Shall we turn to the book of Revelation?
The title at the top of the page
said, The Revelation of Saint John the Divine.
Not true.
This is the revelation of Jesus Christ.
It tells you that in the first verse.
It's not revealing anything to us about John,
but it's all about Jesus.
And it is a revelation that God gave
to him to show to his servants.
The key to the book is found in
the 19th verse of the first chapter, where
John is instructed to write the things that
he has seen, the things that are, the
things which will be after these things.
So it's divided into three sections.
First of all, the vision that John saw
of Jesus in his glorified body, walking in
the midst of the churches, holding the pastors
in his right hand.
Chapters two and three, the second section is
the revelation of Jesus Christ in his relationship
to his churches as the head of the
body, his church.
And as the head of the church, we
see Jesus writing to the churches, the seven
churches of Asia that do represent the seven
periods of church history.
As the head of the body, the church
he is, for the most part, correcting them.
In some cases, encouraging and comforting them, those
that will be going through great persecution, suffering.
But for the most part, it's just an
encouragement to them to get back in a
right relationship with God.
Things that already begun to creep into the
church that were not healthy.
And so Jesus addresses the issues in the
churches in chapters two and three.
And that is the relationship of Jesus to
his church through the church age.
Now, once the church has completed its ministry
here on earth, we move into chapter four.
And these are the things that will happen
to the earth once the church has been
removed.
And the church is removed in chapter four.
In the messages to the churches, he is
warning them of his coming again.
He is telling them that he will be
coming as a thief.
He is warning some of them that if
they don't get right, they'll be going into
the great tribulation.
He is encouraging others that because they have
been faithful in keeping the word of his
patience, he would keep them from the great
tribulation.
The Bible teaches that there is a period
of time, three and a half years, in
which this world is going to see the
greatest tribulation that it has ever experienced, even
exceeding the flood of Noah, as far as
God's judgment being poured out upon the world.
We'll be getting into that a little bit
this evening as we will look at the
vials that are poured out upon the earth
in God's fierce wrath and judgment that is
to come.
But Jesus is encouraging the church, the true
faithful church, that if because they have kept
the word of his patience, he will keep
them.
So chapters two and three deal with the
church.
And now chapter four, we move into the
future after the church.
After these things, church things of chapters two
and three, I saw a door open in
heaven.
First voice was as of a trumpet saying
unto me, come up hither, I'll show you
things which will be after these things.
Paul tells us that we're not going to
all die, but we will all be changed
in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trump.
To the Thessalonians, he wrote, for the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with the voice
of the archangel and the trump of God.
And the dead in Christ shall be raised,
and we who are alive and remain will
be caught up together with them to meet
the Lord in the air, and so shall
we ever be with the Lord.
So chapter four, verse one, John, here's the
trumpet.
He is caught up by the spirit into
heaven, and there he beholds, first of all,
the throne of God.
And that will be the first thing that
will attract your attention when you get to
heaven, the awesome throne of God.
The emerald rainbow about the throne, the cherubims
about the throne, worshiping God, declaring holy, holy,
holy Lord God Almighty, which is, which was,
which is to come.
Twenty-four lesser thrones, the elders sitting on
these lesser thrones, responding to the worship of
the cherubim, throwing their golden crowns on the
glassy sea, declaring the worthiness of God to
receive the praise, the honor, the glory that
is given unto him.
And then John's attention is drawn to a
scroll in the right hand of him who
was sitting upon the throne.
The scroll, the title deed to the earth,
sealed with seven seals.
An angel proclaiming with a strong voice who
is worthy to take this scroll and to
loose the seals.
And when no one steps forth, John begins
to sob.
If no one redeems the earth, it remains
in Satan's control forever.
But one of the elders said, John, don't
reap.
Behold, the line of the tribe of Judah
hath prevailed.
He'll take the seal and open, he'll take
the scroll, open the seals.
John saw Jesus as he stepped forth.
He looked like a lamb that had been
slaughtered.
He took the scroll out of the right
hand of him who was sitting upon the
throne.
And as he did, they offered the prayers
of the saints and little golden vials before
the throne of the Lord.
And they sang a new song saying, Thou
art worthy to take the scroll and loose
the seals for you were slain and you
have redeemed us by your blood out of
every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.
You've made us under our God kings and
priests and we will reign with you upon
the earth.
The song of the church, the song of
the redeemed church.
They're in heaven singing of the redemption through
the blood of Jesus Christ.
And thus, as Jesus told his disciples, pray
always that you'll be accounted worthy to escape
the great tribulation and to stand before the
son of man.
