The Daze Of The Antichrist

We're going to open up this door this evening, uh, to the topic of the Antichrist. A lot of people, uh, make comments about the Antichrist. We're going to learn a lot over the course of, uh, the next several, uh, series or times that we get together on this one called the Antichrist.

So, if you're taking notes, here's the QR code. You can have these notes. Uh, although I must admit, the notes you can scan into your device right now, but they're not going to be very helpful to you. Uh, but you can have them nonetheless. It's an, it's a free country. You can have my notes, but you're going to want, you're going to scratch your head and say, "What in the world is this?"

But, uh, we want to remind all of you, as always, going to drill it down into your heart and into your mind, uh, and into your Bible. Uh, John 14:29 is our theme for this entire series. And I love it because, uh, only God knows this. God says, "And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe." Notice that I said, "Only God knows this." You say, "Well, Jack, THAT'S WRITTEN IN JOHN chapter 14." That's right. Only God knows the future before it comes to pass.

We have covered that in our previous sessions from in the Old Testament that God says, "I know things before they ever happen. In fact, I write them down in advance before they take place." And for the believer, that should bring us great comfort. Great comfort. Those are the words of Jesus Christ himself, which, according to the Bible, of course, he is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, God the Son. And Jesus said, "I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe." And so my argument is to get the rest of us all to think that Bible prophecy, when taught correctly, biblically, should lead others to a deeper faith. And of course, us, we who study the Bible.

So today, we're going to be looking at a series. This will be really part one of this series, and, um, and it's this: the days of the Antichrist. Notice, D-A-Y-S, the Antichrist is going to be coming. Everybody, he's going to be coming. The Bible says, uh, this person will come, and he will traffic in a spiritual fog, so to speak. A days, there is going to be bizarre things that encompass this person's life. But long before we get to who this individual is, or what he is, what he does exactly, we're going to lay down some ground rules. Isaiah 42:9 says, "Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare before they spring forth, I tell you of them."

And so, regarding the Antichrist, know this: that the Bible is the source book. It's the source manual for the Antichrist and who and what this individual is all about, the Antichrist. And you might be a little surprised to find out that we, we shouldn't even be calling him the Antichrist. But I, I'll tell you why in a moment. But because it's so ingrained in our thinking, uh, we will refer to him as the Antichrist. You'll see why in a moment.

But church, from the very beginning, deception appears on the scene, right in the opening throws of the Bible, deception. And, uh, if you would write down in your notes this one thing: that whenever we talk about the Antichrist, we're talking about a system, we're talking about, um, a group, and we're talking about a person. I'll explain this more in a moment, but just write that down. There's a trichotomy to this Antichrist word. It's one word, Antichrist. It's not two words. It's one word in the English. And so when we say Antichrist, there is the spirit of Antichrist. There are those who are false teachers and false prophets. They are antichrists, plural. But then there's the coming of the definite article, the Antichrist. And that's the one when we mention Antichrist, that's the one that people think about.

Now, you might be saying here tonight, and look, don't, don't show me your hands because it, it doesn't matter. This is a non-denominational church that you've just stepped into. Uh, we hold to certain biblical, uh, teachings, doctrines that, first of all, are fundamentally Christian. And then some of those, someone might say, "Well, those are more peripheral to me. Maybe don't know about that. I'm going to hang on to them pretty close." For one thing, I don't think it's a peripheral doctrine that Jesus Christ is coming back. THERE ARE SOME people who go to church AND THEY'LL TELL YOU, "WELL, WE don't believe Jesus IS ACTUALLY COMING BACK." It's symbolic. I'm sorry. Maybe I'm dogmatic, but I can't go to that church. If he, look, if he said he's coming back and HE'S NOT REALLY COMING BACK, THEN I'M GOING TO GO READ THE FUNNY PAPERS. I don't need to read my Bible. Are you hearing me?

>> I want to know the truth. >> And I want to know everything that he's telling me. And I want to know what is allegorical. And I want to know what's real. And by the way, the Bible tells you all of that. You know this. You know this well. But maybe there's somebody here that's new. Here's an allegorical statement of a truth. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove. So, you watch a movie where Jesus is baptized and he comes up out of the water, and they show a dove landing on Jesus's shoulder.

>> Why do they show that? One thing we know for sure is that a dove did not land on Jesus's shoulder. ANYTHING BUT IT COULD HAVE BEEN A TURKEY, BUT NOT A DOVE. THE ANSWER was is nothing landed on him. THE HOLY SPIRIT CAME UPON him like a dove would land on your head. You hear what I'm saying? When the Bible speaks about an allegorical or type, or a type, it says so. And I saw, John says, "I saw as it were a great red dragon rising up out of the sea." John saw what was like a great, whatever he saw, it scared him to death. And all that he could equate to to us was it was like a red dragon. Do you hear what I'm saying?

