The 20th chapter of the book
of Revelation, and there are some things in here that we're
not going to spend a lot of time on, but like all of the book
of Revelation, and I have also found this in the book of Acts
and the book of 1 Kings and 2 Kings and Joshua and Judges, that there
is one overriding principle, God fights his battles and wins. He fought the battle for Israel
and he won. All their battles going into
the promised land, all their battles in Egypt, he fought all
of their battles and won. And in this 20th chapter, we
have some things said about the devil, Satan, and One of the
things that struck me just after the Lord revealed himself to
me was I used to have this serious, serious fear of the devil. And
when he spoke peace to my heart, I verbally, I audibly said, I
don't have that fear now. And one reason is the fulfillment
of the 20th chapter here that Jesus Christ did something at
the cross. Now, It used to be he made things
possible through the cross. But when we study the Bible and
look at him from the view of the gospel, we find he accomplished
things at the cross. He did something at the cross. He made not just salvation possible,
but I like what the man said, he is a savior that saves. And he is a redeemer that actually
redeems. And he just doesn't leave it
to man. He takes care of that problem.
Well, in this chapter we find that he symbolizes, through binding
Satan by his sovereign mighty power and putting him in chains
of his sovereignty, and binding him, he's sharing with us what
he accomplished at the cross. Now we have several preludes
to that in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. And we want to read
a couple of those, but one of them is the temptation that Satan
took him or he went aside with Satan out in the wilderness for
40 days or a fasted for 40 days. And then Satan came and tempted
him and the Lord strikingly overwhelmingly. won the victory over satan there
now the promise is made in genesis chapter three verse fifteen the
lord jesus god almighty in christ is going to break the head of
satan that's the promise that was made and we see the fulfillment
of that at the cross and it's declared here as the gospel is
preached This is in effect. All right revelation 20 and I
saw an angel come down from heaven Having the key of the bottomless
pit and a great chain in his hand Now this angel like many
times in the bible can only be one angel This is christ He's
the only one that has the ability to do what he's doing. And he
does not give that responsibility to anyone else. He is the one
that is going to deal with the enemy of our first parents in
the Garden of Eden. He is the one that's going to
deal with Satan. Now he is a, he was a powerful angel, and
no other angel could bring him down, but Christ could. And he
does that. He has the key of the bottomless
pit and a great chain in his hand. He carries that chain well. This is a declaration of his
sovereignty. This is, it could be a medallion. God is sovereign. It could be
a declaration. He has that in his vesture and
dipped in blood. The Lord, as we just read, King
of kings and Lord of lords. So he has this power. He is this
power. And he laid hold on the dragon,
that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him
1,000 years. As we mentioned last week, he
just is like taking a ragdoll. He has that power over Satan.
He has that power over the devil. He has that power. He's not in
a wrestling match and wondering who's going to win this. He has
him. He takes him and binds him a
thousand years and casts 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 shall be fulfilled. And after
that, he must be loosed a little season. How many times In the
New Testament, is this word thousand used besides in the book of Revelation? Do you know? Two times in the book of 2 Peter,
a thousand years is one day and a day is a thousand years. When
we try to put this into a literal interpretation, we're going to
run into real problems with the first chapter of Revelation,
when we see the view of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the most
symbolic book, and lo and behold, most people want to interpret
it the most literal. So let's just leave it symbolic.
This symbolism here of this thousand years is the gospel age. This is a, it's the gospel age. We're in it. And to say that
Christ isn't reigning now, that's not what he said. Now I'm going
to take his word for it. He says, all power, all authority
is given unto me in heaven and on earth. He has it, he's had
it, he forever will have it, and no one is able to take it
away from him. The kings of the earth have shaken
their fists in his face. That's what it tells us in Psalm
2. But he laughed them to scorn.
He is sovereign. He is the God Almighty, and he
carries that regal crown, well, he carries that priestly garb
well. He has the names of the people
on the palms of his hand, spiritually speaking. And here he is, he
takes that oppressor, he takes that Satan, that devil, all those
names termed about him, and like a ragdoll, casts him into his
sovereign power and holds him. And then it tells us here, cast
him into the bottom split pit and shut him up and set a seal
upon him that he should not, he should deceive the nations
no more till this gospel age is over. Now I'm going to take
that to the bank. Now what's wrong with, what's
wrong with the world? What's wrong with people? What's
wrong? It's their heart. That's the
problem. Satan never made anybody sin.
