If you're able, would you please stand as I read this portion of God's inspired and un-airing and life-giving word? This is the word of God. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven 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 1,000 years. And through him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the 1,000 years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while. This is the word of God, let's pray. And now, Lord, we ask that you would cause us to have ears to hear your word, hearts to receive it with joy and that you would unite us in the truth and encourage us in it today. Lord, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, you may have a seat. So the various ways that we approach the first part of Revelation chapter 20 is the reason why we have various kind of theological traditions in evangelicalism, things like pre-millennialism and post-millennialism and omelennialism. It's generated books and movies and a lot of arguments. Now, maybe you're asking, how important is this, Todd? And I would say this, that on the one hand, what we do and how we understand this millennium or this thousand years, how we understand that, is not nearly as important as many other doctrines that God has given us in His word. For instance, the doctrine of the Trinity is far more important with where exactly you land in this issue of the thousand years or the doctrines connected to the person in work of Christ or justification by faith alone or our doctrine of Scripture. All of these things are far more wavy if you like than what exactly we do with this thousand years. Where it's two Christians can disagree on these various evangelical millennial views and still agree on a thousand matters that are vital importance that unite us together. And so let me just say, I'm not going to fight with you over your millennial view. Jesus is coming back. He wins the devil loses. But I do want you to see that the difference in these millennial views and our overall interpretation of Revelation 20 does reflect some differences that will shape our expectations both in this present life and what we expect to happen in the days ahead. So all of that to say yes, there are many doctrines more essential to our life and godliness, but chapter 20 here matters because all of God's word matters. All of the doctrine that we are given in God's word matters and we want to do our best to read it well and to understand it faithfully. And I want to remind you that I will not be shielding you from what I believe the Bible says here. I've been charged by God, I've been charged by this church to preach the Bible and I can't do that if I remain aloof as to what I believe the text is actually saying to us. And again, what I will be preaching this morning is not innovative, you're not going to hear anything new. In fact, what I'm going to be preaching is grounded in the oldest traditions of the church. And I would say one more thing, don't feel like you have to follow along in the sermon guide. There's material in that sermon guide that I won't be covering in the sermon. And I don't want you to miss out on the actual sermon. That's why we're here. Now we need to mention a few things and you do see these things defined in the sermon guide and they're the various evangelical approaches to understanding what revelation is telling us about the thousand years or the millennium. So here's a little terminology for us. First of all, there is historic pre-millanialism, historic pre-millanialism. Now, along with omelanialism, this is one of the two oldest views held by the church. This view holds that Jesus will return before or pre the one thousand years. He'll return before the millennium, either literally or symbolically that millennium will last a thousand years. You find both views in historic pre-millanialism. And this view holds that during his kingdom, Christ will reign in every sense of that word completely on the earth, accompanied there by his resurrected saints. And after this earthly reign of Christ, there will then be a final decisive battle on the earth and then the final judgment will come. That's the overview historic pre-millanialism. Now the reason why we call this view historic pre-millanialism is because about 150 years or so ago was the birth of dispensational pre-millanialism. Now dispensational pre-millanialism is a framework that understands the Bible as teaching that God unfolds history in seven succeeding dispensations or ways that he dispenses his grace. Now this view is a newcomer. It was conceived largely in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century by a minister in the Church of Ireland named John Nelson, Darby. And Darby went on to help found the Plymouth brethren. But early on in the founding of the Plymouth brethren, there was a split in that new movement. It was rather acrimonious and it was over John Nelson Darby's views concerning dispensationalism. And in fact that that theory, that theology, that approach to the Bible gained no traction really in the UK until Darby came over to the United States in Canada. It was in Canada in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries where dispensationalism and pre-millanial dispensationalism really caught fire and became popular. Now what dispensational pre-millanialism does is it adds several elements to historic pre-millanialism. It adds the view of a secret pre-tribulation rapture of the Church. That's a new view in the history of the Church. You just simply don't find it in Church history until the end of the 19th