Participants: Phillip Sizemore (Host)
Series Code: LOE
Program Code: LOE000028
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00:01 The harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few.
00:03 Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest 00:06 that He will... He will send forth laborers into His harvest. 00:10 Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying: 00:13 "Who shall I send? " "And who will go for us? " 00:17 Then said I: "Here am I... send me, send me. " 00:23 Life on the Edge will enable you to be 00:25 and effective harvester for the Lord. 00:27 We now invite you into our classroom 00:30 to Come Experience Life. 00:43 Hello. Welcome again to Life on the Edge: 00:45 the interactive Bible study course where we're learning 00:48 to give Bible studies to not only one another here 00:51 in the church but also to other people 00:54 that we come in contact with whoever it may be: 00:56 our friends, our relatives, our neighbors. 00:57 And we're going through marking up our Bibles 00:59 so that we can give a Bible study on all of the... 01:03 or actually we have 24 studies that we're doing here. 01:05 And by the end of this, you will actually have 24 studies 01:08 marked up in your Bible ready to use. 01:10 Ready to share the Word of God 01:12 with someone else. And as we 01:13 we're just... seems like we are just on a rollercoaster 01:15 ride through this. To me... 01:17 to us here at Pine Lake Retreat 01:19 here in sunny Florida 01:21 it seems like we never see the sun shine. 01:22 And we've been here in class every day all day long. 01:25 Um, some of us here are losing our tans 01:29 and wondering what we came to Florida for, aren't we? 01:32 But we're here to study the Word of God. 01:34 That's the main reason for coming to Pine Lake Retreat, 01:36 for coming here to the Lay Institute for Evangelism: 01:38 to learn how to study the Word of God and share it with others. 01:41 And we are on study number... 20? Nineteen? 01:46 That's right... number 19 today. 01:47 Study number 19... so we have like five more to go 01:50 and we'll be done with the entire series. 01:53 Now I think everybody here... I don't know about you at home, 01:55 but I believe everybody here has their Bibles marked 01:58 all the way up pretty much to number 19. 02:01 They have like all the way up to number 19 marked up. 02:03 And they're ready to go start sharing their faith 02:06 with others. They're ready to start sharing the Word of God 02:08 and I hope you at home are doing the same thing. 02:10 If this is the first time you're joining us, 02:12 I want to encourage you to go to our website 02:14 www. ComeExperienceLife. com 02:17 and download all the studies prior to this one 02:20 and this one as well. You can just go 02:21 on the website there and find it. 02:23 You can get the notes - the study notes - 02:25 that are just basically in... They'll be in a Word document 02:28 or a Pages document if you have a Mac 02:30 like you see here at Pine Lake... 02:32 at the Lay Institute for Evangelism... 02:33 everybody with their Macs. But you'll be able to download that, 02:36 print it out on your computer, and then follow right along 02:39 with us. And I want to encourage you to mark your Bibles up. 02:41 Not only is it good for you to be able to share it with 02:43 others but when you do this what's you'll discover - 02:46 what you'll find out - is that it inspires you 02:49 and it changes your life. It draws you closer to the 02:51 Lord Jesus... which is the ultimate purpose 02:53 of this whole thing anyway is to help us to have a better 02:55 walk with Him... that's Jesus. 02:57 And now as we're getting ready to get into today's study 03:00 on the remnant church. Some people are a little 03:03 bothered at just that statement "remnant church. " 03:06 Are you aware of that? Sometimes when you say 03:08 the remnant church, you know what comes to mind 03:10 for some people? Oh, you think that there's a church out there 03:13 that's different than all the rest of them 03:14 that's God's chosen people. 03:16 And my answer to that is: "Of course I do 03:18 or I would be going somewhere else 03:20 looking for another church. " Isn't that right? 03:23 You know, it's like you say that there is a remnant church 03:25 and it's God's chosen people and you're probably going to say 03:26 it's your church. No, no, I wouldn't say that. 03:29 It's somebody else's... but I'm in this one. 03:31 No, God does have a... Prophetically in the Bible 03:34 there is... there is an outline, there is a layout in the Bible 03:38 that tells us what the description of God's remnant 03:41 church will be. And then when you think of the term remnant, 03:43 what do you think of? 03:45 The remainder. You women know this, right? 03:47 Like guys maybe should too but it's the women... 03:51 Like I tear my shirt or my pants which I from time to time do 03:54 and my wife may want to fix it, 03:55 she'll go and try to find the material to fix it with. 03:58 And she'll go maybe to the store where they sell the 04:00 cloth or whatever. And she's going to buy a whole bolt 04:03 of cloth like 15 feet long, right? 04:05 No, she doesn't want the whole cloth. 04:07 What she wants is if they just have a little piece of it 04:09 left somewhere of what they originally made... 04:12 the material they used, she just needs a remnant of it. 04:14 Now you know that the remnant is just like the original. 04:17 Right? The remnant is just like the original. 04:20 So basically what we're going to be saying in this study 04:22 and showing in this study from the Bible 04:24 is that God in the last days is going to have a remnant people 04:28 that's going to look just like the original. 04:31 Just like the original. 04:32 And the original would be the original church that you see 04:34 apostles had and things like that. 04:36 So that's the basis of this study. That's what we're 04:38 going to be looking for as we go through here. 04:40 Now we're going to go to the screen now 04:42 and look at the purpose of this study. 04:43 And we kind of already described it a little bit. 04:45 I got a little ahead of myself, but that's OK. 04:47 We can repeat ourselves. 04:53 The Word of God is leading all of His sheep into one fold. 04:56 God wants us all to be together as one, doesn't He? 04:58 You know, we have a problem right now. 04:59 You know what that problem is? 05:01 We're scattered everywhere. There's not just one faith, 05:04 one Lord, one baptism like the Bible teaches. 05:06 There's just... everywhere. 05:08 So we're going to be discussing that as well today. 05:17 So just like He had a true church in the days of the 05:20 apostles He's going to have one all the way till He comes again. 05:22 In the last days He's going to have that. 05:23 And what our goal is... what we're going to be seeking to do 05:26 is find out who that true church is. 05:29 Who is it? What's the identifying characteristics? 05:32 Just like we use the Bible to identify the antichrist 05:34 and had identifying character- istics to identify that 05:37 and we use the Bible to identify many things 05:39 by simply going: "OK, this is what God says will be happening. 05:42 Where do you find that? " 05:43 You know, whatever your topic is, you just say: 05:45 "This is what God's Word says. 05:47 How can we find where that's being taught? 05:48 Where that's taking place at? " Right? 05:51 Well in the remnant church it's no different. 05:53 God actually through the book of Revelation and other places 05:55 has identifying characteristics of the remnant church. 05:58 And so we're going to go through six of these identifying 06:01 characteristics, and I'll probably throw in a few more 06:03 just for good measure. But we're going to be looking 06:04 at these identifying characteristics to see... 06:06 How can we define where we need to be? 06:09 I mean, I don't want to be in a church that's not really 06:12 following what God's teaching. Do you? 06:14 I want to be in what God would call in the Bible 06:15 in the term remnant church that's like meaning that 06:19 the remainder or just like the original. 06:21 And so I want to be in the church that's just like 06:23 the original. How do we find that? 06:25 Now the texts we're going to be studying as we go through 06:27 this study is... There's actually 13 of them 06:30 starting in I Corinthians chapter 14 verse 33. 06:32 We have it on the screen there. For those of you at home 06:35 you can look at it. You're not going to have time 06:36 to write it down before that slides goes away. 06:38 It's getting ready to come back to me probably about right now. 06:40 And you just missed it on the screen if you didn't see 06:43 all that. But there's actually 13 of these texts. 06:46 And if you want to get a copy of those, again you 06:50 can go to our website to see the whole list 06:52 and you can download it from there 06:54 as well as these presentations. 06:55 The presentations will also be on the website. 06:57 So if you're watching this for the first time 07:00 whether it's on DVD or on one of the networks 07:02 or something like that and you're watching it 07:03 for the first time and you want now to see all the rest of them, 07:07 you can get them all on the website. 07:09 Now before we get into the main part of the study - 07:11 actually opening the Bible and reading it... 07:14 Um, if you open the Bible and try to read it with your own 07:16 understanding, you sometimes run into a problem. 