Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. Today, how can we characterize the tactics and methods of the Red Dragon of Revelation 12? And then how are these tactics and methods manifest in the governmental beast of today's world? We have been examining the book of Revelation chapters 12, 13, 14 through 17, really, in particular, in seeing how the book of Revelation corresponds to our world today, not some world in the far-off future after a rapture and then the onset of a seven-year great tribulation.

No, the book of Revelation is meant to be read for us today, even as it was meant to be read for John's first audience in the first century. Today, our world is falling down around our ears. We don't know why we patiently articulate the way things ought to be under a constitutional republic created by wise and magnanimous founding fathers. While in the meantime, evil tyrants like our president, Congress, and court rob us of our liberties in front of our eyes, and we do nothing about it. Great evil, I submit to you, great evil, Red Dragon Revelation 12 kind of evil, has swept the once Christian nation.

I'm surprised at how fast this has happened, and most of us will not admit it. I'm frustrated with myself and with other evangelicals in particular because we excuse our present system as just a manifestation of an imperfect world that will not and cannot be redeemed until the literal thousand-year reign of Christ after a personal antichrist and seven-year great tribulation after we have been raptured into heaven. The American evangelical church has capitulated to this evil, virtually throwing up its figurative hands in the air saying, what can we do about it? It's just the world being the world.

Let's see how many souls we can save before the rapture. I've heard this a number of times from both evangelical pastors and congregants. Oftentimes, a misinterpretation of Romans chapter 13, for example, is used to justify this from the Bible. Now, Paul says to be subject to governing authorities, but being subject to governing authorities does not mean searing our consciences from distinguishing between the good conduct and bad conduct those authorities are supposed to sanction. Implicit in Romans chapter 13 is that the good, i.e., along biblical lines, is done by those authorities.

If we, the church, do not teach, model, and act on behalf of the good and against the bad, how will that world and its governments know the good from the bad? And this is doubly true. When our own charter, provided for us by the founding fathers, the Constitution declares that we, the people, are those governing authorities. How much more biblical and Christian should we be if that indeed is the case? When it comes to resisting unlawful and evil government authorities, Peter's rule before the Sanhedrin should be ours also.

That is, we ought to obey God rather than man. The gospel, I submit to you, dear listener, has power to transform not only individual Christians within the church, but also the communities to which those Christians belong. As Christians become transformed by the gospel, so do others around them in the church and families to which those Christians belong. We see this time and time again. I see it time and time again.

As a pastor, someone gets converted and pretty soon their churches are transformed and their families are transformed. And as we see from history, it doesn't stop there. To take one example, we spent some time in our church history class on Wednesday night this week looking at Johann Gutenberg and his invention of the printing press. How revolutionary that was. As one historian put it simply, Gutenberg changed everything.

Christians have always been people of the word, for example. And this is true today. We can fight the beast with the word. We can fight the red dragon with the Bible, with the word of God. We believe that human speech and thought and understanding is an essential attribute of the image of God in man, the Imago Dei, as the reformers called it.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth by the word of his power, speaking that creation into existence. Man, in turn, bears the image of his maker, distinguished from the animal world, excuse me, by being a sentient being, a thinking, feeling, rational creature who manifests these qualities in speech. That is, in part, why we are people of the word. When Gutenberg made the printed word relatively inexpensive, where the Bible before cost an average of a year's wages and took two years to copy by hand, and he also made it not only inexpensive, but ubiquitous.

His printed Bible was a stone in the pond, if you will, that then radiated outward for centuries, hence in the printed word in the books. Other men took his invention then and transformed the world around them. Luther and the other reformers spread the Reformation with books and pamphlets, and most importantly, the Bible in the language of the people. We can trace the growth and flourishing of libraries and universities and science, beginning with the scientific revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries, to the exchange of ideas through the printed word.

Even Amazon.com, if they were honest, must admit that they owe a debt of gratitude to Gutenberg and his Bible. The Bible, still the largest selling book in the world. My point is, the gospel transforms everything. The individual, the family, the church, society, culture, and government. Yes, politics and government.

If you think the garments of the gospel should not be soiled with involvement in politics and government, no, no, no, no. Well, then I submit you have half a gospel. You have a responsibility to transform your world with the gospel. We also know from history that the red dragon of Revelation chapter 12 knows this, and that red dragon has been ravaging God's creation with lust, loot, and lordship, and lordship. The three L's that I articulated for you last week, right?

