I don't know what it's like for you when you wake up in the morning, and I think it's the older I get, I wake up, and I don't even think I open my eyes, I just know I'm awake. And the first thing I do, and I should say, you know, I'm a pastor, I praise the Lord. Now the first thing I do usually is think, what day is this? What day is this? And it's like, oh, it's Tuesday. I got meetings. I gotta get up. I gotta get up. I got a meeting. And when I wake up and I'm running through my head of what day it is, and I'm like, it's Sunday. I am thrilled in my heart because I love gathering with God's people and spending time with God like we do on Sunday. So yeah, it was really refreshing when I had that thought. Makes me wake up happy. Well, we're in a rather difficult section of Revelation, and the entirety of the book is somewhat difficult. Once you get past the letters to the churches, maybe chapter 5, that glorious scene in heaven, and then we get to some passages that are a little bit more complicated to interpret and whatnot. We did that last time in chapter 12. We're in chapter 13. So with the help of the Holy Spirit, I'm going to read the entire chapter and then we'll come back and with the help of the Holy Ghost, hopefully unpack this in a way that makes sense. So let me pray for the word. Our Father and our God, we pause before we even begin our journey into chapter 13, asking your blessing on it. Lord, your word would fall flat if you didn't do a work in us. So Father, I pray that you'd open our ears that we can hear, our hearts that we can receive the implanted word, and Lord, give us minds that can understand your word. In Jesus' name, amen. This is just 18 verses, but let's read the whole thing. Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns. And on his heads were a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshipped the dragon who gave authority to the beast. And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And he was given a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies. And he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, his temple, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. He who kills with a sword must be killed with a sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all authority of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs, which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. And here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man, and his number is 666." Well, thus far, the reading of God's holy word. And before I even start to really unpack it, In my printing of this chapter on this paper, I highlighted a couple of things that you might have noticed, you might not have, but we'll see here two beasts. In verse one, I saw a beast that's rising out of the sea. In verse 11, I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. And that's the outline. That's what we'll look at is these two beasts. But the other thing I want you to notice is how this is impacting the entirety of the world. In verse 3, and all the world marveled. In verse 8, and all who dwell on the earth. In verse 12, the earth and all those who dwell in it. Verse 14, about all those people who dwell on the earth. So this is a worldwide situation. And as we look through this, you'll find that all of humanity is going to be divided into two camps. Either they are of God, in Christ, worshiping the true and living God, or they're of the devil, the serpent of old. And his beastly Antichrist is really the way this is going to unpack. So first, the beast from the sea represented here. This is the Antichrist. Raw power, I think political power is at hand here. A little bit different than the second beast, which we'll look at in a minute. There's two places in this chapter, at least that I'm aware of, where there's a textual variant. And that's a fancy way to say, some of your translations are going to read different than my New King James Version. And in verse one, my New King James Version, and the variant is because the original manuscripts have one little letter different. in one of the words. So my new King James reads that John is writing this, and he says, then I stood on the sand of the sea, where your new international version and a lot of your versions are going to read, and the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I do believe that that is the better translation, that the dragon is the one who's standing on the shoreline of the sea. And he's conjuring up a beast from within the water as he stands there. And then he's conjuring up a beast from the land, these monsters that he's conjuring up. But I believe here is the dragon. And remember, we looked last time, very clearly the Bible tells us that the dragon is that serpent of old. It's Satan himself is the dragon. The sea, is that literal? Is Godzilla coming up out of the ocean, or is this symbolic? And there's a lot of symbolism in the Bible having to do with the ocean, the sea, as being chaotic, churning, constantly moving. Some of you have probably been on cruises. And I've been on cruises down in the Caribbean, or Caribbean, however you like to say that. And the water is crystal clear. It's almost like you don't know you're under. It looks like you're on glass, so smooth. But to land dwellers, The sea is never like that. The sea is always moving and churning and chopping and waves are crashing in. So I believe this is symbolic of chaos. Sea of humanity, the Bible used that language. When we get to chapter 17, where we'll see the woman who's sitting on the beast in chapter 