Revelation 13. We're going to read beginning in verse 1. And today's message is on the subject of "The One World Ruler. The One World Ruler." And, of course, you know the name in the Bible, we'll see in a moment, is the Antichrist, and so we're going to learn about this one world ruler in Revelation 13.  

"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, 'Who is like unto the beast? And who is able to make war with him?' And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

"And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: and he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints." Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you this morning for the freedom we have to worship in this country. We thank you for the Word of God and for the way it works in our hearts, and I pray that it would work freely today. I do want to pause, Lord, and thank you, as we come to these summer months, for bringing us to this place. Father, for just a year ago there was so much more fear and concern. And we want to thank you for bringing us through this time of COVID 19. We pray for those few nations still struggling through it, especially India this morning, that you would bring healing to their nation. Thank you again, Lord, for our doctors, nurses, medical workers, who have so valiantly served us this past year.

Help us to continue on with our theme, remembering that we will be careful, but not fearful, that we will obey the Bible above all else. We will follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And as we consider the subject matter before us today, help us to be ever so vigilant to follow the Christ and not the lies of this world. And we pray and ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.

Well, a few weeks ago we learned that there is a growing cry in the world which says something like this: "We need global solutions for global problems." And we have seen many people crying out for more and more global leadership. And the Scriptures teach us here this morning that there is coming a world leader who will seemingly have answers to the problems that we experience in this world. And certainly there have been types of this person in recent history. And we can look back and see various dictators who had a desire for worldwide dominance; and that was cut short, thankfully, as wars were waged.

In particular, we think of World War II. But there are many in this room who can look back and remember some of the tragedies of World War II, and remember Hitler's claim to be not only a worldwide leader, but Germany's messiah. He was claiming that he would bring in a 1,000-year reign upon Germany using, if you will, terminology from the studies of the end times. The rise of Nazi Germany and the atrocities of the holocaust stand as a memorial in our minds to the ability of a persuasive but evil individual leader to have sway over an entire country and over great parts of the world.

I remember years ago visiting the prison camp at Dachau, and walking in and seeing how these gas chambers were places where the Jewish people were told that they were going in for a shower; and as they would go in, the doors were shut, the gas was turned on, and lives were taken by the millions. I've stood at the side of the Danube River where, again, Jewish people were taken to the edge of the river. They were told to take off their shoes because the only thing valuable about them was their shoes, and then they were shot and thrown into the river by the tens of thousands. And so it is not foreign to people's thinking to contemplate a powerful individual with a hunger for worldwide domination. And the Bible speaks of an individual like this in 1 John chapter 2:18 where it says, "Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time."

It is so important, ladies and gentlemen, this morning that we live our lives through the paradigm of Scripture, that we watch the evening news with an understanding of Scripture first, that we hear the reports that come across the news with an understanding that there is a God in heaven who has a plan, and that there is an enemy of our God who also has a plan that is Antichrist.

Now we read about the Antichrist in many places in the Bible. I've listed a few in your notes this morning. Daniel speaks of him as the beast. We read in the Pauline epistles of the man of sin or the son of perdition. John refers to him here as the Antichrist. Daniel refers to him as the little horn. Matthew refers to the Antichrist as the abomination of desolation. And there are other descriptions of this last day's world leader.

Some of you have studied the atrocities or the false teachings of humanism. The Humanist Manifesto, which was developed back in the early 1970s, Manifesto II, signed by representatives of Americans united for separation of church and state, representatives of the Planned Parenthood organization, and other such organizations. They wrote in this Humanist Manifesto the following words: "We deplore the division of humankind on nationalistic grounds."

Please understand that when you hear some people speaking of nationalism, it may sound, and sometimes it is, a form of an unnecessary alienation. But on the one side, speaking up for one's country and for nationalism is also a hindrance to the coming globalistic cry of the Antichrist. And so there are extremes in the nationalist cry and extremes in the globalist cry. But please recognize, there is a move afoot by educators to push against what I would consider to be a needed and a healthy strong United States of America. I thank God for our country and for the strong nation that we are.

