”The Battle of Gog and Magog” | Pastor John Tilley Jr | Revelation 20

Take your Bibles and you can join me in

the book of Revelation in chapter 20.

Revelation in chapter 20

and

we're nearing the end of our study in

the book of Revelation. This is the

34th message that I have on the book of

Revelation now. So, message if you're

counting, message number 34

and we're nearing the end, almost done,

a couple chapters left. I was going to

do my best tonight to go all the way

through the rest of chapter 20 and if we

can do that, we will, but I'm not going

to rush this because chapter 20 is

extremely packed with information. And I

do not want to overload us with too much

information in one setting. And so,

we're just going to kind of take it as

it goes tonight. If we have to split

split it into two, come back next week

and finish it, that will be fine.

Um

but let's do this. Because we're getting

near the end, I want to refresh our

memory

with the outline of the book and kind of

where we're at in the the contents of

the book of Revelation. So, let me give

you the outline that I gave you at the

beginning, right at the very beginning

of the book. We uh

I gave you this outline. It's a three

The book has basically three sections

and here's what they are. We've starting

chapter one with the Christ and that is

an examination of the Lord's person.

We see Christ magnificence in the

church.

So, the Christ, chapter one. Then

chapter two, we see the church. That's

the Lord's people.

That's the message of Christ to his

church. And then in chapter four through

chapter 22, the majority of the book, we

see the consummation. That's the Lord's

plan.

The motivation from Christ to his

church. And so, we see these the the

three sections of the book really, the

Christ, the church and then the

consummation.

And now I want you in the consummation,

there's really three other sections. We

have three major events, the tribulation

period, the millennium, and then

eternity future.

When we come to chapter 20, we're going

to really connect with the millennium,

the battle of Gog and Magog, there's the

the great white throne judgment seat. Uh

so there's a lot that goes on in chapter

20 alone that has to do with this

consummation, the Lord's plan, the end

of of time.

Here's a timeline of the book of

Revelation. I'm going to give you this

timeline of the book and then I'm going

to give you a handout either next week

or the week after. Before we conclude

the book, I'm going to give you a

handout with this timeline on it for you

to fold up and put in the book of

Revelation. So next time you read it,

you'll be able to identify what's

happening where. But I'll give it to you

tonight.

Revelation 1 through 3, chapter 1

through 3 is the church age. That's

present day. That's the letters to the

churches.

It concludes with the rapture of the

church at the end of chapter 3,

beginning of chapter 4. And Revelation 4

and 5 is the church in heaven.

The church is in heaven around the

throne, we're worshiping Christ.

Then Revelation chapter 6 through

Revelation 6 · chapter mention

chapter 18 is the 7-year tribulation

period.

The 7 years of tribulation and that

includes all of the the different uh

judgments that come and God pours out

his judgment on Earth.

Chapter 6 through chapter 18 and then

chapter 19 is Jesus' second coming and

the battle of Armageddon.

So in chapter 19, Jesus comes back at

the end of the tribulation. We're coming

back with him on those white horses and

with the word of his mouth, our armies

have gathered themselves together, Satan

and the false prophet and all of them

are there and with a word, Christ

defeats them all. That's the battle of

Armageddon and Christ will conclude

he'll he'll to Satan uh and uh put him

into the bottomless pit, and he sets up

his millennial kingdom.

In Revelation chapter 20, where we're at

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

right now in our study, is the

thousand-year reign of Christ, the

millennium. We've studied that last

week.

Then tonight, we're going to see the

loosing of Satan, the battle of Gog and

Magog, and the great white throne

judgment. All of that is included in

Revelation chapter 20.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

And it concludes with the lake of fire,

which is eternal torment for Satan and

all of his father followers. That's the

end of chapter 20.

We'll see if we make it that far

tonight. Then in Revelation 21 and 22,

we see the new heaven and the new earth,

and that's where the book concludes. So,

I know that's a lot of information. If

you didn't get it all, don't worry. I'm

going to put it on a neat little format,

on a neat piece of paper for you, all

formatted out. So, you'll get it, but I

wanted to kind of give it to you tonight

just to to frame our minds and let us

know, "Hey, we're getting near the end.

