So we come to Revelation 20.
It's now months that we've been going through this. It's February,
middle of February that we started and we now come to Revelation
chapter 20. Is this The end of the sixth
vision, or the start of the seventh and final vision? It doesn't
really matter, does it? I wouldn't come down definitively
in any direction, but I'm inclined to think at the moment that chapters
20, 21 and 22 are all the final vision, and this is the reason
I say that. Because as I titled my book eight years ago, The
Kingdom of God Triumphant, this is the kingdom of God triumphant.
It's the overthrow, the final overthrow of Satan, utterly defeated
and justly judged. And it's God's saints in glory
reigning in Christ. Chapter 20, gives another perspective
of Satan's defeat. We've already seen perspectives
of Satan's defeat, of his overthrow. In chapter six, in chapter 11,
in chapter 14, and then in chapter 16, Armageddon, the end of history. And then last week in chapter
19, the second half, with Christ the King riding on his victorious
white stallion and conquering all of his foes. total victory
of Christ and his people over the armies of the beast and of
the false prophet. What does he attain that victory
with? It's just with the sharp sword
of the Word from his mouth. Out of Christ's mouth went a
sharp two-edged sword. That's the Word of God. We read
that elsewhere in the New Testament. The sword of the Spirit is the
Word of God. And just with the truth and the
power of the Word of God, Christ is triumphant. He subdues all
of his enemies. Now in chapter 20, we see a vision
of the time from Christ's ascension to the final judgment. That's
what I think this is about, it's the time from the ascension of
Christ back to glory after he accomplished redemption until
the final judgment that we see, just in these 15 verses. We see
first of all, this is the first point I want you to get, we see
an angel, a key, A chain and a pit. Look at these verses again,
let's read them. And he laid hold on the dragon,
that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him
a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and
shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the
nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled. And
after that, he must be loosed a little season. Let me remind
you that chapter 20 doesn't follow chronologically after the end
of chapter 19. It's the same throughout Revelation. These are different perspectives
of things that we've seen already from different angles. That's
the beauty of this Revelation. It's to reveal from different
perspectives. And here we see the power of
Satan and of his deceit, and of the almost universal, the
people of this world almost universally worship the beast that we saw
in chapter 13. And the world is infatuated with
the delusions of the false prophet, you know the beast from the earth,
that's the false prophet. And the delusion of Satan, what
is his creed? It is life. It is life. It is
a utopia without the justice of God regarding sin. And that
cannot be, for God is holy and God must judge sin. It started
when? Well, right back at the fall.
But we saw it Predominantly in Babel, in Genesis chapter 11,
after the flood, Nimrod, that rebellious panther, as the word
has him, to build a tower to heaven without the justice of
God. He was trying to avoid that guarding
of the way to the tree of life, which is The gospel of grace,
the gospel of grace, the gospel of Christ coming and shedding
his blood to redeem his people from the curse of the law is
the only way to the tree of life. And when we get to chapter 22
of Revelation, we see the people of God around the tree of life
in heaven. They're there. It's all symbolism,
obviously. But Satan always tried to defeat
God, to overcome God. He got a third of the angels
of heaven to rebel with him against God. But he still hasn't succeeded. He still hasn't succeeded. Why
has he still not succeeded? There's a world full of sinners
at his behest. Before Christ came, and accomplished
redemption in the Old Testament, by deception, Satan stirred up
five empires against Israel to eliminate God's people. And then
Rome arose. Do you remember those empires?
The empires of the Old Testament, the empires of Assyria, sorry,
of Egypt, of Assyria, of Babylonia, Chaldea, the Medes and the Persians,
Greeks, the great empire of Alexander the Great, and then the Roman
Empire. All of those empires were Satan's attempt to do what
he failed to do, what he was mortally wounded in trying to
do at Babel, when God came down and confounded the languages
of the unified global situation into the separate nations. But
Satan stirred up empires to try to do what? To prevent the promised
seed of the woman from coming. to prevent, to stop the Christ
of God coming into the world. He would come from that people,
that people, that line down from Abel and, Adam and Eve were redeemed,
then Seth and, Abel and Seth, and others, Enoch, and right
the way down through Noah, all the way down through history.
Abraham called out of darkness into the marvelous light of God,
given the truth of God. From him, and from David, and
that line of genealogy that we see at the start of Matthew's
Gospel, and in other places, is to show that the Christ of
God, the Messiah, the Redeemer, the one whose blood would pay
the price for the sins of his people, that they thereby might
be justified to be with him in heaven. that he must come from
that line to be the true one. But Satan stirred up these empires
to try to subsume Israel. You know, the purpose of the
Assyrians wasn't to destroy Israel, it was to just subsume them into
Assyria so that you couldn't see a distinctive Israel. They succeeded with the ten northern
tribes, there was only Judah and Benjamin in the south that
weren't like that around Jerusalem. And Satan accused the Old Testament
saints in heaven of not being qualified to be there, because
they were sinners and they were in heaven. And he's called the
accuser of the brethren. We read that in chapter 12 of
Revelation. With such power and with such
convincing arguments, why has He not won? We'll just turn back
a few pages to chapter 12 of Revelation. Why has He not won? Why has Satan not won? You see,
in verse 5, the woman, which is the church, brought forth
a man-child, which is Christ, who was to rule all nations with
a rod of iron, that's Christ, Psalm 2, and her child was caught
up to God and to His throne. Christ accomplished his purpose
and was sended to glory. So what did he accomplish? Look
at verse 11. When the accuser of the brethren,
who is there in this passage, in verse 10, the accuser of our
brethren, how is he cast down from his rebellion against God
and from his trying to stop God's kingdom being populated with
redeemed sinners? Because that was the thing that
Satan hated the idea of, that people, that human beings, should
be with God, reigning with him in glory in heaven. He couldn't
have that. He couldn't have them elevated
above him. So he rebelled against God. How
was it that they won? Look at verse 11. They overcame
him by the blood of the Lamb. It's the blood of the Lamb. Who
is the Lamb? Christ is the Lamb. Look in the
midst of the throne. Look at the Lion of the tribe
of Judah who is worthy to populate the Kingdom of God. How does
he do it? As a Lamb, as it had been slain. A Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. They overcame him by the blood
of the Lamb, which accomplished redemption, and by the word of
their testimony. And they loved not their lives
unto the death, for where was their life? Really, their life
was in heaven, in Christ, in God. That's where their life
was. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Rejoice,
for salvation is accomplished. But woe to the inhabitants of
the earth. and the sea, for the devil, the liar, is come down
unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth his time is
short. He knows he has limited time. But we see in chapter 20 of Revelation,
we see his powers limited. Oh, he has great power, but we
see his powers limited. You see, that angel came down. having the key of the bottomless
pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the
dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound
him a thousand years." We see him there being restrained. The key and the chain. Remember,
this is vision. This isn't literal. This key
is not literal, the chain is not literal, the bottomless pit
is not literal. Where in this physical universe
would this bottomless pit be? No, these are symbolical. They're
spiritual symbolism. The key and the chain are symbols
of restraint. Symbols of restraint. I told
this story when I wrote my book those years ago, but I remember
it so clearly from my time in the north of England trying to
keep old wrecks of cars running by going to a scrapyard and salvaging
the bits that I needed from the scrapyard. But at this one particular
scrapyard up in the north of England, You'd go to the guy
and you'd say, oh, I'm looking for such and such a thing, you
know, such and such a part of a car. He'd say, I think you'll
find one down there in the far corner on an old... So you took
your tools down with you, and you took this piece off, and
then you came back and you paid him some money for it, and then
you fitted it on your car. But on the way there... there
was the most incredibly fierce Alsatian dog, a huge great thing. It was so vicious was this thing,
and it was in a massive great big dog house, great big kennel,
very, very heavy, and on a huge chain and a collar around its
neck. And as you went down to get this thing, that thing used
to fly at you as if it would tear you to pieces. And if it
got you, I bet it would tear you to pieces. But as soon as
it got to the length of the chain, there was an almighty great crash
The kennel, the big doghouse, lurched a few inches in your
direction, but it couldn't go any further, for it was restrained. What's the nature of the restraint
that God has applied to Satan? he is limited in his ability,
it says there, to deceive the nations. Look in verse 3, that
he should deceive the nations no more. That he should deceive
the Gentile nations, the non-Israel nations, no more. That he should
deceive them no more, as he had done before Christ. How had he
done it with the empires? The Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian,
these were all against the people and the covenant and the gospel
and the grace of God. They were deceived by Satan.
