[Len Martin] After the birth of our first son, Joel, which was 26 years ago now, my wife and I, like many parents thought it would be a good idea to get a book on nursery rhymes to read to our little baby. That’s the parents thing to do, right? As an adult, I had faint memories of nursery rhymes as a child. I thought I knew the words to them, I thought it would be a great tradition to start with our own family – the bedtime nursery rhyme, or a lullaby – something that would help to put them to sleep. It wasn’t until my wife and I started looking at them… in fact, at home I have a digital copy of all the Mother Goose and Grimm nursery rhymes. But when we went shopping, it was only then that we really started paying attention to the words. I don’t know if you ever paid attention to some of the words of lullabies or lines. I’ll share two with you.

The first is The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe – that’s a Mother Goose rhyme: “There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, she had so many children she didn’t know what to do. So she gave them some broth without any bread, and she whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed.” Okay, very encouraging there, I’m sure the children enjoyed that one!

How about Rock-a-Bye Baby – a very familiar one: “Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. And down will come baby, cradle and all.” (Explosion sound) Right to the ground.

There are many like that. When I look at these, I think to myself, “No wonder you can’t get a child to go to sleep when you’re reading these.” Because they’re listening going, “What??” It’s hard to believe that the purpose of a lullaby is to put a baby to sleep. It’s the art of putting a baby to sleep with a lullaby, the art itself has more to do with a soothing melody, a calming environment, where a baby can relax, and have senses and feelings that everything is fine, and everything is good. It creates a comfortable environment. Things are peaceful and things are calm. If you’ve ever been a parent, you probably remember that time when the child does this: ahhhhh. And you know you’re almost there – like it’s that last little… All that air comes out of their lungs and you know that I’ve just got another minute or so, and I can probably lay them down and it will all be fine.

In Psalm 127, we see that physical sleep is certainly something we all need for our overall health. I gave a whole sermon on health not too long ago, and I think I even shared with you that was one of my goals in the past year – was to get more sleep. I’ve done much better at that, trying to force myself to go to bed sooner and sleep through the night. And the days of four hours a night or less is something I did for too long. In Psalm 127, we see the futility of that and the fact that God wants us to get proper rest. It says:

Psalm 127:1 – “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” You know, all your efforts, unless God is involved, are pointless and they lead to nothing. Notice what it says in verse 2: “It is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late” – it’s like burning the candle at both ends, right? You think you’re being productive – maybe you are – but it doesn’t lead to the best outcome for you. Because it says: “…to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.”

So again, we see this principle. You can work yourself to the grave. As the saying goes, “Up early… Again, it’s not… on the other hand, you don’t want to become a sluggard, right? We’ve looked at that in the past. But the principle is that physical sleep is certainly something we all need. It’s important to us. Spiritual sleep, however, is another matter altogether. Scripture has ample warning to us about falling asleep spiritually – and the consequences. Probably the most memorable is in Matthew 25 - as we go to the parable of the ten virgins – that’s probably one that comes to our mind. Let’s go there quickly. We won’t go through the whole parable. It’s a familiar parable. I’d just like to note the beginning, because it is an admonition for all of us about falling asleep. Matthew 25, and I’ll begin in verse 1:

Matthew 25:1 – “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened unto ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise and five were foolish.” And it goes on to define what it means by wise and foolish. The wise took oil in their vessels, right? Verse 3: “Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them” – verse 4 – “but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.” We’ve all heard many, many sermons – I’ve given them myself – on the parallels of the Holy Spirit being oil, and we should be having God’s word in our lives, and it should be part of us, and we should be prepared, and all that goes with that. In verse 5, though, it says: “While the bridegroom was delayed, they all slept, they all slumbered – all of them.” You know, for years we thought the wise and the foolish… The wise ones were awake and alert and ready to go. No, they were all asleep. What saved them, in essence – if I can use that term – was that they prepared so when they were awakened from sleep, they were still prepared.

Do you think that individual members of the Church of the living God are asleep? Have become complacent? I’ve got three questions for you. That’s one of them. The second is: Do you think you could be complacent – having fallen asleep spiritually? And thirdly: Would you describe the condition of the Church as a whole as complacent? Fallen asleep?

