Welcome to the Banner of Truth broadcast. This program is brought to you by the Free Reformed Churches of North America. Your host is Pastor Jack Schumann, pastor of the Emmanuel Free Reformed Church of Abbotsford, British Columbia. And now, here is Pastor Jack Schumann. Our scripture reading today is taken from the Book of Revelation chapter 18, the verses 7 through 18. The angel had just introduced John to the great harlot and the beast in verses one to six. And following this, beginning in verse seven, he focuses on the beast. Let us hear the word of God. But the angel said to me, why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the 10 horns. The beast that you saw was and is not and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was and is not and yet is. Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. The beast that was and is not is himself also the eighth and is of the seven and is going to perdition. The 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful. Then he said to me, the waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill his purpose, to be of one mind and to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. This ends the reading of the holy word of God. May the Lord bless the reading and preaching of his word to our hearts. Dear friends, as we have seen repeatedly in this series, the book of Revelation is full of images. Mention is made in this book of locusts, of a dragon, a scroll, horns, trumpets, bowls, to name only a few. One of the most striking of these images is the image contained here in our text chapter. It is the image of the beast. Now, there are two beasts in the book of Revelation. We read of them both in chapter 13. The first is from the sea, the second is from the earth. The first beast, the beast from the sea, represents anti-Christian government from the beginning to the end of time. The second beast, the beast from the earth, is his propagandist. He represents anti-Christian religion, philosophies, and worldviews that serve to convince the inhabitants of the earth to worship the beast from the sea and ultimately the dragon himself. Last time we were introduced to another image, and it is the woman, or the harlot, who's described in verses one to six. This woman represents anti-Christian society and worldliness, the values and priorities and worldview of the world in opposition to God. There's a close, intimate connection between the woman and the beast from the sea. John tells us that the woman rides on this beast, and that means that the woman tells the beast where she wants to go, and like a man on a horse, the beast willingly obliges. What is more, all three of these, the beast from the sea, the beast from the earth, and the woman, are the allies of the dragon. That means they do his bidding. They serve his purposes. They advance his program in the world. But as we will see, they are fighting a losing battle. For in the end, they will all be destroyed. Well, having been introduced to the woman the last time we studied this chapter, today we hope to take a closer look at the beast, specifically his rise and fall, which I said is described in Revelation 18, verses seven to 18. Now, these verses are, according to one commentator, the most difficult passage in the entire book of Revelation to interpret, but they, too, are part of Holy Scripture. They, too, are inspired by the Holy Spirit, and therefore they are, as Paul says, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. And so with this in mind and the help of the Lord, let's consider these verses under the theme, the rise and fall of the beast. And we'll consider, first of all, the wonder he evokes. Secondly, the attacks he launches. And thirdly, the defeat he suffers. John was amazed. An angel had just showed him the harlot riding on the scarlet beast. And now he goes on to teach him about this beast, who, as we have observed, represents anti-Christian government, political powers opposed to God and to his church. And John tells us two things about this beast. First of all, in verse 8, he says, he was and is not and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. Now, this phrase was and is not is an echo to similar phrases used in this book to describe God himself. For example, in Revelation 1 verse 4, John writes, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come. Who is that? He's speaking about God. Or we can think of Revelation 1, verse 8, where he quotes the Lord Jesus as saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Well, we have that same language here. The beast here is described as the one who was and is not, reminding us once again that the devil is a master counterfeiter. Whatever God is, he tries to copy. Now, what does John mean when he says that the beast was? When John says that the beast was, he's referring to the various manifestations of the beast from the beginning of time to the coming of Christ. Now, there have been many such manifestations. We can think, for example, of the Philistines during the days of Saul and David, how often they attacked the nation of Israel and sought to exterminate them. Or we can think of the Assyrians during the days of King Hezekiah, or to the Babylonians who destroyed the city of Jerusalem, including the temple, and took the people of Judah captive to Babylon. We can think, too, of Haman, who sought to destroy the Jews during the days of Queen Esther, or Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian ruler of Palestine, who savagely persecuted the Jews during the period between the Old and New Testaments, even desecrating the temple in Jerusalem. Or we can think of Herod the Great who sought to kill the baby Jesus shortly after he was born. All of these and more were manifestations of the same beast. It is the power of the state that is directed against the church and the people of God. Now the second question that confronts us is what does John mean when he says that the beast is not? Now again, when John says the beast is not, he's referring to the history of the beast from the time of Christ to the present. Prior to the coming of Christ, all the nations of this world belonged to Satan, with the sole exception of the nation of Israel, which belonged to God. And so when Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and offered to give him all the nations of the world, if he would only bow down and worship him, he wasn't kidding. For these nations really did belong to him. And by that I mean, they were under his control. They served him and they did his bidding. But with the coming of Christ, this begins to change. Satan is no longer in control. He has been cast out of heaven and into the bottomless pit, this holding place, this place where his power is restricted for a time. We read about this, in fact, in Revelation 20, verses one to three. John writes, I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit. and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old who was