Okay, for the sermon today, I want to continue and finish the other half of the beastly chapter, which is Revelation 13, where we have the two beasts, the one that comes out of the sea, and the one that comes out of the earth. In going through some of the commentaries and some of the books that have been written about Revelation, it seems there is universal misunderstanding about what those two terms mean. But I want to begin today first over in Matthew chapter 24, in a section of the Bible you are very familiar with. Matthew 24 lists all of the responses, or at least the summary of the responses that Jesus Christ gave when His disciples asked Him the question, when are you going to return, and when will these things be, and what will be the sign of the coming of this age? One of those, after He talked about days being shortened and no flesh saved alive and the great tribulation, the abomination of desolation set up, one of those responses involved a warning against false Christs and false prophets. It is interesting that both of those terms are used, because essentially the two beasts in Revelation 13, one represents a false Christ, otherwise known as the Antichrist, the beast that will rule the civil government that will take over much of the world, and secondly the false prophet who is the beast that comes out of the earth. He comes from a known place on the earth, whereas the beast that is the false Christ comes out of the sea, which means he sort of pops out from nowhere predictable. Didn't know where he was coming from. He just comes on the scene. But the beast that comes out of the earth comes from a known location. And those of us who have studied God's word for many years and of course understand the four beasts, especially the fourth one, which is the Roman Empire, it's not hard to predict the location on the earth where that beast comes from, where that false prophet comes from.
So in Matthew chapter 24, let's begin in verse 23. If anyone says to you, look, here is Christ and there, don't believe it. And this is going to happen when the antichrist comes on the scene, the beast out of the sea, and he announces that he is a Christ or a great usher or inn of a thousand year millennium of peace. And of course those ten nations in Europe begin to coalesce behind him, and we have the fulfillment of those toes of Daniel's statue and of course the subsequent chapters giving us more and more details about those world-ruling governments, especially the fourth and the dreadful world-ruling government. So they will announce here is Christ and the warning is don't believe it. Verse 24 says, for false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive. So they're going to be more than just one false Christ, but the final false Christ is going to be the real important one, the real big one. And there will be false prophets, and there have been. Ever since the beginning of Christianity, there have been false prophets. Even in Paul's time he says don't be shaken as if it's a letter from us or some other announcement that Christ has already returned. It's almost laughable anymore how many predictions there are about Jesus Christ returning on a certain day or a certain time or a certain place. Perhaps he's already here. On, on it goes. We've had, you know, these things like the satellites or the star comets going across that people thought were going to whisk them off to the sky and other things. But there have been many, many signs of false Christs and false prophets, and they are not going to abate just because, you know, time has gone on now to the year 2018. I think the last major one that took over the American Christian world, so to speak, probably the blood moon's fiasco, and along with that some of the other heavenly signs, things like eclipses. The Bible never tells us to look to an eclipse as a supernatural sign or a prophetic sign, but people have been taken aback by it because they simply lack basic Bible understanding. So these two categories of false Christs and false prophets are fulfilled in Revelation 13. They will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. So there will be some who understand the truth of God, who perhaps even have his spirit called here the elect, but if they have allowed themselves to become spiritually weak, they could even be themselves deceived. And I think that we've seen some evidence of that, sad to say, in the times in which we live, because we've had people deceived by not only the blood moon's deception, but other books that have been, you know, promulgated out there, you know, sold essentially to make money for those who wrote the books, and yet people who should know better have bought them and read them and somehow believed it and even brought them to church and tried to get other church members to believe in it. So we do have evidence in recent years of the elect who should know better being deceived, because there are deceptions out there they never stop. And we never have to never have a chance to let our guard down, because unfortunately, Satan is very crafty, and he knows how to, you know, reach people with itching ears and with whom they have a need, perhaps, for some kind of special knowledge. He says, See, I've told you beforehand, therefore if they say to you, Look, he's in the desert, don't go out, or Look, he's in the rooms, don't believe it. Now, verse 27 is perhaps the most difficult verse in the Bible for rapturists to try to explain. If you just need one verse that tells you this secret rapture where people go up in the sky and they go off somewhere sort of strange for a while and then come back later.
