The Millennium

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Well, I'm encouraged to see everyone back this morning being the first speaker on the second day in the earliest part of the morning
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You're you're likely to be the one with the least amount of people and that's fine. I'm okay with that.
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I I'm thankful to be able to preach with brother Mike and brother Andy and I'm looking forward to brother
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Andy's message later on this after well later on this morning and I'm also looking forward to To the
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Q &A session, I want to remind you that there will be a time for Q &A after lunch today
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So if you have questions about anything that we are preaching please write them down so that later on we can actually engage with your questions and Hopefully give you an answer or at least tell you that we don't know either
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And that may be that may have to satisfy on certain things because there's there are certain things that we just don't yet Fully understand and I I think there are things that no one really understands.
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I had the opportunity this morning to listen to I listened this morning to dr.
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Michael Heizer. If you don't know who Michael Heizer is he's got some interesting stuff I don't agree with a lot of what he says, but he recently went to be with the
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Lord last year He was a member of a church here in Jacksonville but he was He was a scholar and a teacher and I appreciate some of what he said and much of what he said actually and but he was talking about the subject of eschatology and He said that one of the things that Struck him in his early teaching was that there there was there were movements within the church that that would
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Not only divide over eschatology, but would would but would render people here heretics over Eschatology if they held to a different eschatological view you weren't just wrong.
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You were in damnable heresy and that kind of Language one is is not helpful on a subject like this which is which is a difficult subject to begin with and and and so I want to say from the outset that We need to be courteous
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With those whom we disagree Especially on the subject. I'm going to preach on today because as I talk about the subject of the
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Millennium There are different views as I'm going to show in just a few moments
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And if we don't at least take a moment and step back and say we need to have some eschatological humility
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And I think we do everyone in ourselves a disservice as Heiser said he asked one of his
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Preachers whoever it was he said so you're telling me if Charles Haddon Spurgeon was alive today He couldn't preach at our church, and he said no he could not
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Because of his eschatology, not because of his being a Calvinist or any of that It was because of his eschatological position was different than theirs and therefore
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Spurgeon couldn't preach in their church He said and that's when I decided it was time for me to leave So at least I mean
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I appreciate I appreciate Heiser's willingness to say you know what I I don't want to be I don't go Down that road. I don't want to become that So I got to go
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I got to go somewhere else so with that in mind as I said I'm going to be speaking on a text which is divisive among believers
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There are texts that are divisive brother Mike preached on one last night and He gave an explanation which itself is not one that everyone shares, but yet it's a text that We're able to come in around the
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Word of God talk about walk through well. That's the same thing we're going to do today I'm going to recognize that there are other views that people hold
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But I'm going to try to make a case for the view that we hold here at Sovereign Grace Family Church but as I said
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There are divisive texts but few are as divisive as Revelation chapter 20 verses 1 through 10
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This enigmatic text has spawned entire movements of Christianity inspired countless writings and sent men into wild speculation as to its meaning
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Now I say this not to insinuate that the meaning is impossible to ascertain but rather to say that all men who seek to understand this passage must do so with humility and So I pray that anyone listening to me today would understand that I'm approaching this as best as I can
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With a humble heart to say this is what I believe this means. This is what I'm teaching that this means
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But I am in no way arguing that I have arrived even if I do at times We're a crown that may speak.
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Otherwise when it comes to this subject So my goals today are To give a short overview of the various positions of this text to expound the text as I understand it
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And then I want to anticipate the objections to my position and give a few
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Pre -responses to some of the objections which often come up regarding my position.
