Turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 13. I want to read the whole chapter, but our text will actually be verses 11 through 18. It's very good that we are here this morning to hear the Word of God. It's good every Sunday morning as we gather together. It's needful for our spiritual health. As we just sang, Yea, blessed is he who makes God's law. We could say for us in the New Testament era, God's word. Blessed is he who makes God's word his portion and delight and meditates upon that word with gladness day and night. And it's this word that feeds us and nourishes us and helps us to grow and abide and bear fruit. It's so important that we gather together and hear the word of God. So let's look to the Word of God now with expectation that the Lord would indeed feed us. Starting at Revelation chapter 13, verse 1. 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. Now the beast, which I saw, was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and 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 all the world marveled and followed the beast. 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? And he was given a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies. and he was given authority to continue for 42 months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. 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. and all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. He is the patience and the faith, or here is the patience and the faith of the saints. And here's our text. Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven and on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. he was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive 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. 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 666. Let us pray. O God of heaven, we have read your holy and your inspired word, a word which does not err. Help us to read this word as coming from you, knowing that it does indeed come from you. Help us to see that this word has supreme authority over our lives. And help us, O Lord, to take warning from this passage, that we would take seriously the words that John has written for us here. And help us to be diligent to want to understand it and apply it to our lives. It's in the name of Christ we ask. Amen. Well, in the last weeks there's been some changes in the seasons, hasn't there? We've seen the last of the snow melt away. We've seen the grass get greener. We've been able to go outside and we've been able to just breathe in that spring air. And you can smell that spring is here even. Oh sure, it's not in full bloom yet. We can tell that the seasons have changed. We can tell, we can see it. Just as surely as the seasons change, just as surely as the temperature changes, and just as surely as it went from spring to summer. Summer will eventually turn to fall, and fall will surely turn to winter. Things change. Just as surely as that happens, so do cultural climates, if you will. Think about our own culture right now. Where are we? If we're honest, if we look at our culture here in the U.S., it's fractured. There's a lot of hate. There's a lot of anti-Christian feeling. Our culture has very quickly changed its beliefs on a host of issues. You think about the matters of homosexuality, you think about the issues of transgender issues, you think about the rampant drug abuse, you think about the racial tensions that exist out there. Our culture has changed a lot in the last, even the last ten years. Ten years ago, I was 17, and things were so different than how they are now. And we have to ask the question, how is there so much change? How is there this fundamental shift in our culture? How does that happen? Because, for instance, there was a time where if the church came out and unanimously agreed on something, You know, if the Baptists, and the Methodists, and the Reformed, and the Presbyterians, if they all came out and said something, like the scriptures say that homosexuality is a sin, or abortion is a sin, the culture would at least take it seriously. They would acknowledge it. They might not agree with it, but they would acknowledge it. But today, anything the church says, it's almost like the church is automatically a bigot. It's contrary to where this culture wants to go, and anything that disagrees with this culture, it's automatically considered backwards and foolish. How? How does this change? Well, there's a lot of different ways in which cultures change and shift like this. There's a lot of different ways how a culture will go from being okay with Christianity in the church and being entirely against Christ. And some of the most key tactics that Satan uses in warring against the church are the tactics of the beasts here, the first and the second beast. And this morning, I want us to focus more specifically on this second beast, verses 11 through 18, because I feel that this beast is a bit more of an issue in our own time, in our own culture. I want us to look at this second beast's description. his actions, and his mission. Those are our three points this morning. His description, his actions, and his mission, so that we would be vigilant, so that we'd be able to look at our own hearts and see how we are marked, if we are marked. So first, let's look at our text again. Let's look at the beast's description. Verses 11 and 12, Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. Now, before we can even really get into this