The State of the World, Part 1

Okay, well, we are in the month of January, and when the month of January rolls around, there's presidents or countries that do things like give States of the Nation addresses like President Putin in Russia did a few weeks ago, and in his address he had some comments that were pertinent to America. Later on this month, President Obama will be giving his State of the Union address, and he'll be giving his opinion of where the Union is and where we are headed as far as his vision is concerned.

So I thought today we would look at a State of the World. Where are we in world affairs? Where are we on the roadmap to prophecy? What are the signs that we see along the way that tell us that we are closer to the time of Jesus Christ's return, as you heard in the sermonette? There are some scriptures in the Bible that I want to open up with. First, I want you to turn with me over to Mark 13.

As we listen to the news each day, as we watch world affairs, it is something that Christ wanted us to do in His statement here in Mark 13 and verse 35. Mark 13 there, verse 35, Christ says, Watch therefore, for you don't know when the master of the house is coming in the evening, at midnight, at the prowing of the rooster, or in the morning.

While coming suddenly, He finds you sleeping. Now, what I say to you, I say to all, watch. He wants us to watch what is happening in the world. If we pay attention to what's going on in world affairs, we're going to see some of the signs that tell us that the time of the end is near. And it may not be right around the corner, but it is near. Now, He also meant in that verse that we need to be watching ourselves.

He says He doesn't want to find any of us sleeping when He returns. None of us falling asleep, so, like the rest of the world around us, when all these things occur and they stand up in the macement of what has happened, that shouldn't happen to you and me. We should have been watching ourselves, making sure that we are letting God's Holy Spirit lead us and guide us. We should be watching how we live, what we think, what we do, what we engage in, watching and comparing ourselves to the pages of the Bible so that when that time comes, we're not found sleeping.

But at the same time, we are watching and seeing what's going on around us so that, unlike the world around us, when it occurs, when things happen the way the Bible prophesies will happen, we're not taken by surprise. Let's go a few pages back to Matthew 24. Christ says the same thing here in the Olivet Prophecy. He says it in an analogous form here in verse 32 of Matthew 24.

He says, Learn this parable from the fig tree, when its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all those things, these things, know that it is near, at the door. Pay attention. Watch what's happening. Know your Bible.

Know what the prophecies are. And when you see the things happening, know the time is near. So today I want to take some time, and I learned this morning I'm not going to get done today with everything that we can say on this topic. But I want to take some time and see where we are. First thing, let's look and see, as the time approaches, at the time of the end, before Christ returns, what are people going to be like?

Let's go back to a verse that you all very well know here in 2 Timothy and see what God says the state of the people are going to be in the time of the end before He returns. Now I'm going to read through the first five verses here, and I'm going to take it slowly, because I don't think I need to elaborate a lot on these traits and these characteristics of the people at the end time.

As you think about them and as you go home later and you think about these words, you think about what you encountered just this week. You think about what you heard on TV, what you hear in the news every day. And see if any of these words don't perfectly fit the generation and the time we're in. Chapter 3, 2 Timothy, verse 1. Notice that in the last days perilous times will come. Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, saying things against God, saying against His truth, twisting the truth by the things they say, misobedience of parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

All those things, as you check them off, you see them, you know them, you feel them as you go about in society. Even as we live in a country that we would, I think most of us consider fairly safe. I don't go to bed each night wondering what's going to happen, if someone's going to break into my house.

I feel relatively safe there. But you know in America anymore, it's anything but safe. You don't know what your neighbor is doing, what your neighbor is thinking, what stress he's under. You don't know when you go to the mall who's going to be there that decides that today they want to take vengeance on some people and then end their life in the process, but they want to go out.

Go out with a flare, if you will. You don't know if you're going, you know, when the next terrorist activity is going to hit. It hasn't happened too often here in America yet, but it has happened, and likely as time goes on, it'll increase in the occasion of it. We live in a land that's far different than the country that we lived in prior to 2001. All these things that we hear about, what the people will be like at the time of the end, weakly happening and intensifying around us.

Let's go back to Romans 1, where Paul further talks about what the people will be like at the time of the end, and he becomes quite detailed in what happens when the people start leaving God, start leaving Him behind and choosing their own way over His. Romans 1, verse 20, says, "...the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by things that are made even as eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." If we look around us, if a thinking rational man looks around and sees the creation, the earth that we live in, if we even look at our bodies and how they operate, how everything fits so perfectly together, works so perfectly together, provides what we need, it would be impossible for that to happen without God.

It's only a mind that chooses to leave God out that would ever believe that this, what we live in and what we experience every day, didn't come about by God. So, Paul says, they're without excuse. They can say they don't believe in God, they choose to not believe in God, because although they knew God, they didn't glorify Him as God, even those who say they believe in God. Don't glorify Him, they don't give Him the respect that He deserves, they don't love Him the way the Bible says to love Him by doing what He says.

They didn't glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened, because that's what happens. When we choose to eliminate the light from our minds, they become dark.

