Revelation chapter 20. We'll be looking at verses 4 through
verse 6 this evening. This last Lord's Day, I tried
to go through these and the title of the message was, The Binding
of Satan and the Reign of the Saints. I didn't really get to
the part of the reigning of the saints. So that's what we'll
be dealing with tonight, the reigning of the saints. In verse 4, and he says, And
I saw thrones, and they that 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 which had not worshipped
the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark
in their foreheads or in their hands. And they lived and reigned
with Christ a thousand years, 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, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall
reign with Him a thousand years. Now, just to go back and recap
what had happened at the beginning, here in Revelation in verses
1 through 3, Revelation 20, we are brought by the Holy Spirit
to the seventh and final vision given in this book. And we see
the angel come down from heaven, having a key and a chain in his
hand, in which to bind and to seal the devil, Satan, that old
dragon, the serpent, the father of lies, for a thousand years. This angel is none other than
Jesus Christ. And His coming is meant by His
first advent, His first coming into the world to bind and to
cast out Satan. Jesus said while He was here
upon the earth, He said, Now is the Prince of this world cast
out. And if I be lifted up shall draw
all men unto Me. You see, sin was the chain by
which we were bound to Satan. Sin. But God purposed that Jesus Christ
should be the seed of the woman in order to crush the head. to loose the chains of our sin. And that is by crushing the head
of the serpent. And this He did as our representative
man. When Christ came into the world,
He came as a representative man. What the Scripture calls the
second Adam. The first Adam, our Father, failed. In His attempt to thwart Satan,
in His temptation, He failed. And because he failed, we were
all plunged into spiritual death. But see, the second Adam came
without sin. He was incapable of sinning. Therefore, he was victorious
in disarming Satan. and his temptations." In other
words, this representative came with a purpose to save his people. And Satan could no longer thwart
or have any hope of moving him from his purpose. Because there
was nothing in him. He said, the prince of this world
hath found nothing in me. And He did this. He removed the
sins of His people by being lifted up upon the cross. He said, if
I be lifted up, I shall draw all men unto Me. All men, not
without exception, but all men without distinction is meant. Jew, Gentile, bond, free, male,
female, rich, poor, young, old. It's without distinction. He
draws all types of men unto Himself. All these that Christ shall draw
are of different races, ranks, and regions. But we have this
one thing in common. No matter who you are, where
you're from, you and I have this in common. We are sinners in
need of mercy. Sinners in need of pardon. Sinners in need of an offering
that we ourselves could never provide. We all have that in
common. I don't care if he's a king or
a pauper. I don't care if you're four or four hundred. It doesn't
matter. We all needed the same thing.
I love the Scriptures. They are the great levelers.
The Scripture puts us all on the same level. Unworthy sinners. who must beg for mercy and only
are saved by mercy. These are the ones Christ draws.
He draws the destitute, the helpless, the hopeless, those who cannot
save themselves. Because we were dead in trespasses
and sins, we needed life. and no work of the flesh, no
carnal religion, no exercise of ceremony could ever, could
ever give us life. If you were to lay a corpse out
on the floor, and you were to have some sort of water that
he could drink to give him life, put it in his hand. Beg him ever so much, plead with
him to drink, and he could not do it. This is how we are by
nature, except God give a man life. He cannot come to Christ. He will not come to Christ. This is our condition. We are
bound by sin. Man has a will, but the will
is bound. It's not free. All it can do
is sin. All it can do is choose those
things that are carnal. It cannot give spiritual life. This is the condition we were
in by nature. This is what This is what it
is for God to draw a sinner is to raise him from the dead. That's
what it is. If you want to know what salvation
is, listen. It is this matter of resurrection.
And we're going to see that down at the bottom, but this is true.
Blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection. Holy and just is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. This is the resurrection even
for spiritual death. And listen, you who believe on
Christ, you know this, because you have been raised. You understand
what it is to be dead. You understand what it is to
sin. You have come and you have fled to Christ. Now was it because
you were better? Was there something in you that
moved God? to give you life? We know that's
not true. Scripture tells us plainly that
as many as received Him, that them gave ye the right to become
the sons of God, which were born, not of the blood, not of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Paul very plainly in Ephesians
2 says to us who believe, And you hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of the world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. You not see your link to this
beast? We walked according to His way. We walked according
to His course. We followed after the lust of
our own flesh. Why? We were dead in sins and
could do nothing else, nor did we desire to do anything else.