text, we have to ask ourselves, how are we supposed to read these words? Are these words about the past? Did these words already come to fulfillment? Or are they all future still? You know, you have some people that say that Revelation is a book all about the past. Everything was fulfilled in the first century. It was a prophecy that John wrote, talking about the incoming siege and sacking of Jerusalem when the Romans came. Now, I think that there's some problems with this. I won't bore you with all the details, but Revelation, for one thing, seems to have been written 20 years after that event. And furthermore, if all of this was fulfilled in the first century, Well, it would seem that the book of Revelation has relatively little value to the church since then. But you have people on the other side, and this is more common in our culture, you have people on the other extreme that say, no, no, no, no, the book of Revelation is all about the future. It's all about this future tribulation where the church will endure supreme and great persecution. And these people tend to look at this book rather literally and chronologically. You know, the events of chapter 14 happened before the events of chapter 15, and so on and so forth. But this has its problems too. In the first place, the chronology doesn't fit perfectly. You know, at one point in the book, it says that the stars of heaven, all the stars are darkened, there's no more stars. But you go two chapters later, and says that a third of the stars fall from heaven. Well, what stars? They've already gone. So, I don't think that works. And this also has the issue of, well, what value is the book to us, then, if this is all about the future? Why would God give us this book? Why would God give this book to the first century believers? So, that doesn't really fit either. So, what is this book all about? How do we read this book? I think if we grasp this, it will be immensely helpful for the church. See, the way that it's been described in most of our Reformed circles is that the book of Revelation is a series of visions that symbolically describe the things that happen between Christ's first coming and his second coming. Let me put it to you like this. It's like you're watching a football game. or a basketball game, or whatever game. Football works best though. You know, they run a play, and before they get to the next play, what do they do? They play all these instant replays, don't they? And they play it from different angles. Now, if you were new to watching football, you'd never watched football before in your life, and you were watching all these instant replays, you would say, well, all these instant replays must be different plays, because they look so different. But they're really just different angles on the same span of time. So you have one vision in here that talks about the beasts. It talks about how Satan's going to war against the church. But then you have another vision, Revelation 20 for instance, that talks about how the saints reign with Christ in heaven. It talks about how the church is really victorious. These are different angles, all things that really happen in this age. That is how we should read the book of Revelation. So let's just give this a test case. How should we look at, for instance, the first beast? The people who read this book in the past say that the first beast is the Roman Empire. And then the people that say that this is for the future, they say it's some sort of future government that will persecute Christians, which is right. Well, if we read the book of Revelation as I've just described it, they're both right. If you are a Christian living in first century Asia Minor, then yeah, the Roman Empire is the beast, because it's persecuting Christians, it's killing Christians, and it's trying to destroy the faith. But if you're living in the future in some other place that's trying to do the same thing, well, the beast is there too. If you're a North Korean Christian living in an underground church, then the government of North Korea is the beast in your context, in your time. That is how it works. It's a symbolic description of the things that the church is going to face in this age. So that's the first beast. But like I said, I want us to focus on the second beast because the second beast, he's more subtle. He's more crafty. He's more insidious. The first beast just goes at you with a club and he tries to beat down Christians. Not so with the second beast. Look at his appearance. He comes out of the earth and he has two horns. Now, normally we would look at these horns and say, well, these two horns must refer to two different symbolic people or symbolic things. But John helps us. He has two horns like a lamb. Now, who is the lamb? Well, the lamb in the Gospel of John, for instance. Who is the lamb? John the Baptist sees Jesus coming to be baptized, and what does he say? Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Or you have here in the book of Revelation, who is the one seated on the throne? It's the lamb. It's Jesus Christ. So this second beast looks like a lamb. He's trying to look like Jesus. He's trying to copy him. But though he looks like Jesus, he doesn't speak like Jesus. He looks like a lamb and speaks like a dragon. Now, you children, when you read books and you read about dragons, you see they're just these great winged creatures and they look like dinosaurs with wings, really. And these dragons are normally described as roaring and breathing fire. It may be that this second beast on occasion speaks like that, with hate and with just vigor. But I don't think that's normally the case. Who is the dragon? Who is the dragon in the book of Revelation? It's Satan. And while Satan may on occasion speak hatefully, more often than not we find that he is a liar. He is the father of lies, as John says. So he won't normally speak hate. He'll normally go to people and say, did God really say such and such? Did God really say this in His Word? We're beginning to see what this second beast looks like. He looks like Jesus, but he subtly and craftily tries to lead people away from the truth of God, to exchange the truth of God for a lie. It's like in John's day. You see, like I said, there was the first beast. There was Nero, there was Domitian, and they were trying to beat down Christians and destroy the church and imprison and torture and kill Christians. But Nero thought of another way to test his subjects. He thought of this thing called the imperial cult. And it was this imperial cult where people were required to go and burn incense to Caesar, and to give sacrifices to Caesar, and to say, Caesar is Lord. It was a religion. It looked good. It looked like Christianity in some ways. But it spoke like a dragon. It taught like a dragon. Or you look at China today. The state of China does not like Christianity. They might have loosened up a bit in the last few years, but at their core, if they're honest and if they're consistent, it doesn't mesh well. Christianity does not mesh well with the communist state. And so they have persecuted Christians. That's the first beast. But what about the second beast? There's this state church in China, isn't there? And it looks like a church. It looks like Christianity. It looks like a lamb. But it speaks like a dragon. It doesn't teach the doctrines of Christ. It teaches the doctrines of communism. That's really what the second beast is like. What about in our own culture, in our own nation? You know, it may be that Our government, our society, our state will progressively become more like the Roman Empire. It may become more pre-Constantine-like. It may end up becoming more like China and despises Christianity and Jesus Christ. If we look at our society, if we look at our government, there's this growing tendency to call evil good and good evil. It's a problem. And there may come a day where the state takes away the church's tax-exempt status. And there may come a day where the state comes into our churches and, because of what we believe, arrests Christians. There may be consequences from the law for being Christians someday. A lot of people have said they see this in seed form right now. But the second beast The second beast is much more present, much more active in our society today. There's all sorts of churches out there, isn't there? All sorts of churches that look like they follow Christ, that claim to teach the doctrines of Christ, but what they teach is contrary to the Word of God. They don't teach people to repent of sin and to believe in Christ and come to Christ for salvation. They don't teach people that they're soulless and the only place that they can have freedom is being in Christ. They don't teach that. They teach, rather, that people should be comfortable with their sins. There's churches out there that are okay and supportive of abortion. There's churches out there that are okay with and supportive of homosexuality. They don't teach people that they need help. They don't teach people that they need to turn away from these things and turn to Christ. They try to claim the love of Christ and look like Christ and say everything's all right, when it's not. They might look at the issues of pornography and lust and say, you know, it's probably not a great thing, but it's victimless. They're okay with immorality. And anyone who says otherwise is identified as a bigot, is identified as backwards. And they'll come to people that try to live consistently according to a biblical worldview. They'll come to people and they'll say, did God really teach that? Did God really say that? It's not really clear, is it? Can't you just change your view on this? Can't you just give up your belief on this? These people don't need loving counsel to be changed and to convert and to believe in Jesus Christ. You just need to accept them as they are and leave them alone. Give up your biblical beliefs. Conform to society. That is the voice of the second beast that calls Christians to exchange the truth of God for a lie. So that's what he looks like. Now, what does he do? What does he do to try to persuade people of this? Look again at our text, verses 13 through 15. He performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. So what does he do to try to lead people astray, to try to convince people that to be on his side is to be on the right side of history? He calls down fire from heaven. He commits all these signs. Again, we find that Satan is taking a page from God's book here. Who is it in the Gospel of John that performed all the signs and all the miracles to substantiate and prove his ministry? It's Jesus Christ. Or you go back to the Old Testament. You go to Elijah. Do you remember Elijah facing off with the Baal worshippers? That there were these sacrifices on these two altars. And the Baal worshippers cried out, Oh Baal, please consume this sacrifice that we've laid out for you. And try as they may, nothing happened. And then Elijah comes and he douses, he