Book of Revelation - Ch. 6, Vs. 1-2 (07/15/2018)

So we'll get started. We are winding our way slowly into the 6th chapter of Revelation.

I'm going to read two verses and then we're going to begin. And I saw when the

Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder, and one of the four beasts saying,

Come and see. And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was given him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer.

Let us pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this place to come together where we may worship and we may study your word.

Thank you for providing for us the scripture with your word written down in a form that we can read and understand.

And what we fail to understand, thank you for providing the Holy Spirit to guide us toward a better understanding.

Keep us and bless us and take us through the day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now, most commentators that I have read understand the bow to be a symbol of war.

But since there are no mention of accompanying arrows, the bow is morphed into a symbol of peace.

Now, personally, I believe that's a bit of a stretch. What I believe is that the bow symbolizes power to wage war.

And that power has been given to the rider of the white horse.

Now, I'm going to preface right now something that will come up later. Dr. MacArthur says it's probably better not to try to identify the rider of this white horse as any individual person, but better as a force that is controlled by Satan and the

Antichrist. And then we'd be better fitted to the other four horsemen. We'll deal with that a little bit later.

They all represent things like death and famine and pestilence.

They all represent forces, and he thinks this one probably should be identified as a force also.

And we'll deal with the force that it is in just a second. So, in any case, the bow symbolizes power, great power, almost supernatural power.

Maybe even supernatural power that is being given to him, the rider of the white horse.

And he exercises that great power. The actual war is short -lived and ends with a victory by the rider of the white horse.

Or, in any case, the perception of something.

Daniel refers to the agent behind or the rider of this white horse as the prince that shall come.

And with his victory, the prince is revealed as the Antichrist.

And one of his first official acts as the new world leader is to enter into a covenant of peace with Israel.

Now, I'm going to go back to Daniel chapter 9, beginning at verse 24, and deal with this prophecy by Daniel.

Daniel 9, starting at verse 24. Seventy weeks.

Now, we all know what seventy means. Seventy is a seven followed by a zero.

One more than sixty -nine and one less than seventy -one. That's what seventy is. Weeks, though, we have a misunderstanding of what it means.

Most of the time in the scripture, a week is seven days.

But it could just be seven, like a dozen. Most of the time we talk about a dozen, we're talking about a dozen eggs, right?

Or maybe a dozen lemons, or a dozen oranges, or a dozen something. The week may be seven days.

But it also could be seven grapefruit. It could be seven oranges.

It could be seven years. What Daniel is talking about here is seventy -sevens of years.

Seventy times seven is 490. Is that right?

Last time you did it. I did it this morning, and it came out to that for me also.

Seventy weeks are determined upon my people and upon the Holy City to do the following things.

To finish the transgression. And to make an end of sins.

And to make reconciliation for iniquity. And to bring in everlasting righteousness.

And to seal up the vision and the prophecies. And to anoint the Most High. That's what's going to happen in these seventy -sevens of years.

Now, verse 25. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build

Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seventy weeks and threescore and two weeks.

Now add that up. It says seven weeks.

It says seven weeks and threescore and two weeks.

Threescore and two is sixty -two. And seven is sixty -nine.

That's sixty -nine weeks. That's sixty -nine of the seventy weeks. There's one remaining week.

We are between the sixty -ninth and the seventh week for all of the time of the

Gentiles. The time of the Gentiles is like a chess clock. When you play, you've got two clocks.

You guys play chess in tournament situations. And one little sand clock is up and sand is running through it.

And the other one is down. And so when you make your move, the first thing you do is you turn your clock down so your sand stops running out and you turn the other one up.

So his starts. So you're off your time and on his. So what's happened is when the

Messiah is cut off is the time of the Gentiles. I'm sorry. The time of the

Jews ended and the time of the Gentiles began. And that is going to last until the next event which we'll turn it back over.

That will be during the Millennial Kingdom. That will be after what?

After the seventy weeks. Okay. We're only at 69 all of them.

We're somewhere either right at the beginning of the seventieth week or just before the seventieth week.

No, that wouldn't be right. We're after the sixty -ninth week but either in the early stages of the seventieth week or just before the seventieth week is to begin.

