It's The Beast!

Well, if you would, take your Bibles this morning and turn to Revelation chapter 12 and 13. Sometimes it's nice to have a cold. Your voice takes on more authority that way, doesn't it? I'm going to read the very last part of verse 17 in your text of Revelation chapter 12, reading through Revelation chapter 13, verse 10. You follow. And he, that is the dragon, and he 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.

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 the 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.

Father would you now take this text of Scripture and use it as you intend to prepare us to live lives of endurance and faith Would you please Lord use this text of Scripture and use it as you intend to prepare us to live lives of endurance and faith Would you please Lord use this today to prepare us to be stalwart champions of the Gospel to be faithful to Jesus. Help us now, Lord, as we seek to understand this. In Jesus' name, Amen.

When my dad was young, during the 1930s, everyone had it figured out. The beast was obviously Mussolini. That is, until Hitler showed up. When I was a young man, everyone had it figured out. The beast was obviously Henry Kissinger. That is, until Henry ended up on the street with the rest of the Nixon administration.

And some today have it figured out. The beast is obviously Barack Obama. Unless, of course, he ends up out of office next year. Well, today we come to the passage that introduces the beast. Frankly, we need to approach this passage with a good dose of humility, because everyone has always got it figured out. Who is the beast and all that sort of thing.

But God intends us to understand this passage and to understand it for a very good reason. And you find that reason in verses 9 and 10. Here's what it says. 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.

And here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. here God calls you to endurance and to a life of faith we need to know this beast so that we can endure with faith we must know something about him if we would remain faithful to our Lord Jesus God did not reveal these things in order to satisfy our curiosity but to motivate us to persevere in the worst of times that is why the beast is revealed in Revelation 13 when I was a young man and I still remember this I was in seventh grade is the summer between my seventh grade in my eighth grade year 1967 it was the year that the Israelis just whipped the Arabs I mean they just they drove them out of Jerusalem they took the Golan Heights they took the whole Sinai Peninsula. They had at least, if I remember right, three Arab nations coming against them. In six days, they just whipped them to pieces.

And of course, everybody in our tradition, at least, was all excited. This is the end, this is the end of the time of the Gentiles. I remember one guy at our youth rally praying, Lord, we know that you can't possibly postpone your return past 1975. All right. Everybody, everybody was, everybody was reading the newspaper with all kinds of things. And the problem with that is the book of Revelation then became nothing more than to satisfy our curiosity. and I've seen this generation, I've been around for a few generations now to see how Iraq and Saddam Hussein and all the oil, and all the Bibles interpreted that way.

Well, then that's gone by now. What are we going to do now? Well, now, you know, it's the European market is going to collapse. So, you know, that something's going to happen. And the book of Revelation is read that way. And I'll tell you what, that's going to come and go too.

So what is this all about? It's not to satisfy our curiosity. This whole thing about the beast that everyone is always so interested. Who's the beast? Where is he? Where does he come from?

Is he going to come? He's got to come out of Europe as I was taught. No, no, he's got to be a Jew as some others taught. No, no, this, that, and the other thing. And it was just a means of putting together this giant jigsaw puzzle so we could figure out the end times. That's not why it's here.

It is here so that we would hear a call for endurance and faith. And that's how we're going to approach it because that's what God intended to do with this passage. We need to understand this passage so that we will be prepared to face the times in which we live. To be prepared to face the beast. Let's look at the text again. And Satan 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 in great authority One of his heads had 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 opens 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 language and nation 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 the 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 he must be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. First of all, be prepared for the beast.

Be prepared for the beast. Who is this figure? Well, let's take that apart a little bit. See his origin. Where does he come from? Well, he originates with the dragon himself.

With Satan, as we have seen, is the dragon. the dragon positions himself on the seashore to call up the helpers who will help him carry out his will who will be the instruments of his rage remember we saw last week that satan has been cast down from heaven from his accusatorial position in heaven he's been cast down to earth by the death and resurrection of jesus and for the short period of time between the ascension and the coming of Christ, Satan will spend his fury on the earth. And here he's calling up the instruments of that fury, of that rage from the sea. Now you certainly see the family resemblance, don't you?

Both have seven heads and ten horns. The only difference is that the beast wears ten crowns, while the dragon wears only seven crowns. The beast wears his crowns on his horns, the dragon wears his on his heads. Now some would say that that gives the idea that it's a derivative authority because the dragon wears his on his heads while the beast wears it on his horns.

