Acts chapter 15, we are in the
midst of a debate at Jerusalem, the first major council, and
they have been trying to work through how to deal with a group
of men that felt like they had the right to actually change
the gospel. And Peter is now standing in
defense of Paul in Acts chapter 15, verse 12, where he stated
that the brethren should remember that God, by him, had opened
the door to the Gentiles, is what Christ meant in Matthew
16, Matthew 16 18 and 19 when he said unto you I've given the
keys of the kingdom and we saw the Gentiles come in through
Peter in Acts chapter 9 and 10 and he after he finishes speaking
Then James also starts in verse 13 and this is where we want
to pick up our Study tonight this I call this the second witness
and we read in verse 13 through verse 16 these words And after
they had held their peace, that is, after Peter had spoken, James
answered, said, Men and brethren, hearken unto me. Simeon hath
declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take
out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words
of the prophet, as it is written, After this will I return and
will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down,
and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up.
that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all
the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who
does all these things." And finally, verse 18, known unto God are
all his works from the beginning of the world. Now, the Bible
is clear. It states that out of the mouth
of two or three witnesses, let every word be established. So
the controversy around the gospel Paul and Barnabas come down to
set the record straight about what God had done for them. The
Jews in Jerusalem, the apostles and Jews in Jerusalem are not
quite solid on how to defend the gospel. They know God is
doing something among Paul and Barnabas and the others, but
they're not quite sure how to deal with a conflict between
brethren they know God is working with and brethren with whom they
are in relationship with who are closer to them in many ways
than Paul and Barnabas. So this is kind of a trifecta,
a triad. The brothers at Jerusalem dealing
with brothers who are from Jerusalem, actually troubling brothers who
are largely away from Jerusalem. How do you take two people group
with which you are supposed to have an allegiance, a harmony,
a fellowship, and work through radical conflicts that rise to
the level of heresy and division, rightly so, because the two views
are irreconcilable. How do you take a person who
says salvation is by grace alone, and then another person who says
salvation is by grace plus works? You're in the middle, and you
are trying to make sure that you don't lose the gospel, but
also that you don't lose these persons. Which one is most important? And over the last several weeks,
what I have asserted to you is that most important is the gospel. That if you had to lose a loved
one, a friend, a relative over the gospel versus losing the
individual or those with whom you are clearly identified with
the truth claims of the gospel, as a Christian, we have to hold
to the truth. Again, this ethic is really difficult
because what we're talking about is blood cannot be thicker than
water when it comes to the truth. Now that's easier said than done,
but it's so. So I'll put it back at you again.
Here you have two people that you love and care about. One
holds to the truth claims of the gospel. The other one diametrically
opposes it. And they're actually fierce with
it because as you know, this runs all the way to the end of
the Bible. So much so that Jesus rises up with his letter to the
seven churches, and says, I know they call themselves Jews, but
they are not. They are of the synagogue of Satan. So the gospel
divides, doesn't it? It actually divides. And this
is what Jesus meant in Matthew 12 and in Luke chapter 10 as
well. When you and I read the gospel
carefully, not only does the gospel say, come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. by
my grace, apart from your words, but it also calls you and me
to an allegiance to Jesus. An allegiance to Jesus that anticipates
the division even of families over the claims of the gospel.
Is that true? An allegiance to Christ, even
to the level of division between family members. And if you know
anything about that, you know that that is a painful, painful
reality. It's not easy to find yourself
separated from family members because they are in a cult or
they are in a false gospel or they are in a heretical system,
a trend that by which you cannot reconcile the true claims of
the gospel. Now in our culture, fortunately,
and this is what I believe and I'm thankful about a pluralistic
culture like we live in, We don't have such a fascist society that
we can't function with our relatives and our friends on a platonic
level, or even on a loving level, simply because they don't agree
with us theologically. In some cultures, it's so deep
that the divisions destroy any sense of family ties. I think
we work fairly well in America where we can eat together, we
can work together, we can love each other, we can do things,
but we really can't talk about the gospel. because we know once
we start dealing with the real issues that there's going to
be major division. And I think that it is maturity
on our part to be able to love our relatives and our friends
and be able to work with them so long as we don't compromise
the gospel. And so that's a real balancing
act. So here in Jerusalem, what's happening is a bunch of men are
working through a very serious issue because privately, James
and John know this. They know that the dudes that
are running around saying that you must be circumcised and you
must keep the law of God in order to be saved. They're not going
to stop. And that movement is going to keep growing. But they
are compelled because they have been with the Lord to have to
lay down the truth claims of Christ. And by the way, the thing
that's going to cause you to overcome obstacles at the level
of which you have great loss to anticipate is the fact that
you know him. The thing that's going to help
you overcome great loss at levels that you anticipate is the fact
that you know him. The apostles knew the son of
God. They lived with him. They followed
him. They observed him for three and
a half years. They knew that this was the son
of God. So between these tensions, what prevails among the apostles,
at least in chapter 15, The fact that the Lord Jesus had taught
them now here comes a rule that is laid down in the midst of
conflict The rule that is laid down in the midst of conflict
and make sure you cut the heat down to 68 It's just some of
you folks gonna die in here. You have to cut the AC on but
cut it down to 60s I already see people not That slob doesn't
work good on the on the chairs. I When you are dealing with controversy,
one of the things that true believers have to learn is that what settles
the controversy is the word of God. What settles the controversy
is the word of God. And I like the way that the text
is trending because now what James does, he doesn't do what
Peter does. Peter gives history. Peter gives
an experience of the Lord coming to him in a dream and telling
him, this is the new covenant. What I have called clean, you
do not get to call unclean. And then the vision materializes
itself in the life of Cornelius in his household, right? But
now what James is gonna do, he's not gonna come with a human witness
of empirical experience, he's coming with the word of God.
