Amen. No matter what the troubles or the trials that we face, and there are plenty of troubles and trials that Revelation looks at, Jesus reigns over all. Page 21 is the text. I'm just going to be preaching on verse 7, but I'm going to read verses 3 through 9. And by the way, Josh made a new website called revelationstructure.com that has all of the text in both Greek and English, and it's in the chiastic structure, and you can collapse and compare the different sides. So when we're going through Revelation, you can pull out your phones and look at it. It's really cool. Verse 3, and I will give authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, even the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and consumes their enemies. So if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. They have authority to shut up the sky so that no rain falls during the days of their prophecy, and they have authority over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every plague as often as they wish. When they finish their witness, the beast of prey that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, overcome them, and kill them, and leave their corpses in the city, a street of the great city, which is called Sodom and Egypt, spiritually speaking. even where their Lord was crucified. And those from the peoples, tribes and languages and ethnic nations look at their corpses three and a half days and will not allow their corpses to be buried. And those who dwell on the earth rejoice over them and they will enjoy themselves and send gifts to one another because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. May God bless the reading of his word. Amen. Father, we thank you for this, your word. It is our desire to grow in our understanding of it and in our living out of it, to become more and more consistently and selflessly dedicated to the advancement of your kingdom. We pray, Father, that you would instill in our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit the ability to do the impossible, to be selfless as Christ was selfless. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. May be seated. Well we spent two Sundays looking at the two witnesses, the two prophets of chapter 11. And today I want to look at this mysterious beast of prey, or what most versions just simply translate as the beast. Now this is the first time that that expression occurs in the book of Revelation, but by the time you get to chapter 13, it's going to occur another 36 times. So you can see this is a pretty central theme for the second half of the book. Now let me remind you of one of the things that John typically does to help us understand this book. He typically will give us some new principles for understanding or interpreting this book the first time that he brings up a subject. For example, in the next verse, verse 8, he's going to be bringing up the subject of the great city. What should we see this great city as being? And throughout the rest of this book, that phrase, the great city, should be seen as the city of Jerusalem. Why? Well, because in the first time that he uses that technical phrase, he identifies it very clearly as being Jerusalem, and he gives us a whole bunch of other important principles about that great city so that when we read the rest of the book, we're not going to be confused. because there's a lot of spiritual mapping that goes on with regard to that. Well he does the same thing with the topic of the beast in verse 7. So I'm going to go through every word of this verse and I'm going to try to nail down the clues that John wants us to have as we read this book. Now obviously when we get to chapters 13 and 17 he's going to give us a ton more information about this very interesting creature, this remarkable beast. But today I just want to focus on the clues that are given in this verse. And probably the most important clue in this verse comes from the word abyss. It says the beast of prey that comes up out of the abyss. This shows the origin of this beast of prey and way, way too many commentaries ignore this very important clue. So what is the abyss? Well, he's already told us what the abyss is the very first time that he used that word in chapter 9. It is the prison of demons in the heart of the earth. In fact, why don't you go ahead and turn there with me, and I'm going to read the first 11 verses of that chapter. Now, back when I preached on chapter 9, I pointed out that this releasing of millions of demons out of the abyss happened on October 31 of AD 66, and it just dawned on me this past week that the date that I gave you was Halloween. And I thought to myself, hmm, I wonder if that date is important to demons because of this event when, you know, there were all these millions released. Who knows? I'm not sure. But it certainly was the time when they were released from the abyss. Right now, I just want to look, though, at the identity of the abyss. And let's begin reading at verse 1. So the fifth angel trumpeted, and I saw a star that had fallen out of the sky to the earth, and to him was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. So he opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the shaft like the smoke of a burning furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the