Let's open our Bibles to Revelation chapter 6. As we look, starting at verse 9, at the fifth seal, it was a real blessing. Someone said to me last week, they said, you've convinced us it's going to be awful during the tribulation. They said, don't tell about any more diseases. Well, tonight we're not going to talk about any more diseases. Verse 9 introduces for us the fifth seal. Remember, there are six seals. The seventh seal opens the first trumpet. The seventh trumpet opens the first of the seven bowls. It's a progressive unrolling of a scroll. And you just note this as we follow along. This isn't really our main text we're going to read. This is just to introduce the idea of martyrdom. But look at verse 9. When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. The fifth seal introduces us to the concept of martyrdom, of the ultimate persecution, of the horrible price that the world exacts upon the followers of Christ. The scriptures tell us that becoming a Christian has always meant a ticket to persecution. The pages of the history of the church are stained with the blood and the tears of countless saints. The story of the Old Testament saints is no less bloodstained. The writer of Hebrews wrote that the spirit of God as his divine record records the suffering that has flowed from the Garden of Eden to the last Old Testament saint, John the Baptist. That period is chronicled, and we'll see it soon, but this period, starting in verse 9, is yet future. But in the future, right now, and in the past, the history of the church is bloodstained. Look back at Matthew 24 to get a perspective with me, please, what we're looking at in the tribulation time. And I remind you that Revelation 6 is very firmly planted at a future date in the tribulation. It's not right now. It's not the church age. It's not something that I personally believe that we're going to be going through, but it's part of God's fulfillment of what the Hebrew prophets wrote as what will be the time of Jacob or Israel's troubles. And this is what we've already looked at because the events described in Revelation 6 through 9 and 16 are all right here in Matthew 24. And I'll sketch them, maybe you've got these marked. First of all, in verses 4 and 5, it says in Matthew 24 that there's going to be a a growing time of global false teaching. Now, if you think about it, it used to be a false teacher could only be in one place at one time, and then maybe if he wrote something, he could spread it around. But now, false teaching can just surround the globe in a fraction of a second through the interconnectivity that we share now across this planet. This false teaching, Jesus says in verse 4, don't let anybody deceive you because many will come in my name saying I'm Christ. And that's true right now. There are people all over the world at different intervals all throughout history that claim to be Jesus Christ. And what he's saying is that will only increase. Then, verse 6, we saw a few weeks ago, you'll hear of wars and rumors of war and don't be troubled. These things will come to pass. The end is not yet. So he said there will be global warfare. Wars aren't sign of the end. It's just that in the end. It's going to be global and not just Sporadic then verse 7 at the beginning we studied this There will be famines actually it's right in the middle of the verse Pestilences, that's all those diseases we looked at and earthquakes in various places, so there's going to be global famines global epidemics All kinds of horrible things happening then in verse 9 here. Here's where we are tonight Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you. And you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. Now what's going to be the result? Look at verse 10. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, will hate one another. And here come these false prophets to rise up and deceive. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold." Very serious warnings. Now, what the Lord's saying is, number one, expect suffering. We're going to cover that tonight. Number two, he says that in the tribulation, it's going to be global martyrdom. I mean, it's going to be the rare thing to survive in the tribulation as a believer. It's going to be rare. In fact, chapter 6 says that God has chosen the number of martyrs. You know, if he numbers the hairs on our head, that doesn't mean he counts them. It means they're all serial numbered. We recently visited some good friends of ours. I used to work for them, just a famed neurosurgeon, very skilled in his field. They have so much sterling silver in their house. They have to have an inventory of it. That's, I mean, that's a lot. I mean, you know, we have one spoon. We don't even have the fork that goes with it. We have one spoon, you know? I mean, they have actually built a room on their house. When we went to visit them, they were so excited. And they had all these locks on it. And when they opened it, the entire room was coated with that silver cloth, you know, that you're supposed to wrap stuff in. The whole room was in that. And every shelf was in that. And it had little pullover covers. And they just filled this room with their sterling silver. So they didn't have to polish it. It stayed shiny in this room because it had this Stuff in it this cloth and and they had a this inventory of all the stuff they had you know That's something that's important and God says I've inventoried not counted I've Every hair on each of our heads has a serial number that God knows about it And if God knows all about that if he knows every time a sparrow hops on the ground he certainly has ordained how many of his beloved children will die and And we're going to see that tonight. He has ordained the martyrs. Well, in this chaos time that ends in verse 13, that is what the end times are going to be like. Verse 14 says that in this time of global famine and global war and global martyrdom, there will be global evangelism. And that's the next chapter in Revelation, chapter 7, those Jewish evangelists. But the key to all this is back at the idea of verse 9, that part of the