All right, we're here in Exodus chapter 8, and we're looking at the second plague here,
the plague of frogs.
And of course, last week we looked at the first plague, which was water turned to blood.
We're going to be looking at the second plague here tonight.
And notice what it says, starting at verse number 1,
And the Lord spake unto Moses, Going to Pharaoh and Sandham,
Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
If thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs.
So the second plague upon Egypt is also kind of associated with water, because the first
one was water to blood, and then obviously frogs come from water, so the second one is
frogs.
Now, there is a prominent frog goddess in the Egyptian list of pantheon of gods.
So let me just read to you about the frog goddess.
The frog goddess Hekhet is another name for Hekhet, different spelling.
The frog goddess was an ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility, childbirth, and midwifery.
She was depicted as a frog or a woman with a frog's head.
So a woman with a frog's head that delivers babies, I don't know, kind of a weird god
that they worship.
But she was associated with the annual flooding of the Nile, which brought life and fertility
to the land.
She was also believed to assist women in labor by breathing life into their newborns.
And so obviously a lot of blasphemous teaching with the different gods that they have.
But you know, one thing is said here was she was associated with the annual flooding of
the Nile.
And the Nile River, what made it so helpful to ancient Egypt is it would annually flood,
which has actually really helped with their crops.
And so it would flood.
So instead of necessarily needing a big rain, you know, whenever it would end up flooding,
which generally can come with rains though, but it would cause them to just be able to
have plants and cultivate the land better than other areas.
But one of the side effects when you have heavy rains and you have flooding is frogs,
right?
I mean, you even see that here in the Philippines, which I'm amazed because in Mansfield, you
know, I regularly go walking around in Mansfield and there are a lot of dead frogs in Mansfield.
And you know, they're flat as a pancake.
I mean, some are ran over them, but you know, frogs are going to come during times when
there's heavy rains.
So when there's heavy rain, of course, that was a blessing to Egypt, but one of the side
effects is it would end up being filled with frogs.
And so the first plague was water being turned to blood, and this is really also kind of
a smack on their worship of the Nile River because the negative side effect is that frogs
are going to fill your land and not just to a small degree.
I mean, it's like, okay, you know, I cursed the Nile once, now I'm just going to eat this
multitude of frogs, right?
Even though the Nile did not flood to help their crops and everything like that.
So I think that's probably the main reason why because you look at all the different
plagues and in general, I would say they get progressively worse.
I mean, the first one's pretty bad because you could literally die without water.
But then frogs is not as bad as some of the later ones when we're talking about, you know,
the death of the firstborn and some of the others are more deadly, like the locusts are
going to be more deadly because they're going to eat up all the plants and everything.
But I also think there's a reason why I picked all these 10 plagues, they get progressively
worse.
They associate with the Nile River as the Nile would flood and frogs would be filled
everywhere, but even more so here.
It says here in verse number three, and the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly,
which shall go up and come into thine house and in thy bedchamber and upon thy bed.
So three of the things he mentions here with the frogs is they're going to come up in your
house.
And so I've said before, I think frogs are a cool animal.
It seems like kind of the plague that would not bother me as much.
But as I said, they're not in my house.
And so the thing is, when an animal is in your house, it kind of changes things.
I think ants are really cool animal.
But if we have a lot of ants in our house, it really drives me crazy, right?
And so obviously frogs are in your house is a different story.
I said into thy bedchamber and upon thy bed.
Now it's interesting when it mentions the bed because most frogs are nocturnal, meaning
that they are sleeping during the day, they're more active at night.
So the thing is conceivably, if you had a lot of frogs, and they bothered you during
the day, but you could put your head down at night and forget about it would be fine.
But realistically, considering most are nocturnal, what's going to take place?
You're trying to go to sleep, they're in your bed, and they keep waking you up, you know,
they're jumping on you and everything.
And then yeah, I could see yourself just like grabbing a frog and just like slipping it
against the wall or something like that.
I don't know.
