Don’t Give an Inch

Introduction

Opening Illustration - John Bunyan: One of my long dead heroes was a pastor in England named John Bunyan. He wrote the classic work “A Pilgrim’s Progess” which you may of heard of before. What you might not know is about Bunyan’s personal life. He was an incredible preacher. In 1660, the local British government, working together with the Church of England, put Bunyan in jail, where he stayed for 12 years. This was an incredibly hard time for Bunyan because he had four little girls at home, that he had left with his second wife after his first wife passed away. One of his little girls was blind, and he would find himself in so much torment while in jail that he described it “pulling the flesh from my bones.” Early in his prison sentence he was given an opportunity to get out if he would but stop preaching.

“It was for the Word and the way of god that I was in this condition, [and] I was engaged not to flinch a hair’s breadth from it… It was my duty to stand to his Word, whether he would ever look upon me or no, or save me at the last; wherefore, thought I, I will leap off the ladder even blindfold into eternity, sink or swim, come heaven come hell, Lord Jesus, if thou wilt catch me, do; if not I will venture for thy name.”

That is called perseverence. Steely resolve. Unbending conviction.

Personal: You may never be asked to suffer for the name of Christ the way John Bunyan did. But you are called by Christ to exercise the same perseverence, the same steely resolve, and the same unbending conviction in whatever trials you face.

Context: Our passage today is one of the most debated and interpreted passages in Revelation. In the classic symbolic style of the book of Revelation, we encounter two beasts that wage war against the Church: the beast that rises out of the sea, and the beast that rises out of the earth. Like all the symbols in Revelation, these beasts represent something. They represent two antiChrist historic powers on this earth that over the entire Church Age have, and will continue, to do everything they can to destroy the true Church.

As John describes these powers he is very obviously using coded language to refer to systems that he was familiar with in the first century. But his vision is more expansive than just the first century. It applies to us as well. In the midst of describing these two beasts we have sentence tells us why this chapter is in the Bible, verse 10.

Revelation 13:10 “… Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.”

This entire chapter is here not to scare us about the reality of what we face as Christians, though indeed the beasts are terrifying. It’s here to embolden us to courageous perseverance no matter the cost. The main idea is simple. You will be faced in this life with all kinds of pressures, to bend the knee, to go squishy on your doctrine, to soften the hard words of Jesus, to sound just a little more secular. Here’s the main thought.

Main Idea: Don’t give an inch.

Meaning & Application

DON’T GIVE AN INCH TO THE BEAST THAT RISES OUT OF THE SEA

First, we read of the beast that rises out of the sea. Let’s read his description together.

Revelation 13:1–10 “And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear: If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.”

My Intepretation: What is the identity of this beast that rises out of the sea. Thist beast represents all antiChristian governmental powers that have waged war against the Church since the days of John until the final day when Christ returns. It’s clear from this text, that at the very least John is speaking about the Roman empire and how the Roman empire tried to crush the Church. But I think the clues in the text inform us that what the Roman empire did to Christians, has been echoed all throughout history, as Satan uses antiChristian government to harm the Church.

The Text: John, accomplishes this narrative through the use of dramatic and illustrative language. You can imagine the scene. John is standing on the shore looking at the sea. The water begins to churn as something massive is stepping out of it.

10 horns (1): First, horns begin to emerge, 10 of them. As readers of Revelation, we might recall that last week when Thomas preached on Revelation 12, the Dragon (who is Satan) was described as having “seven heads and ten horns.” This also would reminded John of the prophet Daniel in the Old Testament, who had his own vision of four different beasts. And Daniel’s fourth beast had 10 horns on it that represented 10 different kings.

7 Heads (1): As the beast continues to rise he sees that it has seven heads. What a monster this is! These seven heads can reference of two things, likely both. On the one hand, between the four beasts of Daniel’s vision, they had seven heads. And so John is directly picking up on what Daniel wrote about. On the other hand, Rome, in John’s day, was known as the “city on seven hills.” And so there are some allusions being made to Rome.