shaft. And locusts exited from the smoke into the earth, and to them was given a capability just like the scorpions of the earth have capability. And they were told not to harm the grass of the earth, nor any green plant, nor any tree. But only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And it was designated to them not to kill them, but to torment them five months. And their torment is like the torment of a scorpion whenever it strikes a person. And in those days, the people will seek death, but not find it. They will want to die, but death will run away from them. Now the appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle, and something like a golden crown was on their heads. And their faces were like human faces. They had hair like a woman's, and their teeth were like a lion's. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. And they have tails like scorpions and stingers precisely in those tails. They have the capability to hurt the populace five months, having as king over them the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, while in Greek he has the name Apollyon. Okay, so that's the abyss. By saying that this beast comes up out of the abyss, he is clearly saying that this beast is a demon. And we're going to be seeing he is a demon king. The beast is not first and foremost the empire over which he rules. He is not first and foremost Nero, whom he did possess. but he is a demon. He must be seen as a demon. Yes, his kingdom is named after him. The kingdom is named the beast. And yes, there were at least three men who were possessed by this demon and took on his characteristics and took on his name, but he is first and foremost a demon. And this really is not surprising in biblical history. Isaiah 14 calls the king of Babylon, Lucifer, But then as he's talking to this Lucifer, you begin to realize, now wait a minute, he's not even talking to the king. He's transitioned over into talking to Satan himself, who has the name Lucifer. And it was the demon, Satan, who was inhabiting that king, working through that king that the chapter is addressing. The same was true of the king of Tyre in Ezekiel chapter 28. And when we get to Revelation chapters 13 and 17, we're going to see that this clue solves some otherwise inscrutable problems that have made many commentators scratch their head in puzzlement. For example, In chapter 17, we have this puzzle. Verses 8 through 10 indicate that the beast was identified as the sixth king who was, but is not now, but is about to rise out of the abyss and is also the eighth king, though he is of the seven. And people wonder, what on earth is that talking about? It's really fun to read the commentaries as they're scratching their heads on this. And most of them say, we have no clue what he's talking about here. But the explanation is really quite simple if we take this clue in Revelation 11 verse 7 seriously. The demon named the beast had previously been assigned to Rome and had possessed Nero. But when Nero died in June of 68, I believe that Satan was totally blindsided. He no doubt thought he is winning the war. The saints are being exterminated. He's pretty excited. And then Nero dies. And God binds the beast into the pit. That was the time that Rome fell apart as an empire. It split up into three different groups. And that was the time when the persecution of the Christians stopped. And by comparing various verses in Revelation, it appears that the demon called the beast was bound in the pit in June of 68. That was when Nero died. And he continued to be bound in the pit or in the abyss for a little under a year to early 69, early 69. And referring to that period of time, that passage says that the beast is about to come up out of the abyss. He's about to come up out of the abyss. Well, that makes sense if you hold that the beast is a demon since he has been in the abyss ever since Nero died. But if you take the position that the beast is exclusively Nero, you've got a lot of confusion that comes into the text. In fact, it has made some liberals assume that John thought Nero would die and then get resurrected, and when Nero didn't get resurrected and become the emperor again, it proved that John was a failed prophet. Now there are conservatives who take the exclusive Nero position and they say, well, the beast as Nero didn't get resurrected, but the beast as kingdom did get resurrected because the kingdom came back together again. Now on one level that makes sense, but the problem is that in the context of that beast about ready to come out of the pit, It's clearly talking about the individual beast, not the corporate beast, not the kingdom. But the clue given to us in verse 7 opens up both that passage and Daniel chapter 7. In both Daniel and Revelation, the rulers are primarily demons who rule through men. And the men take on the character and the name of the demon. Some of the demonic rulers of Daniel actually ruled through several successive emperors. For example, you cannot say that the prince of Persia that Daniel talks about was one human king. And I don't think anybody takes it as he was a human king. They recognize that's a fallen demon there. And that demon ruled for the entire period, and he's just called