I want to explore this topic today in a slightly different manner than I might normally do. The answers to these questions will enable us to take an inventory of ourselves and our present spiritual condition to help us determine whether or not we have fallen asleep to a Satanic lullaby. And that’s the title of the sermon – A Satanic Lullaby. And I’ll explain where I got that title here in a moment. This title came from a story that was shared in a three-part documentary I watched several weeks ago – referred to me by Mr. Dan Baker. We were discussing some things, and he commented on this thing, so I looked at it. I was in the midst of preparing a sermon on Jacob’s trouble and the place of safety, and this kind of got me… I’ll say sidetracked, in a good way. I think because it quite captivated me. The documentary is titled Sheep Among Wolves, volume 2. It’s an hour and fifty minutes – almost two hours long. It’s broken into three parts, but you can find it on YouTube. And it’s all three parts run together in an hour and fifty minutes.

It tells the story of the growth of what I would describe as, for lack of a better term, a mainstream evangelical Christian movement – and it’s probably about the best way I could summarize it – but in, of all places, the nation of Iran. That alone intrigued me – that this would be taking place in the nation of Iran – and hence the authors of this documentary decided to call it Sheep Among Wolves. Because this is where this movement is growing – in, of all places, a predominately Muslim nation. The current religious demographics of Iran are disputed but according to the 2011 Iranian National Population and Housing Census – so we’ll have to say that this is accurate because this is what they publish and I have no evidence to dispute it – but they would claim that 99.98% of Iranians believe in Islam.

Now the documentary would refute that, they have reason to suggest that it’s not accurate, but that’s what they put out, 99.98% of Iranians believe in Islam. Now I would argue the reason they would publish that is, because if you say you don’t believe in that, they will kill you. So, if they were doing a door-to-door survey, you’re probably going to say, “Uh huh,” right? The producers of the movie – again, if you decide to watch it, I’m not telling you to watch it or not to watch it – you’ll find that they have very different theology than us in a lot of areas. So, I’m not promoting it from a theological standpoint. Things that we know to be true, they have different views in several areas – things that we would know would not be supported in scripture. So, I’m not suggesting in any way that everything about this documentary is biblically accurate. For example, one of the things they will talk about in this documentary is they believe in “obedience-based discipleship,” that they define as you must obey every word of scripture. And yet, clearly, we know some of the things they are doing are not obeying every word of scripture. But again, what it points out from my takeaway, it shows clearly that God has to open up a mind to understand. There are a couple key things, though, that I think they do know, and based on those two things, they’re moved in a way that I found quite compelling, and I’ll get to those in a moment. But you know, if we line up all of our theologies and all of our doctrines and all those things, we would probably have a lot more different than in common from that standpoint. But – I hate to admit this – I think they trump us in one way or another, which I’ll talk about here in a moment. But again, I say that because, again, it shows that even very sincere people, if God’s not opening up their mind to understand, they can only understand so much. But we have to give credit where credit’s due, because there are some things they understand that has really moved them.

Some interesting things that gave me pause to reflect as I was watching this is that this new mainstream Christian movement, for lack of a better term is the fastest growing church in the world today. Growing at 5.2% a year, according to their numbers – 5.2% annual growth of a Christian movement in Iran. Most of those people are coming out of a Muslim background. They have no denominational meetings. They have no buildings. They cannot be public for fear of death in that regard. They’re very pro-Israel. They recognize Jesus as Messiah and that there’s a coming Kingdom of God. Those two things they get. Now I couldn’t remember if they actually pictured the Kingdom of God being in heaven or on earth, but they speak often of Jesus as Messiah and a coming kingdom of God. And those two things alone establishes the bulk of what motivates them. And those are truths that we know.

Join me in 1 Peter 3. We looked at 1 Peter 3 a sermon or two ago. The growth that they are experiencing is all word of mouth. They can’t have any public lectures – anything like that. It’s what we would – it’s person to person – it’s what we would call personal evangelism. 1 Peter 3 speaks to this, and again, we touched on this not too long ago, so I’ll just touch on it briefly – 1 Peter 3, and verse 15:

1 Peter 3:15 – “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense” – or to give an answer – “to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” And that’s what they do. As they are talking to people and an opportunity presents itself – and somebody might ask them – they tell people, one on one, person to person, what they believe and why. And that’s how this organization has grown. Again, we would maybe call it personal evangelism. But it’s not the growth of this movement that moved me – that impressed me. What impressed me was the fact that this fastest-growing church, if we can use that term, is growing in the midst of a Muslim world. I was trying to wrap my head around this – like how is this possible? But it is. And again, they talk more about that, I don’t want to get into all those details. But notice what follows after 1 Peter 3 and verse 15. Let’s continue reading in verses 16 and 17.

