Participants: Pr. David Asscherick
Series Code: DP
Program Code: DP000024
|
00:15 Our presentation tonight is "Discover How to Get on"
00:18 "and Stay On the Straight and Narrow Path". 00:25 Open your Bibles to Revelation 12. 00:32 Our presentation last night was "God Has a Church on Earth, " 00:36 "No Kidding! ", and we did our very best to communicate to you 00:39 that God is not only calling people out of something, He's 00:42 calling people into something. What is God calling people 00:45 out of? Babylon. Revelation 18:4 "Come out of her My people", 00:52 and of course, Babylon is the mother church, but remember, 00:55 she has daughters, and those daughters are any church, 00:58 any communion that has residual elements of Paganism 01:01 or papalism bound up with their various teachings. 01:05 So God says "Come out of her My people, that you partake" 01:08 "not of her sins, and you receive not of her plagues. " 01:11 So here in Revelation 12, and last night we asked 01:13 the question: God is calling us out of something, but what is He 01:16 calling us into? He not only shows us the exit 01:19 sign, He shows us the entrance sign, so in Revelation 12 we 01:23 pick it up in verse 1. "A great sign appeared in" 01:25 "heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under" 01:29 "her feet, and on her head a garland of 12 stars. " 01:32 So I want you to notice that she is clothed with the sun, 01:35 and the stars, and she has under her feet the moon. 01:37 Those are the 3 things that God gave in the opening chapters 01:40 of Genesis to bring light to this world. 01:45 So "Thy Word is a lamp under my feet, and a light unto" 01:49 "my path", so this true church, these true people would be 01:53 spreading and illuminating this dark, dark world with 01:56 the Gospel truth. "Then being with child, she cried out" 02:01 "in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign" 02:04 "appeared in heaven, behold: a great, fiery red dragon" 02:08 "having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems" 02:10 "on his heads. And his tail drew a third of the stars" 02:13 "of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood" 02:15 "before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her" 02:17 "child as soon as it was born. " And who would that child be? 02:22 Jesus of course. In verse 5: "She bore a male" 02:24 "child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, " 02:26 "her child was caught up to God and to His throne. " 02:28 So this woman here represents the true people of God, 02:31 if you would like to use the word "church" that's fine, 02:33 but remember that Jesus was a Jew. There's no question, 02:38 as we've already discussed that Jesus had to make a transition, 02:41 remember? At the beginning of His ministry: "Take these" 02:43 "things hence, you have made My Father's house a den of" 02:46 "thieves", but at the close of His ministry: "Behold, your" 02:49 "house is left to you desolate". So here we find this woman 02:52 representing that transition period, always God's true 02:56 people, but you could say the Jewish nation transitioning 02:58 into the church. Verse 6, it says: "Then the woman fled" 03:01 "into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God" 03:04 "that they should feed her there 1260 days", that's the 1260 03:10 prophetic days, or literal years of Papal persecution when 03:13 basically there was only 1 show in town, and there wasn't many, 03:18 many different churches, there was THE church, and basically, 03:21 THE church did not allow people access to the Bible, 03:24 and the Bible was kept away from people in the common language, 03:28 and more or less, you were told that if you didn't bow, 03:30 if you didn't capitulate, if you insisted on standing on 03:34 something other than what the cardinals were teaching, 03:38 and the priests were teaching, and the others were teaching, 03:40 you could be killed, or you could be put into a dungeon, 03:44 or worse. So many people fled this Papal 03:48 persecution, and that's exactly what we find in Revelation 12, 03:51 is that the woman would flee. Now we jump down to verse 13, 03:56 where we see this exact same imagery, identical imagery. 04:00 It says: "Now when the dragon saw that he was cast" 04:02 "to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth" 04:05 "to the male child. But the woman was given 2 wings" 04:07 "of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness" 04:12 "to her place where she is nourished for a time, times" 04:14 "and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. " 04:17 There it is again, identical situation: God's true church 04:19 fleeing from the face of the serpent, fleeing from the face 04:22 of Satan, who was persecuting her. Verse 15: "So the serpent" 04:25 "spewed water out of his mouth", and water in Bible prophecy 04:28 represents what? People. So the Devil basically 04:32 joined the church. You've heard the old saying: "If you can't" 04:34 "beat them, you join them. " So he spewed water out of his 04:38 mouth, that is people, to try and basically infiltrate, 04:42 and infect the true church of God, many of whom were hiding 04:45 up in the northern valleys of Northern Italy, and other 04:49 places, people like the Waldensians, and the Huguenots, 04:52 and the Albigensians, God's true people, who insisted on standing 04:56 on the Word of God, and refused to capitulate to the various 04:59 Papal dogmas, and decrees, etc. So we continue on, it says 05:05 in verse 16: "But the earth helped the woman, and the earth" 05:08 "opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood", and then it says, 05:12 very interesting, "swallowed up the flood which the dragon" 05:15 "had spewed out of its mouth. " And then verse 17, 05:17 sort of the climax of Revelation 12, and certainly 05:20 the climax of the entire book of Revelation right there 05:22 in verse 17, it says: "And the dragon was wroth", or enraged, 05:27 "with the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her" 05:31 "seed", or if you have the King James, "the remnant of" 05:34 "her seed, who keep the commandments of God, " 05:37 "and have the testimony of Jesus. " 05:39 Now, I want you to remember, way back, several meetings ago, 05:42 probably 15 meetings ago we looked at this war and we made 05:45 this important point, and that is that the war, this great 05:49 conflict, this great controversy began in heaven. 05:55 But where is it going to be finished? On Earth. 05:57 And that's exactly what we discovered here in 05:59 Revelation 12:17, is that when the dragon saw that he was 06:02 cast to the earth, and we've already talked about that, 06:04 he had some kind of limited access to heaven, but when he 06:07 saw that he no longer had any access to heaven, he put 06:09 all of his energies, all of his resources right here on planet 06:12 earth to attack this remnant, this "rest of her offspring, " 06:17 "who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony" 06:19 "of Jesus". To put it in very plain language: Satan's 06:22 undiluted fury is being poured out upon God's true people 06:26 at the end of time. So during the Dark Ages God's 06:30 church fled into the wilderness, as we have already 06:32 said. Why did they flee to the wilderness? 06:35 Because they had to. They had to flee to the wilderness, 06:38 as we've already said, there was only 1 gig in town, 06:40 only 1 church in town, and if you were unwilling to capitulate 06:43 to the various decrees and dogmas of the papal church, 06:46 you had to flee. It was either fleeing, or facing 06:50 punishment, or death, or some other terrible situation. 06:54 So in Revelation 12 the woman was persecuted by Satan. 