This is what we have looked at so far."

We have studied most all of that outline

already. We've considered the church

age. We've studied the letters to the

seven churches. We've talked about the

rapture of the church in chapter 4 and

5, the scenes there in heaven. We've

spent a great deal of time on the

tribulation period and all of the things

that go along with that. And then more

recently, we've looked at the second

coming, the battle of Armageddon, last

week the millennial reign of Christ. And

tonight, we want to look at the loosing

of Satan, the battle of Gog and Magog,

and then if we have time, we may dive

into the great white throne judgment

just a little bit. So, Revelation 20 is

loaded with end-time prophecies. It's

loaded with all of this information

about the end time. A lot of events take

place in Revelation chapter 20. Let's

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

read what we have not studied yet,

beginning in chapter in chapter 20,

verse 7. Revelation 20 and verse 7

is where we left off last week, so let's

pick up there. And when the thousand

years are expired, that's the millennial

reign of Christ. After he reigns for a

thousand years, Satan shall be loosed

out of his prison. We know that to be

the bottomless pit from verse number one

of this chapter.

Verse eight, "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.

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. 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 forever and ever."

"And I saw a great white throne, and him

that sat on it, from whose face the

earth and heaven fled away, and there

was found no place for them.

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. And the sea

gave up the dead which were in it, and

the death and hell delivered up the dead

which were in them. And they were judged

every man according to their works. And

death and hell were cast into the lake

of fire. This is the second death. And

whosoever was not found written in the

book of life was cast into the lake of

fire." So, I'm going to divide the

chapter the rest of our chapter, these

verses that we just read, into two

sections. Verse seven through 15.

First, in verse seven through 10, we see

the final judgment of Satan.

In verse seven through 10, the final

judgment of Satan. And then in verse 11

through 15, the final judgment of the

lost.

We have the final judgment of Satan, and

then the final judgment for the lost.

The final judgement of Satan is what we

would call, refer to as the battle of

Gog and Magog.

Let's break it down and walk through it

and uh

and then we'll go from there. So, in

verse number seven, Satan is released.

We mentioned this last week just

briefly, but at the end of the

thousand-year reign of Christ, at the

end of the millennial kingdom,

when it has been finished, that's the

word that's used uh there in verse

seven, that word that is

in our translation it's expired. The

word means finished or completed. So,

when it is completed at when it has come

to its

uh conclusion,

Satan is going to be released for a

season of time to deceive the world

again. And we asked this question last

week, I'm going to ask it again this

week and provide maybe a little more

clarification on it.

Why?

Why would we let him loose? We've got

him, he's locked up, he's in the

bottomless pit, he's been there for a

thousand years, and while he's been

locked up, things have been pretty good.

While Satan has been in the bottomless

pit, uh things have been going very

well. The kingdom of Christ, the

millennial kingdom, there's uh there's

peace all throughout the kingdom, that

even between the animals and the and

man, there's peace between us, there's

uh people are living much longer, a

hundred-year-old person is considered

still a child, still a baby. People are

living much longer now, there's no

sickness in this kingdom of Christ, but

most importantly, there is no influence

of Satan or evil at all. Satan is locked

away, there is no satanic influence in

the world at all. Today, the world that

you and I live in, Satan is walking

about as a roaring lion seeking whom he

may devour, but in that day, for those

thousand years, there's no influence of

Satan, there's no influence of evil in

the world at all. So, why do we release

him? I'm not just in In transparency,

I'm not a hundred percent sure why. I

really don't know. But, I have a couple

of of a thoughts on it that I'll share

with you. Here's my best answer to the

question why.

There will be people

that will go into the tribulation period

with their mortal bodies. You know what

I mean by mortal bodies?

That's the body that you and I have

right now. You and I will not have our

mortal mortal bodies anymore in the

millennial kingdom. Because whether we

die uh

on this earth and go to heaven and

receive our glorified bodies or if we're

raptured out on the way up, we're going

to get a glorified body. So, either way,

you and I are going to have a glorified

body when we come back with Christ. And

we're going to be in the millennial

kingdom in a glorified body, which I

thought about this today as I was just

thinking through this passage. One I

think one of the greatest things about

the millennial kingdom is that I'll be

able to live and and work and have a

good time and and fellowship with people

and I will never have to worry not for a

second about fighting my sin nature.

