All right, if you will, turn
with me to Revelation chapter 20. We'll be looking at the first
three verses of Revelation chapter 20. At the beginning of our study
in Revelation, I told you that the Apostle John was given a
seven-fold vision. of Jesus Christ which tells us
what he has done and what he is doing and what he yet shall
do for the salvation of his elect. Now this is what all of these
visions are about all the way through the book of Revelation.
He shows us first Christ in the midst of his churches walking
among the candlesticks He said there's coming a time when they'll
say, lo, here is Christ, and there is Christ. Well, here is
where Christ is. He walks among the candlesticks. You'll find Christ when you find
His church, and you'll find His church when you find Him. He's
in the midst of His churches, and He walks among them. And
then He shows us Christ, the eternal mediator, the covenant
surety, opening and fulfilling God's eternal purpose of grace.
All the way through, he said, was a hunt, a search for someone
who was worthy to take that seven-sealed book from the hand of God. And none was found worthy but
the Lamb. The Lamb slain came and took
the book, opened the seals. And then next he shows us our
sovereign intercessor, answering the prayers of his people. protecting
them. Who's he protect us from? Our
enemies. Our enemies protect us from ourselves. And you see him also vindicating
them who are opposed to the elect of God. He vindicates them with
these seven trumpets of judgment. And then fourthly, he shows us
the church being persecuted by Satan and world government and
false religion. And next we see Christ's angels
sent down from heaven with seven vials of God's wrath. which is
released upon, poured out upon the earth. And then sixthly,
we're shown Christ's conquest over Babylon, the beast, and
the false prophet. That's what we talked about last
week. And now in chapter 20, he's going
to show us Christ's dominion over Satan and his final end
and the glory of the new Jerusalem. Now each of these visions speak
of the whole of the gospel age from the very first appearance
of Christ until his second coming. And as we studied each one of
these, I've tried to apply these things to that. And the reason for the visions,
why did he give John these visions? Why didn't he just let things
happen? They're going to happen. They're determined to happen.
He predestinated these things. They're going to happen. So why
did he give these visions to John? Well, the reason for the
visions is to show us that we're more than conquerors through
him that loved us. We are among those people that
he's talking about here, preserved through these trials and preserved
through these temptations and persecutions. Now back in chapter
19, we were brought to the very end of time. Right down to the
very end of time to the final day of judgment. And in chapter
20, the seventh vision takes us once again back to the beginning
of the gospel age. It's a mistake when you get to
chapter 20 Because he's talking now about another vision, it's
a mistake to go back and say, well, he's talking about the
end of time. No. No, he's talking about the
beginning of the gospel age. He's opening another vision.
Revelation 20, verse 1. And I saw an angel come down
from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great
chain in his hand. Now this angel is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the angel of the covenant.
He's the messenger of the covenant, and he's the surety of the everlasting
covenant of grace. And his appearance is that of
a man, a servant, one sent to minister, an angel, ministering
angel. But this one who appears, who
John saw coming down from heaven, is also God. He's God and man
in one glorious person. That tiny babe laid in Bethlehem's
manger is God. That's hard to conceive, isn't
it? God who stretches out the heavens as a tent to dwell in
was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Sovereign over all things. The
scripture said a child is born and a son is given. I'm talking
about the same person. And his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder. And it says he shall sit upon
the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to
establish it with justice and judgment forever. And his appearance
was despised and rejected of men. They didn't like him. They
were looking for another Saul. Boy, when they saw Saul, King
Saul, back in the Old Testament, when they saw him, they wanted
him as their king. Big in stature, had a low, deep
voice, a commanding voice. Oh, they wanted Saul as their
king. But God didn't give them Saul
as their king. God anointed David. little ruddy
boy, David. That was their king. And they
saw the same thing when they saw the Lord Jesus Christ. They
didn't see anything in him that would lead them to believe that
this was going to be the king of Israel. This is the Christ. This is that prophet of whom
Moses spoke. When they saw him, there was
nothing in him for them to love and to to look at and say this
is the one. He in no wise had the appearance
of a great king and yet a greater than he had never been born.