That's the way I should say it. The streets shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times.

And after threescore and two weeks the Messiah shall be cut off.

That means he's killed. But not for himself. And the people of the prince that shall come destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with the flood.

And until the end of the war of desolations. End of the war of desolations are determined.

And he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.

For the overspreading of the abominations he shall make it desolate. Now, so what's going to happen is he's going to enforce a covenant.

It's going to be a covenant of peace. At the beginning of this seventieth week. In the beginning of this last seven year period.

At three and a half years that covenant of peace is going to be gone.

And a over war is going to begin. That will happen. We don't know when that happens.

That happens at the revealing of the red horse. The horse of war. Okay. We're going to explore this covenant more in detail later.

But first we're going to turn to three true covenants. Before we return to this one false one.

Or counterfeit one. Okay. So three important covenants between God and man.

Anybody remember the first covenant between God and man? That's the second one.

There's one before that. After the flood, the rainbow.

And we're going to go there. It's the covenant between God and all living things.

It was given to Noah. In Genesis 6. I'm sorry.

In Genesis 9 verse 12. It's where we want to begin.

They talk about other things earlier. But we can't do all of that or we'll be a hundred years on this chapter.

And God said, this is the token. Talking about the rainbow. This is the token of the covenant which

I make between me and you. And every living creature that is with you.

So the covenant is not only between God and man. But also between God and all living things. I do set my bow in the cloud.

And it shall be a token of the covenant between me and the earth. It shall come to pass that when

I bring a cloud over the earth. And that bow shall be seen in the cloud. I will remember my covenant which is between me and you.

And every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

Now there's no doubt about the symbolism of the rainbow and of the covenant.

Three times the bow is said to be a token of the covenant. Now if you're counting, you're going to only have counted two.

But we're not to the third one yet. Three times the bow is said to be a token of the covenant of peace between God and all living things.

This is a universal and it is an unconditional covenant. It depends upon only one thing.

Does God tell the truth? Does God tell the truth?

That's all it depends upon. The integrity of God and nothing else.

It demands nothing of man. It is a covenant by which God assures

Noah and through Noah all men that he will never again destroy all living things with a flood.

It is a covenant relying on the integrity of God and nothing else.

And therefore it is valid for all of eternity. That is to say, I think as John said, it's an everlasting covenant.

Now let's keep going. And the bow shall be in the cloud. And I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant which

I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. Now that's the first covenant.

It's a covenant that depends upon God and nothing else. Now we're going to go to the second covenant.

The covenant between God and the elect is the way I title this one.

You may title it different. It is the covenant given to Abraham.

But before we do that, I'm going to read something to you from Galatians just to make sure we understand.

Galatians 3 .16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.

He saith not to his seeds as of many, but as of one.

And to thy seed, which is Christ. Clearly it was

Abraham and Jesus to whom the promise was made. Now I'm going to ask you a question.

I was just going to tell you, but I'm going to ask you this. Does that promise extend to me and to you?

By what mechanism? By election?

By God? If you are elect, then what happens? If Jesus is residing in you, and because of Jesus in you, then we also inherit the promise made to Christ.

But it's only through Christ that we have access to this covenant.

Not even the born Jews had, not even the born seed of Abraham had a direct link to this promise.

Only Abraham and Jesus. Everybody else, this covenant was not to them.

They only inherited it from Jesus.

So clearly the promise was made to Abraham and to Jesus to whom the promise was made. Nevertheless, because all the elect are joint heirs with Jesus Christ, the promise made to Abraham's seed,

Jesus, extends to us all. Romans 8, 14.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, that's the elect. For as many as are led by the

Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have received the spirit of bondage again.

I'm sorry, I read that totally wrong. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again, to fear, but have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,

Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.

If so be we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. For I reckon that the suffering of this...

Paul was definitely Southern and probably Texan. Maybe not

Texan. Probably Southern. Because he said he was always satisfied with the state he was in.

A Texan is never satisfied unless he's in Texas. So Paul is only Southern. He's not

Texan. I'm sorry? Yeah, they know what reckoning is.

That's right. For I reckon... That got me off on that tangent. That's why we go so far in each one of these classes.

I get sidetracked. I'm easily distracted. But I can soon get back.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be received in us.