This verse is very difficult for them to explain because it says, in the words of Christ, It doesn't say he's sneaking in, sneaking out, then coming back again later. It says, Verse 30, Glory. Let's go now to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Again, another warning about false prophets, 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Paul is warning people that false prophets don't carry a big sign that says, I am a false prophet. They don't wear a shirt that says, the false prophets club.
They try to pretend they are true prophets. They come across as having some special knowledge or some special connection with God. They have something that they think people are going to be interested in. And of course, oftentimes they gain quite a following. 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 12, says, What I do I also continue to do that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast.
Now, I have to admit, I really did not understand this verse for a lot of years. I'm not sure I still understand it completely. All I do know is that after the church breakup in 95 and some of the fallout and the various things that have happened, it's just been amazing how many people want to be teachers, how many have volunteered to be the new teacher of some new teaching or some new idea. Paul simply says, I teach the truth to cut off those who want to be regarded as we are.
The ministry of God is not something we choose. God chooses us. Even Paul said that if Christ told the disciples, you have not chosen me, I have chosen you. You should go forth and bring forth fruit. So there are many of those who for some reason or other who knows what human nature is, none of us can completely explain it. Desire the opportunity to be regarded. And we have to be very careful that we are not allowing self-focused teachings, self-focused religious leaders to then somehow get control of our mind or take parking space in our head so that we somehow are deceived.
The Paul simply says, such are false apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. He may or may not have been referring to Simon Magus and what Simon was doing during that time, but certainly the principle applies even today, and it's going to apply in a very big way to the false prophet that is coming to aid the world in worshiping the beast.
It says, and no wonder for Satan transforms himself into an angel of light. That's what he will be doing in Revelation 13, which we'll turn to and read in a few minutes. And no wonder for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. And this is so important, Paul adds, an additional warning. I say again, let no one think that what I'm saying is foolish. Let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, lest at least receive me as a fool, that I may boast a little while. Please believe what I'm saying, because there are some very serious things that are coming. Now let's go over to Revelation 13.
We'll begin where we left off. We left off at the end of verse 10 about the patience and faith of the saints, and then about the warning, Thessalonians, that the love of the truth really is the key, that people fall away or predicted to fall away at the end because they receive not the love of the truth. They received an academic understanding of it, apparently, but didn't love it to the point they would give their lives for it. Verse 11 then of Revelation 17 says, I saw another beast.
The first beast was in verse 1. The first beast rises out of the sea, and the sea is just this big sea with ocean. All of a sudden it pops out. There's no way to predict exactly where that beast is coming from. We thought it might come out of the continent of Europe, but we really don't know. We'll have to just wait and see when his actual resurrection takes place. But this beast comes out of the earth. We know the city. We know the location where this beast comes from.
It's an identity. This is one identifying factor of him. And he had two horns like a lamb, and spoke like a dragon. So he has a double appearance. He appears like a lamb, but his sounds are like a dragon. He has evil intent. So he's coming out of the bottomless pit.
Revelation 17 in verse 8 is just sort of a parallel account. It simply says, the beast that you saw was and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit, or the bottomless earth, and then will go into perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel. They won't understand. They'll be confused, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was and is not, and yet is. So this beast sort of comes out of the abyss, so to speak, but he comes up out of the earth. We know where he comes from.
He has two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon.
I saw he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and he causes the earth and those who dwell on it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. So we have this beast, and he does some things that are very significantly different than the first beast.
On the first beast, we read a list of attributes of things that he would do and things the Bible tells us about him. Here's a list of facts also about the second beast, and we find that he is significantly different than the first. In one way, he is the same. He will also be a man.
We're not talking about an alien. We're not talking about some resurrected Old Testament person.
He will also be a man. The Greek word alos means another of the same kind. When it says, I saw another beast, simply means I saw another of the same kind. The first beast is a man, says so very clearly in verse 18, this one is also a man. He will come out of the earth. We will see where he comes from, and very likely that city that has been on seven hills, that has been the source of false teachings and false prophets for millennia. Both beasts symbolize two natural men.
