Satan Crushed Rev, 20:1-3

Good morning. Moving in this morning into the passage, Revelation 20, 1 through 3. Typically we cover more ground at once, but I think this is kind of a momentous time here to look at this time where Satan is going to be bound for the millennium, a thousand years. And so we want to kind of take a little bit of time to get some perspective here.

And one of the reasons we'd also like to take a look here at Satan and see his role is this is the last chapter in the Bible where Satan's name is mentioned, where he's brought up. As a matter of fact, we'll shortly see him just drop from the scene. Won't that be great? He will simply drop out of sight, no more to be mentioned in these last couple of chapters after this. So at any rate, in order for us to get the full perspective, I think it's going to be helpful for us to back our way up here and get a long-term look at Satan's origins and what Satan is doing.

One of the things that comes out in Scripture, we're not given some massive amount of detail on where Satan began and how he began, but we are given some information there. We do know that he was a created being, having been an angelic being, and he was created along with the other angels. The other angels were apparently given a time window in which, even though created holy, they could choose to stand against the Lord. Once having made that choice, however, their wills were fixed. We find no evidence of angels at some later point in time deciding Oh, I've changed my mind now and standing against the Lord. Their wills, once having made that choice, were fixed in one mode or another.

Satan appears first, as we read in the pages of Scripture, as this serpent who is tempting and deceiving Eve. We know that this serpent that we read about in Genesis 3 was Satan, because among other indications we have in Revelation 12 and 9, and in this passage here, In 20, verse 2, it identifies Satan as the serpent of old in both those passages. Now, we see that when Satan made his choice, his will and his nature were fixed, unchangeable into all eternity. There is no evidence that Satan was given some sort of a, come on now, I want you to look at it, you'll change your mind. Or, you know, Satan, here's a second chance. We have no indication that he has the second chance that we have.

That should make it all the more wondrous to us that we have this marvelous opportunity. Can you imagine that? This marvelous opportunity, having been creatures that are sinful, to say, Lord, I come to you and take your grace. Isn't that marvelous? The angels don't appear to have that. God has uniquely given us that marvelous opportunity to believe and thereby take advantage of His grace.

Let's look and see where Satan shows up in scripture, and we'll kind of get a sweep of that. First, in the Old Testament, there's this kind of a timeline, and we talked about how he was created. There was a fall in there, and we're not given details of that in Genesis, but we just see the serpent showing up. Satan's fall, we're given more details on that in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. But we see him having part there. in the fall of mankind, first having deceived Eve. The next place he shows up explicitly, I'm sure he's involved elsewhere, Satan's not going to lay around for that many centuries.

The next place he shows up explicitly is in the first couple chapters of Job. And so we see that here. Then in 1 Chronicles 21, we see Satan coming on the scene again, and there he's motivating David to number or count the people of Israel. And then finally, in Zechariah chapter 3, his name shows up again.

Now, those are the places he has specifically mentioned. There is no doubt about what he is involved in other places, and we see instances of false prophets and evil taking place that he most certainly was involved in. These are the places where his name explicitly comes up in the Old Testament.

There are also places in the Gospels, especially the beginning of Christ's ministry and towards the end where he shows up. In addition to that, there are places where we see demon involvement coming up as well, and these demons are in cooperation with Satan. But we see one place that comes out early in the Gospels, and that's where Christ is tempted. where Satan takes our Lord to various places and tempts him with various things. And one of the interesting things is he would even appeal to scripture in some of those places and even to truths from scripture in order to try to tempt our Lord. Another interesting response, our Lord comes back to him in every case with scripture. He quotes actually from Deuteronomy in responding to Satan.

I'm sure Satan had involvement again in other places, but there's a couple places at the end of the Gospels where Satan again comes to the forefront, his name specifically being mentioned. One is, our Lord tells Peter, Peter, Satan has demanded, and it's interesting, he has that ability to demand, he has demanded to sift you like wheat. He wants to go through every little grain of you. Every little part of you. And he was granted that permission. And Peter had a rough time.

