Good morning. Well we always like to open our Sundays by first saying welcome to
anybody that is joining us here for the first time in our room or if you're
joining us online. We're so glad to hear you're here to worship with us so
welcome to Hosanna. I am Pastor Nathan and this morning we are going to be
continuing our study through the book of Revelation looking at the beast from the
land or the beast from the earth. Seen in Revelation chapter 13 verses 11 through
18 we will also be taking communion today as it is the first Sunday of the
month so if you did not get your communion cup as you entered the room
today just raise your hand right now and hold it up until the elders get to you.
If you did get your communion cup today don't raise your hand we got you covered
and then I'm gonna go ahead and continue on with our intro here. But again we are
looking at the beast from the land who is also known as the false prophet. We're
also going to be looking at the work that he does during the tribulation
period to point to or to enforce worship of the Antichrist but I wanted to read
to you guys a quote and I want you to think about where this quote may have
come from. It goes like this the streets of our country are in turmoil. The
universities are filled with students rebelling and rioting. The country is in
danger. Yes danger from within and without. We need law and order. Without law and
order our nation cannot survive. Now as you're thinking about that you might be
thinking well who said that? Pretty powerful words right? For some of us
especially here in our country we might hear a lot of truth to those words and
we might think you know maybe someone like a presidential candidate said that
or a concerned citizen. You guys have any guess as to who said these words? 1932
Adolf Hitler said those words before his rise to power in Germany. You know
dictators rarely take over by force. Almost always they start by engaging in
peaceful endeavors during times of turmoil, during times of difficulty and
tribulation. And often throughout history when someone comes along who solves the
catastrophic societal problems that can happen on a national scale or even a
global scale people will tend to lift up such an individual in veneration. They
will even go so far as to make statues and images of such a leader so they can
direct their honor and allegiance to them. You know back during the Roman
Empire the emperors of the empire came to be worshiped as gods. As Rome was
conquering many other nations and expanding the empire these nations that
they conquered became indebted to Rome. They became indebted to Rome and they
were very thankful for the law and the order and the stability that Rome
brought to nations that had been ruled locally by petty tyrants for a long time
and so the Roman rule that that came over them was considered a privilege by
many at the time. Many of those nations would thank Rome for what was called
Pax Romana which means Roman peace. So grateful for the stability that they
brought in, so grateful that they came in and fixed the problems and solved the
issues that people were having. In Asia Minor which is modern-day Turkey the
people were so thankful and the thankfulness was so enthusiastic that in
Asia Minor they actually started to worship the Roman Empire as an entity.
They worshiped it and lifted it up to deity but because it's difficult to
worship something abstract like a governmental entity they actually
created the goddess of Rome, a god named Roma that represented the whole empire
so that they can direct their worship to a persona. Unfortunately that didn't
really catch on substantially and what they found that it was much more
successful to worship the Roman emperors who were representatives, leaders of this
empire and as we read back in chapter 2 of Revelation in the city of Pergamos
there was actually a whole temple to the Caesars built there and a statue ruins
of which you can still see today a statue to the Caesars that were a place
where the worship of Rome and the Roman emperors was focused. Now interesting as
I was preparing for this I found out that initially the Roman emperors
didn't like to be worshiped as gods. In fact it was the Roman Senate that
convinced the Roman emperors that the people worshiping them as gods was a
good thing because it was a unifying thing for the empire because
after all Rome was becoming this multilingual, this multicultural melting
pot of peoples and cultures as the empire was expanding and what a way to
unify the empire under the Roman rule and the Roman thought in the Roman way
than to have them worship its leader as a god. So by AD 100 it was mandatory
throughout the entire empire to worship Caesar as God and this was accomplished
and enforced by Imperial cult religious leaders, false prophets if you will, who
would stand in front of the Caesars, the statues to the Caesars and all the towns
where everyone was required to come and declare out loud that Caesar is Lord. Now
you might be thinking I came to church why are we having a history lesson, right?
