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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could all find your seats, we'll go ahead and get started. If you can grab a hymnal, we're going to start off in song number 14, Kneel at the Cross. Song 14, Kneel at the Cross. Song number 14, Kneel at the Cross. On the first. Kneel at the cross, Christ will make you there, come on, he waits for you. Listen to his voice, lead him with your care, and bring good life anew. Kneel at the cross, lead him with care. Kneel at the cross, Jesus will be sure there. Kneel at the cross, there is room for all, whose glory share. List their own ways, mark in every fall, go to our anchor there. Kneel at the cross, lead every care. Kneel at the cross, Jesus will lead you there. Kneel at the cross, give your idols up, look unto rounds of blood. Turn not away, too much work we've done, trust only in his love. Kneel at the cross, lead him with care. Kneel at the cross, Jesus will lead you there. Great singing, everybody. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for bringing us all together. Thank you for Pastor Shelley and his family. Lord God, we ask that you bless this service. Fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit, and bring us all into an edifying spirit, Lord God. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. All right, next up, we're going to do song number 19. Just a few pages over. There is a Fountain. Song number 19, There is a Fountain. Song number 19, There is a Fountain. Song number 19, There is a Fountain. Song number 19, There is a Fountain. Song number 19, There is a Fountain. Song number 19, There is a Fountain. Song number 19, There is a Fountain. Song number 19, There is a Fountain. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you didn't already get a bulletin, just lift up your hand real quick. One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin. On the front, we have our Bible Memory passage. We're working on Proverbs 31. We're on verse 21. And on the inside, we have our service and soul-winning times, our church stats. On the right, we have the list of expecting ladies, as well as our prayer list. And so we like to go over that on Wednesday nights. We're continuing to pray for Brother Hall for his leg, Ms. Negara for her health. We've been praying for the Cooley Stepdad. There's a cancer surgery. And I don't know exactly how that went. We need to follow up. But also, we've been praying for Brother Hall's, his brother. We've been praying for the name's grandmother. We've been praying for the Carlson's mother, Rebecca's health. Ms. Faith also has a friend, Tamara, who we've been praying for her cancer treatment. We've been praying for the Spurgeon's dad, his health. Ms. Michael's job for the weathers. Ms. Emma, I think that she's here in the flesh, so praise the Lord for that. That's great. And then also we've been praying for Ms. Lori May's health as well. So we'll just say a quick word of prayer for everyone that was listed here. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this church and for all these ladies who are expecting. I pray they be with them during their pregnancies. Also, we have several family members and friends who are suffering with illness. I pray if it's possible that you could just give them a speedy recovery. Please just give them health. I pray that while they're going through this difficulty, you'd give them peace and comfort through their pain and their suffering. I pray that you'd also just help our church family that needs a job or needs favor. And that you'd also give us boldness to give the gospel to our family and friends that are needing it, those who we're praying for. I pray that you just soften their hearts. And I pray that you just keep using this church. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. On the back, upcoming events, our preaching class is Saturday at 2 p.m. And then there is an announcement about Verity Baptist Church. One of our friends in Sacramento, California is having a youth rally. It is geared for teenagers. And we even have a poster that they graciously sent to us. And we put it up on the wall in the hallway. So if you want more details, that's a great way to check it out. And then also down below, we had the congratulations to the Galasso family on the birth of John Christian who was born on the 11th at 3.18 a.m. Nine pounds, 14 ounces and 21 inches long. Congratulations to them. That's great. And thank you so much to all of you celebrating Valentine's with us today because Revelation 13 is definitely all about Valentine's. So we'll go ahead and sing Psalm 146. Psalm 146. All right, Psalm 146 and your white handouts. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live, while I praise the Lord, I will sing praise His Son to my God. While I have any need, put not your trust in princes, put not your trust in princes, for in the Son of Man, in whom there is no help, whom there is no help. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. His breath goeth forth, He returneth to His earthen path, where we gave His cross Paris. And He is He that hath done not of Jacob for Himself, whose hope is in the Lord, the Lord is God. Praise be the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul, which made heaven and earth the sea, and all that there is which keepeth true forever, with thanks to human judgement for the oppress which giveth, truth to the free, the Lord who sent the prisoners. Praise be the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. The Lord o'erth in the eyes of the blind, the Lord raiseth Him back, far back down, the Lord loveth, the righteous, the Lord, reserved in the strangers, He relieveth the fatherless, and widows. Praise be the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul, on the way of the wicked, He turneth upside down, the Lord shall reign forever, even by no sign of, unto all generations. Praise be the Lord, praise be the Lord. Good singing at this time while the offering plates are being passed around. Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation 13, Revelation chapter 13. Revelation chapter 13. We'll read the entire chapter, as is our custom, starting at verse 1. The Bible reads, And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and 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 seed and 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 wandered 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? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb 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 the faith of the saints. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein 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 in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight 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. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred threescore and six. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for Revelation chapter 13, and I pray, Lord, that you would prepare us for what is to come in the end times, and that you would just enable us, Lord, to pay close attention to the preaching tonight. So that we can be equipped, Lord, to face that which is coming in the future. We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. We're here in Revelation chapter 13, and the previous chapter was a lot of symbolism, talking about the dragon and talking about his war with the woman. And the previous chapter, I explained how I believe that the woman represents mankind as a whole. And the Bible is really explicit that the red dragon is the devil. He's described as Satan, the devil, many different descriptors. And the Bible makes it clear that the devil does not succeed in killing the woman and destroying the woman. So at some point he decides to make war with the remnant of her seed, which the Bible describes. And that's what it said in verse 17 in chapter 12, just that previous verse. It had talked about how the dragon was wroth and he's going to make war with the remnant of her seed. And then specifically it tells us who that is. It's those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Now, to be saved, all you have to do is have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The Bible is really clear those who overcome are those who believe in Jesus Christ. But let's also be real. Who are the people that do keep the commandments? It's the people who are saved, right? So when it's just talking about the group of people on the earth that actually do keep the commandments of Jesus Christ and actually care what the Bible says, it's of course going to come from those who are the saved, those who are the Christians, those who are the believers. This is kind of mimicked in Matthew 25 when the Bible kind of elaborates on how Jesus Christ looks at a lot of people and they were the ones who visited people in prison and gave drinks of water and clothed people. And he's like, who did that unto you? And he's like, well, you've done it unto the least of these my brethren, you've done it unto me. And those are the people that go to heaven and the people that never did it, they go to hell. Some people would misunderstand that to say, oh, you have to do works to be saved. No, it's just the people that are saved are the ones that end up doing the works. So the ones that were actually saved are typically and really the ones who follow God's commandments and do the works of Jesus Christ. Of course our church teaches and we emphasize when we give the gospel that you could technically do nothing and still make it to heaven. But that's not our recommendation plan. That's not what we really advertise as something as a good option. And I don't really know anybody that's like that. Of course, I've given the gospel to people and I don't know where they're at today. I don't know what they're doing for God. But the vast majority of the people that I know that are saved are doing something for