In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of the ultimate world power as described in the book of Revelation. He describes a beast rising out of the sea with seven heads and ten horns, symbolizing a powerful and evil figure empowered by Satan. This beast conquers the whole world and is worshipped by many. The preacher emphasizes that this ultimate world power is a counterfeit to God's sovereignty and warns of the ultimate persecution that will occur under this power.

You read in chapter 13, verse 1, Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. I don't know about you, but right there I think of Godzilla. Immediately. Once I think of Godzilla, then I just add to the picture. As you read on, you add to the picture, and the next thing you know you're really out there, and you're wondering, what in the world does this have to do with anything? Look how strange it is. Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads, wait a minute, Godzilla only had one, and ten horns. Wait a minute, seven heads and ten horns? And on his horns he has crowns? So here's a monster, he rises up out of the ocean, he's like Godzilla, but he has not two heads. We can deal with a two-headed monster, but a seven-headed monster is pretty far out there, and then to have ten horns and a crown dangling off of each horn, that gets pretty far out, doesn't it? And this is where people bail in the book of Revelation, and you can understand why. And then on the heads are written blasphemous names, oh my gosh. So it gets worse. Then the beast, verse 2, which I saw, was like a leopard. So he's got seven heads, ten horns, crowns on each, blasphemous names, but he's also like a leopard. How does that happen? And his feet are like the feet of a bear, and his mouth is like the mouth of a lion. Wait a minute, his mouth, I thought he had ten heads. You should say his mouths. His mouth is like the feet of the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him, there's a dragon? And the dragon gave him his power and his throne. A dragon has a throne? And great authority. So you read through that, and that is exactly how our minds picture it. And so I bring it up to you like that so we can get rid of that. Because that's the symbolism, but you've got to understand that John is looking at something that if you're able to sit down in a conversation with him, and talk to him about what is actually happening, he would say it in words like we would say it. In verse 3. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded. And his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshipped the dragon who gave authority to the beast. And they worshipped the beast saying, who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And he was given a mouth speaking great things. And blasphemies. And he was given authority to continue for 42 months. Whatever you understand about the first verse, as you read on, you realize you're dealing with a mouth. Therefore, you're dealing with a person. Therefore, you've got to go back and look at all that imagery in verse 1 and start to make it real instead of just monster-like. Here is this power. Here is this worship given. And he has given a mouth, verse 5, speaking great things and blasphemies and given authority to continue for 42 months. Then he opened his mouth and blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. What a depressing thought initially. And authority was given to him over every tribe and tongue and nation, so he rules the whole world. And all who dwell on the earth worship him. Wholesale worship except those whose names are written in the book of life of the Lamb. So those who worship him are those whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, which is another way of saying from eternity past. Then we read in verse 9, if anyone has an ear, let him hear. Then verse 10 says, he who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience of the saints. So what we have here in the final sense is a great, grand, and sovereign God. And in the ultimate sense, some very lofty prophecy of what will surely come to pass upon this earth. Now I have an outline for you. Give us a place to hang our thoughts here. First of all is the ultimate world power. And that is in verse 1. Then we have the ultimate counterfeit. Then we have the ultimate misguided worship. And then we have the ultimate persecution. Let's begin with the ultimate world power, and you have this in verses 1 and 2. Verse 1. Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads, ten horns, and on his horns are ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. If you poke all around the book of Revelation, and I don't want to take the time to do it because we're going to do that as we continue, you will find out that this beast is in fact the Antichrist. You will also find out that this is in fact the Antichrist's kingdom. And you will discover if you were to go all through Daniel and all through the rest of Revelation and read through Matthew 24, you would discover that this is in fact the Antichrist and his power base, which rules the whole world. So the beast must be viewed as a man who is the Antichrist and must not be viewed apart from his kingdom. Just as you think of Adolf Hitler, you cannot think of him apart from the Third Reich. They're synonymous, they go together, they're separate, they are one. That's the picture that you have here. That's what the symbolism is telling us. But let's look at the symbols. First of all, the beast. The beast is the Antichrist and his kingdom. What is the sea? The beast comes out from the sea. It is the Antichrist coming out of the sea of humanity, which is ruled by the Lord of this world, who is Satan. Out from the sea of humanity and the realm of evil comes the Antichrist. Then the ten horns. Horns in the Bible represent power. They are ten nations. He comes out from among those ten nations. He conquers them and the fact that he gains rulership over them. Then he takes them and he pulls them together and he uses them as his power base. So the ten horns are ten nations. He comes out from and uses as a base of power. The crowns are the individuals, you could say, that hold the power over those ten nations. The kings that wear the crowns. And the heads are basically and you can get really wild and cosmic with this, but the heads are the historical world empires that lead up to the final world empire, which is the Antichrist. So that you can count them. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and then the revived Roman Empire, which is the Antichrist, which is the seventh and the final. God works in sevens all the way through the Bible. So the seven heads, the blasphemous names on the heads, if those are the past great empires of the world, they were all dominated by evil and blasphemous concepts against the living God. So what do we have in front of us? We have this man who is empowered by Satan, who comes out from the realm of Satan and darkness and the worldly system he runs. He is surrounded by an alliance of ten nations and he goes forth and he conquers the whole world. If you want, you can take the sand that he stands on and speak of that as every person on earth. So that's it. A power base, a military, political, religious power base run by one man who is empowered by Satan, the dragon, and he conquers the whole world. That's it. The Antichrist will combine the best of the strongest kingdoms. So that's where verse two comes in. Now the beast which I saw was like, collectively like a leopard. His feet were like the feet of a bear. His mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon, Satan, he's already been identified as that in the previous chapter, gave him his power. So the man is endowed by Satan. Gave him his throne and what is Satan's throne? The earth. Satan rules the earth. And his great authority, which is what? All the kingdoms of the earth. Remember when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness? He said he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and what did he say? He said, all these are mine and they are mine to give. So Satan gives the Antichrist his power, his throne and his authority. All the kingdoms, the throne of the earth, so he rules the earth and he does it with all the power of Satan in one man. Can you imagine? So that he then is much like the Babylonian empire, which the symbol for that was the lion because it was so fierce and his kingdom is fierce and strength and stability like the Medo-Persian empire. So he had the stability of the bear, swift to conquer because he is swift to conquer the whole world like the Greek conqueror, the mercurial Alexander the Great. By the time he was 33 years old when he died, had conquered the whole known world. So that's where the leopard, the lion and the bear come in. And the Antichrist gets all his power from Satan himself. The ultimate world power. Then we come to the ultimate counterfeit. Now, Jesus Christ, who was God come in the flesh so that he was a man indwelt by God. The God man, 100% God, 100% man died from the mortal wounds of crucifixion and rose again from the dead, right? Now we read of this Antichrist. He's like Christ, only the opposite. He's indwelt by Satan himself. We read now that he dies from a mortal wound and rises again. Makes perfect sense because it's all the greatest counterfeit ever. How scary. Verse 3. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded. You go down in the chapter and it becomes more personal with one person, the Antichrist. He is mortally wounded and his deadly wound is healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. That is so fascinating to me because Jesus Christ was mortally wounded, died and rose again, and all the world did not marvel and follow him. You want to know why? Because of his message about sin, about heaven, about hell. But here will come a man who will be mortally wounded, who will be killed, who will rise again. His message is entirely different. It's satanic. It panders and caters to pride and materialism and the things of the flesh. And so this is the one the world marvels at and follows in a wholesale fashion. He will be killed, rise again, the world will marvel and they will follow him. And they follow him with this unbelievable, zealous dedication. Which I might add, really exceeds what we see in Christianity today. It is not any secret at all that the Mormons evangelize the world with a greater zeal than Christians do. That the Jehovah Witnesses evangelize the world with a greater zeal than the Christians do. It's no secret at all. And their power comes from Satan. It's because Christians get saved, they get comfortable, they're thankful, their sin is forgiven, and they're going to heaven, and that's about what they do with it. And then they go on about their lives, and many of them live so far from God, they're nothing like Christ. They have no passion for the lost, so they don't witness. Meanwhile, when Satan gets and God will not force you, he will kick down the doors of your life and drag you. And that's why so many Christians are like that. But on the other hand, Satan will. Satan will kick down the doors of your life. He will be a taskmaster. He will drag you. And he does it by catering to your fleshly desires. And that is why so many of these cults are so much more zealous for evangelizing the world with the deception of following ultimately Satan than the real church of Jesus Christ. So all the world goes after the beast, and they marvel, and they follow him with a zeal that is unparalleled, which then, in and of itself, retroactively or reciprocally, looking back on the zeal of the churches at large before this. I mean, look at the church in America. Is it all zealous and on fire and evangelistic? No. So you look at the zeal that's going to erupt in people following the Antichrist so zealous, they search the world, they scour it for Christians so they can slaughter them. And