{"id":18990,"date":"2019-06-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-02T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-041-test-all-things\/"},"modified":"2019-06-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-02T05:00:00","slug":"revelation-041-test-all-things","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-041-test-all-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 041 – Test All Things"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18990","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 041 - Test All Things","sermon_date":"20190602","sermon_month":"6","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":6785,"sermon_slides":6787,"sermon_mp3":6789,"sermon_id":"62191246347049","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"13:11-15","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nTest All Things\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a06-2-19\n\nRevelation 13:11-15\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 41\n\nGood morning everybody; let\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to the Book of Revelation, chapter 13 beginning at verse 11.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is Test All Things.\u00a0 Just as a quick reminder of where we\u2019re are in the Book of Revelation, the trumpet judgments have been sounded bringing various judgments to the earth.\u00a0 The seventh trumpet perhaps being the most significant because there we are told that \u201cThe kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [Revelation 11:15, \u201cThen the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, \u201cThe kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.\u201d]\n\nThe long awaited transfer of the world from Satan\u2019s grasp back into the hands of God is occurring in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 There are about five times in the book where the chronology stops to give us an insight into something that\u2019s related to something happening in the chronology.\u00a0 And that\u2019s where we are, number three, the third major interruption in the chronology, chapters 12-14.\u00a0 Probably the longest chronological interruption in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 And I think the best way to explain it is it\u2019s Satan\u2019s countermove.\u00a0 God has made a move to redeem the planet, Satan has made a countermove trying to stop God\u2019s move because Satan has enjoyed, ever since the fall of man, running this world.\n\nSo we\u2019ve had Revelation 12 where he begins to attack the nation of Israel because that\u2019s the instrument that God will use to bring His kingdom to the earth.\n\nAnd then we move into Revelation 13 where we run into the two human instruments that Satan is using during this terrible time period, the two beasts.\u00a0 We\u2019ve studied the first beast, sometimes called the antichrist.\u00a0 Probably you get the longest fullest treatment of the coming antichrist in Revelation 13 and we\u2019ve worked our way through that passage.\u00a0 And now beginning today we find ourselves in the second part of the chapter where we begin to get prophetic information concerning the second beast.\u00a0 The second beast, as we\u2019re going to see, is called the twelfth prophet.\u00a0 The first beast is primarily a political leader; the second beast it would seem is probably a religious leader but these two work together in tandem to enslave planet earth.\u00a0 So as we work our way through the second beast, there\u2019s sort of an outline that we\u2019re going to be using and following.\u00a0 And we pick it up there with verse 11.\n\nNotice what it says there in verse 11 concerning this second beast.\u00a0 \u201cThen I saw another beast coming out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb but he spoke like a dragon.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice the words \u201canother beast.\u201d\u00a0 Now the Greek word for \u201canother\u201d is very interesting.\u00a0 What it means here is a different beast than the first one but it\u2019s of the same variety, the same kind\u2014different but similar.\u00a0 For example, this word \u201canother\u201d is used in Matthew 13:8 to describe another kind of soil, \u201cAnd others,\u201d that would be seed, \u201cfell on good soil,\u201d reminding us that the seed that is now dispatched is very like but different than the first kind of soil.\u00a0 [Matthew 13:8, \u201c\u00a0 And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.\u201d]\u00a0 So that\u2019s sort of a way to understand this second beast, he is not identical to the first beast but he\u2019s of the same kind and of the same variety and that\u2019s why he is called here, like the first beast he is called a second beast or just a beast.\n\nNow a lot of people when they see this word \u201cbeast\u201d they have a tendency to sort of dehumanize these two beasts.\u00a0 And I want to assure you that this second beast, just like the first beast, is an actual person.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0\u00a0 I know that because in Revelation 19:20 this second beast, sometimes called the false prophet, will be thrown into the lake of fire.\u00a0 [Revelation 19:20, \u201cAnd the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.\u201d]\n\nAnd we learn from Revelation 20:10, a thousand years later, that this second beast, like the first beast, is still in the lake of fire.\u00a0 [Revelation 20:10, \u201cAnd the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.\u201d]\u00a0 He\u2019s still there a thousand years later.\u00a0 What does that communicate to us?\u00a0 It communicates this to us, that this second beast, like the first beast, has an eternal soul. God, according to Ecclesiastes 3:11 has set eternity into the hearts of men.\u00a0 [Ecclesiastes 3:11, \u201cHe has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.\u201d]\n\nHuman beings have souls; believers and unbelievers alike have souls.\u00a0 This is the way we are designed by God.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is every single person within the sound of my voice is going to be alive somewhere a hundred years from now, a thousand years from now, a million years from now, because that\u2019s how we\u2019ve been manufactured as image bearers of God.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important not to gamble with one\u2019s eternity because there is an eternity, and to trust Christ for salvation.\n\nAnd the fact that this beast continues on for a thousand years in the Lake of Fire demonstrates that he has a soul, he\u2019s a person.\u00a0 A lot of people look at this second beast as just sort of an institution.\u00a0 I think it was the church Reformer, Martin Luther, that just called this second beast the Roman Catholic Church.