Father, how we thank You so much for another day that You provided for us. And we thank You most importantly for this time this morning. Lord, I thank You for everyone here, and I thank You for the opportunity for us to minister together. Lord, to come to the throne of grace together. We may find help in time of need. Lord, our needs are always great, but You're greater. You're greater than our needs. And Lord, we just come acknowledging this morning who You are. We're thankful, Father, that we can come today, that we can come and worship You. Lord, that we can be together as the body of Christ. And Lord, that we can sing Your praises. It's all about You this morning. It's not about anybody else but You. So Lord, we ask that You would fill us with Your Spirit this morning. Cause us, Lord, as we sing this morning, to sing praises to Your wonderful name. Lord, cause us this morning to understand Your Word as we study it together as well. We worship you. We thank you. We praise you. And Lord, we lift up those who aren't with us this morning for obvious reasons, Lord, maybe because of sickness or because it's not good for them to be around people right now with this virus. And Lord, we just pray that you minister to them this morning. We pray that you would help them through the times that they're having. Help the church as we go through this time in the world. We go through what's happening in our culture, what's happening in our society. Help us, Lord, to continue to be salt and light. Help us to point people to Jesus. Help them to see that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but through Him. I pray, Lord, that we would also point out that He is the great physician, He is the healer. And Lord, that we can come to You with the problems that we have, with the illnesses that we have, We can come to You with everything. And Lord, we thank You that You are there. And Lord, that we can demonstrate to one another how important it is to pray, how important it is to trust You in situations as we find ourselves in in this world. And help us to be salt and light. Help us to be, Father, good model citizens. Help us, Lord, to be obedient to Your Word. We pray all this in Jesus' name this morning. Amen. Well, grab your hymn book in front of you, turn to page 426, Victory in Jesus. And I want to invite you to stand with me this morning as we share in this time. I heard an old, old story How a Savior came from glory How He gave His life on Calvary To save a wretch like me I heard about His groaning Of His precious blood's atoning And I repented of my sins and won the victory Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever He sought me and bought me He loved me ere I knew Him And all my love is to Him Beneath the cleansing flood I heard about His healing Of His cleansing power revealing How He made the lame to walk again And caused the blind to see And then I cried, dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit And somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victory Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever He sought me and bought me With His redeeming blood He loved me ere I knew Him And all my love is to Him He plunged me to victory Beneath the cleansing flood I heard about a mansion ♪ Turn about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea ♪ About the angels singing and the old redemption story ♪ And some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory ♪ In Jesus, my Savior forever ♪ He sought me and bought me ♪ With His redeeming blood ♪ He loved me ere I knew Him ♪ And all my love is to Him, He plunged me in Amen. Turn to page 135 and you can be seated. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon this I seek, nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea Nothing but the blood of Jesus Oh, precious is the flow That makes me white as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Not a good that I have done. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. Nothing but the blood of Jesus This is all my hope and peace Nothing but the blood of Jesus This is all my righteousness Nothing but the blood of Jesus Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. You know, with everything going on in this world, we need to talk to Jesus about it, right? Over on page 451, tell it to Jesus. And wonderful verses that are there. Are you weary? Are you heavy hearted? Tell it to Jesus. Are you grieving over joys departed? Tell it to Jesus. He's a friend that is well known. Are you weary, are you heavy hearted? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus Are you grieving, overjoyed, departed? Tell it to Jesus alone Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus He is a friend that's well known To you no other such a friend or brother Tell it to Jesus alone The tears flow down your cheeks a minute Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus Have you sins that to men's eyes are hidden? Tell it to Jesus alone Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus He is a friend that's well known Tell it to Jesus alone Are you troubled at the thought of dying? Tell it to Jesus alone Tell it to Jesus, for Christ's coming kingdom are you sighing? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus, He is a friend that's well known. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus He is a friend that's well known You know others, such a friend or brother Tell it to Jesus alone Amen. Our scripture reading this morning is in First John chapter three. So if you have your Bible, I'd like to invite you to join me in First John chapter three. I am reading in the New American Standard Bible. And if you want to follow in that version, there is one in the rack right in front of you. If not, you can follow along in your version. First John chapter three. Let's notice what John has to say. See how great love the father has bestowed on us that we would be called Children of God. And such we are. For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved. Now we're Children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself just as He is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness. And sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins. No one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. But this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children are not loved with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth and will assure our hearts before him. And whatever our heart condemns us, for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. This is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he commanded us. The one who keeps his commandments abides in him and he in him. We know by this that he abides in us by the spirit he has given us. We praise the Lord for His Word and the reading of His Word. Each time we have that opportunity to do that. Last week I reintroduced Hebrews 13.8. We seek to try to memorize scripture and Hebrews 13.8 is the passage that we were working on before we took a break in our meetings. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Like we do, we put this to a song and hopefully it'll help us all to memorize it. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today. And forever, Hebrews 13a. And forever, Hebrews 13a. And forever, Hebrews 13a. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today. And forever, Hebrews 13a. And forever, Hebrews 13a. And forever, Hebrews 13a. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today. And forever, Hebrews 13a. And forever, Hebrews 13a. And forever, Hebrews 13a. Amen. Well, at this time, we are going to receive our offering. And the way, of course, we're doing that in light of everything going on in our social distancing and things like that, I have a plate set up over there, and I'm going to lead us in prayer. And if you haven't already dropped your offering in the plate, you can do so at that time. Let's go ahead and pray together. Father, we thank you for the opportunity once again for us to come to you in prayer. Lord, we come now and seek to give back to you out of the wonderful abundant blessing that you've given to us. And Lord, we thank you for providing for all of our needs. Lord, you abundantly supply our needs to the riches that are in Christ Jesus. We thank you for that. And Lord, we pray now as we give that, Lord, it can be an aspect of our worship. that we would bring honor to you. We thank you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength today. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength today. These commandments that I give you today Are to be on your hearts These commandments that I give you today Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength today. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength today. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts today. Well, let me invite you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to 2 Thessalonians 2. Three weeks ago, I asked a question dealing with 2 Thessalonians 2, and the question was, are we at the end? In fact, is this the end? We have witnessed governments working together. Nations coming together to fight a virus that has been going on in our world. Some have been calling for a one world government. Some have been calling for a cashless society. So are we at the end? And questions being asked like that. I began to answer that question in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. and sharing that there are three things that have to happen first before the Lord Jesus comes back and before the day of the Lord's wrath. And if you look there in verse 1 as Paul addresses a problem that existed with the Thessalonians, he has to deal with the fact that they had a misunderstanding about the rapture of the church and the day of the Lord. If you look at verse 1, He says, now we request you brethren with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. So they were disturbed over thinking that Jesus had returned and the day of the Lord had begun. And so Paul has to correct this information, this lack of information. And he says in verse 3, unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. So he says that there are two things in verse three that have to occur before the Lord Jesus comes back and before the day of the Lord's wrath." He says, first, there has to be a worldwide falling away from the faith. That is the apostasy that he is referring to. Then secondly, there has to be a revealing of the man of lawlessness who is the Antichrist. And when will he be revealed? Well, it says in verse four, when he opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God and object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. This is what Daniel as well as Jesus referred to as the abomination of desolation. The first three and a half years, in Daniel's 70th week is marked by a false peace. If you recall in Revelation chapter 6 and verse 1, the opening of the first seal, you have this gentleman conquering without a war. It says he has a bow, but he doesn't have arrows. So he is able to secure peace. And we know it's a false peace because it will not last the entire time of that 70th week. It will last 1,260 days, which is three and a half years in that period that spans seven years. Now, as I said last week, there are different views to the rapture. There's a pre-tribulational rapture. There's mid-tribulational rapture. There's post-tribulational rapture. There's pre-wrath rapture. There's four views on the rapture of the church. And it's dogmatic on all of them, though those who take each view will be dogmatic about that view. But I would have to say that if you look at Revelation 6 and you look at Matthew chapter 24, they parallel one another specifically with the opening of the seals and what Jesus says in response to the disciples' question, what will be the sign of your coming, your presence, your parousia? And the parousia is mentioned right there in verse 1. now regarding the parousia, the coming or the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him. Our gathering together to him is the rapture. I don't think any of us would disagree that this would occur before the day of the Lord. The question is, is the entire 70th week the day of the Lord? I mean, even when you go over into the first chapter, I'm sorry, the fourth chapter of the first letter, Paul talks about the rapture of the church in verses 13 through 18. And then, of course, when you get to chapter 5, he talks about the Day of the Lord. And there seems to be a