Angel Three: The Mark of the Beast (Pastor Aaron Trelfa, 09/30/22)

Good evening everyone. I want to welcome you to our fourth presentation of Three Angels,

One Message, where we've been taking a kind of a deep dive into one collection of passages

from Revelation in Chapter 14. We started first with looking at the Gospel and how it

was presented in the book of Revelation. Then we moved to the first angel, which was a call

back to faithful worship of the Creator God. Then we looked at the Fall of Confusion that

was embodied in old time, the Tower of Babel and the confusion of languages. Then at Babylon,

then finally now spiritual Babylon. So you would see religious confusion, political confusion,

social confusion, all leading towards getting people really away from being grounded in

Jesus. So what we saw though from that second angel is that the confusion wouldn't last

forever. The confusion would fall. Babylon is fallen, is fallen, says that second angel.

We studied a couple of key points as to how we could prepare ourselves against the confusion

if you will. Testing things by the word of God. Prayerfully considering if what you're

hearing lines up with what you're studying, etc., etc. Tonight we're going to pick up

with our third and our final angel. It's not our final message, but it is our final angel.

Angel three, Revelation and the Mark of the Beast. This is a long collection of slides.

It's only slightly longer than we have been, but we are trying to get through them in a

reasonable time. So before we dive in, let's say a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we

want to thank you so much for your word. We want to thank you for being our surety and

our stability in this world of chaos and confusion. So now we pray that as we open up your word,

as we study this passage again, this important passage, I pray that you would be present,

help us to understand, help us to apply what we learn, not only those of us here, but also

those that are watching online. We pray for them as well, for we ask in Jesus' name, Amen

and Amen. Well, let's ask the question, what is the Mark of the Beast? This is an oft-talked

about, oft-debated. Sometimes it gets pretty fantastical when anyone brings up this particular

topic. Maybe you've heard that the Mark of the Beast is a tattoo, a brand, or a mark

on the skin. Some people like to think of it maybe like the tattoos that the Jews got

during the Holocaust. That practice will be reinstituted again, but this time for Christians.

You get a tattoo on your arm, get a tattoo on your head, and that's how they will tell

if you have the Mark of the Beast. Have you heard of that? Well, have you heard this one

maybe that the Mark of the Beast is the number 666? That you should avoid it if you go to

Walmart and you ring up your groceries and they come to $6.66, we'll put on an extra

package of gum. If you go to the DMV and you get the license plate where those three numbers

say 666, change it out for something else. That actually did happen in the state of Arkansas

when I was growing up. It happened to be that time when the number came up in the sequence.

That was the most requested replacement play. No one wanted it, but you could see a few

of them driving around because some people saw that just the number itself is not associated

or is not the Mark of the Beast. I've even heard it relatively more fantastical with

regards to this number. If you have ever seen the energy drink Monster, have you seen that

can? You've seen where it's got the three claw marks that go down the front of it. That's

their trademark. Well, I have heard it proposed that because those three claw marks look like

the sixth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, then the Monster can is associated with the Mark

of the Beast. So don't drink that. They are probably not healthy for you. They have nothing

to do with the Mark of the Beast. I can assure you. What about this? A universal ID card.

You need to not only have your driver's license, but everybody also needs to have a secondary

ID card that then is used to enter buildings or used to get across state lines or used

to have you heard maybe something along those lines? Or this. This one is really popular.

A microchip implanted under the skin, maybe in your palm or something like that. This

is actually being practiced right now. There are at least two different kinds of microchips

that humans get implanted just under their skin, one for medical purposes. This was introduced

shortly after COVID, where you could have the microchip just under the skin. All of

your important and necessary medical data was stored on that microchip. So if you went

to the ER, if you were unconscious, if you just wanted to streamline a doctor's visit,

they could scan your microchip. They would pull up your age, your weight. It would tell

them if you've got any cancers in your family histories, things like that. That's already

being put into practice. There is also a microchip that is being used where you can have it

connected to all of your financial payment accounts, if you will. So it works like if

you take your credit card and you tap and go. They also have a microchip that you can

have implanted where you just give a high five to the payment machine and off you go.

It's charged right to your Visa account. That is there. But so far, there is no association

with a microchip and the Mark of the Beast. Well, some people even thought that the COVID

vaccine itself was the Mark of the Beast. This gained a little bit of traction. It was

kind of shot down about as quickly as it shot up. And that's because really, vaccines are

not the Mark of the Beast. They can be very good for you. They are sometimes encouraged

if it works for you. But with it being a new technology, with it being at the hands of

in many places heavy-handed government responses, this of course led people to wonder about

its, are there ulterior motives behind it? If you're a little bit more into conspiracies,

one can perhaps understand how you might go, I don't know about that. Well, I can assure

you that the Mark of the Beast is not the COVID vaccine. Or maybe it's something else.

Maybe the Mark of the Beast is just something else. I've heard there's a whole lot of different

theories out there, but these seem to be some of the most popular ones, depending on where

you look and what you read. What we need to remember before we continue is that the book

of Revelation is a book heavy in cryptic symbols. We have strange beasts. We have trumpets.

We have bowls. We have speaking angels. We have rainbows and we have things like that.

