50 down in the hot place getting poked by the Devil, 34:52 and he's turning them over in skewers throughout 34:54 the ceaseless... Give me a break! 34:57 this is the most ridiculous thing, you won't find anything 34:59 in the Bible about that. This fire that descends at 35:02 the close of the Millennium, that devours the rebellious, 35:04 this is hellfire. Now, let's move to the next 35:07 part of our study, this idea of hell. 35:10 Jesus said: [text on screen] 35:14 That's a good question. If we're going to call ourselves 35:17 Christians then we should be obeying Jesus and not 35:20 anyone else. I love Jesus' question, He's 35:23 able to cut right to the heart of the matter, He says: 35:26 "Hey, why are you calling Me Lord, and don't do the things" 35:28 "I say? " It's easy to put a little 35:30 sticker on the back of your Honda Accord, it's quite 35:33 a different thing to obey the Lord of glory. 35:35 He says: "Hey, whoa, you call yourself a Christian, why do" 35:38 "you call Me Lord and don't do what I ask you? " 35:41 The Lord Jesus gives us His plain, explicit commands, 35:44 the 10 commandments, and we could talk about the simple 35:46 things that God has made clear, and He says: "Hey, if you're" 35:49 "going to call Me 'Lord', why don't you do what I say, " 35:53 "or what I command? " Very simple. 35:55 The word "hell" occurs 54 times in the Bible. 35:57 I'm going to see if you can keep up with me, it's right 35:58 there in your study guide. The word "hell" occurs 54 times 36:03 in the King James version of the Bible. 36:05 [text on screen] 36:14 The reason that I'm bringing that out is this: 36:16 if I say "hell", and I say "What picture comes to your mind? " 36:19 I can almost guarantee flames come to your mind, lava comes 36:22 to your mind, fire and brimstone comes to your mind, 36:25 that is not what would have come to the mind of a Hebrew. 36:28 The word "hell" is from the word "sheol", which simply means 36:30 "grave", it had no connotation of burning whatsoever; 36:37 and that's every use of hell in the Old Testament. 36:40 Every use in of hell the Old Testament, 31 times, 36:42 it's the word "sheol", which simply means "grave". 36:46 [text on screen] 36:53 You want to write those down, and only 1 of those words 36:55 has anything to do with burning, and that's that word "gehenna". 37:00 "Hades" is just exactly like the Old Testament word, 37:04 "sheol", it means "grave", or "place of the departed". 37:08 So we're going to ask several questions here about hell. 37:11 We're going to ask: When does hell take place? 37:13 Where does hell take place? Which we've actually already 37:16 answered; and how long? So we're right there 37:19 at the top of your study guide, page 3, praise the Lord Jesus, 37:22 we're making good time. Here we go: when is hell? 37:26 Well, first of all, hell is not right now. 37:31 Hell takes place at the end of the Millennium. 37:34 When is hell? Hell takes place after the 1000 37:36 years. Question 2: where is hell? 37:40 Hell takes place right here on planet earth. 37:42 Hell is not some place underneath the ground if you dig 37:45 down far enough through the various layers of sediment 37:48 you're going to find a hot place down there with several 37:50 barbecue pits. No, hell takes place right here on planet 37:54 earth. When the fires that descend from God devour 37:58 the wicked and actually is recreated anew, the earth 38:02 made new. So that answers the question of when, that answers 38:06 the question of where, now look at this one: what about 38:09 the question of how long? The question "how long? " 38:11 is an easily answered question. Buckle your safety belts 38:19 by the way, do you have safety belts on your seats? 38:21 You might want to buckle them. As we've already learned, 38:24 human beings are not naturally immortal. 38:32 Immortality is a gift from God that comes as a result 38:38 of accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour. 38:41 Let's all say it together: "For God so loved the world" 38:45 "that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth" 38:49 "in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. " 38:53 So if you believe, what do you get? Everlasting life. 38:56 But if you don't believe, what do you get? Perishing. 