[0:00] Morning. So the first reading is on page 55 of the Bibles. It's Exodus chapter 3, reading verses 1 to 10.
[0:14] Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
[0:27] And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.
[0:41] And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush.
[0:55] Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am. Then he said, Do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet.
[1:07] For the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
[1:19] And Moses hit his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters.
[1:37] I know their sufferings. And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land, to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
[1:59] And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them.
[2:11] Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Revelation chapter 20, beginning at verse 1, page 1250.
[2:24] Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended.
[2:54] After that, he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed.
[3:07] Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or its image, and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.
[3:24] They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.
[3:38] Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. Over such, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
[3:53] And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle.
[4:11] Their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and false prophet were.
[4:33] And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne, and on him who was seated on it.
[4:47] From his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.
[5:00] Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it.
[5:14] Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
[5:27] 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. Well, if you could have that passage open in front of you, Revelation chapter 20.
[5:47] I've given you, or Vicki Widders has kindly produced these things for you, which is just a breakdown of the book of Revelation. If I was doing more sermons, I would take you through how I built up this breakdown of the book of Revelation.
[6:05] But just point your attention to that quote by Paul Barnett, a great New Testament scholar. He comments that Revelation is perhaps the most carefully structured book in the New Testament.
[6:16] And based on my studies on the book, I would very much agree with that. But please have open in front of you Revelation chapter 20. I remember some years ago now getting into a somewhat heated conversation with a woman in a previous church, who I think thought I was becoming liberal in my views because I told her that I did not take the Bible literally.
[6:41] Actually, I was trying to explain to her that I did take the Bible literally, but only when I was required to do so. That is, I tried to explain to her that when I read in the Old Testament, for example, the rivers, of the rivers clapping their hands and the hills singing for joy, I know that the writer is using poetic language to make a point.
[7:07] So I wouldn't expect to see such things literally happening as I wander around New Cross where I live. She seemed to struggle with this concept, which I thought particularly ironic because at that time, her day job involved writing articles for a daily newspaper.
[7:24] When it comes to reading and studying the book of Revelation, many have got themselves into a muddle because they have failed to understand that some things can be literally true even though the language they are conveyed in need not be taken to be literally true in a physical sense.
[7:43] For example, in scene two, in your breakdown of the book of Revelation, Tyranny, War, Famine, and Death are each depicted as an individual rider riding on a colored horse across the earth.
[8:04] They have become famously known as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Now, John is teaching us things that are literally true about the world in which we live, namely that our world will have despotic leaders, military conflicts, economic downturns, and of course death itself.
[8:26] Now, none of us would dispute these facts, but you and I should not literally expect to see a white, red, black, or pale-looking horse galloping with its rider down Lordship Lane, or on your way to one of the Dulwich stations, on your way to work one morning.
[8:47] That would be to confuse the symbol or picture with the truth or reality it is there to teach. In the words of one writer, we must be careful to remember that simply because something is portrayed in figurative or non-literal terms does not mean it is less truthful or less real.
[9:07] In other words, literal is not synonymous with true, nor is symbolic synonymous with false or mystical. Now, I say all this because, of course, today we come to one of the most disputed chapters in the book of Revelation, chapter 20.
[9:26] There has been endless and at times bitter disagreement about how best to understand this chapter. And so many approach this chapter with a certain amount of apprehension and trepidation.
[9:41] Revelation, chapter 20, comes in the seventh and last scene in the very carefully structured book. A scene that I believe begins in chapter 19, verse 11, and ends in chapter 22, verse 5, and is made up of seven visions.
[10:01] That is, that which John saw. So look with me at chapter 19, verse 11, how it begins. John writes, Then I saw heaven.
[10:12] Chapter 19, verse 17, Then I saw an angel. Chapter 20, verse 4, Then I saw, sorry, that's chapter 19, verse 19, Then I saw the beast.
[10:24] Chapter 20, verse 1, Then I saw an angel. Chapter 20, verse 4, Then I saw thrones.
[10:37] Chapter 20, verse 11, Then I saw a great white throne. And seventh, and finally, chapter 21, verse 1, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
[10:50] Seven visions, Seven things that John saw. Now, although many disagree with this, I believe Revelation chapter 20 is a kind of repeat of chapter 12, but from a heavenly vantage point, as opposed to an earthly vantage point.
[11:11] So, you see, I think chapters 19 and 20 function in a similar way to chapters 11 and 12. At the end of chapter 11, we are brought to the end of the world and judgment day.
[11:24] And then chapter 12 brings us right back to the beginning of the New Testament era and the birth of Jesus. Well, in a similar way, chapter 19 brings us to the end of the world and judgment day.
