back to indexCollege Bible Study - April 20
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I think for me, I love Fridays because I think because you guys have just done, I wanted 00:00:33.280 |
to say you guys have done such a good job of welcoming me and my family too. 00:00:36.440 |
So thank you so much to all of you for welcoming us. 00:00:40.120 |
And you know, Kazee and I were talking about it a few weeks ago, but we were saying Berean 00:00:46.760 |
And that's saying something because I was at the old church, my old church for about 00:00:52.500 |
And so for me to be able to look at this church and feel a deep sense of love already for 00:00:57.760 |
people and be, feel the love from people too. 00:01:02.920 |
That is something that I really wanted to thank you guys for. 00:01:07.500 |
And I hope that as people are constantly filtering in, if you guys kind of just even look around 00:01:14.100 |
at the people around you, I hope that you and I will become people and a ministry and 00:01:21.240 |
a church that love each other, not as the world loves, not as all the love that we can 00:01:27.560 |
muster up with our own strength, not that kind of love, but the love of Christ that 00:01:32.320 |
would sacrificially give and love without condition. 00:01:36.800 |
And man, it would be so amazing to see Berean be characterized and marked by a Bible preaching, 00:01:45.020 |
Bible believing church that so believes it, that it works itself out and being one of 00:01:51.180 |
the most loving churches you can see in Southern California, you know. 00:01:55.540 |
So let's always be encouraging each other of that. 00:01:58.820 |
I know the end of the school year is coming up and in the beginning of the school year, 00:02:04.380 |
It's like try to welcome people, but by the end, everyone's just like, okay, let's just 00:02:09.440 |
You're like, everyone's like just crawling towards the finish line. 00:02:17.200 |
Let's pull each other up and fight this together and love one another and we could do this 00:02:25.880 |
First announcement, college serve month is going to be beginning very soon. 00:02:30.440 |
So please be on the lookout for the Facebook thing that will probably come out sometime 00:02:42.480 |
Now every year that ticks by, I feel like we check Facebook less and less because there 00:02:49.000 |
And yet, Berean, we are a church that really utilizes Facebook. 00:02:53.960 |
Meaning if you want to serve and try your best to be diligent in looking through at 00:03:01.120 |
least some of the notifications that kind of matter. 00:03:10.760 |
My college ministry I see and I've been hearing is always the first ones to step up and serve 00:03:16.800 |
You guys are setting great example to the rest of the church and really serving in love 00:03:24.080 |
Let's be people who see it and don't say like, "Oh, I'll respond to it like a day before, 00:03:30.280 |
But as soon as it comes out, let's make room in our schedules to say that, "I really want 00:03:37.480 |
And so when this thing comes out tomorrow, hopefully it will be inundated with this desire 00:03:41.800 |
and the signups from 90 collegians who want to serve and love the church in that manner. 00:03:52.960 |
Next one on May 5th, this is Saturday, cross class hangouts is going to be happening. 00:03:57.220 |
So please keep that marked in your calendars. 00:04:00.560 |
And last one is going to be all church cleanup, which is happening tomorrow from 8.30 to 12.30. 00:04:07.500 |
And then on Sunday from, anyone know from Sunday, 2 to 4? 00:04:18.200 |
So can I, just for like, just out of my own curiosity, did you guys sign up for the, if 00:04:23.880 |
you guys signed up for the all church cleanup, can you raise your hand? 00:04:29.600 |
If the other half, if you guys still want to serve, I think you can just come. 00:04:33.560 |
And then wherever there's need, just kind of fill in. 00:04:47.640 |
I heard about this crazy building project that happened about a year ago where we moved 00:04:57.040 |
So when I look around this church, I'm like, wow, this is a nice church. 00:05:01.400 |
But when like Pastor Peter and Pastor Mark tell stories about it, I'm like, whoa, you 00:05:08.280 |
And I feel like I'm this outsider looking in. 00:05:17.400 |
And there's a part of it where when you get involved and you're cleaning and even tonight, 00:05:22.280 |
I don't know if you guys saw, but there was an announcement made to the church saying, 00:05:25.080 |
hey, is there anyone that could help us put like set up the security cameras around the 00:05:35.120 |
Okay, maybe that's not for the general public. 00:05:42.680 |
So like when things like that come out, like let's really try to be a part of these types 00:05:46.240 |
of things because I believe that sometimes simply through service to the church, your 00:05:57.120 |
That's by the way, this is a side note, if you're struggling in faith, if you're like 00:06:02.120 |
you're beginning to feel the tinge of apathy, you know, and just things aren't as, you feel 00:06:13.480 |
You know, the worst thing you could do is sit down and wallow in that. 00:06:17.920 |
And one of the better things you could do while you're doing all the right things is 00:06:21.480 |
go out and serve, go out and love, go out and say that I am going to choose to be a 00:06:26.840 |
part of the body and encourage others and in that you will be encouraged. 00:06:36.880 |
Now, as we were singing that last song, I was kind of thinking through, even just theologically, 00:06:45.560 |
and as we're coming to this understanding of what it means to come and behold Him. 00:07:01.200 |
And it came to my mind because I was talking to someone this week who was saying that they 00:07:17.080 |
And as we were talking, one of the questions I asked this person was, you know, like what 00:07:25.360 |
And what is it about Scripture that changes our hearts? 00:07:31.160 |
And this was actually one of my old church members, and we're just catching up via Facebook 00:07:40.000 |
And I think it's striking because I myself fall into this. 00:07:44.440 |
It's because they said it's because it tells God's commandments, what He wants of us. 00:07:53.000 |
And as I was thinking about that, I was like, man, is that the first thing that I think 00:08:04.040 |
But more than that, we have this understanding that even the law of God, though they are 00:08:08.920 |
a list of commandments, what the law of God was supposed to do was to show who God is. 00:08:19.640 |
And basically when He says like, you know, do not steal, He's saying do not steal because 00:08:27.520 |
And there's this idea of not just looking to the law, a list of things that are given, 00:08:31.600 |
but that this is painting a picture, all of scripture is painting a picture of God. 00:08:37.500 |
And scripture itself is causing us to behold Him. 00:08:44.240 |
Not knowing the Christian things to do and the fact that we need to read the Bible at 00:08:48.880 |
the very least so that when small group goes around, I can say I read the Bible, you know, 00:08:55.200 |
That's not what's going to give us life in scripture. 00:08:57.720 |
It's as we read it, we look at it and we're like, oh my gosh. 00:09:03.160 |
And we come to our small group and we're like, dude, let me tell you who God is. 00:09:11.880 |
We're sharing about who He is and how great He is. 00:09:30.920 |
You know, that's when thank you comes out before any of the requests that we have. 00:09:36.280 |
And thank you comes out before any of the venting that we're doing before our God. 00:09:40.800 |
We just have a mindset of, man, the beautiful God that we serve. 00:09:45.400 |
So with that said, can we come before this God and realize that we are not praying to 00:10:01.520 |
Oh God, I sometimes can't believe that you are here in our presence now. 00:10:23.840 |
A God so great and one that we proclaim and exalt as majestic and glorious would be so 00:10:35.800 |
And Father, thank you that we can pray in this manner then. 00:10:41.040 |
