{"id":18988,"date":"2019-05-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-039-the-coming-world-ruler-part-2\/"},"modified":"2023-01-26T20:22:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T02:22:45","slug":"revelation-039-the-coming-world-ruler-part-2","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-039-the-coming-world-ruler-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 039 \u2013 The Coming World Ruler (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18988","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 039 \u2013 The Coming World Ruler (Part 2)","sermon_date":"20190519","sermon_month":"05","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":6701,"sermon_slides":6700,"sermon_mp3":21994,"sermon_id":"519191312466161","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"13:3b-5","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\r\n\r\nThe Coming World Ruler (Part 2)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a05-19-19\r\n\r\nRevelation 13:3b -5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 39\r\n\r\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 As the children are being dismissed to Junior Church let\u2019s open our Bibles to the Book of Revelation, chapter 13.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is The Coming World Ruler (Part 2).\u00a0 Of course as you\u2019re turning there we had a great time yesterday evening, kind of a commemoration for Justin Compton who is graduating high school and is getting ready to go to college.\u00a0 So let\u2019s give Justin and his family a hand.\u00a0 [clapping]\u00a0 And pray for them as they are in a transition time.\u00a0 I think Justin works in our AV both, is that him up there?\u00a0 There he is, way up there, look at that!\u00a0 Thank\u00a0 you Justin for what you do.\r\n\r\nWe are continuing our study through the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 We\u2019re sort of in a section of the book where the trumpet judgments have been unleashed on planet earth, as we have studied.\u00a0 And as typically happens about five times in the book there\u2019s sort of a pause in the action.\u00a0 The chronology stops to give more details.\u00a0 There\u2019s about five times in the Book of Revelation where this pause takes place, and that\u2019s where we are\u2014we\u2019re in the longest pause in the action!\r\n\r\nChapters 12-14 which essentially are Satan\u2019s reaction to what is happening in the program of God.\u00a0 The interesting thing about Satan is he doesn\u2019t take defeat lying down.\u00a0 He fights tooth and nail every step of the way and with the seventh trumpet the announcement was made concerning the coming kingdom of Christ.\u00a0 This is the kingdom that will be manifest on planet earth in Revelation 20:1-10, the thousand year kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0 Satan is working in history to stop that kingdom from coming.\u00a0 And so chapters 12-14 basically is what Satan is doing as a countermove to what God is doing.\r\n\r\nChapter 12 as we have studied, is the time period where Satan, after being evicted from heaven, really begins to pursue the woman or the nation of Israel for forty-two months.\u00a0 Essentially what he\u2019s trying to do is he\u2019s trying to gobble up Israel because he knows that through Israel the kingdom will come and in his darkened mind he tries to eradicate Israel so that the kingdom cannot come.\u00a0 It\u2019s really a fascinating chapter and it explains the [blank spot in tape] people throughout the ages.\u00a0 Of course that hatred is going to reach its fever pitch in the tribulation period, particularly the second half.\r\n\r\nChapter 12 blends into chapter 13 where we run into the two human instruments that Satan is going to use during this very, very difficult time. He\u2019s using two entities called the two beasts. We have the first beast, that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been studying last week and then this week, and maybe next week, chapter 13:1-10.\u00a0 That\u2019s sort of what we would call a political beast.\u00a0 This is what some would refer to as the coming antichrist.\r\n\r\nAnd then secondly in the chapter, we won\u2019t be getting there today, is the second beast, chapter 13:11-18, sometimes called the false prophet, and that\u2019s the religious person that Satan will use during this very terrible time.\u00a0 Now I\u2019ve got an awful lot of questions on that picture there that I have at the bottom and people want to know what that means and all this kind of stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 And I wouldn\u2019t read too much into that, basically to let you know how this process works I had some space to fill [laughter] and so what do you do when you have space to fill?\u00a0 Well, you type in antichrist into your search engine and you pick the best image that comes up.\u00a0 So I don\u2019t know, it kind of looks like an antichrist doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 That\u2019s about\u00a0 as deep as this goes so don\u2019t spend too much time analyzing that picture.\r\n\r\nBut the first beast, chapter 13, verses 1-10, and there\u2019s about 13 points in time we\u2019re going to work through related to this first beast.\u00a0 First of all, his sudden appearance we saw in verse 1 last week.\u00a0 The reason the beast shows up at this particular time in John\u2019s story or John\u2019s vision, he\u2019s given us glimpses of the beast before in a couple of places but here\u2019s our first full-blown treatment. Why now?\u00a0 Well the answer is Satan has been evicted from heaven; the last privilege that he had going into heaven not to worship and serve as a high ranking angel as he once did but to communicate and accuse.\r\n\r\nAs we have studied that privilege is taken away at the midpoint of the tribulation period.\u00a0 The moment the antichrist desecrates the temple is the moment that privilege is taken away and Satan now plummets to the earth because the earth is really the only domain he has left.\u00a0 And he actually, I believe, at this point begins to indwell the beast much like he indwelt Judas to prevent the first coming of Christ and Christ\u2019s first mission to die on the cross, to resurrect from the dead.\u00a0 In other words, Satan thought he could kill off Christ prematurely but God had a surprise for Satan, didn\u2019t He? \u00a0\u00a0And Satan is now indwelling another person, the beast, the first beast, and he\u2019s trying to assert\u00a0 a world government over the entire planet, which we\u2019ll read about today.\u00a0 And in the process\u00a0 he\u2019s trying to eradicate the nation of Israel so that the kingdom can never come to the earth.\r\n\r\nWe also saw last week the beast\u2019s Gentile ethnicity.\u00a0 I tried to make the case that the first beast will probably be Gentile although there\u2019s a pretty good argument to be made that the second beast will likely be Jewish.\u00a0 And we think the first beast will be Gentile for many, many reasons, one of which is he comes up out of the sea, verse 1, and when you study that imagery of the sea it\u2019s speaking of the vast mass of Gentile humanity.\r\n\r\nAnd then the third thing John points out is how this first beast will begin to fulfill many of the ancient prophecies spoken of by Daniel all the way back in the sixth century B.C.\u00a0 And now you kind of see the method to the madness.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we studied Daniel first and Revelation second, Daniel being the basement or the foundation, the Book of Revelation sort of being the ceiling.\u00a0 Two very important pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that have to be brought together to understand exactly what is going to happen in the end times.\r\n\r\nWe noticed that this beast has ten horns and seven heads; the ten horns being that ten nation or ten king confederacy that the antichrist will preside over one day that will govern the entire earth.\u00a0 We also saw not only that ten king confederacy but it also mentions here not just ten horns but it mentions here, verse 1 and a little bit into verse 2, the seven heads.\u00a0 Ten horns, seven heads!\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting that each head has on it verse 1, a blasphemous name.\u00a0 [Revelation 13:1, \u201cAnd the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.