666, Part 1

In an effort to make the church more comfortable for the unbeliever, the church has effectively stopped believing anything uncomfortable, and certainly communicating it. So is it any wonder that our own culture is now entrenched more than ever in Eastern religions and cults than at any time before? And at the same time, the number of churches representing mainline denominations, they're closing their doors at a rate of three to five churches every single day in this country. We live in a time when people are very quick to believe and follow the false religions of the world.

As Stephen just mentioned, one of the reasons why that's true is because many churches have abandoned the truth of God's Word. Well, what we see today is simply a foreshadowing of what's going to happen during a period known as the Great Tribulation. The Antichrist will masquerade as the Messiah, but he will infect the entire world with a false gospel. Stephen Davey has been working through a series entitled Antichrist and the Many Faces of Evil. Today we begin the final lesson in that series, a lesson simply entitled 666.

Let's get started. Stephen the Apostle has been describing for us the faces of evil behind the system of the coming world, one world government, one world economy, one world religion. In chapter 12, we've been given the truth of the red dragon, another title for Satan whose thirst for blood and killing will take center stage, no more masquerading as an angel of light.

He is exposed as a killer, a hater of Jews, Christians, anybody that would follow the God of Abraham. In Revelation 13, we were introduced into two men who will be enabled and empowered by the dragon, the Karaite, his ultimate mission. By the way, it transcends the killing of Jews and Christians. It is to receive the worship of the entire world. That's what he's after.

That's what he's longed for ever since his fall from heaven. And these two men will do his bidding and they're going to see it come to pass. The first man revealed to us in chapter 13 is the Antichrist called the first beast. He rises to power among other European leaders and nations surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The prophecy of Daniel finally comes to pass as the revived Roman Empire takes form and the coalition allows the Antichrist to take leadership. He will be prime minister, president and potentate all rolled up into one dictator. Then we were introduced to the second man, the false preacher or priest, the false prophet.

And he is the minister of propaganda with delegated power. He is going to be able to mesmerize the world by his amazing signs and wonders. His miracle working power and the message he will attach to his power that authenticates himself supposedly as being a representative of the true God is you are now to worship the Antichrist. The Antichrist is God incarnate.

Worship him. This will occur during the period of time known as the tribulation, the seven year period following the rapture of the church by Jesus Christ. And when will the rapture happen, you ask? Well, you're going to have to watch some other preacher on TV tell you when. I don't know. I will tell you it's soon.

That's as good as I can give you. We're not told, but we are told that it could happen at any moment and when it does, it'll happen in the twinkling of an eye. Paul told the Corinthians in first Corinthians 1552. We know the apostles were all waiting for it.

Paul thought he'd be alive when it happened. First Thessalonians 4 17. Peter thought the creation of the new heaven and earth was just around the corner.

Second Peter 3 13. John the apostle believed he was living in the last hour. First John 2 18. In every generation of true believers, there is the anticipation of the rapture of the church. And those Christians who don't believe the rapture will take place before the tribulation, they're going to be really happy when they find out it was true. After all, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, by the way, the same body of believers to whom he revealed the details of the rapture. In his letter, Paul commended them for being committed to Christ so much so that he says you have put away your idols to serve the true and living God and to wait for his son from heaven.

This was the topic of the church, their conversation, maybe today, this was the burning hope in their hearts. Even John ends the book of Revelation, the record of his vision. He gets all the way to the end of it in Revelation 22 20. And he ends it by saying, Come Lord Jesus. So he ends it.

It's so moving. John is seen it all in his vision. He sees the coming wrath, he sees the the rise of the Antichrist, he sees the coming Armageddon, he sees the the coming kingdom, he sees the final judgments, he sees the creation of the new heaven and the new earth.

He sees he's given a vision or he's actually given a tour of of what the believer has in store. And no wonder he ends the book of Revelation by saying, Come Lord Jesus. Let's get to the next plan. Part of the plan.

Let's go to the next stage. I got to tell you, friends, I cannot help but believe we are nearing that day. I will tell you this personal note while studying the text of Revelation 12 and 13. I have been inundated with illustration after illustration of how the table is being set for the coming tribulation and all that follows it. And of course, believing the rapture clearly taught a scripture takes place before that, then that would even be sooner. The conditions are as ripe as ever for the upward call of Christ and the unveiling of a one world government and a one world religion in our generation. Now, listen, I believe the tribulation scene is nearly prepared. In my view, which leads me to say again, if you're here without a reservation for the coming glory of heaven paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ shed for you and in his singular work of atonement, which you place your faith in believing he is the living Lord. If you haven't done that, my challenge to you today is run to the cross.

Run there. Don't wait. You remember Mikhail Gorbachev, the president of the former Soviet Union, Gorbachev, Gorbachev, however you want to say it. He said this in Madrid, Spain after 9 11. The victims of the September 11 attack on the United States will not have died in vain if world leaders use the crisis to create a new world order. Here we have that phrase again. He says, if we act as we did after September 11 uniting efforts of fighting against terrorism, if we maintain this coalition, we will not only prevent a new Cold War, but we could get a new world order that is so desirable for all of us.

