Prophecy, Pandemics, and the Mark of the Beast Issue

good evening good evening and welcome to the very first night of prophecies of hope and a very warm welcome to each one of our church family and each one of our guests this evening it is so good to see all of your faces and welcome also to those of you who are watching online i know we've got several people watching online and from not just from kentucky but from as far away as rhode island susan from rhode island when i shout out to to adrian who's watching and helping to answer some questions online so glad that you could be here with us this evening as well and well i won't i won't spend a long time uh an introduction but i did want to say i'm so glad that each and every one of you are here uh and i'm so glad to see your smiling faces and i hope that over the few days that we are together i will get to know each and every one of you uh much better than i do now a little bit of of housekeeping i was told to mention uh that those of you who may want a restroom there's a a restroom right in the back here through the white door and there's also uh two restrooms downstairs if you go straight down the stairs through the door you'll see two restrooms on on your right yeah watch your step going down the steps here because it is a little bit treacherous just to warn you uh but we do have restrooms here um so um this is not i'm not here to to give you all the answers to all of your questions perhaps but i want us to open our bibles together and discuss uh together some of these prophecies prophecies of hope uh but before we uh get into our into our study into our lecture this evening i just want to see if uh perhaps we could just open up with arousing him together how many of you know when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder if you know it why don't you stand with me if you don't know why don't you stand with me and sing johnny's going to come up here and and and help us lead it's 216 in your in the hymn book if you want to look it up we'll also have the words on the screen for you when the role is called up yonder [Music] sound and time shall be no more and the morning breaks eternal pride and fair when the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore and the roll is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when the dead in christ shall rise and the glory of his resurrection when his chosen one shall gather to their home beyond the skies and the roll is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] sun let us talk of all his wondrous love and care then when all of life is over and our work on earth is done and the role is [Applause] when the road [Music] [Applause] [Music] amen brother johnny before you go go away would you like to offer just a word of prayer and welcome the lord into our fellowship and study this evening our loving heavenly father we are so happy to be here tonight to learn about daniel in revelation these books are so prevalent prominent today in today's time we pray your holy spirit will be with us now open our hearts open our minds and may the words of your word touch our hearts i pray in jesus name amen amen please be seated please be seated how many of you i just want to know how many of you brought your bibles this evening well if you didn't that's all right i see a lot of you raising your hands raising your bibles some of you raising your cell phones because i trust you've got a bible on there if you didn't there's a bible in the pew in front of you so so we've got plenty of bibles but i'm glad you brought your bibles because we are going to be studying the bible together this evening now like i said a moment ago i don't claim to have all the answers but i can tell you one thing i know a book that i believe has the answers for us and it's called the word of god the bible and so uh i want us to discuss together i want us to study together those of you who are watching online if you have questions just drop them in the comments down below and uh and we'll do our best to to address those questions those of you who are here we're gonna have a break about halfway through about 45 minutes uh about around 7 15 or so give or take we'll have a little break maybe a five minute break and we'll have a chance to talk just very briefly and then we'll come back together if anyone needs a bathroom that's a good time to take one um but i i want us to to uh get into our study here well before i get into the study i want to bring uh my greetings uh and greetings from my wife uh christina who cannot be here this evening she would love to be here maybe she's watching online i don't know but uh if you are good evening christina i'm so glad uh that she can be where she is today she's actually helping with a little homeschool seminar down in alabama so i'm praying for traveling mercies for her but christina and i have been married for over 12 years we live over in mccreary county actually what brought us to the area was the beauty of the nature in in the area and we just wanted to wanted to do something where we love the lord and we want to do something to help other people uh they're in the community so a few years back my wife actually opened a little vegetarian restaurant some of you know christina's kitchen over there but that's a little bit about about her both of us have a real love for the lord and a love for the outdoors doing nature photography hiking biking canoeing that kind of thing my actually if you know me if you knew me a few years ago you would never think that i would ever be a preacher or standing up here in a pulpit because my favorite thing to do was to be behind a computer screen uh programming or working on things i actually had my own little computer business and it's kind of a long story how the lord called me from being behind a computer screen to now preaching in a church and ironically now because of covet and the technology i'm still behind a computer screen is not funny how how things go but uh but that's who i am uh i always loved the lord always was active in the church but never in a thousand years would i have dreamed that the lord would call me to ministry but as as the lord would have it he led me when i was in college to go on a mission trip over to africa i spent almost a year there in africa took a year off from college and came back and continued running my computer business until just a few years ago the lord called me to pastoral ministry now today i pastor several little churches like this church right here uh this is one of the churches that i passed there also one in williamsburg one in in stearns over in mccreary county and a little tiny group over in monticello so it keeps me busy some people call me a circuit writer riding around uh going around and preaching and just sharing the good news like i said i don't have all the answers i'm not an expert but i do know one who now has the answers and he is the one i believe who inspired this book and he is the one also who according to his promise can come into each and every one of our hearts and teach us to understand the word prophecy prophets what comes to mind when you think of prophecy tell me the future someone who can tell you the future maybe some someone might say the apocalypse the end of the world perhaps something dreadful and terrible happening in the future maybe you might think of when you think of prophecy or prophets maybe you might think of the of the street preacher who's standing on the corner with a sign or with a megaphone preaching to all the all the people in all the cars that are driving by maybe you think of someone who is preaching condemnation you know you said over there predicting the future when you think of prophecy do you ever think of someone dreaming dreams or perhaps seeing visions there's a story i don't know if it's true but but as the story goes as a boy who had dreams of the future one night when he was very young a crow came to him in a dream and said your aunt is going to die your aunt is going to die immediately he woke up he ran to tell his parents they said just go back to bed it's only a dream but that morning they got a phone call and the boy's aunt had died a few weeks went by the crow came again in a dream your father is going to die it said i ran to tell my father this boy ran to tell his father and and his father said go back to