\u201d]\r\n\r\nAnd I think to interpret that correctly you need a little bit of help from other parts of the Book of Revelation, like Revelation 17:9-10, which says, \u201cThe seven heads\u201d associated with the beast, \u201care seven mountains on which the woman sits,\u201d now don\u2019t worry too much about the woman at this point, the woman rides the beast, we\u2019ll be talking a lot about the woman when we get to Revelation 17 and 18.\u00a0 But here we\u2019re focused on the beast, these are entities on the beast.\u00a0 \u201cThe seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, [10] and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come;\u201d and it is a fact that when you trace Israel\u2019s history she has had seven, five past, actually six past from our perspective, one future, seven entities that have tried to destroy her.\u00a0 The final kingdom of the antichrist being sort of the composite of this anti-Semitic hatred that extends all the way back to the Old Testament.\u00a0 That\u2019s why when you look very carefully at verse one it says these seven heads had blasphemous names on them.\r\n\r\nSo who are these seven heads?\u00a0 They\u2019re seven kingdoms that\u00a0 the antichrist is a composite of.\u00a0 First there was Egypt that took the nation of Israel into bondage for four hundred years in the Book of Exodus followed by Assyria that scattered the ten northern tribes in 722 B.C. followed by Babylon, Babylon of course being that entity that took the nation into captivity for the seventy years followed by Persia that overthrew Babylon.\u00a0 Persia, of course, you remember the wicked King Haman, under the Persian reign that developed a plot to exterminate the Jews. Persia was followed by Greece and that\u2019s where we have that great conflict that takes place between the testaments that we studied, so many of Daniel prophecies related to this conflict where Antiochus Epiphanes of the Grecian Empire desecrated the temple and persecuted the Jewish people.\u00a0 Greece was followed by Rome.\u00a0 Rome, of course, crucified our Lord (as you know) and it was under Rome that the Jews were finally evicted from their land about forty years after the time of Christ, in A.D. 70.\u00a0 And some way, somehow this cultural inheritance of ancient Rome comes back to life.\u00a0 Some way, somehow it covers the whole earth.\u00a0 It becomes divided amongst ten kings and that\u2019s the entity that the antichrist, Rome phase two, will preside over in the end times.\r\n\r\nAnd so that\u2019s sort of my best understanding of the [blank spot in tape] a contemporary ten king confederacy followed by these seven heads, each head containing a blasphemous name.\u00a0 And then if I haven\u2019t lost you already I\u2019m bound to lose you here because it mentions there in verse 2 four animals.\u00a0 It mentions a leopard, a bear, and a lion.\u00a0 [Revelation 13:2, \u201cAnd the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those<\/em> of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. \u00a0\u00a0Now these are the various empires that would trample down the nation of Israel during the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 Daniel had some specific prophecies about Israel.\u00a0 He prophesied a specific era of time when the nation would have no king reigning on David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 In fact, when the last Davidic king, a man named Zedekiah, was removed from his throne the times of the Gentiles started during the time of the Babylonian captivity and that lion, bear and leopard and terrifying beast that followed would be in order, first Babylon, then Persia, then Greece, and then Rome.\r\n\r\nAnd last week we sort of tried to explain in verse 12 of Daniel 7, it says, \u201cAs for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time.\u201d\u00a0 So yes, it is true that Persia overthrew Babylon but the system of Babylon continued to live in Persia.\u00a0 And it is true that Greece overthrew Persia but the Babylonian and the Persian system continued to exist in Greece.\u00a0 And it true that Rome politically overthrew Greece but the religious system of Babylon and Persia and Greece continued to live in the Roman Empire.\u00a0 So it\u2019s sort of like just everything keeps getting passed down through the [can't understand word]\u00a0 chain and what\u2019s bad never gets really eliminated.\u00a0 And it keeps getting passed down and passed down and passed down until it\u2019s absorbed in a composite sense by the first beast.\r\n\r\nThe first beast, in other words, will be like Babylon (but worse) because he\u2019ll also have absorbed within it the Persian system, the Grecian system and the Roman system.\u00a0 I\u2019m always trying to come up with a sermon title and unfortunately one just occurred to me as I\u2019m up here talking so it\u2019s too late to put it on the computer, but maybe a good sermon title would be called The Badest of the Bad.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the antichrist is, He is the badest of the bad, having absorbed everything that\u2019s wrong with paganism into his composite world government of the future.\r\n\r\nThen we move into verse 2 which gives us the source of the beast\u2019s power.\u00a0 The second part of verse 2 very clearly tells us that the reason the beast is so popular and the reason he\u2019s able to do what he can do is he\u2019s directly empowered by the devil himself.\u00a0 Now we\u2019re going to have a lot more to say about that when we get down to verse 4 but one of the things that Satan gives the beast the ability to do, moving down to number five, is he will actually raise the beast from the dead.\u00a0\u00a0 You say well where in the world are you getting this from?\u00a0 I\u2019m getting it from verse 3 and notice what it says concerning the beast.\u00a0 \u201cI saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed.\u00a0 \u00a0and the earth, \u00a0\u00a0And the whole earth\u201d not just the earth, \u201cthe whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 13:3]\r\n\r\nWhat in the world is happening here?\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot of difficult issues to talk about when you get to verse 3 because it talks here about one of the heads of the beast, not the beast as a whole but \u201cone of his heads\u201d seems to be injured to the point of fatality and comes back to life.\u00a0 And so one of the key issues is this an individual resurrection or is this some kind of national resurrection, because we\u2019ve already studied that the seven heads represent what?\u00a0 Seven what?\u00a0 Seven kings, five have fallen, one is, and one is yet to come.\u00a0 Who were the five that had fallen already?\u00a0 In our chronology Egypt, Assyria, Babylon and Greece are ancient history.\u00a0 John makes the point in Revelation 17 :10 that \u201cone is,\u201d now what would that be?\u00a0 That would be Rome, which was the empire in existence when John received this vision on the Isle of Patmos at the end of\u00a0 the first century.\u00a0 Revelation 17:10, \u201cand they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come;\u201d]\r\n\r\nAnd then if we\u2019re understanding this correctly there\u2019s going to be a Rome phase two.\u00a0 Somehow politically the worldwide empire of Rome comes back to life and falls into the beast\u2019s hands.\u00a0 Nobody would have ever thought such a thing could have happened. Everybody has decided that Rome is just ancient history and when the whole thing comes back to life the world is going to be astonished by that and that\u2019s why it talks about the fatality of one of the heads of the beast.\u00a0 The heads represent these seven anti-Semitic kingdoms.\u00a0 I would interpret that resurrection as a political resurrection, the resurrection of ancient Rome.\u00a0 You know, political leaders are sort of followed because of their ability to perform great exploits.\u00a0 You look at the leadership that took us out of the great depression or maybe out of World War I or World War II, there were some national catastrophic events and how people are hailed and heralded because of what they have done, because of their peace, because of their exploits.\u00a0 Think about how the world will be astonished when the entire empire that everybody though was dead and gone comes back to life and the beast presides over it.\r\n\r\nSo is this an individual resurrection or is this a national resurrection of some kind?\u00a0 I would have to say that first and foremost it looks like it\u2019s national to me because it\u2019s very clear in verse 3 that it\u2019s not talking about the beasts\u00a0 head.\u00a0 It\u2019s very clear in verse 3 that it\u2019s talking about one of the beast\u2019s heads and we\u2019ve already studied Revelation 17:9-10 who those various heads represent.