Participants: Pr. Brian McMahon
Series Code: RSH
Program Code: RSH000019
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00:09 The escalation of global terrorism, crime, immorality
00:12 and natural disasters, seems to indicate our world 00:15 is spiraling towards its ultimate hour with destiny. 00:18 Who, if anyone, will survive Earth's final events? 00:21 Discover what Bible prophecy reveals about the rapture, 00:24 the mark of the beast, and Armageddon. 00:26 Though shrouded in mystery for centuries, 00:28 the book of Revelation can be understood today. 00:32 Peer into the future, and see what wonderful things 00:35 God has planned for His people. 00:38 And now, Pastor Brian McMahon presents the powerful 00:41 Bible seminar "Revelation Speaks Hope". 00:46 Our subject for this evening is: [text on screen] 00:51 The dictionary of Christianity in America says that the US 00:56 is currently the home of more than 1500 different kinds 01:01 of churches, denominations, religious societies. 01:04 There are literally thousands of different kinds of churches. 01:08 With all the different churches in the land, and with each 01:11 church door open, with each church pastor saying 01:15 "This is the way, come follow us", certainly you can see 01:18 why the average person might be confused. 01:21 In the book of Acts 2:47 we read these words, it says 01:26 [text on screen] 01:34 So people can see when a person is baptized, the Lord wants 01:37 to add you to the church, but the question is: what church? 01:41 With all these different array of churches, with all these 01:44 different kinds of structures, different creeds, different 01:47 teachings, different doctrines per se, a person will wonder: 01:51 how in the world can anyone every figure out where to go 01:55 and worship? What is the most sought after 01:58 secret in the Bible? It is simply this: 02:01 of all the different churches in the land, what church would 02:04 Jesus join if He was to come to this city tonight? 02:07 According to Time Magazine, religions are absolutely 02:10 exploding in this country. One particular article 02:14 said this: [text on screen] 02:37 Those are some interesting names, aren't they? 02:40 Again, the average person is very confused about where 02:43 to go, and they give all kinds of reasons as to why 02:46 they go there. You see the different names 02:48 that are out there, you see them in the phone book, 02:51 and a person looks in the phone book and they say: 02:54 "My, it's an absolute crazy variety of choices." 02:56 Some people have told me that they, when they want to go 02:59 to church they open up the phone book, close their eyes 03:02 and put their finger down and when they open up their eyes, 03:04 whatever their finger's pointing to, that's where they're 03:07 going to go. Why do we go to church 03:10 in a particular place? Look at 1 Timothy 3:15, 03:13 it says this: [text on screen] 03:28 We don't go there because of how eloquent the pastor preaches, 03:31 we go there because we believe that the truth of God 03:34 is found in the word of God, and we have found a group 03:37 of people, men, and women and young people who are 03:40 teaching according to the word of God. 03:43 Listen to me carefully, those of you who are parents can 03:46 especially relate to what I'm about to share. 03:48 If your child came home from school one day and said 03:52 "Mom, Dad, I sure learned a lot in class today", 03:55 and you say "Well, tell me about it", and so your child 03:58 says "Well, I learned that 2+2 is 5, and I learned" 04:02 "that the capital of France is London, and the capital" 04:06 "of England is Paris." Wouldn't you kind of look 04:10 side ways and say "Now hang on a minute here," 04:14 "I don't think I want you being taught those things." 04:17 "I don't think I want you learning falsehood." 04:22 I think that you'd have a very clear talk with that school 04:25 and if they didn't straighten out the situation, you would 04:28 be gone from there and your children would be gone 04:31 from there. You know that that is true, 04:33 parents would not stand for a moment for their children 04:36 to be taught falsehood in school, that's the secular 04:40 sense, why is it that people are so content to often 04:43 being taught things that they know are false in the spiritual 04:46 sense, and it's in the spiritual sense that we should be 04:49 more concerned about because that concerns our eternal life. 04:52 So I hope we can easily see that there are good reasons 04:57 why we should be carefully considering the church 05:00 that we go to. Sometimes people will say 05:03 "Oh well, it doesn't really matter, you can make" 05:05 "the Bible say anything you want it to say." 05:08 Have you ever heard that one? 05:11 You might have even said it yourself, I don't know, 05:13 it's a tempting thing to do because a lot of people 05:16 say that "Well, you can make the Bible say anything you want" 05:19 "to say", friends, let me tell you something, 05:22 the Bible scholar knows that the Bible does not contradict 05:24 itself, and it is not that the Bible is confusing, it is only 05:27 when people take things out of context and twist the Bible 05:29 that you can make it appear to say contradictory things. 05:32 No one is going to appear in the judgment before 05:35 the Most High God, and when they're answering before, 05:37 why they did things, say to God "Well, you can make" 05:40 "the Bible say anything you want it to say." 05:43 Well, Jesus has an answer for that in John 8:32, 05:45 and here it says in the words of Jesus: [text on screen] 05:53 So can you know the truth according to the words 05:56 of Jesus Christ? Yes you can. 05:58 I don't want any "maybe"s to hang my eternal life on, 06:02 I don't any "I guess so"s, I don't want any "perhaps"s, 06:07 I want to know the truth so the truth can set me free. 06:11 Dear friends, error is enslaving, and that's why 06:15 we need to know truth so the truth can set us free. 06:19 Free from what? Free from the deceptions 06:21 and the sins that come from the evil one. 06:24 John 7:17 is our text now, the Bible says this: 06:29 "If any man" - that means "if any person", [text on screen] 06:35 Doctrine there means "teaching", [continues to read text] 06:40 Jesus is saying if any person will do His will, that's 06:43 the key point, this is the crucial point. 06:47 If a person is willing to do the will of God, Jesus says you 06:50 will know what teaching is true, and of course, that means 06:54 what teaching is not true. Why? Because they have 06:57 a teachable mind, but what Jesus is saying is you will 07:02 know the truth if you are willing to practice the truth, 07:06 and if you are willing to practice the truth you are 07:09 going to know what is right and what is not right. 