Adrian Rogers: The Wisdom of Christmas

• 1. How the Wise Men Sought Jesus
• 2. What the Wise Men Brought Jesus

The sands of time
are running low.
The stage is set The curtains are about to be drawn back.
The dynamite is in place.
The fuse is lit.
We are on the threshold of the consummation of
the age. The Bible teach that there is coming, a human being who will be the devil in the flesh.
He is called in the Bible the beast.
And today, we want to do what god’s word teaches us to do and that is to unveil him to disclose him.
Profound truth simply stated, This is love worth finding with pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers.
Would you take God’s word and find Revelation chapter 13 chapter
13, and as you found it, look up here.
We’re talking about bible prophecy, and no child of god can afford to be ignorant in these pregnant days in which we are living.
The sands of time are running low.
The stage is set. The curtains are about to be drawn back.
The dynamite is in place.
The fuse is lit.
We are on the threshold of the consummation of
the age. The bible teaches that there is coming a human being who will be the devil in the flesh.
He is called in the bible
the beast. He’s also called
he has many aliases. He’s called the son of perdition.
He is called The man of sin is called the wicked 1.
He is called the Antichrist.
And today, we want to do what God’s word teaches us to do, and that is to unveil him to disclose him to reveal him, and we’re going to find that right here in Revelation chapter 13, and we’re gonna look at the entire chapter.
Now first of all, as we look at the nature of the beast, and that’s the title of the message, the nature of the beast, I want you to see his sudden advent.
That is his sudden appearance. Look if you will in verse 1.
and I stood upon the sand of the sea.
And I saw a beast rise up out of the sea.
having 7 heads and 10 horns.
And upon his horns, 10 crowns and upon his heads, the name of blasphemy.
Now this beast comes suddenly, he he rises up. He emerges out of the sea.
Now what does the sea stand for?
The bible teaches us clearly that the sea stands for the nations of the world.
You might put in your margin Revelation chapter 17 in verse 15, and he sayeth unto me, the waters which thou see us where the whore sitteth and the whore refers to the false church are people and multitudes and nations and tongues that is and languages.
So out of the seething sea of humanity, out of multitudes of people and nations and languages, out of this seething, writhing, boiling sea.
The Antichrist is going to come.
The beast is going to come.
He’s going to come in a time when nations are in turmoil.
So you see first of all, the sudden appearance of the beast.
Here’s the second thing I want you to see.
Now look in God’s word, the satanic ancestry of the beast.
The bible says here that the beast has 7 heads and 10 horns.
And upon his horns, 10 crowns, and upon his heads, the name of blasphemy.
What does all of this represent? Well, this verse is a description of the devil.
And that description has been given already in Revelation chapter 12 in verse 3 and there appeared another wonder in heaven behold a great a great red dragon having 7 heads and 10 horns and seven crowns upon his head.
And who is that dragon? Well, look if you will in Revelation chapter 12 verse 9, and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan.
So verse 1 is describing the devil. and is also describing the beast.
So this beast is a devil of a man. So we have talked about the sudden appearance of the beast.
We have talked about the the family legacy of the beast.
We have we have talked about the satanic ancestry of the beast.
Now let’s talk thirdly about the seductive appeal of the beast. Why will the world follow him?
Well, look if you will in verse 4. and verse verses 34.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed.
Now watch this. And all the world wondered after the beast.
that literally means they all admired him and they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast.
and they worship the beast saying who is like unto the beast and who is able to make war against him.
Now we’re talking about the seductive appeal of this beast, this Antichrist.
He will be an appealing man in the eyes of the world.
Now when we call him a beast, don’t think of him as being hideous in appearance.
The beast speaks of the nature.
We’re talking about the nature of the beast now not the appearance of the beast.
Remember that the devil himself appears as an angel of light. Thatless this beast will be handsome.
He will be charming. He will be clever. He will be greatly intelligent. He will be a persuasive speaker.