>> When the Bible says, "And the devil appeared to Jesus," and said, "That is no allegorical statement. >> That's a fact." And so this is very, very important truth. And so what we're going to be looking at is just the opening doors of this.

When we talk about the days of the Antichrist, the number one thing, the number one thing on the Antichrist agenda is actually the number one thing on the agenda of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the souls of men. Will you write that down? The war for the souls of mankind. There is Jesus Christ who came to give his life that you might have forgiveness and eternal life. And then there's the Antichrist. And I'll explain this in detail in a moment. He has come to do the exact opposite. He's the one that is seeking TO PULL YOU AWAY FROM GOD. HE'S the one that's seeking to try to get you distracted and in, in his camp. And if he can JUST RUN OUT THE CLOCK ON YOUR LIFE AND GET YOU TO breathe your last breath without accepting Christ, he has plucked your soul from the salvation of God's grace that is reaching out to you. But because of satanic influence and you, um, getting hooked by the spirit of Antichrist, your soul is lost. And that's how Satan inflicts pain into the heart of ALMIGHTY GOD.

You do know that the Bible says the devil is defeated. Do you know that? >> He's defeated. >> I tell you what, he's defeated, but he sure is, uh, persistent. He's defeated. He's not been cast into hell yet. So, he's, look, he may be a devil, but he's smart enough to figure this out. Okay, so my days are numbered and I'm doomed. What am I going to do? Sit around and let everybody take a cruise and? No, I am going to, with the time that I have, ruin as many people's lives as possible. Listen up, everybody. Listen. There's a, there's, don't miss this because there's some depth in this. If he's defeated, but he won't give up, what's the big deal? You. >> You are the big deal. >> YOUR SOUL. LISTEN. WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT? I think God just pre-programmed some people go to heaven and some people go to hell. Where'd you get that idea from? The Bible SAYS THAT IT'S BASED ON GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE. HE KNOWS ALL THINGS IN advance before it happens. He doesn't make you believe.

>> He knows in advance that when the gospel is given, those who will accept and those who will reject. He knows that in eternity. His foreknowledge, that is his preview. He, nobody has that but God alone. That's his prerogative. Satan doesn't know that. So he is out to get you, and you, and you, and you, to try to get you to get just a little bit off course from God, or a whole lot off course from God. He doesn't care how far off you are, as long as you are.

>> So that you'll never come to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will parade himself as some sort of Messiah. We'll be learning all about that. But there's so much more behind all of this. A familiar verse to all of us studying Bible prophecy. And yet it answers this very thing. There's a war for the souls of mankind. And it began in Genesis 3:15. How many times have we been to Genesis 3:15 on these Wednesday nights? But man, I tell you, it's something. God is speaking. He says, "I will put enmity, warfare, between you, Satan, and the woman, the descendant of Eve, and between your seed, Satan, that's wild." Scholars argue back and forth on this. We know this for sure, that the Satan has his seed, his offspring. But, but how far can we push that? In the most basic level, we can say that Satan has his offspring, meaning all those who do not believe must somehow be right, uh, in in that, in that DNA, so to speak, spiritually speaking, of that genre of Satan's seed. Some, listen, there's some great ancient scholars that believe that Satan, his descendants are those who, like Jesus said it, remember when Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees, "You are of your father, the devil." Some ancient scholars speculate that that statement could be much deeper than what we take it on as at the surface. That there's not the, there's not the universal brotherhood of man. You ever heard that? There's not, we're, we're not just one family. The Bible says no. No, we're not. The Bible says there's believers and unbelievers. Did you know that? It's an interesting statement that the Bible says that Satan has his seed, and listen, the woman, her seed, capital C, divinity, hers is different, and it's singular. His is plural. Satan, hers is singular, speaking of the Messiah. There's only going to be one Messiah that's going to come through a human woman.

>> Wow. He shall bruise or crush your head. Satan's, Satan's going to get a head crushing. >> And you shall bruise his heel. You are going to inflict pain into the heel of the Messiah, the seed of the woman. Tremendous prophecy. In fact, watch this. We're going to look at it like this. Here we see how Satan operates in the spirit of Antichrist. Are you guys awake? Are you okay? In the spirit. Write that. Can you write that down? This is just, just write this down. Th, this is how Satan operates in the spirit of Antichrist. I'm going to read it to you. We're, this is an example. Genesis 3:1. [snorts] "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." I can't wait to find out once we get to heaven, what in the world does that mean? He was more cunning. The serpent, you know, he's going to get in trouble. I don't understand this. It's a serpent. But Satan will somehow possess it. Somehow Satan will use it. Are you tracking with me? When Eve talks to the serpent, she doesn't say, "Oh my gosh, you know, this garden of Eden is just nothing but full of surprises. Here's a talking snake." Don't you think she would have freaked out? The snake's talking? Why didn't she freak out when the snake spoke and Satan was using its mouth or talking through it or possessing it or whatever? Why didn't she freak out? I'm just, I'm asking you. You would have thought she freaked out. It should have said that when the snake spoke to her, she ran. She doesn't run. Just kind of creepy. Can snakes talk? I don't know. Because I hate snakes. It never goes well. I've read my Bible. I will obey. Stay away from snakes.

