All right, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your many blessings. Thank you for sending your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, down from heaven's glory to be born of a virgin, to die on a cross, to shed his blood for the forgiveness of our sins. Lord, we just pray you'd have your will and your way in the services tonight. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you for a book that we can understand, that we can follow and abide by. Lord, you are a gracious, merciful, wonderful God. In Jesus' name forsake, amen. All right, Revelation chapter 20. We have made it to chapter 20. And we're going to look at the first three verses tonight. And I'm told my mic, I guess you got to turn the button on. Oh, I think my batteries are dying. Let's just use this mic. I've got some other batteries that are rechargeable that I just got in over at the house. And we will... Now it died this morning too at the very end. So let's just go look at Revelation chapter 20. We'll read verses 1 through 3. 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 a thousand years. and cast him in 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 season." So when you're looking at Daniel's 70th week, it ends with Jesus Christ's return. We saw that in chapter 19. And the destruction of God's enemies. We saw that Jesus came back on the white horse. There's some of it there, but... Where is Jesus? There he is. He's coming back on the white horse. And heaven is open, the great supper of the great God, the beast of the false prophet are in the lake of fire, the fowls with the Lord there in chapter 19. And then chapter 20, you have Satan chained, the dragon is chained in the bottomless pit. It's the time long awaited for. The kingdom of Christ, the desire for this kingdom has been a focal point for the last six millennia when Christ would reign. Now, I did talk to somebody the other day and they said, well, I'm amillennial and, you know, that's a tough one. You have postmillennial, amillennial, and premillennial. We teach premillennial because that's what the Bible is. The Millennium hasn't happened yet. This is before the Millennium. We certainly haven't already had a thousand year reign of Christ on this earth. He was only here, you know, until he was thirty and a half and he started his ministry for three and a half years he was involved in that. Every wicked political entity since Nimrod has attempted to bring this to pass, that is the millennial kingdom. Marx attempted and failed. Stalin gave his best shot and failed. Hitler tried and failed. Several religious institutions have also sought to bring in the kingdom. They failed. The extreme environmentalists, like-minded organizations trying to bring, they're sort of kingdom builders. You know, they're worried about, you know, It's a hyper-concern on the environment. Their attempts to turn planet Earth into a utopia have failed. The United Nations' goal is to bring in the kingdom through world peace. They have failed and will continue to fail. And then all of them have failed and will fail, no doubt about it. When you look at the outline of Revelation chapter 20 and verse 1, the Bible says Satan is bound for a thousand years. Chapter 20 verse 4, we didn't get there, but that's the first resurrection. So, the saints reign for 1,000 years, that's the millennium. And then in verse 7, Satan is loosed after his 1,000 years. And you wonder why, and that's because man has to be given a choice. God isn't wanting people to serve Him because they have no choice. God wants to give you a choice. He puts you on this earth, you sin, you come short of the glory of God, you have a choice whether to accept Christ or reject Him. He wants everybody to be saved. Then you have the battle of Gog and Magog. Satan is cast into the lake of fire, finally. And then you have the second resurrection in Revelation 20 verse 11, the great white throne, the dead are there, the books are open, see death and hell, give up the dead to be judged, the second death in the lake of fire, all of that. And there's only a few chapters, I think it's 15, I'm sorry, verses in Chapter 20. So it'll be a pretty quick book. So looking at the chronological sequence of events which mark the conclusion of God's program in time, the passage into the eternal state, it's set forth in a series of scenes marked out by using the phrase, I saw. There are ten such scenes and instances. You'll look at the first one in Revelation 19.11. John wrote, I saw, what did he see? The vision of the coming king. Jesus on the white horse. Revelation 19.17 says, I saw the invitation to the supper. Revelation 19.19, he says, I saw the armies of the beast destroyed. And now we're in Revelation 20 verse 1, he says, I saw, what did he see? The binding of Satan. And then you go into the Millennial Kingdom in verse 4 and it says, I saw the reign of Christ and of His saints. That's there in verse 4. What about after the Millennial Kingdom? Well that's verse 11, Revelation 20 verse 11. He says, I saw the great white throne. Revelation 20, 12, I saw the lake of fire. Chapter 21, verse 1, he says, I saw. What did he see? A new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and first earth are passed away. Revelation 21, verse 2, he says, I saw. What did he see? The holy city. And then Revelation 21, verse 22, he says, I saw no temple therein. I saw. I saw, I saw ten times. So the chapter begins with Satan's incarceration. He'll be bound during the thousand year reign of Christ, but will be loosed for a short time afterward. After Satan is bound and