Participants: Pr. David Asscherick
Series Code: DP
Program Code: DP000007
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00:15 Good evening again everyone, you all have the study guide?
00:19 Yes or no? [Audience] Yes. 00:21 Okay, tonight is the first of a 2 part series in which 00:24 we're going to be discussing the Biblical topic 00:25 of the Antichrist, and I want to let you know that we 00:29 will be revealing, not tomorrow night, but the following night, 00:34 precisely who the Antichrist is. 00:36 And you're sitting there thinking: "What?!" 00:38 "Is he really going to say it? Is he going to tell us" 00:41 "who the Antichrist is?" The answer is "no", 00:44 you're going to tell me who it is because we're going 00:46 to put all the Biblical identifiers up there, 00:49 and you will see there is only 1 power, only 1 individual 00:52 that can meet all of those specifications, and I'm not 00:55 whistling Dixie when I you will tell me who it is. 01:00 But before we get right into that, this is the first part 01:03 tonight, and before we talk about the identity 01:06 of the Antichrist, what we're going to do this evening 01:09 is talk a little bit about the principle behind the Antichrist. 01:12 What does that even mean? Many people have a very wrong 01:16 idea of what it means to even talk about an Antichrist, 01:19 they say: "Oh, here's Jesus Christ, so the Antichrist" 01:22 "would be someone against Christ", that's what 01:25 they think, well, we're going to discover that that is 01:28 an overly simplistic definition of what the Antichrist is, 01:31 and our message is entitled "Does Jesus Christ" 01:34 "have a twin". Is that kind of an unusual 01:36 title, yes or no? [Audience] Yes. 01:39 And you're going to discover tonight why we give it 01:42 that somewhat unusual title. Before we get right into 01:45 the Bible proper, what are we going to do first? 01:48 - [Audience] Pray. - So let's do that together. 01:50 Father in heaven, we come before You just now. 01:52 We want to confess that we are sinners in need 01:55 of a Saviour. We want to confess 01:58 that it is not our own intelligence, and our own 02:01 education that will enable us to understand Your word. 02:05 Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, so Father, 02:08 tonight we need You to come into this room, to give us 02:11 Your Holy Spirit that we may understand Your word 02:15 correctly and right. Father, as we open Your word 02:19 may You open our hearts and teach us great 02:21 and mighty, and true things, in Jesus' name let everyone 02:26 say amen. Okay, let's go directly 02:29 to our study guide, if you need a study guide, you can raise 02:31 your hands and I think the ushers will be glad to get 02:33 you one. Discover Prophecy Nr. 7: 02:37 "Does Jesus Christ have a twin?" Let's begin in the introductory 02:40 paragraph: This lesson and the following lesson will address 02:44 the very important issue of the Antichrist from a Biblical 02:51 perspective. Conjectures, opinions and ideas about 02:55 the Antichrist, the identity of the Antichrist abound. 02:58 I'll be perfectly candid with you, much of it is rubbish; 03:02 much of it is not based upon the Bible, much of it 03:05 is not based upon the Scriptures, and you'll be 03:08 seeing that over the course of the next 2 meetings. 03:11 We are not interested in opinions, we want to know 03:15 the truth, we want to know what the Bible actually teaches. 03:19 This is a serious topic, so we want to be sure to be honest 03:24 and humble in our study, God will richly bless us if we seek 03:28 to do this. Let's talk about simple 03:30 salvation as we begin this evening. 03:33 Perhaps the simplest salvation text in all of the Bible 03:36 is John 17:3, fill in the blanks and I'll quote it for you: 03:40 Jesus was speaking and He said "And this is life eternal" 03:46 "that they might know Thee, the only true God," 03:50 "and Jesus Christ, whom Thou has sent. " 03:53 I'll repeat it again: "And this is life eternal that they" 03:56 "might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ" 04:01 "whom Thou hast sent. " In other words, 04:03 the essence, the distillation of salvation is to know God 04:08 and to be in a faith relationship with Him. 04:13 We talked about that last night, so here's Jesus Christ, 04:16 Jesus says: "come unto Me all ye that labor and are" 04:20 "heavy laden and I will give you rest. " 04:22 This is life eternal, to know God, to have a relationship 04:26 of trust and of faith with God; in its simplest distillation, 04:30 salvation is to know God. 04:35 So we're asked the question tonight, does Jesus 04:39 have a twin? I'm back to the study guide, 04:41 it says: There it is, simple, having a faith relationship 04:45 with Him, to know God is to have salvation, 04:49 to not know God is to fail of experiencing salvation. 04:53 As we shall see, the thrust of Satan's attack through 04:57 the Antichrist is to prevent individuals from coming to know 05:01 God personally and truly. This is precisely why 05:07 we spent the last 3 lesson grounding ourselves 05:10 in the cross of Jesus Christ and its prophetic importance. 05:13 Knowing who the Antichrist is won't save anyone, knowing 05:19 who Jesus Christ is, however, will result in Salvation. 05:23 I want you to think about this, it's very simple, 05:26 in fact, it's so easy to understand that my little 05:28 5 year old boy could understand it: if salvation comes from 05:32 knowing God, then Satan is going to try to prevent us 05:36 from knowing God, and thus obtaining salvation, 05:40 does that make sense everyone? What we're going to discover 05:42 is that the thrust of the Antichrist's attack 05:45 is to prevent us from knowing God personally and truly. 05:51 Very simple, so we're asking the question tonight: 05:54 Does Jesus Christ have a twin? This is an artist's portrayal 06:00 of the Antichrist beast of Revelation 13, does this look 06:04 like Jesus' twin? [Audience] No. 06:07 Of course, we don't know what Jesus looked like, 06:09 the picture that we had up there just a moment ago was 06:12 an artist's representation, but we could be very confident 06:15 that this beast with the body of a leopard, the feet of a bear, 06:18 the mouth of a lion, this horrific, strange, amalgamated 06:20 beast surely is now Jesus' twin. 06:23 Go back to your study guide and it says: 06:25 Are you deceived? Are you sure? 06:32 Never forget this: [text on screen] 06:45 For example, you never see anyone walking around 06:48 with a sign around their neck saying: "I'm being deceived" 06:52 because if they had a sign around their neck that said 06:55 "I'm being deceived" it means they know it, 06:58 and be definition deception is when you don't know it. 07:01 It's a little bit like this, think of sleeping. 