As we look at this curse, I'd like to introduce you to what I call the satanic trinity.
The thing about the antichrist, the thing about the beast and the boss prophet and all these different guys that we're going to talk about here in a second,
the thing about the devil is that he loves to copy God.
And we see here at the end time, we have three characters that I want to talk about.
The first is the beast, which the Bible calls the beast, this is the antichrist.
Look at Revelation chapter 13, verse 1 says,
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea,
having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear,
and his mouth as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power and his sea and great authority.
So you see here, the beast or the antichrist, this is the copycat, if you will, of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You're going to see that the beast here tries to imitate the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we're going to see things where he tries to be like the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this man here, the beast or the antichrist, is going to represent, and this satanic trinity guy, if you will,
he's taking the place of Jesus.
The next person we see is the false prophet.
You look at the same chapter, Revelation 13, verse 11, and this is just a introduction,
just so you know who we're talking about as we get into the message.
Revelation 13 and 11 says, And I beheld another beast.
So this isn't the same beast, not the antichrist.
It says, I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth,
and he had two horns like a lamb and his feet as a dragon.
And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him and causes the earth
and men which dwell there to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth and the sight of man.
So here we have the false prophet.
I think the false prophet here is kind of taking the place of the Holy Spirit.
He also has a job, kind of like John LaBaptist.
He's preparing the way for this antichrist, and he's a preacher, seems like,
could be a pope, could be a Billy Graham, you know, someone who's out there in the world
and is looked on as a preacher.
But this false prophet, he's coming and he's pointing people towards the beast.
The last person I want to introduce to you is the dragon, or Satan.
In Revelation 13-2, I know we're looking at a lot of same passages here that kind of overlap,
but 13-2 says, And the beast which I saw was like unto a leper,
and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion,
and the dragon gave him his power and his seat in great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed,
and all the world wondered after the beast.
And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast.
And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast?
And who's able to make war with him?
So here we see Satan, the dragon, who from the beginning that we've known of him in the Bible,
he's always tried to take the place of God.
And in this satanic trinity here, the devil has orchestrated yet another counterfeit of what God has.
And you know, that's what the devil does all the time.
If you look at God has a Bible called the King James Bible,
but the devil has counterfeits like the NIV, and the AID, and the RFP, and the STD,
and he has all these different things.
And he's just, he's always trying to counterfeit what God has.
He has a fake Bible.
He has a fake Christ.
He has a fake Holy Spirit.
He wants to take the place of God.
You know, in our lives he has, he wants nothing more than to give us the counterfeit that God has.
God has a church like Faithful World Baptist Church that he wants you to go to,
but the devil has a church he wants you to go to.
The devil has a liberal church that maybe doesn't preach the Bible or maybe has a rock concert.
You know, God has his music, his hymn, and the devil has Christian rock and Christian rap.
And let me tell you something, most of this music that even fundamental Baptists are listening to
is nothing but a bunch of Southern gospel music,
nothing but a bunch of watered down rock and roll.
And I'm telling you, the devil is just trying to trick you.
You know, I remember Pastor Addison and I were talking about this yesterday.
I remember when we used to go to a church together and they had a rule.
I went to the Christian school there and they had a rule that you couldn't go to the movie theater.
But they had no rule against owning a television.
And this is what they were saying.
They were saying you could watch the same filthy movie at home in your living room
that you could watch at the movie theater.
But they said, oh, well, the movie theater, you know, people see you go in there, they're going to think bad of you.
Look, the devil always has a counterfeit.
He always has something he's trying to trick you.
He always has something that he's trying to get past you.
And we see this here at the end of time that, again, he's just trying to put himself in the place of God
and he has a false prophet and he has an anti-Christ and he's just trying to counterfeit the things of God.
That's what the devil has always done.
But now that we have this introduction and now that we know what we're talking about, let's talk about...
This sermon, like I said, is more like a Bible study.
We're just going to go through the Bible emphasizing Revelation 13, that's our text.
And we're just going to see kind of... I want to give you a timeline of the life and of the anti-Christ.
The first thing that's going to happen is a political life.
Look at Revelation chapter 6.
Revelation 6 verse 1, it says,
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard as it were the noise of thunder,
one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
And I saw, and behold, a white horse.
And he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering to conquer.
If you go back to Revelation 13, 4, it says,
And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying,
Who is life unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?
The first thing I want to show you, and we're kind of going to maybe debunk a few things that maybe we've been taught about the anti-Christ.
I've always been taught that the anti-Christ is somebody who's going to come and unite the world with peace.
And I think there's some truth to that, but the Bible makes it clear that he went forth conquering to conquer.
In Revelation 13, 4, it says, Who is able to make war with the beast?
So there's definitely going to be some conquering, I believe the beast, or the anti-Christ is going to be some sort of a political leader
that's going to come on the scene, he's probably going to have already some sort of a nation, you know, like the UN nation,
some sort of a league, try to put him into power, and there might be a few nations that would stand against it
that he has to conquer, that he needs to go out and conquer, but the Bible says, you know, they say,
Who's able to make war with the beast? So the beast goes to war and nobody's winning against him.
He's conquering. He has this political rise. He comes out and people are looking at him as a leader,
and he's conquering these nations, and like I said, there is definitely going to be some peace.
You know, I'm sure there's going to be nations who are going to want to unite him, but I do believe there's going to be nations
who don't want to unite this anti-Christ, and the Bible makes it clear here that he's going to go out and he's going to fight,
and that's going to be his political rise, but the next step, so we have this timeline of the anti-Christ,
the first step is that he has this political rise. He's going to conquer the world.
The next, this is something I never heard growing up like the anti-Christ, but there's going to be a death and a resurrection.
Let me prove it to you. Revelation chapter 13, verse 2, it says,
And the beast which I saw was like unto a leper, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth was the mouth of a lion,
and the dragon gave him his power and his speed and great authority.
Look at verse 3, it says,
And I saw one of his head as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast.
Remember I told you that this anti-Christ is representing or he's trying to imitate Jesus Christ.
Well, we know that Jesus Christ died and was buried and rose from the grave,
and this anti-Christ is going to have the same thing. It says,
And I saw one of his head as it were wounded to death, and Revelation 13, 14, it says,
And deceived them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do on the side of the beast,
saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live.
Now, when the Bible says that he had a wound by a sword, it doesn't necessarily mean that he was wounded by an actual sword,
it means that he took a sword and, you know, him in the head or something.
Sometimes the Bible uses the word sword to represent like a battle or an army.
Let me give you an example of that, you don't have to turn there, but Ezekiel chapter 14, 17 says,
God will speak, it says,
Or if I bring a sword upon the land, and say sword, go through the land so that I cut off man and beast from it.
So you see there that God is talking about using a nation and an army to destroy a land,
and he says, I'm going to bring a sword.
So there when it says that his head was wounded to death, which had a wound by a sword,
it doesn't necessarily mean that he was injured by a sword.
It could mean that maybe as he's conquering, and to conquer, maybe there are nations that try to assassinate him.
