The Unholy Trinity

AI Transcript

Mark Oshman (00:00.431)

Good morning, welcome. If you are just joining us, you're new here, my name is Mark, it's my privilege to open up God's Word with you. We are in the book of Revelation. We are in Revelation 13. If you're like, no, we just jumped into Revelation, don't worry. I promise you, it's not as intimidating as it may first seem, and God has a Word for us and for you this morning in Revelation 13. So you can begin to make your way there.

About 15 years ago, we were preparing as a family to move. We were moving from Japan to the Czech Republic to go plant churches among the most atheist country in the world. We got connected with some Czech Christians, an older couple, to just learn from them. They were up in Westminster. They invited us over for dinner. And we heard their story and just were like blown away by all of it, how they had to escape communist oppression.

how they had to their her father was a pastor and was in prison for several years in the Czech Republic. Their property was taken away from them. They this woman who when she was a little girl they had to live in a tent in someone's backyard in Prague for a couple years in the winter in Prague. That's cold. It's real cold. This was all because of their following of Jesus. But so they escaped through Austria and then came over to America as refugees.

where they were put in public housing in the projects of Chicago. So they're in the project of Chicago, new to the country, and they don't speak the language or know the culture yet. And then all of sudden one day, they get some knocks on the door. What they didn't know, and what we know, is that it was Halloween. And they don't have Halloween in the Czech Republic. And so these children were dressed up, and they did not know why. They didn't know what they were asking for.

And so they're trying to communicate with these kids. She told us they she thought, maybe these children are really, really poor. Look at their clothes. And so they were like, they're asking for something to eat. And so she's like, OK, come on in. She brings the kids into the apartment and starts making sandwiches for these kids. they sit down and start eating the sandwiches. And then more kids come and they're like, there's more hungry kids. So bring them in. they.

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made more sandwiches for the kids. then after a while of doing this for a few times, they realized, hey, something is going on here culturally that we're not aware of. Let's just turn off the lights, close the door and hunker down for the rest of the night. And they did. They later come to learn about Halloween. But if you've ever lived cross-culturally or spent time cross-culturally, you know, this sort of thing happens all the time. It certainly happened to us oftentimes, but...

There's just something about learning a culture and learning a context that opens your eyes and says, this is what they're doing and why they're doing something. Even then, sometimes it's like, man, that's confusing. That's kind of hard to understand. And I think when you if you can kind of get that, then you can start to understand how we approach a of the Bible, the Bible in general, but a book of the Bible like Revelation. At first, it can seem

very particular, very odd, very difficult to comprehend and understand. so part of this series, what we're learning is not only how to interpret Revelation, but we're learning how to interpret the whole Bible. It is showing us that you cannot just pull verses out of context and try to slap them on your life and apply them to your life. There has to be some context. So there's this principle. you get this principle, it will...

it will immediately help your understanding, interpretation, and application of the Bible. And it's what I call the then always now principle. And it's simply this, what was going on then that this letter, this book was written to these people? What were they facing? So how did this land on these people? So we said throughout this series, this book cannot mean to us what it did not first mean to them. It just can't. And then,

From that, what's the eternal truth that crosses borders and boundaries and time and all that? What's the always principle? And then when we understand those things, then we can start to bring it home. Like, okay, what does this word in line of those things have to do with now, my life? That's where we want to get to, but you can't start there or else you will miss the narrative. And this is where so many people lose the narrative in Revelation. There's so many bizarre things because

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It's a particular kind of genre. It's apocalyptic genre, which was common at the end of the first and second century BC and into the first and second century AD. We've seen apocalyptic genre uses these kind of graphic images and symbols to communicate something deeper than just statements of fact. Right. And, and that's what we said. Like this, this, the Bible has a lot of statements of fact, but this tells the same story, but

in a way that goes past our just our minds into our hearts and illumines our imagination right so so we've seen this throughout the book of revelations so far we saw a giant jesus standing among his seven churches with fire in his eyes and a sword coming out of his mouth and we're like what is happening there a giant jesus well it's communicating jesus is with his people he is protecting his own he is the king of kings

and Lord of lords. You're like, yeah, I get that. We saw a scroll with seven seals. No one was worthy to open the scroll until an angel found the lion of the tribe of Judah. And when John's turned, what did he see? Not a lion, but a lamb who had been slain. But this lamb is standing. It is the crucified resurrected Jesus that hits us in a different spot. Right? We saw the four horsemen of the apocalypse, apocalypse unleashed on the earth and riding through the earth. And we're like,

This is how that works in our world today. And if you were here last week, or if you heard Pastor Rick's message on Revelation 12, it was an apocalyptic Christmas, right? Like it's not not silent night, all is bright, all is calm, you know, all that stuff. No, no, there was a dragon waiting for the baby to be born to devour the baby Jesus, but God protected Jesus, took him.

took him up and so this dragon is raging against Jesus. He can't get to Jesus but he now turns his attention to that which is most prized to Jesus, his bride, his church. When you start to understand that you're like, this is communicating something that hits me on a different level. That's how apocalyptic literature works. Or for example if I was to show you this picture, this next picture, we put that up there.

