The Final Conflict

Revelation 20:7-11

What would it look like to live in a world, where there was no devil. No sinful marketing tempting people to buy their products.

No ungodly television programs being broadcast, no scams being done by corporations and firms. Everything was done honestly and according to Jesus Christ?

Many would say that would be a utopia. How many of you remember the comedy duo Stan and Oliver? They once did a movie called Utopia, and the quick summary of the movie, Stan inherits a boat, and the two take off but get shipwrecked on a unclaimed island. They decide to claim the island and make it Utopia, but when everyone hears of this Utopia, it quickly gets overrun with problems.

Utopia fell apart. Well, during the 1000 years of Christ, one might could say that it is Utopia on Earth, but there is still something lying in the heart of man that will come forth. And that is sin. And the 1000 year Utopia, is about to come to an end.

[Read Scripture]

Now what do we see take place here in these verses, well there is two main things that take place. And the first thing we see is the Final Rebellion of Sinners.

This rebellion begins with Satan being released.

Verse 7 “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison”

· Now life has been good for folks during this 1000 year period, Satan has been locked up and the world has known a time of peace.

· But something significant takes place, and that is the release of Satan. Now it has been over a thousand years since the world has felt the presence of Satan at this point.

· He is a distant memory. For the most part, he has been forgotten. He has been chained, put in the bottomless pit, but now the scripture tells us he comes out of the pit.

· Now this is not a jail break, it is a prison release. Now why is this happening? Well, God has a purpose behind this. And it is a test of mankind’s heart.

· It would be our assumption, that with a 1000 years of peace and prosperity, that humanity will just accept Christ as their savior and as their Lord. But deep in the heart of man, their remains something that corrupts.

· It is the seed of sin. The conditions of the world have prevented it from growing wild. But that seed is there.

· Note this scripture: Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

· It would be easy to think that during the reign of Christ, that everyone would just be saved. But that will not be the case.

· One thing that has happened during the millennial reign, is that humanity will repopulate the earth. Those who went into the Millennium, they will know Christ as their savior, but not all of their children will.

· They will just see Christ as the ruler of the world. Some will secretly despise Christ. Others will just go through the motions, but deep in their heart, they do not care for the Lord.

· That seed in their heart of sin, wants to burst out, but it has been sitting there. The conditions have not been present for it to grow, but that doesn’t mean it is not there.

· So, God allows Satan to be released. And the reason God does this is twofold. The first, God is demonstrating that punishment is not the final answer. Just get rid of Satan and man will be fine. Well, that’s not the answer.

· Now remember Satan has been doing hard time for 1000 years, you would think that if you have been incarcerated, that it would change you. But Satan is not changed at all.

· We have prisons today that are full of people that have done some pretty bad things. And I’m grateful that there are places to place people who want to do bad things. These prisons hopefully will help a person see, that life is more than breaking the law.

· But sadly, there are many who go to prison and they get released, only to go and do it all over again.

· Satan doesn’t change with his time in prison. Satan’s nature is to rob, steal, murder and destroy. That is his nature. And his time in prison, he has contemplated those things. Not to turn away from them, but how to tempt man even more with them.

· Now the second reason that God releases Satan is to demonstrate that environment is not the final answer.

· Humanity thinks, that if we will just make our surroundings better, that we can change the nature of men.

· That if people are given better possessions, better places to live, better education, better opportunity, that people will change and we would be happy.

· Do you believe that a perfect environment is the answer to the problems of man? If that were the case, why then would man get into trouble in the Garden of Eden? It was a perfect environment, yet, man still choose to sin.

· We think prisons are the answer, that programs are the answer, that philosophies are the answer, that politics are the answer, but the only answer to the problems of man is a person, and that is Jesus Christ.

· Look what Satan does as he is released. Verse 8

· These people in their perfect environment are deceived. They believe the lies of the devil over the reality of Christ.

· Satan goes over the entire world and he spreads his lies, and people buy into it. They just take the devil at his word. They believe the lies, and they choose to rally with him.

· Its not a handful of people who do this, it is a countless number of people, the scripture tells us as the sand of the sea.