Well the reason is because history is doomed to repeat itself. What happened in
Rome has repeated itself in microcosm from then all the way up until our
modern area in different places and it will happen again one last major time
during the tribulation. This morning we're gonna look at the antichrist's
sidekick, the false prophet, who he is, how John sees him in this vision and how he
works but before we get into all of that we're gonna pray we're gonna spend
some time worshiping God because he is God, he is almighty, he is worth our
worship, he is worthy of our worship, he is our Savior and we love him amen. Let's
pray. God we're so thankful Lord for your work in our lives, we're so grateful for
the salvation you've given us Lord. God we're so thankful for the Holy Spirit
who lives in the world today within us, the believers. God we know that as you
were here on earth for three years Lord you were here physically just just
showing us who the Father was but God Jesus you died on the cross and then you
rose again on the third day Lord and then you ascended to heaven and now it's
the Holy Spirit who is with us here today ministering in us working in and
through us God but pointing us to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and so God
we're so grateful for all you've done we're grateful for how you work and
we're grateful Lord for the truth and the clarity you bring into our lives
through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We know it's because of your death on
the cross God that everything changed, salvation, forgiveness, grace, mercy, it's
all possible through you and we're so grateful for that but Lord today as we
study and look at this counterfeit to the Holy Spirit Lord this one who
wants to point to the Antichrist and demand that people worship him God that
again we would learn the devices of the devil the tools and the schemes and how
he works Lord that we would be wise we would be people with eyes wide open to
how the devil works because Lord even today he works to confuse and deceive
people to get them to worship everything but Jesus Christ. So Lord encourage us
speak to us teach us Lord we even invite you to rebuke us if that's what we need
today so that God we would become more like you to be representatives of
representatives of you in this world to shine the light of the gospel to those
that don't yet know you we love you so much we worship you now it's in Jesus
name we pray amen. We are in Revelation 13 verses 8 or verses 11 through 18 and
these verses say they show us that the Antichrist is not alone in his work but
he has an accomplice he has a sidekick who helps in his rise to power although
the Antichrist is a very powerful influential political leader he will
need the help of a powerful religious leader in his domination of earth
specifically as part of and through the middle of tribulation which is where the
abomination of desolation takes place that moment where the Antichrist goes
from being a peaceful governmental leader to sitting into the temple
demanding worship of himself as God. So what we're gonna see today is five
characteristics of this religious leader known as the false prophet seen in the
verses we're looking at and the first characteristic is his authoritative
position. Read with me in Revelation 13 verse 11 John says then I saw another
beast coming up out of the earth it had two horns like a lamb but it spoke like
a dragon it exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf. So at
this point in Revelation 13 John has already seen a beast coming up out of
the sea in this really strange and interesting vision that he is
observing but here John says I saw another beast that's a very specific
word in the Greek in the Greek it's the word alos it means another of the same
kind not necessarily a carbon copy or a duplicate but one with the same nature
or the same characteristics meaning that this second beast that John sees here is
also a deceiving monstrous wicked evil creature just like the first however
there are differences. You'll notice he says he saw this beast coming up out of
the earth the first beast came up out of the sea. Now again because this is all a
great symbolic display all of these things have symbolic meaning and so you
might ask well if the sea that we looked at earlier in Revelation was a picture
of the sea of humanity what is the earth here? Well there's a couple different
ideas because the word earth we see in the CSB is translated the land in other
translations I believe in the New King James it says that he saw this beast
coming up out of the land. Now that word earth in the original Greek is a word
that can refer to the actual land right like the ground it's a word that can
refer to a group of people it's also a word that could refer to a region or a
country so there's some different ideas on what this means symbolically it could
simply be another way to refer to the whole of humanity right we saw earlier
in Revelation pictures of an angel having his foot set on both sea and land
and it was a picture of the totality of the creation there but there are some
who interpret this because of the interpretation of this word earth as the
land they see that as a reference to the land of Israel and so they see that this
beast this false prophet could be a Jewish individual from the nation of
Israel who was apostate and working with the Antichrist I believe it could go
either way we're not exactly sure but as he sees this beast coming up out of the
earth the first thing he notices is that it has two horns like a lamb but it spoke
like a dragon and this is where this beast differs from the first beast it
has the same authority of the first beast the same desire to deceive right
the same monstrous nature right another of the same kind but the first beast his
characteristics as if you if you remember there was that he was this
monstrous grotesque creature with seven heads and ten horns and ten crowns and
those crowns were speaking to his political authority as we looked at him
being not only the beast representing the Antichrist as his governmental
leader but also this worldwide government that will then take control
in the end times the second beast however it has characteristics of a lamb
a cute little lamb right horns like a lamb if you look up a picture of a
little lamb you'll see that it has these cute little nubby nubs right there on
its head and you're like oh how adorable how gentle how kind looking no crowns
it doesn't have political authority but it still has horns and if you remember
horns biblically symbolically spink of strength and authority and so this lamb
here has an authority but it's a different type of authority than the
first beast it's not a political authority it's a spiritual authority as