17. But it says in verse 15, that he said to me, the waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. And similar to that in Isaiah 17, 12, it says, woe to the multitude of many people who make a noise like the roar of the seas, and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters. So it could be that whatever is being symbolized here, that this Antichrist is rising out of the sea of humanity. Sort of a chaotic picture, if you will. It harkens back to Daniel's vision. We're going to look back at Daniel a good bit. We haven't been doing that too much, but today we will. So when you go back to Daniel chapter 7, beginning in verse 2, it says, Daniel spoke, saying, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. And we'll look at that a little bit deeper in a moment. But it's coming up out of the sea. So this beast has a description of having seven heads, 10 horns, 10 crowns on the horns. It is symbolic completeness, fullness, the number seven. The power that he has is in plenitude with 10 crowns on his horns. And also would be a symbol that this is a political structure. Some see even a coalition of nations that are coming together under the rule of the Antichrist. And I'm going to make a point in a minute that we don't want to just be flat-out futuristic as we look at this and think, oh boy, that's going to be something when this comes along. Because the Bible speaks, and I'll read it in a minute, of many antichrists. a recapitulation, if you will, of this truth with maybe leading to the grand day of the Antichrist before the return of Christ. That's the way I interpret it. But we don't want to get out of our sight that these totalitarian regimes rise up over and over again, and what they do when they do rise up. And behind them, these evil regimes in the world through history, stands Satan, right? So we don't want to take our mind off of that. So this power in plenitude, and you see Satan himself boasting about that when he tempts our Lord. In Matthew, he's relating this in chapter 4, verse 8. It says, the devil took him up to an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to them, said to him, all these things I will give you if you fall down and worship me. And the devil is boasting that he has control over the world, over the nations, over the nation's leaders, that he's been given a usurped authority and rule, and he offers them to Christ if Jesus will just bow down and worship the devil. And you know how that went. Our Lord definitely defeated him for them. And then he says that he went off to find a more opportune time to attack our Lord. Robert Mons writes, in a larger sense, it is the spirit of godless totalitarianism that has energized every authoritarian system devised by man throughout history. Philip Hughes in his commentary writes, this beast should be taken as denoting the activity of the devil throughout the history of this age by the instrumentality of human movements and organizations rather than a single individual. Although in my interpretation, I do see a single individual coming on the scene in the future. That's how I interpret it. So 1 John 2.18, I alluded to this, let me read you the verse. This is the letter, one of the epistles of John, not the gospel, but this is 1 John 2.18 where he says to the church, Little children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now, many Antichrists have come by which we know that it is the last hour. It's the end days, right? Because many Antichrists have come. In 1 John 4, verse 3, he writes, And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. Satan's active. Satan's active. And he does tend to move in a lot of different ways, but through government agencies that are under his sway. You can see that in North Korea right now. I mean, this is ongoing. And I think as Christians, we need to be wise scripturally to see that and see what's behind some of these movements that we won't be deceived. And you notice in that chapter 4 verse I just read you that John equates false teaching and heresy to the spirit of Antichrist. Because Antichrist in the original language, in the Greek, can mean two things. It can mean opposed to or against, and it can also mean to replace. Antichrist would be the one who would want to supplant and replace Christ with his very self, or with his own beast, his own leader. So described in that way, the beast further described And it's really, when I read verse 2, it's really a mixture of the beasts that we find in Daniel that come up out of the sea. So in verse 2 it says, Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion. And you'll see those beasts in Daniel 7 from chapter 4, I'm sorry, 7 verse 4 up to verse 7, 8. And then there's this other beast, and I don't want to dig into this too deep in Daniel, but the first was like a lion, had eagle's wings. And I watched till the wings were plucked off. This is Daniel 7. and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the man's heart was given to it. And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear, it was raised up on one side, had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth, and they said thus to it, Arise, devour much flesh. After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth. It was devouring and breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the other beasts that were before it. It had ten horns. I was considering the horns, and then there was another horn. a little one coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words." I think most commentaries are agreed that that little