Revelation, and we'll begin this
morning in chapter 20. Having covered the previous 19
chapters, at least to some extent, we'll enter into chapter 20 this
morning. My subject is laying a hold of
the dragon. You know, throughout the Old
Testament, There are references to our Lord's first advent and
His second advent, and by advent I mean His first coming and His
second coming. I asked Ron to read that passage
from Isaiah 62 verse 10 through 63 verse 6, which unfortunately
our those who divided the Bible into
chapters. Unfortunately, they divided it
where they did. I wish they had divided it and
begun chapter 63 there at verse 10 of the 62nd chapter because
it is obvious that the subject is the salvation of God's people.
And the Lord Jesus, he came to work out salvation. And more
than that, He is our salvation. That's what the scripture says.
He is our salvation. You remember there in Luke, the
second chapter, when our Lord Jesus was taken by Joseph and
Mary to the temple, and there was one whose name was Simeon. He was there, Simeon. And he
waited, he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. He was
waiting to see the Savior, and the scripture says that the Lord
had indicated to him that he wouldn't die until he had seen
God's Christ. And one day, Mary and Joseph
brought in the Lord Jesus, just an infant, and brought Him into
the temple to do for Him according to the law. And the man, he saw
Simeon saw this little baby and he took the baby in his arms
and he said, Lord now let thy servant depart in peace for mine
eyes have seen thy salvation. Thy salvation which thou has
purposed of old. He is God's salvation. And that's
what Isaiah is writing about there in the latter part of the
62nd chapter into the 63rd chapter. He's speaking about the salvation
of God's people by the Lord Jesus, who is himself our salvation. Now here's the reason I had him
read that passage of scripture, because as he read through those
verses, and I'm sure that a good many of you have read those verses
before, it makes you think of his first advent, but it also
makes you think of his second advent. Because the question
is asked, who is this? Who is this that comes from Basra? That is, who is he that comes
from his enemies? And he's got blood, he's got
blood all over his garments. Now, that can refer, first of
all, to his first advent, because he died a bloody death. That's
what was necessary in order to satisfy God, in order to redeem
us. We're redeemed by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus. So, in one sense, you could say
it's His own blood. It's His own blood. because he's
the sacrifice that God ordained. He is the lamb whom God slaughtered
before the world began. And there he is in garments stained
with blood. So you could say it's his own
blood, because that's how he saved his people from our sins,
by his bloody death, by the sacrifice of himself on the cross, that
God might be just and justify the ungodly. But you can look
at it another way, not only as his first advent, but his second
advent, because he's coming the second time and he will destroy
all of his enemies. And so it could be rightly said,
whose blood is on his garments? It's the blood of his enemies.
Now, not literally, because he's not going to literally kill people
with a the sword that comes out of His mouth, but all men will
stand before Him, and the wicked, the wicked, they've got to be
punished by the Lord Jesus Himself, and He will bring to an end all
of those who don't know Him, all of those who don't believe
Him, He'll bring them to an end that is an everlasting death. And I realize that when we speak
of the subject of damnation or hell. It's a most solemn thing. It's a very serious thing to
speak about and consider. But listen folks, those that
don't believe on the Lord Jesus, those who don't rest in Him for
their salvation, who are not under His blood, they're going
to perish in a hell. And if you die in unbelief, that
will be you. That will be you. And therefore,
in Isaiah chapter 63, the blood-stained garments of the Son of God, if
you die in your unbelief, it could be said, that's your blood.
That's your blood, because He's going to take vengeance on you.
He read in that passage of Scripture in Isaiah 63, the day of the
Lord's vengeance has come. And so here's what I'm getting
at throughout the Old Testament as you read various prophecies
about the first coming of our Lord Jesus and as well as the
second coming of the Lord Jesus. Oftentimes, they kind of blend
together. And you can't tell where one
begins and where the other one ends. Sometimes you read and
you say, well, is he talking about the first coming of our
Savior when He was born of a virgin 2,000 years ago? Is he talking
about that? Or is he talking about the fact
that He's going to come again in power and great glory? Well,
oftentimes, he's talking about both. Because the Old Testament
prophets, they, to a degree, they couldn't see any significant
separation between them. Because as they thought about
the Messiah who's coming into the world, they saw both His
salvation and the judgment that He would bring upon all of His
enemies. And as we get this morning to
Revelation chapter 20, and we have finished now with chapter
19, and that pictures the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 19 at the end, it goes
into Armageddon briefly. It takes us right up to the end
of world history. That's what chapter 19 does.
