and either look to the screens or open your Bibles, which I would like you to do both, actually, because if you have your Bibles open to 2 Thessalonians 2, it's always great to write in the margins of your Bible. You say, Jack, can we do that without getting in trouble with God? The answer is yes. Your Bible, you should have Bibles, plural, over the course of your Christian life that are almost like diaries. When mine gets used up, I put a rubber band around it and it goes on the shelf. And so go to this portion of 2 Thessalonians and write in it when you hear verses today mentioned, and you're gonna hear a lot of verses today. So if you're taking notes, write small. There'll be many. But before we read this, we're looking at this message series titled Signs. of the coming Antichrist. And I'm not usually a big teacher or preacher or eschatologist on the study of future things in the area of the Antichrist. I've given a couple of messages over the course of the last 30 years because I just don't focus on them because I don't plan on meeting them ever. And as being part of the church, we'll never see him. And there's evidence in the Bible for that clearly. But so you say, well, Jack, then why are we studying this? That's the great question. One of the reasons is because I've been a Christian for 46 years, and the things that we're seeing right now, I never thought I'd ever see. There's things going on right now that if you would have said, you'll be a Christian and you'll see this stuff happening, then listen, then my conclusion to you would have been either A, Christ isn't gonna come back at all, or boy, is he close. And that's the answer. Boy, is he close. If we are seeing not only the stage set up for the tribulation period, but as it were, the stagehands are just moving now the set in like little inches, not feet, then how much closer is the imminent return of Christ Jesus for the church before those Jewish Hebrew focused seven year tribulation period begins. Signs of the coming Antichrist. We will use it to get ourselves ready. We will use it as a witnessing tool. We will use it to tell every man, woman, boy and girl about the love of God and the day and age in which we live in. That Christ is coming and that his promise to us is eternal life. I will read verse one, if you'll pick it up loud, and verse two together. Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you. Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first. The man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, this is Paul speaking to the Thessalonians, I told you these things. for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. That's awesome. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan. with all power signs and line wonders. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie. And all God's people said, amen. You may be seated. Well, as I mentioned in the introduction, somebody might say, why on earth are we studying this portion or this doctrine of what is referred to as eschatology? Eschatology is the science of the study of the word of God regarding future events. Eschatology. 30% or so, some say 25, some say 33% of the Bible is what is known as eschatological. It means that this book, a quarter of this book or more, is written regarding future events. You will not find that, by the way, in any other writing of any other religious group throughout human history. In fact, so important is this issue about the God of the Bible being a God that perfectly prophesies the future that he himself declares, behold, I am he, there is none like me. I am the one who has spoken to you, and I have told you the future before it comes to pass, that when it does come to pass, you will know that I am he. And all of the religions in the world, either A, are smart enough to not even have prophecy in their strange belief systems. Some are nuts enough to try to have their own prophecies, but over time have been proven wrong. In fact, even in Islam, which came much later, of course, in the seventh century, whatever so-called prophetic utterances are in the book of the Quran, those were simply lifted from the Bible that was already in existence. You need to know that. But we need to know what the Bible says about this. Many people don't want to know this. And I believe personally, and I hope you know by now that we here at this church, and I believe that we are to preach the message of truth and let the truth land wherever it lands, and we are not to sugarcoat anything, but we are to give the truth of God as it's revealed in the Bible. And so you'll find nothing around here regarding church growth tactics. A church growth tactic would be don't talk about prophetic issues. Why? Because it causes controversy. Of course it does. The question is, why does it? And we have been admonished in the scriptures to not be ignorant concerning prophetic teachings of the Bible. Now you do know, right, I'm talking about Bible prophecy, prophetic teachings. I'm not talking about somebody saying, I've got a prophecy for you, brother. I'm not talking about that stuff. I'm talking about God's ability to look into the future and to reveal to us in the Bible what we need to know. Why would he do that? Because it is Bible prophecy that causes you to have an undeniable faith in the scriptures. When you understand that the God that you worship is what is known as prescient. prescient is that he sees things in the future. But here's the beautiful part. You and I cannot, he does. But in reality, he's above it all. He doesn't see what's coming. Where he resides, this is tough. Well, it's impossible for us to understand this. where he resides, he sees the creation of the spiritual