Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 1 * PART 3 * BOOK 68
BUT CHRIST – LIVETH IN ME – Part 3
I Corinthians 15:20 and Galatians 2:20
Okay, we’re going to keep on going with our “But Now’s” and “But…” whatever’s. And you know, as we were in the “But Now” of the previous three, four, or five programs, we’ve been talking about the resurrection of all the various groups of believers: the firstfruits in Matthew 27, the Rapture of the Church in Paul’s epistles, and in the last few programs we’ve been looking at the resurrection of the Old Testament saints back in Daniel 12 and so forth.
All right, now I’m going to jump in where we left off in Daniel 12 to pick up the fact that we’re also going to have a resurrection at the end of everything of the lost of all the ages. They will come out in one humongous resurrection. Whether it’s Cain back in Genesis chapter 4, or whether it’s the last of the unbelievers at the end of the Kingdom, all unbelievers will come out in one massive resurrection call.
Okay, so come back with me, if you will, to Daniel chapter 12. In case someone has missed the previous programs, here’s our basis for teaching a resurrection of the lost. Now, I think a lot of people think that when lost people die they go to Hell and that’s it. Not true. They are also going to be resurrected and given a body.
Daniel 12:2
“And many of them that sleep (or who have died and their bodies are–) in the dust of the earth shall awake, (They’re going to be resurrected.) some to everlasting life,…” We’ve already looked at those. They’re in the lot that Daniel was part of. They’re all going to be resurrected 75 days after the Kingdom starts. All the Old Testament saints and all the Jewish believers that are not in the Body of Christ will all be resurrected 75 days after Christ returns.
Now, I think that gives time for the Kingdom to be completely established. The Twelve Apostles are going to be in their twelve thrones, ruling from Jerusalem over the twelve tribes. And then again, I think it’s almost a picture of the wedding feast in the Old Testament economy. These Old Testament believers will be resurrected to come into the Kingdom and celebrate all of the blessings of it. But it won’t be until 75 days after Christ returns. All right, now back to the lost of all the ages in Daniel 12 verse 2.
Daniel 12:2b
“…that sleep in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” All right, now let’s go back to the verse we saw in one of our previous programs, John’s Gospel, and if they can’t read or believe the words of the Lord Jesus Himself, then I can’t help it. But the Lord Himself is making it so plain in John’s Gospel chapter 5. That’s why I make no apology for repeating it. I dare say that most church people don’t even know these verses are in their Bible. It’s something that is always skimmed over for some reason or another. They don’t appear in Sunday School quarterlies and so forth.
John 5:28-29a
“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, (He doesn’t give any hint of when it will be.) in the which all that are in the graves (every human being who has ever lived and died) shall hear his voice, 29.And shall come forth;…” In resurrection, and resurrection cannot be resurrection unless it includes the body. So, I feel that these lost people are going to be reunited with soul and a physical body. They’re going to be brought, as we’re going to see in a minute, to the Great White Throne. They’re going to have a body fit for the Lake of Fire. It has to be. And God alone knows how He’s going to do that.
John 5:29
“And shall come forth; they that have done good, (People of faith, they will be resurrected. We’ve already covered them.) unto the resurrection of life; and they who have done evil, (The unbelievers of all the ages. The ones who rejected everything and anything that God tried to do for them.) unto the resurrection of condemnation.” All right, now where do we pick up their condemnation? Go all the way back to Revelation chapter 20. In order to pick up the time scenario, let’s drop in at Revelation 20 verse 4.
Revelation 20:4a
“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment (or rule) was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them who were beheaded (That ring a bell?) for the witness of Jesus.” Now, this is looking at the final three and a half years of the Tribulation. These are Tribulation martyrs.
Revelation 20:4-5a
“…that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and who had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hand;(Now, they are believers. They’ve been martyred in the Tribulation, but in resurrection life–) and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Or, what we call the millennium.) 5. But the rest of the dead (Now we’re talking about the unbelieving world. These lost of all the ages) lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Or at the end of the millennium, which is the end of time as we know it. It’ll be the onset of eternity, because we get into chapter 21 and we see “new heavens and new earth,” and we’re now set for eternity. But for the lost this is looking forward to the end of the millennial reign of Christ and the thousand years are finished. Now this is kind of confusing. Those last closing words–
Revelation 20:5b-6a
“This is the first resurrection. (That is referring to the believers. They are in the first resurrection. So, verse 6 confirms that.) 6. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power,…” Albeit this first resurrection is in three or four different segments or companies. They are all part of the first resurrection, the resurrection of the just.
Now, I always have to stop and define words. We did this years and years ago. What is the definition for death of any kind? What’s the word? Separation. Ah, some of you are well taught. Death separates. Physical death separates the soul and spirit from the flesh. Right? When we die as a believer the soul and spirit take flight to be present with the Lord. We put the body in the grave. Separation. That’s death.
