A Beast from the Earth Rev, 13:11-18

Good morning. Let's begin here. What I'd like to do from time to time is address questions that people have. And some of you may notice there are little index cards in the pew pockets there. And those are so that you can write additional questions. And I apologize if I don't get to your question instantly, because sometimes we get schedules packed out. But we like to address those as you come across them.

One of the questions that came across said, in Revelation 11.19, does this mean that the law is the reigning principle upon the earth, and a reference to it in heaven means that when his kingdom rule begins, it will be law-based?

So let's read Revelation 11.19, and it reads there, And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple, and there were flashes of lightning, and sounds and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and a great hailstorm." Now, while the things that John describes, these symbols in heaven, are indeed associated with the law elsewhere in scripture, we have to keep in mind what are the law's purposes. The law has specific purposes given in the New Testament. And these are the purposes of the law, the five purposes. The law is to silence anyone who would claim self-righteousness before God.

Coming out of Romans 3.19. And again out of that same verse, the law is to create a sense of guilt and therefore a need for God's forgiveness. Second purpose. The third, the law is to provide an objective awareness for all humanity.

And this is again Romans 3.19 and 20. The fourth, the law serves as a schoolmaster to bring people to Christ.

Now we use that term schoolmaster, in the original text it was actually a slave who was assigned to bring someone back and forth to their schooling, is the actual sense there. And this person is to kind of keep us under tow, keep us under tow, under foot, so that this person is continuing to learn the law. That's what the sense is here. But as a schoolmaster, to what?

To bring people to Christ. And now the fifth thing, the law restrains evil. That is, it's a continuing reminder to unbelievers of their moral stance before God. Now, these purposes are for unbelievers in this, the church age. When we see these symbols associated with the law as described here, like in Revelation 11, 19, and we will see them elsewhere and we have seen them. It doesn't mean the same thing in heaven as it does in earth, because for one thing, there are no unredeemed creatures in heaven. Now, when we look ahead, however, to the kingdom reign, there's something else that is going to limit this application of the law, and that is this. We're told in Jeremiah 31, It says this in 33 and 34, but this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them. So it won't be a matter of law being enforced from the outside. It will be a law coming from within. OK, for now, this is specifically for the Jews.

There will be still the same nature to deal with. There will still be Gentiles who are not described as having the same New Covenant promise to them. So there will be application of the law, but it will not be identical to what we've seen in the Old Testament, because the Jews themselves will be different in this sense, and because the character of the time will be different as well. There will be a need, however, that says that Jesus will rule with a rod of iron. There will be some ruling, and that ruling will be in order to keep men's natures in check. But it will not be a strict application of the law as we've seen in the Old Testament times.

Anyway, let's take a look at the passage that we're looking at this morning. It's Revelation 13, 11-18. Now, last week we looked at this kind of a summary here. We said that chapter 12 had to do with a great deal of it, the dragon, that is, Satan. And then chapter 13 that we started last week describes two beasts. The first beast is this beast out of the sea.

This is otherwise known as the Antichrist. And then in the passage we'll be looking at today, the beast out of the earth, the false prophet, will be the third being. So between chapter 12 and chapter 13, we have three diabolical creatures, diabolical personalities, rather, is the way to look at it. And that's Satan, and that's the first beast, which is the Antichrist, and the second beast, who is the false prophet. Now, we also took a look at something else and summarized it this way.

That is, Satan is described in chapter 13, and the beast out of the sea, the Antichrist, in the first half of 13, and the beast out of the earth, the false prophet, in the second half. These three together are, for this last half of the tribulation period, they are the unholy trinity. They are mimicking, in every way that they know how, they are mimicking the holy trinity, the trinity of the Lord. And so we see in these two chapters, it's describing for us this unholy trinity that will be established on earth for the last three and a half years of the seven year tribulation period.

Okay. Now, in order to gain some insights, I'm going to take a rabbit trail here. Do you mind a rabbit trail? We won't get too caught up in the thickets, but bear with me, okay? Now, I'm going to take a rabbit trail to 2 Corinthians 3, 17, and 18. You might want to turn there with me. And you might say, but Vern, that's not Revelation. Well, you're right. It's 2 Corinthians 3, 17, and 18. But hang in there.