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And you were to look at this picture, you'd be like, okay, what's going on there? And you knew no context. You would say, well, there's a dragon that's about to devour a city. But you know enough context from just cartoons in general. You're like, probably not a real dragon about to devour a city. But if you knew a little bit more context, you're like, well, there's mountains in the background and I recognize some of those buildings. That's Hong Kong. You're like, okay. And now that means something else. Well, what if I told you...

This was a political cartoon. Okay, now you know a context of political cartoons. And what if I told you this was published on July 1st, 1997? You'd say, what was going on in July 1st, 1997? Well, after 156 years of British rule over Hong Kong, it was being handed back to, it was handed over to the Chinese communist government. And so this cartoon, actually, this isn't a real one. I had to GPT make this one.

because I couldn't find the real one, but I've heard about them. These cartoons were common on July 1st, 1997 in LA Times, for example. It was this idea, what is the dragon of China going to do to Hong Kong? Ah, now you start to see what it's communicating. Similar with our passage today and really the book of Revelation. When you start to understand that, you're like, oh, chapter 13, even though it has bizarre and graphic imagery, it's actually quite easy to understand.

Chapter also has maybe some of the most infamous passage in the Bible where it talks about the mark of the beast and 666. What are we to do with that? Well, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. So if you have your Bible, we're in Revelation 13. We saw in Chapter 12, Dragon, the dragon who is represented by Satan is raging against Jesus and against his people. And now he turns his attention to.

his people on the earth. But he doesn't do so directly. He does so indirectly through two beasts, a beast from the sea and a beast from the earth. What we're going to see is what scholars commentators, what I've titled this sermon, an unholy trinity. It is an intentional mockery, mimicry, parody of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now we have the dragon, the beast from the sea and the beast from

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the earth. So as I read, ask you to listen carefully. This is God's word. Verse one, and I saw a beast rising out of the sea with 10 horns and seven heads with 10 diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. This beast has risen from the sea. 10 horns. This represents power. This is a powerful

beast that has come out of the sea. The sea in the Hebrew mind was a place of darkness and evil and out of the place of darkness and evil this beast comes. He's got ten horns, he's got power and he's got ten diadems. This is political power on his horns. Blasphemous names on its heads. What is happening there?

Well, we'll see in the next verse what this beast actually represents and how this beast functions in our world today and throughout history. verse two, it says, the beast that I saw was like a leopard. Its feet were like a bear's and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it, the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. What is happening there? Like a leopard, like a bear.

like a lion. What's going on? Again, if you were to just come to this verse without understanding how this would have landed on those who first read it, you would be left to your own devices to come up with all sorts of wild speculation. Well, what could be a lion? What could be a bear? What could be a leopard? But again, those that first read this would have immediately thought of a specific passage that mirrors this.

Daniel chapter seven, I'll put it on the screen. Daniel chapter seven is prophesying. And in verse two, it says, Daniel declared, I saw in my vision by night and behold, the four winds of heaven were sitting, stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. Then as I looked, its wings were plucked off.

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And it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man. And the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second beast, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And it was told, arise and devour much flesh. After this, I looked and behold, another like a leopard with four wings of a bird on its back.

the beast had four heads and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night vision and behold a fourth beast terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong." What is happening there? Well you see the mirror right? It's actually just reversed in reversed order but there's a bear, a leopard, and a lion. Daniel is prophesying in his time about the empires that would rise up. The first one would have been the Babylonian Empire.

This is identified and seen in history, the Babylonian Empire as a lion. But after that, the Medo-Persian Empire rise up and takes its place. And after that, the Greek Empire rose up under Alexander the Great and took its place. And now John is writing about these empires that rise. There's a fourth beast. And John in his revelation compares the first three to make a mega beast.

John is speaking of the Roman Empire. This is what he's talking about. And all beastly empires that would rise after that. This beast functions in our world through oppressive, demonic, global governmental scale. There are empires that come and go and rise and fall that seek to put to death an oppression of God's people.

In John's day, that would have been Rome. said, this beast is like all of these together combined. And so they would have known again. But John has to write in the Roman Empire in a way that his people will understand, but that the Roman censors will let pass. And so that's what he does. He's identifying Rome as the great beast, the fourth beast. goes on, verse three. Well, before I get that, let me give you one quote from

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A commentary I read this week from Daryl Johnson. says this. John is opening up for us a sobering unseen reality of the present. Governments which step out from under the rug of God do not become more divine. They become demonic. Government that exalts humanity as the measure of all things do not become more humane. They become more bestial.

Whenever government steps out from under God's good design and government is part of God's good design to order the flourishing of humanity across the world. But when it steps out of that purpose, it becomes beastly. It becomes demonic. We see this throughout history. We see this all over the place and we'll continue to see it. It's like my Czech friends whose father was in prison because of his following of Jesus.

They had to escape the beast of the communist atheistic regime. Well, he goes on again to mirror and parody the Trinity. says, one of the heads of this beast seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed. The whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.

This is just, again, a mockery of Jesus, his death, burial, and resurrection. But this beast seems to die. This beast seems to die often, many times, but always comes back. This beast is always raging on the planet. In the Old Testament, it was Egypt, and then Babylon, and then Assyria. We could go throughout history. In the first century, it was the Roman Empire. A hundred years ago, it was Nazism rising up.

We put that beast to death and then the beast rises again through communistic atheistic regimes and so on and so forth. This beast will always rise again. And so the people are fearful of it. The people submit themselves to it. The people are even worshipping of this beast. says, they worshiped the dragon for he had given his authority to the beast and they worshiped the beast saying, who is like

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the beast and who can fight against it? This certainly would have been the pressure that the first century Christians were feeling when being inside Rome and Rome turning its attention to the oppression of God's people and the people, the others just kind of bowing down to Rome. They literally had emperor worship instituted in the first century.

And it was tied to all of Roman life. It was tied to their commerce and to even go make trades in the marketplace. You had to make offerings to the gods and you had to make a worship offering to the emperor. And most of the people did that. The Christians tried to hold out. This is what John is getting at. Well, we got to keep moving here. says, they worship, they go on verse five, and the beast was given a mouth.

uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months. Again, we know that is shorthand for John in Revelation to be from the time of Christ's first coming to his next coming. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is those who dwell in heaven. Also, it is allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them, and authority was given to it, given it over every tribe and people.

and language and nation. Again, we've heard this before. There is a cosmic battle at play. The King of Kings, Lord of Lords is rescuing and redeeming people and there will be a crowd before the throne from every tribe, tongue and nation and the beast is likewise trying to secure his own worship from every tribe, tongue and nation. What John is wanting us to see is that there are demonic

forces at work, not just on our personal level, not just that hate you or hate your marriage or hate your family or even hate our church, that those forces are at play, but there are cosmic global forces at work in this beast. And he goes on, he says, and all who dwell on the earth will worship it. Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of lamb who was slain.

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So again, there will be a great separating between the sheeps and the goats, those who worship the dragon and those who worship Jesus, the king. So that's the first beast, the beast of the sea. The beast of the sea represents demonically empowered political forces and movements and empires throughout history. So what's the third beast or the third member of the unholy trinity, the second beast? Verse 11. Then I saw

another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb. Again, this is an intentional mockery of Jesus, the lamb who was slain and yet standing. It looks like Jesus, but its speech betrays himself. And it spoke like a dragon. It looked like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. This beast not only mimics Jesus, but more so he's going to mimic the role and purpose of the Holy Spirit.

So we ask ourselves the question, what's the role and purpose of the Holy Spirit? The role and purpose of the Holy Spirit is to make much of Jesus, to illumine our hearts and our minds, to point us to Jesus, to bring us to repentance and turn us to the way of life. This is what the Spirit does. You want to see a church that is full of the Holy Spirit? You have people repenting of sin and celebrating Jesus. That's the mark of a Spirit-filled church. Amen.

Since we want to be a spirit-filled church, are repenting of sin because the Spirit empowers that. We worship Jesus because the Spirit empowers that. Now, let's look at this false, false trinity. Verse 12, it exercises authority of the first beast in its presence and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast. That's what Holy Spirit does for Jesus. This is what the second beast does for the first beast.

whose mortal wound was healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven. Think of Pentecost. The spirit brings fire down at Pentecost, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people. And by the signs that it is allowed, my eyes are going crazy again, to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast.

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that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast might even speak, might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. So if the first beast represents demonically empowered governmental institutions and empires, what does this beast represent in the world and on the stage of history?

What did it represent in the first century? Here's what it represents. Demonically empowered religious institutions. That's what it is. Demonically empowered religious institutions. In the first century, there were literal temples built in the first century for the worship of the emperor. They are the ones who drove the worship of the emperor. But this has been true throughout the ages.

It's true in all false religions. They're demonically empowered. But it's true. We see this in churches. We see this by priests and pastors who give themselves over to demon. Now, what does that look like? Again, you don't have to think of the movies. It looks like... Well, looks, in some cases, at first it looks good. And then it turns evil.

We see this all the time. Anytime you lose the narrative, you stop preaching the gospel, you preach something else, the beast is at work there. So, again, go back a hundred years. After World War I, Germany is humbled and they're looking to regain their confidence on the world stage. Of course, we know history that...

Hitler rises up, Nazism rises up, it begins to spread, it stokes a patriotic religious fervor among the German people. So you ask the question, well, what did the church do in that moment? Certainly the church would be the people that would step up and push back against this, but sadly, no. The vast majority of churches, the vast majority of...

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Germans who called themselves Christians did not push back against this beast but welcomed the beast in. They called themselves the Deutsch Christians, the German Christians. They married Nazism with their theology. They began to say that patriotism to Germany was patriotism to the kingdom of God. And we know that's not true. Why did they do it?

Well, probably many reasons. Some of them actually believed it. Like, yes, this is our political Messiah on par with Jesus. so pulpits and pastors who were meant to proclaim the majesty of Jesus ended up proclaiming the majesty of the beast. Horrific. Others did it to save their lives. If you don't worship the beast, you will be put to death. And so they

compromised the truth, they compromised the gospel to stay alive, but either way you have sold out the king of kings for the beast. Religiously empowered demonic institution, mean, demonically empowered religious institutions. This is why we have to be very careful about who we are and who we are and how we worship. It goes on.

Verse 16, these are again, what everyone's like, what's going on with the mark of the beast and the 666. We actually don't have a lot of time to spend here, so I'll go quickly. Verse 16. Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark. This is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

This calls for wisdom. Let one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. And his number is 666. the infamous 666. the mark of the beast. What is the mark of the beast? Again, maybe you're like me growing up and you were taught, you're going to have to take a tattoo on your hand or get like 666 tattooed on your head so you could just...

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go buy stuff at King's Supers. Like that's what I was taught. And I was like, oh yeah, that must be it. Or no, it's not that. It's going to be more so you're going to have to take a microchip implanted in your hand or in your forehead. That's going to be the mark of the beast. So whenever they come out with microchips, don't put them in your hand or your forehead. Or some in recent years are like, it's the COVID vaccine. That's the mark of the beast. If you took that, you have the mark of the beast.

And they're going to track you and all that. As I said before, hey, listen, if you're worried about being tracked, get rid of your smartphone. All right. So I have good news for you and I have potentially bad news for you. The good news is that's not the mark of the beast. You're not going to have to take a tattoo on your hand or your forehead. If there are biomedical implants and microchips, it's not going to be the mark of the beast. And the COVID vaccine is not the mark of the beast.

That's not the mark of the Well, what is the mark of the beast? Again, how would have this landed on the first readers? Well, they would have thought one of a passage, perhaps the most famous passage of the entire, one of the most famous passages of the entire Old Testament, the Shema, Deuteronomy chapter six. It's called Shema because the first word here is in Hebrew is Shema. And it says this, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your hearts. You shall teach them diligently to your children and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as front lengths between your eyes. You shall write them.

the doorpost of your house and on your gates. What is happening here? Orthodox Jews today, they will literally bind a little scroll of the Torah on their hand and some will even bind them on their forehead and they'll have a little box with a little scroll. Is that what Deuteronomy 6 is getting at? I don't think so. I think what it's getting at is that God is saying for God's people they should be so

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marked by the Word of God, the way of God, the will of God, that it is obvious in our thinking, in our beliefs, in our worship, and it is obvious in our living, in the way that we work with our hands and we live in the world. We should be so marked by God that it is obvious we belong to Him. In fact, we've seen this already in Revelation, Revelation chapter 7, and in very next verse, Revelation 14, we see about 144,000

had his name and his father's name on their forehead. So the question here's the deal you are either marked by God or you are already marked by the beast. That was the bad news. You already have the mark of the beast on your life. How? Well if you do not take the things of God seriously.

If you do not keep take the kingdom of God seriously, if there's no pursuit of holiness in your life, you have the mark of the beast. If you have these secret sins that are little pets for you that you just try to keep alive and you don't bring those out, that's the mark of the beast. Where you have adoration and affection for the things of this world and not the kingdom of God, you have the mark of the beast on your life. You need to repent.

You need to repent in your thinking and in your doing in your whole life. Are you marked by the beast or are you marked by and sealed by the father? This is what he's getting at. So whose mark do you have? Who do you show by your life, by your thinking, by your affections, by your pursuits, by your bank account, by your calendar? Whose mark do you have? So there's the mark of the beast.

Then he goes on, this calls for wisdom. us, let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man and his number is 666. Again, all sorts of wild speculation on this one. And again, we don't have time to get into it all. But again, what I was taught growing up was like, there's going to be some dude, he's going to be the antichrist and you're going to know, cause he's going to somehow have 666 somehow. I don't know what that's going to look like.

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but he's going to have 666. That's the Antichrist. Well, first of all, the word Antichrist, did you know it's nowhere in the book of Revelation? John actually mentions it in some of his epistles, but he also says there are many Antichrists. So anyone who is Antichrist is an Antichrist, especially on a global scale, right? So do I think there'll be an Antichrist in the future? Probably, yes. But he's part of a long tradition of Antichrist. Well,

Well, who's this? What's this 666? And every time there's a new political leader on the world scale, they're like, that must be the Antichrist. Ronald Reagan. His name, each letter of his name has, even his middle name, 666. That's the Antichrist. Did you know he lived on a street that said his address was 666 something, something, something? And so he had it changed. And people are like, Ronald Reagan. No.

No. Well, who is this Antichrist or what is that? Okay. So there are a few options and maybe the whole of it has been lost to history, but it could be that this is what's called in Hebrew, gematria. In the Hebrew kind of mindset in the first century that they would take Hebrew letters and give them numeric values. So A, B, C, that they all have their own value.

So if you transliterated, for example, Caesar, Nero, Nero Caesar into Hebrew and then gave them the numbers, you would get 666. And John does say calculate, calculate the number of the beast for anyone who has understood. So it's possible, it's possible that John is writing, say Caesar, the Xanadichrist. The problem with that, the problem with that is that Nero had been dead at this point a couple of decades.

There was a rumor that he was going to come back to life, but that would have required the Christians in the first century to do quite, maybe, maybe. So what is it getting at? Well, I know this is going to blow your mind, but six is less, one less number than what? Seven. I know that's what you guys pay for when you give to Redemption Parker.

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But again, numbers, colors, they have symbols in the book of Revelation. Seven is the number of completion, of perfection. It's the number of God. Six is the number of man. On the sixth day, man was created. Six is one less than seven. It is incomplete. If God is perfectly complete, if God is triune, He is seven, seven, seven. But this false

on Holy Trinity is perfectly incomplete 666. So, I think that's what is happening with the number. But we come to the time now, then always now, okay, Mark, what does this have to do with my life here and now? What would God want for God's people in 2025 in Parker, Colorado in light of these truths?

probably many things. I kind of pulled out three of them. I'll put them on the screen. The first one we see from verse 9 and 10 that I skipped over originally is the whole purpose of this whole section. He gives us an application in verse 9, if anyone has an ear to hear, let him hear. We've seen this before in the message to the seven churches. If anyone has an ear to hear, let him hear. Then look what it says.

If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes. If anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. God is reminding God's people that ultimately he is sovereign over their lives. See, the message of Christianity is not come to follow Jesus and your life will go swimmingly.

It'll be easy. You'll be healthy. You'll be wealthy. Your wife will give birth to many children. Your cows won't die. All these things. That is a false gospel that is preached all over the world today. The message is not that this life will be easy. The message of the book of Revelation is that God preserves His own eternally. Some will die. Some will suffer on this side of eternity. But the promise is we have a King and a Kingdom that is forever.

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ever and ever. This is a call for the endurance of the call for the endurance and faith of the saints. So the first thing is I say this often we must be a people that plan our perseverance. Plan your perseverance. We assume so often we assume we're gonna be Christians five years from now ten years from now all the way to our deathbed we're gonna be Christians but unless you plan it unless you

Fight with the weapons that God has given you to fight with unless you're aware that there's an actual spiritual battle raging for the soul of your own life and your family and your marriage and your church. Unless you engage in that, you should not presume upon your perseverance. So we have to know who we are and whose we are. We remind ourselves of that. I am bought by the blood of Jesus. I am a son of the King. We have to become so familiar with God's truth.