07:12 In other words, the Christian with an open heart says 07:14 "God, I am willing to make the necessary changes in my life." 07:19 If we're not willing to make the necessary changes, if we insist 07:22 on having things the way they always were, our minds 07:25 will rationalize away the truth and we'll walk away from it. 07:29 Why? Well, because as they say, 07:32 there are hooks to hang your doubts on if you're looking 07:34 for them. God has given us all the truth 07:38 that we need if we want to believe, but if we don't want 07:41 to believe, the Devil is always there to supply the doubt. 07:46 One of the biggest problems that we have is that so many 07:48 people do not love the truth when God brings the truth. 07:52 In 2 Thessalonians 2 the Bible says that many people 07:56 will be lost because they did not receive the love of 07:58 the truth that they might be saved. 08:01 Friends, it's important that when God shows His truth 08:03 we say "Lord, change my heart". 08:07 One of the biggest problems we have in the Christian world 08:09 is what I call the "God says, but I think" syndrome. 08:13 You see, there are 2 groups in the Bible, and the Bible 08:16 describes them in many ways: the saved and the lost, 08:19 truth and error, broad road, narrow road, and these kinds 08:21 of ways, there's another way that the Bible describes 08:24 these 2 groups and that is sheep and goats. 08:27 Sheep are known for following the master, aren't they? 08:29 The master leads, the shepherd leads and the sheep follow; 08:32 Jesus is the Good Shepherd. What are goats known for? 08:35 Aren't goats always known for butting? 08:38 It's a rebellious kind of symbol because they're 08:41 always butting, butting against the flow. 08:43 When people say "I know what the Bible say, but...", 08:47 that's the "God says, but I think" syndrome. 08:50 "I know what the day of worship in Scripture is, but I'm" 08:53 "more comfortable doing what I've been doing." 08:56 "I know that alcohol is destroying my relationship" 08:59 "with God, but I want to do it anyway." 09:02 Now, there is an eternal principle that I want to share 09:04 with you, and that is that: [text on screen] 09:14 Someone will always say "Wait a minute pastor, are you saying" 09:17 "that you have to find a particular church?" 09:20 "Isn't God's church some kind of invisible body?" 09:22 Well friends, I'm going to share with you what it says. 09:25 Ephesians 4:4,5, here Scripture says: [text on screen] 09:40 "One Lord, 900 Faiths, and one baptism." 09:44 - [Audience] One. - Oh, I'm so glad you corrected 09:46 me there. How many faiths does it say? 09:49 One faith, and that's Biblical faith, that's why we want 09:52 to make sure we find out the right faith. 09:55 In the Bible Paul makes an analogy in 1 Corinthians, 09:58 he says just as the human body has a brain, and a mind, 10:01 and gives signals to the church, Jesus is the head, 10:05 and all the other parts make up the body, the various members, 10:09 so we find that the human body has the head and it has 10:13 the various parts to it. Now, friends I want to really 10:17 help you to think, if the brain gives mixed signals 10:22 to the body, the body's in trouble, isn't it? 10:25 The brain can't the right leg to go right and at the same time 10:27 as telling the left leg to go left, it can't do that. 10:31 It's got to give simple, consistent, clear messages 10:35 or the body is not going to function right. 10:37 Now, is the Holy Spirit going to say to this church 10:40 over here: Listen, you go to church on Sunday and you" 10:42 "believe one thing on death, and you believe the hell fire" 10:45 "is for eternity, and you believe one thing on the gifts" 10:47 "of the Spirit", and then turn around and say to this church 10:50 over here "Now you believe everyday is holy, and it" 10:53 "doesn't matter what day you go to church, and you believe" 10:56 "another thing on the gifts of the Spirit, and you believe" 10:58 "another thing on end time events, and you believe" 11:01 "something else on the Antichrist", and then turn 11:04 to this church over here and say "Now you go on the Bible day" 11:06 "because that's right too, and you believe in a certain" 11:09 "thing on death...", is God the author of confusion? 11:12 [Audience] No. Friends, you can't lay that 11:14 at the feet of the Holy Spirit. If God has a church 11:17 how can we find it? I want quick to say tonight 11:20 that God has wonderful sincere people in all different kinds 11:23 of churches and backgrounds. There are wonderful Methodist 11:25 Christians, and wonderful Baptist Christians, 11:28 and wonderful Lutheran Christians, and there are 11:30 wonderful Presbyterian Christians, but just because 11:33 these churches have many sincere people that worship God and 11:35 serve Jesus Christ as best they know, it doesn't mean that God 11:38 approves of everything they do, it doesn't mean that God 11:41 approves of everything their church teaches, it just means 11:44 that these are truly God's sheep and God honors what they do 11:48 when they don't have any knowledge other than that. 11:51 But nevertheless, God has always desired to bring people 11:54 from a position of lack of understanding, to a position 11:58 of understanding. For example: 12:01 in the New Testament we find the story of Philip and the Eunuch, 12:07 one of my favorite stories. Here is a man, he has a deep 12:10 desire in his heart for religion and he's crossing back from 12:13 Jerusalem to his home land, he has a desire to worship God, 12:17 but he lacks understanding. Does God let him just go back 12:19 to his home land without any understanding and saying 12:21 "Well, he's going to make it anyway"? No. 12:23 What does God do? He takes the time to send Philip 12:27 all the way out into the dessert to reach that one man 12:30 and teach him more about Jesus. We have the story of Cornelius, 12:35 here again, he's a gentile man, but he has a sincere desire 12:37 in his heart to serve, and God, and I'm sure he loves God 12:40 in his own way, does God leave him like that? 12:43 No, God sends Peter over to his house that he can instruct 12:45 him more faithfully in the way of truth. 12:48 So it is always God's desire to take people who are sincere 12:52 and who do love him, and lead them to a visible group, 12:55 in other words, take them from the so called 12:58 "invisible church" and lead them to the visible church that can 13:00 better lead them in the way of salvation. 13:03 This has always been the way of God. 13:05 We go back into the Old Testament times, God has had 13:08 people that are faithful to Him and desire to serve Him, 13:11 we go all the way back to the days of Noah. 13:14 Back in the days of Noah was a man of faith, Noah was a man 13:16 of obedience, Noah was a man of allegiance to heaven. 13:20 Turn with me to Genesis 26, we're going to do a little 13:23 bit of a history lesson here. Genesis 26:5, what made 13:28 Abraham a special leader for God? The answer comes 13:31 in verse 5: [text on screen] 13:41 God called Abraham and Abraham was obedient, he was loyal, 13:45 he was faithful, he was obedient to what God asked him to do. 13:49 Therefore, he became the father of the nation of Israel. 