And there they are standing there singing the
song of redemption through the blood of Jesus
Christ.
As he begins to loose the seals of
this book, the first seal brings forth a
man of sin who is to be a
world ruler, the final world ruler before the
coming again of Jesus Christ.
Back in the book of Daniel, the Lord
showed unto Nebuchadnezzar and later to Daniel in
a vision, the kingdoms that would rule over
the earth, beginning with the Babylonian kingdom, the
power passing on to the Medo-Persian empire,
and then being transferred over to the Grecian
empire, the Grecian empire being split into four
ruling powers as did happen after the death
of Alexander the Great, but then it being
conquered by the Roman empire, the Roman empire
disintegrating but yet coming back to life under
a federation of nations.
And thus, Bible students for years and years
have been talking about the rebirth of the
Roman empire as the nations of Europe would
combine together in a United States of Europe,
so to speak.
And today that has happened.
Just at the first of the year, they
introduced into the 12 nations of the common
market, the Euro dollars and the various currencies
of these nations are going to be good
only for two more months, and then your
currency that you might have, Italian lira or
whatever, will have no value.
You have two months to turn it in
and exchange it for the Euro dollars.
Here at Calvary, we have people visiting from
all over the world, and it's interesting, a
lot of times people visiting from Europe will
drop in the German marks and the offering
plate and so forth, and I sort of
keep the foreign money there, but I've got
to cash it in now within the next
few weeks or it's not going to be
worth anything, because they're going to the Euro
dollar.
And it's amazing, you know, we've been talking
about these things for years and years, and
now it's happening.
I mean, this week it came to pass,
and it's amazing to read of these things
and to say, this is what's going to
be taking place, and then see it taking
place.
And, you know, back in 1978, we were
saying, you know, one day they're going to
have at the grocery stores, little computer relays,
and you'll be able to buy your groceries
by just swiping your card on these, because
they'll be connected to the bank, and they
have them now.
And it's amazing, because the Bible tells us
these things are going to happen.
You can know where you are in the
whole scenario as the end is approaching very
rapidly.
The first seal brings forth this man of
sin, son of perdition, Antichrist, the beast.
He has several names in the Bible, and
probably a name, it isn't given to him,
but it probably should be Big Mouth, because
we do find that he does speak blasphemy,
blasphemously against the God of heaven.
And he is, he just is the impersonation
of evil.
He will be followed by a the second
seal, which will bring a great war upon
the earth, great bloodshed, which will be followed
by famine, and then followed by death.
And in the first four seals, one quarter
of the earth's population will be destroyed.
In the fifth seal, there are souls under
the altar, who have been killed on the
earth, martyred, because they refuse to worship this
man of sin.
And they are asking how long before they
can come on into heaven.
They're told to wait until their number is
complete.
And in chapter seven, we see them in
the heavenly scene, their number having been completed.
And also in chapter seven, we see before
the releasing of tornado-type winds all over
the earth, the angels sealing 144,000 of
the Jews in their forehead, that they might
be spared some of these judgments that are
coming.
And then we get into the trumpet judgments.
We've passed through those, and then we got
into the return of the Lord with this
book that is open, standing one foot on
the sea and one foot on the land,
and saying, there's not going to be any
more delay.
The kingdoms of this world will become the
kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.
Now, as we move then on into Revelation,
we start filling in details.
We have the skeleton.
We've got the skeleton sort of standing on
his feet.
But now we're going to start putting muscle
on it.
We're going to start putting flesh on it.
We're going to start getting some further details
of some of these events.
And so as we move into chapter 12,
where we left off the last time, there
appeared a great wonder in heaven.
A woman that was clothed with the sun
and the moon and under her feet, and
upon her head there was a crown of
12 stars.
And being with a child, she cried because
she was travailing in birth, and she pained
to be delivered.
Who is the woman?
Well, as you read the description, it's quite
obvious.
The woman is the nation of Israel.
Back in the book of Genesis, when Joseph
had dreams, they upset his brothers, but he
had his second dream.
He said, I dreamed that the sun and
the moon and the 12 stars bowed down
to me.
And his father Jacob became angry.
And he said, you mean that your mother
and father and brothers are all going to
bow to you?
And so he, uh, this woman with the,
uh, clothed with the sun and the moon
and the stars, uh, the nation of Israel.
Now there appeared another wonder in heaven.
It was a great red dragon.
This of course is Satan, having seven heads
and 10 horns, representing the power of Satan
in the last age.
And Daniel, you'll see, uh, that out of
the, uh, Roman empire, uh, it had the
10 horns and out of the horns came
the, the little horn that conquered three and
all.