38:59 Notice it doesn't say "For God so loved the world that He" 39:01 "gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him" 39:04 "should have everlasting life in the eternal fires of hell, " 39:07 "but have everlasting life in heaven. " 39:09 Is that what the verse says? No, the verse says whoever 39:11 believes in Him won't perish, but have the opposite 39:16 of perishing, which is everlasting life. 39:19 This gets absolutely incredible. You need to hone in on these 39:21 underlined sections: It is absolutely critical to 39:24 understand this simple point: if man is not immortal, then 39:29 there is no need for hell to burn throughout the ceaseless 39:32 eternal ages. To put it another way, the foundational reason 39:36 that hell has been assumed to be eternal is that man has been 39:39 assumed to be immortal, and thus indestructible. 39:43 It is essential that this be understood, if man is not 39:45 immortal, then there is no need to insist that hell is eternal. 39:49 Think of it this way, here it is: the fires of hell, 39:54 right here, just pretend on this stage. 39:57 And we're going to say that this clicker is a man, and this man 39:59 is naturally immortal, that's the Pagan belief. 40:05 There's the fire flaming, infernal barbecue pit of hell. 40:08 So if we put man in there, and man is immortal, how long before 40:12 he's destroyed? Could he ever be destroyed? 40:16 So then, by definition, how long does this have to burn? 40:19 Throughout the ceaseless eternal ages. 40:21 But wait a minute! What if our assumption is wrong? 40:24 What if man is not naturally immortal? 40:26 What if, as the Bible says, "the soul that sinneth, " 40:28 "it shall die"? What if "the wages of sin" 40:31 "is death"? What if "God so loved the world" 40:34 "that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth" 40:37 "in Him should not perish"? What if that's true? 40:39 Then you put this guy in there, and how long does he burn? 40:42 Until he's burned up. 40:47 It's going to get even clearer though. 40:51 I love the Bible! [Audience] Amen. 40:53 This is hell right here: [text on screen] 41:01 What does it mean to devour? It means it's gone. 41:06 I used to have a dog, and that dog would eat pancakes, 41:09 his name was "Banner". In the morning my mom would make 41:12 pancakes, she'd always make way too many pancakes, never could 41:15 figure that out, but she's make like 3 times too many pancakes, 41:18 and then we'd get them all slathered up in butter 41:20 and syrup, and us kids couldn't finish them, and she'd put them 41:22 over in the corner, and banner, our Siberian Husky, 41:25 would come in and those things would be devoured in about 41:28 20 seconds flat, he'd lick the plate, he'd like the floor, 41:31 he'd lick the bottom side of the plate, you could have sent 41:33 a search team in there, a forensics team in there, 41:36 a CSI team in there, you couldn't have found 1 little 41:39 remaining bit of pancake, or syrup, or butter. 41:42 Those things were devoured. Are we all together? 41:46 It's what the word means, it means devoured, it's gone, 41:49 it means "game over". Verse 15: [text on screen] 41:54 Where they writhe throughout the ceaseless eternal ages 41:57 because God put them for what they did in 70 years?! 42:01 Ohhh! Come on beloved! What kind of God is that? 42:05 That's like sentencing someone to the electrical chair 42:09 for what? They jaywalked. No, the punishment has to fit 42:16 the crime. So let's think about this: 42:19 God's going punish you for millions upon billions, upon 42:22 trillions, upon quadrillions of years for a mistake that you 42:26 made over the 40-70 year course of your life? 42:31 Come on! The Devil has had a heyday with 42:35 this one. I mean, any intelligent person, 42:38 in my humble belief, any intelligent person can look 42:40 at that and can say "That is not logical". 