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Job, chapter 41, verse 1, the Bible reads, Canst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook, or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? Canst thou put a hook into his nose, or bore his jaw through with a thorn? In this chapter, we pick up right where we left off, talking about Behemoth, the great land animal that was described in chapter 40, this gigantic beast that had a tail like a cedar tree, and that would drink up great rivers, just this huge animal. And that was probably what we would today call a dinosaur or a brontosaurus or something like that, which is remarkable because of the fact that dinosaurs were not discovered until the 1800s. But yet, here we have a description in the Bible of something that is a dinosaur that the Bible says was created with mankind and that was living on the Earth at the same time as man was. And so again, the Bible is always ahead of so-called science, even though people will try to just ignorantly say, oh, dinosaurs disprove the Bible. Well, since the Bible already talked about dinosaurs before dinosaurs were cool, that doesn't make any sense because the Bible already talked about Behemoth before the word dinosaur had ever even been invented in the 1800s. Well, in chapter 41, we get into another great creature. And this is actually a sea creature, but it is also a gigantic beast of the sea, just like Behemoth was a gigantic beast that dwells upon the land. Now, this is not hard to believe because even today, we have gigantic creatures in the sea known as whales. And we think of whales as being killer whales because when you go to Sea World, that's what you're going to see, a killer whale, which is one of the smallest whales. And it's really just a glorified dolphin, if you ask me. I mean, a really big dolphin is what it is. When you actually understand what a real whale is like, when you look at the blue whale and the sperm whale and the right whale, these gigantic creatures that are literally hundreds of feet long, so that right there shows you, well, over 100 feet long for sure, that right there shows you that it's not unbelievable that God would create creatures of gigantic proportions. But the difference between Leviathan and a whale is that Leviathan is actually called a sea serpent or a dragon. Those are the words that are used, some kind of a reptile type of a creature. Obviously, he dwells in the sea, but there are, of course, reptiles that live in the sea, sea serpents and so forth. So that's what we see with Leviathan. Now, there are two things going on in this chapter. There is a physical interpretation because there is a literal animal known as Leviathan. This is not a mythical creature. This is a real animal. And the proof of that is that we've been learning about animals all the way since chapter 38. 38, 39, 40, 41, these chapters all deal with animals, and they're all real animals. So it wouldn't really make any sense if Behemoth and Leviathan are different. Number two, we've already found, of course, the bones and fossils of what appears to be Behemoth. And when we look at this description of Leviathan, we can see that this is not any creature that we know of today. A lot of Bible commentaries will say that this is a crocodile. My brother, he looked it up in just a ton of different commentaries, and he said they all just kept it crocodile, crocodile, crocodile. So this led him to the conclusion that commentaries are a croc, he said, because they all keep saying it. Because it's definitely not a crocodile. And here's the evidence right here. Look at verse number 13. Who can discover the face of his garment, or who can come to him with his double bridle? If this is a crocodile, this would be an easy answer. Crocodile hunter can easily approach, you know, may he rest in peace. But anyway, as you read this description, this is obviously a creature that's much greater than a crocodile. But there's also a secondary application because the Leviathan is a symbol of the devil. Because Leviathan is a serpent. He is a dragon. And obviously, those are the creatures that the Bible uses to represent Satan. Especially when you think about the fact that in the book of Revelation, the beast that rises up out of the sea has seven heads and 10 horns. And of course, that represents the Antichrist and so forth. So it makes perfect sense whose power comes from the dragon. Now look if you would at verse number one, it says, canst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook, or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? So this is the illustration of fishing. You know, hook on the end of a cord that you let down because you're fishing. He's saying there's no way you're going to catch Leviathan with a fishing pole, you know, with a hook and a line. Canst thou put a hook into his nose or bore his jaw through with a thorn? Will he make many supplications unto thee? Or will he speak soft words unto thee? Meaning, is Leviathan going to be begging you for mercy when you come after him? Will he make a covenant with thee? A covenant is a deal or an agreement. Wilt thou take him for a servant forever? Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? Or wilt thou bind him for thy maids? He's saying, are you going to catch him and take him home and use him as a domesticated animal to serve you? Are you going to bring him home to play with your daughter as a pet? Your daughter can take him home as a pet. It says in verse six, shall the companions make a banquet of him? Shall they part him among the merchants? Obviously, these are all things that are not going to happen. And he's saying, they wouldn't even be able to catch him, kill him, and eat him. They're not going to make a banquet out of him. He's too fierce. He's too difficult to destroy. Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons or his head with fish spears? Lay thine hand upon him. Remember the battle. Do no more. Behold, the hope of him is in vain. Shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him? None is so fierce that dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand before me? Who hath prevented me that I should repay him? Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine. So he's saying, Leviathan is so powerful and so great and so fearsome that no one would try to go up against Leviathan as a human being. It's just not happening, even with all the tools and weapons that they had. And he's saying, how much more do I have power who created Leviathan? And how much more foolish it would be to try to fight against God or come up against God? He says in verse 12, I will not conceal his parts nor his power nor his comely proportion. Who can discover the face of his garment? Or who can come to him with his double bridle? Who can open the doors of his face? His teeth are terrible round about. His scales are his pride. Shut up together as with a closed seal. One is so near to another that no air can come between. They are joined one to another. They stick together that they cannot be sundered. So, so far, the reason that we see this is not just simply a crocodile. It's because many people have killed crocodiles, speared a crocodile, put hooks into a crocodile, eaten a crocodile. These are all things that could easily be done. But he says here in verse number 18, by his kneesings, a light doth shine. You say, what are kneesings? Well, it's basically a sneezing, but without the snot. It's just air coming out, sneezing. Instead, this is just a kneesing. This is a dry sneeze. So it says, by his kneesings, a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the mornings. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils go with smoke, as out of a seething pot or cauldron. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth. Now, again, God is basically telling us every which way. He doesn't just say it once. He says it about four different ways there, that basically this is a fire-breathing type dragon. Now you say, oh, come on, Pastor Anderson. Is this a fairy tale? Is this a myth? Well, here's what you have to understand about myths and fairy tales. They're based in reality. Obviously, they contain a lot of things that are false and things that are fabulous, but they're usually based on some grain of truth. And it's interesting when you think about the fact that all cultures all over the world, they all talk about the fire-breathing dragon, even cultures that are very separate from one another. In Europe, they're talking about the fire-breathing dragon. In China, you have the serpent dragon that breathes fire. And the reason why is because there really was such a creature that was a sea serpent, a sea-dwelling dragon that could breathe fire. This is not hard to believe. There are even animals today that can breathe fire. There are even animals today that produce explosions and heat and fire. You know, I mean, it's out there. It might not be at the Phoenix Zoo, but it's definitely out there. If you look in encyclopedia, look up all the different animals, there are animals that are like that even today. So it's really not hard to believe at all. And of course, I believe what the Bible's saying here, that it truly exists, and it would explain where all the stories and myths about fire-breathing dragons came from, from the real creature. It says in verse 22, "'In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him. The flakes of his flesh are joined together. They are firm in themselves. They cannot be moved. His heart is as firm as a stone, yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.'" And again, this is just referring to his great strength because your heart is a muscle. And so basically, his heart has such tone and strength, it's like a rock. That's like a rock-hard muscle. It says in verse 25, "'When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid. By reason of breakings, they purify themselves.'" What verse 25 is saying is that he invokes such fear, it causes people to get right with God. Because of their fear, they purify themselves. And that's how people are. They get in a really scary situation, and then it makes them get right with God. And sometimes that's why God has to put us through bad situations, because that's when people will start praying when they're in a bad situation and they need help and they're in a scary situation. Like I say, there are no atheists and foxholes. And when people are in a fearful situation, they cry out to mercy for God. They purify themselves. This reminds me of the story of Jonah, where when Jonah's on the ship with a bunch of unbelieving merchant men, and a great storm comes and they're throwing everything overboard and the ship is gonna perish, the ship's gonna sink, they all start crying out to God and making sacrifices and making vows. And God, I promise if you get me out of this, I'm gonna do X, Y, and Z. And so that's what it means there when it says that when he raises up himself, verse 25, the mighty are afraid. By reason of breakings, they purify themselves. Verse 26, the sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon. He esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee. Sling stones are turned with him into stubble. Darts are counted as stubble. He laugheth at the shaking of a spear. Sharp stones are under him. He spread his sharp pointed things upon the mire. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot. He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment. He maketh a path to shine after him. One would think the deep to be hoary. Upon earth there is not his like who is made without fear. He beholdeth all high things. He is a king over all the children of pride. So when we read this chapter, the surface meaning here is just the description of a great beast, a huge creature. And again, when we have these fossils of these gigantic, supposedly prehistoric animals, they're actually explained through the Bible because when we read about Behemoth, when we read about Leviathan, when we realize that Leviathan is a reptile, and when we realize that there are other gigantic whales and narwhals and other huge creatures in the sea, some that may have never even been seen by man up to this point, it's really not hard to explain where these gigantic bones and fossils could come from. And you have to understand that when they talk about these dinosaurs on TV, they'll make it out in a Hollywood movie like they're just sitting there and just uncovering complete skeletons of animals. That's how Hollywood does it in Jurassic Park or whatever. But in reality, when you go to a museum and you see a gigantic skeleton of a dinosaur, one bone of that thing is the real bone. And the rest has all been manufactured based on, they'll find one bone and build the whole animal based on that one bone. So a lot of it's guesswork, a lot of it's just theory, a lot of it's just made up, but were there gigantic creatures in the past? Well, the Bible clearly describes them. So that's what we see just on the surface in chapter 41 here but also Leviathan represents Satan. Let me prove that to you. Go to Isaiah chapter 27, Isaiah chapter 27. Of course, we know that he is called the great serpent. He's called the great dragon. And so this animal is something that represents Satan. Now obviously, we have literal snakes today, a snake is a serpent. We have literal snakes. We just saw one a couple days ago, a puff adder apparently. And we saw this poisonous snake and obviously it's not the devil, it's just an animal. But that animal represents the devil. The dragon represents Satan. And obviously he took the form of a serpent in the Garden of Eden. And just as sometimes our Lord Jesus Christ is related unto a lamb, the lamb of God or unto a lion, the lion of the tribe of Judah. These are just comparisons that are made with animals. Now look at chapter 26 verse 19. It says, thy dead men shall live. Together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust. For thy due is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead. Now this is a scripture about the resurrection of the dead. It's talking about all the dead bodies in the earth arising and them that dwelling in the dust, along with Isaiah himself, his own body, will rise. And this is talking about what we would call the resurrection that's going to happen at the rapture. You know, when Christ returns and the trumpet sounds and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. This passage is referring to that exact same event. Because first we have the dead being resurrected in verse 19. But then look at verse 20. It says, come my people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpassed. For behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain. Now a lot of people will try to point to this as being proof of a pre-tribulation rapture. And they say, see right there. You know, this is the proof of a pre-tribulation rapture. Now here's the thing. Number one, when I have a crystal clear passage in the book of Matthew, Mark, Luke, First and Second Thessalonians, I'm not going to go back to the book of Isaiah to try to contradict that. Because the New Testament should always be our primary source for doctrine. New Testament, primary source. Old Testament is a supporting document. But something as important as the second coming of Christ is going to be clearly taught in the New Testament. The reason you have to be careful with Old Testament passages is because a lot of times Old Testament passages are talking about immediate events and mixing those with future events like the first coming of Christ or the second coming of Christ. Sometimes talking about both of them in the same breath. But honestly, this passage actually is a great passage on end times prophecy. And it actually matches up perfectly with what is taught in Matthew. Because this does not teach a pre-trib rapture what's our. First of all, you know, this is a big, clear scripture on the pre-trib, right? OK, where does it say tribulation? Yeah, it doesn't. Here's what it says. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself it were for a little moment. Until the what? Indignation be overpassed. Now that doesn't say until the tribulation is over. It says until the indignation be passed. For behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth. So what does indignation mean? Somebody just tell me just what does indignation mean? Anger, wrath. That's what indignation means. So this isn't a pre-trib wrath. This is a pre-wrath rapture being taught here. That's what it says. He says, I'm going to gather the people unto me and hide them from the indignation that's come from the wrath until the wrath be passed. And he says that he's coming to punish the earth. So this is not a pre-trib rapture. This is a post-tribulation pre-wrath rapture. Now people say, well, the tribulation is God's wrath. Now, nothing could be easier to disprove than the idea that the tribulation is God's wrath. That's pretty much the easiest thing to demonstrate. And the way that I would demonstrate that, and we won't turn there for sake of time because most of you probably already know these scriptures, but in Matthew 24, the Bible clearly says immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, the moon should not give her light. So in Matthew 24, the Bible is clear that the darkening of the sun and moon and the stars falling from heaven is going to take place after the tribulation. Well, then when we go to Revelation 6, when the sun and moon are actually darkened, it says that they cry out in that day when the sun and moon are darkened and when the stars fall, they cry out unto the rocks and mountains. They say unto the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand. So when the sun and moon are darkened, they're crying out for the rocks to fall on them and they say the great day of his wrath is come. Now, people just don't understand grammar these days. Is come is a very clear grammatical term. Is come means that it already happened, but it just now happened. That's what is come. Because if we said has come, that could have been previously. Something could have come and gone. Has come could have been a little while ago. Is come, now come is a past participle, but because it's coupled with is, which is present, is come means it just now has come right now. It is here now. So when they're saying the great day