bed it's nothing worth worrying about but he was he was frightened all day he couldn't he couldn't concentrate at work he couldn't think of anything all i could wonder is uh today's the day i'm going to die what would you think if your boy came and told you that oh he didn't say how he was going to die just said today your father is going to die he arrived home just before supper and said came to the door i said this was just the worst day of my whole life she says you think your day was bad the milkman came and had a heart attack on the doorstep right right here on the doorstep this morning well it's a funny story of course the milkman the boy's father was going to die right [Laughter] that's all right i had to read it a couple times before okay it's a funny story but it kind of illustrates some of our culture's perception of what we think about with prophecy a doom for boating somebody is going to die it's about the worst thing you can think of but there's a mystery to it who's gonna die but then there's something else there's a hidden secret there's a hidden secret that somehow gets revealed by the prophetic dream oh your father is going to die no wonder many christians shy away from studying prophecy after all it's just a little bit scary and those symbols can seem so cryptic there are so many different symbols what do you think what do you think is it important for us as christians to study the prophecies of god's word i hear most of these yes yes it is important because god has revealed to us things that will happen in the future why do you suppose god tells us things that are going to happen in the future do you suppose this just to satisfy our curiosity to make us smarter than other everybody else or do you suppose there are specific warnings that he gives us so that if we follow those warnings perhaps we can stay out of trouble what about what about the mark of the beast now i know then the first thing most people think of when they think of bible prophecy is the mark of the beast well we're going to get to the mark of the beast in our second half of our of our presentation so that's just a little teaser don't leave at the break it's to come back because we're going to talk about the mark of the beast but first of all i want to give you a principle a principle that's found in the bible a principle that we must keep in mind whenever we read the bible and understand the prophecies of scripture jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 11. this is god speaking to israel but it can just as well be god speaking to you and to me today it is one of my favorite promises in all the bible and this is the reason why we call this series prophecies of hope the lord says for i know the thoughts that i think towards you says the lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope to give you a future and a hope my friends the lord says i am your friend i'm promising you a future and so as we study the prophecies whether they be prophecies of the mark of the beast or the times of the end of the judgments of god we must remember when we are in the lord's care and keeping he has nothing but good thoughts thoughts to give us a future thoughts to give us hope for that future jeremy excuse me jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 17 there is hope in your future says the lord you know because god gives us hope for the future he does not leave us blind concerning the future you know time marches on in a steady progression always from the future to the present and into the past we can never go back into the past and change something that happened then nor can we go into the future and discover something that happens there but you see god can even though god works through and throughout time somehow god can see and foresee the future and as he sees into the future as he knows what is going to happen before it takes place sometimes he sees fit to tell us through his prophets amos chapter 3 and verse 7 surely the lord god does nothing unless he reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets and we find as well jesus words to his disciples this is how much god jesus loves us i no longer call you servants for a servant does not know what his master is doing but i have called you friends for all things that i have heard from my father i have made known to you let me tell you a little story to give you a little illustration of just how much god loves us and why he tells us what's going to happen in the future i told you that my wife and i love canoeing um it's one of the things that we love i've loved to do ever since i was a little kid this is a picture of me and my my two brothers and my dad many years ago in in our two canoes my dad actually built the the canoe and the closer in the foreground out of cedar strips and fiberglass and i remember it was just very shortly after he had built that canoe i was still a very young lad and my brothers were a little bit younger we decided one day to go down to a river a little stream it was really a more of a creek than anything down at the bottom of a canyon and we decided to go explore this stream downstream because we thought surely there is a lake downstream we looked at a map and we saw the lake further downstream on the map and we said we're going to discover this lake we're going to go on an adventure so we started out down this stream and at first the stream was barely wide enough to float a canoe and a canoe is not very wide but we were it was barely wide enough to float this canoe downstream and we went one in front of the other down this little stream until a little river came in from the side and now we were floating a little bit in a little bit wider stream and we would come to some rapids and we would go down the rapids then we came to some other rapids and we decided we're going to stop and scout these rapids because we don't know where they're going to go and and they looked fine so we went down those rapids and we kept on going sometimes we would stop and sometimes we would just go down the more gentle rapids it was so much fun we had so much fun going down this stream and we came to another set of rapids and my dad and i were in one canoe and my mom and two brothers were in the other canoe and my dad and i were already starting to shoot those rapids we're just we hadn't gotten into the rapids yet but almost into those rapids because we thought there's no reason to stop there's no reason even to look to see what's down below because because we've gone through so many rapids already and these are no different than the others except that these went around a bend and then we could tell that there was a few more rapids around the bend that we couldn't see so we decided to stop in fact there was something and my mom and my dad both told me later there was something a small voice that they heard stop stop and look so we stopped on the side of the stream and pulled one canoe out of the of the water and if i remember right my brothers were sitting in the other canoe my mom got out and left them sitting just holding to the tufts of the grass on the bank of the river because it was a calm part of the river and there was no need because it was just a gentle rapid going down except that as we got up on the bank and walked around that bend we saw not a rapids going around a bend but sky where the river dropped into nothingness down a cascading waterfall and had we not listened had my parents not listened to that still small voice telling what lie ahead surely our family would have been dashed to pieces so we walked around to the bottom of that falls and got a picture of this waterfall where our family would no doubt have been dashed to pieces had we not listened to that still small voice surely the lord god does nothing except he reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets i want to tell you a little story well i just told you a story but i want us to go to the bible and look at a story in the bible that illustrates god's love and care it's a familiar story to many of us in the book of daniel daniel chapter 2. now you may have come here thinking well i just wanted to find out about the mark of the beast i wanted to find out about the book of revelation we're getting there we're getting there but would you be surprised if i told you that almost two-thirds of the book of revelation