Revelation chapter 13 Sometimes when I'm reading parts
in here that I really don't have a complete understanding or any
understanding of, I have to go back to the key verse, the key
passage of this book. It is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. And that's what it says in verse
1. And this book was written and
sent to the early saints located in Asia Minor that were in great
persecution. It was not written to scare them,
but to prepare them and to encourage them. I keep that in mind as
I go through here. This is not scare tactics by
God. He's not trying to scare anybody
into the kingdom. He is encouraging people that
have already been brought into the kingdom. He is preparing
them for what is lying ahead. And the same is true to us. Every
Christian and every church is and can have the same encouragement
that God gave those first recipients of this letter, those seven churches
of Asia. And it is for our encouragement. And so when we read there, this
is the revelation of Jesus Christ, it is encouragement to us. There's
never been the scare tactics. There's never been propaganda.
There's never been any of this, I think, the way it should be
or The speculation and the fear, that's just modern tactics by
religionists to try to get the book of Revelation to do what
it was never intended to do. The book is filled with spiritual
symbolism and all attacks of God, truth, and the church are
crushed by the Lamb. And we're going to see that over
and over again. A serious issue develops, the
Lamb appears, the Lamb takes care of the issue. And we often
find that in the book of Acts, that the problems that the first
disciples were going through there after the Lord ascended
to heaven, the issues that they had, they went home, they realized
in their prayer, this is the act of God, God's protecting
us, and so forth. Alright, in the 13th chapter
of the book of Revelation, verse 9. I want to start with verse
9 and spend a little time on the remainder of this chapter
and hopefully bring out some of the things that are in here
and pass over some things that we don't know much about. Revelation
chapter 13 verse 9 the scripture says if any man have an ear let
him hear. Let us look at the book with
all the spiritual insight granted us by the Holy Spirit. That's
all we're asked to do. Look at this book with all the
spiritual insight and if nothing more is said than this This is
the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now that's a lot of spiritual
insight that the Apostle left us as he was led by the Holy
Spirit. And if we understand that, that the Holy Spirit has
revealed that to us, then we are a blessed people, even though
we may not know what all of the symbols mean. We're a blessed
people to know that this is the revelation of Jesus Christ, the
revealing. And we can certainly find in
here the redemptive work of Christ, the protective care that God
gives us through the Lord Jesus, the power of His blood, overcoming
all enemies. These things are brought out
so carefully and so straightforward. And some of the others, spiritual
symbolism. And I say spiritual because we're
going to get into some things tonight that so often is interpreted
literally, and we need to leave it spiritual. They're spiritual
enemies. The Lord never looked like a
lamb out in the field. But He's called the Lamb of God. He didn't appear. He had symbolic,
spiritual symbolism about Him that represents or shares with
us what we find in that lamb, the Paschal Lamb or the Passover
Lamb. But He never appeared as a lamb. He didn't look like a
lamb. But spiritually, symbolically,
He comes to us with this symbol. And in the New Testament, in
the book of John, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world. We don't have any trouble looking
at Christ and saying He had these characteristics and attributes
of the Passover Lamb. And we thank God for it. He is
our Passover. And then when we get into the
book of Revelation, we find that he has shared with us a number
of times that he is the Lamb, and it's symbolic, it's spiritual,
and we don't have any trouble with that. Well, let's look at
some of these other issues in this chapter through the same
eyes and say these are spiritual. They're spiritual. They're symbolic.
They're not literal. Whatever God intended for them
to be meant may be better understood by the people that received this
letter, other people that had the persecution that was going
on around them, whatever it was. But every time we run into that
symbolic spiritual language about the enemies of the church, we're
going to run into the Lamb taking care of them. And that's what
I feel is important. It's not scare tactics. It's
simply saying His redemption is valuable. His redemption is
glorious. His redemption takes care of
all issues. His redemption takes care of
great beasts. We look at David and Goliath.