He will be a global charmer And one of the reasons that the entire world will wonder after him is that he will have a deadly wound in his head and that wound will be healed Notice again in verse 3, and his deadly wound was healed and all the world wounded after him.
This will be Satan’s counterfeit resurrection.
Of course, it will be a resuscitation because the devil does not have power to give life.
But he will this one who appears to all be dead will be brought back to life, and at that time, the world will greatly admire him.
But now notice not only this, but notice the sinister ambitions of the beast.
What will motivate this ungodly individual?
What will motivate this piece of flesh in that is the devil incarnate?
Well, we see what his motives are, and I wanna give you 5 of them.
You’re gonna find the 5 motives of the beast right here beginning in verse 4.
Number 1, it is to deify Satan.
Notice if you will in verse 4, and they worshiped the dragon which gave power to the beast.
Satan has always wanted to be worshipped.
That’s the reason as we get to these last days, you see so much devil worship.
What was Satan’s burning ambition You can read about it in Isaiah chapter 14. He wants to be like God.
He says, I will be like the most high God.
Now Satan will receive worship through the beast just as the lord Jesus Christ, the true Christ receives worship almighty God receives worship through the true Christ, the Lord Jesus.
The devil will receive worship through the false Christ, the Antichrist.
And so first of all, the purpose here is to deify Satan.
Satan wants to be worshiped, but not only to deify Satan also purpose number 2 to defy the savior.
Look if you will in verses 56, and there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.
Look in verse 6, and he opened his mouth and blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven.
So he cannot touch god in heaven. He cannot touch the saints who’ve already gone to heaven.
So he is reduced to name calling.
He’s reduced to blasphemy and blasphemies will belch up out of his filthy soul and pour out like a broken sewer with burning he will turn people away from belief in the true god and in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he will have such persuasive ability that Jesus said if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect.
This man will be incredibly brilliant. Incredibly persuasive.
His first his first ambition is to deify Satan.
His second ambition will be to defy the savior His 3rd ambition will be to destroy saints.
Look in verse 7, and it was given unto him to make war with the saints and overcome them and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations.
Now there will be some people who will be saved during the tribulation.
We call these the tribulation saints. And at that time, the antichrist will turn against these people.
These tribulation saints and he will destroy them.
He will martyr them, and he will have his appetite for blood sated.
as he will drink his fill with the blood of the martyrs, he wants to destroy the people of god.
And if he could get at those in heaven, He would get at those in heaven, but he cannot.
The next purpose, he wants to dominate society. Look at the last part of verse 7.
and power was given him over all kindred and tongues and nations. He will have global control.
How will he do this? He will terrify some. He will entice others.
He will come as an angel of light or as a as a fiery demon spirit.
But ever the whole world will be intimidated or bribed into to following this one who is the beast.
He will dominate society. Now his last purpose of these 5 purposes is to delude the sinners Those who are on the earth look if you will in verse 8, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are written in the book of life of the lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.
These people are going to believe Satan Notice in verse 9, if any man have an ear, let him hear.
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity, and he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
Now notice this. The bible says that they’re gonna worship him in verse 8.
The devil does not want casualties. He wants converts.
He wants people to worship him, so these people are going to be diluted, and and you say, well, if I’m here, I’m not a Christian, Mister Rogers, but if I if if the church goes out, I’ll have enough sense.
not to worship the Antichrist. Oh, no. You won’t. You will worship the Antichrist. He will persuade you.
You will believe a lie. 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 4.
It speaks of of this man who opposedeth all, who siteth in the temple of god showing himself that he is God.
And then the Bible says, and for this reason, God will send strong delusion to those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they will believe the lie.
They will follow the devils messiah. They will follow the Christ of the Coles.
Now here’s the here’s the final thing I want you to see.
And I want you to see the supporting agent of the beast.
This this beast is going to have an agent who will go before him.
Look if you will now in verse 11.
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had 2 horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon.
