Let's turn then to the Word of God, brothers and sisters. Once again, this morning in the book of Revelation in chapter 20. Revelation 20, we'll read here verses 1 to 10, though our focus this morning will be specifically verses 7 to 10. Take two, we call it take two of the last battle. Revelation chapter 20, beginning at verse 1. This is the Word of the Lord. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who was the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things, he must be released a little while. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such, the second death has no power. They shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him 1,000 years. Now when the 1,000 years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. God's Holy Word, may He write upon our hearts. Let's pray again together. Father, help us now, we pray, as we come, we approach Your Word. Give us hearts to receive it, minds to understand it, so grant us the illumination of Your Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Brothers and sisters, military historians are fond of studying the great battles of history. And it is a fascinating study. When and where such battles took place, the arrangement and movement of troops, the strategies of opposing commanders, the genius exhibited in some of those strategies, and tactical mistakes exhibited in others. All very fascinating. But we say again this morning, there's one battle that is utterly unique as compared with all others. It is, of course, the last battle. You've already seen that battle described in verses 19, 21 of the previous chapter. The last battle, utterly unique, and it's unique, you've seen some of this already, of course, it's unique in a number of respects. It's unique first with respect to casualties. For in this battle, on one side, there are no casualties. While on the other side, there are no survivors. Utterly unique. The last battle is unique with respect also to the strength of opposing forces. On the one side, we might say, well, there's great strength, even satanic power. But on the other side, there's omnipotence. So, no comparison. It's also, therefore, unique with respect to the risk undertaken by the aggressors. The whole venture from the side of the aggressors is so completely ill-conceived. In fact, it's insane. But thus the insanity of sin. All sin is really insane. Yeah, this is a battle that one side cannot possibly win, and the other side cannot possibly lose. Now battles are also known by their names, usually identified by the location in which they took place. So we think of Waterloo and Gettysburg and Antietam, Bull Run, known usually by the location. The last battle's unique because it's identified not by location, but by its place in history. Again, you think of chronology, of course you think, and scope, you might say, well, World War I, right? World War II. well, the last battle here, right? Identified not by location but by its place in history. But it's also unique with respect to the other name by which it can be called biblically. The other name by which the final battle, the last battle, can be called biblically is Final Judgment. That's the other name of this battle. It's styled, it's described as a battle, isn't it? But its other name biblically is the Last Judgment. That's what we read about here, the Last Judgment. So it also stands out, doesn't it, in terms of its sheer size. More combatants in this battle than any other battle in history. Think of it, every unbeliever in the world is involved and meets his defeat in this battle. But just for now, back to a previous thought. How do you assemble an army to undertake a battle that can't be won? How do you do that? Come along, put on a uniform, you're going to die. How do you assemble an army to undertake a battle which cannot be won? A battle in which you will not survive. A battle in which no one will survive. How do you assemble an army which will be facing omnipotence? How do you do that? There's only one way to enlist men in such an army. It's through satanic deception. That's the only way. Gotta be satanic deception. Combined with the fallen human heart. Put those two together. So here, brothers and sisters, we see three stages of the last battle, which is judgment. First stage, deception. Satan is loosed. Second stage, the gathering. The church is surrounded. And the third stage, of course, the end, where all unbelief is crushed. But first of all, the deception. Satan is loose. Verses seven and following. Now, when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations, which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. So this marks the completion of the thousand years. Satan is released from his prison. Striking how it puts it there, isn't it? He's released from his prison. We're reminded here again of God's sovereign hand in all of this. Satan is very active, to be sure, and he's wreaked untold damage in this world. Again, we could ask, well, how is it that he's not done more damage? Well, he's been restrained by the living God, and that restraint is so thoroughly by the hand of God that it's termed here a prison for