the uh... lesson really it begins
in chapter three uh... chapter twenty verse three but
i want to go back and i want to read these first four verses
of revelation twenty this uh... you know i mentioned the last
time this is such a controversial chapter uh... so many people
who claim to be christian interpreted in different ways you know there
are passages of scripture that that uh... for whatever reason
can be interpreted in different ways, but whatever way you interpret
any passage of scripture, there's several things you have to keep
in mind. First of all, we keep in mind, number one, that all
scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's not the word of
man. This is the word of God. This is God's communication to
his people. It's the written word. And then
secondly, all the written word concerns the glory of God in
Christ Jesus. That's the ultimate theme of
it all from Genesis to Revelation. So I don't care if you're studying
Genesis 1 or Revelation 22. If you don't see the glory of
God in Christ and salvation by his grace based upon his righteousness
alone, you're going to miss it. The third thing you have to keep
in mind is that you do need to use responsible rules of interpretation. You know, it is by revelation
of the Spirit, but when the Spirit reveals His word to us, He doesn't
suspend logic and reason. Now, I'm not talking about sinful
human reason or sinful human logic. I'm talking about God's
reasoning. You know the command of the gospel in Isaiah chapter
1 verse 18, come, let us reason together. That's God's reasoning
and this is God's truth. This is the foundation of faith.
And so we have to use those responsible rules of interpretation. That's
why I wrote that book, Rightly Dividing the Word. And what I
brought it down after studying all kinds of lists of rules of
interpretation, I kind of reduced them all to, really I actually
reduced them all to seven rules, but I added one that I never
saw, that I don't see in most listings of rules of interpretation,
and that's the rule of Jesus Christ crucified and risen again.
Because I take that from John chapter 5 when Christ told the
Pharisees, he said in verse 39, you do search the scriptures
for in them you think you have eternal life. They are they which
testify of me. So understand that. Another thing
that we have to understand is, keep in mind, is one of the main
rules of interpretation is context. I mentioned this this morning
on our TV program, you know, how people will take verses of
scripture. You know, the Bible originally did not appear in
chapters and verses in the original Hebrew, the ancient Hebrew and
the original Greek. You know, when Paul, I mentioned
this on the TV program, when Paul sent the letter, the letter
that God inspired him to write to the churches of Galatia, it
wasn't Galatians 1 and Galatians 2 and Galatians, it was just
a letter. Now, and so, I'm glad that we do have chapters and
verses because it makes it easier to find things when we're met
together. But the thing about it is, you
cannot take one verse out of the Bible and build a theology,
build a doctrinal position, or build a denomination on it. And
it has to be interpreted within its context. And one of the things
you have to understand about Revelation 20 is that this is
certainly symbolic language. All right, look at verse 1. I
saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless
pit and a great chain in his hand. This is a vision that God
is giving to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos concerning
the last days. Now in the Bible, the last days
refers to that time period between the first coming of Christ and
the second coming of Christ. And so here's this angel. Now,
the word angel, for example, is he talking about an angelic
being or is he talking about a messenger of another nature? Like, for example, the word angel
literally means messenger. That's what it means. And here,
sometimes Christ, for example, is called the angel of the covenant
or the angel of the Lord. Now, he's not an angelic being
by nature. He's God in human flesh. That's
who Christ is. So when he's called an angel,
don't think of the angelic beings. Sometimes the ministers of the
church are referred to as angels. In Revelation 2 through 3, the
churches, the seven churches, the angel of the church. And
it's a messenger. So for example, I'm a messenger.
I'm not an angel. I'll never be an angel. When
I die and go to be with the Lord, I won't be turned into an angel.
I won't be given wings and a harp and a halo. I'll be a spirit. And a spirit, if I die before
the Lord comes back again, I'll be a spirit with him awaiting
the union with my new body, that spiritual body that's described
in 1 Corinthians 15, which gives us all the description that we
can know about that. But here the angel has the key
of the bottomless pit. Now the key means authority.