realm, all the angelic hosts, before time was ever created, before the earth and the universe was ever created, and he sees the end of it all in eternity. God, his nature, is that he views all of it in the exact same moment. You say, how is that possible? It's impossible for us to even fathom. But look at it this way. On one page, as it were, that's in front of you, God sees it all. This is a really lame example, but if you fly over the Rose Bowl parade, the Rose Bowl parade, if you fly over it in the Goodyear blimp and look down, you can see the end from the beginning all at once. Now that's kind of goofy, because God doesn't need a blimp to see it all. It's his nature. He's outside of time. It's amazing. He says, so why do we study this one called the Antichrist? Well, because what's going on in our world around us demands that we look into this and it should translate into this. Wow, if this is what's going on, how close are we to the coming of Christ for his church? A little bit of background as we look into this. Thessalonica. You can go there today, by the way. It's one of the oldest cities in the world. But Paul had written to them. He had visited them and then written to them first Thessalonians. He wrote two books to them. First and second Thessalonians. If you're a note taker, and I hope all of you are, First Thessalonians deals predominantly with the things of the church and of the rapture. And in fact, in all five chapters, there is a promise to deliver the church from the wrath of God by what is called the rapture, in all five chapters of 1 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians starts out with a reminder, chapters one and a couple of verses in chapter two, and then the rest of the book is dedicated to the events of the second coming. So it's very easy to remember. One deals with the first, and two deals with the second. Everybody got that? It's very, very simple and dumb. but he wrote to them. Why did he write to them? Because there were those after he had left and leaves them, first the Thessalonians, and it's so full of comfort and joy and anticipation. After Paul left, there were others who came behind and said, that's not what Paul meant. What he really meant to say was this. And they, so to speak, re-preached Paul's messages and Paul's name, but they completely twisted it. Are you hearing me? This happens all the time in life. Then there are those who said, we've got this letter that was written from the apostles and we need to read it to you. And Paul changed his mind about what he had wrote to you a couple of years ago. And then there's the warning that goes out that, you know what? We heard from the Lord and the Lord said this and all of it, listen, everybody should write this down because it's important. All of those attacks coming from three different angles were an attack to try to confuse the people to get them to believe that because suffering had increased in the Roman empire, they were in the tribulation period, Paul is a liar. Now you think that through for a moment. You're in the trib, sorry, suck it up, it's gonna get worse. Paul made a big mistake and we're telling you what he should have said. That's what countered what Paul wrote in his first letter. Are you with me? He writes in response the second letter. It's a rebuttal to false doctrine or false teaching. If you understand that, it's very important because they were concerned, they thought, wow, I guess Christ isn't coming for us. I guess we look for the Antichrist instead. I know a lot of good people who hold to that teaching, that we don't need to be looking for Jesus Christ. Listen, everybody, I'm not gonna mention names, there are too many to mention, but there's famous names, famous TV personalities that are Christians, and famous books that have been written in the Christian community, and they say, Waiting for Jesus Christ is a waste of time. You're fanatical. You need to be just getting ready and watch for the Antichrist because you're going to go through it all. And here's the reasons why. And they have their arguments. But to do that, you've got to twist the scriptures. And look, don't hate me for what I'm about to say. In fact, you should love me more for it. And it's this, it's this. When I got saved at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, I was a pre-tribulationist, meaning that I was taught and I believed that Christ would come before the tribulation period because I didn't know any better. I was listening to Pastor Chuck Smith in those days. Chuck Missler was teaching there on campus. Everybody taught that and I was reading it and study it and I thought, that's fantastic. And then I really studied more and discovered that I'm quite a believer. And I don't think I believe in this pre-tribulation thing anymore. I think if you're really gonna be a man about your Christianity, you need to suck it up and go through the tribulation and take it like a man and suffer because Jesus suffered, then I'm gonna suffer like him. And I got onto that kick for about three years. I was a very outspoken post-tribulationist. And let me tell you, it's a hard way to live. because you've got to go about manipulating the scripture. You've got to take the church and replace Israel with the church. And you got to do all kinds of biblical rule breaking to pull it off and it doesn't work. And so when I came back as a pre-tribulationist, I came back with fire because I understand both camps. And, Like our old friend, Dr. Ed Heinzen says, he's so pre-tribulation that he doesn't even eat post-toasties. And he buys his bananas yellow, not green, because he doesn't have the time for them to ripen. I like that. Throughout the