Marked by the Beast, Marked by God

Rev 16:1  And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. 2  And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

When the plagues were pronounced upon Egypt, Pharaoh's magicians,

Jannes and Jambres, matched the work of God, Moses and Aaron stride for

stride until, finally, God smote the Egyptians, starting with the magicians,

with sore boils. The plague was such that they could not even stand before

Moses and Aaron.

Here, we find another lot of idolaters challenging God. Denying and cursing God, they have accepted to mark of the beast as their token of worship to him. In turn, God marks them with sores described as noisesome (evil, bad) and grievous (distressing, malignant, hurtful).

Please know this, that God is gracious and full of compassion; slow to anger and full of mercy. Ps 103:8, 145:8, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2, Nahum 1:3. The Lord enjoys nothing more than granting forgiveness to the unworthy and displaying His grace to the wicked. But He has stated that His Spirit shall not always strive with a man. There comes a time when He no longer winks at evil and justice must be executed.

These sinners have crossed a line. They have declared their intention that they will worship and serve God's mortal enemy, Satan. Nothing is left but to pour out the vial of sore boils upon this horde of devil worshipers who are bent on the martyrdom of His dear saints.

The age of grace is now winding down. It is time for sinners to repent and for saints to share the gospel. A time is coming when men shall be deceived and turn to the tyrant from perdition as their savior. Right now it is not too late. Even at this twelfth hour of the grace age, the door of pardon and mercy is open, the Spirit and the Bride invite the lost to come into the fold. Those who hesitate, vacillate, prevaricate and procrastinate may soon find themselves marked by the devil's logo and God's wrath.

Come to Christ while you can!