they slaughter everyone they can find, and they find them all over the world. It is an unparalleled zeal. You look at that retroactively back across the sleepy church that precedes it, and then the message sweeps through. This is the real thing. So with the whole world going after him, and only a few going after the Lord, everybody knows there's so many following that it must be right. But with everybody following them, they're not right. They're wrong. And the few, Jesus said, the gate is narrow, straight narrow, and few there be that find it. Broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many there be that go that way. And the broad road that leads to destruction is false religion and a false Christ. So it becomes wholesale, dynamic, on fire for the Antichrist who is wounded, evidently dies, and rises again. Whether or not he fakes it, we don't know, but the text says he's mortally wounded and rises again. And God allows it to sift out the real from the fake. And it's just one more way of God allowing people to have a chance to make a choice. People hear about how God created man, put him in the garden, gave him a choice of good and evil. Man made his choice. Then God cursed the world and man was born alienated from God and they act like if they were in the garden and they had their chance, they wouldn't choose evil. Oh no, God has set it up so every man, woman, and child can make that choice. And it's so clear, even right here at the end of the world. So here's the ultimate counterfeit of Jesus Christ himself. And the world believes in him, but they won't believe in the true Christ. Why? Because men love darkness rather than light. So you have to ask yourself the question today. If I was presented with a Christ who said I could have all my sin and still have a nice everlasting life after, or I was presented with a Christ who said I have to turn from my sins and follow him, repent of my sins and believe on him, and I would go to heaven, which one would I choose? The answer only you can answer. Because that is exactly what the world is being presented with. You see, even the early church knew about Antichrist. The choice has been there all along. And John wrote, he said, even now there are many Antichrists. And so it is. We have the cults and we have all kinds of things you can follow other than the real Christ. Do you want to follow the world, the fakes, or do you want to follow the Son of God who alone can take you to heaven? That is the choice you have to make. And you have to make it. There is no such thing as not making a choice. To say I'll think about it is to make a choice of no for today. You have to make a choice. And when you make the choice for the real living Christ, He gives you a real living life. For the first time you have life and it proceeds to become more and more abundant from there on out. So the ultimate will power is the Antichrist and his kingdom. The ultimate counterfeit is his death and resurrection and the world follows him and they follow him into the ultimate misguided worship. Verses 4 through 6. So the world rejects Jesus Christ and chooses to worship Satan. You might say, my how ghastly. I supposedly might have said that if we're here in 1920 or 1910 or 1860 or something like that. But we have lived through a time where satanic worship has become popular. And so much of the music of our day has thrusted right down the ears and down the throats and into the lives of entire generations. Never mind the fact that many of these people backstage and in their mansion are not real Satan worshipers. They just use it as an act with the people that are listening. Don't know that they believe it passionately. They follow it into the darkness and corruption and deception and they die in accidents and they go to hell and it's tragic and they they pull themselves together. What you have is people that are just actors, but behind the actor is the real thing. The devil and you end up with real Satan worshipers down here. As I was studying this today, I was thinking about the time the individual came in and came up to me and just one glance and I thought I've got a Satan worshiper staring at me. And she said, Hi, I'm a Satan worshiper. I've drank blood. I've seen sacrifices of babies to the devil and you name it. I've done it and had it done to me. And it's just really interesting being here tonight. And I think I want to accept Jesus. And I remember praying with the person and feeling very weird even as I prayed with. I am absolutely utterly totally and in all other ways convinced that person was there as a plant and the prayer was staged just to get a focus and lock in on the target because I never saw the person again but I saw a lot of other satanic stuff after. It's very heavy. It's real. You need to let God lead you. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. But these things are so utterly real. So verse 4, they worship the dragon. That's Satan. The world worships Satan at this point in time which is three and a half years into the tribulation period when the Antichrist sets himself up as God in the temple in Jerusalem. And Satan gives the authority to the beast, the Antichrist. So they worship the Antichrist and they are very zealous, the whole world. They are very zealous. They say, who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? No one can withstand him. So the world rejects Jesus Christ and the world worships the Antichrist, a man. And as the world worships the Antichrist, he blasphemes everything possible about the true and living God and the world loves it. They love it. It's part of their worship of him. So that he has given power to speak great things, verse 5 and blasphemies and he's given authority to continue like that for 42 months. Then he opens his mouth and blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. So everything about the true and living God. Now this is not new. This was prophesied in Daniel 7.25 It says he will speak pompous words