Uh, but you have, uh, Satan's power in
the world in these last days.
And, uh, it says that he drew a
third part of the stars of heaven and
did cast them to the earth.
And the dragon stood before the woman, which
was ready to be delivered to devour her
child as soon as it was born.
So, uh, this war that has been going
on, a continual war of the spirit powers
of darkness against the spirit powers of light,
uh, the kingdom of darkness against the kingdom
of light.
And, uh, the nation of Israel ready to
bring forth, uh, the, the child travailing in
birth.
The child of course being Jesus Christ, verse
five, she brought forth a man child who
was to rule all nations with a rod
of iron and her child was caught up
unto God and to his throne.
And the woman fled into the wilderness where
she had a place prepared of God that
she, he should feed her there for 1
,260 days.
So basically this is what's going to be
happening.
First of all, uh, it's sort of a,
you know, it's sort of all sort of
jumbled together, but the nation of Israel, God
set it apart.
And the purpose for the nation of Israel
was to bring the Messiah into the world.
God had chosen Abraham and had promised that
through Abraham's seed, all of the nations of
the world would be blessed.
The Messiah would come through Abraham.
And so God preserved the nation of Israel
that it might bring forth, uh, the Messiah
into the world.
And of course, we just celebrated Christmas and
we know the Christmas story, how that the
Lord came to the angel of the Lord.
Gabriel came to Mary, told her that she
was the one that God had chosen, uh,
to bring the Messiah into the world.
The Holy Spirit would come upon her and
the power of the highest would overshadow her.
That one that would be born would be
called the Son of God.
And, uh, so, uh, the nation of Israel
brought forth the Messiah.
Uh, the purposes of God were pretty much
completed when they brought forth the Messiah who
is to rule with a rod of iron.
Uh, Jesus is coming again, uh, to rule
over the world.
And, uh, but the Messiah was caught up
into heaven, but Satan was there to try
and destroy him at birth.
You remember when, uh, Jesus was born of
Mary, that, uh, there came wise men from
the East following a star.
Uh, they came to Herod there in Jerusalem
and they asked Herod, uh, where the King
of the Jews was born.
We have seen his star in the East.
We've come to worship him.
And so Herod inquired of the, uh, scribes
and they said he's to be born in
Bethlehem.
The prophet Micah said that Bethlehem would be
the birthplace of the Messiah.
So they came to Bethlehem.
They found the child, but Herod had said,
when you find him, come back and tell
me where he is.
I'd like to come and worship him too.
And of course, Herod was a short little
guy, about four foot eight.
Uh, he, uh, built big things, uh, but,
uh, he was paranoid.
Uh, he was so paranoid that, uh, he
killed off some of his sons, killed off
his wife.
He thought that they were conspiring against him
to overthrow him.
Uh, they used to say it's safer to
be Herod's pig than it is to be
his son, uh, because of his paranoia.
And, uh, so, uh, Herod, of course, when
the wise men were warned by the Lord
not to return to Herod and went home
another way, Herod then ordered, you remember, all
of the infants in the area of Bethlehem
to be slain that were under two years
of age.
Uh, and, uh, Joseph, however, was warned by
an angel in a dream, and he took
Mary, and they fled to Egypt, and thus,
uh, Jesus was saved from that edict of
Herod.
But, uh, we, uh, the nation of Israel,
though, uh, well, let's go on, and we'll
get it right here.
There was war in heaven.
Michael and his angels were fighting against the
dragon, and the dragon fought with his angels.
Michael is one of the great angels.
He's an archangel, it's called.
And, uh, he seems to be one of
the generals, you might say, uh, over the
angels of God.
Fighting against the dragon, the dragon with his
angels fighting against, uh, uh, Michael.
But they prevailed not, that is, the, uh,
Satan and his angels, neither were their place
found anymore in heaven.
And a great, the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent called the devil and
Satan, which is the deceiver of the whole
world.
So, in case you didn't know who it
was, he gives you several, uh, little titles
for him.
Uh, devil, Satan, the deceiver.
And, uh, he was cast out to the
earth, and the angels were cast out with
him.
And I heard a loud voice saying in
heaven, now is come salvation, and strength, and
the kingdom of our God, and the power
of his Messiah.
For the accuser of the brethren is cast
down, which accused them before God day and
night.
And they overcame him by the blood of
the lamb, and by the word of their
testimony.
And they loved not their lives unto death,
and therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye that
dwell in them.
Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, and,
uh, of the sea, for the devil is
come down unto you.
He has great wrath, and he knows that
he has but a short time."