I'm sure the United States would have loved to assassinate somebody like Adolf Hitler when he was rising in power or something like that.
You know, if I had to guess, I would imagine, since the Bible makes it clear that he was wounded to death,
I would imagine that maybe some sort of assassination, you know, shot in the head,
we've seen that before with like John F. Kennedy and people like that.
But the point is that he's going to die.
Let me give you another reason why the Bible teaches that, that he's going to die and he's going to be resurrected.
Revelation 11, 7. Revelation 10 to 11, verse 7.
The Bible says, and when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them,
and shall overcome them and kill them.
Now the bottomless pit there, if you can do a Bible study, and the bottomless pit is talking about hell.
So the Bible says that this beast actually ascended out of hell.
He ascended out of the bottomless pit.
Let me give you another example why the Bible teaches that the Antichrist dies.
Look at Revelation chapter 17. Revelation chapter 17, let me read verse 8.
The Bible says, the beast that thou sawest, and is not, make a note of that, it says, is not,
and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, there we see it again, he's ascending out of the bottomless pit,
and go into perdition that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life,
from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was and is not.
You see that? It says is not and yet is.
Verse 9, and here is the mind which hath wisdom, the seven heads or seven mountains on which the woman sitteth.
And there are seven kings, five are fallen and one is, and the other is not yet come.
And when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth and is of the seven and goeth into perdition.
So we see here the Bible refers to the Antichrist and it keeps saying he was and is not.
Well, what does that mean, is not?
Well, let's look at some examples. Go to Genesis, chapter number 42.
Genesis chapter number 42, verse 36 says,
And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children.
Look at that, it says, Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and he will take Benjamin away.
All these things are against him.
So here we have Jacob who thinks that Joseph is dead, he thinks Simeon is dead and he says, Joseph is not.
He says Simeon is not. Look at Job 27, 19.
Like I said, this is kind of a Bible study tonight, so we're just going to try to look at a lot of scripture
and build a foundation so we can learn here about the Antichrist.
This is something very important for Christians to know.
A lot of churches, the buzz word is they preach relevant messages
and they would say something like this maybe isn't relevant,
but you know the Bible says that everything in the Bible is profitable.
So we should know everything.
And a study like this to me is interesting, but look at Job 27, 19 says,
The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered.
He opened his eyes and he is not. You see that?
The Bible shows us again when they're talking about a man that is dead, he says he is not.
Go back to Matthew 2, verse 18.
Matthew 2, verse 18 says, we're going to read it, it says,
In Ramah was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted
because they are not. Now obviously is not and are not are different,
but that's the plural she's talking about, her children, and she says they are not.
If you look at Revelation 1a, I'll show you one last thing.
I need to write that verse down so I can turn there real quick.
Revelation 1a, talking about God, Jesus Christ says,
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, save the Lord.
And it's talking about Jesus, who we know died the very day.
And it says, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty.
So you see how when it talks about God being alive, it says which is.
And when it says that, which is not, the opposite. It's talking about them being dead.
So that's another example of why we can see from the Bible that the Antichrist,
when he received this deadly wound, he died.
The Bible says he went to the bottomless pit. The Bible says he is not.
Let me give you another example. Go to 2 Thessalonians, chapter number 2.
And we'll read verses 6-8. It says,
And now ye know what withholdeth, that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work.
And he will let until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spray of his mouth,
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Now, I've been an independent fundamental Baptist my whole life, pretty much.
That's the church I grew up in.
And this passage, I mean, I've heard it hundreds of times.
People say that this passage is talking about the Holy Spirit.
When it says, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work,
only he will not let until he be taken out of the way.
What I've always been taught is that he is talking about the Holy Spirit.
And what they're saying is that the Holy Spirit is stopping the Antichrist from coming.
He's kind of stopping all these events from playing out.
And it says that when he is taken out of the way, and then shall that wicked be revealed.
So they say the Holy Spirit is stopping the Antichrist.
He's just in his way there. He's stopping all these events from coming.
And when the Holy Spirit is taken out of the way, then the Antichrist is allowed to do what he needs to do.
And they'll say that, hey, I've heard people say, hey, when the Holy Spirit leads on with me, brother,
they'll say that this is talking about the rapture.
They'll say that the rapture has to happen before the Antichrist can come
because he who now led it will let until he be taken out of the way.
Now let me give you some reasons why this could not be talking about the Holy Spirit.
Reason number one, you need the Holy Spirit to get saved.
And if people are getting saved after the rapture, which the Bible is clear they are,
the Holy Spirit has to be there.
2 Corinthians 1, 21-22, I'll just wait for you, it says,
Now he which established us with you in Christ, and had anointed us in God,
who had also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
So God says, when you get saved, he steals you with the Holy Spirit.
He's the earnest of the Spirit.
And God, I mean, the reason I'm never going to die and go to hell,
the reason I have eternal security is because the day I got saved, I got the Holy Spirit.
And God said, I sealed you with the Spirit.
He said, I gave you the earnest of the Spirit.
You'll never lose your salvation because the Holy Spirit will never leave you.
So if this passage is talking about the Holy Spirit,
and the Holy Spirit gets taken out of the way, and we get raptured out with him,
then our people getting saved after the rapture doesn't make any sense.
Maybe you know the reason why I think we're talking about the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit, you know, I think sometimes we forget the doctrines of the Holy Spirit.
Let me just read a verse for you. 1 John 5 says,
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.
And these three are one.
The Bible teaches that God the Father is God.
And God the Son is God.
And just as much as Jesus Christ is God and God the Father is God,
the Holy Spirit is God.
I think sometimes we forget about that.
We minimize kind of the Holy Spirit.
But the Holy Spirit is just as much God as Jesus Christ is God.
And if God is all my presence, which we know he is,
I mean, the Bible says that God is in hell, God is in heaven, and God is everywhere.
Then how do you remove God?
I mean, how do you remove God from the earth?
That doesn't even make any sense.
So that's another reason why this passage should not be talking about the Holy Spirit.
I mean, you could fear the reason why it could not be talking about the Holy Spirit.
Another reason why it could not be talking about the Holy Spirit
is because when they use this passage and they say that the Holy Spirit is taken out of the earth
and they're not talking about the rapture,
well, every other time in the scripture when the Bible talks about us being raptured from this world,
there's a reference always made to either the sun, the moon, the stars, or the clouds.
This passage doesn't talk about any of those.
So it wouldn't be consistent with the scripture.
Every time the scripture talks about us being raptured,
it says, Behold, he cometh with a cloud, and every eye shall see him, and he also is pierced.
And it always talks about the sun being darkened and the moon turning into blood.
Whenever the Bible talks about the rapture, those are things that go along with that.
So for this passage to be talking about us being raptured,
the Holy Spirit being taken out of this earth,
it's missing a few things to be consistent with the Bible.
Let me give you the best reason why this verse could not be talking about the Holy Spirit.
The best reason, the most clear reason why this could not be talking about the Holy Spirit
is because, I'm going to kind of pull up Pastor Anderson.
He taught us an English class this morning, right?
Look at verse 7.
It says, For the mystery of iniquity is already worth,
and he who now led will let until he be taken out of the way.