Satan has never made anybody do anything. He never did. He never will. It's our heart
that's the problem. We're drawn away of our own lust. That's what James said. We're
taken aside by our own nature. And that's the problem. And this
is just a crutch when we say, well, the devil did that. The
devil whispered in my ear. The devil made me do that. That's
just a pure crutch. That's just taking away the responsibility
that lies on men that we don't want to admit to. Now, when God
saves his people, they lament that the problem is us, me. That's the problem. And it's
not someone sitting up here saying, do good, and another person over
here saying, do bad. And which way are we going? Our
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? It's incurably wicked. There's
only one doctor that can take care of the problem, and that's
Christ. But he has to give us a new heart to do that. So we
don't have this influence from out here. We may have friends
say, you ought to do this, you ought to do that. Our heart,
that's the problem. It's not the devil. He's not
whispering to us. In the gospel age, Christ said,
I bound him up. Now, the responsibility lies
at our feet. And thank God Almighty, he gets
involved in the salvation of his people or we'd be stuck where
we are. He goes on to tell us here, 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 upon their foreheads, or in their hands, and they lived
and reigned with Christ a thousand years." The Gospel Age. Now,
who are these people? Now, we're going to get more
serious in time on this, but these people are not a special
people that went through a beheading process by some king or by some
influence. These are God's people. This is the church. These are
the people that God has dealt with and given them the mind
of Christ. He has taken the relationship
that we had with Adam and severed it off. And he has given us him
as our head. What's he say? He's the head
of the church. Now, there has been, and there may be now, and
there probably will be in the future, people that die for the
Lord Jesus Christ. Paul did, Stephen did, a lot
of the apostles did. In our country right now, It's
not happening. It happened in the past, but
it's not happening. This is not a literal chopping
off of heads. This is regeneration. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit. This is God working in his people. He is taking their
relationship to Adam. They have Father Adam. And now
by the grace of God in this new mind that we've been given in
Christ Jesus, we have Father God. The great everlasting eternal
father. That's why we say our father
who art in heaven. We no longer bow before the father
that we had on this earth. We no longer bow to Adam. We
bow to the father which is in heaven. And in order to do that,
we had to have a new heart. And in order to do that, we had
to have a new head. And our head is Christ. He sat on the head
of the church. My goodness, and where the head
goes, the body follows. The head's in heaven. The body
will soon be assembled there. It will be assembled in its glory. Everyone will be in their place.
And so these are those who are witnesses for Christ. They're
called martyrs, but a martyr is a witness. Everyone that Jesus
Christ saves is a trophy of his grace. They are witnesses by
his very act of grace. He gives them this witness characteristic. They are witnesses. They're martyrs. Now, people say, look what you
had to give up. I didn't have to give up anything
but sin. My goodness. What we are given
transcends whatever we had before. We're just a Well, we were just
an outcast in the field, hadn't been bound up or mollified with
ointment from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet.
And Christ came along and had a had an eye towards his people
and gave them grace and gave them a new heart and gave them
a new head. And now they're witnesses and they didn't receive the mark
upon their foreheads or in their hands. Nobody that Christ saves
is ever going to have that. Now, I don't think it's a literal
mark. Boy, when the barcode came out, they had to spend billions
of dollars to get all these barcodes up. The other day I was watching,
it was a space deal going, had pictures of Mars and Jupiter
and they sent a probe out there and they sent it so There was
a time when the bulk of the planets were going to be lined up and
it wouldn't happen again for 600 years. So their probe could
go by as many planets as possible. Well, I remember when the alignment
of the planets came, the end of the world was coming. Oh my
goodness. It happens every 600 years. This is not a sign of the coming
of the Lord. The sign of the coming of the
Lord is when the last one is brought in. And we don't know
the day or the hour because we don't know when he's going to
save the last one. He may be or she may be born. We don't
know. But that's what's going to cause
the end here. And these, they've not received
the mark. A lost person and a goat, when
they're growing up, act the same. You just can't tell the difference.
And I, I've said this before, I think there's a whole bunch
of people in Jerusalem says, that Saul of Tarsus can just
go to hell. We don't want him around. If
there's anyone that deserves it, he does. He's worse than
Hitler. And God reached down and saved
that rascal. And we thank God for him. He's
Brother Saul now. That's what that man that went
baptizing called Brother Saul. Lord's appeared unto you on the
way. So he wasn't marked in his hands or in his forehead, even
though he was a rascal. Some people said he had the shadow.
