A number to be counted

What will you and I do, beloved? Will we stand for seven, or will we give ourselves over to six? Are we ready to give up the nice things we have for His sake if we have to? Are you and I ready to die for Him who died for us? There is a reason why we receive the charge of 1 John 2:15a: Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. What will you do? What will I do? The choice must be made when the lines are drawn so clearly, so publicly and so unmistakably thick. Be a part of society and deny your God or stand upon God’s truth and be persecuted to the ends of the earth. What will you do then?

What are you doing now? The charge of the text, Revelation 13:18, is let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast. Count the number when? Only in the future when this beast fully rises out of the sea of the nations of the world? Absolutely not! Count the number right now! This was the charge John gave to the saints way back in his day about 2000 years ago: Count the number of the beast now, saints of God, that you might see this beast rising up all throughout the history of this New Testament age and be ready for his full rising at the end. Count the number of the beast now! Do you see this principle of 666 in the world that is around you? Do you see it in the compromising theology of some of the church world around you? The principle of man and not God? Count the number. Count it now! Be living spiritually distinct from the kingdom of man right now. The line is going to be drawn so publicly and so clearly then, there will be no doubt about it. But for those who look upon this world with eyes of faith – for God’s people – is not the line clear already now? The antithesis between the church and the world is not that hard to discover. There is a thick black spiritual line between the church and the world – whether that world is way out there somewhere or whether it is in what calls itself church.

And though right now in the history of this world we still have some place in society, and therefore live in society in every way we can to the glory of God, but are not of society, it is getting less and less and not more and more. Are you counting the cost? Do you and I realize that this world is not our home? Can you reconcile with what the Lord Jesus taught us: If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you (John 15:19)? Are you at war with six and are you unashamed of seven?

God grant us sound doctrine to continue to preserve seven, that by God’s grace in our generations things do not devolve into six and we be part of those who prop up the Antichrist in the name of six. God preserve our schools set up to the training of our children in seven. How we need the training in seven! We love seven and we want to promote seven in the lives of our generations to the best of our abilities, so help us Lord! Help us! God, give us homes that are homes of seven and not homes of six. Where God’s people are unashamed to say, Be gone with you six! You have no place in the life of this home. This life is a home of the covenant. It is a home of seven, in consecration to Jehovah God. His Word rules in this home, and not man’s desires! Count the number of the beast right now, beloved, for it is the number of man. And go to war against six, as this beast is rising (and he is rising!). Be unashamed of seven in the midst of this world.

For six, try as it might, will never be seven. The number of man is six, and then another six, and then another six. And if the Antichrist would keep piling up numbers – instead of three, 30 of them or 60 of them or 100 of them – he would never be able to get beyond six. It would be 66666… and never seven. Try as man might to become God, try as he might to set himself up as God, to overthrow God and proclaim the will of man upon the earth, he never becomes God! He always remains six. His enterprise is doomed to failure. The Lord Christ will return and will destroy this kingdom of man. And at the point when His church is worn out in persecution, He will come back and wrap up His beleaguered saints in His own arms, and He will say, Well done, my good and faithful servants. Enter now into the joy of thy Lord. And if you can believe it, beloved, one sight of Him and one sight of that place and one sight of your position there will lead you to say, I would do it all over again for Thee, Lord! All over again! To which the King of the universe will respond, Never, never again! The purpose of God has been fulfilled. Man has showed what he is. You are home now, forever safe. Never more to be rejected. Never more a cottage in a vineyard (Isaiah 1:8). Never more pursued and abused. But now princes and princesses with me, your King, over the whole of the new heavens and the new earth.¹

Cory Griess