tribulation is going to be delivering you up to kill you. Now, I spent this week reading the chronicles of the history of the church. If you would like to get a little queasy, read about what has been going on for the last 2,000 years. The incredible persecutions. I mean, I can't even repeat what they used to do to people. I mean, horrible stuff. Picking their bodies apart in detail. The chronicles tell about it, of the church history. How they used to hunt down people. How they used to wrap them in red hot chains. I mean, they'd pull these chains out of the fire that were glowing red hot, and soldiers would hold one end with tongs, and they would wrap them around the person and actually just bake them inside that chain. Just horrible things that they've done. That's not the Tribulation. That's been past history. The Tribulation Hour is that with the superimposed horrific hordes from the pit, the demons. What is shaping up in our world? Let me give you a little report. I don't know if you know, but just up here in Bartlesville, there's a tremendous organization. It's called the Voice of the Martyrs. And they kind of track what's going on. Here is their most recent report of what's going on around the world. Because even though most of the time we in America are unaware of it, there is a growing hostility for Christians around the world. And here's a continent-by-continent, region-by-region report. The Middle East, we would expect that. Next to communism, no group has been more hostile to Christianity than the Muslims. A decade ago, in the 80s, Islamic fundamentalists had an uneasy religious truce with Western expatriates who came to work for them. particularly in the oil-rich nations like Saudi Arabia. They tried to keep the Westerners, who were mostly Christians, of one degree of commitment or another, restricted. They kind of kept them out in the oil fields from the populace. But the impact over the years, and this is the blessing of just a handful of these believers who were there working in whatever realm in the oil field, led to a small yet organized church And it's been tremendous. I mean, I used to wonder, why did God let the Arabs have all the oil? I mean, it makes them more money to bomb Israel. But they have the oil, and they need the Western know-how to get it flowing and keep it flowing. And that has made them dependent on those who know Christ to go into those oil fields and to live in their hot countries and to share the good news. The presence of the U.S. troops during the Gulf War increased the effect dramatically. The ongoing presence of troops has just exacerbated it. But it's the evangelization of the Middle East that has really caused problems. Islamic extremists are responsible for this new wave of attacks on Westerners because we are making an impact with the Gospel. The Church has taken root in the Middle East. In fact, as you know, there's a seminary in Amman, Jordan, which right now is training young men to go back into almost every Muslim country, training them how to lead churches, how to disciple men and women into Christian leadership, and how to further the growth of this church. I mean, that was unheard of 20 years ago, and now the Lord's given that. So that's the Middle East. And there's just a lot of persecution, murders, people in Iran where they're found out in the woods hanging by a rope and they say, oh, they committed suicide. It just happens all the ones that are hanging on ropes are pastors. They're all collectively committing suicide. And they say it's so obvious that they're being murdered, but it's only causing the church to grow. How about northern Africa? Remember, northern Africa used to be totally evangelized. That's where St. Augustine was from. Northern Africa, from Morocco all the way across to Egypt, was one of the most important parts of the Roman Empire. They conquered Carthage, you know, Hannibal and the elephants and all that. And they got their foothold, the Romans did, and they just spread all the way across northern Africa. And that was the most fertile area for Christianity in the first three, four, five centuries since Christ. And all those 500 years, the church just mushroomed. But then the birth of Islam in the seventh century, and the conquest with the sword. And those people in northern Africa, though the church was big and wide, it was shallow. And they did not know what they believed. And they quickly caved in to the sword, and they didn't resist. And it shows you nowadays, we have a very wide church in America, but it's only about this deep. And that's dangerous. Well, what's going on today in North Africa? The country of Sudan, the Sudan in Northeast Africa, is perhaps the worst record of persecution in the whole world. There is a professed goal of total Islamicization. The country has had a civil war between the Christians and the animists in the southern regions and the Muslims in the north. Government atrocities are numerous. They have aerially bombarded Christians, massacred Christians, enslaved Christians, and they're even now starting something new. They're crucifying them. They say, hey, you like Jesus and his cross? We'll crucify you, like Hitler did in some of his atrocities. Many of those killed fall under the definition of martyrdom. Others in northern Africa have also attacked Christians, particularly where radicals are agitating for civil governments to implement Islamic law. So it's not so much just because they're trying to stop the church. They're just trying to strike someone to cause a problem. Earlier this year, there was a whole group of missionaries that were kidnapped and murdered as part of an ongoing hostility between the Algerian government and a leading opposition group. And you can read about that. It's usually not the headlines, but it's just always kind of in the paper. So, Northern Africa is a very dangerous place to live for Christ. Eastern Asia, the far Eastern Asia, there's constant persecution of believers. And it's well documented. By the way, the United Nations has recently put in a special fax line. They're getting so many reports at the UN about