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you you you you you you you All right Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Strong Home Baptist Church. You can grab your hidden notes and open up the song 244. In 244, Amazing Grace. In 244. Amazing Grace. All right, church, let's sing a song in the first. All right, church. All right, church, let's sing a song in the first. Shining as the sun, we know there's days to sing in God's grace, and when we first begun. Amen. All right, let's turn to our next song, song 367. Song 367, My Mother's Bible. Now this is a new hymn, so let me just explain this hymn just a little bit here. You see these brackets on your page, or the stanzas on your page? There's some brackets for each verse. See verse number one, two, three, and four? There's two lines on each of those verses. That first line for verse number one, where it says there's a dear and precious book, though it's worn and faded now. It coincides with the second stanza that says, call those happy days of long ago. If you look back up at the top, you'll start again there. When I stood at mother's knee with her hand upon my brow, and I heard her voice in gentle tones of love. You see that? So that's how that hymn's gonna be led. It's like it's supposed to be a duet. So it's song 367. All right, church, let's sing this out the best we can on the first. There's a dear and precious book, though it's worn and faded now. Which recalls those happy days of long ago. When I stood at mother's knee with her hand upon my brow, and I heard her voice in gentle tones of love. Blessed one, precious one, on thy dear old cheerstings leaves thy love to bloom. Thou art sweeter day by day, as I walk the narrow way. That it is at last soon that I know her love. As she read the stories o'er of those mighty men of old. Of Joseph and of Jacob and their trials. Of little David Cole, who became the king at last. Of Satan with his many wicked rhymes. Blessed one, precious one, on thy dear old cheerstings leaves thy love to bloom. Thou art sweeter day by day, as I walk the narrow way. That it is at last soon that I know her love. As she read of Jesus' love, as he blessed the children here. I remember when a night upon the tree. Of his heavy load of hair, then she tried my falling tears. With her kisses as she said it was for me. Blessed one, precious one, on thy dear old cheerstings leaves thy love to bloom. Thou art sweeter day by day, as I walk the narrow way. That it is at last soon that I know her love. On the last, all those days are passed and gone. But then we linger still, and the dear old book each day has made my jive. And I seek to do his will, as my mother taught me. The sand and pepper in my heart is much alike. Blessed one, precious one, on thy dear old cheerstings leaves thy love to bloom. Thou art sweeter day by day, as I walk the narrow way. That it is at last soon that I know my love. This time we're going to go through our announcements. If you do not have a bulletin, slip your hand up real quick. Brother Lindsay will get one out to you. If you open up to the first page, you will see our service times listed there. It's always Sunday morning at 1030. Sunday afternoon again at 4 p.m. Wednesday night at 7. It is our Bible study. We will be in Isaiah chapter 30 this week. So if you could make it out for that, we'd love to see you there. Great book of the Bible, book of Isaiah. Lots of things to learn. Come on out for that. So many opportunities listed there. Salvations and baptisms. Before we count up today's salvations, let's go ahead and just count up anything prior to today. Anyone have any salvations that you need to report prior to today for this week? All right, then how about for today? How many people got saved out today? Any salvations today? Wow. That rough, huh? Was it, was the neighborhood, I didn't go to the, to the, to the location. Was it mostly Hispanic again or was it too fancy? They all need to be knocked anyways, right, Brother Joseph? Oh, you did have one. Okay, cool. He's in the sound. Okay. I didn't see it. Thank you. Well, amen. We got one saved in today. That's good. That's good. That's good. I was going to say it's been a long time since we've gone out and not had one person saved. I can't even remember the last time that's happened. But, well, praise the Lord. That's good. Appreciate everybody being here and going out and knocking on those doors. We got the offering tolls list down there at the bottom of the page for the month of October. Prayer requests. I just announced this morning that we're adding Mrs. Weatherby as another lady with child to our prayer request. And then, of course, Mrs. Michael is back safely. So, we don't need to continue to pray for her to return safely to the United States because she's here. So, they made it to church this morning and that's good. So, I love being able to remove prayer requests because of answered prayers that we're actually praying for. So, that's very good there. It's exciting. I counted this morning for the October challenge to add an extra hour of soul winning to your regular time. And I counted five people this morning. Is there anyone else that completed this challenge for the month that I didn't get to count earlier? If there is, just lift your hand up real quick. Did your husband do it? Do you know? Mrs. Carter? Okay. I don't see him anywhere. He wasn't here this morning, so I had to make sure that I could count if I needed to. So, this month coming up, November challenge, basically you have the entire month to get Romans 4 done. Now, Romans 4 is already our Bible memory passage, but I was giving you two and a half months to do this. So, basically we're just going to cut that time short if you want to complete the Bible memory challenge. Again, this Bible memory that we do as a church, I don't consider this to be a challenge, okay? Bible memory is just, you know, I kind of keep it at a slower pace that I think should be relatively easy as long as you do it. If you put forth a little bit of effort, you can do this Bible memory that we have every single week in the bulletin and complete this without it being too much of a challenge. So, the challenge is to do more, right? The whole point of a challenge is to be able to do more than you normally would. So, if you normally keep a pace that's similar to what we do every week here in the church, the challenge for the month of November is to be able to memorize all of Romans 4 within the month. That's much less time than you normally would get. So, I do strongly encourage you, I've said this time and time again, Romans 4, great chapter. Please memorize this chapter. It's going to benefit you. It's going to benefit others too because Romans 4 has a lot of great verses and teaching that if you have that memorized especially, it's going to help you with soul winning, guaranteed it's going to help you with soul winning. It's going to help you be able to use some more verses and explain to people very, very, very clearly that salvation is by grace and not of works, that always has been and that there's never been a time where it's been of the law or of works. It's always been by grace and faith. So, hopefully you'll join us. Memorize Romans chapter 4. Even if you don't do the, you know, in the allotted time for the month of November for the challenge, try to get it done in the 10 week time because I'm still going to keep this going. For those of you that, you know, if you don't make it to get it done in just November, we'll keep this running to give you some time. Just in case you fall short, you're not quite able to make it and you'll still earn a prize for it too. I mean, you'll still get the prize for doing the Bible memory within the 10 weeks. But the prize value goes up for getting it done for the November challenge. So, we like to incentivize a lot of the things that we do here. So, we're giving out prizes for that. And we say congratulations. We had the chili cook off, of course, this afternoon. And Mrs. Miller is retaining the title of the chili cook off champion once again this year. So, she won the first place $100 gift card to Costco. And then Mrs. Rogers won our second place with a $50 gift card to, was it Bare Bones? Is that what it's called? Remember the name of the place? So, it's a barbecue place. And then my wife came in third and she got the $25 gift card for that too. So, congratulations to everyone and thank you everyone for participating. It was great. Even though I've been having some stomach troubles for the past few days, it was still very good chili. It's awesome. Great job everybody. I mean, I mean that like it was really good. It was a really tough job to be a judge. And there's so many good chilies to choose from. We're planning on serving up some more of the food for after church tonight. My wife will, I believe she said she was going to do this, heat up some of the hot dogs in the toaster oven instead of in a crock pot. So, they'll be ready to go. We'll have the rest of the, you know, the chili and everything else that we have out here. If you would like to eat some more food, that'll be available after service. And feel free to stick around and hang out for a little while and be able to eat some more food. And then all I ask is that if you choose to stick around and eat and stuff, please help us a little bit tonight. We don't have anyone normally scheduled. And the cleaning goes a lot. And I appreciate everyone doing the cleaning. And by the way, I noticed that a lot of people pitch in already in between the services today. Thank you all for that. But if you wouldn't mind if you're sticking around just to help do one or two things and then everything gets cleaned up really fast. And then we can all get out of here at a decent hour. So that's what's going on this evening. All the rest of the activities are listed there. It looks like we got a homeschool field trip this week. So hopefully you've already spoken to my wife about that. If you haven't, just let her know. I think you could probably still get in because we have I know that the pottery, we just rented the whole room. Right. So like that. That's not that big of a deal if we need more people want to show up. Right. You show up and you'll be able to go. So after that, we're going to go to the pottery painting, because that's that's like right next door, practically. OK. Yeah. Both of these. Both of these are within the Sugarloaf Mills Mall. That's that's where both of