The great reset #17 The mark of the beast

well i'd like to give you all a good welcome this evening it's seven o'clock and time to begin i'm pastor john bryson i'm on staff here at this church congregation soon after the american civil war my great-grandfather and his family moved from north carolina out to oregon and then some of them went down into california back in north carolina okay so so that's approximately about the year 1865 1866 right so um there is in north carolina a place called bryson city north carolina and so you know the family came from there uh an older brother of mine dale one time was back in north carolina and he was doing a little bit of research looking at the places where some of our ancestors are buried and he went to a little baptist church close to where my great-grandfather and his family lived and he walked into the church on this sunday morning and he came in and the deacon looked at him and said you're a bryson aren't you 150 years you know you're a bryson aren't you he says yes i am and i guess i've always wondered what marked my brother as a bryson was it the belly or the nose i don't know but somehow even after all those years a deacon who wasn't a bryson was able to recognize him as a bryson uh i wonder if they would recognize me as a bryson if i went back there now here's a even a more important question what would mark me as a follower of jesus christ it's not that's to be a good question isn't it do people look at you and know that you're a follower of god and the opposite side of that question is what would mark a person as a follower of like for instance the beast power right i think eric's going to talk about some of these things tonight looking forward to your presentation and eric come on up i have some questions for you all right which side is the best site for you to answer questions i can answer answer questions both handed i'm ambidextrous good evening all right make sure you're all awake how many of you are here oh fantastic we're good all right the first question if if the dead are in fact truly dead until the second coming then who are these thousands upon thousands of angels that descend with jesus when we meet him in the sky hey great question uh what what about the dead i mentioned or did a a presentation a few nights ago on what happens when you die there's kind of a a common misconception within christianity and and certainly without christianity or outside of christianity maybe that's a better way to say it that when a person dies they become an angel i does the bible support that idea yes or no no it doesn't it's a common misconception but actually in psalm is it psalm 8 it's psalm 8. verse 5 verses 4 and 5. psalm 8 verses 4 and 5 says what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him for you have made him excuse me you have made him a little lower than the angels and you have crowned him with glory and honor so human beings and angels are two separate and distinct classes of creation you don't go from one to the other or or back and forth god created angels and he created human beings human beings were created lower than the angels so the ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels that come back with jesus are angels yeah not uh not human beings who have become angels good question okay i don't know if this is related all right you talked about angels are dinosaurs mentioned that's not related our dinosaurs mentioned in the bible maybe some fancy looking angels looking like dinosaurs um i i believe they are our dinosaurs mentioned the bible i believe they are go to the book of job job is when i was first studying the bible i'm like what is this book of job why is there a book of job but the book of job is right before the book of psalms if you open your bible to the middle you'll probably end up in psalms one book before that is the book of job and look at job 40. job chapter 40. there are a couple of passages in the book of job that appear to describe what we would today call dinosaurs job chapter 40 starting in verse number 15 there's a description here of behemoth it says look now at the behemoth which i made along with you he eats grass like an ox see now his strength is in his hips and his power is in his stomach muscles he moves his tail like a cedar the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit his bones are like beams of bronze his ribs like bars of iron now sometimes people look at that and they'll say that's just an elephant that's what that's describing but in verse number 17 it says he moves his tail like a cedar have you ever seen an elephant with a tail that looks like a cedar i haven't seen that elephant yet so this appears to be some sort of a dinosaur-like creature look also at the very next chapter chapter 41 it talks about leviathan can you draw out leviathan with a hook or snare his tongue with a line which you lower can you put a reed through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook drop down a few more verses to verse 14 verses 14 and 15. it says who can open the doors of his face with his terrible teeth all around his rows of scales are his pride shut up tightly as with a seal so that also appears to be some sort of a dinosaur-like creature that's described there in the book of job the book of job was probably the first book of the bible that was actually written chronologically even before moses wrote genesis through deuteronomy so uh he appears to describe here uh what we would today call dinosaurs now did dinosaurs exist yes or no yes there's no question that they exist we've all seen bones and archaeologists have dug up and so forth are they likely to be millions and millions and millions and millions of years old no they're not uh the earth like i said a few nights ago from a biblical perspective and in reality uh since the bible is a reflection of reality is probably 6 000 give or take years old so the dinosaurs would have lived back at the beginning or not too long after the beginning it doesn't appear and i'm going to stress the way i said that it does not appear that they survived the flood it looks like a great many of them perished during the great flood noah's flood so we don't see a lot of quote unquote dinosaurs around today now are there things today that still kind of look dinosaurish what about like alligators and crocodiles and things along those lines so we see evidence of that the bible certainly describes large animals that we don't see in the world today so evidence for dinosaurs absolutely in fact if you look at the way that the bones of many dinosaurs have been found the way that they're uh lined up and so forth and the strata in which they're found there's a great deal of evidence that the vast majority of them died in a flood so good question okay one last question here and i can ask ask i will ask this and then i'll make my way down i understand that saturday is the sabbath and that god says to keep it holy but would he keep me out of heaven just for that he knows that i love him okay good question thank you for that um what about the sabbath let me let me see if i can if i can answer a question with a question i get this question a lot and i want to make sure that i give the best answer that i can on it we know that the sabbath is saturday god says remember the sabbath day to keep it holy what if i don't would god keep me out of heaven just for that to help answer that question it's important to understand that the wages of what sin is death how does the bible define sin first john 3 4 sin is the transgression of the law so when we look at the 10 commandments those 10 commandments that god wrote in stone with his finger there's a bunch of thou shalt not there's a great big long remember and so forth are any of those commandments