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13 this morning. If you want to take your Bibles with me, we're going to go back to Revelation chapter 13. We have been going through the book of Revelation for several months now and Lord willing, we'll continue our study and see what God has for us in this book. But today we're in Revelation 13. Last week we started a look at kind of an introduction to the Antichrist in verses 1 and 2, and today we're going to pick up at verse 3, but let's read together verses 1 through 10. That gives us the substance of today's message. I don't know if we'll get through all of it, but we'll do the best we can. So starting at verse 1 in Revelation chapter 13, The Bible says this, verse 1, I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast, which I saw, was likened to a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. And I saw one of his heads, as it were, wounded to death. And his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon, which gave power unto the beast. And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast, who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies. And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints." Let's take a minute and pray, and then we'll look at this passage in detail. We just come to you now as we look into your word. We just ask for your help because we can't understand this. We have no wisdom of ourself, no understanding of ourself. And so we ask that your spirit would teach us today. Lord, this book of Revelation is complicated in many ways. And so, Lord, we need your help to know not just what it says, but how it applies to us. Lord, I pray that you give us wisdom and guidance and insight today to what you've given us to study. And, Lord, during this time, I pray that You would just remove the distractions. I pray that Your Word would come forth with boldness, that with clarity, that we might be challenged by it. And, Lord, I ask that You would use me as Your instrument and mouthpiece. I need to be strengthened by You. I need Your Spirit, so fill me with Your Spirit. Give me Your words to speak so that we might hear from You today. and know that we have been with God. And so, Lord, we just give you this time, we pray, and ask for you to do your work, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Last week we started chapter 13 looking at the Antichrist, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time going over what we've already seen. But in verses 1 and 2, we have the reflection, really, and the description of the Antichrist that goes back into Daniel. And we looked last week at Daniel chapter 7 and chapter 9 and some out of chapter 11 about Daniel's visions of the end times, and specifically, this person known as the Antichrist. Now, Daniel didn't realize when he received that, that that was going to be thousands of years into the future from where he was. Again, the Tribulation time is the 70th week that Daniel was told about in Daniel chapter 9. But there's a big pause between week 69, when Jesus was on Earth. And it says in Daniel 9 that when the Messiah is cut off, or after the 69th week, the Messiah shall be cut off. And then shall these things be, these things that we're talking about now. But between that, there's the church age, which we are in and part of right now. So we're waiting, in a sense, for the 70th week of Daniel. Let me rephrase that. We're not waiting for that. We're waiting for the coming of Christ to take us to heaven, which will begin that 70th week of the Tribulation period. So the Antichrist is going to rise up and become powerful and take over the world in that seven years of the tribulation period. And verses 1 and 2 give us kind of a picture of that and how it's related to the kingdoms through history and the kingdoms on earth that existed in Daniel's time that oppressed Israel and going back all the way to Egypt. Remember the seven heads, the seven kingdoms, and then we have the kings of those kingdoms. But then arises this seventh kingdom, which is Rome, but it's an extended version of Rome that goes into the tribulation period. And there's ten horns that rise up during that time, and that's what we see in Daniel chapter 13 verse 1. It says that the beast rises up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horn ten crowns, and upon his head the name of blasphemy. So we have these 10 horns that are going to rise up and we saw that those are 10 leaders of 10 divisions of the one world kingdom. It's not 10 kingdoms. It's one kingdom under the Antichrist rule that is given to ten rulers, or ten kings, and then Daniel tells us that the Antichrist will rise up from those ten kingdoms and overthrow three of those kings, and then the rest will give their power to him. And so that's the scenario we have of the introduction of the Antichrist. Now, we were finishing up with the end of chapter two, I'm sorry, the end of verse two last week here in chapter 13. And this is important for us to understand, and I'm gonna use the end of chapter two to launch into the next several