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God Has A Church On Earth. No Kidding!

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Pr. David Asscherick

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Series Code: DP

Program Code: DP000022


00:15 Our presentation is entitled Babylon Is Alive and Well
00:18 that's the study guide, and also God has a Church on Earth
00:24 No Kidding!
00:25 Now last evening we spent some time looking at Babylon
00:28 and we're going to spend some more time in Revelation 17.
00:31 But the first passage of scripture I would like to
00:33 take you to is actually in Ezekiel 9,
00:36 Ezekiel 9, let's go there together, we will probably begin
00:39 in chapter 8 to sort of set the context for chapter 9,
00:42 you can find Ezekiel, that's the book right before Daniel.
00:45 We're going to Ezekiel, and we'll start in chapter 8,
00:49 Ezekiel chapter 8, and this is going to help us understand
00:54 the seriousness and the urgency of the co-mingling of truth
01:01 and error, the seriousness and the urgency of the
01:04 co-mingling of that which is true and Biblical
01:07 with that which is not true and is un-biblical.
01:10 So I'm in Ezekiel 8:1, and here is chapter 8 we find
01:14 the prophet Ezekiel receiving a Tour de Force of the
01:18 abominations and error that encrypt in even to Israel
01:21 and we're going to sort of take this tour with Ezekiel.
01:25 It's really kind of fascinating how the tour takes place
01:27 God takes Ezekiel by a lock of his hair, and in prophetic
01:31 vision, lifts him up by his hair and actually starts
01:34 taking him around on as we've said a Tour de Force
01:37 of all of the abominations that were taking place
01:40 and the abominations subsequently get worse,
01:42 and worse, and worse, and worse, so let's pick that up
01:46 in Ezekiel 8, beginning in verse one:
01:48 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month,
01:51 on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the
01:54 elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord
01:56 fell upon me there.
01:58 Then I looked, and there was a likeness,
01:59 like the appearance of fire -from the appearance
02:02 of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward,
02:05 like the appearance of brightness,
02:07 like the color of amber.
02:08 Here he is seeing God in vision, verse 3.
02:11 He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me
02:14 by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up
02:17 between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of
02:19 God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate
02:22 of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy
02:25 was, which provokes to jealousy.
02:27 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there,
02:31 like the vision that I saw in the plain.
02:33 Then He said to me, Son of man, lift your eyes now
02:36 toward the north.
02:37 So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there,
02:38 north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy
02:41 in the entrance.
02:43 That is to say, right in the very entrance of the temple
02:46 of God there was an idol that had been set up.
02:49 Verse 6. Furthermore He said to me,
02:51 Son of man, do you see what they are doing,
02:53 the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here
02:56 to make Me go far away from My sanctuary?
02:59 Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.
03:02 And so God here takes Ezekiel and brings him right to the gate
03:06 of the temple, the entrance of the temple,
03:07 and sitting was an alter, an image to a pagan God,
03:12 and he says, do you see this?
03:13 Do you see this image of jealousy right in the very
03:16 entrance to my temple and Ezekiel would have said yes
03:19 I see that Lord, and he said I will show you even greater
03:21 abominations than these.
03:23 Verse 7. So He brought me to the door of the court;
03:25 and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall.
03:27 Then He said to me, Son of man, dig into the wall;
03:30 and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.
03:32 And He said to me, Go in, and see the wicked
03:34 abominations which they are doing there.
03:35 Now remember this is in the temple, not some pagan temple
03:39 of the temple of Baal, this is the temple of God.
03:41 Verse 10. So I went in and saw, and there-every sort of
03:44 creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols
03:47 of the house of Israel, portrayed all around
03:49 on the walls.
03:50 And there stood before them seventy men of the elders
03:52 of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah
03:56 the son of Shaphan.
03:57 Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud
04:00 of incense went up.
04:01 Then He said to me, Son of man, have you seen
04:02 what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark,
04:05 every man in the room of his idols?
04:07 For they say, "The LORD does not see us,
04:09 the LORD has forsaken us. "
04:11 Verse 13. And He said to me, Turn again, and you will see
04:14 greater abominations than these they are doing.
04:17 And so he takes them from the image of jealousy
04:19 and now he brings them, he says you see this hole
04:21 in this temple wall, I see it dig into that hole, go in there
04:24 into the temple and see what the priests are doing
04:27 in darkness, and as Ezekiel the prophet of the Lord
04:30 is sort of like a fly on the wall,
04:32 looking through the keyhole there, and he sees that God's
04:35 own priests, God's what everyone?
04:37 God's own priests were worshiping idols in an
04:42 absolutely incredible way, right in the very temple,
04:45 right in the very house of God, and I can just imagine
04:48 in my mind's eye Ezekiel saying I can't believe this.
04:50 I can't believe that the professed people of God
04:54 are worshiping these idols in the temple of God.
04:58 But he said to them, you think this is bad,
05:00 you'll see even worse abominations than these.
05:02 I'm in verse 14, So He brought me to the door
05:05 of the north gate of the Lord's house; and to my dismay,
05:08 women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.
05:11 That's one of the fertility Gods of paganism,
05:14 Then He said to me, Have you seen this,
05:16 O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater
05:18 abominations than these.
05:19 Here were people who were weeping for this pagan goddess
05:23 Tammuz, and you can just imagine God saying
05:25 see this Ezekiel, these are my people.
05:27 These aren't the heathen, these aren't the gentiles,
05:29 these aren't the pagan's, these are my people
05:31 see what they are doing, and I can just imagine
05:33 Ezekiel saying, I see it Lord, but I can hardly believe it,
05:36 and he says you will see greater abominations even than these.
05:39 Verse 16. So He brought me into the inner court of the
05:42 Lord's house; and there, at the door of the temple
05:45 of the LORD, between the porch and the altar,
05:47 were about twenty-five men with their backs toward
05:49 the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east,
05:51 and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.
05:56 And He said to me, Have you seen this,
05:57 O son of man?
05:58 Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit
06:01 the abominations which they commit here?
06:02 For they have filled the land with violence;
06:05 then they have returned to provoke Me to anger.
06:07 Indeed they put the branch to their nose.
06:09 That's kind of an unusual ancient way of saying that
06:13 they are basically snuffing at me, disinterested in me.
06:17 Verse 18. Therefore I also will act in fury.
06:20 My eye will not spare nor will I have pity;
06:22 and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice,
06:25 I will not hear them.
06:26 When God is taking Ezekiel on this sort of Tour de Force
06:29 of the abominations of Israel, He caps it off
06:32 with the capstone, the most egregious violation
06:36 was the worship of the sun in the very temple of God.
06:39 At each subsequent stage He said you see this,
06:42 I see this, you will see worse.
06:44 Do you see this, I see this, you will see worse.
06:46 Do you see this, I see it, you will see worse.
06:48 And as the capstone, as the crescendo, he brings them
06:51 right in to the very house of God, and they are worshipping
06:54 the sun in the temple of God.
06:57 Fascinating, if you go on to read then in Ezekiel 9
07:02 it's very interesting what happens in Ezekiel 9 is
07:05 people receive a mark, people receive a what everyone?
07:08 They receive a mark, and it is fascinating because that
07:12 it parallel's exactly what the seal of God, and the mark
07:14 of the beast that we discover there in Revelation
07:16 chapter 13, and those that didn't have God's mark,
07:19 and those that didn't have God's seal were slain.