more important or less important than another one no they're all of the same importance in god's definition of sin sin is sin breaking the commandments of sin whether it's number one eight seven six five four doesn't matter so in order to answer the question would god keep me out of half out of heaven just for just for not keeping the sabbath just for breaking the sabbath let's ask that question not with not with the sabbath question but let's apply a different commandment to it and see if we can find an answer there so let's do the commandment um thou shalt not kill or thou shalt do no murder is actually a better translation of that so let's ask the question with applying that commandment rather than the sabbath so i want you to imagine that there is a serial killer who is very fond of well killing people in fact he makes a habit of it every week he goes out and he chooses a victim and he murders them viciously and a new week comes and he chooses a new victim and he murders them viciously and he's been doing this for years and years and years and years and years and it's kind of the norm it's what he does he kind of enjoys it clearly he's been doing it for years and so he gets a hand bill in the mail that says great reset revelation today prophecy seminar come and learn come and see and he looks at me says this looks interesting i think i'll go and so he goes to the seminar and he learns that the bible is the inspired word of god and he's said wow this is pretty amazing i had no idea he learns about jesus as his savior and he says wow i'd love to have a savior this sounds like a great deal i'd love to accept jesus as my savior and then he learns about the ten commandments how the ten commandments are a transcript a picture of god's character and he's looking at the ten commandments oh these are these are pretty good these sound like some some good ideas and so forth and then he gets to the one that says thou shalt do no murder. and he goes ooh wait a minute i don't like that one um because i like to what i like to murder people right i've been murdering people for years i enjoy it i get a great deal of pleasure out of it and i just like to continue murdering people now he's got a choice to make he can either say wow if this is god's will that i shouldn't murder people then maybe i should stop murdering people or he can say you know what i think i'll just keep murdering people even though i know what it says i see what it says but i kind of like murdering people so i'm just going to keep murdering them so here's the question and don't answer this out loud i want you to internalize this answer because the way that you answer this question will help you answer the other question if that was the only commandment that this guy was breaking all he was doing was just murdering people once a week but but no other commandments he was keeping the rest of him and so forth would god admit that unrepentant murderer into heaven just or with him continuing to murder people or would god say you know what overall you're a pretty decent fella but you've got this one little issue and since you haven't repented of that and confessed it and changed your life i'm afraid i'm not going to be able to let you into heaven so would god let the unrepentant killer in or would he keep him out now again i don't answer this out loud i want you to answer it in your mind if you believe that god would let this unrepentant serial killer into heaven as he continues to murder people then you have your answer to the question about would god keep me out of heaven just for breaking the sabbath commandment or if you think he would let him in you've got your answer that way too see because there's not one commandment that's any more or less important than another they're all they're all on the same level so sometimes we in our minds have a tendency to elevate or lower the importance of something in god's eyes in god's eyes it's all even so we just have to decide whether we want to take god at his word or not how many of you think we ought to take god at his word i do too great questions tonight really really good questions a couple of things tonight to remind you of immediately following this evening's presentation we're going to have a short 15-minute uh baptismal preparation class i i sent you a text to let you know about that i mentioned it this morning as well so if you're thinking about baptism in the near future please do stay by if you would just like a refresher for some of the basic teachings of the bible please stay by it's open to everybody young and old regardless of your background you're invited to stay it'll take just about 15 minutes we'll have one class tonight immediately following we'll have one class tuesday evening and one class wednesday evening so please do stay by for that again if you're thinking about baptism or if you have a young person that's thinking about baptism sometime in the near future or re-baptism or you just want to stay by for a refresher on the basic teachings of the bible that'll be right after tonight's presentation we're going to kind of gather in this front area right here so as soon as we finish tonight come right there we'll make sure you get your handouts and all that kind of good stuff also tonight as you leave we've got two gifts for you one of them is a copy of the study guide the mark of the beast you were probably expecting that and the other one in fact i think there may be and uh roger and or summer can check we may have a an insert that goes in this so if we can double check that fantastic and tonight you're going to receive a copy of this dvd set called the great controversy found by fountainview academy orchestra and strings it is a phenomenal dvd set runtime 2 hours and 38 minutes you don't have to binge watch the whole thing if you don't want to but you can you might enjoy it in fact i hope you'll enjoy it it is a it's beautiful renditions by orchestra and and choir of incredible hymns that have something to do with the reformation so they go on location throughout europe to shoot these different things fantastic a fantastic program my kids absolutely love it so do we also tonight i think is night number 16 or 17 or something like that which means that if you've been coming with regularity then you may have been here for 15 nights remember that every five nights that you come you get to take home one of these fine art prints that you see out there on the table so make sure that you have the ones that you are due we want to make sure you go home with all those gifts you ready to get started do you wanna you wanna just go home are you ready to get started yes what do we need to do we need to pray let's pray father this evening we're grateful again to have an opportunity to study your word we are privileged to live in a country that affords us this freedom and tonight we're exercising that freedom we ask that tonight as we look at a subject that we have built up to over the course of about three weeks that you would help us to understand it clearly the greatest most fearful warning in the bible is pronounced by god against those who choose to receive the mark of the beast we don't want to be among that number help us lord this evening to understand what's going on why it's so important to you and why it's so important to us living today we thank you in jesus name amen you probably remember where you were when you first heard the news or saw the images of planes hitting towers in new york city september eleventh two thousand and one how many of you remember where you were okay i remember exactly where i was i was in a hotel correction a motel in katie's kentucky it's kind of a little run down place i was having breakfast in their little breakfast nook area and old ratty