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ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week,

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Pastor Don Filsex preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation.

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Let's listen in. Just to kind of set the stage for the next couple of weeks, on July 17th at the family meeting, those family meetings are held every other month on Sunday night down at our meeting room.

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You go out on the main road that's just right out front of the parking lot and down there on the left is our office space.

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We've got a meeting room there. And on July 17th, we're going to be having a vote that as the ballots are going to be due that evening for a bylaw revision, a revision of our constitution.

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Now, some of you are like bylaws, constitution, what is all of that? That is just the guiding document that shows us kind of what to do and outlines the organization and the pathways of accountability and relationship and membership and all of that kind of stuff.

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We'll be going through a revision of that. We have been going through a revision of that, thanks to Bruce French who has taken the lead on that.

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Bruce, if you want to wave there, one of our elders. He's been heading that up and it's been a month. I don't know, has it been, it hasn't been a year, but it's probably been about eight to nine month process that we've been in this.

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So kind of giving birth to new bylaws, if you will. But I encourage you, we don't have that document ready for you today, but we will have it as when the e -cast goes out this week.

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So if you receive that email, pay special attention to that. You can look at that document there. We will have them available for the next two

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Sundays with a ballot in the event that you can't make it on the 17th. That way you've got a couple weeks to look at it, to check it out, to ask questions.

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Any questions that you have about it can go to Bruce, me, or any of the other elders. All the elders, just raise your hand, those that are here.

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So you can come to one of us and ask us about what's going on there. Any changes that you're concerned about or have questions about.

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But again, the votes will be due at 8 p .m. on July 17th and direct any questions to us.

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So appreciate that. With that all out of the way, this morning, I'm going to introduce the text of scripture, just like I usually do, and then read it before the band comes to lead us in worship.

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And I want to explain why I do this. I know that I do this, and those of us that have been here for years or been around for a while, you kind of get used to it.

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But I don't know if you've noticed that other churches don't necessarily do that. They usually just do a bunch of songs and then a longer sermon.

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And I break that down to do a little bit of an introduction first. And some people see the singing, and I often did in my life in the past, and at other churches

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I've been to, they see the singing as preparation for preparing our hearts to listen to the word of God, right?

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Have you ever thought that way, or have you ever perceived it that way, that like the songs are getting you ready? Well, I want to suggest to you that we sing songs for a different reason than just getting ready.

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Like it's not just preparation, but the songs are a pretty important part of what we do. They are valuable, and they're valuable.

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But I think that it's kind of a flip side of that. I think the word gets us prepared to worship.

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I think the word gets our heart ready in the right frame of mind to be able to worship

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God as he is. Because we cannot worship God, we cannot worship

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God well if we don't have an accurate view of who he is. We can be worshiping, we can be singing songs, but if we don't have an accurate view of who he is, then we aren't worshiping him, we're worshiping something that we've made up in our minds, and we can be guilty of that, and we can get off track moment by moment, day by day.

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We've got to keep coming back to the word of God and seeing him as he is. And we can't have an accurate view of who he is unless we know what he has stated about himself.

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And the only place we can turn to find how he stated about himself is in his word and scripture.

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And I want to point out also that so then all of that is leading us towards worship, and worship is more than just singing songs, right?

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Did you know that? Worship is a lot more than just singing songs. It's the way that we discharge our duties at work.

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It's the way that we act as children towards our parents. It's the way that we parent our children. It's the way we act as spouses.

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It's the way we act as friends, neighbors. The way that we interact in all of our life can be rendered as worship to our great

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God. And he's worthy of everything being turned back towards a focus on him, doing what we do for his honor and for his glory.

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So much more than just singing songs. But how many of you like singing songs? Do you enjoy that some? I know

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I do. I enjoy that. And there's an aspect of that that's powerful in our gathering. But I'm gonna encourage us and challenge us this morning to worship

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God by recognizing a couple of different things. By recognizing his rightful rule in your life. By talking him up.

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Think about how worship is really kind of ascribing worth to God. And sometimes that's with our mouth.

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Sometimes that's in a workplace. Sometimes that's with our family. Some of you, how many of you are gonna get together with family over the next week, around the fourth?

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Are some of you gonna hang out with some other people that you don't see on a regular basis? And you get a chance to interact with people.

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And talking God up and letting others know how awesome he has been to you this last year in your life.

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And then ultimately by depending on him day by day. By depending on God. In our text, we're gonna see a little bit of a strange sermon this morning.

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It really is looking again, like we did last week, a little bit at Satan. But particularly towards his schemes here at the end of time.

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And the schemes of Satan involve, all of them involve imitation. They are all a mockery or a falsifying of something or faking something.

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God's name is to be held in honor. So here in our text, we see Satan seeking honor for his name.

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God commands worship. So here at the end, Satan commands worship. God offers provision for his people.

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So Satan says, I'll provide for my people. Watch me provide for my people. And do things that they want me to do for them.

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And throughout this pretty strange text this morning, we're gonna see a challenge for each of us to consider where our own lives fall in regard to the imitations and the cheap knockoffs that Satan is peddling on every street corner.

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There's a lot of imitations out there, aren't there? There's a lot of the false stuff that we encounter every day that Satan says, hey, follow me in this.

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Well, Satan has created something good and he's marred it or broken it and wants us to follow him down his pathway, the cheap knockoffs.

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He's the master of deception and he's the father of lies, scripture says. And the way that he rolls down through the ages and down through history is just straight up deception.

