Revelation 17:1-8 // Mystery of Babylon

good evening hey you guys Sunday night study book of Revelation is where we're at and we're gonna be in Revelation chapter 17 so before we get started let's pray and just ask the Lord to be here with us father we come before you and Lord we love you we thank you Lord for the fact that you're a God who cares about us you see us you see our needs you see the things that we're going through Lord your God who knows the future and you speak clearly of those things and Lord there's a lot of things that are going on around us that our real indicators that we we're quickly approaching some of the times that we're speaking about as as far as the book of Revelation goes and especially what we're dealing with in chapter 17 Lord we pray that you would just give us insight as we're opening up this book that you would speak to us that we get all the promises that you promised to those who read and to those who hear your word here and to those who obey it Lord we just give you the time to you now in Jesus name Amen okay we're in Revelation chapter 17 we've been talking about Mystery Babylon and the basically the last days one-world church or the last days one-world religion one of the things that we have in the book of Revelation is the fact that when the church is taken out at the rapture of the church religion doesn't disappear what you get is a group of people who have a name that they're following Christ who have the have a name and it's not just Christians but who have a name that they're religious and yet what you have is unfiltered paganism paganism is not something that you just see on the outside of the church it's something that's crept into the inside of the church and those who are not true followers of Jesus Christ will not be going in the rapture Jesus was approached by a guy named Nicodemus at one point in John chapter 3 and the guy who was influential he was a powerful man he was on the Sanhedrin he was highly religious again he had to be highly religious to be on the Sanhedrin he was a Pharisee specifically one of 5000 men in the whole nation of Israel they only had five thousand Pharisees at a time and then he was a rich man and so he was financially independent so he's religious he's powerful he's wealthy he's got everything that people in the world would think would give you a rounded lifestyle around a good rounded personality and something that was well-balanced and yet he was somebody who did not know if he was going to heaven came to Jesus gave him a speech Jesus skips the speech ignores it and says truly truly I say to you it's so be it so be I'm a main a main it says in Greek I say to you you will not is what Jesus says to them and so you can be doing Church you can be being blessed you can be influential you can be somebody who's powerful in every in every aspect of your life look like you have it together and you're not going to heaven unless you're born again and so when you're talking about the last days world religion a lot of it is going to be Christian in the sense of name only churches are still going to be going on business as usual when Jesus comes back to get the true church out and that's that's the thing that's sad actually it's it's something that's satanic the people who come into a church should be people who actually know the gospel who have actually committed their lives to following Jesus Christ and actually have the hope of heaven and the hope of the Lord coming to take him out before this whole period of time goes on so religion doesn't disappear it just becomes unfiltered paganism and in this passage it talks about the religion of that period of time this this harlot that we've been talking about that's writing the beast as being somebody that's used by the rulers of the world to rise into power including the Antichrist let me go through and read some of this we'll get any more into it one of the seven angels verse one who had the seven bowls came and talked with me saying come I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication so it carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten horns the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold precious stones and pearls having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication and on her forehead a name was written Mystery Babylon the Great the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the earth I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus and when I saw her I marveled with great amazement but the angel said to me why do you Marvel I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the Beast that carries her which has the seven heads and the ten horns and so we've already gone through this passage and recognized that the woman that's being spoken about is a woman that is at odds with God it's a it's a woman representing a false religion you have three women in the Bible you have the woman clothed with the Sun and the moon and the stars and that's Israel you have this woman who's described as a Harland she's called a harlot because she's abandoned God and gone after other gods and then finally you have the woman in Revelation chapter 19 who is the wife of the Lamb and later on you see her connected with the city the New Jerusalem Israel is connected with the old Jerusalem false religion is connected with Babylon and the church is connected with the New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation a woman and a city connected together and that's what you have here and so in each one of those the Jews are going to end up coming into a right relationship with God and that's a right worship of God a woman who has a right worship of God then you have another woman who has a right worship of God the church itself specifically and then you have the woman that's a great harlot and again connected with the city of Babylon so what's the system about and I believe totally you guys the Bible talks about the fact that when the Antichrist comes that one of the things that he's going to be doing is preaching a lie specifically the fact that the people are deceived and they believe the lie it says in second Thessalonians chapter 2 they believe the lie and I think that the lie that that's being spoken about there is the first lie that was spoken by Satan to Eve in the Garden of a geek of Eden you will be like God's knowing good and evil it's always been Satan's goal to be God to take God's place it has always been Satan's goal to get us to do exactly the same thing to take God's place to take God's place in our own lives the you know I'm a creation