← Prophecy Watchers
Prophecy Watchers
We Shall Judge Angels? The Shocking Truth About Your Future | Mondo Gonzales
00:57:02
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:01]
A
I appreciate your guys kindness for allowing me to come speak different times. And it's been a while since, I mean, I don't preach anymore really in the sense of I pastored for 16 years. So Sunday MORNING special. But here's the question for us today. Certainly we're going to talk about this, but one of the reasons that I was studying this is because you have this phrase in 1 Corinthians 6,3, as Matt mentioned, which is really interesting, the idea that we're going to judge angels. What does that even mean? And the, the background to it is as I started looking at dozens of commentaries, I realized that people, the commentators really didn't grasp. They didn't really know what this means or what the reference is or how did, where did Paul come up with this idea? That's the question. Where did Paul come up with this idea and exactly what it means. But the other thing in my mind is how many of you think or know that the Christian life, the grind, the day in, the day out, trying to live a godly life in an ungodly world is hard, Right? I mean, we all know that, right? The way is difficult, the path is narrow. Jesus said, and I think in terms of, you know, everything we do, our careers, life, family, again, all the things that we do day in and day out. And you're like, now here's the question, is it worth is worth it. And I think often when people walk away, you know, maybe from their profession of faith or maybe young people again, I was a youth pastor for a long time. Ultimately my goal in the church or even with young people say, listen, it is worth it. Okay? It is worth it. And I think oftentimes we don't fully grasp our future because we think, well, does this life really matter? Yes. What we do every single day, how we live is going to determine our future and where we're at in that millennial period. And so we're going to talk about that today. And then ultimately I'll unpack as we get to what does it mean to this idea of our connection with angels? So here again, I like to ask questions. But what are we waiting for right now? What's next? What's on the horizon? What are we waiting for? The Rapture, like that is really what we're waiting for. We're not waiting to see the Antichrist. You know, we're not waiting for to really do anything. We are here, as I mentioned last time, we're here to occupy until Jesus comes. And there's a lot of date setting out there, which I reject wholeheartedly. And so I always tell people, listen, we are here to occupy, to do God's work until Jesus actually comes. Okay? We have to say that because there's all these different perspectives. And so what I want us to see here is this. So after the Rapture, then the rapture happens. Well, then what? So I want to give us just kind of a sequence of events here to help us understand. So we get rescued from this world, the coming judgment that's happening, and then what is next? And so what we see here is we are all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And we see this twice in Scripture. Paul says in Romans 14:10, why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you. Why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And then in a similar context, in 2 Corinthians 5, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. So right here, this is not a salvation experience or a salvation judgment. If you're saved by Jesus, your sins are forever forgiven. Praise God for that. But what's going to happen is Jesus, when we stand before him, he's going to say, okay, I saved you. What did you do with it? What did you do with the gifts I gave you? What did you do? As we saw earlier, Ephesians 5:16, redeeming the time. What did you do with your finances, your resources? Typically, pastors like to use alliteration. What did you do with your time, your talents, and your treasure? Okay, those three things. And one of the other passages that haunts me is Matthew 12:36, where Jesus says, we will give an account for every idle word we speak. Oh, man, I'm a talker, so I have a. I speak a lot of words. And so that's. That might be a little hard for me on that day. But here, if we go to 1 Corinthians 3 again, this is probably the best passage in thinking about what's the judgment seat of Christ going to look like now? What we don't know is I doubt that there's going to be a big long line of believers, and we're going to be sitting there going, have you gone yet? Yeah, not yet. Oh, man. How did it go for you? Okay, we're not going to be doing that. I imagine that this judgment is going to be very personal. Jesus is God. He can handle it all. I imagine we're all going to get it done. Because there's going to be millions or hundreds of millions or even billions of people that are going to need to give an answer for their life. And so I don't think we're going to be up there waiting. There's not enough time to wait for everybody. So I believe that, no doubt, logically, that Jesus is going to come to us and say, okay, let's talk about what happened here. Let's talk about what you did, good and bad, as the scripture Sundays. But in First Corinthians 3, Paul says this according to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder. I laid a foundation and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. What you see right here is what Paul is reminding us, is that you need to take. I need to take our spiritual life seriously with intentionality, because we are never going to escape the accounting. That is for sure, he says, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or straw, he says each one's work will become manifest for the day, will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. But if anyone's work is burned up, think about the wood and the hay and the stubble that's going to burn up. A diamond or some gold generally wouldn't, unless you got it really hot. It says, if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved. Again, this is not about salvation. It's not about heaven or hell, he says, but only as through fire. So this is. This is a kind of a blueprint for when we get there on that day. What also we know, Hebrews 4, another passage is that God is going to look at our motives. And so it's not just, hey, I did a whole bunch of good works, look at me. God's going to say, well, why did you