Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #8 of Revelation, chapter 13, and we are going to be reading Revelation 13:4-5:

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

We were looking at the word “worshipped,” and how the world worshipped the dragon and the beast.  In essence they have always been doing that since mankind fell into sin.  They have served sin and Satan because they believe a lie over the truth and, therefore, they do not serve God.  They do not keep God’s commandments but, rather, they break those commandments.  In doing so, they do what Satan would want them to do and he receives adulation.

But, here, at the time of the end there is a change.  We talked about this before, but a dramatic shift took place.  The heart of man is desperately wicked and sin flows forth from it.  All manner of wickedness proceeds from his heart and reveals itself, even in generations past, but God had operated to restrain sin among the people of the nations.  Therefore, the “worship” of Satan had also been held in check, or restrained, even though that tendency was within the hearts of men.  Yet, outwardly there seemed to be some acknowledgement of the commandments of God and His commandments seemed to restrain men; and it could have even given the appearance that the world was observing God’s commandments and that they had dominion over them.

But, now, the change had come.  It is the time of the end.  Satan was loosed and the world “worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast,” and they worshipped him, not only in heart, but outwardly.   It can be seen and we can all testify to it; we see that iniquity abounds and we see the multiplication of sin across the face of the earth.  It is extremely observable and we have all seen the “worship” that has been given to Satan during the last couple of decades during the period of the Great Tribulation and even into the Day of Judgment by the people of the world.

Then it goes on to say at the end of Revelation 13:4:

Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

“Who is like unto the beast?” This question is basically implying that he is the greatest.  There is no equal to the beast and he is supreme and the one that is worthy of worship.  Of course, this is just ugly.  It is disgusting, when we think that mankind was created in the image of God, created to worship God, to serve Him, to obey Him and to do His bidding and none other.  Yet, here, man has plummeted into the depths of depravity, although he is not totally depraved; man still has a conscience and God has written upon man’s conscience, which prevents man from attaining total depravity, but there are certainly depths of depravity to which man has descended.  They have gone into the cesspool of iniquity with their evil thinking and actions, like no time before, and they are worshipping Satan through these actions – through their believing of the “lie,” like their belief in evolution. 

First of all, I do not know how anyone can legitimately believe in evolution.  It is the most foolish theory ever devised.  It is ridiculous and absurd and it is amazing that intelligent men and women believe this.  If you were to test their IQs these people may even score at extremely high levels and, yet, they believe this outlandish theory that has no basis in fact and cannot be proven.  It certain takes a great amount of faith to believe the things we are told about evolution.  For example, they believe there was “something” there at the very beginning, but they differ on what it was and they have no idea where it came from.  Right away, you can see the absolute foolishness of this theory, because the first question any thinking person should ask is, “Where did that substance come from?  Where did that primordial ooze (whatever it was) come from, which exploded or began to roll along and develop?  Then you would have to finally conclude that whatever that “stuff” was in the very beginning (which everything came from) has to be some sort of eternal matter.  So, right away, you would have a comparison.  There was something that was “eternal.”  Was there an “eternal God” or was there “eternal primordial ooze” that exploded and created everything?  What is more believable?  It takes a greater amount of trust and faith to believe that there was “something” in the beginning, but we do not know how it originated, and it was “just there,” and from that came the world and the universe and life began to develop in early stages; then more complex forms of life began to develop. 

Come on…we can look at “living” things today, like never before, and we can see the complexities of what was once thought to be even the simplest life forms.  And they just neatly fell into place to form the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth, the wings and all these minute details of some creatures that cannot even be seen with the naked eye?  They are perfectly formed and they perform functions and to think of even one of these little, tiny creatures coming forth and living as a result of evolution would be miraculous.  But we are supposed to believe that it does not apply to just one tiny creature, but a world full of creatures – a world of insects, of animals, of sea creatures and of mankind, with all the intricate and wonderful designs, and all the flowers and trees and grasses and all these things.  Did they just happen to fall together?  During this explosion and over the course of millions of years, everything just fell into place so there are these incredible life forms?  Any examination through a microscope would certainly “cry out” for design – that there was a Designer forming this life and creating these life forms so that all came together in the way that they did. 

Yet, the world believes this ridiculous theory of evolution because it allows them to do away with God.  They do not have to trust the Bible and they do not have to listen to things like, “God spoke and created the world,” and “God spoke and created man in His image.”  But they do away with all that; they are independent, free agents.  We are just animals and we prefer that idea over the fact that we are created in the image of God and we are, therefore, obligated to obey the Creator.  The world is “worshipping” the dragon and the beast through their belief in evolution and that leads to atheism and the denial of the existence of God and all this serves to worship Satan and do homage to him.  “Who is like unto the beast?”  This is what all these lies come down to, as the “lies” just increase in all facets of the world’s society, whether in the churches or outside of the churches.  “Who is like the beast?”  There is no comparison to him because there is no God.  We had thought there was a God and we had thought that the beast was not able to make war and to win, but as it says, “Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?”  Now his deadly wound has been healed and who can do battle with him?  The Lord Jesus Christ had bound him and set a seal upon him, but now Satan has returned and come forth out of the bottomless pit and now the world is declaring Satan the winner – he is the one that has overcome Christ.  This is very much blasphemy of God, speaking evil of God. 

