The Beast from the Sea, Part 3

So tonight, let's continue our study in Revelation chapter 13. And I want to just read down through verse number 10, beginning with verse number 1. We've spent two weeks already here, and we're going to close this section out tonight before we talk about the beasts from the earth. But let's look at it together.

Revel 13, verse number 1. And he stood on the sand of the seashore, and I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns, seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems. And on his heads were blasphem names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power and his throne. and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed, and the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast.

And they worship the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast. And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? And who is able to wage war with him? And there was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for 4 months was given to him. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. And it was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation.

Was given to him. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him. Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of the life. Of the book of life, excuse me, of the Lamb who has been slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes. If anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed, here is the perseverance and the faith. Of the saints. Marvelous passage of Scripture. We began by looking at this beast and his association.

How is he associated specifically with Satan? Because in Revelation chapter 12, Satan him has the same description: one with ten horns and seven heads. It's Satan who summons the beast from the abyss. It is Satan who captivates this man. It's Satan who controls this man. It's Satan who operates in and through this man. He's also associated with the kingdoms of the world, the kings of the world, the sovereigns of the world. These seven heads have ten diadems upon them, or these ten horns have ten diadems upon them.

And these are the rulers of the world. And we went from his association to look at this one's appearance because the Bible tells us that he has the appearance of a leopard, a bear.

And a lion. And we sum that up for you by helping you to understand that what that symbolism stands for is the fact that this beast This Antichrist encompasses all the powers of all the world empires in the past, in the present, and in the future. He is unlike anything the world has ever seen. And so when John sees him, he describes him with all the The fierceness and ferociousness of a lion, all the swiftness of a leopard, and all the strength of a bear. This man is an incredible individual, and his force is an incredible force.

And by looking at his associations, And by looking at his appearance, we are able to see the awesomeness of this creature and his ability to move through the earth and to conquer those who stand in his way. We moved from there to look at his attraction, and we looked and saw where this one had one of his heads wounded.

And it was a fatal wound. We talked a little bit about that last time. But what attracts these people to this individual is the fact that either he has been killed and is raised from the dead. Or he makes it appear like he has been killed and he is raised from the dead. Or, as one author so aptly stated, this one makes everyone believe that he is the re Christ. Interesting thought as I listened to that individual speak about the reincarnation and how it spreads through basically all the world religions.

And it becomes more and more of a force today that maybe this beast is going to be able to convince the world. That he is the reincarnated Christ, that Christ's Spirit is in Him, and that will get the people of the worlds attracted to Him. I don't know. I would assume that he fakes his death and there is a fake resurrection. I assume that basically because Satan has no p over life. Only death. Can you imagine if Satan had power over life? Everybody who died, he'd raise back up again. He'd use them for his purposes.

He can't do that. He is a murderer. He's been a murderer from the beginning. But he has no control over the giving of life. Only God does. And so, from our study last week, just as a way of review, I would tend to believe that this individual Has some kind of fatal wound or appearance of a fatal wound where everybody believes that this individual died, rose again, and that then becomes the attraction. That the world looks at him and says, This man, are you ready for this? Has power over life and de.

This man has conquered death by being raised again. Now this is at a time in the tribulation where everybody's dying. Right, and so if everybody is dying because of the judgment and wrath of God upon the world, and all of a sudden there comes one Who is raised from the dead, they are naturally attracted to the individual who has power over life and de. And so that then becomes the attraction that everybody comes to this beast and begins to see him as this great conqueror, as this great individual that need or that will save the world.

That's his attraction. And then we looked at his adoration. And they worship the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast. That 's verse number four. And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? And who is able to wage war with him? They worship the dragon. I don't think they necessarily know they're worship Satan. They 're worshiping the beast. They even worship the image of the beast. And we'll look at that in our next time together.

In verses 11 and following, because the false prophets' purpose is to get the world to bow down to Antichrist, into the image of the Antichrist. But you see, that's what Satan wants. He wants adoration. He wants acclaim. He wants homage. That's what he's longed for. And that's what he finally gets for a brief time.

During the tribulation. That leads us to point number five, and that's where we are this evening: his attitude. His attitude and the beast, he's got attitude, man. He's got attitude like nobody else has att. It says, and there was given to him a mouth. Speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty months was given to him. There's a phrase repeated there. Did you get it? There is something given to him. Now.