Well, he didn't. And then it goes on here, it
says, they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Everyone
that God ever saves, they're reigning with Him during their
life, and they're reigning with Him in death. We're just reigning
with Him. We're carried along with Him.
Blessed and holy is He that hath part. Oh, verse 5, but the rest
of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished,
and this is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. Another statement about the new
birth. Now this is a special verse to
me. Duane and I got connected on this verse. This is a verse
I preach from at a funeral. 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 if we back up to chapter
one, we'll find that he's made us king-priests. That's part
of what he gives to us. We're king-priests. We're kings
and priests of the Lord, and shall reign with him through
his eternal reign. We began reigning when he saved
us by his grace. And then we shall reign. And
when the thousand years were expired, Satan shall be loosed
out of his prison. Now, there's something here. I don't understand it. But it
appears at the close of the gospel age, there is going to be a reappearance
of this great enemy for just a season. And he will do something
about what happens. But the point that the Lord wants
us to understand is, is found in verse nine. And they went
up on the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the
saints about and the beloved city. And fire came down from
God out of heaven and devoured them. Let's see how God's gonna handle
this. Fire came down from heaven and devoured them. the word,
whatever, God spoke, God disposed, God dispensed, and they're gone,
it's over. Don't get in a dither about it.
They cannot take any of the saved, they cannot destroy any of the
elect, and they will be destroyed by the very mouth, the power,
the grace of God. He's gonna dispense with them,
and then it tells us there, And the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast
and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night
forever and ever. And I saw a great white throne,
and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven
fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw
the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were
opened, and another book was opened. Now I have yet to find
out where There's 1,000 years between the first judgment and
the second judgment. Every time we run into this,
we find lost and saved standing side by side. Jesus mentions
it in fact and says, on the right hand are the sheep and on the
left hand are the goats. Go over to the Old Testament,
the book of Daniel. They're standing side by side.
One hears welcome, the other hears depart. Judgment will be
made. It's the great judgment. It's
the general judgment. It's innocent. It's God's sovereignty
declaring this. Great white throne. They that
sat on it whose face the earth and heaven fled away and there
was found no place for them. I saw the dead small and great
stand before God. The books were open. Another
book was open, 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. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it.
And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their work. And
death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the
second death. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Now,
that's, that's the way it is. Now, let's just take a little
bit of time and go through a few of these verses a little bit
slower, but I wanted to read that whole thing, and probably
we will not do that again as we go through this 20th chapter.
But there are some things that are mentioned about the Lord
with regard to Satan in Revelation chapter 1. Would you turn there
with me? Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1. Verse 18. Now the Lord said this about
himself. I am he that liveth and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell
and of death. Now these are not literal keys,
but he has power. He has the power over death and
hell. And in Revelation chapter 3 and
verse 9, Revelation chapter 3 and verse 9, and I bring this up
because it tells us in this verse of scripture that this great
angel, I saw an angel from heaven having the key of the bottomless
pit. God alone has these keys. God alone has the power to deal
with these issues. He alone is the gospel. He alone is salvation. He alone has the power. And here
in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 9, it says, Behold, I make them
of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not,
but lie. Behold, I will make them to come. And that is the wrong verse. mentions key on verse 19. Oh, verse seven, excuse me. And
the angel unto the angel of the Church of Philadelphia, right?
These things said he that is holy, he that is true, he that
hath the key of David. He that openeth, and no man shutteth,
and shutteth, and no man openeth. Once again, he has the key. Here's
the key of David. It's the key of death and hell.