chronology taking place here. And when you go into 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, it seems to follow the same chronology. The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, our gathering together to Him, and the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord begins in Revelation chapter 8 with the bowl and the trumpet judgments. Now, of course, answering the question, are we in the end? Is this the end of the world? Well, yes and no. Is this virus the end? Is this virus the judgment of God? No, I don't think this virus is the judgment of God, because if it was the judgment of God, you would not be able to get away from it by distancing yourself six feet from someone. You can't distance yourself from the judgment of God. If this is the judgment of God, it's gonna happen, regardless of your reactions. But as we look at this, as I said, the events that are unfolding here, according to Matthew chapter 24, mentioning the abomination of desolation, mentioning where the Antichrist is being revealed, and how is he revealing himself? Well, as I said, he signs a treaty with Israel, that's the first sign, and 1260 days in that treaty, or three and a half years into that treaty, he breaks the treaty. So leading up to that, Israel will have peace with her neighbors. She'll have peace with all the Arab nations that are trying to destroy her now. But that peace will be short-lived. This man of sin, this man of lawlessness, as we talked about him last week, this man is the epitome of wickedness. When we talk about depravity, usually when we talk about total depravity, we say that we're not as depraved as we can be, but this man will be. Everything about him will be depravity. In fact, we're told in the scriptures here that his working is according to the power of Satan. But we're also told that the one who is restraining his being revealed is the Holy Spirit. Notice as he says that, over in verse 7, actually verse 6, and you know what restrains him now so that in his time he will be revealed 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. Many believe that to be the Holy Spirit who is restraining the manifestation of the Antichrist, this coming world ruler. So when you're hearing in the world people calling for a one-world government, or you hear people calling for a cashless society, or even people going further than that and calling for a one-world government, these are events in the end times. Now I believe we've been in the end times since Jesus first came. The Bible gives us specific information saying that we are in the last days. But the question is, are we at the end of the last days? Are we at the end of the end? I really believe that the rapture and the sign of Christ's coming, the coming of Jesus, is not a signless event. I mean, Matthew 24 says that. What will be the sign of your coming, of your parousia, of your presence? And every time, as we looked at that word parousia, parousia is singular. It's not plural. It's not talking about two comings. It's talking about one coming. When will the Lord Jesus Christ come? Well, again, according to what we're seeing here, we're not putting a date. We're not doing what some people have been guilty of, of writing down a date and saying on October 21st, I think Harold Camping used October 21st, I forget the year he used, and he said, the Lord Jesus Christ is coming on that day. I thought that would be awesome, because that's my birthday. But the Lord Jesus didn't come. And we're warned against setting dates. We should not be setting dates. But again, we can look at the times. We can look at the seasons that are going on around us. In fact, it even says in Matthew 24, when you see wars and rumors of wars and you hear about earthquakes, that is not the end. No, what marks the end is the manifestation, actually two things, is the worldwide falling away from the faith, people departing from Christ, people no longer having any kind of commitment to Jesus Christ, they abandon their faith altogether, and then the second thing, of course, is the manifestation of the Antichrist. Now this individual, when that time comes and he will be revealed, most likely is living now. He will be an adult, but it's most likely he is living now, if we are that close. But again, what reveals him is when the restrainer pulls back and he goes into the temple, he abominates the temple, he declares himself to be God, and that's when things begin to change. And as I've said on so many occasions, that things have to go from bad to worse in our world before the coming of Christ. Yes, we've experienced some things going on with this. Coronavirus, but this has not really been bad, has it? I mean, we have been, yes, there's been abuse in different states of governors extending an overreach of restrictions, but I know like here in Florida, we haven't had any of that. I mean, look, we're meeting right now. We're practicing some, of course, social distancing, if you will. We're trying to make it to where you don't touch each other, but we're together, and we're worshiping the Lord together, and that's important, right? And we can do that without touching each other. We can look at each other. We can do the airwaves and so forth. But when you're looking at what is going on in our world, which has been termed a pandemic, an emergency, it's not like what we're reading here, is it? We're not seeing people turn from the faith. In fact, in many cases, we see people come to the faith. Sometimes pandemic events drives people to the Lord, drives them to the place in their life to say, listen, where am I going to go if I die? Where am I going to go if I get this, if I get this virus and it kills me? Am I going to go to heaven or hell? And people begin to weigh those options. They begin to survey their life. And I used to work in the funeral home business, and I remember during those times that nobody wants to talk about death. Nobody wants you to come by their house and help them pre-plant a funeral that they haven't had yet, or someone in their family hasn't had yet. They don't want you walking in the door and opening up a flip chart that's got pictures of caskets. They don't want to talk about any of that. And that's why I believe at a funeral, the minister should be preaching