Sunday, February 27, 2022

The End of The Millennium

 Temple Baptist Church - 2-27-2022

Revelation 20:7-10


 

A.  Now, the Millennium or Golden Age of 1000 years has come to pass.  The earth has enjoyed the wonderful earth that God has given to them to live on during this time with many of its characteristics the same as it was in the pre-flood period on earth.

 

B.  During the Millennium, we find man's last chance to bow to the Son of God!  As this Golden Age comes to an end, these on earth are either saved eternally or lost eternally.  The choice has been theirs for 1000 years.  Plenty of time to make up their minds and put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The lesson here is that choices eventually come to an end and have eternal consequences. 

 

John 12:35-37  Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.  (36)  While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.  (37)  But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:

 

C.  Revelation 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.

 

Satan has now been bound with a chain in the bottomless pit for 1000 years.  He never gives up though he has read the Bible and sees his ultimate end.  He continues to believe that he can destroy the Lord Jesus Christ and His kingdom on earth.  The Bible speaks of his loosing as being "a little season."

 

Revelation 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

 

D.  Here we find that imprisonment does not reform.  Reformation comes through repentance and a resolve to change one's life.  Satan's desire is to continue his work of condemnation of mankind as he immediately begins to deceive the nations of the earth.

 

2 Corinthians 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

 

E.  Revelation 20:8  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.

 

Their deception.  They of the "four quarters of the earth."  North, South, East, and West will be deceived by Satan and follow him in his quest to destroy God's chosen nation.  The people of earth have been anti-God since the rejection of Cain and the line of the ungodly was established in Genesis 4:17-24.  Though those who entered into the Kingdom Age were redeemed, for the next 1000 years, each generation had to personally come to know the KING KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS, who sat upon the throne of David, personally.

 

Ezekiel 38:1-6  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,  (2)  Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,  (3)  And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:  (4)  And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:  (5)  Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:  (6)  Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.

 

Genesis 10:1-5  Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.  (2)  The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.  (3)  And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.  (4)  And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.  (5)  By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.

 

Magog , Meshech , and Tubal: these were all sons of Japheth, who was one of the three sons of Noah.  Japheth and his family migrated to the area of modern-day Russia. Gog is a person who rules over the land of Magog (Russia).

 

Gomer and his bands: Probably the ancestor of the Gomermians, the present-day Germans who assaulted Assyria in the late 7th century BC. The Germans, from which the majority of the Western Europe nations such as the French, Spanish, and the Celtic people are descended, are said to have started from Gomer.

 

Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya: 

 

Persia In the Bible Persia is an empire located in southern Asia. It was created by Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC and was destroyed by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC.  Today's Turkey and Iran. 

 

Ethiopia: peoples who lived in the southern Nile area, including southern Egypt plus modern-day Sudan, Ethiopia (called Havilah in Gen 2:11), Somalia and other areas.

 

Libya: a large nation of Northern Africa that lies west of Egypt.

 

The house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee: tribes of people who live in the "north quarters" of Turkey.

 

What do all these nations have in common?  They are all haters of Israel and would have no greater joy than to see Israel annihilated!  They have always persecuted the Jewish people.  These masses who have never been able to get along with each other are now confederate with a common enemy to fight, the LORD and His people.  An innumerable army!

 

F.  Revelation 20:8-9  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:

 

Their drawing.  As Egypt thought Israel to be entangled in the land, God will draw the followers of Satan to the place of His choosing at the time of His choosing.

 

Ezekiel 38:4  And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:

 

Ezekiel 38:10-12  Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:  (11)  And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,  (12)  To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

 

G.  Revelation 20:9  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.

Their destruction.  The followers of God will not have to fight in this battle as the battle is the Lord's.  This massive army with all their weapons of war will be destroyed by God.  This "battle" is very similar to the battle we read about in chapter 19 of Revelation. The only thing that makes this appear to be a different battle is that the one in chapter 19 happens in the valley of Megiddo. and this battle seems to be around the city of Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 38:16  And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.

 

Ezekiel 38:21-23  And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.  (22)  And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.  (23)  Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

 

Ezekiel 39:2-8  And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:  (3)  And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.  (4)  Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.  (5) Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.  (6)  And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.  (7)  So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.  (8)  Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

 

H.  The fowl of the air and the beasts of the earth will once again aid in removing the carnage.  It will take 7 years for Israel to bury their bones.

 

Ezekiel 39:9-15  And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:  (10)  So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.  (11)  And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.  (12)  And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.  (13)  Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.  (14)  And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.  (15)  And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog.

 

J.  Revelation 20:10  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.

 

Satan, finally home!  God will fulfill His promise that He made to Lucifer.

 

Ezekiel 28:15-19  Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.  (16)  By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.  (17)  Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.  (18)  Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.  (19)  All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.

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