07:18 Many people will do that and they come up with all kinds 07:20 of crazy ideas. The same Spirit that inspired the Bible 07:25 can inspire us to understand the Bible. 07:27 So what we're going to do now is ask God 07:28 through His Spirit to give us understanding 07:30 as we study this important topic of the remnant church. 07:33 Let us pray. Father in Heaven, 07:37 thank you so much that You have given us time we can come apart 07:42 and spend studying Your Word. 07:44 I pray, Father, that as we study this topic 07:46 of the remnant church, that You will give us understanding. 07:49 And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. 07:54 OK. Our first text that we're going to be looking at here 07:57 in the remnant church on the slide here 07:59 is... Oh, it's missing. Nothing shows up. 08:03 There it is. Hah! I Corinthians 14:33. 08:06 I Corinthians... Whew! You know, one time I was preaching 08:11 in a place. While you're turning there, I'll tell you 08:12 a quick story. One time I was preaching at a place 08:13 and it happened only one time that I can remember. 08:15 And you know you write your sermon. You kind of have 08:17 sermon notes you know laid out there, you know? 08:19 And the text I had them turning to was the wrong text. 08:22 And I didn't know what the right text was, you know. 08:24 And I just... I could feel the sweat. I mean, I could 08:27 like... I could just feel myself breaking out in a cold, clammy 08:30 sweat. You know, all over my body... my forehead. 08:32 I was scared to death. There were a lot of people out there 08:34 and I was looking like such a fool. 08:36 And God so humbled me. 08:37 I felt so humble after that. 08:39 I apologized to them and I said: "I don't know where we're going 08:41 but we're going to be going to someplace else. " 08:43 And they still loved me and let me come back and preach again 08:45 later on. Boy, I made sure I had all my t's crossed 08:48 and my i's dotted after that one. 08:49 Anyway, we've almost done that again. 08:52 When you look up at the screen and you're getting ready 08:53 to turn to your text and it's not there... 08:55 sometimes that would make you panic. 08:57 I Corinthians 14 verse 33. 09:00 And what we're going to be figuring out here... 09:02 It's like confusing in the world, isn't it? 09:05 I mean, have you ever like? How many people here 09:08 are like raised in a church? You were raised in a church? 09:10 Anybody? I wasn't. I wasn't raised in a church. 09:13 But when you're getting ready... So you kind of just stay... 09:15 Most people were raised in a church. They stay in a church. 09:17 They never really think about going through the confusing 09:19 process of like: "If I'm going to be a Christian 09:21 and I want to follow God, where do I go? " 09:23 Right? I mean, if you pick up the phone book today 09:26 you can start looking through the phone book 09:27 and you start looking in churches and you think 09:29 church, church, church. And it's page after page 09:31 of these churches. It's like "Which one do I go to? " 09:33 "How can I be sure? " And it's really confusing out there, 09:35 isn't it? Now the reason I open up saying like this 09:38 as we're getting ready to go to I Corinthians 14 is 09:40 why is it so confusing? Was it God's design 09:45 for it to be like this? 09:47 Did God mean for us to be here in the last days of earth's 09:50 history - as I believe like Jesus is going to come soon - 09:52 In the Bible we've already covered those topics 09:54 and those subjects to realize that we are living 09:56 in the last days. But yet when you try to go find 09:59 who is teaching what God actually wants them to teach 10:01 and who is following God with all their heart 10:03 and what churches are... where the true church is, 10:05 you can't go to the phone book and look, can you? 10:07 I mean, you start in alphabetical order. 10:08 Wouldn't be a bad thing to do if you wanted to start 10:09 in alphabetical order. You could start with Adventist 10:11 and then go to... No... 10:13 I'm just kidding there. 10:14 Right? But there is... There's just all kinds of churches 10:17 that are listed all over... in the phone book 10:20 or wherever you want to go... and it's hard to know 10:22 where to go... where to be. 10:24 And there's a lot of confusion out there. 10:25 We go out here at LIFE - 10:28 Lay Institute for Evangelism - our students, we go out 10:30 and we knock on doors to ask people to start Bible studies. 10:33 Part of what our curriculum is. We do that 3 times a week 10:36 in the evening. And it's funny because if you go to the doors 10:40 and you go to this door and they'll say: "No, no, I'm not 10:42 interested. I'm a... whatever. " 10:44 Well you know, that's perfectly fine. "I don't need to study 10:47 the Bible because I have my own church. " 10:48 Have you heard people say that? "I don't need to study 10:50 the Bible. I have my own church. " 10:51 Well that doesn't make sense. You mean your church 10:53 doesn't like to study the Bible? 10:55 Well what they're actually saying is... is... 10:57 "I'm perfectly satisfied where I'm at 10:58 and it doesn't matter if I'm right or wrong 11:00 just as long as I follow my church. " You know? 11:02 And just time and again, you go to door after door 11:04 and you'll hear these things. 11:05 And it sounds awful confusing. 11:07 You'd think at least they would all live in the same 11:08 neighborhood. We would all like... OK, we're all going to 11:10 agree on our religion and live in the same neighborhood 11:12 or something. But it's not like that, is it? 11:13 It's just confusing. Everywhere you go it's confusing 11:16 chaos. You have... You have this guy parked here 11:18 and this guy parked here. And one church is up the street 11:21 here and one church is up the street here. 11:22 This guy will pull out of his driveway and go this way 11:24 and this guy will pull out and go this way. 11:25 You know, and there's churches all over the place. 11:27 Myself, coming out a heathen world and looking at this, 11:30 I've got to admit it was a little confusing. 11:32 Like how can you be sure? 11:33 And then I have somebody come along and say: 11:35 "Our church is the true church. " 11:36 "Really? " "Yeah. " "Why? " 11:38 Because of the name... The name of our church makes us 11:42 "the true church. " You know? 11:43 And I'll tell you a story maybe as we get along into this 11:46 of an experience I had with that. 11:47 And it's awful confusing. 11:49 Isn't it confusing? 11:50 I mean, how can we be sure we're in the right place? 11:52 So when I give this study I don't usually take that much 11:56 time. I'm just trying to give you an overall thing 11:58 where you'll kind of have an idea 12:00 whenever you want to give a study on the remnant. 12:01 You want the people to start thinking along the lines 12:03 "Is it God's intention to have such confusion? " 12:08 Well, let's find out. 12:09 I Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 33. 12:12 Tom, would you like to read that one there? 12:14 I Corinthians 14 and verse 33. 12:18 "For God is not the author of confusion 12:22 but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. " 12:27 So according to the Bible, what we just read so far, 12:29 "God is not the author of confusion. " 12:32 So do you think it's God's desire 12:34 for it to be so confusing right now? 12:36 Do you think that He intended? 12:38 And I think it's interesting here because sometimes 12:40 we might read this and it says He is not the author of 12:42 confusion as in all the churches of the saints. " 12:45 In other words it sounds like 12:46 churches is plural and so 12:48 therefore there must be many churches. 12:49 But it's not talking about 12:50 different belief systems 12:52 in churches. Right? It's talking 12:54 about, you know, there was a church in Corinth, 12:55 there was a church in Ephesus. 12:57 There was a church in Laodicea. 12:58 You know, you've got all these churches around 13:00 and they're all believing the same thing. 13:02 Right? And God doesn't want confusion in the churches. 13:04 He wants us all to believe the same thing. 13:06 And.. But yet, even though that's God's desire, 13:09 it hasn't turned out to be that way. 13:11 All right? It's turned out to be like Baskin and Robbins. 13:14 You know, you've got all these different flavors. 13:16 You can find a church to believe whatever you want. 13:18 I've seen personally some pretty interesting things 13:23 happen as far as churches starting up 13:27 just based on strange beliefs. Let me just put it that way. 13:32 You know, they'll just branch off here, and this church will 13:34 branch off here, and then that church will branch off. 13:36 And it continues to go just like that. 13:39 So let us go on here and ask the question here: 13:42 Who is the designer of all this confusion? 13:44 If God is not the author of confusion as we've learned here, 13:46 who is the designer of all this confusion? 13:48 Jason: you got a Bible text? 13:53 Say John 10. All right. John 10:10-12. 13:56 Let's look at John chapter 10 and verses 10 through 12. 14:01 John the 10th chapter 14:03 verses 10 through 12. 14:05 And I'm going to ask Mike if he would like to read that. 14:09 John 10 verses 10 through 12. 14:13 "The thief cometh not but to kill and steal and to destroy. 