This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to Revelation 13, Day 4, a look at what I call the great counterfeit all
throughout this chapter. We're going to finish this chapter tomorrow, we're
going to look at verse 18 and a very important number that I know you want to
look at in that verse. But today I want to focus on this entire chapter and the
counterfeit that's being put forward by Satan in this chapter.

We've got to be able to recognize when something is counterfeit. And there's a
lot of ways that things can be counterfeited. Sometimes I'm talking about how we
accept the counterfeit gods and the counterfeit hopes and the counterfeit dreams
in this world, counterfeit word from God.

Sometimes I'd like to put a picture of two dollar bills up on a screen and one
is a counterfeit and one is real and ask people if they can recognize the
difference. Then I go through some differences that are on the counterfeit. I
show them that on the counterfeit, the Federal Reserve Bank seal is wrong, and
that's very hard to see unless you really know what you're looking for.

And sometimes, sometimes the counterfeit is hard to see, details can be
important and you have to search through to understand what's counterfeit. I
show them in this picture that there's one letter missing from a string of
letters and that sometimes when you're looking for what's counterfeit, sometimes
it's what's missing that's important. Sometimes the way I recognize something's
not real is there's something's missing, there's a piece missing in someone's
life, there's P-E-A-C-E, there's a joy that's missing, there's a dependence on
God's word, they're not talking about the right things.

Something's missing. That can tip off that there's a counterfeit. As I go
through this with people, I'll show them that two numbers are found on the right
hand side of an old dollar bill that are absent from a new dollar bill and
remind ourselves through that that sometimes our experience alone can't be
trusted.

You'd have to read some truth about that to know, oh, things have changed. And
so I can't just trust my own experience or feelings to know always what's a
counterfeit. I've got to trust God's word.

But then I also show them, and this is why I love to do this picture, I show
them, and nobody ever gets this as they're looking for the counterfeit that the
word dollar is misspelled. I spell it with an E instead of an A and hardly
anyone gets it. You can't miss the obvious.

That's the key in this chapter. Do not miss the obvious of the counterfeit. And
throughout this chapter, there are all kinds of counterfeits.

In fact, let's just walk through them. There's a counterfeit trinity, there's a
counterfeit resurrection, there's a counterfeit worship, there's counterfeit
rule, there's counterfeit miracles, there's a counterfeit mark. Let me just walk
you through all these counterfeits in this chapter, Revelation 13.

First you have the counterfeit trinity. You have the dragon, then you have the
first beast, and you have the second beast. Satan is setting up this unholy
counterfeit trinity.

We're supposed to look to him and to trust him. Now the difference is very
clear. Revelation chapter 17, when we get there, verse 8 is going to say, "The
beast which you saw once was, now is not, and will go to his destruction.

" That's where this is headed. Hate to tip it off, but that's where this is
headed. "The beast which you saw once was, now is not, and will go to his
destruction.

" Now put that against what we saw in Revelation chapter 4 verse 8 about the
true trinity, the trinity of God. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who
was and is and is to come. Who would you rather follow?

The one who once was, now is not, and will go to his destruction, or the one who
was and is and is to come? The counterfeit will always fail you in the end. And
here's this counterfeit trinity that Satan is setting up who will fail everyone
in the end.

We trust in him because we know that in the Father and Son, Holy Spirit, we have
life. Life eternal, life everlasting, a life of joy, a life of praise, a life of
peace in him. That's why we trust him.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. We
don't trust the counterfeit.

We trust what's true. In this chapter there's also a counterfeit resurrection.
You see in this chapter the faking of what happened to Jesus on the cross.

I think that's the main point of the wound to the head. People try to figure out
who it was and how it was and what it means. Here's this counterfeit of a wound
and a resurrection.

Here's this counterfeit of what happened to Jesus. Jesus was wounded for our
transgressions. But then he was truly resurrected to live forever.

Now if this is a person that's talking about here and not a government, even if
he comes to life for a brief period of time, it's only to die again. This is a
government that's being talked about. People will still be thrilled that somehow
something has been resurrected that could not have been.

And they will put their hope in that fake, that false resurrection. Here's a
wound and a healing that does not last, but Jesus's wounds, they last forever.
His wounds taken from me on the cross, the forgiveness that he gives.

