Sermon Transcript: The Antichrist and False Prophet 5/16/2021 Jeff Schwarzentraub 49 min read - Lord Jesus, we just thank you for your living and active Word and Father we are so grateful for you, not only do we get the privilege of worshiping you here, but Lord hearing you. And the way that we hear you Lord is through your Word. Lord I pray for your help this morning that I would be accurate in teaching your Word and Lord that your Holy Spirit would use your Word to cause us to be greater followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Lord, we gather with you here today and for all who are gathered who desire to hear the Lord speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and you will by faith put into practice what He shows you. Would you agree with me this morning by very loudly saying the word, amen. - [Congregation] Amen. - Amen. Having a game plan is very important. If you're going on a vacation it's important to know where you're going and where you're traveling to and what your game plan is. If you're an athletic team having a game plan is important for what you prepare to do, what you're planning to do during the game. If you're a military, having a strategy or a game plan, super important. And oftentimes, after a vacation or after a sporting event or after a military battle, different people will gather and they'll talk about how good their game plan was. And they'll say, "You know what? We game planned really well, it went super well. We did everything we set out to do." Other times they'll say, "You know what? We weren't expecting that over there. And our game plan didn't accommodate that." And other times they'll say, "We should have a good plan. I mean, we got thoroughly beat because we just weren't ready for what was going to happen." When it comes to our lives spiritually, it's important that we have a game plan, it's important that we know what God wants us to do, but just as important is when God gives us insight into His Word for what our enemy is going to do and we know how they're gonna react, it's helpful to us. Sports teams that know, "Hey, this is the tendencies this team has, this is what they're gonna do." Or military that says, "This is the tendency that this group has and here's what they're gonna do." The moral where you are of your enemy and how they're gonna respond, the greater opportunity you have to win the battle. We've been talking in this book about the cast of characters. Last week we were in Revelation 12 and we unveiled five different characters. We talked about who's gonna be a player in the end and we talked about Israel being a player in the end. After this week, do you believe me ? Israel is gonna be a player in the end, Satan gonna be a player in the end, Jesus Christ is always a player, He's the most significant figure in the Bible. We also see the heavenly hosts of angels warring, being a player in the end and we also see the saints or believers in Christ being a player in the end. What we're gonna see today in Revelation 13, is we're gonna get introduced to two new characters and more important than who they are, it's going to be how they're gonna live and what they're gonna do so that we understand our enemy and his strategy. Today in Revelation 13 you're gonna be introduced to the antichrist and the false prophet, this final world, political, military dictator and his ministry of propaganda, the false prophet who is going to try to support him. You're gonna see counterfeits all throughout this text as to who the antichrist is and what he is trying to accomplish and what he is trying to do. Just to give a little refresher course especially for those of you that are new, as we've been walking through the Book of Revelation, really the first 11 chapters are spelled out for us chronologically and what is going to happen. And in chapter 12, 13 and 14, John who is the author, paranthetically begins to tell us about what this last three and a half years begins to look like. Last week we took a look at those five casts of characters, today we're gonna be introduced to the antichrist and the false prophet, in chapter 14 there's some more information regarding this period of time and then in chapter 15 it will pick up with the bowl judgments which is where we left off when we finished chapter 11. This is very similar to how Jesus spoke during the Olivet discourse. In Matthew chapter 24, you remember the first 14 verses that are there, that's all chronological and then verses 15 to 31, paranthetically talks about the great tribulation, this lasts three and a half years. So during this last seven year period called the 70th week of Daniel, seven years long, it's gonna start with the antichrist making a peace treaty with Israel, he's going to break that covenant in the middle of the three and a half years, you'll see the antichrist come on the scene in a way he hasn't before, setting up worship of himself and that's where the text is focused on today, because we'll be talking about the antichrist and the false prophet. Let's start by talking about the antichrist, I'm gonna invite you to open your Bibles up to Revelation 13, we'll read through the first 10 verses together. See if you can see the character qualities of this antichrist, we'll talk about three for the antichrist, we'll talk about three for the false prophet as we make our way all the way through chapter 13. He says, "And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea having 10 horns and seven heads and on his horns were 10 diadems and on his heads were blasphemous names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard and his feet were like those of a bear and his mouth like the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. I saw one of the heads as if it had been slain and his fatal wound was healed and the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast. They worshiped the dragon because he gave authority to the beast and they worshiped the beast saying 'Who is like the beast and who is able to wage war with him,' there was given to him, a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies and authority to act for 42 months was given to him. And he opened his mouth to blasphemy against God, to blasphemy his name and his tabernacle, that is those who dwell in heaven. It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who has been slain, if anyone has an ear, let him hear, if anyone is destined for captivity to captivity, he goes, if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints." And here in these 10 verses are probably the clearest picture of who this end time world dictator is going to be, the antichrist, anti meaning against or without, one who is going to set up his own kingdom or attempt to set it up as a one world system. And here's what we're gonna learn about this antichrist, there's three things that he will intentionally try to do, several but we'll highlight three from this text. And the first is this, the antichrist will intentionally seek to dominate the world, the antichrist will seek to dominate the world. As the text opens up, we see the dragon standing on the sand of the seashore. This is really the end of chapter 12, the dragon if you'll remember, say it out loud, who's the dragon? Satan, this is the dragon, he's Satan and he's standing on the seashore and what do we see? We see a beast coming out of the sea, having 10 horns and seven heads and on his horns were 10 diadems and on his heads were blasphemous names. And there should be very reminiscent of what we studied last week in Revelation 12 when we studied Satan, we saw in chapter 12 in verse three, another sign appeared in heaven and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns and on his head were seven diadems. So what we've seen is almost a similarity, we see seven heads and 10 horns, when we described Satan we see seven heads and 10 horns, but the crowns were on the heads. What we saw and talked about last week is that these seven heads represent seven worldwide kingdoms that at some point had power over the whole earth. Six of them have existed. One was Egypt, then a Syria, then Babylon, then Medo Persia, then Greece, then the Roman empire, then there's been a period of time, but one day there will be a worldwide, governmental, military, political, geopolitical