We also, and this is real interesting, the Gospels put it that Satan actually entered Judas. Judas betrayed the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. 30 pieces of silver in biblical times would have been the price you would have paid for a low-class slave. This is one who might be deformed or somehow have something wrong with them. So that would be kind of the low end of the price for a slave. Can you imagine that? Our Lord sold out for the lowest price you could think of? Satan inter-Judas, it says.

Now, that's not all. He's not done, is he? Even as we step from there into the Church Age, going from Pentecost to the time of the Rapture, we see Satan showing up again. And here, rather than a timeline, what I've got listed are some activities. And the Lord could draw this time that we're in now closed at any moment, right?

The Lord could come and this church service wouldn't end, or would end, however you want to look at it. Some of the things that we see scripture saying explicitly that Satan got involved in. Satan filled the heart of Ananias. This is when Peter confronts Ananias and his wife early in the book of Acts. Interestingly, there are some places that show up here.

Here is 1 Corinthians 5.5. Satan is actually used to destroy the flesh. How about that? Isn't that interesting? Satan is actually used of the Lord to destroy the flesh in a believer that has gone off and sinned. Later on, as well in that same book, Satan is also described as tempting, and Satan even disguises himself. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

In 2 Corinthians, it says 21, it should be 12, Satan torments Satan torments. And we'll take a look at that in a bit. Satan is also capable of hindering, it says. So here we have Satan involved here even during the development of the New Testament period. And here's another instance where Satan is used to teach believers not to blaspheme. So here's another instance similar to the 1 Corinthians 5-5 passage. where Satan is actually brought in to bring a believer to a place of abandoning the flesh.

How about that? Well, as we look through these things, one of the things that we find, Satan's nature doesn't change, does it? He's always going to be Satan. We can't expect that he's going to change. Even though the Lord's way of dealing with man has changed from time to time, Satan's nature has not. You'll notice that in the passages that involve Satan, there are two primary modes of influence in the lives of Christians. One of those is he is involved in negative ways. He is tempting, hindering, for instance.

What may surprise us as we look at these is to look at it and realize that the Lord is going to use Satan in the lives of believers to bring them closer to Himself. Isn't that amazing? The Lord is going to use Satan in the lives of believers to bring them closer to Himself. By causing them to depend upon Him. By causing us to come to the end of this world and of the flesh. You see, what happens is the Lord will use Satan to have us come to a place of realizing that this world and the flesh just don't come through on what they offer. That's where Satan will actually be used of the Lord.

What does Satan do? He puts something out there as if that were something to be offered. He offers something that in fact The world and the flesh cannot follow through on. Have you noticed that? The world makes promises it cannot fulfill. The world offers things and says, I can give you this. And in the end, when that's achieved, you don't arrive at where the promise was supposed to take you. And the Lord uses Satan to take people down that path, even believers.

We'll revisit this matter of Satan in the lives of a Christian after a bit. Now, let's take a look, and this is what we've been looking at here for months here, Satan's involvement in the Tribulation Period. One thing that we see is that Satan is involved in the establishment of the Antichrist. This is his initial introduction. And as you remember, there was an agreement that initiates the Tribulation Period.

Satan is involved in getting the Antichrist to set that up. the very beginning of that tribulation period, Satan is involved there. It's not noted on the timeline, but also in here, there's also a place where Satan is actually given a key to the abyss, and we'll take a look at what that word means, a key to the abyss to let out these demons so that they can come out and torment those who live upon the earth during the tribulation period. I will not show you the grasshoppers, because I don't want John Doyle having any more nightmares, okay? Alright, so we'll pass on that one. In the middle of the Tribulation period, the Antichrist and the False Prophet are inspired by Satan.

And remember we had this Satanic Trinity? We showed this triangle up on the screen? There was a Satanic Trinity where Satan was at the top, taking the substitute place of the Father. The Antichrist was substituting for Christ, and the False Prophet was substituting for the Holy Spirit. Satan is involved in setting up what we call this satanic trinity.