And this word of God will also instruct us as well. Notice what
it says in verse 15. And to this agree the words of
the what? And what is that that James is
saying he agrees to that God had taken out of the Gentiles
first a people for his name. Do you see it? Simon has declared
how that God at the first, at the first, at the first did take
out for himself Gentiles as a people for his namesake. And now what
James is getting ready to do is build his argument around
the scriptures. He's getting ready to prove from
the scriptures that these things are So in your outline James
will affirm and assess a solution he affirms Peter verse 14 a and
then Point B an act of sovereign mercy. This is something that
I simply want you to grasp in point B 14 a Simon hath declared
how that God at the first Did visit the Gentiles he did didn't
he? Sovereign act took place. What
was that to take out of them a people for his name? That's
a sovereign act a Sovereign act that you and I have nothing to
do it We can argue all we want to God his purpose to save the
Gentiles If you know your Bible that promise runs all the way
from the Old Testament to the New doesn't it? Psalm 18 is a
massive Psalm that speaks to the fact that when the Gentiles
hear this, they will be glad. And we saw this in Acts chapter
13 verse 48 as well. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad. Isaiah chapter 60 talks about
how the Gentiles will come into Jerusalem with the riches that
will be poured upon Jesus Christ. The Old Testament affirms this
fully. And in fact, this is Paul's theology
in the book of Ephesians. very clearly that the mystery
was this, that God would bring the Gentiles into the Commonwealth
of Israel. So now what we're finding ourselves
doing is dealing with a major act of sovereign mercy on the
part of God. And notice how the language is
used here. It says, and how that God at
the first did what? Visit. Visit I want to touch
on that a little bit because we talked about this in the Psalms
and it's a beautiful concept when God visits That means God
has remembered His covenant mercies to you when God shows up in your
life when he comes into your life It wasn't again an impulsive
Reaction to a desperate situation that you're going through God
has acted purposely When he comes into your life, it's by design,
it's by decree, it's by sovereign purpose, never out of a mere
reaction. When he visits us, it is really
rooted in a covenant design, a covenant purpose. And I want
you to see this as we make our way through. Think about how
God visited you in the day of salvation. and how God visited
you in the day of your trouble. Psalm 8 verse 4 is the way that
David used it when he talked about what is man that thou art
mindful of him and the son of man that you should visit him. Listen to it again and then I'll
share with you a few more verses What is man that you are mindful
him and the son of man that you should what? Visit visit now
take the two words. God will only visit you if he
is mindful of you God will only visit you if he is mindful of
you and if God is mindful of you it's because he had you in
his purpose To come to you at a specific time And this is what
we call the time of visitation. It's a powerful truth. Psalm
106 verse four, look at Psalm 106 verse four. I want to draw
this out before we move forward because what I am doing now with
James is arguing to our Jewish brothers that the idea of the
Gentiles coming into the Commonwealth of Israel is not an incidental
thing. It's a covenant purpose on God's
part. Psalm 106, this is where the people of God through David
are crying out, for God to show up. Notice what it says. Remember
me, oh Lord, with the favor that thou bearest unto thy people.
Oh, visit me with thy what? that I may see the good of thy
chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that
I may glory with thine inheritance. This again is the psalmist crying
out for God to visit. And I like it this way. This
is in Luke's gospel. This is the way Mary and Elizabeth
talk about the incarnation of our savior, which we're going
to rejoice in in a few weeks. In Luke chapter one, Verse 68
notice how they rejoice and you use the they use the language
of visitation here Luke 1 verse 68 says it like this Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel for he hath what? Visited and he
hath what redeemed his people look at verse 78 verse 78 through
the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on
high, hath what? Visited us. Now he's using the
metaphor of the rising of the sun, speaking to God's purpose
of grace, materializing in the incarnation. Verse 79, to give
light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to
guide our feet into the way of peace. Verse 80, And the child
grew and waxed strong in spirit and was in the desert till the
day of his showing unto Israel. And this is remarkable because
this is the forerunner, John the Baptist, and Elizabeth and
Mary are rejoicing in the fact that God is visiting Israel with
a forerunner. rejoicing in the fact that God
is visiting Israel with a forerunner. The idea of visitation is always
the idea of God dealing with his people. Now notice how Jesus
says it in Luke's gospel chapter 19 verse 44. This is our master
having done three and a half years. The three and a half years
is up. God has visited Israel in the
flesh. He has wrought miracle after
miracle, sign after sign, Evidence of mercy and grace at levels
Israel has never ever experienced before and now Christ is warning
them because they are rejecting him verse 41 through 44 and when
he was come near He beheld the city and he what over it This
is Jerusalem because the whole of the city that he has visited
now for 37 years and largely three and a half years of ministry
is Rejecting the overtures of God through Christ Saying if
you had known even you least in this your day the things which
belong unto your what but now they are hid from your eyes so
you see what Jesus is saying here's what happened Israel was
under a probation period you know how long that probation
period was three and a half years ah let's call it seven because
John the Baptist preached for three and a half years at the
end of his ministry Jesus took over and Jesus preached for three
and a half years. For seven years, John and Jesus
told Israel, God is showing up. And the evidence of miracle after
miracle, perfect miracle after perfect miracle that Christ did
to affirm his Messiahship, no one could ever actually say they
didn't know. But somewhere between John's
ministry and Jesus' ministry, the lights went back off. This
is an amazing idea. So this is what we had talked
about last week and the week before. Time is either an enemy
or a what? Friend. Time is either a friend
for us or an enemy. Mark this now. We are either
going to sleep or we are waking up more and more. This is a phenomenal
concept too, and this is why even the New Testament constantly
talks about awaking, keeping awake, being alert, being circumspect,
not waxing drowsy. Because we can wax drowsy, can't
we? We can begin to fall asleep spiritually, can't we? So stay
with me because this is important. There is a kind of sleep, spiritually,
that's actually worse than your state before salvation. As Jesus
says, it'd be better that you never had known the way of truth
than to have seen it, had a revelation of it and go back to sleep. Because
that second sleep is a sleep of damnation. You never come
out of that sleep. That's the sleep that Israel
is under even from the days of the Old Testament prophets. Do
you remember what Isaiah said after he saw the glory of the
Lord. He says, I'm, I dwell among a
people of unclean lips and I'm a man of unclean lips and God
touched his lips and purged him of his sins and all of the symbolism
of the hot coals and the angels coming down. Right? And then
Isaiah was privileged to hear God talking about the spreading
of his word all around the world. And the question was raised,
what, who shall go for us? And what did Isaiah say? I will
go. Now, you know what? When God
sent Isaiah, his mission was to let the people know that even
though the light was going to shine out of darkness, they weren't
going to comprehend it. That sleep was going to settle
in. Slumber was going to drowse them and put them into a deep
stupor. So this is Isaiah 6, this is
Matthew chapter 13, and this is the last chapter of the book
of Acts where Paul finally got it too. Paul finally got that
over that seven-year period, Israel largely did not realize
the day of visitation. And this is where our Lord is
bemoaning the situation that's before him. Verse 43, for the
day shall come upon thee that your enemies shall cast a trench
about thee and come past thee round and keep thee in on every
side. What do we call that? A siege.
