1. I am going to speak this morning on a very important subject: the sovereignty of God in Bible prophecy.
2. When we speak of the sovereignty of God, we mean God is all-powerful, and in complete control, and He can accomplish whatever he pleases.
3. Ephesians 1:11 says, God “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”
4. Psalm 103:19 says, “The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.”
5. Psalm 115:3 says, “But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.”
6. Psalm 135:5, 6 says, “For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.  Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.”
7. Isaiah 46:9, 10 says, “For I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.”
8. Notice Isaiah 46:10 – “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done.”
9. God is not only sovereign in history; He is sovereign in prophecy.
10. In the book of Daniel, we see how God humbled proud King Nebuchadnezzar, and afterwards Nebuchadnezzar said, “None can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Dan. 4:35).
11. The book of Daniel vividly illustrates God’s sovereignty in history and prophecy.
12. The book of Daniel shows the rise and fall of the great Babylonian Empire, followed by Media-Persia, and then Greece, and then Rome, and Daniel prophecies the future revived Roman Empire – the “ten horns” riding the scarlet coloured beast (Rev. 17:3, 7, 12-18).
13. Helmut Kohl, Germany’s Chancellor from 1982 to 1998, said, “The United States of Europe will form the core of a peaceful order...the age prophesied of old, when all shall dwell secure and none shall make them afraid.”
14. Yes, it has been “prophesied of old” but all will not be “secure” and unafraid (cf. Rev. 13:4-18).
15. Daniel 7:7 says the revived Roman Empire will be “dreadful and terrible,” and Daniel 7:19 describes it as “exceeding dreadful.”
16. Many people – even many Christian people – are bewildered at what is happening in the world today. Our nation is surrounded by dangerous enemies without and within – Muslim terrorists, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Red China – to name just a few.
17. A few months ago Israel announced that Russian scientists were helping Iran to develop a nuclear warhead.
18. A leading national security expert named Frank Gaffney recently told a new magazine that Iran could be armed with nuclear weapons “any day” now, and warned that the Iranian regime is likely to use them to bring about their sought-after “apocalypse.”
19. He said  the Iranian regime “is convinced, according to its theology, that bringing back the twelfth Imam, the Mahdi, the messiah figure, is their highest purpose, and in order to do that, according to their religious beliefs, something very much like the apocalypse needs to take place.”
20. Mr. Gaffney also mentioned that Red China is in cahoots with Iran. “I don’t think there will be meaningful sanctions on Iran with Chinese support, and without them of course there won’t be any sanctions. I’m not surprised that this is playing out the way it has because China regards Iran as a client. It is a very important source of energy for the Chinese, and the Chinese are helping it with its various military activities and I think its regional ambitions.”
21. Gaffney is also concerned about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons due to the cooperation between the Taliban and Pakistan’s intelligence services and military, and says there is a “real danger of the Taliban getting their hands on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.”
22. If I was not saved, these reports would frighten me a bit.
23. But I am saved, and I know the Bible and I understand God’s sovereignty in Bible prophecy.
24. I have good news for you – God is in control.

I. GOD HAS TOLD US WHAT WILL HAPPEN.

1. I have already referred to the book of Daniel.  Daniel 12:4 says, “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”
2. On the basis of this Scripture, Sir Isaac Newton wrote these words over 300 years ago: “Personally I believe these words concern the end of time.  Men will travel from country to country.  There may be some means of travel invented which will enable people to go much more quickly than now.” 
3. Voltaire, the famous French infidel scoffed at Newton and said: “Now look at the mighty mind of Newton, who discovered gravitation; when he began to study the Bible, it seems in order to credit its fabulous nonsense, he believed that the knowledge of mankind will be so increased that we shall be able to travel fifty miles an hour!  The poor dotard!”
4. First Chronicles 12:32 speaks of “the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.”
5. Sir Isaac Newton had this understanding, but the ungodly Voltaire did not.
6. Sir Isaac Newton has been vindicated, and Voltaire has been proven wrong.
7. Voltaire boasted, “It took centuries to build up Christianity, but, I will show how one Frenchman can destroy it within 50 years.”
8. Voltaire did not destroy Christianity.  And Voltaire died a horrible death. On his deathbed he realized he was going to hell. He said, “I wish I had never been born.”
9. Then, just before he passed away he cried, “O Christ, O Jesus, I must die abandoned by God and men.”
10. His condition had become so frightful that after he died his nurse said repeatedly, “For all the wealth in Europe I would never see another infidel die.”
11. Voltaire bragged that within 100 years there would be no more Bibles in France, but twenty years after his death the Geneva Bible Society bought his former home and used it for printing Bibles. It later became the headquarters for the British and Foreign Bible Society.
12. In Daniel 7, we read that Daniel the prophet had a fascinating dream.
13. In Daniel 7:3 Daniel said he saw “four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.”
14. Daniel 7:7 describes the fourth beast: “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.”
15. Daniel 7:8 refers to a “little horn.”  This little horn is the antichrist.  In the Book of Revelation he is known as the “scarlet coloured beast” (Rev. 17:3).
16. He is scarlet because that is the color of the harlot church (Rev. 17:4).
17. The Word of God predicts the rise of antichrist and his harlot church, his one-world government, and the Battle of Armageddon where he will be defeated at the second coming of Christ.
18. These things shall all come to pass because they are recorded in God’s Word (cf. Rev. 1:3).

