Okay, looking back at Revelation
chapter 20, I'm taking the title for the message from what is
said in verse 7, Revelation 20 verse 7, where it says, Satan
is loosed out of his prison. You see that in verse 7? When
a thousand years are expired. That is the end of this gospel
age in which we live. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
back, and just prior to His glorious appearing, Satan shall be loosed
out of his prison, and he shall go out to deceive the nations
which are in the four corners of the earth. These nations are
described as Gog and Magog, which come from Ezekiel 38, And He'll
gather them together to battle. They're going to battle against
God Almighty. And their number is a tremendous
number. The sand of the sea. And that
means it's a whole lot of people. A whole lot of people are going
to be deceived by Satan when he is let loose. And they will
attack the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we know who's
going to win. The Lord Jesus Christ is going
to conquer every enemy. Satan is loosed out of his prison,
it says there in verse 3. Who put him in prison? You remember
in the same chapter, verse 1, I saw an angel come down from
heaven. This is the angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus,
having the key to the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his
hand, the hand of Almighty God. He laid hold on the dragon. That
old serpent, the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years
and cast him into the bottomless pit, shut him up, put a seal
upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till a thousand
years be fulfilled. And after that, and after that,
he must be, you see that? He must be loosed. for a little
season. Satan shall be loosed out of
his prison. Now who put him in prison? Who
restrained him? God Almighty. Who lets him loose? Same one, God Almighty. The Lord
Jesus Christ took that great chain of his decree and bound
Satan and now by God's purpose Satan is released in that day
that is talking about there in verse 7. Now, I don't know about
you younger ones, but us older folks grew up watching the news,
the evening news. Remember Walter Cronkite on CBS. That was the one my mother always
watched and I always watched because she watched. So us older
ones grew up watching the news, and I'm still, I watch the news
more than I should. But I don't watch network news.
I usually watch, don't tell anybody, but I watch Fox News, okay? I am a conservative. But have
you noticed, this world seems to be in total chaos. It just seems to be Crazy. I mean, this world just seemed
to be crazy. The nations of this world seem to be out of control.
I mean, there's riots going on in this country and rebellion
going on in this country. There's turmoil over here and
Russia's invading Ukraine and everything is going on and on.
It just seemed like everything's out of control. I said, it seems
like everything's out of control. But all things are coming to
pass by the sovereign, unchanging decrees of God. All things are
under the absolute sovereign control of God. Nothing is out
of control, because everything is under His control. Now we
read in Scripture that God does according to His will in the
army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of this earth, and
none can stay His hand, or none can say to Him, Lord God Almighty,
what doest Thou? He controls all things by the
word of His eternal decree. He said, I've spoken it, I'll
bring it to pass, I've purposed it, I will do it. He declares
the end from the beginning. He's Almighty God. So things
may seem to us to be in chaos, but they're certainly not. All
things are working together under God's eternal wise counsel and
purpose. Now, when we talk about Satan
being loosed out of his prison, when Satan is turned loose, By
Lord Jesus Christ, just prior to his second coming, Satan's
primary mission will be to deceive the hearts of sinful men. Notice
in verse 8, he shall go out to deceive the nations. And again,
it's mentioned in verse 10, and the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire. So Satan is the master deceiver. Satan's aim and goal And I put
this in parentheses, the religion of Satan is to make men very
religious, full of religious pride and self-righteousness,
and to bring them in rebellion against the true Christ of God
and the true gospel of God. He's called the God of this world.