So, uh, this war in heaven is something
that is about to take place.
It'll take place during the Great Tribulation.
The, uh, effect of it, of course, is
Satan being cast out, filled with wrath, and
is gonna do as much damage as he
can in the time that he has left.
Now, we read that the dragon saw that
he was cast to the earth.
Well, first, before we get there, Satan has
had access into heaven.
He is called here the accuser of the
brethren.
Now, Jesus is our advocate.
Satan is our accuser.
Paul the Apostle, in Romans chapter eight, said,
who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect?
Well, Satan is laying charges against you.
But Paul said, God has justified us.
Who is he that condemneth?
Well, Satan is condemning you.
But Jesus died for you, yea, rose again,
and is at the right hand of the
Father, making intercession for you.
Uh, we see Satan in this position of
the accuser of the brethren back in the
book of Job.
Uh, we read in the book of Job
that, uh, the sons of God were presenting
themselves before God, and Satan also came with
them.
And God said, well, where have you been?
Oh, he said, I've been going up and
down throughout the earth, to and fro through
it.
Well, have you considered, and that word considered
in the Hebrew is, have you studied, scrutinized
my servant Job?
It's a really a military word.
It's a word that is used of a
general that is studying a city to create
a strategy to, uh, destroy the city.
Have you studied my servant Job?
Good man, upright, loves good, hates evil.
And Satan offered to God his philosophy concerning
Job.
He said, you have blessed him so much.
Of course he serves you.
But he's a mercenary.
He only does it for the perks.
Let me take away all of those things
and he'll curse you to your face.
So God said, okay, but don't touch him.
Take it away.
And so Job was wiped out as far
as all of his goods, his children, his
family, they were all wiped out.
And, and even he lost, in a sense,
the sympathetic understanding of his wife, because there
he was just in this miserable condition, had
lost everything, his cattle, family, and everything.
And she said, why don't you just curse
God and die?
Great encouragement from his wife.
But he lost that, you know, that comforting
fellowship of his wife even.
And in all of this thing, Job said,
the Lord has given, the Lord has taken
away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And he neither cursed God nor caused, nor
charged God foolishly.
So Satan again came with the angels of
God, presenting themselves to the Lord.
And Lord said, where you been?
Oh, going up and down the earth to
and fro through it.
How about my servant Job?
Good man.
After all you have done, he still has
maintained his integrity.
Satan said, yeah, but you didn't let me
touch him.
Let me take away his health.
He'll curse you to your face.
So God gave Satan the go ahead to
take and to attack him physically.
And of course, we know the boils and
all that covered Job and then his friends
coming and trying to understand, did not understand.
But you see, Satan was accusing Job.
And he's up there accusing you.
He's no friend.
And Jesus, however, is there defending us.
He's our advocate.
John said, my little children, these things write
I unto you that you send not.
But if we send, we have an advocate
with the Father, even Jesus Christ, the righteous.
And so there is Satan up there making
the accusations.
And there's Jesus up there speaking up and
saying, that's all right, dad.
It's I'm taking care of that one.
He's mine.
And so we are accepted through Jesus Christ,
which is a wonderful thing.
Now here, Satan is the, it says the
accuser of the brethren.
He's cast out.
He knows he has but a short time.
He's filled with wrath.
And so the dragon, verse 13, when he's
cast to the earth, he persecutes the woman
which brought forth the man child.
So Satan is going to go after Israel.
Of course, we realize that he is, you
know, there today.
The Jews are under severe pressure by the
nations round about, by the world.
And the woman, however, was given two wings
of an angel, or two wings of an
eagle, that she might fly to the wilderness
unto her place, where she will be nourished
for a time, times and a half time
from the face of the serpent.
So halfway through, okay, let's try and tie
this together.
We can.
We've got a seven year period that is
going to be fulfilled with the nation of
Israel.
God's dealing with the nation of Israel.
There were 77 year periods.
69 of them were fulfilled from the time
the commandment went forth to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem to the coming of Jesus.
483 years.
Now there's one seven year period that is
yet to be fulfilled.
And it will begin when this man of
sin, which we'll read about in the next
chapter, when he comes to Israel and he
makes a covenant with them.
And in this covenant that he makes with
Israel, they will be granted the right to
rebuild their temple.
The problem will be solved by building a
wall north of the Dome of the Rock
Mosque.
And the temple will be rebuilt just in
from the East Gate, which is about 322
feet north of the Dome of the Rock
Mosque.
And so that will begin this last seven
year period.
The Jews at first will think this man
is the Messiah.
