Revelation 13:11-18

Revelation chapter 13, verses 11 through 18. 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. And he exercised all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth. And them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwells, on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword and did live. He had power to give life under 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. He caused all, both small and great riches. and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark at their right hand or in their foreheads, that no man might buy or sell, Savior 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 the number is. is 600, three score, and six. And then if you would, chapter 16 and verse 13, we read these words, and I saw three unclean spirits like frogs, come out of the mouth of the dragon, and I’m out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. And then chapter 19. and verse 20 to revelation, we read, and the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and then that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. God bless us. to us the reading of his sacred words morning. In chapter 13 of the book of Revelation, John is given a vision of two beasts. The first beast comes up out of the sea. We looked at that in verses 1 to 10, and then also we skipped down and picked up verse 18 because it is closely associated with it. Then we saw, we see this morning, that we have a beast coming up out of the land in verses 11 to 17. The first beast, we said, was a combination of the four beasts of Daniel 7, which depict four successive world powers. The eagle-winged lion was Babylon. The hungry bear was Medo-Persian. the swift leopard was Greece, and then that fourth beast, he calls an indescribable monster. It was the Roman Empire. Well, here we have a John portraying it as a combination, this fourth beast, a combination of the previous beast. Roman Empire takes on all the evil beast-like characteristics of the former empires. it has now succeeded. They live on in the Roman Empire. The ten horns, we said, are the provincial governors of the ten provinces of the Roman Empire. The seven heads, we said, are the emperors of the Roman Empire, but they are not reigning at the same time. They’re consecutive. They’re one after another for Revelations. Revelation 17 talks about five have already fallen. One is, and then the seventh is yet to come. Sometimes Revelation, we said, speaks to the beast generally as the Roman Empire, sometimes particularly of an individual as the Caesar or the reigning head, individual, in this case, Nero, who is presently reigning on the throne. Blasphemous names are on this beast. We said that the emperors received divine honors and worship. We talked about the fatal wound of the beast, being the assassination of Julius Caesar, the first emperor. The Senate assassinated him to restore Rome to a republic, because he sort of made it into a dictatorship. He became the first emperor. Well, the beast, then went into convulsions for 13 years. There was civil war, a battle between the East and the West. Augustus, or Octavius, as he’s also known, Julius’s a son, becomes the emperor in his place. After 13 years of war, he subdues those who were against his father, and he subdues those who were against his father, and he takes over and he becomes the second emperor. So that the deadly wound, it seemed like it was going to tear apart the empire is healed. The number of the beast, we said in verse 18, refers to the ancient letters in Hebrew and also in Greek. And I think you’ll see it in Latin as well. They’re employed to conceal actual net. names at times. They’re called cryptograms. 666 is a cryptogram referring to Neeron Kaisar. In the Hebrew, you have two words there. You have N-R-W-N and Q-S-R. And remember, they have vowel points. They don’t have any actual vowels. They have vowel points. So you have those consonants. If you add those letters up, it ends up six 66. We said that the beast, it had to be one of the heads here, and so we know that there’s really only one that it fits. In this case, it’s nearer. Now this beast makes war with the saints. And God limits the time, the 42 months of this intense attack upon the people of God. he preserves his elect people. And now we have a second beast that’s introduced, which is also an enemy of the people of God. The second beast supports, and he aids the first beast, and both are agents of Satan. So we have the description here of the second beast. and we look to two passages of scripture, chapter 16, verse 13, chapter 19, and verse 20, because you’ll notice that the second beast is also called the false prophet. In contrast to the first beast, this one only has two horns. It has power, but it’s limited, and it’s lesser power and significance than the first beast. He has the appearance of a lamb. We think of a lamb. We think of innocence. We might also think of a religious connection. And we’ll talk about that in a moment. He has the appearance of a lamb as if he’s innocent, but he has the voice that’s the roar of a dragon. Now, if you go to chapter 20 in verse 2, where we see that the dragon is defined for us as Satan. So here is someone who is a beast, this beast has religious power, and he’s called the false prophet, and because he, the lamb here is connected with him, may be thinking about sacrificial animals in connection with this particular beast. Now it’s clear that a true prophet lives in the presence of God and takes his orders from the Lord. We read about Elijah. As the Lord liveth before whom I stand, he says, in 1st King’s 17 verse 1. Well, this beast stands, or this second beast stands before the first beast. This false prophet stands before the first beast. This false