Identifies the Antichrist as the ultimate opposition to Christ, drawing parallels between his character and conduct and the opposite qualities of Jesus. It details the Antichrist's rise to power, his deceptive nature, and the mark he will impose on humanity, making it impossible to buy or sell without it. The message contrasts the Antichrist's destructive reign with the ultimate triumph of Christ, urging listeners to bear the marks of the Lord Jesus rather than the mark of the beast. The sermon concludes by emphasizing that true Christians will not be present during the Antichrist's reign but will be with Christ, and calls for personal commitment to Christ as the answer to the world's apostasy, apathy, and anarchy.
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His letter to the church at Galatia, Revelation chapter thirteen. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rider out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten cranks, and upon his head the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard. And his feet were as the feet of a bear. And his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave his power and his feet and great authority.
And I saw one of its heads, as it were, wounded to death. And his deadly wound was healed. And the whole world wandered up to the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast. And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a man speaking great things and blasphemies. And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle. and then that dwelt in heaven.
And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given him over all the kindreds and tongues of nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose name was not written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. If any man hath an ear, let him hear. And he that lead us into captivity, shall go into captivity. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
And I beheld an another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake of a dragon, and he exercised all the power of the first beast before him and calls of the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he does great wonders, so that he make up fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he perceives of them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wounds by a sword and did live.
And he had power to give light unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and call that he may have, I'm sorry, call that as many as would worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he calls it all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and fast, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that has a mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of the name.
Herein is wisdom. Let him that have understanding count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred, three, four, and six. May the Lord just add his blessing for that portion somewhat complicated, I'm sure, for many of us who read it. And now let's read one verse in the Epistle to the Galatians. One verse in the Epistle to the Galatians. Verse seventeen of the sixth chapter from henceforth.
Let no man trouble me. For I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Shall we pray? O God and Father, we confess this evening as we turn to thy word that we find ourselves in great need of the Spirit of God to be our teacher. But all how we praise thee that he has been given us our teacher. And we ask that this evening, as we look at thy word, that we may see those things thou wouldst have us see, that we may learn the lessons thou wouldst have us learn, and that tonight each one of us may go on this lake, not bearing the mark of a beast, but bearing the marks of the Lord Jesus.
Speak then to our heart, for we ask it in his name, Amen. Amen. If there is one thing I am absolutely persuaded of tonight, it is this, that if not a man or woman will be in a moment's doubt that the world, and I speak of the world in its broad sense, is looking for a man. I am utterly amazed, whatever country I go to, how the story is almost the same, please. I heard it here, and there are brethren and sisters in this service tonight who said it to me since I arrived in your country.
I hear it in my own country. I hear it in whatever land I go. Men and women looking and seeing the mess the world seems to be in, and asking, is there not a man that can lead us out of the trouble the world seems to be in today? someone in this very service, I won't call him by name because he seated very near me, someone in this very service said to me just a few days ago, all that we had a Winston Churchill, I know not why he named a man from my own country. What this country said he, speaking of your beloved land, what this country is in need of today is someone who has the power to meet the power to take men and women through the problems that they are confronted with.
If this be true, please, I am not a politician. I do not wish to be a politician. God would not have me be a politician. But please, if this be true, that in the politics of men, men are asking for a thoughtful leader Never you forget that there will come a day when they will be given that leader. There will come a day the word of God leaves us in no doubt. There will come a day when God will permit them to have the man they've been asking for. And all what bloodshed and our hate and misery will follow is taking that rule.
The Bible refers to him in a number of ways. The Bible refers to him as the beast. The Bible refers to him as the man of king. The Bible refers to him as the anti-Christ. And if it is he tonight that I want to talk a little, please I emphasize that word, a little about. Now let's have no confusion about this matter. The Bible speaks of many antichrists. Antichrists, that really means against. And so you could well understand, couldn't you, that there would be many who are against Christ.
I look around this world today. I think of what's happening away in Iran. I think of what's happening in many of the African countries that make up that great continent. I think of what's happening in Russia. I think of what's happening in China. I hear the anti-God, anti-Christ cries that come from so many universities and higher places of education. All we are living in a day when it appears there is much that is anti to Christ and to Christ. But never let us forget that while there is much that is anti to Christ to death, Never let us forget that there is coming a day when one will be found who will be known as the Antichrist.
