cherish and rejoice in the simple gospel of Jesus. Christ is Lord and Savior.

Find in Him strength and joy and peace and hope for tomorrow.

Teach us in every season, easy, difficult, confusing, hard. Teach us to rejoice in the God of our salvation.

We pray, Lord, you would anoint our tithe and offering.

We pray that often because we want it to be true. We want to have generous and open hearts. Help us to give all that we have, all that you call us to give. Do it with cheer and with joy. We pray that in Christ’s name. Amen.

Well, good evening. It is good to be with you. Jessica and the kids are on their second vacation. I couldn’t quite swing going on the second vacation, so I stayed home, but they’re Red River Gorge in Kentucky. It’s beautiful. It’s where the natural bridge is. So they’re up there having fun. I know we’ve got some other folks out traveling. And things now that it’s summertime. Remember, these sermons are usually recorded. So if you miss one of these sermons in Revelation, you can listen back to them. I’m going to be in Revelation chapter 11. Revelation chapter 11.

I feel like I say this every time we start a sermon in Revelation, but it actually said, one commentator actually said at the beginning of the heading of his commentary that this is notoriously the most difficult chapter to interpret. So again, we’re stepping back into apocalyptic literature. We’re stepping into end times literature. What God is doing at the end of human history. How God is bringing himself glory in the end. And I think when we see just by way of reminder, because I know we’ve been out of Revelation for a couple weeks. Revelation has a lot of imagery. It has a lot of symbolism. And I think one reaction is to say, why do we even study Revelation? Because it’s so confusing. Let’s just focus on things that make sense. I think we study Revelation, again, just a reminder, because it’s in the Bible. And because it’s in the Bible, it’s worth us putting our nose to it and just getting in there and learning. Because God will surely teach us even if things aren’t as clear as we would like them to be. So there is some element of God seeing a certain clarity that we don’t have. That doesn’t mean God doesn’t show some things to us. So chapter 11. I’m going to go through it just kind of verse by verse and kind of break it down as we go. Starting in verse 1, and I’m just going to read it as we go. I’m not going to read the whole thing and then start over just because it’s a longer chapter. But starting in verse 1,

John writes, Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple. Leave that out. So, I have in my backyard a pop-up camper. And this pop-up camper I bought years ago because, you know, I had this dream of pop-up camping like every weekend and it was going to be awesome. I was going to be out in the woods. Life happens and I don’t end up out in the woods every weekend. And so it’s kind of sat there and it’s rotted. The subflooring’s rotted. It’s got some broken parts on it. And so it requires to fix something, to maintain something, you measure it. If you value something, if you intend on preserving something, you know it really well and you know what it takes. It takes to preserve that thing, to keep that thing. And it’s not any different here. John is measuring the temple of God. He’s measuring those who worship there. He’s measuring the altar because God is preserving. God is keeping these things. And you say, well, what exactly what is the temple? What temple are we talking about? When I read what Bill Mount says, for John, the temple was not a literal building, but the community of Christians who worship God. It is the church, the people of God. For John, it means that God will give spiritual sanctuary to the faithful believers against the demonic assault of the Antichrist. So the temple here is talking about you and me as Christians, as followers of Jesus. And that’s not strange language, is it? In Ephesians, what Paul says, you’re no longer, strangers and aliens, your fellow citizens with the saints, members of the household of God. He says down in verse 22, in him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God. He says that you’re the temple. First Corinthians, Paul says, do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in you? So that’s not at all a foreign concept that what John is seeing symbolically represents you and I as God’s people. And that’s not the first time in Revelation that God makes it clear, I intend on preserving my people. God gives us assurances elsewhere. I intend on preserving my people. Remember the seals where God or the angels are told they can’t unleash the plagues until God’s people are sealed. We see where we saw in chapter seven, the heavenly host, right? All the God’s people finally together safe. When we walk through the seven churches in the beginning of Revelation, what did you see? But Jesus leading, correcting. Why? Because he wants the churches to be preserved. And here’s what I want you to catch from this. If you and I are to thrive in the Christian life, we can never forget how much God has it in his heart to preserve you to keep you, to sustain you in this life, and ultimately reward you in the end for your faithfulness. Okay? That was a big, long, messy sentence. Let me say it again. If you and I are going to successfully live the Christian life and thrive for God, we can’t forget how much God has it in his heart to keep you, preserve you, sustain you as you live for him in this life. And it’s difficult. And how much God has it in his heart to reward you in the end. Because as much as we’ve walked through Revelation so far, you have to admit any sane person goes, this is creepy, this is scary, this is weird, and I’m out of here. The only thing that keeps you and I going forward as Christians is God promising to preserve you and I. God saying, my church matters to me, and I’m with my church, and I will keep my church for eternal glory as well. Okay? Point number one, then. You are measured and accounted for. Because you are measured and accounted for, you can press on. You can fight. In verse 2, after John measures the things that God means to preserve, namely his church, God says, don’t measure the court outside the temple. Leave that out for it’s given over to the nations, and they will trample the Holy City for 42 months. So, he says, don’t measure the outer court. Now, what’s the outer court? And then this chapter is so full of symbolism, so just giving you a warning up front here. The outer court, one interpretation is, well, it’s the outer court of the temple, which means this is some symbolism for false Christians. So, if they’re given over to the nations, that must mean that these are people who are inside the temple, so they must be those who seem to be Christians, but in the end, they’ll be judged with the nations. That seems accurate, but I don’t think it’s accurate, and here’s why. The outer temple in Jesus’ time was a place where non-Jewish God-fears, Gentile God-fears, worshipped. In the Old Testament, it’s where all Israelites worshipped, was the outer court. So, there’s really no negative component to the outer court. What I think we’re seeing here, okay, and we saw this in the last chapter, it’s the same people from two different perspectives. It’s those who God keeps spiritually, that’s the temple, yet in the present, in the now, you and I are doing life, if you will, in the outer court. In other words, you and I are suffering presently, and God at times, and we’ll look at good examples, won’t we? God gives us over to persecution. God gives his church over to martyrdom. It’s present suffering during the tribulation for God’s people. And you’ll note, it says for 42 months, what is 42 months? Again, I’ll read mounts here to help us understand. The temporal designation of 42 months is also given in Revelation as 1,260 days, and a time, times, and half a time. It’s primary reference is to the period of Jewish suffering under