Thank you, God, that sinful people have audience with the King, with the God of the universe. 00:10:54.640 |
And Father, in this place, we almost so boldly ask of you, our Father, to give us what we 00:11:15.280 |
That we want to see you in the pages of Scripture. 00:11:18.860 |
That we want it to be something that is beyond studying text. 00:11:22.920 |
Father, that as we study, regardless of the skill of the preacher or the teacher, that 00:11:30.720 |
your word would be the way by which the Spirit would illuminate our eyes. 00:11:37.240 |
That the things of this world would not be the things that we consider beautiful and 00:11:51.560 |
So God, thank you that in Revelation we can see this. 00:11:54.880 |
And we pray, Father, that as we leave these Bible studies, always we are exalting you. 00:12:06.840 |
Well, Revelation 13, today is going to be a little bit different. 00:12:12.040 |
And my formatting is beginning to, for these worksheets, are beginning to get more and 00:12:24.280 |
And today, we're going to be doing something a little bit different than we've been doing 00:12:29.440 |
And the reason is because we have to have a better scriptural understanding of the Antichrist. 00:12:35.480 |
So that's the first thing we're going to be going through today. 00:12:37.440 |
A scriptural run-through of who the Antichrist is. 00:12:44.280 |
And a lot of today's text in chapter 13 is going to be dealing with this Antichrist. 00:12:49.440 |
Before we get into that, though, we have to address discussion question number three from 00:12:54.640 |
Because that was the one I got literally, I think over 15 people came up and asked the 00:13:01.600 |
Like, how do we discern whether something is of demonic activity or not? 00:13:05.480 |
And I heard everyone, there were a lot of groups that were arguing, and people broke 00:13:09.940 |
friendships because of the arguments and stuff. 00:13:18.560 |
The point of that question was to kind of paint this picture of the fact that we're 00:13:22.080 |
not supposed to look for demonic activity under every rock. 00:13:25.800 |
So it's not like, you know, I got into a car accident. 00:13:34.560 |
However, the idea of this is, is that though we're not able to know for sure whether something 00:13:41.500 |
is of, like, demonic activity or whether this is a test of God or whether it's just a coincidental 00:13:46.700 |
thing, which by the way, we're not going to go into it, but what is coincidence, right? 00:13:53.500 |
Rather than these kinds of things, we're going to be talking, we're talking about this as 00:13:57.220 |
an idea of having a spiritual lens as to how we see things, broad point of view, in broad 00:14:06.960 |
So when we see things, how quick are we to be vigilant of the fact that we are residing 00:14:15.960 |
So that is, it's almost like a backdrop, rather than trying to figure out the nitty-gritty. 00:14:22.380 |
So rather than scientifically trying to pick out what was of demonic origin or not, we're 00:14:26.940 |
saying, as we look at things, we go, "Huh, why did that happen?" 00:14:35.820 |
You know, we're so quick, especially in the Western world, when something happens, to 00:14:42.940 |
attribute it to, like, our rationality, right? 00:14:47.500 |
And so instead of being so quick to jump into that kind of viewpoint, we want to be prayerfully 00:14:58.720 |
We weren't able to get into Ephesians 5 and 6 last week, but in Ephesians 6, when it's 00:15:04.980 |
talking about the whole armor of God, every armor piece is a defensive armament. 00:15:10.740 |
Do you guys remember the one offensive piece of armor? 00:15:22.940 |
Because in that, if you want to be spiritually keen and aware, and you want to go into battle 00:15:28.820 |
spiritually, you cannot always be on the defensive. 00:15:31.620 |
And the only way to be on the offensive, then, is through the word of God. 00:15:36.500 |
So I had a friend who used to do this, and it was, like, the cheesiest thing, but it 00:15:43.980 |
Like, anytime, like, we would...and he got this from one of our, like, Christian heroes 00:15:48.700 |
of the faith, but whenever we would pass each other at UCSD, back in college, he would go, 00:16:00.700 |
Oh, man, it was so embarrassing, because people would be around me. 00:16:07.300 |
And what he was basically saying is, like, you know, like, "On guard, like, are you ready?" 00:16:15.220 |
And so what he had said was, "Whenever I say 'on guard,' think of a memory verse." 00:16:22.580 |
I'd be like, "Oh, dang it, oh, John 3, 6, 7..." 00:16:28.580 |
All that to say, when you guys ask each other, "How has your scripture reading been?" 00:16:38.560 |
It's not just like, "Hey, how have you been doing your scripture reading?" 00:16:44.660 |
Or like, "Oh, I haven't been doing that well." 00:16:46.860 |
Or, you know, that's how we tend to react, right? 00:16:49.540 |
But for real, this understanding of we are always in scripture together, meditating on 00:16:54.100 |
it together, that we will sharpen each other with it. 00:16:57.260 |
That if we're talking, rather than saying, like, "Have you been reading?" 00:17:03.740 |
And then, if you're the other person, tell them! 00:17:08.620 |
So if you've been in John, tell them, "Today, I read John 14, and I learned this." 00:17:22.500 |
Was that three weeks ago, or was that today?" 00:17:25.100 |
Sometimes we'll take one thing we learn, and we'll kind of walk around with it, and then 00:17:28.860 |
when someone asks you, "What have you been learning?" 00:17:30.980 |
We'll pull out the one thing from that one day. 00:17:33.860 |
But rather than that, always be on guard in scripture. 00:17:37.440 |
And as we do this, hopefully we can become a ministry and a church that is always on 00:17:45.180 |
That we can pull these things out and push each other. 00:17:50.060 |
Sorry I'm taking so much time right now, but memorize scripture with one another. 00:17:54.980 |
Get together in groups and say, "Hey, do you want to memorize through Philippians chapter 00:18:04.100 |
If you say that to someone, most people are not going to say no. 00:18:08.120 |
If they say no, there's something wrong with them. 00:18:10.200 |
So say, "Hey, do you want to memorize through this together?" 00:18:17.120 |
Read through it, and then memorize it together. 00:18:19.240 |
These are some of the best things you could do. 00:18:22.440 |
Not just go get boba and things like that, which are cool, but we want to grow in the 00:18:34.280 |
Well, if you could turn your Bibles to Daniel chapter 2. 00:18:46.240 |
So all of Roman numeral 1, you're going to have to flip through scripture with me. 00:18:56.240 |
Now, Revelation, a lot of it, you need to have a firm grip of some of the more eschatological 00:19:04.680 |
texts in the Old Testament, like Daniel, Zechariah, Ezekiel, and so on and so forth. 00:19:10.680 |
Daniel is probably one of the most important books you need to know when it comes to Revelation. 00:19:18.200 |
And this is going to provide a backdrop for us as we think about how the church was reading 00:19:23.960 |
the book of Revelation from the time it was written. 00:19:30.280 |
It says, "You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. 00:19:35.460 |
This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. 00:19:39.820 |
The head of this image was a fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs 00:19:44.160 |
of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay." 00:19:50.560 |
And then after this, if you continue to read through, all the way through verse 45, you're 00:19:54.440 |
going to see that this stone comes and breaks it down, and that this stone is going to be 00:19:59.840 |
something that becomes a great mountain, if you look at verse 35, and it fills the whole 00:20:05.720 |
And this was a dream, right, given to King Nebuchadnezzar, and Daniel is interpreting 00:20:12.240 |
So if you look at verse 36, it says, "This was the dream. 00:20:15.600 |
Now we will tell you, the king of its interpretation, 'You, O king, the king of kings, to whom 00:20:19.520 |