He is setting this up during the middle of the tribulation period, and what he's doing is moving the agenda of the Antichrist for global control. And he is continuing that. Through this period of time, the last half of the tribulation period, what we find is that Satan is increasing the grip of the Antichrist and the false prophet on the world as legally it's moved in where the mark of the beast must be on the forehead or nobody can buy or sell, where believers are then persecuted and even martyred in great numbers. And finally, towards the end, what we read in the past chapters, finally we find Satan moving the Antichrist and the False Prophet to oppose God's chosen people, the Jews, and to seek to actually totally annihilate them. And Satan is involved with that. In the end, the Antichrist and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire, but at that point, Satan is not. He is bound, and that's what we're going to be reading this morning. Now, that brings us to the point of today's passage. Let's look at verse 1 there. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

Now, John again makes reference to what he is witnessing, and he says, I saw. What he is telling us in Revelation is, I'm witnessing this. Right at the very beginning, the first verses of the book of Revelation are saying that John is basically certifying this as a legal document, using the terminology of that day. And so when he's saying, I saw, he's not just making a casual statement. He is giving legal testimony. He's telling you, I saw it and I stand on it as the truth.

He doesn't specify, in this case, which angel he saw. It's quite possible, perhaps likely, he didn't even know. But did you notice something here? Not only is the angel not named, but he isn't even called a strong angel. Remember that? We've seen this term, strong angel, several times. This one isn't even a strong angel.

How about that? He has been given the authority by God to carry out what he needs to do. And that's all it takes. How about that? He's going to bind Satan for a thousand years, and he doesn't need to be anything more than just the angel with the authority and commission God's given him. Well, certainly, the Lord's not giving us that assignment. Doesn't that tell us something? If the Lord has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, if He has told us to stand, that's what we've got to do. That's what we have to count on, isn't it? Okay. Now, it's interesting here.

This angel comes down from heaven. Now we've heard this phrase before, and frankly we're not through hearing it. But remember this down out of heaven phrase is a phrase except for one time in Luke, it's unique to John, but John uses it again and again and again. first in the Gospel of John, and now here in the Book of Revelation. It's kind of one of the clues that you got the same author, right? So here he is, and he's using this phrase, down out of heaven.

Let's take a look at that. We've seen it several times before, and we're going to see it a few times again. It shows up here in this passage. But there are some reasons why John has used this. It's not just accidental or something he just likes to use because it's a phrase he feels comfortable with.

God has not created the world to simply abandon it, has he? God has not created a world and said, oh, that looks nice, I think I'll just stand here and watch it. What this communicates repeatedly is God is interacting with his creation. God is involved. There may have been times in your life when you may have talked to people who have wondered, boy, what's God doing? What's happening? This is the clear message. God is involved with His creation because each time you see something is coming out of heaven, this is God expressing Himself in one form or another. God isn't apathetic about what's going on here on planet Earth.

Now notice, that there is not a corresponding list of things that go from earth to heaven. Have you noticed that? We've got this phrase, down from heaven. We don't say, up from earth something went, you know, to heaven. You notice that? It doesn't go the other way, does it? The people on earth don't say, hey, let's send some stuff up to God, too. No. God is the one who does the acting sovereignly. We're not able to just at will send things to heaven. I'll take that back. We can pray, can't we? Now, something else here. John tells us that he saw this anonymous angel. You okay with that term? Anonymous angel? Okay. Incognito, maybe. Not quite.

Anyway, he's got two items. He's got a key, and he's got a great chain. Now, you may be thinking a key, like these, right? Turns out Romans didn't have keys like this, they had keys like that. A little bit more clunky by our measure. As archaeologists dig through the stuff of the Roman Empire, they actually find quite a few of these.

It's interesting, apparently what they would do is you'd have this little key with you and you'd go and stick it in there and there was this mechanism inside the door and it was actually pretty pretty massive hunk of metal. And nonetheless, this would be what they would do. What's that?