the despot Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 to 164 B.C. So 42 months became a standard symbol that limited that period of time during which evil would be allowed free reign. So in other words, 42 months, or three and a half years, seems to be a time frame in which God allows evil to happen. It’s the length of time that Antiochus Epiphanes in B.C. time made the Jews suffer and he overthrew them. Three and a half years, same time frame that Elijah called a drought on Israel for their sin. Another reference would be 42 months. There was 42 encampments of the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness. And then another good point, I think, to be made is Jesus’ ministry was three and a half years. So it’s a time frame that we see play out in the Old Testament, in Daniel. It plays out certainly here in Revelation multiple times. It’s 42 months, 1,260 days. And so that’s just kind of a reference of time that you see playing out. Verse 3 It says during these 42 months, I will grant authority to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for there’s here’s the 42 months again 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours out from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying. And they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they desire. So two witnesses, it reminds us of two characters from the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah. You call Moses, he called the plagues down. He turned the Nile into blood. You remember Elijah, how Elijah called fire down from heaven and he called the drought for the three and a half years. So sticking with, I think, what is highly symbolic nature of this chapter, I think rather than seeing this as two literal witnesses, I think what John is doing is referring to the church collectively as a witness. Now you’re saying, well, what do you mean it says two witnesses? Why is that referring to the whole church if John’s talking about, if John says two? Well, here’s why. In Deuteronomy chapter 19, so the law of God in the Old Testament, it says this, a single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge, be established. What are the two witnesses’ function? We have to think about what they’re doing. Well, you said, well, they’re preaching truth, right? Yeah, they’re preaching truth. But remember, we kind of passed up the time of repentance. Remember when a few chapters ago God unleashed all those terrible plagues and said at the end of that the people still would not repent. What is the gospel of Jesus? I want you to think about this. What is the good news of the gospel of Jesus if it’s rejected? It’s a word of judgment. It’s a word of judgment. They don’t come cheery, do they? Clothed in garbs of beauty and splendor. These two witnesses don’t dress to impress. Quite the opposite. It says they come in sackcloth. They come in sackcloth, you know, like a brown burlap sack that’s all itchy and ugly. That’s what they’re wearing. Anytime you see sackcloth, in the Bible, it’s always because the messenger is afflicted and he has a word of doom. He has a word of judgment. Think about Jonah. Remember Jonah preaches his short message of doom for Nineveh. They don’t repent and the king calls for everyone to wear sackcloth and to sit in ashes. So they dress to match their message and their message is a word of judgment for they will not repent of their wrong and obey the Lord. And now they’re called lampstands and olive trees. Why are they called lampstands and olive trees? This is an exact pull from Zechariah. So let me read it to you there and it really clears up what it means. Zechariah chapter 4. And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me like a man who was waking out of his sleep and he said to me, what do you see? I said, I see and behold a lamp stand, all of gold with a bowl on top of it and seven lamps on it with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on it. They’re not on top of it. And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left. And I said to the angel who talked with me, what are these, my Lord? Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, do you not know what these are? I said, no, my Lord. Then he said, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by the spirit says the Lord of hosts. In the Old Testament, Zechariah, was told to prophesy to Zerubbabel, hey, you’re experiencing a lot of opposition for rebuilding the temple now that you’ve come back from exile. You’re not going to accomplish rebuilding the temple by your might, by your power, by your genius. You know how the temple will be rebuilt now that you’re back from exile? By the power of the spirit of God. That’s how you will accomplish your work in the face of aggression and hostility. So import then why John would get that same Old Testament vision for the end time. It’s because the church, we do not accomplish our mission today by preaching the gospel of Jesus and being God’s people by our genius, by our wit, by our strength, by our might. You and I in the face of opposition, and there’s a lot of opposition in modern culture to the true church and what the Bible teaches. Obviously, we talk about the opposition to the church overseas and in the Middle East. Even though there’s that kind of aggression, the Lord says to the church in the end times, you will accomplish in the face of that aggression all that I want you to accomplish because you have the spirit of God.