This Humanist Manifesto said, "Thus, we look to the development of a system, of a world law and a world order based upon transnational federal government." Now that is exactly the type of platform we'll see this morning, that the Antichrist will step into power with a transnational type of federal government, a one world government. So, globalism is well underway and it has been for many years in the world, whether with the European Union's desire for power and control of currency over Europe, whether with China's desire for one world currency. There are many different voices speaking out, desirous of a coming together of a transnational federal government.

Now I personally believe that COVID19 in some ways began to desensitize the public to the idea of centralized control. We saw during COVID 19 the power of government and the power of world government and the power of organizations like the World Health Organization. And sometimes there were perhaps good things that came out, helpful things for health news or science research. But what I refer to here is the reach, the far-reaching emphasis of globalism. We got a peek into that in the COVID 19 period.

Now Revelation 13 and Daniel 7 introduces this world leader as the Antichrist and as the beast, and he will have his hands not only in health issues, he'll have his hands in every issue; and I want you to see some of this with me this morning. I want you to notice the description of the beast as we begin in verse 1. The Bible says, "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." Now we see in verse 1 his place of power. We see the power of this end times leader. We see in this particular passage that he comes forth with these ten horns and seven heads – we'll look at that in a moment.

Look at verse 2: "The beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as a feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority." So he has great power. And what we see mentioned in verse 2 are all the previous beasts or empires of the past coming together in one conglomerate personage of this Antichrist. Henry Morris says, "The beast rises out of that sea as a land animal, and could thus only speak of some powerful personage emerging from the peoples of the Mediterranean lands, with the hybrid characteristics of the beast suggesting that he is somehow the product of them all."

Every one of the beasts of Daniel's revelation is mentioned here in the book of the Revelation as representing the Antichrist as a conglomeration of the world's empires. Whether it was the Media Persian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Roman Empire, we see again a reference to that here in verses 1 and 2. And so we see that his place of power is very strong, it is strong politically. We noticed there in verse 1 that he had seven heads and ten horns, and these are representative of his power, the fact that he will have power over multiple nations or federal federations of government, as we said just a moment ago. Some consider the seven heads as successive phases of governmental and political history during this particular time of the world, and we see that in verse 1: "And the beast rose up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns." Many believe the seven heads here speak to the political history of that coming moment when the Antichrist takes power.

Revelation 17 speaks of this in verse 10: "And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition." So it is from this seven-nation group that the Antichrist comes out; and whether that is some form of nations that are found in the Mediterranean region, or whether it is an international gathering, there are seven that will ascend. And we have similar groups to that in the world today, economic groups that meet. Sometimes we hear of them in the number of eight or twelve or thirteen; sometimes one nation doesn't participate. But there will be seven powerful nations that are going to lift this person to a place of prominence and authority.

Now the initial introduction to the Antichrist we see in the Bible in Daniel 7, when the fourth beast is introduced it is said to have ten horns; and we see that again here in Revelation 13. We see here again ten horns referring to prominent leaders of the revived Roman Empire. The ten horns Daniel 7:24 says, "And the ten horns out of his kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue the three kings."

Now somehow with these rulers the Antichrist is going to maneuver politically to subdue three of the kings. And we have here seven kingdoms, we have here referenced ten world rulers, and the Antichrist is making his leaps and gaining his power through these systems. Daniel 7:8 tells us again, "I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in his horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things." So this horn speaks of the Antichrist. It speaks of someone that has, I believe, excellence in diplomacy and is skilled in diplomacy, and is rising through the ranks of nations and leaders in the world of the last day. He is political. He has diplomatic power. The Bible tells us that the Antichrist will make a treaty with Israel.

And we notice this here as we read in Revelation 6:2, if you'd like to turn back just a few pages. The Bible tells us there, "And I saw, and behold, a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer." Now here we see that Israel comes with a bow, but no arrows are mentioned. He will appear, the Antichrist rather, to be a great peace maker. He will come with diplomacy at first. And the world is going to think that the Antichrist, this individual who rose to power, who was prominent among seven dominant nations, who was lifted up by ten world leaders, that this Antichrist is going to solve the problem that the world now faces with Israel.