07:23 Are we talking about serious things?
07:25 Are we talking about unimportant things, which one?
07:27 Serious things beloved, and so in Ezekiel 8 and Ezekiel 9,
07:31 we saw the worship of the son right in the very temple of God
07:36 we're talking about Babylon, and we learned yesterday
07:38 that Babylon is the center of man made worship.
07:40 They built the tower of Babel and they said come let us build
07:43 a tower up into the highest of the high heavens,
07:45 and many expositors have recognized that they were
07:47 going to probably build a temple high, high, high,
07:49 and a tower high, high, high, so if a flood ever came again
07:52 they could save themselves by their own what?
07:54 By their own works, and so Babylon represented man made
07:58 religion, but Babylon was also the center of image worship
08:01 and we talked about how all systems and streams of
08:04 idolatry flowed from that fountain head stream there
08:08 in Babylon.
08:09 So not only was it the center of image worship,
08:11 not only was it the center of man made religion,
08:13 it was the center of false teaching about death.
08:16 False teachings about what every one?
08:18 Death! And we talked about this idea of the immortality
08:21 of the soul, and how that crept into the church,
08:24 and through the back door.
08:25 It was basically a pagan concept that was adopted
08:29 by the Pharisee's, that was adopted by the early church,
08:32 that is to say the Catholics, and has been bequeathed
08:35 as a sacred legacy to Protestantism,
08:37 but the idea of innate immortality
08:39 or innate inherent immortality
08:41 is not a Biblical teaching at all, in fact it's a pagan
08:44 teaching called Platonic dualism, sometimes referred to
08:47 as anthropological dualism.
08:49 So now we're going to discover that Babylon is also the center
08:53 of sun worship, the center of what everyone?
08:55 Sun worship, and that is right there in your study guide.
08:58 The Worship of Nature Volume 1 James Brazer this is from
09:01 page 529:
09:30 So this was a politically motivated thing.
09:33 Constantine basically looked out at his empire,
09:35 he saw that he had a significant percentage that were Christians
09:38 a significant percentage that were pagans,
09:40 and out of political expediency he decided to try an amalgamate,
09:45 what word did I say everyone?
09:47 Amalgamate which means to combine, he tried to combine
09:51 this pseudo paganism, with this pseudo Christianity
09:54 and bring it all together, and the Christians were excited
09:57 about it, because they thought it was evangelism,
09:58 the problem was is that those people who were coming in
10:01 to the church, were not leaving their old ways
10:03 at the door, they were bringing those old ways in to the church.
10:06 And so the people were not converted, they were simply
10:09 making a profession, they were making a what everyone?
10:12 Profession, in fact that's what most historians
10:14 believe about Constantine's own conversion.
10:16 They believe that he didn't have anything like a conversion
10:18 most historians, they believe that Constantine's conversion
10:21 was strictly a politically expedient thing to do
10:25 in order to sort of bring unity to his empire.
10:27 One of the things that they did is, they united the Christian
10:31 Sabbath, the Sabbath of the Lord with the venerable day of
10:34 the sun, and eventually for a time there, both days were kept
10:38 then eventually the Sabbath day began to fall off,
10:40 and Sunday receives increasing and increasing prominence,
10:43 that's exactly what's being communicated here.
10:44 Now notice this one from the Catholic World,
10:46 March 1984, page 809, from William Gildea:
11:09 The quotation goes on:
11:35 So it was a transference of the venerable day of the sun
11:40 S- U-N over to the Son of God S-O-N, that's not something
11:45 that Jesus did, that's not something the Apostolic church
11:47 did, that's something that took place in the 3rd and 4th
11:51 centuries as the church began to accommodate paganism.
11:55 If that makes sense I want you to say Amen.
11:57 And that's why we consistently offered ten thousand dollars
11:59 cash for anybody who can produce any text that says that
12:03 Jesus changed the Sabbath or that God changed the Sabbath
12:06 or that the Apostolic church changed the Sabbath.
12:09 Are we together on that everyone?
12:10 There was a change in the Sabbath, but it wasn't done
12:13 under Jesus authority, it wasn't done under the Apostolic
12:15 Church's authority, of course not,
12:17 of course they wouldn't have done anything contrary to what
12:18 Jesus had done anyway.
12:19 There was a change, but that change took place in the
12:22 3rd and 4th centuries, when basically pseudo Christianity
12:26 began to accommodate paganism, and they amalgamated
12:29 into something that was hardly indistinguishable from paganism
12:33 itself, just put a nice little Christian veneer
12:35 over the top of it.
12:37 So notice this one here, from the two Babylon's
12:39 by Dr. Alexander Hislop page 105:
12:54 In other words they were going to bring together
12:55 Christian festivals, i. e. the Sabbath and the pagan festivals,
13:00 i. e. the venerable day of the sun and the pagan festivals
13:03 to bring them together:
13:14 Dr. Hislop said it was Rome's policy basically to allow these
13:19 sort of leagues to come together where this group would come
13:24 and this group would come and they would just sort of
13:25 amalgamate themselves into the existing culture,
13:28 rather than standing for Bible truth and for the truth of God.
13:31 And that was Rome's policy and they've pursued it
13:33 very effectively.
13:35 Dr. E. T. Hiscock the author of the Baptist Manuel
13:37 we've quoted this before at length, we'll just quote it
13:39 quickly here:
13:54 And he is basically letting us know here
13:56 this is the origin of Sunday.
13:59 It's called the sun-day for good reason,
14:02 and the same way that Monday is the moon-day,
14:04 and Thursday is Thor's-day, and Saturday is Saturn's-day.
14:07 Sunday was the day on which venerable day of the sun
14:11 was carried out, the worship of the sun-god.
14:14 And notice this here in Ezekiel chapter 22:26:
14:44 There was already a concern in the days of Ezekiel
14:47 that the priests had basically abandoned the distinction
14:50 between what God has made as holy, and what is not holy,
14:54 between what declares as clean and what is unclean,
14:57 and that is exactly what is happening today.
14:59 You will meet many good pastors, and don't get me wrong,
15:01 I've met Methodist pastors, and Presbyterian pastors,
15:04 and Baptist pastors, all who love the Lord very much,
15:07 I don't question their sincerity or their commitment to Him,
15:10 but when you ask these men, why go to church on Sunday,
15:14 when the bible says the Sabbath.
15:16 In time, after time, after time, meeting, after meeting,
15:19 after meeting, I hear things like well that's the day
15:22 everybody goes,it would be impossible to change it,
15:25 it would be inconvenient to change it.
15:27 And you just hear a list of excuses, and a list of
15:29 justifications and rationalizations a mile long,
15:32 and incidentaly,
15:33 if you go talk to your pastors you are going to get the
15:34 same list of justifications,
15:36 the same list of rationalizations a mile long,
15:38 but at the end of the day, it's all about convenience.
15:42 It's all about what everyone?
15:43 Convenience, and that is what it is about,
15:46 it's not about the Bible, it's not about what the Lord says,
15:49 it's not about what the Word say's, it's about what is
15:51 convenient and accommodating the culture.
15:55 Accommodating what everyone?
15:56 The culture, but if I read my Bible right
15:58 Jesus did not accommodate culture when it came to a plain
16:01 Thus saith the Lord, Jesus in fact became in many instances
16:05 anti-culture, not that Jesus was out to be obnoxious
16:08 or obstinate, but Jesus always stood on what He knew
16:12 was God's will and God's complaint here in Ezekiel
16:15 is that the priests, that is the religious spiritual leaders
16:18 were not making a distinction, not making a what everyone?
