Revelation chapter 20. The title of the message this morning is,
The Binding of Satan and the Reign of Christ. The Binding
of Satan and the Reign of Christ. John says in this first verse
here in chapter 20, And I saw an angel come down from heaven,
having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his
hand. And he laid hold on the dragon,
that old serpent, the devil, and Satan, and bound him 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 and after
that he must be loosed a little season now before we enter into
this uh... i would remind us again In the book of Revelation, there
are seven distinct visions given to the Apostle John. Seven. And
this one here is the seventh of the seven. This is the beginning
of the seventh. And each one of these visions
pictures the whole dispensation of Christ, of the gospel of God's
grace, the dispensation of grace from the first advent of Christ,
from the first coming of Christ into the world until His second
coming. Each one of these visions we
are given to see the whole purpose of God, the whole will of God
from Christ's first victorious successful work to His second
coming in which He will destroy all of His foes and bring His
church to glory. That's what these visions, each
of them, do. Thus this book is intended. This is why this is given to
us in such a manner over and it is repeated over and over
seven times. You know, number seven is the
number of perfection. It's to show us that this work
of God is complete. It's to show us, it's to comfort
the church, it is to encourage the church, it is to give us
joy. is to give joy to all of us who
believe in Christ. And we need such comfort. We
always need such comfort. We need to be encouraged. Like
our brethren in the first century, they were surrounded by opposition. They were often cast down and
discouraged. They suffered in this world.
Do you not suffer? In this world, believer, you
know we do. In this world, my Master said,
you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. Now, if you want to know what
the book of Revelation is about, that's it. Yes, you suffer, but I have
overcome the world. All is well. That's what the
book is about. You are more than conquerors
through Him who loved us. That's what the book's about.
The evils of sin tempt us, Satan allures us, accuses us, the world
hates us, and yes, our own nature is prone to unspeakable acts
of evil which we despise. But believer, let us be looking,
as we look at this book, as we look at this book, we can see
what's really happening. We can see what's really going
on behind the veil. The veil then is open to us if
we look at this book. God is telling us what's really
going on by these visions. He's telling us what He's done.
He's telling us what He's doing. And He's even telling us what
He's going to do. So that you might have comfort. You see, God has a purpose. God
has a purpose. And He is not willing that you
should be ignorant of His purpose. He tells you plainly what His
purpose is. To save His people from their
sins. That was His purpose from the
beginning. To save you. To bring you to Himself, holy
and without blame before Him, in love. Therefore Christ redeemed
you. And the Spirit called you. And
now He is keeping you. And He'll always keep you until
He brings you. This is the purpose of the book.
Our God, by this revelation of Jesus Christ, is willing to show
the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel. You who have
fled to Christ for refuge, God is willing more abundantly to
show to you, the heirs of promise, the unchangeableness of His own
will and purpose, which is to save you. So with that in mind,
Let us ask God, then, to open our eyes to this. Now, I could
tell you as plainly as I possibly can what God has done, what God
is doing, and what God will do by this book. But except the
Spirit of God apply it, except the Spirit of God show it to
you, you won't see it. We should pray for it, that God
would encourage our hearts and strengthen us by this. Now, at
the end of chapter 19, That's the end of the sixth vision.