the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things, he must be released for a little while." Now, as usual, we need to interpret these verses not literally, but figuratively. There is no actual chain, no actual dragon, no actual bottomless pit, and no actual thousand years. These are all metaphors or figures of speech. What John is saying here is that from the first to just prior to the second coming of Christ, which is represented by the thousand years, Satan's control over the nations of the world has ended. It's like he's chained and he's thrown into a bottomless pit. Now, that doesn't mean, of course, that he cannot attack the church and the people of God. He most certainly can. And he does, as we see throughout history, even to the present day. but he doesn't have free reign. He's like a wild dog on a chain. Within the circle of the chain, he can still inflict great damage, but his power is limited, and the chain itself is held in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the very least, the devil cannot prevent the spread of the gospel to all the nations of the world, which is what it means when John says that he is bound. But as John indicates here, there will come a day when he will be released. He will ascend, he says, out of the bottomless pit. Now that too is described in Revelation 20 verses seven and eight. John writes there, now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle whose number is as the sand of the sea. So John here tells us what's going to happen after the thousand year period has expired. Like all the numbers in Revelation, by the way, this number is, as I've said, not to be taken literally, but figuratively. It represents a complete period between the first and second comings of Christ. And we hope to deal with that more when we come to Revelation chapter 20. And at the end of this thousand year period, which is the end time, when Christ comes again, Satan will be released from prison. Once he's released, he will gather the nations of the world to make war against Christ and his church in one final climactic battle before the return of Christ. Well, after providing a brief overview of the history of the beast, John goes on to describe how the world will respond to this beast throughout this time. And how will it respond? Well, he tells us it will respond with wonder and amazement. Verse 8, the angel says to John, those who dwell on the earth will marvel. They will marvel. And who are those who are dwelling on the earth? John explains them further. He says, they are the ones whose names are not written in the book of life. from the foundation of the world when they see the beast that was and is not and yet is. Now the book of life is a metaphor for the decree of election. It's not an actual book, but it's a metaphor. And in this book, God has recorded the names of all of his elect from the beginning to the end of time. Those who he of sovereign grace and mercy has chosen to everlasting life in Christ. And those whose names are not written in this book are unbelievers. They are the reprobate. They are those who have been ordained to eternal destruction. And what John is saying is that the unbelievers on earth will marvel when they see the beast attacking and retreating, only to attack again. And they do that for good reason, because the rise of the beast is like witnessing a resurrection. just as Christ rose from the dead. So Satan causes his beast to rise from the dead again and again and again. And the world sees this. And as it does, as it witnesses this, it stands in wonder and amazement and blindly, wildly thinking, unthinkingly urges the beast forward. Now, what can we learn from all this? We learn, first of all, that Satan and the beast will never cease attacking the people and church of Christ. No matter how many times he is defeated, he will always try again and again and again. Why? Because he hates Christ and he hates his people and therefore he will never stop attacking them. His one and only aim, the aim for which he devotes all of his time and all of his energy is to the destruction of the church and people of God. And since that is so, beloved, let us never become complacent. It's easy to become complacent when everything is going well, when there's no persecution, when the church is free to worship freely, when we can go about our task unmolested by the government and enemies of the church. But don't be deceived by that. After the calm always comes the storm. And the same is true when it comes to the beast. It is when he appears to be asleep that he is the most dangerous. For one day he will awake, and when he does, there's no telling what damage he will do. So stay alert and stay alive. That's the message here. Conversely, when we are suffering under persecution, we may rest assured that it will not last forever. The beast who is aroused from sleep will fall asleep again, as he has done so many times in the past. Now, that doesn't make the sting of persecution any easier. but it does give us hope, especially knowing that one day when our Lord comes again, the beast and the dragon and the false prophet will be destroyed never again to attack the church and people of God. Secondly, we learn here that the beast will never be without his supporters. In fact, the whole world will support him. The only ones who will not support him are believers because they see him for who and what he is. This is precisely why people support their governments in waging unjust war. This is why in the West, so many people vote for and support political parties and candidates whose policies are completely unbiblical and even harmful to the people who elect them. Why do they vote for such people? It's because they believe that governments can solve all their problems. Government is the savior of the world today, and the bigger the government, the better. Don't be fooled by that. Government is indeed a gift of God for our good, and it must be obeyed in all things lawful and respected, but it cannot solve all of our problems. The problems facing our world will only be solved when we as a nation repent of our sins and learn to cry out to God for mercy. Until we do that, we are lost. We are in bondage to the beast. And so this beast evokes great wonder, but he also launches great and terrible attacks. And that brings us to our second point. In the next section of our text passage, verses nine to 14, the angel explains to John the beast's seven heads and 10 horns. Now, like the previous verses, these verses are very difficult to understand. They require a lot of wisdom and spiritual discernment. The angel himself says so. In verse nine, he says to John, here is the mind which has wisdom. It's like the angel is saying, if you want to understand what these verses mean, John, you need wisdom, which can only come from God. Well, what then do these verses mean? First of all, what are the seven heads? And John tells us in verse nine, the seven heads, he says, are