13:53 Okay, that was back in the days of Abraham. 13:56 Abraham, of course, was the father of this nation, 13:59 and Israel was the result of it, but remember now, Israel 14:02 started off wanting to serve the Lord, let's go to the book 14:06 of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy 7:6. 14:13 God called Abraham, but Abraham was only 1 person, he certainly 14:18 was 1 out of a lot of people that did not want to serve God, 14:21 but God desired more than could serve him, so Deuteronomy 7:6, 14:28 speaking of Israel it says: [text on screen] 14:58 Do you remember how I've been saying to you all these nights 15:01 that these 2 things go together, love and obedience, and that 15:04 we would see it a number of times, and we have; 15:07 we saw in the book of Exodus, we've seen it in other books 15:09 of the Bible that God says "I keep covenant", that means 15:12 "I am in a special relationship with those that love Me enough" 15:15 "to keep My commandments", that's John 14:15. 15:18 So here we see it again. What made Israel God's people? 15:23 It wasn't their size, He says "You were the smallest group," 15:26 "but I chose you anyway because I keep covenant with those" 15:29 "that want to love Me and obey Me." 15:32 So here you look at what happened to Israel, 15:35 now Israel, they had their moments of obedience, but 15:37 they drifted off, they started to rebel, they started to break 15:41 God's commandments, and eventually things got to 15:43 the point where He allowed them to go into Babylonian captivity. 15:46 But even though they were there some 70 years, eventually 15:50 He drew back out a people that did want to love and serve Him. 15:53 Let's go look at the book of Haggai 1:12: [text on screen] 16:06 "remnant" - this is a new word for us, we're going 16:09 to see it again, "...obeyed the voice of" 16:13 "the Lord their God" [text on screen] 16:20 So here is that group that has come out of Babylonian 16:23 captivity, it's not the larger group, the larger group 16:26 stayed behind in Babylon, but it is a group, nevertheless, 16:28 that feared the Lord, and it says that they obeyed the voice 16:31 of the Lord their God. So again, we've got a group 16:34 that wants to be loyal. We have a group here that wants 16:36 to be faithful, and God coins a term for that group 16:39 and that term is "remnant", now keep that in mind as we 16:42 go through the rest of this study tonight. 16:45 Now, you know the story, Israel continued to drift 16:47 away from God, things got awfully dark, spiritually 16:51 speaking, and finally God sent Jesus into the world. 16:54 In the days of Jesus, though the vast majority did reject Him, 16:59 still, did God have some that could be influenced for right? 17:03 Some that did want to obey what was right? 17:06 Let's go back into the New Testament again, let's go 17:09 to Romans this time, Romans 11:4,5 says this: 17:12 [text on screen] 17:20 That's referring back to the days of Elijah, then Paul says: 17:23 [text on screen] 17:31 There's a remnant, in other words there still is a group, 17:35 not the biggest group, not the most popular group, but there is 17:39 a group that will not serve the idols of the pagans, 17:44 they want to do what's right. The word "remnant" is 17:46 an interesting word, it comes from our English word "remain", 17:50 [text on screen] 17:52 So what we're looking at here is that down through the ages 17:56 God has had a group of people, the visible group may not 18:01 be necessarily the faithful group, it may not be 18:07 necessarily the group that God is the one that's leading, 18:12 but God will have a people throughout history that do 18:15 desire to serve Him. If God had a remnant 18:19 in the Old Testament times, if God had a remnant in the days 18:22 of Abraham, if God had a remnant in the days of Deuteronomy, 18:26 if God had a remnant in the days of Haggai, if God had 18:29 a remnant in the days of the apostle Paul, wouldn't God 18:32 have a remnant down at the end of time before Jesus returns? 18:35 If you could think of 1 book of the Bible that would describe 18:39 that group, what book of the Bible would that be? 18:41 If you could just take a guess that would describe God's 18:44 last day people, it would probably be the book of what? 18:48 Revelation, that's right. Let's turn there, 18:51 Revelation 12:6, it says: "And the woman fled into" 18:54 "the wilderness where she has a place prepared of God," 18:58 "that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred" 19:02 "and three score days", now in Bible prophecy 1 prophetic 19:05 day equals 1 literal year. So we're looking at the woman 19:09 fleeing for 1260 years, and we recognize that is the time 19:13 of the Papal reign from 538-1798. 19:18 Now listen to me closely, the church of God during 19:22 the wilderness time was not the highly visible church, it was 19:27 in obscurity, the church was in hiding, faithful men 19:32 and faithful women wanted to keep the lamp of truth burning 19:36 and they had to go underground to do that. 19:39 In the 3rd and the 4th centuries church and state 19:41 started to unite, and as church and state started to unite 19:45 compromise came in, and the real Christians, the ones that 19:50 really wanted to follow God had to cling tightly to what 19:54 they had been taught in Scripture. 19:56 In the book of Jude 3 we read this: [text on screen] 20:13 How did these faithful Christians do that? 20:16 They went into hiding by fleeing up into remote villages, 20:19 some of you may have actually gone on trips that show 20:21 these sorts of things, and they fled up into the Italian 20:24 mountains, the French Alps, and there they built little 20:28 communities, communities of faithful men, and women, 20:31 and young people where they could serve God according 20:33 to their own consciences. This next slide, this next 20:36 picture shows you, not a dining room table where people sat 20:39 around and ate, but this is what was called a Bible 20:42 copyist's table. On tables like these, you can 20:45 actually go on tours and go into these dwellings, these 20:48 ancient dwellings, and here they wrote out Scripture, 20:51 they faithfully memorized Scripture, they copied Scripture 20:55 by hand and memorized it until they could repeat it from father 20:57 to son, and father to son, down through time. 21:00 This next one shows us an actual Bible that was written out 21:04 by one of these faithful believers so many years ago. 21:07 All the time that they were doing this, they were persecuted 21:10 for their faith, they had to stand true, the woman, 21:13 as Revelation says, was in hiding, she was 21:17 in the wilderness, and we know that wilderness period of time 21:20 was 538-1798, but eventually that wilderness period was going 21:26 to end, how did it end? We know that Napoleon sent 21:29 his general Berthier down into the Vatican, and there the Pope 21:32 was taken captive, and the wilderness period eventually 21:35 ended. Look with me at Revelation 12:17. 