Welcome to Calvary
Church with Skip Heitzig. Did you know that about 90%
of the Book of Revelation either quotes or references
the Old Testament from the beginning. The Lord communicated a
great deal about the future to his people. In this teaching
series, Pastor Skip explains the theology of the
end times and the differing conclusions biblical
scholars have reached. The end may be nearer
than you think. We're finding that God is
doing exactly what he said. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] What we know the World
Health Organization just didn't declare this
a global health problem. Now for the last look. Let's turn in our Bibles today
to Revelation chapter 13, Revelation chapter 13. We're doing a series on
eschatology, the end times. It's called the end
is near question mark. I almost forgot my own title. The end is near
question mark, and we've been looking at this
subject relatively in depth. We talked about
millennialism, the concept of those who believe in
a literal 1,000 years versus those who don't and
the different theological viewpoints. We've talked about the role
of Israel and prophecy. We looked at God's time
clock, Daniel 70 weeks. We've looked at the
rapture of the church. We gave an overview of
the Book of Revelation. So we are 16 weeks in
already in this series. And today, I want to talk
to you about a subject found in Revelation chapter 13. Listen, I love talking to
you about Jesus Christ. Unfortunately today,
I've got to talk to you about the Antichrist,
the exact opposite of who we know our Savior to be. But he is a prominent
figure in scripture. There are about 100
passages in the Bible about this coming leader. And one thing I've noticed
in studying the Antichrist what it does for me,
it makes me appreciate Jesus Christ all the more. So at least we'll use that
as a form of comparison. Now, as we get into Revelation
13, keep something in mind. As in all the Book
of Revelation, this book is given
in symbolic language. Though it's given in
symbolic language, it speaks about actual literal
events that will happen. In other words, it's
not an allegory. It's written about in
the kind of language that evokes emotion, but it
speaks about literal events that will come in the future. And something else,
if you are well versed in the Old Testament,
the Book of Revelation is easier for you to understand. Because out of the 404 verses
in the Book of Revelation, 360 of them make
reference to or quote or allude to the Old Testament. So if you were, for instance a
first century Jewish Christian, this book would be more
palatable, more understandable for you. Be that as it may, we
are in Revelation chapter 13 in a message we call
the Antichrist revealed. In verse one we begin, "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 heads a blasphemous name. Now, the beast which I
saw was like a leopard, his feet were like
the feet of a bear, and his mouth like
the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him
his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as
if it had been mortally wounded. And his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled
and followed the beast. And so they
worshipped the dragon who gave authority to the
beast and worshipped the beast saying who is like the beast who
is able to make war with him. And he was given
a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. And he was given authority
to continue 42 months. Then he opened his mouth
and blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name,
his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to
make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given to
him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the
Earth will worship him whose names have
not been written in the Book of Life
of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. If anyone has an
ear, let him hear. He who leads into captivity
shall go into captivity. He who kills with the sword
must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and
faith of the saints." If you were to go
to your computer and google the word Antichrist
like I did this week, you would get 17,500,000 hits. And if you were to then
google the question who is the Antichrist, you would
get far more 183 million hits on the simple question
who is the Antichrist. Now, some websites,
of course they didn't check all 183 million. But some of the websites
that I was rifling through come from legitimate,
respectable sources theologically,
others, not so much. And there's always sketchy,
odd folks, websites, sources. And you can almost always tell
I know I'm generalizing here, but whenever everything is in
all capital letters bright red with flames coming out
both sides of the web page, you may want to stay
away from that one. But what I discovered is that
the subject of Antichrist generates more speculation
and interest than just about any other subject when it
comes to scripture, especially, especially if there
are leaders that take on the personality or the
