If you have a Bible with you please take it and turn to the book of Revelation chapter 20 The book of Revelation chapter 20. If you are new with us here at Covenant It's typically our practice to preach through books of the Bible And we have been working our way through this really great and at times challenging Portion of God's word, the book of Revelation This morning I'm going to be reading for you verses 7 through 15 And then Lord willing beginning next week we launch into Chapter 21 and in chapter 21 and chapter 22 We get such good news. Aren't you excited about that? Good, good news in chapters 20 and 21 but it's important For the church of Jesus Christ to see the other side of the good news There's a reason why when Jesus came preaching He placed such a heavy emphasis on warning his hearers About the judgment to come and it's a pattern that his apostles followed when they preached And it's a pattern that we as the church today must follow as well So Revelation chapter 20 beginning in verse 7 If you're able I would ask you to please stand as I read this portion of God's inspired and holy word Every word of it is true and it is for our good This is the word of God And when the thousand years are ended Satan will be released from his prison And they come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth Gog and Magog. To gather them for battle 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 I saw the dead in sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever And I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it 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 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 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 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 This is God's word let's pray Now oh Lord you know our hearts you know The very points at which we may Resist your word and we may try to explain away Truths that are hard for us or or unacceptable in our culture And Lord I pray that that you would guard our hearts from doing that that we would Believe what you tell us you are the great truth Teller you are truth and I pray Lord that we would receive your word today With with confidence that everything you say to us is the truth And I pray Lord that you would conform our hearts to the truth and I pray Lord that Anyone here who does not know you that you would open their eyes To their need for Christ a savior that you would open their hearts For their need for a gracious salvation and cause Us all Lord together to rejoice in what you have done for us in Christ Jesus We pray amen all right you may have a seat I I recently read a story in which it is reported that a member of The British royal family encountered a member of the Church of England a minister in the Church of England and he asked that minister of the Church of England whether or not there was a hell and the clergyman It is reported replied your highness the Bible says So Jesus taught so and the articles of the Church of England affirm it is so to which the member of the British royal family replied then why in God's name do You not tell us about it As we come to the conclusion of chapter 20 we read the last Depictions of the final conflict between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of Christ Look there again in verses seven through ten We have once again here another view of this conflict This conflict between wickedness and holiness this conflict Between Satan and the Lord Christ's earthly reign Has been established when Jesus came in his first coming he established his kingdom He preached repeatedly when he came during his ministry that in him the kingdom Had arrived his miracles of healing his miracles of casting out demons all Declared that in him Satan had been bound from deceiving the nations and the kingdom And the reign of Christ had come and we in our own era have Seen this in the extraordinary advance of the gospel throughout the world To all of the nations and as Jesus tells us in Matthew 24 Once the gospel goes out into the world to the Lord's satisfaction Then the end will come Christ will return Now that little clause in verse seven when the thousand years ended Does not mean that Christ ceases to reign rather it is an indication That the era of Satan being bound from deceiving the nations will Now by God's own choosing come to an end and we read there if you're looking Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations he had Deceived the nations before Christ came such that the light did not penetrate Christ Comes into the world and what happens the good news goes into all the nations The time is coming where Satan will be as it were unbound again and he will go about That work of deceiving the nations once again having been bound During the church age unable to stop the advance of the gospel Satan will be now Unbound for a brief time for a specific purpose he will once again Go about deceiving the nations in a last ditch effort to crush the church of Jesus Christ the reference in verse 8 to Gog and Magog I remember When I was a kid and we'd always host these big citywide Prophecy conferences and the tradition I was raised in and you know Gog and Magog It was very obvious to the prophecy teachers in the 1980s that that's Russia The Soviet Union and of course that didn't work out and It's very simple Gog and Magog here the wording means this A leader and the people he leads Gog the leader the people he leads Magog It comes from the prophecy of Ezekiel which describes this mysterious alliance among The nations who at the end of history will seek to destroy the people of God And it seems likely that this union of nations this wicked ungodly Union of nations will come from a combination of political power and false Religion the deceived nations will seek to use their power to stamp Out the church of Jesus Christ and of course there are nations who have been seeking to do that Throughout the 20th century and now into the 21st century you see In verse 9 where the nations march as it were in order to defeat Quote the beloved city now the beloved city here is a symbolic way of Referring to the church of Jesus Christ the camp of the saints remember that Satan's ambition is not to destroy a literal city it's to destroy a people The