Revelation 13 The antichrists

By Lin Brown Bible Text: Preached on: Revelation 13 Sunday, August 15, 2010

Grace Particular Baptist Church 5725 Imperial Lakes Blvd Mulberry, FL 33860 Website: Online Sermons: www.graceparticularbaptist.org www.sermonaudio.com/graceparticular

This morning we come to Revelation chapter 13. It is another one of those chapters on which I could have preached the last sermon on, because it was all about Christ. This is all about the kingdom and power of Satan. But it is also about Christ. And as you turn to Revelation chapter 13, I would also remind you of Revelation chapter 10 and verse two which says these words. And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth.1 Why did I read that? Because the power, the evil, the malignity, the disease, the wickedness come out of the sea, come out of the land, come out at the bidding and glory and majesty and honor of the great red dragon. But they are all under the foot of he who holds the little book who is the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords throughout the book of Revelation. Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords throughout salvation history, throughout the history of the world. He rules. He brings up and he puts down. For that I want us to turn over to Daniel chapter two. And there we will read these words that have somewhat bearing on our 13th chapter of Revelation. Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan king of the past, had a great dream and he dreamed a vision of a great statue that is made up of a great mixture of metals. And he didnt understand it. His satraps, his seers, the ones who were supposed to be able to tell the king everything didnt understand it. But there was one who in his kingdom did understand it who was there as a prisoner, but who also was a prisoner of the sovereign God who is the revealer of all things. And so we read in verse 31. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was
1

Revelation 10:2. Page 1 of 16

terrible. This images head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.2 Very easily discernible here that Daniel revealed to Nebuchadnezzar that he was the gold part of this statue. He was the head, the golden head of this statue. And as the golden head of this statue, we must take note that all world governments that have come after this head of gold have preceded from the philosophy and from the power and from the richness of the head of gold of Babylon. All of the world governments have fallen into it as we will see very quickly. Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king
2

Daniel 2:31-38. Page 2 of 16

what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.3 So very easily we understand that they had to build this Nebuchadnezzar the kingdom of Babylon unto Nebuchadnezzar. Then we have the second kingdom as we have laid out for us, another kingdom inferior to thee. And this kingdom is made up of silver and a inferior metal to this golden head. Again, it would replace it. The golden head would pass off of history. The kingdom of Babylon would pass off of history under Nebuchadnezzar. It would be succeeded by the Medes an the Persians, particularly Cyrus. And it would come in as a second kingdom. But it would also pass off because there would be a Grecian who grew up with the idea of conquering the world. And his name was Alexander. And he would overthrow this kingdom. And he would then be this inferior metal, once again. His kingdom was not as great in its splendor and in its magnitude and in its place in history as Alexander the Great was. But Alexander the Great would pass off the scene, pictured to us by the lower torso of this image, the splitting of Alexander the Greats kingdom under the Ptolemys and the Seleucids. And unto those two kings, then the inferior parts of the lower legs would go on. They would also be succeeded. The Seleucids brought forth one who would later be spoken of in Daniel, Antiochus Epiphanies who was a type of this great man of evil which stands over all of history, the great picture of the wickedness of man. But it would also be replaced by another kingdom, a kingdom that was of raw iron, brute force, Pax Romana, Lex Romana, Roman law and Roman peace or no law and no peace. Rome. And Rome would be pictured as the last great kingdom of man because it would come in great confrontation with the kingdom of God. This mountain that is cut without hands and would strike the toes and would bring the whole image of the government of man at his feet. We pick up from there over to the New Testament. And you might wonder where we are headed with this, but we are going to picture history in Revelation chapter 13? No. Because Revelation is about spiritual kingdoms. It is about spiritual hierarchies. It is about spiritual wickedness in conflict with the kingdom of God. So in the very beginning there in Daniel we have the kingdom of God placed there by the mountain, striking all of the earthly foes. In Revelation we find a new thing on the scene, a new thing in its understanding, not a new thing in its being. It has always been there. It
3

Daniel 2:37-45. Page 3 of 16

has always been then power behind those thrones. And that is the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of wickedness, the prince and the power of the air. And so we read in Revelation chapter 13. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.4 Let us be sober and eschew Sensationalism. Let us be sober and look spiritually and eschew Liberalism. Let us be sober and look clearly into what is being said. And not try to read into it what is being said. First of all, he says, And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea.5 The sea in Revelation is always the masses of humankind without God. It is this which first John told us not to love. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.6 For loving the world is all of God. This great world brings forth this beast that rises up out of it, this great mass of godless humanity brings forth this beast that rises up out of it. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.7 This great beast is often spoken of in many places in a book of the Bible if you will turn over to 2 Thessalonians chapter two. I want to read that great chapter of the antichrist. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth
4 5

