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Series Code: ETM
Program Code: ETM220005S
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00:20 Welcome back. Thank you for joining us for this series 00:23 titled Eternal Truths Matter. We are looking at some of the 00:27 fundamental principles of the Bible, fundamental teachings 00:31 that will prepare us to stand firm when all of the world 00:36 collapses and accepts the deceptions of Satan. Except 00:41 those whose minds are anchored in the word of God and fortified 00:46 with his truth. Now let's suppose that Satan was having a 00:53 council meeting with his evil angels in the far reaches of the 00:57 universe some dark spot. Now suppose Satan went to 01:01 these angels and 01:02 he said I have a master plan that will take the world by 01:07 storm. It's the master plan of deception. The evil angels say 01:11 what is it? He said first we will bring calamity, we'll bring 01:15 famine, fire, strife. conflict, war on the world. That will stir 01:21 everybody up. Then I'll begin to work miracles through false 01:25 apostate religions. Then I will initiate a common day of worship 01:31 But what they don't realize is they will be worshipping me. 01:36 You say impossible. But yet that's what scripture, 01:39 particularly the book of Revelation teaches and that's 01:42 what we're going to study today. 01:43 Let's open our hearts and open our minds and the word of God 01:46 because eternal truths matter. Let us pray. 01:50 Father in heaven, as we launch into this important topic today, 01:54 it's a very serious topic. I pray that you'd open our hearts 01:58 and open our minds. Help us to see and discern the deceptions 02:01 of Satan so we can be prepared for the overwhelming crisis 02:05 that's coming upon this world. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. 02:10 Now Satan has an overall strategy to take this world 02:16 captive. In the conflict between good and evil, in the conflict 02:20 between Christ and Satan, this conflict revolves around the 02:26 subject of worship. and so the question that Satan has to ask 02:30 and that we have to ask too is How can the world ever be 02:37 brought together to worship at the shrine of the evil one 02:43 rather than to worship Jesus Christ? Now we've studied in 02:48 this series that Christ has left an eternal sign of his creative 02:50 authority and namely that's the Bible Sabbath. So if you 02:55 undermine creation you can attack the Sabbath. And if you 02:59 attack the Sabbath you attack the very basis for worshipping 03:03 God. We found also that in Revelation chapter 14, and 03:07 let's go back there for today. In Revelation chapter 14 God has 03:12 an eternal message for all humanity. And that message is a 03:16 call, so we'll start with Revelation 14. We'll look at 03:20 verse 6 and 7: And I saw another angel fly in the middle of 03:25 heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that 03:28 dwell on the earth, to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, 03:32 and people. Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory 03:36 to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship 03:39 him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and fountains of 03:42 waters. Now we pause there as we go over those verses, phrase by 03:48 phrase. Notice in verse 6 he sees another angel flying in the 03:52 middle of heaven. The angel doesn't float, he flies. So here 03:57 is a message that goes quickly, rapidly, swiftly to the ends of 04:01 the earth. It says he has the everlasting gospel. What's that? 04:04 It's the incredible good news that through Jesus Christ our 04:07 sins can be forgiven. That through Jesus, there is no 04:10 condemnation. That through Jesus we can have power to live a new 04:14 life and through Jesus we can resist the temptations of Satan. 04:19 So this angel brings the gospel. Who does it go to? It leaps 04:25 across geographical boundaries. It spans language groups. It 04:28 penetrates the deepest recesses of every continent. It goes to 04:32 every nation, kindred, tongue and people. But there's a 04:36 special message in the context of the gospel. It says, saying 04:40 with a loud voice. What kind of voice? A loud voice. Why a loud 04:44 voice? So people hear. Fear God. That means respect God. It's an 04:49 attitude of obedience and respect to God. Give glory to 04:53 him. See fear God has to do with our mind, what we think. Giving 04:56 glory to God has to do with how we live. In the light of what? 05:01 The judgment hour. So we are living in the judgment hour. 05:04 Before Christ comes there'll be a judgment to determine who 05:07 receives what reward when he comes. And it says worship him 05:11 that made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of water. 