church the bride of Christ the body of Christ Remember what Jesus calls his church in Matthew chapter 5 a city a city set on a hill Paul refers to the church of Jesus Christ in Galatians chapter 6 as quote the The church is the most precious thing on earth to our Lord The church is the people of God the body of Christ the bride of Christ God's holy temple his beloved flock his light in the world His city set on a hill the sheep of his pasture so of course Satan hates the church above all things and so the nations come these deceived Nations to do his bidding and if you think that sounds far-fetched Think again never underestimate the world's capacity To hate the people of God to hate the church And do we need any more evidence of this John's original Readers in the first century knew how the mightiest empire on the planet at That time Rome would go about directing specific policies For this very goal to crush the church Or in the 20th century think of the former Soviet Union Think of China even into our own day where such persecution is state Policy think of the systematic persecution against Christians In certain nations in Africa and the Middle East In the Lord of the Rings trilogy my fellow nerds Join in gather around in the Lord of the Rings trilogy Other than Sauron the most wicked characters are the Nazgul Former kings who had become nothing more than these Wicked spirit beings evil race and Tolkien writes Quote they were once men great kings of men Then Sauron the deceiver gave them nine rings of power Blinded by their greed they took them without question one by one Falling into darkness that's exactly what we've seen Among nations who are led into wickedness by the evil one that's What we will see more than any other time previous to this when Satan is unbound this is what it looks like for Satan to be at work in the World then verse 10 and the devil Who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire now as we've seen And elsewhere there is no description of a battle here Whatever depictions that have come out of popular level prophecy Teaching or YouTube videos or you know B movies or C or D Movies about the end times there's never any battle going on The nations go out to do their wickedness but with a Word Jesus brings them to an end there's no competition here There's no suspense my wife and I were watching a thriller the other night on On TV and The main star is a huge international movie star The bad guy was there he was going to do bad stuff And there was zero suspense because we knew The star the good guy we knew she was not going to lose you just Know that and so in a movie that was intended to bring high Suspense we sat there and kind of sighed a lot Because we knew how it was going to end now there's a similar principle here although I hope That the rain and the power and the rule of Christ Is never actually challenged in any suspenseful way Whatever the conflict will look like in whatever Form it takes there will be no genuine suspense when the dragon and the Nations attempt to destroy and stamp out the church of Jesus Christ And the message of the gospel the final conflict will be over as it were Before it begins so thorough and overwhelming will be the Lord's triumph And so Satan will be cast into hell along with the beast And the false prophet remember the beast represents Earthly corrupt evil government and kingdom The false prophet or the second beast represented the corruption of Religion now we look at verses 11 through 15 And we're given a more detailed look here at the final judgment Jesus's return will signal that the years of his merciful Patience with the nations has now finally come to an end When we read about God's judgment remember that the biblical Depictions of God's judgment always find him judging after Long extended oftentimes generational periods of Patience of mercy of attempts for nations to Repent and only after long extended Periods of mercy does the Lord finally judge well the same is true At the final judgment and look what we read in verse 11 in that Opening clause then I saw a great white throne and him who was Seated on it now what John is seeing here this white throne that is symbolic of The purity of the Lord and of his justice Notice how all of creation flees from the presence of the Lord This fallen world groaning to be released from its bondage to decay Flees as it were from the presence of the Holy Judge and in its Place God will give to his people a new creation a new heaven and a new Earth the one seated upon the throne is God Almighty and the person Of the eternal son of God that is the glorified Christ He will return to judge the living and the dead this is what the scriptures clearly teach in John's Gospel Jesus said quote for the father judges no one but has given all judgment To the son that all may honor the son just as they honor the father This is trinitarian theology here where the son is saying that the father has entrusted To me all judgment Paul told told the Athenians When he was preaching in Greece to those philosophers he said that God quote will judge The world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed that of course Is the eternal son the Lord Jesus Christ now in Contrast to a rather new view in church history where It has been imagined that there will be three or four different judgments The simplest reading of scripture is that there will be only one final judgment Again in Acts chapter 17 Paul warned those philosophers in Athens quote that God has fixed a day on which he will judge The world in righteousness one judgment one moment in time So as one theologian puts it quote the final judgment will be a single event In which all are judged believer and unbeliever alike Jew Jew as well as Gentile just as we have seen in the resurrection it will be an event At the end of the age which embraces believer and unbeliever alike so the final judgment will include All people so let's not get distracted by multiple different times of Judgment and there's one final judgment that's the simplest reading of what we have in God's Word and in fact in Matthew 25 Jesus describes the final judgment as One single event when he separates the sheep from the goats his people From those who are not his Jesus said quote an hour is coming When