The False Shepherd

The most anti-god, rebellious human being. He makes a pact with Israel and he moves into position. The whole world is in his hands. He's got a worldwide organization and he is going to try to hang on to the kingdom of the world when Christ returns and defeat Christ. That's Satan's whole effort.

Welcome to Grace to You, with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Today, John is going to continue an important three-week study of Zechariah chapters 9-14. This section of scripture looks at highly detailed prophecies that came true, as well as prophecies yet to be fulfilled, and the measures God will take to keep his promises. See what those prophecies mean for you today as John continues his study called The Return and Reign of Jesus Christ.

But before we get to the message, a question that seems particularly relevant is this. If the Lord tarries, what will grace to you look like 25 years from now, or in 50 years, or even 100 years from now? Here's how John once answered that question. Yeah, well, just to comment initially, we all know about the guys who predict when the Lord's coming, get their pajamas on and sit on the roof and have to come down the next day. We know about people who have sold everything they've had and liquidated all their assets and the Lord's coming tomorrow and he didn't come.

There's a lot of folly on that level. We need to work and occupy. with all our powers and all our might and plan for the future. And set our strategies for the future and plan to be faithful into the future if the Lord doesn't come and be surprised when He does. Not shocked that He's arrived, but it needs to interrupt some of our plans.

That's how far we're planning into the future, should He, Terry? 25, 50 years, 100 years from now. I don't know, but things are changing so rapidly, but here's my response to that. The content of the ministry of grace to you will never change. Whether I'm here or not, because this ministry is committed to the teaching of the Word of God, and that is the teaching that the Lord has allowed me to do for all these years.

All these thousands of messages will go on into the future. The format may change, the medium may change of communication. Who knows how this is going to go in the future? But we're dealing with the Word of God. The Word of God is eternal.

It is everlasting. The truth never changes.

So we don't we don't shift. with the culture Uh that that's what makes this ministry So important because it is just unleashing the Word of God one verse at a time. And there is no end to that. Years ago, when I started in the ministry, for some reason, and I can't honestly say it was some kind of calculated thing, I didn't know I was ever going to be on radio, or I didn't, at the time I started. People weren't even recording your messages.

I preached for years, nobody recorded anything. Nobody knew anything about that. I had no idea what the future would look like then, but for some reason I decided I just want to interpret the Bible and I don't want to get caught up in current events. I don't want to Preach things that are tied to the culture, or tied to the moment, or tied to the events. I just want to explain the meaning of the Bible.

And as a result of that, you know, we can put a series from 1977 on the air, and it's as true today and will be as true 100 years from now as it's ever been. That's right, friend, and that will always be the hallmark of grace to you, verse-by-verse teaching that isn't tied to cultural events. If that kind of ministry resonates with you, would you consider partnering with us? I'll give you more details on how to do that before we end today. But first, here's John to continue his study, The Return and Reign of Jesus Christ.

Those of you who have been with us for our study of this wonderful book are well aware of the tremendous prophetic importance that it carries. And we have really covered so much of the prophetic picture, all the way from the history of the time of Zachariah clear to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and many, many events in between. And one of the most significant events that is on the horizon prophetically is the rise of an individual that is commonly known as the Antichrist. Although that is not specifically his title in Scripture, That title certainly fits him well. and we commonly know him as the Antichrist.

John says there are many Antichrists, but there is one that we tend to think of as the most vehement, rebellious, antichrist person who will ever live. apart from Satan himself. And as we come to Zachariah chapter 11, we come face to face with this human being. He's not a demon and he's not an A fallen angel in that sense, he's not Satan, he is a human being. the most anti-god, rebellious human being.

yet to arrive on the scene. In the context of Zachariah chapter 11, he appears as the false shepherd. the false shepherd, or if you'll notice verse 15, he is called the foolish shepherd. In verse 17, he is called the idol shepherd. But he is a false shepherd in contrast to the true shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the theme of Antichrist Is not a new theme in the Bible. It's one that appears in many places. In fact, It's most interesting to me. that the Apostle John Writing in the first century, to a wide circle of believers. said this remarkable sentence.

Little children You have heard That Antichrist shall come.

Now that's interesting. How had they heard that Antichrist shall come? How had it become common knowledge, as that statement seems to indicate, that Antichrist should come?

Well, in the first place. it had been distinctly spoken of by the apostles. For example, in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2. The Apostle Paul writes specifically about the coming of this individual in verse 8, Then shall that wicked one be revealed.

Verse 3, that man of sin will be revealed, called the Son of Perdition.

