It’s great to be back, I was gone last week because we had a family trip to the mountains, this was the weekend Brittany’s dad went to be with the Lord 7 years ago. The boys and I always go out on a backpacking trip for a night this weekend every year. Half our family likes camping, the boys and I! But this trip was special, because we went further into the forest than we’ve ever gone before. And I was preparing to preach this message tonight, so Revelation 13 & 14 were front of mind for me the whole time. Here is a picture of us hiking. Isn’t God’s creation beautiful? I’ll put up a map of where we went next here. Now here’s where things got sticky. You see, there’s a river here, and this is the lake where we’re going to camp right here. Now from start to finish, this was a 5 mile trek. In between these two trailheads, it’s about 2 miles and 1,600 ft of elevation change. By the time you get to this point, we’ve already come about 2 miles and 800 feet of elevation, but the next mile, this is the half way mile, you’re climbing almost 1,000 feet over the course of one mile. The next stretch after this, is ever steeper, about 500 feet of elevation in ½ mile. And no water. So we stopped to fill up our waters from the river and hiked to to the half way mile, and up we went.

By the time we’re half way through the half way mile, the boys began to struggle. Now, my boys are strong guys, but this hike was enough to test anyone’s limits. By the time we hit the Maryland Creek Trailhead, we were gassed. But we knew that if we just persevered a little further, we would have flat space to camp and plenty of water in the lake with fish to catch.

By the way, there was no creek at Maryland Creek because we’re in a drought, but that ½ mile, the hardest half mile of the hike, when it was over, everything changed. We knew the hardest part was behind us, and we were on the home stretch to paradise!

Now where we’re pulling back in to Revelation tonight, this is the hardest part of the hike. The half way mile. We have Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet, the unholy trinity, the counterfeit trinity, all together, ready to make the lives of everyone in the world, especially Christians, miserable. Do you notice that Satan is a counterfeit copycat? He takes the good things from God, twists and perverts them into temptations that pull us away from God. Instead of God’s design for love, we’re tempted with lust. Instead of God’s joy, he tempts us with temporary pleasure. Instead of worship we’re called to give to the Lord, he tempts us with idolatry. And as the counterfeit king, that’s exactly what he is up to during the tribulation. But when we get through this, we’re homeward bound, headed to the New Heaven and the New Earth, after a little more elevation change called the bowl judgments of course. Here’s a picture of our campsite, we made it. The hike was hard, but it ended in paradise. And guess what.

When you’re in Christ, your trail ends in paradise.

But to catch us all up on how we got here. You’ll remember that the Apostle John, the disciple who walked with Jesus, he was living in exile on the Island of Patmos, because of the Word of God and because of his testimony. Jailed John, sitting there in this remote place of exile, sees Jesus. Visibly. Jesus shows up to him, fiery eyes, white as wool hair, brazen bronze feet, and says, write these things down! Write down what you see, what is, and what will take place after this. There you have the three divisions of Revelation. The glorified Jesus, the letters to the churches, and then, the end of the world. We’re in that third division right now, How the world ends.

Now I’ve shared my interpretation of Scripture with you, that I believe we who are in Christ will not be here for the tribulation. We’ll be raptured. Harpatzo’d. Taken up. I preached an entire message on this weeks ago, why I believe there will be a pre-tribulation rapture. By the way, all of my sermon manuscripts are now published on our website. You can get access to videos of our services there too.

Now if you’re here tonight and you believe in a post-tribulation rapture, that’s ok, I understand, but only one of us is right, and I’m convinced by the evidence in Scripture that we will be taken up before the tribulation! Over the past several weeks we’ve seen the seals open up in heaven, the trumpets sound, and massive, catastrophic, destruction. Most of the world is gone. And then we hit an interlude which was our text two weeks ago: War in Heaven. It explains everything. The origin of evil, why things are the way that they are, but most of all, that God is in complete control, and the end is written. But Satan is waging war with the world. And that’s where we pick up here in Revelation chapter 13. So take your Bibles and turn with me to Revelation chapter 13 and let’s get started.

The dragon stood on the sand of the sea.

