If you wish to follow along,
turn to the revelation of Jesus Christ, chapter 20. The manner of my message this
morning will be somewhat different than what most may be used to,
or at least some. But my message still must be
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. My message is not Jesus Christ
crucified, because Jesus Christ is not crucified. Jesus Christ
is exalted and at the right hand of God the Father. Paul said,
I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And that is our message. No matter
what topic or subject of scripture that we intend to engage in,
Jesus Christ must be the sum and substance of it all. But
before I read Revelation, the book of the Revelation of Jesus
Christ, chapter 20, let me say this, that Christ's first advent
is not all there is to it. Do you have a Calvinistic eschatology? Probably never thought you'd
even say, never even thought about me saying that. You're probably still wondering,
what's he talking about? I understand that. Do you have
a Calvinistic eschatology? I mean by that to say to everyone
that may ever hear me, do you approach the Bible thinking you
must make every passage fit into one or more of the five points
of Calvinism? Some people do. Revelation chapter
20, and I saw an angel come down from heaven. Who is this angel? I do not know. I've heard men say they know.
You do not know. None of the context tells us
who this angel is. I know what my opinion is, but
that's all it is. 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, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him
1,000 years. Is there any question as to who
this angel, whoever he might be, is now engaging? Is there any question as to who's
engaging? Quite clear. Somebody says, well,
this has a lot of symbolism in her metaphors. Really? Satan
is the dragon. Well, that's a metaphor, preacher.
No, it ain't. There are mythical dragons. They do not exist. That's
why I use the word mythical. There are Komodo dragons. They
do exist. There is this dragon, and he's
real. He's right. He is the dragon
He is the dragon And cast him into the bottomless pit shut
him up and set a seal upon him For what reason that he should
deceive the nations no more? Till the thousand years should
be fulfilled How much deception then when he will he do? none None! Nada! Zero! Now when I hear someone preach
that my Lord Jesus Christ died simply to make an attempt to
redeem some people, it angers me. But when I hear people deny
the sovereign authority of my Lord from eternity to eternity,
and I don't know if that's even the right way to say it, but
for lack of another phrase that I'm aware of, my Lord will reign
at all times. And if my God's book says my
Lord will do something, even if it's future, God help me to
preach it, even if I can't understand it all. or make it all fit in
some neat little package. That it's till 1,000 years should
be fulfilled, and after that it must be loosed, a little season.
Now when it says here 1,000, some point out this is plural,
and it is. Every use of this word in the
book of the Revelation is plural. But let me just say one thing
to you. in this specific place only. Maybe also in 2 Peter 3
verse 8. But in this chapter here is the
only place where it uses this plural thousand with the phrase
Y-E-A-R-S. So it's not thousands of thousands.
Many other places it is translated, thousands upon thousands, or
10,000 times 10,000, and a thousand of thousands. It's plural, but
it's plural because it's thousand. But here it makes it clear, it
is clear a thousand years. Now, if this is only symbolical,
If this is only a metaphor or an allegory of our Lord's first
advent, then he must have had to come on the year 2000, or
he will not come until the year 3000 at least. Now do you hear
what I'm saying? Do you hear what I just said
to you? Because this is, he will be bound. If this is symbolical,
if it's an allegory of what Christ accomplished at Calvary, The
thousand years will end. They shall be fulfilled. Satan
will then be what? Loosed. And then shall do the
very thing that he was totally unable to do while the thousand
years were taking place. So if this is only an allegory
of our Lord Jesus Christ's first advent, Christ can only come
back upon thousand year period. because it is 1,000 years. Don't take a Calvinistic view.
