All right, let's look at Revelation
13, the mark of the beast. In this passage, as you know,
we've been told of the two beasts, one that rose out of the sea,
which represents the nations and also represents the turmoil
and the darkness and the trouble, even the death that presides
over the fallen world. This is a fallen, sin-cursed
earth. And that's the only way we can
look at it in a spiritual sense. And the beast that rises out
of the sea represents, symbolizes the nations in their ungodly
governments and empires, economies, operating in opposition to the
glory of God, opposition to Christ and his truth, opposition to
his church. And the way that the, you know,
it's always, it's kind of like this. You can see a lot of different
ways that ungodly nations and empires and all of that, how
you can see a lot of different ways how they oppose God in his
truth and in his glory. But a lot of times you can take
all of it and boil down into one kernel truth there that exposes
everything. And that's the fact that these
ungodly governments, nations, empires, economies, philosophies,
all of that, they want people to believe that they are the
salvation of this world. They want you to depend upon
them. We can save you. We can solve your problems. We
can take care of you. In other words, don't look to
God. Don't look to Christ. You see, the Bible says that
in Him, in God, we live and move and have our being. These ungodly
governments, these ungodly nations, they want you to believe that
in them you live and move and have your being. And then we
come to the beast that came out of the earth. That's what we're
talking about now, which represents false religion, especially Now,
in essence, this beast that comes out of the earth represents all
false religion. But it especially, and we're
gonna see that later on, it especially represents religion that comes
in the name of Christ, but denies the truth of Christ. That's part
of this. And we'll see that in anti-Christ,
you know. John spoke of that anti-Christian
spirit that was prevalent even in his day. And it just gets
worse and worse. Satan is busy sowing his tares. And the tares are his false churches.
False Christians. That's Satan's tears. And so
we see that beast. Now both of these are inspired
and motivated and empowered by the great red dragon. And that's Satan himself. And
we see manifestations of the wrath of God. We were talking
last week about the sword. You mentioned that. That sword
is the sword of God's wrath. It's a manifestation of God's
wrath that comes down upon his enemies. But as we've seen throughout
the book of Revelation up through here in chapter 13, you'll see
these manifestations of God's wrath against sin and against
those who oppose him, but it's not a complete finishing of his
wrath yet. That doesn't come about until
the second coming of Christ. Now we've read about that some
in the book of Revelation. But here in Revelation 13, we're
told about this second beast, the false prophet, anti-Christian
religion, serving the first beast, serving anti-Christian. They're
in cahoots. You see, there's a union here.
And I mentioned in Acts chapter 4, where it talked about the
kings of the earth stood up. Pontius Pilate, it mentions by
name. Herod, it mentions by name. And
then it says even the Jews and the Gentiles. See, there's a
confederation of wickedness there between anti-Christian governments
and anti-Christian religion that's opposed to the truth, opposed
to Christ, opposed to the gospel. I've been, last week I preached
on this subject and today I'm going to preach on our scandalous
gospel. What I mean by that is that the
gospel message does not blend in with its surroundings. We're
not chameleons. The gospel message is an intrusion
into everything that the world thinks is right and good, even
its religion. Even, and here's the thing, here's
where some people want to back off now. Even in religion that
comes in the name of Christianity but denies the truth. And we're
an offense to them. We're a stumbling block. And
so we'll talk about that later on. But look here in verse 14,
he says, this beast, this false religion, Verse 14, he deceiveth
them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles
which he had power to do in the sight of the beast. Now there's
a deception here and I think that's key, especially when we
get to some of these later verses. And you might want to get your
pen out and mark some things here because I don't have them
in the lesson, and I'll tell you why in just a moment. Actually, to be honest with you,
I didn't really think I had a whole lot of light on some of this
until after I made the lesson up. I first taught these lessons
in Ashland, Kentucky. And so since I've been here,
but this is like the fourth time I've gone through the book of
Revelation. And each time, the message never changes now, but
each time it seems like I learned something new about some aspect
that supports the gospel that we believe. you understand that
and and uh... you know that's called growth
and grace and knowledge i hope and that's what's what it means
but uh... but i've seen some things about
one particular verse here that i want to share with you and
i don't have any reference i don't have the reference to some verses
that you might want to write down but anyway there's a deception
here and the deception is to those who dwell on the earth
now you understand now when the bible talks about those who dwell
on the earth what I've often referred to in messages as earth
dwellers, it's talking about the non-elect. It's talking about
those who are so connected to the earth that they never come
to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. You see, we who are saved,
the elect of God, the redeemed of the Lord, even though we fell
in Adam just like the rest of the world, and even though we're
born dead in trespasses and sins just like the rest of the world,
As Paul wrote in Ephesians 2, children of wrath, by nature,
he said children of, God's people were never children of wrath.
