THE REBELLIOUS FINALS

Text: Revelation 20:7-15

7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
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 for ever and ever.
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13 And 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 according to their works.
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

1. The Final Deception (vv. 7-8, cf. v. 3)

• What does Satan do, and what will he do?
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  the nations.

• Deception is and always has been Satan’s greatest and most oft used weapon.

• Who does he deceive following his release from the bottomless pit? The offspring of those humans in earthly bodies that entered into the kingdom.

• John Walvord:
  Due to their inexperience of real temptation, they are easy victims of Satan’s wiles.

• It appears that Gog and Magog and the four quarters of the earth represent peoples from the outskirts of the kingdom.

• This army comes and surrounds the camp of the saints, which is more than likely the capital of the Kingdom, Jerusalem.

2. The Final Beat Down (vv. 9-10)

• This is the last and final effort of Satan to defeat God. He will make one final attempt and in doing so take his final beat down.

  1) Defeated by God’s judgment of

  Reveal Answer
  (Isa. 14:12-15; cf. Rev. 12:3-4; Lk. 10:17-19)
  • Lucifer sought to rise up against God in rebellion, and instead he was cast down from his position as worship leader. He wanted to rise above, instead he was cast low.

  2) Defeated by the cross (Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14)

  • On the cross Jesus defeated Satan and sin. How? By voluntarily dying in our place.
  • When Jesus died, He defeated Satan and disarmed him of the power of death.

  3) Defeated in

  Reveal Answer
  battle (Rev. 12:7-9)

  4) Defeated in the judgment of Christ’s return (Rev. 19:19-20:3)

  5) Defeated in final battle (Rev. 20:9-10)

  • This army of Satan goes down instantaneously as God sends fire down from heaven and
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    them.
  • Satan is now taken and judged for all eternity in the Lake of Fire.

3. The Final Judgment (vv. 11-15)

1) The seat of judgment (vs. 11)

• The seat of judgment is a Great White Throne. Note here that there is now no heaven or earth. (cf. 2 Pet. 3:12-13)
• The throne symbolizes ultimate judgment and authority.

2) The source of judgment (vs. 11; cf. John 5:22; Acts 17:31)

• Who is the “Him”? It is
  Reveal Answer
  .

3) The scope of judgment (vv. 12-13)

• Who are the dead? Unbelievers, rebels, rejecters of God.
• Every unbeliever from every
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  of history will stand before the Son of God in judgment.

4) The sealed

for judgment (vs. 12)

• The books record the deeds, words, intents, motives, etc., i.e. what people do, why they do it, what they say, etc.
• The Lamb’s book of life records the names of every individual who comes to faith in Jesus.

5) The standard for judgment (vv. 12b, 13b)

• The Word of God judges the lost according to their works.
• At the Great White Throne Judgment, works are judged to determine punishment.

6) The sentence of judgment (vv. 12b, 13b, 15; cf. Lk. 12:47-48)

• There will be varying degrees of
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  in hell in much the same way that there will be varying degrees of
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  for those in heaven.
• The sentence of judgment will be carried out in the lake of fire (the second death, separation from God for eternity) for all eternity.

Bottom line: Final judgment isn’t the decision regarding

Reveal Answer

into heaven or hell. It is the decision regarding the eternal

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of the unbelieving rebel in hell.

• Why would anybody choose to reject the grace of God for salvation?
• Better question: Why would I not choose God’s grace?
• This is a question that an unbeliever can ask and answer right now, i.e. why would I not choose salvation through Jesus’ finished work on the cross?

• Do you realize that one day in the hell every unbeliever will be asking this question: Why did I not? Why did I not choose God’s grace, His free gift of salvation, His mercy while offered?

• These two questions are so different.

• One can be answered now. The other will be asked for all eternity.
• One, if answered by choosing Jesus, changes your eternity.
• The other, even if answered, cannot change your eternity.