The Beast Who Serves The Beast

I ask you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to Revelation chapter 13. Revelation 13 as we continue to get heaven's perspective on what is happening in this world. You follow along as I read this chapter. Revelation chapter 13, well really Revelation chapter 12, beginning the last verse of that chapter. And he stood, that is the dragon, the dragon stood on the sand of the sea.

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads, with ten 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 great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed.

And the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast. And they worshipped 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 forty-two months.

It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was 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 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 who 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 must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and 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 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 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 Also it 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 man, and his number is 666. Father, would you open this text to us? Would you help us, Father, to learn so that we are equipped to serve you? Father, we live in a dangerous, dangerous age, and we must, Father, abide in Jesus. And in order to do that, we must not only endure, but we must have wisdom.

Give us wisdom as we understand this word today from you. In Jesus' name, amen. Why does the church of Jesus face so much suffering? Why does the church in the Sudan and China and India and in Muslim countries experience such great persecution? Why did the seven churches of Asia Minor face economic destruction if they would not worship the Roman emperor?

Why does the Church of North America and Europe languish in almost spiritual lifelessness, even though at the same time it experiences great freedom and prosperity? Why were the original seven churches threatened internally by the seduction of the Nicolaitans and the prophetess Jezebel's deceptive teaching or the complacency of the Laodiceans. Why are all those things true?

Why does the church suffer? Because, we've been told, we are locked in intense spiritual warfare against a foe whose strength and cunning are intimidating, a dragon with seven heads and ten horns. And yet, our foe has been defeated decisively by the one who came in weakness. He has been defeated by the blood of the Lamb. But the dragon, though thwarted, defeated, hemmed in, prevented from devouring the child or drowning the woman in lethal lies, is not dead.

His time is short and so he unleashes his rage and his fury against the ransomed people of the Lamb the Church of Jesus And he does it through his instruments the two beasts of Revelation chapter 13 Now last week, John introduced us to the beast, the beast from the sea. He persecutes the children of God because they do not give their entire allegiance to him. We see him rising again and again throughout this age.

Evil regimes and evil people demanding total allegiance and then making war on the people of God. He is aggressive and open in his opposition to God, using coercion, threats, and violence to achieve the purposes of the dragon. And so in response to such open aggression, God called us to what? To endurance and faith. Now we come to the second beast. He advances the furious purposes of Satan by serving the first beast.

But unlike his master, the first beast, who is open and aggressive, he is subtle and deceptive. He is a false prophet. Now we know that because the three other mentions of him or three other descriptions of him follow in this book. For example, look at chapter 16, verse 13. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits like frogs.

Chapter 19, verse 20. These three, or these two are mentioned again. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet, who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image. There again, the second beast is identified as a false prophet. Thirdly, chapter 20, verse 10, we see him described again.

The three are grouped together. And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. And so this second beast is a false prophet. That his way of operating And so then in verse 18 when we come to the end of the section in verse 18 God calls the church to wisdom in the face of the second beast powers of deception as a false prophet That's what he says in verse 18.

This calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of man, and his number is 666. Now, God is not calling here for intelligent people to figure out who the sea monster is by calculating how his name equals 666. It's parallel to what we see in verse 9. In verse 9, after discussion of the first beast, what are we told?

If anyone has an ear, let him hear. This is a call for endurance and faith, right? So now when we come to the end of the section about the second beast, the false prophet, here's what we are told. If you have wisdom, get wisdom now. Be prepared. It's parallel with what we see in verse 9.

So this isn't a call for brainiacs to figure out who is 666. It's a call for wisdom in the light of this second beast, the false prophet. So let's wise up this morning and find out what God has to say to us as he reveals to us this second piece. Here's the first thing. Beware of this prophet's character. Beware of the prophet's character.

We find that in verses 11 and 12. Now we're under time constraints this morning, so I've read through that. You're going to have to refer to it as I talk to it, all right? We won't read it again. What do we see there? The second beast does not seem as dangerous as the first beast.