Now if Jesus Christ, as we saw during the course of the week, if Jesus Christ is coming back and coming back soon for what we term the rapture, the caption away of the church, then dare I suggest to you? that if the rapture is very near, then maybe that Antichrist is alive today. For you will not forget that the day of Jacob's trouble is for a period of seven years, and if a man is going to exercise authority and power, and if Jesus Christ is coming back very soon, that man must be alive today.
So maybe, well, I would not point my finger and make suggestions as many have. I have lived a life where, over the past years, I have heard Hitler called the Antichrist. I've heard Mussolini called the Antichrist. I've heard the black coat called the Antichrist. And as I reminded you the other day, I even heard your Kissinger called the Antichrist. I don't know who the Antichrist will be. But I do know that there are certain marks that men and women will be able to see, and they will say that this is the man, this is the man.
But let us rejoice in this. Please, if you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you won't be here when the angry Christ takes out his reign. If you love the Lord Jesus, then please, you will be taken home to be with him before ever he sets out his power. But if you don't know the Lord Jesus, what an awful thing to be left behind for certain judgment. I want, if I may, just to pass one or two comments concerning him. I want, first of all, for us to consider what the Bible says about his character. And then I want to consider what the Bible says about his conduct.
And then I want us to see what the Bible says about his countenance. But most of all, I want us to see what the Bible has to say about his collapse. So never let us forget the verse I quoted the other evening is still true. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning. God is never taken unaware. God is working out. His plan in the affairs of men. First of all then, let's think for just a moment what the Bible dares to tell us about this man and his character. I want to point out to you that he is the absolute opposite to Jesus Christ.
I want to point out to you that not only is he the anti-Christ inasmuch as he is against Christ, but all that I could say of Christ I see the opposite in the Antichrist. For instance, my Bible dares to tell me of the Lord Jesus. He said himself, I am come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And if John six and thirty-eight is in the Bible, and Jesus Christ came down not to do his will, but the will of the Father that sent him, The absolute opposite can be said of that one that one day men will commit to rule over death.
For my Bible dares to use the words of the seventh verse of the eleventh chapter of Revelation. And speaking of him it says, the beasts that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them. I see the Blessed Saviour as he descends from heaven. I see the empty Christ as he rises up from a bottomless pit. I think of the Lord Jesus and I remember that he could say, I come in my Father's name. Ye receive me.
If another shall come in his own name, him will ye receive. why John five and verse forty three is as real as the words of God are that Jesus Christ came in the Father's name but men would not receive him ye receive me not but if another shall come in his own name you shall receive him and that's exactly what the Bible says that men and women will do with the energy of Christ for he will come in his own name and they will receive him They will bow their knee to him. They will accept him. They will permit him to rule over them.
Of the Lord Gingos, the glorious words of Philippians two and eight come to every heart that knows his might. And we dare use those words again. He humbled himself. all the wonder of it. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. That's Christ. But the anti-Christ, the opposite. Two Thessalonians dared to remind us verse four of chapter two. It dared to remind us that he exalted himself above all that he's worshipped. He exalteth himself above all that he's worshipped.
So when I look at the character of the Antichrist, I find he's the opposite in the Saviour. I think of the words that are spoken in the fifty-third of Isaiah of the Lord. He was despised. For my Bible says he was despised and we are seen enough that the Antichrist not despised and they worship the beast. say unto him, say, I'm saying, sorry, they worship the beast, saying, who is like unto him? The fourth verse of that thirteen chapter of Revelation. One humbling himself, the other exhorting himself.
Of the Christ of God, the Bible dares to say this, that he will be son of God, Christ was the Son of God. I think of those glorious words in the thirty-first verse of the first chapter of Luke. And I am absolutely and absolutely amazed. Therefore, that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. The Son of God. That's the Christ. that when I think of the Antichrist, I remember the Bible dares to say that he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above God. I have quoted no doubt, as you know, from the thirty-sixth verse of the eleventh chapter of Daniel.
All the absolute opposite to the Savior I see in the character of the Antichrist. My friends, I wonder if I could ask, Is there any one of you would like to live when he reigns? Oh, it may appear when first he reigns that power has been given to him by the nations of the world, and so it will be. But it is not long, as we saw the other evening, before he who would come indeed as the one as the protector of God's earthly people to Jew, will turn out to be the persecutor of God's earthly people. Oh, what a fire and wretched character.
