Participants:
Series Code: SCM
Program Code: SCM180010A
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00:41 Welcome to the 3ABN Spring Camp Meeting:
00:44 The Three Angels' Messages. 00:48 Hello! I just want to welcome you to 3ABN Spring Camp Meeting 00:52 2018. I'm Jill Morikone and we are so glad 00:55 that you have joined us at home. Haven't we been having 00:58 an incredible Camp Meeting experience? 01:00 Amen! Amen. I know my own heart has 01:03 been blessed by the anointed messages 01:06 from the Word of God. We are in the middle of our 01:09 journey through Revelation chapter 14: 01:12 the three angels' messages. 01:15 And tonight's message is the third angel's message: 01:18 the mark of the beast. 01:20 Our speaker this evening is Elder Jay Gallimore. 01:24 He has been president of the Michigan Conference 01:27 for 27 years. 01:30 He recently retired from that position. 01:33 It seems like almost my whole life 01:36 I remember Elder Gallimore being president 01:38 of the Michigan Conference. 01:40 Before that he was executive secretary 01:43 and he also served as ministerial director. 01:46 And then prior to that he was a pastor for 18 years. 01:51 The thing I love the most about Elder Gallimore 01:54 is he is a man of God. 01:55 He's a man of principle. 01:58 A man who stands by conviction. 02:00 A man of the Word. 02:02 And he's a servant leader. 02:04 And so we are so blessed to have him with us this evening. 02:08 Before he comes Brother Tim Parton 02:10 will be ministering to us on the piano. 02:12 And we are invited to join him in worship this evening. 02:17 The song he will be bringing, leading us in, 02:19 is His Name Is Wonderful. 02:21 Tim Parton, of course, is general manager of 02:24 3ABN's Praise Him! music channel. 02:26 And we're so blessed by his ministry - music ministry - 02:30 here. And Greg and I just count you as a wonderful friend 02:32 in the Lord and we're so thankful you're part of the 02:34 3ABN team. After Tim Parton leads us in worship 02:38 the next voice you will hear is that of our pastor 02:41 and friend Elder Jay Gallimore. 02:44 The prophet Isaiah declared that His name would be called 02:48 Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, 02:52 Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 02:53 And if ever anyone has lived up to their name 02:57 my Savior and Lord Jesus Christ 03:00 has lived up to those names. 03:04 So I encourage you to worship the Lord 03:06 as we sing this song. 06:22 Amen! 06:27 Thank you, Tim. Thank you so very much 06:30 for that beautiful beautiful number. 06:32 Didn't you love that? 06:33 My! I was blessed by that just being able to sit back there... 06:36 not sit back there... stand back there and listen 06:38 to that. It's a perfect lead-in tonight. 06:43 The topic tonight is the mark of the beast. 06:46 For many people it's a scary thing. 06:50 People know about this everywhere by the way. 06:52 You can't go hardly anywhere unless you mention the words 06:56 666 or the mark of the beast and people... 06:59 I was going through a cash register one time 07:01 and my total - I'm not saying this to be funny - 07:03 just the way it was. My total came up to $6.66. 07:07 And the lady looked at me and she said: 07:12 "Don't you want to buy something else? " 07:17 I said: No, because I'm not superstitious. " 07:23 We have a wonderful Lord. Amen! 07:26 I tell you: this is a really serious subject. 07:29 It is a sobering subject. 07:33 In fact, I don't know of another subject more sobering 07:36 than this. 07:42 In my own series I take almost three nights 07:48 to do this, so I'm not going to do three nights, 07:51 of course, so I'm not going to be able to cover every nuance. 07:57 You have to understand that. Viewing audience as well. 08:02 But the mark of the beast... You don't have to be a rocket 08:06 scientist to get this. 08:07 This is not all that hard. 08:11 There's some key points, and I hope that when you leave 08:15 you'll be able to share it with somebody. 'Cause the whole world 08:16 needs to know about this. The Lord is coming, 08:22 and He gave us this in order to prepare us for the coming 08:26 of the Lord. And this is a message not just for Adventists. 08:32 It's for Muslims; it's for Catholics; it's for Jews. 08:35 It's for Protestants; it's for Evangelicals. 08:38 It's for all of us... because Jesus is King and Lord of all 08:43 of us. It's for the atheist, too. 08:46 For the evolutionist... it's for everybody. 08:50 So if you have your Bibles tonight and you don't mind 08:53 taking them with me, we're going to get right into the Word. 08:56 And I want to go to II Thessalonians 09:00 and that's where we're going to start. 09:02 Chapter 2. And the Apostle Paul 09:08 verse 3: "Let no one deceive you by any means, 09:13 for that day... " meaning the coming of the Lord... 09:15 "will not come unless the falling away comes first 09:19 and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition 09:22 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God 09:27 or that is worshiped so that he sits in the temple of God 09:31 showing himself that he is God. " 09:32 Paul is saying that there is... within the Christian church 09:36 there is coming a falling away. 09:38 Something within the Christian church - a man of sin - is going 09:42 to rise up, and when he does 09:47 he's going to be as it were sitting in the temple of God 09:50 and taking on characteristics that only belong to God. 09:57 That's a prophecy at that point 10:00 but that prophecy would be fulfilled. 