Thank you for that. That was
a great blessing to me. What good words for that song. So thankful for the message of
it. Let's open our Bibles this evening
back to Revelation chapter 13. the 13th chapter. This morning
we focused on the beast out of the sea. In this 13th chapter of the revelation
of our Lord Jesus Christ, John sees two beasts. One of them is very frightening
looking. He is quite a hideous monster. The other beast that he sees,
which we'll focus a little more on this evening, was not a frightening
beast at all. In fact, it was a lamb that had
two horns. But this beast rose up out of
the earth. Out of the earth. And this is
pretty much what the 13th chapter is about. John, as he stands
on the sand of the sea, the edge of the sea, he sees these two
beasts. One that comes out of the sea,
the other one comes out of the earth. The first beast, as it
says in the first verse of chapter 13, John said, and I stood upon
the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns. And on his horns ten crowns and
upon his head the name of blasphemy. The beast which I saw he said
it was like a leopard. His feet were as the feet of
a bear. His mouth was as the mouth of
a lion. And then John, by the spirit
of inspiration, tells us where this beast got his power, his
seat, and his authority. He gets it, or he got it from
the dragon, the red dragon. The red dragon was identified
over in chapter 12. Maybe I should read that to you,
chapter 12 and verse 9. The great dragon was cast out,
that is by the death of our Lord Jesus. That great dragon was
cast out, cast out of heaven. That old serpent called the devil. And Satan, which deceived the
whole world, he was cast out into the earth. And all those
angels that followed him in the rebellion against God, they were
cast out with him. The great dragon, the red dragon,
is Satan. I've said several times in this
series of messages that the book of the Revelation is about the
victory of the Lamb of God and all of his followers over the
dragon and all of his followers. So the dragon has a beast that
he brings forth out of the sea, out of the sea. This beast, he
represents the ungodly civil empires and governments of the
world. This world is not now, it has
never been, and it will never be a friend to the grace of God
or to the people of God. It's always been our enemy. From the very beginning, as soon
as governments were established in this world, they have persecuted
the Lord's people You see, the world is man-centered. The world is set against the
things of God. The world is anti-God. The world is anti-Christ. The mind of the world is set
on things of the world. The goal of the world is self-exaltation. What I think is the theme of
the world is you make yourself happy. Whatever makes you happy,
that's what you ought to follow. But the end of the world is destruction. No wonder our Lord warned us
so much about the world. He that is a friend of the world. John says in first John, the
second chapter, is not a friend of God. It's world, the things
of the world. It is Satan uses the things of
the world to draw you away from Christ Jesus, to seduce you. Take your eyes off Christ Jesus. You are a never-dying soul. Satan's goal is to keep you distracted,
keep you away from the gospel, keep you focused on you being
happy, you being satisfied, keep you self-centered, and that's
the way we all are by nature, and Satan intends to keep us
that way. He intends to keep us away from
the things of God, if he can possibly do that. He wants to
keep us greatly attached to the world and all the allurements
of the world. And there are lots of things
that the world has to attract us, to attract the flesh. I tell you, only the grace of
God can break that. Only the grace of God can infiltrate
our very being and cause us to love God and love the things
of God, love the word of God, love the gospel of God, love
the people of God, love the servants of God over the things of the
world. The governments of this world,
ever since they were established, They've been anti-God and anti-Christ. Here's what the, especially today,
you look at the governments of the world, look at the philosophers
of the world, the educators of the world, and I'm not talking
about all educators, because I know we've got some educators
in here, some that are still active, some that are retired,
but overall, Overall, the idea of the world is the things of
God are just outdated. The Bible is pretty much a useless
book. Oh, you can get some moral things
out of it. But as far as the world is concerned,
they have no real respect for the Word of God. They have no
reverence for the scriptures and if you start speaking about
God as the creator, the world laughs in your face. If you start
talking about God in control of providence and He rules and
He reigns over all things and there isn't anything such as
