Lord, we do thank you for your many blessings. Thank you for sending your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, down from heaven's glory to die on that cross, to become sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteous of God in Him. We pray for your will to be done. We thank you for the time that we've already had together. Thank you for the fellowship that we've had around food and Lord, thank you for the birthday wishes and turning 65 is quite a Shocker that I'm still here. And just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I never expected to live to 65, so I wasn't sure we were going to make it to 40. So, pretty wild. I don't feel 65 other than my memory. That's the one thing I can tell you. You know, I hurt a little bit every now and then, that type of thing, but in general, not so bad. We're in Revelation chapter 20. And we've looked over the first three verses, and I'm going to go ahead and start in verse 4. And He said, I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power. For they shall be priests of God, and of Christ shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. So going back to verse 4, it talks about judgment was given unto them. So the first group John saw were those who had died before Daniel's 70th week. The position of reigning and judging as kings, Revelation 1.6, is yet to be a fulfilled promise. We know that. He says we'll be kings and priests in Revelation 1.6. That's yet to come. Go ahead and turn to 1 Corinthians 6. Let me just run a couple of references about us judging and reigning with Christ. In 1 Corinthians 6.2, we'll just jump down to verse 2. Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? Now who are the saints? All Christians. It's not some hocus pocus, you've done enough, now you deserve it, we're going to make you a saint. Nobody makes anybody a saint. God says all believers are saints. And he says, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? We ought to judge the things in this life. And he says, we're going to judge angels. We're going to have responsibility. We're going to rule and reign with Christ. And it's the millennium we're talking about here. Good thing the book doesn't end in chapter 20. That would be pretty sad not to read about eternity later on. Not just a thousand years ago. Well, that's it. No, it's going to continue on. We'll get to it in chapter 21. But go on back and look at the book of Revelation. Go to chapter 5. Revelation chapter 5. and verse 10. And the Bible says, "...and has made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth." So what are we going to do? We're going to reign on the earth as kings and priests. No doubt about it. No arguing about it. It's just the way it is. Look at Revelation 2. Revelation 2 verse 26. And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter, shall they be broken to shivers, even as I have received my Father. Look at Revelation 3 verse 21. To Him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in His throne. So Jesus sits with the Father, we will sit with Him in His throne. You say, how big is the throne? Big enough to hold all of us. And I think this one's supposed to be on if you hit the front one. Yeah, there's another extra set that's off. Look front, yeah, there you go. So we're going to sit together now. How do you overcome? It says, to him that overcometh and he that overcometh in Revelation 2.26 and 3.21. How do you overcome? Revelation chapter 12, we overcome by the blood of the Lamb. So no matter what, we overcome by the blood, those in the tribulation will overcome by the blood, and that's what Revelation 12 is talking about. But it isn't any different. Things don't change dramatically and go, well, now it's faith plus works. If it's faith plus works, a person could boast for the rest of eternity that they got there based on how they avoided taking the mark, how strong they were, how good a shot, how much food they accumulated, how much they didn't share with anybody else to make sure they had enough to make it through. Endure the end. That's not the way it works. The second part of verse 4 in Revelation chapter 20, refers to those who died during Daniel's 70th week. So the first group is us, the second group is those that died in the tribulation. Their faithfulness unto death earned them the right as well to reign with Christ during the millennium. The Lord promised the apostles that they would sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel, Matthew 19, 28. Dominion and greatness of the kingdom is promised to be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. Daniel chapter 7. This honor is to all the saints. Psalm 149. David and Solomon are wonderful examples of the kings who reign and judge. Let me read it to you. So David reigned and he judged. 2 Samuel 8, 15, And David reigned over all Israel, and David executed judgment and justice unto all his people. So we're going to reign and we're going to judge. 