these places are. So there's an eatery right there in the miniature golf and the pottery painting and the pottery painting. If you guys were here, I think it was like two years ago, we did this one of the first home school field trips that we did. So it's basically we're going back to that same place to do to do this event. That was right when Emily was born, wasn't it? Because you didn't go. All right. So you could think about that now if you're if you're attending that home school field trip, if you want a mug or a Christmas ornament, you get the choice. But you get to you get to paint it and they'll heat treat it and everything for you and then we'll pick it up later. And anyways, it should be a lot of fun for the homeschoolers. All the rest of the announcements you could see there. Again, November 14th, we're going to be doing the baby shower for Mrs. Taylor, as well as combining it with a sewing workshop. We're going to have lunch again after the morning service provided for everybody. We'll do the quick sewing workshop and then the ladies will be able to have their their baby shower and on and on. You can see the rest of those. I want to take up too much time now for the announcements time. We've got the Romans chapter four Bible memory, upcoming birthdays and anniversaries are listed there. Mrs. Carter's got cut off at the bottom of the page. Apparently those two. It went past the margin on the thing. So I didn't notice that till it was too late. Apologize for that. But it'll be on there next week as we remove some of the birthdays that have already happened. But hers is the twenty seven twenty nine. I bet it says the twenty ninth on there, but I was trying to go off of memory. I thought it said that I thought it was just one day after Mrs. Mumtans, but twenty nine. So am I missing anyone for the month of November? Any birthdays or anniversaries? Mr. Anniversary. How did I miss that? I saw that, too. What was it? I know I have that in my records. What's the date? Eighteen. I'm sorry. This is why I ask. If I don't ask, I must assume I got everybody. Am I missing anyone else? I always miss your family. There's always something that's always like some and there's not even that many people. But it's always a birthday or an anniversary birthday. Who's yours? You just gave me your birthdays. For November. Yeah. Yours isn't to November, right? OK. Yes. I want to make sure I got everyone for November. Anyone else? All right. Very good. I think that'll do it for our announcement. So let's go ahead and we'll sing our next song. And Brother Peter, please lead us to that. Church, if you can open up your hymnals to song number one hundred and ten. Song one hundred and ten. All the way my Savior leads me. Hymn one ten. My church on the first. All the way my Savior leads me. My church on the first. All the way my Savior leads me. My church on the first. All the way my Savior leads me. My church on the first. All the way my Savior leads me. My church on the first. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. My church on the first. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. All the way my Savior leads me. Second Corinthians chapter 11. Second Corinthians chapter 11. And as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church, I'm going to have brother Devin read the whole chapter. Chapter 11. What to God you could bear with me a little in my folly and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. So your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached. Or if ye receive another spirit which ye have not received. Or another gospel which ye have not accepted. You might well bear with him. For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very cheapest apostles. But though I be rude in speech yet not in knowledge. But we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things. Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that ye might be exalted. Because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely. I robbed other churches taking wages of them to do you service. And when I was present with you and wanted I was chargeable to no man. For that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied. And in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you. And so will I keep myself. As the truth of Christ is in me no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaea. Wherefore because I love you not God knoweth. But what I do that I will do that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion. That wherein they glory they may be found even as we. For such are false apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness. Whose end shall be according to their works. I say again let no man thank me a fool if otherwise yet as a fool receive me that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak I speak it not after the Lord but as it were foolishly in this confidence of boasting. Seeing that many glory after the flesh I will glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly seeing you yourselves are wise. For ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage. If a man devour you if a man take of you. If a man exalt himself a man smite you on the face. I speak as concerning reproach. As though we had been weak how be it wherein so ever any is bold I speak foolishly I am bold also. Are they Hebrews so am I. They Israelites so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham so am I. Are they ministers of Christ I speak as a fool I am more. In labors more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one thrice was I beaten with rods once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck a night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeyings often in perils of waters and perils of robbers and perils by my own countrymen. In perils by the heathen and perils in the city and perils in the wilderness and perils in the sea and perils among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness and watchings often and hunger and thirst and fastings often and cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily the care of all the churches. Who is weak and I am and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not. If must if I must needs glory our glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which is blessed forever more knoweth that I lie not. In Damascus the governor under Artus the king kept the city of Demanses with a garrison as ours to apprehend me. And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall and escaped his hands. Let's pray. Brother Denzel do you mind praying for us please? Thank you God, thank you for this day and thank you for letting us all be here. Thank you for our service here. And thank you to the pastor, thank you to the pastor and thank you to George. And I hope that God is here and does apply this to our lives. Amen. Alright so I'm going to continue with the series that I had started a few weeks ago on the devil's counterfeits. And this week, this evening I'm going to preach on the devil's counterfeit regarding God or the Trinity a little bit more specifically. So we're going to be talking about the Godhead and we're going to talk about how the devil is going to, he does and is going to imitate and mimic God himself to try to pass off the Antichrist. He tries to pass off himself, Satan, as being God on this world and he likes to worship. Now we've already covered this slightly before but I want to go over this again, a different aspect of it. More with the gospel and people going to hell. But we're going to cover and it's important to get this nailed down. Obviously we all here, we believe in the right God, we believe in Jesus. But it's important to know these doctrines really well, especially about who God is. And as I've mentioned previously, every time I've been preaching on these counterfeits, you know the best way to spot counterfeits and to spot errors is to know the truth and know the real thing as well as possible. So the more you know the good doctrine and you know the truth and you can read God's word and study from that, then the better equipped you're going to be to be able to spot when there is false doctrine, when there is heresies out there. Now the other reason it's important too is because there's so many people that are deceived, there's so much lies and deception out in the world today and it really is tragic when you think about it. If you think about this one thing, right, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And that is the truth. Jesus is the truth, there's one way to be saved, it's only through Jesus Christ. But how many religions are there in the world, right? I mean there's major religions and a whole bunch of smaller religions as well. And none of the other religions other than Christianity are going through Jesus Christ, that's the vast majority of the world. Think about how many people live their entire life holding on to whatever religious belief system outside of Christ, they're believing a lie for their entire life. How vain, how empty, how tragic to exist for an entire lifespan on this earth and be holding something to be true that's just a total lie, total fabrication, it's just made up, not true, and then these people are going to die and go to hell. Right? It's tragic. Which is all the more reason why we need to make sure that we can not only know the truth for ourselves, which we already do, but to be able to explain and expound other people and to show and shine the truth and shine that light of the glorious gospel of truth to those who are deceived by Satan's lies today so that they can at the very least get a good opportunity to choose to open up their eyes and see the lies that they had believed in for what they are and choose to put their faith in the truth. And we've all had to do that. I had to do that. Even being raised in a Christian home, I had to do that. I had to open up my eyes to the deceit, to the lies, because even in a Christian home, my belief was I was a pretty good person, so I'm going to go to heaven. Guess what? That's what pretty much all the other religions teach, too. Oh, you're a pretty good person. Well, you're going to go to heaven. You're good. So we need to have the truth. We need to know the truth. Obviously, we've got the truth of God's word, and we need to be able to know it well enough to be able to expound it and show other people that great truth. Now, we started reading 2 Corinthians 11, and the apostle Paul's