So now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said?" You hear that? Doubt. Satan is speaking through this serpent. "Doubt. Has God said?" There's a lot of that going on right now. Is that what God really meant? Listen, anybody, listen, young people, listen up. If you're listening to somebody and they say, "Wait a minute. But is that what God really meant?" You know, you know who I'm talking about. There's a handful of them. >> You know those guys that are in your head right now? They sound just like Satan. >> Yeah, but the Bible says this. But is that what God really meant? You guys, some of the most famous names in the world in the broadcast world right now fit the bill.

>> And there's some knucklehead Christians going, "Oh, I think they're so cool. I think you better listen to them again. They're coming from the camp of the one with the split tongue." Is that what God really meant? I could go all night on that one. "Has in, has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die." Now he's contradicting God. He's calling God a liar. Then the serpent said to the woman, "You shall not surely die." Verse five. Verse five. "For God knows that the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened." Oo, opened. You hear him speaking. Oh, just do this thing and your life will be awesome. God knows. See, he's withholding from you, Eve. He's not as good as he says he is. He's holding back. He's holding some good stuff back from you. You ever heard people say, "I don't want to follow God. My, I don't want my life being restricted like that." They have no idea of what they're missing out on. They have no idea, by the way, how limited their life is.

>> They think that their drug, and their sex, and their partying, and their, and their money is liberty and freedom. They have no idea that with every day they wake up and live it, they're wrapping chains around their life.

>> It's a lie of the devil. Thank God he has set us free. Aren't you, aren't you grateful that he has set you free? I am so grateful. [applause] I'm so grateful that your eyes would be open and you will be like God. So any, any teaching that says you will be like God is from Satan, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, number two, that it was pleasant to the eyes. So pretty bling. It tastes really good. It's very sparkly. And a tree desirable to make one wise. Wow. That means I'll be greater than Adam. I don't know if that's true or not. I just made that up. She took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Now, some scholars say Adam was there. Some, some say he wasn't there. I don't believe he was there. First of all, I want, I want to believe he was not there because if Adam was there, if Adam was there, it's like, "Step up, boy. Uh, Adam, any moment now would be good to step in and kick the snake right in the tail, punch his nose, something." Adam, >> Are you hearing me? >> Yes. >> So I, in my, in my mind, Adam was out plowing the field somewhere.

>> I hope. >> But if he was a spectator to the destruction of his wife, [sighs] >> you don't want to be a husband who's a spectator to the destruction of your home and of your wife. Oh, so she gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were open, and they knew, excuse me, they knew that they were naked. Isn't that amazing? Their light went out. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings all over their body, not just private parts. And they, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, which was normal. That's, that was the norm. Wow. Wouldn't that be amazing to hear God walking in the garden >> in the cool of the day? What did that sound like? Oh my gosh, that had to be awesome. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among, uh, the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said, "Where are you?" A translation. I know exactly where you're at because I know all things. So when I say, "Where are you?" say, "I'm right here. Confess." So, where are you? So he said, "I heard YOUR VOICE IN THE GARDEN AND I WAS AFRAID BECAUSE I WAS naked and I hid myself." That is a huge statement. Verse 10, everybody. There's a deep, deep psychological, spiritual, physical message to verse 10. And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you that you should not eat?" Then the man said, "The woman." Here you go. [laughter] Instead of him saying, "Yes, Lord, I did it. Please forgive me." I think God would have forgiven them, and you and I right now would have been in paradise.

>> But nope, you know, God, it's your fault. You gave me that faulty woman. The woman whom you gave me to be with me. She gave me the tree, gave me, uh, of the tree, and I ate." And the Lord God said to THE WOMAN, "WHAT IS THIS THAT YOU'VE DONE?" THE WOMAN SAID, "THAT SERPENT DECEIVED ME." AND I ATE. So the Lord God said to the serpent, I mean, just down the line, "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go." Which is interesting. Which meant previously, on its belly, it did not go. So this, whatever the serpent was, it didn't, it didn't exist on its belly. The curse put it on its belly. Wow. And so, uh, on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life, and I will put enmity, there's that verse, between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Absolutely amazing.