century. And I would argue that you don't find it in the Scriptures. It adds to historic pre-millanialism. It adds this idea that the Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt. It holds that Jesus will have a physical, political reign across the world and that he will reign from Jerusalem for 1,000 years. And at the end of that earthly reign, after 1,000 years, Satan will be released from the abyss. He will gather an army of fallen humanity and he will engage in a final battle against Jesus in the Valley of Megito in which Satan will be defeated and then cast into hell. That's an overview of dispensational pre-millanialism. This is the theology popularized through the Scofield and Riry Reference Bibles. This is the theology of how Lindsay's the late Great Planet Earth. That was the number one best-selling non-fiction book in the entire decade of the 1970s. And then, of course, the left behind series of novels, which were a publishing bananza. And then the movies, you had the lesser movie with Kurt Cameron. And then, of course, the outstanding movie with Nicholas Cage, which we all remember from it sweeping the Academy Awards. All right, that's the only humor I'm going to use today. That said, this is a view that we simply do not see prior to the last half of the 19th century. And I believe that's a serious problem. Okay, post-millanialism. As the name suggests, post-millanialism holds that Christ's return and his final judgment will be after, post his earthly millennial reign. Post-millanialism holds that that 1,000 years is almost certainly a symbolic for meaning completeness. The earthly reign of Christ, according to post-millanialism, will be characterized by the Christianization of the whole world. And a massive worldwide Christian awakening, during which time most of the world's population will come to believe in Christ. And then following this earthly golden age will be the final judgment and the inauguration of the new creation. And I've got to tell you, I can understand why some Christians are drawn to that view. But I am not persuaded. Post-millanialism is enjoying a bit of a resurgence of popularity among some parts of the reformed world in the US and it's typically tied to a very particular vision of politics as well. Now we come to omelanialism, omelanialism. Unlike historic pre-millanialism, omelanialism, omelanialism is one of the two views most common in the early church. Omelanialism, for instance, was the view of Augustine. And it was the view most common among the Protestant reformers in the 16th century and the reformed theologians of the 17th century. And so not surprisingly, this is the view that you will find in the vast majority of conservative reformed in Presbyterian churches and denominations. Now contrary to what the name suggests that prefix A, which typically means no or a negation, omelanialism fully affirms Christ's millennial reign. Why it's called omelanialism is that the position of omelanialism holds that Christ's reign on earth is not a strict one thousand years that that one thousand is symbolic. It will be for an unspecified, unspecified do us. And most significantly, omelanialism holds that the kingdom is already here, that we are currently living during Christ's millennial reign. That Christ began his reign on earth upon his first advent, that we see his reign established in his death and resurrection, his ascension, his heavenly session, and the coming of the spirit at Pentecost, that those events signaled the inauguration the beginning of Christ's millennial kingdom on the earth. Know what some of you are thinking, Todd, when I look around, it doesn't look like Christ is reigning much and I understand that and we'll address that very point in just a moment. But for now, I'll simply say that omelanialism holds that Christ's present kingdom is unfolding progressively at the same time as wickedness persists. And this is happening throughout the church age as the gospel advances around the world. And I told you, I was not going to act as though I have no thoughts on the matter. I am like most of the reformed tradition rooted in Augustinianism, I am persuaded by omelanialism. Now, there's two questions I want to cover today, two questions that arise from this passage. Question is this, when will the thousand years take place? The second question is, what does it mean for Satan to be bound? So when will the millennium take place, when will the thousand years take place? And secondly, what does it mean for Satan to be bound? Now we're going to address those questions together because they're inextricably bound together. We have to answer them together. And throughout this series, we've seen that one of the keys to interpreting the book of Revelation is understanding that John's vision does not present a series of events in strict chronological order from one point at the beginning all the way to the end. Rather, as we've seen, by way of recapitulation, remember that word, recapitulation. It means to recap, to retell, to look at it again, to tell it again. That by way of this retelling, this recapitulation, the period of time between Christ's two Cummings, his first advent and his second coming is returned, the time in between that is presented several times from different vantage points or perspectives. Now maybe you're wondering, but Todd, why does the Bible even need to do that? Why doesn't he need to repeat that? That seems unnecessary to which I would say, really, have you ever taught anything? Have you ever been an instructor? Have you ever had conversations with