In this sermon, the preacher discusses the limited period of three and a half years mentioned in the Bible. He refers to Daniel's 70th week and explains that this period of authority was given to the Antichrist. The preacher emphasizes the power of the tongue, stating that man's praise and rebellion against God are expressed through the mouth. He also references the vision of John by the sea, where he sees four great beasts representing different kingdoms, including Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the Roman Empire. The preacher concludes by warning about the rise of communism and the need for believers to be prepared for the challenges that may come.

Let's turn to the book of Revelation, chapter 13. If you will remember, at the end of our last study, we were considering how the dragon goes out to persecute the nation of Israel, represented by the woman. In the last verse of chapter 12, we read, the dragon was enraged with the woman, Israel, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, that is, those who have come out of Israel, in the sense of having come through the twelve apostles, who were all Jews, that is, the Christian church, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And then we read here, and he stood on the sand of the seashore, as it is in the NASB. The dragon now stands by the sea. He has been cast down to the earth from the second heaven, where he had dwelt for many thousands of years, and now that he is cast down to earth, he knows that his time is very short, because he is a student of prophecy, and he knows that his time is limited, and his wrath is great. And it says in the middle of verse 1, I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. The sea represents the nations of the world, as we read in chapter 17 and verse 15, the waters which you saw are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. So the sea represents all the nations of the earth, and from among the nations of the earth comes forth a beast, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. Now this beast is the Antichrist, the world ruler that is going to come up for the last three and a half years immediately preceding the establishing of Jesus' kingdom on earth. And what are these seven heads and ten horns that this beast had? You read about it in chapter 17, and verse 7 onwards, the angel said to me, why do you wonder? I'll tell you the mystery of the woman and the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. Revelation 17, 8, the beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss, the bottomless pit, and will go finally into destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, that is the earth dwellers, will wonder, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. Verse 9, here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. We all know that Rome was built on seven hills. That's referring to the city of Rome, where at the time that John wrote this book, the world empire, the headquarters of the world empire, was in the city of Rome. And it says here, there are seven kings, the seven heads mean one thing, it means seven mountains. Here is the angel himself giving us the interpretation. And he says the seven heads also refer to five kings, or we could say five kingdoms. Five have fallen, one is existing, and the other has not yet come. So that's what the seven heads represent. Either seven kings or seven kingdoms. And when the seventh one comes, he will remain also for a little while. Now remember, this is when John was writing this book, that was about 95 A.D. Five had already come, one was existing, that was in the city of Rome at that time, one was yet to come. And then the beast, that is at the end of time, which was and is not, is himself also an ape, and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction. Now it's not possible for us to be dogmatic about exactly what that means, because it seems to symbolize that the beast is one of the kingdoms that already existed, which is going to come up again, was, is not now, but will come up again. And it says further here that the ten horns, verse 12, which you saw are ten kings, again ten kingdoms, who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. So we find that these seven heads refer to seven kingdoms or empires. Five had gone by in John's time. As I said, we can't be dogmatic about it, but when we look through the history of the world as we see in the Bible, we find there were five great empires described in the scriptures before the time of John. The first was the empire of Egypt, which you read off in Exodus. The next was the empire of Assyria, which you read off in the second book of Kings. The third was the kingdom of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, which you read off in Daniel. The fourth was Medo-Persia, which also you read off in Daniel. Cyrus was the king of that and Darius. And the fifth was the kingdom of Greece, also mentioned in Daniel, Alexander the Great. And the sixth one was Rome, which is five have passed, that is Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. And the sixth is now existing, and the seventh is yet to come, and then finally the Antichrist will come. And the ten horns are ten kingdoms that are going to, we read that in Revelation 17, they have not yet received a kingdom. Even in 95 AD when this book was written, they hadn't yet received a kingdom. Revelation 17, 12. But they will receive it the same hour as the Antichrist. In other words, there is going to be ten kingdoms that are going to come together, that are going to form a federation, and the Antichrist will rule them. And in all likelihood, this is possibly going to be in Europe. And this is why it's interesting to see, we can't be dogmatic again, to see how the European economic community, or the European common market, consists right now of ten nations. But there's going to be ten nations coming together, which is going to be the most powerful setup on earth, because of its financial power primarily. And the Antichrist will rule that. That's what we see in Revelation 13, 1. The seven heads and the ten horns. By comparing Scripture with Scripture, we find that. And we see further in verse 2. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon, the dragon is Satan, gave this beast his power, and his throne, and great authority. Now think of these three animals pictured here. A leopard, a bear, and a lion. And this comes up out of the sea. Now John was on the Isle of Patmos, and the sea around him was the Mediterranean Sea. This is why I said it is most likely Europe, because all the other kingdoms came up around the Mediterranean Sea. That is Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. And the ten kingdoms are likely to come up from there. From around the Mediterranean Sea, and that's why I said it's Europe. This is why I said it was significant to see this ten nation European economic community at this particular time. Now when you turn to the book of Daniel, we see these three animals, these three beasts mentioned here, are in a revelation that God gave to Daniel. And I want to turn back to the book of Daniel to give us a little background to this final kingdom that's going to come up in the last days. First of all I'd like you to turn to Daniel chapter 2. Many of us are familiar with the fact that there were three men called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who refused to bow down to an image that Nebuchadnezzar made and told everybody to bow down to. Now sometimes we don't realize I mean that's described in chapter 3 by the way. But in the previous chapter, in Daniel chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and in that dream he saw something which he forgot. And then he called all the wise men and said I had a dream and I don't know what it is but if you people can tell me what it is and tell me the interpretation then I'll really believe that you're wise men. And then of course they couldn't possibly do that. But Daniel said I'll tell you there's a God in heaven who can reveal all that. And Daniel said this is the dream that you saw. And notice this. Daniel and chapter 2 verse 32. Verse 31. You O king were looking and behold there was a single great statue. Now see the description of this statue. Verse 32. The head was made of fine gold. And notice as it goes down the metals begin to degenerate showing that the human race is continuously degenerating. It starts off with gold the breast and the arms are silver. Degeneration has begun. Its belly and its thighs are bronze. Something still cheaper. Its legs are of iron. Cheaper still. And its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. That's still cheaper. And then Daniel gave the explanation. Verse 37. Sorry. In verse 38. The last part. You are the head of gold. The head of gold is you. The kingdom of Babylon. After you verse 39. Will arise another kingdom inferior to you. That will be the kingdom of Medo-Persia. Third. After that a third kingdom. That's the kingdom of Greece. And then a fourth kingdom as strong as I am. That's the Roman Empire. Verse 40. And then after the Roman Empire you skip over 2,000 years and come to the end of time and in that you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron. It will be a divided kingdom. It will have the toughness of iron but mixed with common clay. And the toes of the feet were partly of iron, partly of pottery. So some of the kingdom will be strong part of it will be brittle. Now how many toes do you think that statue had? Ten. Those are the ten kingdoms. The ten horns that we saw in Revelation 13. That's finally at the end. You work your way down finally you come to the ten kingdoms and the rule of the Antichrist. And in the days of those ten kings verse 44 and the Antichrist who rules over them in those days the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. That is the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And that is pictured as we see here in verse 34 You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hand. That is the picture of Christ. And it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay. It didn't strike the gold, silver, bronze and iron. No, those kingdoms are over. It hits the feet. It hits at the time of the ten kingdoms. And finally the last part of verse 35 the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. That is the kingdom of Christ is going to fill the whole earth. This is the vision that God gave to Daniel. And then further we see in Daniel chapter 7. Now, let me just mention this. When you see Daniel chapter 3 verse 1 you read the Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold. Where do you think he got that idea from? From his dream. But notice this. He did not make the image of gold, silver, bronze, iron. He made the whole thing of gold saying what? Nobody is going to take over the kingdom from me. I am going to be head, body, legs and toes everything. It is all going to be of gold. But it did not work. He got everybody to bow down to it but it still did not work. No. The kingdom was taken away from him. That is the significance of that statue in Daniel chapter 3. Move on to Daniel chapter 7. Now, in Daniel chapter 2 these kingdoms that existed in the world are seen from man's viewpoint. It was Nebuchadnezzar who had the dream. From man's viewpoint it was like different metals gold, silver, bronze, iron. Now God gives Daniel his viewpoint. He says in my viewpoint they are not metals at all. They are just various types of beasts. One beast, another beast, and