verses, so we get the context here of this description of the Antichrist. But the end of verse two says, and the dragon, remember the dragon is Satan himself, he was introduced in chapter 12. And the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. So where we ended up last week was that all the authority and power of the Antichrist will be given to him by Satan. Now, we looked at, very briefly, at the end of our message last week, an example of someone who we can say that happened to in Hitler. Hitler sought out the demonic forces to give him power. Hitler was literally empowered by demons and Satan. in order to carry out the atrocities that he carried out, but also to attract the attention and the admiration of much of the world when he first started out, before people realized what he was. But even as he got into the atrocities of killing Jews, six million Jews, and other people, people still lauded him as a great leader. They were blinded. Why? because of Satan, the great lie. Okay? Satan is the father of lies. Satan deceives people into accepting the lie. And the Bible tells us that God actually will give them over to delusion or great lie because they did not receive the truth. That's what happened under Hitler. People believed the lie. They thought he was a good man. Yet Hitler failed in his efforts to overthrow and take over the world. Every kingdom, every king who has had that aspiration has failed so far in history. The Antichrist will not. He will accomplish that goal of ruling the world. And so in verse two, we see that his power comes from the demonic realm, from Satan directly, okay? And then in verse three, I wanna show you an example of this power that he has. Verse three says, and I saw one of his heads, talking about the Antichrist, as it were wounded to death. And his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. So verse 3 alludes to this power given to him by Satan, and it says that the Antichrist is wounded mortally. He receives a mortal wound. Now, I'm going to share with you this, that commentators do not agree on the interpretation of that verse. There are many different approaches to understanding what verse 3 is talking about. Some commentators say that this is actually referring to the resurrection of the Roman Empire. It's not actually about a person, the Antichrist, it's talking about the resurrection of the kingdom that he will lead, the Roman Empire. Now I mentioned last week that we still have of things and remnants that are reminiscent of the Roman Empire and its influence on our current society, okay? So in a sense, the Roman influence still exists in our culture and society. The kingdom does not exist in a sense, but it will be revived. Now it's not going to be the Roman Kingdom or the Roman Empire under an emperor as it was in the Roman Empire days, way back during the time of Christ. But it will have similarities to it. And the Antichrist will not just be an emperor over the Roman Kingdom, he will be a king over the entire world. That's how it will be different. So some commentators say that this resurrection or this mortal wound that's healed refers to the kingdom. The Roman Empire seems to have died off. And now it's gonna be resurrected. John Walvard takes this opinion, or in this position, in his commentary on Revelation. He's very popular in conservative circles for his commentary on Revelation. And I study his commentary. He's got a lot of good things, but this is the position he takes. This is a kingdom. He refers to a famous English theologian named E.B. Eliot. He was alive and taught. prominently in the 1800s, and he spent most of his life studying biblical prophecy, and he believes that this entity, in verse 3, the one who dies is the Roman Catholic Church, with the Pope as its head. Now, when we look back into history, there's substance, in a sense, to support this, because the Roman Catholic Church took power during the Byzantine period, and basically all political and religious power was wrapped up within the Roman Catholic Church. Remember, there were popes that were also emperors. The problem is, during that period of time, we know that as the Dark Ages. And there's a reason it's the Dark Ages, because the Roman Catholic Church and the Roman Empire suppressed the truth. But it has died off. Now, the Roman Catholic Church still exists, but its kingdom that they had back in the early days is gone. And so E.B. Eliot says it's a revival or resurrection of the Roman Catholic Church in power. That's his position. That was from 1800s. I don't necessarily agree with that. The reason they say that is because it's talking about the head. If you look at the words in verse three, it says, I saw one of his heads as it were wounded. Now, the heads that we've talked about so far, when we look back into verse one, represent kingdoms. There were seven heads, remember? And there's seven kingdoms. And those were the kingdoms through history that oppressed Israel. So the substance of that interpretation is this is a head. It's not a person. It's a head. Now, one big problem With interpreting