warning here and brings up the fact that some people are going to preach another Jesus. So if you look at verse number 1, the Bible says, So he's bringing up the fact that just like Satan deceived Eve, right? It was very simple in the garden. It was very simple rules. God said, But what happened? The devil came along, and he deceived. He beguiled her. He tricked her by twisting God's words, by trying to come up with some counterfeits and get her to believe something that was a lie and entice her to sin. And he's bringing this up the same way, verse 4, Well, you know who's going to be bringing another Jesus? Satan. Satan has devised another Jesus. Satan has devised another gospel. Satan has devised another God to worship. Why? Because he's a liar and the father of it. Why? Because he wants to be worshipped. He wants to be the one that's receiving of all the worship instead of God. He wants to be like the Most High. That's one of Satan's attributes. So verse 4 there says, He said you might go along with that. You might just let them continue and go along with what they're preaching. So he's warning them not to get caught up in this. Another Jesus. Another spirit. And these are all from the devil. Another gospel. Now, on the one hand you have another Jesus, which is already being portrayed in the world. The way that the world displays or portrays Jesus Christ is a false Jesus. So the most common, if anyone were to say, and today's Halloween, so people dress up in costumes and whatever, and I know throughout my years of existence and just seeing people dressed up for Halloween in school, wherever. How many times have you seen someone dress up like, to try to dress up like Jesus Christ for Halloween? I've seen it before, right? You've probably seen the same thing. And what do you see when you see somebody dressing up like Jesus for Halloween? They're going to have long hair, right? They're going to have a big, long, white robe. And they're probably going to act all holier than thou, spiritual and soft and talk really soft-spoken. Isn't that what you see? If you're going to turn on the TV or some movie or whatever, that's supposed to be some Bible movie and Jesus Christ is represented in it, what are they going to see? You're probably going to see some white guy with long hair acting like, you know, trying to act like what the world thinks Jesus would act like. And it's a fraud. It's a fake. It's a counterfeit. That's not right. And even when people, I've talked to people that said they've had dreams and visions and Jesus spoke to me in my dream. And you say, really? Well, what did he look like? Well, he had really long hair. It's like, that's not Jesus. Say, Pastor Burnsons, how could you even say that? How do you know that? I know that because Jesus isn't a sinner. And I know that because the Bible teaches, if you want to go backwards, the first Corinthians, chapter 11, verse number 14 does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair is a shame unto him. But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her for her hair has given her for a covering. Now, I'm not going to read all of first Corinthians, chapter 11, or at least this first half. But go ahead and read it in context. We're going to see that if a man prays or prophesies with his head covered, meaning he has long hair, he dishonors God. So you mean to tell me that Jesus was praying and prophesying with long hair, having his head covered with long hair, dishonoring God? I don't think so. No. The Bible doesn't have to tell us how long Jesus' hair was, but we know that it wasn't long. And if you know God's word, if you know the truth, you can spot the fraud. You can be like, that's not right. Why? Because I know the truth. I know God's word. And I know there's no contradiction. I know Jesus isn't a sinner. And I know Jesus isn't bringing shame and dishonoring his Heavenly Father. Not happening. But that's just one example, right? But where do these things come from? You know, these images, these pictures, one, they come from Satan. But Satan uses people to, you know, children of Satan, children of the devil, to promote this. This is the counterfeit that's put forth, won by the Catholic Church. And the way it's promoted by the Catholic Church is through their paintings, through their art, right? Where they literally are using art from sodomites. Homos, reprobates, are the ones that are putting forth this counterfeit, which, look, anything that's being put forward by a sodomite, reject. Now, in these people, you know, they lived in the 1400s or 1500s or whatever, all these famous paintings. Do you know that Leonardo da Vinci is one of the, some of the famous stuff out there? And it's funny, my wife and I were just talking about this before, too. That guy was a pervert. He's a freak. He's a reprobate. I mean, that guy was a sodomite. And, you know, people like to praise him, oh, how smart he was and how great he was and all these, you know. The guy was a filthy pervert. And he's responsible for a lot of the, you know, he did a lot of religious paintings and stuff, in addition to a lot of the other stuff that he did, and his nude portraits and all this other stuff. And it's like, oh, that's for science, that's anatomy. Look, this stuff gets put up everywhere. It's pornography. But I'll read this for you. He was famous for that, you know, the Last Supper. I mean, everyone knows that painting, right? I'm sure you've seen it. You see it in schools, you see it everywhere, where it's got, you know, a picture. It's supposed to be an image of the Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper. And that's one of the things that he painted. And so that's one thing he's known for. And then there's also this faggoty painting of John the Baptist. You know, Jean Baptiste. It's a real famous John the Baptist portrait, which, again, the dude lived in the 1400s. You don't know what these guys looked like at all. Just coming out of the filthy imagination of his heart. Here's a little piece of information about Leonardo da Vinci. I found this little tidbit. Court records of 1476, when he was age 24, show that Leonardo and three other young men were charged with sodomy in an incident involving a well-known male prostitute. That's your Leonardo da Vinci. This is the guy that the world looks to, and that people are looking to, to show you an image of what Jesus Christ looks like? I mean, how about watching the Hollywood movies? Yeah, you're probably going to have some queer portraying Jesus Christ in those movies, too. Which, in fact, that is the case. Now, whichever movie it is, it flips my mind now. There is one where there's some sodomite that was, you know, and it wasn't known necessarily at the time, but it comes out later. Where it's like, you have a sodomite portraying our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Like, that's wicked from the beginning. But, you know, and everything from Hollywood's fake anyways. You know, you don't want to take that. You know, people, it's kind of frustrating because you talk to people sometimes, because everyone's just into media and the TV now, and it's like, oh yeah, I saw this, I saw that series on the Bible, and I saw the series on Jesus, and I saw, you know, it's like, look, and they treat it, oh, the History Channel put it out, or the Discovery Channel, or whoever, you know, whatever, as like, well, they're the authority and they're a source. You realize it's like one or two guys making this thing, out of their own heart, whatever they say is true, they're not an authority. They're not even necessarily a scholar, they're just some guys making a documentary because they know that people are going to want to watch it and get a lot of views. Don't trust, I would say, don't trust anything that you see, if you're watching TV at all, don't trust anything that you see on TV. Even the documentaries, a lot of those are just bogus too. Challenge everything. But especially this stuff, people putting forward this counterfeit Jesus Christ, you know, it's nothing new, there's nothing new under the sun, but this goes way beyond just that image, right? Satan's counterfeit Jesus goes way beyond the image, way beyond just what he looks like. Turn, if you went to Matthew chapter 24, you know, we're warned, Jesus warned, about a false Christ to come, and actually many false Christs to come. God knew that there's going to be people that are going to come forward trying to be imposters, trying to claim to be Jesus Christ, the second coming. People have been doing this throughout history since Jesus came, even to this day. I mean, literally right now, there's multiple people who claim to be the second coming of Jesus Christ, like they actually have cult followings in different parts of the world of people who are following someone who claims to be like a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, another coming of Jesus Christ, or whatever. And they always have these screwed up cult religions, but there's literally people today that have followers where they think that that person is Jesus Christ. And it's messed up, and Jesus warns about this. Matthew 24, look at verse number 3, first of all. The Bible says, And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came on them privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And I love this, I love this passage, and when people read the Bible for understanding what's going to happen at the end of the world, everyone wants to know, what's going to happen? When's the rapture going to take place? Well, how about we look, I mean, a good place to start would be in the place where the disciples asked Jesus what's going to happen at the end of the world. I mean, to me, that's like, okay, well, how about we look at Jesus' answer because he actually answers them? That's a pretty good place, don't you think? And Jesus answered, verse 4, and said unto them. So is he answering your question, or is he ignoring it? He's answering it. Take heed that no man deceive you. First words, make sure that no one tricks you. Why? Because a lot of people are going to be out trying to trick you about when Christ is coming back, about what's going to happen at the end of the world. There's tons of deceivers out there. He knows this is the easiest thing for Satan to make a fraud of, are things that haven't happened yet. Because things that have already happened, it's harder, because you have witnesses, you have testimony, you've got other