We see at the end of chapter 19, the end of all history has
come about. The sixth vision began in chapter
17, but it ends here in chapter 19
with the destruction of all God's enemies. And so then in chapter
20 we begin the seventh vision which takes us all the way back
now to the first advent. That's where each one of these
visions begin. They always begin with the coming
of Christ. And that's exactly what we see
here. And I saw an angel come down from heaven. This is Christ. This is Christ. This is His first
advent. Now, I tell you this. As most
men look at the book of Revelation, it is a mistake to suppose that
these visions are different dispensations. That's what people believe about
Revelation. Most people in our generation
believe that each one of these visions depicts a certain time
in history. And then they start looking around
to try to figure out where they are on this timeline. That's
what they do. That's a mistake. That's not
what this does. But rather these visions gives
us a view of the whole dispensation of grace. Each one of them tell
us the gospel message, but they look at it from a different aspect,
a different angle, if you will. So this book of Revelation is
not like a timeline. It's rather circles. Each vision
is a complete circle. It starts at the first coming
of Christ, it goes all the way through the dispensation of grace,
all the way to the second coming. And they all run in parallel
together. They're all the same gospel message,
just from a different angle. so now that the previous chapter
is brought us to the end of all things the end of all history
the beginning of this chapter starts again at the first coming
of christ and it will in with his final conquest and salvation
of his church so now let's look at verses one through three together
this morning considering the binding of satan first the binding
of satan they see In this, the first coming of Christ was for
this purpose, to bind Satan. To bind Satan. And that is, binding
was to be set. for a specific time, listen to
this, and I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key
of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand that speaks
of Christ and his authority, of his power and his dominion.
And he laid hold of the dragon, the old serpent, which is the
devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, cast him into
the bottomless pit, shut him up, sealed him up, that he should
not deceive the nations," listen, "...till the thousand years should
be fulfilled, and after that he should be loosed." So we see
the binding of Satan, we see the casting down of Satan, and
now we're going to also see that there is a period of time in
which Satan is going to be bound, but after that he'll be loosed.
Now in verses 4 through verse 6, what we're going to see is
the blessed reign of believers, the blessed reign of Christ during
this thousand year period. We see the blessedness of the
saints who are born again of the Spirit of God, that even
death, the death of the body, is no hindrance to their eternal
life and joy. Look, he said, I saw thrones,
and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw
the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, for
the word of God, which had not worshipped the beast, neither
his image, neither had received His mark on their foreheads or
in their hands. And they lived and reigned with
Christ," listen, a thousand years. There's a reign that's going
to take place during this thousand years. But after this thousand
years, verses 7 through verse 15, we see that there's going
to be a loosing of Satan, he's going to deceive the nations
again, and then Christ is going to come and judgment, and then
all Satan and his our foes will be destroyed and then in the
next chapter you're going to see what's going to happen to
the Saints so you see that this is a pattern it's a picture of
what God has done what God is doing and what God shall do now
first let us not presume that this is my opinion I don't want
you to take this as just an opinion. I'm not trying to give you an
educated opinion. I want you to see the parallels
for yourself. I want you to see that this thing
is being repeated. These visions are not just individual
visions. They are all the same. This binding of Satan, we've
been over this before. In a previous chapter, go back
to Revelation chapter 12. Just see the parallel now here.
We see the angel coming down binding Satan, but look what
happens in Revelation 12 and verse 9 Now now, you know remember that in
Revelation 12 you have the picture of the woman and she's pregnant
with the child and the dragon is about to consume the child
and then the child is born and and then ushered into heaven.
We know that's Christ. That's a picture of Christ and
how He came into the world and God received Him up into glory
and Satan did not devour Him. But what happened after He ascended? Look in verse 9. And the great
dragon was cast out. That old serpent called the devil
and Satan which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out
into the earth. and his angels were cast out
with him. This is the same thing that is
happening in our text. Christ, when Christ came, he
cast Satan out. He said, now is the prince of
this world, what? Cast out. What he told those
Pharisees and his disciples, he said, now is the prince of
this world cast out. And this is the same thing as
happening here when he's saying that an angel came down and bound
Satan. So we see the parallel here.
This is not just an isolated event. Satan wasn't cast out
and then bound. It's the same thing. It's the
same thing. And notice this. He said how
long was he to be bound? The Scripture here says a thousand
years. But if you go back to Revelation
chapter 11, Revelation chapter 11, we see this in verse 2. And when he was given to measure
the house, the temple of God, and the court without the temple,
he said, And the holy city, at the last part of that verse,
and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two
months. Now then look at chapter 12 and
verse 6. And the woman fled in the wilderness
and she had a place prepared that they should feed her there
a thousand two hundred and threescore days. You know how long that
is? Forty two months. And then in verse 14 it said
the woman was given two wings and she might fly in the wilderness
and her place where she should be nourished time, times, and
half a time. What is that? That's the same
thing. It's all talking about a specific
time that's determined. It is the dispensation of grace.
