Turn in your Bibles with me to
Revelation chapter 20. Revelation chapter 20. We're
going to begin at verse 7. A few weeks back we read this
chapter, and I want, by way of reminder, I'm going to go through
the rest of it beginning at verse 7 concerning the subject of Satan's
defeat and final judgment. This passage starts off in verse
7, going to verse 10, with the final battle. The final battle
between Satan and his allies, the evil allies of this evil
spirit, and Christ and his church. You may remember I think it was
back in Revelation 16 that we spoke of this battle called Armageddon. And you know how most people
think about Armageddon. They think of it as a physical
battle in the land of Palestine. That's not what it is at all.
So we're just going to start, and I'll read through and give
you the details of this passage on Satan's defeat and the final
battle. It starts off in verse seven,
it says, and when the thousand years are expired, now remember
the thousand years, it's not a literal calendar years, but
it's the time period of the new covenant, the new age, that period
that spans between the first coming of Christ, His incarnation,
His obedience to the law, His death on the cross, His resurrection,
His ascension unto glory, Inaugurated at Pentecost when Peter preached
the gospel. And then it goes all the way
to the second coming of Christ. That's the thousand year millennial
reign of Christ through his church. Not a physical kingdom, but a
spiritual kingdom under the headship of Christ. Now when that has
expired, that's the end of the age. So what's he talking about
here? He's talking about the second
coming of Christ. And he says, Satan shall be loosed
out of his prison. Now remember, Satan was bound.
When Christ died on the cross, Satan was bound and brought down
to the pit, what it's called, this earth, this sin-cursed earth,
and he was bound by Christ. Satan fell and bound by Christ. And remember, this Satan bound
at the beginning of the age He was bound so that the gospel
was preached throughout the world. The gospel went out from Jerusalem
all the way to the Gentile world. The gospel was preached. Churches
were started. And when it says Satan was bound,
it doesn't mean that his evil activities completely stopped
during these thousand years. Satan is still enabled and allowed
to Go after the church. And you know, in fact, for example,
you can read passages like this, 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 8,
where Peter wrote to the church, he said, be sober, be vigilant,
because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about
seeking whom he may devour. So he's still working, but his
work is limited. more than what it was before
the death of Christ in the Old Testament, where he deceived
the nations. In fact, we're told in Ephesians
chapter 6 and verse 11, we're told to put on the whole armor
of God that we might be able to stand against the wiles of
the devil. Put on the whole armor of God.
Satan is still working, but his work is limited. And the gospel,
during this age, began to go out into the Gentile world. And
that's what Paul the Apostle, he said it was his special calling
from God to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. And you had
the churches at Rome, the church at Corinth, the church at Thessalonica,
Ephesus, you can go on, Colossae, you can go on and on, how the
gospel was preached. But now John warns us that at
the end of this age, Satan will be released from the abyss and
then he'll organize the nations against Christ and his church
only to finally be crushed, defeated on the day of judgment. This
warfare between Satan and the church, between Satan and Christ
and his church, The outcome has never been in doubt. You need
to understand that. This is not a wait until the
end and we'll see who wins. Satan is a defeated foe. Understand that. Christ has defeated
him. And you think about Christ, the
times that he met Satan face to face on the Mount of Temptation.
He defeated Satan then. But the ultimate defeat, the
binding of Satan, happened at the cross. when he said in John
chapter 12, now the prince of this world is cast out, bound,
limited. And so though the agents through
the, and Satan is still working through the agency of the beast,
that's false, unholy, anti-God governments, the false prophet,
the great harlot, Antichrist, remember John said Antichrist
was prevalent in his day. That's religion that comes in
the name of Christ but denies the doctrine of Christ. Satan
will manage to deceive the nations for the express purpose of waging
war against the church of Jesus Christ. And that's what's happening
here. He's gonna be loose. Now, we may be living in that
time. I think we are. People will argue
about that, but it doesn't matter, because there's so much religion
today that comes under the name of Christianity that actually
is either ignorant of or in denial of the truth, the true gospel. You go around and talk to people,
everybody claims to be saved, everybody claims to love Jesus,
but who is the Jesus they love? Who is he? Because that's the
key. The doctrine of Christ. Remember John said in 2 John
11, he who transgresses and abides not in the doctrine of Christ
hath not God. Who is Jesus Christ? Well, the
Bible's clear. And this is the crux of the gospel.
Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh. God man, the Word
made flesh dwelling among us. He's the second person of the
Trinity, the Son of God. upon whom all of the salvation
of God's chosen people was placed on his shoulder, those whose
names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. We'll see about
that here in just a moment. Who is he? And what did he accomplish
on the cross? Now, there's the key. It's not,
you know, somebody said, well, who did he die for? Well, he
said that he died for his sheep. He died for the elect of God.
But what did he actually accomplish when he died on that cross? Well,
the Bible says that he made an end of sin, he finished the transgression,
he brought in everlasting righteousness, he sealed up all the types and
pictures of the Old Testament, and entered into the holiest.
to secure the salvation of every sinner, every sheep for whom
he died, for whom he was buried, and for whom he arose again the
third day. For whom he now stands as mediator
and intercessor. He didn't die to make people
savable if they would cooperate because the Bible's clear. By
nature, as we're born fallen in Adam, spiritually dead and
depraved, we will not cooperate. God has to give us life from
the dead for us to cooperate. You must be born again or you
can't see the kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God. You must be born
again or you cannot enter it. We've got to be given eyes to
see and ears to hear. Well, Christ ensured that for
his people when he died and was buried and arose again the third
day. That's what he did. That's the doctrine of Christ.
Look at what he says here in verse eight. He says, this Satan
shall go out to deceive the nations at the end of this age, just
prior to the second coming of Christ. Now how much time is
going to be, I don't know. The Bible doesn't say, it doesn't
give us specific dates. We don't need that. We can look
around, we see what's happening in our world, and we don't interpret
the Bible by looking at the world. We interpret the world by looking
at the Bible. But he's gonna go out to deceive the nations
again, which are in the four quarters of the earth, north,
south, east, west, the whole earth. And he mentions Gog and
Magog. Now, you may have read about
Gog and Magog over in Ezekiel chapter 38. And I'm not gonna
go into all the delineation of that name or anything, but what
that stands for, back in Ezekiel, he used that term, Gog in the
land of Magog, he used that term to describe the Gentile nations
which attacked and were against Israel. Well, here it stands
for all unbelieving nations, all unbelieving people collectively
who stand against Christ and his church. That's what Gog and
Magog is. You'll see all kinds of stories
from different people about Russia and China and all of that. My
friend, it even includes the United States in a state of unbelief
because if you're not for Christ, if you're not with Christ, you're
against him. There's no fence riding here.
Christ said he who's not for me is against me. So it stands
for all people, all nations, collectively, who are in unbelief. And it says, He'll gather them,
look at verse 8, He'll gather them together to battle, the
number of whom is as the sand of the sea. This is a big army.
A big army. This battle that he's talking
about, again, it's not a physical battle. It's not fought with
guns and tanks and bombs and all that. It's a spiritual battle. And it's fought, our weapon,
the church's weapon, you know what our weapon is? The word
of God. The sword of the Lord. We don't
fight physical battles in this issue. That's why you think about
the history of the church in the Middle Ages and places like
where they had the Crusades. That was an evil mission. It
was not biblical. It wasn't based upon biblical
truth at all. They didn't even believe the
gospel, the true gospel. We're not drawing physical swords.
We're not loading physical guns in this battle. It's a spiritual
battle. And our weapon is the word of God. And that's why if
you look back at Revelation 12, turn back there. Remember when he talks about
Satan accusing the church? Look at verse 11. This is Satan
coming after the church. And it says in verse 11 of Revelation
12, it says, and they overcame him. How? By drawing their knives and their
guns? No, by the blood of the Lamb.
That means when Satan accuses us of sinfulness, What do we
plead? What do we do? How do we fight
that? We plead the blood of Jesus Christ, which brought about the
forgiveness of all of our sins. We plead his righteousness, and
it says, they overcame him by the blood of the, and the word
of their testimony. Well, what is the word of our
testimony? It's the word of God. It's not us trying to defend
ourselves. It's just simply preaching, teaching, living the word of
God. God says this, Satan, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. You can accuse me. You can say,
well, Bill Parker is a sinner, and you're right. But I can tell
you this, my sins are not laid to my charge. How do I know that?