This covenant between God and his elect, like the covenant in Genesis, relies on the integrity of God and nothing else.

Thus, it is also valid now and for eternity. And that's a good thing.

Because it is also the covenant of grace by which all those who are to be redeemed are redeemed.

Or we can say, like the Baptists like to do, and like we like to do, once saved, always saved.

Right? That's one place we get this. Now, we want to go to the third covenant.

The third covenant is different. The third covenant makes some promises, but it also establishes some conditions.

This is the covenant described often as the giving of the law. This is the covenant between God and the

Israelites given to Moses. Unlike the covenants given to Noah and Abraham, the

Mosaic covenant is limited to Israel and is subject to the obedience of the

Israelites. So there's two things. I will do something if you do something.

It's a different kind of covenant. This is like a contract. I do my part, you do your part. I don't do my part, you don't get what you're contracting for.

It's a contract. And it's subject to the obedience of the Israelites.

Have the Israelites... Did the Israelites... Have the Israelites ever been totally obedient to this covenant?

Therefore, the covenant has not been totally implemented. The things that are promised have not been delivered because the conditions were not met.

Okay? It's not the fault of the one side of the bargain.

It's the fault of the other side. It wasn't the fault of God. It was the fault of the Israelites. Had they done what they contracted to do, they would have had what they were promised.

But they will eventually be totally obedient and therefore the contract will be totally implemented.

And when will that be? In the millennial kingdom. The promises guaranteed them will be fully implemented in the millennial kingdom.

Now, what are the conditions of this covenant? But as we go through these conditions, both the blessings and the curses, consider what is promised and what is not promised.

I'm going to give you a heads up. Nowhere in this covenant, in the conditions, is salvation or redemption even mentioned.

You might also do well to consider why that's so. So let's go back to Daniel 9, verse 24.

And we're talking about the 70 weeks on Israel.

Seventy weeks are determined upon by people and upon by Holy City to finish transgressions.

Now I want to ask you, was that promised in the Abrahamic covenant? As we go through the

Abrahamic covenant, not the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant.

As we go through the Mosaic covenant, I want you to consider, are these anywhere mentioned in His covenant?

This is Daniel talking about Israel. To finish transgressions, is that going to be promised in the

Mosaic covenant? To make an end to sin, what about that? To make reconciliation for the iniquity.

To bring an everlasting righteousness. To seal up the vision and the prophecies.

To anoint the most holy. All of that is yet to come. Now we're going to consider what is promised in this covenant in the

Mosaic covenant. We'll find that in Deuteronomy. Yes, sir.

Some of that is talking about Jesus coming and fulfilling, but let me ask you this.

Did that make an end to sin? Did it stop sin from happening?

It didn't stop sin from happening. What you're telling me is that He gave a target for the punishment for this sin to land upon rather than us.

Right? I mean, He is standing in our stead. This is talking about Jesus.

Part of this is talking about Jesus and His coming. And that's in Daniel.

And maybe I created a problem when I brought that in right before. But I wanted to look at some things in the

Mosaic covenant that are not going to be mentioned. Okay? That's what

I was really looking for. Are any of these things which we just mentioned end of finished transgression, end of sin, reconciliation for iniquity, everlasting righteousness, no more visions, no more prophecies, anoint the most holy.

That's part of Daniel's prophecy. Is that part of this covenant?

Let's look at it and see. Deuteronomy 11, starting at verse 13. I wanted to start here because it gives us the magic word.

If. If, which will mean, if you do this, then this will happen.

And let's see what, let's see what, when the rich young ruler went to the king, went to Jesus and asked

Him, what can I do to, to, to, inherit everlasting life?

What Jesus told him is, essentially there's nothing you can do. There was nothing He's ever promised you to do.

He misread the law. He thought if he followed the law, he would get something that was never promised in the law.

What I want to do is consider exactly what was promised in the law and what was not promised in the law.

Because one of the things that we do is, we try to give power to the law that the law doesn't have.

There's nothing in the law that can be done that will give you any of these things that were mentioned.

There's only two things it can give you. Actually three. Two good ones and one bad one. We're going to go through them and list them as we go.