The book of Revelation speaks of Jesus. It speaks of the gospel. It speaks of eternal

truths written by a loving God to an end time generation. And the book of Revelation speaks

of worship. In fact, we studied worship as Revelation's greatest issue. I'm sorry. In

our second presentation. Why? This is going to be annoying, I can tell. Because the central

issue in Earth's final conflict has to do with worship. The conflict between Christ and

Satan began in heaven over worship. It will come to its final climax over worship. So

what should we be looking for with the Mark of the Beast? Well, first, let us briefly

review to make sure we understand this vital point. The messages we've been studying are

so important that they are pictured as being carried by three angels flying swiftly through

the sky. We devoted one whole presentation to the everlasting gospel, a defining quality

about these angels. I'm not going to reread all of them. We have read them many times

before. The first angel did cry out, though, fear God and give him glory because the hour

of his judgment has come and the heart of it worship him. Worship. Heaven's first

appeal is to give our supreme allegiance and heartfelt worship to the creator. The

creator in light of heaven's judgment. In our last message, we studied that Babylon

represents a confused apostate religious system that has substituted falsehood for truth while

aligning herself in unholy unions with world governments. She rejected the pure truths

of the Bible. She preferred to mix truth with error so that the second angel's message

announces that she has fallen from God's favor and we should not share in her confusion.

In fact, there was a warning a couple of chapters later to come out of Babylon and then

God calls you his people. Don't stay in confusion is the warning. Note one cannot

one cannot faithfully worship God if we have mixed truth with error. That's in the first

and the second angels message. It's got to be a pure worship or it's not faithful worship.

It is something else. We've continued now with the first verse of this third angel.

Let's read it and another angel a third followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone

worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or his hand with this

first verse we see again that worship is at the forefront of the proclamation. The angel

recognizes another entity that people can worship the beast and its image and warns

against doing such a thing though you do not want to be found in the with the group of

people who worship the beast and its image. You don't want to be found there because it

goes on to say that if you are you also will drink the wine of God's wrath for full strength

into the cup of his anger. So it is is it clear that the heart of what we are studying

is worship. Is that clear so far worship should we then be looking for the mark of the beast

to be detached or unassociated from worship. No we should see it closely connected to the

thought the idea of worship. So let's now turn our attention to its discovery before

we can look to the mark though we need to look to the beast. The beast Revelation 13

and before I go on I want to say that this is this particular presentation is rather

large. I have done my best to condense it down into a singular into a singular presentation

but there's so much I couldn't get to. We are leaving out other very relevant sections

of the Bible just because I can't make this 200 slides and three hours long. We don't

want to do that to either you or me. So if there are other questions if there is a greater

interest in the extra material please see me or or Kevin Sarah Anthony Grace even Janet

has done this study with me on the side. We have other resources contact us DM us on Facebook

we can get the resources to you for greater study. So for tonight we're going to go through

some things a little bit quicker than I would prefer but we're going to do our best. Well

one we have already touched on that in Bible prophecy a beast equals a nation. You might

also hear it phrased as a king or a kingdom or a nation. Any one of those threes are interchangeable

today we really don't have a lot of kingdoms but we do have plenty of nations and so that

would be the equivalence if you read kingdom in the Bible. We will also see that this nation

is a religious nation. The beast of Revelation 13 is a religious nation and we know that

because it blasphemes. If it were not religious it could not blaspheme in other words. How

does it blaspheme? Well Revelation 13 6 tells us this he opened his mouth in blasphemy against

God to blaspheme his name his tabernacle and those who dwell in heaven. And then again

in Revelation 17 so he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. I saw a woman

sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and

ten horns. You find the same nation depicted a couple of different ways or at least two

in Revelation. Revelation 13 it's depicted without the woman. Revelation 17 it has the

woman. Both locations the beast is blasphemous. That's the common thread that we're seeing.

Since blasphemy is mentioned numerous times as one of the identifying features of the

beast power it must be significant. Let's discover how this term is used in other places

in the New Testament. We got to find let the Bible interpret itself in other words. John

10 33 the Jews answered him this is Jesus they were accusing him of this. They said

for a good work we do not stone you but for blasphemy and because you here's the definition

being a man make yourself God. They were accusing Jesus of being blasphemous because they said

he was only a man who claimed to be God and he couldn't do that. Well was Jesus a blasphemer.

Well certainly not. Oh why not. Well because when Jesus claimed it it was true. If you

were I claimed it it would not be true. It would be blasphemous. But Jesus had that right.

Jesus was a mortal being but he still claimed the privileges the prerogatives of God as

an equal. That wasn't blasphemy for him but for anyone else. It would be. That's one

definition. Our second definition in Luke 521 again they were looking to accuse Jesus

of this. The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason saying who is this who speaks blasphemies

and here's our definition who can forgive sins but God alone. If you believe that you

can forgive sins then you are guilty of blasphemy because the Bible says that only God can forgive

sins but again for Jesus this was not because Jesus was as much God as he was man. So to

summarize the two biblical examples of blasphemy are this if any man pretends to be or claims

to be God and if any man claims the power to forgive sins in Jesus case the accusations

were unjust because he truly was and is God. He holds all the powers all the prerogatives

of God including the right to forgive sins. So now let us discover what other entity violates

these two principles of blasphemy. There really is only one that consistently does both and

that's the key. You might be able to find a couple of institutions a couple of churches

a couple of individuals who perhaps are guilty of one or the other but you usually don't

find both at the same time in the same institution consistently and without interruption. I'm

going to tell you upfront that we are going to show that the Roman Catholic Church claims

both of these things. They claim that the power of forgiveness or absolution first is

there is their first claim it's vested in her priests by Christ himself. That's a this

is a rather big claim but let's see quote from a very prominent Catholic author quote

seek where you will throughout heaven and earth and you will find but one created being

who can forgive the sinner. Who can free him from the chains of hell and that extraordinary

being is the priest the Catholic priest. Well we can ask this question who can forgive sins

except God. They had already thought of this the author was the question which the Pharisee

sneeringly asked who can forgive sins is the questions which the Pharisees of the present

day also ask and I answer. There is a man on earth that can forgive sins and that man

is the Catholic priest. What did we just read from the Bible itself though. That certainly

doesn't align with this. The Pharisees were accusing Jesus that he could not do a thing

and they were acknowledging God as the only one who could and yet this Catholic author

recognized in men the very thing that defines blasphemy. That doesn't sound like ground

that we should find ourselves on because what does the Bible say the Bible says in

first Timothy 2 5 that there is one God one mediator between God and men the man Christ

Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all. You need the mediator who is sinless because you

are sinful. If if the priest is the mediator between God and sinful humanity then he would

also need another mediator. In other words they would find themselves in a cycle that

they couldn't escape. One a person who needs a defense attorney really shouldn't be defending

someone else from breaking the law. Makes sense. All the Catholic Church tries to thread

that needle that just simply cannot be thread. That is it is an official teaching of the

Roman Church that God dispenses the grace of forgiveness through the priest. Proof of

this church's teaching of this doctrine is seen actually in a rather recent news semi

recent. This just actually re-emphasizes that fact. In March of 2020 when all the churches

mostly the churches globally were closed down due to the pandemic Catholics wondered how

can we then be forgiven of our sins. We can't go to our priest because inside of the Catholic

Church if you can't make it to confessional you cannot have that sin forgiven. That's

not hyperbole that's literal. That's a part of their sacraments. So the pope made this

declaration that well actually a Vatican Tribunal that deals with matters of conscience

including confession stated this that though absolution of sin is the usual means through

which sins are forgiven by a priest in times of that's supposed to be great necessity

such as with the ongoing spread of COVID at the time other solutions are needed. In other

words because this is such a big deal we are going to give you a secondary option. We will

bestow upon you a secondary option. What is that secondary option? Well Pope Francis said

that people who can't manage to go to confession as a result of being locked down can confess

directly to God. In other words they believe that your sins cannot be forgiven except by

a priest but the pope can give you permission to go to God directly. Thank you but I will

take 1 John 1 19 at its word if we confess our sins. He that is Jesus is faithful and

just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So what does the Bible

say? Who do you go to for forgiveness of sins? Right to God. Does the Bible say that that

must pass through a priest first? No. Who does it say is faithful and just in your forgiving?

Jesus. There is no ifs, ands, or buts to this. This is about how faithful and just he is

when we go to him with our confessions. That speaks so much about his love and his grace,

his kindness and his long suffering towards us. Why would we put up another barrier between

us and our savior who loves us? Why would we do that? Especially contrary to what the

Bible has said. And how far does he take the forgiving? Well good news he takes it all

the way cleansing us even from all of the unrighteousness. That's wonderful news my

friends. I'm so encouraged by that. No man, no priest, no pew warmer can do what Jesus

will do when you go to him with your faults and your failings. Jesus will do it all for

you. Also we've looked at the one example of how blasphemy, if any man claims the power

to forgive sin, is present in the Roman Catholic Church. But we need to make sure that we only

or don't only leave it at the one. We have to have both. We have to have both of them

or it cannot be a true characteristic. So now let's look at this second example. If

any man pretends to be or claims to be God. A somewhat lengthy quote but bear with me.

The Pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man. But as it were

God and the vicar of God. Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple crown as King of Heaven,

as King of Earth, and of the lower regions. In other words he also has the rulership,

the authority over hell. That's what that would mean. The Pope is as it were God on

earth, chief King of Kings, to whom has been entrusted by the omnipotent God direction

of the heavenly kingdom. This is an expansion over where Jesus says you have the keys to

heaven and to hell. Whatever you say will be bound in heaven and whatever you don't

permit will be. I'm kind of paraphrasing but they have taken that to mean other than

God will honor prayers of faith to you literally have authority in heaven, on earth,

and on hell in place of God. That's the conclusion that they have drawn. This is

from article two in Prompta Bibliotheca. This was written in 1772. Pope Leo the

13th urged, quote, complete submission and obedience of will to the church and to the

Roman Pontiff as to God himself. This was from the great encyclical letters of Pope

Leo the 13th. The same a proud Pontiff, and he was a proud Pontiff, he also claimed

this, we the popes hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty. More evidence could

be given, I would say these two are enough, you can find it. And in case you're wondering,

maybe these quotes are just super old, they haven't recanted them. The state hasn't

or the church hasn't reneged on them. They still wear the crowns, they still hold the

titles today that they did in the 1716, the 1400s. None of that has changed, it just

carries on. In fact, they believe that it cannot change. Even when you have a

heretical pope, that pope is still respected as carrying these titles. I don't

know how you harmonize it, but they hold it. The Roman Church certainly believes

that the pope stands in the place of God himself on earth. So let's look at these

identifying characteristics. It's a nation that is religious, in other words, it's an

unhealthy union of church and state. And we talked a little bit last week on how you

can have a healthy union. You can have Christian ideals supporting a political

movement for something good. And an example I like to use is abolition. You could

use temperance movements, things like that. They kind of went hand in hand at times.

