Revelation 13
Our reading is Revelation chapter
13, verses one through 18. And in that passage, we read these
words. This is John. He says, and I saw a beast rising
out of the sea with 10 horns and seven heads with 10 diadems
on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast
that I saw was like a leopard. Its feet were like a bear’s and
its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it, the dragon gave his
power and his throne and his great authority. One of its heads
seemed to have a mortal wound, but it’s moral wound was healed.
And the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And
they worshiped the dragon for he had given his authority to
the beast. And they worshiped the beast saying, who is like
the beast and who can fight against it? And the beast was given a
mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words. And it was allowed to
exercise authority for 42 months. It opened its mouth to utter
blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that
is, those who dwell in heaven. And it was also allowed to make
war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given
it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and
all who dwell on the earth will worship it. Everyone whose name
has not been written before the foundation of the world In the
book of life of the lamb that was slain, if anyone has an ear,
let him hear. If anyone is to be taken captive,
to captivity he goes. If anyone is to be slain with
the sword, with the sword he must be slain. Here is a call
for the endurance and the faith of the saints. Then I saw another
beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb
and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority
of the first beast in its presence, and it makes the earth and its
inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was
healed. It performs great signs, even
making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people.
And by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the
beast, it deceives those who dwell on the earth, telling them
to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword
and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath
to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast might
even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image
of the beast to be slain. It also causes all both small
and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave to be marked
on the right hand or the forehead so that no one can buy or sell
unless he has the mark that is the name of the beast or the
number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the
one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast. for
it is the number of a man and his number is 666. Amen. This is God’s word for us. God is a hundred percent sovereign. He is a hundred percent ruler
over all things. As one theologian in the 20th
century said, there is not one square inch of God’s creation
that is not mine, God says. God is 100% sovereign. God is omnipresent. He is everywhere
at all times. He is omnipotent. He is all-powerful. He does not need anyone to do
his work. He can accomplish his work on
his own, yet he does use creatures. He does use the created order
and he does use men to do his work. But he can accomplish all
his holy will and do so perfectly. Not so Satan. Satan is not sovereign. Satan is limited in location,
he is limited in his power, and he does need others to do his
work. We speak sometimes of Satan and
his minions. And he attempts to accomplish
all his evil will, but he is God’s devil. And he can only
go so far as God allows him. And so tonight as we take a peek
at this next cycle of sevens, this next cycle of the end times
in judgment, we see a picture of two beasts, two beasts who
appear, one out of the sea, one out of the earth, and they appear
between the advents of Christ, his first coming and his second
coming. And these two beasts appear,
and they appear under the authority of the devil, but ultimately
they appear under the grand authority of God himself. There is, in this passage of scripture, a
picture of Satan standing at the edge of the sea. And one
beast comes out of the sea, the other comes out of the earth. And both of these beasts have
a general mission. Their general mission is to push
against the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the things
we must remember as we consider this passage is martyrdom for
the Christian, to die as a Christian is not failure. To die as a Christian,
to die as a faithful one is not defeat. But we have these two
beasts, the beast of the sea and the beast of the land. And we wanna think a little bit
about each one tonight and then how as Christians we can overcome
them. First, the beast of the sea. The beast of the sea comes out
of the sea and he appears to be a beast that has a mortal
wound, but that mortal wound has healed. That mortal wound
was given to him by Christ at the death and resurrection of
Jesus. but that was a death blow which would be a harbinger a
sign of things to come that little one little word at the end, which
shall fail him. But we have this mortally wounded
beast and on this beast are blasphemous names. They’re blasphemous names. In this era when revelation was
written, Caesar was to be worshiped. Caesar was considered to be Lord
and God. And so if you were a Christian
and you said Jesus is Lord and God, you were often persecuted,
even martyred for that affirmation of your faith. And so this beast
wears a blasphemous name. It wears crowns upon its horns,
diadems on its horns. Supposed rule, fake rule, we
might say, has all these horns which symbolize power. What are
we to make of this Beast. What is this beast? Well, for
several weeks now, and including on our Wednesday night overviews
of Revelation and how to interpret, we’ve said, don’t try to interpret
the things in Revelation according to contemporary things. Well,
this is one of those where you can see it in a general broad
way as something contemporary. Contemporary to the first hearers,
contemporary to the first readers, Contemporary to everyone through
out church history, contemporary to us in 2019, the beast of the
sea is often considered, it’s generally considered, it’s generally
agreed on, that it speaks of the governments of the world,
the kingdoms of this world, as a cult, as an enemy of the people of almighty
God. Some of you can remember back
to your high school days when someone ran for class president.