\u00a0 But then you keep moving through the chapter and you come to verse 14, which we\u2019re not even supposed to cover today but I have to talk about it, and it says this.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u201d that\u2019s\u00a0 the false prophet, \u201cdeceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given to him to perform in the presence of the beast.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 13:14, \u201cAnd he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, 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.\u201d]\u00a0 The false prophet is sort of like Ed McMann, you guys remember the Johnny Carson show, \u201cHerrrre\u2019s\u201d what? \u201cJohnny,\u201d and so the false prophet is sort of like an Ed McMann, he\u2019s saying \u201cHerrrre\u2019s the beast.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m sure it would be a little bit more attractive than the way I\u2019ve just described it.\r\n\r\nBut his whole function is to draw attention to the first beast and it says, \u201cAnd he deceives the world and those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast\u201d now notice that \u201cthe beast\u201d is singular, we\u2019re no longer talking about a nation, we\u2019re no longer talking about one of its heads, what it actually says is \u201can image to the beast,\u201d that\u2019s a person, \u201cwho has a wound of the sword and yet has come back to live.\u201d\r\n\r\nSo this is talking about not a national resurrection, as we saw back in verse 3, this is talking about an individual resurrection of a person, of a man.\u00a0 And as we tried to teach very clearly last week don\u2019t lose sight of the fact that the beast is a man.\u00a0 In fact, if you drop down to verse 18 it says, \u201cHere is wisdom, let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for that number is that of a\u201d what? \u201ca man,\u201d the noun anthropos, singular.\u00a0 We\u2019re dealing with a person here.\u00a0 He\u2019s called the beast not to dehumanize him or to pretend like he\u2019s not an actual person, but to bring out his beastly character.\u00a0 And of that beast, of that man he apparently received some kind of fatal wound of some kind, we\u2019re not told exactly what it is, it is an assassination attempt, is it a suicide attempt? We\u2019re not really told, but he receives in his body, in his person a fatality of some sort and he seemingly overcomes the grave and resurrects from the dead.\r\n\r\nSo is this a national resurrection or an individual resurrection, and I\u2019m seeing both here.\u00a0 Is this an individual resurrection or a national resurrection, my answer to that would be yes!\u00a0 National, verse 3, individual, verse 14.\u00a0 And you can see how the world would be drawn to such a person who (A) not only has pulled off a political miracle but has actually come back from the dead.\u00a0 Now unfortunately (pardon the pun) we\u2019re not out of the woods yet, because there\u2019s a big debate here concerning the individual resurrection of the beast\u2014is that a real resurrection?\r\n\r\nLet me kind of give you some background on this to explain to\u00a0 you the way I was taught this from some of the greats at Dallas Seminary.\u00a0 My professor in seminary was a man named J. Dwight Pentecost, I went to Dallas Seminary because I wanted to study under him.\u00a0 I was worried that he was going to die because he was so old, we figured out why they gave him the name Dr. Pentecost, we thought he was probably there in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost\u2026 and so everything he taught I took, I knew he wasn\u2019t going to rise from the dead and so my very first class I enrolled in at Dallas Seminary was a class that he was teaching called Daniel\u2014Revelation.\u00a0 And then I looked at my transcript and I said well, I\u2019ve got three units in Bible exposition, I don\u2019t want those three units to go to waste, I\u2019d better declare my major in Bible exposition.\u00a0 So probably more than any other person that is alive today or has passed on J. Dwight Pentecost has influenced the way I think on so many issues.\r\n\r\nAnd the way he explains the resurrection of the beast is as follows.\u00a0 He said it\u2019s not a real resurrection, it looks like a resurrection, it\u2019s a fake resurrection but it\u2019s not the real thing.\u00a0 And he went back into the Book of Exodus, remember the Book of Exodus and\u00a0 the ten plagues, remember what happened in those ten plagues?\u00a0 Number one, water to blood, Exodus 7:21-22.\u00a0 And what does that say?\u00a0 \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>The fish that were<\/em> in the Nile died, and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. And the blood was through all the land of Egypt. [22]\u00a0<\/sup>But the magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts; and Pharaoh\u2019s heart was ]<\/sup>hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.\u201d\r\n\r\nSo the first plague happens and Pharaoh gets his gang together, presumably operating under Satanic powers and duplicates the exact same miracle.\u00a0 Then came plague number two, the frog, Exodus 8:6-7, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the]<\/sup>frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.\u201d\u00a0 But, verse 7, \u201cThe magicians did \u00a0the same with their secret arts,]<\/sup>making frogs come up on the land of Egypt.\u201d\r\n\r\nSo the first two miracles that God performed in Egypt relative to these ten plagues are duplicated by Satanic power.\u00a0 No extra charge for this but this is one of the problems of moving into an experiential based spirituality.\u00a0 A lot of people believe something is true because they\u2019ve had an experience.\u00a0 And to be honest with you, if you\u2019re dealing with someone that\u2019s had an experience it\u2019s virtually impos\u00adsible to talk them out of that experience because many times they\u2019ve had the experience but here\u2019s the deal\u2014just because you\u2019ve had an experience does not make that experience of God necessarily.\u00a0 \u00a0We can see Satan here giving all kinds of experiences. So when people come to me and recount their experiences in God I always say that\u2019s very nice but have you followed the command in 1 John 4:1 which says to test the spirits.\u00a0 [1 John 4:1, \u201cBeloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.\u201d]\r\n\r\nHave you tested the experience relative to God\u2019s Word, because if there\u2019s anything in your experience, for example like the experience that Joseph Smith had, a visitation from an angel, which started the Mormon religious system.\u00a0 Or an experience like Mohammed had, a visitation once again from an angel which started Islam.\u00a0 Have you taken those experiences and have you tested them by Scripture because not all experiences are necessarily from God.\u00a0 And this is the advantage to being a student of God\u2019s Word, you have the capacity using the belt of truth and the sword of the Spirit and the helmet of salvation to test every single thing that comes into your life by God\u2019s truth.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t know much about the Bible the only thing you\u2019re left with is some experience and who knows there that experience has come from, maybe from God, maybe from the devil himself.\r\n\r\nBut you\u2019ll notice that these first two miracles are replicated by Pharaoh\u2019s magicians, and everything changes with the gnats, plague number three in the Book of Exodus.\u00a0 What does it say there?\u00a0 \u00a0Exodus 8:17-19, \u201cThey did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats through all the land of Egypt. [18] \u00a0<\/sup>The magicians\u201d watch this now, \u201ctried with their secret arts to bring forth]<\/sup>gnats, but they could not; so there were gnats on man and beast.\u201d Sounds like a hot summer in Houston quite frankly.\u00a0 Verse 19 says, \u201cThen the magicians said to Pharaoh, \u201cThis is the finger of God.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0And so the way this resurrection being not a true resurrection was explained to me as Satan cannot create life from non-life, and he couldn\u2019t do it with the gnats, therefore Satan cannot raise the dead and therefore that is sort of viewed as a presupposition an assumption or a preunderstanding for interpreting Revelation 13:14, they would say it looks like a resurrection but it can\u2019t be a true resurrection because Satan can\u2019t bring back life from death, it\u2019s an impossibility for Satan.