Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #22 of Revelation, chapter 13, and I we are reading Revelation 13:11-12:

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. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

We were discussing verse 11 in our last study and especially the statement which said: “he had two horns like a lamb;” that is, this second beast that came up out of the earth is just another representation of Satan.  God is using different illustrations or different pictures to help teach us about the things that will happen once Satan was loosed.  He will rule in the world and now the Lord is going to give us an “up close and personal look” at Satan’s rule in the church, so this beast has “two horns like a lamb,” because Jesus is the Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world; so Satan is going to try to look like Christ and He does that through the churches. 

At this point in this chapter, it is the time of the end of the church age and Satan overcomes the churches.  He had his people in place even during the church age and many of them were in positions of authority and power in the various congregations and denominations.  Now, finally, God has given it all over to him, the thing that Satan had desired for centuries – to be like God and to take his seat in the temple, the churches, and to receive worship as God,  “shewing himself that he is God.”  The time has finally come.  Satan has ultimate control and authority over all the churches and congregations of the world and things begin to change; the apostasy that had been growing is now going to come like an avalanche upon the churches of the world.  The spiritual desolation in all denominations and in individual churches is now going to be complete and there is total desolation in all the churches of the world, making all churches spiritually dry and withered because God’s Spirit is not there.  Now Satan can fashion and mold all the churches (not just most of them and not just 99% of them) after his own image; that image, of course, would be one of falsehood, deceitfulness and lies.  Just as the churches had born the image (at least to some degree) of Christ (whose image was truth and faithfulness), now the churches would bear the image of the one that ruled within them and that would be the Devil.

So the Bible says that “He had two horns like a lamb.”

Last time we took a look at 2Corinthians 11:14:

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Satan’s false apostles (unsaved individuals that are in positions of authorities in the churches) also transform themselves into apostles of Christ and that is no marvel because that is exactly what Satan has done.  He has transformed himself into an “angel of light” because that is basically a description of Jesus Christ – Christ is the Messenger of God and Christ is Light – and Satan wants to look like Christ and present himself as Christ.

The church age ended and the Bible reveals it ended on May 21, 1988, so it has been a while ago now – over 26 years.  After the church age ended, Satan did not have his emissaries take the pulpit all over the world to announce: “We have defeated the camp of the saints.  We have overcome them and the two witnesses are now dead in the streets and the beast is ruling.  The man of sin, Satan, has taken his seat here and when you worship, you will be worshipping the beast.  The church is now formed in his image.”  That did not happen because Satan is not stupid.  He is very deceptive and when you are very deceptive, you have to have some intelligence and Satan has excellent intelligence concerning evil things; he knows how the minds of people work and he knew that people would “run” if he told them the truth; and that would have been the truth if Satan’s emissaries would tell the congregations the actual situation: “Satan is ruling now and God has left.  If you remain, you will be giving worship to Satan.”  That would be all truthful and Satan does not deal in truth unless it is mixed with lies. 

Satan also knows that the world’s understanding of him is “the red cape and the horns, the sinister mustache and beard and the pitchfork and that he is found in haunted houses and graveyards late at night,” not in a well lit, air conditioned building with a fairly new carpet and comfortable pews and a Bible on the podium; not with Satan’s “man” behind the podium, reading from the Bible and commenting on the Bible, taking the Word of God in his mouth and preaching to the congregation.  That is not where you find Satan, is it?  To find Satan, you have to go through cobwebs and bring a flashlight to see in a dark, haunted place, would you not?  Do you see how Satan has expertly deceived the people of the world into having an expectation of only dark, evil things concerning him?  Anything that is lit up (like a church building) and has the name of Christ and a Bible on the podium, with a preacher preaching from the Bible, could not have Satan there!  That is what Satan counts on and that is why he is so able to deceive the congregations, because they are not expecting it at all – they are not thinking that Satan is there.  The sermon could even be about going out into the world with the Gospel to deliver people from Satan and the last thing they would ever imagine is that Satan is the spirit that is working in their church and their pastor is a minister of Satan.  That is out of the question for so many people because they do not understand this simple verse, in 2Corinthians 11:4:

