So just about everybody has heard
of what religion refers to as the millennium. And you've probably heard a lot
of what they say about it, what different ones say about it. There are three main schools
of thought with regard to the millennium in scripture. The first one I guess would be
pre-millennialism. You gotta be able to say it real
fast, pre-millennialism. If you try to say it slow, that's
no good. Pre-millennialism is the belief
that the Lord's second coming will take place before these
thousand years. What's called the thousand year
reign. And even in what they call that,
there's blasphemy. To say that the Lord is gonna
reign for 1,000 years is blasphemy. It just is. But that's it. So the Lord's second coming will
take place before the 1,000 years and will usher in that 1,000
year reign. Post-millennialism is the belief
that the Lord's second coming will be the end of this millennial,
that there'll be a thousand years where he will reign on the earth,
but then somehow he's coming back to the earth after that.
That doesn't really make a lot of sense. Amillennialism is the
belief that the millennium is here now, and that it started
with Christ's Ascension back into glory That he took the throne
then And that this thousand-year reign is not an earthly reign
it's the Lord reigning In glory reigning over the earth, but
not on the earth and That it will last until the Lord's second
coming That Christ's reign is not a literal thousand years and not earthly. Those are the
things that sort of characterize amillennialism. And what I want
to do tonight with you is rejoice in what we know and not speculate
about what we don't know. We know everything we know because
God has revealed it. And we don't know what we don't
know because God has not revealed it. God doesn't hide things from
his children. He may reveal things a little
bit more clearly to somebody than somebody else for whatever
reason. That's his business. But the
Lord reveals all of the truth of Christ to every believer.
There's nothing held back. Paul said, I've not shunned to
declare unto you the whole gospel. And all of God's preachers do
that. And all of his people hear that and believe it. I don't mind telling you what I think about
things that aren't revealed. That's fine, you'll know exactly
when I do that. I'll tell you this is what I
think, it doesn't matter a whole lot, or if God would have revealed
it if it mattered. I don't mind telling you that,
what I think, as long as you are clear about what that is.
But the message of the gospel is always clear. It's always
clear, and that's what we're here for. You're not here to
hear my opinions on things. What difference really does that
make? And it's clear in this passage as it is in the rest
of scripture, the truth of Christ, the clear gospel of Christ, the
good news that he reigns, that he's almighty, and we win because
he won. It just couldn't be any clearer.
There are some glorious truths in this passage of scripture
and people, especially religious people, love to major on imaginary
ideas and scenarios while completely ignoring the clear truth. It's
just, if you look at this passage of scripture and think about
what it's actually saying, it's almost shocking. We weren't so
dumb ourselves. It would be shocking that people
get out of it what they get out of it So let's start with verse one
see if the Lord will show us something tonight I Saw an angel
come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit
and a great chain in his hand Now that's just We know what
keys are for. They open and close things. They
lock things and they open things. He has the key of the bottomless
pit. We know who that is. We've seen
that before in this book. And a great chain. Chains are
bondage, restriction, restraint. And he laid hold on the dragon.
You don't have to wonder who this is. The dragon, that old
serpent, the devil, and Satan. We got four names for him here.
We know who that is. And bound him 1,000 years. And we know in the book of Revelation
that these aren't literal times. We know that for a fact. There's
not just gonna be 144,000 people in glory. That's a big number
to represent a number that no man can number. 1,000 years is a lot of years. That's many lifetimes. And that
tells us something. Sometimes it uses the word, the
seven, the number seven and talks about seven years. That's the
number of perfection or completion or entirety. And that teaches
us something too. So it's not that the numbers
don't mean anything, but they're not literal. They're not according
to earth time. This is glory we're getting a
glimpse of here. And so for a thousand, he's bound
a thousand years 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. So we know
that the thousand years is a set period of time. We don't know
what period of time it is, but we know that it's a set period
of time that will come to an end. And after that, he must
be loosed a little season just for a little while. A thousand
years is not a little season, but he'll be loosed for a little
season. Now we know from chapter one that Christ has the keys
of hell and of death. That doesn't mean that he didn't
send an angel to perform this task. He may well have done that.
