All right, let's turn in our
Bibles to the book of Revelation chapter 13. Revelation chapter
13. And our subject, our subject
last week and our subject today is life in an anti-Christian
world. Last week was part one, this
is part two. We're going to begin at verse
five, but I want to go back and read the first verses of Revelation
13. We're into the fourth vision
that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to the Apostle John. You remember
Revelation is a series of seven visions that depict and describe
in symbolic language The last days, which refers to that segment
of time, the age between the first coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ to put away the sins of his people and the second coming
of Christ to gather his people unto himself and conquer his
enemies, destroy this earth and create a new heavens and a new
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. What we have in Revelation is
seven different views of that same age. Now a lot of people
interpret Revelations, as you know, to the book of Revelation
as a sequence of things, and there is a sequence of things
during this time, but I believe these seven visions all describe
symbolically that same age. And the things that the church
will go through, especially here in this fourth vision, what he's
talking about is how Satan is set loose to attack the church,
persecute the church in the last stage, the last days. Satan, as you know, here in Revelation
12, he's represented as the red dragon, that old serpent, Revelation
12, 9, the devil, Satan, who deceives the whole world. Now,
the whole world there doesn't mean everybody without exception,
because we've already seen that there is a remnant of God's grace. God's elect out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation, Jew and Gentile, who are symbolically
described back in Revelation 7 as the 144,000, the 12 tribes
of Israel, that's spiritual Israel, who are sealed in their foreheads
with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's being sealed in
your forehead has to do with regeneration, conversion, the
new birth by the Holy Spirit who gives us a new heart, a new
life, new spirit. New knowledge, all of that, raises
us from the dead because of the righteousness that Christ wrought
out for us on Calvary and that which was imputed to us. So righteousness
imputed is the ground, life given, regeneration and conversion is
the fruit. The Satan is set loose to deceive
the whole world. Well, here in Revelation 13,
let's read. I dealt with the first four verses last week,
but let's read them again. Revelation 13, 1, I stood upon
the sand of the sea, saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having
seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horn ten crowns, and
upon his head the name of blasphemy. Now, that beast that rises up
out of the sea, as we said, is represents what we call anti-christian
governments, empires, kings, political leaders. It's the world
against the church, against the truth, against Christ and his
people. I won't go into all these symbols because I did that last
week. Verse 2, the name of blasphemy, that which dishonors God. And
he says in verse 2, and the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard,
His feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the
mouth of a lion. The dragon, that's the red dragon
Satan, gave him his power. See, this is anti-Christ. This is an agent of Satan, this
anti-Christian world government. economy, philosophy, whatever
you want to call it. Gave him his power and his seat
and great authority. I saw one of his heads, as it
were, wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed and all
the world wondered at the beast. They were amazed. And I went
into the different views of that. In some way, this beast seemed
to be dead and then arose again. And he says in verse 4, and they
worshiped the dragon which gave power into the beast and they
worshipped the beast saying who is like unto the beast who is
able to make war with him so they were all amazed at this
beast this wild animal that cannot be tamed and they worshipped
the beast they said who is like unto him see that's that that's
the opposite of fearing and worshipping god see our our our expression
of the awesomeness of God is this, who is like unto our God?
There's none like our God. One God, one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. But they don't see that. And
so this was, this is now verses 5 through 10 that we're going
to talk about today. continues a description of this
first beast that rose up out of the sea. Next week we'll look
at the second beast that rises up out of the earth and that's
anti-christian religion who works in an unholy confederacy with
Satan and the first beast against the church. But the key is what
I titled the lesson. This is life in an anti-christian
world. We who are true Christians who
truly look to Christ and believe in him we live in an anti-christian
world and that includes not only the government you know people
are real suspicious of the government and we we talk about our country
and this is a an election year where a lot of us who are truly
saved and we look at this country as going downhill. Everything
that seems to be going on in our government and in the majority
of the people is totally against our principles. Well, that's
what this is talking about. That's life in an anti-Christian
world. But what we don't want to miss
And be deceived, it's not only anti-Christian government, anti-Christian
leaders, it's not only anti-Christian empires, it's also anti-Christian
religion, much of which comes in the name of Christ. Calls
itself Christian, but denies the doctrine of Christ, but we'll
get to that next week. Well, this first beast that comes
up out of the sea, now remember the sea represents the nations.