This would be an unhealthy union. We saw that it's blasphemous. If you read through

the Bible, you will see that it's received its power from imperial or pagan

Rome, and that it would rule for a set time. Revelation 13 verses 4 and 5 say,

Revelation 13:4

They worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and it

was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months. A dragon was a well-known symbol

for imperial Rome, for pagan Rome. It means other things in the Bible, but it is

certainly this. Historically speaking, we need to do a little bit of math. When we

are calculating time periods, because you notice we just saw a time period right

here, 42 months. When calculating these time periods in the Bible, especially in

prophecy, you have to do it a little different. It's not a one-to-one ratio in

that one day equals one day. In the Bible, in prophecy, we call it a day-to-year

principle. It means that for every day mentioned in the prophecy, we actually

count in terms of years. These two references in Numbers 1434 and in

Ezekiel 4-6 give the principle, one to the Israelites and one to Ezekiel. These

were from the word of the mouth of God Himself. We're not taking it from Moses.

We're not taking it from Ezekiel. God says, here's the principle. One day, one

year. So now let's look at this, 42 months. In ancient calendars, they did not have

the 31, 30, 31, 30. They didn't count like that with your knuckles because they

didn't know that there were 365 and a quarter days. They believed that there was

a fixed 30-day month, a fixed 360 days. All the ancient calendars operated on

this because it came from, I believe, Egypt or certainly Babylon, the ancient

Babylonian Empire. They liked to work with good rounded numbers. So they had

30-day months. You just do the simple math. 30 days times 42 months is 1260 days,

prophetic days. So if you take that principle into account, that's years.

That's all we're looking at. It is also described the same time period. It's

described different ways elsewhere in the Bible, most notably Daniel chapter 7,

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

where you will see it read one literally as the 1260 days, but also as time, times,

and the dividing of time. So that would be a time as a year. Times being plural

would be two years, and the dividing of time, of course, would be half a year. So

that comes up to three and a half years. Same thing, 1260 days. Again, lots of

places we can go to to build our case for what we're making today. We just don't

have time for all of it. Well, let's look at this. Historically, when Constantine

moved the capital of Rome in AD 330 from Rome to Constantinople, it left a

leadership vacuum in Rome. That vacuum was fairly left open until about AD 538,

when Justinian, the Roman Emperor, officially granted the Roman Bishop the

role of defender of the Emperor's empire, the definer of heretics, and defender of

the faith. This was the Roman Emperor basically said, I'm not there anyways.

It's kind of nice in Constantinople. I've left the bishop in an unofficial

capacity. Well, in this year they made it official. The scepter was handed over, the

titles were bestowed, and now the Bishop of Rome got to rule. The Pope then filled

this void, became not only a powerful religious leader, but also a political

force to be reckoned with in Europe. The papacy, and that's a little different

than just the Catholic Church, the papacy is the Vatican, the city, the little city

state, because it is its own nation, if you will, and it's the Church. The

Catholic Church and the Vatican make up the papacy. So the papacy exercised great

influence from AD 538 for 1260 years until the year 1798 when Napoleon's

general Berthier took the Pope captive. Now some people have said yes,

Pastor Aaron, that was not the first time that the Pope had been captured in

history. That's true, not the first time the Pope had been captured. Well, why

does it matter? Well, because when the Pope was captured this time, it lasted.

It really put an end to the high level of influence that the papacy exercised

in Western Europe until that point. The Church had already been a little on the

decline, but then when that happened, it really went out of fashion. At other

times when the Pope was captured, the Church still kept influencing kings and

monarchs and rulers and the like, even when the Pope was in a dungeon cell

somewhere. Not this time. This time, I believe, because God said when this date

would roll around, then it would come the end of this long stretch of authority.

When God says it, it's going to happen. Berthier and his army captured Pope

Pius VI. They removed him from his throne. The aged Pontiff was hurried from

prison to prison and at length confined in a fortress at the top of the Alps

where he died in exile in 1799. This was an extremely serious blow to the papacy,

but it wasn't fatal because it says that the beast was wounded as if it were dead.

It's a very interesting wording that the Bible gives it because it doesn't say

that the beast was wounded dead. It was as if, like a cockroach. You ever stepped

on a cockroach and off it goes again? You step on it again and off it goes

again? Just to be fair, I have family members who are Catholic. I have a lot of

respect for many Catholics. There are some who are deeply faithful, and this is

not an insult on them. The wound just didn't kill it, is what we're trying to

say. Why is that? Well, because Revelation 13 continues after the mortal wound

was received by the first beast, another beast comes up. It exercises all the

authority of the first beast in the presence, makes the earth its inhabitants,

worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. You can be

terribly wounded and live. There are some incredible x-rays out there of railroad

spikes through the skull of people just, I mean, missing whole sections of bodies

and they should have bled out and miraculously they were sustained and so

on. This mortal wound carried the same result. Anyone looking on at the papacy

in 1798 would have said it's done for, but the Bible tells us that that wound

was going to heal. Well, it's not far-fetched to see how that wound has

healed today. The Roman papacy is gaining in authority, power, and influence around

the world. World leaders welcome the Pope as he travels around the world as an

ambassador of the Church of Rome. In fact, the papacy is the only place that has,

it's the only church that also has its own embassies that other world leaders

then go to and send their own ambassadors. It's a church, don't forget.

There is not another church around the world that has that. There is not another

church as worldly famous as Billy Graham was. He could not go where the Pope goes

and get the red carpet treatment. The tens of thousands of people that flock to

the Pope in areas hostile to Christianity, the Pope goes and is

welcomed with open arms. It's the only religious leader that is like this.

