You know, I ask y'all to pray
for me often. I'll give you a perfect example
of why you should. Three minutes ago, I asked Dan
Morgan if he'd come lead us in prayer, and I got up here and
said the wrong name. So I apologize to both of you
men. I just, wow. That the Lord would
not lead me to my own brain, because it's, wow. That's not
for the internet. People don't need, I mean, people
already know that. So anyway, I'm sorry. Oh boy. Okay, Revelation chapter 13.
I've titled our lesson this morning, What Does 666 Mean? I know that's
a shocking title, but I assure you that the Lord's given me
the message here to preach Christ from this. What does 666 mean? You know, people are scared to
death of that number. I remember when I worked in the
convenience stores, you'd ring someone up Oh, if the total came
to $6.66, somebody hurry and buy it. We kept, I'm not kidding
you, we kept penny gum on the counter so people could buy something
to keep it from being $6.66. Should we really be that upset
by that? Is that number going to call the devil to torment
us, open the gates of hell so he can come and do something
to us? Well, we know that cannot be true. That has to be just
superstition. Because we've seen this in our
study in the book of Revelation and throughout all of Scripture.
Satan cannot destroy any of God's elect. He has great power, make
no mistake about it, but he cannot destroy any of God's elect. Satan
can never ever defeat God's purpose of redemption for his people.
So we don't have to be afraid of this number. And I'll show
you this before the end of the lesson this morning, that the
number 666 actually means failure. It means failure. So we don't
have to be afraid of it. It can't hurt anyone. In this
chapter, I'll just give you a brief overview. John has a vision of
two beasts that are going to torment the earth and torment
God's people in it. But just like we've seen in every
other instance throughout our study here in this book, that
these are not actual beasts. They represent something. They
represent people or beings who will torment the earth. And they
represent people and beings who are destined to fail. They may
be very frightening, but they are destined to fail. Revelation
13 verse one. And I stood upon the sand of
the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven
heads and 10 horns and upon his horns, 10 crowns and upon his
heads, the name of blasphemy. And the beast, which I saw, was
likened to a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear,
and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him
his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one
of his heads as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound
was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast." Now,
all the writers I read on this say this beast represents the
governments of the earth, and they may be very well right.
But I think more precisely what this beast represents is the
nature of man, the nature that's in us. It's the nature that rules
men in the earth. You know, we are controlled by
our nature and governments are controlled by the nature of the
people that are in power and authority. They're controlled
by the nature of man. We never need to wonder why governments
do the crazy things that they do. They're controlled by the
nature of man that's in them. Now we know the heart of the
king. is in the Lord's hand to turn with or soever he will.
But woe to us if the Lord ever leaves us to our own nature.
If the Lord leaves us to our nature or the Lord leaves governments
of the world to our nature, we're in bad shape, aren't we? Now
look over Revelation chapter 17, just a page or two. This
beast comes out of the sea and the sea represents the world.
And I'll show you why we know that. That's not just a guess.
The Lord has given us commentary on this in Revelation 17 verse
15. And he saith unto me, the waters
which thou sawest, where the horse sitteth, are peoples and
multitudes and nations and tongues. They're the people from all over
the world. This is the nature of the earth.
And the nature that's in man has very real power. If you don't
believe me, just try, does not sin. The nature that's in man
is very real, strong power. And the rulers of the earth have
great power given to them by God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. They don't bear the sword in
vain. God's given him that power. But
the Lord's only going to let them have that power for just
a short time. That's what this head with the
deadly wound that appears to be healed means. The Lord's just
going to let them have this power and authority for a great time.