scripture, we are told to be ready. So all the while, as we go through this series, I want you to be thinking, I need to be ready to meet Jesus today. And look, if we don't hear a trumpet blast today, listen, you could hear a honk of a truck, or you could hear a thump of your heart, or something. You better be ready to meet Jesus. And so a background, a lot of background today to what we're looking at. And that is regarding this man called the Antichrist. And he is a man, you need to make note of that. He's an actual human being. He's not a supernatural manifestation. He's not an alien that fell out of a spaceship. He's not gonna come walking out of Roswell. He's a real man. He's a real person that Satan will select He didn't come out of the womb with horns, little nubs on the top of his skull. He didn't come out with a little tail. He wasn't Rosemary's baby. You guys, this is old group in here, I can tell. Don't tell second or third, but I relate to you guys way more than other people. But he's a human. And God knows from all time and eternity who he is. Satan does not know who he is, which is a very interesting thing. Again, Satan will select him. Again, write this down. Satan doesn't know the end time scheme. It's somehow blinded from his eyes. And this is pretty fun. Every generation, if you study it very closely, there are some real high shelf players and some mid-level and some low-level players. But in every generation since the book of Genesis, Satan, who doesn't know eschatology, he just doesn't get it. And I like that, by the way. has had to have an antichrist type always waiting in the wings. Because when things start happening, he's got to grab his man and possess him. He's going to move inside of him. and he's gonna use him for his deeds. Satan, every generation. So you could look at people like Nimrod was the first prototype of the Antichrist. Nimrod was Satan's probably first attempt to create a globalization of nations, Nimrod. Nimrod, Genesis 11, who built the Tower of Babel, and announced really when you look at it in the English, it seems to make no sense. It says that Nimrod was a great hunter before the Lord. Nimrod was a hunter before the Lord. In the Hebrew, the Hebrew implies that Nimrod scaled the Mount of Babel that they had built and that he was a great archer, the Bible says, and that he was to shoot God down out of heaven. He was a hunter of the souls of men is what ancient lore has said about Nimrod. That's key. The satanic realm is in a hunt for the souls of men. Satan knows, or at least he's heard, that he's been defeated. He knows the cross, at his thought, first initially, was a victory until Sunday morning. We studied that last week, did we not? And the Bible tells us that when Christ rose again from the dead, Satan was defeated. They say, what does he give up then? Because there's one thing that he still has opportunity to do. While Christ in the gospel goes to the ends of the earth and Lord willing, to your heart, that you might receive the love of God and the forgiveness of God, even though Satan is a defeated enemy, he's going after you because it's not personal. Satan coming after you, it's like the guy in the movie. I'm sorry, I gotta bump you off. I gotta take you out. It's not personal. You know that Guido guy or whatever in the movie? Sorry to have to bump you off, but... Satan would say to you today, there's nothing personal. It's just that I hate your master so much. He loves you so much that the only way I can inflict any pain on him is by killing you and taking your whole soul into hell. So that's what I'm going to do. Didn't know I had that. Satan's plan, he can't defeat God, but he's not stupid. So what he does is he has figured out, how can I do, what time I have left, how can I inflict pain into the heart of my arch loathsome enemy, which is Almighty God, how do I hurt him? Listen, from this moment on, you should never suffer self-esteem after this, lack of self-esteem. Know this, God loves you so much that Satan hates your guts. And he wants to steal your soul, drag you down into the pit of hell so God is hurt by that. That's how valuable you are. There's only four portions in scripture where he's actually referred to as the Antichrist, or the spirit of Antichrist, I'll explain. Write these down if you would. 1 John 2, verse 18. 1 John 2, 18 says, little children. By the way, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John are written to believers, not to non-believers. Non-believers are not even recognized in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. Little children. It is the last hour. And as you have heard, the Antichrist is coming. That's who we're gonna be learning about these next few weeks. Even now, many Antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. Not only does every generation have to have an Antichrist type in Satan's holster, so to speak, but those who denied the deity of Jesus Christ or denied the existence of God, They are those who fall under the category of being Antichrist. Not the Antichrist, but an Antichrist. A belief system that denies God what is rightfully who He is. 1 John 2, verse 22. 1 John 2, verse 22. Who is a liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. First John four, verse three. First John four, verse three. Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming, that's the person, and is now already in the world, that is the spirit of him. Remarkable. 