14:18 I am come that they might have life 14:20 and that they might have it more abundantly. 14:22 I am the Good Shepherd. 14:24 The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. 14:26 But he that is the hireling and not the shepherd 14:29 whose own the sheep are not seeth the wolf coming 14:32 and leaveth the sheep and fleeth. 14:34 And the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep. " 14:37 So Jesus says: "I am the Good Shepherd 14:40 and the Good Shepherd will give His life for the sheep. " 14:43 And the sheep being - in this context in the parable here - 14:45 who are the sheep? Who would be the sheep? 14:47 It would be the church. It would be God's people, right? 14:48 And it's like He is willing to give His life for the people. 14:50 But the wolf... now who would be represented by the wolf here? 14:54 It would be Satan. He comes and does what? 14:56 Scatters the sheep, right? 14:58 So the devil's whole idea is to have God's sheep 15:01 scattered all over the place. 15:02 God's idea is to have God's sheep in one fold. 15:04 And the devil's idea is to scatter them. 15:07 And I think it's interesting there because it talks about 15:09 the hireling as well. Who would the hireling represent? 15:12 Maybe the leaders, the pastors, and things like that, right? 15:17 And what is it that they're doing? 15:18 They're just running. 15:20 You know, like "get away, get away, " right? 15:22 And so Jesus said: "It's My desire, 15:26 it is My goal, to have them as one fold. 15:30 In the flock... together. But the devil 15:33 the wolf, is coming to scatter them. " 15:35 So if the churches of God's people and God's church 15:38 are all scattered around in different flocks 15:40 and different denominations and scattered out like that, 15:41 whose will is being done? 15:43 Satan's will. Yeah. 15:46 But now, we're getting into some very sticky territory here, 15:49 Bill. Because right now what you're saying is 15:51 that God expects us to be together as one 15:54 but which one are we going to choose? 15:56 Right? Which one is the right one? 16:00 If the devil has us scattered and that's not God's will, 16:02 one of these scattering places has to be the right one. 16:07 Right? There has to be the true sheep there 16:09 that we're all going to come back together with. 16:11 Who's got... who has it right? 16:13 That's what we're going to be studying through this study 16:15 is like what's the Bible description of who has it right? 16:18 We know that God... that Jesus does care 16:21 and that God does care about what's going on with the 16:24 churches. He loves His church, right? 16:26 And He wants to bring it together... He wants to bring 16:27 it back into one fold. 16:29 So... and we're going to look at that next 16:31 in John chapter and verse 16. That's exactly the statement 16:33 we're going to be seeing here that Jesus said. 16:35 John 10:16. This is the Remnant Church study. 16:37 This is the third part of this study. 16:39 For those of you joining this for the first time, 16:41 I'm just going to touch on this one more time. 16:42 I think it doesn't hurt for us to do this. 16:44 About every time we do one of these presentations for... 16:48 for the video here because somebody might just be seeing 16:51 for the first time and don't really understand what 16:52 we're doing. We're going through marking our Bibles. 16:55 And what we're doing is like at the text... 16:57 You'll be at John 10:16 is the text you're going to be at next 17:00 or we're going to that text to read it. 17:02 And somewhere in and around that text you're going to 17:04 want to write 3RC because you're on the 3rd Remnant Church study 17:07 and the third part of the Remnant Church study. 17:09 And the text we just came from, the reference we came from is 17:11 John chapter 10 verses 11-12. 17:14 And then we're going to II Timothy chapter 3 17:16 and verse 16 in our next text. You'll put that in there. 17:18 But I want to make a statement. I heard a couple of our students 17:20 here at LIFE just yesterday as a matter of fact 17:23 saying: "You know, when I try to write in between the lines 17:26 and I put that circle and that long line out from it 17:28 and try to write above it and below it I run out of room. " 17:30 And they said: "I discovered something. " 17:31 I thought: "Well, you know, I guess I should have explained 17:33 this earlier. " If you make a little circle and write 3RC, 17:36 and you put the... and you kind of write the text 17:38 at a little bit of an angle there 17:39 and then put the other line - instead of putting it straight 17:40 across this way you put it at an angle like this 17:42 then you have more room to write. 17:44 You have more room that way because you're writing 17:45 this way and then the line goes this way 17:47 and you're writing this way again 17:48 so you can write without having to take up so much space. 17:50 Are you following? Is that making sense? 17:52 Shelleta says "no. " 17:53 Well, Shelleta, I'll tell you what. If you'll look in your 17:55 Bible right here like this 17:56 in between right here - you see how narrow that is right there 18:00 in between? - I'm going to go and get in front of the camera 18:01 here. Can you get this on camera? 18:04 Right here. See how that white line is there... the opening 18:07 in between there. There's really not room to write 18:09 above and below a line if you make a straight line in there. 18:11 So what you do is if you put a line in there at an angle 18:14 you can write a text here and then a text on the other side 18:16 of it. Just put it in there as a slash more than straight across. 18:19 Like... like you see on the screen there. 18:21 And so you can actually get more in there doing it that way. 18:25 So... Just so you know that's what we're doing. 18:27 We're marking our Bibles up here and we're in the Remnant Church 18:29 study right now. Kind of got off the subject there a little bit 18:31 but I felt impressed to do that. 18:32 Somebody is at home right now saying: "I'm glad he did that! " 18:35 The rest of them are like: "I've heard this before. " 18:38 All right. So we can't please everybody all the time 18:41 but we can please some of the people some of the time, right? 18:42 All right. John 10... John the 10th chapter and verse 16. 18:46 Um, I think we'll have Dosung read that one 18:50 if you don't mind. John chapter 10 and verse 16. 18:55 "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold. 18:59 Them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice. 19:03 And there shall be one fold and one Shepherd. " 19:07 So what is God's plan according to Jesus' own words? 19:12 One fold and one Shepherd. 19:14 He's not the author of confusion. 19:17 Do you see how this study is leading so far? 19:19 It's not God's desire for it to be so confusing out there. 19:22 It's not His desire for us to be struggling saying: 19:26 "Oh, I wish I knew where to go. " 19:27 Do you suppose if you spend time praying and seeking God's 19:31 Word and following Him that... and ask Him to show you 19:34 who His remnant people are in the last days 19:36 that He will lead you there? 19:38 Or do you think it's God's will that you continue in confusion 19:40 not knowing where to go? You know, absolutely the 19:44 truth there is He wants to show you where to do, doesn't He? 19:46 You know, there's something that just keeps coming in my mind. 19:48 I can't quite think of it. It's like right on the edge 19:50 of my head. Is that I remember an illustration about 19:53 how to find... make sure you're in the right church, 19:56 in the remnant church. You know, that kind of thing? 19:58 And it's an illustration, and I'm just praying in my mind 20:01 as I'm talking right now that He'll bring that back to me 20:02 because it seems so important. 20:04 You ever do that? Well, I'm doing it right now. 20:07 All right. So now we're going to go to the next part of this. 20:10 Um, how can we know God's voice? 20:12 In other words, if you want to be led into God's church 20:17 you want to be following God's people... not God's people but 20:20 God... to be with His people, 20:21 how is it that you can know whether or not you're in... 20:24 in the right place, in the right church? 20:25 By praying and seeking God. 20:27 But you know, there's one way you can know you're hearing 20:29 His voice. Let us go to our next text and look at that 20:32 in II Timothy chapter 3. It's in the T's in the New Testament. 20:35 Can anybody tell me how to get there from where we're at? 20:37 We're in John... John chapter 17. 20:39 We're going to turn to the right, we're told. 20:41 Going to turn to the right. So we're turning toward the back 20:43 of the Bible toward the book of Revelation. 20:44 And you'll go and you'll probably see Corinthians. 20:46 And you'll probably see it right away and you'll get into the T's 20:49 and you'll see Timothy or one of those 20:51 and that's what we're looking for. Over to the right 20:53 into Timothy. If you see Thessalonians, keep going. 20:56 Remember, the T's in the New Testament are in alphabetical 20:59 order. So you have Thessalonians Timothy and then Titus. 21:02 And so we're actually going to II Timothy chapter 3 21:04 and verse 16. II Timothy 3:16. 