So, okay you guys, we are in week 3 of 4, and looking at Revelation chapter 13. Okay, normally we'll take, in the summertime, we're taking one week per chapter. I've got a couple chapters that I split up in half previously, and now we're slowing down even more, which is actually good. So we're actually taking four weeks in chapter 13. Now, don't forget, chapter 13 is a key chapter in the book of Revelation. And having just said that, we're still in the parenthetical chapters of Revelation. In chapter 12, we were introduced to Satan. Remember what he was depicted as? A great red salamander. Oh, dragon. In God's eyes, he's like that, right? Okay, in chapter 12, he's the great red dragon. Now in chapter 13, then, we're introduced, and notice how they're all together, chapter 12 and chapter 13, these three great personages of the last days. So we have, in chapter 12, the great red dragon. Chapter 13, what we looked at the last two weeks, is the beast from the sea, And that was verses 1 through 10. And then today and next week, we're gonna see the beast from the land. Okay, the first beast is known as the Antichrist. The second beast is known as the False Prophet. And together, the three, the dragon, the beast from the sea, and the beast from the land or the earth, form what many theologians refer to as the satanic trinity. All right, and this is key. And we'll, again, if you weren't here for any of these, please catch up online. This is very, very important stuff. It's key. And now you kind of see why we have these parenthetical chapters. So we can say, oh, let me tell you about a little bit more about this guy, this guy, and this guy. All right, now I'm gonna ask you guys a question. I sent out a video this past week, and it was on the Pope. Did you guys watch that one? A couple of you guys? You guys need to watch that. Now, why did I send that out? I sent that out because it came across my desk, and I am not here to tell you that the Pope is the false prophet. And again, as I've heard people say, if he's not, he's working really hard to get the job, right? He's polishing his resume and he's putting it into the dragon and saying, oh, I hope, I hope, right? I mean, that's kind of what it's like. I would encourage you to, if you're at all doubting that, then you just don't know what the Pope is doing. you have no idea what he's doing. Again, I'm not saying that he is, but he's working really hard like the false prophet would. And this is the kind of person that he's going to be. And especially as we look today, and you guys are going to see some more characteristics of him. And I know that's not very popular to say. You know, some people say like, how dare you say something about such a holy man? Folks, if you know anything about the Pope, that's the furthest thing from the truth. All right. One of Satan's chief characteristics is deception, correct? Let's just talk a little bit about deception. So Satan, when he appears, he's not going to come with a little red suit with a pointy tail and a pitchfork, right? And say, hey, come on, just follow me and I'll show you guys which way to heaven. He's going to dress himself All nice and neat, he's gonna look very religious, and that's exactly who we're gonna see today. All right, so that deception, talking about these chief characteristics of Satan is deception. That deception began in chapter three of Genesis with Satan's life-changing lie to Eve, and he said, you surely will not die. Do you remember that? She believed him, and it brought her death. Since then, Satan has worked tirelessly all over this world in order, as the scripture says, to, now you take this from 2 Corinthians 4.4, to blind the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Now, I don't know about you before you guys got saved. Excuse me, that was that last donut. I don't know about you guys before you got saved, but I would honestly describe myself as blind. I knew nothing. All I knew is this book was a bunch of do's and don'ts, and I claimed to believe in God, and I thought that would get me to heaven. But I was lied to, I was blind, I couldn't see. So after the thousand year reign of Christ is concluded, Satan will be briefly loosed and he will do his best to deceive the nations one more time, turning them against the Lamb. So you have a thousand years of peace and Jesus Christ reigning from his throne in Jerusalem, and then Satan's gonna be loose once again, and even underneath a perfect government, you're gonna have multitudes that are gonna follow after him. So we know that Satan is a liar, he is a deceiver, and so it follows logically that those who follow and serve him will also be what? Liars and deceivers. It's exactly what we see, not just in American politics, but where? Politics all around the world. Because we're looking at a one world government, and guess what? One world government means everybody's gotta be playing. Everybody's gotta be playing on that one side. Now the Bible warns us repeatedly about listening to deceivers. And the Bible has a name for them, and he calls them false prophets. Now right before Moses' death, he gave the children of Israel the following warning. Now there's a couple passages I want you to turn to this morning, because I want you to look at these in your own Bible. So this first one's found in Deuteronomy chapter 13. All right, this is just setting us up for our lesson today. So Deuteronomy 13, look at this. We're gonna look at verses one through five. It says this. If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, then it must be true. Correct? Keep reading. That's not true. And the sign or the wonder comes true concerning which he spoke to you saying, hey, let us go after other gods whom you have not known and let us serve them. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Verse four. "'You shall follow the Lord your God and fear him, "'and you shall keep his commandments, "'listen to his voice, serve him and cling to him.'" Those verses really impacted me this past week, and singing, Lord, that's exactly how I want to be. I want to cling to you, I want to listen to your word, I want to obey your commandments, I want to listen to your voice and serve you. Now verse five, here it is. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk, so you shall purge the evil from among you. Okay, the point is this, even if somebody has, comes to you and shows you great signs and miracles and wonders, but they say something against God's revealed word, what should we do? Don't listen, don't listen. As a matter of fact, I said to kill that person, right? Stone them, that's how serious it was. Now the prophet Jeremiah, I can go over and over, we could spend our whole time on just this one lesson, but we're not gonna do that. Prophet Jeremiah warned the people of his day as well. And again, this is such an important passage that I want you to turn here, Jeremiah chapter 23. All right, Jeremiah chapter 23. Look in your Bibles, and the reason why I want you to bring you there is so that you know where it's found, you can even mark it in your Bible. Jeremiah 23, we're gonna read verse 16, then we're gonna jump down to verse 25. So verse 16. Says this, thus says the Lord of hosts, do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility. They speak a vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of the Lord. Sounds like a lot of churches today. No, I'm serious. A lot of churches today. Now go down to verse 25. He said this, he continues on and he says, I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in my name saying I had a dream, I had a dream. You guys had people, do you know people who tell you that they have dreams? We all have dreams, right? But that's not the type of dreams I'm talking about here. I'm talking about these people who claim to have a dream from the Lord. Now verse 26, how long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart? Verse 27, who intend to make my people forget my name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot my name because of Baal? The prophet who has who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has my word speak my word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain, declares the Lord. Would you rather eat straw or grain, folks? Right? And then he says this, verse 29. Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer which shatters a rock? therefore behold i am against the prophets declares the lord who steal my words from each other verse 31 behold i am against the prophets declares the lord who use their tongues and declares the lord declares Verse 32, behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams, declares the Lord, and related them, and led my people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting, yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit, declares the Lord. Pretty powerful. Folks, these are excellent verses. These are very, very good verses. Really, the whole book of Jeremiah, which I just finished reading not too long ago in my own reading, is full of warnings like this, warning us against false shepherds, those who will lead us astray. And folks, in a day and age when so many people are claiming to be having dreams and visions from God, or hearing God's voice speak to them directly, I want to encourage you to take some time to review these inspired warnings, all throughout the Old Testament and all throughout the New Testament. Now there are just, we just looked at a few here in the Old Testament, but there are many warnings in the New Testament as well. I'm just gonna give you a few of them. Matthew 7, 15, Jesus in his sermon on the mount said this, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Again, what's a sheep clothing? What's a wolf dressed up like a sheep? He is imposter, right? That's exactly right. I think of, too, again, Satan is not gonna come with a little pointy pitchfork and a tail and little horns, you know, how we usually depict Satan, especially around Halloween time. But he is going to come dressed in a suit and a tie, and he's going to speak very, very nice, good words. And it's never what they say, it's what they don't say. Right? And I really wanna impress it upon your hearts. When you visit other churches, not what they say, God is love, God is kind, God is forgiving, God is merciful. True, true, true, true, true. But you'll never hear, oh, by the way, you'll never hear the reproofs, the rebukes, and the exhortations that Paul says, Timothy, don't forget to do that, by the way, in 2 Timothy chapter three. So, Matthew 7, 15. Peter said this, the same thing or similar thing in 2 Peter 2, 1. even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And John, the author of Revelation, wrote the following in his first epistle right before Revelation, 1 John 4, 1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. How are you gonna test it? How are you gonna test those spirits? You have to know this. You have to know this, because appearances will be deceiving, words will be deceiving, you have to know God's word. That's why we are called Cornerstone Bible Church. Starting next month, I'm going to push everybody to have a Bible reading plan for January, to push you through the whole year. You need to be Bereans, you need to be reading God's word. We have over 20 different plans that we give out. We want you guys to be reading your Bibles. Minimum, one time through each year, that's minimum. So you see that false prophets have plagued the world ever since the very beginning, and they will only, get this, they will only increase or decrease as the time of the end draws near. They will only increase They will only increase and Jesus prophesied about this in Matthew chapter 24. In that passage, verse 11, he said, many false prophets will arise and will mislead how many? Many, many. In fact, those false prophets will be so effective. They will be so deceptive. They will have such good words that Jesus said this in Mark 13, 22. He said, for false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show signs and wonders in order to lead astray. And then this is that last phrase you gotta pay attention to. if possible, the elect. So how deceptive is this gonna be? Unreal deception. Unreal deception. It's gonna look so good and sound so airtight, watertight. that unless you are a part of the elect, you would be deceived. You would be deceived. That's why the whole world is gonna flock after Satan, who's behind the Antichrist, and today, as we're gonna see, the false prophet. Now, the devil's going to intensify his efforts to deceive the world as his own doom gets closer and closer. Folks, if you're younger than 20 or around 20, then ask somebody who's 40 and above if this world has changed. Please, do it. Ask them. And it has. And it's transforming so at a lightning speed, it really is. And a large part of this deceptive plan is going to include a man called the false prophet, who is introduced in our text today. He will be the most powerful and the most effective deceiver that this world has ever known. Alongside Satan, again, who will counterfeit God the Father, and the Antichrist who will counterfeit God the Son, will be the false prophet who will counterfeit God the Holy Spirit. Again, these three are known as the Satanic Trinity. They're copying God, what Satan does. He's a copycat. And the false prophet will be the Antichrist's partner in Satan's final push to deceive the whole world. And while Antichrist will be primarily a political and military leader, as we saw the prior two weeks, this false prophet that we're gonna look at today and next week will be a religious leader, leading billions into the satanic religion of worshiping Antichrist. So, with that as a little longer introduction than normal, let's turn our attention to today's text where we find three key elements about the false prophet. his personage, his power, and his plan. Look at Revelation 13, 11 through 18. We'll finish off the chapter. Then they saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose fatal wound was healed He performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. Verse 14, and he does what? deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life, verse 15. And it was given to him. to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast would speak, would even speak, excuse me, and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed, verse 16. And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. He provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man, and his number is 666. Now, you all have a lot of questions, good. Did we post that number? Okay, we did. It was behind my head, I couldn't see it. Thank you. Let's go back up to verse 11 and look at that once again together where we see where John describes the false prophet. All right. Verse 11 says this, then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. Again, the last couple of weeks, we looked at the first beast, which was the Antichrist in verses one through 10. And now John sees another beast, this time coming up out of the earth, not the sea, but the earth. And some have tried to identify this beast as a system, Okay, or a religious institution. That would make sense because this guy's a false prophet. Or even a form of government. So you'll see those in different commentaries that you read. But that cannot be for at least two reasons. First, John used the Greek word here for another, the word another, which means another of the same kind. So even though we have to know when we use the word another or like, we have to really specify it. But in the Greek, they had a couple of words, and one was meant when you said another, that particular Greek word meant another of exactly the same kind. And that's what we have being used here by John. In other words, the second beast was like the first in that he was