Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #34 of Revelation, chapter 13, and we are going to be reading from Revelation 13:17-18:

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. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

I will stop reading there.  This brings us to the end of Revelation, chapter 13.  We were discussing the mark of the beast for a while and then we started to discuss what it means to “buy or sell.”  We went to Isaiah, chapter 55, in our last study, so let us go back there again and read Isaiah 55:1:

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.

Again, the Lord is likening Himself to a merchant man who is merchandising the Gospel and, yet, while it is the language of a merchant, there is no ability to purchase with money because salvation was by grace through the faith of Christ and no “work” of any kind could be done (by mankind) to earn, obtain or deserve God’s salvation in any way. 

We also read in Revelation 3:17:

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Here, God was speaking to the church of the Laodiceans.   Remember that each of the addresses to the churches was an address to the corporate church body over the course of the entire church age.  God said at the end of the each of the seven addresses what He also says in Revelation 3:22:

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Whether He was speaking to the Laodiceans or the Philadelphians or the church at Smyrna, He said in each case, “Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,” because it had application to the entire church body all during the church age. 

Here, God is saying that they say they are “rich,” and we have to keep in mind that this does not refer to earthly riches, but to spiritual riches.  When people claim to be saved and profess to be a Christian, they are saying, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.”  But if it is not true that they are saved and they continue to have a heart of stone that is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,” then the Lord goes on to explain: “and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”  God is saying they are all these things, even though they think they are abundantly rich. 

It goes on to say in Revelation 3:18:

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

God says, “I counsel thee to buy of me” these items of merchandise like “gold,” and “white raiment” and “eyesalve.”  God is the merchantman that “buys and sells” in the Gospel and, yet, it is all freely given, as far as God is concerned and the true Gospel of the Bible.  There is no money that changes hands and there is no earning of the grace of God.

Let us go to one other place.  In Matthew, chapter 25, we have the parable of the ten virgins and I will read it all to establish the context.  It says in Matthew 25:1-13:

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

This is a parable that deals with the time of the end and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and Judgment Day.  God tells us of two groups: five foolish virgins and five wise virgins.  We know from the Biblical language that he five “wise” virgins were saved and the five “foolish” virgins were unsaved.  They all have lamps.  The Bible says in Psalm 119, for instance, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,” so the lamp represents the Word of God.  They all had Bibles.

Now the wise virgins took oil in their vessels with their lamps.  In the Bible, oil often represents the Holy Spirit.  And because they were wise due to having become saved and having the spirit of Christ indwelling them, they have “oil” for their lamps.  The oil illuminates the Word of God and as they burn the oil, they can “see,” and that is exactly what the Holy Spirit does in the lives of true believers – He opens our eyes and enlightens our minds to understand the Scriptures. 

So they all “slumbered and slept,” which is a reference to the church age.  But, finally, the cry comes at midnight, which ties into the Great Tribulation period, the time when God opened up the Scriptures to the understanding of His people.  Remember it says in Daniel 12: “None of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand,” or we could say that none of the “foolish” shall understand, but the “wise” shall understand.  So the cry is made that the bridegroom cometh and in the days leading up to May 21, 2011 that cry went forth during the Great Tribulation.  What did it mean?  It meant the bridegroom is coming – Christ is coming as the Judge of all the earth.  All the virgins arose and trimmed their lamps and the foolish virgins realize that their lamps have gone out, so they go to the wise virgins and they say, “Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.”  This is like a discussion between the saved and the unsaved and it involves lighting a lamp to illuminate the Word of God.  Just think back to individuals that would say, “You are saying that Christ is coming on May 21, 2011.  Show me from the Bible.  Show me – light my lamp so I can see this, too.  Show me where it is written.”  But because the wise cannot open anyone’s eyes or give anyone the Holy Spirit, we did all that a child of God can do because we cannot give anyone the Holy Spirit and we answered, “Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you:  but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came.”

Here is where we have to be careful because we must remember that it said in Isaiah 55: 1: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money.”  Who was the merchantman?  It was God.  In Revelation 3:18, it said: “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire.”  Who was that merchantman?  So the believers are saying, “Go to them that sell and buy,” and we would direct them to eternal God, but why then does it use the pronoun “them”?

It is because God is a triune God; He is One God but He reveals Himself as three Persons.  So we are saying, “Go to them.  Go to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and get the oil from them.”  Ultimately, He is the only One who can “merchandise” and it is only God who can give salvation to a sinner, so the “wise virgins” are directing the foolish virgins to God.

Then it says, “And while they went to buy,” and where was it that they went?  Well, since they are foolish virgins and they are unsaved, they are going to their pastors or to their churches or to other theologians or Bible scholars and they are going to ask, “What do you think of Christ coming on a certain day?”  The churches, the Bible scholars and theologians are going to answer with one voice: “No man knows the day or hour.  No man knows, so do not listen to that kind of talk.  We will not know when Christ will return.” 