06:59 We talked about this last night, basically, during the Dark Ages 07:02 as people were going through the Reformation, God was 07:08 leading His people step by step out of Rome. 07:15 We talked about this, how the Waldensians said "The Bible, " 07:18 "and the Bible only"; John Huss emphasized obedience; 07:22 Martin Luther said "The just shall live by faith", and then 07:25 he took that hammer and he nailed those 95 Theses 07:27 to the door at Wittenberg, the hammer blows that were heard 07:31 all around the world. John Calvin said Christian 07:33 growth and God's sovereignty; the Anabaptists said "it's not" 07:36 "this sprinkling thing", and Scotty talked to us about 07:38 that this morning, baptism by immersion. John Wesley said 07:41 "holiness", he was referred to pejoratively by the people 07:46 that were his detractors as Methodist, but he actually 07:48 took that term, he internalized it, he used it, and they became 07:51 known as the Methodists, even though originally it was 07:54 a derogatory term. William Miller with the second coming, 07:57 the Advent movement, the Sabbath, the death and health, 07:59 1800s to the present. Basically what you see here is 08:03 that at different stages of, coming out of Rome many people 08:06 instead of continuing to march with truth, they set up their 08:09 flag, they set up their banner, and they said 08:11 "We're Lutherans", "We're Calvinists", 08:14 "We're Presbyterians", "We're Wesleyans", 08:17 but truth was marching on. So what God is doing here 08:20 is He is reforming, that's why it's called "The Reformation", 08:23 but He's not just reforming, He's restoring truth. 08:29 Very, very interesting. So here God is working, 08:32 working, bringing new truth, bringing new light, bringing 08:35 new Biblical insights, and then God opens up a whole new 08:39 continent, a whole new hemisphere, and the church, 08:42 who basically, as we've already discussed in Revelation 12, 08:46 was very much under the persecution of both, 08:50 the kings and the monarchs, and others, and the popes. 08:54 So to flee, both religious tyranny and civil tyranny, 08:57 they came to a new land, and that's why when they got off 09:01 of those boats, many of them got down on the ground 09:04 and kissed the ground because they were coming to a new place 09:06 where they could escape the tyranny of the popes 09:08 and the tyranny of the kings, and they established a new 09:11 government, a government that did not have subjects 09:17 but citizens. A government of the people, for the people 09:22 and by the people. And they said "No, religion is going to be" 09:25 "over here, and the state is going to be over here, " 09:27 "and it's imperative that they stay separate" because every 09:30 single time in past experience when religion and state had 09:34 gotten together they proved to be very unhappy bed partners. 09:38 They set up a whole new radically different... 09:40 I mean, the American experiment, just do a little bit of 09:43 research, was a radical experiment in civil 09:46 and religious liberty, and God opened up this whole new 09:49 continent so that His people who wanted to worship Him 09:51 in spirit and in truth had a place to do it. 09:55 Of course, today the USA is the front runner of democracy, 09:59 and not just the front runner of democracy, it's the most 10:01 powerful nation in the world. Think about that for just 10:05 a minute, the meteoric rise of the US is unprecedented 10:08 in the history of the human experience. 10:11 I mean, in 200 short years it goes from basically 10:13 non-existent to being the single most powerful nation 10:16 that the world has ever seen? Beloved, if you don't see 10:20 the providence of God in that, you can't see the providence 10:23 of God anywhere. Are you hearing me? Yes or no? 10:27 [Audience] Yes. Absolutely incredible. 10:29 So tonight we're talking about how to get on, and stay on 10:31 the narrow path. I believe that God has a church 10:34 on earth, I believe that Jesus was telling the truth when He 10:36 said in Matthew 16 that the gates of hell would not prevail 10:39 against His church. Now, I want to be crystal clear 10:42 about something, God has His people in every church. 10:46 Does God have faithful people in the Catholic church? 10:48 [Audience] Yes. Does God have faithful people 10:50 in the Baptist church? [Audience] Yes. 10:52 Methodist church? [Audience] Yes. 10:55 Presbyterian church? [Audience] Yes. 10:57 Absolutely, God has His faithful people everywhere, but I believe 11:00 in my heart of hearts that God also has an organization 11:03 on earth that He can point to and say "those are My people". 11:06 Are they perfect? No. Are they better? No. 11:09 But are they living up to what the Bible teaches? 11:12 I think the answer is "Yes". Beloved, I've told you before 11:15 many, many, many times: don't go find a church that suits you 11:18 and then hope they preach the Bible, rather, find what 11:20 the Bible teaches and then go find a church that teaches what 11:23 the Bible teaches. People say: "Aww, but you're going to" 11:26 "a cult". Beloved, let people say what they want to say. 11:29 What other people think of me is none of my business. 11:31 What I care about is what Jesus and God think of me. 11:34 Let people say what they want to say, they said Jesus was 11:37 a Samaritan, they said Jesus was Beelzebub, they said Jesus 11:39 was a wine [?], they said Jesus was a glutton. 11:42 If there had been the Internet and websites in the days 11:44 of Jesus, He would have been taken to task by everybody. 11:51 So beloved, I do believe that God does have a church on earth 11:53 today, and I want to walk you through that, I want to tell you 11:56 why I believe that, and I want to walk you through 11:58 the identifying characteristics of God's church. 12:01 Now, I've made this already clear, but I want to say 12:03 it again: that does not mean that I believe that these are 12:07 the only people that are saved or that are 12:09 going to heaven. I don't know how I can 12:12 say it any more plainly, let me just make it very, very clear, 12:16 there are Baptists that are following the Lord Jesus Christ 12:19 with all their heart, mind and soul, and they are saved 12:21 because they love the Lord Jesus. There are Methodists, 12:25 the same, who love the Lord Jesus with all their heart, 12:28 who love God, who want to serve God, and they're saved, 12:30 and they're going to heaven because they're living up to 12:32 the light that they have. Is this clear? 12:35 Do I need to go down the list of every single denomination? 12:38 Okay, so are we clear what Pastor Asscherick is saying? 12:40 There's no question that God has His people in every church, 12:43 in every communion, in every body of faith, that's not what's 12:47 up for negotiation, so don't think for a moment that 12:50 Pastor Asscherick has said, because he hasn't said, 12:52 and he never would say that only members of his church 12:55 are going to heaven, I don't believe it, I wouldn't believe 12:57 it, and it's not Biblical. What I do believe is that 13:01 God will have a people on earth, an identifiable group of people 13:05 on earth, who will be, to the best of their ability, living up 13:08 to Bible truth. My question for you tonight is 13:12 if that's true, and if there is a communion where God's people 13:16 are trying their best, by the grace of God, to live up 13:19 to the Word, is that a communion that you would be interested 13:22 in joining? And if not, I'd say "Why? " 13:26 And please don't tell me that you enjoy the donuts 13:29 and the coffee hour at your local church; please don't tell 13:32 me that you love the organ, and that your uncle paid for 13:35 the stained glass window at your local church, please don't 13:37 tell me that. The only thing that would satisfy me, 13:40 and frankly, the only thing that would satisfy the Lord 13:43 Jesus is if you could say "My church follows the Bible more" 13:45 "closely than your church. " Incidentally, if that's true, 13:48 I'll join your church, because I'm not out to be an apologist 13:52 for a church, I'm out to be an apologist for the Lord Jesus 13:55 Christ and His Word. Okay, but here's the point: 13:59 you've been coming to these meetings 24, 25, 26 nights, 14:03 and we have not been saying "You've got to come to our" 14:05 "church, our church is the true church, our church is the only" 14:08 "church", have you heard me say that? 14:10 No way, haven't said it, wouldn't say it, but at the end 14:13 of this thing people are saying "But where do you go" 14:15 "to church? " "Where do you go to church? " 14:18 "Where do you fellowship? " "Where do you worship" 14:20 "the Lord? " Listen, what would be weirder: 14:23 if at the end of the meetings I said: "You know, you've really" 14:25 "enjoyed coming", "I've learned so much Pastor Asscherick, " 14:28 and you've been enjoying coming, "Oh, I didn't know this, " 14:30 "and I didn't know this, and I didn't know this, " 14:33 "and praise God, I've never heard the Word preached this" 14:35 "way before", by the way, it's not because of a man, 14:37 it's because of the Son of man. Now, what would be stranger, 14:39 of at the end of all that they say "Now listen, where do you" 14:42 "fellowship? Where do you go to church? I'd be very interested" 14:44 "to go to church where you go to church", and I'd say 14:47 "You know, I'm not going to tell you because this isn't " 14:49 "about building up my church, I'm not going to tell you", 14:52 you'd say "What?!" Would that be weirder? 