a king, there are prince, he ruled for the entire period of the kingdom of Persia. It can't be a human because there was no one human emperor that ruled through the whole period of the empire of Persia. There were several emperors that ruled during that time. Well, the same is true here. Once you see it was a demon that was behind Nero, who was bound in the abyss, who comes back out of the abyss in early 69, then everything becomes logical and quite clear. In fact, it perfectly resolves some puzzles in history, secular history, such as the sudden change that happened to Vespasian right at the time that the beast is released again. Prior to that time Vespasian was a pretty reasonable fellow. But he became a butcher, a madman, during the next few months. It's very weird. Unless, of course, you take the demonic into account. Then it's not strange at all. And interestingly Vespasian became a god to his armies at precisely that time because of all of the miracles that Vespasian was producing. Miracles, by the way, which All of the secular Roman historians talked about very well documented miracles that he performed. But the text of Revelation 17 indicates that the beast only continued with Vespasian for a short time and then became the eighth ruler. And this has just mystified a lot of people, but it really shouldn't. Verse 11 says that the beast was the one who was and is not, that's his time with Nero. And it says, is himself also the eighth ruler. That's his time with Titus and is of the seven. In other words, he was ruling through the previous seven emperors. The word also is ignored by most commentators. But it's a very important word in the Greek. It indicates that the beast was not just in Nero or just in Titus. That beast was working through Titus, through his father Vespasian. He was working through Nero as well. And so the Greek grammar perfectly reflects the situation of history once you see that it was a demon just as verse 7 says that he was. So since the text indicates that the beast only continues with Vespasian for a short time before moving on to the eighth ruler, and since Titus was the eighth ruler, we would expect to see similar changes in Titus in that winter, and we do. Almost identical changes came over Titus in late December of 69 or early January of 70. And there was a sudden appearance of demonic miracles with him as well. In fact, those miracles moved both his father and his troops to call him Caesar Titus. long before he ever sat on the throne. And he operated as Caesar, and he made decrees in his name as Caesar. That's never happened before, and it never happened again afterwards. Something very strange that was going on. A lot of other strange things too, like his sudden hatred for Jehovah, blasphemy against Jehovah, weird things that he did to deliberately offend Jehovah in the temple. the demon beast had moved from Vespasian to Titus. Apparently the demon was more interested in the slaughter that was going on in the Middle East than he was in ruling in Rome. So he left the previous demons. Remember in chapter 6 we saw that Thanatos and Hades were already on, earlier were on on Nero. So he leaves them to take care of things while he goes to mess around in the Middle East. But he's still in charge. The beast was still in charge at that point. And we'll look at all of those remarkable details when we get to chapters 13 and 17. Now obviously there is one major objection that people could give to this interpretation and that is that in chapter 13 it says that the mark of the beast is the number of a man. And it is. It is. But it doesn't say the beast is a man. It says that the mark of the beast is the number of a man. As one commentator points out, that distinguishes the beast from the man of 80, 70 who bore his mark, who bore his name. In that verse, Titus wears the demon's mark and Titus forces people to wear that mark in their foreheads, on their arms, in other words, on their phylacteries. And he's talking about the people outside of Jerusalem whom he had given freedom to, who cooperated with him. And there's some remarkable things in terms of changing the times and the seasons, all of that kind of stuff. It fits absolutely perfectly. But the important point is that Titus wasn't the first person to bear the number of the beast in his name. When we get to that chapter, we're going to see that Nero's name adds up to 666 in Hebrew and makes sense since he too wears the mark of the beast. But interestingly, so did the other two people that the beast possessed. Both Vespasian's name and Titus's name adds up to 666. In fact, their names add up to 666 in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Very, very interesting. And I'll walk you all through that when we get to those chapters. But the point I'm making now is that if the beast is a demon who enters into and controls Nero and Vespasian and Titus, then it all makes sense. The kingdom he rules can be named after him. The people he possesses can be named after him, but the demon is the beast, okay? That, I think this verse just makes that crystal clear. In any case, it should not seem at all unusual that a demon will be assigned to a ruler. In chapter six, we saw that each of the previous emperors or rulers of Rome had a demon