SNBS - Revelation Part 11 - The Anti Christ Part Deux

Right here. It is that blank page before Genesis. That's my favorite page in the whole

Bible. You may ask, Josiah, why is that your favorite page? There's none of God's words on it.

I'll tell you why. Good evening and welcome to Sunday Night Bible Study with Pastor Josiah Shipley of Witten Baptist Church.

Excited to be continuing the book of Revelation with you. This is part 11. We're still in chapter 13.

We should finish chapter 13 today. Next week we'll be in chapter 14.

Today we're going to finish with the Antichrist. Remember, the

Antichrist already appeared in chapter 11. Actually, maybe chapter 6. But already appeared in chapter 11.

Remember, he's the one that kills the two witnesses and then performs the abomination of desolation where he sits in the temple and declares himself to be

God. Revelation 13 is kind of like one of those flashback episodes from those

TV shows where they introduce a new character in like season 2 and then at the end of season 4 they'll do like a character development flashback of how that story came to be.

How that character came to be. That's what Revelation 13 is. It's a flashback, if you will, of how this

Antichrist came to be. Remember, he will be present during the first three and a half years of the

Great Tribulation but he will not be revealed at least it appears until that three and a half years when he kills the two witnesses.

Now, when he is revealed that's when his hype man, if you will, the false prophet starts enforcing the

Mark of the Beast so on and so forth. We'll get more to the

Mark of the Beast in a minute. I want to catch you up on who the Antichrist is, who the false prophet is, the blasphemies they do, then we'll talk about the

Mark of the Beast and then we'll talk about election. Alright, you ready? First off, the

Antichrist we already went over his titles last week. If you didn't watch last week's episode that would be very helpful if you'd go back and watch last week's episode part 10 all the names we had on the board.

So, the Antichrist is the beast in Revelation. Remember, the dragon is Satan the first beast is the

Antichrist or the man of lawlessness or the performer of the abomination of desolation or the little horn or, you know, there's about 12 names for him, so on and so forth.

He's working through the power of Satan and remember, the whole world marvels at him.

The whole world marvels at him. He doesn't start slaying and murdering until after he kills the two witnesses.

The whole world marvels at him. And his job is not to be Antichrist but to be another

Christ to be a substitute if you will. And we'll get to that with the blasphemies in a minute.

The second beast in verse 11 verse 11 of chapter 13 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon it exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose mortal womb was healed it performs great signs even making fire come down from heaven in front of people.

Verse 14 And by the signs it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on the earth telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and lived it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast might even speak it might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain it causes all, both great and small rich and poor, slave and free to be marked on the right hand of the forehead so no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark that is the name of the beast or the number of its name this calls for wisdom let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for the number of a man and his number is 666 6 ok and the false prophet guys so this second beast for the rest of revelation is called the false prophet so let's look at it again we have the dragon which is satan we have the antichrist which is the first beast we have the false prophet which they call the second beast and then there is an image made of the beast, the first beast ok this image we don't know what it is, we could say it's a statue we could say it could be something with technology we don't know but whatever it is, at some point the hype man, the false prophet is going to breathe life into it so let's pretend it's a statue the bible says in verse 13 that the false prophet who

I call the antichrist hype man because his job is just to hype up the antichrist make him popular, make everyone worship him that false prophet is going to breathe life into this

I'm going to call it a statue for now and that statue is going to talk right, creepy now the antichrist it's the dragon which is satan the antichrist which is the first beast and the false prophet you see how they are trying to make a mockery of the trinity right, that's one blasphemy also

Jesus Christ was resurrected the antichrist seemed to have a mortal wound that was healed

Elijah called fire from heaven in 1st Kings 18 and so here the false prophet is trying to perform signs that mimic those of the prophets and of God remember in the

Shema, Deuteronomy 6 Shema Yisrael Yahweh Elohim, Yahweh Echad, my

Hebrew is not great, Hero Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one um and remember that you will love the

Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength um, you will write these laws on your hand or in the front lens of your eyes, on your forehead it will be with you when you lie down, get up, so on and so forth so notice when

God figuratively was speaking of memorizing the Bible, He said it will write on your hand or on your forehead notice where the mark of the beast is on your right hand or on your forehead making a mockery of the

Shema um now here's a great question someone asked in the in -person

Bible study, and by the way if, a lot of you can't because you don't even live in Memphis, if you can make it to the in -person

Bible studies, they're pretty great sometimes I can explain things a little better in person, I know

I'm not perfect on here, I do my best someone said,

Josiah, do you think it's possible for a Christian to accidentally take the mark of the beast?

The way I read Revelation 11, 12, 13, and 14 doesn't make that seem very likely to me.

I think it will be a clear choice between God or not God, between Jesus or Antichrist, between staying faithful or falling away.

