The Coming of a False Peace

well with much joy again this morning I uh return to the Book of Revelation it's um it's been a long break since we finished chapter 5 but we find ourselves at the beginning of chapter 6 and this is a notable portion of scripture so open your Bible if you will to Revelation chapter 6 as you will remember the Book of Revelation is chronological the first three chapters deal with Christ moving in his church on the earth so in chapters 1 to three you have the church on Earth in chapters four and five the church appears in heaven symbolized by the 24 Elders which means that by the time you get to four and five the church has been raptured and is now in the presence of saints and Angels around the Throne of God but then in chapter six it comes back to Earth back to Earth for the time known as the tribulation when everything comes to its final end and in chapter six there is a picture that is very graphic it's laid out in Seal judgments Wills were sealed in the Roman era so they would only be opened by the one who had the authority to access the will that's what you have here Christ has taken the will of God the title deed to the universe from the father's Throne as we saw earlier and he is going to open it as the heir to the universe and with each seal there's an element of features that he uses to take back what is rightfully his as Psalm 2 says so starting in chapter 6 is where the Lord in the future will take possession of what has been in the control of the usurper Satan Christ the rightful Heir the rightful King opens the seal which is the will and testament of God and he is the one who can open the seals and take back the universe as we come to chapter 6 the first seal is in the opening two verses I'm just going to read those two verses for you this morning then I saw when the lamb broke one of the Seven Seals and I heard one of the four living creatures those are angels as we learned from chapters four and five one of those four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder come come and that is a call under this seal to what occurs in verse two I looked and behold a white horse and he who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out about conquering and to conquer that is the beginning of the end after the church has been removed from the world that is how the final period of human history Begins the first seal now we're going to have to back up to get a running start on this and look at a number of portions of scripture but what is being represented there is essentially the arrival of world peace you have a white horse which was ridden by a conqueror you have him conquering and to conquer you have him with a bow but no arrows which means this is not a war he does not take authority by force but rather the White Horse and the rider a bow without arrows receives from the world a crown given to him and he is therefore installed with full Authority the next event following the removal of the church the final days of those who belong to Christ when he takes us out of this world following that the seals will begin now we can already see the movement in those directions so we must be near the return of Christ and the first thing is going to be this White Horse arless conqueror who is given a crown the best way to understand this is that it refers to peace peace and we assume that because in the second seal in verse four it says peace was taken from the earth so what is coming to the Earth in the future is World Peace that is correct World Peace but it doesn't last very long verse four says it was taken from the earth and then Slaughter began and then famine and then death but for a while there will be peace in the world of a certain kind now this is a very popular desire world peace I think we know that we're all aware of the fact that people have been talking about global Unity One World Government for a long time and there are many conspiracy theories about people secretly moving everything in that direction but there are also realities which are anything but secret and are not theories but are certainly actions being taken by globalists to move the world toward One World Government this is esal ating among the elitist power hungry people who control the levers of culture and Society they want one world government and why do they want that well they give several reasons one is what they call Equity so that they can redistribute all the assets and all the wealth and all the possessions equally across the planet to everyone another one is because of currency they have a desire for a singular currency Global Currency and they would like that to be crypto currency electronic currency so they can control all finances and all spending by everyone and then another one of their motivating desires is environment they they want equal commitment upon every nation of the world all people of the world to the environmental plan right now many nations are supposedly doing what they can to achieve environmental goals while many other nations pay no attention another one of their goals is taxation they want Global taxation so that no one no Corporation can escape to some location where the taxation is lower another reason for their desire for a global One World Government is immigration they want to eliminate immigration all together they want to elimidate it by simply saying anybody can go anywhere they want to go anytime any way free movement of everyone another one of their goals goals in having a one world government is what they call crisis response which was Illustrated during the lockdown and the pandemic with covid they they want to make sure the whole world responds the way the World Health Organization thinks they should respond they want control over the responses to any kind of disease any kind of pandemic and they want uniformity and then of course a big one war because Nations fight each other and this seems to go on all the time they want to eliminate Nations so that there are no National Wars and the goal of all of this if they can create Equity common currency control of the environment Universal taxation eliminate borders so there's no illegal immigration control all crises and end all wars will bring about world peace I don't know if you know this but they already have a flag it's called the One World flag it's the flag of humanity and the unity of the Nations part of it is green for the Earth Humanity