I believe this is Christ himself, It's Christ himself, whether
it was him personally or one of his angels. The Lord is calling
the shots here. He has the keys of hell and of
death, and he makes the decisions concerning who is shut up and
who is loosed, who's free. This is likely him in person,
but immediately people begin speculating about the timing
of this and what it means for Satan to be bound. What does
that mean? And they don't seem to rejoice
much in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ just defeated Satan
and his entire army in chapter 19. And then we're seeing what
happens to, what he does to Satan here in chapter 20. And you can't
just rejoice in it. Think about it. The one that
brought the world down is brought down. And people are going a
thousand years. I wonder how long that really
is. What? Look what just happened here. The Lord defeated Satan, his
entire army, and he did it easy. The battle of Armageddon is not
some huge literal war that takes place. He brought him down in
a moment. He took him out like we take
the garbage out. And we literally do not know
anything else about this except that. Is that not enough? The
Lord vanquished our enemy, our great arch enemy. We don't know anything. We don't
know what a thousand years is. I don't know how long that is. I don't know what bound means
here exactly. He's bound to a certain extent, but Satan is still active
in this world. I'm not sure exactly what all
that means. I know what some of it means though. We're going
to look at scripture to determine that. And we don't know when any of
this has happened or will happen or is happening. No idea. What we know is that Satan here
is tossed. He's used, he's manipulated by
Christ our Lord, that the Lord Jesus Christ has purpose for
Satan to be loosed. He has purpose for him to be
bound. And he does it when he wants
to, the way he wants to, for how long he wants to. And I guarantee you this, we know
this, it's all for our good, whatever it is. and it's for the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Can we not rejoice in that? We
see all through this book that he does what he wants to, and
here we see him doing what he wants to with the one that we
most want him to do what he wants to, and we can't rejoice in that. We gotta think about, oh, a thousand
years. I wonder how long that is. I
think that's probably the, you know, from this to, He's gonna loose Satan for a
short time. He's gonna shut him up for a
long period of time. The Lord of glory is gonna shut
him down when he wants to, and he's gonna give him a little
bit of chain to operate with when he wants to, for how long
he wants to, whenever he wants him to have it. I love that. I'm real happy for those, Words
in scripture, I'm thankful for that. So let's think about this period
of time when Satan is bound. I believe we know some things
about that. What is Satan bound from doing? We have to think about this in
terms, we're talking about a thousand years here. We're not talking
about a short time. We're talking about an age. This is many, many, many generations,
right? So we've got to think of this
in terms of the whole world, the history of the world. What's
going on? That's the question. What is
happening in this world? What's the point of it all? Bound
from doing what? What does Satan do? He deceives
people. concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't care much what you
think about anything else, as long as Christ doesn't mean that
much to you. In the garden, in the end, and
everywhere, all in between, we see that that's his tactic. That's
what he does. That's what he's in the business
of doing. What did Christ come to this earth to do? Just the
opposite. What did he tell Pilate? I came,
I'm a witness of the truth. Tell you what God said. He is
the very walking, breathing word of God. And Satan is almost the word
of God. The worst thing you can be is
almost right. If you're just blatantly, openly
wrong, nobody's gonna listen to you. The opposite of the truth
is not blatant, outright, ridiculous error. The opposite of the truth
is almost the truth. You see that? That's the business that Satan
is in. He acknowledged that when you
eat that fruit, everything's gonna change, but it was the
motive. He questioned God's motive. He lied about the result. So
what did Christ come to this earth to do? And what is Satan's
business? It all has to do with the glory of God. Christ came
to glorify his Father. You reckon? I do always those
things that please the Father. I came down here not to do mine
own will, but the will of him that sent me. Just happens to
be exactly the same thing, because they're God and two different
persons. But you see how he defers to the Father? Came here to do
the will of God. God is glorified by everything
Christ did, said, and even thought. On the other hand, Satan is all
about robbing God of his glory. In the garden, he said, I will
be like the most high. Everyone will worship me. He
told the Lord himself, worship me and I'll give you everything
you see. He's a liar, he's a deceiver. but it's all about diminishing
God's glory. And it has to do with this, the
souls of men. Christ came what? To seek and
to save that which was lost. What's Satan doing? Deceiving
people so that they are lost forever without Christ and without hope
in this world. So what is the language of our
text talking about? It has to do with that. Satan walketh about as a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour. Christ came to save. Saving and
devouring. There is the saving of the souls
of men and the devouring, the destruction of the souls of men.
