Sunday July 6th Revelation 20 verses 12 15

All right, welcome to All Things Fulfill, and this message is coming to you, hopefully, while I am safely in South Africa. However, I did promise that I would get a recording out for this week, and if I'm fortunate, and if you are fortunate, you'll get one for the next week as well, so that there's no skip in between the time that I return. Now, it's possible because there's so much that I want to talk about in these lessons that I may shorten them to about 20 minutes, or I may keep them at the regular length, depending on where I am when I get to, let's say, a 20-minute mark, and that will determine whether I'll keep going all the way to 30 minutes or whether I will cut them off and make them short, because it's probably going to be several lessons in this particular series, and we're going to do a somewhat deep dive into some of those things that relate to Revelation chapter 20, verses 12 through 15. We had already covered verse 11, now we're going to be looking at verses 12 and following, talking a little bit more about what's taking place with the dead, small, and great. Now, be prepared for sure that there will be things that you won't agree with, or that may be new to you, and that you may challenge, and that you may want to confront me with, and that's okay. I'm still studying. I'm not the only one who was studying some of these things, but some of the old answers are just not making a lot of sense to me, and there are some inconsistencies there, I think, even though I may not have everything worked out. Nevertheless, let's go ahead and get started. Okay, so as we said, we had talked about verse 11, about the heaven and the earth fleeing away, and no place being found for them. We discussed that on the previous week. Today, we're going to continue in part three of the great white throne judgment, where we will talk about verses 12 through 15, or as much as we can in the time frame allotted. Now, the text says, and I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by the things which are written in the books. Revelation 20, and verse 12, the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged each one according to his works. That's verse 13. Then verse 14 says, then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, and anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now, the point in this message and the following lessons is to seek an understanding of the dead, of Hades and death, and its judgment and destruction. So, here's what John saw. He saw the dead standing before God. Now, since this text is about the end of the old heaven and earth, the temple, the old covenant economy, per verse 11, as we discussed, it must be parallel with Revelation chapter 6, verses 12 through 17, and we may have alluded to that a little bit as well when we talked about it. I think we did, or maybe I was doing another lesson somewhere, but at any rate, and now that I think about it, I think we did cover that, but let's look at Revelation 6, 12 through 17 and see what bearing it may have on what we're looking at in chapter 20. All right. The text says, I looked, verse 12 of Revelation 6, when he opened the sixth seal and behold, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became like blood and the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain island was moved out of its place. So, there's that decreation language that we talk about often. Now, watch the next verse in relationship, and I want you to be thinking about Revelation 20, and I'll bring it back to that point, but let's read the verse. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains, rocks fallen us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand. Now, that's talking about the day of the Lord leading up to the time of the great white throne judgment. And it talked about the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, commanders, the mighty men, and every slave and every free man who hid themselves in the caves and said, fall on us and hide us from the face of him. Now, that's a similar theme that we find in Revelation chapter 20. So let's read that one more time. We're going to look particularly in verse 13, where it says the sea gave up the dead who were in it and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged according to their works. As a matter of fact, I should have read verse 12. So let me back up and read verse 12. Notice what verse 12 says. He says, and I saw the dead small and great standing before God and books were open. Now keep that in mind. Let's make one more trip back to revelation six and notice that he says, these were the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man. So what is, who are they? They are the small and the great, the great and the small, all the way from the kings of the earth, those who are power and influence and wealth down to the poor people, the slaves, those who were disenfranchised and had nothing basically. But then he says, these were the ones who were saying hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne at the time that the heaven and earth was fleeing away. Now I'm going to suggest that as we look at them, they're pretty much the same ones that we have in revelation chapter 20 and verses 12 and 13. Now we should not assume that these are dead people who literally have physically risen from their graves to stand before God. That's not what the text is talking about. The dead are dead because their names are not written in the book of