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Just straight up lies. And he will hit the world hard in the end to trick them into kicking against the

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Almighty God. But what we see of Satan in this text at the end times is not new.

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It's not like, oh, that's the way he's gonna roll at the end. That's the way that he's gonna respond then. But it's the same thing that he does in our lives and the same thing he does here in America, day in and day out.

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It's not like these strategies are, oh, this end times, but they're what he does now. And his defeat, this is important to get at the outset before we read this text.

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Remember that the defeat of Satan is already assured by the blood of Jesus Christ.

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So as we talk about his deception, as we talk about his strategies, as we talk about his imitations, as we think about the way that he seeks to win us to a different side, tries to pull people down to where he is, remember that his defeat is assured.

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It's a done deal and it's just a matter of it actually coming to pass. And the call for each one of us that we're gonna see very clearly in this text is come what may,

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God is asking for each one of his children, each person who would seek to follow him, to honor him, and would desire to be with him to the end and for eternity, he just is asking us for steadfast faithfulness.

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Stick with him. Stick with his ways. Of course, that entails and requires us to know his ways, to follow him and to stay hard after him, to follow right on his heels.

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If he turns left, we turn left. If he turns right, if he stops, we stop. If he advances faster, we go faster too.

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Follow our God. So let's open our Bibles to Revelation chapter 13. If you don't have a

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Bible, please raise your hand. We've got a couple of guys back here with Bibles. We just want everybody to have a copy of God's word on their lap so that you can follow along and see that the things that I'm reading are coming from the pages of Scripture.

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Again, it's gonna be Revelation chapter 13 way at the back of the book. And follow along, recast as I read

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God's very words of self -disclosure of what he desires for you and I here in Matawan, Michigan in 2017.

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He desires us to know this. And I, remember this is the author

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John speaking, John the Apostle, and I saw a beast rising out of the sea with 10 horns and seven heads, with 10 diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.

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And the beast that I saw was like a leopard. Its feet were like bears and its mouth was like a lion's mouth.

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And to it, the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.

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One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound but its mortal wound was healed and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.

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And they worshiped the dragon for he had given his authority to the beast and they worshiped the beast saying, who is like the beast and who can fight against it?

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And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words. And it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months.

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It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is those who dwell in heaven.

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Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation.

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And all who dwell on the earth will worship it. Everyone who has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who was slain.

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If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is to be taken captive to captivity, he goes.

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If anyone is to be slain with a sword, with the sword he must be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

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Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.

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It exercises all authority of the first beast in its presence and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose mortal wound was healed.

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It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people. And by the signs that 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 yet lived.

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And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.

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Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave to be marked on the right hand or on the forehead so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

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This calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man and his number is 666.

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Let's pray as we come to worship this morning. Father, we encounter a text this morning that can be kind of creepy to read.

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It can be a little bit strange to read about this beast, this leopard, bear, lion beast that comes out of the sea, this beast that rises up out of the land.

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And Father, just this picture that we have of Antichrist and false prophet, these who will in the end seek to deceive many.

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And Father, yet I confess that I have at times in my life and even this week and maybe even this morning accepted cheap ripoffs and knockoffs of the real thing.

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Father, I pray that you would protect us as your people, that you would guide us and direct us towards what is true and what is right and what is good.

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Father, that we would not accept the substitutes, that we would accept no imitations. But Father, that we would come to you and drink deeply from the well of the water of salvation that you provide for us.

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I thank you so much for the cross of Christ, which is the real deal, which is the real hope that we are deeply loved, we are certainly broken, we are certainly fallen, we have messed up and we are jacked up through and through and yet you have loved us and won us over by your great sacrifice on the cross.

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And so Father, I pray that we would worship as a people who are free, not under the bondage of the evil one, not under his sway, not under his control, but as people who have been set free by the blood of Jesus Christ.

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And it's in his name that I pray, amen. I encourage you to get comfortable and make sure you keep your

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Bibles open to Revelation chapter 13. Again, just as we walk through the book of Revelation, a pretty interesting passage, one that has a multitude of different interpretations for it.

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But I want you to have your Bibles open so you can kind of see that the things that I'm talking about are being pulled from the pages and from the verses in this chapter.

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And so remember that if any time you need to get more coffee or juice or donuts, if there's any left, take advantage of that or get up and stretch out in the back.

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But our focus really, I hope for the next half an hour or so is to keep our attention on God's word and to really hear from him and that I would actually be able to explain this text to you in a way that has an impact on your life.

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That's ultimately the goal. Every time my heart's crying, my prayer desperately every week is that God would speak to you, that you wouldn't just hear my voice, but that you would hear from God and be empowered to go out and live closer to him as a result of encountering his word.

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This morning we're in a passage, I want you to remind you at the start that we're in a passage intended for the church to read.

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In our era, this is intended for us. And I've mentioned a couple of times, and I think some of these texts need more reminder than others, that this is not a book.

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Revelation was not meant, chapter 13 was not meant to be locked away under glass with a little hammer that says, in case of apocalypse, break glass and read this book.

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But I think that a lot of people have had that kind of interpretation, that kind of understanding, what does this have to do with me in 2016?

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Certainly if these kind of global events begin to happen and I begin to see A, B, or C happen, or the

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Antichrist identifies himself, or 666 is being put on people's foreheads and hands, then I'm gonna wake up, then

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I'm gonna pay attention, then I'm gonna read this book, then it will have meaning to me. But aside from that, well, it's just confusing and nobody can get anything out of this.

