Alright brethren, let's go back
now to Revelation 13. Let me read one more time, just two
verses here in verse 16. Speaking of the second beast,
it says, "...he causeth all, both small and great, rich and
poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or
in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save
he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number
of his name." Now in recent months I've heard Revelation 13 referenced
several times, and in particular concerning this mark of the beast. And throughout the gospel age,
there's been much speculation about this, what this mark is.
In recent years, there's been talk about it being a chip embedded
under the skin Folks have talked about it being a tattoo or mark
and nowadays folks are saying that the vaccine's the mark of
the beast. That's not new. If you have parents
who are baby boomers, they have a mark on their arm where they
got a vaccine and they went through the same exact thing. People
thought that was the mark of the beast too. As we look into Revelation 13,
I pray the Lord would set our hearts on Christ. This is the
revelation of Christ. He's the focus as He is throughout
all the scriptures. And we'll get comfort here if
we hear what the Lord is teaching us. And when you read the book
of Revelation, don't read it as it being chronological order
of things that are going to come to pass. These are things that
have been going on since our Lord came. It's written to the
church, and it's happened in every age throughout this gospel
age, and it will continue to the end. Now, I'm going to go through
Revelation 13, but I want to give you some background on Revelation
12, and I'm just going to give you a few a few things, but it
declares how Christ accomplished the redemption of his people.
It reveals the woman who is the church and she brings forth the
man-child, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He was to rule all nations,
that's Christ. The dragon is Satan, he's the
devil, he tried to prevent Christ from coming into the world. He
did that from the beginning because he knew the Lord said You're
going to bruise His heel, but He's going to bruise your head.
And so He's tried to keep Christ from coming into the world, and
several times persecuted Israel, trying to kill the male babies,
and even did at our Lord's birth. But our Lord came forth, and
there is described in Revelation 12 a great war. And that war
went on throughout our Lord's life, but specifically on the
cross. And Christ won. Christ won the
victory. He bruised, the devil bruised
his heel, but Christ mortally wounded the devil's head. And
so her child was caught up unto God and to His throne. Christ
has accomplished the redemption of His people. He's arisen. His
people have arisen in Him. He's won the victory. And the
devil was cast out into the earth and he's going to war against
the woman and against her seed, that is the church, because he
knows he has just a short time. And when God says a short time,
it's not like when we say a short time. This short time has been
going on since Christ arose. And who knows how much longer
it will go on, but it's just a short time. And as Paul said
in Romans, the Lord will bruise Satan under your feet shortly.
But for now, He is working. Now Revelation 10 says this is
what they heard whenever the Lord ascended. I heard a loud
voice, Revelation 12.10, I heard a loud voice saying, In heaven
now has come salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God in
the power of His Christ. For the accuser of our brethren
is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
That's the devil, and it says, "...and they overcame him," now
get this, "...by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of
their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death."
God's elect are saved by the blood of the Lamb, by Christ
our righteousness, and the Spirit of God will not permit His people,
His saints, to renounce our testimony of Christ. He's going to keep
us Believe in Christ and not let us renounce that testimony,
even unto death. If we have to be martyred, and
there will be some that will be martyred, they have been already,
and there will be more. He says that in the book. They
have to be martyred, they have to be killed, they're witnesses.
But if that's necessary, all they can do is kill the body.
And the Lord will give you grace so that you don't renounce the
faith, so that you continue in Christ and He'll raise you to
be with Him. They're not going to hurt you.
They're not going to separate you from Christ. They're just
going to introduce you into glory. That's all. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens,
and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the
earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having
great wrath, because he knows he has but a short time. And
when the dragon saw that he was cast into the earth, he persecuted
the woman which brought forth the man-child." That's the church,
verse 17. And the dragon was wroth with
the woman, and he went to make war with the remnant of her seed,
which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of
Jesus Christ. So the things written here in
Revelation speak of what's been happening since Christ came and
accomplished the redemption of His people. Now these things
are going to go on until He returns, but none of these things, and
get this, none of these things shall undo the salvation Christ
has accomplished for His people. And none of these things are
going to ever separate Christ's people from Christ. It will never
happen. Our warfare is accomplished by
Christ. And as Paul said, in all these
things, we're more than conquerors through Christ that loved us.