All right, now for the unbeliever, not only are they going to be separated in physical death when their soul and spirit go to their waiting place in Hell, but then they will be brought back into a resurrected body, and that resurrected body with that lost person’s soul and spirit all intact is going to come to what we call the second death, and it’s spiritual.
Now, how are they going to suffer spiritual death? They’re going to be separated from God! That’s spiritual death. You got that? Physical death is the separation of the soul and the spirit from the physical body. Separated. Spiritual death is when that lost person is separated from God. Hey listen, you and I cannot imagine what that alone will do to an individual. Because even the most rank unbeliever today – he can be an agnostic, he can be an atheist to the hilt – what is he still enjoying whether he knows it or not? The presence of God. He still has a chance to find salvation as long as he’s on this planet. But once they are separated from God at the second death, there is no hope. All right, so that’s what this Scripture is teaching, verse 6 again.
Revelation 20:6
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: (The resurrection of the believers of all the ages) on such (on the believer) the second death (Or a separation from God will never touch them. Impossible!) hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
All right, now then, we understand that the lost are going to suffer a separation from God. Now, the only way we can see this scripturally is to jump across to verse 11, still in chapter 20. The thousand years are finished. Satan is cast into the Lake of Fire and then verse 11, the onset of eternity.
Revelation 20:11a
“And I saw a great white throne, and him who sat upon it, (which will be Jesus the Christ, the Son of God) from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away;…” All right, let’s go back and see how other Scripture defines that. Come back just a little ways in your New Testament to, I think it’s II Peter chapter 3, dropping in at verse 10.
Here the language again is so explicit and so plain. My goodness, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist or a theologian to understand it. You know, I always have to come back, I can’t help it, some things bear repeating. When old Tyndale back at the time of the Reformation was trying to get Bibles into England, now you’ve heard me refer to this time and again, because I think it is so basic. What was his final prayer before they burned him at the stake? That every plowboy in England could have a copy of the Scriptures.
Now think a minute. Back in the 1500-1600’s how much education did the average farm boy in England have? Probably just enough to read. But is that enough to understand the Scriptures? You’d better believe it! You see what that means? So, I never put anybody below the ability to understand the Word of God, if they’ll just keep it simple. But over and over I’ll have to tell my phone callers, why do you make it so complicated? It’s so simple that a plowboy can understand it. All right, now let’s look at these verses right here.
II Peter 3:10a
“But the day of the Lord (That is those final seven years.) will come as a thief in the night; in the which (Now you’ve got to remember that scripturally speaking, that thousand years of millennial reign is nothing more than a day in the mind of God. So, we’re going to skip right past those thousand years of millennial reign, and we’re going to go to the onset of eternity.) the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements….” Now, all of you have had enough chemistry, I’m sure, to know that everything we can touch is comprised of the elements of the chemicals of the earth, aren’t they? That’s what the elements are.
You’ve got your atomic table that shows all the metals that you can think of and their atomic structure. Well, that’s the elements. Same word here. Everything that the universe is comprised of, whether it’s copper or iron or cobalt or you name it, they’re all elements.
II Peter 3:10b
“…the elements shall melt with fervent heat,…” Now goodness sakes, the plowboys didn’t know this, but you do. What great force do we have today that can melt steel down to nothing? Well, nuclear fusion. Instantly. Everything can just melt to nothing.
Well, when God pulls the nuclear glue from the atomic structure of everything, we’re going to have a universe, I think, of nuclear fusion. It’s going to all melt down, and I personally think God will just pull it back into Himself. I think it will just all come back into the very power of God from which it once came out. All right, but reading on:
II Peter 3:10c
“…the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be (What?) burned up.” How else would it melt? It’s going to be melted with fervent heat. The earth and everything in it and I think it’s going to involve the whole universe. All right, now verse 11.
II Peter 3:11a
“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved,…” Now again, I don’t think there’s anybody in this room; I don’t think I’ve got anybody out in my television audience that doesn’t know that when something is dissolved, what does it lose? Come on Scott what is it? What does it lose? It loses its character. It loses its identity. You can no longer see it. If you dissolve something in a bucket of water, can you look at that water and tell what’s in there? No, because it’s all diffused through the water. You can’t tell what it was. All right, the whole universe is going to be dissolved into nothingness. All right, all these things shall be dissolved. They’re going to lose their identity. Consequently, Peter says:
II Peter 3:11b-12
“…what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12. Looking for and hasting (or being in a hurry for) unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens (See, not just the planet.) being on fire shall be dissolved, and (again) the elements shall melt with (What?) fervent heat?” It’s just going to go up in a puff of smoke and nothingness. Now verse 13, is God at a loss for what to do? Oh no! He’s in total control.
