The Final Rebellion, Part 1

In the perfect conditions of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve rebelled and sinned against God. A time is coming in the future when something very similar will happen. Imagine, here in a perfect society with pristine living conditions and prosperous health and plenty of resources, mankind by the millions will be ready to follow the devil rather than worship Christ.

This is the Garden of Eden Part 2. Everyone who enters the Millennial Kingdom at the very beginning will be a follower of Jesus Christ. People who are saved in the Tribulation will enter directly into the Kingdom. However, from that time on, there will be people who will be born during the Kingdom period. And those people will need to respond to the Gospel and be saved. Unfortunately, many won't. So, at the end of that period, Satan will lead one final rebellion against God.

This is wisdom for the heart. Today, Stephen continues through his series on the Millennial Kingdom with this lesson called, The Final Rebellion. Conventions were held in different places around the world under the direction of the Global Peace Festival. Delegates converged on Taiwan where elaborate ceremonies were held that would have reminded you, from what I saw, of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Speeches were delivered and dignitaries from around the globe attended.

The ceremonies took place simultaneously at different locations in many countries. In fact, the Peace Initiative will hold ceremonies this coming year in a dozen countries, including our own, preaching a message that global peace can come if we commit ourselves to three things. To the family, to acts of service, and to interfaith dialogue. Which is, of course, the politically correct way of saying one religion should not try to evangelize another. We're all the same anyway. Let's leave everybody alone.

Which is exactly what the Apostle Paul did not do when he visited Athens and saw that deeply idolatrous nation, worshiping God after God, and they even had a monument to the unknown God, and Paul gathered a hearing and said, Let me introduce to you who this unknown God is and his name, and he is, by the way, the creator of everything, and he's coming back to judge the world, so you need to repent. So much for interfaith dialogue. I did a little research and learned that the Global Peace Festival flies under the banner. In fact, these are the big banners, One Family Under God.

Sounds good, doesn't it? That's their motto. However, one leader in the movement went on record as saying that God, in that motto, can be interpreted to mean any God you desire.

The important thing, I guess, is that you have one. I dug a little deeper, and in order to protect you should you hear about this, found the underpinnings of the Global Peace Festival is, in fact, the unification church of Reverend Sun Yung Moon, whose son now heads it, and yet this is gathering incredible momentum, incorporating nation after nation. One Family Under God is really interpreted to mean one family under any God but the Bible's God. And that's where Christianity becomes the problem. Christianity's core belief is that Christ is the only true and living resurrected and soon to be reigning God. There are not many faiths.

There's one faith, one Lord, one baptism, and all the others are hopeless speculations, and because of that we are involved in global evangelization to introduce to them, as Paul did to Athens, who this true and living God is. Global peace will finally arrive on the heels of the Prince of Peace. You remember that little song? I think I quoted it a couple of, maybe a year ago.

It's from the 80s. It won't be old Buddha who's sitting on the throne. You remember it won't be old Muhammad who's calling us home. It won't be Hira Krishna who's playing the trumpet tune because we're going to see the sun, not Reverend Moon.

Isn't that great? We ought to learn how to sing that around here. It'd be good. Maybe in the new hymnal.

I'm not sure you check. Nevertheless, the growth of peace movements capture the imagination of mankind, don't they? There's something in the heart as we've been studying the heart of mankind that longs for world peace, this golden age, and we have discovered according to the Word of God it will come. It will come at last following the return of Christ who comes with his beloved terrain upon the planet for a thousand years. The apostle John has already revealed that much to us in Revelation chapter 20.

Turn back there. Revelation chapter 20 verse 6 sort of summarizes it all and brings us up to where we are today. He writes, blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection, over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. Why does God even introduce a one thousand year reign? Why not move directly from the tribulation into the eternal state of a new heaven, a new earth? Why push off heaven for a thousand years? Why bother with the millennial kingdom? A thousand year reign.

Well, let me give you five reasons quickly. First, to fulfill God's promises to restore Israel to their land. This is his promise and he will keep his promise.

