919. Justice will Come

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the University Chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, we're continuing a study series entitled Our Ancient Foe, which is a study of Satan, the reality of his presence, and how Christians can be victorious against him. Today's message will be preached by Dr. Dan Olinger, and the title of his message is Justice Will Come from Revelation 20.

BJU President Steve Pettit will introduce him. Well, we're delighted this morning to have Dr. Dan Olinger come and challenge us on our theme, Our Ancient Foe. I know the messages have been a help to you in so many ways. I'm very excited about this morning's message. I think it will be helpful. I think it will be clear. And as Dr. O always does, he brings the word in a very unique way.

So Dr. Olinger. Good morning. How are you today? I guess you can't really answer me, can you?

That was dumb. I'd like to show you a photograph. This is Joseph Sledge. On September 5, 1976, Joseph Sledge escaped from a minimum security prison farm where he was serving four years for misdemeanor larceny. He stole a 1969 Chevrolet and headed for freedom.

The next day two women were brutally stabbed to death in Elizabethtown, North Carolina. Sledge was spotted in his stolen car the day after that. Eventually he was arrested and returned to prison. Two of his cellmates later testified that he had told them that he committed those murders. He was convicted and given two consecutive life sentences.

But here's the thing. Joseph Sledge didn't do that. And 35 years later, the last surviving cellmate who had testified against him said that he had been promised early release if he would say that Sledge had confessed to the murders. Turned out that the cellmates had changed their story in the course of that and that fact had been hidden from the jury. Also hidden from the jury was the fact that there was a second suspect who lived not far from the ladies and who had shoes matching footprints at the crime scene.

And then DNA analysis of a hair demonstrated that Joseph Sledge could not have been the murderer. And in a very real sense, justice is not really available to him, is it? Where does he go to get those 40 years back?

Where does he go to get his life? Why is it, do you suppose, that we find that pleasing? Well, because we're in the image of God and like God, we want justice. We want to see evil undone and overcome. We want to see justice done.

We've spent several weeks here in this series in chapel learning about our ancient foe. We've learned that despite every kindness from God, Satan turned against his gracious creator and his benefactor and sought to defeat him and when he couldn't, he went after his children. And for thousands of years Satan has been lying to you and to me and to millions more just like us, making promises he has no intention of keeping, deceiving, defacing, and destroying the image of God in every way he can. Every insult, every lie, every theft, every sexual assault, every death is a result of his direct action against us. And we want justice.

In the face of crimes of this intensity and this extent, what would justice even look like? And will it ever come? Even if you would to Revelation chapter 20. I'd like to read seven of the first ten verses of this passage. Verses one through three. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed a little season.

Skipping down to verse seven. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went upon the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about and the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. So this is what lies ahead for our ancient foe.

There will in fact be justice. What did we learn from this passage? Well, the first thing we notice is that God is clearly greater than Satan.

And that is evident in at least three ways here at the beginning, in the first paragraph of this chapter. First off, he gives even his assistants, his messengers, the authority to restrict Satan. Look what happens here. When it's time for Satan to be bound, does Christ come and bind him? Does the father come and bind him?

No, he sends an angel to do it. He sends an assistant, a messenger. One of the evidences of power is the presence of representatives.

Have you ever thought about that? We have ambassadors of our country that live in other countries and represent our president there. A corporate executive has vice presidents and administrative assistants and all kinds of people to do his bidding. And he sends them. A soldier in Jesus Day once said to him, no, you don't have to come heal my son.

You just speak and it'll be done because I know what it's like to have authority. God doesn't even have to get out of his chair to deal with Satan. He sends one of his servants to do it. And look at verse three. He casts him into the bottomless pit and shuts him up and sets a seal upon him.

That's the angel that does this. And then we read that he should deceive the nations no more. God intervenes to protect the welfare of his people. You and I have bad stuff happen to us and we wonder if he cares, if he knows. He does care. He does know. And he does intervene. Even he intervenes in ways you aren't even aware of. Last time you drove on the interstate, most of you, that was earlier this week.

