Participants:
Series Code: ICJ
Program Code: ICJ190020A
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00:01 If religious leaders tamper with God's law,
00:04 is there any reason why people can't do the same? 00:30 We've been talking about the tragic heartache of 00:33 God's church, or at least parts of it. 00:36 Betraying the Son of God and becoming in a relationship 00:41 with people they ought not to; the kings of the earth, 00:43 the power and wealth. 00:45 So we've talked about the rise of Babylon. 00:47 And while Babylon is not yet in place, 00:49 you can certainly see it rising. 00:51 And we've talked about you can see all those things 00:54 coming together. 00:55 But the Bible also talks about the epic failure of Babylon. 01:01 And so, this time we're going to talk about its failure. 01:05 You know, there have been some tremendous failures 01:07 down through history. 01:08 One of them I think of is King Saul. 01:10 He started out so good, but ends up in a witch's cave. 01:16 Failure; it's not something that we want to see. 01:19 Unless it's something that brings great evil in the world. 01:23 And Babylon is considered by God and the heavens 01:26 as being something that will be a terrible evil. 01:30 Even worse than Nazi Germany. 01:33 So let's go to the Scriptures here, and we'll go to chapter 17 01:36 of the book of Revelation. 01:37 And we're going to see here about the epic fail, 01:40 how the Bible describes the epic fail. 01:42 We don't have time to get into everything, 01:44 But actually not only 17, but the whole chapter of 18. 01:47 We'll come back to some of 18 a little later. 01:51 But let's look at right now let's look at chapter 17 01:53 and we're going to look at verse 9 from Scripture. 01:57 It says, "Here is the mind that has wisdom." 02:00 And so in other words it's saying, 02:01 think about this a little bit. 02:03 It's not hard that you can't get it. 02:05 We want you to think about it a little bit. 02:06 It's talking about Babylon. 02:08 Babylon that is sitting on this multitudes, nations, 02:12 tongues, and people. 02:13 But God keeps using different imagery 02:16 to help us get the point. 02:17 And He's been doing that all the way down through. 02:20 Now I can't go through those on every presentation. 02:24 So here we go, let's just take a look at this. 02:27 "Here is the mind that has wisdom: 02:29 The seven heads are seven mountains 02:31 on which the woman sits." 02:33 Mountains are usually places for kingdoms. 02:35 So we have seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets 02:40 from God's side. 02:41 And the Lamb that's slain has seven eyes. 02:45 And those are opposed to the great red dragon 02:48 with seven heads and ten horns. 02:51 And his other two phases, three phases all together, 02:55 the phase of the leopard beast has seven heads and ten horns, 02:58 and of course the scarlet beast has seven heads and ten horns. 03:02 And again, these seven heads represent the time period 03:06 from the time of John to the coming of Jesus. 03:10 Just like the seven seals, the seven trumpets, 03:12 and the seven churches all cover this same time period. 03:17 So these seven mountains are another way of saying 03:19 basically the same thing. 03:23 "There are also seven kings." 03:25 Another way of saying the same thing. 03:27 "Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. 03:32 And when he comes, he will continue a short time." 03:35 So the focus is on the final phase of this 03:39 as the great red dragon and his final head, if you please, 03:43 or final time period in this great controversy between 03:47 Christ and Satan takes place. 03:49 And then he goes on and he says, "The beast that was, 03:52 and is not..." 03:53 Now that we know already is the papacy who had the 03:57 mortal wound, the deadly wound, and that wound is healed. 04:01 Helped by the beast from the earth, 04:04 becomes extremely popular again. 04:07 And it says, "...is also the eighth, and is of the seven..." 04:13 So that's not rocket science. 04:15 It's simply saying there's not eight heads. 04:18 There's seven heads, but the eighth is of the seven. 04:21 In other words, it's this unique Babylon picture again. 04:26 And it's telling you it's going to perdition. 04:29 So the seventh head is also called the eighth head 04:32 because of this uniqueness that we have with Babylon. 04:37 And then verse 12 says, "The ten horns which you saw," 04:41 on this scarlet colored beast that the woman is riding, 04:45 those ten horns are indeed ten kingdoms. 04:49 Now this is secular power. 