the gospel, because there are so many people sitting there that that's the first time that they're going to hear it. That's the first time they're going to sit themselves in a place where they're going to expose themselves to that teaching and to understand that I need to one day deal with this situation. We all know we're going to die. All of us are going to die. We all have the death sentence. We are all sinners. And we know from people dying every day, that just confirms what Romans 6.23 says, for the wages of sin is death. People die. Things die. Animals die. I remember the first time with my oldest daughter having to bury a turtle that died and talking to her, I think she was about eight or nine years old, about death. And we talk about these things. Things can happen. One day we can be here and tomorrow we're not here. We could go home today and our last time together with anybody could be right now. We don't know when that day or hour is, but we all know that our days are numbered. We will die unless the Lord grants us to stay until he raptures his church. And we know that that would be awesome. Until you start talking about a view that's uncomfortable with someone. If you're talking about a pre-tribulational view that says that the whole 70th week of Daniel is great tribulation, and you're going to be pulled out before the Antichrist reveals himself, before the opening of any of the seals in Matthew 24 and Revelation chapter 6, then that's a comfortable view. That means that I won't be persecuted for anything. But if I take any of the other views, I will be persecuted. If I take any of the other views, we'll see the Antichrist rise up. That's a chilling thought, isn't it? But here's the way I look at it. You know, you can't be dogmatic on some of these things. One thing we can be dogmatic on, like I told my friend last week, I said, we can be dogmatic on the fact that Jesus Christ is coming back. We can be dogmatic about that. We just don't know some of the events around it. But as we look at these things we're seeing here, it's not signless. Worldwide falling away from the faith, the man of sin being revealed, which of course in coinciding with that is the removal of his restraint. But I want you to see the end. Because you know, Paul doesn't deal with the career of the Antichrist here. When you get down to verse 8 and take it down to verse 12, he goes from the restraint, what's holding him back, now to his end. And last week we looked at Revelation chapter 13, and I won't go back there again, but if you have some time later today, go look at Revelation 13, and it talks about the Antichrist, talks about the false prophet, talks about the fact that during that time that the false prophet will cause all the people to worship the Antichrist. He will cause all unbelievers to receive a mark on their hand or on their forehead, the mark of the beast, the mark of the Antichrist. He also will erect an image to the Antichrist and he will have the supernatural ability to cause that image to speak. And that, I believe, is this deluding, verse 11, deluding influence that comes upon people that do not believe. They believe the lie. And that's very unfortunate. Also understand if you take that mark, that you can't be saved. So there needs to be some understanding for the church here, right? And of course, if you're truly a child of God, you will not take the mark. You will refuse that. And we're kind of seeing a miniature picture of this because I was reading just recently in Chicago, they're preparing for the vaccine for the COVID-19 virus, and they want everyone in the state to be vaccinated. I don't know if you read that. And they're saying that if you are not willing to be vaccinated, then you cannot, those of us that take medication every day, you will not have access to your medication until you take this vaccine. Well, that mimics, really, or parallels what the false prophet will do. The false prophet allows everyone to receive a mark on their hand or on their forehead in order to buy and to sell. And if you do not have that mark, you will not be able to buy or sell. So there's an interesting parallel. I don't know if anybody's thought of that. I'm sure they have. I'm not the only one to think of that. But again, look at the end as it picks up in verse 8. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming. That is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness." So here they're seeing, or we're seeing, the end. The end of the Antichrist. So this fast forwards. Because, again, you have His revealing or His manifestation in verse 4, and we also see His activity as setting up in the temple and declaring Himself to be God, but then you zoom past a whole bunch of time, and you go all the way to the end. In fact, you're zooming three and a half years. Twelve hundred and sixty days. Revelation 13 mentions that. Forty-two months. So it says in the end, verse 8, the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth. Again, it almost sounds as if he'll be destroyed as soon as he is revealed, but that's certainly not the case. He's allowed to conduct his reign of terror before he is brought down at Christ's coming. Revelation 20 and verse 20 says this, and the beast was seized and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who had worshipped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone." So just as the Antichrist will be revealed at God's appointed time, so also the moment of his destruction divinely ordained. And it's at the height of his power when he certainly seems to be invincible. At one point he will receive a mortal wound, He will die and there will be a resurrection. Everything about him, even the term that Antichrist, because the Apostle John is the one who uses that term in 1 John chapter 2, that term Antichrist is everything it says. It's against Christ. It's in place of Christ. So everything he does will mimic Christ. Of course, in the Old Testament, we hear in the book of Daniel, it says in Daniel 7 and verse 26, that his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. Daniel 11.45 notes that he will come to his end and no one will help him. He goes to destruction, Revelation 17.11, and that is graphically described in what we just read. in Revelation 19 and verse 20 where he is cast alive into the lake of fire. The most hellish, the most powerful ruler in human history will be effortlessly crushed by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord will slay him with the breath of his mouth. He will slay him with a word. The word slay It's translated overthrow in the NIV and that would probably be a better understanding because he's not annihilated, he's not killed since he is thrown alive into the lake of fire. The concept here is that the Lord will destroy His enemies with the breath of His mouth. And that concept stems from the Old Testament, like Isaiah 11 and verse 4. It says, "...the Lord will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked." And, of course, the book of Revelation uses similar pictures or similar terms of a sword coming out of the Lord's mouth to destroy His enemies. At His coming, at the Lord's coming, He will cast the false prophet and the Antichrist in the lake of fire. When it talks about to bring to an end, it literally means to render inoperative, to abolish, to render ineffective. He's going to bring to an end by His appearance at His coming. Everything will end. Everything will stop. Now, as I said, he's skipping over the career of the Antichrist. He's skipping over the activity of the Antichrist other than what he puts in verse 4. As I said, you read in Revelation chapter 6, if I can invite you to turn there with me, and you have the opening of the seals. You have the first seal is the rider on a white horse. And that is the one who has a crown that was given to him. He went out conquering and to conquer. If you'll notice there, he had a white horse. He sat on it. He had a bow, but he had no arrows. So that is a false peace. Second seal is war. He broke the second seal. He have a red horse. Him who sat on it was granted to take peace from the earth, that men would slay one another, and a great sword was given to him. And now things begin to change, right? You no longer have peace. Now you have war. Third seal is famine. What comes with war? Famine creates those type of conditions. And by the way, the second seal is a parallel to Matthew 24, 6. The third seal is a parallel to Matthew 24, verses 7 and 8. And here is a black horse. He who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not damage the oil and the wine. Well, the only ones who have the oil and the wine are the rich. And here's saying a court of weak for a day's wage? A court? And then, of course, the fourth seal is death. When you have war and you have famine, it creates death. And the fourth horse is on an ashen horse. That is a pale green. That's that image that you have of death. And it says here, I looked, and behold, an ashen horse. He who sat on it had the name Death. Hades was following him. Authority was given to him. to kill over a fourth of the earth with the sword, with famine, with pestilence, and by the wild beast of the earth." And the wild beast, that's a reference to the small rodents that would have diseases. It amazes me when I find people having rats as pets. They carry so many diseases, and I'm sure the domestic ones don't, but still. And then, of course, you have the fifth seal, which is a parallel to Matthew 24, verses 9 to 28, and that fifth seal is the death of martyrs, the death of Christians. He says, When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And there was given to each of them a white robe, and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed, even as they had been, would be completed also. Did you notice the phrase? who were to be killed even as they had been, there will be some who had been ordained by God to die under the persecution of Antichrist. You know what, when people die today, it's not a surprise to God, and that's exactly how they were gonna die. So people that have died from the coronavirus, that's exactly how they were to die. If you're talking about the sovereignty of God, if you're talking about all of our days being numbered, if you're talking about the fact that God orders our days, how we came into this world, how we will leave this world, people that die and whatever they die from is exactly how they were going to die. I had a heart attack back in December. If I would have died, that would have been how I was supposed to die. Instead, I may die by walking out in front of a truck or something, not that I have any plans. But whatever it may be, whatever the way it may happen, that has already been decided. Now, that doesn't certainly mean that I'm careless. That doesn't mean that, well, first of all, I don't know how I'm going to die. Again, let's say if it's going to be through the coronavirus, I'm not going to go out and do stupid things. I'm not going to do what some people have been doing and spitting and being in super close contact and licking. This is crazy. That's what I'm hearing in the news. They're licking public things, things that people touch. It's kind of like this ice cream challenge that they were doing. Do you remember hearing about that? They walk into the grocery store, they pull out a pint of ice cream, they open it up and they lick it and close it and put it back on the shelf. Good thing is that there are cameras everywhere and they began to arrest people for doing that. But this is the same generation that is also drinking detergent, right? I'm not going to do something dumb like that. I'm not going to be careless. I'm going to seek to do what I can to take care of myself. But how we die, as it says there in verse 11, those who were to be killed even as they had been killed, that right there is, of course, we're talking about the sovereignty of God. Of course, the sixth seal is mentioned as a parallel to Matthew 24, 29 to 31. And you have here terror. He says, I looked when he broke the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth. as a fig tree cast its unripe figs were shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of their place. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of their wrath You probably have, has come. The future heiress tense is used here. It translates is coming. Is coming and who is able to stand. It's an impeding judgment. So in other words, the wrath of the lamb, this is not it. The wrath of the lamb, you have to skip the next chapter, is when you have the opening of the seventh seal. That is the day of the Lord. If you look at Revelation 8 and following, and you compare it to the passages in the Old Testament that give us information about the day of the Lord, they are in complete harmony with one another. And like I said, as you get down to verse 17 of chapter 6, when they're saying, the great day of their wrath has come, has come is not a good translation, because that's not what's going on in the Greek. In the Greek, it's an impending judgment, is coming. That same grammar or construction of that verb used right there is used to speak of the marriage supper of the Lamb, that it is coming, it's pending. And so we have here that the activity that's going to be going on during the reign of Antichrist as he rules the world, again, the first three and a half years are going to be bliss because all the fighting's going to stop. And it's going to talk about this individual is going to be able to rule the nations, all the nations. So somewhere America fits into that. We are a nation. But then, of course, all the activity is really centered around Israel. And, of course, with Israel and securing that peace treaty with Israel, This will mark that seven years, that last 70th week of Daniel and Daniel's prophecy. Now, will we see that? Well, according to what I'm sharing with you, I would say yes. And of course, you're free to disagree with that, and I hope I'm wrong. I don't really have any kind of ambition to see this happen, but if I'm understanding scripture carefully here and correctly, then I'm seeing that before Jesus comes, 2 Thessalonians 2, before our gathering together to meet Him in the air, as 1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18 talks about, it says there's going to have to be a worldwide falling away from the faith, a worldwide departure from Christ. That's when the churches apostatize. You know, in other countries, churches are underground, because they will not sign on with the state church, and they're persecuted for that, so they go into hiding, and they meet privately. church underground in China. We used to do a lot of work with the Voice of the Martyrs ministry, and we used to have the representatives that covered all the southeast come and share with us what's going on with the persecuted church. And they would go into some of these areas, and they would take Bibles in there. They would take, like I said, Bibles in the language of the people that they're trying to reach. They would go into these areas. They would interview these believers that are being persecuted for their faith. They would come back to America, and they would publish their stories because they're trying to get the word out of what's going on in other places with our brothers and sisters in Christ that you're not gonna find in local media. I mean, the local liberal media, you won't find. Things like that going on. We're talking about Christians being persecuted. And it's really amazing that what did make it in the media in the last few weeks made it. We're talking about the governmental overreach like occurred in Virginia or the arrests that took place down in Tampa. Now look at verse 9. That lawless one, first of all, is going to be slayed by the breath of the mouth of Christ. But he tells us in verse 9 the power of Satan. The power in which this man of lawlessness operates is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, with all the deception of wickedness. His career resembles that of Satan because he's energized by Satan. His activity, his energy, that describes his power and action. That word usually refers to God's power, but here it is describing Satan's power. And he's telling us here that Antichrist's power and signs and false wonders will not only be deceptive tricks like falsifying his own death and his resurrection, but it is also the actual manifestation of Satan's supernatural power. Paul uses three words to describe the energy of the man of lawlessness. He says powers, or miracles, it refers to supernatural acts. He uses the word signs, that points to the one who is performing them. And then he mentions wonders, that describes the astonishing results. The Antichrist's miracles will reveal his supernatural power and create wonder and shock and astonishment. And that's where the whole world will fall down and worship him. Notice that he also inserts the word false. And that's referring to all three of them. Antichrist miracles, signs and wonders are false. They're not false in the sense of fakery, but they're false in the sense that they lead to false conclusions about who he is. When they see Him doing these supernatural activities or they see the false prophet doing these supernatural things, they're concluding the wrong thing. What's to say in Matthew 24? There'll be many false Christs that will come. And if you hear them saying He is here or He is there, do not go out. Do not go out after them. This is all part of the end. the false conclusions based upon the miraculous signs that they're enabled to do. And by the way, God is the one who enables them to do this. Just as God enables him for a short period of time to speak blasphemous words against God, this man will be the epitome of wickedness like we have never seen. He will start out with a whole different demeanor, but then change. 