Bible In A Year - Revelation (part 3)

Revelation chapter 7, and after these things I saw four

angels standing on the four corners of the earth holding the four winds of the earth that the wind should

not blow on the earth nor on the sea nor on any tree and I saw another

angel ascending from the east having the seal of the Living God and he cried with a loud voice to the four

angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth in the sea saying hurt not the earth neither the sea nor

the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

I also thought about entitling this particular section the good guys and the bad guys

because we're going to discuss chapter 7 and then

chapters 11 12 and 13 and we are going to look at

groups of people first of all who survive the tribulation.

The question does come up are there believers on earth during the tribulation period and the answer to that is yes there are

but that raises the question who are they and where did they come from.

Because you remember that the the tribulation is

triggered off by the rapture of the church at which point

Jesus Christ appears in the air and his church is caught up

to meet him in the air.

Yes Daniel?

That's a good question and yeah we're going to address that a little bit.

Basically the question was can people who heard the gospel before the rapture but didn't get saved

can they get saved after the rapture.

And so well we'll hit that just a little bit because the question is asked in

chapter 7 who is able to stand with all of this is going to get poured out upon the earth and all the disasters that are

going to be poured out upon the earth plus the fact that Satan is given an even freer reign that he has

now and all of the the demon hordes that have been leashed up to

this point are suddenly unleashed and who can stand against all of that.

And so there are two groups of people that are talked about now

the rapture occurs the church is taken out now in case you missed it at that

point there is not a single believer not a single saved person on earth

because if they were saved they were raptured and they're all gone.

So what happens.

Well chapter 7 talks about two groups of people.

First are the hundred and forty four thousand now who are the hundred and forty four thousand.

Well first of all they are not the people that belong to the Jehovah's Witnesses all.

Right.

You probably knew that already but I thought I'd throw that out there anyway

chapter 7 speaks of 144 ,000 Jewish evangelists.

Now in some way God is going to work in the lives

of 144 ,000 very specific number of Jewish men

who are going to be his evangelists.

And at least one speculation for how is this going to be done.

I mean God is perfectly capable of presenting his gospel to individuals and working in their hearts and bringing

them to salvation.

One pastor friend of ours speculated that perhaps we're going to have a hundred and forty four thousand Damascus Road

experiences.

Who knows however this.

However it's accomplished this is done and these individuals are sealed.

And so the contrast that is presented in in chapter 7 is the contrast.

But those who survive the wrath of God that is the believers and those who don't survive

unbelievers which are also referred to as those that dwell upon the earth.

That's a expression used to mean unbelievers.

But that God can preserve his people.

God always has his remnant.

God always has his remnant.

Even when Elijah was so down and he said you know this is this is rational thinking for you.

Right.

He said God they're all gone.

Everyone's gone you know and only I'm left and I think you should kill me.

And you can imagine God saying yes Elijah.

That's a great plan.

We can really get behind that.

But no God says no Elijah you're not the last one.

I still have my my thousands that haven't bowed the knee to bail yet.

And God always has his remnant.

God always is in control.

God can always preserve his Saints in times of trouble all through the Psalms all through the Old Testament all through the

New Testament.

That's a that's a recurring theme.

And so what's happening here.

Well first of all there's a period of time.

Chapter 7 is sort of a parenthesis in the in the narrative that John is relating

and wrath is restrained.

It says these four angels that it refers to are holding back the winds and in this case wind is

often symbolic of God's wrath.

And so they're basically being told hold up a minute wait a minute because

we're going to have these hundred and forty four thousand evangelists hundred and forty four thousand evangelists and we're going to seal

them.

We're going to put a seal.

A fifth angel comes carrying the seal of the king if you will the royal seal.

And he seals these individuals it says in their foreheads.

And there's been a lot of speculation probably to not a lot of use about what that form that seal takes.

Is it visible.

Is it only visible to each other.

It's it's on and on that's really irrelevant.

The point is that God seals and preserves these individuals and their job is to go out

through the entire world it says to the entire world

evangelizing preaching the gospel.

And so there's 12 ,000 from every tribe so that's a hundred and forty four thousand from the tribes of

Israel.