calls for the people to douse the sacrifice with water. And the Lord God, the God of Israel, consumed the sacrifice. It wasn't something done. The fire didn't come down to consume the Baal worshipers. It was done in their sights. It was done before them to impress them, to show that the Lord God alone is God. We find that Satan's just trying to copy God here. He's trying to imitate. He's trying to impress the earth, impress the world, saying that, look, God isn't God. He isn't doing anything. But here we go. Here's something that Satan, the dragon, is able to do. He really has power. He's trying to imitate God. Now, when I say imitate, let me say something here. This is not a good imitation. You know, we as Christians are called to imitate Christ, aren't we? And I've been saying that the second beast has been imitating Christ. But this imitation is a wrong imitation, a bad imitation. Let me illustrate it for you. See, I grew up in the state of Wisconsin. And one of the things that we're known for is we're the dairy state. We have a lot of milk, and as a result, we have a lot of cheese. I actually worked in a cheese factory for a time, but that's a story for another time. So I grew up, and I grew up knowing what good cheese tasted like, what it looked like, what it felt like. And then I graduated high school, and I went down to Kansas City to study in college. And being a poor college kid, you can't afford cheese. It's kind of expensive, you realize that when you leave the house. And we were getting together for dorm divos, and somebody had to bring the food together to make quesadillas, and so what he brought wasn't real cheese to make the quesadillas, he brought Velveeta. Now, I had never had Velveeta before in my life. And I'm putting this quesadilla together, and I'm taking it out of the package, and I'm looking at it, and it looks like cheese. It's got the right hue. It's got the right texture. It smells kind of like cheese. You put it on there, and you microwave it, and you take the first bite. And man, oh man, I was surprised. I was deceived. The imitation deceived me into thinking it would be something good. into me thinking that would be something delicious, but it wasn't. That is the second beast here. He does these wonders. He does these things, and he tries to impress people, showing that, look, this is the real deal. But it's a deception. You know, in the imperial cult back in John's day, they would have these images. You know, the idea of the image coming to life that John's writing about here? these imperial temples, they would have these images of Caesar. And they would have their little ventriloquism. The priests would kind of move the mouth of the Caesar and speak. And the people were supposed to be like, this really is divine. This really is for real. This Caesar really is something special. And so I must trust Caesar, not Christ. They lead people astray. They lead people to believe in the Emperor and not in Christ. That's what he does to try to fool people. What about in our own day? That's what happened in John's day. How does the second beast work in our own day? Well, the state, the society, our culture is all about man, isn't it? All about believing in ourselves, believe in man with a capital M. Man can achieve anything because man is divine. It's not just one man. It's not just the emperor. It's not just a Caesar that's divine. Our state, our culture tells us that we're all special. We're all divine. And what will they say to try to convince us of this? They'll say that you don't need God. Look at what we're able to do today as human beings. Consider the advances we've made just in raising up crops. If you brought a farmer from a hundred years ago to today and he saw what we did, they would think it's nothing short of a miracle. They would say it's amazing. It's miraculous. if you brought a doctor from a hundred years ago to today and they saw the medical advances that we've made they would say oh that that's nothing short of divine that's a miracle that we're able to perform this sort of medical procedure you see we don't need God We are gods. Believe in yourself. And whatever you believe is okay must really be okay because you are divine. You are something special. Now just as a side note, I'm not saying that the advances we made in crops or medicine or anything like that are bad. In and of themselves, they're not bad. But if we use them as evidence, as signs to say we don't need God, then we got it all wrong. So we see that back in the time of John, that the Roman Empire was trying to persecute the church and try to draw people away from Christ. And it's the same today. We have all sorts of groups today that are drawing people away from Christ, trying to point to all these things that man is able to do, saying that we don't need Christ. Exchange the truth of God for a lie. You don't need God. The tactics are the same. Oh sure, the names and the faces have changed, but the tactics remain the same. And what about for those that don't believe, that don't conform, that don't give in and worship the image of the beast? What about those that stay true and stay faithful to Christ? Our text is as blunt as it can be. It calls for their death. Look at history. We see this all the time. You open a history book. What did the Roman Empire do to those Christians that refused to worship the gods? It killed them. What about when Islam was on the rise and you had people that refused to give in to Islam? It killed them. What about