And when they ran for class president, they made promises like there
will be a Coke machine in the cafeteria, right? Nobody wants
to drink chocolate milk and whole milk anymore. They want Coke.
And so class presidents always said, if I’m president, you make
me president, we’ll have a Coke machine in the cafeteria. And make the picture bigger. We’re seeing this with the election
here in America. The class president just promises
more free stuff, right? They promise you, you can go
to college for free. We’ll pay off your mortgage for
free. We’ll give you everything if
you’ll just vote for us. And that’s in a sense what this
beast of the sea is a picture of. Whatever it takes, let’s
win people over, not to Christ, not to Christ and his kingdom,
but to the spirit of the age and to the spirit of this world. And so we see rulers, we see
nations, we see cultic kingdoms between the advents. They run
their mouth against God. They blaspheme his name and his
people, his church and his throne in heaven. and they are against
almighty God. The original audience would have
seen this as Nero centuries into the church. They would have seen
it as Domitian. Uh, the reformers saw this, uh,
as, um, you know, the empires of their day. Persecuted Christians
in 2019 would say it’s the leader of North Korea, the president
of China or whatever nation they find themselves in and whoever’s
rule they find themselves under. But the big picture of the beast
of the sea is that These governments, these cultic governments, these
wicked governments are making war on the saints. We see it in our day and age
when our religious freedoms are taken away. We see it in our
day and age when restriction after restriction is replaced
on us. We’ve seen in our own country a a country that was
designed and founded to be a place of religious freedom where the
Puritans, the pilgrims, they could come and they could live
and they could worship and they could do as God called them to
do. Those freedoms they believed were being taken away across
the ocean. And so they made their way here to find a place where
they could live and worship and serve God freely. But we live
in a time where those freedoms seem to be We were a nation founded
where the church was sacred, the home was sacred, and the
state was a limited authority to commend evil and to punish,
or to commend good and punish what is evil. Now we see the
rise of simply the individual and the state. And if the state
can give individuals free things, that’s a simple way to put it,
Then the state rises to a place of cultic worship and the individual
does whatever the state wishes. And so this beast of the sea
makes war on the saints. And did you notice the animals
this beast is like? You find at the beginning of
verse 13, he’s like a leopard. He’s got feet like a bear. He’s
got mouth like a lion’s mouth. This enemy, this beast, he stalks. He tears, He devours. And it
is a reminder to us, a challenge to us, as the end of this first
section of 13 in verses 1 through 10, as it ends there at the very
end of 10, here is a call for the endurance and the faith of
the saints. Our call is to press on. Our
call is to keep the faith. Our call is to tough it out.
Our call, whatever generation we live in, is to understand
these enemies and to overcome them with patience and with endurance. We do not lose heart and we do
not lose faith. And so this beast out of the
sea is an idolatrous kingdom. It’s a good general way to put
it. But then there’s the second beast, the beast out of the earth.