It means he has the power and authority. Jesus Christ is the
only one that could have the power to bind Satan, as it's
found here in this passage of scripture. And with the account
that is left us in Job, Satan is at the beck and call of God
in the Old Testament. Shakes the chain. He does what
he wants him to do. Satan was under the almighty
power of God. He couldn't touch Job, couldn't
touch Job's family, couldn't touch Job's health without the
permission of almighty God. and he is bound by the Lord. He has this one, there's one,
Matthew chapter 12 shares with us about this. And it's the same
word in this passage of scripture that we find over here in the
book of Revelation chapter 20 about binding Satan. He brings
up this issue Just prior to going to the cross in Matthew chapter
12 verses 28 and 29, he's dealing with some Pharisees and he says
this, they're accusing the Lord of casting out demons by the
power of the devil. And the Lord just brings up the
subject and he carries this out all the way to the cross. He's
continuing to carry this out. He is the stronger man. No one has the power of this
one. No one. And he does whatsoever
he pleases. He works all things after the
counsel of his own will. He is the determinant counsel. Now in Matthew chapter 12 and
verse 28, he brings up this and says, but if I cast out devils
by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is coming to you.
Or else, how can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil
his goods, except he first bind the strong man? Now, if he's
going to bind the strong man, he has to be more powerful. He's
the stronger man, if you please. He is the power of God. He bindeth the strong man, binds
the strong man, then he will spoil his house. He that is not
with me is against me, he that gathers not with me scattereth
abroad. He brings up the same word here
as we find over in Revelation chapter 20 and that is he binds
the strong man. He grabs a hold of Satan, he
binds him, and puts him under his absolute control, and he
does not deceive the nations. As I mentioned, what's going
on then? It's man's heart. It's just an open display for
everyone to see what it is to have a natural heart before God.
It is only sinful continuously. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Hebrews, chapter 2, and we find again here what
the Lord did when he went to the cross. He dealt with this
strong man. He dealt with the serpent that
beguiled, brought this question up to Eve. Now, I've had great
preachers tell me that when Eve sinned, things happen, but that's
not what's in the book. When Eve sinned, nothing happened. In fact, do we even find it's
called sin at that time? She took the fruit, she did eat,
and nothing happened because judgment was not upon her. Judgment
was going to be upon the man, Adam, the first Adam. And when
he ate, their eyes were opened. Both of their eyes. And they
realized they were naked. Both of them did. And they both
hid in the garden. And they both were afraid of
God. That's when he did it. Satan did not make Adam do it. He did it on his own. Was premeditated. Planned out. Determined. And he did it. and
he fell. And we're the results of his
fall. Now, here in the book of Hebrews
chapter 2, notice this with me, Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter
2 verse 14, we find this wonderful statement about God taking care
of some things through his son, the Lord Jesus. This was the
problem. We have some things to be taken
care of and God took care of them absolute and completely. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him. That's what Christ did on the
cross. He took care of that being. The gospel bound him. The gospel
put a chain. His sovereignty overwhelmed him. He is captured and captivated
by it. Now at the end of this gospel
age, God shares here, there's going to be some some tough times
for some people, but God's people will not be found in tough times. God will breathe fire. He will
vapor and smoke. Whatever He wants to do, He'll
take care of that. But it says here, In verse 14,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Satan was taken care
of, bound, put down. So he's not whispering to any
of God's people. Now he may be whispering to the
lost in the sense that they want somebody to tell them they're
doing wrong and they have to follow it. But he doesn't do
that to his saved people. He's bound. The gospel has bound
him. Christ has bound him. The word
of God has bound him. The prophecies of God have bound
him. The purpose of God has bound him. And he is a bound creature. Now, what do we see? We see man's
natural heart. And God is the only one that
can overpower man's natural heart. And that is necessary in regeneration. By the finished work of Christ,
the devil has been bound, and Christ bound him. He didn't use
anybody else. He didn't have an exorcist come
in. He didn't have some priest. He
didn't go through some mumble jumble. He bound him. The cross,
the blood of the cross, the righteousness of Christ, the word of God has
bound him and he has been put aside until this gospel era is
over with. The binding is a picture and
it's figurative, it's symbolic, the work of Christ has bound
him. Now, the Lord Jesus dealt with Satan several times to show
us he has power over all his creation. He has all power. Turn with me to Matthew 4. The
Lord Jesus Christ went through us seriously. Lord, help us if
we ever think this was just a light thing that Christ went through
when he was tempted of the devil those three times. He is, he
is, he is brought into position of being tempted of
the devil and Notice here in Matthew 4 verse 1 Then was Jesus
led in up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil. This is God's plan He's gonna show us that he has
power over this and He's, this is no, no mediocre mammy-pammy
God dealing with Satan. This is the Son of God. And when
he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he afterward was
hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou
be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. And
he said, but he answered and said, it is written, man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up
to the holy city and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple
and said unto him, if thou be the son of God, cast thyself
down, for it is written. He shall give his angels charge
concerning me, and in their hearts they shall bear thee up, and
in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou
dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written
again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again the devil
taketh him into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him
all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and saith
unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall
down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get
thee hence, Satan. For it is written, thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Now
he said, get thee hence. Notice verse 11. And the devil
leaveth him. He, he's the sovereign king.