42:45 Before I became a Christian I thought "You've got to be" 42:48 "kidding, your God of love is a God of hatred and vengeance" 42:52 "to punish someone throughout the ceaseless eternal ages for" 42:54 "what they've done in 60 or 70 years", I was a heathen 42:58 and I knew that that was unreasonable. 43:01 And then I came to the Bible, and instead of taking what 43:04 somebody had taught me, what a church had taught me, 43:06 what somebody had told me, I said "Well, let's just see what" 43:09 "the Bible says", and do you know what I discovered? 43:11 The Bible doesn't teach that ridiculous doctrine, the Devil 43:14 made it up. You say "Well what does the Bible teach then? " 43:16 Well, let's see what it says. First of all it says: 43:18 "I saw a new heaven and a new earth". 43:21 So if a new heaven and a new earth is going to be made, 43:23 and hell takes place on planet earth do you know what you 43:26 know for sure? Hell can't burn forever. 43:29 How could it? Does that make sense? 43:34 Powerful. It's going to get even better 43:37 though. Look at this, we're right there in the middle 43:39 of your study guide: Remember that it is the Greeks, 43:42 Babylonians, Egyptians and others who believe this idea 43:44 of the immortality of the soul. It is not a Biblical concept, 43:48 it is called, as we've already discussed, anthropological 43:50 dualism - that's a lot of syllables, it basically means 43:53 that man is 2 fold, he has a temporal body that goes away, 43:56 and he has an eternal soul, but the Bible never teaches that man 43:59 has an eternal soul. What it does teach is that God 44:02 will give you the gift of immortality if you accept 44:04 the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour. 44:07 I've given you a few texts, I could have literally given 44:09 you ten times the number of texts that are on this sheet 44:12 right here. Let's see what the Bible says 44:14 about the wicked. According to the Bible the fate 44:17 of the wicked is as follows: they will die. 44:20 So right there, Romans 6:23: "The wages of sin is death", 44:23 "the soul that sinneth, it shall die". 44:25 Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, I'm quoting it there for you:, 44:28 he said "Do not fear those who are able to destroy the body, " 44:32 "but rather fear those who can destroy both, body and soul" 44:36 "in hell. " According to the Bible the wicked will perish. 44:41 We already said that in John 3:16, they will be 44:43 burnt up. Let's look at that one, Malachi 4, last book of 44:46 Old Testament, see if you can beat me there. 44:48 You're already there, good for you. Malachi 4. 44:53 Last book of the Old Testament, just before the book of Matthew, 44:56 so if you can find Matthew, just go one book back and you've 44:58 got it. If you get to Zechariah 45:01 you've gone a little bit too far. Malachi 4, 45:04 it says: "For behold, the day is coming", so the day wasn't 45:07 in Malachi's day, the day is coming, "burning like an oven; " 45:11 "and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble, " 45:14 "the day that is coming that will burn them up, says" 45:21 "the Lord of hosts, it will leave them neither root, " 45:23 "nor branch. " They're gone. 45:26 Look at verse 3: "You shall trample the wicked, for they" 45:28 "shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that" 45:33 "I will do this, says the Lord of hosts. " 45:35 They are burned to ashes, they don't burn, and burn, and burn, 45:40 they burn till they burn up. Absolutely powerful. 45:45 Now look at this, "they will be devoured by the flames", 45:47 we already read that in Revelation 20:9, the fires come 45:50 down and devour them, "they will be utterly consumed", 45:52 Psalm 37:20, Isaiah 47:14; "they will be turned to ashes", 45:56 Malachi 4:3, we saw that. "They will die the second" 45:59 "death". Oh, well that makes sense now, doesn't it? 46:04 So the second death would be the second death. 46:08 That makes sense? The second death would be the second death. 46:12 Notice it doesn't say the second death is the second life. 46:16 Those people that don't put their faith in Jesus do not 46:19 get to live throughout the ceaseless eternal ages. 46:21 Think about it, what's the Devil's favorite thing to do? 46:24 To deceive, and to harass, and to make your life miserable. 