Please remain standing and turn to Revelation 13. Revelation 13 has the second and third sections of the fourth cycle of the book of Revelation. We've had the dragon introduced in chapter 12. Now we have the beast of the sea and the beast from the earth. And I'll read the whole chapter, but we will focus on the latter half with the earth beast. Please hear the Word of God as I read Revelation 13. than I or he stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and 10 horns, and on his horns 10 crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, And his deadly wound was healed, and all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for 42 months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. All who dwell on the earth, the earth dwellers will worship him whose names have not been written on the book in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience, or the endurance, or perseverance, and the faith of the saints. Then in verse 11, then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. He deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both great and small and rich and poor and free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark of the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Earlier, we said, here is patience. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of man. His number is 666. This is the word of God. May God, by his spirit, teach us and convict us according to his will. You may be seated. As I said, today we'll look at the beast from the earth, the third section of the fourth cycle of seven cycles in the book of Revelation. And you might remember the fourth cycle is Revelation 12 through 15 with its seven sections. And as you read through verse chapters 12 through 15, you'll see phrases like, then I saw, or then I looked. And those generally separate the seven sections of the fourth cycle. And this fourth cycle dramatizes the agents of persecution against God's people and the source behind it all. This fourth cycle dramatizes the agents of persecution against God's people and the source behind it all during this church age between the first advent and the second advent of Christ. And a while back, we saw that first cycle in Revelation chapter 12 Review alert. I'm sorry. So buckle in and try to pay attention. Don't drift off. But in chapter 12, we saw the dragon or the serpent, which was Satan as the source behind it all. And Satan or the serpent or the dragon sought to destroy Christ. But he loses. He's defeated. And then he's cast out of heaven because he can now no longer accuse the saints because of the blood of a lamb. But he's cast to earth to pursue the church. where he prowls and rage as a defeated foe, short on time, using persecution, which is largely physical, and deception, which is largely spiritual. We saw in Revelation 12 that he has seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns on each head, which represents his pervasive authority, power, and supposed rule and dominion. Then in Revelation chapter 13, which we just read, now we begin to see the agents of Satan. The agents that he uses to persecute and deceive. We might see that the beast from the sea is the persecuting one. The beast from the earth is the deceiving one. And last week, We saw in Revelation 13 verses 1 through 10, the second section of this fourth cycle, the beast from the sea that rose to persecute the church as an agent of the dragon. And you might remember, we just read it. He looks like the dragon. He looks like Satan and he represents him. He had seven heads, 10 horns and 10 crowns on each horn. And he's described as a composite of the kingdoms that Daniel records for us in Daniel chapter 7 to represent not just one kingdom that happened at some point in time, but a composite of them, all the political institutions in the church age that would usurp God as prerogatives and persecute his people. The sea beast represents all the political institutions in the church age that would usurp God and his prerogatives and persecute his people. One commentator briefly said, it's political powers that persecute. And that alliterates, that preaches well, political powers that persecute. G.K. Beale says from the Sea Beast, the devil authorizes the state as his agent to persecute the church and to deceive the ungodly. And we saw in the first part of Revelation 13, but really through the whole chapter, the phrase used wounded, but healed. I think there's at least three times we see that. So when something's repeated, you have to take note. And we said last week, this maybe represents three things. The fact that the sea beast was wounded, seemingly mortally, but then healed. First of all, we said that this represents Satan as a defeated foe. He was defeated at the cross, but he's not yet destroyed. That happens when Christ returns. when the final enemy of death is destroyed and all the enemies of God are cast into the lake of fire. So he's still active and he seems healed because he's still around. I think that's the large symbolism that's going on. Then it's represented, like in Daniel chapter 7, as kingdoms that rise and fall. You had four kingdoms that rose and fell. But here the sea beast represents kingdoms that rise and they fall, seemingly mortally wounded. But then another comes to take its place. There's always states and political institutions that rise and fall. And many of them are against God's purposes and his people. I think also a third thing is that this wounded but healed aspect, it's symbolic of Satan's continual counterfeiting of Christ. He's like the lamb that was slain, but then was raised again. So he mimics and counterfeits Christ and God by being the one that was, it was mortally wounded, but yet he's healed. And we said last week that there was an agenda of the sea beast, two things first to gather false worship to himself and thus through himself to their dragon. And second of all, Secondly, to persecute Christians when they refuse to give such worship to anything else other than God. We see this as tyrants and governments try to impose unquestioned allegiance and worship and dependency upon their citizens. We also note that in verse five, This is for 42 months. We've seen this