Verses 16-18 – “…having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evil doers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” How many of us are really prepared to suffer? That was one of the big takeaways I had from watching this. The word that’s used here for suffer is also the word used in the very next verse to describe what Jesus went through. “Christ also suffered…” it says in verse 18. And we know how Christ suffered. So, are we ready to suffer as Christ suffered because it’s the same word used in verse 17 and verse 18.

I believe we are very weak in our understanding of what it means to suffer and to martyrdom. We’re so not ready. We are so not ready. We’re not ready for suffering of any kind. We, if I can be honest, we had a hard time getting through this past year over masks. And let’s be honest. Can we… I don’t want to say, “Give me an amen.” I’ll get in trouble! Can we not agree to that – that was hard enough, wasn’t it? It was hard enough. We’re so not ready for suffering – true suffering. The suffering that is spoken of in scripture is not about masks or law. It’s about your faith. It’s suffering over your faith and what you believe. Are you a Christian? Yes or no – gun to your head kind of suffering. We’re so not ready. That’s what I think moved me in watching these people. The whole thing is done with modified voices and blacked-out faces because if they get identified, they’re done. I mean they’re literally going to be murdered.

Again, if we think this past year with masks and Covid and lockdowns and social distancing or anti-social distancing – whatever you want to call it – is tough, we haven’t seen anything yet. We really haven’t. Wait until real suffering comes. Maybe that is what we were supposed to learn this past year – we’re not ready.

Remember the first message I gave to you in the webcast from my home was titled “A Shot Across the Bow?” And I keep coming back to that. I think all of this is like a wake-up. This is just a shot across the bow. Pay attention! You’re so not ready. Maybe God is trying to wake us up and get us ready. We’ve fallen asleep, and the end is near, and you’re running out of time.

Notice in Mark 8, Jesus records the true cost of discipleship. If you’ve got a Harmony of the Gospels, you could find it also in Matthew 16 and Luke 9. But we’re going to read from Mark 8. Mark, chapter 8, and we’ll begin in verse 34:

Mark 8:34-35 – “And when He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.’”

What decisions have people made in the past year to preserve their physical life at the expense of obedience to God? I don’t want to get specific. I don’t want anybody on the spot. But I’ll give one example – because somebody asked me this question about going to the Feast. “Are you afraid of going to the Feast, of getting Covid and dying?” I’m like, “No, I’d rather go to the Feast. If I go to the Feast and get Covid and die, that’s God’s will. I can go to the Feast and I can get hit by a car going there. That’s never stopped me before.”

But if a decision to not obey God to preserve my physical life – that’s what He’s talking about here… What decisions are we making to preserve this life at the expense of eternal life? It’s something we should always be asking ourselves in every aspect of our life. What decisions am I making to preserve this physical body at the expense of eternal life? There will be other things come our way that we’re going to have to sort out in relation to that. It will be up to every individual to make that decision for yourself, because you answer to God. You don’t answer to me. I don’t answer to God for you. We all have to answer for the choices and the decisions we make. I’m off on a tangent here, but that particular one, as I remember telling somebody, I said, “Well, if anybody had the authority not to go keep the Feast someplace, Jesus did.” Remember? He told His disciples, “You go to Jerusalem. We’re in Galilee. My time is not yet.” He still went. He had the authority to say, “I’ll tell you what. We’re just going to keep it right here, because if I go to Jerusalem, they seek to kill Me.” But He didn’t do that. And when the time came, He went and not only went up there, but stood in the middle of the temple. So, I keep going back: “If somebody had the authority to change the time and the place, He did. But He didn’t. So why would I think I could? So, I’m going to go in faith, right, trusting in God. I’ll do my part to keep myself as safe as I possibly can, but in the end, you know driving to the Feast is probably more dangerous than once you’re there anyway.” But again, these are the kind of things – kind of questions – we should be asking ourselves as we’re making decisions to go to church or not go to church, to do this or not do this.