14:54 Or would it be stranger for me to tell you: "Hey listen, " 14:57 "let me show you where I do go to church, let me show you" 14:59 "the organization that I do believe God is using on earth, " 15:02 "not the only organization, but definitely the one that I have" 15:05 "found that is following the Bible most closely. " 15:08 Which would be stranger: for me to tell you, or not to tell you? 15:11 Not to tell you, that would be downright odd. 15:15 You'd say "Are you kidding me? I mean, come on. " 15:17 "No, I'm not going to tell you, you can twist my arm" 15:20 "and I'll never tell you", no, of course I'm going to tell you. 15:24 I believe God does have a church on earth today, and I've given 15:27 you enough caveats, I think we can get through this. 15:29 These are the identifying characteristics of God's true 15:31 church, number 1: [text on screen] 15:36 They're called the remnant. Remember, the remnant is 15:39 the last, so the remnant has to look mostly like, or exactly 15:45 like the original? It has to look exactly like the original. 15:48 If you were going to find a remnant of this fabric, 15:50 it would have to be the same weight, it would have to be 15:53 the same color, it would have to be the same pattern, 15:55 it would have to be the same texture, it would have to be 15:58 the same! So when we're looking for 16:01 a church in the last days we have to look for a church 16:04 that's like the apostolic church. We have to look 16:06 for a church that will recapture the vision and the faith 16:09 of the original church of the disciples. 16:12 Number 2: [text on screen] 16:17 Now you say "wait a minute, I didn't catch that last part". 16:20 You're still at Revelation 12:17. 16:24 First of all, the commandments one is an easy one, that's 16:27 a so called "no brainer" because we've been going over 16:30 that night, after night, after night, but let's look at it 16:32 again, Revelation 12:17, it says "And the dragon was enraged" 16:36 "with the woman and went to make war with" 16:39 "the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God". 16:44 Is there any question in anyone's mind in this room 16:47 that God's last day people will be keeping His commandments, 16:50 not in order to be saved, but because they are saved? 16:53 Look beloved, that's Revelation 12:17, you can look 16:56 at Revelation 14:12, in fact, why don't you do that since 16:58 it's probably on the same page. Revelation 14:12, it says: 17:03 "Here is the patience of the saints, here are those" 17:05 "who keep the commandments of God and have the faith" 17:11 "of Jesus. " So beloved, never forget this, 17:13 that the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus go 17:16 hand in hand because Jesus saves, but the question is 17:22 "Saves from what? " I remember before I was 17:25 a Christian I'd see these bumper stickers all over the place: 17:27 "Jesus saves", or somebody would be wearing a t-shirt, 17:30 "Jesus saves", and I used to think to myself: 17:32 "Saves from what? " Beloved, to tell somebody 17:35 that Jesus saves before they first understand that they're 17:37 lost is a nonsensical statement, so in order for us to have 17:41 the Gospel, if we only have the Gospel it's like standing on 17:43 one leg, we need the commandments of God to show 17:46 us 2 things, number 1: God is righteous and we're unrighteous. 17:51 That's the 2 great purposes of the law, to show us 17:53 the righteousness, the infinite holiness of God, and to show 17:56 us our own failings and our own short comings, so the law 17:59 is like a schoolmaster that leads us to Jesus. 18:03 So you need both, you need the Gospel leg that saves you, 18:06 and you need the law leg that shows you how to live and leads 18:08 you to the Lord. So notice, God's last day people, they have 18:11 the commandments of God and they have the faith of Jesus. 18:16 I want to say it again: an apple tree does not bear apples 18:20 in order to be an apple tree, an apple tree bears apples 18:29 because it is an apple tree. Christians do not do good works 18:34 in order to be saved, Christians do good works because they 18:38 are saved. See, this whole faith and works 18:41 thing, it's not a mystery at all, you're saved by grace 18:45 alone through faith alone, to the glory of God alone, 18:48 but the faith which saves always works. Amen? 18:53 That's a piece of cake. People talk about the strange 18:56 subtleties and difficulties in nuances of faith and works, 18:59 are you kidding me? It's as plain as the noonday 19:02 sun, you're saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, 19:05 His life becomes your life, His substitutionary death is your 19:07 death, you're saved by faith. And anybody who's been saved 19:12 by the Lord Jesus Christ does not want to continue to live 19:15 in that pathetic life of sin that they were called out of, 19:17 they want to get victories in their life, they want to live 19:20 for the Lord Jesus Christ, they want to live for the glory 19:23 of God, and that takes the power of the Spirit. 19:25 It's a piece of cake! So there should be no question 19:29 in anyone's mind that God's last day people are going 19:32 to keep His commandments, including the one commandment 19:35 that the whole world has forgotten that begins with 19:37 the word "remember". Revelation 22:14, you might 19:41 as well look at it since you're so close, Revelation 22:14. 19:45 How many people tonight want to go to the New Jerusalem, 19:48 raise your hand. I want to go to the new Jerusalem, me too. 19:50 Look at Revelation 22:14, it says: "Blessed are those who" 19:55 "do His commandments, that they may have a right to the tree" 19:58 "of life and may enter through the gates into the city. " 20:02 Are those people that enter the city going 20:05 to be keeping God's commandments, yes or no? 20:07 [Audience] Yes. Absolutely. 20:10 In order to be saved? Because they are saved. 20:12 You're "A" students. Back to Revelation 12. 20:15 So one of the identifying characteristics is that they 20:17 would keep the commandments of God, but look at that second 20:20 one there, kind of interesting. Revelation 12, it says in 20:23 verse 17: "The dragon was wroth with the woman and went" 20:25 "to make war with the remnant of her seed, " 20:28 let's all say it together, "which keep the commandments" 20:30 "of God, " and notice this, "and have the testimony" 20:35 "of Jesus. " Well, what's the testimony of Jesus? 20:37 Someone says "The testimony of Jesus is testifying about" 20:40 "Jesus", and you're right... mostly. 20:44 Let me show you what the Bible says the testimony of Jesus is, 20:46 is that a good idea everyone? So you're still there 20:49 in Revelation, look at Revelation 19:10. 20:54 Here we find an exact grammatical, verbal equivalence. 21:00 We're trying to ask and answer the question: what is 21:03 the testimony of Jesus? Because that's one of the identifying 21:06 characteristics of God's last day people, they keep 21:09 the commandments of God and they have the testimony of Jesus. 