God controls everything.
Is that great? Everything. All of history under the control of God.
Every detail, every ruler. Ahasuerus, Alexander, Antiochus the Great, Antiochus Epiphanes, everybody in between, Antichrist, all carrying out His will. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Scripture says the last days will include earthquakes, other severe natural disasters, and war. So when you hear about massive earthquakes in Haiti, China, Japan, tornadoes of historic magnitude in the United States, and wars around the world, how much can and how much should you speculate about how events like those are fulfilling biblical prophecy today?
John MacArthur helps answer that question as he continues his study titled The Future of Israel. But before the lesson, John, certainly a lot of authors have written about biblical eschatology, the study of the end times, and it is a particularly intriguing aspect of Scripture. But with that said, what books have helped you form your convictions on end times events, and what's helped you in teaching on this often debated subject? Yeah, I really think that the most helpful book that I've ever read on the future is the book of Revelation. Not surprising. And it just saddens me that so many people think the book of Revelation is confusing.
Here's the problem. If you just read the book of Revelation, you would see it's clearly chronological. Clearly. It starts out with a vision of Christ. Christ is moving among the candlesticks, the lampstands, which are his churches that says that.
So you see Christ moving in his church in this age. Then all of a sudden the scene shifts to heaven, and the war machine begins to work its power, and pretty soon it begins to be unleashed on earth, and you have a terrible time of tribulation that lasts for seven years, and it's explicitly given in times. And when that's over, all the judgments follow, and then Christ comes back and establishes his kingdom for a thousand years, at the end of which you have the great white throne judgment, and then the new heaven and the new earth. That is what the book of Revelation says. Now, if you say, well, I don't know if I believe in the tribulation.
I don't know if I believe in the kingdom of Christ on earth. Okay, now you don't believe what Revelation says, right? You're not going to get that from reading Revelation any more than you're going to get evolution from reading Genesis 1 and 2. If you read Genesis 1 and 2, there's no evolution there.
God creates everything in six days, cut and dried. The book of Revelation is like the book of Genesis. There's no reason to get the beginning wrong, and there's no reason to get the ending wrong either. Now, if you just have a good commentary on the book of Revelation as you go, you will be profoundly enriched.
I mean, it can be the most exciting book you've ever studied. I would encourage you, get a copy of a book we have available called Because the Time is Near. That'll take you verse by verse through Revelation as you read it and explain everything to you.
Thanks, John. And friend, to order a copy of Because the Time is Near, visit our website, gty.org, and I'll have more details on how you can order after the lesson. But right now, stay here as John continues his prophecy study from the book of Daniel, titled The Future of Israel. Just by way of introduction so that you have the setting for the text, you're very much aware of the fact that the Middle East has again become the center stage of world history. And again today, we see the Middle East as the major issue facing the world.
It is the source of many natural resources. It is a strategic land from which one could progress to the west, to the south, to the east, even to the north, a focal point for the whole globe. Now, as you study biblical prophecy, you find out that as you move into the end time, Israel is going to be in league with and under the control of the west. The Bible tells us that the west will rise again, that is the west of Russia, the west of Israel, which means Europe, and it will rise again in the form of the revived Roman Empire, as we've seen already in Daniel's prophecy. And as you come into the end times of prophecy, this ten-nation confederacy will be dominated and ruled by the Antichrist. And he will make a pact with Israel so that Israel will be protected by this western confederacy.
Now, in this section of Daniel's prophecy, he gives us the scenario for this final holocaust. It's really remarkable. It's incredible. It's astounding.
It's amazing. It's miraculous that God should delineate, piece by piece, blow by blow, the unfolding of this final great holocaust. As we approach verse 36, we leap across centuries to the final king, Christ, and we meet him in verses 36 to 45.
Let's flow through and see what it says. First, his character. What will he be like? And we've seen this already several times in Daniel, and Daniel builds upon the past. The king, just calls him the king, shall do according to his will. And he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished, for that which is determined shall be done. Now, most Bible students have called him in this verse the willful king, the king who shall do according to his will. This particular figure comes under several titles in the Bible. In Daniel 7, he is called the little horn. In Daniel 8, he is called the king of fierce countenance, which has to do with his face, old fierce face. In chapter 9, in chapter 9, he is called the prince that shall come. In 2 Thessalonians 2, he is called the man of sin, and the son of perdition, which is a Hebraism, meaning he is doomed to destruction. In Revelation 13, he is called the beast. Now, all of these have reference to the same personality, and here he is called the king who does according to his will, or the willful king.
