Do Not Love Your Life, Even Unto Death!

Revelation 12:11—the eleventh verse in particular—is going to be the main text supporting my message, because that was what struck me most. But we are going to read the context around it, beginning with verse 7, although I am going to read verse 11 first. I’m going to read verse 11 first. Verse 11 of Revelation chapter 12 says in the word of the Lord, “...and they have overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives even unto death....”

Let us now go to verse 7 of chapter 12. It says there: “...Then there was a great battle in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought. But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. And the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now salvation, and power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ have come, because the accuser of our brothers has been cast down, the one who accused them before our God day and night. And they have overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives even unto death. Therefore rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you in great wrath, knowing that he has little time....”

May the Lord bless His holy word. I do not know how long or how short this sermon is going to be. I say that because what I really have is a thought and a word that the Lord placed in my heart as I was thinking about what to speak to you about and what to share with you this morning. I could relatively easily have continued the series of sermons I began some time ago concerning the great truths of the Christian faith. The last time, I remember, I spoke about the deity of Jesus Christ, which is one of the great, great teachings of the orthodox Christian faith. And we said that any religion calling itself Christian that denies that Jesus is God, that He possesses the essence of God, and that He is the second person of the Trinity is not an authentically Christian religion; it is not historically Christian; it lies outside Christian orthodoxy. And that is a very important truth.

And in one sense, the passage I am dealing with could also be considered, if we look at it in a certain way, part of those important truths, because it speaks to us about the second coming of Christ and the events of the end times. I do not usually speak much about that, and I believe I should. And I know that at some point God will motivate me more to go in that direction. But as I was asking the Lord—because I do not like simply preaching by inertia and choosing just any passage because I have preached another sermon and am simply going to choose this because I know it and it is the word of God—I do not like to preach generically, but rather about something that God truly places in my heart.

As I asked the Lord while I was praying, a biblical expression came to mind: “And they did not love their lives even unto death.” That was all that quickly flashed through my mind. And I did a mental calculation right then: Where is that? And I remembered that it was in Revelation. I looked in my concordance and found the passage, and here it is in chapter 12, verse 11. It says that they did not love their lives even unto death.

There in verse 11, in fact, are three things that enable those “they.” Who are those “they”? Evidently, the children of God, the saints of God, the church of Jesus Christ, those of us who follow Jesus, that people chosen by God, healed and saved through Jesus Christ. They have overcome. Whom have they overcome? They have overcome Satan. And how have they overcome him? By means of what instruments? What are the weapons that they—the church of Christ, the saints of God—have used to overcome Satan?

I see three things here, three elements, three weapons that the children of God use to overcome Satan’s attacks. The first, it says, is the blood of the Lamb. The second element is the word of their testimony; it says, “and by the word of their testimony.” And in the third place it also says, “and they did not love their lives even unto death.” Three spiritual weapons with which we overcome the enemy.

Now, let me put this into context so that I do not force the word too much either, although the text is a beautiful one and also stands on its own. But for the information and education of us all, the apostle John, while in exile on the island of Patmos, has a vision. As those of us who have read the book of Revelation know, he has an extended vision, a vision that we do not know how long it lasted, or whether it was a series of visions he had during his exile. We are not sure. The book of Revelation—in fact, the word apocalypse means revelation, or the drawing back of the veil—is like an invitation from God to look behind the veil at what is hidden there concerning the end times.

The apostle John simply saw, as though on a screen and in an ecstasy, a great many images. I believe that he himself did not understand half of what he was seeing. Many times people have dreams, have a vision, hear a word of revelation, and do not know what it means. God simply gives a word, and then we have to seek the revelation. Sometimes God gives us a message in tongues and we ourselves may not understand it, and we have to ask the Lord, as the apostle Paul says, for the ability to interpret what we are hearing, experiencing, or seeing.

And John saw a great many images, and what he himself did was faithfully record what he had seen. Many of those revelations we find in the book of Revelation—some of them—are quite clear; others are very mysterious. A tremendous amount of symbolism is used, symbolic numbers in abundance, as though all the symbolism of the Bible had been placed into the book of Revelation. Sometimes we do not know whether the visions follow a logical sequence in time, one after another, or whether they are simply like images that have not been placed in the correct chronological order. And so the reader, the explorer of Scripture, has to ask the Lord to give him wisdom about how to connect them and how to place the different revelations into a logical order so that they agree with one another.

The book of Revelation has been a very controversial book. Men and women of God with a great understanding of the word have often come up hard against the symbolic images and the mysteries contained in the book of Revelation.

I believe that no wise and prudent person should make too many overly confident assertions about the book of Revelation. I believe it behooves us to be very humble, to suggest things, and to respect those who differ from us, as long as they remain within the biblical framework. But there are many things that we will not be able to understand about that marvelous and mysterious book.

But here we do have something it tells us. Here is a scene that we can definitely say takes place at an advanced point in human history and on God’s clock. Some think that it is the time of the great tribulation, when believers and followers of Jesus Christ will be persecuted. This is one of the great controversies, and I do not want to get lost in the controversy, but the problem with Revelation is that if you are going to teach it wisely, you have to provide at least something specific, a context, and there are often differences of opinion about it.

