This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back to our look at Revelation 13, day two, verses two to seven, we're
talking about this beast that's coming at the end of time, these familiar
pictures. Verses two to four continue the description of what's happening and in
these verses we hear some things that are echoing, that are showing again what
God has already shown us in the Old Testament. Let me read these verses, verses
two to four.

The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a
mouth like that of a lion. The dragon, who was Satan, you remember, gave the
beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the
beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed.

The whole world was astonished and followed the beast. Men worshipped the dragon
because he had given authority to the beast and they also worshipped the beast
and asked, "Who is like the beast and who can make war against him? " Now, as
you read these descriptions, don't miss the Old Testament picture that's here.

The book of Daniel, chapter seven, has a picture that anyone who read this, who
understood the Old Testament would immediately recognize. In Daniel seven three,
you see the same thing. Four great beasts are talked about there, each different
than the others.

Daniel seven says, "They came up out of the sea. The first was like a lion and
then there was a second beast. It looked like a bear and then there was another
beast.

It looked like a leopard. " So you have a lion and a bear and a leopard, same
exact animals as in verse two. What's going on here?

You see the lion and the bear and the leopard in Daniel seven, but they
represent four different, there's going to be a fourth one, four different
governments are going to come. Four successive kingdoms that come upon the earth
that rule against God, that go against God. Here you have all of them in one
great ruler.

So all that evil that was in the four is now in one. It's an unforgettable
picture here in Revelation chapter 13. It says, "If all the bad that was in all
those kingdoms that set themselves up against God is now seen in this one ruler,
let's come against the world at this end of time.

" It looks like all of them. It looks like it's always looked, but it looks like
all of them. God is saying to us in the most vivid way that he can.

Here is the ultimate epitome of evil. Everything in one horrible package of
evil. What is happening here is this evil ruler is intimidating the world.

This is a political ruler who rules through intimidation we're going to see in
the next verses. Now as we read through these verses, we see that there is a
wound that comes to the head one of the heads of this evil empire, this evil
ruler. What in the world is going on with that?

There's a lot of speculation about the wound that's come to the head of this
ruler. Some people believe that there's three basic interpretations down through
time. Some that it's a symbolic picture of the weakness of this ruler.

A second interpretation that it's a picture of a nation that falls and then
rises again, like possibly Rome or another nation. Maybe Rome will rise again at
the end of time. And then there are others who believe that it's an actual
leader who actually falls and comes back to life.

And that goes to the favorite speculations that it used to be John F. Kennedy
because he was wounded in the head. By the way, that's bad interpretation.

This is not talking about the head of a man here. We know that the idea of head
here represents not a person, but it represents world rulers, represents powers
that are put across the world. So you can't say it means both things.

It means governments and also now it means a person's head. It's just bad
interpretation to go that direction. And by the way, it didn't happen with John
F.

Kennedy. It's just speculation. We love those speculations.

The picture here we're going to find out later in the book of Revelation is even
deeper than that. It is the picture of a false resurrection. It's the picture of
a counterfeit.

Wait till we get to the last day of our look at this chapter, Revelation 13. The
amazing thing to me is what happens. Here is this evil ruler that comes and what
does the world do?

What do the nations do? The world's response is to worship them, to worship this
one who rules with an iron fist, this one who rules with intimidation. People
worship him.

Does that surprise you? In one sense it should. God pours out his glory.

He shows himself to the world and he's given us Jesus on the cross and he shows
us where this world is headed without trust in him. But he also shows us where
we could be headed through trust in him. And what did people do when they saw
God come into this world?

They ran from him. They hid from him. Then Satan's representative comes into
this world and he intimidates the world.

He pushes the world around with his little bit of strength for a little bit of
time. And what does the world do? They worship him.

For everyone of us who loves the Lord, this should be one of the greatest
moments of sadness in this entire chapter, that people worship the false God
rather than the true God at the moment when they most need the true God. What's
going on here is a battle for the souls of men, the last battle for the souls of
men. This description of the beast, but I've said a number of times that he
rules through intimidation, that's found in the actions of this beast.

Listen to what happens in verses five to eight, first five to seven. Let me read
that for you. The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies
and to exercise his authority for 42 months.

He opened his mouth to blaspheme God and to slander his name and his dwelling
place and those who live in heaven. And he was given power to make war against
the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe,
people, language, and nation.

Here's this beast who's given a mouth to utter blasphemies for 42 months. Once
again, here's this period of time, 42 months, these three and a half years. We
keep coming across this in these last several chapters.

It's pictured in the trampling of the outer court in chapter 11, in the time of
the two witnesses in chapter 11. In chapter 12, it's pictured in the time of the
protection of the woman or the people of God. And here in chapter 13, it's the
time of the beast, this three and a half year period of time.