10:03 Now I want to go over to the book of Revelation 10:07 and I'd like to go to chapter 5. And while you're going there 10:11 to chapter 5 I want to give you a picture 10:16 of this. The Bible says that this is a revelation 10:20 of Jesus Christ so it can't be secret 10:23 or it can't be something you can't understand. 10:27 In the first chapter we get a picture of Jesus 10:30 moving through the heavenly sanctuary. 10:36 In fact, the whole book of Revelation is a picture 10:40 of Jesus moving through the heavenly sanctuary. 10:42 Now I don't have time tonight to talk about the sanctuary 10:44 except that the Jewish sanctuary is a reflection 10:47 of the heavenly. And the first place that you see Jesus 10:50 is at the candlesticks. 10:53 And the next place that you see Jesus in chapter 4 10:56 is at I think it's the table of Shewbread. 10:59 Doesn't actually say that, and I don't have time 11:01 to give you the scriptural evidence on it 11:03 but the table of Shewbread represents the throne of God. 11:07 And by the way, that throne can move. 11:12 Remember these are symbolic pictures. 11:14 There's a reality of the heavenly sanctuary 11:16 but we want to keep in mind that the book of Revelation 11:20 is filled with symbols. And they're not hard to understand 11:23 really. And then the next time we see Him at the 11:27 altar of incense. So He's moving through the... 11:33 Then... then... watch this. In chapter 11 11:38 and I need to go... I was going to go to 5 first 11:40 so before I get to 11 let's go to 5... 11:42 chapter 5... 'cause I want you to see this. 11:46 And I want you to look at verse 6. 11:51 "And I looked and behold in the midst of the throne 11:53 of the four living creatures and the midst of the elders 11:56 stood a Lamb as though it had been slain 12:02 having seven horns, seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of 12:06 God which go throughout all the earth. " 12:09 This picture of Jesus... He's the symbol 12:13 of this animal, a Lamb... 12:17 but the Lamb has been slain. 12:20 But He's not dead. Isn't that good news? 12:23 So He's a resurrected Lamb if you please. 12:27 He's a living Lamb; we serve a living Christ! 12:31 Amen! Not a dead Christ. 12:35 And He had seven horns. 12:39 And those horns - this Lamb with seven horns - 12:44 that's been slain and resurrected 12:46 is going to take on the great red fiery dragon. 12:51 How about that? 12:54 And He wins! 12:56 And that's the good news. Amen! 12:58 I want that Lamb to win in my heart 13:04 and I want Him to win in your heart. Amen! 13:09 Now if you go to chapter 11 13:14 almost it's kind of the introduction to chapter 12 13:18 verse 19: "Then the temple of God was open in heaven 13:23 and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple 13:26 and there were lightning's, noises, thunders, 13:30 and an earthquake and great hail. " 13:31 So now we're out of that first compartment of the sanctuary 13:35 and we are moving through time in the heavenly sanctuary 13:41 and now we're introduced to the Holy of Holies. 13:43 In the Holy of Holies is the ark of the covenant. 13:46 It has two major points and it has a mercy seat. 13:50 Aren't you glad for that tonight? 13:52 AND it has the Ten Commandments. That's right! 13:56 So when you talk about the Ten Commandments 14:00 and those that keep the commandments of God 14:03 it is in the context of the heavenly sanctuary 14:05 and it can be none other than the Ten Commandments that God 14:08 wrote with His own finger. 14:10 By the way, people ought not to mess with the Ten Commandments. 14:12 I don't care if you're an Adventist; 14:14 I don't care if you're a Baptist or a Protestant 14:17 or a Catholic... I don't care who you are. 14:20 Don't mess with God's Ten Commandments 14:22 'cause I think the Ten Commandments matter. 14:25 Amen! I think they matter a lot 14:27 or they wouldn't be in this place underneath the mercy seat. 14:30 The whole issue is to get everybody back in harmony 14:33 with the Ten Commandments. And let me just take a real side 14:35 quick - real quick - here. 14:38 Those Ten Commandments are not something that God just came up 14:41 with arbitrary and said: "I just kind of like this one, 14:43 I like this one. I'll put that one. We'll make 14:45 these the rules for the human race. " 14:48 These according to the Apostle Paul Romans chapter 7 14:51 are essential for life. Amen! 14:55 They're not arbitrary. 14:57 Every one of those Ten Commandments make it possible 15:00 for life to exist. You break them you bring death. 15:04 And what the mercy seat is all about is bringing us 15:07 back into harmony with the harmony of the universe. 15:11 By the way, when the universe plays music 15:13 it's beautiful. It's in harmony. 15:17 All right. Now let's go to chapter 12. 15:20 I'm not going to take time to read chapter 12 15:22 because if you don't mind 15:25 I'm going to just describe some things there. 15:27 You follow me in chapter 12 but I'm going to use my own 15:30 paraphrasing words if you don't mind. 15:32 The picture here that opens up 15:37 is this woman who's clothed with the sun, 15:41 crown of stars, moon under her feet. 15:44 But she's unique in this sense and this picture 15:48 that she's expecting a child. 15:52 Now that flashes you right back to Genesis 15:56 where God promised Eve that she would have a Seed - 16:01 one Seed someday - that would crush the serpent's head 16:05 that had brought all this misery on all of us. 16:12 And so she's getting ready to have this child 16:16 and then appears in this scene a great red fiery dragon. 16:22 That's a scary thing. 16:27 And the dragon stands and he wants to kill this child... 16:31 devour this child. 