But if I think of his character, I think indeed of his countenance. I compare it again to the countenance of the Lord Jesus. And I remember when I looked into the face of the blessed Savior, I see a Christ with tear-drenched face. There he wept over Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ye who stung at the prophets. How I would have gathered thee in the hand, gathered her chicks. But he would not. He would not. It's interesting, is it not? Interesting to say the least of it, that it's only twice recorded in the Gospels that Jesus read.
once he wept over a city of people, Jerusalem, once he wept over one man, Lazarus, once he wept over living people, once he wept over a dead man, only twice recorded in the Gospels that Jesus wept, or no, it's recorded in the epistles of the Hebrew, in the epistles that he wept, with strong crying and tears. as the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews, takes us way yonder to Gethsemane's garden, and shows us he who takes Calvary and the punishment of sin because of his love both to his power of God and you and me.
Oh, if it be said of the Christ that his countenance was wet with tears, what of that countenance of the beast in death? Why the book of Daniel dares say a king of pure countenance shall stand up in the great twenty-third verse of the eighth chapter of the book of Daniel. A king will appear countenance. Why my Bible dares to say of him in the second verse of the thirteen chapter of Revelation that we read together, let me read it again to you, and the peace which I saw was light. unto a leopard. Not a leopard, please, but not unto us. Why it dares say of him that his feet were like the pink of a bear, that his mouth and the mouth of a lion.
And the dragon gave him power and his feet and authority. Oh, what a cantoness. As I see that which is opposite to anything that's beautiful and fine. And yet I remember that this was ever so. I remember indeed that when I open my Bible, my Bible only tells me ugly things about sin. The devil has ever tried to make sin look pleasant. He's ever tried to make sin look attractive. Never let us forget that there's nothing uglier in the world than sin and it's consecrated.
To look into the face of a man or a woman that turned their back upon God is to look into the face of a man or a woman that has no beauty that will last for eternity. And as I look at this Antichrist, and I see his character, and I see his countenance. I see his conduct. How did he act? What happens when he rules? As I open my Bible, what is the word of God to say of the man who is opposed to God? And my Bible leaves me again in no doubt about this. For my Bible dares to tell me, and he calls her all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bound, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their forehead, and that no man might buy or sell, say, he is.
that has a mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. Its conduct, I'll tell you how he works with the individual. When an individual, he makes it so that man or woman will be unable to buy or sell unless he bears the mark of the beast. You see, I've come to gears when such statements as this were laughed upon. however could anyone bear a mark. And then suddenly they came over with a thing they called a computer. And oh, what a change.
I know nothing about your country. I don't know if I'm saying the truth as I look at you. But if you lived in my country already, every one of you would have a social security number. It might not be six, six, six. But I'll tell you something, when the time comes for your pension you couldn't get it unless you had a number. I'll tell you something more. If you fell out of work and you wanted unemployment benefit, you couldn't get it without a number. If you fell sick and went to see the doctor, you couldn't be treated without a number. Don't you tell me that people can't live, can't, rather take this verse that we have quoted, that they can't say that it can be true.
It is evident in the world today, the world today. And one day he who will exercise the greatest power against Christ, one day he will make it that it will not be possible to buy or sell unless we bear a number or a mark. That's his conduct for the individual. His conduct for the nation Oh, there's no doubt about this. The nineteenth chapter of Revelation tells us that He will come with great force against God's earthly people. We were seeing the other evening, and I don't wish to go over what I've said.
We were seeing the other evening that there will come a day when the nations of the world will lift their hand against God's earthly people. It seems almost as though they're doing it today. Please, I believe I would be right in saying this, that there are not many prophetic students who can open their Bible and find in the Word of God a place for your beloved country. Most Bible prophetic students have found it difficult to place America in poverty.
And I think we can all understand the reason why. You know, I'm not going to do it. But if I was to start at one end of a row and then go back and forth, and ask each person to stand up and tell me where their ancestors came from. I've got a strong feeling. We'd have a geography lesson. Some of you came from Poland, and some of you came from Germany, and some of you came from Hungary, and some of you came from Africa, and some of you came from every other nation in the world. I'd go to no country in the world that has, at its root, more nations.
And so it would be difficult, would it not, to place such a nation in poverty. But I want to say this, she is in poverty. Your land is here. And I tell you why she's in poverty. Because God has promised to bless and honor a people who will bless and honor his earthly people. And that's what you have done. I doubt if there is a country in the world that has honored the Jewish nation more than America. I believe that my own country, my own country, held her position in the affairs of the world for so many years, because she, it seemed at that time, alone, alone stood for God's earthly people.