21:42 During the Old Testament times, before we read this verse 21:45 I want to tell you an interesting thing that you may 21:49 or may not have seen from Scripture, I don't know. 21:52 In the Old Testament times queen Jezebel was a wicked 21:56 queen, she was ruling over Israel, and God's professed 22:02 people were under this kind of persecution. 22:07 Elijah, who was a true worshipper of God, 22:11 fled into the wilderness for 3 and a half literal years. 22:17 During the time that he was in the wilderness there was 22:20 a great famine, there was a great drought, and all the time 22:26 that this woman was reigning, this was going on, 22:29 and the true man of God was in hiding, or obscurity, 22:32 in the wilderness, literal wilderness. 22:35 After 3 and a half literal years Elijah came out of 22:38 the wilderness, he took a bold stand for truth 22:42 and he had that great Mt. Carmel experience of the true worship 22:46 versus false worship, and when the showdown was over 22:49 and truth won, then the rain was poured out. 22:53 In the spiritual sense, remember that all of these things 22:56 have dual applications. In Revelation we're told 22:59 that there is going to be a church persecuting, 23:01 and in Revelation it actually calls the church Jezebel. 23:04 During that time, again, God's faithful people are going 23:07 to flee into the wilderness, not necessarily a literal 23:11 wilderness, although that did take place, but it is for 23:14 a symbolic wilderness as well, not for 3 and a half literal 23:17 years, but 3 and a half symbolic years, 1260 days, 23:22 and we know a day for a year in Bible prophecy, so we're 23:25 looking at 1260 years, during that 1260 years they called 23:28 it the Dark Ages, it wasn't dark because the sun didn't shine, 23:33 it was dark because it was spiritually dark. 23:36 Just as Israel was spiritually dark in the Old Testament 23:38 for 3 and a half years, here you've got 1260 years 23:40 of spiritual darkness because the Bible was not in the hands 23:44 of the common person. During that time Jezebel 23:48 reigned over the people. At the end of that time 23:53 we again are going to see a revelation of the church coming 23:57 out of the wilderness, just as Elijah came out of 23:59 the wilderness, a show down between true and false 24:01 worship, and the Holy Spirit is going to be poured out. 24:05 Fantastic parallels here. Okay, Revelation 12:17, 24:11 it says: [text on screen] 24:24 Here's that word "remnant" down at the end of time, 24:27 let's look at the word "remnant" a little more carefully. 24:30 What exactly is this remnant talking about? 24:33 Sometimes ladies have a little more familiarity with that word 24:35 than men because they might actually use it in this sense: 24:39 if a lady would like to make herself a dress, 24:41 and rather than go to JCPenny's or Wards or something, 24:44 they go down and actually buy the cloth because they're 24:47 going to make the dress, talented as they are, 24:49 so they buy this bolt of cloth at the cloth shop, 24:55 and they take it home, and they procrastinate, so they're going 24:58 to put it in the closet, but when they bought cloth 25:01 here's what the cloth looked like, it was purple cloth 25:06 with yellow flowers and pink polka dots, beautiful stuff. 25:13 Now let me see if you've been paying attention: 25:15 what colour was the cloth? Purple. 25:18 What color were the flowers? Yellow. 25:20 And what color were the polka dots? Pink. 25:23 Okay, you've got it. So she takes that beautiful 25:26 cloth home and she puts it in the closet. 25:28 Then that rainy day finally comes when she decides 25:31 she's going to make her dress, she takes the bolt of cloth 25:33 out, she lays it out, puts her pattern over on top of it 25:36 and she realizes "Oh my, I did not buy enough." 25:39 So she says "I've got to go back down to that cloth shop," 25:41 "that exciting place", all the men know what I'm talking about. 25:44 So she goes down to that cloth shop, and there she asks 25:48 the clerk, she says "Can I get some more of that cloth?" 25:52 And the clerk says "Oh, that was a hot seller, we're all out," 25:55 "but you might find some over in the remnant bin.". 25:59 So she goes over the remnant bin and she starts digging 26:01 around, and different bolts of cloth are flying left and right, 26:05 and finally she sees what she's looking for, she reaches her 26:08 hand down there and grabs it out, she's found the remnant. 26:13 What color is the cloth? Purple. 26:15 And what color are the flowers? Yellow. 26:18 And what color are the polka dots? [Audience] Pink. 26:21 That's right. What you're telling me is that 26:23 what's on the remnant part is exactly like the original. 26:26 It's the small part, it comes at the end of the bolt, 26:29 but it's just the same kind of material. 26:31 So what the Bible is telling us by saying that the dragon 26:34 was warring against the remnant, he's saying that this group 26:38 at the end are going to be clinging to the truths 26:40 of Jesus Christ; they're not made-up man traditions, 26:45 they're not clinging to manmade philosophies, they're clinging 26:49 to the truths that the church has had in the original time, 26:54 it just comes at the end, that's all, and they're not going to be 26:57 the biggest group either. So the Bible describes God's 27:00 church rising at the end of time as the remnant. 27:04 We're going to take a look at the characteristics of God's 27:07 remnant church tonight, this is going to be exciting. 27:10 As we do this we're going to put them up here on the screen 27:13 so all of you can see that it definitely does come right 27:15 from the Bible. Revelation 12 describes 27:18 the rise of God's church, Revelation 14 gives the message 27:22 of God's church, and we're going to look at both. 27:25 So in the book of Revelation we're going to see 27:28 the characteristics of God's end time people, and we're 27:30 going to be objective about it so then we can ask ourselves 27:33 the question: are these people here on earth today? 27:36 So we're going to look at Revelation 14. 