Revelation 13:16-14:10 | The Mark of the Beast | Rich Jones

you would do that and open to the book of Revelation chapter 13 beginning in verse 16 tonight and the title of our message is the mark of the beast very very important to understand so let's pray and then just look at God's word tonight father we truly are blessed and we just ask that you would just show us the inside of your word that you would just speak life and strength of faith pour out your spirit upon us we pray in Jesus name Amen so perhaps for many when they think of the book of Revelation one of the things that really stands out is like one of the other things that they remember of all other things that are in the book of Revelation is the mark of the beast which of course is the number 666 is not six six six but 666 very very important difference and when you look at these verses that we're going to to look at tonight really in many ways they are a study of contrasts what I mean by that is you go back to what we were looking at a couple of weeks ago I mean garsa Satan's original sin if you remember his original sin was his desire to be like the Most High God and therefore you see many ways that Satan imitates a lot of of mockery and imitation so for example the mark of the beast you're gonna read this as we look at these verses tonight is placed on the right hand or on the forehead and though it's very real it's actually an imitation of the seal that God places on the foreheads of the 144,000 Jewish witnesses for Jesus Christ they're Jews but they're witnesses for Jesus Christ during the Tribulation Period and they have the seal on their foreheads so you see this contrast and you see this imitation you see that that satan is imitating because if you notice again we're gonna read this in just a minute but they the the mark of the beast is it tells us the the the name of the beast and or the number of the name what's interesting is that the seal on the 144,000 is in fact the name of the Lamb and the father so you see again this interesting contrast is very very important missing Tanic mark is of the beast the Antichrist the power of the Antichrist is Satan but also we read this and we're going to look at it more on Wednesday there's yet another beast that arises and interestingly having two horns like a lamb okay again we're gonna look at that on Wednesday but speaks as a dragon so thus you have Satan himself the dragon of old you have the Antichrist or the Beast then you have this other beast this one that has two horns like a lamb but speaks like a dragon you have what you could call an unholy trinity because you have again this imitation of the Trinity of God God the Father God the Son and the Beast is the Antichrist the anti-type and then you have of course this other beast who was imitating like the holy spirit so for much of our study through Revelation so far John has been writing about scenes that he has been given of heaven he said tells us that there was one sitting on the throne of God that was having a scroll written on the inside on the back seal with seven seals and no one was worthy to open the book except of course the Lamb who had been called the lion from the tribe of Judah who had overcome he was worthy so when he took the look the straw from the Almighty they fell down and they worship they sing a new song and it began to break those seven seals and as he broke each of those seven seals it released cataclysmic events of the Tribulation Period so we've been seeing these these scenes unfolding from heaven but when you get to these verses here this scene actually takes place on the earth John's vision he's gonna describe for us that he sees Jesus standing on Mount Zion now Mount Zion is one of the mounts you might say of Israel or scuse me of Jerusalem but it's commonly used for Jerusalem itself so as we know Jesus when he returns at the end of the age and that's what's being described here when he returns at the end of the age he will rule the nations tells us with a rod of iron he will rule the nations he will enter through the eastern gates and he will then set up a throne a kingdom upon the earth and it will be out of Jerusalem so he has this scene unfolding before him Jesus standing at Mount Zion and with him are the hundred and forty-four thousand Jewish witnesses for Christ that we read about earlier in Chapter seven these 144,000 have the seal of God which is the name of the Lamb and the father on their foreheads they have been going through the tribulation period but they are victorious and there's so much to learn because they're going through trouble to go into the difficulty but there are witnesses for Christ in the middle of this Tribulation Period and they are victorious spiritually a lot we can learn from this and I want us to contrast the mark of the beast with the seal on the foreheads of these 144,000 faithful witnesses and what each of those contrasts represents all right let's read it Revelation chapter 13 we begin in verse 16 and he causes all the small and the great the rich and the poor and the Freeman is slaves to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead and he provides that no one should be able to buy or sell except the one who has the mark so you cannot do any kind of business you cannot purchase any goods or products or any kinds of services unless you have the name the mark it says which is either the name of the beast or the number of his name and here is wisdom let him who has understanding calculate or count the number of the beast for the number is that of a man and his number is 666 chapter 14 we continue and I looked and behold the Lamb who he says was standing on Mount Zion and with him the hundred and forty-four thousand having his name and the name of his father written on their foreheads and I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters like the sound of loud thunder have you ever been like in a thunderstorm and they're like it's so close to you and ike rattles the house right he says many waters like the sound of of loud thunder and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps in other words this music right but notice this it's music but it's loud it's really really loud worship and praise I'm going somewhere with this it's good to be loud with good praise and worship amen okay I just had to speak that I just had felt that on my heart I just felt like God was telling me to emphasize that point right there and so he heard this loud voice and it was the sound of music playing