do that? We also know in Luke chapter 6 and Matthew chapter 6, other passages in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, you know, if you're going to go and be generous, don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. Some he's talked about the Pharisees. They'd go, and it would be like a big jar, and they throw up a whole bunch of change in there. So it was really loud. And he says, well, they got their reward. And so there's an aspect here that God knows the heart. And so as we serve him, and let's bring it out a little bit here. Does serving him only mean like being a pastor in a church? No. All of us serve the Lord in all the areas of our life. Again, how we're a parent, how we're a brother or sister, family member, how we serve our employers, maybe we're the boss, how we treat our employees. I mean, how we live as citizens in our society, you name it, all the things that we do. The scripture says whatever we do, do it for the glory of God. And so that's super important. So we're going to have this accounting now again, everything. I'll get it, we'll unpack it a little bit more. But, but so everything we're doing right now is going to be brought to an accounting on that day, the judgment seat of Christ. And then once that is complete, then we enter in to the next stage. So if you look here again, just an overview of the timeline, you can see that on the left, we're currently in the present age. And we see the Rapture coming and we see the Daniel 9:27. I believe it's the Mosaic covenant being reaffirmed for the Jewish people as they begin the 70th week of Daniel. And then we see the return of Christ. The Jews are going to be saved. They're going to call on Jesus. And then right there at that return is when the millennial period is going to begin. And therefore the things that we received. Right, I would say over here, right at the Rapture, this is where the judgment seat would be. When we return together over here on our white horses, our tasks, our assignments will have already been given to us, okay, for this thousand year period. So we'll talk about that. And if you want, if you really want to get into this, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. This is probably the best book out there that is as extensive as it is by Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum. And he gives, he has charts, he has graphs, he's got the full gamut of what the millennial kingdom looks like. I really can say there is no greater book than this. So if you're interested, it's. This is phenomenal. And, but what's interesting here, and I won't unpack this too much, but after Jesus returns, which is about right here, okay, the bowl judgments are over and the messianic kingdom begins right here. Their fructen mom is the only one that I've ever seen him really discuss this in full. But he talks about this 75 day interval. So we return with Jesus and then the kingdom, the millennial kingdom, doesn't begin for 75 days. So there's going to definitely be some cleanup. That's what all these things are. It's basically the removal of the abomination. The Antichrist is resurrected because remember, he's killed and he's thrown into the lake of fire. Both the false prophet as well. Satan is bound during this period. And then you have the, the judgment of the sheep and goats there down here on the, on the, on the bottom right with the, In Matthew chapter 25, you have the resurrection of the Old Testament saints at this time. And then all those that gave their life as believers during the tribulation period, who we call the tribulation saints, they'll be resurrected because they're going to participate in the kingdom. And then you have the marriage feast of the lamb. And so this is really what we have here, is this kickoff of the millennium. And to me, this is going to be awesome. This is where Jesus gets crowned as the king, which he certainly rightly deserves. And it's a big celebration. And he says in Matthew chapter eight, I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. What he's talking about there, this children of the kingdom, is in the context of Matthew chapter eight. He's talking to the Jewish people now. The Jews, they had this belief and they still do to this day. And it's in their Talmudic traditional writings that if you're a Jew, if you're a son of Abraham, by ethnic or by blood descendant, you automatically get to go into the kingdom, no matter what. Like, well, even if he's a wicked scumbag, yes, he's a Jew. He gets to go in. Well, Jesus said, no, no, that's not accurate. You must be what, born again, right? He told that to Nicodemus and Nicodemus is the teacher. And so what he's saying here, here in Matthew 8, and we see this in Matthew chapter 3 by John the Baptist and Jesus, is that Jesus is challenging their theology. He's saying, look, many will come and they're going to sit down with Abraham and Jacob. But the children of the kingdom, the Jewish kingdom, many of them are going to be cast out because they are not born again, they're not part of it. This is not talking about Christians per se in the context it's talking. He's confronting this false Jewish theology. So we have this millennial feast and then what? Well, this is just. These are some of the passages that when we talk about what's going to happen in the millennium, it says, it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mount of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. And many people shall go and say, come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Now, what I mentioned last week is I've spent some time this week listening to those that are amillennial, those that don't believe in a physical millennium. They believe that there are brothers and sisters in Christ. We love them. I just, it just, I've. It was super difficult to listen to some of these sermons because I was like, I want to make sure I represent them right? I want to make sure I hear them, what they're saying. And. But when you read this, they say, yeah, it's all spiritual, it's all figurative. This is not really going to happen. As it says, this is talking about, spiritually speaking, right now that the kingdom of God is advancing and. And the Lord's house is not in Jerusalem, it's the new Jerusalem, it's the church. And you go, well, man, you really turned that upside down. I mean, if you read this in a very normal way, all nations will float away. Yeah, that's into the Gospel. And