Tonight we have a lesson that is very important and yet very sensitive and even a little bit controversial. Our subject tonight is dealing with the antichrist ofRevelation, “Revelation Reveals theAntichrist.” And I want to remind you that there is an Amazing Fact Study Guide that corresponds with this that has a lot of the same plus even more information, many of the facts in the Scriptures that you’re going to be hearing about that some of the sites have and it can also be ordered, and it’s called, “Who Is The Antichrist”? Now as we get into our lesson, maybe I should setthe stage by having you turn to the book of Revelation chapter 13, this is where you findthe beast. I was gonna get right into the program butI’d rather open up and get right into the word. Revelation chapter 13, first of all when we think of the Beast of Revelation 13 it’s a--it’s a common misunderstanding, there are actually two beasts. Revelation 13 verse 1, “Then I stood on the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea.” Now you go to Revelation 13 verse 11, “Then I saw another beast coming out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.” So how many beast in Revelation 13? We always think of the mark of the beast but there are really two beasts there. We’ll say more about that later. When we talk about the antichrist and the beast, a lot of people wonder, “Are they the same? Is it different”? The word “antichrist” does not appearin Revelation. That shocked me when I first heard that. Some people think the book of Revelation is all about the antichrist, the word does not even appear there. The word “antichrist” appears, well, four times, “antichrist,”the word “antichrists” appears once, total of five times, and they’re in the books of John, I John, II John. And matter of fact, John back in his day said tha--said, “There are even now many antichrists.” The word “antichrist” means in opposition to or in place of Christ. So this power is opposed to or putting itself in place of Christ, meaning attempting to counterfeit or to be a manufactured false representation. So just--we’regonna go back to Revelation 13, turn with me to Daniel 7. Now we’ve learned in prophecy code the key to unlock Revelation is by having an understanding of the other books of prophecy in the Bible. In Daniel chapter 7, is a prophecy where it deals with these beasts that come up outof the sea. The fourth of these four beasts is the antichrist and synonymous with the beast of Revelation 13. In the Book of Daniel, God tries to give the history of God’s people in the battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of the world, and He gives it in a number of visions. Daniel chapter 2, it’s given in the vision of a metal man, head of gold is Babylon, arms are Medo-Persia, and this is all explained in--in the prophecy, the belly bronze is Greece, the legs of iron are Rome, the feet of iron and clay represent the divisions ofthe Roman Empire. And then a stone comes, the rock of Ages, Jesus, destroys this idol and fills the whole earth. Bible says the knowledge of the Lord will fill the whole earth. Then you get to Revelation, I’m sorry, Daniel chapter 7, it tells a similar hers--history but now it’s using a vision of a lion, a bear, a leopard, and this other strange beast. In Daniel chapter 8 it does it in the context of a goat and a ram. Then when you get to Daniel chapter 10, 11, and 12, it becomes even more intricate. Every prophecy gives deeper detail. Revelation has something of the same. In Revelation it gives the history of the church from the first coming to the second coming; first it’s in the religious history, the seven churches of Revelation chapters 2 and 3. Then you’ve got the political history of the church in the seven seals of Revelation. Then youhave a military history of the church in the seventrumpets of Revelation. God is trying to give us perspective. You know that’s one reason we’ve got two eyes. You get your depth and you get twoears so you can hear an stereo and I supposed there’s a reason we have two nostrils, I’m not sure what that is. But I know why God give us one mouth, that’s all we can handle. But so you get the different dimensions of the prophecies through this repetition. Alright, let’s start reading quickly, Revelation 7, I’m gonna jump right to verse 2, no, no, no, no, no, Daniel chapter 7, thank you. Daniel 7 verse 2, “And Daniel spoke saying, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up a great sea.” “And four great beast(s) came up from the sea, each different form the other. The first was like,’”a what? “A lion, and he had eagle’s wings and I watched till its wings are plucked off, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made a stand upon two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.” “Then suddenly another beast, second, like a bear, it raised itself up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth, and they said thus to it, arise, devour much flesh. After this I looked, and behold, there was another, like a leopard, which had on his back four wings of a bird, and the beast also had four heads; and dominion was given to it.” “And after this,” here’s the fourth beast, the antichrist power, “a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong, that had huge iron teeth,” don’t forget the iron, “it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beast(s) that were before it, and had ten horns.” Just like the metal image had ten toes. “I was considering the horns, and there came up another little horn among the ten and coming up before whom three of the first ones were pluckedup by the roots. And there was in this horn the eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speakinggreat and pompous words.” And I’m gonna jump down here. Daniel is talkingto the angel. He wants to know a lot more it says he was especially concerned about the fourth beast. And he said in verse 19, “I wish to know the truth about the fourth beast,” cause this one it says is gonna persecute the saints. And verse 23, “The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdomon the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms, it will devour the whole earth, trample it, break it in pieces.” “The ten horns are ten kings who will arise from this kingdom, and another shall arise after them. He’ll be different from the first ones, he’ll subdue three kings, he’ll speak pompous words against,” I mean, great words, blasphemous words, against, “the Most High. He’ll persecute the saintsof the Most High, he will intend, he will