The key means the power to open and close. That's what it means. Now who has that authority? Who
has that power? This is Christ Himself. He has the key. He's in control.
Now understand that to begin with. We're not living in a world
that's out of God's control, folks. We're not living in chaos. God's not a cosmic chess player
up there playing a game with us. He makes his move, we make
our counter move, and then he figures out what to... That's
not the biblical God. That's not the true and living
God. That's a false God. And that's really the way many
people think of him today. Like he's some kind of a game
player or something like that. Christ is in control. And he
has the key of the bottomless pit. What's the bottomless pit?
It's not a hole in the ground. It's not hell. The bottomless
pit refers to the realm of darkness that resides over this earth. And so that's the bottomless
pit. And the reason it's bottomless, because there's no end to it.
So that's symbolic language. Don't go looking for a hole in
the ground, because you'll find a hole in the ground, but that's
not this, all right? It's the realm of darkness. That's
the realm over which Satan presides. That's the realm over which God
is allowing him to provide. He's called the God, little g,
of this world in that sense. And his realm is the realm of
darkness and deception and ignorance. That's how he operates, all right? And it says here, this angel
comes down, has the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain
in his hand. He's not talking about a literal
chain, but he's talking about a chain that over which, in verse
two, it says, he laid hold of the dragon, the dragon is Satan,
that old serpent, remember the serpent back in the garden, Satan
appeared to Adam and Eve as a serpent, which is the devil, that's the
adversary, that's the accuser of the brethren, and Satan, that's
the enemy, and bound him a thousand years. Bound him with this chain.
Put him on a leash, that's what it literally means. Now is this
a literal thousand years? Many people think it is. I believe
it's symbiotic. In the original, it would be
thousands, plural. It's a Hebrew idiom is what they
call it. Not a Hebrew idiot, but a Hebrew
idiom. And it's like a symbolic number
that it refers to a specified number or a specified span of
time that only God knows. And I believe this thousand years
is symbolic of the, again, describing the time period between the first
coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ. Now, when was
Satan bound? Well, look at John chapter 12.
When was he cast down? Let's put it that way. to the
bottomless pit, to the realm of darkness. Well, look at John
chapter 12. Now, I could show you a lot of
scripture on this, and I've got much of it listed in your lesson
there. But look at John chapter 12,
and look at verse 31. Now, what Christ is doing here
is he's describing the nature of his atoning death. This is
where he said, except a seed of wheat falls into the ground
and dies, it won't bear fruit. He's talking about himself. And
he says in verse 31 of John 12, now is the judgment of this world,
now shall the prince of this world be cast out. That's Satan,
all right? And he says in verse 32, and
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, that's his cross, lifted
up on the cross to die. He said, I'll draw all unto me,
all of his sheep. He said, my sheep. He said, the
good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. My sheep hear
my voice and they follow me. That's who he's talking about
there. He's going to draw his people to him because he died
for them. And in his death is the establishment
of righteousness, the putting away of sin, the establishment
of righteousness and righteousness demands that they be saved. Christ
died for his people and his death demands they have life. He'll
draw all. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me, draw him and him, you know, that's
what he says in John chapter six. Yeah. And then verse 33,
listen to this. This he said signifying what
death he should die. Now, is there any doubt? His
cross, his death, burial and resurrection is what Revelation
20 is referring to as the binding of Satan, putting Satan on that
leash. Luther said that the devil is
God's devil. He's on a leash. Now, so what
he's talking about in Revelation 20 is not something off into
our future, it's the here and now. This is the new covenant
right here. This thousand years is the fullness
of the time that Christ is building his church in the New Testament
age all over the world, that church he redeemed by his precious
blood, all who are justified in him based upon his righteousness
imputed, and in time, the gospel will go out to them, they'll
hear it by the power of the Spirit, and they'll believe it. They'll
be born again by the power of the Spirit. It says, now look
at verse three. It says, he cast him into the
bottomless pit, the realm of darkness, shut him up and set
a seal upon him, locked him in. In other words, that seal is
the seal of God's power and authority that cannot be broken. He's the
king of kings. He's the Lord of lords. And what
he's doing is he's binding Satan, it says, look here, He says that
he, verse three, that he should deceive the nations no more till
the thousand years should be fulfilled. Now, what is that
all about? Well, Satan's deception of the
nation. Think about Satan's history as recorded in the Bible. Where's
the first time you run into Satan? In the Garden of Eden, isn't
it? Genesis chapter three. And what did he do? He deceived
Eve. That's his tool, all right? And
I'm not gonna go through the whole history here, because we
don't have time. But think about this. I thought about the time
when the children of Israel were brought into the promised land
by Joshua, and how they were attacked by the nations that
surrounded them, because these nations were deceived by Satan.