Satan. Oh, he's wanted out of this prison for more than 2,000 years. He's jealous to deceive the nations again. He's not been able to hinder the progress of the gospel. or the forward advance of the church for over 2,000 years. He's not been able to overcome or destroy the church. He persecutes the church and it grows. He kills Christians and the church grows. We've seen that Satan can't stop the forward progress of the church and the gospel even when he kills Christians. In fact, when he kills Christians, we saw last time, that only serves to establish them in positions of real power. In their death, Christians immediately, instantaneously experience what is called the first resurrection. They instantly go to be with Christ and are forever secure in the presence of God. But yes, Satan is jealous, he's jealous to deceive the nations once again. He will purpose to deceive and drive the unbelieving to new depths of evil. So we say, upon Satan's release, deception is raised to a new level. Or lowered to another level, however you want to take that. He's released, and he goes out, the Scripture says he goes out to deceive the nations. Now again this is in concert with unbelief and that's a toxic combination. Here's a toxic combination. Satanic deception and the depravity of the human heart. A satanic deception and the morally blinding effects of sin. Toxic combination. So Satan deceives, we're told this is by deception that he's enabled to do what he does here. The unbelieving, the nations are gathered, they're drawn to the last battle, how? By satanic deception, it has to be by satanic, how else, who else would do this? Let's go fight the living God, see how that goes. Because Satan doesn't quite put it that way, does he? He doesn't put it that way, he hides it, he lies, he deceives. Live for yourself. How about that? You can live for yourself. You can wear the uniform as you live for yourself. But it all leads in a certain direction, doesn't it? The battle's coming. It's just over the hill. Deception raised to a new level. The unbelieving, the nations gathered. perpetrated, the deception perpetrated, of course, through Satan's instruments, the beast and the false prophet. We saw that in chapter 16. Hear this from chapter 16 again. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth and to the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. or deception, gather them for a battle. And the battle is titled here, the battle of that great day of God Almighty. You'd say, this is a fool's errand. Yes, this is, brothers and sisters, this is the ultimate fool's errand. It's the ultimate fool's errand. But all of unbelief sends one on a fool's errand. All of unbelief. This is just where it ends. This is where it leads. So what is Satan finally able to do upon his release? Satan, by his deceptions, is able to assemble a conspiracy of unbelief, really a worldwide conspiracy of unbelief. Again, Satan will go out to deceive the nations, which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. He's able to assemble a conspiracy of unbelief. We see this conspiracy is of a worldwide scale. Scripture says here that Satan deceives the nations which are in the four corners of the earth. This conspiracy of unbelief is fueled by a hatred for the people of God. So the enemy forces are styled here as Gog and Magog. We thought on that a couple sermons ago from Ezekiel 38 and 39. Gog and Magog, they were pagan archetypal enemies of the covenant nation. So it describes this conspiracy again. What's this conspiracy about? What's this agreement about whereby Satan deceives the nations and he manages to bring them? What's the conspiracy about? What joins them together? Well, it's a hatred for the people of God. A lot of people, and again, here's a feature of deception, right? A lot of people wouldn't say, I hate God. But they might more readily say, you know what, I really hate those Christians. I really hate those bigots. I really hate them. I really hate those people who are so narrow. I really hate the people who don't fit in. We want to be unified, and we can't unify with them. So there really aren't many people who would say, I hate God, but there are plenty of people who say, I hate Christians. But if you hate the bride of Christ, you hate Christ. If you hate the church, you hate the living God. If you hate the church, you hate the Savior who died for her. But again, these are all features of deception, aren't they? Men lie to themselves all the time about their sin. The human heart is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked, Jeremiah says. Who can know it? And we've often thought on this, we often think on this, that this is of the nature of sin, isn't it? It's deceptive, it's a person self-deceived. So take the great deceiver, Satan, again, and add his lies to the deceptiveness of the human heart, and it's not hard to understand how you might be able to amass a coalition worldwide that opposes the church. So yes, the conspiracy of unbelief here is fueled by a hatred for the people of God. This conspiracy is multitudinous, we see that, whose number is as the sand of the sea, that expression often