Mesa Hills Bible Church

Pastor Tim Dane: We're in Revelation chapter 13, if you will turn with me to chapter 13. It's a message chapter that deals with the final godless empire that is going to raise up on this world. Now, you and I live in a world that is dominated and directed by evil forces. That is not to say that every political leader is demon possessed, but Satan has been at work in this world ever since the fall of Satan and ever since he introduced sin to Adam and Eve. We live in a world that has heavy demonic influences. That is why Jesus in John chapter 12 verse 31, and he repeated the same expression in 14:30 and 16:11, Jesus called Satan the ruler of this world.

That is a pretty heavy-duty statement, the Son of God calling this fallen angel the ruler of this world. But we have to understand how badly Adam's sin brought inversion to God's order and the disobedience of man brought in this age of sin and curse. Jesus called him the ruler of this world. In 1 John chapter 5 verse 19, John said that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. Again, that's pretty heavy-duty. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4, Paul even called Satan the god of this world who blinds the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ and believe.

Satan is constantly at work to try to blind the mind and the heart of unsaved people from the truth of the gospel because he does not want people to get saved. Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 2 said that Satan is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who is now working in the sons of disobedience. This is powerful language. We have to understand that Satan is at work nonstop in trying to deceive and lead people away from the knowledge of Christ. He is at work on a nonstop basis to try to stir people to sin and to rebel against God. This is the way it's been throughout history since the fall of Satan.

The Bible shows us that one of the ways that Satan operates is that he works through unsaved political leaders. This is true everywhere. This is true in pagan countries and it's true in America. The guys who lead our country, whoever they might be, the people, the men and the women that lead our country that are wearing things like nice expensive suits and nice ties, they are every bit as much of demonically influenced as the voodoo priest. When we look at things that happen in our country and you say this is horrible, how could these people do that, the unsaved mind is a perfect pawn in the hands of demonic powers. That is how it works. We look at our own country and our pagan political leaders that reject Christ and try to force ungodly kinds of principles on us. They're no better than the Islamic terrorist, just different religions. Godless leaders under the power of Satan.

As we look in history, we see that there have been major empires that have ruled the world and many of these have also been empires that enslaved and afflicted and oppressed the people of Israel. We know that Israel has a very large part in the Bible storyline because God did choose the people of Israel to be a nation through whom he would work. A lot of the Bible revolves around the Jews. We should never make the mistake of thinking that the Bible is about the Jews. It's not about Israel or the Jews. It's about God bringing glory to His name by the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.

That's the storyline, that the Son of God would at one point in human history, 2,000 years ago, come in the flesh and become a man so that he could pay the price of sin and curse and restore a fallen creation. The Bible's promise is this, anybody who is willing to repent of their sin and turn to Christ and to embrace him as Lord and Savior, they shall share in that redemption. We don't do anything to deserve that forgiveness. We don't do anything to achieve it or merit it. We can't achieve it or merit it. We're already guilty, we're already stained, but there's a fountain flowing that can bring that cleansing.

It's a free gift. God says, "Believe in my Son and I will give you restoration." We are living in the middle of salvation history, so right now we can look around and say look at all the evil that's happening. Look at the wars that are happening. Look at all of the disease. Look at children that have cancer. Unsaved people will do this. They'll say, "Well, God doesn't exist. Look at all these bad things. Look, here's a baby that has cancer." That's because we're living in a curse. This is not God causing this. This is what sin has brought in. Our sin is what created this curse.

God had to judge evil and so the curse is what a holy God had to do. But that curse also includes death that would be the death of the Son of God. Christ was eternally purposed in the plan of God that he would be the one to take on flesh and to bring redemption. That is why Peter in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 20 says that Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world. He was appointed in God's eternal purpose. It was appointed that Christ the Son would bring restoration.

Right now, you and I are still living in the middle of history. We're not yet at the end of redemptive history. We're not at the end of salvation history. We're still living in the middle of it. We watched that 2,000 years ago, Christ paid the price for restoration. Right now, what God has been doing for 2,000 years, he has been using his church, the body of Christ, to catapult this message of redemption through the world through his church. Our calling is to preach the gospel to the world. Our calling is to make disciples and to preach the gospel that men might hear and repent and believe and become part of Christ's people.

When Christ returns and brings his kingdom, there is going to be a purging of the evil that dominates this world. But we are still living in the middle of salvation history. Right now, we've had 2,000 years of God taking the message of the gospel into the world. That's going to keep going on until the day when God says, "Okay, it's time to finish everything up. My Son is going to return and bring his kingdom to this world, judge evil, and purge the curse." As you look throughout human history, we can see that there have been major empires that have risen up on the world and these major empires have ruled the world and these major empires have also been ones to afflict and oppress the people of Israel.