another beast. And it says here Daniel says that he had a dream one day when he lay on his bed and verse 2 I was looking in my vision by night and behold the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. That's the Mediterranean Sea again. Just like John stood by the sea and saw something come out of the sea and four great beasts were coming up from the sea. The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. That was Babylon. But its wings were plucked and it was humbled. The second, verse 5, was a bear. That was Medo-Persia. And the third, verse 6, a leopard. And then, verse 7, a fourth beast. Dreadful and terrifying. Extremely strong. It had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet. That's the Roman Empire. And listen to this. And it had ten horns. That's the ten feet. The ten horns. The final ten kingdoms at the end of the two thousand years. And here's the Antichrist, verse 8. While I was looking at these ten horns, another horn, a little one, came up from among them and pulled out three of the first horns and behold this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts. And then the kingdom of Christ is set up. I kept looking until thrones were set up and the Ancient of Days took his seat and the books were opened. Thousands were attending him, verse 10. Verse 11. Then I kept looking. Because of the boastful words which the horn was speaking I kept looking until the beast was slain. That's the Antichrist. And I kept looking, verse 13, and behold with the clouds of heaven that's the coming of Christ. One like a son of man was coming and he came up to the Ancient of Days that is to the father and verse 14, to him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all the people nations, men of every language might serve him his dominion, his and everlasting dominion. So there we see the kingdom, the different kingdoms that are that were given in a revelation to Daniel. Now in Daniel chapter 8 there's still a further revelation of these kingdoms described as a ram and a goat and in Daniel chapter 8, verse 20 and 21, they are named Medo-Persia and Greece. Rome was not yet named but we know that in the time of John, Rome was the empire. So from those verses in the Old Testament we find God giving Daniel a preview of world history. He says after Babylon goes, the lion will go, after the lion will come the bear strong, tough the Medo-Persian empire. After that will come the leopard who will conquer with fantastic speed. That was the conquest of Alexander the Great. He came all the way up to India and that's the leopard. Now notice these three the lion, the bear and the leopard. They were still in the future and that's why you saw the lion first, the bear next and the leopard third. Now John lived five, six hundred years after Daniel and when he looked backwards, which did he see first? The leopard, then the bear, then the lion. That's what we see in Revelation chapter 13 and verse 2. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard and his feet were like those of a bear and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. Now these countries, you can't say they ruled over the whole world because they were people in America and Australia whom the Medo-Persians never knew anything about perhaps, but they were the greatest world empire at that particular time. And the picture here in Revelation 13.2 is of a kingdom ruled by a man who will have the qualities of all these world great world empires. Of the lion, the bear and the leopard. Of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. All sort of combined together. And there are going to be these ten kingdoms over which he rules. And the dragon we read gave him his power and his throne and great authority. Now notice what I said earlier, even though in man's view kingdoms don't look like beasts, in God's view every kingdom is a beast. There is no choice between Babylon and Medo-Persia and Greece. Each is a beast. This is why I say the different political parties are like beasts. That's why we don't vote for any of them. It's a question of choosing between this beast and the other one. One is a beast and another is a beast. And in God's eyes this is what man becomes when he does not respond to the call of the Holy Spirit. Man degenerates into a beast and becomes like a beast. And so the kingdoms of the world are described as beasts. And the dragon, that is Satan, gave this Antichrist his power and his throne and great authority. Two thousand years ago he offered that to Jesus Christ first, you remember. Before he offers it to the beast, he offered it to Jesus Christ. He says, I'll give you all this if you will fall down and worship me. But Jesus said, no. You are to worship the Lord God alone. And rejected it and he went the way of the cross in order to get the kingdoms of the world from God. But the Antichrist will not choose the way of the cross. He'll receive it from Satan the easy way. The dragon gave him his power and Satan is willing to give power to those who want power if they're willing to sacrifice their conscience and sell themselves to him. There are people in the world today who have sold themselves to the devil and who get certain supernatural powers. Many heathen religious leaders have supernatural powers because they have sold themselves to the devil. There are Satan worshipers today who have supernatural power because they have sold themselves to the devil. So supernatural power is not necessarily only from God. It says the dragon gave him all his power and his throne and great authority. It says here in verse 3, I saw one of the heads of the beast as if it had been slain and his fatal wound was healed and the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast. This is another thing which we can't be