And as we pointed out before right now no Israelite no Jew really knows

what tribe they're from because those records were all destroyed in 70 AD.

But God knows God knows his people God knows who they belong to and God

is not through with Israel by it by any means now the the

question is can people who heard the gospel who

heard the gospel before the rapture get saved after the rapture.

All right.

At this point we can no longer we cannot be dogmatic at this

point.

There's lots of discussion that goes on because these a lot of these things are not spelled out.

But I will say this God's elect are God's elect throughout all of human

history and it is God who determines in his sovereignty

who is it who is elect.

And when an individual person is going to be saved and under what

circumstances and at what time.

Because yes we are saved from the foundation of the world our names are written in the Lamb's Book of

Life from before the foundation of the world or in eternity past.

Nevertheless our lives intersect the plan of God in time.

And so there is a specific point at which God works a work of grace in our lives.

We are regenerated.

We believe and repent or repent and believe if you want to reverse the order

and we are saved and that has to occur.

And so God determines all of this now.

And this is this is where we started to get a little dangerous.

I almost have you shut that recording off at this point because when we start speculating but to to

me personally it stands to reason that there will be some individuals who've

heard the gospel they have rejected up to this point.

Then the rapture occurs and they're going to say whoa

old what's his name that I was talking to he must he was right he was right.

You know all of a sudden all my Christian friends that I've been mocking are suddenly gone.

They all disappeared at the same time and again it

stands to me personally it stands to reason that some of them

will cry out to God for mercy at that point.

Now if they're saved at that point are they members of the church.

No they're tribulation Saints.

And again I cannot be dogmatic about this.

I can't pound on the on the pulpits which is why I'm standing down here.

But that's my that's my personal viewpoint on that and it's not shared by every by

every biblical scholar out there.

I'll say that I haven't got more time to go on that because we have to talk about the tribulation Saints

segwaying into that.

That's the second group of people that are referred to tribulation Saints and we see them

largely in heaven because there's these hundred and forty four thousand evangelists go out

and the Bible says there's going to be a great response worldwide from every tribe and nation.

It will be global in scope it will be very rapid because as we've commented

before after the rapture there's going to be a very a large number of a very scared people out there

wondering what's happened.

Some of them will realize what's happened.

The majority of them won't realize what's happened except they know.

Some great event has taken place now something very unusual has taken

place.

And here come these evangelists.

And of course now in the modern age we have the tools at hand to do

worldwide evangelism on a very short notice.

There's no point at which now the the coverage of the of the

satellites in orbit doesn't reach on more than one occasion I had the the

experience of driving out on some totally desolate totally forgotten highway in

Iraq.

And you come upon some tent and outside the tent is a camel two donkeys and a satellite dish.

Right.

And so the means are available now for for worldwide

evangelism.

And that's going to take place.

And Israel is going to be the witness nation as they were supposed to be in the first

place Israel was supposed to be the witness nation and

they didn't do it.

But now they will.

They've got this hundred and forty four thousand evangelists and the gospel will be preached to the whole world.

That's Matthew 24 14.

But John sees a great multitude in heaven very large beyond

numbering is that is what he's referring to.

And these are distinct from the hundred and forty four thousand.

And who are these people.

They're from every tribe and tongue that they it transcends transcends all national

barriers all cultures.

And they're in white robes.

And who are these people.

They are identified as martyrs people who were martyred during the tribulation period.

Because most of these Saints most of these people who believed during the tribulation will be killed for their

faith.

Not every last one of them but the majority of them.

And yet they to escape the wrath of the Lamb if you will.

You said how can you say they escape.

They're dead.

No true.

Their physical bodies have died.

But they're in heaven.

They were taken.

They get to stand before the Lamb praising him.

They are not part of the ones that were subjected to the wrath on a on the

eternal basis.

And so we see them there before the throne and they're praising the Lamb with a loud voice.

And they're praising for vengeance.

That they're praying for vengeance.

And vengeance has certainly become as started on earth.

And they're associated with the angelic hosts.

And they're associated with the elders who represent the church.

They are also associated with the four living creatures the four cherubim.

And everybody is doing the same thing.

They're all worshiping the Lamb.

That's where they are.

And so during the great tribulation large numbers will indeed be saved

because God works when he will and where he will.

