Transcript
Last night we read Matthew 24 verses 1 to 14. Let’s pick up the reading at Matthew 24 verse 15. And we will read down to verse 35.
Matthew 24 verse 15.
Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. Let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.
Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.
Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the desert!’ do not go out. Or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Now learn this parable from the fig tree. When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, at the doors. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
Now in our study of the Olivet Discourse, which we began of course last night, we are emphasizing the way in which we believe the discourse is put together. And this is an overhead which I showed you last night. But just for purposes of review, notice that we’re suggesting first of all that there is a prelude in verses one to three.
And then that the discourse is divided into two major sections. The first is a section of exposition. Which Arch alerted me to explain in terms of explanation. What is being explained here by the Lord Jesus Christ is the period known as the end of the age. Or its synonym, the day of the Lord.
In approaching the explanation of the events of this end time period, it appears to me that our Lord divides the subject matter into two units. The first is the unit that we looked at last night in 24:4-14. And which is really an overview of the day of the Lord from beginning to end.
The unit which we have just read tonight, chapter 24 verses 15 to 31, returns to the midpoint of the day of the Lord. And focuses upon the crisis that is precipitated by what is described here as the abomination of desolation. Which we will talk more about in a moment.
So that what we have in the second unit is a more detailed consideration of the last part of the period which we know as the day of the Lord. And then in the final verses that we read tonight, chapter 24 verses 32 to 35, I believe we have a conclusion to this unit of the discourse.
Then we have suggested last night that there is a unit which may be described as application. And this extends from 24:35 to 25:46. There is an introduction, the central idea of which is that the time when this period of calamity comes upon the world is unknown. And therefore there is a call to watchfulness.
And then there follow four parabolic lessons related to this end time period. And they are the four familiar parables which we are aware of at the end of Matthew 24 and in Matthew 25. We suggested last night that out of these four parables the first and the third apply to Christians of the church age.
For whom this period of time can begin at any time. And we also suggested that the second and the fourth parable are applied to the tribulation saints. That is to the believers who will live during the period which is covered by the day of the Lord.
So this is basically our overview of the discourse. And the important point to pick up tonight is that we’ve moved away from unit one into unit two. Which we wish to cover this evening.
Now we also looked last night at this overhead which sets before us a panorama of the period which we call the day of the Lord. Or which otherwise we may describe as Daniel’s 70th week. And last night we read the passage in Daniel 9:24-27.
In our discussion last evening we made two very vital points which I think it is necessary to keep in mind to understand the way in which this period of time unfolds. Point number one is that during the first half of the seven years, that is during the three and one half years which begin the period, we have the testimony of the two witnesses. Or the testimony of the two prophets who were described in the book of Revelation chapter 11.
They prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. They are invincible during that period of time. But at the end of their period of ministry they are killed by the man of sin.
That’s the first observation that I think we need to keep in mind from last night. The second is this. That working with the data of the two witnesses we also learn, as we went through the trumpet judgments, that the first half week or the first three and a half years of the seven year period are not peaceful years at all.
They are years of severe divine judgment on mankind. And we saw in Revelation 8 and 9 that we have a series of ecological judgments. They are followed by a pair of judgments that may involve some form of disease. Or they may be fulfilled in other ways that we’re not yet aware of.
But the final one of these judgments, that is the sixth trumpet judgment, is the most devastating of all. Because as a result of this judgment, whatever its exact nature is, one third of the population of the planet dies as a consequence of the plague that is set. If we project a world population of five billion people this would mean the death of something like one billion six hundred sixty six million people.
We can understand very easily and clearly that the end of these three and a half years, with these very severe ecological judgments followed by this decimating plague, that the world is in tremendous turmoil and in tremendous chaos. And the turmoil and the chaos that is created by these judgments then lays the foundation for the rise to world power of the end time figure whom we identify as the man of sin. Or as the beast as he is called in the book of Revelation.
So tonight I would like us to think a little bit about this last half week. And to begin by thinking about the leading figure of that period of time who is the man of sin. We need to look at several passages related to him.
And the first of these is found in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. So if you would turn to that please. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. We’re going to read just a few verses here starting with verse 1.
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.
Let no one deceive you by any means. For that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? So this end time figure exposes his true character and nature and role by going into the Jewish temple, which obviously will have been rebuilt by that time, and sitting in the Jewish temple and proclaiming himself to be God.
