All right, we'll be staying right
there in Revelation 13. Thanks, Robert, for reading that.
I don't know about straightening it all out. There's a lot of
people who disagree on this. I know this. I'm going to lay
the straight stick down, and the straight stick is the gospel.
Somebody said one time, if you want to know if one stick is
crooked, just lay a straight stick down beside it. And that's
what we'll do. We're going to lay the gospel
down. I've entitled this message, it's the second part of one I
began last week, on Satan's Fleeting Victory. Last week I dealt with
part one, the first 10 verses of chapter 13, and here in the
last few verses be part two. The reason I entitled this Satan's
Fleeting Victory, if you just read chapter 13 of Revelation,
you might conclude out of this that Satan's gonna win this battle,
he's gonna win the war. But that's not so. It may seem
that way, but if you look across the page at verse 12 of chapter
12, look at this verse here. It says, therefore rejoice ye
heavens, and ye that dwell in them, woe to the inhabitors of
the earth and of the sea, Now he speaks here of a beast that
comes out of the sea, that was last week, and now a beast that
comes out of the earth. The sea and the earth in the
book of Revelation symbolize the collective body of unbelievers,
those who live their lives in unbelief and die in their sins. The troubled sea, the sea and
the earth, which is symbolic of man's efforts, you know, salvation
doesn't come from the earth. It comes from heaven. And the
inhabitors of the earth and the sea are those who are so connected
to this world that they have no real interest in the truth,
the gospel of Christ. heavenly things. And so a lot
of times you'll see that phrase used in Revelation, the inhabitants
of the earth. Well, we all live in the earth.
Aren't we inhabitants of the earth? Well, the Bible makes
a distinction between the people of God and the inhabitants of
the earth. And it says it this way, we're citizens of a heavenly
country. We're in the world, not of the
world, that's right. And so we're actually, if you're
a believer, a sinner saved by grace, you're an alien on this
world. And I'm not talking about ET
or UFOs. I'm talking about how our citizenship
is in heaven. Paul wrote that in Philippians,
I believe it was chapter three. We're talking about our citizenship,
our conversation, that word conversation there, citizenship. So he says,
woe, in verse 12 here, woe to the inhabitants of the earth
and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto you, having
great wrath. Now that's what Revelation 13
is describing, the great wrath of the devil. Who, by God's appointment
now, and I know people don't like to hear this, But it's so
by God's appointment who is allowed and enabled to bring wrath down
upon people as a judgment, as a judgment, just like God allowed
him to afflict Job individually. And it says the reason that the
devil is so active and so wrathful, raging, Look at verse 12, the
last line, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And what's described here in
Revelation 13 is that short period of time that it seemed like he's
won, but he hasn't won. Christ has already won the victory.
We know the main victory that he won was on the cross. Because
that's when the devil was cast down out of heaven and he wasn't
able to accuse the people of God anymore. But one thing I
want to assure you of this, no matter what goes on with the
devil and all of his deceptions, and that's what he works in,
deceptions, the true people of God have nothing to fear. God's gonna save his people.
They're gonna come under the gospel. They may be deceived
for a while. In fact, we all start out deceived.
But the Holy Spirit is sent into the world as the spirit of truth
to bring God's people under the gospel, the truth, not just religion
now, not just to join a church and get baptized and blah, blah,
you know, but to hear the truth as it is in the word of God,
and he's gonna bring them to faith in Christ and repentance
of dead works, and he's gonna cause them to persevere in that
faith. He won't let them go. And that's
the victory. Well, these are tough messages. And it's not because of the symbols,
the beast and all of that. The first beast that came out
of the sea represents ungodly nations and governments. That's
what it represents. Political entities, political
organizations all over the world. And I want to tell you now, there
never has been and never will be a, quote, Christian, unquote,
nation on this earth. Now, there are Christians, but
not nations, and not even America. Now, the founding fathers, they
applied some biblical principles, but it wasn't Christian at all.