television was on and as i was looking at the television they started showing replays of the plane hitting the tower and i thought wow that's terrible and then not long after that another plane hit a tower and just like a lot of other people started putting the pieces together i realized that was not an accident and then we saw another plane and another plane there was an attack that was going on on the united states a significant attack an attack really that has changed the way we live our lives how many of you remember back in the day when you could go to an airport and go to the gate to say goodbye to your family members or to welcome them do you remember those days seems like so long ago now so so long ago things have changed so much but really what that was not just an attack on america it was really an attack on freedom speaking from the oval office president george w bush said that day later that day today our fellow citizens our way of life our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts freedom under attack you know speaking during the american civil war at the dedication of the soldiers national cemetery in gettysburg pennsylvania on november 19 1863 president abraham lincoln gave one of the most powerful speeches in american history it began with the words four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in what liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are what created equal 213 words later that short speech concluded with these words this nation under god shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people help me by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth one of the most well-known powerful and influential speeches made in american history freedom we are attracted to freedom people want to experience freedom by the time lincoln appeared on the scene the united states had grown substantially from the little colony that it had begun its beginnings you know the population when lincoln was president was right around 30 million that was a long way from 1620 when a little over a hundred pilgrims sailed from plymouth england to the shores of the new world many of them were puritan separatists why had they left england because they didn't believe what the church of england the official church of the time believed and taught and they wanted a place where they could go to practice their faith in freedom and so they came about a hundred few little over a hundred including four small children who were indentured servants it was a rough start for the colonists they arrived here in the winter by the time spring came around about half of them had died but within 150 years there was war between those 13 original colonies in england and in 1776 the declaration of independent independence was written drafted by thomas jefferson approved unanimously by the continental congress on july 4 1776 here's how the declaration began it said when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and then follow some of the most famous words in mod in the modern history of the world we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life what else liberty and the pursuit of happiness the united states had declared themselves to be free they said we are a free nation and really we are experiencing that freedom today you would expect then that freedom is valuable people care about freedom how many of you enjoy freedom right we as human beings enjoy freedom we care about it and we want to make sure that it is not taken away what we experience today we are indebted to others for and we owe them a great deal you would expect then because we enjoy freedom so much and that is humanity enjoys freedom so much the adversary the devil would do what he can to prevent people from experiencing freedom he doesn't want people to experience freedom he doesn't want them to enjoy freedom and so we can expect that there will be attacks on freedom we see terrorism we see violence we see illness if you wanted to when you see all these things you might be tempted to say well things are rough or you might say people can be lousy or you might say you know accidents happen or you could say people get sick and that'd be fair enough that'd be true but sooner or later you'd begin to ask deeper questions deeper questions like why why do bad things happen why do people get sick why do accidents happen what is it that causes these things and once you begin to look for the answer to that question you begin to find the answers to some significant questions about life there's one story in the bible that probably illustrates this better than any other and that's the story of job see when job was living his life things were going well and all of a sudden bad things started to happen and job could have just gone well apparently bad things are happening but what he didn't realize what he couldn't see was that behind the scenes there was a spiritual battle going on remember we talked about this early on in the seminar what happens behind the curtain something else was going on behind the curtain he didn't see this struggle between light and darkness between god and satan that was going on an angry fallen angel is behind all the sin and the pain and the agony and the death and the bloodshed and the war that's going on in this world today he does not want people to experience freedom he wants them to be enslaved enslaved to sin so you would expect that freedom would be attacked and today it is being attacked and it will continue to be attacked ultimately this world is going to be a house divided on one single issue that's the issue that we're looking at tonight the issue surrounding the mark of the beast so let's see if we can dive into this tonight and understand the significance of this subject to do that we're going to start by looking at second corinthians chapter 11 and verse 14. in second corinthians 11 verse 14 paul writes and no wonder for satan himself transforms himself into and what into an angel of light what we're talking about here is a deception who do you know that's good at deceptions satan is right he's deceiving people transforming himself into an angel of light if he can transform himself into an angel of light do you think it could transform himself into the likeness of jesus sure he could do you think he could get a lot of people deceived even many christians if he were to present himself as jesus a lot of people would be if he performed miracles can the devil perform miracles most certainly you know there are some people who believe that only god can perform miracles that's not biblical the bible says the devils can also perform miracles so just because it's a miracle doesn't mean it's from god we get a test to see whether it's genuine or not whether it's biblical whether it's godly or not but the devil is a master deceiver he is good at counterfeiting things making wrong things look right you know there is a reason that you have never seen a counterfeit three dollar bill do you know why because there's no real one no one would ever bother to make a counterfeit three dollar bill it's not going to fool anybody but are there counterfeit hundred dollar bills are there counterfeit 50s yeah why because there are real ones so when the devil does a deception works a miracle deceives people he does it largely by making the false look like the true he makes the deception look like the original now as i mentioned this nation this country was founded on the principles of freedom it has undergirding it lifting up really everything that this country has stood on since its beginning it has essentially what you would call judeo-christian values which is why if you take a look at the money in your pocket the coins in your pocket the bills in your wallet if you can get coins these