Antichrist Unmasked - John Rhys Watkins — From the Pulpit & Classic Sermons

Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons. Each week we bring you a different message from some of history's greatest speakers in the Christian faith and powerful sermons from modern preachers too.

This week we have John Rhys Watkins with his message, The Antichrist Unmasked.

Jesus' Prophecy of the Temple's Destruction and the End of the Age

Matthew 24 beginning at verse 1 and it says this, it says,. And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him for to show him the building of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See not all these things?

Verily I say unto you, that there shall be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us when these things shall be, and what shall be the sign that I come in, and of the end of the world?

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars. See that these be not trouble you, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines and pestilence and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginnings of sorrows. Then shall ye be delivered up to be afflicted, and shall kill you.

And ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations.

And then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, whosoever readeth, let him understand. Then let him which be in Judea flee into the mountains.

Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. Neither let him which is in the field be turned back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and them that give suck in those days.

But pray that your flight be not in winter, neither on the sabbath day. For then shall be great tribulations such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be. And except those days be shortened, there shall no flesh be saved.

But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect.

Behold, I have told you before. Therefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth. Behold, he is in the secret chambers, and believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.

For whosoever, for wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give you light.

And the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. And they shall see the Son of Man coming in clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet. And they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn the parable of the fig tree.

When his branches yet tender and put forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh. So likewise, you know when you shall see all these things. Know that it is very near, even at the door. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man. Know not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man.

For as in the days they were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day the Noah entered into the ark. And knew not until the flood came and took them all away.

So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Then shall two be in the field, and one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken, the other left.

Watch therefore, for you know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.

Therefore be also ready, for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh. Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath made ruler over his outflow, to give them meat in due season?

Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find him doing. Verily I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods. Amen. May the Lord bless this word to our hearts. Amen.

You can see that I've got new glasses, and I'm still trying to fit them in with my eyes. The title of the message tonight is Antichrist Unmasked. Now, someone said recently, how do you avoid the Antichrist?

Exclusive Loyalty to God as the Church's Defense

How does the church get away from this beast? What can we do? The greatest thing that God has given to us is the first commandment. Thou shalt have no other God before me. If the church sticks that principle in the heart and believes it, then Antichrist, he cannot mark the church.

He cannot assault the church if God is the only God that we serve. Antichrist can only come because the church has fallen away from her first love. She's become cold and dull. Now in Matthew 24, the Lord Jesus, he's asked three questions of his disciples.

The first question related to the destruction of the Jewish temple. The other two questions, they related to the end days. The sign of his coming and the end of the world. He warned of many signs that would have to be discerned by the church in these days.

I believe there was an urgency in the words of Christ to his followers. That means it's applicable to us tonight. There's an urgency in these scriptures. I believe that as Christ answered the question, he could see in his mind's eye the awful things that would come upon the earth.

His words were filled with fear and trepidation as he saw the gross satanic assault that the devil would afflict upon his people. I believe there's something missing today in the modern interpretation of the scriptures, and that element is a godly fear of that which shall come upon us, upon the world.

You know the warnings of this prophecy, they're not recorded for us to debate. They're not recorded here that the church might have something to argue over. Eschatology is not something that we must learn in a dry, analytical sense.

Eschatology, the end times prophecy, is something that must be absorbed into the very heart of a Christian. If all you hear tonight is facts, figures, and something new, you're dead to the word of God.

We're not here to tell you something new. We're not here to talk about facts and figures, and work this jigsaw out. You're here tonight to listen to the warnings of God. The message tonight is to confirm to us, to strengthen us, and to direct our faith towards the object of faith, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If that is not the object of our faith, we need to be weakened up as a people. Faith must always be projected to the Lord Jesus Christ. Cannot have faith in anything else. You see, the words of Christ, they've sounded the alarm for the past 2 ,000 years.

But the years of the Euros in the church, they've waxed hard and dull. The church today unfortunately is making the same mistake as the man and the woman made in the Garden of Eden. Instead of coming to the tree of life, we're picnicking under the tree of knowledge.

Man once made that dreadful mistake. He thought that knowledge was the key to life. And look at the cost. Look at the dreadful cost to the whole of mankind. You see, it's very difficult for us to understand the fear that shall descend upon the whole of mankind.