Presidents seek the Pope's advice. It's incredible. He was invited to address a

joint session of the US Congress in a move that many political observers

considered unprecedented. I don't remember how long ago that was, 2016, 2018,

somewhere in that area, I believe, 2015. He did his rounds up in New England, ended

up in Pennsylvania and then at Congress and so forth. It was a big deal.

I remember there was a lot of chatter about it and then it was unprecedented

when he talked to both chambers of Congress at the same time. Kings, political

leaders, presidents visit him regularly at the Vatican and they treat him as

royalty when he visits other countries. There is not another religious leader

that is welcomed like him. Not Joel Osteen, not the Dalai Lama, not anybody

that is welcomed like the Pope. By all external appearances, the papacy seems to

be softening its image to accommodate the spirit of our age. In fact, the

current Pope is called heretical by many of his followers because of this

softening appearance. He's gotten a little softer on same-sex unions, a

little softer on out-of-wedlock babies, a little softer on who can be baptized, a

little softer on these things that are historically hard lines inside of the

Catholic Church. By all appearances, he seems actually like a pretty nice guy.

He bends down and washes the feet of people that no one else would touch. Some

of it is okay. I think more people could follow that kind of example, but we have

to be mindful. At a time when the world is looking for moral leadership, the

Pope's star is rising rapidly, and those yearning for such leadership are right.

Moral leadership is in short supply. The latest research on moral leadership

finds that employees, managers, and executives believe that the need for

moral leadership is more urgent than ever. Surveys reveal a deep lack of trust

in institutions and governments, and in case you're wondering, over the last two

years, it has dropped precipitously in the United States. The trust in

institutions, the trust in governments, the trust in reporting avenues and other

institutions like our news, no one trusts them in the United States,

certainly not compared to 20 or 50 years ago. It's falling, but like we talked

about, when there is a vacancy, people look for that hole to be filled. Millions

of people are wondering, where is someone who is morally fit to lead the world? If

you want to bring the world together today, in a world fragmented by ethnic

tensions and racisms, with governments and even allies that don't trust one

another, where is a moral voice capable of bringing people together? In a world

of instability and uncertainty, rising hunger and increasing poverty, economic

and environmental disasters, it would be easy, very easy, if there were another

global upheaving like we saw with COVID, perhaps a tactical nuke. That has

actually been in the news recently. It would be very easy to see how someone

like the Pontiff of Rome could be the one that the world invites to bring

everyone together, because if you'll remember or if you weren't here and you

can watch it on our The End to Confusion, one purpose to confusion in reference to

how cults operate, they confuse their followers so then the leader can be

chosen a little bit more certainly. When there's lots of confusion, people look

for stability. When you have everybody seemingly failing you on who you can

trust and one person comes forward and says, you can trust me, I am morally

upright, and everyone else goes, sure he is. It's very easy to add stability, if

you will, to a world of confusion. It's not a far-fetched kind of way to kind of

piece some of these things together.

We just talked on this. Human nature looks for stability from confusion and

the Pope has already revered the world over by leaders of every nation and

religion. It's not hard to see how he could rise to the top and everyone look

to him as a moral guide, a moral fixed point, if you will, in a world of

confusion. But this doesn't answer one question. One question that we need to

ask, because remember we aren't talking about the Mark of the Beast, well what

vehicle could the devil use or what he might suggest to unify society?

We have to ask this. Have you ever wondered what he might use? Well, history

often repeats itself. We've mentioned him once before. Let's return just for a

moment to the days of Constantine. Constantine was in charge about the time

that Rome was falling apart. Germanic tribes on their shores, financial

instability, the money was just kind of going around. They weren't conquering.

People were just staying at home and debating things in cycles. Rome really

just kind of fell. It really wasn't conquered. So in an attempt to save his

empire, Constantine turned to religion. He found something. The authority of the

church combined with the power of the state, it became the very instrument that

Constantine was searching for. People find peace and stability in faith. And so

he united the two. Christians had a special reverence for Sunday since

Christ rose from the dead on that day. Christians and Constantine's time kept

both the Sabbath and Sunday. One because it's in the Bible and the other one

because Christ rose on that day. It kind of kept them both. The pagans of

Constantine's time were often sun worshipers. The continual strengthening of

the sanctity of Sunday in the fourth century, it was a calculated political

and religious move to save the empire at a time of crisis. If you've got one

group yelling at the other and that group accusing this group, well if you

find common ground that the two of them can stand on and then the emperor comes

out and says, here's your common ground, stop fighting. That lends itself to

stability. Constantine was looking for that. He wanted his empire united and the

Roman church wanted it converted. That's precisely why Constantine passed the

first Sunday law. The church reinforced its decree in church councils by making

Sunday the sacred day of worship. We read this. Arthur Weagle is a renowned

historian. He says this, the church made a sacred day of Sunday largely because

it was the weekly festival of the sun. It was a definite Christian policy to take

over the pagan festivals, endear to the people by tradition, and give them

Christian significance. It wasn't only done for the days of worship, it was also

done for the idols that they worshiped. I believe Saturn and Peter are the exact

same idols. Saint Peter if you look in Catholic church. I believe it's, it might

be Mars and Peter. That would make a little bit more sense than Zeus and John

or something like that. You can find the same pagan idols in one temple with

the idols that represent supposed saints in the Catholic church. Exact same

idols. We see this with other holidays as well. All Saints Day and so on. A

common day of worship does have the potential to unite a divided world. We're

certainly living in a divided world if you will. As we have emphasized to start

off our presentation tonight, the central issue of Earth's final conflict will be

