Latest / Admonition Podcast / Revelation 13 (Lesson 1) - Aaron Cozort - May 17, 2026

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Revelation 13 (Lesson 1) - Aaron Cozort - May 17, 2026 · Admonition Podcast

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We're closing up the twelfth of Revelation and getting into chapter thirteen.
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So we'll be doing that as soon as we get started.
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But let's begin first with a word of prayer.
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Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you blessed us with, grateful for
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the opportunities that we have to serve you and pray that we will do so in a way that is acceptable and right in your sight.
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Lord, we ask that you will help us to be diligent, to strive, to overcome the things that the world throws at us that we might always remain faithful to you, obedient to your word,
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and open and willing to following the commands that you have given to us.
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Lord, pray that you will grant us grace and mercy when we sin and fall short of your glory.
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We pray that you will continue to be with those who are struggling because of illness and injury and because of uh recovering from procedures.
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Lord, we pray that you be with us as we go throughout all of our daily lives.
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May we seek your will.
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May we turn to you in times of need.
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May we always remember that even when we feel as though we're strong, we are to be those who are humble enough to bow before you and to seek your help even in those times.
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All this we pray and ask in Jesus name, amen.
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We're going to forgo a little bit of the first 11 chapters of review this morning, just review chapter 12 and get into 13.
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Chapter 12, we opened up, and this is another one of those pictures of comfort for the Christians, for the church.
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It's one that is not as well understood by some, much more disagreement about it than some of the other pictures, but if pay attention to it.
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you'll get a clear picture of what's going on.
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You've got a woman who's about to give birth.
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She's got the 12 stars above her head.
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She's pictured as God's people.
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God's people bring forth the Messiah.
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So she's going to give birth and the child is going to be the one who rules and has a rod that goes forth and he is one who is going to be the king, but he is going to attempt to
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be killed by...
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the dragon the moment that he comes forth from the womb.
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But the dragon's going to fail.
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The child's going to be taken up into heaven where he's going to live and he's going to be out of the reach of the dragon.
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But as a result of that, you're then going to have the first loss of the dragon.
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You're going to have John and the vision representing that hate.
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The dragon tried, the dragon failed.
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So then you're gonna get the second part of the picture.
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So the dragon takes his soldiers and his army and he goes up to heaven and he's gonna try and get to the child there.
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He goes up to heaven, doesn't even get to interact with the child.
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Michael the archangel and the other angels defeat him, send him back down to the earth.
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right, loss number two.
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Then when he gets back down to the earth, the woman has been taken away into the wilderness to be provided strength.
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Now, how long was she fed in the wilderness?
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Three and a half years, 1,260 days.
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All right, you're gonna find in these sections a lot of, quite a few, 1,260 days, three and a half years, time, times, and half a time.
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You're gonna find figures, phrases that all represent the same amount of time.
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It's half of a seven.
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Seven would be a perfect amount of time.
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This is a temporary amount of time.
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So the beast is, sorry, the dragon is going to have power for three and a half years.
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Things are going to happen for a period of time, but you are to be reminded God is saying all the way back in the book of Daniel where this terminology is introduced, I'm in
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charge.
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I give people the authority to do something and then I take that authority away.
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because as a result of the fact that their authority is not equal with God's, they have circumscribed authority.
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They have temporary authority.
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There are times where it looks like the dragon is winning.
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There's times it looks like the beast is winning, but it's always short term.
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There are times where as the dragon is winning and as the beast is winning, God's people have to go find refuge for a time.
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And the three and half years is derived from an Old Testament picture with Elijah and his going away from Ahab, Ahab seeking his life, turning the entire northern kingdom of Israel
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against God and against the worship that they should have been following and against God's prophets.
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And so during that period of time, there's no rain three and a half years.
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And yet, while there's no rain in Israel for three and a half years,
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Elijah is being fed by ravens, provided for by stream, and then taken to a widow's house where he who is by the way not even an Israelite and he she's she is going to provide for
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him on a daily basis until the three and a half years is done.