And when our minds become dark, they become quite vile. Professing to be wise, they became fools. The more we think we've got a better way than God, we can do this, it hasn't been done this way in the past. Let's depart from God's ways, our ideas better. Professing to be wise, they became fools. And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

And when they chose to leave God behind, because God gives us a choice to honor Him, worship Him, follow Him, love Him the way the Bible says to love Him by keeping His commandments and following Him, they chose not to, therefore God also gave them up to cleanness. They chose darkness, let them live in darkness. He gave them over to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves.

They exchanged the truth of God for the lie, just like Eve did, and they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who was blessed forever. And then in verse 25, He gets pretty specific on how far down humanity can become when they depart from God, when they choose to leave Him behind. And as you read these verses and see where we are in America today, far different than we were just several years ago. For this reason, because they chose to leave God behind, because they chose darkness rather than light, God gave them up to vile passions. Even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.

Likewise, the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. Who could have foreseen the society that we live in today, when just about every TV show you click on has something to do with same-sex relationships and things that are here in the Bible that God calls acts of darkness, vile, totally against nature, totally against everything that He stood for, everything that He created, totally ignoring why He created men and women to be that way and what the institution of marriage pictures.

You see it on TV, you hear it on the news, and people who have this sin, this fault, this weakness, they want it. Sometimes the news calls them heroes, champions. You scratch your heads and you think, really? That's what you're calling this today.

Where has the nation gone? Paul knew where it was coming when a nation and a people forget God, and they choose to leave Him behind and forget that He exists or choose to forget what His laws are. Verse 28, even if they didn't like to retain God in their knowledge, and doesn't that say a lot, they just didn't like to retain God in their knowledge, because there's a responsibility when you acknowledge God, isn't there?

If you acknowledge God, you have to follow Him, and you feel guilty when you transgress the moral code and the standards and the commandments He gave. Even as they didn't like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which were not fitting. And they were filled, and here we go again, with some more adjectives that fit the time we live in, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, back-fighters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedience, appearance, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, and unmerciful. Wow! That's a lot of adjectives that describe a people and every single one of them you see in the world around us today.

Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, and you and I, we know the righteous judgment of God, the world chooses to ignore it, and some of them just have not had God has not opened their eyes to know what that is today. Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. Not only do the same things as the world, but approve of them, find it entertaining, choose to spend their time watching it.

God didn't call us to such a life. He didn't call us to be part of the world. He called us to live in the world, but to be strong in His Spirit, and to live apart from it in terms of how we act, how we think, what we do, how we live our lives. And in the midst of a crooked and a perverse generation that's getting worse and worse, where you can't turn on a TV and not have your mind calloused by the things that you see, if you sit there and watch it over and over and over, and all of a sudden, which seemed something that seemed so bad a year or two ago, just doesn't seem to have the same effect anymore.

If we just allow ourselves to continually be part of that, and that's what's happened to the world. You and I know better. You and I, God has called. You and I, He has set us apart by His truth and by His Holy Spirit, that we don't become callous.

We don't become compromising. We don't do the things the world does, but we live by the standards that He set. The world around us keeps getting darker and darker and darker. That's the state of the world we live in today. Let's go back to 2 Peter and see what he says about the people and attitudes at the time of the end. Back in 2 Peter, 2 Peter 3, 2 Peter 3 verse 1, he talks about some of the attitudes that will be extant here.

It says, Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle, verse 2, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandments of us. Notice what he said there? I want you to be aware of what those Old Testament prophets said. You've heard of them. You've read them. I want you to remember what they said because the church is built on the prophets as well as the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I want you to remember or be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days. Those that say, come on, you don't really believe that, right?

You think that the United States of America is ever going to stumble? Well, maybe they'll stumble, but do you think they're ever going to fall?

Do you really think that Jesus Christ is going to return to earth as He goes on to say? They've been saying that for 2,000 years since He resurrected or since He was resurrected and was taken up into heaven. In the last days, knowing this first, the scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, doing what they want to do rather than following the laws of God. And they'll say, where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. Really, I've been hearing about the coming of Jesus Christ all my life. He doesn't look any closer to coming today than He did 30 or 40 or 50 years ago. And there's people who say that. You've heard people say that. I've heard people say that. Really? Is He going to return? Verse 5, for this they willfully forget. They forget the words of the Bible. They forget the truth that was there. They forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. They forget. They don't want to believe that there was another society that because of its corruption, because of its violence, because that it was so far away from God that God just ended that society by covering it with water, flooding it so that no living thing existed except Noah and his family and the animals that were on that ark. They choose to forget that, but the heavens and earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

God is still in patrol. The same God that was there at the time of the flood is still watching over the earth today. He's got the same plan he had then. He's still marching toward the same purpose, and he's still got men and women and children that he loves, some of which he's working with now, the rest of which he will work with at a later time. But beloved, don't forget this one thing. As you heard in the sermon at what the Lord one day is, is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness. Where is He? Why is it taking so long? How much worse can the world get before He's going to return?