2 John 1, verse 7. For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh or the incarnation. So what is that? Christmas day. God came into the world, born from a virgin, exactly as the prophets foretold. If you deny that, then you are of the spirit of antichrist. It's nothing personal. It's just true. If you today say, I don't believe Jesus is God, that's because you've been duped by the spirit of antichrist and your very position is antichrist. Remarkable, isn't it? This is a deceiver and an antichrist. So the signs of the coming antichrist by way of introduction of who this person is, mark it down in your note taking, he is revealed in scripture as the beast. Mark that down. By the way, for those of you, I don't know if you know this or not, but you can print out all the notes before you come to church on Sunday, and you can have them. Did you already know? You already knew that, okay. He's known as the beast. Revelation chapter 11, verse seven. When they, that is the two witnesses, the two prophets that come from God, during the tribulation period, mind you, finish their testimony, their mission, their work, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them and overcome them and kill them. The beast is the man, the Antichrist, but it is he, Satan, who empowers him from the inside out. That's why it says he ascends out of the pit. Revelation 13, verses one through four. Then I, that is John, stood on the sand of the sea. Bible students, if you know eschatology, sea in Old Testament almost always refers to humanity. John says that I stood on the shores as it were of humanity, saw all time of humanity. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. This man is gonna come up out of humanity, having seven heads. Don't worry about that. It's explained in the Bible. He doesn't have seven heads. He has seven authorities. He has seven rules, seven rules. Let's call it degrees in our world. He's got seven titles behind his name. And 10 horns. The word horns is the Old Testament word for kings. Horns, kings, interchangeable. And on his horns, 10 crowns. And on his heads, a blasphemous name. Verse two, now the beast which I saw was like a leopard. His feet were like the feet of a bear. This is how God sees this man. And his mouth, like the mouth of a lion. The dragon, that's Satan, gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. That's interesting. You ought to mark that down. I don't know if we'll, yeah, we will. I'll get into what that means. This is absolutely amazing. Why does it point that out in scripture? What is that all about? Whoever the beast is that is to come, this one called the Antichrist, the Bible tells us that one of his heads will appear to be mortally wounded. But the deadly wound was healed. Isn't that a weird statement? You'll see how important it is to know your Old Testament here in a second. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon. Who would worship Satan? Yeah. who gave authority to the beast, and they, that is the earth dwellers, worshiped the beast, saying, who is like the beast, and who is able to make war with him? Daniel calls him not only a horn, but watch this, so specific, he's a little horn. There's big horns, but there's one little horn. What does that mean? In Hebrew, it means that he's seemingly insignificant, but he skyrockets out of nowhere onto the scene and takes authority over all the others. But he starts out as a little insignificant politician, a little insignificant one among the rulers of the world. Notice that you and I live in a time when things can happen overnight. I'm not saying this to be funny, I'm just asking you, prior to 2004, you didn't even know who Barack Obama was. You'd never even heard of him. Did you know that? Don't tell me you did, because you didn't. You did not know who he was. You don't go around knowing community organizers. Who knows that? And then for about nine months, he's a US Senator, and then he's President of the United States, skyrocketed up. So don't say it can't happen. It's already happened in the world. People laughed at the rise of Adolf Hitler. Nobody laughs at that name anymore. Insignificant. Daniel chapter seven, verse eight. Daniel says, by the way, Daniel and John, are the only two prophets in the Bible that are called beloved of God. Isn't that neat? Daniel and John. Both of them, by the way, their books answer one another. One asks a question, the other one answers the question. Daniel and John. You'll never understand the book of Revelation that John wrote without studying Daniel. It's impossible. Daniel 7, 8. And I was considering the horns, the kings, the leaders, the rulers, and there was another horn. So this is a lesser king, a lesser leader, a lesser ruler, a little one. coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns, there's 10, if you read the whole chapter, there's 10 horns. Out of the 10 horns, an insignificant one appears that's not of the 10, but it is the 11th horn. So he's so little, he like works for one of these other guys. And he comes up and subdues three of them. in the scheme and in the realm of global politics, we can say. So watch what happens. He comes up among them, before whom three of the first horns, or kings, were plucked out by the roots, and there in this horn were eyes. like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words. There's an illusion there to this little one skyrockets into fame because he's demonically manipulated. He's a man, but so to speak, if you look deep into his eyes, There's something else going on in there. And by the way, he speaks pompous words. It means that this one comes onto the scene with an overcharged sense of confidence. I'll put it to you this way. Everything the believer should have humbly in honor of our God, the Antichrist comes arrogantly with an arrogance and pride that honors his Lord, that is Satan. Christians have a tendency and weakness to tiptoe about. This one will come onto