before. We've seen 42 months. We've seen 1260 days, which is the same amount of time. We've seen 3 1�2 years as well, which is the same amount of time. And that 42 months represents the time between the two advents of Christ, His first coming and His second. It's the church age. It's the time that Revelation speaks of. In chapter 13, in its entirety, both beasts are speaking of the same time. So in verse 5 of chapter 13, the sea beast was given authority to persecute the church for how long? 42 months. In chapter 11 in verse 2, we saw the church represented as a temple was secure in heaven. But facing tribulation on Earth for how long? 42 months. I think it's interesting that the 42 months seemed to indicate a total general length of time where the saints will be facing tribulation. But when 1260 days is used for the same amount of time, it seems to emphasize in the daily proactive living of the Christian in the midst of that, when he's serving Christ and being cared for by his God. In chapter 11, verse three, after it says that the The church will be facing tribulation for 42 months, it says in the church, as the two witnesses will be prophesying for 1260 days. The daily plotting of the Christian as he's being cared for and serving. And in chapter 12, verse six, we saw the church was in the wilderness and given a place prepared by God and to be nourished for how long? 1260 days. That should be an encouragement to us. I think the emphasis of that is the time of tribulation is short. It's limited and under God's control. 42 months. See the big picture. So the Christian and the church can day by day, because that's all we have day by day, depend on and serve and rest in and testify upon Christ Jesus as we walk with him. So that was the sea beast. Now we get to what we'll look at today in Revelation chapter 13 verses 11 through 18. And we have the beast from the earth. And the beast from the earth comes to deceive as the agent of the sea beast and the dragon and Satan. The beast from the earth is to deceive as the agent of the sea beast and of the dragon of Satan. And as we've already read this, and we'll read some of this again, notice he speaks like Satan. The sea beast looks like Satan with the 10s and the 7s, but the beast from the earth speaks like Satan. He speaks like the dragon. And so he's deceptive like Satan in his words and by his appearance with the same agenda as the sea beast to bring worship to both the beast and the dragon. And so the way this fits together, and I'm spoiling this, I'm just giving you what I think this all means at first, and we'll just talk about it as we go. As the first beast represents the satanic political state, the second beast represents an agent of that satanic state. The economic, social, and especially religious agent of the state that's far more covert and deceptive. I'll say it again, as the first beast represents the satanic political state throughout history and in different ways, the second beast represents an agent of that satanic state in its economic, social, and especially religious agency of the state. It's far more covert and deceptive. You might even say it's like an angel of light representing the state to draw people to worship things outside of God himself. The beast from the earth represents the political and religious and economic entities that serve as agents and ministers who carry out the persecution of the church and the deception of the ungodly. G.K. Beale says, he already had said that The devil authorizes the state as his agent to persecute the church and deceive the ungodly. When it comes to the beast from the earth, he says the state, which is the sea beast, authorizes political, religious, and economic allies as its agents to persecute the church and to deceive the ungodly. And Richard Phillips says, if the sea beast represents the tyrannical power of Rome that arrived in Asia out of the sea, The beast from the earth represents the local forces that collaborated with Rome to enforce it. If the sea beast stands for vicious tyranny, the land beast is the propagandist second beast who encourages people to worship him. Whereas the first beast relied mainly on power, the second beast supports him with lies. One commentator says, An example of this could be like the relationship between a state and a state church, which happens often throughout history, which is never a good idea. So that's the introduction. That's a mouthful. You see the outline as we walk through verses 11 through 18 in your bulletin. We'll look at this second beast as a false prophet. then as a deceitful wonder worker, and then as a persecutor. And at the end, we'll say, well, how do we respond to these things with wisdom? And we'll also look back with perseverance and overcoming by the blood of the lamb if we walk backwards to chapter 12. But first, the second beast is a false prophet. Look at verses 11 and 12 again. Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all authority of the first beast in his presence, or it could be on his behalf and by his authority. And he causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. I see two things here. We see the false appearance and then the false prophet of this second beast. The false appearance and the false prophet. In the first part in verse 11, he comes kind of like an angel of light. First of all, he comes from the earth and not from the sea. That might not mean much to you, but coming from the earth and not from the sea is a lot more gentler and peaceful and calm. We didn't talk about this much last week, because there's only so much time, and we'll see how much time we have this week. But the first beast rose out of the sea, and sea in the scripture often represents evil, and chaos, and rebellion, and even demonic influence. It reminds us of chapter 9, when the destroying angel came out of the abyss, and the locusts came out of that as well. And a sea can also represent the multitude of nations, and especially Gentile wicked and ungodly nations. In Isaiah 57 you have the phrase the wicked are like the tossing sea. In Revelation chapter 7 we see the waters on which the harlot sits represents the peoples and the nations and the multitudes under her control. Today we say things