That's the business going on in this world. You might read
the paper and never know that. You might watch the news and
never know that, even Fox News. The only thing that's even remotely
close to being news at all and still not know anything about
what's really going on. Now, when I say there's the saving
of souls and the destroying of souls going on, and that's the
point of everything, it's not a contest. Don't think of it
as a big struggle between good and evil. It's not a contest.
Maybe to Satan it is, but the Lord elected a people before
the foundation of the world. All of those people will come
to him. He redeemed every one of them
on Calvary. Every one of them will come to
him, and everyone that comes to him, he will not cast out.
And Satan can't do anything about it. Oh, that kind of sounds like
our text. Satan, you're telling me Satan's helpless to stop?
What's really going on in this world? That's starting to ring
a bell, isn't it? That's what our text is talking
about. When Satan devours somebody,
in fact, it's according to the Lord's purpose that he does it.
All who go down to darkness do so by the Lord's sovereign, invincible
will. Jude verse 13, raging waves of
the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom
is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. You have a
reservation in hell if you hate the Son of God. But in what sense then, in what
way is Satan defeated and restricted from deceiving men? How has he
stopped? Well, think about this again
in terms of ages. When did he ever do that? If
God is in perfect control, when did he ever do that? Well, think
about this. Because whatever a thousand years
is, again, it's longer than my lifetime. It's longer than many
lifetimes of men. So we've got to think of it in
bigger terms, don't we? We've got to back off a little
bit. Look at this world and what's going on in it. It's an age. So think about what's
been going on throughout the ages in terms of the souls of
men, what Christ is doing and what Satan is doing. Before the
Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth, There were 400 years on
this earth without a preacher, without a prophet, without any
gospel as far as we know. And I suspect that here again
is something I think, I think that God had witnesses during
that period of time. I know there were probably exceptions
to that, but generally speaking, there was 400 years of darkness,
spiritual darkness. between the testaments, they
call it. When God, between the last prophet, Malachi, I guess,
and the birth of our Lord. No witness, no truth, no light
from God. You reckon Satan had a field
day during that time? How many people do you think
believed on Christ during that 400 year period? I suspect some did, but how many? Then Christ comes and Satan tries
to kill him, but he's completely unable to get it done. Think
about that. The prince of the power of the
air can't kill a little baby. It's almost like he's bound. The Lord Jesus turns the world
upside down in the language of his enemies by coming and testifying
of what his father, what he had heard from his father and been
sent to preach. And then those who preached for
him, whom he chose to preach the gospel, turned the world
upside down. And Satan can't do anything about
it. Thought it was his world. Satan
was over this thing, right? The prince of the power of the
air. It's almost like the Lord locked
him up when he sent his son into this
world. Satan confronts the Lord Jesus
Christ personally. What did he accomplish in that? He's rendered absolutely helpless
by the simple, invincible word of God. Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God, everything that Satan threw at him, every response
of his was what? Scripture. And Satan again is unable to
do anything. Matthew chapter four, that's
where that's at. The serpent's head is crushed
at Calvary. That was prophesied in Genesis
chapter three. As far as the deception of the
nations, the blood of that cross Assured that a number which no
man can number will be anything but deceived concerning the things
of God That's what Satan's in the business
of is deceiving people But the blood of Christ's cross
assures that everybody that the Lord loves and has chosen a number
which no man can number is You can make them miserable their
whole life. You can make them the weeping prophet like Jeremiah.
You can break their hearts. You can break their bodies. You
can do whatever that the Lord allows you to do, but you're
never gonna deceive them. You're never gonna do what your
business is to do in this world, never. It's not possible. If that's not chained up, I don't
know what chained up is, y'all. You might think though, how can
Satan be considered to be bound seeing that he, for example,
Judah, he sifted Judas's wheat. He sought to sift Simon's wheat
and the Lord prayed for him. That was the end of that. But
he sifted Judas's wheat. Yeah, but let me ask you this.
Would you say that Judas and what he did was instrumental
in deceiving the souls of men or saving them? knowing what's going on in this
world, that people are being saved and people are being deceived.