life. And further, there is no historical record of the graves of the wicked opening in 70 AD. At least I haven't heard of any happening. I hear people saying, well, the righteous came out of graves and were raptured into heaven still without any solid biblical proof. However, what we see here is he said he saw the dead. And again, there is no historical physical evidence of dead bodies rising out of the ground. And I don't even think that the Bible teaches that ever in terms of talking about the resurrection of the dead in connection with the end time. The word stand is a positional term. It's a covenantal term and it's used figuratively in the context. So when a righteous person stands before God, just like you see in many of the eschatological passages, you know, it's talking about he's able to stand in God's presence, accept it and regarded as righteous, et cetera. But when the wicked stand, the wicked are judged because they're not righteous and therefore they will not have a continual standing. Their standing would be one that would be terminated in their demise. Who were these kings of the earth, these great men, these mighty men, these captains, et cetera, and the small and the great in Revelation chapter six. Well, to me, it appears that they are those persecutors who were fighting against the church during that time, that these who are being categorized as the dead are those who are directly related to the events that are taking place in the book of Revelation. Now it's only the dead or the Necros people or Necron, if you look at it in the plural, who were judged. Remember believers do not come into condemnation or judgment, but they were passed from death into life. I think that's John, maybe five and verse 24. And again, in first John three and verse 14, that letter text says, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. And verse 24 says of John, most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life or the life of the age and shall not come into judgment, but as passed from death to life. So they don't come into condemnation. They are passed from death to life. And therefore the only ones who were being judged were those who were considered the ones who did not pass into life, which would be those whose names were not in the book of life and who were judged according to their works, according to the books. Now it's kind of like successfully meeting all your class requirements. You know, when I was in high school, if you did well on all of your preliminary exams and all of your, you know, schoolwork and everything prior to the final exam, they started allowing you to skip the final exam. And so I skipped a lot of mine as a result of the work that had been done before. And so that's like, since these people had been faithful throughout and followed Christ, wherever he went, they were exempt from judgment. They were exempt from, uh, not, you know, the second death, but exempt from this, uh, the judgment because they'd already been judged worthy. Now the sources and the people who didn't do their work, they were the ones who were sitting in class while the rest of us were gone, taking those final exams, sweating it out. All right. The sources of the dead are the sea. And then it says death and pay these, the sea. If we look back again in revelation chapter six versus, um, eight and nine, the sea is where a third of the living creatures died. So let's take a look in revelation chapter six. Let's look at versus, um, eight and nine. All right. It says, uh, let's see. Did I say six? When he opened the fifth seal, I heard a voice, a fourth seal. I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying come and see. So I looked at a pale horse. Um, that's not the one that I want. I think it's a revelation chapter eight versus eight and nine. Let's go to that chapter. Um, might've wrote the wrong verse down. Yes. In verse eight of revelation eight at the time of the second trumpet, it says, then the second angel sounded and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood and a third of the living creatures in the sea died and a third of the ships were destroyed. So this is all about the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem, where it talks about this third of the people died in the sea. And so when we talk about the sea, giving up the death that were in them, these were the people who were fighting against the church. These were the people who were resisting God and his will and his purpose and his covenant and the lamb. And so this was the judgment that was being brought up among them, but they were those who perished in the sea. So I think when the text is saying in revelation chapter 20, that the sea gave up the dead that were in it, it's talking about these people who were the persecutors that were being judged, uh, for that purpose. Now that may be a little too narrow for some people as they look at this, because they are, we, you know, they have a tendency to want to universalize everything in the book of revelation. And that may be why some of the problems that are, um, you know, expressed in trying to deal with them, uh, become an issue. But if we look at it in that sense, uh, it might, uh, be a little bit different. It says in verses 10 and 11, then the third angel sounded and a great star failed. This is still chapter eight, a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch. And it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became Wormwood and many men died from the water because