to the book of Revelation, the last book in your Bible, to the 20th chapter. So chapter 20 of Revelation, I'll be reading verses one through six. The sermon, however, will only be the first three verses, that is the binding of Satan. When we come to chapter 20 of Revelation, let me remind you or say to you that this chapter is a pivotal chapter in the modern evangelical understanding of end times. This is an essential chapter. We will spend more than one Sunday here. Like I said, today it's just these first three verses, but the scripture reading is verses one through six. So God's word says this. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who was the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. And I saw thrones. And they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. And then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are so grateful to you that in your mercy you have given us the 66 books of the Bible. We thank you, Lord, for these books. with this Bible because we know that it is truth. And Lord, we pray that as we come to this extremely difficult chapter, we ask the Lord that you would give us understanding. We ask that you would open our eyes that we might receive wondrous things. And we ask the Lord if the things that I say today are not in accordance with your word, if they are not correct, I ask, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would make that known to these people. But if what I say is according to your word, then, Lord, may your Holy Spirit convict us of these truths, we pray in Jesus Christ's name, amen. You may please be seated. I know that I have mentioned to you several times about the famous Los Angeles prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi. I think you know by now I'm quite enamored with this man, quite enamored with his intellect. And I think I told you he prosecuted 161 cases for the county of Los Angeles and lost only one case. And I'd love to meet the lawyer to beat him in that one case. But, you know, he became famous. for prosecuting Charles Manson back in 1969, Charles Manson and several others who were found guilty for the murder of Sharon Tate and several others. And he wrote a book on the OJ Simpson trial, which I read, well, I re-read not too long ago. And in that book, he says this. He says there's another related but more subtle phenomenon at play here and he's talking about the trial. He said it is that usually people see what they expect to see, not what they are actually seeing. He says, I believe that it was Thoreau who spoke of the endless struggle to see what is right in front of our eyes. And then in that book, he refers, as an example, to a presidential debate, very famous presidential debate. And he said, you know, one person, one debater, and this guy's an attorney, I mean, a prosecutor, he should know, said this one debater, I thought, man, he won that debate hands down. He said, but when the public, the opinion poll came out, the majority of Americans thought this other guy had won the debate. And so he said this, what these people saw, of course, was not the actual debate. They saw what they expected to see. And people, I think Vincent Bugliosi has summed up the problem in this debate for us. that we struggle to see what is right in front of us because we so often see what we expect to see. We so often see what we have been told for years and years and years that this is what we should see. Well today we're gonna actually have two topics before us. One is the millennium in general and then the binding of Satan. A few weeks ago I just mentioned, just in passing in my sermon, just mentioned the different millennial views. I think I was referring to R.C. Sproul. I think I was quoting him and saying I'm like R.C. Sproul or R.C. Sproul. said, if you don't like my end times view, just wait a while. He said, because my end times view is like the weather in Florida. If you don't like it, wait, it's going to change. And I mentioned in that sermon, I said, I've been premillennial, I've been amillennial, postmillennial. When people were going out the door, one woman said to me, she said, Pastor, I've always heard that amillennial, that that's heresy. And I had to say to her, no, it is not heresy. But I knew right away where she had heard that. I knew she had heard that in a particular denomination, very popular here in Southern California. It says it's not a denomination, but it is. And they say that, no, that anything other than this premillennial view of end times, anything other than that is heresy. Well, I'm going to remind you of the West Virginia mountain man that said this, it said, no matter how thin I make my pancakes, there's always two sides. No matter how thin I can make these pancakes, there's still two sides to the pancake. Or perhaps better is God's word, which says this, the first to plead his case seems right until another comes along and examines it. The problem, people, in this whole debate is that we evangelicals have only been presented with one side of the end times view. And we've been told that anything other than this one view is heresy. In fact, let me tell you how bad it is. Years ago, a friend of mine gave me a CD of John MacArthur. preaching at a Calvary Chapel pastors conference. And people, I think, It is the best sermon I've ever heard. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to that sermon. Just an outstanding sermon. But as I listened to it, I thought, well, that's odd that Calvary Chapel would invite John MacArthur to preach. Because Calvary Chapel is Arminian in their view, and John MacArthur is staunch Calvinistic, and I know Chuck Smith really didn't care for Calvinism, and I thought it was odd that they had invited John MacArthur, and so I said to my friend who had been a youth pastor at the Calvary Chapel, and I said, boy, it's odd that they invited John MacArthur. And he says, oh, you don't understand. I said, you can be invited as a guest preacher even though you're a Calvinist. You can't be invited if you have any other end times view than the traditional view. And of course John MacArthur's end times view is the traditional view, so he was invited. Remember people, no matter how thin I make my pancakes, there's two sides. And what you're gonna see today is in a sense a follow up to last Sunday's message. Because it involves that number 1,000. And today you're gonna see the great hope for Christians. And what Christ has done to give you this great hope. And today, we'll just divide it up. We'll just have two points today. First, the modern teaching. Remember, we go through the modern teaching. This is what we are told. And then, let me just say, then the other side of the pancake, if you will. So first, though, the modern teaching. I think you know it by now. And that is this. At the beginning of the seven-year tribulation period, Christ returns part of the way down for his church. In fact, that's what begins the seven year tribulation. His church is raptured. That is those believers who are alive and believers who have died are raptured and meet him in the sky and return to heaven. All the non-believers and non-believers, non-believers alive and non-believers in the grave remain, if you will, left behind. At the end of the seven-year tribulation, Christ returns again, this time with his church, this time all the way to the earth, and he binds Satan for 1,000 years. And during that 1,000 years, Christ reigns here on earth, sitting on the throne of David. Shortly before the end of that millennium, that thousand years, Satan, who had been bound for a thousand years, Satan is released for a short time, and then at the end of the millennium, then there's another resurrection for all the dead non-believers. Now that is the common, popular, accepted view. Now, if you will, the other side of the pancake. Once again, I'm gonna say this 1,000 years is not a literal 1,000 years. In fact, it should be pointed out if this is a literal 1,000 years that we have here in Revelation 20, then it is the first time in scripture that we have a literal thousand years. And we should ask, why would anybody be surprised to find the use of a symbolic number here in Revelation when Revelation is full of symbols? In fact, Steve Gregg has said this, and I said this even last week, but Steve Gregg says, The number 1,000 is frequently used in scripture without the intention of conveying statistical information. It is given as the number of generations to which God keeps His covenants. Remember, Deuteronomy 7 said that last week. is given as the number of hills on which God owns the cattle, that's Psalm 50. The number of enemy troops that one Israelite shall chase, that's Joshua 23. The number of those who shall fall at your side as opposed to the 10,000 who shall fall at your right hand, that's Psalm 91. Furthermore, the expression 1,000 is never used elsewhere in scripture for an actual number of years. but only to suggest the idea of a very long time, as we see in Psalm 90, Ecclesiastes 6, 2 Peter 3, and on and on, end of quote. Ken Gentry says this, only one place in all of scripture limits Christ's rule to 1,000 years, and that's Revelation 20, verses one through 10, a half chapter in the most highly figurative book in the Bible. In other words, people, the supposed millennial reign is not mentioned anywhere else in scripture. But the futurist finds it right here in chapter 20. And to find it, they have to say, yes, everywhere else that the number is used, everywhere else it is figurative, but not here. Here it's literal. Here it is a set 1,000 years. And then by using one half chapter of the most highly figurative book of the Bible, they form their end time scenario. Again, aren't we at least justified to question the accuracy of this? Aren't we at least justified to raise some questions? I think so. Now after Easter, Look at the two resurrections that are mentioned in this chapter, which in a sense is the whole keystone to the futuristic position. But for today, we will examine just the first part, the binding of Satan. And let me warn you, what I'm going to say to you right now will cause some of you to just give up on me. I think some of you have been kind of coming along, okay, I'll hear you again on this stuff. What I'm gonna say here, some of you will just, all right, enough of him. I give up, this poor man is hopelessly confused. But I'm gonna ask you to be patient. And let's look at the other side of this pancake. Look at verses one through three. Let's look at them again. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things, he must be released for a little while. Now, people, I'm gonna say four things about those three verses. And the first thing I'm gonna say is the one that makes people very, very uncomfortable, makes them very angry. But the first thing I'm gonna say is this. These verses are not to be understood in chronological order as following chapter 19. Instead, it's a flashback. It's going back in time. At this point of Revelation, we're now looking back to the beginning of Christianity, back to what Jesus Christ did in his earthly ministry. And now before you object, let me remind you that this is not the first time that in Revelation there is a flashback. Keep your finger here and just go back to chapter 11. Go back to chapter 11 and look at verse 18. Chapter 11, verse 18, you're near the end of, almost at the very end of chapter 11. It says, the nations were angry and your wrath has come, and the time of the dead that they shall be judged, and that you should reward your servants, the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name, small and great, and you should destroy those who destroy the earth. Now, in other words, that verse is speaking of the end of the age. So chapter 11, at the end of chapter 11, we're already speaking of the end of the age. However, when we come to chapter 12, we return to the beginning of the New Testament period with a figurative picture of the birth of Christ and of his ascension to the throne of God. So chapter 12 is a flashback now to the birth of Christ. My point, people, is this. If chapter 12 can be a flashback to the birth of Christ, why can't the same thing be true here of chapters 19 and 20? Chapter 19 speaks of the second coming of Christ, and then chapter 20 takes us immediately right back to the first coming of Christ. In other words, we must not simply assume that chapter 20 must be describing things after the events that occurred in chapter 19. So these three verses, chapter 20, are now taking us back to the beginning of Christ's ministry. It's a flashback. And so let's look at the second point. My second point, first point is it's a flashback. Second point is this. Look at the clear teaching of scripture. And by that, remember, the clear passages interpret the less clear. In fact, I'm gonna say that the binding of Satan is really quite simple. It's really quite easy to understand. Satan was bound in the first coming of Christ. It's not something yet to happen in the future. He was bound when Christ came and began his public ministry. For example, Matthew chapter 12, verse 24, You remember this, Jesus is accused, he's casting out demons. And remember he's accused, well he does this by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. And you remember Christ's reply? He says this, if I cast out demons, which he does, by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. Who's the strong man? It's Satan. See, and he first binds Satan, now he's gonna plunder his house. Now, there's a parallel account of that in Luke's gospel. In Luke's gospel, instead of the metaphor of binding Satan, Luke says, that the strong man is replaced, not bound, but he is stripped of his armor and his weapons. He's made ineffective. He can't carry out the battle, if you will. What the binding of Satan simply means, people, is that he has been rendered incapable of successfully resisting the forward march of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember that great confession of Peter, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And remember Jesus says, right, you are Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. Remember he says, you are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church. Upon that rock, upon the confession of who Christ is, And then he says, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Satan has his kingdom. His kingdom is all of those who are his, who don't trust in Christ. They're in Satan's kingdom. And he guards that. He doesn't want to lose anybody from his kingdom. But what Christ is saying is that the strong man has been bound. And now that the strong man has been bound with the coming of Christ, now through the preaching of the word, now people are brought out of Satan's kingdom and into Christ's kingdom. Now notice people, I hope you notice, I'm not just mentioning a few obscure, difficult to understand passages. No, the theme of Satan's demise in the first coming of Christ is all through the New Testament. Notice in the text before us today, notice we are told that Christ threw or cast Satan into the abyss. That's verse three. Satan was cast into the abyss. But notice the same language that is used elsewhere in the New Testament. For example, during Christ's earthly ministry, he said, now is the time for judgment on this world. Now the prince of this world will be cast out. John 12. The Apostle Paul wrote this. He says, when he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him. That's Colossians 2, verse 15. The writer of Hebrews said this. Since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless Him who had the power of death, that is the devil. Hebrews 2.14. The Apostle John, if I haven't made my case yet, the Apostle John said it this way, the Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3.8. In fact, one man, I'm not sure who this is, maybe it's Ken Gentry, I didn't write it down. One man says it this way, says the binding of Satan began in the first century. Christ initiated it during his ministry, Matthew 12. He secured it in legal fact at his death and resurrection, Luke 10 and Colossians 2, and dramatically proved it in the collapse of Christianity's first foe, Judaism. First foe of Christianity, that's Matthew 23 and 24. Now again, those aren't obscure verses that we've been looking at. Those aren't hard to understand verses. This is the principle that the clear passages interpret the less clear that we have here in Revelation 20. So what have we seen? Well first, remember, these first three verses of Revelation 20 are a flashback. A flashback to the ministry of Jesus Christ when he bound Satan in his ministry. Second, this is backed up by verse after verse, demonstrating that when Christ came the first time, the binding of Satan began, and was secured at his death and resurrection. And now the third thing, is let's consider this verse literally. Many people