God, are trying to follow his commandments. And those are the people that the devil's targeting and wants to destroy and wants to kill are those who have that testimony. Those are the ones who keep the commandments of God. Look at verse 1. Now, we've been talking about a few different characters. We have the woman, which is mankind. Then we have the remnant of her seed, which is believers. Then we have the red dragon, which is the devil. Now the Bible's introducing us to another creature, a beast. And the Bible describes this beast as having seven heads and ten horns. And then this is what's really interesting. It says, the name of blasphemy. Now that's not necessarily clear exactly what that name is. But to me, it indicates that it would be a name of God. Now of course, God has a lot of names. So I wouldn't necessarily know exactly how to narrow that down. But to me, for it to be described as a name of blasphemy, then it would need to be a real name of God. Because when we think about it, if someone said, hey, you just blasphemed. What does it even mean to blaspheme? It means to use God's name in vain, right? If someone were to say, use the word God or use the word Jesus Christ in a derogatory manner, to kind of use their name to express an expletive or anger or wrath or just to use it in a profane manner, we call that blasphemy. But you know, we don't really call it blasphemy if you use Joe Biden's name. If you say, let's go Brandon, that's not blaspheming. I know there's a lot of people online that think that that's somehow blasphemy. But you know, it's not blasphemy to use Joe Biden's name as a cuss word, okay? Or to use Allah or something else, you know, it's not necessarily blaspheming to use a false god or Joe Biden or whatever. That's not blasphemy. You know, some people still get offended by that, and that's a different sermon for a different day. But when we talk about blasphemy itself, we're talking about using God's name in vain. We're talking about profaning the name of the Lord. But what would be blasphemous when someone takes a title or a name of God and applies it to themselves? This is really common in the Catholic Church, where they take on the name Father. And Jesus Christ made it abundantly clear that you're not supposed to call any man Father. You have one Father, which is in heaven, that's God the Father, the Heavenly Father, and that's his title. So for someone to take upon a title of God to themselves would be a form of blasphemy. So I believe when it's talking about this beast, this beast is going to attribute to himself a name of God. And it makes sense because when you think about it, even the devil himself kind of has this attitude. In Isaiah chapter 14, verse 14, the Bible says that the devil wants to be like the Most High. So everything about the devil is trying to mimic or imitate God. And of course, he would love to have God's names because God, in my estimation, probably the most similar word to understand this would be the word ruler. The word God, in essence, kind of means ruler. And the Bible talks about God being the God of gods. So if you're the Most High, if you're the King of kings, if you're the God of gods, of course the devil would love to have that title of what? God. Because it signifies being the ultimate leader, the ultimate ruler, the one that has supreme authority. That is a title that the devil would love to hold upon himself. And of course his minion, the antichrist, which is really being described here, is going to attribute that title unto himself. And what's really interesting about this chapter is since we kind of see the devil trying to emulate God and trying to be like God, in this chapter we kind of have a fake trinity. And it's really interesting how you kind of have a fake trinity in the Bible where you have the red dragon and then you have another beast which is the antichrist. And when you kind of think about it, the dragon or the devil is not something that we really see. It's not someone that we really experience. He's kind of in that spirit realm. Whereas the antichrist, the beast, is a man. And he will be experienced and seen. And that kind of is similar to how we have God the Father in the spirit realm in heaven. Someone that we don't necessarily, we can't really see with our eyes and he's invisible in a sense. And then we have Jesus Christ who was the man and he was on earth. And of course Jesus Christ was God. And so this antichrist wants to be God. The devil is going to want to be God. And so they're trying to kind of emulate who God is through this fake trinity. Where you have the red dragon, you have the antichrist. And later we're going to talk about the false prophet. So you have this unholy trinity. You have these three who are just kind of mimicking the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And their attempt to ultimately just blaspheme the God of the Bible. Now, if we keep reading, it says in verse 2, 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 seat and great authority. So we see that this particular beast is given a couple descriptions here. Leopard, bear, lion. This is very symbolic and it's kind of referenced from Daniel chapter number 7. So keep your finger, let's go to Daniel chapter 7 for just a moment. And let's just kind of compare and look at a few verses here. But also what's noted is that this particular beast gets his power, seat, and authority from the dragon. Which is a couple things that are interesting. If the devil is kind of mocking the real trinity and the real God of the Bible, it's the Father who gave the Son his what? Power, seat, and authority. So kind of in a similar way, the devil's kind of still doing the same thing with his anti-Christ. And of course it makes sense, he's trying to mimic what? Christ. He's anti-Christ, he's in place of Christ. So he's trying to be the real Christ even though he's the fake Christ. So a lot of the things that actually happened with Jesus are probably going to be mirrored and copied with this anti-Christ. You know the Bible talks about in the book of Daniel how the anti-Christ is not going to have a desire for women. So that makes sense considering the fact that Jesus Christ wasn't dating, he didn't get a wife. I know a lot of liars would like to say it was Mary Magdalene or something like that. But that's a lie. Jesus didn't have a romantic or an intimate relationship while on this earth. He was celibate. He was basically abstained from that particular aspect of life. And so similarly, I believe the anti-Christ will probably kind of share in that type of a lifestyle where he's not pursuing any kind of a relationship, he's not pursuing women, he's not getting married. So anytime someone brings up an anti-Christ figure to me that's married or has been with a lot of women, I'm just saying, sorry, it's not that guy. Because the Bible describes an anti-Christ as being someone who does not desire women. And of course, it wouldn't really fit the model of kind of mimicking and trying to copy Jesus and what he was like. So of course, not everything is going to be the exact same. Jesus Christ came as a lowly servant and was basically a blessing and preached the truth. Whereas the son of perdition is going to come as a great warrior and essentially conquer the earth. And so there is going to be some stark contrast between the two. But at the same time, there's going to be a little bit of deceit from the devil trying to mimic some of the aspects of who Jesus Christ is. Now in Daniel chapter 7, it's interesting because if you think about it, in Daniel, it's 12 chapters. And the first six are kind of very similar. They're kind of like a story. And they just have a particular flow to them. They seem more historical. And then right in the midpoint of Daniel, it switches and it becomes like really symbolic. And then you get all these different visions. And it's kind of interesting how we're in the book of Revelation and the first half is basically a particular style. And then right in the middle, it switches to a bunch of symbolism again. And that symbolism seems to kind of match. Like Daniel 7 kind of matches with Daniel chapter number 12 and 13. How they kind of have the same type of aspects and the really parallel passages in a lot of ways, bringing up the same events. So that's kind of interesting how they're laid out in a very similar fashion. Now in Daniel chapter 7 verse 19, the Bible says, Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass which devoured, break in pieces and stamp the residue with his feet, and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell, even of that horn that had eyes and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. So this first portion is reminiscent of what we read in verse number 1. Where it talks about essentially those ten horns and you have, again, it's giving a little more description here, but it talks about an additional horn and of this additional horn, notice it says it's spake very great things. Meaning it's, you know, the word great just could simply mean very lofty, very high. So what I believe is being mentioned here is that name of blasphemy, where he's essentially speaking great things in the sense that I am God, or I am the Most High, or I'm the Lord Almighty, or I'm Jehovah, or some form of just basically taking upon himself the name of God. You know, like Steven Furtick who literally preached and said that he's God Almighty. So, you know, that's a form of blasphemy when someone says that, and especially if they're being serious. Especially if they're really trying to present themselves as God on earth or something. That is a bizarre thing. If you skip down to verse 23, it says, Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise, and another shall rise after them, and he shall be diverse from the first and he shall subdue three kings, and he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws, and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times, and