Is Satan Bound For 1000 Years?

The title this morning is, Is Satan Bound for 1,000 Years? Is Satan Bound for 1,000 Years? It begins to get a little confusing for people who really don't know about the millennial reign, what it is, how it works. Is Satan bound as a literal chain? Is it a literal 1,000 years? And there's pros and cons. And I kind of delved deep into that.

And I realized I might have been losing some people. So the second service will be a little bit different, but if you do want more information on that, go and listen to the first service and it'll hopefully give you more information on it. But I'm gonna try to do my best to break it down, make it concise and make it understandable.

Is Satan bound for 1,000 years? What I mean by that is, and again, there's people in this audience on listening that have been studying Revelation longer than I've been alive. Well, maybe not that long, but close. You know, they've read commentaries.

They know a lot about it. They know the ins and outs. Others have no clue what I'm even talking about.

So I'm trying to make it relevant while at the same time making it also not only relevant, but applicable. Because I believe the Bible gives us practical application, even for today. So in a nutshell, we're gonna read Revelation 20.

We can probably even go ahead and put that up on the screen. And there is a couple different views out there. And I've talked about them over the last year since April.

I'm not gonna go into different views. But one view I've mentioned before is something called amillennialism. It doesn't mean there's no millennium.

They just believe the millennial, the 1,000 year, is more allegory. And it's not necessarily a 1,000 year period. It could be a period of church history that we're in.

We're currently in the millennium, they would say. I don't necessarily agree with that, but that's amillennialism. And then there's postmillennialism, which means things are getting better.

The Puritans, have you heard of the Puritans? 1600s, 1700s, they believed in postmillennialism. Things are actually getting better because the Gospel is going out and reaching more people. And if you read what they believe and how they come to those conclusions, you understand, okay, it's not far-fetched, although I might not agree with it.

It makes a lot of sense. And then there's, which most of you probably are, and I don't consider myself really anything, as I said before, I'm a pan-trib. I'm gonna see how it all pans out.

And sometimes I say, when I say it doesn't really matter, I don't mean Scriptures don't matter, because it matters. We're teaching it. It's important.

What I'm saying is, whether it's amillennial, premillennial, postmillennial, rapture's coming soon, it's not gonna change one iota of the way I live. Doesn't change anything. No matter what the end-time scenario is, I got a church to lead.

I got kids to raise. I gotta live my life for Christ. So why argue about it? Well, is this gonna happen? I don't know.

Are you ready? And so that's what I mean. It's important, but is it a literal thousand years? Is it a millennial? Is the rapture coming soon? Is the rapture coming after tribulation? Doesn't change how I'm living, and it shouldn't change how you're living. Now, it's interesting to go deep and to try to understand certain things, but when great men of God are divided, men with something called a PhD behind their names, and they're divided, and both sides have pretty good views, pretty good points.

I've got questions. I personally have got questions on all the different views, and the Bible isn't crystal clear on exactly how it's going to all unfold, because sometimes the Bible uses allegory. Sometimes it uses metaphors.

Sometimes it uses similes. Sometimes it's literal. We believe in a literal translation of the Bible, but sometimes in the literal translation, there can be allegory.

For example, we read in Revelation at the beginning where the lampstands represented the churches or the messengers of the church, and John will use certain images to represent something. For example, when it says that Satan is bound with a chain, okay, is he bound by like one of those chains you see hanging off a battleship? You know, those big, lengthy chains? Is it a literal chain? Probably not. And so that's why it becomes challenging.

So on this topic, there are different views, and I'll just read the Scripture and let the Scriptures speak for themselves. So John said, I saw an angel coming down from heaven. So again, we've been through all of Revelation 19 a few weeks ago.

And so there's an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. So, okay, maybe there's a great chain in his hand. Or maybe it's metaphorical.

We're not sure. He laid hold of the dragon. So this angel or John is seeing something and trying to describe it.

For example, when John would describe Jesus coming back on a cloud, most agree Jesus is not riding a cloud like He was riding a horse. Because if you pull in all Amos and some of the Old Testament prophets, it was always those dark clouds of judgment. Jesus is coming on judgment.

He's not like, oh, let me amend my lasso. I'm riding a big cloud. You know, here He comes on a cloud.

That's not, nobody really thinks that. It's here He comes. And what's happening is hell's falling after Him and judgment is coming.

But they'll use the Old Testament image, imagery of certain things. Stars falling from the sky. The sun becoming dark.

And these are all from the Old Testament. So he sees here that the angel laid hold of the dragon, which is a serpent of old, the devil, Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he cast him into the bottomless pit and he shut him up and set a seal on him so that no one should deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished.

But after these things, he must be released for a little while. So we'll notice in the Bible, there's about seven different places where a thousand years does not literally mean a thousand years. One place is 2 Peter 3.8. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

Psalm 90 also talks about a thousand years in your sight or like yesterday, basically comparing that God sits outside of time. And so every time a thousand years is mentioned, it's never literal. However, in this passage, he mentions a thousand years a few times.

A thousand years. So to me, I don't know if I can gravitate towards that argument that it's not necessarily literal because he says when a thousand years is up and a thousand years is up and after a thousand years. And so we could be seeing this period of time where Satan is bound for a thousand years and then released again.

GotQuestions.org says this, the millennium also known as the millennial kingdom, what we're talking about today is the thousand year reign of Jesus Christ after the tribulation, but before the great white throne judgment. Okay, how many confused so far? You're doing okay? You can be honest. So, and see, again, there's different views, but most of us have been taught, I grew up with Calvary Chapel, Chuck Smith's teaching, a lot of the Calvary Chapel guys.