What is that? It is the curse of Deuteronomy
chapter 28. What is that? That's disobedience to God's
covenant law. What does God call that? The
curse, the curse, the curse that will come upon Israel nationally.
When did it take place? A.D. 70. under the Roman Titus. If you ever read the history,
it will blow you away how accurate the activities that transpired
for over a year and a half, almost two full years of besieging a
city. So now you know what happens
in the besiegement of a city, right? All that city does is
sit there and dwindle in its resources. Its food dissipates,
its water dissipates, and then life becomes very hard because
people now are in a famished state and they are now contemplating
doing things that under normalcy levels you would never do, like
eating your own children, which is what they did. Because the first law of nature
is what? Now, what's remarkable about what I'm sharing with you
is this is why Jesus is going, whoa, whoa, because for him,
this didn't have to happen. All they had to do was bow to
the crown rights of Christ, affirm that he was the Messiah. But
they did not want the kind of Messiah that God was sending.
God was sending the Messiah to save the soul. They wanted the
Messiah to save the flesh. God was sending the Messiah to
deal with redemption in the spirit. They were wanting the Messiah
to deliver them from political bondage. This is the oxymoronic,
uh, paradoxical conflict that we all deal with. Watch this. There are two gospels. It's the
gospel of God's glory, which points you to Christ, which calls
you to grace and gives you hope for glory. It does not promise
you prosperity in this world. It does not promise you wealth
and prominence and perfect healing and all of the things that you
come that come with a prosperity message. The two messages are
diametrically opposed. When you and I hear the two,
the carnal man craves after the latter one because all the labor
of man is for his belly. but only God's elect will understand
that the true gospel is calling them to a life of faith and obedience
and joy in Christ with the promise of eternal glory at the end of
time. This is the test we're in. This
is why when Jesus first started ministry, the first thing the
devil did was test him around his identity. If you be the son
of God, test him around temptation for the choice between obedience
to God or carnal material things. If you be hungry, turn these
stones into bread, a misuse of his power, testing him with a
false sense of entitlement. If you bow down to me, I'll give
you all the kingdoms of the world. And you and I are tested by those
things every day. Are we not? We're tested by them every day.
Every day we're challenged with whether we're going to try to
turn God into a big old celestial genie where we rub the jar and
we want him to kind of just do what we want him to do. That's
true. And then we discover that God
ain't going to do what you want him to do, not the true God.
And if our hearts are famished enough and desperate enough,
The enemy will come in and fill that vacuum like the devil did
with Israel. The devil came into Israel. Jesus
said in the gospel of Luke, a couple of chapters over and now is your
hour and the power of darkness. They had chosen darkness over
light and what was horrible about what's going on here. Here's
what Jesus says in verse 44 and shall lay the even with the ground
and your children within you. and they shall not leave in thee
one stone upon another. Christ was under the spirit and
unction of the prophet. Now, you know that, right? The
spirit of prophecy is operating and he's speaking specifically
to them about the detailed demolition of the whole nation, saying that
you and your women, women with children will be laid to the
ground. You will become the soil and the dust and the ground and
the clay over which the Roman empire will mow you down. That's
an amazing prophecy. And here's the latter part of
it. And here's the ominous warning. They shall lay you even to the
ground because you did not know the time of your what? Because you did not know the
time of your visitation. And this is what Paul is talking
about. This is what Peter is talking about. This is what James
is now talking about and seeking to develop. So in our outline,
James affirms and assesses a solution Affirming Peter an act of sovereign
mercy to visit to visit is when God is coming in Mercy to show
you his blessings and to fulfill his promise in our life But if
we reject the gospel, that's the whole world presently is
under this same kind of model of testing The Gospels being
preached but there's a day when the gospel will cease to be preached. I And the only thing that will
be left are the vile judgments. So we have three cycles of judgments
in the book of Revelation. The first start off with what
we call the seal judgments, seven seal judgments. Now what seals
are, they are tokens and evidences of God's absolute sovereign rule
over the events of time. So from Revelation chapter six
through eight, the seven seal judgments unfold. And what they
do is describe for us the work of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And what they are is just history
unfolding according to the sovereign purpose of God. And the four
horsemen describe the preaching of the gospel, It describes war,
it describes famine, and it describes death. Is that what's going on
in our world today? Has been for 2,000 years. Those
are the seven seal judgments. So when seals are open, it means
the decree now is going forth. Seals are placed on documents
that are authorized by the king. And the king has set forth a
prophetic decree as to how this world will operate. And as the
seals are loosed, the prophecy unfolds. Once the seventh seal
is loose, the first trumpet judgment is loose at the same time. So
chapters eight through chapter 10 are what we call the trumpet
judgments. And those trumpet judgments overlap
with the seal judgments. As I taught a revelation years
ago, you notice how I develop a concentric of three circles,
right? Spherical circles, almost oblong
circles one two and three they could be circles but this here
is the seal judgments and they are one through six are actually
one through six and then the seventh one corresponds to the
first trumpet judgment the trumpet judgments start at the end of
the seventh seal and then they go also one through seven and
the seventh trumpet judgment begins the first vial judgments
and the vial judgments start at chapter 14 all the way through
chapters 19 now the vile judgments after the trumpet judgments are
the final judgments It's the final evil that God brings on
this world. What does the trumpet signify
in the scriptures warning? Warning seals are the unloosing
of what we call Providence and God is working. In fact, you
saw that in verse 14, I think, known unto God are all his works
from the foundation of the world, right? So we don't believe in
a God who does not know what he's doing. We actually believe
in a God who sees the end from the beginning because everything
is already done with him. It's unfolding for us, not for
him. He is never caught by surprise.