16:22 A distinction between that which is sacred,
16:27 and that which is not, between that which is clean,
16:29 and that which is not.
16:30 If somebody says to you, all days are the same,
16:32 it doesn't matter, it is not a big deal, you know that
16:36 they are making a distinction between what God has said
16:39 is holy, and what is un-holy.
16:41 Does that make sense everyone?
16:42 Someone says, well every day is holy, you should worship
16:45 the Lord every day, no one is arguing with that,
16:47 you want to go to church on Monday, praise the Lord,
16:49 you want to go to church on Tuesday, praise the Lord,
16:51 Wednesday, praise the Lord, Thursday, no problem
16:53 with any of that, but let's be crystal clear about something
16:55 it was God, not a church, it was God not Pastor Asscherick,
16:59 it was God not a man, that originally set the
17:03 Sabbath aside, can you say Amen to that?
17:05 David didn't invent that, David didn't say you know,
17:09 let's have fun, let's say that one day is more important
17:11 than the another.
17:12 God was the one who said that not me, and apparently
17:15 it was important enough to God, and morally significant
17:17 enough to God, to write it with His own finger
17:19 on tables of stone, and take those tablets and place them
17:22 in the ark, which is the very sign and symbol of the
17:25 throne of God.
17:26 So here is my rationale, if it's important to God,
17:28 by definition it should be important to God's followers.
17:32 Does that make sense, and so we can say, well you know
17:35 I don't know, to me it just doesn't seem important.
17:37 Beloved, who care if it seems important to you,
17:41 since when do Christians do things that "seem" "important"
17:44 and decide that we're "not" going to do things that "don't"
17:46 "seem" important, I was just visiting with my friend Angela
17:48 the other day, and Angela like me, loves to go knocking
17:51 on doors, and telling people about the love of Jesus, Amen!
17:53 And some people say, well you know that's not really for me,
17:56 that doesn't seem like something that's important,
17:58 that doesn't seem like something that I would want to do.
18:00 Beloved it is not what you think seems right, it's not what
18:03 you think seem ok, or seems justified, it's what God says.
18:08 Amen!
18:09 I mean beloved in the final analysis for me and my purposes
18:13 and I hope for you and your purposes, if it's in the Bible
18:15 I believe it, God said it, I believe it, that settles it.
18:18 So far so good everyone?
18:21 Pretty simple, and so God was concerned about religious
18:23 leaders, and said well it's really not important,
18:26 well, it's really not a big deal.
18:28 They made no distinction, they made no difference between
18:30 the sacred and the profane.
18:32 Jesus put it this way in Mark 7:7, and by the way,
18:35 no preacher would have been a grace filled preacher
18:38 a more spirit filled preacher than Jesus, and yet Jesus said:
18:47 And that's exactly what's happening today.
18:49 Doctrines are being taught but they are the commandments
18:52 of men, rather than the commandments of God.
18:54 So let's go to end time Babylon here and let's see if we can
18:58 identify exactly who this is right there on your study guide
19:00 and we're going to go to Revelation 17.
19:02 Revelation 17, and so we've looked at these four critical
19:07 areas that Babylon basically exemplifies,
19:09 1. It is a man-made system of religion,
19:12 this is all in your study guide.
19:13 2. It is the center of image worship.
19:16 3. It is the center of false teachings about death.
19:19 4. Babylon was the center of sun worship.
19:23 All of those things are incorporated into this Biblical
19:26 term of Babylon and so when we go to Revelation 17
19:29 and we find here in verse 5, that she is called mystery
19:32 Babylon the Great the mother of harlots and of the
19:35 abominations of the earth,
19:36 we have to go back and Biblically see what that means.
19:39 What does it mean Biblically Babylon?
19:41 It is a system that is confusing,
19:43 it is a system of man-made religion,
19:45 it's a system of image worship, it's a system of sun worship,
19:49 it's a system of false teachings about death,
19:51 and this woman here, this false church is branded with
19:55 this emblazon placard across her forehead,
19:58 "Mystery Babylon the Great" the mother of harlots
20:02 and of the abominations of the earth.
20:04 Now let's see if we can identify exactly who this is.
20:06 First of all, number one she's a church,
20:09 how do we know that, because in chapter one it
20:11 says: Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls
20:13 came and talked with me saying:
20:14 "Come and I will show you the judgment of the great harlot
20:17 who sits on many waters. "
20:18 The great what everyone?
20:20 Harlot, that is the great woman and as we have already discussed
20:23 a woman in Bible Prophecy represents what?
20:26 A church or God's true people, and so if you have a chased
20:28 woman like in Revelation 12, that would be God's true people,
20:31 and if you have an unfaithful woman like in Revelation
20:33 chapter 17, that would be an unfaithful church.
20:35 Does that make sense everyone, yes or no, very, very clear.
20:38 So she is a church, she sits on an area of many, many, nations
20:41 look at chapter 17:2, with whom the kings of the earth
20:45 have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth
20:47 were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
20:51 Notice that she sits on many waters, last part of verse one,
20:54 and so you jump down to verse 15 of the same chapter.
20:57 Verse 15 of the same chapter, Then he the angel said to me,
20:59 The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits,
21:02 are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.
21:05 and so she is depicted as sitting on water,
21:06 we've already seen that water and Bible Prophecy
21:08 represent a populous area, and so she sits on an area
21:12 of many nations.
21:13 3. She is a city, jump down to the last verse of that
21:18 chapter, Revelation 13:18, And the woman whom you saw
21:23 is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.
21:28 and so whoever this is, it's a city as well.
21:30 So it's a church that sits on an area of many nations
21:33 that's a city we've already seen, that rules over kings
21:36 that is to say is in illicit fornication like relationships
21:41 with the kings of the earth the secular governing authorities.
21:43 Also this is a city of seven hills.
21:47 A city of what everyone?
21:48 Seven hills, look at verse 9, Here is the mind which has
21:51 wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which
21:56 the woman sits.
21:57 And so it's a city that sets on seven hills or seven mountains.
22:01 6. Their official colors are purple and what?
22:04 Scarlet, we saw that there in verse 3,
22:06 a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, verse 4,
22:09 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet,
22:11 and adorned with gold and precious stones
22:13 and as we've already discussed there were four colors
22:18 do you remember those four colors: Purple, scarlet, blue,
22:22 and gold, let's say that together: Purple, scarlet,
22:27 blue, and gold, ok.
22:29 But this woman is missing one of those colors,
22:31 which color is she missing?
22:32 Blue, what did blue represent?
22:34 Ten Commandments, in fact let me show you something
22:37 quite fascinating it's right there in your study guide,
22:39 go to Numbers 15, but keep your finger here in Revelation
22:42 17, go to Numbers 15, but keep your finger here.
22:44 Numbers 15 fourth book of the Old Testament, Numbers 15,
22:49 and I think you will find this language very interesting,
22:51 Numbers 15: beginning in verse 37, Numbers 15,
22:56 beginning in verse 37, I want everybody to get there,
23:00 tell me if you find this language striking, yes or no?
23:04 Numbers 15:37 Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
23:08 Speak to the children of Israel:
23:10 Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments
23:12 throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread
23:16 in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel,
23:19 that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments
23:22 of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow
23:27 the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes
23:34 are inclined, and that you may remember and do all
23:36 My commandments, of the Lord your God, for I am holy,
23:40 I am the Lord.