this as a kingdom that is going to be revived, is that this is not the only reference to this mortal wound. Okay, we have to look at all of scripture in order to interpret one part of scripture. The Bible interprets the Bible. So we can't just look at this verse and say, okay, this is what I think and therefore that's what it must be. So this is not referring to just a kingdom. In fact, there's several references to this mortal wound, even a couple more in this chapter that we're gonna get to eventually. And it refers to a person in other places, not a kingdom. So it may be that in this revival of the Roman Empire, which we know is gonna happen, Daniel prophesied that. But within this, there's going to be a leader who dies or is killed and then is resurrected. And that's the more likely sense. Okay? And John MacArthur actually states this, that it's not likely the restoration of a defunct kingdom would cause the whole world to be in wonder and astonishment as the end of verse three suggests. All right, so if the Roman Empire is resurrected, so what? Okay, we weren't around when it died. Okay, it's a new empire. It looks like the Roman Empire, that's great, wonderful. But it's not gonna cause the whole world to be in wonder. But the resurrection of a man will. And that was the point that's made here. But I want you to look at the wording. Because the Bible gives us clues as to what this is talking about. God wants us to understand scripture. So look at the wording in verse three. It says, and I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death. Put your finger there. Go back to chapter five. Because we've had a verse, a reference, to someone who had been wounded as it were to death. Chapter 5, verse 6, says, and I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and in the four beasts, in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain. Now we know that's a picture of Jesus Christ. And those words in the Greek are almost exactly the same words that we read in chapter 13 when it talks about the Antichrist, as it had been slain. We know Jesus Christ physically, literally died. His spirit parted from his body and his body was dead. Same words, same phrase that's used to describe this Antichrist. In verse three, it says, as it were wounded to death. Okay, so it's not saying, well, it seemed like he died. Those words in chapter five were saying Jesus Christ was the lamb that died. So if we take just those words and apply it here, then we have to say, well, this guy must have died. Go down to verse 12 in chapter 13, because it continues talking about this. As we get into the second part of the chapter, we'll see the second beast or the false prophet. But in verse 12, it says this, talking about the second beast, he exercises all the power of the first beast before him and causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. So in the first part of chapter 13, the introduction to the Antichrist, and the second part, in fact, if you look at verse 11, it says, I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, okay, and commentators and theologians have identified him as the false prophet who will come alongside the Antichrist. And in verse 12, it says, he exercises all the power of the first beast before him, causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. Whose is a personal pronoun, not a generic pronoun referring to a kingdom. This is talking about a person. Jump down to verse 14. Verse 14 says, and deceiveth them, again talking about the false prophet, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by the sword and did live. Again, talking about a person who had been, in this case, killed by a sword, or wounded by a sword at least, and still lived. And actually, in the Greek, and did live are the words and came to life. Okay, so in just this passage, we have enough reference, I believe, to demonstrate that this is talking about a person who has died and then came back to life. If that's not enough for you, jump over to chapter 17. Chapter 17. Chapter 17 talks about the Antichrist again in several places. I want you to jump down to verse 8. And this is the revelation given to John again in the context of the Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots. But talking about the Antichrist, verse 8 of chapter 17 says, the beast that thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit. I'm gonna come back to that, but the was and is not means he was alive and then he was dead. Jump down to verse 11, same chapter, chapter 17. And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth and is of the seven and goeth into perdition. So in verse eight it says he was and is not, and then he ascends out of the bottomless pit. We're gonna see that, okay? He ascends out of the bottomless pit. The beast comes up out of the abyss. and makes war against the saints. We saw that already. And so he was, he is not, that means he dies, and then he comes out of the bottomless pit, and I'm gonna explain that in just a minute. But verse 11 says he was, he is not, and then he becomes the eighth king. Now remember, there's only seven. But the eighth is the Antichrist. So we have the Antichrist that was and is not, and then he becomes the eighth king. So there's something that happens in between. And it seems to be that as he gets to this point in his career, in his leadership, he is killed and then comes back to life. So I believe that the Bible's teaching here that the Antichrist actually dies and then is resurrected. Now, another question arises here is similar to the two witnesses issue. You know, we speculate, who are the two witnesses? And we talked about that. So here's the question, who is this Antichrist? And there have been many speculations about who this Antichrist is, who died and came back to life. Now, the fact that he comes back to life, anybody who takes that position, and I was taught this when I was young, okay, but the position they took then, or many people took then, was this is somebody who lived before and then came back as the Antichrist. Okay, and many people will point to Judas Iscariot, say, oh, that was the Antichrist, God's gonna raise him up from the dead, or he's gonna be raised from the dead somehow, and then he's gonna become the Antichrist. And the reason for that is because Jesus himself called Judas a devil, remember? Okay, and when Judas left the Last Supper to go betray Jesus, the Bible tells us the devil, or Satan, entered into him. Also, Jesus referenced in his prayer in John 17, he referenced Judas as the son of perdition. Now, as you read forward into the New Testament, the only other person called the son of perdition is the Antichrist. And so people say, well, Judas was called the devil, Diabolos. He was inhabited by Satan, and he's called the son of perdition. That's the Antichrist, okay? So some people think it's Judas. Other people think it's Nero. because he was one of the worst emperors in the Roman Empire, and so he's going to come back and revive the Roman Empire, etc. Okay, so those are interesting ideas to think about, but here's the problem. Even if it was Judas or Nero or some other infamous person in history that was raised from the dead, nobody alive at that point in history, and we're still future for us, nobody would recognize them. They wouldn't even know who they were. Okay, so the impact of Judas Iscariot coming back from the dead, and they walk around going, I'm Judas Iscariot, I'm the, people go, okay, so, right? Okay, and Nero, the same thing. Anybody from past history, the same thing. The other problem is this. The Bible tells us that when this event happens, as he dies, it's about halfway through the tribulation period. So three and a half years in. So if it's Judas Iscariot or Nero or some other person who's raised back to life, who was the Antichrist for the first three and a half years? That's a problem, okay? So I believe it's one person who comes to power at the beginning of the tribulation. The Bible clearly indicates this. And he dies about the halfway point. He's killed by the sword in Revelation chapter 17, it says that. Now the question is this. Is it an actual death or is it a faked death, counterfeit death, so that we can have a counterfeit resurrection? Remember, Satan is in the business of counterfeiting God's miracles. That goes all the way back to when Moses was standing before Pharaoh. And remember, Pharaoh's wise men tried to duplicate those things. But you see all through scripture, Satan trying to counterfeit God's work. And we already read that the Antichrist is going to have power to do wonders and signs, miracles, supernatural things, that's what that word means. So why not a resurrection? I mean, if he wants to convince the world that he is the Messiah, why not a resurrection? Where we look at this, or how we look at this event of someone dying, the Antichrist dying and coming back to life, I mean, it gives us a picture of what Satan has been trying to accomplish all through history. Divert people away from the truth of Jesus Christ. And here, we have an event that seems to imitate, it's not an imitation, it's a counterfeit resurrection, to draw people again away from the truth. Now, some commentators think it's not a real death, a real resurrection. It's some kind of feigned resurrection. He doesn't die all the way. It seems that he's dead. J. Vernon McGee takes this position. He says, it's a fake resurrection that's promoted as the real thing. And he actually says, he believes that because in 2 Thessalonians 2.11, it says, and for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. And he says, this is the big lie. It's a fake resurrection that people believe is the real thing, and God lets them believe it. John MacArthur also says that, more than likely, Antichrist's alleged death and resurrection will be a counterfeit of Christ's death and resurrection, staged as one of the lying wonders perpetrated by the false prophet of verse 12 through 15. So there's commentators who take different positions on this. If it's a real death and resurrection, here's the big question, and here's where most commentators who say it's not real death, it's not a