1 Kings 10, 9 talks about Solomon, Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in me to set thee on the throne of Israel, because the Lord loved Israel forever. Imagine replacement theology. Well, He loved you forever until He didn't love you anymore. And we replace Israel. Then he didn't love them forever. He loved them forever. They're broken off. We make them jealous. Romans chapter 11. Therefore made he thee king to do judgment and justice. Talking about Solomon, he said he made him king to do judgment and justice. Do you know what we're supposed to be as people? In whatever position or authority you may have, you are supposed to do judgment and justice. We're supposed to be fair. We don't always live in a world that's very fair. We have people that judge, and condemn, and hurt, and they are selfish, and self-centered, and they do it for purposes outside of what they should be doing it, and that is inside the will of God. The office and duty cannot be separated from each other. You have an office. You're going to reign with him. David had an office. Solomon had an office. They were kings. And they reigned. You can't separate the two. Every believer is a saint. Every saint is a king. Every king is given power and authority to execute judgment. Some people teach that these judges are angels, but the Bible proves otherwise. Turn to Hebrews chapter 2 and let's just see. if these people that are reigning are angels? They're not. The Bible is very clear that angels are in subjection in Hebrews 2 verse 5. For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come wherever we speak. He didn't put the angels in charge. He made man in His own image. He created men, women, children, whatever. He created us in His image in order to have fellowship with us. And the whole thing about life is, how's your fellowship? How's your fellowship? Do you love Jesus? Do you love God? Do you exude Christianity? I mean, that's what it's all about. It's not about, well, let's go to church and punch our clock. Let's not punch our clock, but punch our time clock. What do you call it? A time card. It's been a while since I punched a time card. I don't even remember. I don't remember that when I got paid hourly. But that's not church. That's not Christianity. Now that is church sometimes. You come in and you go, oh well, I was here Sunday morning, I'm done. No, you need to live it on Monday, you need to live it Tuesday, you need to live it Wednesday. You need to live for Christ every single day. Now, the next thing in Revelation chapter 20, He said, I saw thrones, they that sat on them, judgment was given unto them, and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded. He said, I saw the souls. This likely does not refer to those with resurrected bodies, yet it is a common designation to denote individual beings as souls. I'll tell you what, let's run a couple of references. Look at Acts 2, verse 41. Are souls just the inner being, or can it refer to a person in a body? And I'm going to show you it can refer to a person in a body. Acts 2.41, Then they that gladly received His word were baptized the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. Were they disembodied spirits? No, they were people. So can souls mean that they have a body? And the answer is yes. Look at another verse. Look at Acts chapter 7. Look at verse 14. Talking about the history of the nation of Israel. Then sent Joseph and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred... 315 souls. 315 souls. They were human beings with bodies. And you can look at Acts 27.37, 1 Peter 3.20. Those verses also talk about and show that a soul is somebody with a body, even still alive. So these refer to men in bodies, not those out of their bodies. These souls were seen waiting earlier in Daniel's 70th week in Revelation 6.9, but their waiting is now ended. We're at the end. We're in Revelation chapter 20. It's all coming to a head. He's come back on a white horse, destroyed all of His enemies. Now you're going to have the great white throne judgment coming up. You're going to have the millennial kingdom that we're talking about right now. And now we're moving a little bit past that. It says they were beheaded. Seems that from this form of execution, it'll be reintroduced and most prevalent during Daniel's 70th week. The Koran twice, and listen, I went through all this today, and I read up on it, and they try to say, well, it really doesn't mean that. Listen to what it says. The Koran in Surah 47, verse 4. Therefore when ye meet the unbelievers in fight, like in... Jihad, in battle. Therefore, when you meet the unbelievers, smite at their necks. Oh, that doesn't mean decapitate them. Then why do they choose that as the mode of killing unbelievers? And when I say unbelievers, I mean you don't believe in Islam. And by the way, you're supposed to be all killed, we're supposed to all be killed if, you know, we're infidels. Oh, but it's a loving religion. Not when they get control. Listen, I'm all for saying, hey, you're a Muslim, we love you, you've got a soul, we want to talk to you about Jesus, and we want to help you. But I'm not going to convert to Islam. You say, well, it'll kill you. Ah, loving religion that be. You see what I mean? So there's another surah, surah 8, verse 12. And this is during a battle and the whole history is in there, but I'm not going to go into all that. I am with you. Give firmness to the believers. I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. Smite ye above their necks and smite all their fingertips off them. Well, you know, that's just figurative. Smite their fingertips off them? I'm pretty sure that means cut their fingertips off of them. Just a loving religion there. Now I'm not saying this for sure, but