[11:37] And then chapter 20 brings us right back to the beginning of the New Testament era. Again. Those who disagree with this understanding want to maintain that the seven visions of scene seven are to be understood chronologically or consecutively.
[11:57] Now, with all due respect to those who take this view, I believe this is a misreading, a misunderstanding, and therefore a misapplication of the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is made up of seven scenes which I believe run parallel to each other.
[12:13] That is, each scene is depicting the church and the world between the first and second coming of Jesus. This means the book of Revelation is not to be read chronologically from scenes one to scene seven.
[12:29] The events recorded are not consecutive events that happen in history. Rather, John, the writer of the book of Revelation, is going over the same ground, the same time frame or events again and again, but from different perspectives each time.
[12:49] I was on a plane returning from, return to the UK from South Africa back in August 2011 when I watched the movie Vantage Point.
[13:01] It stars Dennis Quaid, Forrest Whitaker, and Sigourney Weaver. The plot focuses on an assassination attempt on the President of the United States.
[13:13] I know, I know. Leave what you think about Donald Trump behind for a second. But during the film, the series of events that led up to and including this assassination attempt are reenacted from several different perspectives, from several different viewpoints or vantage points.
[13:34] All designed to give you, to reveal a more holistic or truthful account of what really happened when the President is assassinated. That, I think, is what is going on in the book of Revelation from scene one to scene seven.
[13:52] Same events, different vantage points, a more holistic view of reality. With all that in mind, the first thing I think God is teaching us through his word here this morning is this.
[14:10] Satan is a limited foe. Verses one to six. Satan, our enemy that we learned about last week, is a limited foe. Not only is he a defeated foe according to chapter 12, he is also greatly limited according to chapter 20.
[14:28] First notice that Satan is described in verse 2 in similar way to the way he's described in chapter 12 verse 9. Notice also that the angel mentioned in verse 1 and Satan, the devil, mentioned in verse 2, are both spiritual as opposed to physical or material beings.
[14:49] yet the angel in verse 1 has a key to a bottomless pit or abyss and a chain which he presumably uses to bind Satan whom he then throws into this pit which he locks and seals.
[15:06] Clearly, although important truths are being taught here, we are to see this language as symbolic rather than literal. What I mean is how can a spiritual or non-material being like Satan be physically chained or locked up?
[15:27] Now, if you doubt this language is symbolic, then look at verse 14 of this chapter. In that verse we are told this, then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
[15:42] Clearly, death, which is the separation of the body and the soul or the spirit, as well as Hades, the place where the dead are supposed to reside, cannot be thought of as either a person or an object that can literally be thrown into a lake.
[16:04] Rather, this is obviously symbolic language and not to be taken literal. So in order to work out what truth this symbolic non-literal language is here to teach us, notice with me verse 3 does not say, John does not say that Satan was bound by this angel so he could no longer scheme to disrupt the unity amongst you Christians here at Grace Church Dulwich.
[16:32] That's not what John writes here. Nor does he say the angel bound Satan so that he could no longer masquerade as an angel of light to deceive the members of Grace Church Dulwich or hurl his flaming arrows of accusation at you nor thwart the plans that Simon Dowdy has for Grace Church Dulwich on his return to work later this year.
[16:59] John doesn't say any of that here. Now look at verse 2 and the angel seized Satan and bound him for a thousand years and threw him verse 3 into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended.
[17:20] After that he must be released for a little while. Satan has been bound or locked up in the sense that he no longer deceives the nations of this world.
[17:33] That's what John is talking about. In Matthew, Mark and Luke we have an account of Jesus casting out an evil spirit. Many of you will remember it. As a result Jesus is accused of being possessed by Satan.
[17:47] Jesus basically says to his accusers don't be so ridiculous. Why would Satan drive out his own demon? Why would Satan undermine his own kingdom?
[17:59] He then goes on to explain that what was really going on was that Satan, the strong man, was being bound, that is tied up as it were, by an even stronger man, namely Jesus.
[18:13] So that his house, Satan's house, could be plundered of its possessions, namely you and me. You see, the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ is all about Jesus binding Satan in order to take back what was stolen by him.
[18:36] Men and women and boys and girls like those of us here this morning. We were created by God and for a relationship with God and not Satan.
[18:51] You see, before the coming of Jesus 2,000 years ago, all the nations of this world were in utter darkness, bar one, the chosen nation of Israel, God's people.
[19:06] All the other nations of the world were plagued by lies and half-truths and guilt and evil and superstition and death. The greatest minds like Plato and Aristotle could only guess at the purpose of life and the meaning of the stars.
