(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen, all right, well, this is the sixth sermon, pictures of the Antichrist, and last week I kind of gave the dishonorable mentions, guys that I thought were unsaved, and obviously, not all these, just because I say that they're dishonorable mentions, doesn't mean that I covered every single person, because I was thinking, I was reading through some verses, and I know the King of Tyre and other kings, obviously are pictures of the Antichrist always, the King of Tyrus, the King of Tyre, he definitely pictures the Antichrist, and I'll talk a little bit about that tonight, but tonight I wanted to, I was gonna preach, you know, that there might be a few more people than just Solomon, but Solomon is the one I'm preaching about tonight, and he's saved, so I'm not saying that Solomon's not saved, but there are some pictures that Solomon represents that I do believe picture the Antichrist, and so people can picture other, you know, bad people can picture good people, like Absalom was hanged by his hair in that tree, he was suspended between heaven and earth, a dart was thrust in his side, Absalom was a bad guy, but in the end he pictured Christ, and you know, being hung on a tree, and so on and so forth. Now Aaron, also in the Bible, the first high priest of the children of Israel, when Moses was gone, that whole chapter pretty much pictures like the end times and the rapture and things like that, but Aaron pictures the false prophet, was Aaron a false prophet? No, Aaron was not a false prophet, Aaron was a good guy, he made some really stupid mistakes in that chapter, and he just wasn't a very good leader, so his problem was that he shouldn't have been left there by himself with all those people, because the worst types of people are gonna take over in situations where the leader is weak, and so Aaron, but he does picture the false prophet, even though he was not a false prophet, he was saved, and so don't get all upset thinking that I'm, you know, just taking this out of context or something, I'm saying that Solomon pictures the anti-Christ in some ways, and I was gonna bring up some more people that I thought might picture the anti-Christ that are saved, but I'm just gonna stick with Solomon tonight, and pretty much him alone, I might touch on a couple other people, but just for the sake of the sermon, it's just gonna be about Solomon here, so I do, before I wanted to fully get into the sermon, last week I mentioned that the king of Sodom wasn't named in chapter 14, but I was wrong about that, someone showed me right after the service, so I'm just gonna eat a little bit of crow, and say that his name was mentioned, as it mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, so I made a mistake there, I apologize, I was sloppy preaching on my part, so, and you know, every once in a while, like probably every service, I make some kind of mistake, so anyway, just wanted to mention that real quick, and so Solomon, you know, he pictures the anti-Christ, how does he picture the anti-Christ? Well, I had C.J. read 1 Kings chapter 10, look at verse 14, so it says, Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 600 threescore and six talents of gold, so what does that remind you of? Well, let's turn over to Revelation chapter 13 verse 16, Revelation 13, 16, now God gave Solomon a heart of wisdom, and people came to seek to Solomon all over the world for the wisdom that God put in his heart, so just understand this, Solomon was saved, Solomon was a great man of God, Solomon did a lot of great things, and he was the wisest man that ever lived, except for, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ, and so he had a lot of good things going for him, but he also messed up later on in his life. Now, we're gonna kinda talk about all that, but I wanted to mention this first of all, that, you know, well, how does it kinda tie in? Well, 600 threescore and six talents. Now, look at Revelation 13, 16, it says, 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, I think that's an interesting thing to say there, 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, you know, people will say, well, that's just a coincidence, there's nothing coincidental, incidental in the Bible, there's a reason why, there's a tie in between these two things. Now, obviously, I think it's funny that, you know, we're talking about a man that has all this wisdom from God, and then the Bible says for us, here's wisdom, here's wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast. So, it says that, you know, it's the number of a man, but I do believe it's tied to maybe the fall of Solomon, and how he does picture the Antichrist, and a lot of people get confused about Solomon, because we believe that if someone believes in a false God, or serves a false God, that they have to turn from believing in that false God, and believe on the true God, which is God, the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, right? So, when we see in the Bible, where a man who has all this great wisdom, God gave him all this wisdom, he was saved, there's no doubt about it, he says he's my son, God calls him his son, and then for him to completely turn, and start following other gods, and, you know, obviously his wives, his many wives led him to do that, and we'll get into that later on in the sermon, but it's hard for us to, it's hard for us to reconcile that, isn't it? But nevertheless, so, and we were talking about this before the, in between services, and Brother Bill made a pretty good point about this, that in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit did not indwell the believer, it stayed upon the believer, and God could remove the Holy Spirit from a believer, from all, you know, because, you know, it came up, the Spirit of God would come upon people, and he would fill them with the Spirit, but it didn't always, it didn't stay indwell. That's the difference between the New Testament, one of the differences between the New Testament and the Old Testament is that the Spirit of God indwells the believer and does not leave. And David said, take not thine Holy Spirit from me after he sinned a great sin. So God could take the Holy Spirit away from people, I believe that the Spirit of God departed from Saul also, the king of Israel, the first king, and so I guess we're dealing with different types of situations, but even if the Holy Spirit could be taken away from someone in the Old Testament, it doesn't mean that that person wasn't saved, okay? So I don't want people to get confused about that, but maybe that's how he could, you know, dive that deeply into sin. You know, you can get pretty sinful, and the Bible says to flee idolatry. Paul