vocabulary of what we would associate with the Antichrist. For example, here's a quote. "One single center of power,
one single center of force, one single center of
decision making, this is the world of one
master and one sovereign." I found that quote
from the New York Times spoken by Vladimir
Putin, the president of Russia. Well, that's Antichrist-esque
in the least. Here's another quote
from a different leader. "Just like Christ, I have
a duty to my people." This leader claimed that
just as Jesus's birth changed the calendar, so his victory
would be the beginning of a brand new age. And he said, "What Christ
began, I will complete." Those are the words of Adolf
Hitler, chancellor of Germany. In fact, one of his rallies,
the rallies of Nuremberg in Germany, throngs
of people, there was this huge poster with
a picture of Adolf Hitler and the slogan was written in
the beginning was the word. Well that's very
Antichrist-esque. And just think of that
as a preview of this in Revelation chapter 13. After all, the term
Antichrist doesn't just mean opposed to Christ
or against Christ. That little prefix anti can
also mean instead of Christ. And it would seem that is
what he is trying to pull off, this giant counterfeit
Christ idea. He will be a Satan inspired,
Satan infused, Satan possessed leader that will
emerge during this time period we have told
you about called the Tribulation period, a
seven year period in the future upon the Earth. Now, he's known to
us as the Antichrist, so he has like 50 different
names in the Bible. The one that really stuck,
even though it's only mentioned a couple of times
is the name Antichrist. So we're going to
go with that one. And I've discovered
that whenever you have any serious
conversation where you mention the Antichrist, if you're
talking to like unbelievers, just watch their eyes. If you say there's an Antichrist
coming, watch their eyes. I can almost guarantee you they
will roll them in their heads, or they will snicker. I mean, because
Antichrist is right up there with like Santa Claus,
the, Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy. But the Bible predicts him,
the Old Testament prophets, New Testament apostles,
and the Lord Jesus himself. So because of that,
throughout history, Christians have been aware, been
looking for possibly identifying who this would be. This goes all the way
back to even 40 AD when a Roman emperor
named Caligula threatened to place an image of himself
in the Temple of Jerusalem. It was anathema to the Jews. Jewish Christians were
alerted to the fact that this might be the one
the Bible calls the Man of Sin or the Son of Perdition
or the Antichrist. A few years after
that, Caesar Nero emerged as the emperor of Rome. Caesar Nero and 57 AD
launched a persecution against the Christian
church that was one of the worst in history. Because of that, the believers
referred to that Caesar as the beast. They thought this could
be the Antichrist. And that has continued
on through history. Some people have said
it was Mussolini. Some said it was Napoleon. Some said the Antichrist was
Charlemagne, Adolf Hitler, Moshe Dayan, Henry
Kissinger, Mikhail Gorbachev, Javier Solana of Spain, and Elon
Musk, been numerous guesses. Presidents have been called
the Antichrist probably every president in history had at
some point by some group has been called that. But some identify Thomas
Jefferson as the Antichrist, others later on, FDR,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, huge following. I remember when people said
it was JFK, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Some said Ronald Reagan. Numerous popes have been
called the Antichrist throughout history. And one source, one
prophetic publication said the worship of the
beast is the internet. And here's their rationale. Every HTML that you
work with, every website you go to has a prefix, www. Well, www, the letter W
corresponds to the Hebrew Vav. It would look like, it
would appear like a W in our transliterated style. And so there is a
practice called gematria. Gematria is where you take
letters of the alphabet and assign a numeric equivalent. It's an ancient practice
from the Greek times, and the Jewish people did this. So certain languages
have numeric equivalents. The sixth letter of
the Hebrew alphabet is the letter Vav, so
[NON ENGLISH SPEECH] Vav. So they go it's
www, six, six, six. This is how crazy it gets. So next week, I'm
going to be talking about the mark of the beast
a little more specifically that's found in verse
18 of this chapter. But since the mark
is 666, today I want to give you six
characteristics to describe this coming Antichrist. First characteristic,
wickedness, notice in verse one and throughout this chapter,
he is called a beast, a beast. The world sees him as a beauty. God sees him as a beast. Do you remember
the book of Daniel? You remember that King
Nebuchadnezzar had a vision one night, a dream? He didn't know what it was. He said he couldn't
remember, and he asked for an interpretation. Daniel finally came