The reason I say that is because chapter 14 which I know we're getting to next week, says three angels are going to fly overhead and the third one says

Revelation 14, 9 if anyone worships the beast or the image or receives a mark on his forehead or his hand, he will drink the wine of God's wrath so the angel is going to give us a warning you know, there's a lot of talk guys about what this mark of the beast could be could it be a vaccine could it be a you know a microchip, guys you want me to tell you the truth?

I don't know and neither does anyone else okay here's what the

Bible does say verse 17 no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark that is the name of the beast or the number of his name okay, calculate the beast for the number of man and his number is 666 we talked about this before 7 is

God's number, the number of perfection man is always short of that so you can't do business without this mark at some point you won't be able to do business without this mark so then the only people you'll be able to count to survive will be the other people who didn't take that mark now, as far as the timeline of this, it appears to me that this mark where the false prophet kills

Christians who don't take it, this mark doesn't happen until after he's revealed so here's everything that would happen before this would be forced on you the two witnesses would be killed the antichrist would sit on the temple in Jerusalem and declare himself to be

God yes, I realize there's no temple there right now but there will be again um, the false prophet will make an image and breathe life to it and will speak and say, worship him okay, by the way the rapture has already happened um,

I don't think there's going to be any, oh I wonder if this is it I think it's going to be a very clear choice of life or death, of God or not

God that's how I read it remember, in my view the rapture happened in Revelation 4 so you may ask yourself okay

Josiah, then who are these Christians that refuse to bow down um in verse 15, and that are killed remember guys people can still get saved after the rapture people can still get saved after the rapture excuse me there will always be a remnant always, no matter how dark things have been in history

God has always reserved for himself 7000 who will not bow their knee to Baal always there will always be a remnant, there will always be a people of God who will stand up and say there is one

God and one mediator between God and man Jesus himself human who gave himself a ransom fall, a testimony at the proper time there will always be a remnant who believes in Yahweh and trusts him you know, whenever persecution hits the church yes, it's bad but one good thing does happen a refining, a purifying of God's church so that those that are left you know you can trust them because there will be no more fake social

Christians there will be no more white upper middle class, suburban

Christians who are only there for a social club and not there for really life change because it will cost you something

Christian, it already does in a lot of the world, and it will here too so that the only people left and it may not be in a church building like this because it may be in hiding, but the only people left are people that you can trust because it costs them their lives to say that Jesus is the

Lord it's a call for endurance it's a call for love it's a call to be united with one mind and one spirit, we don't have time to be divided over silly theologies anymore guys stand true on the word of God and love each other this is why the church is so important,

I'm not talking about the stupid building, I mean the people that God bought because one day love each other is all we're going to have and you know what?

God said it's going to happen so bring it, it's part of his plan okay one more thing here

Revelation 13 8 and all who dwell on the earth will worship it meaning the antichrist everyone, except everyone whose name so everyone will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the

Lamb who was slain there's one group of people excuse me, there's one group of people who do not worship it one group and it's

Christians real Christians I don't mean pretend Christians real Christians and they are described here as the ones whose name has been written in the

Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world and I'm going to end on this point my favorite page in the entire bible my favorite page in the entire bible is hold on,

ESV has 20 pages of intro right here it is that blank page before Genesis that's my favorite page in the whole bible you may ask

Josiah, why is that your favorite page? there's none of God's words on it I'll tell you why

I'm going to read 2 Timothy 1 verse 9 God saved us and called us to a holy calling not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began let me read that again he saved us and called us to a holy calling not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began your bible may say before times eternal back down to Revelation 13 it says your name was written in the

Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world so before the foundation of the world before time began when

I read Genesis 1 Genesis 1 it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth this says he chose me and loved me before time before the world began well that's before Genesis 1 you see

I can't even say that God's loved me since he wrote Genesis because that's not early enough this says in the beginning but 2

Timothy he said he loved me before time began in the beginning is a time stamp here before any of this happened in Genesis before there was a heaven and earth when it was just God he loved me this little blank page reminds me of that that even before all of this he loved me here ladies and gentlemen you did not find

Jesus Jesus found you you only loved him because he first loved us Revelation 13 8 reminds me of that because it says that your name was written in the

Lamb's book of life from before the foundation of the world your name was written it was sealed in that book before he said let there be your name was in that book when you are saved you are saved past present and future

John 5 24 says truly truly I say unto you anyone who hears my words and believes unto him who sent me has eternal life right now and will not come into judgment but has already passed from death to life you have been saved past present and future your name has been written in the

Lamb's book of life from before the foundation of the world but Josiah we have to endure we have to be faithful yes you do but I am sure of this that he who started the good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus I know whom

I believe in I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day you have been saved by God and God will lose none of those that have come to him even in the severest persecution they will all reach heaven by his will all of them and nothing that Satan the antichrist the false prophet the image or all the world power combined can do to stop that remember that as persecution comes more and more with our brothers and sisters around the world who already experienced that remember that our sovereign

God has a plan and nobody and nothing can thwart that plan I love you guys very much

I hope this was somewhat of a blessing to you and yeah tune in the rest of the week don't forget

Tuesday night bible study don't forget Thursday night wow moment