Now, the angel gives us several facts that indicate his character. First of all, his character is marked by prerogative. Prerogative. In other words, he exercises the ultimate prerogative. He makes all decisions.
He does according to his will. He is an absolute sovereign. He is an absolute dictator. He will rule alone. He will rule with utter selfishness, utter self-will.
He will rule in a self-centered and self-energized approach, and behind the scenes, moving it all along, is Satan himself. Secondly, he's characterized not only by prerogative, but by pride. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god.
And that leads us to the third thing. He's not only proud, he is profane. It says he shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods. He is a blasphemer without equal. Verse 37 tells us he's perverted. He is perverted.
So he's characterized by prerogative, pride, profanity, and perversion. Fifth, by power. He will have power. He will magnify himself above everything. The end of verse 37. How can he do this?
How can he pull it off? Verse 38, but in his estate, or literally, Hebrew, in its place. What's place?
Normal human desires for family and women and God. In its place, he will honor the God of fortresses. That Hebrew word is used six times in this chapter.
Verse 1, verse 7, verse 10, verse 19, verse 31, and verse 39. And every time it means a strong place, a fort, a strong place. And it has to do with military power. In place of normal affection, he will place a perverted worship of military power. He'll worship power.
Chapter 7, verse 23 of Daniel, it says that when he comes, he will devour the whole earth, this fourth and final form of the Roman Empire, devour the whole earth, tread it down, and break it in pieces. Boy, he is going to have power. That's why he can magnify himself above all, because he's going to have military power.
Unquestionably, he'll have the intimidation of nuclear weapons and whatever else may be in vogue at that time, germ warfare or whatever. He will honor the God of forces. Even a God whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold and silver and precious stones and desirable items. In other words, everything that was valuable his fathers would give to their deities. Everything that was valuable they would lay at the feet of their gods.
They would give their gold, their silver, their precious stones, their desirable things, precious items to their gods. But he takes all of his silver, all of his gold, all of the precious stones, all of the desirable things to build a war machine. A God whom his fathers knew not shall he honor, and it is the God of fortresses.
And war is expensive, isn't it? It may be that he captures the riches of the world to buy his war machine. Verse 39, thus shall he do in the strongest fortresses with a foreign God, and the foreign God is the God of war, the war machine. He'll attack the strongest fortresses whom he will acknowledge and increase with glory and cause him to rule over many and divide the land for gain.
This is very interesting. Let me read you the literal translation. Those who recognize him, he will highly honor and cause them to rule over many, allotting land as a reward. He's going to take the earth, and then in order to make sure he gets to hold onto it, everybody who honors him, he'll apportion out a large portion of the land. He'll divide his spoil. He'll give two things, positions of leadership and possessions of land. He'll cause them to rule, verse 39, and divide the land for their reward. So what he does is obligate those that he conquers to himself and thus sustains their loyalty. This is the one who's going to rule the world, and he's going to apportion it out, and it's going to look so good. You cooperate with me, and I'll give you the rule of your land.
I'll give you some independence. I'll give you the territory, and he'll be sitting on top of the whole pile. So we see his character.
Secondly is conflict, verse 40. He's doing all right. He's sitting on the pile, ruling the whole show.
Probably we're in the first three and a half years of the tribulation, although it's hard to pinpoint all of these things in Daniel's prophecy. And he's having a great time, dominating the world. At this point, he lets the false church coexist. He allows Israel certain freedoms. He protects Israel. He's got the world in his dominion. Verse 40, then the conflict begins. And at the time of the end, shall the king of the south push at him, and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships. Stop there.
You know what that is? That's a revolution. Up to now, everything's been fine. But holding such a massive global empire together is an impossible task. Even hell can't pull it off. Even hell won't cooperate with itself, and the hellish system begins to disintegrate. The Antichrist has come in peaceably. He has perhaps solved problems in the Middle East.