He'd done it all the way through that time. But, but, but, now
he can deceive them no more. Deceive them concerning divine
justice. He deceived them concerning the
divine justice. And you look around you today
and you find the majority of people that we live with have
no concept of divine justice, of divine holiness, of the rightness
of God's justice. He deceived them concerning salvation
from sin. because they didn't see any need
for any salvation from sin, for what were they in danger from,
that they needed to be saved from? He deceived them concerning
salvation. He deceived them concerning the
people of God, who had a place in eternal glory. There couldn't
be any of that. He deceived them concerning redeeming
grace, and the message of grace. He deceived them, concerning
access to the Tree of Life. For you know, at the end of Genesis
3, God set a shekinah, a fire sword, at the entrance to the
Garden of Eden. Again, it's symbolism. But it
was guarding the way to the Tree of Life that should be kept open. Right, you say, guarding the
way to the tree of life, that you mean to stop people getting
to the tree. No, showing that there's only one way to the tree
of life. That's guarding properly, guarding
to show that there's only one way to the tree of life, and
that one way is the redemption accomplished in the death of
the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God who takes away
the sins of His people in this world. As He had in Old Testament
days. Which nations? The Gentile nations. And again, down in verse 8, He
shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters
of the earth. You say, the earth's a sphere, how can it have four
quarters? Well, look, it's symbolism. Four
is the number of God's creation. Four is the number of this world.
It's throughout this world. And Gog and Magog, the symbolism
in that from Ezekiel, some chapters in Ezekiel, about the people
that always were coming against the children of Israel, against
the people of Israel. Coming against them to destroy
them, to subsume them. That's what you see in Ezekiel
38 and 39, Gog and Magog coming against greater Israel, picturing
all those that associate with the gospel of God. You know,
we measured in chapter 11, verses 1 and 2, measure the temple. The measuring rods only apply
to that which is the true inner core of the temple, the inner
part of the temple, symbolizing the true people of God, saved
and redeemed by Christ. But there's a lot that's associated
with it, which is the courtyard, and the wider Jerusalem, and
the wider Israel. And Gog and Magog came against
them. These are the peoples, Gog and
Magog, who were outside of the influence of the white horse.
Do you remember the first seal, when Christ opened that first
seal of the seven-sealed book back in chapter 6? and called
forth a white horse. And the white horse went forth,
conquering and to conquer. And what was that? That was the
gospel of grace. That was the message of the truth
of God going out into this fallen world. It had a huge effect. Christendom is large. Even though
Christendom really is anti-Christendom when you come down to it, as
we saw in chapter 17, the woman gorgeously arrayed, but in actual
fact Babylon in truth. But nevertheless, the white horse
went and had a huge impact on this world. The impact on history
of the gospel of God's grace. Not a lot of it, is the true
gospel, the true effect of it, but it has an influence. So you
might say that the civilization of what we call the Western world,
the history of the Western world, is all based in the truth of
God's Word in the Bible, though not necessarily correctly interpreted
regarding gospel salvation. No. After Christ triumphs, Revelation
12 verse 5 and goes up to heaven, Satan wants to deceive the nations,
and Gog and Magog in particular, to unite in world power against
Christendom, against that which he thinks is the effect of the
white horse. But God restrains him. Look, what does it say?