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I hope that that's not the case as we've been going through this series. I hope you've been motivated, been moved, been encouraged to take your faith seriously, to take sin seriously, to recognize that he has something to communicate to us today through Revelation chapter 13.

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It is not merely a chapter, not merely a book for the end times. This text had meaning when the ancient church of Ephesus read it.

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It has meaning when the modern church in Matawan, Michigan reads it.

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And it will certainly have meaning as well when it is read by believers in that final three and a half year conclusion to the

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Great Tribulation. It will have significant meaning to them then as well. But last week, let me set the stage again to remember where we've been.

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Last week we saw Satan hungry to kill Jesus, but Jesus was rescued from his grip through resurrection.

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He was brought to heaven and set up on a throne. Jesus was rescued from the plot and plan of the evil one.

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We saw Satan then in turn pursue the Jewish believers, but they were rescued. So at the end of the text, it was declared that Satan set his sights on believers who had trusted in the testimony of Jesus during that Great Tribulation time.

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And at the end of our text, we saw that the very end of last chapter left Satan standing on the shore of the sea, the great dragon on the shore of the sea, ready to hatch a plot, ready to bring his focus and attention toward the church during that era to bring about their demise.

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That is his goal. And the structure of our text this morning is that we're gonna see Satan call forth two beasts.

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Now, these are not literal beasts. They are figurative in the sense that they are a sign. They are symbols.

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They are not, the description of them is all symbolic. One of them comes from the sea. One of them arises out of the land.

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And these three, the dragon, the beast from the sea, and the beast from the land, will all form a mockery of the

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Holy Trinity. And it's very clear in the things that these three do that they are mocking, they are imitating the

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Trinity. The words and actions of each will mimic the actions of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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And it's not mere coincidence that Satan follows that pattern. The beast from the sea,

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I believe, will be a world ruler, a real person. It's possible that it is a world government, but we're gonna see that the imagery shifts a little bit as we go through it, and I'll kind of walk us through that, where we kind of start with this seven -headed dragon, or seven -headed beast, rather.

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By the end, we're talking about this one as one entity. But we start with kind of this notion that it has seven heads, just like the dragon, which ties it closely, ties this beast out of the sea closely with Satan himself.

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It has 10 horns, the horns of power, a symbol, always, of power. And each crown has on it, or each horn, rather, has on it a crown, a diadem, a crown of authority, demonstrating that each one of these seven heads has some kind of power.

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And written on each head, something a little bit different from the dragon, each head has written on it a name of blasphemy, a blasphemous name.

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Now, blasphemy is not a word that you probably use on a regular basis. It's not a routine word. You recognize it as a religious word, but I would dare say that your mouth did not utter the word blasphemy at any point during this past week.

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And so, it's one that we're not very familiar with. We probably have some fuzzy notions. Those of you that are raised in church probably have some kind of an understanding of what it might be.

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You recognize that Jesus was accused of blasphemy. Why did the Jews accuse him of blasphemy? Because he equated himself with God.

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Now, there's a other form of blasphemy. It is a mockery or a dismissal of the authority of God when it is seen, when it is present.

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When Jesus performed his miracles and they attributed it to Satan, that was considered a form of blasphemy as well.

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And so, there's multiple ways to blaspheme, but it always has to do with either minimizing God and in some way exalting the self.

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That's always the notion of it, and it's generally spoken or written. So, that's what we're dealing with here in this text.

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And I believe that these names written on the heads of this beast are not like God is bad or God is weak.

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The types of names that I think are there on the head of this beast that John doesn't share with us but are blasphemous are things like King of Kings.

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Who is this beast? Oh, he's King of Kings. He is the Almighty. He is the Lord of all lords.

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It's that kind of name that this beast is taking for himself. It is blasphemy. It is to take upon himself more glory and more authority and more power than is rightfully his.

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It is an imitation authority. It is an imitation power. It is not the real thing.

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The beast is tattooed with titles that declare his own authority, his own power, his own supremacy.

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In other words, it's quite simply, this first beast is confident in himself. He is not struggling with self -esteem issues.

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Okay, he's pretty confident that, he doesn't need to be reminded of how good he is and how much he himself is worthy of worship.

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He's okay receiving the accolades of all. He thinks that he's worthy of that.

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This beast, according to the text, is like a leopard, has a mouth like a lion, walks on paws like a bear.

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And people have worked hard to identify this beast kind of like, well, okay, leopard, lion, paws of a bear, like what is all of that about?

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And they say, you know, Russia, Russia's the great bear, right? So, I mean, it's always the imagery is always

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Russia is, and then the lion and the panther, they've used various Eastern European countries to say some kind of coalition of this or something like that.

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And I'm just over here wanting to point out that two thirds of the analogy, two thirds of the symbolism used for this beast is simply cats.

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Okay, that's kind of what I wanted you to see from this. So, Antichrist is represented by cats.

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Now, some of you saw that coming. You knew that before you ever even read this passage. I've always kind of, you know, thought that cats were not to be trusted.

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Now, I think I have biblical evidence. You've got the lion, you've got the panther, they're right in there.

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Some of you don't have, you're like, cats are pretty cool. It's a joke, people, it's a joke, okay?

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Dog lovers are all getting a kick out of it. But what's most important is that this beast, though, as we dig in,

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I'm not gonna be able to identify why the panther, why the bear. I think they're just symbols. Again, sometimes

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I think that the picture, the imagery is meant to be pictured. Like, you're supposed to picture a panther, bear, lion thing.

