The Coming Earthly Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, Part 2

So this is a triumphant moment, beloved, in God's redemptive plan.

This is the moment when the victory of Christ is exercised over His arch enemy and the roaring lion is overcome by the lion of the tribe of Judah. A day is coming in the future when Satan will be bound. But what about people who say you can bind the devil right now? Considering how much talk there is about binding Satan, you might legitimately expect to find many examples of that happening in Scripture. The fact is, you don't find any passages in the Bible where people bind Satan. So when and how will Satan be bound? And what's more, whose job is it to bind him, and what effect will that have on the earth and on you? John MacArthur will help you answer those fascinating questions today on Grace To You when he continues his prophecy series from the book of Revelation titled When Jesus Comes.

So follow along now as John begins. As you know, we're studying the book of Revelation and we have been doing so for quite a long time. We find ourselves in chapter 20, the coming earthly kingdom of Jesus Christ, Revelation chapter 20. Let me just say that the promise of the earthly kingdom of the Messiah fills the Old Testament.

It would be impossible for us to cover even a portion of the Scriptures in the Old Testament that direct their attention to this event, to this period of time. Second Samuel, Psalm 2, a number of places in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Zechariah. And when you come into the New Testament, particularly the 24th chapter of Matthew focuses on the time when the sign of the Son of Man appears in heaven. The Son of Man comes with the angels, they gather the elect from the four corners of the earth, and that is the beginning of the great and glorious kingdom. So both Old and New Testament are just replete with promises with regard to the kingdom. And just to put that in perspective, let me say something at the very outset which will help you understand the nature of God's promise to Israel and to all those who are in Christ and those who belong to God. God always promised a kingdom. He always promised a kingdom that was eternal, but He promised also that it would be an earthly kingdom. And as well, He promised the hope of eternal heaven.

Now how can God fulfill all of that? An eternal kingdom which is an earthly kingdom and also a heavenly kingdom? Well, the answer is the millennial kingdom is the earthly part of that eternal kingdom. The thousand-year millennial kingdom is really phase one of God's eternal kingdom. In the Old Testament, the promises to Israel, the promises through the prophets speak of a kingdom that is earthly, but they also speak of a kingdom that is heavenly, a kingdom that is here on this planet and a kingdom that is in a completely different dimension, a kingdom that is measured by time and a kingdom that is beyond time. And so when you look at the kingdom prophecies, you will see that they are eternal and they stretch on through forever and ever. But at the same time, the beginning of that kingdom fulfillment has an earthly phase, and that is the thousand-year millennium that is the theme of this marvelous chapter.

And it's necessary that God do it that way. He promised an earthly kingdom so He will bring it. Into that earthly kingdom will come people who are physical just like we are who haven't died. They will survive the time of the tribulation. They will be the redeemed. They will come from the nation Israel and from other nations of the world. They will go into the earthly kingdom in the glorious renewed and revived earth.

They will have children and so natural reproduction will be going on, natural processes in life will be going on. And so there will still be a group of people on the earth who will have the right to believe or not believe. And so the kingdom, while it is in fact a kingdom given to God's people by way of fulfillment of His promise, is also really the final time in which redemption can occur in the lives of human beings. So there has to be in that kingdom the final gathering together of the redeemed and then can come the eternal state. So we're looking at Revelation chapter 20, and then at chapter 21 we'll see the eternal kingdom which is called the new heaven and the new earth. But here in chapter 20 we're actually looking at a restored earth, restored to its...to nearly its original glory, ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's talk about the first point in chapter 20, the removal of Satan. The first matter of attention for John as he looks at this vision of the kingdom is to see the removal of Satan. Verse 1, And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss 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 threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him so that he should not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed. After these things he must be released for a short time.

Now a simple understanding of that at face value, literally interpreting what was said, is very, very clear. An angel comes down, has a key, has a chain, takes hold of Satan, binds Satan, throws him into the abyss for a thousand years, at the end of which for a brief time he is released. So the first thing we see that occurs in the kingdom is the removal of Satan.

Now that's going to dramatically change the world, isn't it? Because Satan is the prince of the power of the air, he's the god of this age, he's the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. Up until this point, by the way, God has already taken care of many of the rebels. Fallen men, sinful men have all been slain in the process of judgments through the time of the Great Tribulation and those who survive that will perish in the holocaust around Armageddon described there in chapter 19. So the unregenerate world has been destroyed and then the Antichrist and the false prophet, we find at the end of chapter 19, have been seized and thrown into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.

