Adrian Rogers - The Nature of the Beast
Would you take God's Word and find Revelation chapter 13. We're talking about Bible prophecy and no child of God can afford to be ignorant in these pregnant days in which we are living. The sands of time are running low. The stage is set, the curtains are about to be drawn back. The dynamite is in place, the fuse is lit. We are on the threshold of the consummation of the age. The Bible teaches that there is coming a human being who will be the devil in the flesh. He is called in the Bible, the beast. He's also called, he has many aliases, he's called the son of perdition, he is called the man of sin, he is called the wicked one, he is called the antichrist. And today we want to do what God's Word teaches us to do and that is to unveil him, to disclose him, to reveal him, and we're going to find that right here in Revelation chapter 13 and we're going to look at the entire chapter.
Now first of all as we look at the nature of the beast, and that's the title of the message, The Nature of the Beast, I want you to see his sudden advent, that is his sudden appearance. Look if you will in Revelation 13 verse 1, "And I stood upon the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy". Now this beast comes suddenly, he rises up, he emerges out of the sea. Now what does the sea stand for? The Bible teaches us clearly that the sea stands for the nations of the world. You might put in your margin Revelation chapter 17 and verse 15, "And He saith unto me, 'The waters which thou seest where the whore sitteth,'" and the whore refers to the false church, "'are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues,'" that is, and languages.
So out of the seething sea of humanity, out of multitudes of people and nations and languages, out of the seething, writhing, boiling sea the antichrist is going to come. The beast is going to come. He's going to come in a time when nations are in turmoil. He's rising up out of the sea of the nations and you think about the situation that is in our world today; filled with drug addiction, crime, violence, the occult, and you see that out of this morass, out of this seething sea of humanity there is going to come the beast and he's going to come suddenly. He may be alive and well today if the Rapture of the church is very, very near. Because of the trouble in the world today, people are going to be ripe to deify the antichrist.
Let me tell you what the great historian Arnold Toynbee said and this is a direct quote. Quote, "By forcing on mankind more and more lethal weapons and at the same time making the world more interdependent economically, technology has brought mankind to such a degree of distress that we are ripe for the deifying of any new Caesar who might succeed in giving the world unity and peace". Toynbee said, "Because of our trouble, if a leader comes along who promises unity and peace, we will follow him". And the European statesman said this and I quote, "If the devil could offer a panacea for the problems of the world, I would gladly follow the devil".
Well he's going to have his opportunity. So you see first of all the sudden appearance of the beast. Here's the second thing I want you to see; now look in God's Word: the satanic ancestry of the beast. The Bible says here in Revelation 13:1 that the beast has, "Seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten crowns and upon his heads the name of blasphemy". What does all of this represent? Well, this verse is a description of the devil and that description has been given already in Revelation chapter 12 and verse 3, "And there appeared another wonder in Heaven, behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads". And who is that dragon? Well, look if you will in Revelation chapter 12 verse 9, "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan".
So verse 1 is describing the devil and it's also describing the beast. So this beast is a devil of a man. As we talk about his ancestry, he has the devil for his father. When Jesus Christ was here on Earth, Jesus Christ could say to those who saw Him walking around in the flesh, "He who hath seen Me hath seen My Father". We read that in John 14 verse 9. This beast will be able to say, "He who has seen me has seen my father," because his ancestry is this: his father is the devil. He is going to be the visible expression of the invisible devil. Now think not only of his father, but think of his family. Continue to read in Revelation 13 verse 2, "And the beast which I saw was like a leopard and his feet were as the feet of a bear and his mouth as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority".
Well, what does the lion and the bear and the leopard represent? They represent kingdoms, they represent nations, they represent world empires. You can find all of this in Daniel chapter 7, and the lion speaks of Babylon, ancient Babylon; the bear speaks of Persia; and the leopard speaks of Greece. Study that and you'll find it in Daniel chapter 7. And what he is saying is this, that this beast, this antichrist, is going to be the composite of all of these other nations that were in the world. The ungodly rulers of Babylon had their regal bearing like a lion. Those of MedoPersia were strong as a bear, like the greedy grasp of a bear.