But it's all too easy for the church to make light of His words in our jigsawed interpretation of prophecy. You see, we've made the prophetic word of God a debate in society. It's something that we've divided into schools of thought.

And God helps someone if they don't agree with your theology of the end times. God didn't give us these scriptures to debate. He gave us them as a warning that Christ is coming, but the Antichrist is on His way.

Signs of the End Times and the Church's Deception

You see, this Christ, He spoke of many things that I believe point to the fact that the world today is living in the very last days of His grace. You're listening tonight. We're at the end. How many people believe that this is the end of the world?

If it's true, then grace is about to end. Christ spoke of wars and rumors of wars. What is He talking about? Have you ever known such a time when there's wars? There's rumors of wars. There's a war in Iraq today, but nobody knows if it's a war or if it's just a conflict.

It's a rumor. Nobody knows why they're fighting out there. Nobody knows how many people are dying. Nobody knows the cost of that war. Christ spoke of these things. He said, nations will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.

He spoke of famines, pestilences and earthquakes. Well, we all know about the earthquakes that come upon us at the very end of last year. We know about famines. We know about the pestilences that are going and spreading like wildfire through Africa.

600 people a day in Africa die in through the pestilence, the disease of AIDS. Christ said that the nations will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. You know in that first century, the Jewish thought, kingdom rising against kingdom, nation against nation.

It's a Jewish idea. What they knew and believed was this would be a world war. Now it was impossible in the first century. It was only possible to have a total worldwide conflict at the beginning of the last century.

There's been two world wars. Christ said that these were signs of his coming. From verse 9, he goes on to warn of things that relate specifically to the church. You see the world today, they can know that Christ is coming because we've had wars.

They should know because of the famines, the pestilence, the earthquakes, the sorrow, the misery, the drudgery of this world. But for the church, he gave a specific warning. Before he gave the signs, he said something incredible.

He said this to the church, take heed that no man deceive you. Why did he say that? Did he say it just to fill a line in the King James Bible? No, he said it because he knew men would come to deceive the church.

Men would come to deceive his elect. Men would come, men was already in his church trying to deceive. Take heed then that man does not deceive you. Christ warned that many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many.

Where did the false prophets come into? Only one place, the church. He said that iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold. Have we ever known a time in history when iniquity is absolutely rife?

The cup of iniquity of this world is filled and overflowing. God must come and judge the world. Now him, Christ, looking through the eyes of God, foresaw and warned the individual Christian of every age that there shall arise false Christs and false prophets.

He told us beforehand these things must come to pass. He said that these men, these false Christs, these antichrists, they shall have power. They'll be able to show great signs and wonders. He says this in verse 25.

Behold, I've told you before. He said, I've warned you in advance. There's no need for a Christian to be dull in this world. Everyone should know these things. I've warned you before that the false will come to the church.

The false will come to deceive. Not going to deceive the world. The world is already deceived. It's the church that that devil wants. Every man, woman and child born again and believe in God should have a witness to the words of Jesus Christ.

The weight of prophetic scripture, both Old and New Testament comes to us in the form of a warning to his people. It's the cry from the heart of God towards his church. He has compassion on me tonight.

God wants to do us good. Therefore, he warns us of the assault that comes upon us. What a tremendous cry there's going to be on that day, on the day of judgment, when men and women are told to depart from him.

Look at the pain and the agony of these people. It'll be all too much for them. More of a burden than Cain could bear. They called him Lord. He said they prophesied. They said that they saw and did many wonderful things in his name.

But he said to them, depart from me. I never knew you. At the revelation of him, these people were found to have been deceived people. They're not outwardly wicked and gross people. Simple people that have been deceived.

Their gospel, their experience, their love for him was just a system of theology taught by man, but not supported by the word of God. The savagery of terror will manifest itself in the flames of the dam as the spirit of Antichrist welcomes these people.

Welcome into my hell. People will stand before him and be cast into the lake of fire because they were deceived. Christ said, Behold, I've told you before, no man, no woman should be deceived in the church.

Oh, but there is great deception abroad. Whenever we hear the name Antichrist, we must remember these two words counterfeit and liar. Put those in your mind. Whenever he's mentioned, he's a counterfeit and he is the liar.