say, you know, you gotta read this and understand this literally, let's do that. Many people say that Satan is bound with a literal chain. But remember people, Satan is a spiritual being. How can you bind a spiritual being with a literal physical chain? Not only that, notice also in verse two, Satan is described as both a dragon and a serpent, yet he isn't literally either one of those. The issue I think that people have such a difficult time with, well, I know it's the issue they have a difficult time with because many people, when I taught it before, I kept hearing it. The thing they have the most difficult time with is they assume if Satan is bound, well, then he can't do anything. Then he's completely helpless. He can't do anything, and we all know he's quite active right now. But the verse, however, let's be literal. The verse, however, only says, verse three, so that he may not deceive the nations anymore. The binding is so that he can't deceive the nations anymore. And remember, people, prior to Christ, Prior to His first coming, the nations were, for the most part, blinded. They were out. They were outside of the people of faith. The people of faith were the Jews, the Hebrews. In Old Testament times, only Israel knew the true God. All the nations were lost, for the most part. In fact, the psalmist says this. He declares his words to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any nation. As for the ordinance, they have not known them. Psalm 147. And people, that's why when Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he said this. Remember that formerly you, the Gentiles, in the flesh, Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Now, however, the church is made up of Jews and Gentiles, people from all the nations. coming to faith in Christ. Men and women from all over the world, from all different nations coming to faith in Christ and being part of the church. And people, we have evidence of that fact, of that binding of Satan right here in this little teeny church on this little piece of God's world. We have evidence of that. I don't know if I said it from the pulpit or if I said it to Gina or whoever, but it was just a few weeks ago. Just a few weeks ago, in one worship service here, we had someone from Australia, someone from India, someone from Mexico, from Korea, from Germany, We had people from America, obviously. We had one person who's Jewish in his DNA, a Jewish background. We had the very thing that we see here with the binding of Satan we have before us, that before we're blinded. But with the binding of Satan, now the gospel goes forth. All of us. taken out of Satan's kingdom and put into Christ's kingdom through the proclamation of the gospel. Because Christ bound Satan that he can't deceive the nations any longer. And if you think I'm off base, if you think, oh no, this can't be. Satan can't be bound because he's much too active today. If you think I'm off base, then consider our fourth point. Turn to Jude, And Jude, remember, is the book immediately before Revelation. So go to Revelation chapter one and go back a page. Jude is just one chapter. Well, look at Jude six. That means the sixth verse of Jude. Look what Jude writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He says, and the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode he has reserved in everlasting chains until darkness for the judgment of the great day. Now that's the New King James version. Last two weeks I've been using New King James. It has bigger print. My Bible has bigger print and I'm old so I need that. But your translation may say bonds instead of chains. This translation, I like it, says in everlasting chains. Now let me ask, who are the angels who did not keep their proper abode? They're demons. Where are they? Jude, again under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says they are kept in everlasting chains under darkness. You know what that means? It means they're bound. It means the same thing that Revelation 20 verses 1 through 3 means. But men and women, doesn't Paul warn us in Ephesians 6 that we're wrestling against the forces of darkness? Well, how can we be wrestling against the forces of darkness when Jude says that the demons are bound? Well, I think you know why. Because all Jude is saying, is that they are active only within the scope of God's permission. They can only do what God allows them to do. And it means that their final destiny is assured. And that's exactly what it means that Satan is bound in Revelation 20. And that's why Robert Strimple, a professor at Westminster, at least he was, but he's probably retired by now, but he said this, we may well ask then If Jude, by the Spirit's inspiration, can describe all of these demonic beings as in everlasting chains now, why should it be thought that to interpret Satan's being bound as a reference to what is true now is somehow inconsistent with Satan's present activity? This is scriptural language, no more contradictory of Satan's present activity then Jude 6 is contradictory of the present activity of the whole host of fallen angels." End of quote. So now, people, what does this all mean? Well, first, let me say this. A few years ago, when I was six or seven years ago now, I preached, or I taught this very thing, the Sunday school class here at this church. There was a man in that class, a troublemaker, a factious man, the type of man that Titus warns us about, who didn't ask me any questions during the lesson, didn't say anything, but he sure went to people afterwards. And I found out because some people told me he'd even go up to people at lunch. You'd see him in a