Unveiling the Deceptive Power of the False Prophet

Well, tonight we're in the book of Revelation, and we're looking at the false prophet, right?

And we started out looking at three different areas the other week.

We were looking at his person, his power, and his program.

And so tonight we're on his power, and so that's where we pick up tonight.

Revelation 13, verses 12 through 14, as we open up tonight, it says,

Revelation 13:12–14

He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence,

and he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast,

whose fatal wound was healed.

He performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to

the earth in the presence of men,

and he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was

given him to perform in the presence of the beast,

telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the

wound of the sword and has come to life.

Though primarily a subtle deceiver,

the false prophet that we've been looking at will not be impotent.

John actually notes that he exercises all the authority of the first beast, which is who?

Antichrist, right? And some believe that the The false prophet will replace

Antichrist and rule alone during the great tribulation.

But that's impossible if you read scripture, because since the text explicitly

says that the false prophet exercises his authority, if you remember reading

here, in the presence of Antichrist.

And so, but both the false prophet and Antichrist will be alive when Jesus Christ returns.

You know how I know that? The Bible tells me.

Revelation 19, 20. Okay. So what's being said here is that the false prophet

will exercise some kind of demonic power and authority as the Antichrist does.

And since both are empowered by the same hellish source, right,

that he exercises his authority in Antichrist presence actually implies that

Antichrist will have delegated that authority to him.

And so the false prophet's mission is going to be to use all the means available

to him from the Antichrist to cause the earth and those who dwell in it to worship God.

The first beast, right? The Antichrist, right?

He'll lead, whose power source is Satan himself, the dragon.

He will lead the worldwide cult of Antichrist worship.

So the false prophet's efforts to promote the worship of the Antichrist,

it received a tremendous boost from a startling, spectacular event,

that apparent healing of the first beast or Antichrist fatal wound.

We talked about that some last week. In fact, as we noted in the previous week,

that phrase refers to Antichrist's supposed resurrection from the dead.

Now, that is a satanic imitation, not only of Christ's resurrection,

but also that of the two witnesses, if you remember, that we saw in chapter 11, verse 11.

And it's most likely that Antichrist's death will be staged,

and hence his resurrection is going to be a ruse.

It's less likely that God, for his own sovereign purposes, may permit Antichrist

to genuinely rise from the dead.

In either case, though, the world's going to accept Antichrist's resurrection as genuine.

You guessed it, it's going to greatly enhance both his prestige and that of the false prophet.

So besides his involvement in the Antichrist resurrection, quote,

the false prophet will perform, it says, great signs of his own.

And those signs mimic not only the miracles performed by Jesus Christ,

but also those of the two witnesses that we saw in chapter 11.

So if you look at it this way that these satanic

false wonders with all the

deception of wickedness is what he's going to perform right

they'll be extremely you know uh persuasive

for those who perish as it talks about in second thessalonians 2

because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved those who

reject in other words the saving gospel of the lord jesus christ will eagerly

accept the damning false gospel that's preached by the false prophet.

A gospel that's seemingly verified, by the way, by spectacular supernatural signs.

So that Satan can fabricate supernatural signs is clear from scripture. You knew that, right?

I mean, Janus and Jambres of the magicians in Pharaoh's court,

that is talked about in 2 Timothy 3, imitated some of the miracles that God

did, if you remember, through Moses and Aaron.

And Acts chapter 8, verses 9 through 11, actually describes a man named Simon,

Acts 8:9–11

who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of

Samaria, claiming to be somebody great.

And they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him,

saying, this man is what is called the great power of God.

And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time,

the scripture tells us, astonished them with his magic arts.

The signs performed by the false prophet will far exceed those of a small-time magician like Simon.

In fact, amazingly, the false prophet imitating the two witnesses that we read

about in chapter 11, what does it say in this passage we just read?

It says he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth.

In fact, that's present tense that there that makes in Greek,

that poeo, it suggests that he will repeatedly perform this supernatural act

in the presence of men to impress them with his power.

God, if you remember, has often demonstrated his supernatural power by sending fire from heaven.

Satan's henchman will perform a similar sign, but his will be one of false wonders,

it tells us in 2 Thessalonians 2.

But it's going to lure, here's the point, it's going to lure unbelievers to their doom.

The false prophet will succeed dramatically in his efforts to deceive those,

it says here, who dwell on the earth, exactly as Jesus predicted, by the way.