07:04 Have you ever noticed that you didn't know you were asleep 07:06 until you wake up. Try that experiment at your home 07:09 some time. You suddenly have the awareness 07:13 "Oh, I was asleep", but you don't have that awareness 07:16 until you have a perspective of being awake. 07:21 So the only way you would ever know if you were deceived 07:24 is to get undeceived. You might sitting here tonight 07:29 and thinking: "I'm glad I'm not deceived", the problem 07:32 is that's exactly how deceived people think. [Audience laughs] 07:40 So the essence of deception is that you are unaware that you 07:45 are being deceived, that's why we say "Are you being deceived", 07:49 you say: "No", "Are you sure?" 07:52 "How would you know?" Look at the study guide, 07:54 down to the bottom: The problem is that this is exactly 07:57 how deceived people think. How can we be sure that 08:00 we will remain undeceived? Simple: be sure that everything 08:06 you believe is consistent with the Bible. 08:11 The Bible is the cure for deception. 08:19 Don't trust what a man says, we spent a little time 08:22 on that the other evening, and we put that picture up there 08:25 of Dr. Hose Louise De Jesus Miranda, who claims to be 08:29 Jesus on earth, who claims to be Christ on earth 08:32 and who has an estimated 1-10 million followers. 08:37 Are those people deceived that are following that man? 08:40 Yes or no? [Audience] Yes. 08:43 Do they think they're deceived? [Audience] No. 08:45 And that's the point. How could they become 08:48 undeceived, by listening to him? No, by listening to the Bible. 08:52 We're on the second page: The apostle Paul and 08:57 the Antichrist. What did the apostle Paul 08:59 have to say about this? Well, first of all, let's talk 09:02 about this whole concept of Antichrist. 09:05 We've already said that some people think: 09:06 "This'll be elementary, this'll be easy, this'll be" 09:09 "a piece of cake, here's Jesus Christ and whoever" 09:11 "is against Jesus Christ in a violent opposition," 09:14 "well that's clearly the Antichrist. " 09:17 Is the Devil that stupid? Hardly, in fact, what we're 09:22 going to discover tonight is that the prefix "anti" 09:25 from the Latin "anti" does not mean "against", 09:29 notice the actually definition from the Strong's Exhaustive 09:32 Concordance: [text on screen] 09:48 So look, in definition "a", "instead of", definition "b", 09:52 "as a substitute". So "anti" is not this elementary 09:56 simple definition "one who is against", the Antichrist is one 10:00 who tries to substitute for Christ, 10:05 not somebody who violently opposes, but somebody 10:08 who subtly betrays. More on that in just a moment, 10:12 but open your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians 2. 10:16 That's in the New Testament, you can find it, 2 Thessalonians 2. 10:24 Here we find the apostle Paul writing to the church 10:27 in Thessalonica warning them about an Antichrist power, 10:32 an Antichrist figure. 2 Thessalonians 2:3. 10:40 He says: "Let no one deceive you", so Paul was concerned 10:45 about deception, "Let no one deceive you by any means" 10:49 "for that day", in the context "that day" is the second 10:52 coming, "for that day will not come unless a falling away" 10:58 "comes first". 11:02 The Greek word here for "falling away" is "apostasia", 11:05 or "aposteia", it means "to divorce". 11:12 That's exactly what he's saying "Let no one deceive you" 11:14 "by any means for that day will not come unless a divorce" 11:18 "comes first". I want you to just think 11:21 about that for a moment: could you divorce someone 11:24 that you were never married to? That would be impossible, 11:27 so think about it this way, in order to have a divorce 11:30 you must first have had a prior favorable relationship. 11:37 So my wife is sitting right here in the front row 11:38 and I would never think of divorcing her because she's 11:41 the best wife I've ever had, I like to tell people, 11:44 she's my first wife, but could I get a divorce from her? 11:48 God forbid, is that possible? Sure, but she's sitting next to 11:51 my friend Andrea, who I've never been married to, 11:54 could I get a divorce from Andrea? No, so the moment 11:57 you start talking about divorce you know automatically there 12:00 must have been a prior favorable relationship. 12:07 So look, he says: "Don't let anyone deceive you" 12:09 "for that day", what day? The second coming of Jesus, 12:12 "... will not come until a falling away, or a divorce" 12:15 "comes first. " Now notice this: 12:17 "And the man of sin is revealed", that's 12:20 the Antichrist, "the son of perdition who opposes" 12:27 "and exalts himself above all that is called God" 12:30 "or that is worshipped so that he, as God, sits in the temple" 12:34 "of God showing himself that he is God. " 12:37 Notice it doesn't say: "So that he is as God," 12:40 "sitting in the temple of God showing himself that he's" 12:43 "against God", it doesn't say that at all, it says he goes 12:46 into the temple of God to show that he is God. 12:49 Is that the idea of against and opposition, or is that 12:51 the idea of substitution? Substitution! I want you 12:56 to notice something very interesting. On your study guide 12:59 there are 2 phrases, 2 names that the apostle Paul used 13:03 to refer to this Antichrist power, Nr. 1 was "the man of 13:09 sin", and the other one is "the son of perdition". 13:15 Notice the paragraph there: What is the significance 13:18 of that second name? That name "son of perdition" 13:21 occurs in only one other place in the Bible, it's in John 17:12 13:28 The only other person in the Bible referred to as the son 13:31 of perdition is Judas Iscariot. I'll quote it for you 13:37 very quickly. Jesus was praying in the garden, He said 13:40 "Father, of all that Thou hast given me I have lost none" 13:43 "but 1, the son of perdition that the Scriptures might be" 13:46 "fulfilled", so when the apostle Paul uses the term 13:49 "son of perdition", he is thinking of language of Jesus 13:52 referring to Judas as the son of perdition. 13:56 Only 2 figures in all of Scripture referred to by that 13:59 name: the Antichrist and Judas Iscariot. 