Surviving Persecution III

[Music]h[Music]hello and welcome uh to this the thirdand final part of our three-part serieson the reality ofpersecution what is persecution where isit happening around our world today howdoes Satan attack the church and todayI'm going to look at the question ofpersecution in the light of what ishappening in the covid-19 Pand pmic myname is Pastor Conrad Vine it's myprivilege to be with you here today Iserve as the president of AdventistFrontier missions uh based in BaranSprings uh AFM online.org if you want tocheck us out and I want to share withyou today in this third part of ourthree-part series on persecution thelessons we are learning aboutpersecution how we respond topersecution based on what is happeningwith the wider covid-19 pandemic that ishappening all around us um as you cantell from what I'm saying this thisseries is dated I'm speaking in December2020 we're still in the midst of thepandemic and tragically tens ofthousands of people have passed aroundthe world and we remember today um withwith grief in our hearts those familieswho are grieving the loss of a loved onefor whom there may be an empty seat uhduring Christmas and they'll no longerhave their loved ones with them we offerall of those who L who have lost theirloved ones our deeper sympathy and wepray for the time when God will indeedwipe away every tear from our eyes as weuh open this third part in ourthree-part series entitled discipleshipand suffering I invite you to Bow yourheads with me and we'll ask the HolySpirit to blessus dear heavenly father we are living introubled and tumultuoustimes father we're living in a worldwhere people no longer know what is trueorfalse where today's Dogma becomestomorrow's hate speech where right seemsto be wrong and wrong now becomes rightwhere the certain Seas of yesterday areturned upside down by the confusion oftomorrow and father I ask that as Ispeak that your spirit will speakthrough me and for me that it is yourvoice that the listeners to this uh talkhear in their hearts I pray father thatall of us that everyone listening tothis will be our names will be found inthe Lamb's Book of Life that when Jesuscomes we can stand and say this is ourGod whom we have waited for I prayfather that our lives will be as Saltand Light in our dying and degradingworld that we may emit the light ofJesus Christ around us and we will be apreserving influence of all that is goodand true and Noble within each of oursocieties and cultures and communitiesand so father I ask that as I share thisimportant message that your spirit willspeak through me and for me in the nameof Jesus I humbly askamen as you see on the screen therethere are um two websites I encourageyou to look at relating to the realityof persecution one is uh from voice ofthe martyrs it is called persecution.comthe other is from open doors USA anEvangelical group in the United Statesthat tracks the reality of persecutionof Christiansworldwide now we know from The Book ofRevelation chapter 13 that at the end oftime uh there will be um a beast that ispersecuting the world a beast a powerwill arise uh as Adventist we understandthat to be the United States of Americathat will initially speak as a lamb butultimately will act as a dragon and itwill impose through economic coercionunder penalty ultimately of death uhfalse worship um in harmony with thepapacy now you may disagree with whatI've just said um but that is myconviction based on my own studies ofscripture and those convictions are heldby the worldwide 7th Day AdventistChurch and so today we're going to belooking at what the covid-19 pandemic isrevealing about what persecution maylook like at the end of time beforeJesus comes again when much of thisworld has turned its back on God whenpeople are accepting the mark of thebeast and are engaging in false worshipeither by conviction because theyreceive the mark of the beast on theirforeheads or by coercion because it's ontheir hands as the Book of Revelationchapter 13 describes um what does thatEndtime persecution look like of thosewho are faithful to God what would someof the ingredients possibly be and thecovid-19 pandemic has unwittingly maybeunintentionally shown us what are someof the ingredients what that Endtimepersecution can look like and as we gothrough this per this this covid-19pandemic globally and the tragedy ofthis pandemic is so many lives have beencut needlessly short it is incumbentupon us to ask ourselves what spirituallessons can we learn from what we aregoing through as a global Community Iwant to to start out by looking thoughat some historical comparisons prior to1917 prior to the Bolshevik Revolutionif you read Russian literature Russiawas in a state of economic politicalmoral and philosophical flux for atleast 20 years prior to the Octoberrevolution of 1917 led by the B theBolsheviks Russia was a competing mix ofprisoners and ex prisoners promotingMarxism agrarianism leninism bolism ormenis M Orthodox mysticism nihilism andRussian nationalism Russia was in astate of Economic and philosophical fluxnobody quite knew what was the nextstage for Social Development and forsociety to develop now the outcome ofthis philosophical flux in Russia andyou can read all about this in thewritings of doovi or the writings ofTolstoy other famous writers of of thatera the outcome of this period of fluxwas the Communist dictatorship of Leninand then Joseph Stalin during which timethe body of Christ was ruthlesslypersecuted and tens of millions perishedunder the curse ofsocialism then if we switch to Germanyprior to the election of Adolf Hitler in1933 the German Republic known as Theviar Republic was in a similar state ofphilosophical flux and Chaos thetheologians higher criticism their waveinterpreting the Bible ofdemythologizing particularly the NewTestament and making everything appearpalatable and acceptable to a 20 to a20th century reader this process ofhigher criticism had undercut people'strust in the Bible as indeed the word ofGod and reeling from the re humiliationof the Versa treaty and as the Germancurrency collapsed in value in the Llatter years of the viar Republicnationalists Communists um EXs soldierscome