Now you cannot be referring to someone as he without first mentioning who that he is.
You know, Pastor Anderson was telling us, a pronoun must have an antecedent.
The antecedent, therefore, is a noun to which the pronoun is referring to.
If you look at the context of the verse, the Holy Spirit is not mentioned.
The Holy Spirit is not mentioned in this book until chapter 2, chapter 2, verse 7.
Therefore, the Holy Spirit cannot be what the he is referring to.
So let's try to figure out who is this passage talking about.
Let's start at the beginning here.
Second Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 1.
Let's try to figure out who is this he that he's talking about.
It says, Now we beseech you brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and by our gathering together unto him.
So he's saying, I beseech you by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We understand that, right?
And then it says, and then gathering together unto him.
That's talking about the rapture.
So what we're talking about here is the rapture.
So it's being raptured.
And it says that ye be not soon shaken in mind,
or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter,
as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Can you see that?
Now when the Bible talks about the day of Christ,
if you look up, and I'm not going to take the time to do it,
but if you look up that phrase, the day of Christ,
it's always talking about the rapture.
It's talking about us being raptured out of this world.
So he says, hey, don't be shaken,
as that the day of Christ is at hand.
That's exactly what Pastor Anderson was preaching about this morning.
And look, if you're a visitor here,
this isn't something that people worry about.
It's preached every Sunday.
But obviously the Holy Spirit wanted to preach today,
so we both have sermons on it.
But it says the day of Christ is at hand.
He says, don't be shaken.
See, we have a lot of preachers going around and saying,
hey, you know, like he was preaching this morning,
the day of Christ is at hand.
If you have it at any time, you know, like he was saying,
put your money in the plate and send the money in to the TV
and because you could come back at any moment.
But the Bible says, hey, don't be soon shaken in mind
or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter,
as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Paul said, hey, the day of Christ is not at hand.
It can't just happen.
First Peter says, let no man deceive you by any means.
That's what's going on in our churches today.
For that day, what day?
The gathering, the day of Christ?
For that day shall not come, except there come a falling
away first, and that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition.
Well, I've been taught by every pastor I've ever had
that I just don't believe it.
I think they're right.
You know, the rapture is imminent.
It can happen at any time.
Hey, look, it doesn't matter who said it.
It doesn't matter what pastor taught it to you.
It doesn't matter what left behind, you know,
that movie showed you.
The Bible says, hey, let no man deceive you by any means,
for that day shall not come.
That's what the Bible says.
Man.
So it doesn't matter what Tim LaHaye writes.
It doesn't matter what movies they make
and tape in the night and all these movies,
because the Bible says that day for that day
shall not come.
Except there come a falling away first,
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.
The Bible says that there's going to be a falling away,
and then the man of sin, which is the antichrist,
is going to be revealed.
Verse 4.
Who opposeth and exalted themself
above all that is called God, or that is worshiped,
so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God,
showing himself that he is God.
Remember ye not that when I was yet with you,
I told you these things?
And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed
in his time.
So who's that he?
The man of sin.
The son of perdition.
He says, now you know what withholdeth.
You know what?
What's missing.
For he, who are we talking about?
Is that the Holy Spirit?
Have we read the Holy Spirit enough?
Who's the subject?
The antichrist, right?
The man of sin, the son of perdition.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work.
Only he.
Now, what I don't understand is how
you start at verse 1 and go through steps,
and the subject is the antichrist,
and all of a sudden, and that,
I lost my place there.
Let me find it real quick.
My mind is kind of unclear,
just because I'm sick.
What I don't understand is how all of a sudden,
verse 7, the subject is the Holy Spirit,
although it doesn't make any sense.
It says, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work.
Only he, who's he?
Who's the subject?
The antichrist.
The man of sin, the son of perdition.
He who now ledeth will let,
until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that wicked be revealed,
he who more shall consume and destroy his mouth,
and shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming.
So what is that talking about?
Well, looking at all the other passages that we've seen,
we can gather that for the mystery of iniquity doth already work,
to make it a reference to the Satan,
or the dragon has power and influence over this man of sin.
It says only he who now ledeth will let.
So who's that he?
Well, the man of sin, the antichrist.
He's being used by Satan,
but he's still, for some reason,
I don't understand it,
but he's still a hindrance in the way.
Because remember,
the devil wants nothing more than to be worshipped like God.
And when this antichrist,
you know, we talked about him dying
and being raised from the grave there.
He comes back.
He is sent out of the bottom spit.
When he comes back,
he is proclaimed God.
So when he dies,
only he who now ledeth will let,
the man of sin, the antichrist,
is being used by Satan,
but he's still a hindrance in the way,
until he, talking about the antichrist,
be taken out of the way.
And like I said,
referring to when the antichrist receives his deathly womb.
When he's taken out of the way,
he receives that womb.
He dies.
He's taken out of the way.
And then shall that wicked be revealed.
Well, who's that?
The dragon.
Satan.
And now Satan has full control over this man's body,
and even though he ascends out of the bottom of his pit,
Satan now,
when it says there that,
that wicked be revealed,
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming,
is,
you can see from studying other parts of the Bible
that show us that he is not,
that he ascended out of the bottom of his pit,
that he received the deadly womb,
and when you read the passage
and see that the subject here is the antichrist,
and you can see that when he's taken out of the way,
is when he dies.
And then that wicked is revealed,
that he's, that the devil is,
or Satan is able to take full control of him.
The next step,
so we had the rise of the antichrist,
the political rise.
We had him,
the next thing that happens is he receives the deadly womb,
he dies,
he goes to hell,
Michael said,
and he ascends back out of hell.
What happens after that is he is declared God.
Go back to Revelation 13.
There's a blasphemy of the antichrist.
Revelation chapter 13.
Verse number 3 says,
And I saw one of his head as it were wounded to death,
to the red bed,
and his deadly womb was healed,
and all the world wandered after the beast.
So he received the deadly womb that was healed,
and the whole world wandered after the beast.
And they worshiped the dragon,
which gave power to the beast,
and they worshiped the beast,
saying, Who is like unto the beast?
Who is able to make war with him?
And it was given unto him,
mouth speaking great things and blasphemies,
and power was given unto him to continue 42 months.
And he opened his mouth and blasphemed against God,
to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle,
and then that dwell in heaven.
And it was given unto him to make war with the saints,
and to overcome them,
and power was given unto him over all kindreds and congregations.
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him.
You see that?
Whose names are not written in the book of life,
of the land slain from the foundation of the world.
If any man have an ear, let him hear.
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity.
He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.
Here is the patience and faith of the saints.
And I beheld another beast.
Talking about the prophet.
Come up out of the earth,
and he had two horns like a lamb in his fate of the dragon.
And he exercised the power of the first beast before him,
and causeth the earth and them which dwell there him
to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.
And he doeth great wonders,
so that he may get fire from God from heaven
on the earth from the sight of man.
So here we see that this prophet dies.
He's resurrected.
Once he's resurrected, the false prophet steps in,
and now this pope or whatever, this religious leader of the world,
is going to start declaring the antichrist God.