Christianity is an exclusive religion. And this is another
thing people don't like to hear. And that's why these are hard
messages because they offend so many people. Truth offends.
It does. And it's an expose. It exposes
things as they are. And you think about nations and
their governments and how corrupt they become and all that. You
know, sometimes God sends bad leaders to a nation as a judgment
upon that nation. He did it to Israel. Remember
Jeremiah, the prophet? His message, you know what his
message was to the people? God's coming in judgment, we
might as well accept it and take our punishment. And they called
him the prophet of doom. He said, we're getting what we
deserve. You think that might be happening to our nation? I
don't know. But I know this, we're under an ungodly government.
Now God's in control, don't get me wrong. And he's gonna work
all things after the counsel of his own will, and he's gonna
work all things for the good, for his people. So whatever happens,
we're safe in Christ. Now we might not be safe in this
world from the government or whatever, but we're safe in Christ. And that's the positive message.
Oh my goodness, think about it, to stand before God washed in
the blood of Christ, clothed in his righteousness. How safer
can you be? And we live our lives by the
grace and power of God, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. I don't look to Washington for
my salvation, how about you? Now, I want to be a responsible
citizen, and I pray that the Lord will give us good leaders
But it's not going to change this nation into a Christian
nation, because the gospel is one thing. Good government is
another. So we pray for that. So this
first beast is anti-Christ. It's anti-God, anti-Christian
nations. And as it pertained to the time
of John's writing of this, it would have referred to the Roman
Empire, but don't limit it to Rome. It goes on all the way
through the New Covenant age, the church
age that we're living in now, all the way up to the time of
the second coming of Christ. But it would have applied to
Rome in this day. It was the Roman Empire. The Jewish nation was enslaved
to Rome. And then the Roman Empire, you
remember that it said that there was the beast that was wounded
and that the Roman Empire was defeated? The Fall of the Roman
Empire, one of the most famous books. I don't know who wrote
to Edward Gibbon, I think, but I'm not sure. But the fall of
the Roman Empire, but then it raised back up. It came alive
again in the religion of Rome. I know people don't want to hear
that, but it's true. The religion of Rome, the Roman
Catholic, it's both a political and a religious entity, organization. And we're coming to that here
in verse 11. He says, I beheld another beast
coming up out of the earth. Now, the beast coming up out
of the sea is ungodly governments, political organizations, ungodly
nations. The beast coming up out of the
earth is ungodly religion. And that's where it gets really
bad, as far as people hearing this message. It's hard to preach
because, you know, I don't wanna offend people. I wanna make friends
and influence people, just like anybody else, but I'm not gonna
lie to be your friend. And if I did lie to be your friend,
it wouldn't change the truth, would it? The earth. Salvation doesn't
come out of the earth. Truth doesn't come out of the
earth. That's the problem with a lot of religious people, even
so-called Christians today. They reason from the ground up. where salvation and gospel truth
comes from heaven down. It must be revealed, that's what
Christ said. He said, he who knoweth the Father.
No one knoweth the Father saveth the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation, it is a revelation. This book is called Revelation.
That means uncovering things that we can't figure out for
ourselves, reasoning from the ground up. Salvation is of the Lord, not
of man. And that's what this means. This
beast come out of the earth. It says he had two horns like
a lamb. Horn represents power. But now this beast is a little
different from the first beast. because this beast appears harmless
as a lamb. That's right. You know, we wouldn't have any
problem if this was literal, you know, some big hairy beast,
you know, that would scare us all like a horror movie. That
wouldn't be deceptive. The word beast describes its
demeanor in opposition to Christ and his church. You know, I've often said of
our country, which I love, and I'll make sure you understand
now, when I say I love my country, and I'm a patriot, I don't look
to my country as my salvation, I look to Christ for my salvation.