seven mountains on which the woman sits. Now some say that the seven mountains refer to the seven hills on which the city of Rome was built. But it may be better to interpret these seven mountains as the complete number of kingdoms and empires that have existed and will exist from the beginning to the end of time. And so what John is saying is that from the beginning to the end of time, empires will rise and fall only to be replaced by another and another and another, seven being a number of fullness. Second question, who are the seven kings and who are the five that have fallen and the one that is and the eighth who has not yet come? Now, again, there's differences about this. Some say that the seven kings are seven successive Roman emperors. The problem is there were more than seven emperors between the time of Caesar Augustus and the time that John wrote Revelation. In fact, there were 11 of them. And what is more, by this time, more than five of these emperors had passed away. Others say that the seven kings represent seven specific empires. But which empires? Some have said, well, they include the ancient Babylonian Empire, the Assyrian Empire, the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, and the Greek Empire. The sixth, then, would be the Roman Empire. But what is the seventh? It's possible that it is yet to come. But again, we cannot say for sure. But it would seem unlikely because if five empires came and went from the time of creation to the time of Christ, a period of about 4,000 years, then we would expect the seventh kingdom to have appeared by now, since about 1,700 years have passed since the fall of the Roman Empire. But it's probably best to interpret this not literally, but figuratively and symbolically. According to this interpretation, seven is a number of fullness or completion. In this context, therefore, the seven heads represent the totality of anti-Christian governments throughout history. The five kings that have fallen represent the total number of kings and kingdoms that have fallen from the time of creation to the time of John. The sixth kingdom, that is, is the Roman Empire, since it was still in existence when John was writing this book. It's appropriately called the sixth kingdom because six is the number of men, since man was created on the sixth day, and Rome was the quintessential city of fallen man. That leaves the seventh kingdom. The seventh kingdom may very well represent the kingdoms and empires that have existed from the time of the fall of Rome to the present day. And there have been many such. You can think, for example, of the British Empire of the 19th century, or the French Empire under Napoleon, or the German Empire under Hitler, or the former Soviet Union, and others. That would mean that the eighth and the last kingdom is the kingdom of the Antichrist. Now his kingdom is the eighth kingdom because eight is the number of resurrection. which again fits the Antichrist's attempt to masquerade as Christ. He is said to be of the seven in the sense that he stands in continuity with all the previous anti-Christian kingdoms that have existed on the earth. He shares their evil character. He shares their energizing power, which is the power of Satan himself. And under his reign, the church will experience persecution like it never had experienced before. That leaves one more question, and that is, what are the 10 horns? Well, horns like mountains are symbols of strength and power. And therefore, they are said to represent 10 kings. 10 is a number of fullness. And as such, these 10 horns represent the total number of earthly rulers during the time of the Antichrist. These kings, the angel says, have not yet received a kingdom. That means they have not yet appeared on the world stage. But when they do, they will give their power and authority to the beast, but only for a short time. Verse 12 says for one hour, which again is not to be taken literally, but figuratively to refer to a short period of time. And they will also, John says, be of one mind. That means they will for this time submit themselves to the beast. And together, as one world government, they will unite in one last-ditch attempt to destroy the Church of Christ once and for all. Now, this is all scary stuff. But we need not fear, beloved, for John tells us that of all these great powers, one day they will all come to nothing. That brings us to our third and final point. Despite his great power, the beast will ultimately go down to defeat. We receive two indications of this in our text chapter. Look, for example, at verse eight. John writes, the beast that you saw was and is not and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And then verse 11, we read this. The beast that was and is not is himself also the eighth and is of the seven, and is going to perdition. Did you notice two times in these verses, we are told that the beast is going to perdition. What does that mean? Well, the word perdition means destruction, annihilation, ruin. The sense of the Greek word is to suffer so much damage that something cannot be repaired or can no longer exist. And this will be the condition of the beast. He will be utterly and completely destroyed. By whom? Well, by Christ. In verse 14, we read that the Lamb, together with the saints, and verse 14, they're called those who are called, chosen and faithful, they will overcome them, for he is, that is the Lamb, he is the Lord of lords and the King of kings. So even when all of the nations of the earth are united together under one leader, the Antichrist, to fight against Christ, they will not prevail. Christ will utterly destroy them with the sword of his word and with the brightness of his coming. Now, what a wonderful comfort that is. The beast and the dragon are very, very powerful. Towards the end, just prior to the second coming of the Lord Jesus, they will become so powerful that it will appear to many that nothing and no one can stop them. During this time, the church will be reduced to almost nothing. We read in Revelation chapter 11 that she will be left for dead like the two witnesses whose corpses were left to rot in the street. But dear friends, we need not fear. For just when everything appears hopeless, Christ will come. He will come riding on his white horse, brandishing his sword, his robe dipped in blood. And when he does, he will defeat his and all of our enemies with one fell swoop. and he shall take us who believe on him to live and reign with him forever. Yes, the beast is powerful. Let us therefore never underestimate him, but remember too that the Lord Jesus Christ is more powerful than he. And so let us continue to look to him. No matter what the future has in store, we serve a risen and conquering and exalted king to whom has been given all power and all authority in heaven and on earth. Through him, we shall overcome. Through him, we shall gain the victory. Amen. 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