14:04 Now look at this, you can fill in your blanks there: 14:07 But watch this, Judas Iscariot did not violently oppose 14:11 Jesus Christ, rather he subtly betrayed Him. 14:18 He came not from the violent opposition of the Pharisees 14:21 or the Romans, but from the very inner circle of Christ's 14:25 followers, the disciples, he looked friendly, but secretly 14:30 he betrayed. When the apostle Paul 14:33 uses the term "son of perdition" to refer to the Antichrist, 14:36 what he's saying is: "Don't expect a violent political" 14:40 "opposer, hardly, no ones going to fall for that. " 14:43 Remember that the issue at the end of time is the issue 14:47 of worship. So don't expect a violent 14:50 opposition to Jesus Christ, if that's what you're looking for, 14:53 you think "that's going to be Antichrist", wrong, 14:55 you missed it. He employs the analogy 14:58 of the son of perdition of Judas Iscariot because Judas 15:01 Iscariot came from within the inner sanctum not to oppose 15:06 Christ, but to betray Him. 15:10 Hey, wow, that goes along perfectly with that language 15:13 he had just used, that a falling away, or a divorce, 15:19 so we're getting this idea "anti" is a substitute, 15:22 "anti" is one who stands in the place of, 15:25 like a Judas Iscariot who would subtly betray, and there would 15:28 be a divorce. Rather than violent 15:30 opposition, we're looking at subtle betrayal. 15:34 That's exactly what we have here. [text on screen] 15:50 This is very important to grasp, you can fill those in 15:54 on your blanks. Notice also according to verse 4 15:57 the Antichrist goes also into the temple of God 16:00 not to show himself, that he is against God, but rather that he 16:05 is God. Next paragraph: Another 16:08 important text taken from a sermon by Paul preached 16:11 in Ephesus is found Acts 20:28-30, we've got that 16:16 on the screen for you, Acts 20:28-30. 16:19 This is Paul preaching, Luke writing, Paul knows 16:22 that he's on his way to Jerusalem where he'll 16:25 be betrayed, and then he's going to Rome. 16:28 Okay, now watch this, verse 28, he's speaking to the elders 16:32 of the church in Ephesus: [text on screen] 16:41 He says: "You're the leaders of the church, take heed!" 16:44 [continues to read] 16:51 So Paul is talking to the leaders of the church. 16:56 Notice the next verse, verse 29: [text on screen] 17:06 That must have been shocking to them, but what he said 17:08 next must have been very shocking, verse 30: 17:12 "Also from among the Romans", is that what it says? 17:18 "Also from among the Pharisees", is that what it says? 17:22 No, "From among the heathen", is that what it says? 17:25 No, [text on screen] 17:37 Paul was concerned that there would be a falling away within 17:42 the church itself. 17:46 He says: "Hey listen, I know that after my departure" 17:49 "savage wolves are going to come in among the flock," 17:52 "even from among your own selves will men arise," 17:54 "speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples" 17:57 "of the Lord after themselves. " So we're getting this picture 18:00 in our mind of a subtle betrayal rather than a violent 18:04 opposition. 18:07 Let's continue on then: Here Paul says that these 18:10 coming deceivers would arise from within the church, 18:18 just like Judas. Where did Judas come from? 18:21 Was he a violent opposer or was he from within the very 18:23 inner circle? The inner circle. 18:26 Just like Judas Iscariot, the conflict comes from inside, 18:30 betrayal, not from outside, overt opposition. 18:34 Now, before we go to the book of Revelation, 18:38 remember that the dividing issue in the book of Revelation 18:40 is worship, it deals with the issue of worship. 18:45 Remember also that Satan uses the Antichrist as a front man 18:50 in order to procure what he has always wanted, 18:53 and what has Satan wanted since his fall? 18:56 Worship. Remember, the highest form 18:59 of his intoxication, the highest form of his audacity 19:02 was there in the wilderness when he said to Jesus Himself, 19:06 "all this will I give you if you just fall down" 19:10 "and worship Me. " I mean, height of follies. 19:15 Here, the created is asking the Creator to worship him, 19:20 total insanity, this is the longing desire of Satan's 19:26 perverted heart, is to receive worship, 19:29 but we've already said it: if the Devil walked in here 19:32 tonight and said "Hey everyone, notice to have you all here," 19:34 "my name's Satan and I want you to bow down and worship me. 19:37 " Would you do it? [Audience] No. 19:40 You'd say "No, we're not going to do it". 19:42 The Devil, does he know that? Of course he knows that 19:45 so what he does is he gets himself a front man 19:47 and he props him up, and when he props up that front man 19:51 by giving him, as we saw in Revelation 13 the other night, 19:53 his power, his throne, his great authority, 19:57 when the beast is worshipped, who really is being worshipped? 20:01 Satan himself. It's called worship by 20:04 representation. Just think about that 20:07 for a moment, I'm going to quote a few words of Jesus 20:09 for you, Jesus said: "No man comes unto the Father" 20:14 "but by Me", beloved, how do we worship the Father 20:18 in spirit and in truth? We worship Jesus Christ. 20:23 We worship Jesus, Jesus is our representative before the throne 20:28 and the Father gave His power, His throne, His great authority 20:32 to Jesus, isn't that what Jesus said in Matthew 28? 20:35 "All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth," 20:37 "go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them", 20:40 in other words, the way that we have access to the Father 20:43 is through Jesus Christ. So we worship Jesus 20:46 in spirit and in truth, and that worship is transferred 20:49 to His Father, because He's the representative of His Father, 20:52 "if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. " 20:56 In fact, it's actually quite powerful, you have a counterfeit 20:59 trinity in the book of Revelation, how many of you 21:02 knew that? There's a counterfeit trinity 21:04 right in the book of Revelation. In the nature of God 21:07 you have Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 21:13 Some people say: "The Bible never says the word trinity", 21:16 of course the Bible doesn't use the word "Trinity", 21:19 it's a contraction of 2 words, "tri" which means three 21:21 and "divinity", which is God. The Bible actually uses 21:24 the word "God head", and somebody says "Well, I don't" 21:26 "like the word Trinity", then I have a good piece of advise 21:29 for you, don't use it. If you go to the doctor 21:32 and you say "Oh doc, when I bend me arm like this," 21:35 "that just hurts, I just can't bend it back like that. " 21:38 Any good doctor's going to say: "Don't move your arm like that". 21:42 So if you don't like the word "Trinity", hey, you don't have 21:45 to use it, instead use the Biblical word, and that 21:48 word is "Godhead", but what it says is that God 21:50 is 3 in 1: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 21:55 But when you come to the book of Revelation do you know 21:58 what you have? You have the dragon, 22:01 which is Satan, the false prophet, and the beast. 