He's going to say, hey, this man is not just a man.
He died and he was resurrected.
This is God.
And he's going to cause the world to worship the beast.
Now let's talk about the abomination of desolation.
Once this antichrist has declared God,
if you look at the next verse, Revelation 13 and 14, it says,
and the seeth that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles
which he hath power to do on the sight of the beast.
So the false prophet, he has power.
So the devil has given him power to perform miracles.
He can cause fire to come from heaven.
He can do all those different things.
Saying to them that dwell on the earth,
that they should make an image to the beast
which had the wound by his sword and did live.
So once he declared God, he says, let's make an image.
He makes an image of the beast so they can worship him.
Look at verse 15, it says,
and he hath power to give life unto the image of the beast
that the image of the beast should both speak.
So he can give life to this image and it can speak.
And causes that as many as would not worship the image of the beast
should be killed.
And he causes all those small and great, rich and poor,
free and bound to receive the mark in the right hand
when their foreheads start to mark the beast.
Go to Daniel, Daniel chapter 11.
Daniel chapter 11 verse 31.
See here, Daniel 11 verse 31 says,
and arms shall stand on his part
and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength
and shall take away the daily sacrifice
and they shall, notice that word,
place the abomination that make it, desolate.
So the Bible says that the abomination that make it,
desolate, is place.
You're in Daniel there, go to Daniel chapter number 12.
Daniel 12, 11 says, and from that,
and from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken
and the abomination that make it, desolate, set up,
there shall be a thousand, two hundred and ninety days.
So here, so we see the first verse says,
the abomination that make it, desolate, was set in place,
was place, and this verse says it was set up.
So, you know, the abomination of desolation,
I thought for a long time in Matthew 24,
when it talks about it, it's talking about the antichrist.
But from looking at the references in Daniel,
I think it would make more sense to say that this image,
which is an image of the antichrist,
it's caused to put the, you know,
for the antichrist to be worshiped as God,
is the abomination of desolation.
The image can be set up and placed.
Now, what's so important about the abomination of desolation?
Well, go to Matthew chapter 24.
Matthew chapter 24, we have the Olivet Discourse,
where Jesus Christ talks to the disciples about the end time.
Revelation, I'm sorry, Matthew 24,
look at verse number 15, it says,
when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation,
spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
stand in the holy place, who so readeth let him understand.
So we saw in Revelation 13, there's an image made.
Daniel 11 and 12 tell us that there's an abomination
of desolation that is set up in this place.
Matthew 24 tells us, when ye see the abomination of desolation,
spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,
who so readeth let him understand.
Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.
Let him which is on the housetop not come down
to take anything out of his house.
Neither let him which is in the field return back
to take his clothes, and woe unto them that are with child,
and to them that get stuck in those days.
So he says, when you see this abomination of desolation set up,
he says, hey, just flee, just run away, don't even go back.
He says, woe unto them that are with child,
and them that get stuck.
Verse 20 says, but pray be that your flight be not in the winter,
neither on the Sabbath day, for then shall great tribulation,
such as was not since the beginning of the world,
to this time no rapture shall be.
So the Bible says in Matthew 24, when you see this image,
place, or set up, when you see this abomination of desolation,
it says, for then shall be great tribulation.
Now, like we said already, most fundamental Baptists
will teach this.
Jesus can come back at any time.
I mean, he can come back before the service is over.
And they say that if he comes back,
and we get raptured up, then there's
going to be a tribulation where God is going
to pour out his wrath on Earth.
Well, according to Matthew 24, that's not true.
Because it says when you see the Antichrist be declared God,
and this image is made, he says, then
shall be great tribulation.
Well, what does the word tribulation mean?
Well, I'll give you three examples
of what the Bible says tribulation means.
And here's what you need to understand,
and this is what I've been taught,
is that you've got to be very careful to get
what the words mean from the Bible.
Because see, I could open a Bible dictionary tonight
and look up the word tribulation,
and it would say the wrath of God being poured out on the Earth.
But let's look at what the Bible says tribulation is.
You're in Matthew 24.
Go to Matthew 13.
Matthew 13.
We'll look at these quickly.
Matthew 13, verse 21 says, yet hath he not rooted himself,
but has dureth for a while.
For when tribulation or persecution
arises because of the word, by his eye he is offended.
So we see that God says tribulation or persecution.
Romans 8.35.
Romans chapter number 8, verse 35.
Says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation or distress or persecution
or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 1.
I'm going to give you one last example.
And you can find so many times the Bible
uses the word tribulation, but I'm just
going to give you three here.
1 Corinthians chapter number 1.
1 Corinthians 1.4 says, who comforteth us
in all our tribulation, that we may
be able to comfort them which are in any trouble
by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted with God.
So you see that in the Bible the word tribulation
is not talking about God pouring out of wrath.
The word tribulation is talking about persecution.
And usually it's talking about Christians
going to the first two.
So when the Bible says, you're going
to see this abomination of desolation.
And it says, for then shall be great tribulation.
He's saying, hey, when you see the Antichrist
be declared God, when you see this political leader die
and be resurrected, and then there's a false prophet that
declares him God, and they make an image,
and they want everybody to worship this image.
He says, hey, just keep in mind there's
going to come great tribulation.
God's going to make war against the saints.
And see, the reason that I think maybe this isn't popular
or people don't want to read the Bible
and just come to grips with the fact
that we're going to have to go through tribulation,
through persecution as Christians
is that we live in a society that's very weak,
as far as Christianity is concerned.
We don't live in the day of Paul and Peter and the apostles
when they were being persecuted.
We never came across problems like Daniel and Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego and these great men of God
and the faith and Bible.
You know, our Christianity, I was talking about this
at the camping trip, our Christianity is very weak.
And because of that, it's easier for us to believe a fairy tale.
Hey, you know, we're going to go to work.
We're going to go on vacation.
We're going to drive our fancy car.
We're going to do all these things
and we're never going to have to suffer
because just right before the tribulation starts,
which they mistakenly call the wrath of God,
we're just going to get raptured up
and we're never going to go through anything.
And the Bible is just saying, hey, that's not true.
There's going to come a time
when you're going to have to maybe stand up
for what you believe in.
And there might be somebody out who's trying to hurt you
and trying to get you to deny Jesus Christ.
And you know, while we live in the society we live in,
that we have this free society,
we should be reading our Bibles
and we should be strengthening our spirit
and we should be waxing strong in spirit.
We should be out sowing
so that when the day comes that maybe we can't,
we still have the strength to do it.
And it's easy to believe a fairy tale.
It's easy to think, you know, I'm just going to go through life
and then one day I'm going to be raptured up.
But that's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says that for then shall great tribulation
after the antichrist is declared God.
Look at Matthew 24 verse 29.
So tribulation is the persecution of the saints.
It's the antichrist making more with the saints.
Matthew chapter 24 verse 29 says,
immediately after the tribulation of those days.
So what's going to happen immediately
after the tribulation of the saints?
Shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light
and the stars shall fall from heaven
and the powers of heaven shall be shaken
and men shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven
and men shall all the tribes of the earth mourn
and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory
and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet
and shall gather together his elect from the four winds
from one end of heaven to the other.
That is Iran.
And the Bible says that it happens immediately
after the tribulation.
What do you say?
Well, I just, my whole life I've been taught that
we're going to get wrapped right up
and then the tribulation's going to happen.
Well, that's what the Bible says.
I mean, who's your authority?
Is the Bible your authority or some preacher your authority?
Man.
Because the Bible says that it's immediately,
immediately after the tribulation.
So do you see that timeline?
We have the political rise of the antichrist.
We have him die and be resurrected.
He is then declared God.
There's an image made,
the abomination of desolation that's worshiped.
And when we see that, the great tribulation happens
where Christians are going to be persecuted
and immediately after the tribulation of those days
shall the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory.
And we get wrapped right up.
When do we get wrapped right up?
Any moment?
You're just happy right now?
No.
After the tribulation.
After the antichrist.
God's wrath is poured out.
If you want to read about God's wrath,
you can look at Revelation chapters 8 through 11
and Revelation 15 through 18
to go into a great deal about
the talk about God pouring out his wrath on the earth.
God does not.
You've got to keep in mind, though.
God does not pour out his wrath on his people.
The Christians will be raptured out
before God pours out his wrath.
But God does not call his wrath a tribulation.
The tribulation is the antichrist persecuting us.
After we get raptured, God begins to pour out his wrath.
Because the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 9 says
for God has not appointed us to wrath
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
So God does not.
So maybe if you're not understanding,
maybe this is the first time you've ever heard this.
God does not pour out his wrath on his people.
The mistake that people make is that they give
the wrong definitions for tribulation.
Tribulation is not God pouring out his wrath.
Tribulation is us going through persecution
at the hand of the antichrist,
the great tribulation of Matthew 24.
That's what that is.
And immediately after that, we get raptured up.
And on that same day,
and if you read in Revelation, in the book of Revelation,
it tells us that God raptures us up
and literally 30 minutes go by
and he begins to pour out his wrath.
The same day.
Well, I thought we were going to get raptured
and then there's going to be seven years
where we're just kind of hanging out in heaven
and God's doing his own thing
and then we come back.
That's not what the Bible says.
We get raptured and God begins to pour out his wrath.
So we saw there the, and like I said,
this is just kind of a Bible study,
kind of giving you the life of the antichrist.
We saw the rise of the antichrist,
political rise, death and resurrection.
He's proclaimed God, the abomination of desolation.
The tribulation happens where he begins to persecute us.
We get raptured out.
God pours out his wrath.
Now let's talk about the fall of the antichrist.
The fall of the antichrist.
Go to Revelation chapter number 16.
Revelation chapter number 16, verse 16 says,
And he gathered them together and threw them in place,
called to the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon.
Now, again, something that I've been taught
about the battle of Armageddon,
because they've got to make all this spit.
I mean, the Bible doesn't teach you,
but they've got to kind of change things and do things
and maybe you've been taught this.
The battle of Armageddon, I've always been taught
that it's the whole world surrounding Israel
and they're going to try to destroy Israel
and right before they just start this war
and they're going to destroy Israel
because they're God's chosen people or whatever,
then God comes down and he saves them or something.
That's what I've always been taught.
Armageddon is.
But that's not what the Bible says.
Go to Revelation 19.
Revelation 19, three chapters, four.
And let's begin reading at verse 11.
The Bible gives us a description of the battle of Armageddon.
It says, And I saw heaven open, and behold, a white force,
and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True
and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns,
and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself.
It's talking about Jesus Christ.
And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood,
and his name is called the Word of God.
And the armies which were in heaven
followed him upon white forces,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
And out of his mouth went a sharp sword,
that with it he should smite the nations,
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron,
and he credit the wine press
from the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
And he had on his vesture and on his thigh
a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
And I saw an angel standing in the sun,
and he cried with a loud voice,
saying, to all the fowls that fly in the midst.
You know, that's always funny to me when I read that.
I heard a preacher talk about that.
Look, Al Gore is wrong.
These environmentalists are wrong.
Look, at the end of the earth,
at the battle that we're getting,
not the end of the earth,
but at the battle that we're getting,
all the birds are going to be fine.
They're going to be there.
Don't worry about global warming and all that stuff.
The birds are going to be there.
To all the fowls that fly in the midst,
they're going to be there, of heaven.
Come and gather yourselves together
unto the supper of the great God.
Verse 18, that ye may eat the flesh of kings,
and the flesh of couches,
and the flesh of mighty men,
and the flesh of horses,
and of men that sit on the earth,
and the flesh of all men,
both free and bond,
both small and great.
And I saw the beasts and the kings of the earth,
and their armies gathered together
to make war against him that sat on the horse.
So who are they making war against?
Are they fighting Israel?
Are they fighting the chosen people?
It says they're making war against him
that sat on the horse.
Who's that? Jesus Christ.
And against his army.
So the battle of Armageddon, see,
if you look at the context,
God raptured us out.
He's been pouring out his wrath.
He's been opening up vials,
and he's been sounding trumpets,
and he's been doing all sorts of things,
and he's just pouring out his wrath on the earth.
And now he's coming down,
and the Antichrist and the false prophet
want nothing to do it, right?
They know God's been doing this.
So they're going to make war against him
that sat on the horse.
Look at verse 20.
And the beast was taken,
and with him the false prophet
had wrought miracles before him,
with which he deceived them
that had received the mark of the beast
and them that worshiped him.
These both were cast alive
into a lake of fire burning with brimstone,
and the remnant were slain with the story
of him that sat upon the horse,
which the sword proceeded out of his mouth,
and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
Now, try to understand this.
God has been pouring out his wrath.
He's coming down.
The heavens are open.
He's coming down with his army,
which is us.
The Antichrist and the false prophet
are preparing this army,
and they're going to try to fight against God.
Now, I never understood that.
I can't even, now I can't comprehend
why anybody would want to fight against God.
I mean, they've seen God rapture.
It's not this secret rapture
where we're just going to go up.
You know, I think a lot of Baptists,
I heard this recently.
I heard somebody say that
the verse that's talking about the rapture
is not talking about God.
It's not talking about the rapture.
They say that, you know, Jesus came back
one time, born of a virgin,
or came to earth,
and then there's this other time
where he's going to come,
where he's going to come, you know,
in power and great glory,
but then the rapture,
he's not really coming.
It's like a 1.5 coming or something like that.
He's like coming, but nobody can see him,
and he's kind of just taking us out in secret,
and people are going to be like,
oh, where did they go?
Was it aliens?
You know, I mean,
I think these preachers, you know,
they think that they're a bunch of weak sissies.
If you want to make Jesus Christ
like this weak sissy,
like he's coming, and he's like,
should I come?
Should I not?
No, I'm scared.
Look, Jesus is not some pink tie,
purple shirt wearing queer, okay?
When he comes back,
he's going to come back in power
and great glory.
Hey, God, Jesus Christ is a man,
like the Bible said.
Hey, he's the type of man
that pisses against the wall, right?