\u00a0 [Revelation 13:14, \u201c[Revelation 13:14, \u201cAnd he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, 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.\u201d]\r\n\r\nAnd so that\u2019s sort of the explanation that I have related to this passage that I believed for many, many years.\u00a0 Not only was it the great J. Dwight Pentecost that taught it this way but you\u2019ll see this type of thinking in the Revelation commentary from another great in the faith, John F. Walvoord.\u00a0 Walvoord says this concerning Revelation 13:14, \u201cAnother plausible explanation is that the final world ruler receives a wound which normally would be fatal but is miraculously healed by Satan.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019ve got the relevant part here underlined. \u201cWhile the resurrection of a dead person seems to be beyond Satan\u2019s power<\/u>,\u201d why does he say that?\u00a0 Because that\u2019s what the Book of Exodus apparently teaches, so he\u2019s taking a conclusion from the Book of Exodus and reading it into the text of Revelation 13.\u00a0 \u201cWhile the resurrection of a dead person seems to be beyond Satan\u2019s power the healing of a wound would be possible for Satan, and this may be the explanation.<\/u> The important point is that the final world ruler comes into power obviously supported by a supernatural and miraculous deliverance by Satan himself.\u201d\u00a0 [John F. Walvoord, \"Revelation,\" in Bible Knowledge Commentary, ed. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck (Colorado Springs, CO: Victor, 1983), 961]\r\n\r\nA miracle is fine, Walvoord says, but not a true authentic resurrection, not a dead person that comes back to life.\u00a0 And so for many, many years I looked at Revelation 13 and I said it\u2019s not a true resurrection.\u00a0 But isn\u2019t it interesting that when you get [small blank spot in tape] the biblical text will rewrite your assumptions many times if you\u2019ll let it.\u00a0 And this is the problem with coming to the Bible with the same lenses over and over again.\u00a0 And I know people that are like this, they get upset because they\u2019ve got some little box they\u2019ve created, they think it\u2019s true and they give God absolutely no room to come into their box and change things.\u00a0 The last time I checked God is called the living God, and God, if you let Him will change your assumptions many, many times.\u00a0 And then it becomes sort of a crisis of truth, what is going to govern what the Lord is showing me here is it going to be my old way of understanding or is it going to be something fresh or something new that the Holy Spirit is showing me through His Word?\r\n\r\nAnd this was sort of the case with me as I began to look at this passage and I began to say I love John Walvoord, I believe in 99% of the things John Walvoord teaches.\u00a0 J. Dwight Pentecost is my mentor but after all those two men as important as they were in my life are not apostles, are they!\u00a0 My ultimate authority used to come from the Word of God.\u00a0 And please don\u2019t leave Sugar Land Bible Church saying Andy says this and Andy says that because I\u2019m not who\u2019s important here.\u00a0 What\u2019s important is God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 I\u2019m just a fallible human finite interpreter and sometimes we get almost Roman Catholic in our interpretation, because it\u2019s an interpretation that comes from the text, may disagree with some giant of the faith that we\u2019ve loved in the past.\u00a0 And the moment you take a human teacher and elevate them over the Word of God it\u2019s essentially what Roman Catholicism does where it buries the Word of God in manmade traditions.\r\n\r\nSo let\u2019s take a fresh look here at Revelation 13:14, notice what it says. \u201cAnd he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, 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.\u201d\u00a0 Now by this time I\u2019m sure you understand that the Bible was not written in English.\u00a0 The NKJV version or the NASB version or whatever version you like, some of you might like the NIV version, we would call\u00a0 you NIV positive and we would try to talk you out of that at some point, but a lot of people think the Bible was written in English.\u00a0 It was NOT written in English, it was written in Greek, the New Testament, the Old Testament primarily in Hebrew.\u00a0 And what then is the Greek word for \u201ccame to life\u201d?\u00a0 It\u2019s the verb, I\u2019ve got it there in brackets, [<\/u>za\u014d<\/em>]<\/u>.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s all it says, he was injured by the sword and he came to life za\u014d<\/em>.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd now start tracking how that verb is\u00a0 used, not in some remote part of the Bible but how it\u2019s used in the Book of Revelation. Did you know, for example, that that identical verb is used to describe the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead?\u00a0 Did Jesus rise from the dead?\u00a0 Of course He did, we believe that.\u00a0 And notice what it says in Revelation 2:8, \u201cAnd to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this:\u201d \u201ccome to life to life\u201d is za\u014d<\/em> which is the identical verb used in Revelation 13:14. [Revelation 13:14, \u201cAnd he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, 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.\u201d]\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that interesting.\r\n\r\nAnd when you slip over to Revelation 20:4-5, which talks about the final resurrection for the believer, this is what it says: \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw<\/em> the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life<\/u>\u201d this is the resurrection of I would think tribulation martyrs,<\/u> Old Testament saints, at the beginning of the millennial kingdom and how is that resurrection described.\u00a0 By the day, do you think one day you\u2019re going to get a resurrection body?\u00a0 Do you think it\u2019s going to be a real body?\r\n\r\nAre you looking forward to that?\u00a0 If you\u2019re not you\u2019d better look in the mirror because you need one and I need one, Amen!\u00a0 \u201c\u2026they came to life<\/u> and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the same verb, za\u014d<\/em>.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s actually going to be a resurrection of unbelievers at the end of the thousand year kingdom. What does it say, [5] \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>The rest of the dead did not come to life <\/u>[za\u014d<\/em>] until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.\u201d\u00a0 Also referred to by John in this\u00a0 vision with the Greek verb, za\u014d<\/em>.\u00a0 So if za\u014d<\/em> is literal in Christ\u2019s resurrection and if za\u014d<\/em> is literal in the final resurrection of the saved and the unsaved then why would I switch horses in midstream?\r\n\r\nWhy would I say it\u2019s literal there, and it\u2019s literal over there, it\u2019s literal at the beginning of the book, it\u2019s literal at the end of the book but I come to Revelation 13:14 and this antichrist coming back from the dead, I mean, that scares the living daylights out of me, that can\u2019t be true, so I interpret the verb differently than how it\u2019s used everywhere else in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 And you see, this is the problem with the J. Dwight Pentecost, John Walvoord interpretation of this verse is they\u2019re doing things in reverse.\u00a0 They\u2019re figuring out what Satan can and can\u2019t do ahead of time, they\u2019re getting mentally settled on that point and once that becomes an assumption in their minds then that becomes the grid through which they interpret Revelation 13, \u201cBeloved.\u201d\u00a0 That is not how you do theology.\u00a0 You don\u2019t figure out what your theology is first and then you come to the Bible to try to make the Bible support your preexisting theology.\u00a0 Your theology is only as good as the text from which it comes.\r\n\r\nAnd so this began to shift the way I thought about this and I began to say you know what, I think this is an actual bodily physical resurrection from the dead by the dragon to the beast on equal par with Christ\u2019s resurrection itself.\u00a0 Now once you start saying that you\u2019d better have your helmet on because here come the attacks.\u00a0 And there is a man who is called THE Bible Answer Man, isn\u2019t \u00a0that a humble title?