Why? Because he comes from the earth. The first beast came out of the sea. The second beast comes from the earth. Now remember that the sea represents chaos, conflict, confusion, danger, evil. Okay?

Remember that? You know, I grew up in the hills and the trees of Midwestern Wisconsin. That's where I spent all my formative years. God's promised land. But be that as it may, I grew up in the Midwest. All right?

And when I get near an ocean, all right, there are times when I can really get the wham-whams. All right? Like especially when I'm out far enough where I can't see the land. I really get shaky then because you're like this This little nothing in this immense ocean with all of its power can just crush you. Dave Durland used to serve in the Navy. He tells me about being on this destroyer and how the waves used to come down the stacks.

Can you imagine that? Waves so huge they come down the stacks of a destroyer? Okay? I don't understand my son who likes to surf. He paddles out. I'm thinking if I'm on a surfboard, the only thing on my mind is what is underneath me.

You understand? Now see, that's the way the ancients viewed it. The sea was the place of danger and evil and chaos and confusion where the land is stable. The earth appears stable and secure and safe. And so this beastly prophet appears safe and stable and established. That's why he says he comes from the earth, you know, where everything's okay.

All right? As Satan operates on earth in the short time that he has, remember that he can come at you from the sea or the earth. From stability as well as chaos. See, that's the point. Notice this. He looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon.

He looks like a lamb. He appears as harmless as a lamb. He doesn't appear dangerous. He appears harmless as a lamb. Yet, he is the mouthpiece of the dragon, and he speaks like the dragon. That is, this lamb also uses the language of the dragon.

The sweet, smooth, alluring, deceptive speech that is characteristic of Satan. That same alluring deceptive speech that led Adam and Eve into sin. You see, Satan's really good. He can play the good cop, bad cop game real well. Now in this, it says in verses 12 and 14, he represents the first beast. He works for the first beast.

In that phrase that it has in our Bibles, in the presence of that beast, that's a phrase that's often used in the Old Testament. The Old Testament prophets stood in the presence of God to receive their inspiration the message that they had and their commission to deliver that message And so the second beast identifies himself with the first beast He represents the beast He's commissioned by the beast. He receives his inspiration, his message from the beast, even though he operates differently.

He poses as a spokesman for the truth while he advances the purposes of the dragon. this beast is also a religious figure you can find him in the church and in other religions of the day now notice he is a false prophet we hear that word false prophet what should go through our mind the false prophets of the old testament came out of the covenant community of god's people they were part of the covenant community they came out of the people of god and so these false these false prophets can come out of those who are identified as the people of God. Notice, it's interesting. He even appears like an apostle.

He's a false apostle, but he appears like one. How so? Well, note this, verse 12. Like an apostle, he is a successor of his master in both ministry and authority, right? secondly in verses 12 and 14 like an apostle his attempts to persuade others to worship his master are bound to his master's resurrection it's mentioned twice here isn't it that he serves the beast who's been received a mortal wound and was raised again he persuades others to worship his master that's bound up to his master's resurrection.

Like an apostle, he performs miraculous signs in order to manifest his authority. See that in verse 13. So you see, this is a very subtle, dangerous beast. He's a religious figure. Today, for example, in Canada, the state, which you can identify as the first beast, the state loudly and defiantly proclaims that if you speak against, for example, homosexuality, you could be prosecuted for hate speech.

Some pastors have already experienced that in Canada But then the second beast comes along very slyly in many churches to make that sound plausible and persuasive by teaching that God includes all kinds of people in his kingdom And so we need to be inclusive as well. So you see, the first piece is openly defiant and aggressive, and the second piece, which serves him, makes the positions of the first beast seem plausible and persuasive. You see, the churches to whom this was addressed, the seven churches to whom this book was addressed, faced that beast.

The church in Smyrna, you remember? The church in Smyrna faced poverty. Why? Because they did not heed the priests of that local religion there. The priests of the local religion who called this state religion, this cult that called upon the people to worship the Roman emperor as a god. Because they didn't do that, they lost their jobs.

