1. "If we think that persecution for being a Christian is something that happens someplace off in the vague future when a temple in the Middle east is rebuilt and some worldwide emperor is all over CNN, then we will think that persecution is for the future and that we are now in stand down time. If, on the other hand, we have reason to believe that persecution for being a Christian is normal in a fallen world, not absolute, each of us, all the time, in every way possible, but normal to be expected. If we believe that, then we are alerted and prepared."

2. "You want to be willing to live in such a way with those that you work with, those in your family, your friends, that they can see you're Christians and that you're willing to take push back for that, but make sure it's for that. Make sure what you're interpreting as persecution is for the Gospel, is for being a Christian."

3. "Government in a fallen world can and will go horribly wrong. Do not be naive about what you work for."

4. "You can't follow Jesus without persevering. That's like trying to take a hike without walking. You can't follow Jesus without persevering. The saints in the New Testament are always those who are sanctified, who are counted as holy because of Christ."

5. "We Christians persevere in following Christ. We persevere regardless of persecutions. We try to work to end persecution for ourselves and others because all are made in the image of God. But when all is said and done, we will face persecution, and we will therefore need to persevere."

6. "To the Christian, death is more a promise than a threat."

7. "Brothers and sisters, don't ever let threats purchase your silence. We Christians have an interest in free speech, an interest that's contributed no little amount to the free speech we enjoy in this country. We need no laws favoring Christianity. We don't ask for those. We simply ask that governments allow us freedom to speak and we will afford that same freedom to others."

8. "Friend, you can read stories like those of Moses Hall and David all day long, and you can fire your courage by that, enough courage so that you can whistle on the way to your own martyrdom. But that will not give you the wisdom you need to not be deceived. For that wisdom, for that discernment, you need God's Word."

9. "Friend, you will not escape being marked by someone. There is no such thing as spiritual neutrality. You will face someone's wrath. The question you have to answer is, whose wrath will it be?"

10. "Work to understand God's punishment of sin. That's the way you can understand something of the extent of God's love for us."

Observation Questions

1. According to Revelation 12:1-6, what are the three main characters introduced in this vision, and what happens to each of them?

2. In Revelation 12:11, what are the three ways mentioned by which believers overcome the accuser?

3. How does Revelation 13:1-10 describe the first beast, and what authority is it given?

4. What specific actions does the second beast perform according to Revelation 13:11-17?

5. Read Revelation 14:9-11. What consequences await those who worship the beast and receive its mark?

6. According to Revelation 14:12-13, what is required of the saints, and what promise is given to those who die in the Lord?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why do you think Revelation uses the imagery of a dragon and beasts to describe the opposition to God's people? What might these symbols represent in our world today?

2. What is the significance of the statement that believers overcome "by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony" (Revelation 12:11)?

3. How does the description of the second beast "having two horns like a lamb but speaking like a dragon" (Revelation 13:11) help us understand its deceptive nature?

4. What does the contrast between those marked by the beast and those marked with the Father's name teach us about spiritual neutrality?

5. How does the imagery of harvest in Revelation 14:14-20 help us understand God's final judgment?

Application Questions

1. When was the last time you experienced pushback or resistance for your Christian faith? How did you respond, and what would you do differently now?

2. In what specific ways are you currently building relationships within your church community to prepare for potential persecution?

3. Think about your workplace or school. What opportunities do you have to share your testimony, and what fears might be holding you back?

4. How regularly do you study Scripture to build wisdom and discernment? What specific steps could you take to deepen your understanding of God's Word?

5. Consider your family relationships. How can you demonstrate faithful Christian witness to family members who may be hostile to your faith?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Acts 7:54-60 - Stephen's martyrdom demonstrates how the first Christians faced persecution with courage and forgiveness.

2. 2 Timothy 3:10-12 - Paul's personal reflection on persecution and his assertion that all who desire to live godly lives will face opposition.

3. 1 Peter 4:12-19 - Peter's teaching on how to respond when suffering for Christ and finding joy in sharing in Christ's sufferings.

4. Romans 8:31-39 - Paul's assurance that nothing, including persecution, can separate us from God's love in Christ.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Normality of Persecution for the Church in the Current Age

II. Persecution is Promised (Revelation 12–14)

III. Perseverance is Called For (Revelation 13:10, 14:12)

IV. How We Can Persevere (Revelation 12:11)

V. The Coming Distinction Between Redemption and Wrath (Revelation 14:1–20)

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Detailed Sermon Outline

- Campaign finance laws targeting churches (e.g., Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church).  
- Media bias against Christianity (e.g., Bart Ehrman vs. A. Wilson).

- Government oppression in Malaysia, Vietnam, Belarus, and Bulgaria.  
- Violence against Christians in Pakistan, India, and Iraq.

- Colonial-era persecution of Baptists and African Americans.

- “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”

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- The woman symbolizes God’s people; the dragon is Satan.  
- Christ’s victory and ascension (Revelation 12:5).

- Satan’s expulsion from heaven and limited time (Revelation 12:12).

- Governmental power corrupted by Satan (Revelation 13:2).  
- The fatal wound mimicking Christ’s resurrection (Revelation 13:3).

- False prophets deceiving through signs (Revelation 13:13–14).  
- The mark of the beast and economic coercion (Revelation 13:16–17).

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- The church as a “life support system” amid trials.

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- Eternal torment for worshippers of the beast.

