Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #33 of Revelation, chapter 13, and we are going to be reading from Revelation 13:16-17:

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

I will stop reading there.  We saw in our last study that the “image of the beast” was given “spirit” and it had the ability to “speak” and whoever would not worship the image of the beast should be “killed.”  We saw that the spiritual equivalent of “killing” is to be driven out of the churches and that was the characteristic of much of the period of the Great Tribulation – the Lord’s people were being driven out of the congregations by the faulty doctrines of the churches.  Sometimes, they would be directly asked to leave and to continue their search for a church “more to their liking.” 

The end of the church age was the fault of those within the churches and congregations, due to their failure to obey God’s commandment to remove their “high places.”  After giving them space for nearly 2,000 years, God came to visit to see if the churches had repented and returned to their “first love,” but they had not and, therefore, God ended the church age and began judgment at the house of God.  Finally, He opened up that information to His people and included in that information was the command to “depart out” and leave the churches and go out into the world as a person worshipping God individually or with his or her family. 

Basically, it was the “image of the beast” and fact that Satan was now established within the churches and God’s Spirit had left that caused the people of God, to go out of the churches en mass and be “killed,” in that sense.  This is the situation in which God’s people now find ourselves.  We are outside the churches, but continuing to worship God “in spirit and in truth.”  The child of God is alone with the Word of God and not part of any organized church – no membership, no gathering as a corporate body (but, perhaps, gathering with some family, friends or a few other people) and without all the “trappings” of the churches, such as church authority, water baptism, the Lord’s table and church discipline; there is none of that because the church age has ended.

It says in Revelation 13:16:

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

It was mentioned last time that this “mark” represents ownership.  The mark is in their hand because it represents the will of a person; and it is in their foreheads because that is where our mind is located and where our thinking takes place inside the head or forehead.  So the mark of the beast is there to indicate that they are sold to Satan and belong to him. 

Then it says in Revelation 13:17:

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

If you possess the mark, then you can “buy or sell.”  We will look at a couple of verses related to buying and selling, but let us first look at a couple of places that relate to the “mark of the beast.”

It says in Revelation 14:9-10:

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

Here, the Lord is indicating that if anyone receives that mark (and all must receive the mark if they are to “buy and sell” with the churches of the world), it is guaranteed they will “drink of the wine of the wrath of God.”  Of course, there is no literal “mark,” but it is all language God gives us to illustrate that the churches and all the unsaved people of the world have been given over to Satan.  But through this language of an identifying mark, on the one hand it appears it is Satan’s way of knowing who is his or who is not.  But, in addition to that, the “mark” is useful to God because He knows which one to begin to give the cup of His wrath and all the unsaved will “drink of the wine of the wrath of God.” 

It says in Revelation 16:1-2:

And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

Again, the Lord is emphasizing that when it comes time to pour out His wrath on Judgment Day, the object of the wrath of God is all who have the mark of the beast.  That is because everyone with this mark is unsaved.  None of God’s people have this mark.  For instance, it says in Revelation 15:1-2:

And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

In these verses the Lord is showing us the true believers and they do not bear the mark of the beast in their hand or in their foreheads, but they got “the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark.”  This is wonderful language that indicates that God’s people were victorious over Satan after he had that tremendous period of rule during the Great Tribulation.  God’s people got the victory over “his image,” which was the corporate body that became the image bearer of Satan; God’s people got the victory over “the number of his name,” and we will look at that in a little while in our study, as Revelation 13 concludes with a mention of the that number “666.”  But God’s people were victorious over that number.  And now, here they are, standing on the sea of glass and having the harps of God.  This is a beautiful picture the Lord is giving us.

Let us go back to our verse in Revelation 13:17:

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

What does God mean when He says, “no man might buy or sell”?  As with everything in the Bible, this has a spiritual meaning and probably the best place to turn in order to find definition for what the Lord is saying here is in Isaiah 55:1-2:

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

The Lord is likening Himself to a merchant man who is calling to passersby: “Come!  Come and taste of my merchandise.  Come to the waters.”  Of course, the Gospel is freely given, as God saves men by His grace through His faith, the faith of Christ.  Man can contribute nothing to his salvation, so it takes no money.  So the message is for those that have no money to come.  Why is it that God speaks of someone coming with no money?  How do we get money?  We work in order to get money, so the money is a representation of our “work,” but we cannot do any works in order to obtain God’s salvation.  Therefore, His merchandise is freely given to those that have no money.  No one can earn salvation, although multitudes of people attempt to earn God’s salvation through their own good works, but the Bible says that no man is justified by works.  So the call is to come without money – come without the fruits of your own labor: “Come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”  The Lord is hitting home this point very strongly. 

Of course, in the world, if you attempted to go to the supermarket and buy milk without money, they will look at you as if you are strange.  How can you buy milk without money?  God is just using the language of the merchants of the world in order to typify the Gospel, but He is very careful to stress “no money” because you can do no work of any kind to obtain salvation.  Remember what we read in Ephesians 2:8-9:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

We are not saved by our works (of any kind).  By the way, some people get all confused with the idea of doing “good works” after salvation.  The Bible is very clear that where it concerns salvation, the least bit of work is an abomination to God – it is like the man who picked up a few sticks.  If anyone thinks he must contribute even the tiniest little bit of work (by accepting Christ, by saying the Sinner’s Prayer, by water baptism), they have perverted the Gospel of grace and there is no salvation because we are saved by grace through the faith of Christ.  The Bible could not be more clear and direct on that matter: no man is justified by the works of the law in the sight of God.  Instead, we are justified by the works and the faith of Christ.  The Bible teaches this, absolutely, and there is no doubt or question about it, but following salvation (after God has saved us), then what happens?  Once we are saved, the Lord has given us a new heart and a new spirit and now we have an ongoing desire to do the will of God. 