One of the great controversies concerning the book of Revelation is about the great tribulation. Many Christians—especially evangelical Christians in our countries who were evangelized by North American missionaries, the Pentecostal world—believe that the great tribulation takes place after the church has been caught up, in what is called the rapture. They believe that the rapture comes first, the church of Jesus Christ is caught up into heaven, and then the devil is released to persecute those who remain on the earth. And then many realize, when the church is supposedly raptured, that they were mistaken in not accepting Jesus Christ, and they surrender to the Lord. These are the ones who are persecuted by the devil while the church is up there, safe from the demonic persecution of that great tribulation which, according to the book of Revelation, will come upon the earth in the end times before the coming of Jesus Christ.

Let me tell you something. And again, I should not even get into that controversy, because I do not want to cause too much confusion for many of you. Over the years I personally have preached—and not only I, but many scholars of the word who love the Lord, who are very biblical in many things, and who have a great understanding of the word—I personally believe that the church will be on the earth during the great tribulation and that this is part of it. And, biblically speaking, in my opinion, unless someone has previously been taught the different doctrine that the church will not be in the great tribulation, there is no way, when you read the text from Matthew especially through Revelation, and even in the book of Daniel and other parts of the prophets, not to discover that the church will go through great persecution. And it does not cost me one bit of sleep or cause me to doubt God’s mercy and goodness to think that the church will be here at that time. But God will give His church the grace to withstand anything that may happen on the earth.

Now, let me tell you something else as well. I am objective enough about this to tell you the following: if you feel that believing the church will be raptured before the great tribulation is a very important doctrine for you, do not let me take away your peace this morning. Just let that soak for a while, pray to the Lord about it, and read a few good books. I have spent many years studying all these matters. And when I began to read the Scriptures in a way that God led me to—as though for a year He drew me in and plunged me into reading the Bible—I would get up at five in the morning and read and read. I read the Bible in a few weeks, and then I read it again, and I discovered something. For the first time in my life I said, “Wow, but here I can clearly see that every text I read indicates that the church will be here during the great tribulation.”

After that, I began reading books on all these subjects and discovered that many great men of God throughout history have taught that the church will be here during the great tribulation. In fact, the biblical doctrine throughout the centuries of the church, practically up until the nineteenth century, was that the church would be here during the great tribulation. The doctrine that the church would be raptured before the great tribulation is relatively new in the theological history of the church.

In any event, that is important because there are many things we cannot understand about this passage. And of course, there are other explanations given as to who “they,” the ones being persecuted at that time, are. Those who believe that the church will be raptured before the great tribulation teach that these are the people who will be converted afterward. But I do not see anything in the Bible that tells me about that group of people. In my opinion, that is simply something they have to insert there to straighten out that ship, which is suddenly listing a little. To me, it is an a posteriori invention; it comes after the fact. It seems much more natural to me to read the Bible assuming that the church will be persecuted, that this is part of God’s plan, that God will give special grace, and that God will shorten those days. For the Lord Jesus Christ says that if they were not shortened, even the elect would be deceived and overwhelmed by the great suffering.

If they are up there drinking a nonalcoholic martini, then what good would it do—why shorten the time, according to Jesus Christ? There are many passages of that kind. Now, I do not want to get lost in that. I say this mainly for your education—your theological education, your biblical education. Please do not let this take away your peace right now. The important thing is this: we see two mysterious figures here in this passage. One of them, it says, is a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

John sees this vision of that woman. To me—and to many others as well—that woman represents the church, the church throughout the centuries, which biblically has been represented in feminine form: the bride, the wedding of the Lamb. Christ is coming finally to marry His bride, to consummate His betrothal to the church.

Another thing we see here is that it says she is pregnant. How interesting, this matter of the twelve stars. To me, those twelve stars may be, for example, the twelve apostles. The number twelve is a number representing something complete, something perfect, in many passages of Revelation and of the Scriptures. On her head is a crown. The church has been based upon, has been founded upon, the doctrine of the apostles.

Others might say that they are the 12 tribes of Israel. Others believe that she is a figure who represents Israel. But Israel is very rarely represented in the form of a woman, and besides, there are other things here that do not make sense, that do not fit together as naturally as when one assumes that this is an image of the church, this woman clothed with the sun and with the moon. The magnitude of the church, the dignity of the church, the royal character of the church, its authority, and its power.

This woman is pregnant and cries out in great labor pains. To me, throughout history the church has been in labor; God has impregnated the church of Jesus Christ with his word, with a calling. God has impregnated us as members of the church of Jesus Christ; each one of us has God’s calling within us to give birth to something, something in particular. The church collectively, the Church of Jesus Christ with a capital C, especially in these times, I believe, is about to give birth. And what is the church going to give birth to?

Well, here in this specific passage she gives birth to a son who is evidently the person of Jesus Christ. It says here, she gave birth to a male child, verse 5, who will rule all the nations with a rod of iron. That is clearly an image of Jesus, as the Word itself says, and her child was caught up to God and to his throne.