This wound in the head is deadly. It will eventually. cause them
to cease to be. And these powers that be use
their authority in a very fierce way, just like a swift leopard
and a strong bear and a hungry lion hunting their prey. They'll
be very fierce. And they will not use their power
to honor God. They use it to blaspheme God,
to blaspheme his gospel, to persecute God's people. Of course, that's
what they'll do. If the Lord leaves them to their
own nature to do what they will, And everyone who only has the
nature of the world is just going to naturally follow them, fall
right in line with them. Verse four, and they worshiped the dragon,
which gave power unto the beast. And they worshiped the beast
saying who is like unto the beast, who is able to make war with
him. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things
and blasphemies and power was given unto him to continue 40
and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy
against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them
that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to
make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was
given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations and all that
dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written
in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. If any man
have an ear, now let him hear and understand what this means.
The powers that be are ordained of God. And that simply means
God gave them the power that they have. And the Lord allows
Satan, the prince of the power of the air, to have great influence
over these powers, these authorities and governments. It's the whole
earth that follows the way of Satan. That's what Paul told
us. All of us did this at one time. We were all children of
disobedience. We were under the influence of the Satan, the prince
of the power of the air. This world is under the influence
of Satan. The Lord's allowed that to happen,
but just for a set time. That's what the 42 months represent. It's a number, I'm sure, somehow,
some way it would tell us when the Lord will return. And as
I say over and over again, don't try to figure it out, because
we won't. No man knoweth the day or the hour. It just means
this. There's a set time. that God's
gonna allow this to continue. There's a set time the Lord's
gonna allow the earth to continue, and then Christ is gonna return,
he's gonna wrap it up. And all this stuff's gonna be
brought to an end. And when God's set time is up,
he will deal with these enemies. He will deal with these who persecute
the church and speak blasphemy. Verse 10. He that leadeth into
captivity should go into captivity, and he that killeth with the
sword must be killed with the sword. Those people who took
God's elect captive, they're going to be taken captive eternally
by God. Those who killed God's people
with the sword, God's going to put them to death, eternal death
with his sword of justice. And we're told, just patiently
wait. This is the patience of the saints
and faith of the saints. Just patiently wait on the Lord
to deal with you. Patiently wait for God's appointed
end. And the point of this first beast
is this. that the nature of man is always gonna war against God.
It'll always war against God's authority, it'll always rebel
against God's law and God's way and God's way of redemption in
Christ. It'll always be the nature of
man to persecute and hate God's people. They hate God, so they're
gonna hate those that love him and believe him. And they'll
use whatever authority God has given them to do what it is their
nature to do. And we'll see this in a moment.
They have great power, but they're destined to fail. All right,
here's the second beast. The second beast represents something
far more dangerous. You know, this first beast, he
looks scary, doesn't he? He got the body of a leopard,
the feet of a bear, the mouth of a lion. I mean, that is very,
very frightening. Anybody can look at him and say,
this is dangerous. But the second beast, look at
that, the second beast, looks so good and so innocent and so
harmless, but he has the exact same agenda. It's a satanic agenda. Look at verse 11. And I beheld
another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns
like a lamb and he spake as a dragon. Now this beast represents false
religion. False religion looks like a lamb,
doesn't it? Well, it looks good. It looks
good. You ought to be moral. You ought to try to keep the
law. You ought to be a good person. It looks good. It looks so sweet
and harmless. It just looks cute, just like
a little baby lamb. What could be more harmless than
this little baby lamb? It must be good for us. We like
to cuddle it and be around it and pat it and touch it. False
religion tries its best to look like Christ, the lamb of God,
but it's not. This message, it comes up from
the earth. It doesn't come down to us from
God out of heaven. It comes up from the earth. It's
man's idea. It's man's way of redemption.
It looks like a harmless lamb, but you listen to it talk. It's
a deadly dragon. It's a dragon in disguise. It's
Satan making himself to appear as an angel of light. You know,
Satan's not going to appear with this pitchfork and tail with
a hook on it or whatever, that's going to frighten anybody. He
appears as an angel of light. This Jesus that men preach, this
is a message that's come up from the earth, made up from the earth.
He's so harmless he wouldn't ever hurt a fly. He just wants
to be your friend if you let him. He just wants to save you
if you let him. He just wants to help you if you let him, you
know. That's what this little lamb represents. Nobody would
be afraid of that. Why would you be afraid of it?