- The righteous gathered; the wicked judged (Revelation 14:19–20).

Settle down in it, enjoy it, expect it, and labor for our settlement to continue profitably.

Or we are alerted to the fact that this world is not a permanent home and we prepare ourselves for a great change that's to come upon us.

If we think that persecution for being a Christian is something that happens someplace off in the vague future when a temple in the Middle east is rebuilt and some worldwide emperor is all over cnn, then we will think that persecution is for something in the future and that we are now in stand down time.

If, on the other hand, we have reason to believe that persecution for being a Christian is normal in a fallen world, not absolute, each of us, all the time, in every way possible, but normal to be expected. If we believe that, then we are alerted and prepared. So here's the question.

Is persecution normal for the church in this age?

Is persecution normal for the church in this age? Now I have to tell you, some scholars read the book of Revelation and see in it only a reflection of John's own situation. They understand it to be a symbolic representation of what was going on in the first century when John wrote it. So all the talk about persecution and all the images that we'll see in our passage this morning, they all just stood for the Roman Empire and for the way the Roman Empire was persecuting even John at the time.

Others read it and see in it only an account of a special situation at the very end of history and think that then Christians will face persecution.

But I ask again, is persecution normal for the church in our age, in our own day and in our own land? Humanist principles do not sit well with biblical religion. Humanist documents and writers and speakers wield great influence against Christian ideas and those who hold them. I mean, which religion is easier to teach in our public schools, Christianity or humanism?

The media regularly trumpets unbelievers like Bart Ehrman as former fundamentalist shows Bible full of Errors. It's a headline I think on CNN this week. Meanwhile, you never hear anything of people like A. Wilson who's written a book about atheism, being an atheist who's reconverted to Christianity. Now why is our neutral media like that?

I ask again. Is persecution normal? Socially, there is open hostility to evangelical Christianity in many Western nations. Liberal Protestants have scorned Bible believing Christians for years. From the halls of academia to the courts of their denominations.

Campaign finance laws have caused the Canyon Ferry Road Baptist church near Helena, Montana to spend time and money defending itself. After in 2004 it tried to help work to define marriage in Montana as between A man and a woman. And of course there's a long tradition of religious persecution in America. The American colonies were marked by various kinds of such persecution. African Americans were not allowed, even as Christians, to gather.

Often Baptists were thrown in jail for preaching the gospel in many places. But it's not just in this land drenched with the blood of persecutors. No, it's around the world. The Malaysian government stifles Christian publishers today. The Vietnamese government has for decades persecuted Christians.

The government of Belarus has cooperated with the theft and vandalization of evangelical churches in their land. The Bulgarian government has harassed evangelical believers. And I'm sad to say I could just keep going through many Eastern European governments and we would find the same Christian leaders throughout Latin America and Africa. Christian charlatan religious leaders prey upon young, poorly taught Christians, deceiving them and fleecing them. We know that various Muslim groups around the world violently oppose not just Christianity, but Christians, especially Christians from Muslim backgrounds.

Over the centuries, how many thousands of Christians have been captured by Muslims and forced to convert? Uzbek authorities in the first months of this year have been confiscating all the Christian literature they can find in the country. In Pakistan just recently, a Christian family went into hiding after their son was accused by a Muslim school friend of blasphemy because he had left a piece of Christian literature laying around. In India, violence against Christians peaked last August and September. But there are still murders and threats and arson cases that are being committed against Christians because they are Christians.

And which crimes are being ignored and refused to be taken up by the police. In February, a Christian bookshop in Turkey was vandalized twice in one week after being threatened by Muslim nationalists. Persecution of Christians in Iraq is the worst it's been in years. In the United Kingdom today, anti hatred laws from both secularists and Muslims threaten the freedom of Christians. The equality codes there prevent Christians from being allowed to adopt children in some cases.

And friends, I'm not even mentioning the well known persecutions. If I mention the word persecution, you might think of Roman emperors, Nero, Diocletian, Decius or modern tyrants like Mao Zedong. Friends, the fact is that between Jesus and now, millions of Christians have been harassed and killed. Not because of ethnic feuds masquerading as religious wars. There have been a lot of those and that is not what I'm talking about.

No, I mean, but actually because they claim to follow Jesus Christ and consequently often refuse to do something that the government or their neighbors or community were requiring of them persecution in a fallen world is normal.

Now, what does the Bible say about this situation that we find ourselves in? Does it say anything? Well, in fact it does. And we find that in our passage this morning, Revelation chapters 12 to 14, as we continue in our study this year of the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. So if you open your Bibles, just open the back cover and start turning in and you'll get there first.

Our passage is found beginning on page 1223 and the Bibles provided in the balconies in the West Hall, 1223, and on page 1295 of the Bibles provided here on the floor in the main hall. We've seen so far in our study of this book that Christ appears to John in a vision. While John is himself the object of state persecution. He has been exiled. And it's while he is in exile as an old man that Christ gives him this revelation that's included here, including these letters to churches that are to be sent out and an encouragement to circulate this book and for it to be read and believed and acted on.

And we see in it that God is sovereign over history, that the Lamb is slain, Jesus Christ, and that that one is the agent by whom the plans of God in history come to pass. We've seen that God is announcing his coming judgment on the world. In the series of seals being broken and trumpets being sounded. These visions. And in the passage we come to this morning, we see three things.