The Lord's not slack, as some count slackness, but He's long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That's what He's interested in. People turning back to Him. He doesn't want people to go through what they're going to have to go through. He wants people to turn to Him. He wants people to live. He wants people to have eternal life. He wants to pour out His blessings. That's why He created the earth in the first place.

He wants to bless mankind, but He can't do it if they continue to stand against Him. Now, there's a red chute through chapter 3 there, and we see another state of the people. They don't want to believe God. They question whether He'll even come. Does the Bible even really mean what it has to say? From time to time, I'm going to bring in some current issues and some current articles here for us to look at. There's one here I want to talk about. I don't know how many of you have ever heard the name Hank Hanegraaff? That name ring a bell. Some of us have heard of him in the past. He is the president, if you will, of the Christian Research Foundation.

I don't know if he still has it, but he used to have a radio show called The Bible Answer Man. If you had a question about the Bible, he called him, and he supposedly would give you the answers to what you are asking. Here's what Mr. Hanegraaff said when he was asked, what about these prophecies in the Bible? Do you think that Jesus Christ is coming again? What do you think about what's happening in Revelation? What does that mean for the future? Here's what he had to say. He goes, I think the point we have to probably recognize is that all of the Bible was written for us, but that none of it was written to us. It's a big difference, isn't it? Big difference. It's written for us, but it wasn't written to us. He continued when speaking of prophecy. He said, this book of Revelation was written to seven churches. They've come and gone.

He went on to say that end-time prophecy has been touted for centuries, but none of it, in quotes, ever came to pass. He doesn't believe Jesus Christ is returning. He believes these are words in history, but he doesn't believe. For centuries, people have been waiting for him, he contends, but he hasn't returned. Why should we believe would be his answer that he will return today?

Now, as I read his words, all I could think of was 2 Peter 3. He is echoing exactly the attitudes that we see in 2 Peter 3, and he's seen as a leader in the Christian religions of this world. He's seen as someone you go to for answers if you're seeking some question or some truth about the Bible. You see the state of the world and the state of the people that we live in today.

What the Bible says they'll be like, they're like. Now, let's go back to Daniel, and let's look a little bit at the state of the world. What will the society around us be like? Daniel 12. You know these verses, but let's rehearse them here. Daniel 12, verse 1. At that time, Michael will stand up, the great Prince who stands, walked over the sons of your people. He's speaking to Daniel, and leading up to chapter 12 here, we have a time at the end where an end-time king of the north attacks an end-time king of the south. And at that time, Michael says, there will be a time of trouble for your people, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time, your people will be delivered. Everyone who is found written in the book, everyone who's found written in the book, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise, those who have the knowledge of God, those who have responded to His call that allow His Holy Spirit to lead and guide them, those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. But you, Daniel, shut up the words.

Steal the book until the time of the end. Many will run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.

You know there's never been a time in history when people can go from place to place, in an instant. To get from Jacksonville to Orlando a hundred years ago, I don't know how long it would take. A lot longer than two hours by car. To get from one country to fly across the ocean would have taken weeks by ship. Today you can do it in no time flat. And no one even knows how quickly knowledge is increasing when you look at the internet and how much is out there. Literally, you can find every answer to every question you can have and every single opinion on earth. If you look at the internet, it's amazing to me how much that you can do just by flipping a switch and hitting a few keys and find everything at your fingertips. There has never been a time like this.

And God says, that will be what the world, the physical world around you, will be like. People will be living differently than they ever have lived in history before that. And in this prophecy, to Daniel, written in the Old Testament times, he says, shut the book. Steal it up. You're not going to understand what's written in this book until the time of the end, until after Jesus Christ is here, until He has opened up minds, until the book of Revelation is written and it's reports and it corroborates and it matches and expands on what is written here in Daniel. Let's look at what the state of the church will be as well, because Christ is very much interested in what His church is doing. Last week we talked about a little of that, but let's just look at a couple of verses here. Matthew 24, verse 14, a memory verse. This gospel, Christ says, when He's asked by His disciples what are going to be the signs of the coming of the age, He begins to lift them. And He says, this gospel, the same gospel He was teaching them, the same gospel that He was preaching of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. His church will be preaching the gospel right up until the very end. And they'll be doing all the other things that we talked about as well. They'll be caring for the sheep. They'll be tending to the flock. They'll be making disciples. They'll be teaching the truth and teaching people to observe all things that God has commanded them to do. And they'll be doing that right up until the very end.

Verse 45 of the same chapter.

Who then, Christ says, is a faithful and wise servant, whom His master made ruler over his household to give them food and do season?

Blessed is that servant whom His master, when He comes, will find so doing.

His church, His people, better be doing His will when He returns. They better be doing what He spent us to do and what He commissioned us to do.

Assuredly, He says, I say to you, He will make Him ruler over all His goods. He'll give the rewards that He said He will. He'll give you the offices that He said He's preparing you for, as we're told in Revelation 1, verses 5 and 6, kings and priests.