when China started to go communist, and there were Christians in the country, and the Christians refused to give in to the state's ideals? It killed them. The second beast kills if you refuse to give up Christ. And we're not there. Our nation is not there. Our culture is not there. And I don't know, but it could be that we see that in our lifetime. Regardless of whether we see it or not, this text calls us to count the cost. Are you ready? Are you prepared to give all for Christ? Are you prepared to be imprisoned for Christ? Are you prepared to suffer for Christ? Are you prepared to die for Christ? Consider it. Count the cost. So that's what he does. We've seen the beast's description. We've seen his actions. Now, what's his mission? Let's look at the last few verses of our text, verses 16 through 18. And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads. And that no one may buy or sell except the one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. 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, six. This is one of the most well-known passages in our Bible. This is one of the most debated passages in our Bible. This is one of those passages that a lot of people have some leftover superstition about. I have a lot of unbelieving friends and acquaintances, and they've told me that there's this huge list of bands that have names related to this number, or have made songs related to this number. Even unbelievers, to some degree, know something about this text. They know something at least about the number, that this number is not a good number. As far as what it actually is, there's a lot of confusion, a lot of uncertainty. But let's just look at this piece by piece. First, let's ask the question, who receives this mark? Well, we find that the beast is not discriminatory, is he? He is wanting everyone to take this mark. Of course, he wants the great. He wants the rich. He wants the popular. He wants the powerful. He wants the free. He wants the one in authority, the supervisor, if you will. Of course, he wants these people to take the mark. But at the same time, he desires that the small, the poor, the slave, the lowest rung employee, he would desire that these take the mark also. And so whatever this mark is about, which we will get into, it isn't just a warning to this side of the congregation or this side of the congregation. This issue is not something where I just warn the young or the old. It isn't something where I just warn the men or the women. This is something that everyone needs to pay attention to. You older folk who have run the race with Christ in endurance, you who have believed in Jesus Christ, you who are in your 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, the beast would love to see you recant Christ and take this mark. You children, you children who are 5, 10, you teenagers, you 20-somethings, just beginning life. We'd love to see you take this mark as well. It's something that all of us need to take heed of. So who takes this mark? All. He wants all to take this mark. And so we must all be vigilant. But why the mark? What's the purpose of the mark? He gives the mark so that no one may buy or sell without it. That's what the text says. Essentially, if you don't have this mark, you can't function, you can't fit in. You know, back in John's day, and a little later than that, it was required that you go and you give sacrifices at the imperial cult. And you couldn't buy or sell until you'd done so. In fact, this eventually progressed to where the imperial cult would write up a certificate saying that you had given the sacrifice, and therefore you were licensed to buy or sell, and you couldn't buy or sell without that certificate. And we see similar things throughout history. Those Christians that lived in the caliphate, in the Muslim empire in the Middle Ages, those that refused to submit to Islam, they were called dhimmis. They were second-class citizens. They couldn't hold more important roles in the government. They had to pay higher taxes. Often they lived in the slums. They couldn't fit in. What about our own day? What do we see happening? You look at the businesses that exist across the country. Cake businesses are an easy one. The Christian cake business, if you want to run a wedding cake business and you want to govern it according to Christian principles, it's going to be difficult. There are some people that are being fined and losing their business because they're trying to work according to a biblical worldview. They can't fit in. Because they don't fit in, they can't buy or sell. What about if you want to be an academic, if you want to become a professor in a university? Unless you're going to a Christian university, you can hardly become a Christian professor anymore. You don't fit in, you can't buy or sell, you can't teach, because you don't teach what society wants you to teach. And we see similar things even in the lives of children. Your children, you have friends who invite you out to maybe play on Sundays. But because it's Sunday, you're instructed that you shouldn't. It's a day of rest. It's a day of reflecting on Christ and the rest that he gives us. Or your friends invite you to celebrate Halloween with them, and you won't. Because you feel it's inconsistent with your Christian calling and your Christian faith. They notice that you don't swear, you don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain. There's something different about you. You don't fit in. And so, as a