again, this is a spiritual Jerusalem. And so you have a variety of things. Here's another one that Zechariah 14:10, it says, during the millennial period, again, all the land shall be termed as a plain, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, and it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place. From Benjamin's gate to the place of the first gate to the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel to the king's winepresses. Totally spiritual, figurative, not going to happen. Not real. You think? Really? So what do you do? And I just listened to it again. What do you do with all this? I mean, it's giving locations. Giba to Ramon and You're like. And their attitude is their mentality as well. This is clearly figurative language. This is referring to the spiritual New Jerusalem, which is the church. And basically it's the idea that God is going to get victory. And you go, well, then why, why all the detail? I mean, here, I'll give you, here's a map, okay? You have Giba up in the north. You got Ramon down here. I mean, this is, these are the exact things that you could go to Israel today and see. But for them, they have made it so figurative and symbolic. And they'll take some other places in some of the other prophets, and this is typical. Or they'll say, well, see how there's figurative language over here? That's what it means here, too. And you go, but so again, each of these, each of these places, it, it actually means nothing because when you, when you spiritualize it, there's no detail. You think, well, what does geba really mean? Spiritually? They go, well, that's not really what it's saying. It's just. The writer's just throwing it out there and speaking generically. Well, that's. Every word comes from God's mouth, right? And so this, this is. So again, you want to pull your hair out because you're like, man, seriously. And it's sad to me because for them, again, for those in the amillennial, it's like millennium with an A in the front of, like atheists, theists with an A. A means negative in Greek. Okay? So they will say, no, no, I, I believe there's a millennium. Sure. We're just living in it right now. It's spiritual. You guys over there, you think there's going to be some future physical kingdom on earth in Jerusalem, in the literal Jerusalem. Yeah, from Geba to Ramon, south of Jerusalem. And so again, you have again, this, this map, which is pretty, pretty phenomenal and accurate. So let's, let's, let's unpack this for a little bit. So at the start of the millennium, again, we're kicking off the millennium right now. We know as well in Zechariah 14 that there's going to. Jesus is to come back. He's going to stand on the Mount of Olives and there's going to be this, this earthquake, and it's going to split the mountain. The north side's going to go that way, the south side, and there's going to be this valley. But what you also see is this really is about like 50 miles. So this is going to be a huge plain Right here, these are called the Judean Mountains. Okay? There's a lot. There's a lot of mountains going down from Jerusalem all the way up and then all the way through here. And again, they actually come like this, because if you come down to the Dead Sea, you'll see them all right here. All this is going to be a huge plain. Everything's changing. But right here is going to be the mountain of the Lord. There's going to be some geographical changes. And so take a look at this. This is what, a rendition of the millennial temple. Be pretty phenomenal. And it's going to be at the top of a new mountain that is going to be built in the land of, of Israel. Again, just. I'm just reading the text. I'm not making it figurative. I'm not spiritualizing. I'm just reading it like normal. And so what you see here is this is an outline of the district. It's fascinating because if you see the Temple square, like today, the Temple mount is about 36, 37 acres. Well, the Temple Mount, if you wanted to say it that way, you could see it's going to be a whole mile squared. That is impossible in today's Jerusalem boundaries. You have to change things. But what you see here, as well as you. You see the numbers, it's actually going to be 50 miles down square, this new area that's going to be there. Of course, the Levites are going to be here, the priests are going to be there. You see, from here, we know that there's going to be this river that comes out, flows to the Mediterranean from Jerusalem, and then the other one flows out to the Dead Sea and heals it, which is kind of fun. Here's another rendition of it as well, just to help us get a visual of what you have, 50, 50 miles. They got crops, you got districts, you got other things. The, the temples there. The, the. The Levites and the priests are living in the land. And so. But again, some would say, mondo, this is just all figurative in spiritual. The best millennium that you are ever going to experience is we're living it right now. How depressing that is. I mean, seriously. Now, I know that Jesus is king. His kingdom is here. We're preaching his kingdom. To see the kingdom, you got to be born again. So, yes, the kingdom of God is advancing, but the fullness of all that scripture has said is certainly not happening right now. And as we saw last week, I shared with you some quotes by many people. Again, our brothers and sisters, who we would strongly Disagree with. They say that all the Old Testament promises like we're reading now have been dissolved into Jesus. They're no longer applicable. And you go, I don't see that anywhere. And so what about the characteristics? Let's talk a little bit about what is this millennial period going to look like. So we see it in Revelation 19. It says this, and Jesus returned. Out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he treadeth the winepress of the fiercest and the wrath of Almighty God. Now you can see in this image that they have a sword coming out. Obviously, Revelation 19 is. Is using figurative language. Is there figurative language in the Bible? Of course, yes. And so I don't need Jesus to have a literal sword coming out of his mouth. He is ruling with a rod of iron. Is Jesus going to be walking around with a, with a, with an iron staff and hitting people with it? I don't think so. We understand there is figurative language. Okay, what else do we learn about the millennial period? We learned that again, this