This beast comes in disguise

Can you stand against this beast, beloved of God? A lamb is not very intimidating. Lambs are cute; lambs are gentle; lambs are non-threatening; lambs are very innocent. Perhaps some of our children have lambs as pets. That is how this beast comes. This false and apostatizing church will at first glance appear very gentle. It will seem innocent enough. Non-threatening. It will seem like genuine people involved in it with good intentions and sincere motives maybe. Until you really listen to what is coming out of the mouth and see that this beast speaks like the dragon and is in service to the dragon. Is not then, beloved, the proper appeal [and] application of this passage a warning to us? Revelation 13:14 says this beast will deceive many. The Lord Jesus told us in Matthew 24:24 that if it were possible, this beast would even deceive the very elect. This false church probably does a lot of outwardly good things. It has a lot of programs and a lot of intelligent people wrapped up. It talks about Jesus. It looks like a lamb. It doesn't look like a seven headed monster. Can you see it for what it really is? Can you call it what it really is?

God's own will be preserved only through discerning the speaking, the doctrine, the teaching that comes out of the mouth of this second beast. And they will see, on the basis of God's Word rightly divided, this is devilish and anti-Christian, as nice as some of the people may be who are speaking it. Don’t be ignorant of Satan's devices, people of God! It doesn't come in the form of a man who has a red costume on with red horns and a pointed tail, saying, Here is a lie! Here is a lie! Believe it! He comes in the nice preacher who claims to speak for God but who twists God's Word to the point of the denial of the truth of Jesus Christ. He comes like a lamb. And many will say he represents the lamb, when in fact the message is the message of the dragon. Don't be sinfully innocent and spiritually gullible. Don't assume that simply because it goes under the name Christian, or even simply because it goes under the name Reformed, that it is biblical. You must be aware, able to discern truth from error. Are we living with a certain amount of caution in light of the power and deception of this second beast?

There ought to be a certain healthy fear here, beloved, that drives the church to study the Word of God and to love the sound proclamation of God's Word. That makes God's people careful with respect to what they hear and read. That makes you children study very hard in catechism, and you young people too. That makes the adults study for Bible study. That makes us even appreciate some polemics, rightly preached, that expose errors and makes us love the church as she holds fast to sound doctrine.¹

Cory Griess