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, and he'll be out of the way. The people in their moral bodies will be born with the sin nature, and thus the propensity towards sin. In the future, Satan will be locked away for a time, and humanity will enjoy a break from his schemes.
So what will the world be like without that influence? Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Skip shares about that experience you'll get to see firsthand one day.
At the end of the program, Skip and his wife Laniya share some practical ways you can protect yourself from the enemy's attacks. I'll just tell you personally, when I have other believers around me, that really helps. Not just Scripture, not just the Holy Spirit, but people reminding me of my frailties and moving me in the right direction.
Be sure to stay with us after today's message to hear the full discussion. Right now, we want to tell you about a special resource that will help you become the difference maker God created you to be. 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. Now, we're in Revelation chapter 20 as we get into the message with Skip Hyten. 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. 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. The 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 chapter 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. Moreover, 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. The cattle will graze among the bears. Cubs and calves will lie down together, and lions will eat grass as the livestock do. Babies will crawl safely among the poisonous snakes, and yes, a little child will put its hand into a nest of deadly snakes and pull it out unharmed.
You get the picture. The curse will be removed. Animals will be docile and tame. You remember that incident last year at the zoo in China when that young teenager got up against a panda bear cage? You might have seen it on television. He just wanted a picture with a panda bear as the background. But he got close enough that that cuddly, sweet little panda bear that wouldn't hurt anybody, right? Reached its claws through the cage and grabbed that young man, and were it not for a few quick-thinking people, he'd have been killed.
The bear simply got his jacket and mangled it. I remember one time I was in Kenya, and I was in the back of a truck. There was an old Land Rover, and we were driving through the bush, and I saw a lioness and her cubs. And so the driver pulled like five, seven feet away from this family. And here's me, dumb Skip from America, rolling the window down, sticking my camera out to take pictures of it. And the driver just said, very firmly but gently, close the window. He says, that animal looks really nice, but you're in her living room right now. If you get too close, that thing's going to jump at you and tear your head off. So I quickly rolled the window up. I realized I'm not in the millennium yet.
Got to wait for that. The third thing that you can expect during that Kingdom Age is this earth is going to look lush and beautiful. The biosphere will be lush, like a flowering garden.
Now just imagine looking out toward the west side of Albuquerque. And it looks like the forest, rain forest of Oregon. Isaiah 35, even the wilderness will rejoice in those days. The desert will blossom with flowers. The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon and as lovely as Mount Carmel's pastures and the Plain of Sharon. Springs will gush forth in the wilderness. Streams will water the desert. The parched ground will become a pool. And springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land. Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish where desert jackals once lived.
Can't wait to mountain bike through that. Fourth thing is there will be a healing of disabilities. Isaiah 35 continues, he will open the eyes of the blind and unstop the ears of the deaf.
The lame will leap like a deer and those who cannot speak will shout and sing. There's going to be longevity as well during this time. That's the fifth thing you can expect, health and longevity. Isaiah 65, never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days an old man who does not live out his years. He who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth. Isn't that great news? You don't have to buy all those fancy expensive face creams or get a stretch job on a fan.
It's just longevity. Of course for those of us who are believers, you're going to be in glorified bodies anyway so this isn't going to even affect your constitution but it will for those who are still in their mortal bodies who have made it through the tribulation and have children for those thousand years. Sixth and finally and again I'm just giving you a snapshot here. Finally there's going to be world peace. Now let those words settle upon you because remember last week Will Durant we noted said there's only been 8% of history that has seen world peace.
After 3,124 years of recorded history, 268 have seen no war. The millennial kingdom of Christ will be a time where there will be world peace. Gallup organization says one of the most frequently asked questions generation after generation is when will there ever be world peace?
I can answer that and you can answer that. Only in the millennial reign of Christ and not before. Isaiah chapter 2 verse 4 says the Lord will at that time settle international disputes. All the nations will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. All wars will stop and military training will come to an end. Now next week we're going to consider more of the governmental structure of the kingdom age because you're going to be a part of it.