In one sense, I believe that the calling of the church—again, it is very difficult to put this in chronological order. The church does not give birth to Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ gave birth to the church. But neither did Israel give birth to Jesus Christ as he is depicted here, glorified, with authority and everything else. I believe that the church has definitely been called to present a glorified Christ, a Christ of power, to the world. I believe that the church has been placed here on earth to subdue the nations, so that the world may know Jesus, so that the world may know the power of Jesus, the glory of Jesus, so that our lives may reflect the glory of Jesus Christ, his authority—something the church has never been able to do in its fullness throughout the two thousand years it has been on earth. The church has yet to manifest the truth of God in all its beauty, in all its glory. And I believe that we are in labor, in a sense; we are seeking to bring forth that glorious Christ whom the world will have to acknowledge. The church has been placed here on earth to point to Jesus, so that everyone who looks to him and believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. That is God’s calling for the church.

I feel as though I am in labor at this time in my life. When I look around and see all the evil in this world, when I see modern man moving farther and farther away from God every day, when I see humanity increasingly separated from God and the church of Jesus Christ becoming more and more irrelevant, with less authority and less influence over society, while the great nations of the earth—the most sophisticated, most educated nations—move farther and farther away from God every day. And when we look at the evil that grows more and more each day upon the earth, our spirit is inflamed.

I believe that there is something, a great mystery that God has for the end times, and the church of Jesus Christ has within itself, in its womb, something very powerful that it must give birth to. I believe that Christ will not come until the church of Jesus has fulfilled the mission God has appointed for it. Certainly, the Bible says that Christ is coming to take a church without spot or wrinkle, and what this church has most of today is wrinkles and spots. And this church has to complete its calling. God is not going to come for a stunted, impure, worldly church that often does not know what it is doing or saying; that would be a failure for the Gospel.

And I believe that the church is in labor; there is something we have to give birth to. What God wants for the end times has not been fulfilled, and my concept of the end times and of eschatology has become very complex. I believe there is something that we, our prayers, our intercession, have to accomplish on this earth, and individually we have to work to make that happen, so that the church of Jesus Christ may reach its complete destiny, everything God wants that church to accomplish.

Now then, there is another character in this story who is the villain. It says here in verse 3 that another sign also appeared in heaven. Here he sees a great scarlet, red dragon, which had 7 heads, 10 horns, and 7 diadems on its heads, and its tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven. Some think that these are the angels Satan carried off with him, whom he deceived, that they are the demons who follow him. And it cast them down to the earth.

As you can see, this is all very symbolic, very turbulent here. A star is sometimes billions of times larger than the earth. All those stars cannot be cast down; what is being discussed here is symbolic. And there is a kind of competition between those stars, that truth which the woman, the church, has within herself, and these false stars that the devil also sweeps away and with which he wants to compete. The devil always wants to compete: demonic truth against spiritual truth.

But it says that this dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child as soon as he was born. It is interesting because there are many symbolic things here. When Jesus was born, Herod immediately tried to kill him, and he ordered all the children of a certain age to be killed because he wanted to make sure he killed that king who was to be born.

Whenever God’s truth has sought to dawn in history, whenever the church has begun to rise up, do something powerful, and transform history, there has always been opposition; there has always been—the devil has always waged war against the church, against the children of God. Satan has a continual enmity against the people of God. Satan does not want the church to enter into its fullness. That is why he persecutes pastors and evangelists and those of us who work in the Gospel; that is why he persecutes the church with divisions; that is why he persecutes the children of God. Every time a man or woman seeks God, every time a man or woman shows great promise in the Gospel, the devil launches himself against that person, against that church, to try to prevent that person from giving birth to the life of God that is within them. The church has an eternal enmity against Satan.

I believe that a great many things were at play in John’s spirit. In the Old Testament, in Genesis, it says that there would continually be enmity against the woman and the son who would be born of the woman, speaking of Jesus Christ; and this struggle is also here, once again the dragon, the serpent, fighting against this woman. And again, all these things are symbols. That woman gives birth; Christ is born of the woman; from that Christ comes the most powerful defeat Satan ever suffered, the definitive defeat through the cross, the crucifixion. The whole church and all the truth of God that comes from Jesus Christ is what has defeated the devil. And the devil has enmity against that truth of God, against his Son Jesus Christ, against the church Christ founded. There is always enmity between those two systems.

And what we see here is that when this church is ready to give birth to that final mystery, to finally bring forth, so to speak, the last product of the entire plan of salvation, there stands the dragon waiting to destroy, waiting to kill and to weaken the truth of God.

And we, brothers and sisters, have to understand this. Regardless of the details of this passage, there is one great truth: there is enmity involving the children of God; there is a being called Satan, the devil, and this is set forth here in a very, very clear way.

It says here, and the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.

This is one of the clearest descriptions of Satan in all of Scripture. Satan is a real being, and Satan is a sinister being, and the church of Jesus Christ is at war against that being. The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 6, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against heavenly hosts of wickedness in heavenly places, against the rulers of the darkness of this age.