Now, let's begin in verse 13, and I want to show you how that
the devil, the dragon, here called the devil, he's using imagery,
but if you're talking about the devil, who is the dragon, he
uses two beasts. He's spoken of two beasts here.
The first beast typifies the world and its anti-Christ government. the world in anti-Christ government,
been going on since Christ came. Now listen, verse 1, And I stood
upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of
the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns
ten crowns, and upon his head the name of blasphemy. Now this
beast, you see, rose up out of the sea. The sea is fallen man. The sea is depraved man. Government
and the world is made up of fallen sinful men and women under the
power of the devil. We go over to Revelation 17,
and I'll show you, this is speaking of men and women. It says in
verse 15, Revelation 17, 15, He said to me, the waters, there's
the sea, which thou sawest where the horse sitteth, are people,
and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. You see, it's people. The government is made up of
people, sinful people, depraved people, doing what's in their
heart to do. William Hendrickson says that this beast represents
all anti-Christian governments throughout this gospel age. From
Rome, when Christ walked this earth, until the last one, until
Christ comes. And these world governments and
just the whole world, fallen world, are powerful. They are
very powerful. Look here in verse 2. And the beast which I saw
was likened to a leopard. And his feet were as the feet
of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion." That means
he's a very powerful government, powerful institution. Paul said,
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
and powers, and rulers of the darkness, and wickedness in our
places. These are things way beyond our
ability and power. It says, and the dragon, that
is the devil, gave him his power, and his seat, and his great authority.
The devil gives all the antichrist government, all the governments
of the world, he gives them their power and their seat and their
great authority. But don't ever forget this. Don't
ever forget this. The devil is already conquered
by Christ. And the devil can't do anything
but what Christ permits him to do. Christ is King of Kings and
Lord of Lords. He's the all-powerful God-man
mediator ruling heaven and earth and all things in the earth.
And Romans 13 says, the powers that be are ordained of God.
Whoever's in, you know, government as an entity appears large to
us, but it's made up of just sinful men. But those powers
that be are ordained of God. From the president to the police
officer, they are all ordained of God. And Christ is ruling
them, every one of them. You notice here they have a limited
number of crowns. Later it says Christ wears many
crowns. He is all powerful. He is the
authority and the dominion. The first chapter tells us that
to Him is all glory and all dominion forever and ever. Speaking of
Christ, the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the
rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will. Nothing's
happening out of his control. Nothing's happening out of Christ's
control. It's all coming to pass exactly as God foreordained. Now the objective of the devil
is to use governments to turn man's mind from Christ. to turn
you from Christ, to keep you from looking to Christ, to looking
at things going on in this world, in politics and in the world,
to keep you from looking at unseen eternal things, to looking at
temporary seen things. That's his goal. Look at verse
3. And I saw one of his heads, as it were, wounded to death,
and his deadly wound was healed. I think this speaks to the fact
that sometimes The government's come back, you know, and the
devil whose head was wounded, he's got a little power, he's
still doing a little less than the Lord permits him to do, but
he's wounded. But look, all the world, unregenerate
fallen sinners, wandered after the beast. They're going after
government and worldly, the whole worldly system, and they worship
the dragon, the devil. which gave power to the beast,
to the government, and they worshiped the beast, the governments of
the world, saying, who's like unto the beast? Who's able to
make war with him? Have you noticed how many news
channels there are nowadays? I mean, there's a lot more news
channels today than there used to be. And all they ever show
is politics and what's going on in government and what's going
on in the world and this side against that side. And the thing
about it is people get to watching these things and they get so
caught up in what's going on in politics and in the government.