It's the time we're living in. We are living in the 42 months.
We are living in the 1,260 days. And I tell you, it is the same
thing as meant by the 1,000-year reign. We are in the 1,000-year
reign. It is not a literal 1,000 years,
but it is the dispensation of grace. It is a long period of
time. And so this time that is given
to us... Now we know this, that the 42
months was not literal. And neither is the thousand years
literal. This thousand years is a description
of time that is figurative in our text. This length of the
thousand years is no more as literal as the great chain in
the hand of the angel. Now you don't suppose that Jesus
has a great chain in his hand. that he has a literal key to
a literal bottomless pit with a literal lid that he has to
open and he literally has to throw Satan into a hole and seal
it up with a key. And nobody thinks that. And yet
people still think that a thousand years is some literal amount
of time. What if we took Daniel chapter 9 and literally interpreted
that one? Seventy weeks are determined.
Now, was that literal 70 weeks? Absolutely not. We know that
that 70 weeks, 490 years is what it really meant. It was prophetic. It was meant in prophetic language.
And so is this thousand years in which Satan shall be bound. And so we see the parallels here.
We can clearly see that this is not a literal thousand years
by this also. These thousand years do not follow
the coming of Christ, but rather precede it. Do you see that? When does this
thousand years, this binding of Satan and this thousand years
begin? It begins at the coming of Christ,
the first time. Not His second coming. You'll
notice His second coming doesn't come until verse... I'm sorry, verse 10 and 11, when the great white
throne comes. You see, this thousand years
precedes the second coming of Christ. It doesn't come after
the second coming of Christ. as men think let's look at this
in-depth a little more we've just seen the overview we've
seen what's happened what god is doing how this is parallel
we see now let's look at this in in its particulars the binding
of satan first of all John sees an angel coming down from heaven
having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his
hand and he lays hold of Satan and he binds him and Cast him
into the pit and seals it up. Now. We know that this angel
is no ordinary angel This angel is no ordinary angel, but this
is Christ this is Christ and Matter of fact, I believe in
the next chapter, and the verse escapes me, but he says, I am
he that was dead and liveth and have the keys of death and hell. So who is this angel? It is Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone comes and is able to
bind Satan, that vicious, cunning, crafty liar, Satan is overpowered
and helpless to escape in that in that joyful Isn't that doesn't
that cause your heart to rejoice that our Savior came into this
world and with no trouble bound Satan our Savior did and Satan
was helpless to do anything about it You remember when he came
to those demons? What'd they say? Art thou come
to torment us before the time? They were powerless. They had
to beg Him to send them to the swine. They could not go anywhere
without His divine permission. See how powerful our Savior is.
He came and He bound this liar. Now, what does this mean? What
is the binding of Satan? What does that mean? Well, we
know this. We know that Satan is not absolutely
bound. We know that. We know he's not
absolutely bound. We can tell this by many scriptures.
And I'm just going to give you a couple for time's sake. In
Ephesians chapter 6, you remember the apostle says, I'm going to
read it to you, I don't want to misquote it. Ephesians chapter
6. If I can find it. There it is. Ephesians chapter 6, Paul said,
"...put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil." So we know that when there's
binding, it doesn't mean he's absolutely bound so as not to
be among in the world. Matter of fact, you remember
in that previous parallel, he was cast down where? To the earth. He was cast into the earth to
persecute the church. So Satan is truly alive. He is certainly in this world. Otherwise, we would have no need
to put on the armor of God to stand against his wiles. In chapter
2 of Ephesians, Paul said this. He said, We all had our conversation
and time passed in the lust... Wait, I'm sorry. You at the quickened
who were dead and trespasses in sin where in time past you
walked according 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 So we know this that Satan still works Satan
still works in those who are outside of Christ and Peter said
that he walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking who he... So this
binding, we know this, it is not the eradication of Satan. It is not the elimination of
Satan. But rather it is the curbing
of his power. The binding of his power so as
to not hinder the gospel of Christ and its marching forward. to save his people. His power
is curbed and hinders what it means. You remember under the
old dispensation before Christ, how many nations were given the
Word of God? One nation. Satan was given free reign over
most all the kingdoms of the earth. except for one. And even in that, we know we
have exceptions because some Gentiles were saved and some
of the Jews weren't. So we know that's not absolute. But yet we can see that the dominion
of Satan covered most of the known world for many centuries
until Christ came. And when Christ came, what happened?