the world scene, and for good reason. The Bible tells us that he's gonna win over the world by all kinds of various acts, from performing peace treaties, miracles, signs and wonders, and the capacity to untie ancient secrets. The Bible says that the Antichrist is able to decipher enigmas, difficult things, which is very interesting to me. Will he explain? What are some of the biggest questions that man has? Where do we come from? How about that? He's gonna answer that stuff. He's gonna answer probably, I'm guessing now, he's probably gonna answer the UFO issue. He'll have an answer for that. Most of us in first service don't really care, but first, listen, third service, they just got home about an hour ago, they'll come to third service, and they're all very, very young, and they'll really care, because what, what, UFO, what, what? Listen. This guy, the Antichrist, he's gonna have answers to people. He's gonna, well, what about, hey, listen. Notice how the world is trending more and more. I just read this this morning, by the way. I didn't expect us to get this article. But notice that the world is right now trending toward a younger Earth, because science is breaking down. Do you know this? New technologies has now shown us that the universe is much younger than what we thought it was. But these people who do not believe in God, they're now believing in a younger universe, a younger earth, and so now they're calling for a quick evolution of things. That's what happened. It was a fast evolution. It didn't happen slow. It went very, very quick. Well, guess what? He's gonna come on the scene. He's gonna answer them. Do you remember how Solomon was able to answer the questions of He's gonna do the same thing, but under satanic influence. Listen, Satan is not, listen, he's not eternal. Satan is a created being, the Bible tells us. And demons, which come out from fallen angels, they too have a start date, okay? Now they may live on forever like you and I will live on forever. Everybody in this room or those that are watching right now or within the hearing of my voice, believe it or not, atheists are agnostic. You will live forever, the Bible says. When you die, you go to hell forever or you go to heaven forever. and you're very, very much alive. One is a living life, the other one is a living death. You pick. But he speaks pompous words. Arrogant. Think of people, think of somebody. For me, you think of like a Richard Dawkins or a Bill Maher. Speaks pompous words. Bill Maher can be so absolutely wrong about what he's talking about that he sounds correct. Did you hear what I just said? Those of you who are in college, you should know that. Your professor sounds so correct, but they're dead wrong in so many areas. But they sound good. They put on a good show. This guy's gonna come on and he perfects it. Why? Because Satan is inside of his body. Using him. Remarkable. He's also known as the fierce king. He has a fierce countenance, the Bible tells us. Daniel, are you guys okay? Yes. Daniel chapter eight, verse 23. And in the latter time of their kingdom, that, oh my goodness. In the latter time of their kingdom, what kingdom? 10 kingdoms. Book of Daniel tells us there's gonna be those 10 horns that arise. There are gonna be 10 kings that rule the world. during the time of their kingdom. By the way, their kingdom, the Bible says, is a very short-lived kingdom. 10 leaders will dominate the world. The world will be divided up under their watchful eye. in the latter time of their kingdom." So that's near the end. When the transgressors have reached their fullness, that means sin has gotten to its level. God says, just another few minutes. A king shall arise having a fierce countenance who understands sinister schemes. Fierce countenance means that he has an ability to look in a way very strong, very right, very intimidating. He can look at you. That word implies that he can look at you and you kind of just put your head down and cower away. Have you ever seen a bully? You've seen animals do this, have you not? When there's, especially springtime, like right now, going on. Cat fights going on. I live in Chino Hills, so there's coyote wars going on. The males are fighting against the males, and it sounds like people are being murdered. They scream horribly. It's a horrible sound. But those coyotes are dueling for dominance for reproduction. You've seen a male lion come up against another male lion. And once the male, the alpha, establishes authority, what does the other one do? The other one skulks away backwards, defeated. The Antichrist is gonna come on the scene with incredible power, satanically driven. And none of us, listen, I don't care what you and I have ever experienced in the realm of satanic or demonic issues, it's nothing compared to what this one does, because it will be Satan personified in a human being. And listen, he's been around a long time. And what's remarkable to me is that he's proved himself and his agents to be very patient, which to me is an attribute. But he's patient, and he'll study you. I'm convinced, by the way, if the Bible says, and it does, that the heirs of salvation, that's you and I if you trust Christ, that there's an angel, at least one, that has been given to our dispatch. Matthew's gospel talks about it, so does the book of Hebrews. Have you ever talked about, have you ever heard about, Your guardian angel, that's a cute term. It's actually biblically true. There is an angel assigned to you in this life. To who? To those who are the heirs of salvation. We can't see, we don't know who that is. But the heavenly realm knows this. And by the way, if you are not, if you are not covered By the protection