We see in Smyrna, they suffered poverty because they wouldn't do that. There's an example of the second beast working from outside the church. And then we read about the church in Thyatira, which is being seduced by this prophetess by the name of Jezebel, who taught compromise and sexual morality. You know, she would say things like this. This was the teaching going on in the church.

If it means losing your job or participating in the immoral feasts of your guild, God doesn't want you to lose your job. You know, just involve just a little bit. Second beast working from inside the church, you see. Listen, you must detect this beastly teacher in any supposed Christian teacher who would take his cues from the culture rather than the word of God.

Friends, let me tell you something. There are all kinds of these people in the church today whose agenda is set by the culture and not by the word of God. They serve. They are the second beast. Now, I've already mentioned this. It's becoming apparent.

Don't look for one person as the second beast. Don't do that. Don't start looking around and saying, who's the false prophet? Who is this great second beast? Don't do that. He serves the first beast.

And as we already seen the first beast exists through the entire church age So if he serves the first beast the second beast is going to be around for the entire church age And so we must beware of the religious charlatans, either from inside the church or outside the church, wherever they're coming from, the ones who serve the many incarnations of the first beast. We've got to beware. We've got to be wise.

We have to be wise because this beast is so subtle and so deceptive. Satan is going to come at us from angles that we're not even aware of. We've got to be alert. We've got to be wise. So we need to beware of this prophet's character. But he goes on to tell us that we need to beware of the prophet's idolatrous purpose.

Why does he exist? he serves the idolatrous purpose of the first beast verse 12 to get the earth dwellers to worship the first beast this prophet convinces you to give your allegiance your service, your life to the first beast in essence he promotes idolatry you say well we don't have a problem with idolatry I mean, I don't see anybody around here following the second beast and serving idols. I don't see that anywhere. Oh, wait a minute.

Idolatry is much more subtle than just bowing down before a block of wood. Do you realize, for example, that the New Testament in Ephesians 5, Colossians chapter 3, both those chapters identify greed as idolatry. Right? How is greed idolatry? This shows you the subtle nature of idolatry. It's not just getting people to bow down to idols.

Idolatry is when we put anything in the place of God. And, for example, greed, which is so subtle, can be idolatry. How so? For example, when you're greedy, you want something. In your thinking, you start considering that object that you want is of supreme value. Right?

I desperately want that house. Right? You've got to have it. that becomes of supreme value to you. It's so valuable that your imagination becomes inflamed with it. You deny yourself. other things, right? You're going to deny yourself things in order to get it.

It's going to motivate your behavior and your actions. You will serve that desire. All of that is worship, right? So when teachers turn you away from allegiance to God, they are this beast. Anyone or any group that would turn you away from your allegiance, your supreme allegiance to the one and the true and the living God who has revealed himself in Jesus.

If anything would turn you away, anyone would turn you away from that. That is the beast. notice this as well in verse 14 these false prophets convince you to make an image to make an image verse 14 now by the time of this writing all of the cities where these first seven churches existed by the end of the first century of the christian era by the end of that period, every one of these cities had a temple dedicated to the Roman emperor. Not a temple as in the Lincoln Memorial or the Washington Memorial.

That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about if they had built the Lincoln Memorial and there you would go to offer sacrifices. All right? We're not talking about monuments to the Roman emperor. We're talking about temples dedicated to the worship of the emperor as a god. All that existed.

And so this is ringing true to them. The people in those cities, the people around these Christian congregations, wanted to serve such god kings. It wasn't like they were forced to. They wanted to serve these god kings, and they looked with suspicion on anyone else who would not share in that desire. And so there was this cultural influence, this cultural pressure on these churches.

And so within the church, there arose up the beast, if you will, advocating compromise. Go to the temple. Burn the incense. Just say the words, Caesar is Lord, and you don't have to mean it. You don have to believe it Just do it Just a little bit just go And what they would do they take a pinch of incense throw it in the fire declare Caesar as Lord and everything is fine.