the Bible, when you're looking at it, and they're beheaded, and you think about where we're heading, and what is some of the fastest growing religion in the world, it's Islam. And listen, when they take over, you go up to Michigan, where they've taken over, and they have their law in place, and there are no freedoms. You say, well, I just think Christianity judges women and treats them badly. I don't think you've studied Islam. You say, well, Christianity tells the woman how to dress. No, the Bible says dress modestly. Women, men, dress modestly. What's that mean? Here's how things work. When I said dress modestly, quoting the Bible, God can speak to you. And if you don't think you dress modestly, you'll get it right between Buck and Ben. You know, God will just get your number. If you're dressing modestly, what's that mean? I don't define it. It's not man-made rules. Oh, this is dressing modestly and this is not. And as long as you're on this side, you're okay. No, you get on this side and you start making all these rules. What happens is people get judgmental and hypocritical and hateful. And I'll tell you some other things that goes further than that because I've been around quite a while. I've traveled 19 years on the road. So I'd get in there and I'd listen to some of the people. And the husbands say, yeah, we can't go there. My wife, boy, I'll tell you what, she doesn't put up with anybody that dresses like that. Like what? Well, first of all, I knew what that was. I didn't think like what. It was more like, what's it any of her business? Do you know what you have? You have a repressed person. You have somebody that's been told how to think, or not necessarily that, how to dress, and she's thought it's unfair all her life that she had to be in submission to a man-made rule that's a conviction of somebody else. and maybe, and it's not her conviction, and that's what destroys them. What it has to be is your own conviction. You must believe that God wants you to do X, Y, and Z, and that goes the whole gamut. If you don't, you will be judgmental, you will be hateful, you will be hypocritical, you will be the person that you don't want to be, and you'll look out there and think everybody else is like that. And really what you need to do is look in the mirror and go, you know what, I need to stop this. And it's probably preventive maintenance, there's nothing I heard, nothing that was said to me, but I just want you to understand, look, we've made such a big deal over certain things that they've become Christianity. They're not. Christianity is a matter of the heart. And then when the heart's right, the outward goes right. And whatever the outward is. Let me move on from Islam. That's where I was. The Bible mentions five charges against them which resulted in their decapitation. So they were beheaded, number one, for the witness of Jesus. Two, for the witness of the Word of God. Three, for not worshipping the beast. Four, for not worshipping His image. And five, for not receiving His mark. That's why they're beheaded. And it's not the end of the world because the Lord said to those that were under the altar, He says, hey, wait until your brethren, your fellow servants are killed like you were. Revelation 20 verse 5. Revelation 20 verse 5. But the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Now, the thousand years is finished, and this is the first resurrection. So I'm in a meeting in 1984, and it was a board meeting when I was first getting into the mission. I ended up becoming president later on, but I first went to the mission And there were Episcopalians, and Lutherans, and Southern Baptists, and me. And I knew my Bible, and most of them didn't. So one of them came out, and he was a Southern Baptist, and he says, I'm post-millennial. I said, why? He said, Revelation 20 verse 5, the thousand years happens, then the first resurrection happens. I'm a first-year Bible student. I don't know how to answer him like I do now. The first resurrection is talked about after the thousand years, so then there's no resurrection before the thousand years. That was his assumption. But look at verse 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. So we'll look at that in a moment. But let's just look at the first resurrection first. It isn't a singular event, but occurs in stages. The initial phase involved Old Testament saints to say, well, the first resurrection happens after the thousand years. What happened to those... Remember when Jesus rose from the grave? The graves were open and many of the bodies of the saints walked around Jerusalem. Was that not a resurrection? Yeah. So that's part of the first resurrection. And then it goes on and those that were transported from Abraham's bosom to paradise, that's part of the first resurrection. So Abraham's bosom, paradise in the heart of the earth, it's done. You had to go there, a person had to go there to paradise in the heart of the earth because Jesus hadn't died yet. Nobody can go to heaven. So Jesus hadn't shed His blood. They went to paradise, Abraham's bosom. You read about Lazarus, he looked across the great gulf and he saw the rich man. The rich man looked across the great gulf and he saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. Abraham, Lazarus, they were in paradise. But Paul writes and he says, I know a man caught up in the