I've worked with law enforcement officers long enough to know that their code word for criminals and perpetrators is simply the bad guy.
And they feel really good when they can follow the lead and apprehend and incarcerate the bad guy in a crime scene. The ultimate bad guy is Satan himself. Chapter 20 shows that before the millennial kingdom on earth can begin, this guy has to be caught and apprehended and incarcerated.
There can be no thousand years of peace on earth until that happens. Jesus Christ is the greatest hero in all of history. One day, his victory over Satan and death will be complete and will ride off into the light of heaven. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip talks about the peace you'll find in heaven and the effect it will ultimately have on the earth. But before we begin, here's a great resource that helps you overcome life obstacles to pursue the life and opportunities God has for you. I've enjoyed watching the growth and the ministry of my friend Levi Lusko. This month's Connect with Skip resource, Take Back Your Life, the new book by Levi Lusko.
Here's Levi to tell you about it. It's all around this idea of taking back your life. It's a 40-day interactive journey to thinking right so you can live right. And it's going to be really powerful and special, I think, for people to have this.
Not only is it in hardcover, which just makes me happy because I've never had a book released in hardcover, but it has a ribbon. So you'll be able to keep track of your progress through these 40 days. It would be an incredible gift to someone who is looking to grow in their faith or for any of us who want to maybe kind of do an oil change for your heart, a checkup on your wellness, on where you're at.
It'll deal with internal difficulties and help you deal better with external circumstances that are challenging as we explore how we can get to the very best version of ourselves that we are meant to be. Get the book, Take Back Your Life, with a donation of $35 to connect with Skip. Call 1-800-922-1888 or online at connectwithskip.com. This hardcover book by Levi Lusko will help you take back your life. It's a 40-day interactive journey to thinking right so you can live right.
1-800-922-1888. Okay, we're in Revelation chapter 20 today as we get into the teaching with Skip Hyten. One of the big issues that people have with Christianity is the problem of evil. Indeed, it's a problem.
It's everywhere. They say, when will evil finally end? When will all the bad guys get put away?
Why does it all have to continue so long? Moreover, as our culture moves on, it seems that we'll take values of what is good and evil and turn them around. Consider a modern-day telling of Little Red Riding Hood. It would go something like this, once upon a time in a faraway country lived a little girl called Red Riding Hood. One day her mother asked her to take a basket of fruit to her grandmother who had been ill and lived alone in a cottage in the forest. It happened that a wolf was lurking in the bushes and overheard the conversation. Well, he decided to take a shortcut to grandmother's house and get the goodies for himself. The wolf killed the grandmother, then dressed in her nightgown and jumped into bed to await the little girl.
When she arrived, he made several nasty suggestions and then tried to grab her. But by this time the child was very frightened and ran screaming from the cottage. A woodcutter working nearby heard her cries and rushed to the rescue. He killed the wolf with his axe, thereby saving Red Riding Hood's life.
All the townspeople hurried to the scene and proclaimed the woodcutter a hero. But at the inquest, several facts emerged. The wolf had never been advised of his rights. The woodcutter had made no warning swings before striking the fatal blow. The Civil Liberties Union stressed the point that, although the act of eating grandma may have been in bad taste, the wolf was only doing his thing and thus did not deserve the death penalty. The SDS, Students for a Democratic Society, contended that the killing of grandmother should be considered self-defense since she was over 30 and therefore couldn't be taken seriously because the wolf was trying to make love and not war.
On the basis of these considerations, it was decided there was no valid basis for the charges against the wolf. Moreover, the woodcutter was indicted for unaggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Several nights later, the woodcutter's cottage was burned to the ground. And one year from the date of the incident at grandma's, the cottage was made a shrine for the wolf who had bled and died there. All the village officials spoke at the dedication, but it was Red Riding Hood who gave the most touching tribute. She said that while she had been selfishly grateful for the woodcutter's intervention, she realized in retrospect that he had overreacted.
