The Unholy Trinity 666： Revelation 13

We're going to start talking about a topic that's been on the mind of many people. 666. The unholy trinity. The unholy trinity. And as I was going through, I realized we might not get exactly to this number until next Sunday. So I'm going to keep you in suspense. One thing I try not to do is rush through the message to get to a point, kind of letting God direct the message how far He wants me to go. Even last night, I've got a whole sermon here we can hear some time from last night. But it was so important to worship Him. Now this topic is challenging because it challenges our unity in the church among believers. The whole end times thought process on when it's going to happen, how it's going to happen. And it can get frustrating, right? Because we have our opinion. Anybody has an opinion on end times? And I do too as well. I think God allows us opinions so we can practice Scripture. Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth. Be slow to anger. And Jesus prayed. He actually prayed. This breaks my heart sometimes. I pray that they would be united as we are. So I think we forget how important unity is because unity will jack up a service. Disunity will. It will really mess up a service. That's why I try to get all the disunity out before Sunday and Wednesday. Because you can feel it. There's something about it. And you'll notice, maybe some of you won't, but some of you will, probably the last eight months, I did podcasts with different views on the end times. One view was post-tribulation, which means they believe Christians will go through the tribulation. One view was with Sam Storms on amillennialism and his view on the end times. Very interesting. And then a friend of mine who actually wrote a book, I think his PhD was on revelation, wrote a book on revelation. And he would be what you would consider the current view of many, dispensational, and I'll get into different terms if I need to, premillennial, that were raptured out of here before the tribulation. So, I talked to him last month, and I'm not gonna say his name or anything because he's well known, pretty well known. And he said, Chan, I can't do the podcast, I'm changing my view. And I'm like, whoa! What's making you change your view? And he goes, well, in my book on revelation, I wrote that the white horse that we talked about is the Antichrist. He goes, I have no support for that. And now I've gotta retract a lot of these things. And he goes, I think we could possibly go through the tribulation. And here's why. And he began to break it down. I'm like, well, yeah, I guess we can't, I need to find someone else then who can do the podcast. And I just realized that there's different views in this. And you need to know that the scripture is not crystal clear. You can say Jesus is the only way, the only truth, the only life, we've gotta agree on that. There's no other option. The virgin birth, the inerrancy of scripture, so many things. But when it comes to when we're out of here, and is it a literal millennial reign, and is the church in Israel, are they, because there's something out there called replacement theology where actually now the church has been grafted in and God no longer has a plan for Israel anymore. Now, again, for me, when I read scripture, I just come away with, well, it sounds like he's got quite a few plans. It sounds like there's some promises that still need to happen. And so, but I've got friends and people that go here that don't agree with that. And so we just learn to kind of, you know, agree to disagree. You ever heard that phrase? And it's hard because any of you type A, opinion A people out there, don't leave me hanging because I know who you are. I'm gonna call you out right now if you don't get your hand up. Let's try this again. Right? Okay, maybe there's not in first service. But when I first planted the church, it was hard because you got your opinions and you start to realize that, well, maybe God allows us some flexibility on the non-essentials. Is that possible? And so even though I love when people say, man, Pastor Shane, I love, I agree with everything you say. And I'm like, well, try to find some things because that's not healthy. You know, the Bible's our view of this. So anyway, and I don't know how many of you have heard past teachings on Revelation. I don't want to get into a lot of things because I've already talked about them. And I don't want to make this about points of contention or differences when the bottom line is He's coming again. Are we ready? I mean, that's what we need to be centered around. And I guess maybe I will kind of throw just some situations out there that I've been in and why it kind of hurt me back then and why I try to learn from it. But I don't know how many of you remember when Chuck Smith was around that show To Every Man An Answer or Pastor's Perspective. I don't remember exactly, but I listen every Monday through Friday at three. I had it, you know, I was actually back then operating heavy equipment. So I had a radio in there with air conditioning and heating. I know it was cheating, but that's okay. I paid my price when I was younger digging ditches. So every day, and that's where I've got a lot of my, you know, my education has been from Chuck Smith, the Calvary Chapel Movement, of course, Chuck Swindoll, Charles Stanley, Alistair Begg, MacArthur, some of his stuff. And you know, James McDonald. Remember, he was on the air with just, you know, powerful preaching. And so I remember though, it was Hank Hanegraaff. How many of you have heard of the Bible Answer Man? Well, he memorized the book of Revelation and eventually he came out that he's no longer what this group is. He's all millennial. And I remember on that program for like weeks, they beat him up. Like, yeah, he's, I don't know what's going on with that guy. He's apostate. And he's like, I'm like, what, wow, that's pretty strong language. Let me look into this a little bit more. I mean, we're talking, you know, 2006, seven. And I've realized, okay, I see where he's coming. I don't quite, you know, but he's got some great points and men of God are divided. The early church for 1800 years did not take the pre-rapture view. It's a Schofield Bible, Darby, I mean, but it is, you know, it's got some biblical, solid biblical foundations as well, were people who think that. And again, I don't propagate one way or the other because I see good views on all of them. I see, I understand the rapture view before the tribulation. I understand it. But then I've got other views and I just can't come out