When you look at who these are in scripture, I'm going to ask you to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 52 and then have your finger ready to turn to Daniel chapter 7. Isaiah chapter 52 brings us to the time period right before the invasion of the Assyrian armies when the Assyrians were going to overthrow the people of Israel in the northern kingdom. In Isaiah chapter 52 verse 4, God tells them, going back to verse 3, "You were sold for nothing, Israel. You have ended up in slavery. You were sold for nothing and you're going to be redeemed without money."

"I am going to redeem you back by my own salvation. For thus says the Lord God, Isaiah 52:4, my people went down at first into Egypt to reside there." What happened when they lived in Egypt? The Egyptians enslaved them and oppressed them. For 400 plus years, Israel was under the domination of the Egyptians. They were not slaves immediately. It was over a period of time and nobody knows exactly how long, but the Egyptians enslaved them. God makes mention of how the Egyptian empire in ancient times began to afflict the people of Israel way back in the second millennium BC.

In Isaiah 52, he makes mention of a second world empire that invaded and enslaved the people of Israel and he says then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. The Assyrian invasion began in 732 BC and by 722 BC the northern kingdom of Israel had fallen to Assyria and Assyria completely gained domination over the northern part of the land of Israel. He mentions the Egyptians and then here's a second world empire, the Assyrians. Now, who was the next one that came on the scene after Assyria? It was Babylon and so God makes mention of that here in Isaiah 52:5.

He says, "What do I have going on here seeing that my people have been taken away without cause? And again, those who rule over them howl and my name is continually blasphemed all day long." The mention here in verse 5 is talking about the imminent Babylonian invasion that was going to come on the scene after the Assyrians. Right here you have mention of three of these empires, Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. The Babylonian empire was the one that invaded the southern kingdom of Israel in the days of Daniel. Look with me at the book of Daniel because Isaiah is written roughly about 700 BC. Daniel is written roughly about 600 BC, 100 years later, and this is when the Babylonian armies invaded Judah.

You could look at chapter 1 verse 1 and it tells us about these Babylonians. In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim, King of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. Look at verse 2. "And the Lord gave Jehoiakim King of Judah into his hand along with some of the vessels of the house of God and he brought them all to the land of Shinar." Was the Babylonian invasion and overthrow of Judah an accident of history? No. God is the one who brought the Babylonians in and God had been telling from the time of Isaiah, "Babylon is the one that I'm going to use to judge your sin."

When God gave Israel the land of Canaan back in the days of Joshua, God said, "I'm fulfilling the promises that I swore to the fathers. I swore that the land of Canaan is going to be an eternal inheritance for the people of Israel forever and ever." Genesis 13:14-15, it is an eternal inheritance to the people of Israel. When God gave them that inheritance in the days of Joshua, God also told them you are going to have to stay faithful to Yahweh if you want to enjoy the blessings of these patriarchal promises. What happened at Mount Sinai is that God made a covenant with the collective corporate nation.

That covenant at Mount Sinai we call the law of Moses. It's also called the Sinai covenant. What God did is God said, "I'm giving you this land and you will be the most blessed people on the face of the earth if you stay loyal to Yahweh and to the covenant." In Deuteronomy 28:1-14, he gives 14 verses of blessings. Stay faithful to the Lord and you will be blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. However, he says in verses 15-68, Deuteronomy 28, "If you turn away from Yahweh and if you begin to worship the idols of the land, here are the curses that will come upon you. You're going to be the most cursed nation. You're going to have hardship, invasion, and war."

In Deuteronomy 28:64, he says it's going to culminate with you being taken away by a foreign nation and you're going to be banished from the land and you will not have a right relationship with me until the end of the age. God promises in the book of Deuteronomy that there is going to be a restoration. Within the law of Moses it says so. In Deuteronomy chapter 30:1-10, God says, "Well, when all these things have come upon you, the blessings of the covenant and the curses of the covenant and you're scattered all across the world and you turn back to the Lord, then God is going to restore you from your captivity. He's going to take you from all the places where you've been scattered and he is going to settle you back in your own land and give you this land and he's going to prosper you and bless you more than ever happened in the days of the patriarchs."

