Participants:
Series Code: AFDB
Program Code: AFDB000190S
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00:01 - [Narrator] This presentation is brought to you
00:03 by the friends of the Amazing Facts ministry. 00:08 - Have you ever heard of James Sterling Moran? 00:11 Probably not. 00:13 But chances are you've heard of publicity stunts, 00:15 which he's credited with creating. 00:17 James Moran was born in 1907 in the state of Virginia 00:21 and he entered the publicity field in the 1930s, 00:24 where he excelled at drawing the public's attention 00:27 to his clients. 00:29 Some of his more famous stunts were sitting on an ostrich 00:32 egg for two weeks until it hatched, 00:34 tanning half of his body in California and half in Florida, 00:38 or leading a live bull through a Manhattan china shop. 00:42 Then there was the needle in the haystack. 00:45 For this stunt, Moran had somebody hide a needle 00:48 in two tons of hay. 00:51 Amazingly, he successfully located the needle 00:53 after more than 82 hours of tedious searching. 00:58 You know, when you consider that there are more 00:59 than 40,000 denominations in the world today 01:02 that claim to be Christian, finding the true church 01:04 is something like looking for a needle in a haystack, 01:08 but it doesn't have to be that way. 01:10 The Bible gives us specific guidelines to help us clearly 01:13 identify God's end time people. 01:16 So join me now as we take a closer look 01:18 at this important topic. 01:20 (poignant music) 01:24 Pray for me as I share with you tonight, 01:26 because we've got a lot to cover and I want to do my best 01:28 to present this subject in a very clear and practical way. 01:33 We're going to be talking about a woman in the wilderness, 01:36 and it's based on Revelation 12 01:39 and I think it's always a good idea to start 01:41 by reading the passage that we're going to be considering. 01:44 Let's start with Revelation 12:1. 01:47 Now a great sign appeared in heaven. 01:49 A woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet 01:53 and on her head a garland of 12 stars. 01:57 Then being with child, 01:58 she cried out in labor and pained to give birth, 02:02 and another sign appeared in heaven. 02:04 Behold, a great fiery red dragon having seven heads 02:07 and 10 horns and seven diadems or crowns on his heads. 02:11 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven 02:13 and threw them to the earth. 02:15 And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready 02:18 to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. 02:23 And she bore a male child who is to rule all nations 02:26 with a rod of iron, 02:27 and her child was caught up to God in his throne. 02:31 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, 02:33 where she had a place prepared by God 02:36 that they should feed her there for 1,260 days. 02:42 Now I want to jump down to verse 13. 02:44 Now, when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, 02:47 he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child, 02:51 but the woman was given two wings of a great eagle 02:53 that she might fly into the wilderness to her place 02:56 where she's nourished for a time and a times in half a time 03:00 from the presence of the serpent. 03:02 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth 03:04 like a flood after the woman, 03:06 that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 03:09 But the earth helped the woman 03:10 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood 03:13 that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 03:16 And the dragon was enraged with the woman 03:19 and he went to make a war with a remnant 03:21 or the rest of her offspring that keep the commandments 03:24 of God and have the testimony of Jesus. 03:27 Who is this woman? 03:29 We know who the dragon is. 03:31 Woman that flees into the wilderness, 03:33 a woman that brings forth a man-child, 03:35 right here in the center of Revelation 03:37 is one of the key characters 03:39 and one of the most important studies 03:41 in the topic or the subject of Revelation. 03:44 So the lesson is a woman in a wilderness 03:46 and we always like to begin with a Storacle. 03:48 We like to tie the Old and the New Testament together. 03:51 Most of us know the story of Solomon, 03:54 how he prayed for wisdom and God said I'm going to give you 03:57 wisdom unlike anyone who is before you. 04:00 And one of the many examples of his wisdom 04:03 that's very famous is it tells us in the Bible 04:06 that there were two women that had children. 