here and say, hey, here's how it's gonna happen. Here's how it's gonna break down. I'm certain of that. Because I hate telling people things that are not true. I don't know about you. So, and I remember they blasted him. It's like this, like they took him off the air and they're like, over that? But see, that's pride. When things start to, you know, you know, they come against people. And many of you don't know this. Some of you do. I haven't shared it a lot, but I caught a lot of heat for what I said about Alistair Begg. From well-known names that I understand that why aren't you, you know, taking them off the radio? And this is so sad what's happening. I'm like, wait, hold on. Let's just unpack this for a minute here. He believes in marriage. He doesn't think gay marriage is right. He is appalled at everything that is going on. But he offered counsel to a grandma that she maybe should consider going to her grandson's or granddaughter's wedding that is a gay marriage. I'm like, that's not the counsel I would give. You know, I don't, but do we throw people under the bus that quickly? After 35 years of faithful ministry and he's got, follow me around for a week. I mean, you told them what? They should get divorced? Pastor, I can't believe, I can't come to your church anymore. Well, he's been addicted to pornography for 14 years and won't repent. And Jesus said, as a man thinketh in his heart, so with he, you can lust after a woman in your heart. You don't have to commit the act. And if he's unrepentant, is that biblical grounds? I believe in restoration. I hope for it. I contend, but sometimes we give counsel. Normally I say, take it to the Lord now. I've learned my lesson. That's between you and the Lord, take it to God. But just the vitriol of people that, because you can't totally agree with their view. And so anyway, that's kind of the setup with this whole idea of 666, because you know there's Christians during the tribulation, right? They're called the tribulation saints. There are believers here. And that's another thing that I really begin, 20 years ago, they would say, we're not appointed to God's wrath. And they would read the scripture and say, that's why we can't be here. Well, what about all these other people that are Christians? Why are they here? Well, they got in too late. Well, but then that verse doesn't apply if it, and also that verse about we're not appointed to God's wrath has to do with the final judgment, the final wrath of God. And I believe God can preserve his people if we are here. Do I hope we're here? No! No! Absolutely not. It's possible. Jesus brings us up, gets us out of here before this all hell breaks loose. Please, God, please, please, please. But we can't think that we're so much better than all these other people, you know, that they have to remain there based on that verse. Now, there's other arguments. God needs the church out of here to deal with Israel. Okay, I got, kind of, yeah. But can he deal with Israel even while we're here? And then other views, you know, they've always believed in the immediate return of Christ. Right? The immediate return of Christ, that's what, 2,000 years ago, they've been waiting on that. And that's a good point, because if there's a tribulation, seven-year period, we can, kind of, predict when Jesus is coming again. So, you know, nobody knows the day or the hour. But do we know the week? The month? Can we discern the times and say, hey, it's getting pretty close here? And so, see, you can poke holes in every argument. That's why I say, I'm a pantrib. How's it gonna all pan out? I don't know. I'm here to prepare the church. I'm hoping we're out of here. I'm praying we're out of here. But are you ready? Are you ready? Is a literal millennial reign of Christ? That would be cool. Sounds, kind of, like it, and we'll get to that when I get into the millennial reign. But you just have to be careful on this issue, because it can cause a reason of division in the church. I remember a lady who emailed me, who no longer comes here now, and she put that in there, because you no longer believe in this. I'm like, wait, why did I never say that? I said, I'm open to different views. I don't know what's gonna happen. I wanna prepare the church either way. But it's such a divisive issue. And I know, I struggle with that. If you don't believe what I believe, if you're not voting for my guy, oh, don't get me started. Right? We all have, so that's why I think Scripture is clear that our opinions need to die. We need to honor others and put them first. And how else are you gonna practice that if you don't agree? It's just clear, but it's hard. How's that? Clear, but hard. So we're talking about the antichrist. How many of you have heard that term? Everybody, of course. A couple things. The Bible doesn't say that one person is the antichrist. We put that label on, maybe rightly so. You know, the beast that arises from the sea, the beast that arises from the land, Satan, that great dragon. And so we put these terms on people, which isn't bad. We actually put the word trinity on the trinity. The Bible doesn't talk about the word trinity. And that's why people say, oh, you guys believe in the trinity. The Bible doesn't even talk about it. Well, yeah, it talks about it, it just isn't called the trinity. Did you know in the Bible it doesn't say the word Bible? Are we in trouble? No, sometimes we use words to define what we're thinking. So the antichrist spirit has been here a long time. Did you know that? A couple things I just saw in the news on the antichrist spirit. Family loses custody of teen for denying the child's new gender identity. What? Montana? A river runs through it, fly fishing? Montana, that Montana? The Snake River and the conservative as they get? That Montana? Family loses custody because they didn't identify what her teen wanted to become. Actually, that's parenting. And I don't know who she is, but there's this person running for office, and she had a flamethrower, and she's flaming all these books, you know, the LGBTQ, the rainbow. And people are like, so I read, oh, it's back to book burning, and you Christians in the Salem witch trial. I'm like, yeah, I have no problem burning perverted books. Freedom of speech is not freedom of pornography. Think about that, that when the founding fathers did freedom of speech, they had no idea that it would include all of this garbage and perversion and illicit sex. It's common knowledge, that doesn't include that, but we've become so stupid as a nation, and so woke, and so worried about people's opinions. I'm so worried about