used, especially in the Old Testament, with respect to large, large, large gatherings of soldiers, as the sand of the sea, multitudinous. Well, the whole unbelieving world is gathered. Again, this helps us, I think, to realize, you know, we're not talking about a little piece of geography somewhere in Israel, okay? We want to think rightly about the nature of this battle, which is final judgment. A whole unbelieving world is gathered. Staggering. Think on it again. Where are unbelieving men, by the lies of Satan, ultimately led? We mentioned a few moments ago, where's that lead? Where does it go? Well, it goes to the final battle. That's where it goes, the last battle. The battle where the insanity of sin has led them. A battle they can't possibly win. A battle in which there are no survivors. The battle, yes, the battle of the great day of God Almighty. The battle in which the unbelieving man faces the living God. Yes, it's called final judgment. Men are given entirely over to satanic deception, and thus they're gathered for the final battle. What about the gathering? What do we see described at the gathering? The church surrounded, that's what's described here. Verse 8b and following, they went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints in the beloved city. Again, what's the nature of the last battle here? The lead up to final judgment, that's what we have here, the lead up to final judgment is framed in military terms. Enemy troops surrounding a camp of soldiers. Enemy troops about to lay siege to a city. But it's not a literal military battle with guns and tanks, much less with chariots and bows and spears. It's a spiritual battle that's being described to us here, and really, brothers and sisters, the climax of that battle. The battle manifests itself in material ways, in real ways. Again, it's a great mistake to think that you've got a bunch of men assembled with tanks and guns and they're going to shoot at God here, right? No, they're surrounding the church here. There's pressure brought upon the church here by those who are against her. And it's not in a little location, it's not a little location around some city somewhere. The battlefield, we say, is the whole world. They're not a literal military battle, spiritual battles being described. The unbelieving world with its weapons of oppression and persecution presses in upon the church. Indeed we say that the forces of wickedness surround the church, spurred on by satanic deception, saying that some of the bold judgments, all providential common grace restraints removed. The wickedness of unbelief metastasizes into its most deadly form. It's not difficult to imagine the beast state, if you will, the beast state arriving at a final solution regarding Christendom. Not hard to imagine. So the church surrounded. And here's a description of final judgment, or perhaps better said, unbelieving men assembled for final judgment. Again, it's the battle of the great day of God Almighty. It is indeed the final crescendo of a long-standing spiritual war, and it ends here with one final charge, a final charge more ill-advised than Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. Again, be reminded, the place of the final battle was called Armageddon back in chapter 16, Armageddon. We've seen in Revelation the Spirit uses Armageddon as a figure and he universalizes the other names used in the book of Revelation the same way. Babylon, Euphrates River. The Spirit of God takes a name and in a figure he universalizes it. So he uses Armageddon as a figure, and he universalizes Armageddon. It is not a limited geographic location that is to be understood. It is a universal, it's a global designation. What's the last battlefield of the last battle? What's the last battle, is it Gaza Strip? Come on. What's the last battlefield? What's the end of the age battlefield? It's the whole earth. And the whole earth belongs to God. It's His. And you don't want to be on the wrong side when the Son of God comes to take final possession of His earth. You don't want to be on the wrong side. Jesus Christ will return, and he will take possession of the whole world. When he does, judgment falls. How should we describe that? How do we term that? It's called final judgment. What's another name for it? It's the last battle, and it's very short. It's a very short battle. But you got all of unbelief assembled, you got all of unbelief breathing down the neck of the people of God on the church. You don't want to be on the wrong side when the Son of God, the Lamb of God returns in all of His glory and takes full possession of His world. Now, what about the church? We've referred to her already, haven't we? We see her here pressed and surrounded by unbelief. Church is described here in two ways, described as the camp of the saints and described as the beloved city. The camp of the saints. What do we make of that description of the church? Well, she's described then as a company in the wilderness. Think of Israel in the wilderness, and she moved along, didn't she? She camped, and she moved through the wilderness, and it wasn't her final destination. This speaks of the