Because God said it. Those who plead the blood of
Christ. Those who plead his righteousness imputed alone. God says, I will
not charge them with their sin. Their sins are not imputed to
them. They've already been imputed to Christ. And he drank damnation
dry. And it says, they love not their
lives until the death. In other words, they're not going
to defend themselves with false pretenses to say, well, you know,
I've done the best I could or anything like that. we plead
the grace of God. Go back to Revelation 20. Look
at verses nine and 10. Here's this battle of Armageddon
described. Verse 10, it says, they went
up on the breadth of the earth, Satan and his army, the beast,
the false prophet, the great harlot, encompassed the camp
of the saints, who are the saints, that's sinners saved by grace,
believers, and the beloved city, that's the heavenly Jerusalem,
and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. Christ has won the battle. And
verse 10 says, 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. That's Armageddon. Christ is
victorious. He always has been. Even when
what looked like to be his defeat He was victorious. And when's
that? On the cross. The world looked at him as a
defeated martyr. But he was not a defeated martyr. He was a successful, victorious
redeemer, savior. And you see that when he cried
out on the cross, he said, it is finished. The work that he
was sent to do that was ordained before the foundation of this
world, the lamb slain. It's finished, it's over, it's
complete. Hebrews 10, 14 says, by one offering,
he hath what? Been defeated? No, perfected
them that are sanctified forever and ever. So here's that spiritual
battle, this Armageddon, that will end with the second coming
of Christ. And that's it. And again, it's
not a physical battle fought on a physical, it's a spiritual
battle. It's a battle of ideas. One false idea, the other true. One a false gospel, the other
the true. And so now we come to the second
part of this at the end, and that's the great white throne
judgment. Look at verse 11. He says, and
I saw a great white throne. Why is it a white throne? Because
it's a righteous throne. It's a throne of God. And him that sat on it, from
whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found
no place for them. Who is this? This is Christ,
the righteous judge. Turn with me to John chapter
five. Christ said that because of the
success his mediatorial work to save his people from their
sins that all the Father has committed all judgment to him
and this is something that we who believe in him we relish
in this and I'll show you why in just a moment. But look at
John chapter 5, look at verse 19 of John chapter 5. He's talking about his work on
earth as the mediator, the advocate, He says, then answered Jesus
and said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, the son can do
nothing of himself, but what he seeth the father do. For what
thing soever he doeth, these also doeth the son likewise.
Talking about the unity of will and purpose between the father
and the son. And he says in verse 20, for
the father loveth the son and showeth him all things that himself
doeth and he will show him greater works than these that you may
marvel. Think about it, the work of his
redemption on the cross, redeeming his people from their sins, his
resurrection, his intercession, the spread of the gospel throughout
this age. The gospel seems so scarce today,
doesn't it? I mean, it's few and far between.
But there was a time when it was going out. And I won't say
it was the majority of the people of the world, but it was going
out. At Pentecost, 3,000 were saved. Later on, 5,000. Churches
were being built up. Now it wasn't long before Satan
began to work from the inside. Remember in the book of Galatians
how false preachers crept in? And then it wasn't long after
that that there came the great falling away to what was commonly
known as Christianity, Wasn't Christianity at all. So that
happened. But look here, he says, verse
21, for as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them,
that's the first resurrection we talked about last week, that's
the new birth, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. God
said I'll have mercy upon whom I'll have mercy, I'll be gracious
to whom I will. Verse 22. For the Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." That's the earned
right of Jesus Christ for the salvation of His people. He's
always been in charge. He's always been in control.
But He's given that specific position of the mediator of His
people to save us and defend us and protect us. And look at
the reason why, verse 23, that all should honor the Son, even
as they honor the Father. Without knowing Christ, without
seeing the glory of His person and the power of His finished
work, you don't know God as the Heavenly Father. He that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father, which is sinning. So
he says in verse 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from
death unto life. Verse 25. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. For the Father hath life in himself,
so hath he given to his Son to have life in himself. and hath
given him authority to execute judgment also, because he's the
son of man." That's his humanity. In his humanity, he gave himself
for the sins of his people, God-man. And because he accomplished that
work, he's been given that authority to execute judgment. And he says
in verse 28, marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the
which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice. That's
what we're reading about in Revelation 20. They shall come forth, they
that have done good under the resurrection of life and they
that have done evil under the resurrection of damnation. Go
back to Revelation 20. Who's done good? And who's done
evil? Well, those who stand before
God. washed in the blood of Christ,
clothed in His righteousness imputed, those are the ones who
have done good. It wasn't by our power or any
inherent goodness in us, it's by His power and goodness. And
those who stand before God without Christ, they've done evil no
matter how they appeared on earth. They may have appeared to be
righteous as the Pharisees, all of that. Well, this is the great
white throne judgment. And look at verse 12, now go
back to Revelation 20. He said, and I saw the dead,
small and great, no matter who they are, everyone, the dead,
stand before God, and the books, now notice the word books there
is plural. The books were opened. And then
it says another book, singular, was opened, which is the book
of life. So you have the books, plural,
And then you have the one book of life. This book of life is
a register in the mind of Almighty God of His elect people, justified,
forgiven, redeemed by the blood of Christ. It's called the Lamb's
book of life, the Lamb that was slain. And it says that the names
of the people of God were written in that book before the foundation
of the world. Now that's not a literal book.