It's like being woken up in the middle of the night by, you know, frogs be pretty gross,
right?
So that's really probably what was taking place with them.
And so he says, they're going to be in your house, your bedchamber upon my bed, and in
the house of thy servants and upon thy people and in thine ovens, and into thine eating
troughs.
And we see that it's not just a Pharaoh that gets the punishment here.
It's also all the people.
And so you know, whenever you choose to commit sins or do wrong, it affects other people
and it's going to affect all the people of the land, not just Pharaoh.
Verse four, and the frog shall come up both on thee and upon the people and upon all thy
servants.
The Lord spake unto Moses, saying to Aaron, stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over
the streams, over the rivers and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the
land of Egypt.
And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and
covered the land of Egypt.
Now, I believe that what is taking place in verse six is a miracle.
I believe that God created frogs out of thin air.
He just created them and there they came and they came up upon the land.
That's what I believe is taking place.
And basically Aaron stretches out his hand and immediately just boom, the frogs cover
the land.
Then it says this in verse seven, and the magicians did so with their enchantments and
brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
So the magicians are able to recreate this miracle.
Now, I will say I'm skeptical whether or not the magicians actually did create new frogs
out of thin air or whether or not they just had the frogs come up out of the Nile River
upon Egypt.
I'm really not sure.
I mentioned last week that there's a video online with David Blaine, who is a famous
magician today.
He's probably the world's most famous magician.
And I saw other videos and apparently it is possible to swallow frogs and have them come
up because he shows how he does the trick.
He drinks a lot of water after he swallows them and somehow the frogs go out, which is
pretty disgusting.
Apparently that can just be done naturally.
I'm not going to try to do it myself.
I'm afraid the frog will get stuck in there.
But, you know, regardless of that, it's certainly true that with prominent and famous magicians,
they're not just faking everything that they do because the Bible specifically in ancient
Egypt says magicians.
Right.
And so when you look at Egyptian's day and if you ever look at the stories of people
that are famous magicians, like before David Blaine, I think David Copperfield was the
guy from like 30 or 40 years ago.
But if you ever read what they say about religion, if you ever hear about their stories, it's
like at a young age, they wanted to have some special power to perform magic.
And you know, I literally believe that these people can basically sell their souls to the
devil and have some sort of power that the devil gives them.
But whenever you listen to what they say about religion, you'll never hear any of them saying,
you know, I believe on Jesus Christ.
They're never even close to that.
They're not even like some sort of Christian.
They're never anywhere close to that.
They just blaspheme God and say, well, let's embrace the LGBT.
All religions are OK.
I do believe that when you're looking at famous magicians in today's world, they're doing
a lot of sorcery.
They're doing a lot of dark magic, black magic.
And obviously we understand that, you know, there's card tricks and things like that that
are not real magic.
It's just kind of a trick that people do or whatever.
But I definitely believe that they are doing some real things that are not possible just
logically or scientifically.
And there really is no trick to it.
They're just getting, you know, black magic or whatever like that.
And you know, it's not just in ancient Egypt.
You look at religions all throughout history and magic is very associated with them.
You know, the ancient Persians were not that bad of a people, but I think they really got
filled with magic after that point.
And then it's like they just fall apart as a nation.
And so magic and sorcery are very common things.
Even you look historically at Antiochus Epiphanes, who was before the time of Jesus Christ, but
after the time of Julius Caesar.
And he was the one that is mentioned in Daniel as like a type of the Antichrist.
And when you read about him and what the Bible says, it's saying that they're doing dark
magic and black magic.
And of course, during the end times, it's going to be taking place, right?
When you look at the religious leaders and the Antichrist and things like that.
Anyways, go to your Bible, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, 2 Thessalonians 2.
It's possible that God gave them power and allowed them to create frogs.
I would probably lean towards they brought them out of the Nile River that was already
there.
Obviously, God is the only one who has the power to bring forth life.
But of course, he could give them that ability for that occasion or whatever.