Sea represents darkness and death. And he says, he opened, verse
six, or verse five, he said, there was given unto him a mouth
speaking great things and blasphemies. This beast speaks great things,
meaning he brags, he boasts, he glories. And what he, I tell
you, I mean, we can go into a lot of different areas here, but
we don't have time. What he boasts of is his power to make things
right and to save and protect all who follow him. It's like
the beast says, I'm your salvation. I'm the salvation of the world.
It's like the government saying, I can solve your problems. You
know, what is the major problem of man on this earth? Well, you
know what it is. It's a little three-letter word,
sin. S-I-N. The government cannot
fix it. The government cannot solve that
problem. But the government represents
itself, the anti-Christian government, anti-Christian kings, leaders,
empires. And understand now, when I say
the government, I'm not just talking about Washington, D.C.
That's included. But they say we can fix it. We
can save the earth. Look at the environmental movement,
all right? And I've always told you now,
look, I'm not a tree hugger, but at the same time, I don't
think we ought to be irresponsible. with the things that we have
here on earth and be trashy people and all of that and just be irresponsible
environmentally. I think we ought to be very,
very astute, very wise, very conservative and conservationist,
all of that. I believe in that. But here's
the point. We cannot save this world. Somebody
says, well, I want to save it for our children. We can't save
it for our children. This world is a sin-cursed world. And this world is on its way
to destruction. Somebody said, you know, we often
use the phrase, the world's going to hell in a handbasket. Well,
yes, it's been doing that ever since the fall of man in Adam. You see, our salvation is not
connected to this earth. If it were, we wouldn't need
Christ. If it were, we wouldn't need the grace of God and the
righteousness of God. Salvation is of the Lord. It
comes from the Lord, through the Lord Jesus Christ, based
on his righteousness alone. Salvation doesn't come from our
environmental policies. But this government boasts that
they can cure poverty, for example. Well, they can't cure poverty.
So they make their boast. It's the opposite of a true believer. What's the boast of a true believer,
a sinner saved by grace? God forbid that I should glory,
boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that cross
is what he accomplished on Calvary to save us from our sins. His
righteousness imputed. It says here in verse five that
he also, he's speaking great things and blasphemies, which
as I said are things that dishonor and deny the true and living
God. This is all the philosophies, it's all the worldviews, all
the religions that oppose Christ and his truth, that's blasphemy.
And we can look at several passages, I've got several passages for
you to refer to in your personal study notice that it said in
in verse 5 there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things
and blasphemies his lies are given to him by Satan who empowers
him in this deception remember in John 8 44 when the Lord told
the Pharisees you're of your father the devil And the lust
of your father you do. He was a liar from the beginning,
because he abode not in the truth. So Satan gives this entity in
his lies. But also, It says, but power, back here
in verse five, it says, and power was given unto him to continue
forty and two months. Now all of this is ultimately
under the sovereign will, power of God as a judgment against
all who refuse to seek him and find him in Christ. Remember
in 2 Thessalonians chapter two where he talks about how God
sends them strong delusion that they should believe a lie those
who receive not the love of the truth you see if you're not really
on a search for the truth you are susceptible to the deceptions
and lies of satan as he operates through these two beasts anti-christian
government and anti-christian religion that's why it's imperative
that we be on a search for the truth And I don't have time to
go into all of that, but this is God's judgment. And the 40
and two months symbolizes the entire period of the last days
up to the second coming of Christ when he comes to judge the world
and gather his church unto himself. And I won't go into how I derive
that because I've already done that. But look at verse six. He says, and he opened his mouth
in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and
them that dwell in heaven. Now there's the key, right there. This is what he's against. He
blasphemes, he speaks blasphemy, he opens his mouth to speak blasphemy,
those things which lie on God, dishonor God, against God, you
see. In other words, he's not for
the glory of God. And he blasphemes God's name, and God's name refers
to his glory, the glory of his Godhead and his nature, his power,
his wisdom, his faith. The things that God reveals of
himself in this word is his glory. And of course, it says he blasphemes
the name of God and his tabernacle. What is God's tabernacle? Who's
God's tabernacle? That's Christ. Christ is the
dwelling place of God. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And we're complete in Him, see?