So, where are we headed? Well, sometimes to know where you're headed, you've got to know what the ultimate we're looking for is. So, let's turn back to Revelation 13.

I'm sorry, let's turn back to the last book in Revelation, last chapter in Revelation 22.

And read some of Christ's words here in this final book of the New Testament, chapter 22, verse 16. In Christ's speaking, He says, I, Jesus, have set my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I've given you this book, I've given you this truth, and you know what?

It's open to you to understand. Testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root. I'm the offspring of David. I'm the bright and morning star. In verse 12 of the same chapter, He says, Behold, I am coming quickly. My reward is with me to give everyone according to his work.

I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. I was there at the time, this earth, and mankind was created, and I will be here, and I'm returning to this earth, here from the beginning, and here right to the very end. Verse 6, John writing, The angel said to John, These words, these words written in this book, are faithful and true, and the Lord God of the holy prophets, notice that again, of the holy prophets, those that are written there in the Old Testament, the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His service the things which must shortly take place. Behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is He who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. Know it. Understand it. Look for the time that it talks about. Be ready for the time it talks about. Don't let it take you by surprise.

Now let's go back to Revelation 13 and see one of the things what the state of the world will be at some time down the future from us.

And look at the words that we've read before in some detail so that we understand what they mean and understand that the time that's coming at the end is far, far, far, far different than the world we live in today. The world we live in today, we may see it descending, we may see it getting darker and darker. It's nothing, nothing like the world that will be as pictured here in Revelation 13.

John, you remember, was given division. He writes, Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns. I want to stop right there, and I want to look at a couple of the phrases that John uses. He's standing by the sea, standing on the sand of the sea, and as he's looking at the sea, he sees a beast rising up out of the sea.

Now, we'll go back to Daniel 7 here in a moment, and Steve the Great Sea mentioned.

But I want you to think about what those words mean. Yes, it's telling us a little bit about the location of this beast, but when something comes out of the sea, there's an element to it that's different than if it's something that we just come across on the earth.

You know, I'm not very fond, understatement, of snakes. Now, one of the adjustments that I had coming to Florida was that every once in a while I see one of those things slithering through my yard.

First time it surprised me, but I realized where I was living. Now it still surprises me.

But I'm used to it. And if it's black, I've learned to be happy. I'm happy with it.

But you know, if I'm swimming in the ocean, and if I'm in the sea, and if I'm kind of the subject of some of these pictures I've seen lately, and only if something just kind of comes up from me out of the sea, I'm really surprised. You see the picture that was on the news where someone was surfing and there in the wave was a shark. They didn't even know it was there. And if that shark had just jumped or come out that person surfing, I think they would have been quite surprised.

Things coming out of the sea. The sea is kind of one of those mysterious places. We really don't know what's down there. We see pictures today of fish that are down there and what the life is down there, but boy, there's a lot of mystery to the sea. It wasn't too long ago that out in California they found this 34-foot orphish. I don't know if you saw that. Kind of a really ugly fish. And they were talking about how it's just almost prehistoric in the way that it looks. And if you're swimming around and you see this orphish come at you, I have a feeling you're going to be pretty surprised. Anything that jumps out of you at the sea, it's going to take you by surprise. You just don't see it down there. You don't know what's down there. The Bible talks about things in the sea. Leviathan is in the sea. There's monsters down there. But when things come out of the sea, it takes us by surprise. When John was looking at the sea, all of a sudden he sees this beast rising up out of the sea. He startled. What he sees is different than what he's seen before. He didn't expect it to happen. It came suddenly. It didn't just kind of give him all sorts of warning. It just happened. It was there. Later on in chapter 13, you know the verse where it talks about, the world marveled at the beast. They marveled because, whoa, where did this come from? This is the surprise. This is something we didn't see coming. This is something we didn't count on. We haven't seen anything like this before. And so, when things come out of the sea, they can be surprising. They can be different. They're not the things that we are used to.

Later on, we'll talk about things that come out of the earth. That's also mentioned in Revelation 13 or 17. But John is looking at the sea, and this beast arises. Now, the Bible talks about beasts. When we think about beasts, you know, we happen to live in a land where we don't have lions and all these things walking around. Although, I guess here in Longwood, we have bears and in this area. I guess everyone thought they were docile until the lady in Longwood, not too long ago, was attacked by one. But we're not used to beasts of the field coming out and hurting us. But, you know, in the time that this was written, lions and leopards and things like bears were deadly. If you go camping in Colorado, I have a feeling you'd probably take some precautions about a bear being able to come in and attack you, because beasts are ferocious.

Beasts are deadly. Beasts inflict harm. Beasts are not something that you want to run into, and you certainly don't want to be taken by surprise. You want to be prepared if you're going to encounter a beast. So, John's standing on the shore of the sea. All of a sudden, out of the sea, he sees this beast erupt out of the waters. He's surprised, but it's a ferocious beast. It's something he hasn't seen before, something he wasn't prepared to see, even in his day, living in the time of the Roman Empire. You know, in America, we live really comparatively easy lives. We live at a time that, you know, historians tell us there's never been a time like it.