So, who is this one? It's, it's all rooted in what Satan is intending to do with the human race, is to create a false sense of deliverance, a false sense of religion, a false sense of, uh, some form of atonement or redemption that is man-based. So, simply put, church, this way: Antichrist, the word "anti" means this. It means either instead of or in opposition to. And Christ is the word Christos, Messiah. Anti-Messiah. So number one, he is the anti-Messiah. He's against the Messiah. That spirit, Satan is the Antichrist, false prophets, false teachers. But also this Antichrist also means, uh, not only opposition, but as an impostor, instead of, to offer oneself up instead of the true Christ. This is why cults are condemned by God. This is why false prophets, listen up, everybody. Just because we're in the 21st century, this doesn't change a thing. God hates and will destroy all false prophets and false teachers. You know that. You say, "What's the big deal?" My goodness, that's kind of harsh, isn't it? Not when eternity is on the line.

>> Because false prophets and false teachers lead people astray. >> Just today, before I came here, on our door was, uh, some cult. "Join with us as we memorialize the death of Jesus." That's what it said on the cover.

>> Memorial, exc, what? Memorialize the death of Jesus. Makes it sound like he's dead. >> Memorial. Let's memorialize the death of Jesus. Go ahead. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. [cheering] Big difference. [applause] Big difference. Big, big difference for sure. And then also, I want to show you this. Well, first I'll read you the verse, and then we'll look at a couple of, uh, things right here. But Genesis 10:8 and 9. This is background to the Antichrist. Watch this. You, you're going to want to make note of this. In Genesis 10, you're going to meet the first Antichrist. The first Antichrist recorded in scripture. "Cush begat Nimrod. And he began, uh, he began to be mighty on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore, it is said, like Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar."

I'm going to show you a map real quick because there's a real. This is so fun, man. I hope you're an atheist right now, somebody in here. Because I got to tell you something. You see down at the bottom by, [clears throat] the Persian Gulf. See, you're of the Chaldees. That's where Abraham was from. That's a pagan worshipping crazy place, man. How do we know? We know for absolute certainty because archaeological evidence is all over and on display in museums all over the world. I wish, I wish I could scoop all of you up right now with the atheists in our group in the front, and we would all go to the British Museum of History.

>> Okay? Or we would go to the Museum of Pergamon in Berlin, or the Ashmolean in London, or else, I should say, Oxford, England. And you know what we would see? WE WOULD SEE ALL OF THE WRITINGS AND THE artifacts of their deities and of their, um, dwellings, and their language, and their alphabet from all these that are mentioned here. Lish, the Elamites, the Sumerian, uh, Sumerian Sumerians, the, uh, Uruk, the from Babylon, Akkad, ALL OF THESE. Did you know these are actual real archaeological discoveries, and they're in the Bible? So, if you look at this map, you see the Tigris and the Euphrates River. You see all that. You see the Egyptians and the Hittites and the Assyrians up there by Nineveh. By the way, uh, we know that Nimrod founded, um, Babel, but we don't often remember that Nimrod was also the founder of Nineveh. Nimrod was one powerful guy. Next map, or I think that's the best, the better map, but, um, yeah, the, the other map's better, but that's okay, we'll, we'll move on. Uh, check, check this out. This is amazing.

So Nimrod, Nimrod, when it says he was a mighty man, a hunter before the Lord, we read that in the English, and it sounds like, oh, he must, God must have blessed him in his hunting. It means the exact opposite. It means that Nimrod was in competition with the Lord, a hunter before the Lord. He was a hunter of men's souls. He was, uh, he was the first, if we want to put it this way, that we can relate to. Nimrod was the first tyrant in scripture. Now, maybe there were others before him, but we know this for sure. Nimrod was the big guy. Nimrod had ideas. He was powerful. He was probably extremely gifted. We know that he must have been, uh, strangely spiritual. Boy, I tell you, if you guys want to go deep, go into a study called "The Two Babylons" by Alexander Hislop. Uh, Nimrod, Nimrod had a wife by the name of Semiramis. And, uh, you get into that history, and then it starts getting into ancient, uh, Babylonian mythology, and it will freak you out. Uh, but let me tell you, Nimrod was somebody that he was a hunter in front of God. He was ahead of God, in competition with God FOR THE SOULS OF MEN TO GATHER TO HIMSELF as many as he could. He had a plan, everybody. Nimrod had a plan. You say, "Jack, I don't believe a word you're saying." That's okay. Just write this down and, and know this. Nimrod had a plan, and he was the first manifestation of an antichrist man and spirit because he wanted to undo the God of heaven, and he wanted to do his own thing. And you're going to see how much so.