Here's the outline. Three things. Number one, that persecution is promised. Persecution is promised. Number two, that perseverance is called for.

Perseverance is called for. And number three, something of how we can persevere. How we can persevere.

Well, I pray that as we consider this passage, we will all be helped to be faithful in whatever circumstances God calls us to give witness to him and to the truth of his Gospel.

First we see that persecution is promised. You take your Bible and look down there. Chapter 12, Revelation. Chapter 12.

A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven. An enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.

His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave Birth to a son, a male child who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough. And they lost their place in heaven.

The great dragon was hurled down. That ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, now have come the salvation, the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night has been hurled down.

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them. But woe to the earth and the sea. Behold, because the devil has gone down to you.

He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short.

When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle so that she might fly to a place prepared for her in the desert where she would be taken care of for a time times and half a time out of the serpent's reach. Then from his mouth, the serpent spewed water like a river to overtake the woman and sweep her away with a torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring, those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had 10 horns and seven heads, with 10 crowns on his horns and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.

One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound. But the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast. Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast. And they also worshiped the beast and asked, who is like the beast, who can make war against him?

The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for 42 months. He opened his mouth to blaspheme God and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast, all whose names have not been written in the book of life, belonging to the lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.

He who has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with a sword he will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints. Then I saw another beast coming out of the earth.

He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose fatal wound had been healed. And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast. He deceived the inhabitants of the earth.

He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number.

His number is 666.

So the church will be persecuted as the inhabitants of the earth worship the beast first. Here in chapter 12, we see that Satan persecutes God's people and Christ. Look again at those first six verses. Here John recounts to us this visionary depiction of Christ's deliverance and the divine protection of God's people. The woman there in verse one represents the people of God in the old and new Testaments.

The dragon there, verse three. The other sign, we're told down in verse nine is the devil, Satan. His multiple heads there in verse three, I think, shows his power. The difficulty to kill him suggests that he will have a variety of manifestations. In verses 4 and 5, we have the male child, Christ, the promised offspring of the woman that Dee read to us about earlier in Genesis 3, who would crush the serpent's head.

And Satan's opposition to Christ is represented by his waiting to destroy the child as soon as as he's born. We remember Herod's attempt to destroy Christ as an infant. But in verse five, we see that God will protect this child. And we're reminded that regardless of how menacing the dragon may seem, God is on his throne in chapter 12. Then in verse seven, the camera, as it were, sort of pulls out and we get something of the, of the wider picture as we see Satan cast out of heaven and to earth.

And Satan is furious. This is the little bit that John Milton used so much in Paradise Lost. He elaborated from, from right here. Verse 7 even describes what was happening as war in heaven. Our battles are presented as part of a much larger conflict that began with some kind of angelic hordes facing each other, one led by Michael, the other by Satan.

Satan's defeat, however, is so complete that we read here in chapter 12, verse 8, the dragon and his angels lost their place in heaven. So this dragon, who is Satan, is the one we Read in verse 9 who leads the whole world astray.

So the Bible tells us that Satan is here in this world, accusing Christians. He also, we see down in verse 12 is furious. And notice why it says he's furious there in verse 12 because of what it says there about his time. You see that it is short. We're living in his time.

And the time from Satan's fall to final judgment compared to eternity is short.

But Satan will expend his fury on Christians. He will persecute us. That's what the rest of this chapter depicts. We read there in chapter 12, verse 13, he pursued the woman. But even as God's protection is summarized here in verse 6, we see it spelled out a little more in verses 14 to 16.

So even as we read back in the Exodus, in Exodus 19, that God delivered his people on eagle's wings. So here we see God protecting the woman by doing that. Even this strange Note in verse 16 about the earth helping the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the threatening flood shows us that God himself is sovereign. God's people won't be delivered by their own power or even other human help. It will be God alone that he will that will protect his own people.

Chapter 13 then continues the story of the dragon's persecution of the people of God. But now through his human followers, 666 number. It's the number of the human. These beasts are humans, but they have terrific power. That's what all the animal and weird multi head imagery is about.

This dragon then persecutes the people of God, but now through these human followers who enslave and persecute and deceive. So verses 1 to 10 in chapter 13 depict a government gone bad and even satanic. Here the beast from the sea persecutes Christians overtly. Some Christians have associated this beast with the antichrist mentioned in first and Second John, both of which teach that there are many antichrists that have come and will come. He's also been associated with a man of lawlessness in 2nd Thessalonians 2.

I think what we have here is a picture of the persecuting government that John himself was facing and other persecuting governments to come. In that sense, Revelation 13 balances the biblical picture about government that we find in Romans 13. You know, in Romans 13 we find that the state is of God. The state does not bear the sword in vain. But lest we then become complacent about the state, and let me particularly urge those of you who work for the government, which is at least half of you sitting here this morning, all of us in another sense, but at least half of you sitting here this morning, let me just urge you to realize that the Bible's picture of government is not only Romans 13 that is ordained of God.

It is also Revelation 13 that it can turn bestial and brutal and destructive.

Do not be naive about what you work for.

Government in a fallen world can and will go horribly wrong.

Certainly this beast is powerful. That's what the crowns there in chapter 13, verse 1 are to show. We read explicitly in verse 2, the dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. My Christian friends, we should not underestimate the power of our accuser, lest we simply prepare ourselves for the shock and awe of and discouragement that we face when we finally truly encounter evil in all of its malicious power.

