When the Beast Returns: Antichrist’s Fake Resurrection and Final Fall

The beast that we were talking about last week is described as one who was,

if you remember, and is not, and is about to come again.

And as we noted in the discussion back that we had when we covered chapter 13

and 12 of Revelation in chapters 4 and 5 of,

well, I say, excuse me, I said 13 and 12, 4 and 5 is a little bit different.

But the phrase that refers to Antichrist, fake death, if you remember,

I talked about how Satan likes to counterfeit godly things, right?

He likes to give the counterfeit.

And we knew back then when we studied that back in that chapter that Antichrist

is going to be resurrected, at least to the world's eyes, he's going to be resurrected, right?

And we don't know for sure, but it seems to indicate that this could very well

be a fake death and resurrection, right? Because that's Satan's specialty.

And the false prophet will use the alleged miracle.

And I say alleged miracle because Satan does not hold the power of life and death, right?

And so alleged miracle to deceive the entire world into worshiping Antichrist.

That was back in chapter 13, verse 14.

And up till that point, if you remember, Antichrist's political and economic

empire will coexist with the false religious system headed by the false prophet.

But after his staged resurrection, Antichrist then indwelt by a powerful demon,

if you remember, out of the abyss.

And in fact, it tells us, and it refers to this, he is going to turn on the

false religious system and destroy it, right?

Why is that? Y'all remember from the other week? Why is he going to eventually turn on it?

To deceive. Yeah. And also, you're right. And he wants the worship.

You know, first he's starting, I mean, he's supporting this false religious system, right?

But then eventually he's going

to turn on that to destroy it because he is going to want all the worship.

He's not going to tolerate only one religion. The worship of himself is what

he will tolerate, right?

That's it. And so Antichrist's fake resurrection, his destruction of the false

religious system, will take place, if you remember, approximately halfway through the tribulation.

So here's just a little pop review, so to speak. How long is the tribulation? Anybody know?

Seven years. So the midpoint would be three and a half years,

right? And at that point, he will be the undisputed ruler of the world with unilateral power.

He'll appear to have reached the top of his sovereignty, so to speak,

and be ready to thwart the coming of Christ and his kingdom.

And we know how that's going to end, right? But in reality, Antichrist will

be about to be crushed himself and sent to destruction. We know that.

Eternal damnation in the lake of fire. It tells us that in Revelation 19,

Revelation 19:20

verse 20, in chapter 20, verse 10, it tells us that.

So that will be the appropriate punishment for the son of destruction, the Antichrist.

And it says that in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 3.

2 Thessalonians 2:3

It says, who dared in his insolent pride to copy the sin of Lucifer. What did Lucifer say?

Yeah, and I'll be like the most high, right?

And he wanted to exalt himself up. He wanted to challenge the King of kings and Lord of lords.

But you got to remember, Satan is a created being.

And so are all the angels. Who created them?

God created them. How in the world would he ever think in his right mind,

we've sat here tonight thinking about this, that he would ever be exalted above his creator, right?

In Antichrist's phony resurrection, the swift destruction of the false religious

system that he'll see is going to shock the world.

And as it does through the book of Revelation, the phrase, those who dwell on

the earth, do you remember who that describes?

When it says, those who dwell on the earth, who's it talking about?

Remember, is it Christians or is it unbelievers?

Unbelievers. And it uses that term throughout the book of Revelation.

When you see that, those who dwell on the earth, it's talking about unbelievers.

They are the ones, listen to this, whose name has not been written in the book

of life from the foundation of the world.

Since the names of the elect are recorded in the book of life,

we learn that all through scripture and we see it in Revelation,

amazed and deceived by Antichrist, his followers will wonder when they see the

beast that he was and is not and will come.

So it is so cool because this kind of ties in this morning.

I remember in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 10, you remember talking about,

you know, when the 72 were sent out, they were so excited what God was doing

and what was one of the things they mentioned.

They were so excited that they could, you know, the demons would submit to them, right?

That they could cast out demons in Jesus' name and they would submit to them.

And Jesus was like, well, you know, well and good, but don't let that be your

primary focus, right? But what did he mention there that they should rejoice in?

They were their names written in the book of life. And when was their names

written in the book of life?

Before the foundation of the world.

And I'm just telling y'all, man, this is some comfort. You know,

comfort knowing that the children of God, right?

The children of God, the Almighty, we are secure in him.

We're secure in him. The specific cause for their amazement will be Antichrist's

seemingly miraculous return to life. We saw that after receiving an apparently

fatal wound, at least to the world. It looks so much like that.

But only the chosen ones or the elect, those who are in Christ,

the church, will not fall, or those who have been saved after the rapture even,

because there will be people who will be saved.

You know, God's still giving chances, right, for Antichrist's deep deception.

They're not going to fall for it. And the angel's statement...

