as He is. Thank you for that. That was such a blessing. Let's
go back to the book of Revelation this morning. Last week we're
in chapter 12. In chapter number 12, we saw
how there was a woman who was in great travail and she gave
birth to a man-child, a woman we identified as the Lord's people,
the Lord's Church of the Old Testament. For 4,000 years she waited in
expectation for the arrival of the Son of God, a man-child For
4,000 years she longed for the seed of the woman. She agonized
in great prayer and petition. Oh Lord, please send your son. Oh God, may the seed of the woman
come into this world. Remove all of the sins of your
people. They were ever beseeching God
to send forth Christ Jesus in order to lay down His life a
ransom for all of those that the Father gave Him. And throughout
the Old Testament era, 4,000 years, she continued to offer
sacrifice upon sacrifice, every one, of course, directing their
attention to the Son of God That Lamb of God who would suddenly
appear in the world and by the sacrifice of Himself remove the
sins of all of His people. He would do what Daniel said
He would do in Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24. He would finish
the transgression of His people. The scripture says he was wounded
for our transgressions. He would shut up our transgressions
as in a bag, put them all in a bag and close it up, throw
it into the depths of the deepest sea. Daniel said he would make
an end of sin, end of sin. He would consent them in their
entirety so that they would be no more, no more. All of the
sins of his people he would put away and he would abolish them
by his sacrifice and by his satisfaction he would make to the justice
of God. And then he would make reconciliation
for iniquity. He would be the propitiation
for our sins, that great satisfaction for divine justice. And then
Daniel said he would bring in everlasting righteousness. He'd
make everything right. He'd make it just for God to
forgive us, welcome us, justify us, redeem us, and save us. And then Daniel said he would
fulfill or seal up the prophecy. That is, every prophetic passage
of the Old Testament about the birth of Messiah, the life of
Messiah, the death of Messiah, the resurrection of Messiah,
and the exaltation of Messiah, He would fulfill. And for hundreds
of years, God's people in the Old Testament, they travailed
for His coming. Like a woman in travail for a
child. Until, in the fullness of the
time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law. And at His first
appearance, He died as the one who fulfilled every prophecy
about Him. He died as the Savior of His
people. He died as that One who justified
us. He died in the stead of His people. He rose again the third day,
having finished the work that God the Father gave Him to do.
He went back to heaven. Notice in Revelation 12 and verse
5, if I may just revisit a verse or two here, Revelation 12 and
verse 5, And as soon as she brought forth
a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, that
rod of iron is literally scepter. That is the scepter of righteousness
was given to the Lord Jesus. That indicates His rule over
everything. He has a universal reign. There's nothing that's not under
His authority and under His rule. He earned the right for this
scepter by way of His substitutionary death upon the cross of Calvary.
And we know His death meant the defeat of Satan. He dealt Him
a death blow on the cross of Calvary in fulfillment of Genesis
chapter 3 and verse number 15. But he is wounded, mortally wounded. This lion still prowls about,
seeking whom he may devour. He still persecutes the Lord's
people. And the Lord's people, according
to chapter 12 and verse 6, We fled into the wilderness. Notice that in chapter 12, verse
6. The woman, she fled, she ran
into the wilderness. And I'll tell you what it puts
me in mind of. Israel, after the redemption
of Israel by the blood of the Passover lamb, where did they
go? into the wilderness. Now the wilderness, that didn't
have anything for them. The wilderness wouldn't meet
their needs, but God would. And we've been redeemed by the
bloodied death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet we remain in
the wilderness. Now the wilderness doesn't have
anything for us, but in this wilderness, God provides bountifully
for His people, just as He provided bread from heaven, manna every
day, and water from a rock. So He provides bread for His
people, water for His people, that is Christ Jesus, who is
Himself the bread of life and the water of life. We will stay in this wilderness
that is the Lord's people. Of course, He calls us out one
by one and we go to glory. But as a body of believers, there
will be a body of believers in this wilderness until the Lord
comes back. He sets this as three and a half
years, 42 months, or 1,250 years. 60 days, or he also calls it
a time, times, and half a time. And that's that period of time
from our Lord's first advent until His second advent. As we got to the end of chapter
12, we find in verse, look at the last verse of chapter 12,
verse 17, the dragon was wroth with the woman, with the Lord's
people, with His church. He went to war with the remnant
of her seed. which keep the commandments of
God. We believe God's Word. We go
by God's Word. We have no other authority. We
have no other basis for that which we believe, just the Word
of God. We keep His commandments. And
we have the testimony of Christ Jesus. We believe the record
that God has given us concerning the Son of God. Now, Satan was
not able to destroy the man-child Our Lord triumphed over him,
the Scripture says, gloriously. But Satan does still, he still
persecutes the Lord's people and that will continue to the
end of time. That brings us to chapter 13
this morning. Chapter 13 describes the war
of Satan against God's people. This is an ongoing war. He wars against us. And we're
in this warfare, therefore we take the Word of God as our defense,
as that which protects us from Him. In this chapter we see the
agents of Satan who go against the Lord's people. We see the
instruments he uses. The dragon uses instruments in
his all-out attack upon the people of God. All who believe the Lord
Jesus, all who are the recipients of this great salvation by grace
alone, all who rest in the Son of God and His great sacrifice
for our salvation, we are absolutely certain that we will feel the
rage of Satan. The dragon, the dragon, he cannot
destroy us, but he can breathe fire upon us. He brings about
fierce persecution in the purpose of God from time to time upon
the church of our Lord Jesus. But know this, he cannot destroy
God's people. He cannot destroy the church.