We read about it in 2 Corinthians 4. If our gospel be hid, it's
hid to them that are lost, and whom the God of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of
the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine
unto them." So God, when he let Satan loose, Satan's master plan
is to keep on deceiving people with religious deeds. Now, when
the Lord Jesus Christ came the first time, God incarnate, that's
when Satan was bound by the gospel of the Lord Jesus that he should
not deceive. the multitude of nations anymore,
primarily the Gentiles, because God hasn't let, remember the
risen Lord said, go into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature. Satan was bound by the death
and crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, the seed of
the woman crushed his head. Our Lord said this in John 12,
now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out, talking about Satan, talking about him being
bound, And I, he said, if I be lifted up from the earth, talking
about his death and his resurrection, will draw all to me. This he
said signifying what death he should die. The Lord Jesus Christ
died for our sins according to the scripture. And when he came
the first time, the Lord Jesus Christ, he bound Satan's dominion. But now, toward the end, and
when he comes back again, when this gospel age is coming to
a close, and we are, yes, we are living in the last days,
when this gospel age comes to a close, and just before the
second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, Satan will be let loose
to deceive the hearts of men once again. And he will marshal
his army, and it's a large army, symbolic of a number that no
man could number, the number of as the sand of the sea. Now you can't, that's innumerable
is what he's saying here. Satan will be loosed to deceive
the hearts of men again and will marshal this large army of the
Antichrist against the church of the Lord Jesus Christ to try
to destroy it. And we know what's gonna happen
because we read verse 10. Now, who is, what is this antichrist?
A lot of people talk about antichrist. Let me show you something. John
over here in his epistle. Turn over here to 1 John 2. That man of sin that must be
revealed, we read about 2 Thessalonians 2. We read about it here in 1
John 2. Verse 18, little children, it
is the last time, as you have heard, that Antichrist shall
come. Even now there are many Antichrists,
whereby you know it is the last time. There are many who are
against the gospel even today. But it's going to get worse.
It's going to get worse. They went out from us, he said
in verse 19, but they were not of us. For had they been of us,
they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out. that
they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us.
So there, John, even in his day, he said there were many who were
anti-Christ, against the gospel. Turn one page, 1 John chapter
4. 1 John chapter 4, verse 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit. That is, don't believe every
preacher. Don't believe every preacher,
every spirit. But try the spirit, try the preacher
whether they've sent of God. Because there are many false
prophets gone out into the world. Hereby you know the spirit of
God. Every spirit or preacher that
confesses that Jesus Christ has come into flesh is of God. The
successful Christ of God that accomplished the will of God,
the work of God. And every spirit or preacher
that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come into flesh is
not of God, this is the spirit of Antichrist. Where have you
heard that it should come? Even now already. Already. Now that was written almost 2,000
years ago. Already Antichrist is in this
world right now. Those who are opposed to the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pastor Mahan had this comment
on the Antichrist. And I think it's really good.
Quote, the spirit of anti-Christ is not anti-religion. It promotes
religion. It is not anti-morality nor anti-law. It promotes morality and justification
by the deeds of the law. It's not anti-good works. It
encourages good works done in the name of morality and religion.
It's anti-Christ. It opposes, and it opposes to
giving Christ all the honor and glory for God's electing grace,
His electing love, His redemption by the blood of Christ, His irresistible
calling, the righteousness revealed in the gospel, the preservation
and perseverance of the saints, and the resurrection and eternal
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the spirit of antichrist
is against the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're surrounded
by Antichrist all up and down this road. We know that Satan and his army
will lose the battle against Christ and his church. The false
prophet and those who are Antichrist shall perish under the just,
holy wrath of God. Remember back in chapter 14?
Turn over there. Chapter 14. Verse 9, when that
third angel followed them, verse 9, Revelation 14 saying, with
a loud voice, if any man worshiped the beast and his image and received
the mark in his forehead or in his hand, remember what I told
you the mark of the beast is? Works religion. The same shall
drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without
mixture into the cup of his angry nation. And he shall be tormented
with fire, the wrath of God, the brimstone in the presence
of his holy angels, in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of
their torment ascendeth up forever and ever. They have no rest,
day nor night, who worship the beast, his image, and whosoever
received the mark of his name. Antichrist religion. God's going
to judge it and put it out of business once and for all, forever. Satan and his army will lose
the battle, and she'll perish under the just,
holy wrath of God. Verse 10, where it says, the
devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire. And
whenever you see fire in scripture, it represents His holy wrath,
His judgment. The lake of fire is a symbol
of His holy eternal wrath against all rebellion and sin that's
against God. God is love, but let's not forget
God is holy. His holiness His wrath is His
holiness stirred in activity against sin. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. Right? Good news. He that believeth
not in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abide
on him. Now, let's take a look at verse
7 down through verse 10. And I won't keep you too long.