God doesn't have a literal book up there and a pen and ink and
all that. It's in His sovereign mind. His sovereign, unchanging
mind. And I want you to think about
something. If you're a sinner saved by grace, if you're a believer,
your name was on the mind of God before this world was ever
created. Now doesn't that give you chills
up your spine? Your exact name was on the heart
and mind of almighty God. You were accepted in the beloved. And when Christ came to this
earth, he came to redeem you. He came to give you life. He
came to protect you and bring you to glory. Your name's written
there. But now these books, plural,
think about it. Look at verse 12 again. It says,
and the dead were judged out of those things which were written
in the books. And here's a horrible, horrible
thing. According to their works. Oh my soul, think about that.
Oh, I don't want to stand before God and be judged according to
my works, because that is the sentence of condemnation and
eternal damnation. I want to stand before God in
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ as my representative,
as my surety, the Lord my righteousness, my redeemer, who substituted
himself for me and died for my sins. Think about it. Think about
it. Verse 13, the sea gave up the
dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them, and they were judged every man, here's
that phrase again, according to their works. People who tell
you that when you get to judgment, God's going to weigh your good
works with your bad works, and whichever one weighs the most,
that determines whether you, that is a lie. That is not biblical. Without Christ, without the grace
of God, without being washed in His blood and clothed in His
righteousness, without faith, there is no good works. None
at all. None at all. But all who stand
in Him, in His merit, in His worthiness, under the blood,
clothed in righteousness, the Lord our righteousness, they'll
hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant. And that's
not meritorious. That's not God saying, well,
you've done such a good job, so I'm gonna let you in. No,
it's simply saying that you give evidence that you stand before
God in Christ. Verse 14 says, death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire. That's the second death. There'll
be no more death for the people of God. We die physically. The dead judged according to
their works. We judged in Christ, already judged. Already judged. And that second death, what is
that? Well, that's eternal death. And he says in verse 15, he says,
and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. That's to perish. Damn forever. So let me give you this. Reasons
believers don't have to fear judgment. Number one, we've already been
judged for all our sins. Do you realize that? If you're
a sinner saved by grace, you've already been judged before God
of all your sins. When? On the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ was made sin for us. Christ who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Look at Romans
chapter six. And this gives us the assurance
of faith, God-given faith. Look at verse three of Romans
chapter six. He says, know you not that so
many of us as were baptized or are baptized into Jesus Christ
were baptized into his death. Now I've said this a lot before.
Baptism there, baptized, doesn't mean the water baptism that we
do when we confess Christ publicly in that ordinance. Baptized here
means united with Christ, in union with Christ, placed into
Christ. That's what it means. Well, when
did all that take place? Well, we were placed into Christ
before the foundation of the world. Read Ephesians chapter
1 and passages like that. That salvation that was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. We were placed into
Christ at the cross when He redeemed us. He didn't go to the cross
for Himself. He had all the sin debt of all of His people charged
to His account, laid upon Him, bruised for our iniquities, see? And then He died for His people. That's the baptism of death.
Baptized into His death. That means when He died, He died
for me. How do I know He died for me? Because God has given
me life to believe in Him. He's given me the gift of faith.
I'm born again by the Spirit. How do I know? I believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ as He's identified and distinguished in this Word,
in the Gospel. And I've repented of dead works.
He's given me the gift of repentance. So that when Christ died, I died.