But I've often said if you look at man's efforts in government,
I believe America, the history of America, represents the best
that human beings can accomplish as far as human government. But
it's still not going to last. It's still not our salvation.
It's still imperfect. It has to allow, and I'm glad
it allows this, it has to allow for all kinds of religion. Do
you know that? The founding fathers were adamant
there can be no state religion, and I'm glad they can, because
I'll guarantee if there was a state religion, it wouldn't be the
religion of Christ. It has to view one religion as
good as the other. Well my friend, that's the beast
that comes out of the earth. Salvation's not by the works
of man, it doesn't come from the earth, it comes from God.
It's the work of God. Salvation's not conditioned on
man, it's conditioned on Christ. And Christ fulfilled those conditions.
But this beast appears like a lamb. Now a lamb is harmless. This beast is deceptive, trying
to make you think that it's the same as the Lamb of God. But
it's not. The true Lamb of God is Christ.
What does that Lamb mean? He's the sacrifice for the sins
of his people. He laid down his life. He was
led as a lamb to the slaughter. That's Christ. But this beast
only appears It's almost like false Christianity. It appears
to be Christian, but it's not. Now, how do you know the difference?
Look on in verse 11. He had two horns like a lamb,
and he spoke as a dragon. Now, who's the dragon? That's
Satan. How do you know the difference? By their words, by their speaking,
by their message. What is the message of this beast
who appears like a lamb, this beast that claims to be Christian
but is not? Well, it's salvation by the works
and the wills of men. It's salvation in some way, to
some degree, at some stage, conditioned on you and me. It's not grace,
it's always in some way, in some degree, the works of men and
women to earn and deserve God's blessings. And that's not grace. Look over with me at 2 Corinthians
11. And we've read this before, but I'm gonna repeat it because
this is important. Satan operates in deception. He's not gonna come to you appearing
to be a red demon with a beard and horns and a tail and a pitchfork. He disguises himself as an angel
of light. But look at verse two of 2 Corinthians
11. Paul writes here, for I'm jealous
over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one
husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
Now that language is a language of marriage, talking about the
church and all believers collectively being married to Christ. Christ
is our husband, Christ is our provider, and it's Christ alone. So you're not married to anybody
else. You don't have multiple, we're not polygamist. We have
one husband and that's Christ. But I fear, verse three, but
I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve. Now that
beguiling bewildered her, confused her, got her all messed up in
her mind through his subtlety. Now, you know what it is to be
subtle, don't you? It's like being stealth, you
know, sneaking in. So your mind, now listen to this,
so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. That's Satan's goal, that's the
goal of this beast who appears like a lamb but speaks like a
dragon. He wants to take your mind and your heart off of that
single issue of salvation that is totally and singularly wrapped
up in the glorious person and finished work of Christ. He wants
to get your mind on yourself. Am I doing enough? Can I do enough? Do I measure up? That's why I
tell you that two things that are common to all false religions
is number one, salvation conditioned somewhere, somehow, some way
on man. and they measure holiness and
righteousness and qualification on a sliding scale. Have I done
enough? For what? Done enough for what?
Have I done enough to save myself? No. Have I done enough to make
myself righteous in God's sight? No. Have I done enough to get
into heaven? How about that? Have I done enough
to pass the test at judgment? Well, the answer's no, because
that task, that qualification, belongs singularly to Christ. You understand that? It's not
what Christ did plus me. It's not Christ, you know, preachers
today, they stand before groups and they say, God loves you and
Christ died for you, now the rest is up to you. Well, what
is that rest? That's up to you. Well, it depends
on what denomination you go to. Isn't it? Well, if the rest is
up to you, you've got no hope. Is that too hard? It's true. Christ is my all and in all. That's what the scripture says.