And then we get to chapter 20, begins a brand new vision. chapters
20, 21, and 22, this is a new section that he goes into, a
new vision that God the Spirit gives to the apostle John. But still, he's thinking of,
this is what John's always got on his mind, and as you read
through the book of Revelation, here's a couple of things you
need to always keep in your mind and in your heart. He is writing
about our Lord's first appearance, and his second appearance. He
writes about the things that our Lord Jesus has already done. He writes about things that our
Lord Jesus is doing now because He has a work that He carries
on now. Though He's finished the work
of redemption, though He's finished the work of reconciliation, that
doesn't mean that He's doing nothing in heaven. Now, He's
not doing anything in heaven regarding our redemption and
our reconciliation. He took care of that 2,000 years
ago. But He has a work of intercession
that He is continuing to carry on in heaven, and also he has
the work of reigning. He reigns as our mediator, as
that one who is the representative of his people. And this is what
means a considerable amount of of blessedness to those of us
who are the people of God. The One who came and redeemed
us, the One who bought us, has gone back to heaven and He rules
all of the world with the interest of His people in His heart. And that's wonderful to remember
that. Nothing that ever happens is
disassociated from the Lord's love for His people. So that
all that He's doing, and all that He is bringing to pass,
He always has an eye toward His children. And toward those things
that will work together for our good. Now, they may not, exactly
when it happens, the things happen, it may not seem good at that
point. But all things are working together
for our good. Now what it says in Romans chapter
8, and we know that all things work together. Don't pull out
one and say, I don't know how that can work for my good. It's
all things working together. This event, that event, what
happened here, what happens there, all of these things together,
our Lord in His great omnipotence and in His omniscience, in His
wisdom, He blends them together, He mixes them together, and He
makes absolutely certain that everything works together for
our good. That's what the Scripture says.
And we're greatly relieved to know that fate doesn't rule,
luck doesn't rule, the devil doesn't rule, our Redeemer rules. He reigns over all things for
the good of His people. And we have some folks in our
congregation who are currently undergoing some trials. And we
always have people who are undergoing trials of one sort or another. And this is what always props
us up and encourages us and helps us get through all of these days
of trial and trouble. We know that He who redeemed
us, He who saved us, He is the one who is calling all the shots. He governs everything that ever
happens, and always because He loves us, He's working things
together for our good, and He's bringing all things to the end
that He Himself has destined. He predestinated our end before
the world began, and He makes certain that all things are working
together for our good. And so, as you read through the
Scriptures, especially the Old Testament prophecies, You read
of the first coming of our Savior and the second coming of our
Savior. And then we get to the New Testament, and once again,
that's what we read. We read about his first advent.
We read about his second advent. We read about when he came, born
of a virgin. entered into this world. God
manifests in the flesh. God comes to save us. He's Emmanuel,
God with us. His name, Isaiah said, shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Prince of
Peace, the Everlasting Father. His name is called that. We call
Him by many names, and one of the wonderful names is Jesus,
who saves us. He is our salvation. He came
the first time to save us. He came 2,000 years ago. And
there's no doubt about that. There's historical evidence that
a man named Jesus of Nazareth walked the streets of Galilee.
He lived. A real man. But that real man
was God manifest in the flesh. He's the God-man. And He entered
into this world on a mission from the Father. God sent Him
to do something. He came for a specific reason. To save his people from their
sins. God gave him a people before
the world began. God entrusted these people to
him. Save these, the father said. Redeem these. I put them in your
care. I trust you to bring them all
home to heaven someday safely. Made like unto yourself. We read
in Ephesians the first chapter about that one who first trusted
Christ. You know who first trusted Christ?
God the Father. He trusted Him. What did God
the Father trust Him with? A wonderful treasure. You know
what the treasure is? The bride of Christ. His own
people. His own children. I give these
to you. That's why the Savior so many
times in the Gospel of John, he writes about those that the
Father gave him. All that the Father giveth me,
they shall come to me. Him that cometh to me, I'll in
no wise cast out. We were given to Christ Jesus
before the world began. You save them, the Father said.
