Revelation 13 Con't

Well, good morning.

We had a little light group this morning. That's all right. You want to open this up with a word of prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity we have today to gather and to open your word and just have it exposited to us in a way.

Lord, we thank you for this. Dear brother, spend so much time and study to prepare this text for us.

Lord, we just ask that you be present with us. You open our eyes, open our ears for greater understanding.

We ask all this through your Son, our Lord and Savior. All right.

Let's open up to Revelation 13. Good morning.

Beginning in verse 1. And a dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. And then

I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns, seven heads. And his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.

And the beast, which I saw, was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth was like that of a lion.

And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. 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.

They worshipped the dragon, because he had given 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 the authority to act for forty -two months was given to him.

And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.

And it was also given to him to make war with the saints, to overcome them, and the 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 was not written from the foundation of the world in the book of the life of the

Lamb, who has been slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear, and 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 faith of the saints.

And then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon.

He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose fatal wound was healed.

He performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men.

And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which is given to him to perform in the presence of the beast, and he is telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life.

And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

He causes all the small, the great, the rich, the poor, the free men, and the slaves to be given the mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or sell except the one who has the mark, either the number of the beast or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom, but him who has understanding, calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man, and his number is 666.

So, we will pick up in verse 3, we saw,

I saw his head as if one had been slain, it was a fatal wound, it had been healed, and the whole world was amazed and followed after the beast.

I came to the conclusion and explained, oh good morning, and explained that my understanding in its direct context, they would have understood that to be the collapse of the

Roman Empire with the suicide of Nero, and they would have seen now, oh wow, the coming on of Vespasian and Titus, they would have seen a resurrection of this empire which was in full collapse.

Like I said, if you want to read more about that, get Edward Gibbons, The Rise and Fall of the

Roman Empire, and you can see that, and if you don't want to read all of it, you can get from, I think it's from Claudius to Domitian section, which would cover about from 54 to 96

AD, if you want to read it. If you don't, then take my word for it. And then in verse 4, it says,

And they worshipped the dragon, because he gave authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?

Now, it says they worshipped the dragon. Well, how did they worship the dragon? Well, I think

I said at the end of last lesson, it's not like you're bowing down to Satan, okay?

But by worshipping the political and governmental structure, who are you worshipping?

Well, by what the text says, you're worshipping the dragon, because who gave the beast, which is the political and governmental structure, who gave the beast his power?

Satan. The dragon, correct. Yeah, yeah, Satan. And by doing so, by worshipping the state, worshipping the political social structure that is set up amongst the world, then you're by default worshipping

Satan or worshipping the dragon. Now, you have the theological perspective of this.

We all come into the world being, by default, dragon worshippers.

Is there anybody here that would disagree with that? Okay. Anybody understand how I come to that conclusion? One, we are totally depraved.

Therefore, we don't come into this world worshipping the true and living God. We come into the world worshipping something else other than that.

And if you worship something other than the true and living God, which has been revealed in the personal work of Jesus Christ, and has been regenerated to you by the power of the

Spirit, you by default are a beast or dragon worshipper. So, he says here in verse 4 as well,

And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast? And who is able to wage war with him?

If you were to go back in Isaiah, I think it's between chapter 44 and 46, when you had the trial of the idols or the non -gods, as it can be said, you see something a lot like what is being said here.

God says about himself, Who is like me? Who in the world is like me?

Who called all things into existence? Who decreed whatsoever come to pass?

The end from the beginning, and he did it for his own glory. Who can compete with me?

That's what God said to these idols and to these little

Elohims, as it's said in Isaiah. Well, what is the beast saying right here? He's basically saying the same thing.

Once again, we have this counterfeit. Remember last week, I said you have all these counterfeits that are coming up in this section?

You're going to have, you've got the counterfeit or the unholy trinity, which would be made up of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, which is a counterfeit of the

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You're going to have a fake lamb.

We'll get to that, hopefully, today. That fake lamb looks like a lamb.

It's got two horns, but what does it do? It tells us here it speaks like a dragon. It's funny that in doing that, reading that a couple of weeks ago, somebody had sent me, you younger mothers that have younger children, there's a thing on YouTube called

Papa Studios. It's like these moral stories. Somebody says, hey, do you think this is okay for our kid to watch?