is a reference in one way or another to something that comes out of the old testament in fact a majority of the symbols in the book of revelation are also found in the old testament and one book in the old testament perhaps more than any others one book the book of daniel is almost a mere image of the book of revelation so in order to understand the mark of the beast in order to understand revelation the easiest way is to go back to the book of daniel let me give you one of the keys of understanding bible prophecy let the bible interpret itself let the bible interpret itself because i could get up here or any any preacher could get up here and say well i think that a beast is this and i think that a mountain is this i think the water is this and we could get donald trump in here we could get joe biden in here we could get you know what i'm talking about we could get everybody in the news today right here in the bible but you know five years from now 10 years from now it wouldn't make any sense we'd discover that we were wrong because that's no better than joe blow just getting here and saying i think this is what i think but you see if we let the bible interpret itself if we find a symbol in one place a principle in one place it can apply in another place and so you don't have to take my word for it you can just look at the bible itself and daniel chapter 2 forms the foundation for understanding what we would call apocalyptic prophecy that is prophecy that goes not just in the immediate future but throughout the course of time all the way to the end of time in the final judgment of god daniel chapter two you remember this story as a young man a young man by the name of daniel who lived in the nation of judea now judea had become corrupt time after time they had fallen into idolatry and god had sent prophets to warn judea what warned the people of what was going to happen but time and again they had refused to listen and finally the people of israel of judah rather were carried captive into the kingdom of babylon among these captives were daniel and a number of other captives daniel also had three friends hananiah mitchell and azariah whom we will learn their names uh more in a later story of shadrach meshach and abednego so this is the daniel that we are talking about and daniel has come into the court the palace of the king and he's been given the royal treatment although in daniel chapter 1 though he is given the royal treatment he refuses to eat the food now there's actually a special reason why he refuses to eat the food because this food has been offered to idols not only that but the food is not helpful for his body and it says the daniel purposed in his heart not to eat not to defile himself with a portion of the king's meat or with the wine which he drank so daniel already has been standing up for the right in the nation of babylon and now the king himself has a dream the king has a dream that god has sent to him but when he wakes up he forgets his dream when he wakes up he forgets his dream and some of you received a binder as you were coming in and inside that binder you should have received a little study guide and this is uh kind of the story that this study guide goes through so you can take a look at this if you want to fill out the blanks uh fill in the blanks as we go through this story we'll go through it quickly because i think it's a story that many of us are familiar with but then but the king has a dream he wakes up in the morning and he forgets his dream have you ever had a dream and had forgotten it later i have i'll wake up in the morning and be like i know i dreamed something but i it just kind of didn't make sense and usually my dreams are kind of scattered and not really we're not really connected together and i usually say well maybe i just ate something last night i don't know what it was but you see the king knew that this was a significant dream there was something important something significant about this dream daniel chapter chapter 2 and so the king sends for his wise men sins for his counselors you see the king actually had hired people in his court who claimed to be able to tell the future who claimed to be in tune with the gods who claimed to be able to know what was going to happen who could tell the king before it would take place and now god is showing to nebuchadnezzar you know what all those people that you hired all those people who claim to be counselors with the gods they're phonies they're fakes they can't even tell you what you dreamed so the king says i know what i'm going to do i'm going to tell my counselors to tell me what i dreamed and the counselors said no that's not how it works king you see this is how it works you tell us what you dreamed we tell you the interpretation now anyone that is a pretty good storyteller could probably if you told me what you dreamed i could probably tell you an interpretation of it i could probably make up a story that would make sense along with what you dreamed but how many of you how many of you if i told you i had a dream last night can you tell me what i dreamed how many of you could do it so the king's thinking for once he's thinking he's saying i'm gonna test these guys maybe he genuinely forgot i think he probably did genuinely forget his dream but he's testing these guys to see if they're really made of the stuff they claim to be made of and they go back and forth and finally the king gets angry and he says if you can't tell me the dream i'm going to have you all killed you're you've been lying to me this whole time i'm just going to have you killed and this is the way things worked back then in babylon i'm glad i don't live in babylon today uh and and they can't say anything they could make up a story but they the king would know he that they were lying so the order goes out go and kill all the wise men of babylon go and kill all the wise men of babylon and so as the king's god goes he finds not only the wise men who have been lying to the king but also daniel and his friends hananiah michiel and azariah he says to them the order from the king is that we've got to kill all the wise men and you are some of the new interns of the wise men i don't know why daniel wasn't called at that early morning meeting when all the other wise men were called but daniel wasn't there so this is the first he hears about the king's dream notice what he says notice what he says verse 14 then with counsel and wisdom daniel answered arioch the captain of the king's guard who had gone to kill the wise men of babylon he answered and said to aryak the king's captain why is the decree from the king so urgent then aryak made the decision known to daniel so daniel went in and asked the king to give him time that he might tell the interpretation of the dream so daniel goes to the king he says king give me a little time i'm going to tell you what you dreamed and also the interpretation and then he hurries back home and what does he do first did he stress out over it you say i don't know what i'm going to do we've got another day to live nope he calls a prayer meeting he calls his friends together and they get down on their knees and seek the lord in prayer as they pray daniel receives the answer daniel goes to sleep that night and god gives him the same dream that he gave to nebuchadnezzar but he gives him more he tells him what this dream means and daniel then instead of running straight back to the king which is what i would do if my life was on the line daniel kneels down again and prays and thanks the lord and in fact the prayer of thanksgiving is recorded here in daniel chapter 2 verses 20 through 23 i won't take time to read it all now but he praises and and blesses the name of god for saving his life and also for revealing to him the dream you know i'm very thankful that this story played out this way because you see if the king had not forgotten his dream he would have had no need to call daniel if the king had not forgotten his dream the wise men most likely would have made up some wild and fanciful interpretation but you see god arranged circumstances so that the king would forget the dream that he would give the dream to daniel along with the interpretation and now we have recorded in our bibles a prophetic dream and its interpretation that we can then use as a key that will unlock the rest of