There’s so much power for you and I as Christians when we actually believe we have God’s spirit. When we actually believe God enables us and he uses us to be lights for him where we go and to preach the good news of Jesus. It doesn’t mean there’s no hostility. In fact, being faithful to God’s word creates the hostility and the oppression. But just like Elijah, remember Elijah in the Old Testament? He shut up the sky so it couldn’t rain. Elijah called down fire from heaven. Did he have an easy ministry? No, he did not. He was on the run for his life. What about Moses? All the many wonderful things he could do, all the supernatural things that happened through his ministry. Oh, he must have had an easy time. No, Moses had a really hard life of opposition, both from the Egyptians and then from his own people who didn’t even want to do what God wanted them to do. So friends, it seems that these plagues that these two men have in Revelation, it’s again symbolic language communicating the divine power of God working to sustain the church as she delivers her message of the gospel. And here’s the thing that I want you to see in verse four. It says there are two olive trees and two lampstands. You and I shine our light. Why? Because the Spirit’s constantly pouring in us. And how are we doing that? We’re witnessing what? Who are we witnessing before? The Lord of the earth. The judge. That’s our prophetic work as the New Testament church. It’s to preach the gospel of Jesus in the Word of God. That’s our prophetic word.

Can you believe, do you believe you have the same Spirit of God today that Elijah had and Moses had? Do you believe the same Spirit that worked in Zechariah and worked in Zerubbabel, the governor is working in you? Do you believe the same Spirit even that raised Jesus from the dead is working in you to do God’s work though there’s hostility and oppression all around you? Because if we don’t believe that, we’ll believe we’re impotent and we will be overcome by the world. When we don’t believe we have the Spirit, two things I want to give you. One, we fear man not God. When you don’t really believe God’s Spirit is working in you, you fear man not God. What does Jesus say in Matthew chapter 10 verse 28? Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. What’s really I think the problem Sorry, you got problems I got problems. What’s one of our big problems? What’s one of the biggest issues in modern church life today? And I think it’s this. You and I want to be considered faithful Christians but we want to do it in a comfortable, easy environment. You and I want to be considered faithful to preach God’s Word. We want to be considered obedient in God’s eyes but we don’t want the friction and rub of hostility, risk of ostracization, death, loss of income. Problem that’s a fictitious Christianity. The only environment that Christianity’s ever thrived in for the last 2,000 years since Jesus was resurrected was in an environment of hostility. Jesus never meant words about that either, did He? What does He say in Matthew 10 34? Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth. I’ve not come to bring peace but a sword. I’ve come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. What does Jesus mean by that? He means if you are faithful to truly teach the fullness of God’s Word and you’re actually faithful to obey all that God calls you to do in the power of the Spirit, there will be friction with somebody. A lot of bodies, right? The world at large doesn’t like the good news of Jesus. What do we love when we don’t know Christ? We love sin. We love doing things our own way. So you and I have to not just deal with, but I think if we’re going to be faithful in the Spirit, and again, I’m preaching this to myself this evening, you and I have to really not just live in but embrace the tension that you and I are both measured and preserved by God spiritually and He also hands us over. He preserves us spiritually. He keeps His people, but He hands us over. You think, well, that doesn’t sound right. Oh, it’s right. Think about the very first martyr Stephen.

Was Stephen stoned to death? Absolutely. And we looked at that verse several weeks ago, but Jesus also stands up in heaven because He sees a dear faithful servant below suffering for Him. What about the Apostle Paul? Paul was both faithful in the Spirit and Paul did not live an easy life.

What about the brother of Jesus, James? What about Jesus Himself? Jesus was both given over but certainly because of His preservation, you and I are preserved. So I don’t want you to see suffering and difficulty as an anomaly biblically. We’ve got to believe living comfortably, trying to live as easy as we can. That is the biblical anomaly. And that’s the thing. And again, I’m preaching to myself on this as much as I am to you. That’s the thing we have to repent of and say, Lord, the Christian life is not about me. It’s not about my comfort. It’s about obeying you. You know, and we love to knock the prosperity gospel, don’t we? And good, right? Jesus didn’t come to make us all rich and healthy and wealthy and have a nice life. That’s fine. And that needs to be preached. But I think truly you and I struggle just as much with a comfort gospel, an easy gospel. Like, I don’t care if I have a million dollars. I just like, I just want like an easy, cruise control kind of life. Friends, if we follow Jesus, it cannot be so. Jesus said you must take up your cross. You must die. And that varies, doesn’t it? Why does God call one to be a missionary to a terrible, dangerous part of the world and they’ll give their life to someone else? He’s calling you to stand up to workplace policies that are unbiblical. And maybe that’s the risk of your income. He’s calling you to walk across the street and share the, you know, the gospel with your neighbor. He’s calling someone in China who is happily, atheist to Christ. And now that person’s whole life is going to be upside down and difficult because now they’re a Christian in communist China. Why does God call us to those different places? I don’t know. I don’t know. But here’s what I know is wherever you are, wherever we are, it will be a difficult context because until we are in glory, we do not live in a world system that loves the gospel. So we must say, I’m not turning back. I’m going to embrace the environment in which I live and I’m going to follow Jesus. I’m going to live in the spirit, whatever the friction and the rub is. I’m going to do it for obedience to my master and savior.

Here’s the second thing we do when we don’t believe we have the spirit. We fear man, not God. And secondly, we soft sell the gospel. We soft sell the gospel. And you think, well, the gospel, right, which gospel is just an old word for good news. Isn’t the gospel good news? It is good news, but the gospel is not good news for a lot of the reasons. I think we make the gospel good news in the church today. You know, come to Jesus because, you know, you’re really sad and you’re upset and you need somebody to be an encouragement to your soul. Hey, you just feel you feel like you don’t have purpose in life and you need to get you some purpose. Jesus will give you purpose. Life’s just tough, right? And you just need somebody that cares. Or blessing. Don’t you want someone to bless you and give you things? Well, that sounds nice. Or maybe relationships are difficult. Maybe Jesus can fix that. All these things are true. All those are really after effects and symptoms though of the greater and only reason why you and I need the gospel. And if we don’t really preach this reason as to why then we’re missing why the gospel is the gospel. The number one reason why we preach the gospel is because we are sinners. We are sinners who have offended a holy God. Period. That’s why the gospel is good news. And that gospel message inevitably is offensive.