22:04 Just as you have a real Godhead: Father, Son, 22:07 Holy Spirit, there is a trinity in the book of Revelation 22:10 of a Satanic trinity: the dragon, the false prophet 22:15 and the beast, it's incredible. This counterfeit theme 22:19 is amazing in the book of Revelation. 22:22 Take, for example, God has a city, that city is 22:25 New Jerusalem, Satan has a city, that's Babylon, 22:28 spiritual Babylon. God has a church, and you find 22:31 that in Revelation 12, a chased woman who's standing 22:35 on the moon, the sun and the stars, and then you go to 22:38 Revelation 17 and the Devil has a church, a harlot 22:41 who's decked of all kinds of gaudy jewellery etc. 22:44 So you have this counterfeit theme, and now you begin to see 22:49 "Oh, that's why they ask the question: Does Jesus Christ" 22:53 "have a twin?" I'm on page 3: 22:57 Does Jesus Christ have a twin? The book of Revelation 23:02 as we would expect, agrees perfectly with what Paul says 23:05 about the Antichrist. We discover that the Antichrist 23:08 is a religious entity that seeks to obscure the true place 23:12 and person of Jesus Christ. You say: "Wait a minute," 23:15 "how do you know it's a religious entity?" 23:18 Because he goes into the temple of God to show himself 23:20 that he is God. If you're showing yourself 23:23 as God, that would make you a religious entity. 23:29 Notice as we go on here: In fact, strange as it may seem, 23:32 the Antichrist actually seeks to impersonate Jesus Christ, 23:36 this is portrayed very clearly in Revelation, 23:38 and this is why the lesson is entitled: "Does Jesus Christ" 23:40 "have a twin?" Of course the answer to that 23:43 question is "no", but the way the Antichrist seeks to ape 23:46 Jesus, one would wonder. Here's what we're going 23:49 to do tonight: we're going to compare the picture 23:53 of the Antichrist beast in Revelation 13 with the Lord 23:57 Jesus Christ and we're going to look at 8 points of counterfeit. 24:06 You can begin to write them down now, we're going 24:08 to look at them in your Bible, we're going to have them 24:11 up on the screen so you can write them down, and we'll 24:14 look at them in your Bible. Let's note Nr. 1- Jesus began 24:18 His earthly ministry by rising from the water. 24:24 Jesus began His earthly ministry, He went down to 24:27 the waters of the River Jordan, He walked up to John, 24:30 He said: "John, I need to be baptized by you. " 24:33 He said: "I can't baptize You, I can't even unloose Your" 24:36 "sandals", and He said: "suffer it to be so for now, for thus" 24:39 "it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness sake", 24:42 and Jesus was baptized, and coming up out of the water 24:45 according to Matthew 3, there was a voice from heaven 24:48 that said: "This is My beloved Son in whom I am" 24:51 "well pleased", and then Jesus goes out into the wilderness 24:53 and from that day forward begins His public ministry. 25:01 So, Jesus begins His public ministry by rising from 25:06 the waters of baptism. Now look at Revelation 13, 25:11 keep your finger all night in Revelation 13 because we're 25:16 going to spend all night in this chapter. 25:20 So if you've got one of these little ribbons, you just keep 25:22 your finger or a pen, or something right in there, 25:26 Revelation 13, because we'll be flipping back and forth 25:28 from other passages in the Bible to Revelation 13. 25:31 I'm reading in Revelation 13:1, John says: "Then I stood" 25:36 "upon the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out" 25:42 "of the sea, having 7 heads and 10 horns, and on his" 25:46 "horns 10 crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name". 25:51 Interesting, here the beast is depicted by John as rising 25:55 up from the water to begin his mission to deceive and destroy. 26:01 Notice the parallel, Jesus Christ begins His ministry 26:03 to save by rising from the waters of baptism. 26:06 The Antichrist begins his ministry, symbolically, 26:10 to deceive and to destroy by rising from the water. 26:16 Nr. 2- Jesus Christ resembles His Father. 26:23 We've already quoted it for you, I'll quote it again, 26:26 this is John 14, Jesus says: "Phillip, have I been so long" 26:29 "time with you that you have not seen the Father?" 26:32 "He who has seen Me has seen the Father. " 26:38 I'll give you several other verses to write down: 26:40 Hebrews 1:1-3, where the author of Hebrews says 26:46 that Jesus Christ is the express image of God. 26:51 Here's another verse you can write down, 2 Corinthians 4:6 26:59 where the apostle Paul says: "For God, who commanded" 27:02 "the light to shine out of darkness has shone in our" 27:05 "hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory" 27:09 "of God in the face of Jesus Christ. " 27:13 So Jesus resembles His Father, not just in a physical sense, 27:19 but if you had seen Him and seen His love, seen His 27:21 kindness, seen His care, seen His munificence, 27:24 you have seen the character of the Father. 27:28 But the Antichrist resembles Satan. 27:34 Look at Revelation 13, notice what it says. 27:40 Verse 1: "Then I stood upon the sand of the sea" 27:43 "and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea having 7 heads" 27:47 "and 10 horns, and on his horns 10 crowns," 27:51 "and a blasphemous name. " Keep your finger right here 27:54 and go to Revelation 12:9. In fact, don't even have 27:57 to turn the page in my Bible, Revelation 12:9. 28:03 We can look at it in several places here, 28:06 pick it up in Revelation 12:3, it says: 28:11 "Another sign appeared in heaven, behold a great" 28:16 "fiery, red dragon", according to verse 9 who's the dragon? 28:21 - [Audience] Satan. - So the great dragon 28:24 was cast out, that serpent of old called the Devil 28:27 and Satan. So back to verse 3, it says: 28:29 "Another sign appeared in heaven, behold a great fiery" 28:32 "red dragon having 7 heads, and 10 horns, and on his horns" 28:38 "crowns", do you see the similarity? 28:40 The Antichrist beast is depicted symbolically as having 28:43 7 heads, he has 10 horns and he has crowns upon those horns. 28:47 He looks just like the dragon. The dragon has 7 heads, 28:55 10 horns, how many crowns? Doesn't say exactly, 28:58 but crowns on those horns probably 10. 29:01 So just as Jesus Christ resembles the Father, 29:04 the Antichrist resembles Satan. We've already said several times 29:09 tonight, we just looked at the verse right here, that 29:12 the Antichrist has horns and crowns. 