worship. The issue of the mark of the beast revolves around worship, but it

also focuses on the issue of authority. Whose and how? That's what we have to get

to. We have to ask a couple of these questions. Whose authority and how does

the mark of the beast revolve around worship? Well one, we start with something

that we know. The Sabbath is the eternal symbol of our rest in Jesus Christ. We

looked at that. We studied it. The seventh day of the week is at the heart of how

we worship God. From creation to Exodus to Isaiah to the Gospels to the book of

Acts to the Epistle to the Hebrews to Revelation. The Sabbath is that focal

point for worship in terms of how we worship God. We've already been called

back to this faithful worship by the first angel and with the Sabbath's

connection to creation, we acknowledge God's authority in our lives. Because by

recognizing the connection between Sabbath and creation, we recognize God's

authority as our Creator. That's the connection. The biblical Sabbath means

that we rest in Him because of what He has done in creating and redeeming us. We

can't make ourselves. We can't save ourselves. He did it. Sabbath tells us

that. We observe the Sabbath to acknowledge His creatorship and

sovereignty in our lives. We keep the seventh day Sabbath not to work toward

salvation, but because we are already saved. That's why it's a rest in Him. He's

already done the work. We just accept it. That's what the Sabbath is. But the

Church of Rome claims that Sunday is the mark of its ecclesiastical or church

authority. We saw the connection of the Sabbath with Jesus, but the

Catholic Church claims that Sunday is the mark of its authority. Let's see what

they say. Of course, the Catholic Church claims that the change, the change of the

days of worship, was her act. And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power

and authority in religious matters. That's the American Catholic Quarterly

Review. The Roman Church claims that the mark of its authority is its right to

change the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week.

Now, I want you to, we're going to correct something in just a moment. We go

on with another quote, Louis Gaston Seguerre, in his treatise on the

authority of the Catholic Church, dated 1874, says this,

Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay in

spite of themselves to the authority of the Catholic Church. Somewhere in my

box is still packed from moving. I have my own copy of a little tiny Catholic

Catechism where you can flip to the pages. I have them marked and I have them

highlighted, where they ask the question, what is the Sabbath? And the Catholic

Catechism will say, the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. Then they will

say, well then why do we worship on Sunday? And the Catholic Catechism will

answer, because the Church, using her authority, conferred the day of worship

to Sunday. Then someone has asked me, well Pastor Aaron, I've looked at

those. Those are copyrighted from the 1950s. Now that's old. This date is old.

1874, that's so old. Church doesn't think that anymore. So of course I got out my

Catechism, I dusted it off, I turned to the copyright page and I saw that that

copyright from the 1950s was correct. It was the 1950s. But then I saw 1975, 1985,

1995, 2005, and then 2015, the most recent copyright. Once they had to start

renewing their copyrights every ten years, they basically just says, yep we

still believe it. Because every time that copyright is renewed, the Church is

reaffirming those statements. So I'm just waiting for 2025 when I will pick up my

new copy, and I will look to see if it is still there, and I would be surprised if

it is not. So what vehicle would the devil suggest to unify society? Is it

possible? We're just asking the question, is it possible that the vehicle used to

accomplish the goal of world unification will be Sunday worship, a common day of

worship, promoted as a world day of unity for the good of mankind? Because if you

are going to get maybe non-religious people on board, you've got to

connected it, you got to connect it to something that also applies to the

non-religious. Maybe it's just for the good of mankind. Well the stage is being

set even now. Pope Benedict XVI, I had to think there, says this June 6, 2012,

the demands of work can't bully people out of needed time off. It can't bully

people out of needed time off. Now someone reading that might go, yeah that's

right, I'm a workaholic, my husband is, my wife is, my parents were, I certainly

don't want that for me or my kids, wouldn't it be great if we weren't

bullied by work into never having time off? Sounds good, sounds good. But he went

on to say that Sunday might be, could be, let's consider if it shall be. No, it must

be a day of rest for the Catholic Church. No, for everyone he says. When he says

everyone, my friends, he means it. Here's the reason. So people can be free to be

with their families and with God. And if you choose to not be with God that day,

at least you get to be with your families. That's a win-win for the

religious and the non-religious. And then he takes it one step further by

defending Sunday, one defends human freedom. I like human freedom. If you

take Pope Benedict at his word, then you have to associate human freedom with the

observance of Sunday. Sunday is the day of the Lord and of man, a day which

everyone must be able to be free. Free for the family and free for God, Pope

Benedict says. Make no mistake about it, the day is coming and I believe it's

possibly sooner than we think. I have, I have, I guess my own personal opinions as

to why I think it might be sooner than we think. But I believe sooner than we

think laws will be passed restricting religious liberty. As a side little

parenthetical, the Pope says that Sunday is the day of the Lord and of man. Did we

see that? The Bible says that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath and that the