And I was telling some folks we wanted to take a Holy Land trip last year, and one of the things I said to the group – we had 60 from our church that we're going to go – I said, "I would really like to go while President Trump is President, because he's made it very, very clear that he will not tolerate people fighting against our ally Israel." I said, "I don't know what will happen just after the election, it might really change." How many of you remember hearing me say that, some of you that were going on the trip? And we're seeing exactly that take place, because there is a tendency on those who view Israel as a strong ally to send signals that will not tolerate things that are going on like right now.

And so we're seeing again this tremendous tension in the Middle East. We're seeing how that Hamas is launching all of these rockets from Gaza into Israel; and we're seeing how Israel is shooting them down, but some are getting through; and lives are being taken on both sides. Now pressure's building against Israel. By the way, Israel has every right to defend themselves. They did not launch the first rockets, and so they're now defending themselves. And yet we see that this is a problem that will be persisting from our lifetime into this time when this Antichrist establishes his power. I saw an article just really a few weeks ago in which US Ambassador, former US Ambassador Nikki Haley said on one of the articles, quote, she said that, "Hamas will test Biden because they do not believe that he will back Israel." And certainly we're seeing a testing right now with all of the rockets that are being shot into Israel.

What is interesting though is that in the midst of this, there are more and more Jewish people who are calling out for the coming of their Messiah. And there was a community newsletter that was passed throughout the Jewish community in Jerusalem just this past week which said, "For 3,000 years Jews have been praying for Messiah to come. But this weekend the Jewish world is upping our game with a communal prayer demanding that God send Messiah now," said Rabbi David Masinter of the Shabbat House. "We believe that one day Messiah will come, and godliness will be revealed on earth. There will be no more war, no more suffering."

Now, sadly, what he does not understand is that Messiah did come, and the Bible says, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." But I bring that to your attention, this correlation here between the fact that Israel is currently being bombed and bombing, and the fact that there are those within Israel who are crying out for the coming of the Messiah, because I want you to see that the ground is being laid for the Antichrist to step onto the scene; and to have the bow without the arrows, to show himself to be a peaceful person, a peacemaker to a people who really want peace of the Jews, who want peace in Jerusalem; and the world tired of all of this, and the Arab world angry about it all, someone needs to step in and solve the problem; and the Antichrist will come, and he will bring a peace treaty to Israel.

In your notes is Daniel 9:27. It says of the Antichrist, "And he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the weak he shall cause the sacrifice of the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." In other words, there will be a treaty made by the Antichrist where peace is promised for seven years, a seven-year peace treaty, and something that will appear stronger than the Jerusalem Accords, and the Oslo Accords, and all these different treaties that we've seen. This will be the promise of the Antichrist: seven years of peace, and that they will be able to worship in the temple that they will rebuild. And yet in the middle of those seven years, that promise will be broken, and the Antichrist himself will demand worship from the Jews. And this is why we recognize the book of the Revelation to be so significant in opening up an understanding of prophecy, because the Antichrist will have a great place of power; and his place will be both political, it will be diplomatic. He will even insert himself into the religious realm, desiring the worship of people. His place of power is amazing.

But notice also his position in prophecy – we touched on this a moment ago. Notice in verse 2 again, the Bible says, "The beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as of a lion: and the dragon gave him power, and his seat, and great authority." Now this takes us back to Daniel 7:6-7, and the passage there shows these beasts. Remember Nebuchadnezzar's vision, and Daniel interpreted these different empires. And what we see in verse 2 is the correlation between Daniel's prophecy and John giving us the Revelation: the lion symbolizing the empire of Babylon, the bear the Media Persian Empire, the leopard symbolizing Greece, and the fourth nondescript beast representing the Roman Empire. And what it tells us is that the beast, or the Antichrist, will have an appetite for conquest like these old empires. The Antichrist will desire domination of the world. He will arise out of the Roman Empire – revived Roman Empire which is rapidly developing today. And that's why many prophecy students watch the European Union. They watch what's happening in Brussels, and they're looking to see how the geopolitical climate is changing.

Daniel 8:25 says of the Antichrist, "And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand." And so he will have a tremendous sway politically, diplomatically, and with peace treaties; and by using this craft he will rise up into world prominence. He will be literally worshiped by many. He will have a place of power. He will have a position in prophecy. Notice, thirdly, his prominence in the world. The Bible tells us in verse 2 that, "The dragon gave him his power."