\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t call himself \u201cA Bible Answer Man, he is THE Bible Answer Man, and his name is Hank Hanegraaff and he had what I thought early on was a very good ministry called The Christian Research Institute, there are still maybe some helpful things you can find in this ministry, but he went on a blistering attack against Dr. Tim LaHaye, of The Left Behind<\/em> series, for simply articulating the view that I\u2019m articulating here, a literal resurrection of the antichrist.\r\n\r\nAnd in my doctoral dissertation I was working on eschatological issues and so I had to read every-thing I could on my eschatological subject and so I was forced to read Hank Hanegraaff\u2019s book called The Apocalypse Code<\/em>.\u00a0 And in all honesty in my lifetime of reading books I have never seen a book like this that is mean spirited and acrimonious and vindictive and done in such an un-Christ like spirit as that particular book by Hank Hanegraaff, The Apocalypse Code<\/em>.\u00a0 In fact, Tim LaHaye is mentioned in the book 300 times, and Hanegraaff tries to make Tim LaHaye into a cult leader, tries to tie him to Charles Darwin, not understanding that it was Tim LaHaye that gave Henry Morris the whole idea of a young earth creationist movement.\u00a0 And it\u2019s just attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, and one the things he says in the book is Tim LaHaye is a heretic.\r\n\r\nIf I disagree with him on a point that would be fine, but when you call someone a heretic that becomes very, very serious.\u00a0 And Tim LaHaye of course is a heretic because he believes that the antichrist literally came back from the dead by Satan\u2019s power.\u00a0 AND after all, Hanegraaff said if Satan can perform a real resurrection here in Revelation 13 then the resurrection of Jesus is fake too,\u00a0 Satanic, not of God.\u00a0 How would I answer that?\u00a0 I mean, if this is an actual resurrection orchestrated by Satan how in the world do I know that Jesus\u2019 resurrection, 2,000 years ago was also not similarly orchestrated by Satan.\u00a0 And there\u2019s an answer to this.\u00a0 The answer to it is 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 which talks about a restrainer in the earth.\u00a0 And you know what restrains him, I think the restrainer to make a long story short is the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church,\u00a0 [6] \u201cAnd you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the antichrist. [7] For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so<\/em> until he is taken out of the way.\u201d\r\n\r\nSatan, as I speak, has handcuffs on him; he has an awful lot of power but he can\u2019t do everything he wants to do.\u00a0 And you see, one of these days that restraint is gone.\u00a0 I believe the removal of that restraint will be the rapture of the church to heaven and suddenly the handcuffs are off the devil, he has free reign, he can exert all of his powers, event things that he couldn\u2019t do for the last 2,000 years of church history, including bringing back someone from the dead.\u00a0 Something Satan I don\u2019t think can do today but once the handcuffs are off he\u2019ll have that ability.\u00a0 And once we move into the tribulation period we\u2019ve moved over to a brand new\u2026 can I use the word \u201cdispensation\u201d where the house rules change.\u00a0 And now you\u2019re living in an age of time when the restraint is gone, the church is in heaven, the handcuffs are off the devil and he\u2019s able to do things he\u2019s never been able to do in our world in that tribulation period.\r\n\r\nSatan could not have resurrected Jesus from the dead in the current dispensation, but he will have the power to resurrect the beast from the dead once the handcuffs are off in Revelation 13.\u00a0 I hope you understand something about Satan.\u00a0 He\u2019s a created being, he certainly does not have the power that God has but given his created capacity and the way the Lord made him as an anointed high ranking cherub he has an awful lot of power.\u00a0 He can\u2019t reduplicate what God has done but he can do an awful lot of things that look very godlike to me.\u00a0 And if I\u2019m reading Revelation 13:14 and words mean anything I would say that this is an actual physical bodily resurrection of the beast from an actual death.\u00a0 And this becomes the explanation as to why the whole world is mesmerized by this.\u00a0 The political miracle has been pulled off, and now an individual resurrection has been pulled off and you can see how the world would just be stunned by this, staggering.\r\n\r\nYou know, you think of a man like John F. Kennedy and his assassination in broad daylight.\u00a0 Could you imagine the impact that that man would have had on the world in terms of his popularity if suddenly he came back right out of the grave on day three?\u00a0 I mean, I don\u2019t think he\u2019d ever lose another election after that one.\u00a0 And this is basically what\u2019s happening with the antichrist.\u00a0 And John, through Greek words, is explaining this to us.\u00a0 Now if the thought bothers you and if the thought scares you that\u2019s find, it scares me a little bit as well.\u00a0 But that does not give me the right to rewrite the Bible because it doesn\u2019t fit into my box.\u00a0 My box has to be constantly challenged and adjusted by what the biblical text actually says.\u00a0 And as much as I\u2019ve tried to understand what the biblical text actual says is an authentic real resurrection.\r\n\r\nAnd so we move from His resurrection into His power based adoration.\u00a0 Notice verse 4, \u201cThey worshipped the dragon because he gave his authority to beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, \u2018Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?\u2019\u201d I mean, this beast, this antichrist has come on the scene and fixed so many problems,\u00a0 he\u2019s the rider on the white horse, Revelation 6:1-2.\u00a0 [Revelation 6:1, \u201cThen I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, \u201cCome.\u201d\u00a0 [2] I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.\u201d]\r\n\r\nHe\u2019s been one that\u2019s one that\u2019s come forth in the first seal judgment.\u00a0 He is the one that\u2019s even fixed that thorny difficult problem in the Middle East, the nation of Israel and their neighbors.\u00a0 They\u2019re both existing side by side in harmony, thanks to the art of the deal that the antichrist has\u00a0 pulled off.\u00a0 And perhaps the Jews have their temple functioning and the Muslims have their Dome of the Rock and the world is singing Kumbaya<\/em>, and they\u2019re holding hands across America and the world, everything\u2019s been fixed.\u00a0 And he seems to have so much power and so much ability that the world itself is mesmerized by this man and begins to follow after him.\r\n\r\nAnd that\u2019s what we\u2019re really interested in with people, aren\u2019t we, in our natural selves.\u00a0 We\u2019re interested in their power, we\u2019re interested in what they can do.\u00a0 I mean, if someone wants to run for President of the United States today they\u2019d better have a long list of actual accomplishments and the richer they are the better\u2026amen, because that\u2019s America.\u00a0 By the way, I voted for the current President, I don\u2019t want to make it sound like I didn\u2019t vote for him.\u00a0 I\u2019m just saying that the mindset out there that we like power, we like skill, we like ability, and we seem to like everything except what God likes.\u00a0 You know, in our first session this morning we confirmed our new church leadership, elders and deacons.\u00a0 In fact, you voted on that process, if you want to know what the qualifications for elder and deacon are read 1 Timothy 3:1-13; 1-7 elders, 8-13 deacons, and you know what you\u2019ll never find on that whole long list of qualification?\u00a0\u00a0 You won\u2019t find a single word about anybody\u2019s power, anybody\u2019s accomplishments, anybody\u2019s resume, what they have done, what they have produced.\r\n\r\n[1 Timothy 3:1-13, \u201cIt is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.<\/em> [2] An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, [3] not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. [4] He must be<\/em> one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity [5] but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), [6] and<\/em> not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. [7] And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church,<\/em> so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.