So it was apostolic proclamation and apostolic writing that this Antichrist, man of sin, son of perdition, whatever you choose to call him, would come. Undoubtedly, they also had heard about it because it was distinctly alluded to by the Lord Jesus Christ. himself. In John chapter 5 and verse 43, Jesus said, I am come in my Father's name and you receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.

Now here Jesus is really echoing The thought of Zachariah 11. That Israel will reject the true shepherd and accept the false shepherd. That's what Jesus is saying, basically. And again, I think in the 24th of Matthew, Again, Jesus alludes to the coming of such an one as Antichrist. He talks about the abomination of desolations, and he refers to Daniel 9, the time when they will make a covenant with the prince that shall come for one week.

He goes on to talk about tribulation. He says there will be false Christs and false apostles and so forth. And the reference there back to Daniel 9 indicates that Jesus pointed out to them that this Daniel had said would happen, and it certainly involved the prince that would come, the false Christ. That Daniel referred to in chapter 9, verse 27. We'll see that in a moment.

So it was not only proclaimed by the apostles, but it was alluded to by Jesus Himself.

Now, in addition to that, it was strictly and clearly prophesied in the Old Testament. that Antichrist would come. And here we find one such prophecy in Zechariah 11, verse 15. Let's look at it. And I'm going to read these three verses to you.

And the LORD said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd. For lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who shall not visit those that are cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which standeth still, but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their hoofs in pieces. Woe to the idle shepherd that leaves the flock. The sword shall be on his arm and on his right eye. His arm shall be completely dried up and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

Now that is one Of several Old Testament passages referring to this Antichrist personality, this false shepherd, foolish shepherd, idle shepherd. that is to come.

Now let me set the stage for you a little bit so you'll understand the context in which this individual comes. God and Satan have been at war ever since Satan fell. Way back in eternity before the world began, Satan pulled off a rebellion. And he said, I will be like the Most High, I will ascend, and I will be equal with God. And God threw him out of heaven, and with him.

went a host of the angels. And since that time, Satan and his angels have been in rebellion against God.

Now, the particular attack that Satan has been most concentrating on since the world began after the fall of Adam has been to attack the seed. promised in Genesis 3.15. Because it says in Genesis 3:15 that The seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head. In other words, God says there's going to be someone coming. A seed is going to come that is going to bruise Satan and his dominion.

Now Satan knows this. He knows this, and he's doing everything he can throughout all of history to try to stop this seed from arriving. And the seed, of course, ultimately is Messiah. But Messiah to come must come through the nation Israel.

So Satan is always trying to stamp out Israel as well as stamp out Messiah.

So you see through history Satan's great effort against God's people, Israel, and against Jesus Christ. And even now that Christ is already here, Satan still attacks Christ. Christ and he still attacks Israel. But initially, as you go back in history, you find that Satan's first approach, once he knew the seed was going to come, was to try to corrupt the human race so badly and so devastatingly and so totally corrupt the human race that no such seed could ever be born. And he did it by having demons cohabitate with women in Genesis 6.

It says, the sons of God cohabitated with the daughters of men. He tried to produce a kind of a half-breed race, demon man, sort of a Rosemary's baby civilization. And thus corrupt humanity in some kind of a demon-human combination that would preclude the possibility of a seed being born. A messianic seed, a redeemer. And of course, you know what happened.

God drowned that entire race in the flood, saving only. Noah and his family. Satan failed. In Exodus chapter 1, Satan again tried to destroy Israel. He tried to destroy the possibility of a seed there by trying to wipe out all male children in Israel.

And you'll remember that Pharaoh made a decree while Israel was in Egypt that all male children be slaughtered. And again. God preserved the people of Israel. One little baby wasn't slaughtered, it was Moses. Moses came to be the man who led Israel out of bondage and into the promised land, and Satan's effort was thwarted again.

The book of Esther follows up on the story and how Satan again tried to get. The whole of Israel wiped out. But the king couldn't sleep one night. Pagan. Man, but he went and he asked someone to read to him.

And the story that he heard saved the Jews from wholesale slaughter. And again, Satan was thwarted. And then when you come into the New Testament, there was Herod who tried to slaughter every male child born, but he missed. On the Messiah. And then there was Satan who approached Jesus as he began his ministry and tried to thwart him with temptation and he failed again.

And then there were the people of Nazareth who wanted to push Jesus off a cliff, but they failed again and he passed through the midst of them unseen. And finally Satan got him and had him nailed to a cross and locked in a tomb and sealed in a tomb and that failed because he came out of the grave. And Satan is a loser, folks. He's lost every effort. He's always attacked God.

He has always attacked God's people. He has always attacked God's king, Jesus Christ, and he never stops. And he continues right in this present age to fight.