People will go to hell because they followed the spirit of their day. A spirit that entertained them. A spirit that was able to stupefy the mind with signs and wonders. Men and women will burn forever in that day because they believe the lies of a showman instead of the sure word of God.

Antichrist as the Counterfeit of Christ

The Antichrist is a person and personality. He is the counterfeit of all that Jesus Christ represents in himself. The Antichrist will not only forge a likeness to the character of Jesus Christ, but he'll be able to counterfeit his life and his nature.

Oh, he's a good counterfeit, this man. This spirit, this beast as a counterfeit will be the best. You need the word of God. You need the testimony of Jesus Christ. You need the baptism. You need to be filled with the spirit to avoid this man.

Just as the Lord Jesus is the second person of the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, so the Antichrist will be the second person in that satanic trinity. Satan, the God of this world. Antichrist, the son of perdition and the false prophet who has spiritual power to conform the world to the image of the beast.

It's all about conforming. Christ in his church is conforming the church into his image. That beast will conform the world to the image of the beast, of the Satan, of Antichrist. Not only is Antichrist the counterfeit of Christ, he's also the opposite.

God purposed and planned that man should go beyond everlasting life and receive eternal life. Eternal life is different to everlasting life. Every creature created has everlasting life. This life will go on forever and ever.

But eternal life is the uncreated life, the life of God himself. Now that man was to inherit, but he did not because he went for knowledge. But through Christ, us who are born again and saved, we have this eternal uncreated life of God within us.

In John 17 and 3, it says this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Now this doesn't mean to know him theologically, but to know him because he's conformed you to the image that you share his nature.

To know God, to know Jesus Christ experimentally, this is life. To know him intimately, to have intimacy and fellowship with the Father and the Son. This is life. Do you have this life tonight? Do we have this life in the church, this intimacy?

This is life. The Antichrist, the antithesis of Jesus, he's first revealed in the book of Revelation as the rider of the four horses. Four horses, one rider. Listen to what it says. When he'd opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

And I looked and behold, a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was death and hell followed him. This Antichrist, the spirit of him and the man personified, he's the bringer of death. There is no life in him.

There is no life in his system. He lives and he breathes, but there is no life in him. He's the personification of death and death is the fear of all men. But at the end, men will embrace that beast. They'll take that mark and they'll worship death itself.

Even in the scriptures it said that men called for the mountains and the rocks to fall upon them, to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Embracing death instead of life. Let us again remember these warnings of Christ for the church.

Are you hearing me tonight? It's for the church. It's not for the world. The first place that we find the title Antichrist is in the first epistle of John chapter 2 verse 18. Little children, it is the last time and you have heard that Antichrist shall come.

Even now there are many Antichrists. How many? Many Antichrists whereby you know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us. John tells us two things relating to Antichrist.

Antichrist he says, he shall come. There is a personal beast coming. Also he tells us that he's already come. He says there are many Antichrists. John reiterates the warning of Christ to the church. He reveals the earthly origin of Antichrist.

They went out from amongst us. Didn't come from Islam. Didn't come from the Mormon temple. Didn't come from the watchtower. Out of the born again church of Jesus Christ. Did you hear that? They went out from amongst us.

This is the purpose and the plan of Satan to be involved with that body. Just as Christ dwelt with his church in the first century, so did Antichrist. Just as Christ made a promise that he would return to his church so will Antichrist.

You know in Matthew chapter 12 we preach that message on the unpardonable sin. It says about a man that had a demon in him and the demon left. But when that house was not filled by anything else, the demon came and brought seven other spirits that were worse than himself.

That Antichrist will return to where he originated. He wants to come. Now seven and one is eight. What does that tell us from? What does the number eight represent? Resurrection. Life. This is what he's offering.

But he cannot bring life because he is the bringer of death. The first appearance of Christ was as a man. The word was made flesh, dwelt amongst us. Is that what it says in the scriptures? On the day of Pentecost, Christ again came to his church but not as a man this time.

He came in the power of the spirit and there he dwells amongst his people until he comes as a man. The opposite is true of Antichrist. He first comes as a spirit and will remain a spirit dwelling amongst the people of God.