He's been doing this from the beginning with lust and wealth and greed and then power. All of these from the beginning. That red dragon is in the apostle John's words, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He certainly has no qualms about transforming human government, inhabiting and inspiring not only individual leaders, but whole institutions as personified in the beasts of Revelation.

Now, if you've been following what we have been saying, you know that the serpent, who is more subtle than any beast of the field, that serpent is possessing beasts from the beginning, not just some future worldwide tyranny following a fantasy rapture in a mere period of a seven-year great tribulation. No. The Nephilim, for example, which were a bastard race of fallen angels mated with human women, these were beasts like those in Revelation. The 3,000-year-plus tyranny of Rahab of Egypt was a beast like those in Revelation. The tyranny of Leviathan of Babylon was a beast like those in Revelation.

The beast coming from the sea in Daniel was the Greek king, Antiochus Epiphanes, a beast like those in Revelation. And of course, John's beasts of Revelation itself were simultaneously the empire of Rome and a particular emperor, Nero, the first empire-wide persecutor of the church. So, the red dragon has possessed them all. As Satan says in his temptation of Jesus, all the kingdoms of the world, their authority and their glory have been delivered to me, and I will give it to whom I will."

So, if you think Revelation is all future, the red dragon is future, the beast from the sea and the beast from the land and the false prophet are all future, then you are deceived, dear listener, Mr. Dispensational Millennialist, and your gospel is stunted, and you are effectively neutralized in the fight. As I suggested to you last week, we face today the specter of beasts of the dragons making in our own land. And I've kind of coined my own terms for these, indeed my own characterizations, personifications of this beast, so I don't put them equal with scripture in any way, shape, or form.

That is, the pure Madonna of the church is the Madonna of rock and roll now, embodying lust. The American eagle has morphed into the western vulture, personifying lute. And, of course, Uncle Sam has transformed himself into a big brother, personifying lordship or the lust for power. Even if you don't like my particular imagery, and I don't blame you if you don't, any honest observer must admit that these attributes, anyway, of the mythical dragon now characterize our constitutional republic. We no longer have a constitutional republic.

It's on paper. It's in name only. What I want to do today is make you aware of the tactics of this dragon, his modus operandi, and show you how completely he leads the American citizen around by the figurative nose. Now, the red dragon of Revelation 12, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, is characterized by four main tactics. He's a liar and deceiver.

He's a murderer. He's our adversary, and he intimidates and accuses. Those are the four. Let me treat them one at a time here. First of all, the red dragon is a liar and deceiver.

Jesus put it most plainly. He said, when he, that is the devil, lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies, unquote, to his very character. Indeed, that red dragon speaks as a liar, the father of lies. John also calls him in Revelation 12, the one who deceives the whole world. The Roman emperors who followed Nero deceived the whole world with their supposed divinity, and that in particular of Nero.

This has always been a tactic of the red dragon, the lie of divinity, is it not? You shall be his gods. He's tempted Eve and Adam with that temptation. And even then, Satan himself in his fall, Lucifer, when he aspired to the very throne room of heaven, said, I will make myself like the Most High. So this has always been an aspiration, and an aspiration he tempts us with.

Such has been the habit of all beasts since. Our federal leviathan, for example, pretends to be omnipotent like a god, and omniscient like a god, and it lies in order to deceive us, yea, the whole world, if possible. The leviathan, the federal leviathan, our government lies have been so enormous and persistent and bold that the American people have either cynically accepted them as standard operating procedure, or else they have naively taken them at face value.

We in America, the American citizen, is living the battered wife syndrome, where not only does she put up with physical abuse, but actually begins to believe his lies, to excuse his behavior, even to the point that she believes the lie that somehow she deserves the treatment at his hand.

For example, the lies, the huge lies, the enormous lies, Jonathan Gruber, one of the architects of Obamacare, cynically revealed in a moment of candor that the entire presentation of the so-called affordable health care plan was deliberately structured to obscure the truth, to lie to the American people, that it was indeed neither affordable, that indeed costs would go up and become more expensive, and that it would be nearly impossible to fully implement. And Obama then further lied in telling us he didn't know or work closely with Gruber when evidence surfaced to the contrary.

And on top, this all on top of his own deception, that we could keep our plans, that we could keep our doctors, and we would save as much as $2,500 per year in health costs. These are true sons of their father, the devil, who is the father of lies. Secretary of State Clinton and Obama systematically lied to the nation in the Benghazi affair, telling us first a planned terror attack was a spontaneous response to a video critical of Muhammad.