He restrained him for a thousand years. He restrained him. Verse
2, bound him a thousand years. Let's think about this thousand
years because lots of people put all sorts of literal interpretations
on this. Many are looking, many who call
themselves Christians, are looking for a return of Christ as King
to reign in literal Jerusalem in the Middle East, where all
that conflict's going on at this very moment, to reign there in
the temple there, with animal sacrifices restored for a literal
thousand years, with all of his people around him reigning there
and governing the world, whilst the rest of the world goes on
in sinful disarray. I mean, the mere thought of it
is absolutely ludicrous, really. No, the thousand years is symbolical. You know, we mustn't ever mix
symbolism and literal visions in the book of Revelation. The
key, the chain, the pit, they're clearly symbolical. Where would
they be in the physical universe? So, the thousand years is clearly
symbolism. What does it mean? Well, ten
symbolizes completeness. It symbolizes worldly perfection. There are 10 commandments of
God. There were 10 plagues in Egypt. In the parable, there
are 10 virgins with their oil in their lamps. There are 10
talents. In the days of Smyrna, in one
of the letters in chapter 3, is it, or 2, 10 days were the
days of their persecution. It's a fullness as determined
by God. So ten times ten times ten, which
is a thousand, is a long but a limited time. A time, like
all of these things, under the control of God. In the Old Testament,
Gog and Magog, the The nations outside of the influence of where
the white horse had ridden repeatedly came against Israel, which was
where the Messiah would come from, which is where Christ would
come from, to accomplish redemption. They repeatedly came against
Israel. But in the New Testament, Gog and Magog is quiet. re-world
history. Mostly, through the best, it's
a symbolical thousand years, but it's probably about 1800
and, sorry, 1980, something like that, about 1980 literal years
or thereabouts. Because you see, I think that we're now living in this little season at the
end of verse three where Satan is yet again loosed to deceive
the nations once more. You look at the way that this
world has developed, especially in my lifetime. The world that
I grew up in till I was probably mid to late 20s, into my 30s,
it's so different from the day that we live in today. In those
days and going back down the centuries of the gospel being
preached, those nations that were untouched by the white horse
were quiet regarding world history. Why? Because Satan was restrained
for a symbolical thousand years. not to deceive them, as in Old
Testament times, not to deceive them into fulfilling his purpose. And the result was Christendom,
yes I know it's not all true Christianity, but Christendom
has spread, like greater Israel spread. They were not all Israel
which were of Israel, but there was the true core, the remnant
according to the election of grace within Israel, but the
wider Israel was still nominally the people of God, and Christendom
was to a certain extent nominally the people of God, though not
the true people of God. And in places around this world,
wider than Israel ever was, much wider, such a tiny country, so
much wider than Israel ever was. In places around this world,
the true church, the true church has flourished. There have been
missionaries in the last, I don't know, two, three, four hundred
years, spreading the gospel around the globe. There have been pockets
of true believers all over. Because Satan is restrained in
his ability to deceive the nation. There are even converts among
the nations of Gog and Magog, by which I think is meant the
nations of the Far East where there has never been any Christian
influence apart from missionary activity in the last couple of
hundred years. So, if Satan's restrained, you might ask, why
is there so much evil in the world? Who's carrying it all
on if he's restrained? Well, he's only restrained in
respect of deceiving the nations, the Gentile nations, Gog and
Magog. But Satan still prowls, as Peter
tells us. He still prowls around as a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour. He is the one who, again, Peter
tells us in 2 Peter 2 and verse 4. 2 Peter 2 and verse 4. For
if God spared not the angels that sinned, That's the third of the angels
that we've seen in another vision. You see, those angels were cast
down into darkness. This is the bottomless pit. that it speaks of here in the
first verse, the key of the bottomless pit. What is that? It's the temporary
abode in this world, in this creation, of the devil and his
demons. You know, the prince of the powers
of the air, the spirits in the air. We've seen that key and
that bottomless pit in chapter nine in verse one, where Satan
is given the key to release the locusts. Do you remember those,
the demonic locusts? The thing to note about all of
this is the key is God's to give, and it is God's to take back.