And it's the same with everything else on television and all the
world's entertainments that just keep your mind focused on the
world. That's the devil's objective. And another thing he's showing
us here is his goal is to make men worship and depend upon governments
to save them rather than Christ. And that's what a lot of folks
do. They depend on the government and depend on this world and
think this is their salvation rather than looking to Christ,
rather than looking to Him. You know, everybody's worried
about this one world government. It's been a one world government
the whole time. He's telling us here, they're
all together. All the governments of the world
are the same depraved men under the same power of the devil,
but they're under the power of Christ doing what Christ would
have them to do. The devil's always trying to imitate Christ.
Christ's got one holy nation. One holy nation. He's the ruler
of his kingdom, he's the king of that kingdom, and he's the
king of all lesser kingdoms. The devil just tries to imitate
what Christ is doing. But God's saints are in that
holy kingdom and he's going to keep his saints looking to Christ
and trusting Christ and he's not going to let you be carried
away and start worshiping. Those that worship that beast
also worship the devil and he's not going to let you be carried
off by your sin. Anything that you're looking
to for salvation other than Christ is not salvation and it's actually
worshipping that thing and worshipping the devil. Christ is King of
Kings, He's Lord of Lords, He's all our salvation providing for
us in this world. Fallen sinners attribute to this
world, this government, they attribute to this beast what
are to be attributed to God. They say, who is like unto the
beast? Who is able to make war with him? We just saw in the
psalm last week that God's saints say of God, among all the gods
there is no god like thee. That word gods, we are going
to see in John, speaks about rulers in power too. It speaks of men in high positions
of authority. And among all the gods there
is no god like God. He's the great God that does
wondrous things, and none can make war with God and win. They
can't, and they're not going to conquer His people. He's already
conquered all. Now, these governments, this
first beast, they blaspheme God, they persecute the saints, but
none shall separate Christ's people from Christ. Now look
here in verse 5. It was given to him, to this
beast, a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. And power
was given unto him to continue 42 months. That means God has
a set time for him. When you look at the numbers
in Revelation, just know God's got a set time. And they represent
a definite time or a definite number that God has set. And
it says here, And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God,
to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, his church, even
them that dwell in heaven. And it was given to him to make
war with the saints and to overcome them, that is, just bodily. And power was given him over
all kindreds and tongues and nations. And all that dwell upon
the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the
book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And if any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into
captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with a sword
must be killed with a sword. Here's the patience and the faith
of the saints. Now here's the good news in this
chapter right here. Before this world was made, God
our Father chose a people unto salvation in Christ. And he wrote
their names in the Lamb's Book of Life. And there's not one
written in the Lamb's Book of Life that's going to be carried
away into this world, into this world system and these worldly
governments and be carried away captive by the devil. It ain't
happening. That's how we come into the world. But the Lord
is going to save his people and he's going to keep us. They all
are going to worship him. The whole world is going after
him. The whole world right now. You got divided by political
parties. Divided nation against nation.
There's all these earthly things that distinguish one and let
men think, well, we're better than that group because of some
earthly thing. God has made His people one and
the only ones that are not going to fall for this are those names
written in the Lamb Book of Life. They are not going to worship
Him. Not one of them shall ever be lost. He chose us as the object
of His mercy, His love and His grace and the purpose of God
in election shall stand. He will not lose one. They won't ever be separated
from Christ. But those that take captive,
now governments have power and we're not fighting the government.
We're waiting on the Lord. But if they take anybody captive,
it's just a matter of time, they're going to be taken captive. And
all that kill with a sword in a matter of time is going to
be killed with a sword. And this is the patience and faith of
the saints. We're waiting on the Lord. We
know the Lord is working and we believe the Lord. We're not
getting, we're not, just turn that mess off. I guarantee you
this, I'll give you an experiment to do. I did this back last year.