2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
Obviously, you know what, there's sorcery that takes place and God does allow magic
from wicked and evil people.
But there's a limit to that.
We certainly see that in the book of Exodus, they're able to do the frogs, but then kind
of their power to recreate the miracle stops at that point.
Let me just turn to 2 Thessalonians myself and let's start earlier in the chapter.
And the book of 2 Thessalonians is, you know, a book that really talks a lot about the end
times.
1 Thessalonians is very famous for the end times, you know, 1 Thessalonians 4 all through
chapter 5.
But it doesn't really give you the timing of the rapture.
I mean, it gives you certain things such as the days not going to come upon you as a thief
or a thief would come unexpectedly, meaning we're going to understand the time.
It doesn't get real direct on the timeframe.
2 Thessalonians does though, because notice what it says here in verse number 1.
Now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering
together unto him.
So we're talking about the coming of Jesus, the second coming, right, where we get the
glorified body.
And he says that ye be not soon shaken in minds or be troubled.
So don't get concerned or worried about what's happening or what's taking place or whatever.
Neither by spirit nor by word nor by letters from us as the day of Christ is at hand.
So it's not the Spirit of God.
It's not the Word of God.
It's not a letter the apostles have written as if the day of Christ is at hand.
What does it mean for something to be at hand?
It does not mean that it's already taken place.
Because some people look at this and they'll say, well, see, he's telling them, you know,
don't be concerned.
You didn't miss the rapture.
That's not what he's saying because at hand means about to take place.
So for example, the day is at hand, you know, it's an expression you would hear in the US.
It's at hand.
It's about to happen, right?
In just one moment is what that's saying at hand.
So it's not saying, hey, don't worry, you didn't miss the rapture.
No, what he's saying is don't worry, it's not going to come at any moment.
That is directly exactly what he's saying here.
The reason why is, and you can tell from the context too, he's going to tell you after
verse two, these are the things that must take place before the rapture comes.
And if these have not taken place, you don't have to worry about it taking place immediately.
Right?
Now for us, I mean, because it could certainly come during our lifetime.
I personally would lean against it happening during our lifetime, but I don't know, you
see the events in the world, I can certainly see it taking place.
It could certainly come in our lifetime, but it could not come tomorrow.
It could not come tonight.
It could not come in a month.
It's going to, there's certain things that must take place beforehand.
And no, the apostles were not confused about this because even Peter himself was told that
he's going to end up being martyred.
So it's not like Peter is concerned.
I mean, the rapture might happen today.
No, he was already told he's going to be martyred.
So it's like, it's not going to happen right now.
This is one of the things that must take place, and this is not the only thing, but this is
the big thing you think of that must take place before the second coming of the Lord.
Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come.
What day?
The day of the Lord, the return of Jesus Christ, except there come a falling away first,
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.
And so what he's saying is let no man deceive you by any means, he's saying, don't let anybody
deceive you as that the rapture can take place at any moment, that the Lord can come back
tomorrow.
That's directly what he's saying, let no man deceive you by any means.
And of course, in today's world, most churches are going to say that the return is imminent.
It can happen at any moment.
I mean, before this service is over, they'll save up money for retirement.
I mean, Jesus might come back now, right?
I mean, that's what they're going to tell you over and over again.
But the Bible says, let no man deceive you by any means.
Why?
For that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of
sin be revealed, the son of perdition.
Now people could have different opinions on what the falling away is referring to, but
when it comes to the man of sin in verse three, I don't think there's any doubt who this is
referring to.
This is referring to none other than the Antichrist, the man of sin be revealed, the Bible is saying.
And so when you think of a baby reveal or a gender reveal, it's called, right?
People have a gender reveal and what is it?
There's like blue and pink are the two colors, right?
And they'll do some elaborate thing and then all of a sudden they'll pop a balloon and
you see what color is going to come out.
If it's blue, it's going to be a boy.
If it's pink, it's going to be a girl.
At the end of that, you know what the gender of the baby is going to be because it was
revealed to you.