I was made by a creator and he has authority over me whether I want him to or not and he's got authority over you because you are the same thing you were a creation of the Creator God and he's got authority over you whether you want him to or not and he may not exercise his authority over you here and now in this life but he's going to there's gonna come a day where you and I are all going to be standing before the Lord and there are gonna be questions that are asked and the questions are gonna have to do with Jesus's son what have you done with my son did you receive him as your Savior and we've talked about that before in any case men and women are doing their best to take over what God is supposed to be in control of we want to be little gods and so was the first temptation in the garden it was something that was spread around by false teaching by paganism specifically and it's something that's going to be front and center when we get to the last days when you go through the book of Genesis it starts with Satan in the garden with Eve you're gonna be like God's knowing good and evil when you go a little later on into the book of Genesis in Genesis chapter 10 there's another rebellion against God in that passage were Nimrod the first world dictator decides that he's going to lead people away from the Lord and the Bible talks about the fact that he was a hunter before the Lord and you know generally speaking we go through and read about that must mean that was his profession the Jews taught that what Nimrod hunted was not just animals it was the souls of men and that he was trying to get them to come after him he built a tower with the heavens in its top or its top in the heavens the the Hebrew could go both ways and many people believe that that was the beginning of what's called astrology where you have all these signs in the heavens the zodiac that that whole thing there was probably a precursor to that that was something that was taught by God to Adam but by the time that you get to the Tower of Babel you have a situation where that's been perverted there was that's the beginning of paganism in the Bible and so Nimrod is connected with a woman named Simon ramus and with a kid named oh gosh I'm forgetting his name starts with a tee you can look it up in any case there's this whole false worship that comes out of that and the gods of the pagans are something that specifically came from Babylon and so you have a God of War you have a God of lust or a God of you know they call it a God of love it's the God of lust you you have gods of communication you have gods of Commerce you have gods of power you know those kinds of things and everything that we worship in a disjointed fashion we don't necessarily have a statue for it but we still worship those things sex and power and military might and all of these things we still worship those things and it was something that was deified in [Music] Babel during the time of Nimrod you're gonna have a return to that whole thing and you see some of this in the New Age the New Age one of the messages of New Agers is that we are gods specifically that we are on the threshold of a jump in human evolution this is what these guys are teaching and so when you get into Eastern philosophies and New Age mysticism and that kind of thing they're specifically teaching exactly the same thing that Satan taught in the garden we are God's we are God's in fact really famously Shirley MacLaine this is one of my favorite all-time examples of somebody who's just out to lunch man she was I don't know she still is probably she is but she was highly involved with new-age cults back in the 80s and she wrote a book called out on a limb and in that book she describes herself on the beach Malibu with her arms outstretched saying I am God I am God I am God and it was just ludicrous to me when I found out that she had said that because literally you could go a hundred yards off the coast of Malibu look in the water that she's proclaiming herself to be God over and she has no idea what's there she has no idea the intricacies of the of the creation that's been made there and she's sitting there it's a little speck on a beach on the coast of California one of the weirdest places on this planet proclaiming that she's God can you imagine all of heaven looking down on her just laughing not even saying you are not you are not you are not but just laughing at her and the arrogance of the statement well that arrogance is something that permeates everything in paganism the idea that again we are gods we have the same thing in church we have churches that are specifically teaching that we are little gods we're godlike beings and it's exactly the same temptation that was made by the serpent in the garden and people swallow it you know one of the things with Satan is the guy never changes the guy who does exactly the same things over and over again and he may dress it up differently and so when you talking about paganism you have these Kings that are being told that their gods almost every King in pagan society taught that he was a God demanded worship from the people that were under him almost every king did this so whether you're talking about the Romans or whether you're talking about the Babylonians or whether you're talking about the Egyptians or whether you're talking about the kings of Canaan no matter who you're talking about these guys proclaim themselves to be gods and that they and they demanded the worship of the people who were under them well you got it exactly again the same thing going on with New Age mysticism and then it creeps into the church and we got people who are going around saying well God spoke things into existence and so I can speak things into existence and all of the heaven is laughing at you because you can't you're no different than Shirley MacLaine for claiming this herself to be a God on the shore of Malibu there are all kinds of things that are going on around you and you have no power over them at all you're just nothing but a creation keep it in mind man and again this is something that's that I believe is going to be promoted not only through paganism but through the church and I would submit to you that a lot of the people in those churches that are teaching this stuff that their little gods they may swallow this thing wholesale because they may not be going when Jesus comes back to get his church you may be part of Babylon in that situation something again to keep in keep in mind jesus said when he prayed to the father not my will be done but yours and there are people in church who