another human being? Where you've had to say, now just so I'm clear. Have you ever had to say to your children, okay, I've told you this five times now, now I'd like you to repeat it back to me, just so we know. The Bible knows what we're alike, God knows what we're alike. It's necessary to tell us and to tell us again and to tell us another time. This is why, for instance, the final judgment at the end of the age is depicted numerous times in the book of Revelation, including chapter 16, chapter 19, and as we'll see in a couple of weeks in chapter 20. Again, what I'm saying here is nothing new, it's nothing innovative, this view of recapitulation in the book of Revelation enjoys massive support among most evangelical scholars and it's rooted in the early history of the church. There's nothing new. As we've seen numerous times, the book of Revelation prepares us for a great intensification of the persecution of the church at the end of the age. But as well, it prepares us for some sort of climactic confrontation between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world when Jesus returns. But we've also recognized that the descriptions of the progress of history that were given in the big middle section of Revelation, you know, those series of sevens, seven seals, seven trumpet, seven bowls, the description of history there, that section describes the world as it has been throughout the age of the church, and really, since the fall of mankind. And another thing we have to be reminded, please don't forget John's original readers. Meaning of Revelation must have been accessible to those first century churches that he was writing to specifically, which would not be the case if John were in fact describing solely some remotely future event. John's original readers were not intended to receive the book of Revelation and say, well, this clearly has almost nothing to do with us. Now, in pre-millinealism, what is described here in chapter 20 that we've just read, are events that take place after chronologically following what we just looked at in the previous two weeks in chapter 19. However, as we look at the whole structure of the book of Revelation, and as we consider the arc of redemptive history, it seems best to take the first 15 verses of chapter 20 as a recapitulation, a re-telling, another perspective on what we saw in chapter 19. How can we know that? Let me give you a couple of thoughts. First of all, we've already seen in chapter 19, much rejoicing among the Saints in heaven at Christ's final victory. Two weeks ago, in the first 10 verses of chapter 19, we hear this shout of hallelujah. Great rejoicing among the Saints in heaven. The bride and the groom have come together. His martyred Saints rejoice because Christ has now vindicated them. The wedding feast of the lamb has come, Christ is one, that's chapter 19. So what is described in chapter 20 simply can't be an event that occurs after Christ's final victory and the wedding of the bride to the bride groom. Then last week, we looked at the latter half of chapter 19. All the bad guys are wiped out there and they're cast into the lake of fire. The beasts, the false prophet and all of those who followed them were told, both great and small, both king and servant were told, are all cast into the lake of fire. Go back and look at that final verse in chapter 19, everyone who had aligned him or herself with the beast and the false prophet are, quote, slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse. That's a depiction of the final judgment. So the question is, if chapter 20 here just follows that chronologically rather than recapping it, if it's just a chronological following, why would it be necessary for Satan to be bound for a thousand years, so as not to deceive the nations, if the nations have already been cast into the lake of fire, which is clearly what's described in chapter 19. The end of chapter 19 is the final battle, it is the final judgment, it is the final inauguration of the victory of Christ. That's the final judgment which occurs after the millennial reign described here in chapter 20. The point being that it seems best to me to place the millennial reign of Christ before his second coming, not afterwards. So we have the millennial kingdom during the whole church age and then the second coming of Christ in the final judgment. Now let's look at these three verses a little more closely and I think we can establish that this is the way it is. So first of all, verse 1, then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. Now right off the bat, we see once again that John is writing in symbolic language, okay? An angel does not need a steel chain to bind up Satan. Lord of Satan have to be cast into a literal hole in the ground and have a lid placed over it. Once again, John is just using his typical apocalyptic approach to language, which is the symbolic use of language to communicate spiritual truth. The then when he says, then I saw an angel coming down that does not indicate chronology as in these events that I'm about to describe, follow chronologically the events that I just did describe, rather it simply means this is the next vision I got. This is the next part of the vision and we see this pattern again throughout the book of Revelation. And once again again, this symbolic language, the key, the key represents God's authority over the abyss, the chain represents God's constraining power over Satan and the pit is the symbolic way for expressing the Lord's restraining authority over Satan. So that's verse 1. Now look