We're going to say, here's what will happen. And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto my commandments, which

I command you this day, to love your Lord, your God, and to serve

Him with all of your heart and all of your soul. Well, that's one of the things that they were to do.

To love, to serve Him, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all of your heart and with all of your soul.

I'm going to ask the question, did they? And then I'm going to ask the second question on top of it. Could they have?

And the answer to those are both no. The answer to those are both no. No, they didn't do it and no, they couldn't have.

It was not in them to do it. Here's what He promises them, though, if they do.

That I will give you the rain of your land in its new season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather thy corn and thy wine and thy oil.

And I will send grasses in the fields for thy cattle that thou mayest eat and be full.

So, to sum up the first promise, what was the first promise? A prosperous land.

If you will do these things, I'll give you a prosperous land to live in. That's what was promised.

Not salvation, not redemption, not restoration of the glory of God to Jesus.

None of these things were promised by doing what they did. What were they promised?

A prosperous land. Verse 16. Take heed to yourself that your heart be not deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.

Well, my question, were they deceived? Did they serve other gods?

Were every one of them deceived? I think the answer to that is yes, but I'm not going to argue with you.

Did they all serve other gods? I'm not sure about that one.

I'm not even sure about Solomon. We know that Solomon allowed his wife to worship other gods. He tolerated other gods.

David. But now I'm sure about Ahab. I mean, they're ones that I'm sure of.

Most of them were deceived and most of them served other gods. At least for a while.

There comes a time when idolatry ceases to be the problem in Israel.

At least the worship of an overt other god. They sometimes worship things other than God that were their gods, but they didn't recognize were gods.

Take heed to yourself that your heart not be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.

And then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you. And He shut up the heavens that there be no rain and that the land yield not her fruit unless you perish quickly from off the good land which the

Lord hath given you. The summation, the first curse. What's the first curse? A desolate land.

A land where it doesn't rain in its season. A land where you not have grass for your cattle and water for your crops.

A desolate land. Verse 18. Therefore shall thou lay up these my words in your hearts and in your souls and bind them for a sign upon your hand that they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

And you shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up.

And thou shall write them on the doorpost of thine house and upon thy gates that your days be multiplied and the days of your children in the land which the

Lord swore unto your fathers to give them as the days of heaven upon the earth.

Now, they did pretty well with regard to this. They did write the commandments on their wrist.

They did put the little thing in their forehead. They did teach their children.

And when did they teach their children? I thought that was interesting.

They didn't say send them off to school and have somebody else teach them. They said, teach your children, speaking to them when thou sittest down in your house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up.

So when is that? Every time you're with your child, you should be teaching him. Now, in this modern day, we have schools and we have places where we can go and rest assured that they be not taught false things.

That's one of the virtues of this church and of the school associated with it.

And there's other places where they can go. But that does not release you from the obligation that it's your responsibility to teach your child when he gets up in the morning, when he goes to bed at night, when you walk with him along the path, when you're going down the road by the side of the way and the water is running through and the rocks are floating down the river.

That's a time to teach your child. When you take him to the rocket launching is a time to teach your child.

Every time you're with them is a time to teach them. Well, if you do all this, what are you promised?

To sum it up, a long tenure in the land. A long life probably individually and a long stay in the land.

That's what this is about. Tenure in the land. For if thou shalt diligently keep all these commandments which

I commend you to do them to love the Lord your God, to walk in all of His ways, and to cleave unto

Him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you.

And you shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours.

Then he lists what it is. From the wilderness and Lebanon. From the river, and just in case you get confused about what river.

The river Euphrates. That's in the middle of Iraq. Is that the eastern or the western river?

It's the western fork. The eastern is Tigris. I think that's right.

But it's the border of Iraq. I'm sorry?

Euphrates is west. Okay. It's from the western side of Iraq to the

Mediterranean. That promise would be that they would occupy all the land.

That would be all the land from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. And from the wilderness, that's the

Sinai Desert, up to Lebanon in the north. My question is, has that happened?

Have they ever occupied all that land? They didn't even occupy all of the land on the west side of the

Jordan River. But it will.

But not yet. Has it yet? Closest I think they ever came to occupying the land was during the tenure of Solomon.