21:09 And Darlene, would you like to read that for us? 21:13 "All scripture is given by inspiration of God 21:17 and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 21:20 and for instruction in righteousness. " 21:22 What's the Word of God profitable for? 21:25 For doctrine, for reproof, and for 21:28 instruction in righteousness. 21:29 And it says here that all scripture is given by 21:31 inspiration of God. You know what that literally means? 21:33 God breathed. 21:36 So God breathed, you know, the... Like the inspir... 21:39 The people that wrote the Bible... they're inspired by 21:41 the breath of God. It's He who inspired them 21:44 to write the Bible. And that same breath - that same 21:46 inspiration that led people to write the Bible - 21:48 also helps us to understand what the Bible is saying 21:51 and who His people are... what His church is like. 21:54 It's through the Bible that you understand where you need to be. 21:56 You understand this, right? So it's the inspiration of God, 21:59 the Spirit of God, that comes in and it teaches us. 22:02 Look what it teaches us here. It's profitable for reproof 22:04 and what's that next word? Doctrine? 22:08 Have you ever heard somebody in a church say something 22:10 like this? I've visited many churches. I used to visit 22:12 quite a few more than I do now. But you visit around in churches 22:15 and I've heard people say: "You guys have your doctrine 22:18 but we have Jesus. " 22:19 Almost like they put themselves aloof. Like: "Oh, yeah, 22:23 we're holy and you're just all about religion and things 22:25 like that. But we have Jesus and that's all that matters. " 22:27 You know that's a doctrine? 22:28 You know what a doctrine is? 22:30 If you say your church doesn't have doctrines, 22:32 you know what it's actually saying? 22:33 We don't believe anything. 22:34 Because a doctrine is a teaching or something that we believe. 22:38 You know, and so sometimes... 22:41 sometimes I get a little frustrated myself 22:44 when I talk, trying to witness to somebody and 22:46 they say: "Well, I'm in a non-denominational church. " 22:49 I said: "Oh, really? What's a non-denominational church? " 22:52 It's like: "Well, we don't have a denomination. " 22:55 "But do not denominations have beliefs? " 22:58 "Yeah. " "So are you saying you don't have beliefs? " 23:01 "Well, no, we have beliefs. We just believe in Jesus. " 23:05 "Well I am too. I'm in my church and we're a denomination... 23:08 you know, we believe in Jesus. " 23:09 "Yeah, but you have doctrines and we don't have doctrines. " 23:12 "Oh, so you really don't have a belief? " 23:15 So then doctrine is a teaching. 23:17 It's kind of like search your lines. I feel like I'm with 23:19 Abbott and Costello... "Who's on first? " 23:20 "No, no. Who's on second. " 23:22 You know? You know, that kind of thing. 23:23 I kind of feel like that sometimes when I'm talking. 23:25 But the Bible clearly has a set of teachings 23:29 and truths that are laid out in the Bible. 23:31 And whenever people come together, they'll all 23:33 believe that same truth. Like in the early church... 23:35 You know what the main issue for most of the Jews and stuff was 23:38 in the early church? Believing in Jesus. 23:41 And so the apostles were going around teaching the people 23:43 about Jesus. They already believed things like we've 23:44 learned here: the truth about the Sabbath. 23:46 You think the Jews needed to learn about that? 23:48 No. Most of them understood that, didn't they? 23:50 Even as you read through the book of Acts - 23:51 we covered this a little bit when we covered the Sabbath... 23:53 You go to Acts chapter 13 23:57 where Paul was preaching in the synagogue to both Jews and 24:00 Gentiles. And then Acts chapter 18 verse 4 says that 24:05 specifically. He was working on the Sabbath... 24:09 He was preaching to both Jews and Greeks it says, 24:11 or Jews and Gentiles. 24:12 So these people... do you think they needed to understand 24:14 the truth about the Sabbath in their day? 24:15 No, the devil hadn't had an opportunity to really 24:18 mess that one all up yet, had he? 24:19 But you know what the main issue was? 24:21 Accepting Christ as the Messiah. 24:23 Accepting Jesus as Savior. 24:25 Basically, the basic principles that we've learned here 24:27 about what happens when you die and, you know, 24:30 the truth about God not being a tyrant and torturing people 24:33 forever and the truth about the Sabbath. 24:35 Some of the things that people don't understand today 24:37 which has caused so many fractions to break off... 24:39 Some of those things they didn't have to teach people 24:42 in their day. You know, people would come. They would learn 24:44 about Christ and they would come together. 24:45 Now listen... They would be the same denomination. 24:48 Oh, they didn't have denominations back then. 24:50 A denomination is simply a group of people 24:53 coming together with the same beliefs. 24:55 You would call that a denomination. Just a word. 24:58 You know, it doesn't really mean like the connotation 25:01 sometimes it has today. "Oh, a denomination. That means 25:04 that you're in with... you've got a church name. 25:07 You know, we don't have church names. " 25:09 But there are many churches out there, aren't there? 25:12 Even the non-denominational churches are denominations. 25:15 They have a set of beliefs that they kind of hold by. 25:18 Certain ones. Sometimes they just say "Just kind of believe 25:21 whatever you want as long as you put in the money. " 25:22 That's a doctrine, though. 25:24 OK. Are you following what we're going with here, huh? 25:27 So, Jesus' idea of His church 25:33 is being together in one fold and one flock. 25:37 And how do you tell which that fold and flock is? 25:39 How do you tell that? Because it's the scriptures... 25:42 it's the Bible that tells us. And look what it says 25:44 here again... what it says. 25:45 Now, we went over this a little more that we talked about 25:48 this text again. It says: "All scripture is given 25:50 by inspiration of God. " So it's the breath of God. 25:52 It's the Spirit of God that comes in and gives the 25:54 inspiration for the Bible. And it's "profitable for doctrine. " 25:57 So is doctrine an OK thing according to the Bible? Right. 26:00 "For reproof. " Reproof is like you're messing up 26:03 and the Bible straightens you out. 26:05 "For correction. " We need correction, right? 26:09 "And for instruction on how to be righteous 26:12 or instruction in righteousness. " 26:14 Is that lacking in your church? 26:16 Maybe you're not part of God's remnant church. 26:20 Does that make sense? 26:22 If you go to a church that says "we don't have doctrine, " 26:24 "we're not about to preach anything about correcting you 26:27 from your sins" and "we're not also going to say anything about 26:30 you being unrighteous. " 26:31 Does that fit with what the Bible description here in 26:33 II Timothy 3:16? 26:35 No. That's so... that's so politically incorrect to say 26:38 that, isn't it? 26:41 But remember. We've looked all along as we've gone through 26:44 these studies that the devil... the devil's plan 26:47 is to bring deception and to bring people... 26:50 scatter the flock and bring deception so that we have no way 26:53 of understanding what truth is. 26:54 That's what his plan is. 26:56 He's been doing that all along because he wants you to be lost. 26:59 The devil wants you to be lost. 27:00 All right, let's continue on here. 27:03 Now we're going to get into the fun part of it. 27:05 There's actually... we're going to look at the 6 identifying 27:08 characteristics of God's remnant church. 27:09 We're going to go through these in detail. 27:11 What are the six identifying characteristics 27:13 of God's remnant people? 27:14 And if your church that you're in right now 27:17 doesn't fit one of these six, 27:19 you know I have a suggestion for you: 27:21 find one that does. 27:23 All six of these, right? 27:25 It has to fit all six of them. 27:26 If it doesn't, then it can't be God's remnant. 27:29 Does that make sense? 27:31 Now again, I know that somebody's going to say: 27:33 "Oh, you're going to tell us it's your church. " 27:34 Of course I am! 27:35 If I didn't believe that the church I was in was God's 27:37 remnant church, you know what I would be doing? 27:40 I'd be finding another church. 27:41 I would be looking for a group of people that 27:42 would worship the way the Bible says 27:44 and have... and have these six characteristics... 27:46 what the Bible says here. 27:48 And these six characteristics are pretty clear 27:50 and pretty... they're just straight on. 27:52 You know, there's no really missing it 27:53 as we go through this. So let's look at the first one. 27:56 It's in I Timothy. We're in II Timothy. 27:57 Does anybody have any idea where we'd go to 27:59 to find I Timothy? To the left. That's exactly right. 28:02 I Timothy and we're going to be looking at... 28:05 I'll put it on the screen here for those at home 28:07 and for us here: I Timothy 3:15. 28:10 I Timothy 3 and verse 15. 28:13 Now, this text we're getting ready to read here... 28:16 I could park here and preach on it all morning. 28:18 You don't want me to do that though, do you? 28:21 Scott's like "No! " He's back there in a truck somewhere 28:24 listening saying: "No! Don't do that. " 28:25 I tend to do that. 28:27 You know, here at the Lay Institute for Evangelism 28:29 as we're going through this interactive learning of the 28:34 Bible studies the guys kind of get onto me a little bit 28:36 because I go from teaching mode to preaching mode. 28:39 It's just in me. It's the evangelist in me. 28:42 So... But I'm going to try to resist. 