He bound him and the gospel went forth into all the world. That's what it means. Notice,
look at what he says in your text. He bound him that he should
deceive the nations no more. This is the binding. That he should not be able to
deceive them as he once did. His power had been curbed. Why? Because this was always the will
of God. This was always the will of God. That when Christ should come,
that He should bring in the heathen. You know what I'm talking about?
Us. We're the heathen nations. We're
the Gentile nations. He's talking about us. In Psalm
chapter 2, In verse 7 he said, I will declare
the decree. The Lord has said unto me, Thou
art my son this day, have I begotten thee? Ask of me, and I shall
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts for thy possession. That which Satan was given, the
Lord is now taking for his own. Why? He promised to give it to
his son. And after his son has accomplished
his work, Satan being bound, the gospel did what? It was spread. Imagine that, that there was
only those few in that upper room on the day of Pentecost. Only a few. 120? Few! And how fast did the gospel spread
throughout the known world? Within forty or fifty years,
the Gospel had been gone out into all the known world. These men, these twelve, these
eleven men turned the world upside down. Fishermen, uneducated men. God used them. Why? Satan was
bound and men could not be deceived. God's people must have been called.
His elect must be gathered. This was even beginning during
our Lord's ministry. You remember He sent out those
70 and the demons were subject to them? And what did our Lord
say? He said, greater works than this you're going to do. You
think this is successful? You wait till I'm risen. You
wait till I do my work is accomplished. Then when Satan is bound, nothing
will stop you. Nothing will stop you. Behold, the work of Jesus Christ
was to bind Satan. You remember when the Lord was
talking to those Pharisees, he cast out that demon, and they
said, well, you cast him out by the finger of Satan. You're
doing this by the power of Satan. And Jesus said, He answered them,
he said, how can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil
his goods unless he first disarm him and bind him? Then he may spoil his goods. He was talking about himself.
He's the strong man, the stronger man. Satan is a strong man, but
I behold Christ is the stronger. Christ comes in and binds the
strong man, and then he spoils his goods. This is what our text
is talking about, binding Satan. When Jesus was tempted by Satan,
you remember that he found nothing. him right he tempted him and
found no sin in him now what did that do that disarmed Satan
what ammunition could he use against Christ seeing there was
no sin in him he could use ammunition against us He could find something
to accuse us, something by which to tempt us, but He could find
nothing to tempt Him. He was powerless to stop Christ
from His work. He disarmed Him. Jesus proclaimed to those Greeks,
he said, now is the judgment come, now is the prince of this
world cast out, and if I be lifted up shall draw all men unto me. That is not all men without exception,
that is all men without distinction. Jew and Gentile, bond and free,
male and female, rich, poor, young, old, without distinction.
