to worship you in the hearing
of your blessed, glorious gospel. We are thankful that you have
allowed us the privilege to come here. We pray this morning for
those that you have, in your goodness and mercy and grace,
allowed to go through these physical sufferings. We know that all
of these things are according to Your will and Your purpose.
And we know that they are so ordered for Your glory and for
our good. Pray for Bob. Pray for June this
morning. Pray for ourselves. Ask You to
speak. Lord, we thank You that whatever
is said today according to your word and purpose, that it will
go forth and it will accomplish the purpose for which it sent.
We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Revelation chapter
20. I would like for us in this morning
service to consider the very last few words of the second
verse, Revelation chapter 20. And it's that part of the verse
that says where Satan was bound for a thousand years. Now that's the thousand years
is actually what I'm going to be dealing with. In our last
study, just to bring us up to date, we had seen in the first
verse where John said, I saw an angel come down from heaven. This we saw is the angel of the
covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And it was actually the coming
in His incarnation when He actually came into this world. And He
had in His hand, He had the key of the bottomless pit. Now we
saw that that key is that which sets forth His right to open
hell and cast all that die in rebellion against Him into hell. He's got the key. And He had,
it says, a great chain in His hand. He has not only the right,
but He has the power to take that chain And to give unto all
that are in rebellion, left to himself, darkness. He left them to themselves. 2 Peter 2 and verse 4 says, God
spared not the angels that sinned. That is, those that rebelled
against Him, but He cast them down to hell and delivered them
into chains of darkness. Not chains of iron. Not chains
of steel. chains of darkness, if God Almighty
locks a man in chains of darkness, that man will not see. He cannot
see. The Scripture says in verse 2,
He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil
and Satan, and bound him. This is where we stopped last
week. He laid hold on him. Seized him. And listen to the four words.
Satan is described by that old serpent, the original deceiver,
is what it means. All deception started right there
with him. The old serpent, the devil, the
murderer, is what it is. Satan, the accuser, and bound
him for a thousand years. Now, I heard someone say the
other day on television, talking about this thousand years, and
we refer to this as the millennium, the thousand years. This fellow
said that Satan is going to be bound for a thousand years, cast
into the bottomless pit. And so far, you know, he was
using Scripture. And he says that we're going
to go through a thousand years of absolute peace and bliss,
and there will be no devil around, and we will have a thousand years
of wonderful, wonderful time in the Lord. And then He will
be released, the Scripture says, for a little season, which I
am going to deal with that little season in Lord willing in this
next service. But Scripture does not say that. Nowhere in Scripture does it
ever say that Satan is going to be bound for a thousand years
and that we'll have a thousand years of bliss and no presence
of Satan whatsoever. Well, what does it mean then? The Scripture says that this
binding, and believe me, it does not mean that he is without presence
in this world because he certainly is. Ephesians 2 says, wherein
in time past, now Paul was talking to the church at Ephesus and
was talking to believers and telling them, wherein in time
past ye walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience. Satan works. He is the deceiver. He is the murderer. But he is
under the control of Him who has led captivity captive. The One who through death, the
Scripture says, Hebrews 2.14, destroyed him that had the power
of death, that is, the devil. Now, he is bound in that he cannot
hinder the power of Almighty God through the preaching of
the gospel. Satan cannot, he's bound as to
his ability to stop what Almighty God has purposed he's going to
do. I hear folks say that there's
this great struggle going on and Satan, you know, he's in
one corner and the Lord's in another corner. And they're going
to battle this thing out. And whoever, you know, is the
strongest for the men's souls, that's the most disrespectful
thing I've ever heard in my life. Almighty God is all-powerful. Satan is God's Satan. The Lord Himself does whatsoever
He is pleased to do in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. And how many can stay His hand? None. Oh, well, I didn't know
that meant the devil too. None can stay His hand. He is
God Himself. He is bound. He is bound as to
His ability to do in opposition Let me say it like that, whatever
God has preferred. But the Scripture says that he's
bound for a thousand years. A thousand years. Now, to what
does a thousand years refer? Well, the best thing to do when
you question something is look at the Scriptures. And what does
the Scripture say? Look in verse 1 of this chapter
and see what happened or when Did John see? I saw an angel
come down from heaven. It is the angel of the covenant
we saw last week. And if you needed to hear that,
get that CD and listen where we proved all these points. He
came down in His incarnation. There is the Lord coming Himself.