\u00a0 Other people say no, it\u2019s Islam, it\u2019s some kind of religion.\u00a0 No, I\u2019m not saying that these two beasts aren\u2019t purveyors of religion, that is certain, but they\u2019re actual people.\u00a0 And it\u2019s very interesting that this beast is called the beast because of his character.\u00a0 His character is beastly, animalistic.\u00a0 There\u2019s no mercy, no conscience in the second beast just like there was no conscience in the first beast.\u00a0 But don\u2019t let the word \u201cbeast\u201d somehow in your mind be humanized, these two entities.\u00a0 These are very real people that are going to come upon this earth that will be used strategically by Satan in the final three and a half years or forty-two months of the tribulation period.\n\nI have a feeling that his ethnicity is identified there in verse 11 when John says, \u201cThen I saw another beast coming out of the earth.\u201d\u00a0 You might recall that the first beast came out of the sea, verse 1.\u00a0 And we took some time to explain that the sea, when you study it through, not just in the Book of Revelation but throughout the Bible, the sea refers to the great mass of Gentile humanity.\u00a0 But this second beast does not come out of the sea, he actually comes out of the earth and this Greek word\u00a0 used for earth can also be used for land, as in \u201cthe land of Israel.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 2:6 uses this Greek word in that very way.\u00a0 Matthew 2:6 says, \u201cAnd you, Bethlehem, land\u201d that\u2019s our same Greek word, \u201cof Judah\u2026.:\n\nIn fact over in the Book of Zechariah, chapter 12 and verse 12, the word \u201cland\u201d in Hebrew, it\u2019s eretz,<\/em> but when the Septuagint translators translated \u201cland\u201d in Greek they used this same Greek word here, speaking of the land of Israel.\u00a0 This is not something to start a new church over necessarily, but I think it\u2019s very likely that the first beast will be Gentile and the second beast will be Jewish.\n\nDwight Pentecost, I like to quote people that are higher than myself just to show you that I\u2019m not the only one that holds this particular view, Dwight Pentecost says, \u201cIn close association with the Beast, the head of the federated empire, is another individual known as the \u2018False Prophet\u2019 (Rev. 19: 20; 20:10), called \u2018the second beast\u2019 in Revelation 13: 11-17, where his fullest description is given. In that passage of Scripture there are some important factors concerning him to be observed: \u201c and then he says, Number 1, \u201cThis individual is evidently a Jew, since he arises out of the earth, or land,\u201d now\u00a0 you\u2019ll have to forgive Dr. Pentecost for this one here, he calls the land of Israel Palestine, \u201cthat is Palestine (13: 11)...\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 [J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come<\/em>, Page 336]\n\nAnd you have to understand that he wrote these words in 1958; that was when it was common to use Israel as sort of a synonym for Palestine.\u00a0 We at Sugar Land Bible Church really don\u2019t like that word, we don\u2019t use that word.\u00a0 The primary reason we don\u2019t like it and we don\u2019t use it is because what it is, is it\u2019s a\u2026 and when people, like Dr.\u00a0 Pentecost use it unknowingly they\u2019re actually using an anti-Semitic slur because it was Hadrian that came into the land following the eviction of the Jews in A.D. 70 and pretended like the Jews were never there and he mocked the Jewish people by giving it the land the name Palestine derived from one of their ancient enemies, Philistine.\u00a0 Palestine is Philistine, it\u2019s a way to pretend the Jews were never there. And sometimes scholars use it just in academic writings but probably Palestine is not a word we should be using, at least in a positive sense.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to find the word Palestine in your Bible.\u00a0 That land is called the Land of Israel; that\u2019s the proper designation for it.\n\nBut with that little problem not withstanding and of course Dr. Pentecost is with the Lord now so now he knows better, that little problem notwithstanding it\u2019s a very good point that he makes here that the Greek word for land is used pretty frequently for the land of Israel throughout the Old Testament and also the New Testament.\u00a0 So again is it something to start a new denomination over?\u00a0 Not necessarily but it is interesting that perhaps we could be given the ethnic identity of these two beasts simply by noting that one comes out of the sea and one comes out of the land.\n\nWe move from that to the character of this beast and you see it there in the second part of verse 11,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 it says, \u201che had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 13:1, \u201c\u2026Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.\u00a0 Revelation 13:11, \u201cThen I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon.\u201d]\u00a0 Now it\u2019s interesting that this second beast has two horns; the first beast that we read about in Revelation 13 had ten horns.\u00a0 Do you recall that,\u00a0 which seems to indicate to me that this one has two instead of ten to communicate the idea that he is a lesser authority than the first beast, beastly to be sure but less authority and less power.\u00a0 In other words, he works as sort of an assistant, if you will, to the first beast, working under his authority.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice what it says here concerning the character of this second beast, he was like a lamb, in other words, he looked like a lamb but spoke as a dragon.\u00a0 Now who is the dragon.\u00a0 We\u2019ve already determined that, the dragon is clearly Satan.\u00a0 Revelation 12:9, Revelation 20:2.\u00a0 [Revelation 12:9, \u201c[Revelation 12:9, \u201cAnd the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 20:2, \u201cAnd he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;\u201d]\n\nAnd it\u2019s interesting that Satan is empowering these two beasts.\u00a0 We know he empowers the first beast, we saw that back in Revelation 13, verse 2 and verse 4.\u00a0 [Revelation 13:2, \u201cAnd the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those<\/em> 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.\u201d [4] \u201cthey worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, \u201cWho is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?\u201d]\u00a0 And here we learn that the source of power of the second beast is the dragon or Satan himself.\n\nBut when you look for Satan you don\u2019t look for a pitchfork, do you?