It is now known.
Well, here's the thing about this.
Let me ask you a question.
Who is the Antichrist?
What's his name?
Where is he?
Nobody knows.
It hasn't been revealed.
I mean, like I've heard people try to explain this passage like, well, maybe the Antichrist
has been revealed, but it's not public knowledge.
It's just like, I don't know what to tell you.
It's so clear what this is referring to in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and it says that
the man of sin must first be revealed, the son of perdition.
And since nobody knows, now there's a lot of wild theories out there, there have been
a lot of popes throughout history that people said, I think this is the Antichrist, but
that was their opinion.
And of course it didn't take place.
You could have your opinion now.
I mean, I'm sure, I mean, every time there's a new president in the US, I'm telling you,
every single potential president, I think he might be the Antichrist.
I think he might be the Antichrist and that happens with every US president.
That's kind of the opinion that comes out.
I think he might be the Antichrist, right?
But regardless of what we think, it hasn't been revealed.
I mean, nobody is aware who the Antichrist is.
Nobody could say for sure who the Antichrist is.
Nobody could say when he's coming for sure.
We have no idea.
I mean, I would say you could limit it down because since we're in the last days, the
time period after the resurrection or the time period after 0 BC is going to be less
than the time before 0 BC, I would say.
That still gives 2000 years.
Now I would assume it's not going to last that long, but we don't really know, right?
I mean, it could be in a hundred years, 200 years, could be in five years.
You know, it could happen during our lifetime for sure.
We don't really know exactly, right?
But the Bible says the man of sin is going to be revealed, who opposeth and exalteth
himself of all that is called or that is worshiped so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple
of God, showing himself that he is God.
I mean, the Bible says that the Antichrist is going to sit in the temple of God.
We say they're going to rebuild the temple over there in Jerusalem, right?
He's going to sit in the temple of God and show himself, declare himself and said that
he is God.
Well, that hasn't taken place yet.
I mean, there's a lot of lunatics that will claim they're God, that are on the run from
the cops right now, but it's like, have they gone over to Jerusalem in a newly built temple
and declared themselves be God?
No.
Some guy in Russia that's got a following of a few thousand people, he says he's God.
There's some guy in Mexico.
There's people all over the world that have said throughout history that I'm, you know,
a modern day Christ or whatever, but it's like, he's going to show himself in the temple
of God and he's going to declare himself to be God, right?
That hasn't taken place.
You don't know who that is.
And he says in verse five, Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these
things?
He's like, this is not some new doctrine that's being taught or something we're not aware
of.
I'm not confused about the rapture.
Because people say the way Paul wrote, he thinks that the rapture might take place during
his lifetime.
Sounds like that's not true because he said, I've already told you about these things.
The Antichrist must come first.
So it's not going to come during the lifetime of Paul unless the Antichrist were to come,
which obviously it didn't.
He didn't write in a way saying it could happen at any moment.
No, he didn't because he said, I already told you these things that this must take place
first.
Now, when you're reading these things, it's really kind of baffling and it's very shocking
that in a world we live in with one third of the world claiming Christianity and everybody
that claims Christianity is going to know at least a little bit about the end times
that an Antichrist is going to come, right?
You would think that nobody who even claimed Christianity could possibly be deceived.
But obviously a lot are going to be deceived.
Part of the issue is the preacher of rapture because literally people preparing the Antichrist.
People are saying, hey, Christ can come back at any moment, but who's actually going to
come?
The Antichrist.
The other big issue you have is that people's perception of what Christ is like is completely
wrong.
Not just about salvation, but they have this idea that God is this all loving, all peaceful
God and he just wants to unite everybody together, right?
This has kind of been brought to my mind just the last couple of days.
This reminds me of 9-11 already a little bit when 9-11 happened, everybody in the United
States just wanted to unite together as one.
It's kind of like we can agree to disagree about abortion and whatever.
We're just united together as one as if those things don't matter.