How many cars did you pass at emerging speed of somewhere between 120 and 150 miles an hour? In some cases inches away and you didn't even think about it. God was intervening on your behalf at every moment of that. Sometimes it looks like he doesn't intervene and what are we to think about that? Look at verse 3C.

That he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed a little season. God's in control of time as well as space. God moves when he wants to move. He's never in a hurry and that frustrates us because we think that's a sign of apathy or inattention or lack of love or something. You know what it's a sign of?

It's a sign of sovereignty. Sovereign people never have to be in a hurry. You know when you see, what was it, the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland who came by going I'm late, I'm late, I'm late. You see somebody in a hurry and that's somebody whose life is for the moment out of control and you've had that feeling on occasion haven't you?

When you woke up at 755 for an 8 o'clock class and it's amazing how fast you can move. See God's, God's never doing that. He doesn't have to. He's sovereign. In this first paragraph we see Satan bound. But now he's loosed, verse 7. And he thinks he's getting away with something.

I'm out, I'm free. He doesn't realize that he's playing right into God's hands. God looses him, he frees him to demonstrate that he deserves what's coming. And so we find starting in verse 7 that Satan deserves whatever God does to him.

How do we know that? Well, verse 7 he refuses to repent. God allows him to be freed and he goes right back to what he's been doing. He hasn't learned a thing from his previous failures.

He hasn't made any observations about the character and power of God. He acts like everything's just the same that it was. He's unrehabilitated, he's unrepentant. And he goes right back to what he was doing before.

And what's that? Verse 9. He attacks the weak.

They went up on the breadth of the earth and compass the camp of the saints about and the beloved city. He goes after God's kids again. What a scoundrel. A scoundrel is not strong enough a word.

He's the very embodiment of evil. And now in verse 9 we see God's final and glorious response. Remember, God protects the welfare of his people.

He's paying attention, he cares, and he is moving to act on their behalf. And so we read halfway through verse 9, the fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. I think it's interesting that this is not a prolonged and difficult battle. This isn't Ohio State versus Michigan.

Double overtime, game decided on the very last play. This is lopsided and it's over in an instant. That's how great God is. And you wonder why he wasn't in any hurry to intervene. That's why.

Because he's great. And now Satan begins to suffer. Verse 10. The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are.

Fire and brimstone, that's painful and that's destructive. A number of years ago after my first child was born, I decided that I wanted to be able to act knowledgeably if any of my kids needed medical help, so I got certified as an EMT. I took it as a class, my free course here at Bob Jones, I was a staff member at the time, can take a class for free.

So I took that, got certified. And I've had occasion to use that in the years since. I've found, I know some people are a little queasy about this and don't worry, I'm not going to say anything that's going to make you queasy. I've got a pretty strong stomach.

I can do okay with various kinds of traumatic situations. But you know the one that gets you? The one that gets you is fire. The burns. They're nasty. This is the only appropriate response to the evil of this person. Fire.

Brimstone. My wife and I have spent many happy vacations in Gatlinburg. I'm told that Gatlinburg is gone now or extensively damaged by wildfire and if you've seen some of the videos you just can't believe what's coming out of there. And we say, how sad that is.

What a shame that is. That this beautiful and joy-giving place was destroyed by fire. Well, when Satan is cast into the lake of fire, there is no sense of how sad that is. He has gotten what he deserves.

It has been a long time coming and it will certainly come. The passage tells us, at the end of verse 10, that he'll be tormented day and night, forever and ever. His suffering will never end. What's the appropriate penalty for Satan's infinite crimes?

That is exactly the penalty that he'll get. Justice will come. But there's an elephant in the room, isn't there? We need to talk about another characteristic of hell. It turns out that the devil won't be the only one there. We're told in this passage that the beast and the false prophet are already there. Back in Revelation chapter 19, you can read the account of their going to the lake of fire and brimstone. Both Peter and Jude tell us that some of the angels that rebelled with Satan have been held all this time in chains reserved unto judgment.