You, you turn it on today and look at it, turn it off, watch
it, watch it 10 minutes, turn it off and wait two months and
turn it back on and it'll be like you just turned it off.
And you won't have missed anything. Just turn it off. You won't miss
anything. The Lord is ruling it. The Lord is ruling it. And
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. He's
not going to allow His people to be carried away. To wait on
the Lord. Now, let's look at the second
beast. The second beast is false religion. It's more dangerous than the
first beast. But they're one. All the governments in this world
of false religion are one. They're one and the same. Look
here in verse 11, ìI beheld another beast coming up out of the earth.î
The other one came out of the sea, this one comes out of the
earth and itís just symbolical that this is earthy religion. Cain brought what? He brought
the fruit of the earth, the work of his hands. It says, ìAnd he
had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.î False
religion looks harmless like a lamb. They may come speaking
about the Lamb. They may come speaking about
Jesus, but it's another Jesus. But the message they're preaching
is the message of the devil. It was the message of the dragon.
False religion will say Jesus this and Jesus that. I'm not
just talking about idolatrous religion and obvious religion. I'm talking about religion that
calls the name Christ. It looks harmless. But here's
the message. The message is the message of
the devil. What was the devil's message in the garden? You will. You will. And the day you eat, you will.
Your eyes will be open. You'll become as God. You'll
know good from evil. His message appeals to the flesh. Now there's only two religions
in the whole world. Only two. Only two. True religions of God is salvation
by the grace of God accomplished by Christ Jesus our Lord and
given freely to those He regenerates the cause to faith in Him. Salvations
of the Lord. That's the true religion. There's
only one other. It's false religion and it puts
the work in man's hand. It puts the work in man's hand.
True religion gives all the glory to God. False religion gives
glory to man. Now, Antichrist religion is one
with Antichrist government and with the world. I know they speak
against the world, act like they are not with the world. God says
right here they are one. Look at verse 12. And he exerciseth
all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth,
and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose
daily womb was his. This is religion. Telling the
world and causing the world to worship the first beast, to worship
the world and the governments of the world. Politicians, when
they run for office, they love to have religious folks speak
for them or come pray for them and always supporting them. And
religious folks in false religion love to have politicians doing
the same for them. They are one. God's saints shall
not be deceived by the signs and wonders of false religion.
Look here in verse 13. He doeth great wonders, great
wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the
earth in the sight of men. and deceiveth them that dwell
on the earth by the means of those miracles which ye had power
to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on
the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had
the wound by a sword and did live. And he had power to give
life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should
both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the
image of the beast should be killed. Natural man has got to
have signs and wonders. They've got to have something
they can see. And I don't doubt here that the devil is able to
make men work signs and wonders. And maybe he'll do that in a
greater degree later. Through signs and wonders. But
our Lord said there's only one sign. There's only one. It's a sign of the Prophet Jonas,
as he was three days and three nights in the Bells Valley, so
the Son of Man was three days and three nights in the earth.
And he's risen. And he's the only sign he gives to his people.
He said an adulterous generation seeks after a sign. And all the
things that go on in religion and goes on in the world is nothing
more than to deceive the people. And it's to keep them looking
to themselves and to their works and away from Christ. Paul said,
if you're risen with Christ, seek those things which are above
where Christ sits on the right hand of God. The carnal mind
is going to be where? In religion, in government, in
the world, in religion, the carnal minds can be focused on things
below. Signs, and wonders, and works,
and deeds, and doing, and doing, and doing, and doing, and doing,
and giving man all the glory. Our gospel says, if you are risen
with Christ, set your affection on things above. Set your affection
on Christ. Study the spiritual things of
God and follow Him, and don't follow the world. For you are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ
who is our life shall appear, then shall you also appear with
Him in glory. So what is this mark of the beast? What is this all about? Verse
16. And He causeth all, both small
and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in
their right hand or in their foreheads. And that no man might
buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the
beast, or the number of his name. Now, I try to make this as simple
as I can. This started in the first, I
mean in the first generation, in the first days of the church.