46:27 So the picture that we have of hell is: here's the Devil, 46:30 and he's got his little barbecue prod, and here's people 46:33 just writhing in the hot brimstone lava, and the Devil, 46:36 throughout the ceaseless eternal ages is on God's divine payroll 46:40 to poke you and I down into the lava. 46:43 Is that realistic? No, it's not only unrealistic, 46:46 it's an absolute caricature of the character of God. 46:49 You can't find that anywhere in Scripture, is God going 46:52 to keep the Devil on the divine payroll to do the very thing 46:53 he loves to do, throughout the ceaseless eternal ages? 46:56 No, the Bible says that the Devil is going to be destroyed. 47:01 Look at this: they will die the second death, they will 47:04 suffer destruction, we already read that, 2 Thessalonians 1:9, 47:06 I think I've got Philippians 3:19, I'll come back 47:09 to it if I do. "They will be as though they" 47:11 "had not been. " Obadiah 1:16. And Satan himself will be 47:14 totally destroyed. That old rascal ain't going 47:18 to stick around forever. He's not only going to take 47:20 a vacation, he's going to take one great big, long vacation. 47:25 Back page: What about everlasting fire? The Bible does 47:28 speak about eternal fire in Jude 7, but this is a fire 47:32 that has eternal consequences; it does not burn for eternity, 47:37 in fact, in the context, it speaks of Sodom and Gomorrah 47:40 as examples of this eternal fire. We might rightly 47:43 ask the question: is Sodom and Gomorrah burning right now? 47:47 No, absolutely not. You can write that down, 47:49 Jude 1:7: [text on screen] 48:04 But are Sodom and Gomorrah still burning today? 48:07 No, so an eternal fire is a fire that has eternal consequences. 48:10 It's not a fire that has to burn throughout the ceaseless 48:12 eternal ages. The only reason we believe that 48:15 is that we were told is that we were naturally immortal, 48:17 but if we're not naturally immortal, then that does not 48:19 have to mean at all. In fact, it's clear in 48:22 the context. Here's 2 Peter 2:6: [text on screen] 48:27 We just read that in Malachi, didn't we?...that the wicked 48:29 will be turned to ashes. [continues to read] 48:36 Now, is anyone unclear as to what happened to Sodom 48:39 and Gomorrah? The Bible says that God destroyed them with 48:41 fire and brimstone. He did not allow them to be 48:46 tortured for centuries, and centuries, and eons, 48:49 and millennia, they were destroyed, and Jude says, 48:52 and Peter says that's an example of eternal fire. 48:56 Not fire that burns throughout the ceaseless eternal ages, 48:58 but fire that has eternal consequences. 49:03 Let's go on. Someone says "eternal punishment" 49:07 - look at that on your study guide, the Bible also speaks 49:09 of eternal punishment in Matthew 25:46, this simply means 49:14 punishment that has eternal consequences, that's why it's 49:18 called the second death, there's no resurrection from 49:21 the second death. Notice the phrase is: "eternal" 49:24 "punishment", not "eternal punishing", is there 49:26 a difference? Huge difference! 49:29 You won't find the phrase "eternal punishing" anywhere 49:32 in your Bible, punishing is a verb. 49:34 "The eternal punishing", no, it's "eternal punishment", 49:37 that is punishment that has eternal ramifications. 49:42 The difference is enormous. The only reason that someone 49:45 would insist that this phrase means eternal conscious torment 49:48 is if they already believed in the non-Biblical teaching 49:51 that man is naturally immortal. This teaching, however, as we've 49:54 seen, is not Biblical. Someone says "Well, the Bible" 49:57 "says it's going to happen forever. " 49:59 Good question, I like Bible students. 50:02 By the way, the people that don't ask questions make me 50:04 more nervous than the people that do. 50:07 You got questions? Praise the Lord Jesus! 