\u00a0 You don\u2019t look for someone with a red cape and horns.\u00a0 I realize that sells a lot of Halloween costumes in late October but that\u2019s not the way the Bible ever presents Satan.\u00a0 Satan doesn\u2019t come as something evil that\u2019s recognizable.\u00a0 He comes as an angel of what?\u00a0\u00a0 An angel of light.\u00a0 [2 Corinthians 11:14, \u201cNo wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.\u201d]\u00a0 On the outside he looks like a lamb but his source of authority and his words are obviously empowered by Satan because this second beast speaks like a dragon.\n\nIt fits very well the description of false prophets given by our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus said this:\u00a0 \u201cBeware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep\u2019s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 7:15]\u00a0 I very much appreciate the title of one of the books written by Johanna Michaelson, I\u2019ve always loved title.\u00a0 She calls it\u00a0 The Beautiful Sight of Evil<\/em>.\u00a0 How appealing and attractive evil looks and we certainly see that here as we\u2019re learning about the character of the second beast.\n\nNow what is the purpose of the second beast?\u00a0 Why does he exist?\u00a0 Notice, if\u00a0 you will, verse 12.\u00a0 \u201cHe exercised all the authority of the first beast in his presence.\u00a0 And he makes\u201d that\u2019s a very important word there, \u201cmakes,\u201d coerces in other words, \u201che makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.\u201d\u00a0 Why does this second beast exist.\u00a0 He exercises authority on behalf of the first beast.\u00a0 In fact, he actually directs worship of the unsaved world to the first beast. I, not to insult the sweepstakes too much of Ed McMann but I kind of like to refer to the second beast as sort of an Ed McMann type of figure, who said and I can\u2019t do it exactly but you know how it goes,\u00a0 Heeeerrrrs what?\u00a0 Johnny, and so he says that enough and you wonder well, Ed, what are you doing on the stage, all you say is \u201cHere\u2019s Johnny\u201d and then we figure out why he\u2019s on the stage, he sells those sweepstakes and makes millions of dollars in the process.\u00a0 But that\u2019s beside the point.\n\nEd McMann\u2019s purpose was to attract attention to Johnny Carson, it was not the Ed McMann show, it was the Johnny Carson\u2019s show.\u00a0 Johnny Carson was given attention, given adulation, directed towards him by Ed McMann.\u00a0 That, in essence is what this second beast is doing.\u00a0 This, I hope you recognize, is a tremendous imitation of the Triune Trinity, what we know as the Trinity, because we have in the Trinity a third eternally existent member of the Trinity, sometimes called the forgotten member of the Trinity.\u00a0 And who would that member of the Trinity be?\u00a0 It would be the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 What exactly is the function and the role of the Holy Spirit?\u00a0 The Holy Spirit has many functions and roles but no doubt one of the key attributes, one of the key activities of the Holy Spirit is to attract attention to the Son, the second member.\n\nJesus spoke of this in John 15:26, in the Upper Room.\u00a0 He says, \u201c\"When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,\u201d it\u2019s not going to be the Ed McMann Show, it\u2019s not going to be the Holy Spirit\u2019s show, if the Holy Spirit gets His hands on anything He always draws attention to Jesus Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it\u2019s sort of troubling to look at certain groups within Christianity that seem to place so much emphasis on the Holy Spirit when the reality of the situation is I think the Holy Spirit would be somewhat embarrassed by that attention because the Holy Spirit wants to draw attention to the Son.\n\nAnd this is how you can determine if the Holy Spirit is in charge of anything, the attention always goes, not to a man, not to a group, not to a platform, not to a series of academic degrees, but always to Jesus Christ. In fact, that\u2019s how you can tell that your life is basically what we would call a Spirit-led life, people should be able to look at your life and see in\u00a0 your life the character of Jesus Christ because that\u2019s the function of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And so with this second beast coming along and drawing attention to the first beast, what do we have here?\u00a0 We have nothing more than an imitation of what God has done which is the best Satan can do.\u00a0 There\u2019s another sort of imitation going on here, I\u2019ve got this chart, which don\u2019t worry, I\u2019m not going to unleash on you any time soon, I came up with twenty-one similarities between Jesus Christ and antichrist.\n\nHow Satan Imitates GOD and the Antichrist imitates Jesus Christ\n\nNo. Category\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Jesus Christ\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Antichrist\n
    \n \t
  1. World prepared in advance\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Galatians 4:4\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 2 Thessalonians 2:7<\/li>\n \t
  2. Revealed at the proper time\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Galatians 4:4\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 2 Thessalonians 2:7<\/li>\n \t
  3. Claim of deity\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 John 14:9\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a02 Thessalonians 2:6<\/li>\n \t
  4. Heralded by a forerunner\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0John 14:9\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a02 Thessalonians 2:4<\/li>\n \t
  5. Forerunner comes: Elijah's Spirit & power\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Luke 1:7; 1 Kings 18:37-38\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Revelation 13:13<\/li>\n \t
  6. Empowered by a higher source\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1 Corinthians 6:15\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Revelation 13:14<\/li>\n \t
  7. Member of a Trinity\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0John 14:9; Philip. 1:2, Acts 5:3-4\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Revelation 16:13<\/li>\n \t
  8. Head of a Church\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Ephesians 5:23\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Revelation 2:9; 3:9<\/li>\n \t
  9. Miracle worker\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Acts 2:22\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 2 Thessalonians 2:9<\/li>\n \t
  10. Resurrection from the dead\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a01 Corinthians 15:3-6\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Revelation 13:3, 12, 14<\/li>\n \t
