Revelation 20:7-10

Revelation chapter 20 verses 7 through 10. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are on the four corners of the earth. Gog and Magog to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth and come past the camp of the saints about and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. where the beast and false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. May God bless to us this sacred and holy word this morning. Now we’ve talked about this chapter and just as a brief overview. This is known as the millennial chapter or the chapter with the millennium. And we talked about the three different views on this particular passage of scripture. And I told you why that I felt the all millennial view was correct. The first part of the chapter is Satan bound. Versus one to three. And here it tells us what’s happening on earth. The binding angel, I believe, is Jesus Christ, who is the stronger than the strong man, binds him, as Matthew 12 indicates. The one bound of Satan, various titles are given to him. The place of binding of this bottomless pit, abyss, a deep hole, the limitations of the binding are only with regard to the deception of the nations. Not in all his activities, but in particular these activities that when he kept the Gentiles in darkness, that has been broken. We talked about the Great Commission going out and people from all nations and tongues and so forth coming to know the Lord. The length of the binding, here’s a thousand years. We said that this represents a long period of time. It’s not specific to just a thousand years, but a long period of time, just like the cattle on a thousand years that God’s, or hills that God owns. And he owns the cattle on a thousand and one hill too. and so the same idea. So this is what’s happening on earth during the millennium. Then we looked at verses four to six, and it’s the reign of the saints. Now we have a glimpse of what’s happening in heaven during the millennium. This is a heavenly reign of the saints. They’re reigning along with Christ. That was one of the things he promised in Revelation, Chapter 3 and verse 21. If they would overcome, they would reign with him. And heaven is the place. place where disembodied souls go, and they are martyrs who have been beheaded for the cause of Christ. Heaven is a place where Jesus Christ lives and reigns. So all the people of God are living and reigning with Christ, and in particular we see this new group added. They arrive. He says, I saw the souls of them that were beheaded. These are the recent martyrs, joining the rest of the people of God. In this judgment, with regard to God judging the wicked. In particular, we talked about the Roman Empire and the beast. And you’ll recall that we talked about Revelation Chapter 7, where we have the thrones that are set around the ancient of days, and the saints of God are given the judgment. judgment. And we looked at that chapter in comparison to this. Then we talked about the rest of the dead saying these are the unbelieving dead who live not until the thousand years were finished. We said that this means they don’t live at all. It’s just that we’re confining it to the thousand years. Just like I said if I was at 75 I sold my car and I drove not again until the day of my death. It doesn’t mean on the day of my death I drove at all. So I think we can look at the fact that they never really live. It’s a resurrection under damnation, not under life, that the wicked have at the end, as John 5 tells us. So we looked at that, and that brings us now to what we call Satan’s being loosed here, this section. in verses 7 to 10. This in verses 7 to 9 we see is his final rebellion. At the conclusion of 1,000 years, Satan is going to be loosed out of his prison, this bottomless pit, this confinement, where he is contained, he’s on the chain, so to speak. He cannot deceive the nations as he once did, but now he’s going to be loose from that binding so that he can go out. And Christ, of course, will demonstrate his absolute power and destroying him once and for all and casting him in the lake of fire. So with the divine restraint removed, Satan goes forth and he deceives the nations once more. How easily man is deceived. You see, how easily it is that they’re held captive by Satan and his will, unless there’s an intervention by the Lord God. in this case Christ. Now, in looking at this passage of scripture, I want you to look at Second Thessalonians with me in Chapter 2, because I think these passages should be compared with one another. And we should see what Paul has to say in the first 12 verses of 2thessalonians chapter 2. and I commend you to compare these carefully on your own to get a further and perhaps more detailed understanding. we can have a more detailed understanding if you’d like afterwards. I could do that next week, Lord willing. But at this point I want to hit the highlights so we get a flow for what’s happening here in Revelation 20. Paul writes here, now I beseeched you, brethren. By the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him. Now, he’s just spoken about in verse 8 of chapter 1 and 8 through 10 there, about Christ coming again and him coming in vengeance upon those who know not God and obey not the gospel. He’ll be glorified in the saints on that day and so forth. Our gathering together unto him, I take comes from 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 when he talks about the saints of God being caught up to be with the Lord and the dead in Christ rising first and so forth. Now that you, verse 2, that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as that the day of Christ, is at hand. Now notice this carefully. He’s saying here, you must not think that Christ is going to come right away here. He’s saying it’s this event is not at hand. Don’t be misled about this matter. There’s going to be a period of time. Now notice how well this fits in with the book of Revelation that we’ve been studying. about things which much shortly come to pass. That’s the focus in the beginning part and the end of the book of Revelation. He tells us that. But when you get to chapter 20, as we’ve mentioned, he talks about this long period of time, just thousand years, see. Peter tells us that that thousand years