In the last couple of days, I'm just telling you, it's like from both sides, it's like
we got to put away the rhetoric, quit criticizing one another and just unite together as one.
It's like, this is not the way it works.
I'm not going to unite together with people that say it's okay to kill babies.
Our church is not going to unite together with churches that preach a false gospel.
That is not the God of the Bible.
God, I mean, Jesus said, I did not come to bring peace.
I came to bring division.
I came to set a man against his father, against his mother-in-law, all the things that it
mentions.
The Bible never says that he's come to bring everybody together as one.
I wish, I wish we could have just agreed to disagree.
I mean, I wish we could agree to disagree and it would just be minor things.
The issue is when people disagree about salvation.
I just talked to someone an hour ago and he said he was Muslim.
It's like, well, you know what, I'll just agree to disagree about Jesus.
Let's just be friends.
And just let that guy go to hell.
It's not only that.
I mean, other doctrines actually matter as well.
But one of the big things that the Antichrist is going to be about during the end times,
when chaos happens, when 9-11 happened in the U.S., even right now, I've already heard
it the last 48 hours, when events like this happen, when the soon to be president is shot,
you know what takes place?
Everybody's like, let's just get united.
So it's not really all that shocking to me.
And I'm not saying this is part of the end times at all, but what I'm saying is it's
not shocking to me that during the end times, when there are wars and rumors of wars and
chaos, that the message going forth is, man, can we just unite together as one?
And then you're going to have somebody step up and say, and by peace shall destroy many.
Isn't that what the Bible says?
And that's what the Antichrist is going to do, where basically the world's going to be
in chaos, wars and rumors of wars, all kinds of madness.
And then he's going to come up and just be like, well, I'll just unite everybody together.
And he's going to declare himself begotten.
This is the abomination of desolation, which is going to require you to take the mark of
the beast.
Now, here's the thing, no safe person is going to fall for this.
Even if they're wrong on the rapture, they're not going to fall for this.
The Bible is very clear about that, right?
But a lot of people that would say they're Christians are certainly going to fall for
it.
A lot of those that are not saved.
Now, when you listen to other religions, if you listen to Islam and you listen to Hinduism
and even some of the smaller religions, Buddhism has some eschatology, some of the smaller
religions throughout history, and you read about it, they're really preparing people
for the Antichrist.
I remember I was given the gospel back in West Virginia 15 years ago with my friend
and we were talking to a Muslim and he's explaining to us about the end times, what's going to
take place.
And he talked about this man coming to bring peace.
And like literally he's explaining, I didn't know what Muslims believe about the end times
and me and my friend are shocked, it's like, it's describing the Antichrist.
It's like, that's literally what Muslims are looking for.
I mean, in Hinduism, it's like the eighth avatar of Kalki, I think they're waiting for,
whatever, is going to be riding on a white horse.
I mean, it's just like, well, does that remind you of something the Bible mentions?
It's like, it's not going to be hard to get Hinduism on board.
It's not really going to be that hard to get Islam on board because of the fact that it
fits with their eschatology.
And, you know, it's not going to be that hard to get most Christians on board because they're
wrong about the rapture.
And because most Christians have this idea, let's all unite together, set aside doctrines,
set aside differences, right?
That is the attitude that people have.
And I've seen it the last couple of days, just on what I've seen on the news regarding
the shooting and everything, just this attitude, well, let's just kind of unite together.
It's like, well, there's, there's, it doesn't change the fact I still hate the LGBT.
It doesn't matter if somebody got shot.
I still have the same opinion about the LGBT I had yesterday, so no, I'm not going to just
agree to disagree and all these things.
It's still the exact same in my mind.
Anyways, verse five, remember you're not there with you.
I told you these things and now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in this
time.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work.
Only he who now letteth the let until he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked
be revealed.
And the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness
of his coming.
And notice this in verse nine, because here's the other way the antichrist can deceive people.
Either even him who's coming is after the working of Satan with all power in signs and
lying wonders.