on many harps and it was the 144,000 and they're singing a new song brand new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders and no one can learn this song except a hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased earth these are the ones who have not been defiled with women for they have kept themselves chaste these are the ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes so they are wholly completely dedicated to follow the lamb these have been purchased from among men as first fruits unto God which we're gonna look at here in a minute and to the lamb and no lie was found in their mouth they are blameless they loved the truth no lie was found in them and I saw another angel flying in Midheaven now notice this here would you please verse 6 I saw another angel flying in Midheaven having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth and to every nation and tribe and tongue in people would you please take note of that because so far we've been seeing that the Tribulation Period is the wrath of God that is being poured out on the earth but would you please take note that even while this is happening you have all of this invitation to the gospel I mean the gospel is also going out in power even during the tribulation anyone who wants to be saved in the tribulation can be saved anyone who wants to honor God in the heart can honor God in the heart any woman who wants to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior can receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior it's important for us to recognize the eternal gospel is being declared 144,000 witness for them throughout the world and then the two witnesses that we looked at last week and now this this angel who has the eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth and every nation tribe and tongue of people and he said with a loud voice fear God and give Him glory because the hour of his judgment has come and worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters and then another angel a second one follows after him and he said fallen fallen his bow along the great now Babylon is a city was destroyed a long time ago so he's using this as the spiritual analogy it's very important because he's going to use Babylon here uh in very short order he's gonna emphasize this Babylon this this a spiritual application of what that city represents what does it mean today we're gonna look at that hopefully we'll have time Wednesday but it's important to recognize Babylon is significant and that's gonna play into the mark of the beast I'll weave this all together here shortly fallen fallen is Babylon the Great she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality and then another angel a third one follow them and saying with a loud voice if anyone worships the Beast notice the emphasis the Beast wants worship that again is the imitation because of course God is worshipped and so the Beast wants to be worshipped if anyone worships the Beast and His image and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger all right that's where I want us to stop and look at these verses and I want us to start with this this that which is written on their foreheads and I want to begin with this point which is that victory begins where God's name is written it's God's name that is written on there it's just a beautiful picture but the mark of the beast this imitation is the name of the beast or the number of his name which is 666 verse 18 tells us that the number is that of a man and that he says let him who has an understanding count the number of the beast now some have taken that to mean that they should use a method called gematria which is actually a word taken from the Greek same root as the word geometry gematria is the same root as geometry which means to calculate right and so therefore they use this method called geometry and geometry is the process of taking names or words and in finding the numeric value of those words or names by adding up the value of the letters of that name or worth and we use letters today that have numeric value right we still do that today like right when they do the Super Bowl they always count off what Super Bowl it is right and they say Super Bowl and this year it's Super Bowl fifty two right which is L III that's Super Bowl fifty two that's the one where you know the one where the Eagles are gonna play the Patriots that's the one just want to do can I throw that in there here's the thing so this is this method of gematria right well the Hebrew an ancient Greek not modern Greek but ancient Greek also used letters to represent numbers now we could do the same in English for example if we said a was 1 and B was equal to 2 and C is equal to 3 indeed we could do the same thing now using that method in case you're interested my name equals 966 so I'm not the you know the best for sure now here's the problem with gematria methodology is the problem is that many names and end up adding up to 666 is not just like one name but many names end up adding up for example much was made of the fact that Caesar Nero who was the the just of despicable Caesar and a persecutor of the church his name famously or infamously added up to 666 the problem is he actually died almost 30 years before John wrote this book so that doesn't mean anything in the middle age reformers often caught that the Catholic Church and various Pope's showed the value of 666 the Catholic Church however shot back showing the numerical value of Martin Luther was 666 so marest inherited names of world leaders such as Napoleon or Hitler Stalin even more recently others have researched of course people do a lot of this sort of thing and to pointed out that Netanyahu you can make if you work his name just right you can make his name come up to 666 and also recent again which is the president of Turkey they say his name comes up to 666 and so many others not to mention Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin all come up with 6 6 X so what is the significance however it's important to recognize that when that name of the Antichrist is known it will not be a mystery because the Antichrist will reveal himself we are those who are on the earth that will know who he is and they will know his name and the verification of that will be through the number of that is added up to 6 NRCC 6 now what is the significance of 666 now you might say well 6 is the number of man it's the number of incompletion which is true and there's a lot you can say about