the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into 00:20:22.920 |
whose hands he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the fields, 00:20:26.720 |
and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all, you are the head of gold. 00:20:32.280 |
Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, 00:20:37.840 |
And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and 00:20:40.760 |
shatters all things, and like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. 00:20:44.480 |
And you shall saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay, and partly of iron, and 00:20:49.520 |
But some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the 00:20:54.160 |
And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly 00:21:02.280 |
So there's this image of this statue, and I have it written out for you here. 00:21:13.320 |
All right, Daniel 2.31 to 4.45, and this is what we see, right? 00:21:24.200 |
He's talking about a kingdom that comes after. 00:21:32.480 |
Okay, so it's Persia, but there was Media and Persia, and it became kind of a unified 00:21:38.520 |
And so Medo-Persia, that was the silver chest and arms. 00:21:41.080 |
And he says, "Another kingdom's going to rise after." 00:21:46.080 |
Okay, now, hopefully this stuff is starting to stick. 00:21:50.360 |
And lastly, probably the one of most importance for today's study is going to be the legs 00:22:27.040 |
And so this is describing something, that these kingdoms are going to be moving like 00:22:31.320 |
this, and then finally there's going to be a kingdom that's different than all the kingdoms, 00:22:47.400 |
But Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome are not named. 00:22:53.440 |
This is why a lot of historians do not believe that Daniel was written in the time where 00:22:59.720 |
it was supposed to have been written, because they say, "There is no way Daniel could have 00:23:09.160 |
And he actually was able to, with great...it was just perfectly prophesied of, of these 00:23:16.960 |
kingdoms that were to come, and also that this kingdom of Rome is going to be exactly 00:23:22.280 |
It's going to be a kingdom where it doesn't absorb and make these other kingdoms become 00:23:29.440 |
a part of its kingdom, but it would absorb it almost like toes, right? 00:23:33.440 |
Feet and he's talking about these feet like as these toes, there's 10 toes, that there 00:23:37.160 |
are going to be these little colonies or little kingdoms that kind of come out of Rome. 00:23:41.840 |
And we know that in history because Rome was a kingdom, a power that held that in high 00:23:55.320 |
You guys know a little bit about the history of Rome and how they would colonize rather 00:24:01.760 |
They wouldn't conquer and then like, like everybody a part of this nation over here 00:24:08.960 |
But they would continue to give their own identity, but they will colonize them in that 00:24:16.280 |
All right, so there's a statue in Daniel chapter 7. 00:24:31.120 |
Now we're going to talk about a dream of four beasts. 00:24:36.040 |
Verse 3, "And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. 00:24:40.520 |
The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. 00:24:43.040 |
Then as I looked, its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the ground and made 00:24:45.720 |
to stand on two feet like a man and the mind of a man was given to it. 00:24:48.960 |
And behold, another beast, a second one like a bear. 00:24:51.680 |
It was raised up on one side and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth and it 00:24:57.480 |
After this I looked and behold, another like a leopard with four wings of a bird on its 00:25:01.720 |
And the beast had four heads and dominion was given to it. 00:25:04.280 |
After this I saw in the night visions and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful 00:25:10.360 |
It had great iron teeth and it devoured and broke in pieces stamped what was left with 00:25:14.880 |
It was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had ten horns. 00:25:18.120 |
I considered the horns and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, 00:25:21.760 |
before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. 00:25:24.520 |
And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things." 00:25:29.680 |
So now four beasts again, the first three are labeled, the fourth one it says is different 00:25:35.840 |
And out of this one, ten horns spring out, just like the ten toes that were seen in the 00:25:43.320 |
Now if you swing over to verse 23, he interprets it. 00:25:46.920 |
"Thus he said, 'As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth which 00:25:53.200 |
It shall devour the whole earth and trample it down and break it to pieces. 00:25:56.380 |
As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom, ten kings shall arise and another shall arise 00:26:01.160 |
He shall be different from the former ones and shall put down three kings. 00:26:03.960 |
He shall speak words against the most high and shall wear out the saints of the most 00:26:07.240 |
high and shall think to change the times and the law and they shall be given into his hand 00:26:17.400 |
Things should be like perking up your ears now, right? 00:26:19.840 |
Interesting, interesting stuff that this kingdom is going to arise and then there's just going 00:26:22.920 |
to be this one person that comes out of it who is going to speak words against the most 00:26:26.960 |
high and wear out the saints of the most high. 00:26:29.600 |
Very different than the imagery of the beast, right? 00:26:34.320 |
Now he's saying out of this kingdom, a person is going to arise. 00:26:37.280 |
So now if he's describing the vision, then this is no longer symbolism, right? 00:26:42.160 |
So when we're reading the vision itself, we're thinking symbols. 00:26:46.120 |
These aren't actual beasts that are going to arise because later on he says these are 00:26:51.320 |
But now when he's describing it again, I'm saying this so you get it, an actual person 00:26:58.680 |
And it says in verse 25, he's going to wear out the saints of the most high for three 00:27:17.440 |
Verse 24 says, "Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish 00:27:23.000 |
the transgression, to put an end to sin and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting 00:27:28.040 |
righteousness, to seal both vision and profit, and to anoint a most holy place. 00:27:32.080 |
Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word, to restore and build 00:27:35.880 |
Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one," mark that one in your mind, "a prince, there 00:27:41.760 |
Then for 62 weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 00:27:46.460 |
And after the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. 00:27:50.880 |
And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. 00:27:54.880 |
Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be a war. 00:27:59.000 |
Desolations are decreed," mark that one in your mind, "and he shall make a strong covenant 00:28:06.480 |
"He shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he 00:28:09.920 |
shall put an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wings of abominations shall come 00:28:14.320 |
one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator." 00:28:19.480 |
Now you're hearing repeating words now, right? 00:28:24.800 |
We're seeing he's going to make things desolate. 00:28:27.240 |
And we're seeing also that something's going to be poured out upon the desolator. 00:28:31.640 |
There's going to be abominations during this time. 00:28:34.440 |
And it says these strange numbers, right, these weeks. 00:28:39.320 |
Now let me explain a little bit of what the 70 weeks are. 00:28:45.440 |
So it says that there's going to be, yeah, back to that one. 00:28:48.080 |
So it says that there's going to be seven weeks, and then there's going to be 62 weeks, 00:28:54.880 |