Isn't that going to be a wonderful

thing? I'll be able to live for a

thousand years, but I'll have a

glorified body. I won't have to think

one time about a temptation or something

my sin nature pulling me in a direction

different than the Holy Spirit is

directing me to go. I'll be able to live

in harmony with Christ because of my

glorified body. However, not everyone

will have a glorified body.

There will be people, I'm not sure how

many, I may throw some numbers at you

here, but there will There will be a

group of people who make it through the

end of the tribulation.

They're not anyone who's alive today.

I take that back. They're not any of the

church that's alive today because the

church is going to be raptured out.

If the church is raptured out tonight

and God takes all of the Christians on

the planet home to heaven tonight, then

we don't know how many, truly only God

knows who's saved, but if we say, okay,

let's say 500 million people leave

tonight, that leaves about 8 billion

people left on the earth.

That would go through the tribulation

period. Of those that go through the

tribulation period, a large majority of

them are going to die.

Most of them will die without Christ.

However, there will be witnesses on

earth, there's going to be prophets on

earth, their gospel is going to be being

preached. In fact, we've studied it

before, there's going to be an angel

that flies over the earth preaching the

gospel as he flies around the world, and

we know people are going to be saved

because of this gospel witness that's

present during the tribulation. There

will be people who turn to Christ. How

many we we don't know.

And of those that do turn to Christ,

many of them will be martyred for their

faith.

There will be a group of people though

who get saved in the tribulation, and

they survive the tribulation, and they

go into the millennial kingdom of Christ

as a Christian, but still having their

mortal bodies. Does this make sense?

Seven years from now, the tribulation is

only seven years long. So, if the

rapture happened tonight, seven years

from now

would be the conclusion of it, the

millennial kingdom would begin. And so,

there would be a group of people who

would have been saved, tribulation

saints is what we call them, and they

were protected by God, and they go into

the millennial kingdom

with their glorified bodies. I'm going

somewhere with all this, okay?

So, that group of people then are able

to marry, in fact, they may already be

married, and they're able to recreate or

procreate.

So,

they're able to have children.

Let me just give you an idea of how this

might look.

If

99%

of the population on the world today

dies

between the rapture

and the tribulation, the end of the

tribulation, 99%. There's 8 and 1/2

billion

500 million Christians are raptured, 8

billion are left over the course of the

tribulation and all of the things that

take place. 99% of that 8 billion are

are killed. You get to the end, less

than 1% has survived. We're still

talking about millions of people.

At the very least, we're talking a

hundreds of thousands of people.

It's entirely possible that hundreds of

thousands of people

live through the tribulation period and

go into the millennial kingdom of

Christ.

And I I

If you want to discuss that further, we

can. And I I'll I was looking today at

all the numbers of it and and the

tribulation tells us percentages, but it

doesn't tell us numbers. So, at the end

of the day, we're speculating.

But if not more than 99% we could say 99

and a half percent of all of the earth's

population dies, then there's still

going to be a thousands of people who

will go into the tribulation in their

mortal bodies. I'm answering a question.

Are you with me still? Have I lost you

yet?

Those those people are going to have

children.

Those children are going to live a long

time. And all they will ever know is the

kingdom of Christ.

They'll be born into the millennial

kingdom

in a mortal body. And they will live

through that millennial kingdom in a

mortal body. And all they will know is

the peace and the tranquility and the

wonderful kingdom of Christ.

And they won't have an option to choose

whether they want to serve Christ

or whether they want to serve Satan.

If a If a couple hundred thousand people

go Let's Let's say 200, 300,000 people

go into the millennial kingdom in their

mortal bodies. At the end of a thousand

years, people living much longer, then

it's entirely possible that the

population of the world at the end of

the millennial kingdom far outnumbers

the population of the world today by

billions of people. So, 8 and a half

billion today,

it could be it would go up to 15, 20, 30

billion people at the end of the

millennium.