placed in the bottomless pit, the first resurrection takes place. I want you to remember that the first resurrection has a word attached to it, and it says, blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection. What does that mean? Well, for some people, when it says the first resurrection comes after the thousand years, that's why they become post-millennial, because they think, well, there is no resurrection until after the millennium, because that's when these words show up. But it says, blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection. Who has a part in the first resurrection? Jesus Christ had a part in the first resurrection. He is the first one to be resurrected. The church has a part in the first resurrection. And then you have this part right here. So you have many parts. Blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection. That is the key in understanding the first resurrection and the timing. Just because it says, blessed is he that part in the first resurrection, there's people resurrected at that time, doesn't mean there's no resurrection prior to that time. So look at verse 1, Revelation 20 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 the third key in Revelation. If you want to look at it, you can look at Revelation 1.18. And the first two are mentioned in Revelation chapter 1, the keys of hell and the keys of death. Look at Revelation 1.18, I am He that liveth and was dead. Behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. So that's two separate keys. The keys of hell and the keys of death. And then the third key is the key of the bottomless pit. Now notice where that key is. That key is in heaven. How do you know? Read the verse. Just read carefully in chapter 20 verse 1. I saw an angel come down from heaven. So where's the key? having the key of the bottomless pit, where's the chain coming from? It's coming from heaven. The angel's coming down, he's got the key, he's got the chain, he's gonna take hold of the dragon. So he has a great chain. This angel leaves heaven with a key and this great chain. Satan was cast out of heaven three and a half years before this time. Revelation chapter 12, the Bible says Michael goes up to heaven and casts Satan down to earth. And now you've got the angel coming down, he's got that chain, he's got that key, he's going to open up the bottomless pit, he's going to cast the dragon down in the bottomless pit, and he's going to seal that bottomless pit with the key that he opened it with, and he's going to chain Satan down in there. Now, your Bible talks about others that are there, And let me give you one other thing. 2 Peter 2.4 says there's chains of darkness which are used to shackle the fallen angels that are reserved in hell until Judgment Day. Maybe the same chains as what Satan is bound with. Look at Jude 6. Jude 6, the book right before Revelation. Remember the man with the unclean spirit? Mark 5 verse 2-4, the chains could not hold that man. They're human chains. We're talking about a supernatural chain. In Jude 6, the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness until the judgment of the great day. So there's angels in everlasting darkness that have everlasting chains that are holding them right now. They left heaven's first estate. There'll be others that'll follow Satan when he's kicked out. He'll pull a third of the stars with him. We know stars can be angels. Revelation chapter 20 verse 2. The Bible says He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil, and Satan bound him a thousand years. He laid hold. God has the ultimate power. He will overpower the dragon in His time. You have to understand, God is not losing control. God's in control. Prayer changes things. And we can change things through prayer. Well, how do you do that? If you can change things, it's because God's in control. You want to make a difference in the world, you pray. You get involved. You interact. You witness to people. You change lives through the Gospel. You change lives through interacting with people and helping them to understand how important it is to believe the Bible, live the Bible, read the Bible, pray and do what you're doing, I hope. That's what changes things. The reason the world is going to hell in a hand basket is because Christians disengage. We disengage, we don't get involved, we don't, we look at it and go, well, you know, the world's wicked and we just gotta hide, you know, be an ostrich, put our head in the sand. You don't. The Bible says that if you want to get away from sin, you'd have to leave the world. You have to. You and I are going to be around people that will do things, say things, and act in ways that we think, well, you shouldn't act that way. And I guess I'd also say some of you act in ways you probably shouldn't act too. There you go. He laid hold on him. Picture God's angel just snatching the dragon with one hand. He's got the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in the other. So with one hand, He snatches the dragon. How powerful is that angel? Not as powerful as God. We know that one angel can kill 185,000 Assyrians. That's in the Old Testament. One angel. Angels are powerful. Satan's powerful. but not when he's in match with somebody that God says, it's time, go get him. Sort of like Sikkim. One hand, he's got the dragon, and the other hand he's got the key and the chain. Regardless of the claims made by charismatic believers up until this time, Satan has never been bound. You can't go, oh God, bind Satan. You can't bind Satan. I know where that comes from. You know, verses where it