Christian martyrdom and persecution. They have a fax line now where you can just fax a report because they said there's just too many and they want them in print so that they can keep record of them. But churches have been bulldozed with believers inside. I mean, buried them alive in Eastern Asia. They just, that's what Korea did, you know, during the After the Korean War and in that time period when North Korea had to take over the provinces, there were great Presbyterian missions that had gone on in that region of Korea from about the 1880s all the way through to the 1930s and 40s. And the church in North Korea was huge and deep. And so they would systematically bury people alive. They said that's the best way to do it. And they would actually make them dig a ditch and lay down in it, and then they would bulldoze them in and bury them alive. And now they just bulldoze the churches down with the people inside and murder them that way. Pastors have been arrested, humiliated, executed. Christians have been threatened and imprisoned. In fact, the new waves of persecution are rampant. And there's just so much. And what we're doing in America is, of course, calling for economic boycott. But how can you economically boycott North Korea when 500,000 people have starved to death in the last three years? I mean, what good will economic boycott do? In another region, as we look at Down in South America, you would think there would be no persecution in South America because the Roman Catholic Church is the awesome dominant force. And what you find is it's the Roman Catholic Church that's doing the persecutions. Missionaries are under various forms of attack, both by the organized church as well as soft targets of the drug lords and the terrorists. There is incredible kidnappings. We know about that with some of the New Tribes missionaries. And Christian workers not only are kidnapped, but mission agencies have had to move because either they say, we'll keep kidnapping, we'll keep destroying, or whatever, if you don't just move your presence from here. And so any missionaries going into many of those countries go into such an insecure situation that the only thing they can rely on is God's help. No government can help them. And Latin America is just a very difficult place. Africa, because of the stand for Christian principles and democracy and because of their untiring work on behalf of the poor and the oppressed and persecuted, many Christians have been martyred. in Africa. Rwanda, Burundi, South Africa, missionaries, pastors, churches, seminaries have been targeted. In fact, in Rwanda alone, what we read about between the Tutsis and Hutus, many of those killed were Christians. And by the way, that's the area. You remember CT Stud four weeks ago I talked about? That's where he worked. Those people that are butchering each other Many of the Christians that were killed, defenseless Christians, were descendants of C.T. Studd's work in the early part of the century. Well, let's go to Revelation 6 again. I want to show you something before we read our text tonight, because I want to focus our attention on the Lord's plan. It says, In verse 9 the fifth seal under the altar the souls of those who'd been slain for the Word of God for the testimony Which they held verse 10 and they that's the martyrs cried with a loud voice saying how long O Lord Holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth And now this is one of the most fascinating verses in the Bible look at verse 11 Then a white robe was given to each of them. I And it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer. Now look at this, if this isn't fascinating. Until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed. God is watching over the martyrdom of his saints. It hurts. I mean, it grieves Him. It is a sorrow to Him. He loves His own. He loves each of us so much. It is God who is forbearing and who is waiting. But God is allowing each one to be murdered and martyred for His glory. You say, how can He do that? Well, we'll see tonight. God has very specific purposes in both suffering, persecution, as well as martyrdom. And if you want to, I mean, some people struggle with a little less of martyrdom. They suffer with physical limitations. They suffer with all types of weaknesses and disabilities. Did you know God has worked that into the equation? And the Apostle Paul said this. He said, for our light and momentary affliction. He summed up all of his stonings, all of his stripes, all of his beatings, all of his shipwrecks, all of his jail times. He said it was light and momentary. All that, he says, works a far more great and exceeding weight of eternal glory. You know what he was saying? Put it in, you know, Tulsa 1999 language, the more you suffer, the greater capacity you have to glorify the Lord in heaven. Do you see why the early church was so willing to suffer? They said, wait a minute, if we can trade in a 286 for a Pentium III capacity and processing speed in heaven, who wouldn't trade in the lower speed for the higher speed, to use computer terms? If, through suffering, our capacity to glorify God enlarges, why not be willing, instead of running from suffering, to accept His grace? And that's something we need to see. Okay, let's turn now to our text, Hebrews chapter 11, because I want to graphically read to you as we ponder this point of how to prepare for suffering. Hebrews chapter 11, because the trail of blood of God's saints and the trail of blood that they have trod is very beautifully captured in Hebrews chapter 11. If you want to get to verse 32, We are going to just let the Lord minister these words to our hearts as I read them to you. Got it? Hebrews 11, 32. You follow along, and let's stand together. And I'll read 32 to the end of the chapter, and then let's pray and ask the Lord to teach us how we can be better prepared to suffer for Him. Hebrews 11, 32 to 40. And you follow along. Well, how much more do I need to say It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, and Barak, of Samson, and Jephthah, and David, and Samuel, and all the other prophets. These people