Simple Faith

Bill Henry: Oh, you might be saved, but there's no way because of this sinful lifestyle you came out of or the sins you've even committed after you're saved, God can never use you. That is a lie straight from the pit of hell. Do me a favor, now this is a big test. This is to tell if you can be used of God or not. Okay, ready? If you pass this test, you can be used of God. Raise your hand, everybody. Are you still breathing? Guess what, you can be used of God. You passed the test. There you go, don't believe that lie anymore.

Guest (Male): Simple Faith Calvary Chapel welcomes you to today's Simple Faith broadcast with Pastor Bill Henry. We have a very interesting message to share with you today as we continue in Revelation chapter 20. Now, this text is all about the judgment in store for Satan when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to reign for a thousand years.

And of course, we'll also delve further into the events surrounding the triumphal return of Christ to the earth. This is an interesting and challenging message, so join us in chapter 20 of Revelation as we join Pastor Bill for today's edition of Simple Faith and a message titled "The Great and Last Rebellion."

Bill Henry: So, if you were here last week, we took a brief look at the Millennium or the thousand-year reign of Christ that is spoken of all throughout the word of God. We saw a glimpse, if you remember it was glorious, into what the world will look like during that thousand-year reign of Christ. Back in verse four, we saw that Jesus will be ruling and reigning from Jerusalem. He will be ruling as with a rod of iron. We will be there, the church and the tribulation saints along with the Old Testament saints, to be judging with the Lord, helping him to rule and to reign upon the earth.

We also saw in verse six that we will be ministering to the Lord as priests of God and of Christ, and again that we shall reign with him a thousand years. We read in other passages that there will be complete peace on earth. Does that sound good to anybody today? Complete peace on earth. No more corrupt politicians or crazy mad people trying to rule the world because again, Jesus is ruling from Jerusalem. And a huge part of this peace as we saw last week is that Satan will be bound in the bottomless pit, somewhere here upon the earth for a thousand years.

We also saw how the earth itself will become transformed and most commentators saying it will be like the Garden of Eden renewed, that people and animals will not eat meat but instead the fruit of the earth, that people and animals will actually be at peace with one another just as human beings will be at peace. And that a child will lead them. The children can also play by a snake den and not be bitten.

So many other beautiful and exceptionally amazing things. Truly everything that seems like most people today say that they want. Those marching in the streets, those burning down the buildings who say they want peace and other things, this will be basically heaven upon the earth during this thousand years. But there's a wrinkle in our narrative and now we come to that here in verse seven and check it out. Verse seven: "Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison."

Now if you'll just go back here in chapter 20, look back at verses two and three. It says basically: "He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is 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 for a little while." Well, we've come now to after these things. We've come now to the portion where Satan will be released for a little while.

The thousand years has expired and Satan is now being released from his prison. But why? Look at verse eight: "And he will go out to deceive the nations." Ah, so that's why he's being released. He's going to go out and deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle. So, he will go out and deceive all the nations of the world. Most likely him and all his third of the angels that were fallen with him, now all released I believe from this bottomless pit.

And they're going to the four corners of the earth, obviously meaning the North, South, East, and West. Gog and Magog, which have been referred to earlier in the book of Revelation, also spoken of in Ezekiel. And I basically believe this is representing some long-gone enemies of Israel, but now they represent those who would come against Israel, those who would come against actually the Lord himself and his saints who are gathered at Jerusalem. Now, Satan will deceive the nations and the people of the world once again and will gather them together to battle.

So, during his time in prison, a thousand years to be precise, does Satan come out of this prison, does he come out feeling guilt and terrible remorse over the sins that he's committed? Does he come out and tell the Lord how sorry he is and throw himself at the mercy of God? Does Satan now understand that there is no way to defeat God? How about nope, nope, and nope. He didn't learn a thing. Maybe he did, we're going to look at part of one of those questions a little deeper in a couple minutes.

But all of that thousand years wasted as thinking in my naive mind maybe there was some hope that he would change something that he would, but he wouldn't. So corrupt is he. I remember being a child, I learned about Satan as I went to Catholic schools and I learned about Jesus and Satan and heaven and hell. And when I learned of Satan, it's so funny, it didn't scare me, but it made me sad for a few years of my life. I remember specifically being like six, seven, eight, nine.