Never was. Once God showed his glory in
Israel in the valley of Ephesdammon. You might recall the story. There
was a young man called David And in the providence of God,
he came out against a nine-foot giant called Goliath down in
that valley, who was defying the very armies of God. And David,
yet a lad, slayed this great giant with a sling and a stone
to prove that the battle was of the Lord. He didn't do it
for his own recognition and his own glory. The stoutest, strongest
man in Israel didn't have a prayer against Goliath. He was nine
feet tall. I saw, I don't know why I do
these things, but I saw something, got my eye on TV the other night,
and I watched it, and it was about a giant, a real man, real
life story, And this, he was a wrestler, a famous wrestler,
undefeated, nobody ever did defeat him. His hand, he could take
his hand on big men, great big wrestlers, and he could completely
cover their head down to their ears with his hand. And if you
got him upset, he'd take somebody like Hulk Hogan and just throw
him, just pick him up and throw him out of the ring. Now you
try to imagine a man a foot and a half taller than him, who carried
a spear the size of a weaver's beam, and a sword that David
could barely lift. He was having trouble with Saul's
armor, let alone try to pick up Goliath. And this man went
out against him, not for his own recognition, and not because
he believed he could slay this giant, because he knew that the
battle was of the Lord, and the one being shamed that day was
the Lord, not Israel. And David knew that, and he couldn't
stand that, and he went out in that valley, and God revealed
his glory in that battle. The angel John saw coming down
from heaven was Jesus of Nazareth. And in his hand was the key of
the bottomless pit. A great chain, he tells us, shows
to John here, that was in his hand. We know that this language
is strictly symbolic and there's no key. I don't look for the
Lord Jesus Christ to appear and have one of these big keys, you
know, like the cities used to give out over in Europe, they
give them the key to the city. I don't look to see no keys and
I don't look to see no actual doors locked or otherwise. So
what's he talking about here? Well, first of all, he's telling
us that one reason for the incarnation of Christ as a man was to bind
up Satan. To bind him. Tie him up. Restrain him. Keep him from doing
what he intended to do. It was to show him his restraining
power and shut him up in the bottomless pit until his purpose
was to loose him again. In Colossians chapter 2 and verse
13, listen to the language of these verses. And you, being
dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way. Now watch this. and
having spalled principalities. What did he do? Spalled principalities
and powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it, in his cross. And through the person and work
of Christ, Satan's power of deception and lying ways of his ministers
was exposed. Satan's not running around in
this earth unrestrained. He's restrained. God put a chain
on him. And that chain is a chain of
God's sovereign grace. He put it on him. He can do what
the Lord purposes for him to do and no more. He's on a chain. Our Lord made these things an
open show. Listen to this reasoning. There
can be no more sound reasoning than this. If righteousness comes
by the law, then Christ is dead and vain. His death revealed
that righteousness must come from him. If righteousness could
come to you through your own obedience and through your own
determination, then why did Christ have to die? Be no reason for
him to come, and if God's anger and wrath can be appeased by
good intentions and empty promises, then Christ is dead in vain.
Be no reason for him to die. If God can simply forgive sin
with a word, then Christ is dead in vain. Jesus Christ must come as our
holy representative and federal head and obey God's law continually. perfectly and without flaw in
order for any man to stand righteous before God. Romans 3 verse 20, listen to
this. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Is that ringing clear to you?
Do you understand what that verse is saying? By the deeds of the
law, That is, you look there, it says, thou shalt not steal,
so you don't steal. And we go through all the laws,
and you say, why, I didn't do that. Paul said his touching
the law, he was blameless. The righteousness which was over
the law, he said he was blameless. But by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. You go in there and look at that
law and your obedience for righteousness, all you're going to find is conviction
and condemnation. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. What can a sinful man under a
holy law hope to find except condemnation? Paul said the law is spiritual,
we know that, but we're carnal, we're sold unto sin. But now,
Paul says back in Romans 3 verse 21, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all that believe. For all have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God. Secondly, sin must be paid
for. And man don't determine the price.
I'm getting tired of hearing that. Well, I told the Lord I'll
give up this and I'll give up that if he'd save me. Made his deal kind of I don't
know, I'm so sick of hearing men talk about these deals they
make with God, settled out of court kind of deals. I made my
peace with God and all that nonsense. What it is, here's what they're
saying, we taught God into believing what we don't even believe ourselves.