28:44 I'm going to do my best. And Shelleta, I'm going to hold 28:46 you responsible. You're going to read the next text for us 28:49 but I'm also going to hold you responsible. If I go into 28:50 preaching mode, you stop me. OK? 28:52 All right. Thank you so much. 28:54 All right, I Timothy 3:15. 28:55 You say: "Pastor, now you're preaching. " 28:57 All right. Are you ready for that? 28:59 Give her a microphone here. 29:01 Pay attention. 29:02 I Timothy 3:15. 29:08 "But if I tarry long 29:10 that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave 29:14 thyself in the house of God 29:16 which is the church of the living God 29:18 the pillar and ground of truth. " 29:20 So Shelleta, according to the text you just read, 29:23 what you just read there, what is the description 29:26 we find here? I'm going to put the pressure on you bad. 29:28 What is the description we're looking for here 29:30 that makes something... the church of the living God, 29:33 God's remnant church, what would be the description here we find? 29:36 The pillar... "pillar of truth. " 29:39 "Pillar and ground of truth. " In other words, 29:41 the church - God's remnant according to Paul here 29:43 as he's writing to the young preacher Timothy - 29:45 is that is has to have the pillar and the ground of truth. 29:49 And how do you define truth? 29:53 By the Bible. Exactly right. 29:55 The Word of God. We've already covered that, haven't we? 29:56 So it's going to have to be the pillar and ground of truth. 29:58 Now I really appreciate this here 29:59 and I'm almost hesitant to say what I'm going to say... 30:01 but I'm going to say it anyway. 30:04 If they have to cut it out then they can just do so. 30:06 But I had an experience in my own personal life 30:09 as I'm going around to churches and things like that 30:11 in visiting. You know I said as you go around looking 30:14 for a church to be in or just fellowshipping with others, 30:17 you want to see how they believe - 30:18 one of the things I discovered was: 30:19 I was in a church one time. This is one of the main texts 30:22 they use. It says here: "behave yourself in the house 30:26 of God which is the church of the living God. " 30:28 And they said: "Therefore, what the Bible says there 30:31 is when a church has the name The Church of the Living God 30:34 or the Church of God, it must be God's remnant church. 30:37 That's what they were teaching one time where I was at. 30:39 And I was feeling a little uncomfortable because 30:41 they were getting really harsh and they were actually making 30:44 fun of other churches with what he called "Mickey Mouse" names. 30:47 You know. And there's nothing wrong with Mickey Mouse. 30:50 We have him down here in Florida, don't we? 30:51 All right. But he was making fun of people with "Mickey Mouse" 30:55 names... their churches. And, uh, said: 30:57 "We know that we're God's remnant church. " 30:59 That's what he was saying, the pastor was saying, 31:00 at this time in a prayer meeting setting. 31:02 "We know that we're God's remnant church because we 31:04 have that name: Church of the Living God. " 31:07 And I thought: "Well, that's awful strange. " 31:10 And so he goes on and he spends a whole like 25-30 minutes 31:12 just going on and on making fun of other people 31:14 that don't have... In other words, how can these people 31:16 think they're going to be saved when they have another name 31:18 over their church door? He actually said words like that. 31:19 And I'm really about just to blow up in my seat. 31:23 You can imagine me having to sit there. 31:25 And when he got to the end of his little description 31:28 and there was about 15 minutes left to go in their 31:30 prayer meeting time, he says: "Does anybody have any 31:32 questions? " There were about 55 people there. 31:33 And my hand went up immediately. 31:35 And I said: "Yes, sir, I have a question. " 31:37 And he says: "OK. " He knows who I am and things. 31:39 He said: "Well, what is it? " 31:41 I said: Well, you know, I have fellowship with some friends 31:44 of mine that were Church of Christ. 31:46 Lovely people; nice people. 31:49 Some of them were really nice people. " 31:50 Many people are nice people in all denominations. 31:52 You realize that not all denominations have 31:54 all nice people and not all denominations have 31:55 all bad people. You understand what I'm saying, right? 31:57 And I said: "But you know they told me 31:59 that they're God's true church, they're God's church, 32:01 because they have the name Church of Christ. " 32:03 That's why... like the friends I had... they're God's true 32:07 church because they have the name Church of Christ. 32:08 After all, you read in the New Testament, you read 32:11 the title Church of Christ some places in the book of Acts 32:13 where it actually uses that term Church of Christ. 32:14 Therefore, you've got the correct name. 32:16 And then I know other people that they're Catholic 32:20 and they say "we're God's true church because the name 32:22 Catholic means universal. " 32:24 This is true. This is how I talked to this guy here. 32:28 Everybody, as you can imagine, I'm drawing in their attention 32:30 about like I'm drawing in yours right now, right? 32:31 I said: "So they said they're God's true church because 32:34 they have the name Catholic that means universal. " 32:35 Then I have some Baptist friends 32:37 and my Baptist friend says: "You know, we're God's true 32:39 church because it was the Baptists - specifically 32:42 John the Baptist - that first preached about Christ. 32:46 So we've got the name Baptist and we were the ones 32:48 preaching about Christ first so we're God's true church. " 32:50 "And now I'm here tonight and you guys are telling me 32:53 that you're God's true church because you have the name 32:55 Church of the Living God over your door. " 32:57 And then I said this: 32:59 "It seems to me like 33:01 what would make someone in God's remnant church 33:04 or His true church is not the name over the door 33:07 but it's what's taught behind the doors. " 33:10 And boy, they... a couple of people or several people really 33:13 just got all mad and they just got really angry 33:17 and started yelling, you know, back and forth, fussing 33:19 and saying: "We know we're God's true church because 33:21 the name... " And one lady actually said: 33:23 "This is what I've learned my whole life 33:24 so I know it's true. " 33:26 Because you've learned it your whole life, you know it's true. 33:27 Well my parents taught me there was a Santa Claus 33:29 my whole life... so it must be true. 33:33 Until I found out otherwise, right? 33:36 But I'll tell you what happened at the end of that was... 33:38 After the end of that the pastor had calmed everybody down 33:41 he asked me to have closing prayer. 33:42 So I had the closing prayer. 33:44 I prayed that God would lead us into His truth 33:46 and what was right. 33:47 And after that the... some of the elders and other members 33:50 of the church came up to me and they said: "You know, 33:52 we don't really believe that. " 33:54 "We don't really believe that the name over the door 33:56 makes us the true church. 33:57 You know, please don't be 33:58 offended and not come back 34:00 to our church because that was said and done like that 34:02 because that was wrong. We know it's what's in 34:04 God's Word and what's in your heart that makes you 34:06 whether or not you are in God's true church. " 34:08 So even in their very own churches there's confusion 34:12 as to whether or not they're teaching right 34:16 or teaching wrong... you know, things like that. 34:18 Even in churches, even in the same denomination, 34:20 there's factions and stuff in there. 34:23 As a matter of fact, after I left that church 34:25 I didn't go back any more even if they wanted me to come 34:28 back. And I didn't want to cause any more trouble really. 34:29 I had caused enough, I guess. 34:31 Some of the members actually left the church after that. 34:35 Now listen to this: they were in the Church of the Living God 34:37 there, right? They left the church and became Baptists. 34:41 You know, no big deal. They just went: "Next Sunday 34:43 we'll start going to a different church. " 34:45 Is that God's plan 34:47 for it to be so confusing and it doesn't matter? 34:49 We can just go wherever and whatever. 34:50 Or does He have a people out there that's teaching 34:53 what truth is that we can all go to and find 34:55 and all be in agreement. Is it possible for God's people 34:57 to all be in agreement? 34:59 According to Jesus, He wants that to be the case. 35:01 He wants it to be the case. 35:03 And so even among churches in different denominations 35:07 you're going to have certain people that are going to be 35:08 there. Remember that Jesus says in the parable of Matthew 35:11 chapter 13 that there's going to be the wheat and the tares 35:14 and they're going to grow together until the harvest? 35:15 They're all going to grow together until the harvest. 