II. THE ANTICHRIST WILL EMERGE BUT HE WILL BE DESTROYED BY CHRIST.

1. When the antichrist, the coming world dictator, takes over, he will breaks his peace treaty with Israel and become their persecutor.
2. In His Olivet Discourse, our Lord said, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)” (Matt. 24:15).
3. The apostle Paul said the antichrist will “exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (II Thess. 2:4).
4. He will take over the world economically and no one will be able to buy or sell without taking his mark (cf. Rev. 13:16-18).
5. The rise and fall of the antichrist will apparently be rather brief. The Bible says the antichrist will be destroyed at the second coming of Christ.
6. Daniel 8:25 says the antichrist shall “stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.”
7. Daniel 11:36 says the antichrist “shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.”
8. God has already determined his outcome.  The antichrist shall prosper for a short while but “he shall come to his end, and none shall help him” (Dan. 11:45; cf. II Thess. 2:8).
9. No one can say for sure who the antichrist is, or if he is alive today.  But when he arrives on the scene he will be accepted by the multitudes.
10. The Lord Jesus Christ said in John 5:43, “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.”
11. First John 4:3 says the spirit of antichrist is “even now already in the world.” The devil is preparing the world for the arrival of antichrist.
12. Millions of lost souls will be deluded.  Having turned their backs on God, God “shall send them strong delusion” (II Thess. 2:8).
13. God will judge this wicked sin-loving world, but defiant sinners will refuse to repent (Rev. 9:20, 21; 16:9-11).
14. Those who refuse to repent shall be cast into the lake of fire, along with the antichrist, the false prophet, and Satan (Rev. 19:19, 20; 20:10-15).

III. THE LORD’S RETURN IS IMMINENT (TITUS 2:11-13).

1. The next big event on God’s prophetic calendar is the rapture (I Thess. 4:13-18; I Cor. 15:51-58).
2. If ever there was a generation of Christians who could expect the imminent return of our Lord, it is our generation.
3. People often ask, “Why hasn’t the rapture occurred yet?”
4. First of all, the Bible tells us that God is giving sinners time to repent (II Peter 3:9).
5. God wants people to hear the gospel who have not yet heard it (Matthew 24:14).
6. God is sovereign.  He has a plan.
7. In the meantime, we must be busy getting the Gospel out.
8. He said, “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13).

CONCLUSION:

1. U.S. officials now say Iran’s accelerated nuclear program could produce a nuclear bomb in about a year.
2. Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is certainly crazy enough to use nuclear weapons against Israel.
3. Last week, a Christian evangelist by the name of Hormoz Shariat invited a Jewish Christian author named Joel Rosenberg to join him on his live satellite TV program into Iran.
4. They did two 90-minute programs.  Each show was watched by millions of Muslims inside Iran, Europe and North America.
5. Hormoz Shariat asked Mr. Rosenberg to teach Bible prophecies related to Iran and the “last days.”
6. For the past two months, Mr. Shariat has been teaching his Satellite TV audience Bible prophecy, and so they are knowledgeable about wars and rumors of wars, false prophets, the persecution of believers and the possibility of a coming Russian-Iranian war against Israel.
7. Many people called in with questions.  Many called in to say that they were Muslim but have now accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
8. Mr. Rosenberg said he “was touched by the Iranians who called in who used to be Shia Muslims but are now followers of Jesus Christ and the love they have for Israel and the Jewish people. That was striking, and further evidence of how dramatically Jesus changes the hearts of those who receive Him as Savior and Lord.”
9. Satellite TV and the Internet have given Christians a great opportunity to reach millions of Muslims with the gospel (cf. Matthew 24:14).