Here is the mind which has wisdom, actually invites John and his readers to

pay close attention, all of us, to what follows next.

And this unusual expression, sometimes it's difficult. It introduces a difficult

or a complex aspect of the vision that's about to happen.

And it will take a ton of wisdom, right?

And as we sit here and we think tonight, spiritual insight to understand it.

And maybe only those alive at that time will possibly fully comprehend it. I don't know.

But the first aspect of the vision that needs to be understood is that if you

remember in verse 3, the seven heads of the beast are what?

What does it say? Seven mountains, right?

Seven mountains are hills on which the woman sits.

Remember, we're talking about the harlot, right? And some commentators actually

associate with the seven mountains with Rome.

We talked about this some last week, famous for being built on seven hills,

and they identify the woman, believe it or not, here as the Roman Catholic Church.

But such an interpretation, I think, is a little bit narrow.

I don't know about you, if you studied this and looked at it,

something more than just Rome must be in view here.

Because Antichrist's empire is worldwide, remember?

Nor can the woman be the Roman Catholic Church, since as noted before,

when we looked at it last week, in verse 18, identifies her as the city of what? Babylon.

Babylon. line. And when the woman sits on the many waters, as it talked about

in verse one, that must be taken as metaphorical since it's interpreted for us in verse 15.

So it's obvious it's metaphorical because it's interpreted for us.

And when the woman sits upon a scarlet colored beast that we looked at, this again is symbolic.

And when she sits upon the seven mountains, obviously

that too is figurative so the

angels call here for spiritual discernment would

have been pointless y'all if the seven mountains were just an obvious geological

reference to Rome do you see that it'd be pointless and and all such speculation

is unnecessary because the text I love this.

When you read the word of God, so many of us don't read, do we?

Because the text plainly identifies the mountains as what?

Well, the mountains themselves, the seven kings, remember?

The seven kings. Mountains are sometimes used metaphorically in the Old Testament

to actually represent rule or power, right?

We can see that in Psalm and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel, of course.

And here they represent seven, like you're saying, seven world empires embodied in their rulers.

And so the angel actually tells John, what?

Look at it again, five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come.

So the five Gentile world empires that had fallen by the time of John's vision,

anybody know what they are?

You got Egypt, Assyria, what?

Assyria, Babylon. You got it. Medo-Persia and Greece.

You got it. You got it. The one that existed at that time was obviously,

well, it starts with an R, Rome.

The other one that has not yet come here is Antichrist's final world empire.

And I know, I believe it's Henry Morris that commentated on this particular section here.

And let me see if I still have his, I think I put it in here.

All right, here it is. He says, though none of these empires ever actually ruled the whole world,

each was the greatest kingdom of its own time, particularly

in the reference to the land and people of israel and

these kingdoms opposition to the proclamation

of god's word and the accomplishment of

his purposes in the world these of course

have have not been the only kingdoms that have been at enmity with god and his

purposes in this category could also be placed such kingdoms as syria edom moab

midian and many others but none of these were empires of great size and influence,

On the other hand, there were other great and powerful empires in the ancient world.

You'll probably think of some tonight, too, as he's saying this,

but China, India, for example, right?

But these had only peripheral contact with the word of God and the chosen people.

There were only six kingdoms that met both criteria up to the time of Christ and the apostles.

He said, furthermore, all six of these were not only legitimate heirs of political

Babel, but also of religious Babel as well.

Babylonia, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome, he said,

were all strongholds of the world religion, of evolutionary pantheism and idolatrous polytheism.

Thus, they appropriately are represented as six heads of the great beast that supports the harlot.

And that's from his commentary on Revelation there. That's Henry Morris, by the way.

So here's we see in the passage, the angel further explains,

look at it, that when Antichrist comes, he must remain a little while.

This is back in chapter 12, by the way, that he says this.

He's talking about this time we're reading about here. and his

empire will be short-lived he will be

given authority to act for 42 months which

is three and a half years right so the second half of the tribulation so then

the angel offered the mysterious comment that the beast which was and is not

is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven,

and he goes to destruction.

How can the beast, y'all, Antichrist, be an eighth king and also one of the

seven? That's a good question.

Well, if we look at the text here and we see what it says really in the phrase

here in the verse, the beast was and is not.

Antichrist will be one of the seven kings before his supposed demise, right?

And resurrection and an eighth king afterwards during the second phase of his rule.

So you see that there. Remember I talked about his fake resurrection?

And so Antichrist will go to destruction, eternal damnation in the lake of fire.

That's where he's headed, according to the Bible, right? In Revelation 19 and 20.

So unlike the first six empires, his empire will be destroyed by what?

A direct act of God Almighty, right? That's how it's going to be destroyed.

The angel further explained that the ten horns which John saw are ten kings.