As she knelt and placed a wreath in honor of the brave wolf, there wasn't a dry eye in the whole forest. Isaiah the prophet said woe to those who call evil good and who call good evil. To take the very principles of what is valued and completely turn them around.
Woe to them. And so we wonder, when's that going to end? Well, the same Isaiah who wrote what I just quoted to you also predicted a time of righteousness. He said these words, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the sea. There is coming a time, there is coming a time of peace, of justice, of divine retribution followed by an age and era of utopia.
It won't be a dream. I've worked with law enforcement officers long enough to know that their code word for criminals and perpetrators is simply the bad guy. And they feel really good when they can follow the lead and apprehend and incarcerate the bad guy in a crime scene. The ultimate bad guy is Satan himself. And chapter 20 shows that before the millennial kingdom on earth can begin, this guy has to be caught and apprehended and incarcerated.
There can be no thousand years of peace on earth until that happens. Chapter 20 verses 1 through 3, 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, the 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 not deceive the nations. He should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years were finished. But after these things, he must be released for a little while. Satan is at large.
He is on the move. His head was bruised, Genesis 3.15 predicted, and his head was bruised at the cross. But here he is put away, put in jail, incarcerated for a thousand years before he's finally and eternally consigned to what's called the lake of fire which shows up later on in this chapter. This morning, because this is such a vital component of your eternity and mine, let's just look at these three verses again.
And let's consider it, let's unpack it in four movements. Let's look at the pursuer, the angel who's doing the job. Let's consider the prisoner himself, that is Satan.
The place where he's going to be incarcerated and finally the whole purpose for it. So verse 1 tells us the pursuer, then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. Now we don't know who this angel is, could be just any one of the angels. My view is that it's probably, and again it's just my opinion, it's probably Michael. Jude calls him the archangel. He's like the big bouncer angel.
He'd be the perfect guy for this job. And he's introduced in the book of Revelation in chapter 12, verse 7 it says, and war broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. Now it's the end of the tribulation.
And the tribulation ends with Jesus Christ coming back and he puts an end to a battle of nations that have gathered against him and against his people at Jerusalem, the Jewish people, the covenant people. And he puts an end to that battle and Michael will be a part of that. Daniel chapter 12 verse 1, at that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people.
And I got to think that Michael would love the job. He's been the arch enemy of Satan from the beginning. They're both high ranking angels, they both fought each other. In Jude verse 9 it says Michael the archangel disputing or contending or fighting with the devil about the body of Moses. So it would just make sense that the angel, the pursuer, the police officer arresting the bad guy would be Michael.
I want to throw this in because it's important at this point. One of the biggest lies Satan has is that he's somehow the comparable opposite of God. And this idea has even gotten into the minds of some Christians that you have this big cosmic battle and in this corner is God and in this corner is the devil. As if they're somehow cosmic comparable opposites.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The devil is not the opposite of God. He doesn't on his best day come close to any of the power, any of the strength, any of the might of the one who created him. Satan is not omnipresent, not omniscient, not omnipotent.
He would be more closely matched to Michael. Both high ranking angels, one fell Satan and one did not. Now when Satan fell, how many angels went with him? What's the proportion? A third of the angelic hosts. And I just got to frame this for your perspective once again that rather than getting all weirded out because there's demons out there and there are, I'm not minimizing that. If one third fell, how many stayed?
Yeah, two thirds. So for every demon there's two good angels. And that's good news to you and I because the Bible says they help us and frankly I need all the help I can get.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter one they are ministering spirits sent to minister to those who inherit salvation. So in verse one this angel comes down from heaven with a very specific agenda to pursue, to apprehend, to incarcerate, to lock up for a thousand years Satan. Notice he has the key to the bottomless pit. The key designates authority. You don't get in the door without the key. Here at Calvary we have lots of different rooms with lots of different locks and they take lots of different keys but there are some keys that are given out. We call it the A key. In fact right on the key it says A.
The A key elects you in any door. This angel has the A key. He can even unlock the bottomless pit and incarcerate those that God sends him to do and it's got to be a great moment for this angel. It's like whoever it is is like all right the day has come.