You save them. You redeem them. You reconcile. They're gonna fall into iniquity. They're going to sin. In Adam's
transgression, they're all going to sin. You must save them. And
I give you this commission. You must live in the world as
one of them. And then you must die in their
stead because our law and justice demands death for sin. And Christ
Jesus said, I accept that calling. He did it voluntarily and he
did it as the servant of Jehovah. And so he came the first time
into this world in order to do what God sent him to do, save
his people. What does it mean to save? To
rescue. He came on a rescue, it was a
rescue mission, that's what it was. A rescue mission and the
rescue mission was us. We needed rescue because there
wasn't anything we could do to make ourselves right with God.
You can't make yourself right with God. You cannot make peace
with God. The only one who could do that
is the Lord Jesus and He did it by the blood of His cross
is what the Scripture says. And that's why He came into the
world. That's why He came the first time. He came to save.
But He's coming back. And He who came the first time
to save, He's coming back to consummate our salvation. To make it final. You see, you
look at salvation, you could accurately say, God saved us
before the world began. He did. I believe in eternal
justification, the fact that God chose us in Christ Jesus
and gave us to Him who is our eternal surety, who is the Lamb
who is slain before the foundation of the world. We were saved then. We couldn't wind up any way other
than saved. That's the way we were in the
purpose of God. And we were saved when the Lord
Jesus died for us. When He shed His blood. That's
why we read in Romans chapter 5, we're justified by His blood. We're justified by His blood.
We're made right with God. We're made righteous with God
by His blood. Don't ever think of righteousness
except you think of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
talk about blood and righteousness. It's blood that earned or merited
our righteousness. You can't separate the two. We're
made the righteousness of God in Him. Listen to 2 Corinthians
5 21. For He hath made Him, God the
Father, hath made Him, God the Son, to be sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. How are we made the righteousness
of God? By the bloody sacrifice of the
Son of God. That's how we're justified. So
you could accurately say, I was saved before the world began.
I was saved when Christ died for me. And when He paid my sin
debt, no debt remained. When he satisfied divine justice,
justice was absolutely satisfied. Now that was it. There's no way
anybody in whose stead Christ died can wind up anywhere else
except heaven. We've got to. We've got to. The debt's been paid. Righteousness
has been established. We were absolutely saved when
Christ died. He has redeemed us. He has redeemed us. God's not
waiting to redeem people when they believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We were redeemed with the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus. That took place 2,000 years ago. He's not redeeming anybody today. He's not redeeming anybody. Redemption's
already... It's done. It's done. Now, we
can also say we're saved when we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, there's no way you can know what
happened in eternity past as far as you're concerned. You
don't know whether God wrote your name down in the Lamb's
Book of Life or not. I'm just being honest with you. You don't know that. Because
you don't have the privilege to climb up into heaven and take
the book, and look at it, and see if your name's in there.
So you can't know. At least you can't know that
way. And you don't know whether Christ Jesus died for you. He
didn't die for everybody. But He did die for a bunch of
people. Now, you say, well, did He die for me? I don't know.
I don't know, not for me to say. You mean, preacher, you don't
preach that Jesus died for everybody? Well, no, I can't preach that.
That'd be a lie. That's not preaching the truth.
He died for His people. He died for His elect. He died
for His children. He shed His blood for particular
people. That's the reason we say things
like we believe in particular redemption. It's a redemption
for a particular people and a redemption that actually redeemed. It actually
redeemed. But you don't have the privilege
to look into the mind of Christ Jesus and know, based upon his
death, whether you were included in that group for whom he died.
Except in this way, if you believe him. if you're brought to faith
in Christ Jesus. Then you can say, I'm saved.
I'm saved. And if you really believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, as He's revealed in the book of God now, if you embrace Him, He's your
only hope for salvation. He's your only hope of glory.
You look to Him as the one mediator between you and a holy God. You
don't have any other hope. You don't lean on anything else.
You don't even lean on your faith. You believe, but you don't lean
on your belief. You repent, but you don't lean
on your repentance. You look to Christ Jesus only.
And if Christ is your only hope, then you can say, I have believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore, The Spirit of God
reveals to me, I'm saved. And that means when God chose
you before the foundation of the world, or when God chose
the people unto salvation before the foundation of the world,
you were in that group. Now your faith doesn't put you
in that group. Your faith is evidence of the
fact you're in that group. And your faith is evidence of
the fact that He died for you. He redeemed you back to God.