When America came on the scene, it was a welcome departure to what the rest of the world's, what the rest of the governments of the world were, because those governments were like beasts.

We could replace the word beast throughout Revelation 13, and when we see it in Revelation, just replace it with government, because governments down through the ages have not been kind to people. They haven't been merciful to people. They haven't been compassionate. Governments were not there to elevate people, to pull them up, to make them better than what they were. Governments down through the ages have always been there to glorify the King, that everyone would look at Him, that everyone would do what He wants. Governments held people back. They never were able to rise out of the class that they were born into. They pretty much were told what to do. They were told where to go. They were told what to believe, and they were told what God they were going to worship. And as you read through the Bible, you see those same elements, things that are foreign to our minds, because we've been fortunate enough to live in a land and in a country that has a government that's far different than what the rest of the world has experienced all down through the millennia of mankind's existence. John sees a beast coming out of the sea. He doesn't see a lamb, and he doesn't see anything docile. He sees something ferocious coming. We can see some of that in the Bible. Let's go back to 2 Chronicles.

2 Chronicles we have in chapter 36, the end of it there, we have the end of the nation of Judah, as it was known, or as it was during that time. God had warned that the nation of Judah, that if they didn't turn back to him, if they didn't turn from the way they were doing things, that he was going to send them into captivity, that the civilization, that the society that they knew would cease to exist. They didn't believe him. They kind of scoffed at what he had to say, and just went living their own way. But let's look at 2 Chronicles 36 verse 15 and try to put ourselves back into Judah at that time. A land that was prosperous, a land that God had put the people in, he blessed them. They had some good kings, they had some bad kings, but you know what? They always followed those kings. The Lord God, verse 15, of their fathers sent warnings to them by his messengers. He doesn't do anything without warning his people first. He sent Jeremiah for 40 years. Jeremiah told them what was going to happen. They just ignored him. They laughed at him. They didn't want to hear it. For 40 years, the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending them, because he had compassion on his people and on the dwelling place. He wanted to see them continue there in the land of Judah. He wanted the temple to continue there. He wanted to continue to dwell with his people in that place, as he did in Old Testament time. But they mocked the messengers of God. They despised his words. They scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Eternal arose against his people, until there was no remedy. You know, human nature is the same today as it was back then.

They did it back then. They didn't want to hear what God had to say. They just wanted to do their own thing, as though they made light of it. And as year after year went on, they mistook.

They mistook what God was doing, the mercy that he had on them, the desire he wanted them for it to turn back and thought, he's not going to do anything. He's just going to let things go on. He's not going to end the society. But they found out differently. Human nature did it then. Human nature does it today. We've already seen in the world around us, scoffers, mocking, questioning whether he's going to turn. They're saying there's no way. All those things were written for time long ago. And he did it until it says there was no remedy. Therefore God brought against them verse 17, the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young men or virgin, on the aged or the weak. God gave them all into his hand. And that government, that king, showed them no mercy. He just waltzed in and he wiped them out. He didn't listen to who they were, what they were, how thick they were.

His only mission? Conquer them. And all the articles that they counted so dear as they built a temple and as God furnished it, all the articles from the house of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the Eternal, the treasures of the king and of his leaders, all these, that king, Nebuchadnezzar, took to Babylon. Then they burned the house of God. They broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious possessions. Totally wiped it out. And those who escaped from the sword, he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill God's word, as it says there.

What God said would happen, what he sent his messengers to say, happened.

And this king showed the people no mercy. The people of Israel who fell to Assyria would not tell you that that kingdom was kind, generous, understanding. They would tell you they were cruel masters. Life was far different living under the rule of someone cruel, a beast, than it was living under the loving hand of God.

And so society was this way. Down through the ages, over and over, kings would rise up, kings would lord it over the people, and the people had no choice but to do what they said. So far, far different. Far, far different than the government that God says he'll bring to his earth. Let's turn back to Matthew 20. While you're turning there, you know what it says, that God sent messengers to Judah. And he sent messengers to Israel as well, as you've been reading the minor prophets, you've seen the warnings that the people were given.

There were some pretty clear messages and warning signs that were given to Judah as well.