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And if you have the right picture in your mind, then it's scary, it's intimidating.

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I often thought, and I mean, I don't wanna push this cat thing too far, but I've actually thought, I really believe, okay,

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I don't own a cat, my kids own a cat. I wanna be clear about that. But I think that that cat, if it was big enough, would kill us all.

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I really do, and I think it would play with us first. Like, and so, I mean, I don't know, the fear, the thought of, like, take the personality of your house cat and make it as big as a lion, and it would own you, right?

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Would it own you? Would it be like, oh, it'll curl up and you'd be able to sleep on it? No, no, it would just bat you around for a while and then take you out.

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And that's an intimidating picture. And if you ever just thought, like, it's a little bit freaky, the thought of a large cat.

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Is that a little bit intimidating? Lions, a little bit intimidating? Tigers, a little bit intimidating? Like, the imagery is supposed to press on your mind fear, not what country is this?

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I wonder, is this the, you know, is this Russia with the bear paws and all of that? Now, there could be symbolism in there that I'm not able to attain, that I'm not able to pull out, but I'm just telling you that anybody who identifies these with any assurance, anybody who tells you definitively,

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I've unlocked the code to all of the symbolism, is kind of just guessing at the end of the day, no matter how confident they sound, no matter how much bravado they give it, no matter how much authority they stand, it's in the text, it just isn't that clear.

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So we have to hold these things loosely. And I just kind of say, I'm not sure that that's that significant a point other than to say, this is a terrifying person.

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This is a terrifying entity that will be there in the end. And again, what

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I think is most important in this text is that this beast is Satan's beast. It belongs to him. He gives the beast his power.

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He gives the beast his throne. He gives to this beast his great authority. And once again, I wanna point out the similarity to the father bringing forth a man and giving him power and giving that man a throne and giving that man his great authority.

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God, at the fullness of time, brought forth his Christ and Satan at the end of time will bring forth his antichrist.

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That's what we're seeing here. This is the antichrist. In chapter 17, we find out that the seven heads represent seven rulers and one of them will have a mortal wound to his head.

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The terminology here in Greek is that death has occurred. I wanna be clear, this is not just a significant wound.

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This is not a man in critical condition, but this man died of a sword wound to the head according to the

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Greek language here. And I mention a sword wound because in verse 14, even though it doesn't say it right here in this point that we're at, in verse 14, it makes it clear how he received this wound.

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It was a sword wound. And now the imagery could be a bit confusing and this is where I think the image shifts a little bit.

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We have one beast, seven heads, and the heads are rulers. So we may immediately assume that whenever we're talking about the beast, we're talking about a country or a nation with its rulers or a coalition of nations or something like that.

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But once this head is healed, the remainder of the text begins to refer to the entire beast by this miraculous survival.

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It's not like, well, he was okay. He could have lived without that seven head. The entire beast receives accolades as an accounting of surviving this mortal wound.

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And I think that what we really have is we've got a coalition of leaders, a group, maybe a coalition of countries or something like that, but ultimately they will come down to one supreme ruler, this one who suffers this injury, dies, and is raised again and he is empowered by Satan.

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And the world will be inspired by him. The world will be in awe of this.

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I mean, imagine this, the whole world being in awe of this kind of miracle. If some world leader were to recover from a death -inducing wound to the head, do you think that that might make the headlines?

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Do you think that might be a pretty big deal? And that's what we're kind of looking at here at the end of time. Once again,

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Satan will mimic God and he will take the awe that is due to the son of God through resurrection and ascribe it to his own puppet king.

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And the world will be ripe in the end times for this style and type of leadership.

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And where Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me, he called men and women to himself and said, follow me and walk in the way that I walk and walk in humility and even unto death follow me.

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The beast wows people, dazzles them. And in verse three, the world will go after him instead.

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The world will follow this antichrist. And they worship this beast and in worshiping the beast, they are actually worshiping the dragon.

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And I think it is quite possible and it's something for us to contemplate and consider and each one of us should think this through.

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It is possible, I believe according to verse four, I think it's possible to worship

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Satan on accident. I don't think, you kind of think, oh, Satan worshipers, you've got the picture, the goth, the black nails and the pentagrams and candles and weird kind of seances or ceremonies or something like that.

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But it is possible to just be worshiping God de facto, just accidentally.

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It's possible to go off in your own direction. Now, obviously, if you're with Christ, I'm not saying that you were then in turn worshiping

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Satan on accident. But it is possible that the world just goes the way that it goes and he is the deceiver and he is great at tricking people into his ways.

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And as we sang earlier, I don't know if you realize that when we were singing, who is like you, we're singing a straight quote from scripture.

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We don't believe in other gods, by the way. That's a rhetorical thing. Like who among the gods is like you?

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Oh, well, recast, they believe in many gods and he's just a really cool one. No, it's just identifying that people worship a lot of different things, right?

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And God is not like those other things. So that's a song from Moses right at the crossing of the

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Red Sea, he writes that song. That song is written in the context of the crossing of the

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Red Sea and he's like, who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?

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There are none, there is nothing like you, God. And the followers of Satan, in our text, utter what they think is a reasonable reply to the song that you and I sang this morning.

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Who is like you? They say, well, who's like the beast? I mean, have you got a look at this guy?

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Have you taken him in? Have you taken in this beast? Have you seen him? Who could fight against that, is their reply.

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They have their answer. They have a reply for our question. Who is like our

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God? They say, well, who's like this beast? And I think it's more than mere bravado.