He went through all this temptation. He shares with us that it's the
word of God that is going to bind him. Satan was, was, had
no strength against the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a rag doll
in his hands. Oh, resist the devil. We got
a verse about that. Resist the devil. You know where
we have to resist the devil? In Christ. You will never do
it on your own. You can't. It's not possible. We can only be in Christ. He's
the only one that is able to do that. And we have to be in
Christ to do it. In his gospel, at the temptation,
by the word of God, Satan was bound. He is sent off, be gone,
and he's gone. On the cross, we find that the
Lord broke the serpent's head. That was the promise given to
Adam and Eve in the Old Testament. They overheard it. The words
were to the serpent. And in Genesis chapter 3 and
verse 15, the Lord shall bruise thy head. The seed of the woman
shall bruise thy head. And it happened. God spoiled
powers and principalities by the Lord Jesus Christ. There
is a influence, a sinful influence, and God alone is able to overcome
that. We're born in it, we practice in it, we'll die in it, lest
he interrupt us. Turn with me to John 12. John
chapter 12. John chapter 12. Verse 28. John chapter 12 and
verse 28. We just read this, I'm gonna
read it again. But if I cast out devils by the
Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. I'm the strong man, stronger
than the strong man, and I'll bind him up. I'll truss him up. I'll wrap him up. I'll treat
him as a created being, which he is. and he has been bound. And turn with me to Colossians
chapter two. Colossians chapter two. The Lord, this great angel with
the key to the bottomless pit, comes down, lays hold of in the
gospel, lays hold of Satan at the cross. All of his power and
his influence binds him up puts him in his place, holds him until
the gospel era is over. And just for a season, he's permitted
to go out. And it doesn't take much to deceive
the nations, the people that don't know Christ, those whose
names are not written in the book of life. It happens all
the time right now. Colossians chapter two, verse
13. Scripture share this. And you being dead in your sins,
in 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 having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphating over
them in it. He rode his chariot right across
them. He wore his crown right across
them. He showed his hands and his feet
right across them. He showed his name right across
them. They're done, over, finished. Law nailed to the cross, powers
and principalities taken care of, And we are placed in Christ,
and that's where we have our sustenance. That's where we have
our protection. Now, we'll pick up this 20th
chapter next time. And I want to deal with those
that were beheaded a little bit in the first resurrection, the
resurrection that God gives to us in regeneration. And some
of this we'll just leave alone. get through this chapter. I want
to say this before we before we get to that thousand years.
This I have found out because I used to practice what is commonly
known as premillennialism. This I found out when God saved
me. The premise of that doctrine
is this. God failed. And when I put that
and read that in books, that the premise of that doctrine
is God failed, and then you read all the rest of the Bible and
find out he never failed once, he's the sovereign king of the
universe, then there's something wrong with this. What, how did
he fail? Number one, the Jews did not
get all their land. Man, you read three times in
the book of Joshua, he did not withhold one square inch of the
land. The Jews did not, or Christ could
not set up his kingdom. One time they wanted to make
him king, the bread king. And he wasn't wanting to set
up, never planned on setting up a physical kingdom. It's a
spiritual kingdom. He was not accepted by the Jews
as king, so he had to go to the cross. He's not reigning now. He'll have to wait to the thousand
years. Every one of those premises is torn apart by the very word
of God. If you have a value of God's
sovereignty, and that the word of God speaks about a God that's
high and lifted up, then that stuff just sloughs off, and you
gotta find something else, and you'll settle down on this. the
present reign of Christ. He's reigning now. He doesn't
have to become reigning. I had a pastor that told me during
that period of time they're going to reinstitute animal sacrifices. Now I swallowed that at the time,
but after you're saved you could say, why in the world would God
ever go back to animal sacrifices when Christ has already been
on the cross? So it's based on failure. The present reign of Christ is
based on success. And that's what the Bible teaches.
That's what the Bible teaches. We may not have it all right,
but the Bible teaches that.