horn is the Antichrist. Right? Speaking pompous words. We see the same description in Revelation. And Daniel's, and I think this is a correct interpretation, I think most commentators and theologians and interpreters would interpret it this way, that these are nations that Daniel is seeing in his vision. The lion, the Babylonian empire, right? Their symbol was a lion. The Bear, the Medo-Persian Empire. The Leopard, Greece, the Grecian Empire. Alexander the Great, who dies very young, having conquered the world. Remember famously, he said, he wept because he had no more worlds to conquer. And his kingdom was divided to his four generals. And that's historical fact. And there's four heads. And you can see the symbolism. But then there's this other beast, unlike all the other beasts. And he's dreadful and terrible. And I think most agree that this is wrong. Symbolized with iron. The Iron Age. And you think of the strength of the Roman Empire. And then we move through, and when we get to chapter 17, I think there's a hint here that it's not just contained to these nations of history, but there's this culmination of all of these beasts in the future. When you get to chapter 17, I won't unpack it now, where we see seven kings, but the beast is the eighth king. And it seems to me that it's future, it's yet to happen, this rule of the Antichrist. Although there's been many Antichrists, and this whole scenario, to some degree or another, has unfolded throughout history, all the way throughout history. So the wicked regime's power source, in verse two, the dragon gave him his power, his throne. and his great authority. And you think of nations that have risen up, and despots that have risen up throughout the centuries, and the atrocities that they've carried out. And a lot of it is not told about specifically the atrocities towards Jesus Christ and his church. Christians have rounded up and done away with. And that doesn't seem to make the media nearly as much as other atrocities. But beloved, it happens. It happens. And I just jotted down a few of these throughout history. The early church would have certainly thought of Nero, who came against the church, the Roman emperor. Domitian, who I believe was in rule at the time that John was exiled out to the island of Patmos. You think a flash wave horde to somebody like a Stalin or a Hitler. I think it's demonic forces behind their regimes and their atrocities. Mei Zedong in China, King Leopold II in Congo, Pol Pot in Cambodia. These despots rose up and just rounded up people and executed them. Anything that was against their rule and their regime, and they would go like a roaring beast. And you don't always hear about that, but it happens. It's happening now. We just don't always hear it on United States media. So this beast here has a deadly wound that healed. I saw one of his heads, verse 3, as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. In verse 14, we see that he was actually wounded by the sword, yet he lived. Yet he lived. A deadly wound, but he lived. Some try to find an individual, and they say, well, this person, when I was younger, it was like John F. Kennedy. Maybe it's him. He got executed as president. Maybe he's going to come back. And everybody would be like, wow, he's back. And maybe. I look at this a little bit more in tune with many antichrists have risen up, many despots have risen up. And if you notice, in history, they rise up, and they're tyrants, and they just, even their own people, they just shuffle off to jail, or they put them to death. And they rule with an iron fist. But then they're toppled. They're finally done. They're dead. And we rejoice. And we think, oh, our country finally has freedom. The French Revolution. We got rid of the hierarchy of King Louis and Antoinette. They're gone. And yet somebody else will rise up. And Hitler takes over their country for a time. And so it seems like they're dead. But then they come back. I think that's at least one way to look at this. It's these despot regimes with their atrocities, they finally get toppled, we celebrate, but then it seems like they come back once again. In chapter 17 verse 8 of Revelation, the beast that you saw, was and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit to go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. When they see the beast, and get this guys, when they see the beast that was and is not, and yet is. Antichrist is a parody of the true and living Christ. He wants to supplant and replace the true and living Lord that we worship, right? And the world buys it hook, line, and sinker, right? And in that language that the beast is the one that was and is not and yet is. But listen to Revelation 1 verse 4, speaking of the true Lord. Him who is, and who was, and who is to come. Do you see the language that is being used here? He's a replacement. He's a counterfeit Christ. And there's been many counterfeit Christs. Jesus taught as much that there would be many counterfeit Christs. And how do you identify the counterfeit? Because you know the truth. And beloved, we need to know the true and living God as he's been revealed to us in scripture. We need to know the word of God that when the counterfeit arises, we can identify it quickly and say, this is not the Christ. We will not bow our knee to this one. Keistmaker, in his commentary, says, John relates that the wound was caused by a sword, which is indicative of a battle that had taken place. This spiritual battle took place when Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead. Thus, he