Well, we're going to be reading God's Word, which to the unbeliever may seem not very powerful, but we know it carries the very power of God behind it. And so let's submit our hearts to that. The majority text, reading on page 25. Now I was standing on the seashore, and I saw a beast of prey coming up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten diadems, and on his heads blasphemous names. The beast that I saw was similar to a leopard. His feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth was like a lion's mouth. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority, and one of his heads was as if it had been mortally wounded. But his fatal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled after the beast. And they did obeisance to the dragon, who had given the authority to the beast. And they did obeisance to the beast, saying, who is like the beast? And who was able to make war with him? And he was given a mouth speaking great things, that is, blasphemy. And he was given authority to make war 42 months. So he opened that mouth of his in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, those who dwell in heaven. And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given him over every tribe and language and ethnic nation. All who dwell on the earth will do obeisance to him whose names have not been written in the book of life of the land slaughtered from the foundation of the world. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone has captivity, he goes away. If anyone kills with a sword, with a sword, he must be killed. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints. Amen. Father, we thank you for your Word, and I pray that as I preach it, that I would do so faithfully and that I would represent your Word accurately. We pray that you would accompany your Word with the power of your Spirit and enable us to be sanctified, to grow up into you in all things, having our minds conformed, our spirits transformed. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, based on the number of books and articles that keep getting published on the beast of revelation in America. Uh, it must be a fascinating topic. It's a big moneymaker apparently in some circles, but it really has always been a very interesting topic down through the years. Uh, I have, um, uh, I own like now, what is it? 103 or something like that commentaries. And I've read many more online over the last 1,500 years. There's been quite a bit published. And there have been literally hundreds of candidates for this beast. I think they're all over the map on this because these interpretations only look at just a small handful or maybe another small handful of the clues that John gives to us as to the identity of the beast. But, uh, we really need to look at every single one. I'm going to give you just a sampling of some of the things that I have run across over the years. At the time of the reformation, there were quite a few godly people who held that the beast of revelation was, uh, the Roman Catholic church as a system or an individual Pope. Uh, there were others like the Popes who returned the favor and said, no, it's Martin Luther. Who's the beast. Uh, at the time of the Napoleonic wars, uh, people thought it just has to be Napoleon. Look how evil this guy is during world war II. Uh, there were quite a few people who thought Hitler was the beast. And actually there's a number of commentaries even today who say, yeah, Hitler was the beast and he's going to get resurrected in the future. And, uh, he's going to start things all over again. Robert Van Kampen would be one of those guys. And I'm not saying that these characters that they've identified don't fit some of the characteristics of the beast. They do. We're going to be seeing why that is the case, but they're not fitting all of the characteristics that was the original intent of who he was pointing to. Here are some of the other suggested characters. Mussolini. Henry Kissinger, Anwar Sadat, Pope John Paul II. Christians like Gary Blevins made absolute fools of themselves when they said Ronald Reagan was the beast because each of his three names has six letters, 666. Obvious, right? No, not obvious at all. It is violating the rules of interpretation that John laid down in the first chapter. Remember, he gave us 30 rules, more than 30 actually, in that first chapter by which we can understand the book. And once you nail those interpretive principles, almost everything in the book really falls into place rather neatly. It's just a few puzzles that need to be thought through. On KCRO radio, I heard a speaker seriously claim that there is a computer in Belgium that's tracking information on everybody in the world, and eventually we're not going to be able to buy and sell without permission from this computer. And it's called the beast, they claim, and so it fits. No, it does not fit. There's so many clues in this book that it does not fit at all. Probably the weirdest interpretation I have ever run across in my life was identifying Bill Gates as the beast. And it went through, they said, okay, it's going to eventually happen that you will not be able to buy and sell without his computer software. That's why I use Apple, right? But they went through this convoluted system of, okay, they abbreviated his name, converted it to ASCII code. They threw in a Roman numeral, an Arabic, excuse me, not Roman numeral, an Arabic number three, because he's Bill Gates III. because the Roman numeral didn't work too well. So anyway, they got it to add up to 666. And, you know, when I look at some of these interpretations, I just shake my head and I think the world must look on and think the Bible has no objective meaning whatsoever. And it really is sad. It's sad. But when you scan through the lists of hundreds of candidates that have been identified, at least 95% of those candidates get two things right. I mean, even a broken clock gets the time right twice a day, right? So to give credit where credit is due, the vast majority of