And that word there deceives that

is from the greek plana and it means to

wonder it it forms that root of

the english word planet by the way and since

the planets appear to wander through the heavens the world will be utterly vulnerable

those that are here the unbelievers to his deception during the tribulation

time and there will be unparalleled disasters we've looked at some of these

unimaginable horrors that are going to take place,

leaving people desperate for answers, right?

Having rejected the true gospel and blasphemed the true God,

the unbelieving world will be eager to believe the deceiving lies that's going

to be propagated by the false prophet.

And John actually defines the people who will be deceived.

Look at it again in the text, as those who dwell on the earth.

A technical phrase that's used throughout Revelation, by the way, to refer to who?

Unbelievers. That's who it's talking about, unbelievers.

Though sorely tested, I want y'all to get this tonight, though sorely tested

and persecuted, Scripture tells us that God's elect cannot be deceived.

Mark chapter 13, verse 22.

Mark 13:22

What do I mean by God's elect? His chosen ones, us, right? His elect,

the church, the called out ones.

And so because believers know the truth and are protected by who?

By God Almighty, by their God. In fact, they'll recognize the false prophets

teaching as lies, and they'll not be swayed because of the signs which it was

given him to perform in the presence of the beast.

That the unbelieving world will be deceived is actually due not only to the

wicked deception of Satan, the demons, Antichrist, the false prophet,

but guess what else? It also comes as God's judgment.

I don't want you to miss that.

The false prophet's preaching will succeed in part because it will arrive,

as it says in 2 Thessalonians 2,

2 Thessalonians 2:10

verse 10, with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish because

they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

But it will also succeed. Don't miss this either,

because in verse 11 and 12 of that same passage in 2 Thessalonians 2,

because God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe

what is false in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth,

but took pleasure in wickedness.

So as the power of Antichrist and the persuasiveness of the false prophet grow,

Satan is going to escalate the false world religion of Antichrist worship.

Humanity will eventually come to be so completely under the influence of the

false prophet that the people will obey his command to actually do something.

Do you remember what they do from this passage? What are they going to make?

Remember, they're making an image to the beast. They're going to make an image to the beast.

And the world will engage honestly in the most shocking, blatant idolatry that's ever been seen.

Like Nebuchadnezzar before him in Daniel chapter 3, but it's on a global scale.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

Antichrist, aided by the false prophet, will set up a statue of himself as a

symbol of his deity and worldwide worship.

And that blasphemous image will probably be set up on the temple grounds in

Jerusalem, and it will be connected, you guessed it, with the abomination of desolation.

It'll be a tribute to the awesome power of Antichrist, who had the wound to

the sword, it says here, and has come to life to seemingly conquer death.

Well, let's look at the last part, his program. Look at what it says here in

Revelation 13, 15 through 18.

And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast,

so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not

worship the image of the beast to be killed.

And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor,

and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on

their foreheads, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell,

except the one who has the mark,

either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom.

Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast,

for the number is that of a man, and his number is 666.

That's in Revelation 13, 15 through 18.

So you got the picture, the idolatrous image of the Antichrist will be different

from any other idol in human history.

The Bible actually scornfully denounces idols as having mouths,

yet being unable to speak.

You remember all those passages talking about this in the Old Testament?

But in another display of his power to deceive here, the false prophet it says

in this passage will give breath to the image of the beast so that the image

of the beast would even speak.

Now, that word breath, when we look at that in the Greek, it translates pneuma, not zoe or bios.

The Greek words normally translate in life, in other words.

And what that means is the false prophet here, I want you to look at it this

way, according to the original language, it will animate the image of Antichrist

so that it gives the appearance of being alive.

It's not really going to be alive, right? With today's amazing special effects

though, technology, robotics, all that, it's not out of the realm of possibility.

Add to that the world's desperate need amid the carnage of the tribulation that's

going on to believe in a death conqueror here.

And the ruse becomes very believable.

Doesn't take a whole lot to push people over the edge, does it?

And after his immense worldwide success and after dropping his facade of gentleness,

the false prophet is going to cause, it says in scripture, as many as do not

worship the image of the beast to be killed.

So in other words, you get this, the picture, right? If you're there and you're

a follower of Christ, you become a Christian in the tribulation.

If you don't worship the image here, what's going to happen to you?

You're going to be killed. In fact, in the case of Nebuchadnezzar's image,

I got it out, in Daniel 3, the death sentence will be decreed for those who

refuse to worship the image of Antichrist.

Many of the martyrs mentioned earlier in Revelation are those who will be killed

during this terrible time of persecution.

But though the death sentence here may be decreed on all, not all believers will be killed.

And some will survive until Christ returns and will enter his millennial kingdom

as living people. How do we know that?

