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Series Code: TCM
Program Code: TCM200010S
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00:40 The title of this series is Three Cosmic Messages:
00:44 Earth's Final Conflict. If you're joining us for 00:47 the first time... welcome! 00:49 This is the 10th presentation in the series 00:52 so you want to be sure to watch the previous presentations 00:55 to kind of get caught up. 00:56 If you've been with us each presentation, 00:59 we've been unfolding the prophecies of the book 01:02 of Revelation, particularly Revelation 14:6-12. 01:06 Let's suppose that you live quite a distance in the country 01:12 and that there's a narrow road coming to your dwelling. 01:16 Let's suppose there's a river and a bridge that you have to go 01:20 over to get to your dwelling... to your home. 01:23 Your son, at 17, has just gotten his driver's license. 01:28 It's a dark, rainy night; your boy is not home. 01:33 You get word that the bridge is out. 01:35 You get word that there is trouble on the road. 01:38 What's your first instinct? 01:40 Well, it's to text him to let him know, right? 01:42 Or to call him immediately on the telephone. 01:45 Will he resent that warning? 01:47 If the bridge is out, he certainly wants the warning. 01:51 In the book of Revelation God appeals to us in love 01:54 but there also are some warnings 01:57 because in the future there are some bridges out 02:00 that God wants us to be able to span 02:04 that river of error that flows and understand His truth. 02:09 And He wants us to get home. Let's pray. 02:12 Father in heaven, You have that great longing to bring us each 02:15 home. You have that great longing to get us from earth 02:18 to heaven, and like a loving Father 02:21 who wants His son home on a dark, rainy, stormy night 02:25 You want to take us through the storm 02:28 across the river of difficulty and get us home. 02:30 And we thank you that You've given us messages in the book 02:33 of Revelation to do just that. 02:36 In Christ's name, Amen. 02:39 My topic during this presentation is: 02:44 The book of Revelation unmasks the plans of the evil one 02:51 and it reveals the plans of God. 03:02 A young woman, Mary Kellerman, 03:05 woke up that morning with a terrible headache. 03:10 A brief history of what happened was recently written 03:15 by Dan Fletcher. This young woman's name was Mary Kellerman. 03:20 Because she had a headache and symptoms of a cold 03:23 her parents gave her Tylenol when she woke up. 03:27 Four hours later 12-year-old Mary Kellerman was dead. 03:32 The parents were absolutely devastated. 03:36 But that was just the beginning. That September morning 03:40 in 1982 in Chicago. 03:44 Not long after that 03:46 a postal worker by the name of Adam Janus also died 03:50 soon after taking Tylenol. 03:53 Before the day was over the death toll began to grow. 03:58 In fact, in a few days 04:00 it had grown significantly. 04:03 The only link being that each victim had taken 04:08 Extra Strength Tylenol. Now when the police began 04:12 to look into this, when the experts in chemistry 04:17 began to look into it they found that these Tylenol capsules 04:21 were produced in different plants. They were sold 04:24 in different stores. Their only conclusion 04:27 is that somebody was tampering with these Tylenol capsules. 04:33 Their only conclusion was somebody was lacing them 04:37 with potassium cyanide poison. 04:40 The city - and nation - was in panic. 04:45 Upon testing each of the capsules proved to be laced 04:47 with potassium cyanide at a level toxic enough 04:52 to provide thousands of fatal doses. 04:57 Some madman, some maniac, 05:00 some insane person was tampering with those capsules. 05:04 There was a nationwide panic. 05:07 The Tylenol capsules and Tylenol was recalled 05:11 from stores costing the manu- facturer millions and millions 05:17 of dollars. 05:18 The police went through the streets of Chicago 05:21 with a loud speaker announcing to people: 05:25 "If you have Tylenol on your shelf, 05:28 discard it... throw it away be- cause it's laced with poison. " 05:32 As I read this very tragic story this thought came to me: 05:37 the people that took these capsules 05:40 actually thought that they were taking something 05:44 that would benefit their health, something that would 05:47 reduce the fever, something that would reduce the headache. 05:51 They thought they were taking something beneficial 05:54 but yet they were taking a poison that would lead to death. 05:58 Could it be possible 06:00 that in the generation that we live in 06:03 could it be possible that in this generation 06:06 there is a spiritual type 06:10 of laced Tylenol capsule? 