like, oh, I was caught up in a sea of people and I couldn't get out. Or look at that sea of people coming in this march or something like that. So the sea represents evil and chaos and rebellion. But the earth, we have some people in our church who take off their shoes and socks so they can have their feet touching the earth. And it's supposed to ground them and make them feel better and more healthy. So the earth represents something more stable. And even in the scriptures, the people of God are associated with a land, the earth. And so coming up from the earth has a deceptive sense of calm in comparison to the sea beast and the dragon. But a main thing in verse 11 is this earth beast has two horns like a lamb, like a lamb. The first beast was hideous with a display of power. You have the tens and the sevens and the blasphemies. But now the second one's like, a lamb speaks of gentleness. Who can be upset at a lamb? Go to Deanna Rose and you can feed them things. And they're just so nice and they're soft if you touch them on the head. And so here the... Earth Beast, the second beast, is mimicking the true lamb as a counterfeit to deceive the multitudes as a false Christ. And Jesus warns of false Christs, false prophets, in Matthew chapter 24. In fact, the whole of Scripture in the New Testament speaks of the warnings of false prophets, wolves in sheep clothing. And here you have a beast in a lamb's clothing, if you will. The two horns, I wish I had a specific conviction about what the two horns are. I think probably it mimics the church itself. You remember back in chapter 11, the church was represented as two witnesses, and you had two olive trees, and you had two lamps, I believe. So it represents the church, and so we're mimicking all things. We're mimicking God. We're mimicking Christ. We're going to find out we're mimicking the Holy Spirit. We're mimicking the church itself. You have your two witnesses. We have the two horns. It could merely just refer to Daniel 8 and the vision there where he had a ram with two horns, speaking of the Median Persian Empire. But there's a false appearance. And then in verses 11, C through 12, you have him specifically as a false prophet. He spoke like a dragon. He looks like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. He exercises all authority of the first beast in his presence or on his behalf and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, false worship, a false prophet, bringing people to worship a false god with a false religion whose deadly wound was healed. So he spoke like a dragon as a false prophet. Shows his connection with Satan. The other beast looked like the dragon. He talks like the dragon. He speaks his words, lies and deceit and slander of the father of lies, the deceiver, the accuser. And later in the book of Revelation in chapters 16, 19, and 20, we'll see the earth beast is actually called the false prophet. And so he is. a false prophet. And this underscores the emphasis on the spiritual deception of the second beast compared to the physical persecution of the first beast. And it says that it's by the authority of the first beast that he causes the earth dwellers to worship the first beast. Whenever you see dwellers on earth, and some verses even speak of earth dwellers, it really is in Revelation, it's a general way to describe those who are not saved. Christians are often described as those who are secure in heaven, who have tribulation on earth. Those who are outside of Christ are described as earthly. That's all they have is the earth. They have their best life now, and that's it. And so when it speaks about those who dwell on the earth, causing them to worship the first beast, it speaks of the audience of this second beast, and the victims of this second beast. And it speaks of Him being in the presence of the first beast, This could be on his behalf or by his authority. It shows that the second beast is an agent of the sea beast of the first beast and an agent of Satan himself. And it says that he causes the earth dwellers to worship the first beast, and that's the same agenda that the first beast had. The earth beast has the same agenda as the sea beast and of the dragon, the state and Satan, who uses the state as an agent causing sinners to worship the first beast and the dragon, but also, as we'll find a little bit later, to persecute them. And so the false prophet here, this second beast, is a false prophet pointing the way to the false Christ of the broad way of destruction. He's counterfeiting John the Baptist, who is a true prophet pointing the way to the true Christ of the narrow way of eternal life. In fact, there's much more counterfeiting going on here. Notice again the repeat of the deadly wound being healed, even here in verse 12. If you put this all together with the first beast and the second beast, You get an unholy trinity, a mocking of the trinity itself going on here. And verses one through 10, we saw the dragon sent the first beast in his own image, seven heads, 10 horns, and a bunch of crowns to be mortally wounded, but healed to make the world marvel and follow him and to bring worship to both. That's mimicking the father and his son. The father sends his son who represents him in his image. who would then be killed, but then raised to life. And Psalm 16 says he would not see any decay in the grave, so that he would draw many to him to worship both Christ and the Father to bring glory to both. Here in verses 11 through 18, now we have the second beast as a counterfeit Holy Spirit. Remember the true Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son. And the Holy Spirit does not seek his own glory, but that of the son who died and who rose to draw and to cause people to bow before God and the sun and to worship them. And that's what is being mimicked here. The second beast is being sent as an agent of both the first. And the dragon. He speaks the words of the dragon. As an agent. of the first beast in the same way the spirit would speak by the father as an agent of the son to cause people to worship the first beast and the dragon himself. You see the unholy trinity that's being presented here is a mimicking and a counterfeit of the true. And later