Isaiah 65 tells us that.

Verses 20 through 23. Matthew 25 verses 31 through 40 tells us that.

Matthew 25:31–40

Nor will Antichrist and his henchmen kill all the Jews.

We know that from scripture because we read that earlier in chapter 12,

verses 6 and 7, and verse 14, two-thirds of them will perish,

but the rest will be protected, it talks about in Zechariah 13.

So as part of his plan to enforce the worship of Antichrist,

the false prophet will require all categories of unbelievers.

Summarized as the small and the great, and the rich and the poor,

and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark, where at?

On their right hand or where else?

Forehead. Mark.

Karagma, from karasov, I engrave is what it means, was the term basically for

images or names of the emperor on Roman coins.

In fact, in the ancient world, such marks that you could view it as tattoos

or brands, right, were commonly given to slaves, to soldiers,

and devotees of religious cults as well.

We see that even in Galatians chapter 6. It talks about this,

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

verse 17. God sealed, if you remember, with a mark on the forehead, who else?

The 144,000 to preserve them from his wrath against the unbelieving world.

We saw that all the way back in chapter 7.

So the false prophet here marks the unsaved to preserve them from Antichrist's

wrath against God's people.

So the mark will

signify that the person bearing it is a

worshiper and loyal follower of

who of antichrist right and in much the same way here the roman emperor emperors

required their subjects as i was telling you to prove their loyalty by offering

sacrifices to caesar those who refused if you remember like those who refused

to take the antichrist mark were subject to execution,

Besides the constant threat, think about it for a minute, of death.

Refusing to take the mark of the beast

is going to have dire practical consequences just in your daily life.

What does it say? No one will be able to buy or to sell except the one who has the mark.

So Antichrist empire will maintain, if you will, strict economic control over

the world, the whole world.

Food, think about it, food. that includes

little Debbie's that includes oatmeal cream pies okay all the

food the clothing what about

medical supplies what about the drugs that people need

right as far as you know to help them with

you can view it as blood pressure meds all that kind of stuff right all the

supplies all the other necessities of life potentially in demand in this devastated

earth which is felt the judgment of God will be unobtainable for those without the mark.

Currency will probably vanish to be replaced by controlled credit.

Instead of a credit card, which can be lost, by the way, people are going to

have a mark, possibly a barcode, I don't know, in their forehead or hand.

Scanning people's foreheads or hands would identify them to this central computer

system. A man who had lived under Bulgaria's communist regime actually remarked

this, and I want to read this for you because I had it quoted here.

He said, You cannot understand and you cannot know that the most terrible instrument

of persecution ever devised is an innocent ration card.

He goes on to say, You cannot buy and you cannot sell except according to that little innocent card.

If they please, you can be starved to death. And if they please,

you can be dispossessed of everything you have, for you cannot trade and you

cannot buy and you cannot sell without permission.

And that was from W.A. Criswell's expository, Sermons on Revelation,

where that story was taken from.

But the pressure here, I want y'all to see this, the pressure to give in to

the worship of Antichrist will

be far worse than anything that's ever experienced in human history here.

Life was going to be virtually unlivable, right?

So the people are forced, in other words, to bow to the demonized king.

Not prompted merely by religious deception, though, but also by economic necessity.

They don't want to starve to death, right?

They don't want to not be able to have what they need. I mean,

these are critical situations, right? It's like life.

We're talking about living life. Today, things we take for granted.

But further describing the mark, John notes that it will consist of either what?

The name of the beast or what? The number of his name.

So Antichrist will have a universal designation, his name within a numbering system.

The exact identification of that phrase I was going to tell you all is just not clear.

What is clear is that everyone will be required to have the identifying mark

or suffer the consequences.

That's it. And it really does kind of mirror, doesn't it, with Nebuchadnezzar

and old, you know, Shadrach and Benny, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

you know, whether they were going to bow down or not.

It kind of mirrors that, doesn't it? And the exclamation here is wisdom is a

warning to those alive at the time to be wise and discerning.

They'll need to recognize, in other words, what is happening and understand

the significance of the number connected with Antichrist's name.

And those with understanding, it says, will be able to calculate the number

of the beast for the number is that of a man and his number is what? 666.

Perhaps no detail in Revelation has intrigued people more than this number.

There's been no end to the speculation, you've probably heard much of it,

as to its significance or how to calculate it even.

In Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, letters had numerical equivalents and a myriad

of schemes as we see to associate the names of those historical individuals.

In fact, with the number 666, believe it or not, they'd been put forth,

different people trying to figure this out.