But it will. 25. There shall be no man able to stand before you, for the

Lord your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that you shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.

Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse. A blessing if you obey the commandments of the

Lord your God, which I command you this day, and a curse if you will not obey the commandments of the

Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way, which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.

Well, there you have it. A blessing or a curse. I did this at first.

I said, which will they earn? And Diane and I had a long conversation about that word.

And I became convinced that I needed to change the word from earned because that's more a product of my time when

I think of things that you get because you work for them. Or they're given to me.

In my day, there were two things you could have. Something somebody gave you or something you worked for and earned.

So I thought earned was a good word. And she said, well, you need to kind of think about that a little bit.

We've gone past the age of working to get something. And so I changed it to a better word.

I think. You tell me what you think. Which did they deserve? Let me preface this a little bit.

You go down the street and you find a 25 -year -old person. And you say, do you think you have earned the right to free health care?

And they will say, no, but I deserve it. Because every person deserves certain fundamental things.

I deserve free health care. I deserve a job. Whether I work for it,

Virgil, or whether I hide in the den and play video games. I'm not talking about Virgil.

I'm talking about the story he told me. Just so you know. There is on this land now a new perception, not a perception of things that are given to you and things we earn, but things were given to you, things we earn, and things we deserve.

So I changed it. Which did they deserve? Well, what did they deserve? They all deserve the curse.

None of them deserve eternal life. And they got it. They all lived in a cursed world.

But that doesn't mean that the Lord cursed them all. There was a remnant that he blessed.

John, did he bless them because they deserved it? Did he bless them because they earned it?

Well, see, we all had no problem with that one. No, we didn't earn it. But more than that, we didn't deserve it.

Why did he bless them rather than curse them?

Because he loved them. And why did he love them? Not because they were prettier than anybody else.

Because he loved them. He loved them. And because he loved them, he blessed them. And because he blessed them, he preserved them.

Nothing to do with them, everything to do with him. And that's the difference between earning and blessing.

That's the difference between work or in the new world, what you deserve and what he gives you as a result of his free love for you.

Grace. Grace is not earning something. Grace is not deserving something.

Grace is being given something you don't deserve. Okay. But because God in his infinite mercy chose to save some.

Now, I've got another question here. I put a period and gave you an error marker.

Let me change that to a question quickly so that green marker goes away. Do you think any of this surprised

God? It was his plan.

What part of this plan are we talking about right now? The fact that,

Brother David, I started not to do this and I'm going to go ahead and do it anyhow. I'm going to steal a thought from you, but I'm not going to expand on it.

If you're dealing with this today, I apologize to you. He didn't put all of these blessings, all of these things in a cup of gold.

He put it in an earthen vessel. He put all of these blessings that he gave to us in a structure of dishonor.

An earthen vessel. Why do you think

God made us an earthen vessel?

Not a vessel of gold. So that it would be understood to be his glory, not ours.

Okay, that's far enough afield. Back to Deuteronomy 29.

And it shall come to pass when the Lord thy God hath brought thee into the land where thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put thy blessing upon the

Mount Gerizim and a curse upon Mount Elba. Are they not on the other side?

Jordan, by the way, where the sun goeth down, and in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the

Champaign, over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Marah.

For ye shall pass over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the Lord your God has given you, and ye shall possess it and dwell therein.

And the question then is, well, did they possess all the land that the Lord gave them? And the answer is no.

Did they have an opportunity to possess that land? But they made bad choices, didn't they?

Choices are important. Choices are important. Choices will be rewarded and choices will be punished.

They could have chose to enter the land. They could have chosen to trust the

Lord. They could have occupied all the land that the Lord promised them.

Did they? No. Why didn't they? Because they were flawed earthen vessels.

Did that surprise the Lord? No. He knew it all the time. Choices do matter.

And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.

That's the extent of the blessings and that's the extent of the curses. No more and no less.

They were never promised redemption. They were never promised salvation. They were never promised the glorification of themselves.

They were never promised the glorification of Jesus. They were never promised all these things that the rich young ruler thought was in his future if he would obey the laws.

What was in his future if he obeyed the laws and everyone else? That they would occupy the land and it would be a prosperous land.