Body (2): As the body emerges he sees qualities that are similar to the beasts that Daniel saw: leopard, feet like a bears, mouth like a lion’s. Now remember, those four beasts in Daniel represented four different earthly empires. Daniel prophesied about the Persian Empire, and the Greek Empire, and the Roman Empire. That’s why I think these different animals are John’s way of saying, its not just one person or one empire. This represents all earthly governments that use antiChristian power to squash the Church.

Dragon Gives Authority (2): Then we have a key phrase at the end of verse 2. The dragon gives power and his throne and authority to this first beast. This is governmental language. A throne is a seat of governance. Power and authority are tools that governments use to accomplish their purpose. And here we see that many governments throughout the Church Age, whether they fully comprehend it or not, are active agents of the Devil.

Dead & Alive (3): We read in verse 3 that one of the heads died and came back to life. This has a specific meaning, and a more general meaning. Specifically, I think its referring to the fact that Emperor Nero, who was a great persecutor of Christians in the first century committed suicide in the middle of his reign. The Christians at the time must have thought, “Wow, that power is gone that was persecuting us.” But then, not much longer after that Emperor Domition came to power, and he was just as vile and wicked towards Christians as Nero had been. More generally, this means that antiChristian authorities will persist throughout the Church Age.

Worship & Blasphemy (5): We read this beast utters blasphemous words against God even demands worship. And the worship that people give to this beast, they don’t realize but is actually worship is given the Devil that stands behind the beast. Indeed during the Roman empire, emperor worship became a formal religion. In our day in the west, Emperor Worship is alive and well. Some folks indeed make saviors out of their political leaders. Much more broadly, Marxism which is so influential today, functionally is the belief that the government can bring about lasting peace, the government as a whole is the Savior we have been waiting for. And so all our trust and hope is placed in the government to solve our problems.

42 Months (5): As it happens, the first Roman persecution of of the Church was begun by Emperor Nero in 64AD. This was after Nero had drunkenly set fire to the city of Rome. He blamed the fire on the Christians as an easy scape goat, and set out to brutally find them and murder them. The stories from this wave of persecution are tremendous. It ended after 42 months when Emperor Nero committed suicide. Again, while John is speaking about Nero, more importantly, it is communicates the enemy is on a leash. He is permitted for a set period of time and no longer.

Summarize: What is this beast representing? It represents how Satan coopts earthly governments to achieve his sinister ends, namely his effort to crush and stamp out the Church. This information should serve us in a number of important ways.

Global: First, as students of history, we can look across the last 2,000 years, and now understand why the Church has faced the governmental persecution it has faced.

We can understand the lunacy of Nero who burned Christians to death

We can understand the rise of Muslim governments that kill, crush, and persecute Christians.

We can understand governments like those of Catholic Bloody Mary in England, Marxist Leninism in Russia, Atheistic Maoism in China, and many other governments that sought to, and often effectively, crush and destroy the Church.

These are Satanically influeced governments. The Christians that lived during these times in these places have written at length of what it was like to live under the tyranny of the beast that rises out of sea.

Close to Home: But what about in the modern west? Is this beast active? By God’s grace, America, still retains many of its Christian roots, far greater than most of Europe at this point. But even in America we have seen disturbing movements by the government towards the Church. We should not be surprised by any of this.

When pastors in England are arrested for preaching the basic gospel of Jesus Christ on the street.

When bills are passed in Canada that forbid churches from speaking about the basic biblical framework of gender.

When conservative valued Christians are labeled by their government as domestic terror threats.

Once again, this not to play the victim. It’s simply to acknowledge the work of the beast.

Endurance: But what is John’s point in sharing all of this. It is to call the faithful saints to “endurance.”

Revelation 13:10 “… Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.”

In other words, “Don’t give an inch.”

If one day you are told that your Christian convictions are now labeled a hate crime, don’t give an inch.

