I have to admit to feeling quite inadequate writing anything after hearing Pastor Bart’s message Sunday titled “The Number of the Beast”. It was one of the best sermons I have heard regarding the subject and I have heard a lot of sermons over the past 60 years regarding Revelation, the beast and 666. We at Flatland Church are privileged to have a wealth of great pastors who teach and encourage us.
I was struck by the description of the difference between the mark of the beast which is a mark of slavery and the seal placed on believers by Jesus, a seal to guarantee salvation. It has to be said loud and clear, there is no other choice. We choose to serve God or we choose to serve the evil one. We choose to be sealed by Christ’s blood or we get marked as a slave of the anti-christ.
Satan offers us a lot, it would appear that he will give us everything including an easy life. Serving Christ on the other hand appears to offer us persecution and even death. But it is so important to understand that both outcomes are temporary. Eternally, everything gets swapped, slavery to the beast and eternal suffering or an inheritance from being a child of God, eternal life without suffering or pain. The path is clear, choose Christ, let’s move!
Listen to the sermon (again) and ask yourself as you hear God’s message to us, “Where does my allegiance lie? Do I want to be marked (enslaved) by the beast or do I want to be sealed (protected) by the Lord?”
_ Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever!_ -Revelation 1:17-18