says to the Corinthians, flee idolatry. And so that means that Christians can still get wrapped up into idolatry. Maybe you're not bowing down and worshiping Shiva, or you don't have a statue that you're bowing down to in your house, but you know what, you can bow down in other ways. You can be idolatrous in other ways, like, you know, idolizing sports, people, men in sports or women in sports. You could be idolatrous by the music that you listen to, and I mean, look at how they treat rock stars. I mean, when the Beatles came off that plane flight or whatever and Beatlemania hit here, I mean, people were literally, Elvis Presley. You know, I mean, just any rock star, people just worship them, don't they? So I mean, you could get to a point where you're worshiping in a different way. Maybe it's not full-blown bowing down to a statue idolatry, but I mean, it's pretty bad to worship anything, right? Besides the Lord. So it's possible for a Christian to get into idolatry, not, I mean, but obviously if you believe in another God and you're just adding Jesus to your list of gods, that's not salvation, okay? So I just want to explain that really quickly. So we have a connection between 1 Kings chapter 10, verse 14 and Revelation 13, 18. Now let's look at 2 Chronicles chapter 9, verse 13, 2 Chronicles 9, 13. And so it just kind of mentions it again because some of the things are repeated in the Chronicles and in the books of the Kings. It says in 2 Chronicles 9, 13, now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 600, three score and six talents of gold. So it's mentioned twice in regards to Solomon. Why that number? Well, you know, there's no mistaking that it's tied there somehow, some way. But if you think about it, Solomon fell to, you know, there's a multiplicity of things that made Solomon fall in his heart. Now the Antichrist is looked up as some great man. And the Jews are gonna believe that he is the Messiah, right? So people are gonna lift this guy up. He's probably gonna be very smart, very, you know, unlike Solomon, he's gonna be a great warrior. But also, you know, the Antichrist conquers a lot of people through his policies, it actually says in the book of Daniel, his policies. And you see like, you see Solomon just making all these leagues with different kingdoms by doing what, marrying the princesses of those different nations. And that's how a lot of, you know, allies are made in different countries is that, you know, well, we'll just marry into the family and then there's not gonna be so much treachery and, you know, someone's probably not gonna be willing to go and just destroy some other country if they marry their daughter off to one of the lords or something, you know? So, but Solomon was the king of Israel and he had multitudes of wives and concubines and we'll get more into that later. But Solomon also broke some other scriptures. And so, remember God appeared to him twice before he appeared to him the last time. He appeared to him twice and I asked him, you know, he basically just said, whatever you want, I'll give it to you. And he asked for wisdom so he could judge the people, didn't he? And so God said, because you asked for wisdom, you didn't ask for a long life, you didn't ask for riches, I'm gonna grant you this, but I'm also gonna grant you the other things that you didn't ask for. So, but he said, there's some ifs in there. It wasn't just a carte blanche, no matter what you do, I'm gonna bless your life and bless your kingdom and bless you. There's always the if factor. You know, you talk about the it factor. Well, there's the if factor when it comes to God sometimes and it's if you do these things, if you keep my commandments, if you follow me with your heart and those things. So, now I'm gonna have you turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 17, because the Bible spells out how, like, even in Deuteronomy 17, there wasn't kings over Israel at this time. They didn't ask for a king until the time of Samuel, and basically, you know, we call this the kingdom of what? God, right? That we're part, you know, the kingdom of God has come to us, the kingdom of God is in us, but ultimately, the ultimate fulfillment of the kingdom of God is gonna be when Jesus Christ comes and reigns for a thousand years, we rule and reign with him. But, you know, there's rules for kings. God said, if you do ask, if they do ask for a king, here's the stipulations, here's what they have to do, and I'm not gonna read you all of them, but, you know, one thing they were supposed to do is copy out their own copy of the Bible. They're supposed to copy out their own copy of the Bible and read therein all the days of their life. But you notice that Solomon just started getting interested in all these different things. You know, he starts out really great, you know, he has that, you know, that incredible judgment where he has the two harlots that come to him and one's baby died and the other one was still alive, and he discerned through saying, well, let's just split them in half and then you get one half and she gets the other, and he realized which one the right mother was, because he had just all this wisdom. So, and he, you know, he reigned well, but he forgot, he probably forgot to read the Bible all the days of his life, I'm just guessing that he did, well, number one, because he turned away from God in his later life, but also, I mean, there's some clear stuff in Deuteronomy that you just can't escape as a king. So look at verse 16, it says in Deuteronomy 17, 16, but he shall not multiply horses to himself. You all just listened to the whole chapter, did he multiply horses to himself? Yes, he did. Nor cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses. So, multiplying horses was something that the king was not supposed to do. It says, for as much as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Verse 17, neither shall he multiply wives to himself. Oops, Solomon had a real problem with that, didn't he? There wasn't a wife that he didn't want. He loved many strange women, the Bible says. It says, neither shall he multiply wives to himself that his heart turn not away. It's almost like that verse was just written specifically for this man. Because a good king is gonna do good and do well, but he just, I mean, if he never read the Bible, then of course maybe he never read this, but I have a hard time believing that he never read this passage in the Bible. It says, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. Didn't it say in the chapter that we just read that silver was like stone, it was like a common stone in Israel, and gold was an abundance in Israel. So, you know, God allowed him to be rich, but do you think that it's