[Passage]
Revelation 20:1-3
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. [2] And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; [3] and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.”
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This is the 21st session of Hell sermon series.
Hell can be generally categorized into the Lower Grave, Lakes of Fire and of Sulfur, and the Abyss.
The Lower Grave is the waiting place where those who are not saved stay until they go into the Lake of Fire or of Sulfur.
Here they receive 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th level of punishment according to each one’s sins.
The Lakes of Fire and of Sulfur are the places where those who are not saved receive their punishment eternally.
Those who receive 1st or 2nd level punishment in the Lower Grave will be thrown into the Lake of Fire, and those who receive 3rd or 4th level punishment, into the Lake of Sulfur.
The Abyss, which I am going to explain to you lastly, is the deepest place of Hell. It is a place like a prison.
But this Abyss is not a place for a person’s soul.
It is the place where the evil spirits are confined.
Continuing from the last session, I will talk to you about this Abyss.
It is something amazing to be able to learn about Heaven and Hell that are in spiritual realm while we live on this earth in the physical body!
It is something that we should be very thankful for.
It’s because we can lead a proper Christian life only when we can believe in the spiritual realm as if we were seeing and touching it.
This way we can have true faith.
When I explain to you about the Abyss, I pray in the name of the Lord that your faith will increase even more.
[Main]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Abyss is the pit where there is no bottom.
It is the deepest and the lowest place in Hell.
The Abyss is the place where the evil spirits are confined forever after the human cultivation is over.
But as I said in the last session, the Abyss is not empty even right now.
Countless fallen angels and the cherubim are confined there.
They were the angels and the cherubim that participated in the rebellion of Lucifer in the beginning.
At that time, as the rebellion failed, all those that followed Lucifer were confined in the Abyss.
Jude 1:6 says, “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,”
Some of those angels and cherubim that were put in the Abyss were released along with Lucifer for the sake of human cultivation.
They act as evil spirits to deceive people and lead them to destruction.
Of course, these evil spirits will finally be thrown into the Abyss after the 7-Year Tribulation is over.
However, their confinement will not be complete until the Final Judgment.
Revelation 20:7 says, “When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison,” they will be released for a moment at the end of the Millennium Kingdom.
They will tempt the men of flesh to induce them to stand against God.
God will then destroy those men of flesh who are tempted by the evil spirits and stand against God.
This will conclude the Millennium Kingdom and then there will be the Great White Throne Judgment.
The evil spirits will again be confined in the Abyss through this Final Judgment. From this time on they will not ever be released again forever.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the role of the evil spirits in human cultivation is to hinder and thwart the kingdom of God and lead the children of God to destruction.
And just as there is strict order in the kingdom of God, these evil spirits also have organization and hierarchy.
The head of all the evil spirits is Lucifer.
Under Lucifer are the dragons that have administrative and practical authority to control the things of the darkness.
Under the dragons are the messengers that follow the commands of the dragons.
Next is Satan, which is like the heart of Lucifer, and below that is the devil, which is the fallen angel.
Some of the fallen angels perform as the messengers of hell in the Lower Grave.
The lowest rank in the world of evil spirits is the demon.
After human cultivation and the Final Judgment are over, these evil spirits will fall into the Abyss.
But there are some exceptions, and I am going to explain about these a little later in this message.
Now, what kind of punishment will the evil spirits receive in the Abyss?
First, Lucifer and all evil spirits will lose all their power and authority after the Final Judgment.
Before that happens, however, the evil spirits including Lucifer control the world of darkness including Hell.
But after the Judgment, they are confined in the Abyss and cannot do anything.
So, Hell will also be operated solely by the power of God.
The Abyss is the deepest part of Hell.
At the highest point of Heaven is the throne of God.
Similarly, at the lowest point of Hell is the Abyss.
But it doesn’t mean Heaven and Hell are placed in a space that is somewhat like buildings of this earth.
I am saying it for an easier understanding. They don’t really look like it.
The deeper the place in Hell, the greater is the density of despair, wretchedness, and energy of flesh.
This energy of flesh will press one with a tremendous weight and magnitude.
For this reason, the evil spirits in the Abyss cannot even move a finger. They cannot even move their eyes.
The Abyss is like a prison that is dark and cold in general.
The evil spirits are confined like trash thrown in a landfill.
This is the greatest contempt and punishment for them.
Evil spirits were also once spiritual beings in Heaven having glorious duties.
