God has alerted mankind to what's coming. God is telling humanity: look, I'm telling you what's going to happen. And one part says, we don't believe it, we will not have this man rule over us, and they will be on team Antichrist. Another part is Christians through the ages. And yet another part are the people that will convert during the Revelation period because they're going to be people pointing these things out.
And they're going to receive them. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Revelation. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching.
Now, here's Pastor Rick as he continues teaching through the book of Revelation, chapter 17, on this edition of Cross-Reference Radio. By verse 16, the ten horns of Antichrist's world system will turn on the apostate and corrupt religious system and destroy it. Those ten horns are the ten toes. in Daniel's vision of iron represent that iron in Daniel in its prophetic uh context represents the iron eagles of ancient Rome. But when it's in the future, it's mingled with clay.
Humanity embraces this Western civilization, but is weak. and will be destroyed. And so these, the Antichrist and his regime is called the beast because it encompasses behavior prophesied by men like Daniel. The ten horns, as I mentioned, belong to that Daniel chapter 2, verses 32 to 33, if you want to look that up. On which the woman sits.
So, this links this religious Babylon, mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots. It links her to the Western civilization's rule and headquarters of Antichrist. The beast gives her permission to sit with him. He holds all the power and will yield none of it, and that's why he will turn. Verse 10.
Yeah. What did you learn in church today?
Well, it's going to be a mess in the end. That there's a way that seems right to man, but its way leads to death. and that we should pay attention. And that God has put together a record of the future for us. Verse 10, there are also seven kings.
Five have fallen. One is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. You see the personal pronoun that is associated with the coming king.
So this is prophetic. In connection. With uh the Seven headed Monster?
So we look back at Let's revisit this language. There are also seven kings, five have fallen. One is And the other has not yet come.
Well, the other kingdoms, the five. Egypt, Syria, Babylon, the Medo-Persian. And the Greek or Grecian Empire started with Alexander the Great, and when he died, it divided it into four.
So there's your five kingdoms, and then there's the Rome that is presently the ruler. Of the Western world and into North Africa and parts of Asia Minor at the time that John wrote this. But what about the one to come? There are also seven kings, five have fallen. One is, the one is Rome, the other five is Egypt onto Greece.
And one is yet to come. That's Antichrist. You get that from Daniel chapter 2, verses 37 through 45. And Daniel in the vision zoomed in on that one. He said, I want to know more about this fourth beast.
Because he was such a monster. God has alerted mankind to what's coming. God is telling humanity: look, I'm telling you what's going to happen. And one part says, We don't believe it. We will not have this man rule over us, and they will be on team Antichrist.
Another part is Christians through the ages. And yet another part are the people that will convert during the Revelation period because they're going to be people pointing these things out. And they're going to receive them. And now I covered the five have fallen.
Now These were empires. There were other kingdoms, but these were. dominant empires. that were leading up to the last empire. Of the kings of the earth.
That is going to be by Western civilization. Look at it, if you see a picture or a Chinese leader on television, he's wearing a suit. and tie. That's Western civilization's influence. If you look at the Persian or the Iranian army, And you look at their uniforms.
And their insignia. It comes from the United Kingdom. When when the British Empire ruled the world. And you see this When if you look into the uh the slums of of some African city, You'll see people walking around with Nike shirts on or things that say they're not in Chinese, they're not in Korean. They belong to Western civilization.
So my point that I'm trying to make is Western civilization is the one influencing the world. And this is the one that Antichrist will come out of. And I don't think it's a stretch at all. And so, where he says here in verse 10, one is and the other has not yet come, and when he comes, he must continue a short time. Yeah, that's the seven-year period that Antichrist rises to power.
And the last three years, he goes out of his mind, he goes against Israel, and it's a short run. He's done. And Armageddon will be his end. Verse 11. The beast that was and is not.
is himself also the eighth. and is of the seventh and is going to perdition. How do you teach on that? Just from that verse. And not open up all of Daniel and go through all of that.
And he said, listen, this is too much information for me. Can you just tell me, get to the point? Yeah, okay. I'll try. It's the eighth.
because he is the resurgent of that Roman Empire. On top of these other leaders, Daniel chapter 7. I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them. before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots, And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and the mouth speaking pompous words. And this is revisited in Daniel to the same character.
the Antichrist. The beast from hell, the man of sin. A son of perdition. Distinct From everything else in history. Verse 12.
Then the ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority. for one hour as kings with the beast. This is where we need charts, but let's look at the ten horns which you saw are ten kings. The ten toes.
Well, let me give you this sub ruler scenario. as he divides his kingdom into districts to rule the world. Asia and Africa and Australia, there's three. The Middle East, Western Europe, Eastern Europe. Three more six.
North America, Central America, South America, and the North Atlantic. 10. Just an example. None of this is far-fetched. It would be in John's day.
No one could rule the world. They couldn't even reach the world.