luck or chance or things like that. And if you say God's in
the storms and God's in the wind, God's in the floods. We just
saw the mudslides out there in California, how horrible they
were. And yet they can't happen apart
from the will of God. And you talk like that, if you
believe that, the world says you're a fool. You're a fool. The world says, this is the mindset
of the world, all the bad things are of the devil. All the good
things come from God. And yet the Word of God says,
shall there be evil in a city? And God hath not done it. What this book says that all
things are of God for of Him and through Him and to Him are
all things unto God be the glory forever and ever. The authorities of this world,
the governments of this world, the presidents, the prime ministers,
the dictators, all of them, almost without exception. I mean, I've
not read about all of them. I've read about presidents of
our country. I know there were some in the
very beginning who had some respect to the Word of God, but I've
never read anything that indicates they knew anything about the
gospel of substitution or redemption. They didn't know anything about
the gospel of grace, There was a time in our nation when there
was some respect for the Word of God, and therefore that respect
for the Word of God, it had an effect upon the morals of our
country, and I'm thankful for that. And I'm thankful for this nation
where we still have privileges. We still have the liberties that
we have to stand up and preach the gospel. We can meet here
this evening without fear that someone's going to come from
the government and shut us down. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful
for the rights that we have as citizens of this great nation. But this is not a Christian nation. It never has been. There is one
nation that God's interested in. Blessed is that nation whose
God is the Lord. And that nation is a spiritual
nation. It's not national Israel and
it's not the United States of America. I'm thankful for this
nation, but there's another nation. Another nation that is made up
of people out of every kindred nation, tribe, and tongue. And
that's the nation God's interested in. That's the nation God loves,
and that's the nation Christ died for. He died for, He loved,
and loves, and He's drawing unto Himself His people. And the world
has always been against God's people. Now I know this is a day of religious
darkness, it's a day of spiritual deception, and it's a day for
believers in other parts of the world of even of persecution. But there is no reason for the
people of God to be alarmed. Isn't it wonderful to know that
God's eternal purpose is unfolding right on schedule. You see, He
who predestinated all things is bringing all things to pass
just exactly the way He ordained them. God's not making any new
decisions. God's not reacting to what men
do. God, He's the same. He's the
ever-living God. The Lord Jesus is the same yesterday,
today and forever. Our God is the great I Am. Not
I was or I will be, but He says I Am. I Am. And nothing new ever
comes before Him. Everything is in His full view. Oh, the awesomeness and the greatness
of our God, who never changes. He said, I'm the Lord. Therefore,
you sons of Jacob, you're not consumed. The reason you're not
consumed is not because you're not vile and guilty, but the
reason you're not concerned is because I'm faithful and I don't
change. That's our God. Thankfully, his elect cannot
be deceived, nor can his church be destroyed. In the midst of this vision of
woe, in the midst of this vision of these two beasts, one coming
out of the sea, the other one coming out of the earth, in the
midst of it, God gives four comforting, soul-cheering truths to the people
of God. He tells us, first of all, look
at verse 8. He tells us of God's eternal
purpose of grace. And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship Him worship this beast out of the sea, whose names
are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world." Here's God's eternal purpose of grace. John talks about the book of
life. The book of life of the Lamb. The book of life of the Lamb
and the names that are written in it. He speaks negatively whose names
are not written in the book of life. They worship the beast
and they worship the dragon. But if there are names that are
not written in the book of life, that also means there are some
names that are written in the book of life. Here's God's eternal
purpose of grace. It's called the Lamb's book of
life on purpose. As I said this morning, it doesn't
matter whether this is a literal book or this is merely symbolical
of God's unchangeable, eternal purpose of grace, which is what
I'm fairly certain it is. Yet it does teach us this, there
will always be, as long as this world stands, a remnant according
to the election of grace. Even in the darkest days of apostasy,