that 7 being the number of perfection 6 being the number of man that's all very true but the significance of 666 actually goes far back to Babylon how interesting that Babylon now comes back into the story because all the way back to Babylon and the cultic practices of Babylonian occultic religion which was a blend of religion astrology and mathematics actually so each of their Babylonian occultic gods and we're represented by a number from 1 to 36 an ancient astrology ancient Babylonian astrology divided the starry heavens into 36 constellations and the 36 constellations right each had a God representing those constellations numerically represented from 1 to 36 so the pagan priests had an ambulance or an amulet called the magic square the magic square which was based on six rows and six columns each with six numbers and each row and each column equalled 111 and since there were six of them it totaled 666 even if you went diagonally on the Magic Square it added up to 111 now much is made of this because in that time which was they made them out of gold because the number 666 therefore represented the one God who was over all the rest of them the Sun God SOLAS the one who was over all of them he was the one who gave birth to all the other gods and thus the most powerful and thus the Antichrist is known by that same designation the number of that one is 666 by the way just for your own interest in research much has been made of the fact that those numbers from the magic square were weaved into various aspects of the building of Washington DC I'll just throw that out there and say there's a conspiracy theory for you if there ever was one the mark of the beast is on the forehead or on the right hand the seal of the 144,000 Jewish witnesses is also on their forehead and the significance cannot be missed the forehead right the mind right and the right hand is what you do the of your life what you do and the forehead of course is the loyalty of your mind so let him be Lord of your mind is actually something that we see in the scriptures because he's 144,000 are dedicated unto the Lord and they have the mark of the name of the Lord upon their foreheads it's a mark of course is a mark of ownership they they're like willingly declaring that they are the Lord's the symbolic importance of this on their forehead goes way back in Scripture you know what it goes all the way back to the book of Deuteronomy before Israel even entered into the Holy Land they were told this Deuteronomy chapter 6 you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your might now please note the significance of those words Jesus quoted those words in fact they asked them they said rabbi what is the foremost commandment what is the highest that God has ever spoken and jesus answered from gitarama me you shall love the Lord your God that's the highest thing that God wants for you to do love the Lord your God with all your heart that's what God wants for each one of what is the fruit of the Spirit the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy peace patience these are qualities of the Lord but notice how it begins love love is the highest aspect of the moving of God upon your life if you want revival you want to see God moving in your life the highest aspect of that is when you fall in love with the Lord he says you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart with all your soul with all of your might and these are the words he says the Israel before they go into the Holy Land these words which I am commanding you today they shall be on your heart you shall teach them diligently to your son and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house and you when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you get up which pretty much that's a lot and he says and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets your forehead you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates these are important words you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart so this mark upon the forehead goes all the way back to the book of Deuteronomy notice that it is in the context of loving God right that he says this binds and when the forehead loving the Lord when your mind is the Lord the result though is peace with the Lord relationship with the Lord comes when you have a love after him Isaiah 26 the stead fast of mind you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you let me tell you how important that is the enemies one of the main thrusts or schemes of the enemy is that a fear if he can generate fear in your life and in fact if you look at even a cultic practices one of the greatest desires of those that are practiced the occult is to create fear in those who followed those practices they control people by fear what is the effort of terrorism today is a not terror which is fear right so the idea is that the enemy and when when the Antichrist when the Antichrist puts a mark on them is it not of course fear that he brings about you cannot buy or sell or do any business unless you have this mark and you will worship the Antichrist or it tells us in a few verses before this or you will be killed is it not the induction of fear that he is attempting to do that's why it's so important to recognize that you can see this theme throughout Scripture God has not given us a spirit of fear God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love you see the contrast God has given us the spirit of love and power and a sound mind perfect love casts out all fear God wants us to have an awe and a respect of God that's right but he wants us first and foremost to have this love the steadfast of mind you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you so going back now to Revelation look at verse after 14 where we look at these who have this mark of God the name of the Lord upon their foreheads and would you notice what is happening in their lives because they're great examples first of all tell says there's power and praise there's power embrace the Antichrist will set himself up in the temple to be worshiped and honored there now remember what Jesus said when in regards to when he was telling them the signs of the times he said when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken after the prophet Daniel he says to Israel run for the hills literally run for those don't even go down to get your coat run for the hills because all hell is going to break loose and so what will happen is the abomination of desolation is