Even after they had fallen, they enjoyed some authority in the world of darkness.
But finally, they were completely defeated in their battle against God.
How confident Lucifer was when she stood against God in the beginning!
As a creature, she acted with great insolence and rudeness before the Creator who loved her very much.
But she lost the glories that she enjoyed in Heaven, and she will also lose her value that was necessary for human cultivation.
Because everything is over, the evil spirits will be beings having no worth or value and be cast out.
In case of the fallen angels, their wings will be torn off and discarded.
This shows the curse and shame and has the meaning that they lost the battle and they were thrown out as useless beings.
The evil spirits confined in the Abyss look like they are alive but they remain as though dead beings.
Because they are spiritual beings, they can neither die nor otherwise be extinguished.
So, they are living, but without any power or any strength to move even the tip of a finger at their will.
Just like a machine that has no power source and does not run, they are confined looking like a wasted doll.
In a way they look like they are completely frozen.
Brothers and sisters, when people’s souls go to Hell, they will be pierced, eaten, or burned, receiving various kinds of punishments.
So, why is it that the evil spirits are confined in the Abyss unlike the souls of people?
To understand the reason, we first have to understand that the evil spirits are mere instruments for human cultivation.
God created men as beings with whom He could share love. Men are like children to God.
Men have free will to choose between good and evil.
God loves them very much, but it is up to them to choose between loving God or not.
But because they have this free will, they will be held accountable for what they choose during the period of cultivation.
Those who choose evil will have to face death, according to the law that says that the wages of sin is death.
Also, according to the spiritual law that dictates that we reap what we sow, they have to receive the pains in the Lower Grave and the Lake of Fire or the Lake of Sulfur.
On the other hand, the angels were created as ministering spirits.
They are somewhat like robots that only obey the commands of God.
With the exception of the demons, all evil spirits were either angels or cherubim.
Therefore, the evil spirits have nothing to do with either the rewards or the punishments that are given as the result of human cultivation.
Evil spirits are only instruments that are used for human cultivation.
This is just like making a machine that is made and used by a person doing his work.
Therefore, even after the Judgment, they won’t be tortured or receive the punishment in hot flames.
They will be discarded like some trash. But of course, being thrown out also has its own meaning.
Being thrown out like this in itself is a great punishment for the evil spirits.
Now, I will explain about the exceptional cases among the evil spirits that do not go into the Abyss.
I told you that those who died before their puberty will remain in the Lower Grave and receive punishments there even after the Final Judgment.
So, the messengers of hell that give punishments to these souls will remain in the Lower Grave as well.
They do not go into the Abyss, but we cannot say it is better for them.
Before, as they tortured the souls cruelly, they felt the joy.
They were giggling and laughing and watched the souls being tortured for fun.
Of course, it’s not because the messengers of hell have some human feelings.
They expressed such feelings because they were controlled by Lucifer who had received humanity.
But after the Great Judgment, they are not controlled by Lucifer any more.
They just fulfill their duties of torturing the souls just like automated machines that just repeat their operations.
Among the evil spirits, demons will not go into the Abyss.
Unlike the fallen angels or the cherubim, demons are not spiritual beings that were made before the creation of the world.
Demons were people who were created from the dust of the ground and who had spirit, soul, and body.
Among those who are not saved, some of them come back to this world as demons under some special conditions.
For example, those who sold their spirits to Satan; who committed suicide with their evilness; who denied God and sold out their faith; who blasphemed and stood against the Holy Spirit knowing the truth; these people can become demons.
When these people die, they are taken to the waiting place in the Lower Grave.
Among them, those meeting the conditions to become demons may become demons and return to this earth.
Especially, all those who committed suicide will all become demons, except in very special cases like that of Judas Iscariot.
But sometimes, some suicides look like suicides but actually they are not.
For example, suppose a general of an army is captured by the opposing forces. The general of the other army may put a sword in front of this general and asks him to die with dignity.
In this case, if this general kills himself, he is not killing himself at his own will. We cannot say this is suicide.
So, those who kill themselves will first go to the waiting place in the Lower Grave and be judged whether it was a suicide or not.
And those who are judged to have actually committed suicide will come back to this earth as demons.
Until the 7-Year Tribulation is over, Lucifer will have the authority to rule over the world of darkness, including Hell.
With this authority, Lucifer will choose the souls whom he deems appropriate and uses them as demons.
So, the demons accomplish the things of the darkness following the desires of Lucifer.