Genesis chapter 11. Remarkable. "Now the whole earth had one language and one speech." What do you think that was, by the way? What do you think the language was? [snorts] The whole earth had one language and one speech. Okay. Uh, I, I'm going to insert this. This is my thinking. Not only do I, not only do I believe verse one, but I also personally believe, for whatever reason, it may, it doesn't have to be true, but I wouldn't doubt if the land bridges of the continents were intact at such a time. I'm just throwing that out there. You, did you hear what I just said? Just say, I mean, just listen and see if it works or not. [laughter] See if the land bridges work. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? Land bridges. Well, Will went to fourth grade right now. "Now the whole earth had one language." Everybody's saying the one same language. Wouldn't that be fun? One speech. "And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar." Isn't that interesting? Where did, where was oil first found in the Middle East? Can't have, can't have oil without asphalt. Right there in the Bible the whole time. [snorts]

And so verse four, "And they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.'" Boy, what are they worried about? What's going on here? Who wants to make a name for themselves? They sound like a little, they sound kind of, um, what's the word?

>> Narcissist. [laughter] >> Narcissistic from last Sunday. They seem, they seem what? A little, uh, what's going on here? But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. Now, this part is in the New Living Translation. Look, he said, "The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, or because of this, they all speak the same language. Nothing that they set out to do will be impossible for them." Notice the criteria. God said, "If they're able to speak the same language and continue to speak the same language, but with this attitude of, 'Let's go make a name for ourselves,' there is nothing that mankind will not be able to do." Guys, that's a scary thought. And, and if you say, "Well, I don't know how, how true that is." Might I remind you, we're in the 21st century right now, and we are inventing machines that can outsmart us. By the way, side note, did you know that while today we were living today, our day today, it was nighttime in the Middle East? And did you know that Mossad, not the IDF, but the Mossad officially deployed never-before-seen or used drones at all the Republican, uh, the Iranian Republican Guard locations where they were either terrorizing people, torturing people, or killing people. And these drones began to take out these bad guys. And here's, here's the part that's like, what? These drones were so small that you, you couldn't see them coming. And most of them were airborne drones, but some of them were land-based drones. Land-based drone. >> Like something walked up to them. >> I mean, we got to find out what that's all about. Yikes. That's what we invent. Uh, we can, you know, when we start speaking the same language, we can invent anything. Apparently, God warns us. And by the way, what is the language that the whole world now speaks? We're getting back to one language. You know what it is? It's technology.

>> If we speak technology, it doesn't matter if you're a German, Japanese, Chinese, or an American. It doesn't matter what your, your, your language of humanity is. Forget all that stuff. It's all algorithms and numbers. It's technology. Tech. I, I think we're talking about technology being the language of the last days that unites man back to do unbelievable things. And so God warns us, hey, if man can talk, there's nothing that he won't be able to put together. Verse 7, "Come, let us go down and confuse the people with different languages, then they won't be able to understand each other." So the Lord scattered them abroad from there from the face of, uh, all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore, its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. Absolutely amazing. Don't you think this is, this is absolutely amazing?

Nimrod is gathering together a group to build the city and to build a tower. And the tower, city is one thing, I get it. The tower was to reach to heaven. In some of the ancient depictions of Nimrod, he's at the top of the tower with his bow to shoot God down out of heaven. Nimrod was the first type of an Antichrist. We'll build our own city. We're going to have our own religion. Our religion will override the God of heaven. We will build our religion, and we will shoot God down. What a remarkable thing. But I believe that technology is that language that's bringing us back to that place.

By the way, I mentioned the Antichrist, how we unusually use that name or that title when he's called by so many other things. But I'm going to give you these verses very quick. 1 John chapter 2 verse 18. And, uh, it's interesting. John, John is the only author of the, uh, in the New Testament that uses the title, the name Antichrist. He's the only one. Isn't that interesting? I was reminded of that today. I actually forgot that John's the only one. And you're, you're going to see them right here, right now. 1 John 2:18, "Little children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, that's the person. Even now many antichrists, plural, have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. The more false teaching you hear, the more false churches, false prophets, spiritual activity that says there's some other way." There you go. John said that just proves that you're in the last hours. Wow. Next verse. 1 John 2:22. "Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son." If anybody that goes for anybody. If anybody says anybody, if your grandmother says Jesus and and the Father are, they're not God. They're not related. They're, that's not true. That is the spirit of Antichrist.

>> Sorry, Grandma, but you got to get with it. Next verse, 1 John 4:3. "And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world." John said that 2,000 years ago. How much more now? Because we're deeper. Next verse. 2 John 1:7. "For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an Antichrist." I'm not going to name some of the cults that say that, but they are Antichrist.