We need to understand that the devil is real. In the twenty-first century, it sounds almost caveman-like to speak about Satan in such a direct way. But one of the things we Christians have to do is recover the idea that Satan exists, that demons exist, that we are at war, that you are at war against Satan and Satan is at war against you, and that even in the middle of a mall, with all the sophistication of the twenty-first century, in one of these shopping plazas, with all the glass and concrete and all the attractions found in a mall such as the Galleria Mall here in Cambridge, in that twenty-first-century setting there are demonic powers that want to destroy your life and prevent the truth of Christ from being born in you and through you. Satan wants to kill the powerful Jesus, the victorious Jesus, the Jesus who is to rule the nations. Satan wants to kill that. He wants to prevent you from becoming a powerful Christian on an individual level, and he wants to prevent the church of Jesus Christ collectively from entering into its full manifestation and being used by God to unleash the final events of history through its intercession, through its life and its work here on earth.

We are at war, and I believe that we Christians—perhaps what God wanted to tell me when he spoke about this mysterious declaration, “they did not love their lives even unto death”—and I do not want to lose my way; it is a shame that I have had to spend so much time on these things, which in one sense are entirely secondary, this matter of the great tribulation and all of that, instead of the main point, which is that the devil wants to prevent each one of us from being a powerful Christian, a Christian who thinks in supernatural terms, a man or woman of God capable of praying and seeing the sick healed, capable of understanding the Word of God, capable of living a holy life, capable of preaching the Gospel with anointing and of teaching and discipling others, of living for God and giving the Lord what belongs to the Lord.

God wants a powerful church, and Satan wants a stunted church. God wants men and women filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and Satan wants conventional men and women, conformed to the world, who come to church but do not live the Christian life at the level at which the Christian life must be lived. Satan does not mind Sunday-only Christians going to church on Sundays and singing a couple of watered-down little hymns there, then going home to live like unbelievers for the rest of the week. He does not mind great organs and lots of beautiful music and a poetic sermon, provided it makes no impact on people’s lives and those people then go home without making any difference in how society lives. Satan does not mind churches existing, as long as the church is stunted.

Pharaoh did not mind there being Jews in Egypt, but what he did not want was for them to go and worship the true God. He said they could worship him from there, that they should not leave. When he could negotiate no further with Moses, he said, well, do not go too far; stay nearby. Because what the devil does not want is for the people of God to leave Egypt and enter into their greatness and fullness, for the church of Jesus Christ to enter into all its power. When the church of Jesus Christ rises to its feet and learns to live a supernatural and powerful life, brothers and sisters, the kingdom of hell will tremble.

Let me tell you something: the problem with this age is not the world; the problem with this age is not which president is elected in this nation, although that is important; the problem is the church. If the church gets its act together, all this garbage will be over in no time, you know. If the church of Jesus Christ lives as God wants it to live, in the power of the Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters, the devil has no power over the church. The Lord Jesus Christ said that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church; listen to me carefully.

And it is interesting that here, at the end of this passage, verse 11 says, and they have overcome him. Do you see? And verse 7 says, then there was a great battle in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

Satan is defeated, brothers and sisters; Satan is condemned to defeat. There is no way Satan can win this battle. This struggle against evil in human history is simply a drama that God allows to unfold for his own purposes, and whenever he feels like it, he will put an end to that drama. And we know who wins. And the church will never be defeated. The church has the power; the church has the authority. Christ said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth; therefore go and preach the Gospel and make disciples of all nations.

He has given authority to the church. I believe that when Christ said, go and make disciples, he was saying that this is the capacity we possess. We can disciple the nations; governments, institutions, and states must bow their heads before the guidance of the spiritual nursemaid that is the church of Jesus Christ.

That powerful church that must give birth to the Christ who will rule the nations with a rod of iron does not yet exist, nor has it ever existed. It must exist, and the devil opposes it; the devil and his demons oppose it every day. I believe this is one of the things that clearly comes to mind now as I preach and perhaps prophesy. You are at war, and I am at war, so that what God has declared over our lives will not come to light, will not emerge.

I look at many of you, and I see people with great potential. God wants to do great things through you, but let me tell you in all pastoral humility that many of you do not understand the calling upon your lives, and the devil has taken it upon himself to keep us drowsy in a languid, pleasant sleep in which we come to church, discuss certain things, make certain gestures, teach classes, take classes, even give our tithe, but we have not entered into the full spiritual greatness to which God wants to lead us.

God abhors the lukewarm Christian. God abhors spiritual mediocrity. The book of Revelation itself says that God will vomit the lukewarm out of His mouth because they are neither cold nor hot. God does not want a mediocre church; God wants a church filled with the Holy Spirit. God wants a church capable of revealing to the world the risen Christ, the Christ of power. And Satan, every day—do you know what the problem is? Satan’s war against the church is a subtle war; it is an everyday war; it is a war that is often waged through very small events: an argument here, a television program you should not watch, something you should not have read, gossip you spread about someone, a word that came out of your mouth that should not have come out, a thought you entertained longer than you should have, a decision not to do something for God, an omission, something you needed to say or do but did not. And through those subtle things, through disappointments and wounds that the devil places in your life, through financial failures and things that happen in your life, the devil gradually kills your enthusiasm for God. He begins to put doubts in your heart about God’s faithfulness and whispers in your ear: You see, you made an effort and not much came of it, so forget about fasting, forget about seeking God; after all, there is no need to be such a fanatic, since God loves you anyway.

