Faith At The Breaking Point Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The Antichrist is known as the Beast. He forces the whole world to worship Him using military and economic pressure.

Without His mark, no one can buy or sell. Could any of us maintain our faith in Jesus during a time like this, when it's worship the Beast or die? From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, the Bible speaks of those who loved not their lives unto death. Could we be getting close to needing to be this kind of a people? You know, Dave, I've often contemplated that statement because you and I know that we love our life, and to lay down our lives would not be easy.

It would be a very difficult choice, particularly because we live in the West, where those kinds of expectations are not made. But are we getting close to the time when it might get to that? The answer is yes. For now, it might be being deplatformed.

It might involve such things as being vilified, losing our jobs, but eventually it could get worse because the dominoes are all in place. You know, my friends, as you listen to this message, and I might say that this message is very critical, would you consider having this series of messages permanently for yourself? Here's what you can do.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. For a gift of any amount, these messages can be yours, but I'm going to be giving you that contact info at the end of this message because I want you to listen carefully right now as we continue the thought of faith at the breaking point. Every time I read this, I get chills. Imagine the authority given ultimately by God to Antichrist. Now, of course, he receives his power from the dragon, but always remember that the dragon also is in God's hands. As Luther famously said, even the devil is God's devil. And here's a man who has authority over all the earth and all of the dreams of people throughout the centuries, that there would be one unified religion that would finally unify the world has come to pass. We're all worshiping the same person. We are all in sync.

Everybody is obeying. And at last, the world has unity. So Antichrist is given this kind of authority and there is finally a one world religion.

But notice the martyrdom. It says it was given over every tribe and people and language and all who dwell on the earth will worship it. I just can't hardly believe that all who dwell on the earth will worship it. Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb that was slain. Unless your name was written in the lamb's book of life from before the foundation of the world, all those on planet earth whose names were not in that book, they will worship the beast. When I was in China a number of years ago with a religious leader, I remember he made an amazing statement. He said, persecution wiped out all liberalism in China. What liberal theologian is going to want to go to the wall for Jesus? Everybody is going to bow down. Everybody is going to worship the beast except this unique company of people whose names were written in the lamb's book of life from before the foundation of the world. He said, Pastor Luther, I don't like this doctrine.

Well, learn to like it and learn to appreciate it and don't complain about it. If you want to know whether or not your name is in this book of life, you can find out. And the way in which you find out is you receive Jesus as your savior, acknowledging your sinfulness, receive him as savior, as having died in your stead for your sin. And when you do that, I promise you, you will be received and you will know that your name was in the lamb's book of life from before the foundation of the world.

Most of you know that your name is there through faith in Jesus. Jesus Christ. But notice they do not worship the beast.

No, no, no, no. And then he goes on to say in verse 10, if anyone is to be taken captive in captivity, he goes, if anyone is to be slain with a sword, with the sword, he must be slain. You know what this means? That there's a certain company of people whom God has actually marked out to be martyrs. Here in chapter six, right after the four horsemen, it says this, when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, come.

And I looked and behold a pale horse. And then verse nine, it says he opened the fifth seal. I saw under the altar, the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, Oh, sovereign, Holy Lord, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth. Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer. Notice now until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete who were to be killed as they themselves had been. What an interesting passage gives us real insight in as to what is happening in the spirit world with those who have gone before. Can they talk?

Yes. The soul before the resurrection takes on all the characteristics of the body. They can talk, they can be clothed. They have a sense of justice. They know who they are and they are waiting the time when justice will be brought. And God says just a little longer, just a little longer.

You wait. The day of justice is coming because there are still others who have to die for the faith and their number is not complete. So here we have worldwide martyrdom and then we have worldwide, a worldwide economic system. How is the beast going to get everyone to worship him and him alone? Can't there be certain pockets of people in far lands where nobody is bothering them and they are still worshiping the living and the true God and they're not being martyred?

Is that possible? Well, actually not. And it all has to do with economics. You'll notice it says in Revelation, we're still in chapter 13, the second beast. And really, as I mentioned, he takes the role of the Holy Spirit trying to get the whole world to worship the beast.

And this is his responsibility. And the way in which he does it is there is a mark that has to be had if you want to do business. You'll notice it says he causes those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. That's verse 15. And also it causes all both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave to be marked on the right hand or on the forehead so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark that is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. Let the one who is understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man and that number is 666.

And throughout church history, all kinds of ideas have been given as to what it means. But this much we can be clear about. There's a time coming when you will not be able to buy or sell. You won't be able to go into jewel and buy a loaf of bread. You'll not be able to make any monetary transaction at all.