defeated Satan. Although Satan's wound had been fatal, it is healed, I would add, in a sense, right? Because he's still on the prowl, as we'll see in a minute here, as we look at some other scriptures. So all the world follows the beast. Chapter 13, back to our text, verse 3b, and all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon. Ultimately behind the beast is Satan himself. And you think of that in the scriptures where Paul talks about those that were going to pagan temples were really partaking in demon worship. The demons have doctrine. So all the world followed the beast, so they worshipped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? Who's able to make war with him? So you get the rise of these ungodly regimes through history, I think culminating in the ultimate rise of Antichrist. Allegiance of the populace underneath this despot and aligning with the beast. They're really aligning themselves with Satan, who's behind the activity of the beast. And the society in this totalitarian government structure says what? Who's like the beast? It always amazes me. I know I brought up World War II last week. But that's something I can watch movies about. I can actually see. It's not just me reading in a book about Nero and how the people reacted. But when you see the movies of Hitler, who was such a wicked man, and how the people would stream out to the streets to pay allegiance and homage to Hitler, who was wicked. His henchmen were all wicked. I was in Germany a couple years ago and we were having a late snack. It was after dinner. It was just me and my daughter and our travel guide, Kevin. Really nice guy. And on the TV set in the restaurant, they had a World War II thing going on. And I remember Kevin saying, I can't believe they're playing that. He goes, I'm telling you, Larry, in Germany they don't want to pretend like that never even happened. Because that's so shameful to look back and think your grandparents or your great-grandparents had bought into this atrocity, this devilish leader, and they really didn't know what to do with it as they moved on to finally say, you know what, we were wrong. You know, this is horrible what we allowed to happen in our country. So be on the lookout. And don't, you know, I'm looking back to that event. There's a lot of prior events we could look back to. But beloved, we have to know that right now, Satan is at work. And he's going to bring somebody into power in some country. And it's going to be another despot, another totalitarian government that rules with an iron fist and rounds up Christians and executes them. It continually happens. It cycles through history. And we have to be mindful even in our own country. It was a Reagan that said, trust, but verify. I mean, we need to be a people that maybe trust some, but also let me look into this and see what you're really doing. So he's been given power to make war with God's people, the Bible tells us. Who's like him? You know, that's also stealing God's glory, and what they say to the beast. Who's like the beast? Look at Exodus 15.11, speaking of the true and living God. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Do you see how the beast is usurping and really stealing the glory that belongs to God and God alone? I was assigned a sermon to preach down in Belize a couple years ago, and it was on the solas. And I had to do sola gloria, to God de gloria, to God alone the glory. And it's interesting to me. I was talking to my wife about this this morning. When I did that study, and we were going back to the Reformation, what had the reformers so upset with the Catholic Church? And it was something, I think, today the church would just not even raise an eyebrow about. Because the glory was subtly being given to Mary and to the saints that solely belonged to God. And that was really what roused the reformers. And so here you see all the way through the chapter 13 that glory is being misdirected by the people, not to God, but to the beast. So his power and authority, chapter 13, verse 5. I'll read it down to the beginning of 7. And he was given a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for 42 months. Then he opened his mouth and blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. Let me begin in verse 7 there. Who granted it to him? That's an important question, beloved. Is God absent from this? Is God sitting on the sidelines? Is God incapable of steering the universe in the direction that he wants it to go? Is God not omnipotent, all-powerful? Is God not omniscient, all-knowing? He knows what his church is going through. Incapable of doing it? Are we going to say, no, he's just not that good, so he doesn't intervene? No, God's the one who's all-powerful. He's allowing these things to happen. And we'll underscore it a little bit in a minute when we look at another verse. But God is letting these things take place because he's carrying out his own perfect plan and will, and the destruction of all that is evil, and the final coming of the new Jerusalem, when all that is wicked and evil and violent and against God is gone. He's leading everything to that point. He's working all things for the good. So don't read this and think, wow, it looks like Satan's in charge. Well, in a sense, but ultimately the ultimate authority is still our God. I think as part of the purpose of this book is written to a people that are undergoing travail and tribulation and persecution, that we would have confidence in our God. He is on His throne. He knows what we're going through. And he has a purpose in it, and