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I think that's fair So with that said let's stand together. We're going to read this passage and We're going to read
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Revelation chapter 20 verses 1 to 10 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven
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Holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain and he seized the dragon that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and Threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand
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Years were ended After that, he must be released for a little while Then I saw thrones and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed
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Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the Word of God and those who had
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Not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands
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They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended
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This is the first resurrection Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection over such the second death has no power but they will be priests of God and of Christ and they will reign with him for a thousand years and when the thousand years are ended
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Satan will be released from his prison and Will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth
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Gog and Magog to gather them for battle their number is like the sand of the sea and They marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the
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Saints in the beloved city but fire came down from heaven and consumed them and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and Sulphur where the beasts and the false prophet were and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever
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Father God, I pray For your mercy in this moment Lord knowing that I am a fallible man
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I am capable of preaching error and I do not want to for the sake of your name For the sake of my conscience for the sake of your people and I don't pray this prayer
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Lord for a simple repetition But Lord because I believe that it's so important that the truth be proclaimed and I pray that you would keep me
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From error and Lord where there will be Weaknesses in the message
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Lord, I pray that you would give strength. I pray Lord that you would open the hearts of your people to understand your truth that your spirit would be the teacher and Lord that even though we're giving a
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Somewhat of a lecture today on this text and the history of the text and the meaning behind it
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I pray Lord that we would still see the gospel in this and and Understand the value of the gospel and Lord if there are those who are here who do not know
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Christ that the gospel would reign supreme would Convert their heart through the power of the
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Spirit and Lord that you would do that work, which only you can do Bring men to yourself and bring women to yourself bring children to yourself
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Through the power of your word by the application of your spirit in Jesus name
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Amen, as I was considering this text and how to begin this sermon
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I was flooded with various ideas on where the starting point should be and I Think it's important that we at least
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From the beginning have an understanding of the various positions on this text
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It would be easy for me to just jump right in and give my position But I do want to be fair and say there are various positions
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I'm not going to spend time defending other positions, but I do want to represent them properly
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Recently and in fact, I was a little disappointed recently with dr. Albert Moller now
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I'm a very I appreciate Albert Moller's work He's the president of Southern Seminary and he's a godly man and I'm in no way besmirching him as a teacher
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But he was recently asked in a in a conference about his view of the Millennium he takes a historic pre millennial view and his explanation of amillennial ism, which is my view was dismissive and Incorrect and it was not what
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I expected of a man of his caliber and dr. Moller If I ever take a class with you, feel free to fail me for what
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I just said But but no it very much was dismissive of this position and I think that's unfair
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If you take a position that's different than someone else, you should still rightfully represent the other position
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It's not right simply to just hand wave it away as if it has no scholarship or no meaningful defense and so the three positions are
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Typically defined as the pre millennial ism the post millennial ism and the amillennial ism
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Position and what that is talking about is it's talking about this thousand -year period
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Which we just read about in Revelation chapter 20, by the way This is the only place in the Bible that talks about this thousand -year period.
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It's the only time it mentions a time period It's the only time it mentions a specific period in this way And so this is the text where these divisions come.
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It's how do you interpret this text? Do you interpret this text in a way that is pre millennial?
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Post millennial or amillennial and so let me quickly break that down And I'm going to go over here to my board because I think sometimes visual aids and I I noticed some of you are way
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Over there. So I'm going to move this if you need to move the camera you can Just to get an idea of what we're talking about Jesus Christ as Mike mentioned last night
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Died was buried and was resurrected somewhere around the year 30 40 years later We have the destruction of Jerusalem in 80 70
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But for now, we're going to not necessarily mention that part just because it'll take up too much room on the board
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But you understand that's an important watershed moment in history so if we if we follow this out as if it were a
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Timeline and we we come here to what we might call the the return of Christ All right.
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So we have the Ascension and What's known as the session which is that means to be seated
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Christ? Ascended and then he took his seat at the right hand of the father, right?
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That's the Ascension and the session of Christ that happened here Okay We have the period in between and Christ will return.
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Amen, and we believe that we believe that Christ will return and This is one of the things brother
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Mike mentioned last night why we are not full preterists I had an opportunity to interview recently
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Dr. Sam Frost who was a former full preterist who talked about what they believe and he said many full preterists
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Don't believe in a return of Christ at all They believe the intermediate state is the final state and this this world just keeps on keeps on rolling
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Just in infinitely and that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that Jesus will return one day
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Right the question from this test and he will return bodily Physically right and in judgment we agree with all those things
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Nobody disagrees with that no matter what no matter what millennial position you take unless you are a full preterist
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No one mit disagrees that Christ will return. He'll return gloriously bodily and in judgment, right?
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No debate the question though is where you put this thousand years and The pre
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Millennialist says that the thousand years comes after the return of Christ So they would say and I'll put here pre mill
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They would say the Millennium begins with the coming of Christ his second return
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First word his second coming not second return. Yes. Well, if you're a pre -trip rapture, it's a second return
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But we'll get to that later that Sunday Lot of confusion, that's why I need a whiteboard
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Thousand years is Here that's a pre -millennial view that ends
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With the great battle of Gog and Magog which then ushers in the eternal state
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So Christ returns he sets up his throne in Jerusalem. He Reigns from Jerusalem on this earth for a thousand years
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At the end of that thousand years There's battle Satan is released.
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There's a battle Gog and Magog all evils destroyed eternal state begins That is pre -millennialism
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Now there's another Branch of pre -millennialism that is called dispensational pre -millennialism.