Not me. We read the text. This world is headed for a fiery ball and the judgment of God and then the creation of a new earth and new heaven.

Why that kind of statement? Because the world is clamoring for some semblance of peace. The world certainly is clamoring now more than ever for a world leader, a united coalition, a united world order, a global world system like never before. Because of that, in this series of studies and all of these illustrations, many of them I've shared with you, I not only want to warn the unbeliever to come to faith in Christ alone, but sound the warning to the church to be more discerning than ever. John, the apostle, wrote that the spirit of antichrist is ever present and it will culminate in the final coming antichrist, the deceiver. First and second, John are filled with the warnings about antichrist.

The antichrists are those who deny Christ is God incarnate. He's somebody else. He's a master teacher. He's a good man. He's the next prophet in line and all of that. But he's not the exclusive savior of the world.

Now you're really treading deep water there. These are deceivers and liars. John wrote in first, John two twenty two and second, John one seven. Think about it for the Hindu to abandon his three thousand gods in order for the Buddhist to stop praying for the arrival of the fifth Buddha. In order for the Muslim to forget, Mohammed moved past him in order for the world to effectively abandon their gods and their traditions and their religions and their prophets. Things would have to become so convoluted and so confusing and so desperate spiritually that somebody, anybody with any semblance of spiritual power and with some answer authenticated by that power would be followed without reservation. How about a guy that we studied in our last session who comes along and says, let me bring down fire from heaven to prove I am truly representing God. The world will be ready.

Are we there now or what? If we are indeed the last generation in the church prior to the rapture, we ought to be as passionate as the early believers who thought they were to living in these last days, perhaps before the coming deceiver. Wouldn't you assume if that were the case, as Satan tries to read the signs of this generation, he doesn't know the date of the rapture anymore than we do. But he's clever.

He has a global system of communication. Wouldn't you assume that the enemy of the church would unleash a fresh onslaught of diversions and distractions and dilutions among those who believe Christ is the savior of the world? In order for people to be set up for deception, they it would be best if they were ignorant of the Bible, right? Is our culture ever more ignorant of the Bible than today?

They must not believe in the authority of scripture, right? They must be led to doubt the uniqueness of the Bible and the inspiration of it through its author and the prophets he selected. This is a description of our generation inside the church as well as outside. If there was ever a time when the church needed to get the gospel right, it would be today. And as far as I can tell you, the church in our generation is now beginning to unravel the basic beliefs of the gospel, the most fundamental parts of it that have been accepted by the Reformed Church, the church after the Reformation now for some 500 years. Now in my ministry over the last 25 to 30 years, the enemy has attacked the foundations of doctrine like never before in the past 500. And not from without, but as Paul warned the Ephesian elders by false teachers within the church. Ladies and gentlemen, Satan most often, as I've said before, does not attack a church. He joins it. And ever so quietly as the apostle wrote, secretly, quietly, subversively distorts the gospel ever so much so that you ultimately have, as you progress along that line, the ultimate denial of the gospel. And is that ever happening today? I've given you several illustrations of the emergent church.

I'll give you a few more here. One pseudo church leader is effectively distorted. The gospel has quite a following by his books at the Christian bookstore from his interview in a Christian magazine. I actually, in his book, he said this, I can't find one place in the teachings of Jesus or the Bible for that matter where we are to identify ourselves as sinners first and foremost. Now this doesn't mean we don't sin.

That's obvious. But the greatest truth of the story of Adam and Eve isn't that it happened, but that it happens. The greatest truth of the story of Adam and Eve is that they sinned and that we do too.

I don't think so. The greatest truth about the story of Adam and Eve is that they sinned and God atoned for their sin and forgave them. That's the glorious truth. The greatest truth about the fall of man is that God moves to redeem fallen sinners.

That word becomes more and more unpopular the further down the road we get. I evaluated Rob Bell's statement there in the light of Paul's own testimony. Let me read you again what he said and then I'll go to the Bible, which is a great place to go.

Here's what he said. I can't find one place in the teaching of Jesus and the Bible for that matter where we are to identify ourselves first and foremost as sinners. Now listen to Paul who said it is a trustworthy statement deserving of full acceptance.

In other words, everybody ought to think this way and feel this way. Full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am foremost. It sounds to me like Paul was identifying himself first and foremost as a sinner. In fact, Paul wrote it this way in another text. This is the demonstration of the love of God. How that even while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. The greatest truth about sin is not that it happened or that it happens to me. The greatest truth about sin is that Christ bored on his body on the tree that we being dead to sin could live into righteousness.

1 Peter 2 24. Ever so slightly twisting the gospel. A colleague of Bill have quoted him before in our sessions in this particular text.

They fit well within this inclusive universalism. The man by the name of Brian McLaren who distorted the gospel even further. He wrote this and I quote in the Bible. The word save means rescue. It emphatically does not mean save from hell or give eternal life after death as many preachers seem to imply in sermon after sermon and all the people said Amen. Yes. And all the people said Amen.