Christ, Ephesians 1, 3, I'm blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. Somebody says, well, you mean
we don't have to do anything? We'll do what God creates us
and enables us to do. And that is to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, repent of our dead works, and follow him
in his word. That's what we'll do. Not in
order to be saved, but because we already are by his grace. Not in order to earn our blessings
from God, but because he's already blessed us with everything in
Christ. Somebody said, well, God hasn't
blessed me with a lot of money. Well, you do understand that
a lot of money can sometimes be a curse. Remember the rich
man who filled his barns up? He said, what is that, Luke chapter
12, I think? He said, what am I gonna do now?
I'll build bigger barns, I'll fill up more stuff. Why did the
Lord come to him and say, thou fool, tonight your soul shall
be required of thee. What will a man give in exchange
for his soul? You know, the Lord blessed Abraham
with a lot of money. He blessed Philemon with a lot
of money. But that wasn't their life. Their life was Christ. Their life was the gospel. Look
at verse four of 2 Corinthians 11. Listen to this. For if he
that cometh preacheth another Jesus. How do you know the difference
between the true Jesus and another Jesus, a different kind? By the
doctrine of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? What did
he do? What did he do on the cross?
What did he accomplish? Why did he do it? Where is he
now? Well, I'll tell you who he is,
he's God manifest in the flesh. Anyone who makes him anything
less, that's another Jesus. God-man, that's who he is. Emmanuel,
God with us. He had to be both God and man
in order to accomplish the work. What did he do? He saved his
people from their sins. He did not make you savable. He didn't just provide an opportunity
for us to be saved if we would do something, cooperate, or make
the right decision, no. In fact, the Bible says that
left to ourselves, we would never make the right decision. He ensured our salvation by his
work on the cross. He said, if I be lifted up, I'll
draw all unto me. All who? All of his sheep. The
good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Why did he do
it? for the glory of God, to enable
God to be both a just God and a Savior, a righteous judge and
a loving Father. On the basis of one thing, the
merits of the obedience unto death of Christ, His righteousness
imputed to us, His life given to us. And where is He now? He's seated at the right hand
of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us. He's
not a dead martyr. Now, you may cross the sea to
go visit his tomb. They don't know where his tomb
is or was. They may sell tickets for you
and all that and make a lot of money, but they don't know. He's
not there, though. Why go there? You're better off
to come where the Gospels preach, because I know he's there. Verse four, for if he that cometh
preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you
receive another spirit which you've not received. How do I
know we have the Holy Spirit? Because Christ is being preached.
The truth is being preached. It doesn't have anything to do
with how you feel or how happy you are. I hope you're happy. He says, or another gospel which
you've not accepted. All of that, go back to our text
now, Revelation 13. So here this antichrist religion,
this beast out of the earth, appears like a lamb, speaks as
a dragon. Verse 12, he exercises all the
power of the first beast before him. This is ungodly government
and ungodly religion united together against the truth, against Christ. causeth the earth and them which
dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound
was healed." Remember that's Rome and then resurrected in
the Roman Church, the false church. Worldwide, I'm telling you, isn't
it? And whose deadly wound was healed.
Verse 13, and he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire
come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And
that, because of those powers, and I'll show you something here
in a minute, he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, the
earth dwellers, the ones who have no interest in the truth
of the gospel and Christ, how God saves sinners. By the means
of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the
beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should
make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and
did live. And what images do they have?
Think about it. Statues, emblems. And there's
nothing about God in those things. It's deceptive. Turn to 2 Thessalonians
2. Here's the commentary on this. Talks about Antichrist. Now,
Antichrist is a spirit. It's not one man who rises on
the political stage. John said Antichrist was with
him in that day, 1 John chapter two. It's that which comes in
the name of Christ, but denies the truth of Christ. And look
here, he says in verse eight, or verse seven, the mystery of
iniquity doth already work, Only he who now letteth will let until
he be taken out of the way. In other words, he's held back
for a while, but he's going to be released. And that's what
Revelation 13 is. He's released and it looks like
he's winning because he's got more. The numbers are with him,
but it's a fleeting victory. It's not going to last. He knows
he has a short time. In verse eight, and then shall
that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the
spirit of his mouth. How's God going to consume him?