29:18 Did you know that in the book of Revelation Jesus is depicted 29:21 as having horns and crowns? Look at this, 29:24 you're in Revelation, keep your finger in 13, go to 29:27 Revelation 19. Many of you already know 29:33 this verse by heart, if I began to quote for you verse 16: 29:35 "He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written" 29:38 " 'King of kings, and Lord of lords'", so you know this vision 29:43 already, now look at verse 12. This is speaking of Jesus 29:49 "His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head" 29:53 "was many crowns. " You can be sure it's Jesus, 29:58 jump down to verse 13: "He was clothed with a robe" 30:00 "dipped in blood, and His name if called, The word of God. " 30:05 Who's the word of God? Jesus of course. 30:07 John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word" 30:11 "was with God and the Word was God. " 30:14 So this is Jesus on that white stallion, riding back 30:18 to conquer His foes, to conquer His enemies, to conquer His 30:21 adversaries, and it says He has many crowns. 30:26 Go to Revelation 5. Here we find 30:34 a marvelous vision, in Revelation 4 John sees 30:38 this throne, and then in Revelation 5 he begins 30:43 to weep because there's the scroll and there's something 30:45 about that scroll, and he knows that that scroll needs 30:48 to be opened, but no one was found worthy to open the scroll, 30:51 and then the lion of the tribe of Judah appears, verse 5: 30:56 "But one of the elders said to me, Do not weep John," 31:00 "behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David" 31:04 "has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its" 31:06 "7 seals. " Verse 6: "Then I looked and behold" 31:10 "in the midst of the throne, and of the 4 living creatures" 31:12 "in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though" 31:16 "it had been slain, having 7 horns. " 31:25 This is symbolic, let's think about what was a horn 31:28 in the mind of the Israelites, you find that many times. 31:31 For example, in the Old Testament, the book of Psalms, 31:34 it would say things like: "O God, raise up a horn" 31:37 "of salvation", you think: "What does that mean?" 31:39 "Raise up a horn of salvation?" It's actually very simple: 31:43 the Israelites and the Jewish people and others 31:46 in ancient Palestine, they had goats and they would see 31:49 these different kinds of goats up on the rocks. 31:52 When mating season would come they would smash their heads 31:55 into one another, you've seen the rams do that 31:58 when they sort of rear back and do that thing [demonstrates] 32:01 and in the mind of the ancient Israelite, the one with 32:04 the larger horns tended to prevail, so the horn came 32:09 to symbolize strength, the horn came to symbolize power, 32:14 does that make sense? So when it says here 32:16 that this lamb has 7 horns, 7 is a very important number 32:19 in the book of Revelation by the way, there are 7 trumpets, 32:22 7 seals, 7 plagues, seven, seven, all throughout 32:25 the book of Revelation, it's like God is trying to say 32:28 something about 7, "pay attention to the number 7", 32:30 He says, "Seven, seven, seven", but here it says He has 32:33 7 horns, 7 is the number of completion. 32:38 It's the perfect number; the earth was created and 32:41 constructed in how many days? 7 days, 32:44 it's that number of fullness, of completion, so here this lamb 32:48 is in the midst of the throne and He has a horn, which means 32:51 strength and power, and he has 7 of them, which means 32:54 He has perfect strength and power. 32:58 So far so good? So Jesus Christ in the book 33:01 of Revelation is depicted as having horns and crowns. 33:03 Think about a crown, who wears a crown? 33:06 A king wears a crown, and so, when a king has a crown 33:10 and has a horn symbolically, this would represent 33:14 kingly power. 33:19 So the Antichrist is depicted as having kingly power, 33:22 and Jesus Christ, as the King of kings, is depicted 33:25 as having kingly power. Point Nr. 3. 33:28 Now look at point Nr. 4: [text on screen] 33:36 Look at Matthew 28, first book of the New Testament, 33:41 last chapter of that book, Matthew 28, 33:47 say "amen" when you get there. Matthew 28. 33:50 Your flipping, flipping, trying to write, trying to flip, 33:53 trying to keep up, you can do it. [Audience laughs] 33:59 See, I'll slow down when that clock slows down, 34:02 the moment that clock starts slowing down, then I'll slow 34:05 down, but the clock isn't slowing down, so I can't 34:08 slow down, okay? Matthew 28:18: 34:14 "Jesus came and spoke to them saying, All authority has been" 34:19 "given to Me in heaven and on earth. " 34:22 Question: who gave Jesus all authority? 34:25 God did, that's exactly right, so Jesus receives authority 34:29 from the Father. Very quickly, while we're here, 34:32 just look up at verse 17, just very quickly so we don't have 34:35 to come back here, it says: "And when they saw Him" 34:38 "they worshipped Him, but some doubted", hang on to that, 34:42 take that verse, verse 17, and hang it on a hook in your mind, 34:45 we're going to come back to it. Jesus receives His authority 34:48 from the Father. Go to Revelation 13, 34:52 you've still got your finger in there, so you should be 34:54 able to just flip right back like I just did. 34:57 Revelation 13:1: 35:02 "Then I stood upon the sand of the sea and I saw" 35:05 "a beast rising up out of the sea, having 7 heads" 35:08 "and 10 horns, and on his horns 10 crowns, and on his heads" 35:11 "a blasphemous name. The beast which I saw" 35:14 "was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear," 35:16 "his mouth like the mouth of a lion", you're thinking: 35:19 "Whoa, where's all of this coming from?" 35:22 You've got to hang in there, in fact, we're going to spend 35:25 a whole lot of time on that on Monday, 35:28 but look at this, it says: "The dragon", who's the dragon 35:31 everyone? [Audience replies] Satan. 35:33 "The dragon gave him", who's "him"? 35:36 The Antichrist beast. Notice this: "... his power," 35:39 "and his throne, and his great authority. " 35:42 I want you to think about that, that's amazing. 35:44 What did we just learn in our presentation last night? 35:48 Satan wanted to go up or down? 35:50 He wanted to go up, "I will exalt my throne," 35:53 "and I will go up, up, up", we had that picture 35:56 yesterday, a powerful presentation, and Jesus Christ 35:59 is willing to go down. So Satan here apparently finally 36:02 gets his throne, and when he gets his throne what does 36:05 he do with it? He gives it away, 36:08 look at it in verse 2, it says: "The dragon gave him", 36:11 the Antichrist, "his power, and his throne, and his great" 36:15 "authority", the very thing he wanted to obtain, 36:17 he gets it only to give it away? Why is he so quick 36:21 to give it away? Because he knows no one 36:24 will worship Satan as Satan. So he gets himself a religious 36:29 front man called the Antichrist, not one who's against Christ, 36:33 but one who's in the place of Christ, he props him up, 36:36 sets him up real good, "you have my throne, you have" 36:39 "my power, you have my great authority", he steps back, 36:42 so when he's worshipped, who's really worshipped? 