Furthermore his characteristic is to oppose and exalt himself above everything that is called God. So this is a central passage that identifies the man of sin. Or the figure we call the beast.
Now with this statement of Paul in mind let me ask you to turn back to Daniel chapter 11. And we’re going to pick up the reading of Daniel 11 at verse 36. Before we read from Daniel 11 let me explain the basic thrust and content of the whole chapter.
After the death of Alexander the Great, who was one of the great world conquerors, the empire that Alexander had conquered was divided up into at least four divisions. And a division of his empire was given to four of his generals. To the north of the land of Palestine there was what we know from history as the Seleucid empire.
It was the section of Alexander’s empire that went to his general Seleucus. And it covers what we now would see on a modern map such countries as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and portions of Iran and probably portions of Turkey. So there was a big area up there, an empire, a mini empire.
And Seleucus was the first ruler of that. Then there were a succession of rulers. And these rulers in Daniel 11 are called the king of the north. That’s very important.
They got that the rulers of the area north of Palestine, an area that embraces Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, portions of Iran and so on, is the Seleucid empire. And the ruler in Daniel 11 of that area is called the king of the north. On the other hand Egypt and some of the surrounding territories was given to a general named Ptolemy.
And his kingdom is often referred to as Ptolemaic Egypt. But in Daniel 11 the ruler of that portion of Alexander’s empire is called the king of the south. Okay so two basic ideas here.
The king of the north is up to the north of Israel in the Syria Iraq Lebanon area. The king of the south is in Egypt. Daniel 11 covers a series of conflicts between the king of the north and the king of the south. Or the ruler of the northern empire and the ruler of Egypt.
And in these conflicts, since Israel is caught in the middle, they are often caught up into the difficulties that are involved in these wars. Now in verse 36 we talk about the king. If you trace the term king up through the preceding verses I think you will be able to discover that the reference here is to the king of the north.
And as we will see as we read the passage that follows he is distinguished from the king of the south. So the king that we are talking about here in Daniel 11 verse 36 is the king of the north. Let’s begin in verse 36.
Then the king shall do according to his own will. He shall exalt and magnify himself above every god. Shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished. For what has been determined shall be done.
He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god. For he shall exalt himself above them all. But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses. And a god which his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things.
Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance those who acknowledge him in glory. He shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for gain.
At the time of the end the king of the south shall attack him. Egypt attacks the king of the north. How this will be done we don’t know. But there is no mention here at least of an invading force from Egypt.
In our modern world we might think that the attack could be launched with missiles or something else. In any case at the time of the end the king of the south attacks the king of the north. And notice that it proceeds to say
and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships. And he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. He shall also enter the glorious land, that is Israel, and many countries shall be overthrown. But these shall escape from his hands: Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon.
He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt. Also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels.
But news from the east and the north will trouble him. Therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him.
Now he’s down in Egypt with his armies. Okay. And he gets news that comes from the northeast. Well we may say first of all even without looking at the rest of the verses that when he’s in Egypt Jerusalem will be to the northeast of him. Okay.
Notice how this proceeds. But news from the east and the north shall trouble him. Therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain.
Yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him. Now he’s down in Egypt. He hears news out of the northeast that he doesn’t like. He turns around and moves to the northeast and plants his camp.
The writer of Daniel, Daniel, says between the seas. I would take that to mean between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. And notice it says between the seas and the glorious holy mountain. And the Hebrew here can mean something like toward the glorious holy mountain.
This is apparently a reference to the Temple Mount which would be located in the northeastern sector of the city of Jerusalem. So he’s a little north of Jerusalem and his camp faces or is in relation to the Temple Mount. If you examine a map of Israel you will find that the most logical place for him to camp in that position would be the Kidron Valley which comes down for some distance to the east of the city of Jerusalem.
And he positions himself apparently more or less at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Notice also that the text says and he shall plant the tents, the tents of his palace. This indicates to us that the king of the north has an encampment consisting of tents. And that his headquarters, his palace if you want to put it that way, is in these tents.
This leads to the suggestion that the king of the north is in all probability a Bedouin. And his encampment is a tent encampment which is similar to Bedouin encampments. Of course there is a military force that has accompanied him and is now within striking range of Jerusalem.