As long as I preach Jesus, everything's fine. You better preach the truth
about Jesus from whatever text you're talking about. Preach the truth about Jesus
Christ. Let the chips fall where they
may. 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, for the word of God, which did not
worship the beast, neither his image, neither had received his
mark upon their foreheads or in their hands, and they lived
and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead,
and note they are the rest of the dead, not another kind of
dead, not another group of dead, but this rest of the dead will
also be said to what? Live. So if the living of the first
group, that is those who are participants in the first resurrection,
if they are indeed, this is spoken of allegorically, merely as their
spiritual resurrection in regeneration and conversion, then it clearly
is teaching if that is your take on the passage, that everybody
else will one day live the same way too. You hear what it just
said? But the rest of the dead lived
not again until the thousand years were finished. You see
what I'm saying? Consistency is key in any passage
of scripture. God didn't just give these men
little fleeting thoughts here about one thing, the next verse
a fleeting thoughts about another thing. That's the very thing
the dispensationalists teach. that you could take the passages,
especially those of the Old Testament, and break them up, and one applies
to one dispensation, another applies to another dispensation,
a single word in a verse would apply to a total different dispensation. This is the same thing people
do in the fallacy of their so-called eschatology. We pick and choose
what we want, and as long as we give it, especially if we're
a free grace fellow, as long as we give it a Calvinistic twang,
Well, we're preaching Jesus. Not if I'm lying about who Jesus
Christ is and what he's supposed to accomplish in any given text. If this book says he shall return
and I say no, that really is just an allegory of his first
coming, I am lying on God. Is that clear enough? Is that
clear enough? Wait a minute, let me state it
clearer. No, it's clear enough. Blessed and holy for six 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 and when the thousand years are
expired Will Christ redemptive work ever expire? Will it No, sir! And they accuse me of maybe not
quite being hard enough with limited atonement, because I
see Revelation 20 as still future. I throw the accusation back at
them. If you're consistent with what
this says, be consistent. If not, give your opinion and
then let it go. I heard a preacher, a preacher
whom I respect very much, He said, and this is not a quote,
but this is what he said, and I've heard the message two or
three times. My eschatology is this, that
the coming of the Lord, the changing or the resurrection of the bodies
of God's people that have died, and the changing of God's people
that are alive, and in the resurrection of all the dead who are not in
Christ, and the great white throne judgment, and all of it will
happen in the moment in the twinkling of an eye. That is a lie. This book does not teach that.
It teaches that the transformation of living saints, when Christ
comes again, will take place in the moment, in the twinkling
of an eye. And if I apply that to everything
else, I can say, well, gospel preaching has to happen to you
in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye. God help us that our Calvinism
doesn't overrun God's Word The thousand years are expired
Satan shall be loosed out of his prison And shall go out and
what's he gonna do the very thing that he was barred from doing
during the thousand years He shall go out deceive the nations
Which are in the four quarters of the earth Gog and Magog together
them to battle who is that? I do not know And nobody else
really does. But Gog and Magog are real. They're real. They're just as
real as the devil. How do you deceive something
that ain't even real? The number of whom is as the
sand of the sea, and they went upon the breadth of the earth,
and passed the camp the saints about, and the beloved city,
what is that city? I really do not know. I do not know. But I know there
will be a beloved city. And I do believe this, for the
believer, wherever Christ is, that'll be a beloved city. Wherever
he is. Somebody says it's Jerusalem.
Where does it say that at? Where does it say that at? I
know what the book says about Jerusalem, which is now. It's in bondage with their children.
and it will always be. Don't say that. It does, since
this book says there's gonna have to be a new one. It will
have to be a new one. Fire came down from heaven and
devoured them. The devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast
and the false prophet are, and they shall be tormented day and
night forever and ever. Is that an allegory? And I saw a great white throne,
and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth of the heaven
fled away, and there was found no place for them. These people
here, standing in front of, or at this great white throne, there
is no place for them. They are there, but it ain't
their place. You see it? It's the place they're
supposed to be at this time, but it ain't their place. And I saw a great white throne,
he said, on it, from whose face the heaven and earth 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, which is the book of life. The
dead were judged out of those things which are written in the
books according to their works. I'm gonna tell you that I don't
want to be one of these folks. I have some inkling of what my
works are like in the past hour. in the past hour while listening
to two great gospel messages. I don't want to be judged according
to my works. If you do, have at it. Have at
it. 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 again, it says, every man according
to their works. 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. The opposite of that to me would
be whoever is found with their name written in the book of life,
they're okay. They're okay. Some speak of Christ
one day getting the upper hand on Satan. I was raised up in
that kind of religion. Some of you weren't. Some who
hear me never were, but many of us were raised up in that
kind of religion, that kind of eschatology, that kind of prophecy. Some speak that Christ one day
will get the upper hand on Satan. Others think that preaching limited
atonement from our text is this scripture's context. This ain't
about atonement. There is no atonement mentioned.
There is no suffering lamb mentioned. He is not even called here the
lamb, though the lamb he is. He's always been the lamb, but
he is called here who? Christ. Christ. Remember what it says? Christ. Few brief questions. Is the throne
of God and the Lamb real? Mentioned in Revelation 22 and
one. Do you believe it's real? Is the new heaven and the new
earth, will they be real? Mentioned Revelation 21 verse
one. Is the great white throne judgment real? Mentioned in chapter
20 verses 11 through 15. We read those passages. Is God's
omnipotent reign real? Revelation 19 verse six. Then
why all of a sudden do I get to chapter 20 verses one through
10, and this all of a sudden becomes some great metaphor or
some great allegory. Moreover, Christ binds Satan. Now I'm gonna
pop out a pen and toss it here to you. I used to have one of
those dummies. I wish to God I hadn't sold it
at the yard sale. I'd have brought it this morning and pulled it
out and thrown it out on the floor in front of you. But I know if I start doing
stuff like that, I'll be doing it all the time. Listen to me. Christ binds Satan at his sovereign
prerogative. Look at Matthew 12, verses 20
through 28. I'm not even gonna read it, but
he said, I will bind the strong man when I go into his house
and I'll spoil his goods. And he was talking about binding
devils and Satan himself, even then when he was here on this
earth. Every time God shows a soul mercy, he's binding the adversary,
the devil, even if that's Satan himself. Think about, even in
the case of Job, God left Satan bound. Oh, he gave him a long
rope, didn't he? But he still left him bound.