And they're they're washed in the blood.

They have a spiritual cleansing that goes on.

And what is their function.

Their function is service.

They're to praise.

They're to serve.

They are fit to stand in God's presence.

And so they are provided for they don't hunger

anymore.

They don't thirst anymore.

They were hungry on earth.

They were thirsty on earth.

They are free of the scorching heat that's been afflicting the earth.

Jesus leads them and there's no more pain and suffering for those people.

There's no more tears for those people.

So there they are.

And they're worshiping the Lamb.

Now we have to rush along here.

I'm sorry that but if you do have questions stick your hands up.

The the two witnesses are the next thing.

We skip ahead.

Skipping ahead to chapter 11 again.

God always preserves a remnant.

And these are two witnesses that are referred to specifically.

Yes Daniel.

Yes.

The only way you can get saved is to be born again.

That applies because what happens.

Every person that's ever been born is born.

How in sin fallen nature.

You must be regenerate.

You must be regenerated before you will repent and believe.

The Bible says you repent and believe.

If you come to Jesus you will be accepted.

You will be saved.

But you won't unless you are first regenerated.

A work of grace must be worked in your life.

So yes they are born again now.

They're not members of the church.

The church.

The church goes from Pentecost to the rapture.

All of you are members of the church the body of Christ.

Saints that existed before Pentecost.

Let's let's rephrase that Saints that died before Pentecost are not members of the church.

Saints that that are saved during the tribulation are not members of the church.

We're a special group.

We're a special group.

Just like we're not part of Israel either.

You know Israel is God's earthly people.

And they're separate.

Yes Peggy it's

equal.

In what sense.

We're all saved by grace.

We're all sinners saved by grace.

Yes

there.

Yep.

Well I see what you're asking.

There are differences in in our relationships.

There are special relationships.

The church is referred to as the by as the Bride of Christ.

Old Testament Saints tribulation.

Saints are not referred to as the Bride of Christ.

So there are unique relationships.

Not that one is superior to the other but different.

But there are differences.

Okay plowing ahead here.

Two witnesses these are special individuals.

They have been grounded special power and authority.

And they are to also preach the message primarily of judgment and salvation.

The hundred and forty four thousand are preaching a message of salvation.

These guys are preaching a message of judgment salvation too but largely judgment.

And why are there two of them.

Well that's what's required under there under the Old Testament law to establish anything you have to have at least two witnesses.

Two or three witnesses.

And so they're going to preach for three and a half years one thousand two hundred and sixty days which is three and a half

years of three hundred and sixty days of peace.

Keep that in mind the Old Testament the Bible when it uses the term year he's talking Jewish

years.

And the Jewish years were 360 days long.

So they start preaching just prior to the midpoint of the tribulation.

And they preach to just before the seventh trumpet sounds.

Remember we went through all the judgments.

Will they preach basically in the second half of the tribulation and their identity

is uncertain.

There's been a lot of speculation about who they are.

It is certainly possible it is defensible that they are Moses and Elijah.

They are like Moses and Elijah.

They have some of the same characteristics that Moses and Elijah had.

And certainly in in under the Jewish culture

Jews are looking for Moses and Elijah to reappear before Messiah comes.

And so you remember that that Jesus actually said of John if you will accept

it this was the prophets but this was Elijah who's supposed to come.

So anyway it could be Moses and Elijah it might not be whoever these men are they

are protected.

They're set aside and they prophesy.

They preach they proclaim.

And they have great power.

They they have great powers that they can use for self -defense.

They can work miracles of their own.

And all of this is designed to attract attention to their message.

But the the world ruler the Antichrist the beast arises he is empowered by Satan himself

and he is capable.

He manages to overcome and kill the two witnesses at least temporarily.

And as the Bible goes on about this their bodies are left unburied.

That's a mark of contempt.

Their bodies are to lie in the streets.

And there's this worldwide celebration.

Because isn't it a characteristic of human beings that when someone comes along telling us something we

don't want to hear our first reaction is to kill the messenger that happens

in business all the time.

Doesn't it guys you know if you have to tell the boss bad news find somebody else to

go tell him.

You know you don't go tell him yourself whatever.