And it is since we have neglected, neglected the care of God's earthly people. That's one of the reasons that as a nation, my nation, has slipped down. God dares to say, they that honor his people, he will honor. And as I open my Bible and I see the conduct of this beast, this antichrist, I see that he lifts his head against God's earthly people. But isn't it wonderful? Makes you feel you must shout hallelujah, that if I can see his character and I can see his countenance, if I consider his conduct, I must consider his complete collapse.
I must remember that there will come a day when he will be completely overthrown. I've come across so many people today who call themselves modernists, you know. Not quite sure what that means. The most amazing thing to me is that the person who calls himself a modernist is a person who believes that Jesus Christ lived two thousand years ago. He dies, never runs from the dead, and is finished with. And he calls that modern. I'm a modernist. I believe in a Christ who lives now, today, at this very moment. That's the Christ I believe in. But I do, of course, especially when I'm addressing undergraduates in college.
I come across a large number of folks who tell me, oh, you know, Mr. Ford, there are two books we can't believe. We can't believe the myth of Genesis and we cannot believe, please, we cannot believe the mystery of Revelation. Two books we can't understand. The myth of Genesis and the mystery of Revelation. Oh, but listen, my friend, I must say just one simple thing. I know who it is that wants people to believe that Genesis is a myth and Revelation is a mystery. It's the devil himself. And do you know why?
Because in Genesis we had the sentence declared of the complete overthrow of the evil one. God's first promise in Genesis, the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent's head. And when I come to the book of Revelation, it is not a mystery. But if Genesis tells us that the sentence against sin and evil is declared, Revelation tells us that it's executed. We see here the evil one overthrown and overthrown forever. Oh, blessed be his name. And he gathered then into a place toward Armageddon, says the sixteenth verse of the sixteenth chapter of Revelation.
And I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him, who was faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire. And on his head were many crowns, said the eleven-first of the nineteenth of Revelation. And he laid hold on the dragon, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him out. set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, is the second and third verses of the twentieth of Revelation. The more I read my Bible, the more I realize this, that he shall make war with the land, and the land shall overcome them.
For he is the Lord of lords, and king of kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen. and faithful, says the fourteen-first of the seventeenth of Revelation. Never let us get away from this, my friend, that one day there will rise in fifteen, one who is called the Antichrist, but he will be overthrown, and overthrown by the one that sits on a white horse, and later on will sit on a white horse. overgrown by the very twice of Calvary, the one tonight offers salvation in humanness.
All, please, might I have laid very clearly before me the future and what will happen. But I started by saying this, and I want to continue by saying this. that what I've been talking about in actual fact won't affect any man or woman here who touched Jesus Christ, because you won't be here when these things happen. I wonder sometimes why we spend so much time, but you ask me to speak about the subject. I didn't ask to speak about it. I only know this. I only know this, that the more I realize that the program of God is being fulfilled, the more I realize that those who love the Lord Jesus won't have to enter this at all, for we'll be home of the Lord.
But I want to ask you a question. This is the question I want to ask. A very simple and yet I believe a very profound question. If there will dawn a day when men shall bear the mark of the beast, Is it not a fact that while they're not bearing it on their foreheads and on their hands, the mark of the beast can be seen today? Or maybe not six, six, six. But I look around this world of ours and I see it far heading up to that awful time of calamity.
And I see all around me the evidence of the mark of the beast. Could I suggest three things? Could I suggest that there are three things that mark this world today and say, will you give me the answer? Will you tell me whether that's not the mark of the energy pipe? There are three things that are prevalent in the world today. First of all, apostasy. May I repeat that? First of all, apostasy. Secondly, apathy, apathy.
And thirdly, anarchy. There are not those three things, the things that our young people, as well as our older friends, have to fight continually. Where do they originate from? They don't originate from God. They cannot originate from Christ. They are not the truth of the word of God, for the opposite is the truth of the word of God. When I look around this world of ours today and wherever I look, I see apostasy. I was home just about six weeks ago working in our front garden. Suddenly I looked up and walking up the garden were two people.