The law of Moses tells us upfront at the beginning of Israel's Old Testament history that there is one day going to be a restoration. It's not only a physical restoration to the land, but it's also a regenerate restoration. He's going to save a remnant and the entire restoration of the nation is going to be a redeemed, regenerate, believing nation. It tells us that in Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 6. It says the Lord your God will circumcise your hearts to love the Lord your God so that you may live.

75 years ago, we saw Israel reform as a nation after over 1,800 years of being trampled down by the Gentile powers. 75 years ago, Israel became a nation again and I believe that that is part of God's providential work to bring a restoration to that nation. I hesitate to kind of look at current events and identify current events as being fulfilling of biblical prophecy, but Ezekiel chapter 47 when God talks about the restoration of Israel, chapter 37, excuse me, in Ezekiel chapter 37, it speaks about the way that there's going to be a progressive outworking of God's work with Israel at the end of the age.

It says that he's going to gather them together like a bunch of bones from a valley where the bones are scattered, dry bones. God in Ezekiel 37 says, "Ezekiel, can these bones live again?" And it symbolizes the nation of Israel. Ezekiel says, "Well, you're the one that knows." God says, "Prophesy over these dry bones." These bones came together and formed a skeleton, a rickety clickety skeleton, but it says there was no breath in them. God says, "Now prophesy a second time over them." So Ezekiel prophesies over them a second time and then it says that the breath of the life of God came into the bones and they came to life.

What we see represented is there's going to be a progressive unfolding of how God brings this restoration of his people. There's going to be an initial physical restoration, but that has not yet turned into the spiritual regeneration that is going to come. In Deuteronomy chapter 30, this is what God said is going to happen. He's going to bring them to the land and he's going to bring restoration and regeneration. In Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 7, Moses says, "And here's what else God is going to do. The Lord is going to destroy the nations that are trying to destroy you. He's going to destroy those nations and he's going to put the curses that you had to bear, he's going to put the curses upon those pagan nations that are seeking your destruction."

Listen, this is an outline of exactly what you find throughout all the rest of the scripture. The scripture tells us there's going to be the restoration of that nation physically, spiritually, and they're going to be back in their own land forever and ever. The word of God says so. This is what God is going to do. As you look throughout the prophets of the Old Testament and then you look at the prophets of the New Testament, this is exactly what the Bible says is going to happen.

However, in that process there's going to be different kinds of world empires. When Israel was cast out of the land by the Babylonians, this began an era that Jesus described in Luke 21:24 as being the times of the Gentiles, the time period when Israel is now under the affliction of Gentile powers. That's the Babylonians invaded in 605 BC. Again, if we go back prior to that, we can look at the way that Israel was trampled underfoot by the Egyptians and then how they were trampled underfoot by the Assyrians. Now you have a third world empire that is dominating the world and afflicting Israel and it is the Babylonians.

The Babylonians ruled over Israel from 605 BC until 539 BC when the Persian empire rose up. The Medo-Persian empire invaded and Babylon fell on October 12, 539 BC to the Medo-Persian empires who invaded Babylon. Now Persia is the ruling power of the world. It's interesting, Babylon was a powerful empire, but they only lasted for 70 years. That's really pretty short time period to have domination. The Persians came on the scene in 539 and they ruled the ancient Middle East until 334 BC when the Greeks came on the scene.

The Persians ruled the world for the next 200 years from roughly 539 BC until 334. As you look at these empires that are described in the Bible and as you look at Daniel chapter 2, for example, in the book of Daniel chapter 2, Babylon was symbolized as being a head that was made out of gold. The chest of silver symbolized the Persian empire. The Bible tells us this explicitly, it actually defines them. The Roman empire came on the scene roughly about 200 years after the Greeks. It's not a precise kind of date, but in 146 BC the Roman empire had victories that basically gave them dominance of the entire Mediterranean world.

From 539 to 334 it was Persia. From 334 to 146 it was the Greeks. Then the Romans come on the scene in 146 BC and the Romans now are ruling over the ancient world. The Romans had control of the ancient Mediterranean world for about 600 years. All of this, as you look at Daniel chapter 7 with me, notice how Daniel chapter 7 talks about these successive world empires. The difference between Daniel 7 and Daniel chapter 2, Daniel chapter 2 you've got an inanimate statue, head of gold, chest of silver, thighs of brass, legs made out of iron, and then toes made out of iron and clay.