Now for the sake of time, we're going to jump past the time in between the seven and 62 00:29:01.080 |
And there's a time in between the 62 and one week. 00:29:03.240 |
And it says here, if you guys could look down, that between that time, let's see here, it's 00:29:12.360 |
After the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. 00:29:19.680 |
Now weeks were a way for them to describe years. 00:29:35.600 |
So this isn't something you need to like question, okay? 00:29:38.440 |
This is like, just take my word for this one. 00:30:09.520 |
And then it says there's gonna be one week, which is? 00:30:21.880 |
If we, I'm sorry, 69 weeks, the first two numbers there. 00:30:40.080 |
And it says after 483 years that the anointed one is gonna be cut off. 00:30:44.200 |
Now who do you guys think the anointed one is? 00:30:50.360 |
We don't have the time to go into the timeline of this. 00:30:53.400 |
But the time when this kind of like this timer is set off is from this part of this time 00:31:04.800 |
He made this decree about the, and this was in the time of Medo-Persia when he gave Israel 00:31:13.080 |
the time to rebuild the temple and rebuild the city walls and all these types of things. 00:31:20.480 |
And about 483 years after that is actually around the time when Jesus Christ was crucified 00:31:35.800 |
Daniel somehow figured out, and he didn't figure it out, right? 00:31:38.880 |
It was a vision, that 483 years after the time there is going to be a Christ who is 00:31:50.560 |
And then this one week is going to be happening. 00:31:53.800 |
And this one week is gonna be a time where it's talking about this abomination, it's 00:31:57.200 |
talking about these desolations, it's talking about this one guy that's gonna arise. 00:32:01.560 |
And for how long is this person going to rule and reign? 00:32:10.780 |
How long will this guy kind of have, like not sovereign rule, but like have control? 00:32:28.560 |
Okay now, things are starting to click a little bit, right, as you go through the book of 00:32:42.160 |
Now Daniel's concluding his prophetic book here. 00:32:47.880 |
You know, like, just got owned through this book. 00:32:52.240 |
Have you guys ever had like the most intense dream, and you wake up and your whole body 00:32:59.360 |
Chapter 12, verse 1, it says, "At that time shall arise Michael." 00:33:02.000 |
Do you guys remember when Michael came out in Revelation? 00:33:07.280 |
"The great prince who has charge of your people, and there shall be a time of trouble such 00:33:11.680 |
as never has been since there was a nation till that time. 00:33:16.740 |
But at that time," he's talking about future events, "your people shall be delivered. 00:33:21.240 |
Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book, and many of those who sleep in 00:33:24.560 |
the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting 00:33:30.880 |
And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who 00:33:34.040 |
turn, many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. 00:33:36.960 |
But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. 00:33:41.440 |
Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase." 00:33:52.000 |
But we never find out what happens in that last week. 00:34:00.480 |
And so there is so much debating going on, right? 00:34:03.760 |
Now do you guys know the intertestamental period, the time between the New Testament 00:34:07.880 |
and Old Testament, about how long that silent period was? 00:34:25.800 |
We always look through the Old Testament, we think it's written in some kind of chronology 00:34:32.240 |
So it's not like what happens in the very beginning. 00:34:35.240 |
If you ever had a chronological Bible, it will show you exactly when things were written. 00:34:40.400 |
So things like what happens in Nehemiah, even though that's found more in the middle of 00:34:45.640 |
the New Testament, that's something that chronologically happens towards the end when things are rebuilt. 00:34:50.400 |
And so when Daniel is prophesying this, it is around the time before when God stops speaking 00:35:03.280 |
And he's told here to shut this book, we never find out what happens about that one week, 00:35:10.600 |
and then we finally get to Revelation, until we find out what he's talking about. 00:35:22.600 |
And if you guys are putting two and two together, it's not that hard to understand that this 00:35:25.600 |
last week is the tribulation period that we've been talking about for a while. 00:35:36.040 |
How could a logical God say there's going to be 70 weeks, and then it's like there's 00:35:40.920 |
69, and arbitrarily all this time in between until one day God says that now's the time? 00:35:51.760 |
It says in 2 Peter 3 that to God, a thousand years is what? 00:35:58.160 |
It's like a day, and a day is like a thousand years. 00:36:06.920 |
So for him, time is not anything of that much importance. 00:36:11.840 |
It's something that he uses to help us, but for an eternal God, he sees in a different 00:36:17.840 |
God says that the offspring would come to Eve. 00:36:19.760 |
We talked about the offspring last week, the singular offspring. 00:36:22.640 |
And Galatians, Paul told us the answer to that. 00:36:32.080 |
They were looking at the babies they were bearing. 00:36:37.920 |
And Abel gets killed, and then, "Oh no, Cain, how could you? 00:36:46.360 |
And so from there, they're constantly looking for the Messiah for thousands of years. 00:36:55.960 |
God, how can you say that the offspring is going to come? 00:37:00.360 |
And then finally, thousands and thousands and thousands of years later, we get to this 00:37:12.640 |
In Galatians 4, verse 4, it actually says something about the gospel, about when Jesus 00:37:22.480 |
For God, there is a fulfilling of the gospel according to his timing, according to the 00:37:29.560 |
Galatians 4, verse 4, if you guys want to look that one up. 00:37:41.600 |
And so now in Daniel, we see that there's going to be these four kingdoms. 00:37:48.200 |
We're going to see out of this one kingdom, this person is going to come out, and this 00:37:52.840 |
one person is going to be doing something for three and a half years. 00:37:56.960 |
And during that three and a half year period, there's going to be something called the abomination 00:38:14.760 |
Now imagine all this historical stuff that happens in between the time of Daniel and 00:38:27.400 |
This is called the Olivet Discourse, meaning this is actually the last discourse that he 00:38:33.080 |
preaches in Matthew, one of the last things he preaches to his disciples. 00:38:37.080 |
And he's telling them of the signs of the close of the age in verse 3. 00:38:42.120 |
It says, "As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, 00:38:47.520 |
And what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?'" 00:38:52.760 |
They know that Jesus, he has said it like now, that he's going to be leaving, and so 00:38:58.040 |
they're saying, "This time of your coming, tell us." 00:39:00.560 |
And Jesus answered them, "See that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my 00:39:04.280 |
name saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray. 00:39:07.520 |
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. 00:39:09.540 |
See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place." 00:39:18.680 |
"For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines 00:39:23.280 |
All these are but the beginning of the birth pains." 00:39:26.440 |
Meaning, these are like the contractions that happen in the beginning, before you give birth. 00:39:33.080 |
Verse 9, "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you 00:39:37.360 |
will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. 00:39:39.720 |
And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. 00:39:42.440 |
Many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 00:39:44.800 |
And because lawlessness will be increased and the love of many will grow cold, but the 00:39:49.640 |
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony 00:39:57.400 |