Genesis 15, Jeremiah 30, many other passages. And this, by the way, the kingdom will be that time when the desert will blossom. This is when that land will flourish, when the reconstituted nation of Israel will occupy the land without disturbance for one thousand years.

God will fulfill his promise to restore Israel to their land as a redeemed nation, literally, physically. Secondly, the millennial kingdom will also fulfill Christ's promises to the church. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians of their future that they would one day judge the world.

The eternal state has no world in need of judgment. This is the world, this kingdom over which we will reign, rule, and judge. Christ has promised the church in Revelation 3.21 that she would reign with him on his glorious throne, and he will keep his promise. Third, the kingdom will fulfill the promises of God the Father to God the Son. Psalm 2, the Father has appointed his Son to reign and has already promised to give him the nations as his inheritance. You remember Satan tempted Christ by offering him these kingdoms, the kingdoms of the world. If Christ would only circumvent the cross and the suffering, he could have it now.

And Christ knew that Satan's promises were nothing but sawdust and sand. The kingdom of the world would be his inheritance according to divine plan, and that will come and it will be the divine display and vindication of Christ's glory. Fourth, the literal millennial kingdom will occur to provide an answer to the prayers of the saints who have been looking for a city constructed not by hands as Abraham did, but made by God, whose architect and builder is God.

And we have since that point up to this point and will continue to pray as we've been taught, Thy kingdom what? Come. And it will literally come. It will physically come. The millennial kingdom is going to come in order to answer the prayers of the saints of all ages. It will come to display the glory of Christ. It will come to fulfill the promises of God to Israel and to the church. One more, the millennial kingdom will exist to ultimately demonstrate beyond any doubt and any denial that mankind is utterly sinful and without excuse. Apart from the grace of God, man will choose to listen to the serpent and eat the forbidden fruit, and he will do it over and over and over again.

Mankind is naturally in rebellion against God until it is broken in repentance toward God. In our last study, Satan was incarcerated and the Savior was coronated, and this golden age had begun. And it began with the saints returning with Christ to set up the kingdom. That would include you, the church, those who believe in Christ, Old Testament saints. It would include tribulation martyrs. We make up the immortals, the glorified co-regents who reign with Christ. Now those who survive the tribulation, and there will be millions of people, by the way, who do, who have also believed the gospel of Christ, they've lived and they've survived, and now Christ has come, including, by the way, the nation Israel, who will look and see the one coming whom they pierced, and there will be a national Israeli revival. Zechariah 12, verse 10, and they will be converted to Christ as Messiah. All of them, as mortals, will then enter the kingdom. The kingdom comes and they're alive. So only the redeemed, Christ followers, are allowed to enter the kingdom. At the beginning of the kingdom, everyone is a believer in their mortal bodies and, of course, reigned over by immortals. The church, Old Testament saints and tribulation martyrs. Matthew 25 informs us that those who do not believe in Christ, when he comes, will be judged and sent to await their final judgment, as we'll study as the chapter comes to an end. Now these tribulation believers, although converted, will still have their sin nature. Now they're not glorified yet, they are redeemed, they are secure, they don't have to worry over this period of time if they're going to get kicked out of the kingdom any more than you have to worry about being kicked out of the body of Christ. You are a son or daughter of God through faith in Christ.

You didn't get it by being good, you can't lose it by being bad. We live good lives because we are going to heaven, not so we can. As the religions of this world offer hope, just try to be better. Well, the issue here before us is that these redeemed subjects of the kingdom who have their sin nature as mortals will pass along their sin nature to their children and their children just as it has been passed along since Adam's fall. And each successive generation will need to hear and respond to the gospel of salvation through Christ. The plan of salvation has never changed. It is either the saints looking toward the redeemer who will come, we who look back, or the millennial subjects who can look at Jerusalem and see him reigning and hear the gospel of his death, burial, and resurrection. What a great time the kingdom will offer for evangelism.

The millennial temple will hold annual sacrifices as memorials to the Lamb of God. They won't be expiatory. They won't take away sin. They're simply memorial, just as communion is observed by the New Testament church. It doesn't take anybody's sin away.