Almost immediately I could recognize who they were. I suppose working in the garden, they thought maybe I was a gardener. I don't know. But they went on to the house and knocked the door, and I called them back. I said, can I help you? Oh, yes, they said. We represent, and I forgot just what they said. And I said, do you mean that you represent the Jehovah's Witnesses? Oh, yes, they said. Well, my friend, the gate is there. I would be pleased if you would leave my body. My Bible tells me, that I mustn't allow you to enter my house. I mustn't wish you God's blessing, because if I do, I'll be a partaker with your sins.
Oh, they didn't like that. I mean, they don't mind saying the ugliest things about others. But let someone say something ugly about them and they don't like it. And then I looked at them and I said, no, just be quiet for a moment. I don't want you to talk. I want to say one thing to you. Then you can talk. I look at you and I accuse you of being the cause of most of the wickedness and fileness in Great Britain today. You have shown in our nation that about the great historic truths of the Bible, the Trinity of God, the tributary function of a man.
You have sown up and down our land, douched in the historic truths of the Bible, until there are thousands of people who say, why is it true? They say this, they say that. And I believe you to be the cause. as much of the unrest and wickedness in my land today. And I want to say that in the land where Jehovah's Witnesses started. Please, I do not stand up as a cat-hubbit Christians. I love all who love the Lord. When a man tells me that my Savior isn't God, when he tells me that when the Bible says, I pray that God of peace shall sanctify you, holy, spirit, soul, and body.
A man hasn't got a spirit, soul, and body. Then all I can say to him is that he's untruthful. He's more than that. He is not a servant of the Antichrist. And apostasy is abandoned. Have you ever known so much apostasy as there is today? There is constant attack on the great fundamentals of the Christian faith. Now let me say something to you. I think I will have said this in Augusta before, but if I haven't, forgive me. I should have. And if I have, I want to say it again, that as far as the Christians who are responsible for these services are concerned, we believe the Word of God to be the Word of God.
We believe the great fundamental truths of the Apostles' Creed. We have no difficulty to believe in what is called Trinity. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. This is the story I wanted to share with you, and I'll share it now. I was speaking to a crowd of undergraduates in the University of Stifle Street. I've been given the subject to speak on, Christianity, Relevant or Ridiculous. At the end of what I said, it was open for question. I can see him now, a young fellow sitting at the bank of about six hundred, put his hand up and said, I've got a question.
Now please, it wasn't what he said. It was the way he said it. I've got a question, he said. One plus one plus one is three. It's intellectually dishonest to believe that three can be one and one phrase. Down in time. Yes. I shoved my glasses on the end of my nose and looked at him. Young man tonight. Are you an undergraduate here? Oh yes.
However did you pass your exams to get here? It isn't that you have your sum wrong, you have your sum right. One plus one plus one is three. But that's not the sum. You're not even looking at the right age. The Bible never looks at Trinity as one plus one plus one. The Bible looks at Trinity as one multiplied by one, multiplied by one. How many's that? The Bible doesn't speak of God and the sign. It says God was... in Christ Jesus reconciling the world unto himself. The Bible tells me that Christ was filled with the Spirit.
The Bible doesn't look upon God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, working out salvation. It looks upon God's working out salvation. But when I, as I looked at him, I wonder whether your chemistry is any better than your mathematics. You tell me one plus one makes three. You haven't learnt that it's one multiplied by one, multiplied by one. But I've got something to say to you, young man, I will not permit you to accuse me of intellectual dishonesty, not you or anyone else. Don't you say it is impossible for three to be one and one three.
I was an electrical piano, so I whipped out a piece of chalk, and on the blackboard I chalked up H, two, O. And I said, what's that? Oh, he was beginning to feel a bit embarrassed. Well, he said, that's water. Is it? Is it? Do you know I thought H two O was ice? And I thought H two O was steed. Oh, I know H-U-O is water, and that's a liquid. But don't you forget these young folk in school learn that H-U-O is not only water, but it's ice, and it's not only ice, but it's steam.
And one's a liquid, and one's a solid, and one's a vapor. Don't you tell me three currently one? The whole basis of science, replied. I open my Bible and I want to say this to you, oh, I'd love to go on further, but I can't tonight. I'm having time and I've got more to say. I just want to say, though, if there's someone here tonight and you've got any doubts along this line, I would be most happy to speak with you. Most happy. We have not followed comingly to my table. And we're living in a day of apostasy, the mark of the beast. We're living in a day of apathy.