I listen to Alistair Begg, John MacArthur, Chuck Swintall, Charles Stanley, and that's how I've got a lot of my pastors I listen to. Early on, and then I would read Puritans and D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, and they had different views on this too. But this prevalent view that GotQuestions.org and many people, especially in the Calvary Chapel movement teach is there is this rapture of the church.

So the church is gone. I've got questions about the timing of that as well. And then there's a seven year tribulation period.

All this I've talked about in the months prior. There's a seven year period of tribulation. And then we come back with Jesus who conquers, puts the enemy under His foot, so to speak.

And then from there, now, pre-millennial, Jesus returns pre-before, then the millennial starts, the thousand year reign of Christ, where the devil is bound temporarily, can no longer deceive the nations. After the millennium, He is released and God conquers Him in a quick moment. This final battle, the final battle, Gog and Magog, I believe it is.

And then after that is the great white throne judgment. Okay, that's most pre-millennial dispensational. You've heard those terms.

Most of you probably believe that. And that's what camp I was in. I'm not saying I'm not in that camp.

I just have lots of questions. It's like, well, and for a pastor, I don't know if you've ever, how many of you ever taught the Word of God? Maybe you have in studies, but I can't be wishy-washy. I can't be like, oh, I'm not sure.

Maybe this, or say, yeah, this is exactly how it's going to happen. When I don't know, I just can't do that because there are different views and I can see the point of the three or four, because there's the Augustinian view, the Augustine had. And then of course, people look, they look through their lens of experience how they interpret Scripture, don't we? Whoever, whatever teachers taught me, whatever commentaries I read, I look through that lens.

Trust me, Christians in the Middle East look at the Bible a little differently than we do. A lot differently. And so also like the Puritans or those who did not believe this was literal actually believe we're in the millennial reign now and they break it down pretty well.

But they also, the nation of Israel wasn't a nation yet. And so that was a pretty big turning point. You see God calling the nation back 1948, 47 or so.

And now it's a nation again. And so one positive about the millennial is it's almost has to happen because in order for a lot of Christ's promises that God made, in order for a lot of those promises to come to fulfillment, there has to be this reign of Christ where these Isaiah prophecies come true and these other prophecies come true and those are ruling and reigning with Christ. And you know, you've heard, remember those verses where a young boy will stick his hand in the cobra and not be bit and a lamb and a wolf will lie down together.

Careful how I say wolf because my family makes fun of me. I'll never forget that. See scars, scars you wear forever.

And a child will die at a hundred. You know, things like that. And so you see these promises that still need to be fulfilled.

One big problem and this is what I'll try to explain that I went into more detail at the first and got a little confusing. There's something called the parousia. It's in Greek parousia.

And it talks about many times His parousia, His coming, His coming, His coming, His coming. And so for me, when I read the Bible, it's like at His coming, hell, death and sin will be defeated. At His coming, unbelievers will be judged.

But with millennialism, there's a thousand more years of sin. There's a thousand more years of people being unbelievers. I'm like, wow, gotta wait another thousand years now.

So I've always read when He comes again, when our King comes, boom, it's over, it's done. But with the millennial a thousand years, then there are still unbelievers after Christ returns. There are still people coming to faith in Christ after there's death and decay during the millennium.

So that's just one I've always kind of struggled with. Also, Ezekiel mentions the building of this and you'll probably hear some of you following the red heifers, that they're preparing for the temple and they're going to, Ezekiel talks about rebuilding the temple and it's like daily sacrifices will be brought again during this millennial. And people say, well, it's for memorial.

But to me, that's kind of blasphemous. Jesus died, what are we doing? We're killing animals again for a thousand years. It's like, so I just have lots of questions and nobody's been able to satisfy those questions on either side, because every view, there's holes you can poke in every view.

Because we try to, here's why, we try to speculate, the rapture is clearly taught, is it not? And we'll be caught up. Okay, when? Well, I think here and here and you take Matthew 28, you take Ezekiel, this, and you take Revelation and you put all these pieces of the puzzle together and here's where I think it's going to happen. Or how it's going to happen.

Yeah, but what about this? What about this? He kind of forgot about that point. Okay, and so there's just, all we do know is He's coming again. Are you ready? He's going to win.

And if He's ruling and reigning for a thousand years and Satan's bound, I'm on His team. If we're in the millennial now, God help us. I'm on His team.

Most of us will not see probably a lot of this as we get older. So the purpose, the purpose of the thousand year reign is to fulfill various promises God made. Some of these promises called covenants were given specifically to Israel.

And you'll see also, man, there's so many rabbit trails. Have you ever heard of replacement theology or covenant theology? People get pretty passionate about it. But it basically says, replacement theology, covenant theology says that the church has now replaced Israel.

So God does not have a plan for Israel. The reason that's hard is there's some verses I read that's like, some of these promises haven't been fulfilled yet. So they could be fulfilled during the millennial and God deals with the church and He deals with the nation of Israel.

Especially after nation of Israel was reborn. Especially after it is now still the hotspot of the world. I mean, not in and of itself.

This little tiny sliver, have you ever looked at a world map? This little tiny sliver of land is causing all these problems. And it started back with Abraham thinking he would hurry up God's plan and bring forth an Ishmael. Do you guys realize that? It goes back to Abraham and Sarah conceiving this, not of the promise, this illegitimate child and then the child of the promise and these two have been at war ever since.

Even if you trace it to Palestinians and Jews, Arabs and Jews, you can trace this battle back thousands and thousands of years. And so personally, I don't think the church has replaced the nation of Israel. I can't come to that conclusion.