prophet stands before the first beast. This false prophet stands before the first one. beast because he serves the first beast. So the false prophets here stands in the sight the beast. As verse 14 indicates in verse 12 we read him also exercising power of the first beast before him before you. Now as a false prophet, this is a false prophet, this is a false prophet. This is indicates to us that he is a deceiver. This indicates to us that he’s going to draw people away from Christ and the gospel of Christ and the true worship that is revealed to us in Scripture. So this is in connection here. And a false prophet, we should realize, is associated with Israel. He enforces, we find here, the worship of the first beast. The second beast, as we said, has limited authority in his own right, but he acts with great authority because he serves the first beast. So he sort of has some of the first beast authority or power associated with him. He obtains his authority, it’s a delegated authority, from this first beast. His purpose is to promote the worship of the first beast. He insists that all worship the first beast. And this brings, of course, the people of God into conflict because he’s promoting a religious system that is contrary to Scripture. And as we see, he promotes idol worship, a worship an image of the beast. He compels people to worship this image. verses 14 and 15. So he has the authority to cause all those who will not worship the first beast will be put to death. And we’ll see that he also has economic sanctions that he can bring against those who will not worship the beast. He can bring economic hardship to them. So, as we see in verse 17, they don’t receive the mark of the beast. They don’t follow the worship of the beast, while he’s going to make it difficult for them to buy or to sell. So he enforces the worship of the first beast. The third thing we see here is that he works all sorts of lying wonders to persuade people to worship the first beast. and verses 13 to 15 we see this. Now we should realize that down through history, Satan has had his agents perform various miracles and signs in order to deceive people. It’s a common ploy of the devil to do this. this. You remember, how Pharaoh lifted himself up against Jehovah and opposed God’s agents, Moses and Aaron, when they came to deliver the people of God from Egyptian bondage. The magicians were summoned to compete with and against God’s representatives. And if you read the early account of the plague, of Egypt, they were able to copy some of the miracles performed by Moses and Aaron so that they could withstand their claims. When Moses threw his staff down and it became a serpent, why these magicians threw their staffs down and they became servants. But the superior serpent was Moses because he ate up all their serpents. When Moses, Moses changed the water into blood, they were able to change the water into blood. When Moses brought up frogs upon the land, they were able to bring up frogs. Now when they got to the lice and beyond, they weren’t able to do that. They couldn’t do that. But they were able to perform some of these miracles that the plagues that were the plagues that Moses brought against the land. They were able to perform. able to copy them. So it should not be surprising that the false prophet here appears, and at least it looks like he’s able to call fire down from heaven, or that he’s able to make the image of the beast speak in some fashion. Because if it were possible, as Jesus tells us, Satan would deceive the very elect, but it’s not possible. But if that is the case, because of the signs and wonders that are able to be done. Could you imagine what the people of the world, how easily they would be persuaded by these signs and wonders? Well, the Christian would be cautious and more inclined to be aware of the danger, opposed by those who would present something like idol worship against the commandments of God. But the people of the world easily are done. deceived. They readily comply in the, they wonder after the beast. And they worshiped the beast. So we have the description of the beast here. We see that he’s a false prophet. We see that he enforces the worship of the first beast, and he works lying wonders in order to deceive people. Now, what could this be? Why I suggest to you, this is the Caesar cult? This is the Caesar cult. and the emperor worship that was prevalent during this period of time. The Caesar’s cult promotes the worship of the emperor. If the first beast of the Roman Empire, personified by the present emperor, Nero, the false prophet then, I think readily becomes identified to us, Who promoted the worship of the emperor? The Caesars all claimed to be gods, and therefore they encouraged their own worship. The first Emperor Julius Caesar learned from Cleopatra of Egypt, the benefits of claiming to be a god. Because the pharaohs and the various leaders in Egypt were looked upon as incarnate deities. Julius boldly claimed divine honor was granted the title Jupiter Julius. He had busts and statutes made of him and sent into all parts of the Roman Empire. He began to be called devious Julius, and altars were erected him. At Ephesus, one of the seven churches that was located there, as we saw earlier, he was described, Julius was, described in an inscription, as God manifest and common savior of the life of man. All the other emperors followed Julius’s lead to a greater or to a lesser extent. The present emperor, nearer, was obsessed with his deification. At Athens, an inscription speaks of him as all-powerful Nero, Caesar, Sebastos, a new Apollo. He permitted his portrait to appear on coins as Apollo playing a liar. He was referenced as Almighty God and Savior. Eventually, there were really only two religions in the