(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all find our seats. As you find a seat, go ahead, pick up a song book. Turn to song number 288 as our first song, I Am Resolved, song number 288. Let's all stand together for this first song if you're able. Song number 288, I Am Resolved. All together nice and strong on that first verse. I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delight. Things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have allured my side. I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee. I am resolved to go to the Savior, leaving my sin and strife. He is the true one, He is the just one. I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee. I am resolved to follow the Savior, faithful and true each day. Heed what He saith, do what He willeth, He is the living way. I will hasten to Him, Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee. Amen. Wonderful singing. Let's start off our service with a word of prayer. Dear Lord God, Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us this day that we can come to your house, Lord, in fellowship with our brothers and sisters here, Lord. I thank you for every precious soul that's in this building this morning, Lord, and I thank you for giving us another day that we can come hear the preaching of your word, Lord, and serve you. And I ask that you would please just bless the service, Lord. Please fill us with your spirit as we sing these hymns unto you, Lord, that would be pleasing to your ears. And please, of course, fill Passover here with your spirit as he preaches your word unto us. Give us your spirit also in the congregation that we may be verified. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Please turn your song books to song number 281. Song number 281, just a few pages back in your song book, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. Song number 281, all together nice and strong on that first verse. Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Let me at a groan of mercy find a sweet relief, kneeling there in deep contrition. Help my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Trusting only in Thy merit, would I seek Thy grace. Heal my wounded, broken spirit. Save me by Thy grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort, more than life to me. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. All right, great singing. Thank you for being here this morning. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Just a few announcements before we sing our next song, which will be 112. If you want to get that ready in your song books, Be Still My Soul 112. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand. One of the ushers can get one for you. Some important information on there. Brother Geo needs one right here. Our Sunday morning service is at 10 30 Sunday evening at 5 p.m. and then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. Currently going through the book of Second Samuel, so hope to see you during our midweek service. You see there the soul winning teams and times, the list of expecting mothers. If you can keep them in prayer and important reminders there, please make sure that you are supervising your children in the building. No children should be in the mother-baby room alone without their parents and of course no men allowed in the mother-baby room or in the women's fellowship restroom. So please keep that in mind and respect the rules please. Barstow Soul Winning is on Monday, January 30th, which is a week from tomorrow and so I want to encourage you to be a part of that. If you want to participate, we meet here at 11 30 for lunch. We'll head out to go soul winning in Barstow for a couple of hours and then we'll have dinner out there. If you're interested in participating, you can see brother Ulysses Hernandez for more details about that. You can either catch a ride with us or you can meet us up there. He has all the details for you. Ladies prayer breakfast is coming up on Saturday, February 4th and then Miss Angela's baby shower is on Sunday, February 12th. If you have any questions about that, you can see Mrs. French's skiing so please keep that in mind and then the Belize missions trip is on Saturday, February 26th through Sunday, March 5th. Please be in prayer over that that we get a lot of people saved. We're able to collect a lot of information and it'll be just a fruitful trip this this time around. Of course, every time we've gone there, it's been pretty fruitful but this time around we have a new strategy that we want to not only get people saved but we want to collect a lot of information so that when we go back in November, we could potentially hold a preaching service over there and so we want to contact the converts there. Keep that in prayer. No food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. Make sure you're not loitering in the four-year fellowship hall during the preaching service and then a quiet time is this afternoon from 3 p.m to 4 15 throughout the whole building and please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. Okay and that is pretty much it. Let's go ahead and sing our next song 112 be still my soul song number 112. Song number 112 be still my soul. All together nice and strong on that first verse. Be still my soul the Lord is on my side bear patiently the cross of grief or pain lead to thy God to order and provide in every change be faithful will remain be still my soul lead friend through thorny ways leads to a joyful end be still my soul thy God doth undertake to guide the future as he has the past past thy hope by confidence let nothing shake all now mysterious shall be bright and last be still my soul still know his voice who ruled them while he dwelt below oh be still my soul the hour is hastening on when we shall be forever with the Lord when joys restored be still my soul when changed and tears are passed all safe and blessed we shall meet at last amen wonderful singing at this time the ushers will come forward to collect the offering you can turn your bibles to matthew chapter 23 so so so so matthew chapter number 23 the bible reads then spake jesus to the multitude and to his disciples saying the scribes and Pharisees sit in mosesy all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not ye after their works for they say and do not for they for they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers but all their works they do for to be seen of men they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats in synagogues and greetings in the markets and be called of men rabbi rabbi but be not ye called rabbi for one is your master even christ and all ye are brethren and call them and your father upon the earth for one is your father which is in heaven now there be ye called masters for one is your master even christ he that is greatest among you shall be your servant and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted but woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men for ye neither go in yourselves neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayer therefore you shall receive the greater damnation woe unto you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you can pass sea and land to make one proselyte and what he has made you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves woe unto you ye blind guides which say whosoever shall swear by the temple it is nothing but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple he is a debtor ye fools and blind for whether is greater the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold and whosoever shall swear by the altar it is nothing but whosoever swereth by the gift that is upon it he is guilty ye fools and blind for whether is greater the gift or the altar that sanctified the gift whosoever therefore shall swear by the altar swereth by it and by all things thereon whosoever shall swear by the temple swereth by it and by him that dwelleth therein neither shall swear by heaven swereth by the throne of god and by him that sitteth thereon woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law judgment mercy and faith these ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone ye blind guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter but within they are full of extortion and excess thou blind Pharisee cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter the outside of them may be clean also woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you're like unto whited sepulchres which indeed appear beautiful outward but within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men but within you're full of hypocrisy and iniquity woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because you build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous and you say if we had been in the days of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets fill ye up then the measure of your fathers ye serpents ye generation of vipers how can you escape the damnation of hell wherefore behold i send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes and some of them ye shall kill and crucify and some of them you shall scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous able under the blood of zechariah son of barakas whom you slew between the temple and the altar verily i say unto you all these things shall come upon this generation oh jerusalem jerusalem thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would i've gathered thy children together even as a hen gathers her chickens into her wings and ye would not behold your house is left unto you desolate for i say unto you you shall not see me henceforth till you shall say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the lord let's pray dear lord god i would just thank you for everything that you bless us with thank you for the church and for our pastor just ask that you would be with him now please film with your holy spirit and please bless the preaching of your word and in Jesus name we pray amen amen okay we're in matthew chapter 23 this morning look down at your bibles at verse 34 it says wherefore behold i send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes and some of them you shall kill and