dogmatic about. It appears to be a simulation an imitation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see the Antichrist is someone who is going to imitate Christ in every possible way and here is something, it won't be a resurrection no, but it will be something, an imitation of it. It says here as if it had been slain and his fatal wound was healed and this is going to be such a wonder that the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast and they notice I just want to show you a further verse in verse 14 the last part the beast is referred to as the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. Who had a wound which was supposed to be fatal but it didn't kill him he came back to life and we read in verse 4 and the world worshipped the dragon. For thousands of years what the devil has wanted was worship. He wanted it even from Jesus Christ. He said fall down and worship me, I'll give you anything. That one temptation the last temptation in the wilderness with which he came to Jesus Christ indicates what the devil wanted more than anything else. Worship. In Isaiah 14 we read he wanted to become like God why did he want to become like God? Because there was one thing he could not have he had wisdom, he had beauty he had ability, he had supernatural gifts. What more did he want? Worship. God said you can't have that and that's what he wanted he wanted and he longed to have worship and he became the devil finally we see here he gets the whole world to worship him. Of course that's happening even today but it's going to be much more widespread. They worship the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast and they worship the beast too. The worship of the Antichrist the worship of men that also is becoming more widespread today saying who is like the beast and who is able to wage war with him. This is worship like we sing you know, who is like unto thee O God this is what they sing who is like unto thee O Satan is their song. Who is like unto thee O whoever that person is the Antichrist who we know is the Antichrist of course he will not call himself the Antichrist he will have some much more respectable dignified name but the point is this there is a lesson we can learn from this that the spirit of the Antichrist turn to 1 John chapter 2 and verse 18 1 John chapter 2 verse 18 children it is the last hour and just as you heard that Antichrist is coming even now many Antichrists have arisen from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from the midst of us in the church there were people who had the spirit of the Antichrist right in the church the Antichrist was yet to come and he is still to come but people with the spirit of the Antichrist were found all over the world in politics in the business world and also in the religious world in heathen religions and alas in so called Christendom as well what is the mark of the spirit of the Antichrist there are many marks one among them is this the desire to get other people to admire us to exalt us which is equivalent to getting them to worship us we don't see it this is why I say a church which does not fight this business of seeking the honor of men will have the spirit of the Antichrist ruling in its midst this desire for the honor of men is found in your flesh and my flesh from it comes forth finally the Antichrist the desire for the honor of men is like a little baby just a little desire for admiration doing something to get somebody's approval, somebody's praise it finally ends up as desiring worship we need to see this as the spirit of the Antichrist that's why whenever I see this little serpent's egg inside me that I want somebody's honor, somebody's approval if I don't crush that egg it will bring forth a serpent, the Antichrist within me, supposed to be a Christian, within you supposed to be a spiritual believer if it could manifest itself in the highest of the angels why can't it manifest itself in any of us? he who has ears to hear, let him hear, you see the spirit of the Antichrist brings the admiration of the world the whole earth was amazed and followed after him they didn't follow after Jesus they said crucify him, away with him but this one they wondered after cause he didn't say anything to offend them I want to say this brothers and sisters the spirit of the Antichrist brings to us the admiration and the respect of the whole world the spirit of Christ will bring reproach and ridicule and opposition and when people seek for popularity from worldly people when Christians seek for the popularity of the world they are on dangerous ground the ground of the Antichrist Jesus never saw it Jesus never got excited when people wanted to make him a king he knew that it was all hollow he turned around and told them you've got to hate your father and mother brother and sister before you follow me and hard words which offended all of them and even today the true church of Jesus Christ preaches those same hard words that offends a lot of people and the reproach of Christ comes upon us that's the way we are protected I want to say this, that it is the reproach of Christ that protects us from the spirit of the Antichrist so if we love that reproach we'll be protected from the spirit of the Antichrist now we turn to verse 5 Revelation 13 5 it says there was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies and authority to act for 42 months was given to him now this is something that we can see in a number of verses here in this chapter it says here this phrase there was given to him notice it again in the latter part of verse 5 it was given to him then in verse 14 and 15 6 times in this chapter this phrase is repeated it was given to him twice in verse 5 twice in verse 7 once in verse 14 it was given to him to perform the wonders and