27:46 Their first identifying mark we already know: 27:50 God's remnant people are going to rise up at the end 27:54 of the wilderness period, that mean's they're going to rise up 27:58 after 1798, why? Because the wilderness period 28:02 extended from the time that the Papacy began to rule 28:05 in 538, and it ended with the Papacy receiving the deadly 28:08 wound in 1798. So we know that if the remnant 28:12 comes into prophetic view after that, they're going to rise up 28:14 after 1798 because all that time during the Papacy's reign 28:19 they were in the wilderness, that means they weren't going 28:21 to be the visible group. Now let's take a look 28:24 at Revelation 14:6, here it says "And I saw another angel" 28:30 "fly in the midst of heaven", allow me to pause there, 28:33 when God shows us an angel flying in the midst of heaven, 28:36 it's showing us that it's a very important message 28:40 that God wants us to listen to. What else is it telling us? 28:44 [text on screen] 28:51 It's definitely a message that the church preaches, Jesus said 28:54 "Go out into all nations and preach the gospel", so this 28:57 is the church preaching here, but it's pictured as angels 29:00 flying in the midst of heaven. So here is what God's people 29:02 are supposed to preach, they're going to proclaim what 29:05 Revelation 14 shows is 3 angelic messages, and we're 29:10 looking at the first on here in verses 6 and 7. 29:13 So we know that God's last day people are going to be 29:18 preaching the 3 angel's messages of Revelation, 29:22 which include, as it says here, the everlasting gospel. 29:25 What exactly is the everlasting gospel? 29:28 The everlasting gospel includes victory in Jesus, does it not? 29:32 It's going to show us that if we are burdened down with 29:36 the guilt of sin, if we are going about feeling that 29:40 the Devil is oppressing us, that the Devil is weighing us 29:43 down with our past, that we can come and put our burden 29:47 right at the feet of Jesus, and we can be set free. 29:52 Jesus did not just set us free from the past, but Jesus sets 29:56 us free so we no longer have to sin even in the future. 29:59 Jesus saves us not in our sins, but Matthew 1:21 says 30:04 "from our sins". So that is very important, 30:07 the true gospel is that Jesus saves us from our sins. 30:11 That's a very important difference than many other 30:14 things are being taught as the gospel today. 30:17 So now let's go to Revelation 14:12. 30:22 Here we see, it says: [text on screen] 30:32 So God's remnant people are going to be characterized 30:35 by the fact that they love God with all their hearts, 30:38 they love Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, and that love 30:41 is going to be manifested in the keeping of His commandments. 30:44 Friends, obedience that stems from love in the heart is not 30:48 legalism, it's loyalty. 30:52 Some of you missed a good chance to say "amen", 30:56 some of you picked up on it, I'm glad for that. 30:59 Revelation 14:7, it says: [text on screen] 31:11 That's a call to worship the Creator, isn't it? 31:13 We've covered that on the previous night. 31:16 And what does God tell us He did right in the very beginning 31:19 when He created? 31:21 We're told in Genesis 2:3: [text on screen] 31:27 So right there in the very beginning when God established 31:30 His creative authority in this world, He says "I set aside" 31:33 "a day and blessed and sanctified it as a remembrance" 31:36 "that I am the creator", and Exodus 20:8-11 talks about that, 31:41 it says: [text on screen] 31:49 And it goes on to tell us "because in 6 days the Lord" 31:51 "made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is", 31:53 so what we're being told here is that a call to worship God 31:58 as the Creator is a call to remember God's Sabbath day. 32:03 If you take these 4 marks that we've got on the screen, that 32:06 God's remnant is going to rise after 1798, it's going to preach 32:09 the everlasting gospel, it's going to preach loyalty to all 32:12 of God's commandments, because that's what the Bible says, 32:16 and it's going to keep God's 7th day Sabbath. 32:19 Friends, do you know just right there you would eliminate 95%, 32:24 I dare say, almost 99%, of the churches today from being 32:29 God's remnant because either they've preached that God's law 32:32 was done away with, or they've preached that it's nailed to 32:35 the cross, or they've preached that it really doesn't matter 32:38 because we're under grace today, and they've rejected this 4th 32:41 commandment as saying it's legalism, or not important, 32:44 or some other excuse. Friends, right there in these 32:46 first 4 marks, and we've got more to come, you know that you 32:49 can eliminate almost 99% of the churches today as being 32:52 described as God's remnant, but we've got more. 32:55 It goes back to Revelation 14:7, it begins by saying 33:04 [text on screen] 33:11 So the remnant church in Revelation is going to be 33:14 preaching that we are living in God's judgment hour. 33:18 We took a whole night on this over just about a week ago, 33:21 and we found that God's prophecy of the 2300 day/year message in 33:29 Daniel 8:14 takes us all the way down through time to 1844 when 33:35 we found that since the year 1844 we've been living in what 33:38 the Bible says is the hour of God's judgment, we're living in 33:40 serious times, aren't we? Absolutely. 33:43 So here's a call to get ready for the coming of Jesus, living 33:46 in God's judgment hour, and we have to have a church that 33:50 understands that, finds out where we are in prophecy 33:53 and is preaching that. We go back to verse 7, 33:56 there's a lot here, we can't get it all in just 1 identifying 34:01 mark, we've got to go back, it says: "Saying with a loud" 34:04 "voice, Fear God, and give" what to him? 34:07 "Glory to him". God's last day message is a call 34:11 to give glory to God. We can give glory to God in 34:15 many ways, can't we? We can give glory by what day 34:20 we worship Him on, we can give glory to God by wanting 34:23 to obey all His commandments, but there's another way we give 34:26 glory to God and we looked at this on a previous night 34:29 in 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul said to the Corinthians church: 34:33 [text on screen] 34:41 So God's last day church is going to be giving a clear 34:45 message about giving glory to Him in how we treat 34:48 the body temple. In other words, we're to 34:52 realize that our bodies are not fun houses to do as we please, 34:56 that rather, we are to be the dwelling place of a Holy God 35:01 who wants to take up residence right there in our hearts 35:03 and minds. So God calls us away from 35:06 the body destroying vices: alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, 35:13 and impure foods, and these things that are clogging 35:16 the mind, clogging the brain from receiving messages 35:19 from the Holy Spirit, we've gone through this. 35:22 So God's last day church is not a church of low standards, 35:26 it's a church of high standards because that's what Jesus had. 35:31 So we look, as we look around us in this world, at an age 35:35 of accommodating religion? Isn't it an age when it seems 35:38 like you can do anything you want and still be called 35:41 a Christian in some places? It doesn't really matter, 35:44 they say that all you do is you just have to profess 35:47 the name of Jesus and they say you're going to be saved 35:49 and then you go on and live as you please, friends, that's not 35:52 the religion of Jesus, that's not the faith of Jesus. 