back from the front of World War Iand frore freec cor Fighters theybattled it out in Street battles on thestreets the outcome of this philosophiCal and economic chaos was the fascistdictatorship of Adolf Hitler and therise of the Nazi party during which erathe body of Christ was ruthlesslypersecuted and tens of millions ofpeople perished across Europe then weswitched to the United States of Americaand prior to the prophesied uniting ofchurch and state and the imposition ofSunday laws as we find in the Book ofRevelation as a means of bringingNational unity in a time of Crisis toUnited States we are seeing today thatthe United States is drifting or hasalready drifted from her ProtestantMoorings into a bewildering state ofsocial moral political and philosophicalchaos I'm speaking now in December 2020the outcome of the 2020 presidentialelection is up in the air the country iskind of holding its breath wonderingwhat is the future direction for theUnited States we are at a Crossroads asa nation ideological and Street battlesare now being fought Court in Americabetween far right and farle partisansspecial interest groups activist judgespoliticized corporations and a wokeinstitutions are on the we war pathtogether with various media factions andin this rejection of our judeo-christianheritage coercion is happening inAmerica today via economic boycotts wehave boycotts and Bots if we don't likeyou we'll call for a boycott of yourbusiness if we like your business we'llcall for a Bott where everybody pleasebuy these Foods a classic example areGoya Foods when their president whentheir president happened to promotepresident Trump a few months ago uh somepeople in America called for a Bottboycott nobody buy Goya Foods and theresponse of many people was to buy GoyaFoods um in what was known as as a botand so we see this economic coercion inAmerica happening via boycotts or byotemployment purges media firestormsphysical intimidation murders on ourstreets on the grounds of politicaldifference and Street violence arebecoming more and more common the saleof guns and ammunition is skyrocketingin the year 2020 Americans are veryafraid of what is coming down the pipethe co9 pandemic though has revealedthere are many tools available for thepersecution and the closing downsocially and economically of anydissenting minority as we know frommodern history from the experience ofRussia Russia and the experience of ofGermany and the prophetic light ofscripture that is Revelation chapter 13when there is social and economic andpolitical breakdown as we areexperiencing in the United States todaythis ultimately and inevit inevitably Ibelieve will result in the arising of astrong regime maybe a strong man thatimposes order by social and economiccoercion and ultimately by physicalviolence and once again as in SovietUnion and as in Nazi Germanythe body of Christ will be persecutedand many will be martyred for theirfaith the exact scenario we find playedout in the last four verses ofRevelation chapter 13 we are living inmomentous times America has spoken as alamb it has been a light for the worldfor so many years I became an Americancitizen in 2016 one of the greatestprivileges of my life I say to people Iam British by birth but American bychoice and ultimately saved by grace butI'm American by choice because I believethat the founding documents of Americathe Declaration of Independence and theBill of Rights and the Gettysburgaddress and so forth are some of thefinest documents of human governanceever in human history but we are seeingin America today the sounds oftotalitarianism the warning signs areall around us and more and moreAmericans are afraid to speak theirminds because they're afraid of the thehate that will come their way more andmore Americans are self censoringbecause um they know that whatever yousay he was going to be used in evidenceagainst you and because today's dogmaand acceptable ideas are tomorrow's hatespeech and these changes are happeningalmost overnight we are we are umretreating into a suen silence afraid tospeak our opinion on anything becausewe're afraid of the totalitarian mobthat is now roaming America physicallyon the streets and also online in socialmedia so that brings us tocovid-19 as we survey the impact ofcovid on basic civil libertiesconstitutional rights and religiousfreedom in the USA it has becomeincreasingly evident that when a stateof emergency is declared at the statelevel not necessarily at the federallevel but at the state level forinstance the state of California or thestate of Michigan or the state ofTennessee for instance possibly inresponse to an ongoing Health pandemicor um social breakdown absolutelynothing is sacred constitutional rightsincluding freedom of conscience freedomof assmbly and freedom of speech canevaporate overnight in the face of astate ofemergency uh as a young man I imaginethat the laws in America would bringabout persecution through threemechanisms through a Supreme Courtdecision a decision of the scotusthrough an through an executive order ofthe president or the executive orthrough an act of Congress and whatwe're seeing in the covid-19 is thatmany ingredients of the final tools ofpersecution can be put in place withouta Supreme Court decision and withwithout a presidential executive orderand without an act of Congress they canbe put in place by local Governors orMayors in some place who declare a stateof emergency and um aggregate untothemselves almost dictatorial Powers yetdespite the best intentions oflegislators and governors Nationwide intheir battle against this terrible virusthe lockdowns have ACC caused to varyingdegrees the suspension of allegedlyinalienable rights such as thosecontained in the US Bill of Rights andin particular our first amendment rightsthe freedom to worship or not to worshipGod the freedom to gather and thefreedom of speech perhapsinadvertently this pandemic has revealedthat the many ingredients of theoppression of God's Endtime people arealready in place and that politicalleaders across the political Spectrumare only too ready and willing to usethem given anopportunity and what are the some ofthose ingredients of end timepersecution