21:13 I'm in Revelation 19:10. John here sees an angel: 21:19 "And I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said, " 21:21 "No, see that thou do it not. I am your fellow servant, " 21:24 "and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. " 21:27 There it is again, that's the same phrase, now watch what 21:29 the angel says: "Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus" 21:34 "is the spirit of prophecy. " Do you see that everyone? 21:39 It's just as plain as the noonday sun. 21:42 The angel said it, Pastor Asscherick didn't say it. 21:45 The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 21:48 So God's last day people, according to Revelation 12:17, 21:51 have the commandments of God and they have the testimony 21:53 of Jesus, and the angel tells us the testimony of Jesus is 21:57 the spirit of prophecy. [text on screen] 22:11 Some little church cannot pitch up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 22:14 and say they're the remnant church of God, they could be 22:19 in Tuscaloosa, but they can't be only in Tuscaloosa, and here's 22:22 why: this message that this church is going to be preaching 22:25 has to go to every nation, and every kindred, 22:27 and every tongue, and every people, it's got to be 22:30 a worldwide church. You might have your nice little 22:34 church over in Sterling Heights that you love, the donuts 22:36 and the stained glass window, and the organ, well good 22:39 for you, are you reaching people outside of Sterling Heights? 22:43 Is that an important question? Yes or no? 22:45 [Audience] Yes. Does God love people in Sterling 22:48 Heights more than the rest of the world? 22:50 No, so we're looking for a church that's a worldwide 22:53 mission driven movement. By the way, as soon as you say 22:58 "worldwide church", if you want to talk about true churches, 23:01 that is groups that are not classified by some as "cults", 23:04 you've only got 2 options. Did you hear what I said? 23:09 You've only got 2 options, the moment that you decide 23:12 that the Bible teaches it has to be a worldwide church you've 23:15 got 2 choices. If you want to talk about groups that some 23:17 would label as "cults", and I would agree with that, 23:19 the Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Church of Jesus Christ 23:22 of Latter Day Saints - The Mormons, I'm not even including 23:24 those because those are considered so non-orthodox 23:27 that the majority of people wouldn't call them churches 23:31 anyway, not to say that there are not good people in those 23:33 communions, no question about that. But if you're just going 23:35 to talk about churches, that is, churches that are accepted 23:38 by the mass populous as being churches that are "worldwide", 23:41 you've got 2 options. How many? [Audience] Two. 23:46 I challenge you to look through this, you know what your 23:48 first option is? The Catholics. 23:52 They are a worldwide, they are all over the globe, 23:55 they're a worldwide church. And you've got another option, 23:59 and that's the option I'm going to tell you about in just 24:01 a little minute, happens to be the church that I'm a member of. 24:04 Look at number 4: [text on screen] 24:10 It's not going to be this: "I'm a religious person on" 24:13 "Sunday morning, and then I go home to watch the football" 24:16 "games, and I leave my religious self back at the church. " 24:20 That doesn't mean, and I want to be strong on this, 24:22 that does not mean that everybody who's a member of 24:24 the church that I consider to be God's last day church 24:26 has God all their cards in a row, and all their ducks lined 24:29 up, and that they're all Spirit filled. 24:32 Uh-uh, you can find bad people in every church, and you can 24:35 find good people in every church, but we're talking 24:37 as a system. The call would be to a total 24:42 commitment to Christ. I don't want to stand up here 24:45 and say "Oh, look at my fancy car, my car's prettier than" 24:48 "your car, my dad could beat up your dad, my church is better" 24:51 "than your church", no, it's not about that. 24:55 It has nothing to do with that, what we're looking for is 24:58 a body of believers who are trying, by the grace of God, 25:02 to cling to the Word in it entirety, and to prepare 25:04 a people for the soon coming of Jesus Christ, that's what 25:07 we're looking for. Are we saying that every 25:09 person in that church is perfect? Not even close. 25:12 Are we saying that every person in that church is absolutely 25:15 just exactly what you would expect to find? 25:17 No, we're not saying that, what we are saying is that 25:20 it's an organization, and organizations are made up 25:22 of people, and not everybody is perfect. 25:25 Okay, here we go. Number 5: [text on screen] 25:30 Why? Because we've been studying 25:33 that, the whole mark of the beast issue, the whole US 25:36 in Bible prophecy issue centers around this whole big picture 25:40 of God's commandments versus the traditions of men; 25:43 God's commandments versus the rules, and dogmas, 25:45 and decrees of men. So whoever this last day 25:47 church is, they have got to be keeping God's Sabbath, 25:51 and not the mark of Rome's ecclesiastical authority. 25:56 Now think of it this way, somebody said to me one time 25:59 "Well how do I know what church to go to? I mean, it would" 26:01 "take me so long, if I opened up the phone book, and I" 26:04 "started with the 'CH', you know, 'church', and I'm going" 26:06 "to go to this church, and this church, and this church, " 26:10 "to go find God's remnant church, I'm going to go find" 26:13 "God's true church", beloved, you know what? 26:15 You can basically make your task infinitely easier by just going 26:19 through all of the churches that don't keep the Sabbath 26:22 and discarding them. Does that make sense? 26:26 Am I saying that that doesn't mean that God doesn't have His 26:28 people there? Am I saying that? 26:31 God has people in there, but if God's last day church is going 26:33 to be leading people to the Biblical Sabbath, then all 26:36 you have to do is start going through and looking for 26:39 the churches that are keeping the Biblical Sabbath, 26:41 not the papal sabbath. So you go through, and that's 26:44 going to reduce your list by about 90%. 26:47 Your job just go infinitely easier right there. 26:50 Let's continue on here, number 6: [text on screen] 26:59 Absolutely, that's what we saw in Revelation 14, the first 27:02 angel's message is fear God, and give glory to Him, 27:07 and Paul says in 1 Corinthians, he says: "Therefore, whatever" 27:10 "you do, whether you eat, or whether you drink do everything" 27:16 "to the glory of God", so these people would be spiritually 27:19 healthy, socially healthy, mentally healthy, and physically 27:22 healthy, a call to give our lives, our bodies back to God. 27:27 This is what I like to call is, it's the Gospel lifestyle. 27:32 Beloved, it you're a Christian it should impact every aspect 27:34 of your life. As somebody has said one time, 27:37 if you're accused in a court of law of being a Christian, 27:40 would there be enough evidence to convict you? 27:43 [Audience laughs] Do you follow? If you're a Christian somebody 27:48 ought to be able to look at your check book and know. 27:53 If you're a Christian somebody should be able to go to even 27:56 your cupboards and be able to tell, somebody should be able 27:59 to go through your library and know if you're a Christian. 28:01 Come on now, beloved, it's a lifestyle. So many of us, 28:05 we have this little compartmentalized view of what 28:08 it means to be a Christian. "Oh, this is where I'm" 28:11 "a religious person over here on Sunday morning" 28:13 or "Saturday morning", "and now I leave my religious person at" 28:16 "church, I don't want him/her to get dirty. And then I go out" 28:19 "for the rest of my life and I'm my normal, regular self. " 28:21 No! 28:23 The Gospel lifestyle says "I'm a Christian 24/7, I live for" 28:28 "the glory of God all the time". I tell you, I'm never going 28:34 to finish this... [Audience laughs] 28:37 Now look at this: [text on screen] 28:40 You're saying "What?! How could that be? How can you say" 28:43 "that the church has to arise after 1798? " 28:46 It's actually a piece of cake. Remember that God's true church 28:49 goes into hiding into the wilderness for 1260 years. 