So he will be gaining power and influence from the beginning of the tribulation, I believe prior even to the rapture. He will obviously be alive, he will be known in power for powerful circles. He will gain power and influence during the tribulation period. But his power will peak right at the middle of the tribulation; this is when he is going to demand worship of himself. He will break his treaty with Israel, and he will begin to persecute anyone that has turned to Jesus Christ during the time of the tribulation. And there will be people saved during the tribulation. There will be Jews saved. There will be people that had not heard the gospel who will be saved during that time.

Now the prominence that he has is derived from three different sources. It is derived, first of all, from Satan himself. The Bible says in verse 2, "The dragon gave him his power." So this Antichrist some believe will be personally indwelt by Satan. I believe he will definitely be demon-possessed and empowered. And so the dragon will give him his power, his seat, and his great authority.

The second derivation or source of his power will be coming from what is known as the false prophet, and that's found in verse 11. It says, "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." The false prophet will be a promoter of the Antichrist. He will be one that goes about speaking and preparing the way of the Antichrist, much like Elijah of old who called down fire as a symbol of God's power, or even John the Baptist who went about saying, "Prepare the way of the Lord," and preparing for the true Christ in the Gospels, drawing men to Christ. This Antichrist is going to have, if you will, a forerunner, or a false prophet that is preparing the way and speaking wonderful things about the Antichrist.

And so we see that there is this affiliation with Satan, with the false prophet, and then that affiliation with those ten world leaders we mentioned a moment ago. We mentioned seven kingdoms, ten world leaders. Notice that in Revelation 17:12 it says, "And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast."

It seems as you study the number ten that during the tribulation the world will be divided into ten regions, and they will be given leaders, these ten kings who all give their loyalty to the Antichrist, will be over ten regions of the world. And so the power of the Antichrist comes from Satan, comes from the false prophet, and comes from these ten kings who all worship this Antichrist. And so his power is derived, and his prominence from these affiliations; and it also is derived from something amazing that will happen in the midway point of the tribulation to this Antichrist.

Notice in verse 3 it says, "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wandered after the beast." Now when you study the Antichrist, you know you begin to see how that in many ways there is a mimicking of the Christ. And we see here that the Antichrist is going to have a deadly wound. And one author said, "The death and resurrection will give him cultic worship that will make Jim Jones and Joseph Smith look like Boy Scout leaders," David Jeremiah said. In other words, when he has this deadly wound but does not die, he is going to be even more worshiped by people all around the world.

And so he is empowered by Satan, he is lifted up by ten world leaders, he is brought in by a confederation of seven nations; and through all of this, he's gaining prominence through diplomacy, gaining prominence making peace pacts with Israel. He will seem to be the answer to all of the world's problems. I have no doubt he'll have answers about COVID19 type things. He'll have answers about military type things. He'll have answers about the Israeli question. And so the description of the beast is seen here in Revelation 13.

Let's notice, secondly, the defiance of this beast, this powerful Antichrist, this beast. notice his defiance as we read in verse 5: "And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven."

Now Satan has long been a blasphemer of our God. Second Thessalonians 2:8 says, "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders." And so we see that this one that comes, this wicked one, is one who with his mouth speaks out blasphemies. And this is a reference to the Antichrist at the time of the second coming. Satan, of course, will have his head completely crushed, he will be destroyed at that time.

But the Antichrist will be speaking lies all throughout the tribulation, he will be defiant. The Bible says he will have a blasphemous mouth. Daniel 7:25 says it this way: "And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until the time and times and the dividing of time." He will be a charismatic leader using pompous words. No doubt, he'll use religious words all the way through this seven-year tribulation.

Daniel 7:8 says, "Behold, in his horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things." Somewhere along the line the Antichrist will become the prominent figure on the evening news. Over and over again he will speak into matters gaining the world's trust, gaining the trust of leaders even in the Middle East with his blasphemous mouth.

And one of the things that I find so interesting in the day in which we live is there's an increasing talk about spirituality, and the belief in a higher power, and the existence of maybe even UFOs. There are people that are more and more spiritual in our world and less and less Christ-centered. They are not grounded in the true Christ, in the knowledge of the Word of God. And I think the Antichrist will take advantage of the religiosity of the world, and he will speak blasphemously about the Lord Jesus Christ. He will have a blasphemous religion. I want you to notice that, a blasphemous religion.

