Four Difficult Issues to Understand Part 1: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:01 And today we’re going to hit a topic that I, I have titled “Four Difficult Issues to Understand” in Revelations chapter 20, and we’re going to try and give you some clear understanding of these things, so when you hear things on the radio and TV, you have a mind that can filter it and organize it and make sense out of it. Uh, here is a picture of the pre-tribulation rapture theory, where the church is raptured out, and I’m shocked that they have Jesus up there in the sky being seen.

▶ 0:49 Because, you know, uh, in the movie Left Behind and these end-time pre-tribulation rapture movies, they have the saints being called up, and the world not knowing what went on. But if Jesus really appeared, how many you know, the world’s going to know what’s going on. Yeah, there ain’t going to be nobody, “What’s happening? Where’d everybody go?” So I’m shocked that Jesus is shown here, but uh, that’s exactly what the Bible says when he comes, every eye shall what? See him. So there’s no, uh, lack of knowledge. And you see the people coming out of the graves over here, you see these two people coming out of the car, this guy already left, and uh, that car accidents, airplanes hitting buildings and crashing because the pilot went to heaven, and all kinds of, of catastrophic problems because the saints went, in auto accidents and car, planes falling and crashing, and so

▶ 1:48 forth. Uh, it’s a great theory, but it is a theory. And in Revelations chapter 20, there are four difficult things that we are going to, to discuss this morning. Number one, the bottomless pit. Number two, Satan bound, chained in the bottomless pit, and then loosed. And a thousand years, where Satan is bound and the martyrs reign with Christ. And then the fourth one is this topic called the first resurrection. Okay, fair enough. Hallelujah. Revelations 20 is going to be discussing these four areas. Now, last week we saw in the war of the word that God dealt with

▶ 2:43 nations with his word, and he backed up his word by using plagues and acts of God and famine and wars between tribes and nations to fulfill his word. He didn’t come down with an army literally and war with swords and bows and arrows. You remember the sword that came out of Jesus’s mouth was what? The word of God. See, God’s power is in his word, and those carcasses and all that is not going to be from God’s army annihilating the people of the earth in a real war. It’s going to be God’s word causes it to happen. Are you with me? All right, somebody said I didn’t make that clear last week, so I’m trying to clarify

▶ 3:39 it. Now, the first area we’re going to hit is this bottomless pit. Got a picture here of a lake that’s going down the dam outlet, and this big, I’ve been there, and there’s a big tornado, uh, water tornado, water tunnel, funnel, and man, this water is moving fast and going down and so forth, [unclear] me, and I like to get as close as I can, and the rangers, I said, “Don’t you go another step.” I’m very [unclear], but it’s a great noise and it’s a great sight to see. Here at the bottom we have an artist with Satan chained, and uh, I, I get a kick out of this stuff, because God doesn’t use natural things to chain, he just uses his word. When he speaks, you can’t move, you’re not going to move, he doesn’t have to come down. But the chain is given to us so we understand in the natural, uh, in the spiritual what happens, in natural illustrations. And then we got the NASA black hole photo up here, and uh, I love the way science tries to explain this stuff, and I love the way you people fall for

▶ 4:54 it. If a scientist says it, it must be right. Uh, they say this black hole is through the, uh, relativity, uh, the science of relativity, that’s the, and I know you guys know all this stuff, that’s the power of gravity and light and motion in the universe and time, see, and none of them work together, you know. They say that Einstein’s theory was proven, but it’s not proven, cuz they don’t work together. Did you guys know that? See, we just accept a lot of stuff, and so they try to explain this black, black hole by saying a star died, and when the star died it caused a big force of gravity that just drew in everything

▶ 5:54 around, and light could not pass through that area because gravity was so strong. Now, folks, you get science to prove that, and I’ll throw away my Bible. Light is its own character, how many of you know that? Yes. And darkness is the absence of light. There is no thing, such thing as darkness, it’s the absence of light, and we call it darkness. Are you there? Try to get science to really show you and clearly explain what gravity is, and they can’t. They can just tell you what it

▶ 6:47 does. See, I went to school once, and my mind thinks this way: you tell me something, you better be able to back it up, because my mind thinks in a manner, okay, what about this, what about that, what about this, and if you don’t have answers, then shut up and just admit you don’t have this kind of knowledge. So it’s very interesting, and actually when they really show a real photo of a black hole, there’s no black hole at all, there’s actually light there. How many have you seen real pictures of black holes? Yeah. See, but somewhere in the middle of that light there’s supposed to be a black hole. Anyway, I use these illustrations to illustrate the bottomless pit, the abyss. “An angel,” Revelations 20:1, “having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand, laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, he shut him up and put a seal up on him, that that he should not deceive the nations anymore till the thousand years be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed a little season.” Okay, now let’s talk about the bottomless pit in Luke