This obviously creates a tense situation. Now notice how the 12th chapter of Daniel proceeds. At that time Michael shall stand up. At what time? At the time that the king of the north has encamped to the northeast of Jerusalem.
At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.
All right says Daniel when the king of the north gets to this encampment Michael will stand up. The prince that is associated with Israel. And this will mark the beginning of the most severe time of trouble in the history of Israel.
These words of course reflect words that we read just a little bit ago in Matthew 24 where the Lord Jesus says when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place. Then there shall be great tribulation such as was not since the world began. It seems clear that the prophecy of Daniel 11 has brought us to the middle of the week.
That the king of the north during the first half of the week engages in his war with Egypt. And now at the midpoint of the seven year period he is encamped outside of Jerusalem. And this inaugurates the greatest period of trouble in the history of the Jewish nation.
Turn now to Revelation 13. Revelation 13 verse 1.
Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?
Notice this. Revelation 13 tells us that the whole world is worshiping two figures. Number one they’re worshiping Satan. Number two they’re worshiping the beast.
Now the material that we have read from Thessalonians and from Daniel 11 has indicated both of these things. This is the man who goes into the temple of God and he says I’m God. But this is also the man who has a foreign god, a god that his fathers did not worship. And he promotes that god.
So there is an unholy alliance if you want to put it that way between Satan and the beast. And as Satan gives him his power and authority in the world the trade-off is that Satan is worshiped, the dragon is worshiped, and the beast is worshiped. And his power is considered invincible because they say who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?
Let’s continue with verse 5.
And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to make war for forty-two months.
Now I’m reading the New King James version there. But a majority, a fairly substantial majority of the Greek manuscripts of the book of Revelation read the verse this way. And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to make war for forty-two months.
Notice he is given authority to make war for forty-two months which is three and a half years. Now here is not any longer an isolated king of the north whose power is in the north of Israel. Now we have a man who has given world power over every nation and every country. And the world worships him and considers him invincible.
And he has given power to make war for three and a half years or forty-two months. Now if you look in a concordance you will find that there are actually three places where the beast is said to make war. One of these places is in Revelation 11 which we read last night where the beast makes war with the two witnesses and overcomes them.
The last reference is to the beast making war with the one who sat upon the horse, with Christ. And the middle reference is in the next verse in the next two verses.
Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.
All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
We can summarize the career of the beast, the world ruler, very much in this way. By tagging the three warfares in which he engages. As the king of the north he has come and set his encampment to the northeast of Jerusalem at the end of the first three and a half years.
At the end of the first three and a half years the two witnesses are just completing their prophecy. Remember that from last night. And during the whole three and a half years nobody has been able to touch these two prophets.
If anybody tries to kill them fire goes out of their mouth and devours their enemies. They have been utterly invincible for three and a half years. But now the beast appears on the scene in Jerusalem.
And his first step is to make war with the two witnesses. And he is dramatically victorious. The two prophets that nobody could touch are killed.
We saw last night that they lie unburied for three and a half days on the streets of the city of Jerusalem. Then the next thing he does is to make war with the saints. He now enlarges his activities and persecutes all of those who confess the name of Christ.
He makes war with the people of God and is victorious. And the children of God have to flee and do their best to hide from him. And finally he is in the end emboldened to try to make war with the Lord Jesus Christ who sat upon the horse.
And at this point he is disastrously defeated by the king of kings and Lord of lords. So what we have here then is a northern ruler who assumes the mantle of the beast as presented in the book of Revelation. And engages in a highly successful career from one point of view until the battle of Armageddon where he is defeated by Jesus.
Now notice that at this point he also acquires an ally who is the false prophet. Let’s continue our reading in chapter 13.
Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666.
So as part of the operation of Satan in the last three and a half years of Daniel’s 70th week we have the man of sin who is joined by the false prophet. Whom you will notice I have made equivalent to the Antichrist. Let me defend that for just a moment.
It’s not a major point. The term Antichrist only occurs in one book of the New Testament. Which book is that? 1 John. If you study 1 John very carefully it is clear that the many antichrists of which he is speaking are the many false prophets which he also speaks of.
So if the many antichrists are the many false prophets the Antichrist must be the false prophet. So I would apply the term Antichrist to this second beast who is the false prophet. What we have, as has often been noted here, is a satanic trinity.