passage, the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. Figurative, spiritual. And in fact, I listened to one guy and he said, what this really is meaning is often in the Bible. This is his words often in the Bible. Animals. You have. You have the mean animals, and then you have nice animals. Okay, so the mean animals are the Gentiles, all those wicked, evil Gentiles. And the nice animals are the Jews. What this is referring to is in the future for him, during this current time, the Jews and the Gentiles are going to come together and live in harmony in the church. You got all that from this. What is the leopard? Well, that's a Gentile. Well, what's gentile? Well, what about the lion and other things? And what does the kid mean? And so what they do is they take away all the meaning from it, and then they spiritualize it to such a degree to say, well, again, this is just poetic language. Well, again, there's nothing in the passage. This is pretty straightforward talking about this coming kingdom that, that the Jews for since the beginning have longed for. This is what they asked Jesus, will you now restore the kingdom to Israel? In Acts, chapter one, we also see again, and the cow and the bear shall feed. Their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like an ox. What do I expect from this? It's going to happen as it says, this is going to be the redemption of mankind. This is going to characterize the kingdom of Jesus, that he is the prince of peace, and that peace is not only going to rule over humanity, but it's going to extend into the animal world. How awesome to see this. This is what we. We look forward to as it relates to going back to the remnants of the Garden of Eden. And it goes on. And the suckling child shall play on the whole of the aspect, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the den of the basilisk. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Now, when we go out into the world now, whether it's media or maybe you're in college or graduate school or academia, I do a lot of stuff, as you guys know, with telescopes and astronomy and astrophotography. And when you go and you look at whether it's Hubble or the James Webb telescope, they're producing these phenomenal pictures, right? And we're trying to follow in that suit. But how many. When was the last time you heard NASA give glory to God for that? Never See, the world that we live in does not honor God. The knowledge of God is not extensive. I can't wait for this to be the case. That everywhere we go, there's no evolution, there's no Darwinianism, all the lies. Everywhere we go, God is acknowledged as the waters cover the sea. That's the millennial kingdom. That's the characteristic. There's. We're not fighting social media. We're not fighting the media. We're not fighting the global idea and the atheistic, secular, materialistic stuff that we see. Philosophy that we see in Isaiah chapter two, he says, and he will judge among the nations and will rebuke many people, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Straightforward. Jesus is the prince of peace. He's the one that's going to be ruling with a rod of iron. And what that obviously, again, the language there I have no problem, figurative language. It does appear that he's going to be ruling with an iron fist. But yet here's the thing. Jesus is not going to be doing it alone. This is where we get to come in. So let's talk about the government of the millennium for a moment. Because what you see here is of course, it's rooted and head by the Lord Jesus himself, as it should of the increase of his government and peace. There shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and, and with justice, from henceforth, even forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. So this comes from a chart from Fruchtenbaum's book where he said, let's talk about the government. And on the one side you have the Gentile branch, which is led by the Church and the Tribulation saints, and then underneath that you're going to have kings. There are nations during the millennial period, as you see there, Gentile nations. On the other side you have the Jewish branch, which of course Jesus is the king, but under him we know from several passages in Ezekiel that David, King David will be raised up and he's going to be a major figure. And under him are the 12 apostles. We know in Matthew 19, Jesus said to them that you will sit on 12 tribes or 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes, figurative or literal. Pretty straightforward. Because they asked him, Peter asked him, well, what are we going to get? We've left everything for you. And he goes, oh, you're going to, you're. I know. And you're going to sit on 12 thrones, judging the tribes. And so that's why in Acts chapter one, they say, are you going to restore the kingdom now? Because it would be nice to get on my throne. Okay, right, that's, that's what they were looking for. Underneath, you have princes, you have judges, counselors again over Israel. And then of course, you have the Gentiles there. And we know several other passages. In Zechariah 14, the Gentiles, it says there that the feast of Tabernacles will be reinstituted. And so the nations will need to at least send delegates or leaders to Jerusalem in order to celebrate this feast in honor of the Lord. And if they don't, it says that God will send them no rain on their land. So God's playing serious. Jesus is the king. So most importantly, I mean, again, we're all. Ultimately, humanity says, well, what about me? Right? What about me? What about me? Well, what's your job? Okay, let's talk about your job and my job in the millennial period. And so we talked about again, the characteristics, the rulership, the government. It's going to be phenomenal, extending into the, into the, even to animal world. And so this, this is what Jesus promised To the church, to us, it says, he that overcometh and keepeth my works to the end. To him I will give power over the nations. So what is in our future is we will receive authority and governmental rulership over the nations of the world. That's the reward that we get. And it says, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter. And shall they be broken to shivers even as I received from my Father. So Jesus is saying, look, I'm receiving this great kingdom. I'm going to be ruling from Jerusalem, but I'm not doing it alone. I'm recruiting you into my kingdom, into my rulership, and I'm going to