How many of you remember in Isaiah 14 when Satan said, "I will ascend to the most high, I will be like the most High"? That was the spirit of Satan who is a fallen – Lucifer is a fallen angel, and his demons are fallen angels. And he said, "I will ascend to the high, I will be like unto the most High." And this will be the spirit of the Antichrist. He will come to that point where he will demand worship. The Antichrist will be the christ of the cults, the Buddha of Buddhism, the Mahdi of Islam, and the seeming messiah of Israel.

Let me say that again. The Antichrist will be the christ of the cults. How many of you know the Mormons believe in a christ? He will be the Buddha of Buddhism, the Mahdi or the final prophet of Islam, and the seeming messiah of Israel. We just read a moment ago, Israel's just longing for the Messiah. This man will seem to be all of that for the one world church – which I'll be preaching on in two weeks. It will seem to the world like this is the one that can bring all the faiths together, and finally they can have their worship together, finally they'll come to that place where they can coexist and have one leader to be the messiah, the christ, the Mahdi, the Buddha for all of them. And he will ascribe worship to himself.

Notice in Revelation 13:14 it says, "He will deceive them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast." Let me just say right here, how many of you know that Baptists, Bible-believing Baptists, have preached – and I have preached for 35 years – that we should not look to signs and wonders, but we should look to the Word of God as our final authority? There's no doubt that there were signs and wonders in the New Testament, no doubt that God did many miraculous things. They were even called sign gifts for a season, a period of time during the apostolic authority.

But Baptists have emphasized throughout our history, since the time of Christ the emphasis has been on, "Thus saith the Lord," and the reason that's important. I believe there will be many people who are very emotionally-based and not scripturally-grounded who are going to think this Antichrist is the answer to all their problems. And sadly to say, many friends and neighbors will be caught into that euphoria, because it says in verse 14, "By the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live." Verse 15, "And he had power to give life under the image of the beast, and the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed."

So here we see that this Antichrist will seem very religious. And Satan himself is the father of all false lights. And Satan has many ministers of light, 1 Corinthians says. But the Antichrist will be the final one that embodies this false teaching of Satan. He will ascribe worship to himself. He will exalt himself even in the temple that will have been restored. "The Antichrist sets himself up as God in the temple, and persecutes anyone that does not worship him," 2 Thessalonians 2:4, "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."

Now in Jerusalem today there's a place called the Temple Institute, and in that place for many years people have been recreating and building all of the various different pieces of furniture for the future temple. There are those that are planning for the building of the future temple. It's the longing of every Orthodox Jew to have the temple rebuilt. And Satan in this personage of the Antichrist will bring that promise to fruition, and the Jews will feel peace has come. But then, sudden destruction. The Antichrist will establish himself as the object of worship. He will go into the temple, he will sit on the mercy seat, he will proclaim himself to be God and the Messiah.

Daniel chapter 9 also implies the rebuilding of the temple. No doubt, this will be a promise of the Antichrist himself. And so the defiance of the beast, at first through diplomacy, and through his words, and through his deeds, he comes to a place of prominence in the world. He appears to be a worldwide peace leader. But suddenly with a blasphemous mouth and a satanic empowerment, he defies God, and he establishes himself as the object of worship for the world.

So we see a description of the beast in the early verses. We see the defiance of the beast with his blasphemous mouth. Notice, finally, the dominance of this beast, the dominance of this beast. And beginning in verse 7, the Bible says, "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world."

Now Satan will give the Antichrist rule and authority over the nations – we saw that a moment ago. The Bible says in Revelation 13:2, "The dragon gave him his power, his seat, and his great authority." And so this dominance begins to show itself in this midway time of the tribulation period, this 70th week of Daniel, and it displays in a few ways. First of all, he will have power to fight the saints. This would be the Jews and the Gentiles that refuse to take the mark of the beast. This will be the greatest anti-Christian and anti-Semitic crusade ever known in world history, and it will take place during the great tribulation at the hand of the Antichrist. Death chambers and prison camps will abound on earth once again during this time, following the initial peace accord, when that peace accord is broken. And when the Antichrist has his people and his power in place, he will begin to fight against the saints. We saw that in verse 7: "He was given unto him to make war with the saints."