all trusted God, and as a result, won battles, overthrew kingdoms, ruled their people well, and received what God had promised them. They were kept from harm in a den of lions, verse 34, and in a fiery furnace. Some, through their faith, escaped death by the sword. Some were made strong again after they had been weak or sick. Others were given great power in battle. They made whole armies turn away. And some women, through faith, received their loved ones back again from death. But others trusted God and were beaten to death, preferring to die rather than to turn from God and be free, trusting that they would rise to a better life afterward. Verse 36, some were laughed at and their backs cut open with whips, and others were chained in dungeons. Some died by stoning and some by being sawed in two. Others were promised freedom if they would renounce their faith. Then they were killed with a sword. Some went about in skins of sheep and goats, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in dens and caves. They were hungry and sick and ill-treated. Too good for this world. And these men of faith, though they trusted God and won His approval, none of them received all that God had promised them. For God wanted them to wait and share the even better rewards that were prepared for us. I like that contrast. Did you see it? Some, they escaped it all. Others, same God, loved him just as much, went through it. That's something we have to be prepared for. God is not only the God of the mountains. He's the God of the valleys. And he's God in both places. Let's bow before him in prayer. Father, thank you for your dear saints. On a day of national rest and recreation, they're pondering a very sobering and not a very pleasant subject. I pray that we would learn how to prepare for persecution, because I really believe it's just around the corner in our nation We cannot have this much freedom, this much access to the world for very much longer. I pray that we will redeem the time while we have the freedom, that we will go out of our way to find opportunities to speak for you, O Christ, to distribute your word far and wide. While we have resources, before our goods are spoiled, as the scriptures put it, Help us to systematically be sending them to safe and secret bank accounts in heaven. We look at the tyrants and the dictators and the warlords of our earth, and they're always pillaging their nations and sending the money to Switzerland. May your saints be constantly, secretly sending funds to the bank of heaven. Help us, O Lord, to be good stewards of our life, of our speech, of our resources. I pray that we will prepare for the inevitable and learn through it. And help us to welcome this greater capacity to glorify you as we suffer. Teach us how to suffer tonight, how to be ready for the persecution to come. Jesus, in your precious name we pray, amen. You may be seated. If you want to, in your Bibles, turn back up. I'm going to start in verse 30 of chapter 10. Because one of the first lessons we need to learn about suffering is the fact that we are not supposed to respond by fighting back. Now, the scriptures say it's OK to flee persecution. It says, if they persecute you in this city, Jesus told his apostles, flee to another. The Christians did get a little mixed up in the first century. They would step forward and say, are you looking for people to kill? I'd like to because I want to have a martyr's crown. That is not the attitude we're supposed to have. We're supposed to willingly face it, but as long as we're alive and have our freedom, we're supposed to be telling more people about Christ. That's why Jesus told his apostles, when they persecute you here, flee there. But when the persecution comes home, when the gun barrel is pointed at us, We should not wish for vengeance on this side of glory. Now you saw in Revelation 6 that the martyrs are saying, How long, Lord? How long? You said vengeance is yours. But here on earth, we do not seek personal vengeance. Vengeance belongs to God. In His time, He'll repay. Let's look at that in Hebrews 10.30. For we know Him who said, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge His people. Now, here's a principle. If you've never, that one's really underlined and got yellow highlight all around it because every time you find someone who has been hurt and they're getting back at someone, they are withholding the Lord from doing His work. I see that. I see that with couples where one member of the marriage has harmed the other one and the other one is bitterly trying to antagonize the other one. And I say, you know what? You're wasting your time. bitterness ruins you, and it withholds God's chastening." God says, vengeance belongs to me. Don't you get involved. Keep looking. Verse 31, it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God. Now look at verse 32. Now this is a historic note. Now the writer of Hebrews is writing sometime before the destruction of the temple, so somewhere in the 60s A.D. And he is writing, looking back at the history of the church the last 30 years. And look what he says about what was going on in the first century. But recall, Hebrews 10.32, the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings. That is an understatement. I mean, it was awful if you read about what was going on in those years. You know the stories. Nero's sitting on the throne. Nero was the little boy that everyone is glad they don't have. He was a wicked boy. He used to take a frying pan, just for example, and he would heat it over the fire, and he would go out and catch flies and pull their wings off and drop them in the frying pan and see how many laps they could run before that killed them. That's what he did as a two- and three-year-old child. When he got a little bit older, he was wealthy. Well, his mom married into wealth. He bought himself. Everybody back then wore sandals. He bought sandals that had pointed spikes on them. And he would pick fights in the streets. And then he would kick the people and puncture them with his spikes and actually kill them on the streets. He wasn't a very pleasant