I mean, Nero has been looked at, Curigula, Domitian, Napoleon,

Hitler, Miscellany, Stalin.

And a host of other people have been proposed based on some sort of convoluted

numbering mathematical rendering of the letters in their name.

But I want y'all to know this. Y'all probably figured it out.

All that kind of speculation is totally futile. Okay.

Since the Antichrist is still to come.

The number 666 cannot be associated with any historical individual.

In other words, the church father, Arrhenius, cautioned against speculating

about the identity of the person who's associated with the number 666 until

that person arrives on the scene.

And actually, Robert L. Thomas, theologian, he gives a very reasonable perspective, I think.

I'm going to share it with you. He said, the better part of wisdom is to be

content that the identification is not yet available, but will be when the future

false Christ ascends to his throne.

The person to whom 666 applies must have been future to John's time,

he said, because John clearly meant the number to be recognizable to somebody, to someone.

If it was not discernible to his generation and those immediately following

him, and it was not, the generation to whom it will be discernible must have

lain and still lies in the future, is what he said.

Past generations have provided many illustrations, he said, illustrations of

this future personage, but all past candidates have proven inadequate as fulfillments.

Christians from generation to generation may manifest the same curiosity as

the prophets of old regarding their own prophecies, but their curiosity will

remain unsatisfied until the time of fulfillment arrives.

That's from Robert L. Thomas.

So this is something that's in the future. That's going to be discernible by

those who have wisdom to discern at this time.

So that precise significance, here's what we want to look at as we close a little

bit of the number 666 awaits the future time of the Antichrist.

But I think it is noteworthy, though, that the number is that of a man.

Seven is the number of who? God, the number of perfection. It's God's number, in other words.

Since man falls short of perfection, his number's what? Six.

Man was created on the what day? Sixth day, it tells us in Genesis 1.

Slaves, if you remember, were freed after how many years of service? Six. Exodus 21.

Fields were to be sown for only how many consecutive years? Six,

you guessed it, in Leviticus 25.

So repeating the number three times here, six, six, six, it emphasizes that

this man's number here, just as that statement, holy, holy, holy, right?

We hear that statement in God's word, stresses God's absolute holiness here.

This is stressing this is

the number of man right and this is

the false worship this is this is representing that

false trinity even if you

will right in that sense but a

false religion on a scale never before seen we've

talked about this is coming led by the most

notorious of all false prophets most

people is going to follow the seemingly safe and

prudent course worshiping the antichrist that's the easiest way right

i mean most people we're all about the microwave

way right we want what's quick and easy you know

barcode no problem you know put it in me you know put it on my forehead put

it on my hand hey if this is what it takes you know i'm going to do it in fact

you may even have some people say just in their deception that you know i don't

know for sure about all this but i got to eat so i'm just gonna have to do it anyway.

But those, it says in Scripture, who have the wisdom to discern this,

they realize that a tragic mistake here, this is a tragic mistake with disastrous

consequences to do this, for those who persist in worshiping the beast will face the wrath of God.

It's a sobering passage. Revelation warns of their fate.

Let me read this to you. It says that another angel, a third one,

followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast in his

image and receives a mark on his forehead or his hand,

he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full in the cup of his anger.

And he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy

angels and in the presence of the lamb. That's Jesus.

And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night.

Those who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name.

That's in chapter 14 of Revelation verses 9 through 11. Is there any doubt what's

going to happen to those who get the mark?

And what of the false prophet? Who's going to, he's going to usher in uncounted

millions on the broadest and most dangerous of all roads here leading to destruction.

He will suffer an equally appalling and terrifying fate because listen to this, scripture says,

and the beast was seized and with him the false prophet who performed the signs

in his presence by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the

beast and those who worshiped his image.

These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone.

That's in Revelation 19 and Revelation 20, talking about that.

But that sobering passage, this sobering passage we're reading here,

it's not intended to be the source of just like fruitless speculation on our

part about the details, but it just stands as a warning to the unbelieving world.

It's also a challenge, I think, to believers, to all of us, to lead careful,

watchful, godly lives, right?

To to evangelize a hopelessly lost world. Look, we've been talking about being

on mission, made for mission.

I mean, now's the time for us to evangelize. Now's the time for us to go and

share the hope of Christ to a lost and dying world that's headed for destruction.

And this is the ultimate part that we're reading about tonight.

Believers are to faithfully proclaim, Eastwood, the saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And guess what? thereby rescue the souls of men and women from that disaster

that looms just over the horizon, if you will, is coming.