He will have all kinds of power as
we'll get into the next chapter, how Satan
gives him his power and his authority.
Now, after three and a half years, when
the Jews have rebuilt their temple, he will
come back to Jerusalem and he will stand
in the temple in the Holy of Holies.
And he will declare that he is God
and demand that they worship him as God,
which at that point they will recognize that
this man is a phony.
And Jesus said, when you see this abomination,
which will cause the desolation, this man standing
in the Holy of Holies, then flee to
the wilderness.
And we are told here that they will
flee to the wilderness, wings of an angel,
or wings of an eagle rather, given to
them where they flee to the wilderness, where
God will protect them for the last three
and a half years of this seven year
cycle.
The first three and a half years of
the seven year cycle will be a time
of prosperity, a time of economic prosperity, a
time of peace.
The world will be actually celebrating because they
feel that they finally have come to this
man.
He's a miracle worker.
He's able to bring peace.
He's able to solve even this knotty problem
between the Jews and the Palestinians.
And, oh my, this man is it, you
know, and the world will worship him.
And we will get, read about that in
a little while.
That the world worships him and acclaims him
as the Savior.
But after three and a half years, the
Jews will have their eyes open as they
will realize this man is a deceiver.
And they will flee to the wilderness, somewhere
over in Jordan.
And there are scriptures in Isaiah 16 that
would indicate perhaps near the rock city of
Petra, where they will be spared and will
flee that.
Now he sends out an army after them,
a flood, which is an army.
But the earth helps the woman, opens up
her mouth, swallows the flood that the dragon
cast out of his mouth.
The dragon was angry with the woman and
he went to make war with the remnant
of her seed, which keep the commandments of
God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
So, those are the personages out of chapter
12.
Now in chapter 13, we have two more.
First one is the Antichrist.
And this is giving you some information concerning
him.
I stood on the sand of the sea.
I saw a beast rise up out of
the sea, having seven heads, ten horns.
Upon his horns there were ten crowns.
Upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
And the beast that I saw was like
a leopard.
He had feet like a bear.
His mouth was like a lion.
And the dragon gave him his power and
his authority, his throne and great authority.
It is important that we realize that this
world is under Satan's power.
He rules over the world.
Originally the world belonged to God.
He created it.
It was his by divine creation.
When God created Adam and Eve and placed
them upon the earth, God gave to them
the world.
To have dominion over the animals, over the
fish, over the earth, over every living and
moving creeping thing.
When Adam and Eve sinned, the earth was
transferred over to Satan.
Whoever you yield yourself servants to obey his
servants you become.
They yielded themselves to obey the suggestion of
Satan to eat the fruit that God said
you shall not eat.
In their eating of that fruit it was
a double action.
It was disobedience to God but it was
obedience to Satan's suggestion and thus they came
under Satan's authority.
You had God's kingdom, kingdom of light and
life.
God created man in his kingdom.
Man was living in fellowship with God.
But there was a door into the other
kingdom, the other kingdom of death and darkness.
And through that tree they entered into the
door of death and darkness.
But they found the door only swung one
way.
They couldn't come back into fellowship with God.
The door was sealed from that side.
And so having moved away from God, the
earth then became Satan's possession.
Now the purpose of the coming of Jesus
Christ was to redeem the world back to
God.
It no longer was God's.
He gave it to man.
No longer man's.
He actually forfeited it over to Satan.
But Jesus came to redeem the world back
to God.
And that was the purpose of his coming.
And as as we sing there in the
the fifth chapter, you have redeemed us by
thy blood out of every nation, tribe, tongue,
and people.
That was his purpose.
Now you remember when Jesus was baptized by
John, he went into the wilderness for 40
days, fasted and prayed.
And afterwards Satan tempted him.
First of all, turn the stone into bread.
And Jesus said, man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God.
Then he took him up into a high
mountain.
He showed him all of the kingdoms of
the world.
And he said to that, to Jesus, all
of these I will give to you and
the glory of them if you will just
bow down and worship me.
Heavy temptation.
Jesus came to redeem the world back to
God.
He knew that the price would be his
death upon the cross.
That was already predicted.
But here is Satan saying, you don't have
to take God's way.
I'll give it to you right now.
Just bow down and worship me and I'll
give to you all of the glory of
these kingdoms.
And Jesus said, it is written, thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God and him only.
He resisted the temptation.
But that was the purpose of his coming
to redeem the world back to God.
And of course, that's what's taking place back
in uh, chapter five, where he comes and
takes the scroll.
And this is the whole process of redemption
now in the loosening of the scrolls.