It may be that way. I'm not so sure. but it doesn't make too much of a difference. It shows that the beast is like Satan and is his minion, is his instrument. The crowns obviously speak of kingly power and the horns are kingly authority. The horns, the use of horns in the Bible almost always is a metaphor for power. So it symbolizes this seven and ten, these complete numbers, this complete oppressive power and its worldwide effect.

Here you see the image bearer of the dragon. So he will be like Satan, striving for complete allegiance. He also, not only originates with Satan, but he rises out of the sea. What is that all about? Well, we just heard in Daniel, we just heard in Daniel that these beasts came out of the sea. The sea in the Old Testament is often this place of chaos and evil.

It's often seen that way. a place of chaos and evil. And we saw a few weeks ago that the dragon, that we saw in the last chapter, is a monster from the sea. He's the Old Testament sea monster, often called Leviathan in the Old Testament. You remember that the sea monster represented the evil kingdoms who persecute God's people. So it's not just one entity.

That sea monster, you remember, in Psalm 74 and Ezekiel 29, represent Pharaoh in Egypt. In Jeremiah 51, the same sea monster represents Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon. In Isaiah 27, the same sea monster represents Assyria. So this, whatever comes from the sea usually speaks of some entity. And we saw it in Daniel. These beasts come from the sea.

These are the powers that oppress the people of God. They come out of the sea, this place of chaos and darkness and evil, to oppress the people of God. And so this beast arises from the watery, dark home of the dragon. So he has the same devilish nature and is on the dragon's side. Now the dark realm of evil certainly encompasses unregenerate humanity, unbelieving people.

And so the earthly origin, the earthly origin of the beast is sinful humanity. So we know this much The beast is an instrument of the devil with the same outlook values goals and the nature of the devil who comes from unregenerate humanity for the purpose of expressing Satan fury against the people of God But who is he? Or we might ask, what is he? the first clue in this description the first clue is his description as a terrifying beast now we've got to get a handle on this he's a beast now when you look at this beast do you notice something? does he look familiar to you? he should because he's a compilation of the beast from Daniel 7 that we just read earlier in the Old Testament reading John in this revelation has if you will, rework that figure of the Daniel 7 beast and has taken all those beasts and put them into one.

Okay? But in Daniel, here's the question. In Daniel, what do the beasts represent? In Daniel, we saw four. The lion, if I understand Daniel right, the lion is the Babylonian Empire. The bear is the Persian Empire.

The leopard is the Empire of Alexander the Great. and the iron-toothed monster is Rome. This historical setting out of these four different empires. Well, that should tell me something. What does it tell me? It tells me that the beast can be a kingdom, an empire, a government power, a political entity, not necessarily a person. Now, of course, in the Old Testament, If you talk about the king, you talk about the kingdom.

So it's not necessarily saying it's not a person, but it's not necessarily saying it's a person, but it could also be representing a person. It can be both, an institution or a person. If you talk about the ruler, you're talking about the kingdom. So there's our first clue. It's a beast. pattern after the Old Testament which beast represented political governmental empire kind of powers.

I want you to notice this too. The beast is part of a counterfeit trinity. And I think this is done on purpose. I don't think I'm reading anything into it here. I think this is done on purpose There so many parallels here that we going to see Satan sends the beast The beast represents Satan and seeks to do his will And then the second beast that we're going to read about, Lord willing, next week, beginning in verse 11 of this chapter, we have a second beast that comes from the land.

What's his position? What does he do? He exists for the purpose of pointing everyone to the beast, the first beast. Do you see that? Do you see the counterfeit trinity that's at work there? It's as if Satan is imitating the trinity.

It's as if this is parody of the triune God. And notice this as well. The beast is purposely described as an imitation savior or a parody of Jesus. All right? Both have horns. In chapter 5, verse 6, do you remember?

There was a lamb standing as though it had been slain with how many horns? Seven horns. Both are slain. Okay? And so here we have a being, this beast has horns. Both are slain.

In chapter 5 again, the lamb standing as though it had been slain. You see the same thing in verse 3 and verse 8 of our chapter here. Both rise to new life. Verse 3, the beast dies and is raised again. Okay? Both are enthroned.

Verses 2 and 4. This beast gets a throne from Satan. Both have authority over every tribe and people and nation and language. Chapter 5, verse 9. The Lamb ransomed people from every tribe and language and people and nation. Chapter 7, verse 9.