Revelation 13:1. Ibid. 6 1 John 2:15. 7 Revelation 13:2. Page 4 of 16

that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.8 These wretched people who have given over to the deception of following this great wicked one. This great beast that arises out of the sea from their midst they will follow as we will see in Revelation, this great one who is sent to deceive them and therefore to destroy them, this great one who is antichrist personified. Turn over in 1 John chapter two very quickly. We will read these words. In 1 John chapter two verse 15: Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists.9 Be instructed at this word, dear ones. Be instructed at what is just said, ...that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists.10

8 9

2 Thessalonians 2:1-17. 1 John 2:15-18. 10 1 John 2:18 Page 5 of 16

And I say to you if there were many antichrists in the days of John, there are many, many antichrists in our day. But be sober. Dont go into sensationalism spawned by Scofield and by Hal Lindsey and by the modernist preachers that tell us to look for a dictatorial human to come on history. He says there are many antichrists. What the sobriety of what we must see in antichrist is that they are anti Christ. Everything that is anti Christ is antichrist. Through history people have plotted the course of some antichrist human being who has risen on the scene, who has lived and died and perished for they have spotted the course of antichrist in some human system or some human religion that is past off of the popularity of this great sea of humanity. And so in our sobriety we must see that anything that is against Christ is antichrist. It could be and it was certainly the rise of Islam when Mohammed had his vision and all of the millions that followed him. It is certainly the rise of the papacy who is a great enemy of the Church, claiming to be the Church. It is certainly a great type of the antichrist. But that is not all of the antichrist there is. Anybody who is against the finished and complete and absolute work of Christ upon the cross is antichrist. Anybody who trusts in tradition and the worlds system of religion is antichrist. I dont care whether they go under a Protestant banner or a Roman Catholic banner or a Greek Orthodox banner or a Jewish banner, if they have a different system other than trusting in the finished and complete work of the Lord Jesus Christ I dont care whether they are Methodists. I dont care whether they are Baptists. I dont care whether they are Presbyterian, Pentecostal, whatever they are, if they have something that doesnt trust in the completed, finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross of Calvary and that being sufficient for our salvation forever, never to be added unto, nor taken from, the antichrist. Antichrist is world systems. Antichrist is governments that ignore God. Antichrist is governments that oppose God. Antichrist is governments that ignore God. Antichrist is all religion that does the same thing. They trust in their tradition. I was thinking about that. I was reading words of all the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church and I thought, they are not the only ones that have tradition. There are many other so called Christian Protestant churches that have tradition. And any tradition that doesnt view Christ, doesnt see Christ, doesnt see his work as being the reason that they exist, is antichrist. Turn over in Matthew 24. We have gone everywhere but Revelation 13. We will get back there in a few minutes. In Matthew 24 and verse 24 this doesnt, by the way, take the children of God, the elect by surprise to know these things because in Matthew 24 and verse 24 we are told, For there shall arise false Christs.11

11

Matthew 24:24. Page 6 of 16

The Church down the road that says, I am a Christian church, and doesnt preach the true Christ, they are preaching a false Christ, a potential savior Christ is a false Christ, dear ones. If you will just let him be your Savior, he will save you. It will never happen. You are going to go to hell as surely as you would determine to go there, because you dont believe in the true and living Christ. I have talked to people many times over in my life and I have said, You know what? You are worshiping and idol. You made him in your mind. He is the nicest little fellow who wouldnt hurt a flea, as Rolf Barnard used to say. He is the nicest little guy or he is the old man upstairs or he is the great promiscuous God who loves everybody. This Christ doesnt exist in the words of Scripture, nor in the hearts of his elect. His elect know him as a real Savior, one who really saves from sin. False Christ and false prophets. And notice what they shall do. They shall great signs and wonders.12 Signs and wonders is what religion lives on today. Signs and wonders. We will show you some. We will demonstrate it this way. From the great icon... I have to tell you about this. When we went to Rome and we toured, first of all, the catacombs. I mean, we get of the plane, we go immediately to the catacombs. We go into the catacombs and, you know, it almost looked like you plunged into the underworld of darkness. You come out of the catacombs and you travel the Appian Way. You see all of the great mansions that the Roman people built over the times along the Appian Way. And then you get into Rome and you view all of the Coliseum and the Forum and all of that and see all the ruins. And then your guide says, Well, the next day we are going to go to the Vatican. And I told everybody in our party, I dont want to go to the Vatican. I am not a Roman Catholic. I dont want to go there. But the guide insisted and the people insisted and so we went to the Vatican.