So they are busily involved in “buying and selling” in the churches where there was no Holy Spirit because God was no longer in the churches during the Great Tribulation.  He had gone out of the midst and, therefore, there was no oil for these people to light their lamps in order for them to see the end time information God had opened up when He unsealed the Scriptures, as it declares in the Book of Daniel.  So while they “went to buy,” the bridegroom came and the true believers went into the wedding and the door was shut.  God’s people entered into the safe chamber of the wedding.  It is not yet time to consummate the marriage, but the Lord brings us into the safe chamber of salvation and shuts the door.  He did this on May 21, 2011.

Afterward came the other virgins, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us.”  Finally, they are going to the right source (Christ) for entry into the kingdom of heaven, but it is too late.  It is too late because Jesus said, “I know you not.”  We know from other Scripture that He says, “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”  But, again, God is the merchantman and failure to understand that cost the five foolish virgins entry into the marriage and into the kingdom of heaven.

Let us go back to Revelation 13.  We are going to read Revelation 13:18:

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Here, God says, “Here is wisdom,” and why is God saying this?  He is basically saying, “This is an example of wisdom.”  This is reworded slightly a couple of chapters later, in Revelation 17:9:

And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

Here, it says “And here is the mind which hath wisdom,” and then another parable is given about Satan, the beast, with his seven heads and ten horns.  You need “wisdom” to discern what God is saying.  How can anyone understand that parable (or anything in the Bible) without wisdom or without having the Spirit of God within?  It says, in 1Corinthians 1:30, that  Christ “is made unto us wisdom,” and we need wisdom; we need Him indwelling us and then we have the ‘oil’ to light the lamp and we can discern ‘time and judgment’ and comprehend the things that God tells us in His Word.  We can then understand to the degree which God wants us to understand, as He is in control of everything His people know about the Bible.  In this statement, “Here is wisdom,” God indicates that we need to approach the Bible a certain way.  You cannot come to these kinds of verses (and the Bible is full of them) and expect to understand what is being said if you only have the wisdom of the world.  In 1Corinthians, chapter 2, God contrasts the wisdom of the world with the wisdom of God.  It says in 1Corinthians 2:5-7:

That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

It is “hidden wisdom” and what we speak is “the wisdom of God in a mystery.”  A mystery has to do with parables; Christ spoke “mysteries” or parables: “Christ spoke in parables and without a parable he did not speak.”  This is the nature of the entire Bible.  A parable is that which hides truth and throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, God has hidden truth, even in seemingly plain statements like, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son.”  Does God love everyone in the world?  That is how some people understand that verse, but it is a mystery or hidden truth and you have to search elsewhere in the Bible to solve that mystery.  Another example is where it says, in 2Peter 3:9, that the Lord is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”  This appears to be a very plain statement and it ensnares many people that are “taken” in the way God wrote the Bible; it is a trap for them and they fell into the trap by thinking that it means that God is not willing that any human being perish, but that every human being comes to repentance.  That is a million miles off course because we have to search the Bible and find other information and balance it out, by comparing Scripture with Scripture and then God begins to define His terms.  Then we realize that He was not speaking a lie, but He met exactly what He said there.  He is not willing that any should perish and when we check the rest of the Bible we see it means “any of His elect,” and He will grant all of His elect the gift of repentance when He saves them.  Now this verse fits and harmonizes with the rest of the Bible, but we cannot use the “wisdom of the world.”  The wisdom of the world says, “Look, I can read.  I can see what it says – He is not willing that any should perish, so why are you twisting the Scriptures and trying to make it say something it does not say?”  You see, they are not able to see it.  There is a stubbornness that is a result of the sinful condition of man and it clouds the mind.  The Holy Spirit needs to be there in order to open their understanding and, if not, their understanding will be lacking (if not on that verse, then on many other verses). 

Then it goes on to say in 1Corinthians 2:11-13:

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

It does not say the “wisdom” of the Holy Ghost here, but that is what is implied.  We do not speak the words of man’s wisdom.  That is why EBible Fellowship will not be quoting theologians.  We are not going to be quoting the Reformers and we are not going to refer to confessions, creeds and doctrinal statements.  That is fine, to some degree, as long as those theologians and Reformers are correct in what they say, but as far as declaring and teaching the Word of God, God says, “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth.”  We cannot go against what God is saying here and attempt to teach people through human reasoning through the words of other men such as when people say, “Let us look at this verse in the light of what the Calvinists say and let us see what Luther said about this passage.”  I have been to Bible studies in the past where that is how they operated.  Their thought was that these men were renowned theologians in their day and there is safety in that.  There is no safety in that.  The safety is not in the teachings of men, but as the Holy Ghost teaches, as it goes on to say in 1Corinthians 2:13:

… not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

We begin to search the Bible and as we carefully do so, making sure that our conclusions harmonize with the whole Bible, there is that safety. 

This is why God is saying in Revelation 13:18, “Here is wisdom.”  It is not the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of men, but the wisdom of God in a mystery.  Here is wisdom: you need to follow proper Bible methodology in order to understand what God is saying to us.  That is why it goes on to say in Revelation 13:18:

… Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we will look at this “number” that is found in this verse and we will go to the Bible to see what the Bible has to say about it.