the dividing of time. So when we talk about this particular beast and these ten horns, the Bible gives us a lot of information about this. It tells us that there are actually ten kings. And so in the end times there is going to be ten kings that are essentially going to give their power unto this Antichrist beast, and he's that little horn, and that little horn is going to eventually declare himself God. In the process of him conquering the world, and essentially setting himself up as a one world ruler, he's apparently going to subdue three of these particular kings. We don't know exactly what that looks like or what that means. But also once he comes into full power, once he comes into essentially a worldwide domination, essentially he has the entire world conquered, he's going to have that for, according to the text, a time and times and the dividing of time. So essentially he has a throne in a sense for three and a half years. I believe what it's trying to allude to is the idea of you have the whore that the beast is associated with. And whatever kingdom that's ruling the world at that particular time is where this Antichrist is going to come from. And I believe that if it was to happen in our lifetime, it's very likely it's America. And just to give you some kind of an idea to understand these concepts better. So just assuming it was America that is potentially the nation that rules over all the other nations, someone is going to basically become a military leader of that particular country and is going to go forth and conquer for about three and a half years approximately. And in this three and a half years, he's going to literally conquer the world, is what the text is saying. At some point in the middle of this particular series of conquering, he's going to have conquered everything, but he's going to then die. He's going to be killed with a deadly wound. The Bible says a sword. Then once he comes back to life after three days, he's then going to declare himself God. Well, at that point I believe the transition is made that he's no longer just a general or the president or something of this particular nation. Now he's basically, I'm the king. And I'm not even just the king of this nation. I'm the king of every nation that I've just conquered. I am the king of the world. And so you kind of get what's described as the kingdom of the beast. And his kingdom is a kingdom that lasts 42 months. So that first three and a half years doesn't really count as him being the dominant leader because he's just going and conquering and doing the work. And it's basically now it's set up and now he's ruling. Now he's the king. Now the authority is given unto him and he's basically in charge. And in some way those other ten kings, the Bible kind of describes them as maybe not even really being kings. They like become kings through this particular situation. But three of them kind of lose out on the deal or die or something happens. So this is kind of what's being described. I think it's really interesting too, if you think about it, we're in the middle or just a little bit past the middle of the book of Daniel. In Revelation we're at the middle or just a little bit past the middle of the book of Revelation. And then the events that we're talking about are right at the middle of Daniel's 70th week or a little bit past. So it's interesting how the events that we're really talking about fall exactly kind of at the middle and a little past of the book of Daniel, a little of the middle of Revelation and past of the book of Revelation. And in the timeline that we're talking about, they fall right in the middle and then a little bit past as far as what we're really talking about. So that's really interesting. Maybe it helps you. I don't think that was an accident, but even if it was, that might just help you remember some of these timelines about how they kind of just fit with the text. Now go to Revelation chapter 17. Go to Revelation chapter 17. Of course in the book of Daniel there's a lot of dual fulfillment. So a lot of the things in the book of Daniel also perhaps pertain to 70 AD and other things, but it's very clear that much of Daniel is also dealing with the future coming Antichrist and these ten kings and particularly this little horn that's going to speak the ultimate blasphemies. Jesus Christ alluded to this in Matthew 24, the abomination of desolation, where essentially it's going to stand in the holy place saying that it's God. What's kind of also interesting though is it says that he has the name of blasphemy, but then we're going to read here in a minute where it talks about how he also blasphemes God. So I don't know exactly how to interpret that, but this is my opinion, is that most likely he will take upon himself some title of God, maybe even a couple titles of God, but he might also then disparage a couple titles of God. So perhaps he will take upon himself like the name of God or God Almighty or Jehovah, but maybe he'll disparage the name of Jesus. Like he'll basically attack the name of Jesus specifically because he is ultimately the Antichrist. And if you think about it, what is that spirit of the Jew, that spirit of the Antichrist? They hate the name of Jesus. Now they embraced God, they embraced Jehovah, they embraced Elohim, they embraced God Almighty, they embraced many titles and many names of God, but you know what they really despise is the name of Jesus Christ, and that's also a name of God. And so they probably, most likely, this is my interpretation and my opinion, is that this Antichrist figure will probably embrace a lot of these names of God, but will reject the name of Jesus Christ. I could be wrong on that, that's just kind of my way of trying to understand those verses or kind of make them make sense, but that's just one possibility. The Bible says in Revelation 17, verse 7, And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. So again, there's this beast that has what? The seven heads and ten horns, as we've been talking about. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition, and they 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, and yet is. Now that's really interesting language. And the Bible's talking about this particular beast at some point will die. That's where you're getting this context of the beast that was and is not, but notice this, and yet is somehow. So it's like this guy was alive, then he died, went to hell, and then he somehow is yet still here. Okay? And that's similar language about how Jesus Christ describes himself, who was and is and is to come. You know, the Almighty, you know, Jesus Christ says in Revelation, I think it was Revelation 1.18, the Bible says, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. So Jesus Christ, at some point, was dead. At some point, the Antichrist is not. Also alluding the idea of being dead. Both were in hell. You know, and that's consistent. When someone is, quote, dead, their location is hell. Now, of course, there is multiple applications of the word dead. The Bible says the body is without the spirit is dead. So, of course, in a sense, Lazarus was dead, and in another sense, Lazarus was sleeping. Why? Because Lazarus was in heaven. Okay? There's a sense where Abraham's dead, but there's also a sense that Abraham's alive because Abraham's in heaven, so he's never died. There's a sense where we're all going to shed this physical body, but we're never going to taste of death. Okay? But then the people that you just are dead, and then you're just saying they have the state of being dead, many times is alluding to just those who are in hell specifically. Okay? And really, I think there's only three, there's only three people that get out of hell. Jesus Christ, the son of perdition, the Antichrist, and the devil. There's only three, maybe someone could correct me, but those are the only three that I notice that ever come out of hell. Everyone else is locked in until the great white throne judgment. Okay? So, somehow, by some miracle, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. We have this Antichrist is allowed to ascend out of the bottomless pit. That's what it says here in verse 8. And then also, at some point, the devil's loosed out of hell. This is after the millennial reign. This is when he comes and deceives the nations for the battle of Gog and Magog. Okay? So those are the only three that I am aware of. And, according to the text, it says in verse number 9, And here is the mine which hath wisdom, the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings, five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come. And when he cometh, he must continue a short space. So, you know, there's a lot here, and, you know, some of this is kind of, you can't really learn it all in 50 minutes or an hour and a half or anything like that, but just to give you just some really, my opinions on these topics without going too deep, I believe that the seven kings represent seven kingdoms, and there really was a king to attach to these particular kingdoms, but it's basically the seven major worldwide kingdoms that are mentioned in the scripture. You have the Assyrian kingdom, you have the Egyptian kingdom, then, essentially, you kind of get into Daniel's four kingdoms that he mentions, where you have the Babylonian or Chaldean, however you want to word that, then you have the Medo-Persian, then you have the Grecian, then you have the Roman. Okay? If we think about it, that would be five, Rome would be the one that is, and then there's one that's yet to come. That would be the seventh. Okay? That's what I believe that the text is alluding to here. And again, it's also saying when that seven comes, it's a short time, which is because it's only 42 months. Meaning, but a lot of these other kingdoms were long, long periods of time, decades and hundreds of years even. I mean, the Roman Empire was a long time. The Greek Empire