Now, you know, we can all draw lots of little analogies. But it's interesting to me how that when people in our society today, whether it's for preference, conviction, or religious conviction, don't go along with society's norms, how they are deemed as this 20 percent evangelical cult. Already there is a spirit of alienation, if you will, of people even in America who don't toe the line and who don't follow every bit of the science. And we hear about that. I'm not against science, but what I'm illustrating to you is, as we get into a time later and later when this spirit of the Antichrist – and we'll not be here during the tribulation, we learned that in studying the rapture a few weeks ago – imagine the pressure.

We're not talking at this point about getting a vaccination, we're talking about getting the mark of the beast. Everybody with me right now? Imagine the pressure of not taking that mark. And what we're going to see here is that there will be widespread murder of people who do not take the mark, right? Now whether that mark is tied to, you know, scientific evidence, and your medical record, and your ability to purchase – who knows what all will be in there – we know it will have something to do with one's ability to purchase for sure; the Bible very clearly indicates that.

But verse 7 says, "It was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them." And this will be a terrible time of fighting against the saints. And then there will be not only power to fight the saints, but power to rule the nations, power to rule over the nations. Verse 7 says, "And power was given him over all kindreds, tongues, and nations." And I believe this power will be an economic power. There will be the religious assertion, there will be many other things. But global economic interdependence will eventually lead to a global political system that dominates national sovereignty. It will overwhelm national sovereignty. And I remember years ago the song that people were singing, "We Are the World," and the whole spirit of globalism; and that's just coming up more and more with many people thinking that we need to worship mother earth, and the emphasis on the planet and on the globe; and that will come full fruition during this period of world history.

"And he will have power to rule the nations." And we see this mentioned here in verse 7, that, "He will make war with the saints, he will overcome them: he will have power given him over all kindreds." And verse 8, "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." And so this power to rule the nations will begin to take place; and I believe much of it will be economic.

Way back in 2009, US Secretary, Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner said concerning global markets that, "Washington is quite open to Chinese proposals for the gradual development of a global reserve currency run by the International Monetary Fund." Again you see that during that period of time in 2009 there was an openness to discuss global currencies backed by the International Monetary Fund, openly being discussed by our Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner back in the Obama administration.

We then saw a nationalistic rise, and we saw in the last four years a pushback against China and their desire for global dominance. And recently in China they had what was known as the ECNY digital currency back in April of 2020. They became the first major economy to pilot a digital currency with their digital yuan. Federal Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have both recently signaled that the US would be willing to move faster with a digital dollar. Now I'm not an expert on technology like some of you, I'm only illustrating the fact that the technology is coming into the world that will provide a worldwide digital currency. There's a hunger for it, it's being spoken about in Washington DC and China and the European Union. There's a hungering for this international monetary type of situation.

And so Satan through the Antichrist is going to cause everyone on the planet to take what is called the mark of the beast. How many of you have ever heard of the mark of the beast? All right. Well, is that just like some preacher talk, or is that actually in the Bible? Let's find out.

Look at Revelation 13:16. It says, "He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save that he had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." So no man can buy or sell without the mark or without the name of the Antichrist. This economic pressure will cause many to turn to the beast and to worship the beast; and accepting this mark will be the same as rejecting Jesus Christ as Savior. So someone who accepts the mark at this point is saying, "I do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," because what's happening to those is saying, "I reject Christ," because what's happening to those that don't take this mark – we already learned about that – he's killing those who turn to Jesus Christ.

Folks, I tell you, our day and age Christians are so weak and mamsy-pamsy. We have very little sacrifice to be Christians, very little sacrifice in coming church. I know there's the threats on religious liberty. I know some of you are having little things at work that are uncomfortable. But imagine this, imagine this time for someone that had trusted Christ as Savior during the tribulation, they're refusing to take the mark, struggling now for an existence, many of them being killed along with the Jews as well. This economic pressure will be amazing. And so we see it in Revelation 13:16.