Sabbath was made for man. I would encourage us that we take the Bible as

it reads and that we always test what is said with what is written. Because if we

take one man at his word, then we have to throw out these Bible verses without

putting too fine a point on it. Those who conscientiously follow the Word of God

and keep the true Sabbath of the Lord will be labeled as opposing unity and

the good of society. Now can you imagine? Let's read this quickly. Those who honor

the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of law and order, as breaking

down the moral restraints of society, causing anarchy and corruption, calling

down the judgments of God upon the earth. Their conscientious scruples will be

pronounced obstinacy, stubbornness, contempt of authority. They will be

accused of disaffection toward the government. Sounds fantastical. Can't

happen. Certainly not in the United States. A recent quote by a prominent

American political spokesperson says this, again we see a majority of Americans

who disagree. And so when you are not with what majority of Americans are, then

you know that is extreme. That is an extreme way of thinking. It's an extreme

way of thinking to not just go along with the majority of what Americans are

thinking. This should catch our attention because in the United States tradition

we have very clear parameters put in place to protect the minority from the

predations of the majority. You should not be labeled extreme if you choose to

just not go along. And I would say that with us should certainly catch our

attention as the word extremist is being used with increasing abandon in our

public discourse. It's being thrown around like it's Christmas morning and

your kids are playing with the wrapping paper. Everything is an extremist this

and what extremist has come to mean is you don't agree with what we want you to

agree with. That's how it's becoming more and more used like. It's almost also

always in the context of a threat to our democracy. So if you find yourself in a

minority and you aren't going along with the majority you can today be labeled

an extremist and a threat to our democracy. It no longer takes great leaps

of the imagination to draw the connection from in the minority and that

would be Sabbath keeping in this conversation to a threat to democracy or

a way of life or even freedom for people as the Pope would say. If you're not a

part of all of that the only thing left mostly unsaid is what to do with those

that are labeled extreme. Because of course you do something with people that

are labeled a threat to democracy. So what is the mark of the beast? What is

the mark of the beast? While it still seems inconceivable to us today. Oh this

is a continuation I actually do want to continue the thought from this last one.

It still seems inconceivable to us today that anything like that could threaten

us today except it's not far-fetched. Regardless of how you fall this is my

interpretation of the two years of COVID. Generally two years. During COVID

governments around the world forced under penalty of fines and imprisonment

the closure of houses of worship around the globe. That was a manner of enforced

worship. How so? Well because it was declared you must worship at home or

else. That is a manner of enforced worship. It has been demonstrated that

governments across the globe need only to declare something an emergency and

they will rapidly violate religious liberties in many forms. And it generally

works that if if the power can be exercised in the negative sense stay

away governments also have a track record of enforcing it and do this in

the positive sense. While they've already flexed one direction the mark of the

beast would suggest flexing the other way. That's all we're saying. So what is

the mark of the beast? Well the beast is the papacy, the Vatican, the Catholic

Church. That it is Sunday observance is what it claims as its mark of authority.

And that the mark of the beast is enforced observance of Sunday as a

sacred day of worship. It's forced. Revelation 13 tells us that under

threats and and penalties and coercion you are you take it or else. So that's

why it is enforced. Revelation 14 9 says this though another angel a third

followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone worships the beast and its

image receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand he also will drink the wine

of God's wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger he will be tormented

with fire and sulfur in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of

the Lamb and it will not be a pretty day for the worshipers of the beast and its

image whoever receives the mark of its name. In other words God is desperately

warning you and I about what will happen to those who ally themselves with the

beast and follow after its claim to worship. Those who have rejected the

first two angels warnings the call to true worship and away from religious

confusion find themselves in danger of being on the receiving end of God's wrath

in the judgment. How are God's people to respond to this challenge to God's

authority this challenge to his prescribed means of worship? Well if

worship on Sunday eventually enforced as the mark of the beast what is the

alternative? Is there an alternative? Well Jesus says in John 14 15 if you

love me keep my commandments and I prayerfully hope each one of us can

answer to the affirmative on the first one. How are we doing on the second half?

Do you love Jesus today? God's people are always motivated by their love for him.

God's people are not motivated out of fear. They are not motivated because if

I do this then God will gift me something. It's not a tit-for-tat kind of

exchange in our relationship to him. We are motivated by love. How has Jesus said

that we can show our love for him? Well faithfulness is how we can show our

love to God and it brings us to the counter option for the mark of the beast

the seal of God. Revelation 7 verse 2 says I saw another angel ascending from

Revelation 7:2

the rising of the Sun with the seal of the living God. Seals in ancient times

were used to notarize or attest to the authenticity of official documents. I

was in school at a time when the archaeology professor at Southern

Adventist University all of a sudden was very excited and next thing the the

school of religion knew he had basically disappeared for the next day and

that's been changed. What is going on with with our professor? Well word came

through the archaeology grapevine that the seal of Isaiah had been

found in an excavation. Well that is so so vitally important to a biblical

archaeologists mind that adds so much evidence extra biblically to the real

existence of the prophet of Isaiah that he basically just took off and started

calling people in Israel and doing what he did. It was very exciting to find

these seals. Often the seals that we find are the only pieces of evidence of a

person's proof of their existence because some things are so old and

they've mostly been destroyed. They're very important. Everybody who was anybody

had a seal. People designed their seals to be unique, distinctive, and

individualized and they were used this way and this is this is not going to be

uncommon to us if you ever had anything notarized. If you have a marriage

certificate or a birth certificate we do the same thing today. With the contract

or the agreement there would be a bit of a sealing wax. They would press the seal

into it as evidence that the document was genuine. To be authentic a seal must

contain at least three elements. We still do this today. The name, the title,

and the territory of the individual whose seal it was and you would see that

like Mrs. Jane Doe, County Clerk, Catoosa County on your marriage certificate.