it was made bitter. So once again, you can see that people are dying in the sea. They're dying in the rivers, et cetera, but this is all connected to the time of the fall of Jerusalem. And therefore the people who would then be dying in the sea. Now, then we have the statement concerning death and Hades, the remaining dead were delivered up from death and Hades. Now in each of the three times death and Hades are mentioned in revelation. I hope I counted all of them. Um, they are mentioned together as a team. They'd like joined together. They're connected in revelation one in verse 18. He says, I am he who lives and was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of death. Now this is where Hades is spoken of prior to death, whether that has any significance. I'm not really sure, but I did notice that in this particular, uh, mention of Hades and death, Hades leads, and then death follows. However, when we look in revelation six and verse eight, and that's where I got the chapter six from earlier. That's what I was thinking about, but in revelation six and verse, uh, eight at the opening of the fourth seal, the text says, so I looked and behold a, um, pale horse and the name of him who sat on it was death and Hades. Now notice we have death first and then Hades again, I'm not sure what the significance of that is, but it is there for us to take note of. And so he says death and Hades followed with him. So riding on this pale horse was death, but then Hades followed with him and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword, with hunger, with death. And by the beast of the earth, notice that even their power is limited. So we've seen the dead ones, the small and the great mentioned in connection with the passing of heaven and earth in revelation six, uh, 12 and following we've seen it mentioned in revelation 20. And we saw where a third part of them perished in the sea, but now we're seeing where a fourth part are killed with, um, the sword, uh, with hunger, with death and by the beast of the earth, it says, and this power was given to death and Hades. Now it's not given over everyone, but it was given over people and notice what the punishments are, because I think this is very important as well. He says, and power was given to them to whom, to death and Hades over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword, with hunger, with death and by beast of the earth. Now, when you note, therefore, this text, you see that death and Hades is personified death road on a pale horse. Hades followed him. I don't know whether he was on another pale horse or a horse of a different color, but nevertheless, he followed him or whether he was walking or running behind him. I'm not really sure, but the point is, uh, Hades followed death. Now, this tells us, at least it tells me, cause I'm not sure what it's telling you that we are not speaking of literal events here, but terms are used to capture the meaning of what is taking place in the book of revelation. All right. I'm just about down to that 20 minute mark, uh, about 30 seconds away, but I'm going to keep rolling through and go ahead and take this into a 30 minute, um, uh, discussion because I don't want to stop right here. All right. So what I'm saying is this tells us that we're not speaking of literal events, but the terms are used to capture the meaning of what was going on in the book of revelation. Note that power again is given them over a fourth part. That's not all of the world. Why wouldn't death and Hades normally, as we understand it, have power over all the world? Why just the fourth part, something to think about. But then he says, um, they're being given this power. We're a fourth part of the earth. Uh, but look at what power they have. It was the power to kill with the sword. Number one, with hunger, number two, with death, number three. And by the beast of the earth, number four, what are these, um, plagues? What are these judgments? What are these punishments that they're bringing on this fourth part of the earth? These are the covenant curses and the plagues that were written in the law in Leviticus chapter 26 verses 16 through 26. So let's go over there and let's take a look at them and see if they do not precisely match what was being said as these covenant curses of the law. And that would mean that this is judgment upon Jerusalem. That would mean that this small and great and those who were in the sea, all of this is related to that same thing. And we should not universalize it at least not from that perspective, from what I'm seeing here. All right. So when we look in Leviticus 26 and we started verse 16, now remember what we're looking for. We're looking for the sword. We're looking for the beast. We're looking for hunger or famine. And we are looking for death in verse 16. He says, I will also do this to you. I will even appoint terror over you wasting disease and fever, which they'll consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. You know, and that consuming of the eyes may be Zechariah chapter 14 and verse 12, where he talks about the eyes coming out of their sockets, not the, not nuclear radiation as John Hagee would say, but I believe that's what that's dealing with. But nevertheless, he says, and you shall sow your seed in vain for your enemy shall eat it. Well, if somebody else eats your food up, that's going to leave you hungry. I will set my face against you and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you and you shall flee when no one