05:13 Who's that? It's the creator. So Revelation chapter 14 verse 05:18 7. At the very heart of that verse is the essence of the 05:23 controversy between good and evil. The controversy between 05:26 good and evil is over worship. And this verse calls us to 05:32 worship the creator and we've already studied that the sign of 05:35 God's creative authority that he gave in Genesis when he set the 05:39 Sabbath aside is that he blessed it, he sanctified it, and he 05:44 rested upon it. Now right after verse 6 you have the consequence 05:49 of not accepting this message found in verse 8. This is 05:55 Revelation 14 verse 8. And there followed another angel...so 06:00 here's a second angel's message...saying, Babylon is 06:01 fallen, is fallen, that great city because she made all 06:05 nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. So in 06:11 the Bible wine is a symbol of false doctrine. So Babylon has 06:18 fallen. Babylon represents confusion. At the Tower of Babel 06:23 Babylon was the place where the languages were confused and so 06:28 Babylon represents confusion, false religion, defiance to God. 06:31 At the tower of Babel, they were going to build a tower that went 06:36 to heaven in defiance of God's specific instruction that he'd 06:40 never destroy the world with a flood again. And so the city of 06:45 Babylon was built there at the site of the tower of Babel, 06:49 Babylon, B-A-B-Y, why do you call baby a baby, because it has 06:53 confused speech. So here you have confused religion. Here you 06:58 have apostasy, here you have a counterfeit for truth. It says 07:01 that Babylon is fallen, why? Because she made who? She made 07:06 who? All nations do what? Drink of the wine of the wrath of her 07:10 fornication. Wine affects the forebrain, it affects the 07:14 conscience, it affects reason and judgment. You can't think 07:17 clear. I tell you a funny story. I was preaching once outside of 07:21 Chicago in an auditorium. I was preaching that Babylon is fallen 07:24 is fallen. You know I was young in those days and so 07:27 enthusiastic and I'm preaching Babylon is fallen, is fallen and 07:30 she's made all nations drink of the wine. I said you know when 07:33 you drink wine you don't think clearly. When you drink wine it 07:36 affects your brain, when you drink wine you get all confused. 07:39 And a drunk man had walked into the meetings. And this drunk man 07:43 was sitting in the back and he was sleeping and snoring but 07:45 when I'd start talking about wine and it affects your brain 07:47 and the fact that you get all confused, he yells that's enough 07:53 young man, that's enough young man. Good thing we had a few 07:56 ushers that could usher him out the back door and help him get 08:00 a little bit more sane and deal with his inebriation. But that's 08:06 the point. Why does the Bible call false doctrine wine? 08:12 Because false doctrine affects your thinking and you become so 08:16 confused you think error is truth and truth is error. Now in 08:20 the book of Revelation chapter 18 we have God's call out of 08:25 Babylon. And now remember verse 7 was a call to obedience, it 08:29 was a call the fear God, respect him, obey him in light of the 08:33 judgment. Revelation 14:7 was a call to worship the creator. Now 08:37 we go to Revelation 18 verse 4 and here John hears a voice. He 08:44 has seen that Babylon is fallen in verse 2. He has seen in verse 08:49 3 that all nations committed fornication with her. Now verse 08:52 And I heard another voice heaven, saying, Come out of her, 08:55 my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and 09:00 receive not of her plagues. So here scripture goes on to say 09:05 her sins have reached to heaven God's remembered her iniquities. 09:07 Come out of her my people. What does that imply? It implies that 09:11 in the last days of earth's history many of God's people 09:15 are in churches that scripture would call Babylon. They are 09:18 worshipping at the shrine of false gods. They don't recognize 09:22 that. In the last days of earth's history there's a call 09:26 come out of her my people that you partake not of her sins. 09:28 Well then we need to know what sin is. What is sin. 1 John 3 09:32 verse 4 says sin is the transgression of the law. So if 09:36 this is a call to come out of Babylon so we don't partake of 09:39 her sins, it's a call to come out of every law breaking church 09:43 It's an appeal to worship the creator. So Revelation 14 verse 09:48 8 that says Babylon is fallen. Why did Babylon fall? Because 09:51 she is so incredibly confused over the issue of truth that she 09:57 does not comprehend eternal truths. Her religious experience 10:01 has become fallen or apostate. Now are there good people in 10:05 Babylon? Yes. Are there good people that are going to be 10:08 saved who don't currently know all the truth in God's word. 10:14 Certainly. But before Jesus comes the final call will go out 10:18 Babylon is fallen, is fallen. The final world will come out, come 10:21 out of her my people, Christ's people that are in Jesus. 10:27 Christ's people, evangelical Christians who are studying the 10:29 word of God. They will see the truth of God. They'll recognize 10:32 the issues in the great controversy is a lot more than 10:36 simply keeping the law, but it's worshipping the creator. And 10:39 they will see that the Sabbath is a symbol of worshipping God 10:42 as creator and they will hear the call of God. They will leave 10:47 Babylon so they do not partake of her plagues. Now here in 10:52 Revelation chapter 14, when we go back to study it and we notice 10:57 the contrast between Revelation 14 verse 7 and Revelation 14:9. 