So those ringleaders of this great worldwide rebellion have been taken care of. Now that leaves only Satan and the demons still loose. And if the Lord is going to establish His kingdom, He's going to get rid of the ungodly leaders, He's going to get rid of the ungodly people, and now He's going to get rid of the ungodly powers of the heavens, namely Satan and all the demons. If the kingdom is to be all that God designs, the enemy has to go. There can be no one thousand years of peace and righteousness if he is at large. So God removes the one who is the adversary, the enemy, the one creating the conflict. In fact, his head was bruised at the cross, as promised in Genesis 3.15, and now comes his incarceration before a final exile at the end of the thousand years into the lake of fire where Satan and his demons will dwell forever. So here is the incarceration of Satan and all the demons, which is crucial to the reign of Christ and the reign of the saints through the Millennial Kingdom without any obstruction, without any hindrance.

And what a world that is going to be. Let's look then at what it says about the removal of Satan in verse 1. John says, And I saw...now I just stopped there long enough to say that little phrase, and I saw, is repeated.

And it is an indication of some sequence of events. Back in chapter 19 verse 11, And I saw heaven opened. And verse 17, And I saw an angel standing in the sun. And verse 19, And I saw the beast and the kings. And now chapter 20, And I saw an angel coming down from heaven.

It's not too hard to understand. There's a real sequence here. Verse 4, And I saw thrones. Verse 11, And I saw a great white throne. Verse 12, And I saw the dead. And John is just marching us sequentially through this tremendous vision of the establishment of the kingdom one step at a time.

The major steps are indicated by that little phrase, And I saw...which indicates another facet of this immense vision that John is having of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the establishment of the kingdom. Now it says, I saw an angel. We can speculate that this angel is a particular angel. It could be as noted back in chapter 12 verse 7, Michael, since Michael there is indicated to be a uniquely gifted and uniquely used angel in some significant role on behalf of God. You find it in Jude 9, Michael is called the archangel. Perhaps some would suggest this could be Michael because of the very formidable event that is about to happen. Michael who has been the archenemy of Satan would like to be the angel charged with this responsibility, but that is purely speculation since it doesn't say.

But it would have to be a mighty angel, certainly endued with supernatural strength because he comes down from heaven having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. Now he comes down from heaven with a very specific agenda. He is going to do very, very specific things. One, lay hold of Satan. Two, bind him for a thousand years. Three, cast him to the abyss. Four, lock him with a key. Five, set a seal.

Six, loose him at the end of the thousand years. So his agenda is prescribed by heaven itself by God. He comes down, he has what is called the key of the abyss, abissos, abissos, the abyss. And you might be saying, well, what is the abyss? Well Peter calls it in 2 Peter 2, 4, the pits of darkness reserved for judgment. It is the place where demons are sent to be reserved for their final sentencing to the lake of fire.

It is not the final hell. And believe me, fallen angels will go there because the final hell, the lake of fire, has been prepared for the devil and his angels. And so ultimately they're going to end up in the lake of fire which burns with fire and brimstone forever and ever. That eternal fire, Matthew 25, 41 says, prepared for the devil and his angels. And down in verse 10 of chapter 20, the devil who deceived them was then thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are also and they'll be tormented day and night forever and ever. But the devil doesn't get thrown into that place until the thousand years is over. Here he is put into the abissos which is some other kind of place of incarceration, not the specific final lake of fire because once you go to the lake of fire, you can never come back because it burns with fire and brimstone forever and ever and no one is ever released. The abyss is mentioned also in Luke 8 31. You remember when Jesus was casting demons out, the demons said, don't send us to the abyss. And again I say, the abyss is not the final eternal lake of fire, it is a place of torment, certainly a place of punishment, a place out of the presence of God, a place of incarceration, a temporary place where God sends demons and where in this case He binds Satan.

Now just to give you a little bit of a review of things that we've said in years past, keep this in mind. I'll give you a little diagram, kind of follow it in your mind, if you will. On one line, if you were diagramming it, you could write angels. And then you could split off a line and divide those angels into two.

There would be holy angels and fallen angels. Take the line that says fallen angels and split it into two, loose and bound. The loose ones are demons. The bound ones are those incarcerated.

Take the bound ones and split them into two, permanently bound and temporarily bound. There are permanently bound angels, permanently bound fallen angels and demons. When were they permanently bound? Well I believe they were the ones who sinned in Genesis chapter 6 and are reserved in everlasting chains. So they went into the abyss and they will be there permanently until they're transferred to the lake of fire.