But here it is in summary form. It's going to be a government by the Lord, of the Lord, and for the Lord. A total theocracy. He will rule and reign with a rod of iron.
Now a question comes up and it's an important one. 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 and he'll be out of the way but people in their mortal bodies will be born with a sin nature and thus the propensity towards sin though kept in check until finally Satan is released at the end of the tribulation or end of the millennium. Now go back to verse 1 and verse 3. For a moment just consider the place where Satan will be incarcerated. It's called the bottomless pit. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. Verse 3, and he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him.
Now what is that? Well it's the Greek word abussos, some translation the abyss, our translation the bottomless pit. You know that that was one of my names my friends used to give me back in the early days when I was early 20s. I ate so much and I ate quickly. They just said you are, that was my nickname, the abyss, the bottomless pit.
So I probably shouldn't have let that out should I have because I think I'll never live that one down. But the bottomless pit or the abussos is a place of temporary incarceration. Think of it as a holding tank. It's where demons are kept and Satan will be bound temporarily awaiting his final judgment, his final sentence which will be in the lake of fire. Verse 10, look at that. And the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. So this is like the intermediate hell before the final hell.
It's the same place Peter wrote about in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 4. He spoke about demons who are in chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment. You remember in the gospel stories where Jesus goes from one side of the lake of Galilee to the other side and the side he goes to is the eastern side called the Gadarenes or the area of Gadara and there was a demon possessed man who lived in the tombs and when Jesus saw this man who was inhabited by a legion of demons they spoke through that man and it says they begged him that he would not command them to go into the abyss.
They wanted to be free, they wanted to torment people and their big fear is that Jesus would consign them to this pit awaiting final execution. Well notice it says in our text there was a great chain in this angel's hand. You see Satan is such a great foe and has wrecked such great havoc on the earth you need a great chain to bind him.
Now I can't resist this. That story that I just mentioned about the demon possessed man the Gadarenes. Listen to what Mark writes in Mark chapter 5. No one could bind him not even with chains because he had often been bound with shackles and chains and the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces neither could anyone tame him.
Here's the point. Satan's demons can break the chains of man but even Satan himself will not be able to undo or break this great chain for a thousand years. No weaseling out of this one, no Houdini out of this one. He's bound, he's incarcerated and why? What is the purpose? The purpose is found in verse 3. So that 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. Why is it that Satan has to be bound before the millennium can even be inaugurated? Because of his deception. Now what is Satan's primary activity on the earth right now?
Given this verse that we just read. It is deception. The devil's main activity isn't to scare little children or to murder people. His main activity is to deceive people. Jesus called the devil a liar and the father of lies. In Revelation chapter 12 we read the devil, the dragon, who deceives the whole world.
Now how does he do that? False doctrine. False religious systems. False hope for unbelievers who think they're going to go to heaven but they're not because they've never received Christ as their Savior. They go, oh I'm good enough and only good people go to heaven.
No, only saved people go to heaven. And he deceives the world. First John chapter five verse 19. John says, same guy who wrote this book. We know we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
Now that's quite a statement. To say well we know we're of God but everyone in the world is lying under the sway of the wicked one. He's a deceiver.
He's deceived a lot of people. Second Corinthians chapter four verse four. The God of this age, who's that? Satan. The God of this age has blinded the mind of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ.
So here's my point. For a thousand years, no deceptions. The deceptions are over. That means there's not going to be any satanic ideologies, no satanic philosophies, no cults, no astrological forecasts, no heresies, no false theories of morality. That's all gone.
He's out of the picture. It'll be understood what is right and what is wrong. Now, in closing, remember last week we talked about the three different viewpoints of the millennium? And I mentioned that all millennialism teaches that we're in the kingdom right now. This is the millennium.
I'm disappointed if that's true. This is the kingdom age. Christ is reigning over his church right now.
Well, if this is the kingdom age, then Satan is what? He's got to be bound. If this is the kingdom, Satan is bound. I don't think so. If this is Satan being bound, he's got an awfully long chain.
And here's why. He's not bound. The Bible says exactly the opposite. Peter writes, 1 Peter 5, your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
That's not bound. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2 about the devil. He calls him the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
There are many texts like that. Satan is not bound. This is not the kingdom. This is not the kingdom. We're waiting for the kingdom. Listen, when the kingdom comes, you'll know it. You'll know it. Everybody will know it. The knowledge of God will cover the earth, fill the earth as waters cover the sea.
It will be a very, very different scene than it is today. The bad guy will be put away for a thousand years. Every now and then I'll encounter some spiritual group, some religious group, some well-meaning Christian who will try to take authority of himself and say, I'll bind you, Satan. They'll even talk to Satan.
I don't even talk to him. Talk to God. I'll bind you, Satan. Do me a favor. If you're going to bind Satan, bind him for good, would you?
Because whatever you're doing, it's not working. He keeps getting out. He keeps getting out. And I know Jesus said what is bound on earth is bound in heaven. That's in the context of church leadership and making binding decisions that are bound also in heaven.
Here's the truth. You can't bind him. Only Christ can and will bind him through this strong angel, and it will happen then. And so here's what we have to face. Satan is very active, and he's very out in the open, and he is not bound, and he is loose.
And because he is loose, he is deceiving. And could it be that some here have been deceived about the most important thing in the world, the most important thing ever, and that is eternity? Could it be that some are deceived, still here thinking, well, I go to church every week. Well, I'm a good person. I'm a nice guy. I'm not really opposed to God.
I said some prayer sometime, somewhere, I think. That could be a form of great deception. You know, Jesus said, unless a man is born again, he can never see the kingdom of God. Born-again Christianity is not a subculture. It's not like you've got Presbyterians and Catholics and Methodists and then that born-again group. That's that flavor of Christianity, that new thing. There's only one type of person in heaven, and that's the born-again type. Unless a man is born again, he will never see the kingdom of God.
It doesn't matter what flavor you are. You can be a born-again Presbyterian, born-again Baptist, born-again non-denominationalist, but you have to be born again. And that is where you come to an end of yourself and receive Christ's solution for your sin and mine and be saved. Don't be deceived. The deceiver walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
My strong urge is that you let Christ come into your life, because when Christ comes into your life, he's not going to share that house with the devil. That's where the enlightenment comes. That's where the freedom comes.
That's where the perspective comes. That's Skip Hyten with the conclusion of a message from the series From the Edge of Eternity. Now, here's Skip and Lenya to share some practical ways you protect yourself from the enemy's attacks. As we learned today, Satan is currently roaming around like a lion seeking whom he may devour.
So picturesque. He's actively trying to lead people astray, including believers. What are some of the more common tactics and what can we do to guard ourselves from his attacks?
I think the most common tactic is deception. That's what he is. He's all about deceiving people. He fell by rebelling against God, and he tries to constantly add to that number of people who would rebel against God. So he's all about deceiving people, getting folks to not ever feel their need for God or their desire for God. And he has a lot of help.
The Bible says he drew a third of the stars of heaven with him. So he has an organized network of demonic beings that help get that objective done. So deception, number one. But beyond that, we all know about things like temptation, complacency, impulsiveness, pride, accusation.
He accuses us before the throne day and night. And, you know, the Bible says in Ephesians 6 that we are to put up the shield of faith which can quench all fiery darts of the wicked one. So those are things that can help. But I'll just tell you personally, when I have other believers around me, that really helps. Not just Scripture, not just the Holy Spirit, but people reminding me of my frailties and moving me in the right direction.
Thanks, Skip and Lenya. Our experiences of God's presence and power on this earth are only a preview of what heaven will be like. That's why it's vital to share the gospel of Jesus so others can know his love now and be with him in eternity forever.
When you give a gift, you help connect others to Jesus' love by keeping this teaching ministry going strong. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give a gift now. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or call 800-922-1888.
800-922-1888. Thank you. Come back tomorrow as Skip Heiseck shares about how you'll be able to experience a future when politics is perfect. You don't want to miss that. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heiseck is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-03-16 23:18:00 / 2024-03-16 23:28:11 / 10