He has become the protector of Israel. And then it all begins to fall apart. There's an insurrection.
The time of the end, I believe, would be during the tribulation. And as you move to the middle of the tribulation, it begins to happen. The king of the south and some African army, bigger than just Egypt but perhaps involving Egypt, a mass moves in. So this great southern confederacy pushes.
And the word push there is a word that means to push like a goat or to attack. Verse 40 then says, and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind. Now here's a great massive force from the north, and they're more powerful than the south, with chariots, horsemen, many ships.
Of course, they'll come with a modern counterpart, all of the forces they've got. And he, now we're talking back about the Antichrist, and we follow that all the way to the end. And he shall enter into the countries and overflow and pass through.
What is that saying? Antichrist wins. This is history, people. It just hasn't happened.
But it will. And then after he overflows, passes through, verse 41, watch this, having defeated the king of the south and defeated the king of the north, the African army and the Russian army and its Arab allies, he enters into the glorious land. What's that? That's Israel. That's Israel. And many countries shall be overthrown, but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon.
It's so remarkable. Why does the Lord stick that in there? Just because God is so accurate. When Antichrist wins this big battle, he's going to devastate the south, and he's actually going to go into the south, verse 42, in the land of Egypt and that area and mop up after his victory. But he's not going to do a thing to Edom, Moab and Ammon. Verse 42, he moves in against these countries, and Egypt shall not escape. Verse 43, he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, over all the precious things of Egypt and the Libyans and the Ethiopians, shall be at his steps. He not only wipes out the southern army, the northern army, but all of those Arabs who got involved with the north as well.
You know what? He is the master of the world at this time. He has passed his first great revolutionary test, and now he really begins to feel his oats. Now he really begins to sense the power.
It's like sort of a bloodthirsty sense that he gets. And so he moves out, and I believe it's at this time that he really begins to crash against the institutions that exist. I believe it's very likely now that he consumes the false church and devours the harlot, that he begins to move in to Israel. He calls upon the whole world to worship him. He abolishes all false religion. He sets himself up as God. He will tolerate no other kings and no other gods and no other religions. He will rule in absolute supremacy. And all of the allies of Russia are at his steps, or literally in Hebrew they're in his train.
They're following along behind him. And you know what precisely happens at this moment? Revelation 6-18 begins to take place, and God begins to pour out his wrath.
And you know what happens? Seven seals are opened. Seven trumpets are blown.
Seven bowls are poured out. God's wrath on the earth. The whole thing explodes at this point.
Get the picture. Verse 43, he's sitting there. He's got it all in control. He has desecrated the temple. He's devoured all religion.
He is God. And then something happens in verse 44. Tydings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him. What's going on? What's going on in the north? Well, I believe it's likely that they're going to come back. They're going to regroup. Verse 44, he shall go forth with great fury, the antichrist, to destroy and utterly sweep away many.
You know what happens? He wins again. After all, he has Satan on his side, and most of hell is cooperating. And verse 45, then he plants the tabernacle of his palace between the seas, the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea, or the seas that would be known to Daniel, between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea in the glorious holy mountain. And what mountain is it between those two seas? It is Zion, the place of the temple, the city of God.
He sets up a temple and sets himself up as God, and he has won two great victories. And now, I believe, we're nearly at the end of the tribulation. By this time, Israel is devastated. In these battles, Israel has been wiped out.
Two out of every three are dead. Is it over? Is that the way history ends? Look at the end of verse 45, the third point, his condemnation, yet. I like that word, don't you? Yet, he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
That's all it says. You want to know how it happens? He comes to his end.
I'll tell you how it happens. Just as soon as he is finished with his part of Armageddon and the bloodbath in which he's victorious, the Bible says in Revelation 19, Jesus Christ comes out of the sky with a sword going out of his mouth. The Bible says that he will be slain with the sword that comes out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. You see, he's no match when he meets God's true king.
He may have been a match for the king of the north, the king of the south, and the king of the east, but he's no match for the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what happens to Israel in all this? Israel is at the deepest point of sorrow, the deepest point of suffering, the deepest point of humiliation in all of its history, and it is at this very point that they look upon Him whom they've pierced and are redeemed.