Just do it. The second beast speaks, you see. The second beast is saying, you're not giving anything up. Just play the game. now we should not expect the 21st century beastly prophet to propose building idols but we should expect him to encourage us to split our allegiance like that and for good purposes not for evil purposes but for good purposes this week i had lunch with the guy who's just coming on as the new chaplain at one of the prisons in Marion.

He emailed me. He was in, when I was down in Florence in September, teaching the counseling course down there. He was in class. And so he says, hey, I want to get to know you, talk over some counseling things, and just to meet you, talk to you. So I had lunch with him the other day. It's interesting.

You know, to be a chaplain, you go through all these classes and all this sort of thing, and you have to serve a residency. a one-year residency. So he served his one-year residency at OSU Medical Center in the chaplain's program there. And chaplains there, of course, if they're on duty on Sunday, they lead the, whether it's the Jewish or the Christian or whatever, worship service that day if they're on call on Sunday.

So he was there one Sunday, and he led the worship service for the Christian service. And he talked at one point about the wrath of God and the wrath of the institution broke over his head. They did not want him talking about the wrath of God. He had to produce his entire sermon and hand it to the authorities and he had to go through all kinds of rigmarole and berated and censured and everything else with the authorities there because he had used the phrase wrath of God.

Guess what? The beastly prophet has already been in that institution. And just saying things like, not like, stop that! But is it really good for Christians to offend people like that? I mean aren the purposes of God served better if you love people and don talk about things like that Or as they said to him not everyone believes the same thing as you do We can serve the purposes of God without offense The beast has spoken, you see?

Do you see? The beast is here. The beastly prophet is so intent on serving his master and promoting idolatry that he arranges for the death of those who do not conform. We see that in verse 15. Notice what it says in verse 15. 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.

Often in those cities, Christians who refused to worship Caesar were denounced as enemies of the state and executed. You know, under communism, the state demanded worship like allegiance. You can know. The communist states demanded worship like allegiance. We don't want you worshiping on Sunday. We don't want you doing these things.

In Romania, as I talked to my brothers in Romania, they told me when we lived under communism, it was against the law to bring your children to church. Did you know that? now the guys I knew that I talked to their parents did not listen to the first beast and they brought their children to church and they suffered the consequences if necessary I remember Florinel's father ended up serving on the Danube project which is the Romanian version of Siberia but note there were people in the church there was the Orthodox Church who played along with the state, who would say, well, okay, it's what we need to do, you see. And those who did not go along often died.

It's a big scandal in Romania right now because the president of the Baptist Union there, those are the guys we work with, the president has recently in the last two years been exposed as one who was an informant for the communist government. During the years of communism. Turning in people. Some of whom died You see he arranges for the death of those who do not give their allegiance to the first beast And so this second beast subtle and deceptive and hard to detect will always serve the purposes of idolatry.

Okay? So be aware, he serves the purpose of idolatry. The idolatrous purposes of the first beast. Something else here. Beware of the prophet's cunning power. He has the power to perform wonders.

Note, it says he will call down fire. Now again, remember, this is not literal. This is symbolic. When we come to these passages, we have to remember, this is symbolism. When you look at the history of the first century church, you're not going to find anywhere where there was a false prophet who called down fire from heaven. It didn't happen that way.

And that's not what John intends to say. It's intended to show that these prophets in their wonder working powers can ape, can imitate the prophets. Like, for example, who do you think of right away when you think of someone calling down fire from heaven? Who pops into your mind? It's Elijah. You see, that's the point.

They're powerful prophets like Elijah and like Moses who did these works to show they came from God. All right. And even the Egyptian magicians who actually replicated some of the miracles that Moses did. these satan motivated beast serving prophets can do wonders look look there are some things that we will never be able to explain children always ask if you read your bible with your kids they always going to ask wait a minute how did the egyptian magicians make their sticks into snakes like moses did and how did they turn water into blood and you see our frame of thinking is this if it's miraculous, it has to be from God.