04:10 There were women out of wedlock, 04:11 they lived in the same home. 04:12 They both got pregnant about the same time. 04:15 They gave birth about the same time. 04:18 And then one night, one of the ladies when she was sleeping, 04:22 she accidentally overlaid her little infant child 04:27 and suffocated it. 04:30 When she woke up during the night to nurse the baby 04:31 and saw it was dead, she was devastated. 04:33 And then she heard her companion's baby whimpering, 04:37 and she thought, 04:38 I'm too ashamed for anyone to know what I've done. 04:40 She put her dead baby in that place 04:43 and took the live baby to herself. 04:46 Well, when the women got up in the morning, 04:49 the one woman went to go nurse her baby and it was dead 04:52 and she looked at it and said, "This is not my baby." 04:56 And the other one said, "No, that's your baby. 04:58 This one's my baby." 04:59 And so this was a great dispute and the judges didn't 05:01 know what to do with it, so it came to the king. 05:04 And you know, of course what Solomon said, he said, well, 05:06 one of you saying the living baby is yours 05:08 and the dead baby is hers, and vice versa. 05:10 Said, well, the only thing you can do 05:12 is split the baby in two, 05:13 which has become a proverb in our society 05:15 to divide the baby. 05:18 And Solomon told his soldier, 05:20 let's divide the baby, and the soldier goes for the baby 05:24 and the real mother threw herself down before Solomon, 05:26 said, oh my Lord, the king, don't do that. 05:28 Give her the baby, but don't kill it, 05:30 and the other one said, aw, it's a fair thing to do. 05:32 Let's just split the baby. 05:34 Solomon said, well obviously this is the real mother. 05:37 And people were so impressed by his wisdom 05:41 that was revealed when the soldier pulled out his sword. 05:46 Now, what does the sword represent in Bible truth? 05:50 Represents the word of God and tells us that 05:52 the word of God is quick and powerful 05:54 and sharper than any two edge sword, Hebrews 4. 05:58 What does a woman represent in Bible symbology? 06:02 Woman is the church and when we look in Revelation 12 06:06 at this beautiful, glorious woman, clothed of light, 06:11 she must be the true church. 06:13 Then there's another woman, 06:14 there's only two women in Revelation. 06:16 You got the true woman in Revelation 12, 06:18 you got a counterfeit woman in Revelation 17, 06:21 she's called the mother of harlots. 06:23 So you don't have to guess if she's good or bad, right? 06:25 It's pretty clear. 06:27 So we're going to be talking, we'll be using the sword 06:30 of God's spirit to figure out how do you identify 06:33 the true church in a world today where you've got hundreds, 06:37 if not thousands of different Christian denominations, 06:40 and I want to reiterate that I believe 06:42 there are Christian people in many different churches. 06:44 Does everyone hear me? 06:45 Many different denominations, there are people 06:47 that love the Lord, and one denomination 06:49 does not have a copyright on salvation, 06:53 but God does have a people and a movement in the last days 06:56 and he's going to pull people together. 06:58 How do you know? 07:00 Let's get to our lesson for tonight. 07:01 We'll begin with question number one. 07:03 How does Revelation picture God's true church? 07:06 Now, we just read this to get our background. 07:08 You read in Revelation 12:1, pictured as a what? 07:13 A woman clothed with the sun, 07:16 with the moon under her feet and on her head 07:18 a garland of 12 stars. 07:20 Who is this woman? 07:23 Some say, well, this is Mary, and you can look around, 07:27 if you look at a lot of the medieval art, 07:30 you'll often see Mary standing on, 07:33 paintings and sculptures of Mary, 07:35 standing on the moon, 12 stars above her head. 07:38 She's holding the baby and she'll have a halo 07:41 of like sun behind her. 07:43 You've probably seen this before. 07:46 But how could this be Mary? 07:47 It says she flees into the wilderness, 07:49 where she's persecuted for 1,260 years. 07:52 This is a broad picture of God's true church. 07:56 Jesus said to the church, you are the light of the world. 07:59 Now, these are the lights that God made. 08:01 God made the sun. God made the moon. 08:02 God made the stars. It's God's light. 08:04 This woman has God's light. 