That was an incident that took place. But if we look at that
spiritually and see Christ overcoming every enemy, even the big ones,
the beasts, then we say, wow, He's able to take care of all
of that. And that's what we find in this book. We don't need the
charts and sometimes I'm just drugged down by, I wish I'd never
seen them. Because I read the stuff and
immediately I'm seeing that, so please don't let me look at
these things as literal, but spiritual. Revelation 13 verse 10, it says,
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and had
two... Verse 11, excuse me. Let me back up to verse 10. He
that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth
with a sword must be killed with a sword. Here is the patience
and the faith of the saints. And I beheld another beast coming
up out of the earth, and had two horns like a lamb. Now this is so important to this
passage of scripture because we're going to have the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled right here and it's being fulfilled
right now. He said in his latter ministry
on this earth that there will be other Christs come. False Christs. false prophets. They will have the outward appearance.
They will be able to take away many. They will lead astray many. And here we have a symbol here. This beast has two horns and
looks, the horns, like a lamb. We're going to have something
here that people are going to look at symbolically, spiritually,
in their own dead heart. This is our Christ. This is our
Lamb. Now we have the other Lamb, the
Lamb of God, but we have this. And religion is not going to
be very far away, to begin with at least, from the truth. I remember
Charles Spurgeon talking about one of the preachers that was
in England during his time. This one preacher believed four
points. He didn't believe in particular redemption. And Charles
Spurgeon said, if you don't believe in particular redemption, you've
given up on all. But he, I believe, I believe
everything but Particular redemption. That's what he was doing now.
It's all very close and he had great congregations but He was
another lamb Had the symbol he had picture he had type use the
same words use the same Bible Priest almost almost the same
gospel but the Apostle Paul said if an angel of heaven and if
I or an angel from heaven bring you any other gospel and what
he's saying is if anybody brings you another Christ but that Christ
that is laid down in scriptures that actually did what he said
he would do and is accomplishing it right now Nancy and I went to pick up Tori
and I read a reader board oh my goodness God is God puts hearts
together, but he has to have all the pieces? If you use the
word G-O-D, capital, and then you say he doesn't have the ability,
you've got to give him all the pieces? Oh my goodness, oh my
goodness. I asked Nancy for the throw-up
bag. Now, I realize they're doing
the best they can with the knowledge that they have, but God is going
to take all the pieces. He's in control of them. We can't
hold back any. And when it's all said and done,
we're thankful we couldn't because we would have. He does that. All right, as we look here, in
chapter 5 and verse 6, look there with me, chapter 5 and verse
6. Chapter 5 and verse 6, And I
beheld, and lo in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts,
four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders stood
a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven
eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the
earth. Now when we went over that, we saw that this is a picture,
this is a symbolic statement, a spiritual statement about our
Savior. This is spiritual. He's not a
literal lamb. He is the spiritual lamb of God. And he takes away the sin of
the world. Now here, this one is identified over here in chapter
13 and verse 6. Let's look at this. Chapter 13
and verse 6. And it says here, and he opened
his mouth Oh, let's see. It was in verse 11. And I beheld
another beast coming up out of the earth and had two horns like
a lamb and spake as a dragon. We've got almost. The speech is different. It's
kind of like when Jacob called his two sons, he called the one
son. Boy, you sound like the rascal. But you got the hair
on you and you smell like the other guy. Well, the voice. My sheep hear my voice and follow
me. It doesn't say, my sheep look
at me and follow me. My sheep hear my voice and follow
me. My sheep hear my gospel and follow
me. My sheep hear my word and follow
me. It's not the appearance. There
is no form nor commonness that by nature we should desire him,
but there's a voice about him that draws his people unto himself. And we find out that this is
the voice of the Good Shepherd. This is the voice of the Great
Shepherd. This is the voice of the Chief Shepherd. This is the
voice of the Lamb of God. The religion Religion declares
grace is okay except it needs to be mixed with just a little
of man's works. Now look at me over here in the
book of Acts chapter 2 as we think about here in the book
of Revelation the warning is going out. The children of God
are being protected from all the assault and the warning is
going out that there shall come a day and it was then and it
has always been a day when there will be those that say everything
you say is just dandy except. Now here in the book of Acts
chapter 15 we have this statement made, Acts chapter 15 Everything is what you say is
okay, Paul. Everything you say is okay, except this. There's this mixture. We're going
to have the appearance of the Lamb, but the voice of a dragon.