So if it's if it looked miraculous and it's not from God, then it must be a trick. Not necessarily. So did you hear the Old Testament reading from this morning? If a wonder worker comes among you and performs wonders and then says, let's worship this other God, execute him. Well, wait a minute, he performed wonders. He must be from God.

Not necessarily. Not necessarily. Listen. You know what, there are things we will never be able to explain. And don't hinge your faith on whether you're going to be able to explain them or not. If it's miraculous, it must be from God.

Not necessarily so. See, that's not the point of test. That's not how you test whether something's from God or not. performing wonders may in fact be supernatural but it doesn't prove that it's from god but people will be deceived by their ability to do that it says in our text that he gives breath to the image of the beast so it can speak now this does recall many of the tricks that were used back then when you read when you study the ancient literature as i as i looked and read some things.

It's interesting. In the ancient world, they had things like ventriloquism, false lightning, other tricks used in their temples. There's the Oracle of Delphi. The Oracle of Delphi was this place in Greece where the ancient Greeks used to go in order to get a word from the gods, and you would ask a question and a voice would come. Well, it was someone behind the idol speaking.

We know that now. The Mithras religion, it was a mystery religion where the lion's head statue would have flames coming out of it and it would just cause people to just oh wow well they found they have pipes in there and they're pumping flames through there they could do that even today there are tricksters anybody remember the um the healer by the name of popoff it's been a while popoff was this guy who would get up and and say there's a woman. There's a woman in row J, seat 10, who has lower back pain.

Everybody go, wow. The woman go, yes, me. What happened was his wife would be taking prayer requests as people came in the door. Cancer, throw it away. Cancer, throw it away. Lower back pain.

Hmm. Let's go with this one. And she had a radio thing. And imagine this, a faith healer with a hearing aid, right? He's got this thing in his ear, and she's telling him there's a woman in row J seat 10 who got lower back pain Well he was exposed by ABC News who picked up the transmissions played it on nationwide television That stuff goes on That part of what he talking about Certainly that part of what he means But this goes beyond wonders and tricks This is anything.

This can be anything. Symbolic language here. This can be anything that convinces people that the image or any substitute for truth represents God. This can be anything. This is not just wonders and tricks. This can be anything that convinces people to abandon God.

You know what? Consider what happened in our own congregation several years ago with our own beastly prophet called the Weigh Down Diet. Some of you don't even remember that. I do. A lot of folks getting really excited about this Weigh Down Diet. Good things were happening.

People were not just losing weight. And it didn't come across as, you need to lose weight. It's bad to be a fat Christian. It was, no, you need to exercise self-control. Can't argue with that. And you know what?

People got really excited. They were joyful. They were starting to exercise self-control. And they were joyful about it. And on top of that, they were getting excited about God. They were really getting excited about God.

But then their leader, Gwen Shamblin, who wrote the books and did the video series, was eventually exposed, clearly saying, Jesus is not God. I can still remember this. And, and, that you are not saved by grace, that's a delusion. I'm almost quoting her. That's a delusion. That's a false teaching.

You are saved by your obedience to the Father's will. Ah, you see, the beast had given breath to the image. That is to say, convincing people that this was from God leading many away from Christ. Many of those people that we know now in a cult in Nashville, Tennessee with this woman. That was the beast giving breath to the image. So people would give away their allegiance to Jesus and follow that. so he has the power he has great power he has the power to deceive now the beast does not come along and say here a great big filthy ugly doctrine full of heresy and poison.

Buy it. That's not how he operates. Okay? He says something like this. Great, you're a Christian, but here is a deeper meaning to the gospel and then gently leads you away from the gospel. ever so subtly, ever so minutely, but leads you away from the gospel. D.A.