We'll get around to it, and you'll see why. It says, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord as the Spirit. Now, we went into this verse in detail 56 weeks ago, so I'm sure you remember it very clearly. But just the same, we want to go into it again here this morning, because there are some things we want to draw from this before we get into this Revelation passage.

Beholding the glory of the Lord, that is, beholding Christ, is the means that God has set up. That is God's mechanism, if you will, of transforming us. That's how God carries on that transformation. It is an amazing thing, is it not, that God intends to share His glory with us. Isn't that amazing? That is phenomenal. If you're a believer, God's intent is to share His glory with you. Why and how? through beholding Christ. Now, this is the process that God has in place in your life and mine if we're a believer. By beholding Christ, we are being transformed from glory to glory. We're sharing His glory as a result of that. Now, that isn't something we just have to wait for. It is something that goes on now. It's something right here, right now, while we're here on planet Earth.

Now, we don't come to anybody and say, in this church anyway, we don't come to anybody and say, now look, if you want to be transformed into the image of Christ, we've got our list of rules here. And if you follow these list of rules, you'll get transformed, believe me. We don't do that. We also don't come to somebody and say, look, we have a service here, and it gathers together about 15 minutes after 10 on Sunday morning, and if you come in here, that'll do it to you. Just come in here and spend a little more than an hour or so, and you'll get transformed. Is that what we say? No. We don't do that. It's because we don't in any way want to offer or even pretend to offer any substitute for beholding Christ. There isn't one. Now, there's a reason for talking about this before we get into this passage. You'll have to wait for it, but we'll get there. Now, let's get to verse 11.

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. That is not your junior high student. Now, the one thing we have to look at, there's a word that pops up quickly. It says, Then I saw, of course this is John.

John is constantly saying he saw this and saw that. Why? Because remember the first few verses of Revelation, he basically gave what was in those days the equivalent of a legal signature stating, these are the facts. This was a preface to something that was a signed document. So when he's saying, I saw, this isn't just something I dreamed up. He's saying explicitly, this is what I saw based on the legal certification that I've already given you. So he's putting a lot of weight behind it. But what we have to take a look at is this word.

We've got this another. And something that the folks in the How to Study the Bible elective will note here. There's two ways of saying another in Greek. And one of them is alos and the other is heteros. And alos is another of the same kind. Heteros is another of a different kind.

You see that? So when we translate it another, there's a significance in the Greek word that doesn't come out. And we have to look at it. In this case, guess which one? It's this one here with the little triangle behind it. He's saying it's another beast of the same kind. Ah! So, of the same kind as what? The first beast. Was the first beast a good one? No. So is this beast a good one? No. Sorry to tell you, they're both bad. But you've got another beast of the same kind. It's an alos, another of the same kind. Now, we see him described here as coming up out of the earth. Then John adds two more pieces of information for us. The beast coming up out of the earth had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon.

Let's take each of those phrases piece by piece. We should keep in mind that when the scripture speaks of horns, in a figurative sense, it means power. Just substitute the word power in there. Two horns, two quantities, if you will, of power. It's a being with power. This pattern of usage isn't one that we cooked up here, or even John cooked up. It's used in the book of Daniel and the book of Zechariah. And it's a term that the Jews well understood. When you use the word horns, when it wasn't taken literally, it meant it was a figurative word for power.

He had double power. Now, the other thing is he has two horns like a lamb. That's interesting. Remember, we kind of went through this earlier. He uses a word here for lamb that means a little lamb, like this one. It's not an older lamb, but actually just a little lamb. So here's two horns on this being, like a lamb.

He is a being of power, but he conveys the appearance of being more soft and subtle. You get that? He has the power, but he doesn't get out there dominantly. He conveys the appearance of being a little bit more weak and subtle. So it looks. So it appears. We'll see more about this in a minute.

What's the other part of what is said? He spoke, however, like a dragon. Now we know what this dragon means, right? This dragon, as we've seen already, obviously covered thoroughly in chapter 12, this dragon is Satan himself. We know from Revelation excuse me, 12.9, and looking ahead, is it okay to look ahead? Is that cheating? 20, verse 2, the dragon is clearly defined as Satan himself. So guess what?