23:41 Isn't that absolutely fascinating, notice what it says
23:45 put blue on your garments to remember what everyone?
23:47 The Commandments so that you won't go after harlotry
23:52 and what do we find in Revelation 17?
23:54 We find a harlot woman, who is wearing who is wearing
23:56 all of colors of the high priest, she's got the purple,
23:59 she's got the scarlet, she's got the gold, but what color
24:00 is she missing?
24:02 The blue, she's pretending to be if you prefer,
24:06 she's pretending to be God's high priest.
24:09 God's church on earth, but she has forgotten
24:13 God's commandments, if that makes sense say Amen!
24:16 Absolutely fascinating, so we go here, she is wearing
24:20 purple and scarlet, she's obviously wealthy,
24:22 that's inferred from the text you can also read
24:24 in chapter 18:3, let's go back to Revelation
24:25 as a matter of fact.
24:26 I should have kept a pen or a ribbon or a finger of something
24:30 there so we could just flip back quickly.
24:31 It says in chapter 18:3 that she is a rich church
24:35 we jump down now to number 8, she is a persecuting church
24:38 it says right there in the passage,
24:39 we're looking at verse 6, I saw the woman who was drunk
24:42 with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the
24:44 martyrs of Jesus, and also she is blasphemous, so she has
24:48 emblazon right across her forehead,
24:49 Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots.
24:53 So she clearly is a blasphemous power, and so when we put all
24:58 all of these together, when we put together a church
25:01 that sits on an area of many nations,
25:03 that is a city that rules over kings,
25:05 that has seven mountains or seven hills, by the way,
25:08 what city is the city of seven mountains?
25:10 It's the city of Rome, that's exactly right, I looked it up
25:12 just today and incidentally in Wikipedia, just type that in
25:14 city of seven mountains, [voom] takes you right to Rome
25:17 it names all of the seven mountains, and then it takes you
25:20 right to this very verse in Revelation 17, and it says
25:23 that this is a widely held reference in Protestantism
25:26 to Rome.
25:28 Right there, listen beloved, you can go right to Wikipedia
25:31 now that does not mean that you can trust everything
25:33 you can find on the internet, someone say Amen.
25:34 I mean the internet is a sewer, there's good and there's bad
25:38 on there, and the problem is that any whacko can get
25:40 a website, and he can start saying thus and so, thus and so.
25:43 So don't trust everything you read on the internet, Amen!
25:46 But you can trust everything you read in the Bible, Amen!
25:49 By the way some people say oh you know I looked up
25:51 David Asscherick on the internet, and I found out he was
25:53 a Seventh Day Adventist, and he was a member of a cult.
25:56 Beloved just ask me what church I go to,
25:58 I'll tell you what church I go to, I have no shame in that.
26:00 I believe that God's seventh day Sabbath is an important day
26:03 how many of you believe that God's seventh day Sabbath
26:06 is an important day, ok there you go.
26:08 Your seventh day too, now I believe that Jesus Christ
26:11 is coming soon, how many of you believe that Jesus Christ
26:13 is coming soon?
26:14 Ok, then that means you are an Adventist,
26:16 because you believe in the advent of the Lord,
26:19 does that make sense, and so you are a
26:21 Seventh Day Adventist, that's what I mean when I say I'm a
26:23 Seventh Day Adventist, I'm a Seventh Day Adventist Bible
26:26 believing spirit filled Christian,
26:27 everything that comes from the Bible I want to follow it,
26:29 can you say Amen!
26:30 There's nothing mysterious, there's nothing spooky
26:32 there's nothing unusual about that title.
26:34 it means that I believe that God's seventh day Sabbath
26:37 is important because it's the commandment that begins with
26:39 the word remember, and the whole world has decided to forget.
26:42 Number one and number two I believe that Jesus is soon to
26:46 come and put an end to this dismal and dark
26:48 disease ridden world, can you say Amen to that?
26:50 So that's what I'm saying when I say I'm a Seventh Day Adventist.
26:52 I looked him up on the internet, he's a Seventh Day Adventist
26:54 let me tell you something, no shame in that,
26:56 but here is something absolutely critical,
26:58 if websites had existed in the days of Jesus,
27:01 do you know what they would have said about Jesus?
27:02 Listen, they called Him the devil to His face,
27:07 they called Him a Samaritan to His face,
27:10 they called Him a glutton and a wine bibber to His face.
27:13 You can imagine what the anonymity of the internet
27:15 would do, I mean that's the thing about the internet,
27:16 nobody can see you.
27:18 There is no accountability, Joe Schmoe starts up a web page
27:21 and says anything that he wants to say,
27:22 people get on there, they think because it's on a computer
27:25 it's credible, beloved, the internet may or may not be
27:28 credible, but the Bible is always credible.
27:31 Amen!
27:32 Amen and Amen to that!
27:33 And so who could this possibly be, who could this church
27:35 possibly be:
27:39 There is only one answer, and by the way this is not
27:42 something that Pastor Asscherick just invented,
27:43 number one it's Biblical, number two this is the historic
27:47 interpretation of Protestantism.
27:49 It is the what did I say everyone?
27:51 The historic interpretation of Protestantism, you say
27:55 Protestantism, why do you keep using that term?
27:57 It's root word is protest, Protestants protested,
28:01 what were they protesting?
28:02 The abuses of the mother church, and so today I stand before you
28:06 absolutely proud to be a Protestant, because when I
28:10 protest the abuses of the church what I'm standing for is truth,
28:14 If that makes sense say Amen.
28:15 Ok, that's not to align myself with any religious entity
28:19 heresy, I'm in and you're out and you are not part
28:21 of my club, no!, no! no! We are protesting the abuses
28:25 of the church, does that make sense everyone?
28:27 Amen!
28:29 So look at this, this is just from a regular run of the mill,
28:32 it's actually quite an excellent Bible Commentary,
28:34 Protestant Bible Commentary, Jamieson Fausset and Brown,
28:37 page 593 commenting on this very chapter:
28:51 Absolutely incredible notice this:
29:07 You are still there in Revelation 17,
29:09 look at Revelation 18, Revelation 18 beginning
29:12 in verse one, After these things I saw another angel
29:15 coming down from heaven, having great authority,
29:17 and the earth was illuminated with his glory.
29:18 And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying,
29:20 Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,
29:24 whenever the Bible says something like that twice
29:26 it's for emphasis, it is not that John is stuttering
29:28 what he is saying is it's fallen, it's fallen,
29:31 it means it's absolutely positively sure
29:33 Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen and has become
29:36 a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit,
29:42 and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!
29:43 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath
29:46 of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed
29:48 fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth
29:51 that's the joining of the church and state by the way,
29:53 you can see it plain as the noon day sun there,
29:55 the merchants of the earth have become rich through the
29:57 abundance of her luxury. 4. And I heard another voice
30:00 from heaven saying, Come out of what, her, who's her?
30:05 Babylon, come out of Babylon notice the next two words?
30:09 my people, lest you share in her what, sins, and lest
30:13 you receive of her what, plagues, does God have His
30:16 people in Babylon, yes or no?
30:18 Absolutely, he un-ashamedly calls them his people,
30:21 he says come out of her my people.
30:24 That's exactly what they are saying here in the commentary
30:26 look at it again: It says for apostate Christendom.