though all the world seems to be engulfed by the religion of
Antichrist, When it does appear that the gospel of grace has
very few followers in this world, be sure you understand this,
God still has an elect people, a people Christ died for, they've
been redeemed, they've been justified, and God's going to have some
preachers to tell them about the glories of Christ Jesus and
the work that He's already accomplished on their behalf. There's an election
of grace that took place before God ever made the world and the
names of God's elect were inscribed in the Lamb's Book of Life. Even
from before the foundation of this old world. Divine election
is altogether the work of God's eternal sovereign grace. And those whose names are in
this book have always been in this book, and they'll never
be erased. Many years ago in Bassett, Virginia,
my dad sang in a quartet, and they were very good. I enjoyed
hearing them sing. My dad was quite gifted in singing,
and I enjoyed listening to them. One of the, they sang several
songs that I can still remember very well. Some of that songs,
they tend to stick with me. kind of like glue, or maybe like
gum on the bottom of your shoe or something, but some of them,
they just stick with me, but they used to love to sing this,
there's a new name written down in glory, and it's mine, and
I can still hear the guy who sang bass, and I remember him,
well I can hear him singing, and it's mine, yes it's mine,
yes it's mine, I can still remember, and I thought that's the greatest
song in the world, then I found out what the gospel is, And I
found that God's had a people since before the foundation of
the world. There aren't any new names being written down in glory. All of the names inscribed in
the book of life of the Lamb of God were inscribed before
God ever made the world. In other words, our names have
been in that book, the names of all of God's people. The names
of everyone redeemed by the blood of Christ Jesus. The names of
all who'd be brought to faith in Christ Jesus. Our names have
been in this book, inscribed in this book, as long as Christ
Jesus has existed. And that's forever. You see, the Lord said to brother
Jeremiah, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. It's a love without beginning
and without end. No wonder another hymn writer
said, amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst
die for me? You see, we trace the promise
of life back to its original source. The sovereign purpose
of God. Secondly, see here, the eternal
redemption. of God's elect by Christ Jesus. Our Savior is said to be the
Lamb slain or slaughtered from the foundation of the world.
With those words, the Spirit of God tells us that redemption
was virtually accomplished for all the chosen people of God
before the world was made. In the mind and purpose of God,
Christ was absolutely slaughtered from old eternity as our covenant
surety and head. Just as Abraham. You know, Abraham,
he didn't actually kill Isaac. We know that in Genesis chapter
22. And yet the scripture speaks
of him in his mind and in his heart actually having carried
out the deed. So God the Father said to have
sacrificed His Son for the salvation of His people before He ever
formed creation. This is redemption without ending. And again, without beginning
and also without ending. You see, the reason that the
Old Testament saints were justified The reason they were saved, the
reason they were forgiven was because Christ Jesus was the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And then thirdly, see here, the
eternal security of God's elect. Now, why at this point in the
book With the beast out of the sea having deceived almost all
the world, why at this point is John led to give us this word
about Christ Jesus being slaughtered? Why at this point does he give
us this word about the names of God's elect being written
down in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the
world? Well, the whole point of John
giving us this word about Christ Jesus and about us being put
into the book of God before the world began is to assure us. that the Lamb of God has really
died for us. He really was sacrificed by the
Father for us. This is not make-believe. This
is not mystical. This is reality. This is real
substitution. This is real satisfaction that
our Lord Jesus made to the justice of God. We were redeemed, Peter
said, with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
you see those whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of
Life, we can't perish. We can't perish for our sins
have already been paid for. God doesn't even see them anymore. They're buried in the depths
of the deepest sea. All of the sins of God's elect
were drowned in the blood of the Lord Jesus. They don't exist. They're gone. The penalty has
been paid. What is the penalty for sin?
