Let's take our Bibles once again and turn to the book of Revelation chapter 13. Revelation chapter 13 and verses 1 and 2 are going to be our text this afternoon. So if you'd go ahead and stand to your feet with me, and we'll show respect for the reading of God's Word in that way. The Spirit tells us, And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. Help us to understand it this afternoon. Help us to be alert and attentive. Thank You for Your kindness in providing us a feast for our bellies and comfort for our bodies. Help us to use these as aids to our attention to Your Word and not as distractions from it. Thank you for your word. We believe you when you tell us that it is all profitable. And so help us to profit from it this afternoon. For Christ's sake we ask it. Amen. Thank you for standing. You can be seated. We come now to chapter 13, which if I were to try to quantify the chapters in Revelation. Chapter 13 is probably the most famous or contains some of the most famous descriptions. It's this chapter which tells us about the fatally wounded head which is healed. It comes in verse 3. It's in this number that we get the mark of the beast, without which no man can buy or sell. So in this chapter we come to the number of the beast being 666. So there's all kinds of really interesting and famous things that go on in this chapter, and if the Lord wills, we'll get to all of them. But this afternoon we're simply going to focus on these opening lines in chapter 13 and understanding who this first beast is and what implications that gives us for how we are to understand the world around us and our loyalty to Jesus Christ over and above any power on this earth. The first thing that I think we ought to take notice of in this chapter is that there are two beasts. It's interesting that many times in pop Christian culture, you hear about the beast, right? The mark of the beast, the number of the beast. And those actually come into play with the second beast that comes in the second half of this chapter. But there's two beasts that are given to us in this chapter. There was a description of the beast that came earlier that we'll talk about here in a moment, which I believe is a descriptor of both of these beasts. But there's not just one beast of revelation. This chapter tells us that there's a beast that comes up out of the sea in verse 1, and it tells us about another beast. It explicitly says in verse 11, another beast coming up out of the earth. And the second beast is distinctively different than the first beast. So this beast that we're going to be looking at this afternoon is the beast from the sea, the sea beast. We see there in verse 1, he's standing on the sand of the sea. Now, again, this is a vision that John is having, so I'm not going to try to split hairs about whether he was standing on the beach on the Isle of Patmos, or whether he was transported in the vision to the sands on the shore of Israel. There's different thoughts on those things, but I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference. This vision that we're told here is that he's standing by the sea, and up out of the sea comes this beast. Now I told you that earlier we read about the beast and there's a principle in the scriptures called the principle of first mention, which is that many times when you're dealing with an idea, if you'll go back and you'll look where the Bible first mentions that principle or that idea, it can give you some good insight and clues many times as to how that principle is going to be used throughout the remainder of either that book or even the Bible itself. And the first mention of the beast in Revelation came in chapter 11, where we were reading about the two witnesses in Jerusalem who were witnessing there, and the beast made war against them." And that was in Revelation chapter 11 and verse 7. And whereas this beast is said to ascend up out of the sea, and the second beast is said to ascend up out of the earth, the beast in Revelation chapter 11, you might remember, is called the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit. So this nature of beast that we're talking about here is demonic. By origin and by nature, this is a beast that comes out of the bottomless pit, that ascends up out of the abyss. So yes, we're going to talk about a lot of physical attributes and faces that these beasts take in their physical manifestation, but we need to keep in mind that the beasts that are being talked about here in this book have at their core a demonic animation, a demonic power that's working behind the physical facade. I don't think the beast in chapter 11 is necessarily a third beast from these two beasts, but is talking in a similar way about, like these beasts, this is a demonic force that is animating a physical manifestation. While this chapter is one of the most cryptic and widely debated chapters in Revelation, it is very interesting and very noteworthy, I believe, that there is overwhelming evidence from premillennialists, amillennialists, postmillennialists, from all different camps. I think I can say almost everybody, probably 90% of people who give an interpretation on this, agree that in some form or another, this beast of the sea is Rome. I mean, you can find that interpretation in all of the camps, and one of the reasons for that is because Daniel talks about four beasts in Daniel chapter 7, and the first beast is like a lion, and the second is like a bear, and the third is like a leopard, and the fourth is just described as great and terrible. And almost everybody agrees in Daniel chapter 7 that that fourth beast is Rome. It's Babylon, Medo-Persian, Greece, and then Rome. And this beast that is described here has