As we’ve studied the second coming of Christ over the last few weeks it has really impressed me how the Lord’s plan for our redemption is so much broader than His Son coming into this world, being born of a virgin, living a perfect life, dying on the cross for the penalty of our sins, and then rising from the dead to secure our salvation.

And yet, this message is central to the glorious salvation we have. But, when you look at the continuing plan of Christ, from the rapture, to the seven year tribulation, to the second coming of our Lord, to the millennial reign and now the new heavens and new earth and eternity, it just makes you stand in awe of how full and magnificent this salvation is, which has been on God’s heart from all of eternity.

Our salvation was never a mistake or an afterthought or some sort of contingent plan because of the sin of Adam and Eve. From all of eternity, before the first man or woman was ever created, God had planned to have us share in His eternity through the shed blood of Christ. The apostle Paul makes this abundantly clear.

EPH 1:3 "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."

Peter essentially says the same thing, but instead of placing us as the ones chosen before the creation of the world, he shows how Jesus Himself was chosen in the eternal councils of the Godhead to come to redeem us with His precious blood, long before He ever took on human flesh.

1PE 1:18 "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God."

Our God is an awesome God, full of mercy and compassion and love for a people He knew would rebel in time, and yet outside of time He still desired to have fellowship with us and secure that fellowship with sinful men through His Son, whom He would send into this world for us.

But, it stands to reason that just as our Lord was commissioned before the foundations of this universe to take on flesh, He was also commissioned to come the second time and to set up His kingdom in this world for a thousand years and ultimately to issue in a Kingdom, which includes you and me in Christ who are set free from the penalty and power of sin, and one day to share in a sinless and glorified state to be with the Lord forever.

God is a God of purpose and from all of eternity His purpose was to allow us to share in His life forever. And, as we begin to move from an earthly presence with Christ in this world for a thousand years, we now move toward the close of His eternal redemptive plan for mankind in this world to a Kingdom which would be entirely new, no longer bound by earthly restrictions.

And so, we come to the new heavens and the new earth this morning. But, before we move to that it is important to note that just prior to that time, the end of the millennial reign of Christ has one more momentous event which has to be fulfilled according to the word of God.

REV 20:7 "When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison
8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth -Gog and Magog - to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore.
9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them."

This event takes place at the very end of the millennium. And yet, what is so striking about this is that people in this world who, at this time, have the very presence of Christ in this earth, will actually want to rebel against Him.

Keep in mind that the earth will have been restored to a beauty and peace that it has never known since the fall of man. No nation will be at war with each other. In fact, as we saw last week Jesus Himself will not even allow them to practice war or to use any implement for war. Their swords will be turned into plowshares.

ISA 2:3 "Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
5 Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD."

Unfortunately, what is meant to be a time of peace during the millennium, the Jews expected this future fulfillment during the time when the Son of God was born into this world as a man. They wanted an earthly king to rule over them as he destroyed the nations and made peace. That is not what Isaiah was conveying.

But, during the millennial reign of Christ this will become a reality for both Israel and the world-at-large. But, here is the amazing thing. With all of the beauty of a world at peace and a world without strife, because of the presence of our King of kings and Lord of lord, people will still not be satisfied.

I mentioned this last week. Though the flesh and sin will certainly be dramatically restrained, because of Christ’s presence, the heart of man will still have that nature to want to rebel against a Holy God. At the beginning of the millennial reign of our Lord every person on the face of the earth will be believers in Christ.

But, it won’t take long, as the world is repopulated, for the hearts of sinful rebellious people to consider themselves as opposed to their God, Creator and Savior. Jesus can bring peace to this present world, but this world is still under a curse and therefore sin will still remain even during the millennium and there will be those who choose sin over Christ.

GEN 3:17 "To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life."

Though God has certainly subdued this curse to a great degree during this thousand years the only way to ultimately get rid of it is to destroy this planet and start fresh and new with a new creation.

And the thing which brings this reality of existing sin, and the curse of sin, to the forefront is what is about to happen when Satan is loosed for a short time. Again, notice what John records for us.

This is amazing. To think that as soon as Satan is released he could immediately deceive the nations and actually gather people to follow Him as they come against the camp of God’s people, the city He loves.

This is talking about the city of Jerusalem where Jesus resides. A number of the descendants of the original survivors of the great tribulation are actually going to try and make war against the Savior of this world.

What really boggles my mind concerning all of this is that the word of God will have been going out into all the world during this millennial reign. The gospel will have been preached. Prophecy will have been shown to be true as the word points to how everything that was taught about the anti-christ, the false prophet, and the false religious system during that seven year period was true.