So there's a worldwide celebration because at the the the Antichrist

has managed to overcome these two people that were telling us things we didn't want to hear.

So obviously they must be false so they must be wrong.

And you know happy times are here again let the good times roll even though more and

more disaster has been befalling the earth at every turn.

And so what happens a few days later.

They come to life while the cameras are still focused on them.

They're laying in the streets of Jerusalem and they come to life.

And they ascend into heaven because there's this big voice that comes down out of the sky

and and calls them calls them up.

And you know if people were not nervous before they certainly are after that it says great fear comes upon the whole

world.

And there's another great earthquake.

And those believers which are still you know trying to survive on the

earth to them this is great an occasion for great glory

because God has again intervened in the lives of his people.

And so what else is happening is as this goes on

the who else are the principal characters.

We're actually doing pretty well on the time thing.

Revelation chapter 12.

As we as we're going at a great pace here the principal characters that you see in the book of Revelation

other than Jesus Christ who is the principal character.

Of course the there are.

First of all there are.

There's a woman spoken of in chapter 12.

This woman is symbolic of Israel and

like all symbols it points to a literal reality.

Now just to comment in general the book of Revelation is full of symbolic things.

In some cases it's simply John doing the best he can to describe what is

essentially indescribable.

He describes this great army.

He describes this great army that that assembles and I personally

see that as as a first century individual doing the

best he can to describe a modern mechanized army.

So there's a lot of symbology.

But those symbols all point to something literal to a literal reality.

We use the same hermeneutic in the book of Revelation as we've used through the rest of the Bible.

And we do make allowance for the use of symbolic language.

We make allowance for the use of allegory.

We essentially John is using language the way people use language all the time.

But we have to be careful and not dismiss the entire book of Revelation is oh it's just some great allegory because the

book of Revelation is not an allegory it's a it's a recording of actual events

that will take place.

And but here he describes Israel.

He uses Israel and he describes this woman who is Israel.

Now there are four symbolic women in the in the Bible the in the Old Testament

we have Jezebel who is both a real person an actual person and

a symbol Jezebel.

The name Jezebel evokes all kinds of things in your mind.

Doesn't it basically anything to do with paganism to do with evil to do with idol worship.

All of those things are evoked by the name Jezebel.

There are also the three women that are described in the book of Revelation.

First there is the harlot which is described in Revelation chapter 17 which is a symbol

a symbol of the apostate Church.

There's the the Israel the woman that we are referring to right now.

And there is also the Bride of Christ which is described in Revelation chapter 19 which is

us.

So anyway Israel literal reality.

Now this woman has an exalted status.

She is clothed with the she has the moon under her feet.

And she is described as being with child because

Messiah is supposed to come forth from Israel.

Right.

And Israel that this she's described as being in pain that birth pangs are upon her.

And Israel was certainly in pain at Messiah's first advent.

They did not recognize Messiah when he came the first time.

They did not accept Messiah when he came the first time.

But he's going to come again.

He's going to come again.

And this woman is attacked by the second great character that we see

in Revelation the dragon.

And anytime you see the reference to a dragon that's referring to Satan himself.

Now Satan is not a dragon but we all know what dragons are.

We've read about them when we were children and the stories that we read you know dragons are fierce beasts right.

And they can breathe fire and and do all of these things except for Barney right.

We'll skip that one.

But if you see a purple dragon whatever.

But anyway dragons are supposed to be terrifying they are there

are objects of great fear.

And so this one is also symbolic.

It's referred to as having first of all seven heads and seven crowns.

And there have been seven consecutive world empires Egypt to Syria Babylon Medo

-Persia Greece Rome and the final ten nation Confederacy that is spoken of in Revelation

the excuse me his empire extends into the

angelic realm as well because when said when when

Lucifer son of the morning rebelled he took one -third of the angelic host with him.

And if you ever wondered where do we get.

Where do we know.

How do we know that he took one -third of the angels.

This is where it comes from is from Revelation right here where it said it took a third of the stars it's a

third of the angelic host he took into his rebellion.

And throughout history his expended all of his efforts to thwart God's plans.

First he tried to corrupt the human race to the point that God sent the flood

in the days of Noah so that he wipes out the human race every last person

in it except for eight people and rebuilds.