Not looking for the beast, but so familiar with the truth about who God is. When the beast rises, we spot it from a mile away that it's a counterfeit. It's a counterfeit trinity. And we fight with the weapons that God has fought with us. We fight with the Word of God, the people of God, and the Spirit of God. We get into this Word deeply. We get this Word into us. We make it a priority. The people of God. We tie ourselves in a covenantal way with God's people in a local church.

fight together for the perseverance of one another and one another's families and marriages and so on and so forth. And the Spirit of God, we are a people of prayer. These are the weapons God has given us to fight for our perseverance. So plan your perseverance. What's your plan? What's your plan in these areas? You got to have a plan. Number two, as Christians, we should maintain a healthy skepticism toward government and political

loyalties. I put your political

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Why did I put your political because listen, you already have a healthy skepticism of the other side. Like whoever you didn't vote for, you probably have a very accurate assessment of how the beast is at work in that person. I'm not arguing that. But we live in such a polarized all or nothing society. The church. Listen, I, I, I love America. love being an American.

I love that I got to minister to American military for 10 years of my life. So hear me out. I am patriotic to the core. But at the end of the day, my allegiance is not to the kingdom of America. It is to the kingdom of God. And so I want to be aware of the beast, not just the beast of the side that I didn't vote for. There are beasts at work. Now, I don't want to speak too hyperbolically. America is great. There are very clear

Evidences of this beast at work in our world and in places like North Korea and Iran and some some countries in Africa and some countries in Southeast Asia that are literally oppressing and putting to death our brothers and sisters in the world right now We should pray for them We should we should combat that as far as possible We live in a time in a place in a country where we've been invited into the political process And so we should vote we should vote according to God's way and God's will we should

Call out that which is beastly. Right? We should name names. This is not being partisan. Right? Where moral issues have become political issues, we stand with clarity. This is what John the Baptist did. He had his head cut off because he called out a sexually immoral person that was accepted in the day, and he had his head cut off. And Jesus did not say, hey, John, you should have just kept preaching the Gospel.

He said, no, John's the greatest prophet who ever lived. So where there are moral issues that the beast is raging, it's OK to call them out. In a platform in our world that promotes a Holocaust of our day, the abortion of image bearers, we should call that out as a horrific evil. You're like, Mark, you're just being partisan. That's not partisan. That's kingdom values. But.

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We should be skeptical of our own allegiances. We should recognize and be a voice for those, for even the party we vote for, we should be a voice for the kingdom and not a mouthpiece for the party. That's all I'm getting at. Okay, rant over. Let me go to the last one. We should renew and refocus our worship. Renew and refocus our worship. The question over Revelation, the whole question, the whole time is, who do you worship? Do you worship the beast?

The dragon or do you worship the lamb? So when I say renew our worship, I'm not just talking about singing. Those singing is part of it. I'm talking about with your whole life. Are you marked?

with your mind and your thinking and your affections and what you're pursuing in your life. Are you marked by worship of the King? Are you marked on your right hand by what you do with your life? How you serve? How you advance the kingdom, push back darkness? Are you marked by that? That's worship. Our whole lives are worship. So we have to renew and refocus our worship daily. And every week as we come together, we remind ourselves of what is true.

666, the number of man. 777, the number of perfection. But the gospel says this, Jesus who is seven emptied himself and took on a six. He entered into our world to live a life that you and I could never live, a life of perfect obedience to the Father. Then one day on the sixth day of the week, the

beast of the sea and the beast of the earth conspired together to crucify him, to put him to death. The beast of the sea and the beast of the earth, the beast of the sea represented in the person of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, given the power of Rome to put to death Rome's enemies. The beast of the earth, demonically empowered religious institutions, the high priest, Caiaphas hands over

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Jesus to be crucified. And on the sixth day, in the sixth hour of the sixth day, Jesus was murdered. He took his last breath. And the beasts of the sea and the beasts of the earth celebrated. They thought they had finally won. What the dragon tried to do at Christmas, they thought they had accomplished on Good Friday, but we know that's not the end of the story.

We know that on the third day by the power of God, Jesus conquered sin, death, and the grave. He rose again to show that those are defeated enemies. It is finished. And He took His place back at the right hand of the Father. This is a call for the perseverance and the faith of the saints. Amen? Let me pray for us to that end.