They cannot be known to any earlier generation because they have not yet received

a kingdom since they're part of Antichrist's future empire.

They're going to receive authority, it says, as kings with the beast for a very short time.

Anybody see that in the text for how many hours? One hour.

One hour, y'all. How would you like to be a king for one hour?

I've heard of a king for a day, but one hour.

Perhaps Antichrist's empire will be divided into ten administrations or ten

administrative regions, so to speak, all right, which maybe these ten kings will rule under him.

And the reference to one hour, y'all probably got this already.

Do y'all think he's talking about a literal hour? No.

Not really. It's really a figure of speech that really emphasizes the brevity

of the rule, of their rule, right?

Their reign will be short-lived because their master's empire itself will be short-lived.

And during their brief reign, they'll be unanimously, y'all,

devoted to Antichrist all the way.

They'll have one purpose, it says in Scripture, and give their power and authority

to the beast. That's who they'll give it to.

They will do his will and his will alone.

And the agenda of the 10 kings like that of Satan and Antichrist will be to wage war against who?

The lamb. You're right. Against the lamb at the battle of Armageddon, right?

Three exceptionally deceitful and powerful demons will be the agents here to

gather them for that battle.

Listen to this. Let's take a look here. Y'all look at Revelation 16.

We're going to go back this one chapter because we looked at this before, but I want you to see it.

16, 13 through 14 in verse 16. Listen to what he said.

And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the

beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like

frogs. Y'all remember this passage.

For they are spirits of demons performing signs, which go out to the kings of

the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the almighty.

And they gathered them together to the place, which in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

So y'all, John will describe this ill-fated battle in detail.

We're going to see this in chapter 19.

We're in 17, but we're going to see it in chapter 19. But here,

he just merely notes that the Lamb will overcome them.

We're going to see. We've already talked about this some, but yeah, right.

He's going to overcome them for sure. The battle will in reality be a slaughter, right?

The Lord Jesus Christ will utterly destroy their forces that are gathered against

him at his second coming.

The reason, y'all, all the forces of hell cannot defeat the lamb, you know, right?

Because he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Amen.

We serve the King, y'all. The king, the true king, right?

With Christ, when he returns, we'll be the called and chosen ones.

That's us, right?

You're called and chosen if you're a child of God. You're adopted into God's

family. That's comforting.

We don't understand all the mystery, but we do know that God chose us.

And without him choosing us, y'all, we would be in trouble.

And let me just simply say that when you're adopted, you ever thought about

adoption? I want you to think about it for a minute.

When you adopt somebody, what happens?

Anybody ever had adoption in your family or somebody that you know is adopted?

All right. Not only did we come into the family of Christ and we're joint heirs

with Christ, it says in Scripture, we're part of the family, right?

We're children of God. But part of that, we love him, if you remember it says

in Scripture, because he first loved us.

I can't help but think of, oh, man, I'm going to forget his name.

Remember the, no, when the, yeah, I remember that song, but I remember,

you know, pick me, pick me, pick me.

Oh, Donkey. Yeah. Yeah. Donkey and Shrek. Remember that little scene? Pick me, pick me.

God chose you and you and you and you and you. You get it? You're adopted into

his family. He chose you.

I hope you get that tonight. He chose you. The Lord of Lords,

the King of Kings chose those and called all of us in his church,

his elect ones, called and chosen and faithful, it says.

That's a reference that can only apply, by the way, to believers.

And those terms are rich in the definition of believers as the eternally elect,

it's in Scripture, chosen in the sun before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1 verse 4.

Ephesians 1:4

I told y'all there's some mystery here. We don't know. Our ways are not God's

ways. There is some mystery here. But I will tell you this.

You don't have to worry about God being fair because he is. He's just. He's holy.

We don't have to worry about any of that. But I will tell you this,

that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

That's what scripture teaches. If you believe the Bible, you believe it. Okay.

The called summoned in time by the Father to repentance and faith that saves.

God calls, man is responsible to respond, right?

And we respond in the faith and repentance that Christ gives us as a gift.

And we repent, put our faith and trust in him. And so eternal life that endures

by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord Jesus Christ here, as we know, we'll see it again in chapter 19.

The Lord Jesus Christ will effortlessly crush the greatest armed force that

ever was assembled on the face of the earth when he returns with you and me and all his holy angels.

You ever wanted to ride a white horse?

If you know Jesus, you're going to get to ride that white horse. Wow.

But I want you to know he's going to slay them, as we'll learn,

with the word of his mouth, that sword, right?

And he's going to effortlessly crush all of them. It's going to be over.

We're going to be with him.

Verse 15, though, we discussed this back in connection with verse 1.

It explains, and what it explains with it, and that brings us to the extermination

of the harlot. We looked at several aspects.

Now we're on the extermination of the harlot. It's 532. Do you want to go a

little bit longer or do you want to wrap it tonight?