I want you to run through this list. We don't have much time. I can't believe this. We're just going to go fast. So, [clears throat] the Antichrist by titles and names. Watch this, everybody. And you know what? For time's sake, this is, this is not even all of them. This is not all of them. This is so Old Testament names and allusions to Antichrist. He's known as the Adversary. That doesn't surprise anybody, but he's known as the Assyrian, uh, and Nimrod. Nimrod typology illusion. Bile, the bloody deceitful man. This is referenced in scripture, by the way. You can take a picture of this or look at it in your notes. You can do a Bible search on these names, and you'll find the scriptural references. I just didn't have the room to write, write all that. The Branch of the Terrible Ones. That is a very eerie title of Satan, Antichrist, and those who serve him. That, uh, Satan is the source of the terrible ones, which hints about fallen angels being under Satan's rule. Creepy. A study for some other time. He's also known, or the Antichrist spirit is the Chief Prince, the Idol Shepherd, the fake shepherd. He's known as the Cruel One, the Destroyer of Nations. Isn't that interesting that Satan in his Antichrist spirit would be the destroyer of nations? Could Satan be behind the breaking down of borders around the world?

>> It's not just California. You know, I hope you know that. >> There's a worldwide mind that is united somehow, I believe, demonically, spiritually, to demand that their countries break down borders. God created nations. Satan's the destroyer of nations.

>> He's known as the Enemy. That's obvious. The Evil One. Obvious. The Ruler of Nations. That's his goal. Isn't that creepy? Wow. The King of Princes, the King of Babylon. This gets technical. We'll answer this in a few weeks. The Little Horn. Technically, we'll see. He's known as the 11th horn. Horn. That's okay. Don't panic. The word "horn" in the Old Testament is another word for king. He's the little king. The Antichrist will come as an insignificant guy that is in the, he's, he's hanging out with the big wheels. And the big wheels are the big 10. But out of the 10, there's going to come another guy, but he's called the 11th horn. And he's little. And he comes up. Nobody notices him. And then he winds up subduing the three top leaders. This is all from the book of Daniel. And he promotes himself and becomes the, the one that you know of as the Antichrist. The Prince that shall come, the Seed of the Serpent. Wow. Remember Genesis 3? The Wicked One. The Willful King. Remarkable.

Now look at the New Testament names and allusions. Abaddon or Apollyon, the Beast, the False Prophet, the Father of Lies, the God of this Age, the Lawless One, the Man of Sin, he who is in or of his own name. Name being authority. He traffs, he claims his own authority. Uh, that's important if you're ever involved in a, in somebody that's being demonized. One of the things that the demon or demons within that individual will demand, they'll demand that they have authority over the individual that you're dealing with. This is, we, we own him. We own her. They claim authority, and that's a lie. A lot of that going on these days, and people writing it off as, uh, mental illness when strange voices come out of somebody, and they, and that voice says, "Don't get near us. Stay away. We are staying right here. Nobody's telling us what to do." The Christian, I'm speaking to the Christian right now. You got to understand something. When you hear that, if you, do you ever encounter that? You're, you're hearing a liar.

>> You usurp authority over someone's life that is not theirs to do. That's where the believer steps in and has the authority by Christ Jesus >> to rescue such a person from demonic activity. >> You need to remember that. And these things are rising in the world tremendously. So the Prince of Darkness, the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Son of Perdition. The Star, the Unclean Spirit. Now, we COULD WE PUT ALL those titles and allusions together and we c, we say Antichrist? We need to be more careful, uh, when, when we read these, uh, because it's much more technical, uh, than we think.

2 Timothy chapter 3 verse, uh, 1 says this. I mean, just think about this. The, the words that Paul is writing to Timothy here, it's almost like Paul hung out with us today and, and wrote us this note before he left. "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves." Warning. [clears throat] Warning. I know it sounds crazy, but men will be lovers of themselves. What does that mean? Loving themselves so much that other people have to pay. Other people have to pay so that they are satisfied. Lovers of money. What will men, you know what I mean by, I'm not beating up on the men. Um, mankind. What will men and women do for money?

>> Boasters. Do we not live in a boastful age? Proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents. I know that sounds strange to most of us, but that was a joke. We have, we have children suing parents now.

>> Isn't it weird? They're underage. They're 12 years old. They want something done. Mommy, mom, and mommy and daddy say no. So they go tell the, the school, and then the school calls child protection. And then somebody calls an attorney, and this kid's rights have been violated by the parents because the kid has the right to do whatever he wants to do with his own body. Folks, we're living in perilous times. Unbelievable. Unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And here's a crackup. This is so scary, but that it's funny. Having a form of godliness, but denying its power. In other words, you can find them on church on Sunday. That whole list we just read, they're very spiritual people having a form of godliness. They parade around like, like they're all good. Have you ever seen these shows where people have these lives that people are shocked to find out about? The guy lived next door. He was quiet, normal guy. Mowed his lawn, and then you hear all the stuff that he was or is, or whatever. There you go. The Bible says, "From such people turn away."