  11. Given a throne\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Revelation 3:21\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Revelation 13:2<\/li>\n \t
  12. Ruling a political kingdom\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Isaiah 9:6-7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Revelation 13:5<\/li>\n \t
  13. Ushering in world peace\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Revelation 6:1-4\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Isaiah 9:6-7<\/li>\n \t
  14. Activity in the Temple\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Luke 2:41-50\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a02 Thessalonians 2:4<\/li>\n \t
  15. Putting an end to animal\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Hebrews 9:26-29\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Daniel 9:27<\/li>\n \t
  16. Length of ministry Over 3 years\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Revelation 13:5 17.<\/li>\n \t
  17. Sealing ministry\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Ephesians 4:20\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Revelation 13:16-17<\/li>\n \t
  18. Presentation to Israel as her Messiah\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0John 1:11\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0John 5:43<\/li>\n \t
  19. Covenant with Israel\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Genesis 15:18\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Daniel 9:27<\/li>\n \t
  20. Reception of worship\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Zechariah 14:16\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Zechariah 14:16<\/li>\n \t
  21. Establishing Jerusalem as global worship center\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Zechariah 14:17\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a02 Thessalonians 2:4<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nBut you\u2019ll notice that one of the similarities as you look at numbers 4, 5, etc. is the ministry of Jesus Christ was heralded by a forerunner.\u00a0 And who was that forerunner?\u00a0 That forerunner was a man named John the Baptist.\u00a0 In fact, this is what John the Baptist said in John 1:29 when he saw Jesus coming.\u00a0 \u201cThe next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, \u2018Behold, the\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cthe Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!\u201d\u00a0 You see, Jesus really has two spotlights on Him during His earthly life it was primarily the ministry of John the Baptist and also during His earthly life but at the present time it\u2019s the ministry of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 What is the devil doing here is he\u2019s imitating John the Baptist.\u00a0 And he\u2019s imitating the ministry of the Holy Spirit.\n\nI want you to understand something very clearly, that Satan, 2 Corinthians 11:14, disguises himself as an angel of light.\u00a0 [2 Corinthians 11:14, \u201cNo wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.\u201d]\u00a0 He takes truth to such a degree, without giving you the whole truth, that it looks real.\u00a0 It looks genuine, it looks authentic.\u00a0 In fact, when the prophet Ezekiel described Satan as an unfallen angel in Ezekiel 28:12-17, it\u2019s an amazing chapter about the beauty of Satan and how he sort of, the best I can tell, refracted the light that came from God in the form of a glorious rainbow.\n\n[Ezekiel 28:12-17, \u201cSon of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD, \u201cYou had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. \u201cYou had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.\u00a0 [13] \u00a0<\/sup>\u201cYou were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets was in you.\u00a0 On the day that you were created they were prepared.\u00a0 [14] \u00a0<\/sup>\u201cYou were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there<\/em>.\u00a0 You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.\u00a0 [15] \u00a0<\/sup>\u201cYou were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you.\u00a0 [16] \u00a0<\/sup>\u201cBy the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God.\u00a0 And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.\n[17] \u201cYour heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.\u00a0 I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you.\u201d\u2019]\n\nThat\u2019s Satan.\u00a0 And this is why most people today can\u2019t recognize the work of Satan or the activity of Satan is they\u2019ve been sold the line that evil looks evil.\u00a0 No it doesn\u2019t, evil appears attractive; it appears beautiful.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the Book of Proverbs says \u201cThere is a way that seems right but the end thereof is death.\u201d\u00a0 [Proverbs 16:25]\u00a0 Why would it seem right?\u00a0 Because of the beautiful side of evil which is what we\u2019re seeing here in this particular passage.\n\nAnd how beautiful is this evil?\u00a0 It\u2019s so beautiful that it\u2019s even performing miracles.\u00a0 I mean, who could be against miracles, signs and wonders.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, the miracles of the\u00a0 second beast, and I\u2019m looking there in verse 13, \u201cHe performs\u201d not just signs but \u201cgreat signs,\u201d the Greek word there is mega<\/em>, mega signs, as in megaphone, BIG, LARGE attractive signs.\u00a0 This word \u201csigns\u201d to me is so interesting, it\u2019s the Greek word s\u0113meion<\/em>.\u00a0 And by the way, it\u2019s not the first place in the Bible that this word where s\u0113meion<\/em> is used.\u00a0 Do you know where else this word is used to depict someone\u2019s ministry?\u00a0 It\u2019s used in John 20:30-31 to describe the signs of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In fact, this is the summary statement of the whole Gospel of John.\u00a0 John 20:30-31, \u201cTherefore many other\u201d what? \u201csigns\u201d s\u0113meion<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cJesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;\u00a0 [31] but these [signs] have been written so that you may\u201d what? fill your head with knowledge.\u00a0 NO, \u201cbelieve that Jesus is the Christ,\u201d why, what does He have that I don\u2019t have, [can't understand word] \u201cso that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have\u201d what? \u201clife in His name.\u201d\n\nThe regeneration, the Spirit\u2019s indwelling comes into a person the moment they trust in the true Jesus as validated by His signs.\u00a0 And man, there were some signs in the Gospel of John, weren\u2019t there, seven of them to be exact.