I was like, I don't know. Send it to me. I'll let you know. If it's just moralism, teaching a good moral point,

I don't have a problem with it. But if it's teaching something other than following Christ and going some other way or trusting in morality,

I wouldn't. But what it was, one of them sent me, it was about a donkey who was walking through a jungle or a wilderness or something.

It's only about five minutes long. And he stumbles across a lion's skin, like a costume.

Well, he puts it on, and he's walking around. It looks like the donkey from Shrek is actually what it looks like in the cartoon.

And he's walking around, and everybody's backing up from him, and they're scared of him.

Well, then all of a sudden, he goes to let out a belt of, and he sounds like a donkey.

And then everybody realizes they're not scared of him anymore because his true colors have been revealed when he opened his mouth.

And when I was watching, I thought about the very passage in Revelation 13 where it says, hey, this thing looked like a lamb.

But when it opened its mouth, its true colors came out, and they saw that it was the beast. And that's what made me remember of this passage we'll be getting to here shortly.

But it says here that who is like the beast, who is able to wage war with him? So here's the beast saying, there's nothing that can compete with me.

Is that not what God has already said in the Old Testament about himself? Nobody can compete with me.

Nobody is my rival. Although the nations rage, and the heathens raise up their arms against me and try to overthrow me, he says,

I'll sit in the heavens and I'll laugh at them. And I really do believe that God shows derision at them.

Sort of like, you know, those of you that have little boys, when you're real little and you're wanting to wrestle, you know, you hold your hand back like this, hold them on their head, and they're swatting in the air.

That's kind of what God is, that little finger on there. The nations of the world that rage against him, and they can't do anything.

And God mocks them. And God does mock them. He even gave

Elijah the ability to mock them. You know, mockery can be good at times.

And God sits in the heavens and he laughs. But then in verse 5 it says, there was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies to act for 42 months.

It was given to him. Now, if we are to understand where this original illusion comes from, it comes back from Daniel chapter 7.

Daniel chapter 7 was the four kingdoms, the son of man, and I think it's around verse 10, 10 through 13, it says that that little horn will be raised up, and he will speak blasphemies against God, and he will raise himself up to wage war with the saints.

Well, this here says for 42 months. My understanding of that 42 months, anybody remember my understanding?

Church age. Church age. Now, you were fixing to say something? No, what he said. Okay. He said, nope, whatever he said.

Yeah, you have the 1260 days, time, time, half the times, 42 months.

I understand this little book section, remember we're still in the little book, the smaller prophecy within the larger prophecy as explaining the church age.

And, you know, each one of these does the church age, but it shows them in different ways.

You've had the two witnesses, right? You've had the two witnesses who go out and proclaim. Then you have for a time, times and half the times, and for 42 months, what do you have?

You have the time of the church age or the offspring of the woman, so you have two pictures, offspring to the woman, the two witnesses, and then when we get to the 42 months here, you'll fix to see, we're actually called the saints because who wages war against the saints?

The dragon and the beast. So once again, not only do you have threes and the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls, but in the smaller prophecy in the little book, we have another set of threes, which has three pictures of the church, three pictures of what's going on with the church in the church age or the gospel age, and what is going on within the gospel age?

Well, the church is proclaiming. They're doing it with purpose and with power and with protection, and they're doing it until Christ comes and lays waste to his enemies, but what's happening along with that 42 months?

I just want to tell us here that the beast and the dragon wage war. They wage war against the church.

That is why I have a huge issue, okay, when we're trying to, the postmillennial position, and it's not to take the amillennial baseball bat and whack them across the head, but you understand that the postmillennial position has a hard time dealing with the 42 months, 1 ,260 days, the three and a half years, when at that time, the dragon and the beast are waging war with the church.

The church isn't triumphing, and we'll read it here, what it'll say in just a few minutes, and he overcome them.

He overcome them. Does that sound like the postmillennial position? They have a huge problem because they don't overcome.

Matter of fact, it looks like the church is defeated, and why does it look like the church is defeated? Because who comes and rescues his church in power and glory and lays waste of them with the breath of his mouth?

Who's that? It's Christ. It's Christ. So it says here that he wages war with the arrogant words and the authority and the blasphemies.

They act for 42 months was given to him. Who gave this, we'll just use

Daniel's terminology, the little horn, who gave him the power to do these blasphemies?