all of those characteristics built into it. It is like a leopard, it has the feet like the bear, it has the mouth like the lion. So this is that culminating power that Daniel saw in Daniel chapter 7 that is being described to us here in Revelation chapter 13. Now exactly how that presents itself, is it something that happened in the past, is it something that's going to happen again in the future? Obviously you get all kinds of different interpretations from the different camps on that. But most people recognize that this is in one way or another talking about Rome. Rome as an empire. Now we're talking here, when we talk about a beast, we're talking about a demonic animation behind the scenes, we're talking about an empire, Rome as an empire, and we're talking about an emperor who sits on the throne at that time. And so as we move through the next few chapters, you're going to see that the Bible kind of fluidly moves between those three things, but they're all associated together under this heading of the beast. It's this demonically animated empire with a figurehead at the top of it that all of it comes together and is associated with. It's amazing when you go back and you read in history how many contemporaries with Nero called him the beast. Described him in these bestial terms because of so many things about the way that he terrorized his people and the lusts of his flesh that he gave into in all of these things. So let's look at these descriptions of this system, this demonically animated empire. I told you last week, and I've made mention of it before in previous sermons, that many times in the book of Revelation you see that the sea is representative of Rome and the earth is representative of Israel. And I think we're going to see that again, perhaps most clearly, in this chapter. So we see this beast is coming up out of the sea. This beast is Rome. It's the culmination of Babylon and Medo-Persia and Greece. And it's now all come to this final conglomerate head in Rome. We're told here in verse 1 that this beast has 7 heads and 10 horns. Now in chapter 17, the Bible is going to tell us what those 7 heads represent and what those 10 heads represent. And so when we get to chapter 17, we'll go into a lot more depth on this. But let me just clue you in so that we can kind of get some understanding about what we're talking about here. The way that I'm approaching this, I believe that these seven heads are seven successive Roman emperors. So seven Roman emperors in a row. You had five that were passed, one that was ruling when the book was written, and one that was yet to come that kind of also had an eighth associated with it as well. We'll see that when we get to chapter 17. But there's seven heads. There's these emperors, one right after the other. Each one, the beast doesn't change with the head. So each of these heads represent the beast as the figurehead of the empire and as the ruler of that empire. But then you have these 10 horns, which are the demonically animated provincial kings, which derive their power from the empire. Again, when we get to chapter 17, we'll go into a lot more depth in how the 10 kings within Rome helped to bring about all of this prophecy in a very obvious and providential way. But it is interesting to note that the heads, the seven heads, which if I'm understanding this correctly are the seven emperors, it is not the heads which wear the crowns. But it is the ten horns which wear the crowns." Now, horns in the Bible are figurative of physical power, like a bull would use his horns to push. And so this is the kind of descriptions we get in the Bible, that horns are a picture of power, of being able to move things, push things along. So whereas the emperor, certainly he had all power. He could say off with his head and off with his head, but the actual work of the empire that was being done was many times done by these provincial kings on a more local level. And it was those who would actually put into motion and put into place the dictates of the emperor. Remember last week when in chapter 12 we were looking about how that one king Herod went from trying to kill the Christians to actually protecting the Christians from Rome who was trying to kill them. So you see these provincial kings are actually many times the ones who would cause things to actually happen or not happen based on how closely aligned they were with the emperor at that time. But they're also part of the beast. They're also demonically animated in their work and actions that they're taking, but it is the heads which bear the name of blasphemy. Because these provincial kings did not claim to be in and of themselves divine, messiah, son of the God, giver of life. These were all the titles that the emperors took to themselves. Caesar claimed to be God. That's the title he took on himself. These little provincial kings usually didn't take that. You might remember the one story where the people cried, this is not the voice of a man, but the voice of a God. And he was eaten with worms and died because he didn't give God the glory. But across the board, the Roman emperors took titles of divinity to themselves. It was literally labeled above their heads on the coins. You would have the head of the emperor, and above it you would have Caesar Nero, son of God. Caesar Claudius, giver of life. Whatever their preferred title was, it would be right there on the head side of the coin, above their head, with their name and inscription titled to it. So, the horns wear the crowns, but the heads wear the blasphemy. And this is what we see. going on in Rome, and it's a concept, it's a principle that we also see carried out in any nation or among any ruler who seeks to stand