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

He comes “like God.”  First of all, he wants to be where God was worshipped in the churches, because he wants to be God.  Secondly, he knows he cannot be himself and be the ugly fallen angel that he is; he needs to take upon an appearance of that which is good and right, so he tries to look like Christ.  He is an excellent impostor.  He knows the words to say and so he speaks kindly to people and tells them what they want to hear and flatters their ears and makes them tingle with good things, benefits and “spiritual goodies,” so to speak.  He tells them, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”  Make it easy for them, so they just have to make a simple choice and it is all up to them.  Then you can snare them.  You snare them with the trappings of “light” and the trappings of good things.   As we mentioned last time, you tell them things like: “Christ died for everyone.  God loves you.  God does not hate you.  He loves you.  Look what God did for you.  He died for you.  Does that not prove the love of God for you?” 

What is the problem with that?  Does the Bible not say that God loves us?  The Bible says that God loves His people and God sent the Lord Jesus to die exclusively for His people.  The Bible says that God hates the sinner; He hates not only the sin, but He hates the sinner:  “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated because Jacob I predestinated to receive salvation from the foundation of the world, but I did not do the same for Esau.  Therefore, Esau’s sin is upon him and I hate sin and, therefore, I hate Esau.” 

Now this does not mean that God does not have a general blessing and concern for all mankind.  He does, but, in an eternal sense and in regard to salvation, He only has blessing for His people and only love for His people and no such blessing for those that are not His chosen people and no such love for those that are not His elect.

But that truth will “not sell.”  You cannot package that.  It is the truth and you cannot expect people to be drawn to that idea – it is too limiting and you are excluding the majority of people with that language.  The Bible says a remnant is saved and that means that the overall majority are not saved.  Again, looking at it from the perspective of the churches during the church age, they would not like that because the churches would have had only a few people as members and that message would drive people away.

I remember there was a preacher on Family Radio and I cannot remember his name, but I remember what he did.  He used to be a “free will” preacher in Texas (I think) and he used to have a full congregation, but then God opened up his eyes to the truth of salvation by the grace of God and faith of Christ and that salvation is of the Lord through election and predestination.  So he began to preach that because (in all probability) he was now a “true man” and he was really one of God’s elect.  Therefore, he felt compelled and constrained to preach the truth to his congregation during the time of the church age.  He shared in his testimony that this practically emptied out his congregation; the people did not like it.  They did not want to hear that kind of preaching. 

You see, Satan had so many churches and congregations “programmed” to receive only positive things – only smooth and easy-to-hear things; flattering things where the choice is up to you and it is all in your hands to be saved.  He just adds a “little work” to grace; that is what Satan does.  He says, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”  So if you take a congregation that has been used to hearing these things and you tell them, “We are all dead in sin and we cannot exercise our souls – we are dead spiritually; our souls are dead.  We cannot stir up ourselves to grab hold of God.  The Bible says, ‘There is none righteous, no not one.  There is none that seeketh after God.’  If we could seek after Him, then we would find Him, but none can seek Him from that new soul that God requires; that leaves us all in the situation where we cannot become saved.  That is why Christ said that salvation is impossible with men, but possible with God.” 

The Gospel of the Bible is that you could only cry to God for mercy.  You could beseech Him and pour out your heart before Him and let Him know that you desired to be saved.  You could have cried and cried and cried, “Oh, God, I am a sinner and I am deservedly under your wrath and I know that I will eternally perish and die in my sin unless you would save me,” and we would have beaten upon our breast and cried, “Oh, God be merciful to me, a sinner!”  Then we would have waited upon the Lord and waited for Him to do the work of salvation and waited for God to save, if He was pleased to save us and if we were one of His elect.  Again, looking back at the time when it was the day of salvation, if you were not saved that day, then the next day you would cry the same thing: “O, dear Father in heaven, have mercy!  Have mercy!  Would you please save me?  Could it be?”  Then you would wait, again, on the third day, the fourth day, the hundredth day, or however long it might take, until God might save you (or until you pass away, perhaps, never becoming saved).  But, normally, if someone would persist and endure and not stop beseeching the Lord, it would be strong evidence that this was one of God’s elect.