Couldn't tell that. The old hymn writer has said, time for pleasure, time for fitness, but for Christ the crucified, not a place that he could enter in the heart for which he died. Oh, is it not apparent that folks have time for everything, but that Jesus Christ, apathy, is eating like a canter into the very soul of our nation. and of herniacity and apostasis, but anarchy. The last verse of the Book of Judges is still true. Men are doing that which is right in their own eyes.
It's a great tragedy among young people, and please, I'm no longer a boy, so I can speak to you young folk like an old uncle. Let me say something to you. Do you know the problem we young folks today look at from the point of view of an old man like me? I'll tell you the problem. You think you're answerable to no one. That's what's wrong with you. You think you're answerable to no one. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm answerable to no one. Well, let me tell you something. You are answerable to someone. You are answerable to the law of your country. And it's no good to stand in fact and say, Ah, well, if they pass a law that most of the people don't agree with, then you don't take any notice on it.
I want to tell you something. One day you'll stand before God, and the thirteenth of Romans will be read in your ears, and you'll find out that you are in trouble. everyone shall have given a can to himself in God. Let me tell you about it. Let me tell you about it. A man, would you please remember this? If you forget everything else I say tonight, would you please remember this? A man, a woman, they are what they are before God and nothing else. You hear that. You are what you are before God.
and nothing else, you may think you're so great that you are what you are before God. And all of you here, I believe this evening, will agree with me that if there is a mark of the beast to death, it is seen in these three things, apostasy, anarchy, anarchy, God has an answer for. Oh, listen, my friend, God has an answer for. Do you know God's answer to the mark of the beast? I'll tell you what it is. Have he marked to lead me to him?
If he be my guide in his hands and feet the Nelver and his son. God has an answer by someone or in someone who bore marks, marks of Calvary. And I gaze my faith upon Calvary's cross, and I see the blessed Savior as he takes my sin and my sorrow and makes for his very own, bear it by burns at Calvary and suffers and dies alone. I say, Lord, one day, One day, that Antichrist will be dealt with in this season.
But praise God, you are willing to deal with him and save him my life now. All blessings be done. All blessings be done. I turn to Calvary Strong. And I think of a Savior who loved me and gave himself for me. When I remember the words of Holy Writ, God proved his love towards me, and that while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me. Praise God, there is forgiveness for me. Bless God, those ugly marks of the ancient Christ come to wipe out of my life, wipe out, never to be remembered anymore.
Only I'll come by the way of the cross, by the way of a Christ you died. only I'll bow my knee to him and exactly. God has another answer. Oh, I want to say a word to you, Christian friends, here tonight. God has another answer to the mark of the beast. Do you know what it is? It's to throw into a world that bears the mark of the beast, men and women who bear the marks of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul said, Henceforth let no man trouble me. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
Oh, what marks? I presume, I presume there were physical marks he bore. I remember the Apostle Paul speaking indeed of what he had to start, dared to say that there was a thorn in the flesh. And God's folk have wasted more time than I would ever like to attempt trying to work out what that bone in the flesh was. There are many who believe that it was epilepsy. He speaks of speaking with squirt speech. Many believe it was blindness or half-blindness.
Why, he writes to the Church of Galatia and says, See, with what a large hand I have written unto thee. he dare say some of you love me so much that you've put out your eyes for me and so they believe he's suffering with blindness I know not what he was suffering with and those are not the marks I'm talking about anywhere henceforth let no man trouble me so I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus My Christian friend, are you bearing in your body the marks of the Lord Jesus? In your work, in your school, in your college, your children, in your play, can people look at you and mark you out as one who loves the Lord?
There were so many things that marked the Lord Jesus. I think you will grant me this, that one of the things that marked the Lord Jesus was his complete and excellent abandonment to the will of the Father. We started this evening by quoting the words of John six and thirty-eight, for I came down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him that sent me. That was the mark of the Lord Jesus. He did the will of the Father. Are you doing the will of the Father? Oh, come on now, you young Christians. You love to gather around when they're singing choruses. You love to clap your hands and clap your feet. You love to pluck away at your benjo.
Come on, I ask you something. Are you fearing in your body the marks of the Lord? When you started today, this day, did you drop on your knees and say, Lord, I want to be like you today. I want completely to do the will of the Father. That's what it means to be a Christian. I think all of you will have granted me this, that if there was another thing that marked the Lord Jesus, it was not his abandonment to the will of the Father, but it was his love for the church. It's interesting, isn't it?