third heaven into paradise. Where's paradise now? It's up there. Why? Because paradise doesn't need to be in the heart of the earth after the death of Jesus Christ. So when Jesus Christ is resurrected, he takes everybody from paradise, Abraham's bosom, up to heaven with him. That's part of the first resurrection and the first part of the resurrection. And then you go on and you look at the rapture, the next phase that encompasses church-age saints at the rapture. part of the first resurrection. Blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection. The final phase includes saints from the period following the church age. These individuals are blessedly secure forever, exempt from fear of hell. Their eternal destiny with Christ is firmly established. So those three parts, everybody has a part in the first resurrection. So why does it have first resurrection? Because the second resurrection is eternal damnation. When people have part in the second resurrection, they're resurrected to be judged. They're brought before the judge and cast into the lake of fire for all eternity. That's the second death. And that's why it says first resurrection, but it's so plain. I didn't know the answer because I didn't know the answer. I'd never been faced with that. Well that's, what, I said 1984, what's that, 40 years? I don't know, can't even do the math up here right now. Four decades ago. I still remember because I owe how I wish I had the answer. How confused do people get? Well, if you read that verse, and you put it in the context, or you hear somebody preaching, and they don't go on to the next verse, and they don't, you know, bless the part in the first resurrection, you don't realize there are three parts at least, then you get confused. And the problem is you influence other people. It talks about the second death hath no power. This second death, the lake of fire mentioned in verses 14 and 15 later can only affect those who never trust the Lord for salvation. Their faith in the Lord has rendered them immune to this ultimate fate. You are immune to the second death. You are immune to eternity in hell in fire. We witness the final and complete defeat of all earthly opposition to Christ, as well as the ultimate defeat of Satan, the adversary, who sought to ascend to heaven. He's been cast down to the earth. Revelation chapter 12 now faces total and complete defeat. That's the future. That's your hope. That's what you and I need to look at and we need to focus on and we need to help people to see because it's so important for them to understand. We've won already. We've won. We've won. Amen. This event marks the fulfillment of every prophetic promise, including establishing Christ's Millennial Kingdom on earth. Jesus Christ, having vanquished all opposition in heaven, on earth, beneath the earth, is free to fulfill His promises. He will establish His throne in Jerusalem. He'll elevate Israel as the prominent nation. and position the church as kings and priests reigning throughout His kingdom. This era will be characterized by a millennium of peace and righteousness in precise accordance with biblical prophecy. As believers, we eagerly anticipate this future, celebrating the certainty of Christ's triumph and the fulfillment of His Word. The first resurrection is a testament to the hope and assurance we have in Christ. A hope that looks forward to a future where His righteous reign is manifest in all His glory. Now look at verse 7, Revelation 20 verse 7. When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. expired, that means that the full 1,000 years of Christ's millennial kingdom have transpired. Now why, people ask, why would Satan need to be loosed from the bottomless pit after Christ has reigned supreme for 1,000 years? The answer is very simple. Man must be free to choose whom he will serve even after a perfect government for the millennium. Calvinism? Are you kidding me? You start in the garden. Freedom to choose. You go all the way to the millennium. Freedom to choose. And that's the way it is. To say that the elect are born elect so that they get elected and nobody else is elected and everybody else goes to hell is ludicrous. Oh, there is no free will. Then God, don't judge me for what I do. You're the one that made me do it. Everything I did was just according to Your will. Everything I did was exactly what You put in my heart. Do you see how that doesn't work? You know, somebody around here has been saying that I'm a Calvinist in this community. Can you believe that? of the one thing I've taught more than probably any other subjects, that one. Now look, I don't... The person that said it is semi-loony tunes anyway. Split another church and probably wants to split ours. I told the person that told me that. I said, I know who you're talking about. I said, she's never come here. I'm just telling you, I defended you. I'm thinking... Yeah. How could anybody ever come to a position of thinking that I believe you don't have freedom of choice? Because people are out to destroy anything that God wants to bless. And I believe God wants to bless this church. I believe with my whole mind, soul, and body, and we're seeing it. So if anybody comes up to you and tells you I'm a Calvinist, just don't believe it. That's a joke because if you do even have the propensity to believe that after even what I said