The voice of a dragon is going to put people... it's just going
to leave them where they are. God didn't have to do anything.
to those who forever will end up in eternal hell. He didn't
have to do a thing. Just leave them alone. Now, to those who end up in heaven,
he had to do something for. He had to know them before the
foundation of the world. He had to call them. He had to
write their names down. He is really into his people. But the rest, all he had to do
is leave alone. They can look and say, well, I know the gospel.
Here is my Lamb. Now, he speaks just a little
rough. Notice how rough it is here. chapter 15 verse 1, now this
is how rough it is it appears to be the Lamb but the voice
is the voice of a dragon the certain men which came down from
Judea taught the brotherness said except ye be circumcised
after the manner of Moses you cannot be saved and I'll tell
you to the church that's the voice of a dragon grace grace
has saved me, well let's go I have that time. let's just go down
through here just a little bit in this verse two when therefore
Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with
them they determined that Paul and Barnabas and a certain other
of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders
about this question now we got we got these people telling us
that unless you are circumcised you cannot be saved Now they
say they're following the same Jesus, but their voice, the voice
is the voice of a dragon. This is the worst message that
God's people could ever hear. The preacher tells me it's all
of grace, and you come along and say it's grace plus this?
That's not grace. The people of God have a message
given to their soul. It's grace. Unmerited favor. If it is an unmerited favor,
if it's based on me, I am failing. If it's based on God, I am granted
success. All right, he goes on here to
say, and being brought on their way by the church, they passed
through Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the
Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. And
when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church
and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things
that God had done with them. But there rose up a certain of
the sect of the Pharisees, which believed, saying that it was
needful to circumcise him." Now notice there, it says, "...that
believed also." to the outside ear, they say, oh my goodness,
these are brothers and they've been baptized. They're part of
our body. Some of the leading elders. And
when the rubber meets the road, they're telling us secretly in
their heart, they believe you have to be circumcised to be
saved. What is going on here? They rose up, certain the sect
of the Pharisees, which believed, saying, that this was needful
to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
And the apostles and elders came together for to consider this
matter. And when they had been much disputing,
Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know
how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the
Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost,
even as he did unto us, and put no difference between us and
them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt
ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which
neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe,
that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be
saved even as they. There was no mixture of any kind
of works here. There's no mixture of the law.
It is by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in grace, that
is the kindest words that God can ever share with a people,
lost people. It's grace and I've taken care
of it. It's unmerited favor, and I bestow
it. It is by calling, and I call.
It is by redemption, and I redeem. It is by saving from sin, and
I'm the Savior. They shall call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. And over here,
a groan comes out from this that appears to be like a lamb, and
it's the voice of a dragon saying, well, we know all that, but You
must be circumcised. And today, and I mention this
many times, today there's all sorts of that kind of statement
brought out. You must be baptized. You must
take the Lord's Supper. You must serve God. You must
walk a holy life. You can't go there and you must
go there. And all of these things are mixed
into the gospel. And you know what that is? That
is worse than a dragon's voice. Because the church is dependent
upon one thing, and that is the grace of God. The church knows
that there's no way on them by themselves. Not only could they
be saved, but could keep themselves. And it's not by not going places
or by going places, it is the grace of God. So here's a representation
to the people of God in the days of the writing of this book that
there will be. Turn with me to the book of Matthew.