When Nebuchadnezzar came in and he conquered the city that last time, when he destroyed the temple, burned down the walls, took everything and carried it off the Babylon, and left no one in the land, except the very poor, just to tend the land, but took them all out of there the place that they knew. It wasn't the first time he was there. He'd been there 19 years before. In 605 BC, he invaded Judah, and he took a third of the people away at that time. You'll remember that Daniel was among those exiles. And as he was taken to Babylon, he was placed in the king's place, and he was going to be trained in the way of Babylon to learn those, because he had shown himself to be an astute young man. But that happened, and Judah didn't pay any attention to that invasion. That warning sign just kind of came and went, and for the next seven years they just went about life as they always had. Seven years later, Nebuchadnezzar was back, knocking at the door. In 598 BC, he took more people away as he came into the land. Ezekiel was among that group, and we read through his prophecies. And then 11 years later, in 586 BC, God allowed him to come in and finish the job he had started. It wasn't that the people were without warnings. God sends clear warnings when he's about to do something. The people of Judah ignored those warnings. They just let it go by, and they kept living their lives the way they always had. And they found that living under a cruel master was far different than living under God. Jesus Christ, in Matthew 20 here in verse 25, talks about what the government will be like under him. And he draws attention to what it was like living under the Gentile rulers. He says, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them. That's what the mission of that government is. I'm in power. I get to tell you what to do. You're here for my pleasure. You know the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them. And those who are great exercise authority over them.

That's what it's all about. Yet it shall not be so. Christ says to His people among you, whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Just as the son of man didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

The beast power that we read about in Revelation 13 is not going to be a servant to the people.

The beast power is going to lord it over people. The beast power is going to consume everything in his might and everything that the people have, everything that people do, he's going to be wanting to direct to them. And as John sees this beast, emphasis on the word beast because God names things as they are rising out of the sea, he's filled with an emotion that is enjoy, not something he wants to see happen. Let's go back to Daniel 7 and look a little bit at the beast that Daniel saw rising out of the sea. Daniel 7, verse 1.

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed, and he wrote down the dream telling the main facts. Daniel spoke saying, I saw in my vision by night, and behold the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.

Let me show you a picture of the great sea. So we have...

Oh, there you go. Now, okay. This picture wakes you up. I heard someone complaining this morning about how cold it was in Jacksonville, and I said, you know what? If you're not thankful, this is where you could be. Now, this was just taken yesterday, so in case you don't like or appreciate living in Florida, that will help you.

Okay, the great sea, the Mediterranean Sea. You see a picture of Europe there, and you can see how the Mediterranean Sea pretty much is in the center of activity there. It is there south of Europe, and of course just north of Africa. And when John is looking at the great sea, we have this mass of humanity, and these land masses that all converge right there in that area. You have Europe, you have Africa, you have Asia, and you have Israel that's just over a little bit north of Egypt or Jerusalem, and that's where mankind began, and that's where civilization spread out from. There was plenty of land to go around there when you look at the size of of those three continents. But right there in the middle of it was this great sea, and people were converging there on that great sea. And as Daniel is looking at this great sea, he says he saw four great beasts in verse 3 come up from the sea, each different from the other. The first, he says, was like a lion, and it had eagle's wings. And he watched till his wings were plucked out, and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man's heart was given to it. This lion was a beast that came forth in the earth, and you know what lions do? It consumed, just like Nebuchadnezzar went in, and he consumed everything in his path. Ate it up, chewed it up, spit it out. And so, the first beast represents the Babylonian Empire. And there you have a picture of the Babylonian Empire. By comparison to some of the pictures you'll see later, it doesn't look that large, does it?

Didn't cover a whole lot of land there, but that's where the bulk of civilization was. And we won't read all of Daniel 2. We'll go back to there in a little bit. But this was the first world-ruling empire of the four that would be on earth until the time Christ returned. And Nebuchadnezzar was the king of this empire, and a few others that were after him before it fell to the next empire.

Verse 5, Suddenly another beast, a second like a bear, it was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it, Arise, Devour much flesh.

Devour much flesh.

Now, all too often we think of bears as just kind of novelty little creatures. Let me read what the Adam Clark commentary says about the bear when it's depicted in Scripture, and specifically here with this empire. He says, The Medes and Persians are compared to a bear on account of their cruelty and their thirst after blood. That's what that beast power was like. A bear being most voracious and a cruel animal, the bear is turned by Aristotle as an all-devouring animal. And the Medo-Persians are known to have been great robbers and spoilers. The Persians were notorious for the cruelty of their punishments. Aptly called a beast, and the Medo-Persian Empire was a little larger than the Babylonian Empire, but the population was beginning to spread out in different directions, and most of the world as they knew it was under the control of the Medo-Persians for a while. A cruel empire. People didn't live and thrive in this empire unless they happened to be very close to the king, but the bulk of humanity was just just something to serve the purposes of the king and his group.

Chapter First Six. After this I looked, and there was another beast, like a leopard. You know, leopards are quick-moving, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. This kingdom moved quickly. They were ferocious, because you know what? Leopards can devour just as well as bears can, but it moved quickly. And the next empire history shows was a very quick-moving empire. The notable figure of it was Alexander the Great, and history will say that he was a quick-moving, even though short-lived, emperor. Notable among that empire was that when he died, he left the kingdom to his four generals. The four heads, as it says here. Two of those heads are notable in history. One of them was Ptolemy, who was king over Egypt, and the other one was Seleucus, who was over Syria.