So you're going to be starving. You're going to be put to death unless you are willing to take the mark of the beast. And the mark of the beast in the forehead or the hand could be a computer chip. And as a result of this, all the world is not only unified religiously, it is unified economically. And that is very important. Let me tell you how I think this might come to place. I was talking with a man who has responsibility, his organization, one of the largest investment companies in all the world.

And he's a Christian man. And he said, you know, there is this talk about the American dollar no longer being the means of international currency. But he said, nobody really wants to go at the yen. The euro is in trouble. He said, we're still the best house on the block in a very difficult, dilapidated neighborhood.

Like a friend of mine said to me, we're still the best horse in the glue factory. So obviously, the American dollar is still going to have its strength. And then about two weeks ago, I came across some financiers who are giving advice to the G20.

And I found something very interesting. They are proposing three things that they think have to be done immediately. One is to have an international currency that is created. You know, since it's going to be international, let's just call it the int. That's a new currency. And what happens is, in Europe, if you have the euro, it might take two euros to buy an int.

It might take five dollars to buy an int. But the value of our dollar and the value of the money of other countries, therefore, on the world market has to be determined as to how many ints you can buy. And you need them to do worldwide trade.

Well, in the end, people will begin to think to themselves, why should I even have American money? Given the global nature of our economy, why don't we just all have ints? And in this way, you would have a one-world system, even with a one-world currency.

And you couldn't buy or sell. And of course, maybe it's a cashless society and the computers do it all so that there's no underhanded trades, et cetera. Everything is public and everything is controlled. That's the first suggestion that they are making to the G20. The second is that all banks, particularly in America, be nationalized and be strictly controlled.

And the third is that there be an audit of the United States, England, and Switzerland, so that finally all the finances of the world are known so that they can be properly regulated. However, it comes about, the fact is that economy, the economy is going to be the means by which people will be forced into a one-world religion. You either have the mark of the beast and you play ball with him and thereby give your allegiance to him or you and your family starve. You will be put to death.

That's the way it will someday be. Now, the question that I need to ask you is, at what point would you lose your faith in a situation like that? Would you look around and you see that nobody, very few people, are not playing ball with the Antichrist? Very few people are willing to stand. Would you be able to stand? Would I be able to stand? And I'm the first to tell you, I don't know. I think that it is very easy to be critical of others and to think to ourselves, oh yes, we'll be strong.

But you never know what you will do. I saw a program on PBS the other day that deeply, deeply disturbed me. In Afghanistan, where you have opium dealers, they gave some money to farmers to grow opium. And then the government came and destroyed their crops. And in order to get their money back, since the farmers had no crops now, they decided to take the children of these farmers, little seven-year-old girl. And it is known that they abused these children. In fact, the report said that they live in a country where there is this kind of abuse routinely of young girls and therefore nothing really is said about it.

But everybody knows that it's happening. What would you do if somebody came to you and said, you either deny Jesus Christ or we will take your children and they will be sexually abused and starved out? Would you then still be faithful to Jesus? Before I answer that, I need to get now to the main text that I have in mind, and that's the 12th chapter of Revelation.

Being a logical German, we're going backwards from chapter 13 to chapter 12. The question is, how did the Christians during the tribulation period maintain their faith against horrendous opposition? What you have in chapter 12 is the rage of Satan. Satan is so angry, and let me give you some reasons why he is angry. He's angry, first of all, because he wasn't able to kill Jesus when Jesus was on earth. The woman that's referred here in the 12th chapter is actually Israel, the nation Israel, but the woman within the nation Israel who gave birth to Jesus is Mary. And you'll notice this is in verse four, and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore her child, he might devour it. You see, Satan was standing by, Jesus was born, and he was trying to use Herod to kill Jesus. But lo and behold, Jesus did die according to God's will and purpose and was raised again and actually taken to heaven. And you'll notice it says she gave birth to a male child who is the one who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and then the woman, Israel, flees into the desert during the tribulation period, et cetera.

But notice this. Satan is very angry because he thought that he could kill a little baby born in Bethlehem. When he was born, he was unable to do that. Reason number one. Reason number two is he's thrown out of heaven. Verse seven, now there was a war in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of Jesus Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before the throne. And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.

For they love not their life, even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you on the earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows his time is short. People debate as to when this happened.

Many of us believe it's probably during the tribulation period. But notice there's three reasons why Satan is full of rage. Number one, he couldn't kill Christ when Christ was here on earth. Number two, he's thrown out of heaven. He's humiliated. He no longer has direct access to God where he can accuse us before the throne, as evidently he did in the book of Job. And third, he knows his time is short.