signs and once in verse 15 it was given to him to make, to give breath to the image of the beast now the reason I point out that phrase is we can compare it with a verse we saw earlier in chapter 6 where we saw the rider on the white horse when the first seal was broken again we saw that was a picture of the Antichrist and it says here a crown was given to him it's the same phrase now this reminds us of something that Jesus told Pilate when Pilate was about to judge Christ Pilate said don't you know that I have power to release you and to crucify you John 19 verse 10 and Jesus said to Pilate you could have no power over me unless it were given to you from above in other words my father has allowed you to have that power over me right now and he humbled himself in the same way this phrase it was given to him right through chapter 13 indicates that God is still in control even though the Antichrist will be ruling over the earth during that time for a limited period limited power completely under the control of God if he is permitted to persecute Christians it will be because it was given to him and so we see here it was given to him a mouth speaking arrogantly arrogant words and blasphemies and authority to act for 42 months was given to him it's limited period that is the three and a half years the last half of Daniel's 70th week which we considered under chapter 11 in our study of that this 42 month period where he is going to have authority it was given to him and I want you to notice here this word mouth coming a number of times in this chapter man's phrase of God is expressed through his mouth and man's rebellion against God is also expressed through the mouth we can say the mouth is like the launching pad for good and for evil like it says in Proverbs 18.21 death and life are in the power of the tongue when man rebelled at the tower of Babel God brought confusion into the people through their tongues that's where the confusion came there's a connection between the tongue and rebellion way down from the tower of Babel and this is why on the day of Pentecost when God was setting right the confusion of the rebellion of man when the Holy Spirit filled them they spoke with other tongues that was the reverse of Babel in Acts chapter 2 and God was now bringing people out from that spirit of rebellion by which Satan ruled humanity now Satan is going to manifest that rebellion to the maximum through the mouth of the Antichrist I just want you to notice that because many believers are not careful about the words that they send out from their mouth each word or phrase we send out from our mouth is like a rocket it's launched you say oh I'd like to call that back but it's too late now, it's gone out into space and off it's gone you've got to be careful about the next rocket you send out but you can't do anything about the ones you already sent out already into space now that's something we've got to bear in mind because Jesus said every idle word that men speak, everything they send forth from their mouth they will give account in the day of judgment because, we need to understand the reason because rebellion is centered around the tongue and we conquer it with the spirit of praise and submission, thanksgiving to God words of grace and goodness coming forth from our lips when people curse us and speak evil of us I just mention that so that we understand something of the seriousness of the mouth and so we see here from his mouth, it was given to him and he was allowed to use his mouth as a launching pad for blasphemy and for arrogance and it's mentioned further you saw in verse 2 he had a mouth like a lion he's described that he was like a leopard and his feet were like a bear and all the other parts of his body are left out and his mouth is mentioned and then again in verse 6 he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God why is it three times mouth is mentioned in relation to the Antichrist the spirit of rebellion manifested in its fullness through the mouth and so it is today the spirit of the Antichrist manifested through our mouth because the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart if the heart is filled with the Holy Spirit then only that words given by the Holy Spirit will come forth from our mouth, whether in other tongues or in our mother tongue but if you are not filled with the Holy Spirit within it's some other spirit that's ruling within then we may still speak in other tongues but in our mother tongue it's going to be something else it's those other spirits that are going to manifest themselves and here is where we are to crush the spirit of rebellion it says we must have a meek and a quiet spirit right we move back to Daniel chapter 7 I want to show you a verse here we saw something about the Antichrist there and I just want to show you something perhaps we didn't notice in verse 8 while I was contemplating the horns behold another horn a little one came up we saw this was the Antichrist and again concerning him it's written in the last part a mouth uttering great boasts and again in verse 11 I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking in verse 25 he will speak out against the most high so notice again in Daniel three times the emphasis on the mouth of the Antichrist and three times in Revelation 13 and if that doesn't give us a seriousness in this area then nothing will then the only word of God for us is he who is filthy let him be filthy still and he who is holy let him be holy still now we move to Revelation 13 6 he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God and to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and the heaven dweller you see this is in contrast to the earth dweller the dwellers in heaven are different from the earth dwellers and he blasphemes