There are other fallen angels who have been sent into the abyss, but they're only there temporarily and we find in the book of Revelation on at least two occasions that they are released. Hell belches out three unclean frogs that represent unclean spirits, and then you have 200 million of them who have been bound at the Euphrates and they are released during the time of the Tribulation. So there are some demons that are loose, there are some that are bound of those that are bound, some are permanently bound, some are temporarily bound. The temporarily bound ones are loosed for purposes of judgment during the time of the Tribulation.

They will then be reincarcerated in the abyss until finally they are all cast into the lake of fire prepared for all of them. Now here this angel has a key which simply identifies authority. If you have the key, you control the door. The angel has the key and it signifies authority.

He can open it and he can close it. In fact, back in chapter 9 verse 1, it says the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him and he opened the bottomless pit. There's the same kind of thing, that bottomless pit, that abbessos, that place of torture and torment, not the final hell but the place of incarceration of demons. It may well be the place where Jesus when He was crucified, and you remember, He went and made a public display before the demons while His physical body was in the grave.

He was alive in His Spirit, Peter says, and He descended and He proclaimed a triumph caruso over the principalities and powers. He went there and while hell was holding a carnival because Jesus was dead, He showed up at the party and brought His words of judgment and condemnation. Back in chapter 1 and verse 18, we read that Jesus Christ is the one who has the keys of death in Hades. And He dispenses those keys in this case to an angel in chapter 9 to open the bottomless pit and here again in chapter 20 to open that pit as well and then to lock it again. Notice the angel also had a great chain in his hand. The idea that it's great signifies the greatness of Satan in a sense so that it takes a great chain to bind him.

It would be the same kind used, as noted, in Jude to bind the demons. It says in Jude 6, angels who didn't keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal chains under darkness for the judgment of that great day. So Satan then goes and he's bound in the same place that these other demons have been eternally bound in great chains. And again, 2 Peter 2, 4 says the same thing. Just a note in Mark chapter 5, there's an interesting reference that kind of ties in with this, I think, interestingly.

They came to the other side of the sea into the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had come out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him, that is, met Jesus. And he had his dwelling among the tombs and no one was able to bind him anymore even with a chain because he had often been bound with shackles and chains and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces and no one was strong enough to subdue him.

And constantly, night and day, among the tombs and in the mountains he was crying out and gashing himself with stones. Here is a demon-empowered man who is so powerful, so strong, so indomitable that the best chains of men can't bind him. The point being, Satan's demons can break the chains of men but they cannot break this chain in chapter 20. Satan himself can't break the chain of God that is used to bind him. Then verse 2, this angel comes down and this has got to be a great moment for this angel, be it Michael or whoever. This has got to be a monumental moment and he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

That is the duration of the Millennial Kingdom. He laid hold of the dragon. Again, remember that the term dragon is used back in chapter 12, verses 3, 4 and 17 to refer to Satan. Why does the term dragon refer to Satan? Because it emphasizes his bestial nature. It emphasizes his fierceness, his ferociousness, his cruelty, his oppressiveness. Not only is he called the dragon, but he's called the serpent of old.

And what does that remind you of? The serpent of old takes you all the way back to where? To the garden, the Garden of Eden, the snake in the Garden of Eden who tempted Eve and started all the trouble. The one, according to 2 Corinthians 11, 3, who deceived. And it is that dragon, that fierce, bestial, cruel, vicious, deadly old snake from the Garden of Eden. Further he defines him who is the devil.

Again, giving you another insight into him, devil is diabolos, it means slanderer. And you remember that the book of Revelation also tells us he is night and day before the throne of God, accusing the brethren. He is a malignant liar.

This has been his character since he fell. He is the father of all lies. He cannot speak the truth except for lying purposes. The devil, it says in 1 John 3, 8, has sinned from the beginning.

He is a lying deceiver. So he's called the dragon, the serpent, the devil and Satan. Satan means adversary, enemy. He opposed God. He opposed Christ.

He opposed the saints, Job, Peter, Paul, believers. Back in chapter 12 again, verses 4, 9 and 10, we've gone through all of that. So this is a triumphant moment, beloved, in God's redemptive plan. This is the moment when the victory of Christ is exercised over His arch enemy and the roaring lion is overcome by the lion of the tribe of Judah. And Satan is bound for a thousand years.

This is the first of six references to this period with the number 1,000. And so Satan is bound during this time of the kingdom. That's going to dramatically alter the world, dramatically change it because there will be no satanic enterprise, there will be no satanic ideologies, no satanic philosophies, no demonic theories of anything. There will be no satanic theories of morality. There will be no satanic theories of justice. There will be no satanic theories of social behavior, social life.