This is what we call the infinitude of his eternality. God is, not
was or will be, is. And all things that have been
are and will be have already transpired in the mind of an
infinite God. So history is working out God's
purpose, right? We call it seals. Now, why do
trumpets come in? They come in to warn you. If
the trumpet be blown, shall not the people be warned? As Amos
chapter 4, 3 rather, Amos chapter 3. In the Old Testament, God
had told Israel to make trumpets. And when you blow the trumpet,
you make a certain sound. And when you make a certain sound,
the tribes will know either to gather together to congregate,
get ready for war, or be ready to depart. And so where you and
I are in our present world is we are presently somewhere between
the sixth and seventh trumpet on our way to the vial judgments. Now, when we get into the seventh
trumpet, there will be no more warning. The only thing that
will happen is that the vial or what are called the bold judgments
will begin to pour out on humanity. Now, the bold judgments are,
again, I said they're described from 14 through 19, have to do
with God pouring on this world Ecological and physiological
judgments because we have been under a probation of hearing
the gospel for some 2,000 years now and over time The witness
that's born Finally has the final have a final close doesn't it
the Bible talks about and when their testimony is finished We
all have a time where our calling and purpose is expired. Is that
true? This is true for individual Christians.
This is what I've been saying for the last year, particularly
to us members at Grace. Find out what your purpose is
in life. Don't meander around. Don't just
be lost in the quagmire of Babylon's confusion. Don't be lost in the
opaque, sort of vague uncertainty of a narcissistic culture that
is undefined. Don't just be a slave to the
whim of the moment, because that's vanity. According to Solomon,
it's vanity to simply just be a slave of the flesh, where one
day you're following this trend, the next day you're following
that trend, the next day you're following another trend. That's
all emptiness. It's emptiness. The soul knows it. Stay with
me for a moment before we move on. Nothing is more empty than
trying to fill an eternal vacuum with a temporary element. Nothing
is more dissatisfied than trying to reach the spiritual essence
of our being only to fulfill the material and physical element
of our being. Nothing is more dissatisfying
than to discover that that too didn't get it. And what you do
is you sit up at night or in the day when time catches up
with you and has cut off all of the forms of distraction.
So stay with me for a moment because I want you to get this
blessing. You and I are like Adam and Eve, who once we chose
knowledge over relationship, we were without the grace necessary
to dwell in the presence of the ineffable bliss. We became completely
self-conscious and aware of our inadequacy, and we began to run
from God. Is that true? While as yet we
were in communion with God, the ineffable bliss was our covering. We were righteous in God's sight
and his presence among us was our glory. There was no need
for a barrier between us and God because there was no grounds
of offense. Because the most important thing
was the relationship which God himself had established. And
what he knew was if you choose knowledge, that's going to cut
you off from me. I am your knowledge is what God said. I'm your knowledge. I talked to us about this years
ago when we dealt with the origin of mankind. And I said to you
today, the way that evolution works, is that it depicts mankind
as having been in his original state, barbaric, even animal-like,
that we have evolved from the ape and then we became pro-magnum
man and Neanderthal man and evolved to the so-called higher intelligent
species that we are today. All that's a myth. It has no
basis in reality whatsoever. And when you actually believe
the Bible, this is why I'm talking about the Word. I'm talking about
the Word right now. When you believe the Bible, what you believe
is that God made mankind immediately intelligent, rational, healthy,
perfect, and wise. Immediately. In fact, He didn't
have to teach man how to talk. He talked to him right away.
They had dialogue and He was a full-grown adult. We didn't
have to teach Him goo-goo-ga-ga. They entered into dialogue right
away. And watch this. Because there was communion between
God and man, mankind had a continual, unimpeded, unbroken source of
revelation always at his beckoning call. So that he always had what
he needed to have to know anything. He was not omniscient. But he had omniscience at his
availability without impediment. The moment that he wanted to
know, he would know. God was his knowledge. God was
his knowledge. Do you guys follow that? God
was his knowledge. The moment he wanted to know
all he had to do was say, father, what's that? Boom. That's all
he had to do. Father, what's that? Boom. There
was no impediment. There was no impediment. He was
a picture of the son of God. What did the son of God say?
All I do is that which my father has taught me. My communion with
my father is such that if I need to know anything, I ask him.