commentaries out there will agree that the beast is referring to a civil government, and it's a civil government that is thoroughly statist. So we'll hand it to them on that. Now let me define the word statism because statism really is one of the central themes of this chapter. Statism in a nutshell is the control of everything by the state, or at least moving in that direction. It is any theory of civics that believes it is good. It's a good thing for the civil government to get involved in. or to control, or to be the answer, the solution to the problems that society faces, whether those problems are social problems, economic problems, medical, food distribution, you name it, that would be statism. Now, if that is the definition of statism, then I will say that America is thoroughly statist. And so the lessons of this chapter are going to be very important for Americans to understand. Now, it's unfortunate But Christians need to understand this as well because Christians from both main political parties tend to be statists. And it's my hope that Christians will learn to see the incredible danger of statism no matter where it is manifested. On the local level, you know, city, government, or county commissioners, or state or federal level. The book of Revelation makes it very, very clear that statism on even its most innocuous and favorable manifestations, like Claudius had, previous emperor is defined in Revelation chapter 6 as being demonic and certainly in this chapter we're going to be seeing that all forms of statism are demonic and really that it makes sense that that would be the case because of Jesus Christ is cast off as the sovereign of the nation his laws are rejected the restrictions of his laws are rejected something will always come in to fill that void Revelation identifies that something as demonic now today We're just gonna barely get into the introduction to this whole topic. We're not going to get past verse one But I think this will be a helpful introduction for our next sermons Okay, look at the first phrase Now I was standing on the seashore and Now, unlike verse 11, which sees the second beast as arising from the land of Israel. See, there's two beasts that he's going to be dealing with in this chapter. This one arises from the Mediterranean ocean. Okay, so he's standing on the seashore, not in the middle of the land of Israel, and he's facing toward Rome. And that's true, whether he is literally on the sand of the seashore on the island of Patmos, where he had been banished. or whether, as most commentators and as I believe, he was transported by vision to the seashore of Israel. And in context of the other beast being on the land, it makes more sense for this one to be in vision on the seashore of Israel, but it really doesn't make any difference. Either way, he's on the seashore, he's looking to the Mediterranean toward Rome, and toward the ocean that Rome controlled. So right off the bat you can rule out any interpretation that makes the beast arise in China or Russia or the United States of America. The focus is on the Mediterranean Ocean. Daniel 7 confirms this interpretation and virtually all commentators agree that the background to this beast is Daniel 7. And the next phrase in verse 1 here says, I saw a beast of prey coming up out of the sea are words just like Daniel wrote. And so the readers of this book, first century Hebrews who would have been thoroughly familiar with the Old Testament, these words would have immediately reminded them of the vision that Daniel was having where he is sitting on the Mediterranean, standing actually on the Mediterranean watching beast after beast, four beasts in total coming up out of the Mediterranean. And it is specifically the fourth beast that is in view here. Well, that immediately gives us a huge definition to this beast. In Daniel, the four beasts represented four demonic rulers who ruled four world empires. Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. And it's that last beast of Rome that Revelation is picking up and describing, same language as referring to. And by the way, even dispensationalists agree that the fourth beast is Rome. They've got a weird theory that says, well, Rome died and sometime in our future, Rome will get revived again. But there's no exegetical evidence that has to take this beyond the first century. It was all fulfilled very neatly in the first century. But I just wanted to point out, everybody agrees that Daniel's fourth empire of Rome is in view. So here's the thing. If, as we have demonstrated before, if Daniel 7's demonic beasts were demonic princes who ruled the empires, if that was the case in Daniel, then one would expect that Revelation is going to be defining this beast somewhere as being a demon as well. And it does, several places. And why don't you turn with me back to Revelation chapter 11 verse 7. And it's been a little bit of time since we looked at that chapter. What I want to remind you of is the very important principle of first reference. A number of interpretive principles in the book of Revelation, but one is called first reference. The very first time that John introduces a subject, he usually doesn't give us a lot of information, but he'll introduce that subject and give us something critically key to understanding whatever that subject is later on. Well, this is the first time that the beast is mentioned in the book of Revelation. Revelation 11 verse 7. Speaking of the two prophets it says, Now the primary thing I want you to notice is that the beast rises up out of the abyss, out of hell just like the cloud of demons in chapter nine arose up out of the abyss, out of hell. So we saw, first of all, that the beast was a demon. Now, sometimes people get a little bit confused by that. They say, well, aren't demons fallen angels? Why would it be calling this a beast if it is a fallen angel? Well, it's true, they were fallen angels. And yet there are different kinds of angels, one group of which actually looked like animals. In fact, Revelation 4, you