Well, after all, what does it say in Ephesians chapter 6? We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against what? Principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness, spiritual wickedness, and heavenly places. We're in a battle against the demonic forces and Satan himself. The war is still on.

And it says in Matthew 16, but even in this age, Christ said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The assumption there is that the gates of hell are trying. See. Satan is still at it. There's coming a future time when Satan pulls another attack.

Sometime read the 12th chapter of Revelation. And in it, you'll read about the war that's going to happen in heaven. when Satan and all of his demons make war on Michael and all the holy angels. And they pull off a heavenly War. You've heard of Star Wars?

Well, this is something far beyond that. This is the demons against the angelic hosts in the heavens.

Now what happens in that war is very interesting. Michael and the angels win. It's already settled. Michael and the angels win. Revelation 12 tells us: and God casts Satan and his host to the earth.

And they hit the earth during the period of time known as the tribulation. And they begin to spawn all their evil during that time period. And when he hits the earth in the tribulation, he again goes after the same things. He tries to destroy Israel. He tries to destroy God's people.

He tries to attack God's Christ, the Messiah.

Now, in order to do this, during the tribulation, in order for Satan to pull his whole thing off, one final big shot there. He wants a man. He uses a man. to be his tool. This man's task is going to be to try to destroy Israel.

Try to eliminate God's people, try to set up a world government of evil. And then when Christ returns, to try to knock Christ out of the sky and be victorious. That's Satan's effort. He's got a man in mind. And that man is going to be his tool to set up a worldwide government of evil.

To kill the Jews, to slaughter the believers of the tribulation, and then to try to shoot Christ out of the sky when he returns. Satan's banking on the possibility that this can work. He's relentless. I'll say that for it. Even though he's lost every other battle.

Now, when we start to look at this man that he's going to use to try to fight against Christ in the tribulation, we find that he's a most amazing man. Let me tell you several things about him. First of all, he will be an intellectual genius. He will be an intellectual genius. That's very clear, and don't try to follow me, but just note this.

That's very clear in several places, but particularly in Daniel 7 and verse 8, where it describes him in this way. He had eyes like the eyes of a man.

Now eyes refer to intelligence. And the idea of the eyes here is that he has great intelligence. And then it not only is he, and incidentally, you can compare verse 20, which similarly says. That he had eyes, and eyes in an image like this, and this is an image of a beast he sees here, a horn, really. And the image of eyes in symbolic language has seemingly a primary reference to intelligence.

So he'll be intellectually a genius. Secondly, he will be an outstanding orator. And leadership is predicated, obviously, on the ability to orate and to speak. And he will be an outstanding orator. It says in Daniel 7, verse 8, he will have a mouth speaking great things.

And again in verse 20, the same thing again is repeated. He has a mouth that spoke very great things.

So he will be an intellectual genius. He will be an outstanding orator. Thirdly, he will be a master politician. He will be a master politician. And the reason I believe that is because he will be able to take over the whole world.

He will be able to move into the slot that has been a great vacuum in human society, the one individual who can bring peace to the world. In fact, in Revelation 6, verse 2, it says, Without any arrows, he'll come riding with a bow, no arrows, and he'll conquer the world, which means he'll conquer peacefully. Through politics, you'll be a political genius. It says in Daniel 11, 21, in his estate shall stand up a vile person, that's the Antichrist, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom, but he will come in peaceably, watch this, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. Daniel 11, 21.

He will win the world with his flattery.

So it will be an intellectual genius, an outstanding orator, and a master politician. Fourthly, he'll be a commercial wizard. He will have his hands on economics and commerce. He will be knowledgeable in that area. In Daniel 8, 25.

Back to chapter 8 here. It says, and through his policy also he shall cause deceit to prosper in his hand. He shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many. He shall stand up against the prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hand.

Now, ultimately, he will be broken. But notice, he will have a policy which causes deceit to prosper in his hand. He will be a wizard at building a world system of economics that feeds his own pocket. And if you want to get a glimpse of the economic system that he will build, read the 18th chapter of Revelation. It describes it to a T.

It'll be commerce like the world has never known. Great. Ships are mentioned there, and great trade is mentioned there, and all of the, in fact, it even tells many of the things that will be occurring in terms of trade. He will build a world commercial enterprise which is built by deceit unparalleled in history and feeding his own pocket.

So This is an unusual man, intellectual genius, outstanding orator, master politician, commercial wizard, and fifthly, a military genius as well. He will be a military man without equal. He is going to be able, according to Daniel 7:23, to devour the whole earth, tread it down, and break it in pieces. He's going to be everything that Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, and all the Caesars were, and Napoleon Bonaparte, and anybody else all put together. in terms of military ability.

a tremendous military power. In Revelation chapter 13. In verse 4, We read about him. And they worship the dragon who gave power to the beast. This is the Antichrist.