this that the Antichrist who has negotiated a treaty of peace between the nations and Israel which is interesting in itself interesting in itself that that Israel would would recognize the the the authority and leadership of the Antichrist on those days in fact did not Jesus say at one point he says I come in my father's name but you will not receive me but another will come in his own name and you will receive him very interesting and so the Antichrist will take back the temple that he negotiated that Israel could build he will take it back three and a half years after this and he will set himself up in the holiest of holy places to be worshipped the Antichrist was set himself up to be worshiped and honored there and it's only because of fear that people give him honor but John now contrast to what John sees in chapter 14 of Revelation here he hears the the sound of many waters like the sound of loud music and these are 144,000 who are worshiping and they sing a new song and they praise and there's power and praise because they're like singing with all their heart and their might that's a beautiful thing by the way God loves when his church is alive God loves when his church worships God loves that when his church draws near to him when there's a hunger and the thirst for drawing near to the Lord all God loves that and here this 144,000 they're like they're like worshiping right the sound of loud worship praise is a good thing and the new song in Scripture is always good it'll be a declaration of praise and rejoicing and they love is that there's not this intimidation but rather love right sing Psalm 98 verse 1 Oh sing to the Lord a new song for he has done wonderful things his right hand and his holy arm have gained the victory for him and so I love that that declaration I'll sing to the Lord a new song like he's to call out for all of us to follow after what a great example in fact earlier we read in revelation 5 that the four living beings are creatures in the twenty-four elders they sang a new song like worship seems to be a very important part of heaven and one of the most exposed important expressions of joy you when there's a song in the hearts but one of the most important what are the great expressions of joys when there's a song in the heart I was traveling with one of our elders we just happened to be in the Oregon you know we were just driving around looking at the sights and just chit-chatting as we go and and then he out of the blue he says quick what song are you singing in the back of your mind right now and I told him I knew right away what there was and did you ever find yourself just kind of walking down somewhere else and you just like want to sing I remember when I was when I was young I used to be a janitor my first real job was being a janitor of course I'm not counting picking berries which I did for many years but when as a janitor I'm going down the hallway sweeping right pushing a broom or a mop and you know hours doing this right and I was just a teenager but I I was a worship leader at church on the weekends and I'm just going down the hallway just whistling the the worship songs you know just I mean God loves it when there's a song in your heart amen and that's what you see now you can even have a song in your heart when things are going difficult for you do you remember do you remember when Paul and Silas on their missionary journey they were in Philippi and and the crowd turned against them and the magistrate had them beaten with rods stick as a man's finger and then thrown in to the inner dungeon and said guards upon them but it tells us I loved the scene that unfolds because here they've been mistreated I mean we have no idea what they experienced it was such a wrongful tragedy but acts 16 gives us this picture of it verses 25 and 26 but about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God I mean they've been beaten they've been mistreated they were thrown into this damp dark cold dungeon there on the cold rocky floor chained stalks make a lot of people at that point would have started complaining well this is the way you treat your missionaries Lord but they're just they're praying and they're singing hymns of praise and it says the prisoners were listening and then of course as we know God like did a miracle and suddenly there came a great earthquake so the foundation of the prison-house were shaken and immediately the doors were open and everyone's changed right past it I just love that scene right there because it shows you the power of praise III love to just imagine that scene right there bruised battered beaten hurting cold dark and I imagine Paul Silas how are you okay I'm hurt okay I just want to I just feel like singing you know about him remember that him is that you have that one I suppose I just want to sing that meet you let's sing that great is thy faithfulness o God my father there is no shadow of turning with thee thou changest not that Compassion's they fail that as thou hast been forever will be I just imagine like a song like that and-and-and-and tells us that the prisoners were listening I imagine that those prisoners listening are just so taken by this whole scene it's like I want that God that is a God if he said as a God of love I want that God I'm tired of the the lies of this world I had a Iranian fellow showed up at the church unannounced didn't make an appointment just walked in asked if he could speak with the pastor so I sat down with him I said what can I do for you and he said I'm a Muslim I said well welcome glad you're here and he said I'm tired of a God of hate would you tell me about a God who loves amen and a few months later we baptized him right here amen amen notice they're not saying that they were singing a song as a praise there's power in and praise and then you look at the revelation 14 this is what you see you see their faithful hearts you see their faithful hearts bearing godly fruits see we we see how they're living their lives we see the holiness of their character we see how they honor God with how they lived and you see that it is a great example what we can learn from them tells us that he it says he they follow wherever he goes I just love that line he they follow wherever he goes there's mention here that they were chased meaning they were never married always pure and and for that day of tribulation that would be wholly appropriate I mean the world's going to hell in a handbasket you might say and and they're they're like dedicated holy unto