04:51 There's nothing new here. 04:53 The great red dragon, pagan Rome, united pagan religion 04:58 with state power. 05:00 Papal Rome, the popes do the same thing with Christianity. 05:04 An apostate form of Christianity, 05:07 not biblical Christianity. 05:08 They united it with secular power. 05:12 And that's how we got the Inquisition. 05:14 That's how we got all the terrible 05:16 persecutions of the Dark Ages. 05:18 And in our last talk together, we saw that Vatican II 05:22 really didn't change that despite what everybody thinks. 05:26 Most people have been deceived. 05:28 Most people have been hoodwinked on this. 05:30 They think that the papacy now is endorsing religious liberty. 05:34 It's not. 05:36 It's only endorsing a change of policy, 05:38 not a change of doctrine. 05:40 A change of policy means, "Well, we're not going to require 05:45 secular governments to enforce our religious teachings." 05:49 Well they can't, of course, because there's a thing 05:51 called the American Constitution. 05:54 But when you get enough popular support, 05:56 they can either change or make void the Constitution. 06:00 And then it's very clear at that point they're going to be 06:03 quite willing to have the state enforce their dogma. 06:06 Unfortunately, Protestantism and evangelicals are beginning 06:10 to look and talk the same way. 06:13 Which is exactly what the prophecy said; 06:16 that this great lamb-like power that comes from the earth 06:19 with those two horns will some day speak like a dragon. 06:23 Just like during the Dark Ages, just like old pagan Rome. 06:28 And we're going to see this union of church and state 06:31 come back into power again. 06:34 Because Vatican II and the Catholic scholars that have 06:37 studied it said, "No, there's no change in doctrine here. 06:41 It's only just a matter of the needs of the moment." 06:47 And that's different than the American Constitution, 06:49 as I've pointed out before, that guarantees rights 06:53 of the minority. 06:55 So you don't get tyranny of the majority. 06:58 You don't get the tyranny of tyrants. 07:00 Those rights are always protected. 07:03 But for the Vatican II the scholars say, "Well, no, 07:09 that can come back and change depending on if you can get 07:13 the majority to agree with you again." 07:15 So Vatican II never changes attitude 07:19 about religious liberty. 07:21 It only changed its policy. 07:24 So we've seen that coming through. 07:26 And we talked about that a little bit last time. 07:28 So these ten horns on the beast, on this great red dragon, 07:33 and the leopard beast, and the scarlet beast, 07:36 they represent the secular power. 07:38 And that's always been united in the great Rome apostasy 07:43 of paganism and papal Rome. 07:45 And now in the end of time we see it 07:47 coming back to power again. 07:51 So we go now to verse 13. 07:53 And is says, "These," secular powers, "are of one mind, 07:57 and they will give their power and authority to the beast." 07:59 That's exactly what they are saying. 08:01 They're saying that these secular powers now 08:03 are going to surrender their power 08:06 and they're going to be guided and influenced 08:08 and directed by this religious power. 08:11 So once again, we have the union of church and state. 08:16 And every time you get that, you're going to get persecution. 08:21 Now it says in verse 14, "These will make war with the Lamb..." 08:25 And this is what the mark of the beast is all about. 08:27 This is a great spiritual war, but it also turns into 08:30 the persecution of people who are faithful and true. 08:33 I think they're are going to be millions of people 08:35 all over the world that are going to embrace 08:37 the gospel of the Bible. 08:38 And I think, as I mentioned, in the Jewish connection 08:41 I think we're going to see many Jewish people 08:43 embrace the Savior. 08:44 I'm not talking about what's happening 08:46 in the nation of Israel. 08:47 Nothing against the nation of Israel, but we're going to see 08:49 some marvelous things here in the end of time. 08:53 "And these," he says, "will make war with the Lamb, 08:57 but the Lamb will overcome them..." 08:59 And of course, that overcoming is described. 09:02 We'll see more of that in this epic fail of Babylon 09:05 as we go on here. 09:07 "...and He will overcome them, for He," Jesus, 09:10 "is Lord of lords and King of kings." 09:13 He's overcome Satan and his hosts before. 09:16 And in this final conflict of the great battle between 09:20 Christ and Satan, the Lord Jesus is going to win this battle. 09:24 And then he says, "And those who are with Him 09:28 are called, chosen, and faithful." 