If you remember, we read this in Revelation 12:7-8:

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

This means the dragon fought and lost.  He was not victorious.  He “prevailed not,” but now his “deadly wound is healed” and he is coming forth to do battle.  And, look, the world is now increasing in sin.  Sin is multiplying across the earth.  He has “figured it out,” it seems, and he has found a way to overcome God.  We can see the evidence of this every day as the world is doing as it pleases and is no longer interested or concerned with maintaining Sunday as the Sabbath; it is no longer interested or concerned with maintaining the marriage relationship between a man and a woman, even within the churches.  Who can compare to the beast?  Who is like the beast?  Who is able to make war with him? 

Just look at the churches, which are the representation of God’s kingdom on earth (or so the world continued to think, even though God had ended that relationship), and they have become a mockery; the churches do the beast’s bidding: there is “holy laughter” and speaking in tongues and falling over backwards, with all kinds of (supposed) healings going on and (false) signs and wonders.  It is obvious that the churches have lost the power of God and now the world can say whatever they want about the churches.  There is no restraint upon them, as they may have felt it was the churches that constrained sin.  But now they feel free and they are no longer constrained by the presence of the churches in their local neighborhoods.  “Who cares what the churches think?  They are just like us.”  The world has entered into the churches and they have overcome the churches and congregations of the world, so we can see how it is perceived by the people of the world that the beast has won the spiritual battle; he has not just won a minor skirmish but he has won the major battle.  “He has lifted the restraints that were upon us,” the world is feeling, “And he has lifted the restraints the churches put upon us.”  Of course, that was never the case, as it was always the Holy Spirit that had restrained sin.  And now who is able to make war with Satan?

After referring to the two witnesses, we read in Revelation 11:7-10:

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

You see, that restraint that the world felt, even though they did not know where it was coming from, was perceived to come through God’s corporate body, the churches, and now it was lifted.  It cannot really be understated.  The presence of the churches was heavy in the world; there are almost two billion members of the corporate churches so they were in just about every nation.  In the United States they were almost on every corner in major cities.

But, now, the beast is loosed and now is the time he goes against them and makes war with them and he wins.  He overcomes and kills the witness of the Word of God within the churches and congregations and the church is made a spectacle by the beast to all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.  Satan is saying, “Look at my great victory!  Look at my power!  Look at my strength!  Look what I have done to the church of Jesus Christ!  Rejoice and make merry because the enemy that tormented us is defeated.”  That is the idea here, in Revelation 13.  It also says (and we will look at this later as we continue our study in chapter 13), in Revelation 13:7:

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.

Again, it was given to him (as part of God’s plan) to make war and win the victory and this gives the appearance to the people of the world that Satan has won.  I think we can understand this.  The child of God does not feel like part of the world.  We had a place prepared for us by God within the churches for those “1,260 days” or “three and one half years,” which represented the entire church age.  But, in the Great Tribulation, those churches are destroyed.  There is total spiritual destruction and great desolation.  We were driven out of the churches and then God very graciously and kindly commanded us to leave and go out into the world.  But, here we are in this world, at a time when Satan has been loosed and the whole world is “going crazy.”  There is madness in the heart of men that has been “let forth” and they are mad after their sins and mad after their idols. 

God’s people, who do not worship the beast, are in a situation where they are strangers and sojourners in this world for a little while longer.  All they have as their refuge is God Himself and His Word.  They no longer have a “place” in the churches and they become almost invisible to the world.  The world cannot see these individuals, even though they will amount to a great multitude that God will save out of Great Tribulation, but they are scattered throughout the nations of the world.  We do not know the exact number, but what are tens of millions of people amongst billions of people?  And what are they when they are so scattered and most of them do not know one another?  They do not meet together.  God’s plan was to save them, one by one, individually: each person with God.  He sent forth His Word in a tremendous way and covered the earth, as the waters cover the sea.  So they were saved, but the world does not “see” them and the churches do not “see” them and they cannot see one another, so it is an appearance that Satan has won. 

Yet, the truth is that it was given to him to win in order to accomplish God’s purpose of judgment on the churches, but then came May 21, 2011, that great day of victory for the Lord Jesus Christ and the people of God.  Satan was put down and deposed from his position of rule in the world and in the churches and he no longer rules over the hearts of men to the degree he was able to do before.  And now the Lord Jesus Christ is ruling with a “rod of iron” because it is the Day of Judgment.