16:34 But he is not able to do that because the child is caught up. 16:41 Now I want to ask a question or two 16:43 because we're going to get down to trying to identify 16:45 some important texts here in just a little bit. 16:48 This great red dragon the Bible says in chapter 12 16:54 pre-existed this earth and there was war in heaven 16:57 between the great red dragon and Michael and His angels. 17:02 And for sake of time I will only say that Michael 17:05 here is a symbol of Christ leading the forces of heaven. 17:09 He's not a created being - Hallelujah! - 17:12 He's eternal. Jesus always has been, always will be. 17:17 He's God. By the way, some people say: 17:19 "We can't see your God. " 17:21 I'm telling you: this earth HAS seen God. 17:24 Saw it in the living Christ. 17:27 We've seen God in the flesh. 17:32 And the Bible says that this great red dragon 17:35 is none other than that old serpent the devil 17:40 and Satan who deceived the entire world. 17:44 That's who he is. 17:46 But let me ask a question: 17:50 was there a great red dragon standing there 17:54 when they nailed Jesus to the cross? 18:00 You're thinkin' about it, aren't you? 18:02 That's good. The answer is yes and no. 18:09 Yes, there was a great red dragon unseen. 18:13 But the great red dragon doesn't usually show up. Am I right? 18:17 That you can see him? He works through human agents. 18:21 May God help us not to be an agent of the great red dragon. 18:24 Amen! I want to be an agent of the Lord Jesus. 18:29 So here is this great red dragon, but the human agent 18:35 that crucified Christ 18:39 is whom? 18:42 Well who was Pontius Pilate? 18:44 He was the Roman governor appointed by the Caesar 18:46 if you please. 18:48 Who nailed Jesus to that cross 18:53 is Roman soldiers. 18:55 Who put Him in essence in that tomb and put a seal on it 18:59 and 100 soldiers to guard it? 19:01 Whose soldiers were those? 19:04 This is Rome. 19:06 The agent through whom the great red dragon works 19:11 is Rome. That make sense? 19:15 Yes. Is that hard? No. 19:17 That's common knowledge. 19:19 Let me ask you a question: 19:21 is that rooted in history? Yes or no? 19:24 Yes. Is that reality? Yes it is. 19:28 By the way, Jesus' resurrection's a reality, too. 19:32 Amen! Yeah, don't let me get into that. 19:36 But let me just say this: there've been people that 19:39 say... Skeptics, lawyers, these kind of people... 19:43 And they say: "Let's just give the ancient documents 19:46 that tell us about Jesus the same thing that we would give 19:48 to the ones that tell us about Julius Caesar for instance. " 19:51 And there's far more evident evidence that the resurrection 19:56 is a reality. And if the resurrection is a reality - 20:00 and it is - and Genesis is true 20:02 and the coming of Jesus is true. 20:05 This Lamb that was slain is alive. 20:12 So now let's go to... let's go to chapter 13. 20:17 No, the end of chapter 12. 20:20 So Jesus is resurrected... He's in heaven. 20:24 The devil cannot get his hands on Him. 20:27 So the woman represents God's church from Eve all the way 20:31 down through. And now what the devil does 20:34 is he persecutes God's church; 20:37 he persecutes the church of Jesus. 20:39 There's quite a scene there 20:41 as he spews out a flood in order to destroy the woman. 20:46 And she goes into the wilderness for 1,260 years... 20:50 days it says. Day for a year prophecy. 20:53 I can't spend time on everything tonight. 20:56 You understand that. And by the way, 3ABN I think 20:59 has some good Bible studies or It Is Written 21:01 if you want to get the details on that. 21:03 But she runs as it were, and the Bible then says 21:06 the earth opens its mouth and swallows the flood 21:11 and she is safe for a while. 21:20 And then it describes the end of time. 21:22 Now I want to tell you tonight: we're living in the end of time. 21:28 We're living here. 21:30 The Lord is coming. 21:33 And everything we've been talking about for 150 years 21:36 is coming to pass in front of our very eyes. 21:42 So those people are described as those - verse 17- who keep 21:48 the commandments of God. What commandments? 21:51 Has to be the ark of the covenant commandments. 21:54 Keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. 21:59 And then he says: "I stood on the seashore... " 22:02 Some versions say: "then he... " talking about the great red... 22:06 red dragon stood on the sand of the sea. " 22:08 Doesn't matter. 22:10 "And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. " 22:13 Now interestingly enough, this beast also has seven heads 22:17 and ten horns. And the Bible says 22:22 he's like a leopard and he's got feet like the feet of a bear, 22:25 mouth of a lion. You can read Daniel chapter 7. 22:28 But then the key point is in verse 2. 22:31 It says: "And the dragon gave him his seat, 22:36 his power, and great authority. " 22:40 So since Rome is also represen- ted by that great red dragon 22:47 then it must be Rome... Is this hard? 22:51 It must be Rome that gives this new beast - 22:57 this new animal - its power, 23:02 authority, and its seat or its throne. 23:08 Is that clear? 23:12 That means also that this leopard-like beast 23:17 is also found in history. 23:22 And it's going to be found somewhere as the old pagan Roman 23:27 Empire fades away. 23:30 It gets replaced if you please 23:34 by this new beast in a different dress. 23:39 That's right! Still has 7 heads and 10 horns. 23:44 Now I want to say something. 23:49 God is no respecter of persons 23:53 and He's no respecter of denominations. 24:00 The book of Revelation I think is a combination of 24:04 the truth and lovingkindness together. 24:08 Lovingkindness and truth... and they're not separate. 24:16 The book of Revelation has something to say 24:19 to the Protestants... some pretty tough things. 