Oh, can't see where I'm pointing? Okay. All right. Sorry about that. That is going to be a hard habit to break. I can see. Okay. Now, We've read about a key or keys before. This isn't the first time that keys have shown up in the book of Revelation. If you'd stop smiling, then... Okay, anyway. Okay. First of all, we saw in the very beginning chapter of Revelation, in Revelation 1, 17 and 18.

It says, When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man, and he placed his right hand on me, saying, do not be afraid, I am the first and the last, and the living one, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.

Christ here is telling John right at the very beginning, I have the keys. And what does I have the keys mean? It means I have unique access. I am the one having control. He tells John that right at the outset. Let me ask you, why Does Christ have the keys to death in Hades? Because He died on the cross. He is the one who controls that. Because of the purchase that He made with His blood.

The next place we see it showing up, just a couple chapters later, Revelation 3.7. There he comes up and he says, And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one will open. In this case, remember, a key is unique access. What's the key of David?

The kingdom of David is going to be placed upon the earth through Christ the Messiah. Because that was the promise made to David. It's called the Davidic Covenant. The promise made to David was that You will have one of your ancestors reign. The house of David will always be. Even the promise to Mary about Jesus' birth includes this promise about David's throne. A house, a throne, and a kingdom. And Christ says there, I have the key of David. I have unique access. Not anyone can come and establish a millennial kingdom. Christ alone.

The next thing that comes down there is in Revelation 9.1. We saw another key show up, and this is one that fits in with the passage we're talking about.

It says, Then 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 him. As we determined as we went through that passage at the time, the star falling from heaven is Satan himself.

Satan is actually given this key to the abyss. But notice something, you say, why on earth is Satan given this key to the abyss? It is because God is sovereign over Satan. God allowed Satan to open the key to the abyss in order that the tormenting demons might come out, and God actually used Satan. Satan didn't do anything that he wasn't given authority to do under God's control.

So that brings us now to the situation we have now, where we've got this key, and the key is our present situation now. Remember, this key, which was in Satan's possession now, is in the angel's possession, and it's going to lock him up, as we'll see here. Now, there's a word that comes up in here, and that's this word, abyss. This abyss, or in some translations, it'll just simply say bottomless pit.

It's real interesting, the Greek word, Abousos, and it's a combination word, meaning no, and Bousos meaning depth. No depth. What does that mean? It just goes on and on and on, down, down, down, echo. That's why it comes out as a bottomless, or an abyss, or a bottomless pit. That's the idea that it comes across. It has no depth. You can't measure it. This thing is huge and deep. Huge and deep.

It might surprise you that this word has nothing to do on the original Greek text with a teenager's stomach. By the way, this abyss, this bottomless pit, is not the same as hell. Not the same as hell. This abyss is a holding place for the fallen angels. Scripture uses this word in that particular technical sense. It's a holding place for those fallen angels.

When our Lord confronted the demons in Luke 8.31, those demons begged for him, don't send us into the abyss.

This word. Don't send us there. We don't want to go there. They're eventually going to end up there, but I guess they like to have a little more time. I don't know what demons want more time for, but that's what they wanted. If sent there, they would be restrained for centuries. Okay? Apparently they knew that and didn't want to be sent there.

We read about the Abyss several times in Revelation as we've gone through it, with regards to these fallen angels. And they actually are released for, what, a five-month period of time. Try to get the right fingers out there. Five-month period of time in which these fallen angels are released from the Abyss in order to be able to torture, and it's assumed that after that they go back. And then remember that the beast is actually released from the abyss. He's a demonic creature. He's released from the abyss. Now, remember what we said earlier in our study of Revelation?

And that is that John is an amazingly consistent writer. When John writes, he writes with unbelievable consistency. And he consistently calls, and you'll see it in this book, he calls hell the lake of fire, And he calls the place where these fallen angels are kept the abyss. He's consistent in that matter. And that helps us because it helps us interpret scripture consistently. And we want to do that, right? And we can do that because of John's consistency here.