That's what Pastor Anderson
was preaching against man,
you know, man pissing against the wall.
I probably shouldn't have said that.
I can imagine it's just all over YouTube.
Jesus Christ pisses against the wall.
I'll sit down with men we need,
and if we had a bunch of Baptist preachers
that would quit squatting
and stand up for the things of God,
maybe we'd do something for this country.
Maybe we could save the next generation.
But Jesus Christ is not some scared little wimp
that he doesn't know,
you know, just take him out
and we'll try to figure it out later.
No, when he comes back,
he's coming back as a line of duty.
He's not coming back as a lamp anymore.
He's coming back as a line.
Amen.
That's good.
Amen.
But look at this.
These both, 1920,
these both, talking about the Antichrist
and the fossil prophet,
these both were cast alive
into a lake of fire
running with brimstone.
Try to get this in your mind.
Here's the Antichrist.
Here's the fossil prophet.
Here's their army.
God is coming down
and the Antichrist is the most powerful man
the devil has ever used.
More powerful than Hitler.
More powerful than all these other guys.
This is literally the most powerful man
that Satan has ever used
and when Jesus Christ comes down,
he just casts him into the lake of fire.
I mean, there's not even a battle.
We come back as an army
and we don't even have to fight.
Jesus Christ does all the fighting.
He grabs the most powerful two men
who have ever lived
and he just disposes of them.
He just casts them into the lake of fire
and you should take some assurance
of the fact that Jesus Christ is all powerful
and whatever you might be going through in your life,
you know, maybe you say,
oh, my wife's leaving me
and she's divorcing me
or my kids are going to the devil
or I got bills that I can't pay
or I lost my job.
God is all powerful
and if you can take the most powerful man
and just cast him into the lake of fire,
you can take care of him.
You can take care of your little problems.
You can take care of whatever the devil
might be putting in your life
because God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit,
they're powerful.
They're all powerful.
All mighty.
He just takes this man
who has been blaspheming God,
who's been declaring himself God
and he just,
these bones were cast alive into the lake of fire,
burning with redstone.
Look at Revelation chapter 20,
the next chapter, verse 1.
And I saw an angel come down from heaven,
having the keys of the bottomless pit,
which is hell,
and a great chain in his hand.
And he laid a hold on the dragon,
that old serpent,
which is the devil
and satan
and bound him a thousand years.
I like how God just,
he uses every name of the devil.
He says, hey, he laid hold of the devil
and satan,
you know, he just calls all of his names.
The dragon, the old serpent,
the devil and satan
and bound him a thousand years
and cast him into the bottomless pit
and shut him up
and set a seal upon him
that he would,
that he should deceive the nations no more
till a thousand years should be fulfilled
and after that,
he must be loosed a little season.
So Armageddon happens.
The antichrist and the false prophet
are cast into the lake of fire.
The devil, the serpent,
the dragon satan,
is bound,
and he's cast into the bottomless pit,
which is hell.
Now you gotta feel the mic.
Hell and the lake of fire
are two different places.
The bottomless pit is in the center of the earth.
The lake of fire,
no one right now is in the lake of fire.
Now,
we'll see in a little bit here
that God will one day take hell
and put it into the lake of fire,
but nobody's in the lake of fire.
The first two people that will ever go to the lake of fire
are the beast and the false prophet.
So they go to the lake of fire,
Satan is cast into the bottomless pit.
He's cast into hell.
The Bible says for a thousand years,
and it says that he might be loosed a little season.
So now we have a thousand-year millennium.
Okay, so are you seeing the outline?
Are you seeing the timeline here?
We have a political rise in the Antichrist.
We have his death and his burial and resurrection.
He's declared God,
and there's an abomination of desolation
where this image is set up,
and they worship him as God.
The tribulation now starts
where the Christians are being persecuted.
God finally gets fed up with it,
raptures us up out of here.
He begins to pour out his wrath.
He comes down to finish the job
and the battle is Armageddon.
He takes the beast and the false prophet,
cast them into the lake of fire.
He takes the dragon,
bounds them up for a thousand years,
puts them in hell,
which are two different places,
and the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ begins.
Look at Revelation 24.
I'm sorry, chapter 20, verse 4.
And I saw thrones,
and they that sat upon them,
and judgment was given unto them.
And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded
for a witness of Jesus and for the word of God,
and which had not worshiped the beast,
neither his image,
neither had received his mark on their foreheads
or in their hands,
and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
So God begins, Jesus Christ,
the devil is cast out,
is put into the lake of fire,
or into hell,
the beast and the false prophet are on the lake of fire,
and Jesus Christ literally, physically,
begins a reign of a thousand years.
Then?
Now, this is where,
and I don't have the words for this part,
but just so you kind of understand what's going on,
at the beginning of the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ,
we have what's called the judgment seat of Christ,
where every Christian is going to be rewarded
for what they did.
Now, again, a lot of people,
you know, a lot of preachers want to scare people
and say, hey, at the judgment seat of Christ,
you know, God's going to pull out this big screen TV,
and he's going to show you
everything you ever did,
every sin you ever did,
and you're going to have to give up your mouth for it,
and you're going to have to talk about it,
and you're going to have to tell God, you know,
why did you think that thought?
And I'm like, you know, that's so stupid.
Look, the Bible says when you get saved,
God separates you from your sins.
You forget your Bible, you sing.
He will never mention your sins to you again.
When you get to the judgment seat of Christ,
you're going to be rewarded for what you did.
How many souls did you win?
That's the currency of heaven.
Well, I'm going to get rewarded
because I went to church every Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday night.
That's not the currency of heaven.
The currency that God pays you in
is dependent on how many souls you won
to the Lord Jesus Christ,
how many times you went out soul winning
and talked to somebody
and showed somebody how they can be saved.
When you get to the judgment seat of Christ,
you know, your business that you built
or your home that you built
or whatever you did is not going to matter.
The only thing that will matter
is how many souls you got saved.
That's what you're going to be rewarded for.
How many people did you bring with you?
And at the judgment seat of Christ,
when you get rewarded for all,
you know, how much work you did for Jesus,
then he's going to make some kings over ten cities
and some kings over five cities
and we're going to rule and reign with Jesus Christ.
I mean, can you imagine a thousand years with Jesus?
I mean, we don't have to worry about Barack Obama
or Hillary Clinton.
We don't have to worry about Bill Clinton coming back
from the dead.
We don't have to worry about anything.
Jesus Christ is going to be the ruler.
What a perfect government that would be.
But then, we see Satan is loose.
When the Bible says that he was bound for a thousand years,
look at Revelation chapter number 20 verse 7.
Revelation chapter number 20 verse 7 says,
And when the thousand years are expired,
Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.
He's been imprisoned in hell.
Look at verse 8, it says,
And shall go out to deceive the nations,
which are the four quarters of the earth,
God and Magog,
to gather them together to battle the number of whom is
as the sand of the sea,
and they went up on the breath of the earth
and come past the camp of the saints about,
and the beloved city and fire came down from God
out of heaven and about.
So the devil gets cast, he gets loosed from hell.