36:45 - [Audience] Satan. - You've got it. 36:47 So Jesus Christ received His authority from the Father, 36:50 and the Antichrist receives his authority, his throne 36:53 and his power from none other than Satan himself. 36:56 Do you see the parallels everyone, yes or no? 36:59 - [Audience] Yes. - Powerful, in fact, 37:02 this counterfeit theme is a consistent in all of Revelation. 37:05 Many scholars have brought this out, it's impossible 37:08 to miss, God has a city, Satan has a city, 37:11 God is [triune], Satan has a [triune] counterfeit, etc. 37:16 Notice this, crowns indicate kingly authority as we've 37:19 already said, we go now to the last 4. 37:27 Beginning at number 5: [text on screen] 37:41 Now you say: "Well where's the verse that says that?" 37:44 There's not a single verse that says that, you have 37:47 to study the gospels, particularly the gospel of John 37:50 and you see that there were 3 Passovers that took place 37:53 during the ministry of Jesus. Jesus was baptized 37:56 in the fall of 27 AD. 38:00 Now watch my fingers very carefully, baptized in the 38:03 fall of 27 AD. Then the fall of 28 38:06 would be 1 year, that's 1 Passover; the fall of 29 38:09 would be 2 years, that's another Passover; the fall of 30 38:12 and then have a year, 3 and a half years, 38:15 3 Passovers. Baptized in the fall, 38:17 crucified in the spring, Passover took place 38:20 in the spring. It would take me probably 38:23 15-20 minutes to show you that out of John, but you can look 38:26 at it yourself, just look up the word "Passover" in a 38:28 concordance through the book of John, there were 3 Passovers, 38:31 Jesus' ministry lasted approximately 3 and a half years 38:34 from being baptized in the fall of 27 AD and crucified 38:37 in the spring of 31 AD, does that make sense everyone? 38:39 Very powerful, in fact, if I had time I could show you 38:42 very easily. Now look at Revelation 13. 38:48 This beast here, Revelation 13:5, it says: 38:53 "And he was given a mouth, speaking great things and" 38:57 "blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue" 39:04 "42 months", this is one of the most important time periods 39:08 in all of the Bible, in fact, this time period occurs 39:10 7 times in the Bible, and it's always in the book of Daniel 39:14 and Revelation, sometimes it's called the 42 months, 39:17 sometimes it's called the 1260 days, and sometimes it's called 39:20 a time, times and half a time. How many years would 39:24 42 months be? 3 and a half 39:27 because 1 year would be 12, 2 years would be 24, 39:31 3 years would be 36, and then half of that would be 6, 39:35 and that would be 42. So how long does the mission, 39:39 the prophetic mission of the Antichrist figure last? 39:42 3 and a half. So we have Jesus' ministry 39:45 lasting 3 and a half literal years, the Antichrist's mission 39:48 to deceive lasts 3 and a half prophetic years. 39:52 Very very powerful. Now go to Nr. 6: 39:57 [text on screen] 40:00 Do I have to go to a verse to show you that? 40:02 You know that. Jesus Christ was slain 40:06 and He was resurrected. You say: "Well, what?" 40:09 "Are you saying the Antichrist was slain?" 40:11 Oh yeah, sure, look at your Bible, Revelation 13:3. 40:16 John says: "I saw one of his heads as if it had been" 40:20 "mortally wounded. " If you're reading the King James 40:25 it says "wounded to death", is that what it says? 40:29 Okay, a mortal wound is a deadly wound, "I saw" 40:31 "one of his heads as if it had been wounded to death", 40:35 but notice what the rest of that verse says: "... but his deadly" 40:38 "wound was healed", and after that what happens? 40:42 "All the world marveled and followed the beast. " 40:45 Let me ask you a question: if you get a deadly wound, 40:48 what happens to you? [Audience] You die. 40:51 You die, and if a deadly wound is healed, what happens to you? 40:54 You are raised from the dead. Does that make sense? 40:57 So Jesus was slain and then resurrected, the Antichrist 41:01 was wounded to death and then healed, but it gets 41:04 even more amazing. We just read it, remember 41:07 I told you to take that verse and hang it on a hook 41:10 in your mind? Matthew 28:17, that many people 41:13 worshipped Him after His resurrection, 41:17 so Jesus Christ receives worship after the resurrection, 41:24 but what did we just read there? 41:27 Look at it there, Revelation 13:3: "I saw one" 41:30 "of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded" 41:33 "and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world" 41:35 "marveled and followed the beast. " 41:40 Look at verse 4: "So they worshipped the dragon", 41:43 and the dragon is? [Audience] Satan. 41:46 So they worshipped Satan, who gave authority to the beast, 41:50 and they worshipped the beast, saying: "who is like the beast?" 41:53 "Who is able to make war with him?" 41:55 In other words, no wonder they're saying: "Who's like" 41:58 "the beast, who's able to make war with him?" 42:01 He had been slain and resurrected. 42:03 They said: "Whoa, who could make war with him?" 42:06 "Even if you knock him down he just rises up again. " 42:09 "Even if he's slain, he resurrects again. " 42:12 You see this counterfeit theme. And number 8: 42:15 Jesus Christ was given universal dominion, we already saw that, 42:18 "all authority, all power has been given to Me" 42:21 "in heaven and on earth. " Now look at Revelation 13:7. 42:32 It says: "It was granted to him to make war with the saints" 42:38 "and to overcome them, and authority was given him" 42:44 "over a couple, few people, not very many people"? 42:49 What does it say? "Authority was given to him" 42:52 "over every tribe, and tongue and nation. " 42:55 That sounds like universal authority, doesn't it? 42:58 That's exactly what it sounds like, every tribe, every tongue 43:01 and every nation. Jesus Christ was given 43:05 universal dominion, the Antichrist claims 43:07 a counterfeit universal dominion. 43:10 Do you see the counterfeits everyone? 43:13 Okay, so take a look at it, the resurrection of Jesus 43:17 Christ, He raised from the dead. Let's go to our review. 43:21 Jesus Christ is worthy of our worship. 43:24 Okay, and 1 more, I was ahead of myself. 43:27 Powerful, look at this: the Antichrist will not appear 43:31 as a violent opposer, but as a subtle impostor. 43:39 That's very interesting, go to the last page of your 43:42 study guide. 