All right, so let's wrap up life in the Millenium. This is SO worth looking forward to, especially right now! We've seen the hate and anger that evil spits out in this world the last couple of weeks. But now evil is defeated- for a time- and It's a new world of hope. Christ Himself is on the throne, and David has arisen to rule over Israel...
Eze 34:23 And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.
Eze 34:24 And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken.
And he will have help...
Mat 19:27 Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”
Mat 19:28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
But also we who have either died in Christ or hear those wonderful words, "Come up here", will also have authority, as we saw last time. But now, I want to throw you some curve balls about what this new world will be like.
-Evangelism is NOT done! Some survivors of Armageddon will yet be uninformed about Christ, and the Jews will be sent to the nations to gather the fruit:
Isa 66:19 and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations.
Isa 66:20 And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD.
- Free of the sin of the old world, the population renews:
Jer 30:18 “Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt on its mound, and the palace shall stand where it used to be.
Jer 30:19 Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving, and the voices of those who celebrate. I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will make them honored, and they shall not be small.
-There will be work- herds to watch, and fields to tend:
Isa 65:10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for my people who have sought me.
- No more working for someone else and not getting the benefit of it:
Isa 65:22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
Isa 65:23 They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them.
-No more too-soon deaths (for the mortals remaining will still die, but...)
Isa 65:20 No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.
-One thing I noted to my son and grandson the other night was that wild beasts will be among the bringers of death during the Tribulation; but NOW:
Isa 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.
-God later ties this to the other big cause of death in the Tribulation, war:
Hos 2:18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.
-He also eliminates the third horseman, Famine:
Hos 2:21 “And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth,
Hos 2:22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel...
-But what about all the things we struggled with on this earth?
Isa 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.
Isa 65:18 But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness.
A world of joy, a people of gladness. Somehow, though, this cannot last either, because mortal flesh is still bound to sin:
Rev 20:2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
Rev 20:3 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. After that he must be released for a little while.
What? Satan gets freed again? But why? Because we MUST be made to depend on God alone. At first, the world was given the chance to seek the Lord (Genesis 4:26)- but they messed it up, and God brought the Flood. Then they were given the Law- but they could not follow it, and went into exile. Then there Messiah came on the Appointed Day- and they rejected Him (Luke 19:41-44). And now, even when He rules, when He is there for all to see, man will be like the fallen angels and still turn away:
Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison
Rev 20:8 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; their number is like the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9 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,
Rev 20:10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
And that will be the end of the way things were....
Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
At that point those who rejected Christ throughout history will be judged; every crime, every attempt of the Spirit to convict them that they spurned, will be opened for all to see.
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I get to this point and I think of Stalin. According to his daughter:
According to Svetlana, his death was a "terrible" and prolonged agony of choking.
In what seemed to be his very last moment of consciousness, he suddenly opened his eyes and cast a malicious glare over the doctors and officials in the room.
He then raised his left hand and pointed upward in a gesture that Svetlana described as "incomprehensible and full of menace".
Immediately after the final gesture, he collapsed and died.
He must have instinctively known what would come next. But here's the thing: The wonderful scientist who finds the cure for cancer, but doesn't believe in Christ, will share that same fate. What about you? Many theologians believe that, if you heard the Gospel before the Rapture (which you are right now!) but never accept the free gift of Christ's death for your sins, you won't get a second chance, according to Paul:
2Th 2:9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,
2Th 2:10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
2Th 2:11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false,
2Th 2:12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Those that get evangelized during the Tribulation and in the Millenium had NEVER HEARD the Gospel before. If you hear it, and snooze on it, you will be right there with that scientist and "Uncle Joe". But God is merciful; just as we learned in the Revelation series that God will accept the repentant heart right up to the end, you have a chance even now. But don't waste time.
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