we'll see with Babylon, with the harlot that added to this unholy trinity is an unholy kingdom as well, mimicking all things that are good about our God. In his kingdom. Even in verse 15, we find out that this Earth beast gives breath to the image of the beast breath, which is the same thing as spirit. A further parody of the Spirit of God. And all of this emphasizes the counter fitness, the deceptiveness of Satan and his agents. And here we see it with the false prophet, the second beast. And they come as angels of light. So an exhortation is that we are called to be discerning by the true spirit of God, who gave us new hearts and minds by the application of the work of the true Christ, according to the true word of God, be discerning and take heed. As you go through different commentators, you get a wide variety of explanations of examples of what this would look like in the past, what it might look like today. And it's hard to be so woodenly on one or two things, because there's a broad swath here. But Richard Phillips gives some representations of this second beast as a false prophet and its false religion. He says you can see this, the second beast is a false prophet and its false religion. You can see this in the broadest sense of all ideology that supports unbelief and idolatry. You see this in the broadest sense of all ideology that supports unbelief and idolatry. In John's day in Asia, under the rule of Rome, local provincial leaders were looking to placate and imitate and honor Rome's imperial Caesars. We saw that when we looked at Revelation 2 and 3. And so they erected idols and temples, and they claimed further worship over the emperors and over the pagan deities. And they demanded others within their province to do the same thing, to build them up and to get prestige with those who are higher up. These local leaders then were part of what the false prophet, the earth beast, would be. In recent history, when you have had communism in the Soviet Union, you had the spectacular parades through the Red Square promoting and propagandizing the idea of communism. With Nazism, you had its Nuremberg rallies and its Hitler youth, again, rallying people to those things that are contrary to God and to Christ. You've probably forgotten about this, I'm feeling older, but there was a time when there were statues of Saddam Hussein infesting Iraq, calling the people to worship him, and you can see it in other countries now. In America, we have a biased media and other institutions, and even and especially those that have a religious bent to them, that cover up the horrors of abortion, that promote sexual morality and transgenderism and perversion, That's part of the second beast. In fact, with the symbol of it looks like a lamb, but speaks like the dragon, we have the application of false teachers, wolves and sheep's clothing who are in and outside of the church, including pastors. College professors, politicians, we're going to alliterate maybe podcasters, songwriters. Agents within the state that are promulgating an ideology that supports unbelief and idolatry is opposed to the things of God and of Christ. And so we need to be aware and to test the spirits by the word of God and keep ourselves accountable within a good local church, brother and sister. So that's the second beast is a false prophet. Then in verses 13 through the first part of 15, we have the second beast as a deceitful wonder worker. Again, we're counterfeiting all throughout this. The second beast is a deceitful wonder worker first. With the false prophet reference, we were warned of false prophets who will speak deceptively to lead people into serving the first beast and its tyranny. Now we're being warned that these false prophets will employ signs and wonders. in the same cause. What we see in verses 13 and following, we see that the second beast is a deceitful wonder worker. It counterfeits the true prophets of the Old Testament, and also then reflects the false prophets of even John's day, which I think is helpful for us to understand how this is written. So it counterfeits first the true prophets of the Old Testament. In verse 13, He performs great signs that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. Again, Satan through the beasts, parodies the true prophets. I think in this case, we see Moses and Elijah, which we've been seeing more than once throughout the book of Revelation. Moses, you might remember, with Aaron, perform great wonders in the presence of Pharaoh in Exodus chapter 7 through 12, in particular, Aaron's rod turned to a what? A snake or a serpent. What did Pharaoh's magicians do when they mimic that they put down their rods and snakes or serpents then came out of their rods, but then what happened? Aaron's rod. which was a snake, swallowed up all of the snakes of the magicians, showing that God is greater, God is in control. And even the idea of a serpent swallowing the other serpents, there has to be a sermon somewhere in there that can be preached. I think especially here we have Elijah when it speaks about calling down fire from heaven. In Elijah, we can think of one case in particular, but there's at least two cases where Elijah called down fire from heaven. In 2 Kings chapter 1, when King King Ahaziah's messengers came for him. He called down fire from heaven and consumed them. But probably what you're thinking about is in 1 Kings chapter 18, when he had the battle against the Baal worshipers. When he challenged them, whose God will bring down fire from heaven? And they tried all day cutting themselves and doing things the Baal worshipers as agents of the state in that case. And it did not work. And you might remember Elijah poured water after water upon his altar. He calls down fire and it consumes the whole thing. And it caused onlookers to praise God as the God. It shows that God is greater and in control. It's interesting in those two cases, with Moses, Pharaoh represents the first beast. The magicians represent the second beast. With Elijah, King Ahab represents the first beast, and the prophets of Baal, in that case, who are under the state, represent the second beast. You see how it works. Those are examples. But what is referenced here, I think, in