How do we know what is the will of God?  How do we know what it is that we should so strongly desire to do?  Well, we learn the will of God through the Bible.  As we read the Bible and as we grow in grace and the knowledge of God, we read of God’s Laws.  God teaches us, more and more, concerning the Laws of His Word.  For instance, if we are a woman, we read that a woman is not to teach the Bible to men, so she will be very careful in that area and she will not want to give an impression she is teaching men; or, if we are a father or a mother, then God tells us how we are to raise our children; or, we learn of the true character of Sunday and that it is God’s holy day and the Lord would have us “to remove our foot” (our will) from His holy day; we will not do the things we would normally have desired to do, but to do things His way and not seek our own pleasure on the Lord’s day and we want to observe the Sunday Sabbath;  or, perhaps, in the past we would speak lies fairly easily and we were not too troubled about it, but now we have learned that we are to speak truth, every man with his neighbor.  The Bible is a Book of truth and God is Truth.  We have that new nature and we desire to do the will of God, so we speak the truth and we no longer lie.

As we are learning things that please God from the Law of God, we are beginning to do them.  God has given us the ability, through His Spirit, to perform the doing of these things, more and more.  What are these things?  They are “good works.”  The definition of a Biblical “good work” is that whatever God commands, the true believer attempts to obey.  The result is a “good work.”  For example, God said to Abraham, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac…and offer him for a burnt offering.”  Abraham obeyed and it was a “good work.”  That was a spectacular “good work,” as we would think of offering a son.  That would be an incredible act of obedience, but there are the smaller things, as I mentioned earlier, such as not telling lies any longer, but speaking the truth.  All are “good works” and when true believers strongly desire to do the will of God, are they now trying to get saved by their works?  It has nothing to do with salvation, but it is a result of salvation; it is because they are already saved and because the Spirit of God is within them. 

Earlier I read Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, but let me read it again.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

So we have 100% agreement that we know what God is saying and it is repugnant to the child of God to even consider trying to offer the slightest bit of “work” to become saved; we know we are saved by Christ.  We are saved by grace through the faith of Christ.  Salvation is of the Lord and not of man and the child of God loves that idea.  We do not want any of our filthy works involved, polluting and destroying that wonderful grace wherein we stand. 

But notice that after God says that salvation is not of works, He says in Ephesians 2:10:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Do you see how God has put these two ideas together in close proximity?  They are right next to each other, so no one can miss what He is saying.  When it comes to salvation, the work is all the Lord Jesus Christ’s work.  Following salvation, you have a new heart and spirit and you are becoming that new creature and that is what the “workmanship” refers to; it is the workmanship of Christ in making us anew.  We are “his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,” and now we want to do it God’s way, even in the smallest things.  Someone might say, “Before I was saved, I used to speed on the highway, like everyone else and my only concern was not to get caught.  But if I stayed with the flow of traffic that is going 70 mph in a 55 mph zone and there were 15 or 20 cars flowing along with me, the likelihood of my being caught was very slim.  So I would go with the flow of traffic and if I saw a policeman off to the side of the road, then I would slow down.”  In other words, there was no problem with breaking the law.  A lot of people try to justify that and say, “Everyone does it.  Even the police do not care if you go five miles over the speed limit.”  It is actually a good representation of the mindset of a sinner; we justify our sins by saying, “Well, other people are doing it.  Actually, just about everyone is doing it, so that makes what I am doing fine.”   If everyone is going 70 and we are right there with them, we do not see the sin.  But God does not work that way.  God says to obey the higher powers and the law says the speed limit is 55.  If the law is not concerned with enforcing that, that is another question.  It is not the concern of the child of God.  All we know is the law says “55 mph” and now I go down the highway and the urge is there because I have driven this way my whole life, but now I want to do it God’s way.  Now I am slowing down and going the speed limit and people are zooming past me left and right.  It really is a good picture of how the child of God lives in this world because that is what happens in so many areas of life – the world has its ideas and, seemingly, everyone is on that same page, but there is the true believer lagging behind and not going with the flow. 

But we know what we are doing because God has given us the spirit to submit to Him and His Law.  It is a little thing and it is a “good work,” but we are doing it out of the desire to obey God.  If it were our own will, we would probably be speeding at 70 or 75, too, but now we want to obey God.  That is just one little example of the things that go on in the life of a believer: observing the Sunday Sabbath, no more lies, doing the speed limit, no more cursing, no drinking, no smoking and all sorts of things that are “good works.”  We are doing it to be pleasing to God.  We love Him.  He has given us His Spirit and in that spirit we desire to do things His way and it has absolutely nothing to do with trying to obtain salvation through good works.  That is mixing up two very different doctrines.  Oftentimes, it is the case that when the child of God says, “It is the Sunday Sabbath,” or “It is not for kings to drink wine,” then someone will say, “Look, brother, we are under grace and that is the Law, so let us not bring people under the bondage of the Law.”  That is just a flat out error on their part for mixing the two doctrines; they present it as if we are trying to bring people under the Law as far as salvation is concerned.  God forbid.  We would never do that.  The idea is to do things God’s way and that is what God would have us to do.   I am sorry to say that when people talk about “the Law, the Law, the Law,” a lot of times they just want to justify their own sinful actions.  They want to continue breaking the Law: “Oh, I am under the grace of God.”  It is a good way to justify sin.  “That way I can keep drinking and I can keep doing what I want to do on Sunday.”  But that is no longer the character of a child of God.