guy. Wasn't nice to be married to either. His first wife, he murdered her himself. His mother, who was too powerful for him, He sent her on a boat trip off the coast and had put a hole in the bottom of the boat, but his mother was stronger than he thought, and she swam a mile back in from the shore, or to the shore, and escaped that, so he just had her strangled. Because if she wouldn't die by drowning, he'll just kill her straight out. His wife, Papaya was her name, was with child, and he didn't want the child, so he strangled her. I mean, he was a really vicious guy. He was a practicing, overt, homosexual, sodomite. But one of his favorite things was he would take Christians, and he would tie them to sticks, and then he would have them dipped in tar. kind of like down at the mall they have that ice cream and you can go like that and the chocolate will stick to it because it's cold. Tar sticks to bodies because it cools off and sticks to us. And he would just dip Christians until they were coated with tar and it didn't kill them, it just hurt. And then he would put the post all the way around this garden and when it got to be dark, the living people on these posts covered with tar, they would light the posts and they would become torches that would light his banquets. In fact, keep your finger here for a second. Look at Romans 16. It always is eerie to read Romans 16. If you notice, starting in, let me find, starting in verse 3, there are 25 people named by name, okay? Now, Paul wrote this in the 50s. Within a few years, let me read some of these names. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers. That's verse 3. 5, likewise greet the churches in their house. Greet my beloved Eponidas, who is the firstfruits of Achaia. Verse 6, greet Mary. Verse 7, Andronicus and Junia. Verse 8, Amplius. Verse 9, Urbanus. And Stachys, my beloved. Verse 10, Apelles, approved of God. Aristobulus. 11, Herodian. Narcissus, you see all those names? Listen to this. Of the 25 named here, most certainly some ended their earthly lives in the arena. Over Romans 16, the awful glare of human torches lighting Nero's gardens flicker. These people were faithful in death because they were faithful in life. Now, back to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 31. Do you see what I mean about the great struggle with sufferings? That's what was going on, the human torch thing by this depraved, debauched monster Nero. By the way, the Senate voted to execute him, the Roman Senate. And he went to a bathhouse and got his knife and he hid in a basement in Rome and he slit his own throat. He committed suicide because he didn't want to be executed. See, he wanted to run his own life to the end. That was Nero, the wicked man. Well, keep reading, verse 33. Partly, Hebrews 10, 33, "...while you were made a spectacle." What's this? "...both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated." Do you know what else the Romans did? They used to make the Christians relive the Roman mythology. Do you know anything about the Danids in Roman mythology? They were the people who constantly were trying to fill a bucket that had holes. That's what Zeus made them. They had to fill this bottomless bucket with water. They spent their whole life pouring water in, and it would run out the bottom. But they were mythical creatures. So would they do the Christians. The same thing with whips. They would whip them while they carried buckets of water and poured them into a boat that had holes in it and the water would run out. And they actually died of exhaustion in being whipped as they kept carrying water and dumping it in an arena. And the people would clap and cheer and watch all this. Now look at verse... You were made a spectacle, verse 33, by the reproaches, the tribulations, the slipses, the pressures that were put on you. Verse 34, For you had compassion on me and my chains, the writer of Hebrews says, and joyfully accepted, look at this, the plundering of your goods. Boy, does that hit home. Most of us probably, if we had to, we could stare down a gun, we could go to jail, we could even be executed. But do you know what's hard? If verse 34 starts taking place in our country, If, to be a Christian, your goods will get plundered? Do you know, if we had a bunch of people picking on our church, and you knew if you came here they would cut your tires, they would scrape your pretty paint off your car, wouldn't you think twice about coming? You see, it's not so much the ultimate that's a problem, it's the less than ultimate that just derails people. Inconveniences. You ever notice how the attendance goes down when it rains? I always wonder about that. I think, boy, a few people come when it rains. What do they do if they're scraping the paint off their car or poking them or rock throwing like they do in Moldovia in Russia? Well, keep going. He says, you took joyfully, you took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. That's why I keep saying, put some money in your secret bank account in heaven before it gets gone here on earth. And don't cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need, verse 36, of endurance. So after you've done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a little while, verse 37, he who is coming will come and will not tarry. See the the hope of the second coming of Christ, the return of Christ for his church, for his bride. They lived by that, even here in Hebrews. Now, the just shall live by faith, and if anyone draws back, my soul will not have pleasure in him. But we are not of those who draw back. That's one of the themes of the book of Hebrews, the us and them, the we and them. We are not like them who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. The Scriptures tell us that there is a price to pay. Now, if we just look at the original 12, it's shocking, the price they paid. I just have this list, and when you think about the record since the cross, how the church has fared, if you just start with the apostles, did you know every one of them had an awful, horrible end? Each apostle and some of the well-known leaders