Okay. The next thing that we take a look at here is this great chain. Hallucin Megalin. Okay? That's what it is in the Greek. It's not like any other chain described in the Bible because it's a great chain. There are various places where the word chain shows up. This is a great chain. It's massive. He uses that same word that he used to describe loud voice. Anything that's great or loud uses that same descriptor. This is a great chain.

As we mentioned, a great many of these keys have been found among archaeological ruins of Roman times. And what they would do is they would use the chains to bind the prisoners and slaves that were prone to run away. And so we've actually found a great number of these chains in archaeological ruins as well. They weren't designed, by the way, to assure comfort. The Romans weren't the least bit concerned about that. But they were designed to keep prisoners and slaves from running away.

And Paul even says, you know, he says, I have these chains. And he uses the same word when he describes these chains. So Paul was not alien to this. John himself, remember, John himself was a prisoner of Rome, okay? Prior to this writing of this book that we have here in front of us. And so John quite likely had seen them if not worn them himself. So he knew what they looked like. He says, oh boy, here's a big, great chain. He identified it exactly as it was because he knew exactly what they looked like. Now, here's what the angel did with the chain and the key. Let's look at verse 2.

And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. Now, one thing we notice He didn't just sort of gently grab hold of Satan. He didn't just sort of casually or easily grab him. He laid hold of him. One translator, Kenneth Weiss, says he seized him, grabbed him. And very interestingly, John doesn't just say Satan and just go on.

What does he do? He gives us four names. He does not want us to misidentify or misunderstand who this character is. Including the identities of Satan given here in Revelation 20, verse 2, we have a number of identities given in Scripture. Some of them that we have and you should have in your handout as well. This is Lucifer. That's just basically a Latinized form for bright star.

That shows up in the Isaiah passage where it talks about kind of the origin of Satan and Satan's fall. The father of lies and murderer, those both terms show up in John 8, 44. And 1 John 3, 8, that murderer comes up again. And that's exactly what we've seen through the tribulation period, haven't we? Satan is a murderer. He does not mind one bit carrying out murder if that fits his intent.

The ruler of this world, prince of the power of the air, as Ephesians 2, 2 puts it. The dragon, as we've seen here and also saw in 12.9, serpent of old, and the devil. The name Satan, of course, is one that we've used primarily here this morning, and that shows up several places, including the Old Testament. The Old Testament is very explicit in calling him Satan.

The accuser of our brethren. Now this is something that is interesting. The word that is translated devil fits with that well. Devil is from Diabolos, and that means to always throw. He is constantly throwing accusations. That's his pastime. Think of what this cycle looks like. He wants to throw an accusation.

For believers, the accusation is pointless, in terms of having any eternal impact. It's not going to touch a believer's position. But he does it to try to destabilize. And what happens in the heavenly court is the Lord comes up and says, well, wait a minute. I see the righteousness of Christ for that believer.

Your accusation is worthless. Thrown out. I don't know how many millions of times he does that and doesn't get tired of it, but that's what he does. Then in Revelation we see names, and it comes out in both the Greek and the Hebrew, Apollyon or Abaddon. Destroyer. Okay? None of those names is terribly complimentary, are they?

Now, verse 2 gives us the first step the angel took, but just the first step. Now we're going to look at verse 3. And he threw him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed. After these things he must be released for a short time. Now notice that Satan's binding isn't just some simple binding. That ought to hold him.

No. None of that. We're not talking about a little duct tape here, right? None of that. After binding Satan with a great chain, that word pair never showing up anywhere else in scripture but here, binding him with a great chain, the next thing that we see is what? throw him in the abyss.

So you notice you don't just sort of escort him. You throw him. And this throwing is the Greek word balo, where we get our word ball. He threw him into the abyss, and that's the exact same verb that is used in Diabolos, where he throws accusations at us. The Lord says, you're going to throw accusations at my believers? I'm going to throw you into the abyss. Then he shut it. Assume that there's some locking involved there too. Sealed it over him.