says what you've bound on earth is bound in heaven and all. That is not talking about binding Satan. I remember a guy wrote a book and he said, I'm not going to capitalize Satan. Look, I capitalize it because the Bible capitalizes it. Well, I'm not going to give him... No, you just... Listen, I'll tell you what, you don't want to mess with Satan. Most of us have never, if any of us, have ever had any interactions with Satan. You know where Satan wants to be, and we've said this numerous times. The Bible says he's up in heaven as the accuser of the brethren. He can go to and fro in Job. Where have you been? Walking to and fro in the earth. He has access to God's throne room, and he's the accuser, and he accuses the brethren. He's never been bound. And it's dangerous for people to claim that they have this power. He's called the dragon in the verse. He's called the old serpent. He's called the devil and he's called Satan. Why is he called the dragon? Because of his horrible cruelty and villainy. Why is he called the old serpent? Because of his maliciousness and guile and deception. Why is he called the devil? Because he's the arch tempter of man. Why is he called Satan? Because he's the accuser of the brethren and one who opposed Christ and his people. Each of these names are included here so that we might know that all His power is broken. You talk about the old serpent, he's gone. You talk about the devil, he's gone. You talk about Satan, he's gone. You talk about the dragon, he's going to be in chains. Why? Because God's got a plan. God wants you in on the plan. God wants you to show your purpose and plan in life. He wants everybody to know what it is. And most people never find out. Most people never realize what God's plan is for them in this life. And they go through life and they wonder, well, I just don't seem satisfied. Find out what God wants you to do. I just don't feel complete. First of all, have that relationship with Jesus Christ, and then find out what God wants you to do. Each of those names are included here. The God of this world, 2 Corinthians 4, 4? Not anymore. Prince of the power of the air? Not anymore. Right here. He's bound by God, by His angel for a thousand years. And listen, He's going to be loose for a season, gather the nations together around Jerusalem, and then fire is going to come from heaven, and they're done. He's going to smoke them just like that. There's not going to be another return of Christ. He's already on earth reigning. There's not going to be a white horse. There's not going to be the armies behind Him. It's just going to be, they're going to surround Jerusalem. After a thousand years of Jesus Christ reigning without Satan's influence, they're going to rise up against God. And God's not going to play any games. It's all in God's plan. They have to be given a choice. They have free will. You have free will. You can choose to love Jesus because He first loved you, or you can choose to ignore Him, go your own way, live your own way, do your own thing, even as a Christian. I've done it. I did it for three years, 1981 to 1984. I didn't go to church. I didn't serve God. I didn't live for Jesus. I didn't pray until August 8, 1984. My whole life changed again. He bound him. It's proof the devil is a person. It's not an influence, it's not a principle of evil. The devil is a person. The devil is going to take upon... and I have the dragon up here as a dragon in chains, but you know it's probably a man. You look at Isaiah, and we will, Isaiah says, is this the man? You remember Jesus Christ became a man. Well, the devil's going to take upon himself the form of man, stand in the temple of God, showing himself that he's God, and going to be worshipped as a man standing in that temple. And that's his downfall. He's going to try to be like God, and you can't be like God. But he's got to imitate everything God does. God has a trinity. Satan has a trinity. It's just the way it is. And God is looking at this thing and He's in control and He wants people to love Him and worship Him and serve Him, but He only wants you to do it out of a free will. Look at Isaiah chapter 24. Isaiah chapter 24. Isaiah prophesies the millennial glory in Isaiah chapter 24. But just before this, the prophet foretells in Isaiah 24 verse 21, And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the hosts of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth, and they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited." See, they're going to be shut up for a thousand years. And then at the end of that thousand years, they're going to be loose, the great white throne judgment. One thousand years. Christians have argued over pre-millennials. versus post-millennialism for centuries. The post-millennialist figuratively explains away 1,000 years through various means, yet they rarely agree among themselves. He believes that Christ will return after Christians have conquered the world through the spread of a type of so-called Christianity. This Christianity names the name of Christ but has no resemblance to biblical Christianity. This teaching facilitated Rome's takeover from 1000 AD to 1700. They believed that if they could force the world to become Christian, they could bring the prophesied kingdom. God had nothing to do with this monstrosity that they created, propagated, and forced upon the world. They had the Crusades. They killed people in the name of Jesus. You don't ever kill in the name of Jesus. War is different. You don't kill in the name of Jesus. You do it in the name of Allah, because that's what The Quran says. That's