Now when the Bible says, even him who's coming is after the working, it's saying Chris coming
is after the working is even him who's coming is after the working of Satan with all power
and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish, the
Bible says the working of saving with all power and signs in lying wonders, and basically
we're talking about magic.
We're talking about false miracles.
We're talking about this sort of deception
that's gonna come.
And the Bible says the Antichrist
is gonna have this power.
In another place, the Bible says,
if it were possible, it should deceive
even the very elect.
So it should not be shocking to us
that when these magicians who did these things
on a regular basis end up producing these miracles
in front of people, people believe it.
People buy it, right?
When people have spiritual experiences
and false religions, it's like,
it's a very powerful thing that sucks them in
that they cannot break.
And as much as Peter said that he trusts the word of God
more than the things that he's seen
and the things that he's heard as it says in 2 Peter,
that's not the way most people feel though.
Most people don't look to the word of God
as their guide above their feelings and their experiences.
In fact, we talk to people all the time
and we show them what the Bible says.
They have no Bible verses
for why they believe what they believe,
but they just go off their emotions
and they just believe it anyway.
It's like they don't care what the Bible says.
So it's not really that shocking that during the end times,
most Christians are gonna end up going on board
with the anti-Christ,
with all these miracles that he's doing.
And it says in verse 10,
with all the singleness of unrighteousness
and none that perish because they received
not the love and the truth that they might be saved.
And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie.
They all might be damned to believe not the truth,
but at pleasure and unrighteousness.
Go to Revelation chapter 13.
Revelation chapter 13.
So when we're reading the book of,
because I think it'd be very easy to look at today's world
and feel like magic's not a part of it
in today's world or whatever.
But I mean, certainly in the Pentecostal church,
which is certainly the Christian religion
that's sweeping the world,
it's like people being healed
and all of these demonic things that's taking place.
It's not really something
that was really associated with Christianity before,
but certainly now you see it.
Now on a lighter level,
the Catholic church has some really weird things too.
Like the holy water when you enter the door.
I remember when I was 19 years old, I had just gotten saved
and I made an agreement with my friend.
It's like, I'll go to your church if you come to mine.
Now I would not do that anymore.
I'm not gonna go to a false church
to try to get someone to come to my church.
But I remember doing that.
And so he came to my church, a Baptist church,
and I went to his church, this Catholic church.
I'd been inside a Catholic church, I think,
once for a funeral,
but I'd never been to a Catholic service.
And I remember getting there
and then there's the holy water on the outside.
I had no idea what it was.
I didn't wanna offend my friends,
so I was trying not to laugh.
I'm just like, holy water?
It's like, you gotta be kidding me, right?
So there's these weird things and other ones,
but certainly in today's world,
you're seeing a huge increase with it
with the Pentecostal movement.
Because you see it in other religions,
with Hinduism and certainly all throughout Africa,
there's a lot of magic and weird stuff like that.
But it's certainly gonna be involved during the end times.
It is gonna come back in a big way, especially.
And I think we're kinda coming to that point
because the Pentecostal movement's been around
for a hundred years,
and that's when this has really attached itself
to Christianity.
And it's gonna just get bigger and bigger and bigger
as time goes on, I would say.
Some of the older parts in Christianity
that had some of these weird experiences,
it's like there's the religion.
They were known as the Shakers
and they were known as the Quakers.
They were known as both things.
And I think they kinda,
because they were known as the Quakers
in the fact it's like an earthquake.
They're like shaking, but they're known as the Shakers
because they shake.
So some people call them the Quakers,
some called them the Shakers,
but the idea would be like during the service,
they just like all of a sudden
just start doing whatever.
So sort of like the Pentecostal movement
going back a hundred years ago,
they just kinda didn't label it that.
But anyways, Revelation 13, verse 11.
It says here in Revelation 13, verse 11,
I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth
and he had two horns like a lamb
and he spake as a dragon.
He exercised all the power of the first beast before him
and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein
to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.