\u00a0 [8] Deacons likewise must be<\/em> men of dignity, not double-tongued, or addicted to much wine or fond of sordid gain, [9] but<\/em> holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. [10] These men must also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach. [11] Women must<\/em> likewise be<\/em> dignified, not malicious gossips, but temper\u00adate, faithful in all things. [12] Deacons must be husbands of only<\/em> one wife, and<\/em> good managers of their<\/em> children and their own households. [13] For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.\u201d]\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s all about character, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 We have a tendency to value a lot of things that God doesn\u2019t particularly value at all.\u00a0 In fact, in 1 Samuel 16:7 who would have thought that David would have been the king to be anointed as the second king of Israel.\u00a0 The father, Jesse, didn\u2019t even bring out David, too small, too little, too ruddy.\u00a0 And what does it say in 1 Samuel 16:7, \u201cBut the LORD said to Samuel when David was finally brought out, \u201cDo not look at his appearance\u2026,\u201d you get that?\u00a0 Everybody fell in love with Saul because of his handsomeness and his height.\u00a0 That\u2019s how the world system thinks, we want height, we want power, we want accomplishments, we want effectiveness and things that we can see.\u00a0 But what does God say?\u00a0 \u201cBut the LORD said to Samuel, \u2018Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees\u201d watch this now, \u201cfor God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks\u201d where, \u201cat the heart.\u2019\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd I can guarantee you in this unsaved, unregenerate world after the church is removed falls in love with the beast, they\u2019re not looking at the heart.\u00a0 In fact, if they looked carefully at the heart what would they see?\u00a0 They would see a heart that\u2019s beastly; that\u2019s why he\u2019s called the beast, they\u2019re looking at his power, they\u2019re looking at his resume, they\u2019re looking at his financial resources, they\u2019re looking at his effectiveness, they\u2019re looking at his accomplishments.\r\n\r\nAnd then as you look at verse 4 a funny thing begins to happen.\u00a0 It says, \u201cthey worshiped\u201d who?\u00a0 \u201cthe dragon,\u201d who\u2019s the dragon again?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t the dragon Satan, we\u2019ve explained all that haven\u2019t we.\u00a0 If\u00a0 you don\u2019t think the dragon is Satan just jot down Revelation 12:9 and Revelation 20:2.\u00a0 [Revelation 12:9, \u201cAnd the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 20:2, \u201cAnd he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;\u201d]\r\n\r\n\u201cThey worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast and they worshiped the beast saying \u2018\u201cwho is like the beast, who is able to wage war with him,\u2019\u201d we love the beast because of what he can do.\u00a0\u00a0 And we finally figured out where the beast\u2019s power is coming from; it\u2019s coming from the dragon (or Satan himself) and so the world at this particular time in history falls down in worship to Satan.\r\n\r\nIf I\u2019m understanding my Bible correctly overt, naked, unhindered, unrestrained, worship of Satan himself will characterize the last days.\u00a0 Not worship of Jesus, the creator of heaven and earth, the worship of the devil, the nemesis, the antagonist of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting how our world today is being set up for that.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting how things that were once considered taboo, the paranormal, is it not interesting how those things are being mainstreamed today?\u00a0 Psychic hotlines, horoscope readings, palm readers, fortune tellers, Ouija boards.\u00a0 You know, there are people in this world that won\u2019t make a single move until they consult their horoscope, every single day?\u00a0 Paranormal mainstreaming is what I would call it.\u00a0 And I\u2019m one of those kind of guys that like those criminal investigation shows.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how many countless shows are now on the air today where they can\u2019t solve the crime and so they tap into some psychic somewhere to help them solve the crime.\u00a0 If you talked like that 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, that\u2019s crazy talk; no civilized American would mainstream that type of activity.\u00a0 Today it\u2019s completely normal.\u00a0 And what we\u2019re being prepared for, I believe, is the worship of the dragon, which will take place in the tribulation period itself.\r\n\r\nI am so anti paranormal I\u2019m even nervous around those fortune cookies.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 And by the way, you notice every time you open up a fortune cookie it always says something good about you?\u00a0 It never says you\u2019re going to be hit by a car three days from now.\u00a0 And by the way, I keep opening these things up thinking it\u2019s going to say help, I\u2019m stuck in a fortune cookie factory, send help.\u00a0 But these are things that are sort of subtle things that we enjoy.\u00a0 But it\u2019s all psychological conditioning for this worship of the dragon which will exist in the end times.\r\n\r\nAnd then we move into his oratory and what a speech this guy can put together.\u00a0 If you look at verse 5, notice what it says there, \u201cThere was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, [and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.]\u201d [Revelation 13:5]\u00a0 You know, it\u2019s sort of interesting that when you study the doctrine of the antichrist as he is revealed in Scripture, do you know what the Holy Spirit draws our attention to over and over again?\u00a0 His mouth, how he [small blank spot in tape] what he says.\u00a0 Daniel 7:11 talks about his boastful words.\u00a0 [Daniel 7:11, \u201cThen I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.\u201d]\r\n\r\nDaniel 7:20 talks about a mouth uttering \u201cgreat boasts.\u201d\u00a0 [Daniel 7:20, \u201cand the meaning of the ten horns that were on its head and the other horn which came up, and before which three of them fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts and which was larger in appearance than its associates.\u201d]\r\n\r\nDaniel 7:25 says, \u201c'He will speak out against the Most High [and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.]\u201d\r\n\r\nVerse 8 again talks about Daniel 7, a mouth uttering great boasts.\u00a0 [Daniel 7:8,\u00a0 \"While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.\u201d]\u00a0 And you think of the great leaders and dictators in world history that are able to sway the masses with their oratory.\u00a0 I think of those poor souls in Cuba.\u00a0 On closed circuit single channel television, watching the dictator, Fidel, go on and on and\u00a0 on and on and on and on and on an oratory, and how if you listen to some of the testimonies of the Cuban citizens, how they early on fell in love with the vision that Castro had for that island, just based on how he talked.\u00a0\u00a0 And it turned out that that island is a living hell hole.\r\n\r\nHave\u00a0 you notice, by the way, that when people flee Cuba they\u2019re always getting in these sort of rickety boats and traveling from what it is, Havanan to Miami, basically 90 miles in sometimes very rickety boats, sometimes not even boats, sometimes just pieces of board, plank, etc. traveling shark infested waters with the hopes of reaching Miami, the United States of America.\u00a0 Have you ever noticed that people in America don\u2019t get on these rickety boats and go the other way to Cuba?\u00a0 I say that tongue in cheek because we\u2019re told by the left that Cuba\u2019s got the greatest health care system on planet earth, universal health care, single payer.\u00a0 I mean, if it\u2019s such a worker\u2019s paradise over there why are they getting in these boats trying to get out?\u00a0 Why aren\u2019t people trying to get in?\r\n\r\nAnd I hope you understand, I\u2019m not trying to go patriotic on\u00a0 you but you\u2019re living in one of the most blessed countries this world has ever seen.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because the whole world is trying to get in here.