\u00a0 The first one was the changing of water to wine at Cana of Galilee.\u00a0 The last one was the resuscitation of Lazarus from the dead.\u00a0 I mean, you talk about signs, the Gospel of John records them.\n\nAnd I find it very interesting to note that this is the exact same word signs here.\u00a0 Pastor, are you telling me that when the false prophet shows up he\u2019s going to be performing signs on equal par with Jesus Christ?\u00a0\u00a0 I would have to answer that question yes, that\u2019s what the Greek language communicates through the repetition of this word \u201csigns.\u201d\u00a0 Are you saying, Pastor, that Satan has as much power as God?\u00a0 No I\u2019m not saying that!\u00a0 God is the Creator, Satan is the created being.\u00a0 We know who\u2019s going to win this war.\u00a0 But that doesn\u2019t mean that as a created being Satan is somehow powerless.\u00a0 He has incredible power that will be unleashed upon the world even in the performing of great signs and wonders of a satanic variety.\n\nWe have a parallel passage here in 2 Thessalonians 2:9, Paul, the apostle, says, \u201cthat is, the one whose coming\u201d now he\u2019s talking there about the lawless one or the antichrist, \u201cthat is, the one whose coming\u00a0 is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power, signs and false wonders.\u201d\u00a0 The Greek word for power there is d\u00fdnamis<\/em>, where we get the word dynamite or dynamic.\u00a0 The Greek word for signs there is s\u0113meion<\/em> and the Greek word for \u201cwonders\u201d is t\u00e9ras<\/em>.\u00a0 You say well who cares?\u00a0 Here\u2019s why you should care, because those are the same words used to describe the miracles of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 The word d\u00fdnamis<\/em> is used of Christ in Matthew 11:20.\u00a0 [Matthew 11:20, \u201cThen He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent.\u201d]\u00a0 The word s\u0113meion<\/em>, as we\u2019ve already looked at is used of Christ in John 20:30.\u00a0 [John 20:30, \u201cTherefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;\u201d]\u00a0 \u00a0And the word t\u00e9ras<\/em> is\u00a0 used of Christ in Acts 2:22. [Acts 2:22, \u201c\"Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know\u2014\u201c]\n\nThis, I believe, is one of the most important slides I\u2019ve ever produced in my whole life.\u00a0 And I used this slide over and over again at the College of Biblical Studies, wonderful people there but many of them came out of sort of a charismatic signs and wonders mindset, condition to believe that every miracle that ever occurred in their life had to be God because only God performed signs and wonders.\u00a0 And yet it\u2019s not so.\u00a0 This slide contains every miracle in the Bible taking place that\u2019s real and authentic that God doesn\u2019t have anything to do with.\u00a0 God is not behind any of these miracles.\u00a0 And you say well, if God is not behind these miracles where do the miracles come from?\u00a0 They came from another source, a beautiful source but an evil source.\u00a0 God is not the only one in this universe that performs signs and wonders.\u00a0 Satan, obviously not having as much power as God has, obviously has a deep reservoir of an ability to give humans experiences; might I even say miracles that they\u2019re looking for.\n\nAnd look at what this second beast does, one of his miracles is described at the end of verse 13,\u00a0 [\u201cHe performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 13:13]\n\nYou want to talk about the imitation game?\u00a0 Can you think of a prophet in the Old Testament that brought fire down from heaven at Mount Caramel.\u00a0 It was Elijah, wasn\u2019t it. [ 2 Kings 1:12, \u201cElijah replied to them, \"If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.\u201d Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 1 Kings 18:36 of Elijah\u2019s true miracle wrought by God says, \u201cThen fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.\u201d\n\nAnd you also see fire taking place on the Day of Pentecost, when the church was born.\u00a0 It says in Acts 2:3, \u201cAnd there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.\u201d By the way, when Jesus comes back, the Second Advent at the end of the tribulation period there\u2019s going to be a lot of fire involved.\u00a0 You say well how do\u00a0 you know that? It\u2019s in your Bible.\u00a0 2 Thessalonians 1:7, \u201cand to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire.\u201d\u00a0 And one of these days God\u2019s going to take this whole world and He\u2019s going to burn it by fire.\u00a0 2 Peter 3:10-13, the dissolution of this world by fire, the replacing of this world with a new heaven and a new earth.\n\n[2 Peter 3:10-13, \u201cBut the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.\u00a0 [11] Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,\u00a0 [12] \u00a0<\/sup>looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! [13]\u00a0<\/sup>But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.\u201d]\n\nAnd here we see the angels [can't understand word], Satan himself the great imitator, through his work, through this false prophet, the one that looks like a lamb and speaks like a dragon, imitating those very miracles.\u00a0 And what an astounding deception this will bring to the earth, these false miracles coming from a false source.\u00a0 Real miracles, not hokum, not trickery, but coming from a different source.\u00a0 Look at the deception of the world. Look at verse 14 there, \u201cAnd he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of\u201d what? \u201cbecause of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast,\u201d you know, he is empowered by Satan and we learn that in Revelation 12:9 that Satan is the dragon empowering this first beast and this second beast, and do you recall what Revelation 12:9 says, of Satan\u2019s deceptive ability.\u00a0 It says,\u00a0 \u201c\u2026the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0[Revelation 12:9, \u201cAnd the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.\u201d]\n\nThink about that, I mean, the whole world is a pretty big place. I think one of our problems is we have completely under estimated the power of Satan to deceive the non-Christian, and dare I say also the Christian.\u00a0 You start to understand this and you begin to understand the purpose of the armor of God, how one of those pieces of armor, Ephesians 6, is \u201cthe belt of truth.\u201d\u00a0 Another piece is \u201cthe sword of the Spirit,\u201d which is the Word of God.\u00a0 How desperately I need these resources.\u00a0 How desperately\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I need to be in God\u2019s Word, lest my mind too will be pulled into a state of deception.