I believe they've already had 144,000 special Jews giving them the message all through these three and a half years, and finally they hear it. I close with this. Three major lessons. Number one, God controls everything.
Is that great? Everything. All of history under the control of God.
Every detail. Every ruler. Ahasuerus, Alexander, Antiochus the Great, Antiochus Epiphanes, everybody in between, Antichrist, all carrying out His will within the framework of His plan. I'll tell you it's a comforting thing to know that history is His story, that the whole thing is in His hand.
I don't even worry about it. An unknown poet wrote, I love these words, my Father's ways may twist and turn, my heart may throb and ache, but in my heart I'm glad I know He maketh no mistake. My cherished plans may go astray, my hopes may fade away, but still I'll trust my Lord to lead, for He doth know His way. Though night be dark and it may seem that day will never break, I'll pin my faith, my all in Him He maketh no mistake. There's so much now I cannot see, my eyesight's far too dim, but come what may I'll simply trust and leave it all with Him. For by and by the mist will lift, and plain it all He'll make, through all the way, though dark to me, He maketh no mistake. The second great lesson, not only that God controls history, I love this one, but God will purge His people Israel.
There's coming a day for Israel. And when these things begin to come to pass, said the Lord in Luke, look up, lift up your heads for your what? Redemption is near.
Third lesson. Number one, God controls everything. Number two, God is going to purge and redeem His people. Number three, the world will end in a holocaust, but Christ will triumph over that, and all will be well forever for the saints of God.
Are you thankful? Robert Louis Stevenson wrote this story and I close with it. There was a ship in a violent stormy sea. The ship was driven against the rocks.
Any moment it might be dashed to pieces. The passengers in the ship were huddled together in terror, facing inevitable death. In the agony of that moment, one of the men said, I'm going up to the pilot and I'm going to see the pilot. He made his way up and up and up and finally came to the pilot's house.
There he found the pilot chained to his post with his hands on the wheel, guiding little by little, turning little by little away from the rocks and out into the deep of an open sea. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that when the pilot saw the intruder and looked at his terror-stricken white face, the pilot looked at him and smiled. The man turned around, said Stevenson, went back to the deck below and shouted, all is well. All is well. I saw the pilot's face and he smiled. And you know that, don't you? You've seen the pilot's face and he smiled. For those of us who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, there's a blissful forever ahead.
I hope you know him. I want to have you examine your heart. I can't preach a message like this and express in words the tremendous sense of awe that I have to know that God has written history before it happens. It's inevitable at the same time the tremendous sense that so many people will walk away from this not knowing Christ and end up perishing forever. I just hope that you know Christ. If you don't write in your heart right now in the silence of this moment, confess your sin and invite Jesus Christ in. Do that right now. Knowing what I know about the way history is going to go and about the alternative plan of God, there's no choice but to choose life in Christ.
Make that choice now. Don't go away without making the right commitments. Father, help us to be able to hold that balance of knowing the inevitability of disaster in our world and yet fighting for each opportunity to rescue men before it's too late. We will thank you in Christ's name.
Amen. You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today's lesson is from his current study titled The Future of Israel. Now, as John mentioned before the lesson, understanding the book of Revelation is key to knowing what the future holds for you and those you love. So to help with that, pick up a copy of John's single-volume commentary on Revelation titled Because the Time is Near when you contact us today. The softcover book is reasonably priced, shipping is free, and you can order by visiting our website GTY.org or you can call us at 800-55-GRACE. Again, the title Because the Time is Near and the book will help you make sense of all the difficult parts of the book of Revelation which will put you on the path to divine blessing because the book of Revelation itself promises God's blessing to everyone who reads it.
Because the Time is Near costs $11 and again shipping is free. Again, to order Because the Time is Near call 800-55-GRACE or visit GTY.org. That's our website GTY.org and when you visit there be sure to take advantage of all of the free Bible study resources that are available. That includes more than 3600 of John's sermons, all of them free to download in MP3 and written transcript format. You can search the sermon vault by topic, by passage of scripture, or by date preached.
So log on and start learning at GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for starting your week with Grace To You and join us tomorrow as John shows you what you need to know about one of the most pivotal times to come, the Great Tribulation. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.