Our Lord said, I will build my church. and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. But that doesn't mean the gates
of hell won't make an effort against God's church. And indeed,
from age to age, from generation to generation, opposition rises
up against the people of God as those who are the elect of
the Lord, redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus, are brought
to believe on the Son of God and take a valiant stand for
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. The agents of
Satan, those instruments that he uses, they will always be
on the offense against the people of the Lord. As we get to Revelation chapter
13, John sees two beasts. It's sort of the theme of the
chapter. Two beasts. Each beast is designed
by and receives its authority from the dragon. Now make no
mistake, the red dragon is Satan. We know that from back in chapter
12. He's the old serpent. He's the
devil. He's the one who's deceived multitudes
and he continues to deceive. And as we get to chapter 13,
He gives authority to two beasts. The first beast, if you're taking
notes, is in verses 1 through 7. It is an awful looking monster. Remember, this is just symbolic
language. It's an awful looking monster. Let me read verses 1 and 2 of
chapter 13. I stood upon the sand of the
sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea. It had seven
heads and ten horns. Upon his horns, ten crowns. Upon his heads, the name of blasphemy. The beast which I saw was likened
to a leopard. His feet were as the feet of
a bear. His mouth was as the mouth of
a lion. Notice this. The dragon. The
dragon gives to this beast three things. Gives him power, gives
him his seat or his throne, his position, and thirdly, gives
him great authority. That's the first beast. Absolutely
hideous looking. Immediately, it just strikes
fear. Just as you read of this, this
is an awful looking monster. This monster is against the people
of God. But then the red dragon releases
another beast. Another beast. This is verses 11 through 18.
And the thing about this beast, he doesn't look harmless. He
doesn't look like he could harm anybody. He looks harmless. For
he looks like a lamb. Look at verse 11. Here's the
second beast. Remember, chapter 13, two beasts. First one is hideous. Vicious. The second one, Looks so innocent. Chapter 12 and verse 11. And I beheld another beast coming
out of the earth. Now the first beast came out
of the sea. Came out of the sea. This one,
the scripture says, it comes up out of the earth. He had two
horns like a lamb. Like a lamb. And because he appears
as a lamb, he doesn't have a threatening appearance. Nobody is anxious about this
beast. Nobody suspects him of anything
bad. But notice that last statement. He spake as a dragon. In other
words, He comes like a lamb. And we're very much acquainted
with the Son of God who is the Lamb of God whom John mentions
in verse number 8. A lamb who was slaughtered from
the foundation of the world. But Satan has another lamb. Antichrist. That's what this
is. This is Antichrist. He doesn't
have a threatening appearance, but he's actually more dangerous
than the first beast. Because while he looks like a
lamb, and while he doesn't look like
he's very threatening, he certainly looks, because lambs, you see
a lamb, you ride by and you see sheep and lambs and so forth,
you say, aren't they beautiful? They're so gentle. And that's
the way this one looks. He looks gentle. But his words are the words of
the dragon. And the dragon was a liar from
the beginning. He is the father of the lie.
