This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) This is day three of our look together through Revelation chapter
13. We're going to focus on verses 11 to 18 today. And as we look at these verses,
it's going to hit us once again, the beast.

These verses just keep hitting us. I mean, we got through one beast and you
think, okay, now hope's coming. But there's going to come another beast in verses
11 to 18.

But in the midst of all of that, as we saw yesterday, through faithfulness,
through patient endurance, God is bringing hope along the side of what's
happening here. First, there's this beast that comes out of the sea. Now there's
a beast that comes out of the earth.

Remember, Satan was cast and his demons into the earth and the sea. So beasts
coming out of the earth and the sea show that Satan is the source of all of
this. And the beast that comes out of the earth, well, let me read what the
Bible says about him in verses 11 to 17.

And then I saw another beast coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a
lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first
beast on his behalf, and he made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first
beast, whose fatal wound had been healed.

And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from
heaven to earth in full view of men. Because of the signs he was given power to
do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He
ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the
sword and yet lived.

He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast so that it
could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. He also
forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a
mark on his right hand or on his forehead so that no one could buy or sell
unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his
name. There are a lot of interpretation questions that surround these verses.

Who is this image of the first beast that's talked about here? What is the mark
that people are to receive? But before those questions, let's look at the
description.

The description of the second beast. Because this is a description. Everyone
agrees on the meaning of this one.

Here's a beast who has two horns like a lamb but speaks like a dragon. Who's the
lamb of God? Jesus Christ is.

Who speaks like a dragon? Satan does. So who is this beast imitating?

Jesus Christ. He is an antichrist. There's no difference in interpretation here.

Everyone who looks at this knows what it means. The first beast was a political
leader who ruled through intimidation. We looked at that beast yesterday.

This second beast is a spiritual leader who rules through deception. And if you
put the term antichrist to one of these two, it would be more this second beast
than the first beast. Now let me give you a picture of this.

It's a picture that's helped me. If you haven't read C. S.

Lewis's book, the last book in the Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle, this
is a picture that will help you too, I think. In that book, he gives a picture
of end time events. And he gives a picture of what this talks about.

He pictures it with animals. Remember that Aslan the lion in the Narnia books is
a picture of Christ. And in the last book, a donkey and an ape find the skin of
a lion.

Not Aslan's, but another lion. And they sew the skin of that lion to the donkey.
And then the ape tells the world that the skin of the lion sewed to a donkey as
Aslan is God.

That's not a bad picture of what's being talked about here. That somehow the
world is fooled into believing that something as fake and phony as a dead skin
of a lion sewn on a donkey is God. That's foolish.

That's what I like about that book. That's what I like about the book of
Revelation sometimes. It laughs at our foolishness.

People will fall for this foolishness. But that's also why we cry. That we fall
for foolishness.

That I fall for the foolishness of sin's temptation. And people are going to
fall for the foolishness of the deception of this second beast. Now notice
specifically how this beast is going to deceive.

There are four ways that are talked about here. Verses 12 to 17. These are the
actions of this second beast.

He's going to deceive politically, spiritually, religiously, and financially. He
deceives politically. He exercises the authority of the first beast.

So he has political power. And he deceives somehow politically. Like he's a true
world leader.

He also deceives spiritually. These verses tell us that he performs miraculous
signs. Fire out of heaven.

So spiritually people think, wow, there's spiritual power to this person. A
third way that he deceives is religiously. Now religiously means some of the
ways that we set up symbols.

Some of the ways that we set up practices that have no spirituality really to
them. They just make us feel spiritual. That's the difference between religion
even and spirituality.

And in this case he ordered people to set up an image of this first beast. What
is this image? It's an idol.

They understood in their day this very clearly. Because they were made, in the
day that Revelation was first written, they were made to worship the image of
Caesar. And they had to worship an image of Caesar, who said he was God, in
order to be not persecuted in the Roman Empire.

Now think about this. Caesar is not God. So he's a fake.

And then they make a fake image of someone who is a fake and say, we want you to
worship a fake of a fake. And then we'll let you keep your life. And people
worshiped it.

That's exactly what's happening in the days that the book of Revelation is being
written. That's exactly what's happened down through the ages. That's what's
going to happen at the end.

This false image of this first beast. We'll talk at the last day about the fact
that this is brought to life somehow and what that means. But now there's this
fourth way that this second beast deceives.

He deceives politically, spiritually, religiously. He also deceives financially.
Everyone receives this mark.

This has been much talked about in the book of Revelation. What is this mark of
the beast all about? What could it mean?

Is it a credit card? Is it some embedded chip that you get on your hand? Is it a
barcode?

Many, many people that I've talked to, many believers are worried about this.
Let me set your mind at ease. You cannot unknowingly receive the mark of the
beast.

They chose to receive the mark of the beast as they chose to worship him. Now I
understand we could look at present history and we can figure out that there's
some financial technology that's come about in the last several years that could
be used as this mark. But the mark is not the technology.

The mark is not the possibility. The mark is indicating who you worship.
Believers, those who are followers of Christ, they're not going to get the chance
to receive the mark of the beast.

They're going to be persecuted by the beast. They're going to be intimidated and even
killed by the beast. This fear has somehow made its way into many believers'
lives and it's an invalid fear.

It is not a biblical fear. It's based on what some television shows have said or
what some movies have played on and what's going to happen at the end. I want you
to know, as clearly as I can say this, you cannot accidentally receive the mark
of the beast.

You must choose to worship this beast, to receive this mark. And you will not.
You are a follower of Jesus Christ.

And you will see that this beast rules through deception. For the beast that
rules through deception, believers need wisdom. Revelation 13, 18 tells us that.

How do you defeat this beast? How do you defeat any beast, anyone who sets
himself up, herself up against God? For the beast that ruled through deception,
believers need wisdom.

Now, yesterday we talked about the beast that ruled through intimidation. You
need faithfulness, you need endurance. This beast that rules through deception,
you need wisdom and God will give it.

He wants to give it to you. He wants to give it to me right now. Let's ask him
for it.

Our Father, we're reading about the end of time and we're praying even now for
believers who are going to be here at the end of time, that you'll give them
wisdom. We believe our prayers will be answered even into the future. So we pray
for those who will be there then.

Give them wisdom to see the deception. Give them wisdom to choose to worship
you. Give them wisdom to trust in the blood of the lamb.

Lord, we don't want to just pray for wisdom for them. We pray for wisdom for
ourselves today. Give us wisdom to trust in the blood of the lamb today.

And today as we see opportunities to follow temptation, opportunities to allow
the selfishness of our life to rule and to reign, it might be trickier than
it'll be at the end of time and there'll be this great beast. There'll be this
obvious thing that's happening. And so it's easier for us to fall into it.

We don't want to. We want your wisdom. Wisdom to see what's going to last.

Your truth, your word and not this earth. Wisdom to see what's real. Not that
temptation, but your love for us.

Wisdom to see that this world and all that's in it is passing away. But the one
who loves the word of the Lord, the one who loves you, we're going to live with you
forever. Give us that wisdom today, we pray Lord Jesus.

In your name, amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to look together at what I call
the great counterfeit.