Verse 35-38 – “Whoever desires to save his life, will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” He’s speaking about eternal life is what we’re hanging onto. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” What would you give to preserve this life in exchange for eternal life? It could be, “Well, I don’t want to go to the Feast. I could lose my job…” Again, I don’t want to get into specifics – I’m not turning it into a sermon on specifics. I want us to think big picture. What decisions am I making in my life that is all about preserving this life at the expense of obedience to God? So again, Verse 37: “Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whosoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Now how many of us – a couple more questions – would deny being followers of Jesus Christ to save our lives? Again, are you a Christian? Gun to your head, need an answer, yes or no. I don’t think most of us would. I tend to believe most of us wouldn’t fail on that one. I give us that much credit. But another question, how many of us would compromise with obedience to God to save our lives? Again, not going to the Feast, working on the Sabbath, or how about, the mark of the beast? You read into that. It’s not an accident that gets slipped in on you, right? Clearly, it is a choice that is made. Let’s go back and look at Revelation 19 and Revelation 20. It says some choose it, and it says those that didn’t accept it… So clearly a choice is being made. It’s not like, “Whoops, I didn’t know that was the mark of the beast.” No, it’s something you’re going to know and you’re going to choose. Again, Mark 8, and verse 38:

Verse 38 – “Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed…”

How many of us – another question – would be ashamed to speak the Biblical truths, or be embarrassed? People come and ask you direct questions about all the social issues going on in our society. Are you ready to give an answer – ready to give a defense, as 1 Peter 3 says? Speaking the truth in love, as Ephesians 4:15 reminds us? Are we prepared to do that? Or, would we just skirt the question? I submit there may come a day when we can’t just dodge the questions. You know, our Christianity, as a whole, is coming under attack. Shouldn’t be a surprise to all of us.

The documentary told the story of a husband and wife. Each morning, when they would part ways for the day, they would acknowledge to each other that it may be the last time they see one another because they recognized that, if they get found out, it was certain death. I’ve never had to say goodbye to my wife every morning with the thought that I wouldn’t see her that evening. They do. So, when they say goodbye in the morning, it’s maybe goodbye forever. I was kind of moved by that. The woman stated, “I know that if I am caught, I would most likely be repeatedly raped, beaten and further tortured until I die.” And the husband would also be tortured and killed. You see, the government would have to make an example of them so nobody else would get the idea of becoming Christians, and so it would be a very public visual thing to send a message to others. So, each and every morning, it was, “Goodbye. I may or may not be back.” They didn’t know. But here’s what really stuck with me. She said this: “This is the choice we have made in order to follow Christ and we accept it.” Wow! We have had it so easy here for so long. We don’t know what persecution is. We don’t. I hope we all can at least admit that. We have no idea. You can read about it in books, right, but we have no idea because we haven’t lived it. We haven’t experienced it in that way.

One of the most compelling statements in this documentary involved the story of another husband and wife. They were able to get out of Iran and move to the United States, which I think we all think would be a wonderful thing. Yay! They got out! They are here in the States now. They have more freedoms – freedom of religion and all that – that they can enjoy in this country. After they lived in America for a short period of time – they didn’t really specify how long – the wife began to plead with her husband to move back to Iran, which I found just crazy, I couldn’t wrap my head around it. After all, even her husband said, “Who would want to go back there? You know, we got out from under that oppression, where the mere sharing of anything you believe – your faith – would mean certain death. Why would we want to go back?” She told him – and this is the point of the sermon title – “There is a Satanic lullaby here in the United States. All the Christians are sleepy and I’m falling asleep.” This woman determined that spiritual sleepiness was more dangerous to her than to remain under persecution. Now obviously, you could jump to the conclusion, which I’m sure we all did, that it’s sad that we need external pressure to motivate us. Right? But that’s the human condition, right? How many of us would get our work done if the boss wasn’t expecting it by five o-clock Friday? It’s our nature to procrastinate – to put things off. But she was so afraid of spiritually falling asleep that she’d rather go there where she would remain focused and alert. I had to ask myself, would I do that? You know what my answer was? Uh uh, I don’t want to. I was being honest. I would not want to do that. But it was so important to her that, that’s what she pleaded with her husband to do. She would rather risk, as the other woman talked about, rape, torture and death at the hands of the Iranians than to potentially miss out on this Kingdom of God she heard about. That’s how much it meant to her. And to that, we have to give credit where credit is due. It was that important to her that she felt she needed to do that. She was afraid she was becoming spiritually lethargic and falling asleep, and it scared her. She recognized that lethargy, that indifference, that complacency, lukewarm – let’s use a term that we’re familiar with, Laodicea – was more dangerous to her than her physical death. So, she’d rather go back.