He'll be born in the last days. They're going to be people just like us, but they will be given their power by the dragon. The second beast will come after the first beast, and he'll become his prophet, his supporter. He will come on the scene very quickly after the first. He will come with a lamb-like appearance. Maybe wearing white. Most lambs are white, or at least some reasonable similarity. He will come speaking words to deceive, but soft-sounding words that will disarm people and allow them to support him. He will exercise all the power of the first beast. In other words, he will take control of the power. He will ride, like a woman of Revelation 17 is riding the beast.
This individual will ride the beast, the first beast that came out of the sea, and will exercise his power. He will also cause men on earth to worship the first beast. The first beast is the antichrist, the one who will organize armies against the returning Christ. He will do great miracles, even calling down fire from heaven and counterfeiting God's works. These two men will be a type of the two witnesses, but they will be false witnesses, and they will counterfeit some of the things that God does. He will deceive men by the miracles that he does in the sight of the first beast. Now, exactly how that's going to work out, we're not necessarily sure, but we have this first beast who very quickly moves his authority, his center of government, to Jerusalem. And then we have the false prophet that does miracles in his sight. So we assume that he does miracles, perhaps, in Jerusalem, wherever the new temple is set up, if that's what they're going to do, or the new headquarters is set up. But whatever it is, he does miracles in the sight of the first beast, and he causes men to make an image of the first beast to be worshiped. So there is an image that is created of the first beast, and men make it, and they then use that to be worshiped.
He will have power to give life to the beast, exactly how that's going to work out, to the image of the beast. We're going to have to see he doesn't create a statue like Nebuchadnezzar did, which is an image that people were commanded to fall down to, and it is an image that we have as sort of an example. It doesn't mean it's going to be exactly the same, but certainly perhaps some similar qualities. That image didn't come to life like a cartoon character. Neither will this image that we have in Revelation predicted come to life in that way. But giving life to that image may mean he puts it into practice. He makes that image function to control people and territory on the earth. He will cause men in the kingdom of the Antichrist to take a mark, or the name of the Antichrist, or the number of his name on their right hand or in their forehead. So there are three potential identifying signs cause men to take his name or his mark or his mark on his right hand or forehead. He will also pass laws that no man might buy or sell if he does not take one of the three brands. Now, those laws have already been passed and decreed. They've simply been set aside in recent centuries, but very likely they will go back to those laws and say those are now going to be enforced as they were back in the 300s to the 500s. Lastly, he will make or be equal to the first beast in demonic power working through the demon spirits. And, of course, they will both then be cast alive into the lake of fire when Christ returns. I want to go back now. Before we go back to Revelation 13, let's go to Isaiah 11. It's important that we understand that Jesus Christ is going to return and judge the beast and the false prophet, and they will be sent into a place of punishment that we call the lake of fire because the Bible calls it a lake of fire.
Isaiah 11, verse 4, says, The slaits will be slain with the breath of his mouth or the breath of his lips.
Let's go back over also to Daniel, chapter 7, and verse 11. It's another place that reinforces one thing Jesus Christ is going to do when he returns is to slay these two individuals.
Daniel, chapter 7, verse 11, I watched them because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking.
Of course, this horn is also this false prophet. If you understand Daniel 7, it is this little horn that came up among the other horns of the beast power and essentially took over. We know that happened in the 400s and 500s AD when we have the the civil government becoming subjected to the ridership of the Church of Europe. Then he says, I watched till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As for the rest of the beast, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season. And so we have this horn speaking, and while he's speaking, the beast is slain and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame, which of course we know is the flame there at the lake of fire. They are cast into the lake of fire, as it mentions. So the rest of the beast or the rest of the governmental units, you might say, around the world, they have their government taken away, but they're not killed. God lets them live into the millennium and begin to learn his ways and begin to change all that they have been doing for all this time. Let's drop out over now just back to Revelation, but Revelation chapter 19. We just read about the beast being burned in fire, but Revelation 19 is a little more clear. Revelation 19 verse 20, The beast was captured, and with him the false prophet, who worked signs in his presence.