world system that will run the entire globe, that's what's coming. And what you see here that's a little different is the crowns or the diadems were on the seven heads when it talked about the devil, but when it's talking about this beast, these horn, these diadems are on the horns. What we have as a shift from these seven world empires to 10 kings under this final rule of antichrist. Now you may say, "How do you get all that? Where does that come from? I'm not just reading that in my Bible." I would encourage you to open up your Bible to Daniel 7. Unfortunately because of time, we don't have time to go through the entire chapter. But Daniel in his book, 7:12, spells out a lot of detail about what is gonna take place in the end times and what it's going to look like. What we saw in Revelation 12, was in verse two it said, "And the beast I saw, which was like a leopard and his feet like those of a bear and his mouth like the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him authority and his power and his throne was given great authority." In Daniel 7:1-6, we see these same creatures, we see a leopard, we see a bear, we see a lion. This really spelled out three different world empires. The leopard represented Greece, the bear represented Medo Persia and the lion represented Babylon. Now there's a lot that could be said about these animals, describing armies to animals is just telling us a little bit about what those armies were like. Obviously a leopard is fast and swift like Greece was, the bear represents power and being super powerful even though it lumbers. And the lion is the king of the jungle, the lion has all authority, maybe greed to reign and rule. What we're gonna find out about this final world empire is that it's a combination of all the evil features proceeding all the other world empires. Notice in Daniel 7:7-8, in Daniel's vision, he said, "After this, I kept looking in the night visions and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong and it had large iron teeth that devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet and it was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had 10 horns. While I was contemplating the horns, behold another horn, a little one came up among them and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it and behold, this horn possessed eyes like a man," I'm sorry, "Possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boast." When we see this beast coming out, beast literally means monster. There have been antichrist in every generation of the church. Jesus says, "Watch out for many false Christ will come proclaiming to my name that they are the Christ and deceive many." In every single generation there have always been, quote, unquote, "Antichrist," or people that want to remove God from the culture and be worshiped themselves. There are people that will claim they're the Lord. In every generation there has been that and there will continue to be that, more and more until Jesus Christ arrives. But notice what John says in 1 John 2:18, he says this, "Children, it is the last hour and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now, many antichrist have appeared, from this we know that it is the last hour." Here's what he says, there's always been antichrist but there's coming a final antichrist. And in Daniel's vision, when he spells out the seven heads and 10 horns, he talks about a little horn, that little horn is the antichrist, that little horn has the appearance and face of a man. And what is he gonna do? He's gonna uproot three of the kingdoms and he's gonna rule over all. So there's gonna be some 10 kingdom confederation and an antichrist that's gonna rise up and rule. And where do we see them coming out of? He's coming out of the sea. A lot of people make a big deal about the sea, they say, "Well, the sea is Gentiles, so this antichrist is gonna rise up out of the nations and be a Gentile, that's why we know that. Now is that true? I don't know, could be. What we do know from Revelation 11, that this one that rises up, this beast, this antichrist is a monster and he's coming from hell himself. This antichrist is going to be possessed by the devil himself, just like Judas Iscariot at the end of his life, had Satan enter into him, the antichrist will have the same thing. Now pause for a second, think about our God head, think about who we worship, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Trinity God, the Father is not the Son or the Spirit, the Son is not the Father or the Spirit and the Spirit is not the Father or the Son but all three of them as one distinct essence make up one God head in three distinct persons. Now, how is that work? Glory to God, I don't know, is God that's who he is. I mean, that's his nature, that's his character, that's who our God is, that's the God we worship. What is Satan the god of? Satan the god of this age, he's a counterfeit. So what is he gonna do as the dragon, Satan himself? He's gonna set himself up as God and then he's going to have a person empowered by him, just like the Lord Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man, he's going to have a counterfeit in this antichrist who is a person who is empowered by him. And then when you see the false prophet, what is he gonna play the role of? He's gonna play the role of the Holy Spirit and be the minister of propaganda for the antichrist, just like the Holy Spirit number one ministry is to magnify the resurrected Jesus Christ. This is a counterfeit unholy trinity that we're seeing here. And this is what's going on and Daniel saw it and Daniel was totally afraid. I mean the end of Daniel 7, I encourage you go back and read all of Daniel 7. In Daniel 7:28, after he hears about this fourth army that's going to rise up or he's terrified in what he sees, he says, "At this point the revelation ended. As for me Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself." I mean he's freaking out, like he's never seen a world power like what's about ready to come on the scene. There will be an end times world power, one government, one currency, one religion and the religion will be to worship the antichrist, the religion will be to worship a man. Can you picture a world that wants to worship a man? Can you picture anybody that says, "If somebody could solve the world's problems, I'd be happy to give my allegiance to them." It's happening right before your eyes, is it gonna happen in this generation? I think it could, it may not, we don't know. But the Bible says, "Be ready, be ready, be ready, you do not know the hour, you do not know the time, be ready." And what we see in this antichrist is he is going to dominate the world, he is gonna do everything he can to show that he has power over everything. Now there've been antichrist throughout our time. I mean, you go back just a little less than 100 years you see Hitler, he was an antichrist for sure, tried to have worldwide, global domination. And if it weren't for God's providence and a couple of snow storms and different things, the whole world would have spoke German. And we look at it as Americans looking back in history like, "How could anybody have followed that? What was up with that?" Here's what's up with that, the world is always looking for someone to worship and if you don't worship the Lord Jesus Christ, your heart will go after other gods every single time. And our world is looking for a geopolitical leader to solve its problems, just watch the news, everybody's looking for someone to solve their problems, your problem friends is your sin. Jesus Christ death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead solved that problem, you need no other, He's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and you need to settle that matter, amen. - [Congregation] Amen. - So we have here in the end is an antichrist that will intentionally seek to dominate the world. And what is he gonna do? When we read about his heads, there were blasphemous names. Now what's blasphemy mean? Blasphemy means to give contempt to God, it means to give God a reverence. And Jesus said, "Every sin during his ministry would be forgiven except the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit." Blasphemy means to verbally or written reproach God's name, his