can flip back to Revelation 4 and 5 and you will see that there were godly living creatures is what the New King James translates. The Old King James translates it as beasts who were worshiping around the throne of God. And it's a different word for beast there. It's a positive term because those beasts are not fallen. They did not follow Satan in his rebellion against God. The word there is the word that we get zoology from, animal, okay, some kind of a beast. But in Revelation 4, Those godly beasts are unlike any other beasts that you have ever seen in your life, because these beasts can talk, they can pray, they can worship God, and they look quite different. They're rational creatures, even though some of them look like a calf, like a man, like an eagle, and like a lion, and they got eyes all over their body. I mean, really weird looking creatures there. And in both Ezekiel, Ezekiel has some that have one head, some that have more than one head, but there were some that had four faces and four heads, okay? So anyway, it's my belief that there were good beasts similar to those described in Revelation 4 through 5 and in Ezekiel who fell with Lucifer and became particularly dangerous demons. And it's those kinds of demons that are called beasts in Daniel and in Revelation. The fall into sin had changed those creatures into something hideous and horrible. The beasts were scary enough when they were godly. I mean, you look at something like that. If I met a godly creature like that, I'd want to run. They were scary enough when they were godly, but when they became sinning creatures, they became terrifying monsters. And this demon is described then as an attacking beast of prey. So let me remind you and refresh your memory of what we went through in chapter 11, verse 7. The beast was first and foremost an invisible demonic monster. We saw that the abyss was a place in the heart of the earth that was kind of like a prison place for demons. And sometimes that word abyss is associated with hell. Sometimes it is associated with the ocean. And I've given in your outline a number of different verses where it's used of either or. And so even if John had not given us a heads up in chapter 11 verse 7, when we see something coming up out of the Mediterranean, we might be at least inclined to think, you know, this is probably something evil coming up out of the Mediterranean because it's associated with the abyss. Many people think that there's actually like a doorway that God uses into the heart of the earth through some place in the ocean. We're not sure why the word abyss is associated with both. So in chapter 17, he says that the beast comes up out of the abyss, he will soon be heading back to the abyss. So both chapter 11, chapter 17 say the same thing. So just to review, first of all, the origin of the beast is in the abyss. Second, that means he's a demon first and foremost. Third, this parallels the earlier references in the Old Testament to emperors and beasts, that it's demons who were behind these emperors. Chapter six, chapter nine of Revelation, both spoke of demons being behind various emperors there, remember that? So immediately the application that we can make is we should not think of the kingdoms of men as being neutral. Kingdoms of men are either explicitly serving Christ, submitting to his law, or they are serving Satan. They may not think they are serving Satan, but they are either ruled by Christ or they are ruled by Satan. It's going to be one or the other. There is no such thing as a neutral kingdom. So in the book of Revelation, you're gonna see a fluid movement back and forth between discussing the beast as a demon and the beast as the visible men or the visible kingdoms that that demon rules over. And this is exactly the way God discussed them in the Old Testament. So I looked at that last sermon at Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28 and showed how God addressed the kings as being in rebellion to him And then he starts addressing the kings as Satan. And people say, why is he doing that? Well, it's because Satan possessed those kings that he was talking about and was governing the policies of their empire through those men. 4. We saw that the article the, in the beast of Revelation 11 verse 7 points to a very specific beast in Daniel. It's Daniel's fourth beast. 5. The word used for beast is not used of clean animals, but of unclean animals. And anywhere that this beast was at work, the actions of men became unclean. And you could see it in homosexuality and blasphemy and perversion, all kinds of corruptions. Six, we saw that this beast had previously been bound. Now, I believe that probably happened during the ministry of Christ, but he had been responsible for the rise of Rome right from the beginning, just as other demonic beasts had been responsible for the rise and the domination of earlier empires. And we looked a little bit at the application of the power of the gospel to bind demons. And there's times when nations become more and more rebellious against God. God says, okay, I'm gonna give them up to a corrupt mind. And he unleashes demons from the pit and he says, okay, see how you like it. And those demons begin to take over the policies of that nation. I think it's very, very critical that Christians learn spiritual warfare, learn how to bind the demonic strong men so that we can plunder their territory. Seventh we saw that the beast hates everything that Christ and his prophets stand for and he persecutes prophets and Christians alike and then finally we saw that this beast was released to possess Nero and then Vespasian and then Titus during just the last parts of that war. But then he's bound permanently in the pit in AD 70. I don't have time to rediscuss and to reprove each of those points. I think I nailed them pretty solidly when we were back then. But I just wanted to remind you That just the way that this starts off being word and reminding us of Daniel We're thinking okay. These are demonic beings that he is talking about