So again, a restatement of what we read in Revelation 13, that the false prophet does wonders and signs in the presence of the first beast, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. Notice, these two were cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone. And this is at the time when Christ returned in the establishing of his kingdom. The first resurrection is taking place. It's going to be taking place extremely quickly here. And so we have not the end of the millennium, but the beginning when these two are thrown into the lake of fire. Now let's go back to Revelation 13. We know what's going to be happening to both of these beasts, the one that comes out of the sea and is the antichrist and the one that comes out of the land that is the false prophet. Okay, verse 13, he performs great signs that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. Now the only prophet of God that ever made fire come down from heaven was Elijah. And Elijah did it a couple times to make a point to the king of Israel. In this case, we have a false prophet who's going to be bringing fire down from heaven. It's interesting, verse 14 says, he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
All the miracles of Jesus Christ benefited somebody. He healed the sick, he raised the dead, he multiplied food so that people could eat. Apparently, these signs don't benefit anyone except the beast of the false prophet and causes people then to go in awe of those signs and believe that perhaps what he's telling is the truth. Some of us might have, at some point in our life, seen a quote magic show where they have people, you know, doing various things and they reach into their pocket and find a bird or a flower or egg, whatever it might be. And some of those are cute and entertaining. We all know there's a physical reason for it. They're a slide of hand and they're very quick with what they do. But this is going to be something very different.
This isn't going to be a magic show. This is going to be supernatural signs to get people to be in awe of their great power and to accept what he is teaching. Verse 14 simply says, he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. So we have this image. An image is an outline or a shape and we know that the image of the beast can perhaps have a couple different fulfillments. The one that makes the most sense is that the organization of the Roman Empire under Augustus was honed to kind of an even better and more efficient system under the five good emperors of the five what they call the golden era of Rome, and that the early popes were very, very enamored of that system and began to construct their authoritative structure to control their organization in exactly the same way. And so they're constructing this image of the beast that allows that beast then to have control over great portions of the earth. It's interesting that it says in verse 11 that he had two horns like a lamb. The word lamb referring to Jesus Christ is in the book of Revelation 22 times, but the second beast is called the false prophet and he's called that at least three times in the Bible. So this false prophet is called what he is here in chapter 13, also in chapter 16 and verse 13 and chapter 19 in verse 20. So let's not forget, too, that the Antichrist is going to be a king or a ruler over a kingdom and that the false prophet is one who is there as a religious teacher to organize and help that image rule over the world but also to do his dirty work, which then means enforcing his religion.
and his ideas on people. Let's go down to verse 15. Well, verse 14 says, the last part, to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and then lived. And so we have this wounding, which of course we all know was back in the time when it went underground, when the evidence of the church domination of the Holy Roman Empire basically went underground after the time of Napoleon.
And of course it seems that everybody thought it was all disappeared, but it's going to be resurrected and going to be put back in place and all the world is going to be wondering after sort of being in awe.
Verse 15, he, meaning the false prophet, was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. Now let's just hold our place there and do go back to Daniel chapter 3.
I'm not saying that it's going to be an image exactly like this image in Daniel. Christ had warned about the abomination of desolation being set up in the holy place, which I think many Bible scholars agree is a reset up statue of some kind. But in Daniel chapter 3 and verse 1, what's kind of interesting about this verse is Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold. We have seen many of those artists rendition of this image of a beast or kind of a big man that, you know, head of gold and chest of silver, and then you've got the bronze, and then finally the iron.
But the image carries the number 66. It says Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its width 6 cubits. And so we have, just putting those numbers together, the number 66, and then later the mark of the beast is 666. So there is a connection. Some Bible scholars believe that, well, we look at that statue and that's exactly the kind of thing that the beast is going to do the false prophet. They will command everybody to worship that under pain of death. And the fact that it's 666 now instead of just 666 means it's the third or final fulfillment. Well, we'll see if that's exactly the way it works out. Can't know for sure.
But I think it's valuable to see that the statue of Nebuchadnezzar did have the number 66 connected with it, and that the beast that's going to be set up and forced to be worshiped in the book of Revelation has as an identifying sign the number 666, because certainly there is a connection between the two. Let's go back to Revelation then, and we'll look again at verse 16.