And I couldn't comprehend his complete and utter hatred of God. I couldn't comprehend his utter hatred of Jesus. And so even as a child, I used to pray for Satan. I used to pray that he would get saved. "Oh Lord, just save the devil," and I didn't feel bad for him, just in his rebellion against this loving God. How could he do that? I honestly couldn't understand that. But I did not understand that he had been created in the presence of God, that even as he was created, it took no faith for him to believe in God.

He was created and then was in the immediate presence of God. And as he beheld the glory of God, instead of standing in awe, instead of falling down and worship, he came to a place to envy God, to hate God. As we read in Isaiah 14 where he says, "I'm going to put my throne above your throne and so I'm going to rule over you." And so, this is the wicked and just completely gone heart of Satan. And so when he will be released from that thousand years of imprisonment, again having learned nothing, he will go out and deceive the nations.

But we need to remember something. This is who he is. Genesis 3:1: "The serpent was the shrewdest of all the animals the Lord had made. One day he asked the woman, 'Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?'" And he uses that same tactic all the way through the Millennium, and even to today, even with many Christians. Did God really say that? Does God really mean what he says in the Bible? Seeking to deceive us.

He is the father of lies. Jesus said in John 8:44: "You are of your father the devil and the desire of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him." So remember, he was a murderer from the beginning. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. Remember, there was no lies in the Garden of Eden until Satan came and brought lies. He is the father of lies.

Even today. John 8:44, Jesus said, "When he speaks a falsehood, he speaks what is natural to him." This is out of the Amplified: "For he is a liar himself, the father of lies and all that is false." So there is coming a time when Satan will deceive the nations once again, but this means also, remember today he is deceiving the nations. Anybody see that happening around us today? It's crazy. All the deception that's out there. And again, so many people fall for these deceptions, these lies, hook, line, and sinker.

Now, there's a lot of lies out there. I'm just going to talk about a few specific ones that are in the world today. One of the major things that's just been so tragic is the suicide rates in your young, but also middle age, has just skyrocketed. Those in the military. Even up in Canada, assisted suicide. You can be depressed now and they say, "Okay, well if you want a shot and we'll kill you if you're depressed and there's no hope we'll just put you down." And that's basically what they do in Canada now. It's a wicked, wicked thing.

And so, here's the lie: basically that you're no good, you should just kill yourself. There's no hope, you should just kill yourself. And so, I guarantee there's people here today that have been tempted with suicide. I think we all are tempted with suicide at one time or another. Oh, look at that cliff over there, just drive right off it, just end it all. Look at that tree over there, just drive right into it. And sometimes we don't talk about these things because it's so dark. We don't want people to think we're a loony.

These are temptations we can all be tempted with. But I bet some here, maybe some watching or listening, you listen to those lies. Oh, you should just kill, the world would be so better off without you. Nobody loves me, everybody hates me. And what's sad is too many people believe those lies. They believe that the only way out is that. And maybe they have been abused, maybe they have been thrown out. And sadly, we see in the ministry the last five to ten years so many young people who don't have parents who love Jesus or who may be religious but don't really know the Lord.

But most of them being abused, most of them being abandoned. So many young people, and they start to believe that well, I'm just no good, nobody cares, nobody loves me and they believe these lies. Jesus Christ loves you so much he came and he died for you. The Bible tells us that God proved his love for us by Jesus coming to die. How many of us have ever had somebody literally die for you? Jesus has. "Nobody loves me." Yes, there is the greatest one who's ever been and whoever is and whoever will be, he loves you.

And don't believe the lie you're no good. By the way, that first part's right, we are all no good. We've all sinned, we all fall short of the glory of God. But in Christ Jesus, there is always hope. There's other lies out there. Hey, just sell your soul to the devil to get what you want. Do you know there is no such thing as selling your soul to the devil? But movies, things taught... you can't sell your soul to him. Satan isn't God, a god of hell or something. Oh, he can buy my soul.