crucify and some of them you shall scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous able unto the blood of zecharias the son of barakas whom ye slew between the temple and the altar this morning i want to preach on the subject of martyrs martyrs in the bible i want to talk about those who have died for their faith and what the term martyr essentially is referring to when the bible uses the term of course martyr is talking about an individual who is killed for their religious belief either because they advocate for a system of beliefs or because they refuse to renounce and reject that particular system of beliefs and although there are many examples of martyrs in the bible the term itself is actually only used three times twice in the book of revelation and then once in the book of acts but what's interesting is the fact that the english word martyr is actually a transliteration of the word witness in the greek new testament so when you see that word uh witness in the greek new testament often the term there that is used is martyr for example you have john chapter one where the bible talks about john the baptist it says there was a man sent from god whose name was john the same came for a witness to bear witness of that light that all men through him might believe he was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light and anytime that word witness is used in those verses it's actually the term used there is martyr okay and this obviously comes no surprise due to the fact that a martyr is essentially one who is given their life for their witness of jesus christ right and this is why when you read the book of revelation for example in chapter six uh when referring to the tribulation john sees the vision he says i saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of god and for the testimony which they held saying how long oh lord holy and true does thou not judge and avenge or blood on them that dwell on the earth they're essentially referring to saints who died for their faith because of their they're preaching god's word or they are essentially believers and so they testify to the truth and they were killed for that very reason revelation chapter 20 you don't have to turn there says in verse number four when talking about the millennial reign of jesus christ says and i saw thrones and they that sat upon them and judgment was given unto them and i saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of jesus and for the word of god and which had not worshiped the beast neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with christ a thousand years now we obviously know that there's been martyrs throughout history in different religions different sects of christianity and unfortunately you know history likes to highlight those who are not saved right you think of joan of arc who was burned at the stake and all these heretics who essentially probably were worthy of death because of their heresy their blasphemy and a lot of these people are honored they're exalted in the eyes of the world and you know obviously the world honors them and thinks that they're great spiritual leaders but you know the truth of the matter is is that they don't really matter in the eyes of god because of the fact that they weren't saved they died for a false system of beliefs and they carry no value in god's eyes no matter how great their sacrifice was in the eyes in the eyes of the world and in fact first corinthians 13 and verse 3 tells us and though i bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though i give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing the bible says so obviously we are taught of god to love and truly christians are the only ones who really have that true love that this world needs and so if a person sacrifices themselves they give to the poor mother teresa they are burned at the stake like joan of ark doesn't really matter doesn't profit anything because they're not even saved okay it's not true charity they do those things to exalt themselves they're doing it essentially to earn their way into heaven okay so those types of martyrs doesn't matter in the eyes of god they carry no value when it comes to the subject of eternity martyrdom if you think about it is actually one of the reasons why a lot of christians throughout history don't want to preach the bible you know they don't want to stand up for truth they don't want to preach the word of god they don't want to divulge what they really believe because they're afraid of persecution now obviously if you think about it you know there's a lot of tears of persecution right there's persecution that you get where people just revile you they rail on you they cuss you out at the door or whatever that's a form of persecution but then you know there's persecution where you're resisting unto blood in other words you're beaten for the cause of christ you're physically harmed or your life is actually taken away okay that would be like the top tier of persecution and a lot of times christians you know they don't want to get involved in zealous beliefs or advocate for zealous beliefs because they're afraid that they're going to fall into that top tier of getting martyred or something like that they're afraid of dying but the truth of the matter is is that you know if christians don't live for christ they're probably not going to die for him either you understand so even if they're placed in that situation you know they'll probably kowtow and compromise and apologize and you know they're not going to be killed for their faith okay but the truth of the matter is is that jesus throughout the word of god throughout the new testament specifically during his ministry warned us of martyrdom because it is something that's real it is something that's going to come down the pipeline especially during the tribulation the bible says in john 16 verse 1 these things have i spoken unto you that you should not be offended now this doesn't mean like offended as in like oh you know i'm mad because someone said that i look ugly or something like that that offends me or something the word offense there is often referring to a stumbling block and so he's saying that you know i'm writing these things unto you and he's referring to the persecution they're going to receive because i'm telling you this beforehand so when the persecution does come it doesn't become a stumbling block to you he denied the faith or you deny jesus christ because you're afraid or something like that he says that they they shall put you out of the synagogues yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth god's service there's going to come a time when believers even in the end times or believers so called should i say people who are not saved but think that they're saved they're going to be delivering up other christians because they think they think that they're doing god's service and obviously we know that according to the bible the god that they're believing in is the anti-christ matthew chapter 10 verse 21 says that brother shall deliver up brother to death and the father the child and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death this is martyrdom right matthew 24 verse 9 says they shall deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and he shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake so those are only on a couple verses to show that jesus christ is obviously promising us hey it might get to that point where you have to actually die for your faith where you will be confronted you will be afflicted you will be harmed even to the point where someone's going to try to take your life that is something that is going to be a reality uh in the end times now let me say this is that you know i was looking up on the internet just like martyrs right like what do people think martyrs are in the bible and pretty much every article that i saw put steven as the first martyr so steven was the very first martyr and you know he's the first one and of course we know that he was a martyr he died for his faith but that's actually not true at all okay because it's silly to think that you know the old testament passed and you have all these prophets and all these men of god and just no one died for their faith until steven well first of all you have john the baptist right but even before that you know people are implying that the message was somehow different back then or something you know the message has never changed and the repercussions of the message have not changed either okay in fact look at matthew 23 and verse 34 where we started jesus christ says here in verse 35 when he's rebuking excuse me verse 35 when he's rebuking the pharisees the jews he says that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth so he's holding them accountable for all of the martyrs throughout history in the history of israelis he says from the blood of righteous able to the blood of zecharias the son of barakas whom ye slew between the temple and the altar now there's a couple things i want to mention in this regard okay first of all if he's talking about the pharisees who are living in his time how are they responsible for the blood of able and the blood of zecharias well the same way that the jews today are responsible for the blood of jesus christ right because they said his blood be on us and on our children and so obviously you know they are previous to that we see that the bible tells us or jesus christ was saying that they were the sons of the people who killed the prophets because they were willingly admitting if we had been in the days of our fathers we would have not partaken in the blood of the prophets and jesus christ said basically you're basically a witness unto yourself showing that you are descendants of those who kill the prophets you are associating yourself spiritually with those who martyred the men of god who martyred the wise men and the prophets in times past now here's the interesting thing is that jesus says you're responsible for the blood of able and the blood of zecharias now coincidentally it's what a to z now that would only work in english right so he's basically saying you're responsible for every single prophet from a to z now that's a coincidence but