That empire is a little larger than the Medo-Persian Empire, as society and civilization began to fan out. And then in verse 7 we find a fourth beast that comes out of the sea, that Daniel says that he sees. Because after this, I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible.

Out of the sea, shocking him, surprising him, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth. It was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling to residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.

We've seen leopards, we've seen lions, we've seen bears. So had Daniel. But he hadn't seen anything like this beast. It was different than all the other beasts. It had characteristics of each of them, but it was combined into one. He was speaking, of course, of the Roman Empire, and that's a picture of the Roman Empire at the time, just before Christ was born.

Let me read to you an excerpt from the book called Pocket History of the World, it was written by H. G. Wells. In it he describes this fourth empire, this Roman empire. In this book he goes through the various empires of earth and recounts world history. He says this about the Roman Empire. He says, Now this new Roman power which arose to dominate the Western world in the second and first centuries BC was in several respects a different thing from any of the great empires that had previously prevailed in the civilized world. When he looked at it and looked at the characteristics of it, different, different than the other ones that went before it. It was not at first a monarchy, and it was not the creation of any one great conqueror. It was the first Republican empire that escaped extinction. That means it never died. Sometimes it looked like it was going to die, but there was always this smoldering ember there, and it just kept coming back to life. And it went on to fresh developments. It was so far a new pattern in history. It was always changing. It never attained to any fixity. In a sense he says the experiment failed, but in another sense the experiment remains unfinished, and Europe and America today are still working out the riddles of worldwide statecraft first confronted by the Roman people. But what he saw here was an empire that was different, different characteristics than the ones before it. And you can see how far, just in this time, it has spread all the way around the great sea, north of it and south of it. Again, as the society fanned out, it did as well. By the time Christ was born and when he was alive, the Roman Empire had grown to encompass that era, area. And then by the time of the Council of Nicaea, when Constantine was in power, that's how big the Roman Empire was. You can see that it encompasses much of Europe all the way over into Britain. It just kept growing and growing. Now, during this time, that beast power, which is initially very strong and was very strong until the time of its end, it did have some good times, comparatively speaking, for people. There was a period of time called Pax Romana that were the first couple centuries of the Roman Empire.

And historians say that if you're going to be alive at any time in history other than the time we're in right now, that would have been a good time to live, because there was no external threat to the Roman Empire. It was so big. It was so powerful. No one could even think about attacking it.

And it was a state of living that was the premier thing in the world at that time.

We mentioned in one of the Kingdom of God seminars here that, you know, it was during that time of the Pax Romana that Jesus Christ was born. It was that time that He was there to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. He couldn't have done it during the Greco-Macedonian Empire. They wouldn't have allowed Him to do that. The Romans, during that period of time, became an okay people to deal with. They had a firm control, as you can see as you read in the pages of the New Testament, they had a firm control of what was going on. They controlled, but they allowed people to live their lives. So in the time that Christ was alive, the Jews could worship as they pleased. As long as they weren't creating any problems for the Roman government, as long as they were abiding by the laws of the land, they could do what they wanted.

And Christ and the disciples were allowed to go out and preach the Gospel during that time, during that Pax Romana time. It wasn't by coincidence that Christ was born there. We know that God is the one who designed that because that Gospel was going to be preached in that area at that time. The era that historians compare most to that is the time we live in today, a time when there is a government that has spread around the world of, in most cases, freedom of speech, a freedom to do what you want, a freedom to assemble, a freedom of religion to worship how you want. And it's in that era that Jesus Christ says, before His return, this Gospel will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations.

Couldn't happen. Couldn't happen during the time of the Babylonian Empire. Couldn't happen during the time of the Persian Empire. Now, God can make anything happen, but humanly speaking.

But at a time before the time of the end, the Gospel would be able to be preached just like the time when Jesus Christ was on earth. But the Roman Empire was anything for most of its history, a stable empire. Well, it was a stable empire. It lasted a terrible hundred years. But as they became strong, as they became satisfied with themselves, there were, of course, jinxed in the armament. They became complacent. They became lazy. They became more enamored with entertainment. And the things and material things of life, their morality, their self-control disappeared over time. And the people were no longer the way at the end of the Roman Empire, when the people began to invade them, the way they were at the beginning. They lost their resolve, and they were no longer a comparatively strong, morally people. And they fell.

Patterns that you have heard, and patterns that you probably even heard about in classes you've taken in history, to where we live today. But the empire itself was one that was going to exist right down through the end of the age. Now, we're going to go back to Daniel 2 here in a second, but not through all of Daniel 2. You're familiar with that statue, and it's the vision that Daniel saw, or that the king, Nebuchadnezzar, saw in Daniel 2. And you'll recall that he was looking for his wise men to tell him not only what the interpretation of this vision was, but the vision itself. Daniel, relying on God, and God gave him the knowledge of what the vision was and the interpretation is. And Daniel recounted that to King Nebuchadnezzar. You king are the head of gold. That's up there in that picture. And after you, another kingdom will come. And it will be slightly inferior to you. It'll be a kingdom denoted by silver, and then another one of brass down there around the thighs. But then you have the Roman Empire. Legs of iron. Legs of iron.