Jesus Christ is the only one who can buy souls with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Don't believe these lies. How about this: there are no genders, it's all fluid. Last week in England in one of the towns there, they had a big meeting of their LGBTQ+ community. I'm just trying to include them all. But sincerely, they all got together and one of these ladies who was a homosexual, somebody had brought their dog and said, "Oh, what a good boy," because it was obviously a male dog. Well, the fellow who owned the dog said, "That's not a male dog, he's a gender fluid."

And ended up I think suing her and she ended up getting paid $78,000. Or you hear about babies, even our two little grandbabies who were just born, some of the things they're asked in the hospital: what gender is your baby? Well, just lift up the cover, you can tell right there. And to say, "Well, my baby, they're born a boy but the gender is fluid," no, that's then mom and dad making those decisions just like that fellow made the decision for the dog. I guarantee the dog doesn't think he's gender fluid.

But these are lies and yet people, some people are so and maybe some people listening or here today are getting upset at this. Don't be upset, it's just truth. We don't understand the truth anymore, that there is truth. It's not about your feelings. There's a whole lot more than feelings, guys and girls. How about this, some say: hey marry who you want, same sex, different sex, more than one, marry a tree, whatever you want to do goes. And just so you think I'm not being facetious, there's somebody in Japan who married a tree.

I'm not kidding. There's a fellow, last week, married himself. This is a true story. He wants a divorce now. I am not kidding. When we used to do the prophecy updates often I'd at the end I'd have this "you can't believe it" kind of thing and now they're all "you can't believe it." Just seriously. Of course, here's another lie that so many believe: of course nothing can explode and produce everything. Of course nothing can explode and produce everything and out of that explosion, even though it goes against every known scientific fact, out of this explosion out of chaos comes order.

What? And yet how many people in the intelligentsia, maybe some even here today, you believe in evolution? Sure, that's a great one to believe. That all of a sudden out of the nothingness in the universe, it's just black, it's dead, it's silent, and all of a sudden there was this big burp, this big explosion. Nobody knows well, it just happened, a big explosion. And out of an explosion, anybody here ever seen an explosion on TV, in person? Anybody ever blow up things, some M-80s? Okay sorry, going to my... but here's the thing.

How many people have blown something up and out of it came a nice watch? Anybody? Now you might say, "Oh Bill, that's really silly, how could you even expect a nice watch to come out." How about this, you blow up... anybody ever blow up something and have one sentence come out of it? Anybody? Do you know that a watch is so far less complicated than just my fingernail? But oh yeah, it blew up and then it blew up and out of this big old explosion came order and out of the order... people believe this stuff all the time.

Others say, here's another lie, so many... and again Satan's deceiving the nations today. It doesn't matter what I believe. If I'm a good enough person and there is a heaven, of course I'll go there. I'm no Hitler or Ted Bundy. And so again, we start to believe these lies. But there's many lies that we believe in the church even. We can be born again, but man Satan still comes and tries to whisper to you. He'll tell you this: there is no way God could ever use you. Oh, you might be saved, but there's no way because of this sinful lifestyle you came out of or the sins you've even committed after you're saved, God can never use you.

That is a lie straight from the pit of hell. Do me a favor, now this is a big test. This is to tell if you can be used of God or not. Okay, ready? If you pass this test, you can be used of God. Raise your hand, everybody. Are you still breathing? Guess what, you can be used of God. You passed the test. There you go, don't believe that lie anymore. How about this lie: your wife is the enemy. Hey, I know some of you out there, that's how you live your life now. My wife is my enemy.

You believed it at some point in your marriage. Or your husband is your enemy. And so you attack each other, some violently. By the way, if it's violently, call the police, have that bum put in jail. Or have your wife put in jail. When people within the church say, "Hey, you're married, you put up with it," that's a lie from hell too. You call and you put that bum in jail. And you trust Jesus to take care of you. But here's the other thing: when you start to act like they're your enemy.