it's a pretty awesome coincidence in the english language because obviously a to z wouldn't work in greek but it does work in the english language and it does carry across the point that essentially you know the jews of this time he's like you know you're responsible for the blood of these people because you hated the prophets you're responsible for a to z go to genesis chapter four if you will genesis chapter number four genesis chapter number four now let's talk about some some people who have died in the old testament before we get to genesis chapter four let's give some honorable mentions right and and here's the thing we're going to look at some pretty prominent martyrs in the bible and the only reason we're going to mention them is because they're actually mentioned by name but here's the thing is that many prophets have died in times past that were not named okay just nameless prophets who serve god and who knows maybe they're some of the most hardcore believers in all of history but the bible says that they were that the world was not worthy of them okay they were just completely nameless they were named anonymous but god used them in a great way think about the the prophets that jezabel killed right the bible says in first kings chapter 18 verse number four for it was so when jezabel cut off the prophets of the lord that obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by 50 in a cave and fed them with bread and water so this is insinuating that jezabel doesn't say how many but she essentially cut off a lot of men of god prophets of the lord it's not saying that she banned them that she exiled them i believe this is referring to the fact that she actually killed them and i think that's proved by the fact that she was threatening elijah with death as well romans chapter 11 verse 3 says lord they have killed thy prophets and dig down thine altars and i am left alone and they seek my life hebrews 11 verse 36 says and others had true uh excuse me others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments he's kind of going through all of the persecution that believers in times past have experienced people were made fun of they were scourged they were beaten bonds and imprisonment meaning they were thrown into prison it says in verse 37 they were stone listen to this they were sawn asunder now what does that mean well a saw okay you guys know what that means asunder means apart so basically you know they took some of these believers and they they tore them apart with the saw okay uh some would even you know they history says that it was isaiah that this is referring to but there's actually no proof of that okay and i think it's silly that like when it gives these um these the way that these people died these prophets died that somehow it's like okay well it has to be one of the major prophets or one of the minor prophets or someone that's named sometimes just someone is just not named at all i mean even after the bible is written uh you know years later there's plenty of prophets who died that we just don't know about but they're famous in the eyes of god though god knows who they are they were famous in god's eyes it says they were stone they were sawn asunder they were tempted were slain with the sword they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth and so over and over again we see that there's martyrs that have existed throughout the old testament they suffered a lot for the word of god even if they were nameless you know they're known in god's eyes so let's talk about these prominent martyrs that are named first and foremost the first martyr being who able and so he's not only the first martyr you guys want to turn on the uh the ac it's it's really warm in here from my perspective i don't know from your perspective but it's super warm in here okay crank it he's not only the first martyr but he's literally the first person to go to heaven think about that you know he's just like he gets there and there's like he's the only one you know i think of that that that that meme of john travilda where he's like in heaven he's kind of like looking around like and the angels are like you're gonna be here for a really long time because you know there's a whole i mean this is the beginning of history essentially okay look at genesis chapter four verse number one says and adam knew eve his wife and she conceived and bear cain and said i have gotten a man from the lord she again bear his brother able and able was a keeper of sheep but cain was a tiller of the ground and in the process of time it came to pass that cain brought to the fruit of the ground an offering unto the lord so cain he brings a vegetarian offering to god okay it says in verse four and able he also brought to the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof and the lord had respect unto able and to his offering what does that mean when he had respect unto him he actually recognized the sacrifice that able made so just as we were talking about martyrs throughout history that have died that had made that sacrifice well the only one that god has respect for are those who are actually christian saved and they're dying for a righteous cause you see both cain and able made a sacrifice but god didn't recognize cain's sacrifice because it's a vegetarian sacrifice it's not something that god designated whereas able sacrifice actually signified the coming christ so the fact that he offered the sacrifice shows us that he was a saved person because the animal sacrifices of the old testament was essentially a manifestation of their faith to show hey jesus is coming one day to atone for my sins physically in his body okay that's why god had respect unto it and this is why folks you know we as christians don't need to respect all religions right you know who to respect the actual sacrifice of jesus christ it's like oh you know we should respect all religions well to respect all religions would be to imply that we have to you know give credence to other forms of belief aside from the word of god to say that there's other books that are on the same level of god's word or to even imply that there are other deities that are just as important if not more than jesus christ themselves okay so no you don't have to respect our religions and obviously we want to win other people from other religions to christ but the fact that we want to win them is proof that we believe that christianity is superior to every other religion right so it's like well you should you shouldn't disrespect other religions well why shouldn't i if those other religions are taking people to hell if they're teaching a perverse form of doctrine of the godhead of the trinity of salvation we shouldn't respect that and you know what cain was not respected of god you know god didn't look at it like hey well you get an a for effort cain you know what i mean you know you had the best intentions oh you know i know what you meant kind of thing no he didn't even recognize him okay verse five but into cain into his offering he had not respect and cain was very wroth and his countenance fell wroth basically means he's angry he's wrathful and it obviously showed on his face okay because his counseling was fallen verse six says and the lord said unto cain why art thou wroth and why is that countenance fallen if thou do as well shall that not be accepted what does god say you know obviously this shows that you did wrong right because if you did right if you actually offered the proper sacrifice then i would have respect for you as well as what he's stating okay what he's implying that he says and unto these shall be his desires desire and thou shall rule over him and cain talked with his brother able i'm sorry cain talked with able his brother and it came to pass when they were in the field that cain rose up against able his brother and slew him and the lord said unto cain where is able thy brother and he said i know not am i my brother's keeper and he said what hast thou done the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground go to hebrew chapter 11 if you would hebrew chapter 11 so we see that the first martyr is able and able essentially died for his faith not necessary because he was standing for righteous truth but because there's people out there who hated what he stood for right it's not necessary he was taking like a hard stance or anything he was just being a christian he was being a believer he was doing what god told him to do and cain did not like that so what does this teach us here it teaches us that you don't really have to do much to be persecuted right you just literally have to be a christian believe the bible do your duty as a christian as a believer go to church and you will get some persecution now where does that persecution typically come from well we would think from the world from unsaved people but you know what often it's from the brother now obviously cain was not saved okay because the bible says that he was of that wicked one so this would imply the way we can apply it today is that much of the persecution that we get from other so-called christians are christians who think that they're saved but they're not most of the hate that we get for our beliefs for our practices are from other so-called believers who have a false gospel they believe in a false version of the bible because here's the thing folks you say why are they so mad well they're mad because we attack their doctrines by teaching the right doctrine because you can't teach the right doctrine without showing what the wrong doctrine is right you got to compare it to something you know you you tell someone who just newly got saved that you know it's not a pre-tribulation rapture that the rapture is after the tribulation a brand new new babe in christ will readily receive that i'm saying makes sense makes sense who are the ones who persecute others for that it's the so-called believers and obviously there are other there are actually believers who believe that doctrine but you know what the the architects of that doctrine were not saved like john nelson darby ci scofield these these reprobates you know the ruckmanites for example they're the ones who attack us the most right why because we're attacking a doctrine that they hold to near and dear you think about christians who hold to a repent of your sins doctrine you know they're the ones who attack the most you think of those who you know supposedly believe in the bible but they use an esv they use an niv these are the individuals that will persecute able the most because of the fact that they are a false form of christianity they have a form of godliness but they actually deny the power thereof okay and they are of the wicked one and i would even say that in the end times the persecution that we're going to get the most is from believers so-called not from actual safe people just people who claim to be saved people who claim to be christians mainstream christianity as we would call it right which we would say probably the vast majority of them are not saved you know you go out the door and you're preaching the gospel you talk about how jesus went to hell for three days and three nights virtually every person i've talked to with the exceptions of maybe a few will readily receive that they won't even like bat an eye at it they just nod and they're just like sounds good the ones who have a problem with there are like the bible colleges right the fundamental baptists of yesteryear they're the ones who have an issue with that and they're the ones who will make a big deal about that whole situation and call us heretics or whatever and it's just like you know you might want to take a look in the mirror though you know you're calling us heretics for believing that jesus christ went to hell for three days and three nights and resurrected you know that his soul was not left in hell neither did his flesh she corruption but you support jews who believe that jesus christ not only went to hell but it's still there i mean think about that for a minute you know we teach what the bible says that he came out three days later he went there essentially to pay as our substitute right whereas they support and advocate a false religion that believes strongly that jesus christ not only went to hell but he went there for being a heretic for practicing uh magic and that he's burning his own excrement and he will always be there okay so you know kind of hypocritical if you ask me but what we see is that the majority of persecution that we will get is from kane okay the ones who want us dead is kane look at hebrews chapter uh what i have you turn hebrews 11 verse number four it says here in verse number four by faith able offered unto god a more excellent sacrifice than kane by which he obtained witness that he was righteous god testifying of his gifts and by it he being dead yet speaketh the bible says so we see that his sacrifice bore witness that he was a believer okay because he obviously was doing it with the intention of showing that jesus christ was going to come one day to sacrifice himself for the sins of the world and the bible says that even though he was dead his blood was crying out from the ground right doesn't mean like literally but you know with god you said what was it crying out it was crying out for vengeance okay he wanted revenge whereas the bible says that jesus christ blood speaketh better things than that of able jesus christ blood cries out redemption so whereas able cries out revenge jesus blood cries out redemption okay but we see here that the first martyr is able himself who's killed by kane for his envy for his hatred towards him for his uh false religion of offering a vegetarian sacrifice okay you know jesus christ uh did not come as a tree okay did not come as a as some vegetarian tree or whatever you know obviously we we know that he uh he compares himself to the vine but the the vast majority of the allegories that we see in the bible is that he's the lamb of god who should take away the sins of the world because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins okay the bible says in first john chapter three in verse number nine you don't have to turn there it says whosoever is born of god does not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of god this is referring to the spirit in this the children of god are manifest in the children of the devil whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of god neither he that loveth not his brother for this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another not as cain who was of that wicked one and slew his brother wherefore slew he him because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous you know this reminds me of people that i meet on social media sometimes who come under the cloak and guise of being a believer a christian and they're always like hey brother but then they believe some crazy false doctrine and they're just like why are you attacking john macarthur he's a brother in christ or he is a believer and just like no he's not you know why do you attack the lgbt crew the bible says to love your brother i'm like that there's they're not my brethren okay they're as much a brother unto me as cain was to able i guess right and so able was killed for his faith he was martyred for his faith go to second chronicles 24 if you would and he was martyred by his own brother and you know the bible tells us in the end times that brother shall deliver up brother unto death you know the end times are going to be some of the most devastating times for all of mankind but more specifically of course for christians because we're going to experience betrayal at its highest tier where family members are going to give up family members brother against brother you know mother-in-law against daughter-in-law although you would think that now we're in the tribulation because that's very common you know you don't need you don't need the antichrist for that one okay it's just essentially implying that you know the stuff's going to hit the fan okay to the point where people who claim to love you and be your brother and all these things you know they're going to be the ones who are turning on you the most that's why for me you know obviously i have blood brothers and i have blood sisters but the truth of the matter is is that you guys are my brothers and sisters in christ believers who are going in the right direction who are serving god you know who are actually doing god's will these are the people who i consider my family amen because there's people who are blood brothers and blood sisters but you know they're not serving god some of them are not even saved some of them mock jesus christ they mock the word of god they make a mockery of our beliefs you know my loyalty is to jesus christ my loyalty is to the word of god and yeah even above we say isn't blood thicker than water yeah jesus christ blood is thicker than the water that i share with my you know blood brothers my biological brothers and sisters you know that's just the way it is that's the way it should be and you know that's the kind of loyalty that jesus christ expects for you from you from me from you from all christians like well you know but we should still be kind to them i'm all for being kind and and being respectable but there comes a point where some certain family members cross the line my friends you know and let me just say this sometimes they cross the line because they want to see how you're going to react when you cross the line see if you're a little compromiser you know well they'll blaspheme and they'll say certain things to kind of see oh okay he's one of those christians she's one of those christians they won't say nothing when i when i mention jesus christ and mock him and and blaspheme and say god d a m n and all these things and see how you react to that you know if you don't react to it then you'll be like okay he's he's a compromiser then we can say this around him folks when that happens you should be like hey i don't use that kind of language we don't we don't blaspheme the name of the lord here i'm a believer i'm a christian and i find that offensive okay so either wash out your mouth with soap or i ain't coming to this barbecue the next time you invite me and by the way put away the beers too put away the beers it's like oh you know well this is how we're gonna do it you're supposed to be family be like man i got my own family i'm taking off okay you say well you know cain's cool though you know what i mean i know he offered like a little vegetarian sacrifice but they're brothers doesn't matter okay you know god expects 100 loyalty and and not to choose others above him okay but let's look at the second martyr we're going to look at this morning is zechariah this is mentioned of course in matthew 23 when it talks about the blood of able to the blood of zechariah the son of barakas which here in second chronicles 24 he's the son of jehoiada but it's simply referring to his descendant okay barakaya is just like his grandfather he says in verse 20 the spirit of god came upon zechariah the son of jehoiada the priest which stood above the people and said unto them thus saith god why transgress he the commandments of the lord that he cannot prosper because he hath forsaken the lord he hath also forsaken you and they conspired against him and stone him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the lord thus joe asked the king remembered not the kindness of which joe his father had done to him but slew his son and when he died he said the lord look upon it and require it so we see that zechariah he's a preacher and why did he die because he called out the sins of the nation he basically said you're transgressing the commandments of god you're not going to prosper you've forsaken the lord and guess what he's forsaken you and do we see them just kind of repenting in ashes and sackcloth and getting right with god no they did what the jews would do in the new testament which is they killed him like instead of changing why don't we just change this voice by shutting up the voice okay so what do we learn from zechariah we learned that you know even if you are first of all we learn from able that all you have to do is be just a regular christian to be killed but we also see that when you preach on the sins of the nation it's going to take off a lot of people and it's going to want cause a lot of people to want to put you to death okay now