30:29 Babylon is not to be converted but what destroyed,
30:33 notice it says the first justification of the woman
30:35 is in her being called out of what?
30:37 Babylon, they are called out of Babylon, ok, that is to say
30:42 come out because it is going to be destroyed.
30:45 In the very same way that Lot was brought out of the city
30:49 so that Sodom could be destroyed, so that Gomorrah
30:51 could be destroyed, God says to His people,
30:53 I don't want you to share in her plagues,
30:55 I don't want you to share in her sins.
30:56 Come out of Babylon so that you do not participate
31:00 in her destruction.
31:01 Now if that makes sense say Amen!
31:04 So let's go to our study guide here
31:05 and we can go all the way to the last page,
31:10 or not the last page, pardon me, the third page.
31:12 Come out of her my people, third page, Revelation 18: 1-5,
31:17 finds God calling His people out of end time Babylon.
31:22 God claims the people, but the system that teach error
31:26 and ignore the plain teachings of the Bible,
31:28 are judged and disavowed.
31:30 The importance of this point simply cannot be overstated,
31:33 like Lot of old, God calls His people out prior
31:36 to the coming destruction.
31:37 Babylon is not to be converted but what, destroyed.
31:42 Babylon is not to be converted, Babylon is to be destroyed,
31:46 God has his precious people in Babylon and He calls them out.
31:50 It is not difficult discern whether or not
31:52 one is in Babylon, one need only ask and answer
31:55 a simple question, here it is.
31:56 I wonder if he is talking about me?
31:58 I wonder if this chapter is talking about me?
32:00 I wonder if God's talking about me when He says
32:02 come out of Babylon, all you have to do is ask
32:03 and answer one question, and here it is.
32:05 Does my church, my community of faith, contain any residual
32:09 papal, pagan, or Babylonian elements or teachings.
32:14 That's all you have to do is answer that one question.
32:18 Does my church contain any residual paganism,
32:21 any residual papalism, and any residual Babylonianism?
32:24 And if the answer to that question is yes,
32:25 then you are in Babylon.
32:27 Look at it there in Revelation 17:5,
32:30 And on her forehead a name was written:
32:35 MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
32:39 AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
32:41 And so this mother church has daughters,
32:45 this mother church has what everyone?
32:47 Daughters, and those daughters are any churches that cling
32:52 to residual papalism, or residual papalism,
32:55 that is what the Bible is calling Babylon.
32:59 Now you might be thinking whoa, Pastor Asscherick is
33:01 speaking so strongly here, no Pastor Asscherick's not
33:03 speaking strongly, the Bible is speaking strongly.
33:06 If we have, and I know we have, correctly identified Babylon,
33:09 then Babylon's daughters would be those churches that are not
33:13 identical to Babylon, but are similar.
33:16 Are what everyone?
33:17 Similar, I will give you a case and point,
33:19 and I hope that you don't feel like I am picking on you,
33:20 but I feel like I can speak with at least a little bit of
33:22 authority on this, because I was raised in the
33:24 Episcopalian Church.
33:25 My father was a Catholic who in his own way, wanted to be
33:32 a religious person, he wanted to be a spiritual person,
33:33 and he was married, and he went all the way through
33:36 Catholic schools, and all the way through into Catholicism
33:40 into the church, he was married in the church, but then he
33:41 got divorced, and the church would not recognize his divorce,
33:44 and so when he re-married my mother,
33:47 when he was re-married, he married my mother,
33:49 my mother was kind of a Baptist,
33:51 sort of a Protestant or something.
33:52 The problem was that the church would not recognize
33:55 his divorce, they said we don't recognize your divorce,
33:57 as far as we're concerned, you are still married to your first
33:58 wife, my Dad's like, listen, you got another thing coming,
34:02 I'm not only not married to her, she's re-married, and
34:04 I'm getting ready to get re-married, the church says
34:06 we don't recognize it.
34:07 So what happened is my father was no longer a Catholic
34:10 because he couldn't be, ok.
34:12 So he re-marries, he marries my mother, and my mother was
34:16 kind of a nominal Protestant and they said well what are we
34:18 going to do, I mean we can't be Catholics,
34:19 because they kicked you out the door,
34:20 we can't really be Protestants because you don't know anything
34:22 about Protestantism, so they became Episcopalians,
34:26 and I don't know if you know anything about Episcopalians
34:28 but Episcopalians are as close as you can get to Rome
34:31 without the Pope.
34:32 That's basically what an Episcopalian is,
34:36 it's Catholicism without the Pope, now if you go to an
34:39 Episcopalian church and you go to a Catholic church
34:41 the similarities are phenomenal, I mean just absolutely totally
34:45 phenomenal, why, because what happened is, is that
34:48 the Episcopalian Church, basically a man by the name of
34:50 King Henry, Henry the eighth wanted to have another wife
34:53 and the Bishop of Rome said no, and he said well I'll
34:54 start my own church, and he started the Anglican Church,
34:56 that's the short version, right.
34:58 So basically what happened was he came a little bit out of Rome
35:01 but not very far out of Rome.
35:03 Does that make sense, and so he's pretty close
35:06 and then another denomination came out a little further,
35:08 and then a little further, and a little further,
35:10 and all of these various denominations that we have
35:12 today are just in different degrees of coming out of Rome.
35:16 Does that make sense everyone?
35:18 And so the question is whether or not you are in Babylon,
35:20 it's actually very, very simple.
35:21 If you have any residual paganism, or papalism,
35:24 or Babylonianism that is part or partial teaching of your
35:28 church, as opposed to the teaching of God's word,
35:32 then God would say come out of Babylon and let Babylon
35:35 come out of you, can you say Amen?
35:38 Now that can be a little hard for us to hear,
35:39 but beloved that's what God says, that's not what
35:41 Pastor Asscherick says, that's what God says.
35:43 So let's continue on here in our study guide.
35:46 Babylon is not to be converted but destroyed,
35:49 it is not difficult to discern whether one is in Babylon
35:51 one need only ask and answer the simple question
35:54 does my church, my community of faith contain any residual
35:57 papal, pagan, or Babylonian elements and teachings.
36:01 Out of Babylon into what, let's go back to the screen here:
36:16 That's exactly what Jamieson Fausset and Brown said
36:18 again, that's well know, a very, very, very well know,
36:22 Protestant Commentary.
36:23 Now this raises the important question, is it clear to you
36:26 that God is calling His people out of Babylon, yes or no?
36:29 By the way don't even think of being offended,
36:33 don't even try to be offended, because God is the one that says
36:37 come out of her my people.
36:39 You do not have to be offended if you want to have God's
36:42 true people who in ignorance has been in a system
36:45 of Babylonianism, because now you've learned it,
36:48 Now you've what everyone?
36:49 You've learned it, and God calls you His people
36:52 no shame in that Amen.
36:54 I mean beloved when I decided that I was going to follow the
36:58 Word, when I decided that the Lord Jesus Christ
37:00 was going to be my Savior, and I was going to stand on
37:01 the Bible and the Bible only, I had to take a step out of my
37:05 parents church, because I saw that it wasn't Biblical.
37:07 Now again, that's not to make fun of anybody today who happens
37:10 to be and Episcopalian or ect., ect., you want to be an
37:12 Episcopalian that's your business, but what I am saying
37:14 is this, if you want to stand on the Bible,
37:16 you are going to have to take a step out of any church
37:19 that doesn't stand on the Bible, does that make sense yes or no?