God's opinion. I'm sure God's not saying, you know what, don't burn those books. At least donate them to the library. No, he's not. You burn that stuff, the book of Acts, they burnt all those books of magic and witchcraft and spells. It was a very positive thing. So they're gonna put a little clip, pastor change for book burning. The right books. I even felt convicted. You know, when I came back to Lourdes, I had all these old CDs. Anybody relate? Back in maybe vinyl records for you. Or the infamous eight track. Remember the eight track? Shoving in that thing. I still remember camping in the high Sierra mountains. My mom would just get that John Denver eight track. Country road, take me home to a place I belong. West Virginia, mountain mama, take me home, country road. But I was convicted. I was gonna donate them. I'll never forget, because they were giving like $2 a CD, and I had like 300. I mean, everything from, you know, all the, whoever back then. And I'm like, Lord, $600. Like, trash those things. Nobody should be listening. You shouldn't promote that to someone else. Like, and I threw away half, and I kept half, and I'm like, God, dang, this is painful. And finally, you know, but there's something about, you don't pass on things that are destructive to others. And man was charged for ripping down the satanic monument in Iowa. God forbid. You can burn up our cities during COVID. And you can tear, do you know how many BLM protesters got paid by our government? What? You guys have lost your mind. So see, if you've ever not known what the verse means, woe be to those who call evil good an evil good, well, guess what? You have a front row seat on exactly what they were, so the Antichrist spirit is here. The Bible talks about anything that is against Christ. It is anti, that's what the word means, against Christ. So we have the Antichrist spirit is here, alive and well. And it is getting more sick and more perverted. And that kind of, what alarms me is, when I was growing up as a kid to now, it's like, what happened, leave it to Beaver to, you know, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy? And dating shows, reality shows that are stench in the nostrils of God? How far have we drifted? And what's also alarming is how many Christians now are watching what normally would have been shocking. If you would have shown this stuff 25 years, 30 years, they would have shocked Christians, oh my goodness. But now we've been desensitized. Revelation 13, took me 20 minutes to get here. Then I stood at the sand of the sea. Remember, John is exiled on this island known as Patmos, and he is there. Did you know most of your Bible is written from prison? Or a lot of it? Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having seven heads and 10 horns, and on his horns 10 crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast, which I saw, was like a leopard. The feet were like feet of a bear, and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. So we see the dragon giving this beast some authority, and as we're gonna go, we're gonna see another beast, and that's why I call it the unholy trinity. Kim, I don't know if we have that image that shows that a little bit. It might help people understand, as we go through this book, the unholy trinity. Look at that compared to the true trinity. The Father, Satan, the Son, the Antichrist, the Holy Spirit, the false prophet. So Satan has the unholy trinity. And what I did, we can go back to Revelation 13. I actually, this whole week, that day it rained, it was incredible. From 3 a.m. to 10 a.m., I just sat on the couch and worked on this message, worked on the article, and it was just, a lot of the things I'm gonna share with you just were on my own heart. But then, of course, I looked at commentaries, because you have to, you can't just, oh, you know, I've got this new truth. No, if it's new, it's not true. And so you look at commentaries and other men who've studied Scripture who can speak Greek and Hebrew, and see what they, how they dissect the word and the phrase and the sentence structure. But the first question that comes up often is why all the symbolism? There's this figure rising out of the sea. And most agree that this person is rising out of a sea of humanity, not necessarily the water, like you're seeing some creature come out of the ocean. Oh, look at that, in the Pacific Ocean, what is that? So the Bible will use, especially in Revelation, and what's interesting, if you ever get time, look up how many times the Old Testament is mentioned in Revelation. It's hundreds. So John goes back, grabs from the Torah, or Septuagint was at that point, but he grabs from Old Testament imagery, clouds, darkness, and a lot of times when we think, oh, the stars are gonna fall, they're actually maybe not gonna actually fall. If you look at the Old Testament, what that means, the God's judgment is coming in. It's so cataclysmic that even the stars fall, the red, the sun becomes black, the moon becomes red, and if you look at what that means in the Old Testament, you can see, oh, this is what this could mean. And so it is challenging because what's literal and what is figurative, what is metaphor, what's a simile? And I used to pound my radio sometimes. Remember Bill O'Reilly? He goes, you guys, you take the Bible literally. And I'm like, oh, if I could just talk to this guy. And he would give examples. I'm like, oh, man, yes, it's not supposed to be taken literally. And well, who determines it? You guys, well, the context. It's actually not too hard to understand what is, I mean, did a river of tears flow out of Jeremiah's brain? Like, oh my gosh, what's happening? I'm sorry, there's water everywhere. The right hand of God, so the Bible used imagery that we can understand to relate. And so that's the only way to express what's going on is John has this incredible vision and sees this leader, this person coming out of the sea of humanity. And so it's a Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet we will soon see. But Satan, it looks like, gives him unholy gifts. Isn't it interesting how the Holy Spirit works, too, compared to this unholy trinity? And seven heads may mean leadership and direction with the horns meaning strength and authority. Because again, if you look over into the Old Testament, the horn of my salvation, what does that mean? Or the horn, what it represent, the horns of the altar. And so you look at all these things, which would be a whole series on itself, the Old Testament and Revelation. And then we see handing over sovereignty, something that's coming up