who are behind Behind empires and this is now the fourth Empire. So let's let's dig a little bit more into the nature of statism in this passage First of all verse one says that this beast had seven heads now Did the demon literally have seven heads? Possibly. I mean, we did see there were angels who had more than one head, so I don't see any reason why that could not be the case, but I only want to focus on the symbolical use of these seven heads in the book of Revelation. They're primarily symbols, and Revelation 17, chapter 17, verses 9 and 10 clearly defines these seven heads in this way. It says, here is the mind that has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings. Five have fallen. One is. The other has not yet come. And whenever he comes, he must continue a short time. So John is defining these seven heads, and he clearly says that the seven heads symbolize two different things. First, they symbolize the Roman Empire as a whole, and then second, they symbolize the emperors who, the first seven emperors who ruled over that empire. Now, as is common in the book of Revelation, he alternates back and forth, and all commentators recognize this. He alternates between corporate and the individual who rules the corporate, back and forth. Now, let's talk about the corporate aspect first. Revelation 17, 9 says, the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. Now anyone who had Roman pocket change would know immediately what he is referring to. Immediately. He wouldn't have to have Pastor Kaiser give a sermon to tell him what this means. They would, oh yeah, I know exactly what he's talking about. We don't need a pastor to tell me this. This would have been intuitively obvious. He would have seen, for example, I gave one sample coin in your outline on the bottom left there, a Vespasian's coin that was minted during the times of these Jewish wars here. So you can see Vespasian on one side, you can see the harlot woman on the other side. And what is that harlot woman sitting on? Everybody agrees she's sitting on the seven hills of Rome or the seven mountains of Rome, same Greek. Word now first century readers would have known that the mountains represent the Empire as a whole now at a later time we're gonna see how the harlot woman is yet another demon that goes back to the time of Babylonians and Influenced things in all four Empire by the way influenced Israel as well and the Babylonian Talmud So we'll get into that another time. I don't want to focus on the woman this morning. I just want to focus on the seven Those seven mountains represent Rome corporately considered. And that would have been the first most obvious thing that would have instantly popped into the minds of the readers of the first century. So the beast controls the empire. He controls the seven mountains. He controls the city of Rome and by that the empire. But according to the same passage he also controls the emperors of the empire. So Revelation 17 verse 10 goes on to say, they, that is the seven heads, they are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the one who was living when he wrote is Nero. So five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come. And whenever he comes, he must continue a short time. So it's not just the empire that is tightly controlled by the demon. The kings are too. In Revelation 17, 11, we'll make very clear that when Nero dies, the beast demon is going to be bound in the pit during the year and a half that the next three rulers who don't rule an empire, the empire completely falls apart, but that during the rule of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, which by the way, explains why those guys desperate to try to get the empire back together are utterly unsuccessful. There's no beast behind them to be able to enable them to do that. But revelation 1711 says that the beast was once again about to be released from the abyss and inhabit the seventh and eighth emperors Vespasian and Titus now don't worry if you're not catching all of the Intricacies of this because we're gonna get into it in much more detail in chapter 17 but hopefully you're getting the drift of what I'm trying to establish that empires are not just ruled by men and they are ruled by demons. Unless they're under Christ, they are ruled by demons. When we get to chapter 17, we're gonna see some amazing imagery that flows back and forth between the human and the demonic. But for now, I just want to establish there are seven human emperors that served under the demonic beast that did his bidding, and then there's an eighth king who will succeed him. Okay, so the seven human kings that are represented are Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, and Vespasian. And Titus would be the eighth. So between Nero and Vespasian there were no emperors because there was no empire. It completely fell apart, divided up into three different parts. So let me repeat the seven heads for you. Julius Caesar who ruled from 49 to 44 BC. Augustus, 31 BC to AD 14. Tiberius, 14 to 37. Caligula, 37 to 41. Claudius, 41 to 54. Nero, 54 to 68. And Vespasian, 69 to 79. So back to chapter 13 and verse 1. This verse also mentions 10 horns on the seven heads. And this is all too frequently just skipped over hurriedly. And you shouldn't because it is a very, very critical, important clue. Daniel 7 verse 24 says that the 10 horns are 10 kings. And Revelation 17, 12 says exactly the same thing. Everybody agrees with that, but that's about as far as the agreement goes. Some people make the ten horns symbolize exactly the same thing that the seven heads symbolize. Well, that makes no sense. In terms of symbology, yes, they're linked, but they are distinct. I don't see how the seven heads could symbolize exactly the same thing that the ten horns symbolize. Now as I mentioned, there are some head-scratcher puzzles in reconciling these two chapters. And because some commentators think that chapter 17 is irreconcilable with this chapter and with Daniel 7, and because you might run across