Now, before we just kind of dismiss that, remember what happened when our Lord was crucified and Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea took the body and prepared it and put it in a tomb. And Pontius Pilate gave an order to have the Roman seal put on the stone that had been rolled in front of that grave. And the seal had this significance. When an official seal was placed on something, nobody could open it except on penalty of death.

The idea being here to seal it over him wasn't just sort of, okay, we're going to make this really tight. The idea is nobody's opening this thing. There is no authority anywhere that can open this thing. It's shut. It's tight. He's not going to come out in the middle of the millennium and somebody's going to say, how did he get out? Not going to happen. Then, notice what it says, that he would not deceive the nations any longer. Not deceive the nations any longer. Wouldn't that be nice? That's what's going to happen. Until. Better take a look at that, huh?

Well, we were given a somewhat similar insight into Satan back in Revelation 12 and 9. And that took place, as you recall, back in the middle of the tribulation period. So here's this comparison, Revelation 12, 9, in this passage that we're looking at this morning. And notice the comparisons between the words. You might even underline them yourself if that's helpful.

In Revelation 12, 9, Satan is thrown to the earth. In Revelation 20, verse 3, he is thrown into the abyss. In each case, there's this casting going on, this throwing going on. The place is different. In Revelation 12, 9, Satan is called the dragon, the serpent of old, the devil, and Satan. And that's as he's called in 20, verse 2. In Revelation 12, 9, he deceives the whole world.

In Revelation 20, verse 3, he is no longer to deceive the nations. Because what has been done is different, his nature has not changed. but because what has been done is different in terms of his location. In one case, he is deceiving the nations to the utmost. In the second case, he is deceiving the nations not at all. See the contrast there? Even though there are many things to compare between, there is one that is very different. No deception.

His nature is the same, but his freedom to carry out that nature and express it is radically different between these two verses. Now, we're clued in twice in these couple of verses here that Satan is going to be bound for a thousand years. This time frame is what's called the millennium, that period of time when Christ will reign upon David's throne on the earth from Jerusalem, and we who believe will reign with him, having spent the tribulation with the Lord in the heavenlies. And we'll look more next week into what the Bible says about this millennial reign, this time of a thousand years when Christ will reign upon the earth, which could be as close as seven years from today.

That close. Could be. This event we're reading about now could begin before this decade is done. Isn't that neat? That's a wonderful thing to think about. Okay. Now, And when we talk about the Millennium, which we'll do next week in detail, you're going to want to listen carefully because you're going to be there. You don't want any surprises, right? Okay. Especially unnecessary ones. All right.

Now here will be a brief time that Satan will be released one last time before the Millennium. Do you catch that? And we'll read about that more later. There'll be a brief time at the end of the Millennium Satan will be released. Short time, okay? Not very long. but for the last time. And we'll also look at the reasons why when we get there. There is a reason. This isn't a, oops, it's not one of those. God's in control, don't worry about it. But what's going to happen, there will be this release at the end of the millennium, and God has a purpose for it, as we'll see.

God has the ability, we better ask a question God has the ability to put Satan away now, right? Didn't we just read that he can do it? And it wasn't even a strong angel? God has the ability to put Satan away, to bind him up, to put him in this abyss, to seal it up. Why doesn't he do it right now? Right away. I mean today. Why doesn't he? Wouldn't that be easier? Let's take a vote. Would you like that to happen? No, forget that. Let's go back to this list that we had.

Satan's activities in the Church Age. One of the things we see here is, see those things that are highlighted in blue? Those are some areas where we explicitly see Satan having a purpose. Now, during the Church Age, in the lives of believers. How about that?

The Lord uses Satan in the lives of believers. Satan destroys the flesh. That's the first Corinthians 5 passage. Satan torments, but the tormenting actually was fulfilling God's purpose in Paul's life in that instance. Satan teaches not to blaspheme. There were a couple of guys that were involved in this. They were believers apparently. And Satan was being used of God for that purpose.