possible that he kind of went overboard with this? I mean, he was so rich and so, you know, people just came to him. He was just, he just wanted to learn about everything. And so when he wanted to learn about everything, and you know, Solomon would give these talks about different kinds of animals, he was very smart, he was very wise, he was very knowledgeable about things, but maybe he started studying other things that he shouldn't have been studying when he should have been studying Deuteronomy chapter 17. And maybe he wouldn't have turned away from the Lord like he did. So he was not supposed to multiply horses, he was not supposed to multiply wives, and he was not supposed to greatly increase silver and gold for himself. That's strike three, he's out. So he, and what did it say there, sandwiched in the middle of verse 17? It says that his heart turn not away. What's the purpose of God having laws? He wants us to follow him. These laws are put in place for our best interest. And so when you're a man with absolute power like Solomon had, you know, you have to have some checks and balances, and the Lord's saying, here, here's some checks and balances, write out a copy of the scriptures. That would take a long time to write a mistake-free copy. I mean, obviously, he didn't have a lot of the other scriptures. You know, he was still kind of early on. It wouldn't have been as hard for him to do. But for us to have to do that would be very difficult. But, you know, that could have took up some time. Obviously, he wasn't reading it every single day of his life, because eventually he would get to this verse over and over and over again, and he'd realize how badly he screwed up. And maybe he would change. Maybe he'd turn from that. But he didn't do that, and that's a mistake that a lot of kings make in the history of the world. Now, we don't live in a world where there's kings and queens necessarily so much. Obviously, when we were over in England, the queen died over there, and that was kind of a big deal. It's still being broadcast all over as a big deal, and now there's a new king. It's not we, it's King Charles or whatever of England. There's still some kings and queens, but I doubt very seriously that any of them write out copies of the Bible. I doubt very seriously any of them are reading the Bible every single day. I doubt very seriously that they're not taking heed to these. Obviously, multiplicity of lives is kind of just like a thing that just doesn't really happen much in the Western world anymore. But the problem with Solomon is that he did not take heed to the things that God told him to do. And look, how could you, here's what's really mind-boggling to me, is that God appeared to Solomon twice before he fell, right? God appeared to him twice, and he literally communed with God. Obviously, he didn't see the Father, because you can't see the Father's face and lip, but he appeared to Solomon twice. However you take that to mean, he appeared to him in some way, shape, or form, probably as the Lord Jesus Christ before he was born in the land of Bethlehem or whatever. But God warned Solomon, and for him to go and believe in other gods after the real, true God met with him, that's just mind-boggling to me. And so a lot of things about Solomon are mind-boggling to a lot of people, but that's why, you know, that's why people will say, people that believe you can lose your salvation will point to Solomon and say he lost his salvation, which of course I do not believe. So turn to 1 Chronicles 28, verse 9. This is where God warned Solomon. So 1 Chronicles 28, verse 9 says, And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee, but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever. And, you know, so like, I guess if someone is saying, well, he'll cast thee off forever, obviously he's casted him off from being king. And, you know, basically he ruined everything. David kind of set him up with everything he needed. David was a bloody man, he was a man of war, and so God did not allow him to build the sanctuary, but he allowed Solomon to do it. I look at verse 10, it says, Take heed now, for the Lord hath chosen thee to build in house for the sanctuary. Be strong and do it. Obviously in the end times, you know, in the future, there's gonna be some kind of treaty of some sort, or some way this temple is gonna get built. Now, we obviously know that it's not gonna be a legit temple in the way that we don't have to, we don't need a temple like that anymore. So, but it's gonna be called the temple of the Lord, isn't it? Which I find interesting. And, you know, who's the one that builds it? Not the, I mean, obviously I think that the Antichrist has something to do with it being built. I mean, that's just my feeling about it, that's my opinion. But I can't say for sure that he builds it, but I know that Solomon built the sanctuary, and Solomon's house got destroyed, didn't it? But he did it, and he was good when it happened. So I mean, I don't wanna dwell too long there, but I just find it interesting that God says, if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever. And Solomon did forsake him, so I guess I would say this, that how he pictures him when it comes to this verse, well, you know, the Antichrist is called the son of perdition, you know? Judas is called the son of perdition. The Bible says in the end times that the Antichrist will go into perdition. And so basically, you know, he's gonna be a reprobate. I'm not saying that that's what it's talking about here, I'm saying it's a picture of what it could be. So because what Solomon, Solomon starts out good, but then he ends up really bad, doesn't he? So turn to 1 Kings chapter 11, 1 Kings chapter number 11, and we'll see the fall of Solomon. See, he's already done all these great things, he's, you know, built a temple, he built a house, he's getting all this stuff, he's getting all these gold and jewels and silver and all these other things, but he's also broken Deuteronomy chapter 17, verse 16 and 17 to where he's multiplying wives, multiplying horses, multiplying gold and silver, and the fact that he loves all these strange women, look at verse number 11, it shows us, you know, the downfall of Solomon here. But King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites. Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, you should not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon, clave unto these in love. So he, you know, for a man who has all this wisdom, all this knowledge, you know, just knows, he's the smartest man in the world, he's pretty stupid here, isn't he? Yes. So he doesn't apply that wisdom in these areas and it makes him fail. See, you could be as smart as anybody else, but if you'd fail to apply God's principles in your lives and God's commandments in your lives, you could fall just as much as he could. But doesn't it seem weird that he's the wisest man in the world, the wisest man of all time, and then he falls like this? I mean, it's a hard lesson for us that anybody can fall. If we get our eyes off of the things of the Lord, if we get our eyes off this book, if we got our eyes off the prize, then we can end up bad and kick to the curb just like Solomon. So kick to the curb is like a ghetto reference of, anyway, if you know, you know. But I'm a little ghetto, sorry about that. But it says in verse three, and he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. And I've mentioned this before, and I'll just say it again, that a lot of people will excuse Solomon in this area and say, well, he was just doing it to make his wives feel better about things. Is that what it says? No, it says his heart was turned away, doesn't it? It says his wives turned away his heart. And up further, it says that he would go after other gods, these wives would make him go after other gods. It says for verse four, for it came to pass when Solomon was old that his wives turned away his heart after other gods. Boom, it says it right there. They turned away his heart after other gods. Doesn't say that he just appeased them. No, they turned his heart to these other gods, gods that didn't appear to him. Gods that, the Bible says to stay away from these women and stay away from them, why? Because they're gonna turn your hearts to their gods. And his heart was not perfect with the Lord as God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milkim, the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord and went not fully after the Lord as did David his father. So when that term gets used in the Bible, Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, that's a term that you'll see for the wicked kings of Israel or Judah, that if they did evil in the sight of the Lord, you know, and I'm not saying 100% they weren't saved every time, because I believe that it talks about Manasseh doing evil in the sight of the Lord, but then he ends up getting saved. So I think it's possible for someone to be, it's said about them that they did evil in the sight of the Lord and that they're still saved, okay? But a lot of times in the cases of the kings of Israel and some of the kings of Judah, they were unsaved. It says, and went not fully after the Lord as did David his father. So hold your place here in 1 Kings chapter 11, and I'm gonna just have you turn over to 1 Samuel chapter 15 verse 19. I'll just give you an example. And basically, so this has been taking place in, you know, since the kings were instituted. God warned them not to institute kings, the system of the judges was the system that they were supposed to go by for their government, and God was to be their king. They weren't supposed to have human kings, but they said, make us a king like all the other nations have. So the children of Israel at one point just rejected God as their king and said that they wanted a human king just like all the other people did. So I mean, people will say, well, I mean, I preached a sermon about King James being a good king, but I mean, look at the pattern of kings. Like how many can you actually say were actually good kings that have lived on the face of the earth? And what do you see in the Bible? The ones, most of the time, they end up bad, don't they? So I mean, that's what you would see in society probably, too, that every once in a while there's probably a good king, but most of them are not good. Now look at 1 Samuel chapter 15 verse 19. Saul is being chastised by Samuel for disobeying the Lord. It says, wherefore didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord but didst fly upon the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? So even the first king of Israel is talked about as doing evil in the sight of the Lord. Now, of course, David was the next one and he did evil a couple of times, but he wasn't considered one that, you know, he fully followed after God, even though he made some major mistakes. So it's something about the heart, it's something about where their heart was in the end that really kind of makes the difference because David did some pretty bad stuff, didn't he? But he was still considered a man after God's own heart. So Saul also did evil in the sight of the Lord and he also sacrificed and did, he put himself in the place of the priest and he was not supposed to do that. So that's something that the Antichrist, you know, or at least the false prophet will do. The false prophet is, you know, he's trying to, you know, he makes the abomination of desolation. He sets up that image. And, you know, you see some of the kings of Israel doing, making these mistakes, what is it, Uzziah? He goes in and tries to burn incense and the priests stop him. So, I mean, there's instances where kings just overdo what they're supposed to do. They delve into places they're not supposed to. So like in England, kings are the defender of the faith. So they're heads over the church and I don't think that that's biblical. I just don't. Now, should they defend the church? Obviously, yes. But to usurp the authority of, you know, there should be a difference between the government and, you know, the religion. So, and obviously that's true because God didn't allow, God was angry and made Saul stop being the king because he sacrificed when he wasn't supposed to. And God's the one that sets up kings and God's the one that also gets rid of them. So, and he also, you know, the final thing he did is went to a witch, you know? Because, you know, in this chapter, in the chapter we were just at in 1 Samuel, you know, he says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and isn't it strange that, you know, he says those words to him in regards to witchcraft and then he ends up going to a witch to get his answers. So his rebellion led him to witchcraft and he actually went to a witch. And a witch is a practitioner of black magic. So it's not like, you know, she was the good witch of the west or whatever. Was it the wicked witch of the west? I don't know, but the good witch of the north, I can't remember which one it was, but there's no such thing as a good witch, all right? They're all wicked. They can say they're a good witch, but the only good witch is a dead witch, according to the Bible. So anyway, 1 Kings 11 verse seven, back in our text here, it says, then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab in the hill that is before Jerusalem and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. The two wicked, wicked gods. And the Bible says that later on, that those places that he made in the high places, they're mentioned throughout the rest of the kings, aren't they? But they didn't take away the high places. And then finally, I think, I want to say, it was Josiah or Hezekiah, I can't remember which one it was, but one of those good kings, finally took those things down up. They were up for hundreds of years. So what Solomon did wasn't just some small thing. He did evil on the side of the Lord. And so he was the downfall of all the different tribes being bound together as one. So look at verse eight, it says, and likewise did he for all his strange wives. So he had how many wives? 