well I'm going to list themout for you now and some of these haveapplied to some states not all of themhave been visible in all of the statesin America but what I'm about todescribe for you are some of theingredients of the final persecutionthat have definitely um come to thefront and been seen uh since March 2020across different states of the UnitedStates firstly we see that we have acorrupt National media and a media thatpromulgates lies rather than truths amedia that pushes an agenda and adominant narrative regardless of thefacts and regardless of who getsdestroyed in the process of pushingthose Lies We have a corrupt Nationalmedia from whom truth has departedpushing a narrative whereby our civilliberties our constitutional rights andour religious freedoms are indefinitelysuspended during a state of emergency wesee that social media Giants such asFacebook and Twitter they will restrictand demonetize and deplatform any voiceany voice that questions the dominantnarrative we see that if you are adissenter to the National narrative aspushed by the corrupt and lying Nationalmedia and the overp powerful um socialmedia Giants that you will be demonizedin the media if you are a denter totheir narrative you'll be demonized byonline mobs and you'll be ascribed theworst possible motives by national andstate level figures we see thatGatherings for worship and evangelismhave been banned in many states acrossthe United States in the interests ofpublic health and safety and deputies insome towns have been sent by localMayors to fine or arrest those gatheredfor worship even in Drive-In Serviceswhere there is no possibility of thespread of covid yet the deputies havebeen sent to say your religiousLiberties are suspended and we're goingto arrest you or fine you interestinglyI I I live in the state of Michigan andthe governor has imposed all kinds of ofregulations and the regulations havebeen changing on almost on a weeklybasis some of them made good sense andsome of them were clearly nonsensical uhso for instance at the start of thepandemic you could go out and buyalcohol and tobacco and marijuana andlottery cards but you could not go to agarden center and buy vegetable seeds togrow yourself a garden a kitchen Gardenduring the pandemic this is absurd andwe've seen a lot of absurdities come tothe front during this covid pandemicwe've seen that hot lines have beenestablished in some states and citiesand indeed in some universities whereAdventists are encouraged to call andreport on their neighbors if they aresuspected of failing to comply with adominant narrative these are what wecall the kons in our midst and apologiesto anybody called Karen watching thisthis is just a social phenomenon Karensare those who take it upon themselves topolice their Community to police theirneighbors to report on their loved onesif they fail to comply with withwhatever latest lockdown requirementsare imposed by a governor who believesthat he or she is answerable to nobodywe've SE so-called track and Trace Acthave been rolled out in some countriesfor instance in the United Kingdom withthat are used allegedly to monitor thephysical location of an entirepopulation again in the interests ofpublic health and safety the reality isthat these track and Trace ABS apps givethe authorities unprecedented intrusioninto your privacy not only can the theauthorities figure out where you've beenand with whom you've been for health andsafety reasons but now they can figureout where you've been for any otherreason as well and this in my opinionhaving having spent many years in theformer Soviet Union this is almost BigBrother on steroids and a governmentthat bears ill will towards a citizen ora subject or a community or a faithcommunity can use that knowledge toTarget that community in the mostprofound and terrible of ways we nowhave in our homes Across America andacross the West smart tools such as SiriAlexa Amazon's Echo dots and Google'sNest mini these are used in millions ofhomes and phones across the US and thesehave the ability to record every wordthat you speak now I don't know thatGoogle is recording every word that yousay in your home but I do know thatthese devices are engaged in passivelistening that is they're listening andwhen you say a certain word like HeySiri then the device wakes up and itlistens to what you're saying and so ifif these devices are listening all thetime who's to say that they're not beingrecorded and as we saw with the um theEric the the Snowden Revelations the NSAfor years has been engaged in theillegalmetadata um GA gathering of informationon American citizens for years and thatwas revealed to us through the SnowdenScandal a few years ago who was an NSAcontractor another tool we see oringredient for the final persecution isthat the full force of theadministrative state in different statesof the United States has been threatenedto destroy families and the livelihoodsof descenders of denters including thevery real threat of children beingremoved by Child Protective Servicesfrom business owners who refuse tocomply with the dominant narrative andclose their business and allow it to gobankrupt and lose their livelihoodsagain in the interests of Public Safetywe've seen that State's Attorneysgenerals have arbitrarily revoked thebusiness licenses and the registrationsof businesses who would not closedenying individuals their ability to buyto sell to bank and to make a living wealso see another ingredient in Americais that international travel has beenbrought to a shuddering halt at thestroke of a pen um I have a Britishpassport and an American passport Icould theoretically fly to England and Ican fly to back to America because of myduel citizenship but my parents theylive in in in England and they only haveBritish citizenship so they cannot cometo America to visit with us and so we wehave to communicate via Skype orFaceTime and so forth and so familiesaround the world are separated and theycannot join up with one another forfamily events for weddings for funeralsand for births and and B Mitzvah and soforth and baptisms because of the covidtravel regulations we also see that inAmerica almost all us colleges andchurches