a person. And I think we made that pretty clear in verses one through 11. Or one through 10. Now a second reason why this beast cannot refer symbolically to a system or some kind of movement is because of what is said in Revelation chapter 19. Just listen to verse 20 in chapter 19. It says this, and the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. Folks, God does not throw religious systems or ideologies into the lake of fire. The Lake of Fire is reserved for Satan, for his evil angels, and all unbelievers. And guess who the very first two inhabitants are gonna be? the Antichrist and the false prophet. They go in first. Now John described the second beast as coming up out of the earth. And remember the first beast was seen as coming up out of the sea. So again, how should we understand this distinction? First, you need to understand that in the ancient world, the earth was less foreboding and mysterious than the sea was. Thus, according to one author, this could mean that the false prophets will be subtler, gentler, less overpowering and terrifying than the Antichrist. He will be winsome and persuasive, the epitome of the wolves in sheep's clothing that Jesus warned of. And again, now you understand why I start off with all these verses about deception. Other commentators have suggested that this is a clear reference to his Jewish origin. It appears that the Antichrist will be Gentile in origin, since he is seen as coming up out of the sea, and that was frequently a reference in the scriptures to Gentile nations. You could do a study on that, and when it talks about coming from the sea, it talked about really coming from the Gentile nations all over the world, and the world is really Really in order to gift from one Gentile nation to another you had to cross the sea So they're coming from the sea if that makes sense you have to think of it from their perspective It follows in logically that the false prophet coming up out of the earth again may may very well indicate that he is Jewish. Could be the case. Now this would make sense since the Antichrist manages at the beginning of the tribulation to negotiate peace between Israel and the rest of the world. That very well could be the case. Another difference between the first and the second beast is that the second beast is said to have only how many horns? Two, in comparison to the 10 and the seven heads and 10 crowns of the first beast. Furthermore, John likens the second beast to a lamb. Now compare that to John's description of the first beast as a leopard. as a bear and a lion, all of which are wild, ferocious, deadly beasts. So again, this is no mistake. God has inspired John to write exactly what John would write and to see exactly what John would see and then to put that down on paper. So this second beast will not be characterized by the same massive might and ferocity of the first beast. To the casual observer, this false prophet will be as gentle and harmless as a lamb. When you look at the Pope, for example, again, I'm not saying that he is the false prophet, but when you look at the Pope in this video that I sent out, he's dressed in complete white, beautiful garments. He has this staff, looks like a nice old guy. I've also heard him speak, and he speaks like a very gentle, well-meaning old man, and you just, your heart, honestly, your heart thinks, man, that sounds so good, but so deceptive, right? And it really, really is the case. So he's gonna look like this lamb, or like he's a wolf in sheep's clothing, and it's exactly what's being described here. He won't, again, he won't come on the world stage as a powerful superhero like we talked about the last couple of weeks, like the Antichrist. Again, he's gonna come on the scene and he's gonna appear as a lamb, he's gonna appear meek and mild, a gentle religious leader pointing the way that all of humanity needs to go. Again, if you notice that the Pope is really taking on that role. This guy is more political than any pope has probably ever been in the history of the church, the last 1,700 years. But as we all know, appearances can be deceiving. The false prophet will be no less a child of Satan than the Antichrist, as is indicated by John's last statement here in verse 11, that he spoke, spoke as a dragon. So despite the fact that the false prophet will appear like a lamb, he will nevertheless be the dragon's mouthpiece. And like the Antichrist, he too will speak for Satan, but they will do so in two very different ways. According to verse two, if we go back in chapter 13, verse two, the Antichrist will have a mouth like a lion. Big mouth, ferocious teeth, right? I don't wanna be on the other end of a mouth of a lion. I don't know about you guys. Then verse five, we are told that he will be given a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies. This guy is gonna be the most proud man, the most horrific mouth and blasphemies that you could ever imagine. The false prophet, on the other hand, will speak winsome and deceiving, deceptive words of praise about the Antichrist, which he will use to lure and deceive the world into worshiping him and Satan, who stands behind both these guys. One commentator wrote this. He said, false prophets often appear meek, mild, and harmless. They offer hope and solutions to the problems troubling men and women, yet they are ever the voices of hell. And when they open their mouths, Satan speaks. So it will be amid the unspeakable horrors of the tribulation. The false prophet will come like a lamb speaking false, deceptive words of comfort. He will promise the suffering, tormented people of the world that all will be well if only they will worship Antichrist. But those who fall for his subtle lies will face the terrifying judgment of God. Another commentator. Speaking along these same lines said this, this type of persuasiveness contrasts with the first beast's loud blasphemy against all heavenly things, 13.6. This is not blustering fierceness, but deceptive, subtle, seductive speech to lure people away from faith in Christ and into the dragon's trap. Yikes. That's how it's gonna be. That's how it's gonna be. You see the world being set up like that. Next, John describes a false prophet's power. Look at verses 12, 13, 14. He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose fatal wound was healed. Verse 13, he performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast. who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. Now, this false prophet is also going to be empowered by Satan, again, according to verse 12, exercising all the authority of the first beast. He will force, all of the earth's inhabitants to worship Antichrist. We see that in the last part of verse 12 there. He will perform great signs and wonders like calling down fire from heaven, according to verse 13. He will give life to the image of the beast, according to verse 15. And finally, He will cause people all around the world to receive the mark of the first beast, and we'll get to that next week. This false prophet, again, is going to take on a role very similar to that of the Holy Spirit during the church age. This is who he's copying. And just as the Holy Spirit points people to who? To Christ. If you're in Christ, guess who did that? It's the Holy Spirit who pointed you to Christ. He opened your blind eyes, took away the blinders. He opened your ears so that you can hear God speaking to you through his word. Not audibly, but speaking to you through his word. And then guess who replaced that heart of stone? The Bible describes our natural hearts when we're born into this world as a heart of stone. Guess who replaced it with a heart of flesh? God did, God the Holy Spirit. So he's gonna take on a role very similar to that of the Holy Spirit during the end times. He will be a high priest of the worldwide cult of Antichrist. And no doubt his efforts will get a big boost when Antichrist's fatal head wound will be miraculously healed. And please know what the text says and what it doesn't say about this miraculous healing. Okay, look what it says in verse 12. It says, whose fatal wound was what? What's the word there? Go ahead. Healed, it was healed. In verse 14, look down at verse 14. says this, the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. Again, folks, as I mentioned last week, I do not believe this will be the result of some ingenious sleight of hand trick or merely the recovery from a serious injury or illness like people do every single day from the hospital. Nor do I think that this will be some kind of staged death or phony resurrection. It could be, but I just don't think so. I don't think the text proves that out. I believe Antichrist will truly, genuinely come back from the dead. I believe that God, for his own sovereign purposes, is going to allow for Antichrist to genuinely rise from the dead, a bona fide miracle. And the result will be a worldwide cult following and worship of Antichrist. One scholar writes this, he says, these will be genuine miracles, supernatural accomplishments, not mere trickery or skills and pyrotechnics. They will almost deceive the elect, as Jesus warns in Matthew 24, 24, the Olivet Discourse. But the faithful will recognize them for what they are because of the purpose for which they are performed and the doctrine that they seek to prove. The only reason why people will know that they're fake is because it's been foretold of right here. or that they come from the power of Satan, I should say. Other than that, they're gonna look so real that no one, everyone will be deceived. No one will know the truth. And again, unless you're a part of the elect. Now think about these signs for a minute. It's no accident that they mimic those of the very first two witnesses that we saw back in chapter 11. They too had the ability to call down fire from heaven Right? And anybody that wanted to do them harm, they had the right to destroy those. And I'm also reminded of the magicians in Pharaoh's court who were able to mimic several of Moses' miracles. Were those fakes? Was it just sleight of hand? The text seems to make it sound pretty genuine, that they threw down their staffs too and it became a snake. But it just so happens that Moses' snake ate theirs. Swallowed them, right? And my point is this, these satanic miracles will be so real, so awe-inspiring that unless someone is born again and has the spirit of the living God, the spirit of truth residing in them, they will fall prey to this deception. The false prophet will succeed in his attempt to deceive those who dwell on the earth exactly as