2026-04-06 Revelation 13 Wednesday Part 3

0:00Today is the day you have. Welcome to Today in the Word with Pastor Bob Larson, of Calvary Chapel Caldwell. Pastor Bob will be with us in just a few minutes, but first we'd like to let you know that Calvary Chapel is located on the corner of 10th and Everett across from the library in downtown Caldwell. We have two Sunday morning services at 9.30 and 11.30. If you prefer Saturday nights, we have a Saturday night service at 7 p.m. We also have a midweek service Wednesday night at 7 p.m. You can watch Today in the Word on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. on ABC channel 6.1. Join us as we broadcast Calvary Chapel Caldwell's Sunday morning church services. Where Pastor Bob teaches you how to apply the truth in your Bible to everyday experiences, so that you might enjoy better life. Verse 16 he says, 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. Now, this is the part everybody's excited about in the book of Revelation. They're gonna get a mark on their hand or on their forehead

1:01for 17 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. Now, the Bible tells us that as Christians, God has marked us as His children. In Ephesians 1, 13 it says, having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession to the praise of His glory. So, the Bible says that you were sealed and that is a phrase that's used in that day, right? You were sealed, if someone was gonna ship something, right, if they had to ship something from Amazon, then what they would do is they would put a wax imprint and they would put their ring on it and seal it and then that would make sure that it got to what was going because they would know who's it was. And so Paul used that phrase that we were sealed in Ephesians 1, that you're marked by God, that God has marked you, that you're sealed, you're gonna get to your destination

2:03and it's interesting, the Antichrist makes them put a mark on their forehead or their hand, right? In Deuteronomy 11, 18, it says, therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul and bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be on the frontlets between your eyes, right? So, God told his people, again, remember the counterfeit thing? The God told his people in the Old Testament, hey, you are going to put it on your hand and on your head, right? And remember what that little box was called? It's called the Philacteries, right? Jesus talked about it in Matthew 33-5. He said, but all the works that they do to be seen by men, they make their Philacteries broad and enlarge their borders on their garments. So, they have this little box, right? And they would put in it the Shema, Deuteronomy 64. Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. And so, they would put that in the little box. Now, the Antichrist, who is a counterfeit, he's going to make everybody get a mark on their hand

3:05or on their forehead proclaiming that they're going to worship him. Now, years ago, people used to think, is this my credit card? I mean, is this, you know, is this, is this, there's numbers on the credit card or whatever? No, this is something that you deliberately say, look, I want to worship this, the Antichrist and I'm going to have a mark on my hand and my forehead. Now, the world is getting prepared for this, right? And when you think about this, it's mind blowing because Paul wrote this, or John wrote this 2,000 years ago, and you think the highest form of technology in John's day was a donkey, right? And he's saying, people are somehow going to have a mark on their hand or the forehead. Now, you all know that how this, it's already happening now. And it's been happening a long time. Since 2006, RFID chips, you know, were in your passport, did you guys know that? Were you in your passport when you travel? And, you know, there's a picture on your passport, but there's a chip in there. And when you travel and you put it on there, they take the picture out of the chip, and they match it with the picture that's on the passport

4:05to see if it's really your passport. In some countries, parents were putting chips in their children, places where kids would get kidnapped. And even in some American cities, they would, they have backpacks or even I read in their shoes where they'd put chips where they can track them in their shoes or backpacks. And so, society is being conditioned to this whole idea of, you know, just allowing the government to track you. You know, if you're older and you think, well, what if somebody steals my identity? You said that to a young person? Like, I mean, I've said it probably a hundred times in the last five years. And you know what a young person says to me? And they, what if they steal your identity? And they're like, who cares? Who cares? Like, what if they get your social? I don't care, right? Now, old people are like, I don't want them to have my stuff, right? But the culture is being conditioned, even Christians, right? And society is being conditioned to take this mark, right? If you don't, I'm sure there's going to be consequences if you don't take it, right? He said, you're going to be put to death. They're getting conditioned. So when this time comes and they say, hey, you need to get this mark on your hand forehead.