And this is the final judgments that are
coming prior to the coming of Jesus Christ
and his laying claim to that which he
purchased on the cross.
He purchased the world back again to God.
And uh, he'll, he'll come and he'll take
possession in Hebrews.
We read, he was made a little lower
than the angels for the suffering of death,
but crowned with glory and honor.
And God has put all things under his
feet, but we do not yet see all
things under him.
That's, that's coming.
It's coming very soon.
Man has just about run the full course.
We've gone about as far as we've, we,
we can.
Uh, we're coming to the end of the
road and uh, it's going to be necessary
for the Lord to come if there's any
survival at all.
And so uh, the Satan here notice gives
to this beast out of the sea.
He gives to him his throne, which is
the earth.
He gives to him his power and his
authority over the earth.
So this man is Satan incarnate ruling now
over the world with satanic power.
I saw one of his heads as it
were wounded to death, but the deadly wound
was healed and all of the world wondered
after the beast, perhaps an assassination attempt.
Uh, but he survives and they worship the
dragon.
That is Satan who gave the power to
the beast and they worship the beast.
And they said, who is like unto the
beast who is able to make war with
him.
And there was given unto him a mouth
and here as a big mouth speaking great
things and blasphemies and power was given unto
him to continue for 42 months, the three
and a half years, the 1260 days.
And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against
God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle
and those that dwell in heaven.
And it was given unto him to make
war with the saints and to overcome them.
And power was given to him over all
the kindreds and the tongues and the nations.
He rules over the world.
Now there was an interesting article that came
through on the email over the weekend.
Uh, it's, uh, talking about the year 2002.
And, uh, this is a secular writer, not
a, not a biblical man at all.
And there was nothing biblical about the article
except that, uh, it's fascinating from a biblical
standpoint.
But he was talking about some of the
laws that have been enacted by the UN,
some of the things that have been passed
and how the, the article was, will we
have a world government in 2002?
In other words, we're that close as far
as the UN trying to usurp authority and
power.
And so his thing was, uh, and the
whole article is, is 2002, the year that
we've gone on into this whole, uh, thing
of a UN taking over and the nations
surrendering their sovereignty, uh, to a world government.
And of course, uh, we have movements toward
that in so many directions.
Uh, the global economy, uh, the global, and
all of this talk of global, uh, it's
all a part of this moving towards this
one world government that will come under the
control of this man who is empowered by
Satan.
And so really behind the scenes today in
the world, the powers, those who are the
true controllers of the world, they're convinced that
the only solution is a one world government.
The nations are going to have to surrender
their sovereignty and we're going to have to
have a one world government and we're moving
towards it.
And, uh, much more rapidly than people realize.
And so this is the man that is
going to be ruling over the world that
is described here.
Now the saints, he makes war against the
saints and overcomes them.
Uh, we're told the same thing in the
book of Daniel, uh, when he talks about
this same scenario, the saints here are not
and cannot be the church.
And the reason why I say that is
that Jesus, upon Peter's confession, that Jesus was
the Messiah, the son of the living God.
Jesus said, upon this rock, I will build
my church and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it.
The gates of hell cannot prevail against the
church.
So these are not saints of the church.
They are the Jewish saints.
Once they realize that this man is a
deceiver, as he demands that they worship him
as God, and they realize that he is
a deceiver, then they will be turning to
Jesus Christ in droves.
Uh, the 144,000 that have been sealed
of God will be witnessing to them.
And there will be a tremendous, uh, turning
to Jesus Christ by the Jews at that
time.
So, uh, all the dwell upon the earth
will worship him whose names are not written
in the book of life of the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world.
And if any man have an ear to
hear, let him hear.
In other words, pay attention to this.
Uh, the writer is saying, and he who
leads into captivity will go into captivity.
He that kills with a sword will be
killed by the sword.
Here's the patience and faith, uh, faith of
the saints.
Now there's a false prophet, a second beast
that we have here.
I mailed another beast.
He came up out of the earth.
He had two horns like a lamb, but
he spoke like a dragon and he exercised
all of the power of the first beast
before him.
And he caused those on the earth to
worship the first beast whose deadly womb was
healed.
And he does great wonders so that he
makes fire come down from heaven on the
earth in the sight of men.
He deceives them that dwell upon the earth
by the means of those miracles and the
powers to do it in the sight of
the beast.
And he says to them that dwell on
the earth, that they should make an image
of the beast, which had a womb by
the sword and did live.
And he had power to give life to
the image of the beast, that the image
of the beast should both speak and cause
as many as would not worship the image
of the beast, that they should be killed.
Our technology today is interesting how far we
have advanced in our sciences.