From there he did everything he could to prevent Jesus first

advent.

And then when he couldn't prevent Jesus first advent he he

has him killed.

Now don't go too far with that because we all know that the death of Christ on the cross

was to achieve our salvation and it was by the by the plan of God that it took

place.

But nonetheless from Satan's point of view he thinks aha I've got him

you know.

And he discovers he doesn't.

And so he's still at it.

He's still trying to corrupt people.

He's still trying to to kill the child.

As we see again further in this chapter Israel

is in birth pangs and he is standing the dragon is standing by

to to slay the male child.

And yet the male child will rule.

He will be unsuccessful.

We are told that he will rule with a rod of iron with absolute justice with absolute equity

there will be justice on earth and equity on earth.

He will rule as king of kings and Lord of lords because a place of safety has been prepared

for believing Israel somewhere in the wilderness it's referred to.

And again going back to Matthew chapter 24 what did Jesus say when he's answering the question what will happen at

the end.

And when will these things be.

And he says when you see the abomination of desolation and I'll mention that further in a minute when you see

that get out of town and don't don't wait don't wait to pack

you know get out of Dodge right then and head for this place of safety wherever it is.

It has been speculated that perhaps that what we now know of

is as Petra would be one of the places I personally question that because for one thing

everybody knows where Petra is.

It's a it's in Israel.

It's in Jordan.

Fascinating place where a city's basically been carved out of the rocks.

Fascinating place to be if you ever get a chance to see it.

But at any rate Israel is protected.

She's nourished she's protected and she's preserved alive so that she can enter the Millennial Kingdom.

There have to be people alive on earth at the time when Jesus Christ comes back to populate and I mean believers

alive on earth when Jesus comes back to populate the Millennial Kingdom and so

Israel will be preserved.

No doubt Gentiles will be preserved too.

But this is the focus here is upon Israel.

What else is happening in and in Revelation that chapter 12.

There's a supernatural war that is described now.

There has been warfare in heaven from the beginning of human history.

It's gone on continuously but it's intensifying.

And there's a special battle it's about to be fought.

And the the the players are the participants in this great in this last battle if you will

are Michael and the holy angels against the dragon or Satan and the fallen angels.

And this is chapter 12 verses 7 and 8.

Now Michael is identified.

Michael is one of only two angels that are identified by name in the scripture the other ones Gabriel.

Michael has always been associated with the armies of heaven and he's always been

associated with the defense of Israel and the defense of Israelites.

The if you recall back in the book of Daniel Daniel prays.

And finally deliverance comes and the angel that comes to minister to Daniel.

What's he say.

He says I left heaven at the very hour that you started praying but I was resisted.

I was resisted and by in Daniel it says the prince of Persia.

But basically it means and Michael had to come and help me.

And Michael is also referred to as the one that wrestled over the body of Moses.

And so Michael is the is the the the four star general who's in charge of

heaven's armies and he's battling.

And Satan starts this battle that and like I said there's been war in heaven since

since the fall.

But this battle is a culmination.

And perhaps the rapture is what triggers this final battle.

Because when the rapture occurs I mean Satan is not dumb.

Satan knows his history.

Satan knows his Bible.

I would speculate he knows his Bible far better than we do.

And he knows that when the rapture occurs he doesn't have much time and so all sorts

of things are starting to to occur as the as the rapture triggers this off.

But the result the result is total defeat.

Satan and his angels are cast out of heaven.

Now up to now Satan under certain circumstances and with restrictions

is allowed to come before God's presence.

One of the his name means accuser right.

And one of the things he does is to appear before God and accuse us and accused

the Saints.

You remember from the book of Job it was Satan that came into God's presence

and accused Job.

He says oh yeah you know yeah Job is is loyal to you.

But that's because you know you've given him all this you know take it away and he'll and he'll curse you.

And he really thought that you know God was the only one in that

entire drama that knew what was going on.

And God was the only one in that entire drama that knew how it was going to come out before it started.

Job and his three friends didn't have a clue and Satan didn't understand either.

And so Satan has been able to come into God's presence.