\u00a0 In Iran, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, it\u2019s the exact opposite, they\u2019re trying to get out.\u00a0 And you wonder how the Cuban people could have fallen for initially this vision of Fidel Castro and it\u2019s related to how he talked, it\u2019s related to his oratory.\r\n\r\nNow we\u2019ve had a President in modern times, not particularly this one but go back a President or so, and I was just absolutely stunned the number of people that I thought were very highly intelligent, highly educated, who voted for him, not once but twice.\u00a0 Now this is a bit personal, I\u2019m sometimes talking about people from my own extended family.\u00a0\u00a0 You should see some of our family reunions, what a war zone those can turn into!\u00a0 Educated people, intelligent people, smart people, voting for this man twice.\u00a0 And I say why would you do it?\u00a0 You know what their answer was, from some of the smartest people I know?\u00a0 We liked the way he sounded, He sounded Presidential!\r\n\r\nAnd what I\u2019m saying is our world is set up to follow people based on their rhetoric and how they sound.\u00a0 And\u00a0 you see that very clearly in verse 5 where it mentions the oratory of the beast, \u201cThere was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 13:5]\u00a0 You know, the Bible has a lot to say about the tongue, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHung by the tongue\u201d as I like to call it.\u00a0 If you want to be convicted read James 3:1-12.\r\n\r\n[James 3:1-12, \u201cLet not many of you<\/em> become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. [2] For we all stumble in many ways.<\/em> If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. [3] Now if we put the bits into the horses\u2019 mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. [4] Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. [5] So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet<\/em> it boasts of great things. \u00a0See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! [6] And the tongue is a fire, the very<\/em> world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our<\/em> life, and is set on fire by hell. [7] For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. [8] But no one can tame the tongue; it is<\/em> a restless evil and<\/em> full of deadly poison. [9] With it we bless our<\/em> Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; [10] from the same mouth come both<\/em> blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. [11] Does a fountain send out from the same opening both<\/em> fresh and bitter water?<\/em> [12] Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can<\/em> salt water produce fresh.\u201d]\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s all about how we talk and how we communicate and how our words need to be God honoring because after all the Book of Proverbs tells us that [blank space in tape] is found in the tongue itself.\u00a0 You can edify or destroy in any environment you\u2019re in, family, work environment, church, just based on how we talk and what we say.\u00a0 In fact, there\u2019s one judgment I am so grateful that I\u2019m not going to be involved in because it says this, the Lord says, Matthew 12:36, \u201cBut I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.\u201d\u00a0 I read something like that and I say wow, I\u2019m glad I\u2019m clothed by the righteousness of Christ, I would hate to be evaluated by everything in my life that\u2019s come out of my mouth.\r\n\r\nYou say well, pastor, you know, I have a tongue problem, how do I get that under control?\u00a0 Well the issue is you really don\u2019t have a tongue problem, you have a heart problem.\u00a0 The tongue, the only thing it is, it\u2019s a window to the heart!\u00a0 You know exactly what\u2019s coming out of someone\u2019s heart just based on what they say. If\u00a0 joy, gratitude, wisdom, comes out of the mouth that\u2019s what\u2019s in the heart.\u00a0 If bitterness, anger, jealousy, vindictiveness comes out of the mouth that\u2019s what in the heart.\r\n\r\nI like the way the late Adrian Rogers put it, \u201cWhat comes up in the bucket went down in the well.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, \u201cYou brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0And how this beast can talk. In fact, we\u2019re told here in verse 5 he\u2019s going to utter blasphemies and he\u2019s going to utter arrogant words.\u00a0\u00a0 [Revelation 13:5, \u201cThere was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.\u201d]\r\n\r\nNow, go back to verse 2 just for a minute, who\u2019s empowering the beast?\u00a0 The dragon.\u00a0 Go back to verse 4 just for a minute.\u00a0 Who is empowering the beast?\u00a0 The dragon.\u00a0 I think at this time the dragon is actually inside of the beast.\u00a0 Satan is possessing the beast.\u00a0 So when the beast is actually talking it\u2019s not really the beast\u2019s words,\u00a0 it\u2019s the devil that is energizing his thoughts and his verbiage.\u00a0 And you say well, come on pastor, that doesn\u2019t happen in history, does it?\u00a0 Here\u2019s a quote from a book by Erwin W. Lutzer, longtime wonderful pastor of Moody Memorial Church.\u00a0 He wrote a book called Hitler\u2019s Cross.\u00a0 <\/em>\r\n\r\nOn page 83 he says this: Earnest Pretzsche\u2026introduced him [Hitler] to a psychedelic drug that produced clairvoyant visions and heightened spiritual perceptions. In this way he was empowered to perform the deeds that he believed fate had decreed\u201d\u00a0 Hitler in other words. \u201cEven those who knew Hitler from his early days were well aware of his occult powers. August Kubizek, a friend, said,\u201d I\u2019ve got the relevant part underlined, \u201c\u2018It was as if another being spoke out of his body<\/u>.\u2026\u201d\u00a0 You see that?\u00a0 \u201cIt was if another being spoke out of his body\u2026. \u00a0It was not a case of a speaker being carried away by his own words\u2026I felt as though he himself\u201d that\u2019s Hitler, \u201clistened with astonishment and emotion to what broke forth from him.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 [Erwin W. Lutzer, Hitler's Cross: How the Cross Was Used to Promote the Nazi Agenda<\/em> (Chicago: Moody, 2016), 83.]\r\n\r\nYou see, in world history Satan, I don\u2019t think necessarily possesses people like this but his demons can\u2026 and do!\u00a0 And in fact when they talk it\u2019s really not the person talking at all, it\u2019s the demon inside of him.\u00a0 And if the beast is directly being empowered by the dragon himself, if in fact the dragon is possessing the beast, what is happening is the beast\u2019s tongue is being used as an instrument of Satan and he is able to sway the masses simply through religious political oratory.\r\n\r\nYou\u2019ll also notice verse 5, and I\u2019m afraid this will be about as far as we get today, verse 5, towards the end of the verse notice what it says there.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.\u201d\u00a0 Forty-two months, that\u2019s interesting; you\u2019ll find that expression in Revelation 11:2.\u00a0 [Revelation 11:2, \u201cLeave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.\u201d]\r\n\r\nSometimes forty-two months is a synonym used, different words, same meaning, one thousand two hundred and sixty days.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see that in Revelation 11:3 and Revelation 12:6.\u00a0 [Revelation 11:3, \u201cAnd I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 12:6, \u201cThen the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.\u201d]\r\n\r\nSometimes you\u2019ll see this expression, as in Daniel 12:7 and Revelation 12:14, \u201ca time, times and a half a time.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [Daniel 12:7, \u201cI heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time; and as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Revelation 12:14, \u201cBut the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.\u201d]\r\n\r\n\u201cA time\u201d is a Jewish year, \u201ctimes\u201d (plural) is two Jewish years, and a \u201chalf a time\u201d is half a Jewish year.\u00a0 You add that up according to my old math that comes out to three and a half years.\u00a0 These are all synonyms being used by the Holy Spirit to describe either the first half period or the second half.\u00a0 The whole tribulation period is seven years.