When you look at the same empires in Daniel chapter 7, look at Daniel chapter 7 verse 2. The first one was like a lion, so the Babylonian empire is symbolized like a lion. Chapter 7 verse 5, the Persian empire is symbolized as a bear with three ribs in its mouth. Notice what it says at the end of Daniel 7 verse 5: "Arise, devour much meat." Not vegan. Go to Rudy's if you're a vegetarian, no offense meant, just a little joke. The Persian empire, a bear. Chapter 7 verse 6, the third empire, the Greek empire is symbolized as a leopard with four wings. Then chapter 7 verse 7 is this terrifying beast and you have the Roman empire.

The same four empires that were symbolized in chapter 2 are now seen in chapter 7 by animate living creatures. As you look at the end of each of these two visions, in chapter 2 it's the statue. When you come to the end of the age, there's going to be a time period when 10 toes bind together in a political and military alliance. Chapter 7 of Daniel it is symbolized by 10 horns on the beast that come together. In chapter 2, the end of that statue happens when Daniel sees a stone, I was going to say cut out of the mountains and I looked east, but that's the wrong direction. I got to look that way.

There's a giant stone, there's a stone that is cut out of the mountain in Daniel chapter 2 and it strikes the statue on those 10 toes and demolishes the entire statue. This is an end of pagan Gentile dominion. This has not yet happened. We are still living in a world dominated by pagans. We know that there are some Christian presidents and rulers out there in the world, but we're living in a world that is dominated by pagan Gentiles. That statue gets demolished when the stone is cut out of the mountains without hands. It's a work of God. It's cut out of the mountains and it strikes the statue at that time when there are 10 toes and then it demolishes the whole statue.

Notice what it says down here if you look at Daniel chapter 2, how Daniel tells you what this means. Daniel chapter 2 verse 34, "Nebuchadnezzar, you kept looking until a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and it crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, the whole statue was demolished and crushed at the same time and it became like chaff from the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain that filled the whole earth."

What does that mean? Go down a little bit further. Look at Daniel 2 verse 44. "In the days of those 10 kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. That kingdom will not be left for another people. It will crush and put an end to all of these kingdoms, but itself will endure forever. Inasmuch as you saw that stone cut out of the mountain without hands and it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, the gold, the great God has made known to you, King Nebuchadnezzar, what will take place in the future. So that the dream is true, its interpretation is trustworthy."

How good was Daniel's prophetic explanation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream? Look at verse 46. King Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man on the earth, fell on his face and did homage to Daniel and gave orders to give Daniel an offering and fragrant incense and he appointed him as the chief of all the Magi. Daniel by the spirit of God nailed it on the head and told Nebuchadnezzar this is what's going to happen because Nebuchadnezzar was wondering, "Wow, I wonder how long I'm going to have this dominion and I wonder what the future holds." God showed King Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel interpreted and showed us here's what's going to happen at the end of age.

Christ is going to come and he's going to bring his kingdom and it's going to mean an end of all of the pagan powers that rule the world. As you look at this in Daniel chapter 7, what happens is that the time period of the end of the age is symbolized not by 10 toes on the statue, but by 10 horns on a beast. Same 10 empires that come together and it tells us that these are political empires that come together in a union. What happens in Daniel chapter 7 is that it also tells us about a very, very evil figure that we call the Antichrist.

He's a little horn in Daniel chapter 7. Notice with me, Daniel chapter 7 in verse 8. There's a little horn, a little political leader who comes up among the other 10 horns and three of those first horns were pulled out by the roots and behold, this horn, this political leader, possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts. Daniel chapter 7 tells us for the first time about this guy that's called the Antichrist. This is not the only time because he's spoken of again in chapter 8, he's spoken of again in chapter 9, he's spoken of again in chapters 10 through 12.

What happens is that this guy comes on the scene and he begins to dominate the world with these nations that he controls. But what happens is that God brings a destruction to the Antichrist. The one that brings this destruction is called the Son of Man, if you notice in chapter 7 verse 13. "I kept looking in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man." Now Daniel says he's like a son of man, meaning he's a human figure. Jesus took this and applied this prophecy to himself and said, "I am the son of man. I am the promised one. I am the King of Kings."

The Son of Man comes up to God, the Ancient of Days, and he's presented before God the Father and to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will never pass away. His kingdom is one which will never be destroyed. Same message as chapter 2, but here it's the Son of Man who destroys the Antichrist and Daniel chapter 7 talks about this and we're going to look at this some more. Here's what you see from the book of Daniel.