If one day your children’s schools attempt to forbid you from knowing information about your child, don’t give an inch.

If one day they take me from this pulpit and forbid me to preach the truth of God’s Word, don’t give an inch.

Don’t give an inch to the beast that rises out of the sea.

DON’T GIVE AN INCH TO THE BEAST THAT RISES OUT OF THE LAND

The second beast rises out of the land.

Revelation 13:11–18 “Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”

My Interpretation: What does this beast represent, I believe this beast represents all antiChrist religion that attempts to persecute the Church throughout the entire Church Age. The first beast represented governments. The second beast represents religion.

Lamb & Dragon: We see in verse 10 that this second beast appears like a lamb, but it speaks like a dragon. This beast is far more charming than the first. The first looked like a monster. This looks like a lamb. In fact, when we use the word lamb we immediately think of Jesus, who is the lamb who was slain. This beast does all it can to look true and right and good on the outside, while being satanic on the outside. It masquerades as true religion.

Serves the First Beast: Verse 12 says that this second beast will serve the first beast. These false prophets, who are dressed as religious righteous, look to the unjust laws and governance of the first beast and say “Yes, that is good. We as religious people can support that.” And ignorant masses listen to them as their spiritual leaders, not realizing they are worshiping the Devil.

Signs & Miracles (13-15): Verses 13-15 are very difficult to interpret. It speaks of this second beast doing miracles, and making a statue of the first beast, and then making that statue speak so that people worship the statue. Of course there are those who those who interpret Revelation in a solely futuristic way, who read all of this very literally. They believe there will be a talking statue at soime point. Again, I don’t believe that we are to take these symbols so literally, the genre precludes that. What we can say is that the antiChrist religions of this world, in this age, will be infused with demonic power in order to deceive the masses.

Mark of the Beast (16-17): Verses 16-17 speak of the mark of the beast. Everyone has to be marked on the hand or the forehead in order to buy or sell. Again, futurists have been looking for some kind of mark. Some have thought it would be a modern day micro-chip we get imlanted under our skin in order to buy. Maybe…? I don’t think the mark of the beast is physical any more than the sealing on the foreheads of the saints was physical back in chapter 7.

I think what this is communicating is that this beast will make a mockery of true worshipers of God. The people of God were commissioned by God in Deuteronomy 6 to keep God’s law always on their hearts.

Deuteronomy 6:8 “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”

Some groups over the centuries in Israel have taken that verse very literally, and actually roll up bits of that passage and hang it between their eyes, or on their hands. Again, that was not the intention. The intention was that God’s people would always have God’s law front and center of their heart and mind. Here, in Revelation 13, the beast demands worship. “Remove God’s law from your heart and mind, follow the new law!”

666 (18): Finally in verse 18, the number of the beast is given, 666. What’s happening here is that John is writing in code to his readers. In Hebrew there is a common way of turning letters into numbers, as a way of speaking in code. Each letter in the alphabet had a numerical value. If you take Caesar Nero, and figure its hebrew value, you arrive at 666. John is specifically informing his people the emperor cult that surrounded Nero was fueled by Satan. For our purposes, we know that every antiChrist false religion that has spawned since the days of the Emperor Cult of Nero is the same.

Takeaway: Let me summarize this second beast. This second beast represents all antiChrist religion on this world. Whether we are speaking about more classic religions like Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism that all reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. These are false religions that serve the great Dragon and not God.

Bigger Concern: My bigger concern for us in general, is not for the obviously antiChristian religions. Most Christians in the West are able to identify that those serve the second beast. For us, I’m more afraid of false religions that pose as serving Christ, they appear lamb-like, and yet have the voice of a dragon.

Church of England: This year the Church of England installed a woman, Sarah Mullaly, as the archbiship of Canterbury (functionally the leader of the entire Church of England). This woman is using the Church and the Bible to basically affirm everything on the modern secular wish list.