against the Lord and against his anointed. We see that if you will not kiss the sun, you will kiss the dragon. You will instead be working for the enemy of Christ. So what about these descriptors? We get three animals in particular that this beast is like. The first description is that he was like unto a leopard. The beast which I saw was like unto a leopard." Now, the leopard is, in Daniel chapter 7, the third beast of the four that are seen. The third beast in Daniel chapter 7 represents the Grecian Empire, and it is represented by the body of a leopard, but with four wings and four heads. And most commentators are agreed that the four wings represent Alexander the Great's rapid rise to power. And so like the wings of an eagle that would fly rapidly, Alexander the Great rapidly came to power. His empire rapidly spread across. The spotted leopard spots represent the cultural and ethnic diversity within the Grecian Empire as it did spread to many different countries and ethnic nations. And the four heads represented the four quadrants that the Grecian Empire was split into. So Greece was different than Rome in that it was not unified under one head, but there were four sections to the Grecian Empire. So this beast here in Revelation does not have the four wings of the eagle associated with it. We don't have a rapid rise to power in Rome like we did in Greece. Nor does it have the four heads, because Rome is in fact united and is not split up into four quadrants, but it retains the leopard's cruelty, ferocity, and ethnic and cultural diversity as represented in the spots of the leopard and the nature of the leopard. Now, leopards are beautiful. If you've watched any nature documentaries or things of this nature, I mean, any feline just has incredible grace to it, but leopards in particular are just beautiful creatures. But if you've watched many nature documentaries, you've found that Leopards are not friendly little kitty cats that are good for you to keep in your home and be your pet. They are killers. And they will chase down a little innocent pure gazelle and kill it and bite its throat and carry it up in the tree and tear it to pieces. Because that's what a leopard does. That's the nature of the leopard is its cruelty and its fierceness. In fact, A leopard doesn't only kill the gazelle just because he's hungry and he wants a meal. And so we kind of, you know, maybe even sympathize with the leopard at that point. You know, he needs to eat like everybody else needs to eat. But leopards are one of a handful of animals in the animal kingdom that are known for their surplus killing. They will kill for the sake of killing. They will kill many animals and leave most of them and merely take one back for themselves and leave the rest for the hyenas or the vultures or whatever else may come in behind them to eat them. They kill for fun. And this is one of the marks of a demonically animated empire, is its cruelty and its death culture. It has no reverence for human life. It does not see humans as created in the image of God and therefore worthy of dignity and respect and freedom and liberty. It doesn't see people in that way. A demonically animated, secular, statist society set against God and His Christ wishes to be God themselves. And since God is the one who holds the power of life and death in his hand, these rulers want that power for themselves. They want to feel as though it's in their hand. Perhaps you've seen some of the movies or read some of the histories about the emperor who would go to the gladiatorial games. And when a gladiator had been defeated and was in a position to either be killed or spared, the emperor with either thumbs down or thumbs up. He loved that feeling, the power of life and death in my hand. If I feel like it today, your throat's going to be cut. If I feel lenient today, maybe I'll let you live to fight another day. This is a leopard's cruelty, a leopard's disregard for life A statist, idolatrous, demonic empire will encourage the killing of the weak and helpless. Young infants and old grandparents are seen as burdens on society who should be able to be disposed of at the pleasure of those who hold power and influence. They get to decide who lives and who dies, who has value and who does not. They will stir up positive feelings of patriotism or even cruel humor when they execute citizens or rulers of conquered nations. And you would see this so often as a nation would be conquered and Rome would march the kings and the rulers in and the emperor would go out and he'd put his foot on their neck and then he'd... Execute them in front of the crowds, and the crowds would just go wild. You know, oh, this is our emperor, USA, USA. Right? Roam, roam, roam. Roam, roam, roam. We're the powerful ones. We can kill whoever we want to. Try to come against us and see what happens to you. These kind of empires will have no qualms about using people as less than people for their own depraved desires, whether it be medical experimentations, objects for fulfilling their depraved lusts, or objects for their unpleasant tasks, for their dirty jobs. Now we saw all of this going on in Rome. Sexual slavery, brutal chattel slavery, The wanton killing of babies and the elderly, all of these things were just manifest in the sight of all men, but certainly they were not unique to Rome. We see this again and again and again in godless, idolatrous countries and empires. Abortion, euthanization, needless unjust wars, clandestine medical experiments, freely distributed pornography are just some of the symptoms of a cruel culture that does not believe that all humans are free moral agents created in the image of God with an inherent