Who gives to the beast his mouth, and who gives to the beast his time? Answer: God. God does. This tells us about the control of God, the decree of God, the nature of God. God steps back and lets this beast speak forth blasphemy. He gives them a time. He gives them 42 months. We know it's not Satan giving him that amount of time because Satan would give him a lot longer time, wouldn't he? He'd give them for as long as he wanted. But there is a time limit. That time limit coincides with the great and terrible day of the Lord.

The tribulation period is seven years. But 42 months, three and a half years, okay, is what the Bible calls the great and terrible. Day of the Lord. The latter half of the three and a half years is a lot worse than the first three and a half, and we've already seen the first three and a half, and they're terrible.

So now you understand that during the latter half of the tribulation. This be is granted time forty-two months. And he's granted a mouth to speak blasphemous things toward God. This man's attitude is one of arrogance and pr. And just to show you the practicality of Scripture, is it not true? Is it not true? There are six things that the Lord hates. Yea, seven are an abomination to him. What's the first thing?

He hates. Pride, proud look, hates it. Why does God hate arrogance and pride? Because it's reminiscence of Satan and his arrogance and his pride. Behind every sin is pride. Behind every sin is arrogance. My ability to do whatever it is I want to do. I don't want anybody telling me what to do, let alone God. I want to do my own thing. And that's pride. That's arrogance. That's what Satan did. I don't want the God of heaven telling me who I can and cannot worship. I'm going to worship me. It's all about me anyway.

That's what Satan said. It's all about me, and it's my world, and I'm just letting Jesus Christ live in it. That's Satan's response. But it's not his world, it's God's world. But he's arrogant, proud, and there he speaks blasphemous things. Now listen Blasphemy is c to his mission. There are two kinds of people in the world: belie and blasphemers. Only two kinds. That's it. There's no middle road. The saints and the ain't, as J. Vernon McGee says. Okay? The belie and the blasphemers. They're just like their teacher.

When a disciple is fully trained, he'll be just like his teacher. They're just like the one they worship. You always become. Like the one you worship, don't you? And they worship the beast. They speak what he speaks. They say what he says. They do not believe, but they blaspheme the name of God. The dwelling place of God. They blaspheme the people of God. It shows you the influence of this individual over the world. That's his attitude. Let's move on to point number six: his activity. That's verse seven.

It says, and it was given to him. There it is again, same phrase. Hopefully, you've circl it already twice, and this is the third time it's used.

And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. Same phrase again. Who gave it to him? God did. Who gave the Antichrist authority over every tribe, tongue, people, and nation? God did. Who gave the Antichrist the opportunity to make war with the saints and to overcome them? God did. Think about that. God gave Satan permission to kill his people. God did. Because you see, Satan can't kill anybody.

The beast can't kill anybody unless God lets him kill him, right? Remember back in The ninth chapter of Revelation, when those scorpion-like demons came out and stung people, and they all wanted to die. Their pain was so bad they wanted to die, and the Bible says in Revelation chapter 9, verse number 6, that in those days men will seek death and will not find it.

And they will long to die, and death flees from them. They want to die. They can't. Why can't they die? Why can't you take a gun and shoot yourself? Because the bullet bounces off. Well, why is it when you throw yourself off of a building, you don't splatter? Because God lets you land in peace. Why is it when you take a knife and you put it into your heart, the blade breaks? Because God says you can't die.

You're not going to die. You're going to suffer for five months. That's why. There's no death until God says it's time for you to die.

He holds the keys to death in Hades, Revel 1:18. We learned that many, many, many months ago. He holds the keys to those things. He's in charge. So it was given to the Antichrist, it was given to the beast to make war with the saints. Folks, he hates the believer. Just hates the believer. Daniel 7, verse number 25 says that he's going to wear them out. He's going to wear them out. He's going to destroy them. His activity will be to destroy and to overcome every belie, every Jew and Gentile alike.

He wants to kill them all. So that when Christ comes back, he has no one to reign because everybody's dead. That's how foolish the man is. That's how foolish Satan is to even begin to think that. But let's move to point number seven: his admirers. His ad. Look what it says. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him. What's that say? All who dwell on the earth will worship him. Does that mean everybody? Yep. Everybody ex. Except. Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.