And he doeth great wonders
so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth
in the sight of men.
And so he's doing something
that is similar to what Elijah did.
When God gave Elijah the power to bring fire down
and then all of a sudden during the end times,
people are gonna be doing these miracles, right?
I mean, the Antichrist gonna do these miracles
and then people are gonna believe this stuff
and deceiveth 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 of the beast
which had the wound by his sword and did live.
Any power to give life unto the image of the beast
that the image of the beast should both speak
and cause it as many as would not worship
the image of the beast should be killed.
And so there's gonna be an image of the beast
and somehow he brings this image to life
where it's gonna speak and it's gonna be worldwide.
It's not just gonna be centered in one location.
One possible thing that can make that,
the way I would assume it would probably take place
is with holograms becoming a lot more advanced now.
You see it in certain societies.
I think in Japan where they have like the cat
that's up there in different ones where it looks real.
It looks very real and you could make it speak.
And basically I would not expect them to be able to do this
or to do this in every area of a country.
So for example, here in the Philippines,
if you live in the Barrio,
it's probably not gonna do it there,
but certainly in this area that they would
if this happened during our lifetime,
because it's right in the center of where everybody is.
And so that's one aspect of why certain people
might not take the mark,
because they kind of live off the grid anyway.
And the government's not gonna hunt down people
that are like way out in the woods or something like that.
That's where some people might end up living
that are just away from the big city or whatever,
where they could flee if they do live in the big city.
But that's what I would assume.
But it says here in verse 16,
it causes all both small and great,
rich and poor, free and bond,
to receive a mark in their right hand
or in their foreheads.
So you receive the mark in your right hand
or in your foreheads.
And that no man might buy or sell,
save he that had the mark of 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,
is number of six hundred, three, squirt, and six.
Now look, I would think with everything
that's written in the Bible
and everybody talks about the end times,
that people would be very, very hesitant
to get anything put inside their hand
or anything inside their forehead.
That is what I would think,
but it's not really true
because if you look at a lot of societies,
it's like they're actually doing that.
In Sweden, they did that several years back
where they're putting chips in their hand.
And that's not the mark of the beast.
But I mean, for me,
not that I would think it's the mark of the beast,
but it's just like, no,
I'm just not gonna do anything
where I'm putting a chip inside my hand
because we know that's preparing for the end times.
And why do people do it?
It just makes things a lot easier.
Why did a lot of people get the COVID vaccine years ago?
Because it made life simpler.
It made things less complicated.
It was just very easy.
It's like, I talked to a lot of people,
a lot of people that I knew that said,
yeah, I don't really wanna do this,
but it's kinda like, it's getting really difficult.
And I'm not trying to stand in judgment or criticize them.
I'm just saying, convenience is one big reason.
And a lot of people are like, I can't buy or sell.
It's like, okay, I'll sell my soul
so I can get my food, right, or whatever.
And to do this, people are gonna have to worship the beast.
It's not something you can accidentally do or whatever,
but a lot of people will end up doing it.
Go to Exodus 8, Exodus 8.
Exodus 8, it says in verse 8,
"'Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said,
"'And treat the Lord that he may take away the frogs
"'for me and for my people, and I will let the people go
"'that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord.'"
So I guess Pharaoh's magicians can't get rid of the frogs.
It says here in verse 9,
"'And Moses said unto Pharaoh, glory over me,
"'when shall I entreat for thee and for thy servants
"'and for thy people to destroy these frogs
"'from thee and thy houses,
"'that they may remain in the river only.'"
So the land has been filled with frogs.
It is chaos, it's madness, it's disgusting.
Nobody can sleep, it's a mess, it's gross.
And it's like, you know, please get rid of the frogs.
Okay, when do you want me to get rid of them?
This second, before I finish this sentence.
Just get rid of them, do whatever you have to,
as soon as possible.
Asap, isn't that what you think he would say?
He said tomorrow.
Now, I mean, I remember the first time I read this.