There will be no satanic maxims, opinions, ideologies of any kind existent anywhere on the globe. The whole demonic world is incarcerated along with their leader and Jesus Christ sets the agenda for all of the world. Now it says in verse 3, after binding Satan for a thousand years, this angel...I like the terminology...threw him into the abyss.

You have to do that because I guess the angel doesn't want to go down there. Literally the word abissos, by the way, means bottomless. He threw him into the bottomless. This is the description of this place of incarceration. It's called the bottomless pit. As I noted in verse 10, it's later at the end of the thousand years that he's thrown into the lake of fire. Now all seven times this abyss or bottomless pit appears in Revelation.

It refers to the place where fallen angels and foul evil spirits are held captive, the place where they await their final incarceration from which they can never be relieved, called the lake of fire. It says in Isaiah 24, 21 and 22, very interestingly, so it will happen in that day that the Lord will punish the host of heaven. Who are the hosts of heaven? Angels.

These are wicked angels. The Lord will punish in that day the wicked angels. And they will be gathered together like prisoners in the dungeon and will be confined in prison. And after many days, then they will be punished.

So first they are combined. I think Isaiah is seeing the same thing. They are confined for a period of a thousand years and Isaiah says after that, then comes the eternal punishment. And that comes later after the great white throne judgment at the end of the millennium. All the unsaved of all the ages will be resurrected, brought to the great white throne and they along with all the fallen angels and Satan and the false prophet and the beast will all be thrown into the lake of fire. Verse 3 also says that after the angel throws him into the abyss, it says, John saw in his vision and shut it and sealed it over him. He is chained with a great chain.

He is locked into the abyss with a key. It is shut and sealed so that the world cannot at all be influenced by Satan. The whole world will be influenced only by those purposes of Christ. You say, well, won't everybody then who is born of those redeemed people who go into the kingdom become Christians?

No. Amazingly, they'll be fallen creatures who will reject Christ even though they're living in that marvelous kingdom itself. It shows you the depth of sin.

But the point made here is this. All of this is done to Satan, middle of verse 3, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer. His deceptions are over. His deceptions are over. So if people reject Christ, it'll not be because they are what?

Deceived. It'll be because they love their iniquity. And he's kept there, it says in verse 3, until the thousand years were completed. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur. Thanks for being with us. Today's lesson is part of John's current study from the book of Revelation titled, When Jesus Comes.

Well, today we saw that Satan will be bound for a thousand years, but he's not bound yet. And along that line, we received a call on our Q&A line about how Satan operates today. So let's listen to this question from Kathleen.

It's short and pretty straightforward. And then John, would you respond to her? Is it possible for Satan to put thoughts in our mind if we are a saved Christian?

Thank you. Well thank you, Kathleen, for that question. And it depends on what you mean by that. Satan doesn't have some kind of sovereign access to your mind. But Satan can influence your thinking, but he does that through the world system. And you have to recognize that he has access through your human flesh, through your mind, through the avenues by which you're tempted. So the question is really the same as, can Satan tempt me?

Yes, but it's not as if the devil shows up and somehow sticks some thoughts in your head. It's simply that he operates the world system, which is the complex of evil that surrounds us all. As I said a couple of days ago, the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. He is the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the ruler of the spiritual darkness in the heavenlies.

He dominates the fallen world. And so we're literally in the environment where Satan prevails at this time. So temptation comes to us that way. But I think it's important to understand it comes through the flesh. It doesn't bypass the flesh and show up in your brain as if Satan had the sovereign power to deposit something there. And of course, the cure for that is to fill your mind with the things of God.

And that's how you resist the devil and he flees from you. Yeah, thank you, Jon. And friend, if there's a Bible question you've wondered about, I would encourage you to call our Q&A line. Follow the prompts and record your question, and you may hear John MacArthur answer it on a future Grace To You broadcast. Get in touch with us today. The number for our Q&A line, 661-295-6288. Again, if you have a question about any biblical topic, just call and leave a message, and it may become part of an upcoming Grace To You broadcast. That number for the Q&A line one more time, 661-295-6288. And if you're driving and you can't write that number down, just go to our website, gty.org.

You'll find the Q&A number there. And thanks for remembering that we are able to broadcast on stations like this in the United States and in nations all over the world, because friends like you support us. Accurate Bible teaching can be hard to find in the communities we're reaching. So when you support Grace To You, you help give listeners access to life-changing truth day after day. To make a donation, write us at Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412, or call us at 800-55-GRACE, or you can also donate online at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making Grace To You part of your day, and be here tomorrow when John looks at Christ's future reign and the role you'll have in His kingdom. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.