Carson, he's who I consider one of the best New Testament scholars today. Teaches at Trinity Evangelical School. I love him because he's a scholar who has a pastor's heart. He can talk so over your head you don't understand what he's talking about, or he can talk right to you and you understand everything he's saying. He can take the word of God and just do it.

He tells a story about he was doing a conference in New Guinea with missionaries. That's why I love him. He's this world-renowned scholar going to Papua New Guinea and doing a conference for missionaries. But, okay, that's beside the point. So Carson is there, and he's speaking to these missionaries, and he makes this disparaging remark just in passing about this rebirthing technique.

Now, what's this rebirthing technique? This rebirthing technique is for people who've been horribly abused as children, or later, who don't feel that anyone loves them, who've been told they're worthless, who feel that God does not love them, and that they cannot receive or give love. Okay? And so some Christian psychologists come along, and they propose this rebirthing technique.

You wrap this person up in a warm blanket, and they have to struggle like they're struggling to be born. And they have to visualize that once they're born, there's Jesus standing there, gently removes them from the birth canal. and wipes the muck from their face and then to give them their first breath and to hold them and cuddle them. And then Jesus is there doing all these things, right?

And that way you now feel loved and worthwhile and so forth. Some of you are chuckling. This is the kind of stuff that's going on. Drives me wild. But anyway, he says, one of the missionary couples seemed agitated and they asked me over to their hut for lunch. I went for lunch and this husband said he had been abused as a child and I not going to tell you what he said how he was abused as a child It was pretty horrible And he went through this rebirthing technique and it helped him immensely And now because of it, he was a better husband, and a better father, and even a better missionary, because now he felt that God really did love him.

And so he said, why are you so down on this? Carson says to him this, I don't doubt one bit that you've been helped. You say you have, I can't deny it. But if you want me to explain myself, be ready for an uncomfortable trip. If not, God bless you, and I'll be on my way. Do you want to hear it or not?

Guy said, yeah, I want to hear what you have to say. So Carson said to him this. Do you believe that you'd have received the same release and the same healing if instead of someone taking you through the rebirthing technique, They took you to Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 through 21, and slowly and carefully helped you understand the great love of God displayed to you and given to you in Jesus hanging on the cross.

Do you believe that you might have had the same healing? And this missionary fellow said, yes, I'm sure. But I'm saying rebirthing works. Why do you criticize it? Carson responded, if someone came to you from an abused background, which Jesus would you point him to? If someone came to you now, which Jesus would you point him to?

The one who shows you his great undying love by hanging on a cross for you? or an imaginary Jesus who stands in front of your mother and delivers you and wipes the muck off your face? Which Jesus are you going to talk to him about? You see, Satan, speaking through the prophet, does not say, why don't you reject the gospel and embrace new age spirituality?

Why don't you love the devil? He doesn't do that. the beast comes along and says sure your sins have been forgiven at the cross but the cross does not deal with your deepest emotional needs the cross is not enough here is a technique that can give you relief where the gospel does not you see it's just a little bit off Tiny bit off. But guess what? You follow that down and what happens?

The gap gets greater and greater and greater. The point is this. The beastly prophet can do good things. But deception gains ground, turning us away from the gospel. notice this the prophet has the power to produce conformity verse 15 worship or die worship or die because god's people are not led astray these false teachers use their influence to get them executed for christians of asia minor it meant death for refusing to worship Caesar.

For Christians today, it means death for even being a Christian in the Muslim land. For Christians today, it means death if you don't go along. Verses 16 and 17, I know you've been waiting for us to get there. The mark of the beast. Here's how he produces conformity. Give your allegiance to the first beast or suffer.

You identify with the state or you will suffer economically. Now the idea of the mark here, and by the way, this is the mark of the first beast. Okay, because in chapter 15, verse 2, notice that it says, and I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire, and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.

So the second piece is promoting the mark of the first beast, 666. You identify with the state or you suffer economically. Now the idea of the mark comes from practices of that day. Soldiers were tattooed on their hand that showed their loyalty. And so the idea of the mark is so worshipers can be seen as faithful followers. If you were a slave, you were branded as property. especially if you ran away.