5:07You need to worship this guy. You know, from people like, okay, whatever. Will they give me free school, free DEI? I mean, free weed. I mean, free, free, whatever. Yep, you get free, everything. All right, sign me up. I mean, it's just such a weird thing. Actually, a student was telling me just a few months ago about how they were paying them to take vaccines, right? They said, if college students, if you come in and get vaccinated, we'll pay you money. $100, this is like, it's just crazy that the culture is just shifting from, you know, just 20, 30 years ago. I mean, if you would have told our America, 30 years ago, the government's gonna force you to inject some stuff into you that you have no idea what it is. And neither do they. 90% would have said no way. Now we're at 50% say, okay, how much do I get for it? $100, all right? Anything for $100. I mean, it's like, things are changing, right? So he says in verse 18, here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of men

6:07and his number is 666. Now, people wanna know who this is, right? People try to identify and I remember growing up, my family wasn't Christians and so we watched, you know, Damien the Oman and he had 666 tattooed on his head and that was kind of creepy. And then, and now it's kind of cool. We had a guy working on our air conditioner, she has 666 tattooed on his neck. I said, hey, what's that? And he's like, it's nothing. I'm like, you have 666 and big letters on your neck. It's nothing. He's like, well, it was something I did a while. I'm like, now just like, whatever. But when you think about numbers in the Bible, there is symbolic meaning to numbers. The number seven is the number of completeness or perfection, right? Seven days in a week, seven notes on a scale. The number of eight represents new beginnings. The eighth day is a new week in the Greek in Hebrew. They used the alphabet for their numeral. So like alphabet of Gamma Delta, one, two, three, four in the Greek, right? So when you have a word in the Greek,

7:09you can total up the numeric value of each word for a name. For example, the name of Jesus in the Greek, whether it's Christos or Curios, when you total the numbers up, it's always divisible by eight. Jesus in Greek totals up to 888, right? So Jesus is a new beginning for each of us, brings spiritual life, new life for all of us, we're made new, right? So eight is the number of new beginning. Seven is the number of completeness, perfection. Six is the number of man, right? Imperfection, incompleteness. All you married people know that your spouse is imperfect, right? And remember you're getting a fight, that's an easy way to end it, right? You're fighting, you're arguing, you just tell your spouse, I'm a sinner, I'm imperfect, that's why I did this. And at our house, that just ends it right there, like, oh, right, I should lower my expectations, all right? So here we go, which fix that, right? But 12 represents human government, right? 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles. 13 is the number of Satan. And all the names of Satan in the Bible are divisible by 13.

8:12And that's why it's known as an unlucky number. I've been in many high-rise hotels where they don't have a number of 13. I've asked people at the counter, hey, why is it no 13th floor? And I'm like, I don't know, I'm like, well, you know now. But so he says, there's this number, verse 18. Here is wisdom, let him, who has understanding, calculate the number of the beast, for the number of man, his number is 666. Now, here's the thing, we know that this is all going to happen. People are going to worship the Antichrist, people are going to take this mark, people are going to do all these crazy things. But I am not living my life. God did not give us the book of Revelation so that I'm looking for the Antichrist. I don't watch the news every day, wondering when's the Antichrist coming, right? I don't do that. The Bible says that Jesus is going to take the church out before this seven-year tribulation begins. And you can accept Jesus into your life and you can go with us, right? You don't have to be here. And if you don't want to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior,

9:14well, then I just got one bit of advice. Don't take the mark, right? I mean, if you want to stay here, you want to go through it, right? Then that's okay, that's your choice. But God doesn't want to do that, right? Why did God give us the book of Revelation? To just peak our curiosity? You know, no, it's because He wants us to know, look, He's going to judge the world. And He wants us to know that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price for our sins, that we can be forgiven and we can be redeemed, we can be healed and forgiven and restored and we can be removed before the tribulation comes. So if you're not sure, if you've accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you want to do it tonight, we want to give you an opportunity to do it because it is so important that you accept Jesus. Now, what if someone says, well, Pastor Bob, I don't think that's fair that people who don't accept Jesus have to go through the tribulation? Well, then, invite Jesus into your life as your Lord and Savior, accept Him, invite Him in, confess your sins, repent of your sins, and you can go. Well, what if I don't want to?