result, you're kind of almost a second-class citizen. We can see this all throughout history, all throughout our own lives. Christians tend not to fit in. But what is the mark itself? What is it? 666, what is it? Well, there've been a number of different names that have been taken from this number. Some people say that 666 refers to Nero, it refers to Vespasian, Domitian, Hitler, Stalin, Reagan, Obama, so on and so forth. But if we look at the text, it says that this requires wisdom, not just mathematical calculating ability. It requires that we look at the Scriptures, the Old Testament, and it will assist us in understanding what this number is all about. If you'll remember, back in Deuteronomy, God had commanded that the Jews bind the law on their hands and that it would be on their eyelids. Now, some Jews took that very literally. They made a little box and they put the law in the box and they bound it to their wrists and to their forehead. But it wasn't meant to be taken literally, was it? It was supposed to be something where the Lord told them that the law should be present in how you act with your hands, or in how you think with your minds. That's sort of what's going on here. It's not a literal 666 on the hand or on the forehead. It has to do with how you act and how you think. Okay, why 666 then? Numbers are important in the scriptures. You see, the number 7 is the number of divine holiness and perfection. You know, the Lord is called Holy, Holy, Holy in Isaiah chapter 6, and rightly we could say that's 777. The number of God could be called 777, but what's 666? It's the number of man. It's not just the number of a man, it's the number of man. Six is this number that's always falling short, trying to get to seven, but never making it. If seven is the number of holiness, six is the number of unholiness, unholiness, unholiness. And so the one that has this mark on their hands and on their foreheads, their minds and their actions will be marked with unholiness, with being contrary to the commands in the Word of God. That's what this number is. That's what it's all about. Now, why do I bring this up? I don't bring this up to say it's an us versus them sort of thing. We don't have the number, and they do. I bring this up so that we would watch out, that we would be vigilant and careful, making sure that we don't conform to the image of this world. I also want to bring this up to encourage those that may be discouraged in the faith. You know, there are people in the church that are so discouraged, and they think that they have this number when they are really saints in Jesus Christ. And there are people that think that they are in Christ, but really are presumptuous in assuming so. And to both of these groups, I can tell you the same thing. Look at your heart. How is it that you live and act when no one is around and watching? Do you desire and thirst, hunger and thirst after righteousness? Do you mourn for sin? Or do you just not care and live according to the world? If so, then be careful. Because it may be that you have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And if that's the case, I would call you, just as Peter did, to repent. Because there is still time. Jesus Christ has not returned yet, and he hasn't called you home. There is still time to exchange the lie for the truth of God. To exchange your unrighteousness for the righteousness of Christ. And for those of you that look at your hearts, and you do so with a great amount of trembling, fearing that you might find the number on your hand or on your forehead, look carefully. Do you see the marks of faith? Do you love Christ in your heart of hearts, desiring to conform to His image? Is your trust entirely upon Him? Do you desire to live a life that gives Him glory for Him? If so, then be encouraged and know that you too are marked. Notice that the text or the sermon title wasn't, are you marked? It's, how are you marked? Because every single one of us is marked somehow. We can be marked with the number 666, but there is an alternative. Look at Revelation 14. 14 verse 1. Then I looked, and behold, a lamb standing, the real lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000, having his father's name written on their foreheads. If you are in Christ, you have that name. You are marked also. And be encouraged. Not only are you marked, but the Lord God says that he inscribes your name on his palms, in Isaiah 49. Be encouraged. Watch out. Hold fast to the truth, though our society, though our culture may call us to exchange it for a lie. Amen. Let us pray. Great God of heaven, we thank you for your word, and we ask that you would apply it to our hearts. O Lord, help us to be diligent to meditate upon this word. Help us to be diligent, to be vigilant that we would not conform to this world, but that we would be transformed by the renewing of our mind in Jesus Christ. And Lord, should there be any here this morning that do not know Christ, that have not repented and believed in him, O Lord, we ask that you would draw them to yourself. that you would prick their hearts, that they would be horrified at the possibility that they have been marked with this wretched number. And for those of us that are in Christ, help us to be encouraged, knowing that we are marked, but not with this wretched number, but with your name. Lord, we thank you. We ask that we would have a good, restful afternoon, and that you would bring us again this evening. It's in the name of Christ we ask. Amen.