church, we say, the people of God as sojourners. The world is not our home, is it? The world is not our home. We are sojourners, we're aliens here. We look for a city whose builder and maker is God. That's been true of the church all through the centuries. This world is not my home. This world is not your home. This world as it is will never be home for any of us. This world will not be our home until heaven and earth become one. We wait for a city whose builder and maker is God. But here, especially the sojourning nature of the people of God's described here. We're sojourners, we're aliens. And the church breathes down the neck, or the unbelieving breathes down the neck of the church. They see us as aliens. I mean, we know better than anybody that we're aliens, but the world sees us that way too, really. You don't fit in, do you? Your place of work, you can't ever entirely fit in, you can't. Try as you might. Now with your unbelieving family, it doesn't work, does it? Show love, seek to be kind, seek to be gracious. But as the Lord Jesus said, I came not to bring peace but a sword. And he divides, the gospel divides. And there's no way in this world of bridging that division. There is no way to do it. Only the Gospel can bridge the division. So the camp of the saints, a company in the wilderness, sojourners. But the church is also described here as the beloved city. So a place of refuge and safety. She is that. The church is that. A sweet place of refuge in a fallen world. Don't you love the church? Every believer, every Christian says, Amen. I love the church. There's nothing like the church. There's nothing like the church in all the world. There's nothing like the fellowship that we have together in the body of Christ. There's nothing like it, you know this, there's nothing like it in all the world. There's nothing like the encouragement you can have when you gather with brothers and sisters in Christ. Though we all have our warts, don't we? We're fallen, aren't we? And we know it best, actually, that we're fallen, that we have sin. Church is a sweet place of refuge in a fallen world. She's loved of God. God loves the church. She's called the beloved city here. This is the city God loves. This is the city God loves. What city does God love? You know, what's the best place to live? You read in the magazines, right? What's the best place to live these days? Is it Denver, you know, or Seattle? What is it? Best place to live is in the church, wherever she is in the whole world. Well, I want to live in Indiana. I won't get on that again. The best city in all the world to live is this city. Brethren and sisters, she has a place of wonderful refuge, wonderful refuge in a fallen world. Beloved of God, she's the apple of His eye, and He will defend her. When the unbelieving surround this city, it's gonna be all over. The church is the only place of true refuge in this fallen world. Have you found her to be such?" Some people live far away from the church. I can never understand this. Well, I understand it. You know what I mean. Some people live far away from the church. It's a great mistake. It's a great mistake. Some people say, I love Jesus, but I don't like the church. It doesn't work that way. It can't. You cannot love Jesus and diss his bride. You cannot do it. The love city. Well, finally, the end. The end. And as we said, it comes quite suddenly. Verse 9, immediate destruction. Fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. They're all assembled. You don't even get the description here where they begin a greater attack. They're assembled. Fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. So the battle, if we can call it that, is immediately over. But such is the nature of the judgment when Jesus brings it. judgment described here as fire coming down out of heaven and devouring them. This echoes, I think, God's judgment on King Ahaziah's troops. You remember this, 1 Kings, on King Ahaziah's troops when 50 of them were sent to bring back Elijah to the king. Remember this? Ahaziah's commander issued the wicked king's command to Elijah, man of God, the king has said come down. Elijah replied. If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 men. And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50. Brothers and sisters, the people of God may be vastly outnumbered. Here's Elijah, it's 50 to one, right? People of God may be vastly outnumbered, but it doesn't matter. In the end, if you have omnipotence on your side, you're fine. Actually, all through life. If you have omnipotence on your side, everything will be fine. All through life. But here, no sooner is the church surrounded by the forces of evil and unbelief than judgment suddenly falls, and Jesus is the one who brings this judgment. We saw in the previous vision, chapter 19, we saw the judgment described in this way, the rest were killed with the sword that proceeded from the mouth of him who sat on the horse. Again, we noted there, didn't we? Jesus speaks, and it's over. He says, die. And every unbeliever dies. Everyone. Every rebel. Jesus speaks, and the wrath of God falls upon all unbelief. So the unbelieving immediately