43:48 It says: The stage is set, we are now prepared 43:53 to identify the Antichrist. The Biblical picture 43:57 is compelling and conclusive. In our next lesson 44:00 we'll give you 10 identifying characteristics of 44:03 the Antichrist. We began this lesson with 44:06 John 17:3: "And this is life eternal, that they might know" 44:10 "Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou" 44:13 "hast sent", and we concluded that eternal life comes from 44:17 knowing God. So then Satan's attack 44:21 would be to prevent us from coming to know God in 44:26 a true way. This text makes it very clear 44:30 that salvation is beautiful in its sublime simplicity. 44:34 Salvation is based on a relationship of love 44:36 and commitment between an individual and God. 44:39 The plan of Satan through the Antichrist, in brief, is to 44:43 obscure the person and place of Jesus, and thus compromise, 44:51 or prevent all together that relationship. 44:56 The essence of deception is that one doesn't know that he or she 45:00 is being deceived. So a person may actually 45:04 believe that he has a relationship when in reality 45:08 he may have been deceived by the Antichrist. 45:13 The Bible is the cure for deception. 45:15 Our relationship with God must be based on love and truth, 45:20 Biblical truth. This is what Jesus meant when 45:24 He said in John 4 that we must worship in spirit and in truth. 45:30 Final paragraph: Bible truth makes our love for God 45:37 intelligent. 45:43 Some people are going to be satisfied to worship God 45:46 in any old willy-nilly way, but beloved, God wants 45:50 to be worshipped in the way that He asks us 45:53 to worship Him. Think of Cain and Abel 45:56 in the Garden of Eden. Both of them brought an offering 46:00 to the right God, isn't that true? 46:03 Cain brought his offering to the right God, he just brought 46:06 the wrong thing. He didn't bring what God 46:08 had asked him to, and I can imagine Cain saying: 46:11 "Well, you know, God'll understand, God's a big boy," 46:14 "He'll understand an appreciate, surely. " 46:17 So he brings his thing, the first fruits of the field 46:20 and God rejected it, why? Because God's a great big meany? 46:23 No, because that's not what God had asked for. 46:28 Some of us have parents that just let us get away 46:31 with whatever we wanted to get away with. 46:34 My dad wasn't that way, I hear that there are parents that way, 46:38 but my dad was 36 years in the military, he had an index 46:41 finger about that long and he'd point it at me all the time. 46:43 He'd say: "Boy!" Think this through, 46:47 God asks us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. 46:55 That doesn't mean: "Well, I'm going to worship God" 46:57 "how it makes me feel good, and blah blah blah", 47:00 listen, you might be worshipping God in a way that makes you 47:03 feel good, but if it's not in a way that's Biblical, 47:07 you are in danger of being deceived. 47:11 Does that makes sense? [Audience] Yes. 47:14 That's the world in which you live; the culture, the society 47:17 in which we live says "hey, if it's true to you, it's fine". 47:22 You've heard that ridiculous saying, it's an absolute 47:24 effrontery to the English language, people say: 47:27 "Well, that's true for you, but it's not true for me", 47:30 that doesn't even make sense grammatically, something is 47:32 either true or it's not true. "Well, you know, 2+2 is 6... " 47:37 "... for you, but for me it's 3." [Audience laughs] 47:42 No no no, listen! I come from a different day 47:46 and age, I come from a day and age, I'm a whole 34 years old 47:50 so everyone older than me will understand exactly 47:52 what I'm talking about. When I was math class 47:55 we would have to go up to the board and do the problems 47:58 that were on the board. Does anybody remember this? 48:01 - [Audience] Yes. - In front of the whole class, 48:04 "9x9", and you're going up there, absolute fear, 48:07 absolute trepidation, all of the students looking, 48:09 every student in the classroom knows the right answer, 48:13 and you can't remember if it's 81 or 82, and you get up there 48:15 and you say: "82" and you write it down, and the teacher 48:18 said: "Wrong!" [Audience laughs] 48:23 Nowadays the teacher would say: "Well, that's another way" 48:27 "of looking at it. " [Audience laughs] 48:31 "You know David, I just want to affirm your creative" 48:34 "and of the box thinking, good job", [claps]. 48:38 No! Not the society I grew up in, not the school system 48:41 I went to, that was wrong. [Audience laughs] 48:45 But in today's day and age "we don't want to make" 48:48 "the kid feel bad". I want him to feel terribly bad 48:51 if he's going to go on and become an engineer 48:54 and design a bridge, I want him to know his math. 48:57 [Audience laughs] 48:59 Amen? [Audience] Amen! 49:01 That's the world we live in, we don't want to hurt 49:04 anybody's feelings. God doesn't want to hurt 49:07 anybody's feelings either, but God gives us truth in His word, 49:10 and if what God says is A, and we say: "well, I prefer B", 49:13 shame on you. 49:15 "Well, I think God understands, I think God... ". 49:18 Listen, God does understand, God understands that He 49:21 told you what to do, He made it clear what He wanted you 49:24 to do, and you didn't do it, He understands just fine. 49:27 Beloved, the Bible is not hard to understand, but there are 49:30 going to be many people at the end of time who will be 49:33 deceived not because God's word wasn't clear, 49:37 but because they just went about it their own way. 49:40 "I'll do my own thing". No, no, no! 49:45 God makes His commands, and His teachings, and His truths 49:50 clear. 49:54 If everything we believe is grounded and rooted in this 49:59 word, there is no danger of being deceived. 50:11 Everything I believe as a Christian, every single thing 50:14 I do, everything I believe, I can give you a plain 50:18 "Thus sayeth the Lord" for it, I don't say: "Well, that's" 50:20 "the way my church does it. " "Well, that's the way my" 50:23 "pastor does it. " "Well, that's just the way" 50:26 "I prefer it", no, everything I believe comes from what 50:29 the Bible says, and you should do the very same thing. 50:33 Many people go looking for a "church" that fits them: 50:35 "I want to find a church where I'm comfortable", 50:38 a church where you're comfortable? 50:41 Find a church where they're teaching the truth! 50:44 Lord have mercy, you can be comfortable every other day 50:46 of the week, go find a church that's teaching the truth. 50:51 "Oh, I'll find a church and hopefully it's comfortable" 50:53 "for me", no! First find the truth 50:56 and then go find a church that's teaching what's true, 50:58 not the other way round. 51:01 Jesus Himself had to change churches. 