death and resurrection back to life, this is where they all end up. Is Satan able to bring somebody back to life? And as we study scripture, and I'm not gonna spend time doing that, but you can study scripture and the resounding answer is no. Life and death are in God's hands alone. Okay, we already read in Revelation 1, verse 18, Jesus is the one who holds the keys to death and hell in his hand. That means he is in control, not only of when you die and how you die and who dies, but where you go when you die. Okay, so life and death are God's prerogative alone. He has the power over those. Jesus said in John 11, remember, when he was standing at the tomb of Lazarus, and he turned to his sisters and he said, I am the resurrection and the life. Life and death exist in Jesus Christ. Life is here. He is the source. And so no one else can bring somebody back to life except for God. But I want you to pay attention to the wording in chapter 13, okay? Because in this chapter, and we're in a very unique situation here during the tribulation period, where God allows things to happen that have not been allowed for all of history. Remember that his restrictive power through the Holy Spirit has been taken out of the earth. And so sin is at its worst. All of the demons that were ever created and that ever fell have now been confined to Earth, we saw in the last chapter, for the last three and a half years of the Tribulation period. So all evil is right there. It's going to exist right here on this planet. And God gives power to Satan and to his agents to do things that they never were able to do before to this degree. Look at verse seven in chapter 13, okay? And I gotta go back to chapter 13. It says, and it was given unto him, talking about the Antichrist, it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and then look at the next phrase, and to overcome them. Now, who's in control of all the nations of the world? Who's in control of protecting Christians, protecting God's people, providing for them, keeping us from the harm that evil would do to us? It's in God's hands, okay? Now, God is all-powerful, God is sovereign. He controls all of that. And yet, verse 7 says, it was given unto him. Who was it given by? God. Look at the end of the verse, though. It says, he was given unto him to make war with the saints to overcome them, and power was given him over all kindreds, tongues, and nations. Now, who is it that has power over all kindreds, tongues, and nations, ultimately? That's in God's hand. God is the ruler. God is the sovereign ruler of all of creation. And so, the power belongs to God. But here, He gives power to Satan and his agents to accomplish their work. That is part of God's plan, by the way. Doesn't make sense to us why God would let evil go rampant on the earth, but that's part of his plan. And so he gives the power for that to happen. Remember, at the end of chapter 11, as the seventh trumpet is blown, the voices cry out in heaven, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Okay? Not that he didn't own them before, but now he's reclaiming them. Why? Because God gave power to Satan over those things for a short time. So this power to overcome the saints To put saints to death, Christians, is given to the Antichrist. Literally given to Satan, who empowers the Antichrist with it. God hands it to them. Now, it's not uncontrolled. It's not being unregulated by God. God's still in control, but he gives them this power to do these things. So if this is truly a real resurrection from the dead, which is very possible, of the Antichrist, that happens here at the midpoint of the tribulation period, it says the Antichrist is healed from a mortal wound, then it is the power of God over life and death that is given to Satan in this specific instance to accomplish whatever God wants to accomplish here. He can do whatever he wants. Remember when Satan came to Job? And he said, well, I'm sorry, when Satan came to God about Job, and Satan said, well, he only worships you, he only comes before you, bows before you, because you have blessed him. Take everything away and see what he does. And God said, okay, you can touch everything, but don't touch him. And so he took his children, he took his possessions. All he had left was his wife. And then Satan said, well, what if you touch him? God said, okay, just don't take his life. And Satan had boils all over his body. And this was not a week, this went on for months, maybe years, we don't know exactly the time period. But God gave him permission to do those things to Job. And so God can give his power wherever he wants it to be used. In 2 Thessalonians, I read this verse already, chapter two, verse 11, it says, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they would believe a lie, okay? I'm sorry, I'm skipping ahead because I wanted to talk about this for just a second. This real death and resurrection, we have to answer this question. Is Satan able to bring somebody back from the dead? If God gives him the power, then the answer becomes yes. Were there people on Earth Who raised other