Back up to Matthew 24, 24. Matthew 24, 24. The Lord Jesus
said, and this is some 30, 60 years. I don't know when this
book was written. If you're one group, you have
to believe it was written after 90 AD. You just have to. And I'd hate to base all of my
belief about a book upon the date it was written. So, I'm
just going to say it was written in 60. I don't care when it was written.
The message is still there. It's grace, it's found in Christ,
and I'm not going to base my belief on when a book was written. Especially, it doesn't say. Now, if it had said, this book
was written in 90 AD or 60 years after Christ ascended or something
like that, then we'd have to put some stock in it. But it
doesn't. So, if our theology is based
upon when that book was written, we're going to have trouble.
It's going to be serious trouble, too. Because we're going to have
to fall into line on this. And we're going to have to skip
the first verse. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ. All
right, Matthew 24-24, the Lord Jesus warned, the Lord Jesus
shared, prepared, forewarned is forearmed. The Lord prepared
his people. There will be a day coming when
this lamb is going to sound like a dragon. And this is the words
of it, Matthew 24-24, for there shall arise false Christs."
Now does your translation have capital C? Mine does. The King James, they put it there.
Now some of the other translations, they didn't put it there. So they're not capital C Christs.
That's the point I want to make. There's one capital C Christ.
All right, it says, there shall arise false Christs and false
prophets and shall show great signs and wonders. They're gonna
have numbers following after them. And the greatest way that
the world has of telling the success of a church or a pastor
today is they have money. Numbers, money, all right? Wonders in so much that if it
were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Now, that just
takes us right back to that verse of scripture in this chapter
that says, those whose names were written in the Lamb's Book
of Life of the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. That is our touchstone. If it were possible, these false
Christs and false prophets would deceive the very elect. But it is not possible. That's
what the Lord said. That's why he has been so careful
to choose them before the foundation of the world. So careful to put
their names down in the Lamb's Book of Life. So careful to grave
the palm of his hands. So careful to identify in his
prayers, all that the Father giveth me. that 17th chapter
seven times in that one chapter that type of references made
about the Lord's people that's our touchstone my goodness we
go back before the world began and say God had an interest in
his people before the world began therefore it is not possible
that God's people will fall out for you must be circumcised Paul
and Barnabas, they fought tooth and nail over this. They went
back to the Church of Jerusalem. And do you think that it changed
their minds? The Pharisees, those who had
been dragging around this religion? I think not, unless God opened
their heart. They probably went and started
the second Church of Jerusalem. New Hope. New Hope Church. You know, we're
better than they are because they didn't, well, God was with
these people. God had showed them, showed Paul
and Barnabas and Peter. Peter had to have some things
straightened out. Remember what I'm not going to eat anything
common or unclean. And that is a spiritual picture about Peter
needing to go to the Gentiles. And it wasn't very long right
after that. He is sent to the Gentiles and
you know what? He took the gospel to them. He didn't take another
gospel. He didn't share with them that
we need to bring in the Mosaic law upon you. He preached the
gospel and he's talking about that over there in the book of
Acts where we're reading. There's no need to put a yoke
upon God's people that the Old Testament people couldn't bear,
but we believe that we're saved just like they were saved by
the grace of God. So there's going to be this imitation,
and it's always been here. and will always be here, and
will always drag over those that know not God, and know not Christ. And if it were possible, it would
drag over the very elect, but it is not possible, and it's
not based upon what we do, it's what's been based on what He
has done for us. The religion declares grace is
okay except it needs to be mixed. Now there's another passage here
I want to go to in the book of Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter
8. Now here's an illustration of
a person who believed and we have to be careful when we read
that word. What's the fruits of this belief?
with the Pharisees. What was the fruits of the belief?
You must be circumcised. Now that's a faulty belief. That's
a man-made belief. That's a created belief. It was
then. It is now. When God does it,
when God creates life, when God gives grace, when God gives belief,
then we're believing the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're not hanging
on to all this other stuff. Now, there are those who believed,
and then they said, you must be circumcised. And here's a
man that believed. We know him as Simon. He had
an old life. He's a sorcerer. and he did incantations. He drug along a lot of people.