The believer will not worship the Antichrist. They will not admire him. They'll be killed because they turn against him. But the unbeliever, they will worship him. They will admire him. It says, and all who dwell on the earth will worship me. Everyone whose name has not been written. Everybody's name who has been written in the book of life will not worship the beast. The elect will not worship the beast. Only those who have reject the king. Notice what I said or what I didn't say.

I didn't say that the non-elect would worship the beast. I just said the elect will never worship the beast. Those who worship the beast are those who reject Christ. That's very important for you to understand. Because the Bible says when a man goes to hell, he doesn't go to hell because God elected him to hell.

That's false theology. That's not true. Man goes to hell because he reject Jesus Christ. Man goes to heaven because he was elected before the foundation of the world. That's what the Bible teaches. That's what we believe. We might not understand it. We might not even agree with it. But that's exactly what the Bible teaches. Man goes to heaven because his name was written in the Lamb's book of life when? Before the foundation of the world. When was that? Don't have the foggiest idea. The practicality of the scriptures, which leads us to our last point: the application.

It gets better. Now, some of you are going to get mad at me here, but that's okay. I don't mind that. You can go home and debate with your wife about what we said. Anyway, it says this. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. Three things I want you to see. Number one, listen carefully.

Listen carefully. Be aware. This is real. If anyone has an ear, let them hear. Now, notice there is a phrase that's missing.

This phrase was used seven previous times in the book of Revelation. All in chapter 2, then chapter 3. And there's a phrase missing, and that phrase is this: If anyone has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. That phrase isn't here. The reason it's not here is because the church is not here. That's good news. That's good news. We're gone. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Next time somebody says, hey, man, where are you going? Say, I ain't going to Disneyland, baby. I'm going to glory.

But the bottom line is, Those that are there during the tribulation need to listen. They need to listen very carefully. They need to understand exactly what's happening. And we today Even today, before this ever happens, need to realize where the world's going. This is where it's going to go. You're going to see a man who rises to authority. Who associates himself completely with Satan and the sovereign rulers of this world, who appears ferocious, swift, tenacious, hungry. And this individual is going to be one who is adored by the world, and all those whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life will admire him and bow down before him and adore him.

And his main activity will be to destroy everybody whose name is written in the Land's Book of Life because they are the believers. And to destroy every Jewish person whose name is written in the Land's Book of Life. Because he does not want the Jewish nation saved. Listen what the Spirit says. Listen carefully. Number two, live.

Confidently. Live confidently. If anyone is destined for captivity. Please listen very carefully. All of you involved in the Christian militia to captivity. You go. In other words, ac your destiny. Accept it. It says, if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. And I'm sure that during that time there's going to be a group of Christians who have stored away machine guns and artillery and everything they need to do that they might be able to defend themselves against the Antich and the wiles of the devil.

And they're going to come out there with their faces painted black and their Greenber outfits on and their machine guns, man, and they're ready for battle. And God says, wait a minute, hold on, time out.

If you are destined for capt, you go. Because even if you kill an emissary of the Antich, even if you kill a soldier in Antich army, you now will be killed with the sword. Because God believes in capital punishment. So live confidently, knowing God's in control, He rules all. Live confidently, listen carefully, and thirdly, look cont.

Look continually. Listen to what it says. Here is the perseverance of the faith. And the faith of the saints. Here is the perseverance. See, the reason we don't retaliate and get our guns is because we endure. Here is the perseverance of the saints. We bear up under difficulty. We bear up under affliction. We trust God because we know God is in control. That is the perseverance of the saints. Those are the ones who patiently endure. Those are the ones who live confidently. Those are the ones who listen carefully, and those are the ones who look.

Continually. Here is the faith of the saints. What's the faith? Our king is coming. Our king. Is coming. Remember Titus chapter two? Tremendous passage. Titus chapter 2, verses 11, 12. What's it say? For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness or worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, look for the blessed hope. And the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. Why do we look continually?

Because we know our King is coming. It's a sanctifying event. Do you know that when you look continually toward heaven and the return of Christ, it purifies your life? Are you living in sin? Do you have some sin that's gained mastery over you? If you look continually to the glorious appearing of our God, that sin will be overcome. Because there's a purifying hope that comes from the one who longs for the return of Jesus Christ. It is a sure event. It's a surprising event. It is a sudden event. It is a sobering event.

It is a selective event. It is a scary event for every unbeliever and a sanctifying event for every belie God's word is so practical, so true. Because you see, in the end, God wins. Let's pray together.