When the thousand years are expired, a lot of people debate when that
is. I think it's right now. I think it's right now. Satan
shall be loosed out of his prison prior to the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and shall go out to deceive the nations, which are in the four corners
of the earth. That is, everywhere upon this earth. Gog and Magog,
they represent the ungodly, anti-Christ world. to gather them together
to battle that number is innumerable by human standards. Satan was
bound by the Lord Jesus Christ in his first coming, that he
should not be let loose to deceive or have his way with a multitude
of nations, that there should not be wholesale, complete, and
total apostasy from a true gospel of Christ, our Lord risen, because
he bound Satan, said to go and preach the gospel to every creature.
But before the Lord returned in his second coming, glorious
coming, Satan again will be employed by God, used by Almighty God
to deceive all who are reprobate. Gog and Magog represent the ungodly
world of rebels against God. And you go back and read from
Ezekiel chapter 38. The word of the Lord came unto
me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, that is, a
person, and the land of Magog, the chief priests of Meshach,
Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, Thus saith the Lord,
Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshach and
Tubal. He's against Gog and Magog. Who do they represent? The enemies
of God. The enemies of God's people.
Enemies of God's people. This little season is determined
and decreed by God. It's totally controlled by the
sovereign will of God to the glory of His justice, to the
praise and the glory of His grace. Satan is let loose for two reasons. It says, to deceive. To deceive. What does he use to deceive the
hearts of sinners? False religion. Self-righteousness. Free will works religion. Man-centered
religion. That is salvation. Antichrist
religion is this. Salvation that depends upon you. That's antichrist religion. That's
the mark of the beast. That's Babylon. That's false
religion. Any salvation that depends upon
the creature is not of God. Salvation depends upon whom?
Salvation is of the Lord. Now, let me be real plain. Let me be brutally honest. Can
we be anything else? There are just two religions
in this world. Just two. We have, I think we counted up,
or someone said there are 4,000 different religions in this world.
Maybe more. You boil it all down to two. The way of Abel, the way of Cain. The way of grace, the way of
works. Any mixture of the two is Antichrist. It's the mark of the beast. It's
Babylon. It's false religion. Salvation is totally dependent
and accomplished and determined by the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Anybody says that God's done
all he can do and the rest depends upon you. That's anti-Christ. That's false religion. Now I
know what I'm talking about because I grew up in it. I cut my teeth
on it. I cut my teeth on it. That was
pounded in my head, pounded in my head. Salvation depends upon
you. You going to so many meetings.
You not going here. You doing this. You giving this. It all depends upon you. You
know, they have that clever saying, we can't spell church without
you. As if God needs us. God doesn't
need us. We need Him. So Satan deceives,
he deceives, he deceives men, and he does it with religion.
And he's a clever old trickster. False apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. No marvel,
for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of lies. Therefore, it's no great thing
that his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness,
whose end shall be according to their deeds." They come preaching
what you must do. You must bring a righteousness
before God. It's just filthy rags. Why would
you bring it? So Satan's two reasons he's let loose to deceive
and also to gather his followers to battle against the church. Now who's going to win that battle?