Now the idea is that he is a sinister minister of propaganda. He looks like a lamb.
He speaks like a dragon. And of course, we see that happening today as we see the national scene.
He he looks like a lamb, but he speaks like a dragon. and notice if you will in verse 12.
And he, that is the 2nd beast, exercise with all the power of the first beast before him.
That is the authority of the first beast and causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.
But how is this sinister minister of propaganda? How is he going to cause people to worship the beast?
How is he going to control the masses on the face of this earth? 3 primary ways.
Number 1, the fire. Look in verse 13, and he maketh fire to come down from heaven on the earth.
Now he’s somehow going to have the power to set the heavens ablaze. You know what this may be?
This may be an atomic explosion set off by some satellite in outer space, to bring the entire world in submission as a great display of power that all may see it as the heavens light from pole to pole.
Whatever there will be, it will be some dazzling display in the sky that will give authenticity to the global control and the power of the beast.
There’s gonna be the fire. Secondly, there will be the image looking verses 1415.
And the bible says that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by sword and did live, and he had power to give life unto the image of the beast.
Now what is the image of the beast?
It’s going to be a replica of the beast which can speak and cause people to listen.
This may be the ultimate computer wedded to television.
Now we don’t have any difficulty with believing that images today can speak.
We watch that all of the time.
You’re if you told your great granddaddy about it, he would think that you were insane.
But today, it’s we obviously watch images speak all of the time.
But now these images are being changed a little bit. We’re moving into an era called virtual reality.
And we have watched on television as things are generated that are not real at all, but look real.
We see animals that are generated. We see faces turn from one face to another. Right?
before our eyes, and and this is called a virtual reality.
And it will be virtual reality, but it will not be virtuous reality.
because it will be the image of the beast and with satellites now this technology will go around the world But there’s a third thing that he will use, and this is perhaps the most sinister of all of the fire, the image, and then the mark.
Again, look if you will in 1617, and he callseth all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or on their foreheads that no man might buy or sell except he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.
Now folks don’t think that’s a small thing. If you cannot buy and sell, you cannot live.
You have to have food. You have to have clothing. You have to have sustenance.
And the the the antichrist is going this will be the brand of hell.
If you’ve not been sealed by the spirit, you will be branded by the beast or you will be killed.
Now this is a cashless society, and we are right now on the threshold of that cashless society and it will seem reasonable.
It will seem necessary. It will seem simple. It will seem efficient. to do any transaction.
All you have to do is simply show your mark. There’d be no cheating. There’d be no books to keep.
There’d be no bank account to balance. You say, pastor, this is just science fiction. Oh, no. Listen.
What is this 666? Well, 6, you know, is the number of a man.
Man was created on the 6th day. It is the number of a man.
7 is the number of perfection. Man is not perfect. He is a 6. He is not a 7.
It is man making himself God, and he’s you will have to receive if you are here doing this horrible, terrible time.
the mark of the beast to subsist and to live and whether it’s a $1,000,000,000 deal or whether it’s a loaf of bread, no seal, no sale, No mark, no merchandise.
How will the devil do this? Well, he wants global control.
and he’s going to systematize the entire world. Now the technology is already in place.
We have the microchips today are put in card that we call smart cards.
Do you ever thought of a card as being smart? Well, they’re very smart. A smart card.
that that can have your entire financial and social history embedded in it.
The only remaining requirement would be And the social engineers are thinking seriously about this to take the chip out of the card and to put that chip somehow in you or own you placed in human flesh.
They’re already doing this in pet shelters.
They’re taking a microchip right now and putting it in the embedding a little about the of a grain of rice in the ear of a pet are an animal so that the owners can relocate their lost pets.
They have satellites now in space that will be able to pinpoint any individual with a mark on him any place on the face of the globe.
The global engineers are already using this as a way to track prisoners.
We can’t build prisoners big enough so they just simply say we will put an identifying mark on that prisoner and his whereabouts can be tracked at any time.