this is true especially when it comes to the lgbtq which stands for let god burn them quickly right the hiv group out there you know when you start teaching you say why do you say that you're just bringing more persecution upon yourself i'll tell you why okay because of the fact that no matter what you say if you're nice or not they're still going to come at you twice as hard so why not go out with the bang you can say god bless you to them if you wanted to and they'll still want to kill you and rape your children that's just their nature they're implacable the bible says okay but when you call it out by the way you know not only not only did the sodomites attack you but even other believers attack you in fact when we got persecuted some of the people who were there persecuting us were other believers just want to smack them across the mouth what's wrong with you get on this side what are you doing with them but folks this is exactly what it is you say well what was zechariah preaching it was he preaching like you know in a foreign land no he was in israel he's in israel where you would expect the people of god to like say you know what this is the prophet of the lord he's right about this let's get right with god but instead they want to shut him up okay and of course they try to use the magistrate to turn on zechariah and they eventually do and they ended up killing him for preaching on the sins of the nation now this should not impede us from preaching the truth amen no matter what the consequences are no matter what type of persecution comes our way even if death comes our way we should be willing to stand up for the truth and not water it down not try to uh you know sugarcoat it and say well yeah the bible does say that but we are in the new testament well thank you for that observation i appreciate that observation but you know what 2013 is still something that god believes it's something that we believe is it's still something that god wants to enact even in this world even though the magistrates of this world do not want to enact it okay you know it's still law you know they still should be put to death that's what the word of god says because they've transgressed this land and you know when you preach against the united states of america oh good night you also get persecution from other christians okay so zechariah was stoned uh for his preaching against israel and the fact that they forsook the lord they conspired against them and they ended up killing him go to matthew chapter 14 if you would matthew chapter 14 able was killed for just simply doing a sacrifice something that's just regular showing us that we will be persecuted even by our brethren just by serving god you know we'll be persecuted by other christians oh why do you go to church so much oh why are you why are you going so many so much why do you go to that church all the time why do you i mean you don't even have to do much to get persecuted it's just like just be a christian oh why do you got to call yourself a baptist why don't you just call yourself a follower of jesus i am so sick and tired of christians you know being ashamed of not only the word of god but just god himself folks let me just say this when i die okay when i pass away i want people to flood post with me serving god put king james verses on there talk about the fact that i am in heaven i am with the lord jesus christ i am with those who i've led to the lord in times past you know don't put he's in a better place what are you talking about what better place say that i'm in heaven you know but you know these compromising christians use this lingo because they don't want to offend people who are not believers okay when people pass away you know folks forget that okay say you know hey bruce me he is in heaven and if you don't want to split hell wide open do what he did and believe on the lord jesus christ you know obviously it's going to be a time of mourning don't don't don't you know start celebrating or something like that however you know i i would hope that when i pass away i just have a long history and videos and pictures of me just serving god not involved in the world or anything like that okay but we need to just bring christian lingo back and not be ashamed to use christian language and christianese okay and use the term god and jesus christ well you know you're you're i feel like you're excluding people when you do that yeah yeah i am because i am the chosen people of god we are the chosen people of god we're a peculiar people we have the true god of the bible and it's better than buddha buddha's burning in hell right now it's better than the gods of the hindus it's better than you know whatever false god is out there all the gods of this world pale in comparison they don't even compare to the god of the bible so why not exalt the true god of the bible instead he is the legitimate the greatest god he is the creator of the universe he's my savior he's my rock and his name is jesus christ not yeshu or whatever hashu or whatever look at matthew 14 who's the next martyr that we see well john the baptist okay and john the baptist essentially was martyred for exactly the same reasons that zechariah was murdered okay verse one says at the time harry the tetrarch heard of the fame of jesus and said unto his servants this is john the baptist he has risen from the dead and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him for harry had laid hold on john and bound him and put him in prison for her wrote his sake his brother philip's wife for john said unto him it is not lawful for thee to have her and when he would have put him to death he feared the multitude because they counted him as a prophet so basically you know john the baptist looks at her and he's like you're committing adultery gavin newsom you you ran off with your secretary you wicked piece of trash you should even be a magistrate okay you're over here putting all these unlawful rules and stipulations on california you can't even follow the most basic of rules of not committing adultery now the teachers another teaches not thyself you know he wants to institute all these stupid laws but he can't even follow the most minuscule easy law to follow as a married person which is just to stay faithful but this is what john the baptist is doing to harry he's like it's not lawful you're committing adultery and thankfully you know it was john the baptist who said this right he says and verse number six so you know harry's afraid he's like man i want to kill this guy but he's a politician so he wants to please the people who like john he's like i can't put him to death because people are going to be voting and you know i need their votes and i need a republican vote you know i need to get the conservatives to vote for me or whatever so i got to please them and mention jesus every once in a while and you know two corinthians and all that it says in verse six but when harrod's birthday was kept the daughter of her wrote his dance before them and please harrod whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask and she being before instructed of her mother said give me here john baptist's head in a charger the king was sorry nevertheless for the oath's sake and then when she sat with him at me he commanded it to be given her and he sent and beheaded john in the prison and his head was brought in a charger and given to the damsel and she brought it to her mother and his disciples came and took up the body buried it and went and told jesus so he was killed he was beheaded for calling out the sins of the magistrates okay go to act chapter 7 if you would act chapter 7 and obviously we know that john the baptist he preached that's not the only thing he preached okay he preached the gospel but he also preached against the sins of the nation and you know sometimes people will will criticize churches like ours and say oh you know yeah you guys are getting persecuted for preaching against the jews or preaching against you know the sodomites but you know people in the bible get they got persecuted for preaching the gospel uh not john not zecharias i didn't hear the gospel in zecharias sermon i mean the gospel is a great message amen but zecharias didn't preach the gospel that wasn't what got him killed it was saying that the nation had forsaken god and god had forsaken the nation john the baptists were preaching on the adultery of harrod and that got them killed look at act chapter 7 we're going to look at stephen the first deacon now stephen was just ordained as a deacon okay think about this he's ordained as a deacon and it's just like a day into his job he just dies it was like hey the uh position is once again available but you know one thing we learned from stephen is that stephen was a great man of god prior to being a deacon because now he just became a deacon now he's just like all right now i'm gonna really preach her this is probably who he's always been he's in fact the reason he became a deacons because god's hand was on him and wanted to use him greatly and he was obviously a mighty preacher of the lord look at verse 54 it says in verse 54 of act chapter 7 when they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth let me give some context here stephen starts preaching to the jews okay and he's not telling them they're god's chosen people he's not preaching zionism he's letting them have it hard he's like you killed jesus and this is your fault i mean he he goes through the entire history of israel only to come back full circle to tell them this is your fault you're wicked you're the ones who killed jesus you know he's preaching replacement theology amen and this is essentially like his first sermon and when they heard this the bible says that they're cut to the heart and gnashed on him with their teeth what does it mean to be cut to the heart is like he's basically hitting them where it hurts you know some of you might know how that feels like i'm preaching on your particular sin or something you're just kind of like cut to the heart you're like he's talking about me well this is all israel they're just like he's talking about us okay and they gnash on them with their teeth what does it mean to gnash with their teeth they're just