[19:25] But through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, the nations of this world have discovered the answers to these questions and many others.
[19:39] Elsewhere in the New Testament, we learn that through his death, Jesus has destroyed Satan who holds the power of death and so freed humanity from its fear of death.
[19:52] The death of Jesus on the cross has disarmed the satanic powers and authorities of this world that stood opposed to you and I and he has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
[20:10] In the words of Richard Bewes, the former rector of all souls, Lag and Place, he writes this, the difference Jesus' coming has made is staggering.
[20:21] we perhaps don't appreciate this, but if you lived 4,000 years ago, you'd have been in utter darkness apart from the people of God.
[20:34] And in this country alone, we have benefited greatly from the coming of Jesus Christ in terms of our judicial systems, our schools and hospitals, the rule of law and our respect for human life.
[20:48] People talk of human rights in this country all the time while failing to recognize that the very concept of human rights arose from a distinctly Christian view of the world and of reality.
[21:01] In the words of well-known church planter, writer and preacher, Tim Keller, there is a contradiction between a belief in human rights and a disbelief in God.
[21:13] By contrast, in a statement seeking to justify their murder of innocent Christians in Egypt, Islamic State described their blood as waste.
[21:28] What a shocking thing to do. These Christians who were collateral damage, well their blood is just waste. We turn our back on the enlightenment the coming of Jesus has brought to our nation at our peril.
[21:43] And we are doing it at a great pace in this country. help me. Now you will have no doubt noticed that Satan in verse 2 is bound by the angel for a thousand years.
[21:55] And clearly this thousand year time period is significant because it is referred to in verse 3, verse 4, verse 5, verse 6, and verse 7.
[22:10] You may also have noticed in verse 4 that Christians who are murdered because of their faith and who form part of a larger group who did not worship or receive the mark of the beast from chapter 13, are said in verse 4 to come to life and reign with Christ during this one thousand year time period.
[22:30] Look at verse 4 with me. They came to life and reign with Christ a thousand years. Verse 6, they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
[22:45] In fact, in verse 5, this reigning with Christ for a thousand years is referred to as the first resurrection. And those who enjoy it are favoured and set apart by God.
[22:58] Verse 6, what a wonderful picture. But what is John talking about here? Well, in the last few months, around 100 Christians have been murdered by Muslims in Egypt.
[23:13] And because these Christians loved Jesus more than this world, even to the point of giving up their lives, although they are now physically dead and are unresurrected, they are still alive because they are shareholders.
[23:30] They benefit, as it were, from the very first resurrection 2,000 years ago, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, this has been the case for all of those who have died trusting in the promises of God and in particular in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ over the last 2,000 years.
[23:53] Remember in the passage earlier on, Exodus 3, when God introduces himself to Moses, he said, I am, I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, even though all three of these men at that time had been physically dead for hundreds of years.
[24:14] Jesus commenting on this, commentary on this verse was this, Mark 12, verse 27, he that is God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
[24:27] In the words of the apostle Paul, those who die trusting in Jesus are away from the body, but at home with the Lord. Although they don't yet have a physical body, they are nevertheless alive and with Jesus.
[24:44] And that's a great comfort to some of us who've lost loved ones who know Jesus. Elsewhere, Paul was able to say that to die is gain because it meant going and being with Jesus, which is far better than being here.
[25:01] To put it slightly differently, a Christian is someone who dies once physically but who is resurrected twice. The first is a spiritual resurrection whereby they live and reign with the Lord Jesus Christ the moment they die.
[25:19] So Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus of God raising them up with Christ in the heavenly realms. The second resurrection will involve the soul or spirit again being reunited with the new and glorious resurrection body.
[25:38] That will happen to all who trust in Jesus at some point in the future. That will be your second resurrection which is not mentioned in chapter 20 of Revelation but is clearly implied.
[25:52] As a result, the second death, verse 6, will have no power over those who enjoy the first resurrection. resurrection. Apparently the great evangelist D.L.
[26:03] Moody once said the following, one of these fine mornings, you will read in the newspaper that D.L. Moody is dead. Don't you believe it? On that day I shall be more alive than I've ever been.
[26:18] I wonder do you believe that? These are comforting words for Christians suffering persecution and martyrdom, whether in the first or the 21st century.
[26:30] Satan may use Rome or fanatical Muslims to lay claim to our physical bodies but Satan is limited in what he can do apart from that.
[26:45] He can neither take away the spiritual nor physical resurrection life that is yours and mine in and through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan is limited in that he cannot and has not been able to stop the march of the gospel over the last 2,000 years.
[27:04] He has tried but he cannot stop the onward march of the gospel. The gospel that has been marching across the centuries and across the world for 2,000 years.