we will see in his work in the subsequent verses but his authority is
not aggressive or domineering per se like the first beast it's subtle it's
crafty it's almost gentle like a little lamb now so when you see this picture of
the horns of the lamb it's this idea of when this person comes on the scene the
world's gonna be like oh how cute that can't possibly be harmful but then as
you may have seen in cartoons before where the little lamb opens his mouth
and raw sharp teeth and speaking like a dragon right that idea of speaking like
a dragon means that as this almost innocent gentle person comes on the
scene when he talks he's still speaking the words of hell fearful words words
of damnation deceptive lies words that are harmful while sounding helpful and
this is very similar to the image that Jesus described false prophets as if you
remember Jesus said false prophets are wolves in sheep's clothing so it's that
picture of this gentle outside but there's still this horrific danger
underneath now in Revelation 16 13 we see a picture of this beast working
alongside the first beast and with the dragon that's in Revelation 16 13 where
it says then I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming from the
dragon's mouth from the beasts mouth and from the mouth of the false prophet and
that's where we get the title for this second beast as the false prophet now
the word prophet refers to one who speaks the mind of God speaks the truths
of God that's what a prophet is and that's exactly what this person claims
to do but he's false and so is the God that he speaks of and points to and so
when he speaks the words of a dragon he's literally speaking the words of
the dragon Satan himself this individual is also called the false prophet in
Revelation 19 20 and Revelation 2010 there where we see the picture of his
defeat as Jesus Christ defeats him and the Antichrist and Satan but again this
paints a picture we've referenced a couple times in our study of Revelation
that's very interesting Revelation 12 you have this dragon the
seven-headed dragon that it tells us very plainly there represents Satan and
then in Revelation 13 we see this beast coming up out of the sea representing
the Antichrist this political ruler who who came in peaceful and then was
apparently fatally wounded and then that wound was miraculously healed and he
came back demanding to be worshiped as God and then we see this beast out of
the land or out of the earth which is the false prophet this religious ruler
who is gonna point everybody back to the Antichrist and this is the
counterfeit Trinity this is a mockery of the Trinity the Godhead that exists
between the Father the Son and the Spirit biblically we know that Jesus
always pointed to the Father right he said if you've seen me you've seen the
Father what I find very interesting is that the first time Jesus came on the
scene the Jewish people wanted him to be a political leader they wanted him to
overthrow the government of Rome and take over and set up the Messianic
Kingdom but that's what not what he was there for the first time so the
Antichrist in mockery of this points to the dragon he points to Satan and then
as the Holy Spirit points to Jesus the false prophet points the world to the
Antichrist the false prophet is gonna say worship him worship him just as the
Holy Spirit does towards Jesus today and that is the authoritative position that
this beast from the earth has in Revelation verse 12 we see the second
characteristic of this individual his his system of false worship it says in
verse 12 of Revelation 13 it exercises all the authority of the first beef
beast on its behalf and compels the earth and those who live on it to worship
the first beast whose fatal wound was healed so there's no ambiguity on who
the first beast is right it's the one we just talked about the one who had the
fatal wound that was healed so this second beast he heads up a universal
worship system to really enforce the lies and the deceptions verse 14 it
specifically tells us that the second beast deceives those who live on the
earth now that is really the entire MO of the devil and all of his lackeys
deception that that's his entire plan that's his entire tactic he's a liar
Jesus told us that the devil is the father of lies he's told lies from the
very beginning he tells lies about our origin he tells lies about our future
lies about ourselves lies about God lies about our needs the need for salvation
he just lies and he loves to tell us you know you're you're good you're fine you
you don't need to come to Christ you you don't need him there are many ways if
you're if you want to be spiritual there's many ways to heaven just pick
one and he just lies and lies and scripture tells us that as time marches
forward and the end comes closer and closer that there's gonna be more and
more false prophets and false Christ's as we get closer to the end times there's
gonna be more and more people coming on the scene that say I speak for God not
the one of your Christianity but but this other one Jesus himself said in
Matthew 24 verses 4 & 5 he said watch out that no one deceives you for many
will come in my name saying I am the Messiah and they will deceive many and
then in Matthew 24 11 he said many false prophets will rise up and deceive many
and so this was predicted this is happening this will continue to happen
and it will culminate in the ultimate false Christ the Antichrist and the
ultimate false prophet this beast from the earth now we touched on this last
week with the Antichrist and some of how he goes about doing what he does and
it's through words his persuasive speech you know words are very very powerful
and speaking is one of the main tools of the Antichrist and this false prophet
the first beast it told us earlier in Revelation 13 was given a mouth to utter
boasts and blasphemies against God his name his dwelling the people who live
there and he was given authority to do this for 42 months which is the the last
three and a half years of tribulation the second beast it then tells us speaks
like a dragon while saying he exercises all of the authority of the first beast
on his behalf so he is like a forerunner if you will a herald pointing back to
the Antichrist and so the first and second beast they're really like an
oratory tag team they're working together to blaspheme the real God and
then to say worship this false God instead that is the work that they have
as they're going about the world now Nathaniel Hawthorne said this words so
innocent and powerful as they are standing in a dictionary how potent for
good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them and
the false prophet he's gonna be an expert in combining words together to
sway the people on the earth right if you notice back there in verse 12 it