Death. Christ died for our sin, according
to the scriptures. And he was buried and he rose
again the third day, according to the scriptures. First Corinthians
chapter 15, verses three and four. No wonder we read of God's sheep,
the sheep of the great shepherd, they shall never perish. Those
chosen sinners, those whose names were written down in the Lamb's
book of life, those for whom the Lamb of God was slaughtered,
they can't perish. And I'll give you seven reasons
why they can't perish, why we can't perish. Give them to you
quickly. Number one, because the covenant
of grace can't be altered. It's everlasting order in all
things, and sure, nobody can change the covenant of grace
as made by God. Number two, the purpose of God
can't be frustrated. Who can frustrate the purpose
of God? Who can in any way hinder God
from doing that which He set out to do? Who's got that kind
of power? Who's got that kind of authority?
Who can, when God begins to act, say, no, you can't do that? I
know men worship at the altar of men's free will, but that's
foolishness. That's foolishness. The purpose
of God can't be frustrated. Number three, the blood of Christ
Jesus cannot be nullified. It cannot be made a noneffect.
It wasn't shed in vain. Everybody He redeemed, He really
bought them. Just like you go to the store,
you buy something, you expect to get it. You buy something, go down here
to the grocery store, you buy something and the cashier rings
it up and says, well, I don't know whether I'm going to give
this to you or not. Well, wait a minute. There's illegal transactions
taking place right here. I gave you money. Give me my
eggs or whatever it is. Well, listen. That which happened
2,000 years ago at Calvary was a legal transaction. It was a legal transaction between
God the Father and God the Son. God the Father says, this is
what I demand for the salvation of my elect. And Christ Jesus
said, well, I'll pay that price, my own death. He died for our
sins. The debt has been paid. And the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was not shed in vain. Fourthly,
the seal of the Spirit can't be broken. That's what it says
in Ephesians chapter 1. We're sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise. Sealed. We're tamper-proof. We're preserved. We're preserved. You ladies back in the Last summer,
you maybe canned green beans or tomatoes or whatever it is. You set out the can and those
things, you set them over there and get them all prepared. I
don't know how you do it, but I'm thankful you do, because
every once in a while, I reap the benefits of it. But you can
those vegetables, and you wait. And I remember Nancy, she canned
a lot of applesauce. And we'd sit there, and we'd
listen. Every once in a while, you'd hear that pop sound. It
was preserved. Preserved. It's not going to
go bad. And you see, I know that the elect of God are safe. We
can't perish because the seal of the Spirit can't be broken.
We're preserved by the greatness and the power of God. And fifthly,
the grace of God can't be defeated. Grace is omnipotent. Don't you
understand? Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Grace isn't a desire of God or
God wants to do this for you. Grace is mighty in the hands
of God to the bringing down of strongholds. Grace saves. This is almighty, free and sovereign
grace. And the gifts of God Here's the
next saying, sixthly, the gifts of God can't be taken away. If
He gives you faith, He's not going to take it away. If He
gives you repentance, He won't take it away. If He gives you
life, He's not going to take it away. If He gives you righteousness,
He's not going to take it away. If He gives you the pardon of
your sin, He's not going to take it away. You can rejoice forever! The gifts of God, they won't
be taken away. because they're gifts of grace.
Don't you see? They're not the reward of your
doings. They're the gifts of God's grace.
And the seventh thing is the promise of God can't be broken. Can't be broken. Shall God promise
something and then not carry it out, not make good on it? Tell you what, we give our word
and we want our word to be our bond. But there are a lot of
times we say something, I'll do this for you, or I'll do that
for you, and then something comes up, you gotta call up a person
and say, I'm sorry, something happened, I can't fulfill my
word. That never happens with God. Because He controls everything. His dominion is over all things. Therefore His promises can't
be broken. Now you know who will hear this
message of grace? Look at verse 9. If any man have
an ear, let him hear. I'll tell you who will hear this.
The people to whom God gives the hearing ear. And that's what
He's got to do. He's got to give the hearing
ear. This message that exposes the
error and the lies of the old dragon, God's got to give us
an ear to hear it. I know this, if God leaves it
to ourselves, we'll never turn away from the dragon. Never. Verse number 10 says, he that
leadeth into captivity, he holds all men captive at his will.