So, in other words, in coming against Christ and those who
dwell in heaven, that's His people. That's not talking about... Some
say, well, that's talking about dead believers. No, it's talking
about all believers. He's not talking about those
who dwell up there. in the third heaven, he's talking
about those who are citizens of heaven. You see, if you're
a believer, if you're a sinner saved by grace, if you're submitted
to Christ and his righteousness imputed as your only ground of
salvation, you're not a citizen of this world. You're not, as
we say, an earth dweller. You're in the world, Christ told
his disciples, but you're not of the world, you're citizens
of heaven. Your citizenship is in heaven. Paul wrote that in
the book of Philippians, I think chapter three. And so he blasphemes
this, this anti, this beast out of the sea, this anti-Christian
government, all who worship him. They blaspheme the name of God.
They blaspheme Christ. They, they blaspheme against
all who are in Christ, who are washed in his blood and clothed
in his righteousness. You see that? So Satan and the
beast blaspheme, they slander by promoting false gospels and
false ideas and faith in them instead of faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And they persecute, which in
essence is blaspheming God himself. Remember Christ said, in that
you've done this to the least of these my brethren, you've
done it unto me. Look at verse seven. He says, and it was given
unto him to make war with the saints. Now, this warfare waged
by Satan out of his anger and his hatred, his evil purposes,
is under the control of the sovereign power of God. Satan wouldn't
be able to do any of this unless God said, do it. And most people
want to soften that by saying, well, God just allows it. Well,
God's not just up there turning his back. God's in control. God's
on the throne. And it's given him to make war
with the saints. This is a judgment, you see,
against the world, to make war with the saints. Who are the
saints? The sanctified ones. Sinners saved by the grace of
God, washed in the blood of Christ, clothed in his righteousness
imputed, regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And Satan's making war
with them. Now, Satan's not going to win
the war. Satan will appear to have a victory. We're going to
see here in just a moment. But he's short-lived. It won't
be long. And the world will rejoice for
a while when they see, you know, remember back when we studied
the two witnesses lying dead in the street? But it won't last.
So what we have, we have a victory through Christ. You know, again,
what the Lord said in, what is it, John 16, somewhere around
verse 33, he says, be of good cheer, I've overcome the world.
You know, he said, you have trouble in the world. Christ has already
won the victory. But Satan is still engaged in
a warfare against him and the church. And look what it says
in verse seven, it was given him to make war with and to overcome
them. Now this is an appearance of
a victory for Satan. And what you see here is this,
as time goes along in the last age, the gospel truth becomes
scarcer and scarcer. Boy, aren't we living in that
day. The gospel truth is scarce. Now, the gospel is still being
preached. Thank God it is. We have other
brethren in other places where the gospel is preached. But compare
the number that we know of, of the gospel truth, gospel preachers
and gospel congregations, true gospel now, compared to the world,
compared to false religion, compared to even false Christianity. And
it's getting worse. And you know, whenever people
talk about, oh, our world's getting worse and worse, that's the way
I see it getting worse. It's not necessarily the immorality
of the world, even though that is there, and it's always been
there, and it's getting worse in that sense, and because we
can see it on TV and the internet. Somebody told me one time, said,
well, it was always there, but we didn't know it. Well, OK. It was always there, though.
Still here. But what you're going to see,
since the time of the first coming of Christ and that outpouring
of the Spirit at Pentecost and later on, the beginning of the
New Testament churches among the Gentiles, the spread of the
gospel. You know, Christ said in Matthew
24, the gospel must first be preached in every nation, and
then the end would come. Well, when the gospel's preached
in every nation, could we say that that's already happened?
Well, I don't know, but I know with with mass communication,
the internet today, I know it's getting around, isn't it? But
it's still getting scarcer and scarcer. And so Satan is, it's
given him to make war with the saints, to overcome them, in
other words, that appearance of victory, and power was given
him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. There's no nation
that is exempt from the judgment of God by Satan's deception. And that corresponds with Revelation
11, 7. That's the two witnesses symbolizing the church in the
last days. How they were overcome, killed,
meaning the gospel would become so scarce that the church of
the living God would appear to be dead. But it's not dead. Remember, he resurrected them.