against the most high. Everything in Daniel is identical to what we find with John and the interesting thing to me though, which I actually love is that in the middle of all of this horror and shocking reality, what's shocking to me is it says in verse 5 he's given authority to continue how long? Permanently? Always? Aren't you glad it says 42 months? That is a real manageable figure. That is three and a half years. His reign of terror does not last indefinitely. It has a definite limit on it so that Antichrist and Satan will be allowed to operate within the time limit set for them by the ruler of the universe. That I like because he is the one I serve. I worship him. He is my God. He fights for me. He is strong in my weakness and he has a time limit set on this man who's going to rule the whole world in its three and a half years. I'm so glad my God limits Satan and his evil and what he can do. So the ultimate world power, the ultimate counterfeit and the misguided worship. Jesus said to the woman at the well, woman you're all confused. You're up here in Samaria where they've blended idol worship with Jehovah worship. I tell you the hour is coming and now is when they that worship God will worship him how? In spirit and in truth. And where is the truth? It's in the Bible. The God of the Bible who loved the world so much. He sent his only son that you would not have to perish but have everlasting life if you'll believe in him. So here it is misguided worship, very zealous worship, but that then comes the ultimate persecution. Now that he's got the worship behind him, now that he's got people zealous for him, he brings worldwide slaughter to believers. So he convinces the world that the people that come to believe in God after the rapture are the ones that are evil. They're so evil they must be exterminated. So he brings worldwide slaughter. Do not just isolate, talk about the Antichrist to the European economic community if you think that's what it is. I think that's what the ten nation power base is effectively give or take a few nations. We were there in the European community recently and we had to use euro dollars and euro coins and every one of us on the ship had our shock when we got our two euro I think it was coin and on the back of it is a beast with a woman riding on the back and the woman rides the beast and we had to use those coins it's like get them away from me where is my debit card so he brings worldwide slaughter don't just isolate it to the European community that would be his power base but he will rule the whole world the whole world is covered with cameras already drive down the freeway and count them do you notice they keep adding them just now they're at stoplights first it was the freeway just occasionally now they're monitoring a little traffic now they're everywhere and everywhere you go in the world you're mainlined right into somebody's computer, somebody's camera somebody's watching, big brother is watching but he's not your big brother he's going to be the big Antichrist the devil so the whole world right now is being wired with cameras for what? to hunt down the Christians who are on the run because from 24,000 miles in space you can zoom right in on the iris of the eye with those cameras that's pretty heavy don't you love the thought of the rapture I sure do and I love the fact that I know Jesus now and I hope you do and that you'll come to know him now if you don't so verse 7 it was granted to him to make war with the saints and overcome them, God allowed it and authority was given him God allowed it over every tribe, tongue and nation it is world wide Daniel prophesied of this Daniel 7.25 he said you will be given to speak pompous words against the most high and he will persecute the saints then the saints will be given into his hand Daniel 7.25 so what happens is world wide slaughter of believers he can overcome them physically the great thing is he cannot overcome them spiritually, once you give your life to Jesus Christ you're his in Romans 8.38 Paul the apostle said for I am persuaded I have come to a persuasion in my life through my experiences and my study of the word of God and my prayers to the living God I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities which sweeps in Satan nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord so yes granted to make war with the saints and to overcome them but not to overcome them spiritually so he will bring world wide slaughter to believers but he will not be able to destroy God given saving faith and you have to understand that verse 8 says all who dwell in the earth will worship him whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world this is a statement that refers to a book where God the Father wrote down the names of those that would be saved and he wrote them down in eternity past in this book and he gave it to Jesus Christ who was slain from eternity past in the plan of God so in eternity past God the Father gave the lamb of God a book with all the names of all those who would be saved in it then he came to this earth he lived he preached and then he was crucified died and rose again died for our sins and rose again for our justification justification every name written in that book that person will be in heaven every name written down in eternity past in the lambs book of life will be in heaven in eternity future you want to know why because God is in control of salvation from eternity past to eternity future and in this little micro spec of time in which man lives and exists on this little tiny tiny the earth is compared to everything else in outer space how tiny are you then here like so non ant so that is all to say do you really believe God puts the whole plan down into the lap of these little non ant creatures well I have this plan of redemption it's going to really rely on how they react to it all I'm sorry it doesn't work that way God is in control in eternity past eternity future and the little tiny bit