And so we go on living mediocre, comfortable lives, and little by little that subtle war dulls the teeth of the church’s saw. And it creates comfortable people, people who do not understand that the Christian life must be lived at white heat, on the edge of the sword; that the Christian life is not a little hat you put on Sunday and take off when you walk out of the church doors into the world. It is something that lasts 24 hours a day. And when the church of Jesus Christ is filled with men and women like that, then the church will be able to give birth to the life of the Son of God. That church will then set in motion the clock that has, to a certain extent, stopped and that must begin to run so that the second coming of Jesus Christ may be fulfilled and take place. Christ will not come until the church has completed what it must complete here on earth, until the church has interceded, prayed, bled, lived up to the Gospel, and its prayers have reached the throne of God and completed the amount God has in His divine mind, thereby unleashing the coming of the Son of God. But the present church—you and I, as we live—are not part of that powerful church God desires. I say this with the love of God, not to make you feel bad, but to encourage you to seek more of God.

Now, let me move on, because there is a great deal in this passage. As I told you, I did not know whether the message would be short or long because I did not know what God had in store; all I had was what is written there: “despising their lives unto death.”

Now let me go to the end; I am going to land now. Verse 11: “...and they have overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and by despising their lives unto death...”

What are the characteristics of that powerful church that will give birth to the Son of God in all His authority, with that rod of iron with which He will rule the nations? What will set in motion Christ’s assumption of authority in history and His entrance into authority, when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? What will bring about that moment? What kind of life must the church live, what kind of attitude must it have, what kind of practices must it engage in against that demon, that immensely powerful serpent that also drags along its own stars and also moves through the cosmos with all its power and also fights, whose dwelling is in heaven? Do you know that Satan has access? Do not ask me how or why, or why God permits it, but Satan dwells in heaven and has access.

Look at what it says there in verse 7: “...then there was a great battle in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon...”

Michael is one of the great archangels; he is one of God’s great warriors. Michael is perhaps the only angel of God powerful enough to fight directly against Satan. There is a conflict between Michael, that angelic general, and the demonic angels.

“...and they fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them any longer in heaven...”

In other words, there was a place for them, a strange place—do not ask me where or in what part of heaven—but there is a place. In the book of Job, Satan appears before God to accuse Job; that is Satan’s function, and he has access to the throne of God.

Now look at the inhabitants of heaven. Verse 12 says that they rejoice when Satan is cast out of heaven: “...therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them.” But there is a problem: Satan is cast out of heaven and now enters the earth directly. He is no longer exercising his influence from the air, as Ephesians 6 says, through the rulers of darkness and hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places where Satan dwells, where Satan moves. No, now he is cast directly onto the earth and is given authority for a time to exercise direct influence and move directly among its inhabitants.

That is why, in the last days, the devil and God will take off their gloves and fight bare-knuckled, although God has no contest with the devil. The devil could never stand before God for even a thousandth of a second. But God will manifest Himself with greater power, and the devil will also manifest himself with greater power in the last days, and a great corruption will take hold of all humanity with tremendous force.

But what will enable the church to withstand that great onslaught, that final assault by Satan against it, is this: they will overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and by despising their lives unto death.

Brothers and sisters, let me tell you something: you and I do not have to wait. Perhaps Christ will come before many of us die, before this present generation dies; but if not, let me tell you something: you do not have to wait until that time to live this kind of life, so that you can become what God wants you to be. In order for you to become the man or woman God wants you to be, you must display these three characteristics. The first thing mentioned here is the blood of the Lamb. Do you know, my brother, my sister, that the most powerful weapon we have as children of God is the blood of Christ?

I have had encounters with the demonic many times throughout my life; as a pastor, I have had to confront demon-possessed people. And let me tell you something: I have confirmed that demons detest the blood of Jesus and are afraid of it; they are horrified by the blood of Jesus. You invoke the blood of Jesus against a demon, and it is as though you had thrown hot water in its face. The blood of Christ has power. The blood of Christ is the very life of the Son of God that was poured out. When that blood was shed, when one drop of that blood was drawn from the body of the Son of God, that was what dethroned the devil. That was the legal, judicial blow God dealt to all of Satan’s illegitimate claims against the people of God.

The blood of Christ is mysterious, it is mysterious. That is why the Christian mind must be a supernatural mind, as I have said so many times, because understanding this matter of blood seems medieval, it seems primitive. But our struggle is a spiritual struggle; we inhabit an eminently spiritual and symbolic universe. And you must always take refuge in and cling to that blood shed by Christ Jesus on the cross of Calvary. That is what has given you the right to enter the throne of God. That blood of Christ is what you must use when the devil wants to harm your life. You must cry out to the blood of Jesus. You must always remember that the cross Christ mounted to die for your sins is the most powerful weapon you have in your struggle against evil.