Despite what we sing and sometimes say, there is not one verse in the Bible that tells us that Jesus loved the world. Not one verse. Oh, please, don't you go from this place saying, I said, Jesus didn't have the world. Of course he does. There are things that are too obvious, but the Bible doesn't say so. The Bible says God loved the world, but Christ loved the church and gave himself away. Christ loved the church. Says the Apostle Paul, I bear in my body the marks of the Lord. Did he? What he did as far as the will of God was concerned, he started his Christian experience by saying, what wilt thou have me to do?
What wilt thou have me to do? That's where we ought to start every day. I say, as far as his love for the church is concerned, oh, what he did in three missionary journeys, he traveled the pace of that scene. preaching the gospel, establishing men and women in the truth of the church. He loved the church. I say the Lord Jesus for the mark of prayer. He was ever known as one who rose early and prayed and the possible one. Oh, friend, if I was preaching about Paul tonight, I've got a strong feeling I would remind you that the first time we meet Paul, he's in a prayer meeting.
That's the first time we meet him. It's a funny prayer meeting. Stephen has dropped to his knees. He's been stoned to death. But he's praying, laying off this thing to their child. The next time we meet the Apostle Paul, he's in a prayer meeting. He's not listening to someone pray. He's praying. Lord, who aren't that? What will they have me to do? The next time we meet him, he's praying. blind and Ananias is told to go in and place his hands upon him and Ananias says this is the persecutor of the church and God says don't you worry the holy prayer have you noticed that every missionary journey Paul started he started with a prayer meeting and finished with a prayer meeting once at the very beginning and most at the end of his ministry it was prayer prayer prayer he bore in his body the marks of the Lord that's what the Lord did You do that.
You do that. Let me come to a close. There was something else that marked the Lord Jesus. It was not just his abandonment to the will of the Father. It was not just his love for the church. It was not just his constant prayer. But there was one thing that Mark the Lord Jesus may be, as much as anything else, it was his absolute love for the Lord. The Son of Man has come to speak in the same language of God. All we used to sing in the old flanky moody hymn book, Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, snatch them in pity from sin of the grave.
We call the earring one, let not the fallen. Tell them of Jesus. mighty to say, Oh, friend, it's love for the lost. Is the Apostle Paul there that in his body? Oh, thank God, wherever he went. If there was a lost soul, he was willing to go after that soul. If there was someone who wanted to know about Jesus, he was willing to tell them about Jesus. If there was someone who wandered away, he went after them. God has an answer. the apathy for the apostasy for the anarchy that bear the mark of the beast it is that those of us that love the Lord Jesus will bear the mark of the Lord Jesus that we'll go out wherever we are planned will be those who can say Henceforth let no man trouble me.
I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. How about you? You can't bear the marks of the Lord Jesus until you come to know the Lord Jesus. Oh, how essential that is. You can't bear in your body the marks of the Savior. and in your witness the marks of the Savior, unless you have bowed your knee and taken him as your Savior. For I come to a close, and I come to a close by asking a most serious question.
This is the question. If there will come a day, as there will, when the Antichrist will show his mighty power in this seat, May I ask, is he showing any of that power in your life tonight? My Bible tells me we've all sinned. We've all come short of the glory of God. My Bible tells me that the man who loves the Lord Jesus is the man that sin shall not have dominion over him.
So if you don't love the Lord Jesus, sin has dominion over you. May I ask tonight, if you have never trusted Jesus tonight, will you trust him tonight? Let's leave the day of the Lord in the hands of the Lord. Let's remember this is the day of salvation. And tonight, Jesus Christ is willing to break the power of tantalism and set the prisoner free. His blood alone attains to the sin. It's another tone for me. Oh, strange enough, will you not trust my Savior?
Will you not receive him? Will you not bow your name to that? Christ, the Savior. Shall we close in prayer? Well, God and Father, close with this service this evening. the realization that the world needs Jesus Christ as much in his day as it will need him in that day yet to come. But knowing that he can receive him tonight as a Savior as Lord, we pray that each one of us will examine our heart And if we have never trusted in Christ, God grant that we may trust himself.
And for those of us who know him, O Lord, enable us to examine our hearts, and if we are not bearing in our body the marks of the Lord, if there is in our life that which would be contrary to the mind and purpose of God, God give us to get before they and put the man around. we may go from this place rejoicing in the victory that's found in Jesus grant that all of us here tonight may know the filling of the Holy Spirit that we may show forth glory as we part them one from another to not one day make these things real and art here for Jesus sake Amen.