50:09 I like questions, makes me more nervous when you don't have 50:11 questions, it means you're just taking what I say. 50:14 But don't take what I say, take what the Bible says. 50:16 Now look at this, and by the way, I'm passionate about 50:19 this because I believe that this is what the Bible teaches, 50:22 but I'm always willing, don't come up to me and say: 50:24 "Well, you know, the Spirit told me that what you were" 50:26 "preaching wasn't true", don't tell me that. 50:29 Don't tell me "It just doesn't feel right in my soul", 50:31 don't tell me that beloved, because if I have to trust your 50:34 indigestion, or what the Bible says, I'm going to trust 50:36 the Bible. [Audience laughs] 50:38 I've had person after person after person come to these 50:41 meetings and say "Well you know, it just doesn't feel right", 50:43 and I look at them in the eye and say "Listen sister", 50:45 "I love you, brother, but you are forcing me to make a very" 50:48 "easy decision here. I have to trust some feeling that's" 50:50 "taking place in your guts, or I have to trust what God" 50:53 "says in His Word, and I'm always going to take what God" 50:55 "says in His Word", and you too? [Audience] Amen. 50:58 I mean, how many nights would you have stayed if I had stood 51:00 up and said "You know, I just got this feeling in my stomach" 51:02 "that this is what this prophecy means...", would you have kept 51:05 coming? You say "Oh yeah, we went down to this meeting, " 51:07 "and this fellow told us how he felt. " 51:10 No, you're coming because the Bible's being preached and you 51:12 say "Hey, that makes sense. " So look at this, someone says: 51:15 "Well how about the word 'forever'? " [text on screen] 51:18 Look at your study guide. This might seem like an unusual 51:21 question "How long is forever? " The Bible doesn't use the word 51:23 "forever" in the context of a final punishment, but several 51:26 things must be considered before arriving at unwarranted 51:29 conclusions. Number 1: the word "forever" means "as long as" 51:32 "the things shall last. " Number 2: forever in the New 51:34 Testament can be translated "an age", or "until the end of" 51:37 "the age". Number 3: the word "forever" is used in the Bible 51:40 to refer to things that lasted for a finite period of time. 51:43 For example, Jonah was in the belly of the fish "forever", 51:46 but how many days was Jonah in the belly of the fish? 51:48 [Audience] 3 days. But the Bible says he was 51:51 in there forever. 1 Samuel 1 says that Samuel 51:54 was given to the Lord forever, but then it says in verse 28 51:56 he was given until he died. In Exodus 21:6 it says 52:02 that if someone becomes a slave you have to become an earring 52:04 through his ear, or awl through his ear, and that's 52:07 a sign that he's a slave forever, but it goes on to say 52:09 that after 7 years he's released. Beloved, the word 52:12 "forever" modifies the thing that it's talking about, 52:15 so if we say "God lives forever", of course, the nature 52:18 of God defined forever as throughout the ceaseless 52:21 eternal ages, but if it says that the smoke of their torment 52:24 ascends forever, it would only mean throughout the ceaseless 52:27 eternal ages if that thing was, by nature, immortal, but if it's 52:30 not, by nature, immortal it means it would burn and burn 52:34 until there was nothing more to burn. Very simple. 52:38 By the way, if you're writhing in the flames of hell and being 52:41 burned up, it's going to feel like...guess what? 52:43 Forever! Jesus endured hell, and this 52:46 is probably the single most powerful thing. 52:49 Here we go...alright...yeah, I better read that real quick. 52:54 John Stott said: [text on screen] 53:11 He's not a member of my church, he's just a conservative 53:13 theologian saying "Hey look, we've got to look at the Bible". 53:16 [continues to read text] 53:43 Where did they get that idea from? They didn't get it 53:46 from the Bible, they got it from the Greeks. 53:47 So the first death is the death that we die as a natural 53:50 result of living in a sinful world. All kinds of people 53:54 die the first death, but there's a resurrection from the first 53:56 death, and I want to be in the first resurrection. 54:00 [text on screen] 54:05 There is no resurrection from the second death. 