Where did Judas fit into that scenario? Turn with me please to John chapter
12. You see what doesn't matter about
this text? How long is 1,000 years? Do you care? Oh my, if 1,000 years is 1,000
years, then glory hallelujah. The Lord has bound up the devil
and he's gonna keep him there for 1,000 years. If the thousand
years is 10,000 years, glory hallelujah, glory to the name
of Christ. If it's 200 years, hallelujah,
the son of God is on the throne. And he's doing everything that
he does for us. And nobody can do anything about
it. Boy, I love that. John 12, 27, listen to this now. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father
saved me from this hour. We know what hour he's talking
about. But for this cause came I unto this hour. Save me from death, save me from
hell, from the turning of God's back on me, my own father. Save
me from suffering the hell of all of my people. That's why
I came here, to do that, to suffer that. Father, glorify thy name. whatever glorifies you. Then
came there a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified
it and will glorify it again. How's that gonna be accomplished?
The people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it
thundered. Others said an angel spoke to
him. Jesus answered and said, this
voice came not because of me. He didn't need an answer. He wasn't
wondering, he wasn't thinking, oh, maybe I'll be spared or maybe
I won't, I don't know. The way he's portrayed in movies,
confused about who he is, confused about what's going on, just wanting
the best for everybody. So this wasn't because of me. but for your sakes, for your
sakes. And listen now, look at the rest
of this. He's telling us what's going
on. He told them then, is he doing that tonight for us? This
is what's happening in this world. It ain't about getting all you
can and canning all you get. It ain't about the rat race.
It ain't about all that. Listen, now is the judgment of
this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. What did it say in our text?
Gonna shut him out, shut him in, shut him out of this world,
shut him into the bottomless pit. How's he gonna do that? If I be lifted up. And what does
this all have to do with? I've glorified it, I'm glorifying
it, I'm gonna glorify it, That's what he's in the business of
doing, that and saving the souls of sinners. If I be lifted up
from the earth, I'll draw all unto me, all of them, all of them. This he said, signifying
what death he should die. It's what mattered then, it's
what was going on then, and it's what's going on tonight. And
I don't care how long a thousand years is, do you? The Lord Jesus Christ does not
reveal in this book what he does in the book of John or in the
book of Revelation or in any other part of it so that we can
be pre-millennialists or post-millennialists. He does so that we might determine
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is what's going on. This
is the judgment, the decision-making, the point of this world. If I be lifted up from the earth,
I'll draw all men unto me. And Satan can't do anything about
it. He's cast out. He's on the sidelines. For how long? As long as necessary. Until the last sheep is taken
out of this world and maybe the Lord will release him back on
this earth for a while after he takes the last sheep. I don't
know what that's all about. And neither does anybody, I've
never heard anybody that knew what they were talking about
yet about that. I don't know. Satan being loosed
for a little while. I don't know what that means.
You reckon we need to know that? I suspect when it happens, we'll
know, we'll be, oh, there it is, there we go. Maybe it's now. Maybe it's now, but he still
ain't gonna stop anybody that the Lord has loved and saved
and elected and chosen from knowing the Lord. In the saving of the souls of
his elect, Christ is almighty and there's no deception, none. He's not having it out with Satan.
He has always used and manipulated and disposed of Satan how he
saw fit. He's doing that now and he will
always do that. And it don't get any better than
that. If I could, if I just had a true
revelation from the Lord and he explained to me, he told me
exactly what this thousand years is and all of it. And I was able
to put a big chart up here and show you the chronology of it.
Would that help anybody? Would anybody be saved by that?
What would be the point of that? Do you see what's really going
on in this world? That's the question tonight. And the glorious answer is exactly
what the Lord Jesus wants to happen, exactly on schedule,
no matter who opposes or who don't. And it just so happens
to be he's saving his people from their sins, like he was
doing in the beginning. You're not gonna read that in
the newspapers. You're not gonna see it on the news and TV. What's
really happening? Look what the Lord did in Ephesians
chapter four. Let's close with this, Ephesians
four. Well, we're not really closing
yet, I take it back. I've got a little more time. Look at this beautiful passage
of Ephesians 4, 7. But unto every one of us is given grace according
to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when
he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts
unto men. Think about those two things.