There are worshipers before the throne of the Lamb from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. We see the same thing here in verse 7. Both have followers whose names are written on their foreheads. Look at chapter 13, verse 16. Also it, that's the second piece, causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead.

Now look at chapter 14, verse 1. Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with Him 144,000, who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads. So they both have followers, have their names written on their foreheads. Both receive universal worship. okay in chapter 5 verse 13 the lamb receives worship from every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them and you see the same thing in verses 4 and 8 So the beast can be an institution or a person who determines to gain the allegiance that goes to God alone Okay?

Now the next question. When? When does the beast appear? And this is going to be determinative for us. Who the beast is. This is going to kind of sew everything up.

First of all, don't miss the fact that the devil summons the beast to do what? To be the instrument of his rage. And what did we learn last week? When is the rage of Satan unleashed? He is given a short time from the time of the ascension of Jesus to his throne to when Jesus comes again. So during that time, Satan's fury is expressed on the earth, right?

This is his theater of operations now. It is expressed on the earth. What does that tell me about the beast? If he's the instrument of Satan's fury, is he in the past? Is he in the future? Is he now?

The answer is yes. All those. He's in the past. He was in the past. He will be in the future. He is now.

He is the instrument of Satan's rage during this short period of time. remember too that the sea monster image from the old testament represents evil kingdoms spanning hundreds of years right as we saw a few weeks ago when the sea monster comes up he represents different kingdoms he doesn't just represent one he represents several all right the same leviathan represents Egypt. It represents Sodom. It represents Babylon.

It represents Assyria. So we have a whole bunch of kingdoms represented by this one Old Testament figure. And remember as well that the sea beast not only represents the evil kingdoms, but the evil spiritual forces behind the kingdoms manifesting those evil forces manifesting themselves in successive kingdoms. Thirdly, when does this beast operate? What does it tell us?

It tells us he operates for 42 months. Now what is that? Remember there are three symbolic numbers that represent the same period. Three and a half years, 42 months, 1,260 days. Now what have we seen so far up to this point in the book of Revelation? That that three and a half years, that 1,260 days, that 42 months represent the whole period of tribulation from the ascension of Jesus to the coming of Jesus.

It represents an intense time of suffering for the people of God. Thus, what do we see here? the beast is present in the entire age from jesus ascension to his return and then notice this and this is really important that we look at this i think this is a key in verse three 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 now it's not seemed to have a mortal wound that's that's a poor translation It should literally be translated, he appeared slain unto death. That is, here's a beast that's slain unto death.

That appears. It's not, it appears that he was slain. He is slain. We see that he is slain, but his death wound was healed. That is to say, the wound actually kills the beast. But what happens?

He's resurrected again. What's that telling us? Simply this, whenever any major opponent of God who looks so much like Satan is soundly defeated, it looks like the beast has been conquered. Yet he will rise again in some other form until the end of history. And such revivals of the beast make it look like Jesus' defeat of Satan was not decisive at all.

You follow? Think about this. The Roman Empire, which was the beast in John's day, collapsed. And so there was universal peace, right? For the people of God? No.

Other evil empires rose up. Hitler is defeated and dead, is he not? But guess what? Oppression rises in the form of anti-Christian legislation in the democratic countries of Germany and Europe. You know how hard it is in those countries now, in democratic countries? Right?

Ask our Romanian brothers Communism falls only to be replaced by a government that encourages licentiousness and immorality So, an evil system falls and it looks like it's dead. And it is dead. But guess what? Another one comes up in its place. You see? Finally, and this helped me a lot, look at verse 9.

If anyone has an ear, let him hear. Does that sound familiar to you? Where does that come from? Chapters 2 and 3. Every one of the seven churches of Asia Minor living at the time when this letter was written. Every one of those churches, there is a call to them.

If anyone has an ear, let him hear. well that should tell me something what does it tell me? John is telling these churches back then that they're facing the beast and that they have to endure if you have ears you need to hear you need to endure you see so for us so then the beast is present in every century of the church's existence including ours including ours folks you know as I look at that and again I want to approach this with humility but it seems to me that if we keep looking for this one great beast who's going to come up from somewhere I'm not so sure that there isn't going to be a consummate beast but the beast has been around he keeps dying and coming back he keeps dying and coming back he keeps dying and coming back. The beast has been around.