says he compels the earth and those who live on it to worship the beast that
word compel means to to create a state in being in somebody to force a state of
being in someone else what that tells us is is he's gonna bring together all of
the world's religions under one one world religion he's gonna bring together
apostate Christianity which I think involves progressive Christianity and all
these weird wacko offshoots he's gonna bring together dead Catholicism he's
gonna bring together dead Protestantism he's gonna bring together the adherence
of Islam people who are adherence of Hinduism he's even gonna bring those
that are under traditional Judaism that reject the Messiah reject Jesus as
Messiah and he's gonna bring them all together he's gonna bring them together
under one banner breaking all of the barriers between them somehow somehow
through his speaking to to compel to bring these people together and unite
them under one universal worship system so as as much as the political
governmental system will require a strong figure to unite all these nations
and to unite the world under this this governmental banner so will the religious
systems of the world require this false prophet this powerful religious leader
and the false prophet fits the bill perfectly and he's gonna rally the world
and the world will indeed rally under his one world religion and then again in
case you think it's a bit far-fetched to think that our secular world is
suddenly on a global scale gonna get religious and want to worship this guy
you have to consider that during the tribulation period people will be
looking for a deliverer as we've studied there will be so many catastrophes so
many global disasters that have struck the earth in this short period of time
they will be open to anybody coming along to save the day they will be open
to answers even such that they've never even entertained that maybe there is a
God who can save us and to stop all this and so when the Antichrist rises he's
gonna solve so many problems and bring apparent peace and and ease so many of
the fears but then he's gonna do the unthinkable and claim to be God and the
greatest false prophet ever possibly the greatest speaker ever will speak and he
will mold minds and persuade thoughts with skill and with gifting and he'll
say things well isn't he God look at what he's done look at all the impossible
things he's accomplished just in three and a half years this individual has to
be divine he has to be God and then I mean come on you guys saw him killed and
he rose from the dead his wound was healed you should all worship him verse
13 we get to the third characteristic of this man his attesting signs it says it
also performs great signs even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth
in front of people it deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs
that it is permitted to perform in the presence of the beast so the false
prophet doesn't just speak he is a great speaker but he does great things it says
here he performs great signs and again consider the state of earth during the
tribulation consider the state of mind that the people on the earth are
experiencing during tribulation we've already looked at the the first seven
seals we've looked at the first seven trumpet judgments right as all these
disasters have fallen upon the earth it's been catastrophe after catastrophe
falling upon the earth disaster after disaster and all in a period of a few
years can you imagine like we have a little bit of rain here in California
and it is DEFCON 1 right people were already buying up all the toilet paper
and it's like it's just raining a little bit people but imagine like when I mean
it's gonna there's gonna be violent global earthquakes celestial happenings
right the Sun going dark the moon going red how do you explain that there's
gonna be asteroids falling bloody hail and fire falling upon the earth from the
skies volcanic eruptions by this point in tribulation one-third of the trees
have been destroyed all the grass is burned up one-third of the oceans and
the sea creatures and the ships on the oceans are destroyed one-third of the
freshwater sources the rivers are gone the Sun's illumination had been
diminished and then on top of that you had these weird locust like creatures
swarm the earth stinging people causing pain to such a degree people would want
to die but they couldn't and then after that there's this demonically led army
that goes across the earth and kills one-third of mankind all in a few years
people will be desperate crying out for some meaning for some purpose for some
hope in the midst of all of this tragedy and the false prophet Wow he will dazzle
people with his apparent miraculous ability he will dazzle the masses and
all those people who have ever said you know what I need to see a miracle before
I'll believe in the supernatural well here's the guy here's the guy now he
says it performs great signs and then it specifically says even causing fire to
come down from heaven it's interesting why point that out that's a very
specific detail and I think this is why if you go back through scripture and you
look at the the different stories of God showing himself powerful on the earth
you might think of Sodom and Gomorrah when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah
how did he do it fire from the heavens in Elijah's story there was a time where
Elijah was surrounded by the ambassadors from a king who came to arrest him and
it tells us that fire came from heaven three times and and so people who had
grown up reading the Bible or knew the Bible or heard these stories they're
they're gonna remember these things these stories about how God demonstrated
his his reality through through fire from heaven was how his judgments came
and then on top of that you have these two witnesses that we read about who
had been on earth at this point for three and a half years the first three
and a half years of tribulation preaching Jesus Christ and if you
remember it said in Revelation 11 5 if anyone wants to harm them fire comes
from their mouths and consumes their enemies if anyone wants to harm them he
must be killed in this way so so here's these two guys that are saying we
represent God we're preaching Jesus Christ and people are like shut up we're
gonna kill you and and people die if you're like whoa so you have fire from
heaven you have fire even from the mouths of his servants all of this
already known to be some type of authenticating sign of God's power but
at the midpoint of tribulation God allowed those two witnesses to be killed
by the Antichrist and so here the false prophet performs a very specific sign a
sign that is meant to indicate that his power is from God now not not not the