of the church died. for the cause of Christ. And I love this story if you've ever heard it, the Quo Vadis story. During the first persecutions of the Christians, in the time of the book of Hebrews by Emperor Nero, Christians begged Peter not to expose his life because it was so necessary to the well-being of the church. So finally Peter, this is of course not from the Bible, it's just from history, Peter consented to leave Rome before Nero got his boots and kicked him to death. And so he started leaving Rome and as he fled, he was walking along the Apian Way at night. That's the main drag out of Rome. When he got two miles outside the city gates, he was met, according to this legendary story, by Jesus walking toward the city. And he looked at him, recognized him, and struck with amazement, Peter says, Lord, whither goest thou? The Savior, looking upon him with a mild sadness, replied, I go to Rome to be crucified a second time." And then vanished. And Peter immediately turned back, reentered the city, and as we all know, was crucified upside down. Now, you can still go to the marker, Quo Vadis marker, right there by the Apian Way in Rome. Whether or not that happened, It gives you a sense of what the early church was willing to suffer. All the apostles were insulted by the enemies of their master. They were called to seal the doctrines with their blood, as they nobly did. Matthew, as in the writer of Matthew's Gospel, the Gospel by Matthew, suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword in Ethiopia. He's the patron saint now of Ethiopia. Mark, The writer, Peter's nephew, that wrote the Gospel by Mark, expired in the city of Alexandria in Egypt after being dragged through the streets of the city behind his chariot. kind of like what happened in Texas, you know, the pickup truck thing, only he was dragged through because he was a proclaimer of Jesus Christ. Luke was hanged on an olive tree in the classic land, his homeland of Greece. John, as in the epistle of John in Revelation, was put into a cauldron of boiling oil, escaped death in a miraculous manner, so-called, and was afterward banished to Patmos. The problem with that story is we're not sure whether he was put in boiling oil before or after Patmos. And a lot of church historians say that he actually was martyred when he was released from Patmos when he got back to Ephesus. He's the only one we're doubtful about. As I said, Peter was crucified at Rome, head down. James the Greater was beheaded at Jerusalem. You remember that in Acts 12? James the Less was thrown from a lofty pinnacle of the temple and then beaten to death with clubs. I mean, I don't know how anybody could survive falling that far, but they did him in the rest of the way. Bartholomew was skinned alive in the Scythian manner of killing people. Andrew was bound to a cross. From whence he preached to his persecutors until he died. Thomas was run through the body with a lance in the East Indies. He got the furthest. Jude was shot to death with arrows, as in our Lord's brother Jude that wrote the book of Jude. Matthias, the one that was picked an ax, was first stoned, and they couldn't kill him. And he didn't die, so they beheaded him on the spot. Barnabas of the Gentiles was stoned to death in Thessalonica. Thessalonica. He went back there. where Paul did so much work and was stoned. And Paul, after various tortures and persecutions in the Mamertine, was at length beheaded in Rome. Now that's past history. How about current history? I thought it was very interesting that about nine or 10 days ago, we finally got to read some of the investigation from the Columbine thing. We've all heard about Cassie Bernal. But did you read the report about Rachel Scott? I mean, it finally came out in the investigator's report. She's the other Christian. She was shot in the leg by Eric Harris at Columbine High School, who after he shot her in the leg, I mean, you know how on the movies, you know, when they want them to talk, they shoot them in the leg and it hurts so much, but they're still alive, they can talk. Well, he was doing that, shot her in the leg, and she was in great pain. And he asked her, are you a Christian? And she boldly answered, yes. And so Dylan Klebold shot her dead, saying, then go be with him now. And that's persecution. That's martyrdom. Well, here's another one. A missionary and his two sons were burned to death in India in January. Did you read about that? January. I mean, four months ago. January 25, actually. He was an Australian missionary by the name of Graham Stuart Staines. He was 58 years old. He was burned to death in his car along with his son Philip, age 10, his son Timothy, age 6. Now what terrible thing did they do to get burned alive? Well, a crowd doused their car in gasoline and lit it outside a church in the town of Manharpur in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. Information sources said that Staines, this missionary, had been working with leprosy patients in India for 34 years. He'd given his life to leprosy patients to give them the gospel. His two sons were visiting him home on vacation from school. The attack came because there is rising persecution of Christians in India. The next day, five more missionaries were beaten in two other cities. The missionaries were only handing out tracks. And as they handed them out, they were beaten. But the attackers on Staines and his son, when it took place, five members of a militant group affiliated with the Hindu party were coming after any Christians. They were organized. They were looking for them. They were prepared with their gasoline. And the militants attacked the vehicle. With bows and arrows, they warned the village residents not to interfere. And then, after beating on the car so they couldn't get out, you know, I don't know what they did to it. It must have been a little car or something. They just doused the whole thing in gas, and it exploded in a fireball, and they burned to death inside. And the people who tried to help them were beaten. And so they couldn't pull him out of the car and pull him to safety. India's prime