of time on earth that is there before him as he is outside of time he knows who will be saved he knew who would be saved in eternity past he knew what you would think he knew how you would react and he wrote down the names in the book based on omniscience based upon his knowledge of everything and every person every thought you'd ever think every time you'd ever hear the gospel everything everything everything and why you would reject because you love darkness rather than light and why you would respond because you're convicted of your sin you want to turn from it and embrace a gracious God who would save you and so your name was written down so everybody whose name was not written down is going to worship the antichrist now you might be one of those people who then says well wait a minute so then if I wasn't written in then you mean it's I don't have a chance and I'm going to be lost how fair is that very fair because God anticipated that bratty response in 2 Thessalonians 2 9 it says the coming of the lawless one in fact why don't you turn there 2 Thessalonians 2 9 which is talking about the antichrist satan working in and through him with all power signs and wonders see the antichrist Christ is going to be like Christ and then he will do miracles and signs and wonders like Christ with all the power of satan so 2 Thessalonians 2 9 says the coming of the lawless one that's the antichrist is according to the working of satan with all power signs and lying wonders and with all verse 10 all unrighteous deception among those who perish but here it tells why do they perish does it say because their name wasn't written it says they perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved what do you need to do to be saved receive the love of the truth Jesus died and rose again for your sins if you refuse to do that then you will perish and it's your fault so that this is even describing those at that time during the reign of the antichrist verse 12 says that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness which was the gospel of the antichrist the bottom line is this you are not lost because God neglected it was unfair and eternity passed to write your name down in the book God does not neglect anything God knows everything God is present at all times everywhere in every place all powerful in control of everything and all loving and is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance that's the God who wrote down the names in the book so men are lost not because they are not elect but because they reject the gospel and God knows all that back in eternity passed when he elected those who would be saved all Christ rejecters are going to worship the antichrist now all Christ receivers will reject the antichrist so let's say you missed the rapture you realize everything everybody said to you that was coming was true and you come to Christ and you say Lord Jesus forgive me I blew it I missed the rapture but I don't want to miss heaven save me well then he will and you will reject the antichrist so that what does God then do for people like that he has right here in front of us one of the greatest possible encouragements this is here for a reason it says in verse 8 all who dwell on the earth will worship the antichrist whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world verse 8 of chapter 13 so God provides the greatest possible comfort and confidence to the believers at this time as everybody is being slaughtered that believes in Christ how by reminding them that if they know him their name was written in the lambs book of life in eternity past those whose names that were written in the lambs book of life in eternity past will not be deceived by the antichrist Jesus said in Matthew 24 24 he said for false Christ false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive if possible because it's not if possible even the elect so powerfully deceptive that if it were possible they would deceive even the elect those written in God's book of life in eternity past but his point was it's not possible if you know the Lord he put his grip of love on you in eternity past think about that hold your place here turn to revelation 3 5 I mean as soon as we get on the lambs the book of the life of the lamb and names written in eternity past you get so preoccupied with it if you don't deal with it you'll be stuck there no matter where we go after that so we have to deal with it for a minute but it's here to encourage those that will believe I mean if you're seeing all your friends slaughtered and you read this and you've got an anchor to your soul go back to revelation 3 5 Jesus says he who overcomes notice the terminology says shall be this will happen and those that overcome are that's a phrase for those that believe on Christ he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and I will not blot his name from the book of life but I will confess his name before my father before his angels you say aha there it is he's going to blot some names out that is not what he said don't say what he didn't say aha he's going to blot some names out he did not say that he in fact said the exact opposite he who overcomes needs to know this no matter how bad it gets no matter how much deception is around you no matter how many people don't believe I will not blot your name out of the book that was written in eternity past that said you would be among those who would be saved in eternity future if you believe in Christ know this no matter how bad it gets no matter how weak you get if you believe on Christ know it'll never get so bad that I would get so mad that I would just blot your name out it is in fact the exact opposite of what people read into that's not there it is the greatest affirmation of security in Christ you could ever have I will never blot your name out of my book my father wrote your name in I died I shed my blood I rose again I called you by my spirit you came he that comes to me I will in no wise cast