700 wives, 300 concubines. So he did this for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. So he made all these different idols, all these different shrines, all these different places for them to offer incense to their abomination, these devils. I mean, obviously Solomon, you know, the Bible says that these aren't gods, they're devils. So Solomon's literally making shrines, making high places, making the ability for people to worship devils. He did evil on the side of the Lord, didn't he? It says, and likewise he did for his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed to their gods. And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he kept not that which the Lord commanded. Verse 11, wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, for as much as this is done of thee, and thou has not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee and will give it to thy servant. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake, but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom, but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, which I have chosen. So really he did something that Israel never recovered from. They never fully recovered, and the guy that got picked to run the other 10 tribes, he was wicked too. He was Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, right? And so he was allowed to go, and then he made two calves that people worshiped, and it mentions Jeroboam multiple times. So the evil that Solomon did also had repercussions for the rest of the time that the children of Israel had the kingdom. So you're like, well, you're not really making your point that he kind of seems like he's an antichrist. Well, I mean, it kind of does seem like it, doesn't it? I mean, now turn to John chapter five, verse 43. John chapter five, verse 43. Now, I mean, understand this. Jesus was the Messiah. Everybody in here should believe that in this room, or you're not even saved, okay? So Jesus is and was the Messiah, and in John chapter five, verse 43, he says this interesting statement here. It says, I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. I believe that this is obviously any other religion that would purport themselves where someone else is the Messiah, but if another shall come in his name, he's talking to the Jews here, and he says, him you will receive. Fast forward to the antichrist. Where does the antichrist go? Where does the man of sin go? He goes into the temple of God and declares himself to be God, doesn't he? So, if you think about, you know, if you're picturing it this way, Jesus Christ is represented by David. David is called, you know, Jesus Christ is called the son of David. You know, he is the picture of the Messiah as the king. So, if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. Now, I mean, for the picture, I guess, it makes sense to me that the next person that comes is who, Solomon, and what does Solomon do? Well, he gets 666 talents of gold brought to him in a year. He has this big, splendorous kingdom of his own, but then his heart is turned away to go after other gods. And he doesn't just do it, he does it, he does it really, really good, but it's a bad thing. But he does it really good. As far as like, he just fully goes in to worshiping and serving other gods, which are not gods, they are devils. So, David represents Christ, and I would say that Solomon represents the anti-Christ in the way that he appears good and then goes bad, right? They think he's gonna be the Messiah, and this end times anti-Christ, people are gonna think he's Christ. People are gonna think he's the son of David. They might even say he's the son of David. We were talking about this, too, between the services, that maybe they will, he will say he's, you know, that he's the son of David. Maybe he'll have some kind of genealogy where he goes back, he's related to David or something. Who knows? But they're gonna think that he is until he proclaims himself to be God. So, that's what is going to ruin everything, and the Jews are gonna realize that they've been betrayed. You know, just like they betrayed Christ, they're gonna be betrayed by someone that they think is Christ. That's pretty interesting, isn't it? So, now let's look at a couple more scriptures here. Let's look at 1 Thessalonians, chapter five. 1 Thessalonians, chapter five, and I kind of wrote these in afterward, so I'm gonna have to flip to them. So, give me some grace here. 1 Thessalonians, chapter five. Verse number three. It says, for when they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. It's talking about, obviously, you know, the reign of the, they're gonna be saying, oh yeah, peace and safety, and this has kind of been a slogan throughout history. I think the Romans like to use this slogan, peace and safety, and all this stuff, and the Antichrist is probably gonna say the same thing. But, you know, what was Solomon's reign like? It was peaceful, wasn't it? There was safety in it, wasn't there? So, I mean, there's another picture you could take or leave, but the Bible talks about in the book of Daniel that through policy, you know, he brings this safety. He conquers through policy. And you really see a big switch in our world. There's not really a lot of warfare anymore. Now, obviously, you got the fake war going on over in Ukraine or whatever. It's probably just, you know, animation for the most part. But, no, I don't know that for sure. I'm just joking. But it is something fake, so they can just crush the common people with all these high prices and all this other stuff. And, you know, they're not the good guys. They're not the good guys. So, you have all this kind of policy, though, where people have to follow the policies of the one world government, or they get crushed. And a lot of times they'll just crush them with finances. They'll say, America's not giving you another cent. We're gonna do sanctions upon you. And, you know, if the sanctions are legit, they can't stop a country from being able to succeed because we basically support all these small countries around