minister was quick to condemn the attack. However, the martyred missionary's wife, Gladys, told reporters, though she was upset at the attack and her husband, she was not angry at those who committed the crime. And on Monday, after the martyrdom, a memorial service was held. And Gladys, the wife, and their one remaining child, her daughter, saying for the congregation these words because Christ lives I can face tomorrow because Christ lives all our fears gone because I know Christ holds the future my life is worth the living just because he lives that's current suffering going on well back to revelation and I want to finish the seal off because there's some principles we need to learn how to get ready for persecution revelation chapter 6 and let's pondering the sobering reality that persecution is not just Peter walking out of Rome and seeing the Lord and going back to be crucified. And it's not just the 12 and the great church leaders. It's going on today in America. It's going on right now all over the world, in every region of the world. There are hundreds of people. In fact, this Voice of Martyrs play says that 844 people die every day as Christians around the world. Now, I'm not sure how they count that. whether it's 844 or 845, it doesn't matter, they're dying every day all over the world for the cause of Christ. Do you remember what the seals were? Chapter 6, the first two verses is false peace, the release of the Antichrist into the world scene, and in the lesson, remember each of these seals is a picture of what the world looks like without Jesus. That's why we're supposed to tell them about Him. And what we learned in the first seal was, in verses 1 and 2, that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and He guides us. And if we don't follow Him, we are never, we are restless in never knowing His peace in the world, because they have followed the false Christ. They have only endless lostness. Then you remember the warfare when we covered verses 3 and 4, the second seal. And that war, and the great sword, and the peace being taken is a global conflict. And the lesson is, Jesus said in John 10, 7, and 9, that he is the door of the sheep. He admits us to life. Remember, he says, I'll give you life and life more abundant. But if we don't go to him, and the world is not going to him, apart from him is only hopeless exclusion from life. and life more abundant." Then we saw the next time we looked in verses 5 and 6, the global famine, and it says there, you know, Denarius buys one day's wage, will buy one day's food, that's global famine. And the lesson is this, Jesus said in John 6, 35, He's the bread of life, He sustains us, and without Him we only have unsatisfied hunger. And then verses 7 and 8, last time we looked at, all those beasties and the beasts of the earth. And the lesson there is Jesus is the resurrection and life. He's the life giver. Apart from him, there's only endless dying. And that's what the world's going to experience. But let's look at the martyr's seal once more and kind of draw some lessons. Because the martyr's seal is a reminder, first of all, all the atrocities that have gone on in the past. I mean, I was reading the Nuremberg Diary this week. You ever read? The court report from Hitler's henchmen being tried, what they did to human beings, the Jews, the gypsies, all the other ethnic groups they purged. Have you ever read that? I mean, the torture, the starvation, mass murders, diabolical experiments on live human guinea pigs. The writer of this, Gilbert, who wrote this Nuremberg Diary said, quote, history does not record a crime perpetuated against so many victims or ever carried out with such calculated cruelty as Hitler's war machine. Many, many people in this church were alive through that and they remember the horrors. Well, with this fifth seal being broken we see the whole world becomes like Hitler's gas chambers. What's the lesson? Jesus said in John 8, 12, I am the light of the world. He that follows me will not walk in darkness. People that use human beings as live guinea pigs, people that burn people alive in their cars because they're Christians, people that stone church builders, people that burn down church buildings are walking in darkness. And Jesus said, apart from me is only impenetrable darkness. So what What does the fifth seal mean to us if we're not going to be alive in the tribulation? If we're going to be in heaven, why even study it? I mean, you ought to think about that. I mean, why do we even have it if we're not going to be here? Because what the Lord's saying is, I want to remind you what's ahead because I want you to get prepared now. And here's, real quickly, let me just read this to you. And if you're a note taker, you might want to jot some verses down. I'm going to give you a theology of suffering, OK, real quickly. How to get ready for suffering and why it's there. Number one, persecution is inevitable. It says in 1 Thessalonians 3 verses 2 through 4, and if you want to follow some of these, they're good ones to have marked in your Bible, especially if someone is going through the fire. 1 Thessalonians 3 verses 2 and 4, this is what Paul says. He says at the end of verse 2, to encourage you concerning your faith, verse 3 of chapter 3 of 1 Thessalonians, that no one should be shaken by these afflictions. Now here's the key. For you yourselves know that we are appointed to affliction." Part of the message of Christ is, part of the truth of becoming Christian is, we're going to suffer. And look at the next verse, verse 4. For in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation and it happened. And he says, we said we were going to suffer and we said you're going to suffer and both have happened. Persecutions for Christians. is inevitable. Another verse to write down, maybe in your margin there, 2 Timothy 3.12, it says this, Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Here's another one, 1 Peter 4.12, Beloved, don't think it's strange when fiery trials try you. It's not strange. It's normal. It's part of being a Christian. So number one, persecution is inevitable for