He's allowed into God's presence to and he and he accuses us and

our defender if you will our advocate our lawyer is

Jesus Christ who stands also before the father saying no that

individual that's my that's my child.

I died for their sins.

They're righteous.

You've declared them righteous because of what I did.

But now at the culmination of this battle Satan and all of his minions are cast out of heaven.

They can no longer accuse the Saints.

They are no longer permitted to come before God's throne.

And where are they cast to.

They're cast to the earth as one as one commentator put it

heavens cleansings is Earth's pollution.

And so the demonic forces now gather on earth.

And if they were wrathful before they're super wrathful now because

again they arrive at the tribulation in the midpoint and no later than

the midpoint anyway perhaps even before that.

And they're going to vent their wrath upon those believers that

still exist on the earth in those days.

Now the first great expulsion if you want to read about it is in Isaiah.

Isaiah chapter 14 lo how thou art thou fallen Lucifer son of the morning where it describes

the the angelic rebellion.

But there he is.

But victory has taken place.

And a great victory celebration takes place in heaven and upon that time where

all of all of the all of creation celebrates if you will.

Because what's happening here is not just deliverance of of individuals

but the deliver the deliverance of God's creation as well because creation is also under the

curse and has been since since the fall.

And so victory in heaven will extend to victory on earth.

There's going to be a last battle on earth that we're going to talk about in two weeks.

But the basis for victory again in verses 10 and 10 and 10 to 12.

In chapter 12 the basis for victory is the blood of the Lamb.

He is the focus of the book of Revelation.

The book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And the purpose of the book of Revelation is not that we can speculate about bowls and trumpets and

seals and dragons and and on and on.

The purpose of Revelation is to reveal Jesus Christ and glory to us

to show us a preview of coming attractions if you will of the

conquering Christ.

Not the conquered Christ not the Christ hanging on the cross but the Christ

riding the white horse with his armies spread out behind him who is covering

coming to conquer.

And we should gather great great comfort and strength from that that

no matter how chaotic it appears to us now and no matter how much it appears

that the bad guys are winning they aren't.

This is the last chapter in the novel.

Get to the last chapter and see how it all comes out.

You know we win.

It's kind of like you know Ronald Reagan's foreign policy we win.

They lose.

Well Jesus could say the same thing.

What what's.

What's your policy.

Jesus.

I win he loses.

And that's what's happening.

And so at the end of this celebration there's also a final warning woe to the earth and

sea.

Why.

Because Satan is now come down to earth.

He's been cast down to earth.

That's his sphere of activity is now shrunk and so it's in within

that sphere it's going to get much much worse than it has been.

And he has great wrath and he knows his time is short.

Now we finish up in chapter 13 here with

the two principal bad guys besides Satan that we see on the earth.

That's why I thought about calling this the good guys versus the bad guys but decided not to.

This refers also to events that are recorded in Daniel 7 and 8.

But there are two individuals that arise at the during the tribulation period.

The first is referred to as the Beast.

It's also referred to as Antichrist.

Now the New Testament uses the term Antichrist in several places and we are warned

about Antichrist.

And in a one way of speaking anyone who opposes Jesus Christ and his program

and his message is an Antichrist against Christ.

And we might call them Antichrist with a small a but this is Antichrist with a capital a and

this is an individual he exceeds all the previous leaders

of history.

He is very appealing at least at first.

He is very charismatic and I'm referring to personal appeal here not that he speaks in

tongues although he does do that.

He's a very charismatic speaker.

He speaks very authoritatively.

He's just what the world has been looking for because remember that the Rapture took place

and all these people disappeared and it's total chaos because all kinds of natural disasters have been

occurring and man -made disasters have been occurring and wars are going on everywhere and

it's getting worse and worse and worse by the minute.

And so what are we looking for.

We're looking for somebody that can that can unify the earth and

make everything right and and settle everything down.

And here comes this individual who will be

extremely attractive.

He will be extremely attractive.

I assume that it that includes physical attraction as well as being able to speak.

We have examples in the in our history of individuals like

this.

Adolf Hitler is an example of someone who could just mesmerize audiences.

You ever have a chance sometime watch some of the films of the old rallies

and take a look at the people.

Watch the expressions on the people's faces.

You want to see adoration there it is.

