All right, Revelation 13, life
in an anti-Christian world. It goes without saying, and I've
said this before, that when you read passages of scripture like
this in Revelation 13, that it certainly is a very, very symbolic
language. And as you well know, not everybody
agrees on the interpretation of these symbols some interpretations
go way off and they deny the gospel the gospel let me say
this whether we agree on the interpretation of these symbols
or not the gospel of God's grace in Jesus Christ the Lord of glory
as the Lord our righteousness is the key to understanding the
message of the whole book, well, the whole Bible, but the whole
book of Revelation, even this chapter. So what we're going
to be looking at here is those who, in the world, are in opposition
to Christ, in opposition to the gospel truth, which shows him
to be the one way of salvation, I am the way, the truth, and
the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me, and the
world in opposition to the church. so now whether you agree with
me on on what i believe on these things and uh... you have every
right to be wrong i could tell you that right now uh... i'll
give you that right you know we live in a free country but
anyway uh... uh... whether or not you agree
with me on this specific uh... interpretation of this we have
to agree on the gospel that's the foundational truth and that
that i believe is the key to understanding these symbols He
talks about two beasts here in Revelation 13. Now he already
talked about the red dragon. The red dragon is symbolic of
Satan. He's the red dragon. And there
are two beasts that come and follow the red dragon. One rises
up out of the sea, look at verse one. He said, I stood upon the
sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea. Now in
the Bible, you have to understand that the sea represents several
things first of all it represents the nations because that's what
you know crossing the sea to the to the world you know uh...
all the nations of the earth so we know this that this beast
coming up out of the sea represents the nations now in the bible
the sea also represents uh... turmoil chaos even death You
know, a lot of times when they took a boat or a ship out to
sea, they were taking their lives in their hands. And that's the
way it is. It was the unknown. So the sea,
you know, like for example, when John uses the crystal sea, as
smooth as glass, as a symbol of the church, that's the sea
that's tamed, you see. We rest. We're not in turmoil
and chaos. We have order. we have an assurance
of salvation in Jesus Christ. And that's why the church or
God's elect over the world are represented as the crystal smooth
glassy sea. But here they come up out of
the sea which represents the unknown, the chaotic, sinful
death of this world, the nations. So whatever this beast represents,
he shows us that it's a worldwide thing here. And so this beast,
now another thing you need to understand is the word beast.
There's a couple of words in the book of Revelation for the
word beast. One means a wild animal that cannot be tamed.
And that's what this beast is. Sometimes when you see the word
beast it talks about the four beasts who are the ministers
of Christ and that's not the same word. That's just talking
symbolic of the ministers and things like that. But this beast
comes up out of the sea. Now remember we were told before
in Revelation 12 that Satan is declaring war upon the church.
Satan is coming against the church. that's what the revelation twelve
is about the red dragon attacking the church doing everything he
can to destroy the church and that's why the lord was careful
when he talked to his disciples about establishing the church
remember what he said the gates of hell will not prevail against
it so we have an assurance of victory now the assurance of
victory is not in our numbers Thank God. It's not in our strength. It's not in our goodness. You
see, we have no goodness but Christ. Christ is my goodness. I'm talking about God's standard
of goodness. Christ is my righteousness. I'm washed in his blood. You
remember we read over there in Revelation 12 about when the
dragon, when Satan accused the brethren in verse 11 of Revelation
12, they overcame him by the blood of the lamb. That's how
we defeat Satan. It's not by exorcisms or even
prayer. Now we pray, you know, when Paul
wrote that in Ephesians 6, you know, he talked about putting
on the whole armor of God. He concluded that whole thing
with praying. So we do pray. But even the strength
of prayer is what? Is who? Jesus Christ, our mediator,
our high priest. So Christ is our victory here.
Well now these two beasts, one comes up out of the sea and then
later on we're going to read about one who comes up out of
the earth, verse 11. I beheld another beast coming
up out of the earth. They're two different beasts.
One, what I believe the beast that comes up out of the sea
represents is anti-christian governments that prevail in this
world and oppose Christ and the gospel and his church. anti-christian
empires, anti-christian kings, that whole conglomeration of
political and economic systems that are against the church. And that's what this first beast
represents. Look, it says he has seven heads and ten horns. Now these symbols are very difficult
to interpret. Why just seven heads? I heard
somebody say that seven represents the number of perfection. Really
what seven represents is the number of a completed work. God created the world in six
days and on the seventh day he rested. Why? Because the work
was finished. The number seven doesn't say
necessarily anything about the work itself. It's just whatever
work it is, it's done. And that's why Christ is our
seven. He finished the work of redemption
on the cross and we rest in him. And that was a perfect work.
But now here, the seven heads that are on this anti-Christian
beast, these anti-Christian governments and economic systems, what he's
showing here is that this is the completion of a work. It's
coming to an end. That's what he's teaching. and
he says it had ten horns and upon his horns were ten crowns
and upon his heads the name of blasphemy." Now let me give you
some things to think about here. It's not far-fetched to think
that the people to whom John was writing in that day when
they hear this thing about seven heads and ten horns that they
may have thought about the Roman Empire and certainly that would
be logical. Well, and certainly the Roman
Empire was an anti-Christian government. You know, people
talk about today about how bad the government has gotten. Think
about how bad the government was when John was writing this. You know, we think about our
government. You know the best thing about our government, as
far as the history of the United States, is not godliness and
Christianity, folks. Now, understand what I'm saying. The best thing about our government
was not godliness and Christianity. It was not a Christian government.
Now, there were things that our founding fathers admired about
the Bible in moral codes and law codes and all of that, and
they incorporated some of those things into the Constitution,
but it was not a Christian foundation. Where do you find the gospel
in it? The gospel of God's free and sovereign grace and saving
sinners based on the blood and the righteousness of Christ.
Where is that in our constitution? It's not there. Because that's
not what they intended to do. Some of the founding fathers
didn't even claim to be Christian. You know, I've told you, Thomas
Jefferson, you know, he wrote a version of the New Testament
where he took out all the miracles because he didn't believe in
them. He didn't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was God in
human flesh. He admired a lot of things about
what Jesus taught in the moral code, in the love code, but they
weren't Christian. But the best thing about our
government is our freedom that was guaranteed, and that's all
by the providence of God. We had freedoms that they didn't
have back then when John wrote. The government, the empire of
Rome, was totally at war with Christianity. And we've had a
little reprieve of that kind of opposition in our country
for the past couple hundred or more years because of God's providence. We've been spoiled rotten. That's basically what I say.
We have been, you know, because we didn't... Think about living
back then when Nero, remember the Roman Emperor Nero? He was
a madman. And he probably did more to persecute
people who called themselves Christians, at least. You've
heard stories about the arenas and the lions and all of that,
and how they outlawed anybody who wouldn't say Caesar is God
or Caesar is Lord. Well, see, we haven't been raised
that way, you see. We've been privileged. Now, that
may not go on. I don't know what's going to
happen in the future. But the best thing about our government
is they didn't have that liberty. Back then. So whenever John spoke
of this beast coming out of the sea, whenever he talked about
the seven hills, Rome was located on seven hills. Is this a symbol
for Rome? I can't say that for sure. Is
this what the Holy Spirit had in mind when he inspired John
to write this? I can't say that because I don't
have a chapter and verse to go to to say this is what that means.
But I know this, whatever he's talking about, It's, he's talking
about the completion of a work that Satan is attempting to do
and he will not be successful. The gates of hell will not prevail
against the church. Well, what about the 10 horns?
Well, horns represent power and all the crowns, 10 crowns on
those 10 horns, crowns represent authority. Kingship. Is this talking about 10 kings?
Well, there was a time in history where Rome was the empire of
Rome in its latter stages, that it was divided up amongst 10
different tribes or nations, 10 kings. That may be what this
is talking about. But here's the point and here's
the lesson. Whoever he's talking about, whatever
he's talking about, it is anti-governmental opposition to the church. And the way you identify it is
not by giving it a specific name. The way you identify it is it's
false message. And these anti-Christian governments,
you know what their false message is? And here it is, and this
will float your boat today. We're the solution to your problem. You follow Caesar and everything
will be okay. You follow big government, everything
will be okay. Are you poor? What's the solution? Government. Now that's a lie. That's a lie. Listen, the Bible
speaks out against that. We're the solution. We're going
to save the world. We're going to save the earth.
Now, you know, I've often told you, you know, just like you
think about the environmental thing. Now, I believe that we
should all be responsible people in this world. I believe we shouldn't
be wasteful. I believe we ought to take care of what we've got.
I believe we ought to take care. I don't believe that we ought
to consciously in a willy-nilly way, promote pollution or anything
like that. Here's the thing, we cannot save
this world. This world is a fallen, sin-cursed
world. Paul said in Romans chapter 8
that the whole creation groaneth, waiting for what? The revelation
of the children of God. That's talking about glory when
all of this will be burned up and there'll be a new heavens
and a new earth. Our governments cannot save this
world. There's nobody you can put in
the White House who's going to save this world. Because this
world is doomed. That's why this world's not our
home. You see, we're citizens of another kingdom. We live in
the world and we ought to be responsible in the world. We
ought to be good citizens, all of that, as long as the citizenship
doesn't require us to oppose or deny or confuse the gospel.
But listen, government can't save this. And that's what anti-Christian
government does. We're the solution to your problem.