give you responsibilities in this time. In Revelation 3, he says to him that overcometh again, this is just. And how do we know? 1 John 5 says that we overcome by faith. So if you're a Christian and you believe in Jesus Christ by faith, then you're an overcomer. So it's not something like I got to overcome and I got to get over this and grind my way through. That's not what he's talking about here. We overcome by faith. It says to him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on his throne. Did you know you got a throne in your future? I mean, this is, this is a phenomenal gift that the Lord Jesus has given to all of us. And this is what we are looking forward to. We see this in Revelation 20 as well. This is in reference to after the Tribulation is over. And in that 75 day period we talked about where those who had died, again, the tribulation saints. I saw thrones and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God. And who had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark or in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. So again, you see right there at the establishment of the kingdom, you see these thrones, and then you see them being given to those which would include us for sure, as well as the resurrection of those tribulation saints. And it goes on to talk about that. Now, I want to give you a parable. We're moving fast here, but I want to, I want. There's a place I'm going which I want you to see. This is the, the classic parable which is where Jesus spoke this right before his he died. And as people were wondering, they thought the kingdom was going to happen immediately. And Jesus is like, not in the way that you think. So he told this parable in order to combat that idea of impatience, he said. And as they heard these things, he added and spoke a parable because he was near to Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. He said, therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then to return. So now you have a king leaving, getting a kingdom, and then he's going to return. That sounds familiar, right? It says, and he called basically before he left, and he called his 10 servants and delivered them £10 and said to them, occupy until I come. But his citizens, the citizens, the overall citizens in this states, you would say the world, his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. That's the world. This is Psalm 2. Let's break their chains. They're going to rebel against God. And it came to pass that when he had returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called him. These are the ones that he cares about, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. So again, he brings them before he says, okay, I gave you money, I gave you gifts, I gave you time, talents and treasures. What did you do with it? It's time to give an accounting. This is exactly what is later developed by Paul at the judgment seat of Christ. Then the first. Then came the first saying, lord, your pound has gained ten pounds. And he said to him, well done, thou good and faithful servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, have authority over 10 cities. Now, I know this is a parable, certainly it is what it is. But I actually think there's some literalness here, that in that day, there's going to be lots of cities around the world in the millennium. There's going to be nations, there's going to be cities, there's going to be regions governed, there's going to be counties, whatever. And you say, hey, you did good job. You're going to be ruler over these 10 cities in a very literal way. And the second one, he gets five cities because he gets. He was maybe not as faithful as the first guy. And so this is really important because I didn't get into it in the rest of it for time. But then you have a third guy who's completely worthless and does nothing with what God has given Him. And on that day, he loses out. He's like the guy that we saw in First Corinthians 3 that all of his work was burned up. He saved as through fire. And he barely. He's in there, but he does not serve the Lord well. And so I've often said, too, that I think oftentimes I might have said this from here, but I get in trouble a little bit for this, is that some people have told me in the past, mondo, I don't care if I'm cleaning toilets in the kingdom, as long as I'm there. Now, see, that sounds spiritual. That sounds spiritual. Like. So you're telling me that you're gonna tell Jesus I'm shooting to clean toilets in your kingdom? I want the bottom job. Cause I don't wanna put any effort in now. Well, that's not what I meant. Okay, well, let's be clear then. Let's not shoot for the bottom. Let's. The Lord is worth as much as we can. Now, granted, I think there is a sense of humility. Yes, we need to be humble that. I'm just glad to be there. That's true. But Jesus is the one that said in Revelation 22, it's one of the last things he said. He says, I'm coming quickly or I'm coming soon, and my rewards are with me. He puts it out there. Hey, there's different rewards. Paul says in First Corinthians 9, man, he's going for the prize. There's nothing wrong. He's running the race. So for us, don't shoot for the bottom, aim for the top. There's nothing wrong with that at all. At all. So what's our status? This is kind of fun. What's our status in the millennium? We talked about our roles, our jobs there. Well, first of all, we get a new body. Praise God. Right? Okay. Amen to this. We get this new glorified body, which we'll talk about. This is the first one of the first gifts that God gives us. And there's some interesting phraseology in here. Twice. You see here in. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't move ahead in Daniel. Where did this one. There it is. That's what I want. In Daniel, chapter 12. It says, they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars, forever and ever. And then Matthew 13, Jesus says something similar. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun. Well, I think we're going to be a little bit luminescent. You know how when an angel shows up, what do you see? You know, right? We saw it. You can see in Luke chapter one with the shepherds or any other time these angels show up. They're very luminescent, they're very bright, they have very cool bodies. I think we're going to have something similar because this is important. Now remember this, I won't go all the way back to the chart but one, when Jesus returns, we're coming back with him. And. But you have all these people that survived the tribulation, okay? They, they made it and they. By the end you have Jews and Gentiles that survived all of the horrible things. The mark of the beast. They didn't take it, they survived. And they are right now they're in their bodies like we are right now. And they go into the millennial period. Jesus says, welcome into the kingdom. Well, they're in their natural normal bodies for that time, but we have already received our new physical glorified bodies. So you have us in our glorified bodies that are going to be walking around shining. But you have these other. They're followers of God, but they have not yet received their glorified bodies. Now that's sad for them, but nevertheless they have a focus and they have a purpose. And their purpose is to honor God during this thousand year reign. And they're going to continue to marry, going to be given in marriage, they're going to be having children. Children are born perfectly good, right? No, I didn't have to teach my kids how to lie, how to fight. It's just natural. Okay? So the fact of the matter is during the millennium these children are going to be born now. They're going to be born into a. As we've seen, the characteristic were nature is good, righteousness is all around, Jesus is there, the knowledge of God is all around. But they are still going to need to hear the gospel and to come to salvation in the Lord Jesus. Okay, we're not born saved, right? We have to come. So what you see here is those people are going to. I think they're going to live a long time. We see In Isaiah, chapter 65 other passages that they're going to live a long time, kind of like going back before the flood. But they're going to be living that way in their natural bodies, which means they will age, we will not. We'll have our new bodies. So there's going to be a difference. And they are going to make up the nations, which is who we're going to rule and reign over in participation or partnership with Jesus. We also know in Philippians chapter three, for our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body. That's an interesting phrase. That it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself. So we see Jesus resurrected and being given a brand new glorified body, and our new body will be like his. Amen to that. That'll be awesome. We also see in 1 Corinthians 15, talking about the resurrection of the dead. Our body is sown, this natural body. When we die, it is sown. What does sowing mean? It's like you put it in the ground. Okay? Our body is buried in corruption, but it is raised in incorruption. It is buried in dishonor. It is raised in glory. We also, I mean, this one really is serious because many times as we get older, things stop working, right? And so by the time we end up getting very old and dying, you're like, man, that. That is this what man is right here. This the end of man's kind. This is it. And God says, no, but that's what happens when you sin. And sin has spread to everybody. And so death comes. But there's hope. This is the hope that we have. It is sown or buried in dishonor, but man, it is raised in glory. It is buried or sown in weakness, but it's raised in power. It is sown a natural body, but it's raised a spiritual body. Not that it's not physical, but we get the fullness of what it means to have this fullness of the Holy Spirit. There is a natural body and there's a spiritual body. And then, of course, what he says at the end, and as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly, which is Jesus, which is consistent with what we saw in Philippians 3:21. Now, that's the introduction, okay, to the whole message, because this is where I want to go, because this is where it's going to lead us into understanding what else is our status. So I can't get into all the details, but some of this, not all of it, comes from some of the works of Michael Heiser, if you've ever listened to his stuff on the Unseen Realm, on the Divine Council. But I'll just. I'll try to summarize some of this to make. To make it easy to digest is in the Old Testament you have this very particular phrase called the sons of God and it's very specific in Hebrew. You can see there's the verses, you can look them up. But these sons of God were a special class of. I wouldn't call them angels, even though we just throw everything under that banner of angel. But that's a little unnuanced. It's a little, again, vague and not as precise. The sons of God are this very special group of non humans. We'll just call them angels. It's fine if you want to, that are part of the divine council. They get to rule with God. So when, for example, they're also known as the watchers. And this is why in Daniel 4 with Nebuchadnezzar, you guys just studied this with Matt, is that when Nebuchadnezzar got full of pride and God judged him, it says this is a matter. This matter is by the decree of the watchers. Who are these sons of God? These, the divine counsel and the decision by the word of the holy ones. And you go, well, wait a minute. So they're the ones making the decision on Nebuchadnezzar? Well, yes, but clearly under God's authority. But this is the, this is the beautiful thing about God. God. Does God need us? No, but God invites us to participate with him all the time. I mean, the best, most powerful thing for God to reach the world would be, you know, honestly, if I go to somebody on the street corner or somebody in a mall and I say, hey, I want to tell you about Jesus, they're going to be yeah, yeah, yeah, but send an angel. Oh, now you're going to get some attention. An angel would be, it seem, would seemly be far more or at least better than I would do just by the presence of an angel. But God says no, I didn't ask the angels, I'm asking you, I'm telling you to go out and preach the gospel. I'm asking you to partner with me in preaching the gospel to the whole world. He could use angels, but he chooses not to. But what we see in the Old Testament is that God has invited this very special group of angels, these watchers, to participate him in ruling and governing. Which isn't any surprise because God likes to share. And this is what you see here. You see this group, these very specific groups called the sons of God. Well, what's interesting about this is this is one of the things that Heiser brought out is in Deuteronomy 32, he had assigned this group in