Now, you understand what I mean by that? What is wrath? Wrath
means condemned to eternal damnation. God's people are called vessels
of mercy. Our names were written in the
Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. God
chose us before the foundation of the world in Christ. But when
we were born, fallen, spiritually dead, just like the rest of there,
but we don't stay that way. At some point, God intervenes
by sovereign power and grace and brings us under the gospel.
And we're born again. He interferes in a good way. Don't you think, God? He interfered.
And that's what he brings us to. But now these who are deceived,
are these earth dwellers who are those who are so connected
to the earth that in their unregenerate state, that's the way they remain,
and they never seek the Lord. They never come to a saving knowledge
of Christ. And so this is the deception.
Now, the elect of God, we're deceived for a while, but we
don't stay deceived. We're translated from the kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son. And God turns
the light on, as you could say. But he says they're deceived
by what? Now look what they're deceived by. By means of those
miracles. Do not be deceived by miracles. Think about that. Can false preachers
perform miracles? Well, I'll tell you how I feel
about that. Yes. Yeah. Now, are some of the miracles
that people claim to be doing, are they fake? Yes. There's a
lot of that. But here's the thing, and I think
I mentioned this last week. Don't argue with them about whether
or not the miracle is real or not. Let others deal with that.
Find out what they're preaching. What gospel are they preaching?
That's the key for us to understand and not be deceived. Because
I don't care if they can raise the dead. If they don't preach
the true gospel, they're agents of Satan. I don't care if they
could part the waters. If they don't preach Christ and
the glory of his person and the power of his effectual saving
work, his righteousness imputed, life given by the Holy Spirit. They don't preach that by grace,
sovereign grace. They're false preachers. You
know, in 1 Corinthians 13, the chapter on love where Paul said,
you know, you may have faith to move mountains, but if you
have not love Well, now that love, that love is not talking
about some kind of a romantic, syrupy, poetic love that makes
you be kind to everybody. I hope you're kind to everybody.
I hope I'm kind to everybody. I know people say that I'm not,
but I try to be. We ought to be as kind and benevolent
to everybody we meet. But here's the thing, that's
not what 1 Corinthians 13 is talking about. 1 Corinthians
13 is talking about a love that God sheds abroad in the hearts
of His people that has in mind and heart, first and foremost,
the glory of God. It's love of His truth, it's
love of Christ. which will not deny him." Any
love that is not founded in the truth is nothing more than self-love. Do you know that? If you would
compromise the gospel, which reveals the only way of salvation,
if you would compromise that in the name of kindness and love,
my friend, what have you shown? You don't have any love for God.
That's self-love. Somebody says, well, I want everybody
to love me, so I'm not going to tell them they're lost. That's
the kind of love that we don't want. So, whenever we come to
passages like this, understand, he's talking about a deception
here. False religion today is deceived by self-love. We're
just gonna love everybody and accept everybody and receive
everybody no matter what. Well, we are to love everybody.
He said, love your neighbor as yourself, but what do you tell
your lost neighbor if you really love your lost neighbor? You
tell him the truth. You're lost. You're not my brother or sister
in Christ, you see. We're all not going to the same
God, just headed different ways. Well, here's the deception of
miracles. We've talked about that. And so, we don't argue
whether or not it's a, you know, was that person really healed
in that faith healing service? I don't know. I don't know. But I know this, what did that
preacher preach? Was he preaching salvation by the sovereign grace
and mercy of God in Christ alone? Based on his righteousness alone?
Or was he preaching the false deceptive message of works free
willism? That's how you determine this.