11:01 Revelation 14:7 talks about true worship. Revelation 14:9 talks 11:07 about false worship. So in verse 7 it tells us to worship the 11:10 creator. What does it tell us in verse 9: And the third angel 11:14 followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships 11:17 the beast and his image, and receives his mark in his forehead 11:20 and in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath 11:22 of God. So in Revelation 14:7 is the call to worship the creator. 11:30 In Revelation 14:9 is the call not to worship the beast. So can 11:37 you see that clearly? There are two worships; worship the 11:40 creator or worship the beast. How do you define the beast? 11:44 Revelation 13 does that. The beast would rise up out of Rome 11:49 and there the beast power rising out of Rome would be a false 11:54 religious power that according to Daniel 7 verse 25 would 11:59 attempt to change the very law of God. If you look back at 12:01 history in the early centuries church and state united. The 12:06 Roman society was falling apart. Roman society was crumbling. 12:11 In an attempt to unite his empire Constantine eventually 12:16 under the auspices of the church leaders passed a decree in 12:22 A.D. 321 that the workshops be closed on what he called the 12:27 venerable day of the sun. He was trying to unite paganism and 12:30 Christianity to save his empire. Now why was the church 12:34 interested in that? Because the church wanted to disassociate 12:38 themselves from Judaism and they assumed that the early 12:43 Christians were simply a Jewish cult worshipping on Sabbath. 12:46 And so you have many factors here. You have this anti-Jewish 12:51 feeling, this antisemitism that took place back then. You 12:54 have Christians who were different than the rest of 12:57 society. You have Constantine's desire to unite the empire. You 13:02 had some Christians who already as early as the second century 13:05 had begun worshipping one day a week, rather one day a year on 13:11 the worship of the sun. It gradually became a weekly 13:15 festival and they equated that with the resurrection of Christ. 13:18 So you have many, many factors You have social factors, 13:22 religious factors, political factors. But here's what you do 13:25 not have. You do not have instruction in the Bible to 13:28 change the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. You do not 13:32 have instructions in scripture that the law of God would be 13:35 changed. Here's what you do not have. You do not have any 13:39 authority from Christ. The Bible says Hebrews 13:8, Jesus is the 13:44 same yesterday today and forever You don't have any authority 13:46 from the apostles. The apostles say in the book of Acts, we 13:50 ought obey God rather than man. We don't have any authority from 13:53 God. God says I am the Lord, Malachi 3, I change not. So here 13:58 in scripture, you have worshipping the creator or worshipping the 14:03 beast. The first day of the week eventually, not now, but 14:08 eventually, when decrees are passed by law, will be a sign of 14:14 worship to an earthly power that has changed that law. So what is 14:19 the devil's strategy here. It is to get men and women to violate 14:24 the law of God. It is to undermine the Sabbath. It is to 14:28 degrade the concept of worshipping the creator so the 14:34 devil masquerading as Christ, working miracles at a time of 14:38 great conflict in the world can have the worship that only comes 14:44 that should only come to Jesus. Revelation 14 verse 12 makes it 14:49 very simple. It says: Here is the patience of the saints...in 14:52 other words patience is endurance...here are they that 14:55 keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. We looked at 15:01 that last time but I want to reemphasize it. In the sequence, 15:05 Revelation 14:7 says worship who? You got it. Worship the 15:08 creator. Revelation 14:9 says Don't worship who? The beast. 15:12 And how do we worship the creator and not worship the 15:16 beast? Revelation 14:12 tells us It says here that they that do 15:21 what? Keep the commandments of God. In the book of Revelation 15:25 you have two women. You have the woman of Revelation chapter 12 15:30 verse 17 that the dragon is angry about. Remember it says 15:36 the dragon is wroth or angry with who? The woman and goes to 15:40 make war with the remnant of her seed that do what? Keep the 15:42 commandments of God. So here's the pure woman accepting the 15:47 gospel of Christ, accepting the truths of God's word. But then 15:51 you have a counterfeit system another woman in Revelation 15:56 chapter 17. So now let's go to Revelation chapter 17, 16:03 Revelation 17 and see how all this fits together. Revelation 16:09 the 17th chapter. We're going to look there at Revelation 17 16:11 verses 1-5. We start with verse one. There came one of the seven 16:15 angels which had the seven vials and talked with me, saying unto 16:19 me, Come hither; I will show you the judgment of the great whore 16:22 that sits on many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have 16:27 committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have 16:30 been made drunk with the wine 16:31 of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit 16:35 in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman 16:37 sit upon a scarlet-colored beast full of names of blasphemy, 16:40 having seven heads and ten horns And the woman was arrayed in 16:43 purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold, precious 16:48 stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of 16:51 abominations and filthiness of her fornication. So let's pause 16:55 there and take a look at these verses phrase by phrase. He says 17:01 come, verse 1, and I'll show you the judgment of the great whore. 