like now the only time that phrase is used pretty commonly in the bible is when when someone is weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth in hell now why are people weeping and wailing gnashing their teeth in hell because they're in pain so what does it show us it shows us that preaching hurts his preaching was so powerful so godly so uh hard that it just caused them a lot of pain why because they were guilty you see you shouldn't come to church to just feel good amen sometimes it's gonna hurt a little bit sometimes we need to call out particular sins and and talk about specific things and if you're guilty of that you're gonna be like this you're gonna be gnashing your teeth because you're angry because i talked about feminism because i talked about being effeminate because i talked about whatever being a loud mouth because i talked about you know gossip what video games because i talked about anime because i talked about whatever you know all these all these sins that people commit today alcohol smoking pop or an occasion you're like you're talking about me yeah does it hurt are you gnashing at me with your teeth a little bit so they're cut they're cut to the heart they're gnashing at him they're mad they're upset verse 55 but he referring to stephen being full of the holy ghost looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of god and jesus standing on the right hand of god and he said behold i see the heavens open the son of man standing on the right hand of god now put yourself in his shoes obviously this is a pretty scary sight if you have all these guys against you and they're all angry he probably has an inkling he's about to die right like okay that one did it i'm done okay but what did he do instead instead of focusing on the crowd where do you look to the heavens and when you look to the heavens you see the glory of god obviously in a for us today would be in a symbolic way of saying it you know when we focus on jesus when we focus on god and his word the persecutions of this world the trials of this world are small okay he says in verse 56 and said behold i see the heavens open the son of man standing on the right hand of god and they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord i mean they're acting childish they're just like they just can't take it anymore which is funny because the bible literally says that people will shut their ears right because they don't want to hear god's word now you may not literally do that here in the service when i'm preaching on your sin but you might want to tune me out sometimes like i'm not gonna listen to this part right here you know you might give me a little attitude or something like that you might you know look away look down or whatever because i'm talking about now everyone's gonna try to make eye contact with me like but these guys are stopping their ears and then they run upon them with one accord verse 58 and cast them out of the city and stone him and the witnesses laid there down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was saw who let her be of course the apostle paul and they stoned stephen calling upon god and saying lord jesus received my spirit and he kneeled down and cried with a lot of voice lord lay not this sin to their charge and when he had when he had said this he fell asleep so why did stephen die he died for preaching against the jews why did my channel die at 112 000 subscribers for preaching against the jews my friends that was against the sodomites too but i mean they're kind of one and the same sometimes you know but hey in the world in which we live when we preach against the jews and the wickedness of the jews they would try to shut you up as soon as possible okay and it's not like you know i was i mean i preached many sermons about them from this pulpit from my channel but it was at the red hot preaching conference that i mentioned something and some jew or actually some hater of god who's a sodomite was on there contacted the adl that jewish organization and they're the ones who got me shut down okay they wrote that article or whatever and then i got strikes and then bye-bye channel okay but what we see here is that when you preach against the jews that's where the real persecution sometimes comes okay because you know they run a lot of the world okay go to act chapter 12 if you would act chapter 12 now i'm gonna i'm gonna tie a lot of this in at the very end as far as like the martyrdom and why they were put to death why they were killed for their faith we obviously know from a practical perspective on the on the side of the haters the murderers we know why they were killed but why did god allow them to die okay look at act chapter 12 verse number one we'll just briefly talk about this it says now about the time Herod the king stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church and he killed James the brother of john with the sword so this is briefly mentioned but James who's the brother of john uh he was he was slain by Herod and you know this is essentially a fulfillment of the prophecy that he was going to be baptized with the baptism that Jesus Christ was baptized with he was going to drink of that same cup of suffering and that was the fulfillment of that turn with me if you would to revelation chapter two revelation chapter two if you would revelation chapter two and look at verse number three it says in revelation two verse number three i know thy works and where thou dwellest even where satan's seat is and thou holdest fast my name and has not denied my faith even in those days where in Antipas was my faithful martyr who was slain among you where satan dwellest so we don't know too much about Antipas other than the fact he was a faithful martyr and he dwelt where satan was dwelling right now what does that mean that the believers here are where satan's seat is and what does it mean that he was martyred where satan dwelleth okay where is satan's home because you know you ask people in the world they're like oh hell you know he's in hell but satan's not in hell if we're to compare scripture with scripture it would point to one location known as a what synagogue okay in fact it's called the synagogue of god it's called the synagogue of satan so what this is implying is that this particular group of believers this church okay was conveniently located near a synagogue because that's where satan's seat is and that Antipas potentially a preacher of the gospel preacher of the word of god he's obviously a very honorable person a man who did not deny the faith when these jews and these Pharisees came to persecute him and try to get him to renounce or whatever he didn't deny it and he was killed where satan dwelleth at a synagogue now this should come as no surprise because of the fact that throughout the gospels we see a lot of the persecution taking place where at a synagogue paul and barnabas would go they would preach there at a synagogue they would get beaten up stoned all these things would happen and so Antipas was slain among them uh potentially at a synagogue that's what i believe is taking place here okay go to revelation 11 if you would revelation 11 so so far we have Abel we have Zechariah the son of Jehoiada or the son of Barakiah you have John the Baptist you have Stephen you have Antipas you have uh James the brother of John and now we're going to look at revelation 11 the two witnesses okay it says in verse number four these are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the god of the earth and if any man will hurt them fire proceeded out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies and if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed now i made a video about this a long time ago talking about who the two witnesses are and i was explaining that they're given all these supernatural powers and i got so many people were just hating on the video for the stupidest reasons they're like this is symbolic it doesn't really mean that they're gonna you know spit fire and do all these things and i'm like how is this symbolic if that the people who are trying to hurt them will be in this like manner killed right it's like how is that symbolic you know there's like whoa the the word of god represents fire so it's just saying that they're preaching well i agree with that okay because the bible does talk about the word of god being like into a fire and a hammer that break the rock in pieces but let me just say this the book of revelation is filled with a lot of supernatural occurrences okay so it wouldn't be preposterous to think that god enables moses and elijah who are the two witnesses in my opinion and i believe that more strongly today than i've ever believed it because you know i made a video about that they're like hey this is a great video but let me just say this it's not moses and elijah it's moses and enoch like hundreds of comments it's enoch it's enoch and you know i used to kind of capitulate to that and be like well you know you got a point you know it's possibility or whatever but then i realized that the reason they're saying that it's not because they have a biblical conviction about it it's because they read the stupid book of enoch that's why they're saying that and they're claiming that enoch i don't want to get a spoiler alert here okay i'm gonna be preaching on the book of enoch soon and it teaches some at first i was studying the book of enoch because it was just like let me just study this just to show how stupid it is but then i realized how wicked it is and how much it actually fits into end times okay as far as like the deception is concerned but here we see that moses and elijah are breathing out fire so that means you know you got these two guys who are the first time travelers okay in all of history say how so well moses was i mean this is thousands of years ago my friend and then you know they come back i mean just imagine what it's like to come to this world thousands of years later like things have changed okay and they probably look a little different because they're not necessarily in their resume they're not in their resurrected bodies either so how do you know that because they're killed when you're in your resurrected body you can't be