And you think about during the time of the old covenant from
Sinai to the cross, about 1500 years, where Gentiles were pretty
much excluded. Now there were a few. You'll
see in the history of the record of the Old Testament, you'll
see there were a few Gentiles who became converts, but very
few. The nations, you see, it was
all confined to Israel. Remember, Paul wrote about that
in Galatians chapter three, when he talked about how they were
strangers and aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, having
no hope without God in the world. Well, it's different now, that's
what he's saying to the Galatians. It's different now. Because he
said, now you've been brought into the kingdom. In Ephesians
two, he describes it. You've been brought, and you
have an equal status in the kingdom of God. In other words, the Jew
who is a member of the kingdom, not just the Jew now, but the
Jew who is a member of the kingdom has no higher status in that
kingdom than the Gentile. Equal. For in Christ, there's
neither Jew nor Gentile. Remember how all distinctions
that separate us physically are totally ignored in the kingdom
of God as far as our status and being right with God. Why? Because
we are all, if we're saved, we are all saved by grace. And that means no matter who
you are, no matter where you come from, No matter what you
do, you cannot earn salvation, you cannot deserve it. It is
a free gift from God based upon the righteousness of Christ imputed
and received by faith, and that's why we have an equal status in
the kingdom of heaven. I always use this analogy. You
take the Apostle Paul, a man used of God almost like no other. used of God to write over half
the New Testament scriptures. How was Paul established in a
right relationship with God? It was totally by God's grace
based on the righteousness of Christ. Even Paul said in Philippians
3, Oh, that I may know him and be found in him, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ. Now let's take the thief on the
cross, a man infamously immoral, a malefactor, which means a criminal,
who acknowledged that on that cross, in capital punishment,
he was getting what he deserved, who had no experiences or testimonies
to give to anybody, and right before he died, the Lord brought
him to faith in Christ. Now here's what I'm saying about
this kingdom. And that's what this is, this
thousand year reign, this Satan being bound and cast down, it
has to do with the establishment of the kingdom of God here on
earth. And somebody says, well, how can you say the kingdom of
God has been established here on earth? I mean, look what a
mess this place is. You're looking at it wrong. You're looking at
it on this horizontal plane with the eyes of men, if that's what
you think. Look at it from the word of God. The kingdom of God
is established on earth through his church, where the gospel
is preached. And the gospel is our weapon.
Well, in that kingdom, that thief on the cross had an equal standing
before God as the apostle Paul. You know why? Because neither
Paul nor the thief deserved or earned salvation by anything
they ever did or didn't do. It was all of grace. It was all
Christ. It's all His righteousness. And
that's what people don't like. That's what man by nature doesn't
like. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, they're
spiritually discerned. What's the problem? He doesn't understand
1 Corinthians 2, 12, those things that are freely given. He has
to have some part in it. He has to have some way to boast,
even if it's just an inkling of something. He has to think,
I made the difference, not God. That's the problem. That's why
people believe salvation conditioned on the sinner. That's why they
believe you can be saved one day and lost the next, because
they want to think we make the difference and we don't. Who
makes us to differ? I know he's talking about spiritual
gifts there in 1 Corinthians 12, but it applies to salvation
too. Who makes me to differ? God does. Well, so here's Satan. He's bound so that he cannot
deceive the nations. And I want you to turn to Matthew
24. Now I told you before, and I may go through this, a good
parallel scripture to Revelation 20 is 2 Thessalonians chapter
2. And I'll probably go over there
and go through that without just making one lesson on that because
it is such a good parallel. But look at Matthew 24. Now we're
going to begin studying this on Wednesday night. I'm preaching
a series on preaching Christ in the end time. And Matthew
24 is called the Olivet Discourse because Christ preached it to
his disciples from the Mount of Olives. But listen to what
he says here. He's talking about the end time.