Roman Catholic Church: how about the Roman Catholic Church? You know it’s interesting, in Protestant history, many Protestants believed the Roman Catholic Church was very directly and solely, the beasts combined. In the old days the Roman Catholic Church had a strange merger of both political power and religious power. And so the two beasts had this strange overlap and for years they sought to expunge the Protestant Church. While I wish we could say enough time has passed since the Reformation, and that we can just stop disagreeing on dogma and just call ourselves one church, we can’t. The official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church are explicitly at odds with the teachings of the Bible.

They have made Mary into The Queen of Heaven, and insist that we pray to her.

They have invented all kinds of absurd doctrines that are not found in scripture like indulgences, and the Treasury of Merit. The very idea of Purgatory, displaces the entire concept that Christ has paid the pusishment for all of our sins.

They have turned Christ, the human, into a piece of bread, that is to be worshipped in the Sunday mass.

These are not small differences. These are antiChrist doctrines. This is the dragon’s voice dressed up the lamb. And while I’m sure there are many who are genuinely saved within the Catholic Church, that is despite the Catholic Church’s leadership, not because of it.

Do not give an inch to the beast that rises out of the land.

DON’T GIVE AN INCH TO THE BEAST THAT RISES FROM WITHIN

Self-Righteous: Thus far we have examined two frightening beasts that truly are terrifying. And if I were to end my sermon here right now, every person in this room would leave feeling quite self-righteous. They would see the wickedness of the world out there, and they would flex their muscles and determine in their hearts that by their effort they won’t give an inch.

The Beast Within: But before we allow ourselves to get too triumphant, there is a third beast implicit in this text that I wish to expose. The spirit of the first beast that coopts government to serve its own purpose and not God, and the spirit of the second beast that coopts religion to serve its purpose and not God’s, actually resides inside of us. The real frightening beast is not the beast out of the sea or the beast out of the land, but it is the beast that rises out of my sinful flesh that in my flesh desires the very same thing as those two beasts, to coopt government and to coopt religion to serve me rather than God.

Masses: Why are so many deceived by these beasts?

Revelation 13:4 “And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?””

Is it because they are weaker than you or me? Is it because they are naturally more ignorant than you or me? No! If left to myself, I would serve those beasts.

How Many Times: How many times have you and I given an inch in the name of self-preservation or self-glorification?

We give an inch in our convictions so that we won’t be mocked. Is this not coopting Christ to serve our ends?

We give an inch in our holiness so that we can fit into the world. Is this not coopting Christ to serve our ends?

We give an inch of the truth because we fear rejection. Is this not coopting Christ to serve our ends?

We give an inch in our courage because we what we really want is comfort?

Peter fled! The disciples fled! John had to remind the churches in the beginning of Revelation to be warned of lukewarmness, of being neither hot nor cold.

The Message: The message of Revelation is not “Look how strong Christians are.” The message of Revelation is “Look how desparately we all need a Savior?” We all would naturally serve the beast, if not for the saving grace of Christ Jesus. If you’re a Christian, and you’re able to resist the beast the true cause of that resistance is not your strength or might. Who are those who do not worship the beast? Verse 8 importantly tells us.

Revelation 13:8 “and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.”

Christ alone planned to rescue you. Christ alone didn’t give an inch to Pontius Pilate when that Roman governor had him flogged and questioned and crucified. Christ alone didn’t give an inch to the religious pharisees of his day who tried to quiet him. Christ alone had no beastliness that welled up inside of him due to sin, he was perfectly righteous. Christ alone has delivered us from tyranny of the beast that held us captive. He gets all the glory.

Conclusion

Main Idea: So when I say “Do not give an inch,” I do not mean that we must muster the strength to remain steadfast on our own and prove our metal to God.

Revelation 13:10 “… Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.”

The “faith of the saints” is Christ crucified for me, born again to a new and living hope. And if anyone ever tries to deceive you to thinking in the slightest that its not true.

Don’t give an inch!