tonight. Why is Satan loosed? I'm going to give you a couple of reasons. So that man might learn this. Peace and perfect security cannot save. Thousand year reign of Christ, what do you got? Peace, perfect security, Satan's loosed, and the world turns on God. A righteous environment cannot save. You say, well, I already know that. Yeah, go back to the Garden of Eden. You realize Adam and Eve were perfect. They never sinned, never thought a bad thought, never did a bad thing until they decided to disobey God. Then sin entered into the world, death by sin, so death passed upon all men. So here's this environment in the Garden of Eden, but you go, oh, that's just two people. Alright, now you've got millions. You've got millions. You say, if I was there, yeah, if you were there in the Garden, you'd have eaten. Likely. Why? Because the great deceiver was there. And he convinced Eve, she was deceived, to eat of the fruit, because she got a good pitch from the devil. Oh, you can be like God, knowing good and evil. Man, I get to know more. I get something that's been missing. Oh, I want it, I want it, I want it. And listen, that's the way people are today. I want, I want, I want. They don't even know what they're getting. Proper and perfect government and laws cannot save. You've got a perfect law, the law of God, the whole millennium, the law of God. You've got a perfect government, Jesus Christ is on the throne, ruling and reigning, and yet, the world's going to turn against God at the end. Man is not naturally good. You hear people say, well, you know, they've got a good heart. You've got some of the most wicked people that have the best hearts. People are sinners. Without Christ, and without His influence in the world, we have no idea what this world would be like until the rapture, and then you can read about it. We just spent a whole bunch of time, almost one year in Revelation, looking at what happens whenever Christians are taken out of the world. The Spirit of God leaves with us. Now, He's still going to be working in believers. But at the very beginning, it's all lost people. Man is not naturally good. Man does not naturally seek after God. Sight does not guarantee faith. People just, oh, I want a feeling. I want to sense God. Listen, I do sense God, but not in a You know, it's more, I sense His love, His peace, the contentment that I get, and the only time it's not there is when I ruin it. So you can sense those things, but don't live by your senses, don't live by your sight, live by faith. Because your sight's gonna mess you up, your faith never will. So long as it's strong, so long as it's right, so long as it's pure. Hell does not change anyone. Oh boy, if that rich man could've just come out of hell, yeah, he'd have talked to his five brethren and said, man, it was a terrible place, and he'd have gone probably right back to what he was doing before. How do you know that? Because Satan's gonna spend a thousand years burning in hell. He's going to come out of hell and he's not going to be changed at all. Hell doesn't change anybody. Satan is loose to justify eternal punishment. You say, why would God send anybody to hell for all eternity? Look at Satan. Satan gets his chance to come out of hell. What does he do? Deceive the nations. Turn against the Creator. Try to destroy the things of God again. If there were a place as purgatory, it would accomplish nothing for a thousand years in hell. Taught Satan nothing. Taught him nothing. So let me wind this down. The Bible says that God will remove the unclean spirits and the false prophets during the millennium, Zechariah 13, verses 1-4. Yet even with a devil-free environment and the righteous reign of Jesus Christ, the result is a world in conflict once given the choice of whether to follow their perfect King willingly or not follow Him. In verse 8, when Satan is loosed, and that'll be next, he goes out and deceives the nations. This rebellion leads to the battle of Gog and Magog. Man can no longer place the blame on God, on Satan, or the world system. The problem is with humanity. And that's what we have to understand. Every government program that depends upon humanity doing the right thing for the right reason or whatever it is, Man is sinful. Everybody left to their own devices is all about themselves. How does that change? Christ. Christ in me makes me who I am. I am selfish, self-centered, etc., etc., etc., and the only thing that makes me not that is when I put on Christ. when I allow Him to work through me, and then I'm a totally different person. But if I walk away from God, Katie, bar the door. You have no idea what your propensity for sin is. If you've been in church serving God, living for God in a godly home, You don't know how bad it can be. And I'll give you this one last thing you don't want to know. You don't want to know. I'll end on that. Let's all stand together. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank You for Your many blessings, guide, lead and direct in all things. Lord, we thank You for a perfect Word. Thank You for Your Son dying on that cross. Thank You for the opportunity to live for You because You live through us. Help us to take these words and these thoughts and Lord, help it to change us into what we need to be for Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name. With your head bowed and eyes closed.