right now. I don't know how many of you are following this, but good old Biden is considering signing over our sovereignty, I think they're voting on it in May, that's why we're contacting Senator, to the World Health Organization in case there's a global pandemic. So if there's ever issued a global pandemic, then the World Health Organization would tell America how to conduct itself. It hasn't passed, and at first I thought, you know, that's crazy, you know, conspiracy. And so the more you research it, the more people I read, followed up with, I followed the American Defense Attorneys, or ADA, and read their, it's like, wow, this is scary. Because who determines, hey, the world says we're in a lockdown, you know? And so you can see how this one world leader could raise his ugly head here shortly. And God often uses pestilence and famine and enemies to judge his people. Are you saying, Shane, we're the same people as Israel? No, I think there's different application. I think obviously, theocracy and how God ruled Israel, I think now under Christianity, there's differences, but I do believe there's a lot of scriptures talking about if a nation honors God, if a people honors God, that God will do such and such. But he will use pestilence, famine, and enemies to judge his people. Any of those sound familiar right now? I hope all of you realize that not everyone coming into the border is nice and needy and genuine. That's just the truth. And I get it every time I mention it, people are like, Shane, I can't believe you said that. Christians are supposed to help those in need, and the sojourner, yes, me as a Christian, yeah. You said there's a family, they're homeless, yeah, that's what we do. The government doesn't do that, folks. Read Romans 12. What we do is we apply all these scriptures to an individual to the government. Turn the other cheek to Russia. Oh, no, no, no, no. No. Don't do this, don't do that. What would Jesus do? He wasn't running the government. Yet. Yet. The government sits upon his shoulder, the final authority. So how a government acts, according to God's word, is to be a restrainer of evil. And to do that, they're gonna do things that I couldn't do as a Christian. They're supposed to. Pin drop. Revelation 13, three through four. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded. So somehow, some way, this creature, which obviously is a person, he's going to be mortally wounded and then healed. And all the world will marvel and follow the beast. It's so funny. And I do believe, as we progress in our theology, or not progress in our theology, I shouldn't say it, but as time goes by, we are able to look at prophecy, I think, with a little bit better accuracy than some people. Because we've seen Israel become a nation. We've seen how, because reading commentaries, I think like, I mean, if you read the Geneva Study Bible that the pilgrims brought over before the King James Version was, it's actually a funny read, what they talk about. Wow, these guys, hardcore. But then also, like Matthew Henry, have any of you read his commentary? It's old, it's like, I think George Whitefield read it in the 1700s. So it's probably close to 400 years old. And what they talk about, it's like, there's no way, there's no way, how can the world see all this? That's not even possible. And so they'll turn it, and they'll say what they think, but they didn't know about the internet. By the way, do you know people crossing the border are getting phones? And do you know who they're voting for? Any connection there? You think, I mean, Africa, and even poor areas have these phones. They're getting, and so you can see how, oh, this could definitely play out. And the whole world doesn't mean every single person. It means the very large majority. And the world marveled because he had been healed of this. So something has to happen that is just completely miraculous. So they worship the dragon who gave authority to the beast. And they worship the beast saying, who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? So this person rises up, and the world begins to follow him. They marvel and follow. Again, wounded literally, or it could be geographically. We don't know exactly what this one world system is. I'm actually kind of concerned with AI. I mean, it can make your face on this person talk, you know, saying this, and all these computer-generated, they call it the deepfake now. Have you heard of that? Where you can actually literally impersonate someone. And with AI, who knows where this will go. That's artificial intelligence. Here's why AI may be extremely dangerous by Tamlin Hunt. The idea that this stuff could actually get smarter than people I thought was way off. Obviously, I no longer think that, said Jeffrey Hinton, one of Google's top artificial intelligence scientists. In testing GPT-4, it performed better than 90% of human test takers on the bar exam. We won't be able to simply hit the off switch, because the super intelligent AI will have thought of every possible way that we might do that, and take action to prevent being shut off. Now, I don't completely understand. I don't think anybody does. I mean, a computer cannot be like a person. God created the emotion, the thinking, the mind. The mind, if you study what they call neuroscience, and follow Dr. Huberman sometimes from, I think, Stanford, and the brain is so complex. It's amazing. I still don't know how these guys can believe in evolution. There's no God. It's just so, he does, and I think he's coming around, but they put all this programming into this huge computer system, and the algorithms, and we don't know what could happen. It could be very, very dangerous. This could play a role in end times theology, absolutely. So could they follow this AI-generated leader? We don't know. We do know what to watch out for if we're here. I guess if we're not here, then we don't have, you know what? For those of you who don't think we're here, just go like this. But actually, you might need to pass the CD on to others who will be here. So we find here from this, the remnant will not follow, the remnant will not follow this Antichrist. And I gave a lot of references there. These people worship the dragon, but follow the beast. So isn't that interesting? They're worshiping the dragon, like Satan, which is spiritual, but they're following the beast, which is a literal person. And so both things will take place. And there will be no such thing as neutral worship during this time. Because right now, even in the past, you can kind of stay neutral, right? We don't know where a person's