character, his work or his attributes, it means to talk down about God. During Jesus' ministry, it would be saying this, "Hey, that's not the Holy Spirit, that's not God that did that, you're of the devil, you're of Satan." The only sin that's unforgivable is unbelief, unbelief is when you attribute the things of God to the things of Satan and the world will do this very thing. Satan will have blasphemous names, what's blaspheming? Jesus was crucified for blaspheming, the Jews crucified Him because they said, "You a mere man claim to be God." Well, indeed He was, He is and will always be God, he doesn't blaspheming and He was telling the truth. Blaspheming means what you'll see at this end time rule is that these kingdoms of the world, they are all gonna come together, are gonna claim that the antichrist is god and that you must give your allegiance and worship to this one man who is gonna be empowered by Satan, you're not gonna have freedom to choose your religion, you're gonna give all of your allegiance to him. That's what he's going after, he's called the god of this age, he's called the prince of the power of the year, he's been given time during this last three and a half years to exercise that rule. Now let me be clear on this, I tried to be clear on this last week, I wanna be clear on this again. Martin Luther referred to the devil as god's devil, Satan doesn't have authority on his own. When you hear the story you're gonna hear today, God's just telling us here's what's gonna happen, just be aware. In Matthew 24, Jesus said, "I told you in advance so that you'll know. I'm letting you know what's coming, but don't be afraid." Satan doesn't have more power than God, Satan is not much more powerful than Jesus, there's Jesus and then there's created beings. So don't be afraid of this, but be aware of this. There is an antichrist coming that will intentionally seek to dominate the world. You say, "How will they do that?" Because number two the antichrist will intentionally seek to deceive the world, he'll seek to deceive the world. Notice verse three, "I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain and his fatal wound was healed and the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast." Now, what do you see here? What you see here is a staged death and resurrection. He's not just talking about one of these confederate nations that looked like it was falling and it came back and everybody's like, "Oh, the beast is so great." What you're seeing is the beast received a fatal wound, you'll even see that as we go on in the text, in verse 12 of chapter 13, whose fatal wound was healed? What makes the gospel so powerful? What makes Jesus unlike anyone else has ever claimed to be God? He said, "Destroy this temple I'll rebuild it in three days." He told his disciples on three different occasions He was going to Jerusalem to die, but not to worry 'cause He would rise from the dead. Who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the one who can pay for sin and overcome death, what did Jesus do? He died on the cross and He rose from the dead. So what is Satan going to try to counterfeit with his little emp, that's the antichrist? He's gonna stage a death and a resurrection, it's going to appear to the world that he's received a fatal blow with a sword and that he's dead but he's gonna come back to life. And when the world sees this antichrist, "Look, he died and now he's alive, he must be God let's worship him." It's deception at its highest level, that's what's going on and the world is looking for someone to worship. And this counterfeit will cause people to bow down and worship the antichrist. Now whether this is God giving power, where he's really been resurrected for a period of time, he's not truly resurrected. I mean, we saw Lazarus rise from the dead, we saw a Jairus daughter rise from the dead, we saw other people in the New Testament rise from the dead, but they weren't resurrected. Resurrected means I've risen from the dead and I've conquered death and I'll never ever die again. Lazarus got to die twice, Jairus' daughter got the die twice. Jesus Christ died once and overcame death and He is alive and He'll never die again. - [Congregation] Amen. - What you see in the antichrist is gonna stage a resurrection, but it's only for a short period of time 'cause the Bible says, "His end is gonna come and he's gonna get thumped and he's gonna eventually get thrown into the lake fire." He's not God, he's not resurrected, but there's gonna be deception in such a way that the whole world's gonna look on and say, "Look, look, look what happened, he's risen from the dead, we finally have this utopia, we finally have somebody that's worth giving entire allegiance to." And notice what it says in verse four, they worshiped the dragon say with me out loud, who's the dragon? - [Congregation] Satan. - Yeah, so they're gonna worship Satan. Would be Satan worship, global satanic worship. They're gonna worship Satan because he gave his authority to the beast and they worshiped the beast saying, "Who is like the beast and who is able to wage war with him." When people see this stage resurrection, here's what they're gonna say. "There's no one like him, there there's no one like the antichrist, there's no one like this beast, there's no world dictatorship that's ever been, I mean, this is awesome." But it reminds me of other scriptures that I see in my Bible, like Exodus 15:11, which says this, "Who is like you among the Gods oh Lord, who is like you, majestic and holiness, awesome and praises, working wonders?" Deuteronomy 33:29, "Blessed are you oh Israel, who was like you, a people saved by the Lord?" Psalms 35:10, "All my bones will say, Lord, who is like you?" When the Bible is asking who is like you? What is the rhetorical answer when it comes to God? Who is like our God, what's the answer? No one, there's no one like our God, there's only our God, there are no other gods. What are people in the end gonna say? Who is like the beast? Who's like Satan? There's no one like him. What are they saying? We're gonna give our allegiance to him. Would you worship Satan? - [Congregation] No. - I mean most people will just catch us, "Nah, I've never worshiped Satan, I'd never worshiped Satan." What's it mean to worship Satan? It means when you give your allegiance to that which goes against God's Word. And aren't we seeing satanic worship in our culture right now? Hasn't there been a push that way for generations? Aren't we seeing it play out? I mean, lemme just give you an example, let me tell you what, the Bible teaches and then what satanically inspired people teach. The Bible teaches that the world was created by God in six literal days, that He created everything. Thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities, all things were created by Him and through Him. God created everything and that's why we're here with a purpose. What does Satan say? No, just kind of happened, you can't really know. I mean, you're just kinda ooze out of some protoplasm and it just kinda all came together and there's no God behind all this, it's just kind of there. Christianity and the Bible says, "Human beings were the crown of God's creation on day six, that we were created in the image of God." What does Satan say? No, you're no different of else, as a matter of fact the creation is more important than you who are created. Let's save the planet, let's work on taking care of the planet because the planet and animals and trees are way more important human life, that's satanic. The Bible talks about this in chapter one that there are two genders, do you know what they are? Male and female. That's God, that's just the Bible, I'm not trying to be hateful here, I'm just telling you what the Bible says. What does our world say? There's myriads, I don't even know how many there are anymore. What does God say about marriage? Marriage is between a man and a woman for life. What does our world say? That's just kind of whatever you want it to be. The Bible says that God being worshiped is central to our life. That the most important thing we can do is to worship God, that our hearts are seeking to worship the true God. What does the world say? It's not about God, it's about you, it's about you. Sermons should be about you and