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I think the beast, the Antichrist, will be very powerful among humanity.

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He will be extremely powerful. He will exercise unprecedented supernatural power at the end.

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And he will know he is great. And he will tell everybody of his greatness. And he will command worship.

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And even to those he doesn't command to worship him, they will still worship him. Consider down through the ages how many have set out to conquer the world.

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That's kind of a passé stereotype kind of thing. Like, oh, what do you want to do? Conquer the world? You know, it's like,

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I mean, isn't it? You know, it seems like every culture at some point has sought to conquer the world. You have

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Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Alexander the Great, the British Empire. Now it's

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Brexit, right? But the British Empire, the Muslims immediately following with their expansion, immediately following the death of Muhammad, extended all the way across the known world,

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North Africa into Persia, India, the Crusaders, Hitler, Pinky and the

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Brain. Anybody even get that reference? Nobody knows what I'm talking about. Great. Those alien things from the movie

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Independence Day. Okay. There's been a lot of attempts to conquer the world, right? Okay.

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Somebody's laughing, but nobody else is even finding any humor in that. There have been so many attempts at the conquest of the world that have ended pretty shallow.

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Napoleon didn't get too far. Alexander the Great didn't get too far. The British Empire got pretty far, but not that far.

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And you're going, this guy is gonna get it. Where we would stereotype and say, you know, a really terrible tyrant would seek to conquer the world, he does.

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It's gonna happen. This is a forward look at history. You know, history backwards.

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This is forward history. We're being given a glimpse that there will indeed be a time where the world is ruled by an individual.

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He will rule the world and he will receive fabulous approval ratings. He will speak as though he is

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God, but look at this phrase in verse five. He will be allowed. Hold a minute.

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The most powerful man to ever live and he will be allowed to exercise authority for 42 months, which is three and a half years.

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And then when you see the phrase, allowed to rule for a set period of time, allowed by who?

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Well, the authority is coming from somewhere else. And the allowing is connected to the time frame so that at the end of three and a half years, something, or should

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I say someone, will no longer allow him to rule. And that is God. We see throughout the

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Bible all kinds of clear indications that Satan is permitted or allowed, but he does not possess his own authority.

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He needs permission. Well, the beast will be directly opposed to God and will continue to blaspheme

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God and heaven and those who dwell in heaven. That includes even those who've been raptured prior to this tribulation.

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Now remember that there will be believers on the earth, 144 ,000 Jews sealed, and then they will be witnesses who will lead many to faith in Christ during the great tribulation.

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And further, we find that the beast makes war on those who have come to faith in Christ after the rapture here.

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That's his whole goal. That's why he stood on the sea. That's why he's calling forth this beast. And this beast will begin that program against the church.

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He will be allowed to conquer the saints, and this will be a time of sending many martyrs to heaven. Many will die for their faith during this era.

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He will rule completely on the earth and all will worship him except for those, listen to this sentence, this is a crazy sentence, all will worship him except for those whose name were written before the foundation of the world in the book of the

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Lamb who was slain. That sentence in verse eight is intense and it's mind -blowing, supposed to be mind -blowing.

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God wants to remind his people, he wants to remind us, recast, that there is a book in which he has recorded the names of everyone who will remain faithful to him.

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To their end. He's got a book. How many of you think that sounds great? Is that kind of encouraging?

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That there's a book where he's recorded the names of those who will remain faithful to him? Anybody glad about that? And I think some of us probably, without reading the text, might have some kind of fuzzy notion that there's a

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Lamb's book of life or there's something, and without much thought to when it was written, I would kind of think in these kinds of terms.

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Now, I was eight years old. My father passed away in January. I was attending an Awana program. Any of you know

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Awana? A Wednesday night program for children. I was attending that program and began to ask questions of my leader, stayed after one of the lessons, memorizing all these verses and stuff, stayed after, and they explained to me that I was a sinner, that I needed a

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Savior, and that Jesus had died in my place and that if I believed in him and asked him to be my Lord and King, my

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Savior, and asked him to save me, then I would be in heaven for eternity and I would be his.

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Now, how much I understood of theology and all of that at that time, I don't really even know. I mean, that was my life, and I still don't know how much

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I fully understood or grasped, but I prayed with them, and I think that it stuck. I think that God really did save me at that point, and although there were subsequent times of kind of rededication and following more hard after him and getting that right, and I kind of picture in my mind, oh yeah,

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I know when my name was written in that book. I was eight years old in the basement of the First Baptist Church in Middleville, Michigan.

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I know where I was when he wrote my name, and you might think, yeah,

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I know when he wrote my name, and I hope you have some indication of like when you came to faith in Christ, but guess what this text is saying?

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You're wrong if you think that's when your name was written there. What? The text is clear about when he wrote your name down, and it was before the entire let there be light thing.

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Before that, he recorded your name. Well, that probably produces a few questions for you and I.

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That leads to some questions in your mind. Just being honest. I mean, raise your hand. You got a few questions about that one? Before anything, there's this book, and the book is populated with names of those who will remain faithful to the end, and yet I believe that that's included in here for our encouragement.

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It is meant to comfort us in regard to how stable, how stable things really are.

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How many of you feel, generally speaking, like your life is pretty topsy -turvy? Anything could happen tomorrow, and it could just all crumble.

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If you're not raising your hand, you're just kind of either not connecting the dots. Your life, let me communicate it for you.

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Your life is unstable. Like, okay, I mean, life on this planet, we don't know what tomorrow holds.