This false prophet, this second beast that comes out of the earth, he speaks like Satan. Now, how does Satan speak? Kind of the Native American terminology, he speaks with forked tongue. He is a liar from the beginning. That's how he's described. This false prophet speaks like Satan himself.

Deceptively. Lyingly. He will tell you what is false. Why did Eve become deceived? Because the deceiver pulled it off. He told her what is false. He started off with questions and then he ended up with what? he ended up with statements that are outright falsehoods. Okay? Started with questions, ended up with statements that are outright falsehoods. This second creature here, this second beast, this false prophet, will have that same character in what he says and the way he speaks. A tongue like the dragon. He speaks like the dragon. Okay. Verse 12.

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." Now, let's take this a bit at a time. This second beast, this beast out of the earth, is said to exercise all the authority of the first. That's the Antichrist, right? And it says, "...in his presence." Now, what does that mean?

If we take a look back here, Here is the passage that we had last week, and I've done kind of a blue highlight on the places where we have authority showing up. Because if we say, okay, if he exercises that authority, we'd better understand what authority that is, right? So we go back at it, we look at this passage, and we see in verses 2, 4, 5, and 7 that it talks about the kind of authority. And as we read through that, we find that there are four kinds or descriptions or characteristics of the authority of the first beast, which the second beast exercises.

In verse 2 it says he speaks with great authority. So we're not talking somebody here who gives his opinion. He doesn't make suggestions. He speaks instead with great authority. The next thing, he speaks in verse 4 with satanic authority. The authority is given from whom? Satan himself. So we now know the source of the authority. We've been told its magnitude. Now we know its source. It's from Satan. There's no bones about it. Now, the third thing we see, it's time limited. For this last half, this three and a half years of the tribulation period, we're going to have this authority extended. It is limited to that period of time. That's it.

If you have a politician that is out of office, and he goes in and starts acting like he's still in office, what does everybody think? You know, hey, what are you doing here, right? Get out of the picture. Your time's over. Same thing here. This beast will have a time set for his authority, just like the first one. And then it'll be done. Over. Through with.

The last thing is we find in verse 7, the authority is global. All the people and tribes and tongues and nations global authority. Everybody on planet Earth. The whole thing. So it has those four characteristics. Great, satanic, time-limited, and global. That's what comes out. So when he says he has the authority of the first beast, you know exactly what that means. It's defined. Now, the next thing. Then we read that this second beast, this beast coming out of the earth, makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast. That's his role, his job. He's going to make everybody worship the first beast. He makes them worship the Antichrist. He causes them to do that.

Since we know that Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet are this satanic, unholy trinity, it shouldn't be any surprise that this second beast, this False Prophet, behaves in a way that mimics the Holy Spirit. Okay? He will mimic the Holy Spirit. If we look at our diagram here, as we showed it last week, this would be Satan mimicking the Father. This would be the Antichrist, the beast out of the sea, mimicking Christ the Son. And the beast out of the earth, the false prophet, would be mimicking the place of the Holy Spirit.

And what does the Holy Spirit do? We know that the Holy Spirit directs us to Christ. He points us to Christ. So what is this false prophet going to do? He's going to point everybody's attention to the Antichrist. That's going to be his ministry. How would you like that kind of a ministry? That is what he is carrying on. That is what he is about. He's pointing everyone to the Antichrist. So he has power. It's delegated power. But it's there to direct everyone to the Antichrist.

Now, John 16, 13, and 14, our Lord says, But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. See the ministry of the Holy Spirit? the true Holy Spirit, the false prophet is simply going to mimic that.

He's going to imitate it. He's going to say, okay, how can I carry this out and how can I direct everybody's attention during this three and a half years to this Antichrist? Now, verse 12 goes on to tell us this. The second beast will make the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, and though worded a bit differently, This verse includes the tribulation-specific phrase that we've been pointing out, those who dwell on the earth. This is one we've been pointing out.