human progress and unity Agriculture and life part of it is blue for the United Nations hope water atmosphere we breathe and Sky part of it is black for the darkness of space hardship that Humanity will overcome and the Last Frontier of human exploration and settlement of the solar system and beyond and it has 13 stars because they've divided the globe into 13 regions one One World Government they are serious about this this is one of the reasons I told you months ago that they have a problem with America because of the emphasis here on nationalism that is a threat to their efforts to remove national identity is this a good idea is this a reasonable idea we can find that out very easily by going all the way back to the Book of Genesis so turn in your Bible to Genesis chapter 11 Genesis chapter 11 One World system is not a new idea it's a very old idea and by the way a very satanic idea an old idea when I say that I mean Genesis chap 11 not long after God had destroyed the the entire world in the flood leaving only eight people to reconstitute humanity again soon after that we come to chapter 11 and this is what we read in verse one the whole earth used the same language and the same words so there was every reason to assume that they could rather easily pull pull off one world government since they all spoke the same language that would eliminate one formidable barrier and it came about in verse two that as they journeyed East that they found a plane in the land of shinar that by the way is the Mesopotamian Valley between the Tigers and the Euphrates where the Garden of Eden won was and they settled there now that sounds innocent enough but the problem with that is that wasn't God's design back in Genesis 1 and they knew this this was the creation mandate verse 28 after God made man in his own image after he created him male and female verse 28 of Genesis 1 God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth and subdo it part of the creation mandate was to spread over the whole earth they had done that God drowned that evil society and they were to start all over again with the descendence of Noah but they didn't want to do that they wanted to settle in one place so they said in verse three to one another come let us make bricks burn them thoroughly that is to say so that they would be strong and they used brick for stone and they used tar for Mortar and they said come let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven and let us make for ourselves a name otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth they knew they were supposed to be scattered over the face of the whole earth that was the creation mandate that was God's order to them in the original creation but they were Rebels against God they did not want to do that they wanted to stay together and so they decided that they would build a city and they would build a tower and they would make a name for themselves the Lord came down verse 5 to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built the Lord said behold they are one people and they all have the same language and this is what they began to do and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them come let us go down and there confuse their language so that they will not understand one another's speech so the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth and they stopped building the city therefore its name was called Babel because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth and by the way the scattering is described in chapter 10 chapter 10 gives you the scattering in chapter 11 gives you the reason God wanted them scattered over the whole earth what is going on here well first of all man says come let us come let us same language same words literally in Hebrew one lip and one set of words we're all unified they were all descendants of Noah they realized that they were in power and they wanted to concentrate that power and concentrated power concentrate and exacerbates evil a unified force of Sinners with no restraints as the Lord says in verse 6 they will do anything they purpose to do nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them there are no restraints this is concentrated power of evil people one evil ruler could corrupt the whole world Nations provide restraint and the power of Sinners is diffused and spread out World Unity is an absolute disaster it puts too much power into too few Sinners and maybe too much power in even one sinner World Unity is a complete disaster it is what Satan wants it is what God does not want at least until he releases Satan to accomplish his purpose Satan wants and showed his hand in Genesis 11 a One World Government led by a Cod of Sinners who can function without any restraint this is a picture of antichrist a dictator who will rule the world who will consolidate evil across the entire face of the Earth this is Satan's desire now looking a little deeper there was a leader in Genesis go back to chapter 10 and verse 8 and you see there the name Nimrod Nimrod he was from the line of ham shemam and japheth the sons of Noah Nimrod was from the line of ham it says in verse 8 he became a mighty one on the Earth he was a mighty Hunter literally the word means warrior or killer he was not a killer of animals he was a killer of people in other words he ascended to Power by killing people it's is as if that he was next to the Lord he had assumed such power it was even said commonly nimrod is a mighty killer before the Lord meaning he's a rival in a sense to God himself he has so much power and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel so here we have some very interesting things this is the first time the word Kingdom appears in scripture this is the first time there's a kingdom it's the first time there's a king he is a fascinating figure in verses 8 and N three times he is called mighty mighty in an evil sense he is a killer he is the great grandson of Noah the grandson of righteous ham he wielded deadly power he was ruthless in the Euphrates Valley no doubt establishing his kingdom by the means of death and having established that he literally could perpetuate his own evil through the entire population of the world because there were no other powers to stop him but God identified it as Babel because he wouldn't allow it to happen it becomes known as the Tower of Babel because God changes their language and all that comes