Here we have, he causes all both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave. There's no category of people that escapes this. All the great people of the earth and the poor, the peasants, everybody, the average worker, to receive a mark on their right hand or in their foreheads. So they have a mark either on their hand or on their foreheads. It can symbolize their heart, it can symbolize their ability to make a living. The right hand symbolizes a number of things in the Bible that David talked about as strong right hand, the right arm of God, as he mentioned, as a symbol of power. But the result is, no one can buy or sell except who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom, let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. So it's the number of a man.
The statue of Nebuchadnezzar was 66. This is 666. And, of course, who knows exactly how many names a person could assign numerical values to the letters and come up with the number 666.
I think I must have heard at least 30 over the years, maybe 50. I mean, heard names like Ted Kennedy and Henry Kissinger, and it was a fellow over in Europe that people thought might be the guy. I think it was Franz Joseph Strauss. So there's a whole number of people that the name 666, you might come up with those numbers by adding up the numerical values of the letters of their alphabet. Many, for years, people thought it was perhaps Latin man or Latinus, meaning the area of Latin or Rome. There could be some truth in that also. But the important thing is not necessarily the name of the person. The important thing is what we must do to make sure that we are not taken away from the truth of God by the deceptive teachings of this false prophet.
So no one can buy or sell. This number is composed of three sixes. There is the number of completeness or finality. Six is the number of a man who was created on the sixth day. So that's also something to think about. The number 666 refers to man's final attempt to subject the world to this totalitarian government. But there really is much more involved in this mark of the beast.
In the times in which we live, there have been many, I think, many teachers out there who have tried to say, well, we can put computer chips in our hands, which we do. I have computer chips in my dog. How many have a computer chip in your dog? Probably most of you do. And they can take this wand and they run it over your dog or your cat, and it comes up with a code, and the code is registered on some computer somewhere, and it has your contact information in it. And I got my dog back one time after he ran off during 4th of July fireworks. Got him back a couple days later because they took him to the pound, and the pound found his chip, and so we got our dog back. So chips are talked about quite often. They say they can inject the chips smaller than a piece of rice under your hand. It'll have all your credit card information, your bank information, health information, so they know if you're diabetic or if you're allergic to some gluten or something.
And so there's talk about, well, someday soon, nobody will carry credit cards. They get stolen. They get lost. We'll just all have these chips in our hand, and if you refuse to get one, then that's aha! The mark of the beast. Well, maybe, maybe not. The Bible really doesn't indicate that a supernatural chip in your hand is the mark of the beast, and you have to have that instead before you're able to buy and sell. Over the years, if you look back at what really has been enforced on the people of God, keep in mind we read early in Revelation 6 that your brethren must be killed as their brethren were. He said, well, hold on for a while. Those souls under the altar, you wait until your brethren are killed as you were. So there's going to be a repeat of the reason why they were killed, the persecution against them. During the time of the 300s, the religion of Christianity, of course, had spread across much of the Roman Empire. The Romans were trying to figure out what to do. They had their own religion, but they also had a need for troops and a need to have some sort of unity among the Roman Empire. So we have the Roman Empire then in the 300s with Constantine and the borders, especially the borders across the north and the east, were all breaking down with insurrections. And so there were some accommodations made with the church at that time where the church and state decided they would essentially work together.
The church became responsible for enforcing religious ideas and, of course, began very quickly to have some of the councils of the church meet and tell the Caesar or tell Constantine and then his descendants what they should and should not do. And, of course, it was all meant to eventually put the group, put them all back together. I want to read a little section of Constantine's decree. Constantine made a number of decrees, but in 325, after he had become well established, Constantine wrote a decree recorded for us by Eusebius in his book Life of Constantine.
He says, "...to speak of your criminality, as it deserves," which was referring to keeping the Sabbath, of course, "...demands more time and leisure than I can give. Why not at once strike, as it were, at the very root of so great a mischief?" And, of course, the Romans wanted one day to be kept, the day of Sol Invictus or the Sun God, and they wanted everybody to work on the other six days. He says, "...why should you cause public manifestations of displeasure?