06:13 You say: "What are you talking about? " 06:15 Could it be very possible that we're taking a spiritual 06:20 poison that we think brings us life 06:22 but it's actually false doctrine the wine of Babylon 06:27 that Revelation speaks about that indeed is fatal? 06:31 The Bible says in Prov. 16:25, don't miss this text: 06:46 Somebody say: "Well isn't sincerity enough? " 06:50 You can be very sincere but in actual fact 06:54 you can be sincerely wrong. 06:56 If I'm driving on a foggy night 06:59 and there's a bend in the road 07:01 and I keep going straight off a cliff, 07:03 I may be very sincere but it may end up in death. 07:07 So God's Word informs our thinking. 07:12 It's more than sincerity. It's the sincere desire 07:16 to know truth in God's Word. 07:19 If our hearts are honest before God, 07:22 Jesus in fact said to the people in His day in John 7:17 07:27 He said: "If any man will do My will, 07:29 he will know of the doctrine. " 07:31 So sincerely desiring to do God's will 07:35 and opening the Scripture 07:37 the Holy Spirit reveals to us what God's will is. 07:41 But we may be ever sincere 07:44 but trusting in our own opinion, trusting in church leaders, 07:49 trusting in a religious political organization 07:53 that the Bible calls Babylon. 07:56 The book of Revelation reveals God's plans 08:00 and it exposes error in the last and final generation. 08:06 God's end-time message is being pictured as being 08:09 carried by three angels in mid heaven. 08:12 The first angel flies and the Bible says: 08:14 "I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven 08:17 having the everlasting gospel. " 08:19 That first angel has the gospel of God's goodness; 08:22 the gospel of God's grace; the gospel of God's mercy; 08:25 the gospel of God's life-changing power. 08:27 That first angel reveals that there is nothing we can do 08:31 to save ourselves... that salvation is totally 08:34 in Jesus Christ. 08:35 That message is to go to every nation, kindred, tongue, 08:38 and people. But the angel emphasizes 08:41 aspects of the gospel that have been long neglected 08:44 by Christianity. 08:45 The angel says with a loud voice 08:47 so all the world can hear: 08:49 "Fear God and give glory to Him. " 08:52 Fear, respect, obey God. 08:55 Give Him glory in your lifestyle: 08:58 in that which you take into your body, that which you eat. 09:01 That which you drink and what you see, what you listen to, 09:04 the places you go. So this message of the first angel 09:07 is a call to obey God because we're saved by grace. 09:12 It's a call that our lives reflect a commitment to God. 09:16 Why? Because the hour of His judgment is come. 09:19 We're living on the knife-edge of eternity. 09:22 We're living where the sands of time are running out 09:25 of that hourglass of time. Living just before 09:28 the coming of Christ. And then the Bible calls us 09:31 in an age of evolution, in an age of dehumanization 09:34 of human beings, it calls us back to worship the Creator. 09:38 Back to the sanctity of life. 09:41 That's the first angel's message. 09:43 It's a big message... a message to all mankind, 09:46 a message that has the foundation of all the Biblical 09:50 truth in it. A message of the gospel; 09:53 a message of obedience; 09:54 a message of the judgment; 09:56 a message of the second coming of Christ; 09:58 a message of the sanctity of life; 10:00 a message of worshiping the Creator. 10:01 But then the second angel flies and he says: 10:05 "Babylon is fallen! Is fallen! " 10:07 As we have studied 10:09 God is calling us to live godly lives 10:13 in the light of the judgment hour. 10:15 He's calling us to have nothing between our soul and our Savior. 10:18 He's calling us to decision in this hour of earth's history. 10:23 But then that other angel does fly in Revelation 14 verse 8. 10:27 It says: 10:41 We introduced this second angel's message 10:44 in our last program... our last presentation. 10:48 We pointed out that Babylon represents 10:52 a false religious system. 10:54 Revelation 17 describes a woman 10:58 riding on a scarlet-colored beast. 11:00 This woman is dressed in purple and scarlet. 11:03 In the Bible a woman represents Bible prophecy. 11:07 We find that in Jeremiah 6 verse 2 11:09 and Ephesians chapter 5. 11:11 The true woman is the bride of Christ. 11:13 The fallen woman is one who has left Jesus, 11:18 united with the state power. 11:20 So the woman - the fallen church - rides upon the state. 11:24 She has BABYLON THE GREAT written on her forehead. 11:27 In our last presentation we noticed 11:30 that the term Babylon represents an apostate religious 11:34 system that distorts truth, 11:36 substitutes man-made theories for the teachings of the gospel. 11:40 We understood that the word Babylon means confusion. 