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We don't know if a tornado sweeps through here and takes us all out. We don't know what happens next, right? There's some excitement in that.

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Primarily, depending on how old you are. I mean, I think sometimes it gets more and more stable. I kind of like things to keep going the same way the older I get, and I kind of like the predictability of things and all of that.

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But the fact of the matter is, He's got this. God has this.

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God has always had this. And God always will have this.

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Well within the bounds of His sovereign control. All completely within His sovereign control.

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All of it. All of it. We have some questions.

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Let me just tell you that the great place to turn for those questions is God. He's big enough to handle your questions, because He's sovereign.

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He can handle that. I take comfort in knowing that He wrote my name in that book and the prehistory of the world.

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And that Jesus was slain to make that salvation ours. That's cool.

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The times of this final Antichrist will be terrible, terrible days, terrible years. And in verse 10,

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John is given a direct command to his listeners. How do we process this?

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What are we meant to take away from this? He says this phrase, those for captivity will go to captivity.

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And those who are to get the sword will get the sword. They will be slain by the sword. And yet within those things, we find our calling.

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Be faithful. Be faithful and endure till the end. Have an enduring faith is basically what

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He's saying. And what is faith? Faith is trusting in God, clinging to God. Stay close to Him.

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Well, what is that captivity and sword thing all about? Well, He's saying it's some. To some, it will be imprisonment.

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To some, it will be the sword. I don't know about you. I'm kind of hoping it's not prison for me. Kind of hoping it's not the captivity side.

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Kind of would like for it to not be the sword side of things. Right? Anybody with me on that?

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And at the same time, if it is, what is the calling? The calling for me is not to captivity.

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The calling to me is not the sword. The calling to me is faithful endurance.

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No matter what life throws at us, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, faithful endurance is the call.

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Well, what if it is a threat to be faithful with the sword or with captivity, which would you choose?

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And that's ultimately what we have to come down to. Faithfulness regardless of circumstances. Faithful obedience to our

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's a call to faithfulness. Be faithful and endure to the end.

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And the final beast isn't here yet that I know of, but Satan's strategy and plan is still at work in the world today.

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And all that God is asking from his people is this one little thing. Stick with him.

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Stick with him. Trust him. Do not grow weary in doing good.

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Faithful endurance is the call to believers in every generation. You know, pretty, to be honest, among all the generations of believers,

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I believe we've got it, cake. It's been cake for us. Pretty much have our cake and eat it too.

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We still have the freedom to share. We still have the freedom to boldly declare the gospel. We might lose a friend or two in the process, but by and large, we have the freedom.

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We could stand out on the corner with a bullhorn if we wanted to, right? Faithful endurance is the call to every believer in every generation, even though to some it will mean, to some it will mean captivity for the sword.

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I think it's interesting that Peter and Jesus had an interaction at the end of John, in John chapter 21.

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And he says, feed my sheep. And you probably remember some of that interaction. He's like, Paul, Peter, do you love me?

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Feed my sheep. And then he basically predicts the way that Peter is going to. He says, in the end of your life, you're going to be bound and taken someplace you don't want to go.

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And Peter, at that point, looks over at John, who's writing, and he looks over at John and he says, but what about him?

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And Jesus says, well, what's that got to do with you, Peter? I'm talking about you. I'm talking about your faithful endurance.

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You're the one I'm saying, you're going to go to captivity, Peter. I'm telling you, this is going to happen to you. Well, but what about John?

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What's going to happen to him? What is it to you, Peter, if I let John survive all the way to my return? That's none of your business.

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And I think we've got to think in those terms, right, about what is God calling you and you and you to?

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It's not going to be the same. My cross to bear isn't the same as your cross to bear, but we all have them, right?

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But the calling to each one of us is the same. Faithful endurance in the circumstances that we ourselves are given.

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Well, that concludes the first beast that comes out of the sea. The second beast comes out of the earth. What we see in the second beast is the false prophet, the first one being the

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Antichrist, second one is false prophet. And so the fact that it speaks like a dragon is a way of identifying it as the mouthpiece of Satan himself, who is the dragon.

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This is a mockery of the Holy Spirit, who reveals God's words and always points people to Jesus. The Holy Spirit performs signs and miracles all throughout the

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New Testament to validate the work of God. And this false prophet exercises the authority of the

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Antichrist and encourages the world to worship him, points to him, and performs great signs to deceive the world into thinking that he is a prophet of God.

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The false prophet does some pretty freaky things. You see it in the text. He makes a statue of the

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Antichrist and it breathes and speaks. He will call fire down from heaven.

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It's clear throughout the description of this false prophet that the world will be completely duped and in awe of what this false prophet is able to do and they will worship the beast because the false prophet is indicating that they should.

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I think you can see clearly in the text that Satan wants worship. Do you see that throughout chapter 13? Satan desires worship, but Satan also wants ownership.

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He wants to own people. And so in verses 16 through 17, he marks those who are his with a mark either on their right hand or their forehead, just like God seals those who are his.

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Satan says, well, I can imitate that. I'll seal my people too. And so much has been written about this mark.

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But once again, we should think in terms of the sealing of the 144 ,000 way back in chapter seven because this is a mockery of that, an imitation of that, where God sealed his people.

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God seals his people so they can be protected. So Satan does the same thing and protects them as well.

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Well, you say, how does he protect them? What is the protection that he's offering? Well, it's protection from himself. He's not gonna say that to them.

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But if you receive the mark on your hand or on your forehead, you can buy and sell. Guess what? You get groceries.