Something like that, right? We see that. Same three categories. Since the final

conflict is over worship and God's authority is revealed in his law, we

expect God's seal to be embedded in that law. In fact, the prophet Isaiah says

this, bind up the testimony seal the law among my disciples. At the heart of God's

law we read the fourth commandment, the one dealing with the Sabbath, which says

this in part. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor

and do all your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. Four

in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in

them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath

day and he hallowed it. We see in this commandment the name the Lord your God

and it doesn't just give his name he also tells his relationship to you. The

Lord your God, the title, the one who made, creator, I made it all and his

territory, the heavens, the earth, the sea and all that is in them. His territory is

as expansive as it gets. Some of the old Napoleons or the old

Stalins would be jealous of this kind of territory. God claims everything as his.

The Sabbath places us in a special position of worship and loyalty to the

Creator. That is why it is singled out as the Keystone Commandment, the sign or

the seal of the Covenant. Most of the Ten Commandments are accepted even by

secular people as good. Non-religious people look at don't murder and they go

yep. They look at don't steal they go yeah I don't want anyone taking my stuff

from my car. You know they look at don't don't covet or don't cheat with my

spouse. Yeah yeah don't don't do that. We can agree with that. You know kids honor

your mother and father and they say yes you hear that little Jimmy? Even the

non-religious agree with most of the Ten Commandments. Religious people even

agree with the other ones. Have no other gods before me. Don't worship idols. Don't

take God's name in vain. They go yep yep yep all makes sense. This one though this

is the only one debated over. It's the only one that people go well I don't

know about that one. I think I I think I read somewhere that I didn't read it in

the book of Acts. People will say that because I didn't read it in the book of

it's there. It's very obviously there or they will say well it's not explicitly

restated or this is the only one that people really try to explain away rather

than wondering how can I be faithful towards it like the other nine. That's

the better question because the Sabbath places us in a special position of

worship and loyalty to the Creator. That's why it is this by observing the

Sabbath God's last-day people are placing their seal. They are giving their

assent and their agreement to a covenant relationship with God. It is their pledge

of loyalty and obedience to the whole law. James says if you stumble in one

you've stumbled in the rest of them. You can't explain away one and say I'm doing

great God how about it. It doesn't work that way according to the Bible. When we

observe the Sabbath we acknowledge our position as subjects of the divine king

because for an agreement to be valid both parties have to sign it. I just

recently went through the process of buying my first house. I've only ever rented

until now so many papers. So much and everyone has to sign it. Me and my wife

and the seller and his wife and the attorney is signing things and our

realtors are signing things and it's about this thick. So many. If one of us

didn't sign on that dotted line we'd have to start all over. Both parties had to

sign to it before it could be a valid purchase. So it is with our covenant

relationship with God. He's already put his stamp on his part of the bargain.

I've made you. I've created time. I've asked you to be with me during that time.

I will bless you. I will forgive you. I will I will bring you home one day. Now

put your name on there and that's what we're supposed to do with the Sabbath.

The prophecy of Revelation 13 tells us that in the last days during the time of

universal crisis God's people step forward. We don't continue to sit on the

bench watching everyone else argue about this or that. We step forward and we

place our stamp, our seal, our signature right on the covenant. Not by just saying

yes please but by actually keeping the Sabbath. Can't just say okay makes sense.

You've got to follow through. As I say put skin in the game. When they do this

it will be God's turn. He steps forward. He puts his seal on it. He guarantees. He

guarantees that they are his true followers. That's a beautiful thing

because God wants the universe to behold in his people the triumph of his grace.

He wants to show us off. He wants everyone to know that even in a time of

universal apostasy, even in the face of a death decree, even under the

threatenings of you can't buy and sell, that God will have a people who is loyal

to him and they are unwavering. God wants to show you off. God wants people to

notice that you are faithful to him and the ceiling is God's shout of triumph.

It's God's trumpet of victory over you. It is his victory banner that waves

before the universe. The mark of the beast at its very heart exalts human

above the divine. It places man's word above God's word. I even showed a very

clear example of man's word violating God's word. Just side by side. Just like

that. Just like that. The mark of the beast results in replacing the

commandments of God with human decrees and it leads to giving glory to man

rather than giving glory to God. Comes down to this climax. Revelation 14 and

verse 12. Here is a call for the endurance of the saints. Those who keep

the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This is all building up to

something. God's last-day message ends with this climax. We are saved by grace.

Our hearts are filled with the faith of Jesus. His faith motivates and changes us

and inspires and empowers us if we are found in this description. Do you want to

be found in that description? God, Jesus' faith frees you from the guilt of your

past, delivers you from the bondage of sin both past and present and the hope

of in the future nevermore. You won't have to worry about it again. You are

saved by grace. You can't do anything else but through the power that he, but

through his power, you give him your allegiance and you serve and obey him

forever. Right now we are faced with a choice of the two options presented in

the Word of God for showing who your allegiance belongs to, who you love and

who you want as Lord in your life. Which will you choose? Like this man facing the

fork in the road, which way will you turn? Do you want to be counted among the

saints of God? Well, turn towards Jesus. Do you want to be sealed with his seal?

Choose to keep his Sabbath. Do you desire to avoid religious confusion and following

after a coercive institution? Well, leave Babylon. Avoid confusion. Don't go towards

man's dictates, but rather towards God's directives. You have a choice today and

today you will face the same challenge put forth by Joshua to Israel of old.

Choose this day whom you will serve. Will it be God or will it be the beast? Let us

pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word and we thank you for the

warnings, but not only the warnings, but we thank you for the promise because as

we turn to you, as we draw closer to you, you have promised to sustain us, to lift

us, to bring us all the way through to the end. Lord, I pray that that would be

sooner than later. Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness towards us and we pray

for the strength to make a decision in your favor tonight as we pray in Jesus'

name. Amen.