You know, all he is, is just a helpless baby. All he is, is
this wimpy man kind of walking around in a fog all the time.
Or some handsome skinny man hanging on a cross. Brethren, that Jesus is of the
devil. It's the message of the earth
and he's deadly, deadly, because he can't save anyone. Believing
on that Jesus will damn your soul to hell. There's no saving
power there whatsoever. That little lamb, why would anybody
bow to it? I've told you so often, before
the Lord Jesus Christ is your savior, he's going to be the
sovereign king. You're going to bow to him. You're going to
beg him to have mercy on you. You're not, he's not in your
hands to decide what you'll do with him. You're in his hands
to decide what he will do with you. He's the king. We reference
him and bow to him. But this, this little lamb, Nobody's
afraid of him. And his message is a message
of damnation. And as we've seen before, we've
seen it in scripture, we see it in our world today. Just look
around you. This false religion just engulfed the whole world,
hadn't it? Verse 12. And he exerciseth 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. And he doeth great wonders. so
that he may fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight
of men. The power and the influence of
false religion spreads across the whole earth because it looks
so impressive. They do so many things that are
impressive to the flesh. They feed the poor. They promote
morality. They do all these things. You
know, they're supposed to be good. It's impressive to the flesh,
but it's signs and wonders that take attention. away from Christ,
that take the focus away from Christ. False religion deceives
people with miracles and signs and wonders. Verse 14, and deceiveth
them. He uses these, these calling
down fire from heaven, these great signs and wonders 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
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. Your false religion tries to
impress people with these miracles and signs and wonders and say,
you've got to follow us, you've got to follow this Jesus that
we preach. But man's religion always does
this in one form or another, always. It'll do anything it
can to get the attention of Christ alone. Now, they may use his
name, they may talk about him some, but you listen. They try
to get the attention, the focus, the faith off of Christ alone. And they'll use miracles and
signs and wonders to do it instead of the plain, simple preaching
of God's word. False religion will do that,
and they'll always hate and persecute those who do worship Christ,
who do want Christ alone. Verse 15, and he had power to
give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the
beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship
the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all,
both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive
a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads. All those
who are wrapped up in false religion, they don't want anything to do
with those who worship and serve and believe the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you how you can
recognize them. By the mark in their forehead, and the mark
on their right hand. Now, please get this, this is
not literal. This is not something in the
end of time, people have a mark on their forehead, a mark on
their hands, only way they can buy some at Walmart. That is
not what this is talking about. This is, you gotta remember this,
this is representative language. John's showing us Christ, these
things that are to come in pictures and types. The mark on their
forehead represents what they know. No, it's a head knowledge. It's not 666 tattooed on their
forehead. It represents what they know. It's a religion of head knowledge
and the mark on their right hand. It's not a chip put in their
right hand or a mark put in their right hand. It represents salvation
by works, by the strength of their right hand. That's how
you can recognize false religion. It's what they know and what
they do. It's false religion. Now, this
is the lesson that's taught here, taught all throughout the book
of Revelation. They have great power, don't they? It sounds
kind of frightening. But they shall fail. Verse 18. Here's
wisdom. You want wisdom? Here it is.
Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast,
for it is the number of a man, and his number is 600, three
score, and six. His number is 666. Now John said,
here's wisdom. Listen and learn if you have
some understanding. 666 is not some sort of satanic power, is
it? It's the number of man. Man was created on the sixth
day. And what has man always been?
A failure. Man's always been a failure.
Man, all men, have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Six is the number of failure.