35:55 Let's go to Revelation 14:9-11. It says: [text on screen] 36:18 So now we're seeing that God's true church is going to be 36:21 preaching the mark of the beast message, there are many churches 36:24 out there tonight that not only aren't they teaching the mark 36:27 of the beast, but they couldn't even tell you what the Biblical 36:29 beast is, and you can't preach the mark of the beast unless you 36:32 know what the beast is, and yet they would say "we don't know," 36:35 "and we don't even think it's possible to find it out." 36:38 Friends, God's last day church is a call to worship 36:41 the Creator, and not worship the beast, or take its mark, 36:44 or the image of the beast, you can't say that your church 36:49 is the remnant church if they can't preach this message, 36:52 and you can't preach this message unless you know 36:55 this message. Dear friends, listen, 36:57 God's church is a divine movement of destiny that He 37:00 has raised up in the last days to preach a straight, clear 37:06 message that prepares the world for the coming of Jesus, 37:09 that's what it's for. Let's go back Revelation 12 37:12 for a moment, we were there earlier, we're going to come 37:15 back to chapter 14 too, but in Revelation 12:17 I want 37:20 to read this verse, it says: [text on screen] 37:31 Notice how these 2 things are put together, we're going 37:34 to look at this verse again tomorrow night, 37:37 but the commandments of God are made central again. 37:40 There are many churches that tell you that you don't need 37:43 to keep the commandments of God, but my Bible and your Bible 37:46 say that we do, and then in that next part it says: 37:48 "and they have the testimony of Jesus Christ", that means 37:51 they're in possession of it, they have it, well, what exactly 37:54 is it? Well, let's let the Bible interpret it for us. 37:56 Turn with me to Revelation 19 and we'll get our answer. 38:00 Revelation 19:10. I'm so glad that the Bible 38:08 can give us the interpretation, we don't have to guess 38:11 at this, Revelation 19:10. This is what Scripture says: 38:18 [text on screen] 38:34 That's right, so God puts these 2 things together, 38:38 the testimony of Jesus and the spirit of prophecy. 38:42 Just as God gave the spirit of prophecy to prepare 38:45 the world for the coming of the flood, and just as God gave 38:48 John the Baptist the spirit of prophecy to prepare the world 38:51 for the first coming of Jesus, so God is going to put 38:54 the spirit of prophecy in the remnant church to prepare 38:56 the world for the second coming of Jesus. 39:00 That's what the Bible is giving it for. 39:02 So this last day church is going to have this particular gift, 39:09 and we're going to take a look more on this tomorrow night, 39:12 by the way, so we're not going to take a long time 39:15 on it tonight. So we've got these marks 39:18 up here, we've got 8 of them, we've got more to go. 39:21 Let's to Ecclesiastes 9:5. What we're going to do 39:26 is continue pulling marks out of Scripture, Ecclesiastes 9:5 39:32 says this: [text on screen] 39:42 We've covered this on a whole night of the seminar, 39:45 that the dead know not anything, now look at another one 39:48 if you would, in Psalm 115:17 it says: [text on screen] 39:56 Here's another one, Psalm 6:5: [text on screen] 40:04 We've covered that in dead it's like a rest, it's like a sleep 40:10 until Jesus comes and knocks on the grave and wakes 40:14 us up. Speaking of that, Jesus said 40:17 in John 5:28,29, he said: [text on screen] 40:31 So turn with me back to Revelation 14:13. 40:41 This is all part of the same passage, it says: 40:44 "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me," 40:47 "Write, blessed are the dead that in the Lord from " 40:50 "henceforth, Yea sayeth the Spirit, that they may rest from" 40:53 "their labors and their works do follow them". 40:56 Revelation's true message carries on what we've been 40:59 learning about death, and that is a rest until Jesus comes 41:03 and wakes us up in the resurrection. 41:06 Friends, this is our safeguard against spiritualism, did you 41:08 know that? You see, spiritualism has a thousand 41:11 different forms that it can take, and yet if you know 41:14 the truth about death, it will save you from any one 41:17 of a thousand different forms, and you will know that the dead 41:20 know not anything, so it's part of God's last day truth, 41:24 and last day message that teaches death being a rest, 41:27 or a sleep, until the resurrection. 41:30 Let's go to another verse, but before we do, I want to ask 41:33 you a question. One of the most important 41:36 questions that I think we could ever ask anyone in all 41:39 of their life, and that is: are you a member of a church 41:45 that not only was raised up after 1798, but is preaching 41:50 the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ, that is teaching 41:55 faithfulness to all of God's commandments, that is teaching 41:58 the truth of the 4th commandment as well, that is teaching 42:02 about we're living in the fact of God's judgment hour, 42:06 that it's teaching that we're to give glory to God through 42:08 a health message, that it's teaching that 42:13 the Biblical beast of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13, and we've 42:17 covered what that is, that it's teaching the truth about 42:20 the mark of the beast and the image of the beast, that it's 42:23 teaching the truth about the gift of prophecy, and is 42:27 teaching the truth about death being a sleep until 42:29 the resurrection morning? If not, then I want to ask you 42:34 the question tonight: why not? 42:37 Because this is what Revelation is focusing on. 42:40 Remember, we don't find truth by a church, but you find 42:44 the church by the truth. Now let's go back 42:47 to Revelation, this time we're going to look at 42:50 Revelation 14:14, when you're looking for a church 42:53 you're asking yourself the question: what does the church 42:56 believe? Does the church follow 42:59 its own agenda, or is the church following heaven's 43:02 agenda, because that's what we want. 43:05 Let's go look now, Revelation 14:14, 43:08 this is what it says: [text on screen] 43:17 This is talking about Jesus coming again, do you know 43:20 that the whole focus of this chapter, the whole focus 43:23 of the message that is being given is to prepare the world 43:26 for this one event, the second coming of Jesus, 43:29 and that's why it's so important to know exactly how Jesus 43:32 is going to come, because if we don't have the truth 43:35 about how Jesus is going to come, it for sure is going 43:37 to mix us up on the other end time events, and the Devil 43:40 would love that, so we took a whole night to find out 43:43 how exactly Jesus is going to come; remember, we know 43:46 [text on screen] 43:52 All of these things Scripture tells us about the second 43:54 coming, so yes, God's last day people are going to be teaching 44:00 the truth in the midst of a world that is going a wrong 44:03 direction on this topic, God's message is going to cut 44:06 through it all and show people what the truth is 44:09 about Jesus second coming. We have more though. 