assigned to him. And as more and stronger demons came with their armies to supplement the previous demons, the emperors kept getting worse. And this is exactly what the book of Daniel anticipated would happen. Daniel predicted that one of the fallen angelic princes would take charge of Rome, just like there was a demonic angel assigned to Persia, and there was another demonic angel that was assigned to Greece. Okay, they were rulers of those empires. So on that note, go back to the beginning of the second phrase of verse 7. Let's look at the next clue. Notice that the text doesn't say, But it says, the beast. It is the dominant beast of that time. G.K. Beal's commentary says about that word, the, the definite article, to, before therion, beast, is one way of specifying that this is not just any opponent of the saints, but the one that Daniel prophesied. And Revelation 12, 13, and 17 will further describe this beast through more allusions to Daniel 7. And most commentators totally agree with Beal's statement there. John wants us to see that the beast being mentioned here is the specific beast of Daniel 7 who was also a demon. And Daniel 7 gives us a boatload of information on the nature of that beast. We're not going to look at that, all of that information, but I do at least want to introduce you to it. When I preached through Daniel 7 in the 1990s, I taught that the four beasts represented the four kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. And that's true as far as it goes because the kingdom is named, explicitly is named after the demon who rules over that kingdom. But Daniel 7 verse 17 is quite explicit that the four beasts are first and foremost, not the kingdom, but four kings who come up out of the earth. In other words, out of the abyss, which is in the heart of the earth. They were in the heart of the earth before they began to rule each kingdom. Now I had missed that when I was preaching through that, but it makes perfect sense. There was no one human emperor who lived long enough to rule each empire from beginning to end. There were several human emperors who ruled rather than just one. But Daniel speaks of one ruler per empire. And that makes no sense unless you see the kings as being demons. Now it doesn't hugely affect my interpretation of Daniel that I gave or the applications. The applications are still going to be much the same, but it does smooth out some of the roughness that was there. And even though I don't agree with most of what Duncan McKenzie has written, he was the one who clued me into this interpretation. It's the ancient Jewish interpretation of the passage. And Duncan McKenzie has also changed my interpretation of the three horns. and the little horn of Daniel 7 verse 8. And it's been, it's proved to be a huge help in understanding the book of Revelation. For sure it resolves the timeline that we're going to be looking when we get at the end of chapter 11. So just in case, very doubtful, but just in case you remember what I preached on in 1997, 20 years ago. Let me eat humble pie and correct myself. I was wrong. I was wrong. And if you turn to Daniel 7, I'm going to give you a sneak peek that will help you to understand some later portions of Revelation that have puzzled a lot of people. And I should point out that there are differences of description of the beast in Revelation 13 from Revelation 17, specifically the crowns. And even though it's describing the same demon, it's symbolically being described in a little bit different way in Daniel 7 as well. But virtually every commentator of every school of eschatology agrees it's the same beast. Different number of heads, you know, things like that. But let's begin reading at verse 7. Daniel 7, verse 7. After this, I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth. It was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was totally different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. And this is where I made a mistake when I preached on Daniel. I thought that those 10 horns were 10 contemporary provincial kings and dated them earlier, actually. And while there were 10 provincial kings that Daniel talks about other places, for example, the 10 toes of the statue of Daniel chapter 2. These 10 horns actually rule the beast as a whole. They can't be provincial kings. They rule the beast and so they must be emperors. And this and other clues have made me change my mind and say that they were 10 sequential rulers or powers starting with Julius Caesar. And it definitely smooths out the time sequence. Now I've given in your chart, your outlines, two charts actually of those 10 rulers. They're Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Gelba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, and Titus. Now, horns number seven, eight, and nine, you'll notice on those charts, they were illegitimate. They were never officially approved, and they were displaced by Vespasian as the seventh emperor, and with Titus being the eighth legitimate emperor. Now Titus was the general at that time, but he was definitely the power behind his father's throne. And therefore was immediately named as emperor. So the left chart shows Daniel's 10 horns or powers. The right side of the chart shows the same people, but