08:07 She is great with child, and she's getting ready 08:10 to bring forth this man child, this singular man child, 08:14 and the dragon is standing before the woman 08:16 to devour the child as soon as it's born. 08:19 The devil is not too happy with that. 08:21 That's the second part of our question. 08:22 Revelation 12:2, then being with child, 08:25 she cried out in labor and pain to give birth. 08:28 The purpose of the church was to introduce the world 08:32 to the Messiah and to really be a place 08:35 that presents salvation to the world. 08:37 It's to be, you might even say a hospital for sinners. 08:41 One reason I think that the church is portrayed as a woman 08:44 is typically by nature, women are more nurturing than men. 08:50 Women are more sensitive than men, they're more caring. 08:53 You know, we are connected with a self-supporting ministry; 08:55 75% or 80% of the checks are written by women 08:59 that are moved by needs. 09:02 It's not that men don't ever or don't ever care, 09:04 but I think we all know that, 09:06 that God's designed women for one thing, 09:08 that is they're designed to bring forth children, 09:11 to nurture those children, and so this is something 09:14 like what the church is supposed to do in the world, 09:17 is to be bringing people to Christ and helping to multiply 09:21 the kingdom for Jesus. 09:23 This woman is standing on the moon. 09:25 What does the moon represent? 09:28 It's the Old Testament promises and prophecies 09:31 that support the New Testament. 09:33 The New Testament is Jesus. 09:34 Jesus is the light of the world. 09:36 You read in Malachi 4 09:38 that the sun of righteousness will arise, 09:40 and that's not S-O-N, it's S-U-N. 09:42 The sun of righteousness will arise 09:44 with healing in his wings. 09:45 It's talking about the light of the New Testament gospel. 09:48 12 stars above her head, what does that represent? 09:51 What's 12 represent in the Bible? 09:54 How many? It's a number for the church. 09:56 How many apostles? 09:57 New Testament? 12. 09:59 Old Testament, how many patriarchs? 10:01 12; they figured there were 12 judges 10:04 and I think I told you that there were also, 10:08 in the New Testament, you've got 12 Jewish apostles 10:10 that were chosen and Paul goes to Ephesus 10:12 and he baptizes 12 Gentiles 10:15 and I thought that was an interesting number too. 10:18 New Jerusalem, 12 gates, 12 foundations, tree of life, 10:23 12 different kinds of fruit 12 times a year 10:26 and the Bible tells us that it's 12,000 furlongs around. 10:29 12 is a number for the church. 10:31 Principally the leadership. 10:32 The stars are above her head 10:34 and that usually typifies leadership in the Bible. 10:36 So this is God's church getting ready for the Messiah 10:41 to come and be introduced to the world. 10:44 But the dragon wants to stop it. 10:46 Question number two, 10:48 who is the great red dragon and what does he try to do? 10:51 Who is the dragon? 10:53 It tells you right in that same chapter. 10:54 That old serpent called the devil and Satan. 10:57 How can that be misunderstood? 10:58 Serpent, dragon, devil, Satan. 11:01 He is the arch fiend that is bringing all the evil 11:05 into our world and Jesus called the devil 11:08 the prince of this world. 11:09 He's kind of hijacked or kidnapped this world 11:12 because the original parents of the human race, 11:15 God made man at his own image and he was given the ability 11:18 to have dominion over this planet 11:21 and then Adam and Eve basically handed the keys 11:23 over to the devil. 11:25 You and I are all suffering as civilian casualties 11:28 in this war, but Jesus didn't want to lose us. 11:31 So he came into the world as a man to live among us 11:35 and to save us, to show us what God is like, 11:37 to show us what the Father's like, 11:40 to die for our sins and teach us how to live. 11:43 So it says that the dragon, 11:45 he stands before--he's cast out of heaven. 11:47 That old serpent of old called the devil and Satan, 11:50 and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready 11:53 to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. 11:57 Did the devil make an effort as soon as Jesus was born 12:00 to kill him as a baby? 12:02 Have you read there in Matthew where King Herod, 12:04 he was so jealous that there was another king of the Jews, 12:07 he sent his soldiers into Bethlehem 12:08 when the wise men did not return and he ordered them 12:11 to kill all the male children two years old and under. 12:16 That was the devil that was behind Rome doing that. 12:18 It's not the first time. 12:20 You can see in Egypt, the devil thought that a savior 12:23 was coming for the children of Israel. 