at. But the more things come out, and what we saw, especially during COVID, and with all these other LGBTQ issues, or on the abortion industry, and all the churches that are silent and condoning versus those who are, you see the divide going on? And at what point will you have to pledge your allegiance to either God or the world system? It's not unheard of. Remember Rome under Caesar Nero? Nero was his name, Caesar was his title. Or we see throughout history that you have to give allegiance. Hell, Caesar. In Nazi Germany, there was no more neutral worship or neutral allegiance. They worshiped the beast. Same thing happens now when Satan elevates an athlete or an entertainer. Uh-oh, let that sink in. Think about that. Satan elevates someone, and we run into somebody. I ran into LeBron James in the airport. Oh my goodness, I couldn't contain myself. Look at all that old footage with Elvis. Those women, man. And guys do the same thing with their favorite athlete, right, or their favorite singer. And Satan can be working in these people, often demonically, and then we begin to worship what he's doing. Think about it, all these people are gonna tell people who to vote for at some point. You don't think Taylor Swift's gonna come out and tweet her favorite candidate? That the enemy uses, and God uses people too as well, praise God for that, but we're not to worship them. That's the difference. Never worship a person. They are fallen, just like you, and just like me. Revelation 13, five through six. And he was given a mouth, so now he has a voice, speaking what? Great things and blasphemies. And he was given authority to continue for 42 months. And again, this would take a while again to break down the three and a half year period, and I'll get to it as we go throughout Revelation. But then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God. So for those believers who are here, this will not be hard to spot. And I know a lot of people sometimes get worried. I don't wanna accidentally take the mark of the beast. Trust me, you will not, according to the Bible, it will not be an accident. Oops, oops. And that came up, and I gotta be careful on the wording for radio and YouTube, because they have little bots that go through and cancel your view. You went against our standards. But for those on the radio, you'll know what I'm talking about, I'm putting something up against my shoulder, right? 21 gauge. How many people were worried that that was the mark? I mean, I answer that question a lot. Now, could things like that be leading to? You can't go anywhere unless you have this thing. Possibly, yeah, I can see how things are going. You can't buy and sell. And I don't know how many of you caught that, but they were getting, L.A. County was getting pretty serious about this stuff. Can't come in our restaurant. Banks were counseling people. You know, Nick Vichuca? I don't know, that's not good last name. What is it, Vich? Gloria, I knew you'd know. With no arms and legs? They said his bank gave him 30 days to close his account. He can no longer bank with them. And I heard him, and he was talking about he's starting his own bank. I wish they would. But see, now your bank's counseling you? So we can see how the precursors are there. But it won't be, oops, I got this, and now, am I following Satan? No, it appears it's gonna be a clear line in the sand. Listen, you need to go and do this in order to buy and sell. And we get to that next week. You need to do this. And you need to give allegiance to this person, this antichrist, this Satan. And by giving allegiance, you're letting the world know that you're marked, again, next week. And that's how you know. It's a clear decision you're making. You know the cost. This is where you're gonna separate a lot of the wheat from the chaff. I, just a personal opinion, this could be part of the Great Falling Away. Because this is when you're gonna see, hey, I thought these were Christians. That's one good way. If you're not willing to give up your life for Christ, doesn't mean you're not gonna fear. Doesn't mean you're not gonna, you know, this is scary. But one of the things you know for certain, if you're not willing to give up your life for what you believe, what do you believe? Because that's a convenient Christianity. It works right now, you know? But when you're tested, that's when you're gonna see what really a person is made of. Again, that doesn't mean it's going to be easy. That doesn't mean that genuine Christians might cave in. I don't know. I don't wanna be here again, right? I'm praying that we're out of here. But at the same time, we wanna be prepared. And that's been one of my biggest concerns, is if we're not preparing people, what happens if they are confronted with this? Wait a minute, Shane said, I won't see this. Is everything he told me wrong? Because that's when we start to challenge ourselves, don't we? I'm like, well, they believe this and they told me this, and that's what happens when people come out of cults, is they start to really fear church again and what people say. And to some degree, rightly so, because you wanna use this term, but also, there's an element there of also trust, trusting the Word of God and what it says. So he was given great authority to continue and he's blaspheming God. He's blaspheming his name, his tabernacle. How do you blaspheme God's tabernacle? But do you know that's what's happening when you put up rainbow flags in the church or on the sign? Guys, honestly, I'm not trying to be snarky. I'm not trying to be arrogant. I wish I didn't have to mention these things. I'm not trying to hurt people's feelings, but that's the truth. That is an abomination. That is blasphemy. I wouldn't even wanna go in that church because you are sticking your fist in the face of God and saying this sexual sin, this sexual perverted sin is put up here and all are welcome. We are affirming. I don't care what God says. Get out. Get out. That's very dangerous. That's blasphemy. If that's not blasphemy, I don't know what is. Let's just put it that way. You might as well stick up your middle finger at the cross. And again, I love people and that's why, I hope it jars people. I hope they hear on the radio, what did he say? Because you gotta wake people out of their slumber. You gotta wake them out of their slumber. I love talking to a Mormon. I'll jar them up. I'll say either you put me in a predicament. Either Joseph Smith is right or Jesus Christ is right. You can't have them both. What did you just say? I'm gonna bring back my bishop. Please do. Please do. You have to wake them