world, two main things that had to be dealt with. Either you were a worshiper or the emperor or you were worship of Jesus Christ, because the two of them did not coexist. Could not coexist together. As emperor worship became more and more prominent, there arose what became known as the Caesar cult. The chief purpose of this cult was to promote the worship of the emperor. To the Romans, if you refused to worship the emperor, it was like being a traitor to Caesar and the empire. It was an act of treason. So emperor worship was not a problem for the polytheistic world around the Christians. But we had another God. What’s the big deal? No big deal. If you’re in Athens, they put up the idol to the unknown God. Maybe we missed one. They’d had no problem adding another God. But for the Christian, such homage to an idol, or even if we just took it directly to the man himself, is an utter denial of faith in Christ. There was going to be a clash between these two. It’s inevitable. The Caesar cult, operating throughout the Roman Empire, demand and worship the emperor, and no excuses were tolerated. It was particularly strong in Asia where these seven churches are located, but are mentioned in the book of Revelation. Christians would soon be compelled to offer incense on an altar dedicated to Caesar under threat of punishment. To refuse was an act of disloyalty. detailed methods were employed to force them to compel them to worship the beast. It was the state religion. So the Caesar cult’s purpose was to promote the emperor worship. Now, the Caesar cult’s authority here, there were two horns on this Caesar cult. It spoke of its power, its authority. Probably, referring to to the pro-consul and the concilia. The pro-consul was the Roman governor of the region who would want to make sure that Caesar was worshipped, and the concilia was a body of the greatest authority, composed of deputies, set from the various towns or divisions of a province, to erect images of the emperor, altars for worship, temples, and so forth, in every way to promote the state religion. Every town would have a perfectus erbie, a group enforcing the worship of the emperor. Some look at the two horns as both the more the overall concilia, and then the local power would be the prefectus erbi that would promote it. But the pro-counsel was also a very strong power in the region to promote the worship of the beast. If the earth here, in verse 11, refers to the land of Israel, then the emphasis is how the Caesar cult affected Israel in particular. The Jews would have forbidden any images of the emperor at Jerusalem or at the temple in particular. Some of the other cities may not have, but Jerusalem were the high priest and the Jewish leadership were located. They would be more strict about this. But the Romans demand in emperor worship. On several occasions, the Roman governors, anxious to please Caesar, would seek to introduce images in the temple. The Emperor Caligula demanded his statue be erected in the temple at Jerusalem. It was the only temple in the Roman Empire where Caesar’s image was refused. The order was met by stiff resistance by the Jews. And it looked like a Jewish rebellion was going to break out, but then Caligula died, and it just sort of dissipated, and the pressure was off. At that point, the crisis that came to a head was averted. Now, the Jews were able to pacify the Romans concerning emperor worship by offering two sacrifices every day to the emperor at the temple. So this way, and as long as they didn’t, they were sort of able to fudge a bit on the image of the beast, but at the temple at least, and at Jerusalem. But they still worked this out as a compromise that they would at least offer these sacrifices for the emperor. However, under the abuses of the governor of Flores, the Jews stopped offering sacrifices to Julius. And before we know it, the Jewish Roman war breaks out because that was a sign of traitorship. You can see the situation. So one should not underestimate the power of the Caesar cult throughout the Roman Empire. It was a force to be reckoned with. And they were going to compel Christians to worship the beast as they did everyone else. Now, let me stop for a minute. Any questions about this matter before I go any further? Is there anything that anyone wants to ask about? Yes. Yes, right, here, let me just spell it for you. P-R-A-E-F-E-E-C-T-U-S. P-E-E-E-C-T-U-S. Prefectus, Urbi, Urban, I guess. U-R-B-I. P-R-A-E-F-E-C-T-U-S. And then U-R-B-I. Two words. And that was the, like, for each town. They would have this little, I guess they had a little council that, took care of this worship. Concilia, C-O-N-C-I-I-A, is the second, the other group, I think, that we could mention regarding this. Yes. This is the Roman-Jewish War, ended in the destruction of the temple. Now, if there are no other questions, let me go on to another point here, and that is the Caesar cult and the miracles. that we see. It should be no surprise that Satan’s agents could do great wonders, verse 13, and that they could deceive people. The priest of the thieves are called, performed, what we would call, false miracles, even to the point of calling down fire from heaven. They were magicians who were magicians who were who deceived everybody by performing various magic tricks. Like the magicians who faced Moses in Egypt and duplicated the first three plagues, they were able to pull off some things. Calling fire down from heaven, in reference to emperor worship, may be similar to what occurred in Elijah’s day. You remember that in Elijah’s day, there was the contest on Mount Carmel between Elijah the prophet and the prophets of Bail. And the whole purpose was to decide who was the real God. Was it Jehovah? Or was it Bail? The God who answered by far, who