were teaching right now that if you pray God's will be done that it's a cop-out that you that you are on some level in unbelief that you are not full of faith you never pray for God's will to be done nothing but blasphemy man nothing nothing but blasphemy and so watch out for that you don't want to swallow that whole thing and I'm not talking about people who punt and and say oh I don't believe that God's gonna do anything so I guess your will be done Oh Lord that's not what we're talking about but whatever I pray man when I'm praying I have all kinds of ideas about how my life should go I have all kinds of ideas about heaven how heaven should be doing things in my life and in the lives of the people who are around me but ultimately this is what I know God loves me more more than I could ever know God loves you more than I could ever fathom God loves the people around me more than I could ever understand and God knows the situation way better than I could ever even approach and my attitude towards God and His will is if it's a choice between my will God and your will let's do yours because I know what I know that you're always gonna do what's right by me you are always gonna do what's right by the people who are around me you're always gonna do what's right and so God's always got a better plan than I do and so it's just arrogant to think otherwise and it's satanic frankly it's just satanic and so you don't want to be caught up in that whole thing and so you're going to have this one world religious belief that takes place it's going to be new but it's actually just the old like I said repackaged and so in this one world religion you're gonna be able to have atheists humanists Buddhists Muslims and professing Christians and it's nothing but a compromised religion that comes from the pit of hell and it's going to be used again by the kings of the earth to come into power the harlot in this passage again is a picture of an unfaithful professor somebody somebody it's it's in the context of adultery and so adultery this is how adultery works you profess that you are faithful to the person that you're married to but in reality your heart is somewhere else you're an you you profess that you are the wife or the husband of so-and-so but in reality you're not now which are what you are as somebody who is faithful to someone else so it's an unfaithful professor and this has always been connected again in the Old Testament with idol worship and again you have that one of the things that is interesting about the difference between Christianity and every religion every other religion on the planet every other religion on the planet usually has idols they have something that they have to look at they have something that they have to see and that's one of the things that you had with the first act of idol worship that the Hebrews got into when they came out during the exodus remember that God had told them you're not to make any any images of me you're not to make any any forms of me and and so it was one of the 10 commandments and so immediately after this Moses goes up into the mountain and he's gone for 40 days they can't last a month and a half before they get into idol worship and so what they do is they decide that they want something that they can see something that they can actually look at something that they can follow it is hard to follow an invisible God it's hard to follow someone that you can see but the Bible says that we walk by faith not by sight we walk by faith and when when you look at what happened in the situation with a calf worship they said you know they came to Aaron and said build us an idol so that we can worship and what he does is he builds an idol that's a calf and it would remember it was a golden calf and he built this whole thing they began worshiping around it they got into all kinds of debauchery and stuff that's what pagan worship was always about they got into all kinds of stuff that just made the Lord angry and Moses came down and he took care of this situation when he comes up to Aaron and says Aaron what have you done he says I don't know I don't know you know the people brought me the gold and said make them you know make them an idol I threw the gold into the fire and out came this calf and it's a lameness excuse that you have in the Bible the guy fashioned it the guy made it the guy stuck it on a plank and and stood it up so that it could stand upright and again they're worshipping idols again it's it's hard to worship something that you can't see and so people worship things that they can see and so they worship power and not that you can see power but you can see the effects of it can't you and they worship people and so you have you know people who follow celebrities around that kind of thing sometimes they worship the people that are on their arm they have their arm linked with somebody and they're into the worship of that woman or into the worship of that man sometimes they worship a car so you know their songs sometimes they worship a job and their eyes are off the Lord and they're on these other things but people still worship and you're gonna have the same situation when you get to the tribulation period when the Antichrist reveals himself one of the things that happens is the whole world marvels after the Beast we're going to talk about that in just a second the whole world is marveling after the Beast and it's because of the miracles that this guy can perform and finally he convinces people to worship Him as God and so the miracles have to be something that's pretty mighty pretty pretty intense pretty glorifying to his position something that deceives these people again so that they believe the lie and I believe what's gonna happen there is that the Antichrist is going to proclaim himself to be a next step in human evolution you've got people in the New Age or who are again saying this right now there's a next step in human evolution that's going to take place and there are things that are keeping it back and the things that are keeping it back or all these thoughts that are being poured out of my mouth right now all this negative stuff towards the deification of man and so what's got to happen is we got to get rid of me we got to get rid of anybody who believes that there's one God and only one God and that we're to serve Him and they come up with all kinds of things like the aliens are gonna come and take us away what if the earth is going to vomit us out or that we're gonna disappear on a day and that's actually true Satan knows what's going to be happening but the Christian Church