They'll be there. But the thing that's sad and deeply puzzling about this is that there will be human beings there. The psalmist says that the wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations that forget God. Jesus himself says that the person who says thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. And later in this chapter, Revelation 20, we read whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And we've already seen that hell is a place of intense physical suffering. Jesus referred to hell fire. In the Sermon on the Mount, which is a sermon of great hope and great joy and peace with God, includes Jesus' teaching that for some people their whole body and their soul would be in hell. And he told a story once about Lazarus, the poor man, the beggar, and the rich man who didn't have any sympathy for Lazarus. And after the rich man died, Jesus says he was in hell being in torment.

How do we make sense of that? Human beings are in the image of God. They don't belong in hell. Even sinful human beings are in the image of God. God told Noah after he came out of the ark in Genesis chapter 9 that the penalty for murder was going to be death.

Why? Because the murder victim is in the image of God. That's what's wrong with murder. It's not so much your right to life as the defacing of the image of God. So even sinful people, murderers and murder victims, are in the image of God.

You and I were designed to have fellowship with him forever. It makes no sense for us to be there. Matthew told us, Jesus told us in Matthew 25 that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.

That's who it's for. You and I don't belong there. But you see, the devil is a liar. John tells us in his first epistle that the whole world lies in wickedness. That's the language of physical love. The devil says he loves you and he makes promises. He says he'll make you happy.

He gives you sparkly presents, things that you like. But here's the thing. He lies. That's what he does.

That's who he is. He doesn't love you. He's only using you to get back at God because he's too weak to take him on. He's not going to keep his promises and his presents are going to turn into dust.

The fancy diamond ring is going to turn your finger green. He's using you. Don't fall for his lies. So dance with the one who brought you.

You're designed to be with God. He's stronger than the other guy. He'll enable you to defeat our ancient foe. He's proved that he loves you. He's proposed to you.

He invites you to the wedding. Be his bride and leave hell for those for whom it has been repaired. Let's pray. Father, we're overwhelmed with your goodness, with your grace, with your might and power, and with your justice. Thank you, Lord, that our ancient foe, our great enemy, will face justice and it will be complete and it will be eternal and it will be exactly what he has coming. Now, Father, I pray today that no one in this room will experience pains of a place that was never made for him. We pray that your spirit would work in the hearts of those who need conviction of sin and repentance and faith and would you draw them with cords of love, graciously, tenderly, to the Father. May we rejoice with you in the billions of years to come, singing of your grace and loving and knowing you all the more. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. You just heard Dr. Dan Ollinger, Bible professor at Bob Jones University, preach a sermon from our 10-part series about Satan called Our Ancient Foe. A recent hymn has been written which talks about us putting our armor on and standing against the devil's lies. Here's the Bob Jones University student body and orchestra singing the hymn, O Church, Arise. We pray in Jesus' name. We pray that your spirit would work in the hearts of those who need conviction of sin and faith and faith and love.

We pray in Jesus' name. We pray that your spirit would work in the hearts of those who need conviction of sin and love. We pray that your spirit would work in the hearts of those who need conviction of sin and love. We pray that your spirit would work in the hearts of those who need conviction of sin and love. We pray that your spirit would work in the hearts of those who need conviction of sin and love. We pray that your spirit would work in the hearts of those who need conviction of sin and love. We pray that your spirit would work in the hearts of those who need conviction of sin and love. We pray that your spirit would work in the hearts of those who need conviction of sin and love. We pray that your spirit would work in the hearts of those who need conviction of sin and love. You've been listening to the Bob Jones University Student Body and Orchestra, Performing O Church, Arise. Join us again tomorrow as we conclude this study series entitled, Our Ancient Foe, here on The Daily Platform.