right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That's a Christian idea. That's a biblical theology about humans. Demonic, idolatrous countries see humans as merely objects to be used by the most powerful. We're just specks of stardust that happen to come together. Might makes right. Survival of the fittest. What can I say? I was watching a YouTube clip this week. I think it was Charlie Kirk, maybe. I don't remember who it was. But he was one of those people that go out and just interview people on the sidewalks and things of that nature. And he was talking to an atheist. And the atheist said, well, I don't believe in moral objectivity. I don't believe that you can just objectively say something is right or wrong. And he said, so the Jews killed in the gas chamber in World War II, you can't say that's objective. He said, well, I can't. He said, you got me there. I can't say whether that was morally, objectively right or wrong. I think it was wrong. That's my opinion. I'm not advocating people should do that. But I can't say it was wrong. And whoever was doing the interview was like, well, you're one of the very few people that will actually be intellectually honest about that position. But that's what the atheistic, idolatrous empires believe. Just whatever serves my purpose is for you. There's no God for you to be created in the image of. I'm God. A cruel leopard, this was certainly Rome. But he also had feet like a bear. In Daniel chapter 7, the beast that looks like a bear is representing the Medo-Persian Empire. And in Daniel chapter 7, it's like halfway raised up. It's as if the bear is on its way up, getting to its hind feet. And it's interesting that that's the description in Daniel chapter 7, because this beast in Revelation chapter 13, its particular attention is drawn to its feet. It had feet like the bear. Rome didn't particularly carry over a whole lot from the Medo-Persian Empire. It carried over a lot from the Grecian Empire, but by the time Rome came along, not a whole lot was left of Medo-Persian influences. But just like that Medo-Persian Empire, Rome did have this in common with them. They stamped down and tore apart anyone who stood in their way. The feet, like the bear, crushing, tearing, ripping everything in its path. The feet of a bear symbolize brute strength and overpowering force. I don't know if any of you got the handouts. I put them out kind of late out there, but there's a picture of a bear tearing through a wall with its claws, right? If you saw a grizzly bear, a polar bear, one of the largest and strongest bears using its feet to try to get to you, you would be terrified. because there's not much that can stand in the way of a determined bear. I saw a video, it was just a black bear, and it got its claws in a car and ripped the car door off the car, just tore it open, just like it's tearing open a tin can. The brute strength of a bear and its paws and its feet is overpowering. There's not much that is going to stand in the way of a crazed, angry, agitated bear. And this is the modus operandi of rulers who do not derive their authority from God. They're not interested in governing according to what is right, according to what is just, according to what is good. Instead, they get their authority from crushing any opposition. from stamping down and tearing apart anyone who would stand in their way. Romans chapter 13 spells out for us the Christian doctrine of the civil magistrate. It tells us about the submission that Christians ought to have to authority in the civil realm, and it limits that civil authority in what its roles are. Romans chapter 13 tells us that the authority is to derive his authority from God's appointment. that he's to be a minister of God to the citizens for their good, that he's to bear the sword in a way that terrorizes the evil man, but he is to praise the good man. And after describing all of this, Paul says the Christian then could be subject to such a magistrate not only for wrath's sake, but also for conscience's sake. But what happens when we have a ruler who does not rule in a God-ordained way? What happens when the rulers have the feet of a bear? What if they use their sword to terrorize the good, and they praise the evil? What if they do not act as a minister of God for good, but as a minister of Satan for evil? We still subject ourselves to such a one for wrath's sake. Because we know they bear the sword, and they'll cut apart anyone who stands in their way. Certainly we stand by and we righteously mourn, and many times, hopefully, feel righteous anger. When we're subject to rulers who invite sodomites to celebrate on the White House lawn and send federal agents to pull a man out of his bed with drawn guns and arrest him in front of his wife and children because he was praying in front of abortion clinic. When we have rulers who celebrate the transgender day of visibility on Resurrection Sunday and then changes the law to make your daughters eligible to be drafted into their unjust wars. When good men are jailed for peacefully exercising their conscience, and evil men are praised for committing their evil deeds in public, you're facing the feet of the bear. He's willing to stamp down and tear apart anyone who stands in his way. The bear is not interested in governing according to what is good and right and lawful. It merely is interested in being too powerful for anyone to stand against it. in The City of God, a book that Augustine wrote. You've probably heard of that book, The City of God. Augustine tells a story of a pirate who is captured by Alexander the Great. And the emperor angrily demanded of him, how dare you molest the seas? He said, how dare you take your ship and you go and you rob all these other