the prophecies of the book of daniel and the prophecies of the book of revelation so daniel then goes to ariak and ariak takes him in to the king and the king asks daniel in verse 26 are you able to make known to me the dream which i have seen and its interpretation and daniel proceeds to tell the king what all the other wise men have told him no i can't no one can tell the king but verse 28 and that's why i put this verse on the screen because it's so important but there is a god in heaven and friends if you remember nothing else from tonight's presentation i want you to remember this there is a god in heaven who reveals secrets it was made known to king nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days my friends i don't know what they're going through this evening but i want you to remember there is a god in heaven my friends we may not know what's going to happen tomorrow or next week or next month we may not know when the coronavirus pandemic is going to end we may not know if there's another wave coming but i know one thing there is a god in heaven there is a god in heaven who reveals secrets and yes there is a god in heaven who holds your future and mine in his very hands so daniel proceeds to tell the king what he dreamed verse 29 as for you o king fonts came to your mind while you're well on your bed about what would come to pass after this and he who reveals secrets that is god has made known to you what will be but as for me this secret has not been revealed to me because i have more wisdom than anyone living but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king it's you may know the thoughts of your heart in other words daniel says daniel is so humble he says he says there's nothing special about me i'm just a messenger and because god loves you king he showed you what's going to happen in the future you were thinking about what was going to happen in your kingdom you know the king would always be greeted the king of babylon and many kings in those days would always be greeted by afraid the phrase o king live forever now how would you like it johnny if everyone who ever came up to you said oh johnny live forever it was almost a matter of expression even daniel greeted the king like this oh king live forever because because that was sort of the mindset i'm the last king i'm the king that's going to live forever i don't ever want to think about my mortality you know a lot of us especially people my age we think we're going to live forever you know i don't want to think about dying that's kind of a morbid thought that's kind of a difficult difficult thought but every once in a while we do have those thoughts i wonder what's going to happen in the future and the king was thinking about this he was wondering what was going to happen in the future and daniel begins to describe to the king his dream you o king we're watching and behold a great image this great image whose splendor was excellent stood before you and its form was awesome this image's head was of fine gold its chest and arms of silver its belly and thighs of bronze its legs of iron its feet partly of iron and partly of clay you watched while a stone was cut out without hands which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces then the iron the clay the bronze the silver and the gold were crushed together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away so that there was no place found for them and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth and as daniel is describing this picture to the king all of a sudden it's as though his memory awakens have you ever had some something you were just trying to remember trying to remember it happens to me when i'm when i'm trying to remember someone's name and i know a lot of you have told me your name this evening i've got to tell you i'm bad with names i'm really bad with names even if i've seen you two or three times you still might have to remind me your name but once you remind me your name oh i remember you telling me that it was your name right and if you tell me 10 times i'll probably remember this is the way the king was he's like oh yeah that's what i dreamed you're telling the truth and now he's sitting on the edge of his seat ready to hear the interpretation what does it mean what does it mean and now if you will daniel has a captive audience now the god of heaven has a captive audience with this king and he begins to give the interpretation now verse 36 this is the dream now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king verse 37 of daniel 2 you o king are a king of kings for the god of heaven has given you a kingdom power strength and glory and wherever the children of men dwell or the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven he has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all you are this head of gold you are this head of gold the prophet says and so already we have a clue as to what this image represents you see this image represents not just one kingdom but apparently a succession of kingdoms and now at the very head of this image this medal of gold this head of gold represents nebuchadnezzar himself in verse 39 but after you you know it took a lot of courage for daniel to say those words but after you because the greeting of the king was o king live forever and now daniel is saying be honest now after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours and then another third kingdom of bronze which shall rule over the earth and the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron in as much as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything and like iron that crushes the kingdom will break in pieces and crush all others now notice he's giving a list of a description of the kingdoms that would come after nebuchadnezzar telling him the future it would be like me standing here today now i'm not i'm not prophesying this okay don't quote me don't cut this out of the video and quote me on this okay but it would be like me saying well after the united states falls then china is going to come in and rule the world and then after china comes in and rules the world and then i'm going to name some other kingdom right and then another it it might have been easy for daniel possibly if he was really good at politics to guess that mido persia was going to conquer babylon at some point he could already you know there was already telltale signs but the next one after that and the next one after that and then to give accurate descriptions notice here the chest and arms of silver and it's true another kingdom inferior as it says we know the name of that kingdom was medo-persia and then there was another kingdom of bronze and this kingdom of bronze we know from history is the nation of greece this is actually looking back from our perspective we can see that this was fulfilled to the t exactly and then the fourth kingdom the kingdom of rome was as the as the description here strong as iron breaking in pieces and crushing others so it was this roman empire they would crush their enemies with such brutality with such force that no one dared to uh to stand up against the power of this roman empire and for over over 500 years the roman empire ruled the world but then what happened after the roman empire does anyone know who conquered rome what world empire succeeded rome we're talking about world empires now there was no world empire that succeeded rome rome if you will just sort of imploded from within and in its place came a group of barbarian tribes now we're going to talk a little bit more about this in tomorrow night's lecture notice what the bible says verse 41 where as you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron the kingdom shall be what is that word divided yet the strength of iron shall be in it just as you saw the iron mixed with a ceramic clay and so you have a feet and toes of a mixture of iron and clay and as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of place so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile now it's very interesting friends i don't care what you think about the bible i told you what i think about it i believe it's the word of god and this is one of the reasons why one of the many reasons why because no matter how you look at the prophecies of daniel it's an enigma that daniel could foretell the future