being a better version of you and helping you and being successful in your life and making more money and having more possessions because it's you, that's satanically inspired worship. And then what about this one? Bible says, "Jesus Christ is the only way to God, He's the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him." There's only one God and Jesus is the only way to Him. What's the world say? "Well, there's many ways, your path is best for you, my paths best for me." I mean, all that stuff is a move towards satanic worship, that's where we live, that's the world that we live in. And think about this for a minute, at some point in time, the things that I just told you from the Bible, in our country will be considered hate speech and they will lock you up for saying it. And you might sit there and say, "Well, glad I'm not the pastor." Listen, we're the church, if we don't stand up for what's truth now, it's gonna come faster than you think. - [Congregation] Amen. - God has called us to stand on the truth, this is the truth, it's happening in other countries. In Canada right now, there's a man who was arrested because his daughter wants to become a boy and he's against it and because he's against it, he's been arrested, he's in a jail cell, 23 hours a day in isolation because he stood up and said, "That's wrong for my daughter to become a son." And he's been arrested and locked up for being hateful to the culture. There are pastors being arrested for gathering. I mean, friends, I'm just telling you right now. If we don't stand on the truth, we have nothing to stand on. Like it is time, have we not seen it in the last year? Churches and pastors and Christians kind of cowering like, "I don't know if we can stand up for Jesus because what are other people gonna think and what is this?" Here's what we're gonna do at BRAVE Church, we are gonna stand them the truth, we we're gonna gather and we're gonna worship the Lord till Jesus comes back. Praise to the Lord. Praise the Lord. He's worthy of all of our praise, amen. He's worthy of it, He's worth it. And the world is looking for a group of believers that say, "Do you really believe what you say? Do you really believe what the Word says?" I love pastoring a church that would answer with a resounding, "Oh yes, we do." - [Congregation] Amen. - Oh yes, we do. But there's a deception, there's this deception, there's this move away, like I can't do this because somebody else might be offended. Friends, it's impossible in our generation not to offend somebody. You can't even say hello without offending somebody, without saying it in the wrong way. I mean, then that's what's going to happen, there's gonna be this deception in the world and everybody's gonna say, "Who's like this beast, who's like that? We've never seen anybody that's died and been resurrected." Oh yes, we have the Lord Jesus Christ and He's the only one worthy of being sought, amen. - [Congregation] Amen. - The antichrist will intentionally seek to dominate the world, he'll seek to deceive the world and then finally he'll do this, he will intentionally seek to destroy the saints. Notice verse five, there was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies and authority to act for 42 months was given to him, 42 months that's three and a half years, that's 1,260 days when in that last period of that seven year period. And he opened his mouth and blasphemy against God, to blasphemy his name and his tabernacle, that is those who dwell in heaven. What's he gonna speak against? He's gonna speak against the one true God and he's gonna speak against everybody that says they believe that, that's what's going to happen. One generation of the church will experience that, the last generation the church is gonna go through some of that. It's called the great tribulation that's why Jesus says, "Be ready, I'm telling you in advance before it happens." Is it gonna happen in our generation? I don't know, I don't know, we're closer than we've ever been. I don't know. But notice what he says, "He's going to try to destroy the saints," notice verse seven. It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them and the authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. He said, "Wait, wait, wait, time out." Great commission, Jesus had all authority in heaven and earth. Now it says He does like, what's going on? There's a timeframe for the last three and a half years of the final seven years that Jesus is allowing Satan to run rule for a period of time, why? Because at that point in time a majority of the world will say, "This is what we've always wanted anyway, would you just give us that? We've always looked for a king to serve, what'd you just give us that?" And in the last three and a half years, Jesus is gonna say, "Okay, go ahead, have your way." We read last week that there's gonna be a time where Satan gets kicked out of heaven. He's already fallen, but he still has access to God, where he accuses us day and night and does all these different things. But at that last three and a half year period, Michael and all the angels are gonna war against him, he's gonna get booted to the earth and when he realizes he's only got a little of time, he's gonna go crazy, he's gonna go after the Jews and then he's gonna go after every single saint that's still left on the planet, that's what he's going to do, that's who he is. And he's been given some authority by Jesus but just know that's a short timeframe, that at some point in time during that last three and a half years like we talked about, after the antichrist appears, after there's a falling away, there will be the second coming of Jesus, which begins with the rapture of the saints and the resurrection of the dead and that begins Jesus' second coming before He pours out judgment on the planet. You say, "How do you know that's the order." Turn in your Bible to the 2 Thessalonians 2, don't have time to go through this, you could go through the first 12 verses this week if you wanted to read that in addition to Daniel 7. But here's what Paul writes, Paul is writing the Thessalonian church 'cause they're concerned they're in the day of the Lord. They lived in a day like ours, like where they're asking, "Is this God's judgment being poured on us, like what's going on in the world." Anybody ever asked that question here? Is this God, is he mad at us? Like what's going on? 'Cause I thought you told us, we'd be out of here by now. And Paul writes back to comfort them, he says, "Now we request you brethren with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to them." That's the Perusia, that's our gathering with Christ, "That you not be quickly shaken from your composure or disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if it's from us to the effect of the day of the Lord has come." Don't worry that the day of the Lord has come, God is not going to pour out his wrath on believers, I taught you that. This is not the day of the Lord, tribulation maybe, difficulties, tough times, not the day of the Lord. God is not going to pour out wrath upon his saints. Verse three, "Let no one deceive you in any way for it will not come the day of the Lord, unless the apostasy comes first," apostasy means falling away from the faith. "And the man of lawlessness is revealed, the Son of destruction who exalts himself above every so called god or object of worship so that He takes a seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God. What's he saying, you know you're not in the day of the Lord 'cause two things haven't happened. Here's the two things that haven't happened, the man of lawlessness, the antichrist has not been revealed and there hasn't been a falling away of the faith. You say, "What's the falling away of the faith," the falling away of the faith are false professors, people who say they're Christians until it gets rough and realize I'm not really a Christian, I just kinda went along with it for a little while. So when you see those two things then you'll know the day of the Lord's happening and when the antichrist at the point takes over, he's been there for the seven years, but when he takes his place, what's going to happen during the first three and a half years? He's gonna appear like this great political ruler and figure, he's gonna make all sorts of promises to end world hunger and to end all the diversity problems that we have. And what you'll see, is we're gonna take a mark, those people that don't know the Lord will take a mark and with this mark you'll, without this mark you won't be able to buy or sell or do anything. But can you imagine the tracking that will go on in people's lives? I mean, if you could track everybody everywhere which you kinda can now with a cell phone anyway, but if you can do that, there'll be no more crime, there'd be no more rape, no more kidnapping, why? 