in and said, let me tell you what your dream
was and what it means. So Nebuchadnezzar saw an
image of gold at the head, silver for the arms and chest,
brass for the belly and thighs, legs of iron, feet
of iron, and clay. That's what he saw. Daniel comes in and
says you are looking at successive kingdoms,
world governing kingdoms who will bear rule over the world. He said you're the head
of gold, Nebuchadnezzar. Someone's coming after you,
another kingdom after that, another kingdom after that. He showed success of kingdoms. Nebuchadnezzar saw the
kingdoms as this shiny, bright, beautiful image statue. A few chapters later, God
gives to Daniel the same vision but a different analogy,
not a beautiful statue, but four beasts. Because that's
how God sees them. People see it as a beautiful,
bright, shiny, awesome kingdom. God sees it as
four great beasts. So this leader is
called a beast. And the Greek word
is therian, and it means a wild, venomous,
dangerous monster, so not like Fido, your household
beast, your little pet, but a real beast. He's a man pictured as a beast
because he's a beast of a man. And notice he rises from the
sea we are told in verse one. What does that mean? It's the nations of the world. The world is often
pictured in the scripture as a seething, restless sea,
like the sea of humanity. Isaiah chapter 15, the wicked
are like the troubled sea. In Revelation 17, then he
said to me, this is 17 15. "Then he said to
me the waters which you saw were the harlot sits are
peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues." So the world and
the scripture is often pictured as a seething,
raging, troubled sea, an ocean, which is an apt description. I mean, think about the
world that you live in. Think of the crime,
the violence, the confusion over gender,
, the political distrust the institutional failure,
the rise in drug addiction, fentanyl death,
pornography, you name it. Jesus in Luke 21
speaking of the last day said, "There will be distress
of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring." That's Jesus's own description
of the end of days, "Distress of nations
with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring." By the way, that word
perplexity that Jesus used, it's the only time it's found
in the Greek New Testament. It means confusion. And it could be
translated no way out. People will say there's
no way out of this mess. There's no fix to this solution. There's no way we're
going to get out of this. Well, just at that time will
emerge out of that troubled sea a leader that we
call the Antichrist. He will begin as a
peacemaker, Revelation chapter six, man on the white horse. But he will bring with
him war and destruction. He'll come as somebody who's
charming and charismatic and dynamic, a beauty. But he's really a beast. Arnold Toynbee was
a British historian. Some of who he is or he was. He was a British
historian who studied in particular the decline
of historic civilizations. And he said something
I want to read to you. He said, "By forcing on mankind
more and more lethal weapons, and at the same time making
the world more interdependent economically, technology
has brought mankind to such a degree
of distress that we are ripe for the deifying
of any new Caesar who might succeed in giving
the world unity and peace." So they'll be perplexed. There's no way out. Oh, really? Well, have I got a
solution for you. He's a beast. So that's his first
characteristic, wickedness. Second characteristic,
world dominance, go back to verse one and two,
"I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw beasts rising
up out of the sea having seven heads and 10 horns." It's a confederacy of nations. "And on his horns, 10 crowns on
his heads, 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," that is Satan we're
told in Revelation 12. "The dragon gave him
his power, his throne and great authority." Couple of things,
what we just read sounds familiar if you know the
Old Testament Book of Daniel. In Daniel, chapter
seven, what Daniel saw is very similar to
what John sees here. Remember, Daniel had a vision. I mentioned of four beasts
that represented four empires, first was like a lion,
second was like a bear, third was like a leopard,
and the fourth one had 10 horns like here. Babylon was the first
beast like a lion, fierce and consuming power. The second empire, Medo-Persia,
the Medo-Persian empire, represented by a
bear, was like a bear, lumbering but very strong. The third was Greece,
portrayed as a leopard because it speedily
covered the Earth. Alexander the Great took over
the world very, very quickly. So John sees a similar
vision but in reverse and as a composite. In other words, this
beast in Revelation 13 has all of the elements
and characteristics of previous empires
and emperors. So think of it as an
amalgamation of Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus the Great, Alexander the
Great, all the Caesars, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin all rolled
into one guy, a beast rising out of the sea and