of his wrath is come, basically they're saying today is. Look, there's no way to get around this grammar, my friend. That's what it says. They're saying today is the great day of God's wrath. God's wrath is here. Now flip over to Revelation 7. I have to just show you this while we're talking about this subject. Revelation 7, because a lot of people say, it's just bizarre. People just don't want to believe the truth. They just grasp at straws to just keep fighting the truth on this, even though it's so clear. But here's what they'll try to say. No, they're crying out. I've heard this a million times, it's ridiculous. I'm almost embarrassed to say it because it's so dumb. Here's what they'll say. Oh, they're crying out about all the stuff that's already been happening for all the years leading up to this. And that's what they're calling. They're referring to stuff that already happened as God's wrath. All the stuff that's already happened for years is God's wrath. Is that what this passage is saying? I mean, look, the sun and moon are darkened. Stars are falling out of the sky. Every mountain and island are moved out of their places. And they're saying to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne. They're not saying, oh man, the last few years have been rough. It's been a lot of wrath. No, they're saying, ah, you know, it's happening right now. Hide us from the face of the Lord, for the great day of his wrath has come. This is the great day of his wrath. We need to get under something. We need to hide under the rocks and mountains to be able to survive and just to be able to not have to look at the face of him that sitteth on the throne. We don't even want to see him. We don't want him to see us. This is a terrible day for them indeed. But look at verse 1 of chapter 7. And after these things, but don't let that confuse you, because none of this is in chronological order. Look, it's after these things, folks. After these things, I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth. Are you in chapter 7, verse 1? Holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God. And therefore, it's now look, it's crystal clear, if you just read this without a preconceived idea, that so far up to this point, God has not been hurting the earth and the trees and the sea, has he? Has he hurt the trees? Has he hurt the earth? Has he hurt the sea? No. He said, wait, hold it. You know, so far, all he's done is just sun and moon darkened, stars falling, earthquake, mountains. And he's about to really start harming the earth, trees, and seas, but hasn't happened yet. It's just about to happen. We're right at that juncture between the sixth and seventh seal here. Now, if you look at the events leading up to this, the first five seals, they're not God's wrath, clearly. And it's not anything of turning the sea into blood, burning up all the trees. That's all going to happen starting in chapter eight. In chapter eight, what's going to happen? All the grass is going to be burned up. All the tree, you know, one third of the trees are going to be burned up. The sea is going to be turned into blood and all these things. So to sit there and say that that stuff has already been happening, because it's all out of order. It's all out of order and that stuff's already all been happening. It just doesn't make any sense, folks. The trumpets come after the seals. That's pretty clear, OK? And clearly, God's wrath does not begin until the opening of the sixth seal. And according to Matthew, that's after the tribulation. See, the Bible never calls anything. In fact, chapter seven of Revelation is the last time the word tribulation's ever used in the whole Bible. And in Revelation seven, this great multitude appears. And he says, these people came out of great tribulation. So basically, chapter seven is the last time we see tribulation. He says, yup, these people came out of tribulation. Yup, tribulation. Look, because the tribulation is before God's wrath, even begins to be poured out. Because the tribulation has nothing to do with God's wrath. And let me just break it down to you in a very simple way. Here's the tribulation. Here's the sun and moon being darkened after the tribulation. Here's God's wrath after the sun and moon are darkened. Tribulation and wrath can't be the same thing, because they're on different sides of the sun and moon being darkened. One comes before, one comes after. It's impossible to reconcile this if you believe in a pre-trib rapture. It just doesn't make sense, what they're saying. Because they're saying, well, the tribulation is God's wrath. OK, the first seal. A guy goes on a white horse, conquering and to conquer. How is that God's wrath? OK, the second seal basically is to take peace from the earth and that they should kill one another. How is that God's wrath? People are killing one another right now on the earth. It's just going to escalate in the end time into world warfare with the opening of the second seal. In the third seal, you have basically famine taking place and great food price increase. That's not God pouring out his wrath in a supernatural way. That's probably a result of all that warfare. That's a result of other factors that will be described in another sermon. The fourth seal has to do with people being killed with sword, with hunger, with death, with the beasts of the earth. I mean, these are just people dying of pestilence, famine, warfare, same thing. And then the fifth seal is a bunch of people being murdered for Jesus Christ. How is that God's wrath? I don't understand how somebody can say, oh, people being killed for Christ? That's God's wrath. That's not God's wrath. So if you look at it, it's not God who is pouring out his wrath in the first five seals. What it is is the devil and wicked people causing all kinds of problems on the earth and strife and wars. And the man on the white horse that goes forth conquering is the anti-Christ. So we see the anti-Christ rising to power. We see warfare. We see famines. That stuff's not of the Lord. That stuff is just things that must come to pass. But the end is not yet. Those things happen. Then with