days if you look they all have four words on them what are those four words in god we trust how many of you believe we should trust god right it's it's on it's so embedded into our culture that it is on our money but the devil as i mentioned is very good at deceiving people and the bible indicates that at the very end of time he is going to succeed in deceiving virtually the entire population of the world including many christians so let's see how he might do that we're looking at revelation chapter 13 tonight we've been here a few times we're going to yet come back because these passages in the bible apply to our day in revelation 13 verses 1 through 4 there's a description of what we often refer to as the antichrist revelation 13 beginning in verse 1. john says then i stood on the sand of the sea and i saw a beast rising up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and on his horns ten crowns and on his heads a blasphemous name he says now the beast which i saw was like a what leopard his feet were like the feet of a bear in his mouth like the mouth of a lion the dragon gave him his power his throne and great authority and i saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded and his deadly wound was healed and how much of the world wandered after the beast all how much all so virtually the entire world mark that virtually the entire world is going to follow after the beast then it says so they worshipped the dragon who gave authority to the beast and they worshipped the beast saying who is like the beast who is able to make war with him come down just a few more verses to verse number eight it says and all that dwell upon the earth shall what worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world so virtually the whole world is going to end up worshiping the antichrist now do you remember what the big issue is at end time the big issue is what it's worship let's go back and look at that again it's in revelation 14. open your bible to revelation chapter 14. we're looking at the big issue again and i've kept coming back to this passage because again if you're looking at the timeline of history in the bible revelation 14 is where we are right now revelation chapter 14 in verse number six it says then i saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation tribe tongue and people saying with a loud voice fear god and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and what worship him who made the heaven the earth the sea in the springs of waters who made those things god did which which person of the godhead specifically was the creator that was jesus so the first angel says worship who jesus christ how many of you think that's a good idea all right first angel says worship jesus christ drop down just a few verses two verse number nine then a third angel followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone does what worships the beast in his image and receives his mark in his forehead or in his hand he says it's the wine of wrath of god and fire and brimstone and so forth so the third angel warns us not to what worship who the beast or the antichrist first angel says worship jesus christ third angel don't worship antichrist then it says down in verse number 12 here is the patience of the saints here are those who keep the commandments of god and the faith of jesus what is the highest form of worship the highest form of worship is it's obedience who will you obey the one that you choose to obey is the one who you are truly worshipping and really at the very end of time that's what it comes down to who will you worship but in revelation 13 the first part of the chapter we see a picture of this beast that's often referred to as the antichrist now a few nights ago we tried to figure out who this was and we looked over in revelation 13 at the characteristics of this beast we compared those characteristics with the characteristics of the little horn in daniel chapter 7 we compared them and we found that they were identical so here were our characteristics of that little horn in daniel chapter 7. it was little it came up among the other horns or in other words in what part of the world it was in western europe that's right it came up after the other horns so it would have to be after ad476 it would pluck up three of those first horns ten divisions of the roman empire three of them were taken down do you remember the names of those three harry lie vandals and ostrogoths very good so we're doing a little recap here a little review if you miss this subject make sure that you get the study guide on it it'll get you all caught up it also says it would have eyes like the eyes of a man so a man at its head that speaks for it it would speak great words and blasphemies we found two bible definitions of blasphemy one is when a man claims to be god on earth and the other is when a man claims the power to forgive sins the bible says when a person does that or a system does that that is blaspheming so it would be a blaspheming power it would also persecute and we looked at some examples back during the dark ages of how the saints that is the righteous those who believe the bible and follow the bible were persecuted and by millions they were executed between 50 and 200 million people back during the dark ages it would think to or in other words attempt to change god's times and his laws can anyone change god's law yes or no no not at all can anybody change god's times yes or no no of course not but this system would attempt to would think to and would also reign for 1260 years that was from the year 538 until 1798 and as we looked at these characteristics we found that there's only one nation one kingdom one system on earth that fits all of these characteristics and the many others that we looked at during our seminar what was the name of that system or kingdom it's called the vatican or the papacy now again let me pause right here is god saying anything at all negative about catholics yes or no no does god love catholics yes or no yes are there going to be many catholics in the kingdom of heaven yes how many of you know one or two all right so god's not saying anything about catholics there are many wonderful people who are associated with systems nations kingdoms who may do some unsavory things but god is identifying a system here it's the same system that martin luther john wesley john knox john calvin you make a long list of the reformers they all identified the nation or the system the kingdom if you will of the vatican as this antichrist power now look at revelation chapter 13 verses 16 and 17. here's where things get really interesting we know that we've got the right identification now but then it says in revelation 13 verses 16 and 17 speaking of the second beast now we identified the second beast as what nation do you remember the united states of america we did that just a couple of nights ago a night or two ago revelation 13 verses 16 and 17 says he causes all both small and great rich and poor free and slave to receive a what a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name so there is this idea of receiving the mark the second beast is going to cause the world what's another word for cause force the world to receive the mark of the beast so what is this mark of the beast or what's the sign of authority we know what the identity of the beast is this mark must be a sign of its authority in the world what it believes why it believes that it has power in the world so we've looked at a couple of things before i'm going to refresh our memory on some things i quoted to you from the converts catechism of catholic doctrine a few nights ago this again is a relatively small book about that thick i have a copy that if a person wants to join the catholic