\u00a0 Satan deceived Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 before sin entered the picture.\u00a0 Do you realize that, that Adam and Eve were sinning in the presence of God with no sin barrier whatsoever, they were not dead in their trespasses and sins as humanity began to experience that curse following the fall.\u00a0 And even without that road block in the way Satan deceived them.\u00a0 And if that weren\u2019t enough, do we understand that Satan deceived a third of the angels?\u00a0 Revelation 12:3-4, Revelation 12:7-8.\u00a0 [Revelation 12:3-4, \u201cThen another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems.\u00a0 [4] And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.\u201d]\n\nAnd 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 the sword and has come to life.\u00a0 [Revelation 13:14, \u201cAnd 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 the sword and has come to life.\u201d]\n\nYou mean the angels that stand in the great presence of God, that chant over and over and over and over again around the clock, \u201cHoly, holy, holy, is the LORD God Almighty,\u201d that saw the Shekinah glory of God, you mean he deceived them?\u00a0 The Bible indicates he did.\u00a0 And if Satan can deceive our forbearers before sin even entered the picture leading to our fall, if he can deceive a third of the angels, not a small number I might add, that\u2019s a big chunk of angels, that\u2019s a big portion of the pot, a third.\u00a0 What do you think he can do with this falling world that doesn\u2019t know Jesus Christ?\u00a0 What havoc do you think he could wreak in your life when you\u2019re walking out of fellowship with God and\u00a0 you\u2019re not perpetually in His Word.\n\nAnd so the world is deceived by these miracles, including fire from heaven.\u00a0 You say well, why are you belaboring this point?\u00a0 Here\u2019s my concern; society has become an experimentally based society.\u00a0 The proper name for it if you\u2019re looking for one is epistemology which simply put is the study of how we know what we know.\u00a0 How do we figure out what\u2019s right?\u00a0 How do we figure out what\u2019s true.\u00a0 You know what the world system says? If\u00a0 you have an experience it\u2019s gotta be true.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to me the talk show hosts, the psychic hotlines, all of the different experiences people can have today, palm reading, whatever it is, and people think it\u2019s true because they\u2019ve had an experience.\n\nAnd here\u2019s something else that\u2019s even more troubling to me.\u00a0 There is a whole segment today in Christendom of Christianity, that believes the Bible just as sincerely as\u00a0 you believe it, that it\u2019s conditioned the exact same way; if there\u2019s a miracle and it can be validated it has to be of God.\u00a0 That\u2019s why when you talk to somebody who has had an experience one of the worst things you can do is to try to talk them out of that experience because most likely they\u2019ve had the experience.\u00a0 I mean, they\u2019ve seen the vision or the feeling or whatever it is, they\u2019ve seen it, they\u2019ve had it, they can\u2019t be talked out of it.\u00a0 The way to direct the conversation is how do you know from which force that experience has come.\u00a0 This is why I have entitled this message Test All Things.\n\nNow look at that slide, I said my other slide was the most important, I think that one is the most important.\u00a0 I\u2019ll make the other slide second most important.\u00a0 That\u2019s going to give you every verse in the Bible that says \u201ctest the spirits.\u201d\u00a0 Test these experiences.\u00a0 People come up and say I\u2019ve had vision A and vision B, experience A and experience B, miracle A and miracle B. My answer is have\u00a0 you tested that, because that experience, maybe it is from God, who am I to say it can\u2019t be?\u00a0\u00a0 But given my biblical epistemology I have an understand that perhaps that experience can come from the other side, from another source.\u00a0 1 John 4:1 gives you the strongest admonition and exhortation in this area.\u00a0 It says, \u201cBeloved,\u201d now when he says \u201cBeloved\u201d he\u2019s obviously talking to saved people.\u00a0 \u201cBeloved, do not believe every spirit,\u201d see, the world is conditioning us to accept everything.\u00a0 We\u2019re told all truth must be God\u2019s truth, right?\u00a0 All experiences must be of the divine.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what your Bible says.\u00a0\u00a0 Your Bible specifically says, \u201cBeloved, do not believe every spirit,\u201d in other words, there\u2019s brownie points from God for closed-mindedness, not in a nasty sense, not in an arrogant sense but does it align with these sixty-six books?\u00a0 That\u2019s always the test, does the person whose given you the teaching and the experience, does their doctrine and does their lifestyle align with this book. That\u2019s the only source of truth you have.\n\n\u201cBeloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits,\u201d in other words, people you know are so open-minded that their brain almost leaks out of their head.\u00a0 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because\u201d a handful of false prophets, ooops, it doesn\u2019t say that, what does it say, \u201cmany\u201d see that, \u201cmany false prophets have gone out into the world.\u201d\u00a0 And beloved, let me just\u00a0 say this, the Christian church is not doing this at all or else on a very limited scale. And God only knows that the unsaved world isn\u2019t doing it, probably couldn\u2019t do it if they wanted to\u00a0 having no knowledge of God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 And\u00a0 you can see how, as Scripture and theology and an accurate knowledge of God from these sixty-six books is pushed out of collective conscience of people, of society, having embraced a faulty epistemology of experience, how they\u2019re sitting ducks for this angel of light.\u00a0 They don\u2019t even know he is an angel of light.\n\nAnd so we read here of his deception, and his deception continues when he begins to set up, end of verse 14, beginning of verse 15, an image, a statue.\u00a0 You say well why a statue?\u00a0 It relates to the nation of Israel\u2019s victory over Antiochus Epiphanes in the intertestamental period.\u00a0 Antiochus Epiphanes came upon the scene and he was a Seleucid, a persecutor of the Jewish people and he went into the functioning Jewish temple, A.D. 167, give or take a few years, and you can read about it in the historical books of 1 and 2 Maccabees, books that we as Protestants don\u2019t accept as divinely inspired but they contain in them, in some instances, valid history.