12:25 He thought it would be one of the Jewish children. 12:28 He had the Pharaoh killing, not all the babies, 12:30 all the male babies. 12:32 Have you noticed that? Bethlehem, all the male babies. 12:36 And then when Athaliah became queen of Judah, 12:39 the devil again knew that through the seed of David, 12:41 a savior was coming and so she went to annihilate 12:44 all the descendants of David, all the male children. 12:48 So through history in the Old Testament, 12:50 the devil was trying to keep the savior from coming 12:53 and destroy him as he was a baby. 12:55 Number three, what happens after Satan fails 12:58 to destroy Jesus? 13:00 You read in Revelation 12:5, we read this before, 13:03 her child was caught up to God and to his throne, 13:07 and from there, it says Jesus rules all the nations 13:10 with a rod of iron. 13:12 After Jesus, question four, was caught up to heaven, 13:16 what did Satan do to the church? 13:18 It tells us in Revelation 12:13, 13:21 when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, 13:24 he cannot reach Jesus, but he wants to hurt Jesus. 13:27 Says he persecuted the woman. 13:29 Now who is this woman in Revelation 12? 13:33 She's a church. She's wearing light. 13:36 You go to Revelation 17, it says the woman 13:39 is wearing gold and pearls and scarlet and costly array 13:42 and it's not talking about the same kind of light. 13:45 It's artificial, manmade. 13:47 This is God's church filled with the light of God. 13:51 The devil has then vented his fury on the church. 13:55 Don't go anywhere, friends. 13:56 In just a moment, we're going to return 13:58 for the rest of today's presentation. 14:00 You know, there are thousands 14:02 of varying Christian denominations, 14:04 all claiming that they are teaching the truth. 14:06 So how do you pick a church? 14:08 Is there a particular true church? 14:10 Can you be sure? 14:12 Thankfully, the Bible offers solid guidelines 14:15 to help us identify his church. 14:17 We have an eye-opening free resource 14:19 we'd like to share with you. 14:20 It's called "Search for the True Church." 14:22 In this logical, well-researched book, 14:25 you'll discover how to find God's true church for yourself 14:28 and it explains from scripture, 14:30 the four identifying characteristics 14:32 of God's genuine church. 14:34 To get your free copy, call the phone number on the screen 14:37 and ask for offer number 134 14:40 or visit the web address on the screen. 14:42 And after you read this incredible resource, 14:44 make sure to share it with a friend. 14:46 Well, let's get back to today's presentation 14:49 and learn some more amazing facts from the word of God. 14:53 After Christ ascended to heaven, 14:55 he poured the Holy Spirit out on the church. 14:57 Christianity began to spread like fire 15:00 all through the Roman Empire and even in Paul's day, 15:04 he says, the gospel's been preached to every creature, 15:07 and the more they tried to persecute Christians, 15:10 the more Christianity spread. 15:13 And you've probably heard about where the different Caesars, 15:15 they, you know, made-- Christianity was called 15:18 religio illicita, 15:19 forbidden religion, and Christians were thrown 15:22 to the lions in the coliseums and they were burnt. 15:25 Nero was--supposedly he'd smear them with pitch 15:28 and he'd burn the Christians, 15:30 but the more that he persecuted the church, 15:32 the more the church grew. 15:34 So the devil then said, this is not working. 15:37 And he went to plan B. 15:39 Plan A was just annihilate Christians, 15:40 but the more he--it's like trying to get rid 15:42 of your weeds by mowing them. 15:44 They just spread the seeds, and he said, 15:47 I've got to find something else. 15:49 I'm going to try to destroy the church through infiltration. 15:53 That's what he did by putting Judas in Jesus's group 15:56 and by getting them to compromise. 16:01 See, the devil is not worried about Christianity 16:04 if he can dilute the truth so we lose our impact. 16:08 The devil is not worried about people 16:09 saying they're Christians and going to church and singing 16:12 if we are not living holy lives, 16:15 if we're not preaching the real gospel about salvation 16:18 from sin and the real power of the gospel, 16:20 the devil doesn't mind. 16:21 Matter of fact, the devil prefers if we have the facade 16:24 of Christianity and we don't have the power. 16:27 Paul talks about a people in the last days 16:29 that have a form of religion with no power. 