the sixth seal is the first time we see God really step in in a supernatural way, darken the sun and moon. Stars falling, which I believe is meteor shower, like a shooting star. And then, of course, with the trumpets, he's going to start burning up trees and turning the water into blood, real plagues from God. So this idea that the tribulation is God's wrath is a total fallacy. It's a total fraud. And the pre-trib rapture is found nowhere in scripture. I can point you to a clear scripture that says after the tribulation, there's no scripture that says before the tribulation. It just isn't there. Just look up every time tribulation is mentioned. There's no before the tribulation. You're never going to find it. So back, if you would, to where did I have you? Isaiah 27, Isaiah chapter 27. So in Isaiah 27, we clearly don't have a pre-trib rapture, nothing even close to it. We have a pre-indignation rapture, a pre-wrath rapture, which we already believe in as those who are post-trib, pre-wrath. So it's pretty clear. And again, I would never use an Old Testament passage to try to confound a New Testament passage. Anything in the New Testament, now look, I don't believe the Bible contradicts itself. Whenever we seem to have a contradiction, it's a mistake in our understanding. We're understanding it wrong. But here's the thing. It's a lot easier to misunderstand the Old Testament than the New Testament, because the New Testament is clearer than the Old Testament. And it's funny when people argue with that. I don't understand that. Everybody knows that the New Testament's clearer than the Old Testament. I mean, when you've talked to a new believer, usually you get them started reading the New Testament. It's easier. It's clearer. In fact, if you look at the prophecy in the New Testament, it's called revelation. That sounds pretty clear, as opposed to a lot of the Old Testament prophets are very cryptic, and they are described as dark sayings. Very difficult. And the reason why you can become confused with the Old Testament, too, is because it was so long ago, and so many things have happened between now and then, a lot of stuff that people are still looking for to be fulfilled in the Old Testament has already happened. Or they'll take verses about the first coming of Christ and try to apply it to the second coming. Or they'll try to take verses about the Israelites coming back from the Babylonian captivity and apply that to the 20th century. People will say, what do you think about this psalm where all these nations are gathered against Israel? Like that happened in King David's day. It already happened. So it's a lot easier for people to twist the Old Testament. It's a lot harder to twist the New Testament. That's why when somebody is just completely parked in the Old Testament, that's a sign of false teaching. When they can't back things up with a lot of New Testament But they're just parked in the Old Testament, living in the Old Testament. That's a bad sign, because it should be able to be taught from the New Testament also and verified with the Old Testament. Now, this scripture is a great end time scripture, and it matches up perfectly with what's taught in the New Testament. But let's start with what's taught in the New Testament. Then let's approach this scripture with the clear understanding from the book of Revelation. Just think about that name, Revelation. It's all revealed. It's all laid bare. It's all open and exposed. That's going to be easy to understand compared to some stuff in the Old Testament. So now let's just quickly read it again. It says in verse 19 of chapter 26, thy dead men shall live. Together with my dead body shall they arise. Awaken, sing ye that dwell in dust. For thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpassed. For behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain. Perfect harmony with what's taught in Matthew and the book of Revelation. Now look at chapter 27, verse 1. In that day, the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent, even Leviathan, that crooked serpent. And he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. Now this is a reference to the devil. When it talks about him slaying Leviathan, punishing the great serpent, it's referring to Satan. Because if you look at Revelation chapter 19, you don't have to turn there. But in Revelation 19, we see that Jesus Christ comes on a white horse. And he has a sword proceeding out of his mouth. And he lays hold. He destroys the beast and the false prophet and all the armies of the anti-Christ. And then if you remember, an angel comes down and lays hold on the dragon and casts him into the bottomless pit. So we see here that this is a prophecy of the fact that God's going to defeat Satan at that time. Now when it says in that day, let's be sure that we read this carefully. First of all, the term in that day is not always meaning that exact day as we would think. Sometimes it just means like, you know, back in my day. It's not necessarily referring to a single day, but just a time. But if you look at verse 21 carefully, it says, for behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The Lord also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain. In that day, the Lord with his sword. So basically, if you study Revelation, the clearer scripture, clearer than this, the clear scripture in Revelation teaches that after the tribulation and the sun and moon are darkened, Christ comes in the clouds, the trumpet sounds, we're caught up at the rapture. Then after the rapture and we're out of the way, God's going to pour out his wrath on this earth after we're already gone, OK, as we see in this passage. But then after that, after God's done pouring out his wrath, after the seven trumpets and the seven vials, then Christ comes on a white horse with all the saints following him. And that's when this destruction of the serpent is going to take place. It's going to be after God pours out his wrath. And that's the order that we see in this passage. We see the people of God being gathered up. First the dead in Christ rise. Then the people of God are gathered up. And then God pours out his indignation and wrath and punishes the world. Then we see the destruction of the serpent. We see the defeat of the serpent, even Leviathan, the crooked serpent. And we see the defeat of the Antichrist, which is also represented as a beast of the sea, a dragon that comes up out of the sea. So it all fits perfectly. It's all very clear. So this should show you in Isaiah 27.1 that Leviathan is symbolic of the devil. We see that very clearly in chapter 27, verse 1. Now let me show you another verse about Leviathan. In fact, there are just two other verses about Leviathan in the whole Bible. So let's just look at both of them. Go to Psalm 104. Psalm 104. And then I'm going to make some applications from Job 41 and then we'll be done. But look at Psalm 104. There are two times in Psalms that Leviathan is mentioned. In Psalm 104, it says in verse 25, so is this great and wide sea wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships. There is that Leviathan whom thou hast made to play therein. These wait all upon thee that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. Flip back to chapter 74. So in Psalm 104, basically what he's just talking about there is just ships going in the wide sea, out in the ocean, and that's where Leviathan lives. So that shows us that Leviathan is a creature that lives in the open sea, in the ocean. Now look, if you would, at Psalm 74, verse 12. It says, for God is my king of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength. Now stop right there. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength. What event do you think that's referring to, the dividing of the sea? What's that sea called? The Red Sea, right? Because he's talking about past glories of the miracles of God, how God divided the sea by his strength. Basically, he divided the Red Sea. And it says in verse 13, thou didst divide the sea by thy strength. Thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Thou didst cleave the fountains in the flood. Thou driest up mighty rivers. So in this description of the miracle of the Red Sea, he basically talks about sea creatures being killed in the process, which makes sense that if God's going to divide the sea and then cause it all to come crashing in again, that sea creatures could be killed in the process of just that cataclysmic moving of water. And then what I believe that this is referring to, if you just kind of take it at face value, is that basically some of these great sea creatures, and even Leviathan, and even other great sea creatures, were washed up on the shore. And the people who lived in that wilderness actually ate those creatures because they washed up to shore. I mean, if you just kind of take it at face value, that's what it basically says happened. But here's what's interesting. In light of the fact that Leviathan represents who in Isaiah 27.1? Satan. And if we go back to Job 41, I'm going to show you how he represents Satan in Job 41 also. But here's what's so weird. In Judaism, in the Kabbalah, and in the beliefs of Judaism, and in the Talmud, there's a lot about Leviathan. And they believe, and when you realize this, it's pretty scary and creepy when you think about it. They believe that when the Messiah comes, who we know as the Antichrist, because the Messiah already came 2,000 years ago. His name's Jesus. But to the Jews, they reject Jesus. They're looking for a different Messiah to come. And they say that when that Messiah comes, he's going to bring in the Messianic age, they call it. And when the Messiah comes, they're false Messiah. Keep in mind, this is a Messiah other than Jesus, which is an Antichrist. See, a lot of people misunderstand the term anti. When we think of anti, you know, you're anti-abortion, we think anti means what? Against. Against. And the prefix anti does mean against in English, sometimes. But there's another meaning of the prefix anti. Antichrist does not mean against Christ. That's actually a fallacy. Antichrist means in the place of Christ, OK? The prefix anti in the word Antichrist, in a Greek New Testament, means in the place of, OK? So it's someone taking the place of Christ. And Christ means Messiah. It's an imposter of a Messiah. It's a false Messiah or a false Christ. That's what the term Antichrist means. The spirit of Antichrist that the Bible talks about is the spirit of a Messiah other than Jesus. Everybody get that? That makes sense, right? The Antichrist is a different Messiah. When their false Messiah comes, here's what they teach. They're going to have a great Passover where they will eat Leviathan. OK, they will be served Leviathan as food at this great Passover with their Messiah. Now here's what's so weird about that. We know that Christ is our Passover. OK, Jesus Christ said, you know, that basically people would eat his flesh and drink his blood. We talked about that in the sermon a few Sunday nights ago. I proved that that's figurative. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, I proved that from the Bible. That's figurative, not literal. But we know that when they ate the Passover in the Old Testament, what animal did they eat? The lamb. And when they ate that lamb of the Passover, that lamb represented who? Jesus. OK, so who do they want to eat at their big Passover? The devil. Now think about that. So we as Christians, our Passover, metaphorically speaking, symbolically speaking, is to partake of Jesus Christ. He's our Passover lamb. We don't literally eat that Passover lamb, but through his word, which is our meat. The Bible says, I've esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. He said, the words that I say unto you, their spirit, their life. Through the word of God, symbolically speaking, when we believe on the word of Christ, we eat the flesh of the Son of Man. We basically are partaking of that Passover lamb of Jesus. Their Passover is Satan. They're saying, you Christians have a Passover with Jesus. Our Passover is of the devil. Now think about how weird that is. In fact, a lot of Jews, because I know that a lot of Jews eat fish on the Sabbath. And if you read up on why they eat fish on the