verses 13 through 15 is that the second beast is a deceitful wonder worker, reflects the false prophets of John's day. And you might be saying, wait a minute, Pastor. You've been saying that Revelation is not speaking about one specific event that happened in AD 70 or in one place in history. This is actually all of history. Yes, I am saying that. But knowing the circumstances in John's day with the Asian provinces under Rome's control, where John's readers lived and what they knew, helps us to understand what he's trying to say when he writes this. And what was going on with Rome at the time of John writing this, which we think is somewhere after 80, 90 is part of the beasts. It's one example of the first and second beast in that time. And so it's helpful to see what was going on in John's day, and I think when you recognize this, that in John's day, magicians and their crafts were commonplace. especially in the provincial pagan temples, which were central to the life under Rome and central to the life of his readers. And you had pagan priests and magicians who devised ways to make statues and idols move and speak. It's interesting you have more than once in the Psalms. Why do you worship idols that were made out of a tree you cut down? They can't speak. They can't think. They don't hear, and you're worshiping them. Well, the pagan priests and magicians devised ways with magic to have their statues and idols move using special effects of fire, even explosions, false lighting, and false phenomena. Sounds like some Christian worship today, perhaps, but we'll move on. They even used ventriloquism to make the idols appear to speak. And so when you look at verses 13 through 15, especially 14 through 15, think about this. And this beast deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted or allowed to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image of the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast that the image of the beast should speak. This seems like this has a clear reference to some specific things going on in the day that then can be applied throughout history in a symbolic way. And even in John's day, the people, the pagan worshipers, would not think that the idols themselves were gods, but they would see them as conduits by which the gods would be communicating. So by trickery and by maybe allowed supernatural powers, These wonders around the idols and the statues were promoting the idea of the prestige of idol worship within the state and the society, and perhaps especially that of the emperors of Rome, who are the deities of the states. So the point is that false words and false works will seem to make objects of false worship, which is anything that is not God, have life have meaning, have prestige, have gratification. That's a big thing in our culture. And so the false prophet and agent draws men from God to the beast and the dragon in these ways. Again, sticking with Phillips as far as representations of what the second beast as a deceitful wonder worker would look like. Well, today we have advances of science. Achievements of government were there the wonders of secular humanism. Vern Poitras said, technology has become the worker of miraculous signs. Worship the power of the beast, the power of the technocratic state organization, the power of the expert, because technology can work wonders like no one else. We're more refined than the Bible and the things of Christianity. So in our culture, via the broadcast news, the institutions, schools, lower and higher education, both through movies. My notes say television. Nobody watches television. I'll just say media through the Internet. There's a utopian message that calls us to progress beyond the outdated, ignorant, discredited, regressive Bible that we cling to is the Word of God. And so we're called with this utopian message to progress beyond the Bible and it's God and his created reality and purposes for his image and the salvation that he brings for his image that has fallen man. To leave behind this regressive and old fashioned and useless Bible and its call to holy living and the Bible's idea of sin. And the earthly and eternal consequences of sin. Leave that behind. What is wrong with you? Life can be so much more fun and unhindered. Philip says that today's call to this enchanted enlightenment, which is without the enlightenment of the Spirit of God, covers up the reality of societal breakdown and the soul-crushing bondage of sin since the false prophet's goal is the world's worship of a tyrannical beast and his slave master, Lord, the dragon. Another commentator says, man replaces God and Christ with himself. When we're worshiping the beast, we're ultimately worshiping self. And in doing so, he succumbs to the full deception of the beast and the destruction of himself. And so we have the second beast is a false prophet is a deceitful wonder worker, but also then in verses 15 and through 17, we see him as yes, a persecutor, a persecutor. We were first warned that false prophets will speak deceptively to lead people into serving the first beast in his tyranny. Secondly, we were warned that false prophets then will employ signs and wonders in the same cause, but that's not enough. Because third, now we see that this second beast and the false prophets need to exercise the authority of the beast in some way, he must employ deadly compulsion and persecution with the authority of the first beast. So in your bullet, you'll see I've outlined three things. And then a fourth that you've been waiting the whole sermon for the three things being Physical persecution. Societal persecution. Economic. It's all religious. I did have a fourth one of religious, but the whole thing is religious. But in verse 15, in part B, and the second beast causes as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. That's physical persecution. Surely this makes you think somebody in here, and if I'd asked for a raising of hands, that would embarrass you. But surely somebody must be thinking Daniel chapter 3, where Nebuchadnezzar's huge statue of gold was built. He commanded all to worship, else they'd be thrown into the fiery furnace. Worship the image of the beast or be killed. But