And the leopard represents Greece, with its rapidity of conquest under Alexander the Great. And what this Scripture is saying is this; that this final world ruler is going to be a composite of all of these. He's going to be all of the Napoleons, the Hitlers, the Alexanders the Great, the Stalins, all rolled in to one. They have rejected the Lamb but they will receive the beast. Jesus said in John chapter 5 and verse 43, "I have come in My Father's name and you receive Me not, you receive Me not. If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive". And so they will receive the spotted leopard rather than the spotless Lamb. They will receive the grasp of the bear rather than the grace of the Lamb. And this world will deify that new Caesar who's coming. And you think we're talking about his ancestry and we see his father, we see his family, and we're going to see his family fortune.
What is his family fortune? Well, notice if you will in the last part of Revelation 13 verse 2, "And the dragon," that is his father, "gave him his power and his seat," that means his throne, "and great authority". Does the devil have that to give? Yes, he does. How did the devil get it? God gave power and authority to Adam. Adam turned it over to Satan. And Satan retains that power and that authority. Remember how the devil tried to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ? Put in your margin Luke chapter 4 verses 6 through 8. The devil came to Jesus to tempt Him and read in verse 6, "And the devil said unto Him, 'All this power will I give Thee and the glory of them for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it.'"
Now the devil said to Jesus, "'If You will worship me, I will give You this power and this authority if Thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be Thine.'" Of course Jesus said to him, "'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve.'" But there's coming another, there's coming another who's the beast, who will be a worshiper of Satan and Satan will turn over all of this power and this authority unto him. And that's the reason Paul describes him in Second Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 9, "Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders". The devil will turn over to his surrogate, to his child, this child of the devil, all of this power. Notice again the last part of Revelation 13 verse 2, "And the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority".
Now the reason that the devil cannot use that full authority today is that the Holy Spirit is restraining him. Remember what we spoke of last week? There is a restraining force in the world, but at the Rapture, the Holy Spirit in the church will be taken out, and when the church is taken out, the salt of the Earth and the light of the world will go out with it and at that moment that restraint will be taken away and then that power and that authority invested by the devil in this one man will be released, and Hell will have a holiday. His fortune is that he has received from his father the devil the kingdoms of this world temporarily and it will all be given over to him.
Now at that time with no restraining force, he will dominate the whole world. So we have talked about the sudden appearance of the beast, we have talked about the family legacy of the beast, we have talked about the satanic ancestry of the beast. Now let's talk thirdly about the seductive appeal of the beast. Why will the world follow Him? Well, look if you will in Revelation 13 verses 3 and 4, "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death. And his deadly wound was healed". Now watch this, "And all the world wondered after the beast," that literally means they all admired him, "and they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, 'Who is like unto the beast and who is able to make war against him?'"
Now we're talking about the seductive appeal of this beast, this antichrist. He will be an appealing man in the eyes of the world. Now when we call him a beast, don't think of him as being hideous in appearance. The beast speaks of the nature. We're talking about the nature of the beast, now, not the appearance of the beast. Remember Second Corinthians 11:14 says that the devil himself appears as an angel of light. Doubtless this beast will be handsome, he will be charming, he will be clever, he will be greatly intelligent, he will be a persuasive speaker, he will be a global charmer. And one of the reasons that the entire world will wonder after him is that he will have a deadly wound in his head and that wound will be healed.
Notice again in Revelation 13 verse 3, "And his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after him". This will be Satan's counterfeit resurrection. Of course it will be a resuscitation, because the devil does not have power to give life, but he will, this one who appears to all be dead, will be brought back to life and at that time the world will greatly admire him. I've been wondering lately if the antichrist may not be the first man ever to be cloned. I'm wondering if a man may die and living tissue taken out of his body and this man somehow reproduced.
I've wondered about a human clone which is a distinct possibility we'll speak about later on in another message. But would a human clone have a soul? He would not be the union of an egg and a sperm but he would be a piece of tissue very much like a human being, but would he or she have a soul? Would there be a piece of seeming humanity that Satan himself could enter into? I wonder about that. I'm not trying to say one way or the other, but I'm saying that there will be some devilish manipulation. Here's someone who will have a deadly wound and then he's back to life again, but this time he will be Satan incarnate. And we're going to see that he's going to come with all of these promises and the Bible says in Daniel chapter 8 and verse 25, "With peace he will destroy many". He will be the greatest avatar of peace that the world has ever known.