represents the time between the first and second coming of the Christ. He said, you know, where is the promise is this coming? Well, one day is there’s a thousand years, a thousand years is one day. So he’s saying, when that time comes, which could be this thousand year period, which Peter mentions, which is, I think, the same thousand years, then when that period is up, Satan has been bound here, then this destruction is going to come. So he says in verse three, let no man deceive you by any means, for that they shall not come except there be a falling away first. And the man of sin be reused. revealed this under perdition. Now here, the falling away is Satan being loosed for this period of time, and he goes out and deceives the nation so that we have this great falling away. It fits right in with Revelation 20. This man of sin is going to arise. And remember, we distinguished him. He is not the same as the beast of Revelation. And they shouldn’t be confused. who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God siteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. This temple of God that’s mentioned by Paul here is not the temple in Jerusalem. Remember, if you read through his epistles, whenever he talks about the temple of God, he’s talking about the church. And if you read any of the major confessions, the Westminster, the Savoy, I think is the same. And I know the London Baptist Confession is the same. It uses that as the church. It explains that as the church. And so we have the idea somehow in a, among the people of God, this deception will come out through the man of sin. He’s showing himself that he is God. Remember you not that when I was with you, I told you these things. And now that you might know what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time, but the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now leteth, will let until he be taken out of the way. There has to be a restraint lifted in order for this great deception to take place. There’s some deception now, but there’s going to be a great deception to follow. And then shall that wicked, revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Second Thessalonians 1 8 again. Even him whose coming is after the work of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness, he goes ought to deceive the nations, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth. that they might be saved. And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned to believe not the truth, but had pleasure and unrighteousness. So we have here, verse 3, a great falling away, an apostasy. We have a taking away of restraint in verses 6 and 7. We have all deceivableness. in verse 10, in strong delusion in verse 11. So I would suggest to you in any study that you do in Revelation 20 that this passage be carefully evaluated along with him. Now with that in mind, let’s go back to Revelation here. We read here that the nations which are in the four corners of the earth are those who are deceived. Now this doesn’t mean the most distant nations, way off in the corner somewhere. It means those from every direction. In other words, a vast amount of people in the north, the east, the south, the west, all over will be deceived by Satan. This is confirmed by verse 9, which tells us about a vast army that compasses the campasses the camp the saints so that it’s huge in number. Now he calls this group of people, these nations, Gog, and Magog. Now, you recall that in the Old Testament, Gog and Magog are spoken of in the book of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. And in that chapter, God’s judgment comes down upon Gog and Magog to destroy them for the wickedness and their attack upon the people of God. It refers to the terrible persecution of the people of God, it seems, under Antiochus epiphanes of Greece who ruled over Syria at the time. But we have an idea this is going to be like that, in a sense. You know, Revelation often uses language from the Old Testament to give us a picture. Sort of like when we talked about Babylon, but it’s actually speaking about Jerusalem. And here, when it’s talking about Gog and Magog, it’s actually speaking of here this great deception that’s going to take place. But it’s going to be like the issue of Gog and Magog in the Old Testament. That was the last great oppression before the people God had to endure before the New Testament era. Well, Gog and Magog here are going to provide a fitting symbol of the final oppression of the people of God in the New Testament. On the church at the end of the New Testament era. Now, if you read Ezekiel 38 and verses 1 to 3, if you’ll turn with me there, I think this is interesting as well, that the first three verses here of Ezekiel 38, and the Word of the Lord came unto me saying, son of man set thy face against Gog, the land of God, the chief prince of Meshch and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, thus set the Lord God. Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshach and Tubal. I want you to see if this corresponds with 2, Thessalonus chapter 2. Gog is the prince. Magog is his people or his army. Gog here would be representative of the man of sin. And Magog, this horde, this horse, this great group of people that have been deceived. The armies of Gog were very numerous. Look at verse 9. Thou shalt ascend and come like. a storm thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land thou and all thy bands and many people with thee verses 15 and 16 now shall come from thy place out of the north parts thou and many people with thee all them riding upon horses a great company a mighty army and thou shalt come up against my people of Israel as a cloud to cover the land and it shall be in the latter days and I will bring thee against my land that the heathen may know me when I shall be sanctified in thee O God before their eyes. So the idea of the armies of God were very numerous adequately symbolizes here the worldwide oppression or opposition to the church prior to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as the defeat of Gogh and Meg and the Old Testament was unexpected and complete where God intervened to strike them down. So what will be at the end of the world with this final rebellion with the sudden destruction