My sins charged to him. So look at verse four, therefore
we're buried with him by baptism into death. When he was buried,
I was buried. You know, that's what we confess
in believers baptism in the water. When we go down into the water,
when he died, I died, when buried. And then verse four it says,
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory
of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
We're raised again with him. And he says in verse five, for
if we've been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. You know
what that means? If Christ died for you, you died with him and
you're gonna be raised again. Verse six, knowing this, that
our old man is crucified. That old relationship with Adam
in spiritual death and depravity was crucified with Christ, put
to death. That the body of sin might be
destroyed. The whole body of sin that would
condemn me is destroyed. I cannot be condemned. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ.
That henceforth we should not serve sin. And look at verse
seven, for he that is dead is freed or justified from sin. So we've already, if you're a
believer, you've already been judged for your sins. You're
not gonna stand before God and he's gonna show us a movie of
your bad works and your good works and reward you accordingly.
No, our reward is Christ. Our reward is the reward of grace. And we will not be judged again. But now doesn't the word of God
say that every man's gonna stand before God and give an account?
That's in Romans 14, yes, but think about it. If you're a believer,
if you're a sinner saved by grace, what is your account? Your account
is Christ died for me, was buried for me, raised again for me.
He is the Lord my righteousness. That's my account. That's what
David meant when he said, judge me according to my righteousness.
David wasn't saying, judge me according to my works. If he
would, he'd be just like these whose names were written in the
book of the dead, out of the books. Who is David's righteousness? Who is my righteousness? Who
is your righteousness? Christ is the Lord my righteousness. So we don't have to fear the
judgment. Secondly, think about this. The judge of all is our
savior. He's our redeemer. He's our friend, the friend of
sinners. He's our mediator. He is the
standard of judgment. He is my righteousness, as I
read at the beginning. God will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained, and that he hath given assurance
unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead. That's
Christ. He's my judge, and he's my standard. I stand in him. You know, the books, plural,
record the names of those who died in their sins. But the good
news is that other book. And that's Christ. The book of
life does not record our deeds. It contains the name of specific
individuals, not a record of their deeds. It's a list of God's
elect in the mind of God, justified, redeemed by the blood of Christ,
regenerated and called by the Spirit. into true repentance. Let me show you one more verse
and I'll quit. Look at Matthew chapter 7. I want to show you
two more verses actually, but I promise I'll be brief. This
verse was brought up a couple weeks ago. You know, salvation by the gift
of God's given faith, it's not a gamble. It's not a gamble at
all. It's a sure thing. And you see
these in Matthew 7, look at verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will
say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord. Now look at what these
guys say. Understand this. Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied or preached in your name? and in your name
have cast out devils, and in your name done many wonderful
works." Now, you hear what they said? That's what they're pleading
as the reason God should allow them to enter into glory. Is
that what you're going to plead if you're a believer? Me? That I've preached for 40 years?
That I've done many... Oh, my soul, no. Now he said
to them, I'll profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from
me you that work iniquity. Everything they mention here
falls short of the perfection of righteousness that can only
be found in Christ. So if you come before God pleading
the blood and righteousness of Christ, he would never say unto
you, depart from me. I'm saved by grace. My hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Let
me show you one more verse here. Turn to 1 John chapter 4. This
will be the last one, I promise you. 1 John chapter 4. Listen to this. This is beautiful.
Our assurance of salvation is not from looking within ourselves
to see if we've done enough. Our assurance of salvation, now
and at the judgment, is looking to Christ, the author and finisher
of our faith. We'll look at verse 15 of 1 John
chapter 4. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God,
and we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.
How do we know? Christ died for us. God is love. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth
in God and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect. Herein, literally that should
read herein is love with us made perfect. That's God's love for
us and made perfect, meaning it's a perfect love of God, but
it's reached its goal in this way, that we may have boldness,
confidence in the day of judgment. The day of judgment, confidence,
yes. Because as He is, as Christ is,
having redeemed us from our sins by His blood, having given us
a perfect righteousness imputed to us, as He is, so are we in
this world right now. Right now, I'm forgiven of all
my sins. Right now, I'm righteous in God's
sight, and that'll never change. That's the righteousness of Christ
imputed. It cannot be taken away from me. It cannot be corrupted. It's perfection that God has
worked on my behalf so that I can have confidence in the day of
judgment. Now that truly is amazing grace. So let's sing hymn number
236 as our closing hymn.