He's really, he's talking about several different things. He's
talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and then he goes
beyond that and he talks about his second coming. But look at
verse 14 of Matthew 24. When is the end going to come?
I can tell you exactly when. Now, don't get me wrong, last
Wednesday I told y'all, if anybody stands up before you and tells
you they know the day that Christ is coming back again, don't listen
to them. I don't know the exact day, but I do know when the end
is coming. Look at verse 14. Christ said, and this gospel
of the kingdom. Now what is the gospel of the
kingdom? It's the gospel of God's grace, how God justifies the
ungodly, how God saves sinners. It's the gospel wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed. His scepter is a scepter of righteousness. And he says, this gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto
what? All nations. Now that wasn't
before now. During the old covenant that
wasn't the case. But now it is, because Satan
is bound so as not to deceive the nations. Now the gospel of
the kingdom is going to be preached in all the world for a witness
unto all nations, and then the end shall the end come. There
it is. When this gospel is preached
unto all nations, now people can argue today. They'll say,
well, hadn't that already happened? I don't know. You might be able
to make a case for that, especially with the internet. I know missionaries
went out from Jerusalem, and Paul was used of God to establish
gospel churches in the Gentile world then. I know over a period
of time, the true gospel has gone out. Listen, the truth has
always been outnumbered by the lies. You understand that, don't you?
You see, when Christ, when he taught the parables of the kingdom,
beginning over in Matthew, what is it, Matthew 13? The seed and
the sower, is that 13, isn't it? Y'all check me out on these
things now. My memory's not like it used
to be. But anyway, when he was preaching the kingdom parables
about how the gospel was gonna go out, He also said that Satan
was going to be busy sowing his tares, which means false churches. False churches, false believers.
All right? Well, the broad road to destruction,
it's always been said, many be there that go in. The narrow
way of salvation, few be there that find it. But that doesn't
negate the fact that the gospel has gone out to God's people
all over the world. Now whether or not you can say
it's already been preached in all nations, I don't know. If
it's not, it's pretty close, you know, but we're not to argue.
We don't have a, I can't turn to chapter and verse and tell
you that. But that's what's happening here
in Revelation 20, look back at it. He says he's been bound for
a thousand years. He hasn't been able to deceive
the nations anymore. In other words, God's elect out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation will not fail to be
brought to the revelation of truth, to faith and repentance. Satan cannot hinder that, never
has been able to. And it says in verse three, and
after that he must be loosed a little season. a little period
of time, at the end, right before the second coming of Christ,
Satan will be loose to deceive the nations again. And there's
so, listen, there's, and I know what the objection's gonna come,
and I'm glad we're gonna, I'm just gonna briefly go through
verse four here on that issue. There is so much false religion
today that comes in the name of Christianity. And it's rampant. That's why 2 Thessalonians 2
is a good passage for us to study in parallel with this. It's a
day of deception. Now, has Satan been loosed already? Maybe. I sometimes think he has,
because there's so much false religion, not just false religion,
but false religion that comes in the name of Christianity.
Now, over in Matthew 24, remember Christ said, in that day, many
will be deceived. He said, they'll come, say, here's
Christ, there's Christ. He said, don't believe them.
The New Testament warns us about false Christ, counterfeit Christ. Not just people stand up saying
they're the Messiah, like old David Koresh out in out in Texas,
but people preaching a false Christ, 2 Corinthians 11. Satan's
ministers are described as those who are
ministers of righteousness, but they can't hang with it, they
can't stay with it. So it's a day of deception when Satan is loose
for a little season. Well, what's our hope? Well,
look at verse 4, and we'll conclude here with this. I saw thrones,
and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them.