-Revelation 12:18 CSB

Remember, John is writing these things down as he is seeing them. And look what he sees next:

And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads. On its horns were ten crowns,, and on its heads were blasphemous names. The beast I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. The dragon gave the beast his power, his throne, and great authority. One of its heads appeared to be fatally wounded, but its fatal wound was healed.

-Revelation 13:1-3 CSB

I know you’re all wondering about the significance of the horns, the heads, and the crowns. This is actually relevant during Revelation 17, the woman and the beast. Rather than spend time on these now, I’ll save this for Revelation 17, we’ll be there a couple weeks from now. But notice that the beast resembles the dragon. These crowns on his head are diadem crowns, not stefanas crowns. This is received authority, not any kind of reward. And the authority comes from the dragon.

Now if you saw this happening, what would your reaction be? I know mine would be to get as far away from this thing as possible! But look what happens:

The whole earth was amazed and followed the beast. They worshiped the dragon because he gave authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to wage war against it?”

-Revelation 13:3-4 CSB

The people are worshipping Satan and they’re worshipping the beast! Unbelievable! When I read this for the first time as a child, I can remember thinking, how preposterous! How could anyone decide to worship a dragon and a disfigured beast like this? But do you know what? It’s not preposterous at all. John is seeing a world that is void of Christianity. All the Christians have left the station. If you do not worship Christ, you worship something else. And everything that is not from Christ is from Satan. There are two spiritual families that exist: God’s family, and the devil’s family. If you are not in God’s family, you are in the devil’s family. That’s what Jesus said to the people who were opposing him in John chapter 8, they don’t understand him because they’re of their father, the devil. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says:

The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are saved, it is the power of God.

-1 Corinthians 1:18 CSB

We’re surrounded by lost people. People who are in the devil’s family. We aren’t called to be enemies with them, we’re called to have compassion for them. That’s why we want to reach as many people as possible with the good news of Jesus Christ.

We don’t want anybody to be on the wrong side of eternity.

This beast is the Antichrist. Look at what he does:

The beast was given a mouth to utter boasts and blasphemies. It was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It began to speak blasphemies against God: to blaspheme his name and his dwelling—those who dwell in heaven. And it was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them. It was also given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. All those who live on the earth will worship it, everyone whose name was not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen. If anyone is to be taken captive, into captivity he goes. If anyone is to be killed with a sword, with a sword he will be killed. This calls for endurance and faithfulness from the saints,

-Revelation 13:5-10 CSB

Recall that we’ve experienced people being saved during the tribulation. The church has been raptured, but in Revelation chapter 7, God redeemed 144,000 from the tribes of Israel to be the evangelists of the tribulation. There will be Christians during this time, but they will experience persecution like no Christians have experienced persecution before. You won’t want to be around for this.

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; (this is the false prophet of the tribulation) it had two horns like a lamb (remember the counterfeiting business of Satan), but it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf and compels the earth and those who live on it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. It also performs great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in front of people. It deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs that it is permitted to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who live on the earth to make an image of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. It was permitted to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could both speak and cause whoever would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

-Revelation 13:11-15 CSB

Now if you’re like me, you’re wondering, how in the world is all of this going to play out? And why are we referring to this second beast as the false prophet? Well, Revelation 19:20 identifies this beast as the false prophet when he’s thrown into the abyss. Don’t worry, we’ll be there in a few weeks.

And are these antichrist images going to actually come to life? Or is this going to be like some Wizard of Oz situation where all the people are duped? It really could be either, but that’s not the point. The point is, if you’re sitting in this room today, you should be saved. You should be fully surrendered to Jesus. If you’re not, you’re going to have an opportunity to surrender to Christ tonight. But the point is, things are going to get so awful, we don’t want anyone to have to go through this certain future at the end of the world.

We don’t want anybody to be on the wrong side of eternity.

And it gets worse.

And it makes everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark: the beast’s name or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom:, Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, because it is the number of a person. Its number is 666.