Now This is nothing to reach the world. He continues in verse 12: who have received no kingdom as yet.
Well, they're promised. But they're not going to survive long enough. Christ is going to come back and wipe them out. But they receive no authority under Antichrist. For one hour as Kings with the beast.
So a very short period. Verse 13. These are are of one mind. and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb.
And the Lamb will overcome them. For he is Lord of Lord and King of kings, and those who are. with him are called chosen and faithful.
Now John has to veil his language a little bit. He cannot come out. slamming the Roman Empire, they would Classify him as an insurrectionist and they would kill him.
So that's why, again, some of the language is veiled. And that's why to crack the code, you have to open up other parts of the Bible. They're unanimously wicked, it tells us in verse 13. Their hatred turns into insanity. against Israel, as we see today.
We see these complete lunatics. You think any of those rioters are heading to a Bible study after their Tired of rioting? They've made their choice, hopefully, this time, and we'll see that some of them get saved. Earth's last kings will perish at Armageddon. And John describes that battle in more detail in chapter 19.
But going back to Genesis 3. Verse 15, and I will put enmity between you and the woman. And between your seed and her seed.
Now, the woman here is not the great harlot mentioned here in 17. The woman referred to. is The virgin birth, it's actually referring to the virgin birth. the coming of Christ.
So there's going to be this enmity between the Christ and Satan. That's what God is prophesying here in Genesis 3. Because the woman doesn't have the seed, that's the man, of course, but in the context of the incarnation of Christ. There was no human man involved. And he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
So there's. And Satan's going to inflict a lot of pain. But in the end, he is He is killed.
Well, he's really put into the lake of fire forever, and in that sense, he's destroyed. This prophecy and expectation reaches its climax at Armageddon. It says here at the bottom of, well, in the middle of verse 14, and the Lamb will overcome them. Through the second coming, when Christ returns, Not as a sacrificial lamb, but as the lion. That he is, and it will be an effortless victory.
something which we don't really know too well about right now. Victories are hard to get. for we Christians. But all that will change. Revelation 19:14, and the armies of heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.
So the imagery is that of an invading army from heaven to earth. Those who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. will ultimately be victorious. We'll be in that number. And um You know, even the martyred saints will be in that number.
Daniel 2:34.
So the Bible students are like, Yeah, give me another Daniel verse, and the others are like, I don't know, what time does the service end?
Well, if you get nothing out of it, The Bible's not random. It's not some guy sitting down somewhere in a cave just making stuff up and insisting that people believe him. All the other religions of the world do that. They all insist. that you just believe what they said.
and have nothing to hang it on. The scriptures do. And it's prophecy. The prophecies are what? uh are unmatched.
So coming back to this, and the Lamb will overcome them. Daniel 2.34, you watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces and then goes on to fill the earth. And that is Daniel getting a look at Revelation 17, 18, and 19, 600 years before John even came along. It is a reversal of Revelation 13, where Evil was allowed to war against the saints and overcome them. It says here.
Where he is lord of lords and king of kings.
Well, traditionally, the Persian kings assumed that title, Nebuchadnezzar. It was Babylonian. Thought he was the king of kings and lord of lords, and all the others would think that, but it's only fulfilled in Christ. Napoleon wanted to be that and couldn't do it. And those who are with him are called chosen and faithful.
Well, the Jewish people were chosen as a people because of Abraham's response to God. Abraham believed. In the God of creation. versus the Mesopotamian gods and all the other ones that his father believed in. The Christians, however, are chosen because of our response to Christ.
God the Son.
Now There are those that will tell you Chosen means God chose you. You had no say-so in it. It's like you won the lottery. You really didn't have it was just given to you. I disagree with that doctrine, even though it's well, it's widely accepted, it's cherished.
And the main reason I disagree with it, and I think you should too. Because agreeing with me makes me happy. It makes me feel as CIM smart. I don't care about all that. But what I do care about is this.
There is no such thing as love that is forced. Love is voluntary. Agape love is voluntary. And to say that your love for God has nothing to do with it, you're chosen whether you like it or not, is to violate, is to betray the Bible's teachings on love. And that's why I'm stopping to point out when this says chosen.
It's based on love responding to love. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And to come along and arbitrarily just say, well, you know, when he says he loves the world, he's not talking about the world. Mm-hmm.
Well, what other verses would you like to manipulate into a false doctrine?
So, anyhow, that's my say on that. The chosen are those who respond to the love of God. Who submit to Him. And they are elected unto salvation based on the work of Jesus Christ and faith. And thus, the word faithful is coupled with chosen.
They're chosen and they're faithful. Faith, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The just shall live by faith. By faith, we understand. That the worlds were created.
The things which are up here are not everything that is there.
So Christians are chosen because of their response. To the one who gives them a choice, and we'll come back to that.