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You see it up there. This is the historic view. There is a There's a dispensational view that says
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Jesus actually returned seven years before this was the seven years might mention last night That's actually not there, but they said he returned seven years before and what's known as the rapture, right?
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So you get the rapture Then the Great Tribulation then Jesus has returned then if you ever see those charts
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That are in some of your old Bibles and you out you you fold it you fold it you fold it you get this thing
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And that thing and that's what this is So that's pre -millennialism and then you have dispensational pre -millennialism adds a
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Rapture and some believe it's before the tribulation some believe it's during the tribulation and there's
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I don't even get into that I'll talk more about that on Sunday But that is the view of pre -millennialism
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Now I'm going to erase this here just for a moment. So it doesn't confuse us post millennialism
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Says that the Millennium is before the return of Christ therefore Christ returns after the
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Millennium and so post millennialism says that the the
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The Millennium is before the return of Christ it is a golden age if you will a golden age of Christian victory around the world
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Some people like Doug Wilson who I debated well, we discussed it wasn't a real debate
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It's 30 -minute discussion, but the one I discussed on this subject He holds to a post millennial view and his view is that we're in the
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Millennium now Things are going to increase things are going to get better and they are getting better and that's his argument
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He just believes we're in the early part Many of his position many of people who hold his position like dr.
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James White say it's possible. We're still in the early church There could be 5 ,000 more years of church history.
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There could be four more Reformations There could be all kinds of things that still happen. And if that's the case then
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Martin Luther becomes an early church father because if the if the church is going to go on another 5 ,000 years and it's just going to keep increasing and winning victories and taking the taking people the
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Setting the captives free if that's going to continue happening for another 5 ,000 years or so then yes We are in the early part of the church
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We're still in that phase and therefore there's still a lot of victory yet to be had And that's why the post millennial view is usually called the optimistic view because they say hey
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We just got started and we're going to keep on trucking right so Pre millennialism
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Christ comes before the Millennium post millennialism Christ comes after the Millennium now
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This is where our millennialism the position that I teach gets a little confusing Because up until about a hundred years ago
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There really wasn't a distinction between post millennialism and our millennialism in the sense of how it was defined because they're both post millennial
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My view is also post millennial so The the difference is not where you put the
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Millennium and the difference is not if there is a millennium because we do believe that There is a millennium the difference is
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What the Millennium is? What we should expect that's the distinction.
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It's not about when It's about what? Because again,
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I'm going to draw I'm going to use the bottom for our position our position When I say ours that that of our elders and hopefully you as well our position is that the
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Millennium? Represents the time between Christ's first advent and his second advent and Therefore the
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Millennium is what we call the inter Testa or excuse me inter advental period the word advent means arrival
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So we call this the inter Advental Period Christ came once To seek and save the lost he will come again to bring judgment on his adversaries and to take us to be with him and the time period in between we would call the
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Millennium that is why if you notice the the the words I have on the screen there are most
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Amillennialists think that amillennialism is a is not really the best word to use because when you put the alpha privative in front of a
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Word that means it's not like if you say theist and atheist, right? Well by putting the alpha privative in front of Millennium.
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It's like saying we don't believe in a Millennium. It's not that It's that we believe the
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Millennium is now that's the word nuke That is never going to catch on Nuke millennialism will never be popular, but I like it because nuke means now
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It means now millennialism. We're in it The other one which possibly could catch on if we if amillennialists keep arguing for it is inaugurated millennialism
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Because again, the premillennial view is is that the the Millennium is not inaugurated until Christ returns
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But we would say the Millennium was inaugurated when he came and it's
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Consummated at his return see the distinction. So we have a view that is inaugurated
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Millennialism now, what's the history of this? Let's let's talk a little bit about the history of this view because I do think history is
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Important. What has the church believed for 2 ,000 years? Well, there has not been a unilateral position held within the church many people say all of the early church fathers were
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Premillennial that's not true You won't find any doctrine that all the church fathers held to because there was a vast array of teaching and writing
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That went on for the first several hundred years of the church. You won't find any doctrine that they all universally agreed upon Which is why creeds and councils are important because those were when men finally got together and started discussing these things and actually putting their challenging one another putting these things together like I said that that didn't happen the first few hundred years because It's hard to have those kinds of things when you're being sought out for death and fed to lions and things like that, right?
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But when when creeds and councils began to be formed It was because they wanted to bring some of these things into view and say, okay, this is what we teach
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This is what the church believes So there were men in the early church who held to an a view that we would say similar to ours that were that the
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Millennium is now There were many that held to a premillennial view. The Millennium is coming.