church part of the process is going through this question and answer book understanding it believing it and so forth in the section on the ten commandments here's the question that's asked question which is the sabbath day answer saturday is the sabbath day question why do we observe sunday instead of saturday answer because the catholic church transferred the solemnity from saturday to sunday here's another one i've shared this one with you uh before as well this is from carl keating's book catholicism and fundamentalism on page 38. he says fundamentalists that is bible-believing christians meet for worship on sunday yet there is no evidence in the bible that corporate worship was to be made on sundays the jewish sabbath or day of rest was of course saturday it was the catholic church that decided sunday should be the day of worship for christians in honor of the resurrection so are they saying that sunday is based on the bible yes or no no they're saying it's not based on the bible we the church have instituted that and christianity follows in our footsteps here's another one this is from james cardinal gibbons in the catholic mirror december 23 1893 he writes this reason and sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these two alternatives either protestantism and the keeping holy of saturday or catholicity and the keeping holy of sunday compromise is impossible he says it's your choice one or the other if you're going to believe the bible the only thing that the bible says is saturday but if you don't want to believe the bible then believe the catholic church believe us because we have sunday that's what we offer to the world you just have to decide who you believe who you think can save you who's your lord who are you going to follow who are you going to worship who are you going to obey he says you can't live in both worlds it's either one or the other think about this if it's appropriate for a church to change god's law then what else could a church do pretty much anything it wants what's our authority what do we go back to because if you can change one commandment you could change all of them and once we do that how do we know what's right and wrong we don't anymore it's just whatever we feel like you lick your finger and hold it up in the wind how do you feel today you know who's doing that today much of the world much of the world's deciding for themselves what's right and wrong instead of going to the word of god if god's word is true if the ten commandments is a picture of who god is then we dare not change it but this system has attempted to now a few years ago i was traveling through topeka kansas and i met somebody there who was coming to a seminar like this and they said hey listen you should really go check out the catholic church just down the street they have this really amazing monument of the ten commandments i thought really i'm gonna go check this out so i went there and sure enough in front of the saint joseph catholic church was this beautiful monument of the ten commandments i thought that's pretty cool i wouldn't have expected to see that here but it's really impressive and then i looked at it a little bit more closely and as i looked at it i saw this the second commandment says you shall not take the name of the lord in vain for the lord will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain i thought wait a minute is that the second commandment in the bible no it's not do you know what the second commandment in the bible is thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image the likeness of anything in the heaven above and the earth beneath in the waters under the earth thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for i the lord thy god i'm a jealous god visiting the iniquity of the fathers unto the children of the third and fourth generation of them that hate me but showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments that's what the second commandment is it's about not bowing down to and worshiping idols but here what have they done they've kind of gotten rid of the second commandment bumped the third commandment up into its place which would have left them with nine commandments but you can't very well go around telling people that there are now nine commandments somebody's gonna catch on right so they took the last commandment the one that deals with coveting and they split it into two so now the ninth and tenth commandments are the ones on coveting but the second commandment the one that deals with bowing down to and worshiping idols is gone it's the same way in the converts catechism of catholic doctrine they've gotten rid of the second commandment now if you look at the full catechism that's like a much bigger book you'll notice that they've done something very sneaky they've taken the second commandment and they've tucked it up on the under the very tail end of the first commandment then move the third into the place of the second and split the ninth and tenth again kind of hoping that you won't find that second commandment tucked in there so it's interesting saint catherine catholic church sentinel from organic michigan this was written by a catholic priest he writes perhaps the boldest thing the most revolutionary change the church that is the catholic church ever did happened in the first century the holy day the sabbath was changed from saturday to what sunday not from any directions noted in the scripture but from the church's sense of its own power now that's a pretty powerful statement but it does very clearly share the position of the church but what about that's just a catholic priest what about the pope what kind of statements have the popes made on this subject here's one from pope benedict xvi this is july 25th 2005. notice what he says he says and thus they also understood that saturday was no longer the liturgical day but what sunday on which the lord wants to be with us physically again and again and wants to nourish us with his body so that we ourselves may become his body in the world he also states this the second vatican council teaches that the church celebrates the passion mystery every seventh day which day is appropriately called the lord's day or sunday now wait a minute does the bible call sunday the lord's day no it doesn't in fact you'll find the lord's day only one time in the bible it's in revelation 1 verse number 10 when john says i was in the spirit on the lord's day he never says which day of the week that is but what day is the lord's day biblically that's sabbath that's his day right the second vatican council teaches that the church celebrates the paschal mystery every seventh day which day is appropriately called the lord's day or sunday sunday remains the fertile foundation and at the same time the fundamental nucleus of the liturgical year which originated in christ's resurrection thanks to which the features of eternity were impressed on time the word origin affirms has moved the feast of the sabbath to the day on which the light was produced and has given us an image of true repose sunday the day of salvation pause here for a second who is the word jesus i want you to notice what he says the word origin affirms who is his authority here the bible who's his authority origin who was origin oh he was a an author if you will one might call him a theologian perhaps he lived i think in the third century or something like that some people say he was a little bit weird but he's he's referencing origen as the source of this information the word origin affirms has moved the feast of the sabbath to the day on which the light was produced and has given us an image as an image of true repose sunday the day of salvation the first day of the light in which the savior of the world