at verse 2 and he sees to the dragon that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years. Now this is not the first time that John describes Satan as that ancient serpent. Back in chapter 12, in fact the same four names are used to describe the enemy, dragon, ancient serpent, the devil, and Satan. The same four names used here in chapter 20 are used in chapter 12, which suggests I believe that the same event is in view, but now from a different angle, a different vantage point. Now let's consider that term 1000 years or the 1000 years. It's used six times in verses 2 through 7. And remember that Revelation uses numbers in a symbolic way which is typical for a ptochalyptic writing. The number 10 is one of those numbers which indicates completeness, perfection. And when the writer wishes to amplify that meaning, he will often increase that number by particular multiples. So the number 1000 is 10 times 10 times 10. That means super duper completeness. And we see this symbolic use of a thousand elsewhere in the Bible, in fact numerous times in the Bible. So for instance, in Psalm 50, we're told that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Now we know that that one thousand there is symbolic. We know it, don't we? Because we are not worried that every other hill he doesn't own, right? We get that when the Bible tells us that the Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills, he means the Lord owns it all, right? Also in Deuteronomy chapter 7, when the Lord promises to keep his covenant for quote, 1000 generations, he is not saying that beyond the 1000th generation, he will no longer keep his word. Doesn't. It means I'll always keep my word. In Psalm 84, where we're told that one day in the courts of the Lord is better than a thousand elsewhere. We know that the Psalmist is not saying, but once you get to one thousand in one day, it is better elsewhere, right? This is symbolic. So I believe it's best to take the 1000 years here as symbolic, indicating the perfect completeness of Christ's earthly reign. Now let's look again, verse 3, but I want to kind of pick up in that last clause of verse 2 and then on through verse 3 and bound him for a thousand years and through him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the 1000 years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while. Now remember our principles of biblical interpretation. We're going to interpret the Bible well. There's a couple of things that we have to keep in mind. First, we interpret scripture with scripture. We don't interpret scripture with the newspaper. We interpret scripture with scripture. The clearer passages, the second principle here, the clearer passages help interpret the harder passages and then third, the many help interpret the few or the one. The many scriptures help us to interpret the fewer the one. Here in Revelation 20 and the first few verses is the only mention of a thousand year reign of Christ. So we want to go back and see the many other scriptures that tell us about Christ's kingdom to help us understand what's going on in these couple of verses about his thousand year reign. We want to depend upon other scripture. We want to depend upon scriptures that seem to be a little clearer and we want to depend on the many to help us interpret these few. Now I don't think we can understand verses 2 and 3 without going back to the early history of redemption. Bearing to Satan as quote that ancient serpent takes us all the way back to Genesis 3 doesn't it? When he sat in the serpent to see the Adam and Eve and brought sin and death and misery into the world, but God's response, what was God's response? It wasn't to give up, God went on the offensive. And in that moment he declared war upon the serpent and he cursed the serpent to certain defeat. I promised that from the seed of this now fallen woman, a descendant would come who those struck would himself crush the serpent's head. That's Genesis 315. This is what is oftentimes referred to as the mother promise of the Bible. Because the rest of redemptive history tells the story of how God sends this deliverer into the world to defeat Satan and of course the deliverer there, the seed of the woman is of course the incarnate Christ. Now kids, help me out here. You're going to have to answer this question nice and loud. Are you ready? Here's your question. What is the Old Testament Tell Us, a Savior is coming very good, secondly what is the New Testament Tell Us, a Savior has come. And I think we can just as easily say, because I think this is the implication of that, what is the Old Testament Tell Us, the kingdom is coming, and what is the New Testament Tell Us, the kingdom has come. During the days described in the Old Testament, God goes about fulfilling His promise in Genesis 3, and He goes about it through calling a man named Abram and adopting Him and making Him His own. And through Abraham, He blesses them the people who would make up the house of Israel, a nation that God formed at the foot of Mount Sinai when He gave them the law. And in those days, what was the status of the other nations? They were cut off. They were cut off in their sin and their idolatry and their unbelief and their immorality. They had been wholly blinded by Satan. And in fact, in the Old Testament, the words, nations and pagans are nearly synonymous. There was one people who held the light, the house of Israel. Nevertheless, the Lord promised that His chosen servant would be, quote, a light for the nations Isaiah 42. And that this gracious salvation would