He paid your debt. But you cannot say, I am a saved
sinner, unless you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why it's such a significant
passage there. And the Spirit of God had Luke
to write it down for all eternity. Think about this, for all eternity. He wrote down that which the
Philippian jailer asked. He brought these two preachers,
Paul and Silas, out. He said unto them, Sirs, what
must I do to be saved? And I'm most interested in the
answer, aren't you? And the word, here's what the
word came back from these preachers. One of them, an apostle. Here's
an apostolic answer. Believe, embrace, hug up to,
lean on, rest in and rely on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord, the Master, the Sovereign. Jesus who saves the Christ, the
Messiah, the Son of God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And thy house. If they believe,
they'll be saved too. And that's exactly what I'm saying
to you this morning. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. I don't care who you are. What
you've done, what you've thought, whether you've been in church
or not in church, whether you've been religious or irreligious,
doesn't matter. If you, you as a guilty sinner,
believe, rest in, cling to, hug up to, base all your confidence
on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be saved. You'll be saved. And yet, we're not fully saved
yet. Oh, in the purpose of God we
are. But you know what Paul says in the book of Romans? Now is
our salvation nearer than when we first believed. In other words,
though our souls are saved, though the purpose of God regarding
Our redemption has been accomplished in the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And though His eternal purpose
in bringing us to faith in the Son of God, to believe Him, though
that is being realized because faith is not an isolated act. Did you hear me? Faith is not
an isolated act. It's a continual state. We're
believing. We're believing Christ Jesus.
That's why Peter says concerning coming to Christ Jesus. To whom? Coming. We're still coming to
Him. I'm coming again this morning.
I'm looking to Him again today. My salvation hadn't been consummated
yet. It hadn't been finished yet because
I've got a body of sin. Something's got to be done about
this old body. Something's got to be done about
my spiritual weakness, my own depravity. I know my sins have
been paid for, and I know I'm growing in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but this flesh is just as rotten
today as it's always been. And it's got to be laid aside.
That will happen at death. But still, our Lord Jesus who
redeemed our souls, He also redeemed our bodies. He redeemed all of
us. Each of us who are His people,
He redeemed us body and soul. We'll die. The body will be laid aside.
And I'll leave. You see, I'm a soul. So are you. We've got this wrong because
we put so much emphasis on the body and I realize it's in the
body that we live. It's in the body that we dwell.
This is the tabernacle God has given us. But this is only a
tabernacle, an outward tent for the real me. And when I breathe at God's appointment,
my last breath, I'm leaving. I'm out of here. But this will
stay. Right? This will stay. My body. And it will begin corrupting. That's that change that I talked
about in the Bible class this morning. Just like our Lord Jesus,
He was transfigured. That which was within began,
it was manifested outwardly. When I die, it won't take long
before that will be manifested outwardly. An inner condition
will be seen outwardly. Death. Death. And the body's gonna have to
be buried. We've already got our burial sites picked out. Nice and flat. Very unusual in
this area. We got Him picked out. I'm destined
for that spot. Unless the Lord comes back, that'd
be okay. I say, John, even so, come Lord
Jesus. But unless He comes pretty soon,
the body's going back to the grave. But it's got to be saved. It's got to be rescued. It'll stay there. As it were,
asleep. Asleep. In the grave. To be covered over with sod.
And that's when the body will sleep. It'll sleep till Jesus
comes. Second coming. See, you can't
separate His first coming from the second coming because He
came the first time to save. He's come the second time to
consummate our salvation. And when He comes the second
time, He's going to raise this vile body. That's what it says
in the book of Philippians. He'll raise these vile bodies
and fashion them like unto His glorious body. But He redeemed
this body. He bought this body. Listen, I'll be James Ferguson
Byrd forever. We talked in the Sunday School
class this morning about the Lord Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration,
and there was Moses and Elijah. And Moses was still Moses, and
Moses had been dead 1,500 years. But guess what? He's still Moses.