And Jesus's resurrection, he is alive forever. And he is the first fruits. He's
the first of all of us who are going to come to life in him.

So you don't trust the counterfeit resurrection. All Satan knows to do is
counterfeit. You trust the reality, the truth.

Counterfeit Trinity, counterfeit resurrection, in these verses there's also a
counterfeit worship. We talked about that much the last two days. People who
will worship Satan, worship his beasts, rather than worshiping God.

Why do we do that? Because we want to worship something that's more like us. We
want to worship something that doesn't make us feel like we have to change so
much, or that makes us feel uncomfortable that we might be judged.

Well, the truth of the matter is God is going to be our judge in the end. I can
face him as my savior judge, or I can face him as a judge of wrath because of my
sin. I want to face him as my savior.

I'm looking forward to that day because the Bible tells us that we've already
passed out of judgment into life, so I don't have to worry about that day in
him. Counterfeit worship means I worship that which is more like me than like
God. In this counterfeit, in these chapters, you also see a counterfeit rule.

They will rule the world as if they are Christ ruling in the millennial kingdom,
as if they are God ruling in eternity. And it will look possibly to the world at
that time like finally everything is happening like it should. Finally we can
all speak the same language.

Finally we're all using the same currency. Finally there are no more borders,
but we'll all be a counterfeit. It will all be a fake.

It will all last only for a moment. And it will all be based on intimidation and
deception. Jesus said when he talked about counterfeits, when he talked about
deceivers, he taught us you'll know them by their fruits.

You'll know people by how they act. You can see by the fruit that comes on a
tree what kind of a tree it is. And if somebody's having to use intimidation and
deception to rule, you can see clearly what kind of person they are.

Counterfeit rule. There are counterfeit miracles all throughout this chapter.
The miracle of the raising of this image of the first beast.

The miracle of the fire that comes down from heaven. But they're just
counterfeit. They won't last.

They were counterfeit miracles back in Moses' day. Even the magicians who were
in the court of Pharaoh knew how to counterfeit miracles. But true miracles,
true miracles point you to God and his goodness and grace.

False miracles point you away from God and his goodness and grace. That's the
problem with trusting in miracles. If you trust only in miracles, you can be
fooled.

You can be deceived because miracles can be counterfeited. No, you trust in
where miracles are pointing you. And these miracles, these counterfeit miracles,
pointed people to the beast, not to God's goodness.

And then there's one final counterfeit in these verses. There is a counterfeit
mark. There's a mark that comes upon all of those who are following the beast.

And we focus, we tend to focus on no one could buy and sell. We tend to focus on
the financial part of this because our lives are so financial. But to me, that's
not the main truth.

The main truth is the spiritual part. It is a counterfeit mark. The mark, of
course, is an imitation.

It is Satan's imitation of God's seal on his own people. God has sealed us. He
has marked us as his own.

And Satan is going to let people choose to be marked as Satan's. They're not
going to be able to do anything in this world unless they're marked as Satan.
Then the choice has to be made.

Whose mark is on my life? It's all counterfeit. It's all fake.

It's all phony. It's a fake of a fake. Truth is, Satan never created anything.

Satan can't create. Only God can create. All Satan knows how to do is copy.

All he knows is fake. All he knows is try to twist and deceive based on what's
real. All he knows how to do is counterfeit.

And so throughout this chapter, we see a counterfeit God, Satan pretending to be
God. We're going to see tomorrow that it won't last long. We're going to see
that God has a greater plan.

As we pray today, let's pray for wisdom. As we pray for wisdom, our Father, we
ask that not only would you help us to see the counterfeits in our lives today,
but you'd help us to help others, not with a spirit of judgment that pushes them
away, but a spirit of love and grace that help people to see that when you trust
in materialism, all you're going to get is materialism. When you trust in sexual
pleasure, all you're going to get is sexual pleasure.

And that those things that we get, we just get them for a moment. Materialism
turns to disappointment. Sexual pleasure turns to disease and then turns to
loneliness.

Our Father, help us to help people see what's real by living what's real in our
own lives. Today help me to live out the reality of your joy, help me to live
out the reality of your grace, help me to live out the reality of who you are in
my life today. And as I live it, I pray that somebody would see in me the
reality of what you could do in their life.

I ask that this would happen and I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. And join us
tomorrow.

We're going to look at the number that you've been waiting to talk about.