It doesn't dispense grace. It's a memorial where we remember the body and blood of our Lord given for us. In the kingdom, both will be taking place. In fact, our Lord told the church, his apostles and then the church, that he would not drink of the fruit of this vine until he drank it new with us in the what?

Kingdom. So, evidently, these are going to be visual aids for the gospel. The sacrifice is held annually in Jerusalem to picture Christ's sacrifice for sin, the communion cup, and bread illustrating the memorial of the New Testament church. We don't know how it's going to be observed and how often, but understand we are introducing people, and as immortals, strategizing with the believing mortals to get the gospel to the world. Imagine, we can introduce people to no longer an invisible God, but look, there he is.

Believe in him. I think it would be a great time to be involved in evangelism. You can see the glory of his throne. I agree with evangelical scholars who say that these annual sacrifices will be opportunities for the nations to come and see Jesus Christ personally and physically, probably leading in some way.

In fact, nations are required to come with their delegates. We'll look at that in just a moment, but what a time to be alive. What a wonderful time. Whether as a glorified immortal or immortal, what a wonderful season, epic era this will be. What an amazing kingdom.

Let me give you several aspects first. There will be a perfect government, no bribery, no corruption, no greed, no dishonesty from local officials all the way to the top, the parliaments and the senates of our world, no immorality, no self-serving among government officials. There will be no elections, by the way, either.

Imagine that. For the glorified saints will occupy the positions of authority around the world as co-regents with Christ. Revelation 5-10. Not only is there a perfect government, there will be a pristine environment. Christ returns and changes not everything, but many things back to Eden-like systems.

Pollution becomes a problem of the past. Natural resources will revert back to the purity of early creation, although rain will be abundant, Isaiah 30. Land will reflect the abundance of God's glory and creative power, Isaiah 35. All of the animals will be changed back to herbivores once again as they were in the Garden of Eden. Isaiah the prophet wrote these amazing words, and I've read them before already.

Let me read them again, perhaps with new understanding. He speaks of the kingdom and says, And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. They're going to get along. The calf and the young lion will feed together, not on each other, but together, and a little boy will lead them. In other words, they're going to be his playmates.

Won't that be fun? I think it'd be great to have a young lion. Well, never mind. Isaiah goes on, Also the cow and the bear will graze. Note that. And the young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

Very clear. The curse is not entirely lifted, but partially. We're given a glimpse of the eternal state. There will still be death among the mortals, although they'll live a long time as we'll see. Animals will still die. In fact, there will be animal sacrifices in the temple. And those sacrifices will also be eaten by the priests, implying that we will still be able to enjoy meat, and you will still be able to enjoy vegetables. The animals will no longer be a threat. They will be for the sheer enjoyment and pleasure and exploration and discovery, along with creation of the population of earth, including us, as it demonstrates the creativity and glory of God. We do know that animals will no longer be predators, and I believe we have every reason to believe if you just look at the prophets and the descriptions and all the references to animals that every species will be represented, and they will, however, be tame, docile enough to play with, from the dinosaur to the leopard to the cobra. There will be a perfect government.

There will be a pristine environment. Third, there will be a prolonged lifespan. Mortals who are born and live during the kingdom will live such long lives. Isaiah 65 has already told us that a man at the age of 100 will be considered a very young man. Again, the millennial kingdom will reflect many of the conditions of early creation.

And so you go to Genesis 5 and you read about Adam living 930 years and Canaan living 910 years and Lamech living 777 years. All of this implies a return to the protective climates and conditions of life in and around and following the Garden of Eden. There will be along that same line, fourthly, pronounced health improvements for the mortals.

We'll be glorified. We will never be diseased again. But for all of the mortals who live during the kingdom, the prophets reveal that the subjects of the kingdom will never say, I am sick. That's what Isaiah says in chapter 33, verse 24. Those mortals who enter into the kingdom with disabilities and sicknesses will be immediately healed. Isaiah 33, 24.

Isaiah writes of this glorious moment as the kingdom begins in chapter 35. He says this, The eyes of the blind will be opened. The ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

The lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. Perfect government, pristine environment, prolonged lifespan for mortals, pronounced health improvements, and fifth, profuse resources. And I'm almost done.