It was the dragon. It was the dragon. And here's an even more complicated thing.

Who gave the dragon the authority to do that? God did. Yeah, God did.

And why does God do that? To proclaim his glory. No doubt.

To bring out his glory, his purposes, and showing that even God, through the sinful acts of men and through the evil acts of the devil, whose desire is to extinguish the church that he will overcome.

And it does seem somewhat of a paradox that the church overcomes by suffering.

That's not the worldview of, hey, when armies go in and they conquer another kingdom, the armies aren't suffering.

Matter of fact, they're causing much suffering on their enemy. Well, that's not how the

Bible explains the militant acts of the church.

The church is going out being militant, proclaiming the gospel where they go as they go. And as they do that, suffering is expended on the church.

And in doing so, how do they triumph? Through suffering and death. How did Jesus triumph? Suffering and death.

Yeah, suffering and death. You think we'd be any different than he is? Jesus himself said that. He said that, hey, is a disciple going to be any different than his master?

If they hated me, what are they going to do to you? If they want to kill me, what are they going to do to you?

They're going to do the same thing. And what did Jesus do? He remained faithful to the end. And what did God do? He says,

I won't have it. He raised him up from the dead. What does God say the same thing to us? That one day he will do the same thing for you and I.

He ain't going to have it. He's not going to leave us in the shield forever. He's going to raise us up and give us a glorified body, just like Christ.

We won't be little gods, but we will be perfect, just like him. Now, it says, and he opened up his mouth in blasphemies against God.

Well, how does this beast speak blasphemies against God?

Well, one, right off rip, he's going to want the, to be worshipped.

Is that not a blasphemous act? What did they do to blasphemers in the Old Testament? Stolen to death.

Yep. Matter of fact, even the prophets that, well, you take Balaam, for instance.

Balaam is considered a false prophet, but you know what? Balaam never spoke falsely.

Does everybody know that? You ever read the story about Balaam? Balaam didn't speak falsely.

Matter of fact, when Balak wanted him, remember the Moabite, the King of Moab, he wanted him to speak blasphemies and curse the people of God.

And what happened? He would go out there and do his thing. And what would happen? He said, man, all I can say is good.

All I can say is good. He said, I'll give it a shot. He said, every time I try to do this thing, basically the

Lord, Yahweh, overcomes me and all I can do is speak good. And if you've ever read that interaction with Yahweh and Balaam, I've come to the conclusion that Balaam probably was a proselyte.

He has interaction and knows the person and work of Yahweh and having a conversation with him.

This is not just some run -of -the -mill pagan. He actually knows of Yahweh and his works, knows that the people of God are being blessed by God, protected by God.

And although he wants to go out there and to speak evil against him so he can collect his money, he can't do it.

But anybody remember how he winds up being a false prophet? Anybody remember? He sends the

Moabite women down. Yeah, man, there's one thing that the Israelite men could not do.

Boy, they thought the Moabite women were absolutely hot. And he said, hey, you want to get them to go into idolatry, we can't do it this way.

But if you send the Moabite women in there, you know what they're going to do? They're going to start sleeping with them.

And what's going to happen? They'll pull their hearts away and they'll go into idolatry. That's how

Balaam becomes a false prophet by leading them into idolatry. And even

Moses says that. In Deuteronomy, he says, hey, even if a prophet comes and he speaks truth, what did

Balaam do? He spoke truth. But he says, if that prophet speaks truth, but then points someone to go to another way or to worship something else through whatever means, that person's a false prophet and needs to be put to death.

And ultimately, they did go in and they did kill, by the sword,

Balaam for his infraction. Yes, sir? One thing that's really strange about Balaam is you know he was a believer because he professed the

Lord with his mouth. Yeah, yeah. I think he was an apostate. Yeah, yeah.

It's just strange. And he did what he did for money. And if you go back to 1 and 2

Peter, both of those deal with false teachers. And in doing so, Balaam was for wantonness gain.

And it talks about those who go out to prophesy for money are raised up by God and prepared for destruction on that day.

And that was Balaam. As a matter of fact, they used Balaam as an example of that. And had access to divine revelation, like he was getting revelation from God as to what they were doing and where they were going.

Yeah, I mean he has full -on conversations with God. And we often think that pagans or the unconverted in the

Old Testament didn't hear God multiple times. I mean, think about Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar, he heard God through vision. Obviously, he had to have it interpreted.