Some people have asked, what's the meaning of the fatal wound that he recovered from there in verse three. I think it's kind of a poor imitation of the Resurrection. You know, what kind of fatal wound is it if it didn't kill him? Right. It's not a fatal wound, but it shows the endemic nature of evil, that even what you think would kill it doesn't.

You're not going to get rid of it easily. And so verse four even got to the point that men worshiped the dragon. The beast is a creature of the dragon. Even his mouth, we see in verse five, had to be given him. Verse eight, you see, he brings about this radical dichotomy.

All the inhabitants, habitants of the earth, will worship the beast. All those whose names have not been written in the book of life, belonging to the lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. And then another beast appears in the second half of the chapter. A satanic false prophet, the beast from the earth who destroys the people, people and employs some more subtlety than the sea beast uses. This second one is the earth beast.

And the earth beast deceives. With the introduction of the beast there in verse 11, you have completed a kind of trio of evil, of cosmic malice, a sort of mock trinity of the dragon and then these two beasts. That second beast, we see in verse 11, what a telling description. Looks like a lamb, speaks like a dragon.

This beast is a false prophet.

In verse 12, we find that he made the earth and its habitants to worship the first beast. This religion, man peddles a religion that is subservient to the status quo and the power of the state. And we see in verse 14, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. Satan is a deceiver. Now, friend, if you're here today and you're not a Christian, and that's always a good number of you, because a lot of you speak through the door afterwards, we are so glad you're here.

Let me just be frank. We Christians understand you to be deceived. I don't mean that as an insult. We. We spiritually understand.

All of us by nature are deceived. That is, we. We think we're our own masters and that we're supposed to be. We naturally don't turn to the true God because He. He has claims on us that we want to reject.

We see here the Bible says that this deception will be successful in the lives of many, many people. But there's. He also adds to his subtlety, brutality. Look at verse 15. He caused all who refused to worship the image to be killed.

So here are the effects of the fall that we read about in Genesis 3 earlier, echoing down through human history, from Cain killing faithful Abel down to this very day and some of the ongoing persecutions I mentioned Just a few minutes ago.

Friend again, if you're here and you're not a Christian, I wonder if you've ever thought that part of your experience in life of good and evil, however you would define that, is actually a part of a larger story.

That is that there's something more going on than maybe at first appears that maybe there is a God who is good and a supernatural power in opposition to that God. Friends, that's what we learn from the Bible. The Bible tells us that our lives and our actions, as important as they are on this earthly stage, are given much more vast importance in a cosmic stage that we often barely perceive that we all are Benedict Arnold's. We all are traitors against this kind God by our sin, by our rejection of Him. That's actually one of the things that unites us as humans.

And God would be entirely, just because he is good, to judge us for our sins forever. But in his amazing love, God sent His Son to take on flesh. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, fully divine and fully human, lived a life that we all should have lived, a life of perfect trust in God, of goodness in that sense. And he died on the cross, not because he needed to die. Romans tells us that death is a result of sin.

We die because we sin. But Jesus died not because he sinned, but because we've sinned. He died in the place of all of us who would ever repent of our sins and trust in Him. And so God raised him from the dead, showing the truth of his claims, of his ministry. And he calls us now to turn from our sins and to trust in Christ, to rely on him entirely and to so be forgiven for our sins and restored to fellowship with Him.

Christian friends, make sure that when your friends are mocking you and you feel you're being persecuted by your workmates, make sure it's for the right things. I know when I first became a Christian, I think I sometimes self righteously felt that other people were persecuting me because I was a Christian. And actually I think I was just a weird teenager that listened to classical music and wore ties, you know, that had nothing to do with being a Christian. And I needed to sort that out. That it's one thing to be persecuted because you yourself are weird.

You know, I'm serious. I want to give you real consolation and comfort, but I want you to use it for the right things. I don't want you to use it to sponsor a stupid independence from other people around you. As C.J. mahaney says to me sometimes when he Looks at the way I dress Mark.

A certain amount of the fear of man is a wise thing, you know, so he's speaking in hyperbole there, obviously. But you want to be willing to live in such a way with those that you work with, those in your family, your friends, that they can see you're Christians and that you're willing to take, push back for that, but make sure it's for that. Make sure what you're interpreting. Interpreting as persecution is for the Gospel, is for being a Christian. Friends even like righteous Abel found, like Jesus found, you may find persecution even from within your own family.

Don't be deceived about this. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. And here we are being warned. Remember what Jesus taught. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Persecution, whether it is individual or of us, corporately, through legal means or just social pressure, should call us together to study and pray. More on that in a moment. What.

What we need first to see is this. Number one, that persecution is promised. When persecution comes, it's not some new unplanned, paradigm shattering thing that's happened, okay? It happened to Jesus. And if we call ourselves followers of Jesus, we cannot be surprised if it happens to us.

Persecution is promised.

If this vision was illustrating what Jesus taught in John 15, they persecuted me. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. And what Paul taught in 2 Timothy 3, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Then what should our response be? That brings us to number two.

The text is clear on this Number two. Perseverance is called for. Perseverance is called for.

Look again in chapter 13 at verse 10.

Look at that very last sentence in the verse.

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints. And then over in chapter 14, look at verse 12.

This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus. Friend, you can't follow Jesus without persevering. That's like trying to take a hike without walking, right? You can't follow Jesus without persevering. The saints in the New Testament are always those who are sanctified, who are counted as holy because of Christ that's all Christians.