I think what's important for us to realize, and we go back to this Romans 8.28 passage, and what does it say?

God works all things. Is this part of the all things? God works all things together for good. Even what Satan intends for evil, the Lord uses for good in our lives because we're his. And what is that good? Is it that He makes our lives more comfortable? Is it that He makes things nicer? Not necessarily, huh? But He works all things together for good, including the things that are brought about by Satan, in order to do what? To conform us to the image of His Son.

That's why Satan is still here. That's why Satan is still here. That's why God doesn't just say, okay, Satan, you're out. He's got a lot more than three strikes, believe me. He doesn't put him out because he still has a purpose. And that purpose, believe it or not, is for good. And it's for good in the lives of believers.

Now, think about it too. A Christian has also defense against Satan. You think about this. A Christian has a defense against Satan. We could go into that in more time than we have to cover today. But if you look at the passage in Ephesians 6, where it talks about the spiritual armor, and if you look closely at that armor, what is it? That armor is our position that we have in Christ. That's the armor. Furthermore, We notice that Paul tells us in that passage more than once, he says, stand. And therefore, stand. Stand in the position that we have in Christ already. That's what's been laid out.

And when it comes down to it, by Christ doing, we'll be with Christ in the heavenlies for seven years anyway, before this takes place. Before this ever comes to pass. will be rewarded with our Lord and untouchable by Satan. Now, as a consequence of the things that we look at here, realizing that Satan is not somebody who is out of God's control.

God doesn't say, oh my heavens, what am I going to do? That guy is just unbelievable. God doesn't say, oh no, what happened? There isn't going to be any oops on God's part. God is not fretting and wringing His hands over what Satan is doing. None of that.

Instead, the Lord has called us to stand upon the position that we have in Him. That's our defense. That's the position from which we can stand against the enemy and resist him. So, what that brings us to is some things we don't have to do. Here are some things we don't have to do. One of those things There's no need to go chasing after Satan or attack him. We don't have to do that. No need to do that. Don't need to go call on some power to bind him or something of that sort. We don't need to go after him.

What we see in Scripture is we're to stand and we're to resist. We stand in the position that we have in Christ. We resist based on who Christ is and not any magic words we come up with. One of the things you'll find Christians falling into is this thing of, okay, we'll bind Satan.

Well, who keeps letting him loose? Okay? No need to do that. When the time comes, God will take care of it, but God's not worried about him. Okay? There's also no need to worry about Satan getting out of control. God is always sovereign, and the point being in this passage, the reason we study it here this morning, Satan is terminal. Okay?

His latitude to move and do things here on planet Earth is going to come to an end. It will come to an end. It will not last. He is not God's equal and opposite. He is opposite in terms of character, but everything else about him is in no way an equal. In no way.

There's also no need to take our focus off of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even as we study Satan this morning, our intent is not to get so focused on him that we take our eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ. The point being that it is by placing our eyes upon the Lord that we can stand against Satan. It is by placing our eyes on the Lord that we have every defense needed against Satan's wiles. Every single one. Now, we are, by beholding the Lord, being chained from glory to glory. And you know what?

Satan, if we're beholding the Lord, can't interfere with that. God is going to make that come about because we're beholding Him. And Satan does not get involved in the process. As believers are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ as something that God will do because He is sovereign, And Satan cannot thwart that process. You notice all things work together for good, and there's no little parenthesis inserted about what Satan can do to change that.

Forget it. It's not there. So as we look to the Lord, we don't need to worry about Satan, and we don't need to do these things. Isn't it nice to have a list of things you don't have to do? You keep a list of those kind of things, right? Let's pray. Lord, as we look here at this near terminal point for Satan, certainly there are people on this earth that spend too much time focusing on him and getting worried and fretting about him. But Lord, how marvelous this morning that we can behold you and count upon what you have done and who you are and who we are in you. And Satan simply cannot touch that. And so we look to you this morning and give you thanks and praise and glory and honor. In Jesus' name, Amen.