all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out Those who have done good to the resurrection of life though is those who have done evil to the resurrection Of judgment one single final judgment of all humanity Now in verses 12 and 13 there is this peculiar and very Sobering image that John sees in his vision Jesus is returned he's taken his place as judge there upon the Throne and all those who have died have been raised up great And small kings and servants believing and unbelieving and they will be gathered before His bar of holy justice and we're told here quote books Were opened and then we're also told another book was opened Which is the book of life now what's going on here well we're told Quote and the dead were judged by what was written in the books According to what they had done the dead were Judged meaning all of those who have been raised up this is just a short hand for speaking about All of humanity and they are judged according to their deeds all of Which are recorded in these books now I think it's safe to say that Jesus does not actually need A literal book so that he can keep you know everything straight and make sure he doesn't Make any mistakes again this is symbolic language the books here are symbolic And they are meant to communicate the reliable nature of God's Justice God is not winging it when it comes to justice but he is Operating according to his own perfect immutable standard Of justice and so that is symbolized by by careful ledgers By books we always trust something more when it's written down As it were and that's what's being depicted here now the book of life is Quite different from these other books no deeds are recorded in the book of life Only names elsewhere it's called the lambs book of life Will read in chapter 21 that only those whose names are written in the lambs book of life Will be able to enter the holy city that is the new creation Back in chapter 17 we read that these names were written in the book of life Quote from the foundation of the world God is sovereign in the salvation of his people Christian he knew you before the creation of the world you were chosen in Christ Ephesians 1 you were chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world And there is a sense of deep security here if you have a very tender soul Christian brother or sister and you tend to doubt your salvation a lot I want you to be reassured by the symbolism that is given us here that your name Is written in a book that God has engraved your name as it were These names were written Down if you like before any of our days came to pass and again Verse 12 the books record the deeds of Humanity the record upon which they are judged every act And motive will be exposed before the lamb I want to deal with an issue here that I'm sure is on some of your minds and it's this What will be the experience of God's people On that day of judgment what will be our experience Christians what will be The experience of God's people believers on that day of judgment what can we Anticipate when the record of our deeds is Opened up open before the Lord Are the books of everyone's deeds and and then after that or along with that The book of life in those books of deeds will be Every single thing we've ever thought said and done every motive Every sin of commission and every sin of omission everything We did that we shouldn't have done everything that we didn't do that we should have done every poor motive Every every you know righteous act that was motivated by By twisted motivations in our heart it'll all be laid bare and that sounds Really unpleasant let's do a little math For the sake of illustration let's say that each of us sins five times a day Now I'm giving us a major break at that point you know sins Of omission sins of commission simple words simple deeds simple thoughts simple motives Let's say we rack up five of those a day and again that's a super conservative Estimates estimate most of us have sinned most of us sinned five times on the way to church This morning so so we're being very conservative anyway Five sins a day that equals thirty five sins a week And let's multiply that by a rather average life span let's go seventy five years And what do you get well fifty two weeks in a year that's Three thousand nine hundred weeks five sins a week That comes to nineteen thousand five hundred sins in seventy five years And that's massively conservative Now I don't know about you but as a kid I remember this particular Passage being preached on like spring revivals and fall revivals and the Well-known preacher would come in and he would preach this passage and I heard this many times Beloved where even though the notice when I read that that it never says All of humanity sees everything you've done never even seems to suggest that says the Lord looks I mean the book is open before the Lord but anyway the assumption that I Always heard is that everybody who's ever lived is going to see everything You've done bad okay and in fact I remember Hearing preached and this is the way the logic would go for all of all of humanity Who's ever lived to see that there's going to be half there's going to have to be massive Screens erected and all of your deeds and all of your sins and all of your Twisted they're all going to be broadcast on massive screens so that the entire Population of the world of all people who've ever lived are going to see everything you've Done said and fought that'll scare you down an aisle I'm telling you right now that'll get you kneeling at the altar And It's as though God wants to spank us one more time You know really good before we get into heaven And you think about the prospect of your record being Opened and exposed even if it's simply exposed to the Lord as though that's Not a big deal right you wonder is that good news What happened to forgiveness I mean if he's looking at my deeds I mean what happened to Forgiveness let me give you a couple of thoughts here first It has to be acknowledged that that good works the good works of God's people matters it matters it matters What we do it matters how we live the scriptures tell us to strive for Holiness to hunger and thirst for righteousness Matthew 1627 listen to This for the son of man is going to come in his father's glory with his angels