So whenever you read saints, you can just read Christians. And in the basic job description of the Christian is following Christ. That's the basic job description, following Christ. And Christ was persecuted. So if we follow Christ, we will be persecuted.

And if we are persecuted, we'll find that we need to persevere.

You only use the word persevere when it's difficult. You don't persevere through a wonderful lunch.

You persevere through a friend rejecting you because you're a Christian. You persevere through a father disowning you because you're baptized. You persevere for Christ's sake. Friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, I'm guessing that you also persevere, that you too endure for some things, some end, some purpose. You know, seeing this pregnancy through, seeing this difficult exam through fighting this health problem, getting a certain job.

What is it that you are regularly spending effort for expending your life for? What are you persevering for?

Is it going to be worth it?

We Christians persevere in following Christ. We persevere regardless of persecutions. We try to work to end persecution for ourselves and others because all are made in the image of God. But when all is said and done, we will face persecution, and we will therefore need to persevere. Of course Christ persevered.

He endured trials and temptations more than any of us because, as Hebrews 4:15 tells us, he was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. What that means is he went further into the territory of temptation than we have ever done. Because we get off at earlier stops. We give in, but he never gave in. He never got off the train of faithfulness.

He always persevered. And that means he saw places and trials and temptations that we have never seen. And yet he was faithful to the very end. He was faithful.

My brothers and sisters, how do you remain faithful in your normal weeks and the trials you face from your own heart, from family or friends or people at work, in your friendships, if we could see these last few weeks kind of director's cut with your comments, you know, replayed with you speaking about what's going on? What would we find out about your following Jesus when you realize you may have to endure persecution even in your family? How many of your families have welcomed your commitment to Christ, maybe even prayed for it and worked for it? And how many of your families were less than pleased, perhaps were even disappointed or wept in sadness, or even cut you off because you began to name the name of Christ. Many, many times I have seen people come to Christ.

I've had the honor of baptizing people who, because of that baptism, were cut off from their families, were treated as dead, were disinherited as their families, were ashamed of them because they had become Christians. Friends, the Christian life isn't easy. But knowing God is worth it. It's worth whatever hardness, whatever persecution there may be. It's the realistic assessment of that difficulty that should actually encourage us to cultivate the joy of following Christ because we will need that joy if we are to persevere.

That's why we pray for each other. That's why we try to help each other bear our burdens and sorrows. That's why you need to realize that coming to church regularly and being here and actually giving time to build relationships into these people is your life support system. And if you try to live as a Christian without doing that here with some other faithful Bible preaching church, you're living in a foolish way. You're acting as if you're on a flight in which you know there will never be any turbulence.

And friend, I'm here to tell you from the Bible, that's foolish. Don't do that. You're setting yourself up for a fall. Build into God and His Word. Build into fellow Christians who know you and who you allow get to know you while you have the time and energy and leisure to do it.

To which, knowing this Congregation well, for 15 years, you simply reply, mark, you don't understand my job. You don't understand how many hours I work. Yes, I do. You've been telling me about it for 15 years. All right, I got it.

I understand you believe in justification by long hours. I'm not unthankful for your service at your law firm or in your home or in the government or whatever you're doing in your business. But you need to understand you're taking in breath right now for a reason. And that reason is not ultimately your job. You are taking in breath because God made you in his image and he has a wonderful plan for you to glorify him in that job you have and in your relationships.

And you should heed that because you need that. By God's grace and with his strength, we must persevere. And that's why we should. Notice another thing in our passage brings us to the question. Point 3.

How can we overcome? How can we overcome? Now, this is where the sermon gets very confusing. All right, we've had point one There'll be persecution. We've had point two, therefore we need to persevere.

Here comes point three. How can we overcome? And I've got five sub points. So if you were asleep, you need to wake up. I'm about to talk about point one and you're about to look at your watch and get very confused.

Five sub points, right, starting at the third point. So five sub points. Here we go. Number one. How can we overcome by the blood of the lamb?

The first three sub points you'll find right there in chapter 12, verse 11. By the blood of the Lamb, Satan is the accuser. And friends, let's admit it, Satan's accusations often right.

It's true, I have done that. I am like that. I do think that Christ alone is the ground of our acceptance with God.

Only on the basis of the blood of Christ, the blood of the Lamb, can you and I be made acceptable to God by His death on the cross. Christ has borne our sins in the sense of bearing the punishment of God for our sins. We dare not approach God apart from Christ. Apart from Christ. As Sib said, God is terrible because he is good and we have sinned.

God has identified with us in Christ.

And as this is the only ground of our hope of overcoming the punishment we and ourselves have deserved from God, so it's the only hope of our overcoming the persecution we face for following Christ, first being found in Him. That's the basis of it all, being accepted and loved by God in Christ. Again, Richard Sibbes said, what a comfort is this, that we may go to God in Christ and claim the promises boldly. Because we see out of the love he bears to Christ he loves us and hath made us promises in Him. And as verily as he loves him, so he loves us and will perform all his gracious promises to us if we lay fast.

Hold on Christ, I say, he can as soon alter his love to Christ as to us. For he loves us with the same love that he loves Christ with. He loves us in his beloved. He says in Ephesians one blessed us that he has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Him. He hath made us sons in him that is the natural Son.