17:04 Now in Revelation chapter 12 you have the pure bride of Christ. 17:08 In Revelation chapter 12 you have a woman that's loyal to 17:13 Jesus. She keeps his commandments and is 17:15 faithful to him. Here you have the opposite of that. A great 17:21 whore. She is a harlot woman who's left her true lover Jesus 17:24 but where does she get here strength from? Where does she 17:27 get her authority from? The next verse tells you. Verse 2: With 17:31 whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication. So the 17:35 kings of the earth the political leaders commit fornication with 17:39 this woman and the woman commits fornication with these leaders. 17:42 What is fornication? It's an illicit union. So where the true 17:45 church is clothed with the righteousness of Jesus. She's 17:49 iridescent with the glory of God. Where the true church is 17:54 united to Christ as her true lover and gets her authority and 17:57 power and strength from him. The fallen churches get their 18:02 authority from the kings of the earth and there's a union of 18:05 church and state. Now notice. And the inhabitants of the earth 18:08 verse 2, have been made drunk through the wine of her 18:11 fornication. So the inhabitants of the earth, the peoples of the 18:14 earth accept the false doctrines This woman is arrayed in purple 18:21 and scarlet color and she has a golden cup in her hand full of 18:24 abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. Then it says 18:29 something very fascinating in verse 5. Here it is. And upon 18:33 her forehead was a name written Mystery, Babylon the Great, the 18:36 Mother of Harlots and the abominations of the earth. What 18:39 does it mean Mystery, Babylon the Great? If you solve the 18:43 mystery of Babylon the Great you're able to understand 18:47 Satan's strategy of the end times. Now when he talks about 18:51 Babylon, when John writes about Babylon, the city of Babylon, 18:56 the ancient city of Babylon is long since fallen. For example: 18:59 Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon 605 B.C. Subsequent rulers ruled 19:06 after him. But in 539 B.C., that's before Christ, Cyrus 19:11 attacked Babylon of Persia and overthrew it. So Babylon had 19:16 long fallen, it was in ruins, the Bible says it would never be 19:20 rebuilt again. So when John is talking about Babylon in 19:24 Revelation chapter 17 and Revelation chapter 18 and 19:29 Revelation chapter 14 is not literal Babylon it's what? 19:33 Spiritual Babylon. What does it mean Mystery, Babylon the Great? 19:36 It means if you can understand the teachings of ancient Babylon 19:41 they will be brought over into spiritual Babylon. What were the 19:46 teachings of ancient Babylon. Well number one ancient Babylon 19:50 was a foremost proponent of idolatry. There were multiple 19:57 images that were the objects of worship all through ancient 20:02 Babylon. So Babylon would be a system of the error of image 20:06 worship. Secondly, Babylon had their system of gods and 20:10 goddesses. There was the worship of the dead. The idea that the 20:14 gods and goddesses could bless humanity. The immortality of the 20:19 soul. Thirdly the Babylonian god was Bel Marduk. Babylonians were 20:25 sun worshippers. You see many images of ancient Babylon in the 20:30 archeological discoveries in their reliefs and art of 20:35 worshipping the sun. And Babylon also had no concept of health. 20:38 It was wine and pork and unclean foods. So what is mystery of 20:43 Babylon the great all about? It's that false doctrines would 20:46 slip into the Christian church. It is as these doctrines slip in 20:52 that there would be a large mother church with a leader who 20:57 like Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian leaders who would 21:01 claim that his word was law. 21:06 There would be idols that would come in through the papal system 21:11 The idea of worship of saints, the immortality of the soul and 21:16 Sunday worship so that the basic concepts of ancient Babylon 21:23 would slip into the Christian church. Now this tone is being 21:27 set by the devil to conflict, strife, war, famine, natural 21:31 disasters. And then through the working of spiritualism to lead 21:38 to the mark of the beast which is the undermining of creation 21:43 doing away with the Sabbath with another day. You say, Pastor Mark 21:48 is that clear in the Bible? It is. Take your Bible and turn to 21:52 Revelation chapter 18, Revelation chapter 18 and I 21:59 want to take a look at verse, in Revelation 18, verse 23. 