For as much, then, as it is no longer possible to bear with your pernicious errors, we give warning by the present statute that none of you henceforth presume to assemble yourselves together. We have directed accordingly that you be deprived of all your houses in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies, and forbid the holding of your superstitious and senseless meetings." And, of course, by that he meant on the Sabbath. "...not in public merely, but in any private house or place whatsoever. We have commanded that you positively be deprived of every gathering point for your superstitious meetings. I mean all the houses of prayer or other places to be confiscated at the public service, that no facilitator whatsoever be left for any future gathering in order that from this day onward none of your unlawful assemblies may presume to appear in public or private life." Constantine also mentioned that, "...on the venerable day of the sun, let all magistrates and people be assembled and conduct their worship." So he was a civil ruler, but he began to do what he thought necessary to get the nation of Rome and his soldiers together.
And, of course, part of that was the enforcing of his day of worship for Saul and Victus.
There are a number of other edicts that came down the road.
History shows that the religion dominated a Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, that all they could to exterminate all Sabbath-keeping Christians. Let us learn how this system, of course, obviously came from Satan. The Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, fourth volume, page 2259-60, has an article called Sunday, Sunday which means the deus solus, or the day of the Roman calendar of the sun, became dedicated. The first day of the week was adopted by the early apostizing Christians as a day of worship. It was then called the Lord's Day. In 321, Sunday observance began to be joined by a Roman state decree. History reveals it was Roman Emperor Constantine the Great who made the decree to force the world to observe Sunday and thereby obviously break God's Sabbath. He mentions here Constantine's very red part of Constantine's edict. And later, of course, we have a couple of the church councils where the leaders of the Catholic Church would meet and would then make decrees. And, of course, the decrees were always the same. The first pope in the real sense of the word was Pope Leo, 460 to 4, 440 to 461 A.D. He advocated a complete reorganization of the church and modeling of it according to the Roman Empire, which, of course, was the, it ended up being the image of the beast.
Around 365, the Sabbath became an ecclesiastical issue in the Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers.
It mentions here the Catholic Council layout of Sia was called to settle among other matters.
The Sabbath question, the most famous canon on this council, the 25th or 29th reads, Christians must not Judaize by arresting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day. And they can, of course, rest on other days, especially Sunday. But if any be found to be Judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ. Now, these laws that were passed by these councils or these resolutions have never been abrogated. They are still on the books as far as that religious organization is concerned. Around the year 400, one of their church fathers named Augustine declared, the holy doctors of the church have declared that the Sabbath has been transferred to Sunday.
Let us therefore keep the Lord's day as ancients were commanded by God to do on the weekly Sabbath.
So one of their earlier church fathers mentioned that he was just teaching they should do that because he felt that the Sabbath had been transferred to them. Well, obviously, it hasn't.
The Sabbath is the sign of God's people. And if you're unable to work because you are unwilling to work on the Sabbath, then you would have no longer would not have a part of the mark of the beast. Let's go back to Exodus 31. God tells us very plainly that the Sabbath is the sign of God.
The Sabbath is how God identifies his people. It is what makes his people different. It isn't just the weekly Sabbath, as we know the commandment revelation, I'm sorry, Leviticus 23 includes the holy days, but all the days that God set aside as holy. And those days are going to be enforced against as the universal mark of the beast begins to be enforced around the world. Exodus 31 in verse 12 says, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, Surely, my Sabbath you shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. So keeping the Sabbath identifies who the followers of God are, that you may know that I am the Lord who sets you apart, and they are set apart because they are not part of this world or its system. You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death, for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off for among his people. That last part of that statement is going to be changed to Sunday and enforced around the world because it's already been changed to Sunday in the official law books. And when that church and that system at the behest of the false prophet once again gains civil control and can enforce that, they certainly will. Notice verse 15, Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest. Holy to the Lord, whoever does any work on the Sabbath, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore, the Lord, the children of Israel, shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. Not temporary, not for a while, but for all time. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. And so that Sabbath day, the way that it is written in the Bible, is going to be just sort of cut and pasted with a couple word changes and enforced upon the earth.
