The Counterfeit, a Crisis, a Conquest (Matt. 24; 2 Thes. 2; Rev. 13:1-18) (Part 2)

Now, let's move on. The Trinity of Evil and the Treaty. We're going to dislodge the treaty from that.

Let's go to the Trinity of Evil. Let's go to Revelation chapter 12 for a moment. Revelation 12, we have, first of all, just to set again the stage of some of these participants, because it is important that we identify them properly.

Two of the great dangers is not just spiritualizing things, but misapplying things to the wrong entity, the wrong party. So, Revelation 12, there appeared, verse 1, a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, upon her head a crown of twelve stars, and she being with child, travailing in birth and pain to be delivered. There appeared another wonder in heaven, behold, a great red dragon.

So, we have this woman and this dragon introduced to us, seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns upon his heads. His tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven. So, we already know who this is identified.

The dragon is quite obviously Satan. The Lord Jesus says, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. His tail swept a third of the stars.

We have those identifiers with him as well. And the fact that this woman is with child and she delivers the child, and Satan is after her and the child. Some have said that this woman is Mary.

We know that that is not tenable at all, not even biblical. Some have suggested that this woman is the church, and the child, of course, is Christ. We know that because he's gonna rule with a rod of iron, but the church did not produce Christ.

Christ produced the church. This is clearly the nation of Israel of whom the line, the Lord Jesus came from. And again, we're dealing with tangible entities, physical entities, all right, national identities.

Now, we know the dragon, who the dragon is. Now, let's go over to chapter 13. And I stood upon the sand of the sea.

The sea, this is the location. There are going to be two beasts, two living, two beasts that are ferocious. They stand in contrast to the lamb.

They are wild animals, savage. And one comes from the sea. The sea has generally been identified with Gentile power.

One comes from the land. It says he had seven heads and 10 horns. And upon his horns, 10 crowns, and upon his heads, the name of blasphemy.

And then he goes into these identifiers, a leopard, a bear, a lion, and so on. I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death. We can discuss that.

But basically, what this beast does is he is going to now override and overrule three others. He is going to surpass them. He will take over from them, according to Daniel.

And now he is going to rule on an unrivaled way. He comes from the sea. He's likely a Gentile.

He is called the man of sin or man of sins in 2 Thessalonians 2, the son of perdition. He is the embodiment of all previous men who have risen to oppose. He is a superman in himself.

He is charismatic. He is a leader. He is satanically energized.

And he is part of a duo. There is a trinity here, again, replicating the Godhead, a trinity, father, son, and spirit. But here you have the dragon as the power behind them.

And then you have this first beast. And then it says one of his heads as it were wounded to death. Some have suggested that that might be one of the powers, a governmental power that suffers some kind of loss, and he restores them.

I would rather think it's an actual wound, and replicating the resurrection, the death of Christ and resurrection. And it says it was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. Why would you wonder after someone who just restored a governmental power? You would far wonder after a man who comes back from the dead.

Sadly, they did not wonder after the first man, after the true man, God's man, who came back from the dead. It says, and they worshiped the dragon, which gave power. So the beast is actually a conduit into worshiping Satan himself.

And it says, and they worshiped the dragon, which gave power or authority unto the beast. And they worshiped the beast saying, who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? At this point, he has put to death the two witnesses. He has, there's a lot, again, a lot here.

But if you were to read Ezekiel 37 and 38, you would see that the armies of the North, as we talked about earlier, are going to come down, and he is going to seem to defeat them. It will be the power of God that is going to defeat these enemies to preserve Israel. But this man is likely gonna take credit for it.

And in taking credit for that, he will also take credit for the death of the two witnesses. He will take credit for everything. He will enforce martial law and murderous law upon a world that will not bow to his sovereign authority.

The guillotine will be reinstituted as a mode of punishment, and it will be public executions for those who will not follow. Well, we can see some of these things, harbingers of some of them already coming on the scene. And now as we look at this, let's look at the verse five.

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue 42 months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God. And it was given, notice this expression, verse seven.

It was given, it was given. This is because he is empowered by Satan, the dragon. It was given, this authority is given.

But let's go down to verse 11. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth or the land. This is now the false prophet.

We have the first man who was the Antichrist, referred to as the Antichrist. John tells us, and he's the only one in his epistles, in his letters that uses that term Antichrist. And it's important that we understand that because the Greek word anti can have little shades of meaning.

But one of the meanings it is, is instead of, in the stead of. For example, it's the same word that's used when the Lord Jesus says, which of you asking a fish, you know, someone will give him a scorpion, instead of a substitution. He is coming to be a substitute, an imposter, Christ, Messiah.

And now he is going to take the place of that. He wants to be worshiped. But the second beast, just lost my place here, says, verse 11, I closed my Bible.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb. He spake as a dragon and he exercises all the power of the first beast before him and causeth the earth. Now you'll notice this expression, he causeth.

Go down to verse 15. He had power to give life unto the image. This is the abomination of desolation that is set up in the temple, where he exalts himself as God.

This was a mirrored reflection of what happened in the intertestamental period, where there was historically a figure known as Antiochus or Antiochus, and he set himself up in the temple. And he put a sow, a pig in the temple. He wanted himself to be recognized as supreme ruler and he was going to desecrate the Jews' temple.

He had no affection, disdain for them. It was the abomination that makes desolate. This man is going to do that by himself, going into the temple.

He is going to be worshiped. He is going to set up an image. This image, for whatever it will be, will be animated.

It will be made to come to life. And everyone will wonder. This is not a laser projected image.

This is not something that's technological. This is an actual power of Satan. And it will blanket the world.

And they will wonder after the beast and they will submit to his authority. And this false prophet now, he causes. Verse 15, he causes that as many as would not worship the image.

And then again, verse 16, he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, to receive a mark. So to one beast, the beast from the sea, the Antichrist, it says it is given to him. For the other one, it says he causes.

So the false prophet would seem to direct worship to the beast. He is now seen and projected as the Messiah. These two men work in tandem with one another.

Would you agree, Frank, that this is one of the reasons that that second Thessalonians 2 shines so brightly? When you view all of the persecution and all of this power in a satanic beast afflicting the people of God on earth. And it's no wonder that they were shaken when they were experiencing their own persecution. If they had thought that that was just the way that they were.

And I think it's very, to bring up a practical point from that, I think it's very, very easy for us to feel that because of circumstances like that, that God is somehow against us. They thought that they had missed out on something. They thought that they were under judgment and that God was against them.

But the amazing thing that he tells them is that in God's, God's purpose for you is to escape them. There's no possibility on earth that you will ever be under God's judgment. And God has not put on you.

You mentioned the, in one of your notes, the Trinity of evil, a contrast with the Trinity. Satan is using these people. He's using even the beast and the false prophet for his own ends.

So different from the Trinity, God's intent is to exalt his son, the spirit's desires for men. It's just so different in their motivation and in their purposes. Do you suppose it possible that the man of sin is alive today? And if he is, does he know that he's the man of sin? I have wondered that.

It's very, very possible that he could be alive today. I started to say something earlier about John mentioning, even now, there are many antichrists. It would seem that, and that's sad, tragic, that in the first century, the Lord Jesus had hardly gone back to heaven and now there's many antichrists.

So there are men that have arisen in times past in that spirit. Satan has no doubt tried to use them, but because we are here, he can't. He is hindered in his program to do that or his desire to do that.

But when we are gone, this man, could be any man, but the fact is that in the hands of Satan, he will be empowered to do what this man does. What did you thought, Brother Colson? I gather you have a thought as to... Thank you, sir. I wonder if the man, let's just suggest.

That's all. Let's just suggest that such a man is alive today and probably a politician. And when you think of the aftermath of the rapture, the houses, the jobs, the material possessions that will all be left, and it would seem to me that the management of the world immediately after the rapture, you've said he's a man who'll claim credit for anything.

And if he's a consummate politician, this could catapult him onto the world stage. A man who doesn't even know anything about what we're talking about. And it would seem to be that it's when he has that deadly wound that's healed, it seems then that he becomes completely satanically energized.

He gives himself over to the devil. Because the devil's an angel, isn't he? He's a spirit. So if he's going to be worshiped in the way that he wants, he needs a proxy.

He's gonna be worshiped through this man. So would that make sense, do you think? That makes a lot of sense. That's a good point.

And you're also saying that he'll have limitless resources, physically do. Can cure most of the world's ills, just like that. Frank, just to order things here in terms of time.

You mentioned the two witnesses. They prophesied for three and a half years. You have the man child that was born is caught up to heaven.

The woman's fled into the wilderness, there for three and a half years. Then we have this beast that comes up out of the sea and power was given onto him to continue three and a half years. Is there a difference or are they all running at the same time? Or are the two witnesses first? Well, it seemed that when the two witnesses would be killed at the middle of the week.

And I think what brother Phil said is very, very good. That at that point, things shift, everything shifts. It becomes fiercer and so he rises to absolute power.

So their ministry was the first three and a half years. Okay, got that. 144,000 first three and a half.

Well, throughout the whole period of time. But they come on at the beginning. The man child caught up to heaven.

That's the Lord Jesus, right? You're saying that you're the savior. I don't think so. You don't think so? Who was the man child? When did you bring forth the man child in your view? Well, I don't take this as at this time at the kingdom happening yet.

Do you? The inception of the kingdom? Is this his birth? That's what I would take it as, but. When he became incarnate. Yeah.

So that's history. Yeah. And yet this whole book up until this point from chapter six, at least, is things that shall be hereafter.

Right, but it isn't until this particular period that he is cast out of heaven. All right, he has no more access to heaven. Yes.

All right. So that's going ahead. I think it's looking at all the persecutions of Satan against the nation.

Okay. I'll suggest this. Mr. Mellish suggests it in his book that the birth of this man child is God's purpose for Israel to rule the nations.

God's purpose for Israel to rule the nations. In the middle of the week, the time has not yet come. So it's reserved in heaven for three and a half years.

Now, he develops in his book, obviously we don't have time to go through that, but I suggest that as an alternate. Well, since you've tabled that, does anyone else have any suggestions? I haven't. Read his book.

We've suddenly, we've suddenly descended to symbolism and metaphors. Well, we were looking at literal things. Well, clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet.

Is that literal? But metaphorically, when it's obviously metaphorical. Right. When it can be literal, it's best to take it literally.

So that's a heavenly perspective of this woman. Okay, so the one thing we can agree on is that it is Israel and the Lord Jesus. Okay.

All right, for the sake of time, we only have 15 minutes left. Let's go on to, I just passed on some of these. I was gonna include them in my outline, but didn't have enough room.

But Brother Sandy was mentioning just the difference in the trinity of evil and the true trinity, the Godhead. I'll just point out a few differences that are kind of touching and devotional between the Lord Jesus and the beast. The Lord Jesus comes from above.

The beast comes from the pit, the abyss. The Lord Jesus comes in his father's name. This man comes in his own name.

The Lord Jesus humbled himself. It says he exalts himself. The Lord Jesus was despised by the world.

This man, it says he's admired by the world. He came to do his father's will, our Savior. This man comes to do his own will.

In fact, he is actually called in Daniel, the willful king. That's one of the titles of it. The Lord came to save.

This man comes to destroy. The Lord Jesus is called the good shepherd. This beast is actually referred to in another part of the Old Testament as the idle shepherd or the evil shepherd.

The Lord Jesus says, I am the true vine. And this man is referred to as the vine of the earth. The Lord Jesus is referred to as the holy one.

This man is referred to as the lawless one. And then he's called the truth. And this man is referred to as the lie.

They will believe, we didn't touch on that earlier. They will believe the lie, 2 Thessalonians 2. Maybe just to go back for a moment. What do you brothers feel that that is? That they will believe the lie? Under strong delusion, they will believe the lie.

And the lie is that the man of sin is to be worshiped and that he is God. I believe it's a specific lie. And under strong delusion, they will believe that.

And it seems that there is, after that, no further movement of God in grace toward the earth dwellers. In mercy, the gospel of the kingdom has been preached for the first three and a half years of the tribulation period. I don't think it's preached for the rest of the time.

I don't find it being preached after that. If only we knew who preached it. Well, I think we do know who preached it.

There's a remnant who preached it. What's the difference between it and the gospel we preach today, brother? Well, I take it the gospel of the kingdom would have an emphasis, as Frank indicated, on the fact the king is coming. There's a need for repentance, for preparation, the king is coming.

Whereas it's the gospel of the grace of God today that there is salvation available to Gentiles, to Jews that repent of their sins and trust the Savior. So two different gospels. No, still a gospel of grace.

It's just the emphasis upon the man who's sitting on that throne is not the true Messiah. He's coming. So let's explain to, particularly, younger ones here, why, if the Lord were to come today, as he might, why is there no opportunity to be saved again? Why is there no second chance? That's a good question.

Oh, when they receive the man of sin as their- No, I'm talking tomorrow. The man of sin hasn't risen yet. So the Lord comes today.

Some would say the Lord comes today. Suddenly, most of the people, all but two or three or four or five, are gone. What do those sitting here then do? Can they suddenly say, everything these people were talking about is right.

I'm gonna get saved now. Can they? Well, the Lord Jesus taught, I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not. Whoever that is, ye receive me not.

Another shall come in his own name, and him ye will receive. I take it that what damns the people would be the fact that they will receive the man of sin. They have refused Christ, they will receive him, and that certifies their doom.

Okay. What do you think? I would say that there's no one in this room today who is saved by the grace of God, who wasn't saved as a result of a direct ministry of the Holy Spirit. When I heard the gospel to the saving of my soul, it wasn't because it was a better preacher or a better verse or anything like that.

The Spirit of God illuminated my soul as to my need, the sufficiency of Christ to meet that need, and brought me to the point where all I had to do was exercise the obedience of faith. That was my part in it. Now, the moment the church goes, the Holy Spirit ceases that ministry on earth.

So under the gospel that we preach today, which I would state emphatically is different from the gospel of the kingdom, that the gospel we preach today is accompanied by a personal ministry of the Spirit of God. Elect according to the sovereign purpose of God, I'm thinking of 1 Peter 1 and verse 2, and it's a work of the Spirit of God who brings us to a realization of the work of Christ. Now, I don't know of any scripture that suggests the gospel of the kingdom is accompanied by such a ministry.

It wasn't there when the Lord Jesus preached it, wasn't there when John Baptist preached it, wasn't there when the disciples preached it. The unique thing that Paul calls my gospel is the message he gave to the Corinthians. I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, and so on.

And that accompanied by a ministry of the Spirit of God makes our gospel unique. Would you say though that going back, there are elements of the gospel, it is a matter of the perspective or the focus of that message. Abraham had gospel preached to him, right? So he had gospel in the past.

This is now in the future, the gospel of the kingdom is going to be preached. And we preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ today. It is a matter of the emphasis, the focus.

Different purpose, different content, different way of being believed. That makes it to me different. I'd thought that anyone who is going to enter into the kingdom of God will need to be born again.

I have that good authority. And you can't be born again without the workings of the Spirit of God in your heart. And how would you square a different gospel with Galatians if any man preach another gospel? Okay, so I'm sorry, I'm stealing your time on this, brother, and that's not fair because I didn't wish to get bogged down.

Let me just point out, if I may, let me just point out, look at Matthew 10. Well, I'll read it to you. Matthew 10, verse five.

These 12, Jesus sent forth, commanded them, saying, go not in to the way of the Gentiles, et cetera, as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So they're preaching in Matthew chapter 10. In Matthew chapter 16, verse 21, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem, suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, be killed and be raised again the third day.

He began to do that in chapter 16. So what were they preaching in chapter 10? If they didn't know that he must go and be killed and that he must die and that he must rise again, what were they preaching? They were preaching something that didn't contain that. That the kingdom of heaven had drawn near and the king was among them at that point.

They should have repented and received him. So it is a different message. It is a different message.

I don't see how it could be a different message if Christ has died already, though. No, but my point, brother, I'm sorry, I won't leave it. The point simply is, you see, there's a confusion otherwise.

If we say there's but one gospel and it's down to us to believe it, then there'll be people, I'm sure, in this company and they're wondering, if the rapture were to happen today, what's to stop me believing that gospel tomorrow? Okay, so let me go back to 2 Thessalonians 2 because I think there is something in that passage that tells us that. All right, let's just, we'll move on in the five minutes that are left. Just to say this, I think that the New Testament teaches that the gospel of the kingdom is on the basis, always, as all things are in the purpose of God, the death of Christ.