only numbers the legitimate emperors. So the right hand reflects Revelation 17, left hand reflects Daniel 7. In any case, in Daniel 7, verse 8 speaks of an 11th horn, a little horn. He's little because he's not yet on the throne, but he's the prince that Daniel nine talks about. Verse eight says, I was considering the horns and there was another horn, a little one coming up among them before whom the three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And it's key to the interpretation that horns number one through six were not plucked up. Okay. Nero and the previous emperors had died, but their horns are not plucked up. Those horns are still on the beast. As bad as they were, they were considered to be legitimate emperors. Who were the three horns plucked out by the roots? Well, Titus displaced the generals, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, who had proclaimed themselves to be emperor, one after another. It was the year of the four emperors, is what some people call it. And he overthrew them. And once they were plucked up by the roots, there were only eight emperors. And of course, history tells us exactly that. And when we get to chapter 17 of Revelation, we're going to see how that numbering perfectly answers the puzzles of the 6th, 7th, and 8th rulers in that chapter. But in any case, speaking of Titus, verse 8 continues. And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouse speaking pompous words. Now these are symbols of a demonic manifestation in Titus. So that was a left-hand picture there is Titus. Is it left hand or the right hand? The horn that has pompous words coming out of it. That's Titus. Verse 9 goes on to describe exactly what the last half of Revelation 11 will describe. I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated. His garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. A thousand thousands ministered to him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened. I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking. I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As for the rest of the beasts, and he's talking here about the demonic rulers of the previous empires that were still hanging around and who had not yet been consigned to the abyss, as for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. So even though the demonic beast that was working through Nero and through Vespasian and Titus would be consigned to the abyss once again in AD 70, the rest of the demonic rulers who had preceded the beast They'd stay around. They'd be free to continue to harass, continue to fight against the saints after AD 70. And this is a key that many people have puzzled. There's things in Revelation 17 they've puzzled over. This answers those puzzles. Persecution will continue after Vespasian's sons, Titus, And demission for example even though the demonic beast who had ruled Rome was bound in the pit in 80 70 now flip down to Daniel 7 verse 16 and where the angel gives an interpretation of this vision. I came near to one of those who stood by and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things. Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth. Now, one of the things I hadn't noticed before is that the Hebrew grammar, out of the earth, The Abyss and Hades are both in the heart of the Earth. And the beasts who rule Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome are four demonic kings who come up out of the Abyss, out of the heart of the Earth. And though the fourth beast was bound back into the Abyss one more time, the first three beasts rule their entire empires. And even after the fourth beast is bound, he says, they continue. God allows them to continue on planet earth to harass the saints. Verse 18 describes what happens in AD 70. But the saints of the most high shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. Then I wish to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze, which devoured broken pieces and trampled the residue with its feet. and the 10 horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up before which three fell, namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words whose appearance was greater than his fellows. I was watching, and the same horn was making war against the saints and prevailing against them until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. Thus he said, the fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth. Notice he says kingdom. So just like in Revelation, Daniel shows that the kingdom itself is named after the demon that rules it. So Daniel 7 says that the beast is a king who comes out of the earth. The beast is the empire that is ruled by the demon. The beast can also be the individual human rulers who rule over that empire, but virtually every commentary of every school of thought at least agrees that there is an individual beast and there is a corporate beast, the kingdom as a whole. Now, so speaking of the kingdom of Rome, it says, for the fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth. Earlier he said it was a king, now he says it's a kingdom. He says, which shall be different from all other kingdoms and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces. The 10 horns are 10 kings who shall arise from this