Even though I do understand why some people believe that and I could spend 30 minutes on that because it's also called covenant theology for a reason. And the Scriptures they use are interesting Scriptures because basically covenant theology says, God says, if you do this, I will do this. And Israel didn't do this.

They walked away from God. So now God is no longer bound to fulfill those covenants because it's covenant theology. So now Israel is no longer part of His plan.

And so you can see how there's interesting rabbit holes on all of these topics, especially when it comes to the end times. And so what I mentioned, the first service that I was going to kind of go through quickly, but it might be important. Let's put that up there.

If you are a premillennial, which most of us probably are. Again, I avoid labels personally. I've just always tried to do that.

Are you a Calvinist? Or are you are Armenianist? Armenian, A-R-E-M, Armenian. I get confused with Armenianism, right? Or the group of people. So what are you, Shane? I get emailed this before I come to your church.

I need to know, are you a Calvinist? What's the Bible say? I don't want to know about it. What are you? Let's read scripture. What's the Bible say? Right, because if you know Calvinism is the belief that for example, this audience, God's going to choose, elect just a certain amount of people to be saved.

The rest, there's nothing they can do. They're damned. And so the scriptures are the use are some good scriptures, but then there's also scriptures that say whosoever.

The Bible says, you would not, it doesn't say you could not. And so the Bible tells me God is sovereign. He saved John the Baptist, filled him with the spirit from his mother's womb, he's probably saved.

He called Paul, Paul's going to kill Christians, knocked him off his beast. God's sovereign, God can do whatever He wants. I just want to be on His team.

But there's lots of scriptures here about repentance. You know, whoever calls it upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I am not willing that any should perish, but all come to salvation for whosoever, whosoever, God loved the whole world, that whosoever believe with Him shall not perish.

Just the Bible, what's the Bible say? Were you Pentecostal? Are you sensationist, continuationist? What's the Bible say? Are you charismatic? What's the Bible say? Do you see I'm going with all this? Because they want to label you. Charismatic just comes from the word charisma. Charisma is a Greek word that means bestowing spiritual gifts.

The Bible says the Holy Spirit bestows spiritual gifts. And but if I can label you, then I can divide from you. That's mainly labels are for division, for sure.

And so are you premillennial? What does the Bible say? Well, it says there could be a millennial reign of Christ. But Sam Storm, who is all millennial, and I've interviewed him on my podcast, he said if you are premillennial, there's some things you need to consider. You must believe that physical death will continue to exist beyond the time of Christ's second coming.

And that's always been a stumbling block for me because when Christ comes again, His second coming, again, could be wrong. I'm not a theologian. But the way I read it is our King's coming.

We're waiting for this. But if there's 1,000 years, then that means physical death still continues another 1,000 years. And you must believe that the new heavens and the new earth will not be introduced for another 1,000 years.

Oh, that's a good point. So I guess we're not waiting for heaven and earth and new heavens and earth right at His return. We gotta wait 1,000 years.

And maybe we do. Again, the Bible, there's different views. I think I personally think, how many times does Jesus talk about unity? Father, I pray that they be united just as we are.

Let this root of bitterness be put away from you. Err on the side of love. Be quick to listen.

How do you practice all of those things if you're not challenged by them? Correct? If we all believe, how easy would unity be if we all believe the same thing? It wouldn't be an issue. It would not be an issue at all. So how do I be united with you, but we don't agree on the non-essential? See, that's the key.

We have to agree on the essentials. I've been invited to interfaith meetings. Can you come pray with an imam and a Buddhist and we want lunch, yeah? But no, no, no.

Worship God? Are you kidding me? What draws us all together are the essentials. The virgin birth. Is Scripture the inerrant, crystal clear word of God? Inerrant, inspired by absolutely.

Is Jesus a good teacher? Or is He the Son of God? He is the only way, the only light. So you've got these, and you could probably be added some more in there, the triune nature of God and things, but these are essentials. There's no, we can't be divided on the essentials.

Division on the essentials is actually a good thing that God calls us to withdraw from those who cause contention. So if we have people here and say, hey Shane, I think Jesus is a good teacher, but man, the God stuff, I just, I can't get on board with that. And I want to serve in men's ministry.

I can't, I can't. I love you, but I can't, I'm not united with you on the essentials. And then you throw in there the non-essentials and Pastor Abraham, I'm sure, can back this up, ask him afterwards.

The majority of the division in the church is on the non-essentials. Oh my goodness, people. During worship, why are you standing? Why are you sitting? Why are you raising your hands? Why aren't you raising your hands? Why are you dressed in a suit and tie? Why aren't you dressed in a suit and tie? Why isn't it you have the King James only version of the Bible? What? Division, division, division.

I've had, I can still find the email from a year ago. One of the reasons I'm leaving this church is you do not believe in the premillennial view. You're going to leave a church over that? God help us.

God help us. But see, that's how the enemy works, folks. Division.

He'll plant seeds of division and fiery darts. How do I know? Because I get them more than anybody else. I got hundreds coming to me all week.

And so I know, here comes that fiery dart. What do I do with it? The enemy wants to cause division. He wants people not at church, not fellowshipping together, not praying together, not worshiping together.

And here comes that fiery dart of division. What do we do with it? Just the views I've talked to you about right now, I've had people get mad at me after the service. How can you say we're going to go through the tribulation and not be raptured first? I don't know.

My prayers, we're out of here. I hope I'm out of here with my kids and everybody else. Bye-bye, see you later.

But the verse you're using, we're not appointed to God's wrath, that's out of context. That verse is dealing with the final great white throne judgment. The believers were not appointed to wrath.