24:23 It has some pretty tough things to say to Adventists. 24:26 It has some pretty tough things to say to Catholics. 24:31 It has some pretty tough things to say to the Muslims. 24:36 When Jesus called the Pharisees "whited sepulchers" 24:41 He did it with tears in His voice. 24:43 But did He love them? Tell me... did He love them? 24:46 Yes! Of course He did. 24:49 When John the Baptist said "You brood of vipers..." 24:56 Tough! It's the truth. Did he love them? Yes. 25:05 Nobody listening to me is any better than anybody else. 25:08 This book is for all of us; we need to hear it. 25:11 All right, so who is this leopard beast that gets it? 25:16 So I'm going to let history do a little answering for that. 25:20 Is that OK? Let me give you a little... 25:24 analyze the data here for a moment. 25:26 "The leopard beast receives its throne of ruling authority 25:29 from the dragon. The great red dragon acts 25:31 through his human agent pagan Rome. 25:33 Pagan Rome gives the leopard beast his seat or capitol 25:37 or ruling authority. And since Pagan Rome gives 25:40 the leopard beast its throne then it means the leopard beast 25:44 comes after pagan Rome. And since pagan Rome is found 25:47 in history then the leopard beast from the sea must also be 25:50 found in history following on the heels of pagan Rome. " 25:53 Does that make sense? Amen! All right. 25:55 Here's history. This is, by the way, 25:58 an outstanding, renown English historian: 26:00 Stanley's History. "The popes filled the place 26:04 of the vacant emperors at Rome 26:07 inheriting their power, prestige, and titles from 26:11 paganism. Constantine left all to the bishop of Rome. 26:16 The papacy is but the ghost of the deceased Roman Empire 26:21 sitting crowned upon its grave. " 26:25 Secular historian. Here's a renown American historian. 26:32 He taught at Princeton University. Wrote several works 26:35 on the Roman Empire and its civilization. 26:38 This is Abbott's Roman History page 236. 26:41 The other one was Stanley's History page 40. 26:43 "The transfer of the emperor's residence to Constantinople 26:47 was a sad blow to the prestige of Rome 26:49 and at the time might have predicted the speedy decline. 26:52 BUT the development of the church and the growing authority 26:56 of the bishop of Rome or the pope 26:58 gave her a new lease on life and made her - Rome - 27:02 again the capitol. This time, the religious capitol 27:06 of the civilized world. " 27:08 Pretty powerful. 27:10 And there's plenty more to go with that. 27:12 But just leave it there that this came from within the church 27:18 and now Rome passes it off. 27:21 Now let me just skip down here 27:23 and verse 6 says: "And then he opened his mouth 27:28 in blasphemy against God and those who dwell in heaven... 27:31 His tabernacle and those who dwell in heaven. " 27:35 Blasphemy is a religious term 27:37 and Jesus basically was defined of course in the New Testament 27:41 by if anyone chooses to forgive sins because that belongs to God 27:44 alone. And if anyone claims the prerogatives of God 27:49 that that was con- sidered a religious blasphemy. 27:56 Do we have anything like that? 27:59 I don't think I've got... Does that mean I've got 29 min. 28:04 left? I guess that's what it means. 28:07 Well, let's see here. Let me me just talk for a moment about, 28:14 let me talk for a moment about the penetration 28:16 of paganism into Christianity. 28:22 This is Cardinal Gibbons in his book Faith of our Fathers. 28:28 He says: "The penetration of religion 28:30 of Babylon became so general and well known 28:34 that Rome was called the new Babylon. " 28:39 Now hopefully before you're a Christian 28:40 maybe you looked at the horoscope. 28:42 Hopefully if you're a Christian you don't look at that. 28:45 Somebody should have said "Amen! " 28:52 That horoscope? OK... that's old Babylonian paganism 28:56 is what it is. And there's a painting in the Vatican 28:59 of one of the popes sitting under a circle with 29:03 all those astrological paintings from Babylon there. 29:10 Just... Let me just cut to the chase. 29:12 Babylon... they created this astrological religion. 29:16 They believed that there were 36 chief gods 29:20 and that there was a dragon - 29:24 a seven-headed dragon - that ruled over the 36 gods. 29:28 How about that? Isn't that interesting? 29:31 And then over THAT was the sun god. 29:35 And they assigned each one of these 36 chief gods 29:38 a number. And they said: 29:41 "Number 1, number 2... up to number 36. " 29:45 Well then they said: "Let's add these together. " 29:48 One plus two plus three and they keep accumulative 29:52 adding those things. And what number do you suppose 29:55 they come up with at the end of 36? 29:58 Six hundred and sixty-six. 30:01 Not just 666... six hundred and sixty-six. 30:04 Fascinating. That's why they wore... that's why they wore 30:10 emblems, charms around their neck. 30:12 On one side it had the sun god. On the other side 30:14 it had this table with this 36. 30:17 And any sum of any side ended up being 666... 30:22 six hundred sixty-six. 30:24 And they thought that would ward off those evil spirits. 30:31 Now let's look at Revelation... Like I said, I don't have 30:34 enough time to get into every- thing. The beast from the... 30:37 The two-horned beast... I can't get into him tonight. 30:39 But we want to focus in on this mark, 30:42 and I want to look if you don't mind at verse 16. 30:47 Revelation verse 16. "He causes all, both small 30:52 and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark 30:57 in the right hand or in their foreheads 31:00 that no one may buy or sell except he who had the mark 31:03 of the name of the beast or the number of his name. " 31:06 This is talk about control. 31:09 And if you don't think the stage is set for that... 31:14 Have you ever heard of Google? No offense, Google. 31:19 Have you ever heard of Facebook? 31:22 No offense. 31:26 Everybody in this room and probably everybody listening 31:28 to me is in somebody's file. 31:31 And if you don't think the US government doesn't have 31:33 their own files on all of us... 31:36 Knowledge is power. 31:39 And when I saw and I read how extensive and pervasive 31:42 all this stuff was I said to myself: 31:44 "This is a set up for the mark of the beast. " 31:48 Because it's about control. 31:50 It's about information. You have to have information to control. 31:53 OK... let's go on here. 31:59 "That no one may buy or sell except... " verse 17... 32:02 "they have the mark or the name of the beast 32:05 or the number of his name. 32:07 Here is wisdom... " 32:10 Now the Lord asks us to use reason here. 32:14 He doesn't ask us to get emotional. 32:18 He asks us to use reason. 32:22 Two plus two does not equal ten... 32:26 it equals four. 32:30 Use some wisdom; think about this. 32:35 It's reasonable... it's not unreasonable. 32:39 And don't forget the context. 32:49 "Let him who has understanding 32:52 calculate the number of the beast 32:54 for it is the number of a man. " 32:57 I've heard some people try to apply it to a woman. 33:02 You ladies escaped. 33:08 Serious. "For it is the number of a man. 33:12 His number is six hundred and sixty-six. " 33:17 So we should be able to look at the papal power 33:21 and we should be able to find one of his titles. 33:25 Now I'm going to back up for just a moment, flash back... 33:27 I want to flash back to II Thessalonians chapter 2 33:32 where this apostasy that comes within the church 33:37 becomes a substitute - becomes in place of... 33:43 And many people think sometimes when they see the word 33:46 antichrist... By the way, it's not just one. 33:49 The Apostle John said there would be many antichrists. 33:54 The word anti means actually "in place of. " 33:57 In other words, it takes over by substituting itself. 34:05 Just because somebody says they have the prerogatives of God 34:09 doesn't mean that they HAVE the prerogatives of God. 34:15 And so we find this... 34:21 this 666 very interesting. 34:25 And I want to... So what we're looking for 34:28 is in the titles of the papacy 34:32 is there something - a title - that substitutes itself? 34:40 Well, there is. 34:42 It's called Vicarius Filii Dei. 34:44 Now sometimes you get on the Internet 34:46 they'll say: "Ah, no, no... some people just came up with that. " 34:49 And they kind of say: "Oh, no, no, no, that didn't exist. 34:53 They never used that as titles. " 34:54 That's very fascinating because in 1054 34:58 pope... let's see if I get the right one here... 35:02 Pope Leo the 9th I think 35:05 said in a document - and this is a big deal - 35:09 to the patriarch of the Byzantine church because he was 35:11 establishing his authority 35:13 he called himself Vicarius Filii Dei 35:16 which means in place of the Son of God. 35:22 And then there was the thing called the donation 35:24 of Constantine that was fabricated we think today 35:28 by the papacy to establish a fact 35:32 that they actually had Constantine 35:34 actually basically - these are my proverbial words - 35:37 write them a deed to the Roman Empire 35:39 and to its throne. That's why they used the titles. 35:42 By the way, the papacy has many titles: 35:44 Pontifex Maximus etc. etc. 35:49 So you have this donation that was forged 35:54 but they claimed that... nobody believed that it was 35:57 anything but true, and they put it into Canon law. 36:02 And in that Canon law they refer to themselves as 36:06 Vicarius Filii Dei. 36:09 And then you have the summary on the power of the church. 36:13 Doesn't that sound interesting? 36:15 It's one of the most influential documents that's ever been 36:17 commissioned by Pope John XXII. 36:21 One of half a dozen most influential documents 36:26 on the church. 36:28 And there it's called Vicarius Filii Dei. 36:33 Pope Paul I think it's the 6th... 36:35 recent one... he was alive in my lifetime. 36:37 He's dead now, but he referred to himself 36:40 as Vicarius Filii Dei. 36:43 When you take Vicarius Filii Dei 36:46 and you add it up it comes out to 666. 36:51 Now you can do the same thing with your name. 36:52 You know that. 36:54 You've seen the Roman numerals on a clock. 36:56 It's not hard, is it? 36:57 V equals how much? Five. 37:00 A V or a U will always equal 5. 37:02 You see it used both ways. 37:04 And I'm not going to add them up for you tonight 37:06 'cause I think you can figure that out for yourself. 37:10 But there's some more to go with that. 37:13 In the early church they felt like it would be 37:16 the Latin-speaking man that would be the 666 person. 37:21 And if you take the Latin- speaking man in Latin or 37:25 in Greek it adds up to 666. 37:29 Tell me: what is the only political power on earth 37:34 has official language of Latin? 37:36 There's only one... there's only one. 37:42 Well... so what is the mark of this power? 37:50 What is its mark? 37:52 By the way, I should have... From that same document 37:57 I've gotta share this with you. From that same document 38:01 I could give you a lot of... See if I can find that here 38:06 real quick. I wanted you to hear some of the claims 38:09 of the papacy. I thought that would come jumping up at me here 38:12 but I don't see it right off the top of my head. 38:15 OK... that's all right. 