11:44 Confused religious values. 11:47 Human opinions substituted for the Word of God. 11:50 Human opinion substituted for divine truth. 11:54 We continue unfolding the mystery of BABYLON THE GREAT 11:58 in this presentation. 12:01 In Daniel chapter 7 verses 17 and 23 12:05 the Bible talks about beasts and symbolizes them as kingdoms. 12:19 So when we read in Revelation 17 12:22 about Babylon, the mother of harlots 12:26 we read about a great mother church dressed in purple 12:30 and scarlet. We pointed out in our last presentation 12:33 that that great mother church sitting on the seven-hilled city 12:38 was certainly the Roman church. 12:40 She directs state powers. 12:43 In the last days of earth's history 12:45 church and state will unite. 12:47 Religious liberty will be undermined 12:52 and religious liberty will be something 12:56 that is usurped by the state power. 13:01 But there are two central pillars of Satan's strategy 13:05 to lead to this union of church and state 13:09 that we want to take a very careful look at 13:12 in this presentation. 13:14 These two central pillars 13:16 come directly out of Babylon. 13:19 They're part of MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT. 13:21 Babylon, of course, represents religious confusion. 13:25 What were the two prime pillars of Babylon? 13:29 What was Babylonian religion like? 13:32 And how will that be translated into spiritual Babylon? 13:38 Now remember Revelation 18:2: 13:44 So... habitation of demons. 13:46 That has to do with spiritualism. 13:48 That has to do with the working of evil spirits. 13:55 So ancient Babylon was the center of spiritualism. 14:01 The spirits were feared by the people. 14:04 They believed in the reincarnation of the dead. 14:08 When the dead lived they lived on and would come back 14:10 in another form. 14:13 Babylon was the center of immortality. 14:17 It was the center of the idea that there was this kind of 14:21 immortal essence, this immortal part of an individual. 14:24 We might call it the "immortal soul. " 14:26 That was indeed part of Babylon's philosophy. 14:30 They believed that when a person died they actually lived on 14:34 in immortality and at times they could return. 14:44 So that's why they worshiped these images 14:47 because they believed that they were images or incarnations 14:51 of those who had died... or the gods, actually. 14:55 And they believed that they were worshiping those gods. 15:07 You say: "Where does this idea come from? " 15:16 And so they believed that at death there was a soul 15:21 that left the body. It came from Greek philosophy 15:24 but where did they get it from? 15:25 They, of course, got it from Babylon. 15:28 When you go back to Ezekiel chapter 8 verses 13-14 15:33 there are women who come to the temple of God 15:38 and they've accepted these Babylonian ideas. 15:41 They've actually slipped into the church, slipped into 15:44 ancient Israel, and notice what the prophet says: 16:11 Now here in Israel, in the temple of the Lord's house, 16:16 you have Israelite women that are weeping for who? 16:21 Tammuz. Now who was Tammuz? 16:23 Tammuz was one the Babylonian gods... 16:26 the Babylonian god of vegetation. 16:29 And what did the Babylonians believe? 16:31 They believed that when their god died... 16:52 ... and Tammuz would live again. 16:53 So they had this whole idea of immortality. 16:57 That when you die you don't die; the dead really live on. 17:01 Now why would Satan use that 17:04 as one of his major pillars in ancient Babylon? 17:08 And how would the immortality of the soul come into 17:11 Christianity as one of Satan's pillars? 17:13 What is Satan's strategy in all that? 17:15 Satan's strategy is precisely this: 17:17 if you can get people believing in immortality, 17:22 if they believe that the dead who died can come back, 17:26 they will be captured by evil spirits 17:30 and their minds will be led from the clear teachings of the Bible 17:35 to the teachings of these evil spirits. 17:39 So that's part of Satan's strategy. 17:42 Ecclesiastes 9:5 tells the Biblical concept of death. 17:58 So in the Bible when God created the human race 18:02 He created Adam out of the dust of the ground. 18:05 Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life - 18:08 the life-giving power of God - and man became 18:12 a living soul, a living creature, a living being. 18:15 The Bible does not say God put a soul into man. 18:19 The soul is the product of the body God created 18:24 and the breath of life. When a person dies, what happens? 