'Cause you could put the person there at the time that it happened, you could watch them. So crime is gone, world hunger is gone, we can distribute food, we can keep your health in your hand or on your forehead, we can take care of you and the whole world's going to say, "Incredible, we finally have somebody that solved all the world's problems, we want you." At the three and a half year point in the middle, he's gonna take his seat in Jerusalem, in the holy of holies, he's gonna take his place and declare that all people in the world worship him. During that first three and a half years, he'll make a peace treaty with Israel, it'll appear as if he's for Israel and they're gonna work together, Israel will start their sacrificial system again to get ready for the coming Messiah, three and a half years in, he's gonna break the treaty, break the covenant and say, "No, no, no, I'm gonna be worshiped." And things are gonna go from bad to worse, that's what's gonna happen with this antichrist. He's a blasphemer, blasphemer means I don't want anything to do with Jesus, I don't wanna hear another word about Him, I don't wanna hear another word about church, I don't wanna hear another word about God and I don't wanna hear about anybody else that serves Him, I'm done with you. What's he gonna try to do? Destroy the saints. Now notice what happened, it says, "It was given him to make war," and notice verse eight, "All who dwell on the earth will worship him," that is, notice says, "Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who has been slaying, if anyone has an ear, let him hear." Like this is my time to pause as your pastor and ask you this question, is your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life? I mean, you better know, because I think we hear false gospels in our culture all the time which goes something like this, "Hey, guess what? God's really good. Did you know that you've done some bad things?" Anybody here ever done any bad things? Well, don't worry about that because Jesus died on the cross for all the bad things that you did and if you'll just believe that he died on that cross for you, then you'll go to heaven. "Good, I'll just believe that, I guess." Friends, that's not the gospel. The gospel is not Jesus died for bad things you did, He died for the bad thing you are. It's your heredity, it's your sin, you are dead in your trespasses and sins, you are separated from God, He has every right to throw you into an eternal hell and punish you forever and ever for His glory and He would be just in doing it. And yet He loved the world so much that he didn't want you to remain dead, but came incarnate flesh, died on the cross for all your sin, not just the things you did, but the thing that you are and rose from the dead in victory to demonstrate that He's the only true God so that anybody who recognized that they were dead could repent and by faith, trust him and him alone, that's the gospel. - [Congregation] Amen. - And here's the truth, is your name written in the Book of Life? - [Congregation] Yes. - Because what you see, the parody here is anybody whosoever will may come, whosoever will may come, if anybody today would repent and trust Jesus, God will take you to be His forever and ever and no one can ever take you out of His hand and as you enter the door that says, "Whosoever will may come." You're like, "Oh, I'm coming." But when you get inside and you look back up, here's what it's gonna say, "Eternally secure before the foundation of the world," that God had your name written in His book long before you knew He was even looking for you. And that's the paradox, going to church does not make you a Christian, coming to BRAVE Church does not make you a Christian, hearing the Bible does not make you a Christian, being in a small group doesn't make you a Christian and being a good person doesn't make you a Christian, here's what a Christian is, one who recognizes they're dead apart from Christ and I've turned from their sin and turned to Christ and said, "You and you alone is where I have life and I'm holding onto you until I see you face to face," that's Christianity. If that's not who you are, guess what? You won't make it, you won't make it. If your Christianity is just kind of a thing you do on Sundays, if your Christianity is just a verbal profession of your faith but you really don't believe it in your heart, you won't make it, you just won't make it. Christianity is when you know that you know, that only in Jesus and in Him alone, do I have life and because I have life in His name, I'll never let Him go and even better than that, here's what the Bible says, "He'll never let you go, no one can snatch you out of His hand, He's marked you with a seal, you are eternally His, He's given a down payment or a deposit until you're completely His." Here's the question, are you completely His? When did you turn your life from yourself over to God? When did you give him your life? I think John 6:37 highlights this where Jesus is talking during his earthly ministry, He says, "All that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out." Anyone, anywhere, at any time that turns their life over to the Lord Jesus Christ, He won't say, "No, not you." No, I'm not gonna," Christ died for the world. And anyone who by faith that comes to Him is His for all eternity. Here's the biggest question as we study this book , do you have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Because truly if you do, your spirit will bear witness with His spirit, that you're a child of God, you'll know that you know that you know, because not only does the word of God testify that, but your experience with the Holy Spirit will confirm that. Do you know that you're written in the Lamb's Book of Life? God wants you to come today, some of you that He's had written in His book before the foundation of the world would say, "Today is your day, today is your day to come out of your deadness and give your life to me and come alive." And it's nothing that you're gonna do, it's just responding through repentance and faith in his name, amen. - [Congregation] Amen. - And notice what he says to these people, notice what he says, verse 10 is really given to that generation of the church, that last generation of the church that's going to be here during the seal judgments as they're opened up, where martyrdom and death and all that stuff is going on and here's what He says to that group of people, "If anyone is destined for captivity to captivity, he goes." Captivity is being a prisoner of war. If you're destined for being a prisoner of war, go be a prisoner of war. If anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints, here's what He says, "You don't have to fight back, you don't have to fight back." There's one generation of the church that's gonna serve the Lord in such a way they're not going to be able to fight back because saint is gonna be given some measure of authority over the church and what are we called to do? If it's going to a prison camp, we go. If it's dying by the sword, we die. And as I've told you before and I've quipped here, but I really mean it, if God's called you to martyrdom, the good news is you only have to exercise the gift once, And the other good news is He'll give you the grace for it. I don't sit around and hope that I get martyred, I mean, I meet sometimes Christians that they're true Christians they're just kinda like distant relatives and they're talking like, "Can't wait, can't wait to be martyred, I can't wait." They have no idea what they're talking about. I wanna live. - [Congregation] Amen. - I wanna honor the Lord, I wanna love my wife, I wanna see my kids grow, I wanna honor Him, I wanna share the gospel, I wanna do all