things to contradict a lie, right? That's already happened in the past. But something that hasn't happened yet, it's a lot easier to have more speculation about these things and to deceive people with a false Christ, to the point to where the false Christ that Satan is going to end up producing is going to deceive many people. And we're seeing it. The reason why I know that is because Jesus tells us this. Because God's Word explains this and tells this to us. Verse number five, For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. So here he's just talking about many people are going to come. And I've already mentioned, people have come throughout history, and more people are going to come just claiming to be Jesus Christ, even current to this day. Throughout history, people have done this. Three people have done this. They're saying that and they deceive many people. Jump down to verse number 23, because he goes on, this isn't all just about end times, events, and all the timing and everything, but Matthew 24, like I said, if you want to know all the signs of Jesus is coming, read all of that. It's there. I'm specifically just looking at who Jesus is and is coming. Here, verse number 23, Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. So another thing that we're going to see here, and this ties in somewhat with the sermon I preached about Satan's miracles, the miracles that Satan does, that people might think they come from God. They're supernatural occurrences that Satan is capable of performing, and it's not from God, but it's going to look like it's from God, and he's going to use these great signs and wonders when the antichrist comes on the scene, when the false Christ comes, the imposter Christ, before Jesus Christ himself comes back, because obviously, again, you're not going to be able to deceive people with the return of Jesus Christ after he's already come back, because you're like, no, Jesus Christ is right there. Obviously, we know that would be silly, right? So they have to do this before, and even that alone just makes sense. If you talk about false Christs and false prophets, wouldn't it make sense that the next thing that you should expect to see before the return of Christ is the antichrist? I mean, just from that reasoning alone that, of course, if he's going to deceive people, it has to be before Jesus Christ comes back. And it says that, you know, basically, his signs and wonders are going to be so powerful or so great that if it were possible, you know, even people who are saved, the elect, right, they would be deceived by looking at the stuff that this guy's going to do. So it is significant. There's going to be some significant wonders going on, but that's why Jesus warns us, and that's why we need to know the truth, and we need to understand this to be able to spot the counterfeit. Verse 25, Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert. Go not forth. Behold, he is in the secret chambers. Believe it not. So he's saying, you know, if this imposter comes and tries to tell you, oh, look, you know, Jesus Christ came back, and he's out in the desert. Oh, Jesus Christ came back, and he's in the secret chambers. He's, oh, we got him, and he's meeting with us, and he's behind these closed doors. He says, don't believe it. Don't believe it. Don't believe it. Why? Verse 27, he explains why. For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. What does that mean? Every eye is gonna see him. When Jesus Christ comes back, it's not a secret. It's not a secret rapture. It's not only some people are gonna be able to see him. The Bible says not right here, but it says that every eye shall see him. Just like the... You know, you can't miss lightning that goes all the way across the sky, because it doesn't matter where you're at. You can look up and be like, wait, look, there's some lightning right there. Everyone's gonna see it, right? It's not, oh, I was looking this way, and it happened over there, because if it goes from east to west, you know, you're gonna get it in your field of vision one way or another. There's a whole point of saying that. Turn, if you will, to 2 Thessalonians 2. So we're being warned about an imposter to come. And we're being warned that when this imposter comes, one of the ways that we know it's gonna be imposter is because every eye is not gonna see him. So when the Antichrist shows up on the scene and claims to be God, every eye does not see him, you know, come down to this earth or whatever. So that one fact alone is significant in understanding and being able to spot the counterfeit, because Satan's counterfeit is not Jesus Christ, and he doesn't have all power like Jesus Christ has. There's some powers that he's gonna deceive people with, but he's not all powerful, and he's not gonna come in a fashion that every eye is gonna see him. 2 Thessalonians 2, we're gonna get another warning about this. Verse number 1, the Bible reads, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. So he's telling us, don't let anybody, again, just like Jesus said, hey, I wanna make sure very first, very first, before we get to anything else, don't let anyone deceive you, and then gives them information that's just fact, that's truth, right? There's gonna be false Christs, they're gonna come first. That's what Jesus said. 2 Thessalonians 2, we got the Apostle Paul going, okay, very first, I just wanna make sure that no one troubles you, that no one deceives you, that you're not tricked, that you're not duped into thinking that, hey, the day of Christ is at hand. It's gonna happen today. It could happen, you know, in one hour. It's right here. Don't let anyone deceive you into thinking that. But so many people are deceived into thinking that. That the day of Christ is at hand. It could happen today. Read the Bible. Read the truth. I mean, learn to study this so that you're not deceived into thinking that it could just happen at any moment because it's not at hand. And when we keep reading, the Bible's gonna explain why we don't have to be deceived that it's at hand from people just saying, oh, man, he's coming right now as people have been deceived throughout history with all the Adventist movements in the 1800s and the 1900s, you know, and today continuing. And he even says if someone writes a letter as from us, like as if the apostle Paul's writing it, right, like one of the other hidden books of the Bible that's not canonized but should be part of the Bible, you know, look, no, don't be deceived by that stuff. Verse 3, let no man deceive you by any means. And, you know, when you look up not being deceived in the script, it actually is stated many times. God does not want us to be deceived at all. He wants us to know the truth. God is a God of truth, and he wants us to know the truth. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first. So he's telling us right now, there's things that need to happen first. That's why we could know that's not at hand. Well, what needs to happen first? He says except there come a falling away first. So there's a falling away, and I'm not gonna get into what the falling away is. You know, it's another sermon for another day, but you at least know there has to be a falling away first. And, and this is more the point, that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition. The man of sin has to be revealed before Christ comes back. Now, I know a lot of people have theories on the son of perdition, and people like to look at people who are in the media today, or world figures, or whoever, right? Someone that might be able to fit the bill. But has he been revealed yet? Revealed means it's known. No, every, anything at this point is just gonna be speculation. That's at best. That's not revealed, okay? Speculating about something is totally different than revealed. The son of perdition has not been revealed yet. And he's gonna, he's gonna tell us a little bit about this son of perdition. Verse number four, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God. So this makes it even more clear. Okay, has the son of, has the son of perdition been revealed yet? Do we see anyone out there that's exalting himself above all that is called God? No. Now, we see people who might have a lot of pride in themselves, but they're not going as far as to say that I'm better than any god that anyone believes in, and I'm exalted above all gods that anyone can believe in because I am God. Says he opposeth and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he as God, this is Satan. Satan wants to be just like God. He as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. This has to happen before Jesus Christ comes back, which is why we don't have to be deceived by people saying, oh, Jesus Christ is at hand. Okay, well, is there somebody sitting in the temple claiming to be sitting in there as God, saying that he is God? Because if that hasn't happened yet, Jesus ain't coming back yet. A lot of frauds, a lot of false prophets, a lot of deception, a lot of counterfeits, but God has given us the truth whereby we could know and spot that's a counterfeit. That's a fraud. And even when people say, you know, not just fraud, fraudulent Jesus Christ, fraudulent saviors, those should be easy to spot. But even when people try to tell you, oh, well, the son of perdition's here, well, we could spot that fraud too. I've had people try to tell me, oh, I think Barack Obama is the anti-Christ. Look, I laugh too, but I've heard it from multiple people. A lot of people buy into that. Even now with Biden as a president, I've heard people say, I think Obama's in charge. I think he's the one pulling the strings. It's like, why? Why would you think that? Look, Obama was a puppet too. You think he's really the mastermind? No way. He was a nobody just pulled up and put into position, just like Biden's put into position, just like so many of the presidents of the past, Republican and Democrat, have just been puppets for the New World Order, for Satan's agenda. Let's keep reading here in Second Thessalonians 2, verse number 5. Remember ye not that when I was with you, when I was yet with you, I told you these things. I already told you this, and now he's telling them again. And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. He says, now you know. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way, 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. This is the same false Christ that we were reading about in Matthew 24, with the great signs and wonders, all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Flip back to Daniel chapter 11. I'm trying to lay the foundation just with fact, with truth, so that we could spot counterfeits. And then we're going to dig a little bit more into how Satan actually counterfeits Jesus and the Father and the Holy Ghost and kind of has his own little trinity that he's going to use to try to deceive people, to try to be like God. And how I believe, and this is just my own personal belief, we're going to get to this a little bit, I even believe he's going to try to use Scripture to support the things that he's going to do to get people on board with it. That's my personal belief. I don't know if that for sure is going to happen or not, but you'll see when we get there. You'll see what I'm talking about. But let's look at Daniel chapter 11. We're going to start reading verse number 21 again. Daniel is a little bit more cryptic. Daniel has more than one prophecy being prophesied here. There's a temporal and a more future prophecy, because I believe that Daniel definitely is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD as well as future prophetic events. I think it's covering both. I think there's a dual prophecy. As with many passages, we're going through Isaiah. I've discussed this in our Wednesday night Bible study. Same exact concept. When the children of Israel were taken into captivity, there's definitely that prophecy of that going to happen in the short term, but then there's also future prophetic events also being prophesied within the book of Isaiah. So you've got both going on. Daniel's no different. You have the same things going on in Daniel and in Daniel chapter 11. But we're going to look at this. That's why we're jumping down to verse number 21, where I believe this is prophesying the Antichrist. Verse number 21 says, And in his estate shall stand up a vile person to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom, but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. So even just coming in peaceably, I think, is a deceptive way for the Antichrist to come into power. Because a lot of people might think, oh, a bad bird, they're just going to come in by war and take it by force. But if someone comes in peaceably and they're kind of schmoozing people and saying these right words and getting a lot of people to like them, well, that's going to open up more trust in people to not be on guard. Everyone has this concept of Satan as just this bad guy, evil guy, which he is. But you associate, well, he's an evil worker, so he's just going to come in and not care about anyone and just do what he wants to do, which he does. But the method by which he does it isn't always obvious on the surface. So it's not just running around trying to destroy everyone and torture everyone and get everyone in bondage visibly. It's much more subtle than that. Does Satan want everyone in bondage? Does Satan want everyone in bondage? Yes, he does. But if it's just overt and out in the open, people don't fall for that. If someone was trying to put you in bondage, they're not going to be like, OK, here's some chains and some handcuffs and we're just going to put you to the wall here. Come on. OK, go ahead and put these on. No one's going to go for that. They're like, no, get away from me, weirdo. You're not going to bind me. So how does he get people in bondage? Well, he entices people with sin. And again, no one's going to want to even say, hey, drink this. It's going to make you throw up all over the place. It's going to make you do really dumb. No, that's not how he's going to advertise that to you. He's like, hey, just have some fun. You're going to loosen up a little bit. You'll be able to talk to people a little bit easier. Everyone's going to have a good time. That's how he's going to try to bring you into bondage. That's how he works with everything. It's a subtle way. It's under the radar. And then the goal is, yes, ultimately he's going to get you into bondage. But it's not by just coming out forward with it, just in your face, truthfully or honestly, honestly trying to put someone in bondage. He's going to do it subtly. So when he comes in peaceably, he's a vile person. But he's going to come in peaceably. And we're going to see here, not only that, is that he's going to start giving money to people and just trying to get, oh, man, look at me. He's so great. And if you think about it, in a sense, he could be looked at as impersonating Jesus Christ even there, because when Jesus came, Jesus was peaceable. Jesus came in to help the people and was all around the people and trying to minister and help the people. Well, this is what the Antichrist is going to do, too, just obviously slightly differently. But he's going to come in and says he obtains the kingdom by flatteries. So what's he doing? He's flattering people, telling them all how great they are. So he's going to be perceived as someone who's humble. But those that know the Bible are going to see, no, he's setting traps, because the person who gives flatteries is the one who's setting a trap. But the rest of the people who are deceived by this, who don't know the word of God, who can't spot these lies and can't spot the traps, they're going to be like, oh, wow, what a great person. He really loves us. He said so many nice things about me. Verse number 22, and with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him and shall be broken, yea, also the prince of the covenant. And after the league made with him, he shall work deceitfully, for he shall come up and shall become strong with a small people. So, again, humble beginnings, small group of people. He's going to look at as not a threat, not perceived as a threat to come up. But what is he doing? It says he makes a league. He makes a pact. He makes a treaty, right? But he's working deceitfully, because he's just a big liar anyways. He doesn't care about the treaty. He doesn't care about any of this stuff. He cares about his own agenda. But everyone's going to be deceived by saying, oh, wow, look how great he is, and he's making peace, right? And that's one of the big things about one of the campaigns, I believe, about the Antichrist. Once he comes into power, he's going to sell this notion of world peace. Now, at first, he's involved in some wars, but then he's going to try to bring peace and be like, look, I've got the world's solution. I've got the answer to everything. And he's going to try to take on that title, the Prince of Peace. But that's Jesus' title, right? But he's going to come in like Jesus, try to imitate Jesus, and deceive people by saying, oh, I just want peace. And you can see the Satanic liberal agenda right now. It's like, oh, we just want people to believe the science or whatever, right? And then they censor everything else that's against it. Look, it's easy for all the scientists to agree when the ones who disagree can't say anything, right, when there's silence, when you just can't hear any opposition. Well, there you go. Now you've got consensus by force. That's not freedom. But we're getting just a little small taste of the future right now. Verse number 24, he shall enter peaceably, even upon the fattest places of the province, and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his father's fathers. And this is what he's going to do. It says, he shall scatter among them the prey and spoil and riches. Yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strongholds even for a time. Redistribution of wealth. There you go. He's going to take that and say, oh, here, look, everybody. We're going to do something. Why? The evil, wicked people in charge, they've collected and amassed all the wealth and everything else. What he's going to do, he's going to target them and say, oh, look, here we go. I'm a man of the people. I'm going to bring in peace. Everyone's going to love me. And people will love him. And once he gains this status, that's when things are going to really start to shift gears to where he's going to be the one sitting as God. And we're going to see that. Jump down to verse number 30 in Daniel 11. The Bible says, for the ships of Shittim shall come against him. Therefore, he shall be grieved in return and have indignation against the Holy Covenant. Now, we're talking about the Holy Covenant. We're talking about people who are believers. We're talking about people who are believers in God. There's the Holy Covenant. So shall he do, he shall even return and have intelligence with them that forsake the Holy Covenant. This is when he starts to target believers and he's going to bring his wrath on people who are Christians. Verse 31, an arm shall stand on his part and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength and shall take away the daily sacrifice and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. And such as do wickedly against the Covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries. Again, he continues to use his flatteries. But the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. And this is one of my favorite verses in the entire book of Daniel is that, you know, I want to, if we happen to be alive, if I happen to be alive during this time, I want to be that someone that verse 32 is talking about. That's where I want to be. Those that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. Exploits. That means you're doing a lot of service for God. I mean, you are serving God and going out there and seeing people saved and just fighting against wickedness and, you know, that's where I want to be. We need to be ready for it. We need to study. We need to know. We need to be able to spot these things and know when it's coming and be prepared. You could be in that verse 32 as well if this happens in our lifetime, which I don't know because the day of Christ is not at hand yet. So we don't know. Verse 33, and they that understand among the people shall instruct many, yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil many days. So how are they going to die? People who are doing good works, doing good exploits for God, the Bible even says here, you know, they're going to be martyred. We're going to be killed. So we also have to expect that as well. Now, maybe you'll be spared. Maybe you can make it until the day of Christ, but I'm not going to count on that. I'm going to count on just going until I can't go anymore, right? And what are Satan's devices? What's he going to use? The sword, flame, captivity, spoil. That's how he's going to be consuming saints. Verse 34, now when they shall fall, they shall be hoping with a little help, but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. Again, watch out for the flatteries. How many times have we seen the flattery? The anti-Christ is going to be using flatteries to deceive people, and then they're also going to be trying to deceive believers with flatteries as well. I think trying to out them, trying to uncover, you know, who these people are or whatever, try to gain their confidence by flattering them in order to, you know, arrest them and do everything else probably is what that's referring to. Verse 35, and some of them of understanding shall fall to try them, and to purge and to make them white even to the time of the end because it is yet for a time appointed, and the king shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god. This is how we know 2 Thessalonians 2 and Daniel 11 here is talking about the same person. It's the same thing. The abomination of desolation being set up in the temple, and now here is a difference because when Jesus Christ came, he didn't exalt himself ever. Here's another spot of a counterfeit when the anti-Christ is going to be exalting himself. Jesus Christ never exalted himself. He always exalted the Father, and he was the servant, and he was coming to preach about God but never was taking glory on himself even though he had all glory, but he never took that on himself. He was always humble, but the anti-Christ will not be so. He's going to have an appearance of humility. He's going to have an appearance of love and an appearance of peace, right? The appearance of peace, he's making his treaty, but he's working deceitfully behind the scenes. He's going to have this appearance of being humble and being a man of the people, but it's all just to put them into bondage, right? He's going to distribute the spoils just so that he could lord over them and rule over them all, just to come into power. It's all deceptive, and he's going to magnify himself above every god. The Bible says here, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the god of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god, for he shall magnify himself above all. And this is when he's able to just kind of change things because once people accept him as being god on earth, then the floodgates are more open to be able to do and say whatever because people have already bought into his lying signs and wonders and everything else that he's done deceptively. And it says here, verse 38, but in his estate shall he honor the god of forces, and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strongholds with a strange god whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory, and he shall cause them to rule over many and shall divide the land for gain. So now I'm going to start knowing a little bit about the Antichrist, and that's primarily who we've been looking at. These are what the Bible says, and we know to be fact. We know this to be truth. So we're going to be able to spot what the Bible says versus anything else that we see, and we're going to see, well, this is lining up with what the Bible said about the Antichrist versus anyone else who might think it's someone else. But now we're going to see some of the ways that Satan and the Antichrist are going to try to mimic or imitate Jesus Christ. Turn to Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6 is where there is the book in heaven. So when Apostle John gets the revelation from Jesus Christ, right, he goes up in the Spirit to heaven, and he sees these different visions. He sees these things, and he sees a scroll. He sees this book, and it's sealed with seven seals, right? And everyone's upset. They say, well, man, no one's able to open up the scroll. No one could read this. But then they say, well, the Lamb of God can open the seals, right? So Jesus can. The Lamb can open a book. Great, so everyone's happy. And then in chapter 6, we see is when those seals start to be removed from the scroll and then the different events that happen. Now, the events that happen in the first six seals that are opened up can briefly be summarized as the tribulation. That's essentially what you're seeing in those first six seals. And for more on that subject, you could watch the sermon that I preached at Faithful Word Baptist Church called, I think, the six seals or something like that. That was the one for the conference right after tribulation, and I dedicate an entire sermon just to Revelation chapter 6 and went over this and proved without a shadow of a doubt that this basically is that tribulation timeframe all in Revelation chapter 6. Now, we're going to start with just the first seal. We're not going to go through all these, but I just want to point this out to you because in Revelation 6, 1, the Bible says, And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. 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. And when you read Daniel 30, Daniel 11, excuse me, more in-depth, you're going to see the Antichrist does conquer a lot of people. He comes in. Now, he doesn't get the kingship. He's not given authority. He gets that. He doesn't get that by force. It's given unto him, and he gets it by flatteries. But he's a warrior. He still is going forth and conquering and to conquer. And the Bible says here that he's on what? A white horse. He's being portrayed as someone on a white horse. Well, turn over, if you would, to Revelation chapter 19. And I don't have enough time to just prove everything that I said about Revelation chapter 6, so forgive me for that. That's why I referenced that other sermon, because it will help clear up definitely the time frame that we're talking about. You say, President, how do you know I'm just talking about the Antichrist? I don't have enough time to completely prove that to you, but check out that other sermon, because I did go really in-depth in that on this point, too, so you can get more information that way. But look at what we see in Revelation chapter 19, verse number 11, the Bible says, And I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. So we're talking about Jesus Christ here. This is Jesus, who's riding on a white horse, who's coming to judge and make war. It's interesting that we see the Antichrist also comes on his white horse. See, Revelation 19 is extremely clear that we're talking about Jesus Christ, who says the Word of God. And if you keep reading, it says, And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is Jesus Christ, undoubtedly Jesus Christ coming on a white horse. And this is one of the things that I believe, since this doesn't happen until after the Antichrist comes on his white horse. But when so many people are caught up into believing this pre-tribulation rapture, and they're expecting Jesus to come first, well, when they see someone coming on a white horse, they might be deceiving them, thinking, like, wow, that's Jesus. Because I know that Jesus is coming on a white horse. Without thinking, well, wait a minute, Revelation 6 says there's, which happens before Revelation 19, by the way, chronologically, someone else comes on a white horse. Who's that? And that's not as clear, that's definitely not saying that it's Jesus Christ in Revelation chapter 6, but Revelation 19 is, and we see there, I believe that's one way that Satan is counterfeiting Jesus Christ. Turn back, if you would, to Revelation chapter 13. Revelation chapter 13 is a chapter that talks about the mark of the beast, you know, 666, and a lot more about the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. Before we get started in Revelation 13, I just want to point this out as well, because what we're going to talk about, the beast here, is talking about the Antichrist, but there's many places, especially in Revelation, that talk about the beast, the beast, the beast. It's not always, 100% of the time, going to refer to the Antichrist, because you've got to remember, first of all, that John's seeing visions of these beasts, and as we're going to see here, even in the beginning, he sees this beast in verse number 2, he's like a leopard, his feet were the feet of a bear, the mouth of a lion, so he's trying to describe a creature, right? So he calls it a beast, because it's like an animal, so he sees this beast, and he describes it, and you'll see that language being used as a beast, this beast, this beast, the representation of the beast that he sees isn't always the Antichrist. So that's why I make that clear, that we understand that, and not to be confused, when you study scripture, when you study prophecy, into just thinking that you could always just replace beast with Antichrist, because it's not going to work out for you. You have to get it in the context, understanding he's seeing a literal beast, as he's writing this, and explaining what he's seeing, but it's what does that beast represent? So, in this passage, we're going to see that the beast is going to represent the Antichrist. I just want to point that out, before we really get into this. Verse number one there in Revelation 13, 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, you remember, too, when Jesus Christ was on that white horse, it said that he had crowns as well. So, just one more likeness, on his head were many crowns. Let's keep reading, having seven heads and ten horns, upon his horns ten crowns, upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And, notice, this says, on his heads were the name of blasphemy. Well, Jesus Christ, when he comes on the white horse, he has a name, but this one says he has a name that no man knows, but he himself. It says in Revelation 19, 12, I know you moved from there, his eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself. So, again, we're seeing these similarities between this beast and Jesus Christ, because he's trying to be like Jesus Christ. Verse number two, 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 in great authority, and the dragon here is Satan. Satan is the one behind the strings. Satan is going to be the God, the father of this unholy trinity that we're going to look at and is going to be described here in Revelation 13. The antichrist is like the son. He's like Jesus Christ, and then there's a false prophet who you might, you know, he's not, I don't think he's as clearly as like a Holy