I'm like, I don't get it.
I mean, I do believe Pharaoh's
kind of been struck with insanity.
You know, he's reprobated, he's rejected God,
but he's just not thinking clearly.
But I would say that this makes a lot more sense to me now
than it used to make.
Because when you first read this,
you would think he'd just say it immediately,
but he doesn't say that.
Why does he say tomorrow?
Now, before I tell you why I believe he says that,
we do have three points here today.
I already spent a lot of time,
but we'll be short here at the end.
Point number one, when we try to do things against God,
our life will be filled with chaos.
That's one thing that we learned from this story.
It's like when we're not doing things God's ways,
when we reject what God says,
we go against his will, against his plan,
our life will be magulo.
That is the way that it's gonna be.
It's gonna be filled with chaos.
Go to Jonah chapter two, let me show you an example.
Jonah two.
What do I mean by that?
I mean by that, if you're a member of this church
and you read the Bible and you go soul winning,
you read the Bible, you're serving God, love God,
and then all of a sudden you backslide
and just quit church, quit reading the Bible,
pretty soon your entire life will be filled with chaos.
Pretty soon your marriage will be a mess.
You're gonna be fighting with your spouse
like you haven't, you would be surprised
how much just being in a good church
helps fix your problems.
Your parenting's gonna be a mess.
Marriage is gonna be a mess.
Your work, you're gonna have a bad attitude.
Everything's gonna be messed up in your life.
It's just the way that it goes, right?
We think in our own wisdom
that we can just do things on our own and it's gonna be okay
but the reality is that if we do things God's way,
it makes our life a million times better, right?
Jonah 2, verse 1, and this is of course after Jonah 1
where Jonah rejected what God said.
Jonah 2, verse 1, then Jonah prayed on the Lord his God
out of the fish's belly.
Said I cried by reason of my infliction on the Lord
and he heard me.
Out of the belly of hell cried I, now heard is my voice.
Look, there's a lot of people
that have messed up their lives
and it's sad but oftentimes it requires us
to hit rock bottom before we wake up.
Your life gets destroyed and then all of a sudden
it's just like, I gotta make a change.
This is often what takes place when people quit smoking
or quit drinking where basically it gets so bad
that it messes up their life.
I mean, people are drunks and then they lose their job,
their wife leaves them and then all of a sudden it's like,
man, I gotta quit drinking.
But often it requires us to hit rock bottom
before you just wake up and say, okay,
I need to just do what God says, right?
Verse three, for thou hadst cast me into the deep
in the midst of the seas and the floods compass me about,
all thy bills and thy waves passed over me.
Then I said, I'm cast out of thy sight
yet I will look in toward thy holy temple.
The water shall compass me about, even the soul,
the depth closed me around about,
the weeds were wrapped about my head.
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains,
the earth with their bars was about me forever.
Yet it still brought my life from corruption,
oh Lord, my God.
So you see that Jonah's life is filled full of chaos.
You say, why?
Because he disobeyed what God said.
He didn't do what God said.
And as a result, he gets punished.
I mean, his life ends up being a mess.
And look, if we would just go against God's will,
pretty soon we're gonna get worldly.
Pretty soon our life's gonna be filled full of sin.
Pretty soon we're gonna start doing a lot of things
that we would never think we would do
and our life's just gonna end up being a mess, right?
So we see that with Pharaoh, certainly, right?
He's rejecting God, his life is filled full of chaos.
Egypt is filled full of chaos, right?
I mean, I wish this was happening in 2024
because it would be on the news every single day.
And it's like, Egypt's been hit
with this plague of frogs, right?
It's like, we don't understand where they came from, right?
It'd be pretty funny if this was in today's world.
But why does he say tomorrow?
Well, here's the reason why I think he said tomorrow
is because he was trying to figure it out himself that night
because we have a tendency to wanna do things on our own
and not rely on God.
It's kinda like God is the backup option.
And it's kinda like tomorrow.
Basically.
Okay.