people from the dead? Elijah, right? That's one. Jesus, I mean, he's God, but Jesus as a man raised people from the dead. So God gave that power to people. Is it possible then he can give that power here? And we have to answer yes, because all of the symbols point to that. There's examples of it in scripture. So it's very possible that the Antichrist is killed comes back to life by the power of God, but that power given to Satan in order to accomplish that. So, if this is truly a real resurrection that happens at the midpoint of the Tribulation, then God gave that power for it to happen. I want you to consider this. Commentators, a few commentators, suggest this, that when the Antichrist dies at the midpoint of the Tribulation, He is possessed, his body is possessed by a demon at that point, and that's what causes the resurrection. I'm not saying that's what causes it, that's what is the catalyst to it. God raises a person back to life if in fact he's coming back to life. Okay, but in chapter 11, and we've talked about this already, in chapter 11 verse 7, It says this, talking about the two witnesses, by the way, and when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them. This is the midpoint of the tribulation. This exactly coincides with this time period that we're talking about here with the death of the Antichrist. And so some commentators think that these two events are simultaneous, that this beast, this demon, comes up out of the abyss inhabits the dead body of the Antichrist and brings him back alive. And from that point on he has great power like he didn't have before. Daniel chapter 9. Verse 26 and 27, this is what happens at the midpoint of the tribulation after the Antichrist supposedly comes back to life. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the prince that shall come, there's the Antichrist, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. Verse 27, and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, that's his covenant of peace with the Jews. the seven years, and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even unto the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." So in Daniel 9 we see that in the midpoint of the tribulation the Antichrist breaks this peace treaty he has with Israel. Why? Why, when he starts off the tribulation, is he literally considered by the Jews to be the Messiah, who brings peace to their land, so much so that they stop even depending on their own strength and forces to defend themselves, because the Antichrist is going to do it for them. And then all of a sudden, At the midpoint, the Antichrist completely turns against him and no longer is he protecting them, but he's killing them left and right. And he also brings the abomination of desolation into the temple and ceases all worship of God. In fact, all worship, period, of anything other than himself. What's the big change? And some theologians have suggested it's this inhabiting by the demon or the beast that comes out of the abyss that makes the 360 degree turn here. Because the first part of the tribulation, he's adored as a peacemaker. He is considered to be the Messiah by many unbelieving Jews. And then he turns on them, totally. And so at the midpoint, everything changes. It may be possible that this demon-possessed resurrection is the turning point at which Satan takes absolute control of the Antichrist's body, as well as his spirit, through demon possession, and gives him supernatural powers to perform the miracles and wonders that happen after this. William Dillon explains it this way, a sword will bring physical death and the restoration will not be necessarily a resurrection, but a changed personality, a different person coming into the revived, recognizable body of the Antichrist. And he goes on to say that since Satan has been given the key to the abyss, we saw that in chapter nine, then he is able to raise up a spirit from the depths that takes possession of the dead body of the Antichrist. And this would explain the total change in attitude and action toward the Jews and a new desire to be worshipped as a God. All possible, okay? But is it real, is it fake? I don't know. The Bible says he received a mortal wound and he came back to life, so I'm going to take it as it says it. But whatever the cause of the resurrection back to life, whether it's real or whether it's just a ruse, the end of verse 3 it says it causes all the world to hold him in awe. If you look at the end of verse 3, And all the world wondered after the beast, and they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast. And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? The world will be in awe. In fact, their wonder, look at verse 3, it says, All the world wondered. And then by the middle of verse four it says, and they worshiped him. And so their wonder turns to worship. There's something miraculously supernatural that happens here that causes all the world to worship this Antichrist and Satan as God. Okay? This is what Satan has been gunning for for all of history. It's, in a sense, his one moment. But it's just a moment. We know it's a short time. But all the world worships the Antichrist and the beast, the dragon, which gives him his power. So this literally is worldwide satanic worship. And you wonder why it's gonna be so bad in the second part of the Great Tribulation, or in the Great Tribulation, okay? It's not just the worship of the person. It's the worship of Satan. This is what he has been wanting his whole life, his whole existence, okay? The people of Earth worship Satan. And when you worship someone empowered by Satan, you literally are worshiping the one that empowers them. That's what this verse is telling us. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul refers to the Lord's table. We celebrate the Lord's table. And in that context of talking about the Lord's table, he tells the Corinthian Christians, and it's a message to all of us, about the dichotomy between worshiping the world and worshiping God at the same time. And he uses the example of eating meat offered to idols. And in chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians verses 19 through 21, Paul says this. What say I then, that the idol is anything, or that which is sacrificed to idols is anything? Okay, he's already kind of established that back in chapter eight, and he said, you know, you know that the meat doesn't change, you know that sacrificing it to idols doesn't change, that they're really not gods, there's no false gods, so there's nothing wrong with the meat. And then he says, but knowledge puffeth up. Okay? And here he picks that same issue up in the context of the Lord's Supper. And he says, you know, we've already talked about, there's nothing wrong with the meat. But I say, in verse 20, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to gods. He's literally making the point that even though there are no false gods that exist, the idols are just pieces of wood and metal. But what they represent is demonic control. Satan's realm. And so he says, they sacrifice them to idols and not to God. Therefore, I would that ye not have fellowship with devils. So he's saying, if you partake of those things that have been sacrificed to devils, you're literally partaking of the worship of devils. Fellowship with them. And then in verse 21, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils. And so Paul's point is that if you are going to worship something of the world, then you worship the prince of this world in doing it. And so when we make a God in our life something other than the God of heaven, anything that we put above God in our priorities becomes our God. We're not worshipping the thing, we're not worshipping money, we're not worshipping fame, we're worshipping the God of those things who is Satan himself. And that's what happens to the ultimate extreme here in the Great Tribulation period. The people see this great miracle. They worship the beast, the Antichrist, but in doing so, they worship Satan, who gives him his power. And look at their words for worship in the end of verse four. Saying, who is like unto the beast, who is able to make war with him. Now, if you're a student of the Bible, those words might sound familiar. Satan here usurps, the praise that's given to God all throughout scripture and brings it upon himself. Again, this has been Satan's goal from the very beginning, to be God. to be worshipped as God. And here he literally steals and hijacks a phrase of praise that's been used throughout centuries up to this point that has been attributed only to God. That phrase appears over and over in the Old Testament. Exodus 15, verse 11, who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Psalm 35, 10, all my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him? Psalm 113, verses four and five, the Lord is high above all nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high? Isaiah chapter 40, verse 18, to whom will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare unto him? Isaiah 40 verse 25, to whom then will ye liken me, this is God talking, or who shall be my equal, saith the Holy One. Isaiah 46 verse 5, to whom will ye liken me and make me equal and compare me that we may be like, again God speaking. Micah chapter 7 verse 18, who is a God likened to thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage. And Satan is going to steal the praise of God and attribute it to himself. The very words that have been given to God in praise, and Satan will usurp them for his own glory. Who is like unto the beast, who is able to make war against him. And so Satan literally hijacks the glory and worship that belongs to God and he steals the very wording of God's praise and ascribes it to himself here. That is the essence of blasphemy. And verse six says, he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God. I gotta stop there because of time. But I wanted to share this with you. As we look at this study of the Antichrist, the end times, all of this stuff, there's an application for us, there always is. Because the Bible says all scripture is good for our instruction, for reproof, for