after completing all his work with men and after conquering death crossed the threshold of heaven surpassing the creation of the six days and receiving the blessed sabbath and rest in god so what day is he connecting the sabbath to now sunday he's saying we've moved it the church has moved it not on the authority of scripture but on the authority of themselves they believe that they have that power look at this inspired by knowledge of this saint ignatius of antioch asserted we are no longer keeping the sabbath but the lord's day sunday is the day on which the risen lord makes himself present among his followers invites them to his banquet and shares himself with them so that they too united and configured to him may worship god properly every sunday and every eucharist is a personal encounter with christ that's pope benedict xvi you'll notice he's not making reference to the bible here he's saying we have done this origen one of the church fathers affirms this and yet look at the world today the christian world the vast majority of the christian world practices something which has no basis on scripture whatsoever but is based on the teachings of rome and the teachings of church fathers of course there's much more i could share countless quotes with you but look at this revelation 13 verse 8 says and all that dwell upon the earth shall what worship him what is the highest form of worship it is obedience most of the christian world today is following a teaching that isn't based on the bible it's based on the tradition of the catholic church so the mark of the beast really is very simple if we're accepting a change to god's holy law that's not found in the scriptures but we are instead choosing our authority to be a church or a system over the word of god and that system or that church happens to be the one identified in the bible as the antichrist we are choosing to follow the beast rather than jesus christ the true sabbath is man coming into communion with god it's god giving us a gift a repose a rest from the challenges of life so that we can connect with him and remember the fact that he is our creator he is our redeemer he is our savior we are not saved by our works we are saved by god's grace through faith in christ and when we accept that and embrace it we are saying he is my savior and i choose him how many of you love jesus friends he has given everything for us absolutely everything now it might seem like a small thing to you but think about this it's not it's not just about a day it's not just about a day it's about who you trust it's not about saturday or sunday it's about jesus christ or antichrist now remember the bible says at the very end of time there's going to be a huge deception it would be really really hard to get the whole world to receive microchips or implants or something like that but how hard would it be to get most of the christian world to say you know what we need to get back to jesus and the best way to get back to jesus is to get back to church and the natural day to get back to church on is what see it'd be real easy you could get all kinds of people on board with that and they wouldn't even realize that they were following the beast rather than jesus christ jesus says if you love me do what keep my commandments it's actually really simple but you'll notice what the motivator is here he says if you love me it's all about love do we love jesus enough to keep his commandments so what does it mean to receive the mark in the forehead or in the hand don't think that don't think you're going to get a barcode on your forehead it's not what it's about what do we do in our foreheads we think we make choices we make decisions we will either choose to receive the mark of the beast or not now there are so there will be some people who say well i see what the bible says but you know what it's a whole lot more convenient my church has always kept sunday i've always kept sunday it just i don't see it's a big matter a big deal i'm just going to keep on doing what i'm doing and that'll be just fine they're making a choice but the bible says that toward the end of time as we get closer and closer to this great crisis that they're going to be some teeth put into this to encourage and i use that word very judiciously to encourage people to start keeping that day holy the bible says that those who are not doing it will be faced with not being able to what buy or sell they're going to be faced with death you know what this is this not being able to buy and sell we have a word for that in the world today it's called sanctions it's called an economic boycott how many of you have heard about sanctions lately in the world okay it's a very effective motivator it's a very effective motivator because if you can't buy food for your family if you can't make your car payments if you can't pay your mortgage payment or your rent and you're looking at being homeless and foodless and jobless that's a motivation and if that doesn't do it they put real teeth into it threatened with what with death that's pretty strong but again i wanna i wanna kind of refresh our memories here there's a big difference between the mark of the beast itself and the way it is enforced now we've seen as i mentioned last time we came together over the course of the last couple of years it's become increasingly easy to make it impossible for someone to buy and sell the more we go toward a cashless society the more we rely on technology and i'm not here to say technology is good or bad technology is amoral how it's used that's a different story but it is possible today if somebody pushes the right button or flips the right switch to ruin you financially disappear gone your savings history your bank account empty you can't get to it and you know when you can't access money life gets difficult real fast so there's going to be a lot of pressure that is placed on people to make a decision to receive the mark of the beast again one issue is the mark itself that's a choice this is a moral choice this is a a biblical issue a spiritual issue the other is the enforcement of it how will it be enforced we don't know exactly the bible doesn't give us a clear answer on how it's going to be enforced but today as i mentioned last night you can pay for things with your phone you can pay for things with your watch you can still use cash today if you can find it you pay for things with your credit card with your debit card everything is electronic these days almost everything and the more we go that way the easier it is for someone to manipulate that and if you don't go along with the plan if you don't go along with the system the button gets pushed the flip switch gets flipped and all of a sudden you're in a world of hurt now the mark of the beast has not yet been instituted it hasn't started yet it is yet future not far future but yet future so nobody has the mark of the beast today today we still have the opportunity the freedom to choose which way we're going to go are we going to trust god wholly completely implicitly or are we going to go ah you know that'd be a little inconvenient for me that would require change on my part how many of you think that when you study the bible and you dig into it change is actually a part of the christian walk if we don't grow friends we're like plants we're like plants if a plant stops growing what does it start doing it starts dying it's as simple as that we as christians need to grow revelation partly daniel chapter 12 verse 1 says that there is a time coming a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation that time is coming we're not quite there yet but as we get closer to it what we're going to see is that the world spirals downhill now i don't know exactly how what's happening