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of like reading Josephus.\n\nAntiochus went into the Jewish temple, he told the Jews no more sacrifices in this temple, he launched a horrific wave of persecution against the Jews and he set up in that temple an image, singular.\u00a0 The image of Zeus, I think the Greek name if I\u2019m not mistaken, I\u2019m trying to think back to my Greek mythology where we had to memorize so much of these things in grade school, Jupiter is the Greek name, Zeus is the Roman name, the Greek mythology just carried over into Rome.\u00a0 Rome conquered the world politically but Greece conquered Rome culturally.\u00a0 Rome conquered Greece politically, Greece conquered Rome culturally.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I\u2019m saying.\u00a0 So the Greek deities continued to live on in Rome, just they gave them different names.\n\nAnd this man, Antiochus was so arrogant he went up into the Jewish temple and he set up a singular image in that temple.\u00a0 And the Jews said to themselves, enough of this, and they had a revolt through a man named Judas Maccabaeus, known as the Maccabean Revolt, against all odds the Jews liberated the temple from Seleucid rule and rededicated it to the Lord\u2019s service and they even got a holiday out of the whole thing.\u00a0 Anybody know the holiday?\u00a0 Hanukkah, you see it there in Kislev or December, it kind of runs alongside our time in history where we celebrate Christmas time of the year.\u00a0 And so another holiday was added to the Jewish calendar because of the victory that took place liberating the temple from Antiochus Epiphanes.\n\nIf you look very carefully at Daniel 11:31, Daniel four hundred years in advance predicted this event and he predicted what Antiochus would do to the temple and he calls it this: \u201cThey,\u201d Antiochus and\u00a0 his forces, \u201cwill set up the abomination of desolation.\u201d\u00a0 [Daniel 11:41, \u201cForces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the abomination of desolation.\u201d]\u00a0 Aha, so now I have a conceptual meaning of \u201cabomination of desolation.\u201d\u00a0 I know what it means, Antiochus is the prefigurement of the whole thing.\u00a0 He went into the Jewish temple, he persecuted the Jews, he desecrated the temple and he set up a singular image in that temple and then was miraculously overthrown by the people of God.\n\nDid you know that according to Daniel 9:27 the exact expression, \u201cthe abomination will come who makes desolate,\u201d virtually the same expression that has a concrete meaning in the fulfillment of the prophecies of Antiochus.\u00a0 Did you know that that same expression is put by the same prophet by the Holy Spirit, into Daniel\u00a0 9:27 as a prediction of what the coming antichrist will do midway through the tribulation period.\u00a0 In other words, this chart, the picture tries to sort of conceptualize it, but what Antiochus did is about to be repeated.\n\nAnd you see, you want to talk about something that breaks the scales off the Jewish eyes, when the antichrist goes into the third temple and also like Antiochus sets up a singular image in that temple, the Jews, who have been following the antichrist as their Messiah up to this point in time say wait a minute, somethings wrong here!\u00a0 This man is replicating what one of the villains\u2019 in our history did.\u00a0 I mean, we think very little about Hanukkah.\u00a0 Let me tell you something,\u00a0 Hanukkah, Feast of Lights, the holiday that came out of this because of the liberation of the temple from these terrible things is something that is completely and totally etched on the mind and the soul of a Jewish person.\u00a0 They know an awful lot about it, they just don\u2019t have the vantage point of prophecy that we have, knowing that this same thing is about to recapitulate itself and happen again. And oh my goodness, if that doesn\u2019t wake them up nothing will.\u00a0 And praise the Lord, that\u2019s what wakes them up, when they see the whole thing happen again in the person of the antichrist who up to this point in time they thought was their friend, their Messiah.\n\nAnd with that background in mind you start to understand why the Holy Spirit calls our attention to the image.\u00a0 What does it say there in verse 14, \u201cAnd 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\u201d singular, \u201cto the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life.\u201d\n\nRight there in the middle of the tribulation period the image is set up in the third functioning Jewish temple.\u00a0 In fact\u00a0 you\u2019ll notice there in brackets the word image is eik\u014dn<\/em>, you recognize that word, we use that word oftentimes to describe religious things that we venerate, eik\u014dn<\/em>, here it\u2019s not plural it\u2019s singular and it\u2019s an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and came back to life.\u00a0 In other words, the beast that rose, and we\u2019ve talked about that, has an image in his honor set up in temple number three.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Daniel uses abomination of desolation yet future, the same way he used it to describe something yet past concerning Antiochus Epiphanes; that\u2019s why this image becomes a big deal.\u00a0 But you see, let me tell you something about the antichrist, he\u2019s even going to go further than Antiochus because at least Antiochus set up an image to someone else, Jupiter, or Zeus. But what does Daniel\u2019s prophecies indicate concerning the coming antichrist?\u00a0 He will be worshipped above what?\u00a0 ALL that is called God.\n\nMany people today are trying to tell me that the antichrist is going to be Muslim.\u00a0 I have a very difficult time with that interpretation because I just can\u2019t, for the life of me, see a devout Muslim elevate himself over Allah.\u00a0 But you see, this coming antichrist is different because the image is to him because he had the wound of the sword and has come back to life.\u00a0 You know, many, many liberals will try to tell you there\u2019s nothing to see here folks, move right along, we all know that Daniel\u2019s prophesies were all fulfilled in the past in Antiochus Epiphanes.\u00a0 That\u2019s an impossibility, because Antiochus Epiphanes was nor worshipped above all that is called God.\u00a0 The very image that he put in the temple demonstrates that.\u00a0 This won\u2019t be an image to Jupiter, this won\u2019t be an image to Zeus, this will be an image dedicated to the antichrist himself.\n\nIn fact, this image is so interesting it actually performs miracles.\u00a0 Look at verse 15, \u201cAnd it was given to him to give breathe to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast would even speak.