[27:18] Helm like Helm's Deep in J.R.R. Tolkien's famous trilogy, the walls of Satan's kingdom has been breached. Therefore defeat is certain.
[27:30] His kingdom must and will fall. The gospel has breached and has been doing damage to Satan's kingdom all over the world and all down the centuries and so he's limited in what he can do to stop it.
[27:47] Satan, your enemy, is a limited foe. The second thing God is saying to us through his word here this morning is this. Satan is a condemned foe. Satan is a condemned foe.
[27:59] In chapter 12, Satan being thrown down, you remember, to earth is symbolic of the fact that he is no longer able to accuse Christians because in the death of Jesus, the filth of our sin has been wiped clean.
[28:14] Our sins have been punished and forgiven. However, Satan being bound here in chapter 20 means he cannot stop the spread, the progress of the gospel.
[28:28] And so he cannot continue to deceive the nations of the world by keeping them in spiritual darkness. Light has broken through. Tell me, can you remember the glorious day the light of the gospel broke into your world?
[28:45] Wasn't that a great day? Well, I hope it was. It was for me. Changed my world. But at the end of verse 3 and in verse 7, we are told that once the thousand years are over, Satan is released from his prison in the abyss.
[29:02] And notice in verse 7 that he will deceive people all over the world, that is, those who have refused to embrace the truth of the gospel. He will gather them for war against God and his people.
[29:15] See, up to this point, Satan will have been restrained from taking this action. Now, in case you've not already figured it out, I think John is using a thousand years to symbolize the time between the first and the second coming of Jesus.
[29:34] We've seen this before in chapters 11 to 13 of the book of Revelation, where he used 1260 days, three and a half years, and 42 months to the same effect.
[29:45] Now, in the Bible, 1,000 rarely, if ever, is meant to be understood with mathematical precision. Sorry if you're a mathematician, but that's not the way John uses, or indeed the Bible uses the number 1,000.
[30:02] The number 10 carries with it the idea of fullness of quantity or manyness. Hence, the Satan in chapter 12 has 10 horns because he is a fullness of power or strength.
[30:17] 1,000 multiplies and intensifies this idea because it is, after all, 10 times 10 times 10. And so it can be used to express great vastness.
[30:30] For example, according to the psalmist, God owns the cattle on 1,000 hills. Now, obviously, that does not mean that the cattle on hill number 1,001 are not owned by God.
[30:45] Some of you will remember the Twilight saga, and oh my, what a saga it was. Edward, Bella, and Jacob, the most ridiculous love triangle in the history of the world.
[30:58] However, the Christina Perry song that goes with one of those, I forget which one, it's a great song. I will love you for a thousand years.
[31:10] In other words, she's saying I will love you always for a thousand years and beyond. Similarly, the psalmist is really saying that God owns all the cattle on all the hills. So I believe John is using 1,000 years here in chapter 20 as a symbolic way of representing an indefinite period of time that will eventually one day come to an end.
[31:36] In other words, the gospel age that you and I now live in. That is the time period, however long it may end up being, between the ascension and the return of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
[31:49] During this period, Christians who have died live and reign with Jesus Christ in the heavenly realms in what John calls the first resurrection. Verses 5 and 6.
[32:02] At the end of this symbolic 1,000 year period and shortly before the return of Jesus, the church will be all but destroyed by our enemy. We see this idea symbolized in the killing of the two witnesses in chapter 11.
[32:21] This will be a very difficult time for those Christians still alive on earth because it will be a time of unprecedented persecution, suffering and perhaps probably martyrdom.
[32:31] Now what chapter 20 verse 7 to 10 is describing has been described before in the book of Revelation in chapter 16 and chapter 19.
[32:43] It is in the word Armageddon, the final battle before Jesus returns and then suddenly turns the table on his enemies.
[32:55] In chapter 16 John's focus was on those who worshipped the beast and received his mark. In chapter 19 the focus shifts to the two henchmen or the two beasts, the two monsters introduced in chapter 13.
[33:07] But notice the focus or vantage point here in chapter 20. Look at verse 10. And the devil who has deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and so for where the beast and the false prophets were and they will be tormented day and night forever and forever.
[33:28] See John is not describing three different battles but one and the same battle from three different vantage points. One in chapter 16, one in chapter 19 and now in chapter 20.
[33:42] In fact the strap line for the movie vantage point that I mentioned earlier is eight strangers, eight points of view, one truth.
[33:55] This is why it is unlikely that we should see scene seven as recording chronological events. And that is why John mentions Gog and Magog in verse 8 because in both chapters 19 and 20 of the book of Revelation, John has been alluding to Ezekiel 38 and 39.
