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Psalms
119:50-59 This is my comfort in my affliction, For
Your word has given me life. The proud have me in great derision, Yet I do not turn aside from Your
law. I remembered Your judgments of old, O LORD, And have comforted myself.
Indignation has taken hold of me Because of the wicked, who forsake Your law.
Your statutes have been my songs In the house of my pilgrimage. I remember Your
name in the night, O LORD, And I keep Your law. This has become mine, Because I
kept Your precepts. You are my
portion, O LORD; I have said that I would keep Your words. I entreated Your
favor with my whole heart; Be
merciful to me according to Your word. I thought about my ways, And turned my
feet to Your testimonies.
Father God, we thank the many blessings you bestow upon
us each day. You provide for us in so many ways and we take them for granted. We
praise you above all names. In Jesus name we pray, Amen!
Revelation 20:7-10 NKJV
Last
week we left off with this verse, Revelation
20:6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first
resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be
priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. I mentioned the first part of this
verse and how God’s Born Again Saints are blessed and will not have a second
death, but did not mention the fact that God’s Saints are considered priests of
God and Christ. They will serve some way in the ruler-ship that Jesus sets up
during the Millennial Reign. Peter also tells us those that are God’s Saints
serve as priests, meaning going out and spreading the message of the Cross. 1 Peter 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a
spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God through Jesus Christ.
This
lesson is about the release of Satan for a season at the end of the thousand
years that Jesus will be ruling with His Saints. So let’s see why Satan is
release for a season.
7 Now when
the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison
At the end of the thousand
year reign of Jesus, Satan will be release from the pit that he will be thrown
in to and locked up at the Battle of Armageddon. Why will he be released? Why
not leave him locked up? The next verses tell us why he will be released.
8 and will
go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog
and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.
And
will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth,
Gog and Magog; This
release of Satan is difficult for us to understand the reasoning, and this is
why we place out trust and faith in Jesus for all things. God is all knowing,
especially when it comes to the human heart, and He knows how easily our hearts
can be swayed down the wrong path. With the inherited sin nature we are born
with, God knows there will be individuals that will drift back to the pride of
life and thinking they know better than King Jesus that will be ruling during
this 1,000 years even though it will be a period of peace.
Satan will be release to
tempt those that have lived during the 1,000 years and gather them together
from the four corners of the earth to do battle once again. They will not
succeed and the result will be another cleansing of people that will have a
deceived heart. Just like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 40
years, they kept falling back to their own thoughts and not placing their faith
in God, it will be the same during the thousand year reign of Jesus.
Think of it this way, it
take several generations (growing seasons) to produce an inbred of maize that
is pure seed. This is accomplished by looking at individual stalks of maize for
desirable traits. When the agronomist finds a plant that has all the
characteristics that he desires, he then takes the kernels from the ear of
maize and plants them the next season. Not every kernel planted will produce
plants of the same characteristic because each kernel could have been
fertilized by pollen from an undesirable source even though the ear was hand
pollinated. (Hand pollination is a process of harvesting pollen from the plant
and then removing the plastic bag from the ear and introducing the harvested pollen.)
It is through this process of several seasons that a pure inbred is developed
and we can think of Satan being release as a similar process of weeding out people
that do not have a pure heart for God.
This Gog and Magog that
John speaks of is different than that referred to by Ezekiel in Chapters 38
& 39. Ezekiel was speaking of a land north of Israel, parts of Asia, and
northern Europe, where this is interpreted as “multitude and magnitude”. It
embraces all nations of the four quarters of the earth.
To
gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea; This can get confusing real fast because didn’t we say
only God’s Born Again Saints will be the only ones ushered into the Millennial
reign? Yes we did, but during this 1,000 year reign these people will be having
children and the question is, will those that are born during this time period
be born without a sin nature? No they will be born with a sin nature and will
have to repent and accept Jesus as their Saviour just like all of God’s
children have to do. Some believe there will be unsaved individuals entering
the 1,000 year reign of Jesus, but scripture tells us otherwise.
9 They went
up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the
beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
They
went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and
the beloved city; All
that Satan can gather up from the four corners of the earth will come against
Jerusalem again after the thousand years. This just goes to show you how
arrogant and prideful Satan is. He lost the Battle of Armageddon, but still he
thinks he can overthrow God. He didn’t learn anything from his 1,000 year
incarceration. Since it is because of Satan that we inherited the sin nature,
it is no wonder human beings are the way they are. The Israelites could not put
their faith in God in the wilderness and even today people can’t put their
faith in what Jesus did on the Cross for mankind. Mankind places their faith in
them-selves and religion in an effort to do good, in hopes of going to Heaven.
And
fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them; This battle will not take but a blink
of an eye and it will be over before it starts. This fire that will come down
from Heaven will be the same fire that came down from Heaven and devoured
Aaron’s two sons that offered up profane fire to God. Leviticus 10:1-2 Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each
took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire
before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. 2 So fire
went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.
We human beings have a
tendency to mock God just like Nadab and Abihu did, but God takes great offense
to such horseplay. We think God is all merciful and will look the other way
when we sin against Him. There is also an instance in the Catholic Bible where
God struck down Jewish soldiers that took sacred idols of those they defeated.
Our God is a jealous God and He requires all of our praise, worship, and
prayers directed to Him and no other. 2 Maccabees 12:40 And they
found under the coats of the slain, some of the donaries of the idols of
Jamnia, which the law forbiddeth to the Jews: so that all plainly saw, that for
this cause they were slain.
10 The
devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where
the beast and the false prophet are.
And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
The
devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where
the beast and the false prophet are; This verse tells us that Satan will
join his other two counterparts that are already in the Lake of Fire. Revelation 19:20 Then the beast was captured, and with him the
false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who
received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two
were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.
And
they will be tormented day and night forever and ever; This
phrase tears apart some religion’s beliefs that once we die we just lay in the
grave. This tells us there is eternity and those that are not Born Again will
spend eternity in the Lake of Fire where there will be wailing and gnashing of
teeth. The dynamic trio will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire where they will
bother no one again.
Lake
of Fire
 |
Art used; by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992.
|
I’m going to stop here
because the rest of this chapter is about the Great White Throne Judgment, and
I do not have enough space to do it justice.
Colossians 1:16 For
by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or
powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
Romans 3:23 for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 3:3
Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say
to you,unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Bill
Wiesbrock https://www.facebook.com/bill.wiesbrock?ref=tn_tnmn
Sinners
Prayer; Pray this, and if you believe it with your heart, Jesus will save you!
“Lord Jesus I know I am a sinner. I confess my sins to you; I am sorry for my
sins; I repent (Meaning, desiring to turn from a sinful lifestyle.) of all my
sins, and I am asking for your forgiveness of all of my sins. I believe that only you can forgive sin. I commit my life to you and ask you to come
into my heart, direct, and take charge of my life. I believe that you died to set me free from
my sinful lifestyle and you rose from the dead to give me eternal life, and
right now you are seated at the Right Hand of God Almighty. I believe you are
the Son of God; the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life, and my
Savior.” I believe this and have faith
you will make a new person out of me, by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in my
heart and lead me in a new life. In Jesus name I pray Amen.” (John 3:16,17;
Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:9-13; Ephesians 2:8-10; 1
John 5:11-14; 1:6-10) (Sin: Rom.
1:22-32; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-7)
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