that. I'm not looking for, but if God calls us to that, here's what He's saying, "If we're in that generation," He goes, "Persevere all the way to the end." And here's the truth, If you truly are a saint, you will persevere to the end, He'll get you there, He'll get you there. He saying, "Hang on to Jesus, no matter what." And that's a word for each one of us. If you really know the Lord, no matter what happens, no matter what's going on in the world, hang on to Jesus all the way to the end. The antichrist will try to dominate the world, deceive the world, destroy the saints, but friends know his time is short, he's not going to live forever, only Jesus Christ will live forever and those of us who know Him will live forever in glory. Satan will live forever in a place called the lake of fire where he will be tormented day and night for his rebellion against God. Now we learn about this beast from the earth, this monster from the earth, this false prophet from the earth starting in verse 11 and we'll talk about three characteristics of this false prophet as well. And the first is this, this false prophet will intentionally seek to persuade the worship of the antichrist. So you have this minister of propaganda as the antichrist is taking his place that there's somebody speaking on his behalf to help him. Notice what it says in verses 11 and 12, "Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb and yet he spoke as a dragon, what do you see here? How was Jesus represented? What's one of the ways Jesus is represented in the Book of Revelation? As a Lamb. What's Satan gonna do? He's gonna have the false prophet be a counterfeit, he's gonna appear like a lamb, but he's gonna speak like a dragon, what does that mean? It means his real father is the devil and every single one of false prophet speaks on behalf of the devil and every single false prophet is a liar. We've had false prophets in every generation, we have false prophets in our generation right now, false prophets are winsome liars, that's all they are. How do you know that it's a false prophet? Because they never elevate the Lord Jesus Christ, they never talk about sin, they never talk about the need for repentance and faith, they don't talk about a real place called hell, they don't talk about Christ judgment, they don't call people to holiness, they don't talk about any of that stuff, what are they talk about? They talk about you. And some people even in Christian in them they don't have enough to sermon, follow after these people 'cause they'll say stuff like this, "They're so nice." I mean, they're nicer than our pastor, he even yelled sometimes, I don't know we like him as much. I mean they're sweet, they're nice, they're saying all these things about me and how I can live better and do all this stuff and it's just so great, false prophet. Ultimately there's gonna be one false prophet that comes on the scene and his promotion is gonna get everyone in the world to worship the antichrist. To get everyone in the world to say, "No, that's who we're gonna worship, we're gonna worship the dragon, we're gonna worship his values. And if you see our world moving away from Christ and moving towards the things of the world, just wait, there's all sorts of things that are coming down that way. He looked like lamb, but he spoke like a dragon, he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and he makes the earth and all those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed, in other words he's gonna be the one on TV saying, "Did you see it, did you see it, did you see it? Did you see it? He was dead, he's now alive, he was dead, he's not alive. who's ever liked that? Who's like the beast? You need to worship him." Now think about where we were a year and a half ago, we're in May of 2021, could you ever imagine the world going as quickly as it has in the direction that it has? I mean, you need to be aware because when the final generation of the church goes this way, you're not gonna have time to go to like the antichrist conference to see what all the pastors are saying. It's gonna happen fast and you better make sure that you know the Lord, discerning Christians will know who the antichrist is. And listen, I mean, every single person I know has tried to predict who the antichrist is. I mean, we're gonna get down to the end where it's the number of man, 666, basically in my lifetime, every Pope has been a contender for being the antichrist. Most, every president, look at Ronald, Wilson, Reagan, 666. Maybe Reagan was the antichrist. I mean, every president in my generation, "Oh, he could be the antichrist, he could be the antichrist." We don't know who the antichrist is gonna be, you'll know when he comes on the scene because when you see one that's trying to set up a worldwide worship of himself and a false prophet that's dictating that you have to, you will know that he's here. It won't be optional, you're not gonna get a choice. You either worship him or you'll never be able to buy and sell and be part of this one world economy, it's gonna be forced on you. Can you imagine the government forcing things on you like that? I won't say more. But I mean think about satanic worship, I mean I've shortened this because you'll think I'm being critical and you'll think I'm being political and I'm not being political, but you think about our world, just turn on social media and turn on the news and see what they promote, they promote everything that's antichrist and everything that's anti-biblical, whether we're talking about gender or marriage or even though the Bible points out in Genesis that there's only one race of people and that we have different skin colors based upon geography and our genetic makeup, that there's only one race and yet what are they teaching in schools? Critical race theory, it's of the enemy. Who's the greatest faculty member in all of our public universities, high schools and grade schools? Charles Darwin is the founder that can't be argued with. Charles Darwin is a racist, was a racist, doesn't believe that God created the world and all the things that we say and do, we say, "Oh, that's great, that's fact." It's not, it's satanic. You're gonna live in a world where to stand up and say, "There's only one God, and Jesus Christ is His name and if you don't repent and trust Him, you have no relationship with the Father and you need to turn to Him and everything God says in His Word is true." When you stand up and say that, there's coming a day where there's gonna be such pushback against you, you may lose your job, you may lose your house, you may lose all sorts of things, you may even lose your life because of what's gonna happen. Will you be willing to stand? 'Cause here's the thing, if you're not willing to stand now, you won't be willing to stand then, 'cause for most of us we see these things happening and we sit by passively and we're like, "Oh, that's too bad, that's not really Christian. Oh, that's too bad." Stand up, open your mouth and speak the truth. - [Congregation] Amen. - I'm a truth person. Truth can hurt my heart, God uses truth to shape my life. As I prepare and preach, God shares things with me, I can't handle lies. So when I hear somebody talking to the media, I'm like, "Here's what it is, here's the truth." And then the next day, it's the exact opposite, the next day it's the exact opposite, the next day it's the exact opposite and they're like, "Oh my gosh, that guy is so smart. He's a doctor. He went to school." Friends, I'm telling you I'm a truth teller, tell the truth and hold onto the truth or say, "I don't know what the truth is but don't make stuff up." One day there's coming a day where if you stand on the truth, you will be in the way of people that don't want it, remain firm, steadfast, stand on the truth. False prophet not only will try to persuade the worship of the antichrist as a winsome liar, but he will perform great signs of deception, great signs of deception. Notice what he does in verse 13, he performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men, ooh! Has that not happened before? Did not Elijah called down fire? Did not two of Jesus' disciples wanna call down fire from Samaria? I mean, just because you see a miracle doesn't mean that it's God. I have tons of room in my theology