of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are wide open to demonic influence and demonic schemes. I wish I could go into detail. I cannot, I would not. But just know this, he's gonna come on the scene intimidating. You see, Jack, I thought you said at the beginning that we weren't gonna see this guy. We're not. The church is not, but you better make sure you're of the church, my friend. You better make sure that you're born again, and when the trumpet blows, that you go up. I had a terrible thought. She doesn't know this. She's not here right now, but I studied this this week. I thought about laying out my clothes in the hallway as though the rapture had happened before Lisa got home. And you know, you'd have the water running or the teapot. And then I thought, that's just, that's not funny. But it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen someday. He's also referred to in Scripture as not only the horn and the beast, the one having the fierce countenance, he's also referred to as the willful king. Daniel 11, verse 36. Notice how many Daniel passages we're in regarding the Antichrist. Then the king, that is the horn, shall do exceeding according to his own will. He shall exalt and magnify himself above every God and shall speak blasphemous against the God, that's the God of heaven, your God, the willful King. He's also known in the Bible as the idle shepherd or the worthless shepherd, idle. Zechariah 11 verse 17. Zechariah 11, 17 says, woe to the worthless or idle shepherd who leaves or abandons the flock. This is regarding Israel. His sword shall be against his arm and against his right eye. His arm shall completely wither and his right eye shall be totally blinded. This is referring to the Antichrist. Does that ring a bell? Did we read something a moment ago? When the Bible tells us that in the book of Revelation, the world will wonder when they see that his mortal head wound is healed. It appears from Zechariah 11, 17, that there's some sort of residual from this attempt. Is it an assassination attempt? I don't know. What is it? We don't know, but the Bible is specific. This is one of those things for that generation, for those who do not go up in the rapture, they can then open up the Bible, I guess, and watch this happen. I don't plan on caring about it one bit. But it is interesting, though it's probably a good time to define what antichrist means. Anti, anti is an interesting word. Anti can have one of two meanings and sometimes most often both at the same time. Anti, you probably know this, like anti-venom. It's against venom or anti-what? Anti-bacterial, anti-mosquito, anti-bug, whatever. That means it stops. Yes, yes. Anti means to oppose. He certainly does that, does he not? The anti, the opposing Christ. Christ, Christos. In Hebrew, Messiah, Mashiach. He is the anti-Messiah, the one who fights against the true Messiah, while at the same time plays the role as an imposter Messiah. The Antichrist is to be the one who opposes the plan of God, but dupes human beings into thinking that he is the plan of God, the Messiah himself. That's how everybody, if you don't know, that's how Israel is gonna receive him as their Messiah. Oh, by the way, we'll break away from protocol here. Guys, can you put the Scripture text back up, 2 Thessalonians 2? Watch this, this is amazing. 2 Thessalonians 2, follow along with me. Watch, everyone, watch this. Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, sounds like John 14, huh? We ask you not to be soon shaken in mind, troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. You guys haven't missed anything, don't worry about it. Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the fallen away comes first. There's two meanings to falling away. I'm gonna give you them both. You studied for yourself. There's only two meanings to what that means. Number one, that is a time of great apostasy where those that are the church stop being the church. Boy, are we seeing that today? Could it mean that? It certainly could, maybe it does. Another translation is, which is the word, it can be argued that by very good scholars it is, that it means departure. The word is used in other parts of the Bible where there is a departure. Some say that it refers to the rapture. Great scholars argue both back and forth. I don't really care. It doesn't matter to me. All I know from this is that the Antichrist cannot be revealed until the church is out of the way. And the church is out of the way by the Holy Spirit getting us into the hands of Jesus. Watch this. The fallen away comes first, the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. That's interesting, because only Judas is the other one found in the Bible, known as the son of perdition. Why is Judas referred to as the son of perdition? Anybody? Good, because Satan entered him on the night of the betrayal. who opposes, there's the word, and exalts himself above all that is called God and that is worshiped, watch this, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, and look how, Paul says, don't you guys remember when I was with you, I told you all these things? You guys, look at verse four, it's incredible. Verse four is amazing. See, Jack, we got a big problem. We don't have to really even talk about this stuff because there's gotta be a temple in Jerusalem for the guy to sit in to declare himself to be God. You are totally correct. I would recommend you today spending the entire rest of your week reviewing the plans and looking at the data that Israel has and what the rabbis have declared that it's time for them to start rebuilding the temple. Did you hear me? They have the gowns. They've made them. You can look at them