There's going to be saved multitudes. By God, In spite of the lying wonders, there's still going to be people that say, Oh, he ain't God. I'm not bowing to him. I missed it with Christ, but I'm not missing it now.
So the mark and the worship go together. But Satan values the worship More than the mark. That's what he's really after. The unpardonable sin. is the final rejection.
of the work of the Holy Spirit. which is to lead people to salvation in Christ alone. 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 in the book of Revelation chapter 13 with this edition of Cross-Reference Radio. This language is significant. Because Antichrist is not giving life to the image. He's animating it.
That's why I went with the whole pneuma and the animation and thing is dead. The other Greek words. There are other Greek words that would be used For the breath of life. As in Revelation 11, 11.
So, that distinction is important because what we're looking at here is not. creation of life, but the animation Of an inanimate object. And of course, AI is going to fit nicely into this.
So he will be doing miracles, but he also will be doing. Other stuff. That aren't so miraculous, but the people won't see it that way. And that's how I see it here.
Now, you may agree, disagree, and that's fine. These are not. uh issues of salvation But I have a lot more stuff coming that you might disagree with. And I get a kick out of that. No, I don't.
No, I don't. I want everybody to agree with me all the time. And you do too.
So, again, the original language. Buy that. We know that here is not a genuine miracle mixed in with the other ones. It's creating the perception. Of having equal power with God, creative power with God.
uh powers granted by God without representing God. As in Job. The devil can use creation. but only to a point. And that's one of the main lessons doctrinally out of the story of Job.
Is that Satan is restricted? He has to get permission, and he never can outdo God. He is not sovereign, he is not the counterpart to God, he is a created being, he is a fallen being, and he is inferior. In fact, One of the other lessons out of the book of Job is that Satan was wrong. He thought Job was going to curse God to his face, and Job never did.
And so the lesson is: see, that guy's not always right. He's always evil, but he's not always right. He's an accuser of the brethren, he's not always right. Maybe Because of Satan's desire to animate things, this is why Jub disputed with him over the body of Moses. Who knows what?
Probably would have defaced the grave and caused a shrine. There's a lot of theories over what was going on there. 1 Timothy 6, verse 13, God who gives life to all things. And great tribulation converts. will know that much.
they will understand that. The people tend to cave to the supernatural. Instead of the Holy Spirit. In fact, many times church goes will whip up themselves into this experiences when the Holy Spirit's not even there and they're just gonna force it and make things Sensational. May that not be us.
May we not. Try to pretend that the Holy Spirit Is The cause of things that are out of control.
Well, that the image of the beast should both speak the inter animated interaction, and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
So now we find it's a capital offence if you don't worship this thing.
Well, that's not the first time. Rome was doing that too. You better put a pinch of incense on the altar. You can believe whoever you want to believe. That's fine, but you better also lump in.
Caesar, and if you don't you can experience some severe consequences. But Here's the interesting language. and caused as many as would not There's going to be saved multitudes. By God, In spite of the lying wonders, there's still going to be people that say, Oh, he ain't God. I'm not bowing to him.
I missed it with Christ, but I'm not missing it now.
So the mark and the worship go together. But Satan values the worship More than the mark. That's what he's really after. The unpardonable sin. is the final rejection.
of the work of the Holy Spirit. Which is to lead people to salvation in Christ alone. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is to tell, of the Holy Spirit is to essentially, by action and decision, willfully tell. Or take the position of rejecting the testimony of the Holy Spirit, which is that Christ is the Savior. And the Son of God.
And there is no other. If you die, Uh rejecting that And then you have made your choice. But not every one will join the bison herd stampede off the cliff. During these days Many will survive, possibly Without the mark. or even with the mark, but without the worship See now we're going to get into some stuff that Matthew twenty five In the twenty-fifth of Matthew, in the thirty-first verse, Jesus says.
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, Then he will sit on the throne of his glory. And the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. Wait a minute, Christ comes back. And there are survivors, but some of them are evil and not all of them. He's going to separate them.
How is that going to happen? Because those who are confessing Christ are getting. arrested and persecuted and killed. How is this many would not worship the image of the beast and at the same time escape the mark of the beast? What's going on here?
And clearly, Matthew 25:31 through 46 is the millennial.
Well the end of the tribulation, the beginning of the millennial kingdom of Christ. These may be those who were forced to take the mark but they refuse to worship. And there will be people forced. There will be mentally handicapped people that will be forced. You're going to be on the grid wherever there is a technological or infrastructure of technology.
There may be those. Whom the system could not reach because they're in too remote of a place, and it just didn't have time to reach them all. The Nile River runs 4,155 miles. Or so. spanning eleven countries.
There's a lot of people. There are a lot of people in this world. I mean, look at the Cambodians and during the killing fields of Pol Pot, over two million killed. And the world didn't even hiccup over the loss of two million. There's so many people.
If you sit at an intersection, a busy intersection, You know There are tens of thousands of other intersections with just as many people crossing through. People like to make people. There's a lot of them. How do you get them all all over the planet in these remote places? The Amazon River, 4,000 miles long, spanning nine countries.
a lot of it remote along the banks of the Amazon. Are all of those people going to be tracked Ted? Are they all going to be willing to worship? The beast and receive his mark at the same time because if you have that combination, you're done.
So according to Matthew 25. Those There are those who helped the righteous. And Christ acknowledges them and saves them.
So going back to Matthew. 25. I'll pick it up and Verse 34. Then the king will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. From the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry. And you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. And they say, when did we do this?
When did that happen?
Well, this is good Christian conduct.
Sounds like to me, since it's in the context of the End of the tribulation when Christ is separating the wicked from the righteous, it sounds like. There are people Helping Believers And Christ recognizes them. These are the many who would not worship the beast.
So it's a big picture. And we tend to think of only Western civilization, our part of the world, what were you doing in the 70s when, again, in Cambodia, You know, they had, for example, students in Cambodia. go s go to France, because France was colonized Cambodia at one point. They go to France. And then when If Khmer Rouge comes to power and overthrows the government, they go back to Cambodia because they want to help rebuild their nation.
And they were imprisoned. And they were killed. And they were caused to Point out their neighbors as traitors, and then they got killed, or they were in prison, they were abused. It's just all this evil. And so you say, where were you when that was happening?
It's a big world. And how do you think outside of your neighborhood, your country, your culture?
Well God does. God sees it that way. And I think it very much brings the Bible to life when we remember these things. That it's just not what we would say civilization. There are remote parts of the world also.
And so after service, At some point, you go back and read Matthew twenty five, verses thirty one through forty six, and you'll see it's talking about the end times, and you'll see that there are somebody is helping righteous people, and God takes note of it. How do you account for that? Except that they didn't worship the beast. They may not have been tagged.
So we'll develop this a little bit more. Verse 16 now.
Well, let me go back and read verse Matthew 25:41. Then he will say to those on his left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
So that's condemnation, eternal condemnation. Verse 16, he causes all. both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand and on their foreheads.
Well, every class of people will be required to get this mark. He wants everyone on the grid.
Some will be forced. Perhaps maybe you're an inmate in prison, and they're going to force this on you. They have to strap you down. You're going to get this tag, even if it's against your will, because it's the good of the society. It's like the communism, you know, it's the good of the party.
Never mind the individual. The individual has no rights. Under the religion of communism, which was incidentally persecuting the Cambodians. Many of you might not have even heard of Cambodia. It's amazing how much history there is, how many different peoples there are, and how much suffering.
There has been Is and will be on the earth. When I mentioned the Nile River cutting through Africa, how many remote places are there? people untouched. Uh things that we benefit from. Anyway, those force against their consent.
I believe will fall into the category of either Being tagged with the mark of the beast and worshiping him, or being forced and not worshiping him. I do not believe that if you are mentally handicapped and you are forced. to receive the mark of the beast, that you're now gonna go to hell for that. When you had nothing to do with it.
So, anyway, these distinctions I think are very important when you apply the character of God. He is so merciful. Why would I want to s root for him indiscriminately judging people to hell against the philosophies of love that he has taught us? That wouldn't be right. Coming back to this, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads.
You know it doesn't have to be a chip. Do you know that there are tattoos Available? That uh can Hold information and information can be retrieved, it can interact with devices. Tattoos. And who knows, other things that by this time will be out other than just the chip, for instance.
on your head or your forehead.
Well, would will a boxer get a chip and plant it on his head or his forehead?
Well, the Greek word for hand that says here to receive a mark in your right hand or on their foreheads. You have evidently that option.
Someone without arms or no use of their arms would opt for the forehead. But back to the boxer, the word hand actually means this Greek word for hand. means from the wrist to the fingertips. Christ was crucified in likely in the wrist. The hands would not have held them up unless they propped it up with ropes, but it was likely in the wrist.
There's another Greek word for the actual hand, and that's not what's used here.
So, my point is: someone's gonna have, you'll have an option if you're alive in those days. to be tagged on your forehead. or from the wrists to the fingers, they're on the right side, so that they can be scanned. Your banking records, your medical records, your location, everything that your iPhone is doing, will be implanted. whether it be by tattoo, or chip, or some other permanent mechanism.
Later on in Revelation, we'll read about these things bursting and causing all sorts of sores and malfunctioning, probably because it went to the cheap lowest bidder in Chinese amongst the Chinese Communists. This will help identify Antichrist very easily when He starts forcing these things And the profit will be Upholding it, preaching to people. He will be the clergyman of the Antichrist. And the number we're going to get to six, six, and six will be no coincidence, verse seventeen, and that no one may buy or sell except One Who has the mark of the name of the beast or the number of his name?
Now, again, I don't know that that's going to reach remote places, every single place on earth. It certainly will be. in the developed parts of the world. I don't know how far into the third World countries, this will go. And the language does not demand.
that either. Most of humanity will be on the grid. Most of humanity, where the populations are, will have a cashless society, and they're going to receive this and be forced to worship And if they don't w there's going to be problems.
So A real severe test of faith, and there will be a purging. Of those who reject It's a form of genocide. As I mentioned with uh other nations, the Soviets, Stalin, Mao, these were these were serial killers on a massive scale. and history tries to portray them as these clever leaders to be followed. They were monsters.
And these two are going to be worse. as they purge. Humanity, wherever they can, and it's a form of genocide, but not based on ethnicity, based on your refusal to worship them, to bow down to them.
So he says, and Verse 17. 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.
Now, it's a little different in some translations. They don't break it down so much. For instance, the English Standard Version says, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is. the name of the beast or the number.
So the King James makes it sound like there's three options. A name, a number, and a mark. Whereas the other translations make it sound like there's two options. a name uh which is the mark. and the number.
It really doesn't matter. It's sort of, you know. What does that saying go? Ha a dozen of half a dozen of whatever that dozen saying is, does anybody you know what it y we get we understand what it means. It's it's certainly not a contradiction.
It's a preference. Of how to break down that Greek language. The point is, there will be a mark. and that Mark will be his name. and there will also be his number.
Or the name of the beast, because he's covering many languages, alphabets, numerically, Revelation. All of Revelation there supports the fact that he is obsessed. He is the ultimate narcissist. and the false prophet loves that to throw his support behind him. His identity will be unique.
and it will be distinct. You can have something that's unique. But you're not the only one with it. Or you can have something that's unique and it's distinct. you know, no one else has got it.
He says, well, the number of his name, a number code.
Well This will require a technological infrastructure. To read and to register all of these, which keeps before me this whole remote village thing. How's that gonna be played out? Even though in remote parts of the world, people have got cell phones. But to what extent?
So the mark of the beast By these things, many will realize what's going on. Verse 18: Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six, six, and six. I hope none of you.
I hope there's no one here to say, you know, I've just been waiting for this part in Revelation. Comment on this and then I can go. Wisdom. is not identical to intelligence. They can be together.
And what you learn from living versus what you're taught in a classroom per se are not the same thing. Proverbs 4, verse 5, get wisdom, get understanding.
Well, they're going to need it in these days. Those who reject the mark will have wisdom, and they will have understanding. Daniel 12 tells us about this. He says, Many shall be purified, made white. and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly.
and none of the wicked shall understand. but the wise shall understand. And so here in verse 18. Here is wisdom. And then he says, calculate the number of the beast.
There's a cryptic flare to identifying this monster. or confirming who he is. The mark And the name They speak for themselves. But the number requires a little bit of a computation. For his For this number uh for it is the number of a man His numbers 666.
Well, in the scripture 6. You know, six days shall a man work. Six is the number that speaks of a man. And he will be the ultimate man without God.
Well, that's true. But you have to watch, there are countless conjecture conjecture galore. about What does this mean? And I have no desire to join that parade. Of speculation.
I know some like, no, no, no, no, no, you better come up with some interesting stuff here. There's not really much. There's something called G ment uh Gemitrita. I think that's how you pronounce a gema treata. And that is taking numbers.
and giving a numerical value to them.
So an A is a one, a B is a two, for example, a C is a three. And so you're trying to take these number sequences and figure out what his name is going to be. Or why do you care? You're gonna be here. You say, look at that, it's Leonard!
Leonard! You're the Antichrist!
So, I mean. I think the name is going to be Fartel Cluggins. I'm sure of it.
So We don't need to know, but there's a little bit more that goes to this. I also think There's a big possibility that the Antichrist in beasts will be very familiar with the book of Revelation. And they will purposely choose this number. to mock the scripture. You know, there is a such a thing as a satanic trinity.
And even they cannot control. What number to pick? They're not going to say, well, we know it's 666 in the Bible, so let's pick 6, 7, 9. They're going to go with 666 thinking. that their defiance outranks God, Because they're insane from the beginning.
And you know that. You look at evil in the world and you say, these people are out of their minds. That's right, they certainly are. This is not what God created man to be. And so even in their attempted mockery, I think They're going to end up proving God right yet again and be too arrogant.
to grasp The meaning of their their situation.
Well, the scripture must be fulfilled, and I'll close with this. And if you wanted more. titillating information on that number. Just go get any commentary out there, and you'll get all of the conjecture you want. Jeremiah said this.
And we'll close with this. The anger of Yahweh will not turn back until he has executed and performed the thoughts of his heart. in the latter days you will understand it perfectly. Jeremiah 23, 20. And that applies to the righteous.
not only the Jews.
So I hope I've caused you to rethink some things. I've told you in the beginning I'm not going to follow the typical approach and I hope I'm doing that. Not just for the sake of breaking ranks, but I think that there's just a lot of. Typical commentary on Revelation that falls short of some other. items like that one from Matthew 25, where Christ comes back.
And evidently, not everybody with the mark is sent to hell. There's gotta be some...
some a nuance here and there that's quite quite important. And 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 crossreference radio.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. Yeah.