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not because of what she has, but because of what God continues to give her every single day.
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So the point and the picture is the devil comes back and tries to make war again with the woman and with her offspring, which are the people of God now represented in the church.
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And guess what?
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He fails again.
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So the devil is a three time loser.
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And as you look at the text you have in chapter 12...
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Beginning verse 13, now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.
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But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for time, times and half a time, three and a half
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years, from the presence of the serpent.
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So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman.
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that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood, but the earth helped the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out
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of his mouth.
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And the dragon was enraged with the woman and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have testimony of Jesus Christ.
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By the way, if you're looking for a clear explanation of who the offspring are, who are they?
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They're the people who keep the commandments of God and give a testimony concerning Jesus Christ.
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They're the Christians.
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So the woman represents God's people.
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Old Testament, New Testament, God's people.
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They brought forth the Messiah.
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Their offspring is the church.
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And when Satan can't become victorious over the woman, can't stop the child, can't win in heaven, he just goes and starts persecuting the church.
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Now hold on to that.
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because John has just said, as he has said again and again and again and again, persecution is coming.
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This is a picture that indicates the dragon is going to persecute the church.
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Now, who was the dragon?
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The devil.
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The text told us in clear language, the devil, Satan.
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The one who stands up and argues that God's people aren't really as good as God's people actually are.
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He's the accuser, but he's not the successful defeater.
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He is not the one who will defeat God's people.
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So as the devil is trying to fight against God's people because he's already lost fighting against the child.
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He's going to start recruiting some help because you can't win by yourself.
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What do you do?
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Get somebody else go to war with you.
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And so chapter 13 is going to be a picture of Satan's associates.
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The powers that he's going to use to persecute the Christians.
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And again, we are using
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Old Testament imagery.
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We're using pictures like Daniel used in Daniel chapter 7 where he introduced the beasts and the nations and Daniel chapter 8 where he introduced another set of beasts and the
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same nations.
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Two different figures, two different sets of animals all representing the same nations.
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John is going to use that
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as he delivers the text to the people indicating there's persecution coming.
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And I'm going to tell you what it's going to look like, but I'm going to tell you in a figure.
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Chapter 13 opens.
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In Chapter 13, we've got the dragon, we've got the sea and the land beast, and the number, oh, the notorious number 666.
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Okay, Chapter 13.
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As you get into chapter 13, we're going to get into some pictures of some horns.
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So I'm just throwing this up here, not because we're gonna spend a bunch of time on chapter 17 while we're still in 13, but just to remind you what Daniel tells us about the
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horns of the last beast.
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Daniel describes the kings of the final beast, the indescribable beast in Daniel 7.
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Now, this is important because the perspective on the book of Revelation lives or dies based upon which Caesar you start with.
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And it falls apart and makes no sense at all if you begin with Julius Caesar.
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But you need to understand something about Julius Caesar.
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Julius Caesar was a usurper.
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He wasn't a recognized emperor of Rome.
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He wasn't imbued with the power from the Senate.
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He usurped the Senate and its power.
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And the first recognized...
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Caesar of Rome was Augustus, also known as Octavius.
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Octavius will come to the throne.
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Octavius will be Senate appointed as Caesar.
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And Daniel ignores Julius Caesar.
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Daniel does not count him as the first emperor of Rome.
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Instead, he begins with Augustus.
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And when you do that, by the way, you'll notice that everything in Daniel lines up with everything in Revelation because John also ignores Julius Caesar and emphasizes first
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Augustus.
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As he does so, he does so not arbitrarily, but because Old Testament prophecy ignored Julius Caesar.
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So, when you look at the Caesars and you look at the kings of Rome, you begin with Augustus and you have Augustus, have Tiberius, have Caligula, you have Claudius, you have
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Nero.
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What did Nero do in regards to the Christians while he was on the throne in Rome?
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He tortured them, persecuted them, hung them up in the streets and lit them on fire to light the streets.