But then think about Abimelech. When he was going to put his hands to take Sarah as his wife.

Y 'all remember that? And God sent him a dream saying, hey, check it out, dude. I'm going to strike you dead.

I mean, this is a pagan king who heard God. And think about Cyrus. We forget about Cyrus.

Cyrus, in the first chapter of Ezra, you want to hear what

Cyrus thought about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Read it, because he says, God told me to go build him a house to let his people go.

I'm his man. And I was like, oh wow, the word that you used for Cyrus is the word for Messiah.

Not Messiah in the sense of like Christ, but he was going to be the deliverer that would lead God's people back, give them all the money that they needed, send them back with whatever that they needed.

Remember, the Persians, they were very wealthy, and they sent the Jews back with all the money, all the things that they needed, and said, while you're on your way, if you need stone, brick, whatever, gold, silver, wood, whatever you need, you pick it up on your way, and if anybody gives you any problem, we'll cut their head off.

That's the short version of it. Because when they got there and they were tried and impeded by building the temple, they went back and looked at the decree, and it says, hey, whoever stops them from doing this, put them to death.

It's like, man, this is certainly Cyrus' conversation with God made him understand that he was

God's man for that moment. Now, I don't believe Cyrus was a believer, just to let you know. I think he was a pantheon pagan.

But he did have an interaction with God that he knew that God was real. So, one, in chapter six, he opened up his mouth speaking blasphemies against God.

One, because he wanted to be worshipped. This beast, this governmental structure, this false prophet, has a desire to be worshipped, wants to be like God once again, the counterfeit.

And then to blaspheme his name. Well, how does he blaspheme his name? One, the same way as speaking blasphemies against God wanting to be worshipped.

He's claiming himself to be at the same level as God. What does every deity want to be?

It wants to be the supreme God. It wants to be the one who has supreme loyalty.

And in this case, there is coming a time in this where whoever does not give his supreme authority and supreme loyalty to the beast and the dragon will be put to death.

That's what it says. We'll get to here in just a minute. And it says his name and his tabernacle.

Well, who's the tabernacle? It tells us. Read the next phrase. Those who dwell in heaven.

Are we not dwelling in the heavens right now as saints? Yeah, what does

Thessalonians say? I mean Ephesians say. It says we have been seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Now, are you and I actually seated next to Christ in heaven? But positionally, because of our justification, where are we seated?

It says we're seated in the heavenly places. That hey, we take in the same right.

We fail to remember this. We have the same rights and privileges that Jesus Christ has.

Y 'all know that? Seems a little bit exaggerated, doesn't it?

But that's not the case. You and I stand before God just as his son in the righteousness of his son.

Therefore, everything that was given to Christ has now been given to you and I. Why did he say, and I've said it multiple times, in Matthew 28, when he's standing at the mountain in Galilee, he says all authority has been given unto me against heaven and earth.

Now you go and make disciples. What did Jesus do when he said that? His authority? Who did he give it to?

He gave it to his church. He says everything that I have done, you go do. He says as you go out, and if you forgive someone's sins, they're forgiven.

Now, that doesn't mean like a priest or a pope, okay? What Jesus was saying, when you go out and you do what

I've sent you out to do, you've got my authority that under the authority of my finished work, a person trusting me, you have the right to tell them their sins are forgiven.

We do it every week. So that wasn't just to the priest? No. Hey, that's why

I don't have a problem in and of itself when a pastor or a, when

I say a priest, I don't mean a Roman Catholic priest or someone and another that looks at them as a priest, as a priesthood of all believers.

I can look at someone and under the authority of Scripture and say if that person truly has placed faith in Jesus Christ and they have turned from their sins, your sins are forgiven.

Mike Collier don't absolve you of that because I don't have the authority to do that. But under the authority of what

Jesus has finished work, I can say that and say it with the authority of what Christ said.

What's that? So you're waving at me? So he speaks against the tabernacle, that is those who dwell in heaven, the tabernacle is the dwelling place of God.

We are the dwelling place of God. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Remember the

Mike Collier translation? Y 'all are the temple because the you is in the plural. So y 'all are the temple.