kingdom and another shall arise after them. He shall be different from the first ones and shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the most high. shall persecute the saints of the Most High, shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time. Okay, that's three and a half years. But the court shall be seated. They shall take away his dominion to consume and destroy it forever. Then the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey him. So just as Revelation 11 does, Daniel 7 gives the kingdoms of the world to Christ in A.D. 70. And it's in AD 70 that the individual beast, the demon, is bound in the abyss. And once you see the beast is a demon, everything else opens up. But the main point here is that commentators point out that the word the in the beast points us to the scriptural fourth beast of Daniel 7. It's imperative, I think, we have that in our mind in the rest of this book. Okay, the next point. is that the word for beast in the Greek is therion. And that word helps to distinguish this beast from the creatures of heaven, from Christ as the lamb. And I've put down in your outlines four implications of that word therion, which Pickering translates as beast of prey. It's one word, but it's the kind of beast it is. First of all, a therion kind of a beast is always an unclean animal. unlike the Lamb, unlike the creatures of heaven. It is a perfect symbol for demons and it's actually a perfect symbol for the kingdom that is ruled by those demons. Now interestingly, once a kingdom becomes converted and the beast is cast out, the demon is cast out, it's no longer called a beast. The kingdom is changed. For example, Nebuchadnezzar lost his demonic insanity, he became converted, he devoted his kingdom to Jehovah, and his kingdom is no longer called a beast, is it? Instead, it says that that beast is lifted up, its wings are torn off, it's transformed, it's made to stand on the ground like a man, and a man's heart is given to it. It's no longer called a beast. But prior to that conversion, it is a beast that is an unclean animal. We should never look at these ancient empires with admiration. We should never see their wisdom as being neutral. It is a demonic wisdom. We should never immerse our children in the demonic literature. And I'm not saying we can't study it. I think we can. But certainly don't bathe in it. Certainly don't adapt it as part of your worldview like so many Christians have done in classical education. Now some classical education critiques it. and tries to help you understand through apologetics what's going on there. But some just, they take it in. It's a part of their worldview. We cannot do that. We need to realize what stands behind those bestial empires. A demon. And there's demonic wisdom. Second, a Therion beast is always a flesh-eating beast, unlike Christ the Lamb, unlike the creatures in heaven. This gives it a destructive nature. It seeks to devour and destroy Christ's kingdom and Christ's people. It is the very nature of a Therion beast to be opposed to Christ and His Word. So when scripture describes pagan nations as being bestial, it does not want us to put our trust in those beasts. Does not. Christians who trust in civil governments, whether it's for health care or for anything else, are like these people who bring a lion into their home as a pet. And they think, oh, there's nothing wrong with it. This is a tame lion. And look at it. It's safe. I've been around this lion for, what, 10 years? But at some point, that lion, true to its real nature, starts mauling the owner and eating the owner. It's happened a number of times. And it's imperative that we see modern pagan civil government as dangerous when it is in the hands of demons. As George Washington said, government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force. Like fire, a handy servant and a dangerous master. He was saying, don't trust civil government. That's why they wanted so many checks and balances, most of which have been evaporated in America. We don't have those checks and balances. And it is even more dangerous when there are demons behind it. Never give more power and more responsibility to the civil government that is pagan, put it on a leash. The likelihood is that the inner demons will use the government to defour and destroy everything that is good. We have been giving enormous power to our civil government throughout my lifetime, thinking falsely that it will serve us. And I think this is just such a perfect image of how foolish, how foolish it is to put your trust in princes. That's why in the Psalms it says, do not put your trust in princes. You cannot, you cannot. Third, a Therion beast is always a fierce animal of prey. So that's why Pickering translates it as beast of prey. Now, of course, Daniel 7.7 describes Rome as being fierce. And it drives me crazy that Christians admire Greece and Rome so much. when God has nothing but negative things to say about those empires. Fourth, a Therion beast is always connected in scripture with fear and danger. It's not to be admired, imitated, loved, or followed. Instead the book of Revelation calls us to replace all Therion type kingdoms with the rule of Christ. Now he's not opposed to civil government. He's going to later on