at one time or another wereordered shut again in the interests ofPublic Safety centers for Learning andcenters for worship were targetedbecause of the potential spread of covidand even though for elementary schoolsin America uh the CDC and public healthofficials say that there is almost nothreat of of of the virus spreadingamong children there's no evidence thatelementary schools are are superspreaders for the virus yet teachersunions across our America and parts ofthe dominant media are insisting thatthat schools remain closed um because uhfor the interest of Public Safety andnow we also see America that the truthis increasingly being declared as hatespeech and is being driven from thePublicSquare all the ingredients of thepersecution of God's Endtime people arealready in place covid-19 hasunwittingly reveal to us that theingredients are already in place and Sobased on what we are witnessing withcovid-19 what could these ingredientslook like for those who are faithful toGod in the final crisis of true worshipto fear God as the Creator or to andworship him on the Sabbath day or to umfollow a false day of worship imposed bythe pavy that is the Sunday um whatcould some of those ingredients ofpersecution look like well if we just umtweak a few words here and there this iswhat may well happen we may see thatthose who are faithful to God will seethat their civil and religious Libertieswill be revoked and their firstamendment rights will evaporate theywill be meaningless we will see theclosure of all Church buildings of allChurch colleges of all Church unions umadministrative offices and churchentities we will not be able to gathertogether for worship for prayer meetingsor for evangelism of any kind we may bedeplatformed on social media and uhcancelled from public culture we maylose our ability AB ility to to putstuff online um internet serviceproviders May refuse to deal with us andso we are cut off from The Wider Worldour ability to buy to sell to bank andto travel will be suspended for all timethat is until Jesus comes again oursavings our retirement accounts or ourIAS our investment accounts will all befrozen never to be used again um ourfinancial resources will be gone onceand for all and unable to pay for ourmortgages or our rents for our homes orbusinesses we will be forced from ourhomes and all of our possessions will bestripped from us and our businesses willwill will be taken from us as well wewill be demonized across the politicalspectrum and in all media as Jesus saidand I quote from Mark 13:13 you will behated by all men for my name's sake wewill be hounded by um mobs in thestreets of social justice Warriors andby state bureaucrats drunk on theabsolute powers that emergencydeclarations seemingly give to themtrack and Trace apps on our phones willTrace our every movement and our smartdevices will record every word that weever utter the only thing I suggest youtoday that stands uh between us and thatthat final persecution is a politicalexcuse to turn these ingredients uponGod's faithful Remnant we are very closeto the final persecution of God'sfaithful people so how do we respond tothe reality of the that this personpersecution that is coming this way wellum perhaps the two most commonly heardexpressions or sayings you hear relatingto persecution in our world today arenumber one oh persecution will neverhappen here and number two we neverthought persecution could happen herethese are the two most commonly heardExpressions among Christians relating topersecution today again persecutioncould never happen here and then wenever thought that persecution couldhappen here and the persecuted churchcan indeed learn lessons from the uh thepre- church can learn pers lessons fromthe persecuted church as you see on yourscreen there the Apostle Paul discussesthis I've I've touched on this in theprevious um part two of this three-partseries uh 2 Corinthians 1 3 and 4blessed be the God and father of ourLord Jesus Christ the father of merciesand the God of all consolation whoconsoles us in our Affliction so that wemay be able to console those who are inany Affliction with the consolation withwhich we ourselves are consoled by Godwhat is the Apostle Paul saying herehe's saying that the Free Church needsto take the time has a responsibility tolearn the lessons from the persecutedchurch that God is a god of mercy andGod is a god of consolation and Godwalks with his children through thefiery furnace as surely as Jesus walkedwith the three Hebrews through the FYfur fiery furnace in the Book of Danieland so um we can prepare for persecutionfirstlyintellectually we say I know that I'mgoing to face persecution it's a realityif you're going to be faithful to God ifyou're going to be a faithful discipleof Jesus and hear me today you will facepersecution for your faith it may befrom Business Leaders maybe from Civicrulers or other religious leaders it maybe from your family it may be um from uhinternally from within the churchthrough guilt true guilt or false guiltor through Pride or fear or throughmaterialism there are many ways thatSatan can attack and does attack thefollowers of Jesus we know this is truebecause Revelation 12 17 says that Satanwas Wrath or angry with the woman andwent off to make war with the remnant ofher children which means do not besurprised when Satan attacks you in yourfamily because he's trying to destroyyou and your witness for Jesus Christ sowe prepare by saying first I knowintellectually that I'm going to facepersecution then we prepare by saying Iknow spiritually that I'm going to facepersecution that is I'm preparing myselffor it I'm fortifying my mind with theword of God I'm preparing my testimonyI'm preparing the reasons for my faithso that if called upon I I can share whyI believe and what I believe and in whomI believe and we also prepare pastorallyfor persecution that is we say that if Iam taken off to a prison somewhere howwill my family live without me how willthey do spiritually and economically ifI'm a pastor what will happen to mycongregation when I am gone am Itraining Elders to lead Faithfully inthe church spiritual Shepherds who willlove and feed and watch over that flockuh