Now we have the dragon who gives authority to his king. And the king is supported by the miraculous ministry, I use the word ministry in quotes there, the miraculous activity of the false prophet. So that there is a satanic analogy to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in this end time period.
Where satanic deception will reach higher heights than it’s ever reached in the history of mankind. Where miracles are done by Satan which are fabulous in the eyes of men. And even fabulous from the standpoint of previous satanic activities in the scripture.
And where all of those except the saved are deluded into worshiping the beast and Satan. Okay at this point we’re going to pause for some questions. I will be shocked if there are no questions.
Yes that’s indeed the word that is used here for worship is the normal word for worship especially as applied to God. What I think will happen here is that the system inaugurated by the man of sin will be a combination of the religious system, the political system, and the economic system. What he does is in effect to unify the world that has previously been divided and give to the world a central religion.
And those who are to be allowed to participate in the economic system must join the religion. They must take the mark of the beast. And all political power is headed up by the man of sin.
I’m sure that he will present this as one of the most desirable of all accomplishments. I mean he can say the world has been torn apart by centuries by religious warfare. And even within the Christian religion people of differing persuasions have slaughtered one another.
Not to mention other religions fighting with other religions. What the world needs in this new situation after all of these calamities is to join together and to be unified. I also suspect that the man of sin in claiming to be God may have a new age slant to that.
That he is a man who has achieved the divinity which other men can aspire to. He is the par excellence example perhaps he will say of the divinity of man. And he will prove this by all of the miracles that Satan allows to be performed in his name.
I’m sure that we are reading it from God’s standpoint. So God presents these men as wild animals, beasts. That’s what they are spiritually and religiously. But in the eyes of the world they will probably be noble figures who are seeking to do for the world what nobody has ever been able to do for the world.
And so men will hold them in high esteem and adulate them and even worship the man of sin. Dave? Right. Good question.
I’m trying to give you the background against which we understand Matthew 24. My hope is before the end of the session to get back to the passage we read at the very beginning in Matthew 24. And what I hope to show is that once we’ve understood these background passages the significance of this section of Matthew 24 becomes much clearer and more precise for us. Marsha?
I would say the majority of interpreters do apply the name Antichrist to the beast. This is not a particularly important point with me as you know. Most interpreters see the false prophet as playing the role that he does here. That’s the main thing. Jim?
No there’s no overlap in my judgment with the trumpet judgments which are basically fulfilled when the earthquake strikes. Except for the seventh trumpet judgment but the first six are fulfilled when the earthquake strikes Jerusalem after the resurrection of the two witnesses. What is important here and I’m glad you asked that question because this gives me a chance to emphasize something that maybe I needed to emphasize.
It is clear if we assign all these trumpet judgments, which I think we must, to the first three and a half years that the world is in a chaotic condition now. The world will be right for one world government or a new economic system or even a new religious focus. And so the man of sin arises in the middle of the week as the world ruler that everybody is only too happy to receive when it becomes evident that he has this kind of power.
Arch? Very excellent question. Driving me back to Matthew 24. Let’s look back there for a moment. You’re anticipating me yes a little bit. Was this question a setup? I don’t know. Okay let’s look back at Matthew 24 verse 9 which we didn’t spend a lot of time on last time.
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
This is the second half of the week. This is the outbreak of persecution on the man of sin. And it says then many will be offended and will betray one another and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
And because lawlessness will abound the love of many will grow cold. So this is such an intense period of time that there are all sorts of failures among the disciples of Christ. Including the fact that iniquity is on the throne and their love for one another for Christ grows cold.
But he who endures to the end shall be saved. This should be read in the light of a verse that we read a little later in the section verse 22. And unless those days were shortened no flesh would be saved. Any no flesh would be preserved alive.
I think the answer to your question Arch is twofold. Number one Christians will fail. Some Christians will fail during the tribulation period and betray one another. Their love will wax cold.
The penalty for that will be death. They will not live through the tribulation period. But the second question is will any Christian succumb to the worship of the beast? And the answer to that is no.
In the light of Revelation 13 God will give to every believer, everyone whose name is in the book of life, sufficient grace not to do this. But obviously the scriptures are going to be the means by which this is not done. And let’s remember, let us remember that after the rapture of the church we start over again with the two witnesses who will have the ability to interpret the book of Revelation better than it’s ever been interpreted before.