in the book of Revelation talk about many godly governments that are going to be established under the rule of Christ. So he's not against civil government, but any modern kingdom, including America, which throws off the laws of Christ and the rule of Christ, is reverting to the nature of a beast. Why? Because some demon is going to fill the gap. There are no gaps in life. If Christians withdraw from culture, something else is going to come into that gap, and we should always see the demonic behind the weird things going on in Washington, D.C. You ought not to be flabbergasted. People are just flabbergasted they trusted the Republicans, that they promised that they were going to reduce the debt when they get in, Almost immediately, they offer up a budget that increases the debt by $9.7 trillion over the next 10 years. And people, ooh, why are they doing that? They're flabbergasted, you know, when they get elected on the promise that they're going to abolish Obamacare, and they're resurrecting Obamacare. But realize that these and many other irrational things are likely being driven by the demonic. God gave us this book in part to change our view of civics and too many Christians have an extremely naive view of civics. Now let's look at the next major clue. The phrase that comes up out of shows that this beast had previously been bound in the abyss. And this reintroduces the subject that we've already dealt with a couple of times in the past that there is more than one time that demons can be bound in the abyss. God uses these demons as judgments. When a nation abandons him and Christians become faithless and they're no longer salt and light, God will release demons upon that culture, either from some part of the world or even out of the abyss. And if even a fierce, dangerous beast like this demon can be released from the abyss, I think we can count on demons being released upon America in a similar way. As we go through this book, we're going to see that God gives Christians the power to bind the demonic if they are faithful to him, if they will engage in spiritual warfare. Now, as I've already mentioned, this demon was bound at least three times. He was bound sometime in history before these events. We aren't told when. He is bound once again in AD 68 when Nero dies. And Revelation 17 indicates he would be bound once and forever in AD 70 along with another demon. And I can't get into the details of that this morning, but it's just a clue. This is just a clue that just as other demons can be bound or unleashed in the first century, that can happen at any time. So even though it's only hinted at here, it'll become much more clear as the book develops. A strong man of a region must be bound before his kingdom can be plundered. That's what Jesus said in the Gospels. Before you can plunder a house, you've got to bind the strong man. So before Rome could be plundered after AD 70, the strongman had to be bound in AD 70. And from that time forward, they didn't have to mess with that beast, but they did have to bind strongman after strongman in country after country. And you read the literature of the early church fathers like Athanasius, They talked about this binding of demons and how demons were powerless against the gospel of Jesus Christ and how they fled and they were engaged in spiritual warfare. They took this very, very seriously. They spoke of the victorious march of the church. So it's an important clue on where this book is headed. That's all I'm going to say on that subject for now. The next clue deals with timing. The very first phrase of verse 7 says, when they finish their witness. That's when the beast was going to fight against them. Well, based on what we've already seen in the last two sermons on the two prophets, that clearly puts it into a first century context. Now, even if we didn't have that phrase, the whole verse 7, actually the whole chapter, puts it into a first century context. But if you see the beast as being future to us, you're ignoring that first century context, and there's a lot of people who do. John was told in Revelation 17 that the beast was about to come up out of the abyss once again. Well, that about to there clearly has to be first century. We cannot put it thousands of years into the future. Now look at the next clause. The clause says, will make war with them, overcome them, and kill them. And that is almost identical to the phraseology in Daniel 7, 21 through 22. Virtually every commentator says it's at least an allusion to those two verses. So let me read them to you again. Daniel 7, 21 through 22 says this. I was watching, and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom." I want you to notice that the time to possess the kingdom came after the Tribulation, not before it. In other words, it came after AD 70, not in, or it came in AD 70, not in AD 30. In any case, this clause highlights three facts about this beast I think that will really help us as we keep reading through the book. The first fact is that this demon was moving human war efforts against humans on Earth. So yes, this beast is a spiritual invisible being, But that does not mean he's not working through flesh and blood humans. You know, when Paul says, we're wrestled not against flesh and blood, he's