it's going to be led to the ultimate victory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is victor already. So it's for 42 months. That's a time, we've talked about that over and over again. I think it's the last time it's mentioned, but it's been mentioned many times. Sometimes it says the number of months, sometimes it says times, times and a half a time, three and a half years. A limited time of hardness, distress, right? And he's blaspheming three things here. The beast is God's name, right? He's saying things about God that are blasphemous, that are untrue. They attack the character of who God is, right, in his being. Also his tabernacle, or where God abodes. In the original language, it's tent. Jesus came and tented with us, John's Gospel tells us. And those who dwell in heaven. It could be heavenly creatures, it could be those that have died and are in glory now, God's people. But he's blaspheming all that is God's. Robert Mounce again writes, in John's day, the blasphemy of the beast was the increasing tendency to deify the Roman state by granting divine titles to its emperors and erecting temples in which to worship the spirit of Rome. In the last days, the secular state will wield extraordinary powers and attempt to validate its role by religious sanctions, Mount says. I think that's true. And you might not know this, but the Caesars gave themselves titles like Lord, like our Savior. And one of the coins said, I think it was Nero, it was one of the emperors, our Savior. That's blasphemous, right? And don't ever look to political leaders to be your savior. There's one God who's savior, right? Romans 12.11, don't forget this, that even though all of this is taking place on earth, 12.11 says, "...but they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death." So continuing with this power and authority, Antichrist is seeking here to usurp the place of Christ. There's no doubt about that. And in Daniel, going back to Daniel again, chapter 7, verse 14, and here, this is Jesus, right? In Daniel, when you get to verse 14 in chapter 7 of Daniel, this is our Lord Jesus, and it says, Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples and nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. So as we see despots rise and fall, as we see totalitarianism rise and fall throughout the world, as we see these things occur, maybe culminating ultimately to the Antichrist who comes, and maybe rules over world government, we have to know that ultimately that is a, quote, kingdom that will topple, that will fall. Our Lord will prevail when he returns. Holman, Kendall Easley in the Holman Commentary writes, this is not fatalism, but rather recognition and submission to the sovereignty of God, right? He's commenting on this verse and we read it, but let me, this is the second place. I told you there's two places where there's a little bit of a textual difference. I prefer a lot of your translations, but here I have the NIV. I prefer it. I think it's more accurate to the original. But in verse 10, of chapter 13. If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity, he will go. If anyone is to be killed with a sword, with a sword, he will be killed. Why does the Bible say that? I was listening to an old series I have on cassette tape. That tells you, that dates me a little bit, on cassette tape, of R.C. Sproul going through the book of Revelation. And I popped it in and was listening to it. He was so young. And he was just doing a little Bible study. It was back when he was up in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, doing his little Bible conference center thing, back when he was very young. And he didn't have a lot to say about the chapter. I was a little disappointed. But he did underscore to those students he had there this verse. And he said, Beloved, if the day comes... where we will not bow our knee to the despot, to the Antichrist, or the power behind the Antichrist, Satan himself, and we're only going to give glory to God, then let us go with praises on our lips. Right? If we're to die by the sword, we'll die by the sword. If we're to be taken into captivity, we'll be taken into captivity. And Christians through the centuries have done that, and bore witness of the Lord, even in their martyrdom. You know the word martyr and witness are the same word, right? So, the beast from the land. We've looked at the beast from the sea of the Antichrist. This is now the beast from the land. This has to do not so much with political power. There's no crowns on this beast. This is religious deception. Then I saw another beast coming out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercised all authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." Every despot needs a propaganda machine. And the second beast is the propaganda machine, pointing everybody to the first beast, to the despot, to the Antichrist, or those with the spirit of Antichrist. And his actions here, in doing this, mimic the Holy Spirit. in a devilish way. That's why some would see the dragon in the first beast and the second beast as the unholy trinity, right, in the Bible, mimicking the holy trinity of God. Because when you read, like, John 16, where Jesus teaches about the Spirit, He says, However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. This beast is guiding everybody into deception. But the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will tell you things to come. He will glorify, Jesus says, he will glorify me. For he will take what is mine and declare it to you." The Holy Spirit, whose