You know, as I said a moment ago, our nation is moving beyond just being secular – that is, having no religion or no connection. We’re not even atheist, where we just don’t believe in God. We’ve become anti-Christian. There’s a movement against Christianity, Christianity is being blamed for all the world’s problems and, as a result, there’s a growing movement against it. This anti-Christian movement believes Christianity isn’t just a naïve or silly belief, but it’s the cause of most problems in society. It’s because it is intolerant is why it is considered evil. And they define intolerance as we don’t support what they believe, so that makes us intolerant. And yet Christians, I think, are overwhelmingly tolerant people. We tolerate a lot of things that we know are wrong in our society.

And this belief now… it’s got the idea that Christianity can no longer just be silent. It needs to be purged. It needs to go. Because of the direction our society is moving, we’re a roadblock to that. And so, are we ready to be persecuted for what we believe? All of this is a product of – you can do a search for – cultural Marxism, which is the Marxist ideology placed upon our culture. Voddie Baucham has a really nice piece on YouTube about Cultural Marxism. You can look that up, but it basically is a Marxist attack on any Judeo-Christian values in our nation. They want that stomped out and eradicated.

I remember when Melvin Rhodes moved to the United States from Africa. He came to our congregations, where he pastored when he came, and he said, “Most Americans don’t realize it, but you’ve been living in Disneyland. Compared to the rest of the world, this is Disneyland. It’s a make-believe la-la land where everything is wonderful. But the rest of the world is not that way.” I never forgot that. We’ve been in this dream world. We’ve been comforted and lulled to sleep by a Satanic lullaby that has us believe everything is just fine. It’s all good. And these elections that come and go are mildly interrupting, but it’s all good. It’s all fine. Don’t get worked up. So, we stay asleep. We don’t have the passion and zeal that maybe we would if we were fully awake and alert. We know scripture tells us if we stay in this lullaby, sudden destruction comes, right? – just like that.

So, I’ll ask again, Have we become complacent? Have we fallen asleep to this Satanic lullaby, as the woman used in the documentary, which I think was a really good metaphor for what we’ve experienced here. You know, I often marvel as I did in watching this documentary, at people who have passion with no truth. And we have truth and lack passion. Now they had bits of truth. I don’t say they had none. They understood Jesus as the Messiah and the coming Kingdom. That part they knew. That was enough to give them the passion to risk death. So, I’ll tell you what pricked my conscience in watching that is: Where is our passion? Where is our passion for what God is… He has granted us so much more truth than they have. I throw myself in that too, you know, whether it comes down to just every aspect of all that we do and, you know, just from singing of hymns, and our time together, and the passion just to be together, and focus on that which uplifts and encourages.

If we go back a few chapters in the book of Mark – Mark 14 – there’s a parallel account in Matthew 26, but we’re here in Mark so we’ll go to Mark 14. This is after Jesus is betrayed by Judas. He has Passover with His disciples, and the New Covenant symbols are instituted. In verse 26, they go out and they sing a hymn on the Mount of Olives. And that is usually where we end our Passover service. Notice, then, what is recorded after that – verse 27 of Mark 14:

Mark 14:27-42 – “Then Jesus said to them, ‘All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: “I will strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.” But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.’ And Peter said to Him, ‘Even if all are made to stumble, I will not.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.’ But he spoke more vehemently, ‘If have to die with You, I will not deny You!’ And they all likewise said the same thing.”

Peter was that sure of himself – that he had that much spiritual strength that “even if everybody else denied you, I wouldn’t do it. I would die before I would deny you.” And, as it said here, they all likewise said the same thing. Yet Jesus warned Peter: “Peter, appreciate your zeal, but the truth is, you’re going to deny Me.” I take this, every time I read it, as an admonition to myself – that we should all be careful that we think it won’t happen to me. “Maybe everybody else is asleep, but I’m not asleep.” Or, maybe this or maybe that. We should all be careful that we don’t draw that conclusion. The word that is used here means to sleep a sleep of death. Continue on, dropping down here to verse… let’s continue on. So, He goes to praying in the garden, and it says:

“Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ And He took Peter, James and John with Him.” Now I think we’ve looked at this before. I believe the reason He took those three was because of what Peter just said and the fact that James and John wanted to be on His right hand and His left. And He said, “I’m going to take you. you and you. Come with Me.” I think He felt like they needed to be singled out for this little excursion they were going to go on. “He took them, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed, He said to them, ‘My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.’ He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it was possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.’” Verse 37: “Then He came and found them sleeping” – and that’s that word that literally means sleep of death. They were just asleep. “He said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch for one hour? Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’”

We can all think – mentally, and spiritually, and intellectually – that we’re ready for these things. But He says the flesh is what’s weak. “Again He went away,” verse 39 “and prayed, and spoke the same words. And when He returned, He found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy” – and I like this last part of verse 40 – “and they didn’t even know how to answer Him.” At this point, they were just caught red-handed! This time they just… they didn’t answer this time, because He already warned them once, and He came again. So, verse 41: “He came a third time, and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough! The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going, My betrayer is at hand.’”