We can save you. Listen, nobody can save us from
sin but the Savior, Jesus Christ. And our only hope of living forever
is in Him, standing before God, washed in His blood and clothed
in His righteousness. Now, like I said, you may have
some other ideas about the ten horns and the ten crowns. But
look at verse one again, the last part, and upon his heads
the name of blasphemy, or names, plural. Anti-opposition to Christ
comes in many forms. But that word blasphemy, you
know, that means slander. That's evil speaking against
God, against Christ. And that's what this is. Don't
turn to the true and living God as he's revealed in the Bible.
As he's revealed in the person and work of Christ, turn to yourself. Turn to us. Turn to the government. Look at verse two. He says, and
the beast which I saw was like 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."
Now most commentators, and certainly you can go back there, you remember
back in the book of Daniel chapter 7, Daniel had a vision of four beasts. And three of them are mentioned
here, the leopard, the bear, and the lion. And there was a
fourth beast that wasn't symbolized by any specific earthly animal,
but it was just another beast and it was the worst one. And
we're told in the book of Daniel what those four beasts in Daniel
7 represent. They represented four earthly
ungodly empires, governments. It's said right there in Daniel
7. You go back and read that on your own. I've got a list.
I've got it cited in your lesson. One, I think the leopard represented
the Medo-Persian empire, if I'm not mistaken. I don't want to
take time to turn back there because I don't want to keep
you too long this morning. But I think that was the Medes
and the Persians. No, I'm sorry. One of them represented
the Babylonian Empire. The other one represented the
Medo-Persian Empire. And then you had the other one
representing the Greek Empire, Alexander the Great. And then
the fourth one represented the Roman Empire. And of course,
what was happening there is Daniel was prophesying of the future. And how these empires would come
along, the Babylonian empire first, would conquer Judah. You
remember the book of Isaiah and the book of Jeremiah predicted
that. Jeremiah lived up until the time of the beginning of
the Babylonian conquering of Judah. And then they went into
captivity seven years. And then the Medes and the Persians,
that was Cyrus, King Cyrus. He's prophesied in Isaiah 46.
He came down, they freed up the Israelites, let them go back
to their own home. And then later on, Alexander
the Great came. And then later on, the Roman
Empire came. Well, all of those were, even though God used those
empires to accomplish his sovereign purpose and will, they in themselves
were evil anti-Christian governments. That's what they were. You think
about that, that's amazing, isn't it? Talking about the sovereign
purpose of God. It's kind of like this, you know,
you take like the Medes and the Persians. You know what? God
used that ungodly, idolatrous nation and king to free the Jewish
people from Babylonian captivity. And it's kind of like what Joseph
said back in Genesis chapter 50. They meant it for evil, but
God meant it for good. And that's the way it is. God
overrules. He controls them. Well, here
in Revelation 13, we have these beasts mentioned. You have the
leopard, his feet were as the feet of a leopard who represented
an ungodly government. Does it represent a specific
one? I don't know, but I know this. It represents an ungodly
one, an anti-Christian one. Now, what he's saying is life
in the last days is going to be lived under ungodly governments. anti-Christian governments. The
feet of a bear, the bear being ferocious, and then the mouth
as the mouth of a lion. Remember, Satan is sometimes
symbolized as a roaring lion. In 1 Peter, I think chapter five
it is, a roaring lion who's going about to see who he may devour,
all of that. And he says these beasts, these
anti-Christian governments, philosophies, economies, The dragon gave them
their power. What power they had, it was given
to them by the dragon. So it's satanic. Now you're gonna
find out later on, talking about people worshiping the beast,
you say, well, that's kind of far-fetched. Well, don't people
worship the government now? And you know what he's saying
here? To worship the beast, worship the government, is to worship
Satan. That's how bad it is. He says the dragon gave him his
seat, that's his position, and gave him his authority. It comes
from Satan. Now you know and I know, according
to the Bible, that it all is ultimately by the sovereign purpose
and power of God. Satan can't do anything except
as he is allowed by God to do it. You know that. So think about
this now. I hear people talking about,
well, what is your worldview? Or what is your worldview? What
is the Christian worldview? I'll tell you the Christian worldview
in three words, four words. God is in control. There's the
Christian worldview. And we can state it so many different
ways. Christ is on the throne. And he's not coming off. When
you go through a hard trial or go through a lot of opposition,
that doesn't mean Christ stepped down off his throne. He's still
in control. And that's our worldview of everything. So this is it. He talks about the lion here,
Satan, and you can think about Satan being a roaring lion. Well,
where's our hope? Our hope is in the lion of the
tribe of Judah. That's Jesus Christ and him crucified. And then look at verse three.