This is what Christ says when he, this is what Christ means when he says, take heed that no man will deceive you. Finally, the Antichrist, he will come as a man. The lie will be made flesh. The lie made flesh dwelling amongst us.

But his spirit is here today upon the earth. Many Antichrists, many spirits. One of the great truths of the gospel is the virgin birth. This is one of the great mysteries of the Bible. Now I know today the people say that you don't have to believe that and be born again.

But I'm going to tell you, if you deny the virgin birth, you deny Jesus Christ himself. Even Mary couldn't understand it. She was astonished and asked, how shall this be? Well the Holy Ghost, the angel said, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee.

The power of the eye shall overshadow thee. Therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. This is Christ. This is the God man. Fully man, but fully God. You see, Satan will counterfeit this truth to manifest his presence in Antichrist.

In Isaiah 14, we see that Lucifer says that he will be like the most high. This is what Christ is referring to as in the days of Noah. What is the eating, the drinking, the giving and marriage mean in the context of Noah's day?

What do they mean? It meant a union, a physical union. In Genesis 6, it tells us that the sons of God, they're fallen angels. The angels of Satan, they came to earth and they began to take women to themselves.

Began to marry these women. It goes on to say that that unholy union produced a hybrid offspring called the Nephilim. The giants in the King James translation. The fallen ones is what it means. This was the offspring.

The spiritual and physical union between men and devils so violated the principle of procreation that God poured out his wrath upon that world. God again will be moved with force against this world because this principle will once again be violated.

Each creature will reproduce after its own kind. But not in these days. Not in the last days. Again, what happens in Genesis 6 will happen again in the very last days. As in the days of Noah. As in the days of Noah.

What were the Nephilim? Well, they're a hybrid race of demon possessed people that sought one thing. The destruction of God's people. Or people say, well, we've had a virgin birth just less than 10 years ago.

A virgin was impregnated and she gave birth. So they said it wasn't miraculous what happened in Bible times. But it was. This woman knew no seed of man. It was the seed of God that was placed into Mary's womb.

It's the same thing with Antichrist when he's born. Satan's not going to send one of his princes to impregnate a woman in the last days. He's going to take a virgin to himself and utterly defile her body.

It'll be a spiritual and physical union that will produce a son and a heir to his throne. The seed of Antichrist. One of the most famous Nephilim in the Bible was Goliath. He is a type of Antichrist. If you study the types in the Bible, you'll find they're remarkable in their warnings to the church.

This Goliath you probably know this. He had six fingers on each hand. He had six toes on each feet. Add them up, what do you get? Four and twenty. He wore six pieces of armor. His spear alone weighed 600 shekels.

You see the six, six, six, plastered all across that beast. He was a Nephilim. He was the result of a fallen angel coming to a woman and impregnating her. Now this may sound far-fetched, but it will happen.

Satan will have his bride. He'll have his whore and she will produce a man born of a virgin. It's not necessary for us to work out the mark or the number or the name of the beast just yet. If we study the scriptures of Revelation chapter 13, we'll see that we're dealing with a mid-tribulation prophecy.

Here we see that Antichrist, he's been killed but through the power of Satan, his father, there's gonna be a resurrection. That Antichrist is gonna counterfeit the life, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This resurrection, there was no different to that of Lazarus, the son of Nain or the daughter of Jairus. It was a resurrection but no resurrection life. Lazarus was raised but he died again. The Jews killed him.

That little girl raised but she'd have to die again. Same for the son of Nain. Christ is the firstborn from the dead. He lived, he died, and in his resurrection, there is no more death. All the others, all the above, they tasted death once again and so will Antichrist.

He'll counterfeit that resurrection but so deceived is Lucifer, not realizing that he'll taste the second death. Nevertheless, the counterfeit, it is so good in the last days that the whole of the world will be called to worship and to be conformed to his image.

Think of it, if you see on the TV, a man being killed and then three days later being resurrected. I believe even some people that go to church will say, well, this must be the coming of the son of man.

He must be Jesus. I believe there'll be preachers that'll pay homage to this beast. The confirmation of this is the receiving of the mark. They'll worship that beast and they'll receive his mark. This is the name of the beast.

This is the number of his name. This is the number of a man and his number is six hundred three score and six. The six, six, six. The name and the number, they point us to the character and the nature of the beast.