And what I know, I only know because of him, because I am
the father of one. The unity between the father
and the son makes it that the son possesses infinite knowledge. Even the God man who grew up,
as the text says, he grew in wisdom and in stature, having
favor with both God and man. God, as he grew, poured into
him infinite wisdom so that he became fully aware His his union
with his father through his divine his human nature by his divine
nature So that he was able to know things That you and I wouldn't
know the mystery of the fusion between his human nature and
his divine nature We cannot fully go into but what we can say is
this the last Adam in part Experienced what the first Adam experienced
in terms of his communion with God Do you understand what I'm
getting at? The last Adam and Park, because
he had to be like us in every point without sin in order to
be a legitimate representative for us on the cross. So he had
to know what it was like to be able to hear his father speaking
into his life directly as he grew. That's amazing. The concept of it is amazing,
but you and I have fallen in the consequence of our fall.
We have found ourselves under the judgment of God. We departed
from the garden and in our departing from the garden, we immediately
cut ourselves off from the blessing of God's knowledge, right? And
what did we do? We began to manufacture our own
righteousness. That's what the fig leaves are
about. It's a perpetual system of non-satisfaction rooted in
human effort to cover up our inadequacy. It's a perpetual
system of non-satisfaction, of human effort to cover up our
inadequacy. And we do it through a multitude
of vain things. A multitude of it. And the most
vulnerable place you can find yourself, but this is the place
you have to come to. is where God shows up when you
are done running and hiding behind the trees. Because that's what
we do. You know how you go for weeks
and weeks and weeks and months and months and months without
talking to God? Yeah, you do. You might think
you don't. You might think you don't. Well,
now stay with me for a second. You might think you're talking
to God, but the reality is you got all kind of stuff going on
all the time. Very seldom until you have really
learned the importance of being steel. Do you ever enter into solitude
with God? Very seldom. Can I get a witness? Don't lie. You're in the house of God. He'll
bless you. So you and I can identify with Adam and Eve. We're running
all the time until we learn the importance of solace, solitude. And even that solitude is not
a location. It's great to have one, but what it is, is a sphere
in a realm. There's a place in the soul where
you ask God to cut all of the noise off. Are you hearing me? so you can
actually hear from God. Once you get used to that, help
you with something, sorry, I can see God's doing ministry right
now. Because this is what we get sick. When we are constantly
bombarded by all of the external energy sources coming at us 24-7. Are you hearing me? All of it. Right now our world is loaded
with contaminants. radioactive contaminants. They're
loaded with noises. Noises even down to the subatomic
level. The chatter is enormous and unending. Are you hearing me? It's overwhelming.
Have you ever had a season where the Lord knocked you down, maybe
you got sick, and he put you in a situation, because he can
be humorous like this, and you used the noise, and he put you
in a hospital room or in a place where no radio. No television. No nothing. And you start going
through your shakes. Your shakes. Addiction. Addiction. You're going through your shakes.
You haven't fixed because you don't know what to do with yourself. You don't know what to do with
yourself. Can I get a witness? All right,
good. Half of you raise your hand. Some of you will get to
that experience one day. Show you something. Let me show
you something. I just want to drive this point home before
we move back. I'm way off the text now. That's okay, though.
Way off the text. It's all good. Because this is
about the failure or success of visitation. This is about
the failure or success of visitation. So, when you discover that you
don't know what to do with yourself, that's the crucial point of honesty. of which most people won't be
because the goal of the devil is to make sure you're distracted
all the time from reality. This is why he caught up with
Jesus in the wilderness. Let me catch up with this dude
and have a conversation with Jesus. The Lord Jesus didn't
need the devil to do his time in the wilderness. He had his
father. What the devil do? He come in.
Hey man, let me holler at you. Sometimes God has you on the
brink of wanting to talk to you and you get that phone call It doesn't happen and at that
point you have to evaluate whether or not You like yourself Are you hearing me so now watch
this Because if you don't like being with yourself You always
won't company You always want company Some
of you this is gonna revolutionize your life. It's gonna help you
too Cuz like I'll hear people say this a lot. I really want
to read my Bible, but I don't have time. That's a lie That's a lie It's just that the
Bible gets you too close to God and yourself and you're not quite
used to being with just God and yourself. You're getting it, huh? You're
getting it. Yeah. I'm just telling you the truth. Telling you the
truth. And so then you got to have this going and got to have
that going and got to have that going. That's the world we're
in. Chatter. This is what I love
about Revelation chapter 8. You know how Revelation chapter
8 opens up? And there was silence in heaven. for the space of a
half hour. You know what God was saying?
Everybody up here loves hanging out with me. That's what he was saying. Heaven
wasn't a place where people are distracted from God. They're
good with God. They can shut it down and just
dwell with the everlasting bliss. The effulgent being whose splendor
and glory is enough. God doesn't even have to talk.
Let's just dwell together, right? Silence is not an enemy to people
who are comfortable with themselves. But you and I will never be comfortable
with ourselves if we are struggling all the time with the inadequacy
of our fallenness and are in the drudgery of always sowing
fig leaves to cover up our nakedness. You guys follow that argument?
Now, what does God do? He, over the space of 2,000 years,
has been blowing the trumpets. Blowing. Blowing the trumpet. Blowing the trumpet. And this
is why you read in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. At
the last trump, the trump shall This is why I say we're between
the six and the seven Trump now. The Trump will sound. And when
the Trump sound giving that last warning, that Trump will call
God's elect out of the vile judgments. Are you hearing me? That Trump
will deliver God's elect from the vile judgment. Because why?
Because we are actually taking heed to the warning. We know
there's a point when there's no more warning. When the vile
judgments come, you can go read it for yourself. All hell's breaking
loose. He's going to smite the sun,
he's going to smite the moon, he's going to smite the water,
he's going to smite the earth, he's going to plague men with
all sorts of swords and boils. Demons are going to be plagued
and the world is going to be filled with them and mankind
is going to be under such torments of judgment that they will seek
death and death will not find them. And this has levels of
spiritual dimension that you need to grapple with because
really this is talking about the conscious that's given over
to reprobation, knowing that it's wrong, but having no ability
to repent. Like it says in Revelation chapter
15. And for all this, they still did not turn from their idols
and their sorceries and their fornications and their adulteries.