And we might call this an idolatrous propagandist. this beast out
of the earth. And we see it in verses 11 through
18. Every, every ideology needs a pitch
man. Every ideologist needs a propagandist. And the beast of the earth is
Satan’s propagandist. And his job is to get Christians,
to get people on the earth to worship the beast, to worship
this false religion. Have you ever noticed how None
of us are really that far from false religion. We in the church
think we’re safe from it. But as we heard this morning
in Sunday school, the last 150 years of ideology, of theology,
of culture have led the church to say theology doesn’t matter,
self is most important, and we can worship God as long as it
makes us happy and pleases us. And so even within the church,
it doesn’t take too far to drop off and to say, we have fallen
into false worship. But how much more so is it easy
to follow this world? Do any of you ever go through
the shopping mall? We walked through the one in
Raleigh a couple Saturdays ago. Do you feel oppressed? Do you
feel oppressed? You’ve got to have a new cell
phone. And that leads to a new case.
That leads to a new charger. That leads to new accoutrements
for the phone at home and at the office and in the car. And
before you know it, you spent $19,000 on the new iPhone and
all that goes with it. Or you walk past the shoe store
and you realize, shoes have changed. Maybe I need new shoes. Or you
walk past the masseuse table and think, I need a massage.
Or you walk past the smelly goods store and you need some new smelly
goods. They have a new flavor. You walk past the food court
and you need to eat, but maybe you should be healthy and stop
by the place that serves fresh juices. And you walk through
the mall and it’s like a scintillating, oppressive sampling of everything
you need but can’t and probably shouldn’t have. and it’s so absolutely
oppressive. And the world is that way. You
tune in on the radio, you tune in on the news, and there are
all these voices coming at you saying, be happy, serve yourself,
you need this. And before we know it, God is
eclipsed. And we make our drive home from the mall, and yes,
the next day is Sunday, but we feel pretty rotten as we sit
down in our easy chair because we don’t have it all. And then
we come to church, and God straightens us out. It’s an oppressive world.
And so much is under the cloak of religion. It’s easy to dupe
Christians, and we just look at the American church. There’s
gold in them, their heels. You just tell people what they
want to hear, you scratch their itch, and you can have a thriving,
prosperous church, as long as it’s not the theology of the
cross, mind you. but then take it out into the
world. There are so many people who are unchurched. They’re looking
for love in all the wrong places. It’s not on the golf course.
It’s not at their psychologist’s office. It’s not in earning more
money or at the Edward Jones office. It’s not in this place
or that place. It’s not more education. It’s
an empty way of life. And Satan knows, doesn’t he,
that we’re dupable. He knows that the people in the
church are easily duped, but he knows the people in the world
are. Just show them shiny stuff. Just
show them things they don’t have and make them feel like he did
to Adam and Eve. God is holding back from you.
And if you would just reach out and take this fruit I’m offering
you, you’ll find everlasting joy and happiness. So this beast
appears out of the earth and notice his appearance. He looks
like a lamb. He looks like the lamb of chapter
five. He looks like the lamb of chapter
five who was worthy and able to open the scroll and to open
the seals and to usher in the new heavens and the new earth.
But he is nothing like that lamb. It’s a wicked lamb, an evil lamb.