44:12 Turn with me back to verse 8 of that chapter because 44:15 we missed that one, we're going to go back and pick it up, 44:18 Revelation 14:8, here's what it says: [text on screen] 44:31 This is most interesting because it can't be talking 44:34 about literal Babylon, literal Babylon fell many many 44:37 centuries ago, it's laying there in heaps and ruins tonight, 44:41 so it's not talking there about the literal Babylon in the Old 44:44 Testament, over there in Iraq tonight, it's talking about 44:47 spiritual Babylon, let's get an even deeper insight in 44:50 Revelation 18 if you would just turn over there. 44:52 Revelation 18, we're going to read from verse 1-4. 45:01 Revelation 18:1-4, it says: [text on screen] 45:50 Friends, I want you to consider this tonight, God's remnant 45:53 church does not exist simply to put information into minds 45:57 of people, but it exists to give a call to people to come 46:01 out of false worship because God is saying 46:05 "come out of her, My people", does God have people 46:09 in Babylon? Yes he does, spiritual Babylon. 46:11 Does God want them to stay there? No. 46:14 You see, I have people come to me and they'll say this, 46:17 they'll say "Pastor Brian, I know my church teaches" 46:19 "in error about the second coming, I know my church" 46:22 "doesn't teach the truth about death, I know my church doesn't" 46:25 "teaching the truth about these other things we've been" 46:27 "covering, but I love those people and I think that maybe" 46:30 "I should stay there and try to help them out," 46:33 "what should I do? Should I come out?" 46:35 "Should I stay?" Dear friends, I'm so thankful 46:38 that I don't have to answer that because if I answered it 46:41 then people would think that maybe I was prejudiced, 46:43 or I was biased in the matter and I had an ulterior motive, 46:46 but friends, God answers that question, He says: 46:50 "Babylon is fallen, is fallen", the double emphasis means 46:55 it's beyond restoration, it's not going to right itself, 46:59 it's a ship that is sinking and it's not going to stay afloat 47:02 no matter what you do, so God is saying: "Don't stay" 47:06 "in Babylon, Babylon is going to receive the 7 last plagues" 47:10 "because it insists on worshipping falsely." 47:12 God doesn't call institutions, God calls people to come out, 47:17 and He says "Come out, don't stay in Babylon", make 47:20 a decision in your heart that you are going to be 47:23 an example for others to follow because action speaks 47:26 louder than words, doesn't it? You can stay there and you can 47:29 preach to them day and all year long, but unless you come out 47:32 they'll say "If it's not enough of a message to move you," 47:35 "it's not going to move me." Friends, I want to move 47:39 if God says move, don't you? Absolutely. 47:42 People will say "I know my church teaches error, but I'm" 47:45 "its choir teacher", "I know my church teaches error," 47:49 "but I'm an usher", or "I know my church teaches error" 47:52 "and I'm..." some other important position, 47:55 friends, the Bible says "come out". 47:59 God is telling us He's going to destroy Babylon. 48:03 I'm going to go back to the question that we began with 48:06 tonight, and I'm going to ask you ever so earnestly: 48:09 why do you go to the particular church that you presently go to? 48:12 Is it because of tradition? Is it because of habit? 48:16 Is it because of convenience? Or is it because you are 48:19 profoundly convicted that your church is teaching the kinds 48:22 of things that Revelation is showing here? 48:25 People will ask me many, many things, and one of the things 48:29 they ask me is: "Pastor, what church do you go to?" 48:33 Well, I'm going to show you one more thing before I answer 48:37 that question. In Revelation 14:6 it says this: 48:44 [text on screen] 48:55 This goes along with what Jesus said in Matthew 24:14. 48:59 Jesus said: [text on screen] 49:07 Does it say that they're all going to believe? 49:09 No, it says they're going to have a witness in all 49:12 these places; in other words, it's going to be a worldwide 49:16 church with a worldwide message. 49:20 So the last points we're going to put up here on the screen 49:23 is that they're going to call people to come out of Babylon, 49:26 that's right from the book of Revelation, and it's going to be 49:29 a worldwide church with a worldwide message. 49:32 Now I'm going to put them all up on the screen at the same time 49:34 so you can see them together. That's one powerful message, 49:37 isn't it? Is it right from the Bible, 49:40 if so, give me an "amen". [Audience] Amen. 49:43 Did we make these things up? You see, it's not subjective 49:46 to the speaker up here tonight, it's objective, and it's what 49:48 the Bible says, it's what Revelation says, isn't it? 49:51 It's God message, what do you say out there? 49:53 It's what the end time church is to preach. 49:58 You might be sitting there tonight saying "Well pastor," 50:02 "show me a church that does that." 50:05 What church would Jesus want to be in? 50:09 Do you know that the answer to the question of "what church" 50:12 "Jesus would want to be in?" is incredibly simple, Jesus 50:17 would preach the message that He left for His church to preach 50:21 upon His ascent into heaven. If Jesus was to come to this 50:26 city tonight, Jesus would preach the very message that He 50:30 inspired His prophets to write down in Scripture. 50:33 It's not a difficult question at all really. 50:36 "Pastor Brian, what church are you a member of?" 50:39 I'll tell you this, I was brought up in lovely 50:41 Roman-Catholic home, and I went to church every week 50:45 faithfully with my parents for years, I memorized the various 50:49 creeds, I recited the various memorized prayers, but what 50:54 I sensed in my heart was that I needed something more 50:57 than simply claiming that we can go back all the way back 51:00 to the apostle Peter with apostolic succession, 51:03 something that isn't true anyway; I needed to know 51:05 that I was faithfully following the word of God. 51:11 Friends, I'm a Seventh Day Adventist tonight not because I 51:14 was born into a Seventh Day Adventist family, not because 51:17 my parents are Seventh Day Adventists tonight, but because 51:20 of all the churches on the face of the earth, there is only 1 51:25 church dear friends, only 1 church that was raised up after 51:31 1798, preaches the entire everlasting gospel, preaches 51:35 loyalty to all of God's commandments, is keeping 51:37 the 7th day Sabbath, is preaching throughout the world 51:41 that the hour of His judgment has come, that is teaching 51:43 glory to God through a worldwide health message, that is 51:47 warning the world of the beast and the mark of the beast, 51:50 has the gift of prophecy, which I'll talk about more tomorrow 51:53 night, teaches the truth about death being a sleep till 51:56 the resurrection day, teaching the truth of the second coming 51:58 of Jesus, calling people to come out of spiritual Babylon, 52:01 and it's a worldwide church with a worldwide message. 