Okay, we'll go a little bit longer, and then we'll wrap it, okay?

Look at chapter 17, verses 16 and 17. You ready?

It's talking about the extermination of the harlot. And the ten horns which

you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot, and will make her desolate

and naked, and will eat her flesh, and will burn her up with fire.

Boy, that sounds nice, doesn't it? For God has put it in their hearts to execute

his purpose by having a common purpose.

And by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God will be fulfilled.

I don't know if y'all noticed this. I just want to bring it out.

Did they make the choice here to actually do what they did?

Yes, they did. They did. But it says here that God put it in their hearts.

Did you see that? He put it in their hearts.

God put it in their hearts to execute his purpose by having a common purpose.

But yet they also decided in their unbelieving state that this is what they had purposed to do.

Remember, I told you God is sovereign. What does that mean?

He is over all. He is Lord of all. He is sovereign. And every one of God's purposes will stand.

Every one. If God promises something or says something is going to come to pass, it will.

And God, even though it's a mystery, God does not violate our human choices

in the sense of that, yes, it's a real choice that we make.

Yes, people who, all of us, we've said before, remember the crucifixion of Christ?

We're all guilty, right?

The people who were there crucified Jesus. But if you look back in that same

passage, it talks about that God had planned this and ordained this event.

And ultimately, yes, Jesus died at the hands of sinful men, but he also died

ultimately at the hands of God.

Ultimately, church, God killed Jesus. Ultimately.

And every one of us did. Every one of us chose that was here then and even today would have, right?

Killed Jesus. But it was God's purposes that was not thwarted.

And man still chose the evil in his heart.

He chose that direction. God didn't force it on him.

He still made a choice. But God also determined it would happen.

I told you there's mystery there. Don't try to figure it out.

If God wanted you to, he'd have told you exactly how he worked it all.

But he says in scripture, his ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.

So don't get bogged down in trying to figure it out. It's a mystery.

Just trust God. He is good. He is holy. He is righteous.

So Antichrist allegiance with the false religious system will not last.

Eventually those ten horns, the ten horns, the ten kings who rule under Antichrist

and the beast, which is Antichrist himself, will come to actually hate the harlot.

Start out man they're all there with her right but

they're going to come to hate her having used

the false religious system to help him gain control

see the picture of the whole world and antichrist

is going to discard it and in rampant

rampant fashion he's going

to want the world to worship only him like

we said earlier he will also no doubt covet

the vast wealth of the false religious system

and he'll turn on the harlot as we see

here look what it says and will make her desolate we read

this and naked and will eat her flesh and burn

her up with fire that's graphic language

isn't it pretty graphic it's a use of extreme violence it's used to us just

to make clear y'all that antichrist and his henchmen so to speak will utterly

and completely obliterate all of the false religious system.

Just get that in your mind, obliterate.

Antichrist, self-serving, it's, you know, satanically inspired action, right?

Precisely, though, don't lose this tonight. I'm fixing to draw to a close.

I know everybody's tired.

Precisely in the scope of God's sovereign plan. Thank you.

In fact, as we saw, it is God who will put it in their hearts of Antichrist

followers to execute his purpose

by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast.

God's power is behind the destruction and the consolidation of the evil empire.

And as always, Satan is the instrument of God's purposes.

Do you think Satan can do anything that God does not allow him to do?

No, I think as we look through scripture, I mean, just look at Job, right?

The one world unification government

so long sought by humanists will have finally arrived. It's coming.

Only ought to be destroyed in one great act of divine judgment.

All the words of God, every prophecy, think about it, of Christ's return and

the setting up of his kingdom will be fulfilled completely.

God hates, y'all know this tonight, God hates every form of false religion and

he will not tolerate those who seek to rob him of his glory.

Somebody read Isaiah chapter 42, verse eight for me real quick. Isaiah 42, verse eight.

Isaiah 42 · chapter mention

When you get it, just read it out. Isaiah 42, verse eight. I have the Lord. Thank you.

Antichrist religious empire will be judged and destroyed.

You know, Revelation actually reveals it'll be the political and economic aspects

of that evil world empire obliterated.

Ultimately, they're God's sovereign plan. But also these evil men and demons

and all this will choose from the hatred of their own hearts to do this as well.

Right. It's their choice as well.

But God, hey, I told you it's a mystery, Brother Ronnie.

It's a mystery, y'all. Don't try

to figure out God. If you ever try to put God in a box, just get ready.

He's going to jump out of it. You can't put him in a box.

Remember I told you this morning, he ain't safe. Following God is not safe, but he is good.

He is good. He is holy. He is just, and we can trust him.

You know how I know everything's going to be all right? Because God said so.

I know that sounds simplistic, but God, his plans will not be thwarted. They will not.

They will stand, just like he said.