is going to disappear and that we're gonna go home to be with the Lord and we read earlier I gave you some examples from New Age works where they talked about the fact that part of the people of the earth will be taken off the earth so there's this next step in evolution can take place and then will be brought back later on that's true - one of the best things about Satan's lies is that there's truth in them it's what makes a lie really good really believable so we are gonna be taken out and we are going to be coming back and when we come back we'll be coming back with Jesus Christ himself and it's not going to be to join in with all these people who are here on the earth it's going to be to evict them from the planet and so again you have that when you get to verse 7 he says why did you marvel I will tell you the mystery of the woman and the Beast that carries her which has the seven heads and the ten horns and verse 8 it says the Beast that you saw was and is not and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition and those who dwell on the earth will marvel whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they see the Beast that was and is not and yet is here is the mind which has wisdom the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits there are also seven kings five have fallen one is and the other is not yet come and when he comes he must continue a short time the Beast that was and is not as himself also the eighth and is of the seven and is going to perdition the ten horns which you saw are ten Kings who've received no Kingdom as yet but they receive Authority for one hour as Kings with a beast these are of one mind and they'll give their power and authority to the Beast these will make war with the lamb and the lamb will overcome them for his Lord of lords and King of Kings and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful then he said to me the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are people's multitudes nations and tongues and the ten horns which you saw on the Beast these will hate the harlot make her desolate naked eater flesh and burn her with fire God has put it into their hearts to fulfill his purpose to be of one mind and to give their wisdom of the Beast until the words of God are fulfilled and the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth and so he's going to tell us about the Beast and the seven heads and the ten horns and all of these things this is one of those passages that's difficult you could tell it's difficult but you know I just read it and probably some of you were going what in the world are we talking about here and I'm going to give you the interpretation of this thing and it's the only interpretation that's right just want you to know that I'm just joking this is one of those passages that's argued over by scholars on all kinds of levels for you know a couple of thousand years and one of the things that when when I look at interpretations of passages one of the things that I want when I when I look at an interpretation of something is something that I can get actually from the Bible I don't want an interpretation that comes wholesale from some dude who who just decides that this means this and that means that and and that kind of thing I want something that that is a reference in scripture to some other passage that I can tie these things together with and I think that when that takes place it's something that becomes solid and something that you can actually trust in and so this has been used this passage here has been used specifically to say that the Antichrist when it says that for example in verse 8 the beast that you saw was and is not and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition well the Bible says Judas goes to brutish perdition and so maybe the beast is a resurrection of Judas and so there have been people who've taught that there have been people who've taught that it's Nero Caesar Nero that he was somebody who was a persecutor that a church and he went to perdition and so maybe Nero is the the spirit that's behind the Antichrist and those two things are kind of weird because the Bible doesn't teach that the spirits of men inhabit the spirits of men and so even though Nero was an awful guy he is not a demon and even though they are even though Judas is an awful guy he is not a demon and so demons are able to inhabit the bodies of people but the Bible never says that the that the spirits of men are able to do that and so you know I kind of throw those out just wholesale let me go through and just talk about this specifically this is talking about the the beast that the woman's writing and if you look back over in verse 3 it says he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten horns we ran into this beast back in Revelation chapter 13 and in Revelation chapter 13 it's clear that the Beast specifically there is the Antichrist and the kingdom of the Antichrist this this whole thing with the Beast that you saw was and is not and will ascent amount out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition the the beast in the sense of the kingdom of the Antichrist and the Antichrist himself are not the only things that are called beasts in the Bible and in the book of Revelation specifically so why don't once you go back with me turn back over to Revelation chapter 9 Revelation chapter 9 I'm going to read to you a couple of verses here so Revelation chapter 9 in verse 11 in at the beginning of chapter nine you have an angel who comes down from heaven well a star falling from heaven to the earth and to him was given verse one the key to the bottomless pit or the abyss okay that's what we're speaking about when we get to Revelation chapter 17 and verse eight the beast that was that you saw was and is not and will ascend out of the bottomless pit it's the same word in Greek the bottomless pit there and so in verse nine are in chapter nine verse 11 it talks about in the previous verses that these demons come out of the pit they're there like scorpions basically they come out we dealt with that when we were in Chapter nine but in verse 11 it says and they had as king over them the Angel of the bottomless pit whose name in Hebrew is a badan but in Greek he has the name apollyon when was past behold still two more woes are coming after these things and most people believe that that angel that's being spoken about there is Satan himself and so he's the one who has control over the bottomless pit if you look at chapter 11 verse 7 it says when they finished their testimony this is talking about the