160 days into that treaty. This will cause people to believe the lie that he is divine. It will cause them to worship him. In Revelation 13 and verse 4, John saw that Antichrist's deluded followers worshipped the beast, saying, who is like the beast and who is able to wage war with him? So he's going to mislead the world, according to verse 10, with all the deception of wickedness at his disposal. He's going to muster all of evil's undiluted, unrestrained, seductive power to tempt the world to give him this unprecedented influence over it. He will unscrupulously use every form of wickedness to deceive the perishing people, those who heard the gospel, but those who would not receive the love of the truth. It says in verse 10 that his influence will extend to those who perish. Only God's elect will not be taken in by him, but unbelievers will. That's why I said, if we are going to be around to see this Antichrist to rise up, what's the first thing that we're looking for then? the signing of the treaty. Keep your eyes on the Middle East. I mean, we've had president after president trying to establish, you know, peace over there and wanting to make Palestine a state. Of course, the Palestinians keep messing it up because they keep shooting rockets into Israel. That's not helping the situation, right? And when there's a call for a ceasefire, That doesn't cease. It may stop periodically, but they still fire a rogue missile in there. And then, of course, Israel gets condemned for defending itself. Israel is a military might. I don't know if you knew that. Israel has the capability and the technology to completely annihilate Iran and those rogue nations that come against them. They have restrained themselves tremendously And of course, when you have the US as an ally. And it's really sad that when we get around to elections, of course, the sad part is not finding out what people really believe, because I believe the hat has come off. But the sad thing is that when people turn against our ally, which is Israel. You know, Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Everything else is ruled by a dictator. And so we need Israel. And if these worlds want to experience, if these nations want to experience the freedom like America has or like Israel has, then they need to quit fighting with Israel or quit fighting with America. So what we're seeing here, as I said, we're seeing that unbelievers will fall for the lies. And during this time, Satan will deceive them through this man of lawlessness. Revelation 19-20 refers to them as those who receive the mark of the beast and those who worship his image. And why will they be duped by him? Well, verse 10 again says, because they did not receive the love of the truth, so as to be saved. They will fall to the Antichrist's influence because of their unbelief. They did not receive the love of the truth. That doesn't mean that they didn't hear it. It doesn't mean they didn't understand it because they did. They did not love it. And why did they did not love it? Well, because John 3, 18 says men love darkness rather than light. Why do people reject the gospel? Because what does the gospel speak about? It speaks about our sin, doesn't it? And that, for many, is very uncomfortable. They don't want to have their sin exposed because they love their sin. They don't want to be told how they are to live. They don't want to have morality imposed upon them. And so they persecute the one who brings that good news to them. To them, it's not good news. To the one who is ready to be delivered from their sin, it's good news, right? That there is a Savior, that there is the Lord Jesus Christ who will forgive you of all your sin because of the sacrifice that He gave on the cross. They did not receive the love of the truth. The truth here is referring to the gospel. It's also referring to the Lord Jesus Christ who is truth incarnate. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So they don't welcome Jesus. They don't welcome the gospel that he proclaims. But they do welcome this evil man in his hellish ways. Over in John chapter 5, verse 38, Jesus said this to unbelieving Jews. He says, You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify about me, and you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. They were unwilling. He reiterated this later in John 8, 24, as well as verses 45 and following. He says, Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason, you do not hear them, because you are not of God. Well, because the unbelievers did not receive the love of the truth, they do not know God, they do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, they willfully choose to love their sin, they willfully choose to believe the lies of Satan, to hate the gospel, and to hate the Lord Jesus Christ. They are exactly like in John chapter 12 and following of those Jewish leaders that were described in John 12, 42, and 43. who believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God." Listen, that's not what we're after, is it? We're not after the approval of men. We're after the approval of God. I mean, even Jesus said in Matthew 10.37, That he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. See, Jesus is after a full 100% commitment of your life to Him. It's an exchange that you make. You exchange your life for His life. And if you're not willing to do that, Jesus said you can't be my disciple. I mean, think of the terminology that he uses. Think of the terminology that we find in the New Testament, like in Luke 9, 23 and 24. That if anyone is willing to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. How often do you hear that preached? Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. And when he talks about denying yourself, he is talking about the understanding that you're refusing any longer to associate with who you are. You're renouncing your life. Essentially, there is a death going on here. There's a death of yourself. So as we look at this, and as we hear Paul correct this problem, are we in the end? Well, we've been in the end for a long time. Ever since Jesus Christ came the first time, we've been in the last days. Are we in the last of the last days? I personally hold the opinion that we are, but I could be wrong too. I'm not setting any dates. I wouldn't go that far. But I would say this, from what I'm seeing in scripture, it's not silence. What will be the sign of your coming? The disciples asked. So we have a worldwide falling away from the faith. We have the manifestation of the Antichrist who is enabled to manifest himself because the restrainer, who is the Holy Spirit, has pulled back. But what's going to be the end? And I think this is wonderful that Paul goes here and tells them the end, because it's telling us that, as well as we read this today in 20th century modern times, that when this ruler rises up, or even if we're reading this and we see him rise up, His career is only short-lived. His reign of terror is only for 1260 days, and I can just see us marking those days off, right? Forty-two months, three and a half years, and then the Lord will come back, cast him and the false prophet into the lake of fire. He will bind Satan for a thousand years. Jesus