35:17 You remember that? 35:19 Well, we know that's going to be the case. 35:21 Even in God's remnant church you're going to have tares 35:23 in there. But in general, from the leadership down, 35:27 if you're looking for the remnant church 35:29 you should be able to go anywhere in the world 35:31 with that church and they all teach the same thing. 35:35 Does that make any sense? 35:36 You shouldn't have to go... Like, if you go to one 35:39 Methodist church here and they teach one thing 35:41 and a Methodist church here teaches something else 35:42 and a Methodist church here teaches something else. 35:43 They all kind of teach the same thing. 35:45 Isn't that how most of them work? 35:47 You see why this is a very difficult subject? 35:49 'Cause you're naming denominations. 35:51 But that's OK. I'm not slamming anybody's denomination. 35:55 We're just using as examples. 35:57 And if I've named yours, you can feel honored 36:00 that your church denomination had advertisement 36:02 all over the world. 36:04 All right. So I Timothy 3:15. It says that God's true church 36:08 will be the "pillar and the ground of truth. " 36:12 And where are we learning we find truth at? 36:15 From the Bible... from God's Word. 36:16 All right, so that's identifying characteristic number 1. 36:18 It's going to be teaching the truth from God's Word. 36:20 Let's look at identifying characteristic number 2. 36:23 As we go on to the next text here, and it's found in 36:26 Revelation chapter 12 and verse 1. 36:28 Revelation 12:1. 36:29 Let us go there. 36:33 This is not actually a literal sign here 36:36 as far as identifying mark. We're going to have to hear 36:38 a couple texts here to show this identifying mark. 36:40 Revelation chapter 12 and verse 1. 36:44 And I think Vanessa would like to read that one, wouldn't you? 36:49 Revelation 12:1. She looked like she was volunteering there 36:51 right just now. 36:58 Pick your microphone up there. 37:01 Revelation 12:1... go ahead and read it. 37:05 "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven: 37:08 a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet 37:12 and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. " 37:15 Yeah. You know, it's interesting here. 37:17 You read it out of the King James. It says there appeared 37:19 a great what? 37:20 Wonder. You know what that word better translated is? 37:24 A sign. There was a great sign in heaven. 37:27 So we're talking symbolism here, right? 37:29 Sign or symbolism. 37:30 "And a woman clothed with the sun 37:32 and the moon under her feet 37:34 and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. " 37:37 This woman that we're looking at here... 37:39 This is what... I'm just going to be straight up with you. 37:42 In Bible prophecy a woman represents a church. 37:45 We know that a woman represents a church in Bible prophecy. 37:47 We're going to go show that next as we go to the next text 37:49 but I just want to make an explanation first. 37:51 So this woman here we're looking at - this church - is 37:53 going to be God's true church. 37:55 You'll notice some things about her. 37:56 And how am I going to know that she's God's true church? 37:59 Because as we read through here 38:01 you're going to find that the devil - the dragon - hates her. 38:03 If the dragon hates a woman, 38:05 that's the church you want to be in, right? 38:08 You know that it's God's true church because the devil 38:11 hates her and wants to try to kill her. 38:12 He wouldn't try to kill a church that he loved, would he? 38:15 You know the devil does love? 38:18 He loves evil, right? He loves evil. 38:20 He loves himself. And he's not going to try to destroy 38:23 his church, right? 38:26 And so he's trying to destroy this woman. 38:28 We're going to see that as we go along. 38:29 But how do we know a woman represented here when looking in 38:31 Bible prophecy, how do we know it's the church or 38:33 God's church particularly? 38:34 Well, we're just going to go through a few texts 38:36 and look at that. And the text we're going to go to next 38:38 is in II Corinthians chapter 11. 38:41 II Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 2. 38:44 Now which way are we going to go to get to II Corinthians? 38:46 To the left. How far? 38:48 Still in the New Testament. It's still in the New Testament. 38:51 You know, it may be easier for some people if you just go 38:53 to the New Testament and go Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 38:56 Acts, Romans, Corinthians. 38:58 So that's the easiest way to do it for some people 39:00 is just start at the book of Matthew. 39:02 Go to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 39:04 and then the Corinthians. 39:05 And we're going to II Corinthians so you have to 39:07 go through the whole first book of Corinthians 39:08 and get into the second book of Corinthians. 39:10 II Corinthians chapter 11 39:15 and verse 2. 39:18 This is... this is Paul speaking here: 39:20 Um, Tim, go ahead brother. 39:24 Have I already picked on you yet today? No. 39:26 OK, I didn't think I had so you read 39:28 II Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 2 for us. 39:30 OK. "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. 39:34 For I have espoused you to one husband 39:38 that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. " 39:41 So Paul here... speaking to the Corinthians... 39:44 he's really jealous over them, right? 39:47 He wants them to be pure, be ready, 39:49 and to be prepared for Christ when He comes. 39:52 He wants them to be true to Christ. 39:54 And he says: "I am jealous over you as like a chaste virgin. " 39:57 In other words, you're going to be the spouse of Jesus Christ 40:00 and I want you to be pure. I want you to have the truth of 40:02 God's Word and I want you to be pure. 40:04 So I have espoused you to the husband 40:07 and I want to present you to Christ. 40:09 So he's representing the church here as a woman 40:11 who is pure and ready for Christ. 40:14 And just this morning in our morning worship here 40:16 you remember we looked at the parable in Matthew chapter 25 40:19 of the 10 virgins. 40:21 Right? And they were pure and they all had the truth 40:24 there with God's Word, in other words, in the parable. 40:25 They had God's truth because they were pure with no... 40:28 Undefiled. They didn't have any defilement in their doctrine 40:30 because they were the virgins. 40:32 And they took the lamps with them which is the Bible. 40:34 They had the oil - the Holy Spirit. 40:36 Right? And they went out to meet the bridegroom. 40:38 And so he's comparing God's people or those following God 40:41 even there to women going out to meet the bridegroom. 40:44 And you find that illustration time and again. 40:47 Another text you can go to if you want to just make 40:49 a little note here is in Ephesians chapter 5. 40:51 I'll go ahead and read that one. 40:52 From Corinthians how do we find Ephesians? 40:54 Two more books over, isn't it? 40:56 Corinthians and then Galatians and then Ephesians. 41:00 Galtians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians 41:02 after that. So we're going to now to Ephesians 41:06 and we're going to look at chapter 5 41:08 verses 31 through 33. And we're going to 41:11 look this through just a little bit more now. 41:13 This is just an alternate text you can use in the study. 41:16 It's not one that's like in the study or anything like that. 41:19 It's just something extra to show a little more about 41:22 a woman and what the relationship of God is 41:25 to the church or the woman. 41:26 Does that make any sense? 41:27 So let's look at this relation- ship and how it plays out. 41:30 Ephesians chapter 5 and verses 31 through 33. 41:37 He says: "For this cause... " I'll go ahead and read it... 41:40 "For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother 41:42 and shall be joined to his wife. " 41:45 He'll leave his father and mother and be joined 41:46 to his wife. "And they two shall be one flesh. 41:51 This is a great mystery... " 41:53 But look what he says: "but I speak concerning 41:55 Christ and the church. " 41:57 So he compares the marriage of a man and a woman 41:59 to the marriage of Christ with His church. 42:01 Look at the next verse: 42:03 "Nevertheless let every one of you in particular 42:08 so love his wife even as himself 42:10 and the wife see she reverence her husband. " 42:12 So he says this is a comparison to Christ and His church. 42:15 And he says: "Let the wife reverence her husband. " 42:18 Right? Isn't that interesting? 42:20 And then let the church reverence her husband who is... 42:23 You see the comparison there? 42:25 The woman as compared to the church once again 42:29 reverencing her husband... Christ. 42:31 Just like the woman, you know, in the home should be that way. 42:33 And I know that's another subject all together again, 42:36 you know. But you know what? God's true church - 42:39 God's remnant - will also be teaching these very same truths 42:43 that seem so politically incorrect today. 42:46 Stepping on some dangerous ground, aren't I? 42:49 I'll just keep my foot out of my mouth and we'll move on. 42:51 All right. So according to what we looked at here in 42:54 II Corinthians 11 and verse 2 42:56 Christ compares His church to a chaste virgin. 43:00 Totally pure. You know, you think of the purity... 43:02 When you think of a wedding, the... 43:07 the woman, what's her name? the bride. 43:09 The bride, yeah. The bride... she wears white 43:11 in the wedding, doesn't she? Right? 