those books, let me briefly mention some of their objections, two or three of the problems that they raise. They say that Revelation 13 lines up with Daniel 7 in saying that the ten kings are sequential kings of Rome, one rising after the other. But in stark contrast, Revelation 17 seems to focus on ten kings who live at the same time, are about to rule at the same time, who are not sequential. They say there's no way of reconciling the two things. How could ten horns refer to quite opposite things like that? Now we're going to see they actually, it's beautiful, it's absolutely amazing how they reconcile. But that's one problem they bring up. Another problem they say is that chapter 13, these 10 horns have crowns and a kingdom, whereas in chapter 17, they have no crowns and are waiting for a kingdom. In chapter 13, they work for the beast. In chapter 17, they're waiting for the beast to come up out of the pit, out of the abyss, okay? And there are other puzzles. For example, what do the two texts mean by kings? If the seven heads, are the emperors of Rome from Julius Caesar all the way up to Vespasian, how could the ten kings be the same emperors from Julius Caesar all the way up to Vespasian as quite a number of commentaries claim? It just does not fit at all. When we get to chapter 17, I'm going to demonstrate how, whether you're looking at the visible or the invisible, this is an absolutely amazingly cool thing that's going on between 13 and 17. It reconciles beautifully. And again, I don't have time to delve into those puzzles today, but let me assure you, any apparent contradictions evaporate if you realize two things. First of all, that the horns in both chapters are demon kings, not humans. They're demon kings. They're the same demon kings who have been around since the time of at least Julius Caesar. And second, chapter 13 looks at those demons as ruling and standing behind the Roman emperors Whereas chapter 17 looks at a very short period of time after the beast is bound to the pit in 68 AD and the empire has fallen apart. These demons basically have completely lost control of the empire. They're no longer riding on the head. There is no head. The head was mortally wounded. The whole beast has died. It's fallen apart. So they're trying to regain the kingdom. They take possession of 10 provincial governors to fight side by side with Vespasian. against Israel. So chapter 13 deals with the work of those demons with all of the Caesars historically. Chapter 17 deals with the one and a half years when the empire falls apart and how these demons are now scrambling to put Rome back together again. No contradiction if you get the timing right. The seven heads are the first seven human emperors. The ten horns are the demonic rulers that the beast used to rule the empire. It's only when they lost the empire that in chapter 17 they're said to no longer have crowns. no longer have a kingdom and to scatter around the empire to move 10 provincial leaders to get with the program to make Vespasian the new head of the revived empire. Now don't worry if you don't understand everything that's happening because I'll tease those apart when we get to chapter 17. But what I want you to focus on right now is that in both chapters, both chapters, The ten horns are ten demons who work behind the scenes to maintain power for human kings. In other words, the demon beast has ten demon kings underneath him. You can think of them as generals who help him to rule the entire Roman Empire, no doubt traveling back and forth from the ten imperial provinces. Now verse one goes on to say that the horns wore ten diadem crowns. Now there are at least three facts that commentators A couple of commentators have pointed out the first fact. Several have noted, they've said, wow, that is odd that the horns are wearing the crowns instead of the heads wearing the crowns. Almost everywhere else in the scripture you see a head wearing a crown. So what is going on here? Some commentators are puzzled, but to me it illustrates who really is in charge. Okay, humans may think that they are the heads, that they are calling the shots, but there are demons behind the scenes who are wearing the crown. John is building a gradual case in this chapter against statism and making the point that statism is demonic. By the time we get to the end of this chapter, the message will be crystal clear. And so the first thing commentators point out is that the horns wear the crowns, not the heads. And my application is that the demons controlled the empire more than the emperors did. The second thing that commentators point out is that these crowns are not victory crowns. They are diadem crowns. Now, we can wear victory crowns, not diadem crowns. Revelation elsewhere indicates Christ is the only one who rightfully wears the diadem crown. So when these demons wear diadem crowns, they are usurpers. They're taking the place of Christ. Now there's one more significant fact about these horns that should not be skipped over, since a horn is always a sign of power and force. In fact, most of the time it's referring to military force, but it can refer to any kind of power or force. The fact that horns are crowned rather than heads show that these demons move men to exercise power rather than true authority under Christ. You know what? Demons are always trying to do that in every government, whether it's family, church, and state. How many men respond to lack of submission by trying to force submission rather than gently and confidently exercising the authority that Christ has given to them? Whether people follow or not follow. There's a vast difference between ruling by power and ruling by authority. It's one of the biggest characteristics of statism and it's one of the biggest characteristics of families and churches that are in trouble. Rush Dooney commented on this verse and applied it to the issue of statism saying this. The fact that the horns rather than the heads are crowned signifies that in this world power is the source of authority