▶ 8:13 8:31. You remember the story there of the demon-possessed man that had thousands of demons, because they called him Legion, and when Jesus came to Legion, and he had these demons, and he was strong and he could do certain supernatural things. They spoke to him and said, “Hey, Son of God,” they knew who he was, “Have you come to torment us before our time?” See, they knew who Jesus was, they knew his power. Are you there, church? And so Jesus is going to command them to come out, and, and they said, “Listen, don’t cast us into the bottomless pit, because we don’t want to be tormented before our time.” And so he put them in a herd of swine, a herd of pigs, and the pigs went nuts and ran down the cliff, and these people’s, uh, income was

▶ 9:22 destroyed by these demons. And so, the bottomless pit is a place where spiritual wicked beings are tormented and imprisoned. Amen. Now, you also remember the story in Romans 10:7. He quotes in Romans 10:7 out of Deuteronomy, and he says, “Will we ascend into heaven to bring Christ down, or will we go into the abyss,” the bottomless pit, “to bring Christ up,” that is, from the dead. So Romans, the writer of Romans is using it as an illustration of the abiding place of the dead. Well, Christ wasn’t there anymore, but in Deuteronomy it actually says the sea, “Will you go across the sea?” And in many places in the Bible the sea, the ocean, is described as the deep, you know, a deep thing.

▶ 10:30 So then in Revelations 9:11, which we’ve already covered, that there was an angel that was king over it, called Apollyon, or Destroyer, and so he is the king, and that is Satan himself, he’s the king of the bottomless pit, this kingdom of evil. The beast also came from the bottomless pit, seven heads and ten horns, and the beast that warred with the two prophets and finally killed them came from the bottomless pit, with seven heads and ten horns. An angel of God has the key to the bottomless pit. The angel, he released the, the, uh, dragon, the, uh, locust to come out, and he bounds Satan in it. So an angel up in heaven has more

▶ 11:38 power than the king of the bottomless pit. Hallelujah. And that’s the kingdom we’re serving, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of light, the kingdom of righteousness is more powerful than the kingdom of darkness. Hallelujah. So the conclusion of the whole matter is the bottomless pit is a place of imprisonment and torment for powers of darkness, and it is a source of spiritual evil. Now, let’s take a look

▶ 12:19 again at this Revelations 20. Here I got a picture again of Satan being thrown into the bottomless pit. I love these renditions of artists, they put wings on everybody, and angels don’t have wings, and neither does Satan have wings. We know he has a tail, and we know that he’s described as seven heads and ten horns, but never, heard, does Satan have wings, nor does an angel have wings. Seraphim have wings, cherubim have wings, but not angels. Are you there? I just keep bringing that out because, you know, we put angels with wings on our Christmas trees, and we just do things because it’s handed down to us, and we don’t even think about what is the real source here. Angels are spirits, they don’t need wings to fly, they just fly by the word of God.

▶ 13:17 Hallelujah. Uh, actually they don’t fly, they just transport themselves, they move by the word of God. Again, “An angel having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand, laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and he cast him into the bottomless pit, shut him up and put a seal on him, that he should not deceive the nations anymore till the thousand years be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed a little season.” Now, the problem we got here is this: if we take this scripture literally, see, that means Satan is not, never been bound, and never will be bound until this time, so he has free reign in the earth. Are you there? If we take this scripture

▶ 14:17 literally. But when we go to the Scriptures, we’re going to find that Satan has been bound and loosed before. Okay, we’re going to tell you in the Scriptures that Satan not only is going to be bound and loosed in that generation of the end, but he has been bound and loosed, and bound and loosed since the beginning. Are you ready? 1 Chronicles 21:1, “Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel,” and we know that when they did it, they didn’t do it according to the law and take the census taxes, so the plague came. Okay, and who stirred up David to do it? Satan. Okay, now look at this nice little

▶ 15:14 clear expansion of this verse, same story, same incident, 2 Samuel 24:1, “The Lord’s anger was kindled against,” who? Israel, ‘cause they were living bad, they were sinning. You see, a lot of people don’t think God is involved in people’s lives today, but he is. And you young people, you can rest assured, if you choose the road of wrong, God’s going to get you, bad things are going to come in your life. Why? ‘Cause he wants you to repent, turn, and live and do right. And so we justify and say, “Well, there is no God, there’s no power, it’s a bunch of bull.” Well, you’ll find out, like those before you, that big problems are going to come in your life. All right. And so he moved David to number Israel in Judah. And so when we mix the two scriptures together, what we have is God needing to deal with Israel because of their sins, and God can’t do