seeking to build it in Grace and intruth I'm not talking about an abstractreality here um I have a colleague inSoutheast Asia a country where there isa lot of persecution and just uh about20 years ago her father was a pastor wasdisappeared by the government he sat inprison for many years and one day hejust reappeared again after which thefamily left that country became refugeesin another country and during those manyyears when the pastor sat in a prisoncell the government would notacknowledge that he was a prisoner thefamily had to live with cripplinguncertainty is Dad alive is my husbandalive is he ever coming back again thesethings do happen and they're happeningin our world today and uh so we preparespiritually intellectually andpastorally for the coming persecutionyou know Jesus himself on The Sermon onthe Mount rejected violence as a way ofresponding to persecution he said but Isay to you who hear love your enemies dogood to those who hate you bless thosewho curse you and pray for those whospitefully use you this is perhaps thehardest teaching that Jesus ever gave tolove your enemies and this word loveisn't just like I I like you as abrother that is to sacrifice yourselffor your enemies for those who wouldkill your children or rape your daughterfor those who would burn your house downand destroy your business for those whowould snatch your daughter into a forcemarriage or kill your son because hewould not convert to another faith weare called by Jesus to love thosepeople this is perhaps the hardestteaching of Jesus it's hard to think ofa more difficult teaching of Jesus tocarryout and yet the reality is is that forGod so loved the world and that worldwas and is and remains a planet inobstinate and willful Rebellion shakingits fists at its heavenly father and atits creator we have received the gift ofSalvation today because God loved us theunlovable and we are called toFaithfully represent him and hischaracter of love and mercy to those whowould persecute us because how otherwisewill those people receive um a witnessto the character of God in the Book ofDaniel there is a very famous KingcalledNebuchadnezzar and in chapter one he'sthe Conqueror of the ancient Middle Easthe establish the Babylonian Empire heconquers the Assyrians he conquers thethe lydians modern day turkey and heconquers down to Egypt and he's theConqueror of the Known World he's knownas The Hammer of the earth and um inchapter one he captures a lot of Jewishboys from Jerusalem and they becomebasically his slaves he puts themthrough a Babylonian University andthey're going to serve him in his civilservice and in chapter one he meetsDaniel Shadrach Meshach and abednigo anduh they do not curse him they do notrevile him they do not call you knowupon God to give this man leprosy orsome other terrible disease no um theythey are calm and quiet in their faithand they have a quiet witness in theLiving God and in chapter oneNebuchadnezzar is a polytheist it meanshe believes in many gods in Danielchapter 2 we have the story of the dreamuh the very very CH famous chapter andin this chapter here Daniel um revealsthe King's dream to the king when theking can't remember the dream and uh inthat dream there's a statue and the headis of gold and the arms are of silverand the thighs of brass the legs are ofVine and the feet are Vine and clay andit's clear to Daniel that and he tellsthis to the king that you are the youare the head of gold but after youanother kingdom shall arise inferior toyours which you know historically wasthe medo Assyrian Empire now Danielcould have said to the king aha you havepersecuted the world what goes roundcomes round you have destroyed Jerusalemone day your city will be destroyed hecould have laughed vindictivelyNebuchadnezzar and said I've sufferedand one day you and your people aregoing to be suff are going to sufferblessed are those who who do to door toBab who do to Babylon what you have doneto us Babylon you you smashed ourchildren's heads against the Rocksblessed are they going to be who destroyyour children by Smashing their headsagainst the Rocks as you read in Psalm139 but Daniel does not saythis right he appeals to the king toshow Mercy to the oppressed and when Godum reveals to the king the dream throughDaniel's words the king recognizes thatYahweh the god of Israel is superiorabove all the other gods in the world soin Daniel 1 Nebuchadnezzar is apolytheist in Daniel 2 again heNebuchadnezzar comes into contact withwith Hebrew slave boys who are faithfulto God and gentle in their witness nowNebuchadnezzar is no longer a polytheisthe is a henthe which means he recognizeshe believes there are many gods but thegod of Israel is above all other godsand in Daniel chapter 4 which is thatNebuchadnezzar's testimony the yearseven years of his Madness by the end ofthat story um he recognizes that thereis only one God and that is the god ofIsrael Yahweh or Jehovah and so he goesfrom being a polytheist to a henthe to amonotheist and what may helps him alongthat journey in every stage of thatJourney he meets the suffering andpersecuted children of God who respondto their persecutor with grace and truthand appeals to Mercy and to right livingand so we see in this story ofNebuchadnezzar's conversion that we canrespond to hatred and evil with goodnessand God in his mysterious ways Worksthingsout so what then are some biblicalresponses to persecution well you'regoing to see these up on the screen I'mgoing to go through these responses withyou right now the first is that we canflee um this is not an act of cowardiceit is sometimes clearly the will of Godwe see that um Joseph and Mary fled toEgypt with the baby Jesus because Herodwanted to kill Jesus when Joseph wasinstructed to take his family to Egyptby an Angel in a in a dream at night whotold him to get up at once and leaveright away and that's exactly whatJoseph did Jesus commanded his followersto flee from one town to the next ifthey were going to face persecution inLuke 9 in Matthew chapter10:23 and the Apostle Paul fled on anumber of occasions from one town toanother when he was facing persecutionssuch as acts 9:25 or acts 9 and verse3Paul did not flee as a regular