The first beast then comes out of the sea. Out of the authorities
and the governments of the world. The second beast comes out of
the earth. from among men. One writer said of these two
beasts, one is Satan's hand. The second is Satan's mind. The first beast represents the
nations and the governments of this world which are anti-Christ
and anti-God. The first beast is all the political
systems of the world, all the nations of the world, the leaders
of the nations of the earth which are against our God. Here we
see the persecuting authority and power of Satan operating
in and through the nations of the world and the governments
of the world. The second beast, the more dangerous
beast, represents all false religion and all human philosophy that's
in the world. So look at this first beast.
John sees a beast coming up out of the sea. We'll look at the
second beast this evening. Again, John sees this beast as
he stands upon the sand of the sea. He sees it rise up out of
the sea. It's awful looking. It has seven
heads, ten horns. Upon his horns, ten crowns. Upon
his heads, the name of blasphemy. Everything about this beast just
shouts out blasphemy because it is absolutely against our
God. It's always in opposition. These
governments are always in opposition to the people of God. You look
at our own nation. We don't have to look at other
countries, you don't have to look at third world countries
at all, but just look at our government, state government,
local government, state governments, and federal governments, and
look throughout the ages really, as long as we've been a nation.
They've been in opposition to the gospel of God's grace. I know there's been some religion
along the way. And many of our forefathers were
religious men. But our nation, contrary to what
people are saying, our nation was never a Christian nation.
This is not a Christian nation. Unless you want to say that Christianity
includes every kind of religious belief. If you want to say Christianity
includes every kind of religious belief, then under that umbrella,
yeah, we would fit, but not real Christianity. Not those who really
believe God. Not those who stand for His gospel. Not those who believe in His
grace. The people of God, historically,
go all the way back to the beginning, to the governments of this earth.
Historically, the governments of this earth have been against
the people of God because we don't receive other beliefs. We don't say everybody's right. We don't say you believe your
way, we'll believe our way and we'll all wind up in heaven someday. That's not what we believe. Ours
is a very exclusive, exclusive doctrine. It is salvation by
grace alone. No works of man, no will of man,
no efforts of man whatsoever. All of God and all in Christ
Jesus and all of grace based upon the Word of God, that's
what the people of God have always stood for. And the political
systems of this world, the authorities of this world, by and large, are against this belief. The last phrase of verse 1 says,
upon his head were the names of blasphemy. Blasphemy! Evil
speaking. The civil world thinks nothing
of blaspheming the name of our God. Evil speaking against the Lord.
Evil speaking against Christ Jesus. Evil speaking against
His people. Evil speaking against the true
gospel. Make no mistake about it, the
philosophies and the leaders, represent the beast, manipulated
by the beast, who's in opposition to the gospel of Christ Jesus.
And yet, back behind the beast, there is the everlasting purpose
of God, which is being fulfilled and which is being worked out. In verse 1, he talks about the
sand of the sea that sets forth a multitude of people. In the
second verse, he says of this monster, he said he's like a
leopard, bloodthirsty, quick to pounce on its prey. He says it has its feet like
a bear. The idea here seems to be the
idea of strength. and deadliness. It says he has
a mouth like the mouth of a lion. This is the brutality and the
deadliness of a lion. No wonder for Satan as a roaring
lion goes about seeking him he may devour. And you'll notice
at the end of verse 2, this beast receives from the dragon that
which our Lord Jesus refused when he was tempted. This beast
accepts it. This is what our Lord refused
from Satan when Satan tempted him in the garden. He refused
power, position, and authority. That's given to the beast by
the red dragon. A very interesting statement
in verse 3, and I saw one of his heads, as it were, wounded
to death. And his deadly wound was healed,
and all the world wondered after the beast. I enjoyed reading
several of the old commentators on this. They believe this is
a reference to the old Roman Empire, which rose to great. power and great authority, and
then was severely wounded. And as far as the world power
was concerned, pretty much had its head cut off. But it's been
healed. It's been resurrected, as it
were, by the Church of Rome. The Church of Rome, with all
of its Antichrist teachings. And I know the Roman Catholic
Church, we have friends within that denomination, and you do
as well perhaps, but it is both a political as well as a religious
institution. And it is anti-God and anti-Christ. And all of the authority of Rome
comes from the dragon. And I don't mean to be striking
out merely against Roman Catholicism, but I will say this. It is throughout
the world. It is throughout the world. And
it's deadly doctrines. You see, nobody is saved believing
Roman Catholic doctrines. Because the emphasis is not upon
Christ Jesus, it's upon Mary, the mother, they say, of God.