We must learn to use the blood of Jesus, to take refuge in the blood of Jesus. When the devil comes to accuse us of our sins and shortcomings, we must say, “The blood of Christ has set me free.” And we must hurl the blood of Christ at the demons when they come to attack our lives.

I often set the blood of Jesus against the devil’s attacks upon my life, my family, my health, or my finances: “May the blood of Christ be against you.” We must use the blood of Jesus. But the blood of the Lamb, brothers and sisters, is the most powerful weapon we have. We must acquire reverence for and devotion to that powerful weapon, which is the blood of Jesus Christ—what Christ has done, the sacrifice on the cross—and we must know that this is the foundation of our life. It is not the theological truths we preach, it is not our good works, it is not this church God has given us, it is not anything we can do or say; rather, the blood of Christ is the foundation of the church. And the moment we mix that with other things that make us worthy and acceptable before God, and take our eyes off the cross of Calvary and the blood Christ shed, we have lost the battle.

We must be very primitive people in that sense and remain devoted to the mystery of the cross. That is why there is no other name given among men by which we can be saved except Christ Jesus; it is His blood shed on the cross of Calvary. Very important. We must be people of the cross, people of the blood of Jesus, supernatural people.

The second weapon we must use is, it says, their testimony, their word. For me, this has two implications. Number one, we must testify to what Christ has done in our lives. We must be people who are conscious of what God has done. God has saved us; God has brought us out of darkness; through Christ Jesus, we have become men and women who are accepted before God. And I believe there is also an implication of suffering here, in their testimony. There is also the idea here that we must be visible people, so that the world sees us living the Christian life in all its dimensions. If they see us suffer, let them see us suffer as Christians; if they see us celebrate, let them see us celebrate as Christians. Let us live our lives publicly; let us bear witness to Christ and to what God has done in our lives.

One of the great powers the church possesses is the ability to bring others to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Every one of us must be a witness of Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters—in the factory, in our neighborhood, wherever we go, we must testify to what Christ has done in our lives. A church that does not testify, a church that does not invite others to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, is a church that will not live as it ought to live.

You are not a secret agent of the Kingdom of God; you are a public agent of the Kingdom of God. You must be a Christian whom everyone knows to be a Christian, and you must testify to others about what Christ has done in your life. You must be a person who, when God does something good in your life, testifies about it to others; and when you are going through a difficult situation, you must find some way to testify to the world that you believe God is powerful enough to deliver you from your suffering. The church of Jesus Christ must be an active church that bears witness to what God has done. And you are an evangelist who has been called to live the Christian life publicly, militantly, evangelistically. You must do everything in your power to ensure that others come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. That is very important.

And the third element here, which was what came to my mind when I said to Him, “Lord, what do You want me to speak about this morning?” is this: they despised their lives unto death.

To me, that is the crux of this entire sermon. A powerful church requires men and women who have died to the world and live their lives as living sacrifices before God. You know what? There is a lot of living flesh in the church; there is a lot of flesh that has not been crucified; there are many feelings, aspirations, and desires that are still alive and kicking.

The Lord Jesus Christ said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake will gain it. Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it.” And you know what? Churches are full of people who want an evangelical life—of course they do—because religion is beautiful, religion brings order to life, religion allows you to dress well on Sunday and come to church. Perhaps you have no other day when you can show off a nice suit, but you can come to church and show it off on Sunday. Religion adorns and brings order. Religion is good, and many people want religion simply to adorn their lives, to put a nice finishing touch on their lives—but do not touch their profession, their sleeping time, their privacy, their family, their money, their work, their personal decisions, or their personal freedom. Do not touch those things, because they are not willing to give them to God.

They are very comfortable being evangelicals, but not being Christians at heart. They have not lost their lives. Do you see? They allow themselves the luxury of choosing what they want and living as they please, and we all have a little of that within us. There are many things within us that have not yet died. Many times, I struggle as a pastor, and so does my wife; we often say to each other, “Why work ourselves to death so much?” I am not telling you this so that you will feel sorry for me; I am sharing with you a struggle in my life. There are many things I would like to do in my life, many trips I would like to take, many possessions I would like to have, and a great deal of time I would like to spend sleeping, resting, and watching a television program or whatever. But continually I feel in my life—I say, “God has done so much in my life that the one thing I can make sure of is that I give the Lord these years of my life that I have here, that I live for him, and that my life count for the Lord.” And I know that my reward will come elsewhere.

And yet I can tell you that I am a happy person and that I enjoy life and everything God has given me so much. I believe I can say that I am a happy person. It is not as though I live a life of constant sacrifice, either. Many times, we do the tiniest little thing for the Lord and immediately think we have done something tremendous, do you understand? And we are always protecting our lives. Brothers and sisters, I have learned that until you bleed for God, there is no greatness, there is no blessing. Many times, brothers and sisters, the more you give things to God, the more God then goes out of his way to give them back to you.