This is all before the tribulation as we know it. 00:40:06.440 |
"So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in 00:40:12.240 |
the holy place," that is, that this person is going to go into the holy place and trample 00:40:18.280 |
And verse 15, this is so tongue-in-cheek, right? 00:40:23.200 |
Verse 16, "Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 00:40:26.840 |
Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in the house, and let 00:40:29.680 |
the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 00:40:31.680 |
And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days. 00:40:35.600 |
Pray that your flight may not be in winter or in Sabbath, for then there will be a great 00:40:39.480 |
tribulation such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and 00:40:45.160 |
And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. 00:40:48.480 |
But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. 00:40:50.840 |
Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ,' or 'There he is,' do not believe 00:40:56.560 |
it, for false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders 00:41:03.600 |
so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect." 00:41:07.640 |
See I have told you beforehand, he's saying that. 00:41:14.560 |
So if they say to you, "Look, he is in the wilderness," do not go out. 00:41:16.920 |
If they say, "Look, he is in inner rooms," do not believe it, for as lightning comes 00:41:19.720 |
from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 00:41:24.240 |
Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. 00:41:27.080 |
Verse 29, "Immediately after tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the 00:41:30.760 |
moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the 00:41:35.400 |
Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the 00:41:39.000 |
earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with 00:41:43.680 |
power and great glory, and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they 00:41:48.120 |
will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other." 00:41:52.680 |
There is going to be a time when we look up into the heavens and into the clouds, and 00:41:55.800 |
we're going to see the coming of the Son of Man, right? 00:42:01.640 |
Now we are called to decipher all this stuff. 00:42:07.640 |
But all we know is that Jesus is saying a little bit more stuff, and we still don't 00:42:14.680 |
But he is talking a little bit more about this abomination of desolation that's coming 00:42:31.680 |
"Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion comes 00:42:34.560 |
first and the man of lawlessness is revealed." 00:42:38.760 |
There are so many different passages in Scripture. 00:42:40.440 |
We're seeing this man, this person that's going to come out. 00:42:44.160 |
It says, "The son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called 00:42:48.000 |
God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, abomination 00:42:52.160 |
of desolation, proclaiming himself to be God." 00:42:55.960 |
1 John 2.22, "Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is Christ? 00:43:06.520 |
Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also." 00:43:12.000 |
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from 00:43:15.360 |
God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 00:43:20.560 |
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every 00:43:24.440 |
spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. 00:43:27.200 |
This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming." 00:43:30.600 |
So he's coming in the future, and now is in the world already. 00:43:33.800 |
That's what a lot of you guys had questions about, right? 00:43:36.000 |
Spiritual children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater 00:43:40.960 |
They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 00:43:44.600 |
In verse 4 there, if you guys see, "For he who is in you is greater than he who is in 00:43:48.680 |
the world," you're left to wonder, "Is that Satan?" 00:43:52.040 |
But he was just talking about this guy Antichrist, so is that the Antichrist? 00:43:55.160 |
We're gonna try to solve all of this today, okay? 00:44:05.120 |
There's understanding that this, I'm just displaying the prophecies right now. 00:44:11.560 |
You guys could really ask questions if you want to. 00:44:14.280 |
It would be helpful, because I don't know if I make sense. 00:45:12.720 |
So then, Emily's question was, then, because right now there are unreached people groups, 00:45:17.520 |
why do we say something like Jesus can come at any moment? 00:45:20.520 |
Alright, so there are different schools of thought. 00:45:24.440 |
There is an understanding also that even though we're trekking towards that, at any moment, 00:45:30.240 |
there can be, like in a way that we do not understand, that every nation will be reached. 00:45:37.960 |
And though we have like these numbers of how many unreached people groups there are and 00:45:40.960 |
we try our best to kind of keep track of these things, then like we can say like, oh, we 00:45:50.560 |
And then we can start to think like, oh, then can we predict it? 00:45:53.920 |
Well, it says later on in Matthew that we can't predict it. 00:45:56.520 |
So there's this element of even that, we can't predict. 00:45:59.680 |
So there's like, for example, there's one pastor that I highly respect who thinks that 00:46:07.960 |
That there's gonna be a time when the gospel is going to be preached in a supernatural 00:46:11.760 |
way where all of the earth is going to hear about Christ. 00:46:15.120 |
So it's interesting stuff and it's all speculation. 00:46:23.800 |
Okay, well if there's no other questions, let's go into Roman numeral two, the first 00:46:39.200 |
It says, "And I saw a beast rising out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads, with 00:46:47.680 |
ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads." 00:46:51.480 |
Okay, where did we see a beast rising out of the sea? 00:46:59.720 |
We heard about these four beasts that are gonna be rising out of the sea. 00:47:04.120 |
It says that there's this one beast that's rising out of the sea and then where have 00:47:11.680 |
Okay, so if you guys look back at chapter 12, verse three, you're gonna see this dragon 00:47:22.600 |
Why do you think the first beast has these ten horns and seven heads? 00:47:32.160 |
What is this relationship that's happening with the dragon? 00:47:39.160 |
The answer is actually right in the text if you guys wanna look. 00:47:48.160 |
They have the same amount of heads and horns. 00:48:06.160 |
That's exactly what it was, that he was given the authority of Satan. 00:48:09.680 |
So whoever this first beast is, it's given the authority of Satan himself. 00:48:17.160 |
"One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and 00:48:20.440 |
the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. 00:48:22.640 |
And they worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they 00:48:25.600 |
worshipped the beast, saying, 'Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?'" 00:48:29.880 |
First bullet point here, the first beast refers to a kingdom and a man. 00:48:42.360 |
So if you wanna think about it in this manner, if you guys think about Adolf Hitler, right, 00:48:47.960 |
and you think about the Third Reich, you tend to kinda almost use them in a synonymous way. 00:49:01.840 |
So Daniel attests to the fact that this beast is a kingdom, and we're gonna talk about him 00:49:07.280 |
Next bullet point, this is the same beast that is mentioned in Revelation chapter 11, 00:49:11.600 |
In Revelation chapter 11, verse 7, it says, "And when they have finished our testimony, 00:49:16.080 |
the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them, and conquer them, and 00:49:23.560 |
So the first beast coming out of the sea, this is the next bullet point, there are a 00:49:30.640 |
Well, we saw in Daniel that these four beasts were coming out of the sea, there are four 00:49:34.280 |