18:26 The Bible says Ecclesiastes 12 verse 7: 18:29 when a person dies the body goes to the dust 18:32 and the spirit, that's the life-giving force of God - 18:36 not something that thinks, not something that reasons - 18:39 goes back to God. 18:41 So the soul is the product... it is the result of 18:46 God breathing His breath into human beings 18:48 and forming the body. It's the result of that. 18:51 Another word for soul is a living being. 18:53 Sometimes a person goes to the grocery store. 18:56 They get their task done much more quickly 19:00 and they come back and say: "There was not a soul there! " 19:02 What did they mean? There's not some conscious being there? 19:04 Not at all. They mean there's not a person there. 19:07 "The living know that they shall die. " In the Bible 19:10 death is but a sleep and the dead don't know everything 19:14 they know nothing. 19:16 In a sermon called Is Man by Nature Immortal? 19:20 by Amos Phelps, a great Protestant preacher 19:24 of a couple generations ago, 19:27 he traces the idea of the immortal soul 19:31 very powerfully. He says: 20:16 What did Lucifer say 20:18 to Eve when he came to the garden? 20:21 He said to her: "You shall not surely die. " 20:25 "You are naturally immortal. " 20:28 "There's an essence in you that's immortal. " 20:30 "You can take of this fruit and you will not die. " 20:33 So the idea of the immortality of the soul - 20:36 the idea that death is not death - 20:38 the idea that you know more in death than you did in life - 20:41 that comes not from Christianity 20:44 but it's one of the Babylonian teachings 20:47 that comes right from the Garden of Eden 20:50 in Satan's words that "You shall not surely die. " 20:54 The devil uses that in the last days of earth's history 20:58 as one of the points of deception. 21:14 What is the battle of the great day of God Almighty? 21:16 It's the battle of Armageddon: 21:18 this final conflict between good and evil, 21:22 this final conflict between Christ and Satan, 21:25 this final conflict where church and state unite 21:28 and all the forces of hell are focused upon God's people 21:33 to destroy them. But what is it at a time of crisis? 21:37 What is it at a time of economic disaster? 21:40 What is it at a time of political disaster? 21:43 What is it at a time when this entire world 21:45 seems uncertain and falling apart? 21:48 What is it that brings the world back to this unity? 21:53 It is the spirits of demons 21:55 working miracles through false religions 22:00 to unite the kings of the earth in a power block 22:04 to oppress the people of God 22:07 and try to bring world unity in one great world unification 22:13 approach. You see, why is it that this idea 22:18 of the immortal soul... what does this do? 22:22 How does it impact practical Christianity? 22:26 Well, the pagans - the Babylonians - 22:28 would bring offerings for the dead. 22:31 And they would come there to the shrine of those that died. 22:35 And in some world religions that's true today. 22:38 In Buddhism this certainly is true 22:40 where offerings are brought for the dead. 22:43 This is true in a number of world religions today. 22:48 Why is this one of Satan's central pillars? 22:51 We pointed out first: because it becomes a counterfeit 22:56 revelation of truth and it leads people from 23:00 the objective truth, the clear truth of the Word of God. 23:03 But also these offerings become a substitute 23:09 of a heart commitment to Jesus. 23:11 And the spirits of the demons 23:14 become substitutes for the one Redeemer of our world 23:19 Jesus Christ. There is only one offering 23:23 and that's the offering of Jesus. 23:25 He's already made that offering so we need not come 23:28 with the offering of our works, our righteousness. 23:32 We need not come in fear trying to make ourselves 23:36 right with God. We come to God through Christ. 23:40 We come with the One who says: "Him that cometh to Me 23:42 I will in no wise cast out. " 23:43 We come in deep commitment to the One who says: 23:47 "Come unto Me. " The gentle, loving, compassionate 23:51 Christ whose grace flows from His heart 23:54 says: "Come unto Me. " 23:56 So we need not come with offerings for the dead. 24:12 The book of Revelation is very, very clear. 24:15 The dead rest from their labors. 24:17 As the book of Job says: "They shall never return 24:20 to their house again. " 24:22 They rest. Fifty-three times the Bible says 24:26 death is but a sleep. 24:29 In the Bible death is a rest. 24:32 When we die, we rest from the calamity of life. 24:35 We rest from the pain of these physical bodies. 24:39 We rest from the distress that occurs here in this life 24:44 and all of its pain and suffering. 24:46 We rest. You know, when you go to sleep 24:49 you sleep momentarily and the next moment you know 24:52 you're waking up, right? 