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He did everything he could.
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to persecute the Christians in Rome.
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And then he died.
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Nero who was proclaimed to be God, Nero who was proclaimed by himself of course to be the exalted one and ruler died.
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Guess what happened when he died?
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All the persecution stopped.
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The persecution stopped because Nero was using the Christians as a scapegoat to avoid people rebelling against.
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Nero.
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But when Nero dies, the empire turns over and goes into civil war.
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And in the coming few two years, they're gonna have three emperors come to power, get deposed from power, come to power, get deposed from power, come to power, get deposed from
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power.
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It is a time of upheaval in the Roman Empire.
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And as a result of the upheaval, nobody cares about the Christians anymore.
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Don't worry about those people, worry about who's in Rome.
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And then Vespasian comes to the throne.
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Vespasian comes to the throne and his focus is get the nation back on track.
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Get the nation and the empire back out of civil war and under control.
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And so again, Vespasian does not persecute the Christians.
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It is under Vespasian though that the city of Jerusalem is destroyed by Titus, his son, as general.
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And then Vespasian will fall and Titus will come to the throne.
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But Titus is only going to reign for two years, two months, and two days.
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before he is going to be gone.
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He's there for a little while, then he's gone.
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And then, demission comes to the throne.
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And in Daniel's prophecy, demission begins persecuted.
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In Daniel's prophecy, demission begins to speak pompous words, proclaim himself to be God, and fight against those and persecute those
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who will not acknowledge him as God.
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That's Daniel's prophecy.
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And John is going to bring Daniel's prophecy forward in chapter 17.
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And I just needed to give you just that glimpse into chapter 17 because we're going to be introduced to some horns and some beasts and some things in 13 that you're going to get
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explained in 17.
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All right.
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So the dragon comes forth and the dragon's got seven heads and 10 horns, by the way.
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The 10 horns will be interesting and worthwhile to keep in mind as we get into chapter 17.
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But chapter 13 verses one through 10, you have the sea beast that is going to rise up and he's going to be given power by the dragon.
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And he's a picture of the...
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persecuting power of Rome.
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uh Chapter 13 verse 1, and I stood on the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and on his horns ten crowns and on his head a
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blasphemous name.
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All right, hold on to this.
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Go back to Daniel 7.
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Chapter 7, verse 23, Thus he said to me the fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms and shall devour the whole earth,
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trample it and break it in pieces.
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Ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom and another shall arise after them.
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He shall be different from the first ones and shall subdue three kings.
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Question, if you have 10 and you add one more, how many do you have?
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11, okay, just checking.
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All right, hold on to that, don't lose that.
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He shall speak pompous words against the most high, shall persecute the saints of the most high, and shall intend to change times and law.
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Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time.
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and times and half a time.
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Daniel tells us in Daniel 7, here's this beast and I wanted to understand who it was and I wanted to understand what it was and I was told it was a fourth kingdom.
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It was an indescribable beast.
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It had 10 horns which represented 10 kings.
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and it spoke blasphemy.
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The eleventh horn, the last one to come up, chucked away the three that were before it, came up, came to power, and now if you take eleven and you subtract three, how many do you
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have?
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eight.
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So when we read about eight horns, it's because three of them are going to be ignored.
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Okay?
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So watch this as we're going through it.
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Chapter 13.
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He's got the 10 horns of Daniel.
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He's got the 10 heads as, or uh sorry, 10 crowns.
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Who wears crowns?
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Kings do, okay?
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These aren't the crowns of victory, by the way.
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These are the crowns of
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Kings, okay?
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So 10 heads, sorry, let me get this right.
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10 horns and 10 crowns on seven heads, okay?
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Get my words out.
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All right, now the beast which I saw was like a leopard.
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His feet were like the feet of a bear and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.
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The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.
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Okay, back to chapter seven of Daniel one more time.
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Daniel chapter 7 verse 2, Daniel spoke saying, saw in my vision by night and behold the four winds of the heaven were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up from
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the sea each different from the other.