yet Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused, and they were reported by others Perhaps those were some of the false prophets, but really, the worshippers of the beasts eventually come behind and do the persecuting themselves of the God followers, of the Christ followers. And Nebuchadnezzar mocked them and threatened them. And they said this in Daniel chapter 3, O Nebuchadnezzar, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from your hand, O king, one way or the other. But if not, don't you love this? But if not, let it be known to you, O King, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you've set up." They did not love their lives to death, as we saw in Revelation. God has power, but if he doesn't, that's his will, and it must be for his glory. And we're good with that. Now, they were not harmed. They weren't even singed. And then we find that there's one like the Son of God who is seen in their midst to protect them. It might make you think of Daniel chapter 6, when Daniel himself, who was a governor, was hated by his fellow governors. And here you have a believer, even the sense of being a servant of the state, but being ratted out by other servants of the state. And they used his faith against him. He was cast in a lion's den. In this case, again, God protected him, but that's not always the case. Depends on what God's will is. And so as far as physical persecution, we've seen that in Revelation 2 and 3, there were threats of prison and of tribulation. And there's a call to be faithful unto death to the church of Smyrna. In the church of Pergamos, there's one named Antipas who is martyred, who actually paid the full price as a martyr. And today, Christians are killed in other countries when they refuse to bow to the state and to state religion. Places like the Middle East or in parts of Africa or even in China. And it's often carried out by the zealousness of the false worshipers and not necessarily the beast itself. Their societal persecution, verse 16. He causes all both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave to receive the mark on the right hand or on their foreheads. That's all types of people. If they don't bow down to the false worship, They will be persecuted societally. All those who refuse, all those who resist from all walks of life, who refuse to fit into the society of norms and begin opposing the state with its prophets, they will suffer persecution societally. In Revelation 2 and 3, we saw threats of compromising to sacrifice idols and to sexual immorality of the pagan worship. We said then it was probably those who say, well, we need to fit in. It's patriotic to do these things. It's what upholds our country to do these things. It's part of our win. How can we witness unless we're not a part of these, of these pagan rituals and these things that are against Christ. And so they'd reason that it would be okay to participate. If we just don't take it seriously, we'll be fine. So that in Pergamos and Thyatira in particular, And it's still happening today through the norms of society preached by the false prophets. Churches and pastors and individuals are threatened if they speak against or they refuse the sin of the world in terms of homosexuality, transgenderism, immorality, abortion as well. Society comes down hard. It could even include the idea of Christian prophets themselves and Christian prophets in quote marks In some corners, we have the prosperity gospel being preached, the health and wealth gospel. It's really fitting if you can have your best life now, that's from the pit of hell. Or an antinomian gospel that says the law doesn't mean anything. Do what you will. You've been saved by grace. Nothing else matters. So you can fit into society. And unwittingly, perhaps, refuse Christ. Then in verse 17, I think we have the emphasis on the economic persecution. And that no man, no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. Those who resist or refuse the worship of the beast and the ways that the beast presents and enforces will often suffer economic and financial difficulties. due to prejudice against them, due to exclusion in different walks of life, even sometimes the laws of the state brought about by the false prophets. will cause economic hardship. In Revelation 2 and 3, we talked about the trade guilds that were necessary. If you wanted to have a trade to make a living for yourself and your family, you'd have to be part of a trade guild. Those trade guilds were aligned with different pagan deities or emperor worship, and so you couldn't be trained or have a job unless you would actually be part of that, and you'd refuse and there'd be economic Even the idea of buying and selling in Revelation 2 and 3 was part of the difficulties. I'm not bowing down to the things of the state and my society, and I'm unable to buy and sell. And today, Christian businesses are threatened if they don't insure abortion with their insurance for their workers. Hospitals and doctors are threatened if they will not perform these things or even transgender procedures. Workers will lose their promotion if they do not hide their faith. Or maybe sometimes the convictions they have will not allow them to conform to the ways of the company that they work in. So they get fired, or at least not promoted. I'm reminded of the Colorado Christian baker who was taken to court repeatedly because he'd refused to make a cake to promote same-sex marriage and homosexuality. And he faces economic difficulties as a result. It's interesting in Second Timothy three verses 12 through 17, a very famous passage, but it starts with this. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. That's speaking of the sea beast. But evil men and imposters will go worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. That's the earth beast. but you must continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of from the scriptures. Remember the scriptures make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ and the scriptures make the man of God complete and thoroughly equipped in every good work and to face every kind of persecution. Well, lastly, in the second beast is a persecutor versus 15 through 17. We have part D, the mark of the beast. We've been talking about the mark of the beast. And I must remind you that hopefully you've seen this, that Revelation is a book of symbols, not specific objects or historical events. And the mark of the beast is no different. There's lots of said about the mark of the beast in 666. There's not meant to be a computer chip. or some physical thing that's going to mark the end of the world. It's happening throughout all of the 42 months in different forms and fashion. So in general, the mark of the beast is a spiritual sign of ownership of those who are unsaved and ownership by Satan. You're either of God or Satan is your father. I notice it's on their hands and their forehead. We read from Deuteronomy chapter six on purpose on your hands means it's your actions on your forehead. It means what are your thoughts and what are your words? So it indicates symbolically that those whose actions and their thoughts and their words are like Satan and his teaching in the state is ungodly worship. That's the mark of the beast. It's like Deuteronomy chapter six were to teach the Word of God to our children, bind them on our hands and the front lens of our eyes. It's what we think and what we do that shows who we are. Our actions and our thoughts are signs. And they can be signs that we worship the beast and the dragon were under his ownership, his control and willingly so. And this is a counterfeit again of Christ in the church. You remember in Revelation chapter 7, where the church represented is 144,000. They're sealed on their foreheads. And they have robes washed by the blood of the Lamb. That's their actions. And they praise God and the Lamb. That's their words. And in Revelation 14, just around the corner, if you turn the page in Revelation 14, you'll see, oh, look, I saw, and it's 144,000. Again, and they have the father's name written on their forehead and in their mouth. There's no deceit. That's the words and the thoughts and they follow the lamb wherever he goes. That's their actions. And they are sealed. We said back in Revelation chapter seven that they're sealed by God to be his own. It's it represents ownership, identification and protection of God's people in Christ. And so the mark of the beast is a parody of that. It means this person is under the spell, if you will, under the ownership and identification of the evil one. At times in history, this may manifest itself physically. There have been times in history maybe you had to wear an armband to be accepted in certain cases, or I think even now there's countries where on your driver's license or some certificate you have to list what your religion is. That's not always a happy thing when you say I'm a Christian in a Muslim country. So it can represent something and manifest itself physically, but it symbolizes those who bow to Caesar in their lives. They have the mark, the stamp of the beast character and approval. The mark occurs if one worships an idol, if one says Caesar is Lord or anything, but Christ is Lord. If one conforms to the sinful demands of the state and his prophets. It might sound scary or even odd, but some here have the mark of the beast even now. You don't have to look. But some of you have the mark of the beast right now. If you're not saved, you're under the ownership of the beast. Your life displays this as well, and your thoughts display this. Many of you have the seal of God, and this cannot be lost or removed. You've been sealed. It cannot be removed. But the mark of the beast can. So you're urged to come to Christ. You know, the sealing of the Spirit of God and remove the mark of the beast from yourself. So then lastly, we go to verse 18, which is still more of the same perhaps, but we'll see what is our response to be to the beasts? Well, specifically here, there's a call to wisdom. Previously, we had a call to endurance. And previous to that, we had a call to overcome in Revelation 12. But the response to the beast, let's read verse 18. Here is wisdom, which is always the same thing as saying, I call you to wisdom about these things. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. And the word A is not part of the original. It can be put in there. So it's even better said, for it is the number of man. And his number is 666. Again, I'll remind you that Revelation is a book of symbols, not specific objects and historical events. And the number of the beast, just like the mark of the beast, is the same thing. It symbolizes something. And for years, even in the church, and even recently, the idea of gematria, I think that's how you spell it, how you pronounce it, gematria, the idea of taking letters of languages and taking the numerical values of the letters and they add up to something and it means something. And so there's been for years in the church and even outside the church where we take different things and we try to add it up to 666 to identify who is this beast, who is this Antichrist with the number 666. If we can know that, then we can prepare for it. I don't find it convincing at all, and I'd like to be even harsher, but I'll just say I don't find it convincing at all. In order to do this, you have to take the Greek text to translate it to a Hebrew text, and then to translate it to numbers, and you're expecting the Greek listeners and the readers of John's text to do that. And even the most prominent use, even with some very, very good brothers, they would use the word Nero or the person of Nero to represent 666. But Nero only adds up to 666 if you also add his title, Caesar, and if you misspell one of those words just slightly, and then you eventually get 666. And as an ex-math teacher, you can use mathematics and get all sorts of neat things. It looks like that seems divinely inspired, and it's not. It's just a playing around with numbers. And I don't think it would say, here is wisdom. if it meant to say, here is speculation. So I think instead, to speak about the number of beasts, it does say, here's wisdom. What's the number of man? And 666 is his number. I think that's the key point. It's the number of man. Man was created on which day? The sixth day. The number of completion we've said is seven. Number six is not quite there. It's incomplete. It's