We've seen this before. Turn back to chapter 17 verse
14. Chapter 17 verse 14. These shall
make war with the Lamb. and the Lamb shall overcome them,
for He is Lord of lords, He is King of kings, and they that
are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful." He's going to
win. You remember in chapter 19, verse
19, And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their
armies gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the
horse and against His army. Who's sitting on the horse? The
Lord Jesus Christ. Heaven was opened, and behold,
a white horse, and he that sat on him was called Faithful and
True, verse 11. And in righteousness he did judge
and make war. And the beast was taken with
a false prophet that wrought miracles before him, which deceived
them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped
his image. And these were cast alive into
the lake of fire, burning with brimstone." Again, at the lake
of God. And we get in our mind, this
lake of fire, and we have to visualize that some, and the
Lord uses some kind of language, that we might somehow, some sort
of concept of the eternal torment, of eternal condemnation, but
whenever you see wrath, fire, and wrath, it's a holy judgment
of God against all sin. That's what we deserve. If God
sent me to hell, that's exactly what I deserve. Thank God for
His mercy. Thank God for His mercy. Now,
Gog and Magog here in verse 8 are symbols of rebels against the
Lord's Church. Gog and Magog represent Satan,
his disciple, and all that are in opposition to the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's not talking about... I don't listen to these crazy
TV preachers. And I would advise you not to
listen to these crazy TV preachers. Because I know right now, I know
they're going wacko with Russia and with China. Because a lot
of these TV evangelists, they say that Gog and Magog are Russia
and China. And Russia and China are going
to invade the land of Israel. And they're all going to meet
together in the Valley of Megiddo. And there's going to be a great
military conflict. Well, the problem with that is,
one, it's not true, and two, it says in verse 9 that this
army comes upon the breadth of the earth. How is that confined? How are
you going to get a multitude as the sand of the sea in the
valley of Megiddo? You see, that's just pure nonsense
is all that is. It's just pure nonsense. So this
is not talking about, and I know Russia and China are in the news,
and I know the prophetic preachers are saying now Russia, Tubal,
and Meshach, they're getting ready to invade Israel. They've
been saying that for a hundred years. It's nonsense. It's nonsense. Gog and Magog here, God goes
back and picks up what he said to Ezekiel. They are pictures
of the enemies of God. Gog and Magog represent all who
are against the gospel, spread to all the world, through the
four corners of the world, who are totally deceived by their
religious self-righteousness. And they're going to come against
God's church in this world. Again, we see this battle of
what everybody wants to know what Armageddon is about. Armageddon is God's total victory
over all enemies. Look back at Revelation 16, it's
mentioned here. Verse 15, Revelation 16, 15,
Behold, I come as a thief, blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth
his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame, and they
gather them together in a place in the Hebrew tongue called Armageddon. Armageddon. Armageddon. Now listen to me. I'm not a novice. I've been at this thing 40 years.
I've considered this a long time. Armageddon is not a military
conflict between earthly nations. It's not a nuclear war. It's
a spiritual conflict. It represents every battle throughout
history between the Lord Jesus Christ and Satan, the seed of
woman and the seed of the serpent, the kingdom of light and the
kingdom of darkness. The church and the world, truth
and error, righteousness and evil, worshippers of God and
false religion. Whenever the people of God are
oppressed and persecuted and the Lord reveals His mighty power
and defeats His armies, that's Armageddon. We've seen Armageddon
go on, going on ever since Satan tried to attack and did attack
Adam and Eve in the garden. Well, what's going to happen?
Look at verse 9. And they went up, because they
were deceived, they were led by Satan, being deceived, and
they went up upon the breadth of the earth, and that word breadth
means the width of the earth, not a particular valley, but
the breadth of the earth, to compass about or surround the
camp of the saints. And they surrounded the beloved
city, and fire came down. Fire came
down from heaven and devoured them. Fire came down. The wrath of God came down upon
them. The Antichrist army of Satan
will march against the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they'll surround, as it says there, the camp of the saints.
You see that? The camp of the saints. Every
believer is a sinner saved by the grace of God. Every sinner
is a saint. chosen and sanctified in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Every sinner is a saint because
were made new creatures in the Lord Jesus Christ. By the one
offering hath he perfected forever them that are sanctified. And
notice these saints, they live in a camp. Now when I go camping, I go camping
sometimes out in the mountains out west and sometimes in the
mountains in Tennessee, but when I go camping I just go there
for just a little while because I know I'm going to pull up stakes
and leave. And that's what he's saying here.