out of that effort is confusion and then in verse 9 the Lord scatters them abroad over the whole earth so Nimrod rebelling against the creation Mandate of God evil Nimrod murderous Nimrod rebelled idolatrous Nimrod wanted to build a city and why a city because a city is concentrated humanity and that of course is you have the greatest concentration and expression of sin and iniquity we know that from how cities function even today and then a tower essentially a zigurat as it was called in ancient times at the base would be some kind of idolatry some kind of worship and the tower ascending as far into heaven as they could build it as a in a sense a figure of their desire to reach the god gos and then having achieved the greatness of a city and such a tower that penetrates even to the heavens and touches deity they would have made a name for themselves there was no concern for God there was no interested in interest in his will or his purpose it was all about what they could accomplish this is clearly satanic as a result God and you can see it in verse 7 says let us go down verse four they said let us build in response God said let us go down and confuse their languages very effective by the way very effective chaos breaks out the city plan is shattered the religion is splintered into bits and pieces they don't make a name for themselves and then the Lord scatters them all over the Earth and you can see just where as you read chapter 10 human Pride human ambition power designing One World Government is thwarted by God it gives too much power to too few people without balance without restraint it's the worst of all possible human government however in Isaiah and I want you to turn to Isaiah chapter 2 Isaiah says in the future there will be one world government there will be one world government Isaiah 2: 1 to4 the word which Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem so now we know that this future One World Government we're about to hear about will be connected to Judah and Jerusalem now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills and all the nations will stream to it and many peoples will come and say come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the god of Jacob that he may teach us concerning his ways so what do we have here we have God in Judah and in Jerusalem in the last days establishing his house the house of the Lord really in in Jerusalem on the Mount of Zion it will be raised up above the hills that is to say it will be more powerful than all other nations All Nation Nations will stream into it and many people will come so this is a one world government in Jerusalem in the future and people from the world will say come let us go to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the god of Jacob that he may teach us concerning his ways that we may walk in his paths the whole world will come under the leadership and authority of the king who is none other than Messiah he will judge verse four between the Nations and will render decisions for many peoples or many nations so this is the future One World Government led by our Lord himself when he returns I want to show you another picture of it in the book of Zephaniah Zephaniah chapter 3 in verse 8 therefore wait for me declares the Lord for the day when I Rise up as a witness indeed my decision is to gather Nations to assemble kingdoms to pour out on them my indignation all my burning an anger the future is coming when God is going to collect all the nations for the purpose of final judgment all the Earth will be devoured by the fire of mind my Zeal this is the future judgment what follows it is the kingdom verse N9 then I will give to the people's purified lips all of them may call on the name of the Lord to serve him shoulder to shoulder wherever they're from whatever Nation those who have been purified who have been cleansed who have been granted righteousness will come and call on the name of the Lord and stand together he calls them in verse 10 my worshippers my dispersed ones will bring my offerings in that day you will feel no shame because of all your Deeds by which you have rebelled against me for then I will remove from your midst your proud exalting ones and you will never again be hoty on my Holy Mountain but I will leave among you a humble and lowly people and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord that is the coming Kingdom of Christ so there is a day coming when all the nations will literally be unrecognized as such and there will be one government of the world the government of messiah in that day the city will not be built by men it it will be built by God it will not be built by men as they attempted to do at Babel it will be built by God and I'll show you that Revelation 21 in Revelation 21 we have a glimpse of the future holy city the capital city if you will of the Kingdom John is carried away in verse 10 of Revelation 21 in the spirit to a great and high mountain mountain and showed all that God has prepared by way of his City he showed me the Holy City Jerusalem not built by men but coming down out of Heaven from God then he describes this city as having the glory of God Brilliance like a very costly Stone a stone of crystal clear jasper like a diamond with a great and high wall and so forth and so on the city in the future One World Government under Messiah will be the City built by God before that though before that City there will come World Peace peace a false peace real peace comes with the Prince of Peace but there will come a false piece let me show you that Matthew 24 Matthew chapter 24 and verse three the disciples have come to Jesus and they ask him this very very pertinent question verse three Matthew 24 tell us when will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming and the End of the Age we want to know about the end we want to know about the kingdom we want to know about your return When will it happen and what will be the sign how do we know we're getting near your setting up your kingdom and Jesus answered in verse four and said them see to it that no one mislead you for many will come in my name saying I am the Christ and will mislead many the first sign that we're getting to the end is a sign of deception deception not just one Antichrist many false prophets many false christs misleading many the first sign that our our Lord identifies of the end is massive Global deception deception he