Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #17 of Revelation chapter 20 and we are going to read Revelation 20:13-15:

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. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

In our last study we saw how the sea gave up the dead and now God is saying that “death and hell delivered up the dead.”  The Greek word translated as “delivered” is the same word translated as “gave up” in the first part of the verse, so “death and hell” also gave up the dead which were in them.

First of all, we can look at this as a literal statement concerning the dead of the world, the spiritually dead as well as those that were spiritually dead and then died physically throughout the history of the world.  The official, appointed Day of Judgment began on the world on May 21, 2011.  Every unsaved person that was spiritually dead (even though they were physically alive at that time) was “given up” by death and hell.  The word “hell” can also be translated as “grave,” so death and the grave gave up the dead which were in them at the point that Judgment Day began and it is as though all the living unsaved or the dead that were unsaved were turned over or “given up” to the wrath of God and the final judgment of mankind.  That fits everything that we know of Judgment Day and it certainly is what these verses are looking at, but we also know we have to look for a deeper spiritual meaning in the Bible.  Spiritually, we should remember that back in Revelation, chapter 1, the Lord Jesus made this statement in Revelation 1:18:

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Jesus possesses the keys of “hell and death” and later on in Revelation 20, He opened up the bottomless pit and cast Satan into the pit and bound him for a thousand years.  The bottomless pit is likened to “hell and death.”  It is the condition of being under the wrath of God and the Lord Jesus has the keys to open the pit or to lock that pit and there is nothing anyone can do about it.  It is all according to His determination.

When we came to the Day of Judgment (and God had broadcast that day to all the world) on May 21, 2011, Christ, who had the keys to hell and death, opened the pit and we read about that in Revelation 9:1:

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

Christ is the one that possesses the key, so this is how we know this is speaking of Jesus.  Then it says in Revelation 9:2-3:

And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

It is given to the “locusts” to torment men for “five months.”  This describes Judgment Day and the “five months” is a figure that represents the complete duration of Judgment Day, which very likely will continue for 1,600 actual days (from May 21, 2011).

But, here, Christ opened the bottomless pit and “smoke” comes up out of the pit and darkens the sun and the air was darkened.  Now the “pit” is that which is below.  Actually, the same word translated as “bottomless pit” here is translated as “deep” in the Gospels, like when the swine ran down and were drowned in the “deep.”  That is the idea of a “bottomless pit.”  It is that which is down there or below, but on the Day of Judgment “death and hell” rises to the earth where men are dwelling because a spiritual judgment has come on the world and God brings unsaved mankind into the condition of “death and hell.”  This is important when we see the Scriptures in Revelation 20 concerning “death and hell” delivering up the dead which are in them. 

Also, if go back to Revelation, chapter 6, we see that the Lord is laying out the Gospel through the image of four horses.  The first horse is the “white horse” and the rider is the Lord Jesus Christ going forth “conquering and to conquer,” so this is the Gospel of Christ going into the world.  But there is a “red horse” and the rider on it attempts to take peace away from the earth; he is opposed to that Gospel and this represents Satan fighting the Gospel over the course of the church age.  Then there is a “black horse” that typifies the Great Tribulation period and following the black horse, there is the fourth horse that is called the “pale horse,” and it is the last horse because you had the Gospel going forth and then the black horse picturing the Great Tribulation and then the pale horse picturing Judgment Day itself, and it says in Revelation 6:7-8:

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

It is the “fourth” seal and the “fourth” living creature because the number “four” points to universality, representing the Judgment that comes upon the entire earth.

And it goes on to say in Revelation 6:8:

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

The killing is done with the sword, with hunger, with death and with the beasts of the earth, featuring God’s four judgments, which relate to the things we read in Ezekiel, chapter 14, where God speaks of sending “four sore judgments” on the world.  We read in Ezekiel 14:13-19:

Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it: Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord JEHOVAH. If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts: Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord JEHOVAH, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate. Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it: Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord JEHOVAH they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves. Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast:

God lists four judgments against the land and this word “land” can be translated as “earth.”  Four times God points out “three men,” indicating that it is His purpose that during the time of His final judgment the true believers will remain in the land, as represented by “Noah, Daniel and Job.”  His plan was to leave His elect upon the earth to go through the Day of Judgment, but even though faithful men remain, they cannot deliver anyone including their own sons and daughters because there is no more salvation.  This is what Revelation 6, verses 7 and 8, are picking up on when it talks about the “pale horse.”  Ezekiel 14 is a commentary on the pale horse.  Christ, who holds the keys of “hell and death,” opens the pit and brings “hell and death” up to the world and the condition of “hell” becomes the condition of the world.  The world becomes “hell and death.”