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What does the worship of the beast get you? Food, life, sustenance.

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Oh, look at me, says Satan here of the beast and the false prophet. Look at how I provide for my people.

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I'll take care of them. Where's your God? Where is your God who is letting you starve?

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Wow, I'm feeding my people. The mockery, the imitation is throughout this text.

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Satan imitates God in the end by seeking to carve out a people for his own glory.

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The mark of the beast, the number 666 is of course very debated.

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Any of you ever heard some theories, some thoughts about 666 or who is the Antichrist or what does this number mean?

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Every generation has had its own special twist on it. Those of you been around a little bit, lived in the 60s, 70s, it was the

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UPC code, right? Anybody remember the UPC code things? And oh man, don't get a can of Coke with a 666 on it.

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You wouldn't drink that one, right? You know what I'm talking about? Some of you are like, UPC codes on products.

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Oh, that one doesn't have one. But the little barcode on it and everybody thought, oh, here's the end. Oh, it's here.

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Some even further back, a step back from that maybe you remember the supercomputer idea.

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Back when computers were first coming in, it was like the beast will be a supercomputer. And 666 is some kind of programming code or programming languages, all different kinds of things.

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What is it now? Anybody know? Anybody wanna shout out what it is now? What's the new technology that we go with?

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RFID, thank you. RFID, the ability to scan a chip.

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It's now in our credit cards and stuff where you can just tap it and go with it, that kind of thing.

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And it would be very simple technology to slide one of those under your hand or put one in your forehead and just be able to walk right through the checkout line without anything else.

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So that's the idea, the notion of what these things are. I wonder if around the invention of the

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Sharpie, if people didn't go, oh, now we've got a permanent way to mark things. 666 right on foreheads.

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I mean, Sharpie, it's like a permanent marker, right? I mean, what is the technology that people are gonna run with and how many of you know that technology could improve a lot?

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It could be something completely different. I wanna suggest to you, I wanna give you this notion and I'm gonna say something that most preachers won't and that is just simply that the

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Lord could tarry another thousand years. Do you realize that? I mean, everything feels bad, right?

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And you look at the political candidates and you look at the things that are going on around us and you're going, oh, Antichrist and this, that and the other. It's been bad before.

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It could get bad again and it could get better and it could get worse and it could, I mean, we're not really good at reading these kinds of things.

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But the reality is, and I think that this is a reality that we have to face as a church and reading these texts and understanding it and being sensitive to the times and identifying things.

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Do we live in an era where the notion of a one world government is more reasonable? You have Brexit, so you're gonna go, oh, well, going the other way, well, whatever.

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I mean, would it be possible? Do you see the technology lining up to be able to have a one world government? Well, travel is a lot easier.

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Connectedness is a lot. The world feels smaller. All of those things seem to be rolling in a possible direction.

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The technology to actually take a segment of the population and prevent them from buying food,

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I believe that technology already is there. We've already got the capacity for that if somebody wanted to try it, right?

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I mean, so technologically, we're certainly there, but that doesn't mean that these technologies are evil or they're bad.

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Obviously, someone will eventually use technology for evil and they do every day. So, but I believe that Satan would love for us to get so far enough out into the weeds on the topic of 666 that we would miss the point and the point is just simply this.

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Take this away as your takeaway point when you see the number or think the number 666. It just means this.

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Satan would starve you out. He would choke you out. He would prevent you from buying food.

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He would keep you starving to death if he could. If he was allowed to, that's his animosity towards the church.

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To understand that we have a legitimate enemy who despises us and in the end, will indeed seek to starve out the church and that's what 666 is all about.

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A mark somehow, some number, some way that the mark of this allows people to buy and sell and others to not buy and sell.

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That is the point. That's the sole, that's the most significant point about it. But my favorite interpretation of the number of the beast is just this and again,

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I don't wanna get too far into the weeds, but it's kind of really, it's a new one for me and it's one that just makes more sense of it than anything.

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It is in Jewish numerology, of course, they would take the days of the week, one through seven and those each had a significant bearing.

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So when we talk about the number seven being completion, it's not that they just took an arbitrary number and made it completion.

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Why did they say seven is the number of completion? The completion of creation, seven days and then it was done.

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So we've seen a lot of sevens throughout this book so far. There's a lot of completions going on.

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We saw seven churches, seven horns, seven lampstands, seven trumpets, seven seals, seven flames.

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We're gonna see seven bowls and now we come to sixes. We come to a series of sixes and it's like, well, that's different.

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We've seen a lot of sevens, why all of a sudden sixes? And I love the interpretation that some put on this because I believe it at least in part in the ancient understanding would have resonated with those from a

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Jewish background who are reading this and those in the church who had some inkling or understanding of the Old Testament would have got it.

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When they heard the number 666 is his name, what they heard, think in terms of the sixth day, it's the day of man, the day that man was created but it's not yet complete.

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And when they heard 666, they heard incomplete, incomplete. Incomplete, insufficient, insufficient, insufficient.

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Or not enough, not enough, not enough.

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Spoken as the number of the one who will have the most power ever on this planet.

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The most powerful thing that Satan can bring forth and it's not enough, not enough, not enough.

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That is the meaning of this number. I believe that many would have heard that. Many would have understood that.

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Just shy, good try, good try Satan but you're not there, incomplete.

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And I believe that it will take just as the text says, boy it's gonna take wisdom and understanding for you to get this folks.

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See that at the beginning? It's gonna take significant wisdom and understanding to see the one who sits on that earthly throne in the end is incomplete and insufficient.