The saints of God are camping in this world. I have a temporary
dwelling place in this world. We're just passing through looking
for a city whose builder and maker is God. When I go to a
campsite, I set up things temporarily because I know I'm going to pull
up my stakes and leave. We are pilgrims and strangers
in this world just passing through. We're just camping here for a
little while and we're looking for that city that we're going
to read about in Revelation 21. That city that comes down from
God out of heaven. and they surround the beloved
city, Christ has made us citizens of a spiritual, heavenly Jerusalem,
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Book of Revelation 21,
verse 1, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first
heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no
more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. The saints of God, they camp
here. We're moving on. And we're part
of that beloved city. He's made us sons of God by His
grace. But notice what will happen when
they attack, the enemies attack the church. Satan's last assault,
like all his previous assaults, will be foiled and stopped by
the holy wrath of God. And notice, it will be the wrath
of the Lamb of God. You remember we saw that in Revelation
chapter 6, when those kings of the earth at the end of the world,
they cried to the rocks and the mountains to fall on us and hide
us from the face of Him that sits upon the throne. For the
great day of the wrath of the Lamb is come, who shall stand. It's the wrath of the Lamb. People
say, well, I thought He was sweet little Jesus boy. He's the great
God our Savior. The wrath of the Lamb, all judgment
has been committed to the Son. Remember our Lord said to Peter,
Peter, upon this rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. Now what's going to happen? Look
at verse 10. The devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of wrath, fire, brimstone, with the beast
and with the false prophet, and they shall be tormented forever
and ever, day and night, forever and ever and ever, eternal condemnation. When the Lord Jesus Christ returns
in great power, great glory, the certain destruction of Satan
and his allies will be swift, total, final. Satan will deceive
no more, will be eternally punished with unmitigated, unchanging,
unceasing holy wrath. Our Lord says so in Matthew 25,
then shall he also say unto them on the left hand, depart from
me, you cursed and everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
and his angels. We read in 2 Thessalonians chapter
two, verse seven, the Lord shall destroy, shall consume him with
the spirit of his mouth and destroy him with the brightness of his
coming. Now, let me quit with this. The
truth of the Gospel will prevail because God prevails. Remember,
I told you Revelation 6, verse 2, He went forth conquering and
to conquer. The truth of the Gospel will prevail, it must,
because the pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. Secondly,
the purpose of God cannot be defeated, can it? Can you defeat
the purpose of God? Can you frustrate the purpose
of God? God declares the end from the beginning. He's the
Alpha. He's the Omega. He's the First. He's the Last.
You can't frustrate God Almighty. He said, I am God. Beside me
there is no other. The sense of God cannot be deceived.
It's not possible for the elect of God to be deceived. The church
of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be harmed. We are more than conquerors
through him that loved us. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? What is God to justify? Who is
he that condemned as Christ had died, yea rather, he was risen
again, he was even at the right hand of God? Who else so much
in a session for us? Thanks be to God who has given
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have the victory
over all things. Over all things. Over the law
of God. Christ honored the law of God
for us. That which was contrary to us, He took out of the way,
nailed it to His cross. He magnified the law of God.
He redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. We have the victory over the law, because the Lord Jesus
Christ honored it. We have the victory over sin,
because the Lord Jesus Christ put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. We have the victory over death.
One of these days, you're going to take this sorry old body and
plant it out here on Wynn's Ranch. When we had that funeral a couple
weeks ago, we buried a dear friend over there in that cemetery by
the house. And I had Clark take his excavator and push some of
them brushes and brambles off and make me a burial place. They're
going to put me in the ground right there in that spot. I've
got it picked out and planed. I even sowed some grass on it.
He's going to put this sorry body in the ground, but it's
not going to stay there. It's going to be a glorious resurrection. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. And because He lives, remember
Revelation 1.18, it says, Behold, I am He that liveth and was dead.
Behold, I am alive forevermore. Because His resurrection guarantees
mine. He said that, because I live,
you shall live also. We're going to have a new body
to enjoy the new heaven and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
So we have the complete victory over the law, over sin, over
death, over hell, over Satan, over the grave. What do you say to all that?
Thank you, Lord. And that sounds so short, doesn't it? But I mean, thank you, Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Thank
you, Lord, for your grace, for your mercy, for your love to
this undeserving sinner. Undeserving sinner. Yet he has blessed us above all
people. He has saved us from being deceived. He taught us the truth and delivered
us from the kingdom of darkness and we have been translated into
the kingdom of God dear Son. Now who did that? He did that. To him be all the
honor and glory.