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The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings.
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I watched till its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man and a man's heart was given to it.
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and suddenly another great beast, a second, like a bear.
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It was raised up on the one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth, and they said thus to it, arise, devour much flesh.
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After this I looked and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird.
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The beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it.
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After this I saw in the night vision and behold a fourth beast.
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dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong.
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It had huge iron teeth.
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It was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet.
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It was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had 10 horns.
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I was considering the horns and there was another horn, a little one coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots.
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And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words, blasphemous words.
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In Daniel's vision, Daniel sees the first beast and it looks like what?
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a lion.
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Second beast looks like what?
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A bear.
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Third beast looks like what?
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A leopard.
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When you get to Revelation chapter 13 verse 2, now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth was like the mouth of a
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lion.
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John is not randomly grabbing creatures and describing something.
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Daniel is going with a great big banner that says, go read Daniel 7.
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to the Christians in the first century, he's telling them, go understand what Daniel said.
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And then you're gonna know why I'm saying what I'm saying.
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the three parts of this beast look like the three first kingdoms.
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What were those kingdoms according to Daniel?
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Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Rome.
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And the point is that Rome, when Rome came to power, it didn't decimate and wipe out all the history that had ever existed.
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It didn't take away all the nation, it just co-opted them.
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Rome would come in and say what you can either pay us money, pay us tribute and become part of our economy or we can kill you.
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Which would you like?
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you want to just do business with us?
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Great.
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We're going to build some roads.
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We're going to put some Centurions through.
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We're going to take over.
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We're going to take a lot of your money, but you're going to be prosperous because we just made you part of our economy.
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And then they go to the next nation and they do the same thing.
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unlike some prior powers, Rome was not of the mindset, let's go into every nation and turn them into Romans.
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They didn't do that among the Jews.
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They also didn't do what some of the previous powers had done where they uprooted people.
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So the mindset of the Babylonians and the mindset of the Assyrians was you come in, you rip people out of their home and out of their land, then they don't have as much to fight
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for because they don't have their homeland to fight for.
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So you shuffle people around, throw them back into a land that's not theirs, that they're not used to, and they're going to be less problems because they're gonna have less
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historical fortifications and mindsets by which to attack you.
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Rome didn't do that.
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Rome just said, yeah, stay in your land.
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You know what?
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If you all participate well enough, long enough, we'll let you learn how to become Roman citizens.
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So, Rome did things differently.
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It co-opted all of the previous governments.
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It co-opted all of the previous kingdoms.
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It integrated them into this mesh that was Rome.
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And so, when Daniel looks at it, Daniel says, here's this kingdom and then this kingdom and then this kingdom and then this kingdom coming consecutively.
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But when John looks at it, he says, look,
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It all looks like one thing.
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It all looks like the kingdoms of Daniel just meshed in together.
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That's the picture of the sea beast.
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The dragon, though, is the one that gives him the power.
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The dragon gives him his power, his throne, and his great authority.
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The point of the message is, here comes this great beast that's gonna start persecuting the Christians.
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But his power is the power of the dragon.
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Now what have we already learned about the power of the dragon?
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It's temporary.
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It's circumscribed.
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It's not equal with God.
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So when you give temporary...
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power, limited power to somebody else when it was temporary and limited to begin with, does it suddenly become unlimited and permanent?
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No.
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The moment the dragon gives the beast the power, the Christians are supposed to know, okay, God's got this under control.
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just the same way God had Babylon under control, God had the Medo-Persian Empire under control, God had the Grecian Empire under control, God has the Roman Empire under control.
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When we see the dragon giving the beast his power, that's not a moment to be afraid, that's a moment to go, I know how this is going to turn out.
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It's going to turn out the way it always has.
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So then notice, I saw one of his heads.
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as if it had been mortally wounded and his deadly wound was healed.
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Now, the thing to understand when you read as if it had been, he's saying in the vision, it was.