Spirit, but probably more like a John the Baptist figure, but either way, you've got this group of three that's all working together for the cause of Satan, for the cause of the antichrist, you know, that's what's happening here. We're going to see this spelled out as we get a little bit further. So it says here he's getting, the antichrist is basically this beast, we're referring to it as a beast here, gets his power from the dragon and his seat in great authority. Verse three, 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. So now we have a mock or a counterfeit death and resurrection of the beast. So again, if you're coming trying to prove that you're the second coming of Jesus Christ, well, what was Jesus known for? The resurrection, right? I mean, isn't that why we even have hope, the hope of the resurrection? Isn't that what puts Jesus apart from every other prophet? I mean, obviously he's the son of God, but the fact that he died and came back to life and rose again from the dead, I mean, that's powerful. So what does Satan try to do? He tries to imitate the same thing. So there's this deadly wound and the wound is healed and all the world knows about this and wonders after the beast. So they're going, wow, maybe this is the second coming of Jesus. You know, I mean, this is how these, and that's why I believe like this type of a miraculous event, this type of a supernatural event is why I believe it would be, if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived. Just because it's something that's so, you know, out of the ordinary, something so magnificent, right, to see that, but it's not going to be possible. Why? We know the truth. Verse number four, and they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast and they worshiped the beast saying who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And the beast here is, you know, Satan is the dragon, the beast is the antichrist here. Saying who's going to, you know, because who's going to be able to make war with him? It's talking about a person, right, someone who's in charge, that same guy that we read about in Daniel 11 and, you know, elsewhere in Matthew 24. And they're worshiping not just Satan but also the beast. But the people, they don't think they're worshiping Satan, they think they're worshiping God because he's claiming to be God, because he's setting himself up as God. And that's why the Bible says that when, you know, when the attacks come on the saints, when there's this great tribulation, the people who do that, they're going to think they're doing God's service. They're going to be thinking, hey, we're serving God. We're serving Jesus. We're serving the Lord by killing the actual saints because the saints are going to be viewed as heretics. The believers in Jesus Christ, us, we are going to be the enemy because we're going to be saying, that's not Christ. That's the antichrist. And they're going to be going, blasphemer, you're going to be put to death. And as we're going to see here, if you don't take the mark, you don't take the mark of the beast, which is the name of the beast, which is the number of his name, and you get that by worshipping him, then you're going to be put to death. And we're going to be going, no, because that's not the Christ. And that's the way it's going to play out. But let's keep reading here. I want to show you some more. There's a few more things here. Obviously, I mean, it's a significant thing of him trying to mimic or imitate Jesus Christ. He can't come up with anything on his own. He's trying to be as much like God as he can. He's not just trying to be like his own God. He's trying to be just like the most high. He's trying to pull off a fraud and a counterfeit. So he tries to pull off this resurrection, this coming back from the dead. And now he attains the worship, which is one of the things that he wants. Verse five says, 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 unto him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. So this is when he becomes, you know, he comes into power over, basically, that's the whole world. That's a one-world government. If he comes into power, power is given unto him over all kindreds, kindreds like families, people of the world, right? And tongues, all languages, and all nations. He has that power now over everybody. Verse eight, 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. So what? All the unsaved people, because if you're saved, your name is in that Lamb's book of life, for sure. Like, there's no way, you know, your name is secure in that Lamb's book of life if you're saved. And the people, I believe, it's all the people who are already children of Satan, because they've had their names blotted out of the book of life, those are going to be the ones that are worshipping the Antichrist, the dragon, because their names have been blotted out of the Lamb's book of life. Now, that's a whole other summary. Maybe I'll preach on that soon on the book of life, because that's another interesting Bible study, but another sermon for another day. Let's keep reading. Verse number nine, If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and faith of the saints. Now we're going to take a look at this false prophet. Look at verse 11. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth. So this is a separate beast. Like I said before, you know, just because you see the word beast, it doesn't mean it's necessarily talking about any one thing. He's already brought up the dragon and the one beast, the first beast, which is the antichrist. Now he's seeing another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. So speaking like a dragon, he's speaking like Satan. He's speaking with a lot of subtlety and lies. Verse 12, 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. So that first beast is the one that we just got done reading about. Deadly wound was healed. Now he's pointing people to that first beast saying, hey, worship him. He's coming also with powers, but saying, you know, worship this beast. Verse 13, And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. So now we're actually getting an explicit example of one of the miracles that's being done, one of these signs and wonders that's being done in front of the men to show that, hey, this is, you know, this is God or whatever. He causes fire to come down. Now, this, um, man, this note, I got this note out of order here, so we're gonna, that's okay. We're gonna get to this in just a second. So making fire come down from heaven, we've seen, you know, who did that in Scripture that would be a godly person? Elijah, right? And so, you know, we've seen, you know, who did that in Scripture that would be a godly person? Elijah, right? And so, we've seen, you know, who did that in Scripture that would be a godly person? Right? Elijah's the one example where we see of him calling down fire. Remember when the soldiers were sent to come to the king? And he says, well, hey, if I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you guys, right? And it did, right? So that happens twice, and then the third guy's like, please don't kill me. Please just come with me, right? Please? And he goes, so we also know from Scripture that, you know, John the Baptist was the Elijah that was supposed to come before Jesus Christ came, right? But what I think, and this is why I think that this guy is more like a John the Baptist figure, this false prophet, because he's gonna be one causing this fire to come down from heaven, which he could claim then to be in the spirit of Elijah or to be Elijah himself saying, look, just like, you know, just like Elijah called down fire from heaven, I'm doing that now here. But we could be going, yeah, you know what? That also happened in Job when Satan brought fire down on Job's stuff. It doesn't have to be Elijah doing that. But it's another sign of this deceptive tactic that's being used. Look at verse 14, the Bible says, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth 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. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. Now, when it says he had the power to give life unto the image of the beast, it doesn't mean like he created a living being What this giving life to is that he animated an image. So an image is like a picture, right? He's putting up some type of an idol, some type of an image in the house of God, which that's the abomination of desolation, by the way. It's this image that's put forward of the beast. And he's able to make that image be able to speak, which is what it means by saying he brings it to life. So he's able to have the power to make it look like this image is speaking and stuff like it's alive. It's not really alive. Satan doesn't have the power to produce actual life, like a soul, like living creatures, living beings. We saw that in Exodus, you know, that the people who were using sorcery and witchcraft, they weren't able to bring forth life. Satan's not able to bring forth life. Jesus is the only one that's able to bring forth life. So this so-called life here that he's giving is just to animate an inanimate object, to allow it. And obviously, there's many ways that we could even think of today that you'd be able to do something like that through deceit, through lies, right, through ways of making things look like they're talking when they're really not. That's actually an easy thing to do even just with technology these days. And we don't know how he's gonna do that, but he's gonna do that and cause as many peoples will not worship the image of the beast should be killed. So he's saying you need to worship the image. It's not just as simple as like, oh, you just need to take the mark. No, you need to worship the beast. You need to go worship the image of the beast. You need to go bow down to this idol and worship this image of the beast or else you're gonna be killed. Verse 16. Bob reads, and he causeth all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in the right hand or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let in the earth's understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred three score and six. So it's referring to this name, and this name is a number, and the number he's saying, he's causing everybody to get this name, this mark of his name either in their right hands or in their foreheads. Now, this is also counterfeiting God. Now, the right hand, he just kind of throws that in there because