Instead of being the sign of God, it is going to be the sign of the beast. Let's go back over to Isaiah chapter 58, another scripture about the Sabbath and the fact that we are going to be keeping that in the days before Christ's return, and it's going to be a challenge as that system is enforced. We have lived for many years with relative peace and ease of keeping the Sabbath. It is not that way in places around the earth where there is no such thing as religious freedom, certainly in places in the Middle East, the Far East, and the totalitarian nations. Trying to keep God's Sabbath is virtually impossible. We've just been lucky to live in the Israelites nations where we've had that freedom. Isaiah 58 and verse 8 says, Then shall your light break forth like the morning, and your healing shall spring forth speedily.
Very beautiful prophecy. Really, it's tied to fasting. It's tied to the results of fasting and asking for God to relieve us of the burdens that we are carrying. It says, Your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. So God would be behind us, protecting us. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer. You shall cry, and he will say, Here I am. So the indication here seems to be that there's a time of challenge when people are crying for help, and trying to say, God, please help us. And he will answer and say, Here I am.
If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and the speaking of wickedness—so take away those things that displease God—if you extend your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, do those things that are pleasing to him. True religion is to visit the fatherless and the needy in their affliction. Then shall your light dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be his noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought. The indication here throughout this section of verses is God's guidance and direction and help during a time of coming trouble—a time, perhaps, like tribulation.
So strengthen your bones. You shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those who are among you shall build the old waste places, and you shall raise up the foundations of many generations. Sounds like the beginning of the millennium, raising up the foundations of many generations, a big rebuilding project, and shall be building the old waste places. You shall be called the repairer of the breach, and the restorer of streets to dwell in. So obviously, a lot of rebuilding, a lot of reconstruction, and a lot of restoration of the earth that will take place at that time.
Notice if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath—so the Sabbath here is connected to the previous verses, which seem to have a very pre-Return of Christ and post-Return of Christ message to them or setting to them—from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and called the Sabbath a delight. The holy day of the Lord honorable. So we are to be calling the Sabbath a delight, honorable to God, and shall honor Him not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words.
And all of those three sentences take a lot of personal introspection, a lot of personal thought and contemplation. Are we doing our own ways? Are we speaking our own pleasure? Are we finding our own words? Or are we doing things that honor God in those ways on the Sabbath? It says, Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord, and I will cause you to rise on the high hills of the earth.
Well, it doesn't mean if you keep the Sabbath that all of a sudden you're healthy, wealthy, and wise. I think really what it means is you keep the Sabbath as God's sign, and I will cause you to be in the kingdom of God, writing on the high hills of the earth.
And it says, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father. Well, that great blessing of Jacob will come after Christ returns. We do have some of that today, obviously. The blessings given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and especially Joseph, passed on down to the nations in which we live. But feeding on the heritage of Jacob, our father, forever, I think means a little more than that. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. So it's a great blessing for being able to keep the Sabbath and a great blessing for being able to understand that this beast that's coming, this false prophet, is just that, a great false prophet, a prophet that will, if he has the power, deceive the very elect.
Let's go back now to Revelation 13 and kind of summarize what we've been able to see here. That we have this second beast that comes out of the earth, out of an identifiable location on the earth. Perhaps a beast that has been around for a while but has sort of gone not underground, but let's just say much less influential because of the events that have happened and the deadly wound that needs to be healed.
He has two horns like a lamb, one like a lamb, but he speaks as a dragon. So the appearance is one of harmlessness, one of religion, but in reality he speaks doing the work of Satan the devil. He will then use miracles to cause people on the earth to worship the first beast, and he gives power to the image of the beast, to give power to the beast to do his dirty work. So he gives power and breath to the image of the beast and causes that or uses that then to cause people to worship the image and to take on the mark of the beast.
He causes both free and small and great and rich to receive that mark, and eventually we are told we can use the term 666 to calculate his number, the number of the beast and the number of the man, and that number, of course, is 666. So we have a warning, a warning of these two beasts that are coming.
One of them already is but isn't yet ascended, coming back out of that temporary pit or temporary place of restraint, but he's coming back, and we are waiting for that. It is going to happen quickly. We are not going to have a great deal of warning. We're not going to have a great deal of notice, and so we have to be prepared and always be watching and watching ourselves and watching the events that happen on the earth so that when Jesus Christ comes, we are able to not only escape those things that are coming at the end, but also to stand before the Son of man.