How does this happen? The spirit of Antichrist. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. We're almost done. "Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first. The apostasy." [snorts] Apostasia. "The man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition." That is the Antichrist. That's the man. He's known as the son of perdition. By the way, there was one other known as the son of perdition. Anybody know who he is?

>> Judas. >> Judas. Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped. Now, this is wild. Everybody listen to me. This is the 21st century. This is 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. The Holy Spirit is speaking through the apostle. There's the temple. The temple in Israel is gone. It's destroyed. 70 AD it was destroyed. Are you hearing me? [clears throat] Listen to what the Bible says. "So that he, the Antichrist, sits as God in the temple of God." That means there's going to be a temple again, rebuilt.

>> There has to be. Showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining that he may be revealed in his own time. There's some power holding him back from being revealed. You, you see that, everybody? Don't take my word for it. Look at that. There is a, there is a power that is resisting the unveiling of this Antichrist. There's something holding him back. There's a restraining force. And now, and now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery OF LAWLESSNESS IS ALREADY AT WORK. Only he who now restrains. Look, everybody, look how he is spelled. Look at it in your Bible. It's capital H. It's God. It's not you. It's not me. It's not the church. It's God holding back the evil. And if God relaxes, the Antichrist appears. Do you know how God holds back the evil? Through the church.

>> It's not us. It's Him through us. >> We're supposed to be the ones that calling out evil. We're the ones that are supposed to be holding the line on what's good. We're the ones that are to be salt and light. As we are, the Spirit of God will hold back the tide, as it were, of the Antichrist. But watch this. Didn't Jesus say in John's gospel that I'm going to leave you, the church, but I'm going to come WHEN THE SPIRIT OF GOD COMES. I'm going to leave. The Spirit of God will come. AND WHEN HE COMES, he will dwell with you and be in you. And I will never LEAVE YOU ORPHANED. I WILL COME to you. That's what HE SAID. I WILL come to you speaking via the Holy Spirit.

>> So wherever the Holy Spirit goes or is, that's where we are, unless there's an interruption. Watch this. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. For only he who now restrains will do so until he is what?

>> Until he is taken out of the way. It doesn't mean he leaves. It means he is taken out of the way. Any of you guys played football? And you want, if you're a quarterback or a running back, you always wanted to buy all of your linemen hamburgers and milkshakes and gifts because if your linemen worked for you, you had a good day. But if your linemen didn't like you, they would just turn like this, and those linemen or linebackers would kill you back here. Are you with me, everybody? That's the word. The Spirit of God is holding back the evil until he goes like this, and he lets it go. And this is my opinion. What I believe what happens when he lets it go. That's John 14, verse 1, 2, and 3, where the Holy Spirit says, "Here, Jesus, here's your church.

>> Here's your church. Take it." He steps out of the way, and then the wicked one is revealed. That's why this verse, that's why I believe the church, we will never know who the Antichrist is.

>> I don't think it's even possible. WELL, IF WE DO KNOW, we'll be looking down from up there. How's that? >> I think that's a very, very wonderful thing. And then, notice then, that's a time stamp. That's a big word. Then, and then, meaning only then can the lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. That's the second coming, by the way. Second coming. He's going to destroy him with the brightness of his, technically, second coming. And the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those among those who are perishing. Listen, people who are being deceived, and they love it, they fit verse 10. Sad, but it's true. Because why? Because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. They didn't want to get saved. You and I know people who we want them to get saved, but they don't want to be saved. Did you know that?

>> We want them in heaven so bad. >> They don't want to go. And we don't want you bringing them because if they don't want to go, they're going to make the whole place up there sad. We're all going to be praising God, and they're going to be, they're going to be kicking cans. And no, I'm joking. Of course, they won't BE THERE. THEY DON'T WANT TO BE THERE. THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO DON'T WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN.

>> Isn't that wild? >> They don't want to go. And for this reason, verse 11, GOD WILL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION so that they will believe the lie. Not a lie, THE lie. That they all may be condemned who did not, well, they had the opportunity. That's what it means. Who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. That's terrifying, folks. We have to end. We have to END RIGHT NOW. THAT'S terrifying that there are those maybe sitting in the sanctuary. THEY KNOW THE GOSPEL, but they don't believe it. They don't obey it. And what if the rapture happens this evening? What if it happens? And you're the one who's sitting here right now. You're the one that you could tell us the gospel. I have friends like this. I have friends.

Who, who do not believe in God. And they can tell me the, they can tell me the gospel. They know it. And according to that verse you just saw a moment ago, if they know it and the rapture happens in 10 minutes, God will send them strong delusion because they had the opportunity to believe and they didn't take it.