describes it even further verse 11 many false prophets will arise and will mislead many This Will Go On across the world in verse 21 to 24 we read about that same period and again if you go down to verse 23 there are going to be people saying behold here is Christ there is Christ do not believe him false christs false prophets will arise will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead if possible even the elect so the first sign is massive massive deception and what is that deception exactly well listen to what it says in 1 Thessalonians 53 listen to this in the end times Paul is talking about the end times the day of the Lord they will be saying the false prophets peace and safety peace and safety then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child and they will not Escape what is going to be the deceptive message peace and safety peace and safety so the first sign of the end is a false piece now this has a pattern if you go back to Jeremiah Jeremiah was warning the people of God of coming judgment this whole prophecy is just loaded with warnings about the coming judgment chapter 6 of Jeremiah verse 1 Flee for safety oh sons of Benjamin this is an illustration of the kind of thing that he writes flee from the midst of Jerusalem and then at the end of verse one for evil looks down from the north and a great destruction so Jeremiah is saying destruction is coming destruction is coming destruction is coming but down in verse 14 of that same chapter the false teachers are saying peace peace but there is no peace peace peace there is no peace he says it again in chapter 8 verse 11 they heal the Brokenness of the daughter of my people super superficially saying peace peace but there is no peace over in chapter 14 verses 13 and 14 but ah Lord God I said look the prophets are telling them you will not see the sword nor will you have famine but I will give you lasting peace in this place Jeremiah is saying you're going to you're going to be judged you're going to see the sword false prophets say no peace is coming and the Lord said to Jeremiah verse 14 the prophets are prophesying falsehood in my name I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them they are prophesying to you a false Vision divination futility and the deception of their own minds that's the pattern God is announcing judgment and the false teachers are saying peace peace peace peace now just imagine this the church has been raptured out the world is trying to figure out what happened there is terrifying fear across the face of the Earth there wondering whether or not this is a sign of divine judgment and all the false teachers and false christs rise up to say no peace peace you have nothing to worry about now go back to Matthew 24 the deception verses four and five misleading saying actually this is the piece of the Christ this is the peace you've been looking for but verse eight or verse six rather says you you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars see the you're not frightened for those things must take place but that is not yet the end for nation will rise against nation and Kingdom against Kingdom and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes the peace doesn't last too long does it it's over in verse six in verse eight all these things are merely the beginning of the birth pains there's going to be peace IM false peace immediate Ely followed by War and from there will come famines in verse 7 and after that persecution they will deliver you verse 9 because you will be hated by All Nations because of my name the false prophets are lying to you they establish a very short short lived false peace now there is mentioned in verse 15 the abomination of desolation spoken of through Daniel the Prophet that's a fascinating statement that our Lord puts into this olet sermon on his second coming let me show you how that fits in turn to Daniel 9 Daniel 9 and this is a familiar prophecy what we read here and I'm not going to be able to go into the whole thing but what you need to know is there is a prince that will come in the future a prince that will come he is an evil Prince he is a counterfeit Christ but he is mentioned in verse 26 the prince who will come he will destroy the city and the sanctuary in other words he he's going to literally destroy Jerusalem but he will also make a firm Covenant with the many for one week that's a 7-year period but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering and on the wing of Abominations will come one who makes desolate even until a complete destruction one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate I can't go into the detail but this is an introduction of the Antichrist who comes and makes a pact with Israel to be their protector protector of the world no doubt he's the leader of the final world government the single World Government the government that supposedly brings peace but halfway through that 7-year period he himself becomes aggressive and he commits what Matthew 24:15 calls the abomination of desolation the desecration of the temple the sacrifice he turns on the people of Israel and he fights against them and so back to Matthew 24 those who are in Judea when this happens must flee to the mountains if you're on a housetop don't even go down to get the things out of the house if you're in the field don't return to get your cloak if you're pregnant that's the worst of all situations because you can't flee fast or if you're nursing a baby play pray that your flight will not be in the winter because that's difficult or on a Sabbath because there will be a Great Tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world so what happens is this Prince that will come in the future makes an alliance with Israel for a while to be their protector and the protector of the world the leader of This Global Peace halfway into that seven-year period he violates that becomes their enemy and begins this horrendous kind of Destruction and Slaughter he literally FSS the end of the peace and the war that follows now I know I've given you a lot but understand this the first seal is false peace it is brief it is brief it's followed immediately by War and by famine and by death in Matthew 24 and the same sequence in Revelation 6 so so what are the birth pangs as verse 8 says what are the beginnings of the end one false piece followed immediately by War fed by the Antichrist himself