There does come a point where there is no forgiveness, and individuals won't want it anyway. That's in Revelation 14, verse 9, verse 11, Revelation 15, verse 2, Revelation 16, verse 2, Revelation 19, verse 20, and Revelation 20, verse 4. Why did I take the time to say that? Because we tend to think, you mean there's no more chance to hope? Yeah, there comes a time when there's no more hope.
And they're laid out in Scripture. There's no more hope for Judas Iscariot. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the last book of the Bible, Revelation.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with today's edition of Cross Reference Radio in Revelation chapter 13. You know, if you read Daniel and you follow up on his prophecies, you have to come to the conclusion that this is phenomenal work. It's spiritual work. Whoever authored this behind Daniel, which is God, is worthy of being worshipped.
But the world says, no, not enough proof. We'll tell you what the proofs are. We will not accept this dictation of terms by God. You can worship anything we make. You just can't worship the maker.
It's insanity. It's the mystery of lawlessness. The prophets did not see coming well-mannered gentlemen rising into the future world government. They saw men that will behave like animals, spotted leopards, bears, and lions. That's who John sees coming out of the sea.
He didn't say, and I saw businessmen and finally pressed suits that were all really just nice people. And they just managed the world in a wonderful way. That's not what he saw. He tells us what he saw in words that every generation can understand. Vicious, bloodthirsty, Christ-hating, animal-like human beings.
Well, the dragon gave him his power. Dragon's been defined already. We know that direct reference to Satan, Lucifer and his hordes. It says the dragon gave him his power, his throne and great authority.
Well, of course he did. Second Thessalonians. I repeat some of these verses. I know I have the notes. I know I've said them in previous studies, but that's what it takes for those of you who are trying to keep up.
It takes some repetition. and for those of you who are already versed in these things you just get satisfaction out of hearing things you already know and believe yeah you get them you're saying that to me anyway second thessalonians chapter two the coming of the lawless one another moniker of satan of the antichrist he's the vile person the beast uh the antichrist he's got a bunch of names and here's one the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders now a lot of good commentators get confused with these lying wonders when it comes down to this false prophet are his miracles genuine or are they fake well you're going to side with me when they get there, and you'll see why. Anyway, let's go back to this. We're coming to it soon, some of it. Look, I can have some fun from here too.
And verse 3, and I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world marveled and followed the beast.
Well, this is a development. His popularity is escalated by assassination attempt. It's re-emphasized twice more by the false prophet in verses 12 and 14 of this chapter. But I mentioned to you, some think the lying wonders are not real wonders. They're lying wonders.
I'm not so sure of that. I think that they are wonders, but they're lying as to where they come from.
Well, this was an example. Zechariah chapter 11.
Now, Zechariah is dealing with the end times in the Jewish people, a very dominant part of his prophecy. And he is dealing with it in chapter 11.
So he says, woe to the worthless shepherd. Pause. A shepherd in the Old Testament was not only someone who kept sheep, but it was a ruler. A ruler was to shepherd the flock. And when they did not take care of the people, they were known as worthless shepherds.
Ezekiel 34, I think it is, has a whole story on this. But here's one in Zechariah. Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock.
Well, he makes a covenant with the Jews as he's taking care of them, like a shepherd would, and then he breaks that covenant.
Well, a sword shall be against his arm and against his right eye. His arm shall completely wither, and his right eye shall be totally blinded.
Okay, well, Zechariah, why are you telling us that? Who is this person? There's nobody that fits this description. Where does this match up with anybody in Scripture?
Well, I think it matches up right here, because again, this is an end times theme related to Israel, and he's mortally wounded. He's not supposed to survive this, and he does. The six other heads are not harmed, but the Antichrist one is.
Now, some will allegorize that and said, well, it's really the government. No this is a person He is wounded severely and his deadly wound was healed Well it looked like a death blow So the ones that say, well, these are lying wonders, they're not really wonders, they're fake miracles, smoke and mirrors, there's magic going on.
Well, I have a lot of problems with that. One of them is when Moses and Aaron faced the magicians of Pharaoh, And Pharaoh's magicians put down their rods that turned into serpents. Aaron's rods swallowed them.
Well, if that's smoke and mirrors, it doesn't make any sense. It could just expose the magic, but they actually swallowed them. This is a physical interaction. Satan was granted powers, and they were defeated in front of everybody.
So I have no problem.
Now, if you say, no, I think they're just lying wonders and not really miracles, well, that's fine. It's certainly not something to argue over. But I think when you see it for what it is, you understand that people are watching somebody. They're fact-checking them, and they're realizing, you know what? This guy has got power like we've never seen, and they fall in love with him.
His deadly wound was healed, and all the world marveled and followed the beast. He's immortalized now. The man of sin, which is another name for him. And so I apply Zechariah 11, 17 to him. Nothing fake about his wound, a serious wound that he survives.
Verse 4, so they worship the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worship the beast saying, who is like the beast who is able to make war with him?
Well, they become fanatics at this point. They're not listening to anything. except the tribulation saints. They'll know because they've been reading the scripture and they know this is just what's been called. And we're going to side with Christ knowing that they're going to kill us for it.