28:55 That 1260 years begins in 538, ends in 1798, and so basically, 29:00 the true church comes out of hiding, God's true people come 29:05 out of hiding after the time of papal persecution. 29:10 So basically, what we're looking for, because if the woman 29:13 is in the wilderness from 538 to 1798, if the woman is 29:15 in the wilderness for the 1260 years of papal persecution, 29:18 we really can't look for this woman to come on the scene 29:21 as a prominent figure until after that time. 29:27 It's actually pretty simple. Right there in Revelation 12. 29:30 [text on screen] 29:35 I can tell you beloved that all over the world, and I'm 29:38 not overemphasizing when I say that, all over the world... 29:42 I want to say it again, all over the world people are preaching 29:46 meetings exactly like the meetings you have been 29:49 attending for the last 20 some nights. 29:51 So we're looking for all of these different identifying 29:54 characteristics, and if we find those identifying 30:00 characteristics, I'm going to venture a guess, I'm going 30:02 to hazard a guess that we're going to find God's church. 30:07 I believe that with my whole heart, I believe what I've told 30:09 you with my whole heart. [text on screen] 30:14 And you're thinking "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute there, " 30:16 "the spirit of prophecy? " Absolutely. Let me just put 30:19 all of the cards right out on the table because you know 30:22 me, I'm transparent, there's no hidden agenda with me, 30:25 I'll tell you everything right up front, and I'm going 30:28 to tell you this right up front: I believe that God has raised up 30:31 someone in the last days who He has given 30:34 the gift of prophecy, I want you to know I believe that. 30:37 Now, that should make you nervous, I'm going to be 30:39 totally honest, that should make you nervous because Jesus warned 30:42 in Matthew 24 about false prophets, and false Christs 30:45 that would arise and deceive many. So if somebody came 30:47 to me and said "Hey listen, there's somebody who I" 30:50 "believe has the gift of prophecy", my initial reaction 30:53 is total skepticism. If that's not your initial 30:57 reaction you need to check yourself. Your initial reaction 31:01 should be total skepticism, but you should be open to see. 31:06 Does that make sense? Because when Jesus said 31:08 in Matthew 24 "Beware of false prophets", I want you to 31:11 notice what He didn't say, He didn't say "Beware of" 31:14 "all prophets". If Jesus knew that there was never going to be 31:17 any true prophets down to the end of time, what He would 31:20 have said is "Beware of anybody who claims to be a prophet", 31:24 but the very fact that He said "Beware of false prophets" 31:27 demonstrates that He knew that there would be some true, 31:30 but you'd have to sort through all of the rubbish in order 31:32 to find what's true. As John says "Prove all" 31:36 "things and hold fast that which is good. " 31:40 Now I'm going to share something with you tonight that is 31:43 absolutely, totally awesome. [text on screen] 31:49 There are 3 lists: 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12 31:53 and Ephesians 4, that's it, those are all the lists of 31:55 spiritual gifts the apostle Paul talks about, and you 31:58 know some of the gifts: the gift of tongues, the gift 32:00 of discernment, the gift of healing, the gift of miracles, 32:03 the gift of prophecy, etc, but there is only 1 gift that 32:06 occurs in all 3 lists, and that's the gift of prophecy. 32:09 Unquestionably the most preeminent, and we're going to 32:12 actually talk more about this, and especially the issue 32:14 of tongues in a future night. So look at this: [text on screen] 32:22 That's a Biblical precedent that God has established, 32:25 and I want to try and show that to you. 32:27 Amos 3:7, Amos speaking on behalf of God says: 32:31 [text on screen] 32:38 In other words, God's not trying to do things over in 32:40 a corner to hope you don't find out, God sends His 32:42 prophets so that you can find out, and they're available 32:45 all through the Old and the New Testament if we're willing 32:48 to hear the voice of God. Powerful, man, I wish 32:51 I had time, I've just go to keep going. 32:54 Okay, here we go. [text on screen] 33:01 Incidentally, who was the oldest man in the Bible 33:04 that ever lived? No, the oldest man that ever 33:07 lived was Enoch, the oldest man that ever died was Methuselah. 33:12 Gotcha. The name "Methuselah" means "when he dies, it will" 33:19 "come". That's what the name means: "when he dies, it will". 33:25 "come". Methuselah lived 969 years, have you ever wondered 33:30 why did he live so long? Because his name and he 33:35 himself was basically a prophecy of the coming flood: 33:39 "when he dies, it will come", and God is holding back 33:44 the winds of strife, God is holding back the winds 33:46 of adversity that are going to come, God knows the flood is 33:49 coming, He raised up Noah and He said "I'm not going to" 33:52 "always put with this stiff necked, obstinate people", 33:54 so He lets this man, Methuselah, live...Adam lived 930, 34:00 and he bypasses Adam. He was getting to be an old 34:02 man, and a man named Jerod lived to be 962, and he lives right 34:06 past that, he goes all the way to 969, and in the year he died 34:12 the flood came. God raised up Noah to foretell 34:17 that when Methuselah died it would come. 34:20 So there was that prophecy "When he dies, it will come", 34:23 God raises up Noah and says "God's not kidding, " 34:26 "it's going to come". So before a major event God 34:29 raised up Noah. And then there was another 34:32 time prophecy, God gave it to Abraham, He basically said 34:35 "Your children, your descendants are going to be in Egypt" 34:38 "for 400 years. " And that time prophecy went, 34:43 went, went, and just as that time prophecy was about 34:46 ready to come to a close God raised up a prophet because 34:50 the time prophecy was being fulfilled. Who did He raise up? 34:53 [Audience] Moses. He raised up Moses, 34:56 that's exactly right, He raised up Moses before the Exodus 34:58 of God's people. So there was the time prophecy, 35:01 it goes forward, God raises up a prophet, why? 35:04 To foretell the end of the time prophecy, and to get 35:06 people ready for a major event. A man by the name of Jeremiah, 35:09 he prophesied that Israel would be in Babylonian captivity 35:12 for how many years? 70 years, and then God raised 35:15 up another prophet to foretell the coming of the end of 35:17 the 70 years. Who was that? Daniel, 35:20 God raised up Daniel to foretell the end of the 70 years. 35:24 Then Daniel foretold that the 70 week prophecy, 35:29 490 years, and that prophecy extended all the way down 35:33 until the coming of the Messiah. Remember that? 35:38 "70 weeks are determined upon your people and upon your" 35:41 "holy city to finish the transgression" all the way 35:43 through, and then he says: "Know therefore and understand" 35:46 "that from the going forth of the command to restore" 35:49 "and rebuild Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be" 35:52 "69 weeks". So here's this prophecy that 35:54 the Messiah's going to come, and who did God raise up 35:57 to foretell the finishing of that prophecy? 35:59 Of course, John the Baptist, absolutely. 36:02 God raise up John the Baptist to announce the coming 36:05 of Christ. So in every instance you have here, Methuselah, 36:07 God raises up Noah and says the prophecy is coming 36:10 to an end. Abraham, God raises up Moses to say the time 36:13 prophecy's coming to an end. Jeremiah, God raises up Daniel 36:15 to say the time prophecy is coming to an end. 36:19 Daniel has a prophecy, God raises up John the Baptist 36:22 to say that time prophecy is coming to an end. 36:24 You see what God is doing? God here has a timeline 36:27 and He's not saying "Well, I'm going to keep it from you, " 36:30 "nanny-nanny-boo-boo, try and figure it out". 