the world. If they don't accept sodomy, like in Africa, then they just take their blessing away from them and then let them be on their own. And we'll probably let them get killed by whoever they want. But, I mean, the US government spends billions of dollars putting that into other countries and trying to make all these people a bunch of sodomite lovers, just like this country has become. So, they wanna make them just as weird as we are. And a lot of those African kings that are over there, they're like, they're disgusting, you know. Have you ever seen the videos where they're just like, they're like, why don't you like them? He's like, they're disgusting, you know. So, you know, but I'm sure that they'll try to change the policy because money is the root of all evil. You know, and so, how will the Antichrist do things? Well, he will have power, he will have military might. I believe he'll use both. You know, when policy doesn't work, when sanctions don't work, then they'll just crush them, just like they did Libya, just like they did Iraq, just like they did Afghanistan. Well, I mean, they kinda crushed them. I mean, nobody really beats Afghanistan for some reason. They just want the poppies. That's what they want. They want control over those fields so they can run all the opium and all the stuff that they have. You know, an opium and whatever comes from the poppy, heroin, I believe, comes from it too. If I'm not mistaken, I might be mistaken about that. But look at what's plaguing our world right now. A bunch of messed up zombies that are all high on drugs. And, you know, we fight, we lose soldiers over drugs and money. And, and, and, and we're being told that it's, it's because we're trying to offer freedom to people. I don't think Afghanistan is, Afghanistan is any more free than it was when we went in there, however many years ago it was, right after 9-11. So, and Iraq had nothing to do with that, you know, so, but they just were like, weapons of mass destruction, kill them all. You know, and then they, our military goes in there and kills multitudes of citizens that really don't have any dog in the fight necessarily. So anyway, I'm getting off on, on different stuff here, but just the fact that policy of peace, you know, I, I think that obviously David's reign, he had to fight. He was like a king that was a warrior, but he was also a king that was after God's own heart. And Solomon, he just kind of got it handed to him, really. And God did choose Solomon, but Solomon failed. And Solomon wasn't exactly, I mean, when you think of tough, or a great warrior, you don't think of Solomon, do you, you think that he's this guy of peace. Anyway, turn to Ezekiel chapter 28, verse 2, Ezekiel chapter 28, verse 2. Ezekiel 28, verse 2, and you have these really interesting chapters in Ezekiel, where, and this is a common theme in the Bible, where people will picture the Antichrist, but they'll also picture Satan, and they're also just wicked themselves, or whatever. But you got this king of Tyre in chapter 28, verse 2, look what it says. Son of man, saying to the prince of Tyrus, thus saith the Lord God, because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the seas, yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God. So you have this guy, and what does the Antichrist do? He basically does the same thing. He sits and he thinks that he's God, and he says that he's God. But when it's talking about the prince, so when it's talking about the prince, you know, obviously that means king also. But then it like bounces around and talks about the king of Tyrus. And at that point, it's talking about, it's personifying Satan. So, but I would say that this man, this prince of Tyrus, represents, he represents the Antichrist. But notice these verses in verse three, okay? Verse three and four says, behold, thou art wiser than Daniel. There is no secret that they can hide from thee. And this is talking about the prince of Tyrus, which I think is talking about the Antichrist, it's a picture of the Antichrist also. But thou art wiser than Daniel. So the Antichrist is gonna be very wise. There is no secret they can hide from thee. But notice it doesn't say thou art, thou art wiser than Solomon, does it? Because he's not wiser than Solomon, but because Solomon, I mean, then that would say that Solomon wasn't the smartest man that ever lived, but he was, but I'm just saying that the, that the Antichrist is gonna be very wise. What's a, what's, what's the main quality that we know about Solomon that he was very wise, right? And so then this Antichrist, the, the Antichrist is gonna be wise also, but it says wiser than Daniel. So apparently he's a very smart person, very knowledgeable. Cuz with thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou has gotten the riches, and has gotten gold and silver into thy treasures. By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God. Behold, therefore, I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations, and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shall die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God, but thou shalt be a man and no god in the hand of him that slayeth thee. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers, for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God. You're like, well, what does this have to do with Solomon? Well, I'm just trying to compare the fact that, you know, the Antichrist is considered to be this wise, this very wise person, but not as wise as Solomon, and then, but what is Solomon? Solomon is personified as being very wise. Yeah. So you can be wise and use it for the wrong things, obviously. Let's look at 1 Kings Chapter 4, 1 Kings Chapter 4. I don't really have much more going on. You might want to hold your place, though. Hold your place where you're at in Ezekiel there, and then go to 1 Kings Chapter 4, 1 Kings Chapter 4. And this is in reference to Solomon. 