And 666 just means man's a complete failure, a complete, utter, total
failure. So man is going to fail in his
attempts to destroy God's people. Man's agenda is to wipe this
gospel off the face of the earth. And they're going to fail. The
number of man is failure. Now they have power. The Lord
may allow them to touch the physical body of his people. but they'll
never touch the soul. They'll never be able to take
the salvation of God's people away. Man's a failure. Now seven
is the number of perfection. Seven is the number of Christ
and six can never rise up to seven. Perfection can never be
found in man. Perfection can only be found
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is kind of a long introduction,
But what's really being taught us here in Revelation chapter
13 is the perfection of Christ. This is not meant to scare people
to death. John wrote this to comfort God's
people and give them confidence in Christ. Yes, we will endure,
we must endure great tribulation, but the believer shall overcome
them and shall be victorious in Christ. Satan and man will
always war against the church. Don't be surprised by that. They
always will. But they'll never be successful. They are doomed
to failure. I want to give you three important
and these are the three real lessons of Revelation chapter
13. It's not the number 666. It's
not tattoos and marks and chips in the hand and all that stuff.
These are the three important lessons of Revelation chapter
13. The first one is this. God's elect shall endure because
of God's eternal covenant of grace, God's eternal election
of grace. Verse eight says, they that dwell
upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written
in the book of life. Somebody has their names written
in the Lamb's book of life, the book of life. Then they can never
die. Isn't that obvious? This book
of life is probably not a literal book. God's not like you and
me. God doesn't need to write things
down so he can remember them. I've got to do that. God doesn't
have to do that. This book of life tells us one
simple truth. Before time began, God chose
a sinful people to save, a particular people, an exact people by name,
and he knows them. That's what election is. And
everyone that God chose to save, He chose a particular people.
It's not just a particular number of people, it's a particular
people. By name He chose them. Those
people shall be saved. They shall endure to the end. God chose them before time began.
Nothing that happens in time can cause God's purpose to change
or cause them to lose their salvation. They shall endure to the end.
and they shall be in glory. And like I said, God may or may
not have written an actual book. He probably didn't. But I tell
you, He did write the names of His people down. He wrote the
names of His people down on His heart. The names of His people
were graven upon the heart of the Savior. He's not going to
forget them. He'll not forget one of them.
He loves those people. He became flesh for those people.
He obeyed the law for those people. He took the sin of those people
away from them and He suffered and bled and died for them. He's
not going to forget them and He won't fail to save them. Every
last one of them shall be saved. They will endure to the end and
they will spend eternity with Christ. They're going to spend
eternity in the place prepared for them by the Savior. God's
elect shall endure because of God's eternal election of grace.
Second, God's elect shall endure. because of eternal redemption
in Christ. The Savior here is described
as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. I'll tell you what
this is teaching us. In the mind and purpose of God,
Christ was slain in eternity. When the Father and the Son entered
into this covenant of grace, and the Son promised to be the
Savior of His people. He promised to redeem them. He
promised to come and suffer and die and be sacrificed for them.
In the mind and purpose of God, the great transaction was done
in eternity. Before anything, before the world
was ever created, the great transaction was done. God purposed to do
it. God cannot lie and God cannot change His mind. So the mind
and purpose of God, this was done. And this is what theologians
call eternal justification. I guess, you know, You've got
to identify that as what you believe, what the Bible teaches,
eternal justification. My friend, there can't be any
other kind of justification. God can't change. Something can't
happen in time that makes God change. If God justified anybody,
they've been justified eternally. And this gives me so much comfort
and joy and peace. Whatever God does is forever. He justified me in eternity.
My sin in time can't cause me to lose it. Eternal justification. God has always looked upon His
people in favor, in love, in mercy, in grace, because He's
always seen them washed in the sacrifice of His Son. Always. Now Christ did have to come in
time. He did, of course He did. He had to actually come and suffer
and die. He actually had in time. to shed
his blood to pay for the sin of his people. But there's no
doubt that he wouldn't do it. Of course he would, because that's
God's eternal will. His will is not going to change.
Christ promised to come and pay the sin debt of his people. Well,
of course he came and did it because he cannot lie. No one
God chose to save in eternity can ever perish. They all will
endure because God chose to save them and his will shall be done.