kingdoms, and so I believe that's number two. 00:49:38.840 |
The number one is, "The beast comes from a general evil place, as the sea was seen as 00:49:43.200 |
a place of evil that would one day be done away with, as seen in Revelation 21. 00:49:49.960 |
The sea was seen as a place of evil, and that in the new heavens and new earth, we're not 00:49:54.000 |
going to go into what this means, but it says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, 00:49:58.040 |
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more." 00:50:01.640 |
The sea was generally seen as a dark, mysterious, deadly place. 00:50:05.560 |
They lived right next to the Mediterranean Sea, which was so big that it acted almost 00:50:11.800 |
Many people perished, but it was the only way by which they could have a lot of their 00:50:16.380 |
food source, as well as all the trade and trafficking that would happen during this 00:50:21.240 |
time, so you had to brave it if you wanted to thrive as a nation. 00:50:25.320 |
The sea was seen as an evil place, so maybe this beast is coming just from a place of 00:50:30.120 |
Revelation 11, verse 7 can further attest to the fact that this beast came out of the 00:50:41.000 |
I believe, number two, the beast comes from a far-off nation. 00:50:46.540 |
For example, as Roman boats would be seen coming by sea. 00:51:02.020 |
I put verse 1 through 8 there, but it's actually verse 23. 00:51:05.540 |
"Thus he said, 'As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, 00:51:08.860 |
and it shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample 00:51:13.740 |
So Revelation plus Daniel equals this beast is a kingdom, right? 00:51:22.860 |
"The ten horns and seven heads are to show this beast similarity to the dragon," as we 00:51:29.740 |
We further see that this is the authority of Satan given to him, as we see in chapter 00:51:36.460 |
So the beast has the same power over the world as the dragon. 00:51:40.460 |
It's the same power, same authority that Satan had. 00:51:45.260 |
We talked a little bit about Satan and his power last week. 00:51:48.300 |
Well, let's see who, in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 4, talking of Satan, "In their case, 00:51:53.020 |
the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the 00:51:56.380 |
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." 00:51:59.300 |
If you look up top there, the God of this world. 00:52:02.580 |
He has this rulership, even though we know that God is sovereign and ruling over all, 00:52:07.340 |
that Satan is given a type of authority over the world. 00:52:10.900 |
And now we know, during this time that we're reading about, in this case, it is greater 00:52:15.700 |
than ever, because he's locked out of heaven, right? 00:52:18.380 |
And all the demons running rampant on planet Earth. 00:52:25.180 |
And so now all of this power is transferred then to this first beast. 00:52:30.900 |
"The formation of the four beasts found in Daniel 7." 00:52:38.900 |
So if you guys remember the four beasts that came out of the sea in Daniel 7, we saw that 00:52:42.580 |
it looked like these different creatures, right? 00:52:50.180 |
It says that a fourth beast came that was exceedingly terrifying and greater than all 00:52:55.780 |
Well here, we see one that is all of the above, right? 00:53:09.460 |
It says, "The beast was like a leopard, feet were like a bear, its mouth was like a lion." 00:53:18.780 |
Now the cool thing is, we're talking of Rome, but we're not talking of Rome anymore, right? 00:53:26.300 |
Now this is the whole principle of the prophetic already but not yet. 00:53:29.940 |
That Rome came and it was during that time period when Jesus was crucified. 00:53:35.780 |
Now from here, during the last week, an extra measure of prophecy is given to show that 00:53:45.820 |
That Rome was just a shadow of this final thing that's going to be happening. 00:53:50.180 |
That Rome was but a picture of what the world would look like. 00:53:55.580 |
A world that's led and that Satan has authority over. 00:54:05.540 |
Think about the kingdom of the world found in Revelation chapter 11 verse 15. 00:54:08.700 |
In chapter 11 verse 15 it said that, "Then the seventh angel blew his temple and there 00:54:12.100 |
were loud voices in heaven saying, 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our 00:54:17.980 |
Remember that we talked about though there are many kingdoms, why is it being used in 00:54:21.860 |
Well, this is kind of the same thing that we're talking about. 00:54:26.980 |
The world is unified in this pursuit to worship this beast and to this dragon. 00:54:41.660 |
The one that we've been talking about through Daniel and Matthew and a bunch of other texts. 00:54:48.780 |
The spirit of the Antichrist has always been around. 00:54:51.300 |
So even though this is going to be a tangible, physical man that comes about, the spirit 00:54:56.820 |
of the Antichrist has always been around and we know that through passages like 2 Thessalonians 00:55:00.700 |
2.5, 1 John 2.22-23, and chapter 4 verse 1-5. 00:55:04.580 |
And that this Antichrist, what this Antichrist is meant to do is to lead people astray from 00:55:12.060 |
From the real Messiah, by claiming deity himself. 00:55:20.860 |
A way he does that is by saying that I am the Messiah. 00:55:26.640 |
And so when we read through passages, do I have those passages up? 00:55:29.780 |
In 2 Thessalonians 2.5, we already read this but let's look at it again. 00:55:33.860 |
It says, "For that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first." 00:55:39.940 |
"And the man of lawlessness is revealed, the Antichrist, the son of destruction, who opposes 00:55:51.100 |
This is the Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 00:55:54.860 |
And that this Antichrist is going to be the one who does not confess that Jesus is from 00:56:00.420 |
And that the spirit of the Antichrist, if you look there at verse 3, is coming now and 00:56:07.560 |
So this Antichrist is going to be almost this picture. 00:56:12.740 |
Like this is the image of what the world looks like now. 00:56:18.560 |
That claims deity, that says, "I want to sit on the throne." 00:56:24.340 |
And we're going to be talking about that in just a second too. 00:56:30.020 |
"If Satan is behind the Antichrist by giving him power and authority, then we understand 00:56:35.240 |
This is a living embodiment of unbelief of human hearts that are deceived by Satan." 00:56:45.020 |
And next bullet point down, the Antichrist is still an actual man. 00:56:51.240 |
Also he is identified with personal pronouns throughout Revelation. 00:56:55.580 |
Not to mention through all the prophecies that came before, it was used with personal 00:57:05.780 |
Next bullet point, he mimics the Messiah by having a mortal wound that is healed. 00:57:10.840 |
And then it says that the world marvels, right? 00:57:19.080 |
So due to this, they marvel at the beast and they worship the dragon. 00:57:25.140 |
And then the beast proclaims blasphemies against God. 00:57:27.960 |
If you look at verse 5, at chapter 13, read with me. 00:57:31.000 |
"And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was 00:57:34.320 |
allowed to exercise authority for 42 months." 00:57:37.600 |
"It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his 00:57:42.080 |
dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven." 00:57:44.680 |
Now everything that's going on there, that is the abomination of desolation that we saw. 00:57:50.960 |
That he's going to come into the temple and almost take the throne and say that, "I am 00:58:09.140 |
That should actually, if you're familiar with scripture, sound familiar because all through 00:58:14.040 |
the Old Testament, it is used as something that is told of God. 00:58:19.240 |
So for example, in Exodus chapter 15, verse 11, "Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? 00:58:24.680 |
Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?" 00:58:29.720 |