37:22 I mean how could you sit in church and listen to people
37:24 preaching things that you know are not Biblical,
37:25 how can you give your money and your offering and
37:27 your influence and your energies to a church that is
37:30 teaching things that you know is not Biblical,
37:32 and so it was not like, oh I'm going to leave the church
37:34 because I'm mad at the church, I don't like the Episcopalians
37:36 anymore, they were dear people,
37:38 I love those people, no question,
37:40 but when I saw the church come into conflict with God's law
37:43 I decided to stand on the Bible instead of the church's
37:47 canon's and traditions, does that make sense everyone?
37:50 So don't get offended, and think Oh, I can't believe those things
37:53 he said about Episcopalians, or about Methodist or about
37:55 whatever, beloved, it's not about being offended
37:58 it's about being faithful to God.
38:00 Does that make sense everyone?
38:02 Ok, great, Praise the Lord we're making some great headway
38:05 so God says come out of Babylon and so we all step out
38:09 in faith, but the question is, we step out of Babylon
38:12 in to what?
38:14 See, God not only calls people out, He calls people in,
38:19 does that make sense?
38:21 He calls us out of something, into what?
38:23 Into obscurity, into chaos, into nothingness,
38:27 no!, no!, no!, He calls us out of Babylon in to His
38:30 remnant church, in fact look there in Revelation 12,
38:34 Revelation 12, and notice with me verse 17, Revelation 12:17,
38:40 It says speaking of the remnant church Revelation 12:17,
38:47 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make
38:51 war with war with the what, your Bible says remnant,
38:54 mine says the rest of her offspring,
38:55 who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony
38:58 of Jesus Christ.
39:00 So God here has a remnant, a what everyone?
39:04 A remnant, now this is straight out of Old Testament.
39:07 This is classic Old Testament theology, that you would find
39:10 text like this, all of Israel would go into captivity
39:13 but a remnant would be preserved.
39:15 All of Israel would go into Apostasy, but a remnant
39:18 would be preserved, so this idea of remnant theology
39:20 is not just something that was invented by John and the
39:22 Apocalypse, it is something that is all the way through.
39:25 Noah was a remnant, think of it that way,
39:28 the whole earth had gone into absolute Apostasy
39:30 and violence against God, but God saved a remnant
39:33 you find that again and again.
39:35 Daniel had gone into Babylonian captivity for seven years,
39:38 but God called a remnant out of that,
39:40 God is in the habit of calling remnants of people
39:44 because unfortunately Satan the arch enemy,
39:48 he deceives people into going the wrong way
39:50 and then God is able to get his hands wrapped around a few
39:53 and He calls them out, He calls them what?
39:55 Out! Now some people are going to say well listen I'm not
39:59 getting called out of anything, I am going to stay with
40:01 my church, and I'm going to do my own thing.
40:03 Beloved, beloved, you do whatever you want,
40:05 but the point is this, don't think that when it comes to
40:08 salvation, there is safety in numbers.
40:12 Amen, don't even think that for a moment,
40:15 don't think will listen I'm going to a church and there's
40:17 ten thousand members in my church, and there's good people
40:19 in my church and so surely because there are other
40:21 people in this church that are going to be saved,
40:23 that I can stay here and be safe, listen,
40:25 God didn't bring all those other people to this series
40:27 of meetings, God brought you to this series of meetings,
40:29 does that make sense?
40:31 So God reveals at certain times truth to certain people
40:35 because He can trust you with it.
40:37 Fortunately you don't have to answer for anybody else
40:39 in your church, can you say Amen?
40:41 You only got to answer for one, and that's you,
40:44 and the fact that other people may have gotten invitations
40:47 or the spirit of God might be working on other peoples
40:49 hearts, and they may be responding at different times
40:51 or some of them obstinately might not responding
40:53 that has nothing to do with you.
40:55 Don't think for a moment, well there's all kinds of
40:57 faithful people in my church and surely some of them are
41:00 going to be saved, and so I'll stay here and I'll be just fine.
41:02 God is saving people individually,
41:05 does that make sense everyone?
41:07 And God wants to save you individually,
41:09 there's no question, and so God reveals things to you
41:11 at a time when He thinks you can handle it.
41:14 God wants to trust you with His truth.
41:17 Can you say Amen?
41:18 Amen! Absolutely, very simple here,
41:19 and so what we see here is that God does have a true church
41:23 called the remnant, now notice in Revelation 12:17
41:26 it says the remnant have at least two characteristics:
41:28 They have the testimony of Jesus, and they keep
41:31 the commandments of God.
41:32 Now I told you several, I suppose it's been half way back
41:36 through the seminar, that my grandmother used to take
41:38 me to the most boring place on earth, who remembers
41:41 where that was, fabric store, that's exactly right,
41:43 and not only would she buy those absolutely boring
41:47 innocuous little white envelopes,
41:49 sometimes she would go to
41:50 the remnant box, she'd go to the what?
41:53 Remnant box, where there would be remnants of cloth
41:57 is that right, let's say for example she wanted to match
42:01 this suit here, if she was going to find a remnant to match
42:04 this suit here, she would go to the various bolts of cloth
42:06 and they would say, you know we don't have that,
42:07 but you can check the remnant pile.
42:08 So she would go through and start looking through
42:10 the remnants, and if she found one that truly matched this,
42:13 it would have to be the same texture, it would have to be
42:16 the same color, it would have to be the same pattern,
42:18 it would have to be the same weight, in order to
42:20 truly be the remnant of this fabric,
42:22 does that make sense everyone, yes or no?
42:23 So the remnant, God's last day church, has to look
42:26 like God's first day church.
42:28 Does that make sense, it can't look radically different,
42:31 it has to match, if it's the remnant it has to match,
42:33 so we can't look for something new, we can't look for something
42:36 totally radical and different, we have to look for something
42:38 that's basically the same as the Apostolic church.
42:41 Amen! God is going to bring His people back to
42:44 Apostolic Christianity, it reminds of a marvelous
42:46 state when I heard Billy Graham say one time,
42:48 and I tell you, my heart really goes out to Billy Graham
42:50 because I think in some ways he's abandoning the faith.
42:53 I don't know if you saw this most recent...,
42:54 and I'm not judging the man at all, but if you have seen
42:57 this Newsweek that he was on the cover of
43:00 a little while back, you know they interview him and
43:02 he's like well, I'm not so sure everything in the Bible is true
43:04 and I was just reading, and I am thinking who am I reading?
43:07 Who could I possibly be reading, but let the Lord Jesus
43:10 sort that out, I'll tell you this, there's no question
43:14 that God did use that man to reach many people,
43:16 thousands of people, millions of people, for the Lord.
43:19 Can you say Amen!
43:20 On one occasion he was preaching a marvelous revival in
43:22 New York City, and he preached his guts out,
43:25 and just threw down, he could be a wild preacher
43:28 in his earlier years, and he just preached, and preached,
43:30 and preached, and he made an alter call,
43:31 and people came forward, and they were repenting,
43:33 and weeping at the alter, and it was absolutely powerful.
43:36 Afterwards several of the organizers of the event
43:38 went up to Mr. Graham, they said Mr. Graham we're very
43:39 concerned about tonight's presentation,
43:41 oh, you didn't think it was a good presentation,
43:43 well, we're concerned, we feel like you've set the church back
43:46 two hundred years today, you're going back to the dark ages,
43:49 you're going back to the way things used to be done.