That's all. Now, were we given promises of all these other things?

We were given them in Daniel. We're given them in a lot of places, but not here and not now.

And that's one of the reasons why you can't rely on the law to give you things.

And, in fact, the law never promised you. If you did all these things, you didn't get any of that. Yes, sir?

Okay, let me see if I understand. If I were an Israelite and if I and everybody like me had obeyed the law,

I and all the people like me would have occupied the land, right? And it would be a prosperous land.

I think that the promise was there even for those that he would not have chosen to bless.

I think that's right. I think I agree with you. I just want to make sure that I was answering the right question.

He knew that it was impossible for them to obey the law.

But had they obeyed the law, he would have kept his promise. I'm sorry?

The law is perfect. The law is perfect, but even if you—and here's the thing. But, okay, and we can't do it.

But even if we could, what would we gain? A prosperous land.

A long life and a prosperous land. Not anything else. That has nothing—that is in no—the salvation, the redemption, the glorification of you, the glorification of God, all of these things, you're not promised by keeping the law, only that you will dwell in a prosperous land.

You are totally right. It's cooked into—it's cooked in, isn't it? That not only—it's a condition made that they can't keep.

Well, do you think it's fair for God to create a condition that you can't keep?

Oh, all right. Yes, it is. Or springtime in Fort Worth.

Yeah. Now, I think we've got just enough time to do the counterfeit covenant.

And so we won't get into the crown. Finally, we arrive at the counterfeit covenant.

The covenant between the prince that shall come and those that dwell on the earth.

I quoted a little passage out of Revelation to just to kind of give you a reason for why

I picked this particular phrase, to be the people of Revelation 3, verse 10. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience,

I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon the world, to try them which dwell upon the earth, to test them that will dwell on the earth.

I want to call them earth dwellers. This is a covenant between the coming prince, the prince that shall come, the

Antichrist, and the nations, the earth dwellers. This covenant relies—and

I used this word in Diana, also kind of a proud name when I said this, but I said, it's true.

So I kept this one. It relies on the integrity of Satan, to be what he is,

I guess. And therefore, it is valid for about as long of a period of time as you would expect it to be valid.

All the other covenants relied on the integrity of God. Two of them on the integrity of God and nothing else.

One of them on the integrity of God and what you did. And they were, and could have been, eternal covenants, had man done his part on the one.

Eternal in the other two. But this one is depending upon the integrity of Satan.

It turns out to be three and a half years. It is valid only until the

Antichrist violates his agreement and ushers in the last three and a half years of what is more properly called the

Great Tribulation. And that will happen with the opening of the second seal and the appearance of the

Red Horse. Now the question is, should it be a surprise that the Antichrist violates his agreement?

John said, He said, So, the

Antichrist lays out an illusion. What is the illusion? Peace, prosperity, and an abundant life.

But there is a reality. War, poverty, and death. One other thing that I would like to consider before I wrap it up.

Christ speaking to the Pharisees said this, The rider of the white horse or at least is or is controlled by the

Antichrist or the Prince that shall come. We read this already.

And after three score and two years shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself. And the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.

He destroys the city. He destroys the sanctuary. And yet he is the one that the

Pharisees will receive. His career as a ruler begins as a peacemaker with the covenant of peace with Israel.

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease for the overspreading of the abominations and he shall make it desolate.

So it's interesting that when the

Messiah came, the Jewish people did not receive him.

The Pharisees did not receive him. But when Antichrist comes back, they take him right to heart.

They believe him. They accept him. And behold a white horse and he that sat on him had a bow and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer.

Next week we're going to deal with the crown but for this week I'm going to simply say what kind of crown was it?

It was a Stephanos, a crown given to the victor of a contest. What was the contest?

The war leading up to the establishment of the counterfeit covenant. Not a diadem.

Christ will wear a diadem, crown of the reigning sovereign monarch.

Who gave this crown to the Antichrist? In one sense

God did. But he also did so through the desires of the nations and people chasing after the illusion of peace and prosperity offered by Satan and the

Antichrist. Now the Antichrist has been revealed and the people flock to him just like Jesus said they would.

Because another will come in his own name and him you will receive. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and thank you for all our many blessings.