And if the Lord leaves this to us, you go ahead and free yourself
from Satan's captivity and then I'll do something for you. Well
then Lord, I'm a goner! Because I cannot release myself,
I cannot liberate myself from this captivity! But He frees the captive. He sets the captive free. And one of these days, He's going
to get vengeance on all of our enemies. He that leadeth into
captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with the sword
who kills his people must be killed with the sword. God's
going to get even. He's going to get even. Here
is the patience and the faith of the saints of God. Oh, be
patient, children of the King, and believe. Believe. Oh, saints of God, believe. God's
working these things out. As dismal as they may look to
us, the King is still on His throne,
and His sovereign will is still being carried out. Don't ever
lose heart. Don't ever become depressed,
dejected. Oh, Isaiah did that, and all
of God's preachers have, and I'm sure all of God's people
have done this throughout the ages. Isaiah said, Lord, who
hath believed our report? Lord, it's just so few of us. Don't get dejected. It's just
exactly the number that God would have believe his message right
now. That's right. And as he wills and as he purposes,
others will believe this message. I fully believe he's got other
sheep out here. I heard Brother Man preach a
message years ago on, we're on the trail of God's sheep. And
we are. You know what will find the sheep?
The gospel will find them. The God just set forth Christ
Jesus and Him crucified. The message of grace. This gospel
will search out. The gospel in the hands of the
Holy Spirit. This gospel will search out and
find all of those whose names are written in the Lamb's book
of life before the foundation of the world. Now, John says
in verse 11, I beheld another beast. This one comes out of
the earth. The first one came out of the
sea. When you think about the sea, you think of that which
the Bible talks about, the sea, the wicked are like the troubled
sea, which cannot rest. The sea is up and down. The sea
has waves. The saint sea changes with the
tides. That's the governments of this
world. That's the way the governments
of this world are. But this beast, this beast, it
comes out of the earth, which is more stable. It's more steadfast. Very little change. And this
beast he sees is like a lamb. It's like a lamb. Non-threatening. Beautiful. I just want to go
over and pet it. It's a beautiful lamb. But, it says he has two horns
like a lamb. He does have power, but he speaks
as a dragon. He speaks the lie of the dragon. The dragon puts the words in
his mouth. And it says in verse 12, And
he exercised all power of the first beast before him, and he
causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the
first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. I tell you, this
beast is very influential. This is the beast of false religion. And it looks so non-threatening.
It looks so beautiful. After all, it's a lamb! It's
a lamb! You see, we know Satan is a master
counterfeiter. John has just mentioned up here,
whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb. Well, if there is the Lamb of
God, you may be certain of this, Satan's going to have a lamb.
And it's false religion and it looks absolutely harmless, gentle, kind of cuddly. draws you to
the Lamb, to this Lamb. But that which he speaks are
the words of the dragon. All lies. Satan is a master imitator. You see, this beast, this is
Antichrist. Antichrist. And he appears as
the Lamb of God. that we rejoice in Christ Jesus,
the Lamb of God. Throughout the Old Testament,
He's set forth as the Lamb of God. Genesis chapter 4, He's
the Lamb typified. Genesis chapter 22, He's the
Lamb prophesied. Exodus chapter 12, He's the Lamb
who was killed and blood applied. Isaiah chapter 53, he's the lamb
personified, but the scripture says he is brought as a lamb
to the slaughter. John 1 29, John identifies the
lamb as the son of God. Back over here, and we don't
have the time to go to it, but in Revelation chapter 5, verses
6 and also verse 13, we have the Lamb magnified and glorified. This book is all about the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Therefore, it should come as
no shock to any of us that this second beast, He appears as a
Lamb. He comes forth having a message. A message. And you know, throughout
the years, he comes forth from the earth, throughout the years,
his message is pretty steadfast. Really, it's always the same.