Mary was not the mother of God. God has no mother. Mary was the
mother of the nature of our Lord in this flesh. But Mary was not
a sinner. She was not born without sin. She said, my soul rejoices in
God my Savior. And yet the world worships Mary. You go especially into other
countries and it's more of a reality in those countries than it is
in this country. There is the exaltation of Mary
over Christ Jesus. This is anti-Christ. And the Roman government, though
as it were its head was cut off years ago as an empire, it has
resurfaced, it has remade, she has remade herself as both a
political and a religious empire, and it is called the Church. The Church of Rome. And it really comes from the
beast. And notice what people do in
verse 4. They worship the dragon. You
notice worship is used two times in this verse. And they worship
the dragon. This is satanic worship. Which gave power and authority
under the beast and they worship the beast. They worship the beast. They worship the church. You watch your television programs
if you choose to watch television. You look at how many of them,
whenever it's talking about the church, it's always Catholicism. Almost inevitably, it's Catholicism. And they'll do something, you'll
see them make the sign of the cross and so forth and so on. It's a worship of the beast.
It's a worship of the church. And yet, the Lord commands us
to worship Him. To worship Him. Notice what is
said at the end of verse 4. Who is like unto the beast? Who
is able to make war with Him? We can't make war against Him
and so we'll just worship Him. Who is likened to the beast?
That sounds so much like what the saints of God say about our
God. Who is likened to the Lord our
God? And false religionists say, who
is like the church? Who is like the church? Look
at the church. Look at the Pope. Look how great
our church is. And they look at us and say,
how big's your church? Well, we have a few people that
meet together. Our church numbers in the millions,
they'll say. And we have one head over our
church. Not Christ Jesus, but the Pope. The Pope. And they say, who is like the
beast? Who is like the church? The church
meaning the Church of Rome. But we say, who is likened to
Thee, O Lord among the gods? Who is likened to Thee? Glorious
in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. We say, as David
did in Psalm 113, who is likened to the Lord our God, who dwelleth
on high, who humbleth himself to behold the things that are
in heaven and that are in the earth? Who is likened to our
God? We don't say who is likened to our church. We're not pushing
the church. We're not promoting the church.
We're not exalting the church. We're exalting the Savior of
the church. That's Christ Jesus the Lord.
the rock of the church, the sacrifice of the church, that one who is
the Lord of the church, that one who is the builder of the
church, even our glorious Savior. That's the difference. Ours is
a gospel of grace. Theirs is a gospel of works.
Ours is a gospel that's based upon the doing and the dying
of our Savior. Theirs is a gospel based upon
what you do. and what you obey. Men worship a false god, but
as they do that, in reality, they're worshiping the dragon. It's really worship of the dragon. They're so deceived, so that
they call the head of their church the Vicar of Christ. The Holy
Father, who I say without, and I wouldn't
want to offend anybody, but if this does offend you, you just
have to be offended. He says He's the Holy Father.
He's the mouthpiece of the dragon. That's a fact. He's the mouthpiece
of the dragon. And look what happens in verse
5. There was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. It's not speaking the truth. And God gave him power. God ultimately
gives any kind of power. He delegates this power. He's
given some to the dragon to fulfill his purpose. Power was given
unto the beast to continue forty and two months. How long is this
persecution from false religion going to last? Till the end of
the age. Till the end of the age. And
he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his
name and to blaspheme his tabernacle. His tabernacle. Who is the tabernacle
of God? Christ Jesus, who tabernacled
in this world. You read about the Old Testament
tabernacle. Everything about that tabernacle
in the wilderness pictured our Lord Jesus or some aspect of
His work of redemption or reconciliation. But they blaspheme, they blaspheme
His name, God's name in His tabernacle. They blaspheme the name of Christ
Jesus. Anytime you talk about what man
must do to be accepted with God, rather than setting forth what
Christ Jesus has already finished! to reconcile us to God. You blaspheme
the name. You blaspheme the name of the
tabernacle of God. What was the tabernacle? The
tabernacle is where God met with men and men met with God. And it's the same today. We meet
with God and God meets with us through Christ Jesus the Lord.
But these who are in opposition to the gospel of God's grace,
they speak against God's tabernacle. You go in and you seek absolution
from your sins through the priest. That's ungodly. That's vile. That's wretched. That's anti-God,
anti-Christ. That's the religion of the dragon.