The more you give to the Lord, the more you enjoy life. When I am there guarding my time, my sleep, and my little things, I discover that this is not the calling God has given me—that my security and my power lie in living like a warrior with a sword in my hand. That is where I find my fulfillment as a human being, and that is where I find my joy, my vitality, my power, my happiness, and God’s provision for my family and for my church. The more I give to the Lord, the more God gives me, the more God enriches me, and that is what you can experience in your life. Die to the desire to fulfill your own life; die to the desire to be happy, and then you will find happiness. Die to the desire to hold things back for yourself, and give, donate, and share, and you will have more than you need. Give to the Lord, serve the Lord, die to this world, and walk through this life as one dead to life for Christ Jesus; then you will be happy and will leave a spiritual legacy for many, many more who will follow after you.

Despise your life even unto death. A church that loves its life is not the church that will give birth to the risen Christ, the powerful Christ who will rule the nations. The church was born under the sign of martyrdom, and it was martyrdom that brought down the power of Rome and cast Rome at its feet. In the early centuries, the church was martyred and persecuted.

I often say, “Goodness, what do I have to complain about?” God has given me so many things: I drive a comfortable car; I have everything I could want, all the clothing one needs, good food, a comfortable home, a blessed church, and so many other things. How can I complain when God has been so merciful? So many people have had to give up so many things. There are missionaries who have had to go to Africa, the Amazon, and Russia to die there, taking their children with them to die of plague and other things, and they have been used so that their blood might fertilize the soil and thousands of people might come to know Christ. What do we have to complain about when God has given so much for us and blessed us in so many ways? I have not bled even one-thousandth as much as I could bleed for my God. And God is looking for a church that despises its life even unto death—men and women to whom this world no longer has anything to offer, you know? People who live everything for God and say, “I am going to leave everything I have here on earth so that God may be glorified. I am going to live my life for God. I am going to set aside my desires for glory, fame, wealth, and comfort, and let God use me however he wishes, for his glory and honor.”

And let me make this clear: that does not mean that one should not be prudent—understand me well—or that one should not live an orderly life and attend to the things that must be attended to. But you and I are called, brothers and sisters. This church, Lion of Judah—I, as its pastor, need men and women who despise their lives even unto death. The destiny God has for this church cannot be fulfilled unless it becomes a militant people made up of warrior men and women, filled with the Holy Spirit, testifying about Christ, with an understanding of the power that is in the blood of Jesus—people who, when told, “That is the way you must go,” go that way in the name of Christ and for the glory of God.

If we are going to build that new sanctuary, brothers and sisters, we will not be able to do it unless there is a people willing to give to the Lord so that the sanctuary may be completed, so that lives—the thousands of people whom I know will come—may come to the Lord in that sanctuary, where Christ will be worshiped as he desires. It will not be accomplished by people—I know what happens: when someone talks about these things, many of us, though not all, immediately close up inside, and the devil begins to whisper thoughts into people’s minds. “Here he comes asking for money; here he comes trying to…” That is from the devil; rebuke it in the name of Jesus. It will be accomplished by a people who say, “Everything I have, everything I am, and everything I live is for the Kingdom of God, and whatever my God needs, I will give him. If he needs my health, I will give him my health; if he needs my body, I will give him my body; if he needs my money, my money; if he needs my family, I surrender my family to him. Whatever it may be, it belongs to my God. I am going to live for him; I am going to despise my life even unto death.” That is what defeats the devil. That is what silences the enemy’s accusation. The devil does not know what to do with a church, a man, or a woman who has lost their life. What can he take away from someone who is already dead?

I believe that when we enter the Gospel, we must sign a blank sheet of paper and say to the Lord, “Here it is; write whatever you want on that paper. Give me whatever you want to give me; do not give me what you do not want to give me; and take away whatever you want to take away from me, and I will kiss your hand and bless you for everything you choose to do in my life.”

That chorus says, “Blessed be the Lord wherever I may be—whether in affliction, whether in prosperity, wherever it may be, bless the name of the Lord.” Live for the Lord. Brothers and sisters, the church that will give… That is God’s message for us this morning: the church that will give birth to the victorious Christ who will rule the nations with a rod of iron is a church that will face opposition from the devil and will be at war against Satan. The only things that will enable it to overcome the devil’s furious hostility will be the blood of Jesus, which alone restrains Satan; the militant testimony of that church, which says, “They will not silence me; they will not prevent me from proclaiming the truth of God”; and having placed its life on the altar and said, “I want to be a living sacrifice for God. I have already died, and whatever God asks me to let die on this earth, I will give him. May the trail of my life be a trail of blood, leaving drops of blood wherever I go because I am bleeding myself dry for God.”

That is the man, the woman God wants. Rebuke the spirit of complacency; rebuke the spirit of mediocrity. You are not a Christian if you are not red-hot for God, let me tell you that. Perhaps I would say that differently if I had thought about it a little more, but I believe, brothers and sisters, that God abhors a lukewarm man or woman. Scripture says that the double-minded person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. God has a controversy with lukewarm, mediocre people. The respectable Christian—the Simon the Pharisee type—has Christ in his house but keeps him at a distance. The only man or woman who honors God is one who lives red-hot for God and takes faith as the most serious thing in the world.