Now, this one's a difficult one to interpret, but I'll give you
a couple of ideas, all right? In fact, one I just read about
a month ago and been thinking about, and I'll show you what
I mean. He says, I saw one of his heads as it were wounded
to death. And he said, and his deadly wound was healed, and
all the world wondered at the beast. Now, what's he talking
about? He has, there have been so many
wild speculations on this that I couldn't spend, I don't have
time to sit here and list them all and I wouldn't do that anyway,
it wouldn't do you any good. But just to give you an idea,
have you ever heard the theory about John F. Kennedy being the
Antichrist and all that and he's somewhere on an island with a
hole in his head and all that? See, I mean, things like that.
I mean, you'll hear just wild, speculative, nonsensical things. And again, that comes from trying
to interpret scripture not with scripture and not in light of
the gospel, but through the headlines and mythology and people's whims
and fancies. I got an email last week from
a guy across the sea who's talking about aliens on Mars and on the
moon, you know, things like this. And so you'll hear all kinds
of wild things. Just discount that stuff. What happens here is there's
something that happens that causes people to think that the beast
or part of the beast is dead. and then it rises back up again.
Now the most common interpretation of this that could make sense
and does no damage to the gospel is goes back to Rome. For example,
think about the Roman Emperor Nero. He was an infamous persecutor
of the church. He declared war on Christianity. Remember, you've heard the stories
about Rome burned and Nero played the fiddle. Well, Nero blamed
the burning of Rome on Christians. So he went after. Well, Nero
committed suicide. You know that. And everybody
kind of rejoiced and thought, well, the Roman Empire's gone,
but it wasn't. It rose back up again in the
other succession of Roman emperors that followed Nero. So that could
be pointing to that historical event. Others, another interpretation
of this, has to do with the Roman Empire in general. You've heard
of the book, The Fall of the Roman Empire. Rome is dead. All of that. And when that happened,
people would say, well, that opposition is dead. But Rome
came back. in another form. Anybody know
what form it was? The Roman Catholic Church. And
the Roman Catholic Church, you read history now, false religion,
and I make no bones about saying that, it's false anti-Christian
religion. Now we're going to get into that
next when we get to the beast out of the earth. That's the
false prophet. That's anti-Christian religion.
But the Roman Catholic Church was an infamous persecutor of
those who believed the true gospel. So that could be talking about
that. I heard another theory on this that is talking about
Satan himself, that when Christ died on the cross, that's when
he wounded the head of Satan as per Genesis 3.15. Remember
the seed of woman will bruise your head. The word bruise there
means crush. you'll bruise his heel. In other
words, the death blow as far as Satan's power to deceive the
world, or Satan's power to condemn, which he really had none anyway
by his accusations, but the death blow was delivered to Satan then
and then you had a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit And the church
began to be formed, 3,000 at Pentecost, later on 5,000, and
then the church began to be persecuted and it went out through the world
and there were churches started in Galatia and Ephesians, even
Rome had the church, the true church. But then what happens? Satan is loosed. He arose back
again. And he's allowed by God to deceive
the nations again. Now that's the theories that
I think do no damage to the gospel, all that other nonsense you can
throw out. But what he's talking about here is this. During the
last days, Satan is alive and well on planet earth. Now somebody
wrote a book about that and it's a nonsense book, but the title's
true. In the New Testament church,
Satan is alive and well. Satan is right now, you know
what he's doing in the world? He's sowing his tares. And you know what his tares are?
Somebody said, well, they're false believers. Yeah, they're
false churches. They come in the name of Christianity, but
they deny the gospel. And again, so we see the key
to understanding the message here is this, it doesn't matter
what it is, an individual, an institution, a government, an
empire, a king, a prime minister, it doesn't matter who it is,
if they deny the gospel of God's grace in Christ, they're part
of this system, this beast, period. Now that's the message. Look
at verse four. Now it does say all the world wondered after
the beast, they were amazed. at this thing. And it says in
verse four, and they worshiped the dragon which gave power into
the beast, because to worship the beast is to worship the dragon,
Satan. You can't get away from it. Let
me tell you something, folks. Don't let what people call Satan
worshipers today, wearing black robes and killing cats and all
that, don't let that alarm you. That's out there. I mean, that
doesn't deceive the elect of God. Satan is where these false
messages of salvation, anywhere but in Christ and Him crucified
and risen, anywhere but in His blood and righteousness, Satan's
where that message is not preached, not promoted. We need to understand
that. And he says they worship the
dragon, the beast, they worship the beast, saying, who is likened
to the beast? Who is able to make war with
him? We know what the people of God say. Who is like unto
our God? You say, the beast of anti-Christian
government, that's the world we live in. And the key to understand,
whether or not we understand the exact meaning of all these
symbols and all, we know that it's anti-gospel. And so the
gospel is the key to understanding it.