practicebut it was a part of his response topersecution we also see a Biblicalresponse to persecution is that we maystay and endure this was modeled for usby Jesus himself in the Garden ofGethsemane in Luke 22 we may stay and wemay endure perhaps the most famousexample of this in the 20th century isDietrich Bon Hofer a German Pastor wholed the the um the confessing Church whorefused to confess Hitler as fura butconfess Jesus as Lord and just beforeWorld War II began he was in America andhe decided to sail back to Germany andpeople said if you go back to Germanyyou will be executed by Adolf Hitler andBon hofer's response was essentiallythat how can I be the flock of God'sChurch in Germany when the good timescome again if I wasn't willing to be thepastor during their bad times andeddietr Bon Hoffer died just days beforeWorld War II ended on the personinstructions of himla the head of the SSin a German cont concentration camp athird response to persecutions we canhide Rahab literally hid the two spieswho came to spy out Jericho in the Bookof Joshua and modern day Christians aresometimes forced to hide or to hideothers to give Sanctuary like the storyof Ki ten booom in Nazi occupied Hollandduring World War II we may also hide orhide others during times of persecutionalternatively we may boldly remain asthe Salt and Light of the earth as wesaw in the second of this three-partseriesthis teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5: 13-14 comes immediately after his teachingon the blessings of those the Beatitudesof those who experience persecution saltpreserves and light dispels darkness andwhen a Christian flees a land ofpersecution their preserving and theirenlightening influence departs with themand the degradation of society justaccelerates and it gets worse and worsewe also affirm a non-violent response todeciples of Jesus we place their painand desire for vengeance in the hands ofGod who knows everything and who one dayexecute perfect Justice alternatively wemay be called to lay down our life thisis what the modern understanding ofmartyrdom is all about this is alegitimate response to persecution andthe glory of the scripture is there is aspecial Crown reserved for those who laydown their lives for their faithRevelation 2 and verse 10 just as a sidenote here uh in in the west we thinkthat a Marty is somebody who dies fortheir faith but that's not the biblicalunderstanding of a martyr a mar or amartus is literally a witness it's fromthe verb Marin or Marto means I witnessor I testify to what I have seen and soa marus was a witness to the Risen Lordthey were a witness in a court of law tothe fact that Jesus was risen again anda martus was one who was faithful inthat witness all the way to the point ofdeath so we just say a Mart is someonewho dies for their faith that is truebut in the New Testament you find thatmartes or martoy or Witnesses they arefaithful in their witness to Jesus wheneverything is on the line up to anincluding if necessary the point ofdeath and we are called in thescriptures to be faithful Witnesses forJesus Martyrs for him up to andincluding if necessary the point oflaying down our life for our faithalternatively we find in the Bible wemay exercise our legal rights theApostle Paul was willing to use hislegal rights as a Roman citizen todefend himself and to appeal to Caesarfor a final decision like in America youhave the right to appeal to the appealscourt or ultimately to the Supreme Courtif you don't like a decision of a lowercourt when there are legal difficultiesfor Christians we can document incidentsand ask the worldwide church for prayerand support we can provide financialsupport for persecuted Christians we canserve as an advocate with governmentofficials and we can educate membersabout their legal rights within theirown legal jurisdictions we're alsocounseled in scripture not to besurprised when persecution comes our waythe Apostle Paul puts it this way hesays in 1 Peter 4: 12-14 beloved hesayso not think it strange concerningthe fiery trial which is to try you asthough some strange thing has happenedto you but Rejoice to the extent thatyou partake of Christ's sufferings thatwhen his glory is revealed you may alsobe glad with exceeding Joy if you arereproached for the name of Christblessed are you for the spirit of gloryand of God rests upon you on their parthe is blasphemed but on your part he isglorified and so we are called toRejoice that does not mean being happyha haa when we Face persecution but weRejoice because we are counted as beingwith Christ by society that Society seesthat that person is a citizen of ournation a brother in our community or asister in our community but they alsobear the name of Christ and we allrecognize that and so when we Facepersecution for the name of Christ thereis a sense of of inner joy that I amrecognized in my community as as being adisciple of Jesus and being anambassador for Jesus in this communityand they're attacking me not becausethey hate me but because they reject thesavior of the world we also find in thescriptures that we are to rejoice insuffering in 1 Peter 4:13 we arecommanded to rejoice in our sufferingsand the Apostle Paul commanded us torejoice in all things in Philippians 4and verse 4we also command in Philippians 4:6 topray with thankfulness including prayingfor fellow sufferers in Acts 12:5 andHebrews 13:3 and we also to pray for ourpersecutors that through our faithfuland gentle and loving witness they maybe one uh for the kingdom of God as welland there are many stories in Christianhistory of those who are facingpersecution who face their deathsentences with such nobility ofcharacter and purity of speech andgentleness in their voicesthat their death won more multmultitudes to the cause of Christ thanwhen they were alive there are many manyinstances in Christian history of peopledying for their faith in such a way thateven the soldiers who were executingthem were convicted that there issomeone something about Jesus Christthat we need to follow we also commandin the Bible we are not to be ashamedPeter says this if anyone suffers as aChristian let him not be ashamed but lethim glorify God in this