And the Scripture says that this period of time in chapter 20
starts at the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And look
at verse 11. Now, we won't deal with verse
11 obviously this morning, but something happens between verse
1 and verse 11 of this chapter. And John said, 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. And I saw the dead, verse 12,
small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened.
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. So here's my point. Verse
1, Mike, starts with the incarnation of Christ. Verse 11 and 12 is
the judgment. Something is between those two
periods, the beginning here and the ending right here. What is
it? It's a thousand years. The thousand years is actually
referring to, and it is the thousands of years. A thousand years is
a day to the Lord. A day is a thousand years. This
is not a literal thousand years. One thousand. It is a symbolic
term. So therefore, we see that the
thousand years, the period of time between the incarnation
the coming of the Word Himself into this world, and the judgment
of Almighty God. We're in the millennium right
now. The thousand years. The period
of time as to the binding of Satan. So, the thousand years. And the Scripture says, and He
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 for a little season." Now, as we've said before, Satan
is not bound in the sense of having no influence whatsoever
from being able to deceive the nations. The Scripture says,
God cast him into a bottomless pit and shut him up. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world, salvation was primarily concerning the Jews. Now, that's a matter of Scripture,
a matter of setting forth of truth. The Lord Jesus Christ
said of Himself in Matthew 15-24, He said this to the Syrophoenician
woman. You remember the woman that came
to him and she said, my daughter is vexed with a spirit. Can you
help her? And the Lord said, I'm not sent,
but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And she besought
him and then he told her, he said, it's not meat. It's not
fish. that I should give the children's
bread to dogs. And she said, You're right, Lord.
You're right, I'm a dog. Boy, I tell you what, you talk
about God Almighty doing something for somebody, Carl. Can you imagine
what men by nature would say? They'd say, Oh, that's the most
arrogant thing I've ever heard in my life. You mean this woman
came to the Lord Jesus Christ and He told her, it's not fit
that I should give the children's bread to dogs? And then she'd
say, I'm a dog. You're right, I'm a dog. But
as I heard someone say one time, I'm your dog. Whatever you want. And the Lord heard her prayer,
her petition, gave her what she so desired. The Lord said, I
am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But,
not that only the Jews would be saved, because I don't know
how many Jews by natural descent there are sitting in here, but
you that believe, I can tell you by and large we're all Gentiles. The Lord said, I came to seek
and to save that which was lost, Jew and Gentile. But generally
speaking, during the time of our Lord's earthly ministry,
only the Jews had the gospel preached to them. Only the Jews
had the law. Only the Jews had the prophets.
And by and large, the rest of the world was in darkness. When the Lord came into this
world, the Jews had heard the gospel, Satan, the deceiver,
had by God's good decree, by God's purpose, by God's will,
had deceived the nations, that is, the Gentiles. Well, Revelation
5-9 says that the Lord Jesus Christ, and here was this group
praising Him, blessing Him, They said, You have redeemed us to
God by Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation. Now, Almighty God has an elect
people, a remnant according to the election of grace. That's
in Romans chapter 9. Read Romans chapter 9 and tell
me what the Scripture says. about election, predestination.