For example, demons can go into people within the confines of spiritual law, and capture them and lead them to Hell.
There is a special reason why demons try to go into people while existing on this earth.
It is very painful to stay on this earth as demons.
They feel the loneliness and pain as if they were standing in an open field in the cold of strong blizzard-like conditions or on a barren land with strong sandstorms.
If a person were in this kind of place, he would definitely try to find a place to block the wind.
It’s the same with the demons. Their shelter from such a painful environment is inside people, and that’s why they tempt people and try to go into them.
Once they go into somebody, they try their best not go back out.
It is in this way the demon is then controlled by Lucifer and performs the lowest level duties in the world of evil spirits.
But after the Great Judgment, demons won’t fall into the Abyss but will be cast into the Lake of Sulfur.
As the 7-Year Tribulation is over on this earth and the evil spirits are confined in the Abyss, the demons will first receive the 3rd or 4th level punishment in the Lower Grave.
And then, after the Final Judgment, they fall into the Lake of Sulfur.
But reading the Bible, we might have a question.
In Luke chapter 8, Jesus met with a demon-possessed man.
Jesus told the demons to go out from that man.
At that time, the demons asked Jesus not to command them to go into the Abyss.
If you just literally understand this, you might think demons will go into the Abyss.
But what is the reason that demons are asking not to send them to Abyss?
It’s because demons are controlled by Lucifer through Satan and devil.
Demons were not talking for themselves in front of Jesus.
They were just expressing the minds of the evil spirits that were controlling them.
The evil spirits including Lucifer know very well what will happen to them after human cultivation is over.
Namely, they know they will lose all their power and authority and be confined in the Abyss.
The fear of this fact was expressed through the lips of the demons.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I am finishing the sermon series on Hell today.
I believe many of your questions about spiritual realm have been answered through these messages on Hell.
I also believe you now have heightened and deep realization that you must never go to Hell.
But as I mentioned in the first session, this Hell sermon series is not only for you who are attending the service here.
There are so many people who want to know about the spiritual realm and the life to come.
Some of them do not yet have firm faith, even the faith to receive salvation.
And these messages on Hell can let those people have firm faith.
It is a wake-up call for those who are spiritually lukewarm.
Conclusively, these messages on Hell are the message of the Father God’s earnest love who wants to lead His children to Heaven.
You are the people who are supposed to deliver this message of love to numerous dying souls.
I believe God has prepared you and me as a holy army to fulfill this duty.
Therefore, from today, I hope none of you will be bound by sins any more, and become powerful workers of God.
I urge you to lead countless souls to the way of Heavenly kingdom with this gospel of life, which is like food of life and sweet rain.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will shine like the sun in New Jerusalem.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, what comes to your mind when you think of the year 2009?
The worldly people had many difficulties due to the economic recession, the swine flu, many kinds of natural disasters, and the tensions in the world society.
But I believe it wasn’t like this with you.
God the Father has kept and protected the Manmin members in the comfort under the wings of the Lord. He also gave you abundant blessings.
Let us give all thanks and glory to this good God.
Towards the end of the year, some people totally clean up their houses and welcome the New Year with a refreshed mind.
This year, we have been cleaning ourselves up in spirit.
God the Father has let us clean up the dirty parts, both individually and church-wise.
Individually, God has given us the grace so we could resolve the original cause of the problems and achieve holiness of heart.
Church-wise, God let us demolish the walls of sin that were standing between God and us.
Through the messages on Hell that were preached for more than a year, He once again let us be cautious about sins.
It was a time for us to make our heart firmer with the truth.
He also let us begin the lectures on Genesis from this year, so we could long for the spiritual world even more.
What is the reason that God the Father is leading us of Manmin this way?
It is to pour down His blessings upon us.
Just as a farmer will repair his barn and storehouse before the harvest, God has cleaned our hearts to make them proper vessels for blessings.
Just as in this year’s prayer titles, He gave us ‘blessings’ and made us a ‘church high above all nations’ and prepared us to be able to go into the Canaan ‘Sanctuary’ and to show the ‘Amazing Power of God the Father’.
As we face the time of harvest, we have to go out to harvest fruits, 30, 60, 100 times or more.
Starting with the New Year’s service, as God explains to us the prayer titles for the New Year, I hope you will be filled with joy and hopeful expectations.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will accomplish the prayer titles given so that at the end of 2010, you will harvest abundant fruits and be able to give God deeper thanks from the heart.
[Amen]
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