Psalm 113.5, "Who is like the Lord our God who is seated on high?" 00:58:35.480 |
Isaiah 40.18, "To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?" 00:58:40.280 |
And so in chapter 13, verse 4, when it says, "Who is like the beast and who can fight against 00:58:44.760 |
And this Messiah-like guy sits on the throne and everyone is starting to marvel and worship, 00:58:59.000 |
Next bullet point down, "This blaspheming of God, his name and his dwelling is the same 00:59:02.120 |
abomination of desolation found in Matthew and Daniel." 00:59:06.800 |
Then in Daniel chapter 7, verse 24 to 25, oh, I wrote it down, okay. 00:59:15.840 |
It says, "He shall speak words against the Most High and shall wear out the saints of 00:59:18.960 |
the Most High and shall think to change the times and the law." 00:59:27.320 |
"Also, it, the beast, was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. 00:59:32.840 |
And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation. 00:59:37.280 |
All who dwell on earth will worship it and everyone whose name has not been written before 00:59:40.200 |
the foundation of the world and the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. 00:59:45.380 |
If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes. 00:59:48.520 |
If anyone is to be slain with a sword, with a sword must he be slain. 00:59:51.640 |
Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints." 00:59:56.520 |
By the way, in verse 10, if you look there, it says, "If anyone is to be taken captive, 01:00:01.720 |
"If anyone is to be slain with a sword, with a sword must he be slain." 01:00:05.800 |
This is talking about if there are any believers during this time. 01:00:09.320 |
If there is anyone who has held out and become believers during the time of this tribulation, 01:00:14.840 |
It's this idea of go and be taken captive and be killed. 01:00:20.960 |
We're going to see at the end of chapter 13 when we're talking about the mark, there's 01:00:26.000 |
going to be real ramifications of this bifurcating of two types of people that continues to happen 01:00:33.200 |
The people who worship Satan and the people who worship God. 01:00:40.840 |
This is kind of more an application type thing. 01:00:47.920 |
We either worship God himself or we worship everything the beast and the dragon represents. 01:00:57.840 |
So though we typically identify different idols in our lives, they all belong to evil. 01:01:03.480 |
I want you guys to think a little bit about your own lives, right? 01:01:06.520 |
Think about everything you do in life on a moment to moment basis. 01:01:13.700 |
You are either worshiping God or you are worshiping something evil. 01:01:25.160 |
What is being clarified here in Revelation is the reality of life today. 01:01:29.960 |
It's just being shown in stark contrast and detail. 01:01:34.120 |
This is amazing because I think, we think a lot of our day is neutral, right? 01:01:44.960 |
Like watching a TV show, playing ping pong, we think it's neutral. 01:01:52.260 |
There is an active worship going on in that time and place. 01:01:56.960 |
Question to you is think about your own day and think about what's going on. 01:02:01.840 |
We can go on with this one but I'll let you guys stew on that one. 01:02:07.360 |
He has authority for 42 months which is again the last 3.5 years of the great tribulation. 01:02:11.160 |
Notice again that it says that he is allowed authority. 01:02:17.360 |
It is an illusion when people think they are in control. 01:02:19.760 |
It is an illusion even for Satan to think that he has control during this time. 01:02:25.600 |
If you guys look to chapter 13, you're going to see that every time it says that it was 01:02:41.160 |
Conquering the saints means that he can harm them and even kill them, not take their salvation. 01:02:54.280 |
That is why in verse 10 it said, "Just go and be taken captive. 01:03:00.520 |
Don't pledge allegiance to the beast so that you can survive. 01:03:04.480 |
Just go and die because you're going to be with me." 01:03:15.280 |
The fact that the second beast will come from the earth might show that this is someone 01:03:22.200 |
It says, "Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. 01:03:25.640 |
It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 01:03:28.160 |
It exercised all the authority of the first beast in its presence and makes the earth 01:03:31.400 |
and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose mortal wound was healed. 01:03:35.400 |
It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of 01:03:40.120 |
And by the signs that is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those 01:03:43.560 |
who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the 01:03:48.400 |
And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast 01:03:51.640 |
might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to 01:03:55.920 |
Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to 01:03:59.720 |
be marked on the right hand or the forehead so that no one can buy or sell unless he has 01:04:03.960 |
the mark that is the name of the beast or the number of its name." 01:04:11.080 |
So we saw the beast coming out of the sea from far off land. 01:04:17.320 |
If there is an Antichrist that is coming from a far off land, then you want someone that 01:04:24.800 |
So we're seeing the works of another person here. 01:04:30.760 |
And it says that he will look like a lamb, which is Jesus, but he will speak like a dragon, 01:04:51.840 |
If Antichrist, this Antichrist that we're talking about, if he is the one claiming to 01:04:55.720 |
be God, this is the false prophet that is like, so if he is a false God, here is the 01:05:03.480 |
Because there is the real God and then there are his prophets. 01:05:08.120 |
Now there is the false God and here is the false prophet, the one who attests to him, 01:05:12.280 |
who points to him and says, "Thus saith the Lord." 01:05:19.320 |
False prophets are very winsome and attractive in speech. 01:05:22.760 |
A bulk of what they say might even be truthful. 01:05:31.360 |
So false prophets are very winsome and attractive in speech. 01:05:34.160 |
Let's look at some text here about false prophets. 01:05:42.920 |
Matthew chapter 7, verse 15 through 20 says, "Beware of false prophets who come to you 01:05:46.840 |
in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 01:05:51.320 |
Are grapes gathered from the thorn bushes or figs from thistles? 01:05:54.120 |
So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased trees bear bad fruit. 01:05:57.680 |
A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 01:06:02.440 |
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 01:06:05.520 |
Thus you will recognize them by their fruits." 01:06:07.760 |
So he's telling us how we can recognize a false prophet. 01:06:10.400 |
Now the false prophets being talked about in Matthew there is most likely talking about 01:06:15.280 |
these Jewish leaders, the Pharisees who are saying this is how you're going to be saved 01:06:25.040 |
But he's saying even here with these types of false prophets you will recognize them 01:06:35.480 |
Now this is the working of the false prophets, the Judaizers. 01:06:38.120 |
"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ 01:06:43.760 |
Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the 01:06:47.640 |
This is a false prophet that has done this, a false teacher. 01:06:50.680 |
And look, can you believe that there are people who have just heard the gospel, who are so 01:06:54.720 |
close to the time of the death and resurrection of Christ, and they are already being led 01:07:00.200 |
Paul is using a very strong language here, right? 01:07:03.260 |
Not only in the fact that he's saying they're going to be accursed, but that I am astonished, 01:07:10.240 |
Like how can you already have been led astray? 01:07:14.280 |
We're not saying, "Oh, you know, like if they're led astray, they're dumb." 01:07:21.000 |
