The Final Judgemnt

We are going to finish

QUESTIONS:

Can someone explain briefly the difference in premillennialism, Postmillennialism, and Amillennialism?

What happens to Satan during the millenium period?

What will the saints be doing during the millenium period?

reigning with Christ

Who will be resurrected during to the millennial period and what evidence from the text supports this? (v 6)

all the saints for all time

Revelation 19:14 “And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.”

Revelation 20:6 “Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.”

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 20 end with the judgement of Satan and the Great White Throne Judgement

We briefly covered verses 7-10 last week.

I want to get back into them briefly before we get into the Great White Throne Judgement.

The release of Satan

Revelation 20:7–10 “When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

We discussed this question last week: Why “must” God release Satan from his prison? (v 3)

Though we are not told why in Revelation, one option is that this release will show that his character has not changed. Satan has always been the deceiver and as soon as he is freed, he will go back to deceiving regardless of the amount of time can truly transform the heart.

The same is true for the people of the earth. The devil goes out and deceives the people of earth again, and gathers them together for another war against God. This is the second war against God. The first was the battle of Armageddon. This is the final battle of Gog and Magog.

General Principle from this truth: No amount of time or imprisonment can truly transform the heart. People can be locked up, put in solitary, separated from their family, or even experience immense suffering, and never truly change on the inside.

The only thing that truly transforms a persons character for the good is Jesus Christ. There is no substitution, not is there any human remedy that can radically transform the human heart.

And you see this truth lived out much in the recovery ministries. People go to jail, get sober, do well for a while, but end up falling back into those old habits and things UNLESS they have been truly born again.

Satan uses two tactics here: deception and division

I find it interesting here that before Satan is released there seems to be peace on earth. There is no persecution against the saints, until Satan is released. Then the people of the earth once again become enemies of the people of God.

Satan loves to divide people. He divides churches, congregations, families, spouses, nations, races, etc.

And we must be aware of this.

It is wise to know the tactics of our enemies. This is a cardinal rule in warfare. The better we know our enemy, the more likely we are to not fall prey to his attacks.

Be careful to not fall prey to his deception by filling your head with God’s truth. That is how Jesus defeated him in Matt 4, and that is how we will overcome him.

The Great White Throne Judgement

Revelation 20:11–15 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

(v 11) judgement is inevitable: “from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them”

The idea is that they run from God, but there was no place to run

Judgement is inevitable

(v 12) There will be both: the earth’s greatest men and the earth’s nobody’s at the judgement: “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne”

No one will be so important that they will be exempt from this judgement

No amount of human achievements will matter

nor popularity will matter

nor power or good deeds

( v 12) “and books were opened; and another book was opened which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things written in the books, according to their deeds”

QUESTION: who is being judged here: saved? lost? or both? Why?

Two options:

the unsaved

(v 5) “The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.”

The saved and the lost

Matthew 25:32 ““All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;”

I think it is only the unsaved primarily because of verse 5

The implications are the same

We will both be judged

QUESTION: What is the basis of their judgement?

They will be judged according to their deeds

Deeds is the actions that they have done.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 3:12 “All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.””

The judgment of the saved: Paul says that our judgement will be at the judgement seat of Christ

2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

Romans 14:10–12 “But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God.” So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.”

1 Corinthians 3:10–15 “According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”

This is not a judgement to punish sin….The judgement seat is when believers will give an account of their lives they lived on earth:

What did we do with the resources that God gave us?

How did we respond to God’s plan for our lives?

Did we store up for ourselves treasures in heaven?

Did we use the talents God gave us to further His kingdom?

Did we allow God to use us?

QUESTION: Do you look forward or fear the judgement seat of Christ?

Principle: Coming to Christ should never be our stopping point in this faith journey.

The judgement seat of Christ begins when we come to Jesus. We will be judged upon what we did with our spiritual lives.

Those will be the only things on our minds when we stand before Him

I can only imagine we will all only wished we would have done more

What will be the outcome of this judgement be?

2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

Scripture does not say what our reward or loss will be, but I think they will be significant!

QUESTION: What is one thing that you can change now to have a better outcome then?