And that is exactly what Christ is doing now. Now that He's bound
Satan, what is He doing? He is drawing men to Himself. This is the good news of the
binding, is that He is drawing them without hindrance. Do you suppose Christ is hindered
in any way? from drawing his people. Isn't that what modern religion
tries to tell you that, man, you know, we messed it up and
Jesus can't do His work if you don't do your work? I tell you,
Jesus do His work without you. Now, He chose to do it with you. He chose to use His church, and
He does use His church. But I tell you, there is nothing
hindering my Savior from saving His people. Matter of fact, he
is using all things To save his people. He is using manipulating
everything for that purpose See then how the binding and casting
out of Satan it was done. How is this done? It was done
by the suffering of Jesus upon the cross It was done by his suffering Satan was disarmed by the righteousness
of Christ, but I tell you, he was crushed by the cross. You see, now then, Satan has
nowhere, no way to accuse us, seeing that our Savior put away
our sin by the sacrifice of himself. He's disarmed, and he's bound. He's cast out and he can no longer
accuse God's people. This was done upon the tree of
Calvary. When God imputed the sins of
His people to His Holy Son, God punished our sins in Christ and
they are forever gone. Gone. What power then has the enemy
over us? over us. You remember Joshua,
that high priest, and I believe Zachariah, when he was standing
before God, ready to perform the priestly office, and he was
in those filthy garments. The priest had to be holy in
those white garments, those linen garments. But his garments were
filthy! And the scripture says Satan
stood at his right hand ready to resist him, to accuse him
before God. And before he could say a word,
you remember that the angel of the Lord, the same angel in our
text, binding Satan, stood and rebuked Satan. He rebuked him. And he said, The Lord rebuke
thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke
thee. Is this not a brand pluck? from the burning. You're looking at one who was
plucked as a bran from the burning. You're looking at one who was
chosen of God, redeemed of Christ. What then can the enemy do to
accuse me before God? seeing that Christ had put away
our sins. And you remember that the angel
of the Lord in that same text, he told those men that stood
by, he said, get the white robes and put them on him. That's what
preachers are to do. We're here to just tell you again
of what you have in Christ. You, my friend, are righteous.
Righteous. righteous before the living God. Who then can condemn you? You see, if Satan cannot condemn
you, he is bound and without power. Well, where did our sin go? We
know this. God cannot overlook our sin.
God can't just declare you to be righteous and you be righteous.
You have to actually be righteous. How did this happen? Where did
your sin go? It was imputed to our Savior.
He bore it and died for it. He was punished under the vengeance
of God in the flesh as our substitute. Go to Colossians. Colossians
chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. Verse 13, And you being dead
in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. Which was
contrary to us and took it out of the way Nailing it to his
cross and listen what happened at be as a result as a result
of that having spoiled Principalities and powers he made a show of
them openly Triumphing over them in it You see why God can forgive
us and is because Christ blotted our sins out when they were nailed
to the cross. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin, made
Him sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. This is what happened when the
angel came down and bound Satan. He bound him by his righteousness.
He bound him by his death. He bound him in his resurrection. Therefore Satan can no longer
accuse us before God. He is without power to accuse
us He is cast out and he will never be heard of the father
again Yes, he does and can and is allowed within the sphere
of his binding to persecute us I like to look at it like this
if you were to take a rabid dog and chain him to a tree and That
dog could be as vicious as he wants to, only within the confines
of the chain. Anything outside the chain, all
it is, is nothing but barking. I tell you, Satan is bound and
can only ravage that which is within his confines, within the
limits of his chain. But anything outside that, He
has no power. Satan's power has been so curved
as he can do nothing to hinder the gospel of Jesus Christ. That
is outside his confines. He cannot hinder the gospel. Because Satan is bound, The gospel
of Christ and the church of Christ are going unimpeded in this gospel
dispensation. In this gospel dispensation,
the gospel is going untethered. It is boundless and free, and
it goes, the Spirit of God moves where He will, when He will,
and He saves whom He will. This is what's happening. If
you want to just pull back the veil and see what's going on,
this is it. The Gospel is moving forward, and it is not hindered
the least. Everywhere the gospel is preached,
I want you to understand, it's doing exactly what God intended. It's doing exactly what God intended. Let us not be deceived by the
appearance of things. Let us not be moved. Let us not
be discouraged by the circumstance of time or the smallness of the
church. Let us not be hindered to proclaim
the gospel, even if no one will believe. Paul said, preach the Word. Be
instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine. Why? Because there's nobody to
stop us. You not see that? Satan is bound. No one can stop it. The gospel goes unimpeded. In the parallel of our text,
I like what this says in that Revelation chapter 11. I showed
you that that was a parallel. And during this time of dispensation
of grace, it says this in verse 6 of chapter 11 of Revelation.