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It's after Christ's return But the one who popularized our millennialism the position that we would hold would have been
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Augustine So it was after Augustine that Amillennialism became the popular view within the church
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Augustine's you have to understand that the the far -reaching scope that Augustine's teachings had
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Augustine again living in the fifth century Teaching having written voluminously.
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He was a great influence on everyone who came after him including Luther and Calvin who quoted
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Augustine several many dozens of times in their writings hundreds of times probably so Augustine again is is we could argue is somewhat of the fountainhead of the argument for this position, but That doesn't mean it's right or wrong.
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That's just the history What we do find though is like in movements like Lutheranism if you know and I talk a lot about Lutheranism because I really like Martin Luther Even though he was hot -headed and he spoke out of turn and he said things that maybe would be offensive
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You know, I just I like all that I think I think I think I like the fact that he was a little a little rough around the edges but Luther and his teachings were
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Millennial the book of Concord, which is the standard teaching of the Lutheran Church teaches
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Millennialism in reform theology There is basically all three views represented
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But among the Reformers on millennialism was fairly standard
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But again defining on millennialism and post -millennialism and dividing them is hard to do Until you start really trying to figure out what they believed was happening during the millennium.
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So it's a little tough to say it was exactly Premillennialism though rose to great popularity in the 1800s and Into the 1900s.
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In fact, I would guess that many of you Have come out of churches if you weren't, you know raised here or you know came to Christ here
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If you came out of other churches particularly of the Baptist persuasion Your only introduction to any of this was premillennialism.
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In fact When I went to seminary we that was it you were either premillennialist or you were liberal
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That was it wasn't you could be the other you were either a premill guy or you just didn't rightly divide the word
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So, I mean it was just it was very clear. That was the only view that mattered and And at my seminary it was dispensational premillennialism.
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So it wasn't just one. It was a very particular type of that one. I was very surprised when
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I began to see that there were men out there who held to other views and they were Making very solid arguments for those views in that weird when you hold to something so strong because you're in a bubble and you're
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Insulated from everything and then you finally have your bubble pop and you meet somebody who challenges you on something and you go
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Wow, and then everything has you got to take a step back and actually learn that you didn't know everything you thought you knew
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It's a good feeling and a scary feeling It is yeah, so with the
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Millennium Most of us have been introduced only to premillennialism because of the rise of teachings of dispensationalism particularly through Darby and Schofield and others who very much made the the landscape of America premillennial in the last hundred years and so a
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Lot of people when they look at this they say well, that's the that's the only view that matters and I hope to challenge that Today, I hope to show that When we consider what the millennial what the
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Millennium is And I believe again, it's the inter -advental period that we are seeing a beautiful picture of the church age
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In fact, I would say that what we see in Revelation chapter 20 Is actually a vision of the church age in three parts
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That's what Revelation 21 to 10 is it's a it's a picture of the church age in three sections and So here's here's the outline of our how we're going to walk through the text now that I've given that introduction
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We're actually going to walk through the text and I'm going to try to show you Why I come to the conclusions that I come to so we're gonna look at verses 1 to 3 verses 1 to 3 are is the binded verses 4 to 6 is the blessed and verses 7 to 10 is the battled so Before we do this though Let's let's for a moment talk about the context of Revelation 20 as brother
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Mike said last night How do you interpret the Bible context context context he and I are going to be teaching hermeneutics starting after Easter We're going to co -teach a class and the
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Academy on how to How to study and interpret and and come to conclusions out of the
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Bible and I hope that you'll come and join that class Even if you haven't been part of the Academy before we're going to talk about because we both do it a little differently
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But close enough and we're going to both give our our personal ways of doing it and and and hopefully help you out with that But one of the most important things to understand where things come in the
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Bible and Revelation 20 comes after That ringtone no
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That's a millennium No Revelation 20 comes after Revelation 19 all right, so turn back to Revelation 19 and look with me beginning at verse 11
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It says in verse 11 Then I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse The one sitting on it is called faithful and true and in righteousness.