Just like Noah, remember Noah gets in the, in the boat, in the ark. That's kind of weird, huh? They all get in the ark and the, and the door's too big to close. That door was open for a few days, you know, and Noah, Mrs. Noah, and the kids, they're all, all eight of them. They're all in there. And they might, can you imagine the heckling? "Hey, how's it going in there, Noah? Is it getting kind of stinky in there? Sure you don't want to come out?" Wow.

And then, can you imagine an ungodly world mocking, making fun of Noah, looking at the ark? The Bible said it had never rained before. The Bible said that before Noah entered the ark, dew came up from the earth and watered the earth. It had never rained from above before. Can you imagine clouds start forming and lightning, thunder, rain starts dropping and all by itself, invisible, can you imagine the door shuts, sealing in Noah and his family and sealing out an unbelieving world?

The modern day ark experience would be you. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Jesus died on the cross for my sins, rose again from the dead. I've heard a thousand times. If the rapture happened tonight at midnight, wouldn't that be great? Now, we know it's not going to happen at midnight because I just said that. [snorts] No man knows the day or the hour, so I just blew it. You know, when you wake up in the morning, we'll all be gone and you'll be able to tell people the gospel. But the thing is, you sounds like you won't be able to because God, with that moment, God will seal you. Seal, s-e-a-l, seal you with a delusion because you had your chance.

Somebody once said, "Everyone and all of humanity will at least will have at least one prayer answered. Every human being will have one prayer answered." I thought, "That's kind of a weird thing to say." And then I kept reading and the guy was right. Everybody will have one prayer answered, at least one. That, that there'll, there'll be those who want Jesus and they'll invite him into their life. And there'll be those who don't want Jesus. "I don't want you in my life, God." And God will answer their prayer. "Okay, you don't want me. Okay, there's nothing wrong with that."

You know, think about it. What do you mean there's nothing wrong with that, Pastor Jack? They're going to go to hell. They don't mind. They don't mind. Isn't it amazing that you and I care about their souls and their forever more than they do? You want to know why? Because they're lost. They have no appetite for God, so they don't want him. What seed are they of? Wow.

Well, but wait a minute. There was a time in my life when I didn't want God. But when I did hear the gospel, it shot through my heart like a burning arrow. When I heard that I can't go to heaven because of these things that I have thought and/or done, but mostly because I didn't have a savior. That troubled me. I was, but the Bible says convicted. If you died tonight, would you go to heaven? What if the trumpet blows? Are you going up?

>> Look, I, I may be, I may be a, a nut, but God takes nuts up if they're forgiven and washed in the blood of the lamb. [applause] I have found this to be true. And then we end all those who know him, they know that they know him. It's being in the family. Now you may doubt your faithfulness to him. We all doubt that. And that's for good reason because none, none of us are very faithful to him as we should be. But we don't doubt that we're his. We're, we're sick about how often we blow it.

>> But if somebody were to ask us, "Are you a child of the living God?"

>> Man, I'd say, "Well, I mean, it doesn't look like I am, but I am." The believer can say that >> with humble confidence, >> can you say that tonight?

>> Listen, let's pray right now. And you decide what you're going to do with your sin. You're going to keep it. Then you're going to go down just like a Persian ship. [laughter] [applause] You're going to get rid of it. You're going to give it to him. Then you're going to float into the everlasting arms of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Father God, we pray right now that as our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, we pray right now, Jesus. The hour is late, service is over, clock is ticking, but this just takes a moment for anyone who's here tonight who's a sinner and they know it and they want their sins to be forgiven and they, they are now saying, "I want to have a new life. I want to live for and with Jesus Christ." If that's you today, nobody looking around, please. I'll just be looking around. Will you raise your hand up high? Not halfway. If God is speaking to you, raise your hand. If you feel tension, if you feel like there's a big thumb kind of squishing you down in your seat or poking you in the chest, that's him. You feel kind of called out, that's him. Raise your hand if that's you. Awesome. Many hands. Many hands. You can put your hands down. Church family, let's pray this prayer with them. Those of you who raised your hands, pray this prayer.

Dear Lord,

>> Dear Lord,

>> I come to you.

>> For the first time ever,

>> in the name of Jesus.

>> In the name of Jesus,

>> my Christ.

>> My redeemer.

>> My redeemer.

>> My resurrected Lord.

>> My resurrected Lord.

I tonight

>> I tonight

>> give you my sins.

[snorts]

>> Come into my life.

>> Save me.

>> Make me your own.

>> Because I choose tonight

>> to follow you.

>> Follow you

>> from this time forward.

>> In Jesus name I pray.

>> In Jesus name.

>> And all God's people said,

>> "Amen."

>> Amen.

Wow.