all of them and that includes the Christians because we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places we are heaven dwellers if we are disciples of Jesus and he blasphemes against the whole lot verse 7 again that phrase it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them to me that teaches very clearly that there are going to be saints on the earth in the time of the antichrist some people don't think so but the word of God says there will be it was given to him to make war with the saints and the saints is the word used consistently throughout the new testament for born again Christians and to overcome them that's an amazing thing of course it only means overcome them physically in the sense that he will kill them he can't overcome their spirit no the devil can only touch our body even in sickness the devil can only touch our body if he doesn't touch our spirit we are conquered he may overcome our body and it says here power is given unto power was given to satan to touch Paul's body with a thorn in the flesh and power will be given to the antichrist to touch the bodies of the saints and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him now I want to turn to Daniel chapter 7 again and read a passage there concerning the antichrist in the last days I'm reading from the living bible now verse 19 Daniel 7 19 then I asked the angel about the fourth animal the one which is so brutal and shocking this is referring to the antichrist I asked verse 20 about the ten horns and the little horn that's the antichrist there that came up afterward and then verse 21 for I had seen this horn this is why Daniel was puzzled you know this is why Daniel asked the angel specifically about this little horn because I had seen this horn Daniel 7 21 warring against God's people and winning that means killing them not conquering their spirit but killing their body until the ancient of days that is the father came and opened his court and vindicated his people there is a time coming when God's people are going to be vindicated that will be when Jesus Christ returns in glory with the father and then he will give his saints worldwide powers of government and then it says here further verse 24 his ten horns are ten kings that will arise out of his empire another king will arise more brutal than the other ten and destroy three of them he will defy the most high God and he will wear down the saints with persecution you hear that phrase he will wear down the saints with persecution and he will try to change all laws moral laws and customs that means he will teach that what God has said is good is actually evil and what God has said is evil is actually good he is going to reverse the laws the beginning of that we see already and the last part of verse 25 says God's people will be helpless in his hands for three and a half years again physical persecution but then the ancient of days will come and open his court and take all power from this vicious king and then every nation under heaven and their power will be given to the people of God and they shall rule all things forever so that's what we see in the book of Daniel concerning the antichrist now we turn back to revelation 13 again concerning the antichrist we read further in verse 8 that all who dwell on the earth will worship him everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who has been slain now that phrase from the foundation of the world can relate to two things one that the lamb was slain from the foundation of the world that means the crucifixion of Christ on Calvary was not something that God suddenly thought of after Adam's sin because Adam's sin did not take God by surprise we know that God knows the beginning from the end and so he knew all about Adam's sin this verse teaches us that God had made provision for the death of Christ from eternity past long before he created anything he knew that his son would become a man and would have to die the other thing that phrase refers to is that our names were written in the book of life the lamb's book of life also from the foundation of the world as we read in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4 that the Lord has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world in other words God knew me by name and you by name if you are a disciple of Jesus before your father my father, grandfather before Adam before the angels were created way back there he knew us by name it's a very comforting thought to realize that and because our names are there we refuse to bow down to the spirit of the antichrist in any form even today and in that future day all earth dwellers will worship him this is going to be true that everyone will worship this one, now today the antichrist has not yet risen on the world scene but the spirit of the antichrist is still there and there is where we can keep ourselves clean and if we keep ourselves clean from that spirit today that is the best preparation for the days to come further, verse 9 if anyone has a year to hear let him hear this reminds us of what we studied in chapter 2 and chapter 3, you remember the call to the overcomer he who overcomes I will grant this he who has a year to hear, let him hear let him hear what? the call to overcome and you find that coming here also the call to overcome this spirit of the antichrist this worshipping of man, overcome it don't bow down to it for material gain, don't bow down to something because you are going to get profit for it, in terms of today, don't sacrifice your principles for the sake of some material gain, don't become a compromiser because you want the honor of men, essentially that is what it means for that is the spirit of the antichrist don't give a bribe to get something unrighteous done don't defile your hand that