die of the coming and appearance of Jesus Christ. Again, you say, well, of course. I mean, what else could happen? What would we expect to happen when unbelieving men encounter the glorified Christ? See, it's a different thing. I mean, unbelieving men, they encountered Christ in his humiliation when he walked upon the earth. That was one thing, right? And his glory was hidden from them, veiled in flesh, the Godhead, see, right? The incarnate deity, his glory veiled. So he had unbelieving men who looked on him and, well, he came in meekness. He came to save, not to destroy. Well, he returns here to destroy. When he appears in his brightness, who can survive? How can unbelieving men possibly survive the brightness of his coming? They're immediately consumed. They collapse, they die. You can think of this in a number of ways. I mean, perhaps because of cardiac arrest from the shock of all their sin exposed in the light of truth and glory outside of Christ, how could anybody survive that? Think about that. Suddenly, I'm confronted with Christ in all of his holiness and his glory. An unbelieving man could not survive that. It's not possible. You dissolve, you know, in your spirit. You just dissolve. And hey, if your spirit dissolves, the body's gone too. Yeah, it's gone. It's over. Outside of Christ, nobody could survive this. As described in the vision here, fire comes down from heaven and devours them. Listen, by the way, to 2 Peter 3.10 here. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. There's the description from 2 Peter. What else happens here? The devil is immediately dispatched to hell. Scripture says the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire where the beast and false prophet are. The devil cast into the lake of fire, notice he's called the devil here particularly, he was called Satan previously, now he's called the devil, he's the slanderer. He's the slanderer, he's the ultimate slanderer. And who does he slander? He slanders God. And he slanders the people of God. And he doesn't get away with it anymore unto eternity. It's over. Devils cast into the lake of fire where also the beast and false prophet are cast. They all meet the same fate, I think, at the same time. I think the episodes of chapter 19 and 20, they're simultaneous, actually. Thus, we could say the satanic trinity is judged all at the same time. We see some things happen immediately, but then there's this feature of judgment that goes on forever. Here is described, brothers and sisters, endless torment. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Cast into the lake of fire. Now, the lake of fire, is that a literal fire? I think not, since Satan is a spiritual being. The fire is a punishment that is not physical, but spiritual in nature. Now, don't mistake what I'm saying here. That makes it real. It's still real. Oh, you don't believe in a literal hell? Well, yes, we do. It's real. But what's described here is punishment that's not physical but spiritual in nature. Torment, conscious suffering, especially spiritual and psychological suffering. Seen, by the way, previously that all those in unbelief meet the same judgment, chapter 14. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and of the lamb, and the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name." So the end, the fate, is the same for all in unbelief. Satan, beast, false prophet, all of the unbelieving, The destiny is the same. But what unbelief does in a person's life is a terrible thing. Say again, all unbelief takes one on a fool's errand. Life outside of Christ That's the ultimate fool's errand. It's insane, actually, life outside of Christ. It's insanity. Yes, one is led on a path toward the final battle, led on a path toward a battle which one cannot survive, led on a path to final judgment. led on a path which ends in defeat and humiliation and which issues in endless shame and suffering. But where is safety? We know. Where is safety? Safety is only in Christ. Safety is only in Christ, only found in trusting in Christ. Where's safety, where's refuge? Let's put it this way again, it's only in Christ and with his people. When the last battle comes, we say it again, when the last battle comes, you want to be on the right side. When the last battle comes, you want to be neatly secure, tucked away in the church, right? The place of safety, that's where you want to be, outside of which there's no ordinary possibility of salvation. Where do you want to be now? Same place. Christ with his people, identifying with the people of God. Here's our true identity. Safety only in Jesus. All other ground is sinking sand. Let's pray. Father, we give you thanks that you speak to us in your words so clearly about the consequences of sin. Speak to us so clearly, Lord, about the insanity of sin. Insanity of a man going along in his life, not at all prepared to meet his maker. Let us all be warned by this and work in us, Lord, by it. speak to those around us compassionately and honestly about their spiritual need. Father, sanctify us, your people, we pray. Strengthen us. Jesus might be glorified in all things. We ask it in his name. Amen.