Works. That's what it is. It always
works. The first beast comes out of the sea. It's moving.
Ride the tides, rise and fall. The sea comes in and goes out. The sea sometimes has big waves
and sometimes the waters are calm. That's the governments
of the world. But this beast comes up out of
the earth pretty much the same all the time. And the message throughout the
years is always the same. I promise you. I promise you,
you go read through back through church history, read through
the Old Testament Scriptures, this is always the message of
this false lamb. Salvation by man's will, salvation
by man's work. It's always steadfast. He's out
of the earth. It's always the same. It's a
message of salvation conditioned on what you do. Not salvation
fully dependent upon who Christ Jesus is and what He's done for
sinners. But this beast, look at verse
13, he does great wonders. He does great wonders. And boy,
false religion can do great wonders. So that he maketh fire come down
from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. He deceives them
that dwell on the earth. by means of those miracles which
he had the 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 of a sword and did live." We
said this morning, that's the Roman Empire. Most all the old
writers said that they were writing, that John was writing about the
Roman Empire that was then in authority and then it would be
like its head cut off, but then it would reemerge As a religion
of Rome. He deceives people. And he does
great wonders. Look at a passage of scripture.
I try not to go too long here. But I want you to look at Matthew
chapter 7. He does great wonders. Great wonders. Let me read you a few verses
here in Matthew chapter 7. This is toward the end of our
Lord's Sermon on the Mount. And you're quite well acquainted
with this. Matthew chapter 7. He's warned
about false prophets in verse 15. Now drop down to verse 21. This is what the Master said.
This is the Lord Jesus speaking. He says, not everyone that saith
unto me, that is, at the judgment, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. Right here's the words at the
judgment, verse 22. Many will say to me in that day,
and that many compares with those of verse 14, that though Or verse 13, many are on the
broad road that lead to destruction. And now he says of these many,
many will say to me in that day, that day of judgment, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast
out devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works. These
are the words of those who follow the beast, the lamb, who does
Great works. Then, while I profess unto them,
I never knew you. And he says, depart from me,
ye that work iniquity. Have you ever noticed, and I
was looking at this this week, and you've probably noticed this
before, but it really dawned on me this week, that the Lord
Jesus did not deny He did not deny that they prophesied in
His name, or that in His name they cast out devils, or that
in His name they had done many wonderful works. He didn't deny
that. Many wonderful works. Wonderful works. You know what
the word wonderful means? Look it up. The same Greek word
is dunamis. Like in Romans chapter 1 verse
16, Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. What's
the next word? What is it? Power of God and
the salvation, the dunamis of God. Look this up. Wonderful
works is exactly the same thing. Power. Power to do works. Wonderful works. And so I got
kind of curious. about this expression, wonderful
works. I looked it up, found seven times
in the scriptures. Wonderful works. Almighty works. That's what it is. Almighty works,
wonderful works, powerful works. It's found seven times in the
scriptures. Six of them, it's about God's
works. One time, in all of the Bible,
men will say, We've done these wonderful works one time. And if you're interested in those
references, I'll give them to you. Psalm 40 verse 5. Many,
O Lord, my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done. Psalm 78, verse 4. We will not
hide them from their children. We will show to generations to
come the praises of the Lord and His wonderful works that
He hath done. Psalm 107, verse 8. Oh, that
men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful
works to the children of men. Psalm 107, verse 15. Oh, that
men would praise the Lord for His goodness, for His wonderful
works to the children of men. Psalm 107 verse 21 says the same
thing. Psalm 107 verse 31 says the same
thing. Psalm 111 verse 4 says, He hath
made His wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious.