And their converts will be trained in the realities that are about to come to pass. And God will not let any Christian fall into the trap of worshiping the beast or taking the number of his name. That’s a sin from which God will protect Christians.
But he will not protect them from other forms of failure. Jim? Well we’re suggesting that in the second verse where this is stated except those days should be short no flesh will be saved. That means nobody would be left alive unless these days were short.
And this is a period that is so devastating. That’s right. And what this implies is that those who do not persevere in their loyalty to Christ will die physically.
We will see when we get to Matthew 25 we’ll have occasionally come back to this because the only people who are present in Matthew 25 are unsaved people and victorious Christians. The Christians who have failed are no longer alive based on this text. Oh yes that’s the only way you can be saved.
And we’re talking about you know during the first half week here the two witnesses bear testimony. Got it. You may have as many as a half million Israelis who are saved at the end of the first half week.
Now that does bring us back. And let’s go back to Matthew 24 for our second section here. And I have another overhead to show you which is simply a blow up of the last half week. Okay by the time we reach this point in the development of the day of the Lord the two witnesses have testified in Jerusalem for three and a half years.
They have unquestionably won converts. At a minimum we would say they had won the 144,000. But the change if those are only the evangelists probably the number of saved people in Israel is much higher than that. It would not be fantastic to estimate that they had converted 500,000 people by that time.
All right there are a very large number of believers and disciples of Jesus Christ in Israel alone at that time. Understand that there is no gospel preaching that we know of in other parts of the world yet because all the Christians are gone. Right? And the two witnesses spend their career in Jerusalem.
Now this is where the passage of tonight comes into play verse 15. Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation, that is the man of sin going in and desecrating the Jewish temple at the middle of the week.
He says verse 17 let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days. And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.
The basic exhortation here is Christians, Jewish Christians, when you see the abomination of desolation, when you know that the man of sin has gone into the temple, run, run, run. Don’t even delay long enough to, if you’re out in the field don’t delay to go back to your house and get anything. If you’re up on the rooftop don’t go downstairs and get your supplies.
Run, run, run. Why? Because there’s persecution here as he has previously said in the preceding section. Now turn if you will just briefly to Revelation chapter 12. Without going into a lot of detail.
And Revelation chapter 12 of course we have the dragon active in this chapter. And we have war breaking out in heaven between the dragon’s forces and Michael’s forces. And you remember the dragon is cast out of heaven.
We pick up the reading in verse 13.
Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman, this is Israel as I think we could show from looking at the early verses. He persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Christ. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent.
So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Now this gives us a lot of illumination. Let me talk about it for a minute. In the midpoint of the 70th week of Daniel Satan is cast out of heaven and he knows that his time is limited.
And so he puts into motion his final plans. And one of his plans is to destroy the woman. Now at this point you will notice that the woman is Israel. But this would be true believing Israel.
Please understand again as we said that in the first half week we have probably hundreds of thousands of converts to the gospel of Christ as a result of the testimony of the two witnesses. But now the Satan has come down. He’s going to launch a persecution right in the middle of the week.
It is urgent. It is necessary as specified by Jesus in Matthew 24 that his followers run away and run away quickly. Notice that the devil, what will undoubtedly happen here is that we’ll have this mass exodus of believers from Jerusalem and from Judea.
They will probably go down into the Judean wilderness. Remember where David hid out from Saul. Probably they’ll stream out that way.
And according to our text the serpent spews water out of his mouth, a stream. I would suggest that this is probably for various reasons without going into a lot of detail that these are the forces, the armies of the man of sin who pursue the fleeing believers into the Judean wilderness. Then it says the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the stream that the devil had sent after it.
What does that suggest? Earthquake. Have we met an earthquake before? Yes. After the three and a half witnesses are killed they lie on the streets of the city of Jerusalem for three and a half days.
Then they are raised and caught up to heaven. And what happens next? Earthquake. Seven thousand people in the city of Jerusalem are killed.
But we may assume that the earthquake is not simply in Jerusalem but down in the Judean valley, the Judean desert. So what happens here is that as the forces I would suggest of the man of sin pursue the fleeing Israelites into the desert suddenly they’re caught at maybe the epicenter of the earthquake and the forces are destroyed. And the fleeing believers get away.