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He judges and makes war His eyes are a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems and he has a name written that no one knows
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But himself he is clothed in a robe Dipped with blood and the name by which he is called is the
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Word of God And the armies of heaven are reigned and fine linen white and pure were following him on white horses and from his mouth comes a sharp
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Sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron
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He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty and on his robe and his thigh
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He has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords Then I saw an angel standing in the
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Sun and with a loud voice He called to all the birds that fly directly overhead come Gather for the great supper of God to eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men the flesh of horses and their riders and the flesh of all men both free and slave both small and great and I saw the beast and the kings of the earth
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With their names gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army and the beast was captured
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And with it the false prophet who is in the presence Excuse me So who is in its presence had done the signs by which he had deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those
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Who worshipped its image? These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burned with sulfur and the rest were slain
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By the sword that came out of the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse and all the birds were gorged with their flesh
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All right, so that's Chapter 19. I just will make a few comments one
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This is a picture of Jesus coming in judgment. I think we all would agree with that I don't think there's much reason to argue for that.
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I think we would all agree The armies of the nations are viewed here as having gathered against him to make war and In one single act of judgment he destroys the nations which are gathered against him
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So that at the end of Revelation 19 the enemies of Christ are
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Vanquished that's very important Keep that in mind that at the end of 19 the battle
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Has been won the enemies have been vanquished and if you want to just look again verse 21
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It says and the rest were slain by the sword the rest of who? It says it killed all the captains and all the mighty men and everything and then all the rest so at the end of 19
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Judgment has come and it has concluded with the death of the enemies of Christ Okay But then in Revelation 19, we're told that Satan Must be bound so as not to deceive the nations
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Well, who are the nations? We just saw the nations they be dead
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They have been judged they have been slaughtered and This is one of the reasons why
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I am Committed to the idea that Revelation chapter 20 is not chronological
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But is what we call recapitulatory or it is retelling a story again
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Starting over to retell the story again Because what's going to happen is at the end of Revelation 20 verse 9 9 and 10 we see the same battle again
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We see the nation's Gog and Magog going against the Lord fire comes down from heaven consumes and boom
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And and what's interesting in the Greek is there's a phrase the battle and it's with the definite article the battle and It's only used three times.
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It's used once in chapter 16, and I believe it's also referencing this because again I believe Revelation does cycles it's used three times one in Revelation 16 run in Revelation 19 one in Revelation 20 and when you have the definite article the
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It's not a battle among many it's the battle to end them all so you see what's happening the story is told now
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John is going back and He's telling the story again in a short picture
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He's giving the church age in three phases or three
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Pictures and the pictures as I said are the picture of the binded the blessed and the battle
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So now with that as our context, let's begin looking at The binded it says in verse 1 it says of chapter 20 then
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I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit in a great chain and He seized the dragon that ancient serpent who was the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years
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Threw him into a pit shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nation's any longer until the thousand
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Years were ended after that. He must be released For a little while, okay First question is this text literal if you ask a premillennialist especially dispensationalist they will say
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Absolutely, everything must be taken literally unless there is some reason not to take it literally and then you get into an argument over What is meant by literal and literary and those things?
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But then you say okay is the chain literal well, no a chain Metal chains don't hold spiritual beings.
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So that one's out. Is the key literal? Well, no metal keys and metal chains again don't work against spiritual beings.
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So this is again not literal Okay, what else so we have a pit is the pit literal.
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Well, we could maybe is it literal that Satan is a literal dragon
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Well, that's a figurative language Okay, so what's literal the thousand years has to be literal.
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I've heard that so many times the thousand year That's the part we can't budge on the thousand years being literal
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But here's the problem with that When you look up the term 1 ,000 in the
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Bible it is almost never used In a sense of literality that means exactly a thousand and I'll give you four examples
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So I'm gonna do these quick Psalm 50 verse 10 for every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills
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Well, guess what? God owns the thousand and one to the thousand. There is obviously Figurative Psalm 90 verse 4 for a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when they have passed
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So it's only a thousand years that are as yesterday or is this referring to God being outside of time?
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Absolutely Psalm 105 verse 8 He remembers his covenant forever the word that he commanded for a thousand generations, but hope you're not part of that thousand and first Probably the most famous and you all know this one 2nd
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Peter 3 8, but no one Oh, let no one overlook this fact that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years
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So anytime the word thousand is used We have to consider it within its context because the first thing people will say
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Well, if you believe the Millennium is the time between Jesus's first coming in a second coming. Hey, we're 2 ,000 years out.