36:32 What God's saying is "It's right here, it's for you, " 36:35 "I'm showing you through My prophets, this is my plan" 36:38 "of action for the earth. " Powerful. [text on screen] 36:51 I'm going to give you several reasons to believe that. 36:54 In other words if we discover today that God does, in fact, 36:57 have someone on earth who is a prophet, we shouldn't say 37:00 "Oh, I can't believe it...I just can't believe it! " 37:03 Beloved, why not? Why couldn't you believe it? 37:07 Number 1: we've already seen that in Revelation 12:17 that 37:10 the last day people would keep the commandments of God 37:13 and have the testimony of Jesus, but the testimony of Jesus 37:16 is the spirit of prophecy, so we should be expecting it. 37:21 In fact, look in Joel 2, that's the Old Testament, see if you 37:24 can find it, minor prophets towards the end of the Old 37:27 Testament, you might get there before me. 37:30 Joel 2, see if you can find it, just after Hosea. 37:39 Here we go, in verse Joel 2:28. Is everyone there? 37:46 Joel 2:28, it says: "And it shall come to pass afterwards" 37:50 "that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh. ", now look 37:54 at this, "Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, " 37:58 "your old men shall dream dreams, your young men" 38:00 "shall see visions, also upon My men servants and upon" 38:03 "My maid servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. " 38:06 You say "Well which are 'those days'? " Look at verse 30: 38:09 "And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, " 38:12 "blood and fire, and pillars of smoke, the sun shall be turned" 38:15 "into darkness, the moon into blood before the coming" 38:17 "of the great and awesome day of the Lord. " 38:20 What is the coming of the great and awesome day 38:23 of the Lord? [Audience] Second coming. 38:25 Yeah, that's the second coming of Jesus. In fact, if you look 38:28 at the language there: "blood and fire, and pillars of smoke", 38:30 that's judgment language, this is a direct reference 38:33 to the second coming of Jesus, and Joel says that He's going 38:35 to raise up His sons, and His daughters, and men servants, 38:38 and maid servants, who will dream dreams and prophesy just 38:40 before the coming of the Lord. Tonight if we discover that 38:43 God has raised up a prophet, you shouldn't say "What?!" 38:46 "I can't believe it. " We should say "I expect it". 38:49 I'm going to give you a third reason to believe that... 38:52 The Devil is no dummy. See, the moment that you talk 38:57 about a prophet, everybody gets immediately skeptical 39:01 You know why? Because of false prophets. 39:06 When somebody told me "Yeah, there's somebody on earth" 39:09 "that I think is a prophet", the first thing I thought of 39:11 was "Joseph Smith". Right? I'm immediately skeptical 39:15 because I know that there have been false prophets that have 39:17 come on the scene. Is this making sense, everyone? 39:20 See, now think about this for just a minute, have you 39:23 ever seen a counterfeit $97 bill? [Audience laughs] 39:28 Can you imagine that? Do you know why you've never 39:30 seen a counterfeit $97 bill? There's no real one. 39:35 So if the Devil is going to start raising up false 39:37 prophets, and Joseph Smith is not to the only one. 39:40 And I have no problem saying, by the way, that the man was 39:43 a false prophet. No question. If the Devil's going to start 39:45 raising up false prophets, why is he doing that? 39:48 Because he wants to muddy the waters because he knows that God 39:50 is going to raise up a true prophet, and that way 39:53 when you come to the church and you say "Hey listen, " 39:55 "I want to tell you something, there's this person I think" 39:58 "has the gift of prophecy", and you say "Yeah right! " 40:01 "Been there, done that. " But beloved, if we come to any 40:04 prophet, here's prophet A, prophet B, prophet C, prophet D, 40:07 prophet E, we can't just say they're all false prophets 40:10 because what if one is the real deal? 40:13 Does that make sense? I mean, we don't want to turn 40:16 our back on an Ezekiel, we don't want to turn our back on 40:18 a Jeremiah, we don't want to turn our back on the John 40:20 the Baptist, I mean, Israel did that, we don't want to commit 40:24 the...so how are we going to know? 40:26 How would we know? Well, let me tell you how you 40:28 wouldn't know: you wouldn't ask for a burning in the bosom. 40:33 That's what one of the Mormon missionaries said to me, 40:35 they said: "Oh, you know Joseph Smith is a true prophet, " 40:38 "and if you pray and ask God to give you a burning in" 40:41 "the bosom, you'll know too. " Well, let me tell you something, 40:43 I'm not going to trust my gastrointestinal system 40:46 to determine whether or not a prophet is a true one of God. 40:48 [Audience laughs] And I'm not saying that to make 40:51 fun, that doesn't make sense to me. I mean, I might pray 40:54 and my heart is so deceitful and desperately wicked that 40:57 I might really want my bosom to burn, so "I think I felt" 41:01 "something", and I would question, or maybe I ate 41:03 too many Doritos, or too much ice cream, and before I know it 41:06 I've got a burning in the bosom and I'm duty bound to believe 41:09 that this guy's a prophet even though so much of what he said 41:11 contradicts the Bible. So how would I know? 41:16 Come on, tell me, how would you know? 41:19 Here's prophet A, B, C, D, E and F, are they all false prophets? 41:25 I'd go to the Bible, wouldn't I? 41:30 And if I'm going down, and he says this, and I say 41:35 "Whammy, out! " Then go down, listen to this guy: "Ahm, ahm, " 41:38 "so far so good"...'Whammy, you're out. " 41:41 Go down, listen to this guy "Yeah...yeah...", 41:44 "Whammy, you're out". I mean, it would be very 41:46 easy; "To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not" 41:49 "according to this Word it is because there is no light" 41:51 "in them. " [Audience] Amen. 41:54 Isaiah 8:20, to the law, and to the testimony, if they 41:56 don't speak according to this they're out. 41:59 Now, think about that for just a minute, you've never seen 42:02 a counterfeit $97 bill. Why? Because there's no real 42:04 $97 bill. I believe in my heart of heart of hearts that 42:09 the Devil has started raising up all of these false prophets 42:12 to muddy the waters so that if someone did come on the scene 42:15 the vast majority of Christians would be so nervous about 42:17 the whole concept they say "No, no, not interested", 42:20 but beloved if we did that we would be giving the Devil 42:23 the victory, what if God has raised up someone to give us 42:26 a special message a the end of time? 42:28 Is what I'm saying making sense? Does it sound rational? 42:33 [Audience] Yes. Does it sound reasonable? 42:35 [Audience] Yeah. Yeah, I hope so. 42:37 I hope it does because it is, it 100%. [text on screen] 42:45 False prophets will be raised up in the last days, is that true? 42:49 Yes or no? Well, how do you know a false prophet? 42:52 Right there, from the Word. It makes good sense. 42:55 Edgar Cayce, the so called "Sleeping Prophet", 42:58 "The life, prophecies, and readings of America's most" 43:00 "famous mystic", false prophet. How do I know he's a false 43:03 prophet? He doesn't exult Jesus and he doesn't keep 43:06 the law. He has nothing to do with 43:08 the Word, he's a false prophet. I don't care if he gets 97% 43:11 of his predictions right, all that tells me is that the Devil 43:14 knows the future pretty well, or at least he's a good guesser. 43:17 This woman here, "The Phenomenal Jeane Dixon", she was accurate 43:19 30-60% of the time, 1 million copies sold, 43:22 "A gift of Prophecy". Listen, 30-60% isn't going 43:26 to cut it because God knows the future 100% of the time. 43:30 [Audience] Amen. Makes sense everyone? 43:33 Okay, I hope we're all on the same page here. 43:35 [text on screen] 43:39 We are flooded with them. [text on screen] 43:43 We'd go to the Word. Jeremiah 28:9: [text on screen] 43:53 So, if God raises up a prophet and what they say comes to pass 43:56 that would indicate that this could, in fact be a true 43:58 prophet of God. Deuteronomy 13:1,2: 44:01 [text on screen] 44:24 Did you follow that? In other words, if somebody 44:27 raises up and they say "This certain event is going" 44:29 "to happen", and it happens, but then they say "You don't" 44:33 "have to honor the Lord Jesus", true prophet, false prophet? 