in the world right now is going to fit into that nobody does but it's all going to play a part and sooner or later probably sooner things are really going to get messy and the more things get messy the more people turn to who they turn to god looking for help and the more people here in this country turn to god the more they want to get back to church and the more they want to get other people back to god too and they're going to be some well-meaning people who are trying to help the country who are trying to help the people who are trying to to lift this country up and get people back to god get people back to christ remember last night we took a look at that story in daniel chapter 3 of shadrach meshach and abednego you know all the people there that day at the dedication of the golden image thought they were doing something to strengthen their country there were just three men there who said you know what this isn't right and they took a stand when everybody else bowed down what are we going to see at the very end of time same thing the vast majority of people are going to say man this looks like a great idea let's get on board let's help with this but there's going to be just a relative few people who say no no that's not biblical that's not something i can do and the world is going to look down on them the world is going to persecute them now how close are we we're close not quite on the doorstep but i want you to notice some things that have happened in recent years pope john paul ii in 1998 made an interesting statement he said this christians will naturally strive to ensure what are those next two words civil legislation respects their duty to keep what sunday holy what he's saying is christians should enact laws to make sunday holy now i believe that people should follow jesus how many of you think that's a great idea too but when we start legislating how people worship that's a bad idea that's exactly what happened over in europe that's what led to the pilgrims leaving here's another one this is from abc news january 30th 2018 poland limits sunday shopping to benefit family life listen to this article polish president andre duda on tuesday signed into law a bill that largely limits trade on sundays saying it will benefit employees family life as of march 1st shops and markets will be closed on two sundays each month only one sunday a month will be open for trading in 2019 and starting in 2020 the legislation applies to all sundays except major holidays duda said he was trying to restore normalcy and that the policy would be in line with similar laws in other european union countries like germany and austria he says yeah we're going to start enacting legislation that makes it that causes shops to close on sunday here's another one while the move talking about the same thing while the move has been criticized as putting jobs at risk the polish government made the move to improve the quality of life for ordinary citizens and the change resembles the first significant pushback against decades of erosion of sunday as a day of rest from another article on the very same thing poland's ruling party approved a law that will gradually impose a ban on sunday shopping meeting the demand of its conservative what catholic supporters with a measure that risks undermining economic growth and hitting corporate profits and real estate investors i want you to take a look at revelation chapter 14 again revelation chapter 14 if there's any question whether this issue of the mark of the beast has to do with the sabbath sunday issue look at this revelation chapter 14 i'm going to start in verse number 6 again revelation 14 verse 6 john says then i saw another angel standing in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation tribe tongue and people saying with a loud voice fear god and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth the sea in the springs of water and another angel followed saying babylon is fallen is fallen that great city because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication then a third angel followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone worships the beast in his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of god which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb so here god describes those who worship the beast and receive his mark and it says they received the wine of the wrath of god do you remember what the wrath of god was seven last plagues that's right look at chapter 15 verse 1 chapter 15 verse 1 says then i saw another sign in heaven great and marvelous seven angels having the what seven last plagues for in them the wrath of god is complete so the wrath of god is the seven last plagues the third angel says those who worship the beast worship his image those who receive the mark will receive the wrath of god that is the seven last plagues and there there will be fire and brimstone what's fire and brimstone talking about that's hell fire right so those who worship the beast receive his mark will receive the seven last plagues and they'll burn in hell but then look what happens john talks about them that group that receives the mark of the beast that worships the beast that ends up receiving the seven last plagues that ends up burning in hell he talks about them but then it's kind of like he turns and looks at another group of people look at verse number 12 he says here is the what patience of the saints here are those who do what keep the commandments of god and the faith of jesus one group worships the beast receives his mark seven last plagues fire and brimstone the other group is called the saints that keeps the commandments of god now if this group over here is keeping the commandments of god and they're called the saints what would that mean that this group is necessarily not doing they're not keeping the commandments of god because if they were keeping the commandments of god what group would they be in they'd be in the second group so this issue of the mark of the beast has to do with the commandments of god look at john chapter 4 verse 24 it says god is a what spirit and they that worship him must worship him in what two things spirit and truth where do we find truth in the word of god that's where we find truth it's in the word of god see the issue like i said before is not about the day the issue is much deeper it's much more important it's about who you choose as your lord who you are choosing as your savior who you are choosing to obey who you are truly worshiping it's bigger than what many people would make it out to be let me see if i can kind of illustrate this this evening i have a bag up here and in this bag is some cloth it's fairly ordinary cloth and a piece of cloth right here it's white i'm going to take this cloth wad it up i don't like cloth how many of you were really really offended by the way that i treated that cloth anybody really offended maybe one i mean some of you are just going that's a little weird eric but i i don't know that i'm particularly offended and and i can understand because really in all honesty it's just what just a piece of cloth i've got a got another piece of cloth in here similar to the same to the first piece of cloth it's just a little different color but taking my frustrations out on some cloth tonight any of you offended by the way i treated that cloth not really because it's just what it's just cloth having fun tonight anybody offended by that not really i got one other piece of cloth in here what's wrong it's it's just a piece of cloth right it's just a piece of cloth in it it's all it is right or is this different than the other cloth what makes this different it's a symbol it stands for something what does this stand for freedom someone might say truth