ships who sail past you as a pirate? To which the pirate replied, how dare you molest the whole world? Because I do it with a small boat, I am called a pirate and a thief. You do it with a great navy, molest the world and are called an emperor. This is the beast's mode of operation. I'm legitimate because I'm the authority. I can do whatever I want. I can crush those in my path. I can do injustice. I can do evil. I can celebrate wickedness. I can bear the sword against the good man because I have the sword. Because I have claws, because I have great muscles in my body, therefore might makes right. You can't stand against me, therefore I'm going to do whatever I want to do. This was, no doubt about it, the way that Rome operated. And thirdly, we're told he had a mouth like a lion. Now certainly the mouth of the lion is where its roar comes from. The mouth of a lion is where the threatenings would come from. But in Daniel chapter 7, which is where we keep going back and forth from, the fourth beast in Daniel 7 is said to have great iron teeth. It devoured and break in pieces. So I don't believe this mouth is as much talking about the decrees and the threatenings that would come out of this empire as it is talking about the devouring, destructive nature of an empire like this. The deceptiveness of this demon, though, is that it tells you it is feeding you while it is devouring you. It is devouring you, it is destroying you, it is sucking up all your sustenance like a blood-sucking leech, and all the while it is telling you it's helping you. It's here for your good. It's producing on your behalf. The welfare programs of the state posit that they are helping you. This is what they tell you. Come to us, Mother State. We'll give you free groceries and free health care and free education and free cell phones. We'll take care of your retirement planning for you. Just come to Mother State. We'll nurture you and give you everything that you need. But once again, they're trying to be God. Because it is only God who can give without taking. It is only God who can freely give what has not been given to Him. The state, the rulers within the empire, can only give what they take. They're not God. And they try to hide that, they try to mask that, they try to act as though They can give without taking with clever accounting tricks and deficit spending and all of these things. But at the end of the day, they're cutting two inches off of your feet and promising to add an inch to your head. Their actions are devouring, breaking actions. Phil Kaiser is a pastor who preached a revelation. I lean on him heavily in my studies. He said this on the mouth of the lion of this beast. He said, Christians, we need this image of the devouring lion's mouth burnt into our memories. Federal programs are not true generosity. Every dime the civil government gives to citizen A, it steals from citizens B and C. And in many times, citizens A, I'll add. And if citizens B and C object to being stolen from, the state threatens to harm them, pay or else. That is not generosity. That is the lion's roar threatening violence. It is evil. That is a devouring mouth. It devours the productivity of citizens B and C. This is the iron teeth of the lion that devours and crushes and breaks and destroys everything in its path. This is one of the reasons that I'm uncomfortable with these offered state voucher systems. If you're a homeschooler, we'll give you a voucher for $10,000 for your homeschool supplies. Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you. But notice they never say, come to us with proof that you're homeschooling and you don't have to pay your property taxes anymore. They're not going to do that. They're going to keep taking from you. They're not going to say, come to us if you're a homeschooler and we won't make you, come to us with a good retirement plan and we won't make you pay into Social Security anymore. No, no, no. We're not going to do that. We're always going to take. But we'll give some of it back to you. We'll make you think that what you're receiving is coming from a nurturing mother and not from a devouring lion. You see, if they were to stop taking something from you, it would highlight that they're taking something from you. But if instead they keep taking from you and then promise to give some of it back to you, it makes them look like the kind, nurturing, wonderful caretaker. But as I said, only God can give that which has not been given to Him. Men can only give that which they have received. An idolatrous state pretends to have the power of God to freely give, but by seeking to hide where they receive that which they are giving from, they only compound their destructiveness. By their deficit spending and by their constant trickery in accounting and things of this nature, it only builds up a bigger bust down the road. The pain is only worse when it finally all comes to light because of their attempt to play God. Now verse 2 lastly tells us that this beast, like a leopard with feet like a bear and a mouth like a lion, derives his power and his seat and his great authority from the dragon. We already saw very explicitly who the dragon was, that old serpent, the devil. The Bible doesn't leave us any doubt as to who he's talking about when he talks about the dragon. It spells it out for us. So this beast, this system of government with its figurehead emperor and its horns of provincial kings, it derives its power from Satan. Remember Romans chapter 13 tells us that authority is ultimately given by God. Even the evil men, even Nero's and Nebuchadnezzar's are raised up and put down by God. He's the one who governs and controls all things. But what Romans chapter 13 tells