So, in our verse it says in Revelation 20:13:

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.

In this spiritual aspect to death and hell, the world becomes “death and hell” and within it is every unsaved individual – billions of people that have been delivered up to be judged.  And God judges every man according to their works.  What are the works of every man?  If anyone is attempting to get right with God on the basis of their works, they will be found guilty because no man is justified in the sight of God based upon good works.  If you try to go that route in order to become justified, you are doing it based on your own good deeds and your own obedience to the Law of God (and that is the definition of a “good work”), then you would have to keep the whole Law.  That is what God says regarding anyone attempting to become justified on the basis of their own good works.  They have obligated themselves to keep the whole Law perfectly.  You cannot just “pick and choose” which Law you will obey.  You cannot say, “I honor my parents and I do not steal or murder, so I can do those things.” 

Even if they obey the “surface meaning” of the commandments, there is the deeper spiritual meaning.  For example, the Bible commands, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” but Jesus filled out the meaning of that commandment and said, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”  Even though no physical act took place, God looks on the heart and He knows what is in the heart of man.  Not only does He judge the outward action, but there must be perfect obedience within the heart and, of course, no man is able to keep God’s commandment in that perfect standard of righteousness the Bible lays out.  All are guilty.  That is what the Bible tells us: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”  Since we have all sinned, no man is justified on the basis of their works because they cannot maintain 100% obedience: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all,” according to James 2, verse 10. 

When God looks at their works (and He judges every man according to His works), they may have given much to charity but they are still condemned because they failed on other points.  Some people may have been very religious and gone to church every Sunday, but they are condemned because they have not kept the perfect standard of righteousness and maintained 100% good works.  You may have people that are just nice, friendly and kind and they never speak badly of anyone.  They go to their jobs and they support their families and they are good people by the world’s standards, but they are condemned because they failed to keep perfect good works in all of God’s commandments.  So you could transgress just once, but, in actuality, we have all transgressed millions of times in thought, word and deed.  They are condemned and that is the judgment of God on every individual that attempts to stand before Him based on merit and how they lived their lives in relationship to the commandments of God in the Bible.  This is why God addresses the human race as Law breakers.  We have broken the everlasting covenant.  The Bible says, “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”  We are a human race of sinners and the wages of sin is death and Judgment Day is the time when God is exacting the payment that the Law demands – they must die. 

Man that is already spiritually dead has been brought into a condition of “death and hell” and “death and hell” have delivered up those that are in it to the final judgment.  Then it says in our next verse in Revelation 20:14:

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Again, the world is brought into the condition of “death and hell” and the whole world and all the unsaved people dwelling upon the earth in the Day of Judgment are cast into the spiritual fire of God’s wrath for thee period of Judgment Day.  The punishment is the removal of God’s Holy Spirit and the end of His salvation program.  There is no deliverance possible for the unsaved and they are in the “fire” of the wrath of an angry God and, ultimately, at the end of this period of time on the last day of judgment they will be destroyed with the world.  All will be burned up and they will cease to be for evermore and they will have fully experienced the “second death,” which is already taking place, but it will conclude with their final destruction and they will be no more.  That is what it says as it goes on to say in Revelation 20:15:

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Only those blessed individuals that were the chosen ones according to God’s good pleasure will be exempt.  They were chosen by grace and not based on anything they had done.  They will live on and they will continue to exist.  They not only will exist, but they will live in the fullest sense of the word, as they receive eternal life and an eternal dwellingplace in the new heaven and new earth in the glorious presence of God.  They receive abundant, eternal riches and blessings for evermore.  They are all those that God saved out of the human race and whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  They are all those Jesus died for and paid for their sins.  These are the elect of God and only they will continue to live into the wonderful eternal future. 

But for the ones that lived their lives to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, that season has ended and the foolishness of not having done things God’s ways and the foolishness of believing that the present moment was greater than eternity to come will become very evident for all to see.