and sovereignty and men give obedience not to legitimate leadership but to power as such. Might makes right. and might is worshiped and obeyed in its every implication. The names of blasphemy indicate that human governments irrigate to themselves the authority and sovereignty which rightfully belong to God. So as we go through this chapter, you might wanna be piecing together some of the characteristics of statism. There's a lot of characteristics. And one of them is that statism substitutes power for true authority. In America, the Constitution no longer has authority in the lives of just about anything that is done in Congress, in the Senate, in the courts, or in the executive office. And men get frustrated. They get elected to change that. And after five years, they throw up their hands in despair. They say it's just unchangeable. They're not realizing that this is a demonically entrenched issue. Statism is never going to be solved by another form of statism, okay? It can only be resolved by repentance, faith in Jesus Christ, and a nation submitting to Christ and to His laws. Nothing else is gonna deal with the demonic. Demons are not gonna just let up because some conservatives got elected. All of his children are subject to him and he can move them whichever way he wants. Now we're going to be seeing next week that the evil of statism really begins to come to the fore in the next few phrases. And we're only going to be able to look at one more phrase today. The last phrase of verse one says, and on his heads, blasphemous names. Now the majority text makes it crystal clear that it's not name singular, but blasphemous names plural. So if the heads were emperors, and if John later brings to mind, you know, these coins that they had in their pocket, and actually we've seen all through Revelation, a lot of these symbols are taken right off of the coins. Chapter 6, we saw numerous coins that illustrated these things. So if that's the case, what blasphemous names are written on the head side of these coins? Let me list you some. I already pointed to the first coin on the bottom of your outline. Clearly blasphemous name there. Take a look at the second coin. This was found in northern Israel and it says Divine Augustus. Now what's remarkable about finding coins like this in Israel is that for most of Israel's history they refused to use Roman coinage because of those blasphemous symbols that were on there. They used Tyrian coinage which didn't have any symbols. Now there were the Herodians, people who liked Rome who were pro-Roman who used Roman money. But the the majority of the Israelites did not until the mid 60s What happened in the mid 60s is that Nero was desperate for money. So he started debasing the coins and in order to make more money and all over the Empire people are beginning to catch on to this and so they're using Tyrian coinage and You know how Gresham's law says that bad money is you know, chases out good money out of the economy. Why? Because people, they're not going to spend their good money. They're going to keep that. And if somebody is forced to take my poor money, oh, I'm going to give my poor money to him. So that's what happened. Nero made it illegal to use anything but Roman currency. And so you had to buy or sell only with Roman currency, and all of that Roman currency had these blasphemous names on it. By the way, from the time that that happened, that was Nero, then Vespasian, then Titus, all three of those emperors' names add up to 666. We'll get to that, that's the subject for another sermon. But literally, you could not buy or sell without the number 666. And there was something I'll bring up in their phylacteries that they wore on their hands and on their heads, fascinating stuff. But all literally fulfilled. But in terms of the blasphemous names found on the heads, very literally, the seven heads of the Roman beast, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, and Vespasian, all had blasphemous names written right on them. And if you go to the numismatics websites, you can find numerous names. Third coin in your outline says simply Divine Augustus Vespasianus. The word divine is obvious, it's a claim to divinity. Augustus means majestic or worthy of worship. Chilton writes, according to the Roman imperial theology, the Caesars were gods. Each emperor was called Augustus or Sebastus, meaning one to be worshipped. They also took on the name Divus, God, and even Deus and Theos, God. Many temples were erected to them throughout the empire, especially in Asia Minor. The Roman Caesars received honor belonging only to the one true God. Joel McDermott comments, the denarius itself, most likely a coin from the current emperor, carried not only his image but an inscription that read, Tiberius Caesar Divi Augustus Filius Augustus. Tiberius Caesar, son of the August God. In the backside continued, Pontifex Maximus, High Priest. If this was not a graven image of a false god, nothing is. Now I haven't seen the coin myself, but Stauffer's book lists, claims that one Roman coin had written on it, no other name for man's salvation. And Stauffer points out that when Peter in Acts chapter 4 verse 12 says, Nor is there salvation that says this of Jesus nor is there salvation in any other for there is no other name Under heaven given among men by which we are to be saved. He was directly contradicting that coin He was engaged in treason. Basically is what Stouffer says and I don't have a picture of that coin, but I've seen Numerous pictures of coins that have these kinds of blasphemous names written right on the head right over the head of the the Emperor, Lord, Father, Life-Giver, Son of God, High Priest, Gracious Savior, God of the gods, Savior, and the citizens having been saved." Those are all blasphemous names because they're calling the state God and Savior. And these names are literally on their heads. Now we like to call the modern state a messianic state and think we've got a new problem. No, there's nothing new under the sun whatsoever. Demonic