And he deceives all nations. Now look at verse 8. He says,
and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him. Now, understand
now, you know, this is one of those passages, you know, people
love to take the all, the every, the world passages. When it comes
to the love of God and the death of Christ, they love to apply
that. Well, that means everybody without exception. Well, it does
not. The words all, The words every
and even the word world has so many different meanings and the
only way you can determine the meaning is by the context. For
example, when John 3.16 says, God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish but have everlasting life. That's not talking about
everybody without exception. It's talking about believers.
That's who it's talking about. The context tells you that. For
example, if they would turn over to 1 John 5, I believe it's verse
19, where it says, We are of God, and the whole world lieth
in wickedness, or under the wicked one, or in the wicked one. Would
they say the whole world there means everybody without exception?
No. The context shows you. He's talking about those who
are connected to Satan, unbelievers. And the same way with all and
every. Well, look here. It says, Verse eight, and all
that dwell upon the earth shall worship him. Now, who is the
all here? It's those who dwell upon the
earth. Now, does that mean everybody living on the earth? Well, I'm
living on the earth. You're living on the earth right
now. So does that include us? Well, it can't. If it does, it
means we're worshiping Satan. So that's not what it means at
all. Those who dwell on the earth refers to those who are non-elect,
the reprobate, who are so connected to this world that they refuse,
will not, even unto death, seek after the Lord, seek the Lord
and believe the gospel. And they worship Satan. Here's
what he's saying. If in your life, if you are an
unbeliever, you do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
not submitted to his righteousness imputed, as the only ground of
salvation and you continue in that state unto death and die
an unbelief you're an earth dweller dwell upon and you worship satan
now you don't wear a black robe and and go out and kill cats
and stuff like that and you know all these you know you'll see
him on tv but i'm gonna tell you something to be an unbeliever
is to be a follower of satan And here's how he identifies
them in verse 8, whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. From
the foundation of the world, the names of God's elect were
written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb slain. God chose
a people before the foundation of the world in Christ. He determined
to save them. based upon what Christ would
come and do as the surety and substitute of his people on the
cross, die and establish a righteousness whereby God could justify them.
And all whose names were not written in that book of life
before the foundation of the world, they dwell upon the earth,
they worship Satan. Now, verse nine, he says, if
any man have an ear to hear, let him hear. Somebody says,
well, you know, people draw so many objections to this. They
try to rationalize it, they try to reason it with human reasoning. Here's the bottom line. If you
hear and believe what this word says, then hear it and believe
it, you've been given spiritual hearing. If you believe this,
if you're submitted to Christ, As your only righteousness before
God, you've been given spiritual ears. You've been born again
by the spirit, because unless you're born again, you cannot
see or enter the kingdom of heaven. And that's what he says. He's
not arguing with people. Oh, I believe it means the whole
world, this, that, and the other. Oh, no, he's not arguing with
you. He just saying, you got an ear, an ear to hear, then
hear it. And then he says in verse 10,
he that leadeth captivity shall go into captivity. That's a clear
statement. Or let's go and read the whole,
he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.
That's a clear statement of God's justice in all these matters.
God is just, God does right. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right, Abraham asked. Paul wrote, but we are sure that
the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit
such things, that is breaking the law. Satan and this beast
lead people into the captivity of sin and death. Satan and this
beast murder the souls of people. They murder the saints of God
with their sword, but they can't murder the souls of the saints.
Our souls are secure in Christ. We have a righteousness that
answers the demands of God's law and justice. But Satan and
this beast, and later on we'll see the false prophet, this beast
that comes up out of the air, they will receive justice for
their crimes and God will bring them into eternal bondage of
sin and eternal death. They and all their followers
will be judged. And then he says, here is the
patience, that's the endurance of the faith and the faith of
the saints. In other words, behold, while
we're saved, and preserved by God's grace, living in this anti-Christian
world, we're called upon to stand our ground. Stand sure. Now we know, we know that our
Our perseverance is not by our power and not by our goodness,
it's only by the grace of God. Paul wrote, I know whom I have
believed, I'm persuaded that he is able, Christ is able, to
keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. He
is able, Hebrews 7, to save us to the uttermost, all that come
unto God, by him. Okay.