By nature we were dead. We were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. What made the difference in you
but God? But God, who is rich in mercy with His
great love, great love, wherewith He loved us, when did He love
us? Even when we were dead in trespasses
and sins, and hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are saved. and hath
raised us up together, and made us sit in heavenly places in
Christ." See, the purpose of our salvation was of God's love
and grace. Our salvation was accomplished
by Jesus Christ as our representative man. Therefore, before our experience,
before our regeneration, we were loved and redeemed. That in the ages to come, He
might show forth The exceeding riches of His grace. In kindness toward us through
Jesus Christ. How did He show you this? How
were you shown the exceeding riches of His grace? Was it not
through the preaching of the Gospel by the Spirit of God? This was God's purpose. That
the exceeding riches of His mercy, His forgiveness, His pardon,
His eternal life, was through the blood and righteousness of
Christ. And how was this evidenced that we were redeemed, that we
were called and chosen? It was through faith. By grace
you are saved through faith. Here's the evidence. You want
to know if you're in Christ. Do you believe on Christ? You believe on Christ. Faith
is the evidence, the substance and evidence of those things
not seen. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before ordained that
we should walk in them." Now, having said that, I want you
to understand that's exactly what he did when he bound Satan. He did it to free you. He crushed
the head of the accuser. He crushed the head of His enemy. Therefore, let the church, all
who are saved, let us rejoice and be confident. I know this, we are not confident
in our flesh. Is there any confidence in your
flesh? Any? Is there any strength in you,
any zeal in you? No, our confidence is in Christ. Christ is our confidence. He
is the strength. By His strength, He cast out
our enemy. By His zeal, the Lord has saved
His chosen and is saving us. This is what it is for Him to
be bound. And so now the preaching of the
Gospel goes out in power and demonstration of His Spirit. And we are confident of this,
that His gospel is always victorious because of this. Because He bound
Satan, this gospel freely goes out. It goes out exactly when
God determines, where God determines, and it saves exactly who God
determines to save. This is a victorious gospel.
It is successful. Always. What does this mean as far as
Satan is concerned in relationship to us here upon the earth? We
know this, that Satan is bound, but he is not destroyed. He is
not yet fully gone, because the Scripture warns us that he is
still walking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
We know this, that we should be careful of him. We should
be careful of him. We should know his ways. We should understand
them so as not to be deceived by him. Paul says we should put
on the whole armor of God so that we may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. taking on the gospel of Christ,
His salvation that He has accomplished, holding His righteousness near
our hearts, keeping the shield of faith that quenches accusations. Therefore, believer, let us advance
and press toward the mark of the high calling of God. Let
us preach the gospel, for Satan is bound and cannot deceive those
whom God has purposed to save. So that's what is meant by binding
Satan. Satan is bound. The gospel now
is preached plainly. And none of those that God intends
to save will ever be lost. Our Lord told us that, didn't
he? He said, this is the will of Him that sent me. That of
all He hath given me, I will lose nothing. but raise them
up at the last day. And notice this, this is the
time of His binding, a thousand years. He said He bound the devil
a thousand years, cast him into the pit a thousand years. Now this is not a literal thousand
we know, but this is intended to represent a long period of
time. The whole dispensation of grace
from the time of Christ's first coming until the time of His
second coming. That's what this thousand years
is. Those who think that Christ shall
come and set up an earthly kingdom for a thousand years and then
go away and then come back again a third time, we know we reject
this view. Even because Christ said that
my kingdom is the kingdom of God cometh not with observation
He said to those Pharisees. He said the kingdom of God is
within you The kingdom of God he said neither say ye lo here
lo there for behold the kingdom of God is within you See, then
this thousand years is no more literal than the chain or the
key in Christ's hands. But the figurative language,
descriptive of the dispensation of grace. And when this dispensation
ends, and listen, it's coming to an end. This dispensation
will come to an end. There is an end of this thousand
year reign. in which Satan must be loosed.