1 Kings Chapter number 4, verse 29. It says, and God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the, of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt, and he was wiser than all men. And then Ethan, the Ezra, Hite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, and the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all nations round about. He spake 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005, and he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. He spake also of beasts, and of fowl, of fowl, and creeping things, and of fishes. And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all the kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom. So Solomon was, it says he was the wisest, he was wiser than all men of the earth, right? So, now turn to Ezekiel Chapter 27. I think it's really interesting there's a connection with how much riches he got. Because the Antichrist obviously is going to be very rich too, and he gets that through Babylon, right? So there's a lot of symbolism back and forth with Babylon, and I've kind of laid it out that I personally believe that the Antichrist will come from Babylon, the end times Babylon, and then he'll end up being the king of the whole world. So Ezekiel, let's see, Ezekiel Chapter 27, verse 1. And these are just like, you know, kind of tying it together a little bit here. Ezekiel 27, verse 1, because he does picture the Antichrist also. But, look what it says, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, now thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus. And saying to Tyrus, O thou art a situate in the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles. Thus saith the Lord God, O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty. Thy borders are in the midst of the seas. Thy builders have perfected thy beauty. They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees, of sinner, and have taken cedars from Lebanon to make mass for thee of the oaks of Bashan. They have made thine oars in the company of the Ashurites. They have made benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim, fine linen and embroidered work from Egypt, which was spread forth to be thy sail, blue and purple from the isles of Elisha, was that which covered thee. So basically, I mean, he's just talking about how the splendor of what this man has, who actually is an evil person. Now obviously, the splendor that Solomon had didn't turn, you know, it eventually corrupted him. And obviously, the final coup de grace was these women that corrupted him and caused him to do that. Now the Antichrist himself, it says basically that he's not gonna desire women, he's not gonna need the desire of women, and he's going to lift himself up above even all gods or any god. And he's not gonna have that issue, but Solomon did. There's something that turned him away, and there's obviously something that's gonna turn the Antichrist into who he is. But the connection here is the splendor that they all have. Now, 1 Kings 11, let's turn back there. And there's lots of more verses I could read about that. Obviously, that's not referring to Solomon, just the type of people, this Antichrist guy, this king of Tyrus is kind of, you know, it connects well with the splendor of what Babylon has. Cuz remember, they're like, everybody's all upset because all the cinnamon and the souls of men and just all this different stuff is taken away. They were made, the merchants of the earth were made rich by, you know, them being part of this system or whatever. And don't you think that Solomon made a lot of people rich? But in the end, like, when his son had a chance to kinda keep the kingdom, you know, he's like, I'm gonna make my, my little finger thicker than the loins of Solomon or whatever. So he's just like, I'm just gonna do it even bigger. And like, people were already just like, hey, you've kinda, you've taken a lot. Your dad's taken a lot from us. We just want you to, you know, chill a little bit, basically. And they weren't, you know, he, he took the wrong advice. And so the kingdom was rent, obviously that was God doing that. So 1 Kings chapter number 11, let's go back there. 1 Kings chapter 11, and I'll finish here. Let's see. 1 Kings. All right, 1 Kings 11. So, I just wanna make sure I'm getting into the, I'm in 2 Kings. That's the problem. Okay. 2 Kings, 1 Kings, chapter 11. Sorry, just let me find my verse here. Actually, it's supposed to be chapter ten, I'm sorry. Look at chapter ten. Well, you guys already read through it, but I just kinda wanna show the connection with all this money, all this splendor, all these horses. And that's kinda basically gonna be like a connection with the Babylon, End Times Babylon, but so he had all these ornate things made. Check out the same, the same language. Look at, sorry, look at verse number 13. And King Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire whatsoever she asked. Besides that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty, so she turned and went to her own country, and she, she and her servants. Now the weight of the gold that came to Solomon in one year was 603 score and six talents of gold. Beside that he had of the merchant men and of the traffic of the spice merchants and of the kings of Arabia and of the governors of the country. And King Solomon made 200 targets of beaten gold. 600 shekels of gold went to one target and he made 300 shields of beaten gold. Three pound of gold went into one shield and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory, overlaid it with the best gold. The throne had six steps and the top of the throne was round behind and there were stays on either side of the place of the sea and two lions stood beside the stays. And 12 lions stood there on the one side of the other upon the six steps. There was not the like made in any kingdom. And all Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver, it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon. For the kings had a sea of navy and Tarshish and the navy of Hiram. Once in three years came the navy of Tarshish bringing gold and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. And all the earth sought to Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. So, I mean, he's not bad at this point. I'm not saying that, but I'm just saying that like all these different things, all these different luxuries are talked about. And it goes on and on talking about how he wouldn't even drink out of a silver cup. That's just how much splendor he lived in. That stones were on the ground and they were silver. I mean, imagine living in a place that rich, but that's kind of how it pictures Babylon that way. That basically the kings of the earth are made rich by that Babylon spirit. So, and obviously I know that that's not the case for Solomon, but the different types of things that it's talking about are included in all these lists in Revelation, these lists in Ezekiel. So, hopefully that made sense. And if you don't believe that he pictures the Antichrist, then you know, I guess that's fine, you don't have to believe that. But I personally think that he does, and try to make a case for that. But the next sermon I preach about is gonna be the last sermon I preach about it, and that'll be about the Antichrist himself. Just for the final couple minutes that we have here. Now, I was gonna preach a whole sermon about people in history that picture the Antichrist, but it would just be too long, and I just don't really wanna preach