Easy. Easy.

So, Satan's going to be loosed. All of

these people, billions and billions of

people who have all they have known is

the millennial kingdom of Christ. That's

where they was live, that's what they

grew up in, that's all they know, the

millennial kingdom of Christ.

And so, Satan's going to be loosed for a

season.

And when he is loosed, he is going to go

right to work. He's not going to lose

any time.

And he's going to begin to deceive and

convince all of these billions of people

to turn against the kingdom of Christ.

And all of these people that have lived

in this perfect kingdom all of this time

are going to have a choice.

Just like Adam and Eve had a choice in

the garden. You know, Adam and Eve in

the garden, they could have sinned prior

to Satan showing up,

but they didn't even know it was an

option

until the devil showed up and started

tempting them.

And I think some that would be somewhat

true, that's somewhat a picture of what

will take place at the end of the

millennial kingdom. Billions and

billions of people and we're all living

in this perfect kingdom. And then Satan

will be loosed and he's going to provide

a second option.

He's going to say, "You You can turn

against this. You can sin against this.

You can rebel against this." And what

happens is a mighty army raises up and

turns against the kingdom of Christ,

rebels against him, and decides that

they're going to fight against him.

So, that was a really long answer. And

if if I rambled too much, I apologize.

But, if that's verse seven, now look at

verse eight.

Thousand years expire, Satan is loosed

out of prison, verse eight. And they

shall He 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, and the number

of whom is as the sand of the sea.

So,

what what how many will turn against

Christ?

A lot. The sand of the sea. We're We're

talking billions of people will turn and

rebel against Christ uh during this

loosing of Satan. He'll gather this army

and the people will choose to follow

him. Now, this is going to show us a

couple things. You want to write down a

couple of notes here. Here's three

things that this

turning away shows us in the millennial

kingdom. First of all, it reveals to us

the heart of man.

The heart of of mortal man, the heart of

flesh is desperately wicked.

That's what Jeremiah 17:9 says, that the

Jeremiah 17:9

heart of man is desperately wicked and

we see that

uh in in this prophecy of what will

happen at the end of the millennial

kingdom. That even these people who have

lived in a perfect kingdom, in Christ's

kingdom, in perfect peace and and wonder

and and and such amazement for a

thousand years,

when they are offered the option to

rebel, they do. Billions and billions of

them rebel against Christ. Okay, number

two, not only does it show us the the

heart of man is wicked, but it shows us

that Satan is extremely powerful in his

deception of man.

The devil is extremely powerful.

I would want to think, now this is not

possible for me because I'll have a

glorified body, but if I were able to

have a mortal body and go through the

millennial kingdom, I would hope that

after living for hundreds of years in a

perfect kingdom,

at the temptation to change anything, I

would say no, right? I would want to

think that I would No, have you seen

what glory there is, what splendor there

is, what amazement I mean, this is

perfect. This is This is a beautiful

place, a utopia of sorts. I'm not

changing anything. I'm not rebelling

against our king, King Jesus.

And yet,

the devil is able to gather an army as

the sand of the sea of people who rebel

against Christ and his kingdom.

And then, a third thing that it teaches

us is that God is always faithful

to provide mankind a choice.

God has never forced anyone

to follow him.

And he never will.

Mankind will get to choose

who they will serve.

What Joshua says at the end of the book

of Joshua, he says, "As for me and my

house, we will serve the Lord, but as

for you, you're going to have to choose.

Choose you this day whom you will

serve."

And it's a choice that every person has

ever had to make, every person who's

ever lived has had to make.

God is faithful to provide mankind a

choice. God is not looking for robots.

He's looking for people who love him and

who choose him and who receive him.

So, that's verse 8, Satan's deception.

Then verse 9, Satan is defeated.

And they went up. Who is the they there?

That's all of the the army of Satan.

They went up the breadth of the earth

and compassed the camp of the saints

about and the beloved city. That's

Jerusalem. That's where King Jesus is

ruling from.