22:03 Revelation 18 verse 23: How is it that the world's going to be 22:08 deceived so much? Revelation The light of a candle shall 22:11 shine no more at all in thee; That's the light of God's word. 22:14 and the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of Christ and the 22:16 voice of the bride, his church, shall no longer be heard in thee 22:20 for thy merchants were great men of the earth; for by sorceries 22:25 were all nations deceived. So what does the devil do by what? 22:30 Sorceries. So through spiritualism the devil will try 22:35 to deceive the whole world. And through spiritualism and the 22:40 working of evil spirits the devil will bring this world into 22:45 his hand and into captivity. There will be a union of church 22:50 and state. There will be deception through false 22:56 doctrines, the wine of Babylon. Spiritualism will lead to the 23:01 final conflict over this issue of the mark of the beast. That's 23:07 why God is appealing to men and women today to know his word. 23:11 That's why God is appealing to men and women today to be 23:16 faithful to scripture. Let's go back. Back to that passage that 23:20 we read earlier in Revelation 18 and listen to the call of God to 23:25 our hearts. Jesus longs for us not to be deceived. Eternal 23:34 truths matter. Revelation 18 verse 1: After these things I 23:40 saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power... 23:44 Having what? Great Power! So God has more power than Satan. God's 23:50 not going to allow Satan to win this final battle. Every honest 23:57 hearted person will hear the truth of God's word. Every 23:58 genuine person who wants to follow Christ will hear God's 24:04 word speaking to their hearts. After these things I saw another 24:06 angel come down from heaven, having great power; the earth 24:10 was lightened with his glory. And he cried...what's the word? 24:14 Mightily with a strong voice saying Babylon the great is 24:17 fallen, is fallen...Come out of her my people...She's become the 24:21 habitation of devils...see here is spiritualism...the hold of 24:25 every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 24:27 The nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath...have 24:30 accepted the false doctrines... the kings of the earth commit 24:33 fornication with her...they unite with her...the merchants 24:37 of the earth...the financial power will pass a decree that... 24:40 no man can buy or sell. Revelation 13. But God says... 24:43 Come out of her, my people, you need not be partakers of her 24:46 sins. This is the appeal of God to your heart. This is the 24:51 appeal of God to my heart that we step out from any Babylonian 24:57 system. Spiritualism. Immortality of the soul. 25:03 What if angels say come to a great stadium. Miracles are 25:14 being worked. The sick are being healed. Don't worry about these 25:18 Biblical truths. They won't put it that bluntly. But what they 25:21 will say is come and watch these miracles being worked. What if 25:28 Satan could masquerade as Christ He can never pull off a second 25:33 coming like Jesus will because only Christ can come in the 25:36 clouds of heaven. Only Christ can come with the earth 25:38 illuminated with his 25:40 glory. Only Christ can come and raise the dead. Only Christ can 25:44 come and transform our bodies to immortality. But what if, 25:49 what if, what if Satan palmed off a second coming. Not 25:55 spectacular in heaven but what if he appeared in Los Angeles? 25:57 What if he appeared in Paris? What if he appeared in Tokyo? 26:00 What if he appeared in the great cities of Africa Inter or South 26:04 America and he pretended to be the great miracle worker? 26:07 Doesn't Revelation say that the Devil is come down to you 26:10 because in Revelation 12 because he knows he has a short time? 26:15 But yet our minds are anchored in the eternal truths of God's 26:22 word. We recognize the great controversy that began in heaven 26:26 and will never end until Christ comes again. That this great 26:35 controversy is over worship. We recognize the Sabbath is God's 26:40 eternal sign of worship in the last days. And to counteract 26:45 that the devil is going to use all kinds of miracles, signs, 26:52 lying wonders. And through these twin errors, the immortality of 26:59 the soul and Sunday worship, the devil is going to try to take 27:03 the world captive as he passes around his wine cup of ancient 27:11 Babylon's false doctrines. Both you and I are anchored in the 27:16 word of God. You and I have our faith solidly based in scripture 27:23 You and I have our feet on the solid rock, not on the shifting 27:29 sands. Would you like to commit yourself today to following 27:34 the word of God and placing your feet on something that's solid 27:38 that will not be shaken when all the world follows after the 27:42 beast power. Let's pray. 27:44 Father in heaven. Thank you with all of our hearts that Jesus is 27:48 Savior, he is our Redeemer. Thank you for the Eternal Truths 27:51 of the Bible that we can be protected in these last days. 27:55 In Christ's name, Amen. 27:59 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2025-05-22