It’s offensive to say to someone, you are bad in the sight of God. You deserve eternal punishment in the sight of God. There is a great divide that you can’t get between you and God. Whatever you do in life is not good enough for God. Friends, that is offensive. And if we don’t really believe that it’s the work of the spirit in us and through us to save a soul, you know what you and I will inevitably do? We will soft sell it. We’ll under preach it. We’ll become sales people. What do sales people do? They say what they gotta say to get people to sign their name on the line. If the light of the gospel of the lamp stand is just so bright that’s irritating the eye of a sinner, how is that going to affect us? How dare I put my hand over that lamp stand so it’s a little shadow, a little shaded, so maybe I can help someone accept it? No. This passage says that you and I were lamp stands and the oil of the spirit is constantly flowing into us and we’re supposed to shine regardless of how offensive that is. Now, that doesn’t mean you get to be a jerk. You know, but gospel, you’re a sinner, right? There’s such thing as tact. There’s such thing as wisdom. There’s such a thing as knowing how to speak truth, alright? And that’s full, that’s stark without being, you know, otherwise hateful. But at the end of the day, I just want you to kind of hang on the clothing here. The clothing of the messengers. And what is the clothing? Sackcloth. There ain’t ever been a time and there will never be a time when sackcloth is fashionable.

Friends, we can’t, we can’t blend into the world and the moment we do, we stop shining our light for the gospel.

Let us then trust the spirit that the spirit of God does the work he wants to do in us and through us when we do the work he calls us to do. Let us repent and again, I’m putting myself first of love of self, love of convenience, love of comfort. Let us repent for fearing man,

fearing what he may do to us, fearing his disapprovals. Let us put our hand on the plow. Let us suffer well and be counted faithful. Remember, it’s not before man. It says the two witnesses are what? Before the Lord. It’s before the Lord.

Let’s continue on in verse seven.

It says, and when they had finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days, some of the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. So this is the first time in Revelation where we’re seeing where we’re seeing the beast. And I want to read George Ladd on the beast and what that is. He says, the idea goes back to Daniel chapter seven where a succession of great world empires is symbolized by the appearance of four beasts, four fierce beasts. The fourth beast had ten horns out of which grew another horn which was greater than its fellows and which made war with the saints and prevailed against them. This little horn shall speak to them. Speak words against the most high and shall wear out the saints of the most high and shall they shall be given into his hand for here’s the three and a half years for a time two times and half a time. This little horn had again its initial fulfillment with Antiochus Epiphanes but it’s ultimately referring to the eschatological or the end times Antichrist. So the beast coming on the scene is the opposite of the lamb. Remember we saw Jesus who’s represented as the warrior lamb. He’s both slain because he died right on the cross for us but he’s also standing. Slain things don’t stand. Jesus has both died for you and I but it’s through his death that Jesus stands as a victor. So this is a false Jesus. That’s who the beast is. It’s someone coming on the scene attempting to look like a savior. Someone coming to look like a king. And we’re told that this beast rises from the abyss and we talked about abyss a few sermons ago. It’s kind of that shadowy underworld where demons are held. It’s kind of akin to the Old Testament idea of Sheol, kind of the place of the dead. And this is becoming the final conflict between Jesus God’s Messiah and Satan’s Satan and his false antichrist. That’s what we’re seeing coming to play. And in verse 8 we’re told that the two dead bodies, which again we’re saying is a faithful church proclaiming the word, it looks like oh, he won. It looks like they’re winning. They’re laughing and they’re making Mary, they’re having a party and they’re so excited that the two witnesses are dead. They’re exchanging presents. This is like some kind of national holiday. Like, they’re dead. Let’s exchange presents.

This is happening in what John’s calling the great city, which he says is symbolically Sodom and Egypt. What is Sodom in the Old Testament? Well, that’s the place of great immorality. What is Egypt? Egypt was the place of oppression and slavery to sin. And it says the place where their Lord was crucified. Now, you would think immediately, well, that’s got to be Jerusalem. John’s not really interested in geography though. He’s talking in terms of spirituality. I think what he’s referring to is spiritual Rome or spiritual Babylon. So it’s not geography. I like how Mount says it. The city is every city and no city. It’s just a reference to the entire world system that’s fallen under the control of the Antichrist. And it’s this world system that crucified Christ. As much as they are now attacking God’s people. And in verse 9, we’re told that for three and a half days. These the bodies of saints lie in the street and they won’t even grant them the dignity, which was a huge offense in ancient times to not let a body go into a resting place. So this this seems to be the final say. Humiliation for the saints bodies lying in the street. And it says those who dwell on earth, they were so tormented by the word, the truth of what was being preached that they are rejoicing to see the saints dead. And that has happened in different ways over the last 2000 years. It happens today in the United States. It happens on the other side of the world when things happen to the church and people rejoice and they, you know, revel against God and his people. And it’s going to happen as we see here in the very end. And it seems like there should be just a Satan one. That’s not it. That’s not the end.

We go to

verse 11. And it says after three and a half days in the language here of breath of life, it comes straight from Ezekiel where God tells the bones to get up and stand up and put on sinews and flesh. It’s the same idea of life being breathed into them. After three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them and they stood up on their feet and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice. From heaven saying to them, come up here and they went up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies watched them. And at that hour, there was a great earthquake and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake and the rest were terrified and gave glory to God. It is not the end. Because the spirit of God not only equips his saints to do their work, the spirit of God raises up his saints in the power of God in the same way the spirit of God resurrected Jesus, God’s Christ, and gave him new life. Friends, you and I can be sure that the God who works in us now is the God who will keep us and preserve us until the very end. Does it look like the church lost? Yeah, it looks like the church lost. Does it feel like in the year 2023 the church is losing? Yeah. But in the end, God’s people get up. In the end, God says, come up here. In the end, God’s enemies are stupefied. God’s enemies are in terror because once and for all, it is seen that Jesus, king of all the earth, is in control and he vanquishes God’s enemies. Don’t let, hear me say this, don’t let the superficial, superficial, temporary apparent victory of the enemy blind you from the true and eternal victory Jesus will have in the end. And we, because we are Jesus’ people, will have with him. It says they’re terrified and they gave glory to God. I don’t take that to be genuine. Remember, they’ve already cursed God, though they’ve had chances and we see the masses worshiping the beast and taking the mark of the beast. Pretty soon. So this feels more like generic. Hey, I’m sorry in the moment because I got caught kind of repentance. It doesn’t seem true at all. Friends, the spirit will bring this about in the end. You are kept. The spirit will give you all you need to get through this life in obedience, but it’s also through suffering and through death. That the spirit will raise us up to eternal life. Look no further to the life of Jesus. It wasn’t around, but it was through suffering and it was through death that Jesus was raised to eternal life. So friends, in the very same way you and I must follow Jesus through suffering and through death and in the end there’s glory in life. And I think the only verse I can think of that says this so well, and it’s not you know, it’s not at all a unknown verse, but it’s I think for a reason Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, which is amazing because I can discover some pretty horrible things that’s happened to church folk over the last 2,000 years. Be all kinds of torture or ostracization or loss of income and we can find that in the world today and we can find that increasingly where we live. We can find some really bad happenings to Christians because of their faithfulness to Christ. Yet Paul says, however bad that you think it is and however bad it does hurt, let me tell you the glory to be revealed in the end, you can’t even compare your suffering with how much better and how much wonderful it’s going to be to be with Christ.

God is keeping you in His Spirit

now and forever. And we have got to keep our eyes on that truth, friends, if we are to endure and make it to the end and trust Jesus is with us until the end. Let’s pray together.