Three and a half years and then hell awaits. Now, if he was really wise, he wouldn't oppose God because then he knows that his suffering in hell would be just a little less. But he can't help himself. He so hates God and God's people that as long as he still has existence on this planet before he is turned into hell forever, he's going to do all the possible damage he can.

Woe to the earth for the rage of the devil is there. But how did the saints overcome him? Where did they get the strength to stand in the midst of such opposition? Where does a Christian get the strength to stand for Christ even if nobody in his whole district is standing for Christ? And he has to die alone as a believer.

Where is that strength? They overcame him, number one, because of the blood of the lamb. The fact is that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, his crucifixion was a tremendous victory. He was buying out from this earth people from every tribe and tongue and nation and was purchasing them. And there was nothing that the devil could do about it. The devil tried to oppose him, but he couldn't. In the presence of Jesus, he had to stand down, give in, and let Jesus do it. The resurrection proved the fact that Jesus triumphed over death and that Jesus ascended into heaven, totally victorious, above all principalities and all powers and every name that is named. And Jesus is there today with all authority under his feet. That's why he told us we could evangelize. Unto me, all authority is given. At every level, Jesus Christ conquered Satan.

He disarmed him. And he guaranteed the fact that for Satan, hell would be forever. It would be just, but it would be a place of torment. Don't ever think that Dante was right, that there are going to be demons in hell tormenting people. Listen, in hell Satan is not the tormentor. He is the tormented. He's the one who is going to justly suffer for his evil. And he knows it and he's angry. And he accuses us still before the father. Look at that Christian.

He believes in Jesus. Look at the war with lust that he lost this past week. Look at the war with anger. Look at the hypocrisy. And remember, don't ever argue with the devil when he comes and shows you your sin because you will lose and he knows a lot more about you than you don't even want to know. So don't argue with him.

What do you do? You go to the blood of Jesus and say that all of this may be true, but before the throne, my shirt, he stands, my name is written on his hands. He died for me. His blood was shed. That's the ground of my victory. The devil is defeated. His accusations have no power against us because Jesus paid it all. My friend today, this is Pastor Lutzer.

I love that. I love the fact that even in the Old Testament, God says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. The blood was for God. And when Jesus died on the cross and shed his blood, he gave us the victory in this life and the ability to withstand the wiles of the devil. May God grant that to us. This is one of the last times we are making this series available, Famines, Deserts, and Other Hard Places.

For a gift of any amount, it can be yours so that you can have it permanently. Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com.

That's RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9330. As I emphasized, ask for Famines, Deserts, and Other Hard Places. We here at Running to Win exist to put resources into your hands and into your homes that help you in the Christian life. You'll discover over a period of time, we preach on a number of different topics, many of them relevant to our culture. But always, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that is most transforming that we present to people. Thank you so much in advance for helping us.

I like to think of the many people who are holding our hands and saying, let us run this race together. Thank you so very much. But for this sermon series, what you do is go to RTWOffer.com. As you might already have guessed, RTWOffer is all one word. RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. It's time once again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Not many people take the time to read the many genealogies in the Bible, but Dorid is not among them. She asks, why does the Bible only mention the ancestors of Joseph and not Mary in Matthew chapter 1? Well, that's a very good question, but you know, in ancient Jewish times, what happened is the genealogy, the passing on of the inheritance, so to speak, always was through the Father. I think what you'll discover, and there are scholars who question this and there's debates back and forth, but when you get to the Gospel of Luke, you find a genealogy that seems to be Mary's genealogy. But the point is, in the book of Matthew, that Jesus has the right to be Israel's king because he has come through the line of David and the other personages that are mentioned there in that genealogy. And also, this is the case because in the Gospel of Matthew, you will see that Joseph is Jesus Christ's legal father. Though the genealogy makes it very clear that Joseph is not Jesus Christ's biological father, it does not use the same expression. It talks about Jesus being the son of Mary, and then it goes on to talk about Joseph. But the Scriptures being so accurate make this distinction. Jesus was not the biological son of Joseph. So you reread that in the Gospel of Matthew and you'll discover that, and as I mentioned, it is really in the Jewish community.

The lineage was always through the males of the family line. Thank you, Dorrit, for your question, and thank you, Dr. Lutzer, for that explanation. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. The Great Tribulation can be traced to the rage of Satan, who wants one last chance to wreak havoc before facing doom, one last chance to shake his fist at God and the people of God, and one last chance to destroy the faith of those who believe in Jesus. Next time, how to overcome our mortal enemy, the devil. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.