up because you love someone. God rebuked passivity in the Bible. We know of Eli, that priest that God rebuked because he wouldn't restrain his sons. Do you know Samuel did the same thing? He would not restrain his sons. And God gave him a king. Passivity, passivity. Another article, it just came on the Washington Times today. You can find it on the number one problem in the conservative movement is we have the truth, but we have no love. Because I can say everything I just said, but if it's from an angry, bitter heart, how dare you, and my heart's wrong, I can hurt people. But if God breaks me and there's weeping, I love our nation, I love our children, I love the public schools, I love libraries, taking my daughter on dates there, but I'm not gonna let a transgender, perverted man read to children and say nothing. You might as well just take me out of the game. How can we walk around as cowards and say nothing, but change, act like Jesus? Yeah, I'm about ready to throw over a money changer and table two. Can you imagine that? And listen, listen, can you imagine if there's a man sexually provocative to children what he would do? There's nothing wrong with money changers in the temple. Did you know that? Research it, nothing wrong with it. You actually have to have it to exchange the denarii or this or this coin or this coin for the sacrifice. But they were taking advantage of the people in God's house. If there's a couple things in the Bible, parting the Red Sea, resurrection, watching Jesus flip over some tables and make a whip, let's just think this through. That takes a minute. Can you do it? I used to make, you know, you take three cords, Lord, you probably know with horsing, and you rope the cords and you get it and you get it and you get it and maybe tie a knot, get some things in and boy, you got a nice little whip there because he couldn't physically hit them, but he could drive them out. Oh, what'd he say? Zeal for my father's house has consumed me. How much more should we say zeal for God's word has consumed me? He loves the little ones and he loves us and this perversion is pulling us down. Oh, it'd be better for you if you were not even born or a millstone hung around your neck and cast in the sea than to lead one of these little ones astray. Our silence speaks volumes. Don't be mean, don't be angry, don't be violent, but for the love of God, be bold and say, you are perverted, you will not hurt our children. If that offends you, good, good, good. I'm glad that offends you. We don't share it a lot, but people, I'm never coming back to your church, Pastor, you offended me. Well, is it a good offense though? Let's talk about it. Is it a good offense? Because if it is, I'm glad I offended you. My God, I'm not playing games. I didn't come here to make friends. I didn't come here for all of you to say, well, but that was so great, everybody just loved it, nobody's feelings were hurt. Because I read the prophets, they hurt my feelings. I just read in Hosea, they became an abomination like the thing they left. I'm like, oh God, what is blasphemy? What is, they're gonna blaspheme me, what is it? It's saying or doing things that insult God or Christ and offends His followers. In the United States, blasphemy used to be a criminal offense. Did you know that? I love this case. It's in my book, One Nation Above God. We've got free copies if you ever want any. In the People versus Ruggles, 1811, I love this court case. The defendant was tried in court for making vulgar comments about Jesus and His mother. I can't say what he said. In public, he said this. The defendant's attorney, though, said, hey, open shut case, just like today. There's nothing they can do based on freedom of speech. Well, the judge didn't agree because he understood the true intent of this First Amendment. Right? The defendant was convicted, fined, and sentenced to three months in jail. Although foreign to our way of thinking, Judge Kent plainly stated, nothing could be more offensive to the virtuous part of the community or more injurious, injuries, right, inflicting more injuries to the tender morals of the young than to declare such profanity lawful. That guy is bold. Basically, he's telling the person, you're in trouble. Freedom of speech, you said these perversions about Jesus and you're altering the conscience of the young kids and you're giving them this bad example. You misunderstood the intent of the First Amendment. The original intent of the First Amendment, you guys ready for the biggie here? It's so you could speak the truth and not be hindered from the government. King George, they would go, you can't say anything against the king. King George III, I believe it was. You can't say anything against the king. It's like, nothing, right? It's like, you can't say anything. So the First Amendment said, yes, you can share grievances about the government and what they're doing. Now they're trying to shut us down from that, but it's okay to promote child porn on Twitter and Facebook. That's free speech. Are you kidding me? It was never meant to injure other people. See, with freedom of speech comes moral responsibility. So although I have the freedom to say things, I have a moral responsibility to make sure that freedom doesn't hurt others. And our freedom of speech is out of control. So blasphemy. The Bible also talks about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Have you heard that term? How many of you have heard the term blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Okay, I know there's more of you than that, but we'll go with that. This would be a whole teaching on its own, but it's actually, if you read it in context, the religious leaders, Jesus was doing all these miracles, and the religious leaders said, that's not God, that's the devil. And Jesus goes on to say, they're blaspheming the Holy Spirit. All other sins will be forgiven, but not the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. So I'm gonna unpack that for a minute because I think it's important. Number one, without a shadow of a doubt, it's attributing the work of God to Satan. This is my big beef against cessationism. And there's a big conference coming up at the church here, about an hour from us, on cessationism. So I told one of the speakers this week, I said, you're walking a very dangerous line. You are calling, because of some clowns on YouTube, you're dismissing all of the fruit work of the Holy Spirit. You're calling a genuine move of God, satanic. Of course, he never responded, but isn't that true? Did you know what you just saw this morning? Did