this description. A couple of things to make note
of, who gives him his power? Satan, the dragon gives him
power, gives him a authority, gives him a throne. And you might ask,
well, is it his to give? Yes, it is. And here's why. God gave authority
of the Earth to Adam. Adam turned it over
to Satan at the fall. It was delivered to Satan. This is why when Satan tempted
Jesus in the wilderness, Luke chapter four, the devil said to
Jesus, "All of this authority I will give you. And their glory for this
has been delivered to me, and I give it to
whomever I wish." This is why Jesus called the
devil the ruler of this age. This is why Paul called the
devil the God this world. So Satan empowers him. And then notice also that
his authority is worldwide. So there's wickedness,
and now world domination. Look at verse seven. "It was granted to him to
make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was
given him," watch this, "over every tribe,
tongue, and nation." There will be a confederacy
of 10 nations that will come about, some
kind of confederacy. It's been guessed as to
what that is exactly. I'm not going to venture a
guess today in today's study. But it's enough to
say that his control, his influence, his power will
be a worldwide domination. Now since the '90s, it
may have been before, but as far as I can remember,
the big buzzword was globalism, still is, globalization. We talked about a global
market, a global village. We want a global
economy, several groups that push for that. I'm not going to
get political today and say which ones they are. But I did find one group
called the Democratic World Federalists based
in San Francisco. That doesn't surprise us. But they have
worldwide supporters. They want a federal system
of world government. And on their website,
their stated goals are establish a world
parliament, enact world laws, create a world central bank. All of that is exactly the
same goals as this Antichrist will have. And so he will
give that to them. So we have wickedness,
world domination, third characteristic, wonder. Verse 3, "I saw one
of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded. And his deadly
wound was healed." Notice his deadly
wound was healed. "And all the world marveled." The Old King James says
wondered and followed the beast. I'm not going to be
dogmatic on this. But here's what it seems. And I'm following, , I think
pretty good scholarship in what I've read. It would seem that
there's going to be some sort of an assassination
attempt on this leader so much so that he gets a
wound that the world believes he's dead. He died from this wound and that
he will stage a Resurrection. Now, I would say it's
a pseudo Resurrection. It's a staged Resurrection. It's false because I believe
only God can give life. But it will appear
as if he has died. After all, he's called
the Antichrist, right? So if he wants to be someone
who is instead of Christ, a Resurrection would be perfect. Because there's only one true
Savior who rose from the dead, but this will be a
fake Resurrection. So imagine the scene. Imagine an assassination
takes place of a world leader. He is lying in state. He's in a casket in
some rotunda in one of the cities in
the Middle East. Thousands of people are lined
up to pay their respects. The news is covering
it day after day. The camera zooms in, and
suddenly, the guy in the casket gets up. What would be the
result of that? Marvel, wonder, wow,
who is like the beast? Nobody's like him. They will wonder after him. And so this event
could be what makes everybody go he's the one. He's the sent one. He is the Messiah. And perhaps this
is what Jesus meant when he said, "I have
come in my father's name, and you did not receive me. Another will come in his own
name, him, you will receive." So they will wonder. The Greek word
[NON ENGLISH SPEECH] they'll be mesmerized by it. Now, wonder is always the
first step to worship. And worship is the
fourth characteristic I want you to see. In verse 4, "So they
worshipped the dragon." Who's the dragon? Satan, he's identified as
the devil in chapter 12. They worshiped Satan. "They worship the dragon who
gave authority to the beast. And they worshipped
the beast saying who is like the beast who is
able to make war with him." Verse 8, "All who
dwell on the Earth will worship him
whose names have not been written in the Book
of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world." Their wonder turns to worship. Their fascination
turns to adoration. I used to ask how can
anybody worship the devil? How could anybody possibly
say I worshipped the devil until I met a Satan worshipper. I was in college. He had an apartment right across
the driveway from my apartment. I worked with him at the
hospital where I was interning. And he was an
interesting guy said, I'm a I'm a Satan worshipper. And I step back, what? You like, you're admitting that? And we had a long conversation
over many days and weeks. I had the privilege