And if we keep looking off to the future and saying, oh, I wonder what the beast is going to be. Is it Barack Obama? Or maybe it's Mikhail, I mean, I remember it was Mikhail Gorbachev for a while. Why? Because he had that, right? He had that scar there and people, no, you think I'm joking.

I am not joking. It must be because he's got the wound that appears. It appears like a fatal wound, but it's not. He's got to be it. You know, we've got to quit playing these games. The beast is here.

Listen to the call. So be prepared for the beast attacks All right Be prepared for the beast attacks What is it like Verses 1 and 2. It is always powerful and terrifying. It is always powerful and terrifying. Look at the nature of the beast. He combines all the horrors of those former empires. he combines all the horrors of those former empires that we saw in Daniel 7 with the ability to crush terrorize, torture and kill it is terrifying it is terrifying folks, you know something we've got to understand something I don't see anything terrifying going on in our country I don't either but we must understand something for some reason God and his providence has established this country in such a way that this is a blip on the radar screen of Christianity we're in the unusual place of no persecution the usual experience of Christians is not what we have experienced for 300 years that's unusual and I don't want to read God's providence I don't know why he did it but you go anywhere else in the world and you won't find what you find here.

I thank God for that. I praise God for that. Okay? But what we experience is not the normal Christian experience. And when I say terrifying, I mean terrifying. When we read these things to endure, he's not talking to us about enduring the inconvenience of our lawnmower broken down and saying, oh, well, God works everything for good.

Well, he does in lawnmowers. That's true. I mean, I'm not discounting that, But we have got such a twisted view of trials here. The network news says something inaccurate about us. We think the world's coming to an end. When we can't, if you will, when we can't have government-sponsored prayer in the schools, somehow we think the whole world is ending.

We don't even know what this is about. There are Christians across the world who have had terrifying experiences. The attack of the beast is always terrifying. and it is always powerful because it has the power of Satan behind it. A supernatural power that works mysteriously moving and energizing these powers that come against God people There was Nero Nero who had a party in his gardens and what he did was he hung up Christians and lit them on fire to light his party That's what we're talking about.

We're talking about the Soviet Union who used to try Christians and banish them to Siberian wastelands or put them in psychiatric wards. Terrifying and powerful. Muslim countries today. If you convert from Islam to Christianity, you lose your head. That's the beast. That's the beast at work.

It's terrifying and it's powerful. Notice this as well, that the beast, reappearing throughout this age, will always be characterized by blasphemy. Look at verse 1. He has blasphemous names on its heads. This represents the blasphemous claims to earthly divine kingship, something that belongs to Christ alone. Again, a parody of Christ.

Here is Christ that we've met in Revelation chapter 1. What did we see? We heard about it this morning. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. But here's this counterfeit that also claims, if you will, divine authority and kingship. That I deserve all your allegiance.

In the time of this writing, in the first century already, in the cities where these churches were, these seven churches, remember? In Thyatira and Pergamum and Smyrna and Philadelphia. and Ephesus, all those churches. In those cities, there were temples dedicated to the emperors, the Roman emperors. They were considered gods. Right? And coins bear the emperor's divine names.

Off the top of my head, I can't remember which emperor it was, but there's one of his coins. You know what the inscription is on it? Savior of the world. Okay? Domitian, a Roman emperor, was called Our Lord and Our God. Alright?

So there was these blasphemous things going on. And you remember, what was it that these churches faced? The idea that if you declare that Caesar is Lord, you will live. You walk to the temple, you take a pinch of incense, you put it in the fire, you declare Caesar is Lord, and you get a certificate that says you're a good Roman subject. But if you refuse to go to the temple and just a pinch of incense and just say the statement Caesar is Lord, if you refuse to do that, you may die.

You may lose your job. You may lose everything just because you won't say those three words. But the Christians said, no. Jesus is Lord. There is no one. You see these blasphemous names written on his head.

Joseph Goebbels was Hitler's chief propagandist. In a broadcast on April 19, 1936, he said this. Germany has been transformed into a great house of the Lord where the Fuhrer as our mediator stands before the throne of God. Do we have to think too far back, some of us who are old, and I was thinking through this, I was thinking through some of the old days.

Do you remember those buildings, seven, eight-story tall buildings with a poster of Stalin or Mao Zedong? Do you remember those? As if the people were to give their exclusive devotion to the leaders. That's the beast. That's the beast. Look at verses 5 and 6.