10:14Well, then you get to go through this, right? I mean, He gives us a choice, right? I mean, if some people are like, well, I can't believe God would do that. If I was God, I wouldn't do that. Well, you're not God, right? I mean, God is God and He's going to do what He's going to do, right? Could you imagine people getting up saying, if I was God, I wouldn't have the sunrise come up at a different time every day. I'd have it at the same time every day. So I don't have to change my alarm. I want to watch the sunrise. I mean, just the audacity of people to say, if I was God, you're not, right? I mean, what have you created? Nothing. So God in His love tells us what's coming, right? And why does He tell us what's coming? Because He wants us to know that we can be forgiven. We don't have to go through it. And He wants to encourage us to share this love with other people. He wants us to tell others about His love and His grace that Jesus died for our sins. That if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Why would anybody not want that? Why would you not want to be forgiven? Why would you not want to experience God's love? And you just think about this crazy stuff you see going on in the culture.

11:16Why would anybody not want to have a normal family, right? I mean, even as an atheist, he then, I remember thinking, why couldn't I have been born into a normal family? My family was crazy, and crazy things were happening all the time. And even as a non-Christian, I had this thought in my mind, why couldn't I have been born to a normal family, right? Where there was a mom and dad that loved each other. And they taught me what was right and wrong. And they cared about what I did in school and sports and whatever. And even as a non-Christian, I understood that. But Jesus gives you the opportunity to receive forgiveness, to experience His supernatural work in your life, and to give you guidance for life in every area of life. And so if you are not sure where you are in your relationship with God, if you are not sure if you've invited Jesus in your life, you can do it tonight. So let's bow our heads. And I'm going to lead us in a prayer if you'd like to invite Jesus in your life. As your Lord and Savior, you can just repeat after me and invite Jesus into your life tonight. And you say, it's pray along with us. Dear Jesus, I admit I've sinned.

12:18I ask for your forgiveness. I invite you into my life, fill me with your spirit, and help me to follow you. And Jesus' name. Thank you for joining us for today in the worth. We'd like to share with you a couple of things that are going on here at Calvary Chapel. Calvary Kids of Caldwell Daycare is now hiring. Calvary Kids is a Christ-centered daycare and a state licensed child care facility that is open Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Part time and full-time positions are available. If you enjoy working with children from infants to kindergarten, give us a call at 208-454-5136. For more information or to apply online, please go to calvarycaldwell.com. Calvary Chapel Caldwell would like to invite you to our Saturday night service at 7 p.m. This is an alternative for those who cannot make it to our Sunday morning services.

13:19Like us on Facebook at Calvary Chapel Caldwell or check out our website at calvarycaldwell.com. You can watch today in the word on Sunday mornings at 10.30 a.m. on the CW channel 2.2. Join us as we broadcast Calvary Chapel Caldwell's Sunday Morning Church Services, where Pastor Bob teaches you how to apply the truth in your Bible to your everyday experiences so that you might enjoy a better life. If you would like to listen to Pastor Bob's message today in its entirety, you can visit our YouTube page. Just search calvary chapel Caldwell and you can see all of the latest messages from Pastor Bob. Make sure to click the notification bell so you know when. We post new content. If you are not currently attending a church and are in the Caldwell area, we'd like to invite you to one of our services. We're located on the corner of 10th and Everett across the street from the library in downtown Caldwell. You can also visit us on the web at calvarycaldwell.com. If today in the word has ministered to you and you would like to support this radio outreach ministry, we encourage you to pray for us. You can also partner with us financially. Simply visit calvarycaldwell.com to make a donation.

14:21Thank you for joining us for today in the word. May the Lord bless you and may you have a great day. Today is the day you have made.