this far in advance now there are some people some skeptical scholars who will say well there wasn't really a prophet daniel who lived in babylon the book of daniel may have been written sometime in maybe 100 200 years before bc after some of these things took place the medo-persian empire and the greek and the seleucid kings etc but there's no way that even a prophet that lived 100 200 bc there's no way that he could predict with accuracy what would happen in europe after the fall of the roman empire i want you to notice this verse in verse 43 as you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay they will mingle themselves with a seed of men but they will not adhere to one another just as iron does not mix with ceramic clay you know after about 476 a.d the roman empire fell it sort of imploded upon itself and from that time to today there have been perhaps dozens of attempts throughout history to reunite the nations of europe as they were under the roman empire i wanted you to take a take a look at this it says mingling themselves with the seed of men one of those one of those individuals who tried to reunite europe was charles v archduke of austria the king of spain he was king of the holy roman empire but you know what happened during the reign of charles v just as the as the united church and state together were on the verge of rebuilding and reestablishing the roman empire in the in the early early part of the 16th century a man by the name of martin luther began to protest against the church now i said also that the bible says to mingle themselves with the seed of men that's a euphemism if you will for describing an intermarriage alliances that would be made between various nations this is a practice that that came from antiquity but it was practiced very much uh very often during the middle ages in an attempt to if you will keep keep a separation between the royal blood and the common blood and also to form treaties among and between the various nations to try to bind together these nations of europe now charles v was one of the habsburg uh monarchs if they think he was the head of the habsburg dynasty of monarchs now it's very interesting that one of his descendants charles ii of spain by the time that the family had married amongst their relatives for so many times so many times he was born with so many congenital defects that he was unable to procreate or or to continue the line of monarchs and so he was the last of the monarchs but despite all of these intermarriages europe remained divided despite the attempts of charles v to reunite europe europe remained divided another another one is queen victoria queen victoria much more recently has been known as the grandmother of europe so many many of her descendants became royalty among all the different nations of europe and it's also interesting that she had a genetic trait known as hemophilia because of the intermarriages among the families of europe many of the royal lines that descended from her suffered and even died from hemophilia because of the mingling themselves among the seed of men the intermarriage to try to form the alliances but despite all of that europe remains divided today take a look at a few more in this list of people list of men who tried to reunite europe napoleon during the french revolution he said in the in the late 1700s i wished to found a european system a european code of law as a european judiciary there would be but one people in europe napoleon tried but he failed hitler tried to form the third reich and it seemed as though he would succeed stalin after him in russia formed the ussr but both germany and the third reich and the ussr have been failed experiments of history failed experiments attempting to reunite europe today we have the european union which seems to be holding the nations of europe together in some sort of common bond but even it is frayed at the edges breaking at the seams the brexit vote of 2016 the referendum is just one of the latest examples the fact that europe still to this day is divided just as ceramic clay does not bind itself with iron my friends can we depend upon the word of god yes i believe we can and what is the very next thing to come in this king's dream what is the very next thing to come after the divided ceramic clay feat you see oftentimes we focus a lot on this image and i can tell you another story but i don't have time to tell you this story uh about a a man during world war ii uh maybe i'll tell you maybe i'll tell you quickly no i'm not gonna i'm not gonna take the time to tell this story uh ask me later and i'll tell you this story about a a man a soldier who was conscripted into the nazi army franz hazel and and he wore a uniform okay i'll go ahead and tell the story [Laughter] he wore a uniform but he carried a wooden gun because he didn't he didn't want to shoot and kill anyone he carried his bible with him even though he wasn't supposed to he carried his bible with him and as they were pushing he and his his platoon were pushing deep into russia began to get more and more worried because he had studied this prophecy just like we are studying today and he realized that hitler and the third reich cannot cannot conquer and unite europe and so as they're pushing deep into russia he goes to his to his commander and he says commander can i have a word with you he sits down with that commander and he gives them a study in daniel chapter 2. and you know even though it was against everything that they that hitler was telling them to do that commander decided to secretly save back some reserves of fuel so that when they reached a point where they could go no further into russia they would have enough fuel to get back home the command had been go and press into russia until you can capture the stores of fuel there we're going to win but he realized that we cannot win this battle you know that was the only platoon that made it out of russia alive that winter because all the others froze in the in the russian winter trying in vain to go against the prophecy of god that europe would never be reunited [Music] anyway i wanted to tell you that story but i want us to get to the final point that is that stone that is cut out without hands you see all this idol represents are the kingdoms of this world but beyond the kingdoms of this world the god of heaven is going to set up a kingdom prophecy the word of god builds our faith as we look back through the quarters of time and we can see that every one of these prophecies has been fulfilled and yes even to our day the bible describes the conditions of the world right now today and what is the very next thing to happen in this vision is this stone that is cut out without hands comes and destroys the kingdoms of the world babylon middle persia greece rome the divided nations of europe they all pass away and in its place this stone sets up a kingdom it becomes a mountain daniel chapter 2 and verse 44 in the days of these kings the god of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed not a kingdom ruled by faulty and failing human beings but a kingdom that says that shall not be left to another a kingdom that will break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever it shall stand forever my friends it may be tempting to it may be tempting to think to think that the events of our lives the events that happen in the world are just random and chaotic my friends i can tell you as a god in heaven who rules over all and know not everything that happens may be his will my friends god holds the world in his hands do you believe that he also holds your life in his hands do you believe if he can tell the future of the world that he knows what's going to happen to you do you believe do you believe that he has a special plan for your life today i believe he does going to have a little break but before we before we break i just want to invite you to bow your heads with me in a word of prayer and after the break we're going to come back i'm going to tell you a little bit more about the mark of the beast let's pray father in heaven lord thank you thank you for your word lord thank you for the confidence that it gives to us that we know that we are not alone in this world drifting aimlessly through space and time but lord as you hold the future in your hands and lord we trust you lord teach