way, he who has a year to hear, let him hear, not everybody will hear and further, verse 10 if anyone is destined for captivity to captivity he goes if anyone kills with a sword with a sword he must be killed now this seems to indicate that it could mean one of two things it could mean that the one who takes people into captivity, that's the antichrist will one day himself be taken into captivity, and the one who kills others with a sword, that is the antichrist, will also be killed with a sword himself and here it says is the fate of the saint the last part of verse 10, in other words those who are saints must believe that that this one who is troubling me God will take care of him in his own good time now if I can't believe that today, when I am troubled by some difficult person, if I can't believe that God can handle that difficult person I'm not going to have much faith in that final day, do I really believe in the sovereign control of God that the one who tries to bring me into captivity God will put him into captivity the one who kills me with a sword will be killed with a sword himself the way somebody treats me, God will treat him in the final day here is the perseverance and the faith of the saint therefore we do not take revenge therefore we do not fight back, therefore we commit our cause to him who judges righteously in every situation here is the trial of our faith it begins now in small things it will be there in big things finally in the day of the antichrist Jesus said that in Matthew 26 and verse 52 he said the one who takes the sword will perish by the sword when somebody takes the sword against me and you understand what I mean it doesn't have to be a literal sword it can be the sword of the tongue it can be the sword in some other way if I take the sword back against him I too will perish with the sword like he does but if I can keep my sword in its scabbard that's my shut mouth, that's the scabbard and leave it to God God will deal with him it really requires perseverance and it says here is the trial of the perseverance of the saints, can they wait for God to deal with the antichrist, can they wait for God to deal with that situation or do they want to take the sword and say alright I'll settle scores now, no here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints you know that wonderful verse in Hebrews 6 12 that by faith and perseverance we inherit the promises, our faith and patience, and that really requires patience when we are tested in that way, I want you also to turn to Luke chapter 21 and verse 19 where it says in verse 17 you will be hated first of all verse 16 you will be betrayed by parents brothers relatives and friends he who has a ear to hear let him hear you're going to be betrayed by parents, brothers relatives and friends and when you are betrayed in that day what are you going to do you'll be hated verse 17 by all on account of my name verse 19 by your perseverance you will win your soul, it's by perseverance that I'm going to win my soul and partake of the divine nature in my soul and that's why God allows us to be tempted now, if only we could see that the temptations that come our way today are God's training school for greater things in the days to come I'll really be dead in earnest about every opportunity that comes my way to die to myself to be sheared like a lamb to be slaughtered like a sheep and to keep my mouth shut, because God's preparing you and me for greater things in the days to come by my perseverance by your perseverance we can win our soul here, Revelation 13 10 is the perseverance and the faith of the saints, one more verse Hebrews 10 and verse 36 and 37 and 38 you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised what is promised is what? is it heaven? I'll tell you something I'm not looking to go to heaven primarily when I tell you what I want more than anything else, I want to partake of the divine nature that's a million times more important to me than walking the streets of heaven that is what is promised not freedom from sickness and freedom from problems I'm not looking for that what was promised, the divine nature by these exceeding great and precious promises we can become partakers of the divine nature, Peter says you have need of endurance in the trial today so that after you have done the will of God what is the will of God? The will of God is to take up the cross and die and to keep your mouth shut and to humble yourself after you have done that you need patience endurance, you need to wait so that you can receive what was promised because in a little while he who is coming will come and he will not delay but my righteous one will live by faith but if he shrinks back shrinks back means he takes the sword and wants to settle scores himself my soul will have no pleasure in him right now we turn to Revelation 13 verse 11 this is another section the first 10 verses was dealing with the antichrist and we saw something of what he's going to do how he's going to persecute the saints the saints are going to be triumphant in their spirit that we saw in Revelation 12 and 11 they overcame the dragon by the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony which is the spoken word of God and they loved not their lives unto the death oh yes, the dragon and the beast could slay them but because they didn't love their life unto the death they overcame but the dragon and the beast were permitted to kill the saints like in the first century and the second century and the third century it will be in the last time it is already happening in many communist lands it will be much more in other parts of the world as well, perhaps in our own country too and then we must be ready for it and then in verse 11 he says I saw another beast coming up out of the earth