and then he Will reward each person according to what he has done Romans chapter 2 Verse 6 God will give to each person according to what he has done Second Corinthians 5 10 for we must all appear before the judgment Seat of Christ that each one may receive what is due him for the things Done while in the body whether good or bad Scripture never teaches for a single moment that God is disinterested In the good works of his people indeed we're told in Ephesians chapter 2 that Christ Saved us among other things for good works And first Peter were told quote keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers they May see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of his Visitation in our biblically justified Embrace of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone let us Never lead let's never allow that glorious truth to lead us to the conclusion That what we do and how we live therefore doesn't matter I come to you with the good news today people that you are justified before God By grace alone period that is good news that is the doctrine Upon which the church stands or falls we can't live without the truth that you are Saved entirely by grace so please hear that You are saved by grace alone through the instrumentality of faith Alone your works do not figure into the equation of What makes you right with God praise God but you are saved Under good works your heart is changed at the new birth you are given New desires you are given new passions you are given new attractions and affections And we must live in such a way that gives testimony To God's gracious salvation now the importance for our works On the day of judgment will be especially weighty for ministers For the elders of the church and if you're one of our elders Teaching elders or ruling elders I want you to hear this today I've had to preach this to myself All week I want you to hear this the apostle James warns us That few of you should be teachers quote because you know That we who teach will be judged with greater strictness in First Corinthians chapter three Paul is addressing ministers In that chapter he begins by invoking he and the other Apostles and the way that they will be judged more severely and he extends this to All who are appointed by the Lord to do the building by Teaching and preaching and instructing in the word of God that's the whole context for second Corinthians three and Paul says this if the work That anyone has built and he's referring to his fellow apostles and to the ministers of the church If the work that anyone is built on the foundation survives he will receive a reward If anyone's work is burned up he will suffer loss though he himself will be saved But only as through fire and so ministers Elders teachers listen to me we will incur a stricter judgment from the Lord And this should sober us now maybe you're thinking Todd you're not helping me much here I still have the image of all My sins being exposed that does not help me say come quickly Lord Jesus But beyond the books there's this other book And the other book changes the whole equation here Brothers and sisters your deeds may be recorded in the other Books along with every other person's deeds but your name is in the book of life And notice there are no deeds listed in the book of life Except maybe the deeds of the Lord Jesus The other books record deeds but the most important book records your name Christian whatever your deeds may reveal the book with your name And it speaks more loudly think of it this way You wrote those books of deeds your Savior Wrote the book of life another thought On that great day when Christ returns and takes his place upon the throne Before all eyes to see our comfort our reputation will not be our concern Because on that day we will be changed We will be freed from sin from the bondage of decay and we will be Filled with the joy of seeing our Savior our chief concern will not be our Feelings but his glory what the judgment of our works will Look like and how precisely we will experience that we are not Told but given all the scriptures teach us about Our status before the Lord and the fact that our sins have been Removed from us we can be confident that when we Finally see Jesus he will not take a pound of flesh from us In the form of public humiliation we won't experience A mini purgatory in that moment the Lord will not Approach us as though we need one more spanking before we get into heaven When Jesus returns the testimony of scripture is clear It will be to take us home to welcome us home We are in Jesus's own words his inheritance Not his object of scorn his inheritance that the Father's given him and then the last thought here the exposure of our Needs will be an enormous source of comfort for us It'll be an occasion of worship for us because the opening Of those books for Christians will be to magnify the grace Of God and how because over the record Of every sin committed by every single one of his People will be a bold line of cancellation If you could as it were look into those books Of deeds you will see and I imagine this Think about the words of Colossians 2 as you look at the record or as you Think about the record of your sins can you think about what Paul writes in Colossians 2 And you who were dead in your trespasses and the Uncircumcision of your flesh God made alive together with him Having forgiven all our trespasses by Cancelling the record of debt that stood against us With all of its legal demands this he set aside nailing it To the cross that's what's happened to the Record that stood against you that Means that the record of sins of believers are not a record of debt but a record of God's Mercy when we look at our sins when we look at the record of our Deeds it's as though God points to it and said let me let me tell you what you're Looking at there there is now there for no condemnation For those who are in Christ Jesus you know if you've seen those press releases Where secret government documents are exposed and the whole pages are blacked out Redacted redacted redacted and you say I can't read A thing that's what God has done to your record of sin Redacted blotted out Cancelled the Heidelberg Catechism question 52 How does Christ's return to judge the living and the dead Comfort you here's the