And as his love is unchangeable to His Son, so it is to us in Christ. As long as he loves Christ, he will love us. And as sure as he loves Christ, he will love us. Oh, just a side note, why do I bother to write sermons if you've never read Richard Sibbes? He's got seven volumes that are just full of that.

So if that was good for your soul, there's a lot more, as much as you want.

So, friend, when Satan attacks you as a great sinner, admit the truth of his charges, but then assert that you have a great Savior, that Christ is that Savior, and that he is your hope. Look there in chapter 14, at verse 4, at how the persevering Christians are described. Chapter 14, verse 4. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

They were purchased from among men and offered as first fruits to God and the Lamb. That doesn't mean they were physical virgins, but rather that God's people had not committed spiritual adultery. That's how idolatry is often represented in the Bible, as adultery. They had not given themselves to worshiping the idol of the beast. There was no idolatry because Christians know that we've been, as he says here, purchased from among men.

I love that image. Brothers and sisters, do you think of yourselves as purchased people, as people who've been bought? You realize that your fundamental identity is not found in your ethnic characteristics. It's not in your age. It's not in your sexual desires, as legally popular as that may be for the moment.

It's not in your resume or your prospects. It's not in your political affiliations or your job. It's not in your education. It's not even in your friendships or your families. No, your fundamental identity is found in Christ.

If he has purchased you, then you are his forever. He has bought you. What more could we want?

It's significant, isn't it, that there in verse four, the purchased follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

You find that studying the Lamb slain for you inflames your desire to serve him and follow him wherever he goes. I know it does mine. When we sing some of those hymns about what Christ has done for us. When I meditate on it and use those familiar phrases one more time to see my life through. My heart is inflamed.

I want to learn and meditate more upon how Christ has loved me, how he has given Himself for me. My heart is affected and I want to give myself more for Him. Love to the loveless, shown that they might lovely be friends. That's us as Christians, Congregation. What more do we need to share in common than the blood of the Lamb shed for us?

This is why our meal of unity is the representation of the body broken and the blood shed for us. This is why our common joy is Celebrating Christ's sacrifice and our common task is proclaiming it.

Praise God for the unity we have as a local church in the blood of Christ. This is the basis for all the overcoming we will ever be called to do. Looking again at chapter 12, verse 11, we see they overcame second by the word of their testimony. You see that right there, verse 11, the second phrase, by the word of their testimony. And then look down at verse 17.

Christians are described as those who are holding to the testimony of Jesus.

What does that mean?

We hold to the testimony of Jesus, the word of our testimony, by not denying the gospel, by not being silenced in regard to it, but by continuing to bear faithful witness to it, continuing to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, overcoming Satan by that. Brothers and sisters, don't ever let threats purchase your silence.

I guess this is where I say to those of you who aren't Christians that we Christians mean to continue telling the Gospel to whoever we can. And we're just going to keep doing that. That doesn't mean that we mean to tell you the Gospel again and again and again and again and again and again. We want to be polite and courteous, but it does mean we really do want everyone on the planet to know the news of the Savior, Jesus Christ. And to try to talk about a Christianity without evangelism is just to talk about a mythical being.

It doesn't exist. I remember one time having a long lunch with a couple of friends who were rabbis. And one of the rabbis turned to me and said, mark, why? Why are you evangelical Christians always evangelizing us?

And I just said, well, honestly, because we mean to love you and this is the most loving thing we can do. And one of them responded, could you love us a little less? And I said, honestly, no. There's no such speed of Christianity as loving a little less. Now, again, we don't have to be obnoxious and kind of unhelpful in the way we do it, like telling the same poor non Christian the gospel again and again and again.

You know, they understand things, right? So we want to share the gospel, but then we want to go on and just have our friendship and our relationship with them. But we pray that just like God in his kindness caused the Gospel to take root in our hearts, so he would cause it to take root in the hearts of all those that we share this great news with. We Christians have an interest, of course, then, in free speech, an interest that's contributed no little amount to the free speech we enjoy in this country. We need no laws favoring Christianity.

We don't ask for those. We simply ask that governments allow us freedom to speak and we will afford that same freedom to others. But if our preaching of the Bible begins to be labeled as hate speech which is not allowed by a certain government, well then what do you think every Bible believing preacher will do? We'll keep on preaching the exact same thing we've always preached. That's our responsibility.

It's over to governments than what they will do. But what we will do is clear laws that pass do not affect our decision to preach the Bible. We can't do otherwise. Christian friends, are you sharing the gospel? Are you holding out the testimony of Jesus to others?

If you needed to illustrate first Peter 3:15 always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you the reason, the hope that you have. But do this with generous respect. If you needed to illustrate that verse from your life this last week, how would you do that? How would you find examples of that? Come to think of it, the people around you have any reason to think that you have any hope for them to ask about in the first place from the way that you live?

I pray that you'd be good stewards with the Gospel. I pray we begin Stewards of the Gospel in our own family. Is there a member of your family that doesn't know the good news? Is there a way that you could tell it to them this week? Maybe you should share that with a Christian friend here this morning so that they could pray for you and ask you next week if you were able to do that this week.

Brothers and sisters, evangelize and keep on evangelizing. Don't put off sharing this message just because it's unpopular. Why don't you share the gospel more? I asked myself that question. So let me ask you that question.

Why don't you share the gospel more? And that's not me just taking a verbal bat and sort of hitting you. That's me asking you a question. Why? Why don't you?