II Peter 3:13
“Nevertheless (Even though everything is going to burn up and be dissolved and lose its identity,) we (as believers) according to his (God’s) promise, (we) look for (What?) new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Now, why do you suppose God’s going to have to destroy everything? Well, who has defiled everything that God ever created? Well, the devil has. It’s all been defiled with his filthy fingers. So God will just do him one better. He’ll just make it all new.
All right, now let’s jump back to Revelation, even before we go back to the Great White Throne, to look at the lost of the ages. Let’s jump ahead to chapter 21, the setting for eternity, and in perfect accord with what the Spirit caused Peter to write. This is why I say this with, however you want to put it, with authority or with confidence. I don’t have to think that maybe I’m seeing this wrong. It’s so plain. It all fits. Revelation 21 verse 1, now this is John writing.
Revelation 21:1a
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; (Why?) for the first heaven and the first earth were (What?) passed away;…” They disappeared.
Again, you remember, I’ve referred to this over the years. A long time ago I read an article in a science magazine where this guy was trying to promote his theory of the origin of the universe. He had everything coming out of a single source of light. All the things that were created came out of that source of light. And at the end of his article, with all of his exposition of his scientific formulas and all of that, this is the conclusion. I’ve shared it on the program before – this is his conclusion, “Since everything came out from a source of light, I can see somewhere out into the distant future that it’ll all come back into that same source of light.”
Now the believer that I am, I was just thrilled with that statement, because I can see it happen. I can just see God pull the whole thing back into Himself and recreate it brand new! All right, here we’ve got it. He saw, “A new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” Do you have to be a Ph.D. to understand that? No, you don’t. The plowboy can understand that. That the first passed away and in its place came something brand new. That’s what it says.
Okay, now as we’re winding down the afternoon, let’s back up to Revelation 20 verse 11 and look at the Great White Throne for those who are going to be resurrected out of Hell and given a resurrected body fit for their eternal doom. Here they come.
Revelation 20:11
“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, (The Lord Jesus. He’s going to be the Judge.) from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.” That is the earth and the heavens and the planets and the stars and so forth. So evidently we’re having this Great White Throne out in nothingness of nothing. There’s nothing here now. Where God is going to keep the believers in the interim? Hey, with Him nothing is impossible. Don’t worry about it. He’s not going to lose a one of us.
Revelation 20:12
“And I saw the dead, (The lost of all the ages starting with Cain and clear on up through to the end.) small and great, (The emperors and the presidents aren’t going to be any different than the lowliest of the low.) stand before God; and the books (plural) were opened: and another book (singular) was opened, (The singular book here is–) which is the book of life: (Which contains all the names of the believers of all the ages.) and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, (plural again) according to their works.” So again, you’ve got to read between the lines. Are these people’s names in the Book of Life? No. So, God can just lay that book aside. It’s of no importance.
But, oh, the books, plural, which are a record of the life and the experiences of every lost person. For years this just boggled my mind, but you know, when they can put the whole King James Bible on the head of a pen, and if man can do that, God doesn’t have any trouble keeping record of the human race. Don’t ever doubt it for a minute. He has the wherewithal to keep a record of every lost person’s every deed.
And here they come. Now again, I always have to remind everybody that when we talk about God dealing with billions of people, one at a time, don’t ever doubt it for a minute. Because you see, we’re in eternity and in eternity time isn’t even a factor. So, God can go through ten billion people one at a time in what we might call ten minutes.
They’re going to come before Him, because He said in His earthly ministry that in that day they will say, “But, Lord, didn’t I prophesy in your name? Didn’t I cast out demons?” So, what does that mean? They’re going to have that opportunity. They’re going to have a period of time before the Judge. And what’s His answer going to be? “Depart from me. I never knew you”
Okay, so don’t ever let a curve be thrown at you that this can’t happen because it would take eternity for all this. No, it won’t. This can happen in a matter of minutes or maybe hours as we reckon time, because this is eternity. Okay, now let’s move on. One minute left. Wow, I’ve got to hurry.
Revelation 20:12b
“…and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Every lost person will be judged. That’s his level of punishment, and it’s going to vary. They’re not all going to suffer the same. I can take you back to Matthew where Jesus said, “It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than it would be for Capernaum.” All right, so they’re going to be judged according to their works. Here come the lost of all the ages.
Revelation 20:13-14
“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” What did I say? They will be separated from God for all eternity, and then verse 15 makes it as plain as English can make it.
Revelation 20:15
“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Now look, I hate the thought of it as much as anybody. I wish I wouldn’t ever have to teach it. But the Book does and we can’t throw it out. My reasoning is that if we could understand how much Christ suffered for all these multitudes that are going to the Lake of Fire, then we could see He’s just. He suffered and died for every last one of them, and if they reject it, then it’s not God’s fault.