[34:14] The passages were too long for us to read today. But in those chapters of Ezekiel, a ruler named Gog from the land of Magog gathers other nations to attack God's people.
[34:29] Can you see how that's a fitting picture to use here? So God's people, in other words, are vastly outnumbered and surrounded according to the end of verse 8 and verse 9. And yet, there's no epic battle like in the typical blockbuster movie.
[34:43] No epic struggle. John simply writes verse 9, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them. whoosh!
[34:55] And it's all over. So with his entire army wiped out, it's as if, as it were, Satan, the first of the five enemies of God introduced in the book of Revelation in chapter 12, is simply thrown into the lake of fire.
[35:13] There's no contest. And make no mistake, the symbolic language at the end of verse 10 is there to convey that hell will be a place of unimaginable conscious torment that will go on forever and forever.
[35:30] But that is where Satan and his allies end up because Satan is not only a defeated and limited foe, he's also a condemned foe. Third and finally, Satan's followers will all endure the second death.
[35:48] Satan's followers will all endure the second death. According to the rite of Hebrews, I think it was quoted, or a similar verse was quoted earlier on, everyone is destined to die once and after that to face judgment. So before the new heaven and the new earth can be ushered in, judgment day must take place.
[36:06] And that is what is depicted in verses 11 to 15 of chapter 20. Look at verse 11 with me. What a scene. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.
[36:21] From his presence, earth and sky, fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.
[36:35] Then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. So get this, get this, while the entire physical universe is forced to flee from the presence of the enthroned one we talked about from chapter 4, you and I will have to stand before him.
[37:05] That man, I forget his name, that Donald Trump sacked recently, apparently was intimidated by being alone with Donald Trump. Well, can you imagine being alone with this enthroned one with nothing good to say?
[37:18] How utterly terrifying. Notice from verse 12 that everyone will be there, the great and the small, the rich, the famous, the movers and the shakers, right down to those who sleep rough on our streets of the night.
[37:38] Everyone, both great and small, will be there. So whether you believe in Jesus or not, you will meet him. You will stand before him, is the message of the Bible. Notice also that in verse 12, John writes, I saw the dead, the dead were judged.
[37:54] Then verse 13 makes it clear that everyone will be resurrected, physically, everyone. And the playing field will be leveled because everyone will be judged based on what they have done as recorded in one of the two sets of books John mentions.
[38:11] Verse 12, the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books, verse 13, and each person was judged according to what they have done. But that's a nightmare because you see, based on what we have done, we are all, without exception, myself very much included, condemned.
[38:34] But that is why we need to have our names written in the book of life because this will mean we have become shareholders or partakers in the first resurrection.
[38:47] You see the point? This first resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see, just as the first resurrection implies a second, so the second death in verse 14 implies a first death.
[39:05] Our first death came. through Adam and Eve in the garden. They rebelled against their maker and brought death to the entire human race.
[39:18] We are all, therefore, born into this world as shareholders or partakers in the first death. And so if, verse 14 and 15, our names are not found in the book of life, we will also endure the second death, symbolized by the lake of fire.
[39:40] This means, if you are not a Christian here this morning, according to the Bible, outside of the return of Jesus Christ, you will experience one resurrection and two deaths.
[39:57] First, you will die physically one day because of your rebellion against your maker. death. Then you will be resurrected physically on judgment day. And then you will die a second time, as it were, in what John calls the second death.
[40:14] That is, you will be tormented day and night, forever and ever, consciously and physically, while knowing you chose the losing side, having sided with Satan and his monsters, while rejecting Jesus during your earthly life here and now.
[40:33] Jesus, the Jesus who loved you enough to be punished in your place so that you would not have to taste that second death. You see, the message of the book of Revelation is that Jesus wins.
[40:48] Jesus always wins. So if you are not for Jesus, then in those now famous words of Donald Trump, you are a loser.
[41:05] I'd love to talk to you about how you can get back to that winning side that is yours if you want it in the Lord Jesus. Let's bow our heads and close our eyes and pray. Now why this fear and unbelief has not the father put to grief his spotless son for us?
[41:31] And will the righteous judge of men condemn me for that debt of sin now cancelled at the cross? Heavenly Father, I pray for each one of us here and especially those who don't know Jesus as Lord and Savior, that you would help them to know in their hearts that through Jesus their sins have been cancelled at the cross so they can be shareholders in the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and not be condemned to that lake of fire.
[42:07] prayer. Pray that you would help us to rejoice that we have nothing to fear if we are Christians. For Jesus' sake. Amen.