I gave you some explanation of what Moses said is going to happen in terms of the flow of world history that there is going to be a restoration to Israel. Here in Daniel you have the most explicit, up to this point, the most explicit flow of how these things are going to be fulfilled. All the prophets speak about this coming restoration, but in many of these prophets, a lot of the prophets, it's like they give you snapshots of things that are going to happen in the future. Snapshot here from Isaiah, snapshot from Isaiah, snapshot from Ezekiel. This is a good analogy. The prophets bring you a lot of snapshots and then we pull them all together.

Daniel is more like a video. Daniel says, "Let me tell you how these things are going to unfold." And so Daniel gives you this video and God by his prophetic wisdom gave this unfolding of how these things are going to take place. What it shows us is that there's going to be something happening at the end of the age where there is going to be a final world empire because so far I've shown you six of them: ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. That's six. In Revelation chapter 17 it tells us that five of those world empires have already come and gone away.

In Revelation 17 it says and the sixth one exists right now and that was the Roman empire that was ruling the world in the days of the Apostle John. But there's also going to be a final seventh world empire and that's why as we see it in Revelation chapter 13 and also Revelation chapter 17, it talks about a massive block of world dominion consisting of seven heads on a beast. That seventh head is going to be the final world empire and this is what we see described here in Revelation chapter 13, one final godless empire.

We've already seen and understand how Satan works through godless leaders in every age, but there's going to be one final block of godless power that rises up at the end of the age, a seventh head on this beast. This morning what we're going to do is we're going to look at the first of three descriptions of this final godless empire. We're going to look at the makeup of it. Okay, so now all of that, come back with me here to Revelation chapter 13. Here in verses 1 to 2 notice what John sees in his vision. Revelation 13 verse 1, "And he stood," it says, "on the sand of the seashore. And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea having 10 horns and seven heads and on his horns were 10 diadems and on his heads were blasphemous names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard. Its feet were like those of a bear. His mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority."

This is God's word showing us what is going to happen at the end of the age. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word that you have told us what the future holds. We know that you have not shown us everything and we understand that as we look to scripture there is a lot of detail that we have to pull together. We thank you that you have not left us in the dark. We know that you are a sovereign God. You have a plan and purpose that you are working and we know that we can trust you even though we don't have every answer. We know that you have a plan and purpose and you've shown us in your word. So I pray that you would use this time this morning to help us see more properly what you have planned and what you are going to do. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

As you look here at Revelation chapter 13, what we come to is this final empire and right now what I want to do is I want to bring you to three facts about this future godless empire. First of all, as we look at verses 1 and 2, we see its satanic origin and its satanic makeup. Chapter 13 verse 1 begins by saying the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Really what's happening is that chapter 13 verse 1, the first part, is really a transitional statement and it's picking up on what has been going on throughout chapter 12.

In chapter 12 there were several key figures that God revealed to us. The first one back in chapter 12 verse 1 was Israel being symbolized as a woman verses 1 and 2. He says here's a major figure in the entire drama. Israel and its part in this whole thing. Then in verses 3 to 4 he introduces us to this dragon and it explains it and it says this is Satan. This is the devil. We know that because if you look at chapter 12 verse 9 he's called the great dragon, the serpent of old, the devil and Satan, the one that deceives the whole world. Verses 3 and 4 we find another major figure in understanding what's going on in the Bible and what's going on in the world.

Israel has a significant part of this entire drama. Satan has a very significant part. Verse 5 we see another key to this whole thing. It's Christ himself. Verses 5 and 6 tell us that the promised one came. He has not yet established his kingdom on this world, but he came and he gave his life as the atoning sacrifice that can save sinners. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That's Acts 16:31. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has come and this is spoken of in verses 5 and 6.

Verses 6 through 17 talk about a final 1,260 day time period. This is the last half of the great tribulation period and verses 6 through 17 talk about events that are going to happen in the tribulation period that is yet to come, has not yet come on the scene. What happens is we see the dragon trying to destroy Israel, the woman in chapter 12. This is the drama. Satan goes after the woman. He can't succeed because God is protecting the woman. God will not allow Satan to destroy Israel.

The dragon, Satan, is the one that's in focus in chapter 12. What happens in chapter 13 is that you have the transition to begin to show us how Satan is going to work in that final seven year time period. As one commentator, Alan Johnson in the Expositor's Bible Commentary says, chapter 13 is a continuation of Satan's persecution of Israel that flowed all throughout chapter 12 and what you have here is the actual earthly instruments of the assault. Robert Thomas in his commentary says these events now in chapter 13 are a continuation of John's vision of the woman clothed in the sun and the dragon.