He says, 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. Now that sword there is again,
that's the wrath of God that came down. on this head of this
wounded beast and I talked about that last week what it could
be some people talk about Nero that in the context it's not
it's not above reason to say that the ones who to whom John
wrote would think of the Roman Empire because that was the prevailing
government of the day and Even, you know, when you think
about this, when you think about the Jews who hated Rome, but who united
with Rome against Christ, you see, who did the, you know, when
they were accusing Christ, who did they go to? They went to
Pilate, didn't they? So you see that confederation, and some
would say, well, this is talking about Nero, and he killed himself,
and everybody thought that the Roman opposition and the empire
was over, but then it came back. I think there was a succession
of 10 emperors after that, and they all persecuted the church.
That could be. I'm sure that's a manifestation.
I think it's wrong to limit it to that. I believe that what
happened there was just a signification of all opposition to the church. Some people say it's the Roman
Empire itself which fell but then came back again in the Roman
Catholic Church. And that could be it. That's
a manifestation of it too. They thought it was dead, but
here it comes back, and the Roman Catholic Church began its program
of world domination, false religion. I told you about one commentator
who said that he thinks that this is talking about the death
blow that was delivered to the head of the serpent at the cross
of Christ, where Christ died and he wounded the head of the
serpent. Remember back in Genesis 3.15?
And he says there that that opposition went down for a while, and the
New Testament church was born and initiated and inaugurated,
and then later on Satan was loosed to deceive the nations again.
All right, here's the point. The point is that we need to
understand is that Satan's opposition to Christ in the church is alive
and well on planet Earth today. Many people may have thought
at one time in different contexts historically that it was dead.
And it may have seemed that way for a little while, but it didn't
last long, did it? This beast is in opposition to
the gospel. So look at verse 15, he says,
he had power to give life, that word life there, as you see in
your concordance, it means breath, give breath unto the image of
the beast, and the image of the beast should both speak and calls
that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should
be killed." So there you have that opposition again. And what
it's talking about here is these idols, this image, they seem
alive. In other words, we know that
spiritual eternal life is to be found in one person. Isn't
that right? Christ alone, he is our life.
I mentioned that verse that Paul spoke, that message that Paul
spoke on Mars Hill, he says, in God we live and move and have
our being. But you see, this beast had power
to give life unto the image of the beast, or that the image
of the beast should both speak. People think that there's life
in false religion. And we know that there's nothing
but death in false religion. Isn't that right? There is a
way that seemeth right unto a man, but the way is therefore the
way of death. In Adam, all die. In Christ, all shall be made
alive. And that's what this is speaking. You know, they hear
this beast speak. He speaks his message, his message
of false religion. And it says, he calls that as
many as would not worship the image of the beast should be
killed. Now, that certainly would include martyrdom. That really
was more prevalent in the early days of the church. Satan operated
in opposition to the church through ungodly governments to actually
put a physical sword and other ways of death to those who proclaim
to believe in Christ and would not say Caesar is Lord. So it
certainly would include martyrdom, but I believe the main message
here is soul murder. I really do. So I'm not discounting,
you know, people say, well, now will that happen again? You know,
some people say, well, in certain areas of the world, there are
true Christians who are being martyred even now. Well, if they're
true Christians and they're being martyred, that certainly would
be included here. Now listen, understand this. Just because a person is martyred
doesn't mean they're a Christian. Go back to 1 Corinthians 13 that
I mentioned before. He said, though I give my body
to be burned and have not love. I had a man tell me this one
time. He said, people don't die for a lie. Oh, yes, they do. I'll never forget growing up
during the Vietnam War era. I think most of you in here are
old enough to be right with me there. Some of you might be too
young. But I remember watching on the news people protesting
the Vietnam War. And one was in the country of
Thailand, and it was two or three Buddhist monks. And you know
how they protested the Vietnam War? They poured gasoline or
some kind of fuel all over their bodies and lit themselves on
fire. Now, don't tell me people won't
be martyred for a lie. There were people back during
the pre-Reformation days who were martyred just over the issue
of baptism. Now, we believe in believers'
baptism by immersion. But just to die over that does
not necessarily make one a Christian martyr, you understand. But now
if a person is a true Christian and they are martyred for the
faith physically, this would be included. But I think the
main message here has to do with their opposition, the
beast opposition to the message of the cross, the cross of life. And if you won't worship the
beast, you should be killed in their minds, what I'm talking
about now. They're out for soul murder. Now whether or not that
translates into physical murder, I don't know. Sometimes it does,
sometimes it doesn't. But you know Christ said, don't
fear those who can kill the body, fear those who can kill the soul.