38:18 But let me get down to the mark for just a moment. 38:21 And I want you to go to chapter 14 38:23 and you heard a wonderful presentation on Babylon 38:27 just a few... previous... just fantastic. 38:32 And then it comes to the third angel's message. 38:34 This is a sobering... this is so sobering. 38:41 "Third angel followed them saying with a loud voice: 38:43 "If anyone worships the beast... " That's the issue... 38:46 "and his image and receives his mark 38:50 on his forehead or in his hand 38:54 he will drink of the wrath of God which is poured out 38:57 full strength. " You know why? 38:59 'Cause there's no more Mediator. 39:05 Once the judgment comes, 39:07 once the close of human probation... and I'm going to 39:10 talk about that on Sabbath afternoon. 39:12 Once the close of human probation comes 39:15 there's no more Mediator. 39:17 And God doesn't have any choice but to eradicate 39:21 sin from the universe. 39:23 If He doesn't eradicate it, He can't be just. 39:25 But God is not only merciful, God is also just. 39:29 And God is not just just... He's also merciful. 39:33 But He's got to eradicate in order to save the universe 39:36 'cause the universe cannot exist with sin. 39:40 That's why it's got to come out of our hearts... 39:42 out of our affections. 39:44 Thank God for the blood of Christ and for that slain Lamb 39:47 which was slain from the foundations of the earth. 39:49 Another reference to creation. 39:51 OK... coming back to this: 39:53 and look at verse 12. 39:57 "Here is the patience... " Of whom? 40:02 The saints! Saints. 40:04 This is that remnant again; they endure a lot. 40:09 It takes faith to endure, doesn't it? 40:13 It takes faith to hang on. 40:15 It take faith to stay the course. 40:18 When the obstacles are going and it's rough and tough 40:20 it takes faith. And let me tell you: it's going to take faith 40:24 for God's people to go through the end of time. 40:27 Now some people think they're going to prepare for the end of 40:29 time, you know, if they get a big enough garden 40:35 or maybe run to the mountains. 40:37 And probably the mountain's a good place to go sometimes. 40:39 I'm not making fun of anything. 40:41 We should have gardens if you can. 40:43 I've got one... I just got it put in 40:48 before coming down here. 40:53 That's not what's going to save you. 40:57 The only thing that will save you is your faith 41:01 in the saving grace and power 41:04 of the Lord Jesus. Amen! 41:07 Have I lost any of you so far? Are you still with me? 41:10 OK. I told you it wasn't rocket science. 41:13 Now let's go to this mark thing. 41:14 I don't know how many different kinds of ideas 41:18 have come about the mark of the beast. 41:20 It seems every new president becomes the beast 41:22 and then somebody else has a computer 41:23 and then somebody else has something else. 41:25 It's amazing what peoples' minds do. 41:27 But I don't want their opinions. 41:30 What I want is a solid - rock solid - Biblical 41:34 understanding of the mark of the beast. 41:36 And I want to understand the mark. 41:38 What is the mark of this power? 41:41 What does it claim that its mark is? 41:43 So let's look at just something. If you look at verse 12, 41:46 "Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep 41:48 the... " What? Commandments! "and the faith of Jesus. " 41:52 Now the book of Revelation is a book of contrasts. 41:55 So if one group of people have the mark 42:02 and another group has the commandments of God... 42:07 Still with me? 42:10 then you're going to find the real in the commandments of God 42:15 and the counterfeit up here in the mark. Does that make sense? 42:21 That's the only place I know how to go, because 42:23 that in the context of the text. 42:27 So if those who are in contrast 42:31 to those who have the mark of the beast - 42:32 keep the commandments of God - that means that whatever that 42:36 mark is is not keeping the commandments of God. 42:38 Does that make sense? Amen! 42:40 Now fascinating... Of course that mark's put on peoples' 42:43 foreheads or in their hand. 42:44 And that's, you know... You've got people running around 42:47 thinking somebody's going to brand them with 666 42:49 and all that kind of crazy stuff. 42:51 This is symbolic of how you think. 42:53 God does care about how you think by the way. 42:55 And buy and sell. That tells you there's going to be huge 42:58 economic issues in the end of time. 43:00 And they're going to have con- trol over those economic issues. 43:02 If you don't go along with them, then they're going to take... 43:05 "I may not agree with it but I'm going to go along with it. " 43:09 I can be an atheist and still receive the mark of the beast. 43:19 So I want to look at something else real quick 43:22 I want to flash back over. 43:24 You've got your Bibles... to chapter 7. 43:29 Chapter 7 ends with this marvelous picture 43:34 of Jesus coming on the clouds of glory 43:39 if you please or on His throne. 43:41 And it's a unique combination of words. 43:43 And these people look at Jesus and they say: "Hide us 43:47 from the wrath of the Lamb. " 43:51 Doesn't that seem like an oxymoron to you? 43:57 That's because they never understood His love 44:01 or they never accepted His love. 44:05 Now we have no righteousness of our own. 44:08 The only righteousness we have is His. 44:12 And then when John sees this thing he's overwhelmed 44:15 by the scene and he says in words of exclamation 44:21 he says: "Who will be able to stand? " 44:30 And then chapter 7 answers that question. 