That's undisputed. Okay, so you cannot preach anything else other than that for anyone to enter into the blessings of God. So what were they preaching in Matthew 10? Well, they were preaching, he hadn't died yet.

He hadn't died yet. So it makes a difference, surely? Okay, anyway. They were preaching a coming king and a coming kingdom.

I know that, right? But he had not died yet. So, all right, 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 9. Even him who's coming, and that's the same in contrast to the coming of the Lord Jesus at the beginning of the chapter, is after the working of Satan, interestingly, with all power and signs and wonders. Those are the same words that are used to describe what Christ did.

Now, so you can see the contrast. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause, here's the cause.

God shall send them strong delusion. Why? Because they received not the love, they actually rejected that which was set before them, and they chose to take the path of unrighteousness and the path of what this man offers and everything else that accompanies it. I would suggest that that is what will hinder a person from having any further opportunity.

And that will be why the strong delusion at this point will be sent. We don't have a strong delusion now. It's not here yet, but it will be in the future, right? Would you agree with that? Oh, the strong delusion's future, that's for sure.

Yeah, right. Yes. And then there will be a, sorry, go ahead, Wayne.

No, go ahead, Joe. I was just gonna say, when the rapture takes place, there's gonna be a great deal of professing Christianity left, right? And you have this other motif in Revelation, Babylon, that you haven't really, really touched. I know there's millions of motifs you haven't touched.

That's for you to deal with. Yeah, I guess. But could that be part of the delusion as well, that there's a whole bunch of professing Christianity that's left here, involved in it? I don't know.

Well, the delusion will be, God is going to blind the minds of people so that they will believe the lie. And I believe it, just what we heard earlier, that this man is God's man, all right? Four times, I believe, four times in the New Testament, the lie, the definite article, is set over against the truth. John 8 is the first time.

And the Lord Jesus says of the devil, when he speaketh of himself, he speaketh of his own. He's a murderer from the beginning. He's a liar from the beginning.

He's speaking the lie. What was the original lie? I will be like God. And he's gonna send it up, usher it in with this man.

And so that is ultimately the lie. Now, let's move away for three minutes to these triumphs, because we wanna end on a positive note. The triumphs of the tribulation, we know the outcome.

So one of the first triumphs is Revelation 4, which is a picture, come up hither, the rapture of the church. We're not in the tribulation, but we are preserved from it. Revelation 5, we have a scene in heaven where Christ is being worshiped.

He is being acknowledged. He is being adored. He is in control.

He takes the title deeds of the earth. That's how it begins. And he breaks them open, showing his authority, his ability to do what no one else could do.

And then we have Revelation 7, these 144,000 who we've mentioned. We have those men who are preaching a king and a kingdom, that is in opposition to what this man is going to set up, this antichrist, this beast. So I believe that is one of the parts of the message of the gospel of the kingdom.

Then Revelation 11, the two witnesses. Revelation 12, the devil is cast out. He no longer has access.

Why is that? We're there. That's one of the great reasons. Revelation, then you have the martyrs whose record is on high.

And while they are killed, still God has acknowledged them in contrast to those who were willing to die for the beast. And then chapter 14, the nation of Israel that's preserved through it. And then Christ himself is the ultimate triumph in the tribulation as far as the one who comes to establish his kingdom.

It will be an unparalleled victory. I think Colossians 2 is interesting in relation to this. He spoiled them.

He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. In what? His resurrection, his ascension through the heavens. And now he has stripped off those powers.

He has displayed his sovereignty. And that is exactly what will happen in the future when he comes back. Would you, you probably have it implied in all that you've written here.

Would you agree during this period of time, likely more people will be saved than all the previous dispensations? It's a great possibility. Yeah. Through the work of the spirit of God in their hearts.

It has to be. There's no other way. You better watch your bed.

You're gonna have a bed of nails. You better pull back that sheet and look if there's nails underneath it. You're assuming I'm gonna get into the house? Yeah, please, brother.

One more thing that is unique about this victory too. It's an unparalleled victory. It's also a unique victory in the sense that these two men, these two beasts at the very end, they are actually going to bypass the great white throne.

They are literally going to be hurled alive into the lake of fire. And that is not seen of any other one. It's a tremendous victory, a display of Christ himself at this time.

Thank God for our Lord Jesus. Amen.