So all of a sudden, everything the wife says to the husband, you're degrading your husband all the time, you're cutting him down all the time, you're not building him up. Or you're doing the same to your wife. You may not be physically abusing her, but you're cutting her down because you believe she's the enemy. You let the lie of Satan come in. You are one in Christ if you are in Christ. That is not your enemy. I remember one time Tili and I got in a gnarly argument and we're going there.

And we started saying, it's like we're like right at each other. It's like, "Well, you don't care what I feel." "Well, you don't care how I feel." And we're just going back and forth. "You don't care how I feel." "Well, you don't care how I feel." And then all of a sudden the Holy Spirit came in and we both started laughing and we go, "You're right, I don't care how you feel." And she's like, "You're right, I don't care how you feel." And then we just we hugged and we asked each other for forgiveness. But we could have gone down that road where this is my enemy.

And how many times the Lord, the enemy comes in and tries to get us to think. Maybe it's kids with their parents, parents with our kids. What are some other lies that we believe today even as Christians? Hey, don't vote, it doesn't matter anyway. It doesn't matter anyway. How about this: hey, how could you vote for him, he's so terrible? How about this: you can't talk about politics as a Christian, that is idolatry. I've heard people say that from the pulpit. Wow.

Here's another one: God doesn't care if you obey him or not, you're under grace after all. Or this: it doesn't affect my walk with Jesus if I don't have a quiet time set apart every day. That's another lie you're believing from the enemy. How about this: it doesn't matter if I read my Bible or not. Another lie from the enemy. If you're not reading your Bible every day, if you don't have a place where you're praying by yourself every day, you're believing the lies of the enemy.

I'm a fool and I don't know it. Getting mad at me? Good. If you're not doing these things, don't just sit there. It should be testing us. Test yourselves, see whether you be in the faith. "Oh, filled with the Holy Spirit," this is another one, "I don't need him, I got this on my own. I was filled once back in 1987. Yeah, I remember that, that was a wonderful heaven. I'm getting old now, I don't need the Holy Spirit, I got this all on my own." Now none of us would say that out loud, but how many of us are living like that?

When's the last time you took a step of venture of faith that required the Holy Spirit to do something in you? How about this: I don't need to deny myself to die to myself, that's legalism. No, that's biblicalism. But again, so many of us believe that lie. How about this: I don't have to tithe or serve at the church, they're lucky to have me. You'd be surprised at how many come, even today, some of you are here. You're lucky to have me. I don't need to serve, serve me please, bring me a coffee over here.

Again, you don't say that out loud. I can gossip about others at the church. It's okay, I'm just really concerned about them. That's a big one. This is one of those acceptable sins when people come up, "Oh, did you hear about this?" Usually it's about the pastor, maybe about his family. Maybe it's about Pastor Jay or it's like, "Did you hear about this? Oh my goodness, let's pray... oh no we don't need to pray but just just know that this... go talk about this."

How about this: God doesn't care if I spend most of my free time playing video games, I deserve it after all. I know this is hitting some of you right square in the head.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's series in Revelation. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today. If you'd like to share today's message with someone, it's available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can actually download an audio MP3.

We have a large number of Pastor Bill's messages archived and you can find them all at simplefaith.org. That's simplefaith.org, just click the media tab. And if you'd like to contact us, just click the contact us tab at our website. There's a tab at the top of the home page where you can also send in a prayer request. You can also call us. The phone number is 833-BY-GRACE. That's 833-294-7223. And if you'd prefer the US mail, our mailing address is Post Office Box 55, Battle Ground, Washington, 98604.

And this month when you support Simple Faith with a donation of any amount, we have a resource we're very excited to send you. It's a wonderful 365-day devotional book by Anne Graham Lotz titled "The Joy of My Heart." In this collection of daily devotionals, Anne Graham Lotz brings some of her most thought-provoking meditations from six of her bestselling books into concise and captivating readings for each day of the year.

It's going to help you rediscover that his word is definitely the joy of my heart. It's yours for a donation of any amount this month. To donate, go to simplefaith.org and click the give tab. Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have two services every Sunday morning at 9:00 and 10:45 and a great time of study in God's word Wednesday nights at 7:00 PM. For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org and you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Well, thank you so much for joining us today and be sure to join us next time as our series in Revelation continues here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel.