Beast Games | J.D. Greear

2:11 If you are, before we get started this morning, if you are a college student at any of our campuses, would you stand to your feet right now? Or graduate student, college students or graduate students, would you stand up right now at any of our campuses? stay up for a minute, stay up, stay standing up at a couple of our, some of our campuses, nearly the entire room stood up just now. At some of our services, especially the ones at eight o'clock, no one stood up. But whether there are any college students at your campus or not, could we one time together, put our hands together and welcome these brothers and sisters back with us. Thank you guys. Welcome back. You can, you can take a seat. I want you to know that there is no Summit Church apart from college students, and it is just not the same around here when you guys are gone. It is so adult. It is so boring. And so we always love it when you guys come back.

3:06 Speaking of college, we just finished up something at our church we call Fresh 10, which is 10 straight days of events that we do that are designed to meet and engage new students on their college campus. It includes everything from ice cream socials to volleyball tournaments to a first ever epic hot dog eating contest. and even the now infamous cookout quarter miler where students had to chug a cookout milkshake and then run for a quarter mile. I asked them if I could do the first part, but not the second. And they said, no, it is a package deal. And then all throughout that time, we have a lot of worship nights that are thrown in there. Get this, Summit Church. Through these worship nights, already just 10 days into the semester, we have already seen 72 students make decisions for Christ. Isn't that amazing? Thank you.

3:57 Listen, we do this all for one reason. And that reason is that we love students and we wanna do everything we can to help you discover the life that God has for you in the four, five, six, 10 years, whatever, that you spend here as a student. To our students, let me just say this. I wanna challenge you to make a local church an essential part of your college experience. the most impactful part of your college years will be the friendships that you build. And we wanna help you connect with other believers who will help you discover the fullness of the life that God has for you. And so at the end of all of our services today at every campus, you will hear how you can get plugged in with other college students on your Summit campus, okay? All right, everybody, Bibles out, Bibles out, if you will, Revelation chapter 12.

4:54 Revelation 12. Let me give you a warning. I am about to give spoilers for the movies Mission Impossible 1, Matrix, The Sixth Sense, Lost, The Wizard of Oz, and Scooby-Doo. I feel like this is not a problem because the newest movie or show on that list is older than every single one of our college students. Just for perspective, each of those movies came out before the euro was even a currency and before the airing of the last episode of Friends. So I feel like all this info I'm about to share is in the public domain, okay? But I'll just say it. If you were planning to go home this afternoon and watch one of those movies for the first time, please close your ears for the next 30 seconds and then I'll wave at you like this. I'll do jazz hands at the end when you can open them up again, okay?

5:49 All right, you've been warned. One of my favorite things in movies has always been the unmasking moment when you discover that something else has been going on behind what you've been seeing. Like in the original Mission Impossible movie when Claire, the wife of the bad guy, Jim, comes into the baggage car and she confesses to Jim how she's betrayed Ethan Hunt, who is, of course, played by Tom Cruise. And then Jim reaches up and slowly peels off his face and underneath is Ethan Hunt. Or in the Matrix movie when you realize that the whole world as we know it is just a simulated mind meld. Or the sixth sense when you figure out that Bruce Willis is dead. Or in the last episode of Lost when you're not really quite sure what happened, only that you've wasted seven years of your life that you're never going to get back. Or that scene in Wizard of Oz when they pull back the curtain and reveal that the big powerful wizard is actually just a scrawny little old man with a megaphone.

6:46 But for me, I feel like my love for all these was born when I was watching the greatest cartoon series of all time, Scooby-Doo. And the gang would unmask the monster at the end of the show, only to reveal that the monster was just old man Jenkins the whole time. And he would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids, right? Scooby-Doo fans, anybody out there besides me? All right, okay, all right, we're done, jazz hands, okay? I know I may have set the record for most spoilers given in 60 seconds. But like I said, every single one of those things on that list came out before the airing of the last episode of Friends. Rachel and Ross end up together, by the way. She gets off the plane, okay? So one more for you. Revelation, Revelation is the unmasking of history. It's revealing the forces that are at work behind the powers on earth. God put Revelation into our Bibles to show us how it all ends so that we can watch history unfold in front of us with a sense of calm and understanding.

7:46 After reading the book of Revelation, you should be able to go through life, even with all of its chaos and sometimes terror, like you're watching one of those suspenseful movies for the second time. You ever done that? The first time you were on the edge of your seat, wondering what was going to happen, and then when the big reveal happened, you were like, what? I did not see that coming. But the second time you watch that movie, you're calm, you're cool, you're collected, because you know none of this is real. That monster, that monster is really just old man Jenkins. God wants us to watch history unfold around us with that kind of patience, peace, and even joy because we know how it ends. Today, we are going to see two mysterious characters unmasked, the Antichrist and the false prophet. The apostle John wants us to recognize these figures when we see them, to know who they are and what they're up to and where they get their power from.

8:45 But first in chapter 12, John tells us a parable about a mysterious woman and a dragon. Because to understand the any Christ and the false prophet, you have to understand this dragon. This woman we meet in chapter 12 gives birth to a child, John says, verse five. And this child is destined to rule the nations. Immediately upon his birth, The dragon tries to kill the child, but God protects him, eventually carrying him up to heaven. The woman then has to flee for her life into the wilderness where she hides for 1,260 days or three and a half years. So the child obviously is Jesus. I think we all can see that pretty clearly. But who is this woman and who is this dragon? Is the woman Mary? Is the woman Mary? I mean, she seems like an obvious answer since she's the one that gave birth to Jesus. So does that mean the dragon is a reference to how Herod tried to kill Jesus the moment that he was born?

9:50 By the way, how many of you have a dragon in your nativity sets? One day I'm going to get filthy We read it selling a biblically accurate nativity set, one that includes a ferocious dragon that you put right by the manger in the scene. What we need at Christmas is more dragons, right? Or maybe the woman that doesn't represent, maybe it's more than just Mary though. I mean, maybe it's all of Israel. I mean, after all, the woman here wears a crown of 12 stars. We never saw Mary wear a crown of 12 stars. 12 in the book of Revelation usually indicates the people of God. So these stars would represent the 12 tribes of Israel. Well, that would make Pharaoh the dragon because Pharaoh tried to destroy the woman, Israel, at the Red Sea. By the way, if you look down in verse 14 in your Bible, you'll see it says that the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness. That is direct language from the book of Exodus. Exodus 19.4 says that when Pharaoh tried to kill Israel, God delivered Israel to himself on eagle's wings into the wilderness.

10:55 Furthermore, by the way, one of Pharaoh's main symbols was a serpent. On his headdress, he had a little emblem of a serpent. So they were literally fleeing from a serpent into the wilderness. So is this woman, is she Israel? Or maybe this woman symbolizes the church and the great tribulation. I mean, it says she's nourished for 1,260 days, which is three and a half years or half of the tribulation. That's an obvious reference to the great tribulation that we've been talking about. Well, if that's the case, then the 12 stars around her head represent not just the 12 tribes of Israel, but also the 12 apostles, both Old and New Testament believers. So which of these is it? Is the woman Mary? I mean, if you're on Team Mary, raise your hand. Okay, is the woman Israel? Team Israel, raise your hand. Is it the church of the great tribulation?

11:48 Raise your hand. And the answer is yes. This parable in chapter 12, you see, is a metaphor for all of biblical history. The dragon obviously is Satan, who at every point of history has been trying to destroy Jesus and his people. I want you to notice this dragon has given some rather odd characteristics. Look down in verse one and two there. It says he has seven heads with seven crowns and 10 horns. That is imagery straight from the book of Daniel that depicts world empires. Daniel predicts these world empires coming in the future. Horns in the Bible always represent power. Some scholars tie this imagery to specific world empires. You see, there've been seven global empires in history, or six already and one coming. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and then some kind of future final empire under the Antichrist.

12:42 Other scholars say, well, no, the seven heads are probably a reference to Rome itself, which famously had seven hills. Rome was built on top of seven hills, like seven heads. And the 10 horns represent a revived Roman empire that is coming in the future. Both of those observations have some validity, but here's the thing. Okay. And the most important thing, if you counted up all the beasts that Daniel prophesied about in the book of Daniel, you would come up with seven heads and 10 horns. And for Daniel, again, they represent different empires in history. Here in Revelation 12, you got one beast with seven heads and 10 horns. So it's kind of like John is saying this dragon is an amalgamation of all the beast of Daniel's prophecies, sort of a super monster, so to speak. That dragon has been present, John is saying, in all of biblical history. And throughout all of Christian history, he has warred against the people of God and tried to destroy them. He manifested himself, for example, as the serpent in the garden who tried to deceive and destroy God's first created offspring, Adam and Eve.

13:53 He manifested himself again in Pharaoh, the serpent, trying to destroy God's son Israel in the Exodus. He manifested himself through Herod, trying to kill the Christ child who had just been born. That dragon manifested himself throughout Christian history, through empires, trying to wipe out the people of God, whether that's the Roman empire of the first century or communist and Islamic regimes in later centuries. He manifests himself today through forces trying to oppose and discourage the church, forces both big and small. All that sets us up for chapter 13, because in chapter 13, what we're gonna see is how the dragon is at work in the world. Chapter 13, verse one, and I saw a beast rising out of the sea. See, in the Bible, represents chaos with 10 horns and seven heads with 10 diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its head.

14:48 The seven heads and 10 horns, of course, immediately connect us back to the dragon of chapter 12. So this new beast has a connection to the dragon. Verse three, one of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. This beast, who we're going to see as the Antichrist, apparently goes through some kind of miraculous looking death and resurrection simulation. We'll talk more about that in a minute, but jump down to verse five, if you will. Verse five, and the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months. 42 months, which would be three and a half years. The beast rules in an unchallenged way for three and a half years. Verse seven, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And all who dwell on earth will worship it, except of course for believers who at this point will be living in hiding. Verse 11, then I saw another beast. Now we're talking about a second beast rising out of the earth. This beast had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. By the way, this is the only time in Revelation that lamb doesn't refer to Jesus. This second beast looks like a lamb, but speaks like a dragon. In other words, he looks like Jesus, but talks like Satan. Verse 12, this second beast exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast. This second beast is the one we're going to call the false prophet who works alongside the Antichrist and compels people to worship him. Verse 13, the second beast performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people. And by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image of the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to this image of the beast that they made so that the image of the beast might even speak. Also, it causes all both

16:59 small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave to be marked on the right hand or on the forehead so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark that is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom, John says, let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six, six, six. Okay, everybody take a deep breath. This chapter has inspired endless conspiracy theories, some best-selling book series, and some really appalling heavy metal albums. Okay, just for fun, this week I typed in the question, who is the Antichrist, into a Google search, and I got back 130 million hits. And some of the sites that it led me to were amazing. In fact, a little internet search tip here, okay, pro tip. If you visit a website and everything on that website is in all caps, bright red letters with flames coming out the sides of the webpage, you're going to want to stay away from that one. And don't even think about typing in what is 666. Your computer will just melt down right in front of you. I have an old book in my library. It's from the mid to late 80s. I re-consulted this week. It's called 666, The Final Warning. It was written during the final part of the 80s. And in its conclusion, it says, and I quote, the goal of this book was to enlighten my readers with what I personally feel the Lord has shared with me over the past 12 years as I've studied his word regarding end time events and the possible key players involved. Does this book prove that Ronald Wilson Reagan, six letters, six letters, six letters, is the prophesied Antichrist, and that Pope John Paul II, which in Latin, you also have six letters, six letters, six letters, that he will become the false prophet?

19:03 it. In my opinion, the evidence offered in this book is overwhelmingly in favor of them being history's prime candidates for these unholy positions. Now, this book did not really age well. It's not in its third or fourth edition, okay? But let's just ask, who are the Antichrist and the false prophet? If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. Very important. One of the most important things you'll hear today. More important than who they are is what they are. More and more than who they are is what they are. I'm gonna give you a handful of characteristics. And by the way, for our purposes, I'm gonna treat the Antichrist and false prophet together since they kind of work together as an unholy dynamic duo, okay? Like the unholy Batman and Robin. I'm gonna give you eight of them in total. Number one, they are Satan's earthly vessels. That's pretty clear, right?

19:56 Number two, they are an imitation Christ. The false prophet looks like a lamb and does miracles. and the Antichrist goes through some kind of resurrection. He's got a deadly wound that gets healed. You see how all that is an imitation of Jesus? And that's not a surprise, of course, since Antichrist literally means fake Messiah. Number three, their primary objective is to redirect worship away from God and on demand. You see, from the beginning, from the beginning of biblical history, Satan has recycled one lie, one, over and over and over. says you, mankind, you, man and woman, you can be like God. That is what he said to Eve in the Garden of Eden, Genesis chapter three. It's what he moved the population of the earth to attempt at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, to build a tower that would connect man to the heavens. It's what Satan moved Nebuchadnezzar to attempt in Daniel three in history's first truly global empire, the Babylonian empire. Nebuchadnezzar set up a gold statue of himself and commanded the whole world to worship it. Caesar's in the apostle John's day demanded to be worshiped as the son of God. In 40 AD, in fact, Caligula, Emperor Caligula threatened to place an image of himself in the temple, the Holy of Holies in the temple in Jerusalem for Jews to worship. So that's what they're doing is they're compelling people to worship man instead of God. Number four, they bring peace and prosperity. At least at first, Revelation tells us that the seven-year tribulation starts peacefully because the Antichrist brings stability and prosperity. The prophet Daniel even indicates that the Antichrist will broker a peace deal in the Middle East that will again restore the temple fully to the Jews. Number five, they do miracles. Verse 13 tells us the false prophet does great signs. He's been making fire to come down from heaven. Verse 15 tells us he even gives breath to some kind of image of the Antichrist and makes it look alive?

22:00 And I know this might be confusing for you because you say, well, wait a minute, can't only God do miracles? Well, first, realize that throughout history, Satan has always done imitation miracles. Pharaoh's magicians mimic Moses' plagues. Nebuchadnezzar's wise men mimic Daniel's prophecies. These miracles end up being a combination of clever magic tricks, as well as sometimes demonically empowered stuff. You see, apparently demons can give some miraculous powers. The Bible indicates that, but there's a limit to what demons can do. Think of demonic miracles, almost like grade B miracles, right? So that's the first thing to remember. Second thing, this is fascinating. Some scholars have speculated that what we're seeing here may point to the miraculous potential of modern technologies. I want you to notice the description in verse 15 says that this image of the beast is given breath like he's alive.

22:59 It never actually says that he's alive. It just says the image is like it's alive. Dr. John Lennox, who is an Oxford University mathematician and philosopher, wrote this fascinating book. I just finished reading called 2084. It's written in the fashion of George Orwell's 1984. Only this version focuses on the change that AI is bringing in the next 100 years. In this book, 2084, Dr. Lennox speculates that what John is pointing to here in Revelation 13, he's pointing to things that AI will be able to do in the future. Things like simulated consciousness, God-like knowledge, the simulation of being alive. Is that what is being alluded to here? Technology is so incredible that it almost feels miraculous, lifelike. and then that technology fuels, hear me, this old satanic lie that we can be like God to the point that we don't even think we need God anymore.

23:59 I mean, I don't know about y'all, but using chat GPT right now makes me feel like a divine genius, especially if I'm with some older person who doesn't really know how it works. They ask me a question and I kind of turn off to the side and ask my best friend chat. And in 30 seconds, I got an organized, detailed answer complete with made up footnotes. In fact, one of the most popular AI projects out there right now is called Homo Deus, which in Latin means man, God. The author of that project, an Israeli scientist named Dr. Harari, he said, and I quote, human history as we know it began when humans invented gods. It will evolve into the next stage when humans become gods. John Lennox believes that AI is a crucial part of fulfilling a lot of these prophecies in Revelation, and he's probably right. Number six, their number is 666. Okay, here we go. Tinfoil hat time. You ready? Nothing in Christian history has prompted more speculation than this.

25:01 Early Christians wondered if this number referred to Nero. You see, in Hebrew, every letter is assigned a number, and if you added up the numbers of the number values of the letters in Nero's name, you came up with 666. Normally I don't get into stuff like this, but if you actually look at that one, it's kind of freaky. So there are some early church people, some theologians that tied this directly to Nero. But then like I showed you, people have figured out how to do that with lots of other world leaders. In the nineties, it became really popular to say that this number represented the internet because W in our alphabet corresponds to the Hebrew Vav, which is the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, so 666. Every time you type in www.summitchurch.com, in Hebrew, you're typing in 666.summitchurch.com. And there ain't nothing I can do about that. I've asked, okay? This number, this number, here's the thing to remember. This number is not given to you as some kind of secret Bible code to figure out what it's referring to. In fact, John says, verse 18, that this number calls for wisdom, not for speculation. The wisdom aspect is that you recognize it's the number of a man. It's the number of man. Six in the Bible is the number of man because man was created in the sixth day. So in Hebrew six always corresponds to man. Basically what this means is that this number centers on man. It highlights man's power. It celebrates man's might, his ingenuity, and his glory. Number seven, they control commerce. They control commerce. Verse 17 says that nobody can even buy or sell unless they have the mark. In early church days, in order to buy and sell in the marketplace, some of the seizures required you to get what they called a libellus, which in Latin literally meant permission to buy and sell. And to get a libellus, all you had to do, it's really easy. It's a license to do business. All you had to do is go down to the courthouse and offer a pinch of incense at an altar to Caesar and say, Caesar is Lord. The apostle John

27:08 surely was thinking about this when he wrote these things. In his book, 2084, which I referred to earlier, John Lennox describes a program called SOCS, S-O-C-S, which stands for social credit score. It was tested in China by the Chinese government a few years ago. Basically, every citizen and corporation gets a unique ID and a starting score. Let's say 300 points. You gain points for approved behaviors. Government approved behaviors like paying your debts on time, paying your taxes, volunteering, recycling. You get points for reporting suspicious activity, things the government wants to know about. You get points for avoiding people that the state deems to be bad actors, you lose points for problematic behaviors. Problematic behaviors like associating with the wrong groups or posting the wrong things online. The result is an inescapable moral credit rating that determines your job options, what kinds of schools your kids get into, how easily you can get loans, even the level of medical care that you have access to. With modern technology, implementing that kind of system becomes frighteningly easy because it's a way that the state just begins to control. Number eight, they are two actual individuals, probably.

28:32 Now I put probably on this one because as I've acknowledged throughout this series, Christians I respect disagree on this. You see, there are some that think all this stuff about the Antichrist and a false prophet, it all refers to a general anti-Christian spirit that has been at work in the world. And that's true, I've told you. 1 John 4, 3 tells us the spirit of Antichrist is already here. But I've told you, I believe they also refer to actual individuals coming in the future. And I believe that because both Paul and John refer to the Antichrist as a specific person. In fact, Paul's name for the Antichrist is the man of lawlessness. That's what he calls him. And when he refers to the man of lawlessness, like he does in 2 Thessalonians 2, 9, he uses the definite article. He talks about the coming, means the future, of the lawless one. The lawless, a specific guy, not just a general antichrist spirit that it's already at work in the world, okay?

29:32 So our last thing that we gotta know about them is, I think there are two individuals coming in the future. Okay, so now you've got a page full of notes, eight things about the antichrist you may not have known before this message started. But you're sitting there thinking, I feel smarter, but so what? So what does this mean for how we live now? Great question. I want you to write down three important words that should shape your attitude to the world we live in now. These apply not only to those who will be alive when the actual Antichrist, capital A, comes. They apply to those of us alive now when the spirit of Antichrist is here. You see, as I've shown you, The dragon is just as much at work in our generation as he will be then. The great tribulation is just an intensification of what is already happening around us. Okay, here we go. Number one, skepticism.

30:27 Skepticism. So I'm at church in two decades of pastoring here. I'm not sure I've ever expressed what I'm about to say. But here goes. I am always skeptical of concentrated political power, especially on a global scale. And a big reason for that is what I see in Revelation 13. I am also skeptical of big corporations like Facebook and Netflix that control commerce and media intake on a global scale. Hear me. I did not say I'm automatically opposed to all those things. And please don't interpret what I'm about to say as some kind of blanket anti-UN statement. There are a lot of good things that UN does that I appreciate, right? There's a lot of things they do that are dumb, but there are a lot of things they do that I appreciate, things that make sense in a very complex world like ours. That said, I am always skeptical of those things because of how Revelation shows me these things have always been key ingredients in the dragon's playbook. His influence has always sought to be all-encompassing, invasive, and controlling. His trajectories are always toward centralization and control. It's a key part of how he does what he does. For those Christians who are alive on earth when the Antichrist comes and who oppose this kind of all-encompassing control, they're going to be treated as social enemies, public enemies, much like Christians are treated today in North Korea and China. They'll be depicted as the enemies to progress, the enemies to peace, enemies to public unity. And y'all, that's nothing new. In ancient Rome, the earliest Christians were called atheists and anarchists because they wouldn't get behind supreme loyalty to Caesar.

32:13 That's why Nero blamed the burning of Rome on them. This is an area that's going to require discernment because like I said, obviously not all government or big commerce is bad. Romans 13 tells us government is a gift of God to us. That said, I got no qualms. I'm unapologetic about telling you that we should always be skeptical and extremely cautious with powerful centralized control, because Revelation 13 shows us how the dragon uses that as an essential part of his game plan. Okay, here's the second word that should shape your attitude to the world. Flows right out of that first one. Realism. Almost every week, Summit, I've made this point in some form. Expect suffering. You need to give up your dreams that you're just going to make an awesome world for yourself here. Because the dragon is in charge of all the world systems. And if you are following Jesus, you are challenging him directly. In fact, I love how missionary Leslie Newbigin says it. Leslie Newbigin was a missionary from England to India who ended up coming back to England saying England needed more missionaries in India. He said the so-called secular society is not a neutral area into which we project the Christian message.

33:30 the so-called secular area is an area already occupied by other gods. The Christian message is not just an alternative religious approach. The Christian gospel is a direct attack on the gods of this age. And that means if you are faithful at all to the biblical mission, you should expect to be wildly countercultural. In fact, if you're not, I would even ask, are you doing anything?

34:04 I mean, Jesus said it, right? Woe to you, woe, when all people speak well of you. You know what that means? If the demons aren't bothered by you, then you're probably not doing anything. I love how Leonard Ravenhill used to say it. I wanna live in a way that when I die, all of hell rejoices that I'm out of the fight. I wanna live in a way that when my alarm clock goes off in the morning, I want hell to send out a bulletin that says, oh no, he's up. and see all if I live that way I should expect their fierce opposition while I'm working on earth I should never really expect to be that popular I'm very skeptical of whatever's popular in the world I'm like yeah I know the dragon has a lot of influence there so just because she's popular doesn't mean that she's awesome I'm not saying you should always listen to criticism when you get it I'm not saying just being popular for the sake of it I'm just telling you criticism doesn't always mean you're doing something wrong. It might mean you're doing something right. Because obedience attracts opposition. Always. Obedience attracts opposition. Number three, defiance. Defiance.

35:12 Here's the question all of us are going to have to consider. Who are you most loyal to when you have to choose? One thing that's interesting to me, if you study the history of global empires, listen, most don't care if you worship Jesus. As long as you acknowledge their authority over the religious landscape. For example, Rome did not care if Christians worship Jesus. They did not care if Christians followed Jesus's teachings as long as they would just offer a pinch of incense at the altar and say, Jesus, Caesar is Lord. The pantheon in Rome housed statues of gods from all over the Roman empire. They did not care what God you worshiped. They would have been happy to put a statue of Jesus in that pantheon. But the emblem on top of the pantheon over all the gods said, Caesar is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You can worship whatever you want, but you got to acknowledge that.

36:13 hear me some at church. We are probably not going to be told, stop following Jesus anytime soon. Nobody is going to care if we practice the way. What we're going to be told is you just can't say Jesus is the only Lord. You cannot say he's the only way of salvation. You got to acknowledge man's sovereignty over the religious fear. The way you worship is going to be a matter of personal preference. All approaches are equally good. God's like a mountain. You don't need to arrogantly say that your way is the only way. You need to acknowledge that everybody has their own way. We're already being told that. For example, Rabbi Shmuley Botich, he's one of America's spiritual gurus, the kind that used to show up on Oprah all the time. He says that when you say somebody else's spiritual approach is wrong, he says, and I quote, that amounts to spiritual racism, a kind of religious hate speech.

37:11 That means when I stand up here and say that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that nobody comes to the Father except by him, a direct quote from Jesus's mouth in John 14, 6, that is considered by him to be hate speech. And when we're talking about hate speech, why wouldn't you expect that to be outlawed? You can see that coming. Or Dr. Charles Kimball, former chair of the Department of Religion at Wake Forest University. A great school, historically Baptist school. Dr. Kimball, the head of this religion department, was an ordained Baptist minister who graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. In his book, When Religion Becomes Evil, he says that the first characteristic of an evil religion is an absolute truth claim. True theology, he said, leaves you with more questions than answers.

38:06 And churches like our summit, he doesn't name us specifically, but churches like ours are among the worst proponents of evil religion because we claim that Jesus is Lord over everything and that he alone can provide the way of salvation. You see, the spirit of the false prophet is already here. Worship Jesus, they say, hey, worship Jesus, practice the way, but acknowledge man's sovereignty over all of it. But some of we cannot do that. We cannot do that and stay faithful to Jesus because we have a savior that says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father except by me. We have a group of apostles who penned the Bible who said neither is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which you must be saved. There's only one savior of all of them that has actually risen from the dead, which means that we follow him and him alone regardless of whatever Caesar says the rules are, okay? So there you have it.

39:01 The Antichrist and the false prophet unmasked. So now let's return to chapter 12, where John tells us how we're to overcome them and the dragon behind them. Revelation 12, 11, it's one of the greatest verses in the book of Revelation, maybe in the New Testament. And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb. by the word of their testimony, because they love not their lives to the death. They overcame the dragon in every era by three things. Three ways we overcome the dragon. First, by the blood of the lamb. Y'all, that's our primary weapon. We're fighting a battle and a war that's already been won. The finished work of Christ is our primary weapon. On the cross, Paul explained, Jesus unmasked the powers of evil, put them to shame and defeated them.

39:54 The last thing Jesus said from the cross was a victory cry, the word tetelestai, a word that archaeologists have found scrawled across Roman tax receipts after the tax had been fully paid. Tetelestai, it is paid. It is finished. It is won. It is done. We overcome him, John says, by the blood of the lamb, by the announcement that the power of sin and death have been broken and Satan has been defeated, which leads me to the second phrase. And by the word of their testimony. It's our proclamation of the finished work that overcomes Satan. It's not enough that he died. What overcomes Satan is that we preach that he died. It is the foolishness of preaching, Paul says, us proclaiming to each other and to the world the finished work of Christ that cracks and destroys the power of the dragon. Their testimony overcame it. Where there is no testimony and no preaching of it, there will be no overcoming of it. By the way, testimony is also a really personal word, isn't it? You're not just relating facts about who Jesus was in the past. You're relating facts about what Jesus is doing in your life right now, right? It's not just that he died for sin in the past. It's that his resurrection released you from the power of sin today. Y'all, growing up in my small little church, one of my favorite nights in our church was testimony night.

41:17 Our church met three times a week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. And that poor pastor was expected to prepare a sermon for all three of those. I can barely do one a week. And that man had to do three. And sometimes I think he just didn't have time to prepare a sermon. So he just opened up the mic for testimony night. And I remember how, I love that night for two reasons. One, you would hear some truly crazy stuff, okay? The second thing was, y'all, I remember how important those nights were in my own faith development. because I would hear stories about what the Holy Spirit was doing in people's lives today, how he answered prayer, how he released addicts from addictions, how he did miracles in people's hearts.

41:58 And sitting there as an eight, nine-year-old boy, I'd feel my trust in God's faithfulness just grow. It's kind of like when my kids were young. A lot of you parents are, you know, kids go up three or four steps. And I'm like, hey, jump to me, you know. I remember, especially one of my kids, is so tenuous, you know, like they eventually just fell. I caught him, like, I got you, I got you. Parents, what's your kid do when you do that? Do it again, dad, do it again. So I put him down and run back up. This time they go a step or two higher. Jump, a little more confident, then a little higher. Jump, eventually they're like, I'm not trying to catch you from that, stop it, right? But what gave them the confidence to take greater and greater risks was their experience of my faithfulness in the past.

42:44 Testimonies are how God says to us, I got you, right? And testimonies inspire us to trust him more and more because we're breaking the false promises of Satan with the true fulfillment of the promises of Jesus. Third, because they love not their lives to the death.

43:07 I wish it wasn't this way, y'all, but God has ordained that his gospel will only go forward in the world through the laying down of our lives. I love Church of the Dome, but you know what will really win the world to Jesus is not our celebrations, it's our toil, our sacrifice, our pain, and even our death. Y'all might know the story of Martin Luther. You probably know it because I've told it to you often, what his boldness and courage unleashed into the world. The part of Luther's story that you may not know anything about is the role of a man named John Huss in Luther's life. John Huss lived about 100 years before Luther in a city called Prague. John Huss began reading the Bible for himself 100 years before Luther was on the scene. And John Huss became convinced that salvation was not something you could obtain by church attendance or taking the sacraments. That's what the church at his time taught.

44:00 He discovered that the Bible taught you could only get grace through a relationship with Christ, through faith in his finished work, through union with Christ. John Huss started preaching these things in the city of Prague. The established church of his time declared him to be a heretic when they sentenced him to be burned at the stake. They brought him to Constance, Germany, and they put on a little show trial and condemned him, and they took him out, tied him to the pyre, and piled the wood up to his shoulders. And they asked John Huss, this one guy all by himself, if he had any final words. John Huss replied very simply, what I have taught with my lips, I now seal with my blood. Bring on the fire. On July 6th, 1415, they burned John Huss alive together with all of his writings. And as the smoke went out from that burning pyre outside of Constance, Germany, it looked like John Huss's discovery in the small movement it started was over.

45:00 except that a few years later, an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther was in the library of his monastery, also in Germany, deeply in turmoil, wondering how he could have peace with God when he came across some of the banned writings of John Huss that had been hidden in the monastery library. Martin Luther devoured them, and the more he read, the more he became convinced that John Huss had been right. In fact, later, when Luther was being questioned by the Roman Catholic Church in Leipzig, Martin Luther admitted, hey, we're all just Hussites now. And so on a cold German day, October 31st, 1517, when Martin Luther hammered his 95 theses to the door of a cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany, the fires of revival and reformation that had been lit in the body of John Huss flared up all throughout Europe and eventually the world. What John Huss had preached with his life, he sealed with his blood.

45:56 That's how they overcame Satan in their generation and you and I are sitting here today because of that. And yet, and yet there's still so many people who don't have access to this Bible. How's the gospel? How do you think the gospel is gonna get into places like North Korea? Does Jesus not love those people? Has he forgotten? Has he ignored those people? How about China? How about Russia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Kuala Lumpur, Hollywood, New York City? How about your college campus? How about your friend group?

46:30 It's like John Piper says, there's no such thing as a closed country. There's just countries that will take our death to get into. But they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony because they love not their lives to the death. If you've been around this church for any amount of time, you know that reaching Muslim peoples with the gospel is very important to us. Islam is one of the big people groups that is yet to see massive breakthroughs with the gospel. In fact, every week we have a whole outreach to some things going on in some Muslim countries, Iran and other places. We're gonna have to ask this. How are we going to overcome the dragon's hold in places like that? It's gonna be because of the word of our testimony and by the blood of the lamb and because people love not their lives to the death. For some of them, it means their actual death. For many of you, it means the death of your sacrificial giving. In fact, one of my friends says it this way. What do you think's gonna happen when a religion that says in some places, serve God and kill meets one that says, serve God and die?

47:27 You see, the prophet Muhammad said, take life in the service of Allah. Jesus said, lay down your life for the sake of the world. What do you think happens when those two things meet? But see, there's only one way to overcome the dragon, and that's by the blood of the lamb, by the word of our testimony, and by loving our lives, not to the death. Y'all, I could end the message right there, and I probably should. But I gotta make one more quick observation, okay? Because it's so striking. It's so counterintuitive. And so important. And it's tucked right in there before verse 11. And you probably read right over it. Verse 10. Talking about the defeat of Satan, this terrible dragon. John says, the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down. Who accuses them night and day before our God. I want you to keep in mind that we're talking about a global struggle between the Antichrist and God's people and Satan's ultimate defeat.

48:26 We've been talking about big, massive political things, seismic shifts on earth, natural disasters, turmoil, and the number 666. In light of all that, if I asked you to identify Satan's primary means of attack, what would you say it is? Persecution, martyrdom, social marginalization, prison, nuclear bombs?