He utters blasphemy. And that blasphemy means attacks against the people of God, the temple of God. You see, blasphemy happens when we are attacked. Why? Because we are the temple of God. And when you attack the temple of God, you blaspheme God.

Now, it also identifies the temple of God as those who are in heaven. You remember in chapter 11 we saw that that temple is measured out and it includes the people in heaven and us. And we are being trampled in that outer court, right? But the point is that we are the temple of God and the beast blasphemes God whenever he attacks the temple, the people of God.

We've got to understand this too. This is a New Testament image that we have to get used to. We do not come to the temple of God. This building is not the temple of God Can I be so bold as to say that this is not a sanctuary This is just a space But the temple meets in it. We are the temple. Not just individuals, but Ephesians chapter 2, as the church gathers, the Spirit of God dwells amongst us.

We are the temple of God. Therefore, when the beast attacks the temple, he is blaspheming God. You see, believers are oppressed because of their loyalty to their heavenly citizenship, which transcends their loyalty to any earthly kings. Notice this. The beast has the ability to win the allegiance of the unbelievers of this world. They marvel, verse 4.

Or is it verse 3? Yeah. They marvel, verse 3. they marvel because it seems like Christ's victory over the dragon is empty. It seems empty. You have this dragon-empowered evil coming back time and time again. Where is the victory of Christ over Satan if he can, time and time again, exercise his power, express his rage through the evil regimes that continually reappear in history?

Where is the victory? And so we hear the taunt. Where is the power of your Christianity? It doesn't make any difference in this world. Look at all these evil regimes around us. Look at the Sudan.

Look at North Korea. Look at Vietnam. Look at all these places. Where is the power of your faith? they marvel if you will where is the power of your faith they marvel at the fact that these powers continually exhibit themselves and so they worship the dragon while they worship the beast that is they give their allegiance their obedience their lives to serve the beast you know what I think is going on they worship because to the earth dwellers you remember what we've seen those who dwell on the earth is the shorthand way in the book of Revelation the earth dwellers of talking about all the unbelievers in this world their earth dwellers, their horizons are limited to the earth they can see any further than the earth here what going on to the earth dwellers there no greater power than that which they can see There no greater power than that which they can see And so they say, who is like the beast?

Who can fight against it? You know, that's also a parody of God. Purposely, that's a parody of God. Listen to this from Exodus 15. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

And so the people follow the beast. Who is like you? Because the only power they can see is the power that's on this earth. and they worship because nothing is more deceptive and more alluring than power. Why did millions of Germans willfully, not unwillingly, willingly follow Hitler? Why did they do that? Why did they fall into line with Hitler's madness? because he promised and delivered what appeared to be the power that they craved.

Can I say this? People love power. They love it. And that lust is so universal that when the beast appears with all his powers, it seems like the whole world follows, verses 7 and 8. Look what it says. And authority was given it over every tribe and people, language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it.

Now, what he talks about, is he talking about every person of every nation? No, he's talking about unbelievers. Because notice, it's limited there, all who dwell on the earth. Those are unbelievers and all those whose names have not been written in the Lamb's Book of Life. So it's people from all those different areas. But listen, that lust for power is so universal and so deep that when the beast appears able to deliver power people love it Love it Who is like the beast and who can fight against it And do you think this only applies to the Roman Empire and Nazi Germany and the communists?

Friends, let me tell you something. Democracy is no guard against the beast. if you think that democracies will save us from the excesses of the beast think again it will not surprise me it would not surprise me that if in the future i don't know and i hope it doesn't happen i hope this blip on the radar screen keeps going but democracy is no guarantee of our freedom. And that we will escape persecution.

We can look at democratic nations. Look at Great Britain. You know how hard it is, if not impossible, to have a Christian radio station? Do you know how hard it is now for Christians to do what they think is right because they're discriminating? Look at Canada, a democracy, who has passed hate speech laws that if you speak against homosexuality, you could be prosecuted.

So do not think democracy is any guard against the beast. You see, Satan is so powerful, he can corrupt anything. And the beast can appear anywhere. Now, I'm going to get in hot water here, maybe. I remember as a young man, during the Vietnam era, whether you thought that war was right or wrong, that's not the point. The point is there were many people who were saying my country right or wrong.

That's beast language. That's beast language. My country does not have my complete allegiance. My allegiance goes to my king who is Jesus. Now I will be a good citizen of my country because that's what my king tells me to do. But be careful.