He led captivity captive. What captivity? We're all in
bondage to Satan. He said, you're in bondage to
Satan at his will. You're at his will. You serve
his will. Unless you're released from the
strong man by the one that's stronger. You're taken captive
by Satan at his will. But when the Lord ascended, after
having finished the work that he was given to do here, he ascended. And he led captivity captive. Does that sound like maybe our
text has something to do with that? And what else did he do? He gave gifts unto men. What
does that have to do with what's going on in this world? He taught
us to preach the gospel. What gifts? The gospel, preaching
the gospel and hearing it, glorifying him in it. Not earthly material gifts. Satan is shut down and the Lord's
people are saved according to his purpose, according to his
schedule, and Satan can't do anything about it. That's the reign of Christ. and gave gifts unto men. Now
that he ascended, what is it? But that he also descended first
into the lower parts of the earth. In other words, his ascension
is significant because of what he did while he was down here
before he ascended. If he ascended, it's because
he descended and died on Calvary for our sins and destroyed Satan
by the power of his precious blood. And look, verse 10, he
that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all
heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles. What gifts did he give? Apostles,
what do apostles do? They preach. Prophets, evangelists,
pastors, teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, the work of the
ministry. What's going on in this world? And not real unclear, is it?
It's not real complicated. For the edifying of the body
of Christ, so we all come in the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth
be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to do what? to deceive. But speaking the truth in love
may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Much of the religious world is
waiting for a time when Satan will be bound and they don't
know what's happening all around them right now. I don't know
what they think that means. That Satan will be bound and
there won't be any more earthquakes or floods or tornadoes. I pray God will show us what's
really happening in this world. God's saving his people and Satan
is helpless to do anything about it. God's not saving his people by
teaching them about the millennium. He's doing it by the preaching
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. Satan is called the dragon, the
great serpent. It was him from the beginning,
wasn't it? That dragon means the great serpent.
That's how we saw him in the garden. And God was using him
then, was he not? He's called the old snake here.
A symbol of craftiness and subtlety. That's how he was described in
the garden. Way smarter than you and me. But Christ is our
wisdom. And it's not by wisdom that we're
saved, nor lack thereof that we're lost. It's by grace through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
called the devil, that means the accuser, the accuser of the
brethren. But who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died. Satan, that means the adversary. Your adversary, the devil, walketh
about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But you know
what helps me sleep at night? It's who he may not devour. That's
my rest. He cannot devour. He seek who
he may devour, that's fine. If it wasn't fine, the Lord wouldn't
allow it. But it's who he can't devour.
Those are the ones that Christ has saved. So Satan is manipulated
and bound and used by God. What about us? What are we doing
in all of this? What are we? Well, we're living and reigning
with Christ. Verse four, I saw thrones and
they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them. And I saw
the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and
for the word of God and those which had not worshiped the beast,
neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their
foreheads or in their hands. They've abandoned their own wisdom.
Christ is our wisdom. In their hands, the Lord has
finished the work. We don't worship God with our
hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years,
however long that is now, through this whole thing. What are we
doing on thrones? Revelation 1.5, and from Jesus
Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the
dead and the prince of the kings of the earth unto him that loved
us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, Christ crucified
and hath made us kings and priests unto God. What does this verse,
I saw thrones and they sat on them. That's God's people. What
does that have to do with the cross? Everything. You see that? He loved us and
washed us from our sins in his own blood. And when he did, he
made us kings and priests unto God. And his father to him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Whatever the thousand year reign
is, it ain't Christ reigning for a thousand years. And that's
it. to whom be glory and dominion
forever and ever and ever. Verse five in our text, but the
rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were
finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. On such, the second death hath
no power. that they shall be priests of
God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. That's
the ones that are still alive now, still alive until then,
and then die in the Lord. The first begotten of the dead
is gonna raise us up. Satan was a prince, but he's
dethroned and all of his power taken away. We were yet without
strength. But because Christ died for the
ungodly, we are kings and priests now. And we live and reign with the
Lord Jesus Christ. He took the prince of the power
of the air and dumped him in a pit and took those with no power
whatsoever and sat us down on thrones. That's the power of his precious
blood. We win because Christ wins and he has always won. He doesn't win for a little while
or a long while. He wins all the while and we
in him. Is there anything scary about
that to you? It's cause for great encouragement
and great comfort. Do you know what's going on? Do you ever think about that?
What's going on? What's really happening? This, this is going on. Christ is reigning. Christ is
ruling. He's saving his people. He's
keeping us in his love and grace. And we're worshiping him. We're
reigning with him. We're rejoicing in him. Everything
else is just stage setting. Can we really see it that way? And look to Him alone and see
all in everything that we see, what's really happening. That Christ is all in you. God
give us grace.