not denying that flesh and blood humans persecute people. Of course they do. We read about that almost every Sunday, don't we? It's flesh and blood persecutions. But what Paul is saying is we need to realize the ultimate cause of that persecution is the demons behind those persecutors. Paul is simply saying that the ultimate victory can only be won as we engage in spiritual warfare. Until the demonic stronghold or a strong man is bound, we cannot plunder his house. And the demonic king of Rome was moving Rome to promote his evil purposes. So John makes us realize, okay, even though it's an invisible demon involved, real humans are involved as well. And that's going to become more and more obvious as we go through the book of Revelation. We already saw in Revelation 9 that millions of demons were moving the flesh and blood armies of Vespasian and Titus. The second fact is that this demon hates what the prophets stood for. Just hates it. That's why he makes war against them. And if demons make war against the prophets who bring God's revelation, you can be certain they will make war against the revelation itself. It is no wonder to me that the empires of the Soviet Union and of China did everything they could to exterminate the scriptures from their realms. The demons that were behind those hate the scriptures. They will do everything they can to destroy the scriptures. You could see that demonic hatred. It is no wonder to me that our demonic universities try to push Christians out of academia, and if they can't succeed in that because they're tenured, they will do everything to vilify, to mock, to discredit the scriptures. They hate the scriptures. Scripture has systematically been removed from civics, from, you know, the courtrooms, from the classrooms, from every area of public life. Why? Because the demons behind all of these areas, they hate the scriptures. They realize the power that scriptures have in transforming culture. So we shouldn't be surprised by that. We need to look at life through spiritual eyes to recognize we must wrestle with demons. The third fact that this clues us into is that it should not be surprising to see that the beast will also make war against all of the other Christians. And Daniel prophesied that he would. Revelation will go on to describe this persecution by the beast. So I think you can see that this first introduction to the concept of the beast is really helpful in understanding the rest of the book. And I hope you find the introduction to the great city next week to be just as helpful. Even though this is a scary verse, it's also an encouraging verse. And I always like to end with some encouragement that Christ is victor. He's on the throne, right? By describing the beast in the context of Daniel 7's prophecy, it immediately lets the reader realize that this beast is destined to soon be bound in the abyss. And his kingdom is destined to soon be given to the saints. And eventually all of those kingdoms, those bestial kingdoms, are going to be displaced by Christ's kingdom. Very, very soon, in other words, AD 70, God's courtroom will open, the books will be opened, the thrones will be set in place, and the kingdom will be given to the saints. As I pointed out before, the 40 years between AD 30 and AD 70 parallels the 40 years in, you know, Israel was redeemed out of Egypt. And then they wandered for 40 years, then they cross over the Jordan into Canaan to possess the kingdoms that were given to them, right? It's exactly parallel here. Yes, legally, the kingdom was established in 30 AD when Christ was crucified and he was raised victorious over all. So that's the legal. But the actual entering into that when the court is open and the kingdoms of this world are given to the saints and they say, have free reign, I'm binding these demons and you have the power to bind these demons systematically, that starts in AD 70. And that's why the chapter 11 ends with this courtroom scene. It's really a remarkable scene. So while there is realism on the danger of this beast, and the martyrdom of Christians, there is also hope that is being established. Now you completely robbed the church of that hope when you put a gap of thousands of years between verse 14 and verse 15 of Revelation 11. You can't do that. This whole chapter is bound together. It's knit together in order to give God's people hope and confidence and faith. It's all knit together. And when we get to the end of the chapter, I think you're going to see it's incredibly encouraging. Well, may God bless you as you take our modern bestial state through grace, take it on, And through the application of God's law and the scriptures by faith, you take it on. May God bless your efforts. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word. And we thank you that it is realistic in terms of the incredible odds that are against us as we seek to change our culture, and yet recognizing that if you are for us, who can be against us, that your armies far are far greater than the armies of Satan. So give us a willingness to sacrifice, be selfless, to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness, and then watch by faith as you add all of these things to us. Bless this, your people, with that faith, we pray in Jesus' name.