eventually of leading him to faith in Jesus Christ. But [NON ENGLISH SPEECH] As time went on, I met
several other people who made such claims. So when I say who could
worship the devil? I used to ask that. Now, I just kind of
figure a lot of people do. And here's what I've noticed. There has been over
the last few years, especially exacerbated
by COVID a decline in church membership
and church attendance while there has been a fairly
steady even rapid increase in satanic groups,
satanic cults, and even the Church of Satan itself. They boast now 700,000 members,
members, a membership role in their organization. There are now satanic
groups after school groups in public schools. Like you used to
have Bible clubs, now there are Satan groups that
meet after school for kids. I don't know if you saw
the Grammys this year. If you did, my
condolences to you. But one of the acts
that was on the stage was Sam Smith, who is
a British singer who sang the song unholy
dressed in a hat with devil horns coming out. He made a public
display of unholy and tipping the hat to Satan. Did you know that in our
state, the state of New Mexico, the Satanic Church has
an abortion clinic? Most of you have probably heard
about this when it came up. And they will perform a
religious abortion ritual. The ritual consists of
speaking satanic creeds while looking into the mirror
before and during the abortion procedure. They say doing this
sanctifies the abortion ritual it's happening right
here in our state. So they will worship the dragon. They will worship the beast. By the way, that's something
Satan wanted all along. In Isaiah chapter 14 it
describes the fall of Lucifer. He said in his heart I
will ascend to heaven. I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God. I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. He's always wanted worship. Satan doesn't want casualties. He wants converts. And he will have it in
the tribulation period. The world by this time
has rejected the Lamb. And in his place they
have received the beast. He will get worship. So wickedness, world
domination, wonder, worship, here's the fifth
characteristic, words, words. Now, notice this. Notice in verse five, "And
he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies,
and he was given authority to continue 42 months." That's 3 and 1/2 years. "Then he opened his mouth
in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his
name his Tabernacle." That's the temple, I imagine. "And those who dwell in heaven." Now, this characteristic
of using his speech, his words is noted not
just here in Revelation 13 but in other places
in scripture. It seems by all of
these descriptions that this Antichrist will be
like the consummate politician. Daniel, chapter
seven describes him by using a phrase four times. "A mouth speaking
pompous words," pompous words, he will not
have a self esteem problem. He will love selfies. It's all about him all the time. Almost all dictators in history
have risen to power in part by their ability to use
words by persuasive speech. I don't know if you've ever seen
the old videos of Adolf Hitler and how he would
mesmerize the crowds. But let me give you
just a sampling of it, not an actual clip. But he would get up to the
podium after he was introduced. The crowd went wild
clapping for him. And he would just
stand there in silence. And he waited until everybody in
the crowd was absolutely quiet. He would begin his speech with
a very soft whisper voice, almost appearing
nervous at first. Then his speech went
on, and he would talk about injustices
done to the German people by the previous war, et cetera
and what they need to be like and where they could go. His voice would rise in
volume, intensity, and passion. He would sway back and
forth, side to side. He started gesticulating moving
his hands around up and down, sweating, his face grew white. And at the end, of
course, he was yelling out in short little
staccato phrases. And by the end, the
crowd was swept up in a frenzy just
spontaneously shouting out in unison, Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler! It's amazing to watch, the
power of persuasive speech. He will be given
a mouth speaking great and pompous words. One of our own writers,
Nathaniel Hawthorne said, "Words so innocent and
powerful as they are, standing in a dictionary,
how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one
who knows how to combine them." So he will be
empowered by Satan. He will appear to be a beauty. But really he will be a beast. He will mesmerize the world
by a fake Resurrection. He will be a powerful speaker. Let me give you the sixth and
final characteristic, and that is war, war. Now, once he
mesmerizes the world, once he succeeds in dominating
the world getting people on his side maybe in part by the
peace plan that he brings in, Revelation chapter
six seems to indicate. Once he succeeds in dominating
the thinking of the globe, he will then unleash
war against them. Look at verse seven. "It was granted to
him to make war." But notice with whom? "With the saints and