Satan could go no further than God gave him say so. As I preached
at my wife's dad's funeral, God, this devil can't spit lest God
gives him say so. I don't know if he really spits
or not. And maybe since he's a dragon he spits fire, I don't
know. Whoa. No, and somebody says, boy you
know when somebody's a Calvinist. I was told that after the funeral.
Never heard from the fella again. Gave him a card, ain't heard
a peep from him. Maybe he'll hear this. Christ binds Satan at his sovereign
prerogative. Moreover, Christ in His times
will show, He will manifest at His second advent this sovereign
prerogative. He will openly manifest it to
the world. Paul says this in 1 Timothy 6,
13 through 16. about his coming again, about
his second coming, about his second advent, and he says, in
his times, there's a plural word. Not just one little spit that's
all over with. There's still a lot to happen,
folks. And I'm not gonna try to draw you a map, or how it
all goes, because I can't do it, but I know my Lord reigns,
and he's gonna prove it to this world one day. And in his times
he will show who is the only potentate, Lord of lords and
king of kings. Here's the fifth question. Is
Christ returning on a white horse real? Revelation 19 verse 11
through six. Now preacher, you know that's
got to be a metaphor. Oh, really? Oh, really? Have you ever read
Zechariah 9 verse 9? Thy king cometh. Even the old
Jews knew this was Messiah. Thy king cometh. Beak and lowly. But what's he gonna do? Right
on the ass, the fold of an ass. And I can almost picture some
good Calvinistic rabbi way back yonder. Roping it up his scroll
to to Zachariah and said now folks. This is Messiah. He ain't
gonna be riding no burrow Huh? The way some people try to make
you think you got to understand this book like they think they
understand it Well, you know that just Messiah ain't gonna
come riding on a little old little old ass And yet he did that very thing He did that very thing. Messiah
came into Jerusalem riding on a bull. So don't think that we're
wiser than God. He wants to ride a white horse
and he wants us to follow him. Revelation 19, that's okay with
me. We'll even do it bareback if
that's what he's ordained, I don't care. people get so crazy, why? Because they're trying to prove
their own point, not preaching what this book says. I'm sure in some areas I am failing
right now, miserably, at winning friends and influencing, or how's
it, what's it called? Whatever it is, you know what
I'm talking about. Listen to me, never reject scripture
because some rest it. but never reject scripture because
some heretic happens to agree with it. There's a lot of folks believe
in the virgin birth, but I'm not gonna reject the virgin birth
because a bunch of Armenians believe in the virgin birth.
I've heard this said, well Armenians believe in this thousand year
thing, and that it's still future. So, they can get a couple things
right by accident. As Earl used to say, even a blind
hog will find a nut every once in a while. What about the sovereignty of
God? There are men who preach that and turn it into all sorts
of evil. Am I going to quit preaching
the sovereignty of God because some heretic distorts it or happens
to even agree with it? No. No. Pull the piece. Our text does not teach Satan's
binding. Our text does not teach Satan's
binding. If you think that's what our
text teaches, Satan's binding, you've left out a whole lot. Oh, I've heard the pre-millennials.
Oh, Satan will be bound one day. That's not what this says. What
does it say? It teaches he is going to be
laid hold of. It teaches he is going to be
bound, having been laid hold of. It teaches that he's going
to be cast into the bottomless pit, having been bound, having
been laid hold of. It teaches that he shall be shut
up and sealed. That's a whole lot more than
just binding, is it not? Now when I first said that, I'm
sure some of you good pre-millennialists just started to bristle right
down in your jammies. But you understand what I'm saying
now for this word? It's a whole lot more than, Satan
has been, God binds Satan and been bounding Satan. He kicked
him out of glory. Christ said I saw him fall like
lightning out of heaven. He's gonna be shut up and sealed
from actual presence on the earth for a thousand years. That's
what this teaches. Does it or does it not teach
that? Unless you are of the ilk, you don't believe the Bible means
what it teaches, or teaches what it means. You go ahead and take
your pick. You wanna disassociate with me
because I hold to that, you go right ahead. Now let me tell
you something, Christ has all authority over Satan right now.