And he’s an antichrist. He is what Paul calls the man
of lawlessness from Thessalonians. He’s been named by every generation. It’s been the Pope, it’s been
Hitler, it’s been Nero, it’s been this person and that person
who have risen to power. But we’ve got to remember as
we interpret Revelation for every generation to whom or for whom
it’s been written and they pick it up and read it, it’s got to
be general. There are people, there are people
who rise to power who attempt to push Satan’s propaganda not
only on the earth and its inhabitants, but on the church. What do we
do with these two beasts? What do we do with these realities? Well, first thing we remember
is that when we come to faith in Jesus, as Paul tells us in
Ephesians 1, we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. God’s
signet ring has been stamped into the wax on the document
of our salvation. And we can never be snatched
from the Father’s hand. We can never be taken from the
Lord Jesus, but we can be under attack. And Jesus who has bought
us, the Holy Spirit who has sealed us, warns us here through John’s
writings that we are under the gun. Also, we understand that
God, not God, but Satan seals his own people, the mark of the
beast, this 666 thing. Some of you grew up in the 1980s
or you were alive in the 1980s like I was and everything related
to rock and roll was related to 666. You played a record backwards
and it was Satan’s will and all those sorts of things. People
have tried to figure out for years what this means. And basically,
it’s a numbers game. The numbers equal letters. You
know, you see the TV commercial, call 1-800-MR-CASH. And you dial the M, and the R,
and the CA, and the SH, and it equates to a number. You’ve got
one of those old school phones in your house, maybe, some of
you still. And it has the ABC, DEF. Some of you young people
haven’t seen a real phone. One that hangs on the wall and
is wired to somewhere in Atlanta. where the southern bell switch
operators are pulling plugs and adding others. You don’t have
a clue what that is, but that’s what these numbers are. And 666
is supposed to spell out somebody’s name. The problem is it doesn’t
come out to Nero in any of several languages. It doesn’t come out
to other wicked rulers throughout history in any language. And
so we understand six to be a number, not perfect. The perfect number
is seven. And so anyone who is a six is
evil. And if they are 666, they are
perfectly evil. And so we understand that Satan
seals his own. God marks us with his Holy Spirit,
but Satan marks his own. So what are we to do as Christians? Well, first thing, we keep our
eyes on the risen and reigning Christ. If we take our eyes off
of him, we’ll think all is lost. We’ll think that the beast are
winning. The second thing we have to have is discernment.
Where does Satan like to do his work? He likes to come into God’s
garden where God’s gardeners are trying to obey his will.
And so where does Satan like to come? He likes to come into
the church. He likes to get us singing and learning heresy.
He likes to get us thinking that we’re comfortable and happy in
Christ. He likes the prosperity gospel. He loves moralistic,
therapeutic deism. He loves anything that removes
the cross, removes the scripture, removes faithful, hard-fighting
living for Jesus. And so we have to have discernment.
We have to understand what is the will of God. Romans 12 says
we are to offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices, holy
and pleasing in his sight. And then we’re to read the word
and discern his will. And so if you’re a Christian,
you should know the truth. You should know the truth so
that when falsehood comes, you should say, that’s not right.
That smells bad. That stinks. And if it stinks
now, it’s going to stink worse in the morning. Oh, but we’re
so culturally conditioned, aren’t we? Well, you just believe what
you want to believe and you’d be happy. And I’ll believe what
I want to believe and be happy. Dear friends, truth really matters.
And you see that it does because Satan likes to take a little
bitty truth and twist it. Think, for example, of what he
did when he came into the garden. He came to Eve and said, did
God really say? And she even began to twist the
words of God. And before long, Satan has us
believing that fruit, which will cause our death, is actually
good for us. And so as Christians, we need
to have great discernment. As we keep our eyes on the reigning
Christ, we need to discern what is good what is right and what
is true and what is false. And friends, we don’t need to
be afraid to divide and say, that is wrong, this is right. This will kill me and this will
give me life. We may be afraid of other people
and how it may make them feel, but let me encourage you, it’s
worse what Satan will do to us if we fall into his traps. And
maybe we can warn others. So we keep our eyes on Christ.
We have discernment. Third thing, we wear the whole
armor of God. We fight not against flesh and
blood, but against evil and powers and principalities, spirits of
darkness. And so we need to fight and stand
in the strength of God and put on the whole armor of God for
the spiritual battle. And then finally, we endure faithfully,
patiently and wisely. And we keep our eyes on Christ
as we do so. Let’s pause and pray together.
Our Lord and God, we thank you for this encouragement that the
Realities of the battles we’re up against are strong. They’re
severe. They’re powerful. They can even
kill us. But we stand firm in the Lord
and in the strength of his might. We keep our eyes on Christ. We
keep our eyes on the throne of heaven and we press on and we
keep the faith. Help us as we live the Christian
life together to encourage one another while it is still today.
until we make it safely home to heaven’s shores. And we pray
this in the name of Christ, the true lamb, and it’s in his name
we pray. Amen.