out I will send you the Holy Spirit he will abide with you until I get bugged and blot your name out is that what he said no I will send you the Holy Spirit he will come and he will testify of me and he will abide with you how long forever you need to know if you believe on Christ and he's your Savior no matter how hard it gets no matter how much temptation is around you no matter how hard you're bombarded no matter how difficult the attacks are your name is in forever and so are you because of the decree of God and I love this because of the blood of Jesus it's two fold the decree of God that you would be saved and the blood of Jesus shed on the cross so you could be saved so you come to know the Lord in this time and you face the horrific slaughter of believers around you and watch an entire world worshiping the most evil individual who has ever lived and becoming like him because don't forget by this time all demons that roam around Satan himself who's odd even to roam and come before the throne of God and accuse you they've all been cast down and sealed in the area around the earth every demon is now incarcerated in the realm right down here on the earth cast down to the earth we already studied it you come to Christ in the middle of that with a world ruler with a power base who rules the entire world and hunts down everybody that believes and cuts off their head or kills them and you're going to need to know exactly what we've just studied that no matter how tough it gets or how weak you get you will never blot your name out he'll get you there safely I thank God for that the great encouragement from the book of life Lamb so then if you understand that verse 9 makes perfect sense back in Revelation 13 verse 9 makes perfect sense falls right into your lap anyone that has an ear let him hear hear that know that understand that preach that to those who may be left behind and come to Christ later you know what verse 9 also says to us that the doctrine of the rapture is true because it says in verse 9 if anyone has an ear let him hear this is nothing about the church yet in chapter 2 and 3 of Revelation when Jesus is addressing the churches he says he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches hear after the rapture he who has an ear to hear let him hear because the church is gone for those that say there's no rapture you have no proof for it there's proof all over the place and here's a real nice one tucked in Revelation 13 9 let him hear so you bring worldwide slaughter to believers he is not able to destroy God given saving faith what's he gonna do actually well verse 10 says he's going to kill and imprison believers and then gives instruction that the believers are not to fight back so verse 10 says he who leads into captivity shall go into captivity he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword and here in the midst of this is manifested the patience and the faith of the saints that is to say God's people are not to retaliate against their persecutors there was no place for it in the life of Jesus Christ he went as a sheep to the slaughter there was no place for it in the martyrs who died under the reign and the terror of Nero they died as they were thrown to the lions they held hands as they were thrown in singing songs and praises to God as they were burned alive they were worshiping God they never marshaled together their numbers to retaliate and fight back and bring a resistance against their persecutors and the Lord is saying here don't you do that then they're gonna be hunting you down wholesale to kill you everywhere don't marshal some kind of Christian army to fight back so you can all live don't do that you do the way it's always been done you manifest the patience and the faith of people that have been saved by me that's how other people get saved that's how the centurion at the bottom of the cross got saved that's how the thief on the side of Jesus got saved and that's how people will be saved through you when they come to arrest or to kill you, you don't fight back this is the patience and the faith of the saints, it's the perseverance and it is brethren one of our most powerful ways of witnessing that in the face of the worst we act like Jesus we love like Jesus we live like Jesus we walk like Jesus and if necessary we die like Jesus and it is comforting as you survey the whole thing to know that God will ultimately in the truest sense turn Satan into the ultimate transient because that is what he is we get so focused on here and now and the things that are happening to us we fail to realize this is coming to me from a transient this guy is going to pass Jesus is the same yesterday today and how long? forever Satan is loose and at large defeated at the cross soon to be incarcerated in the bottomless pit, the abyss during the thousand year reign of Christ on this earth he will be incarcerated for a thousand years and then when he is loosed and leads a rebellion he will be thrown into the lake of fire where he will be incinerated not for a thousand years but forever he is transient and so is every bit of his work in your life absolutely utterly completely in the end transient because you see in the moment in a twinkling of an eye when the rapture of the church occurs God is going to snatch away all of his own and if we go in the rapture if God blesses us in that way we will be changed into his image and every bit of Satan's work and sin's work in our life will be gone glorified with the glory of Christ and glorious new bodies forever or if you die tonight in your sleep you will awake in the presence of Jesus because only your body will die, your spirit will live suddenly live in a way it's never lived soar in a way it's never soared into glory that will go on and on and will never regress but only increase in the presence of an infinite God Satan is the ultimate transient see him as that Jesus Christ is the ultimate transformer embrace him as that and you will live differently