And yet Hitler will be a drop in the bucket compared to this guy other men of the past

Alexander the Great you know that the Caesars of Rome

the more modern tyrants that have arisen Joseph Stalin none of those people will hold a candle to

this individual and he will be able.

He's an imposter.

But he will be able to collect the world's population and

appeal to everybody and groups of people that have spent their entire histories hating each other will

suddenly come together following this individual.

He's going to be the end of a long line of antichrists 1st and 2nd John in particular and Matthew

warn about antichrist and he's going to rule the entire world.

Everybody's going to follow him.

He's going to rule the entire world and he's going to persecute God's people.

Anyone who names the name of Christ is going to be persecuted.

In particular Israel is going to be persecuted now.

He's going to start out when he first comes to power.

Israel's going to follow him too because one of the things that's going to happen is

the temple is going to get rebuilt in in Jerusalem and it's going to get rebuilt

on the on the on the on the the Mount what is Mount Moriah

which is today occupied by the mosque of Omar the Dome of the Rock.

And that's going to be interesting just finding out how we get rid of that so that we can rebuild the temple.

But it's going to happen and the temple worship is going to restart and

everything is going to be just hunky dory for a short period of time until

the Antichrist sets himself up as the only object of worship and he's

going to desecrate the temple.

He's going to put a statue of himself an image of himself in the temple.

And that's what the desolation of the abomination of desolation refers to.

This has happened once before in history when Antiochus did exactly the same thing

back during the Greek Empire.

And that's what Jesus warns about when you see that go up get out of town.

And so he's persecuting God's people and he possesses satanic power absolute power.

He is at least demon -possessed and very possibly

possessed by Satan himself.

All unbelievers are under Satan's influence.

Certainly but some are under his direct control.

And that is what we have here.

He comes up out of the nations of the world out of the sands of the seashore.

The imagery is and he seeks world domination and he gets it

and he comes up.

It also says he comes up out of the sea which is a and in Revelation

11 7 and 17 8 specifically state that the beast comes up out of the abyss or out of the pit.

He's a satanic individual but he is a human being.

He is a human being and he has power and authority.

It talks about horns and horns talk about kingly power and kingly authority.

And there's a Confederacy of Western nations that he heads up.

And again John uses the imagery of animals

so that these animals display the characteristics of certain nations that have existed in the past.

And he said he's going to be like Babylon that's a lion.

And he's going to be like Persia.

He's going to be like Greece the great empires of the past.

And no human force can withstand him.

And he is a claimed universally.

He is apparently we judge from from chapter 13 verse 3.

He is apparently able to fake his own death and resurrection.

This guy is going to be able to actually do a lot of miraculous things.

He's going to be able to do signs and wonders.

And that's why we warn so much is do not be misled.

Signs and wonders are not necessarily indications of divine approval.

Not every supernatural event started from God.

Which is why we rely upon the scripture.

We rely upon the Word of God the written word for everything that is our standard of

reference not some not some sign and wonders.

Signs and wonders cannot be trusted because here's a guy that can do signs and wonders.

You know a lot of the things that if you look back at the Old Testament a lot of the things that God's prophets

had done call down fire from heaven and things like that he can do.

He can do all of that.

And his principal activity is war against the Saints.

He overpowers the Saints physically.

And what's he win for this.

He wins the universal admiration of the world right now to a very small extent we're

starting to see.

You know.

Yeah basically you cannot you cannot offend or say anything offensive against any

religion at all except Christianity.

Right.

You know heaven forbid.

You should say you know you should say anything derogatory about the first church of the Inner

Spring or whatever it is.

You know.

But Christians.

Okay they're fair game.

Well multiply that by a thousand fold.

And that's what you've got in the tribulation period where Antichrist is winning

universal worldwide admiration.

Why.

Because he's putting those nasty Christians down.

Everything must be the fault of the Christians.

Right.

All of this stuff that's happening must be their fault.

Now the second individual that comes up is called the false prophet.

He is also a human being and he leads the false religious system of the world.

The Antichrist leads the false government system of the world while the false

prophet leads the false religious system of the world.

Again the New Testament has many warnings against false prophets.

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

And in the Old Testament what was the penalty for being a false prophet.