Now a wise man once said, the more machines act like men, the more men will act like machines.
Here’s something very interesting.
if you were to take the numbers of our alphabet and just assign them a a number Start with a and give it 6.
Start with b and add 6 more and call b 12.
And c is 18 and just number all of the numbers of the alphabet that way, then c would equal 18, o would equal 90, m would equal 78, p would equal 96, u would equal 126t would equal 120e would equal 30 and r would equal 108.
Just going up by increments of 6. Well, what letters were those? computer, computer.
How do those numbers add up? 666. Very interesting.
The devil the devil is going to be able to control the entire world.
What he is going to do through his his beast, he’s going to turn the entire world into a concentration camp with all the inmates numbered.
You see, the bible says of the Lord Jesus Christ, what? He gives his sheep what? A name.
He calls them by name. What will the Antichrist do? He’ll not give you a name.
He’ll give you a number. A number, not a name.
So the big question today is when the end of all things come, will your name be called, or will your number be up?
That’s that’s that’s the bottom line. What we have folks is the dragon and we have almighty God.
What we have is the beast and we have the lamb.
What we have is the sinister minister of propaganda, the false prophet, and what we have is the holy spirit and there is a great war going on in the world today and all of these things are beginning to take shape before our very eyes.
Now remember I gave you the 5 purposes of the beast.
What should we do and what should we teach our children in this day and age?
If the purpose of the beast is to deify Satan, you’d better keep your children away from this devilish ungodly rock music that is deifying Satan because that yes.
All of that is just the foregleam of the Antichrist.
If the purpose of the the the Antichrist, the beast is to defy the savior, what should you and I be doing in these days.
We ought to be offering up to Jesus massive praise, praising him and glorifying him.
If the purpose of the devil today is to destroy saints, We had better be teaching our children how to protect themselves.
We’d better be giving them knowledge, and we’d better be giving them truth, and we’d better be like we’re doing with these boys and girls.
putting into their hands a sharp 2 edged sword so they can be overcomeers as Jesus was an overcomer there in the garden of gethsemane.
If if the purpose of the beast is to dominate society, you and I should stand against this intrusive big government that is coming more and more and more to we’re all getting regimented and put together and packaged and and manipulated by a system that we are all just fitting in too.
Friend, there is a devilish dark power that is coming on the world, and we, as god’s children, cannot afford to be ignorant.
Now I believe that before the beast appears, the church is gonna be taken out.
But the Bible teaches that the spirit of Antichrist is already in the world. And there are many antichrist.
So don’t think that you’re god sweet little darling and you can just sit back and smile and just let the world go passively by.
But on the other hand, I’m telling you folks There’s no need for you to be terrified if you know the word of god.
You better know it. You better believe it, and you better teach your children.
And above all, You better give your heart to Jesus and be saved
by your heads in prayer.
Hits about and eyes are closed.
Now the the the the agent of Satan is telling you don’t believe that stuff. It’s alright.
Don’t believe what that man is saying, but the Holy Spirit of God is telling you you need to be saved.
And if you wanna be saved, I’m gonna ask you right now to bow your heads and pray a prayer like this.
Lord Jesus, I know that I’m a sinner.
And I know that my sin deserves your righteous judgment, but I need mercy, not judgment.
I want to be saved. Lord Jesus, you died to save me. You promised to save me.
You rose to save me. You will save me if I trust you.
I do trust you Jesus. Would you tell him that? I do trust you Jesus.
Right now, Like a child, I trust you. I open my heart.
I receive you as my lord and savior. Come into my heart. Would you tell him that?
Pray it from your heart. Come into my heart. Come in Lord Jesus. Forgive my sin.
Save me lord Jesus. Did you ask him,
were you sincere?
You were? then thank you. Pray this way. Thank you for saving.
I receive it by faith,
Like a child, you’re now my lord and my savior and my god and my friend.
And lord Jesus, I will make this public I will not be ashamed of you because you died for me.
In your name, I pray. I’m in.