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You missed it but what they're forgetting and what we need to remember is that the term thousand years as I just shown four different examples of often simply means an indefinite large amount
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Whether it's the cattle on a thousand hills or it's a day. It's a thousand years It's referencing a large amount and therefore
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I have no problem saying that the Millennium could be 2 ,000 years I have no problem saying the
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Millennium can be 10 ,000 years Because the the argument for literality in regard to the thousand years is really an argument of pedantry, it's just not
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Necessary and that means people being pedantic they're Arguing for something that's unnecessary but the more difficult question is the question of the binding because it does give us an analogy or if you will a
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Figure of something and what is that figure? The figure is that there is Satan who is being bound and If Satan is bound
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How is it? That we could say such a thing
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When we look at the world around us and we see such hellish monstrous and horrible things
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Abortions to the tune of 3 ,000 a day Men and women starving all around the world tortured
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Mistreated raped and all other forms of viciousness. How can we say that the devil is bound?
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Well, we have to understand that everything has a context and Therefore when we say that Satan is bound in this text or when this text says that Satan is bound it is saying very
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Specifically he's bound in a certain way Notice what it says. It says that he sees the dragon this angel seizes the dragon
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Bound him for a thousand years threw him into the pit shut it sealed it so that he might not do what he might not deceive the nations any longer
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Deceive the nations in regard to what? Deceive the nations how?
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Well the deceiving of the nations means to bring the nations against Christ's Church Now that will happen
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I believe one day we're going to see this later But right now the nations have not been able to unify have they ever
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I? Mean even the United Nations is a joke, right? To unify it, but isn't that always the goal of men to unify and somehow go against God?
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It's been that way since Babel right to unify and come together against Christ and against his church against God And yet it fails and fails and fails and will continue to fail until this is released
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And I and I don't deny that there's coming a battle as I said the bat the battle is coming I don't think it's going to last very long
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But it is coming and So this binding is very specific and when did this binding begin?
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Well, I believe it began With the work of Christ and I based this on Jesus's own words
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When Jesus was speaking to the Pharisee Pharisees in Matthew chapter 12 He's speaking about his own ministry because they accused him of being in league with Satan you remember that you're you're you're you're you're of Satan And Jesus says how can
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I be of Satan it? You know the house divided against itself can't stand and then he said this he said how can someone?
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Enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man, then indeed he may plunder his house
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Who's the strong man? Satan if you go back and look at the context and Jesus is saying what has to happen
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Satan has to be bound what in what way is he bound? He's bound in the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ That's the binding of Satan.
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I'll give you an example again from Luke chapter 10 It says that after Jesus sent out the 72.
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This is Luke 10 17 to 19 It says they returned with joy saying Lord even the demons are subject to us in your name
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And he said to them I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven behold,
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I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over the power of the enemy and Nothing shall hurt you.
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What does Romans say Romans 16 19 kids? We sing it in our homeschool group, at least we used to be excellent at what is good be innocent of evil
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All right For God will crush Satan under our feet
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How beautiful are the feet of those who bring? the good news Colossians chapter 2 verse 15
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Probably the clearest passage in regard to this Says That Christ has disarmed the rulers and authorities
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He has put them to open shame by triumphing over them
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In I'm sorry, God did this in Christ. I'll read it again. God disarmed the rulers and authorities
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He put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Christ You see this is the binding of Satan the
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Christ came And in the work of the cross
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Satan was bound now here's here's a little side note when
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I was a student At seminary I was taught that one of the reasons why
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We should believe in the pre -tribulation rapture is because 2nd
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Thessalonians chapter 2 says that the restrainer will be removed and I was taught that that restrainer is the
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Holy Spirit and if the Holy Spirit is removed So does the church because the church is filled with the
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Holy Spirit and therefore if the and I heard this argument You heard the argument that the restrainer must be removed and if the spirit is removed we get removed with it, right?
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That's the whole argument for the pre -tribulation rapture Here's the funny thing
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What are we calling the spirit? In that in that scenario the restrainer who is he restraining?
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Satan that's the whole point of the text Listen to 2nd Thessalonians 2 7 for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way and Then the lawless one will be revealed whom the
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Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing the appearing Of his coming that's the end of the
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Millennium. It's also the it's it's Revelation 19 and revelate in the end of the Millennium right there It's in that picture There will come a time where Satan is released and when he's released guess what he's released for a season, but then
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Christ will come and Totally and finally bring judgment on so we see how all these things fit together
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Satan is bound right now not comprehensively and not finally But specifically in regard to deceiving the nations against Christ and thwarting the proclamation of the gospel
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Satan cannot stop us Everybody always talks about Satan Got to be afraid got to be scared got it.
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And and I do believe Satan exists I do believe we have to consider him But I tell you what I get tired of I get tired of churches that bind
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Satan and then they got to do it again Next week is somebody let him go Why you got to keep doing it?