us is because power is given, appointed by God, therefore the civil servants have the obligation to be ministers of God for good. Because they derive their power from God, that also gives them the authority to serve God. See how that works? See the logic there? God gave you the power, therefore you need to use the power for God. That's what Romans chapter 13 says. But what happens with an authority who refuses to accept that his authority comes from God and therefore he has an obligation to be a minister of God? As I said earlier, when refusing to kiss the sun, they open their arms wide to the dragon. They allow the demonic influence, again, under God's overarching supreme decrees and sovereignty. And because they see the dragon as the one from whom they derive their authority, they see their obligation to be in service to the dragon. The dragon animates, the dragon put into power. The principle is that whoever you see yourself as deriving your authority from is who you will serve. You don't think there's people who see their power as being derived from the lobbyist and therefore they seek to serve the lobbyists? You don't think there are people who see their authority as being derived from their political party and therefore they seek to serve their political party? Hopefully, on a human way of looking at things, hopefully, Rulers see their authority as being derived from the people, and therefore they see themselves as servants to the people. That's the principle. That's the idea we're hoping for when we talk about civil servants. We want them to be serving the people that they're supposed to represent, not the lobbyists or the party. But it's much deeper than that. In postmodern secularism, where we don't want to look beyond anything material, we look at the lobbyists, and we look at the party, and we say, they're so evil. They just serve the lobbyists. They're so evil. They just serve the party, whether it's Republican or Democrat. Don't get me wrong. I'm not picking on one side here. There's evil people that serve not the people on both sides. But it's not the lobbyists. It's not the party, ultimately. There's something behind that. They're either serving God from whom they derive their authority, and therefore see their duty to be to serve the people that they were put in place to represent, or they're serving Satan, and they see themselves as under the obligation to further his agenda in the world, as he animates them and gives them power, and seat, and authority, and a name, and fame, and all of these glamorous things that for a time look so seductive, Whoever they see themselves as deriving their authority from is who they will seek to serve with their power. And this is what Rome obviously did. The wickedness that was clearly on display in the empire was a good clue of it. The fact that the emperors claimed to be God ought to have been a good clue to it. The fact that they claimed to worship false gods who were demons, the Bible tells us, doctrines of devils, ought to clue us in. But as I said, it was not unique to Rome. We've seen it all throughout history. Unfortunately, many times we see it in our supposed enemies, like China and Russia and North Korea and Iran, and we fail to see it staring in our faces from our own halls of power all too often. The conclusion then should be for us. We must not believe the lies of the beast when it claims to be our Savior and Messiah. I saw and vividly remember a lot of Democrats who had a messianic complex around Barack Obama when he came to power. And I see a lot of Republicans who have a messianic complex around Donald Trump when he comes to power. God raises up men and puts down men. I hope the next president, whoever he may be, God uses to bring about revival and a turning to Christ and righteousness and truth in this country. But don't look to the state to be your Messiah and your Savior. There's not going to be a man put in power that's going to deliver us unless he's a minister of God for good. Unless he's animated by kissing the sun. and serving Him with fear and with gladness. When a beast is a beast, we need to see it as a beast. We need to see its ugliness and its cruelty. We need to see its bloodthirstiness and its destruction. We need to pray, and work, and vote, and volunteer, and whatever else we might do within the realms of jurisdiction that God has given us for rulers who see their authority as being derived from God, and therefore their duty to be a minister of God for good. A nation, under judgment, will be turned over. to the devouring lion, to its own destructive ends. And a nation full of God's people who turn to God in repentance and humility and prayer will be delivered by God. And we certainly want to be the second. So let us pray to that end. Father, we thank You for Your Word and its directness in confronting the enemies of Christ. We thank You for time and again where we see in history that You defeat demonic beasts. Empires that rise up in collusion and conspiracy against the King of Kings are always defeated. And that gives us great joy and hope. But we also recognize that in so many respects, even our own nation has taken beastly forms. And we ask that you would defeat those demonic forces and you would overthrow those enemies of Christ And You would give us men who love truth and righteousness, men who see themselves as ministers of God for good and not as ministers of self or the world or the devil for evil. Help us to be faithful where You've placed us. Help us to be salt and light in the darkness that so often seems to be surrounding us, that the crown rights of King Jesus would be firmly believed and exercised by all your citizens. For Christ's sake, we ask these things.