That's our hope. Now, read on. He says, and I
saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus.
That's the martyrs. You know, all the apostles were
martyred except John, and he was put out on the Isle of Patmos.
Others have been martyred, been tortured for the true faith. Don't get the idea that a person
cannot be martyred and tortured for a false faith though now.
They can be. Remember 1st Corinthians 13,
though I give my body to be burned and have not love, and that's
love that's ensconced in the truth now. He said it means nothing,
all right? And he says, and for the word
of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, that's the fall, that
is talking about the beast that come up out of the sea, anti-Christian
governments that support anti-Christian religion, neither his image,
neither has received his mark upon their foreheads or upon
their hands, that's the 666, that's the false gospel, forehead
representing the mind, the hand representing the works, And they
lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Now Christ
is the King of Kings. The authority of these who he's
talking about, the saints that have gone on to be with him,
who are reigning with him for a thousand years, their authority
is not their own, it's his authority. We're ambassadors for Christ.
But here's the key that I want you to see in this. And I'll
start here next week too. It says judgment was given unto
them. Well, does that mean that we're
the supreme judges of all people? No, we're not. Does that mean
we can see into people's hearts and make judgments based upon
what we see? No, we can't do that. Although,
don't take that too far because the Bible teaches us that out
of the heart flow what? The issues of life. If I stood
before you and preached salvation by works, I'm telling you what's on my
heart. I'm telling you I have an evil heart. Isn't that an
evil heart? If I expose that to you. If I
preach salvation by grace, that's the new heart. So don't take
it too far. But what does it mean that judgment
was given? The gospel was given to them. Here's what people need
to understand. The preaching of the gospel is
a judgment. Now let me show you that, turn
back to Isaiah chapter 42. It is a judgment. Look, what's
the great commission? Turn to Isaiah 42, but what's
the great commission? Go into all the world and preach
the gospel, right? And tell them what? He that believeth
and confesses that in believer's baptism shall be saved. Now that
doesn't mean baptism saves you. I'm gonna be preaching on that
issue in a couple of weeks on baptism. But he that believeth
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
what? Damned. That's a judgment. Just in preaching
God's word. It's not my personal judgment
of anybody because it judges me. It's not self-righteous judgment
because I know my only hope is not anything in me or of me or
from me, it's all Christ. But that's what the gospel is.
Look at verse one of Isaiah 42. Behold my servant whom I uphold,
mine elect. Now this is a prophecy of Christ.
In whom my soul delighteth. Remember God said, this is my
beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. I have put my spirit
upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised wreath
shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He
shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor
be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth, and the
isles shall wait for his law, his word. That's the gospel. That's what Revelation 20 is
talking about here. The gospel is a judgment upon
this earth. It exposes the lostness and eventual
damnation of all who refuse to believe and will not submit to
Christ and his righteousness as the only way of salvation.
The preaching of the cross is foolishness to them that are
perishing, but it's the power of God to those who are being
saved. So how can I judge myself? It all has to do with the judgment
of the gospel. What is my hope of salvation? You know my favorite hymn. I say it all the time. What is
my hope of salvation? What is my hope of being accepted
with God? What is my hope of entering heaven's
glory? My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sea.
You see, my hope is, I've had a lot of experiences in the past.
Religious and otherwise. But my hope's not there. So when
you ask me about my salvation, well, you know, when I was 12,
I didn't... That's not my hope. I got baptized. That's not my
hope. I've preached the gospel for
over 30 years. That's not my hope. In fact,
in preaching the gospel for over 30 years, I've been telling people
my hope. Christ is my hope. Right now, I have nothing to
plead before God, but His righteousness imputed. And I'll say this, I know it
shocks some people, but it's true. If God were to judge me
right now based upon my best, I'd hear Him say the same thing
He said to those false preachers in Matthew 7, depart from me
you that work iniquity I never knew. It's Christ and Him alone,
all right, okay.