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If you bound him last time keep him tied up Sorry, that was as off -topic
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But again Hear this and hear this now the gospel The gospel is invincible.
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Not the devil Jesus is the victor not the devil
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So we would say Christ is ruling now the church is experiencing spiritual victory now and So the binded is
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Satan So now and my time is quickly coming to an end. I feel like feel like Mike did last night
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When he got to that one -hour mark and he's at room But I I certainly don't want to stop.
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I'm going to continue on to verse 4 Please note in verse 4 what it says about this picture of the thrones
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Now that it's important to ask the question. Where is this vision happening? Where is this vision happening?
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And it is my contention that this is a vision of Heaven Why do
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I come to that conclusion? Well, the term thrones is used here. It's used
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About 50 times in Revelation the word thrones is used and only I think only three of those times
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Is it not speaking of heaven? The term thrones is almost always referencing heaven and when it is speaking of earth
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It's speaking of metaphorical thrones talking about the throne of the devil and things like that So this is a vision of heaven also notice the souls of men are there martyred souls so again, this is a vision of heaven and it says
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I Saw the throne seated on them were those who had the authority to judge
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I saw the souls of those who've been beheaded for the testament of Jesus and those Who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had come to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years the rest of The dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended
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This is the first resurrection. Now. That's the huge question. What does this term first resurrection mean?
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You see if you take a premillennial view you have to believe in multiple Resurrections the rapture is a resurrection event then after the seven -year tribulation
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There's another resurrection event then after the millennium. There's a another resurrection event you end up with multiple
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Resurrection events my argument Sunday will be there is one resurrection by the way, just for a little
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Preview My argument Sunday is there is no such thing as a pre -tribulation rapture. It's all going to happen at one time
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There's one resurrection This is what all the parables look to the dragnet parable the parable the sheep and the goats the parable the wheat and the tares all the same there's going to be this one resurrection that results in one judgment the
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People of God will be taken to be with God the damned will be sent to hell and or the lake of fire and it's over That's it, that's it that by the way, this is the simplest version you only need a chart you draw one line
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Done like like that's it like that. That's your charts. You got the cross a line and then a done mark
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That's it. He said well, I don't like it to be too simple. Why not? Jesus made it pretty
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I tell you go through the parables and find the millennium Go through any of Jesus's teaching on the end times and find where he's coming back and then we got another thousand years to wait
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Oh, but it's going to be a glorious thousand years find it The only place you're going to find it is
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Revelation chapter 20 That's the only place and you have to stick it there. You have to find you have to figure out how to put it in there
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So again, what is the first resurrection? Amillennialists have come to different conclusions on this and I've and I've listened to and read several different authors
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Dr. Kim Robarger, dr Sam storms and several others have have postulated different ideas about this what this resurrection is and The three most popular options that I have found
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First is that it's referring to the resurrection of Christ Christ is called the first fruit to the resurrection So if this is referring to the resurrection of Christ, that's that could be one way to read it
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I don't think that fits contextually here, but I'm going to show how it still matters But I don't think that's what this is referring to but it is it still matters
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The second is that this refers to regeneration. I think that's a very Good answer and that's a answer.
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I'm going to argue for And the third is that it rep it references the intermediate state.
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Now, do you know what the intermediate state is? In fact, maybe I should mention this because brother Andy when he teaches he's going to teach on the eternal state
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The eternal state is what happens after the return of Christ That's the eternal state new heavens new earth new bodies new everything, right?
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But before that when you die you go somewhere absent from the bodies present with the Lord, right?