Almighty God has a people, and God Himself, according to His
infinite wisdom and purpose and will, allowed Satan, and I say
allowed Satan. Whenever Satan came to the Lord
and they were talking about his servant Job, the Lord says, Have
you considered my servant Job? And Satan said, well, you've
got him hedged about. You let me touch his stuff. And he said he'll just curse
you to your face. And the Lord says you can touch
all that he has. But you cannot kill him. Satan
took everything that he had. And by the grace of God, is what
Job said, the Lord gives. And the Lord takes away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. What did David say? Though He
slay me, yet will I trust Him. It takes a new heart. The Lord
had allowed Satan to deceive the nations. The Jews only God
had sent His Word to. God has a people. And the Scripture
says that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to bind
Satan for a thousand years, the perfect time of God's purpose,
by the will of Almighty God. God Himself came into this world,
the Word, who was with God and was God. and was made flesh. And the Scripture said, the Lord
cast him, verse 3, into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a
seal upon him." I want you to turn with me to Daniel. The book
of Daniel chapter 6. Daniel chapter 6. Jeremiah and
Ezekiel. Daniel. Daniel chapter 6. The Lord came into this world,
cast him into a bottomless pit, bound him, set a seal on him. I'm going to read you a passage
of Scripture that you've heard of, I know, all of your life.
Perfect example of exactly what happened in the binding of Satan. Daniel chapter 6, verse 4. Then the presidents and princes
sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom,
but they could find none occasion nor fault forasmuch as he was
faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. Then said these men, We shall
not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it
against him concerning the law. of his God." Look at verse 7,
"...and all the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, the
princes, the counselors, the captains, have consulted together
to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that
whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty
days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of
lions." Look at verse 10, "...now when Daniel knew that the writing
was signed, He went into his house, and his windows being
open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three
times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did
aforetime. Then these men assembled and
found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God."
Let me just stop you right here. Think of these men, instruments. Instruments. Satan himself. Pictures, I'm sure, of Satan,
but especially these lines are going to be a picture of Satan.
Here's Daniel, a picture of God's elect. One that Almighty God
has given a heart after the Lord. One that is kept by the power
of God. And so here's these men. They
came to this king. They came near, verse 12, after
they had made this decree, got the king to make a decree and
said, listen, anybody prays to any god except you, anybody ask
any petition, let him be thrown into the lion's den. Think of
Satan as the accuser of the brethren. He comes before God Almighty,
Jim, and said, you know, look here, I want you to look at what
these that you say are your people. Look what they're doing. Verse
12, "...they came near and spake before the king concerning the
king's decree, Hast thou not signed a decree that every man
that shall ask a petition of any god or man within thirty
days, save thee, O king, shall he be cast into the den of lions? And the king answered and said,
The thing is true according to the law of the Medes and the
Persians, which altereth not." Look at verse 16, "...then the
king commanded, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the
den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto
Daniel, Thy God, whom thou servest continually, he will deliver
thee. And a stone was brought and laid
upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own
signet and with the signet of his lord's, that the purpose
might not be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to
his palace and passed the night fasting, neither Neither were
instruments of music brought before him, and his sleep went
before him. Then the king arose very early
in the morning and went in haste into the den of lions. And when
he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto
Daniel. And the king spake and said to
Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom
thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?
Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live forever. My God
has sent His angel. Here is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ that came into this world. This is the angel that
came down that John in Revelation said, I saw the angel come down.
Listen to this. My God has sent His angel and
has shut the lion's mouth. Here is the binding of Satan
himself. Not that Satan is not present
in this world. God Almighty has shut his mouth. They have not hurt me, for as
much as before him innocency was found in me, and also before
thee, O king, have I done no hurt. Then was the king exceeding
glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out
of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner
of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God." Now
here's my point in closing. Almighty God, has sent His angel,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel of the covenant, to bind Satan
according to God's will and purpose and good pleasure, that he should
deceive the nations no more, when it pleased God to call any
of you that He was pleased to call out of darkness, just like
Daniel that was in the lion's den And there was the lions that
were very present with him. But God had set a seal on them,
and they could do him no harm. And when it pleased God to call
whomsoever He was pleased out of darkness, God Himself that
had bound Satan, God called His people. There was no hurt to
them. When God is pleased to call one
of His own unto Himself, they will come. Satan is bound for
a thousand years. God has cast him into the bottomless
pit. Not that he's not present. He's
present. But he can do God's people no
harm as to their being able to hear. They will hear. May the
Lord add His blessing upon the hearing. of His Word this morning.