And during the millennium, during that thousand year reign,
we're going to be in our glorified bodies,
reigning with Jesus Christ.
But the Bible makes it clear
that there's going to still be human beings being born.
And in Isaiah, when it talks about that time period,
it talks about little children, you know,
playing with snakes and, you know,
talking about the lions going to lay down on the beach
with the lamb, all of that.
So we see that, you know, there's going to be children there,
there's going to be families there,
there's going to be human beings there
that can get saved or not get saved,
whatever it might be.
But remember, you know, when I read this,
I'm like, see, the false prophet and the Antichrist,
I don't understand why they would want to fight against God.
I mean, they see God Almighty
and they think they can take him on.
That doesn't make any sense to me.
But the devil gets loosed out of hell
and he tries to unite this army of unsaved people
to try to fight against God.
I can understand that.
I understand why the devil would want to do it.
Look, the devil just spent a thousand years in hell.
He just spent a thousand years being tormented.
I can just imagine for a thousand years,
he's just thinking in his head,
when I get out of here, I'm going to kill God.
When I get out of here, I'm going to fight against God.
Just thinking in his head, I'm not coming back here.
And he goes out, he finds these unsaved human beings.
And look, when Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning,
we're not going to live in this wicked society.
It's going to be a righteous society.
It's not going to be the influence of the devil.
It's not going to be the influence of a bad government.
So there's going to be a lot of people
that aren't going to like it.
I mean, you think they would, but as a human being,
you know, when they can't go out and get drunk anymore
and there aren't going to be any strip clubs
and there aren't going to be any more Playboy
and any more movies.
I mean, it's going to be a righteous government.
A lot of people aren't going to like it.
And they're going to jump on the chance
to form an army with the devil to fight God.
Why would anybody do that? I don't know.
Why would anybody try to fight against God and reject God?
I don't know.
But that's what they're going to do.
The devil's going to be loosed.
He's going to create this army.
And look at Revelation 29, it says,
And they went up on the breadth of the earth
and came past the camp of the saints about
and the beloved city and fired him down from God
out of heaven and about him all.
I mean, God just...
I mean, he doesn't have to fight.
He doesn't have to worry about it.
I mean, just the power of God,
just fire comes down from heaven.
They're all dead.
So here, Revelation 20, 11 says,
So we have here this timeline now.
The devil is cast out, forms this army, this military,
to fight against God.
Once again, God doesn't even have to sweat.
Just fire comes down from heaven.
He just blows them off.
And then this is all done.
The name is done.
Look at Revelation 20, verse 10, it says,
And the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone
where the beast and the false prophet...
You see that word?
It says ar.
And shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever.
Now, when did the beast and the false prophet
get cast into the lake of fire?
You remember?
At the Battle of Armageddon, right?
The devil gets cast into hell.
A thousand years go by.
He fights against God.
And the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire,
so now he's cast into the lake of fire.
And it's just amazing to me.
It says the lake of fire and brimstone
where the beast and the false prophet are.
That's where they are.
They've been there for a thousand years.
Look, hell is eternal.
You know, hell is not this place where you kind of go,
you know, the Catholics want to tell you,
you know, purgatory, kind of go there
until you pay your sin, and then you get out.
Look, a thousand years are going to go by,
and the beast and the false prophet, they are there.
And ten thousand years will go by,
and they still are there.
And a million years will go by,
and they still are there.
I like the song, Amazing Grace,
where it talks about ten thousand years,
and we'll just, I mean, no time will go by,
but on the flip side of that,
ten thousand years after somebody goes to the lake of fire,
they still are there.
Wow.
You know, we have control of them.
You can go out and get somebody saved
and keep them from hell for eternity.
You can go out and preach the gospel to somebody
and keep them from hell,
but if they go to the lake of fire a thousand years later,
that's where they are.
Forever.
Right.
We can't even comprehend eternity.
I mean, try to sit down and just comprehend a thousand years.
I mean, we live, what, seventy, eighty, ninety years?
We can't even understand what a thousand years is going to be,
much less eternity.
But look, the lake of fire is not just born.
The beast and the false prophet and the dragon.
Look at Revelation, chapter twenty, verse eleven.
Revelation, chapter twenty, verse eleven says,
And I saw a great white throne,
and him that sat on it,
from whose feet the earth and the heavens fled away,
and there was found no place for it.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God,
and the books were opened,
and another book was opened, which is the book of life,
and the dead were judged out of those things
which were written in the books according to their words,
and the sea gave up the dead which were in it,
and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them,
and they were judged, every man, according to their words,
and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second thing,
and whosoever was not found written in the book of life
was cast into the lake of fire.
This great white throne judgment is the climax of eternity.
You say, what is my life about?
As a Christian, it's about this great white throne judgment.
You say, no, no, no, my life is about going to work,
and my life is about raising my kids,
and my life is about being a good husband,
and look, being a good husband and being a good wife
and raising your kids and going to work,
those are all things we need to do,
but your life should be surrounded on this day
when God, the Bible says, the hell, hell and death
are going to deliver up the dead,
and they're going to stand before God,
and everybody, remember, this isn't the judgment seat of Christ.
Those that are saved have already been given the rewards.
This is where the unbelievers are going to be judged.
Now, you know, I always talk about,
there's going to be people
that have been there for over a thousand years in hell,
and I was talking to one of my friends at work about this,
and they were asking me, you know,
I was telling them about this, and they're asking me,
what is the point of the great white throne judgment?
I mean, what's the purpose?
If they're already in hell,
and he's just going to move hell to the lake of fire,
why do they need a great white throne judgment?
And, you know, I started thinking about it,
and I, you know, I hear a lot of people say,
like, you know, these Muslims or whatever,
when they flew their planes into the great white throne,
into the great white throne, into the,
into those buildings, you know, the towers,
and, you know, they got their,
they got their dawkins straight as soon as they went to hell.
You know, I don't think they did.
You know, I think there's going to be a lot of people in hell
for a thousand years and two thousand years and three thousand years,
and they're going to be wondering,
why am I here?
Why am I in hell?
Because when we go out and we give the gospel to people,
and they reject it,
those people are going to remember that there was a day
that we showed them the gospel,
and we showed them that they could be saved,
but there's going to be a lot of people
that have never been given the gospel.
There's going to be a lot of sincere people
that maybe they were Catholic, or maybe they were Islam,
or maybe they were Hindu,
and they were trying to live a good life,
and they were never exposed to the gospel,
and they're going to get to hell,
and they're going to be wondering,
why am I here?
What have I done to deserve this?
And it's our job to make sure
if they don't want to get saved,
that they're at least warned,
because there's going to be a lot of people in hell
who aren't going to understand why they're there.
Matthew says that in that day,
they're going to say to him,
did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not do many mighty works?
And they're going to say to God,
hey, we did good works,
and we went to church,
and they don't understand.
They're still saying to God,
why am I here?
And God has to have this great white pill of judgment
just to explain to them.
Look at verse 12,
the page at the end there says,
they're going to be judged according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it,
and death from hell delivered up the dead
which were in them,
and they were judged,
every man according to their works.