43:50 We want to be a part of the new church,
43:52 part of the emerging church, part of this new exciting
43:55 movement that God is doing in Christianity,
43:56 we feel like you set the church back two hundred years.
43:59 Pastor Graham kind of hung his head, he said I'm real sorry
44:02 about that I guess I really did fail, and they were kind of
44:05 triumphing over it a little bit, we really feel like you
44:07 let us down, and he said gentlemen I apologize.
44:09 Tonight if you feel like I set the church back
44:12 two hundred years, I did fail, I absolutely failed,
44:14 because I was trying to set the church back two thousand years.
44:18 Are you with me everyone?
44:24 Do you follow where we are going with that?
44:25 Beloved the remnant is going to look like
44:29 Apostolic Christianity
44:31 it's got to match, does that make sense everyone?
44:32 So let's go to our board here, it's actually pretty simple
44:40 I Timothy 3:15, The apostle Paul
44:42 writing to young Timothy, he says:
44:54 Beloved the church is to be built on truth, and Jesus Christ
44:58 is the truth, can you say Amen!
44:59 Think about that for just a moment, Jesus Christ
45:02 is the truth, He Himself said in John 14:6,
45:05 I am the way, the truth, and the life. John 17:17,
45:10 Jesus said, Sanctify them through thy word,
45:12 thy word is truth. Psalm 119 says,
45:17 Thy law is truth, so you have this three fold definition of
45:20 truth, Jesus Christ is truth, His word is truth,
45:24 His law is truth, and the church is the pillar
45:27 and ground of truth.
45:29 That's why I've said many times in the seminar
45:30 and I'll stand by it until the day that I die
45:32 we don't find a church that suits us and then hope,
45:35 cross our fingers and pray that they preach the truth.
45:38 What we do is we find the truth, then we go find a church
45:41 that's preaches what's truth, can you say Amen!
45:43 So too with your pastor's, and I know many of you have
45:45 spiritual leaders that you respect, ect., ect.,
45:47 but beloved, beloved, beloved, don't check the truth out with
45:50 your pastor, check your pastor out with Bible truth.
45:53 Can you say Amen!
45:54 Because listen I want to tell you something,
45:56 if I were to take my shirt off which I won't do,
45:58 because I don't want to be indelicate,
45:59 but if I were to take my shirt off right now,
46:01 there is no Superman tattoo on my chest, there's no
46:04 Super pastor, Super saint outfit under here,
46:06 I'm a sinner just like you, can you say Amen!
46:09 And I can be wrong, just like you can be wrong,
46:11 can you say Amen!
46:12 But the word of God can not be wrong, so don't think for
46:15 a moment that your pastor can't be wrong,
46:17 I'm telling you can be wrong and if you don't believe me,
46:19 you can talk to my wife, and she will tell you,
46:21 he can be wrong, but the word can't be wrong.
46:26 Can you say Amen! And the concern that I have
46:29 here, is that we're saying oh, I just like this church,
46:31 and I love the stained glass, and I love being a part of the
46:33 choir, and they have such a nice social hour,
46:36 and I love the program for the kids, and we have a
46:38 wonderful Woman's Book Club, and on, and on, and on,
46:41 but at the end of the day, if that church is not the pillar
46:44 and ground of truth, you are in the wrong church.
46:46 Does that make sense?
46:49 Even if you are happy as a Leprechaun,
46:51 if you are in a church that is not preaching the truth
46:55 you are in the wrong church.
46:56 Does that make sense everyone?
46:58 I mean is that radical, is that to radical yes or no?
47:02 I hope, it doesn't sound to radical to me.
47:05 Let's continue on here, we have this woman that we
47:09 are being called out of:
47:11 and it is a:
47:20 If you have any of those residual elements,
47:22 in addition to many other residual elements
47:25 that could be sided, you should seriously consider
47:27 evaluating your commitment to a church that's not standing
47:31 on truth, does that make sense everyone?
47:34 Yes or no, absolutely, by the way don't be afraid of that
47:37 Jesus Himself changed churches
47:39 if you want to use that language.
47:40 Because when Jesus began His public ministry,
47:44 He went in and He said to those people who were
47:46 selling things in the temple, He said take these things
47:48 out of here, you've made my Father's house a den of thieves,
47:52 but at the end of His public ministry, three and a half years
47:54 later after they had consistently rejected the
47:56 evidences of His Messiah ship, and His divinity,
47:58 He said your house has left to you what?
48:01 Desolate, so was Jesus a Jew?
48:04 Sure not only was Jesus a Jew, Jesus was the one who had
48:08 Himself called Abraham the first Jew.
48:10 Jesus' great, great, grandfather built that temple
48:14 Solomon and David, and of course the Solomonic temple had been
48:18 destroyed, but the point here is, if anybody had their roots
48:21 in a religious system, it was Jesus.
48:23 But when Jesus saw that religious system refused
48:26 to follow truth, He left the system, and followed truth.
48:31 And He established something called the church,
48:35 we're going to talk about that tomorrow morning, Who Is Real
48:38 Israel, beloved I have said it before and I will say it again
48:42 I would rather worship with twelve people under an Oak tree
48:45 on truth and in spirit, than with five thousand people
48:49 in the most glorious cathedral with the most
48:51 Charismatic pastor.
48:52 Can you say Amen!
48:54 I hope you feel the same way, I really, really, hope you do,
48:57 and so Babylon the Great:
49:03 And we have already said that, and as we've discussed
49:05 yesterday, many of these churches are rushing back
49:09 to get back into bed with the great mother church Rome.
49:13 In fact they are wanting to distance themselves
49:14 from anything that separate themselves from Rome,
49:17 and as we discussed yesterday,
49:18 who's making all of the concessions,
49:20 the Protestants or the Catholics?
49:21 The Protestants are the ones making the concessions:
49:27 Let's go to Revelation 12, during the time of Constantine,
49:34 and just after the time of Constantine,
49:35 basically if you didn't get on with the program,
49:37 you could be persecuted, and if you wouldn't bow to the pope
49:40 and the prelates and all of the various dogmas and decrees
49:43 of papalism, you were persecuted and so God's true
49:45 church, God's true people fled into the what everyone?
49:49 Into the wilderness, I am in Revelation 12 and I will pick
49:52 it up in verse 6, Then the woman fled into the wilderness,
49:58 where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed
50:01 her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
50:03 We've already seen that that's the one thousand
50:05 two hundred sixty years of papal oppression,
50:07 and the woman fled into the wilderness, because basically
50:11 there was only one show in town,
50:13 and that show was the Roman Church.
50:14 She had to leave because of persecution,
50:17 because of what everyone?
50:18 It's not like our day and age when we pull out this
50:21 monolithically large phone book and we say what church
50:23 should we go to, and there's page, after page, after page,
50:27 of any kind of church to fit any kind of lifestyle,
50:31 whatever you want, in those days, there was one gig in town.
50:34 There was THEE church, not the churches, THEE church,
50:39 and when THEE church basically said it's our way or the highway
50:43 it's our way or the stake, it's our way or it's the
50:45 Coliseum, many people say hey listen we're out of here!
50:48 We want to worship God according to the dictates of our own
50:51 conscience, and they fled into the wilderness where they could
50:53 worship God in spirit and in truth,
50:54 even at significant inconvenience to themselves.