At this point it enters a new phase in a description of the resultant warfare between the beast of the sea and the woman. Chapter 13 is revealing to us how Satan is going to work in that tribulation period. It's going to be through a giant coalition of godless power headed up by one very evil man that we call the Antichrist and he has somebody at his side, the guy that we call the False Prophet. This False Prophet comes in later in chapter 13 and verses 11 and following where we find another figure. There's three major figures that get introduced in chapter 13: the empire in verses 1 and 2, verses 3 through 10 the Antichrist, and then verses 11 and following the False Prophet.

In chapter 13 verse 1 it says that Satan took his stand on the seashore. What is this seashore? Is this talking about the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean? The background for this comes from the book of Daniel. If you look at chapter 7 when Daniel had his vision, Daniel chapter 7 verse 1, "In the first year of Belshazzar the King of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed and he wrote down the dream and related it and the summary of it. Daniel said I was looking in my vision by night and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts were coming up from the sea, each one different from the other."

That's where he then says Babylon the lion, Persia the bear, Greece the leopard, and then a final beast that at one point in time has 10 horns on it. What Daniel is describing here are four empires coming up out of the sea and this is really best understood as referring simply to the Mediterranean world. The great sea was the Mediterranean and it's talking about four blocks of Gentile power that are going to rise up in the future and the culmination point of the whole thing is when the Son of Man comes, when Christ comes and brings his kingdom.

But you're looking here at four major world empires rising up out of the Gentile world and these would be the ones that afflict Israel and try to destroy Israel at various points in time. It's the rise of godless powers out of the Gentile world. Charles Pfeiffer says here the sea here undoubtedly is a symbol of the agitated surface of unregenerate humanity, especially the seething cauldron of national and social life out of which the great historical movements of the world arose. The nasty little Gentiles, you and me.

You and me, we're talking here about people like ancient Babylon, Persia, Greece, Corinth, Rome, Las Vegas. Nasty little things coming out of Las Vegas like me. Yeah, like me. This is the Gentile world. When we look at the Bible and we talk about the Gentiles like, "Oh yeah, the Philistines." That's you and me. We're these nasty little sinners, but that's the whole world. The same thing is true of a Jew. A Jew is born a nasty little sinner just like a Gentile. We're all sinners. But what Daniel is seeing here is the rise of these world empires that we've been talking about in the book of Daniel.

Both Daniel and Revelation talk about the fact that there is going to be a time period when there's going to be a rise of one final real nasty block of world power. We saw that in Daniel chapter 2 very, very clearly and we saw it very clearly in Daniel chapter 7. Sometimes people will try to say, "Is that around today?" The answer is no. When you look back in history even in the 20th century, you might have things where people look at Woodrow Wilson in the League of Nations and say, "Oh look, it's a world empire that's coming together. Maybe this is what the Bible talks about." Well, it wasn't.

Hypothetically, the rise of some block of world power in history could have been what was going to fulfill biblical prophecy, but it wasn't. You've got to be careful about trying to take current events. Everything in the end is going to fit together, but you just got to be careful about trying to identify current events and saying, "Oh fulfillment." What about the United Nations? World War II? Well no, that wasn't the fulfilling of these things. What about the European Union? Well, not. Could those things somehow be connected to what's going to happen at the end of age? They very legitimately could, but you just have to be careful about trying to connect those things.

What you do see right here though, chapter 13 verse 1, is we see the rise of a godless power and it's going to consist of 10 nations. We've already seen that very explicitly. Here's the second fact that I want to bring your attention to here in this. The second biblical fact of this world empire is that it has a culminating nature in terms of its blasphemous character. Notice what it says here at the end of verse 1: that this empire that has 10 horns and seven heads and on his horns were 10 diadems and on his heads were blasphemous names.

The idea of blasphemy is that it's a statement that is slanderous of God. I was curious in doing my research here, I said, "I wonder what kinds of blasphemous statements we can find from let's say communistic powers or other pagan powers, what kinds of quotations can we find from history where political leaders were very blasphemous." I thought it curious that, and this is the internet control, like everything when I brought that up tried to connect it to Donald Trump.

Don't trust the internet. No, seriously. You can do this one by your own and I've told you this before. When I was doing a Mother's Day message a year ago and I just wanted to pull up some things about the beauty of God's design on how God designed women to be able to have babies, so I typed into Google, google.com, "Why can only women have babies?" Every, the first thing it said was many of these pages have been removed.