He retained his identity. And Elijah, he had gone to be
with the Lord 900 years before that. And Elijah was still Elijah. And when I die, I'll still be
me. And when you die, you'll still
be you. It's the same with all of us. And that by which we identify
ourselves, that is, we know each other by our bodies, these bodies
are going to be raised again. And we're still going to look
somewhat like what we look now. I don't know exactly how it's
going to be. People have asked me before,
well, we're going to be like in heaven. Well, it's not going
to be old men, not going to be babies. Not going to be any infants. Somebody said, well, we'll all
have a body likened to our Lord's body. I agree with that. And
He died when He was about 33, somewhere between 33 and 34 years
of age. Maybe that's how we will appear
to be. I don't know. Ask me something
I do know. I don't know about that. People
a lot of times ask me questions. I say, I wish you'd ask me something
I know. There are a few things I know. Don't ask me these confusing
questions. Questions where we have no biblical
information. But I do know this. I got biblical
information on this. These bodies are going to be
raised and fashioned like unto His glorious body. That's good
enough for me. And you know what? Then I'll
be able to say, I'm saved. I'm saved. First coming, second coming. His first time He came to redeem
us from law and justice. They held us for ransom. I know
we're the Lord's people. We've always been the Lord's
people. We've always been His covenant people. We've always
been the bride of Christ Jesus. But we fell into sin. The law
of God took us, it arrested us, and it held us for ransom. Not
going to release them. And if we would have foolishly
said, but I'll live better, the law of God says, go ahead and
live better. But I'm holding you for ransom. Well, what's the ransom price?
Death. The death of an innocent victim.
And then I must say, well, there are no innocent people. So I'm
lost and hopeless. Ah, but wait! There is one who's
innocent. He's as holy as God because he
is God. And He came down here the first
time to redeem His people from law and justice. And He's coming
the second time to glorify us. To glorify us. And I'll tell
you something else He did the first time He came. He laid hold on the dragon and
He bound him. Let me read these three verses
real quick. Revelation 20 verse 1. And I saw an angel come down
from heaven. A messenger. That's what the
word angel means. Is Christ Jesus an angel? Well
yeah, He's a messenger of God. He's called the angel of the
Lord. In several places in the Old Testament. I saw an angel,
a messenger come down from heaven. That's His incarnation. Remember
this, and I'll get into more detail about this in the next
message from this passage. But when our Lord Jesus came down
the first time, He came down in His incarnation. He's God
come down. Listen, we're not going up unless
He comes down. Isn't that right? He's got to
come down. He's got a stoop. In fact, the
Scripture says in Hebrews the second chapter, He's got to be
made lower than the angels. You know why? For the sufferings
of death. That's what it says in Iran.
For the sufferings of death. Because angels can't die. Angels
can't suffer. So He came down. He came down
made lower than the angels for the suffering of death. That's
what He did. He tasted death for all of His
people. Here's the messenger of the covenant. The Son of God
come down from heaven. That's His incarnation. We've
said over and over again in the seventh of the visions, every
vision, it takes us somewhere in the vision, it takes us back
to the first coming of our Lord Jesus, and takes us all the way
up to the second coming. from the beginning of the gospel
age or the gospel era, however you want to define this or speak
of it, takes us all the way up to the end. That's what's happened. We come to the end in Revelation
chapter 19. He takes us right up to the end. But then He's going to take us
back because, you see, in all of these visions, there's something
John has not yet seen. He hasn't seen the dragon done
away with. He hasn't seen the destruction
of the dragon. And in the first six visions,
He takes us all the way up to the judgment. It's what He did
in the first vision, chapters 1, 2, and 3. And then beginning
in chapter 4, He took us back, He goes back to the Lamb of God.
And anytime you see the Lamb mentioned in the book of Revelation
or anywhere else in the Word of God, think of the Lamb who
was smitten for us. The Lamb who was our substitute,
crucified. And so that's 4, 5, and 6. And
in each time, He takes us from the incarnation the incarnation
of Christ, up to the judgment. That's what He does in every
situation. And He does that, He's already done that in chapters
17, 18, and 19. He's taken us through the judgment
of Babylon, false religion, through Armageddon. Armageddon
is not some future warfare on earth between nations. There
may be more warfares on this earth between nations. There may be nuclear warfare. I don't know. But that's not
Armageddon. That is not Armageddon. Armageddon
is a spiritual warfare. That's what you've got to remember.
It's a spiritual warfare. The enemies of God against the
Lord Himself. And that's a war that the enemy
can't possibly win. And in the end of Revelation
chapter 19, we see the enemies of the Lord Jesus defeated. That's
why the Lord says, all the fowls of heaven come. There's a big
feast in store for you. And that was just kind of a Jewish
saying. There's been a great slaughter.
Or to look at it another way, there's been a great victory.