The whole world will again seem to be deceived. The church will
appear to be dead as those prophets in the streets. There will be
very few be left upon the earth that believe in Christ. And then,
the end. Then Christ shall come and set
judgment. He'll destroy all our enemies
and resurrect all of His people. Now, we come to verses 4 through
6. Now in this verses four through six, what we're going to see
is the reign of the saints during this thousand years. A reign
of saints. God gives us a glimpse into heaven
to see what becomes of God's people after their death. After our death, God gives us
a glimpse into heaven to see what becomes of His saints after
we die. Before the end of this thousand
years is up. Now we know the resurrection
of the dead is coming. We know there's a day coming
when God's going to raise the dead. But until that day comes,
have you not asked yourself questions concerning about the saints who
have gone on before? Have you not questioned what
happens after this life? Because if we go back to the
ground, if we die, the world continues to go on. People are
still going to be living and the gospel is still going to
be going on. But what happens to the saint after death? God's not going to leave you
in the darkness on this. He's not going to make you guess.
He tells you what happens. He's going to give you and I
answers to this. Where did they go? What are they
doing? If you're a believer, for any length of time, I know
this, you've seen loved ones that believe in Christ go home.
You've seen your parents, you've seen your husband, your family,
maybe even people have seen their children who believed and died. And so you ask, where are they?
What are they doing? I know this, in our eyes, death
is still an enemy. Scripture says the last enemy
to be put away is death. Death is very painful and it
causes us to be separated from those we love. We take their
bodies down to the funeral home, we weep, we pay our respects
to them, We commit their bodies to the ground, and we, like Martha,
say, Lord, I know in the resurrection, I know that He'll be raised again
in the resurrection. We know that. But what happens
till then? Where are they till then? Till
then. The Lord for our comfort and
benefit doesn't leave us to wonder. but reveals it plainly in these
verses. We're able to see these saints that have died during
this thousand-year dispensation of grace. We see their state
and their place. Now, to grasp this, to grasp
the full meaning of this, we have to really enter into the
mindset of these first apostles. Consider what they had to endure
during their daily lives. Daily they were gathering to
worship. Daily they were increasing and growing. Daily. And yet now
it had come such a persecution on the church that those they
worshipped with the day before were taken and killed for the
cause of Christ. The other apostles at this time
had already gone home. John was the only one left. And
he was in isolation on Patmos. And the cause of their death
was this. They refused to burn incense
to Caesar. Now how small is that? How small is this? They would
put an image in front of these believers and they would say,
all you have to do is light a candle. All you got to do is burn a little
incense and say, Caesar is Lord. You don't have to mean it. Just
say it. Anybody see the compromise? The
temptation to compromise? But what happened? Believers
in good conscience could not compromise. Do you not imagine their families,
their friends begged them, just burn it, just burn it, just say
Caesar is Lord. You don't have to mean it, just
say it. I will not say it, Caesar is not Lord. I will not bow. And what happened to them? They
were killed. They were being daily slaughtered,
burned, crucified. They rejected the beast and his
image, and it cost them their lives. Notice how John sees them,
he said, I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness
of Christ. These were beheaded, but not
only beheaded, we know that's not just The only ones there,
this is representative of all those who died. All those who
were slain by wild beasts and their flesh torn and eaten. Those who were crucified and
burned at the stake. Now this I know, our generation
seems to be, this seems to be so far from us. We do not expect
anyone to come in here tonight and take us. We live in such a time as we
think that men are palatable, men are somewhat rational. No,
this is restraining grace. The only reason they don't break
down the door and come in here and take us away is the restraining
hand of God. Then it was common. It was common
for them to be afflicted. For the souls of them were beheaded
for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, had worshipped
not the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark
upon their foreheads or in their hands." Notice what happened
to these. They lived. Does that not answer
one of the questions? Where are they? What happened
to them? They lived. And notice this,
what are they doing? They reigned with Christ. How long? The whole time. The whole time. The whole dispensation
of grace. Believer, let us not be deceived
to think it is our right to deserve better treatment than those brethren
who went before us. Don't think it can't happen to
us. If God remove His hand one minute
and give men exactly what they want, they will tear your flesh
and not think twice about it. But now let us look by faith.
Our Lord said, in this world you shall have, what? Tribulation. The world shall hate you because
it hated me before it hated you. And Satan will persecute the
church. He will. He will. But look now by faith and see
that better world. Look by faith now and see that
better world to come that we shall live and reign with Christ. Let us look forward to the city
whose builder and maker is God. Therefore rejoice, you saints.