48:50 Well, Revelation shows us he uses all of those things. and yet verse 10, John, when describing the work of our great enemy, identifies as his number one weapon. None of those things. His number one weapon. He mentions it twice. is a small, quiet voice deep in your subconscious,

49:16 whispering in your heart, accusing you. You'll never amount to anything. You don't have what it takes. No, you messed up way too many times. You'll just fail again like you always do. Who are you trying to kid? Nobody likes you. You don't have any friends. You're ugly. You're a failure. You're too old.

49:39 What if the enemy's primary strategy against you was not cancer or persecution, but a small voice that just whispers inside of your heart, discouraging you and accusing you? I saw some tweets this week about anxiety. Some of them were a little humorous, so bear with me for just a minute, okay? But one of them, in fact, I was copied and pasted them for you. Brain, hey, what you doing? Me, nothing, just relaxing. Brain, would you like to think about all your failures? Me, what, no? brain and away we go. Anxiety. They hate you. Me, who hates me? Anxiety. They. Or here's this one. Great news. I found the cure for all my anxiety. All I need is for everyone I know to tell me definitively that they aren't mad at me once every 15 seconds forever.

50:28 Now, like I said, those are funny, but for many of you struggles with the voices of doubt and accusation inside of you are not funny at all. And obviously I'm not saying that all anxiety is the voice of Satan, but I'm just asking you, what if that's part of his primary strategy? What if the main thing that you needed to fear in demons was not what they would do in terms of persecution, but just amplifying those voices in your heart of accusation and worry? You're unlike, you're forgotten, you're bad, you're damaged goods. You know what? You should end it today. You got no more use here. Some of you hear that stuff all the time. I'm asking you, what if that's His voice, the dragon's voice. How do you overcome that? Hear me. By my testimony this morning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. See, I stand up here to testify to you that you are loved. You're loved so much that God gave his only son to save you. You are special. God saved you and chose you for good works.

51:21 Ephesians 2, 10. He's appointed you for a purpose. Jeremiah 29, to prosper you and to make you a blessing. Genesis 12, three. You were not forgotten. Isaiah says, even if it were possible for a nursing mother to forget the baby in her arms, he would never forget you. He's engraved you on the palms of his hands, literally. His thoughts for you outnumber the sands of the seashore, David says in Psalm 139. If you made your bed in hell, he would still come to find you. If you will simply receive his love, this is the gospel. This is the great news that all you can do is, all you have to do is receive it. You can't earn it. If you'll just receive it, if you receive his grace, you can rest assured in all your troubles that you are safe in him, that nothing can ever separate you from his love, not cancer, not discouragement, not the antichrist. Nothing can separate you from his love or his plan or his gracious care over your life because he knows when a hair falls from your head and he watches over everything and goodness and mercy follows you all the days of your life.

52:21 I'm telling you, overcoming the dragon out there starts with overcoming the dragon in here because that's his primary battlefield. Okay? Let me get you to bow your heads if you would. Bow your heads with me. Let me just ask you right now, where's the enemy speaking to you? Where's that dragon's voice? Where's that dragon's voice? Recognize it. Recognize it. Or do you just need to resist the dragon and believe the gospel? Just a minute, I'm gonna invite you to come down here and pray. And say, God, I need help to not listen to that voice. Some of you have been listening to that voice and it's destroying you. I want you to come and find deliverance from it. Others of you, is God calling you to some sacrifice? I just wanna encourage you to say yes this morning. What's he calling you to sacrifice? To go, to give? Maybe there's somebody who's calling you to testify to, to speak a word that might break the power of the dragon over that person's life.

53:19 Would you just say yes, Lord? Yeah. Maybe most importantly, maybe most importantly, I wanna ask you, if you ever received Jesus as your savior, Have you received him? That's the main point of revelation. There's a savior who died for you to save you from all this judgment. He offers himself to you freely if you'll just receive him. In just a minute, I'm gonna invite you to come down. In fact, let me go ahead and have our prayer team, pastors and elders. Why don't you just get in place right now at every campus. In just a minute, I'm gonna stand you up and the worship teams are gonna come.

53:54 If you need to receive Jesus, I want you to come down and take the hands of one of these brothers or sisters and say, I'm ready. I'm ready to follow Jesus. I'm ready to give my life to him and receive him. And they'll show you how to do that. Okay. You do that as soon as I stand you up. We're going to have people coming down here to pray about people they're trying to share Christ with. We're going to have some that are coming down to pray about resisting that voice of the dragon in their lives. You come down and grab the hand of one of these people standing up and saying, I need to receive Jesus. Okay.

54:23 So I'm at church at all of our campuses. Stand to your feet with me. If you would stand up right now. Father, I pray in Jesus' name, Holy Spirit, overcome him right now through the word of my testimony, through the finished work of Christ. Release these people from the lies of the dragon. I pray that in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, amen. Our worship teams are coming. I want you right now at any of our campuses, if any of those things apply to you, come down, pray for somebody, pray for deliverance, or take somebody's hand and say, I need to receive Christ. You come now, you come right now. as our worship teams go.