I'm almost out of peas, okay? Profuse resources. The kingdom, now listen, will be a time of unparalleled abundance and prosperity.

Everything. The prosperity preachers and teachers are misinterpreting in our age are intended for that age. Joel 2, Amos 9, and others.

Not for this age. Their misinterpretations of the health and abundance and prosperity of that age is causing untold sorrow and confusion, not to mention more bad theology in so many people that today believe they just don't have enough faith. No, this is the era of health and bounty and peace and dominion and righteousness. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Habakkuk 2, 14. Principled rulers, sixth. We as confirmed immortals no longer struggling with our sin nature, that is gone forever. We will rule and reign without any double-mindedness, without any temptation to sin, with perfect justice and perfect balance and wisdom and godly principle. The final aspect I'll refer to is first and foremost in its importance, I've just saved the best for last, but it's this, there is the present perceptible Savior. In other words, we will have the ability to serve Him, not as we do now. An invisible Lord, we struggle to follow in our flesh and our minds.

We struggle to understand. And that next step often is to us in the dark. But there it will be face-to-face communication. Face-to-face orders and obedience. Face-to-face devotion. Face-to-face appreciation. Imagine, you would be able to say to Him, by the way, I just want to thank you, Lord, for that. Imagine Him saying to you, well, I want to thank you for what you just did.

I want to thank, I appreciate what you did yesterday. Imagine that. Face-to-face adoration. This is the World Peace Festival for real. And it will last a thousand years under the banner of this family under the one true and living God. Not surely. The world, the mortals that are born by the billions over a period of time of such great health, when everything is flourishing, when there's justice and righteousness, when you have the visual demonstrations of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and you have the memorial sacrifices and you have immortals reigning with Him surrounding the globe, surely the world will believe and under these conditions follow after such a benevolent ruler.

No doubt billions will. But the promised millennial kingdom comes to a close with this significant event. Notice verse 7 of Revelation 20. And when the thousand years are completed, note they finish, they're completed, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations.

Now wait just a second. Satan, you'll notice in the text, does not escape from his prison. Satan will be what?

Released? Why in the world would God let Satan loose? Lock him up and throw away the key? Why in the world open that cell door? God intends to prove that man has not changed from the garden to the kingdom. God intends to reveal that mankind is ever ready to rebel.

They only need an excuse and they only need a leader. You think about it, how quickly in our own country, our own country has turned its back on biblical morals, the beliefs of our founding fathers. I mean, imagine how quickly it's happened that the belief that all men were created, say that word with me, created by God.

Now it's nationally disavowed. Now in less than 250 years, just seven generations, our national education system promotes the absolute absence of a creator and anything having to do with the God of the Bible. Imagine what could be happening in the minds and hearts of people over a thousand years, even in these conditions. Human nature has not changed from the garden to the kingdom. And everybody who might say to God, my conditions were only such that this allowed me from ever believing, he will say you had perfect conditions and it did not change your nature and your rebellion. The prophets tell us that rebels during the kingdom will face swift judgment, implying what? There will be rebels in the kingdom. We're told by the prophet Zechariah that nations who refuse to come to Jerusalem for the annual worship of Christ will not receive rain upon their land, implying there will be nations who as time progresses will stop sending delegates to honor Christ. In fact, Zechariah chapter 14 implies that Egypt as a nation will refuse over time to worship Christ and there will be a famine in their land. Mankind will simply love his autonomy, his self-deceived autonomy. He will love his sin rather than the Savior.

Imagine, here in a perfect society with pristine living conditions and prosperous health and plenty of resources, mankind by the millions will be ready to follow the devil rather than worship Christ. This is the Garden of Eden part 2. You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. This message, called The Final Rebellion, is not done. We'll stop here for today and bring you the conclusion to this message next time. In the meantime, please take a few moments and contact us. You can reach us through our website, wisdomonline.org. You can send us an email to info at wisdomonline.org. Or you can call us at 866-48-Bible. Whatever is most convenient for you, I hope we hear from you today. And I hope you'll be with us next time as we bring you more wisdom for the heart. .