That doesn't mean we're out of here before tribulation. But look, between Revelation 3 and 4, the church is no longer mentioned. That means they're in heaven.

What? What kind of exegesis is that? Exegesis pulling, it's eesegesis, eisegesis, putting something in the text that's not there. So I'm just saying, I've got some questions. I hope we're out of here.

But to come up here and say we are, we are out of here. What about if we see the one world leader? What about if you can't buy or sell without a mark? Then who's right? Got a lot of pastors going to be repenting when that happens. How many people are going to fall away from the faith because they thought they would be out of here? So I can say, I hope we're out of here.

That would be great. I'm praying for it. But because the Bible is not real clear and when tribulation comes, God can spare His people.

He can cover them. I'll never forget, it was somebody, remember when those Christians were beheaded? They were dressed in orange and they were beheaded a while back and hearing a Christian in Syria, underground church, and they're saying, I cannot believe the American church that thinks they're going to be out of here when it gets tough. I buried my husband and my daughter, but you're going to get out of here when it gets tough? And so that just really made me think, see, they look through a different lens.

They're living it. Tribulation, they'll die and be headed. They're living it.

So there is an American version of Revelation. And I mean, I can get real technical, 1800s, the Darby, the Schofield Bible, the whole rapture view was not in church history other than about 150 years ago. However, people who talk about it have some good points.

I can see how, yeah, I can see that. The bold judgments, the seal judgments, the trumpet judgments, I can see, yeah, I can see how the church is out of here. Yeah, absolutely.

But there's also tribulation saints. There are Christians going through, so why am I out here, but they're not? So again, these are all questions I have. I'm not saying this is what I teach or what I preach.

I just have a lot of questions. And questions are good if it keeps us united and focused on God. The whole point of all that was to say it breaks my heart and it's irritating for people to get that upset because I don't line up exactly with their view.

Like, I want to say, who in the world do you think you are? Who made you theologian and chief? I can poke holes in your belief big time. And so I've just seen so much division in the church over the non-essentials. Things that are not, we just like to bicker and argue.

It's called pride. I do too. It's alright, I have to hold back sometimes.

Right, I'll meet pastors, I want to ask, what church is it? What seminary? Are you Reformed? Are you charismatic? What do you believe about women pastors? What do you believe about the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Oh, okay. I want to kind of, you know, argue a little bit. Have my iron sharpen some iron.

And it's hard, isn't it? It's hard. Big time. We see things that got to be divided.

I mean, we don't want to be divided in so much stuff on, I'll go a lot of detail, I don't know if you'll even hear this, but we've got a pretty strong stance here. All of our elders, all the deacons, my wife, my mom, when she was here, just, we all agree that we don't see women as senior pastors. Elders over men.

That's it. Every other capacity, go for it. Like Yvette's over our prayer team, incredible.

Carrie and Phil Siam, Morgan and women, everything, the prayer ministry, everything. Everything, it's incredible, thank God. But this role as an elder pastor, overseeing the men, there's no biblical support.

Paul actually gives the qualifications for an elder, and they're all based on male. But I've got friends who their wives are co-pastors of the church. It's like, oh, okay.

But they say, well, they're not really under, but the title, the title co-pastor, yeah, the title says a lot, doesn't it? If I said tonight we're throwing a gay party, do you want to come? You know what that meant 100 years ago? Happy. Title matters. And I was proud to be a fundamentalist in 1904, 1905, when R.A. Torrey recorded and put out the fundamentals of the faith.

But now, I'll avoid that term like the plague. Because you're a white, wing, MAGA, Nazi, woman-hating, what's the other one? Oh, blow up abortion clinics. Fundamentalist.

Yeah, those fundamentalists. But see, the term matters. And so my point is, it's tough for me, I've got to work on units even in the valley here.

We've got friends. And I'm not trying to make mountains out of molehills. I'm just showing you how most church division is over the non-essentials.

Because over the essentials, it's a no-brainer. We have to divide. We have to divide when it comes to the essentials of the faith.

And that's why you will not see different religions in the same house of God. I just ran into, I wanted him to do a podcast with me at the first service. He was an apologist for the Jehovah Witness.

Talk about knowing this stuff, right? You just got baptized last Sunday, actually. Luke did it, remember Luke. Good job, Luke.

So, or maybe I shouldn't have said that. Let's edit that out. No, I'm sure he's fine.

He'll be fine, because he told me this. He goes, I had to get baptized here, because now if you get baptized in the Jehovah's Church, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Organization of the Watchtower Organization. Something like that.

What? He said, he told me. The Father, the Son, and the something like the Holy Organization. They void the work of the Spirit.

And you wonder why I say something? I think it's cowardly not to say anything. Because it's much easier. Do you know how many Catholics I got mad a month ago? Oh my goodness.

I'm still getting emails. All I'm doing is telling the truth. It would be so much, and you can see, they got Mary up on a statue in Spain last week.

As high as the ceiling almost, carrying Mary on a statue with all these women. Blasphemy. What'd the Pope just say? What'd Pope just say? We're all inherently good? That's apostate.

That guy's not even a Christian. The Pope! That's true. That's true.

But if I want to be liked by you, I will come in and say nothing that's controversial. Do you want the Mormons down the street upset? No, no. I don't, but you got to tell them the truth, especially when you're on the broad road to destruction.

I've got to stand before God someday, and God, it probably won't happen like this, but you coward. You had the opportunity to tell countless people the truth of the Gospel, but you were more concerned about the opinions of men than the truth of God's Word. I've got to deal with that.