Over in the country of Sweden, this past year there has been a major emphasis on this technology, NPR technology. Thousands of Swedes have been inserting microchips into their skin. And the head of this company Jowan Österlund has introduced this chip implanting into the society there in Stockholm. His company Biohax International is the leading provider of the devices in Sweden that bring this chip into someone's body. And it is through the insertion of these microchips into their hands that many of them are purchasing now, many of them are able to have their health information on the chip and so forth.

And so again, already in Europe there is an acclimation, there is a desensitization, there is an openness to the idea of such technology in their skin. And people wonder, "Well, why is it that born again Christians want to make sure" – and by the way, I'm not an anti-vaxxer, but I believe every Christian has the right to say, "Is this derived from aborted babies?" It's okay to ask that question. It's okay to ask any question about something going into your body, right?

But what's going to happen is there will be such an overwhelming acceptance for this particular mark, that the world wants to identify with it. And they'll there'll be a fewer and fewer people asking questions; and when they do, they're going to be taken out to the gas chambers. Their lives will be taken by this Antichrist, who seems so peaceful. And that's why as a born again believer, whenever there are peace accords, I'm always watching, "Who's there? What is the deal that's being made? Who's the deal makers behind the scene? How's that going?"

You say, "Do you believe the Antichrist could be alive today?" It's entirely possible, ladies and gentlemen. I have no idea how close we are, because Jesus could come in a moment. We're looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of that great God and our Savior. Imagine if suddenly every Christian on this planet was raptured off this earth, and suddenly there's a man who steps in and says, "Calm down, I've got the answers to all your problems; let me help you through this."

By the way, how many of you know it's going to be a little hard for the copilot on a 747 to say, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't really know how to explain it, but the pilot disappeared while we were in transatlantic flight," you know; and on and on those scenarios will go.

And so many will worship the Antichrist. But the Antichrist – here's the good news – the Antichrist, though he will have a season, and there will be a letting of him having power, and you saw that in the book of the Revelation, it's allowed, there will come a point, there will come a point when the Antichrist will ultimately be destroyed. And that's where I want to close this morning.

Look at Revelation 19:20, "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." Can I get an amen right there?

Folks, can you just remember as you go through this life; because sometimes if you're like me, you'll see things on the news, you'll see globalization coming, you'll see these trends, you'll see the technology that's going to provide for it all, and if you're not careful you can be a little bit like, "Man, this is a bummer, you know. I want America to stay strong, and I want to see missionaries sent, and I want to see all of these things going forward for the Lord." And then we see sometimes a lukewarm church, and sometimes we see a proliferation of false cults that would very readily follow the Antichrist, and we see these signs sometimes politically; and if we're not careful, we can get to thinking, "Man, we're losing."

Always remember, we are on the winning side. Jesus Christ is coming again. Satan is going to be literally and utterly destroyed. The Antichrist will be cast into a lake of fire, where he will be forever and forever. And in Christ and with Christ, we who are believers will be for all of eternity in heaven with the saints. What a great promise that is. That's why we need to make sure during this time that, first, we turn to Christ for salvation, "For there is none other name given under heaven whereby you must be saved." And I don't know what the Antichrist's name is going to be, but I can tell you this: there is only one name that has authority and power over him, and that name is Jesus Christ; and we need to turn to him and trust him as our Savior.

And then while we're living on this earth as believers, we need to remember that song, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look at look full into the wonder of his face and his grace," and keep your focus on the Lord Jesus Christ during this time, because I believe in our lifetimes, and even going back for some a little further, 1948 the state of Israel was established. Now we see the ability for some of these prophecies to come to pass.

Look, if you can't turn on the evening news and see the bombs going into Israel and recognize that the world is crying out for a solution, then you're missing the entire point of what the Bible told us this morning, how that the Antichrist will come, and he will make this treaty; and the world will seem so pleasantly surprised, until he turns on them, until he turns on everyone that refuses to take the mark of the beast. And I pray that each of us will be loyal to our Savior.

While this is not a time the believer looks forward to the tribulation period, this time now, this church age, we need to be loyal and faithful. And you think about those who in that tribulation are going to have to scramble for food. They're going to have to hide for the fear of their lives, because they're believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the many, the Bible says, who will be martyred for their faith. The next time that you're not sure you feel like going to church, the next time you're a little fearful to give out a gospel tract, remember those who have suffered, and who will suffer; and may we be faithful in our generation to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[End of Audio]