24:54 When you go to sleep if you are in a sound sleep 24:57 you don't say: "Well, it's 10 o'clock when I went to bed 25:00 but now it's 11. " And your mind doesn't register 25:02 all of that. Why? It's this perfect total rest. 25:06 So in Scripture contrary to the deceptions 25:11 of Satan that flow through the stream 25:15 of spiritual Babylon from pagan Babylon 25:18 contrary to that God teaches us the truth about death. 25:29 And look: why does Satan try to perpetrate 25:33 this error of the immortal soul? 25:35 Because he hates the doctrine of the second coming of Christ. 25:39 See, if the dead already go to heaven, 25:41 why would Jesus come again? 25:43 To somehow unite dead bodies to souls? 25:47 That doesn't make sense! But the Bible says: 26:13 Imagine this scene: your father has died. 26:17 You long to see him again. Your mother has died. 26:20 You long to see her again. 26:22 A brother, a sister, a child. 26:24 But one day lightning flashes from the east 26:28 even unto the west. 26:29 One day the earth shakes with a mighty earthquake. 26:32 One day the sky is illuminated with the glory of God 26:35 and Jesus descends down the corridors of time. 26:38 He says: "John, come forth; Mary, come forth. " 26:43 "Peter, come forth; Alice, come forth. " 26:45 "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, 26:48 with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God. " 26:51 It's the voice of victory! Sin and suffering and heartache 26:54 will be no more! The devil hates that 26:57 so he perpetrates this idea upon the human race. 27:01 "Oh, don't think much about the coming of Christ. 27:03 because there's kind of a soul that's kind of this ethereal, 27:07 mystical thing that kind of wings its way to heaven. " 27:10 Why do so many churches lack spiritual power? 27:14 Because the preaching of the second coming of Christ 27:18 is no more in many of those churches. 27:21 Many have lost the urgency of the second coming of Christ. 27:24 But down through the ages when the urgency of the second coming 27:29 beats in your heart, when you long for the second coming 27:32 of Christ, you are driven to your knees with deeper 27:36 commitment to Jesus and a deeper sense of His love 27:40 and His grace. Satan has introduced 27:44 even to Christianity a false doctrine from Babylon 27:48 to undermine the whole idea of the second coming of Christ 27:53 and to place peoples' minds in a position to be deceived 27:57 by spiritualism. The hope of this world 28:01 according to the apostle Paul Titus chapter 2 verse 13 28:05 and onward. He says... 28:06 he talks about we are looking for "the Blessed Hope. " 28:09 There is hope for our weary, war-torn planet. 28:13 There is hope for our confused, chaotic world. 28:16 There is hope for a planet of disease and disaster and death. 28:20 There is hope for this planet, 28:22 and that hope is in the second coming of Christ. 28:25 The book of Revelation rings with hope. 28:28 The book of Revelation is saturated with hope. 28:30 The book of Revelation and these three cosmic messages 28:34 beat with the urgency of the second coming of Christ 28:38 and give us a new hope. 28:50 Whereas spiritualism prepares our mind for deceptions, 28:55 whereas spiritualism takes us from the reality 28:59 of the second coming of Christ, 29:01 sun worship undermines our confidence in the Creator 29:05 and leads men and women to disobey the clear command 29:09 of God that said: "Remember the Sabbath Day 29:12 to keep it holy. " 29:14 Ancient sun worship comes from Egypt... where they worshiped 29:18 Amun Ra, the sun god; 29:20 Babylon, where they worshiped Bel Marduk, the sun god; 29:24 Persia, where they worshiped Mithras; 29:27 going on to Rome and the sun god Eternity Veritas. 29:31 And so all these pagan cultures worship the sun god. 29:36 Now there is an amazing story that takes you back 29:40 in the book of Dr. James Frazer, vol. 1 p. 529 29:45 in his book The Worship of Nature. 29:47 An amazing story in which he points out: 29:57 So the sun became that luminous object in the heavens, 30:00 and as the pagans looked at this luminous object 30:04 in the heavens they believed that when the sun shone 30:09 in proper proportions that their crops grew. 30:13 When the sun god was angry with them 30:16 he would burn up the crops. 30:17 When darkness hid the sun and it didn't rain 30:21 the crops would wither as well and die. 30:24 So they saw the sun as a god and they worshiped the sun god. 30:30 In Ezekiel chapter 8 verse 16 this Babylonian influence 30:36 from sun worship actually came into Israel. 30:45 That's right at the temple. 30:57 Now if your back is toward the temple of the Lord... 31:00 The temple faces toward the east 31:04 so if your back is toward the temple 31:08 of the Lord what are you facing? 