How powerful is that? It makes us wonder, what would I do? What would you do if you say, boy, they're going to kill me. What's going to happen to my family?
Well, if they're believing with me, they're going to kill them too.
So they're actually worshiping the power behind the beast, which is Satan, they don't see it that way. John is helping them out.
Well, today when we share things about what's going on in the world, when we look at, you know, boys wearing girls' clothes and stuff like that, we point out to the world, this is not just craziness. This is satanic. They don't understand that. They push against that. And it's up to us when the Lord opens the door to lay it out for them, to explain it to them with one goal in mind, saving their soul.
We're not trying to just win the argument. We're not trying to just have better government. That'd be nice. The main thing is saving souls.
So the very thing the devil craves is to be worshipped, treated like God. Isaiah chapter 14, verse 14, I will be like the Most High. What did he say to Jesus in the wilderness? Bow down and worship me. because that's what he craves.
He couldn't even help himself. Christ made sure. He says, I want that in ink. I want that printed. I want generations to know who this character is, without a doubt.
And they can line it up with the Old Testament, and that's how we get our witnesses in Scripture, confirming Scripture. Anyway, after he survives this, they will ascribe divinity to the Antichrist and love every minute of it. This is the one we've been waiting for. For what? Waiting for what?
What are you waiting for?
Well, the one world religion is part of the coming globalization. And we should remember that idols are not just these lifeless images. There's a network of demonic powers behind all of them. Any time a human being says, I think God is this, if he doesn't get it from the scripture, then it's idolatry. And if it's idolatry, it's satanic influences, regardless of how subtle it may be.
And this is, again, New Testament teaching. Even Paul taught that.
Well, the great tribulation converts would rather die than genuflect the beast. and the Jews will, as a nation, come around as the persecutions of the Christians won't move them. But once the beast goes against their temple and them directly, that's when they'll start coming around.
So the bravery of the born of faith and these great tribulation converts accepting Christ's sentence of eternal salvation rather than fearing the sentence of death from Antichrist. How many of us miss that when we think of the book of Revelation? When we think of the book of Revelation, we think of, you know, what's all the hell breaking loose on earth? But how conscious are we that our God is so merciful, he's still saving souls in the midst of all this, and that those getting saved know it's coming? Maybe not all of them, they might not all get a chance, but many of them will certainly know, I'm a believer in Christ.
I don't have many days. They're going to find out. They're going to come get me, and they're not going to tolerate it. I will be killed. More to come on that because the Scripture is going to drive this home, and it will also drive home the punishment that, well, I'm getting ahead of myself, and they worship the beast.
Why not just worship Jesus? He's the one that's got all the proof.
Well, they have all their excuses. Six times in this book, it is pointed out that if you worship this beast, you're done. There's no forgiveness. There does come a point where there is no forgiveness. And individuals won't want it anyway.
That in Revelation 14 verse 9 verse 11 Revelation 15 verse 2 Revelation 16 verse 2 Revelation 19 verse 20 and Revelation 20 verse 4. Why did I take the time to say that? Because we tend to think, you mean there's no more chance to hope? Yeah, there comes a time when there's no more hope. And they're laid out in Scripture.
There's no more hope for Judas Iscariot. There's no more hope for Balaam. There's no more hope for Cain. We're taught this by the apostles and New Testament writers.
So they say no. Pardon me, let me reread here in verse 4 at the bottom, saying, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?
Well, you're going to find out in three and a half years. You're going to find out who can make war with him. Revelation 19, 20, well, that whole 19th chapter. You're going to find out who's able to make war with him. the irony of a lamb defeating a beast, a monster.
Verse 5, and he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue 42 months.
Well, this is right out of Daniel speaking about the revived Roman Empire, that is, Western civilization, because the roots of the Western civilization Civilization primarily is the Roman Empire and Judeo-Christian influence as the Roman Catholic Church distributed it under Constantine and going forward. I don't think there's any way around that. You cannot say, well, the influence behind Western civilization is Cambodia. Nothing there matches.
Well, then who is it?
Well, you couldn't even say it's Ethiopia. You have to go back to the Roman Empire with their Senate and just how they did business.
Well, in verse 5, those words are matching what Daniel has to teach us. Why is this Antichrist, mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, why is he compelled to blaspheme? Why not just run the government?
Well, he needs a whooping boy. He needs a propaganda. Yeah, that's the mechanical side, but really it's because his heart is soaked in Satan. That's who he now is. He is now the beast.
He is a monster spiritually, and therefore he will behave that way physically. He has no interest in curbing his tongue and toning it down. He badmouths Christ at every turn. I think when he chooses the code that goes with him, 6, 6, and 6, I think it's going to be deliberate. I think he knows it's in the Bible, and it's another way of his mocking the Bible.
I'll do it. What are you going to do about it? Kind of an attitude. That's, again, my take. But how could you say no to my view?
Verse 6, Then he opened his mouth and blasphemed against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.
Now he's ramped it up from only attacking the Christians to attacking the Jews. And that's baked into that. The tabernacle, the third Jewish temple, doesn't exist right now. It is coming.