you know what you just saw this morning, last night was incredible, that every single one of those speakers would say, that's not God, that's emotionalism and demonic. God helped them. Well, I'm sure glad I don't believe that. Can you imagine that frigid, frozen state of Christianity? Don't get too excited, don't go to the altar, don't get emotional. John, three songs is enough, what are you doing this for? You can't, what are you doing this for? And he, oh, see, he's getting emotional. He's trying to draw people in. These guys are modern day Pharisees. Of course, they don't know anything about the Spirit of God moving in their lives. They're never, they're blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Now, let's put that phrase in context. The reason it's not forgivable is these religious leaders that Jesus was addressing were not Christians. They didn't know God, they're on their way to hell. So you can't, I can't say that about this group of people. So these religious leaders were attributing the works of God to Satan and thus rejecting Jesus. That's the unpardonable sin. That's the unpardonable sin in the Bible. When you reject Jesus, from there, there is no forgiveness. Now, can a person reject him and then come back to him? I believe so, and that's what blasphemy is going to be. It's gonna be so, the blasphemy taking place right now is incredible. And sometimes I'm like, Lord, am I in a dream, a nightmare, in the twilight zone? It's been a long time. Why are these two drag queens at a church reading to kids and wearing thongs and dancing on, these guys have problems, and I'm the problem? But see, that is a society so deluded, so polluted with moral corruption that they call good evil and evil good. They drink the Kool-Aid. You know what that phrase comes from? Close to 1,000 people dead by following a cult leader. Jim Jones, they drank the Kool-Aid. I saw pictures this week, I went and researched it, just hundreds of people across this property, dead, children. They drank the Kool-Aid. They followed this person who is not of God. I heard him talk for three sentences. I'm like, I know he's not of God. What's wrong with these people? Drink the Kool-Aid. So that's blasphemy, and that's blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, and blasphemy in this time is going to be so rampant, which to me, it's getting, how do you, like, Lord, what's worse? What's next? I mean, there's stuff, because there's kids in here, I can't even tell you. If you follow Victor Marks and what he's doing, and like, these two gay guys adopted this son, this little baby, I just want to hit somebody. It's like, and I can't even tell you what happens. Like, Lord, this is not right. This is, something's off here. And I don't want to go old school Shane Idleman, Lord, so please keep me humble, broken, right? Because you want to hit people. You want to throw over Ronny Changer things, because now you've crossed the line. They have crossed the line. You're hurting little innocent kids, guys. You've crossed the line. This is not, I'm not playing games anymore. I can't hurt you, but God can. And I'm gonna pray that he wakes you up and you repent. And so it was granted to him, verse seven. So who granted to him to make war? So this beast is now gonna make war with the saints. So see, there are Christians here during this time. And he's gonna overcome them. And the authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation, basically over the whole world. All who dwell on 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. And it's a great reminder that God's sovereignty is our sanity, is it not? Because the saints will actually be overcome by this. And to me, it's a great encourager. I don't like this, but it's a great encourager. Like, okay, sometimes evil looks like it's winning. It does, doesn't it? It's like, dang. Everything I just explained, right? The last 15, it looks like evil. God, we're not winning. Anybody feel that way? California's a cesspool. Sacramento's a septic tank. Washington is a leech line. God, we're not winning. Hello. Jesus even said, you got me. Take me. This is your hour. Just give me a couple more days here. Man, can you, I just get, I get goosebumps. Jesus, you got me, okay. Yep, this is your hour. Yep, yep, yep. Yes, sir. Oh, God, when's the, I can't wait to watch that veil rant. I can't wait till the earth to shake and the Roman soldier to say, clearly this was the son of God. And darkness came across the whole land and the dead rose from the graveyards and started walking away from, what were they saying then? This is, man, God is awesome. And this is where I believe spiritual war often turns into a physical war. The spiritual battle will have physical consequences. And this is not a message on taking up arms and what do we do, when do we fight, when don't. I get that question a lot. And to be honest with you, I don't have an answer. I know that's not our default position. That's not what we're looking for. The culture we live in, it's not like 1776, right? You got this invading army, Great Britain. And actually, it wasn't a bunch of farmers rebelling. It was called the Law of the Lesser Magistrate. That the governing officials in the United States, governing officials declared the war and the citizens followed those governing officials. And people are like, oh, no, 1776 is civil. What are you gonna do, shoot police? Half these guys are my friends. What are you talking about? This is ridiculous. But at what point do you defend your family? Absolutely, I have no problem with that whatsoever. Wouldn't even blink. Me, take me, it's like you give up your life. But now you're coming after others and I'm called to protect. You know, we got a problem there. But again, I don't know how it's all gonna manifest. I know where our heart shouldn't be for war. Our heart shouldn't be to build up ammunition. That's not, because then you can become very fearful and you can become off-balanced, right? And when you're off-balanced and when you're fearful and when you're watching all the doomsday preppers, you might pull the nine millimeter instead of bowing your knee and praying. He who uses a sword is going to die by the sword. There are times when it appears evil is winning. But I wanna talk about this real quick. The book of life, the book of life, gotquestions.org. I quote them often. I don't agree with some of the things. Again, you'll never find a website you'll agree with everything. But they said, if anyone's name was not found in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. The book of life, in this