12

Ibid. Page 7 of 16

Do you know what? All the ruins I saw up and down the Appian Way and in the Forum and the Coliseum, all of the dark stones and everything existed in the Vatican in gold and silver and great jewels, great pomp and ceremony. So we went in and saw the basilica of Saint Peter. You go in where the popes throne is in the great black serpentine columns face you immediately. And you say, Well, this is ancient Rome. They stripped the gold of the temple and all of the riches and put them there and now ancient Rome lives in the Vatican. The great image of iron that was struck on the toe just seethed into that place and became the great image, not just the great antichrist, but the great image of antichristian religion because it sits on the throne of God and proclaims itself that it is God. Now you go on TV today and you hear the media talk about the church. They are not talking about you and I. They are talking about that church. They are talking about that great imposter. They are talking about that great antichrist. But you say, Well, the Roman Church is not antichrist? You go to the pope and he says, Well, Christ was the Son of God. He came down to earth. But what else do they say? Mary is the co mediatrix. There are many mediators between God and man in the Roman system. And so Christ is not a complete Savior. And where Christ is not a complete Savior he is no Savior at all, no Savior at all, dear ones. And as we look at this, we see there are many Christs, false Christs. That should almost make you shutter to hear that word, false Christs. If Christ is precious to your soul, it does make you shutter. Oh, my goodness, what can a false Christ be but a devil out of hell, a wicked and evil and wolf in sheeps clothing? And we will see that when we get back to Revelation chapter 13 in a few minutes. If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.13 But thanks be unto God it is not possible that they shall deceive the very elect. Indeed, they will not deceive any of the elect. If you are here today and you have come out of any system that is an antichrist system, you are here because of your election of grace. I am not talking about just physically here. I am talking about with your heart here, with your heart loving the truth of the Word of God, with your heart loving the Lord Jesus
13

Ibid. Page 8 of 16

Christ. If you are here in this place today it is because you have come out by the election of God. And you are not deceived because you are an elect of God. Listen to your heart. Is it saying no, no that is not true? I dont really believe that all of this is wickedness? I dont really believe that that system I came out of or my parents or my in laws are still in is wickedness. It is a system of antichrist. And you better examine whether you are an elect of God. If you... because you are deceived. You are absolutely deceived. Now as we turn to Revelation 13, there is a lot that is going to be said here that I am not going to comment on directly, but I am going to bunch up and give you the whole picture rather than the intricate little details. The literalist is going to give you the intricate details. The one who looks at this as a great picture of the power of Satan to bring forth within the human family, that is within men in general, not the elect Church of Christ, over and over we will see the elect Church of Christ aloof from this, victorious over this, not deceived by this and overcoming this. Of course, we see these multifaceted heads. And that would lead itself to our understanding of what John told us very plainly. There are many antichrists. It takes many and different forms. But he is always antichrist. He is always a denier of the Son of salvation. He is a denier of the Sons perfect and completed work upon Calvary. And in this many who have come to this chapter have seen the death of Rome, but the revival of Rome in the Roman Church. It is not by accident, by the way, it is called the Roman Catholic Church. It is not just because it is in Italy and in the Vatican, but because it mimics the Roman paganism. Never forget going on to India and in the temple of Siddhartha in the image of Vishnu was the mother Mary. There in the very picture of the female deity of India is what the Roman Church has made of the mother Mary in India. She looks and acts like the Vishnu of the Indian religion. Why is that? Well, you can go other places and she looks like them. You go to South America, she looks like them because they conform to whatever paganism is there because they are simply a form of paganism. What many have seen in this chapter of the head that revives as we see.

Page 9 of 16

And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?14 But this is not just the Roman Church. This is the antichrist beast. And people say that today, dont you know? Well, look at the mega church. Who is able to put down the mega church? Why they have got bands. They have got orchestras. They have got more than one choir. Well, goodness, they even have more than one service today. But it is the church of the antichrist. It is the church that draws people to it and says, Come in and worship the glory that we have. We see one growing up on our route here to church every day. Every Sunday the parking lot gets fuller and fuller. And I know, because I visited their website, that they exist under the confession that we confess of sovereign grace, but they exist under the worship of rock bands and fantastic ceremonies of sensuality. But this is what antichrist does. Just come on in and worship us. Come on in and not worship with us, but worship us. Glory in us. And so they worship the dragon and they worship the beast. And they say, Who is like unto the beast? Who is like unto what we have? Who is like unto our splendor? Oh, how wicked is this evil that now plagues the church? We used to be able to put in sovereign grace on the website and bring up people that we could rejoice in. Now we bring it up and we have to wade through people that we know we dont agree with, that we know dont agree with us. The name has become meaningless through the deception of this great beast out of the sea. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.15 Well, we can take heart in that, cant we? The rule of the antichrist will only be 40 and two months. Well, we have got to count the months? No, we dont. Realize it is limited. God has set a limit over the power and the extent that he can go. Whether it is an antichrist world system as we have in totalitarian governments and in oppressive governments or whether it is an antichrist religion, whatever it is, today I would say
14 15