order to Manage the nations to oversee them, to oversee their development. But they rebelled. They failed in their task to rule alongside God or to rule as a representative of God over the nations. So remember, now we have these sons of God who failed in their task to rule. Okay? So if we look at the, the hierarchy of non humans, okay, in this divine council. Yeah, again, variety of, of names, of course, God's at the top. Again, God doesn't need anybody, but he surrounds himself with cherubim and seraphim. We see that these would be considered like guardian angels. I don't necessarily think they're part of the divine council. God is the one on the divine council, but he surrounds himself with these guardian. Not that God needs guarded, but that's just part of the, the imagery. But underneath him we see chief princes. These are. We see this in Daniel chapter 10. You guys will just discuss that in a few weeks. We also see again, sons of God, Genesis 6 and Watchers. But then down here you have this group of angels, servant angels, Daniel chapter seven. Millions upon millions upon millions of them that are not part of the divine council. They're holy, they're faithful, they're loyal to God, but they are down here outside of what we'd understand as the rulership council. Okay. Just remember that. All right, so what about sons of God in the New Testament? See, the Bible is full of these little nuggets which are fun. And so when you were. If you, when you read the New Testament and you come across this phrase, sons of God, if you're not thoroughly entrenched in the Old Testament, it's going to go right over your head. But when you bring the sons of God, you're going to go, wait a minute, sons of God? Those are, those are the guys that were in the Old Testament that were part of the divine council, ruling with, ruling alongside God, but also the ones that were given the task of the nations and they failed. And Jesus says this, he's talking about the resurrection. And I won't get in the background, he just says this, Jesus answering them. The children of this world marry and are given in marriage, but they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world to come and the resurrection of the dead, that's the key. If you get resurrected into your new body, it says they will neither marry nor are given in marriage. See, that's why during the millennium, other people that make it through the tribulation and they're marrying and given a marriage and having children, well, they're not resurrected from the dead. They're still in their natural bodies. But we are. We have attained to the resurrection of the dead, and therefore marriage and stuff like that is over. It says, neither can they die anymore, for they are equal. Or really the word is like the angels and they are the sons of God being sons of the resurrection. And you go, whoa, whoa, what's he saying here? This is where we got to pay attention, that we get these new bodies, that we have a similarity to angels, that we are labeled the sons of God because we're sons of the resurrection. Twice he mentioned the resurrection and you start going, okay, I don't know if I fully follow yet. Okay, but we will. We know in again, using this language in Romans 8, for as many who are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God. Now let me just say something. I have three daughters, okay? This is not about necessarily male or female. All right, so women are included in this category. All right, so, but it's this idea that the sons of God language, this is very specific in Greek too. It uses the word sons rather than children here in this one. For as many as who are led by the Spirit, they are sons of God. What Paul is recognizing is. Look, are you paying attention? Because remember, the sons of God in the Old Testament, they were part of the rulership council who got to rule over the nations. Now, we've already hinted, we showed in Revelation 2 and 3 that Jesus said that we get to sit on his throne with him doing what? Ruling the nations. So he says here, for you are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians, chapter three. Again, just to show even more, the Spirit himself testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God. And he talks about over and over, glory, glory. But look at verse 19. For the earnest expectation of the creation itself waits for the manifestation of who? The sons of God. Not those ones in the Old Testament that rebelled. This is all about Psalm 82. It says, for the creation was made subject to vanity. We live in a cursed creation right now, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected it in the same hope. Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Isaiah 11. Animals not corrupted anymore. They're not killing each other into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The creation is waiting for our liberation. It's waiting for us to become resurrected so that we could join in what God has planned for us. Now, okay, now we're at the main passage. All right, it's going to go quick. Okay, now we finally arrived with all that Background. Paul is coming to the text and he says he's talking about the Corinthian Church and the Corinthian Church. It's amazing that God loves this church. Okay, he loves us. We're all a bunch of sinners. We screw up. But this church had so many problems. It was so filled with pride and envy and jealousy and they were just all out for themselves and, and they were suing one another. And that's what he says. When one of you has a complaint against one another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? You guys, seriously, church, you have a fight against your brother or sister and you're going to go to before the secular people. What is wrong with you? And then he says for his argument, do you not know that the saints will judge or govern the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try these trivial cases? What he's saying here is, don't you realize what, what your future is? You. Yes, you. I hate to say it. Can't get this right here. God is going to appoint to you to rule and govern and judge the world, the nations. Don't you know what your calling is? And you can't get this figured out. It's embarrassing. And then he says the. Do you and that just bring it up a notch? Do you not know that we are to judge or govern angels? And I go, whoa, whoa, where, where, where to get that from? Yes. He brings up this