This started. As soon as Christ went back to
glory, this started. What did the Judaizers come telling
believers? Except you be circumcised, you
can't enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Except you have a mark in your
body, you can't enter the Kingdom of Heaven. That's what they came
saying. And this has happened many times
since then. Governments and false religion
alike have done similar things many times in history. In one
generation, the papacy forbid its followers to do any business
with anybody who didn't profess allegiance to them. They've killed
people professing Christians many times because they wouldn't
submit to them. And that'll keep going on and
on and on and on and on until the end. But this mark here that
the world has in their forehead or on their right hand, it speaks
of the strong delusion that God gives to men so that their minds
are corrupted, so that they believe a lie and they follow a lie.
And the lie is in their right hand. The lie is the works of
their own hands. Man confiding in his own strength. This is the mark of the beast. Now, God tells us the number
of the beast is man trusting man. That's what it is. That's
the mark. Look here at verse 18. Here is
wisdom. Everybody gets scared to death
about this number 666. Here is the wisdom. Listen. Let
him that hath understanding count the number of the beast. That
beast, now don't forget, that beast is, the first one was men
that make up world government and this whole world. The second
one was men and women who make up religion. Antichrist is people. Antichrist is men and women who
are anti-Christ and opposite Christ and other than Christ.
That's who they are. And he says to us here, The number
of this false government and false Antichrist religion is
the number of a man. His number is 600, 3, 4, and
6. It's the number of a man. 6,
6, 6. The number of man is 6. Man was created on the 6th day. And in Scripture, the number
of man is 6. It means failure. That's what it means. Failure.
Six represents sinful, fallen man. That's the number. That's
the mark. Seven is the number of perfection.
Now, that number represents perfect God, our perfect Savior, His
perfect salvation. In the beginning of the book,
in chapter 1, it talks about the seven spirits of the Holy
Spirit. There's only one Holy Spirit.
What's these seven spirits? It's saying that perfection of
the Holy Spirit. And what you have here is the
opposite of seven. It's failure. Six comes short
of seven. All men have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Christ is perfection. The Lord
rested on the seventh day. He's the perfect rest of His
people. He's the perfect rest of His
people. Now there are three digits here. If you just wrote the number
up on a board, it would be six, six, six, three digits. There
are three persons in the Godhead. If it was representing God, it
would be seven, seven, seven. But there are six there representing
the three persons in the Godhead because man tries to put himself
in place of God in all three persons of the Godhead. God the
Father chose whom he would, he predestinated whom he would to
be conformed to the image of Christ, he chose his son to do
the saving, and man tries to usurp that authority and put
himself in the place of God the Father, saying, I'll do the choosing. I don't think that's fair. God
the Son came forth and accomplished the redemption of his people
and perfected his people forever by one offering, them that are
sanctified. Man tries to usurp that authority,
put himself in that place and say, I'll make myself righteous
by my obedience. And then you have God the Holy
Spirit who regenerates His people and sanctifies His people and
creates us a new creation. And man says, I'll take that
glory. I'll sanctify myself and I'll
birth myself again and I'll preserve myself until the end. It's just
man trying to take the glory that belongs to God. That's what
Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 2. He opposeth and exalted himself
above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that
he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God. Now there may be a time come
when the world is finally under one government and there's just
one ruler over the whole thing and everybody looks to him and
says these things about him. and he stands up and tries to
make himself out to be God. That may happen. But don't make
the mistake the world's made through the years. They just
keep looking at everybody that rises up and saying, oh, there's
the son of perdition. There he is. Hitler was, Mussolini
was, Stalin was. It's Antichrist. That's people. That's people
who are opposed to God having all the glory in Christ in salvation. They operate from the power of
force. If you don't have the mark, you can't buy and sell. If you don't submit to them,
you can't buy and sell. What does our Lord say? Our Lord
says, Come ye, buy, without money and without price. Salvation
is free because He paid it all for His people. But here is the
good news. God's people have a mark too.