\r\n\r\nBut we\u2019re told, Daniel 9:27 that there\u2019s going to be a desecration of the temple by the antichrist midway through, which takes that number seven and divides it in two and so the Holy Spirit uses these different synonyms, sometimes drawing your attention to the second half and I believe that what is being described here is the second half of the tribulation period when Satan is actually inside the beast, the handcuffs and the shackles have been completely taken off, Satan is allowed to perfectly express himself and he\u2019s given that authority for forty-two months.\u00a0\u00a0 [Daniel 9:27, \u201c\"And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.\"]\r\n\r\nIf\u00a0 you want a parallel passage on this you might recall Daniel 7:25.\u00a0 It \u00a0says, \u201c'He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time,\u201d the second half of the tribulation period.\r\n\r\nAnd I want you to see one thing here in verse 5, \u201cThere was given to him,\u201d \u00a0see that, at the beginning of verse 5. \u00a0Revelation 13:5, \u201cThere was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.\u201d]\u00a0 The beast only has his authority because God allows it.\u00a0 I want you to understand something about evil, and this is a part of the Christian worldview that you can\u2019t find in any other worldview out there. To my mind and my knowledge this is something unique to the Bible.\u00a0 Evil is finite; there was a time in history when evil did not exist, Genesis 1 and 2. \u00a0There will be a time in history when evil will not exist, Revelation 21 and 22.\u00a0 If you want to know what\u2019s normal in the mind of God study the first two chapters of the Bible and the last two chapters of the Bible.\u00a0 Everything in-between is an abnormality because evil came into our world through the rebellion of the creature towards the Creator.\u00a0 And the whole of human history is how that evil is going to be taken out and restored to God\u2019s original intention and His original design.\r\n\r\nNow if you talk to an evolutionist, you know evolution, from the goo to you by way of the zoo over billions of years where there has been this relentless survival of the fittest, the strong killing off the weak over billions of years (and they call that progress).\u00a0 You start to think about that and you start to say they\u2019ve always believed in evil and it will always be.\u00a0 If you talk to a reincarnation person that thinks if they are good in this life they\u2019re going to come back in the next life as some exalted being.\u00a0 By the way, everybody I\u2019ve talked to that believes in reincarnation they always talk about how in their former life they were a king or a prince or something, they never tell me how they were a janitor that worked minimum wage.\r\n\r\nBut you just keep getting recycled from one phase of life to the next and you say to yourself, well, they must believe in a world view where evil has always been around, it never ends.\u00a0 Not so your Bible!\u00a0 Evil is on a leash and in fact at the height of evil where the handcuffs have been taken off the devil he only gets forty-two months.\u00a0 You say well pastor, forty-two months, that\u2019s a long time.\u00a0 Really!\u00a0 Compare that to God\u2019s kingdom, for \u201cThere will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace\u2026 forevermore.\u201d\u00a0 [Isaiah 9:7]\r\n\r\nAre you looking forward to that?\u00a0 Compare that to the end of our prophecy chart where the Second Advent of Christ takes place leading to the thousand year kingdom.\u00a0 And people are sort of confused about this because they the kingdom is only a thousand years.\u00a0 No, no, no, the kingdom being a thousand years is the front doorstep.\u00a0 Once you open the door and move into the building itself you move into the eternal state which will last for how long?\u00a0 Hint\u2014it\u2019s called eternal state; it never ends.\r\n\r\nYou know, you look at life like this, I know many of you are going through difficulties and you look at your problems and you think it\u2019ll never end.\u00a0 This health problem will never go away.\u00a0 This relational conflict I\u2019m in will never end.\u00a0 This financial downturn that I\u2019ve experienced will never be over.\u00a0 And then\u00a0 you\u2019re reminded of prophecy; you\u2019re reminded of God\u2019s blueprint for the end of the age.\u00a0 And\u00a0 you learn that what you\u2019re experiencing now is a temporary abnormality.\u00a0 What does that give to the Christian that no other worldview gives to anybody?\u00a0 It gives you hope!\u00a0 You say well pastor, you sound like a pessimist, all of this talk about a beast and a new world order.\u00a0 Folks, I\u2019m a flaming optimist because of the Christian worldview that I have, that evil is bound, evil is finite, evil is not on a leash, and in fact in the time of history where Satan gets to do whatever he wants he only gets forty-two months, which pales in significance to the coming kingdom of God.\r\n\r\nAnd you may say to yourself, well how do I get into this kingdom?\u00a0 It\u2019s really simple, it\u2019s what we call the gospel, which means good news.\u00a0 You know, when you travel abroad your passport is everything; if you lose your passport you\u2019re in a lot of trouble.\u00a0 Your passport gets\u00a0 you in, your passport gets you out.\u00a0 How do I get into this kingdom that\u2019s coming?\u00a0 What is the passport?\u00a0 And there\u2019s only one way in.\u00a0 It\u2019s not through your own righteousness!\u00a0 It\u2019s through what\u2019s called transferred righteousness, imputed righteousness, positional righteousness, where God the Father takes the righteousness and the holiness of God the Son and in a nanosecond transfers it to your account and God looks at you just like He looks at Jesus.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have that righteousness I don\u2019t care what kind of passport you have, you ain\u2019t getting\u2019 in!\u00a0 Neither am I!\r\n\r\nAnd how do you get this imputed transferred righteousness of Christ?\u00a0 You receive it by faith; you can\u2019t receive it any other way.\u00a0 Faith means trust, it means reliance, it means dependence, you hear a proclamation of the gospel, Christ crucified, resurrected and ascended, you learn that Jesus did everything that He could do to bridge the gap between fallen humanity and a Holy God, and the moment you hear that the Spirit convicts you of your need to trust in that message and that God for your eternity and the safekeeping of your soul.\u00a0 It\u2019s that simple.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a matter of walking an aisle, joining a church, giving money to the church, doing five handstands, doing gymnastics, getting on the religious treadmill, (which by the way the treadmill is not a bad idea, just not the religious one) .\r\n\r\nYou receive what Jesus has done for you because Jesus says \u201cIt is: what? \u201cfinished!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You receive that by faith and just like that, Martin Luther called it \u201cthe great exchange,\u201d the great change is in the moment of time, the moment you trust in Christ your unrighteousness is exchanged for His righteousness.\u00a0 Imputation, transferred, not self [small blank spot in tape]\u00a0 transferred righteousness is the only way in and our exhortation here at Sugar Land Bible Church if you\u2019ve never trusted Christ to do it right now in the privacy of your own mind and thought as the Holy Spirit places you under conviction.\u00a0 It\u2019s something very simple to do.\u00a0 It\u2019s so simple to do that even a child can understand it.\u00a0 All of the good works that man throws in are just manmade things that don\u2019t belong. We\u2019re not talking about here about man\u2019s systems, we\u2019re talking about [blank spot in tape] and then you find\u00a0 yourself on the winning side of history, you have hope, and\u00a0 you\u2019re headed for a period of time where evil is going to be taken out of the world.\u00a0 And even as you walk through the difficulties of life now you\u00a0 have someone to walk with you in the person of Jesus Christ in a relationship with Him.\u00a0 I really can\u2019t think of any better offer, can you?\u00a0 So if it\u2019s something that you need help on or need some more information on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\r\n\r\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we are grateful for this section of Scripture and the great truths that it speaks to us.\u00a0 Help us to be good [small blank spot in tape] block\u00a0 these things out by way of faith this week. We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus name.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t