So again, we see this sleep of death, as the word is translated, to be spiritually asleep – to be secure and unconcerned of the state of our lives, and not being alert and awake and ready for Christ’s return.

You know, as we look through these verses – verses 33 through 37 –instead of praying, all three of them were sleeping. The second time when He came, they didn’t know how to answer and so the question is: If they, who had spent so much time in the physical presence of our Savior could fall asleep, why would we think we couldn’t fall asleep? I mean, think of all they witnessed through His presence, and yet they didn’t feel moved enough to do what He asked them to do – to stay awake – gone an hour, go back, and they’re asleep. So, I think if it can happen to them, it certainly can happen to us. In 2 Corinthians – when I consider somebody that suffered a lot, I think of Paul. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, Paul lists here an account of his life, describing many of the things he suffered after his conversion. 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, and begin in verse 23, just breaking into the context. He’s speaking of suffering:

2 Corinthians 11:23-29 – “Are they ministers of Christ? – I speak as a fool – I am more…” And he begins then list out much of what he endured: “…in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.” Okay, if we stop there, I haven’t had any of those in my life. So you could stop right there Paul. You got me. But then, he goes on: “From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked – a night and a day I’ve been in the deep – in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils of the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils of the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil and sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness – besides the other things what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.”

You know, here we see as Paul lists out all that he endured, the thing about Paul is, after every single one of those, he got up and went right back out there. He got up and just over and over and over again… And I daresay I haven’t had to experience one of those. Are we ready for persecution? No, I think if we’re honest with ourselves, we’re so not ready.

With this background about Paul, let’s go to Timothy now. It’s with that he writes to Timothy. And I know I’ve commented… we’re well aware of the relationship between Paul and Timothy He loved young Timothy, mentored him, had a certain affection toward him as this young mentor. And Paul would always write to him in very intimate special ways. In 2 Timothy, chapter 1 – with the background of all that Paul suffered, this is what he writes to Timothy. We’ll pick it up in verse 6:

2 Timothy 1:6-9 – “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.” If we find ourselves fearful, we have to ask why; because that’s not the Spirit He’s given us. Oh, there are times we’re going to have fear in our life. Don’t get me wrong. But we shouldn’t stay there. We need to take that sound mind, with the power of the Holy Spirit, to process why I’m in fear and move beyond that. He’s not given us the spirit of fear, but power, love and a sound mind. “Therefore,” verse 8 “do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner. But share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, which saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”

He says, “Look, don’t be ashamed. In fact, share in these sufferings for the gospel and the furtherance of it.” And I keep going back to, would we do that or would we run? It’s something we should be thinking about. I’ve not had to endure what these people are enduring. I don’t want to endure what they’re enduring. I don’t want to have to go through it. But, if I had to, could I? That’s something we should be asking ourselves. He goes on then, in chapter 2, to describe our service as being that of a soldier. We know that soldiers take an oath to endure any and all hardships. You know, they don’t get to say, “I don’t want to go sleep in that foxhole.” It’s not an option. You do what you’re told to do. 2 Timothy, chapter 2:

2 Timothy 2:1-26 – “You therefore my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also, if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hard-working farmer must be the first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains. The word of God is not chained. Therefore, I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This is a faithful saying” – verse 11 – “For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself.”

He goes on then, in verse 14, to list some practical instructions now on how to live and conduct our lives: “Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord, not to strive about words to no profit to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless” – verse 19 – “the solid foundation of God stands having this seal: ‘The Lord knows who are His,’ and ‘Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.’” He goes on then, notice what he says in verse 20: “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore” – what he’s saying is, in this house, in this building, in this congregation, in the church, there will be some vessels for honor and some for dishonor. You’ve got parables of the wheat and the tares and different things, right? Notice what he says here: “Therefore” – verse 21 – “if anyone cleanses themselves from the latter” – that is, being a vessel for dishonor – “you will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.” He goes on and speaks of: “Flee youthful lusts… and avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, they only generate strife.” Verse 24: “A servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil” – wake up out of that Satanic lullaby – “having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

Paul admonishes Timothy that – and we need to heed these words ourselves – come to their senses. Wake up. You’ve been in a lullaby for too long. You know, if we were upset with how things have gone in the last six months of the year of the Covid thing – the lockdown, elections and all that turmoil in our nation – it’s just the start of things. If we’re upset over that, we need to wake up. It’s only going to get much worse. We need to have that fire in the belly that we once had – that ignites that passion for why we’re here, why God called us, what our purpose is.