· Millions and millions, maybe even billions of people, they just flock right with the devil. Why?

· Sin. Sin that has laid latent in their heart, now has the conditions to grow, and when it grows, it grows like wild fire.

· Back into 2005, there was something amazing that happened. A Judean date palm seed that was 2000 years old was recovered from an excavation dig, and planted and it germinated and grew into viable plant.

· For 2000 years that seed laid dormant, but when it was placed in the right conditions it grew.

· With Satan released, he gives the conditions to allow man’s sin to manifest, and when it does, it does.

· And what are the people inspired to do? Rebel against God. That is what sin ultimately is. It is rebelling against God, it is choosing self over the Lord.

· Satan, who is the master deceiver, goes and convinces these people, that life would be better without Jesus. Without those who believe in the Lord.

· He convinces them to remake society into something else, and they just love it and follow it.

· From all over the earth, they join together, and they come up to the capital of the Lord. Now what is the capital, Jerusalem. They surround it on all sides.

· Notice what we see here in verse 9.

· All of these who had been living during a time of peace and prosperity are gathering not for praise and worship, but to make war.

· They circle where God’s people are. The capital city. They have decided that they were going to make a new world, and they are going to storm the capital and wipe out all of Christ’s people, his temple, and his name.

· But before this happens there is something that takes place, that these people were not expecting.

· Though they had lived under his rule for 1000 years, they didn’t believe that he was God. And so when they come to attack his people, God steps in and reigns down fire from heaven.

· This is not some minor fire that they are able to escape from or take shelter from. This is the fire of God.

· Hebrews 12:29 “For our God is a consuming fire.”

· Now here in the scripture, we see that God sends down a fire from heaven, a heavenly fire and we have seen this fire in the scripture before. When Elijah faced off against the false prophets of Baal.

· Remember how God devoured that sacrifice, it was so intense, that the stones were destroyed by the fire as well.

· These who oppose the Lord, oppose his kingdom, who rebel against his authority, who surround his city, meet their end with a fire from heaven.

· This just shows you the depravity of man, even in the perfect environment, man still choose to turn on God.

Now sin has been the problem for mankind since the garden of Eden. Even in the perfect society of the Lord’s kingdom, sin had a way of rearing its ugly head. So, the question could be pose, when is sin going to be over with for good?

Well that answer is found in the next few verses.

Verse 10 – The Devil is removed forever.

· Here it is, the culmination, the ending for Satan. He is thrown into the lake of fire.

· He is not sent to the Bottomless pit, he not placed under the Euphrates River, he is not sent to Hell, he is thrown into the lake of fire.

· So, here is the third being to enter into this place. He has been sent to his final place. A place not for him to rule over, but a place for him to be tormented.

· Satan is not going to a kingdom that has been prepared for him, he is going to his punishment that has been prepared for him.

· He will suffer and be tormented, as the scripture says, forever. Now there are two who beat him there, the antichrist and the false prophet, both of them are there.

· Now here is something we need to understand, that when they are thrown into the lake of fire, they are not consumed and destroyed by the fire, they are tormented by the fire.

· Remember when the antichrist and false prophet were thrown in? Over a thousand years earlier. They went straight there, and where are they when the devil is thrown in? Still in the lake of fire being tormented.

· Some, want to think, maybe it gives them peace of mind, that when you are cast into the lake of fire, that it is all done and it is over, you just cease to exist. That is not the case. The pain of torment doesn’t end.

· So, the devil and his followers, they are losers in every sense of the word, they meet their end.

· Now understand, this is not Armageddon, this is the final conflict.

· What happens then to all of those people who follow the devil, well look at verse 11.

· They go to judgment. Friend, I want you to know that there is coming a judgment day for those who rebel against God. Who do not accept his gift of Salvation.

· Some people think that they can escape the judgment of God, that they can just hide from him. But there is no hiding from God. There is no escaping the judgment.

· They will stand before the great white throne and they will see God, they will understand what they have done, and they will desire to hide from him like they have done in the past.

· But there will be no place to hide, because heaven and earth will be gone.

· All it will be at that moment, is that person and God. And they Lord will have a conversation with them. And that is what we will learn about next week.