They will endure, they can never perish because Christ was sacrificed
for them. Christ made an atonement for
their soul. Their sin is gone, so they can
never perish. And the third lesson is this,
God's elect shall endure. They'll never be deceived by
false religion. Verse eight says, all they, all
that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not
written in the book of life or the land slain from the foundation
of the world. Everyone that God didn't choose,
everyone that Christ didn't die for, they will follow false religion. They're going to be deceived
by this false religion because the way of the flesh, the way
of the earth, that appeals to them. So of course they'll be
deceived by it. But if the father chose him, if the son died If
the spirits come and quickens you, you can never be deceived
by false religion. If you believe a truth, the truth,
if you love the truth, you can never love a lie. It's just opposed
to your new nature. Our Lord said, and you know,
this is something that believers fear. We're all like the disciples. The Lord told one of his betrayers,
And except for Jesus, they all said, or is it I? Oh, they feared
so greatly what their own flesh would do. Well, if you don't
fear being deceived, you're probably wrong. Believer fears. I mean, my greatest fear is something
happening. My flesh being able to take control
cause me to look away from Christ. That something would take my
attention away from Christ alone. Now, most of y'all are here every week.
Most of you have heard the gospel for years and years and years
and years. You believe it. You believe Christ.
You love him. Somebody wouldn't be able to
come here and just deceive you with Catholicism or Jehovah's
Witness or something, you know, that's just so far off the wall. I mean, that's dumb. I'm not,
that's just, I'm not going to listen to that for one second.
But someone may come. Like this lamb with two horns.
Something with 10 horns is not going to deceive you. But something
looks like a lamb with two horns. They talk about Christ. They
talk about mercy. They talk about grace. And then
they start mixing in just a little or worse yet, They don't say
anything wrong, but they take something away and they don't
say it. Would I be deceived by that? No, could I? Listen to what our Lord said.
Our Lord said, these false prophets now, buddy, they're slick. They're
deceptive. They're so good at what they
do. If it were possible, they deceived the very elect. Sounds
to me like it's not possible for them to deceive the very
elect, does it? No. God's people are not going to
be deceived by signs and wonders. You know why? God's people aren't
looking for signs and wonders. They're looking for a person.
See the difference? God's people know the difference
between free will and free grace. Don't give me my will. Give me
grace. Don't give me something to do.
Give me grace. Don't let me stand to anything
but me. Give me Christ. Mike's gonna
sing it just a little bit. Give me Christ or else I die. God's people want and need grace. That's why they won't be deceived.
God won't let them. And even in the darkest, darkest
days of this earth, being just filled with spiritual darkness
that is so deep, deep, deep darkness, and it's so widespread. And we
fear the darkness that's in our own heart. I hate the spiritual
darkness and unbelief that's in the rest of the world, but
you know what I fear and hate the most? The spiritual darkness
and unbelief of my nature. That's what I fear and hate the
most. And we look at that, and we think about that, and we get
scared by that. You take comfort in this. God's elect will not
and cannot perish from this earth. Because the believer's not of
this world. They've been born again from above. They will not
perish with this earth, because they're not of this earth. Those
in false religion, you know, you can tell them by the mark
in their forehead and the mark on their right hand. But you
know what? God's elect don't have a mark.
God's elect are sealed. A mark is different than being
sealed. Look back a few pages, Revelation chapter 7. God's elect
have a seal because God has sealed them. Revelation 7 verse 3. saying, hurt not the earth, neither
the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed the servant of our
God in their foreheads. God has sealed the hearts and
minds of his people. Something can't get in there
and corrupt. God has sealed them. They're not going to be deceived
because God won't allow it because God has sealed them. And isn't
that our comfort? Our comfort can't be, well, God
sealed us in our foreheads and we know too much to be deceived.
This is not a mark, it's a seal. Our comfort is this, God's people
will not be deceived. They will not perish with the
earth because God won't allow it to happen. It doesn't depend
on me ever. It always depends upon Christ,
upon mercy and grace in him, upon God's purpose of redemption
in him. And that gives me comfort. Man's agenda will always fail,
but Christ never. That is what 666 really means.
There's no reason to fear it, as long as we trust Christ. All right, I hope the Lord will
bless that.