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It's gonna take eyes of wisdom and spiritual understanding to say he's not enough because he will look like he's enough.

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The world will worship him because of Satan's imitation. From every earthly angle, he will look worthy of praise.

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Jesus said this in Matthew 24, 24. Lest we just think, oh we'll figure it out. We get it on our own.

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I mean, give me a break. I know God, I know Satan, I know evil, I know good. Jesus said this to humble us, to put us in our right place in Matthew 24, 24.

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If you're taking notes, you can jot that down and look at it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

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Now the elect can't be led astray. You don't need to worry about that. Yet the deception in those times will be so great that Jesus says, well the elect can't be led astray but it'll be close, it'll be close.

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So John calls to all of us throughout this text, if you have ears, listen up, pay attention. And he calls us to faithful endurance and he calls us to wisdom and understanding.

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In application, I would like to clarify for you a unique thought that came to me through a commentary written by a man named

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Craig Keener. He suggested that since Satan is not all knowing, Satan knows no more when the end will come than you or I do.

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I never thought about that before, but it's true. He doesn't know when the end is coming. And it's possible that Satan then, therefore, has his beast and his false prophet in every generation.

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He sets them up with hope. Maybe this is the one. Maybe this is the one. Maybe this is the one.

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And this would make sense of the words of Jesus in the gospels and the word of John in his first letter where he spoke of antichrists and false prophets.

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Plural. But I don't think it's for us to determine who the antichrist is, just like it's not for us to determine the time that Jesus will return.

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But I think we can identify that there are indeed antichrists in every age and era. And what

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I want to leave us all with this morning is to consider the strategy of Satan where we live in our era.

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It's not changed much and it's not going to be much different in the end. It's imitation. Satan is an imitator. Just one quick illustration, just in thinking of him imitating.

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God gives us the powerful gift of sexuality to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife. And Satan gives us cheap hookups surrounded by fear of pregnancy and disease.

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He's the master of cheap imitation. God gives us the beauty of music and Satan gives us rock.

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I was kidding, you guys. I was meant to just kind of lighten things up just a bit.

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I'm kidding. I mean dancing and card games and all that.

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Jokes, guys, jokes. Satan does, however, corrupt and imitate and mock, doesn't he?

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And he takes good things that God has created that are beautiful things and he corrupts them into dark, insidious, embarrassing, grotesque things.

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So as we come to communion, I want you to think through the following three questions. Three questions.

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First, is your name written in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain?

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The statement John made about that book being written before time began is not meant to lead us to fatalism. We cannot say, well, either my name is there or not.

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I'm just going to do whatever I want. Instead, I believe that we find our names were written there by trusting in Jesus for salvation.

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Nobody is limited by the existence of that book. There is nobody who will express true faith in Christ.

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They're like, I'm sorry, your name wasn't there. That's not going to happen. So my call to everyone in this room, regardless of your past, regardless of your history, regardless of the crud and the junk that you bring with you, regardless of the sin that is currently entangling your life, come to Jesus and ask him to be your

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Lord and Savior. You haven't done that. Man, do that today. Make today a day of salvation for you.

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Second, how is your faithful endurance going? Are you staying connected to the only source of hope and protection?

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I believe that you can only stay close to him through prayer and getting to know him better through the pages of the word. So how is prayer, how is the word, how is the intake of God's word going in your life?

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It's how you're going to, how do you fight the imitation? You stay close to the truth. You get to know what is true.

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How do you get to know what is true? Pray and spend time in the word. Third, are you buying the cheap stuff?

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You're buying the rip -offs. My kids, my kids won't even eat real macaroni and cheese.

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Just a warning, if you invite us over, I mean, they like the craft stuff in a box. And you put,

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I mean, it's to the point now, and I mean, some of you can relate, it gets to the point where you like the stuff so much that you don't even know what the real stuff is.

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Are we buying the cheap stuff? Satan is eager to sell you rip -off spirituality.

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He is eager to sell you on self -righteous religion that makes you feel like you're better than everyone else. But he is just as happy to flip that on you and convince you that you're worthless and outside of the reach of God's salvation.

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The remedy for this is the cross of Jesus. What is true of each and every one of us?

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Is that we are deeply broken by our sins. There is no room for an arrogant approach to God.

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And really, no room for an arrogant approach to anyone. No room for arrogance at all.

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The cross shows the love of God poured out for us. We are saved by the good news that Jesus died for us. And we grow up in the faith by remembering that he loved us in our wretchedness and died for our sins.

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So if you've asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, then I encourage you to come to the table, take a cracker to remember his body broken for you, and take the cup of juice to remember his blood shed for you.

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We have a terrible enemy, but we have such a powerful Savior. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for the salvation that we have in the name of Jesus Christ.

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Father, if there's anybody here who has not embraced your son, has not come to him by faith and asked for forgiveness of their sins and asked to be cleansed and washed and given a fresh start,

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Father, I pray that today might be a day of them praying and crying out to you and asking you to save them and allowing

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Jesus to be the master and the ruler, the Lord of their life, their life. But Father, for us who are indeed in your family,

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I pray for protection, for clarity from what is imitation and what is real. Father, give us a hunger and an appetite for the real stuff, for the meat of your word.

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Father, thank you even now that we get to have a feast of sorts in remembering the body of Jesus that was broken for us and the blood that was shed for us.

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Fathers, we come to communion. Allow this to be a reminder, a reflection on what the real stuff is all about, sacrifice and faithful endurance.