two witnesses most likely Moses and Elijah when they finished their testimony the Beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them overcome them and kill them and so you have again this whole picture of a beast that comes out of the bottomless pit that can be talking about Satan himself or it can be talking about the the Antichrist himself inspired by Satan in that passage if you go over to chapter 13 in verse 3 let's start in verse 1 we'll go through 1 through 3 it says then I stood on the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and on his horns ten crowns and on his head's a blasphemous name now the Beast which I saw was like a leopard his feet were like the feet of a bear his mouth like the mouth of a lion the dragon gave him his power throne and great Authority and I saw one of his heads as it had been mortally wounded and his deadly wound was healed and all the world marveled and followed the Beast and worshipped the dragon who gave authority to the Beast and they worshipped the Beast saying who is like the Beast who was able to make war with him and so this is speaking about the Anti Christ not only Antichrist but the Antichrist and his government if you look at again chapter 17 in verse 7 it talks about the beast again but the angel said to me why do you Marvel I'll tell you the mystery of the woman and of the Beast that carries her which has the seven heads and the ten horns obviously we're talking about the same thing all the way through the passage so it's Satan connected with the kingdom of the Beast connected with the Antichrist also and again I'm gonna I'm gonna make that some more of those connections as we're going through this study there are some people who believe that the marveling that takes place those who dwell on the earth again verse 8 of chapter 17 will marvel whose names are not written a book of life from the foundation of the world when they see the Beast that was and is not and yet is some people believe that the marveling there is going to have something to do with imperial government revived and that that's what's being spoken about you see in and I don't get ahead of myself because I'm gonna talk about this in just a minute but in the Bible the Bible teaches that there is a kingdom that kills the Messiah that destroys the city of Jerusalem and that brings desolations on the on the Jewish people and that there is going to be a prince from that same Kingdom in the last days who rises up changes times and law commits the abomination of desolation and is the one that God is going to destroy later on with the brightness of his coming and that's the Antichrist will the kingdom that that killed the Messiah that brought the Jews into captivity and brought desolations on their on their nation destroyed the city of Jerusalem were the Romans and so long before Daniel was given that prophecy that's a prophecy out of Daniel chapter 9 long before that that's Daniel was given that prophecy was when he was probably in his 90s when he was a teenager there was another prophecy that was given to the king in which there was a 10 nation Confederacy that was spoken about that was gonna rise in the last days and that the coming of the Messiah was going to destroy that 10 nation Confederacy and it was something that came out of the fourth kingdom that was being spoken about in Daniel chapter 2 and again I'm getting ahead of myself we're gonna talk about this in a minute but that Kingdom when you go down through history is the Roman it's the Roman Empire and so there's going to be there was going to be a Roman Empire that did all these things with the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and so on and then there's going to be a revival of that Empire that was specifically brought about by 10 last days nations that's what's being spoken about when you see the 10 horns in this passage it makes it clear when you get further on in the passage and I know that this is you know if you've never heard this before this gets kind of weird but one of the things that people think the commentators think is that the revival of that 10 nation Confederacy that the revival of the Roman Empire is the thing that people are going to marvel at well it may not just be the revival of the Roman Empire maybe the revival of Babylon itself because that's what we're talking about in this passage the the judgment on the unreligious Babylon in this section and so it may have to do with that it may also have to do with a with a a resuscitation of the Antichrist himself it looks like when you go through and you you look at a couple of verses about the Antichrist in the Bible it looks like that there's an assassination attempt on this guy that something happens where he is shot at or killed or he's assassinated in some way and it looks like the there's a there's a miracle that takes place in reviving this guy we read it in revelation 13:3 let me read it to you again it says in that passage I saw one of his heads one of the heads of the Beast as it had been mortally wounded and his deadly wound was healed and all the world marveled and followed the Beast you know I need to actually get ahead of myself in this so that you understand what's being spoken about here in the Book of Daniel which is where a lot of this symbology is taken from the last days Kingdom or the the kingdoms that lead up to the coming of the Messiah are pictured as parts of an idol in one prophecy and they're pictured as different animals in another prophecy and in the first prophecy it's in Daniel chapter 2 Daniel is told by God a dream that Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king had had and in that dream he dreams about an idol that has a head of gold shoulders shoulders and arms of silver belly and chest of bronze legs of iron and feeding of iron and clay mixed okay and when he's given the interpretation of the dream he goes to the king of Babylon who is Nebuchadnezzar at the time and he says you O King are the head of gold and so in the interpretation who's the head of gold and obviously it's Nebuchadnezzar but then Daniel says and after you there's going to arise another Kingdom so now the symbology has shifted from being the man Nebuchadnezzar who's right in front of Daniel to being kingdoms and so when you go through and you look at these kingdoms in the Book of Daniel there is a kingdom and then there's a notable king and so the notable king of the kingdom of Babylon was Nebuchadnezzar there were other Kings that came after him but the notable one was Nebuchadnezzar then after him comes Persia and the notable king of