Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #39 of Revelation, chapter 11, and we are continuing to read Revelation 11:18:

And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

We were looking at this verse over the course of the last couple of studies.  We saw that God is saying that Judgment day is “the time of the dead, that they should be judged,” and we went to many verses which indicated it is not just speaking of the physically dead, but of the spiritually dead.

So when Judgment Day did arrive on May 21, 2011, it was the “time of the dead,” when the unsaved people of the world, who are “dead” in trespasses and sins, are to be judged.  The time for their judgment had arrived.

We also saw that Judgment Day is the time when the Lord Jesus Christ judges “the quick and the dead,” or the living and the dead.  That led us into a discussion on “judging,” and what a judge really does.  A judge is to determine “innocence” or “guilt.”  So the “living” (which are God’s elect) and the “dead” (which are the unsaved) are all brought before the Judge of all the earth, Eternal God and Lord Jesus Christ.  Judgment Day is a time for punishing the wicked and a time for determining the innocence of those who are not wicked because their sins have been paid for by Christ’s atoning work, making them righteous and clean in the sight of God – they are innocent before His eyes.  This is what is being accomplished over the course of this prolonged period of judgment.  God is punishing the unsaved.  And for those that profess to be Christians outside of the churches, the Lord is trying them to determine if they are truly elect.  He has placed them in the spiritual fire and the determination will be made by the end; they will only endure to the end if God had already saved them and given them a new heart and a new spirit.

Therefore, they have no sin upon them which would “burn” them up during this period of judgment.

It is “the time of the dead, that they should be judged,” and this is why this time is called Judgment Day, the time of “judging,” and all are being judged.  The elect are brought before the judgment seat of Christ and we are “appearing” there, even though He knows His people; He is the one who predestinated each one to obtain salvation; He is the one who took our sins upon Himself from the foundation of the world and paid for them.  He knows each elect person intimately and very personally.  Yet, God is just and He wants there to be no question about the “guilt” or “innocence” of any, so He makes His people to appear and to be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.  So we are all before that judgment seat and if any iniquity is found in us, we will be destroyed and we will not endure to the end of this period of time.  But if no iniquity is found in us, we will continue on and God will continue to lead us and direct us through the entire period of Judgment Day, which will very likely be a total of 1,600 days.   We will endure through the complete testing period and fiery trial of faith and that will prove or “make manifest” that we were already judged in Christ from the foundation of the world.

Let us continue reading in the second part of Revelation 11:18:

…and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

There is a “reward” for God’s people, who here are called prophets, saints and “them that fear His name, small and great.”  These are all synonyms for the elect of God.  Once the Lord has accomplished His purpose in trying the “gold, silver, precious stones” and they come through the fire, then the reward is granted.  Actually, even before that each one that God saves has already received eternal life.  Salvation is, ultimately, the reward that is in view.  Judgment Day will finally bring that to a completion at the end of this period of time when God completes the salvation of all He has saved by giving them new resurrected bodies and bringing them into the new heavens and new earth.  All of this is part of the reward of eternal life.  This is the wonderful and beautiful thing that God has in store for His people.

Let us just look at a couple of verses that use this word for “reward.”  It says in Luke 6:22-23:

Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

Here, God is speaking to each of His people and He is telling you that you will be reviled and other men will put distance between themselves and you for the Son of man’s sake, not because of your personality or because you are offensive, but it is because you adhere faithfully to the teachings of the Bible and they dislike these teachings and they let you know about it by not being friendly to you or not treating you in a decent way; God is saying, “Rejoice in that day.”  You know, that is excellent counsel for each one of us because what we tend to do is to feel bad about the ill treatment and feel sorry for ourselves and feel sad because we do not have as many friends as we would like.  We can think very negatively.  The Lord would not have us feel that way and he is counseling us in a different direction: turn your mindset around and think about it in an objective way and consider that this was also done to the prophets before you.  This was done to the true prophets, not the false prophets.  If you were following a lie and the things you believed were not true, believe me, you would be much better received by your family, by your neighbors and by the people of the world.  They are not troubled when people hold onto lies because they hold onto lies.  But it is only when you hold onto truth, then it is troubling to them because the truth shines a light into the darkness where they live; it convicts them and they do not like the light of the truth of the Bible. 

The prophets before you suffered for declaring the Word of God and this is what God’s people will do today.  Therefore, rejoice because you know that Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Moses, Noah and all the saints of the past lived their lives faithfully and honored God and His Word.  They steadfastly held the line of truth and they would not go back, compromise or give in on a point of doctrine.  Now these people are gone and, certainly, it is now far better for them. 