Every person who came through that time, who believed on the Lord Jesus, and out of obedience did not receive the mark of the beast, will constantly remind their offspring how all of the word of God is true and how it all came to pass in their lifetime.

In fact, they will also have all of the teachings we’re looking at this morning concerning Satan’s being loosed for a short time. For a thousand years every believer will be sharing with their children and their children’s children how all of this will take place and not to be a part of that rebellious element.

They will be encouraged to look at the facts of God’s word and encourage everyone everywhere that just as the word was fulfilled concerning the second coming of Christ, our Lord will truly fulfill the last part of that millennial reign, and that everyone who follows Satan will be cast into the lake of fire with him.

Add to that that all of the glorified saints will also be in this earth to bear witness to God’s faithfulness and His gospel and the truth of His word. Imagine some saint in his or her glorified body, appearing and reappearing, walking through walls or whatever, sharing with people the greatness of God and His good news in Christ.

What a witness it will be in those days of who God is and what He has accomplished and what He will accomplish. And yet, despite all of this, which is taking place in an environment of peace and safety, directly from the hand of Jesus who is in Jerusalem, people will still have hearts which want to rebel against our Lord.

Dave Hunt makes a very interesting observation in his book, "How Close are We?". He says, "There has been no child abuse for 1,000 years, no "dysfunctional families," no poverty or deprivation. None of the reasons given today for wrong behavior are present, yet evil lurks in the heart and springs forth when it has the opportunity. This final rebellion of mankind against God will constitute the ultimate proof that the theories of the sociologists and the psychologists, which blame evil upon environment and circumstances, are false."

It is the heart of man that’s the problem. And the person without Christ has a heart which wages war against God in one form or another, even today. And this last battle is a battle from the hearts of sinful men who have rejected Christ and have sided with a loser who has no future except the lake of fire, Satan himself.

Look at the stats. Every time Satan has come against God he has always lost. From the first time we encounter him in the Garden of Eden, God places a judgment against him after he successfully deceived Adam and Eve, to the time when our Lord bound him for a thousand years.

All of this information will be available and taught during those thousand years of peace under Christ’s rule. And yet people will still flock to Satan when he is loosed. In those days he will undoubtedly promise the people in this earth wealth, power and fame and a place in history where they can come against a "false" Messiah and win. The hardness of man’s heart is amazing. But, what happens at that final battle?

REV 20:9 "They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

We’re not told how long Satan has in deceiving the nations, only that he is released for a short time, according to Rev. 20:3. The word short is the Greek word mikros which essentially means small or little. It’s where we get our English word micro. And so we have words like, microorganism, microscope. And so, the idea of small or little or very tiny in terms of space and time is what is being referred to here.

If this is in contrast to the thousand years it could be a time of a few days or a few weeks, possibly a few months as Satan is taking the time to deceive and then gather an army to come against Christ. But the actual battle takes little to no time at all, because as soon as they come against the city fire comes down from heaven and devours them.

At this point, Satan has gone from the frying pan into the fire, pun intended. And he, along with the beast and the false prophet, who are already there, will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

But, what about the rest of the people who were consumed in that battle and what about the rest of the people who remained faithful to Christ during that thousand years? And for that matter what about those who died during the great tribulation who were not martyred for their faith? What happens to these different groups?

Let’s take a look. The first thing we notice is that the thousand years is a definite time period, which means that it must come to an end. And it is at the end of this time that there will be one more judgment. It’s called the Great White Throne judgment.

As we saw last week those who had been martyred for their faith in Christ during the great tribulation will be resurrected in their new glorified bodies and will reign with Christ, along with all of the other glorified saints who came back with Christ to defeat Satan and his armies at Armageddon. John speaks of this in the Revelation from Christ.

REV 20:4 "I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years."

This means that all other saints who died of any other cause but martyrdom, during the tribulation, will not be resurrected during the time of the millennium but will be resurrected after that time. It also means that those who died, who were not in Christ, will be judged at the end of the thousand years.

REV 20:5 "(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection."

And so, there will be a resurrection of everyone, both unbelievers as well as believers. In fact, Paul speaks of this in the book of Acts.

ACT 24:14 "However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets,
15 and I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked."

And so, both believers and unbelievers will receive resurrection bodies. Believers will have a glorified body fit for heaven and being in the presence of our God and Savior, and the unbeliever will have a resurrection body fit for the lake of fire.

For those who are left at the end they will come before God to be judged according to what they have done in this earth. The believer will be judged as believers had been judged when they were raptured at Christ’s coming for them in the air.