Revelation 13:3-4. Revelation 13:5. Page 10 of 16

clearly this is the day of antichrist religion. For you can go down church after church in your town and you can see a church that doesnt worship the true and living Christ. Not because it is a Buddhist monastery or an Islamic mosque, because it is a false church in its profession of Christ. And what goes on there is not the worship and the adoration of Christ. It is the worship and adoration of things and of the elite of the people. As we look at thisand I am not here trying to put down every other church and say, You know, we are the only church in all the world. No, there are many like us, little groups across this world that meet and worship the true and living God and stand in the shadow of the great harlot and stand in the shadow of the great antichrist. But we do sin and we are going to find out a reason for that here in Revelation 13, too. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.16 I dont want to belong to that group, do you? They are about blaspheming God. Oh, no, but we worship God. No, you dont worship God and you are not a church of God. You are a synagogue of Satan. And you are blasphemously claiming to... you cant blasphemy unless you defame the name of God or the name of the true Church or the name of the people of God. There are many people would eschew the name of the elect. Oh, I dont want to be called the elect. That sounds to hard. That is blasphemy of the name Christ, the name of the Church and the name of the people who meet in the Church. I dont want to be called the little flock. I want to be called the great herd, as one of my teachers in college talked about the great unwashed herd. That is what humanity was and in deference to the election of grace, the great unwashed herd, not washed in the blood of the Lamb, not saved by the grace of Christ, but wallowing in their own mire and filth. And verse seven: And it was given unto him to make war with the saints.17

16 17

Revelation 13:5-6. Revelation 13:7. Page 11 of 16

Of course. ....and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.18 Amen. In a few minutes, too, we are going to go to that great number that everybody fears, 666. And I have some interesting things to relate to you about that. But, again, if we are literal and here if we are literal we are going to miss the whole import of what is being said here. In fact, we are going to dismiss a whole group, a whole bunch, a whole mass of that which is being spoken of here. And it is very tragic that we would do so. It is very tragic for this instant because we dont see what God intends for us to see and that is the election of grace is one thing and everything else is the other thing. There is no points between. There is no gray ground between the election of grace and the rest of the great divide, a great separation and it cant be spanned. And that is what God intends for us to see here in this great chapter. All that dwell upon the earth are going to worship the beast. They are going to be Satan worshippers. I dont care if they are the nicest little old grannies or the nicest and sweetest people that you ever want to meet in this world. If they do this then they are this. And they worship Satan and glory in him. But who are they? They are the ones that are not written in the book of life. Are you one of them? Then your name is not written in the book of life. But if you are not one of them, rejoice, dear ones, your name is written in the book of life. When God enrolled his elect, he enrolled your name, not just a mass of people, but your name. He wrote down your name in the book of life. And if that is so, you wont be overcome and defeated. And if he did that he didnt do that when you say, Well, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He didnt quickly say, Oh, well, let me get out my book and write down that name because they believed in him. He did it from the foundation of the world. He inscribed your name in the book of life of what he intended to have life eternal in that book before there was anything. Now how glorious is that? How wonderful is that? How marvelous is that, that you, before you knew yourself, before your parents knew you, before your grandparents knew you, before anybody knew you, before you ever had existence God wrote your name down and said, I am going to save them and give them eternal life. I dont want any other salvation than that. I dont know what you want. I dont know whether you would want everybody to be saved or not, everybodys name to appear
18