So understand that. It's not just martyrdom in general.
Martyrdom for the cause of Christ. Well, look at verse 16. And he
causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free in bond,
so any distinction among men here is removed, to receive a
mark in their right hand or in their foreheads. Now, here's
the mark of the beast. We know that mark of the beast,
he tells us later on in verse 18 there, 666. What is this mark of the beast?
Well, I believe that we have to stay with the scriptures on
this. He's talking about those who
dwell on the earth. They receive this mark, he says, on their
forehead and in their right hand. And you all have heard all the
different things. You know, this really, in false religion, this
has really become a superstition. You know, I know people who don't
want anything to do with the actual numerical 666 for that
reason. I'll never forget one time I
went through a, I don't know where it was, a grocery store
or something, and the bill come up to be $6.66 and the cashier
wanted to change it. I told her not to. I'm not afraid of the numerical
666. We know what 666 is. It's the
number of man. The reason he says 666 is kind
of like the unholy trinity, they call it. Satan and the two beasts. And we know that the number of
God is seven, 777. That would be the holy trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Seven is the number of a perfection
of work. Finished work. God created the
world in six days. He rested on the seven. Christ
is our Sabbath. We rest in his finished work
for all righteousness, for all forgiveness. We are complete in him. That's
completion. That's the seven. Seven, seven,
seven. Man without Christ can never be a seven. He'll always
be a six. He'll always be incomplete. He'll
always be sinful. That's what that number is. I
believe this number is symbolic. And what it is, the forehead
in the Bible represents the mind. You remember when the high priest,
when Moses instructed Aaron and the artificers how to make the
garments for the high priest, and he had the miter that had
a plate of gold, and you remember what was written on his forehead?
Holiness unto the Lord. That's what was to be on the
high priest's mind as he went into the Holy of Holies with
the blood for the people. So the forehead represents the
mind, and I've got some scripture references that you can go to
and study on your own for that. The hand represents what? It
represents the works, what man does. Cain, when he came to worship
God, what did he bring? The works of his hands. That's man's working his way
to God. That's what this is talking about. But, you know, a lot of
times it's not easy. to determine these things, and
I've had people argue with me over this. Somebody says, no,
you've got to take the scripture literally. It's a literal mark.
Well, if you take this as a physical, I believe I take it literally. I'm just telling you what these
numbers literally mean. But if you take it as a physical
mark, then that means you're going to have a 666, whoever
takes this mark is going to have a 666 on their forehead and a
666 on their hand. I've heard people say, no, that's
talking about computer chips underneath the skin. Or barcodes,
have you heard that one? It's going to be a barcode. Or
it's going to be a, what do they call it, the credit card, something
to do with a credit card. Well, that's hidden. Now, if
you're going to take it literally as a number, take it literally
as what it says. No, it doesn't say it's going
to be under your skin or on a barcode or on a credit card. It says
it's going to be on your forehead. When you walk down the street,
if you've got this mark, we'll be able to see, hey, there's
a 666 on that guy's forehead. Don't take part of it, as you
say, literally. Understand, too, that what John
is talking about here is a deception. It deceives people. I told a
fellow in Kentucky, he was arguing about that. And I said, well,
look. I said, if you've got a 666 on your forehead, that wouldn't
deceive people. There it is. You can see it. That means you're
in cahoots with the beast. So it's not talking about a literal
mark on the physical forehead or the physical hand. It's talking
about false doctrine. The mark of the beast is the
false gospels of this world that's in the minds and in the hands
of people who are working their way. to make themselves righteous,
denying Christ and his righteousness. That's the mark of the beast.
It's a false gospel. That's what it's talking about.
This religion, this beast is false religion. And any religion
that places salvation conditioned on man in any way, at any stage,
to any degree, that's the mark of the beast. It's either all
Christ or it's nothing. And that's what he's saying here
is that that's what their mind is set on. The carnal mind is
enmity against God, not subject to God, neither indeed can be.
We read in Romans chapter 10, we'll be reading that today,
how the Jews, how they would not be submitted to the righteousness
of God. How do you know? They didn't
believe in Christ as the end, the fulfillment, the finishing,
the seven of the law for righteousness to everyone that believed. That's
what it's talking about. Now that deceives the world.