31:10 You're facing east. So the Bible says: 31:18 Can you imagine? In Israel 31:21 where God said to Israel in the commandments 31:24 "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. 31:28 Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work 31:33 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. 31:36 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth. " 31:39 You see, the Sabbath command that God said "Remember" 31:43 was given in memorial of creation. 31:48 And here, into Israel - the very people of God 31:54 to whom were given the very commandments of God - 31:58 for every generation and for mankind throughout its history 32:03 slipped into that community 32:06 this limited amount of sun worship that the devil wanted 32:10 to impact the entire community with. 32:20 And that's why the issue of Sabbath worship 32:23 is so significant. 32:25 If you turn from worshiping the Creator, 32:29 the logical conclusion is to worship the creation. 32:34 If you turn from worshiping the Creator, 32:38 the logical conclusion is that you'll worship works 32:42 of your own hands 32:43 and the human is exalted above the divine. 32:48 Sabbath worship calls us back to rest in our Creator, 32:52 to trust in our Creator's love and grace, 32:55 to trust in our Creator's power, 32:57 and to be changed by our Creator's strength. 33:01 It calls us back to rest in His grace. 33:04 To trust Him completely. 33:07 Here in Israel there were those that turned their backs 33:11 on the law of God, turned their backs on the temple of God, 33:15 turned their backs on the Creator of heaven and earth 33:20 and faced indeed the east and worshiped the sun. 33:32 You say: "How in the world could that happen? " 33:35 Let me go back... back to the early centuries. 33:39 Back to history 33:40 when the Roman Empire is falling apart. 33:43 The Roman church is growing in its authority, 33:46 growing in its power. 33:49 John Eadie wrote in the Bible Encyclopedia page 561: 34:06 You see, the sun god was predominate 34:10 in these pagan cultures. 34:12 So in the weekly calendar they named Sunday 34:16 the first day because it was the chief god. 34:18 Monday was moon's day and so forth throughout their culture. 34:23 Well, how did this Sunday worship ever slip in 34:27 to the Christian church? 34:29 Sunday worship came in over a period of time. 34:34 It took centuries for it to develop 34:37 but it came to the forefront 34:40 particularly in the days of Constantine. 34:47 Notice this statement by Edward Gibbon, the author 34:51 of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 34:53 volume 3 page 237: 34:56 He says: 35:04 So Constantine has this affinity for the sun. 35:08 The Roman Empire in the days of Constantine is falling apart. 35:13 By that time Barbarian tribes from the north 35:17 are coming down. Constantine wants to do everything he can 35:20 to redeem, to save his empire. 35:23 Eventually he moves his capitol from Rome to Constantinople. 35:27 But in an attempt to save his empire 35:30 Constantine does this: 35:46 Why? Because the pagans are already worshiping the sun god. 35:51 Christians have now begun to... many of them... 35:55 to worship Sunday because Christ rose from the dead on that day. 35:59 Now the Bible never tells us to worship Sunday because 36:02 Christ rose from the dead on that day. 36:03 But some Christians began to drift to be in harmony 36:08 with the majority of that society. 36:10 Notice... here is the first Sunday law, AD 321: 36:22 Now notice: this is not a worship law. 36:24 It is a law that comes in socially 36:27 for what Constantine believes is the best of society. 36:30 But the church, uniting with the state, 36:33 through church councils establishes Sunday 36:37 as the day of rest and worship contrary to the Bible. 36:47 ... in contradiction to the law of God that says: 36:52 "Remember the Sabbath Day" fourth commandment 36:55 "to keep it holy. Six days shall thou work... 36:58 labor and do all thy work but the seventh day is 37:00 Sabbath of the Lord thy God. " God said "Remember. " 37:02 Why? Because He knew that in those early 37:06 centuries that compromise would enter the Christian church. 37:11 Is there historical evidence that this took place 37:15 and that compromise took place in those early centuries 37:20 to amalgamate, that is to unite, these two festivals 37:24 together: paganism and Christianity? 37:52 So what happened? At a time of crisis 37:56 when the Roman Empire was falling apart 37:59 Constantine established a social day of rest. 38:04 Church leaders in church decrees and church councils 38:09 to bring the empire together and to evangelize the pagans - 38:14 they had already adopted the vestments of the pagans 38:18 with the priest wearing often purple and scarlet - 38:22 they had already renamed many of the pagan images 38:25 and brought them into the church and named them for the saints: 38:29 Peter and so forth. 