They're finally, the world is going to say, "Look our Messiah has come. There is peace on Earth. All hail to the beast. All hail to the beast". And it looks like that the devil's millennium is about to begin. But now notice not only this, but notice the sinister ambitions of the beast. What will motivate this ungodly individual? What will motivate this piece of flesh that is the devil incarnate? Well, we see what his motives are and I want to give you five of them. You're going to find the five motives of the beast right here beginning in verse 4. Number 1: it is to deify Satan. Notice if you will in Revelation 13 verse 4, "And they worshiped the dragon which gave power to the beast".
Satan has always wanted to be worshiped. That's the reason as we get to these last days you see so much devil worship. What was Satan's burning ambition? You can read about it in Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 14. He wants to be like God. He says, "I will be like the most High God". Now Satan will receive worship through the beast just as Almighty God receives worship through the true Christ, the Lord Jesus. The devil will receive worship through the false Christ, the antichrist. And so first of all, the purpose here is to deify Satan. Satan wants to be worshiped. But not only to deify Satan, also purpose number two: to defy the Savior.
Look if you will in Revelation 13 verses 5 and 6, "And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies". Look in verse 6, "And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God; to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven". So he cannot touch God in Heaven, he cannot touch the saints who have already gone to Heaven, so he is reduced to name calling. He's reduced to blasphemy and blasphemies will belch up out of his filthy soul and pour out like a broken sewer. With burning eloquence he will turn people away from belief in the true God and in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he will have such persuasive ability that Jesus said in Matthew 24:24, "If it were possible he would deceive the very elect".
This man will be incredibly brilliant, incredibly persuasive. His first ambition is to deify Satan. His second ambition will be to defy the Savior. His third ambition will be: to destroy Saints. Look in Revelation 13 verse 7, "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations".
Now there will be some people who will be saved during the tribulation. We call these the tribulation saints. And at that time the antichrist will turn against these people, these tribulation saints, and he will destroy them, he will martyr them, and he will have his appetite for blood sated as he will drink his fill with the blood of the martyrs. He wants to destroy the people of God, and if he could get at those in Heaven, he would get at those in Heaven, but he cannot. The next purpose: he wants to dominate society. Look at the last part of Revelation 13 verse 7, "And power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations". He will have global control. How will he do this? He will terrify some, he will entice others. He will come as an angel of light or as a fiery demon spirit. But the whole world will be intimidated or bribed into following this one who is the beast. He will dominate society.
Now his last purpose of these five purposes: is to delude the sinners, now those who are on the Earth. Look if you will in Revelation 13 verses 8 through 10, "And all that dwell upon the Earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world". These people are going to believe Satan. Notice in verse 9, "If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity and he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints". Now notice this, the Bible says that, "They're going to worship him," in verse 8. The devil does not want casualties, he wants converts. He wants people to worship him, so these people are going to be deluded.
And you say, "Well, if I'm here, I'm not a Christian Mr. Rogers, but if the church goes out, I'll have enough sense not to worship the antichrist". Oh, no you won't. You will worship the antichrist. He will persuade you. You will believe a lie. Second Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 4, it speaks of this man, "Who opposeth all, who sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God". And then the Bible says in Second Thessalonians 2 verse 11, "And for this reason God will send strong delusion to those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and they will believe the lie". They will follow the devil's messiah. They will follow the christ of the cults.
Now, here's the final thing I want you to see, and I want you to see the supporting agent of the beast. This beast is going to have an agent who will go before him. Look if you will now in Revelation 13 verses 11 and 12, "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the Earth and he had two horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon". Now the idea is that he is a sinister minister of propaganda. He looks like a lamb, he speaks like a dragon, and of course we see that happening today as we see the national scene; he looks like a lamb, but he speaks like a dragon. And notice if you will in verse 12, "And he," that is the second beast, "exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him," that is, the authority of the first beast, "and causeth the Earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed".