And, uh, we are talking about, uh, cloning
now.
And we're talking about computers that, uh, would,
uh, somehow they're talking about bio computers and,
uh, this far out kind of stuff where,
uh, you'll get a computer that can't turn
off.
Uh, you get a computer that can think
for itself.
And, uh, you know, it's, uh, amazing.
Uh, it's sort of like, and you remember
in the days of the Tower of Babel,
uh, where their science and technology had developed,
God said, you know, we better shut this
thing down because look what they're doing.
And there's nothing that is, you know, going
to stand in their way.
And so, uh, it's about time to shut
down again because of these things that are
being done, uh, in, uh, the advanced areas
of science.
Uh, and, uh, so, uh, we, uh, he
makes this image of the beast, but he
gives it then sort of power to speak.
Uh, it probably is some kind of a
bio computer, uh, that it was created.
And, uh, as many as would not worship
the image of the beast, that they would
be killed.
Uh, and so, this is, again, those back
in chapter, uh, five, those souls under the
altar in the sixth seal who were crying,
how long, O Lord, holy and true, until
you avenge our brothers.
Sixth chapter, actually, uh, on those on the
earth.
And so, here's wisdom.
Uh, well, actually, no, verse 17, important.
That no man, well, verse 16, he causes
all, both small and great, rich and poor,
free and bond, to receive a mark in
their right hand or in their foreheads.
And no man will be able to buy
or sell unless he has the mark of
the name of the beast and the number
of his name.
Now, here's wisdom.
That him that has understanding count the number
of the beast.
It's the number of a man.
The number is 666.
Now, there have been many attempts to try
and, uh, solve this particular puzzle.
Uh, it's the number of a man.
His number is 666.
Uh, it's an interesting thing in, uh, the,
uh, Hebrew.
They really do not have numerics, but they
use their alphabet for numbers and the same
with Greek.
Every Greek letter has a numeric equivalent.
Alpha, beta, gamma, delta is one, two, three,
four in Greek.
Uh, each letter has a numeric equivalent.
And thus, uh, the numeric equivalent of the
name of this man will probably total 666.
You say, well, do you think you know
who he is?
I don't even care who he is.
Uh, I'm not going to be around when
he's revealed.
And, uh, I'm not really looking for the
Antichrist.
I'm looking for Jesus Christ and, uh, his
catching us up, you know, and so, uh,
but if you were here and hopefully you
won't be, uh, you'll be able to figure
it out then when, uh, the fellow is
in power.
Uh, but this business of no man will
be able to, everyone will be forced to
take the mark.
And, uh, if you don't take the mark,
you'll be put to death.
Uh, but you won't be able to buy
or sell unless you have this mark, it
will be in your right hand or in
your forehead.
Now you've heard of the smart cards and
how that they are already, you know, they're,
they're becoming more sophisticated all the time.
But we're talking now about, uh, the necessity
to be able to identify people, uh, so
that security is one of the major concerns
in the world today.
And we need to have some kind of
a way to secure, uh, areas that people
who don't belong there cannot get in there.
And all kinds of technology is being developed,
uh, as far as, uh, security is concerned.
Uh, they have now, uh, little things where
you can just put your thumb on it
and it reads your thumbprint and, uh, they,
you know, the door will open for you
or you'll look into it with your eye
and it reads, uh, you know, aren't we
wonderfully made?
Everybody has a different thumbprint.
Everybody has a different, uh, configuration in their
eye and, and they have computers now that
can read these things and discern the difference,
uh, between us.
And, uh, they're also talking, uh, and this
called, um, uh, applied digital, uh, company in
Florida that has developed these little, uh, chips,
uh, microchips that are inserted under the skin.
And, uh, Bob down here can probably tell
us something about these microchips and, uh, he's,
he's in that science.
He's creating stuff that the beast is going
to use, uh, when, uh, these, these
little chips that will recharge themselves just from
the body.
In other words, uh, the, uh, within the
body itself, the body functions, uh, charge the
batteries of these small little chips that can
be inserted under the skin.
Uh, and, uh, they're going to be, uh,
they're, they're selling them.
Actually, they begin in 90 days in South
America, uh, the selling of these chips, uh,
and in the insertion of the chips in,
uh, in people, uh, for, uh, different purposes,
uh, identity purposes, uh, for, uh, and they're,
they're developing one now that has, uh, a
little transmitter in it, uh, so that, uh,
if, uh, you are ever kidnapped, uh, they,
uh, will be able to find you with
the global, uh, positioning satellites, uh, and, uh,
they'll be able to know where you are
at any time, uh, because of the little
transmitter within the chip, and they're going to
be selling it for a, you know, for
security purposes and all.