Then you were branded. Okay? And that showed that you belong your property And so the mark not just talks about faithful followers but those who are property of the beast Now these people knew what this was all about Within a few more years of the writing of this, the cult of the emperor gained so much strength that what you had to do was to go down to the temple once a year, burn your pinch of incense, declare Caesar is Lord, and receive a certificate, an actual certificate, that said that you had done it.

If you didn't have that certificate, you see, you would suffer economically. You go for a job. Where's your certificate? I don't have one, you see. They understood this mark. You even see this in totalitarian regimes, right?

Christians are kept out of the universities. They're not allowed to go to university. They're kept out of the prime jobs. You serve the beast or you suffer. But don't think of this as a literal mark on the hand or the forehead. Don't be, this is symbolic again.

Don't think that there's someone coming along who's going to put a mark on. When I was young, and for a period, and I won't tell you why, but right after Israel had whipped the Arabs in the Six-Day War, there was this, for the next five years, there was this incredible explosion, explosion in at least our circles of these prophetic conferences and our church had them and these guys would come in and they'd say i have an uncle whose brother-in-law knows someone who works in the treasury department and he's been told that the the treasury department is no longer going to print money after the year 1970 i've got it on good authority and what they're going to do is get rid of all the money and they're going to implant, they're going to put something on your hand. And then a few years later, you know what it was?

It was a microchip. And then a few years later, it's something else. In fact, the UPC symbols on our groceries were once identified as the mark of the beast. Stop thinking of this as literal. It's not literal. The mark is directly opposed to the mark of the lamb. very next chapter.

Look what he says. Right after he talks about the mark of the beast, chapter 14. Then I looked and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb and with Him 144 who had His name and His Father name written on their foreheads What's the point? The point is simply this. You either have the mark of the beast and are spared His wrath, or you have the mark of the Lamb and are spared His wrath.

Listen, every one of you today who has believed in Jesus, every one of you sitting here today who has believed in Jesus and trusted him to save you, have his name and his father's name on your forehead. You see that? You have his name on your forehead. Let me put on my glasses here. My special glasses. Oh, I can see your names on your foreheads.

No. See, this mark is not a little... Don't worry about the microchips and stuff, okay? Just... This is all about... You have the mark of the beast and you experience prosperity, but eternal death.

Or you have the mark of the lamb and you experience physical death, but eternal prosperity. It's about ownership. You know why it's marks on the head and the hand? Look back at Deuteronomy chapter 6. Do you remember Deuteronomy chapter 6? You will teach this to your children, the law of God to your children, and you will put it where?

You will put it on your heads and you will put it on your hands. Remember that? It's from Deuteronomy 6. This is a parody of that. Now, what did God mean when he said, put the law of God on your heads and on your hands? It means your ideological commitment, and how you work it out.

And so what John is telling us here is the mark on the forehead from the beast indicates your ideological commitment. I believe in the beast and what he represents. And the mark on the hand indicates the outworking of that commitment. I will serve the beast and I will serve those beliefs. You see? That's what it's about.

Give your allegiance to the beast by your faith and your service or suffer hardship Identify with Christ or identify with the beast whichever whichever will determine your life You see. Now there's one last thing that he has to say to us. Not just beware. Lastly, be aware. Verse 18, the call for wisdom. God calls us to wisdom.

The second beast is so deceptive and so wily that it takes great wisdom to understand his ways so that you're not drawn away from Christ. This is not a call for an exercise in brilliant intellect, but for a commitment on the part of believers to discern evil spiritual realities in order to protect themselves from compromise. That's what he's talking about in the very last verse of this section.

Don't play the Gematria game. You know what that is? The Gematria game is this. In the ancient world, they did not have numbers. You know where we got our number system? From the Arabs.

Before we got our numbering system from the Arabs here in the West, we would take our letters and give them numerical values. So alpha is one, beta is two. All right? You see? And so then when you wrote numbers, you put letters up. And so what gematria is when you say, okay, here's Caesar Nero.