Now what saves you?
What saves you is belief from the Lord Jesus Christ.
But these people that are unbelievers
are not going to be judged by what they believe,
they're going to be judged by their works.
You can see there's two types,
there's two religions,
there's two types of ways of going at it.
Those that believe that you have to have faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you,
and everything else is works.
You say,
well I just think that if you get saved,
you got to repent of your sins,
that's works.
Well I just think I got to live a good life
where God won't let me into heaven,
that's works.
Well I just think that when I get saved,
I just got to be a good person
in order to stay saved, that's works.
And when they stand before God,
God can say hey,
you don't want to believe,
you don't want to have faith,
you want to be judged by works, fine!
We'll judge you by works,
what's God going to say?
He'll say,
as is written,
there is none righteous,
no not one.
There is none that understand,
there is none that seek it after God,
they are all gone out of the way,
they are all together become unprofitable,
there is none that doeth good,
no not one.
No not one.
God is going to stand before God
and God is going to say,
you want to work your way to heaven,
you want to repent of your sins,
you want to live a good life,
that's what's going to get you into heaven, fine!
We'll judge you by your work,
and it doesn't matter what you've done,
God says,
no one is good,
no not one.
That's right, amen.
And when they stand before God,
God is going to open this Bible,
and he's going to judge them.
Man, praise the Lord,
I will never be judged by my works.
That's good, amen.
When I get to heaven,
and if God asks me,
why, why should I let you into heaven?
I'm going to say,
because I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
to save me,
and you better let me into heaven
or else you're alive.
Amen.
God is going to say,
come in, amen.
That's what he's going to say.
But these people,
that rejected the gospel,
and wanted to work their way to heaven,
God is going to say,
okay,
do you think it's about works?
Let's judge you according to their works.
And death and hell were cast into lake fire,
this is the second death,
and whosoever was now found dead in the work of life
was cast into lake fire.
Why do we need to know about the anti-Christ?
Why do we need to know about prophecy?
Why does it matter?
Because of this day.
When the climax of all time happens,
and those people,
that neighbor of yours,
and that friend of yours,
and that co-worker of yours,
that you refuse to give the gospel to,
is cast into the lake of fire.
Look, the Bible says we're going to be there.
It says that everything is fled away.
There's no place for us to go.
We're going to be there.
And we're not going to be judged by our works,
but we're going to be there,
and we're going to see those people
that we refuse to give the gospel to,
those people that we thought,
you know,
I don't know,
that aunt and uncle that you were like,
oh, I just don't want to cause any problems.
Look, on that day,
when they get cast into lake fire,
you're going to wish that maybe you
messed up some family reunion
and gave them the gospel.
You're going to wish that maybe,
yeah, you messed up the Christmas party,
but you got them saved,
because that is the climax of our lives,
is what have we done to keep people
from hell in the lake of fire.
You know,
I was thinking about my own life,
and I was thinking about how
it wasn't until I grasped
and put my mind around the lake of fire
and the eternity of hell
that I became stolen.
And I remember when I gave,
when my wife got saved,
and I led,
I was able to lead my wife to the Lord,
and I remember we were 17 years old,
and we were working at Subway,
and she was my boss,
and things have changed since then.
No, but she was a supervisor
and whatever.
I remember for months and months
and months and months,
I'd give her the gospel,
and I'd tell her how to get saved,
and I'd explain it to her
just day after day after day.
She understood it.
She could give the gospel to somebody
and explain it.
Obviously, she couldn't get it and be saved,
because she wasn't saved,
and you can't get somebody saved
if you're not saved.
But she understood it.
She could quote it back to me.
She knew what it took to be saved.
But I remember there was a day,
but I explained to her that,
you know, she was my friend,
and there was going to come this day,
this great white throne judgment,
when she was going to be cast into the lake of fire.
And whether she believed it or not,
that's what's going to happen.
And she had to come to a place
where she realized.
You know, I gave the gospel and said,
hey, God loves you.
Jesus loves you.
You're a sinner.
He wants to save you.
Your sin is taking you to hell.
But it wasn't until she realized
the reality of hell.
I remember I was talking to her
about somebody I knew
when I was telling her about
how I just don't want any of my friends
to go to hell,
and I don't want anybody that I know
to go to hell.
And I just decided,
every time I go work somewhere,
whether it's subway or the air force
or whatever it might be,
I'm going to give the gospel
to those people that I consider my friend
because I don't want them to go to hell.
I remember after that,
I was really just explaining
and trying to get through it
to understand the reality of hell.
I remember getting in my car
and I was just praying,
and I was kind of getting angry,
and I was saying,
God, help her to understand.
Remember, I hit the steering wheel there
and I was like, please.
And the next day I came to work,
and she wasn't working for whatever reason,
but we had these tips at Subway,
and they would need the tips
that you got or whatever
and a little cookie bag
and put your name on it
that was your tip for the previous day or whatever.
I remember I came to work
and I grabbed my tips
and I opened it up
and she left a little note for me
saying, last night I got saved.
She said, last night I asked Jesus to save me.
And I remember thinking to myself,
you will never be the sole winner,
you've got to be,
until you comprehend the reality of hell.
A thousand years will go by
and they are there.
It's grand.
It's not a game.
It's not fake.
It's not a fairy tale.
I know you want to believe
that we're just going to ratchet up
and we're never going to have to do anything,
but you're going to have to make sacrifices
and maybe you have to not do something
that you want to do and to make time,
but we've got to understand the importance
of this day, the great white throne judgment,
when man will stand before God
and they'll be judged by their words.
Let me just recap this timeline
because I really want you to understand
the rise and the fall of the antichrist.
We're going to have a political rise
where the antichrist is going to conquer
and go to conquer and go to war
and he's going to take over.
He's going to die.
He's going to be resurrected.
After that, he's going to be declared God
by the false prophet.
Then there's going to be the abomination of desolation,
this image set up that's going to be
able to worship him and we're going to have
the great tribulation where we're going to go
through persecution and God's going to rapture us up.
God's going to pour out his wrath
and we'll have the battle of Armageddon
where the antichrist and false prophet
are passing through the lake of fire.
The devil has cast into hell for a thousand years.
We'll have the thousand year reign of Jesus Christ.
The devil will be loose from the bottomless pit.
One last attempt to try to destroy God
and fight against God.
God will burn the armies.
He will cast the devil into the lake of fire
where the false prophet and the beast are
and we'll have the great white throne judgment
where people will go to hell for the throne.
And the Bible says that after that,
God's going to have to wipe away our tears
and we'll spend eternity in heaven.
Why are you going to wipe away our tears?
Because maybe we just didn't live the life
we should have to get people saved.
But remember, when we're in heaven for a thousand years,
those people at the great white throne judgment
that we judge by their works will still be there.
But that won't be here.
Keep that in your mind.
Keep that at the forefront of your mind
and let's just live the life that God wants us to live
and let's be the soul winners God wants us to be.
Amen.
Let's go ahead for a word of prayer.
Give him a call.
Thank you all so much for being good to us.
And Lord, thank you for allowing me to stand up here.