to overcome them. And authority was given over
him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. And all who dwell on the
Earth will worship him whose names have
not been written in the Book of Life
of the Lamb slain from the foundations
of the world." Now, this is not the first
time that this is revealed. Again, I keep talking
about Revelation seven Revelation seven 25, "He
will speak pompous words against the most high, and
he shall persecute," listen, "he shall persecute the
saints of the most high. He shall persecute the
Saints of the most high. Here, it says he's granted
to make war with the saints and to overcome them. He's going to harass believers. He's going to seize
their property. He's going to kill them if
they don't take the mark, more on that next time. Now, let me offer a timeline
for you just a little bit of what I think how
this would fit in terms of a timeline scenario. You have seven years, seven
year tribulation period. At the beginning of
that tribulation, it will seem to be peaceful. It will be relatively calm
because a people previous to that will be perplexed. They don't see a way out. There's trouble in the
world until this leader comes and fixes
things, makes promises. He's able to swing a peace
deal in the Middle East, build the Jews a temple,
quell all the riots that have gone on there. So he'll bring peace at first. At the mid mark, 42 months and
final 42 months, 3 and 1/2, 3 and 1/2, in the middle
of that, things change. In the middle of that
week, seven year period, he breaks the covenant that
he has promised to the Jews. He persecutes the Jewish people. It gets worse. He kills 2/3 of all
the Jewish people living in the state
of Israel at the time. 2/3 of them at his
hand are killed. That's Zechariah chapter 13. Then he takes over. He conquers the
city of Jerusalem. That's Zechariah chapter 14. And he goes on a rampage to
kill believers around the world. That's Revelation chapter 13. This is something
Jesus predicted. Matthew 24 says,
they will he said, "They will deliver you up
to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all
nations for my namesake." He predicted this. Now, some of you
are troubled by what we have just read
because it says he's going to persecute the saints. He's going to wear out the
saints or kill the saints. He has power to
overcome the saints. And what troubles you is you go,
wait a minute, wait a minute. How could that be possible? Didn't Jesus say upon this
rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will
not prevail against it. Yes he did, and that's
the whole point. This isn't the
church as we know it. The church has been raptured
before the tribulation period. Who is this? These are tribulation saints
or tribulation believers. After the rapture
of the church, there will be people as
we've already noted who will come to
faith in Jesus Christ, one group, 144,000 Jews
sealed and protected by God during that time. They come to believe. Because they believe, and
they witness, and there will be two witnesses
preaching in Jerusalem, Revelation chapter 11. The Bible says a number
so big no one could count of Gentiles,
tribes, tongues, peoples around the world. Those are the saints
that he persecutes. So there's an angel flying
through heaven at the time. There's two witnesses
preaching in Jerusalem. There's 144,000
Jewish evangelists. There's people
believing in Christ. Antichrist is going to target
them and go to war with them. And overcome them. They are killed. They are martyred
during this time. Now, I want to end this
message like I started it. I said at the beginning,
I'd much rather tell you about Jesus
Christ than Antichrist. But that in studying
Antichrist, it makes more wonderful
Jesus Christ. So let me give you just a quick
comparison between Antichrist and Jesus Christ. Antichrist is called in
scripture the man of sin. Whereas Jesus is
the sinless man. Antichrist is called in the Old
Testament the idol shepherd, the idol shepherd. What did Jesus say he was? The good shepherd, idol
shepherd, good shepherd. Antichrist is here pictured
as a beast, Revelation 13 one. And throughout
the book, Jesus is referred to verse eight
of chapter 13 as the Lamb. You want a beast, or
do you want a Lamb? You want to follow a beast, or
do you want to follow the Lamb? Antichrist death, or I should
say supposed death will be meant to deceive people. Jesus Christ's death
was given to save people, vastly different. But verse eight is something
I want to close with. It's a haunting verse. All who dwell on the
Earth will worship him. If some of you are
having this thought, yeah, I'm not a Christian. I haven't given
my life to Christ. I come to church. I listen to this stuff, and
I'm not going to do that. I'm not weak-minded
like you people are. So maybe a
tribulation is coming, and I'll just go through it. Now that I know it,
now I'll be ready. And I'm going to I'm
going to buy gold. I'm going to buy guns. I'm going to go live
out and wherever. I'm good. Really? You would think that? When you are offered