God's people have a mark. This mark you're talking about
here in the earthy is an earthy mark. It's a mark that men are
going to be known by because they submit to the government,
they submit to false religion. God's people are never going
to be one with this world. They're never going to be accepted
by the governments and the religion of this world. It's not going
to happen. The Lord's not going to let it happen. But we got
a mark too. We've been sealed. Verse 1 of
chapter 14 says, I looked and lo a lamp stood on the mount
Zion and with him 144,000 having his father's name written in
their forehead. particular numbers saved by God, and they had a
mark in their foreheads. They were sealed in their Father's
forehead by His name. After the Spirit regenerated
you and brought you to faith in Christ, Paul said in Ephesians
1 that He sealed us with the Holy Spirit of promise. He sealed
us. And that Holy Spirit can't be
broken. It guarantees our eternal security in Christ. The seal
preserves us. It's the proof of ownership.
It's the earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased
possession. Our ownership and our security
is Christ. It's not in any way dependent
upon or determined by us. There's no mark you get in your
body that's going to secure or unsecure your salvation. It ain't
going to happen. Paul, in our next verse in Galatians
6 says, circumcision nor uncircumcision avail. It's being made new by
Christ, that's what avail. And he said at the end of that,
I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's marks from
being under the power of His Spirit and being rejected by
this world and persecuted by this world. Our security is Christ,
the security of the sheeps, the shepherd. Christ has redeemed
us. We can't be unredeemed. He sanctified his people that's
been born again. You can't be unsanctified. He's
justified us. You can't be unjustified. You're
complete in him and you'll never be incomplete in him. That's
the security of those that are sealed with the Father's name.
Brother Don used to say, our relationship with the Eternal
Father, with the Eternal God, does in great measure determine
what we do, but what we do in no way determines our relationship
with the Eternal God. If that's not the case, my confidence
is not entirely in Christ. Listen to this, they that trust
in the Lord, they that trust in the Lord, shall be as Mount
Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever, as the mountains
are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord's round about His people
from henceforth even forever." Verse 4, he says, These are they
which are not defiled with women, for they are virgins. They are
made righteous by Christ. They are not defiled with the
great harlot of this world and false religion. These are they
that follow the Lamb wheresoever He goeth. These were redeemed
from among men. They've been bought out from
the world. The firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb, and in their
mouth was found no guile, for they're without fault before
the throne of God. When you're born of God, Nathanael,
an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. There's a new man
in which is no sin. And before God in Christ you
have no sin. I saw another angel fly in the
midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to you and me
that are still on this earth. Now listen to what this one is
going to tell us right here. He is preaching to every nation,
kindred, tongue and people. What is he going to tell us in
the face of all this that we just heard about and what all
we see going on in the world? What is he going to tell us to
do? He spoke with a loud voice, said, fear God, give glory to
Him. Don't fear this world, don't
fear this world's governments, don't fear politicians, don't
fear the viruses, don't fear the false religion, don't fear
any of these things below. Sanctify God. Let Him be your
fear. Let Him be your dread. He'll
be for sanctuary. Trust Him. Trust Him. Give glory to Him. That's how
you give glory to Him. Lord, I'm trusting You. You. You've sealed me. I'm Yours.
For the hour of His judgment's come. That's what He's working
right now. That's what He's doing. Worship Him that made the heaven
and the earth and the sea and the fountains and the washers.
And that's what His people are going to do. They're going to
worship Him by His grace. That probably wasn't near as
entertaining if I'd have got up here and told you that this
Mark of the Beast was chips that they're going to put under your
skin. But whatever Whatever it is the
world does, it's not the concern of God's people. Our concern
is follow Christ, follow the Lamb, look to Him. Christ got
this all under control. Amen.