And it says, Who is like the beast who is able to make war with him? And it says in verse 7: it was given to him to make war with the saints and overcome them, and power was given to him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. He literally conquers the world. He is a military. Genius unsurpassed.

Sixth. He will be a religious leader. And this is a most interesting combination. He will be a religious leader. In 2 Thessalonians 2, Verse 4.

I'll show you what his religion is. He's called the man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped.

So that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

So he's religious in the sense that he wants the whole world to worship whom? himself. In other words, he will be anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-Christianity, and he will call the world to worship him. Quite a man. This is a human being we're talking about.

A man that will come. Satan's final effort. to thwart Christ from coming and taking his kingdom. will be generated through this man.

Now you say, this demonic puppet of Satan Does he know who he is? I don't know the answer to that. Do we know who he is? I don't know the answer to that. Don't worry about that.

He is who he is, and he will be who he will be, and it'll all happen the way the Bible says. It isn't important that we know that. People always want to add up numbers and come to all kinds of crazy conclusions, but that's not the point. You say, but how could he ever pull it off? I mean this is a sophisticated world.

There's so much diversity in politics. How could everybody agree on one politician? There's so much diversity in economics and commerce, how could everybody agree on one kind of approach to it? There's so much diversity in religion, how could anybody ever imagine the whole world bowing to this guy? There have been a lot of powerful men, but it's inconceivable that anything like this could literally take over the world.

Well, you've never seen a man like this. And what makes it look so easy for him? What makes it appear so very easy? To me, it's not going to be hard for him.

Somehow the world is going to be so ready for him, it's just going to all fall at his feet. And the thing that is so amazing to me is that he can even deceive Israel. And Israel is the rebel of the world. You know that. I mean, they do their own thing their own way and don't listen to anybody.

And he will even deceive them, and at the start of the tribulation, he'll actually bring them right under his power with the rest of the world. Look at Daniel 9:26. Here it is. In Daniel 9, 26. After three score and two weeks.

Messiah shall be cut off. This is the 70th week, adding all the ones from the previous verses up. The 70th week, after Messiah is cut off. The people of the prince that shall come Now here he is, the prince that shall come, he's called. The prince that shall come.

Then verse 27. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.

Now, here is the idea, and we won't go into too much background on it, but just to say this: this prince that will come makes a covenant with Israel for seven years. That's the period of the tribulation. During that period of time, Israel falls under his spell and they make a covenant with him. In the middle of the week, verse 27 says, In the middle of the week, He violates it. He commits the abomination of desolation.

He desecrates the temple. And then all hell breaks loose. And that's what Jesus referred to in Matthew 24 when he said, the thing which Daniel spoke of, the abomination of desolation, where the Antichrist goes along for three and a half years, allowing Israel a little bit of liberty, and then he comes down and he desecrates the temple. He stops all worship. He says, worship me alone.

He begins the slaughter that is the last half of the tribulation. And Jesus said, when you see that, grab everything you've got and run. Flee. And if the Lord didn't spare Everybody would be slaughtered, it says in Matthew 24. But the thing that is so credible is that this individual is going to come and not only be able to set this thing up with the whole world, but he's even going to bring Israel in under it as well.

And I believe you'll come out of the Roman kingdom. I believe that he'll be a part of that. By the indication of the fact that he's called That it says there, the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city. And the people that destroyed the city of Jerusalem were the Romans. And this prince will come out of the Roman world, the revived Roman Empire that comes together in the last days.

That's why I believe you'll be a Gentile out of Europe. or at least related closely to that.

So He makes a pact with Israel.

Now stay with me. And he moves into position. The whole world is in his hands. Israel is in his hand. He's got a worldwide organization and army like no other army in history.

He has total control, and he is going to try to hang on to the kingdom of the world when Christ returns and defeats Christ. That's Satan's whole effort. He thinks if he can just amass the whole world against Christ, maybe he can hold it. Against the returning Christ who comes to set up his kingdom at the end of the tribulation. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.

John's current study is called The Return and Reign of Jesus Christ. And friend, going back to something I mentioned before the lesson, even though John preached this study decades ago, it's still relevant today. Why? because it simply explains the meaning of Scripture. That kind of preaching will always be life changing and it will always be the hallmark of grace to you.

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Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Be back tomorrow as John MacArthur shows you the amazing changes that will come when Christ sets up his kingdom on earth. and why nothing can stop it. We'll continue John's series called The Return and Reign of Jesus Christ. With another 30 minutes of Unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.