And so usually, though, when people get that upset, you know you struck a chord with them. And I ask them, are you trusting in Mary and good works or in Christ? Well, both are important. We've got to pray to Mary.

We've got to do good works, and we pray this thing. Wait, what? That's blasphemy. That's brainwashing.

And so you have to lovingly challenge. And my question would be, if that upsets you, ask God, why? Why does that upset you? If it's true, it shouldn't upset you. Oh, that's Shane, he's just wrong.

I know it's true. No, you don't. The evil, the demonic is being exposed.

That's why people get so upset when you question things. I'll have people spin on the ground, flip me off, and say all kinds of things about Jesus with a smile on my face. You don't upset me.

I know it's true. But if you get so angry and so mad because something is being exposed, I would really encourage you to look at that. So again, I went through the different options at the first service.

Basically, I guess I could sum up this way. I wish I would have thought this first service. The thousand years, a lot of things that we're waiting on, Christ's return, hell, death, and the grave, be defeated, no more sin, no more disbelief.

All of that is actually put on hold for a thousand years. And maybe so. I don't know.

It seems like because He's gonna say a thousand years again, a thousand years again, a thousand years again. Like in Revelation 24. I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was committed to them.

So see, this is one reason why it could be a literal thousand years, because when Jesus talked about even you will rule and reign with me on thrones and the whole thing there, this could be an opportunity where we actually rule and reign with Christ for the thousand years. And judgment was given to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God.

So we actually see the tribulation saints, I believe, because He said, these are the ones who did not worship the beast or His image. And they had not received the mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

So now I'm back to thinking it's literal. Because Shane, how do you know something's literal? How do you? The context supports it. For example, when Peter says a thousand days, a thousand years is but a day for the Lord, you look, okay, the context is saying God lives outside of time.

But when he keeps saying, and for a thousand years, and for a thousand years, and for a thousand years, it seems to be, to me, to be more literal than it is a thousand years. So you guys feel better now? I don't know, I just think it's healthy to ask questions and think things through. That's where I've come to the majority of my conclusions is questioning a lot of things, because then I go deeper.

Then I start to go, you know, I'll share something with you as well. I'm not kidding, this will upset people too, maybe I won't. Let's keep reading.

No, but you guys know, I've talked about it a lot. But when I came to my conclusion about salvation, losing salvation, not losing salvation, I was raised in the churches that, you know, man, one week you're good, next week if you're in sin, you better get to this altar. You can lose your salvation and you kind of live like, holy smokes.

Then I wonder what about if I get Alzheimer's or dementia? Like what keeps me, no really, what keeps you saved? You know, if you've got to keep the faith. And so I said, okay, Lord, I have lots of questions here. So I just poured into the Scriptures.

I weighed Scriptures on both sides in context. For example, one, the Scripture, they say, anyone who wanders from the truth and he who turns him back saves a soul from death. Well, the context actually is dealing with physical death as a result of sin, not losing your salvation.

And then Hebrews 6, whoever's been enlightened, who's ever tasted the good things of God, who has ever partaken of the good things of God, if they fall away, they shall never be renewed again to repentance. Well, I began to look at each word. Paul, whoever writer of Hebrews is, never, those words are never used in regard to salvation.

Judas Iscariot partook and tasted of the good things. He was part of the ministry. So when he fell away, there's no renewing him repentance.

And then I weigh those with the Holy Spirit is given to me and to you as a seal. Did you know that? The Holy Spirit seals you until the day of redemption. So then I have to think, okay, is that a partial seal that I can break? I don't see that.

Nothing can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. No height, nor death, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things that come, nor things present, nor any created being can separate me from the love which is in God, Christ Jesus. I'm a child of God.

I never see being an unchild of God. They were once a child, now they're not a child. So I begin to ask all these questions.

Not only are you given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee, or seals you, you are given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee. So the Holy Spirit in my heart is a guarantee of my inheritance. How do you undo that? Also being born again as a supernatural act of God by which I repent and believe, and the Holy Spirit comes and converts me.

I'm regenerated. So how can I undo this supernatural act of God? So that's where I've came to my conclusion early on, 20 years ago, that I don't believe a person can lose their salvation. Now people get upset.

You're giving people permission to sin. Once saved, always saved. No, I'm saying if they're living like a sinner, they're not saved.

I'm not giving anybody permission to sin. If somebody's living like a sinner with no repentance, then there's no regenerated heart. Now what about this? See, I understand.

I got it, but it's good to ask questions because then you can dig even deeper on certain things. And I have people get mad at me on that one too. It's almost like, you know what? I cannot express what I believe.

I've come to the conclusion. You know what? I've come to the conclusion. You guys ready for this? If you want no critics, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.

Right? No, no, I'm talking to you guys too. If you want no critics, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. Pastor Abram will tell you this too.

What I love about taking off most of August is nobody gets mad at me. You know who they get mad at? Yeah. You said this, you said this, you said this, you said this.

And I'm just on vacation, not doing anything. When's Pastor Shane back? He wouldn't say that. Oh, you got mad at me last month.

What do you, but see, and I know, because people say stuff, I get triggered. My friends on the radio, Joe Pettit, can you hear, what's his name, too? At 12, oh, of course, Jack Hibbs, but gosh, I can't even think of his name now. But anyway, I saw a text, and I said, you said this.

That's, man, I'm gonna kick you off the radio now. But I'm joking, of course, right? But they have, there's different views that bother me. Like, how can you say that? But God gives us the ability to express love and be quick, how are you quick to listen if you're never upset? All these Scriptures means you're being challenged by something.