And I will imply it over and over again. Save he said means get out of trouble. That trouble could be sickness, war, poverty, imprisonment or any kind of danger and quote. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not the gospel. In fact, if to be saved means you get out of the trouble of sickness or poverty, how come Christians get the flu and run out of money? If getting saved means we are delivered out of imprisonment, then the apostle Paul is in double trouble because he spent most of his life impoverished and the last few years of his life imprisoned. This is the twisting of the truth. And this is the beginning of a new era of apostasy evident in our church today so much so that Christian publishers are publishing this nonsense and it's being purchased. I could go on and on and on.

In fact, I am going to go on and on just a little bit longer here today. Let me say this. Listen, for the false preacher, the false prophet to come along in Revelation 13 and basically convince the world to worship the Antichrist less than four years after the church is raptured could mean it could mean that the church as a mainline institution has abandoned the truth of the gospel and an illiterate world biblically is a sitting duck for the deceiver. Where was the church? As Tozer said, the church was limping from one gimmick to another like so many drunks in a fog. The average evangelical church has been putting on a show to court the seeker for the last 30 years in my ministry.

It all began. He hasn't caught him, by the way, in an effort to make the church more comfortable for the unbeliever. The church has effectively stopped believing anything uncomfortable and certainly communicating it. So is it any wonder that our own culture is now entrenched more than ever in eastern religions and cults than at any time before. And at the same time, the number of churches representing mainline denominations where so many of them have Ichabod written over the door anyway, they're dead, but they're closing their doors at a rate of three to five churches every single day in this country.

In America now, a mosque is completed every 30 days. There are now more Muslims in America than Episcopalians. Not that Episcopalians or any denomination have the answer. My contention is that institutionally the organized church may very well have abandoned the gospel and the world will be ripe for the coming final deceiver.

How could it happen that they would follow him? I mean, how do you go from a church on Earth? True believers raptured. And then in less than four years, we now have the world in Revelation 13 bowing before a statue representing the Antichrist claiming that he is God.

How does the world fall for a talking image and a fire bringing profit? The apostle Paul tells us how. Listen to this text for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting their ears massaged, tickled. They will accumulate for themselves teachers who condone their own desires. That's how they get teachers who tell them live however you want to live.

You're fine. Don't worry about sin, judgment, hell, just have a great day and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. In other words, there's gonna be such great confusion in the latter days that people will turn away from the truth of sound doctrine and fall head over heels in love with the latest fad, the latest myth, the latest God. So preceding the deception of the false prophet, you have a confused world and a confused wandering religious system as well. Even religious leaders would become morally neutral and spiritually confused. Now is that a description of our culture today or what?

That's us. One of my staff pastors sent me this email this week. As you may know, the African branch of the Anglican Church is more solid biblically than its American counterpart. Now I don't know if you knew that the litmus test as we've watched it unfold in the news is the ordination of practicing homosexuals to leadership in the church. One interesting exchange occurred at a conference about 24 months ago between John Shelby Spong, an Episcopalian bishop who long ago apostatized and African bishops within the denomination. Now at this particular conference, Bishop Spong was trying to convince the African leaders to give up their views and accept homosexual leaders in the church.

The African bishops, on the other hand, were holding fast. They were refusing to budge based on scripture. Finally, in a moment of frustration, this article said, Bishop Spong lashed out at them with the reason the African bishops believe the Bible so literally is because they have been so recently converted from paganism.

To which the bishop from Uganda responded, the reason Bishop Spong does not believe the Bible is because he has so recently been converted to paganism. The tragedy is this is leadership in the church. If it has paralyzed the church, where does the world go for a moral anchor for the truth? If the church is no longer salt and light, society will decay even quicker than before and there will be no demonstration of the truth of Christ and the gospel of our Lord. And so the world will wander even more quickly and become so confused. So much so that, as I read this week, I Love Lucy cannot be put on primetime because they smoke.

But you can have gratuitous sex on primetime TV. How confused is that? I read another illustration of our world's moral confusion. There was a discrimination lawsuit filed against eHarmony about 24 months ago and it has just now become news. They finally reached a response. The article read, online dating service eHarmony has responded to a discrimination lawsuit by agreeing to launch a new site for same-sex singles. It's going to be called Compatible Partners. According to chairman and founder, former evangelical psychologist Neil Warren and Anton Johnson, the company's vice president of legal affairs, eHarmony will now, and I quote, welcome all single individuals who are genuinely seeking long-term relationships.

Friends, if there was ever a day when the world is primed for somebody to deceive it into believing a lie, if there was ever a generation ready to embrace something, some kind of anchor, whether it be a new world religion, a global economy, it's our generation today. Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. Stephen's not through with this lesson but we're almost out of time so we're going to stop right here and bring you the conclusion tomorrow. You can learn more about us if you visit our website which is wisdomonline.org. Once you go there, you'll be able to access the complete archive of Stephen's Bible teaching ministry. We also post each day's broadcast so if you ever miss one of these lessons, you can go to our website and keep caught up with our daily Bible teaching ministry.

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