someone might say justice someone might say the american way of life it's got its faults but it means something right this piece of cloth is different it's not the same as the other pieces of cloth this piece of cloth you care for this piece of piece of cloth there are people willing to defend with their lives the sabbath is not just a day it's about what it stands for what it stands for is a creator what it stands for is a redeemer what it stands for is a god who loves you enough to give his life for you it's not just a day the bible says that the devil goes around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may what devour he is a deceiver and he's very good at deceiving christians into thinking that something is right when the bible has no support for it in first john 4 verse 4 it says greater is he that is in you than he that is what in the world friends it might be difficult to do the right thing but it's still the right thing you may face some challenges you may face some pushback from people but doing the right thing is still the right thing jesus says if you love me do what he says keep my commandments friends jesus is coming back very very soon if he is coming back very very soon that means that very soon the mark of the beast is something that we're going to have to face we're going to have to decide whether we're going to follow jesus all the way or be in that vast majority people who choose to follow the beast are we going to keep god's day holy or man's day holy this issue this spiritual issue is an issue of authority is going to divide the world and i'll tell you what if you're waiting until that day to make the right decision you'll never make the right decision because if you can't make the right decision at a time when there is no you'll never make the right decision in a time when you're being threatened with a personal economic boycott a personal sanction and threatened with death shadrach meshach and abednego didn't decide not to bow down to idols when they were standing on the plane on the plane of dura that day they made that decision long ago they just lived out their decision that day in front of the world friends in the near future this will be an issue the question is when are we going to make a decision to do the right thing you know when the right time is it's right now i want to give you an opportunity tonight to tell jesus you want to follow him completely my friends have some cards at the back that they're going to pass out we've done this before you know how it works as soon as you receive that card please take it pass the others down the row so that everybody else is able to get them there should be a writing utensil there and the pew back in front of you if you don't have a pen or a pencil or something like that then you can feel free to use those just take one of those cards from my friends there and when you receive it down at the bottom of it there's a little place to put your contact information if you'd be kind enough to do that your name other contact information there appreciate it greatly if you don't yet have a card raise your hand i want to make sure that everybody gets a card here tonight we can tell jesus we want to trust him we want to follow him we want to embrace him we want to worship him we want to obey him because we love him so phil at the bottom there let's go through this card together the first box there says i choose to follow the teachings of jesus as found in the bible i choose to follow the teachings of jesus as found in the bible i hope that regardless of how many nights you've come to this seminar if this is your first night or your 17th night you can say i want to follow the teachings of jesus in the bible if you do check that first box notice up there at the bottom at the top it says revelation 14 12 here are they that do what keep the commandments of god and the faith of jesus that's a group we want to be in the second one there says i choose not to worship the beast or receive the mark of the beast if that's your desire if you don't want to receive the mark of the beast if you don't want to worship the beast put a check mark in that box please the third one says i choose to worship him that made heaven and earth that's jesus by keeping the seventh-day sabbath he's the one who gave it to you as a gift it's his gift to you he wants you to receive it the fourth one says it is my desire to be baptized or re-baptized some of you have already made that decision some of you are still thinking about it if you're considering being baptized or re-baptized in the near future put a check mark in that box and the last one says i have some questions i would like to discuss if you have some questions you want to get together talk with me clarify some things ask some questions put a check mark there and i will get in touch with you when you finished filling that card out turn it over and pass it to one of these interior aisles and my friends are going to come through and they're going to collect them so just turn it over so that the people next to you don't see what you've marked on that card pass them right into the interior aisles here and they will be happy to come by and collect those from you friends we are living at a very interesting time in earth's history never ever have we been closer to the return of jesus than we are right now things that we're seeing happen in the world right now many of us don't remember things like that or if we do it's been a long long time ago but we're seeing some incredible things happening in the world right now there is no better time to make a complete decision to follow jesus than right now make sure that we we've got a few more over here if you haven't yet got that card and passed it in hold it up i want to make sure my friends are able to make sure we've got a few more over here i see some more back there i want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity we've got a few more up here in the front i see right over here any others that we still need to get couple more over here right over here there's some as well just hold them way up in this in the air so that we can see them there's a few more here friends jesus loves us enough to give us an opportunity to follow him to choose him in him is life how many of you want life let's pray this evening as we close with prayer father this evening we are grateful once again that you give us an opportunity to experience freedom in you most of the world is going to choose to ignore your pleas and to go their own way we don't want to be among that number you paid too high a price for us to be in that number help us to love you as much as you love us help us to trust you like we've never trusted anyone give us encouragement as we walk the walk of faith and help us through the trials that we have no doubt lie ahead you helped shadrach meshach and abednego and we know that you can help us too bless us this evening we ask in jesus name amen remember we're going to have our baptism class right down here and starting about two minutes so feel free to join us right here i'll make sure that you don't miss out on the handouts tonight in the dvd sets we want to make sure that everybody gets them feel free to join us if you would like if not we will see you back on tuesday but feel free to join us for our class right here

Channel: Sermons Room

Views: 2,890

Keywords: Sermons room, sda sermons, daily sermons, sermons, powerful sermons, prophecy sermons, mark of the beast, end times, the great reset, jesus christ, mark of the beast bible verse kjv, end times signs, the antichrist, world news, the bible, end times prophecy, mark of the beast mark finley

Id: ZSklbBYODOg

Length: 75min 0sec (4500 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 06 2022