Rejoice for those that have gone before us. And by faith, hear
and believe the Word of God. Listen, blessed are the dead. that die in the Lord. Now, let
us look more closely at the text. We're going to see this. Now,
who are these that John saw? First of all, now we know that
all who die without Christ, who do not believe on Christ, have
no such promise to live and reign with Christ. And this includes
any vain professor, anybody who professes faith in Christ and
then adds anything they got to his work. You take a man who
rejects Christ, who will not come to Christ, and you take
a man who professes Christ, but yet adds one thing to Christ,
and you know what? They will not receive heaven,
either one of them. They will not be there. Paul said, If you be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you how much? Nothing. Nothing. This was surely expressed in
Luke chapter 16, when the Lord told about the rich man and Lazarus.
We know this. Both of them didn't go to heaven.
Did they? We know that rich man, as soon
as he died, he lifted up his eyes in torments, and is still
there today. Still there. So not all men go
to heaven like most funeral directors would have you believe. I've
hardly ever been to a funeral that people hadn't say they're
in a better place, regardless of who they were or what they
believed. They're at rest now. You listen. If they are not in
Christ, they are not in rest. If they are not in Christ, they
are not in heaven. I don't care who they are. The
Scriptures are plain. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. You got it? Not everybody goes
to heaven. They're not all at rest. All who will not believe and
all who add anything to Christ shall not have God's rest but
His damnation. But praise God, John sees some. I'm glad he sees some in heaven. I'm glad he sees these in heaven. Who are they? Now that's an important
question. If there's anybody desires eternal
rest and glory in heaven, then you should know who are these
people that John saw. Notice. John says, I saw the
souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and
for the word of God. One word. Martyrs. Who's going to heaven? Martyrs. Those who give their life for
the cause of Christ. Those who by faith die. Now, in Acts chapter 1 and
verse 8, we see this word, witnesses. It says, the Lord said, you shall
be my witnesses. And I want you to know that that
word means martyr. You shall be my martyrs. Martyrs. A witness is a martyr. He is
one willingly that lays down his life for the cause of Christ
in faith. He believes in Christ. And so faith in Christ then is
nothing less than complete surrender to Christ. Faith in Christ is
nothing less than a forfeiture of all our rights and privileges. Faith is a forfeiture of our
own life for the cause of Christ and the Word of God. I'll show
you this. Go to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. Look at verse 26. If any man come to me, and hate
not his father, and his mother, and wife, and children, and brethren,
and sisters, and yea, his own life also... Now you pay close
attention. He cannot be my disciple and whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me he cannot be my disciple friend what is
discipleship cost what does it cost If you would believe in Christ,
it's going to cost you everything. Faith in Christ is nothing less
than the surrender of our life. It is the surrender of everything
in this world we hold dear. And we gladly give it up that
we might have Him. Paul said, he said, I count all
my righteousnesses as dung, that I might be found in Him. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but in His perfect righteousness. So who
are these? These are they who surrender
all. to Christ. Remember that rich
young ruler came to him and he had those things, he had the
law, he said, these things have I kept from my youth up. And
Jesus said, yet lackest thou one thing, sell all that you have. Give
it to the poor and you shall have treasures in heaven. Take
up your cross and follow me. Now what gives him treasures
in heaven? Giving up his money? No. Taking up his cross and following
Christ. Surrendering everything. Even
his righteousness. That's what that man held dear.
He held his riches and his righteousness too dear. And he said, you got
to give it up. You want to follow me? You must give it up. This
is what it is for those who are in heaven. These are the ones
who have surrendered all. They are martyrs for the cause
of Christ. They lay down their life for
the gospel sake. These are martyrs. Are you a
martyr? Are you still holding on to something? You want this life? You can have it and hail. Give me Christ. Give me Christ. This world is vain and slipping
away. Give me Christ that I may be
in Him. That's a martyr, one who lays
down his life for the cause of Christ. Second, these are those
hated by the world. Notice they were beheaded. These
are hated by the world. They were beheaded. This seems
like a cruel thing, isn't it? This seems like a punishment
reserved only for criminals, or thieves, or murderers. What
was their crime? What was their crime that they
should be so violently taken, so violently hated? What is it? They believed in Christ and would
not compromise. World does not care what you
believe. Listen, believer, the world does
not care that you believe in Christ, that you believe in sovereignty,
that you believe in mercy, or even the depravity of man. It
does not care, so long as you give them credit. As long as
you give some credibility to their religion. But the minute
you take away all their credibility, they will violently hate you.