Persia in the Bible is Cyrus the Persian or Cyrus the mean excuse me and so Cyrus is the notable king of Persia then you have a next Kingdom that comes after that and that's Greece well the the kingdom of Greece actually Greece was a bunch of city-states until it was brought under under the authority of one man and that was Alexander the Great and so on and so you can go down through history and you can pick notable kings and their kingdoms so the Roman Empire notable king of the Roman Empire would be either Julius or Augustus Caesar and so you you have examples of that in any case it's a king and a kingdom and it talks about this beast which is the kingdom itself and the king and the fact that one of his heads was wounded and that may be a reference to the fact that the Antichrist himself is somebody tries to take the guy out here's a here's another thing he's seen this passage in verse 2 and in chapter 13 the beast I saw was like a leopard his feet were like the feet of a bear his mouth like the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his authority his power his throne and great Authority all those beasts leopard bear and lion are beasts that are spoken about in the Book of Daniel in Chapter 7 and it's the same kingdoms being pictured again and so the lion was a winged lion and it was a symbol of Babylon and then you have the leopard and the leopard had four wings and that was a symbol of Greece and you have a bear and the bear is a bear that had three ribs in its mouth and that was a symbol of Persia and and so again you have animals but each one of those represents a kingdom and there's a notable king well when you get to the kingdom that destroys all these kingdoms the Bible talks about it has in the book of Daniel it has iron teeth and breaks and destroys and crushes and it's not described but when we get to Revelation chapter 13 it has aspects of the Babylonian of the Persian and of the Grecian kingdoms in it obviously you see that and so that's the last days Kingdom that the Antichrist arises out of okay so whatever it says is wounded and so how do you know Steve that that's an assassination attempt it has to do with this turn over to zechariah chapter 11 zechariah chapter 11 and again this is what this is one of those things that that's an interpretation and so it's it's not a hill that i'm gonna i'm gonna die on but there's some very interesting verses that speak about last days and the coming of the Antichrist and one of them zechariah chapter 11 down in verse 17 there's a whole section here that talks about the fact that jesus is going to come back there's going to be a reconciliation between him and the people of israel after it well you have the whole prophecy about Jesus being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver and then it goes on and says in verse 14 then I cut to into my staff bonds that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel verse 15 it says and the Lord said to me next take for yourself the implements of a foolish Shepherd for indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off nor seek the young nor heal those that are broken nor feed those that still stand but he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces woe to the worthless Shepherd see that word worthless there it's idle I do L in Hebrew it's old it's the word for idle and the word for idle is a word that means vanity or something that's worthless and so in the King James Version that's translated woe to the idle Shepard who leaves the flock a sword shall be against his arm and against his right eye his arms shall completely wither and his right eyes shall be totally blinded and this is one of those passages that speaks about a false shepherd that's gonna rise up light rise up it looks like in the last days and something is going to happen to this guy a sword again shall be against his arm and against his right eye and so his arm withers withers up his eye is completely blinded that looks like it may be a head wound in this situation that paralyzes the man's arm and blinds as I if that is a situation where he should be dead can you imagine yeah you know it's like most of you are younger way younger than me and so you don't remember John Kennedy for example in the end the assassin assassination that took place with that guy you know that he was shot in the head if you know anything about history can you imagine if watching those videos of John Kennedy being assassinated by you know being killed by an assassin's bullet and he goes to the hospital and then days later it stated that he died but then miraculously he rises from the dead and even though he's got some leftovers from the wound itself can you imagine what people would do John Kennedy rose from the dead today can you imagine what people would do again people looking for any kind of authority over them that's going to take care of their lives and he talks about this guy being a shepherd turn over with me if you would to John chapter 5 John chapter 5 this is a passage where Jesus is specifically speaking and he's basically upgrading the people of Israel for the fact that they won't recognize him as the one who came in fulfillment of the scriptures and let's start in verse 38 it says but you do not have his word abiding in you because whom he sent him you do not believe he's talking about himself you search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and these are they which testify of me but you're not willing to come to me that you may have life I don't receive honor for men but I know you that you do not have the love of God in you I've come in my father's name and you do not receive me if another comes in his own name him you will receive how can you believe who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God and so specifically verse 43 Jesus makes a prophecy that he's come in the father's name they don't receive him but another is going to come in his own name and him you'll receive and who he's talking about there again is the Antichrist that he's going to be one of the shepherds of the people of Israel he's going to be something someone that the Israelis follow and so again an idol Shepherd and in this passage what you have is a group of people who've abandoned the word that which they said that they're trusting in and in disobedience to the word they're looking away from the true Messiah and they're going to follow a false messiah who tells them the things that they want to hear always a danger always a danger and so it looks like there may be something that takes place with the Antichrist where there's