You are the dwelling place of God. God no longer dwells in temples made with hands. That was the thing of the

Old Testament. In the Old Testament, they built that elaborate temple that Zerubbabel came in and it was kind of ragtag.

Herod comes along. He can't be in a temple complex because he's an Edomite. But what does he do? He gets an influx of all of the money from Rome.

What does he do? He raises up the temple mount, makes it bigger. He expands its precincts.

He expands Solomon's portico and all the colonnades around it by 35 acres.

He makes it huge. And that was one of the seven wonders of the world. Why? Because that was the place where God dwelled.

That was only a type and shadow. Did the Shekinah glory of God dwell there?

Yes, it did. In that little cube in the Holy of Holies where all of the cherub were at, the glowing of the

Shekinah glory inside the Holy of Holies. Yes, that was the dwelling place of God, but that was only a type because there was coming a time when he was going to say, hey, the new covenant

I'm going to make with you is not going to be like the one I made with the old that was made with stone tablets that were engraved and are sitting in the ark.

That's going to go away. I'm going to actually take my spirit and put it within you and I will dwell within you and no longer will be hovering over the ark of the covenant.

You then will be the ark of the covenant, the tabernacle. And God would no longer quote, be housed in a temple made with hands.

And even in 1 Kings 8, Solomon even makes reference to that.

He says, though you are here, nothing can contain the heavens of heavens can't contain you because you are uncontainable.

You are infinite. Your expanse goes beyond the heavens can reach.

And then in verse 7, he says, and it was also given to him to make war with the saints.

Okay, here it is. I said a few minutes ago that this little horn, the beast, the false prophet, that he was going to make war with the saints.

And what does it say in the next thing? And he overcomes them. We've already seen this back in chapter 11.

Remember when it talked about the two witnesses? What does it say? It says it was a beast. Remember, we heard the beast come up the first time in chapter 11.

And it's just like, hey, we're supposed to know who this guy is. It says, and the beast, which was coming out of the abyss, he made war with the saints and he overcame them.

So once again, the church age, what's going to happen? We're proclamating the beast, the dragon, the false prophet, they're going to wage war against us.

They want us to stop. We're just in an anomaly in the United States. We don't have to worry about that here.

We don't have to worry about some type of militant group coming in, busting our doors down and gunning us down.

We don't have to worry about that. At least not now. I mean, that could happen. But that's not how it is in Nigeria.

That's not how it is in Uganda, places in Uganda, or anywhere else in northern

Africa, or maybe not having militant Muslims come in and enslave the women and children and gun down the men, but you might have in places like North Korea or in China or in Iran where apostasy laws are to have you either enslaved, put in reprogramming camps, or have you put to death.

Yeah, so what they do is they enforce it by you not worshipping the beast.

And what is the beast? It's the political, governmental structure. Mike. Yes, sir.

So how do we reconcile that? Because for those saints in Nigeria, say right now, those saints in Nigeria could very easily say that the end of the church age is coming because it's...

In other words, it looks to them as if Christ's church is being conquered by his enemies.

Yeah, I think... But it's not worldwide. Hang on. But their world is. Right. So let's take, for instance, that's why last week

I say you go through every generation whether it was starting with Nero, because by and large there was no persecution of God's people from Octavian, which would have been

Caesar Augustus, down to Nero. God's people weren't punished or there was no widespread persecution.

But when you get to Nero, it was localized, okay? Localized to Rome and maybe the little precincts outside Rome.

But you can't tell me what you just said that the people in Rome weren't... the Christians in Rome weren't thinking.

Just like, hey man, this is it. This is... So in every generation, that's why this can't be a hard and fast 42 months, 3 1⁄2 years, time, time, half times, or 1 ,260 days because over the gospel age what's going to happen?

It's going to be in every generation and in some places in multiple things going at the same time.

So in Nigeria, just to let you know, we fail to remember Nigeria's been having this go on for 15 to 18 years.

This is nothing new. It's new on the news only because Donald Trump's decided he's going to go in and try to straighten it out.

But this ain't new. This has been going on. What do you think's going on in Colombia? Right, yeah, it's been going on Same thing.

for a long time. But what I'm saying is so you will know, though, that the church age is coming to an end when it's a worldwide...

when that is a worldwide phenomenon. Yes. In other words, there's no longer bastions of religious freedom.