16:32 God wants us to have the real McCoy, amen? 16:35 So what the devil did is he got-- 16:36 he kind of came into the church and through Constantine, 16:39 the Roman emperor--Constantine was a pretty shrewd politician. 16:42 He said, Christians really aren't hurting anybody. 16:46 All these things about-- Nero said 16:48 that Christians were cannibals because he heard 16:51 that in their services, that they would eat the flesh 16:54 and drink the blood of Jesus, which of course was symbolic. 16:58 There's no cannibalism going on. 16:59 And so he spread terrible rumors about Christians. 17:03 Constantine realized that was all nonsense and he said, 17:07 they're not hurting anybody. 17:08 We ought to make peace with them. 17:10 We've got enemies on the outside right now we're fighting. 17:11 He claimed to have a vision where he said 17:13 he was supposed to now conquer under the sign of the cross. 17:16 And to show his sincerity, 17:19 his mother converted to Christianity. 17:21 Constantine then ordered his army 17:23 to march through the Tiber River in Rome and he says, 17:26 you have all been baptized, says, you're all Christians now. 17:30 But the problem was they had no teaching. 17:31 We learned before baptism there should be 17:32 some teaching, right? 17:34 Go teach, baptize. 17:36 They went into the water dried pagans 17:38 and they came up wet pagans and all of a sudden, 17:41 almost overnight, all these pagan teachings 17:43 came into the church 17:44 and they got commingled with Christianity. 17:47 So now Christians who were, you know, 17:51 not involved at all in idols, 17:54 they had idols of pagan deities everywhere in Rome 17:57 and Greece and throughout the empire, and they said, 17:59 what do we do with all these beautiful idols? 18:01 And some of the Christian leaders said, you know, 18:03 we'll probably reach more pagan 18:04 if we don't make 'em change too quickly. 18:06 Let them just rename their idols 18:09 and all of a sudden they're praying to Peter, James, 18:11 John, and they just renamed their idols. 18:15 So they basically subsumed all of these rites 18:19 and ceremonies that were not in Christianity, 18:21 and then you entered a period of time 18:23 where you had a co-mingling of Christianity 18:27 and instead of the church becoming a movement of love, 18:29 it started to become a political institution. 18:33 What are two other identifying marks of God's church 18:35 according to Revelation 12:17? 18:38 The dragon. Who is he again? 18:41 The devil was enraged or wroth, 18:43 if you got a King James version, with the woman. 18:46 Who, who is she? Which woman? 18:47 True church. This woman of light. 18:49 Obviously, if the dragon is wroth with her, 18:51 is she the right woman? 18:53 Yeah, if the devil's mad at you, 18:55 you're doing something right. 18:57 Isn't that true? You can be pretty sure of it. 18:59 He was enraged with the woman and he goes to make war 19:02 with the rest of her offspring. 19:04 It's not just her now, it's those who have been converted 19:06 through her influence that are spreading. 19:08 This is in the last days now, 19:10 and it says rest of her offspring, who 19:13 have a couple of characteristics that keep the what? 19:17 The commandments of God 19:19 and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. 19:21 If you look in Revelation 19:10, 19:23 it says that testimony of Jesus Christ 19:26 is the spirit of prophecy. 19:29 You know what is the law and the prophets? 19:33 You've got, it says here, remember the law of Moses. 19:36 Behold I send you Elijah, the prophet. 19:39 Commandments of God, the law of Moses, 19:41 Elijah the prophet, the spirit of prophecy, 19:44 the law and the prophets is a symbol for the word of God. 19:46 This woman has the word of God 19:48 and the devil is wroth with her. 19:51 Now, I'm just going to let you take a breath for a second 19:53 because I'm going to make a little speech and kind of, 19:57 we're just going to drift from the lesson 19:58 because I want to get the big picture for you. 20:00 How do you think the average person picks a church? 20:05 I was in South Dakota visiting my son 20:09 and we saw this little church on the side of the road. 20:12 It must be one of the smallest churches in the world, 20:15 and I said, there's a church I think I could handle. 20:18 You can fit the pastor 20:20 and maybe a couple getting married in there. 20:23 I didn't even go inside, but I thought it was kind of cute. 20:26 But how do you pick a church? 20:29 How do most people pick churches? 