God determines the length of the chain of restraint of Satan.
The power is God's to give to his angel to restrain Satan as
much as he ordains. So then, During the New Testament
period, from Christ's triumph at the cross and his ascension
back to glory, for that long period until quite recently,
Satan has been restrained. And the church has prospered,
and accomplished God's purposes, and Christendom even has had
a big effect on the history of this world. But I believe we're
now in that little season at the end of the thousand years.
Now look, I want you to look for a moment at verse 4. Because
where are the people of God? They're reigning with Christ
for a thousand years. Look at verse 4. I saw thrones. And they 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,
but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand
years were finished. This is the first resurrection,
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.'
During the same symbolical thousand years of New Testament dispensation,
probably, as I said, literally about 1980 years, the souls of
saints What are they? Who are they?
They're described as beheaded for the witness of Jesus, whether
that's literal martyrdom or the persecution, symbolical of the
persecution of the world, and for the word of God, and which
had not worshipped the beast. They didn't go along with the
beast and his image and his mark upon their hands and their foreheads.
And they lived and reigned with Christ. These are the souls of
saints who physically die reigning with Christ in heaven. These
are God's people. When they physically die, they
immediately go to be with Christ in heaven. Here they are in verse
4, reigning with Christ in heaven. What did Christ say to the dying
thief on the cross? The thief said to him in a moment
of revelation of who this was and what he was, Lord remember
me when you come into your kingdom. Ah, verily, verily, said Jesus
to him, this day you shall be with me in paradise. As Paul
said, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Whereas unbelievers, the rest of the dead, live not until the
thousand, those that are not the people of God, they go into
a limbo until the judgment that we read of at the end of the
chapter there. How blessed. How greatly blessed
to be with that thief on the cross, to rise straight from
physical death to the glory of heaven. The second death, that
of final judgment, has no power, it says in verse 6. The judgment
has no power, as we'll see next week when we look at the judgment
at the end of this chapter. They reign as priests and kings
with God. Believer, all of us who believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Resting in Christ and His finished
work, is that all your confidence? This is your certain destiny. There are mansions prepared for
you. Jesus said it. Let not your heart be troubled.
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will come again
to receive you to myself. If it were not so, I would have
told you. When you die, as we all must do before long, except
Christ, return first and take us while we're still living,
when you die, you go straight to be with Him. Many, you know,
I wonder about this, there are many professing Christians, whether
they're true or not, I make no judgment, but there are many
who seem to think that this thousand years is good enough. Why? Well, they've got a lovely church,
they've got a big church building, they've got plenty of friends
that they call brothers and sisters in Christ, they're having a good
time, they're having a good social life, they're enjoying the stimulation,
the mental stimulation of good preaching. Oh, it's good enough,
isn't it? Can't we just carry on in this thousand years here
and now? No, their prayer really, their
desire, is not to be with Christ, which is far better, No, it's
to continue here. Please let it continue indefinitely. Look, the people of God, true
believers, know it's far better to depart and be with Christ.
That's what Paul said. He said, I'm in a strait. I'm
in a fix between two. I want to depart and be with
Christ, which is far better. But for now, you need my ministry
here. But really, it's to depart, which
is far better. Though it's beneficial, this
thousand years where the devil has been restrained, it is limited. Look in verse 7. When the thousand
years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.
Loosed for a little season. Look in the end of verse 3. After
that, the thousand years, he must be loosed a little season.