we never see this being used by God, but the forehead makes sense. Revelation 3, verse 12, the Bible says, him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name. So we see here God saying he's going to put his name into the foreheads of these people that overcome. Okay, so what, again, I think it's very possible that the false prophet is going to be able to put his name into the false prophet is going to be able to twist some scriptures and try to use scriptures to promote what he's doing. Like I said before, by causing the fire to come down, see, look, this is like Elijah causing the fire to come down. Obviously, the resurrection. See, look, just like Jesus resurrected, he's resurrected again, just to prove to you that this is who, he is who he says he is, and then, oh, here, you take this mark, you need to take the name of God because look at what the Bible says here in Revelation 3. Look what the Bible says in Revelation 22, verse 3, where the Bible says and there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servant shall serve him and they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads. And they're going to say, he's going to try to skip over the millennial reign of Christ, the real second coming of Christ, like all this other stuff. He's going to try to skip over that and say, look, I'm bringing peace. We're going to bring peace on earth and on your forehead. It's in the Book of Revelation. Look at Revelation 22. And they're going to say, you know, this is where we're at. He's going to have these scriptures. Look at it and turn, if you would, to Ezekiel chapter 9. I want you to see this one. Man, I'm going over time. Okay, we're almost done. We'll call it quits in just a minute. I want to go through this Ezekiel chapter 9, because there's one more reference here to putting a mark upon the foreheads. That's something that God does. And this ties in even more closely to what we're going to see happen, because what happens is that anyone who doesn't have the mark, right, in the right hand or in the forehead, Satan is going to cause those people to be put to death. You receive that mark by worshipping the image of the beast. If you don't have that mark, you are basically marked for death by not having the mark. Not having that mark on your forehead means you need to be put to death. Look at what Ezekiel chapter 9 says in verse number 1. He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near. Even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand, and behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north. And every man a slaughter weapon in his hand, and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side. And they went in and stood beside the brazen altar. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side. And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men, that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. So all the people that hate these abominations that are happening, mark those people. Right? Why? Because they're not going to be hurt. Look at this, what it says, verse number five, And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite. Let not your eyes spare, neither have ye pity. Slay utterly, old and young, both maids and little children, and women, but come not near any man upon whom is the mark, and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. You can see how Satan is going to twist this, whereas God is using this to mark people who are troubled at the abominations going on. But what's he going to do? He's going to call believers abominations. He's going to say we're the false prophets. He's going to say that, yeah, these people are doing abominable things by worshiping another God, by making up their own God, their own Jesus. So we need to eliminate them, and basically, if you don't want to die, you need to get this mark because you hate the abominations that they're doing. And then he's able to instruct them in saying, okay, don't pity. Don't pity them if they're women or children or young or old. Just go through and destroy them all because that's the way he's going to attack the saints. The antichrist is going to come after the saints and just try to wipe us out 100%. And for those that are blinded, they're not going to understand what Ezekiel 9 is talking about. And the false prophet, I believe, will be able to use a passage like this again to just get people to say, oh, yeah, okay, well, it's in the Bible, right? There it is. And twist the word of God and try to cause it to mean something. And he's imitating. I mean, God already wrote that. God already performed that. God already did that. Satan's trying to be like God. So he's got his own mark. He's got his own name. He's got his own people now that he's going to do. But everything's backwards. Everything's reversed. That's the counterfeit. That's the fraud of Satan and the antichrist and the false prophet. Revelation 16. We'll close with this. I just want to get to this and we're done. I can't expound on this anymore. I ran out of time. Verse number 12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water there was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits, like frogs, come out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. And there's your unholy trinity. There's your fraudulent trinity, the dragon, the beast, the false prophet. This is who's going to be representing Satan in, you know, in the times to come where the antichrist is set up and he's trying to be like the most high. And you've got these unclean spirits coming out of their mouth. Verse 14 says, For they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. And this is where he's trying to deceive people to go and fight for his cause, and they're going to be destroyed utterly by God. And they finally realize, oh, we believed a lie. The devil's crafty. He's been around for a long time. He understands how humans operate. He's been exposed to the word of God for a long time. We need to understand this, but we don't need to focus everything on what he's going to do. We just need to focus on the word of God. We know what he's going to do based on the word of God so we can spot when something's real, when it's not. We don't have to worry ourselves with these false Christs that aren't even close to being like the antichrist. We know they're false. They're easy to spot. The guys that are out there today that are in these remote areas with the long hair claiming to be Jesus Christ, these cult members, and they end up always involved in some sexual perversion, and they have all the women that are coming into their place and whatever. Those guys are so easy to spot. It amazes me that anyone gets deceived by them, honestly, but that's not going to be the way. The antichrist is going to be much more believable because he's going to deceive the whole world, essentially. Just by and large, the whole world's going to be deceived by him because of his lying signs and wonders. We need to understand that. We need to know that. That's how we're going to be prepared to fight until the end, to remain faithful and in the end, to do these great exploits for God at the end. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for giving us this truth. Thank you for preserving your word unto us. Thank you for giving us this great light to shine our paths, that you give us this information in advance before things happen so that we could know that we won't be offended, that we won't faint, that we can stay the course, dear Lord, even though we know that there's troubling times to come. We're not troubled right now. We know that the day of Christ is not at hand yet because the man of sin, the son of perdition, has not been revealed. We know, because you've told us that, that once that man of sin is revealed, then we could really start paying attention and looking to your return. But until then, I pray that you please help us to be able to instruct others, help us to point others to the truth so that they can be prepared as well. Lord, we want to have as many believers ready as possible for that day that we can all be doing as many exploits as possible and doing the work that you've set out for us. Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. All right. We're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed. Don't forget, you can stick around. Oh, and by the way, we also broke our attendance record again this evening. Did you get a final count? Because I counted 74. I got 76. 76. Even better. I'll go with that number. I did a real quick count, but I just wanted to see if we broke. What was the previous one? 72? 74. Yeah, so it was two more than it... No, it was 72. Okay. Six more. Six more. Amen. So if you didn't get your ice cream this morning, you could get two ice creams after church tonight. Okay. I know when we have events, it's not as fun to get to, like, when you break the record, it's like, well, we already have all this food, and people brought in desserts and stuff, so it's kind of like, do I really want to get ice cream? But have at it. You know, have an extra one tonight. We broke the record very good, and we'll sing one last song before we're dismissed. All right, church. You open up your hymnals to song number 56. Hymn number 56 when we all get to heaven. Hymn number 56. All right, church, let's sing this out nice and strong on the first. Sing the fortress above Jesus. Sing his mercy and his grace. In the midst bright and blessed, he'll prepare for us a place when we all get to heaven. One day, God rejoices in heaven. One day, God rejoicing, there will be when we all see Jesus will sing and shout the glory. While we walk the field from Catholic clouds will overspread the sky. But when traveling days are over, not a shadow, not a sign, when we all get to heaven, one day, God rejoicing, there will be when we all see Jesus will sing and shout the glory. Let us then be true and faithful, trusting, serving every day. Just one place of heaven glory will learn toward life we pray. When we all get to heaven, one day, God rejoicing, there will be when we all see Jesus will sing and shout the victory. On the last onward to the prize before us, soon his beauty will be born. Soon the world of the age will open, we shall spread the streets of glory. When we all get to heaven, one day, God rejoicing, there will be when we all see Jesus will sing and shout the victory. Amen. Great. Thank you so much for coming. You guys are amazing. Thank you.