a false resurrection and that makes sense because as we talked about the Antichrist and the power that's behind them there are three personages that are spoken about in connection with the Antichrist and one is Satan himself you remember that Satan is one that gives the Beast his power and his authority and then another guy that's connected with the Antichrist is the false prophet he's the one who's promoting the Antichrist as king promoting the Antichrist as God on earth promoting worship of the Antichrist and killing people who refuse to worship Him and so you have the power behind the throne which is Satan you have the guy who's on the throne who which is the Antichrist and then you have the promoter and you have exactly the same thing in the Trinity you have the power behind the throne so to speak and that's the father you have the guy who's on the throne that's the son that's Jesus he's the representative of the Father and then you have the one who's calling us into a relationship with the Lord Jesus and that's the Holy Spirit and it's an unholy trinity well if you have an unholy trinity maybe have an unholy resurrection and so you have the death of the Antichrist and then the miraculous resurrection and it's something that deceives if possible jesus said even the elect it's so miraculous and so it looks to me like there may be something like that taking place back over to Revelation chapter 17 I don't think I'm gonna get much further I thought I was gonna get done with that at the end of the chapter but I just sat here and looked at my clock it goes on but again verse 8 the Beast that you saw was and is not and so at the time and you know again you got a picture of the picture this is kings and kingdoms so the Beast is not just a king it's not just the Antichrist it's the kingdom of the Antichrist also so the beast that you saw was and is not well one of the things that's interesting about the time that this is written is that Rome is the kingdom in power but from John's perspective the kingdom that's being spoken about was and at the time that John's around is not that's why I think it may not be talking about Rome itself and maybe talking about Babylon remember when you're talking about the the kingdom of the Antichrist it has Babylonian Grecian and Persian aspects to it right and so again you you you have that it goes on and says and it will and it wasn't is not and will ascend out of the bottomless pit that most likely is talking about Satan's influence on the Antichrist so it looks like after this assassination attempt there may be actually a real possession of the Antichrist by Satan himself because that's when all the power comes in that's when people are wondering after the Beast and so that would be the one who ascends out of the bottomless pit and we'll go to perdition and those who dwell on the earth will marvel whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they see the Beast that was and is not and yet is so in the book of Revelation you have people who are not written in the book of life to become a Christian you need to have your name written in the book of life these are people who do not have it written you have other passages that speak about being blotted out from the book of life in this case their name was never in it never in the book of life when you become a Christian your name is written in the book of life goes on in verse 9 it says here is the mind which has wisdom the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits and so now when you're talking about the woman the woman sitting on a beast right but now this whole thing is being connected with seven mountains and it says verse ten there are also seven kings so the mountains are the kings also five have fallen one is the other is not yet come and when he comes he must continue a short time okay let's let's do this now what's mountains what are mountains in the Bible and so if you turn over with me to the Book of Daniel and we're going to be back and forth in Daniel from this point on in the study so Daniel comes after the Book of Ezekiel that's the that's one of the easiest books to find in the Old Testament after the Psalms you go to the right you come to the Book of Ezekiel and you're going to turn over to Daniel chapter 2 Daniel chapter 2 of I've already referred to it's Daniels interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream and so when you look at the end of Daniel chapter 2 starting in verse 24 daniel is giving the interpretation in verse 32 it says that the images head was of fine gold its chest and arms of silver its belly and thighs of brawn its legs of iron its feet partly of iron and partly of clay and in verse 34 he says 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 the gold were crushed together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth this is the dream now we will tell the interpretation of it before the King and I've already given you some of this but it talks about these different kingdoms that are coming up he says in verse 36 or verse 37 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 the heaven of heaven he has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all you are this head of gold but after you shall arise another Kingdom inferior years than another a third of Kingdom of bronze which will rule over the earth and so forth all the way down to the last Kingdom verse 41 whereas you saw the feet and toes partly of irons of potters clay and partly of iron so now he's put toes in there the kingdom shall be divided yet the strength of iron shall be in it just as you saw the iron mixed with the ceramic clay and as a toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile how many toes you got on your feet yeah that's ten and in the days of these Kings over verse 43 as you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay they shall mingle with the seed of men but they will not adhere to one another just as iron does not mix with clay and in the days of those kings of these Kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever in as much as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands that's Jesus that it broke in pieces the iron the bronze the clay the silver the gold the great God has made known to the king what will be will come to pass after this the dream is certain and its interpretation is sure and so the stone is cut about out of a mountain rolls down crushes the idol spreads it to the winds grows up into a great mountain itself and rules over all the earth and that's talking about the kingdom of the Messiah and so in the Bible