Here it goes. Because this is the day of Satan's humbling. This is the one who wanted to be lifted up above all the other beings.
He was top of the heap. In Isaiah chapter 14 we read that Satan said I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will be like the Most High.
That's what he said. Now listen to what God said to him. Same chapter. Yet you shall be brought down to hell to the lowest sides of the pit.
And now we read the fulfillment of that prediction in Isaiah 14. Years ago in London there was a bar a tavern and it went by the name of the devil and Saint Dustin. The devil and Saint Dunstan. You know the British can have the weirdest names for things. Well after court a lot of lawyers in the area would go to the bar.
They'd talk about the court cases. And so they would hang signs on their office doors. Gone to the devil. Because it was the abbreviated name for the tavern the devil and Saint Dunstan. Well so many of these signs appeared that after a period of time the very idea was changed and the meaning was changed. Gone to the devil meant gone to ruin.
And that's where the term comes from. That bar in England. That tavern. Gone to the devil. When Satan caused our first parents in the garden to buy into his lies and there was that great fall and the curse placed upon humanity. It was as if a sign were hung over the earth. Gone to the devil. But now it's as if a new sign gets posted over the inhabitation of Satan himself. Gone to the pit where he will be there for a thousand years.
You know what comes to my mind? Remember in the Wizard of Oz? Ding dong the witch is dead. Which old witch? The wicked witch. Well ding dong the witch in this case the devil is incarcerated for a thousand years. Let's let's look at this prisoner. Notice that in verse 2 he goes by not one but four different titles.
John writes he laid hold of the dragon. That serpent of old. Who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years. Now most people today don't believe in a literal devil. I do.
You and I do. Christians who believe the Bible do. But people for the most part don't buy into the literalness of the devil. He's a figure of speech. He's the embodiment of evil. He's the stuff that movies are made out of or songs are made out of.
I did a little search. Here's a sampling of songs that use the devil in it. The devil in the deep blue sea. The devil with the red dress on. The devil went down to Georgia.
I won't dispute that. The devil in her heart. Sympathy for the devil. Run devil run. The devil inside.
The devil's train. Gallup organization did a poll. They said 70% of Americans believe in the devil. But half say, half of the 70% say that he's a personal being. The other half say that he's the embodiment of evil. The impersonal force of evil. It's just a name for evil. Moreover let me break it down for you because the Barna research group asked people to respond to this statement. Here's the statement. The devil, Satan, is not a living being.
He's just the symbol of evil. Now listen to this. Of those who said they're born again Christians, 32% strongly agreed with that statement. 11% somewhat agreed with that statement. 5% said they don't know. That means 48% of those who claim to be born again Christians either say the devil is just a symbol of evil, not a real being, or they don't know.
That's staggering. You know it's like the two little six-year-old boys they were discussing the devil and the theology of the devil. It'll give you insight into the theology of a six-year-old. One little boy said, well I don't believe in the devil. The other boy said, well I believe in the devil. You should too because he's written all the way through the Bible. It's written about him.
The first boy said, yeah but it's not like really actually true. The devil's like Santa Claus. He turns out to be your dad.
I'd never share that on Father's Day. Now notice that in verse two he's called the dragon. Now that term for the devil, the dragon, is a book of Revelation term. You find it 13 times in the scripture all in the book of Revelation.
Here's why. That will be his character and nature in the end times. Vicious, cruel, devouring, like a dragon. Also he's called the serpent of old.
Now that takes us back to Genesis chapter three when that beautiful creature appeared to Eve and deceived her. And then just so you don't mistake who it is, two other titles are given him. The devil, diabolos, means slanderer or one who defames. And you know why he's called that, don't you? Because the scripture says he is before the throne of God accusing us before God night and day. Now he's got to have a lot on us if he can every night every day talk about God's children and slander us and defame us before his throne. And then he's called Satan.
That's his most common name in the Bible that appears 54 times. And Satan simply means enemy. He's your enemy. He's your adversary. That's what Satan means.