killed you're just you're immortal your body's immortal okay so they are obviously in their resurrected state we know this for a fact because because of the fact that they're killed later but also you know this is why moses body was uh buried by god in a certain place and it's potentially why satan wanted to discover the body of moses and this is probably why elijah was taken up by a whirlwind into heaven in his physical body okay so they return and you know the anti-christ he's ruling for 40 in two months but you got these guys who have this public ministry and they're preaching against the anti-christ they're preaching against the new world order they're preaching against all the these things taking place so anti-crisis is just like go kill them go bring a tank and just blow them away right they come with their firing squad i'm painting a picture here and they just blast away you know they're just kind of ak-47s or whatever they're just spraying them and they're just not dead and then moses and elijah are like our turn and they just get incinerated and look folks we got instagram there's tik tok there's all these social media outlets today you know that's gonna go viral you know what i mean they're gonna be playing the music in the background right they'll put the music in a hashtag moses and elijah hashtag fire breathers hashtag you know they'll probably say that they're devils or dragons or something like that and you know the the media no one's gonna be able to do anything about it because whatever they come to bring they can just try to bomb them you know try to stab them or shoot them it's just not gonna happen because god is protecting them and then they're able to just breathe fire now i'll just be honest with you i wish i had that ability now that's a cool thing to do i wish i had it back in 2021 where i'm just talking it just like incinerates everyone i'm like oops i didn't mean to do that i pushed the wrong button in my throat you know kind of but i think obviously the reason why they're breathing on fire is because it's a physical manifestation of the preaching right and it says in verse number six these have power to shut heaven that it rained not in the days of their prophecy which would indicate that it's referring to elijah because he was also given that power during his earthly ministry to stop the rain for three and a half years and have power over the waters to turn them to blood and to smite the earth with the plagues as often as they will which would indicate that it's referring to moses since he was also given that ability in times past now what's cool is you know people always want to complain oh man the christian life is so boring you know there's so many rules but you know what if you think about it yeah there's a lot of laws that we have got to abide by but we have a lot of liberty you know where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty right and it looks like to me you know god gives them these abilities it's just like how often should i plague the world it's like as much as you want this is as often as you will like how how many times like how many locusts do we have you know it's just like just use them as many times as you want like if you want to do it today it's your choice if you want to turn the water into blood today your choice if you want to darken the skies and darken everything your choice whenever you want i mean he told adam and eve you can freely eat of every tree so it sounds to me like there's a lot of liberty in the christian life you know god gives us the parameters and says you can do whatever you want within this circle right here sounds cool to me and when they shall have finished their testimony the beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them now here's the cool thing is that if we make it if the second coming of christ is in our lifetime okay we will actually see these two guys and in fact they come just a little bit before the rapture takes place so you know cross your fingers just kidding you know hopefully it happens because that would be cool to see moses and elijah doing this stuff but we see that eventually god allows the anti-christ to actually kill them okay verse eight says in their dead bodies shall lie in the streets of the great city which spiritually is called sodom in egypt where also our lord was crucified and they have excuse me and they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put into graves so they kill them who knows in which manner but they're just allowed to just leave their bodies in the streets no proper burial or nothing and they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them and make merry and shall send gifts one to another because these two prophets torment to them that dwell on the earth and after the after three days and a half the spirit of life from god entered into them and they stood up upon their feet and great fear fell upon them which saw them now let me just give you a little bit of a spoiler alert when it comes to the book of enoch and why i think this ties into this okay because i just can't help myself right now you see in the end times everything that takes place in the end times we have it in the book of revelation satan and the agents of satan have access to the book so they have to try to replicate everything right and moses and elijah are pretty big they play a pretty big role in end times well it just so happens that the book of enoch teaches that enoch will be purifying the world through fire during the end times okay so you got to think about this you know if you have moses and elijah but then you have the anti-christ and the false prophet the false prophet and the anti-christ have to convince the world that moses and elijah are the anti-christ and the false prophet which is why the false prophet also calls down fire from heaven you understand so he's the one who's saying you know he's going to purify the world through fire he's going to destroy the enemies he's going to do all these works so that's why they're saying oh no it's going to be moses and enoch not moses and elijah because enoch is going to be the one who's purifying referring to the false prophet okay and that's all i'm going to say about that because it gets it gets weirder now go with me if you would to um go to go back to revelation chapter two those are all the martyrs we're going to talk about let me just briefly before i'm finished let me just talk about who's gonna get it who's getting martyred who's getting whacked in here okay let me say this is that you know this isn't this shouldn't be something that should cause us to be afraid or cause us to just like be worried because of the fact that really martyrdom is only designated for like the best and best of christians i'm not saying we're not the best i'm not saying that you're not the best i'm just saying you know we went through a lot of examples of martyrs but that's in comparison to a lot of other people that didn't die who were still great christians okay and so i think this is a privilege that christians get now look at revelation two verse 10 it says fear none of those things which which thou shalt suffer behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried and you shall have tribulation 10 days listen to this be thou faithful unto death and i will give thee a crown of life now i was taught for many years that when you're martyred for the cause of christ you receive a what a martyr's crown you guys ever heard that before and they'll point to revelation 2 verse 10 and say oh because this person was faithful unto death in other words that they were killed for their faith that they're going to receive a crown of life but here's the thing though folks is that i believe what this is referring to is just being faithful unto death period because the privilege of being martyred isn't distributed to just anyone but you know what the responsibility to be faithful until you die is so if a person is faithful unto the lord until they're killed for their faith they receive a crown of life but you know what if you don't receive that privilege to be martyred for your faith you still have to be faithful until you die and you will receive a crown of life which is why the bible uses martyr as witness right remember in the beginning we're talking about martyr it's a transliteration of the word witness because a witness is all of us we're all witnesses of the word of god and of the gospel but not everyone is given that privilege to actually die for the cause of christ so let's say half of us here more than 75 here are not going to die for the cause of christ you can still get a crown of life you said why is that because you're faithful unto death god expects all of us to essentially endure all the hardships of this life until the day that we die so we can still earn a crown of life a martyr's crown so to speak because we died still being a witness of jesus christ see we can't control it you know like hey man i'm trying to get a i'm trying to be a martyr i want i want to die can can we just kind of can you kill me real quick you know what i mean because you hate me for my faith or something like you can't you can't orchestrate that right it has to like come upon you but regardless of whether you can orchestrate or not you can just determine i'm going to be faithful until i die so that's easy no it isn't because i know plenty of people who have died outside of the will of god that's not faithful unto death there's plenty of people i would even say there's people in this room you might die outside of the will of god even while listening to this sermon somewhere long 10 years 20 years down the road something's going to happen you might die outside of the will of god that's not faithful unto death because something you know might come upon you you you know fall into some temptation you get outside of church you get outside of the bible you get outside of serving god and you die outside of the will of god you're not faithful unto death there's plenty of christians who have died in that manner they don't get a crown of life he said well i thought you know only the martyrs you know it says in revelation 20 that those who are beheaded for the cause of christ they rule and reign with