and full of compassion. Acts, the second chapter, in
verse 11, here were the people called the Cretes and the Arabians. They said, we do hear them speak,
that is the preachers, we do hear them speak in our tongues
the wonderful works of God. But in Matthew chapter 11, the
ungodly, the self-righteous, those men who boasted of what
they had done, They said, we've done wonderful works. Man can't
do wonderful works. Only God can. Only God can. These were self-righteous religionists. You see, false religion always
brags on the wonderful works that we've done. Now, false religion,
I'll tell you what it can do. False religion. Here's the religion
of the beast that comes out of the earth. I'll tell you what
that lamb can do. He can cause a man to stop cussing. Start talking right. He can cause
the addict to give up their drugs. He can cause a man who's a bad
husband to be a better husband. Wife to be a better wife. Parents
to be better parents. There's a lot of things false
religion can do and they advertise it. So, but I'll tell you what
it can't do. It can't tell the truth about
Christ Jesus. Because they don't know the truth.
They don't have the message of grace. They don't have the message
of accomplished redemption. Go back to the text. Let me finish
up real quick here. So, as we go back to Revelation
chapter 13, oh, there was great power given
to the beast, power to give life. to the image of the beast, verse
15. Verse 16, 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. And here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding
count the number of the beast. What is the number of a man?
And his number is 600, three score and six. What is the mark
of the beast? Mark is brand, like you brand
cattle. The mark of the beast is not
a physical brand. It's a spiritual brand or mark. I know You read some of these
kooks that have written on this, and they say you're going to
have tattoos. Especially in this day and age,
people wear tattoos everywhere. You're going to have a tattoo
across the forehead, 666, or on your right hand. Then it's
come out, and this has been some time ago, that the mark of the
beast is going to be a chip in the in the brain, a computer
chip in the brain, and a computer chip in the hand. It's all kind
of stupid stuff that men have come up with. I'll tell you what
the mark of the beast is, and having the mark in the mind and
the mark on the right hand. The mind stands for the understanding,
the will, the intellect. The right hand stands for the
actions, the works, the efforts, the abilities, and the power
of man. The mark of the beast, 666, is the mark of man and man's
will and man's way, the image of the beast. You see, the beast
wants you to think, this is all up to you. It's all up to you. And he brands that into the mind. That's what you think. And he
brands it into your right hand, what you do. Six, six, six. Six is the number of man. Failure. You see, six will never be seven.
Seven's a number of perfection. Six will never be seven. Never
will be. Man's number is this, failure,
failure, failure. That's the mark of the beast.
The mark of the beast. It's a number of frustration,
failure, frustration, and defeat. But there's no reason for the
people of God to be greatly alarmed. Because though multitudes of
people follow the image of this beast, and they're wrapped up
in false religion. And their mind, their mind, their
intellect, their will is governed by the beast. And their hand,
their right hand, they do his will. Yet never fear, the purpose
of God can't ever be frustrated. The will of God must always be
done. Bless the Lord and let His name
be adored and loved and praised and delighted in. He always keeps
us safe. Always keeps us safe. And you
can go back to this, the reason you believe this gospel of grace. Salvation fully dependent upon
Christ Jesus and what He's done. The reason is because the Lord
wrote your name down in the Book of Life of the Lamb before the
world began. Our Lord Jesus, we don't have
time, I won't turn back and take you this passage of Scripture.
Luke chapter 10, though, is where it's found. He sent the 70 out. He sent 70 disciples out, two
by two, 35 pairs. They go out preaching the gospel.
They come back, they said, Even the devils are subject to us.
And they were like high-fiving one another. This is wonderful.
Even the devils are subject to us. And the Lord Jesus said,
well, I saw Satan falling like a star out of the sky. I saw
them being cast out. And I give you these gifts. But
nevertheless, in this, don't rejoice. But rejoice in this, that your
names are written down. in heaven. That's something to
rejoice about. And that's absolutely the pure,
sovereign, free grace of God there. You didn't have anything
to do with it. And the people of God say, that's
wonderful. Because if any bit of salvation
were left unto us, we wouldn't know anything about
this salvation. It's all of God. It's all of
grace. It's all in Christ Jesus. And
it's all found in this book. Found in this book. Let's sing
a closing song.