What it is, is the fact that they're led astray means that these false teachers are winsome 01:07:30.280 |
"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching 01:07:34.320 |
ears," here it is, "they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions 01:07:38.920 |
and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths." 01:07:42.040 |
Now if we're talking about the dragon and the first and second beasts, we're saying 01:07:47.160 |
like, "Okay, these are the ones that are like, 'Oh, all the people are victims.'" 01:07:53.960 |
But actually there are two parts to this, and this is a passage that I think really 01:07:58.360 |
"They will accumulate for themselves teachers to what? 01:08:07.560 |
Mankind during this time, they are not the victims. 01:08:17.600 |
"But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among 01:08:21.560 |
you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who brought 01:08:25.880 |
them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction." 01:08:33.120 |
Next bullet point there is false prophets walk amongst us today. 01:08:40.400 |
We must learn to discern truth from error because these false prophets are going to 01:08:52.200 |
Now right here I have 8 consequences of false doctrines written for you. 01:08:57.560 |
And this is from a guy named Tim Chalice, and I thought it was excellent how he broke 01:09:05.560 |
False doctrines confuses truth and error, while sound doctrine distinguishes truth and 01:09:13.080 |
False doctrine prevents godliness, while sound doctrine promotes godliness. 01:09:19.400 |
False doctrine promotes sin, while sound doctrine prevents sin. 01:09:24.280 |
False doctrine elevates ungodly leadership, while sound doctrine qualifies godly leadership. 01:09:29.240 |
False doctrine permits false teachers, while sound doctrine protects against false teachers. 01:09:34.440 |
False doctrine removes God's blessing, while sound doctrine ensures God's blessing. 01:09:38.400 |
False doctrine debilitates the church for times of difficulty, while sound doctrine 01:09:44.360 |
False doctrine weakens the future church, while sound doctrine strengthens the future 01:09:49.120 |
And there's an element of all of this where you will know them by their fruits. 01:09:54.680 |
So if you see the false doctrines, these things are going to be happening. 01:10:09.280 |
It is going to debilitate the church for times of difficulty. 01:10:21.320 |
Well, the next slide, I have for you a little chart here. 01:10:35.800 |
So if the origin of the false teaching, if it's from the creator or if it has to do with 01:10:46.440 |
But if it comes from creation or has to do with creation, you reject it. 01:10:52.960 |
Authority, if it's biblical, you can accept it. 01:10:58.080 |
Now we're like, "Uh, duh," you know, like, "Pastor Nathan, come on." 01:11:03.680 |
Isn't it crazy how like just that second one there is so, like, we're really bad at it? 01:11:13.320 |
Like if a false teacher were to come to you and say something, like they said a passage 01:11:18.080 |
and then they described it, would you be able to discern whether that was biblical or unbiblical? 01:11:24.840 |
Consistency, is it familiar or is it unfamiliar? 01:11:27.000 |
This is more important than you might realize too. 01:11:29.160 |
Like if it's something that has been tested and proved throughout history, then you can 01:11:34.920 |
But if it's unfamiliar, someone's coming up with like, "I have this new knowledge," then 01:11:39.080 |
you're like, "Uh, uh," you know, like, "Please get away from me." 01:11:44.400 |
Quality, if it's sound versus unsound, that means it holds weight, it's rational, it's 01:11:53.120 |
And this might be like another "duh" thing too, but you'd be surprised at how there are 01:11:58.240 |
so many false teachers out there who are propagating things where you're like, "Do you not see 01:12:02.320 |
that your A is false and so your B is false?" 01:12:09.160 |
And like, you know, now this is one thing, one like trick I'll say to you guys. 01:12:16.960 |
There are going to be people who say something A and it's going to be false. 01:12:22.440 |
And so you're going to be like, "Oh, that was weird." 01:12:24.680 |
But they're going to move really quickly on to B. So A, therefore B. But B actually makes 01:12:32.560 |
So A is the origin, goes to B, and then from there it just goes C, D, E, F. Now if you 01:12:43.120 |
But when you want to test it to see if it's sound or unsound, you need to get to the origin 01:12:49.420 |
So they're going to say things like, "Well, do you believe this?" 01:12:53.280 |
And you're going to be like, "No, I don't believe that." 01:12:56.280 |
And you're going to be like, "Oh, I guess that kind of makes sense." 01:13:01.240 |
If you guys have ever read the book The Da Vinci Code or something like that, that's all 01:13:11.600 |
And then because of that, everything logically makes sense after that. 01:13:15.880 |
And so the whole of the argument sounds good. 01:13:23.800 |
And then you realize, "Oh, but the beginning of it's wrong," meaning the whole thing is 01:13:43.360 |
So the Christian's responsibility there, if it checks all these things on the left side, 01:13:48.640 |
If it checks even one of the right side, you got to like, "Uh." 01:14:03.320 |
He is the prosperity and then the postmodern gospel. 01:14:10.360 |
I kind of came through this guy so we can call him a false teacher. 01:14:18.040 |
People make YouTube videos of him pretending to be a Star Wars guy and stuff. 01:14:24.240 |
Benny Hinn is a guy who slays people by the spirit. 01:14:28.080 |
So people will come in droves and lines and then he'll do this and they'll start convulsing 01:14:37.160 |
He pulls off his jacket and one at a time he goes down the line and hits each person. 01:14:40.800 |
Every person is falling down, being slain by the spirit. 01:14:45.960 |
There's this YouTube video where someone put a lightsaber instead of the jacket. 01:15:32.560 |
It says that this false prophet, the second beast, will do a few things. 01:15:33.560 |
It says that he's going to exercise the authority of the first beast, make people worship the 01:15:34.560 |
first beast, perform great signs that look very similar to prophets of old, tell people 01:15:35.560 |
to make an image of the first beast in their minds, and then make a new image of the first 01:15:37.560 |
So, this is a great example of a false prophet. 01:15:43.560 |
It says that this false prophet, the second beast, will do a few things. 01:15:44.560 |
It says that he's going to exercise the authority of the first beast, make people worship the 01:15:45.560 |
first beast, perform great signs that look very similar to prophets of old, tell people 01:15:46.560 |
to make an image of the first beast in their minds, and then make a new image of the first 01:15:57.560 |
beast in their minds, and then make a new image of the first beast in their minds, and 01:15:58.560 |
then make a new image of the first beast in their minds, and then make a new image of 01:15:59.560 |
the first beast in their minds, and then make a new image of the first beast in their minds, 01:16:00.560 |
and then make a new image of the first beast in their minds, and then make a new image 01:16:01.560 |
of the first beast in their minds, and then make a new image of the first beast in their 01:16:02.560 |
minds, and then make a new image of the first beast in their minds, and then make a new 01:16:03.560 |
image of the first beast in their minds, and then make a new image of the first beast 01:16:04.560 |
in their minds, and then make a new image of the first beast in their minds, and then 01:16:05.560 |
make a new image of the first beast in their minds, and then make a new image of the first 01:16:29.560 |
beast in their minds, and then make a new image of the first beast in their minds, and 01:16:57.760 |
then make a new image of the first beast in their minds, and then make a new image of 01:17:26.960 |
the first beast in their minds, and then make a new image of the first beast in their minds,