reach, quote, to the ends of the earth, Isaiah 49.6. In other words, when the Christ arrives, the ancient serpents hold upon the nations would be broken. And in this way, we are able to say that when Christ comes, Satan will be bound. When Christ came, Satan was bound. So what John sees in this part of His vision is the breaking of Satan's stranglehold upon the pagan nations because even the worst of them now can't keep the gospel out. Certainly, Satan has not yet been cast into the wake of fire that will come. And His power to completely blind entire nations has been taken away from Him and why? Because the kingdom has come. As Hendrickson observes in his excellent commentary on Revelation, quote, a dog bound with a long and heavy chain can do great damage within the circle of His imprisonment. Besides that circle, however, the animal can do no damage and hurt no one. I think that that is the present condition of Satan bound but still angry, evil, mean and can do great damage within the circle of His present imprisonment. The New Testament tells us that we are currently living in the days of Christ's earthly reign. You cannot read the gospel accounts and deny that Jesus repeatedly declares that in His arrival the kingdom has come. He preached the coming of His kingdom. In His presence on earth repeatedly, one of the many examples of this comes from Matthew chapter 12 when Jesus delivered a man who was possessed by demons and the Pharisees come along and they accuse Jesus of using the power of Satan to cast out demons. That's a novel approach. And Jesus responded this way. He said, how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. Now right there, Jesus tells us that he has entered Satan's house and bound him. Not that that will happen in some distant future but that the reason he's casting out demons is because he's entered Satan's house so to speak and he's bound him. And the word that Jesus uses for binds here is the same root word that is used here in Revelation 20, verse 2, same word. Another great example of this comes from John chapter 12. And Greek men requested an audience with Jesus. Now right there is significant because right there what's happening, pagans are now coming to Jesus. Right at a juncture in time which previous to that the nations had no light. Now some of them are actually now seeking an audience with Jesus. That's significant. And when Jesus is told that these men want to meet with him, Jesus doesn't say, well that's really nice. He said, and this is such a peculiar response unless you understand what's going on in the redemptive historical context. Instead of saying, oh Greeks want to meet with me, that's kind of nice. He says, his disciples come, these Greek men want to meet with you and this is Jesus' response. Now is the judgment of the world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out? Jesus is wanting them to have eyes to see. He's teaching them and us, because those Greek men wanting to talk to Jesus is a sign that Satan's been bound. He's been chained. Now he says, not in some distant future that has no relationship to your life whatsoever, he says, now has Satan been cast out. The same word Jesus uses there in John 12 for cast out. He's the same word used in Revelation chapter 23, chapter 20 verse 3 for Satan being cast into the pit. Or think of Jesus' great commission, Matthew 28. As he was about to ascend to his throne in glory, he said to his disciples, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go there for and make disciples of who all nations, the nations had been bound, the nations had been blind, you're now to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and behold, I'm with you always to the end of this age. These words only make sense if Jesus will, if Satan will now be bound from keeping the nations in spiritual darkness. He had blinded the nations, Jesus now says to the church, over 2,000 years ago, you're going to make disciples of all nations. Jesus is claim of possessing all authority and then is promised to his disciples of a harvest of souls from all the nations's proof that he is referring to the reality of his kingdom in the world now. Think of the significance of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2. At Babel, back in Genesis, the Lord confused the languages of the people and He scattered them across the face of the earth and it's not until the completed work of Christ where Babel is reversed at Pentecost. Those scattered blinded nations will no longer be hopelessly bound to darkness, the gospel breaks through and that signal that Pentecost, the kingdom had come. Or think of Jesus' words in Matthew 2, we can keep going, think of Jesus' words in Matthew 24 where He said, and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come. Once again, the gospel goes throughout the world to the Lord's satisfaction that's during His kingdom on earth and then Jesus returns and judges and brings it into the age. This will happen because Satan has been bound because we currently are living during the days of Christ progressively advancing millennial kingdom. The last 2,000 years testified of this in the extraordinary advance of the gospel throughout the world. There are more Christians in China today than there are Christians in the United States. There are more Presbyterians in South Korea than there are in the United States. Scotland, the birthplace of Presbyterianism was once covered by violent naked cannibals called Picts and that same piece of ground became the home of John Knox. All of what is Western Europe was