Now remember this about Satan. Satan has always wanted to be like God. So not only do you have the antichrist, you have the antigod and the antispirit. The antigod is the dragon. The antichrist is the beast. The antispirit is the false prophet. What is the purpose and the duty of the false prophet? To cause people to worship the beast. Why do they worship the beast? To give honor to the dragon. Just as the Holy Spirit causes us to worship the Lord Jesus Christ and to give honor to God Almighty, this false prophet, this sinister minister of propaganda, this devilish miracle worker, is going to cause people to worship the antichrist, the beast. Now according to these verses he's going to do this the following ways.
Notice Revelation 13 verse 13 through 18, "And he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from Heaven on the Earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the Earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying unto them that dwell on the Earth, that they should, 'Make an image to the beast, which had the wound by the sword and did live.' And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell save," or except, "he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man and his number is six hundred threescore and six".
That is, 666. But how is this sinister minister of propaganda, how is he going to cause people to worship the beast? How is he going to control the masses on the face of this Earth? Three primary ways, number one: the fire. Look in Revelation 13 verse 13, "And he maketh fire to come down from Heaven on the Earth". Now he's somehow going to have the power to set the Heavens ablaze. Do you know what this may be? This may be an atomic explosion set off by some satellite in outer space to bring the entire world into submission as a great display of power that all may see it as the Heaven's light from pole to pole. Whatever there will be, it will be some dazzling display in the sky that will give authenticity to the global control and the power of the beast.
There's going to be the fire. Secondly, there will be the image. Look in Revelation 13 verses 14 and 15. And the Bible says that, "They should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live and he had power to give life unto the image of the beast". Now, what is the image of the beast? It's going to be a replica of the beast which can speak and cause people to listen. This may be the ultimate computer wedded to television.
Now we don't have any difficulty with believing that images today can speak. We watch that all of the time. If you told your great-granddaddy about it, he would think that you were insane, but today we obviously watch images speak all of the time. But now these images are being changed a little bit. We're moving into an era called virtual reality. And we have watched on television as things are generated that are not real at all but look real. We see animals that are generated. We see faces turn from one face to another right before our eyes. And this is called virtual reality and it will be virtual reality but it will not be virtuous reality because it will be the image of the beast. And with satellites now this technology will go around the world.
But there's a third thing that he will use and this is perhaps the most sinister of all: the fire, the image, and then the mark. Again, look if you will in Revelation 13 verses 16 and 17, "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or on their foreheads that no man might buy or sell except he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name".
Now folks don't think that's a small thing. If you cannot buy and sell you cannot live. You have to have food. You have to have clothing. You have to have sustenance. This will be the brand of Hell. If you've not been sealed by the Spirit you will be branded by the beast or you will be killed. Now this is a cashless society. And we're right now on the threshold of that cashless society and it will seem reasonable, it will seem necessary, it will seem simple, it will seem efficient. To do any transaction all you have to do is simply show your mark. There'd be no cheating, there'd be no books to keep, there'd be no bank account to balance.
You say, "Pastor, this is just science fiction". Oh, no, listen. What is this 666? Well 6, you know, is the number of a man. Man was created on the sixth day. It is the number of a man. 7 is the number of perfection. Man is not perfect. He is a 6. He is not a 7. But 3 is the number of God. Three sixes; it is man making himself God, and you will have to receive if you are here during this horrible, terrible time the mark of the beast to subsist and to live, and whether it's a billion dollar deal or whether it's a loaf of bread, no seal, no sale. No mark, no merchandise. How will the devil do this? Well, he wants global control and he's going to systematize the entire world. Now the technology is already in place. We have microchips today that are put in cards, that we call smart cards.
Have you ever thought of a card as being smart? Well, they're very smart. A smart card that can have your entire financial and social history embedded in it. The only remaining requirement would be, and the social engineers are thinking seriously about this, to take the chip out of the card and to put that chip somehow in you or on you, placed in human flesh. They're already doing this in pet shelters. They're taking a microchip right now and putting it in, embedding a little chip about the size of a grain of rice in the ear of a pet or an animal so that the owners can relocate their lost pets. They have satellites now in space that will be able to pinpoint any individual with a mark on him any place on the face of the globe. The global engineers are already using this as a way to track prisoners. We can't build prisons big enough, so they just simply say we will put an identifying mark on that prisoner and his whereabouts can be tracked at any time.