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He's not saying it kind of looked like it.
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He's saying in the vision, one of his heads got killed.
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Okay?
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Now, how many heads did he have?
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Seven?
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Okay?
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So you have seven heads.
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and one of them gets mortally wounded.
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Watch this.
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I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world marveled and followed the beast.
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He says, I watch one of his heads and it dies.
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and then it was healed, how would we describe something that was dead and healed?
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What term would we use?
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resurrected.
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Remember in the book of Revelation everything good has an evil counterpart.
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If there is a resurrected king who is good then there's a resurrected what?
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King that is evil.
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So the people of the world look and they marvel.
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They see this beast and they see one of his heads die and then they see it resurrected back to life and they go, that must be God.
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Now in Rome, you didn't have a king that died and was resurrected back to life.
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But if you go read some history, you'll find even from the Roman historians that they considered Domitian to be an offshoot of Nero.
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They consider Domitian to be the descendant not physically, but in his rule of Nero.
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And so the world sees this persecuting power and it dies.
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And then this world sees the persecuting power come back and they go, let's just go follow Rome.
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Let's just do whatever Rome says so that they don't turn their persecution on us.
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So the world marveled and they followed the beast.
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So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast and they worshiped the beast saying, is like the beast?
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Who is able to make war with him?
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And he was given a mouth to speak great things and blasphemies and he was given authority to continue.
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Somebody take a guess for how long?
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For 42 months.
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Temporary power begets temporary power begets temporary power, but it all looks like unlimited power.
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It self-boseth of its unlimited power.
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It speaks blasphemous and pompous words.
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It looks just like the beast in Daniel's day.
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It looks just like the three kingdoms of Daniel 7 all rolled up together speaking as though they're some great thing.
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and they start asking the question that sounds a lot like the Old Testament scriptures speaking concerning God.
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Notice what they asked, who is like?
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Now if you go to the Old Testament, you would read, is like Jehovah?
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But that's not the world, and that's not what the world is saying.
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The world is saying, who is like the beast?
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And the question from the Old Testament would be who is able to make war with Jehovah?
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But that's not what the world's asking.
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The world's asking who can make war with the beast?
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He is usurping God's position.
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Now watch.
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He was given a mouth, sorry, verse six.
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Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God.
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To blaspheme his name, his tabernacle,
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and those who dwell in heaven.
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The beast who's given the power by Satan, who speaks great words, who conquers everybody who stands in his way, who is proclaimed to be undefeatable, starts speaking against God.
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And he speaks first against the name of God.
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No, Jehovah's not God, Caesar is God.
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And in Rome, the policy was this, you could worship anybody you wanted to, as long as you also worship Caesar.
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You want to worship the gods of the Greek pantheon?
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Go for it.
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You got to attack Caesar on.
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You want to worship the gods of the pagans?
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No problem.
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Attack Caesar on.
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You'll be fine.
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You want to worship the god of the Hebrews?
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No problem.
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Attack Caesar on.
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You'll be fine.
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Except what would the Christians not do?
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They wouldn't worship Caesar.
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They wouldn't glorify Caesar.
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They wouldn't proclaim Caesar to be God.
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And that was something Rome couldn't tolerate.
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That was something that Domitian would not allow.
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And it became public policy to persecute those who would not proclaim Caesar to be God.
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So notice he speaks blasphemous words against the name of God, against the tabernacle of God.
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Notice it does not say the temple of God, the dwelling place, the temporary dwelling place.
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What is the temporary dwelling place of God on the earth in the Christian age?
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The church, Christians.
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And then notice what he says, and those who dwell in heaven.
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Now, for those of us who haven't gone through the text and hadn't paid attention to those who dwell in the earth, those who dwell in heaven, those who dwell in the earth, those who
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dwell in heaven, we might read that and go, oh, wait, wait, wait, this is the beast reaching up into eternity.
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No.
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Who are those who dwell in heaven?