the Lord for that period of time that was the right thing now there was actually a group in the first century called the Essenes that also practiced that never married him we're always chased for some reason their sect died out okay I was hoping you were following my logic on that but he says we follow we follow the lamb say I just love that picture because we're called the fall of the lamb take up cross Jesus said take up your cross and follow me so that's that is right that is the example he's showing us that is what God is calling us to do they follow the lamb wherever he goes well we follow the lamb when we follow his ways in our life when we live our lives with that love for him now it tells us that God's ways are not our ways but we know God's ways then we know that God wants to make his ways our ways follow after him change your ways that's what he's telling you change your ways to be like his ways because his ways will bless your life our ways will get us into trouble elect isaiah 55 where god says my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways declares the lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts so he's giving us a great invitation to be transformed his ways are gracious his ways are compassion his ways are forgiveness his ways are righteous his ways are patience his ways are kindness one of the first pray songs I think it was ever written in the modern era of pray songs I was one that was just so simple and yet so powerful I have decided you remember the song I have decided to follow Jesus no turning back no turning back I have decided to follow but there's a lion in that one of the powerful lines is the cross before me the world behind me no turning back no turning back the cross before me the world behind me no turning back just powerful that's what it means to follow out and then he speaks about it says that they there was no lie found on their lips they loved the truth the fruit of our lips is pretty important too if there's no life found on their lips John verse 5 he writes they love the truth the fruit of our lives comes from the the treasure that's in our hearts what we say the fruit of our lips what comes out of our mouths right they love the truth in their hearts and that's why they spoke the truth see Matthew 12 Jesus made a powerful point when he said II to make the tree good and his fruit will be good or make the tree bad and his fruit will be bad for the tree is known by his fruit he says you brood of vipers how can you being evil speak what is good for the mouth speaks of that which fills the heart the good man brings out of his good treasure what is good and the evil man brings out of his evil treasures what is evil and it's interesting because in Revelation at the end of chapter 13 at the beginning of 14 here we're seeing this this contrast and it's like a choice is like I said before you this choosing this choice like in time of in time of spiritual battle like that is like you gotta choose what like the challenge that Joshua may choose you this day it's time to choose the is he says love the word love the truth and speak words that are consistent with it have a heart that follows God and godly words will follow proverbs 16 24 pleasant words are like a honeycomb sweet to the soul and healing to the bones they love that verse would it be awesome okay would it be awesome if it could be known of you and me that that proverbs 16 verse 24 is true wouldn't it be awesome if people could say of you and me his words or his words are like honey sweet to the soul and healing to the bones when he speaks their words of healing I like Ephesians 4:29 let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth but only such a word as is good for Elif ocation according to the need of the moment so that it will give grace to those who hear he's speaking about what comes out of their mouth of their words and then notice the fruit the fruit that God desires is a changed life notice that he says that they are firstfruits they are dedicated to the Lord and firstfruits in the scriptures were always the lords the first portion always the Lord's it's a powerful thing when you recognize that they were living in really difficult days and yet they were just firstfruits that are dedicated unto the Lord powerful powerful scene for us John 15 says if you abide in me abide in me and I abide in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine so neither can you unless you abide in me I am the vine you are the branches he who abides in me and I in him he bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing isn't he calling us here to have a relationship with him that is such that we fall in love with the Lord with all our heart with all our soul with all our mind the time to choose is now because we are living in days of tremendous contrast between good and evil and now is the day to kind of make our minds to choose whom we will follow and when you choose whom you will follow then follow him with all your heart let's pray father thank you so much for these words that contrasts the ways of the enemy the Antichrist and the ways of the Lord God with these through these 144,000 you give us a tremendous powerful invitation to follow after you the day of choosing us now choose whom you will follow but when you make that choice then follow with all your heart that's what the Lord is inviting us to do to follow with all of your heart it's no time for compromises no time for lukewarmness now is the day to follow with all of your heart Church tonight as we're before the Lord would you even would you say that to the Lord God I will follow and I will follow with all of my heart I'll follow and I'll follow with all just raise your hand say to the Lord I want you to know the Lord I will follow with all of my heart thank you God for moving upon us how you take hold of us by your spirit we love you and thank you and we honor you for moving among us by your Holy Spirit in Jesus name and everyone said can we give the Lord praise and glory and honor amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Worship Center - Hillsboro, Oregon

Views: 32,945

Rating: 4.5636363 out of 5

Keywords: The Bible, God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Holy, Pastor Rich Jones, Calvary Chapel, Faith, Grace, Revival, Truth, Prayer, Salvation, Calvary, Chapel, Hillsboro, Revelation, The Mark of the Beast, Revelation 13

Id: NxBG1HF6QbI

Length: 43min 29sec (2609 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 03 2017