God of those two witnesses no my guy my God the Antichrist the one I'm telling
you to worship not the God who judged Sodom not the God who protected Elijah
but but this beast this guy worship him and how do you know that I'm credible
well look at the miracles I'm performing now verse 14 it says it is permitted to
perform signs this is has the same possible meanings that we discussed when
we looked at the fatal wound of the first beast right there's there's a few
different interpretations of what it means that he was permitted it could be
that God is allowing the false prophet to perform actual real miracles now some
go well no God wouldn't do that why would he empower a deceiver to deceive
and you know the the rebuttal to that is well we have the story of Pharaoh in the
Old Testament where Pharaoh refused to believe God and this is God hardened his
heart so the idea was is when people say I don't want to believe the truth I want
to believe the lie we see this picture where God said okay I'm gonna not only
let you do that but you want it so bad I'm gonna enforce it in a sense and so
in that way God may be allowing the false prophet to perform these miracles
it could be an indicator that Satan himself has the ability to engineer
miracles of some sort but then again some people say well if Satan could
engineer miracles why isn't he doing it all the time right why isn't he doing it
all the time to wow people and then again there's the idea that well maybe
God is permitting him to do so only at certain times for specific reasons
according to God's plan that's one of the ideas and then the third idea is
that he was permitted to perform signs is just simply the idea that he was
manifesting fake miracles some fabricated miracles something that looked
like a miracle but that wasn't I'm not sure exactly you know it could be could
be one of those but the idea is that these signs were performed and they
wowed the people and it says these signs were were deceptive what was deceptive
about these signs was the message that they were pointing to so it's not so
much how he performed them it was what these signs were were communicating
right that word sign simply means miracles and a miracle is a marvelous
event that manifests as a supernatural act of a divine agent but it's
interesting the definition of this word in the Greek says a miraculous event
that manifests as a supernatural act of a divine agent often with an emphasis on
communicating a message so it's not just a miracle for the sake of a miracle we
might call that a magic trick but it's something meant to communicate a
message and so what we see through this is that the the world is indeed on
schedule earth is on schedule to be deceived by miracles and signs and
wonders that either don't come from or don't speak towards the truth of God but
instead speak towards the counterfeit Jesus the Antichrist and his false
father Satan and sadly those who refuse the truth of God and therefore want
to be deceived will be that's what we're seeing here the fourth characteristic of
this false prophet is is his toys his animated statue look in verse 14 again
it goes on to say telling those who live on the earth to make an image of the
beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived it was permitted to give
breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast could both speak
and cause whoever would not worship the image of the beast to be killed now that
word image there in the original language it means a statue or a likeness
now that's a fairly broad range of possibilities okay but it says that the
beast told those who lived on the earth to build this that word telling that it
has there it means he ordered them or commanded them to just in the same way
where he compelled them to worship the beast he is now ordering them to make an
image of this beast and you might go well why well as we've been seeing the
people of the earth have dedicated their allegiance to the Antichrist by this
point they are worshiping him and following him and it already told us
that the false prophet exercises all the authority of the Antichrist on his
behalf so he has the authority to order and command people and he likely does it
on pain of death now this whole idea of ordering a statue to be built for
worship there's precedent for this in the Bible back in Daniel chapter 2 which
we've referenced a couple times here already in our study of Revelation we
read the story of King Nebuchadnezzar having a dream about a statue and Daniel
comes and interprets this dream for him and basically the gist of the dream is
like look you're the head of a world empire but it will be toppled and
replaced with other world empires as history goes on well the following
chapter in Daniel we see what Nebuchadnezzar does with that information
he says uh-uh and so in defiance of that dream and defiance of what Daniel told
him he meant it meant he goes on to build a 90 foot tall gold statue he has
people build this statue and he demands by law that everybody in Babylon bow
down and worship the statue now a lot of you may be familiar with that story
because that's where we read about three Jewish youths named Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego who refused to bow and worship the statue because loyalty and worship
was for God alone right we don't have time to get into their story but there
is precedent for world leaders having statues built images likenesses of them
built and demanding that people worship it as a way to be worship of them so
it's a statue or likeness but it's it's animated somehow right he says it's
given breath so that it could speak and cause those who don't worship to be
killed that word breath is the word Pneuma it's a word in the Greek that
means wind breathing it also can mean spirit or that which animates or gives
life so it's a very broad word to apply here and so you know we we've all seen
animatronics in our world right some of we have seen the the demonic beastly
creations at Chuck E Cheese that are horrifying we've seen those things right
or what used to be the bear jamboree at Disneyland you know terrifying things
right but they're they're actually animated statues right and incidentally
they're animated by things called pneumatics which comes from this word
Pneuma right it's air control but then in our modern world we know that
technology has brought a deceased Michael Jackson and a deceased Tupac back
to perform on stage as holograms we see that as likenesses of people one of the
conversations today is what is this image of the beast gonna be is it gonna
be AI right that's a popular conversation right now which is
interesting because just recently in Geneva there were nine AI controlled
robots that were fielding questions from a room full of reporters and they were