Other than this one place here in Revelation 3.10 where it's promised that those who are of the church will not enter into this time, you see this phrase showing up from Revelation 6-17 all during the tribulation period including times in the passage that we're looking at here. But a phrase comes out that's very similar to that, and it talks in here basically, and it says, and he makes the earth and those who dwell in it, similar to those who dwell on the earth, to worship the first beast, and reminds us whose fatal wound was healed. Now it's interesting, Three times in this little passage we've been looking at here, three times, it keeps talking about those who dwell upon the earth. The focus there is that these, here in the tribulation period, dwell upon the earth.

The beings that are focused upon here are also on the earth, and everything they look at is upon the earth. You see how this is in contrast to what's true of believers now? where we are told that we've been seated in the heavenlies, that we have a place with our Lord already, now, in the heavenlies. We've been seated with Christ.

Paul says in Ephesians 2.6, right? We've been seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

And what does this creature do but keep reinforcing, reinforcing, reinforcing that down here is all you got? You see that message? Down here is all you got, all you're going to get, This is impressive stuff, but this is all there is. Whereas the Lord has already told us, no, we're already seated.

We don't just look forward to where we're going to go. We are already seated in the heavenlies with Christ. We have that as our position. What is the position of those who are worshiping the Antichrist? Their position is down here, period. They are those who dwell on the earth. And it keeps reinforcing that point.

Okay, and notice the last phrase in verse 12. the first beast whose fatal wound was healed. This first beast, the Antichrist, is said in verse 3, here in verse 12, and we're going to see it again in verse 14, to have a fatal wound that is healed. There will be great emphasis, it's clear, as we see it three times, great emphasis on this Antichrist mimicking the death and resurrection of Christ. Mimicking the death and resurrection of Christ. It will be focused on again and again. See, this guy is like Christ! Because he died and was resurrected. Great emphasis. People will be impressed. Verse 13.

He performs great signs so that he even makes the fire come down out of the earth in the presence of men. Verses 13 through 15 here focus on the ability of the false prophet to perform signs. That's a big focus of this passage here. The extent of these wonders, and you even see it even to the point that, is kind of what he's describing, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. Now, there are various passages in Scripture where we've seen that happen before. We've seen it in 1 Kings 18.

Here is where Elijah calls fire down out of heaven to just basically lick up this totally drenched altar. In 2 Kings 1, He calls again for fire to come down out of heaven and basically take out 50 soldiers at once, twice that occurs. Revelation 11, remember that was one of the things during the first half of the tribulation period that the two witnesses did. They called fire down out of heaven.

So what is the false prophet going to do? He's going to mimic it. I can do that too. And so that's what he's going to do. He's going to mimic what's already been expressed, including what's been expressed during that first three and a half year period of the tribulation.

Now, verse 14. He deceived those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which 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 had come to life. Now, verse 14 weaves together some phrases we've seen before. as well as laying the groundwork for this insidious and diabolical activity that we're going to see in these next few verses.

First of all, we see that the false prophet, did you notice that word? He deceives. The Greek word there, deceives, is planao. You know, you go around chanting and saying planao, right? So you memorize that? He deceives. He does planao, okay? It means to cause to go astray. But it's beyond just making things happen that appear to be something else.

Some years back, my son Ed and I went to see a magician who did amazing things in front of us, but they were magic tricks in the sense of they were kind of optical illusions. We saw right in front of us a duck and a chicken switch heads. on living creatures, not just some decoy. But it was an optical illusion. There wasn't truly a sense of deceiving, although it was kind of amazing to watch.

This will be different. Whatever is done as a sign will be done with the intent of deceiving. Do you see the difference there? The intent will be, I'm going to do some phenomenal thing, and it's going to make people go off spiritually in the wrong direction. That's the intent. The word is used elsewhere in the New Testament and in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to describe leading a flock in the wrong direction so that they're damaged or to describe leading people into idolatry. So the word goes beyond just deceiving. It's deceiving with an intent to take people in a seriously wrong direction.

You see that? Then we see that tribulation-specific phrase again, those who dwell on the earth, twice in this verse alone. It means those who are earth-minded and find their entire life based on this earth. Do you see that? They are earthly-minded. Their entire life is focused on what is happening here and their position here on planet earth.

The word signs, or in some translations wonders and miracles, that's used in verses 13 and 14, That Greek word simeon that's used there is used elsewhere in the New Testament for signs and wonders that Christ would do to validate that he was the Messiah. It was also used of signs that the apostles would use that marked them as apostles.