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We call that the intermediate state That's what makes first Thessalonians 13 through 18 first I thought it's 413 to 18 so awesome because it says there's some people who don't experience that It says there are those who are dead who will rise and those who are alive together will be caught up in the class
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They don't get an intermediate state. They go bing -bang -boom. They're already they don't they don't have any intermediate state Get the difference
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So what is this first resurrection well If we go back through the
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New Testament and We read the language of what
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Christ did in his first coming We realize that Christ's resurrection
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Gives us the gift of Regeneration which is a spiritual
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Resurrection. Let me give you some language on this if you go to Colossians chapter 2
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It says in verse 13 and you who were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh
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God made alive together with him having forgiven you all our
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Trespasses notice what the picture of regeneration is you were dead And that what Ephesians 1 or if I'm sorry
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Ephesians 2 1 you were dead in your trespasses and sins But God by grace, he made you alive Colossians 2 says the same thing you came to life
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We say this when we baptize someone we say buried with them in Christ raised or buried with Christ raised to the newness of life
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So The first resurrection here, I believe is tied to our regeneration and Notice the distinction there are those who are resurrected and those who aren't
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Why? Because there's those who regenerated and those who aren't This isn't saying there's going to be a resurrection of the saved the resurrection of the dam
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What this is saying is that in this age, there are raised men and there are dead men You were dead and you were raised
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Some men will not be raised in this age or in the age to come they'll be raised to damnation
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But there's the distinction again listen to Ephesians 2
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Even when we were dead in our trespasses Christ made us alive
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God made us alive together with Christ by grace you've been saved and raised us up with him and here this church
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Seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Go back to Revelation 20 and don't tell me that is not an exact representation of what's happening there
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You've got believers who are seated in heaven with Christ Having been raised
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By the power of the Spirit from the deadness of sin This again is a picture of the church age
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Kenneth Gentry in his commentary and I will admit Ken Gentry is a post -millennialist But on this the post -millennialists and the all -millennialists agree, so there's really no issue with quoting him
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Ken Gentry says this he says according to John the first resurrection Secures the participation of the
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Saints both dead and living in the rule of Christ This refers to the spiritual resurrection of those born again by God's grace
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And that's why I said when I said earlier, there's three options the three options go together The first resurrection is it the resurrection of Christ?
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I don't think it's what it's referring to but it's necessary the resurrection of Christ creates your Regeneration and allows you to reign in the intermediate state you see how that works
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The resurrection of Christ gives you new life and when you die This is a picture of the intermediate state
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It's where we are. We're there spiritually now. We're going to be there spiritually when we die, and this is the picture of that So we are the blessed if you're a believer in Christ you are blessed
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You are the blessed one and you are ruling and reigning with him and you will do so until his return and By the way, the second death has no power over you
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Second death has no power over you. So finally we go to the battled
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It says and when the thousand years had ended Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth
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Gog and Magog, how many of y 'all heard that? Gog and Magog is real popular. It's only in the
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Bible twice. It's in here in Revelation. It's in Ezekiel. That's it people make whole books written about Gog and Magog and It simply represents the nations of the world that come against Christ Doesn't have to be read into or over overly interpreted.
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That's it and by the way How do you get these nations in pre -millennialism
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And I'm gonna be I'm gonna tell you what they say again I'm not I disagree but this is their argument their argument is at the end of 19 all the nations are destroyed the
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Millennium begins and Believers go into the Millennium and keep having children and those children become the nations that rise up against Christ So those children are these nations?
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You see how creative you have to get to make that work Because by the way, some of those people who went into the
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Millennium already have their glorified Bodies because they've already been raptured and given their glorified body
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So you've got part of believers are glorified part or not because the ones who survived and going William aren't yet glorified
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It's a complete system of speculation You have to speculate all these things to arrive at the point where you end up with another group of nations who are willing to Rise up against Christ again at the battle again
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This is why I think it's not a position I can hold Because the simple answer is this is the same battle from 19
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These are the same nations from 19. These are the nations that have always been against Christ, but have not been able to unite against him
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But have now been able and why would Christ do this? Why release the devil?
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Why release Satan Because in Christ's glorious return
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He will demonstrate the power of his judgment against his enemies In this one moment of tremendous victory
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Satan will be released to make war. He will deceive the nations. He will lead them against the saints, but The battle
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Is already won. And so it says And the devil who had deceived him
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Excuse me. Let me go back up to verse 9 and they marched up Over the broad plain of the earth surrounded the camp of the saints in the beloved city
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But fire came down from heaven and consumed them And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were
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And they were tormented day and night forever It's a picture of the last judgment It's a picture of the final judgment and the introduction of the eternal state
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And this is great because this leads into Brother Andy's lesson Because everything I've just taught you leads into and now what?
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Now that the final judgment has come Now that all of those parables Jesus gave us The dragnet that comes and the fish are separated and the wheats and the tares
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And now they've been separated And the sheep and the goats have been brought in and the sheep and the goats have been separated
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Now that that's happened Now that judgment has been done And we who are Christ's are with him And those who are not have been cast into the lake of fire
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What now is the eternal state? Come back after the break and you'll find out
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So I hope that was helpful Let's pray Father, I thank you for this opportunity to study and to teach
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And I pray that it's been useful and helpful And though, Lord, we didn't get to every single question I'm sure
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I pray that many answers were given to questions I know were on the hearts of people
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And I pray, Lord, that this would not be a point of division And we could discuss our differences and be able to be godly in our disagreements
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And Lord, most of all, that we would seek to glorify you And what we believe and teach in Christ's name