your name being written in the Lamb's Book of Life
and escape all these things as Jesus said, when these things
begin to come to pass, lift up. Your redemption draws near. Pray that you can
escape all these things. All who dwell on Earth
will worship him. Listen, it's going to be
so compelling for the world to worship him. And the Bible does say this. God will send them
strong delusion that they will believe the lie. So all who dwell on
Earth will worship him whose names have
not been written in the Book of Life
of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Your name is written
in a number of places, on your birth certificate. It's on your mortgage. It's on your car registration. It might even be on a traffic
ticket you receive this week, I don't know. It's on your driver's license. It's on your bills that
come to your mailbox. But is your name written in this
book, the Lamb's Book Of Life? That's where you
want your name red. I don't want my name in lights. No, you really want
your name in life, in the Lamb's Book of Life. And if it's not there, if
you're not sure that it's there, be sure now, today. Make a decision to
follow Christ today. Don't wait another day. Don't risk another week. Say yes to Jesus today. Father, thank you for the
ability to see the future. Albeit dimly, we see
through a glass darkly but then face-to-face
but to be able to notice certain characteristics
of someone that you said true prophets
and apostles and the Savior is coming to this
Earth, a man of sin the son of perdition, the
lawless one, the Antichrist. Lord, we can see how these
things can be fulfilled even in the time in which
we have been living over the last few
years with some of the events around the world. We can see how that things can
quickly turn so that people feel there's no way out. They are perplexed. They are confused. They need an answer,
and that they would be ready to
believe any government, any official, anyone who
could promise and produce a level of anxiety-free
peaceful living. So Lord, ready our hearts
not only for what is coming, but especially for what we
know will come to everyone, and that is unless you come
back for us soon, death. Lord, I pray that everyone
here in the hearing of my voice who's out in our amphitheater,
who's listening by radio, who's watching online, who's here
in this auditorium, who's at our campuses in Santa
Fe and the West Side. If their name is not written
in the Lamb's Book of Life, or if they're not sure that
it is, they would make sure. You said in your word
if we believe in you, we will be saved. If we believe in our heart that
God raised Jesus from the dead, we will be saved and if
we confess with our mouth. So Lord, I pray for
anyone who's here who's not made that
commitment yet, hasn't been authenticated
in their own life personally or maybe they wandered
away from you. They used to have some kind
of intimacy and closeness with you, but they walked away. And they know it. They know their life is not
what they projected it would be. They're hungry for more. And you are here to satisfy the
deepest needs of every longing heart. So with our heads
bowed, are bowed, our eyes closed, if
you're here today, and you've not given your life
to Christ yet, I'm asking you, I'm begging you. Because Paul the apostle said
that we should compel people. Beseech people, and
I'm beseeching you. If you've never given your
life to Christ, do it now. Do it today. If you are willing to do
that, to say yes to Him, to ask for your
sins to be forgiven, you want a new start in life,
or you've walked away from him, and you need to come back home. If that describes you,
our eyes are closed, our heads are bowed. My eyes will be open. I want to know who's doing
this so I can pray for you. If you're willing
to say yes to Jesus, I want you to raise
your hand right now. Raise it in the air. Just raise it up. Keep it up high so
I can identify you. God bless you to my left,
you right up front, , in the middle on my
left, way in the back, right there in the middle, in
the middle toward the back, who else? Raise your hand up. Let's do it right now,
right over here to my right, and again to my right, several
of you around the auditorium. Anybody else? Anybody else in the
balcony, raise a hand up, or in the family
room right over here. Father, I pray for these
hands having pointed them out and identifying them. You've known them all along. You've loved them, and
you love them still. You love to change lives. And we pray that you
will change these lives, give them hope for their future. Give them a joy and a peace
that passes human understanding as Jesus makes all things
new as you transform them. In Jesus's name, Amen. Thank you so much for joining
us for this message from Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig. We would love to know how
this message impacted you. Share your story with us. Email mystory@calvarynm.church. And if you'd like to support
this Bible teaching ministry with a financial gift,
visit calvarynm.church/give.