matter we oughtto trust in Romans 8:31-39 that nothing can separate us fromthe love of God it's a very importantpoint this nothing can separate us fromlove of God not Angels says the ApostlePaul or powers or authorities and thoseword powers or authorities um they theyrefer to Fallen Angels or demonic beingsso there is even Satan and the worst hecan do to us cannot separate you or mefrom the love of God that that is aninsoluble bond between Christ and hishis disciples that no matter what theGates of Hell will throw against you asa disciple God's love for you willalways hold hold strong and uh so we maylet feel like we're letting go of Godbut God is not letting go of hisdisciples nothing can separate us fromthe love of God and God will never allowpersecution to reach that point where itbecomes unbearable for us so I'm goingto speak specifically to Adventists herenow because I know that there'll be manyAdventists watching this this program umthe Adventist response to persecutionwell in the covid-19 pandemic peoplehave responded to the lockdowns in avariety and a wide spect of ways somepeople are terrified they are afraid toventure out of their houses some withgood reason they have Comm uhcompromised immune systems for instanceothers enthusiastically endorse thelockdowns and they call those umhotlines and they report on theirneighbors violations even you know insome Adventist universities have thosehotlines as well where you can report ona professor an Adventist Professor ifthey're allegedly breaking the lockdownothers hunker down with gritted teethothers speak up in opposition and yetothers March against it historically thereality is is Adventists have rarely ifever responded to persecution with anysense of unity in World War I the GermanAdventists split over the question ofwhether the young Adventist men shouldshould face conscription to the Kaiservilhelms Army and out of of that splitthe German Adventist Church um brokeapart and they are still still inseparate portions the reformed sthAdventist Church exists today they havea general conference if you pick up oneof their Sabbath School quarterly and ifyou didn't know what this quarter'sSabbath school lesson was about youcould read it through for a few weekswithout even realizing this was not fromthe General Conference of 7th Adventiststhat this is the reformed 7th Adventists Sabbath School publication and so wesplit in World War I in response to thetotality Arian demands of Soviet andcommunist rulers even to this dayAdventists have broken apart in manymany countries in many countries andeven to this day in2020 um Adventists um have been splitand remain split into the officialChurch which has some kind ofaccommodation with the Communistauthorities maybe they send theirchildren to school on the Sabbath andthe underground or The Unofficial Churchwho refuse to send their children toschool on the Sabbath or whatever thedividing line is within that particularum country and those dividing lines arethe cause of incredible bitterness andand anger and backbiting amongAdventists I'm speaking the truth here II travel all over the world what I speakis is the absolute truth here and so umwe do not respond well to persecution wehave never responded well to persecutionand perhaps most tragically in the endtime persecution and consistent with ourhistorically divided response topersecution I believe that adventismwill not respond with united front tothe final persecution of God's peoplesome may excuse and even justify thepersecution of the troublers of Israelyou know it's good that we worship onSunday because it's good for theenvironment this is giving the earth arest this is a secular day of rest forthe world and we can all celebrateSunday as a world um world Community togive a pause in your ceas and TheNeverEnding um pattern of consumptionthat's destroying the world's resourcessome Adventists are going to justify uhpausing on Sunday in the future Proprobably on environmental grounds othersare going to accommodate to the end timepersecution others yet will reject ithunker down and simply wait for thesecond coming nothing in our historyindicates that we will have a unifiedresponse if you don't believe me look atAdventist history when that finalpersecution comes it I'm convinced thatour general conference and our divisionsand our unions and our conferences andour missions and our sections and ourfields and our institutions will all beclosed and the only thing that willmatter is you and your walk with God andyou you living in a loving community ofbrothers and Believers within your localcommunity so I want to encourage youtoday if you don't know the brothers andsisters of your local church get to knowthem while you have the freedom to do sostart praying with them and for themopen up up open up to them about whatthey can be praying for in your lifethat they know what to pray for that youcan build bonds of trust and Love BeforeThe Final Stormarises covid-19 is a true wakeup callthere is much to think about as wePonder the the the the the impact ofcivil liberties of the covid-19 pandemicare we uniting in prayer in our localcongregations are we sewing the seed ofthe word of God while we can takingadvantage of our liberties while we mayone day we will lose those libertiesfor good are we building kingdoms onEarth or are we serving the kingdom ofGod are we laying up Treasures on Earthworried about our IRAs and our cgas andour roths and our investment accounts orare we laying up Treasures in Earth byseeking first the kingdom of God andseeking to share the gospel around theworld is anything in this earthoverriding our Fidelity and love to ourHeavenly Father is our message clear weare living in in the west and around theworld but particularly in the west weare seeing an increasing rejection ofthe moral Foundation of scripture it isonly a matter of time before the Bibleis condemned as being hate speech andthe gospel is rejected as being amicroaggression and is a form of hatespeech and so I invite want to inviteyou today to recommit to proclaimingwith love and with grace to the wholeworld in your community the absolutecertainty that there is no otherfoundation for the body of