The Revelation to John 13:1-18 [NLTse]
Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God. 2 This beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion! And the dragon gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority.

3 I saw that one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery—but the fatal wound was healed! The whole world marveled at this miracle and gave allegiance to the beast. 4 They worshiped the dragon for giving the beast such power, and they also worshiped the beast. “Who is as great as the beast?” they exclaimed. “Who is able to fight against him?”

5 Then the beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God. And he was given authority to do whatever he wanted for forty-two months. 6 And he spoke terrible words of blasphemy against God, slandering His name and His dwelling—that is, those who dwell in Heaven. 7 And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. 8 And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb Who was slaughtered before the world was made.

9 Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. 10 Anyone who is destined for prison will be taken to prison. Anyone destined to die by the sword will die by the sword.
This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful.

11 Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth. He had two horns like those of a lamb, but he spoke with the voice of a dragon. 12 He exercised all the authority of the first beast. And he required all the earth and its people to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13 He did astounding miracles, even making fire flash down to earth from the sky while everyone was watching. 14 And with all the miracles he was allowed to perform on behalf of the first beast, he deceived all the people who belong to this world. He ordered the people to make a great statue of the first beast, who was fatally wounded and then came back to life. 15 He was then permitted to give life to this statue so that it could speak. Then the statue of the beast commanded that anyone refusing to worship it must die.
16 He required everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. 17 And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. 18 Wisdom is needed here. Let the one with understanding solve the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666.

Sermon
We’ve been reading through the New Testament as a church in 2016. (The daily readings are at the bottom of the back flap in our Bulletins.) And I have committed to preach each week from something we’ve read. We’re in Revelation, and this past week we read Revelation chapters 13-18.

The Lord Jesus has given John potent visions to show John what is to come so that he can in-turn share these things with the people of Christ’s Church. Having shown John a series of visions to help him prepare the Church for life in these End-Times times in which we live, the Lord reveals to John a vision of the coming of Christ with a dragon representing Satan and a woman representing God’s faithful Old and New Covenant people.

This week we read about a Beast-Coming-Out-Of-The-Sea, and this Beast had seven heads and ten horns, with a crown on each horn, each head graffiti-ed with names saying blasphemous things about God. (Such as “He doesn’t love you,” and “You’re all alone in your troubles and sins,” … All sorts of things that aren’t true about God but that unbelievers say about Him.)

The Lord reveals to John that these ten horns on the Beast’s heads are kings, so this Beast has come to be called “Anti-Christ”, representing all the governments and authorities of the world that have set themselves against Jesus.
John then sees another Beast come out of the earth, This second Beast has only two horns (and the vision makes clear that these horns are like those of a lamb) but that this Beast speaks like a dragon. And, so, the imagery of this vision shows a power that has the appearance of Jesus (the Lamb) but who in reality speaks on behalf of the Devil (the dragon). This second Beast is called the “False Prophet” later in Revelation 16:13.

You see, just as our Father has a Son – Jesus Christ – to Whom He’s given all His power and authority, so that to worship and trust in Jesus you are in fact worshiping and trusting in the Father and declaring Him your King, likewise, the Devil has one – Anti-Christ – whom he has given all His power and authority, and when one worships and trusts in Anti-Christ that one is actually worshiping and trusting in the Devil and declaring him your king.

And just as the Lord Jesus has sent His People into the world to preach His Word and give Him glory, likewise, Anti-Christ has sent a people into the world seeking to lead Christ’s people astray by preaching and teaching in ways that sound like Jesus but actually speaking the words of Anti-Christ and give the Devil glory.

In Chapter 17 John is shown a woman whom he sees and describes as “a great prostitute”. And this woman is called “Babylon the Great, Mother of All Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World.” But, like Anti-Christ and the False Prophet, “Babylon” is not really a woman but is symbolic of a city. Just as the heavenly Jerusalem represents Christ’s worldwide Church, the hellish Babylon the Great represents the Devil’s people, human society centered around Anti-Christ, the Beast.
So, what does all this have to do with us as we’ve been reading these chapters this week and as we are striving to live as followers of our King, Jesus Christ? As we are striving to preach faithfully and give our King Jesus glory? As we are striving to live together in mercy and righteousness, living humbly with our God, His faithful, adoring Church?