43:12 Unless it's her second marriage and then it's not appropriate 43:15 to wear white, is it? 43:16 And you notice that, right? 43:18 Like in our culture here that when a woman gets married 43:21 a second time she's not supposed to wear the white. 43:23 You know, somebody's out there going: "Well I did when I 43:25 got married again. " Well maybe you didn't know 43:26 or maybe you just were going against tradition. 43:27 But traditionally you don't because... 43:29 the white represents the purity of the woman as she's 43:33 coming into the marriage relationship with her husband, 43:35 you know, with the first husband. It was the first time. 43:37 That's why they wear the white. 43:39 And so Jesus here... Paul here reflecting on the church 43:42 says: "This church needs to be like that pure virgin, 43:45 that pure bride that's going to get married to Christ. " 43:49 There's no defilement. 43:50 There's no defilement of doctrines or anything like that. 43:53 Are you following? 43:55 OK. Well, let's continue on. 43:57 Now that we've looked here in Revelation 44:00 over in the book of Revelation chapter 12 and verse 1 44:05 we read and studied there that God compared His church 44:09 to a woman - this woman - that, that... 44:11 And by the way, you look at this woman and she has on nothing 44:13 other than the things, the beauty that God has given her. 44:15 God created the moon; she is standing on the moon. 44:18 God created the stars; she has this crown of stars, right? 44:21 And God created the sun; the sun's shining. 44:23 All this stuff is natural beauty from God's nature... 44:27 what God has given her, right? 44:28 So she's reflecting the light of God's truth and God's purity. 44:32 That's this woman. 44:34 So if we're looking at the remnant church, 44:36 what are we going to be looking for here? 44:37 We're going to be looking for those that are reflecting 44:40 the character of God. 44:41 We're going to be looking for a church that's teaching 44:44 the purity of the gospel, the purity of God's Word. 44:47 And so let us carry on to our next text. 44:50 And our next one is in Revelation chapter 12 44:52 and we're just continuing on with what we read 44:53 starting in verse 2. 44:54 Revelation chapter 12. Now from... 44:57 That's just the last book of the Bible; 44:58 we should all be able to find that one by now, shouldn't we? 45:00 Revelation chapter 12, and we're going to read verses 2 through 6 45:04 and then verse 13. 45:06 Now speaking of this woman... Now remember, this is symbolism 45:08 here. We know it's symbolism because what is said in verse 1 45:11 that there "appeared a great wonder or a sign in heaven. " 45:15 Sign means that it was a great... It's a vision 45:18 or it's a symbol of all these things. 45:19 We know this woman is a symbol... 45:21 not literally a real woman. How do we know that? 45:23 Because she's standing on the moon. 45:27 Because she has stars around her head. 45:29 You know, a literal woman... I mean, I guess 45:31 we could send a woman to the moon and she could stand there 45:33 and we could claim fulfillment of that. 45:34 But obviously this is symbolism as we'll find out. 45:38 As we read the rest of it, you can see the rest of the symbols. 45:40 Let us start, pick it up now in verse 2. 45:43 Um, I'm going to pick somebody to read that hasn't read yet. 45:47 Mike, have you read today? OK. Darlene, have you read today? 45:50 How about Bill? OK, Bill. 45:53 Revelation chapter 12. 45:54 Bill, I want you to read verses 2 through 6 45:56 and I may, it's possible, 45:58 get inspired and stop you 46:00 at some point. yeah. So don't be angry with me. 46:03 All right, go ahead. 46:05 "Then being with child she cried out in labor 46:08 and in pain to give birth. 46:09 And another sign appeared in heaven... " 46:12 Another what? Sign. There was another sign in heaven. 46:14 OK. A Sign or a symbol, right? Carry on. 46:16 "Behold, a great fiery red dragon having seven heads, 46:20 ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads... " 46:24 All right, Bill. I want to ask you a question. 46:25 Can I ask you a question. Yes. 46:27 Do you think that this great red dragon 46:30 with the seven heads and the ten horns 46:31 is literal or symbolic? 46:33 Symbolic. So it's likely since we're listing all these things, 46:36 as we're reading through these symbolic... that the woman 46:39 would be symbolic also. Right. 46:40 OK. The reason I'm dragging this out right here 46:43 at point because some people do have an issue with this. 46:45 They say: "No, this is literally Mary. 46:46 and Mary was standing on the moon. " That kind of thing. 46:49 But we're seeing the symbolism all through. 46:50 You can't have part of a vision being symbolic 46:52 and part of it being literal. 46:54 You know, it's either symbolic or literal 46:55 as it goes through here. Carry on. 46:57 "And another sign appeared in heaven. 47:00 Behold... " I already read that. 47:02 "His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven 47:05 and threw them to the earth. 47:06 And the dragon stood before the woman 47:08 who was ready to give birth to devour the child 47:10 as soon as it was born. 47:13 She bore a male child who was to rule all nations 47:16 with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God 47:19 and His throne. " I want to stop you there again. 47:23 Did he succeed in ruling all nations with a rod of iron? 47:26 The man child? No. 47:28 Not yet He hasn't, has He? 47:30 'Cause that's speaking of who? That child being born... 47:33 who is it speaking of? Has been speaking of Jesus, right? 47:36 And so Jesus just comes... He comes out to deliver 47:40 and He delivers the captives, right? But He's not ruling 47:41 with a rod of iron. When does Jesus rule? 47:45 At the second coming. 47:47 Right. At the second coming He destroys the wicked 47:49 and the righteous reign with Him. We read that in the Bible. 47:52 They'll be reigning with Him then, but right now 47:54 we're still in this battle. The war is going on. 47:56 So the fight is going on. That's what we're going to find 47:58 as you go through this symbolism here as you read through this: 48:00 that this battle is still raging between the serpent... 48:03 And after the man child... As you will read here, 48:04 the man child is taken up to heaven. 48:06 Then the serpent attacks who? 48:08 The woman. He attacks the woman... 48:11 and that would be God's people. Because he can no longer reach 48:13 the man, now he's going to be attacking the woman. 48:16 Keep reading. All right. 48:17 "Then the woman fled into the wilderness 48:19 where she had a place prepared by God 48:22 that she should feed her 1,260 days. " 48:26 OK. Now, how long would she have a place prepared 48:29 and be fed for? 1,260 days. 48:32 Do you remember how our study that we had back in 48:33 Daniel about the 1,260 days? 48:35 That's the time... what we call the Dark Ages. 48:37 From what time frame? 538 AD to 1798 AD. 48:41 During that time frame, the church would be into hiding. 48:44 You notice that the church is in the wilderness. 48:46 The wilderness would indicate that that would be a... 48:49 hiding place. Like if I go out and I 48:50 run out here in one of these orange groves here 48:53 and I'm out there hiding in the wilderness area out there 48:55 and it is like a wilderness. If you've seen... I've seen 48:57 wild boars out there and alligators and things. 48:59 I wouldn't want to be out there tonight especially alone, right? 49:02 But if I'm hiding in the wilder- ness, likely you can't find me. 49:04 And if actually I went and did it you'd probably never 49:06 find me again. 49:07 I'd probably disappear and be eaten by something. 49:09 But this church... God's church here... 49:11 it's going to be hiding in the wilderness for 1,260 years. 49:14 Here's the question I want to pose to you, 49:15 I want you to think about: God's remnant church - 49:17 His people - are they going to be visibly on the scene 49:20 during the Dark Ages? No, they're going to be, 49:23 according to the text we looked at, for 1,260 years 49:25 they're going to be in hiding. 49:27 OK. Now some people may be saying: "How do you 49:30 get out of the one thousand two hundred and three score days 49:34 how can you say that that's 1,260 years? 49:36 And we went over this before and we'll go over it again 49:38 in the study. When you look at the Bible, in Bible prophecy 49:41 you have a day is equal to a year in Bible prophecy 49:43 when you look at the... when Bible prophecy is symbolic 49:47 and you have the symbolism going on there. 49:48 You can take a day - an actual day in prophecy 49:51 is a literal year in reality. 49:53 And we'll show you the examples of that again. 49:55 We'll go to that in just a minute. 49:56 But I want you to be thinking about this. 49:58 Think about what's taking place here. 50:00 The church is in hiding for 1,260 years. 50:05 It's not on the scene. 50:07 It's not going to be where everybody knows it's there 50:09 and sees it. So God's remnant church is going to have to 50:12 come up sometimes after... onto the scene... 50:16 some time after 1798 AD. 50:17 Are you following that? That's going to be one of the 50:19 identifying characteristics. Now let us go to right now 50:21 and look. Where do we get the day for a year in Bible prophecy 50:24 at? I want to go over this again for a couple of reasons. 