think to change times and laws. Then the saints will be given into his hand for a time, and a times and half a time.” That’s 42 months, three and a half years, a time is one year that means a complete cycle of the seasons, a times is a couple or two, that’s three, total, and a half. In a Jewish calendar300 and 60 days, 42 months, 12 hundred and sixtydays, it all adds up to the same period you find in Revelation. “But the court will be seated and theyshall take away his dominion.” Alright, now with that background, I wanna go tothe screen it helps us to sometimes visualize some of these things. We’re gonna do questions and answers, lot of information, so you ever take a tape player and turn it on fast so it talks real fast, that’s how I’m gonna sound tonight. But I want you to do that with your listening as well, you record quicker tonight; a lot to cover. Then th--Revelation 14 verse 9, why is this subject important for us to understand, these three angels’ messages that we’ve talked about just before Jesus comes? “The third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice; If any man worships the beast and its image and receives his mark on his forehead or his hand, hehimself will also drink the wine of the wrath of God, that is poured out in full strength into the cup of His indignation, and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will ascend up forever and ever, they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” Now friends, I think that that is a sobering truth to consider, because the most fearsome curse in the Bible is pronounced against those who worship the beast, the antichrist, and his image. Do we need to know who that is? Yes, we do! It is something that ought to make us shutter and tremble to think I could ignorantly worship that power and not know it. I always like to interject an amazing fact, now would be a good time. How many of you heard ofBarnum and Bailey’s Circus? A famous circus, thefounder of that of course was P. T. Barnum. And he was quite a huckster, a real interesting character. He had a museum in New York City of oddities. And you--you’ve heard of Tom Thumb, he had this midget that he called “General Tom Thumb.” Of course, he wasn’t a general, but he gave him that name. Ah, this slave named Joyce Heath, who is probably in her 80’s, but he told everyone she was a hundred and 61 years old and she used to be the nanny of George Washington. People lined up and they’d paid money to see this. He took the head of a monkey and attached it to afish body, stuffed fish body, and he said it was a mermaid. And people lined up, and he had a whole museum full of these things. And he would mix a few true things with something really bogus things and folks didn’t know what tothink but they paid a lot of money to come. Well Burnham heard about the Cardiff giant, evidently, some characters in upstate New York, they had--they wanted to pull a prank on the people. And they hired an artist to carve this I don’t know, 9 or 12 foot long made out of gypsumgiant that looked like a dead person that had been mummified. They buried it on a friend’s farm who was part of the plot, let the grass grow over it for a year, then they did this all very secretly. Then they hired a well driller to drill right on the spot where this was. And they discovered, he said, “I’ve hit something” and theysaid, “Dug it up,” and pretty soon all these people in the town gathered to see this Cardiff’s giant. And they were paying money, 50 cents a pop to see this. Well when Barnum heard that he offered 60,000 dollars to buy this granite block or gypsum block.And the man said, “No, I’m making too much money,” said, “Then, well I’ll carve my own.” So Barnum carved his own Cardiff giant, he says, “That’s the false one I’ve got the real one here.” Well the guys that pulled the prank on the farm they took him to court to sue him. They said, “He’s copying our giant.” And the judge realized they’re both frauds and he said, “You can’t make a counterfeit of a fraud.” And all these people were going to worshiping these two counterfeit giants and they’re just blocks of granite, paying money to stare at it; kind’a pathetic. You ever heard the expression, “there’s a sucker born every minute”? That’s what Hannum said when he saw the people lining up to see Barnum’s giant. Barnum is not the one who actually said that, it was his critics who said that about him. But just gives you a little background of how people will line up to worship a counterfeit. And so we’ve got to know what is the true and what isthe false. DB—Sermon Question #1: Question number one in our study. In Daniel chapter 7 we see four beasts coming up out of the sea, and what do these beast(s) represent? One is like a lion, one is like a bear with three ribsin his mouth, one is like a leopard with wings, and of course the other’s this non-descript beast. The fourth beast it says shall be the fourth kingdom on the earth. What a beast represent? These beasts in prophecy represent these kingdoms, these powers, and so it’s the fourth beast, it’s the fourth kingdom. Different kingdoms have animals that often represent them. When you think of the United States what animal do you think of? You think of the eagle, incidentally, that was also the animal for ancient Pagan Rome. And I’m not sure I think in Australia, it’s a Koala Bear? Maybe New Zealand it’s the Kiwi? You know different beasts or countries have their national animal, right? Whatare the waters represent? Revelation chapter 17 verse 15. The waters are peoples and multitudes, and tongues, and nations. So these represent all the different peoples of the world. DB—Sermon Question #2: Question number two. The four beasts of Daniel chapter 7 represent the four world kingdoms that you find. Daniel chapter 2 verse 38 and 39 tells us Babylon is the first kingdom represented as a lion in Daniel chapter 7. What do the eagles wings mean and what do the four winds of verse 2 represent? Well you remember this lion that we saw had two wings like an eagle and end up getting plucked and a man’s heart is given to it. You can read in Jeremiah 4 and Habakkuk chapter 1 that the eagles wings represent speed and also magnificence, or majesty, something exalted. Thewinds, Revelation chapter 7 verse 1 tells us 1 through 3, represent wings of strife, commotion, turmoil, like a storm. And so these symbols, thesekeys, begin to help us understand what the code of prophecy is.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 05:20:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015