correction, okay? It's all good for us. So here's the question. When we look at what the Antichrist, what Satan does here in the end times, Who are we worshipping? Really, who are we worshipping? Are we truly worshipping God with our lives and our words? Or are we, like Satan, stealing the praise that belongs to God alone? Do we want to be first? Do we want people to recognize us for what we've done? Do we want to have all the awards and acclamation from people around us? Is that the goal of our life? That's what Satan was defined by. And that's idolatry. And if we want those words to be applied to us, it literally becomes blasphemy. If our lives are defined by always seeking out our own glory and recognition, always trying to be first and best, by always wanting to get our way in everything, then we have set ourselves above God. God tells us that we are to put other people first. Put other people ahead of ourselves. Seek the good of others before we seek our own. And who gets the glory for it? God. I think it was President Reagan that said, a lot more would be accomplished if no one cared who got the credit for it. That should be us as Christians, except we do care who gets the credit, we care that God gets the credit. Because we can do nothing by ourselves. All of our strength, all of our knowledge, all the skill, all the opportunities, everything comes from God. It's given to us by Him. And He gives us all of that for His glory, not for our own. And so when we live for ourself, literally, we assume the spirit of Antichrist. Think about that. If my life is all about what I want, that is the spirit of Antichrist because I have set myself above God. The truth is we're nothing but bits of clay in the master's hand. We are to do nothing except present ourselves a living sacrifice to God for him to use and for him to be glorified through. And we can do nothing to give him glory except through the strength and power of Jesus Christ who is above all and through all and in us all. And so that's why I keep saying, and I want to remind you of this, as we study the Antichrist, as we study the end times, as we study all of these things that are coming, we can't lose sight of Christ. And even as we look at the Antichrist, it makes us, or it should, compel us to reflect upon ourselves. and start asking that question, is that spirit in me? God has put us here to honor him, to praise him, to glorify him. And so as we see the Antichrist in Revelation, in many ways we see a glimpse of ourselves in the things that we haven't submitted to God in our lives. God can fix that in us. He's not going to fix it in the Antichrist, but God can fix that in us if we submit to him. But if we carry that spirit of Antichrist as the goal of our lives, as our motivating factor, as the impetus behind what we do and how we live, then our end will be the same as where the Antichrist will end up eventually. And that's a scary thought. May our lives as believers, may our lives in worship as believers, therefore humbly reflect the glory and greatness of our God alone, rather than trying to seek glory and greatness for ourselves. Don't be an antichrist. Let's pray. Lord and Father, you've shown us today that the spirit of Antichrist, as we see it in the person himself in the end times, and yet that spirit pervades the world because of Satan's influence even today. We know that it's going to come to a peak at the end of this age, when the Antichrist himself arises. But Lord, we know as human beings that we're often drawn toward that spirit because we are humans who seek to satisfy and exalt ourselves through our own desires and goals. And Father, you've told us that we need to crucify ourselves to take up our cross daily. And so may we do that as faithful followers of you. May we crucify ourselves, our flesh. May we take up our crosses daily, submitting ourselves to your authority, giving you all the glory and honor in everything. And Lord, I ask that you would make us worthy through the righteousness of Christ. leaving everything else behind in our lives so that Christ can have the preeminence, that he gets to take the place that he deserves. And Lord, teach us to live this way in faithfulness to you. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. Our closing hymn is hymn number 148. 148, will Jesus find us watching? There's many references that Jesus made to his second coming and will we be watching,
Introduction to the Antichrist - Part 2
Series Revelation
The Antichrist will be empowered directly by Satan, although that power is still under the sovereign authority of God. The Antichrist's power will be demonstrated through an apparent resurrection from a deadly wound that will cause all the people of the earth to worship him. Thus, the blasphemy against God by the Antichrist spreads to all those who follow him as they exalt this false leader to god status.
Identificación del sermón | 105211454314864 |
Duración | 52:21 |
Fecha | |
Categoría | Servicio Dominical |
Texto de la Biblia | Apocalipsis 13:3-7 |
Idioma | inglés |
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