he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke like a dragon now the first beast came up out of the sea verse 1 that we saw was the nations of the world here this one, verse 11 comes up out of the earth now we don't want to be dogmatic about that because we don't know but perhaps that could refer to Israel because usually in the Old Testament anyway, when it refers to the land it referred to Israel and when it refers to the sea it refers to the other nations the Jews and the Gentiles so it looks as though this beast is probably going to be a Jew and he's going to be a religious person because he is a lamb come dragon he looks like a lamb but he speaks like a dragon, have you met people like that who look like lambs and speak like dragons look like lambs in the meeting and speak like dragons elsewhere well that's all a preparation for the one who is finally going to come who is going to look like a lamb but it's by his speech you can make out he's like a dragon Jesus spoke about such people you remember Matthew 7 and verse 15 he said beware of false prophets they will look like sheep or lambs but inwardly they are ravening wolves and in other words a dragon this is what we see here someone who wants to appear like appear to be a Christian, the lamb is a picture of Christ as we just saw in verse 8 the lamb slain from the foundation of the world now here is someone who wants to have the testimony of Christ appears to be a representative of God but is actually the mouthpiece of Satan he wants the honor of being a representative of God but is actually his mouth is that of a dragon and we see here he exercises all the authority of the first beast, now this is the false prophet we read of him later as the false prophet, now Jesus when he spoke about the last days in Matthew 24 verse 24 he said Matthew 24 verse 24 he said false Christ and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders and will try to deceive even the elect if possible notice false Christ, false prophet the false Christ is the antichrist, the false prophet is what we see here, the religious person, it is politics plus religion, you remember in the Old Testament, King Balak plus the false prophet Balaam together against God's people Israel, you see that even today where bishops join hands with political leaders, it's just the preparation for that final antichrist rule, where religion and politics are going to be hand in hand, the false prophet who looks like a lamb, the religious person but is the mouthpiece of the dragon hand in hand with the first beast the antichrist and thus we have the perfect imitation of the trinity the trinity is father, son and holy spirit here you have the satanic trinity the dragon, the beast and the false prophet, that is the dragon, the antichrist and the religious false prophet and they rule for the same period that Jesus walked on earth and had a public ministry how long was that? 3 and a half years 42 months and so we see here in verse 12 he exercises all the authority of the first beast and he makes the earth and the earth dwellers to worship the first beast whose fatal wound was healed here is support for the antichrist so that he can be worshipped and he performs great signs just like Jesus said, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven, like Elijah did in the presence of men do you know that Satan has got power to send fire, read that in the book of Job when God permitted Satan to go and try Job, it says Job Satan sent fire from heaven and it destroyed some of Job's property and so supernatural fire coming down from heaven is not necessarily from God, it says here the false prophet is going to deceive people with this type of deception you read in 2 Timothy 3 verse 8 as Janus and Jambres opposed Moses, those are the magicians of Pharaoh, who stood against Moses, you know Pharaoh is a picture of the antichrist and his magicians are a picture of the religious leaders, this false prophet and they had supernatural power, when Moses threw his rod to the ground it became a snake, those magicians threw their rod to the ground, it became snakes Moses turned the water into blood those magicians could turn the water into blood but at a certain point, their magic stopped now there's going to be a lot of that in the last days magic is from the devil remember that don't think all these magic shows are pretty innocent there's a devil behind it beware of these things there's going to be a lot of these magicians of various sorts in the last days and in fact it says that in 2 Timothy 3 13, the word translated there imposter is the standard Greek word for magician evil men and magicians will increase, deceiving and being deceived and that's the purpose of the false prophet to deceive people, Revelation 13 14, he deceives the earth dwellers and finally sets up the image of the beast which is the abomination of desolation which we shall consider in our next study but I trust we've seen something of what is going to come, there's going to be religion and politics increasingly working hand in glove hand in hand with each other dominating men and the dragon behind it all leading people astray from God with supernatural power to deceive people because man has a tremendous feeling that anything supernatural is from God and Christians, we need to be careful don't think that everything that's done in the name of Jesus Christ supernaturally is necessarily from God test the spirits, John says for many spirits have gone forth they are not all from God ask this question, do they confess on John 4, 1-3 that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh do they confess that Jesus Christ is Lord in their spirit thus we can identify and protect ourselves from the spirit of the antichrist and the spirit of the false prophet