52:04 Friends, there is only 1 church on the face of the earth 52:07 that is doing that. Friends, immediately someone 52:11 will say "are you trying to say that only Seventh Day" 52:13 "Adventists are going to be in heaven?" 52:16 Friends, absolutely not! I'm not saying that at all, 52:19 in fact, Seventh Day Adventists are some of the most inclusive 52:22 of all people, in that we believe that God will honor 52:24 the sincerity of someone when they do something without 52:27 the understanding of truth, or the opportunity to know truth, 52:30 there'll be many people in heaven that haven't had 52:32 the opportunity to learn these things, and God will honor 52:35 what they did with what they knew, but I will tell you this: 52:40 if the Bible is the roadmap to heaven...is the Bible 52:43 the roadmap to heaven? Amen! 52:45 ...and if that roadmap to heaven is pointing in one direction 52:49 and people are following a church, or a theology that's 52:51 pointing in another direction, they're greatly going to hinder 52:54 their chances of arriving where they want to be. 52:57 One thing I've learned from all my travels is how important 52:59 it is to read the roadmap right. The reason that I am 53:04 holding this seminar right here at this time, the reason 53:07 I travel 9 and a half months out of the year, and I don't 53:10 like to travel, it gets a little old after a while to be 53:14 honest with you, I like to be home, I'm kind of one of those 53:18 home bodies, but I like to be here with you, you know why? 53:23 Because I like to help people to read the roadmap right, 53:27 and that's my reason to be with you, I love you, 53:30 and I want to see you in heaven by God's grace, 53:32 and I want to be there too. [Audience] Amen. 53:35 You see, with over 900, or people say a couple thousand, 53:40 different kinds of Christian churches, do we have the ability 53:45 to research every single one of them to try to 53:47 find out which one's right? 53:50 No, do we even have the desire to research every one of those, 53:53 we don't have the time, we don't have the ability, we don't have 53:56 the desire, so God gives us a plain message and says: 53:59 "Come to My Word, read the characteristics and find My" 54:02 "people from those characteristics." 54:05 Friends, listen tonight, God honors the sincerity of people 54:11 who do what they think is right without the opportunity 54:13 to know truth, but God never desires us to stay in error 54:18 simply because that's where we were in the past. 54:21 God never desires us to keep on doing wrong simply because 54:25 we have the habit of doing wrong. 54:28 Sometimes people will say "Well, I know a hypocrite in" 54:31 "that church", it may be, we've all been hypocrites 54:34 at one time or another, haven't we? 54:37 ...if we're going to be honest with ourselves. 54:40 If we waited for everyone to be perfect, I wouldn't have 54:42 joined the apostles back in the days of Jesus because 54:45 they weren't perfect, were they? There were some hypocrites 54:48 there too. But friends, God's church 54:51 is not God's church because everyone is perfect, God's 54:54 church because everyone is perfect, God's church is God's 54:56 church because it teaches the message of heaven, and if we are 54:59 willing to submit and follow that message, it'll prepare us 55:02 for Jesus coming. It may not be the church 55:04 with the greatest edifices, it may not be the church 55:06 with the grand cathedrals, the crystal cathedrals, 55:10 it may be entirely different, it may be a grass hut 55:15 in the middle of Africa, it may be a church of people with no 55:19 building over there in India, but God's church today is 55:25 everywhere around this world. Let me share with you 55:27 what Jesus said again in Matthew 24:14, He said: 55:32 [text on screen] 55:36 I'm going to share with you this little pamphlet called 55:41 "Partners", we didn't originally publish this, but we republished 55:45 to have enough to share with people, and this actually was 55:47 published by the American Bible Society and Church 55:50 Missions, and what they decided to do, this particular Bible 55:53 society, they wanted to know what church was preaching 55:56 their message in what countries of the world. 55:59 So they listed the various countries of the world on 3 56:02 pages, and there's a lot of them here, and then they listed 56:05 the various gospel preaching churches, or Protestant churches 56:08 here at the top, the ones that they thought were Christian 56:11 churches basically. Now for the sake of time, 56:15 I'm going to try to get right to it, there's a lot of blank 56:22 space on here where that church was preaching in that country, 56:25 they put a dot to show that that was so, that that church 56:27 was active in that particular country, most of it is blank 56:30 space because even though churches might be popular here 56:33 in America, they might not have a lot of members here 56:35 in America, but go outside of the shores of this country 56:38 and many of those churches are almost unknown, 56:40 they're interested only here. 56:42 But even though most of this is blank spaced, in the second 56:48 column it says "Adventists, Seventh Day". 56:52 Seventh Day Adventists, "Seventh Day" meaning "loyal to Jesus", 56:56 "Adventists" means "hope in Jesus". 56:59 Loyalty to Jesus, hope in Jesus, and don't strain your eyes 57:04 because I'm going to give every one of you one when you 57:07 leave here because you couldn't see this anyway. 57:09 In the second column where that church is preaching 57:12 in that country, you've got dots all the way down, 57:15 and you go on the next column and there's dots all the way 57:18 down, and you go into the last column, and there's dots 57:22 all the way down. There's just a couple spaces 57:25 when this was printed and they've since been filled in. 57:27 Friends, that is not by coincidence, that is by the sure 57:31 word of prophecy, are we living in the end days, yes or no? 57:35 [Audience] Yes. Did God say that message 57:37 will go into every nation, kindred, and tongue and people 57:40 before Jesus comes back, yes or no? 57:43 [Audience] Yes. Should we then see it tonight 57:46 in all of these countries of the world, should we see that gospel 57:49 preached according to the sure word of God? 57:51 Friends, you've seen it right here. 57:54 God raised up a people to preach that message before Jesus 57:59 comes back to bring out the true believers out of Babylon. |
Revised 2014-12-17