Boy, you get people doing magic. Signs and wonders. You get people
doing that kind of thing and boy, you're going to have a following.
And here he is. Now, in Acts chapter 8, here's
another dragon. He's got the appearance of a
lamb, but he's just a dragon at heart. In fact, one of the
preachers is going to say, I perceive you're in the gall of bitterness.
All right, let's look here. Acts chapter 8, verse 5. The
scriptures share this. When Philip went down to the
city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. I just love
reading stuff like that. It means we're doing okay. Preach
Christ and you can't go wrong. and preached Christ to them,
and the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which
Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For
unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many
that were possessed with them, and many taken with falsies.
and that were lame and were healed, and there was great joy in the
city. There was a certain man called Simeon, which before time
in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria,
giving out that himself was some great one, to whom they all gave
heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is a great power
of God. And to him they had regard, because
that of the long time he had bewitched them with sorceries."
Now they're saying this man is a man of God. Now he's not preaching
Christ, he's not preaching the gospel, he is doing incantations
and sorceries and all, whatever that meant. But not once, and I am again
reminded of that brother down in New Guinea, they said nothing
about Christ. Now that's the key. What think
ye of Christ? That's the key. I don't want
to hear about your religion. I want to hear about your Savior.
And if they say, well, you've got to be circumcised, then I've
heard enough. Because that's the voice of a dragon. Bad breath
and all. Alright? But when they believed
Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name
of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. And when
Simon himself believed also, and when he was baptized, he
continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs
which were done. I want to jump down to verse
18. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands
the Holy Spirit was given, oh, we got the voice of a dragon
coming out. He offered them money. saying give me also this power
that on whomsoever I lay hands we may receive the Holy Ghost.
What did it say about him? He believed. Now what is the fruits of belief? With the disciples, with those
who trust Christ, it is preaching Christ. It is declaring Christ.
It is living Christ. But this person represents a
whole host of people that believed, and now he sees some things going
on. He says, and I can just see him
put his arm around Philip and sidle up to him. Brother, I'm
a pretty rich man, and if you'd share with me how you do that,
I'll take care of your retirement." He offered them money. And this
is not money that brings this. This is God. This is God. And it goes on to tell us here,
But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee. because
thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with
money thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy
heart is not right in the sight of God now some people today
say Peter just stepped out of line when he said that because
but he was honest to this man this man was he needed some honesty
in his life You have not believed. Your heart's not right in the
sight of God. If you think what we have and
God is blessed comes by money, repent therefore this day of
thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine
heart may be forgiven thee. Now he hadn't given up on him.
This man had not send away his day of grace, because this man,
Peter, says, I'm going to pray for you, but you're not right
with God right now. You may have a whole bunch of
people fall on you because of your abilities, speaking abilities,
power abilities, or whatever. I perceive that thou art in the
gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered
Simon and says, pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these
things which you have spoken come up on me. Now, he is just
a typical, and I believe that this is here to represent some
things for us. There are those that have gone
through every human ability that they can, and they say they have
believed, but their words betray them. He betrayed himself. He's just saying, I don't know
what you know. I don't know who you know. And
if I could just pay you enough, I could know that too. Well,
Peter goes on, this is by revelation. That's all it is. Revelation.
I can't give it to you. But you are not right in the
sight of God. And this is like the Lamb. It
intimates the Lamb of God. This man represents to us the
religions of the world even though they may use the same names. All the Muslim Jews name Abraham.