Then it said this, every one of the pages had explanations, websites, well transgender man has, transgender woman has a baby, and every one of the websites was something about homosexuality and transgender and why the homosexual agenda. You, and I don't know how many, I went through numerous of these pages and they were all pushing this godless agenda. This is the internet. It's not neutral. The people that control it have an agenda just like the political leaders that are calling the shots in politics and the religious leaders or the educational leaders and a lot of the religious leaders as well. It's too bad because when you look at teachers who love children and want to teach children that the system, like Jesus said, the ruler of this world.

Anyhow, I thought it was curious that when I was wanting to look for statements of blasphemy from political leaders, they just all had it loaded with Trump. We know that he's a sinner, but you see what's going on right there. So here in chapter 13 verse 1 it speaks about this blasphemous empire. Why is it this way? Well, look back at chapter 12 verse 3. John said back in chapter 12 verse 3, "I saw another sign appear in the heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, who is Satan, having seven heads and 10 horns and on his heads were the seven diadems."

As we look at this empire that rises up in chapter 13 and verse 1 and we see the beast rising up, this final block of world power, and this final block of power has the 10 horns and the seven heads and the 10 diadems and blasphemous names, the reason why according to chapter 12 verse 3 is because this is Satan at work through this final block of world power. We've already looked at this, I'll just rehearse it for you, but we've looked through Daniel that these seven empires, these seven heads on the beast, were the Egyptian empire, the Assyrian empire, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the ancient Romans. That's six so far.

But there is a seventh one that is yet to rise up and it is that eschatological block of power that comes together with the 10 horns in the tribulation period. This is all future. It is yet to be fulfilled. The Epistle of Barnabas dates back to the end of the first century. The Epistle of Barnabas warns believers to be alert about the imminent appearing of the final stumbling block and his block of world power, the Antichrist. The Didache is another late first-century document. The Didache was a Christian theology book, you might say, a Christian manual, and the Didache looked ahead and said beware of a coming world deceiver who will appear under the guise of God's Son.

Justin Martyr who died in 165 and ministered in Ephesus looked for the appearance of his time of the Antichrist who will gain control over that block of world power in those last three and a half years. Irenaeus who died in 202, Irenaeus was the bishop of Lyon, France, gave an extensive discussion about this coming block of world power that is going to be ruled over by the Antichrist over those last three and a half years. This is still future. Those are second-century, first-century and second-century church fathers who all looked ahead and said these things are yet future. It didn't get fulfilled in the first century. It's future.

Look with me at Revelation chapter 17. Revelation 17 in verse 9 and following, we see another reference to these seven heads, these seven successive world empires. Revelation 17 verse 9 says the seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman Babylon sits, and in verse 10 it says they are seven kings, seven blocks of world power. Five of them have already fallen, one of them exists right now, the other one has not yet come, but when it comes, it will remain for a little while.

Notice here in verse 12, "The 10 horns that you saw, these are 10 kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour." And these have one purpose, to give all of their power and authority to the beast. Listen, Book of Revelation was written in 95, AD 95. It was the last book of the New Testament. It's very explicitly documented in church history that John received this when he was exiled by the emperor Domitian. Domitian was the emperor of Rome from 81 to 96. Domitian exiled John who was ministering in Ephesus way over in Asia.

He exiled him to this little island called Patmos. We know this from Clement of Alexandria, we know this from Irenaeus and other historical sources. At the end of Domitian's reign, John was exiled to Patmos and this is when God gave him the book of Revelation. This is explicitly clear from history. This has always been what the churches known and understood. The Bible says that John received the Apocalypse on the island of Patmos and when Domitian died, John was free to go back to Ephesus for the last few years of his life.

This is a fact. Some people say, "Well, Revelation was fulfilled in the first century during the Jewish wars of 66 to 70." Absolutely not true, absolutely, absolutely not true at all. And they will take bits and pieces of things that happened in the Jewish wars and happened with the Roman emperors and then try to say here's how Revelation was being fulfilled. Revelation was not written for 30 years after those events. Revelation is a book about the future, not about the first century. Don't get sucked into that.

Revelation is a book about the future. So here in the last book of the New Testament, it says in Revelation chapter 17 verse 12 that these 10 horns which are 10 nations, these are 10 kingdoms that have not yet come into existence. You cannot find fulfillment of this in the first century. It's about the end of the age. And it even says right here, look at what happens in chapter 17 verse 14. These 10 nations who give all of their authority to the Antichrist, these 10 nations will wage war against the Lamb.

When Jesus Christ returns, they try to fight and these battles of Armageddon, they try to fight against Christ. They will wage war against the Lamb and the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And those who are with him are the who? The called, the chosen, and the faithful. The glorified church returning with Christ fighting and waging war in these battles that we call Armageddon. This is all future. It's all future.