So he successfully employs propaganda, and the world will love it. and now he targets the Jews. It says, to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, he speaks fluent blasphemy. It comes very easy, and he's right on schedule. He commits to the abomination of desolation that Jesus said would come to the third temple.
And those who dwell in heaven, he's mocking them too. He's mocking the Bible's teachings of heaven and hell.
Well, Satan conveniently leaves out the part that he's been cast out of a heaven. He's just focusing on insanity. His master is Satan. And why won't Satan say, just influence upon him? You know, I was cast out of a real heaven.
He won't. Verse 7, it was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. and authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. Daniel has this, and Daniel says they persecuted, but the Hebrew is to wear out the saints. It's relentless.
It's more than just killing the saints. It's wearing them out. It's just hunting them down, which is not unprecedented, but it is unprecedented on a global scale. There's nowhere to hide. There's no, you know, America to flee to like the Puritans did, for example.
There's nowhere to go. The world is one place. Everything is tied in electronically. Your passport won't save you. The Gentile converts, again, will know going into this as they know death is going to be because imagine having a conviction so strong that as someone is sharing Christ with you, They're saying to you, they're going to kill us for this.
I don't mean metaphorically, they're going to kill us. And they say, what stops me from being baptized? It's incredible. It's humbling. It should be encouraging to us.
That's what I mentioned. You know, anyone who reads this book, Jesus said, or hears it, will be blessed. How can you not be blessed by understanding there are heroes not yet born? No, they might be. There may be more coming.
But they're not yet born as heroes. But they will be when they're born again under the reign and the regime of Antichrist and Satan, saying dying for Christ is better than living for Satan. And how would you find out?
Well, there are a lot of ways. But one, the churches don't underground church. They not even going to appear apparently not even bother with going underground Well they won be able to when it time to accept the mark of the beast They going to have to make a public choice I think many of them will also do it through water baptism In your face, this is what I believe. If you don't like me, you don't like it, you have to kill me. They will.
Verse 8, and all who dwell on the earth will worship him, that is the beast, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. hell-bound humanists romping off to eternal damnation. God has prepared a statement on this. There's many of them, but here's one. He who sits in the heaven shall laugh.
Yahweh shall hold them in derision. There's not going to be any respect from God. Boy, you really stood up to me. There's going to be punishment. Whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb.
Well, these are those that reject. Still, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. 2 Timothy, the Lord knows those who are his. The book of life is mentioned five other times in Revelation. I think there's an emphasis there.
It indicates that salvation is not random. There are no random entries into heaven. No one accidentally gets into heaven. No one illegally gets into heaven. It's through Christ, and it's very deliberate.
The Lord knows those who are his. And so this verse announces the security of the believers who are going to heaven no matter what the forces of evil do to them. From the foundation of the world, that's eternity past. Don't think of the foundation of the world just at Genesis 1.1 when God created. God didn't figure it out at Genesis 1.1.
From eternity past, God knew where this was going to go. And from that time, however far back you can go, God knew you personally. He knew what choices you would make. He also knew what influences to lay before you. He gets you to rethink being part of an evil chaos that Satan launches on humanity.
So the foundation of the world, again, to create the world, God, all he had to do was speak. But to save the world, he had to suffer on the cross. God so loved the world.
Now, he didn't save the world in the sense of that everybody is saved. He saved the world in the sense that salvation is available to everyone through what Christ has done. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Verse 9, if anyone has an ear, let him hear. Ominous warning frequently stated by Christ in the Gospels and also in the book of Revelation.
None of this will be wasted on those tribulation converts. The 144,000 will preach largely a message from the Revelation, not without everything else. You know, there's a problem.
Some people become prophecy buffs to the points where they forget to preach on and study on Christ-likeness, fighting carnality, you know, salvation of souls. They get so tunnel vision into prophecy, they're almost a one-track mind. You don't want to go there. there's more to the Bible than just future or predictive prophecy. Verse 10, he who leads into captivity shall go into captivity.
He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. That's a hard verse. Let's close in prayer. The persecutors will be persecuted by God.
They will be held accountable. The tribulation converts will read verses like this, and they know what's coming. They will write the greatest commentaries on the book of Revelation with their own blood. And Christ, he's the one that fights the war. Our work is to be faithful as his witnesses and to persevere.
And that's what's bundled up in this verse. You've got the persecutors going to be accountable, and you have those persecuted going to be persecuted. No escape from that. Those with authority to arrest will arrest the righteous. That's what this is saying.
Those with the authority to kill will kill the righteous. And so we go back to the church at Smyrna, and we close with this verse. And Jesus said, do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life let's pray well Father if you're looking for if we're looking for a challenge on earth we just come to your word and we're challenged in so many different ways and this morning's challenge has been the emphasis on remaining faithful in the face of death any kind of death leaving this world full assurance of the faith that you are faithful, that you cannot lie, that you would not have told us about heaven if it weren't true. You said it just like that.
I would not have told you this if it were not so. This has been Cross Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation. But if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand.
Just visit us online at crossreferenceradio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings. While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube. there's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry well we hope you'll join us next time here on Cross Reference Radio