sent fire down from heaven, and consumed the sacrifice would be classified or called the real God. That would be the proof. However, you remember what Elijah said when they both prepared their sacrifices and had two different altars, and they were both preparing their sacrifices, what did he say to the false prophets, who were tricksters, powerless to perform true miracles, what did he say to them? He said, said, choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first, for you or many, and call on the name of your God, but put no fire under. Now, why would he say that? What was this all about putting this fire under? Well, these false prophets would secretly get like a small spark set up underneath, see? And then they would sort of blow on it under the wood and the sacrifice. And then all of a sudden fire would, it would burst forth in flame, and they could say, well, see, this God sent fire down from heaven. In other words, it was a trick how they deceive people in this manner. But Elijah was fully aware of how they did this. So he doesn’t do. What does he do? Remember he puts, was it, 12 barrels of water? He has dumped on his to prove that there was no fire under. See, that was what that was all about. That’s why he dumped all the water on there. He wanted to show and prove that it couldn’t possibly be any fire under. It had to be fire from heaven. But he couldn’t trust the prophets of bail to do that. So he’s keeping an eye on them so they don’t set some type of little spark or something underneath it that they could just blow on and get at the, flame up. Now, it’s very possible, you see, that the Caesar cult and their various priests and so forth, their religious people, could do the same kind of thing. This is not unusual. This is a trickster situation. It’s a deception. Magicians were capable of ingenious illusions of this kind of. If you watch a modern magic show and you see all the things that they do and you wonder how they do it, well, they’re tricks. They’re fooling you in what they’re doing. They don’t actually do what they say they’re doing. You know, they don’t make the Statue of Liberty disappear or the car or van or bus disappear or whatever. The elephant disappear, whatever it is. There’s a trick to all these things and how they do them. As far as, supposedly giving life to the image of the beast so that it could speak and demand that the non-worshippers be put to death. This is also a trick. There’s a count of Simon Magus who made this boast. I quote here, I have flown through the air. I have been mixed with fire and have made one body with it, have been made one body with it, have been made one body. with it. I have made statutes move. I have animated lifeless things. He’s a magician. He says he’s done these things. The superstitiousness here of talking and moving and statutes was widespread at this time. This is the early church period. The trilliquism, or using a speaking tube secretly placed in the image or the statute could be used to fake speech. They could also have a hidden operator make parts of the image move and appear to be alive. Friends, if you look at the Roman Catholic Church in our own day, they’ve got crying and bleeding statutes and pictures and voices of Mary announcing things. And, you know, if we have it in our day, you can imagine back in those days they had all kinds of things of that nature as well. All signs, however, fake miracles, if you would, to help verify the faith of the emperor cult in the eyes of the people. Great deception by Satan’s agents. So the emperor cult and emperor worship, we see the Caesar’s cult, promoting emperor worship. We see the Caesar’s cult’s cult’s authority. We see the Caesar’s cult’s miracles here. Any questions on this before we… I’m going to have to stop at this point. Any questions about this aspect of it? So I don’t think we should look at this and said that did they really do this? They probably were tricksters in what they did. And it was a deception of some sort that took place here. Oh, Keith. Yeah, it’s a miracle. he performed it and everybody buys into it. Whether it happened or not is not important. Right. But this is the means by which they would promote the emperor worship. And this became important in deceiving people and swaying them and swaying them to swaying them to worship. and we can see how this you know with the state backing you can imagine the government backing this you see how dangerous this is to the church and if we had something like this today you would you’d have the same we’d have the same problem we ever got to that point it would be very dangerous if the state picks up a religion you you saw it during the reformation times you know if they promoted a state religion you could be persecuted to put the death, imprisoned, whatever. And if you didn’t comply, that’s the way it was. That’s the way it was here too. Well, that’s where they’re going to go with this. We’re promoting hate speech because we believe what the scripture says. And it’s against some of the things that are going on in our society. You know, we would oppose homosexuality and lesbianism and murder of infants in the womb and all these things we’d be opposed to and emphasize yeah and so we would have be opposed to all these things and well that’s hate speech you’re against people you’re you’re you’re negative and that’s how they they would use this to affect us even when they’re taking away our right to a free speech in this country by saying oh you can’t say that or you can’t do that and that’s and that’s you see it in the Roman Empire you You have to understand the authority that the emperors had and the power that was behind this to make people comply. It was just, it would be a terrible situation to be in as a Christian. Thoughts here.