Quick to listen, slow to, but many of us are quick to speak, slow to listen. Oh, James Cadiz, that's how I was thinking of him. Because they are full on pre-millennial rapture, no doubt about it in their mind whatsoever.

Like, how do you come to the conclusion? How is this guy on a white horse the Antichrist? Where in the world did you come up with that? That's just like pulling stuff out of the air. So anyway, let's get back on track. You guys are good this morning.

But the rest of the dead, the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. So the believers are with the thousand year reign with Christ, unbelievers are still what they would call Sheol, the place of the dead, the holding place. They're still waiting for this final judgment is how it appears.

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. That just means we will minister to God, we will minister to Christ, that's all that means.

And they shall reign with Him a thousand years. There's a thousand years again. But this is very interesting.

Did you know there's a second death? How many of you did not know there's a second death? Okay, okay. Some of you, here's what it is. The first death is when we die physically.

The first death. The second death is when you die spiritually if you don't know Christ. That's the one I'm worried about for people.

But think about this, all the focus right now is on the first death. Isn't it? Success. And the big thing if you follow fitness podcasts and things, the big thing now is longevity.

Have you seen all the things on longevity? Red light therapy and jump in a cold pool for 10 minutes and brain-derived neurotropic factor and intermittent fasting and gut bacteria and immune-building boosting. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, longevity. What about if you get in a car accident next week? The first death, the first death.

Stop worrying about the first death as much and worry about the second death. Do you know Christ? Are you saved? Are you secure? But there's so much focus on the first death and avoiding that at all costs. And that's why during the pandemic, you saw people losing their mind because they were fearful of the first death.

There is a second death. It's spiritual. It's when you no longer have the ability to repent and believe.

Once you die, once you give up your breath here and you do not know Jesus, you will face that second death. It breaks my heart. Guys, that's sometimes why we get very passionate and very bold here.

Because you have to wake up the dead, literally. Think of the millions of people being lulled to sleep in churches across our nation. Lulled to sleep, never being convicted.

Reminds me of a little baby story, right? Back to sleep, little baby. Back to sleep, little baby. And they're just, they're dying in their sins.

And there's no calling out of that. And I love, when I read the books from 100 years ago, 150 years ago, man, it was just full of spurge and every stern he would take you back to the cross. Back to repentance.

Like, where's he gonna go? And the Puritans I mentioned, and even like A.W. Tozer, Levin Ravenhill, late David Wilkerson, it's back to that. Back to that need to get away from the second death. But now in the churches, the biggest churches, you got guys getting haircuts on stage, jumping on trampolines, not saying anything offensive, being Mr. Nice Guy.

Got my skinny pants, I got my sleeves rolled up, and I'm just gonna give you cute little stories that even the sinner can sit there unconverted and unconvicted. It's damning. Because they are called, they have the greatest calling of all is to call people to God.

Call people to God. I've said it before, but I'm sure there's people who didn't hear this. When I teach through the Old Testament, we're gonna talk about the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, what their role was.

You've got the major prophets, not because they're any more significant, it's because the books are more lengthy. And then you've got the minor prophets. So God spent, what was Isaiah, Jeremiah, 700.

700 B.C., 750. All the way to Malachi, you've got 300 years. Longer than our nation has been a nation almost.

I don't know, maybe longer. All they did, the majority of their ministry was what? To wake the people up from their spiritual slumber. Turn back to God.

Turn back to God. Oh, Israel, turn back to God. Wake up, repent, you stiff-necked people.

They would tick people off because they loved them and they wanted to wake them up. Now we get, who's being woken up today? Who is being woken up out of their spiritual slumber? Instead, they're being put to sleep. That's why the things that cracked me up and my wife, I tell her something.

It's like, if I was taken out of now and planted in the 1950s, I would just be a normal preacher. Did you know that? But nowadays, whoa, that guy, man, he's extreme, he's hardcore, he's loud, he's vocal, he's held damnation fire and brimstone. What is wrong with that guy? The problem is we've been so conditioned by Joel Osteen, Steve Furnick, and Andy Stanley and those types of guys that we do not have the fire of the Spirit coming down on us, upon us from the pulpit.

That's just straight biblical truth. I tell them that to their face. That's how important this warning is.

Candy-coated preaching converts no one. A strong case can be made again that it mentions a thousand years a few times. It could be then a literal thousand years.

So as I've been studying through Revelation, depending on when the rapture, we know there's a rapture, a catching away. We don't know when that is. We know that Jesus is coming.

Possibly He comes. I mean, the Bible says He puts His foot on the Mount of Olives, and that place rips open a valley. The King steps down.

And then could it be that now He's gonna rule and reign with us for a thousand years? Sounds great to me. I don't have a problem with that. I'm dead, but living spiritually with Him.

I'm on His side. Lord, take a million years. I don't care.

Let's do it. But then now when the thousand years were expired, verse seven, Satan will be released from it. Again, it says a thousand years, so that's why it possibly is literal.

Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog. And of course, you've heard Battle of Armageddon, and there's people questioning, there's a battle before this, this is the final battle. Let's just read the Scripture.

So Satan will rally the troops, basically. He will gather them together to battle. And who's number? So somehow he gathers this evil coalition of people.

You can't even number the sands of the sea. Boy, this is gonna be a long battle, isn't it? How long's this battle gonna take? Years? Let's see. Then they went up on the breadth of the earth and they surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.

Remember, Jerusalem is the epicenter. Still, not America. America's not the epicenter.

And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. Battle's over. That's it.

Battle is over. Oh, that's just metaphor, that's allegory, hey, it's cool. God wipes them out.

The devil who deceived them, the devil deceived all these people. He was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet, remember the unholy trinity I talked about before, they are there as well. And they are tormented day and night forever.