The beloved city and fire came down from

God out of heaven and devoured them. So,

just as he did in the end of chapter 19,

the battle of Armageddon, Satan has once

again gathered all of the armies of the

world together and they've surrounded

the city of Jerusalem and they are ready

to fight. The devil has come back ready

to fight against uh Christ again, ready

to fight against King Jesus again. And

and Jesus allows them, Christ allows

them to encircle the city and and gather

together against him and and they're

anticipating a great battle and a great

war and there is no battle whatsoever.

Fire comes down from heaven

and consumes them, devours the armies of

Satan in a moment. And just as the word

of Christ defeated them at Armageddon,

now the fire of God defeats them at this

battle. This battle is commonly called

the battle of Gog and Magog.

This is the final defeat of Satan.

And it's it's recorded for us in just a

verse. Really, the defeat of Satan is

recorded in only half a verse. I think

there's some some implications there.

It is not going to take much to defeat

this guy.

He thinks he's tough, and he thinks he's

strong, and he thinks he's powerful, but

just a little fire from heaven and he's

done.

He is no challenge for almighty God.

Now, let me I know I'm teaching a lot

tonight. I hope you're not bored with

the Bible, but let me give you an

important note to remember here. There's

actually two battles in the Bible that

are called the battle of Gog and Magog,

and they're different.

So, don't be confused. These are

different events. Let me clarify for

you.

In Ezekiel chapter 38 and 39, there is a

Ezekiel 38 · chapter mention

battle in which a coalition of nations

surround and attack Israel. They attack

primarily from the north.

That battle in Ezekiel 38 and 39 is

called the battle of Gog and Magog.

Gog is identified usually identified as

the leader. Magog is identified as his

followers.

And most conservative literal Bible

scholars would agree that this battle

takes place at the beginning of the

tribulation.

At the beginning of the tribulation.

Where are we right now in Revelation

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

chapter 20? We're past the end of the

tribulation, past the end or at the end

of the millennial kingdom. So, we're far

removed from the beginning of the

tribulation. So, the first battle of Gog

and Magog is in Ezekiel 38 and 39.

They attack from the north, and there's

a quite a few details. If you go read

that tonight, you read Ezekiel 38 39,

look at the details of that battle, and

then compare them to this battle, and

there's quite a few differences that

you'll be able to find. In this battle

in Revelation 20 and verse 9, it

mentions Gog and Magog, and it's

commonly called the battle of Gog and

Magog.

This is the final rebellion of the world

against God.

Why does John call it the same name as

Ezekiel 38 and 39

if it's not the same battle? Well, I

think it's probably that John is trying

to use some way to describe this that

will make sense to to the people to the

people reading it. Ezekiel has already

used this terminology logy

of an army that surrounds Israel and

attacks them from the north. And so

John is going to borrow the phrase, if

we could say that,

Gog and Magog, and it's a He's pointing

back to the previous battle. Ezekiel's

battle of Gog and Magog then is a

prophetic prototype of the final

rebellion and defeat of the world

against God.

So, all that to say, if I can simplify

it maybe for you, there's two Gogs and

Magogs in the Bible.

One will happen at the beginning of the

tribulation when the world leaders of

today will attack Israel. And we see

some of that probably setting up for

that to take place even today. When they

will attack from the north,

uh the these countries will attack the

nation of Israel, and uh and God will

protect them. Then there's a second Gog

and Magog. That's Revelation 20:9.

Revelation 20:9

That's the final rebellion of mankind

against God.

And uh they don't attack from the north

the second time. They have surrounded

the beloved city, so they attack from

all sides.

And that's just one of the differences.

There's several others that we could

talk about.

But this is if if you want the name for

this, this is the battle of Gog and

Magog. It's the final rebellion of of

mankind against God, and it is the final

judgment of Satan.

So, then verse 10, Satan is destroyed.

And the devil that deceived them was

cast into the lake of fire and

brimstone, where the beast and the false

prophet are, and they shall be tormented

day and night forever and ever. Let me

give you this verse and then we'll be

finished for this evening. The devil is

cast into the lake of fire. So, God

sends a consuming fire from heaven. The

enemies of God are destroyed and Satan

is cast into the lake of fire.