Lie after lie followed in trying to cover up the reason why Ambassador Stevens was killed, why the weapons that were being smuggled into Syria were going there, why no rescue was or could be mounted supposedly to save the ambassador and his men. These are true sons of their father, the devil, who is the father of lies. The Internal Revenue Service and the entire Obama administration systematically lied to the nation in covering up the targeting for persecution of the Tea Party and the liberty movements at the time of the election, did they not in 2012. These are true sons of their father, the devil, who is the father of lies.

And of course, Attorney General Eric Holder and the administration systematically lied to the nation over the fast and furious gun running scheme, or the Justice Department and the ATF would flood Mexico with guns and then blame all of the carnage and destruction on the Second Amendment, forcing the government to take action to save us, quote-unquote. These are true sons of their father, the liars, Attorney General Eric Holder, the president and his administration. These are true sons of their father, the devil, who is the father of lies. Not a word can be believed from this government.

You no longer have a constitutional republic, but rather a devilish tyranny, dear listener. Well, secondly, not only is the red dragon a liar and a deceiver, but he is also a murderer. Once again, Jesus says it succinctly. He says, you, that is the Jewish leaders to whom he was speaking, are of the devil. Your will is to do your father's desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him, unquote. The apostle John also characterizes the great whore of Babylon as drunk with the blood of the saints. That is a picture of the devil's insatiable desire for death and murder. Throughout redemptive history, the red dragon has brought death where God creates life. True to his lying nature, he said to Eve, you surely will not die.

Oh, of course, they promptly did. They died spiritually immediately when they ate the fruit and then died physically later. And even their firstborn son, Cain, slew his brother Abel to inaugurate the human race into murder and blood. The red dragon loves the death of mankind. The great whore of Babylon, that is the emperor cult of Rome, which was John was personifying there, became drunk upon the blood of the saints as she persecuted the church over the centuries.

It is estimated as well that the 20th century recently passed was the bloodiest in history, as historians say, in part because it was the most populous century, but also because it was the most tyrannical century in history. Human government was responsible for the deaths of almost a half a billion souls in warfare alone. Many of those dying precisely because they were Christians. Satan, the devil, the red dragon loves death. He loves blood.

Today, there is a movement to deliberately reduce the human population too, because those in the know, of course, the elites presume to tell us that seven plus billion souls are too many for the resources of the planet. The Georgia Guidestones, for example, carve in granite for us the progressive principle that when practicable, the human population shall be maintained at no more than 500 million people. Fertility in the general population is being deliberately sterilized. Abortion is not only destigmatized, but mandated in some countries when families have too many children for the state.

Anyway, humane soft kill, quote unquote, humane soft kill systems are in place, whereby life expectancy for the average citizen declines as his air and water and food and general environment is compromised. A systematic propaganda campaign is already underway that demonizes man, that demonizes the race of mankind as the scourge of the planet. The fewer of us, the better in their minds. That is, if not outright eradication, of course, except for the few handful of elites. The red dragon was a murderer from the beginning, and he continues to delight in the death of mankind and continues to propagate the death of mankind.

Well, thirdly, the red dragon is also the chief adversary and opponent of God. He is not only a murderer and a liar, but he is also the chief adversary and opponent of God. And the Hebrew Aramaic word for adversary is Satan. He has resisted and fought against God's plan and program for his creation from the very beginning. In fact, Paul calls the man of lawlessness the one who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship.

Of course, the red dragon has sought to oppose and subvert God and his redemptive plan throughout history, not just in some supposed seven-year great tribulation. Satan began his adversarial role in the garden, opposing man's dominion of creation by tempting our first parents into disobedience. He then opposed the seed of the woman who would crush his head, promised, of course, in Genesis 3.15. He opposed this seed by compromising that seed. Genesis tells us, Well, Satan has also been the adversary of Israel.

Satan has been the adversary of the seed that did crush his head. That is, Jesus thought he had won a victory by crucifying him. Satan, our adversary, has opposed the church as well and its mission ever since. John tells us that when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring. That is us, the church, the saints.

This is not for some seven-year great tribulation that follows the rapture of the church. John was indeed speaking to the church of his day, the church that extends throughout redemptive history into our own day. Tell me, Satan, our adversary is not behind this Leviathan, this beast of a government, as it begins to shrink religious freedom for Christians while expanding it for Muslims and pagans and atheists. Tell me, Satan, our adversary is not behind this Leviathan, this beast of a government, as it seeks to black out the memory of our Christian heritage in the United States, especially in the establishment of our Constitution.