The dragon. They speak against them that
dwell in heaven. They speak against anybody who
speaks for and believes salvation by grace through the atoning
work of Christ Jesus the Lord. And in verse 7, And it was given
unto him to make war with the saints, to overcome them. False religion has martyred millions
and millions true believers down through the ages. They've done
it in the name of God. They've done it in the name of
religion. But be thankful. They can't ultimately
overcome the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. They can't defeat the purpose
of God. Oh, be encouraged, people of
God, that which He is determined to do, can be frustrated. God says, I will do all My pleasure. And look at verse 8, And all
that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him. That's not all without exception. That's all as a general rule. All that dwell upon the earth
shall worship Him, that is, all whose names are not written in
the book of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of
the world." There is a people. See, this is our confidence.
And this is God's word of grace to His covenant people. After
setting forth this beast, God now has some words of encouragement. It will be encouragement to his
persecuted people. There is a people in this world
who won't fall for the lie. They won't, they will not, they
cannot perish because they've been chosen in God's grace. Their names have been written
down in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the
world when the Lamb of God in God's eternal purpose was Himself
slaughtered by God for the redemption of all of His chosen people. Without question, we're living
in days of darkness, days of deception, days of delusion. John says many false prophets
have gone forth into the world. John says in 1 John 4, this is
the spirit of Antichrist. And before the end of this age,
we're told here that the influence of the beast of Antichrist will
be so great that all that dwell upon the earth shall worship
him, worship under his influence. But don't be concerned about
the cause of God, because he has a book. Whether this book
is real or symbolic, it doesn't matter. Within the mind and purpose
of God there is the book of the Lamb of God. The book within
which are written the names of all of the elect of God. God
Himself wrote our names there. It's the Lamb's book. It's the
Lamb's book. Within that book are all the
names of those that were given to Christ Jesus. the Lamb of
God, not a lamb, but the Lamb of God, who would redeem these
people, and save these people, and preserve these people, and
present these people before the throne of God, spotless in His
righteousness someday. So don't be discouraged. I know we're surrounded by false
religion, no question about that. But the purpose of God must prevail. It must prevail. And all those
whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, those people
are safe. They've been redeemed. They've
been justified. The Spirit of Grace is going
to see to it that they find out about the Gospel of Christ Jesus
and will give them faith to believe on Him. You see here God's eternal
purpose of grace. It says here in verse 8, the
book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
When was He slain? Well, in reality, literally,
physically, 2,000 years ago. But when God purposed His death,
when God decreed His death, it was as good as done. It was as
good as done. God has His people. He's always
had His people. We can't perish. Oh, there may
be some temporary deception, as we shall see in just a few
weeks. The Lord says to those who are
His people within Babylon, false religion, come out of her. Come
out of her, because we can't perish. We can't perish. with the wicked. It just can't
be. God's people are safe in Christ
Jesus. Now listen to verse 9. He that
if any man hath an ear, let him hear. Do you hear? Do you hear
with understanding? Do you hear with discernment?
There is a beast, a great political power, and
within that political power, Rome especially, but all of false
religion that is associated with government. See, they're both,
the thing about Rome, they're both a political entity and a
religious entity at the same time. Well, sure, they have their
own ambassador. It's like a sovereign nation,
and yet it is a church. It is a church. But she's against
the people of God. And though they despise the things
of the Lord, though they despise that one who tabernacled in the
flesh, that one who redeemed us, though they despise and speak
evil of those who dwell in heaven, those who are saved by grace,
Yet there's a people whose names are written down in the Lamb's
Book of Life, and they're safe forever in Christ Jesus. And
if you have an ear to hear, hear. And you know what? God's people
do hear. And God's people do receive.
It says this in verse 10, and this will lead us into tonight's
message. He that leadeth into captivity
shall go into captivity. Who led us into captivity? Satan did. He shall be brought
into captivity someday. He that killeth with the sword
must be killed with the sword. That is, the Lord is saying there's
going to be a just retaliation. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord. I will repay. Here is the patience
and the faith of the saints. Where patience brings to mind
the thought of waiting on the Lord. Waiting on the Lord. It's the reason I read that scripture
I did this morning from Psalm 25. Wait on the Lord. Just be
patient. I know the enemy is great. I
know the opposition is out there. I know it's worldwide. But never
forget, greater is He that is in you than he that is in the
world. And our God can't be defeated.
Christ Jesus is a glorious Savior. And through Him, we're more than
conquerors. More than conquerors. God's people. God's purpose. Can't be defeated. Let's sing a song.