Go ahead and tell a freewill works religion, man, his Christ
is no Christ at all. Tell him. Tell him. Because he
is no Christ at all. The Christ of this modern age
no more resembles the Christ of Scripture than a flickering
candle does the noonday sun. Tell him their God is no God
at all. And I'll tell you, they'll start
to want to rip your flesh. You see, true believers cannot
and must not ever compromise. God is sovereign. God chose a people before the
foundation of the world and Jesus Christ died for them. The Holy
Spirit will come and He will deliver every one of them. And
none of them God, none of them will be lost. Praise God for such a gospel. And any other gospel that adds
man's works to it is a lie from hell and does not deserve our
attention, our credibility. And I'll tell you this, those
in heaven, they were hated. They were hated and martyrs for
Christ and they were hated of the world Even so will we be
hated if we give no credibility to this lost generation and their
their false gospel Believer let it cost whatever it may we must
not in good conscience acknowledge any other God save the God of
this book any other Christ, but the successful Redeemer who accomplished
redemption upon the tree and No other Holy Spirit but that
Spirit that testifies of Christ and not Himself. Those who die in Christ, what
happens to them? Notice this, John didn't see
their body, he said, I saw their souls of them. I saw the souls
of them and what were these souls doing? Notice the very first
part I saw thrones and they sat on them. Oh What were these These martyred hated disciples
believers in Christ doing Well, they're just fine They're
sitting on thrones. They are alive and well. They're alive and well. They're sitting on thrones, their
bodies have returned to the earth, but they themselves in this heavenly
frame of the soul, This thing that God had created inside of
us is now, through death, set free. These thrones are not on
earth, but rather they are in heaven. And who is there in heaven? Christ. Consider heaven. What's
the center of heaven? It's the throne, isn't it? The throne of Christ is the center
of all glory. And round about Him are the thrones
of His saints, always falling down and worshiping Him. You
see, they're not laying down and resting on clouds. They're
actually doing it. They're doing what you and I
want to do tonight. I want to praise Him. I want
to serve Him. I want to see Him. And they're
doing that right now. They're doing it. They're doing
exactly what your heart wants to do. And yet this whole corrupt
nature is bounding you to the earth. And you can't do what
you want to. Can't do what you want to. These brethren are reigning and
ruling with Christ. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who
loved us and washed us in his own blood who rules over all
providence and time and moves all nature after the counsel
of his own will, even he says, I am not ashamed to call them
my brethren. And seeing He has redeemed us
and cast our sins as far as the east is from the west an infinite
distance, has our scapegoat carried all our sins into the wilderness
of God's forgetfulness? And because they are justly punished
in Christ, God Himself cannot remember them. Thus, when we
drop this mortal frame, our spirits will rise to be with God who
gave them. we shall sit in his throne with
him ruling and reigning with Christ
therefore all who die in faith trusting Christ you listen to
what they're doing they are reigning with him how many times do you question
providence Daily, we often misjudge God's intentions. We say, are you sure? I don't understand. Why are you
doing this to me? Why am I hurting so? We misjudge
Him. We misjudge Him. The hymn writer said, Judge not
the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace. Behind
His frowning providence He hides what a smiling face. So we know
this, that we often misjudge Him, but you listen, those saints
in heaven never misjudge Him again. In other words, everything
God's doing, you know what they're saying? That's right. That's
good. They are actively engaged in
what is all that is going on in the earth. They're actively
engaged in it. They're saying, you're right. Just and holy and
righteous is thy name. Daily, constantly, hour by hour,
minute by minute, until all the thousand years be expired, they
are telling Jesus, right and good are thy judgments. His saints are ruling and reigning
with Christ. They are in harmony with His
judgments. Isn't that something we desire?
To be in harmony with our Master? To understand what's going on
here? We now see through a glass darkly. But you listen, you martyred,
hated, believing saints. soon. At His appointed time, this flesh
will drop, and your eyes will see what is really happening. And we, too, will be among this
number. We, too, who believe on Christ The death of the saints
is no tragedy in the sight of God. You understand that? God says it's sweet, precious. In the eyes of the Lord are what? What is it? The death of His
saints. Why? Because they finally get
to be what they are. What He made us to be. Holy and
without sin. And yes, one day this body too. One day when the thousand years
is finished, this body too will be resurrected. And we will fully
enjoy all the privileges. Will you then be there? Only if you rest in Christ. Only if you give up this life, which isn't worth anything anyway. To have the treasure of heaven. May God give you grace to see
it. Pray the Lord bless you.