what Muhammad taught. The pre-millennialists correctly believes that the thousand years mentioned six times in this text is a literal, earthly, one thousand year reign of Christ upon the earth. They correctly believe and teach that a man is too wicked to ever successfully create a utopian world And that the world's only hope is the return of Christ. That's why we're looking for His return. We want His return. He's coming back. He's going to gather the church together. For seven years, He's going to give man one last opportunity to be saved. And then He's coming back at the end of the seven years, destroying all of His enemies, protecting all those that have trusted in Him. They're going to go in the millennium, repopulate the millennium. The purpose of the millennium, let me give you that, from God's perspective. It's a public honoring of His Son. It's the fulfillment of the promises and prophecies. It's the final trial of sinful man. It's the restoration of the original intent established in the Garden of Eden. Think about that. Why do you start off with the Garden of Eden? In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, earth without form, dark as the Spirit of God, All that. God said, let there be light. God creates man. God puts man in a garden. Man is sinless. Man is holy. Man is pure. Man knows nothing but righteousness and right. And yet, it's not enough. Bring sin into the world. Death by sin. So death passed upon all men. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's what God's design was. Put man in the garden, now you say, well, he didn't have a choice. Yes, he had a choice. Free will. And he had to be given free will. You can eat of every tree in that garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. You die spiritually the moment you eat. So he eats of the tree, brings sin into the world, chooses Eve over God, loves her more than he loves God, sin comes in the world, and then now for 6,000 years we've been on this path. But God is still real, God is still in control, God still cares, God still loves us, God still has a plan, and everything didn't get, well, now we got plan B. God always knew from the foundation of the world that Jesus Christ was going to have to come into the world and die on the cross. That's what the Bible says. So why would it be any different? Why would we think that somehow God failed in that garden and that somehow... Listen, this is the way it is. Man must be given a choice. Because that's who God is. If God wanted robots, He would have created a bunch of Calvinists. Hey, you either have free will or you don't, and if you don't, you're a robot. You fall down a set of steps and you're a Calvinist, you ought to brush yourself off and say, Lord, I'm glad that's over with. You meant for it to be. Everything you did is according to you. Everything that happens is according to your will. No, the Bible says, man, God is not willing that any should perish. Are people going to perish and go to hell? Yes. Is God's will always done? No. And that's what we've got to understand. That is so simple. But yet look at it. Look at the mess created by religion. The mess created by people that write and contradict the Bible because they think they know more than God really is the essence of the thing. What about from Christ's perspective? What's the millennium? It's the long-awaited kingdom, Hebrews 10, 12-13. It's the establishment of righteousness, Psalm 45, verses 5-7. It's the answer to His prayer, Thy will be done and not mine. That's from Christ's perspective. He said, Lord, let Thy will be done, not mine. All of us should pray that, but this millennium is the answer to that prayer. His reward to the meek, Matthew 5, 5. The meek shall inherit the earth. Not weak, meek. His honeymoon with the bride. You have the bride gets married, the marriage supper of the Lamb, and then you have the honeymoon. The honeymoon is the thousand year reign. From the church's perspective, Trouble's all over. Can you imagine a time when you don't have to be concerned about anything? All your troubles are gone. You're old, you don't have to worry about it. Your hearing's going, your eyesight's going, can't drive, or can drive, should drive, maybe drive, I don't know. You don't have to worry about any of that. All the troubles are gone. Fulfillment of the manifestation of the sons of God. The second phase of the rewards. We're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We're going to receive the things done in the body, quote, whether it be good or bad. Listen to that, you're going to receive the things done in your body, whether it be good or bad. And then we're going to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years. From the nation's perspective. A rod of iron for the unregenerate. Worldwide peace. Everybody says, peace, peace. I'll tell you where there's going to be peace. When Jesus rules. That's when there's going to be peace. Yearly worship of the King at Jerusalem. From Israel's perspective, all the enemies are eliminated. They'll have no more enemies while Jesus is ruling. Now, they may have enemies, but he'll rule with a rod of iron. You're not going to be able to do anything like that. All kingdom promises are finally realized. From creation's perspective, It's subjection to vanity is over. No more vanity. No more vexation of spirit. When you look at Ecclesiastes, it's written from the perspective of under the sun. And there's just vanity. And you look in the world, there's a lot of vanity. Most of life is vanity. Killing ends. And then you got the Regeneration Acts chapter 3 verse 19. What a glorious time that is. But I want you to go to Isaiah chapter 14. I actually missed the page of my notes when I printed them as late as I did. But I remember that I wanted to take you to Isaiah 14. And I want you to realize that some of Isaiah 14 is still future. Verse 12, and we may go over this in more depth next time. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? Now that is in the past. Okay, he's fallen. He's fallen, now you have to ask yourself this, when did he fall? When was he created? When were the angels created? When was water created? In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was without form, darks upon the face. The deep spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Later on it says, let the dry land appear. When did He create water? Not during those seven days. That's the point. When did Lucifer fall? We don't see it during the seven days. He just shows up in the garden. Seven literal days. 24 hour period. Seven literal days. He rested on the seventh day. They're not millenniums. It's seven literal days. But you have to ask yourself and answer the question, when did Lucifer fall? And I'm not going to answer it right now. Way too deep for tonight. Look at verse 12, how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said, past tense, in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. That's all past. Five times he says, I, I, I, I, I. Now if you say I, I'm not going to get on you and go, well you're saying I, there's no I in team or something crazy like that. No I in church, you know, come on. The point is, he is self-aggrandizement. The Bible says that a pastor, a preacher, a bishop should not be a novice lest he be lifted up with pride and fall into the condemnation of the devil. The condemnation of the devil is pride. And that's why he fell. And that's what causes us problems. Verse 15. Future. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of the prisoners? And he goes on and on and on. Is this the man? Remember, Revelation 13, 18 says that the number of a man is his number, 666. The number of man. He will probably be Judas Iscariot coming back to life. He was, and is, and will be. Jesus was, and is, and will be. I am the Alpha and the Omega, it says, of Jesus. Well, Judas Iscariot went to his own place, the Bible says. Judas Iscariot was a devil, the Bible says. Judas Iscariot was a man. So whenever Satan takes upon himself the form of humanity again, he will do it because he's deceived, he will do it because of his pride, and that's what the Bible's talking about. Is this the man? Is this the man? The Bible says, one sinner destroyeth much good. One sinner destroyeth much good. You look at this and one sinner, one sinner, Lucifer, has destroyed so much in this earth. It has perverted the ways of God. God doesn't look out there and say, well, you know, if you want to be this, you can be this. If you think you're a man and you were a woman, and if you think you're a woman and you were a man, you ain't either one of those wasbies. I don't even know what that means. It sounded good for a moment. I mean, think about it. All the hullabaloo over coronavirus. Follow the science, follow the science. Wear a mask, follow the science. Well, we did. We followed it. It's bogus. You can't wear a cloth mask and keep out a virus that is microscopic. So what were they doing? Control. Destruction of children. Children need to see faces. You know, when I see Ellie and she smiles, I can't keep a smile off my face. When I see young people that are loving the Lord and just joyous to be around, and some of you older people too, it just puts a smile on my face. You know? And that's how we communicate. How's that? First of all, if I can't read your lips, I can't understand you. I remember going into a restaurant. I think it was McDonald's. I've been there once in 30 years. Been there once in three years, probably. She had a mask on. Oh, I remember. She says, there's a mask right there. She has this glass. I said, what? I said, why do I need a mask? You got a glass and you got a mask on. You want to say, and yours good enough? But she says, you know, how can I help you and what do you want? I'm like, what? And she said, I said, huh? Listen, I'm going deaf. I need enunciation, not mumbled stuff. Oh, it was so frustrating. I am so glad that I don't live in California where you still got to wear masks sometimes. Florida, the free state of Florida. Thank God for this state. and the fact that we had our freedoms not taken away from us as far as they wanted to take them away. But here's the point. No man can become a woman, no woman can become a man. Follow the science and you tell me how that works. Are they changing the chromosomes? Now, they're gonna do it. They're gonna do it. And even when they do it, it's an abomination. It's an anomaly. But right now, we can just X and X, X and Y, and neither of the two will be the same. I think I lost that page of notes. Did it really? Just whoop! Alright, we're done. Jesus is coming back. He's going to chain Satan up. And for a thousand years, we're going to reign with Him. Isn't that exciting? Let's all stand together. Let's pray. Lord, we do pray for Your will to be done. We thank You for being such a gracious and merciful, wonderful God. Thank You for the study in Scripture. Thank You for showing us what we need to see in the Bible. Lord, I pray that You would help us to be faithful, help us to know the truth, live the truth, present the truth to others. And we pray this in Jesus' name. With your head bowed and eyes closed. As the music plays.