Christ thanJesus Christ Alone there is no othergospel than that of Jesus Christ thereis no other way to Godthan through Jesus Christ there is noother mediator between humanity and Godthan Jesus Christ there is no otherbeing of worship no other being worthyof worship than our Creator God there isno other day to replace the Sabbaththere's no other law to obey that ishigher than the Ten Commandments inAuthority in our lives there is no otherpower for salvation than through faithin the Lord Jesus Christ there is noother hope for suffering Humanity thanthe Blessed hope and there is no othername than Jesus Christ by which Humanitymay be savedis this is what our is this what ourcommunity sees in us when people seewhat you write on Facebook or on socialmedia or in the comments section andwebsites is this what people are hearingare people drawn to the Savior throughyour witness is your witness Winsome isit winning is it does it woo people tothe Creator Jesus has promised if I amlifted High I will draw all men tomyself are we lifting Jes as high in ourdaily interactions with others in whatwe post on social media in the values weaspireedo people see Jesus in me and do peoplesee Jesus in you so what do we say inconclusion today as we come to the endof this three-part series ondiscipleship and suffering just lookinginto the questions of persecution welljust like zaris Russia and WeimarGermany in the west we are now living inan era of debilitating moral uncertaintythe old certainties are gone we'reliving in a relativistic society and asAdventists we have historic ly championof the separation of church and state asa pillar of conscience and of ourfreedom of religion but today theprimary issue we are facing in the westis no longer the question of theseparation of church and state but weare seeing the separation of ourcountries from God himself thejudeo-christian foundations of the Westare disappearing almost overnight thesecular Elites in our nations areseeking to impose a brave new secularUtopia in which the word of God iscompletely rejected and the followers ofJesus will inevitably face persecutionmoral and social chaos is the inevitableresult in Stalin's prison camps when aprisoner was brought into the prison uhthey would strip andol of hispossessions but when you start a 10yearsentence you often given one personalitem that item could be a picture of achild it could be um a comb it could bea toothbrush something personalsomething small something not of not ofhigh value really in this world but youoften given one personal item now whydid the guards give you one personalitem well the answer is very simple theguards knew that the fear of losing thatone possession you could call your ownwould ensure full compliance with theprison regime for the next 10 years ofyour sentence one measly item was all ittook to buy human compliance to acorrupt an unjust and bloodthirsty andtyrannical regime one measleyitem the human heart can be bought forsolittle we see this in the story of lotand his wife who turned her head back toSodom and Gomorrah and revealed to theLord and Savior Jesus Christ and to ustoday that her heart was still residingwith the people of Sodom and Gomorrahand so we have this prayer today dearfather we confess that false gods haveinfiltrated and captivated ourhearts our hearts like the heart ofLot's wife are captive to thisworld please remove these false godsfrom us today Father and may our wholehearts and our beings be captive to youand to your word alone we are livingtruly in 2020 in momentous times ourworld is falling apart the ingredientsfor the final persecution are all inplace and all it requires now is anexcuse to turn those ingredients onthose who are faithful to God Jesus iscoming again this is the Blessed hopethe pieces of Revelation 13 are fallinginto place the papacy has a globalvision for this world and America ischanging fast and we're seeing atotalitarian streak arise in this landthat we have never seen before and thattotalitarianism is growing and gainingpower on a daily basis but Jesus iscoming again and when he's coming againhe's going to rescue all who arefaithful to him whose names are found inthe Lamb's Book of Life be faithfulbrothers and sisters because Jesus iscoming again be faithful in whateverportion of the vineyard God has calledyou to serve because Jesus is comingagain be faithful with the talents andthe gifts that he's given you do notbury them but put them to use for God ina world that says we will not have thisman to rule over us let your gifts Shinefor God because when Jesus comes againhe will reward you and if you had fivetalents you'll have 10 if you had twoyou'll have five he will bless youabundantly because of your faithfulnessto him hard times are coming but so isJesus and when Jesus comes again everytear will be wiped away and we willdwell with God and he will dwell with usand we will walk the streets of the NewJerusalem together and the pains andTroubles of this world will be no moreand love will pulsate throughout ourentire universe and and uh evil will begone and we will have peace in ourhearts forever be faithful Brothers andSisters Jesus is coming again I inviteyou to Bow your head heads with me as weclose this three-part series ondiscipleship and suffering dear fatherI'd like to pray for those who arewatching this program today Father youknow what they have gone through in lifeyou know the experiences they haveendured you know the struggles they haveexperienced you know the persecutionthey may have gone through or will yetgo through and I ask father that uh foreach of those watching this program thatLord we place these troubles in yourhands knowing that you are infinitelylarger and greater than any of thesetroubles and I ask Lord that your peacewill fill each of our hearts the peacethat passeth all human understandingfather fill our hearts with theassurance that our names are written inthe Lamb's Book of Life I pray Lord thatwhen Jesus when you come again in theClouds Of Glory each one of us will befound ready and waiting for you untilthat day father may we be faithful maywe be um true may we be steadfast in ourwalk with you in the name of Jesus Ipray amen[Music]