was a long time. These things weren't just 42 months or something. So, in comparison to these other worldwide kingdoms, he's saying this other one's basically just like a blip on the radar. It's super short period of time. The reason why is because it's designed for one thing, killing all of humanity, and it's really effective at it, so God can't allow that system to just keep going forever. Okay? It says in verse 11, And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. Now again, I think what the Bible's alluding to here is the fact that the seventh is the Antichrist, but the eighth is the Antichrist brought to life with the devil inhabiting him. So that's where you kind of get the eighth, because the seventh is the eighth. It's basically just kind of alluding to these differences. So it's almost like America in charge as the seventh, and then the Antichrist in charge as the eighth, and he's of the seventh. Okay, that's basically what it's trying to say there. And we'll go into 17 in a little more detail when we actually get to it, but some of this is really related. It says in verse 12, And the ten horns, which thou sawest with ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but received power as kings, one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. So again, what's kind of alluded to here is how it's like ten maybe very powerful individuals, but they're not a supreme leader or president of any country. And maybe through the warfare of essentially the Antichrist is going to go through and just conquer large sections of the earth, those places are going to be decimated, not really having maybe even a formal government, and what's going to happen is ten people are appointed. So we appoint, you know, maybe he goes through Europe or something, I don't know. So just large countries, maybe like Germany or Poland or some of these areas just get massacred again, and they don't really have any kind of leadership, and then he's just like appointing, hey, this person's the king of Germany now, and this person's whatever. And it's basically just for one hour. And then once all these people have been appointed and they're on the stage, they're saying, you know what, we've all decided that we don't even want to be the king of this nation, we're just going to actually let him be the leader of the whole world. We've decided we're done with the nation's thing. We're just literally, so they like get appointed just for one hour just to then give all their power back onto this particular Antichrist. So you have kind of ten figureheads, ten puppets put in, very short space, an hour, I don't know if it's a literal hour or just kind of alluding to like a short period of time, but essentially just a short period of time, and then they all then give their power onto this particular figurehead, the Antichrist. It says, these have one mind, yet there's still ten persons, interesting, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the lamb, and the lamb shall overcome them, for he is lord of lords and king of kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. So I don't want to spend any more time in Revelation 17, go back to Revelation 13, but I just wanted to show you some of the parallels here so we get a better idea of what we're talking about when we talk about the ten horns, or we're talking about these seven heads, and we're talking about this particular beast, and this particular beast is the Antichrist as we know him, and this Antichrist is going to die, come back to life, declare himself God, perform the abomination of desolation, cause the daily sacrifice to cease, because he's saying, like, I'm the real Messiah, and essentially is going to make war with the remnant of the woman's seed, which is Christians. Christians are going to be the main target at this particular time period. Of course, why? Because they, we love Jesus. So that's again another reason why I kind of assume, or believe, that they're going to probably hate the name of Jesus. You know, we love the name of Jesus, we love Jesus, they're going to probably hate that name and say you've got to accept this particular person. Now, if we read in verse number three, it says this, 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. So notice, he somehow gets a wound to his head, and then he is miraculously healed. Verse four, And they worshiped the dragon, which gave power unto the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast who is able to make war with him? So notice they're worshiping two different things. They worshiped the dragon, which gave power unto the beast, and they worshiped the beast. So really, I would just say, it seems like it's most likely just saying they're worshiping the devil. And, you know, that's not even that far-fetched, considering the halftime show and the Grammys and everything else going on in the world today. I mean, there is like almost just open satanic worship at this point in time. It wouldn't even shock me or surprise me that at this point in time, people are just openly worshiping the devil, openly worshiping Satan, openly worshiping the dragon. And, you know, is it going to be symbolic, or is it going to be literal? I don't know. I think it's probably one of those, though. It's probably going to be like a literal image of a dragon, and they're just worshiping the dragon, saying like, Hey, this dragon's giving him power. Or they even know that this dragon literally is Satan, and they're just worshiping Satan and saying, you know, they're praising him. There's a lot of TV shows that have come out recently kind of making Satan seem like the good guy. Lucifer was a show that came on. And then I think my wife showed me, there was some like trailer for some other TV show. I can't remember. It's escaping me. But it's like there's some new show where it's like Satan and Lilith are like the good characters, and it's like their love story to like save humanity or something like that against the patriarchy I think is essentially like, it was a really bizarre trailer. I can't remember where I saw it. I don't really want to see it again, but it was really bizarre, but I'm just thinking like, man, the world is just getting so much more satanic than I've ever seen in my life for sure, or has really even been described to me in the past hundred years or so. It seems like things are really escalating in just open worship of the devil, which could be a sign that we are drawing nearer to the end. I don't know. But it does appear that they're worshiping the devil, and they're worshiping this antichrist, and they kind of assume like, well, how in the world could anybody defeat these people? I mean, if you can kill him, and then he comes back to life, well, what else? Uh-oh. It's like a real video game where you have infinite lives or something. They're really nervous now, right? Verse 5, And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. Notice this from what we read in Daniel. Speaking great things. It's saying speaking great things and blasphemies. And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. So we see that consistent timeline again, the forty-two months, or the time, times, and dividing of time. Verse 6, And he opened his mouth and blasphemied against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven. So in some ways, he's going to speak negatively about God. But at the same time, he has the name of blasphemy. So that's why I was saying, like, in my mind, perhaps the reconciliation here is that he's attributing some titles of God to himself, but then maybe he's blaspheming Jesus or certain names of God. And so that's why there's kind of this distinction of him doing both. Verse 7, And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and overcome them. And power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now, this is a very interesting verse, and I want to spend a little bit of time on this verse. But first of all, it does make it clear that the kingdom of this beast is a worldwide kingdom. Now, to what level everyone is subject or how excited everybody is is debatable. When we read verse 8, I think there's a lot of ways this could be interpreted, so I don't want to get really dogmatic. But I'll give you my opinion on this verse, okay? First of all, it's saying everybody's going to be worshiping, but then it gives a qualifier whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now, to me, that qualifier makes it sound like, for sure, it's not saying every single person's worshiping him. First of all, I would think it's immediately obvious that those of us that are saved are not, okay? And again, this is parallel with Daniel chapter number 2, where you have the image set up in the plane of Dura that is to be worshipped and bowed down to, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do not bow down under that statue, and they're even delivered from death. They're delivered from destruction, and Jesus Christ appears with them. To me, that gives a symbol of what? The rapture. That gives me a symbol of the rapture, and Daniel 2 is definitely a picture of the end times. Notice the people that get raptured, saved, and delivered are the ones that stood up for Christ, are the ones that stood up for God, and actually stood against the anti-Christ at that time. So I believe that's another parallel to the idea of, you know, let's not be cowards in the end times Yeah, some of us might die as martyrs, and I don't want to say that that couldn't happen, but at the end of the day, the people that get raptured are most likely the ones that were brave and stood up and were willing to, you know, still make a difference in the end times. But we kind of have this description here that's lengthy, whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now some people make a big deal about this. First of all, you know, I'm not going to establish my core doctrines on prepositional phrases that could be interpreted multiple ways. I'm