51:04 Jesus began His earthly ministry and He said: 51:07 "Take these things out of here, you've made My Father's house" 51:10 "a den of thieves", He began His earthly ministry, 51:12 it was "My Father's house", but at the end of 3 and a half 51:15 years He went back into that same temple and He walked 51:18 out and He said: "Your house is left to you desolate", why? 51:21 Why had He changed? Because they had consistently 51:23 rejected the evidences of His Messiahship, He says: 51:26 "If you won't follow the truth, I'll take My show" 51:30 "somewhere else. " [Audience] Hallelujah. 51:33 Are we clear? [Audience replies] Yes. 51:35 We say: "My grandpa went to this church, my grandmother," 51:38 "she played that organ, and my uncle, he made that stained" 51:42 "glass", and oh good for you. Beloved, Jesus Christ Himself 51:46 went into the very temple that was built and designed 51:50 as an edifice to show Him, but when truth wasn't being 51:54 taught there anymore, He took His 12 disciples and He went 51:57 and met under and oak tree. Amen! 52:02 Because truth is more important than a building. 52:07 That's not the world you live in though. 52:09 The world you live in says "Well, you know, truth-smuth", 52:12 "come on, we all get along. The Bible is so hard" 52:15 "to understand, there are so many different interpretations", 52:18 how many of you have ever heard that before? 52:20 "That's your interpretation and this is mine", 52:23 let me tell you something: there are only 2 kinds 52:26 of interpretations: right and wrong. 52:28 "Well that's just your interpretation of 9x9," 52:31 "mine's a little different. My interpretation is" 52:33 "that it's 84." No! 52:36 The Bible says there is no private interpretation, 52:39 2 Peter 1. 52:41 You got me fired up, see how that works? 52:44 [Audience laughs] 52:46 Beloved, there is a real danger, the Devil is not 52:48 whistling Dixie, he is out to deceive, 52:54 and deceived people are unaware that they're being deceived. 52:57 Again, you're sitting there thinking "Man, I'm just so glad" 53:01 "I'm not deceived", that's how every deceived person 53:03 in the world thinks. The moment that you know 53:06 you're being deceived, you're un-deceived, makes sense? 53:10 Because now you're aware of it, it's just like when you wake up 53:13 and think: "Oh, I was sleeping", yeah, now you're awake. 53:18 And the Antichrist comes in to subtly counterfeit Christ. 53:24 People have this ridiculously obvious, elementary idea 53:27 that the Antichrist is going to come with a great big sign 53:30 around his neck that says: "Antichrist, I hate Jesus," 53:33 "honk if you don't love Jesus. " Everybody's going to say: 53:36 "Oh, there's the Antichrist, don't have anything to do" 53:39 "with him", are you kidding? 53:41 The Antichrist comes on the scene not to show himself 53:44 that he's against God, but that he is God. 53:47 He's a religious figure, like a Judas Iscariot, not who will 53:51 violently oppose, but who will subtly betray, and Revelation 53:54 sets us up for this. Jesus began His ministry 53:56 by rising from the water, the Antichrist begins his mission 53:59 by rising from the water. Jesus resembles His Father, 54:02 the Antichrist resembles his father. 54:05 Jesus has horns and crowns representing kingly authority, 54:08 the Antichrist, horns and crowns representing kingly authority. 54:11 Jesus received His authority from who? The Father. 54:14 The Antichrist receives his authority from who? 54:17 The Dragon. And then Nr. 5: 54:19 Jesus' ministry lasted 3 and a half literal years, 54:22 the Antichrist's ministry lasts 3 and a half prophetic years. 54:25 Jesus was slain and resurrected, the Antichrist was wounded 54:28 to death then healed. Jesus receives worship 54:31 after the resurrection, the Antichrist received worship 54:34 after his deadly wound was healed. 54:36 Jesus is given universal dominion, the Antichrist 54:39 is claims universal dominion. What you're seeing here 54:42 is a counterfeit, an impostor, and that's why we ask 54:45 the question: does Jesus Christ have a twin? 54:48 The answer is "No", but if the Antichrist has his way 54:51 you'll think so. Are we clear everyone? 54:54 2 questions as we close tonight, Nr. 1: has this been clear? 54:57 Raise your hand if it's been clear. 54:59 Okay good. 2nd question is this: 55:02 how many of you... listen, I'm not up here 55:04 for my good health and I don't make a penny off of these 55:07 meetings, I couldn't care less about all of that, 55:10 I want to know how many of you are committed to taking 55:13 everything that you believe, everything that you stand on, 55:16 your religious experience with God and saying: 55:19 "If it's not traceable to here, I'm willing to give it up. " 55:24 Come on... slowly wind the crank. [Audience laughs] 55:31 Are you with me? Beloved, that's dangerous 55:34 what you just did there is dangerous. 55:36 Look, my hand's up. 55:39 If it's not in here it's not worth believing. 55:44 This is the essence and the elixir of deception. 55:47 In today's day and age, you go to many churches, 55:50 they place a bigger emphasis on feeling good than on 55:53 doing good. 55:55 I've been to churches where I've said: "Open your Bible" 55:58 "to the book of Hezekiah", and everybody starts looking: 56:01 "Oh yeah, Hezekiah, that's in the New Testament right?", 56:04 there is no Hezekiah! [Audience laughs] 56:07 Beloved, we need to know this Word, we need to love this Word. 56:10 We won't be here tomorrow night, but we will be here on Monday, 56:13 we're going to look at "The Actual, Certain, Definite," 56:16 "Unavoidable Identity of the Antichrist", and it won't be 56:19 from me, it'll be from the Word, I guarantee that. 56:24 I won't tell it to you, you'll tell it to me. 56:27 So bring a friend, bring an enemy, don't bring a pet, 56:30 bring anyone, [Audience laughs] 56:33 we'll see you on Monday night. Let's pray together. 56:37 Father in heaven, we want to know what's true. 56:43 So please Father, give us a passion for Your word. 56:48 Father, we live in a society, and a world, and a culture 56:51 that is turned upside down and what's wrong is right 56:53 and what's right is wrong, and everything in between, 56:56 but Father, You are calling us to know truth. 56:59 You tell us that Your church is the pillar and ground 57:02 of truth, we want to know what's true. 57:04 So help us Father tonight, as we bring our hearts to You, 57:09 we bring our lives to You, we bring our worship to You, 57:12 Father, refine us. 57:15 Make us willing to let go of the dearest things if they can't 57:19 be traceable to Your word. 57:22 Father in heaven, bind our hearts together with Your heart, 57:28 and bind our hearts together with one another in Christian 57:31 love. 57:33 God we love You, teach us how to love You more and better. 57:39 In Jesus' name, let all of God's humble people say amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17