for miracles, I'm not a cessationist, I believe the Holy Spirit can still work today and do everything that He's always been able to do, but I am not a miracle seeker, I'm a Jesus Christ seeker. Do you understand what I'm saying? Some people are always looking for the miracle, I'm always looking for the sign. You know what Jesus said about people like that, only a wicked and adulterous generation seeks a sign, quit seeking signs. If God chooses to heal some people, praise God. If God chooses not to heal people, praise God. If God chooses to deliver people, praise God. If God chooses not to, praise God. Quit looking for the miracles, what are we gonna have in the end time? Everybody's gonna be looking for the miracle. We even were introduced to two witnesses earlier on, they're gonna be living during this time, where they're allowed to call fire out of their mouth to take out anybody that messes with them, so what are they gonna do? There's gonna be a counterfeit. Look they brought down fire from heaven, they must be from God to. There's always counterfeits, remember when Moses went to Pharaoh and God told him, put your staff down and it turned into a snake. And then was it Jannes and Jambres? I forget their names, two of Pharaoh's men, what did they do? They put down their staff and they became snakes too. And then Moses ate their two snakes. I mean, there's always counterfeits, don't look for the miracle, the miracle doesn't make it of God, there's always counterfeits. There can be genuine works of the Lord and there can be counterfeits that look like it's the Lord to draw you off track. What's the world gonna be looking for? Just give us a sign, just give us a sign. Oh my gosh, fire came down from heaven, it must be God. No no, no, Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the grave and His Word testifies that He's the only one, that's what makes Him God. That's what we look for, not miracles. But picture this, no crime, no poverty, no food shortage, no differing religious opinions, get rid of all those Christians and this monotheism. And man, we can just worship this one, that's what's going on here, that's what takes place. Notice verse 14, "And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs, which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of a sword and has come to life." The antichrist died with the sword, he's now come to life, here's what he tells him and it's tough to understand exactly what this is and I don't know that I totally understand what this is, those living during his time will. Remember king Nebuchadnezzar, remember that? And he took the men of Israel and the people of Israel back and told everybody that they had to bow down and worship him and his statue that he created that was super tall. I mean, is this gonna be an image like that? Or is he really saying the false prophets is telling everybody around the world to make an image? And that we all have this image right around us. When I go to India, every time I'm in India, I'm in a rickshaw or a cab and on the dashboard of these rickshaws or cabs are all these different statutes to all these different gods. Are we gonna have an image? I mean, God tells us in the 10 commandments, don't have a graven image, don't make other images, don't worship other images. What's the false prophet gonna say, "Here's an image, worship the antichrist." Don't know if it's gonna be one big one or it's gonna be globally 'cause everybody's carrying one around or both, I don't know. There's gonna be some way that we're called to give allegiance to Him and notice about this, verse 15, "And it was given to him to give breathe to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many who did not worship the image of the beast to be killed." Is this one big beast, somewhere in Jerusalem it's gonna be set up and that the false prophet is gonna actually be able to give them a miraculous powers to the statue, that's actually gonna be able to discern whether you have the mark of the beast, whether you're really gonna give allegiance to him or kill you, or is it gonna be something more like, "Big Brother," where everybody around the world has an image of this beast and this image seemingly has life where they can track you and see you and know who you are and what you do and know every move, I don't know. It's gonna be terrifying whatever it is, it's not gonna be good. There's no escaping what's going on. I mean, you say, "Well, I'm just gonna get off the reservation." Good luck. Only way off the reservation is gonna be off the planet. I mean, some will go into hiding and some will make it all the way through the seven years and God's got his reasons for all of that. But notice this, I mean this is gonna be a time of global worship where the whole world is gonna say, "Yeah, that's who it is." Now, we love the story of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, because when we hear that story, we hear about these Israeli boys that are out in Babylon now and everybody in Babylon singing the Babylon worship songs to all the Babylon gods and all these different things. But Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are like, "We're not doing that." And we read the story and we're like, "That was pretty cool." But imagine what would have been like if the music's playing for the worship of their gods and everybody in the whole culture, except for you is worshiping their god. And you know if you didn't worship their god, you'd be killed and yet what are Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego say, "Oh, king , you can do whatever you want, but even if you throw us in the fire, our God's able to save and even if He doesn't, we're gonna worship Him." And we're like, "Praise the Lord." Would you be like that? Because there's coming a day where there's gonna be global worship of a man and everybody that's a singer is gonna sing songs about that man and every one of your friends at work is gonna worship that man and they're all gonna be looking at you like you're crazy for not worshiping that man, will you not bow a knee to him if you're part of that last generation of the church before Jesus gets here? And here's good news for you, if your name really is in the Lamb's Book of Life, if you really have repented and trusted Christ, here's good news for you, you will not worship the beast, God will give you the grace, He will walk with you, He will never leave you, He will never forsake you. He says, "Don't worry, don't fret, I'm with you always to the very end of the age." But there's gonna be a persuasion of the worship of the antichrist, he's gonna perform great signs of deception and then notice his final one. The false prophet will intentionally seek to promote a universal economy. Now this is one I couldn't see in the early '90s when I was starting to learn my Bible and I'm like, "How in the world?" I mean, can you imagine everybody using the same currency? Can you imagine everybody on one system of economics, can you imagine, I mean, I see it like, I don't know, Tuesday, now, I mean, it could happen. Notice what he says, "And he causes all," and when he says all here, he's not talking about all people, he's talking about all classes of people, the small and the great and the rich and the poor and the free men and the slaves to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. He provides it that no one will be able to buy or herself except the one that has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name, so what's he going to do? He is gonna say that in order to be part of this global economy, you got to take a mark on the back of your hand or on your forehead. Now, why would he do that? Here's why, because when you trust Jesus Christ, you are marked in Him with a seal which is a promise of your deposit into heaven, God seals you with his Holy Spirit. What do we see in the Book of Revelation where God seals the 144,000 Jews, He gives them a mark or a seal, what is this? This is a counterfeit mark, it's a counterfeit seal. What does he want? He wants the whole world to give visual allegiance through their hand on the back or through their head that this is who I worship. This mark is a tattoo or a some sort of impression upon the skin, we don't know exactly what it is but it represents his name or his