Those who have acted promptly, those who have acted expeditiously on the commands given by Jesus in Matthew 24. Let’s go back to Matthew 24. All right what we’ve had in verses 15 to 20 is in essence when you see the abomination of desolation the desecration of the temple flee.
So what we have here on the overhead is the flight of the godly. Now when the dragon realizes that he’s lost the believers who are fleeing in the desert what does he do? He turns to make war with the remnant of the woman’s seed identified in the passage we just read a few minutes ago who have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Now here then are the evangelists. And it is not for them to hide out in the Judean desert. It is their responsibility to take the gospel of Christ and to spread it worldwide.
So now since the fleeing believers have for the moment eluded Satan and the man of sin he turns his attention to the preachers who have begun to scatter out worldwide and to proclaim the gospel of Christ. So we have the flight of the godly leading to world evangelism. Now also at this time as we saw from Revelation 13 Satan and the false prophet and the beast begin the world registration.
Which of course will be a very valuable instrument in the persecution of Christians since they will have to choose between Christ and the registration by the antichristian system that the beast has set up. And this will bring us into the final period of judgment in Revelation 16. Now I’m going to try to get you out in about 10 minutes but with your indulgence I want to call your attention to the bowl judgments of Revelation 16.
So if you’ll turn back to those this will be helpful. We won’t take the time to read these judgments but let me refer you to them in connection with the verses where they’re presented. These are the last plagues that are poured out in the world.
According to verse 2 first of all the people who have taken the registration, the mark of the beast, are afflicted with a very ugly and bad sore. Would be easy to speculate that quite possibly this is a skin cancer as the ozone becomes less substantial. The outcome of course will wait for the fulfillment.
In verse 3 the waters of the sea are turned to blood and every living creature in the sea dies. All life in the oceans of the world is exterminated. Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water and they became blood.
Now all the sources of fresh water are contaminated. They probably turned red. There may be some kind of chemical transformation. We don’t know exactly but all the waters turn to blood.
The fourth angel was given power to scorch men with fire. The bowl is poured out on the sun and men are scorched with fire. Please notice this.
This could be obviously a result of the collapse of the ozone layer, the near collapse of the ozone. There so it no longer filters the sun’s rays and the planet takes on the environment let’s say of the Sahara Desert. And men are scorched with fire.
Notice verse 9 which is very significant. And men were scorched with great heat and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues. And they did not repent and give him glory.
So men know that God is doing this and they just simply blaspheme him. The fifth angel as we see turns the kingdom of the beast to darkness. An eclipse effect of some kind probably covers the new Roman empire, the Mediterranean region.
And verse 11 they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores and did not repent of their deeds. Then the next angel pours out his bowl on the river Euphrates which is dried up completely. That vast long river in the Middle East is completely dried up.
That the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And then it says and I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world and to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.
And they gathered them together in the place called in Hebrew Armageddon. Men are totally unrepentant. And instead Satan, the beast, and the false prophet send out spirits who perform miracles in the sight of the kings of the earth and persuade the kings of the earth to assemble their armies and to gather together at Armageddon for a final war with God.
Notice verse 17. Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. And a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven from the throne saying it is done. And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings.
And there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as has not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the world is struck by an unparalleled earthquake. Never, never anything like this experienced in the history of the world.
Verse 19. Now the great city was divided into three parts, probably a reference to Jerusalem. And the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Then every island fled away and the mountains were not found. So now we have virtually the collapse of mountains, the submergence of islands. Verse 21. And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent.
Has been suggested that might be as heavy as seventy five pounds. Huge hailstones unparalleled in the history of mankind. And the final part of verse 21 men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail since that plague was exceedingly great.
Now turn back to Matthew 24. Remember that Jesus has told his followers to flee. Now he says in verse 21 for then will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time no nor ever shall be.
And unless those days were shortened no flesh would be saved. No life would be preserved. But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
This is a staggering picture. What we have here is the judgment of God falling upon a world that is totally unrepentant. And the judgments are so unparalleled and so devastating that the existence of life itself is threatened.
Can you imagine what it’d be like for all of these things to be happening one after another and imagine the deaths that would occur from that? And what is mankind doing? Kneeling on their knees and supplicating God for mercy? No they are gathering their armies to wage war against the one who sits upon the horse.
The fight with God. Grim. But I think you can see that that’s what Matthew 24 up to this point is talking about. And in the light of the other scriptures it is a shattering and disturbing picture indeed.