will set up his millennial kingdom here on the earth for a thousand years. And at the end of the thousand years, Satan will be loose from his prison, set again, wants to deceive the nations. But then, the Lord Jesus Christ will cast him into the lake of fire. The lake of fire was not created for man. It was created for the devil and his angels. But unfortunately, if a person rejects the Lord Jesus Christ, That's his ultimate fate, is the lake of fire. And my prayer, of course, for all of us is that we examine ourselves as, according to 2 Corinthians 13, we examine ourselves to whether we are in the faith, we prove ourselves. And even as we come to the Lord's table this morning, the Lord's table forces us to look at our life. And I'm talking about our spiritual commitment here. I'm not talking about your physical life. I'm talking about your spiritual life. I'm talking about your commitment to Christ. I'm talking about your relationship to sin. I'm talking about your relationship to righteousness. How are you living your life? Are you living a righteous life by the power of the Spirit of God? Or are you giving into the flesh and walking in the flesh, allowing the flesh to be manifested in your life? Listen, Jesus died for your sin, past, present, and future. And when we look back to the cross, all of our sin is future, right? And He died for that too. And you can be forgiven of all your sin, all of it. And I praise God for that. And as we pray, I want to ask you as we pray that you would prepare yourself for this time as we have the opportunity to share in the Lord's table. And in just a few moments after we pray, I'll share with you how that we'll do that. Heavenly Father, how we praise your precious name. How we thank you for your love for us. How we thank you, Lord, for the spirit of God who has revealed to us your truth and to give us the answer to our questions about in time events. Is this pandemic going on around us part of your judgment? I don't think so. I think really more of what it is is a lot of irresponsibility that occurred and people get infected and it's spreading. Lord, we pray for your wisdom. We pray, Father, as we reach out to people, as we talk to people that we're concerned about their souls and we talk to them about their commitment to Christ. And so Lord, as we come to the table, it reminds us of what you did for us on the cross, and we're thankful for that. And we pray now, Father, as we engage in the table, that we will come to that place as we pray even now, confessing our sin, turning from our sin, remembering where we were at when you saved us, what you did in changing us and transforming us, making us new creations in Christ. We praise you, we thank you, we worship you for what you have done on our behalf. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. As we prepare for the Lord's Supper, and I know we just prayed, and to give us some preparation time, but would you take an opportunity right now to pray? And to just go into your closet, if you will, and talk to the Lord. about some of these things and things that He's put on your heart as, again, we prepare for the Lord's table. What we're going to do as we share in the Lord's table together, rather than pass the elements around, I'm going to let you come up and get the elements, and we'll just let you come one at a time. Not trying to put anybody on the spot, but if I could, this is really probably a perfect time to say this, because there's always somebody in a congregation that says, I'm not worthy to take up the table. Frankly, folks, none of us are worthy, right? We're only worthy because of Christ and what He has done. And because we've been forgiven of all of our sin, covered by the precious blood of the Lamb, then we are now able to come. But taking the cup in an unworthy manner, when it talks about that in 1 Corinthians 10, if you understand the context of what's going on in the chapter, you had the rich and the poor there in the church, and they also had a love feast followed by the taking of the Lord's Supper. And when they would come to the love feast, you had the rich hoarding the food. You also had the rich getting drunk. And so when they came to the table, they were not sharing with the poor, those who were really in need, and they were coming to the table drunk. And so therefore, they were eating it in an unworthy manner. They weren't discerning the table correctly. They weren't discerning the body of Christ correctly. And that's why he says in there, for this reason, some are fallen asleep. Some are sick. Fallen asleep is a euphemism for death. Some were dying. because they were not discerning the Lord's body correctly. And as I say, when we talk about preparation of taking the Lord's Supper, we want to make sure that we're not taking it in an unworthy manner. Now, none of us in here have been drinking, none of us in here are drunk, and I hope none of us ever will be doing that or anyone ever come in here doing that. But we come to the table first examining ourselves to make sure, according to 2 Corinthians 13, 4, that we're in the faith, that we're truly children of God. And then secondly, that we understand what these elements mean. This is a memorial. This is done in remembrance of Christ. This is not transubstantiation. This is not that the bread becomes the body and the drink becomes the literal blood of Christ, as taught in the Catholic Church. Nor do we teach that some experience of grace occurs here, as was taught in the Lutheran Church. No, we take the memorial view. We're told in Scripture, specifically right here as a quotation in 1 Corinthians 11, 24 and following, we're told to do this in remembrance of Christ. And how often are we to do this? He says, do this until I come. So we're going to keep doing this until He comes back. And so, again, I would encourage you, take an opportunity, to examine yourself and examine your life. If you have sin in your life, maybe there's things the Spirit of God is bringing to your mind, well, don't walk away from the table. Deal with it right then, and how do you deal with it? You confess it, and you repent. Right? You bring it before the Lord, and you confess it right then, and you repent of that. So I would encourage you even to do that as we pray together.