followed by famine followed by natural catastrophe followed by persecution followed by persecution and in that same message in Matthew 24 after all of that after all of that verse 29 says immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened the moon will not give its light the Stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heaven will be shaken and then the sign of the son of man will appear in the sky and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great Glory so during that period of time there will be a false peace followed by War followed by famine followed by catastrophe followed by persecution followed by the return of Christ and again the sequence is the same in Matthew as it is in Revelation now with that go back to our text if you remember what it was Revelation 61 so the lamb broke one of the Seven Seals and one of the four living creatures one of the Angels around the Throne of God says this is in the vision as with a voice of thunder come and he calls and in this Vision John looks and behold a white horse and he who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to him here comes peace this is peace this is peace some people say well isn't this Christ riding on a white horse isn't um isn't he the one coming to conquer um this is not Christ because he opens the seals he opens the seals and because he has a true Crown a diadema a Royal Crown not a stepanos a lesser CR and because he comes at the end not at the beginning and because he doesn't have a bow he has a sword so this is not Christ and some say well this is Antichrist that's close but it's really the force of Peace it's false peace the horse is false peace certainly Antichrist is the main man in the picture riding the horse but the horse is peace Satan again is going to do what he accomplished briefly through Nimrod he's going to Crown a false king of the world with a false peace a golden age a Utopia the whole world complies there are no arrows that's no war it's the Golden Age deceptive misleading false peace but it doesn't last because John immediately saw a second seal and that was war taking peace from the Earth but for a while there will be world peace and it will be a nimrod type personality who Rises to the top listen to the description of him in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 8 the Lawless one the Lawless one then verse nine describes him the one who's coming is in accord with the activity of Satan he's a satanic agent but he comes with all power and signs and false wonders I used to wonder how that could be perpetrated don't wonder anymore have you heard of AI artificial intelligence he comes with all power and signs and false wonders and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth who has to be saved for the people who aren't saved they buy into the deception and God sends them in verse 11 a diluting influence so they will believe what is false in order that they may be judged he's going to be effective the whole world apart from those who have come to faith in Christ during that time period will follow him right into death and judgment in the 13th chapter of Revelation it tells us more about [Music] him verse 12 he exercises all the authority of the first Beast he makes the Earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first Beast whose fatal wound was healed the whole world is made to worship him by his accompanying false prophet he performs Great Signs so that he even makes Fire come down out of Heaven to the Earth in the presence of men and here's the key verse 14 he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the Beast this is a powerful figure this is Nimrod exponentially defined by modern technology everybody's saying wish we had peace in the world it'll come it'll come but it'll be a satanic counterfeit of the true peace which will subjugate the whole world to concentrated evil like the world has never seen the concentrated evil in the power of the satanic energized Antichrist will be far beyond anything Nimrod ever knew it will be evil like the world is never ever known so when that Global world comes when that one world government comes it's going to be the government of antichrist and it's going to last a very brief time before worldwide Slaughter on his part and then on the part of God who brings about judgment comes then all the judgments of the rest of the Book of Revelation will unfold a peace that won't last the only real peace is the Peace of the Prince of Peace who comes to establish his kingdom when he returns at the end of this era next time we'll look at the remaining seals Lord you have opened up the window to the future for us how marvelous it is but you always do that you always tell us when judgment is coming you've told the world that over and over and over you warn you Warn and you warn of judgment we thank you that by your grace some of us have heard the warning and escaped through trust in Christ but we know the world of people who reject the gospel who refuse to believe who are deaf to the warnings are going to be under the power of Satan in the future in ways that are Beyond Comprehension Lord we thank you that you have promised us that you have not made us for wrath but you will take us to glory to be with you the married supper of the Lamb to receive our rewards and then on Earth will come all the judgments but we will be taken out before that begins we also will return with you at the end of the judgments to live out in your kingdom all the Fulfillment of promises given way back in the Old Testament of your Earthly reign in righteousness power and glory and that will be the real Kingdom of Peace Lord we are so thankful to know these things but seeing that we know these things what kind of people should we be we should be living in expectation of your coming to take us out we should be prepared unlike the virgins who weren't prepared when the bridegroom came and were left behind I pray that everyone here would be ready by trusting in Christ as Lord and Savior to be delivered from the Wrath to come and to return for the true and everlasting ing Kingdom of Peace Lord thank you for your word for your Truth for your Saving Grace in Christ's name amen amen

Channel: Grace to You

Views: 490,127

Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ, Grace to You

Id: YSG2ibJiZww

Length: 53min 22sec (3202 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 14 2024