kingdoms are compared to mountains right in the Bible kingdoms or mountains are also compared to the Kings so you have a kingdom and you have a notable king and so the the stone that becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth and crushes the idol the kingdom is the kingdom of God the notable king is Jesus Christ himself and so you you have that continuity throughout the interpretation and so in the passage back over in Revelation chapter 17 you again have this picture here here's the mind which has wisdom the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits there are also seven kings so mountains equals Kings in the passage just like I showed you in Daniel five have fallen one is the other has not yet come and when he comes he must continue a short time now one of the things that that some people have taught is that the seven mountains that are being spoken about there are the seven hills of Rahl you need to understand that there's a difference between mountains and hills right but there was seven hills of Rome they were called the Palatine the Aventine the kaolian the Esquiline the vehm and all the quieren all or the keiron all excuse me and the Capitoline those were the seven hills of that room was originally built on those were the famous ones and so some people have said that this must be talking about the woman sitting on Rome that's where you get the whole idea of the of the Catholic Church and and all of that stuff but the problem is that it's not just a city itself it is a kingdom and kings and so in the Old Testament where you're talking about kingdoms you're talking about kingdoms and you're not talking about a church the church has been pictured as Mystery Babylon riding on this beast and the Beast itself is a kingdom so well what could these kingdoms be and when you look at what's being spoken about here it talks about the fact that five have fallen at this point again you see this up in verse let's see verse 10 five have fallen one is and the other is not yet come and when he comes he must continue a short time so let's go backwards the the one that is we know the kingdom that was in power at that point it was wrong and so there were kingdoms that came before Rome and we've mentioned four of them and so the four that we mentioned were Babylon and then Persia took over Babylon that Greece took over Babylon and then after let's say it was Babylon Persia Greece and then Rome that's four kingdoms that are meant to mention in the book of daniel and so you have to have kingdoms that come before that and so rome is the one that is at this point five have fallen one is and so let's go backwards in history from rome the kingdom that preceded rome was Greece the cream and we've already seen that kingdom that preceded Greece in the Western world was Persia the kingdom that preceded Persia was Babylon do you know what the kingdom that preceded Babylon was and it was Assyria and in the final kingdom that Assyria actually conquered was Egypt and so it goes Egypt Assyria Babylon [Music] Persia Rome okay one is oh I left out Greece Greece and then wrong and so Rome is the sixth Kingdom five have fallen before Rome and so there you go with that and then it goes on and it says when that there also seven kings five have fallen one is the other has not yet come when he comes he must continue a short time well in the Book of Daniel the seventh Kingdom the one that comes after Rome is the the ten nation Confederacy that ten nation kingdom and the Bible teaches that it's going to continue for a short time and then be taken over by the kingdom of the Beast the Beast that was and is not is himself also the eighth and is of the seven and is going to Perdition the idea behind that being that he rises up out of the seventh kingdom specifically or yeah the seven kingdoms specifically the ten nation confederacy which are a combination of the previous ones he rises up and he's the eighth kingdom and so that's about as far as i'm going to be able to get this week and i know again you guys it's confusing the more that you hear this the easier it gets and i'll make it a little tighter when we come together next week because i had to do a bunch of background for you in any case we're seeing all this thing come to pass there were five kingdoms before wrong there is a new there is a revival of the Roman Empire that's taking place right now in Europe you do have a situation where there's a mite there there's a unity there but they're not tight we just had the brexit and so you have Europe United for the first time in over a thousand years and so they they want to be united and yet they don't and there's going to be ten kingdoms that rise out of that I believe and that's where the Antichrist is going to come from out of that ten nation Confederacy it's one of the things that we're looking for and so one of the cool things about going through the Bible is that God predicts the future and we see the future coming to pass around us right now we're in a situation where the whole worlds in turmoil upside down your liberties are being taken away because of pestilence because of the fact that there are going to be pestilences and then the last days and this isn't even a bad one you guys this isn't a pestilence that that's taken out 10% of the population or 50% of the population we're talking we're talking about small percentages of the population and we've just shut down the whole Western world over this people are getting rid of cash over this again things that are prophesied in the book of Revelation we're living in cool times and so be looking up because Jesus is coming back let's end it right there let me pray we'll get you out of here thanks Lord again for your word pray that you bless your people God help us to be the witness and the godly example that we're supposed to be to the people who around us lord help us to keep our eyes set on you we want to be looking up because your redemption is drawing near we love you Lord and again just pray that you'd be with us as we go our way and we ask this in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 3,176

Rating: 4.8723402 out of 5

Keywords: The End of the World in the bible, Truth, Jesus' Return, The rapture, the second coming, The book of Revelation, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, The last book in the bible, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, The End Times, End Of The World, The Millennial Kingdom, Revelation's meaning, Jesus

Id: R3E9VDJtNUw

Length: 60min 11sec (3611 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 20 2020