that’s brought about by Jesus Christ upon them? We read here in verse 8 of Revelation that the number of whom is as the sand of the sea which matches up with Ezekiel. talking us about this great multitude. Now in Ezekiel, those gathered for the assault on the people of God are called many people, a great company, a mighty army. Whenever the idea of the sand of the sea is used in Scripture, it is used as if the people were so great, it would be like counting all the grains of sand on a shoreline in order to number them. As Judges 712 talks about in this description, without number, as the sand by the sea for multitude. Without number. Without number. That great. So we have this vast, innumerable army which the people God could not possibly withstand on their own power. By themselves. They need Christ to intervene here. Now, in Revelation, chapter 9, or chapter 20 in verse 9, we read here that this great multitude comes up on the breadth of the earth and they come past the camp of the saints about and the beloved city. These two phrases are really aspects of one body, the church, the true church, of Jesus Christ, which is threatened by, by the man of sin and his hordes, which really are being moved by Satan. The church is in view as the true Israel of God and camped in the wilderness of this world. Just as the nation in the Old Testament went through the wilderness, the desert of Sinai. Here’s what we read in Deuteronomy 2314. For the Lord thy God, walketh in the midst of thy camp to deliver thee, to give up thine enemies before thee. Therefore shall the camp be holy, that he see no unclean thing in thee, turn away from thee. And so we have the idea of the camp of God, being a holy camp. These are the people of God, as we’re told here in this revelation. passage. The beloved city is not the physical city of Jerusalem in Canaan, or in Palestine, if you would. The apostate-harlot city has been destroyed long ago. We looked at that in chapter 17 and 18 of the Book of Revelation. It’s not going to be a rebuilt city. We’re not going to back to the Old Testament ceremonies and worship. The beloved city, the beloved city, city is the church. It is spiritual Jerusalem. It is God’s shining city on the earth. As Hebrews 12, 22, and 23 says, you are come unto Mount Zion, onto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the church of the firstborn and so forth. And so this is what we’re talking about. So the camp and the beloved city are really referring to the true church of Christ. The lamb’s wife is called the Holy Jerusalem in chapter 21 and verses 9 and 10. Why is it the city of God? Because God built it. Because he dwells in it. Because he rules it. And because God’s family lives in it. And includes, of course, Gentiles who have been made part of the Jewish of God. The Gentiles are grafted in. They are included in the true Israel of God, as Galatians chapter 6 and verse 16 talks about as well. The saints are compassed by this enemy army. Here is a time of persecution. Here is a time of suffering for the church just prior to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, with that in mind, you’ll notice in verse 9, we read, and they went up on the breadth of the earth and come past the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and divardom. In Ezekiel, how is this massive army of Gog, and Magog here, defeated? Ezekiel 39, 6 says, I will send fire on Goggin, among them that dwell in the aisles, and they shall know that I am the Lord. The fire in revelation here represents Christ Second Coming. He comes in flaming fire to take vengeance on them who are his enemies. Now, if you would go back to Second Thessalonians for a moment, Chapter 1, verse 7 and 9, we read these words, and do you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. And then look at chapter 2 and verse 8. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Now, you recall in 2nd Peter chapter 3 that when Christ returns, there’s going to be a destruction by fire that takes place. The first, under Noah when the worldwide destruction was by water. He says the second is going to be by fire. And so we have the destruction here by fire that’s mentioned with regard to the second coming of Christ. We had said that the second coming of Christ is not the main focus of the book of Revelation, which many people I think are confused about. But it’s not that it’s excluded from the book of Revelation. But it’s not that it’s excluded from the book of Revelation. not among those things which must shortly come to pass. So it’s put after this thousand-year period. And here is where Christ comes personally, literally, and judgment upon the wicked. Christ coming follows the millennium. Immediately precedes the final judgment, which is 11 to 15, we’ll have to look at it at another time. Seeing it is a righteous thing to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. So Satan’s final rebellion. Then we have, in verse 10, Satan’s doom, and I have to wind this up here. Verse 10. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast, and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. Satan’s cause is now finally and thoroughly overthrown. The lake of fire has previously been prepared for the devil and his angels. And first Satan was cast out of the heavenlies in chapter 12 and verse 9. Then he was imprisoned in the bottom of the spirit, Pitt in chapter 21 to 3. And now in verse 9 here of chapter 20 he is consigned to his eternal fate, which is the permanent lake of fire. Not to be burned up and consumed, but as the scripture indicates to be tormented day and night forever and ever. So here, at the final end here of revelations, we get to the end, we see the last, enemy defeated. We saw the beast defeated, his false prophet, the beast being Nero and the Roman Empire, which opposed the people of God, the false prophet being the cult of the emperor that forced the people of God, and worship his image and so forth. And here at the end, Satan has said, self is defeated and they all suffer the same fate. They all end up in the lake of fire. So Satan is loosed. We see his final rebellion. We see his final doom. Are there any questions about this section of scripture? Hopefully, I can answer them if you have them. All right. Well, then we will…