I mentioned the Parable of the Ten Virgins, I won’t go there. You may want to read through that again. Again, they were all asleep when the story began. That’s the big takeaway. Notice Luke 17, because as I said, “If we don’t wake up, then sudden destruction comes and we’ll be caught completely unaware.” We want to be careful we don’t get the attitude that everything is just fine. Luke, chapter 17, verse 26:

Luke 17:26 – “And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” We’ve looked at this in the past. It doesn’t say they were sinning. It says they were living their lives. They were eating and drinking and marrying and having families. They were just going about life. Verse 28: “Likewise it was also in the days of Lot. They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, and it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.” Verse 30: “Even so it will be in the day, even when the Son of Man is revealed, and that day he was on the house tops, his goods were in the house, let him not come down and take them away. And likewise, the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. ‘Remember Lot’s wife,’” it says in Verse 32.

Again, we don’t want to be people that think, “Oh, everything’s fine. We’ve got plenty of time.” We have to keep living our lives. It doesn’t say, “Stop living your lives,” but don’t be caught unaware while you’re living your lives, and planning your lives, and planning your future.

So again, ask yourself, “Have I been complacent? Have I been asleep in some kind of Satanic lullaby, thinking things are maybe not as bad off as they might be? Have I allowed myself to drift into some false sense of security? I think, to some extent, we all have, because we don’t understand persecution like other people do. You know, Laodicea – won’t go there in Revelation 3 – is described as “rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing.” It’s all good, fine. Doing just fine.

You know, another interesting statement in this documentary was their view of converts versus disciples. And I meditated on this since watching this. To them a convert is someone who really converts – from a set of beliefs to another set of beliefs. And you can do that academically; you can just sit down and academically prove something. “I’ve got to stop doing that, maybe this. I’m going to stop attending there.” You can do that academically. You can convert from one place to the other.

A disciple is someone who truly wants to become like their Master, even to the point of death. It’s different than just converting. We’ve looked at this word in the past. Discipleship – in Holman’s Bible Dictionary – it comes from a Latin root meaning learner or pupil. I’ll give you a short answer from Holman’s. It says, “It was a task of the disciple to learn, study and pass along the same teachings of the master.” The task of a disciple is to learn, to study and be able to pass along the sayings and teachings of the master. We should all be striving to do that. Can you explain to somebody your beliefs, without a booklet, just your Bible? Maybe you’ve got notes in your Bible, but could you do that? “Why do you keep the Sabbath on Saturday? I keep the Sabbath on Sunday.” How would you start that discussion? Why do you keep the holy days? Why do you do what you do? Can we pass along the sayings and teachings of our Master? That’s what a true disciple can do.

Here’s a statement in the documentary that stuck with me. And that’s why it’s important that we understand, we don’t want to just be a convert – converted from something else to this – but we want to be true disciples. They said, “Converts run away from persecution. Disciples would die for their Lord in persecution, because they have that kind of relationship with their Master and their Mentor – that they would die rather than run away.” A convert, they might just run away because it’s all academic. It was just all head knowledge. The disciple, they’re trying to be like their mentor, and so they will go to the death in defense of that. We want to be disciples, not converts.

So, this is the way these people live every day. When I consider how they live compared to how we live our lives for us, persecution is mostly theory. We thought masks were persecution. I did not like it. Don’t get me wrong, but we do not know what persecution is. We don’t. It means we need to be aware of that. We need to be prepared for that. Even when the time comes, are we going to be able to stand up under persecution?

You know, those people truly are ready to die for their beliefs. The woman in the documentary was able to actually convince her husband to move back to Iran. I couldn’t believe it. But they did. They packed up and moved back. It was that important to her. He said, “Well, if it’s that important, then we’ll do it.” And they moved back. And again, it’s sad that you would need an external pressure, but I think that’s just human nature. I think we would all agree with that. As I said, you can look at something in your own life – pick something innocuous, like a deadline at work. If you did have a deadline, would you really get around to it? It’s just that human nature tends to procrastinate. She would rather risk all of that – rape, torture and death – rather than falling asleep spiritually. And that’s just based on the bit of knowledge that she does know. We know so much more – so much more that God has given us to know. Would we have the courage to do the same? To risk death to stay wide awake?