pursues you. And after this, if you do not obey me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. I will break the pride of your power. I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. Now watch verse 20 and your strength shall be spent in vain for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit again, relating to hunger. Then if you walk contrary to me and are not willing to obey me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues. According to your sins, I will also send wild beasts among you. So there are the beasts which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock and make you few in number and your highways shall be desolate. And if by these things you are not reformed by me, but walk contrary to me, then I will also walk contrary to you and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant. When you are gathered together within your cities, I will send pestilence among you. So there's the famine, there's the pestilence and the beast of the earth and the sword all mentioned in verse 26. When I have cut off your supply of bread, 10 women shall break your bread in one oven and they shall bring back your bread by weight and you shall eat and not be satisfied. So that seems to fulfill what the text is saying in Revelation chapter six and verse eight, when it says, so I looked and behold a pale horse and the name of him who sat on it was death and Hades followed with him and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword, with hunger, with death and by the beast of the earth. So this was focused on those persecutors and the people who were rejecting Christ at the time, this was a judgment specifically on them. It was the covenant curses coming on them. He mentioned specifically those things in Leviticus and therefore, I don't think that merits that we look at this judgment in Revelation 20 to be universal and the kind of conclusions that people draw from it when they talk about what happens here. And we'll be developing that as we go on because we have a lot to say on these things. And so in verse 13 of Revelation 20, when it says that the sea gave up the dead who were in it, I think that's the sea that the third part fell into or died and the rivers and the water that was mentioned in Revelation chapter eight verses eight through 11. And again, when it says death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, I think that's the fourth part that he talked about in Revelation chapter six verses eight and nine that we just seen tied back into those covenant curses of Leviticus chapter 26. Then he says death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. So it seems in this context, as we've said, death and Hades have been personified as if they were living people going around with swords and with famine and pestilence, et cetera, attacking the people who were attacking the church. And therefore we're not to look at that as universally of death and universally of Hades. And we're going to have a lot to say about Hades as we continue in this study. So death and Hades are kind of like the angel of death who executed the first born of Egypt during the Passover, leaving the people under the banner of the blood of the lamb unharmed. And that's what was going on. It harmed the people who were harming the people that is the people of God, but it didn't harm anyone else from that perspective. And that would have included any who joined in with them. Now they are only mentioned to serve the one purpose of the destruction of the persecutors of God's people and to deliver them up for judgment. Interestingly, the word paradigm for delivered up is used. Just thought I'd throw that out there, but once their mission is completed, there was nothing else for them to destroy. In other words, their mission was to destroy the persecutors who were persecuting the church, those who were creating and agitating and destroying and killing the body of Christ. And so that's what it seems like this is focused on. Now I realize that is going to go way out of bounds of what a lot of people believe about it and what others teach about it. And even some things that I believed about it in the past, but that's what I'm seeing. And if you think that's incorrect, feel free to contact me or leave me a note. So here's my point. The text is not about the end of souls as spirits in Hades, nor the end of physical or the spiritual dying of people in the world. It's all related to the persecutors of the saints in the first century in connection with the fall of Jerusalem. All right. Our next segment in our next segment, we're going to talk about Hades a little bit. We're going to talk about Sheol a little bit. We're going to talk about Nephish or the soul as people tend to view it that way. We're going to talk about some other things related to it, and we'll get to Tartarus. Some people call it Tartarus, but it seems like it might be Tartarus from what I can see. We'll talk about a lot of those things because they all have to do with some ideas that we have about judgment and particularly the great white throne judgment as we look in the book of Revelation. So with that, I want to thank you for watching. I hope that this has at least caused you to think about it. And I'm sure you'll have lots of comments to say one way or the other, but that's it. And continue to pray for us for a safe trip back from South Africa. Hopefully we're safely in South Africa by the time you have watched this, and we will see you in the next broadcast.