Tell me, Satan, our adversary is not behind this Leviathan, this beast of a government, as it opposes biblical dominion of the earth with a pagan Gaia nature religion, as this government opposes a biblical Christian morality with a progressive values-free morality of limitless tolerance and diversity, as this Leviathan opposes creating familial biblical wealth by robbing the people through taxes, debt, and inflation, and then funneling our wealth to private banks. In all that it does, the dragon-inspired beast opposes God at every turn.

If God says, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth, well, then Satan, our and God's adversary, will seek to make the race of man fruitless and few, depopulating the earth and seeing that we are subdued rather than subduing it, and that we as a species are taken dominion of by him and his seed, rather than taking dominion on behalf of God.

If our Lord commands, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, well, then Satan, our and God's adversary, will oppose us by corrupting and halting the making of disciples for the church, but rather making disciples of Lucifer's own, baptizing them in the name of the beast from the sea, the beast from the earth, and the false prophet, the false and unholy trinity, teaching them to disobey all that God has commanded us, and then commanding obedience to the beast, manifests for us today in our own federal Leviathan.

Well, fourthly, the red dragon also accuses and intimidates the people of God. This is the fourth thing the scripture outlines for us. That is the MO, the modus operandi of the red dragon through the beast. He not only lies, he not only murders, he not only is our adversary, but he also accuses and intimidates the people of God. Like the Wizard of Oz, the devil stands behind his curtain and manufactures great boasts and threats intended to cast down with accusations and intimidate with threats the people of God.

John, in his apocalypse, calls the devil the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them day and night before our God. And Peter paints him as an adversary, as an adversary who prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Oh, how successful the red dragon through the beast has been in these things. How browbeaten, cowed, and guilt-ridden is the church in America today. Satan has been very successful in accusing and intimidating that church via the beast of our federal system.

Take down that Christmas crusher, we sue. Intelligent design is not science. Take it out of the textbooks or we sue, right? How dare you offend Muslims, pagans, and atheists by praying in Jesus' name. I had that thrown at me here when I prayed at a public event here recently.

And, of course, for the churches, endorse no candidate or political party or position or else lose your tax-exempt status that's held all over the heads of the churches today, and they cower in fear at it. Redemptive history demonstrates to us again, time and again, that rather than diminishing in intensity and frequency, this accusation and intimidation will only increase in time, especially as we cower in its presence. Bullies are only encouraged by weakness and submissive cowering.

Unless we stand for righteousness and the gospel and our religious freedoms and all of our liberties under the constitution given us by our founding fathers, well then, that roaring lion will only continue to devour the little lambs that we have become. And what I want to underline for you in these closing moments is victory. That is ours. If we fight this beast of our federal Leviathan, if we fight it in the manner in which Christ commands and with the tools that Christ has given us, he not only tells us to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, but also that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Yes, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him by the father to accomplish his ends. We can go in confidence knowing that that authority has been given to him and then mediated to us through the keys of the kingdom and we can accomplish what he has set out for us. We can be victorious, dear listener. And he says, behold, I am with you always to the end of the world, not just up until some great tribulation and some rapture of the church. No, Christ is with us as we take dominion in and of the world, in every area of the world, every continent, every land, and in every area of society, culture, and government, I submit to you.

Jesus also said, on this rock that is on Peter, Petros, the rock in his confession, on this rock, I will build my church, he says, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He says, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. These are ours, dear listener. They're ours presently. They're ours now as we fight the federal Leviathan, as we fight the beast that has been inspired by the red dragon, that is Satan, that serpent of old, who indeed has deceived the world but should not deceive us.

We should see with clear eye what we face, dear listener, because the gates of hell themselves, we are commanded to assault and assail those gates of hell, if you will, the gates of Washington, D.C., if I can use a metaphor for it, that federal Leviathan, that beast indeed can be defeated with the tools that have been given us as we preach and teach the gospel, as we exercise all of our rights under the Constitution, and indeed reassert ourselves in that fashion. So, dear listener, I encourage you to do so. This victory is yours in Christ.

We are New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and we meet for Holy Worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 Force 3 on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. This is Pastor David Bass. I encourage you to give me some feedback more information you may want at 523-0196.