20:31 I'll tell you, I don't know if I'll remember it all, 20:33 but there's about 10 different ways 20:35 that people pick a church. 20:37 It's the church that their family went to, they grew up in. 20:40 Why do you go to that church? 20:42 It's where my family's always gone. 20:43 They were born this way, we're going to die that way. 20:45 Doesn't matter, right or wrong, that's what my family did, 20:48 that's what I'm going to do. 20:50 They pick a church, it's close to the house. 20:53 That's great to have a church close to the house. 20:56 They pick a church, pastor is charismatic and good looking 21:00 and I know that's why you're all here tonight, right? 21:02 (congregation laughs) 21:04 Why, why are you laughing? 21:07 They pick the church because the music. 21:10 Why do you go there? 21:12 Oh, the organ vibrates the building, it's wonderful. 21:15 The choir, I want to be in the choir, they got a choir. 21:18 What do they believe? 21:19 I don't know, but that's where I'm going. 21:21 You ask the average person, what does your church teach? 21:24 Says, well, we believe just like our pastor. 21:28 Well, what does your pastor believe? 21:30 Well, he believes like us. 21:33 Well, what do you and your pastor believe? 21:35 Same thing, they're just, yeah, 21:39 people really don't know the ingredients 21:41 or they pick a church because this is the church 21:43 where the important people go. 21:47 They say if you want to get anywhere in this town, 21:48 your connections, that's the church. 21:51 I understand for generations in Washington, DC, 21:53 as various presidents have attended different churches, 21:56 people start calling those churches every Sunday to say, 21:58 "Is the president coming this week?" 22:01 They want to be there when the president goes. 22:03 And I heard a one pastor, I think it was when George Bush 22:06 used to visit a Methodist church with Laura, 22:08 and they always wanted to know when the pastor-- 22:09 when the president was coming, said, 22:11 will the president be here? 22:12 And he'd say, well I'm not so sure, 22:14 but God will be here if that matters. 22:18 Or they pick a church because the building, 22:20 the architecture. 22:22 Why do you go to that church? 22:24 Oh, the stained glass, it's beautiful, modern, it's clean. 22:28 That's good. 22:31 Why do you go to that church? 22:33 The loving, the people are loving, they're friendly. 22:36 What do they teach? 22:38 I don't know, but they're friendly 22:41 or they have an exciting worship service. 22:44 It's exciting. 22:47 These are some of the reasons that people pick a church. 22:48 Now, all of those things are good. 22:51 It's great if you can go to the same church 22:53 that your family's always gone to, if the music is good. 22:57 I mean, you don't want it to be like feeding time at the zoo 22:59 when they start singing, right? 23:01 You want to have a good children's program. 23:03 It's good if the pastor can keep you awake. 23:05 It's good if it's close to the house 23:06 and they got a modern clean building 23:08 and all of those things are good, 23:10 but not one of those things, 23:12 which happened to be the main reasons people pick a church, 23:15 not one of them is the right reason. 23:17 The one right reason to pick a church 23:19 is the foundational teachings of that church 23:21 are the teachings of Jesus Christ. 23:24 Read the ingredients. 23:26 Do not be fooled by the marketing on the box. 23:31 And a lot of pastors right now, 23:32 they're designing their churches, 23:33 they'll do surveys in the community and say, 23:35 what do these people want? 23:37 I'm going to design my church 23:38 to meet the felt needs of these people. 23:41 Is that what Jesus did? 23:42 Or Jesus say, this is the truth and this is what you need. 23:45 You need salvation from sin, instead of saying, 23:47 we're going to create a church to reach the people. 23:50 God is not wanting a church that will change 23:52 to morph into the culture, 'cause quite frankly, 23:55 our culture is sick. 23:57 God wants a church that is going to change the culture 24:00 because they're standing for the truth. 24:02 So when you want to know what church do I join, 24:05 choose very carefully and you want to make sure 24:08 it matches with the Bible. 24:10 Now did that make sense? 24:11 All right, with that as a foundation, 24:13 how do we find this woman in the last days? 24:18 How did Solomon figure out which was the real mother? 24:21 Use the sword. 