50:58 So the church fled into the wilderness, and you have there
51:01 marvelous, marvelous, in the valleys of Northern Italy
51:04 and other places, the great Piedmont Valleys,
51:06 you have people like the Waldensian's and the Hugenot's,
51:09 and the Albigense's, and others who fled
51:11 papal persecution, so that they could worship God
51:14 in spirit and truth in the wilderness rather than
51:16 capitulate to the papal dogmas, decrees, and doctrines,
51:19 is everybody with me yes or no?
51:21 So that is exactly what Bible prophecy said that they would
51:23 flee into the wilderness.
51:24 Now it's amazing to see here that Revelation 12,
51:27 it says that the serpent cast out of his mouth water
51:30 like a flood, that he might cause the woman to be carried
51:32 away by the flood, very interesting it says...,
51:35 look at verse 15, Revelation 12:15.
51:37 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood
51:40 after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away
51:41 by the flood. But the earth helped the woman,
51:45 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood
51:47 which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
51:49 Now we have already been over this in Revelation 13,
51:51 God opened up a whole new continent, God opened up
51:54 a whole new hemisphere, and people fleeing
51:56 civil persecution and religious persecution landed on these
52:00 glorious shores, got off kissed the ground,
52:03 and said here we will establish a new kind of government.
52:05 Not with subjects, but with citizens,
52:07 a government of the people, for the people,
52:10 and by the people.
52:11 God basically opened up a whole new land, where His church
52:14 could flee from papal persecution, and flee from
52:17 monarchal persecution, and establish a true government
52:21 that would keep the church and the state as separate,
52:24 rather than bed partners and thus ensure that
52:26 religious persecution could not transpire,
52:28 if this makes sense say Amen!
52:29 I believe that with every bit of my being,
52:32 and I would challenge you to go look at some of American
52:35 History, and the providences of God, I mean providence
52:38 after providence, after providence, after providence,
52:40 they don't teach it in school's any more, because you can't
52:42 mention the name of God, the point is this.
52:44 It would have been impossible for this nation to come about
52:48 the way that it did, in the manner that it did,
52:50 as quickly as it did, without the special intervention
52:53 and providence of God.
52:55 Incredible what God has done for this nation,
52:58 that's why it says that He had two horns like a lamb.
53:01 Like a what? A lamb, and he espoused the great principles
53:04 of Republicanism, that is civil liberty, and Protestantism
53:08 that is religious liberty, but unfortunately it said that it
53:10 would eventually speak like a dragon, we know that,
53:13 that's where it's going.
53:14 Beloved in the post 9/11 world with the passage of
53:17 The Patriot Act, and a hundred other things,
53:19 I don't know if you are feeling it, but your civil liberty's
53:21 are just getting like this, and like this.
53:23 And what's happening is that personal liberty's
53:28 are being sacrificed increasingly on the altar
53:30 of National Security.
53:32 That's the direction you are headed beloved,
53:34 and if I read my Bible right, and I think I do,
53:37 it's only going to get tighter and tighter, and uglier,
53:39 and uglier, until eventually it climaxes with the
53:42 mark of the beast crisis.
53:44 That's the direction that we're headed,
53:46 absolutely incredible, you are getting the big picture here.
53:48 Now I want to fast forward here through two slides,
53:50 because I want you to see something that is absolutely
53:51 critical, there it is.
53:52 Now this is a simplified slide but it will help you to
53:56 sort of see what happened from the 1400's to the 1800's.
53:59 God started calling faithful men and so you basically had the
54:02 period of the Dark Ages, and then these people that
54:04 I have just described, in the valley's of Northern Italy.
54:06 They said no, we will not stand for the papal dogmas,
54:09 the papal decrees, and the papal teachings,
54:11 we will stand on the Bible, and they went away to these
54:13 incredible..., you can go take tours even now
54:16 Reformation tours up on the valley's of Northern Italy
54:18 and go to the very museums, the very places where these
54:21 people, sometimes they would be caught
54:22 and slaughtered, just terrible, but in the quietness of their
54:26 homes up in the high mountain valleys, they would start
54:28 transcribing the Bible, people like the Waldensian's and they
54:31 said it's the Bible, it's the Bible, and then after that
54:34 a man by the name of John Husk came on the scene,
54:36 one of the great reformers, and he said no it's obedience
54:39 not obedience to man, but obedience to God.
54:42 And then a man by the name Martin Luther,
54:44 Martin what everyone?
54:45 Luther was reading through his Bible one day,
54:47 and he came across the four words that rocked the world,
54:49 The Just Shall Live By Faith, just live by faith.
54:55 He found those words and he saw that was radically
54:58 incompatible with the Roman system, and so he nailed those
55:00 ninety five pieces to the door, there at Wittenberg
55:02 and so he came out a little bit further, but he didn't come
55:05 all the way out.
55:06 A man named John Calvin came out a little further
55:08 and he emphasized Christian growth and God's sovereignty
55:10 and then the Anabaptists came out and said
55:12 baptism by emersion, not this sprinkling stuff,
55:14 and then John Wesley said emphasis on holiness,
55:17 they were called Methodists, that's actually a derogatory
55:19 term, but they took that term and incorporated that term,
55:21 and they embraced that term, then a man by the name of
55:23 William Miller began a radical, radical movement here
55:26 in the United States of America called Millerism where you
55:28 said Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming,
55:30 and many people believe that.
55:31 Some estimate that he had as many as one to two hundred
55:33 thousand followers, and there was this sudden Apocalyptic
55:36 sense that Jesus was coming soon, and then this thing called
55:39 the advent movement, I'm going to talk to you about that
55:41 tomorrow, putting the emphasis back on the Sabbath
55:44 the truth about death, and the importance of
55:46 Christian lifestyle, and living for the glory of God.
55:48 So basically what you see is, people were coming out of Rome
55:52 but instead of continuing to walk out of Rome,
55:54 they would plant their banner, and they would say we are
55:57 Lutherans, even though Martin Luther said don't call
55:59 yourselves Lutherans, they set up their banner.
56:01 We're Lutherans, somebody came out a little further,
56:03 planted their banner, we're Calvinists,
56:04 but truth was marching on.
56:06 Truth was what? Marching on but everybody just sort of
56:09 [eeert] and they stopped and they felt safe there
56:12 and they started writing their decree's,
56:13 and they started writing their creeds,
56:15 and they started writing their codes, and truth was
56:17 marching on, and so somebody came out a little further,
56:19 but instead of keep going, they plant their banner
56:21 they say we are Calvinists, then somebody comes out
56:23 a little further, plants their banner we are Baptists,
56:25 somebody comes out a little further, plants their banner,
56:27 we are Methodists, somebody comes out a little further,
56:29 we are this, a little further, we are this, a little further,
56:32 we are this, that's why there are so many different
56:34 denominations.
56:35 The reason there are so many different denominations
56:38 is that every denomination is at various stages
56:41 of coming out of Apostate Rome.
56:45 Unfortunately people have set up their banners,
56:47 they have set up their camps, at different areas along that
56:50 continuum, but at the end of time, God is going to have a
56:54 remnant that will abandon all paganism, will abandon all
56:57 papalism, and will stand for the Bible and the Bible only.
57:02 So God not only calls us out of Babylon, God calls us in
57:07 to this remnant movement that's bigger than a church.
57:11 It's a movement, it's a what?
57:15 It's a movement, and this chart sort of depicts that
57:18 powerfully and compellingly and we'll talk more about that
57:21 tomorrow night.


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Revised 2014-12-17