-Revelation 13:16-18 CSB

You know, Iron Maiden really ruined this for everybody. 666, the number of the beast. 666 is not the number of the beast, 666 is the number of man. Created on the sixth day. We are totally depraved, separated from God by sin. Sin is what has entered the world and has been used as an instrument of Satan to tempt people to walk as far away from God as possible. Here we are and the last half mile of the half way mile. And the weight of sin is plaguing humanity.

You know, when we got to that last stretch on our trip last weekend, the last half mile of the half way mile, the boys were completely gassed. I was struggling too. But do you know what made them hike like they were brand new? We took off their backpacks. Of course that meant that I had to carry them, but I CrossFit, I’m qualified. But seeing those boys go from completely weighed down with discouragement, to high fiving up the ridge, full of joy and full of life, I thought, that’s it. That’s what Christ has done for us. He took our backpacks off and He carried our weight. You see, this world is plagued by sin. All the things we’re surrounded with that tempt us into thinking we’ll never make it, the sin that weighs us down and steals our joy, that steals God’s design for a life in full. Jesus died on that cross to take that away from you. Let Him carry the weight!

Stop carrying what Christ already carried to the cross, Stop living under the weight of sin that He died to set you free from. Stop letting the enemy convince you that you’ll never make it up the mountain.

You were never meant to carry what Christ died to carry for you.

Look what happens next!

Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, (That’s at the southern wall of the temple in Jerusalem) and with him were 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. I heard a sound from heaven like the sound of cascading waters and like the rumbling of loud thunder. The sound I heard was like harpists playing on their harps. They sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders, but no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.

-Revelation 14:1-3 CSB

This is the 144,000 who were saved during the tribulation in chapter 7! The calvary is coming over the hill! And they’re singing a new song! Remember that verse I quoted earlier from 1 Corinthians?

The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it’s the power of God to those who are saved.

-1 Corinthians 1:18 CSB

The saved, the ones who are in Christ, understand these words. They understand the sacrifice, they understand the security, they understand their salvation.

Then I saw another angel flying high overhead, with the eternal gospel to announce to the inhabitants of the earth—to every nation, tribe, language, and people. He spoke with a loud voice: “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” And another, a second angel, followed, saying, “It has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen. She made all the nations drink the wine of her sexual immorality, which brings wrath.”

-Revelation 14:6-8 CSB

I’ve really worn this one out during this series, but I’ll say it again. Don’t wait until it’s too late! Babylon represents modern society, a society that is opposed to the values of God. Don’t get sucked in to culture. Christians are set apart. When you surrender to Christ, you are in the world but you are not of the world. There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

And another, a third angel, followed them and spoke with a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, which is poured full strength into the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever. There is no rest, day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or anyone who receives the mark of its name.

-Revelation 14:9-11 CSB

If anyone every tells you that hell is not real, or not forever, you can correct them with this verse. One pastor said that hell isn’t the reason you should become a Christian, but it is a reason. As Christians, we have nothing to be afraid of. We are not affected by hell at all. But hell does give us urgency to share the good news of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible. Amidst all this hell talk in the middle of the tribulation, the third angel states the obvious: [Revelation 14:12]

"This calls for endurance from the saints, who keep God’s commands and their faith in Jesus.”

-Revelation 14:12 CSB

There will be people during the tribulation, multitudes of people, who come to Christ. Remember that is one of the purposes of the tribulation: the final call to Christ.

Then I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so they will rest from their labors, since their works follow them.”

-Revelation 14:13 CSB

I’ve shared with you all before, one of my favorite places to go for time with the Lord, is the graveyard. We all have one thing in common, we’re all going to die in this earthly body. The difference is, between the Christian and the non-Christian, the Christian will rest in peace in heaven. The non-Christian will suffer eternally. When I’m in a graveyard, I see that reality right in front of me, and the urgency grows to reach as many people as possible with the good news of Jesus Christ. And look at the last part of this verse: their works will follow them. The things you do while you’re here on earth, they will echo for eternity. Whatever you do, do it for the Lord. Don’t review the past. Philippians 3:13-14 is one of my favorite verses.

One thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

-Philippians 3:13-14 CSB

What will follow you into eternity?