Those who will receive this mark, whatever it may be, will have already received the mark spiritually in their hearts. Nothing to do with the chip, they've already received it. Whatever that mark is gonna be, they've already received it in their hearts.

They've already given themselves to the God of this world. They that love this present dying world will receive the mark of the beast. Our only hope is to despise this world and love the Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart.

There have been many types of antichrists throughout history. Antiochus, Epiphanes, Nero and all the Caesars typified him. In the church, Oregon and Julian the Apostate, all the popes up and down the centuries have been antichrist.

On August the 6th, 1806, there was a call throughout the Jewish world to receive Napoleon as their messiah. So convinced was that Jewish world they will accept a gentile messiah. Mussolini was believed to have been antichrist by the Plymouth brethren.

Hitler was a tremendous example of satanic evil. How many Jews did he kill personally? None. Yet there is 6 million of them that died as well as Christians. How did he do this? Because he poured himself into a nation.

The whole of Nazi Germany was being conformed to his image. They, that nation, those Nazis became the Fuhrer. They became the beast. They worshipped. All of these men have been worshipped in one form or another.

Satan, as the counterfeit of God, seeks to be worshipped. But the world is not enough for him. He doesn't want the worship of your rock band on MTV. He's not interested in the worship that the heathens and the pagans will offer him.

His greatest desire is to be worshipped by the people of God. Listen to what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except the come of falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

Who's he talking about? It's the Antichrist. He that opposes and exalteth himself above all that is called God, all that is worshipped, so that he, Antichrist, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Remember ye not that when I was with you, I told you these things. Paul is impressing upon his hearers that he's told them once, he's told them twice, he's warned them until he's blue in the face. This beast, he says, will come, he's gonna receive worship.

The Church as the Temple and the Present Spirit of Antichrist

The temple of God is not the Jewish temple built with ants. God doesn't live in a house built with man. He will not live in a stone building. Over and over the Bible tells us that the church is the temple of the living God.

Now I believe Paul's theology is the same of mine. Paul preached more than any man that the temple, the church, his body, was the true living temple of God. This is the goal of Satan then. He wants to be worshipped on the throne of Christ by those who call them by his name, Christians.

Not interested in the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, or any other cult. He wants the Christians, he wants the born again church to worship him. The Antichrist may at some point sit and accept worship in a future Jewish temple.

I don't deny those things. But that is not and cannot be the temple of God. He will not live in that building. Temple worship, animal sacrifice will be an abomination to our God. Who is the liar? But he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ.

He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. You cannot tell me that Judaism does not deny that Jesus is the Christ. They do not believe, they cannot believe, and they will not believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

Thank God the Christ has been revealed to some of them. Thank God there is more saved and born again in this century than all the other ages have put together. God has his witness in that nation. But for now they are an Antichrist system.

We must understand that Antichrist is not just future. He opposes us today as he works amongst us. Did you hear that? He opposes the church. He's against you and me. He works amongst us. In 1st John 4 and 3,.

And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist. Whereof you have heard that it should come, and even now already is in the world.

That Antichrist is come, it's here. Many false prophets will pave the way in the church for world supremacy resulting in the slaughter of countless millions saints of God. The prophets, the false prophets, the false Christ will pave that way.

We'll build him a yellow brick road all the way to the temple of God until he shows us his true face. A prophet is a person that is called to preach the word of God and to warn the church. That's what a prophet is.

God never recognized a prophet outside of his kingdom. If he recognized them, he'd call them false prophets. He'd call them by their name. Pagan prophets. The prophets that Jezreel are. The prophets that worship around the grove.

But these are prophets that'll come in the church. One of the greatest signs that we're near the end is the proliferation of false prophets. You've never lived in an age when false prophets are everywhere.

They're everywhere, on every other tape, on every other channel. The false prophets are there. How many of us here tonight believe that you can be a Christian and believe in evolution? How many of you would believe that?

How many would believe that we accidentally evolved from monkeys? No one would listen to a man that taught that from you. But there are men that have written books. Men that have translated your Bibles that firmly believe in evolution.

Go to your local Christian bookstore and see the heretics upon the shelves. Ecumenism was birthed in the mind of the evolutionists. The human cry today is for the unification of all religions. It does not come out of nothing.