The First Resurrection

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Revelation 20:4-6

And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them…

I. THREE PRIVILEGES.

1. Priority of resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:13; Philippians 3:8-11; Luke 20:35; John 6:39, 40, 44, 54). "I will raise him up at the last day." Now, is there any joy or beauty in this, to the people of God in particular, unless there be a speciality in it for them? It is the lot of all to rise, and yet we have here a privilege for the elect! Surely there is a different resurrection. Besides, there is yet a passage in the Hebrews where the apostle, speaking of the trials of the godly, and their noble endurance, speaks of them as, "not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection." The betterness was not in the after results of resurrection, but in the resurrection itself. How, then, could it be a better resurrection, unless there be some distinction between the resurrection of the saint and the resurrection of the sinner? Pass on to the second privilege here promised to the godly.

2. The second death on them hath no power. This, too, is a literal death; none the less literal because its main terror is spiritual, for a spiritual death is as literal as a camel death. The death which shall come upon the ungodly without exception can never touch the righteous. Oh, this is the best of all. As for the first resurrection, if Christ hath granted that to His people there must be something glorious in it if we cannot perceive it. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know when He shall appear we shall be like Him." I think the glories of the first resurrection belong to the glories which shall be revealed in us rather than the glories that are revealed to us.

3. "They shall reign with Him a thousand years." I believe this reign of the saints with Christ is to be upon earth (Psalm 37:10, 11; Revelation 5:9, 10; Matthew 19:28). You find such passages as these in the Word of God, "The Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously." You find another like this in Zechariah, "My God shall come with the multitude of His saints."

II. To the ungodly THREE THINGS IN SIMPLICITY.

1. Sinner, you have heard us speak of the resurrection of the righteous. To you the word "resurrection" has no music. There is no flash of joy in your spirit when you hear that the dead shall rise again. But oh, I pray thee lend me thine ear while I assure thee in God's name that thou shalt rise. Not only shall your soul live — you have perhaps become so brutish that you forget you have a soul — but your body itself shall live. Go thou thy way, eat, drink, and be merry; but for all these the Lord shall bring thee into judgment.

2. But after the resurrection, according to the text, comes the judgment.

3. After judgment, the damnation.

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