Sabbath, they say one of the reasons is because, you know, Leviathan's a sea creature. And that fish that they eat, even though it's not Leviathan, even though it's a fish, they say that that fish that they represents Leviathan. So every Sabbath day when they eat that fish, it's symbolic of the fact that they're eating the serpent. They're eating Leviathan. They're eating the flesh of Satan. You know, so basically, you know, Christians will break bread and say, you know, this is the body of Jesus Christ symbolically. And then they're eating fish saying, oh, this represents Satan. Eat up. Shabbat shalom. You know, it's true, my friend. And you know, it sounds so weird. You probably don't even believe me. But you can look it up even on Jewish. I looked this up on Jewish websites. For example, Chabad.org. Don't ask me how to spell that. But you know, which is, you know, their website where they're explaining their beliefs and explaining the Chabad. This isn't an anti-Jewish thing. This is just what the, in fact, I even, I even pulled it up on my phone from their website. I'll just read it to you just so that you know that I'm not just making things up here. I won't read you the whole thing because it's kind of long. But I'll just, I'll read you a little part here. This is straight from their website. At the time, Chabad.org. At the time of the messianic redemption, there will be a feast at which leviathan will be served. Shabbat, the day of rest, is a microcosm of the messianic area. As such, the fish we eat on Shabbat is in anticipation of the day which will be a complete and perfect Shabbat where they actually eat leviathan, the devil, OK? So anyway, that's pretty satanic, isn't it? But let me just quickly blow through a few things in chapter 41 symbolically. So keep in mind that leviathan represents the devil. Look at the last verse of the chapter. He beholdeth all high things. He is a king over all the children of pride. Doesn't that apply to the devil? He's a king over all the children of pride. Why are people not saved? The number one reason why a person is not saved is pride. When you go out soloing and people just cannot accept that salvation is by faith in the Lord Jesus, it's pride. You got to live right. You got to do good because they want to earn it themselves. And they want to say, oh, I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person because I turned from my sins and I got baptized and I go to church and I live good and I'm not like these other bad people and I do all these great works and that's why I'm saved. It's pride. The Bible says not of works lest any man should boast. And what's boasting? Pride. So the opposite of being saved by grace through faith is to boast in your own works, which is pride. So of course the devil is the king over all the children of pride. Plus when you look at the fall of Satan, what was his downfall? Pride. His heart was lifted up within him, the Bible says in Ezekiel 28, because of his great beauty. And he said, I will be like the most high. I will ascend above the sides of the north. I'll exalt my throne above the stars of heaven and so forth. So he truly is a king over all the children of pride. But look at the beginning of the chapter. It says, canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? Canst thou put a hook into his nose or bore his jaw through with the thorn? Will he make supplications unto thee? Will he make soft words unto thee? Will he make a covenant with thee? Wilt thou take him for a servant forever? Now in verse four there, when you think about making a covenant, you think of people who make a deal with the devil. Isn't that a common theme you hear about, making a deal with the devil? And that comes from where the devil tried to make a deal with Jesus and say, all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. And of course, Jesus did not give in to that temptation. But that offer was made. And so what it's saying here is, is he going to make a covenant with you? Wilt thou take him for a servant forever? Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? Here's what I think is being taught here on the symbolic underlying meaning is, don't play with the devil. Don't try to use the power of Satan and think that you're going to take Satan to be your servant, make some kind of an agreement with him, play with him. And there are people today who play with this guy. They play with sorcery. They play with witchcraft. They play with a Ouija board. They play with seances and these kind of things. Look, I know people personally who've played with this kind of stuff. I mean, it's common. They sell the Ouija board at Walmart between Monopoly and Parcheesi. It's by Milton Bradley. Ooh, the classic game. It's not a game. It's witchcraft. It's sorcery. It's necromancy. And so the Bible's sending us a strong message here that we shouldn't try to play around with the occult, sorcery, the devil, Satan, or think that somehow Satan is going to serve us. If Satan ever made an agreement with you, it's going to be for his benefit. And he's a lot smarter than you. He's going to rip you up. Look, here's how I know this is true. Because every episode of The Twilight Zone, where somebody made a deal with the devil, it always worked out really bad for him. I mean, there you go. Case closed. Case closed. Every episode. They thought they were real smart, make a deal with the devil. They always ended up getting burned, no pun intended. So I think that's what God's saying here. You know, don't play with Satan. Don't play with witchcraft and the power. Because there are the powers of darkness in this world. And you know, the devil can elevate people into high places, politicians, all of them, for example. But anyway, keep reading. It says, you know, wilt thou bind them for thy maidens? Shall the companions make a banquet of him? Shall they part him among the merchants? Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears? Lay thine hand upon him. Remember the battle. Do no more. Behold, the hope of him is in vain. Shall not one be cast down, even at the sight of him? None is so fierce that dare stir him up, who then is able to stand before me. When we think about the mighty power of Leviathan, that should remind us of the mighty power of the devil. Now, of course, the devil's power is nothing compared to the Lord's power. And the Bible makes that clear in this passage. But the devil does have great power. And we need to be careful that we do not underestimate his power and think that we can just do battle with Satan. You know, the Bible talks about the fact that even Michael the archangel, who is much greater in power than we are, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said the Lord rebuke thee. OK, and then we find a story similar to that in Zechariah chapter 3 as well. We have to understand that the devil has great power. We need to have the shield of faith wherewith we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of Satan. But we should not bring a railing accusation against the devil. What does it mean to bring a railing accusation? You'll hear a lot of people in the charismatic movement that will talk to the devil. And they'll yell at the devil and tell him he's a loser, and tell him he's weak, and tell him he's nothing. That's not something that the Bible ever teaches that we should do. Because we shouldn't even try to face off with the devil. The Bible says resist the devil and he'll flee from you. The Bible says take the shield of faith, you'll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. But the Bible never tells us to go after the devil. For example, a railing accusation is when we make often a false accusation. For example, I was in a service one time, and they were trying to play some CD in a service, and the CD started skipping. And they said, you know, the devil doesn't want you to hear that CD. That's why that CD is skipping right now. No, it's skipping right now because you dropped it, because you scratched it up or put fingerprints all over it. You know what I mean, though? But just this idea of just, we just always said, oh, the devil did that. You know what? I don't go around saying that. At least I really try not to say when bad things happen, oh, that's the devil, oh, that's the devil. You know, a lot of bad things just happen. It has nothing to do with the devil. Think about it. You know, first of all, it could be God. Sometimes God is testing us or putting us through things, making things difficult for us. Or it could just be a chance thing that happens. So to just have this gut, or I'm sorry, this knee-jerk reaction. Every time, oh, the devil, see, the devil's attacking us, oh, the devil did it. Yeah, but other people are going through the same thing every day. They have CDs that scratch and don't work every day. I mean, there aren't that many demons to make every CD skip on the planet, OK? So I think we need to be careful of two things when it comes to that. Number one, not to just accuse the devil of doing things that we don't really know that the devil's involved. It's better to just not speak of things that we don't really understand, things that are kind of out of our realm. We should kind of just worry about the realm that we're in, worry about obeying the commands of God, not just speculating. Well, I'll bet the devil is the one who caused so-and-so to go out on my car. And the thermostat went out on my car. It's the devil that did that. No, it's because you're driving a Ford. Then the thermostat went out. And every Ford I've ever driven, the thermostat went out. In my tempo, in my escort. And I had like 3 Fords where the thermostat went out. So I'm not going to blame the devil on that. And then I think the other thing is, too, that even if we do have an accusation against the devil, we shouldn't get all puffed up and high-minded. Like, there was a famous preacher. I think he was more of a circus performer, but a famous preacher called Billy Sunday. He was one of these guys that really fought for women's rights. So if you want to blame somebody for giving women the right to vote, what an idiot. Well, it's getting kind of quiet in here. Anyway, giving women the right to vote and fighting for all this women's rights and women's liberation. It was Billy Sunday, everybody's favorite fundamental preacher. And not only that, but he was a big proponent of prohibition of alcohol, which frankly, I don't believe in. Now, I'm against drinking. I think it's a sin. But making alcohol illegal, it was a bad idea. And it's not a biblical concept. It was not illegal in Israel. It's sin, but it was not illegal. Making alcohol illegal, bad idea. Prohibition of alcohol, bad idea. Giving women the right to vote, bad idea. Women's rights, feminist movement, taking women out of the home, putting them in the work, bad idea. Bad idea. I'm sorry, that's a whole other sermon in and of itself. But this guy, Billy Sunday, he was one of these really flamboyant preachers who's just kind of putting on a show. And he would dance around the platform and shadowbox and challenge the devil to come fight with him. Come on, devil, do a few rounds with Billy. But here's the thing. That's not scriptural. That's a violation of scripture. And you're no match for the devil to just take him on. Let God deal with that. Because you just need to resist him, just have the shield of faith. But you can't just take on. You're just going to take on Leviathan. You're going to be consumed. You know what I mean? This is what the Bible teaches. And then obviously, we shouldn't play with the powers of darkness and Satan in this world. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. We thank you so much for your word, Lord. And we thank you for this great chapter that teaches us about this creature, Lord, that probably no longer exists, but this great animal that you created, Leviathan, along with Behemoth and other extinct animals, Lord. And thank you for the things that we can learn about the devil. Just a warning that we should be careful, because we know that the devil does have great wisdom and great power, Lord. Help us never to be deceived by him, Lord. Protect us from him. And help us to stay on the right path in our lives. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.