They are the only ones who will survive Satan’s terrorist attack in the last days, and I hope you receive this message as a prophetic word from God for your lives. Receive it in the name of Jesus, and commit yourself right now—commit yourself to the Lord once again—to live a life completely surrendered to the Lord.

Stand up right now and tell the Lord, “I surrender everything to you. Everything I have and everything I am, I lay at your feet, Lord.” Consecrate your life to God again—or perhaps consecrate it for the first time—and renounce part-time Christianity; renounce Christianity that you practice only part of the time. Listen to me. Surrender your life to Christ: all or nothing.

If you are not willing to surrender your life completely to Jesus, look, brother or sister, I tell you this with all love and with all my heart: stay home next Sunday or go to another church. There are so many other churches. I say this with love before God, and I will not regret saying it. Surrender your life to the Lord. Live Christianity as it must be lived—completely, totally. This is only one of the many passages in Scripture that clearly show that the Christian life must be lived red-hot, that the Christian life is not a thing, a religion you put on like a garment. It is your very heart; it is the very fiber of your being; it is your nervous system; it is the very essence of who you are. It is the word of God penetrating every cell of your being, every fiber of your being. It is the color of your skin, the color of your eyes; it is the feeling of your heart; it is what your soul feels; it is your will; it is your emotions; it is your feet, your hands, your mouth. That is Christianity. It is a totality; it is despising your life even unto death. That is the man or woman who will be dangerous to the devil. That is the man or woman against whom the devil has no power. That is the man or woman who can show the world a Christ full of power and glory.

I ask the Lord, “Help me to be that. I am far from being it, Father, but I know that this is what you are calling me to be; this is what God is calling this church to be.” In the name of Jesus, make a commitment in your heart now and say, “Lord, I repent of being a halfhearted Christian. Help me to be a radical and deeply committed Christian. I commit myself to living that way, and today I surrender my life to you.” “Today I surrender my life to you,” tell the Lord. “Today I surrender my life; I lay it at your feet, and whatever portion of my life I live on this earth, I will live it for you. Whatever years I have left, I will make sure that I give them to you, so that there is nothing I have of which I can say, ‘This is mine.’ No, everything will be yours. And if you allow me to use it and have it for a little while, I will enjoy it, but I will know that you hold the title; you are the owner. I simply use it because you allow me to use it.” Give everything to the Lord. Surrender everything to the Lord right now.

In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. If there is anyone here who wants to surrender their life to Jesus Christ, who has not done so before and feels the need to surrender their life to Jesus Christ—to invite Christ to enter their heart—I invite you as well: raise your hand, and we will pray for you this morning. If there is anyone who wants to surrender their life to Christ for the first time, or if you would like to come forward, I invite you to do that as well. I want to bless you in the name of the Lord, but above all, make sure that you do not leave here without having said, “I am going to be a radical Christian, a committed Christian, a Christian who, come rain, thunder, or wind, whether the sun shines or the rain falls, no matter what happens, will live for him. And I will be an instrument for him, in the name of the Lord.” That is our commitment, brothers and sisters, in the name of Jesus.

Raise your hand right there and say that to the Lord. Raise your hand with me, if you are willing to enter into that commitment. Promise the Lord that you will seek him and follow him in that way. Thank you, Lord; we worship you.

Lord, we yield our lives to you. We honor you, we glorify you.

Lord, we surrender our lives to you; we commit ourselves to you. We declare that nothing is ours; everything is yours. We will follow you, serve you, and love you above all things, and we will live seeking your face and desiring to do your will, giving our utmost in everything for you, Lord, and for your glory.

Thank you, Lord. We surrender ourselves to you; we surrender ourselves to you again, Father. Lord, I surrender this church to you; make of it whatever you want, make of it whatever you want. Use it for your glory. Father, bring this church into the greatness to which you have called it; bring these men and women, Lord, to the level where you want to take them. Father, cut away every superficial veil that keeps us from seeing you clearly, Lord, and clear our eyes. We surrender ourselves to you, Father; we surrender ourselves to you, Lord. Because of this word that has been proclaimed, Father, I ask that you receive our petition, that you bring this church into a new level of life, Father, and of surrender to you.

Thank you, Lord. We worship you, we bless you; receive our petition, Father. We offer ourselves before you, Lord; we surrender ourselves before you; we bow down before you, Jehovah. Receive this church, Lord; receive my life, Father. Receive this congregation; receive this people, Father. Crucify them, Lord. Unleash your work in them, Father. In the name of Jesus, I unleash your work upon this people; in the name of Christ, Father, I release the work of the Holy Spirit upon this people, cutting and filing and testing, in the name of Jesus, everything that needs to be dealt with until this people becomes what God wants it to be. I include myself in that prayer, in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord. We bless you; thank you, God. Thank you, Lord.