1CO 3:12 "If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,
13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.
14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.
15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."

2CO 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."

And so, the believer will receive judgments which have to do with his works, but not as it relates to his salvation in Christ who took our judgment and paid the debt in full at the cross. That judgment will deal with the rewards in heaven they will receive.

But for every unbeliever who has ever lived the Great White Throne judgment at the end of the world will determine their place in the Lake of fire, as all of them will then receive their resurrected bodies to eternal damnation and separation from God.

And though it may not be very popular to talk about this aspect of the fate of unbelievers, it is Jesus Himself who reveals the truth about such things.

MAT 13:49 "This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous
50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

MAT 25:32 "All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

People have said for years that the ungodly get away with murder or any other thing which we might deem unjust. What God is saying is that no one will get away with anything. Sin will ultimately be judged. For the believer, his sin will be judged in Christ. This is what the writer of Hebrews says.

HEB 8:12 "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

David, an O.T. saint also fully understood this aspect of the grace of God as it relates to his judgment.

PSA 65:3 "When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions."

ISA 43:25 "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more."

For the unbeliever he will pay for his own sin just as he chose to do. Remember, the wages of sin is death. And they will receive their just wage.

There will be degrees of punishment in the lake of fire. Luke alludes to this in his gospel in Luk.12:35-48 as well as Luk.20:45-47. Even Jesus makes this clear in the revelation He gave to John.

REV 22:12 "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done."

But there is little comfort in knowing that to what ever degree an unbeliever will suffer in the lake of fire they will still be eternally separated from their God and Savior, forever to be tormented in their bodies because of their rebellion. This will be their destiny, but it will not be the end of those in Christ.

The best is yet to come for us because there will be a new heaven and a new earth where we will reside with the Lord forever. And yet, interestingly enough, very little is revealed concerning this most important subject. Here’s what we do know. Isaiah first speaks of this.

ISA 66:22 "As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me," declares the LORD, "so will your name and descendants endure.

John then acknowledges this in REV 21:1 "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"

The new Jerusalem is our eternal abode. And to whatever degree this will include both heaven and earth we know that we will be with our Lord in this place even as Abraham had envisioned it.

HEB 11:10 "For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God."

The city is described in Revelation as beautifully decorated like "a bride adorned for her husband" (Rev.21:2). Later, John actually refers to the city as the bride of the Lamb (Rev.21:9), because the city contains the bride of Christ, His Church." (Dr. David R. Reagan)

Dr. David Reagan believes that at "the end of the millennium all the Redeemed will be taken off the earth and placed in the New Jerusalem which will most likely be suspended in the heavens. From that vantage point we will watch as God burns up this earth and reshapes it like a hot ball of wax into a new earth, a perfected earth like the one which God created in the beginning. Then, we will be lowered down to that earth inside the new Jerusalem."

Others have different perspectives, but one thing is sure; this world will be burned up to make way for the new.

2PE 3:7 ".... the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
10 ... The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. (Some manuscripts, "be burned up")

There was a beginning, and because of sin there will be an end to this world. But, in the plan of God He will make sure that with the end will be a new beginning which will never end.

The city of our great God, the New Jerusalem, is described for us in the book of Revelation as a city whose streets are pure transparent gold with a foundation made of 12 layers of precious stones and yes, according to Rev. 21:21 there will be pearly gates, each one consisting of one huge pearl.

The throne of God and His Son will be in the city and a river of the water of life will flow down the middle of the city’s main street with the tree of life growing on both sides. What all of this means can only be imagined as the vision John has concerning these things can only be explained in human words. What lies in front of us is beyond our wildest imaginations, but oh so glorious.

And for all of eternity we will be in the presence of our God worshipping, serving and reigning with Him in Christ. What that will entail, again, we can only imagine. But the best thing which will happen there is that we will see our God face to face.

REV 22:3 "No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.
4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever."

We were created to have fellowship with God and this will be the ultimate. Faith will give way to sight and the hope we longed for will be a reality. No more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

And the promise Jesus gives to everyone is that they can be a part of this new order if they would just come to Him by faith today.

Jesus says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son." (Rev.22:6-7)

This is why Paul could say, "to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Phi.1:21)

And though we have pain and sorrow today, it is but for a short time. May we long for the day when we see our Lord and may we depend on His grace and strength and love so that we may be responsible to choose to trust and obey and serve Him faithfully with the truth until that day.

Remember, it is "Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father - to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen." (Rev.1:5-6)

To that may we all agree with John’s words; the very last words he records for us in Revelation.

REV 22:20 "He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen."