I'm going to continue our series through the book of Daniel this morning in Daniel chapter 7. And so let's ask the Lord's blessing upon us as we come then to the ministry of his word. Father, as we open up your word now, we come to this book of Daniel written by your servant Daniel so many centuries ago, and yet your Word lives. It's living and powerful and active. Your Spirit takes your Word, speaks to us. We pray, Father, that that would happen now, that our faith in you would be strengthened, that we would know you more and more intimately, that we would love you more, that the stain and remaining bits of love for this present world would fade away. And we pray, Father, that as a result of hearing your word here in the book of Daniel, we would realize with increased clarity that you are the one orchestrating all of history, and that you are directing us toward that point when the Lord Jesus comes again, and your kingdom is brought in everlastingly. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Let's read. Actually, before we begin with Daniel, Let's go ahead and take the time to read 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, if you'll turn there. And you'll see the connection here, 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, where this is a central passage. Your Bible may have a heading in there, something like the man of sin or the man of lawlessness. Let's read this together, and it'll serve as a good background for us in regard to this interesting character that crops up in Daniel 7, the little horn. It's kind of a strange thing on the surface of it. But here we are, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Now, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and are being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And you know what's restraining him now, so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he's out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. Well, here we have Daniel. You remember that he and his friends are in captivity in Babylon. Can you kind of round things off? Just remember about 600 BC, right about in that period of time, Babylon was the world empire. And when Daniel was taken captive and taken off to Babylon, and we've already seen some of the events that have happened to him and to his friends. the fiery furnace, and Daniel in the lion's den, and all of those kinds of things. Well, here then is Daniel 7, and Daniel is given another vision. Here's a little portion of that chapter, and we'll read some more of it a bit later. Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying. with its teeth of iron and claws of bronze, and which devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. And about the 10 horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up and before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things and that seemed greater than its companions there." What I want us to do, of course, that's that apocalyptic language, right? Daniel, parts of Ezekiel, Zechariah, certainly the book of Revelation. You have all of these strange images which communicate God's truth to us. And that's what we have here in this dream, this vision that is given to Daniel of these four beasts. Now, what I want us to do this morning is focus our attention on two main themes from the book of Daniel. Really, they're themes that are through the whole Bible, but certainly in the book of Daniel. The first theme, and this is really the major theme of Daniel, is the sovereignty of God over the nations. The sovereignty of God over nations. Ancient civilizations had localized deities. They had the gods of the Egyptians, and the gods of the Babylonians, and the gods of the hills, and all these different kinds of gods. And it didn't occur to them that there's only one. living and true God. And this is one of the things that God is using Daniel and his friends in Babylon to show the world. God is sovereign over the nations. And we might even better put it this way. God is sovereign over history. If you don't have a firm handle on that truth and believe it, God is sovereign over history. You're going to freak out every day when you pick up, I was going to say pick up the newspaper. Nobody picks up the newspaper anymore, you know, but when you go online or whatever, you look at the, you get all, all keyed up. You have to remember, God is sovereign. He declares and decrees all that comes to pass. Nothing happens outside of his, of his decree, and this is certainly probably the major theme of the book of Daniel. And then secondly, as I said, I'd like us to consider this mysterious little horn that crops up here in this vision that has eyes. And it talks. It speaks great things, boastful things, and so on. These are very important things for us, then, to understand. Those two doctrines are actually very much intertwined. And as we said, there's great comfort to be had for all of us in these truths. I can remember back in the 1950s. When was I in the first grade? 1956, something like that. So and some of you can remember those times. And I went to West Salem grade school. And at the end, one of the things that I remember about West Salem grade school, besides the fact that I spent a lot of time having to stand in the hall because I talked too much in the class, but at the end of the hallway, there was two stories. But at the end of each hallway, there was this big red metal siren. And that siren freaked me out. Why? Because they would give us these drills. If there's going to be an atomic war, if the bomb is going to be dropped on us, you better be under your desk, right down there. That's where it's going to be. And that siren, that siren would go off and they'd have these drills. And so on. These are the kinds of things that we experience, but you even experience them as an adult in this chaotic world. So it's all the more important. Nobody told me when I was a kid. Now just take it easy here. God is sovereign. Here's what this means. God is in control. He's overseeing everything. So these are these two Let's look at the sovereignty of God over all of history first. This word sovereign, it's a name for royalty. A king is often called the sovereign, the sovereign one. In fact, because the king's image was often on a coin, they called the coin a sovereign, right? This is how kings are often referred to. You see the little root word in that word sovereign, reign, right? The king reigns. It's a word about kingly and royal power. The apostle Paul uses it in 1 Timothy chapter 6 when he's writing to Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm tempted to preach a second sermon right there on that passage, right there, because the good confession of the word of God is being stained left and right in the pulpits of our nation then today. that for another day, but until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time, he who is the blessed, and here it is, only sovereign, the only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. So here, the Lord is the ultimate sovereign. He is king of kings. The word is related to power. A king, a ruler, exercises power over his subjects. He speaks, and then it is done. And as applied to the Lord, as Paul says here, He's the only sovereign, the only one. This is an attribute, then, of God, his sovereignty, his power to rule as king. And it is a major theme in this book of Daniel. It's pretty obvious. God wants us to get a hold of this truth that God is sovereign. Here's another example. We've already seen it. Daniel chapter 4. Listen as I read. Now remember, Because of his arrogance, he'd been out in the field for seven years eating grass with the cows, okay? He lifted my eyes to heaven and my reason returned to me and I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants, here's a great description of sovereignty. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. And he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And no one can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done? Right? Have you ever done that? God, have you ever said, what have you done? What do you think you're doing? It's like, at that moment, it's like, cover my mouth, right? And no one can say to him, what have you done? And he goes on, Nebuchadnezzar goes on to say, at the same time, my reason returned to me, for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my Lord sought me, and I was established in my kingdom. And still more greatness was added to me. It's like an outward force. It's God's sovereignty that's adding this to him. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right, and his ways are just. And here's this great line. This is like something we ought to make a poster of and put it up on the wall here somewhere. And those who walk in pride, he's able to humble. he is able to humble. And Nebuchadnezzar found that out the hard way, you might say. We saw the same theme of God's sovereignty in that. Remember that first vision that Nebuchadnezzar had of the statue? And he's the head of gold, and then there is the bronze, which that's what Mediapersia, and then Greece, or Mediapersia is the silver, and then bronze, the Grecian and then down to the legs and clay and iron representing Rome. But in that chapter, Daniel chapter 2, here's this statement. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. This is the sovereign Lord. He establishes a king, and he removes a king, just like that. This is God at work. It's as true today as it was then. And so you have this succession of kingdoms here, Babylon, Media Persia, Greece, Rome, leading up to, one day, the Lord's everlasting and eternal kingdom. He is Lord over history, and it's unfolding. exactly as he has decreed. That's why biblical prophecy works, right? That's why the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the others, can declare, you might say, the end from the beginning, because God knows. He has ordained it. He's ordained it all. Paul writes in Galatians 4 about the time when Christ came into the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son. Well, why was Christ born at the particular time that he was born? Because God, the sovereign Lord, had decreed that was the perfect time. And he'd been working all the elements of history and decreeing Christ would come during the time then of the Roman Well, this is the same theme that we have here in Daniel chapter 7. And this dream, this vision that Daniel has parallels the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had of that four-part statue. It's going to be, this vision is one of the same secession. of the four kingdoms that are given here again in chapter 7. Now, chapter 7 is kind of a flashback, because you remember earlier when we looked at the handwriting on the wall in the time of Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, right? Well, at the end of that chapter, the Medes and the Persians conquered Babylon, and that was it. That was the end of the Babylonian Empire, and Belshazzar died, was killed that very night. But when you come now to chapter 7, well, here's Belshazzar again. So this is a record, chapter 7, same thing in chapter 8. is a record of a vision that Daniel had before that handwriting on the wall. So the book of Daniel's not laid out, you know, first this chapter happened, then this chapter, then this chapter. So you have to pay attention to the timeline. So Daniel declares at the beginning of chapter 7, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, The four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea, and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another." Now, you might remember, if you went through our study of the book of Revelation with us, that that sounds pretty familiar there. Because in Revelation 13, there's an account of a beast coming up out of the sea. And so as you study Revelation, you want to be kind of knowledgeable of the book of Daniel as the background there as well. Now, we won't go into detail here. We don't have time to do that this morning. So you'll have to kind of, you can check this out. Check up on me here on this point here. But in scripture, the sea often represents mankind. The sea often represents mankind. And so here, at the beginning of this vision, the four winds of heaven are stirring up the great sea. And all of a sudden, here comes, out of this chaos, it seems, of humanity, according to heavenly action, God's action, God's sovereignty, here come Here comes these four beasts in secession. And here's one example. I did put one passage in here, Isaiah 17, verse 12, that shows you this same imagery of the sea. Ah, the thunder of many peoples. They thunder like the thundering of the sea. See this equating of the peoples and the sea. Ah, the roar of the nations. the support, the sea as that sea of humanity. And so here is the sovereign Lord. He's moving. He's stirring up the nations. He's stirring up the sea of humanity so that out of it come these four beasts, these four kingdoms. And it is God. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is orchestrating all of those things then. And he's doing it now. Study history. What is the study of world history? This nation comes up. This nation comes down. Another nation. You see borders are changed. There's conquerors and the conquered. There's economies flourishing and withering. It's all God as the great conductor decreeing that it all come to pass. We know that these four beasts are kingdoms, because in verses 15 to 17, here's what we read here. As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious. You know, he'd seen this vision, and the visions of my head alarmed me. I approached one of those who stood there, and this must be some kind of heavenly being, angel or something, and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of the things." And then here's what he says. These four great beasts in the vision are four kings who shall arise out of the earth. So they're kings. They are kingdoms. That's what these beasts represent. In verse 4 of chapter 7, we have the first beast described. The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. Then as I looked, its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man. And the mind of a man was given to it. And then he's going to go on to describe the other beast. And so what have we got here? Well, as I said, it's that same secession of kingdoms that we had back in chapter 2 with the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream. Babylon is the lion. And then there's a beast like a bear. That's Media Persia. Then there's this leopard beast. That's Alexander the Great, the kingdom of Greece. And then there's this. completely different, it seems, and even more savage beast, the fourth one, which is the Roman Empire. And as you read through the account of these beasts being brought into being, you see God's sovereignty working in raising them up and removing them. So it's language like this, the mind of a man was given to it. And it was told, the command came, arise, devour, and the next beast comes up. Or even more clearly, dominion, the right to rule, was given to it. And it's all moving toward that final, you might call, omega point, which is the coming of the fullness of the kingdom of God. Let's read verses 9 through 14 here. This is where things are culminating, all right? As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand thousands served him and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The court sat in judgment and the books were opened. I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. See, there's that mysterious thing, horn. And as I look, the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man. And he came to the Ancient of Days, this is Christ, of course, and the Ancient of Days, and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed." You see, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ. What's that going to be? You know, what is that going to be? To be in the new heavens and the new earth where there's no sin, there's no war, There's no suffering. There's no pain. There's no heresy. There's no false Christ. And it lasts forever. It lasts forever. That's a concept that's, in a way, that's something like we've never experienced. Look at the parallels here from Nebuchadnezzar's first dream. In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. Nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces." All these kingdoms, remember the stone cut without hand coming down and smashing the other kingdoms there, and bring them to an end. And it shall stand forever. Just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand and that it broke in pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God is made known to the king. What shall be after this? I've just highlighted these things to emphasize this fundamental theme of the sovereignty of God. This world, the kingdoms of this world, the nations of this world, all of them, right now, not just in Daniel's day, but right now, are being moved and conducted toward that great point when Christ comes again and his everlasting kingdom then is ushered in. In other words, despite what you might read in the news, right, we are not moving toward oblivion. We might be moving toward a third world war, and if we do, that's part of God's decree as well, but we're not moving toward oblivion. What we're moving toward is the kingdom of God. And by the way, I'll probably repeat myself here. This is enough information for us to see the importance of this question. Are you a citizen of that kingdom? There's nothing more important in your life at any moment, certainly at this moment right now, than that question right there. People make, we get all kinds, living in this world, we get all kinds of priorities in our