number. Now, what do you mean by his number? We'll read the next verse, there's probably been more ink spilled on this next verse than anyone. He says, "Here's wisdom." I've already told you to persevere but now I'm telling you to be wise and this is really for the generation of the church that's gonna be there at this time. "Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for the number is that of a man and his number is 666, 666, that's his number. Everybody know that is? Good we'll move on. I mean listen, nobody really knows. In Greek and in Hebrew and in Latin, there's something called gematria, which different letters are giving numeric values so that you can calculate using that and using that, I mean everybody's been the antichrist, Nero, Caligula, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, pretty much all of our presidents, Pope's, I mean you can kind of make it to see everything. As a matter of fact, the Hebrew Letter of Vav which looks like a W. I mean some people say, "Okay, Vav, Vav, Vav, W, W, W, oh, it's the internet, worldwide web." I heard some pastor equip, he goes, "I don't know if it's true, I found that on the internet." Like we don't know, but everybody's making all these predictions, it's vaccine passports, it's not vaccine passports, that's just moving towards that way, but someday you will take the mark and let me just give you some comfort here, it won't be accidental, you will give allegiance to get the mark. My dad's a veterinarian since the early 1980s, I mean they've had chips, they don't cost hardly anything, you put them under the skin of a dog or a cat, you can track all their health. They can do it in humans now, they've been able to do it for a long time, it costs hardly anything. But it's not just that chip, you would have to give allegiance to get the chip, there would have to be a mark on your hand. And can you imagine going to the store and paying that way or have having scan your head? I can, it's coming, it's going to happen. What's the number, what's the 666? Don't know, we know that the number seven in the Bible is the number of completion. So perhaps 777 would be Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the complete perfect one. Six is the number of man, man was made on the sixth day. So I mean, whatever this is, it's a personification of everything man would ever want apart from God, 666 is it the devil and the antichrist and the false prophet. I mean, whoever's in that generation will know. And here's how you'll know, you can't get the mark until you give allegiance and worship to the beast. But if you don't take the mark, think about this, you can't buy or sell anything, you can't get gas for your car, you can't buy food, you can't pay your rent, you can't pay your utilities, you can't pay anything. Doesn't matter if you're a billionaire or homeless, you can't buy anything. That's why people will be like, "Well, fine, I'll I'll worship him." Not Christians, no, no. It calls for wisdom and discernment on our part to say, "Hey, I'm not taking the mark." You say, "Why is that important?" Let me tell you why, we'll talk about it next week, so I'll go through this quick. But in Revelation 14, the very next chapter, it's really important 'cause God's even gonna use an angel to speak to the world at this time. In Revelation 14:9 and another angel, a third one followed them saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast in his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he will also drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger 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 goes up how long, forever and ever and they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast in his image and whoever receives the mark of his name." You take the mark, you're going to hell. It's not like, "Well, I took it but now I've kind of repenting, I don't know, God forgive me." You take the mark, you're worship Satan, you're going to hell, that's why no true Christian will take the mark, nobody will take the mark, if you're true believer you won't take the mark. God will give you discernment and grace and perseverance and everything to endure whatever comes your way. And I thought about this week, this is heavy, I mean Jesus is telling us what's coming, He's not saying it's gonna happen for you, He's saying, "For some generation of the church, this is gonna happen and some generation of the world, this is gonna take place, I'm telling you beforehand. 'cause I love you so much, don't take the mark, don't worship the beast," what does that mean? Worship me right now. See, we asked the wrong questions. Maybe we'll read the Book of Revelation and ask questions like this, "How many people are gonna get saved during that time? I'm really concerned about that." Here's what I'd tell you, "If you're really concerned about that, share the gospel today, share the gospel now, pray for people today, reach people now, don't worry about what's gonna happen." And Jesus tells us we don't need to worry because his timeframe is gonna be so short and ultimately Jesus Christ is gonna crush his head and Satan will be in hell forever and ever and ever, amen, and so will all those who wanted to worship him. Satanic worship is coming, we're growing in that way, there's fewer and fewer that are standing firm on the truth, but here's the truth of this, as I was thinking about this this week, if it ever happened that we went into captivity or if it ever whatever happened that we lived through that season of martyrdom, can you imagine how fervent our worship services would be? I mean, can you imagine, like the only admittance into the worship service would be? You're willing to die for Jesus today, come on. How powerful would that worship service be? And it wouldn't matter who was preaching 'cause there'd be no preacher, would just be a bunch of us sitting around worshiping, trusting the Holy Spirit of God to provide for us and do incredible things. And what does God say? He'll take care of every single one of our needs, He loves us. God doesn't call us to read the Book of Revelation and live in fear, He just tells us here's what's gonna happen and be ready because there's some generation of the church that's gonna go through this and this is the way that our world is going. But I have good news for you too, we don't know when this timeframe is and we don't need to know when this timeframe is, here's what we know, that our God is still a God that can bring revival to our world. That our God is still a God that can turn the corner, our God is still a God that can revive His church, our God is still a God where great things that can happen and the darker it gets, the brighter that the gospel shines, thank you Jesus. It's through His grace that we have life in His name, It's through His cross and He shed blood, we have life in His name and if we have Him, He indwells us with His Holy Spirit so we never go through anything alone. And he's always with us always, to the very end of the age and I got good news for you, as you continue reading on this book, we win, we win, amen. So don't live in fear but stand firm on the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The way we wanted to end our service today is as you hear the song sung over you, we want you to prepare your heart for communion because the central tenant of our faith is the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you didn't pick up a cup on your way in, just raise your hand, one of ushers will bring you one. And just as you hear this song whether you're standing or sitting as this is sung over you, just think about all that Christ has already delivered, all that Christ has already paid for and all that God has done in your life. Would you pray with me, Lord Jesus we give you all the praise, glory and honor for who you are. Lord do a work in our hearts and Lord let us ponder the words of scripture but let us recognize is through Christ we are already victorious, we are already overcomers, do a work in and through us today and remind us of all that forgiven us for. And Lord as we come back together here after the singing of the song and take the elements together, would you be glorified and honored in every way, in Jesus name, amen and amen. Can we give God some praise today?