Now, a wise man once said the more machines act like men, the more men will act like machines. Here's something very interesting. If you were to take the numbers of our alphabet and just assign them a number. Start with A, and give it 6. Start with B, and add 6 more and call B 12. And C is 18 and just number all of the numbers of the alphabet that way, then C would equal 18, 0 would equal 90, M would equal 78, P would equal 96, U would equal 126, T would equal 120, E would equal 30, and R would equal 108. Just going up by increments of 6. Well what letters were those? C-O-M-P-U-T-E-R, computer. How do those numbers add up? 666. Very interesting. The devil is going to be able to control the entire world. What he's going to do through his beast, he's going to turn the entire world into a concentration camp with all the inmates numbered.
You see, the Bible says of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 10:3, what, He gives His sheep; what; a name, "He calls them by name". What will the antichrist do? He'll not give you a name, he'll give you a number. A number, not a name. So the big question today is when the end of all things come, will your name be called or will your number be up? That's the bottom line. What we have, folks, is the dragon and we have Almighty God. What we have is the beast and we have the Lamb. What we have is the sinister minister of propaganda, the false prophet, and what we have is the Holy Spirit. And there is a great war going on in the world today and all of these things are beginning to take shape before our very eyes.
Now remember I gave you the five purposes of the beast. What should we do and what should we teach our children in this day and age? If the purpose of the beast is to deify Satan, you'd better keep your children away from this devilish, ungodly, rock music that is deifying Satan. Because all of that is just a fore gleam of the antichrist. If the purpose of the antichrist, the beast, is to defy the Savior, what should you and I be doing in these days? We ought to be offering up to Jesus massive praise. Praising Him and glorifying Him.
If the purpose of the devil today is to destroy saints we had better be teaching our children how to protect themselves, we'd better be giving them knowledge, and we'd better be giving them truth. And we'd better be, like we're doing with these boys and girls, putting into their hands a sharp, twoedged sword so they can be overcomers as Jesus was an overcomer there in the Garden of Gethsemane. If the purpose of the beast is to dominate society, you and I should stand against this intrusive big government that is coming, more and more and more until we're all getting regimented and put together and packaged and manipulated by a system that we are all just fitting in to.
Friend, there is a devilish dark power that is coming on the world and we as God's children cannot afford to be ignorant. Now I believe that before the beast appears the church is going to be taken out. But the Bible teaches that the spirit of antichrist is already in the world and there are many antichrists, so don't think that you're God's sweet little darling and you can just sit back and smile and just let the world go passively by. But on the other hand, I'm telling you, folks, there's no need for you to be terrified if you know the Word of God. You'd better know it, you better believe it, and you better teach your children. And above all, you better give your heart to Jesus and be saved.
Bow your heads in prayer. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. Now, the agent of Satan is telling you, "Don't believe that stuff. It's all right. Don't believe what that man is saying". But the Holy Spirit of God is telling you, "You need to be saved". And if you want to be saved, I'm going to ask you right now to bow your heads and pray a prayer like this:
Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that my sin deserves Your righteous judgment, but I need mercy, not judgment. I want to be saved. Lord Jesus, You died to save me. You promised to save me, You rose to save me, You will save me if I trust You. I do trust You, Jesus. (Would you tell Him that?) I do trust You, Jesus. Right now like a child I trust You. I open my heart. I receive You as my Lord and Savior. Come into my heart.
Would you tell Him that? Pray it from your heart. "Come into my heart. Come in, Lord Jesus. Forgive my sin, save me, Lord Jesus". Did you ask Him? Were you sincere? You were? Then thank Him. Pray this way:
Thank You for saving me. I receive it by faith like a child. You're now my Lord and my Savior and my God and my Friend. And Lord Jesus, I will make this public. I will not be ashamed of You because You died for me. In Your name I pray, Amen.