So you say, what about, you know, the world is such a mess. What about And how is Antichrist going to, how is he going to rule the Islamic world? They're so messed up. Just take Syria, for example. Syria, of course, got rid of there.
their tyrant Assad, who was a monster. And they've replaced it with their Um Sunni Islam. But there's like three other Islams there and they all hate each other. They're all fighting each other. They'll never surrender.
And as the Kurds brings a whole nother factor into the picture, and they hold the oil, the water, and the farmland. How is anybody going to get these people to cooperate? As masterful as people go, our present president is pretty good at negotiating deals, but he'll never be able to stabilize the world. Antichrist is going to do it for a while. It's going to be false.
It requires supernatural events to move things into these end-time scenarios. and they are coming. In verse 15, John says, Then he said to me, the angel speaking to him, The waters which you saw. Where the harlot sits are the peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.
So he's saying, her. Apostate Christianity has influenced the world in the Great Tribulation period. Multitudes including Protestant denominations have joined. Multi-denominational apostasy will be rampant. And the this is telling us who This woman, this character is, verse 16.
And the ten horns which you saw on the beast These will hate the harlot. make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
So they just won't shoot her. That's the idea, is there's a hatred here. You know Satan hates the Antichrist. Satan hates the he hates anything human. He just uses them to destroy.
But there's no love coming from him. Religious Babylon is destroyed by political slash secular Babylon. That's what's happening here. And that political end is led by Antichrist. The religious side of end times Babylon.
Is led by papal authority, but it includes Protestant Uh heretics. The beast represents the civil powers that will allow the woman to ride along for the ride until she no longer wants to share. The influence. Satan hates the apostate church that he created. We should understand this about him because what it tells us is: don't look for any love.
from anything he does. And yet we have people that will vote into office. People who are bold-faced traitors. Look at New York City.
Okay. Look at the primaries, the Democratic primaries. How do you fly American flags on fire trucks and then go down to the voting booth and empower people like this? Because they don't have a basic understanding of who the devil is. How he does business.
And you teens, you better find out quick. You better it look, it's to your advantage. to see the devil. from far off. Rather than waiting for him.
to be face to face with you. And that's why we go through the Bible. It costs time and energy to learn Scripture. Verse 17. For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose to be of one mind and to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled.
God controls the outcome of man's free will. He gives them the choice. But he does not allow those choices to change the history or the outcome that he is. demanding to happen, is certain going to let happen. Evil ultimately serves the larger purposes of God.
And never were the wicked out of God's control. That's the point. The wicked were not out of God's control. as much power as they had, as much damage as they have done. It wasn't God wringing his fingers.
How am I going to reel these guys in? They were all controlled by the God they hated and refused to believe.
So the individual chooses to soften his heart, towards God, or to harden his heart towards God. Satan, Pharaoh, Herod, the Sanhedrin, Judas Iscariot. The Antichrist, they chose to harden their heart. You either make a free will offering unto salvation. Or You withhold a free will offering unto salvation.
The choice is up to the individual that comes in contact with the gospel. I believe the gospel will be preached more globally during the Great Tribulation time than ever before. Things will be happening in such rapid and catastrophic. ways that there will be people very hungry to hear. what is going on, and God will have His witnesses.
John 3, 19 And this is the condemnation that the light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. That's why they choose to harden their heart, and that's why they withhold the sacrifice of praise. to God. And so he concludes in this 17th verse: until the words of God are fulfilled. Prophecies Daniel 7, Daniel 10, and Daniel Twelve.
Now, verse 18, and the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. You see, we come to church, we listen, we want to hear about Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. And we're encouraged by that. But if the Bible's not real to you, Then such verses as, He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty, and I will say of my Lord, He is my God.
Well, if the Bible is not real to you, Especially in your time of great burden and hardship and sorrow. then those verses won't help. But when God is real to you, Then as Paul Mention To the Christians. that we through many hardships enter the kingdom of God. We go into heaven.
As those who God is delighted to receive. Versus those who just want no part of him. Back to verse 18, the woman whom you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. And again, the Vatican alone qualifies. Look in their own history, it's in the history books how many kings they've controlled.
Her influence over world leaders will end when she is destroyed. And so thus, the regime of Antichrist is unraveling when he turns on. The woman, the great harlot, He doesn't know what's coming and who it is that is coming. And that, of course, is Revelation 19. We're the return of Christ and we will be with Him.
So I close again with this statement or question. What did you hear in church today? That God has got it together, that these characters, though vague to some degree, they're going to. Emerge. They will all be dealt with.
People will still be getting saved in spite of their evil. People will still be getting lost, or remain lost, in spite of God's outreach to them. Because, as it says in Proverbs 12:14, there is a way that seems right. To a man, but its end is a way of death.
Well, who is the one that's going to step up and tell him? That's why we're here. We are the ones. To say there's also a way that doesn't seem right, but is right: the way, the truth, and the life. And let me tell you about his name.
Uh Uh This has been Cross Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand. Just visit us online at crossreference radio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings. While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube.
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