They'll take their line right back to Abraham. They won't go
through David, but they'll go through Abraham. But you know
what? Abraham is the father of the
faithful. That's what the scripture says. All right, let's go back
over here. Verse 18. Let's go over here
to verse 18 in Revelation. Revelation chapter 13. This is
an interesting verse. It's been so warped, so thrown
out of complexion and perception. Revelation 13, we'll go down
through there and read some of that other, and then we'll get
to that last verse, and that just sums up the crux of the
matter, why all of this is so appealing. Verse 11, And I beheld
another beast coming out of the earth, and having two horns like
a lamb, and spake as a dragon. He exercised all the power of
the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them that
dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound
was healed. He doth 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 he had the power to do in the sight
of the beast, saying unto them, that dwell on the earth that
they should make an image to the beast which had the wound
by a sword and 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 of the beast should be killed. And he caused all,
both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive
a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads, 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. Here is wisdom. Now this
is what we want. Let him that hath understanding
count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. And his number is 603 score and
6 or 666 or the proverbial 666. Now what does that stand for?
I am convinced that if man was a two-part being, this number
would have been 66. And if a man was a four-part being, it would
have been 6666. But since he's a three-part being,
the number was given as 666. Represents every part of man
fell with Adam in the Garden of Eden. There is nothing, and
it proves it by backing up here a little bit. Left to ourselves,
we'd follow every ideology that ever came along, every philosophy
that ever came along, and we'd go through a belief process and
go to the preacher and ask for I'd like to do what you're doing
and I'll pay you money to do it. Good money. I'll help your
retirement. We do the same thing. The reason
we do that is physically, mentally, and spiritually we're dead. 666. Man, man, man. Now physically
we're dying and corrupted. We can go back to our parent
in the Garden of Eden. When he ate of that forbidden
fruit, he began a dying process, an aging process that he had
not known up to that point. I believe Adam was created with
the appearance of age. The moment he was created, he
had the appearance of somebody in the prime of their life. Call
it 30, I don't care. Call it 18, whatever it was.
But he never went through the infant process. He was created
as a whole man, a mature man. But the moment he ate that fruit,
he physically began to die. When he ate that forbidden fruit,
mentally he was dying and corrupted. And that's why the Lord said
that every thought and every imagination of the heart was
only evil continually. At that point on, there was no
positive thought towards God. And thirdly, the third six. Now this part was dead right
then and is dead in everyone that is born into this world,
and that's spiritually. everyone that is born. Adam died
spiritually instantaneously. He lost every spiritual fellowship
that he had with the Father. And the Lord Jesus Christ points
out to us here in the book of Revelation that the problem that
man has is that every capacity in him has fallen in the Garden
of Eden. Physically, he's dying and he's
corrupted. We have the propensity of aches
and pains. We have the propensity of falling
apart. I've talked to people. I never
thought it would happen. They said when they get older, skin
gets thin. I didn't think that happened. It does. But we have a propensity
towards that. Why? Because of the fall. Well,
that's our first six. And someday, at God's appointed
time, we'll walk through the valley of the shadow of death
to fulfill God's words to Adam. And we will die. Our friends
have been there. Our parents, many of our parents
have been there. Brothers, family have been there. Now, the second one, mental. We would like to think that we
don't think the way we think, don't we? We'd like to think the way we
think we don't think. We were able to hide a whole
area of ourself. We don't want many people or
anybody to know actually what goes on in that part and it is
no wonder that God said that every imagination by nature every
imagination and every thought is only evil continually and
it isn't until he gives us a new birth and he does something to
that third six that we begin to have some positive thoughts
towards God that we're not in the way. Before that, we're in
the way. We're doing things to get...