Revelation 13:7-8. Page 12 of 16

there. I want the names that he wrote from the foundation of the world to be in company with them and to enjoy them and to glorify God with them throughout eternity. If any man have an ear, let him hear.19 Wow. What a strange place to throw that in. Well, as I was reading brother Alexander, he said, You know, God didnt do that by accident. He did that because there were many things that had been aid that people who did not have spiritual ears would hear with natural ears. I believe that is true. God just said, Pause here. Do you have an ear to hear what I am saying about things here? Do you have a listening ear, a receptive ear and a rejoicing heart to hear this? He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.20 In this glorious chapter we have an assurance that some are going to die for the faith. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity.21 Some will be captives. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.22 Whatever God has intended and purposed for your life and my life we are patient with and we suffer for and suffer with and suffer in and understand it is all in the hand of a good God. We never turn around and accuse God and say, You have no right. Oh, we do in our flesh. But in our spirit, in our very spiritual being we say, Yea, just and true are all thy ways, Lord. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.23 Here we have the false prophet personified. Here we have the Christian minister who is a false minister. Here we have the servant of God who says, I am a lamb. We have Satan
19 20

Revelation 13:9. Revelation 13:10. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid. 23 Revelation 13:11. Page 13 of 16

coming to us as an angel of light saying, Thus saith God. God said this. God spoke through me. God speaks through me. God is me. Worship me. You say, That doesnt happen. Oh, yes it does. Tune in on your TV some time. Look at some of these mass popularity churches and listen to what they say whether they be out in California or Texas and you know who I mean. Just think about that. Verse 12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.24 Always and forever they are pointing to the glory of the beast, of the wickedness of man. Always and forever they are pointing toward that. Look at that. Behold that. Glory in that. Is not this great Babylon, that I have built?25 Is this not my great creation? In verse 13: And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.26 There are people who will not sign checks that have 666 on them. There are people who will not handle checks in our company that have 666 on them. There are people who will not assign passenger numbers of 666 because of their great superstition of the physical reality of 666.
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Revelation 13:12. Daniel 4:30. 26 Revelation 13:13-18. Page 14 of 16

Well, what is this, this great mark of these people? 666 is short of 777. Seven is the number of the perfection of God. Six is the number of the imperfection of man. Six triple times is the greatest of imperfection of man given in the rationale of man in his own worship. People say, Man doesnt worship himself. Oh, yes, he does. He worships... You have not ever been to Greece if you dont think man worships himself. In the false idols, in the stone idols, in the glorified idols of both man and woman those societies of Greece and Rome worship the human body. But there are many today called the higher institutions of learning in our country who worship the human mind, the great intellect of mind and the great thing of man is to obtain the greatest understanding of himself. [?] and bear the number 666 upon themselves. For they worship man. And worship of man is an imperfect worship. It is a worship that is short of the glory of God. Now there are many, many different things that could be said about this chapter and have been said about this chapter. I want you to notice very quickly we will turn back to Isaiah chapter 55. This is the great chapter about salvation. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.27 Verse 17 says in Revelation 13, And that no man might buy or sell.28 What? No man might find any salvation in the waters of life. The great antichrist church, the great antichrist totalitarian systems stop up the waters of salvation and dont allow man to partake. They stop up the waters of free grace and dont allow man to partake. Over and over we have the wickedness of this system. It is both politico religious system that we have in front of us. Man without God, man without Christ is the antichrist. We face him every day. We deal with him every day. We see him in the face of males and females. We see him in the face of the voice of government and the voice of religion. We see him in the marketplace. We see him in our neighborhoods. That may remind you how sober you must be walking among them, because they all ascribe worship to this great red dragon, to the great Satan who in them empowers them to do what he does, deceive, lie and victimize whoever they can.

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Isaiah 55:1. Revelation 13:17. Page 15 of 16

And guess what? You are the chief aim of all that deception and all that evil that they would have to work. I dont know... I do know. And we havent exhausted what is said here. And neither could we. We have to go ahead because there is more to be said about what is said here. This will come up again in the book of Revelation. We will deal with it upon the great imagery. We have really in Revelation 13 really dived into the great imagery of the book. As the Bible goes out of its way to depict for us the malignity of evil and the sovereignty of grace. It goes out of its way to show us and to reveal to us how wicked man is without Christ and how saved and safe he is in Christ. It should make you fall down and worship every moment of every day and say, Thank you, God. Thank you, God, that I am not like they are? No. Thank you, God, that your grace has been upon me because take it away and I will be exactly like them. Take it away and I will take he mark of the beast. Take it away and I will worship the great dragon. Take it away and I will be as the wicked of sinners as they are. But in thee, in thee and thee alone thank God I am saved. Thank God for thy grace and mercy. Gracious Lord and heavenly Father, as we come to you this day we ask that you would make understandable to thy people this thing that thou hast before us in the book of Revelation, these things that thou hast spoken to thy church and said that herein is wisdom and we have understanding. Let us have that wisdom to understand. Go with us throughout this day and all our days, we pray, in Jesus name. Amen.

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