us to study more teach us to trust you more is our prayer in jesus name amen so give you about uh uh three five minute break if you need to use the restroom um come right back here and we'll we'll get started right again with our next presentation and i'll try not to keep you as long in the next one [Music] all right well i i i see some of you are still visiting together but uh i do i do want us to uh to move on through our program this evening hey would it be all right just to sing one more song would that be all right just kind of get our stand up and get our blood stirring again and then we'll get into our our next program lift up the trumpet johnny come up and help us sing number 213 213 if you want to look it up in your songbooks [Music] jesus is [Music] jesus is coming again coming again coming again jesus jesus is coming again coming in glory that land that was plain jesus is coming again coming again coming again [Music] jesus is coming again [Music] jesus is coming again coming again coming again jesus [Music] is coming again knowledge increases [Music] jesus is coming again [Music] [Music] amen amen jesus is coming again let us pray again my friends father in heaven lord thank you thank you that's your coming again and you're coming so soon and as we open your word once again this evening may you guide us we pray in jesus name amen amen please be seated i promised you we're going to talk about the mark of the beast are you ready hold on to your seats what do you think of when you think of the mark of the beast what have you heard that the mark of the beast is go ahead shout it out or put it in the chat if you're on facebook what have you heard a tattoo on your forehead okay i've heard that someone else what have you heard the mark of the beasties some kind of an id maybe a chip maybe a card maybe some kind of an id okay mark of the beast isn't is his id someone else oh no no other ideas i'll tell you a few that i've that i've heard over the years i heard it was a bar code you know it says no man can buy or sell right well you can't buy or sell without those bar codes pretty much in any shopping store or anything like that i've heard that it was your credit card you said id that's pretty close i've heard i've heard that it was the symbols on the on the money you know dollar bill dollar bill five dollar bill 10 bill all those symbols i gotta gotta have something to do with the mark of the beast um i've heard that some it's a certain type of of energy drink you know the monster drink they've got that logo six six six or i guess it's 666 it's something something like that and most recently i've heard everybody telling me don't get the coveted vaccine because you'll get the mark of the beast right and we've all heard that one right but what is the mark of the beast can't think about bible prophecy without thinking about mark the beast now i've got to tell you story funny story i um it's not the car that i'm driving now but the last car that i that i had i was at work and someone actually stole my license plate um don't ask me how that happens i know they stole it because i was able to go back on some security camera footage and find it i could just barely see my car in the distance in there i could see someone come around behind my my car and unscrew the plate off the car and and make away with it i don't know why they wanted to steal a license plate but i reported it stolen the next day because i worked at the time in summerset and my wife worked right next to the courthouse in mccurry county i was like i'm going to steal my wife's car she can take my car and get a new license plate for it so i stole my i stole my wife's car i stole my wife's car she took my car to the courthouse and this is the store she comes back with a new tag on it guess what's on that tag six six six six [Music] i'm like what have you done to me no actually i just laughed i just laughed because i thought it was the greatest story i just tell everyone ah yeah my my wife my wife got me that tag because i stole her car yeah but but what she told me is that was the only one at the at the courthouse that they had that tag that we wanted and i didn't care because you wouldn't know how many conversations that started everyone who walked around the back of my car their eyes got that big and like you got 666 on your car but you know i didn't care because you see when you read actually in the bible revelation 13 there's no reason to be superstitious about the number 666. it people go to the grocery store and they ring up bring up the a little bit of stuff and it comes to 6.66 and they got to throw out a pack of gum just so it doesn't come up you ever seen someone do that yeah no reason to be superstitious about it let's let's go over there well but first before we go to revelation 13 i want us to go to the verse of the evening jeremiah 29 11. we read that before and we're reading it again now because i want us to keep this in mind when we think about the mark of the beast for i know the thoughts that i think towards you says the lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope i know the thoughts i think towards you i'm going to give you a future i'm going to give you a hope and that's why we call this series prophecies of hope because we want you to leave here not fearful but full of hope okay with that in mind let's go to revelation 13. are we ready this is for some people the scariest passage in all the bible revelation chapter 13 the last few verses we're going to start in verse 16. revelation chapter 13 and verse 16. this is speaking about a beast it calls it a beast from the earth it starts in verse 11 actually describing this beast from the earth it's actually the second beast that is described in revelation chapter 13. so we're starting right here in the middle of the passage this is a bad way to study prophecy i'm just going to tell you it's a bad way to study any part of the bible to start in the middle of the passage and not read the context so what i'm going to do is i'm going to do this as a little teaser for you because i want us to look at the principles and we're going to come all the way back to this passage again another night i'm going to invite you all to come back actually this series is going to is going to continue friday and saturday nights through the month of october if you're willing to come out come on out we're going to keep steady and keep studying for everyone who's willing to study but we we're doing this as a teaser tonight and we'll come back and study revelation 13 verse 16 he the beast causes all both small and great rich and poor free enslaved to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads that no one may buy or sell except the one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name now here is wisdom the bible says here is wisdom let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man his number is 666. now it's not just 666 in a row but it's actually 666. the king james spells it out 600 three score and and six and however you you write it at 666 what does it mean what is this beast what is this mark and what is this mysterious number of 666 well it has had christian scholars puzzled for years and yes for centuries well let's start breaking it down what was the principle that i told you in the beginning when we're studying bible prophecy let the bible interpret itself let the bible interpret itself and remember i said that the book of daniel is almost a mere image of the book of revelation we can use the symbols that we find in daniel to unlock the symbols in revelation so let me ask you first what is a beast what is a beast any ideas let's go to daniel chapter 7 verse 17. daniel chapter 7 and verse 17. we're going to actually get in and study the the whole chapter of daniel 7 uh probably tomorrow night but before we before we dive deep into that i want us to pull this principle out these great beasts are four which are four are four kings which arise out of the earth a beast is a king or a kingdom a nation so in revelation chapter 13 this beast that rises up out of the earth is a king or kingdom and it's the kingdom that is enforcing this mark of the beast well there's one piece of the puzzle but what are some other pieces of the puzzle what are the issues that surround this issue of the mark of the beast well if you notice something