24:22 We find the truth by the word of God, 24:24 the sword of God's word, amen? 24:27 How did Jesus say that we demonstrate our love for him? 24:31 Honk your horn and shout, is that what he said? 24:34 No, he said, if you love me, do what? 24:37 Keep my commandments. 24:40 And then you read on here in John, First John 5:3, 24:43 for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. 24:49 God wants us to be obedient 24:51 and this is one of the criteria a church 24:52 is going to be teaching the word of God and the law of God. 24:55 Because how do you know you need to savior 24:57 unless you're saved from sin? 24:59 And when you understand the love of God 25:02 through the law of God, you become a loving church 25:05 because he's forgiven you for your sins. 25:08 Since there are so many faithful Christians 25:10 in other churches-- you hear me friends? 25:12 I want to make sure you get that. 25:14 Don't walk away from this meeting saying, 25:15 Pastor Doug says he's the only one being saved 25:17 'cause he knows the church. 25:18 There are good people in many different churches, 25:20 but things are going to be changing in the last days. 25:24 Since he's got other people in many churches, 25:26 and there's only one true remnant church, 25:28 remnant means the remainder in the last time, 25:31 what will happen to these sincere Christians? 25:34 The words of Jesus, John 10:1, 25:37 and other sheep I have that are not of this fold, 25:41 them also I must bring 25:45 and there will be one fold and one shepherd. 25:48 So what's going to happen? 25:50 He said, I'm going to bring them together. 25:53 There's going to be a shaking in the last days. 25:54 We see the world as being polarized in many ways now. 25:57 People are polarized based on their countries. 25:59 If people are polarized now over racial issues, 26:02 people are polarized over political issues 26:05 and there's going to be a big polarization over religion 26:08 and there's going to be a shaking in the world, 26:10 and those that want to follow Jesus in his word, 26:13 they're going to kind of shake off in one direction. 26:15 They're going to have the other's going to shake off 26:16 into the other direction. 26:17 One's going to have the seal of God, one's going to have the 26:19 mark of the beast, one's going to be the true 26:21 bride, one's going to be Babylon. 26:23 And this is how things are shaping up right now. 26:25 And I don't believe it's an accident 26:27 you're hearing what you're hearing right now. 26:29 I believe that God is wanting you to know 26:31 that he wants you to be his child 26:33 and you need to read the ingredients, friends. 26:36 just don't say, well, I think it's whatever you feel, 26:38 or All rivers lead to the ocean. 26:39 What does the word of God say? 26:41 That's going to be your only safety in the last days. 26:43 (gentle music) 26:48 - [Narrator] Don't forget to request 26:49 today's life-changing free resource. 26:52 Not only can you receive this free gift in the mail, 26:54 you can download a digital copy straight to your computer 26:56 or mobile device. 26:58 To get your digital copy of today's free gift, 27:00 simply text the keyword on your screen to 40544 27:04 or visit the web address shown on your screen 27:07 and be sure to select the digital download option 27:09 on the request page. 27:11 It's now easier than ever for you to study God's word 27:14 with Amazing Facts, wherever and whenever you want, 27:17 and most important, to share it with others. 27:21 - [Speaker] Have you ever skipped a meal? 27:23 Not a bad idea if you need to watch your waistline, 27:26 but there's a heavenly food you should never skip, 27:28 God's word. 27:30 Yet, how can you dive in daily when you're so busy? 27:32 Amazing Facts has you covered and it's as easy as signing up 27:35 for our daily devotional and verse of the day, 27:38 both sent directly to your inbox, 27:39 ready to bless, inspire and inform you. 27:42 To start receiving the Amazing Facts daily devotional 27:45 and verse of the day, visit amazingfacts.org 27:48 and click on Bible study in the main menu. 27:51 You'll be glad you did. 27:52 (poignant music) 27:58 - [Narrator] Don't forget to request today's free offer. 28:00 It's sure to be a blessing. 28:02 And thank you for your continued support 28:04 as we take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. 28:07 We hope you'll join us next week, 28:09 as we delve deep into the word of God 28:11 to explore more amazing facts. 28:23 This presentation was brought to you 28:24 by the Friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry. |
Revised 2023-02-01