54:09 So here we go, Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, we already 54:11 quoted this: [text on screen] 54:20 So Jesus stumbles into the garden of Gethsemane in 54:23 Matthew 26, and as He falls down to His face, what does 54:25 He say? [text on screen] 54:32 Let me rephrase that: Jesus stumbles into the garden 54:34 of Gethsemane, the sin of the world is being laid upon Him, 54:37 and He says "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful to" 54:40 "the point of death", in other words, "My soul is dying". 54:45 Beloved, if your soul is dying you are going through hell. 54:50 That's what we just read there in Matthew 10:28, look at it 54:53 again: "Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill" 54:56 "the soul, rather fear Him who is able to destroy both" 54:58 "the soul and the body in hell", so if Jesus' soul was 55:03 dying, if He was saying "Oh, something is happening inside" 55:05 "of Me, the weight of the world feels like it's upon Me, " 55:08 "the sin of the world is rending Me from My Father', He's going 55:11 through the experience of hell. Look at the bottom of your 55:15 study guide, praise the Lord Jesus, we made it. 55:18 Jesus says, He stumbled into the garden of Gethsemane, 55:20 His soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. 55:23 Compare this with Matthew 10:28 - which we've already done, 55:25 Jesus endured this horrific experience, the second death, 55:28 for you on the the cross. Here's the good news about 55:31 hell beloved, Jesus would rather go to hell for you, than live 55:35 in heaven without you. Jesus would rather go to hell 55:42 for you, than live in heaven without you. 55:44 Here's the good news about hell: no one is burning right 55:46 now, I hope that's good news to that person who had a loved 55:50 one, or a son, or a daughter, or a friend who died and they 55:53 didn't know how their case was with God. 55:55 No one is burning right now. If you want to believe 55:59 the Bible, if you want to believe your traditions 56:02 and your ideas of all this Greek mythology, you can believe it, 56:05 but if you want to believe what the Bible says, no one 56:07 is burning right now. Number 2: [text on screen] 56:13 If you want to believe that, if that's the picture of God that 56:15 you want to create in your mind, fine, you are welcome to 56:18 do that, but that's not the Biblical picture. 56:21 Don't confuse the God of the Bible with the God of that would 56:23 burn people throughout the ceaseless eternal ages for what 56:25 they did in 50-70 years. My Bible says God is love. 56:29 [text on screen] 56:35 That's good news isn't it? [Audience] Amen. 56:40 Number 5: Jesus would rather go to hell for your than 56:42 live in heaven without you. 2 questions as we close tonight, 56:45 number 1: is this clear? [Audience] Yes. 56:47 Beloved, the Bible says that God is love, and I hope 56:50 that I've done my very best to convene you tonight this 56:53 great, great, grand Biblical truth of hell and of 56:55 the Millennium, it is not something that makes God 56:58 out to be the greatest terrorist in the universe, God is 57:02 the greatest compassionate being of love in the universe. 57:06 Yes, He is just; yes, He is gracious; yes, He is mighty, 57:10 but His punishments and His judgments will always be 57:13 consistent with the crime and the infraction, that is what 57:17 the Bible teaches. As we close tonight I want to 57:21 ask you 2 questions. Number 1: was tonight's 57:23 presentation clear? [Audience] Yes. 57:26 That's all I want to know. Here's the second question: 57:28 are you willing, I don't care if it's tonight's subject or any 57:30 subject, are you willing... I mean this with every bit 57:33 of sincerity, and authenticity, and transparency that I can 57:35 muster, are you willing to take any belief that you have, 57:40 any belief that you have, and surrender it if it's not 57:43 consistent with what the Bible teaches? [Audience] Yes! 57:46 That's all I want to know. Beloved, you do that, 57:49 I'll do that, and by the grace of God, we will arrive at 57:52 Biblical truth by studying His Word. |
Revised 2014-12-17