answer in all distress And persecution with uplifted head I confidently await the very judge Who has already offered himself to the judgment of God in my place And removed the whole curse from me Christ will cast All his enemies in mine into everlasting condemnation but he will Take me and all his chosen ones to himself into the joy and glory Of heaven Final words in this section are sobering You see it there in verse 15 and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of Life he was thrown into the lake of fire Hell is a mystery to us in many ways this is that Second death that spiritual death that being cast away Under the judgment of God and the scriptures give us very little detail About hell we know how the world likes to depict it you know Some underground cave and it's all red and there's stalactites and stalagmites and there's Satan On a throne and all of that is just mere vain speculation Because Satan will not be on a throne in hell there will be no one Who suffers to the degree that Satan suffers in hell What we know is that hell is a place of God's holy wrath Was made for Satan hell was made for demons it is it is also tragically The destiny of those who have suppressed the truth and chosen sin over salvation It is a place of sorrow and regret and suffering It is a place of restlessness where mercy God's mercy is absent At the final judgment mere ritual observation Outward religiosity will save no one God will bring an end to the wicked both those who make an outward show of faith And those who have rejected Christ blatantly Paul writes this quote modern Christians have pushed the limits Of minimizing hell in an effort to stide to sidestep or soften Jesus's own teaching the Bible describes hell as a place of outer darkness A lake of fire a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth a place of eternal separation from the Mercy of God a prison a place of torment where the worm never dies Hell is a place of great sorrow For everyone who enters do not think that You can go to hell and there will be parties with your friends it won't be like that But you know the scriptures do teach that there are varying degrees Of suffering in hell so for instance in Matthew 11 Jesus said to the cities of Khorazin and Bethsaida that on the day Of judgment that it would be far more tolerable for the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be for them because Jesus said if Sodom and Gomorrah had heard this same gospel those cities would have repented So he said it's going to be worse for those other cities because They have received greater light and they've rejected it The late great theologian Carl F.H. Henry notes quote All are judged by what they do with the light they have and None is without light this is Romans chapter one and Romans chapter Two that God is written upon creation and even upon our conscience Enough truth that we are accountable to him We have all received light again R.C. Sproul writes this quote No matter how we realize the concept of hell it often sounds to us As a place of cruel and unusual punishment if however We can take any comfort in the concept of hell we can take it in the full assurance that There will be no cruelty there it is impossible for God to be Cruel cruelty involves inflicting a punishment that is more severe or Harsh than the crime cruelty in this sense is unjust God is incapable of inflicting an unjust punishment the Judge of all the earth will do what is right Now we are not to take from this that you can kind of do a little Calculus in your mind and say based upon how I think I've lived Hell might be okay I mean I might get a decent ranch house And you know I might not have an in-ground pool but you know there might be a nice Pond on the property no Good you think you've been in this life apart from Christ your experience in hell Will not be pleasant Just because some will be judged to a harsher degree because of the Light that they've received and because of the wickedness of their deeds does not mean That nice people who rejected Christ will have a pleasant The works of the unbeliever have a Quantitative impact on the judgment that they will receive the greater their Rebellion the greater will be their punishment the greater the light that God is given to them The more grievous will be their rejection of it Romans chapter 2 but because of your hard and Innocent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself On the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed he will Render to each according to his works In the end hell is not a doctrine to dissect but a reality from Which we are called to flee listen to me You don't want to go to hell You won't party with your friends in hell you will only know the consequences Of suppressing God's truth in unrighteousness You will only know the consequences of rejecting the mercy that was laid before you The reality of hell assures us that justice will be done And decay will be forever defeated that the church will be saved That Christ the lamb has triumphed the doctrine of the final judgment Provides a fixed point from which we turn away and look into The future of what he has in store for his beloved people that vast Multitude from every nation whose names are written in the lambs book of life The final words of the last battle Which is the final volume of CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia Are this meditation on the life to come That life in the new creation where all the shadows have fled and Christ is all in all And Lewis writes this And as he spoke that is Aslan the lion and as he spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion but the things that began to happen After that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them And for us this is the end of all the stories And we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after But it was only the beginning of the real story All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page Now at last they were beginning chapter one of the great story Which no one on earth has read which goes on forever In which every chapter is better than the one before it Hallelujah And now O Lord we ask your help and your mercy upon us May your word not depart from us we pray in Jesus name Amen I'm one of the pastors here