So here's again the imitation. I'm going to do the same thing they're doing. And then he brings this amazing feat to pass. He causes those who dwell on the earth to respond to the miracles that he has performed by the Antichrist authority by making an image. You see that? This comes up here. He makes an image to the beast, the Antichrist. This word image here, the Greek word is icon.

So we get our word icon from that. We're talking here about the whole world going back to something that has been more described as primitive. The entire world is going to get sucked into this. It will be something that in the past has drawn part of the world. Here, the whole world will be sucked in.

But listen to what he pulls off next, verse 15. And then it was given to him, that's the false prophet here, 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. Now notice, you go back into early chapters of Genesis, how was the breath of life given? God did it, right? So here, here you see in this situation, He's acting as God.

I'm going to give breath of life to this thing. I'm going to make this a lively image. It's not going to just sit there. This is going to give the impression that there is life in it. What's amazing, of course, with today's technology, you'd look at, well, that's just special effects, right? And yet, with the technology that's available, people are going to be impressed. How about that? They're going to look at this and they're going to say, man, this is amazing. There's no wires in this thing. There's no speakers. And yet, there it is, breathing and speaking. It looks alive.

So in that way, it's going to be different. But here comes the harpoon, the piercing barb, okay? It says that he will cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. That's really what it's all about, isn't it? Because remember the end of verse 12? What is the dragon going to do? Excuse me, chapter 12. The dragon is doing this not just because he likes to deceive.

Certainly he does. But he's doing this because he's going after those who are near and dear to God's heart. So the whole reason for doing this is setting this whole thing up. He wants to take out those who believe during this time. Take them out. Get rid of them. He wants to viciously attack them during this time. Think about that. Even though we don't have that going on now, isn't there kind of the seeds of that in place now? Don't we have that kind of mentality that's been set in motion?

Truth is, right now, we may not be experiencing it so much here, but a great many believers are, even today, losing their life if they're within the reign of Islam. It is a religion that doesn't just satisfy itself with saying, well, I don't agree with you. It says, I don't agree with you and so therefore you must die. That's one instance.

But the mentality that will come into full force has already been expressed now. Here's what one fellow who was a leader in the New Age said recently. He said this on radio out of Omaha, Nebraska. This man, at least at the time he said it, was a state legislator. And you can read while I read to you.

We have to control church schools because fundamental Bible-believing Christians do not have the right to indoctrinate their children in their faith. because we, the state, are preparing all children for when America will be part of a one-world global society and their children won't fit in. New-agers are not naive enough to believe that everyone will accept the dawn of this new day. Some will oppose the emerging new order. For these, there is another solution, intimidation, starvation, and liquidation.

Point of fact. This is a state legislator. This is a man speaking over public radio. Amazing stuff. The reality is, I'm not saying this to scare you, because as believers, that's not our point. We're to be beholding Christ. But the point is that this mentality is there, and all it really takes is for this to get shifted into the limelight. This is not going to be a percentage deal. It's the whole thing. See that shift once that moves into place?

Face it, believers are going to be taken out before this happens. So it'll be new believers who will be facing this. But now, we see some teeth put into this forced worship of the Antichrist, starting in verse 16. And he causes all the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slaves to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell except for the one who has the mark. either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Now this economic system which centers on the Antichrist has the full approval of the false prophet. You see that in the passage there?

There's no political standing or social status that's going to get you out of this picture. This economic system is going to have a total grip. That's what's intended. The financial squeeze will be absolute. Nobody's let out of this. Here's one of the things that's happened.

In the last couple of centuries, we've shifted from a society in which most people were involved in raising food and in agricultural pursuits, now to a place where most people are not. And so what happens is our move toward technology, which will, you know, obviously allow for this kind of thing to come to pass, our move towards technology is going to make this a much more severe bite. You see that? A much more severe bite.

Because the food that people need is basic survival requirements. We'll get pimped. Now, we don't know when this tribulation period is going to start. We're not told and we're told we're not going to know. But there is nothing technologically stopping it.