They continued in those things, even though the judgments were
coming down. What kind of status of human beings will exist in
a time where God is allowing plagues. And you know, we already
live in a condition of society in our world where plagues can
be the undoing of us all. What's so funny is they're starting
to happen now at levels that are remarkable and we're becoming
comfortable with it. And part of it is natural. The
other part is supernatural. The other part is human era. Three, natural, just the biological
disintegration of the world. Since the fall of mankind, the
universe is actually collapsing and corrupting, right? The whole
creation has been made subject to vanity in order that it might
also be delivered through hope. That's Romans 8. But the other
areas in man's simple pursuit of sovereignty through knowledge.
He is tapping into the basic structure of the universe, into
the microorganisms, into the protons and electrons, into all
of those elements that make up the basic structure of our life,
into our DNA. He's manipulating things. He
is creating monsters and they're turning in on him. That's what's
going on at the smallest level. I'm supposed to be going on vacation
in three weeks. Right? I've already paid for
it. I'm not getting my money back.
But I understand the excursion of my vacation is going to be
in the area where the Zika virus is all over the place. I'm so
glad I'm not having babies. Right? And we're living and see
our government does not want to tell us it's already here
and it's growing here. And they lied and said, all you
had to do was this and you don't have to worry about it. But we've
learned that it can be translated, transferred by sex. So, so now watch this. This is why the Bible talks about
the clean and the unclean people. I keep telling us this. I keep
telling us this. You're not going to get away. You can act like
you can, but you're not going to get away. When God saves you,
he calls you out of uncleanness. When he saves you, he calls you
out of uncleanness. Practices that lead to uncleanness
open you up for the judgments of God. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? When he saves you, he calls you out of that.
He calls you out of that. He calls you out of uncleanness.
Because those are the plagues according to Revelation 18 that
he pours upon Babylon and he says to his elect in Revelation
chapter 18 depart from her come out of her come out of her and
touch not the unclean thing and Do not be partaker of her plagues
Because God will pour upon her great plagues and great judgments
and when God's people live right according to the gospel They
escape largely escape most of that. Are you hearing me? You
open yourself up to the folly and sinfulness of our past lifestyle,
and we're wide open to the place. And see again, the book of Revelation
is like the book of Exodus. The book of Revelation is a neo-Exodus
paradigm. God poured out judgments upon
Egypt, remember? And he delivered Israel. And
he told Israel, don't go back that way, because if you do,
then the plagues of Egypt will come upon you. Deuteronomy 28.
But in the book of Revelation, they're called the plagues of
Babylon. So God's people, the church, the true church, are
people who are to walk in holiness with God so that God would protect
us so that our lives can be somewhat healthy, productive, and happy. He doesn't call us to holiness
to make us sad, but in order that we might be productive and
useful. Am I making some sense? It's very important. And so we
are finding ourselves dealing with the last of the seven trumpets
before the vile judgments come on us. And this is a kind of
microcosm that we see in the book of Luke chapter 19, where
Jesus says, all these things will come upon you because you
did not know the time of your visitation. You know, when God
puts boundaries up, we're going to go to our third point. Now,
James explains the rule of Christ, the son of David, you know, when
God puts boundaries up in our life, do you know he's doing
that for our good? Right. People don't get that, but when
he puts boundaries up, he puts boundaries up for our good. He wants us to be able to enjoy
the blessing of being within the bosom of his purpose and
favor. Going back then to Acts chapter
15, and let's look at a few more verses, verses 16 and 17, work
through them exegetically. There are three observations
that I want to make on that in order for us to see what he is
saying. The first thing is very clear
that James, right along with Christ and right along with Peter,
right along with the book of Revelation, makes mention of
the son of God as being the son of David. And he uses that terminology
again in this text. Notice what it says in verse
16. And after this, I will return and build again the tabernacle
of David, which is fallen down. And after this, I will return
again and build the tabernacle David so what he says in verse
15 is the prophets agree with the idea That God is going to
save the people for himself out of the Gentiles and then he explains
how this works after this Will I return and I will build again
the tabernacle of David? So the metaphor that he's getting
ready to use is building the tabernacle of David So the question
that you and I have to ask is what is the tabernacle of David? What is it? What is the tabernacle
of David that he's building is the tabernacle of David the physical
nation of Israel. Most people believe that particularly
your premillennial dispensation was. That's why I'm putting it
out there to you is the tabernacle of David the physical nation
of Israel or is the tabernacle of David something larger than
David's physical seed. Right. You would agree with me
on that latter end only because you know that our theology trends
crystal centrically, right? In other words, that we don't
hold to a two party system. Like Jesus is not married to
Israel and then married to the church, too. He only got one
bride and the one bride he's married to is made up of both
Jew and Gentile. Do you guys believe that? Right.
So from what we call a crystal centric sense, we don't have
a problem with understanding that when they use the term tabernacle,
that the term tabernacle could also be a synonym for the what? The church, right? That was the Old Testament tabernacle
corresponding to the temple, right? And when they use the
term David, we don't have a problem with David actually corresponding
to who? Jesus, that's right. And once
we understand that, what we are dealing with is Christ's church. Does that make some sense? What
we're dealing with is Christ's church. But the beauty of the
language is that what James is doing is he's running a stream
of prophetic truth all the way back to the promise that God
made to David in 2 Samuel chapter 7. Remember when David is settling
down, we're almost there in our sermons. I said I wanted to stop
after about four after we got to the death of Saul. But we're
probably going to be in the book of 2 Samuel for about Six more
sermons hope you can put up with it Because I want you to understand
Not only how david got to the throne I want you to understand
and appreciate how difficult it was for david to keep the
throne Okay, because he didn't just get to the throne and everything
worked out. All right, he had trouble As
we are working through in our women's theology class as well.
