Facing the wicked one

“A man once wrote a list of 33 names in the Bible that are applicable to the Antichrist. There’s more in the Bible about the Antichrist than anybody else except for the Lord Jesus Christ.

“As ‘the foolish shepherd’ and ‘the idol shepherd’, as ‘the man of sin’ and ‘the son of perdition’, he’s literally the personification of Satan’s program and that’s why he’s called ‘the wicked one’.

“There are whole chapters in the Book of Job about him, and in the Book of Psalms he’s described in very clear terms.

“People love the psalms. At a funeral, Psalm 23 is often used at the graveside. When you use it in an allegorical sense—'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want’—it is a psalm you understand gives comfort to a lot of people. It’s like the song Amazing Grace.

“Every drunk in an AA Meeting can sing that song. That song doesn’t tell you anything about Jesus Christ, or the gospel, or heaven and hell. It just talks about, ‘I’ve been knocked down, but by the grace of God I’m up and I’m going again.’

“You’ll see it every time there’s a big funeral in the national cathedral. Some big opera singer gets up and sings Amazing Grace. They don’t sing all the verses, though: ‘The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be,
As long as life endures.’

“What you get in the Book of Psalms is a look into the heart of the Believing Remnant as they matriculate through the Fifth Course of Judgment, and especially the very end of it. It’s, ‘Here’s the remnant suffering under the heel of the oppressor and they look to the Lord to deliver them.’

“There are doctrines designed to give the believing remnant an internal capacity and fortitude to get through. Now they’re going to have to face this wicked one.

“When you trace through the psalms, there are probably 30-35 of them that directly address this character, and Psalm 10 is the first place he’s called the wicked and this psalm sort of sets the pace for what you’re going to read and learn about him.

Psalm 9: [5] Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.
[6] O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.

“There you have the wicked, who are Israel’s enemies, and they’ve got a memorial to themselves. You know what the memorial is—it’s Revelation 13. They’ve got an image made to the wicked one.

Psalm 9:16-17: [16] The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.
[17] The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

That’s what’s going to happen to them. The psalm ends with the Second Coming: [19] Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight.
[20] Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.

(to be continued tomorrow)