Because if you can think about that, maybe that will help you to be able to share the gospel more and bring glory to God. Maybe you don't like something about it. Maybe you're embarrassed something about it. Maybe there's something about the gospel that you don't understand. Oh, if that's the case, there would be no better way that I or the other elders of this congregation could serve you than speaking to you about just such an issue.

Seek us out, email us, let us know of the question that you have and give us an Opportunity to help you so that you will hold to the testimony of Jesus and so overcome. It's our desire to do this. As we gather each Lord's day in our public worship here, we mean the Gospel to be found in our hymns and our prayers and our scripture readings, in our sermons, in our conversations that we have after our meeting, pray that we would continue to hold the word of our testimony and so be prepared to overcome any persecution that God in his good providence may call us to face. Look again at chapter 12, verse 3, verse 11 rather, and see number 3. Number 3.

We should overcome by not loving their lives so much as to shrink from death. That's how they overcame. Isn't that a moving phrase? Not loving their lives so much as to shrink from death. This is how so many of our brothers and sisters have overcome the accuser and how they still are today.

They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. To the Christian, you know, death is more a promise than a threat.

So when we see here in chapter 13, verse 7, that the beast will, in some sense, conquer Christians, we take that seriously. That's. That's serious power. It even seems to be worldwide. It's clear from verse 10 that this conquering will include death for some.

Some we read here will be killed with the sword. And that's why we must endure and persevere and continue in faithfulness, because there will be real reasons and threats to dissuade us. So, brothers and sisters, how do we prepare ourselves for that kind of endurance? Well, one thing that I like to do is read biographies. I love to live through the lives of others and see what they've done, how they have persevered.

So I'm inspired by one slave named David. In the early 1800s, he lived in Jamaica at a time that the slave owners were especially nervous about any meetings of slaves. And so they would work to break them up, even meetings for Christian worship and prayer. So the account goes, some slave owners broke up a prayer meeting being led by a slave named David, one of Moses Hall's assistants, who was the minister, the pastor in this group of slaves. So these owners seized David and they murdered him.

They cut off his head and they placed it on a pole in the center of the village as a warning to other slaves. And then they grabbed the pastor, the minister slave, Moses hall, they grabbed him and they dragged him up to the pole, that grisly object. And they said, now, Moses hall, whose head is that? David's. Moses replied, do you know why it's up there for praying, sir.

No more of your prayer meetings. They said, if we catch you at it at all, we will serve you in the same way we've served David.

So what do you think Moses did right then and there? He knelt beside the pole and he said, let us pray.

The whole group gathered around and prayed for the salvation of the slave owners.

Friends, that's what Christians are like. I've not had to live in that kind of horrendous situation. But I'm strengthened in my soul by reading about those who have not loved their lives so much that they shrink from death. Some in the Lord will die. But we read in chapter 14, verse 13, they are blessed.

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit. They will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.

David, who was beheaded, was blessed. Yes, he was blessed. What was it John Bunyan, who lived the best part of a couple of decades in prison for preaching the gospel? What was it he said? Persecution of the godly was of God.

Never intended for their destruction, but for their glory and to make them shine the more when they are beyond this valley of the shadow of death.

Do not love your life so much that you would shrink from death. Number four. The way we face, whatever persecution we may be called to face. Hear and take God's word to heart. Number four.

Hear and take God's Word to heart. If you look back at chapter one, our very first passage, we looked at in the study, chapter one, the Book of Revelation. Look at verse three. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it. And take to heart what is written.

And take to heart what is written. We need to hear God's word in our own passage. In chapter 13, verse 9, we say, he who has an ear, let him hear. How do we get the kind of wisdom, the kind of discernment that we need, except through hearing and understanding and believing God's Word? My friend, listen.

You can read stories like those of Moses hall and David all day long. And you can fire your courage by that. Enough courage so that you can whistle on the way to your own martyrdom. But that will not give you the wisdom you need to not be deceived for that wisdom. For that discernment, you need God's Word.

You need to study God's Word. You can be deceived even when you're not scared.

So how are you making yourself more discerning for the days that you will be called to face. Martin Luther said that the church is not afraid of all the persecuting princes of the world because she stands in awe of the words of God. Reverence for God's word is how you prepare for persecution. It's how you overcome persecution. Friend, if you're not a Christian, I hope you realize that what you're doing by listening to the Bible, being read and taught right now is a far more engaging thing than you may have realized.

Many a preacher has started out as a skeptic, listening somewhat disinterestedly to sermons from the Bible. George Whitefield had a mocker who would go around at his public meetings. George WHITEFIELD, A great 18th century preacher. And he would mock and ape Whitefield's gestures until one day, during the middle of him doing that, he was struck by conviction of the truth of what he was mocking. And he was converted.

Paul was on the way to kill Christians, and I was an agnostic. You are not beyond the reach of God.

Listen carefully to sermons, friend. If you're here and you're a Christian, you want to understand the Bible more, speak to one of us at the door about that afterwards. If there's any way we could help you. We plan big, careful sermons like this one as the center of our times. Together to expose God's word to us so that we as a congregation can better understand God, what he's revealed about himself and his world in his word.

So to overcome whatever persecution we may face, give ourselves to hearing and taking God's word to heart. Finally, number five. We will overcome whatever persecution we may face. Number five. By being confident of the coming distinction.