states, however nice they may be in some respects, have always seen themselves as Messiah, Savior, Father, Guardian, and Life Giver. And as we move through this chapter, we're going to be seeing that the state wants to have a monopolistic claim on delivering people from floods. famines, health issues. In fact, one of the Caesar's coins calls him healer. He's the healer that you look to. Delivering from economic woes and other problems. And by the time we get to the end of this chapter, you will not at all be mystified as to why the civil government wants to control things like vitamins, and food, and travel, and even things like charity. You're not gonna be mystified. Statism wants a monopoly or at least a say on everything. Now just to illustrate this, let me read a quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He said that the Soviet Union, which is really the most consistent trajectory toward statism you could get, he said the Soviet Union did not allow the church or Christian individuals or any other organizations to quote, set up benefit societies, cooperatives of industrial societies to offer material aid to members, to organize children's and young person's groups for prayer and other purposes, or general biblical, literary, handcraft groups for the purpose of work or religious instruction or the like, or to organize groups, circles, or sections, to arrange excursions and kindergartens, open libraries, reading rooms, organize sanatoria, or give any medical aid. Now you can understand why Russia, you know, Soviet Union would not want libraries and schools and institutions that they didn't approve of because it could undermine their statism. But why? Why? Why would they stop individuals from giving food to poor starving people or giving money to the poor? or setting up benefit societies, or giving medical aid, or caring for the dying, or other mercy ministries. And the answer is that people who do such things attract loyalty, and the demons behind the state are jealous of that, and they do not want any competition for that loyalty. Hundreds of stories could be given of people who were martyred simply because they engaged in mercy ministries. Let me tell you about Barlam of Antioch. Barlam of Antioch was a cobbler, just means a shoemaker. for the imperial forces and he devoted all of his free time to caring for widows and orphans. You wouldn't think anybody would object to that. Yeah, good, we don't have to spend money on that from the state. But no, they did object. When he was an infant, his parents had abandoned him outside the city. They didn't want him. And they would do that frequently, abandon him so they would just die in the exposure or be eaten by animals. And Christians would go around and pick up those babies, bring them up in their families, raise them as Christians. And because he was rescued from infanticide, he had a special heart for exposed children. He was not a church leader, he was just an ordinary member, but his good deeds for the poor and the hurting became so well known that people began to become Christians and declare total loyalty to Jesus Christ. You would think the state would praise him for his good works, but no, he was literally martyred for caring for orphans and widows without state permission. Now, you might think that is as far as you could possibly get from America. America's great. We would never do anything like that. But it really is not. You try to start a charity or try to start a homeless shelter without government permission and regulation and meeting all of their ridiculous requirements, you will be in deep trouble. Try to start a nursing home for the elderly or the hospital without a license, Oh boy, you could end up in jail doing that. Try to start a private bank. Not possible. I've known people who have actually spent time in prison for starting an alternative currency. Try to arrange for adoption of just one child. Oh, this poor child needs to be adopted. I'm going to adopt him into my family. Oh boy. You try to do that here in America. You're going to be in deep trouble. Try to start an orphanage. Forget about it. Not possible. You cannot do it. You're going to be in deep, deep trouble. Try to start a seminary. You think, surely the state's not going to object to my starting a seminary. No, I can tell you specific names of seminaries that have been closed down because they did not want government regulation. And the government says, no, you have got to meet our standards for seminaries. All over the states, you see things like this happening. And when they said, well, this is a religious thing. You have no business here. What are you going to do to us if we don't comply? They're threatened with prison time and huge fines. So these and hundreds of other examples show that America is statist to the core and resembles the beast of revelation far more than it resembles what our founding fathers set up. Now, we're going to have to end there. And though we've barely given an introduction to the core of this doctrine of statism here, there are still some concluding applications we need to make just from verse one. First of all, ask yourself if you see statism as beautiful and necessary or as ugly and dangerous. Okay, we need to align our thinking with God's word and not become the frog in the kettle that just doesn't notice as the temperature starts rising. God wants us to see the ugly demonic monster behind all statism and to not allow our country to head toward its logical trajectory of total control. That's where it's heading. Second, do you see the blasphemous names on the Roman coins as a necessary evil? or as blasphemy that must be resisted. Let's consider some of those names. What about the name Lord? Early Christians, early Christians were willing to die rather than to say that Caesar was Lord over all of life. Christians today, nah, they easily give in to licensing, they submit to licensing of everything, including marriage. Even when it comes to the church, there's been a mad rush of churches. They don't need