By his word. and shall destroy with the brightness
of his coming, that'll be the end of it, his second coming.
Verse nine, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders. That's what Revelation
13's talking about. I mean, they'll do wonderful
things. They'll seem like miracles, but it'll be a lie. And he says
in verse 10, and with all the deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish, because they receive not the love of
the truth, that they might be saved. But look at verse 11 of
2 Thessalonians 2. For this cause God shall send
them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. God's sending
this as a judgment. upon those who refuse to believe
and follow the truth. And he says in verse 12 that
they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. Well, what's my hope then? I'm
a sinner, you're a sinner. Well, look at verse 13 of 2 Thessalonians
2. Here it is. But we're bound to
give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. That's election. Through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. That's the new birth.
How do I know I'm elect? How do I know I've been born
again? Look at verse 14. Whereunto he called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
it. Go back to Revelation 13. Well, he deceived them that dwell
on the earth. Calls them to make an image to
the beast which had the womb by sword and did live, look at
verse 15, and he had power to give life, that word life there
is breath. Satan cannot give life. but he
can breed deception into the hearts of unbelievers. Unto the
image of the beast, and the image of the beast should both speak
and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the
beast should be killed. And there have been martyrs in
the faith, true believers who've been killed by the state and
by the false church. Think about the Spanish Inquisition.
Things like that. And he said, as would not worship
the image of the beast should be killed. Verse 16, and he calls
us all both small and great, rich and poor, free in bond.
See there's no barrier here. To receive a mark in their right
hand or in their foreheads. Now here's where people get kind
of crazy. What mark? Well look at verse
70, that no man can buy or sell save he that had the mark. The
name of the beast and the number of his name, the mark of the
beast. Here's wisdom. Let him that hath understanding
count the number of the beast. Well, what is the number of the
beast? For it is the number of a man. And it's the number of
600, three scoring six, six, six, six. Now you'll hear all
kinds of different ideas on this. You'll hear about tattoos. You'll
hear about computer chips under the skin and all of that. Don't
get deceived by that stuff. The number here is symbolic of
the number of man which always falls short of perfection. Now what's the number of perfection?
Seven. Seven, seven, seven. It's finished. The number of a complete finished
work. But man's efforts to save himself
will always fall short For all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God. What's the glory of God? The
perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
And as long as you don't see that and you're trying to work
your way or earn your way into God's favor, it's gonna be a
six number of man. And it's gonna be in your forehead
and on your hand. What's the forehead symbolic of? The mind. False doctrine, false gospels,
that's the 666. It's short, short, short, fail,
fail, fail. And then on your hand, what's
the hand represent? It represents man's works, man's
efforts, reaching for something, reaching for righteousness, but
you'll always fall short. Reaching for God, but you'll
never make it. You remember the high priest
in the temple? He had a plate on his forehead on the mitre
and it said, holiness unto the Lord. That's what was to be in
his mind. That's what that means. It's
not gonna be a computer chip or a tattoo or anything like
that. Heck, if you walked in here with a 666 on your forehead,
that wouldn't deceive me. Wouldn't deceive anybody. And
that about buying and selling, there were times in history where
if you didn't buy in to the false doctrine of the state and the
false church, you couldn't buy things, you couldn't keep a job,
they put you in jail. It may come a time like that
again. We don't know. But that's what it is. But always
know this. The people of God are safe in
Christ. What's written in our minds,
in our hearts, our forehead? The gospel of God, the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What's on our hands? The fruit
that God has produced. Not us, we didn't produce it,
we just bear it. The fruit of faith in Christ
and true repentance. The obedience of faith, perseverance
in Him. May the Lord give us eyes to
see and ears to hear in this area. All right, let's close
our service by singing a few verses of hymn number 393. 393,
take my life and let it be. Let's stand and sing.