And, of course, two legs. And we know from history that the Roman Empire was divided into the two divisions, if you will. One capital was in Rome, the other capital in Constantinople. But you notice the legs. From the very beginning of the prophecy at the top of the head, all the way down to the feet, the legs are all the Roman Empire. They extend from the time it first appeared on earth all the way to the time of Christ's return. And the iron represents strength. Iron teeth that Daniel talked about. But the kingdom was going to be marked for some other things as well. Now let's go back to Daniel 2 and verse 40.

It says, "...and the fourth kingdom, Daniel writes, will be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything. And like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes," and you'll notice as you look at the feet and toes, they're not the iron color that you see in the legs. They're more of a different color there. It says, "...whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom will be divided. If the strength of the iron will be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile." The strong kingdom still has iron. It will still shatter. It will still break. It'll be a terrible and dreadful kingdom that comes on the earth, represented by those feet and the ten toes five on each side of the empire there. It'll be partly strong because that iron is in it. It'll have all the elements of a beast in it. But the pieces are not going to congeal like you would think that the pieces of a strong power like that would be. They'll be together, but they're not going to be really together. There will be pieces of that element, of that dominion, of that kingdom, that will be there of necessity, but not because they feel this brotherhood and this total unity with one another. They'll be there of necessity. They'll be there as a kingdom that hurts, that destroys, that conquers, that rules the earth that we'll find here in Revelation 13. But they're not going to be a kingdom like we saw before that. They'll be a conglomerate, but they will be loosely held together, but there will be a purpose. Now, the Roman Empire was always put together by force.

None of those nations volunteered and said, I want to be part of your empire. They were conquered. That's just the way kingdoms were set up. You came in, you conquered a nation, they became your slaves, they became the ones who served you. And so they were together during this time, but it was always by force. But this beast that Daniel saw in chapter 7, that John saw that we read about in chapter 13, was different than the other beasts. Different. Something new that arose out of the sea.

This kingdom will be put together maybe not by force, but by something else. Let's go back to Revelation 13 and see what that something else might be, or at least one of the things might be.

Revelation 13.

Let me pick it up here in verse 3, and then we'll move over to verse 16. Verse 3 of chapter 13.

I saw one of the heads of this beast as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. We thought it was dead, but it came back to life. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. We know from Revelation 12.9 that the dragon is Satan, who deceives the whole world. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.

They marveled at what had happened. So they worshipped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast saying, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? They all worshipped him. They all followed him. They may not have had any choice. Let's go to verse 16. In the chapter, we're not going to get to it today. We're going to look at it next week. There's another beast with the word beast attached to it that arises at this time as well. And he holds a key to what will cause this unity, this fragile unity at the end of time.

Verse 16 of chapter 3. If I can find verse 16.

I'm going to start with verse 15. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast could both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, the infamous mark of the beast, that no one may die or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.

If they want to survive, if they want to buy things, if they want to eat, they're going to submit to the power of the beast. He's got that power. He's got it in his hands. It tells us something about the state of the world at that time when this beast comes about that someone around the great sea would have that type of power because today they don't have that power.

But something between now and then happens that all the nations look to that beast and that that other beast that comes has that power to say, you're not going to buy, you're not going to sell, you can't do anything unless you bow down and worship me. In plenty of the world, all those not found in the book of life will follow it. Let's go over to Revelation 18.

And verse 3.

All the nations, speaking of this power, all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. They're looking to them.

They're feeding man's desire. They've become rich as a result of this power, this beast that arises that has a dominion over man different, still cruel, still no mercy. You still see this beast killing the people who won't bow down to it, but the whole is a little bit different.

Economy. One of the gods of this world is here, represented by this god. We're going to end with the next slide, and then we'll pick this up next week and answer some more questions along the way. This is a picture of the European Union as it stands today, the states that are in it. The European Union was formed as a trading bloc. It has a president, it has a parliament, it has a budget, it has laws, it has a constitution. It was set up primarily to be a trading bloc among nations. You hear about them on the news, and we'll talk about that a little bit more as we infuse some of the occurrences of today into the prophecy. But you notice, again, where the great sea is and where those nations are located. And then south of the great sea, the Mediterranean Sea, you don't see any European-affiliated nations. Keep that in mind as we come to next week.

Next week, we're going to answer some more questions. We're going to finish up about the beast. We're going to talk about the other beast that appears at that time, who he is and what prophecy says he is. There are some questions we'll answer as well, because there are things in these prophecies that aren't told here. What about nations like America? What part does that little nation of Israel play in end-time prophecy? What should we be looking for? Do they have any part at all? The answer is yes, they do. And some things we can be looking at to see what some of those markers along the way to the time of the end is. Things that God wants us to be watching for, as we watch ourselves and as we allow Him to develop us and grow us. We'll pick that up next week and start with that.