This is why people say, and I agree, we can look at a lot of Scriptures, hell was not created for people. Satan, an eternal being, has to go somewhere, not with God. Come on, voice, you can handle it.

No coughing in my voice, I'm praying, that's good. So, the devil has to go somewhere. It's not with God.

It's not in heaven. So this outer darkness, this place of torment, this is where he ends up. The false prophet, those who follow him.

So what happens is people say, I choose this or I choose the cross. One reason I'm not a Calvinist, we're using terms, because I believe people are held responsible for their choices. So they choose Satan.

So if you choose there, you've got to go to the outer darkness. That's your choice. Or you choose the light of the gospel.

Or you repent and you say, nothing can save me, but Jesus Christ, Christ, come and save me. And they are saved. That's why there are differences here.

The fire of God can represent judgment as well as refinement. And I'm not gonna get into a lot of detail on this one. I did the first.

But God's fire is really bad for unbelievers. It's judgment. But some of you might be experiencing God's fire today as a believer.

It's called the refiner's fire. Have you ever had that fire lit underneath you? You move a little bit. God will use that fire to burn out the bad impurities.

I started to realize how puffed up and arrogant we would be without the refiner's fire. Can you imagine walking around as believers thinking, everything you do is right? Like puffer fish, remember those puffer fish that float up to the sky? Puff, puff, puff. God says, I wanna get that pride out of you.

I wanna get you changing course. I wanna get you to be a better husband or father or wife. I wanna get the selfishness out of you in the refiner's fire.

It's what it is. Benson Commentary said, some men are like metals. They're mixed with much dross.

You know what dross is? Do you know what they do with real silver? They put it in the refiner's fire. And the pure silver, it's beautiful actually, if you've ever seen our gold. And then the impurities come out of it.

And he's saying the same thing here. We're mixed, we have a lot of junk in us. Let's say that nothing but a fierce fire can purge away this junk.

Such a fire shall the troubles of these days be. The divine judgments are often called fiery trials that separate the pure metal from the pure silver. The pure metal from the dross.

I can tell you as God's my witness that whatever the result, sin, the enemy, whatever it was, but being sick definitely brought me to a new place of brokenness. I was becoming unthankful, bitter, critical, angry. It's what happens when you watch the news.

I can only handle so many overcoming the border episodes, right? Like that's just evil. That's wicked. That's treason.

Study the trafficking and the fentanyl and the terrorism. You can go to a dark place, can't you? And just being uncritical and being critical and unthankful. And then that will come out in everything you do.

It'll come out in your pastoring, in my case. Being a husband, being a wife, having your kids. These refiner fires are special moments.

Don't run from them, run to them. And then what happened, I saw the great white throne judgment. So here he's standing before the great white throne judgment and heaven fled away and there was no place for them.

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books.

Wait a minute, I thought works don't matter. Oh, let me explain this one real quick. You cannot gain access to heaven because of your works.

It's because of his work. So there's nothing, a great white, and there's, again, I went into more details at first, but it gets confusing on the different judgments, beam of seed of Christ, the sheep and the goat judgment, the final great white throne judgment. Many believe that this great white throne judgment is when we're all there actually.

And the books are opened. Well done thou good and faithful servant or department for me, I never knew you. Regardless, I don't wanna be on the wrong side of this judgment.

So my works in this case, don't judge me. Christ, what he did, judges me. However, if you don't have Christ, what do they do? They open the books.

And Paul says neither fornicators nor adulterers nor homosexuals. It's another country. I can only say that another couple of years, right? Especially in California.

The homosexual, adulterer, fornication. Oh, blasphemy. Yeah, all these different things.

So the works are exposed. So it's not necessarily the work itself. The work reveals my heart that I don't know Christ.

That's why Paul said those who practice such things. See, it's one thing if a person does something like, God, I'm so sorry, please, I don't wanna go back to that lifestyle. Lord, please, I'm grabbing onto the cross.

I'm repenting. Oh God, please. And it's a struggle for them, but they're running to God.

That's a lot different than the person who just practices it, doesn't care it's not wrong. I was born this way. We're actually getting ready in our nation to celebrate Pride Month.

How ironic. Pride Month? Our fire stations are gonna fly the gay flag? What? They'll be seeing it. You'll be seeing it.

I don't mean, I'm just being honest, folks. This is perversion. It is blasphemy.

Pride. Look at my sexual sin and I don't care. I'm gonna practice it and I'm gonna force everyone else to do it.

I am proud. You are dead without Christ. You must repent and believe.

So see, that's the work. That's the work. Let me drop some truth bombs this morning.

But we have people here that struggle with all types of sins. Uh-oh. Did you know that? You didn't know that? Pastor at this church? Oh, oh yeah.

Because sometimes God doesn't just deliver. Sometimes it's a struggle. But you repent.

You don't make those decisions anymore. You cling on to Christ. You hold on to the hem of His garment.

That's the difference. That's a believer. Jesus, I'm struggling, help.

Help, please. I don't know where these thoughts are coming from. Anybody ever wanna run back to their old lifestyle? No? 11 a.m., let's be honest.

You know how the old man works. It draws you back, right? Every once a year at the summertime, I'll probably get this year, my friend Mike, he moved to Havasu. Hey, buddy, love to have you come up for three days.

Well, I've got a nice boat. Here comes, like how's that gonna work, right? That's not gonna work. But the flesh doesn't know it.

The flesh says, okay, okay. And but the Spirit says, heck no. Almost cussed.

See, struggle. But see, that's the difference. That's how your works judge you.

I do these works and I don't care what God's Word says. They judge me. Because I practice evil.

I practice darkness. Works do not save you, but they will definitely judge you. If you don't have Christ to save you, then your works will judge you.

Then the sea, think of the Atlantic, the Pacific, all the different oceans, they gave up their dead. And death and Hades delivered up the dead as well. These holding places.

All the dead were, can you, this is amazing. Billions of people and they were judged each according to His works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.

This is the second death. And anyone, anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. So of course, it begs the question, how is your name written in the Book of Life? Again, He writes you in repentance and belief.

I am so sure, people say, Shane, how do you know? I'm actually so sure of that more than I am of the sun coming up tomorrow morning. As God is my witness. I don't know if that, I have more confidence in what Jesus did.

And the more you draw near to Him, the deeper that relationship will be. Those who seek Me, find Me. Those who find Me, love Me.

And the more you love Me, the more you want to seek Me. The Holy Spirit's crying out, Ah, the Father, that's more assurance than natural phenomenons happening. I'll leave you with this thought.

The deception of a false destiny is going to be sidetracking millions of people. What I mean by that, the deception of a false destiny. Most people assume that everything will work out for them in the end because they are basically good.

How often have we heard that? So they're living their whole life. I'm sure, I don't know for certain, but ask LeBron James. Ask Katy Perry.

Taylor Swift, ask them. I'm a pretty good person. And so you live your whole life with a false destiny.

How many of you know Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? He said this on Twitter on the 22nd of this month, most of us work a lifetime to get into heaven. Shouldn't that break a heart? The deception. They're living their whole life.

60 years, 70 years, 80 years, 90 years. Their whole life. It's a deception.

In a moment, like I said a few weeks ago, in a moment, they will know that everything they believed was a lie. Can you imagine all the Scientologists? All the Hindu? All the different religions? In a moment, in a moment, they will realize they lived a lie. As I was researching this, it just came across, I looked at recent famous celebrities who died.

Do you know O.J. Simpson died in April? And before him, Johnny Cochran, Robert Kardashian. What are they saying now? What are they saying now? If the glove don't fit, I quit. No, they're not saying that.

What are they saying now? I don't know where their hearts were at the end. Absolutely not. But look at this false dichotomy.

Carl Weathers, one of my favorite actors who fought against Stallone. Matthew Perry. Suzanne Somers.

Paul Rubens. Anybody recognize that name? Pee-wee. Pee-wee Herman died.

And I started to go through all these lists. I even saw professional athletes. The golfer who just died.

And you start to look. It's mind-blowing. How many of them were living a whole life of deception? I'm good.

I'm good with God. There's no second death. I'll evaporate.

No, you won't. The soul is eternal, folks. Do business with God.

Do business with God this morning. That's why for those who are interested, we do have baptisms available. We have the baptism always full every weekend.

And I would love to baptize you. Pastor Abram, let us know. We're going to be in the prayer room.

If you're baptized as an infant. If you're baptized as a new believer. Or not a new believer, but an unbeliever.

And you're just in your teenage years. I mentioned the Jehovah's Witness to this service who was baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Organization. That's not a legitimate baptism.

So if you want that, you desire that, you have a new life in Christ, the Bible says repent and believe. Repent and believe. Repent and believe.

Three times in the book of Hebrews it says when you hear His voice, harden not your heart. Do you know that's what's putting countless people in hell? The second death. Hardness of heart.

A couple months ago I quoted that famous atheist who was dying on his death bed. He said, keep those God-bothers out of my room. Hardness of heart.

Pride is deadly. It's damning. We'd love to baptize you.

If you need to repent this morning, just repent during worship. Say, God, I need You. I need to get my life right.

I repent and I believe in Jesus. I repent of my sin. Come and save me and cleanse me and set me free.

And He will do that. At the end of any difficult message like this is always that message of hope. Thank God! Don't you guys love that about God? I mean, He'll chew you out and spank you.

Have you ever had a Holy Spirit spank you? God disciplines those He loves. He chastises, actually. All in an effort to get you back.

All in an effort to draw you back. Thank God. And I'll pray, God, let Your Word accomplish what it needs to accomplish.

Lord, I would even say when this goes out on radio, that You would wake up the woke, shake the pulpits of America. Get us back to Bible preaching. Holy Spirit-inspired bold declarations of Your truth.

Lord, because I'm part of that group, I do repent for the silent pulpit. The silent pulpit who will put up rainbow flags but say nothing about Your truth. God, the church in America needs to hear the truth like never before.

Wake us up before it's too late. And Lord, I do pray, I'm not ashamed to pray this, I pray that You would secure our borders. Secure our families.

But Lord, we also do pray for those who are truly seeking asylum and help. And they have genuine needs, God. Genuine families who have genuine needs.

Please show us how to sort that out. God, but we also come against the incredible wickedness. God, we're not giving up hope.

We're looking to You. Get us off of the fence. Get us off of the sideline.

Get us into the game. I pray as we open up the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit would descend upon this place like never before. And we go right in to rend the heavens, seeing You move and shake California.

God, awaken our governor. Lord, if I were honest, I don't even pray for our leadership. I'm so discouraged and disappointed.

But no, I know You can work behind the scenes. So Lord, I just repent afresh of this lack of zeal for our leaders. And I pray You would convict them.

Lord, You convict Sacramento. You convict the legislation. Show them the depravity and the wickedness that they are pushing and promoting.

It's better for them to have never even been born or to have a millstone hung around their neck and cast into the depths of the sea than to ever lead one of these little ones astray. Wake them up. And I pray this in Jesus' precious name.

Amen. Amen.