Back to chapter 13. In verse 2, what we see here is that you have these blasphemous names, actually it's part of still chapter 1, Revelation chapter 13 verse 1. But this empire is really going to be an expression because of Satan's presence, the most extensive expression of blasphemy that has ever been seen by any political power in the world. And this is repeated over and over again in Daniel chapter 7 and Daniel chapter 11, that it's going to be the worst of blasphemy.

First point here, first fact about this empire: its origin is satanic. Second, it's going to be the most blasphemous expression of human power that has ever existed. And then thirdly and lastly right here, the third fact about this coming empire, the ferocious nature of it. Notice what it says here, chapter 13 verse 2. "The beast which I saw was like a leopard. Its feet were like a bear, his mouth like a lion." So if you went back into the book of Daniel, which empire was symbolized by the leopard? It was the Greek empire. So you've got the ferocity of the Greek empire and its speed and agility contained in this final empire.

Then it talked about the feet like a bear, really powerful bear, the Persian empire. Then it talks about the mouth of a lion and you've got the majesty and the power of the Babylonian empire. All of this comes together in this final world empire. It's a composite kind of empire with incredible power. In Daniel chapter 7 verse 23 here's what it says: "This final empire, this final kingdom will be different from all the other kingdoms, different from ancient Babylon, different from ancient Persia. It'll be different from all the other kingdoms. It will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. And as for the 10 horns, Daniel 7 says, out of this kingdom 10 kings will arise and another will arise after him, the Antichrist, and he will be different from those previous ones and he will subdue those three of those kings. And he will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One and he will make alterations in times and law for a time, times, and a half a time, three and a half years."

All of this comes together. Why is it that it's so terrible? Well, it tells us why in chapter 13 verse 2. Look at the end of it. The dragon gave him, this final beast, the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. We've got pagan leaders being moved like pawns on a string all over the world, but this one is going to be something like never, ever seen before. You say, "I don't know, I'm not sure that that could ever happen." Really?

MacArthur in his commentary says this: "Some find it incredible that anybody could rise to such a position of absolute authority like the Antichrist." But he says there are parallels in human history. I mean, you just look at what happened 80 years ago with Nazi Germany. You go, "How could that happen?" It's because the prince of the power of the air is at work. So as you look at all these things, let me give you three points where we can close here before we share in the Lord's Supper.

Three points of application. The first one is this, don't be afraid. I am firmly convinced that these things that we see described that we've been talking about all morning long are events that happen after the rapture in the tribulation period. I believe the Bible does teach a pre-tribulation rapture. Even if it weren't true, don't be afraid. What's going to happen to our country in the future? I don't know. The way things are going right now, it doesn't look good. We may see our country continue to crumble and come apart at the seams because what's happening before our very eyes is that we're saying this doesn't look at all like what I know this country has been like for the last 400 years. So we don't know what this world is going to bring in terms of the unraveling of our country. But I just tell you this, don't be afraid.

Number two, pray for God to work his name and his glory. Pray for the salvation of souls. That's absolutely, absolutely something to do. Paul said, "I pray for my own countrymen. I pray that God would open their hearts." Pray for your people, pray for your president, pray for Congress, pray for our mayor, pray for our governor, pray for your neighbor, pray for your brother, your sister, your mom, your dad, your kids.

Here's the third thing. Be ready to tell others about Christ because God works through the gospel, right? So be there to tell people, "Here's what God has done to save you." Pray for the salvation of those people, but be the messenger. Amen?

Father, we thank you for your word that tells us what the future holds and why we can trust in you and that we don't have to be afraid. Father, we thank you for showing us that you have a sovereign plan and purpose. Like Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life." You are going to save your people. Every one that has been given to the Son, every soul that has been granted by the Father to the Son will come to the Son. We understand your sovereignty and we understand our need for grace. We know you're going to save your people. So we pray help us, O God, to do our part because our part is to preach the gospel that others might hear and believe. So help us to be faithful in what we're supposed to do.

And we thank you for a new year, O God. We thank you for bringing us through another year. We thank you for the way that you provided our needs here at Mesa Hills Bible Church. Lord, we praise you and thank you for every way that you supplied our needs including finances that allowed us to meet our projected needs and our budget. We praise you and thank you for that. We thank you for the health to be here right now. And as we share right now in the Lord's Supper, I ask that you'd help us, O God, to really examine our own hearts and to deal with the sin that is there and to confess it and to draw near to you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.