jesus christ for a thousand years but so do people who just endure until the end because the bible says in james 1 12 blessed is a man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the lord had promised them that love him so we can say that a person who dies for the faith loves jesus christ but you know what we could also say the person who dies not as a martyr but just dies of natural causes or whatever may be but they die in the will of god that person loves jesus christ too because they died serving god still i mean you may not get a firing squad okay you may not be bombed you may not be stabbed or beaten to death or stoned because maybe that's not designated for you but that doesn't mean you can't earn that reward of having the crown of life but here's the thing though you have to actually endure and be in the christian life all the days of your life and you know some people are like well i'd rather just be martyred because that's easy you know that's that's or i'd rather just do that because it's easy i'd rather just endure than just be killed well actually it's harder to actually live for god than to actually die for him actually harder why because to live for god requires actually for you to die to self every single day a person who's martyred for the cause of christ they don't have to deal with the flesh anymore you know if someone came in here like renounce christ or you get blown away we could just make an instant decision right then and there like i'll be first let's do it let's go because i don't want to change my mind do it right now and then boom but folks it's actually harder to wake up every day to die to self to renew your mind to be crucified to the flesh right you know it's easier to be put to death by someone else than for you to put yourself to death on a daily basis but both of them receive a crown of life if you just are faithful unto death okay now here's the last scripture go with me if you would to hebrews chapter 11 hebrews chapter 11 let me briefly explain this you say well i get all that but i still don't want to die for my faith i'm like i don't want to i don't want to kill me well you know fear not him which is able to destroy both if you're not him which is able to destroy the body but fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell it doesn't mean that god's going to cast you into hell because we can't lose our salvation but god is the only one who holds the life of a person in his hands understand we should obviously fear god more okay but here's another reason why you shouldn't fear is because throughout the bible god shows his people that he will always listen to me very important he will always deliver his people even if they're nighing to death i'm talking about for the cause of christ always throughout the bible consistently the bible teaches that if you're nighing to death someone's going to kill you they're trying they're persecuting you you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death if you ask god to deliver you he will do it fact the bible teaches okay in fact the bible says there is no temptation taking you but such as is common to man but god is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able but will with that temptation what make a way to escape so listen to me what god teaches is that when you go through a trial like that where you're about to die death is upon you there's an open door for you to escape if you want he actually leaves it up to you whether you want to die or not if you want to be delivered you could be delivered if you're like i'd rather die than he'll let you die like how do you know that well look at hebrews 11 verse 35 says women received their dead race to life again and others were tortured listen to this not accepting deliverance so if they're not accepting deliverance doesn't that mean the deliverance was offered to them yeah right so that means the door was open for them and they said i'm not gonna accept it like why would they do that man if god says i'll deliver you i would want to escape well let's see why they didn't why they didn't accept deliverance it's not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection so it's just like you could die you can live i can i can deliver you and your faith can increase or you can die and you just get a better body when you resurrect you get that a-pack long luxurious hair or whatever you know i don't know i'm joking here obviously we're not going to get those things sorry to those of you who were looking forward to that a better resurrection so they're like i could either be delivered and have my faith increased in god that he's delivering me or i can allow myself to die and then god will repay me in the resurrection it's a win-win a win is a win right so this shows us that deliverance is offered to anybody okay deliverance is offered to anybody it's your choice though if you want to be delivered or not now let me say this okay deliverance is offered to anybody however that form of persecution is not offered to everybody does that make sense so deliverance is offered to anybody who's in that situation but to be in that situation is not offered to everybody because only those who live godly in christ jesus shall suffer persecution you're like oh man i want to be delivered well first you got to like live godly though to even get to that point where they want to kill you you understand what i'm saying like you got to get to that point where people actually want to put you to death then that that offers that coupon is available for you that coupon can be redeemed only if you go to this particular store you understand you know the the gift card only works at that particular site okay but once you're there you can buy anything within the store but you got to be at that particular store so don't think well you know okay i'm going to choose to be delivered well you know slow your roll you need to get to that point first though live godly in christ jesus and then suffer that persecution to come upon you you say why preach that well you know you just every once in a while gotta remind you you're gonna die and you know what physically you're gonna die but all you know obviously you're gonna die as far as like just life is concerned and so you you need to be faithful into death is what i'm saying we need to be faithful into death and i'm grieved when i hear news of believers who i've known in times past die outside of the will of god it's a grief to me it grieves me at my heart because there's no more chances after that like there's no more serving god after that you can't do it anymore it's over with okay so hey if you ever get fed up with serving god and fed up with coming to church and fed up with this and that you get tired you know okay then you can die outside of the will of god and and regret it for all of eternity like oh man you're over here sweeping the streets and stuff where you could have like been raining you know you're gonna have you're gonna have some guy coming up to you like hey you missed a spot you know what i mean you could be the least in the kingdom of god if you want to but you know what i rather just try to be as best as i possibly can be faithful into death and you know that makes the the afflictions of this world light so when you go through a hard time it's just like i'm just gonna stick it out because i want to be faithful into death i want to i want a crown of life i want to endure and i want options like if someone's killing me like should i do it now now i'll be delivered lord deliver me you know and then you get delivered then your faith is increased and it's like isn't like isn't that like a punk move though to be like delivered and stuff it means you're afraid not necessarily not in god's eyes because then you live and you live to tell about it like god delivered i mean mishak shedrak and abednego were no punks right right daniel was was no punk he was thrown in the lions then and he survived because god rescued him so you know it's you live to tell but if you die then you being dead still speak it the fact that you died for your faith so it's always a win-win situation and so be a martyr whether someone putting you to death for your beliefs or meaning you have to die to self on a daily basis so that you're faithful until the day that you die you don't get out of god's will you keep serving god teach your children to serve god teach your family to serve god just endure it let's pray father we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the examples that we've had in the bible lord of those who have given their lives for the cause of christ and i i would love to think that we would be worthy of that lord someday if the second coming of christ is in our lifetime and if it is lord prepare us for that prepare spiritually lord that we can endure the hardships of today because harder times are coming tomorrow and i pray lord that you'd help us as your people to be faithful unto death that we may have the privilege to receive a crown of life we love you we thank you pray the scenes in jesus name amen please turn your song books to song number 377 rescue the perishing is our last song here this morning song number 377 rescue the perishing song number 377 all together nice and strong on that first verse rescue the perishing care for the dying snatch them in pity from sin and the grain we for the erring ones lift up the fallen tell them of jesus the mighty to save rescue the perishing care for the dying jesus is merciful jesus will save though they are sliding him still he is waiting waiting the penitent child to receive plead with them earnestly plead with them gently he will forgive if they only believe rescue the perishing care for the dying jesus is merciful merciful jesus will save down in the human heart crushed by the tempted grace can be stored taught by our loving heart wake and my kindness boards that are broken will vibrate once more rescue the perishing care for the dying jesus is merciful jesus will save rescue the perishing duty man sin strength for thy labor the lord will grow fine back in their own way patiently win them tell the poor wonder a savior has died rescue the perishing care for the dying jesus is merciful jesus will save amen wonderful