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They're the Christians who are still alive on the earth, set in contrast to the unrighteous who dwell in the earth.
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So here comes the beast and he's got the power of Satan and he's got the picture of Daniel and he's got the pompous mouth of Daniel and he starts persecuting and blaspheming the
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name of God and the people of God.
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Verse 7, it was granted to him to make war with the saints and overcome them.
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And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue and nation.
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All who dwell on the earth will worship him.
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Does that mean all the Christians will?
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No, because Christians don't dwell on the earth.
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They dwell in heaven.
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They're going to get persecuted by him.
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They're going to get killed by him.
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but they're not going to proclaim His name.
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They're not going to worship Him.
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He says, all who dwell on the earth will worship Him whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
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If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
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Who used that phrase quite often?
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Jesus did.
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He used it to call people's attention to something they should understand.
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And John does the same thing.
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John says, there's no reason early first century church that you should misunderstand this.
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There's no reason you should miss this point.
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Persecution is coming for you, but it's coming from a power that has already been defeated.
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So then notice.
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We read, he leads into captivity and shall go into captivity.
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He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword.
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Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
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John says, I'm going to tell you how to endure this.
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I'm going to tell you how to get through this.
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Bear in mind that the one who lives by the sword dies by the sword.
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You don't get through this, Christians, by rising up and revolting and doing physical battle against Rome.
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You live by the sword, you're going to die by it.
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Rather, you get through this by enduring and faithfulness, and then God will see you through it.
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This is an instruction to keep focus where it belonged on the gospel and on Christianity and on being faithful to God and not on political power or military might.
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because those things weren't going to be the things that are going to help them endure this persecution.
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But, devil's not done, dragon's not done, it still needs a little more help.
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So, we have the land beast.
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Chapter 13 verse 11, then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
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Here comes this beast and he's the land beast and he comes up.
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and he speaks, when you hear him speak, he sounds like a dragon.
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When you look at him, he looks like a lamb.
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You remember when the Christians were warned that the servants of Satan often looked like preachers of righteousness?
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That they appeared as sheep, but they were wolves in sheep's clothing?
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The picture of the land beast is going to be the religious leadership in Rome.
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It's gonna be the people who look like they're nice guys.
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And inwardly, they speak like a dragon.
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They have Satan that comes out their mouth.
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Okay, so we got just a few minutes left.
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Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth.
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And he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
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And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence.
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and causes the earth and those who dwell in the worship to, or dwell in, uh let me get this right, who causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast.
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Here comes this land beast and it comes up and it influences all those who dwell in the earth to go worship the sea beast.
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They say, that's your God over there.
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Go worship him.
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These are the false prophets of Rome.
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These are the high priests of Rome.
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These are the ones who are influencing the people to worship the first beast, even though the first beast has no more authority and all of his authority is circumscribed from the
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dragon.
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Okay?
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So then notice, he performs great signs.
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so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.
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Who did that in the Old Testament?
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Made fire come down from heaven.
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Elijah did.
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You have a number of occasions where fire comes down from heaven.
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Back in the days of Moses, it came down from heaven.
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All right, so these false prophets are doing things that make it look like...
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They're the prophets of some great God!
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except it's all stuff that looks like it.
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It's like Simon the Sorcerer in Acts chapter 8.
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Everybody thought that he was some great thing until what?
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until Philip showed up and actually started doing real miracles.
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And when Philip showed up and started doing real miracles, everybody immediately recognized that Simon wasn't anything.
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Guess who also realized it?
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Simon!
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So notice, he performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs
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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 live.
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He 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
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killed.
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Notice, here's what's happening.
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Here comes the religious power of Rome.
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The religious power of Rome says, Caesar is God.
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And they do all sorts of things to convince people, Caesar is God.
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And if you can't be convinced, then you can be killed.
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He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads.
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That no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.
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Here is wisdom.
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Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.
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His number is 666.
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Now I'd love to explain all of that to you, but we're short on time.
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So let me say this.
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We'll talk about it next.