Jesus said would happen. According to Matthew 24, verse five, Matthew 24, 11, 24, 24, Mark 13, six. So folks, listen, if you're banking on the fact that, hey, once I see everyone, I know a young man who said this, once I see all you guys have disappeared, he goes, then I'll know it's true, then I'll get saved. Uh-uh, that's a dangerous gamble, sir. Yes, there will be people who will get saved in the tribulation. But unless you choose now, unless you choose now, the deception will be so great that you won't even maybe recall those things that your parents taught you or the church taught you, whatever it might have been, what you read yourself. Now even though Satan and his two henchmen, the Antichrist and the False Prophet, will be hugely successful in deceiving the whole world, they will not be successful in deceiving God's elect, the believers. This little phrase, those who dwell on the earth, you can underline that in your Bibles, is used all throughout Revelation to describe unbelievers. Check it out, check out the references here. We got from 310, 610, 813, 1110, 1308, 1312, 1314, 1702, and 1708. It's a technical description of unbelievers. Not everyone who dwells on the earth, because again, we know there's gonna be a lot of believers during that time. who will get saved after the rapture, just to be clear. In contrast, believers will recognize the Antichrist and the false prophets and will not be swayed by their lying signs and lying wonders. And folks, it is so important to remember that not all signs and wonders come from God. Why did I bring you back to Deuteronomy chapter 13? If a false prophet arises and shows you signs and wonders and said, hey, let's come after this false god, what'd he say? Don't believe him, put him to death because he's lying. So where do you get these signs and wonders from? Where did that power come from? His big old daddy, Satan, right, who gave him that power. Well, we fast forward, we see the exact same thing here. Exact same thing. So again, not all signs and wonders, even bona fide ones, are from the Lord. Just as we saw in Matthew 7, 21 through 23. Those who make personal experience rather than the scripture, their foundation for their lives are building on sand. Remember, many will say to me on that last day, Lord, Lord, did we not, do you remember, prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and perform many miracles in your name? And then I will declare to them, depart from me. I never, or ye workers of lawlessness, I never knew you. So they're claiming to do all these pretty amazing things, but they're not from the Lord. So our experiences are never to sit in judgment on God's word, God's word. This is our foundation, folks. That's why we need to know it. Regarding that fact, one commentator said this, each and every experience must be tested against its adherence to which God has already revealed in Scripture. When and if an experience fails the test of Scripture, it must be rejected, for we know that the Spirit of God speaks consistently. That which is of the Holy Spirit is in agreement with that which is authored through the Holy Spirit. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world, 1 John 4, 1. Thus, the biblical believer evaluates the fruit of his experience against the measure of scripture and avoids deception. Acts 8, Deuteronomy 13. As the power of Antichrist and the persuasiveness of his false prophet grows, Satan will escalate the false world religion of Antichrist worship. How? Look at verse 14, the last part. Telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. Worship of an image is a flagrant violation of what commandment? Which are the 10th commandment? Number two, they're written in stone by the very finger of God himself. God said this in Exodus 20 verses four and five. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them. And here's the antichrist, here's the false prophet saying hey, worship and serve it. Nevertheless, humanity will be so overwhelmed, they'll be so convinced, they'll be so deceived by the Antichrist and the false prophets that they will make an image to the beast as a symbol of his deity. And this blasphemous image will most likely be set up in Jerusalem in a rebuilt temple and will be the abomination of desolation spoken of again in Daniel chapter 9, Daniel 11, Daniel 12, and Matthew 24. It will be a tribute to Antichrist who was killed but has come back to life. And folks, I think our world is ripe for such a person to come because that's what they want. That's what they want. They've been trained and set up for this again and again and again to believe this deception. Can you guys believe the media nowadays? Ha, ha, ha. Not a bit, but it all has to be this way. So I say all that, get excited, he is coming back soon, amen? Let's pray and then we'll do our question and answers. Father, we thank you again and again and again that you have all things under control. Thank you that we don't need to be deceived, but we do need to be trained in your word. So Lord, help us to be good Bereans Help us to test everything, even the words from this pulpit, everything against the backdrop of your word, of your holy word, your perfect word. And may we just be found faithful before you. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.