And I'm not gonna be able to read all these to you. We still
want to get to the table. Six things. His authority, Christ's
authority, was proclaimed immediately after the fall. And I mean immediately
after the fall. Satan was told, and there we
are told he was the serpent. I believe he was the serpent. and he was more subtle than any
of the beasts of the field. That's Satan, right? So is Revelation 20 and verse
two stretching it when it calls him the old serpent? No, it's
real, R-E-A-L. Real. Christ's authority was
proclaimed immediately after the fall, but note it says, Satan
would crush the seed of the woman. That's Christ. He would say it
would crush his heel But it wasn't because of something Satan did
to Christ Satan crushed his heel when Jesus
Christ put his heel on his head and crushed his head and This
was a one-time thing, Joe. When Christ said, the head was
crushed, yes, it bruised his heel, but this wasn't something
the devil did to Jesus. He tried that one time. Did he
not? After 40 days fasting in the
wilderness? How'd that work out for the devil
with Jesus? But let me tell you, Christ's
authority, though, is eternal. It didn't begin there. Revelation
13, six through 10, says that Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Number three, Christ loosened
the grip of Satan's work. John says, first John three and
eight, that he was manifested to destroy, and that means to
loosen, not totally annihilate, not in his first coming, but
it was to loosen the grip of Satan's works. 1 John 3 and 8,
you can read it yourself. Number four, Christ rendered
Satan's power of death completely idle. That's the meaning of the
word destroyed. You'll see that in Hebrews 2,
14 through 17. But it says that he might destroy him who had
power of death. I don't know how to explain that,
Mason, but I know it's true because God tells me so. As a matter of fact, and I do
want to read you this one, turn to Colossians chapter two. Colossians
chapter two. Before I read, let me give you
the fifth one. Christ robbed Satan and openly triumphed in
it. Look at Colossians 2 verse 13,
and you, speaking to these believers here, and you, about a time before
they were actually believers, I should say, and you being dead
in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, have to quicken
together with Christ, not here by Christ. This is about representation. This is about when Christ was
raised out of that grave, we were raised with him out of that
grave. having forgiven us all trespasses. You see it? So where's the fountain, the
fountain from which our forgiveness of trespasses flows? Christ at
Calvary. Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
took it out of the way and he nailed it to his cross. What's
he talking about? All the law, the traditions,
all of it. All of it, but look, and having
spoiled, there we go. And having spoiled principalities
and powers. See it? He made a show of them
openly, triumphing over them in it, and none of us have ever
seen that. Even the people that were there
when Christ was crucified didn't get to see that. Because they
didn't know what was going on. If they had them, they wouldn't
have crucified the Lord of glory, Paul says. But God Almighty the
Father seen it. Did he not? And I believe God
Almighty the Father's word that he sent through this apostle.
Don't you? That's number five. Here's number
six. And this is an astounding statement.
Turn to Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16. One verse. I will not be able
to explain this verse other than I know that it has something
to do with the peace of God. I'm not going to be able to tell
you how God did this for the believers at Rome. were never
told specifically. But look at it, Romans 16 verse
20, and the God of peace shall brew Satan, and then look at
the next few words, under your feet shortly. So we're gonna
do a little stomping of our own, aren't we? Huh? Some stomping
happens somewhere or another along the line, does it not? Now somebody says, when does
that happen? I don't know, but only God knows. But isn't that
what he says? And the God of peace shall bruise
Satan under your feet. Now, God gets the credit, not
us. Don't you try to go take on the
devil. He'll chew you up and spit you out, because he ain't
bound in the bottomless pit right now. And he is still deceiving
men and women right now. He's even deceiving some of the
elect right now until God puts a quietus on it. Amen, that's
right. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you, so be it. Amen. Number seven, Satan will
be laid hold of. I said he will be. He will be
laid hold of He will be bound, he will be cast into the bottomless
pit, he will be shut up and sealed for a thousand years because
God says so. And I'll stand with that. God
give me grace to do so. But he will then be loosed, but
only for a short time. And he will then be swiftly damned
forever. Notice when we read Revelation
20, and this great horde, Gog and Magog, being deceived by
Satan, gathers around the saints of God, the beloved city around
Christ. Remember, they're living and reigning with Christ for
a thousand years. Does it show us of any chaos or panic in the
camp? Huh? Why? Because those there
are with the king. He's dealt with Satan from the
get-go. My brothers and sisters, let
me just give you two things. Do not fear Satan. Fear God. Fear God. My brothers and sisters,
do not fear men. Fear God. I'm done, Paul.