It's just a worldwide attack on the church. Yes. And how do we know that? Because in 2

Thessalonians it says the man of sin. Okay? The man of sin actually is going to raise himself up to be

God. That's why when you take all of these together you go, okay, there's a pattern that started

I think, whatever it was, five weeks ago. There's a pattern of the little horn that starts in Daniel.

And you're going to see that over the course of church age. But at the end, towards the end of the gospel age or the church age, however you want to coin that, there will be a man, that man of lawlessness, that son of perdition.

You know how many people are called the son of perdition in the Bible? Two. The man of lawlessness, that will be at the end of the age.

And you know who else? Judas. Now, this is making an inference.

An inference is making a conclusion based on something that's not explicit, but based on internal evidence and external evidence.

Okay? My inference would be that this man of lawlessness at the end of the age would most likely be a man with skin but filled with the power of Satan.

Okay? Demonic influence. I believe he could very well be the devil incarnate.

And why I've come to that conclusion is the constant counterfeit, real deal.

And what do we see happen with Judas when he, being filled with Satan, remember that's what it says.

It says, and Satan entered his heart. That's not, there's no confusion what happened.

Okay? Satan entered his heart and he went, and what was his goal? To extinguish the kingdom that Jesus wanted to establish because I believe that Judas wanted something else.

I believe Judas wanted Rome to be stomped out and the Jews to then be raised up.

He didn't care nothing about the kingdom of David. He didn't care anything about that. He wanted to be a geopolitical power that would crush

Rome. And it would be two people that did that. One would have been

Judas, being filled with the power of Satan to kill the Messiah. And then if you can't kill the

Messiah because he's been resurrected and glorified at the end of the age, what happens? This man of lawlessness being filled with the power of Satan, if he can't kill, if he can't kill

Christ, who's he going to kill? His bride. That's right. His people.

That's why he can't make war with, he can't make war with Christ anymore. He's been 86 out of heaven.

We saw that back in chapter 12. So who does he make war with? The saints. And it will look towards the end of the age that the church of Jesus Christ has been persecuted into oblivion.

And who comes to rescue her? Christ. And it says here that he was given to him to make war with the saints, to overcome them.

And authority over every tribe, people, tongue, and nation. Here it is.

Once again, we see this counterfeit. What did Christ come into the world to do?

To save a people from every tribe, people, tongue, and nation. Well, what does this beast do?

He comes in and is given power and authority over every nation, tribe, people, and tongue. And verse 8 says,

And all who dwell on the earth will worship him. Everyone whose name was not written from the foundation of the world in the book of the life of the

Lamb who has been slain. Okay, so once this beast has been given authority over every nation, tribe, and tongue, and he's been given over all who dwell on the earth, they'll worship him.

Look, once he's been given that authority over them, what does the beast do? He mandates supreme loyalty and worship.

And as I said a second ago, you see the progression towards the end of the age that there will be a man that will raise himself up, that man of lawlessness, and he will claim himself standing in the temple of God claiming to be

God. What is this person doing? The same thing. He's claiming himself to be God, to be worshipped.

And he will have that all who dwell on the earth will worship him. And listen to this.

Everyone whose name was not written from the foundation of the world in the book of the life of the

Lamb who has been slain. So, in short, we could just summarize this.

Who's going to worship the beast? All the non -elect. All the non -elect.

Now, I don't have time because I've only got five minutes. I really do want to look at how the construction of of chapter 13 verses 8 because you also have in chapter 17 it says in whose name whose names were not written in the book of life.

So, this here has a prepositional phrase and then I'll be quiet because I can't get into it.

There's a prepositional phrase here. It's from the foundation of the world. Okay, well if it's from the foundation of the world is it saying those whose names were not written in the book of life?

Or is that prepositional phrase supposed to be the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world?

And we will get more into that next week because we try to harmonize chapter 17 with this and in Greek word order doesn't matter, okay?

In English it does because we're trying to make it read better. So, is this saying the

Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world or the names were written before the foundation of the world?

And we will get into that next week because we've only got five minutes.

Yes, ma 'am. Here, Stephen was talking about squelch as much.

In God's sovereignty those bastions, you know, or Europe, not now, but before Europe were because people tried to do government and life

God's way. Recognizing, you know, here in America that God gave people rights. It's not the government.

Because, like it says, if the people who are not written in the Lamb's book of life are worshipping the beast you assume that those who are written there are not worshipping the beast.