going to base all my clear doctrine on clear statements. You know, things that talk about how you can never lose your salvation. You know, sometimes people take this passage and teach they can lose your salvation. Or they teach Calvinism. Or they teach all kinds of weird stuff. And it's like, this verse, in context, has nothing to do with people being saved, going to heaven, or teaching Calvinism. So like, you know, if we're going to establish doctrines, we want to make sure they're in a particular context. You know, when we're trying to study salvation, you know, John chapter 3 is Jesus Christ explaining in the flesh to Nicodemus how someone could go to heaven and enter the kingdom of heaven. That seems like a pretty realistic passage to get doctrine related to eternal life and how to go to heaven and how to be saved. You know, when we look at Acts chapter 16, you know, there's a guy that's afraid of dying and going to hell, and he's literally begging two apostles to tell him how to be saved from going to hell. That seems like a good passage to ask, like, how do we end up getting saved? You know, Romans chapter number 10, the apostle Paul is trying to describe his desire for the children of Israel to get saved and go to heaven. And then he has this long dissertation on exactly how to get saved and what that looks like and the process of calling upon the name of the Lord and having faith in your heart. That's a really good passage to get for salvation. Revelation chapter 13 is not a great place to figure out how to go to heaven. I mean, like, if you were just to take the general context, it's like, what is this mostly about? It's mostly about an antichrist killing Christians. You know, that's the essence of this particular chapter. Why in the world would I then take that to get doctrine on salvation, right? But this could be interpreted a couple ways. Let's just talk about how this verse or this particular phrase could be interpreted. It says, whose names are not written in the book of life, so that's clear, their names are not written in the book of life, of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now, the question is this phrase from the foundation of the world, is this being applied to the idea of when they were written or is it being applied to the lamb slain? And, of course, I personally believe it is applying to the lamb slain, but let's just, for sake of argument, let's just say it was applying to the first part. Then that would just mean, essentially, that there are certain people that are reprobate, that God knew were gonna be reprobate, and their names are just literally never written down. If that was true, that doesn't change any doctrine that I have. It still doesn't make me a Calvinist because I don't really care. I don't really care that Joe Biden's name was never written down potentially. Like, that doesn't really bother me. It wouldn't really bother me if it's like, hey, I just never even wrote Judas' name down. It's like, okay. Does that, what would that change even if that was completely true? Like, that wouldn't change. Now, again, that's not what my interpretation of this passage is, but I'm just saying even if it was, it's still, I have no problem with that. Now, let's say the flip side. If it's saying that we're talking about the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, that would mean that their names are not written down as of right now, currently. Why are their names not written down? Because they've been blotted out. And the Bible mentions a couple different places where names can get blotted out. Now, I want to take a minute to focus on this for a second, okay? Because it's not mentioned that much. We read it in chapter 17 already, too, the exact same phrasing. So let's go to a couple other places in the Bible. Go to Revelation chapter 3 for a moment. Go to Revelation chapter 3. It's a Bible study. So, you know, and this is something that gets brought up a lot, you know, as kind of like this gotcha or people get confused on the book of life or false teachers love to bring this up because it's not really clear. And, of course, false teachers always love to bring up things that are not really clear because then they can kind of twist things to their own destruction, but they twist things in the minds of all kinds of people. So when we talk about the book of life, it's mentioned a lot of places. Revelation chapter 3, look at verse number 5. The Bible says this. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. Here's a proof text that you can never lose your salvation. Hey, when you start studying the book of life, it actually makes it seem like you can't lose your salvation since it's really clear that, hey, when you believe in Jesus Christ and you get saved, Jesus says, I'll never blot your name out. And it's really important that your name is in there because when you go to Revelation chapter 21, which we'll get into in a minute, you know, the people that go to the lake of fire are the ones who are not written down. Okay, so it's really important to be written down, okay? Written down in glory. There's a song about that, all right? Go to Exodus 32. I just want to go to a lot of places here. Let's just kind of look them up. Exodus chapter 32. Now, again, it's not real explicit on how these things work. My view would be that it's likely that every person, when they're born or maybe when they're conceived, more likely when they're conceived, their names just get written in the book of life. And it kind of just represents the fact that they're alive. It kind of seems pretty simple, right? The book of life, the person's alive, right? The person's been given life, okay? So every single person that's ever been conceived, their name was written in the book of life, okay? And then over time, your name can either stay there forever or it could get blotted out. That's basically the only two things that can happen. And that blotting out could happen one of two ways. Either A, you die without getting saved and I believe your name just then gets blotted out right at that moment. Or B, you become a reprobate while you're still alive and your name gets blotted out before you even physically die. Now, Moses kind of alluded to this in Exodus 32. Look at verse 32. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin, it doesn't say sinn-o, okay? And if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book, which thou hast written. So according to the Bible, he's saying, you know, hey, forgive these people or blot my name out of the book which thou hast written. But you know, that was kind of a foolish statement because Moses already saved, his name can't get blotted out. But notice he's kind of alluding to the idea of his name being blotted out of the book. And I think that it's kind of reminiscent of how Jesus Christ died and through his shed blood, you know, our names are not going to be blotted out. And so that's kind of what's the essence here even though it's kind of said in an awkward way. Look at verse 33. And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Notice what gets you blotted out of the book of life, sin. So that's why I would allude to the idea of when you die a sinner, if you die in your sins, well, now your name gets blotted out of the Lamb's book of life, okay? Go back to Revelation and go to Revelation chapter 20 for a moment. Go to Revelation chapter number 20. And look, I can totally understand when you read that verse how you kind of think that that phrase of from the foundation of the world is applied to the timeline of when they're written. Because it kind of sounds like that. But it is possible that it could be alluding to the Lamb as well. And I think that's really what it's trying to allude to when you compare with other verses. So sometimes, you know, we don't want to necessarily pick interpretations based on what sounds the best. We want to make sure that it jives with Scripture the best. Like, what fits the doctrine of the rest of Scripture the best? That's the most likely interpretation when we look at a particular passage. Now in Revelation chapter 20, verse 12, the Bible says, 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 works. Now, again, I believe that what it's trying to say here is that essentially, like, the Bible is opened in heaven and then another book, which is called the book of life, was also opened. And here's the thing. When your name's not in the book of life, well, then you get judged by this book. And when your name is in the book of life, well, then we don't have to deal with this book. We don't have to deal with Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers Deuteronomy. And isn't it funny, those of us that are saved, we love Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers Deuteronomy, and the unsaved hate those books because they're going to be judged by them. Leviticus 2013 is going to be brought up a lot, okay? And they're going to be judged according to their works, and you know what? I have no problem with that verse. You know, I have no problem with any of the verses in the Old Testament because, frankly speaking, I've been saved. I've been delivered by the blood of the Lamb, and my name's written in the book of life. Now, look at verse 15. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast in the lake of fire. You know, the only reason I'm going to heaven is not because I did anything good. It's because my name's in the book of life. That's it. That's the only reason. And it only took one sin to get your name out of the book of life. That's why it's silly to think, like, well, if you repent of your sins, you can go to heaven. Yeah, but you already sinned. Like, even if you were perfect from now on, you've already sinned. So, therefore, if your name's not in the book, you're done. I mean, the Bible says even if you made one lie, you wouldn't be saved, you wouldn't go to heaven. That's why it's important to realize that salvation's a free gift by faith in Jesus Christ, and it's only what He did for us. Now, look at chapter 22 and look at verse 19. Chapter 22 and verse 19. If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life. So, again, here's another allusion to God taking someone's name out of the book of life through, I believe, the process of blotting. Essentially, he's just blotting out their name and just blotting them out of this book. Now they're not capable of ever being redeemed or ever being saved, okay? And that's pretty clear. Now I want to go to a few more passages. Go to Hebrews chapter number 4. Go to Hebrews chapter number 4. Because you'd say, well, I don't think that this makes sense. How could the lamb be slain from the foundation of the world? Because if my interpretation's right, then we have to also understand how the lamb could be slain from the foundation of the world, because that's what the text said. If you really believe that, then how could that even make sense? Because didn't he die 2,000 years ago? Wasn't the earth already 4,000 years in the process before the lamb was slain? How does that even work? Well, I want to show you a couple other verses, because if our doctrine's true, we can probably find other passages in Scripture that would explain these things or allude to these things or give us some understanding of these things. Now, in Hebrews chapter number 4, it's talking about the Sabbath specifically, and I'm not going to give you the whole context here, but look at verse number 3. For we, which have believed, do enter into rest. As he said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished, from the foundation of the world. Notice in chapter 4, it's talking about the creation event, it's talking about that seventh day, and it's a picture of the Sabbath, and that seventh day was a day of rest, and rest signifies or indicates salvation itself. And, of course, it's salvation for us because we rest from our works. None of our works saved us. Only Jesus Christ's works saved us. So we rest from ours and receive His salvation. And when you get saved, you're like entering into His rest, in a sense. But another way that this is applied is of us literally going to heaven. Here's the thing, none of us have been to heaven. If any of you have been to heaven, you can leave right now, okay, and go back, right? People that have been to heaven are weird, okay? They're at a Pentecostal church. But we haven't been to heaven. So, in a sense, we haven't entered into that rest yet. We're still here, and we're, we'll work till Jesus comes, we'll work. We're not resting, we're working, okay? And we work until Jesus comes. That's what we're doing. So there's another aspect of this, and that's really what Hebrews 4 is about. Hebrews 4 is about working hard until you get into heaven, okay? Just like the children of Israel were supposed to be faithful in the wilderness until they got into the Promised Land. But what did they do? They didn't really believe, they didn't really have faith, and so they didn't enter in the Promised Land. Why did they not enter the Promised Land? Because of not having faith. Why did people not go to heaven? Because they didn't have faith. Here's another aspect of that is they lost out on the rewards of that particular entering into the Promised Land because, in a sense, they were also saved. Like, you have to understand, the wilderness pictures salvation from a lot of different angles, and in another sense, they were already saved because they had the Passover lamb and they went through the Red Sea. So it also pictures people who are saved, but then they don't have faith through the Christian life, and then they don't end up getting rewards in heaven. And that's really the heart of Hebrews 4. Hebrews is all about rewards and enduring under the end and essentially being blessed by God this side of heaven and the next. And the children of Israel were an example of what not to do consistently. So the children of Israel didn't have faith, didn't enter into that rest. Notice what it says in verse 3. We, which have believed, do enter into rest. If you believed, you're going to heaven. Case closed. Period. But he also says this. The works were finished with the foundation of the world. Think about it this way. How can someone who is in the Old Testament, how could Moses and the children of Israel go to heaven based on the death of Jesus Christ if Jesus hasn't even been born yet? Because, in a sense, it already happened. In a way, he's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, although the works were already finished, according to the text, before the foundation of the world. So that's why people, when they died, they didn't go to a holding tank called Abraham's bosom and have to wait for Jesus Christ to show up and then take him into heaven. No, no, no. No, the works were already finished from the beginning. No, no, no. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were in heaven. And, you know, Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus' day when he was incarnated and the Word became flesh and he came down from heaven and was basically becoming a man. And, of course, they also rejoiced at the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sure, but they weren't hanging out in paradise next to hell in the center of the earth. That's a bizarre doctrine, okay? Not true. So it just, in a sense, and I can't understand it because I'm a human, in some way all the works were finished from the foundation of the world. So I believe that's another passage alluding to the idea of how Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, how the Gospel was essentially applying at all times. Notice this. Look at verse 1. It's important. Let us therefore fear, lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. The word seems important because, number one, we're going to go to heaven, but it's like being an unfaithful Christian could make it seem like you came short of that. You kind of did something wrong here. But notice this in verse 2. For unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them. Why are you preaching the Gospel to people when it hasn't even happened? Because the works were finished from the foundation of the world, okay? So the Gospel is as certain as anything. I mean, think about it. You wouldn't want to place money or make bets on things that you're not certain of. Right? You don't know the future. You can't always know what's going to happen, for sure. But it's like, how did they know the Gospel's going to happen exactly how it's supposed to happen? Because the works were already finished from the foundation of the world, because God can't lie. And, of course, there's other aspects of this that somehow make that true. Go to 1 Peter 1. Go to 1 Peter 1. Somehow, Jesus Christ is a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And, you know, that also makes it abundantly clear that everything that's happened is not an afterthought. You know, Jesus wasn't, like, hoping that the Israelites were going to work out and then the Gentiles were, like, second-rate citizens or Plan B or, you know, I was planning on being married to you forever, but I got divorced and you're my next option. Right? Like, well, I didn't really want to be married to you. I want to be married to her forever. But since we're divorced, I guess, well, you know, you can be my second choice. You know, you're the woman that I would have picked if she had never existed or something. Like, that's not how it is. No, he already picked us. It was already ordained. It was already decided. He already wanted us. Okay? Everything was already chosen. Look at 1 Peter 1, verse 20. Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. Now, who was manifest? Verse 19. But with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. So before creation ever happened, the gospel of Jesus Christ was already decided. What is ordained? Choose, determine, pick. The gospel of Jesus Christ was already picked before the foundation of the world. Before Adam and Eve even sinned, the gospel of Jesus Christ was already determined, was already decided. You know, everything, according to Colossians 1, was created for his glory, for Jesus Christ's glory. He is the one that gets all of the preeminence. Everything was created by him and for him, is what the Bible says. It's all about Jesus Christ. Everything is about Jesus Christ. Okay, and so, you know, it's all about the word of God. I mean, everything is just pointing to him. It's about him. He gets all the honor and glory, and especially for our salvation. So go back, if you would, to Revelation chapter 13. I believe, again, verse 8, even if you took the alternative, you know, interpretation of that particular verse, it doesn't bother me. It doesn't really change anything, but I just don't really believe that. I believe that this application here from the foundation of the world is just applying to the Lamb slain, that Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The book is his, and those names are not written because they got blotted out at some point. So then what does this verse mean? It's saying those who are reprobate, those who are twice dead, according to the Bible, are going to be the ones worshipping the Antichrist. Okay? The Bible talks about people being twice dead. Why? Because their name was blotted out of the Book of Life. Okay? They're not only dead spiritually, then their name was blotted out. They have no hope. They have no possibility. And that's not my personal opinion that people can be reprobate. God literally threatened in the Book of Revelation that if you took things out of the Bible, he could literally take your name out of the Book of Life. Okay? I think anybody that believes the Bible has to believe in the reprobate doctrine. Now again, where we have disagreement is who's a reprobate. Okay? And can we always be certain every single time? No. But