That's what they're saying. beloved there's only one way
to appease the anger and wrath of god over his offended righteousness
and that's by the death of our substitute period being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus that's
it there's no other way you see what he's saying here he made
a show of them Person and work and his obedience and his he
become obedient unto death even the death of the cross and and
by these things He made a show out of religion false religion. He made an open show out of it
He exposed it for what it is and he calls this exposing a
binding of Satan Putting the chain on it restraining him from
being, what would happen if he wasn't restrained? What would
happen if we didn't have Christ? What would happen if we didn't
know the difference? We'd still be hoodwinked and
over there worshiping some kind of a false god. And while we're no match for
Satan, our Lord is. Revelation 19 too, and he laid
hold on the dragon. that old serpent which is the
devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years. What is this thousand years he's
talking about? It just simply means a long period
of time. And what he's talking about is
from the beginning of the gospel age until God calls in the last
of his elect. and he's bound him. All during
that time he's bound. If he wasn't bound, not one person
could be saved. But he is bound. Jude tells us that the angels
which kept not their first estate but left their habitation, he
hath constrained, reserved in everlasting chains of darkness
unto the judgment of that great day. And our Lord's first advent
is followed by a long period of time, symbolized by this 1,000
years. And during this gospel age, Satan
is bound. Listen to this. The Pharisees,
whom the Lord said were the children of the devil, they accused him
public of casting out Satan by the power of Satan. That's what
they accused our Lord of. And here's, listen to what our
Lord tells us. How can one enter into a strong
man's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong
man? You're not just going to walk
in the door. You think Satan just sitting
there like this, just shivering over in the corner? You have
to take him down. The only way you're gonna get
anything that he has in his possession is to wrestle him down. Take
him down and bind him. And then you can set him bound
over in the corner and you can take whatever you want. And that's
what Christ did. He bound him. He's bound by the power of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has bound
Satan by taking away his power to deceive. Satan's power to
deceive the nations is not destroyed completely, but rather curtailed
so that he's unable to stop the preaching of the gospel and the
progress of Christ's kingdom. That's what this binding's all
about. And then Satan is bound by the power of Christ through
the preaching of the gospel. You know, our Lord sent out 70
disciples. He empowered them. And entrusted
the gospel to him and sent him out into these cities where he
himself was going to go. And they went out, and you know
what they said when they come back? They said, Lord, even the
devils are subject unto us. How come? You reckon they scared
of the 70? No. No. They were bound. That's why they
were bound. You and I see this power every
time a child of God is called out of darkness into his marvelous
light. We see it. Every time a false
prophet is put to silence, every time a church is assaulted and
yet stands by the grace of God, we see this power. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Christ did not come and suffer
and die as some kind of a passive witness and martyr. It says he
laid hold of the dragon. Took him by the throat. He laid
hold on him. And the devil bruised his heel,
but Christ crushed his head. All right, Revelation 20, verse
3. And he cast him into the bottomless
pit. There's all kind of descriptions
in the Bible of hell. Why does he call hell a bottomless
pit? Because those he cast into hell
fall forever. They never hit bottom. There
is no bottom. They fall infinitely into outer
darkness. And they shut him up. set a seal
upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the
thousand years shall be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed
for a little season. Evidently, and we went through
chapter 19 and we saw the nations all standing against the Lord
and we saw all of these things, world government and false religion
and all these things pitted and and ready to go to battle against
the lord the only way that could take places for the losing right
for a little season and evidently at the end of the gospel age
he's going to be loosed in such a fashion for just a tiny season
just a short time against those who receive not the love of the
truth that they might be saved and once again be given over
to strong delusion But know this, children of God, know this and
rejoice. He shall not deceive God's elect. He shall not deceive God's elect. They have the seal of God, the
promise of the Spirit, they know the truth, and the truth has
set them free. You see, this is in the purpose
of God. All God's elect, they're all
gonna be taught of God. And Satan can cry what he wants
to. He can be loosed if the Lord
looses him. But God's elect are not gonna
be deceived. They're not gonna be deceived.
God's purpose for them to see, and they're all gonna see. And
God's gonna be their teacher. You reckon he ever had anybody
fail his class? Now, they shall all be taught
of God. And neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities. Boy, that's good to know, isn't
it? Nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And so he says to us, Now, unto him that's able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise
God our Savior be glory and majesty and dominion and power both now
and forever.