No kidding. Here's what happens. Okay, we take Caesar Nero. We take that name. Okay, now let's put it into Hebrew letters. So we put it in Hebrew letters.

And if you misspell it, just a certain way it comes out to be 666. And you can do that with anybody. You can get anybody to come out to 666. But that's not what he's driving at here. What is this number 666? Well, 777 would be the triple of perfection, right?

666 would be the height of imperfection. Now I want you to look at the translation. Bear with me. I know we've got a late start and we're running late. but this is so important I think look at this verse 18 let the one who has understand calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man right now Come with me to some Greek grammar, just for a moment, just for a moment.

In Greek, for example, when it says, Our God, the definite article would be before God. Now, we don't translate it that way, but that's the way it is in Greek. So if there's a definite article in front of the word, we're talking about a particular word. If there is not a definite article in front of the word, then oftentimes when we translate it into English, we put our indefinite article, a.

Okay? Are you with me? So, for example, when we come to John chapter 1, but that doesn't always mean a man or a God. When you come to John chapter 1, verse 1, you remember this controversial verse. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now in Greek, and the word was, the definite article is not in front of God.

So would we translate that, and the word was a God? Not in that case we wouldn't, because then John would be in idolatry, saying this word was another God. No, it means the word was God. Okay? Are you with me? Well, this doesn't have the definite article.

So we can translate this, not the number of a man, but the number of man. Look at chapter 21, verse 17. The very same construction is used there Bear with me Folks to me this is utterly fascinating So it going to be utterly fascinating to you too All right? Chapter 21, verse 17. The angel is measuring the city. If I can find it here.

He also measured its wall, 144 cubits, by human measurement. now the definite article is not there and the word for human there is man so it could be translated 144 cubits by a man's measurement well which man? Sam's measurement? Mike's measurement? which man? it's not what it's saying it's saying human measurement that's the exact same construction that's here it should read like this I believe for it is the number of man.

It is the number of man. And his number is 666. Not a particular man. This is the number of humanity. This is the number that represents humanity. Be wise and know that the number of the dragon is the number of depraved humanity.

Stop looking for extraordinary events and extraordinary personages. The number of the beast is our number. The mark of the beast rests on anyone who has not been redeemed from the depraved pool of humanity. Anyone who's part of the depraved humankind has 666 emblazoned across their foreheads You see But when you been redeemed from that your forehead no longer carries 666 It has the mark of the Lamb and of His Father.

We need to stop worrying about the mark of the beast and start rejoicing in the mark of the Lamb. we need to start worrying about who's going to get the mark of the beast and we need to start praying for people to get the mark of the lamb and his father. That's what we need. That's the wisdom that we need. Someone might say, how can we ever have the sort of wisdom so false prophets won't hoodwink us?

I say to you, we look to Jesus and we always go to the cross. You always go to the cross. If you want to know who is true and who is not, go to the cross. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians wrote this, And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us, what? Wisdom from God, that is, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. And then two verses later he writes, and so that he, the Apostle Paul, decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Here's what we need. Anyone who would lead us away, ever so little, away from the cross of Jesus is the second beast We look to the cross That is our tester Are you going to take me away from the cross If you are, you are the beast. And I will not. Listen. You will not take my allegiance away from my Savior. You will not put my faith in anyone else but him.

That is the wisdom we need if we will know this beast. So then, you must be wise. You must be able to identify the beastly prophet and his master, the dragon. And God has given you heaven's perspective. we have the ability through the triumph of Jesus to win over the beast and the false prophet. We do not need to be afraid. We need to be wise.

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for its clarity. Thank you for the fact that it magnifies our Savior Jesus. Father now as we come to this table we pray that this would be so precious to us so valuable to us for it is here that we see our Savior crucified for us so that we speak of nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified thank you Father for your word and for your Son in Jesus name Amen Thank you.