These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days
of their prophecy. And they have power over waters
to turn them to blood and smite the earth with all the plagues
as they will." What does that mean? That means exactly what
the Lord told the Apostle Paul. That which you bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven. You see this. By this I have
all the authority of God. This is the authority of God.
And I tell you this, he that believeth and is baptized shall
be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. Now that's just
as bound here as it is in heaven. That word is bound. You believe
on Christ, heaven is yours. That's just as bound as if God
Himself had said it. Matter of fact, it's bound because
God Himself did say it. And this Word goes out in power
and it does exactly what God declares it. And I tell you this,
you who will not believe, heaven is shut up to you. The waters and pleasures of this
earth will turn to blood every time I preach. Why do you think
men don't like to come and hear this message? Because all their
pleasures turn to blood. That which was sweet in their
mouth becomes bitter when I tell them sin shall be punished. And I tell you that if you will
not believe all of the plagues Satan and his beast and his whore
shall fall on you and I tell you that word is unimpeded and
It is just as bound It's just as true as God saying
it because God did say it I tell you according to the Word of
God the preaching of the gospel is always successful That's the
result of him binding Satan. The gospel is always successful. Go to one more place. I'll close. I've got many more things to
say, but I just need to bring it to a close. 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians, chapter 2. Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph
in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by
us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet saver
of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish. As we think of the binding of
Satan, we must think of the result of it that the gospel is triumphant
everywhere. Paul says we do always. God always
causes us to triumph. But preacher, how can you say
that? How can you say we're successful? Look at how few believe the Gospel. How can you say that this is
always triumphant? Well, because the Gospel says
it. Because God says it. Because we are always a sweet
saver. What he says, isn't it? For we
are unto God a sweet savor of Christ. Am I here to persuade
God or men? Am I here to please God or men?
Preaching always, preaching Christ always pleases God. It's always
a sweet savor to Him. And notice this. It always accomplishes
its work. We are a savor of We are a sweet
saver to Christ, to them that are saved and them that perish.
To the one we are a saver of death unto death, and to the
other we are a saver of life unto life. Who is sufficient
for such things? Therefore, even now the Word
of God is doing exactly what God purposed to do. He said,
My Word that goeth forth out of My mouth shall accomplish
that which I send it to do. And I tell you this, Satan is
bound. The gospel is unimpeded. And
yet there are still captives. There are still captives out
here. That's why Christ has not come back. When Christ comes
back, we'll know that everybody is brought in when Christ comes
back. But until then, Until then. We are in this thousand years.
I didn't have time to get much into our reigning, but during
this time, what we're to be doing is calling the captives. The Lord was sent to preach the
gospel. To who? The poor. To the recovering of sight to
the blind. To the deliverance of the captives. You were captive. You were bound by Satan. But Christ has now come and delivered
you. And what are we to be doing?
We're to be going about telling about His deliverance. Because
He still delivers captive sinners. He comes into the heart and He
binds Satan in the heart of men and casts him out. That's what
He did for us. And that's what He does for sinners
in need of deliverance. Are there any sinners in need
to be delivered? Then look, the angel of the Lord
came down from heaven and has bound Satan. And I tell you, all you who believe
have been delivered. Would you be delivered? Then
believe on Christ. Trust in Him. Cry to Him. And
He will deliver you. This Word is just as bound now
in this place as it is in heaven. He will deliver you. He will
save you. And all who are saved, you listen,
we reign with Him. You feel defeated. I know. You're not. You're kings. You got that? King Sherry. King JD. King Scott. Isn't that something? You're
kings and priests unto your God. Who then shall hinder you in
your witness of Christ? He's bound, and He can do nothing. Even if He takes your life, what
has He done? Nothing. Nothing. May God give you comfort and
encouragement to see our Savior's bound our enemies. And soon,
very soon, He will destroy him completely. What can we say but amen? May
God bless your hearts.