the Bible gives us a few indications. People take the mark of the beast. That's, I mean, you're done. I mean, you are one of those people. You know, and they always say, like, how do you know someone's a reprobate? Because they took the mark of the beast. Okay? Here's another way is in blaspheming the Holy Ghost. And then another way that someone was a reprobate, according to the Bible, as far as a manifestation to us, like we can see it, is them being a sodomite. And you know, a lot of people get mad at us about this doctrine, but won't it be interesting when one day every single faggot takes the mark of the beast? And then we'll be like, told you. And all the fags that said they were Christian, they take the mark too, and then they're just like, man, that Pastor Anderson was right, you know? That sodomite deception was, you know, that was a banger movie, you know? It's like, yeah, of course. But you know, right now, we believe it by faith. One day, it'll be by sight. We'll just see it. We'll see the reprobation. And it's saying, notice this, this is what I think is the emphasis of verse 8, because some of you are thinking, this is just saying everybody's worshiping the Antichrist. No, because we're not. And I even think there's a lot of people on the earth that probably aren't. And maybe even people that won't even get saved are not. But all the people that are never going to get saved, every single reprobate will worship the Antichrist. So I think what it's trying to say is just every single reprobate is on board. Bill Biden, on board. The Jews, on board. Sodomites, on board. Hollywood, on board. And boy, it seems like Hollywood is of one accord these days when it comes to the Grammys and everything else about how much they love worshiping the devil already. I mean, it doesn't seem like a giant stretch for me to imagine the Hollywood celebrities of America worshiping the devil when they're already doing it at the Grammys, folks. Could that not be a sign to you that we might be close to the end times as when all the people that we think are reprobates are already worshiping the devil? And then the Bible tells us, hey, there's going to be a group of people that are going to worship the Antichrist, that are going to worship the devil. And who are these people? The people whose names are not written in the Book of Life, meaning they've been blotted out already, meaning that they're reprobate already. And then it's a coincidence that all the people that we think are reprobate just happen to already do that, huh? I mean, you go to one of these LGBT pride parades, they have Baphomet, and they have devil signs, and they say that they go to the Temple of Satan and they're Satan worshipers. I mean, they'll admit it. I mean, of the people that are Satan worshipers, it's pretty much almost the exact same group as who we've described as being reprobate. And then people get mad at us for believing that doctrine, but it's like, but do you believe the Bible? Because the Bible already told us the people that are reprobate are going to worship the devil and worship the Antichrist. They're just showing you what they're like already, when it's not even as manifest, when the devil isn't even coming and showing himself with mighty signs and wonders and all this different stuff. I mean, when it's that escalated, they're all going to be locked in right on the program, getting that mark, so excited. They're going to be his minions. His minions will be the reprobates of this earth. And that's why it makes sense when we look at the Gospels, where Jesus Christ is describing how in the end times, there's going to be tares amongst the wheat. And now God wants to let them grow up together. Why? Because there's got to be some kind of a reprobate army to basically fulfill this prophecy and to allow for the Antichrist to have his minions. If we just eliminated reprobates like the Bible tells us to, and like we should, through the proper channels and through capital punishment, the Antichrist wouldn't have much of a force. He wouldn't really have anybody. So it's like almost God is just kind of allowing there to be just this explosion of reprobates in the end times to fulfill these scriptures and to be this particular reprobate army that he's going to have. So to some degree, we get mad about the explosion of reprobates that are happening in our society. But it's almost like that could be indicative of an end times prophecy that's coming true. And it would make sense why we're seeing. I mean, we are seeing an explosion of reprobates in our culture and in our world. And of course, where is the explosion of reprobates coming from? America? Babylon? I mean, a lot of these things are fitting together. And those of us that are watching and paying attention to the Bible, I'm just saying a lot of these things are kind of coming true. Look at verse 9. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with a sword must be killed with a sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. So this is really what you have to take away from the chapter. We need to have a lot of patience and faith in this period of time because it's going to be a dark time. It's going to be an evil time. It's going to be a very destructive force. That's why Jesus Christ has to come very soon after this point. Otherwise, we all would be destroyed and the whole world would be destroyed. It says in verse number 11, I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon. This is what we call the false prophet. The Bible talks about the beast and the false prophet. The false prophet, notice he has two horns like a lamb. A lot of people think of an anti-Christ as being this really demonic, evil type personality, but the Bible is using this to describe he's going to seem like a savior. He's going to seem like a good guy. He's going to seem like a helper. He's going to present himself as a lamb, as someone who's gentle, as someone who's nice, as someone who wants to do good. This is what the devil often does, is him and his minions and his ministers, they transform themselves into ministers of light and angels of light. That's what they try to do to win people over. I want to go through this really quickly and give one final thought. It's just a crazy thought. The Bible says this in verse number 12, and he exercises all the power of the first beast before him and caused the earth and men that dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. Notice it's using a lot of pronouns so it's difficult to follow, but if you pay attention, it keeps bringing up the false prophet. The false prophet is the one that has power. It's the false prophet that is causing the earth to worship the anti-Christ. Verse 13, and he, meaning the false prophet, doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth and the sight of men. Verse 14, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight 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. The false prophet got two horns like a lamb so he presents himself as a good guy, but he causes everybody to worship the anti-Christ. He's calling fire down from heaven. He's the one doing miracles. He's the one that's giving life under the image of the beast. Look at verse 15. And he had power to give life under the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred threescore and six. So, a couple things. Number one, obviously the satanic number is 666. Yet, it says here that you have to get something. You have to get in verse number 17 the name of the beast or the number of his name. So his name isn't 666. He has a particular name. And you have to get his name, okay? Now, I don't know how to interpret all of this and we probably won't know until it happens. One option for the false prophet is that he is doing all these things by supernatural means. And I think there is great reason to believe that that's true. I probably lean towards that being very likely, but I want to hypothesize what if this was through human means, through like technology in a sense. And think about what's happening. He's causing people to worship this particular anti-Christ. He's the false prophet. So the most important aspect of his ministry is what? Preaching, speaking, communicating to the world. He's kind of the voice of the world in a sense, okay? So you have a voice of the world that's causing fire to come down from heaven. He's creating images and then giving life under these images. And then he has the ability or the infrastructure to cause some kind of a mark to stop or control spending. And I'm just going to be honest, like it sounds like Elon Musk. And I'm not saying that it is Elon Musk, but I'm just saying it kind of sounds like him. Because think about it this way. He has bought a recent application called Twitter and he now calls it X. And this thing is a one-world voice where he can literally communicate a message to everybody like that. And when he communicates messages, most people pay attention, hear, retweet. I mean, he has an amplified voice if you think about it. He has that amplification on what he is going to say. Additionally, with his Starlink satellites, they're putting these literally everywhere as a complete hive over the entire earth. Who's to say that he wouldn't have some technology in there to call some fire down from heaven with these satellite systems that he's creating and building? And I mean, they're shooting up satellites all the time. They literally want to create an entire hive over the entire earth. And it's supposedly to give internet to everybody through Starlink. Well, you know what's another important thing that the Bible would have? When it talks about how the whole world is paying attention to the two dead bodies which are laying in Jerusalem, how in the world can literally every single person on the earth see those two bodies? Because there's a lot of people that don't have internet or that kind of stuff in the jungle. But you know what? Through Starlink