We're laying a foundation for the struggle that Christians
have, believers have, trying to operate according to the will
of God in this world. David is going to have his challenges,
isn't he? But he's going to have remarkable successes that we
want to mark out. And they're going to correspond
to Christ on his throne, as David was on his throne ruling over
the people of Israel, Christ is on his throne ruling over
his people too. Problem is, the church has been a major struggle
for 2,000 years, just like David's rule. Are you guys hearing me?
It's been a major struggle too. The church has not been a wonderful
institution doing the will of God without fault and error,
has it? Now, so what that means is this
idea of building, building again. He will build again. Building
has to do with what? Work. This is not a small thing. The building process or the work
or the labor of producing the church or the edifice Is the
whole of the ministry of the gospel is it not? Jesus said
it in john chapter two He says destroy this temple and i'll
raise it up in three days. Remember that They all thought
he was talking about the temple here. I built he was talking
about his body He's talking about the resurrection of his body.
Was he not? His physical body first, but he had the cosmic
body always in view. What do I mean by the cosmic
body? The church. He always had the church in view.
And this is why he could say to Peter in Matthew 16, I will
what? Build my church. And the gates
of hell will not prevail. A remarkable concept under his
calling as the latter David. The building or the work or the
labor is the labor of the gospel To which christ disciples have
been called into his apostles and then us his disciples We're
all part of that that that building process. Do you agree? Right?
But the work is hard There's nothing easy about the work It's
comprehensive It's pervasive It will not fail, but it will
struggle the same way David struggles when he gets to the throne and
he has to deal with enemies within even as close as his own family
trying to take him out because they fail to understand God's
purpose for the king. And so Jesus Christ for the last
2000 years has been assaulted over and over and over again,
not only by the world, but by even members of his own body.
You believe that? Yes, indeed. Theologians and
scholars have constantly scraped to reach the throne to knock
Jesus off of his throne. Unbelieving theologians and scholars
have constantly labored to deny Jesus his authority and his rule
over the whole universe. And they have labored constantly
to deny his scriptures as the infallible inerrant Word of God
by which the church operates Here Peter James is saying as
it is written, right? So his authority is what scripture?
He's gonna settle this matter among his brethren about salvation
by grace versus works on the scripture And get in our world
We still have these neo-Judaites who are legalist, who would distort
the gospel and pervert the gospel and tell men and women, you got
to get in by Christ plus. That's the battle that we are
fighting. And I'm simply saying to you that as you look at the
prophecy given in verse 16, after this, I will return and I will
be built again, the tabernacle of David. Not only are you to
understand the term, the tabernacle of David, as describing Jesus
as the greater David, you already believe that, but the tabernacle
is his household. David's household, his family. As for Christ, his church is
his household, his family. We are his seed. We are his people. And the battle of building that
tabernacle is a massive one. Listen to the way it closes out.
We're almost done, got 15 more minutes. After this, I'll return
and build again the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,
and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will what? Set
it up. Now, what is he describing here,
build again the ruins thereof? This is why typology is so critical
in Scripture. Remember what we learned? There
are three sons of God. The first son of God is called
who? Adam one. Adam is called the
son of God, is he not? You go to the Gospel of Matthew,
he's called the son of God. because he's a typical picture
of Jesus, right? The second son of God is represented by who? National Israel, right? This
is why he says in Exodus chapter 4, round verse 13, I have called
my son out of Egypt. My son out of Egypt. The book
of Hosea says the same thing and the gospel of Matthew affirms
it. But the ultimate son is whom? Right. So now what happens is
these are called patterns in the scripture. When you look
at the son of God who is presently ruling over his church, And you
look at national Israel, who was a type of God's son, whom
he brought out of Egypt. You see the parallels between
the struggle and the development of both systems and both houses. You see the struggle with the
fall of Adam. You see the struggle with the fall of Israel. You
don't see a struggle with the fall of Jesus, but you see a
struggle with his body. This is why the idea of the ruins
being built up again, and I will build the ruins thereof, and
I will set it up. That last line means I will establish
it. Now, this is interesting because
verse 16 says, after this, I'll return and build again the tabernacle
of David, the rule of Christ, which has fallen down. And I
will build again the rules there and I will set it up. This language
here means that it is God's prerogative and it was God's purpose to establish
the gospel church by which men and women now would enter into
the kingdom of God through the ministry of the church. I will
establish it. These words correspond to what
Christ said in Matthew 16 and notice what verse 17 says. This
is where I want us to look at this and then we'll close that
the residue of men might do what? Right. So now what is James talking
about? What is, Peter talking about
the residue of men will seek after the Lord. What do we mean
by residue? What's another word for residue?
Remnant. You guys got that? Residue or
remnant. So this is what we call remnant
theology. And if you're sensitive to the
terminology remnant theology, then you know we're talking eschatology.
And when we talk about eschatology, you got to be very careful because
we have an eschatology that is rooted in the Old Testament.
Then we have a New Testament eschatology. And a lot of times
when we're talking about the last days, we're not talking
about the last final days of human existence. We're talking
about the last days of the Old Testament era. Are you guys following
that logic? I'm saying this for time's sake.
I'll unpack it more fully next week. A lot of times when you
read in the New Testament and in the last days, these things
will happen. The apostles or whoever's teaching is not talking
about the last days, meaning the final days toward the end
of time. And you and I don't know what
that is for us. Largely, it was talking about
the ending of that old covenant era under Moses. I'm just going
to give you a couple of scriptures to underscore what I'm talking
about. Because I remember making this mistake when I was 18 years
old. One of the first things I started studying when I was
first called by God's grace was eschatology. And I started dealing
with premillennialism and dispensationalism and all of the other millennial
doctrines. And I was largely feeding on
the diet of Tim LaHaye and all of the guys left behind and all
of those guys that were teaching a Jewish-centered eschatology
about a millennium and the rule of Israel and a seven-year tribulation
period. in the middle of the week, Antichrist
rising up, and all of that stuff was swirling around in my head.
