SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/23/2016 10:20 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to Zech. 11:15-17
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zech: 11:15-17
Message of the verses: “15 The LORD said to me, "Take again for
yourself the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 "For behold, I am going to raise up a
shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered,
heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the
fat sheep and tear off their hoofs. 17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd Who
leaves the flock! A sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His arm will
be totally withered And his right eye will be blind.’”
First thing
we can see that Zechariah is still using his action sermon, and also that the
theme is still about shepherds, this time a worthless shepherd.
Now I
mentioned in one of our last Spiritual Diaries that these three verses speak of
the antichrist, and as we look throughout the Scriptures there are other
chapters that speak of the antichrist.
When we studied the books of Daniel, Revelation, and the epistles to the
Thessalonians we also learned things about this man, and he is a man, a man who
will receive power from Satan, but when we studied (I think it was Revelation),
we learned that Satan will not possess the antichrist, but a strong demon
will. The antichrist is also mentioned
in John’s epistles too. 1Jo 2:18 “Children, it is the last hour; and just as
you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared;
from this we know that it is the last hour.”
John also mentions that there are many different antichrists, but in
this verse he speaks about the one who will rule the world for seven years
during the tribulation period. “2Jo 1:7
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge
Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.” “1Jo 4:3 and every spirit that does not
confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which
you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” “1Jo 2:22 Who is the liar but the one who
denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the
Father and the Son.”
I heard a
sermon many years ago by Erwin Lutzer who is the pastor at the Moody church in
Chicago talking about the antichrist. He
went on to say that Satan always has a man ready to step into that roll for
Satan does not know when he will be needed.
Looking around the world in the past 100 plus years I can truly
understand his point.
Now as I
look at the sermon that John MacArthur presents about the antichrist that are
in these three verses, a sermon he entitles simply “The False Shepherd” he
takes at least five pages to speak about the antichrist from different passages
in the Bible, both the OT and the NT.
Perhaps some would like me to quote these pages, and so I will quote
them, but if you do not want to read all of them just skip them and wait until
our next SD as we will begin to look at the verses in chapter eleven, although
the quote is very interesting indeed.
“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 stomp 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 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. And Moses came to be the man who led Israel out of bondage and into the
promised land and Satan's effort was thwarted again.
“Again Satan tried to break the royal line in 2
Chronicles, and you might want to turn in your Bible to 2 Chronicles, I'm going
to spend a minute or two there, but in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, 21, 22 and 23
which is right at the heart of the issue I want to point at, and we'll mention
several Scriptures here, we find that Satan attempts to break the royal line.
Now watch. Once Israel was established as a nation, and God had called out
David and David's line was to be the Messianic line, the Messiah had to come
through that kingly line. And so Satan tries to break the kingly line to remove
all male children so the line comes to a termination. And you have in 2
Chronicles 21, for example, Jehoram killing all his brothers. And Jehoram just
slaughters all his brothers which is just wholesale slaughtering and wiping out
of the royal line. And it all comes down to one, just one individual is left in
the royal line.
“But that individual had sons, that individual had
sons, we thank God for that. But then the Arabians came, as the story goes
through this text, and killed all the sons, but they missed the youngest son.
And in chapter 22 verse 1 it says, "So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of
Judah reigned." They...the Arabians in the same verse, they slew everybody
but Ahaziah the youngest son, they missed him. And so again the thing was
reduced to one individual, he reigned only one year and he was a very, very
wicked man. But nonetheless, he was in the Messianic line. He was counseled by
his vile evil mother whose name was Athaliah. And he was then wounded severely
and now the Messianic line was down to one individual who was severely wounded
but he recovered. He was later killed in a war by Jehus but not before he had
sons.
“Now we go to chapter 22 verse 10 and let's
pick up the story. Ahaziah is dead and he was the single thread in the line but
he has had his sons. But once he is dead, when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah
saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the
house of Judah. This woman was the tool of Satan to destroy the total royal
seed. But watch, "But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash
the son of Ahaziah and stole him from among the king's sons who were slain and
put him and his nurse in a bed chamber so Jehoshabeath the daughter of king
Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, for she was the sister of Ahaziah,
hid him from Athaliah so that she slew him not and he was with them hidden in
the house of God six years," while this terrible vile woman, his
grandmother Athaliah reigned over Israel. One sister, Jehoshabeath, hid one
little boy, Joash, who was the last thread in the royal seed. If Joash dies,
there's no seed left of the line of David from which Messiah could be born.
“So, for six years the hope of Israel was held in
the hand of one little boy whose life was hidden. And believe me, that little
boy was a little boy that Satan wanted dead. Do you believe that? You know he
did.
“And then verse 20...chapter 23 verse 1, "And
in the seventh year, Jehoiada to strengthen himself and took the captains of
hundreds, Azariah the son of Jeroham and Ishmael and all those other names, and
they went about in Judah and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of
Judah, and the heads of the fathers of Israel and came to Jerusalem and all the
congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God and he said unto
them, Behold, the king's son shall reign as the Lord hath said of the sons of
David." And as it turned out, Athaliah was later killed. And so there was
a promise of victory and the little life was spared and the seed went on and
Satan was again thwarted.
“Satan couldn't stop it with a cross-breed race in
Genesis 6. He couldn't stop it by trying to slaughter the male children in
Egypt in Exodus 1. And he couldn't stop it by trying to slaughter off all the
line under Athaliah in 2 Chronicles.
“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 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. 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 in 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. And there's coming a future time when Satan pulls another attack. Not
tonight, but sometime read the twelfth 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 this 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 him, even though he's
lost ever 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 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, 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. He'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, he 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 eighteenth chapter
of Revelation, it describes it to a tee. It will 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
worshiped 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 him over all kindred’s 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 will 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. And
here it is, in Daniel 9:26, "At the end of the seventieth week of Daniel,
which is the Tribulation, after threescore and two weeks, Messiah shall be cut
off," this is the seventieth week, adding all the ones from the previous
verses up, the seventieth week, after Messiah's 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 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 incredible 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 he'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 he'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 defeat 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.
9/23/2016 10:51 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment