The Bible predicts something called the Mark of the Beast. It says that this mark will be placed on people everywhere in the days just before Jesus returns. The Mark of the Beast is only mentioned in one place in the entire Bible. Well, in parts of two chapters of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the last book of the Bible. It's described in the last few verses of the 13th chapter, and in the first few verses of the 14th chapter. It is a mark which is placed in the right hand or on the forehead of people all over the world. Without this mark, according to the prophecy, they cannot buy or sell anything. The prophecy goes on to say that anyone who accepts that mark will receive the wrath of God without measure. So it's considered to be pretty bad. That phrase, without measure, means the unmitigated, strongest possible, pure wrath of God. Accepting that mark is apparently the point of no return for the human soul. It's pretty scary stuff. And yet this mark is not referred to anywhere else in the Bible. Jesus never mentions it once in any of the four Gospels. Or does he? I'm going to show in this video how the mark of the beast dovetails in with the ultimate revelation of Jesus Christ and how that revelation began in the four Gospels and finishes in the last book of the Bible The one called, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. But first, let us just forget about the Mark of the Beast and take a grand overview of God's revelation of himself to mankind throughout history. There have been many ways in which God has revealed himself to the human race not least of which is the creation itself, the universe, and all that it contains right down to the tiniest atoms and molecules. Modern science has enabled us to appreciate more and more each day just how vast the universe is, as well as how intricate the tiniest particles are. As the psalmist says, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. But in terms of understanding God's precise will for us as human beings, it is widely recognized that the 66 books of the Christian Bible represent the most comprehensive and the most reliable evidence of God's plan for His creation. These many books were written by dozens of different authors, spread over thousands of years. And within those 66 books, the purest revelation of the mind and character of God comes in the first four books of the New Testament, where we read the life, and we hear the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. The one they call the Christ, God in human form. In that life and in those teachings are revealed the greatest love, and the greatest wisdom that the world has ever known. This Christ, this Savior of the world, is referred to in several places in the Bible as the Cornerstone. That one peace without which mankind will never achieve his true destiny. If we zoom in even closer, scrolling through nearly 100 chapters in those four Gospels, we discover something called the Sermon on the Mount, a three-chapter condensation of the most significant teachings of Jesus. This sermon appears in the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Matthew's Gospel. At the end of that great sermon Jesus says that anyone who hears those teachings and builds his or her life on them will be building on a rock Nothing not even death itself will be able to shake them They will find refuge, not from all the trials of life, for we all must pass through some testing times. But they will find refuge from the wrath of God, and they will find peace, eternal peace, with God our Heavenly Father. Now, let us move even closer to the very corner of that cornerstone, the tip of God's purest expression of himself, right there, in the middle of the middle chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupts, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and a body more than raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They have no jobs. Neither do they make cloth. And yet I say to you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Jesus goes on to say that what will make his disciples different from all the nations of the world is that we do not worry about material needs. Instead, we learn from him how to do something called living by faith. This concept of living by faith is the core of Jesus' message to the world. He says that our Creator never intended for us to put our faith in money. He wants us to put our faith in him, to work for him and to trust him to provide our material needs. Yet this simple message of faith has been missed by virtually everyone. We praise Jesus as supposedly being the Son of God, yet we live our lives as though God does not even exist. as though all that really makes the world go around is money. Money, money. Later in the 12th chapter of his gospel, Matthew records Jesus lamenting the fact that the world refused to heed his warnings and to welcome his message. Hardly anyone was prepared to trust his promise of heavenly provision. He says, the Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment with this generation and she shall condemn them. For she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold, one greater than Solomon is here. Notice that in both of these passages, one from the very heart of the Sermon on the Mount and one from the 12th chapter of Matthew Jesus refers to King Solomon. He says that what he has to offer is greater than what Solomon had to offer. So what did Solomon have to offer? He was famous for having built the first temple in Jerusalem. A structure of great beauty and even greater wealth. The records show that Solomon had literally tons of gold. tens of tons of gold. But he's also famous for his wisdom. He was regarded as being the wisest man ever to have lived. But Jesus has contrasted Solomon's wealth and Solomon's wisdom with his own vision of relative poverty and a dramatically different type of wisdom. He compares the simplicity and beauty of birds and flowers with all that Solomon was able to buy or make using silver and gold Then he makes this strange reference to the Queen of the South the Queen of Sheba In doing that, he directs our attention to a story which appears twice in the Old Testament. Once in the 10th chapter of 1 Kings, and once in the 9th chapter of 2 Chronicles. In this story, the Queen of Sheba comes to Solomon with more than four tons of gold as a gift just for the privilege of hearing his great wisdom. She valued his wisdom that highly. By comparison, what have we done with the message and the wisdom of Jesus? A message which contrasts so dramatically with Solomon's great wealth. we have walked on it, trampling it beneath our feet as we continue to seek earthly wealth and Solomon's inferior wisdom. Jesus called this simple message of living by faith, seeking God's kingdom, and seeking God's righteousness. He says that if we would only do that, instead of seeking more and more money, Our other basic material needs will be supplied by God, our Creator and Heavenly Father. And in the process, we will discover peace and happiness as well. Eternal life, life in all its fullness. This is the essence of the Sermon on the Mount, the essence of the teachings of Jesus, The essence of the Bible and the essence of God's revelation to mankind. Ah, but my topic in this video was to have been the mark of the beast. And so far, in what I have observed about Jesus, there's been no mention of this mysterious mark, has there? So let's return to the Revelation now, for a closer look at what it says about the mark of the beast. But I just want to remind you that the proper title of that final book of the Bible is this The Revelation of Jesus Christ. So what I'm looking for here is a link between that ultimate revelation in the Sermon on the Mount and what it is that this final book of the Bible is trying to tell us. Here it is in the 13th chapter of the Revelation. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their forehead, so that no one will be able to buy or sell except those who have the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred, three score and six. Here is wisdom. There's that word again, wisdom. The same word that Jesus used when he contrasted himself with Solomon. We saw that Solomon's wisdom led to great material wealth. But Jesus started that great Sermon on the Mount with such opposite words. He said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Do you want wisdom? Real wisdom? Jesus says that it is to be found in something that Solomon missed. Jesus' wisdom is the ultimate good side. And the Revelation says to study that number 666 to find out where all the ultimate bad stuff comes from. The prophecy has a clue. It says that 666 is the number of a man. Many years ago, I found a huge Bible concordance, the biggest I've ever seen, and I did a search for that number 666. It occurred to me that the same number might actually appear somewhere else in the Bible In the Revelation God urges us to study the number to link it with a man if we want to discover true wisdom And sure enough, I found that the number 666 appears in two other places in the Bible. I found it in the 10th chapter of 1 Kings, and I found it in the 9th chapter of 2 Chronicles. The very same chapters that Jesus had referred to in the 12th chapter of Matthew when he contrasted his wisdom with that of Solomon. Here it is, virtually the same words in both chapters. And the amount of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 600, three score and six talents of gold. That's a lot of gold. In fact, it's approximately 25 tons of gold. At today's gold prices, that would be well over 8 billion US dollars in one year making Solomon one of the richest men who has ever lived, on a par with Bill Gates. I believe that there will yet arise another great king in the earth the letters of whose name will in Hebrew add up to 666, according to the numeric value of the letters in it. But in the meantime, the prototype for that king is revealed in Scripture to be none other than King Solomon himself. Jesus was hinting at that when he contrasted his wisdom on those two occasions with that of Solomon. what Jesus said about wisdom, and what the Mark of the Beast prophecy says about wisdom. Both point to the same two chapters of the Bible. Ah, but you say Solomon was a good man. He was the king of Israel. He even wrote three books of the Bible. The Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes. True, but is he the Son of God? Do you see how important it is for us to look beyond good men and beyond the Bible to the Word made flesh himself if we want true wisdom? The prosperity gospel, that curse upon the so-called Christian church around the world today. Where did it come from? Did it not come from the so-called wisdom of Solomon? They rejected Jesus and his blessings upon the poor to promote their false gospel of materialism. More and more glitz, more and more shiny toys, all of which only mirror their own spiritual emptiness. A gospel spawned by the demons of hell, and they hold up Solomon as their replacement for Jesus. They have crucified Jesus that they might be rich. They have trampled on the Son of God for the ashes of wealth and their demonic teaching that material gain is proof of godliness. There is no joy in their superficiality. There is no peace in their quest for more and more. For they are in the grip of the beast himself, just waiting for him to give them his mark. Yes, Jesus predicted the mark of the beast, but he did more than that. Through his life and through his teachings, he prepared his disciples to live without it. He calls on us to be content with food and clothing, going into all the world to preach the good news of God's blessings on the poor. We're getting ready, brothers and sisters, ready for his glorious reappearing. But first, we must go through the greatest trouble that the world has ever known. And we will go through it by the power of his might, walking in his wisdom and building on the solid rock of his teachings. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen.
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