in revelation chapter 13 and i don't have it still on the screen i guess i could go back to it um revelation chapter 13 and verse 16 it's where we started to read but if you go back another verse i don't actually have it on the screen i'm sorry if you go back another verse in revelation chapter 13 and verse 15 you see that he the beast was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed you see oftentimes we start in verse 16 of revelation 13 and we see oh this mark you got to be afraid of the mark but what are the issues surrounding this the issue is right here in verse 15 which we didn't put on the screen the issue is worship now do you can you think of any other story anywhere in the bible where there was a king or a kingdom who demanded his subjects to worship an image on pain of death can you think of any story in the bible like that actually that's where we're going next we just finished studying the vision of nebuchadnezzar in daniel chapter 2. well if you go back to the book of daniel go back to the book of daniel remember the daniel is the key that unlocks the other prophecies of the bible daniel chapter 2 is the one we just finished so we're going to daniel chapter 3 and it says in daniel chapter 3 and verse 1 that nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and it's with six cubits he set it on the plain of dura in the province of babylon now what did nebuchadnezzar just get finished doing i don't know how much time a comp uh passed between chapter two and chapter three but in the bible what did nebuchadnezzar just get finished doing he just finished hearing about the interpretation of his dream and this image and the stone that were in his dream now the image in nebuchadnezzar's dream was made of what what was it made of this is a review gold silver bronze iron aaron and clay all these different metals until you get down to the feet then you have clay and with the iron now nebuchadnezzar belts what an image an idol presumably like the idol that he saw in his dream with one exception do you remember what did that head of gold represent in the image of daniel 2 the king of babylon and daniel had said but after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you and you know daniel got away with his head praise the lord the king nebuchadnezzar actually praised and honored daniel and and gave glory to the god of heaven and promoted daniel in his kingdom but you know it irked the king it must have irked the king those words but after you will arise another kingdom and then a third kingdom and then a fourth kingdom i don't want to think that somebody's going to come after me i want to think i'm it that's what the king nebuchadnezzar is saying i'm pretty good everyone comes to me and greets me with the words what oh king live forever i'm going to live forever and so he sets up this image that represents himself and the kingdom of babylon which he built on the plain of dura and he sends word out to all of the important officials of his kingdom to come to the planet dura to worship to come to the plain of dura to worship this golden image which he'd set up for the sake of time i'm not going to read the whole the whole uh passage here i want to encourage you this is this is the second study guide by the way the one you just received um i want to i want to shout out nourish christian marketplace which is where i ordered these study guides from i had ordered them a few weeks ago they were back ordered and the manager drove all the way out here to deliver us our lessons so they would actually be here so we would have our lessons for this evening so uh kudos to to them and i'm so glad that we actually got didn't have them in time for our first meeting but we have them now our full-color lessons so number two goes through the mark of the beast issue and goes through this story if you have those and if you're watching online if you want a copy of these lessons um if you're local let us know maybe we can get you a copy just just send us a message or leave a comment let us know you want a copy of those lessons and we'll see about about getting them to you if you're a long ways away we may you may have to order them or something but uh if you're close by we can probably work out a way of getting those lessons to you but lesson number two goes through this story of nebuchadnezzar's image on the plane of dura and three young men who refused to bow down three young men he refused to bow down so the king sets up this image he says to everyone after this image is set up and there's this huge dedication he says to everyone there that's gathered in this huge assembly he says to everyone when you hear the sound of the music and he names all the musical instruments it sounded like it must have sounded like an orchestra play when you hear the orchestra playing we would just want you to bow down to the image this is a sign of your loyalty to the kingdom of babylon that you will worship the image which the king has set up now does this sound like anything that we've just read in revelation chapter 13. what were the issues in revelation chapter 13 there's an image that is made to the first beast of revelation chapter 13 and those who refuse to worship that image refuse to worship on pain of death and so the music begins to play and just as the king commanded everyone in the assembly bows down to worship everyone that is except three men whose names in the babylonian their babylonian names were shadrach meshech and abednego and the king gets word that three of his subjects three of his wise men three of the ones that he had just promoted to be to be high wise men among the kingdom of babylon had refused to bow down what was wrong with these men they must have been traitors they weren't loyal to the king they had come to this dedication but they would not bow down maybe they had misunderstood maybe they just hadn't paid attention to the directions after all they'd been brought up from the far land of judea that perhaps this was one reason that the king had set up this image in the first place because so many of his of his assistants so many of his aides and even of his court officials had come originally from other lands and this was the test the king had set up to see how many of them were loyal in fact if you go back in history there had actually been just perhaps a few a few weeks or months before this took place an attempted coup against the king and this was probably the king's attempt to say who is loyal to me anyone who's not loyal into the fire you go so he calls these men and he says what's up why have you not bowed down to my image that i have built why are you not worshiping this image did you not understand the directions verse 15 of daniel chapter 3. now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horned flute harp liar and sultry in symphony with all kinds of music and you fall down and worship the image which i have made good but if you do not worship you shall be cast immediately into the midst of the burning fiery furnace and notice the words of king nebuchadnezzar which i believe sealed the story the course of this story and who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands the king not only defies these men and their resolve but now if you will he raises his fist to the god of heaven and says i don't know you i defy you who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands you see he has set up a false worship and now he is not only in practice with his hand if you will practicing this false worship but now he is raising his fist and vocally defying the god of heaven and at these words shadrach meshach and abednego answered and said to the king o king nebuchadnezzar we have no need to answer you in this matter if this is the case our god whom we serve is able to deliver us and i put this up on the screen if that is the case our god whom we serve is able to deliver us you see the stakes were high now and they recognized this is a challenge not against us but against the god we serve and we know the god we serve my friends i want to ask you do we know the god that we serve our god whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us from your hand o king but then i love these words these words which could have been in their minds their last testimony but if not if he doesn't even if he doesn't let it be known to you