And

let's just make a clarification here

here. This is not hell.

Hell and the lake of fire are different

places. Hell is actually going to be

destroyed in verse number 14, which we

read a moment ago. Death and hell are

cast into the lake of fire.

So, they're different places. Don't be

confused by that. The lake of fire is

going to be present for all of eternity

and it is a place of permanent and

perpetual torment.

There is a false teaching that is being

argued in in certain circles right now

that

um and there's different ways that they

articulated. Essentially, people are

arguing that when you go to hell, your

soul burns up or when you go to the lake

of fire, your soul burns up and you

don't feel the pain of the torment of

the lake of fire for all of eternity.

You only feel it for a moment until your

soul is is extinguished is a burnt up.

That's not scripture. It's not Bible.

The soul never dies. And so, whether

you're saved or unsaved, your soul will

live forever either in the presence of

God or outside of the presence of God.

And that's the choice that every person

makes is where am I going to spend

eternity? Will I spend eternity with God

or without God? If without God, then you

will spend eternity in the lake of fire.

And notice one other note here. It says

where the beast and the false prophet

are. They're already there.

Satan was thrown into the the bottomless

pit.

But the beast and the false prophet were

thrown into the lake of fire a thousand

years ago.

At the at the end of the tribulation. In

fact, look at Revelation 19. Just maybe

a page over or across the page for you.

Chapter 19 and verse number 20.

And the beast was taken and with him the

false prophet that wrought miracles

before him with which he deceived them

that had received the mark of the beast

and them that worshiped the worshiped

his image. These both were cast alive

into the lake of fire burning with

brimstone.

And then we come to to chapter 20 and

verse number 10, the devil that deceived

them was cast into the lake of fire and

brimstone where the beast and the false

prophet are. So, they're already there.

They've been there for a thousand years.

Satan

was not placed in that place of of

eternal torment because God was going to

release him for a season of time in

order to deceive the world and and

attack that final time at the battle of

Gog and Magog. So, God has has got a

plan through all of this.

The beast and the false prophet thrown

into the lake of fire after the battle

of Armageddon.

And Satan will be joining them a

thousand years later or it could be more

than a thousand years,

but at least a thousand years later. And

the reason I say it could be more is I'm

not sure.

Maybe I'll have to do more study on

this, but I'm not sure how long the

season is that he will be loosed

in order to deceive people. It could be

it could be quite a long time.

Perhaps even thousands of years that the

devil has

to try and deceive people in that period

of time between the millennial reign of

Christ and the battle of Gog and Magog.

If you have a good answer for that, you

can let me know. I haven't looked into

that, but uh

we're we're not sure. I'm not sure

exactly how long that would be.

So, a lot of information tonight and a

lot of teaching this evening. I hope

that you are not too confused tonight

after all of that, but I think that's

enough for us to think about for now.

And so, we'll leave it there and we'll

come back next week and we'll finish

this out with the great white throne

judgment. And uh

very interesting passage and how God is

actually going to bring all of this to

end and how he's going to conclude all

of this

and uh defeat evil and sin forever and

ever and ever. Then we'll go into

chapter 21 and 22 and we'll see the

eternal state. What does God have for

us?

Remember, you and I, we're saved. We're

the church. We're raptured out in

chapter 4. We spend some time in heaven.

We come back at the end of the

tribulation. We rule and reign with

Christ for a thousand years. And uh

we're present there at the battle of Gog

and Magog. We don't have to do anything.

God takes care of the enemies. And uh

then we enter the eternal state with the

new Jerusalem, the new heaven, the new

earth. And it's a glorious place. So,

for the believer, the book of Revelation

should bring much blessing and hope for

you and I. Let's pray and let's thank

the Lord for our time together tonight.

Father, we love you and we thank you for

the word of God.

And Lord, thank you for the book of

Revelation that it Lord explains these

things to us. And Father,

I pray you'd help us to do a good job at

studying them.

Lord, I pray that you would help us to

study thoroughly and understand these

things. You have said multiple times