By being confident of the coming distinction. By being confident of the coming distinction between the objects of redemption and the objects of wrath. Between the objects of redemption and the objects of wrath. Look at chapter 14, verse 1. Then I looked, and there before me was the lamb standing on Mount Zion.

And with him 144,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peel of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.

These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as first fruits to God and the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths. They are blameless.

Then I saw another angel flying in midair. And he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth, to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water. A second angel followed and said, fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.

A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he. He too will drink of the wine of God's fury which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest, day or night, for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.

This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven say, write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit. They will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them. I looked, and there before me was a white cloud.

And seated on the cloud was one like a son of man, with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle on his hand. Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. So he that was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. Still another angel who had charge of the fire came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle. Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth's vine. Because it's grape, grapes are ripe. The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God's wrath.

They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses bridles for a distance of 1600 stadia.

Well, here we find the followers of the Lamb purchased by his blood are redeemed from the earth, while the another habit, the other inhabitants of the earth, are judged. The first five verses show us the great hope that we have the followers of the Lamb will be redeemed. And you know what I love about this? In verse one, the number of the redeemed is the same as it was back in chapter seven. The point isn't the exact number 144,000, which I think stands for all of God's people, But it is that here, after all these trials, after all these horrendous persecutions, not one for whom Christ died has been lost.

All of those sealed in chapter seven are saved in chapter 14. All of them. Not one is lost. Is that not glorious? Also, did you notice there, in verse three, they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders.

No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. Not even the elders, not the angels, not the four living creatures that we see here. And we saw their songs back in Revelation 4 and 5. Because we have a unique experience of God's kindness and mercy as its recipients, as those who have been purchased by the blood of the Lamb. We uniquely have experienced this.

And so we uniquely can sing this song of having been loved by God so much that he gave his only Son for us. What a privilege we have.

But in verse 6 starts the other part of the story. Verses 6 to 13. The heavenly messengers proclaim the imminent judgment of the world. Some people think it's strange in verse 6 that John would use the word gospel to describe the grim judgment that fills the rest of this chapter. But, friends, for the persecuted Christians, God's judgment is good news.

It is relief. And then we come to that declaration in verse seven that the hour of his judgment has come, and so all are called to worship him who made the heavens. In contrast, up in chapter 13, where they worshiped the image of the beast Babylon, there in chapter 14 stands for all the prideful opposition to man, I mean, of man to God. And notice the reference to the adulteries here again, like up in verse four, that's a sexual image reflecting a spiritual reality. And verses nine to ten, I think, leave us with a question.

Those with the Father's name, you see, it says the Father's name in verse one, written on their foreheads. Those with the Father's name on their foreheads will be spared the wrath of God. But they're the ones we see in chapter 13 who will face the wrath of the beast because they don't have the mark of the beast.

While those with the mark of the beast will be spared the beast's wrath, but they will face the wrath of God. Friend, you will not escape being marked by someone. There is no such thing as spiritual neutrality. You will face someone's wrath.

The question you have to answer is, whose wrath will it be? The wrath of the beast for following God, or God's wrath described here for not following him, and for following instead the beast Satan. The rest of this chapter mainly describes the experience of the wrath of God. Verses 10 and 11. You see that it entails torment forever and ever.

Friend, if you ever think of forsaking Christ, it would not be easier to not believe that it is a lie. You find it difficult sometimes to follow Christ and you have a kind of whisper. It would be easier read these verses. In verses 14 to 20, we see the account of the world being judged. Verses 14 to 16, the harvesting of the earth.

What a dramatic moment there in verse 16, when finally the sickle is swung, the earth is finally harvested. And then in the last four verses where the wicked are reaped and judged, concluding with this graphic picture in verses 19 and 20 of what we might call the produce of God's wrath. All the blood stands for the complete judgment of the world, the destruction of all the wicked. Friend, do you understand why God should punish you like this?

If you don't understand that, you don't understand how God has loved us in Christ.

Work to understand God's punishment of sin. That's the way you can understand something of the extent of of God's love for us.

This church is a preview of that distinction. That's to come in the world where God's people and those who are opposed to God are forever separated. Confidence in that coming distinction will help you to persevere.

We should conclude. What a contrast, isn't it, between those who die at odds with God under his wrath and those who die in him, as he puts it there in chapter 14, verse 13. For those outside of Christ, outside of God, we read in verse 11 the harrowing words. There is no rest day or night.

Oh, friend, think about that forever.

But for those who are in the Lord, when their journey ends, even though they may be killed, they may have an abrupt ending to their life for being Christians. Look what we find in verse 13. They will rest from their labor.

Now, if we all have deserved to be punished by a good God for our sins. Why is there this different outcome? Why is there this distinction? It's not because some of us did bad things and others of us did good things. Now we've already covered that.

No, it's because some continue to live not acknowledging Christ, not worshiping God, while others of us worship Christ. Follow the Lamb who drank this cup. This cup we read of in verse 10, the cup full of God's wrath. Christ drank the cup of God's wrath to its dregs for us and for all who would believe in him. Oh friend, do not find God in his wrath, but find him in Christ in his love.

If you do, the promise of the sweet rest you will have in him forever will well prepare you for whatever storms you may be called to weather for a short time here below.

Let's pray together.

O God, we pray that you would teach each one here how to rest in you forever through faith in Christ. Today we pray in Jesus name. Amen.