Stoning God.

God took it very seriously when someone came in and said thus sayeth the Lord when the Lord hadn't

sent him.

And so you know in the in the Old Testament prophets prophets gave long -range prophecies.

Certainly.

But they also gave short -range prophecies and they only got one chance to be wrong.

They were ever wrong once God says take him out and stone him takes this very seriously.

So here we have this false prophet and he sort of appears to be a kinder gentler

less harmful Antichrist.

You know he's a companion to the Antichrist and he's kind of a nice the good the good cop

side of things.

But he promotes the worship of the Antichrist and he also performs great signs and wonders.

And one of the things that they were able to do apparently there's this image of the beast that's set up and it's animated.

It's animated.

One of the things that the Bible says in the in the Old Testament about false gods you know is that they can't move they can't

speak.

They're you know they can't hear.

Well apparently this image can do all of those things.

And you want a preview of coming attractions.

You can just go to Disneyland and look at the automatic the animated figures that they have and some of them are absolutely

amazing.

If you've been there at any time recently the things that we can do with technology.

And aside from technology the Antichrist and the false prophet have all of the resources of the

demonic forces behind them as well.

And so he also directs besides worldwide religion he directs the worldwide economic system.

And let me make a couple of one comment very briefly on the number of the beast.

Great controversy and great speculation has arisen about the number of the beast.

You know six six six what does it mean.

And you read about people that won't have the number 666 on their license plate and and things like that people get all

bent out of shape about that.

And there have been a lot of really weird things that have happened

every time some great tyrant arises or someone who is thought to be tyrannical arises in the

world somebody's going to label him the Antichrist.

And a little bit of ancient history here all the way back to the 1930s we had the

we we had the National Recovery Act under Roosevelt and it had a blue

eagle as their symbol and people were running around saying that's the mark of the beast.

I mean you can find references to that in literature.

And what -have -you.

The beast hasn't been here yet folks we'll just lay that out.

But anyway back to number 666.

The one thing we know about it is that it's the number of the man a Bible.

The Bible specifically says that six is the number of a man as opposed to

seven which is God's number.

And the number of perfection.

Man's number is six.

Man is imperfect.

And what does it mean that we have 666.

The same number repeated three times emphasizing the imperfection of man.

It's not associated with any specific historical figure and a precise significance

is unclear except that it's the number of a man.

And what is clear we are told about that you have to have this mark whatever this

mark is and however it is done you have to have this mark.

If you're going to buy or sell or do any kind of commerce

now don't worry the rapture hasn't occurred yet.

Okay we are not in the tribulation period.

Antichrist is not here.

It's okay to use the pin number that's associated with your ATM card.

Don't worry about it.

I mentioned that we chuckle a little bit but there are people running around that refuse to have anything to

do with an ATM because you know oh that's the mark of the whatever.

But anyway don't worry about that.

Don't get ahead of God.

In other words and so this entire passage we can take this entire passage

and all of these chapters basically they're a warning.

They're a warning we have to wrap up.

First of all it's a challenge to unbelievers.

The world is headed for destruction.

The world is headed for destruction.

Now Jesus Christ is going to come and when he comes the second time

he is coming to judge.

The first time he came he came to seek and to save the lost.

He came to call sinners to repentance.

The second time he comes he's coming as a judge.

And so that's the first challenge.

And it's also a challenge to believers.

We are to lead a godly life.

We are to be alert.

We are to be watchful.

Because even if the world goes on for another few hundred years or

even a thousand years or so the time is still short.

We are still in the last days and we are to conduct

ourselves as if we expect Jesus Christ to return before this day is

out.

So think about that and let's close in prayer our Heavenly Father

we take great comfort Lord that you have laid out for us the closing

chapters and that we are assured that Jesus Christ will come.

That Jesus Christ will conquer.

That Jesus Christ will set everything right.

And so until he does appear Lord may we so conduct

ourselves that we will be ready that we will be like the wise

virgins that kept their oil and kept their lamps trimmed.

And we're constantly on the alert for the return of the bridegroom.

We pray this morning father also for our pastor as he will open the word to us.

We ask that you prepare our hearts to receive the message you have for us in Jesus name amen.

We're dismissed.