Now that is good news. Because if you want to have any relationship at all with the devil, it ought to be that he's your enemy. You don't want him as a friend. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, there's something very comforting in the thought that the devil is an adversary. I would sooner have him for an adversary than for a friend. Oh my soul, it were dread work with you if Satan were a friend of yours, for then with him you must forever dwell in darkness, shut out from the friendship of God. So right here is a climactic moment in redemptive history. The enemy of our souls is grabbed, apprehended, and placed in the bottomless pit. This is the time when the roaring lion, that's what Peter calls him, right? Roaring lion is finally overcome by the lion of the tribe of Judah. Now with the devil gone, with the devil out of the picture, what a world this is going to be.
Just that fact alone, no devil. The world is going to be dramatically different in a number of ways. And again, I'll just give you a snapshot of what it's going to be like during the kingdom age, months it would take to uncover all of the texts, but I'll give you just a snapshot. Number one, there's going to be changes in Jerusalem.
Now this is one of the reasons I love to take people on tours to Israel, and I've done it 31 times. Because it's great for people to see what it looks like now, so that when they see it in the future they go, oh, I remember what it used to look like. In fact, that used to be over there. This place has changed. It's going to get a makeover. First of all, when Jesus returns, his foot is going to touch what mountain? The Mount of Olives, the same mountain he left on.
And Zechariah 14 says his foot is going to hit the Mount of Olives. It's going to split in two, from east to west. Half the mountain will be removed to the north, half the mountain to the south. And a huge valley will be made in between, presumably where the nations will be judged at the end of the tribulation period. It's also called the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And a huge valley will be formed. Mount of Olives won't look the same. Also, a stream of water will gush from the ground from Jerusalem and flow half down toward the Mediterranean Sea and half down toward the Dead Sea.
This is Ezekiel 47 and 48. The waters of the Dead Sea are going to be healed. Now you know the Dead Sea is called dead because it's dead. It's not mostly dead, it's all dead. Nothing lives in it. The salt solution is so high, only a few micro-bacterial creatures, but it's dead. The Bible says the waters will be healed and fishermen will spread their nets down at En Gedi, which is on the shores of the Dead Sea, and abundance of fish will be caught.
Life-giving. Israel will occupy the borders God promised originally in Genesis chapter 15. That means the land of Israel will then include Lebanon, Syria, parts of Jordan, Sinai, and Iraq.
Now the leaders of these countries would not be too psyched about that, but that's the borders God promised it, that's the borders they're going to take. However, the land will be divided, the land of Israel, into three sections. North, south, and in the middle. In the north, seven tribes will occupy.
In the south, the other five. And in the middle, that's where the priests will live, who will officiate at the millennial temple. Now that's just Jerusalem. The second thing in the millennial kingdom is that the animal kingdom will be tamed. You won't need zoos.
You won't need wild animal parks or cages. The creation will be freed from its bondage. Listen to what Isaiah writes in chapter 11, verses 6 through 8. In that day, the wolf and the lamb will live together. The leopard and the goat will be at peace.
Calves and yearlings will be safe among lions, and a little child will lead them. That's Skip Heitzig with a message for you from the series From the Edge of Eternity. Right now, here's Skip to tell you how your support helps keep these messages coming your way and connects more people to the good news of Jesus.
Evil is a very real part of life on this earth, but so is the goodness and redemption of Jesus. We believe that's a message worth sharing with the hurting world, and you can help get that message out. When you become a partner in this work through your generous gift, you not only keep these teachings coming to you, but you make it possible for others to connect with the life-changing gospel of Jesus. Here's how you can give right now. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give your gift today. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate, or call 800-922-1888.
Again, that's 800-922-1888. Coming up tomorrow, Skip Heitzig talks about a future time without Satan's influence and how you'll get to see it firsthand. If Satan is bound for a thousand years, does that mean there'll be no sin at all during the millennium? No, there'll be sin.
It'll just be quickly challenged and quickly kept in check, hence the term rule with a rod of iron. You see, you don't need the devil to sin. It comes from your flesh. Satan simply provides the stimulating environment. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