answering these questions on the fly it was AI and it was really kind of creepy
because you had two robots disagreeing with each other over the questions that
these reporters were answering them and then of course there was in the past
this story I believe it was Google working on their own AI's and they
actually created two AI's to talk to each other and then those AI's rapidly
invented a language that the programmers couldn't understand and were like what
are we talking about they pulled the plug right then of course you know many
of us are familiar with the movie Terminator where the AI becomes sentient
and launches the nukes and wipes out humanity which is interesting because it
says the image here could cause whoever does not worship the beast to be killed
so we don't know we don't know what the image of the beast is but it's gonna be
something that is convincing something believable something that is considered
lifelike something that has access to be able to cause people to be killed who
don't worship it nobody knows for sure it's really all guessing and so we don't
know exactly what it is and every generation in the church has tried to
identify this you know same thing with the mark of the beasts right every time
new technology comes out there's someone going ah that's it you know it was bar
codes then is the strips on the back of credit cards well it's the internet
today it's AI we don't know like I said Chuck E. Cheese is pretty demonic so
maybe it's gonna be one of those statues no not slamming Chuck E. Cheese for those
who like Chuck E. Cheese but the idea is that it could even be something that
hasn't been invented yet some technology we don't understand but the point is is
that the false prophet made an idol that's the point he made an idol an idol
is an image used as an object of worship and people are forced to worship it and
that worship is enforced through threat of death just like King Nebuchadnezzar
and his statue just like the statues of the Roman Empire's during the Roman
Empire and this is incidentally something that is forbidden in Scripture
right 1st John 521 little children guard yourself from idols and then one of the
ten commandments in Exodus chapter 20 verse 4 it says do not make an idol for
yourself whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the
earth below or in the waters underneath the earth do not bow and worship of them
and do not serve them so again we see the idea here of worship of the beast
and worship of God are mutually exclusive you can't do both you can't do
both and then the fifth characteristic of this leader his administrative tactics
verse 16 and it makes 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 can buy or
sell unless he has the mark the beasts name or the number of its name this
calls for wisdom let the one who has understanding calculate the number of
the beast because it is the number of a person its number is 666 and thus many
heavy metal albums were written
this false prophet will require some type of identifying mark that is used to
separate those who are worshipers of the beast from those who are not
worshipers of the beast this mark will be it says they're the beast name or the
number of its name and then it tells us that this mark will be on the right hand
or on the forehead and and this mark this identifying thing will be used to
force compliance to force worship to force the people to make the image that
is being worshiped and you know markings like this there there's similar things
that have happened throughout history slaves were marked with the names or
the number of their master by through having them tattooed on them soldiers in
different countries have been tattooed or marked in some way to identify their
allegiance to the country or the unit they belong to or who their commander is
then of course in in in modern days people that are in various cults
especially some of the weird sex cults that are out there they always want to
brand people or mark them of some kind as a way to identify allegiance the this
mark here that it's talking about it's not just a mark of allegiance or worship
it is that but it's also economic it specifically points out that people will
not be able to buy or sell without it and so again people go what's the mark
of the beast right well it says it's the number of the beast it says it's the
number of a person and then it says the number is 666 right before that it says
this mark is either the beast name or the number of its name and so there you
go that's the answer nobody knows nobody knows exactly everything is conjecture
guessing and speculation whatever it is it will be something that represents the
beast something that identifies the beast and it will be used to identify
one's allegiance to him through them being marked with it again over the
years people have been barcodes that's going to be the mark of the beast
microchips sub-durnal tattoos biomarkers implants and on and on and on and a lot
of those things are used today by companies to identify employees they're
used in in different ways to to you know keep track of people you know the chips
in the hand and all this type of stuff and with the global internet and GPS and
apps and always connected smart devices sure the concept of tracking and
identifying and limiting and controlling through technology is a is a very
compelling idea and and kind of makes sense in a lot of ways even as far back
as the 90s our own Congress was trying to pass bills that would require
injecting a microchip into every newborn this is back in the 90s when Congress
our Congress was considering this and sure people go that would make so much
sense right I mean if people were chipped you could track criminals you
could track your kids you could you know you could keep track of spending what a
great way to control the population by controlling not just their worship but
their ability to eat live and survive I read a quote from a man in Bulgaria and
he said you cannot understand you cannot know that the most terrible instrument
of persecution ever devised as an innocent ration card you cannot buy or
sell anything except according to that little card if they please you can be
starved to death if they please you can be disposed and dispossessed of
everything you have you cannot trade you cannot buy and you cannot sell without
it so there will be a compelling reason to take this mark during the end times
because if you want to eat if you want to live if you want to pay your bills if
you if you want to survive you'll have this compelling reason to take it now
one of the other questions people say is can can we take the mark of the beast
today right my company wants to chip us am I gonna go to hell if I do that well