minds, right? Stuff, careers, property, goals, whatever, whatever. How long am I going to live here? How long is my earthly life going to be? There's nothing more important than, are you a child of the king? Are you a citizen of this kingdom? Think of, this is just such a good illustration, tragic as it is, of life in this world. If anybody here would like to put up their hand and say, I know exactly how long I'm going to live in this world. Well, put up your hand and you can also put, I'm a fool over here, right? At the same time, because only a fool would say that. We don't know. Think of the people that have died in these plane crashes. I mean, here they are all together, all those people coming in for a landing, like, so routine. And just like that, their life is over. Just like that. And some of them were, many of them were very young. And it was too late then to say, oh, I better make sure that I'm in God's kingdom and everything I'm going to be in his kingdom rather than in hell. It's too late. It's too late. Nothing is more important than for us to know, have I been born again? Do I know the Lord Jesus Christ? Or am I just flitting along in life and trusting my, listening to lies, the lies that we hear all the time, you know? Go to your typical funeral service of someone that they didn't have any, maybe in their life, any profession of Christ at all. Maybe they were not even a very nice person or whatever it might be. But it's almost guaranteed anymore that some preacher is going to stand up and say, he's in a better place. And that is a lie. As we're going to see, it's a typical lie that comes from that little horn that we're going to look at here then in a moment. Jesus said of his kingdom, when he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, and the Pharisees had a completely wrong idea about what the kingdom of God was. They thought it was going to be earthly. and consist only of the Jews, and so on. And Jesus said, the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, look, here it is, or there, for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you right now. It's not fully revealed, but the kingdom of God is here now. The question is, is it in you, you see? Listen, here's an explanation from Lloyd-Jones about the kingdom of God. The kingdom is present where men and women have subjected themselves to God and to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That's the church. And the church is a manifestation of the kingdom of God. When I say church, I'm not thinking of an external organization. The Roman Catholic Church is not the church. It's not the kingdom of God. The church is a body of men and women who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and who believe in their hearts that he is the Son of God. I mean a body of men and women who are living to his glory, who know him, and who are here to serve him. That's what I mean by the church. He reigns in the hearts of his true believers. But there's another form of this kingdom And that's one which is to come. There's a day coming, Jesus told the Pharisees, which is the day of the Son of Man. It's a day when the kingdom of God will come in a visible, external manner, in a manner when all shall see it and no one shall be able to evade it. This will be the end of the present age when Christ comes back again. The Son of Man will come and sit in the throne of his glory. The whole world will be purged of all evil. So the question is, how can I enter this kingdom? How can I be sure that I belong to it? And the answer is that the kingdom of God is within you. The kingdom of God only enters into me when I realize that he is the son of God. By belief in him, as God in the flesh come to redeem me, there I see him and the kingdom of God, you see. So there's the question. Are you in the kingdom? Are you in the kingdom? I grew up going to church, but I wasn't saved. I wasn't a member of Christ's kingdom until many years later. A lot of people, a lot of people today, you can ask them, you know, well, I see that you go to church and so forth. How did you come to know the Lord? Oh, I've always gone to church. That's a wrong answer. That is not the right answer. Lots of people, hell's going to be populated by a lot of people who went to church, right? But that doesn't make you a Christian. It doesn't make you a Christian if you're born into a Christian family. You must be born again. You must be born again, you see. Well, let's talk about this little horn then, all right? Here's verse 7. and eight out of Daniel 7. After this, I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast. So this is Rome, you see. Terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth. It devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had 10 horns. I considered the horns And behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. And then on again, verses 19 to 22. Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying. and its teeth of iron, and claws of bronze, and which devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped what was left with its feet, and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up, and before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes, and a mouth, and spoke great things, and that seemed greater than its companions. As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom." And then again, verses 24 to 26. As for the 10 horns, out of this kingdom, 10 kings shall arise. So out of the Roman Empire, 10 subset kingdoms, 10 kings would arise, and another shall arise after them. He shall be different from the former ones and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the most high and shall wear out the saints of the most high and shall think to change the times and the law and they shall be given into his hand for a time times and half a time, but the court shall sit in judgment and his dominion shall be taken away to be consumed and destroyed to the end. All right. Now, needless to say, you can zero in, spend lots of time looking at the various details of that vision and so forth. But we want to just have an overview here. The fourth kingdom is the Roman Empire that we know. And Daniel's told that out of the Roman Empire would come 10 different kings, 10 different Now, sometimes in interpreting apocalyptic literature like this, you don't want to get too detailed, right? And say, well, now we've got to find out exactly what these 10 kings were and get their names and so forth, all right? It may be just that what we're being told is the Roman Empire will come to an end, but out of it, will come various nations, right? And that appears to be the era that we're in. Since the fall of the Roman Empire, there hasn't been a world-dominating empire like the Roman Empire. Now, that being the case, what does that tell us? It tells us that one day, that little horn, that little horn, that that king is going to come into power. And he's going to be characterized by things like this. He will speak against the Lord, against the Most High. His message will be blasphemous. He will persecute the church. He will persecute like the church has never been persecuted before. He will work to destroy the very order of God's creation and his law. He will set things upside down. In God's sovereignty, because God is sovereign over it all, God will permit this king to enjoy a short-lived victory over Christ's church. And then after a short time, God will remove this king's dominion, and he will be destroyed. So who is or what is this little horn? Listen to Edward Young. This is from his commentary on Daniel. The little horn is, I believe, that one of whom the apostle Paul spoke, and here we are back at Second Thessalonians, let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first. And the man of lawlessness, there he is, is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. This one is the Antichrist. Thus, in one remarkable picture, the entire course of history is given from the appearance of the historical Roman Empire until the end of human government. What is the next event that is decreed by God that's going to happen? It is the rise then of an appearance of the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, He will set himself up, well, anti-Christ. That prefix anti, it means against, so he certainly is against Christ. But it also can mean instead of. He is a counterfeit Christ who is opposed to the true Christ, and he will declare I am the head of the church. He will set up his false church, his worldwide kingdom. And he says, I am God. He will present himself. Here I am, the Savior. He declares himself the head of the church. You can see why the reformers, like Luther and Calvin and so on, concluded that the Pope of Rome was the Antichrist. And it may turn out that a pope will be. This much we know. Rome is certainly of the spirit of the Antichrist. I mean, you've got a so-called vicar of Christ who sets himself up as essentially Christ in this world, sets himself up on a throne and so forth. But we can't know for certain. We can know for certain that Rome is of Antichrist. A parallel passage here about this is Revelation 13. And I saw a beast rising out of the sea with 10 horns and seven heads and 10 diadems on its horns and blasphemous names. See, the heart of it is blasphemy, speaking against God. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard. Now, get this. See? And its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. Well, those are the same beasts that we just saw. So the little horn, the Antichrist's empire, is going to be fourfold vicious, beastly in all of the aspects of those beasts that Daniel saw combined here into this one. And to it, the dragon gave his power. and his throne and great authority. Who's the dragon? You read the context. It's Satan. So Satan's behind it all. He's directing all of this. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed. The whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. So it's even got a counterfeit resurrection, this counterfeit Christ. And they worship the dragon. For he had given his authority to the beast, and they who worship the beast saying, who is like the beast and who can fight against it? Look, now, the counterfeit fake Christians, counterfeit fake churches, what we're surrounded by today, largely so, they're going to be the ones who will say, oh, look at the beast. Surely this is the kingdom of God. And they will go. And if you're a real Christian, you will refuse to do that. And they will turn on you and kill you, then, if they can. And so he's allowed to make war on the saints. God grants authority to it. It's a worldwide thing. but the people whose names have been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who was slain will not bow down to the king. So all of these things are going to characterize this antichrist kingdom with this terrible beastly nature. It will be a world religion. There is coming, a world empire, a one-world empire, and there is coming a one-world religion. That's why as Christians, as we are to be wise in regard what the Bible tells us, we don't want to be any part of any movement that's promoting this one-world business, you know? That's antichrist then. at work. Ever since the Tower of Babel, it has not been God's will that there be a one world empire. And we are to stand then against that. Now, the Antichrist is present now. He hasn't come into the fullness of his kingdom, but he's present and he's active. now energized by Satan. We see this especially in John's epistles. Here's 1 John 4. Beloved, do not believe every spirit. Okay, we could just stop right there. Stop being stupid. Stop being naive. You'd better know the word of God. Beloved, Do not believe every spirit. Test the spirits with scripture to see whether they're from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. Many. By this, you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And here it is. This is the spirit of the Antichrist. which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Right now. Spirit of the Antichrist. 