44:37 [Audience] False. False prophet because even 44:40 though the prediction may have come right if they don't speak 44:43 according to the Word they're out. So we're beginning to see 44:45 tests that can help. God is a rational, logical, 44:50 reasonable God, He doesn't ask you to believe without giving 44:53 you sufficient evidence upon which to base your belief, 44:56 that's why it says in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is" 44:58 "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things" 45:01 "not seen. " Some people think 45:03 that Christianity is all about a blind leap into the darkness, 45:07 I hope it's not that. Beloved, when I come to 45:09 the church I don't want to have to check my brain at the door. 45:12 When I became a Christian I didn't say "Well...here we go", 45:16 [Audience laughs] I didn't just jump and hope 45:23 for the best, I walked through and I said "Okay, that makes" 45:26 "sense", and all the while the Spirit of God is leading, 45:29 His Word is leading, and God is a logical God. 45:32 Sometimes He does things that we don't understand, but He doesn't 45:34 do things that are just off the charts illogical. 45:37 So "Yeah, uhum, got it...uhum, got it... ", and that's one 45:41 of the things that appeals to me about the Bible is that 45:43 the Bible is an intelligent book written for intelligent people. 45:47 People have this misconception idea that Christians are crazy 45:50 people and they don't think, nothing could be further from 45:52 the truth. The God of the Bible invented your mind, the God 45:55 of the Bible invented logic, the God of the Bible invented 45:58 intelligence, He's given you a mind, He expects you to use it, 46:01 and He expects you to reason through in a very logical, 46:05 linear fashion. That doesn't mean that everything 46:07 is strictly logical, of course not, but it's consistent 46:10 with logic, and that's the point. 46:14 Numbers 12:6: [text on screen] 46:23 That's exactly right, nothing wrong with that. 46:26 So here are Biblical tests of a true prophet: [text on screen] 46:38 Listen, I don't want to have anything to do with any 46:40 Nostradamus figure, or anybody else who just gets things 46:43 right occasionally, but doesn't lift up Jesus. 46:45 If they don't lift up Jesus, you're, out, you get 46:48 the whammy if you don't lift up Jesus. 46:51 Commandment keeping would have to be commandment keeping, 46:54 all of God's prophets kept the commandments. 46:57 Listen, if somebody tells you not to keep the commandments 47:00 of God, if somebody tells you not to surrender to the Lord 47:02 Jesus as your personal Saviour, if somebody tells you that 47:05 you don't need to study your Bible, I don't care what they 47:08 say, they're a false prophet. So a true prophet would 47:10 exalt Jesus, a true prophet would keep God's commandments, 47:13 there are various physical tests that we didn't go over here, 47:16 a true prophet would show spiritual fruit. 47:18 [text on screen] 47:22 Tonight, I want to be crystal clear about what I am saying 47:25 and what I'm not saying. Here's what I'm saying: 47:28 I believe God has a church on earth, I believe that with 47:32 all of my heart, and I've already said it a million, 47:34 zillion, trillion times that that does not mean that 47:37 those are the best people or the only people that are 47:39 going to heaven. I mean, I can't say it more strongly than I 47:42 have, if somebody goes out and misunderstands that point 47:45 it's because they want to misunderstand that point. 47:48 Here's the second thing I want to say: I do believe 47:51 that amidst all of the trash that the Devil has raised up, 47:54 amidst all of the confusion that the Devil has raised up, 47:57 amidst all of THAT that Satan has raised up, I believe that 48:00 there is a gem in the mud, I believe that. 48:03 That book that you have in your hand right there is actually 48:05 the second most translated book in the world. 48:08 No joke. In fact, you know what the first 48:10 most translated book in the world is? 48:13 It's that book right there. This book that you hold 48:16 in your hand right here is actually a different title 48:18 for a book called "Steps to Christ", the second most 48:21 translated book in the world, and it was written by 48:23 Ellen White. Here's all I'm going to say to you: 48:26 read the book and ask 1 question, just ask 1 question: 48:29 does it lead me closer to Jesus? If the answer's "Yes", 48:32 then love it, if the answer's "No", then discard it 48:35 and don't worry about it because you've still got the Bible. 48:37 Is that reasonable? Yes or no? I think that's very, very, 48:40 very reasonably. Someone says: "Well, wait a minute, " 48:43 "can a woman have this gift? " Does God discriminate? 48:47 No, look at this, Acts 21:8,9: [text on screen] 49:01 Can a woman prophesy? Yeah, no problem, God's not 49:04 against that, He doesn't mind that. 49:06 A woman by the name of Ellen White, she was 17 years old 49:09 and God raised her up and she became a very powerful writer, 49:12 a very powerful health educator, an education educator, 49:16 and others, that is to say she wrote on pedagogical theory, 49:19 and other things. "Pedagogical", I'm talking crazy language, 49:23 she wrote about how to get a good education, hows that? 49:26 [Audience laughs] The ministry of Ellen G. White: 49:29 [text on screen] 49:35 In fact, this is actually quite an amazing fact, 49:40 she is the most authored female, non-fiction author in the world. 49:51 In the world ever, in the history. 49:54 Look at this, this is what Paul Harvey said, he's a huge fan 49:57 of Ellen White's, huge fan. In fact, a good friend of mine 50:00 is a good friend of Paul Harvey's, and he spends a lot 50:02 of time with Paul, anyway, I could tell you some stories, 50:05 but I'm not going to do that because this is being recorded. 50:08 Paul Harvey said on live radio, September 25, 1997: 50:11 [text on screen] By the way, they have taken 50:16 survey after survey after survey and they have shown that Paul 50:19 Harvey is the single most trusted person in the American 50:22 media, did you know that? Consistently the single most 50:26 trusted person in the American media, why? 50:29 Because he's a straight shooter. Isn't that true? 50:31 He just tells you like it is. "This is the way it is... " 50:34 He said: [text on screen] 51:17 That's what Paul Harvey said beloved, and he's not a member 51:19 of my church, he's just somebody who's read the writings 51:22 and said "Yeah, it makes sense what she says". 51:25 This is from one of the official librarians at The Library of 51:29 Congress, and as you know, every single book that's 51:32 published in the US has to go to The Library of Congress. 51:35 This is what he said, he was asked "What's the best book" 51:36 "that's ever been written, apart from the Bible, on the life" 51:39 "of Christ? " Best book ever, and this is what the said: 51:42 [text on screen] 51:52 This was him speaking on her book entitled "The Desire" 51:55 "of Ages". You can read that book, it's about 800 pages, 51:58 and I'll tell you think, you read that book and there is no 52:02 question that you will come away with a deeper love 52:04 relationship with your Lord, I guarantee it. 52:07 And if you find one thing in there that doesn't square with 52:09 the Bible then you tell me about it and throw it out, because 52:12 I want to know so I can throw it out. I've read the book 52:14 through 3 or 4 times, it just absolutely, totally magnifies 52:17 the Word and magnifies the Bible. Incredible. 52:20 Listen, am I telling you to take my word for it? 52:23 Am I doing that? [Audience] No. 52:25 Not at all, I'm saying "test it", that's what the Bible says: 52:28 "Test all things and see what's true". Look at this one: 52:31 this is what she says in that book that I read, 52:33 this is the book that I read, this is page 204: 52:37 [text on screen] 52:50 See beloved, for me it's all about the fruit. 