44:34 And if you look, verse 7 says "Hold the winds of strife. " 44:40 I think God's holding those winds of strife right now. 44:44 Verse 2: "And then I saw another angel ascending from the east 44:49 having the seal of the Living God 44:51 and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom 44:54 it is granted to harm the earth and the sea 44:56 saying: 'Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees... ' 44:59 That's why there's not going to be a nuclear war right now. 45:03 'till we have sealed the servants of our God 45:07 on their... ' " Where? Forehead. 45:09 Now I got very interested about that word sealed 45:11 and I went back and I looked in the original language 45:15 and that is "an authentic, genuine mark. " 45:19 I said: "Why does it say mark in one place 45:21 and seal in the other place? " They are two different words 45:24 but they're very closely related. 45:27 Because this is the genuine. If you accept the Lord Jesus 45:32 Christ as your Savior and He changes your life 45:34 and transforms you He becomes not only your Savior 45:37 but your King. Somebody should have said "Amen. " 45:40 Amen! And the Ruler of your heart and your affections. 45:44 Then He is going to seal you in your head 45:49 and your mind with an authentic seal that says you're His. 45:54 Hmm. The mark, however, 45:58 is a badge or a scratch. 46:02 It's an imitation of the real. 46:06 Remember the substitution thing? 46:10 So this mark is a substitute for the genuine seal of God. 46:19 So if I go to the Ten Commandments - 46:22 that's my context - 46:24 where do I find in the Ten Commandments the seal of God? 46:27 There's only one place to find it 46:29 and that's in the fourth commandment. 46:32 You can read it for yourself. 46:34 It says the Lord God, Yahweh, or Jehovah. 46:37 I like Jehovah better. 46:39 Jehovah God, Elohim. 46:42 Jehovah God: that's His name. 46:45 And then it says Lord Creator 46:48 or Lord, Yahweh, or Jehovah 46:52 Maker or Creator. That's His title. 46:56 And then it tells you what His territory is: 46:59 heaven and earth 47:01 and the universe if you please. 47:04 The Sabbath is God's mark of creation 47:07 and that's why you find it in the middle of chapter 13 47:10 the slain Lamb is brought back up again in verse 8. 47:14 "All who dwell on the earth will worship him whose names 47:18 have not been written in the Lamb's Book of Life. " 47:22 Slain from the foundation of the earth. 47:24 If you go to chapter 14 the three angels' message starts out 47:29 with the fact that God is Creator of heaven and earth. 47:33 The pagans refuse to receive God as Creator. 47:37 They rebel against that creation. 47:40 But the Sabbath has always been God's seal if you please. 47:45 In the end of time when Jesus comes in the clouds of glory 47:49 the people that are waiting to meet Jesus 47:52 and to be received of Him, they are not going to be disobeying 47:56 the Ten Commandments. Amen! 47:58 They're not going to tamper with it; 47:59 they're not going to change it. 48:01 They're going to be keeping the Sabbath 48:02 because they're going to have the seal of God. 48:05 Amen! And if you keep the Sabbath in your heart 48:08 you've got the living Christ in your heart. 48:10 By the way, the real 10 Command- ments is the living Christ. 48:14 Amen! And He comes into your heart 48:17 and your life He brings His life, 48:19 His commandments, into your heart and into your life. 48:23 So the Sabbath becomes the mark not only of creation 48:27 but it becomes the seal of our redemption. 48:31 And Sabbath is that time that we are drawn 48:34 to the Savior. And when Jesus comes 48:37 everybody that's going to be saved is going to be keeping 48:39 ALL of God's commandments. 48:41 They're not going to be able to pick and choose. 48:43 Now the papacy substituted Sunday for that 48:48 and they make those claims. 48:52 Let me put it this way... let me ask this question: 48:56 who claims ownership of the Sabbath? 49:00 Jesus said: "For the Son of Man is even Lord 49:03 of the Sabbath Day. " 49:05 That's Matthew 12 verse 8. 49:09 And of course the Bible says in the Ten Commandments 49:12 that the seventh day is the Sabbath of whom? 49:15 The Lord! It's not the Jews' Sabbath. 49:18 It's not the Adventist's Sabbath. 49:20 It's not anybody's Sabbath. It's the Lord's Sabbath 49:23 and we are to keep it by grace. 49:30 So where did this substitution come in? 49:34 Well, it comes in again from the pagan, Babylonian 49:39 influence. The day of the sun was something that the pagans 49:43 revered, and it was just easy to incorporate that. 49:47 What the Roman papacy did is they made people fast 49:51 on the Sabbath and then have a feast on Sunday. 49:55 That's pretty slick, isn't it? 49:58 Actually the Sabbath should be a day of rejoicing 50:00 and celebration and happiness and joy. 50:02 Not doing your own work; not doing your own thing 50:05 but we should be rejoicing in the Lord our God 50:07 who's given us the breath of life. 50:10 And so they came up with this. And by the way, they claim it. 50:14 And that summary on the power of the church 50:18 is a very powerful document. 50:20 Listen to this: "Resolved: the Sabbath Day law has been 50:24 changed by the pope to the Lord's Day 50:27 due to the preeminence of things signified 50:31 and the excellent factors 50:32 in agreement with time and circumstance. " 50:35 I will tell you this, and I say it with sweet kindness: 50:37 time, circumstance, or anything else doesn't give any man 50:40 the right to change the law of God 50:42 that He wrote with His own hand. 50:43 Now I want to say this: if... 50:48 if the Ten Commandments matter, 50:52 the Sabbath matters. Amen! 50:57 If "Thou shall not steal" matters, 51:01 if "Honor your father and your mother" matters, 51:04 if "not taking the Lord's name" matters, 51:07 if not committing adultery matters, 51:11 if not stealing matters, 51:14 it not coveting matters, 51:17 then the Sabbath matters. Amen! 51:20 You can't separate 'em out. 51:23 And God isn't going to change. I'm glad for that. 51:26 I'm glad that God doesn't change, aren't you? 51:28 Wouldn't it be scary if He did? 51:31 I mean with all that power? 