There are, again, interpretations. There are three interpretations that people
have of this. Some people say number one is just a number.

As you read the chapter, it's just a number saying there's a detail that God is
going to do something in this world and there's a detail that Satan is going to
be allowed something for a short time. But there's more to the number, I think,
than just a number. There's a second idea.

There's some who believe that it's just symbolic, that it's the time that the
church is persecuted, that they're persecuted from the time that the revelation
was shown, first given, until now, that somehow that's what three and a half
years means. Now, I don't quite get that. I have to say there's something more
specific about three and a half than just times.

It would just say times then. There are others who say there's a third
interpretation that it means a period of time, an actual period of time. Some
say it means actually three and a half years.

It doesn't always say years here, but 42 months, that gets to three and a half
years. It's not just time, times, and a half a time now. Now, I've got something
very specific, and the very specific truth here is Satan gets a very short time,
a very short window in which to work.

Oh, God allows him a very short time. God allows him a leash, but it's very
short. There's an opportunity.

In this opportunity, it's not only Satan's opportunity, but it's also God's
opportunity because in this time, God is working, I believe, to draw people to
himself. Many are turning away from him. If you look at the book of Revelation,
you see that most are, but I believe that some are turning to him.

Now, there are those also who are already following him in the book of
Revelation. Some believe that this is the church. It's still here.

I believe the church has already been raptured, most likely. If it hasn't, we've
got to trust God through this time. We've got to realize that God will take us
through this time.

I don't want to be afraid of a time of tribulation. God will be with me, even as
he's been with me through every other trial, even as he's been with every
persecuted Christian who's ever faced these kinds of situations, these
circumstances in life, he'll be with you. But if it's not the church, it means
it's those who've come to Christ during this time, Jewish believers, Gentile
believers, authority over the nations for a short time, the power to even kill
believers for a short time, but only for a short time.

God is still in control. Now, the reaction once again, people once again are
going to worship the beast. We've seen this twice in these few short verses.

In verse eight, all the inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast, all
whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the lamb that
was slain from the creation of the world. Same in verse eight as we saw in verse
four, the world responds to these displays of Satan's power by worshiping. They
responded to God's power by hiding Satan's power, they decide to worship.

The truth is, we all tend to want to worship. That's what lets us do what we
want. That which lets us live out the selfish lives that we want to live.

All except, it says here, for believers, those whose names were written in the
book of life, those who were trusting the lamb who was slain from the foundation
of the world. By the way, that confirms that time is not the same factor in
heaven or in eternity as it was here. Jesus was slain at a specific point in
time on this earth.

But from the view of heaven, he was slain from the foundation of the world. From
the very beginning, God had this in mind. That's the mystery of how God works.

In these verses, we see the actions of the beast. And yesterday, we looked at
the descriptions of the beast. But in these verses, we also see our reaction to
the beast.

How we're to react to this truth in verses nine and 10. "He who has an ear, let
him hear. If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go.

If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. This
calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints. "
There's intimidation going on here at the end of time.

There's intimidation going on with believers across the world today. You may be
even facing a lighter kind of intimidation at your school or at your work. Don't
talk about Christ.

Don't let your integrity get in the way of your advancement. How do believers
face this kind of intimidation? The Bible tells us.

We face this intimidation with two attitudes. Patient endurance and
faithfulness. That's always been true.

When believers are intimidated, you patiently endure it. God's allowed us to
endure it. He could rescue us out of it immediately, but he doesn't.

Because through our endurance, the world gets to see something of the hope that
we have that's different from the hope that any of them could ever have without
Christ, that anyone could ever have without Christ. You and I know that God has
a better plan for our future and a road that leads to victory. We have patient
endurance because of that, but we also have another thing.

We remain faithful to him, even in the difficulties, because we know there's
nowhere else to go. There's no one else to trust, and so we trust in him. You
may not be facing this beast that's talking about in these verses right now in
your life, but you may be facing a beast.

You may be facing a trial. You may be facing a circumstance. You may be facing a
temptation.

You may be facing a person, an enemy, who's come against you. Let's ask God
right now for the power that only he can give. Our Father, we ask you for the
power to patiently endure, and we ask you for the power to be faithful to you.

Lord, instead of trying to escape the troubles of this world, help us to realize
that you've given us salvation even in the midst of those troubles. You can give
us joy even through the troubles. Lord, instead of deciding to be faithless and
trust ourselves when troubles come, help us to be faithful and trust you.

Lord, that's a day to day thing. I can't trust you for next week's problems or
next year's problems. I can only trust you with today's problems, so I pray for
your power through your spirit to be faithful to you, to patiently endure with
you today.

In Jesus' name, I ask this. Amen. Join us tomorrow.

We're going to look at a, believe it or not, a second beast.