restaurant and you'd go up to him at lunch and he'd say, You know, hello, can you believe that pastor? Can you believe that Pastor Wade believes that Satan is bound right now? And these are people who weren't even in the class. What, what are you talking about? Well, that and the doctrine of election contributed towards splitting this church. Let me ask again, as I've asked as we've gone through this. Is there anything that I've said here today that is worth splitting the church over? Anything that we have said here that is worth dividing over for Christians? I may be flat out wrong, and if so, show me my error and I'll recant, but it's not worth splitting the church over. Second, this text has great application for all of you, because when Paul preached in Athens, He said this, therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to man that all people everywhere should repent. Now that God has bound Satan, the times of ignorance are over, and consequently God now declares that all people everywhere should repent. I will say this, that the popular end times view of modern evangelicalism is extremely confusing. My head spins trying to understand this whole thing. Fortunately for me, Harvey Eckhart gave me a book. by Tim LaHaye and Tommy Ice, autographed. Do you remember that Harvey? Autographed by the two of them. I collect autographed books. And Harvey is being nice and he gave me this book. And the book is called Charting the End Times. It's all these charts with explanations. Well, there's chapter 45 of that book. It's titled The Resurrections, plural, and Judgments of Scripture. And that caught my eye. In that chapter you learn that The modern view actually has not one resurrection, four resurrections. There's the resurrection of the church at the rapture. There's the resurrection of Old Testament believers at the second coming of Christ. There is the resurrection of the martyred saints during the tribulation, at the end of the tribulation. And then there's the resurrection of the millennial believers after that thousand year millennium is over. I prefer Christ's words in John's gospel in the fifth chapter where Jesus disagrees with that chart and Jesus says this, do not marvel at this for an hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to a resurrection of condemnation. One resurrection, those who've done good, to a resurrection of life. And instantly, we look at that and we say, those who've done good. Jesus says, no one is good but God alone. And if it's those who've done good, what hope is there for us? Men and women, the good news is Christ came. Christ did the good. For us, Christ obeyed the law for us. And when you look at the context there of John chapter five, those who've done good are those who've trusted in Christ. And those who have the goodness of Christ, his obedient life imputed to them. And those who've done evil to a resurrection of condemnation are those who've rejected Christ and bear their sins upon themselves. I began with Vincent Bugliosi. Let's end with him. I had, I told you, I think he's brilliant. I think I've said this several times, perhaps when I've illustrated with, used his illustrations before, that I wanted to meet with him because he's a staunch atheist. and he wrote a book called Divinity of Doubt, which I've read a couple times, I've quoted it in sermons, and it's on my desk in my office at home. I keep seeing that there, Divinity of Doubt, and I keep, there's this mental note, oh, meet with him. I wanted, I thought, he would probably enjoy it. He would probably enjoy if I called him up and said, hey, let's meet, you know the, The other side of the pancake, sane. I got that from Vincent Bugliosi. It's in his book. And I said, you know, you said in your book, you know, no matter how thin I make a pancake, there's another side to that. Let's meet. And in your book, you say these things. I'd like to present to you the other side. You know, I'm kind of a procrastinator by nature. And so finally, though, I said, you know, I think I'm going to do it. Let's do it. And I go to make the arrangements. to hunt him down to find out how I can communicate with him. And I learned that he died this last year, that his soul is now required of him. Men and women, this is serious stuff that we're dealing with here. There will be a resurrection of the dead, and this week, You know, last week was Tammy and it was Martha Dill. This week it's Pat Compton at a relatively young age. This is serious stuff. Those who are in Christ, there's a resurrection to life. Those who are not, there's a resurrection of condemnation. Men and women, what good news it is that Christ has bound Satan that he cannot deceive the nations anymore. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we do indeed thank you for your grace, for your mercy. We thank you for your power, which has bound Satan and his demons in everlasting chains. Lord, how we thank you that because of that binding, The preached word can go forth powerfully. The proclamation of the gospel can take people out of Satan's kingdom, which he tries so desperately to keep and bring them into that glorious kingdom, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you for that. We thank you for how you took Pat Compton, out of Satan's kingdom, through the declaration of your word, brought him into your glorious kingdom. Lord, may you do that with many, many more. From the nations all around the world, and here in Garden Grove, and here in this church, for your great glory, and for our good, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And now, men and women, if you'd all please stand and take your hymnals.