1 John 2. Children, it is the last hour. And as you've heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they'd been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all were not of us." So you see what he's saying there? Look it. There's many antichrists out and about, representatives of the devil. Where are they found? In churches. That's where they're found. That's where they try to infiltrate, and eventually they go, out from us, if we're a true church, they will go out from us because they are not of us. But we have to be wise to these things. You've heard people say a lot of times, well, you know, we've got to get more people in this church. Or they'll say of somebody, well, you know, at least he's still coming to church. It's not always a good thing that some person is still coming. they're anti-Christ, then that's not a good thing. You don't want them present then, you see. And so he goes on to say in the last verse there, verse 22, who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the anti-Christ who denies the Father and the Son. And then you can find it again in 2 John. Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves so that you may not lose what we've worked for, but may win a full reward." You know, you can't be in this battle as a Christian and be careless. You can't be sleeping on duty. You've got to be watchful, you see, and take care. And that means one of the chief ways to keep watch is what? You've got to know what God says. You've got to know you've got to have a real handle on God's truth. You can't be careless about this. This is not a rare thing. Oh, you know, there might be one, maybe two Antichrist deceivers in Tillamook. There's many. There's many. Wherever you go, there are many deceivers right now. Jesus said, the way that leads to life is narrow, and few are they who find it. Few are they. Those kind of terms, that's to give us a wake-up call. We've got to be on guard. We've got to be careful. Peter, be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. How does Satan devour people? How does he do it? He does it with lies and deceptions. Lies and deceptions. I've lived long enough now to have seen this thing play itself out in people around me that I knew who profess to be Christians. And early on, years back, they appeared to be off to a great start and so forth. But as years went by, a very typical deception that they're drawn into is kind of a universalism, right? Oh, you know, God loves everybody. Everything's okay. Oh, sure. Yeah. Most people are going to make it. Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ said, most people are not going to make it. Few are they who find it. Let me give you an example of antichrist deception that's real common. It seems like it's even become more common of late. If you go on YouTube, You know, you go on social media, that's a good place to be watchful and to be careful. But if you go on YouTube, you find lots of examples, videos of people, and it's the same old story. I died and went to heaven and came back. And I saw things. I saw visions. And you know, it was beautiful. And there was people in white. They're always dressed in white. There was people in white. And I just wanted to go. I didn't want to come back. And then I was revived, and I lived, and so on. But it's all beautiful. Well, so people are looking at that, even professing Christians. They'll look at that and say, oh, that's just great. That's how it is. That's what happens when you die. What did Jesus say happens when you die? The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, being in torment, He lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things. Lazarus and like men are bad things. But now he is comforted here. And you are in anguish forever and ever and ever. If you want to be a fool, take your doctrine and theology from YouTube instead of the Bible, you see. It's kind of like, look, this should be a no-brainer. The apostle of the Hebrews said, you guys need to grow up. You're still babies here. Come on. Are you going to fall for that? Satan appears as an angel of what? Light. Of course he's going to appear as these wonderful people appearing in robes and so on. But that's Satan operating. We don't fall for that stuff then, you see. There it is, we take our doctrine, we're watchful because we listen to and we heed what Jesus says and what God has shown us in his word and we have to be in his word and we have to then be wise. Let me close with this. If anyone listening today has inverted the broad way and the narrow way, If you've twisted God's word into something like this, enter by the wide gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to life. And those who enter by it are many, for the teaching that the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life is just not true. It's just not true. That's only those narrow Christians that believe that stuff. Well, if you believe that, then you've been duped by the Antichrist and you've embraced him as your Christ. And that path will take you to hell. You've got to get on the narrow way and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's all of us carefully examine ourselves and keep watch. Father, we thank you that you are sovereign. We thank you that you are orchestrating every detail of our own lives, of the path that the nations of the world are following. We thank you that we can be certain that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming one day. He will establish his kingdom and his dominion, which is forever and forever. We pray, Father, that everyone here that no one here would fall short of it, and everyone here would be found to be a citizen of the kingdom of God. And we pray this all in Christ's name, amen.