to, according to the IRS, but there's been a mad rush to get incorporated and to apply for licensing from the IRS, 501c3 status. Why? It is a declaration of Caesar's lordship. The Puritans said that they would rather die than do that. Christians sent their children nowadays to be discipled by the state. See, I really don't think Christians object at all to calling Caesar Lord. I think they do it all the time. We should object to it. What about the name Savior? The reason that the emperors claimed the status of Savior is that when famine came, they saw it as their direct responsibility to redirect the shipping from one country to another country to be able to provide all of the grain that was needed for the hurting, starving people there. It's a good thing, right? It's a mercy ministry. So there was an equivalent of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Transportation. There was actually a wheat board. When an earthquake hit a city, Rome was quick to offer aid and wanted to be the primary one to rescue that city. Very few cities said, no, we're not taking your aid. Laodicea was one. And you know what? Rome was offended when Laodicea turned down their money, and they pestered and pestered Laodicea to take their money. And most cities just treated Rome as savior from such disasters. When flooding took out areas of the empire, just read in the history books, you'll see it. From Claudius through Nero, what did they do? They provided assistance of army, food, and temporary shelter. Sounds very familiar to what we're doing in America and have been doing for, you know, a few decades here. Now this idea that the feds must step in for every flood is a rather new idea in America. Private charity usually helps far quicker and far better than anything that the government has done. Bo and others have mentioned that the vast majority of the aid in Houston has been private and it's been there prompt right on time. This would have happened in the New Orleans flood if it hadn't been for the fact that the feds, FEMA, chased away truckloads of food and and water and things like that. They did not want any competition. So I think this chapter explains why the Feds acted as they did in New Orleans. It's consistent with the jealousy that the demonic spirit of statism has for our loyalty. Claudius, the emperor who ruled from 41 to 54, is admired by modern statists who look at his achievements with admiration. He massively centralized planning, made it more efficient, sent up numerous boards and agencies that parallel what we have in America. When I preached on Revelation 6, I showed that he took control of shipping, agriculture, many aspects of Roman life. He gave jobs to the jobless, you know, job programs. But his agencies that made the people call him savior pale when compared to our massive agencies. For all practical purposes, America has become like the beast because we have become the go-to savior. And sadly, Christians expect it. When there's a flood, they expect the feds to step in and to do so quickly. When there's food poisoning, they expect the FDA to exert more controls. When there's an airline crash, They expect the FAA to investigate, to have even more intrusive controls. And as we go through the next verses of this chapter, I hope you will see how incredibly, incredibly dangerous such thinking is. We have one Lord and Savior, and there is only one name under heaven, given among men, wherewith we must be saved. And that Savior calls us to quit going back to statism, quit going back to the programs of Egypt, and to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. And it's my prayer, by the time we get to the end of this chapter, you will have such a colorful image of the dangerous evil of statism that you will hate it. It will be an abomination to you. You won't even be tempted by it. I want to end though by pointing to the true Savior that the beast is the lousy counterfeit of. The true Savior is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a Lord worth submitting to. He is in Augustus, a majesty that is worth adoring and worshiping and admiring. He is a provider for those who put their trust in him. He is a fortress to which we can run. But above everything else, he is a savior who is capable of delivering us from any disasters that we face in life and saving us for all of eternity. Psalm 118 verse nine says, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes And the psalm we're going to be ending with, we're going to be singing in a couple of minutes, says the same thing and points out that our Savior can protect us from floods, famines, wars, when we're strangers, when we're orphaned or widows. This psalm that we're going to be singing says we do not need the state to be our Savior. Why? Because we've got the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. Psalm 146 lists all the things we tend to trust the state to do and tells us this, do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man in whom there is no help. And it goes on to say, hey, that Savior will let you down, but Christ will never let you down. You can trust him for time and for eternity. May we do so, amen. Father God, we thank you. for your word, even when it steps on our toes. And Father, this passage, this whole chapter, definitely steps on the toes of the Evangelical Church of America, and I pray that you would bring it to repentance and cause us to quit turning to idols, quit turning to statism, and to look to you and to your liberty with which you have purchased us. And even as we sing this psalm, Father, may it either be a testimony of repentance Or may it be a testimony of faith that you alone are Lord and Savior. You alone are August. And I pray, Father, that our hearts would be gripped by the reality that in you we have our security. We do not look to the state for security. And so I pray that you would bless this your people with a true hope a true faith, a true confidence, a true definition of love and welfare that flows from your word. And I pray it in Jesus' name.