and maybe nobody else knows about it, but we want God to notice
us. And that third part, that part is so dead when we're born
that it takes an act of God to resurrect it. Great picture
in the New Testament and it's carried out in the Old Testament
too. It took the Word of God to raise people from the physical
dead. It takes the Word of God to raise
people to spiritual life. It is so dead. It's not partially. We can't make a decision and
get it straightened out. We have enough people in the
New Testament who said they believed and didn't. They couldn't. God hadn't worked the work. 5,000
said they believed, walked away when the Lord preached. That's
not what God's people do. And then we have people like
Simon. We have people, Pharisees, believers
in the Church of Jerusalem stand up and say, Paul is not right
on this issue. You must have the Law of Moses
mixed in it. And those who knew grace said,
No. If it's not grace, we're all
lost. There's no hope. We'll never
get out of the pit. We can't clamber out. We're so
dead we can't get out. So man is a three-part being,
therefore the number is 666. This is the statement about which
part of man is not affected by the fall. None. not one part all is affected
by the fall physical mental and spiritual and the Lord Jesus
said that we must love the Lord our God with all our heart and
with all our mind and with all our might and our neighbor as
ourself And it is only after we are regenerated that we even
come close. God has to do it. Alright, just
a little bit more here. With this inherited condition,
we are unable to make correct spiritual choices. There is no
spiritual ear. There is no spiritual eye. There
is no spiritual mouth. And being dead is as if we didn't
even have them. It's like being spiritually sewed
up. I mean the whole thing. Dead. Dead, dead, dead. We are
taken back to verse 8. Let's go back to verse 8. This
is our hope. Oh, the blessedness of electing,
persevering, redeeming, regenerating grace. And all that dwell upon
the earth shall worship Him, the Beast, whose names are not
written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Now, there is no other hope. People will say, I don't believe
in election. I'm sorry. You're on the left hand right
now. There is no compromise. Now we
notice in that last chapter, verses 16 and 17, that part of
the curse is that in some manner, And I don't believe it's any
physical. I had an email one time from a lady saying that
they're just getting ready to put microchips behind our ears
so that they can keep track of us. And this is a sign of the
coming of the Lord Jesus. And I wrote back, if that's a
sign that needs to be fulfilled for Jesus to return to this earth,
where do we stand in line? Now it's not, but this is just
dribble that people put on us. We're going to have barcodes
put on people's here and in their forehead. Well, it's just like
the sin against the Holy Spirit. God's people can't do it. God's
people cannot have the unpardonable sin, the sin against the Holy
Spirit. And God's people will not have a mark. Now they may
hold us down and they may put barcodes on us, but that's not
the mark. The mark is something that we
were marked in Adam. Now notice this, chapter 14 verse
1 is the hallelujah verse. It says here, and I looked and
lo a lamb stood on Mount Zion. Heavenly and with him a hundred
and forty four thousand having his father's name written in
their foreheads That is the hallelujah verse
God takes care of it. He has identified marks on his
people He has an identifying mark on his people the name of
the Lord Jesus. And it is no more physical than
this other. Now if someone holds you down
and you get marked here and you get marked there, that's not
this mark. And that's not the mark of the beast. The mark of
the beast is in here. It's sin. It's separation from
God. It's 666. That's here. But there's a mark God gives
His people. He identifies His people. They've been identified
from eternity. In all ages they've been identified. And it says, the Lamb, still
don't know the sign, having His Father's name written in their
foreheads. Now, wouldn't it be wonderful
if we went... I like that there's a light that
you can put over certain things. we stepped into a light that
says, The Lord Our Righteousness. That's what the Lord said about
the church. You got the son's name. His name is Lord Our Righteousness. The church's name is Lord Our
Righteousness. We've been marked by the Lamb. The rest is irrelevant. God's pulled us out of that pit.
And if it were possible, it would deceive the very elect, but it's
not possible. We may. Oh my goodness. I wonder
about that. And then the Lord's word comes
to us. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. The stranger's
voice they will not hear. A dragon's voice. They bring
up circumcision, payment, buying it, selling it, all the other
trash that comes along, making the elements the means of salvation. Sorry, I'm sorry, I gotta get
out of here. Because it's not. It's grace.
Grace, grace, grace, grace. Free grace, sovereign grace,
God's grace, holy grace. For by grace are you saved. And
the church dies with that on their lips. Alright, we're going to stop
there. And we're going to pick up with Father's name written. Chapter 14. Very good.