09:32 You want to be part of the called, 09:34 the chosen, and the faithful. 09:36 And then verse 15 he said, "The waters which you saw, 09:38 where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, 09:41 nations, and tongues." 09:42 That's what gives the support. 09:44 This is not coming from kings. 09:45 It's coming from popular support. 09:49 "And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, 09:52 these will hate the harlot..." 09:54 That's what happened over in that sixth plague. 09:57 Remember, the Euphrates is dried up. 09:59 The water, the support, dries up. 10:01 And with it, the political support. 10:03 Well, what happens when that happens? 10:05 When you've got all this clergy that's been telling the state 10:08 what to do, you've got these churches 10:10 telling the state how to go, 10:12 and all of a sudden they come to the realization 10:14 that they've been duped, they've been seduced, 10:17 then what happens? 10:19 Well, here's what the Scripture says. 10:22 "And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, 10:23 these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, 10:27 eat her flesh and burn her with fire." 10:28 So the secular forces now turn on the religious forces 10:34 that have led them down this primrose path of seduction. 10:38 It's not a pretty scene. 10:40 Yes, Babylon wins huge, but it fails even worse in the end. 10:47 And it just says that, "God put it in their hearts 10:48 to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, 10:53 and to give their kingdom to the beast, 10:55 until the words of God are fulfilled." 10:57 So the Lord is watching over His people, 10:59 He's watching over this whole situation, 11:02 this great controversy. 11:04 And so Jesus will tell us again today, "Don't be afraid. 11:08 Don't be afraid." 11:10 That gives us kind of a scriptural 11:12 overview of this failure. 11:13 Now we want to talk about that. 11:16 Let's go to Protestantism for a moment. 11:19 When Protestantism arose out of Europe in the terrible struggle 11:24 and the persecutions that took place at that time, 11:27 eventually Protestantism moved to this country. 11:31 This became, as I mentioned earlier, 11:32 the great Protestant nation. 11:34 I think everybody in the world has recognized that. 11:37 But there were five points to Protestantism 11:40 that were so very important. 11:42 And those five points I want to share with you 11:44 because we need to review them. 11:46 First of all, there was Sola Scriptura; 11:49 meaning, by Scripture alone. 11:51 Meaning that Scripture is the final authority 11:54 by which we judge our faith. 11:56 And of course, we should be free to make those decisions. 11:59 Some people mourn the fact that there's 12:01 many different denominations. 12:02 I don't mourn that fact at all. 12:04 Let people seek the truth as it is in Jesus. 12:07 Let them have the freedom to search the Scriptures 12:11 and to test everything by the Scriptures. 12:14 If they don't have that freedom, 12:16 how can they search for the truth? 12:17 So Sola Scriptura. 12:19 And then here's the next one. 12:21 Sola Fida; which is, by faith alone. 12:24 So by Scripture alone, the authority of Scripture alone. 12:27 And that we're saved by faith alone. 12:29 That we're saved by grace alone. 12:32 In other words, we don't earn our salvation. 12:34 We can't earn our salvation. 12:36 We're all poor sinners and we need the 12:38 saving grace of the Lord Jesus, both to forgive our sins 12:41 and to empower us to become like Jesus. 12:45 And then Sola Christus. 12:47 In other words, by Christ alone. 12:50 The apostle Paul says Christ is the end of the law. 12:53 He's the goal of the law, the Greek word would say. 12:56 Doesn't mean He's doing away with the law. 12:57 But Jesus is the fulfillment of the law. 13:00 Listen, when you bring Jesus into your heart, 13:02 you bring the Ten Commandments into your heart 13:05 because He's the living law. 13:06 When you bring Jesus into your heart, 13:08 you bring the ceremonial law into your heart 13:10 because He's the forgiving Lamb of God, if you please. 13:14 So everything rises, the sun rises and sets in the Lord Jesus 13:19 by Christ alone. 13:21 And the last one is, to the glory of God alone. 13:25 So that everything that we do, whatever we teach, 13:28 whatever we are, whatever we become, 13:32 we do that not for our glory. 13:34 And that's opposite of Babylon. 13:36 She wants worldly power and worldly glory. 13:39 But true Christians want to live their life 13:42 according to this great Protestant teaching: 13:46 to the glory of God alone. |
Revised 2019-12-09