Well – as a church – have you heard about the latest blasphemous things our old denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), has been doing? Well, as you may know, we left that denomination because they had rejected the Bible as the Word of God. We left because the General Assembly had begun treating the Bible as though it contained the Word of God instead of being the Word of God, allowing pastors and elders and teachers to pick and choose which parts of the Scripture were to be believed and which parts could be ignored.

This led them to making light of divorce, premarital sex, homosexuality, bisexuality, adultery, and eventually to make light of the Lord Jesus Himself. At their most recent General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church (USA) had a Muslim imam open the Assembly by praying to Allah and asking Allah’s blessing upon their proceedings, as though Allah and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ were one and the same!

I hope you are as shocked and affronted as your elders and me! I hope you are shocked and affronted because even the most simple-minded Middle Eastern Muslim peasant-child with no education knows that Allah – the god of the Muslims – and Allah-al-Ab, the God and Father of Jesus Christ – the God of the Christians – are not the same! But it’s the False Prophet at work: Preaching and teaching and evangelizing in ways that seem faithful and wise and true – that seem like Jesus – but that, in reality, leads people away from Jesus to give His glory to the Devil!

I share all this with you because, as the Presbyterian Church (USA) continues down this blasphemous path – and makes headlines for itself and its churches nationally and locally for doing so – we are likely being seen as a part of that because we have its name, “Presbyterian”, in our name. And your elders would like to distance ourselves, as a church, from all that, if we could. Except that the truth is that this community has come to know us as “The Presbyterian Church”. So, if we take “Presbyterian” out of our name we’ll have some people around the community who’ll no longer have any idea who we are when we tell them what church we’re a part of or when we invite them to church. If our name doesn’t have “Presbyterian” in it, many won’t know the church we’re talking about. On the other hand, there’ll be some – if we take “Presbyterian” out of our name – who will hear the new name (but without “Presbyterian” in it) and say to themselves, “O, yeah, they’re talking about the Presbyterian Church.”

So, it seems we need to keep “Presbyterian”, but how do we do so and still distance ourselves from our old denomination? How do we distance ourselves from the False Prophet at work around us?

And then it came to us: We’re a part of a new denomination. When we were a part of the Presbyterian Church (USA) we were “First Presbyterian Church of Milford”. Now that we’re part of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, let’s just be the “Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Milford”!

Think about it: By adding “Evangelical”, not only do we get another word in our name that is really difficult to spell, but we get the opportunity to let people know we’re different, and for those who ask we get to let them know the euangellion – the evangel, the good news – that we’re a church that believes Jesus is God, and that we believe He died for the sins of everybody in the world who would believe in Him, and we believe He did that to bring those believers to God because God loves them – loves all the people of the world! – and wants to live with them and them to live with Him, forever! And that we believe the Bible is God’s Word, every word of it important and precious to show God’s love for us and His plan for bringing us to Himself through faith in Jesus Christ.

So, we’re going to be the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Milford. And we want everyone to come to next week’s Congregational Meeting for us all to celebrate that together, as we move ahead the same as we’ve always been, but more clearly set apart from Anti-Christ and the False Prophet and Babylon the Great, Mother of All Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World…

But, what about us all individually, or as couples, or as families? Our Father is bringing judgment against anti-Christian leaders (if they’re against the Christ of the Bible), anti-Christian preaching and teaching (if it’s against the Christ of the Bible), and anti-Christian peoples (whether few or many, if they are against the Christ of the Bible). And in Revelation 18:4 Christ calls out from Heaven, “Come away from [Babylon], My people! Do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her!”

So, I ask you, this morning, as I ask me: Are you watching what you know you shouldn’t be watching, are you saying what you know you shouldn’t be saying, are you doing what you know you shouldn’t be doing, OR are you not watching what you know you should be, are you not saying what you know you should be, are you not doing what you know you should be, but you’ve convinced yourself it’s okay because you’re not as bad as others?

It must not be so! We have given ourselves to Christ! We have entered into covenant – we have made a deal – with Him in baptism! We renew that covenant – we renew that deal – each and every time we eat and drink the Lord’s Supper! We have committed to be His faithful, sinless Bride! And He has committed to be our faithful, taking-care-of-us Husband!
Come away from it all, First Presbyterian Church of Milford! Come away from it all, Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Milford! Come away from it all. The Holy Spirit will help you. The Holy Spirit will help us.
Worship Team will you come forward as we pray?