another sermon about it, honestly. So, I'm pretty burnt out on this subject now, but I kind of made my bed, now I've had to lay in it, but think about this. I mean, just think about all the great people that could have been the Antichrist. Obviously, I think that the devil probably just puts these guys into power, and then eventually one of them is gonna be him, right? So think about the whole statue represented by Nebuchadnezzar, represented by the Medes and the Persians, represented by Alexander the Great as the king of the Greeks. And then Rome had their Caesars and everything. And all this power has been put into these one world governments. One of these one world governments is going to be where the Antichrist comes from, but that's the future ten-toed kingdom that comes out of Rome, basically. It's basically kind of an extension of Rome in the end. The two legs split and then become the ten-toed kingdom in the very end. But think about Adolf Hitler. I mean, think about all these guys who are these world dominating type people, even Nebuchadnezzar, like he just ruled absolutely, didn't he? Alexander the Great took over everything. He was 32 years old and basically got all the way to India, and then God just kind of let him get killed or whatever. He just died of some weird sickness that people think he got poisoned or whatever. But the point is, there's people in history that are gonna picture him, why? Because the Antichrist is going to be just some man that rises up, just like any of these other guys, like Adolf Hitler. It's one country, Germany. It's not that big, folks. Basically, it took the whole world combined together to beat them. I mean, you don't think that's a picture of the Antichrist? I mean, he definitely, he got up and he spake great things. You know, I don't understand German, so I don't understand what he's saying, but he had a lot of rigor in his speech, didn't he? He's just like, he's just freaking out the whole time. I don't know what he's talking about. Jew this, Jew, yes, Jew, Jew, Jew go away, or whatever. I don't know what he was talking about, but he's gonna rise. The Antichrist is gonna rise up, he's gonna be just a regular guy, and he's gonna rise up to this military might, and that he's gonna be very wise. And a lot of people want to pin the tail on the Antichrist, don't they? It's Barack Obama, eh, I don't think so anymore. I never, I mean, I never really thought it would be. I don't think we're gonna realize it. I think it's gonna, you know, it's gonna kind of creep in there, and then all of a sudden he's just gonna kind of come onto the scene. And then we'll know who it is once he, you know, appears in the temple. I think that it's gonna be a deception. It's kind of like, so he tries to, he tries to be like Christ, doesn't he? You know, this Antichrist spirit, but this, this one world ruler, this Antichrist, he's gonna try to, he's gonna try to mock Christ in a lot of different ways. But he's also gonna try to be like him, so that people can kind of go, well, this has to be the Christ, right? So, think about this, we don't really know when the Antichrist is gonna come, do we? We're kind of waiting for that 70th week to kick off, but we don't really know when he's gonna come. And he's trying to do that, but, you know, that, that's something that's a mystery to us, but we don't know when Christ is gonna come back either. So you see how he tries to just, you know, it tries, he tries to copy and mock Christ, or, or, you know, he wants to be in the place of Christ. That's what Antichrist means. He wants to be in the place. So there are people throughout history that people thought were the Antichrist, like the Pope, you know, the Re, the Reformation. The people in the Reformation thought it was the Pope because what was happening, the Catholic Church was murdering Christians for even just pre, you know, for saying the Lord's Prayer in English. So there's been multiple people, multiple nations that have been thought to be the Antichrist, but it's never been them, but eventually it's gonna be one of them. It's gonna be one of these guys that are gonna rise up. And so there are pictures, and I think Hitler's probably the, the best picture of all of them, but even the, the Pope. But the Pope would be more like a, a false prophet, wouldn't he? Yeah. So, I mean, the Catholic Church may have yet a role to play in this whole thing. But this is very interesting stuff. Very interesting topic but I'm gonna preach one more sermon. I'm gonna be done with it. So we'll, we'll revisit the Antichrist in like ten years, or no, I'm just kidding, but but yeah. So, but, but what, what I wanted to say is that all these leaders, there's gonna, you know, all these people in the Bible that I've showed you so far, he's gonna have a piece of all that stuff. He's kinda like, I mean, if you, if you ever watched GI Joe, who watched GI Joe growing up, anybody? Okay, there's a few old guys in here that watched GI Joe cartoon. Well, towards the tail end of GI Joe, as it was, at its zenith, there was a, there was a, a, a, a character named Serpentor. And he basically had the DNA of all these great world leaders. He had the DNA of like Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, and all these like genius masterminds, and he was. So I kinda figure that he's gonna be kinda like, you know, just an amalgamation of all these different people that, you know, they don't all picture the Antichrist in every single way. But they do have parts that are all gonna tot, total up to being this one guy, okay? So, hopefully that makes sense to you. If you need to look up Serpentor, look it up on Wikipedia and you can see the doctrine of Serpentor. Anyway, let's pray, Lord, thank you so much for the Bible. And, Lord, these are things that are gonna happen in the future, Lord. I pray that you just help us to have wisdom concerning these things. And, and I just pray that you'd help us to not be blinded by the devil and his ploys, and most importantly, Lord, I don't want anybody to ever get out of church here. And our services were pretty much set up to kind of teach this doctrine today. And, Lord, I pray that just each and every person here that, Lord, we wouldn't say in two years or four years that there's only a couple people that were originally with us. I want everybody here to stay here. And I pray that you would just bless us, help us to move forward, help us to add to this church, Lord, also. But I also want to keep those that you've committed to my care, Lord, and I pray that you would just bless this church. And we thank you for all the wonderful blessings we've had today, the two salvations and the baptism to follow. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.