online. They fashioned the gowns. They've got the ashes of the red heifer that's needed to sanctify the implements. The implements have all been made out of silver and gold. The menorah is on display. You can see it. They've got They've done DNA, I don't know how they've done all this, but they've done DNA testing of young Hebrew men to see if they're of a Kohathite or a Levite. They're dead serious. But the Bible tells us in the book of Zechariah that when the Lord returns, he will build his temple. So how do the Jews get over this? Temple talk. Are you guys listening? According to the Bible, the only temple God will recognize is the one that he builds. Jesus, for the millennium, will build his own temple in Jerusalem. Zacharias says so. Watch this. 2 Thessalonians 2 says that this guy's gonna stand in the temple and sit in the temple and declare himself to be good. There's gonna be a temple built that the God of the Bible has nothing to do with. And the Jews have always taught Zechariah that the Messiah would come and build the temple. I want you to write this down and prove me wrong. Go look at what the Messiahs have said over these last several years regarding the temple. They've had a new revelation from God. The new revelation is they must build the temple for God to come. They've got to create it for him to come and live in it. Doesn't that fit 2 Thessalonians 2? Next slide, next portion. And now you know what is restraining. What's holding this guy back? That he, Antichrist, may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. In other words, the gears are moving. Only he, notice capital H, it's a reference to the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit who now restrains will do so until he is taken. out of the way. The Holy Spirit is holding back, not only evil, but the Antichrist from being revealed. That's why you and I, naturally, supernaturally, have to be salt and light to our life, family, community, and the world. Because if the Holy Spirit's holding back evil, and the Holy Spirit's living in me, he uses you and I to hold back evil. When he's taken out of the way, notice this, watch this, watch everybody. Oh, I don't have anything to throw. Watch, this is the church. I'm the Holy Spirit, this is the church, okay? Holding back evil, 2,000 years, all this is going on, and when it's time for the wicked one to be revealed, the Holy Spirit steps aside and goes like this. pitches us, as it were, up to the Lord Jesus in John 14, in the atmosphere where he receives his children in the rapture, and the Holy Spirit simply does what the L.A. Rams offensive line did to Stafford all year long. Nothing! Nothing! Does that make sense? He doesn't go anywhere. Well, if the Holy Spirit leaves, who's gonna get saved? Who says he leaves? He just steps aside, and there goes evil. Think the world's bad now? Notice how evil's ramping up. Good's being called evil, evil's being called good. Oh, that's part of God's plan. He didn't plan it. God wrote it down in advance called prophecy. He told us about it so that we wouldn't lose heart. Don't worry about it, God is saying, don't worry. Yes, it may escalate to the point where you're imprisoned or jailed for being a Christian preaching the gospel. You may be burned at the stake. This has gone on for 2,000 years. God says, don't worry about it. You can only die for so long. And then you go to heaven. Don't be like the Thessalonians who think, oh my gosh, it's getting so rough, we must be in the tribulation period. I had a woman in this shirt say to me, I was just, because I'd recognized her. So I recognized her by thinking she must have gone here. But she was listening to some online class and she said, I need to ask you a question. Where are we? Where are we right now? This is during the pandemic. Where are we in the tribulation period? At what portion are we in? And I said, get out. No, I didn't. I felt like it. No, I said, ma'am, listen, please sit down. You got to hear this. We're not in it yet. This is not it. Jesus said, when you see these things begin to happen, they're like birth pangs of a woman. You know, it's called the quickening. And that Jesus' reference, by the way, was, which leads to real birth. So for those of you who've had a baby, for those, excuse me, for all you women who have had babies, you start to have contractions, you start to have, and they start to intensify, the water breaks, and it gets stronger and stronger and stronger. And then, you know, when you're pregnant for the first, excuse me, when women are pregnant for the first time, They start having, we didn't know, back in those Stone Age when we had our kids, it's like, oh, don't worry, these are Braxton Hicks. Who's that? I'd never heard of that band before. No, these are Braxton Hicks contractions. I said, Lisa, what's going on with you? I'm having Braxton Hicks. I said, what? And the doctor told her, it's actually your uterus and your system exercising to get ready, practicing. See, it's got a nurse correcting me in the front row. Practicing, practicing, strengthening for delivery. You know what? It is safe to say, without exaggeration, the world at this moment is going through Braxton Hicks. because we know that the actual labor pains Jesus referred to as the opening of the seven year tribulation period, the first three and a half years. So if we're starting to feel spasms and contractions now, then how close are we? So anti-Christ is the instead of Christ, the great imposter. friend of mine works in a secret place, sent me some images regarding China, and what I was looking at, I thought I was looking at something that the U.S. makes, and the U.S. has. He said, no, that's Chinese. I said, no, it's