There's a product called Verichip that's currently available. It is about the diameter of a toothpick and about the length of a dime, roughly speaking. And they've got a machine to insert it under the skin. So you can have this installed now. The technology is available now. It will only come to pass at the right time. So again, I'm not trying to scare people. I'm just saying this actually is not reason to be scared. It's reason all the more to put our hope in Christ. That's where our hope is fixed and set.

Now, let's take a further look at verse 18. 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. Now this one verse has spawned all kinds of speculation. A multitude of speculations, accusations, aggravations. I've seen all sorts of books, I've seen all sorts of calculations. Have you noticed that even unbelievers, if they don't know anything about the Bible, the 666 thing will register with a lot of them. It's caught on. It's like there's some number with a lot of spooks hanging around it.

The truth is that the identity of this beast is not something that we're going to be able to figure out now. It is for the people of that time. And furthermore, pursuit of this is not intended to distract us from our beholding Christ. People get all sorts of activities going on and phobias trying to guess who this guy and that is. You wouldn't believe the people I've seen on the list of the ones that supposedly match this 666 description. People are living now.

But, it's jumping the gun, because the reality is this Antichrist being as one who will ascend during the first half of the Tribulation period, and he will then be in the position during this last half of the Tribulation period to have this global and absolute control. Now, that brings us back to why on earth Verne brought up 2 Corinthians 3, 17 and 18. That passage that we looked at talks about us being transformed from glory to glory as we're beholding Christ. What Satan and the Antichrist and the false prophet are ultimately doing during that tribulation period is getting people to behold the image of the Antichrist.

Do you see that? There'll be the image of the Antichrist held up there and the message will be to everybody on planet Earth, look at this image who is here on planet Earth. Do you see that? And we know from reading this passage here that the pressure to do that will be absolute, it will be intense. There will be economic pressure, there will be political pressure, there will be pressure by threat of life, threat against life, in order for that to take place. Because the direction will be, behold the Antichrist. That will be the pressure. Now, we're not living in the Tribulation Period. If you're a believer, you're not going into the Tribulation Period. But take a look at this.

Even now, is not Satan's effort, since he cannot change our position that we have in Christ, is not his effort directed at getting us distracted from beholding Christ? Isn't really what we see here as an absolute sense, and in a relative sense, that's really what the enemy is about doing. He is about distracting us, getting us to focus attention on anything but beholding Christ. And we can do that with things that look good. We can even do it with things that look religious.

Because the truth is, Satan really doesn't care what you look at as long as it's not Christ. He can't change your position. So what he's going to do is to try to distract you from beholding. Because what? Beholding is what will transform you. Beholding is What is the key to your spiritual growth? You're growing from glory to glory. So He is going to distract you from that as much as He can.

Right here, right now, before the tribulation period. What's happening in the tribulation period is absolute and total and global. Right now, He's happy with anything that will distract us from beholding Christ. Anything at all. Even if it looks good, even if it looks religious. even if everybody else seems like they're happy with what we're doing and how we're looking, right? Only by God's work in us, transforming us from glory to glory as we behold Christ are we truly transformed. And do you notice something? This unholy trinity doesn't do any transforming at all. Do you notice that? They don't do any transforming. The ones who are beholding the Antichrist are only confirmed in the position that they are already in. There is no transforming going on. There's no change of condition, really. They're stuck. It just becomes more of an absolute and total grip. Not so with us. With us, we're not in that position.

But instead, there is transforming going on as we behold Christ. That Satan can't mimic, because he can't transform. He lacks that ability, even given global and total control. Only God's work in us will transform us from glory to glory as we're beholding Christ. Then are we truly changed as our condition grows in conformity with our eternally fixed position in Christ. And Satan can't even offer anything close to that.

Isn't that neat? It's marvelous what the Lord has done. Let's pray. Lord, we give you thanks that as much as Satan might wish to mimic or even now to just distract us, that we can count upon what you have done and that we can look to you and by beholding you, Lord, we can be transformed. And it's something that you do and you accomplish. And it is indeed eternal in the heavenlies is our position. and that the transforming is something you can do that Satan can't even touch. He can't even offer it, even when he has total control at one point in time in the future. We look to you, Lord, now, and we ask that you would cause us, draw us to behold you, that we might be transformed as you promised here. We just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.