And that’s as far as we can go this evening. We’ll pick up. I still have more to say about the conclusion of this period including discussing the battle of Armageddon. But at least what we can see here is that the world is assembling its armies for one great battle with the God who has power over these plagues whose names they are blaspheming just as the plagues are falling and creating havoc and devastation all over the planet.
Questions? Yes sir. Yes the plain of Megiddo in Israel and somewhat to the north of Judea. And it has been historically a good staging ground for armies. So the armies will apparently flow into the land of Israel and their staging ground will be the valley of Megiddo.
And then they flow down to the city of Jerusalem where the final conflict is fought. But we’ll talk more about that at the next session. Yes sir. Yes sir.
Well it is obvious that part of the satanic deception that is, remember that we are seeing this from God’s standpoint right? We’re not hearing the way in which this deception or this delusion is spun by the beast and by the false prophet and by the dragon. In the context of the new age movement the new age movement for example believes in a multitude of spiritual beings. You know the channelers and all of these things.
And it is very likely that the Jehovah of the Old Testament will in no way be acknowledged as the creator of the world but rather as a lower divinity of some kind who has power in the air and has power to send these plagues. But Lucifer presents himself as fully the equal if not the master of Jehovah. And under his leadership they will fight with this divinity.
It sounds very unusual to us but all of the ideology that is needed for this kind of a deception already exists among mankind. Isn’t it true that except for those who are Bible believing Christians the mass of even our own country do not necessarily acknowledge a creator? So what I think we’re seeing here is an unparalleled period of satanic deception backed by satanic miracles that will be convincing.
Well I will try to answer that a little bit more at the next time. But obviously the man of sin will say we need to assemble in Jerusalem because he’s promised to come back and land on the Mount of Olives. Did you know that a number of years ago there was a Soviet scientist who theorized that Jesus Christ was a spaceman who had visited the planet in the past and then left?
So we’re talking about the kinds of deceptions for which a lot of foundation has already been laid in the thinking of men. And all that is needed are the master deceivers with their apparently supernatural power to pull this off. And Satan is given unparalleled ability to deceive the world at this point.
Jim? I’m sure they will. And you know if you, I happen to be a guy who likes to read science fiction for recreation. And anybody reads science fiction knows what the mentality of the science fiction person is.
And it would not be hard to convince the world that Jesus Christ was some kind of a space person and that he’s about to invade the world. Given enough deception, given enough cleverness, sophistication, miraculous power. But we don’t have that yet because this period hasn’t dawned.
This is a very dramatic and unparalleled period in history. Yes sir. That’s right I think so. But they’ll probably present it like you know he was here you know as a space person or something like that.
He left to gather his armies but he’s promised his followers he’s going to come back and take over. But we’re not going to let him take over. We’re going to resist his invasion.
Marsha? Well as we will see when we discuss the battle of Armageddon there’s a very extensive passage in Zechariah that describes this battle. And the armies that are gathered together against Jerusalem are smitten with a plague in which their flesh melts away from their skin. And frankly it sounds like something atomic if you were to put it that way.
But in other words obviously the devil is feeding the people of the world the supreme lie. We can fight our creator but he doesn’t acknowledge him as a creator undoubtedly. We can fight this person that is known as Jehovah of the Old Testament or the God of Jesus Christ.
We can fight him. We have the sophistication. We have the knowledge in our day and age. We have the technology.
And also we have the spiritual power which I’ve demonstrated and which the false prophet is demonstrating. We can do it. And he’ll persuade the world that they can.
Let me just conclude the meeting by asking you to turn to Psalm 2. And if you have further questions I’ll be glad to try to answer them after the meeting is over. Remember this psalm. Psalm 2 verse 1.
Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.
The psalmist said why are the people imagining this vain thing? Why are the kings assembled against the Lord and against His anointed? Why do they say let’s break their power over us once and for all? How foolish can you get is what the psalmist is saying.
Then notice verse 4. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. This is the only time that God is said to laugh in the Bible. The Lord shall hold them in derision.
These are the puny creatures of earth fighting their Creator. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath and distress them in His deep displeasure. Yet I have set My king on My holy hill of Zion.
I don’t care what you people down there are planning to do. I laugh at it. I’m going to put My king down there on My holy hill of Zion. That’s the picture of the end of the age.
Okay let’s pray.