Do we not know that as we read in the Bible of believers like the Apostle Paul and all the sufferings he endured?  We also read of Moses being in the desert for forty years, from age 40 to age 80.  Then God used him to deliver Israel from Egypt and then he wandered in the wilderness for another 40 years, from age 80 to age 120.  We also read of Daniel in Babylon under evil kings.  We see the trials.  We see the afflictions.  We see their grief on the pages of the Bible.  These were all real men that lived on the earth, just like we live on the earth now.  Do we read of the tribulation and affliction they went through and we say, “Oh, those poor men.  I feel sorry for them and I pity them.  What terrible lives they led!”?   No, we do not do that because we have this vantage point of knowing that they lived their lives to the glory of God.  They lived God-honoring lives.  They gave up worldly pleasures and worldly lusts and the world’s admiration and praise for service to God.  They lived difficult lives, but now their lives on earth are over and they are with the Lord in heaven and they have eternal life and a glorious, eternal future, like every child of God.  We read the Bible and we know it was worth it.  They made the right decision.  For instance, we read of Moses, in Hebrews 11:24-27:

By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

We know immediately when we read this that Moses did exactly the correct thing.   He was right, by God’s grace.  God gave him wisdom.  God gave him strength to make the correct determination that it is better to serve God and suffer affliction with the people of God than to have remained in the high court of power within Egypt.  Who knows?  He could have risen to great heights and authority within the greatest nation of the world of that day.  So what?  Then he would have died and that would have been it.  His life would have been over after a few short years in which he pursued pleasures and satisfied his vain lusts, with the people around him giving him respect.  So what?  It is over and done with.  But Moses, by the grace of God, esteemed “the reproach of Christ,” and he took that difficult path and that narrow way – that way which the world despises, disdains and looks down upon.  Yet, it is the only road that leads to heaven and it is the “way” that God has chosen.  This is the way, the only way.  You can go many other ways on the broad way, but it will lead to destruction, but Moses esteemed God’s “way” to be more valuable than all the riches of Egypt: “for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.” 

Remember, this is what God says to us today in Hebrews, chapter 10, in a very helpful passage that we saw early on after May 21, 2011 and we realized it had to do with our day.  And it does.  God has given us these verses for those of us that are living in the world in the Day of Judgment.  He was speaking directly to us, in Hebrews 10:35:

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

We are told exactly what Moses knew.  He knew the reproach of Christ had great recompense of reward and God is saying the same thing to you, to me and to every true Christian.  Then it goes on to say in Hebrews 10:36:

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

Again, “Having done the will of God,” refers to having completed our task in evangelizing the world during the day of salvation and now there is “need of patience,” as our faith is tried.  Then it goes on to say in Hebrews 10:37-39:

For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

In other words, here we wait in our affliction.  It is not enjoyable and it is not pleasant to live in the world at this time in history.  It certainly is a grievous and difficult time for the child of God and, yet, God says, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.”  That is what we are waiting for – the completion and fulfillment of the “reward.”  We do not deserve this reward and we have not earned this reward. 

The word “reward” is a word that is translated sometime as “hire” or “wage.”  It is what God gives to each one of His laborers and we are all, in a sense, laborers after we become saved.  We are all given the identical reward of eternal life and this is what is being referred to in our verses in Revelation 11:18: “and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great;”  So, here we are, right at the point of receiving that “great recompence of reward,” and that wonderful promise that God has written about in the Bible.  Throughout the Bible He has spoken to sinners that lived in this corrupt world and were subject to death and dying; there has been death in every generation, as men die due to their sins.  Even after salvation, their bodies died.  The hope, however, was found in the Scriptures – the only hope for those chosen out of the remnant of the whole of mankind – and this was the promise of God to give eternal life to those He had saved. 

So men have died holding onto that hope and now we live at this point in history, holding onto that hope.  It is our expectation and God has said that our expectation shall not be cut off.  We will receive that “recompence of reward.”  We will have our expectation met and we will live for evermore.  It is, of course, the greatest and most valuable gift that anyone could receive, to possess eternal life through God’s grace and mercy.

Let us go on and read the last part of Revelation 11:18:

… and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

This is interesting how God concludes this verse with this statement.  The Greek word translated as “destroy” here is found only six times – twice in this verse and four other times in the New Testament.  In one place it is translated as “perish.”  In Revelation 8:9, it is also translated as “destroyed,” and in two other places it is translated as “corrupt” or “corrupted.”  We will just look at one of these, in Luke 12:33:

Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

The word here is translated as “corrupteth,” which was translated as “destroy” in our verse.  The word “corrupteth” is not the typical word we find in the New Testament.  Again, this word is only found six times and only two times it is translated as “corrupt.”  It is interesting, when we look in the Old Testament there is also a Hebrew word which God translates both as “destroy” and “corrupt.”  It is a word found in Genesis, chapter 6, in relationship to the approaching flood.  It says in Genesis 6:11:

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

The Hebrew word “corrupt” is Strong’s #7843.  Then it says in Genesis 6:12-13:

And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

The word “destroy” is a translation of the same Hebrew word translated as “corrupt” in these verses: “I will destroy them with the earth.”  So mankind corrupted the earth and God says that he will corrupt them with the earth.  It is a very similar statement to our verse in Revelation 11:18:

… and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

We could read this as “and shouldest corrupt them which corrupt the earth.”  To see “corruption” is to be “destroyed,” and it is not a bad translation of the word.  In the Genesis account, very interestingly, God uses this kind of idea: mankind has corrupted the earth and, therefore, God will destroy them with the earth.  It is also in Genesis 6:17:

And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life…

Again, the word “destroy” is Strong’s #7843. 

So, we can see one thing: We know Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011, and this date has a strong tie-in with the flood because it was exactly 7,000 years from the flood and it also shares the underlying Hebrew calendar date of “the seventeenth day of the second month.”