once hopelessly lost in paganism with no Christian witness at all and it became the home of Martin Luther of John Calvin of Thomas Kranmer. It's where the Heidelberg Catechism was composed and the Westminster Confession of Faith and it's the birthplace of the modern missions movement. In 1858, John G. Peyton, a Scottish Presbyterian missionary traveled to the new Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific east of Indonesia. And every one of Peyton's successors that had tried to evangelize the new Hebrides Islands had all been killed in eaten. The islanders were cannibals hopelessly lost in pagan darkness. But Peyton went there, being warned, they will eat you and he went and against all expectations he lived and he established the first Christian witness in those islands and that church still stands. In fact, the new Hebrides Islands once inhabited by cannibals is about 93% Christian with the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu being the largest religious denomination on those islands because Satan has been jamed, because his stranglehold has been broken. And so from the Presbyterian Church in the Ghana, which your giving helps support, by the way, to the millions of Christians in the Korean Prince Peninsula, to the conservative Anglicans in Africa, to the growing church in Indonesia, places once bound in darkness are seeing the light of Christ in massively growing numbers. Whereas once the light was confined to one people Israel, now that light has gone worldwide and that's characteristic of Christ's present reign. So what does this mean for us? Well, Revelation was written to a tribe and persecuted and afflicted church. The persecution and opposition of the world had bitten deep and it continues to bite deep. And what can console such a suffering people, but the knowledge and the conviction that the lamb wins? That over the chaos of this world, there stands a throne and the one raining from that throne is the Lord Jesus Christ. And though he reigns right now, his reign will someday be revealed in a way that no one will be able to deny and knowing that has sustained the persecuted church for over 2,000 years now. Christ's kingdom is in the world today. Aslin is on the move. And if it were not so, if Christ's kingdom, if his rule in reign is confined to heaven, then I give up. I won't go outside. Well, I'll go outside even less. If Christ is not raining here, but everywhere we look, even through the tears and shadows of this present evil age, we see the light of his kingdom breaking in. In Luke chapter 10, Jesus sent forth 72 witnesses to preach the gospel and he told them this, he said, say to them, the kingdom of God has come. When they returned, they told Jesus of all the things that they had done and that they had seen and they'd heard and the success of that mission and Jesus said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning. Did that mean that Satan could do no more harm? No? But it did mean that something radical in the world had changed. Satan was now kneecapped and could no longer cast hopeless blindness over all the nations. Christ had come. The kingdom had come. The devil will continue to bark and bite at everyone. His elitial Islam access. The days are coming though. When that will come to an end. That is how completely He is under the control of the almighty. And so long as the dragon is alive and roaring, it is because the Lord would have us fight him. Whether we are pre-malennial or post-malennial or omelennial, don't we all have the same hope? Don't we all long to see the same returning king? Don't we long to see his will be done and his kingdom be done on earth just to the very degree it is in heaven? Don't we long to see Satan and evil and sin and death and decay be finally put away forever? And I want to say to each of you today that you do not have to wait for Jesus to reign in this life. You don't have to wait for Satan's power to be handicapped. You are not his slave. The nations are no longer bound over to blindness. The light has come, the light is shining. That's why we send missionaries. Because the kingdom has come, that's why William Kerry went to India because he knew that the kingdom had come and God had a people there even in that univangilized nation. The kingdom has come. And that's why we say with the Saints in heaven, the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. Amen. It's pray. And now O Lord we ask your blessing upon your word that it would remain in us and comfort us and encourage us in days as your kingdom continues to expand throughout the world. Lord is Satan hates this and is he fights against it and is he unleashes his malice towards us, help us to remember that he is on a chain of your own making. And even that is under the sway of your good wise sovereignty. O Lord, encourage us with this, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand together. By the blood you have redeemed us, let's do. By the waters, our spring, our song, our choice, salvation, down to the ramp above the floor. Be blessing on your glory now before the blood that you have won. Amen. O Lord we ask your blessing upon your word that it would remain in us and comfort us. Amen. Let's stand together. By your blood you have redeemed us, let's do. By the waters, our spring, our choice, salvation, down to the ramp above the floor. Be blessing on your glory now before the blood that you have won. Amen. O Lord we ask your blessing upon your rejoin the earth above the angels in the triumph of the sun. Amen. O Lord we ask your blessing upon your