You know, every professing Christian knows John 3:16. Let’s go there.

John 3:16-20 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever shall believe in Him should not perish but have ever lasting life” – John 3:16. Let’s read beyond that – verse 17: “For God did not send His Son in the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”  Verse 19: “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

You know, we live in a time when men love darkness rather than light. They don’t like what we stand for overwhelmingly. We put boundaries on what they want to do. We put limits on how they want to live. They don’t like that. They’d rather be and stay in darkness. But that shouldn’t give us cause to stop preaching what we know to be true.

Again, at the end of the address to the church of Laodicea, they were admonished to be zealous and repent. Be zealous and repent. You know, we need to get a zeal like we haven’t had in years. If you think, as became pretty evident in the past year, and certainly up to the election and afterwards, people really went off the rails, upset – in and out of the Church – for any number of reasons. But, if we think this last year was hard, then we have no clue what hard really is. That was my takeaway. And I had to realize, watching what these people are going through, I think the woman was right. We’ve been in a Satanic lullaby. We’ve been asleep. I mean, okay, we think we’re doing a little bit better than the world, and we think that’s good enough. We’re doing a little bit better than the world. The world just keeps going down. Over time, we started out here and we’re over here. We need to stay wide awake and alert.

Romans 13… a few scriptures and I’ll be done here. As I said, sometime in the past year, in one of the sermons, we looked at – and you can kind of make light of it, in one sense – to illustrate a point. We’ll stand someday with people that are resurrected after suffering horrible martyrdom, and we’re going to try and explain that masks were tough, and they’re going to say, “I was sawn in half.” “Yeah, but we had to put masks on for a whole year.” I laugh just to keep it light, but we don’t know what persecution is, right? That’s the reality of it. So, we have to be ready, because the institutions of our government have allowed for the censoring of free speech. We’ve seen that happen now in the last few months. They shut down businesses that they don’t like, or they think are non-essential. They de-platformed companies right off the internet – just erased them. They’ve got to scramble to find a way to get back on. How long before we’re told we can no longer speak about… fill in the blank? What are we going to do? These are questions we should be thinking about. Romans, chapter 13, and verse 11:

Romans 13:11 – “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” It is time to wake up! We’ve been asleep for far too long. In verse 12 it says, “…cast off the works of darkness…” – that Satanic lullaby. Wake up! And don’t be lulled to sleep.

2 Timothy 3. Go back again to the second epistle Paul wrote to Timothy – 2 Timothy 3, beginning in verse 1, it says:

2 Timothy 3:1-5 – “But know this, in the last days perilous times will come; for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without self-control, brutal, despisers of good.” Verse 4: “traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” – we totally see that going on in our world today. Verse 5: “Having a form of godliness, but denying its power. And from such people, turn away!” Drop down to Verse 12:

Verse 12 – “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” Why would we be trying to avoid persecution when it says we will suffer persecution? Again, I’m not lining up. If they’re lining people up, I’ll let you all go first, because, you know, I’ll hold the door! None of us want to line up for it, but are we ready for it if it comes? Because it says in verse 12: “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”

I’ll have to admit, in light of what I saw in those people from Iran, I do think individual members of the Church are asleep. I can say that. The second question I had is: Have I become complacent? Well yeah, I think we all have – certainly to some degree or another. I can certainly admit that – especially when I compare myself to what they’re enduring. Again, they know Jesus is the Messiah. They love the Jewish people. They love the nation of Israel, because they understand the heritage and the history between their nations. They know there’s a coming Kingdom. And based on that alone, they’re ready to die. Compare myself to that? Yeah, I think we’ve fallen asleep. The Church as a whole – condition of the Church as a whole – I think that was the third question I had: Have we become complacent church? I guess I should say, “Maybe,” but I think we have. I think we’ve had it pretty good quite a while and my concern is, when persecution comes, what’s going to happen? Are we going to turn and devour and bite? I don’t know, because when it comes, are we ready for it? Are we ready for it? I think now, more than ever, we should seriously consider the importance of our time together each and every Sabbath. I know I’ve harped on it a million times, and I’ll harp on it again. We need to value the time while we still can come together. Hebrews 10:24 is the why – that we would:

Hebrews 10:24 – “…stir up love and good works” – and verse 25 – “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, even more so” – as it says – “as you see the day approaching.”