52:52 Jesus said "By their fruits you shall know them". 52:55 I read that book, I read 200 pages of that book and 52:58 the very next morning I went and bought a Bible. 53:01 In other words, it wasn't like "Well, the Bible is not" 53:04 "properly translated", how many of you have heard that garbage 53:07 before? People come knock on your door and you say 53:09 "Well, wait a minute, well the Bible says this, and the Bible" 53:12 "says this, and the Bible says that", and they say 53:14 "Well, as far as the Bible is properly translated, " 53:17 "you need another book", and they give you this other book. 53:19 No beloved, the moment that you tell that the Bible is not 53:22 properly translated, that moment that you tell me that this has 53:25 to be corrected by another book, game over, I'm not interested. 53:29 Totally disinterested immediately, you're not going 53:32 to find any of that garbage. Look at this: "The Bible and" 53:35 "the Bible only is the rule of faith and study", continue on 53:38 here very quickly. Ellen White actually said in her book 53:40 "The Ministry of Healing", that's a fascinating book 53:43 on the miracles of Jesus, the healing ministry of Jesus, 53:46 she said: [text on screen] 53:51 Now let me tell you something, she said that at about 53:53 the turn of the century. You see that word "malignant"? 53:58 Do you know how long it took the American Medical Association 54:01 doctors to figure out that smoking was cancerous? 54:04 About 60 years later they figured it out. 54:08 How did she know? I believe she knew because God 54:11 revealed it to her. In fact, if you read her counsels 54:14 on health, very simple, simple practical counsels on health 54:17 she says things like you should eat a [meal]? that's high 54:20 in fibers, high in fresh fruits and vegetables, high in nuts 54:23 and grains and legumes, high in all of those kinds of things, 54:26 and you should watch your diet and be sure you're 54:29 not consuming too much meat. Does that sound familiar at all? 54:32 Yes or no? [Audience] Yes. 54:35 Now, you're sitting and thinking "Of course, we've been hearing" 54:37 "that for the last 10 years", you're exactly right, 54:40 you've been hearing it for maybe the last 10 or 20 years, 54:42 but you know what? She was saying it in 54:44 the mid 1800s. Totally revolutionary, totally cutting 54:47 edge, incredible stuff. Absolutely incredible. 54:50 This is what she said in her book "Gospel Workers", 54:52 Look at this: [text on screen] 54:54 I've done my very best in these seminars to lift up Jesus, 54:56 I don't know if I failed or succeeded, but that's what 54:59 I've been trying to do. I'm not trying to lift up myself, 55:01 I'm trying to lift up the Lord Jesus. You have to be 55:04 the judge of whether or not I've succeeded, and if I have 55:06 succeeded, I haven't succeeded, the Lord has succeeded. 55:08 [text on screen] 55:18 "By their fruits you shall know them", and I can tell you this: 55:20 this book that you hold in your hands right here, this little 55:23 book entitled "Steps to Christ", this book has led hundreds 55:26 of thousands of people to faith in Jesus, hundreds of thousands 55:30 of people to give their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, 55:32 I should know, I was one of them. This book has played 55:35 a huge role in my life in giving me a closer, clearer, 55:38 more Biblical conception of Jesus. And let me tell you this: 55:41 the Devil is not going to raise up a false prophet that's going 55:44 to lead millions, or hundreds of thousands of people to come 55:47 to Jesus. Does that makes sense? That's totally counterproductive 55:50 to his cause. If the Devil raises up a false prophet 55:53 that false prophet will say things like 55:55 "Well, the Bible...only as far as it's properly translated", 55:58 and all of these doctrines that are crazy and off the wall. 56:02 Nope, nope, nope, nope. Revelation 12, does God have 56:04 a church on earth? I believe He does. 56:07 I want you to know that I believe in my heart of hearts 56:10 that this church on earth is not perfect, but it is an 56:12 organization that God is working through in a marvelous, 56:15 wonderful, end time way. I'm putting all the cards out 56:18 on the table, I believe this with my heart of hearts, 56:21 but I want to be clear about several things here, 56:24 number 1: this is a conclusion that I have come to through 56:26 my study of the Word, and don't take my word for it, 56:30 you have to come to this same conclusion through your 56:32 study of the Word. Tonight I'm a Seventh Day Adventist Christian 56:35 for 1 reason because I keep the 7th day Sabbath 56:40 and I believe in the advent of Jesus, that's what it means, 56:42 "Seventh Day Adventist". I believe that Jesus is coming 56:45 soon, I believe the Sabbath is important, I believe that with 56:48 my whole heart, and that's why I'm a Seventh Day Adventist 56:50 Christian. Somebody turns and says "Oh, he's a member" 56:53 "of a cult, let him say what they want to say". 56:56 Amen? Who cares what people say? 56:58 Who cares what people say about you? You be truthful 57:01 to the Lord. Now, I'm going to tell you something in closing: 57:04 you can go on the Internet, you can look up "Seventh Day" 57:07 "Adventist" and you're going to find people say we're crazy, 57:09 we're off the wall, we're this, we're that. Hey listen, 57:12 it's out there, you can find it, but let me tell you something 57:14 child molesters, you can go on the Internet and find people 57:17 that think Jesus was gay, you can go on the Internet and find 57:20 all kinds of terrible, ridiculous trash. 57:22 The Internet is not the test of truth. 57:26 You can find any wacko can get a website and say whatever 57:29 he wants to say. And sometimes people put 57:34 the worst configuration on things, think of it this way, 57:38 I get nervous even talking to the media sometimes because 57:41 the media can put things in such a way that it automatically 57:44 makes the person guilty. For example: if somebody came 57:47 up to me and said "Pastor Asscherick, is it true or not" 57:50 "true that you had an affair on your wife, and that you're" 57:52 "embezzling money from the church? " 57:55 I'd say "No, that's not true". Headlines reads 57:57 "Pastor Asscherick Denies Adulterous Affair" 58:00 "And Laundering of Money". [Audience laughs] 58:02 Are you following what I'm saying? 58:05 So beloved, it's all in the way that you communicate it. 58:07 What I'm going to tell you, I think this is so reasonable, 58:10 so totally reasonable, number 1: stick with the Bible. 58:14 Night by night in these sermons you've heard us preach what? 58:17 [Audience] The Bible. The Bible, period. 58:19 The Word of God, the Word of God, the Word of God. 58:23 But people have said to me "Well Pastor, how have you" 58:25 "learned? I mean, in 9 short years how do you know" 58:28 "so much of what you know? " I'll tell you, it's through 58:30 the power of the Holy Spirit, it's through the Bible, 58:33 and I believe in my heart of hearts it's through reading 58:36 these writings that God has raised up this woman to give us 58:39 that actually illumine the Word in a way that I have never 58:42 seen before. When I picked up this book 58:45 and I read this book I was driven immediately to the Bible, 58:50 and I was driven immediately to Jesus, and I was driven 58:53 immediately to surrender everything to the Lord 58:55 Jesus Christ. "By their fruits ye shall know them. " 58:59 If you've gotten anything out of these meetings 59:02 this is what I want you to get: God's Word if true; 59:06 God's Word is trustworthy; God's Word is reliable; 59:11 Jesus is the only Saviour; you're not saved by your works, 59:14 you're saved by Jesus; that there's going to be a change 59:17 in the Sabbath, that that change has happened; that God is 59:20 raising up a people; that Babylon is fallen. I mean, 59:22 the whole list goes down, and basically the bottom line is 59:26 check it out for yourself in the Word of God. |
Revised 2014-12-17