and through Elon Musk, he is going to literally be able to provide internet to every square inch of this planet. That is their goal. And even decent internet, okay? Not only that, he's giving life onto an image. I mean, when you talk about AI and you talk about the robotics and a lot of these things that these people are creating, I mean, they're obsessed with this kind of stuff. He has recently created something called Neuralink. And they've successfully implanted a chip into a guy's brain. Okay. I don't know if you know this also, Elon Musk used to be a part owner or creator of PayPal, which is basically, you know, taking over the world. I don't know if you understand how PayPal works, but through Stripe, they kind of like purchased Stripe. I mean, almost every payment processing that goes on goes through Stripe. And it goes through Stripe API. Like he already, that particular market is dominated by a handful of players already as far as electronic means. If you turned off physical currency, like, hey, they're already in control of a lot of the digital currency and the way that money is going. But I do believe when this particular event happens and we're causing everybody, notice this, all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark on the right hand and their foreheads, that means to me that they literally have control of the world's economy. Because if you are super, super rich, you can say like, well, I have a lot of gold and stuff or I have Bitcoin. You know, everybody thinks like Bitcoin is going to save them from something. It's a Ponzi scheme, folks, okay. But they think that this stuff is going to preserve them. No, even the richest guy in the world is not preserved. Even the richest guy has to get a mark or he can't buy or sell. His gold still doesn't mean anything for him. That's what it's saying. But, you know, that infrastructure does not exist today. It's getting closer and closer, but it does not exist today. So I don't believe we're in the end times in the next five years or so or ten years. Like, it's very unlikely because a lot of things I think still have to happen. But here's another thing that's interesting about Elon Musk, okay. He has a lot of children, but he had one particular child with a lady named Grimes, okay. And Grimes is like one of the most satanic singers in the world, okay. She has a song called Genesis where she's like dancing with a snake in the garden, okay. And then she has another video where she's like this fallen angel with blood all over her. Well basically they wanted to have a child and kind of like they decided to have a child before they had a child. And they want to like experiment with this child in a particular way. Now when this child was born just a few years ago, his name is X, Ash A12, okay. And it's like this weird combination of like letters and symbols or something. And they want to raise this child in a gender neutral environment is what they've decided, okay. Is it any coincidence that they name a child X and that's what they call him. And then he has a platform called X and they're raising this child as a human experiment. And this child is going to be raised with the guy who has unlimited money, is developing chips that are planted in people's bodies, controls the voice of this world. Like I'm just saying a lot of that stuff is creepy folks. Now maybe I'm just like off in La La Land, I'm just telling you there's a lot of weird stuff going on with that, okay. And it would not even surprise me and this is what I thought was funny. Someone's already written an article before this kid was born and said, I think that this kid might be the antichrist. And it wasn't even a believer, it was like some like Jew or something in Hollywood or something, like Newsweek article or something. But they like literally said like, here's the options for this kid. This kid's either going to be like Jesus or he's going to be like the antichrist or something. It was like before he was even born. And I'm just thinking like, well, you know, there's a lot of weird stuff, you know, associated with this type of individual. It would make sense that someone like this could not, it could very easily not be this person. But it makes sense that an antichrist could be someone that they're raised in an environment where, you know, they're around the global elites that are interested in a lot of this, you know, pseudoscience. Apparently Elon Musk and this Grimes are super interested in climate change. She's just self-described as the demon of climate change. Like what in the world? I mean, these people are, you know, weird. I know a lot of people like Elon Musk, but I mean the guy has like dressed up as Baphomet, literally, you know, for, you know, parties and all this kind of stuff. And the guy is really interested in being the savior of humanity. I don't know, if you listen to Elon Musk talk, he always constantly talks about how he just loves humanity so much. Sounds like a lamb, but is he really a dragon? You know, I don't know. You know, again, if I had an opportunity, I'd try to give Elon Musk the gospel and I'd give him the benefit of the doubt, like I'm not trying to like attack the person. But I am saying this, there's a lot of weird stuff going on in the world that we live in and we should be constantly paying attention and watching. And it could be that in our lifetime these things come to pass. And, you know, maybe it's not unrealistic to me if this ex-kid, I think he's like two or three, ended up being the antichrist by age 30, 35, that's enough time for all these things to come to play. And, you know, daddy Elon with his ex program is that his false prophet, who knows? You know, I don't know. You know, it's another thing that's weird, this Grimes lady, she refuses for her son to call her mom. She's like, I don't want that title. And it's like, why do you not want that title, right? Is it because you think this offspring is somehow like, I mean, again, it's just weird. It's like this kid's going to be raised thinking he has no mom, like, oh, because why? Because I'm God or something? I mean, the narrative surrounding this is just bizarre, okay? That's just one theory. I can tell you the wrong. A lot of people think the false prophet is the pope. I work with a Catholic, and he handed me a book, and I was like, I don't really want to read it. And I asked him about it, and he was just like, yeah, that book tells us that the pope is the false prophet. And I was like, you're Catholic? Okay. I mean, hey, the Catholic pope, at least, you know, presents himself as a lamb, and he really speaks like a dragon. You know, could be a completely different person. But I just, I don't think it's, you know, it could be a non-political, or a non-religious figure is what I'm trying to say. Because think about it. If the pope got up and said something, nobody really cares. But for some reason, when Elon speaks, everybody's paying attention. It's like a worldwide message. Everybody's noticing, and they think he's just so smart. Like, everybody's just talking about how smart he is, and how brilliant, and he has all these good ideas. So it seems like someone who's charismatic enough that if the antichrist presented himself, and he's pointing to that person, a lot of people would jump on board, or, you know, kind of follow that particular lead. And, you know, I don't know what's going to happen, exactly, but I just want to be prepared for it. And we should be prepared for all kinds of possibilities. And I'm willing to change my mind on anything that I've said, you know, that's just my opinion, or the hypotheticals. But for sure, there's an antichrist coming. For sure, he's going to declare himself God. And for sure, you know, he's going to cause people to take a mark. And, you know, those of us that are saved, we're not going to take it, we're not going to worship. It's going to be a dark time. But I want to be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that have patience and faith, and are waiting for our coming Savior. Let's close and pray. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us knowledge and wisdom through the scripture. I pray that as these days approach, if they happen in our lifetime, that you would give us the wisdom to discern them. That you'd help us to figure them out. And that you'd give us boldness and strength to, you know, avoid these evils. And that we would be willing to get more people saved in the last moments. And if possible, if it happens in our lifetime, that many of us would be raptured. And I just thank you for all you give us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, for our last song, we'll be turning to song number 374, Send the Light. Song 374, Send the Light. Song 374, Send the Light. Oh, the rest there's faith. Send the Light. Send the Light. There are souls to rest. There are souls to save. Send the Light. Send the Light. Send the Light. The best in gospel life. Let it shine. For joy is sure. Send the Light. The blessed gospel life. Let it shine. Forevermore. We have heard the best of all today. Send the Light. Send the Light. Don't forget the cross we lay. Send the Light. Send the Light. Send the Light. Send the Light. The blessed gospel life. Let it shine. For joy is sure. Send the Light. The blessed gospel life. Let it shine. Forevermore. There's faith. There's faith. Everywhere. Send the Light. Send the Light. And with Christ's light spirit everywhere he fell. Send the Light. Send the Light. Send the Light. The blessed gospel life. Let it shine. For joy is sure. Send the Light. The blessed gospel life. Let it shine. Forevermore. Let us not grow weary in the work of love. Send the Light. Send the Light. Let us gather jewels for our crown above. Send the Light. Send the Light. Send the Light. The blessed gospel life. Let it shine. For joy is sure. Send the Light. The blessed gospel life. Let it shine. Forevermore. Great singing everybody. You are all dismissed.