phrase. You're like, okay, and I want to show you where it comes from. Not only are we going to judge in the nations of the world which you saw, we are going to judge and govern angels. He says, how much more then matters pertaining to this life? Get your act together. Live up to your calling. Now I got a few, just a couple more slides. Okay, now this is where I think all of it is rooted right here. This is the key that unlocks everything. Now this is a passage that is quoted from Psalm 8, which is one of my favorite passages all Bible. Why? Because David is out looking at the stars and he says, man, when I look at the, the moon and the stars and all the heavens that you've created, he says, what is. Who, who am I? What is mankind that you even care about me? I'm a speck. Angela were walking out last night, doing our normal evening walk and the, the moon was up and she's like, wow, look at that. And she goes, we're like a speck in all this. It's the same idea that, that David was saying. And then he talks about and he quotes. I'll just read it. He says, for he did not put the world to come about which we are speaking under the control of angels. Okay, this is important. The world to come. It has not been appointed to angels. Instead, someone testified somewhere, what is man that you think of him, or the Son of Man that you care for him? This is Psalm 8 and he keeps quoting. You made him him lower than the angels for a little while. You crowned him with glory and honor. You put all things under his control. For when he put all things under his control, he left nothing outside of his control. At present, we do not yet see things under his control. Let's talk about mankind. But notice what, what does it say here in the red? You have made him mankind lower than the angels for a little while now. To me, that is phenomenal. What is it saying? That there's coming a point in the future where we're not going to be lower than the angels. That right now, yes, I'm not. Again, we're not as glorious as an angel, clear, as we said. But our future, when we get our new bodies and we're part of the resurrection and we're going to be shining and glorified and we're going to have. We're going to be appointed into the rulership class. The whole goal of God wanted us was to rule and reign over his creation, and yet we blew that in the garden. But our future is going to be restored back to the divine council to rule and reign as we saw all the passages. And so what I think what Paul is saying here. Well, I don't think Paul wrote this, but I think what Paul is getting at is Psalm 8, that we are made lower than the angels just for a short time. But that's going to change in the future. And then of course, who's the most perfect human ever? Jesus. Okay, he is human. But the writers in Hebrews is saying, but for now we see Jesus who was made lower than the angels also for a little while he was. When he came down and lived as a human amongst mankind, he certainly was lower than the angels. But now is he? Oh, he clearly is not. Yes. And so we get to follow him in the same way it says, who is now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by God's grace he would experience death on behalf of everyone. For it was fitting for him for whom and through whom all things exist and bringing many sons to glory. There's that language again. To make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Now, now, we saw this chart just a few minutes ago. Okay, Here is the Old Testament hierarchy. Now let's bring in this one. Humans now get brought up to this place. We are now part of the divine council. And below us are these servant angels who will. And it's not so much that when the Bible says we will judge them, it's not like we're going to be sitting over there going, I, I sentence you to a billion years in the lake of fire. Okay, there's my judgment. I'm over. That's it. That's not what he's talking about. The word is to govern during that millennial period. It says he's not that. That what it says, as you can see here. I'll bring it back a moment. It says, he did not put the world to come about, which you're speaking under control of angels. That's us. We're going to. That's our job during the millennial period, is to govern over the angels and anything else, because we will be sons of the resurrection. It is so phenomenal. And so this is why it is written. No eye has seen or ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. And for me, this is what it comes down to. Paul says in Ephesians 4:1, after giving a whole bunch of great theology in chapters one through, he says, you know, live, walk worthy of your calling. Do you not know what your future holds? It is beyond imagination. And therefore why are you, if this is true and you fully grasp that, why are you getting entangled in all the stupid things of the world? Why fall into the temptations, all these shortcuts, all these lies that Satan has, they're all a bunch of lies. And he seeks to tempt us, to grab it now, to not wait, to not be patient, and to end up hurting our spiritual lives. And it's like, no, I'm not going to cave to that. I'm not going to give into that temptation. I'm not going to accept the shortcut, get behind me, because I know what my future is, and I want to hold on to that tenaciously. And that's why we walk worthy of our calling. This is what it means that we are going to judge or govern angels. Let's pray, shall we, Father, as we come. It is such an honor, Lord, to open up your word and to see all of the things that you have shared. And this is just part of it truly we can't grasp the fullness of what it means and that's just normal. But I pray Lord that all of us as we get into the daily grind of life which is hard there's no doubt that we would never forget this overarching purpose that you have for us this calling that you've put on our lives that we know that we're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ on that day and that every single thing, every idle word that we do or participate in right now all the things that we put in front of our eyes matter, things that we shouldn't be looking at that we that we do things that we're saying. I pray Lord that all those things would come to the forefront knowing that we would choose or seeking Lord that we would choose righteousness that we would choose godliness and Father that we would walk worthy of the calling that is so glorious. We just pray this all in Jesus name amen.