38:30 Now in another compromise measure 38:33 to unite Christianity with paganism 38:37 and to make it easier for pagans to become Christians 38:39 they adopted Sunday. 39:00 So what do we see? We're seeing the wine of Babylon. 39:04 We're seeing the images of Babylon come into the Christian 39:07 church. We are seeing the idea of the immortality of the soul 39:12 that the soul lives on come into the Christian church. 39:16 We are seeing Sunday worship come into the Christian church. 39:19 This is contrary to the teachings of God's Word. 39:24 That's why God sends them three cosmic messages. 39:28 That's why God sends His message of the second angel 39:32 saying: "Babylon is fallen! Is fallen! " 39:34 "My people: come from it's errors. Don't be intoxicated 39:38 by its wine. " 39:50 So what happened in those early centuries: 39:52 pagan practices according to history flooded into the church 39:56 and paganism and Christianity shook hands. 39:59 I call you today 40:02 not to a fusion of paganism and Christianity 40:06 but to the pure Bible truth of God's Word. 40:11 God is developing a group of people 40:14 whose hearts are subject to His Word, 40:17 whose minds are subject to His Word. 40:25 ... in a compromise role to save the empire. 40:29 Dr. Edward Hiscox, the author of the Baptist Manual, 40:33 spoke and shocked a large group of Protestant ministers 40:38 when he said: 40:56 Dr. Edward Hiscox, author of the Baptist Manual, 40:59 understood what happened. 41:00 He understood that Sunday comes branded 41:04 with the mark of paganism. 41:18 The Sabbath is a sign... it's a sign of allegiance. 41:21 It's a sign of loyalty to God. 41:25 It's a sign that we accept God's authority. 41:29 The Sabbath has been undermined by Satan 41:33 who has wanted to destroy the authority and the word 41:38 of the Creator God. 41:39 But God is calling us back. 41:41 "Babylon is fallen! Is fallen! " 41:46 The teachings of ancient Babylon 41:49 unfortunately, regrettably 41:53 have slipped in to the Christian church. 41:56 God raised up great men of faith, 42:00 great women of faith, reformers who began 42:06 in the Reformation to lead His people back to the Word of God. 42:11 Back to salvation by Jesus Christ and Christ alone. 42:15 Back to understanding the truth of His Word. 42:20 And He's completing that Reformation today 42:23 by raising up a movement... a movement that will indeed 42:28 lead people back to His Word. 42:31 At a time when, according to Ezekiel 22 verse 26: 42:38 The religious leaders in Israel violated God's law 42:41 and it's happening again today, my friend. 42:49 And there for many the Bible Sabbath is just this common 42:52 ordinary day of sports and buying and selling and shopping. 43:03 In other words, eat anything you want; 43:05 drink anything you want. 43:06 See, that's why this message of the three cosmic messages, 43:11 the message of the three angels, is so important. 43:13 It calls us back to the gospel. 43:16 It calls us back to obedience to God. 43:18 Calls us back to treating our bodies like the temple 43:22 of God and not a funhouse. 43:24 It calls us back to the second coming of Christ 43:27 and the judgment hour. It calls us away from 43:29 the polluted doctrines of Babylon. 43:38 Religious leaders today: hiding their eyes from the Sabbath. 43:41 Where is all this headed? 43:48 Many of God's people are still in Babylon. 43:51 Satan's pillars of his strategy: spiritualism - to deceive - 43:55 sun worship. Again, at a time of crisis 43:59 to bring the world together again. 44:01 One who wrote with penetrating insight, 44:04 Ellen White, in the book Great Controversy, p. 588, says this: 44:20 The wine cup of Babylon will be passed out. 44:24 Church and state will unite. 44:27 Men and women will be intox- icated with the false doctrines 44:31 of Babylon. The false doctrines of the immortality of the soul 44:36 which will prepare them for the deceptions of spiritualism 44:40 that will take the world captive. 44:42 Sunday worship, which like in the early days of the Roman 44:45 Empire was a vehicle to unite church and state 44:49 in the world... that will come again. 44:52 Notice... this statement goes on: 45:15 They have no protection because they accept the immortality 45:17 of the soul. 45:36 What happened in the days of ancient Babylon? 45:40 Nebuchadnezzar established a counterfeit image. 45:45 He passed a decree compelling worship 45:50 and those who did not bow down faced severe penalty of death. 45:56 In the last days of earth's history 45:58 just before that happens 46:00 God's clarion call is going out to the world. 