In verse 7, when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall
be loosed out of his prison. To do what? To be permitted to
deceive once more. Verse 8, He shall go out to deceive
the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog
and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom
is as the sand of the sea, which of course means as impossible
as it is to number, to count the grains of sand around the
seashores, so it will be impossible to get an estimate of how big
this gathering of Gog and Magog will be to the battle against
the kingdom and people of God. And we see Gog and Magog encompassing
the camp of the saints in verse 9. They went up on the breadth
of the earth and encompassed the camp of the saints about,
and the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven
and devoured them. It's recalling Ezekiel 38 and
39, as I've already mentioned. This is a symbol of the godless,
anti-God, anti-Christ world battling against the righteousness of
God. Are we now in that little season? I think so. What's the
mark of that little season? There are no effective national
borders anymore. Is that not true? Politicians
feel the need to build walls all over the place to try and
enforce their national borders, the borders that are a consequence
of the confounding of the languages in Genesis chapter 11 and 12.
We've seen in Revelation 9-14 and 16-12, the Euphrates being
opened, the way of the east, symbolism, obviously, of the
eastern border of the people of God, and the way being opened
for Gog and Magog to come and overrun them. Christendom culture,
even, has been overrun with Gog and Magog influence in the country
in which we live. Most of the Western countries
are overrun with Islamic influence, with Buddhist influence, with
Hindu influence, and all sorts of other things, overturning
biblical laws and biblical justice, especially in the last 30 years,
maybe a little bit more. As true churches, Those who are
true churches, not the false church of Revelation 17, we increasingly
appear, as we were described in Revelation 11, as lying dead
in the streets. The two witnesses lying dead
in the streets. Is that not the explanation? of the phenomenal
changes in the world of politics and economics, of philosophy,
of culture, and travel in the last, I'll say, 50 years now.
Do these days scare you, believer? Do they scare you? It seems scary,
doesn't it, that God has allowed Satan to be released. It's a
little season. It's a little season and it ends
with fire from God devouring them all. It ends with the devil
being cast without any question into the lake of fire. In verse
10, the devil that deceived them, here he is, the one who is released
for a little season is 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. What's the lesson of this? You
might say, well, ooh, that sort of fits together. I know it's
complicated, but we have a nice, satisfying explanation of world
history, of Christendom being a result of Satan being symbolically
restrained for a symbolical thousand years. So what? What difference does it make
to you and me as we go on with our trials in this life and the
situation that we're in? For all the people who are Christ's,
you listening to me now, if you're Christ's, we mustn't forget that
this life is temporary. We must remember that this life
is the anteroom of eternity. We're going to eternity. That's
our true abode, that's our destiny. Heaven is our true home. Heaven
is the place prepared by Christ for us. It's where He is. He
said, I will, Father, that my people be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory. It's where He is, and where His
people shall be with Him. It's where we shall reign with
Him, as it says in verse 6, in eternal bliss. And chapters 21
and 22 open this up clearly to us. But this is only for those who
are found in Christ, clothed in his righteousness and fitted
for heaven. Let me close by reading familiar
words, but in Philippians chapter three, verses eight to 14. This is Paul speaking about the
believer in this life, looking for that eternal glory. He says,
yea, doubtless, And I count all things, everything in this life,
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, And do count them but done, everything in this
world, that I may win Christ. He is the prize. He is the pearl
of greatest price, which when you've discovered Him, everything
else is secondary. You know, Abraham was a rich
man, but his riches could be taken away from him, and God
would still be his exceeding great reward. He says in verse
9, I want to win Christ and be found in Him. When? On that day
of judgment. Where do I want to be? I want
to be found in Christ. Not pleading my own righteousness,
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, which is
me trying to do things for myself, but that which is through the
faith of Christ. That which is through the faithfully
accomplished and finished work of Christ. The righteousness
which is of God by faith. that I may know him. and the
power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Is this not our
goal, as believing people, to attain to that? Not as though
I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow
after that if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended. I haven't got there. But this
one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and
reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. Isn't that what we should all,
all believers, be striving for? Well, next week, we will see
in the judgment at the end of chapter 20, what makes the difference. Amen.