Be careful. and even the most democratic nations can become the beast. And lastly, the beast will always make war on the saints and will conquer. Nazis silenced the church. The Soviets nearly extinguished the church in China. Do you know in China, I was talking to Mark Furman. Some of you remember Mark, who's the Tri-Am guy who's doing the modules in China now.

Mark was telling, I remember we were together at a meeting for some reason, and Mark was talking about in 1979, Christianity was so low in China. that one Chinese guy buried his Bible, hoping that a future generation would dig it up and the gospel would go forth again. China nearly extinguished the faith. Do you know how many churches there are? Do you know how many churches there are in Saudi Arabia?

Zero. he will conquer. The beast conquers the saints. So, be prepared to endure the beast's attack. This then is a call, right? Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. This then is a call that you must obey.

This is a call that you must obey. This is a command from our Savior. This is a command from our Lord Jesus. You must obey. Believers, that is those who do not worship the beast, will often experience captivity and death. Know that.

That's what he's saying here. Know that. And that shouldn't surprise us. Isn't that what Jesus told us? If they hated me, they will hate you. If they hated me, they will hate you.

So don't be surprised. Captivity comes, captivity will go. if the sword is brandished, you will die by the sword. Know that But your master then calls you to endurance No matter what the cost you will not fall into line You will not fall into line No matter what happens to you, your allegiance to Jesus is what's important. Your allegiance to Jesus is what will set the agenda.

Your allegiance to Jesus is what will cause you to stand against the beast. Your master calls you into endurance. He calls you to faith. In the face of the beast's power, will you still believe that Jesus actually won the victory? When it looks like the beast is conquering, will you still believe that Jesus did win the victory at the cross? In light of his conquest of the saints, will you believe that your defeat is actually victory?

Isn't that what we've seen as a theme throughout this book? that when we die at the hands of our enemies, it looks like we're the losers. But in reality, because we've endured in faithfulness to our Lord Jesus, we are the victors. They have not won. Will you still believe that your defeat is really your victory? But you know what? You also have to know this.

This is not just a call that you must obey. This is a call that you can obey. This is a call that you can obey. Why? Here's one reason God's sovereign. Look at verse 5.

That the beast is allowed to exercise authority for 42 months. Where do you think he gets that authority? It's implied, but it screams. Only by God's sovereign will does the beast exercise his authority. God is sovereign. He's the one that oversees it all.

The beast won go any further than what God lets him He is still under the sovereign control of God Remember this as well. Your obedience is guaranteed by your name in the Lamb's book of life. Do you know that? And notice this. And again, it's written in the negative. those who worship the beast are those whose names have not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who was slain.

What does that say? It says, your names are written before the foundation of the world, before you were born, your name was recorded if you are a believer in Jesus. Your name was written down before you ever came into existence. You know what that means? that means that it is beyond the reach of any power of heaven or of hell because it is before time.

Note this as well. You can endure because your name is there because the Lamb was slain. Jesus died. This defenseless Lamb, this man who was railroaded to crucifixion without any defense at all. He looked like a total loser. He died a death that was so powerful it ransomed a people for God.

Do you see that? The Lamb was slain and ransomed people from every nation, tongue, tribe, and language. you can obey because the Lord Jesus the one who makes this command actually purchased you at that point in history when he died on the cross he purchased you and remember this last of all you can obey because Jesus faced the beast and won the victory He stood before Pilate And by his death at Pilate's hands, at the hands of the beast itself, he won the victory. You can obey.

You can endure. You can have faith. so do you have ears to hear this call to endurance and faith do you have the ears to hear if you have these ears then you will be vigilant you will not be allured away by the beast you will not be kowtowed by the beast if you have ears to hear if you have ears to hear you will endure if you have these ears you will continue to believe. Can I say this?

If you have these ears, then you will have the eyes to see Jesus, the victor. Father, thank You for Your Word. Father, keep us from speculation. Keep us from anything that would distract us from hearing the call to endurance and faith. Keep us from anything that would lay down our guards, that we would not endure. Help us, Father, to see Jesus the victor and to trust in Him knowing that His death has given us the victory.

And even though we still fight the battle, even though in the world's eyes we are conquered, yet we are victors. Lord, keep this in front of us. Give us this perspective, heaven's perspective, of the beast and our endurance. God help us, we pray. In the name of our victorious King Jesus, Amen.