job is to make much of Christ. And Jesus, who says, I only spoke what my Father gave me. And the subordination of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You see the same thing in chapter 13. Between the prowess of the devil and the beast that rises from the sea. And then this subservient second beast who just points people to the first beast. And the first beast is empowered by Satan himself. You can see that kind of working in an unholy way. holy direction, described here as having two horns and like a lamb. There's no crowns. This isn't political. Horns, power, and might, but what do we see when we look at it? We see a lamb. What does that make you think of? Our Lord Jesus, certainly he's a usurper, but I think really here, we see harmlessness. We see a lovability, a lovable little lamb, attractive, gentle persuasion, right? This beast is a prophet, a spiritual teacher, not a king or a warrior, one of the commentators wrote. And how does he speak? He speaks like a dragon. How does a dragon speak? Satan. How does he speak? Let me read you, just to remind you of what you know, but this is in the garden, and here's the serpent tempting. I'm just going to read his part of the story, his words. So it says, Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? She has her answer. Then he says in verse 4, Then the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened. You will be like God, knowing good and evil. What's he doing? He's listed here as being cunning. In Hebrew, it means subtle, or shrewd, or sly, and a moral craftiness. That's how he operates. Be careful of that, guys. Things can sound so good, and it's not until you're really meditating on it, like the Bereans, and you're searching the Scriptures to see if these things are lies or truth, and you're like, wait a minute, that's not even true according to the Scriptures. Because he's sly. He's devilish, right? He is. What kind of God is this that you're serving? He won't even let you have the fruit of the garden? What kind of God is that? He says to Eve, basically. He subtly speaks like a dragon through deception. He causes the world to worship the first beast. Revelation 13, 13, he performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs, which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast. Satan is described in a couple ways. He's described at one point as a roaring lion, right? And sometimes that's how he appears, as a roaring lion. Usually that comes later. Usually when he first would tiptoe into somebody's ear, he comes as 2 Corinthians 11, 14, transforming himself as an angel of light. An angel of light, crafty, subtle. It's not until he's got you that he becomes that roaring lion, right? And beloved, he can't get you if you're in the holy, if you have a holy ghost. I don't believe that. But he can certainly cause us trouble, can he not? Him and his demons, they can certainly cause us trouble. The second beast is the false god. prophet, right? He's the false prophet. So you have the Antichrist and you have the false prophet leading people through deception to worship the Antichrist. Robert Mounce writes, the false prophet would symbolize the local priest in Asia Minor who enforced the imperial cult of the emperor worship. In the last days, the false prophet will represent religious authority bent on making people worship secular power. Even today, certain religious groups seem committed to undermining and destroying basic New Testament Christianity. I believe, and this is just me talking, I believe Satan delights in a church that doesn't study the Bible. They all gather, they all speak of a God that they really don't understand or know because they don't study the Word to know the God. He's revealed himself in nature to some degree, but in Scripture we get to know him intimately. We get to know him as Savior in Scripture. The counterfeit miracle. Did you notice that? The miracle described as fire coming down out of heaven. Elijah. God. That's a miracle God performed for his servant Elijah to undo the prophets of Baal. God does this. But this is a fake, a counterfeit, if you will, miracle being performed. In Matthew 24.24, our Lord said, "...for false Christs," that's plural, "...and false prophets," plural, "...will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect." This is a call for discernment, that we would know truth, that we could identify these things. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul writes in chapter 2, verse 10, the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders. and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved." Do you see what combats this? It's obviously to be in Christ, you know, to repent and put our faith in Jesus Christ, but to be one who loves the truth, right? Who's steeped in the truth as found in Scripture. And here the second beast is making the world population pay homage to the first beast, to make an image of the beast. And again, that's just a direct violation of... We're to gaze at Christ, Hebrews tells us, to keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, right? We're to gaze on the Lord. Colossians 1.15, He, meaning Jesus, is the image of the invisible God. And Paul picks up on that thought in 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. And in doing so, he says, we're being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. But here, the second beast, the false prophet, is wanting the world to bow and to look not at the Lord Jesus Christ, but at the image of the first beast, the Antichrist. And you see this regime of murderous intimidation. Anybody that won't do this is put to death. And you can see that played out through history, but I think it's going to culminate into an ultimate regime under the Antichrist. And the great apostasy, I believe, is going to take place because of this. I think God is going to so rattle the church with this event that people that are not rooted in Christ and prepared to those who were to die by the sword to go and die by the sword, that they will apostate themselves and they will align themselves with whatever form of antichrist it may be and they'll turn their back on the church and turn their back on the Lord. And you read that in 2 Thessalonians again, chapter 2, verse 3, "...Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first." The apostasy has to come first. "...And the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God." I believe that's a reference to the church. I know there's different opinions there. "...So that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? Oh, he's like, why didn't the Lord just let him fill me in on what exactly he said to that church? I'd like to know that. But the Lord gave us what we need. Yeah, we have what we need in the Scripture. And then we see the mark, right? He causes all, both small and great and rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on the right hand or on the foreheads that no one can buy or sell except the one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. You can almost see this in a prior era, going back to World War II, with the Jewish Auschwitz and the Jewish Nazi camps, that they were tattooed. If you remember, when Hitler and his government wanted to turn the tide, he started making fun of a particular race, the Jews. And then you mark them, you make them wear a star, so everybody knows you're a Jew. You're one of the ones that were nationally ridiculed, and you're the reason for all the problems in this country. That is exactly what this is talking about. I think this is going to culminate, but we get a little pre-taste of it, if you will, in World War II. That's kind of what's happening here. The Christians are going to be known, because whatever this is, it's known that you are not a follower of the Antichrist. You're not a follower of the totalitarian regime. You, indeed, are a Christian, and everybody's going to know. I told my wife, when I get ready to come to church in the morning, if I look at my phone, my map program says, oh, it's time to go to church. And they said, you want directions to church? I've never used my mapping program to come to church. How do they know I'm going to church? Is that a little scary, that whoever is behind this mapping program knows exactly where I am and what my habits are? You don't think the government could get their hands on that? And they'll, oh, you're the ones that go to church every Sunday. You're one of those Christians, right? So I don't know how that's going to play out, but that's what the Bible says. And beloved, we have to be ready to stand in allegiance with our Christ if tough times come in our lifetime. And I'll turn it over to somebody else to come up and explain what this 666 means. It's a number. Now, it could be a couple things, and I'll start by saying, I don't know. I really don't know. It could be, some would say, a trinity of imperfection. You know, the number of perfection or completeness, the number of God being seven, the Holy Spirit, and the son, seven, seven, seven, right? Father, Son, Holy Spirit. But he's imperfect. It's an imperfect trinity of hell. And so it's the six, six, six. If that's not exactly what God had in mind here, it certainly makes sense to me. A pseudo-Trinity, right? Dragon, Antichrist, false prophet. Gematria, there's a word I had to learn yesterday and do that thing where you go on YouTube to find out how to pronounce it. And then I found different people pronounce it different ways. I'll go with Gematria. Gematria is the fact that both the Hebrew and the Greek, the numbering system was the letters. So alpha is one and beta is two. And so you could try to take somebody's name and see what number count it would be according to that, and then say, well, it adds up to 666. Beloved, don't go down that path. I can tell you, you could almost make anybody the Antichrist. Because they'll take it and say, well, maybe not in the Hebrew. Maybe we'll look at it in the Aramaic. Oh, there, now it works out. People have said everybody was Antichrist. Nero, Domitian, Hitler. Some people worked out Hitler in some bizarre way by starting with the number 100. I don't think any of that is accurate. I think what we spoke about, is what's really important, is that even if tough times come, even if a despot took over this country and rounded up Christians, we have to remain faithful to the Lord. He prevails. He will prevail. We might have to go through difficult times, but He is the victor. According to Robert Mounce, he writes about this 666, and I'll close with this. He says, if John's intention was to camouflage the identity of the beast, we can only conclude that he was eminently successful. The riddle remains. I'll end with that. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your word. And Lord, we pray that you'd make your church strong. Lord, that we would be those that are found to be faithful unto the end. And we thank you for that, Lord, in Jesus' name. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. to a world that desperately needs to hear the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.