context, is the set of names of those who will live with God forever in heaven. The book of life is also mentioned in these other passages. The same book is called the Lamb's Book of Life because it contains the names of those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The great white throne judgment described in Revelation 20 that we'll get to. I wish I could hop to all these things right now, but I gotta be patient. Is a judgment for unbelievers. That passage makes it clear that no one at the judgment has had his name in the book of life. The fate of the ungodly is sealed. Their names are not in the book of life. Their punishment is sure. Now, the question always comes up, can their name be erased from the book of life? Well, I'll let the Calvinists and Armenians debate that. Because one thinks you can lose the salvation. Other thinks you can't lose the salvation. I've shared my view plenty of times on this topic. And I don't believe that a person can lose their salvation once they are sealed with the Holy Spirit, once the Holy Spirit is given to them. As a guarantee, once you are a child of God, a supernatural act takes place, and you are born again. Now, not everyone agrees. Half this church probably disagrees. And that's okay, because there are warning verses that I've talked about before on warning a believer to abide, warning a believer not to fall away. And so what I do, if I weigh everything on the scale, I come away with, okay, unless the Holy Spirit seals me, means I can undo the seal. Unless the Holy Spirit is given to me as a partial guarantee, not a full guarantee, because he says the Holy Spirit is given to you as a guarantee until you receive your inheritance. So can I undo that? Just all these languages, I think we're sealed, and God holds us. Now, and cry, how can you be a child of God, and then six months later, I'm no longer a child of God. You guys saw, you see me walking around Walmart, drinking and laying out, and I'm homeless now. And then I come back to the Lord, oh man, I'm born again. That was a close call. Whew, aren't you guys glad? And here I go again, walking away in a couple years. Now, I'm not minimizing that. I'm not trying to make fun, but that's my mind. That's how I think, how can, this supernatural act took place, where I'm a child of God. Now, there are verses that warn, abiding, don't fall away, and I can break them down. I think the context says a lot. But I'm resting in God's sovereignty, that he holds me. If I have to hold myself, what do you do with Alzheimer's and dementia? What do you do with things, brain, and you can't think straight anymore. Now, is your faith contingent upon how you think? And so, that's where I don't believe a person can have their name erased from the book of life, but I tell them, you better live like you can. And then I do get people that get mad at me on this. They say, well, you're just once saved, always saved, and people can do and live however they want. That's not biblical. I say, no, if they're living however they want, they're not saved. They didn't lose it, they just don't have it. It's clear. They walked among us, but they were not of us. But had they been of us, they would have stayed with us. Okay. But again, there are people here, even on leadership or deacons, that think you can lose your salvation, and I respect that view. I understand it. When you look at the scriptures, again, it's like, to me, there's a lot more support for God holding us in a supernatural act, because being born again, something supernatural takes place. It's not just, oh, a decision, I wanna be on this team, now I wanna be on this team. Like, born again, you are supernaturally sealed with the Holy Spirit. And that's how you can grieve and quench the Holy Spirit. He never leaves you. The Bible never says he leaves you, because as a believer, you're given the Holy Spirit, and you can quench and grieve to such a degree you feel lost. In my 20s, I was quenching and grieving the Holy Spirit, and then when I came back to him, I thought I was never saved to begin with, because of how much I'm on fire for God now, and how I'm quenching and grieving the Spirit. But there's always that conviction, right? Wake up Sunday morning, like, what did I do on Saturday? Where did I go, how did I get home? God, I don't wanna keep doing that. There's a conviction there. Now, if there's no conviction, ah, because there's people who left sin. Man, no, I had fun, that was great, let's do it again. I'm a believer, because they're caught in that sin. So let's close with Revelation 13, nine through 10. Everything we just read. He said, if anyone has ears to hear, have we heard that before? If you guys ever want these slides, just contact the office, they can send them to you. If anyone has an ear to hear, let him hear. So he's breaking all this down. Here comes this one world leader. Here's what he's gonna do. So if you have ears to hear, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. I knew I read that somewhere. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. Benson Commentary said, of all the trials and persecutions of the church, this would be the most severe and exceed those of the primitive times, both in degree and in duration. He's saying it will get difficult. It will get difficult. George Mueller, he said, when the day of recompense comes, our only regret will be that we have done so little for him, not that we have done too much. So really think about that. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. That was one of the things that the cries of the prophets, that would be a good sermon title sometime, the cries of the prophets. They would say that he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Joel would cry out and return. That's what I was gonna talk about last night. Joel would cry out, cry out and return to God. Raise up your voice like a trumpet, he told one of the prophets. Samuel said, if you return to God with all your heart and put away your idols, God will renew you. Isaiah said, raise your voice like a trumpet. Return to God and be healed. Jeremiah said, God said, obey my voice and live. Amos said, put away from me all your fake worship. Get rid of this noise. Stop coming in and going through the motions, but let justice run down like a river. Might righteousness like a mighty stream. Call on God and God alone. Get your heart right before him. And we've all heard of John 3.16, but have you heard of Joel 3.16? It said, the Lord will roar from Zion and the heavens will shake. There is no disputing that God is the ultimate victor in this battle.