51:33 He doesn't change. 51:35 And you can praise Him and give Him glory, 51:38 tell Him how much you love Him, 51:41 tell Him how grateful you are. 51:42 That's really good for us to do that. 51:44 But you know, all that praise... It might change you 51:46 but it wouldn't change Him. Amen! 51:48 That praise doesn't change Him. 51:50 He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. 51:54 He's the same at creation 51:56 as He will be when Jesus comes in the clouds of heaven. 51:59 It's going to be a glorious time when Jesus comes. 52:03 Well, they make the claim. 52:05 Here's Cardinal Gibbons... I'm sorry... yes, Cardinal Gibbons. 52:11 "Of course the Catholic church claims the change was her act 52:15 and the act is the mark of her ecclesiastical power. " 52:19 Here's Dr. Hiscox. He wrote the Baptist Manual 52:24 back in the 1800's... 1893. 52:29 Dr. Edward Hiscox, 52:31 author of the Baptist Manual. 52:33 In a paper he read this. 52:35 "What a pity that it - Sunday - comes branded with the mark 52:39 of paganism and christened with the name of the sun god 52:45 when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy 52:49 and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism. " 52:54 I want to weep when I read that. 52:56 I say to my Catholic friends who we love by the way: 53:00 Jesus loves everybody. 53:02 Aren't you glad for that? 53:05 I say to them: "As much as I love you 53:09 I don't think you should allow a man, even if you revere him, 53:14 to change one dot or I of God's law. " 53:18 In fact, Jesus said that. He said: "Not one dot; 53:20 not one crossing of the T will change 53:24 till heaven and earth pass away. " 53:28 I say to my Protestant friends: 53:31 "You claim to believe the Bible. 53:36 You claim. Why don't you just accept it at face value 53:41 instead of trying to...? " 53:44 And I say to the Adventists: 53:48 "There's two issues here: the right day 53:52 and the right way. " 53:57 You get the right day and not keep it holy 54:00 it's not going to do... Just showing up for church 54:02 on Sabbath morning's not going to cut it. 54:05 You SHOULD be in church on Sabbath morning. 54:07 Somebody should have said "Amen. " Amen! 54:11 Should be in church. 54:13 But we need to keep the Sabbath holy. 54:16 That means use the Preparation Day to get ready 54:18 for the coming of the Sabbath. 54:21 It means that I'm ready. You know, whatever you have to do... 54:24 the housework. Some people call that legalism. 54:26 That's not legalism. That's saying: "Lord I love You so much 54:29 I can't wait till that special day gets here. " 54:33 It means laying aside all your other stuff. 54:36 You know, hallelujah! On the Sabbath I don't have to mow 54:39 the yard! I'm free. 54:42 My wife doesn't have to cook on the Sabbath. 54:45 She's free. 54:46 We're free. The Sabbath frees us 54:49 from all that stuff we do during the week. 54:51 Nothing wrong with the stuff we do during the week 54:53 but on Sabbath we are free. 54:56 Free to visit with the Lord to show Him our... And by the way, 55:01 that's what Sabbath is all about. It's a time for God 55:03 to come specially to His people. He's with us all week long. 55:07 We know that. When the sun goes down on Saturday evening 55:10 doesn't mean the Lord walks away. 55:12 That's not the point. 55:14 The Bible says Jesus said the Sabbath was made for 55:16 man. In other words, He gave it to us as a gift 55:20 to bless us and to encourage us and to strengthen us 55:24 and to bring happiness and joy to us. 55:26 What's it going to be like to keep the Sabbath? 55:28 And it's going to be kept in the New Earth, so why shouldn't we 55:30 get used to it now? Amen! 55:36 I'm telling you: great changes are coming into the world, 55:39 and they're already touting Sunday as the solution 55:43 to climate change. I'm not getting into politics 55:46 so that doesn't matter. 55:48 The point is that we know before Jesus comes 55:51 there's going to be great upheavals in nature 55:53 regardless of where it comes from. 55:56 And the families are falling apart with all the pornography 56:00 and all the garbage and everything. 56:02 Sunday is the solution. 56:04 They're beginning to see Sunday, if we could just get everybody 56:06 going to church. If we could just get everybody 56:09 taking some time off we could even get the atheists 56:12 to slow down. By the way, in the encyclical 56:16 the Pope gave calling for Sunday the atheists were 56:18 cheering it. 56:24 The real question is not what you're going to do with the 56:26 Sabbath. 56:32 What are you going to do with the Lord of the Sabbath? 56:40 It's not just the Ten Command- ments on the stone that Moses 56:43 gave us. But what are we going to do 56:46 with the Ten Commandments in the ark of the covenant in heaven 56:50 of which the Sabbath is a part? 56:54 Are you committed to the Sabbath? 56:56 Not just the day, but are you committed to the way? 56:59 Are you committed to the joy the Sabbath will bring? 57:02 Are you committed to the Savior who gave us the Sabbath? 57:07 Do you want to celebrate this glorious God who created us 57:12 and sent His only begotten Son to redeem us 57:15 and save us by His grace? 57:18 When you keep the Sabbath holy 57:20 you celebrate a mighty God 57:25 who REALLY REALLY loves you. |
Revised 2018-09-04