us. We're not talking about the tribulation. We're talking about now. It's inevitable. Number two, we are called to participate, for Christ's sake, in persecution. It shouldn't be something that we're trying our hardest to get as far away from as we can. No, we don't run and try and get engulfed in it, but we do not hide from getting into conflict with those who are the enemies of the cross of Christ. And here's what I mean by that. Philippians 1, you're in Thessalonians, just back up two books. Philippians 1 29 says this, for to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. It's been granted. It's kind of like an opportunity, a privilege. It's like a blessing. You know what he's saying? If you'll suffer for me, I will give you, if you go through a light momentary affliction at work, at school, in your home, in your neighborhood, with your family, if you'll go through that light momentary affliction of suffering, I will give you an exceeding and an eternal weight of glory. He said, just be willing to suffer for me. First, persecution is inevitable. Secondly, we're called to participate. Chapter 3 of Philippians says the same thing in verse 10, "...that I may know him, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings." Jesus is closest in suffering. He comes close to us and walks with us through the fires. Remember he says that? When you go through the water I'll be with you, when you go through the fire I'll be with you, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Third, Number one, was persecution is inevitable. Number two, we participate in Christ's suffering. Thirdly, God's Word promises some wonderful treasures for those who face persecution. Let me just list them for you. First of all, God said, the first treasure is, I will bring peace and rest to you as you suffer. You say, really? Yeah, I read all these accounts this week, enough to make you ill. But you know what all of them said? It said, when they led them out to the stake, do you realize that about 19,000 people were burned to death in the Spanish Inquisition? Do you know when the Spanish Inquisition ended? 1823. That's like 172, 3, 4, 177 years ago, 176 years ago. It's not very long. It was still going on in modern times. They were still burning people at the stake in 1823 in Spain for being Christians. You know what the last guy was? He was a schoolteacher, and he would not have his class sing Ave Maria. He had them say, Father in heaven, we ask for your forgiveness of sins. I think he was a born-again believer in a Catholic school. And they burned him at the stake for that. And they burned 20,000 other people Alive at the stake because of their faith in Christ Wow, but you know what history records Isaiah 57 1 and 2 The righteous are taken away by the evil, but they enter into peace they rest in their beds even in death you know what that means there's a dying grace that comes upon those who have to suffer and for Christ. God will bring justice, it says in 2 Thessalonians, He'll repay. Suffering, James 1, 2 through 4 tells us, leads to our spiritual maturity. And finally, James 1, 12 says this, persecution will earn us heavenly rewards. And that's kind of the joy. You might not be the greatest evangelist. You might not be the greatest missionary translator or whatever. But God says, if you will endure persecution, James 1 12, blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those that love him. Remember, God is using this for his purposes. And He wants us to respond correctly, to pray for those that persecute us, to love them, and to let the fragrance of Christ. If you ever want to read something interesting, read Foxe's Book of Martyrs, and read about how these people died. Read about what they said on their way to the stake, what they said on their way to the arena, what they said as they were dunked. The Roman Catholic Church used to take the Baptist who believed in believer's baptism, and they'd say, you like that? We'll baptize you. And they used to baptize them. And they'd just keep putting them in. And they'd go, I'm trying to get a breath. And finally, they just drowned. And that's the history of what believers have had to go through. But you know what those people said as they were being drowned? as they were being cut, wrapped in hot chains. They would all quote from the scripture, Father forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. And Jesus never, they weren't screeching indictments on Him, they were giving them the gospel. How do we prepare for persecution? Understand it's part of God's plan for us. Understand God has numbered the martyrs, He knows exactly what He's doing and He's going to fulfill that number. Make sure that we see that there's a great heavenly reward. And make sure that we see that God has promised, Isaiah 57, 1 and 2, a special grace. If we have to go through what is more than our human strength, God will strengthen us through it. Let's be prepared. I believe it's coming. And let's bow before our Lord and just commit ourselves once again to be His good and faithful servants. Father in heaven, we three times today have been singing some very special words. All I am, all I have, all I'll ever be, absolutely positively now and forever, I give it to you. Father, I pray that would be true in our lives. I don't think very many of us will be stoned tonight or burned tomorrow. But we might be ostracized Tuesday at work This fall at school, we might be picked on or during summer school. We might be asked by our employers to do something that is unethical. And when we say no, we might lose the promotion, the bonus, or even the job. But the days are coming when our goods will be spoiled and our lives may be taken. I pray that we would become experts in preparation for persecution. that we might get that exceeding and eternal weight of glory as we endure whatever light and momentary affliction you send our way. Thank you, O Lord, that we can remember your great grace as we live in this dark and twisted world, holding forth the word of life. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful rest of the day in the Lord.