o king that we do not serve your gods nor will we worship the image which you have set up there's only two ways you can take these words either was a bold and brazen act of defiance against the king of babylon or it was simply a humble statement of someone who knew a god greater than the king which would it be the fire would show the answer the king flew into a rage he commanded that the furnace be heated seven times harder than it was normally heated he commanded his strongest men to bind these three men shadrach meshach and abednego hand and foot and throw them into the fiery furnace picture yourself there once you just imagine yourself there standing before the king imagine being the only one you and you and two of your friends being the only ones in a vast multitude standing for the god whom you know to be the god of heaven imagine standing there perhaps trembling knowing that you may be living the last minutes the last seconds of your life imagine feeling yourself being hoisted up by the strong soldiers and then thrown to a burning fiery heat in fact the furnace had been heated so hot that the strongest men in nebuchadnezzar's army fell down dead before that furnace as they cast those men in do you know the only thing that burned were the ropes that bound them the only thing that burned in that furnace were the ropes that bound their hands and feet and as they came to their widths if you will they stood up began walking in this fiery furnace the king had commanded that they be put in this fiery furnace they might as well have been walking in paradise for they walked back and forth in that fiery furnace not three but four of them as the king looked verse 24 he rose in a haste it says the kingdom of canada was astonished he rose in haste and spoke to his counselors did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire answered true o king look he answered i see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they are not hurt in the form of the fourth is like the son of god my friends do we go through trials in our lives sometimes fiery trials sometimes we don't know why when we stand up for the right when we don't cheat we don't steal it seems like we end up having a hard lot in life sometimes it seems as though we walk through the trials as david says yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil why for you are with me and friends and we turn to revelation chapter 13 and we look at that issue the mark of the beast it's not an issue of having to avoid a secret number or a secret stamp it's exactly the same issue that we find in daniel chapter 3 an image in the very last days an image that is set up an idolatrous image and all who dwell upon the earth are commanded to worship it you notice in the verses we didn't read all together but you can read those at home as you go through the study guide at home in the verses in daniel 3 it emphasizes that every nation language tongue and people were brought together there on the plain of dura and so it will be in the very last days every nation kindred tongue and people will be brought together in an attempt by this beast to unite the world against god in false worship but there are few who stand firm and they're described in revelation chapter 14 as those who keep the commandments of god and have the faith of jesus a number not 666 but 144 000 who follow the lamb wherever he goes and this becomes the central theme of the second half of the book of revelation is this face-off this standoff between those who worship the world and the idols of the world and those who stand true to god now like i said we don't have time to delve into all the details and all the intricacies of the mark of the beast tonight we'll come back to this topic a later night but i want to leave you with this thought because prevents today i believe we are entering into the very last hours of this earth's history yes i believe in it within our lifetimes we will see the events of revelation unfolding we will see this standoff between the beast and his mark and the 144 000 who keep the commandments of god yes we will be not only witnesses but we will be part of the program the question is which side will we be on all right friends we have no need to fear if we are on god's side if we stand true to god willing to stand upon the plane of dura though all the heavens fall willing to stand and say god is able to deliver us willing to stand even when we have a say but if not but if not my friends god in the end will deliver us in isaiah chapter 43 isaiah chapter 43 and verse 1 we read these words but now thus says the lord who created you o jacob and he who formed you o israel fear not for i have redeemed you i have called you by your name you are mine in verse 2 when you pass through the waters i will be with you and through the rivers they shall not overflow you when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned nor shall the flame scorch you my friends this was the promise that those three worthies were able to claim in the fiery furnace my friends this is the promise that we can claim today that whatever we go through when we stand on the side of right though yes we may suffer trial and persecution though we may stand in the midst of the fires of affliction though even if we've suffered death in this life yet the flame will not scorch you and the only thing burned will be the courts that tie us to this earth in isaiah chapter 26 and verse 3 we read these words you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you why because he trusts in you my only question for you today is this how much do you trust the lord your friends we have seen from the very beginning as we looked the prophecies of daniel 2 but this bible is trustworthy that the books the prophecies of daniel came true just as they were foretold and are still ringing true to this very day my friends we can trust him with our lives yes sometimes he may demand hard things sometimes it may be as though we must stand when all the world is bowing my friends we can trust him and he will come through one invites you this evening if this is your choice if this is your decision that you want to trust god no matter what i want to invite you to stand with me as we pray together and then jan will lead us in a song come every soul by sin a press there's mercy with the lord only trust him only trust him only trust him stand together with me and we will sing together after our prayer father in heaven lord lord you have given us a picture of your love lord we have seen in the lives of these three men an example an example of trust though the heavens fall and lord sometimes it's tempting to be fearful when we think of the mark of the beast when we think of the events of the end times the lord you've promised to go with us through the fires and through the flames and lord you see my brothers and sisters standing here and myself standing with him lord we don't have the strength to go through the fires alone we know that when you go through those fires with us we can stand lord we don't pray for that strength to stand in the fire for we know that you will go with us through that fire but lord we pray for that strength to stand strong in the plane of dora and lord we know that you will go with us through whatever trials may come we ask this lord in jesus name amen if you give me the number jan 279 279 in the hymnal i don't have the words here okay sorry unfortunately come on johnny only trust him 279. [Music] there's mercy with the lord and he will surely give you rest by [Music] only trust him now he will save you he will save you he will save you now verse 4. come back [Music] [Applause] [Music] only trust him now he will [Music] amen may the god of grace and peace bless you as you go tonight and i want to invite you all come back tomorrow night we're talking about prophecies superpowers at 6 30 p.m tomorrow night you don't want to miss it we'll also be live on facebook thank you all may god bless and as you as you go out you're welcome to linger and visit a fellowship uh together and i hope that you have a wonderful night and a wonderful day tomorrow and we will see you at 6 30. god bless you

Channel: Daniel McFeeters

Views: 51

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: bXffA3uBG7o

Length: 86min 31sec (5191 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021