\u201d\u00a0 Now I remember reading that and remember thinking to myself I\u2019ve already seen that at Disneyland, talking rocks and going through the haunted house there in Disneyland, and rocks are talking at you.\u00a0 I guess what I\u2019m trying to say is technologically we\u2019re so advanced you can see something like this happening but not to put too much of an emphasis on technology because the way I read it it looks like yet another miracle.\u00a0 And image is actually talking; an image actually has pneuma or breathe and you\u2019ll also notice at the end of verse 15 it says, \u201cand caused as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.\u201d\u00a0 If you don\u2019t play ball, you don\u2019t cooperate, you\u2019re immediately killed.\n\nWhat is this?\u00a0 This is the enslavement of the earth.\u00a0 This is a season in history where the shackles are completely upon every man, woman and child and living and breathing member of the human race\u2026 enslavement, a level of enslavement that you\u2019ve never seen before in human history.\u00a0 How can I read this passage without thinking of Daniel3.\u00a0 You remember Daniel 3? Remember Nebuchadnezzar set up that image demanding that everyone in the kingdom worshiped the image?\u00a0 What Nebuchadnezzar did there with his image, ninety feet high, nine feet wide, eight stories, perhaps the image that\u2019s coming won\u2019t be that big.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t fit into the temple I wouldn\u2019t think.\u00a0 But it will have far more power than the image of Daniel 3 which enslaved Babylon.\u00a0 The coerced worship associated with the second beast and the image will enslave the entire planet.\n\nAnd isn\u2019t it interesting that that is where Satan\u2019s program always ends.\u00a0 Have you noticed that?\u00a0 He comes as an angel of light and it looks so appealing and it looks so attractive, and it looks so right but the end thereof is death.\u00a0 Hey, you didn\u2019t reveal that to me in the front end angel of light, did you?\u00a0 You just told me to turn my head a little bit away from the things of God and look at the bondage now that I am in.\u00a0 How many people do you know in this world that are in a total state of bondage, emotionally, financially, spiritually, simply because they were listening to the wrong voices?\u00a0 They were listening to the voice that was sort of tantalizing to the sin nature.\n\nYou think of the sexual revolution in the 60\u2019s, free love, and how that was promoted as freedom and the chains are removed from us and we can get rid of the old morality and embrace what\u2019s called the new morality.\u00a0 And how many lives went down that path only to discover that getting frequent tests for AIDS and HIV and venereal diseases is really not freedom at all, is it?\u00a0 What a rude awakening that is.\u00a0 Unwanted pregnancy is not freedom at all.\u00a0 Abortion is not freedom at all, it looks right but the end thereof is death.\n\nAnd how different it is when a person responds to the voice of Christ. Didn\u2019t Jesus say in John\u00a0 8:32, \u201cYou will know the truth and the truth will set you\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cset\u00a0 you free.\u201d\u00a0 John 8:36, \u201cSo if the Son makes you free\u00a0 you will be free indeed.\u201d\u00a0 Galatians 5:1, \u201cIt was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery.\u201d\u00a0 How about 2 Corinthians 3:17, \u201cNow the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s just fascinating to me how Satan has convinced this world into somehow thinking that the ways of Christ are enslavement and His ways are emancipation.\u00a0 And then you get to the end of the line and you learn it\u2019s the exact opposite.\u00a0 He is the one that will take this human race and enslave it.\u00a0 And I say this today because there are people here that need to hear what I\u2019m saying, because you need to trust in Christ for salvation which is the ultimate liberation of the human soul.\u00a0 And then there are other people within the sound of my voice that have been tempted to go back to the old path, the old ways before\u00a0 you met Christ.\u00a0 Somehow thinking that the ways of God in my life really aren\u2019t working out, I need to go back to the man centered approach, not understanding where it\u2019s going to lead. Satan will never ever tell you what\u2019s coming on the frontend (probably one of the best used car salesmen in history).\n\nAnd so as we conclude here think about this if you\u2019re a Christian.\u00a0 Is this time in your life to covenant yourself back under the ways of God because of a wayward habit, a wayward lifestyle a wayward thought pattern, whatever it may be?\u00a0 You say to the Lord, you know I just don\u2019t want to do that anymore because I know where it ends.\u00a0 And then of course if you\u2019re an unsaved person the ultimate enslavement for\u00a0 you is really right around the corner because you have no Savior.\u00a0 Whom the Son makes free \u201cwill be free indeed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [John 8:36] \u201c\"So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.\u201d\u00a0 Who in their right mind would turn that down.\u00a0 Freedom from what?\u00a0 Freedom from a pointless life, freedom from perpetual alienation from God, and freedom from hell.\n\nThat\u2019s what Jesus offers through the gospel.\u00a0 We call it the gospel because it\u2019s good news; it\u2019s good news because Jesus bridged the gap between fallen humanity and a holy God.\u00a0 The only thing He requires of us is not to do more, we\u2019re not a doing system, we\u2019re a done system.\u00a0 We don\u2019t save ourselves by our own good works, we rest on His good works by way of faith.\u00a0 And there are no doubt people in the sound of my voice that have never trusted in Christ for their salvation. And so our exhortation for you is to do that now, to rest or trust the best you know how in the privacy of your own mind and heart in the finished work of Jesus Christ for the safe keeping of your soul and\u00a0 your security.\u00a0 And the moment\u00a0 you do that\u00a0 you have complete and total spiritual freedom inside of you.\u00a0 Now only is your whole future different but you now have within you the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit which will help you in your daily walk with the Lord.\u00a0 If it\u2019s anything you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for these verses and their revelation to us concerning the ways of God and the ways of Lucifer, the angel of light, the light-bearer.\u00a0 Help us to be people that stay close to You, stay in fellowship with You, stay in Your word so that our minds are protected from the great deception that is all about us.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t