I would just encourage you to ask yourself this unless you're taking
something some mark that specifically identifies the Antichrist a global
governmental political ruler and taking that mark is forced by a worldwide
religious leader who is leading a one-world government and you're taking
it for purposes of declaring worship and allegiance to the beast unless that is
what characterizes whatever this mark is you're not taking the mark of the beast
okay now again you have your own convictions about stuff you know I don't
like people injecting anything into me for any reason so I'm not telling you to
do it or don't do it but as far as the mark of the beast is concerned it's very
specific some ideas on interpreting this mark it says it's a number of a person
and the or the number of its name it gives us this very clear 666 it very
clearly tells us it's identifying a person right it's not identifying a
date it's not identifying the WWW of websites it's not anything else it's a
person that this mark identifies and so some people look at that and they go
well in the in the Hebrew alphabet and I think in the Greek alphabet as well the
numbers in those alphabets also had a numerical value assigned to them and so
what they see in the 666 is this idea that it's it's the first middle and last
name of whoever the Antichrist is and then so they say it's it's a way to
summarize his name like we know who JFK is right we know who that individual is
by the letters of his name so or some people go the six is the number of
letters in each name so the first middle last name is each gonna have six
letters because it's the name of a person it's the number of his name
possibly some say well just as the number seven biblically is kind of like
the number of God and represents completeness and totality what we do see
throughout scripture is the number six seems to be the number of man right man
was created on the sixth day when people were bond slaves they would work for six
years and then be freed on the seventh man is commanded to work six days and
rest the seventh and so there's this idea throughout scripture that six is
the number of man and so 666 is just a symbolic way to say that the Antichrist
is like the ultimate man right man man man he's the ultimate man you know in
that sense but I don't know I don't know I would not waste a lot of time worrying
about it specifically because if you know Jesus Christ today you won't be
here when this happens okay yeah praise God for that but again out of love and
compassion if you do think we're gonna be here when this happens well he says
this at the end he goes this calls for wisdom and he says let the one with
understanding calculate the number I think when he says have wisdom and
understanding what I just do think that means is that during the time of
tribulation the people who are here living during the time of tribulation
will be able to understand and calculate who the Antichrist is right
it'll be it'll be obvious is what I believe is referring to there when it
says this calls for wisdom and let those who have understanding calculate
is that that those who are here on the earth during that time and we know that
there will be people who get saved during tribulation they'll be able to see
it and understand what his system is and what it means to be involved with his
system and identified with his system and it'll be obvious to them in that
sense where because they're saved God will grant them wisdom so much so that
some will take the mark and some will refuse to take the mark but again it is
very clear that taking the mark at that time means that your name cannot be
possibly written in the book of life so the focus of the false prophet his
authority his system of worship his attesting signs his his animated statue
his administrative tactics all of it works towards elevating and adulating
and adoring and promoting the Antichrist as God in the flesh the Savior of
mankind the one worthy of worship he points to the Antichrist just as the Holy
Spirit points us to Jesus Christ now I don't know about you but after spending
the last few weeks focusing on these foul disturbing monstrous gross beasts
called the Antichrist and the false prophet I feel like I need a spiritual
bath and so we're gonna close today focusing our eyes on the real authentic
God in the flesh the real Savior of mankind our Savior Jesus Christ the one
who is worthy of worship the only one worthy of worship now and forevermore
and we're gonna do that in the taking of communion and so I know that's an
abrupt abrupt shift but wasn't sure how to get there from here so all of you
should have one of the communion cups here in the room if you're watching
online and you don't have your communion emblems yet I do encourage you to get
those now but for those of you in the room if you've never seen these cups
there's two little tabs on the front there's this really thin plastic tab and
then a thicker one if you go ahead and pull back the thin tab first it's gonna
reveal the the cracker on the top here you know communion is is a time of
remembrance it's time of remembrance when Jesus took the bread we read in the
Gospels that it says he took the bread and he broke the bread and he gave it to
his disciples and he said this is my body do this in remembrance of me you
know and we we observe communion because we want to remember Jesus and what we
what he did we want to think about why he did it you know during the tribulation
period many on earth are gonna be given over to self exaltation many on the
earth are gonna continue to forget the depth of their own depravity and sin and
they're gonna turn to worship the one who represents everything they are and
they want to be the one who is full of pride and indulgence and lack of
restraint and denial of accountability and responsibility and full of excess
then the people during the tribulation time are gonna turn to worship this guy
because what he's gonna tell people is you don't need forgiveness because you're
righteous in and of yourself the devil is trying to get people to believe that
today and this is why we do this this is why we partake of communion to remember
Jesus to remember what he did for us what we're seeing during tribulation here
in Revelation all these judgments being poured out on sin they're not being
poured out on those who have been covered by the blood they're being poured
out on those who say no I don't want that I demand to pay my own price for
sin and that is what God's judgments are he's judging sin in communion Jesus
wanted us to remember that he's already paid the price for us he already paid
our price he took the full wrath of God for our sin my sin for your sin he took
it upon himself in our place that through faith in that and his broken
body the wrath being poured out his body just being devastated in the in the