But the technology is being developed now to
where there could be a chip inserted in
everyone, and you can't buy or sell without
it.
In other words, even as in Europe now,
they have said your currency in two months
will have no value.
You'll have to have the Euro currency within
two months.
What can you do?
All of your money is going to be
valueless in two months unless you exchange it.
Well, they can do the same thing once
they get this other system perfected.
They can say, okay, you're going to have
now in the computers your whole bank account
and all, and you will have a new
identity.
It'll be affixed on your right hand or
in your forehead, and, uh, it can be
scanned, and no more, uh, carrying of cash
because cash will have no value.
But think what that will do as far
as crime is concerned.
Pickpockets will be out of business.
Because you can't use the money if you
stole it.
You can't buy or sell without, and, and
so it will eliminate bank robberies.
It'll eliminate, you know, the, uh, 7-Eleven
holdups and all of this kind of stuff,
uh, can be eliminated by this new system.
It's going to be a easy sell, and
they will cause everyone, small and great, to
take this number.
Can't buy or sell without it.
And, and we, we see that these prophecies
of 50 years ago were preposterous.
How could that be?
How could we ever get rid of money,
you know, as far as a, uh, means
of exchange?
Uh, but now with the computer age and
computer sciences and all, uh, it's very possible.
In fact, it's very practical.
So, uh, this is the man who is
going to be taking over as the world
ruler.
Now, as we get into chapter 14, he
said, I looked, and behold, there was a
lamb that stood upon Mount Zion, and with
him the 144,000.
And I just looked at my watch, and,
um, we're not moving as fast as I
hoped we would.
Too much.
Uh, we'll, uh, we'll pick up here the
next time.
We'll just, you know.
Father, we're living in exciting days.
Exciting because we can see all around us
the signs of your coming.
Lord, the world is in turmoil.
People, as you said, in the last days,
their hearts failing them for fear of the
things that are coming to pass upon the
earth.
Lord, we're living in a world with a
lot of crazies.
People that are doing crazy things.
We realize, Lord, that the only place of
real security, real safety, is in Jesus Christ.
And Lord, there are those here tonight that
do not have that security.
They've been playing games with you.
But Lord, time for playing games is over.
Time to get serious and down to business.
Because we realize, Lord, your coming is very
soon.
And so, Lord, we thank you that you
haven't left us just to grope in the
darkness as the world around us is doing,
not really understanding the things that are transpiring
and confused, fearful.
Whereas, Lord, we, we know exactly what's happening.
We know exactly what's going on and where
it's leading to.
Because you know the end from the beginning
and you've told us these things.
So now, Lord, tonight as we're here, you
look upon our hearts, you see what's there.
And you know which ones of us would
be caught up to meet you in the
air if you should come for your church
just now.
You know those that would still be sitting
here wondering what had happened.
Those that weren't ready.
Those who were still walking in sin and
had not yet received your love and your
forgiveness through your Son, Jesus Christ.
And Lord, because the days are so short,
we want to spend ourselves and be spent
for you in these last days.
Help us, Lord.
And we ask, Father, for those that don't
know you, have not yet committed their lives
to follow Jesus Christ, to serve him.
That this might be the night, Lord, in
which your Holy Spirit draws them in to
the family of God.
This might be the night that you remove
that heavy burden of sin and the guilt
of sin from them.
And that they begin that new life as
a child of God, washed and forgiven.
Work, Lord, in their hearts just now.
While our heads are still bowed and the
Spirit of God is moving in our hearts,
no one looking around, just this is between
you and God.
I wonder how many here tonight would say,
Pastor Chuck, I really don't know if I'm
ready to meet the Lord or not.
But I do want to be ready.
And I do want to really get down
to business in my relationship with God.
And I'd appreciate your prayers.
You know, I'd be very happy to pray
for you.
All I need to do is know who
you are.
And you can tell me who you are
by just slipping your hand up and down
again.
Yes, God bless you.
God bless you in the back there.
Father, you've seen the hand that was lifted,
the hands that were lifted.
More than that, Lord, you saw the heart
under that uplifted hand.
You saw the desire, Lord, that is there
to serve you, to start living a right
kind of life.
And so, Lord, we ask that even now
your spirit would work, washing and cleansing them,
Lord, from all sin, and that you would
adopt them, Lord, into the family, that they
might become children of God through faith in
Jesus Christ.
Thank you, Lord, for the work of your
spirit.
Help us now, Lord, in these days to
live fully for you and for your glory.
Amen.