I'm not assuming. The text is saying that's who will. Yes, so that's a given. So, wouldn't it be the job of Christians to resist worshipping the beast by trying to do authority

God's way? I'm not sure I'm understanding your question. So, are you saying that we should resist the governmental structure?

If the governmental structure is anti -Christ would it not be the duty of Christians to counter it?

I would say that every government is anti -Christ. Right. But what about the bastions that existed used to be in Europe and here in America?

Like, the church was persecuted and that's where we had to flee that persecution.

They were fleeing. Actually, they weren't fleeing. They were fleeing. Originally, the pilgrims that came here were not fleeing the beast.

They were fleeing the division by and large the division between Presbyterian and Baptist.

I'm just going to be honest. You had, that's what... Oh, we don't have time. They were fleeing the ability to...

of a state church. And see, that's why... You asked, Richard, a few questions and answers ago.

Why is it that we don't see a vitriol anger towards the

Roman Catholic Church like the reformers did? It's because we're not in a sacralistic state.

Under sacralism, the state church was the government. Therefore, if you went against the church you were going against the government.

Therefore, the government had... This is called syllogisms. Because the state was the government and because the government was given...

I mean, the church was the government and because God had given the government by the

Scriptures the right to bear the sword, if you violated anything against the state, you were to be put to death.

Well, when those are so intertwined, you can't tell the difference or you've got some head of the church, whether it be the monarch of England or the pope who says, well, that's a violation of God's law.

That person's a heretic and should be put to death. That's why many of our Baptist forefathers were drowned and they were not violating

God's law. Well, what law were they violating? The religious political power.

Now, to try to answer your question, we should try to be an influence as believers to the political system that's here.

Look, if it comes up that we should ban abortion, you better believe we should.

Okay? Because one, God's the one that gives life. Men don't have the right to take that.

Okay? Well, we should. But when you have, you go, okay, well,

I think certain foods are wrong. Okay? I should go against the government.

Well, I don't care. I don't care if you eat a cheeseburger. I don't care if, but you have some people who think it's wrong.

Okay? Where do you draw that line? Things that clearly violate God's law, whether it be the mutilation of children's body.

Okay? These are clear things that we can stand on Scripture and argue. Okay? Some of this other stuff, we just, it doesn't matter.

I mean, it may matter to people in a smaller scale, but it's not a violation of God's law, and we should never raise up arms against the government unless they come and try to hurt you or your family.

Does that answer your question or no? You sure? I want to make sure I'm clear. Because I'm not saying we shouldn't engage in the political system.

We should. But as I read the Bible, we're not going to be a

Christianized world. Okay? Now, that stone cut without hands in Daniel that came down and shattered the political system.

Remember, that's a political system that Nebuchadnezzar was seeing. That little stone that came from way out here, it was a little tiny stone, and it rolled and rolled and rolled.

Boom! And as it got bigger, it shattered the political and governmental system.

But that little stone that comes, it doesn't say it takes over the world and be

Christianizes the world. That stone comes, and it goes out, and it grows bigger and bigger and bigger.

That means the gospel is going out into the uttermost parts of the earth. That's the point.

Even Jesus said this. And I've got to shut up. Even Jesus said this.

He said this standing before Pilate. He said, You a king? He said, Yep. You said,

Well. But my kingdom ain't of this world. Because if it were, you know what?

My people would come and fight for me. But my kingdom is not of this world. And even after Jesus had been resurrected, his disciples thought, okay, and this is a huge thing to remember, too, when we're talking about the coming kingdom and a

Jewish state and a Jewish millennial reign and all that stuff, okay?

Even after Jesus was resurrected, his disciples came to him and said, Hey, is this the time? Is this it?

Is this the time that you're going to reestablish? And what did Jesus tell them? You know what

I'm talking about. That's none of your business. Why? Because you're wanting now what

God has only promised in the eternal state, which is a perfect government, run by God, run by him, a true theocracy.

You try to have a theocracy here, okay? In today's, whatever system you want to try to do it in, you try to do it in a

Protestant. You're going to have to have somebody who winds up being the figurehead, and that Christian prince can be a failure, okay?

The whole Roman Catholic tried that. And what happened?

Failures as popes failed to establish a righteous law and did what was best in their own pockets and in their own authority.