scourging and on the cross and all that he went through that we would never
forget that we are forgiven that we are set free from the power of sin and death
that that we are made safe from his wrath to come that we would never forget
that he did it because he loved you so much and he loved me so much he he bled
he suffered he died that we might be forgiven through our confession of faith
on what he did for us on the cross the Bible tells us that it's by his wounds
that we are healed it's by his sacrifice we are pardoned and so when we think of
the body of Christ that was given for us laid upon the altar that our salvation
would be secured Wow praise God let's pray father we're so grateful to you
for giving yourself on the altar for our sin Lord as we already seen in
Revelation you were the lamb who was slain you were the sacrifice given that
we would be forgiven and God we don't deserve that we know we don't deserve
that but God you didn't do it because we deserve it you did it because you love
us and so God you just then ask Lord that we would live lives of obedience
that we would choose obedience to you God because of what you did for us Lord
and and God as you remember your body given for us Lord may we never forget
the great cost that our sin created and may we live every day God in gratitude
of that by doing everything we can to obey you to say no to the sin nature to
say no to those those sins in our lives which were the very things that caused
you to go through what you went through Lord we remember what you did for us and
we remember that because of it we are saved from the wrath to come and that is
the Holy Spirit works in our lives to point us to you the one true God who is
worthy of praise we say thank you thank you for dying for us Lord let's partake
together
if you have the cups in the room very delicately pull back the thicker tab
and that'll reveal reveal the juice in the cup here for you you know that same
night when Jesus was instituting communion with his disciples after the
bread he gave them a cup and he said take this cup and he said this cup is
the new covenant in my blood and then he repeated do this in remembrance of me
you see because it wasn't just the sacrifice on the altar that blood was
then collected and that blood went to the mercy seat and it was sprinkled on
the mercy seat the payment paid for sin and when Jesus's body went to that altar
and was laid on that altar and was ravaged for us it was his blood that was
shed that washed us clean it was his shed blood being sprinkled on the mercy
seat of God that paid the price for our sin once and for all forever past
present future you're forgiven you were forgiven yesterday you were forgiven
today you will be forgiven tomorrow hallelujah yes we stumble yes we fall
why do we need to remember the blood because when we fall down the deceiver
and the liar jumps right into our head and says what are you doing how dare you
call yourself a Christian look at what you just did look at what you just said
but as a Christian who has put their faith in Jesus Christ we get to say no
I messed up but God already knew that was gonna happen and 2,000 years ago he
shed his blood to pay the price for that sin and I plead the blood of Jesus
Christ I am forgiven I am saved and the devil just gets mad and goes away and
gets ready to come back next time and this is why we do this over and over to
remember to never forget the price that was paid for us that he shed his blood
permanently for all of us that in these moments we remember that we were stained
by sin and there was nothing we could do to wash it away in ourselves there was
no good works we could do because every time we did a good work we did ten bad
works we were just fallen people but he's the one that atoned for our sin and
he's the one that washes clean that the stain of sin in our lives would be
purged forever that is the truth it's not that we are righteous people in no
need of a Savior no it's really that we are wicked people desperately in need of
a Savior and we have one and he died for us and now we walk in the victory of
that we walk in the freedom of that praise God and how do we live in
response to what he's done for us same way we do with the bread and gratitude
and thanks God I want to live to just proclaim your glory I want to share your
name with all who would hear it I want to tell everybody about you because you
saved me if you saved me I know you could save everyone let's pray father
we're so grateful God for your shed blood on the cross we're so grateful
Lord that your spirit continually points us back to remember these things Lord as
we are gathered here is the body of Christ and your spirit is among us
pointing us to you God we know that because we have been washed clean by
your shed blood we are renewed and restored and redeemed we are clothed
with your robes of righteousness and because of that we worship you and you
alone Jesus we know you are God Almighty the only Redeemer the only Savior the
only Messiah the only lamb of God who was slain there is none other and there
will never never be another we thank you God for our salvation help us Lord to
walk in all that that means let's partake together well I pray that God
will bless your life abundantly that as you go about your days and you just seek
him every day that you listen for his voice as as elder Rick was telling us to
hear him speak to you and encourage you and console you and guide you and direct
you that we learned to listen to the one who purchased our lives by his own blood
that we learned to listen to to what he wants us to do and to live how he wants
us to be that we would be everything he's created us to be to be people who
shine the glory of God into a world that so desperately needs it and yes that
even means going into a world that says we don't need him and still telling them
about it with love with kindness with compassion but with confidence and
boldness because as we've been studying we know that the clock is ticking on
mankind the end is coming quickly and we're seeing pictures of the culmination
of of the groundwork that Satan is already laying now and we are called as
God's people to redeem the time for it is short I pray God's spirit would fill
every single one of you with a zeal to tell people about Jesus this track thing
we're doing now we're providing the tracks for you nobody could say I can't
afford the tracks yes he can because they're free take them hand them out
find a way to share your faith with people and trust that the God who
redeemed your soul is gonna fill you in that moment and and help you say the
right thing and and and to just show the love of Christ because that's what we're
about amen all right let's worship guys God bless you