on the sixth day. If Adam had perfectly obeyed God, he would have entered into a spiritually complete seventh day of eternal rest with his God. But he failed, he rebelled, he sinned, and he fell short of the glory of God. And also we, mankind, all of us sinned and fell in and with him. And we prove it by our lives. And so man is incomplete. He is sinful, and his number is six. And so 666 is another unholy trinity. It's failure times three. It's what characterizes the beast and his kingdom. G.K. Beal says six repeated three times indicates the completeness of sinful incompleteness. The completeness of sinful incompleteness found in the beast The beast epitomizes imperfection while appearing, he's a counterfeit, to achieve divine perfection. William Hendrickson, who's more spicy to read, I think Roland would like that word, says, six is not seven. It always fails to attain perfection. That is, it never becomes seven. Six means missing the mark or failure. Seven means perfection or victory. So rejoice, O church of God, the victory is on our side. The number of the beast is 666. That is failure upon failure upon failure. It is the number of man for the beast glories in man and must fall and fail. So here we're supposed to have wisdom and the wisdom is the kingdom of the dragon and the beasts is doomed for failure. And one day it will be cast into the lake of fire. And so be wise, not put hope in kingdoms of this world or prophets of this world. Jesus says in Matthew six, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. where moth and rust destroy or where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth or no rust destroys or where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. But instead rejoice, Christian. The second or the last Adam Christ succeeded where the first Adam failed, and he perfectly obeyed God as the God-man Savior. The second Adam perfectly obeyed, and he opened up the way for all who would trust in him to enter God's eternal Sabbath rest. Now by faith spiritually, and then when Christ returns ultimately and eternally in the new heavens and the new earth that he brings. And if you're not a Christian, If you're not sealed in by Christ, but you do have the mark of the beast, we urge you to come to Christ in repentance and faith, even now. And Christians should take heart. Though the beast seem ferocious, there's nothing to fear, for they're not sovereign. God limits them in their actions. It's been granted them to be able to do these things. And he limits them in their time. It's 42 months. And it's for his glory and for our good. And just like Israel in the wilderness was tested, think of Revelation 12. So we are being tested and we will persevere and endure if we have faith that he has given us in Christ Jesus. In the end, our faith will be shown to be true. Christ will be known and he will reign and the church will prevail and the dragon and the sea beast and the earth beast and their kingdom will be defeated and destroyed into the lake of fire. When the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever and ever. We saw in Revelation 11. I know my time is up, but please humor me just for a few more minutes. This is one of the most important sections of all the book of Revelation. So what is our response quickly looking backwards from this earth beast, the sea beast into the dragon? We see these exhortations. With the false prophet in verse 18, it says, here is wisdom, a call to wisdom. So to respond to the deception of the false prophet, the second beast, we would respond with discernment and wisdom. By the word, by the spirit and in the accountability of the local church. And secondly, with the sea beast. In the first part of Revelation 13, the sea beast representing persecution will respond to the persecution with the knowledge that we will be persecuted. Remember, those who are captive will be captive. It's meaning these things will happen. Will respond with the persecution of the sea beast with knowledge that we will be persecuted and then with patient endurance. Remember, in verse 10, he who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. Here is the patience or the endurance or the perseverance in the faith of the saints. Be discerning, be diligent. That's your call. And if we go all the way back to Revelation 12 with the dragon, remember what was said there in Revelation 12? And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. And they kept the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. This is by the grace and the spirit of God. So we're called the discernment. diligence and we're called to devotion to Christ in our life. And there's no greater place to be. Let me pray. Dear Heavenly Father, this passage is probably the source of the vast majority of arguments and differences of the whole of the book of Revelation. I pray, Lord, we could we could even though that was lengthy, we could we could melt this down to the main points of even chapters 12 and 13, that the dragon, the first beast, the second beast, are against you, and they're counterfeiting you, and they're doing all they can in their short amount of time and their defeatedness to rage against you and against Christ and his people and to prevent the earth dwellers from becoming heaven dwellers. Lord, make us be encouraged by the encouragement you give us in your word. All of this is under your control. All this is under your limitations and you've given us everything we need, all the protection and all the resources and all the guarantees we need to live in this life with the promise that is guaranteed of the life to come. So enable us to do so without fear, with devotion and diligence and discernment. I pray, Lord, for those who are outside of Christ. Lord, that they would see the results of their sin and the results of what happens if they remain in their sin, and they do not turn from it in repentance and faith to the Lamb who is slain, but who truly did rise from the dead, and He ascended into heaven. He's returning again to make all things right and to judge the wicked in all sin. I pray, Lord, that by your Spirit, you would cause them to worship the Son and the Father, even this day. In Jesus' name we pray, these things. Amen.