But you can see how that differs and contrasts with Satan’s gospel.  It is the true, faithful Gospel of the Bible, not the gospel where the preacher preaches an emotionally stirring message: “Will you accept Christ?  Will you come down that aisle?  Will you say the Sinner’s Prayer?  Have you had enough of sin and enough of grieving God and grieving your family?”  It is an impassioned plea and finally the man hearing the message cannot take it any longer and he says, “I am going to decide.  I am going to accept Christ.”  Then he does that and he is promised “life” by the pastor: “Oh, my friend, now you have eternal life.  Now you believe what Jesus said and whoever believes on Him shall not perish.  You will live forever.”  Then the pastor and the elders and deacons and the rest of the congregation guarantee him eternal life: “Remember this day that you accepted Christ.  This is the day you were saved!” 

But it is all a “puff of smoke.”  It is all false.  None of it is true.  God speaks, in Ezekiel 13, of this underhandedness that every church in the land practices, in one way or the other, today.  It says in Ezekiel 13:22:

Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad…

This is speaking of the true believer and when we are under the hearing of false teachings, we become sad because we know we can never seem to “muster up” that will to believe the things that everyone else in the congregation contentedly believes.  That is because of God’s Spirit operating in us.  It is because God had chosen us and made us one of His and we, therefore, need to hear His voice – the voice of the pastor will not do; the voice the elders will not do; the voice of the entire congregation will not do.  It had to be the voice of Christ and we did not hear that voice in those kinds of gospels.  It goes on to say, in Ezekiel 13:22:

Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:

They promise “life.”  That is what the false gospels do.  That is what they accomplish.  They “strengthened the hands” (or the wills) of the wicked. 

So, here is an unsaved man, an ungodly man with a heart of stone; he has a desperately wicked heart.  It is a heart that is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?”

He does not even know it himself.  Then he thinks because he “walked the aisle” and “said the Sinner’s Prayer,” and he was dunked or sprinkled with water, or did whatever else the church told him to do, that he is now saved.  The church assured him and the pastor stated outright (or implied) that he was saved.  They promise him life and this “strengthened his hands” in an evil way because now he can just continue to do what he pleases.  He can continue to do as he had done, continuing on with that desperately wicked heart, but now if anyone says anything to him, he can say, “Oh, I am saved.  I accepted Christ on such-and-such a date.  Do not try to tell me I am not saved.  The Bible says, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,’ and I believe.” 

So many times in the days leading up to May 21, 2011, we would “catch a train” to pass out tracts on the streets on a Sunday and everyone would be coming back from their churches.  We would try to hand them a “Does God Love You?” tract and they would say, “Oh, no thank you, but give it to someone who needs it.  I am saved!”  They would walk on, in perfect contentment, smiling because they were saved.  They had gotten themselves saved through their works, but the Bible says: “No man is justified by the works of the law.”  They never became saved.  The only thing their preacher did in getting that person to accept Christ was to “strengthen” their wills in their wickedness; he convinced them that they do not need real salvation and they do not need the true grace of God.  You can see how the work of Satan, the evil deception that makes people believe a lie, makes people believe a lie more than they would believe the truth.  The truth starts to look “evil” to them.   So many people despise the doctrine of election.  They hate the word “predestination” and what that means.  They cannot stand the idea that there is a limited number, a certain number of people that God chose and determined to save: “Oh, that is awful doctrine,” some people think, but it is the true doctrine of the Bible. 

You see, the truth is not pleasant. The truth is not all-inclusive.  The truth is often a “narrow way” and the truth is that which says that the vast majority of people will die in their sins.  The truth is that God is the Saviour and a man cannot get himself saved.