And the victory belongs to Christ Jesus. But, in the end of Revelation
chapter 19, here's what we don't see. Not yet. The defeat of the
dragon. Who is the dragon? That's the
devil. We haven't seen his defeat yet. We're going to see it in
chapter 20. And I'll tell you something else
we haven't seen yet, at least not very, we've seen it indicated,
but we haven't seen it in its fullness. The glory of the new
Jerusalem. That is the glory of the people
of God. That's yet to be unfolded as
well. So as John, as his seventh and
last vision begins, we're taken right back to this angel come
down from heaven, that's the incarnation of Christ. And I know it's his Christ because
he's got the key to the bottomless pit. And Revelation chapter 1
says that, he has the keys. And he has a great, he's got
something in his hand, a chain. He's going to bind somebody.
And verse 2, he laid hold on the dragon. Well, who's he talking
about? We've been talking about the
dragon, and I've been mentioning who he is, and now the inspired
writer, he tells us, make sure you understand who the dragon
is. He's that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan. He takes hold of him, He binds
him, He lays hold of the dragon, and He binds him a thousand years. Don't take it literally any more
than you would take the chain literally. In your mind, you're
not thinking of Jesus Christ holding a chain in His hand,
are you? Why, no. You're not thinking of Him having...
Let's see if I've got a key in my pocket. I've got a fob. I've got a key. When you read
this, here's an angel come down for him and he's got a key, you
think it looks like that? Why, no. Because you know better
than that. It's his figurative language
like a good bit of the book of Revelation. It just indicates
absolute authority. The one who's got the key, that's
the owner. That's Christ Jesus. Death and
hell belong to Him. He's got the keys. And in His
hand, He's got a chain. And He lays hold of the dragon.
In the religious world and the secular world, you know, they
picture Satan who's got horns and got a tail and pitchfork
and breathing fire. Listen. He transforms Himself
into an angel of light. That's what the Scripture says
about Him. This is figurative, symbolic language. Why should
there be any difference for the thousand years? You see, with
the Jews, if you said a thousand years to them, or when they used
it, they just meant a long, long time. I'll tell it to you real simply.
As simply as I can tell it to you. Our Lord Jesus came the
first time. He took hold of the dragon. He began to take hold of him
and deal with him when our Lord was tempted in the garden. That's why I read that passage
in scripture. He began to bind him then. He's dealing with the
dragon. That's one of the reasons He
came to this world, because the dragon's got to be dealt with
in order to save us from His power, because He holds us captive
by His will. Christ Jesus came to save His
people, and He can't save His people unless He deals with our
mortal enemy, who is the dragon. And He began to lay hold on Him
in the garden. But then He went to the cross
of Calvary. He said, now is the prince of
the world cast out. That's by his death. John chapter
12 says that. He laid hold of him and he bound
him with a chain. That doesn't mean that he ended
his existence. No, Satan exists. I do remember
his name, but I'm not going to mention his name. He wrote a
book years ago, Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth. He's wrong on both counts. He's
not alive because he's spiritually dead. And he's not well because
he's been bound. He's been bound by King Jesus
who holds him captive. He took captivity captive, our
Lord Jesus did, by his substitutionary death. And he holds the dragon. He holds him in check. He governs
him. Think of it this way, during
this thousand years, the thousand years is the figurative time
between our Lord's first advent and His second advent. Just a
long time. A time known only to God. During
this length of time, Satan, he doesn't free will it. He's under
the dominion. of the exalted man, Christ Jesus. You see, a man failed to begin
with. Another man has triumphed. And that other man is King Jesus. And He put a chain around the
neck of the dragon and He holds him in check. Oh, I know Satan
goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, but
I'll tell you who he can't devour because the Son of God holds
him by his chain. He can't devour the Lord's people.
No, he can't. He holds him in check. He casts
him into a bottomless pit. That is, he confines him. As
far as we're concerned, he shuts him up. He's set a seal upon
him. that he shouldn't deceive the nations anymore, that is
the elect of God, till the thousand years be ended. Now, I'll tell
you what's going to happen at the end of the thousand years,
just to give you a little heads up, on the next message on this,
the Lord is like going to release a chain. And he's going to go
out to the nations of the world, known as Gog and Magog, And He's
going to get this great following against King Jesus. And then,
the end will come just like that. This is our Savior. This is our
King. This is our Friend. Who rules
the world in the interest of His people. And for the glory
of the Father. Oh, how glorious and wonderful
He is. Do you know Him? Do you believe
Him? Tell you what, if you believe
the Lord Jesus Christ, you've got nothing to worry about. Whatever
happens, let come what may, our sovereign Savior sits on His
throne. And hey, like Job said, the worms
devour this body, in my flesh I shall see the Lord. I'll be
with Him someday. I hope you will be too.