If I had a tattoo on my head, 666, I wouldn't deceive them. But what's in the mind and the
heart of those who dwell on the earth? Now look at verse 17.
He says, and that no man might, now that word might is literally
the word can. It's an inability. And that no man can buy or sell
save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the
number of his name. Now that's a difficult verse. Is that talking about that there's
going to come a day in the last days where we who believe the
gospel can't go into a store and buy things? Or that we can't
set up a business and sell things? Well, some people believe that.
They say in history that back during the early days of the
church that in some of those towns, a lot of those towns and
their economy rose up around idolatry. Corinth, Ephesus, There
were big temples there to one or two of the Greek gods, and
they would really make a lot of money building these little
idols, selling the meat sacrificed to idols. You remember Paul dealt
with that in 1 Corinthians, about eating that meat, whether you
could or couldn't. James told them in Acts 15, he
talked about the Gentiles. Yes, they're saved by grace,
but tell them not to eat things that are strangled. Those are
things associated with idolatry that we are to avoid. We're not
to be conformed to the world. So were there times in the early
church that if they didn't say Caesar is Lord or if they didn't
consort with the idolatry of the day that they couldn't buy
and sell things? Maybe. I don't know. I've read some
things about that. There's no, I mean, you know, there may be
some proof of that. Will it come to a time they say, well, if
you're a true Christian, you can't buy or sell? I don't believe
that's what this is talking about. What I believe it's talking about
is false religion making merchandise of the souls of men. False religion's
a big business, folks. Did you know that? Sure, unless
you've been asleep for the past three or 400 years. It's a money-making
thing, isn't it? Turn to 2 Peter chapter, what
verse is it? Yeah, 2 Peter chapter two. You
remember Christ went into the temple and drove out who? The
money changers. What were they doing? They were
selling, the money changers were converting foreign coin into
a coin that people could use to buy their sacrifices and take
them into the temple and buy their way into God's favor. The Lord talked about those who
make merchandise, and look here in verse one, 2 Peter 2, he says,
but there were false prophets also among the people. He's talking
about the Jews of old who were bought out by power physically
out of Egypt. He said, even as there shall
be false teachers among you who privilege shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them. He's talking
about the Jews. The Lord buying them doesn't refer to redemption
by blood of the cross. It refers to God's power redeeming
them out of bondage of Egypt. That's what he's talking about.
And he says, and bring upon themselves swift destruction, in verse two,
and many shall follow their pernicious ways, that's their fleshly ways
in their religion, by reason of whom the way of truth shall
be evil spoken of, and through covetousness shall they with
feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of
a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
They'll make merchandise of you. You see, In the true gospel,
we're not buying and selling. Now, I know Isaiah, in Isaiah
55, he talks about, come ye, buy and eat. You know what he
says? How are you going to buy it?
Without money. Without price. We don't have
any money to buy our souls, to buy our way into God's favor.
We're sinners. We don't have anything to recommend
us unto God. But that's what false religion
does. They say bring what you have to God. Bring your will,
your decision, your ways, your talents. And buy your way. And look back what he says in
Revelation 14. And that no man might buy or sell save he that
had the mark. The only ones who are able to
buy and sell are those who have the mark. They preach a false
gospel. And it has to do with sinners trying to buy or sell
their way. Buy and sell salvation. In some
way. How do they do that? Well, some
of them do ask for money, but they preach a false gospel of
salvation conditioned on the sinner and not on Christ alone. And they have the name of the
beast and they have the number of his name. Look at verse 18.
Here's wisdom now. Now listen. Let him that hath
understanding count the number of the beast. Let him recognize
this beast for what he is. That's what he's saying. Where
is the number of a man or number of men? It's that six. It's incomplete. It's not a full
salvation based upon the blood of Christ that cleanses us from
all sin. It's not full righteousness in
his obedience unto death imputed to us. In other words, you come
and then you work for your salvation and his number is 600. Three
score and six. It's incomplete. An incomplete
salvation. God's done his part, the rest
is up to you. And depending upon what denomination,
what degree you have to do is different. But it's there. But what do we preach? It's all
of Christ, okay?