50:27 One is we've only done it once in this whole series 50:30 and if somebody's missed that part of the DVD 50:32 or that part of the series they may wonder 50:34 what in the world we're talking about. 50:35 And another is I just like doing it. 50:36 And so Ezekiel 4:6 50:40 is one of those or are one of those places... 50:43 is one of those places. Am I saying that correctly? 50:44 It doesn't matter in Kentucky. 50:46 Ezekiel 4:6. 50:51 That's one of those. 50:53 And that's the only one I have on the screen. 50:55 I'm going to ask the class here to give me the other two. 50:57 That's why that's left off. 50:58 Yeah, I'm going to ask the class to give me the other two 51:00 that we have. One's in the New Testament; 51:02 another one in the Old Testament. Let us read 51:03 Ezekiel 4:6 first to show that when you're talking 51:06 prophetically that one day is equal to a literal year. 51:10 And Robert, would you like to read that one? 51:13 OK. 51:22 "And when you have completed them, lie again on your right 51:25 side. Then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 51:30 40 days, and I have laid on you a day for each year. " 51:36 So He says because of what's going on here, 51:39 because of what you've done, 51:41 I'm going to give you for each day that I've talked to you 51:45 about here you're going to also have to spend a year. 51:47 Each day for a year. Now if you want another one 51:48 that I like really well in the Old Testament - 51:50 one that is a story in a story that I like preaching about - 51:54 is when the children of Israel were getting ready to go 51:55 into the Promised Land and Moses sent out the spies. 51:58 And he sent them out. How long did the spies go out 52:00 into the land? Forty days. 52:02 And they come back and they're getting ready to go into the 52:04 Promised Land; getting ready to take the Promised Land. 52:06 Obviously they're going to be ready to go, right? 52:09 Well there were a couple of them that were ready. 52:10 You had Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb. 52:12 And the rest of the congregation said: "No, we don't want to go 52:14 into the Promised Land... it's too hard. " 52:16 And they rebelled. 52:17 And God said: "Because of your rebellion... " 52:19 Numbers chapter 14... "Because of your rebellion 52:21 you spent 40 days spying out the land... 52:24 now you can go into the wilderness for 40 years... 52:26 each day for a year. " 52:28 So He's giving symbolism there, right? 52:30 For every day you actually spent there, now you're going to 52:32 spend a year in the wilderness 52:34 waiting before you can go into the Promised Land. 52:36 How disheartening that would have been. 52:38 And that was found in Numbers 14:34. 52:40 If you want to read it, from Ezekiel 52:41 which direction would we go? 52:43 To the left. How far? 52:45 Actually, to find the book of Numbers it's easier to start 52:48 at the beginning of your Bible, isn't it? 52:49 Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. 52:53 OK, you got it. Numbers chapter 14 53:00 and verse 34. 53:02 Numbers chapter 14 verse 34. 53:05 And Danielle, would you like to read that one for us? 53:10 You haven't read yet, have you? 53:13 I didn't think so. Numbers 14:34 please. 53:16 "After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, 53:19 even 40 days - each day for a year - 53:21 shall ye bear your iniquities... even 40 years. 53:24 And ye shall know My breach of promise. " 53:27 Very good. So each day for a year. 53:29 Now somebody... some of you guys are going to be saying: 53:31 "Why are we going over this again? " 53:32 You know what repetition does? 53:33 It deepens impression. 53:35 Like, you'll remember this. You'll start remembering 53:37 where these texts are and everything. 53:38 And the more you go over it the better you'll be 53:40 at remembering it. And it's very key because 53:42 this is one of the foundational understandings of how to 53:44 understand Bible prophecy is the fact that you're able to 53:46 find the texts and understand why we believe what we believe. 53:51 Why do you believe each day for a year in Bible prophecy? 53:53 It's because we have the Bible principle. 53:55 What's the other Bible principle? Where's it at? 53:57 Does anybody remember? It's in the New Testament. 53:58 Luke chapter 13 and verse 31. 54:03 Jesus Himself uses a day for a year in Bible prophecy. 54:05 And I think we're going to have time to get through this one 54:07 before we have to take a break. 54:08 And then we'll pick up in the 2nd half of the Remnant Church 54:11 and look at the rest of the identifying characteristics. 54:12 Luke chapter 13. I love this one very much. 54:16 Starting in verse 31. 54:18 I'm going to read this one because I like putting the 54:20 emphasis in. 54:22 Sometimes when you read the stories in the Bible 54:24 you kind of imagine what's going on. 54:26 It adds something to... to it for yourself. 54:30 You know? You really put yourself there, 54:31 and I can picture this happening almost, you know. 54:33 John the Baptist had lost his head 54:35 and so everybody was kind of afraid that Jesus was going to 54:37 happen... the same thing was going to happen to Him. 54:39 That Herod was going to have His head taken off, too. 54:41 And so it says in verse 31: 54:43 "The same day there came certain Pharisees 54:45 saying unto Him: " Jesus... 54:47 "Get out and depart because Herod's going to kill you. " 54:49 "And Jesus said to them: 54:52 you go tell that fox... " 54:54 Is this literal or symbolic? 54:56 How do you know? Because Herod is not really a fox. 54:59 So Jesus here is speaking like in prophetic terms. 55:02 Isn't He? So... "You go tell that fox 55:04 'Behold, I cast out devils 55:06 and I do cures today and tomorrow and the third day 55:10 I shall be perfected. 55:11 Nevertheless, I must walk today, 55:13 and tomorrow, and the day following 55:15 for it cannot be that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem. ' " 55:18 Specifically, what was it that Jesus was talking about 55:21 happening to Him here when He said that it cannot be 55:23 that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem? 55:25 He's talking about His death. 55:26 Now from this point, did Jesus' ministry last only 55:29 3-1/2 more... the rest of that day, 55:32 the next day, and then He perished the next day? 55:34 Is that how long His ministry lasted from this point? 55:36 No. And if you do a little research here... 55:39 you know, you find in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and 55:41 Luke, they're not really in order. 55:44 You know what I'm saying? They're not really in order 55:45 of... as the way the events happened... but John's is. 55:48 When you get to the gospel of John it's kind of in order. 55:49 It shows like this year, this year, this year, this year. 55:51 But these first three gospels here aren't really like that. 55:54 So it's interesting. The estimate here, I mean, 55:57 you just kind of figure by the stories that are taking place 55:58 what happens after this and before this 56:00 that He was about toward the end of His fir... 56:04 Let's see, would it be like the rest of that year... 56:06 the end of the second year of His ministry 56:09 or toward the end of it. 56:10 So it would have been the rest of that year - His 2nd year. 56:12 It would have been all of His 3rd year; 56:14 and then as you go into the 4th year, what happened to Jesus? 56:18 He was crucified, right? 56:19 So it was the rest of this year, today. 56:22 Next year... tomorrow. 56:24 And then the third day He says "I'll be perfected. " 56:27 And He's talking about His crucifixion. 56:29 Obviously His ministry didn't last just a couple more days 56:31 from this point but it lasted a couple more years. 56:34 So it's interesting that He uses that statement, isn't it? 56:36 Jesus Himself uses a day for a year when talking 56:38 about Bible prophecy. And so 56:40 my saying is with this: 56:42 "If it's good enough for Jesus 56:43 it's good enough for me. " 56:45 And so we have those examples 56:46 when we're talking prophetically 56:48 or we're talking symbolically 56:49 of using a day for a year in Bible prophecy. 56:51 Now we're going to cut it right here 56:53 and we're going to come back. After our break here 56:55 we're going to come back and do part 2 of the Remnant Church 56:57 when we get into the rest of the identifying characteristics. 56:59 And we're going to find out that God does have a remnant 57:01 church in these last days. 57:03 Now if you would like to get more information 57:05 and you would like to catch up with this study 57:07 or you're picking up right in the middle of this 57:08 or you want to find out more information just about 57:11 the Lay Institute for Evangelism 57:12 you can visit our website at www.ComeExperienceLife.com 57:17 where you can actually download the study guides here 57:20 or you can watch the videos of any of these classes 57:24 that are going on here. By the time you are watching this 57:26 we're probably... the classes have ended for the fall session 57:30 of 2009. But we'll also have the spring session coming 57:33 in 2010, and you're welcome to come to that. 57:35 So I just want to thank you all for being with us here today 57:37 and we hope to see you again next time here 57:39 at LIFE: The Lay Institute for Evangelism. |
Revised 2014-12-17