46:04 His messages are going out to the ends of the earth. 46:09 This gospel of the kingdom - the gospel of truth - 46:12 must be preached to the ends of the earth 46:15 so that men and women will fully understand the issues 46:19 before the second coming of Christ. 46:21 The message will go out of the second angel in Rev. 14:8. 46:26 "Babylon is fallen! Is fallen! Come out of her, My people. " 46:46 But we are secure in Jesus. 46:50 We have our confidence in Jesus 46:53 not in man-made creeds. 46:56 Not in human ideologies. 46:59 Not in the ideologies or teachings or traditions of men. 47:05 In Christ we are secure. 47:07 In Christ we find our refuge as it says in Psalm 46:1: 47:17 When all of this world is in chaos and confusion 47:21 when the greatest time of trouble in the history of the 47:24 world comes we find security in Christ. 47:28 We find our refuge in Christ. 47:31 We find our hope in Christ. 47:33 We find our confidence in Christ. 47:36 We find our protection in Christ. 47:39 We find our strength in Jesus! 47:42 This message of the three angels 47:45 is given by a God of love... 47:47 a God who wants you with Him. 47:50 A God who does not want you to be deceived 47:53 in the last days of earth's history. 48:13 You may be a Christian committed to Christ 48:17 and you've never heard these things before. 48:20 But you hear the message of truth: 48:23 a message that is not being preached, has not been preached 48:27 in your church, a message of the three angels, 48:30 a cosmic message to prepare men and women 48:33 for earth's last conflict. 48:34 Your heart responds... it's time to step out. 48:37 Maybe you've heard these things before. 48:39 Maybe you're an Adventist Christian but you've been 48:42 sitting in the pew, you've been complacent... Laodicean... 48:45 but you sense that there is a message for your heart. 48:48 And God is calling you! He says: 49:41 With gentle tones Christ appeals "Come out of her, My people. " 49:44 Jesus' people are in Babylon. 49:48 Jesus' people have drunk of the wine of Babylon. 49:51 And He loves them, and with tones of tenderest love 49:54 He makes that appeal: 50:04 So God calls us from every law-breaking church. 50:09 As it says in the commentary of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown: 50:20 That's the appeal to your heart right now: 50:23 "Come out of her, My people. " 50:26 Come out of the false ideology of Babylon. 50:30 Accept the pure truth that comes from God's Word. 50:34 Come from every man-made teaching. 50:37 Come to Jesus. You say: "I've followed Jesus before. " 50:41 He has something deeper for you. 50:43 He has another step for you to take. 50:46 You are one of His people. 50:48 He identifies you as one of His people. 50:50 Nearer, still nearer... close to my heart. 50:56 Jesus is drawing you right now nearer. 51:00 Will you respond to His grace as Charles sings? 51:21 Nearer, still nearer... 51:29 close to Your heart 51:35 draw me, My Savior, 51:41 so precious Thou art! 51:49 Fold me, O fold me 51:55 close to Thy breast. 52:02 Shelter me safe 52:09 in that haven of rest... 52:15 shelter me safe 52:22 in that haven of rest. 52:32 Nearer, still nearer... 52:41 nothing I bring. 52:46 Naught as an offering 52:52 to Jesus, my King. 52:59 But only 53:01 my sinful 53:06 now contrite heart. 53:13 Grant me the cleansing 53:20 Thy blood doth impart... 53:26 grant me the cleansing 53:32 Thy blood 53:35 doth impart. 53:43 Nearer, still nearer... 53:49 Lord, to be Thine. 53:56 Sin with its follies 54:01 I gladly resign. 54:09 All of its pleasures, 54:15 pomp, and its pride. 54:21 Give me but Jesus, 54:26 my Lord, 54:31 crucified... 54:34 give me but Jesus, 54:40 my Lord 54:44 crucified... 54:47 Give me but Jesus, 54:53 my Lord crucified. 55:04 Nearer, still nearer... 55:10 while my life shall last. 55:16 Till safe in glory 55:21 my anchor is cast. 55:28 Through endless ages 55:34 ever to be 55:41 nearer, my Savior, 55:46 still nearer to Thee... 55:53 nearer, 55:57 my Savior, 56:03 still 56:06 nearer 56:13 to 56:18 Thee. 56:33 We can never be nearer if we stay where we are. 56:39 God is inviting you to take a step closer to Him today. 56:45 He's inviting you to make an eternal decision in your life 56:49 right now that you are going to follow His will. 56:53 Will you do that as we pray? 56:55 Lord, give us the courage 56:57 to help us to step out from the majority. 56:59 Give us the courage if we're already Christians 57:01 to help us step out from the complacency 57:04 of popular church religion. 57:06 Help us have that passion to follow You 57:09 and give us the strength and courage to do that. 57:11 In Jesus' name, Amen. 57:14 Jesus invites you to have a blessed day. |
Revised 2020-08-12