▶ 16:24 evil. There’s certain things God cannot do, and they’re all good. So he gets Satan, he releases Satan, who was bound to not hurt Israel before, now he releases Satan to go and what? Move David to number Israel, so that a plague can come and bring discipline to them. And Satan, of course, is the source of the plague. Are you there? Hallelujah. See, Satan is God’s, uh, what do you call it, enforcer, because God can’t do evil. See,

▶ 17:09 hallelujah. So he was bound, and then what? Loosed, and then he’s bound again. He can’t touch Israel anymore after that until God, what? Gives him permission. Satan cannot do this till God gave permission, and here we have the binding and the loosening of Satan to deceive. Let’s go to Job. The Lord said to Job, Satan comes up before God up in heaven, and, and God says, “Where you been, Satan?” He said, “I’ve been walking to and fro throughout the earth, just trying to find somebody like you that I can deceive.” And then God says, “What if you consider Job? He’s righteous, he’s mature, he’s upright, he won’t change his faith in me no matter what happens.” And Job said, said, “Oh yeah, but you got a hedge around about him, nobody can touch him, but you let me touch him.” Was he bound? Was Satan bound? Yes. Why? God had a hedge, Satan could not touch

▶ 18:10 Job. And God brought up the issue, and I don’t want God doing that up there on me. I’m [unclear] no Job, so, you know, leave me alone here. But see, God will never bring, the Bible says he will never bring any temptation that you cannot have victory over. That there’s a way of escape that you can bear up under. He will never let Satan or anything tempt you above what you can endure. If you fall, it was your decision, because you had the power to what? Bear up under it. Hallelujah. So I’m not worried about tomorrow, and I’m not worried about temptations and all that, because God empowers me to get through them. He doesn’t always remove it, but he empowers me to handle it.

▶ 19:05 Amen. So then Satan goes and he touches his children, kills his children, took his finances, took his wealth, and Job still wouldn’t do anything. Then Satan comes back and says, “Well, touch his body personally,” and, see, Satan could not touch his body personally until God says you can. And then he plagued him with what some people think was elephantiasis, these boils where the skin gets real tough and real thick and just very painful and ugly, and uh, still Job would not denounce God. Hallelujah. So Satan was what? Bound, and he was what? Loosed. Hallelujah. Luke 10, verse 18, we’re going to show you examples of

▶ 19:59 Satan being cast out of heaven. “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” See, the apostles went out and they preached the gospel, and they healed the sick, demons were cast out, people were saved, and they came back reporting to Jesus, and Jesus said, “I saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven” when, when these apostles went out and used the power of his word. “I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.” This is our first record that not only did the apostles have authority over Satan, but all of us believers have authority over

▶ 20:54 Satan. Hallelujah. It’s important for you to know this. See, so not only was he cast out, he was cast out by the preaching of God’s word from believers. Revelations 12:7, “War broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and his angels, that old great serpent, the great dragon, the serpent, the Devil.” Satan was cast out of heaven to the earth, and so, see, we have another, before the end of the world, when we, in, in Revelations 20, we have an account that Satan’s been cast down before. Amen. From heaven. John 12:31, we’re going to show you Scriptures where he was cast out of the earth. Okay, cast down from heaven to, to earth, now he’s cast out of the earth. “Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out, and if I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all men to,” who? Me. So when was Satan judged and cast out of the earth? When Jesus died on the cross, when he was lifted up to draw all men to him, he cast the prince of this world

▶ 22:24 out. See, Satan was loose, now he’s bound. Are you there? See, it’s important for you to know that these things have been going on through the Bible. It’s very important, because this gives you the knowledge to live powerfully for Jesus Christ right now on earth. You’re not waiting for some, you know, magical thing at the end of the world to get you out of this mess. You are a conqueror in the mess. That’s right. That’s how powerful the blood, the cross, is. Again, in John 16:1, talking about the Holy Spirit that was going to come and convict us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and he explains them. When he comes, to the judgment, he says, “of judgment because the prince of this world is” what? Judged. He sentenced, and we found in the Scripture before what was his sentence: he was cast out of the earth, so he couldn’t deceive

▶ 23:34 people. You say, “Well, you’re in trouble, because he’s still doing, well...” We’ll get there, we’ll get there. Remember, he’s been bound and loosed all throughout the Bible. Hallelujah. He can do nothing without the big guy’s permission.