not. We've had that for years. Yeah, yeah, I know, but it's Chinese. What about this? That's Chinese. What about that? That's Chinese. And I looked at this stuff, and all of it's a knockoff. Are you hearing me? They wait for us to invent something, and then they turn right around and make it in a few weeks. Think about that for a moment. Satan's just like that. He can't invent anything. He's gonna pollute the church. He's not gonna make a church. God makes sex. What does Satan do with it? God gives us fruit of the vine to celebrate and to be medicine for our tummy. What does Satan do with it? He gets people hooked on it and strung out and messed up. He just ruins everything he touches. It's what he does. I'm gonna have to end. We have so much, it's ridiculous. No, I can't. I can't. You know what? 27 more verses. It's never gonna happen. Here's the thing. Here's the thing on this. If the Bible gives such detail that we've just scratched the surface, if the Bible gives so much detail to an invisible operative who can inhabit a human life, and that you would agree with me that the world is darkening and getting more evil and evil, then we better as a church wake up to the real enemy that we have is not flesh and blood. There's people that hate you or hate me for what we believe in, and it's not personal. No, I mean, it's not personal for me. When they say, I hate you, and you better hope I never find you in a dark alley somewhere. Guess what I know? For me, me, for me, Jack, it's not personal. It's not them. Do you understand that? It's not them. It's the demon powers behind them. And the same is true. The powers going after your children. When you see a scale, when you see the ramp up of all of this transgender confusion stuff, the Bible tells us that God's not the author of confusion, Satan's the author of confusion. And he always goes after kids. He loves abortions. And he loves getting your little ones early on, right from the start, if he can. Why? Because God loves innocence. Satan hates it. When you start, when you decide like hundreds of people, I think I heard 511 people last Sunday came to Christ in the Easter services. Satan hates that. You know how hard his team had to work just after that? Think about it. Every one of those people got in their car and drove away, and there was a demonic attack being raged against their thoughts and their mind instantly. Believers, it's time to wake up. We're not playing games. This is not some weirdness. I can't believe he believes in that. You know what? If that's what you believe, he's got you right where he wants you. Well, I don't believe in any of it, I'm an atheist. You have drank his Kool-Aid. There are invisible forces that seek to destroy. I'll end with this. Jesus was talking about a man who was demon possessed. And he was talking about how when someone is possessed by a demonic power, that when the demon leaves that person looking for someone else, they do that. By the way, fallen angels can appear and disappear. Demons have to have something to inhabit. For those of you who have been in the occult or studied the occult or biblical demonology, there's something called entries. Don't, for example, I've learned if somebody comes from Peru and offers me a little trinket of this doll, I've learned, no thanks. You say that's so silly, what a superstitious thing. Yeah. There's entry points. Mind-altering drugs are Entry points. Listen, I kid you not, let this, I hope this, listen, if this hits you in the stomach and knocks the wind out of you, may God bless that. Pornography, you think it's pornography? Oh, nobody knows, and it's just personal, private pleasure. You have no idea, you're such a fool. You don't even know what's going on. There are invisible powers that are locking you on to this fire on the inside that they're stoking to take over your home and your life, and you will not get him out, get them out easily. Oh man, it's just porn. Why do you think it's storming the world? Why does it leave people destroyed in its wake? Next week. Father, we pray, dear God in heaven, I pray, Lord, by whatever authority you have given me, I claim none. But Lord, I know you've called me. That I have no doubt. So God, I pray over this body of believers in Jesus' name that you would protect them, shield them, guard them against unbelief, against deception. Lord, that you protect them against a apathetic walk in life, a lazy walk. God, spare them from a lazy Christian existence. That's dangerous. Dear God, I pray that for every true believer in this place, the Holy Spirit would come upon them, and Lord, that it wouldn't be that we jump high or sing loud, it would be that we walk straight. And that the kingdom of hell would tremble, even now, as intel is being gathered, so to speak. As the airwaves are being intercepted. that in this congregation, a challenge is going out. The Holy Spirit has been called upon, the name of Jesus Christ has been proclaimed, and the believers are going forth to glorify his name. May hell tremble. And Father, for those who do not know you, I pray, Almighty God, that they would tremble. that they would tremble at your name, that they would tremble at your word, and God, that they would come and seek your indwelling power, lest they be filled. Because that same warning Jesus gave, when a demon leaves a man and cannot find another place, he returns back to that man with seven other demons more wicked than himself. Oh God, we pray for our children, our grandchildren. We ask you for an outpouring of your Holy Spirit. upon our city, our county, our state, and our nation. In Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. We'll see you next Sunday. God bless you.