And I really had to labor to try to find out how that stuff
really fit in scripture. And over time, a more exegetical
approach to scripture had me raising questions for which I
moved from that position, because I just don't think it's a strong
position at all. The only strength in a futurist
position, and I keep saying this to anybody, is that when someone
says something is going to happen in the future, You can't discount
that. I mean, you can't prove it wrong.
And so the only thing you can do is say, OK, we'll wait and
see. Right. Right. So like for the longest, we've
been waiting for the Antichrist to pop up. I mean, all my life,
I'm 55 now. He's supposed to have popped
up in 1975, 1978, 1981, 1986. In fact, every one of my presidents
was supposed to be the Antichrist, especially after Reagan knocked
off, you know, the Russians and we stopped calling them the Antichrist
because we were calling them the Antichrist. Every Russian
president was the Antichrist. Be careful. Political theology
is a ruse. and it's a distraction. Political theology is a ruse
and a distraction and it's designed to set you up on teams where
you oppose another group and you ain't really got no squabble
with that group. Did you guys hear what I just said? The notion
that we are the white hats and they're the black hats? Don't
fall prey to that. The gospel is not a political
gospel. It's not dealing with social
issues. It's not making certain nations intrinsically and demonically
evil and other nations intrinsically and angelically good. I'm gonna
say it one more time. The gospel does not make the
Jews holy and everybody else unholy. Did you guys get that? The gospel makes both unholy
and God's elect holy. This is why Romans three is so
critical. He has condemned us all that
he might have mercy on us all. And until that theology gets
into your system, you will actually buy into a system of racism inherent
in your theology. Did you guys hear what I just
said? You'll buy into it. And I get people, they keep coming
to me all the time. This is crazy. If you buy into
a system of racism in your theology, in particular, if you buy into
a system of racism built up 50 years ago, especially for you
black folks, here's what's going to happen to you. You're going
to actually buy into a system of racism that condemns you as
being cursed. Because the very people who have
framed a racist theology basically made sure black people were viewed
as cursed in the scriptures. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Well, I used to hear this. Where the heck did this?
I'm trying to be nice. Where in the heck did this come
from? Why are black people automatically cursed? You know, the whole Hamite curse,
which is a completely flawed hermeneutic and a twisted exegetical
approach to keeping God's precious Hamite people under. So once
I learned how to properly interpret Genesis 9 realizing that Noah
was the beginning of God's redemptive purpose for mankind and the three
streams of humanity run from Shem, Japheth, and Ham, the three
streams of humanity. Once I learned that all three
streams are three streams that God has chosen to save. All three
streams. He has chosen to save all three
streams. And all of us in this room, we are a part of those
three streams. Do you understand that? What's
crazy too is this notion that there's a pure race on planet
earth. Crazy. Well, there is, it's called the
human race. That's right. It's called the
human race. I don't care how white you look.
You got a whole bunch of stuff running through your veins. I'm
telling you, I don't care how black you look. Your grandmama
could be white. Am I making some sense? I love
the study. I love the study. People get
shocked when they go and find out. What? Why don't you know
folks been jumping fences since Adam left the garden? They've been jumping fences since
Adam left the garden. And you can't stop people from
loving each other. You know what I'm saying? And so that diabolical idea of
a pure or superior race militates against the gospel of the one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who is
the savior of all mankind. And when you buy into a theology
that makes a hierarchy out of different ethnic groups, you
condemn your own self. It was for this reason Jesus
was killed, because he would not be exclusive to the Jews.
Because once you become exclusive to this group of people, watch
this now. I'll take some questions if you want it. Once you become
exclusive to one group of people, they're not going to stop with
you just being exclusive with them. They're going to want you
to be exclusive with all their categories of exclusivity, too.
Did you get what I just said? They're going to want you to
be exclusive with all their categories of exclusivity, because that's
the nature of legalism. We learned it, right? A little
leaven leavens a whole lot. And the turmoil for the Hebrews
is filled with so much racism that I don't even have time to
even talk about the extent of it. But watch this, it's true
of every group. Every ethnic group, and there's
only one race, but every ethnic group somehow thinks it came
directly out of God's side. It's crazy. No, I'm real. I'm
just telling you the truth. Every ethnic group think it came
directly out of God's side. This is why the gospel levels
everything, and this is why your fierce battle right now among
our black people, we're being duped again into this kind of
black Jesus, black Hebrew thing. It rises up from time. But the
same thing with my white brothers. What do you think the KKK was
all about? Why do you think Donald Trump is getting all of the props
he's getting right now? Because they think the Messiah has come
back again in the name of Donald Trump. We getting ready to go
back to the good old days where we ran everything. I'm being facetious to wake you
up because I know we got to shut it down right here But I'm only
being facetious in part if anyone has ever listened to my teaching
at length getting past my My delivery elements to just keep
your attention at the core of my teaching. It's always solid Because while I'm talking to
you and layman's term I'm thinking scholarship Do you hear me? I'm thinking scholarship and
I'm thinking how the scholars have labored to formulate doctrines,
to justify cultural trends, prominent cultures, prominent kingdoms,
prominent peoples in prominent parts of the world. And it made
its way undetected into the church and it rises up where we are
all undiscerning. You guys understand what I'm
saying? All right. So we're going to shut it down
here after. Anybody got any questions? We'll take one or two. If you
guys got stirred up, if not, we'll go to, we'll close it in
prayer. Any questions? Going once, going twice. I can't
hear you. Oh, so you don't know the Bible
verses. Acts chapter two is one. Peter
says, the thing that you're seeing taking place where all these
people are speaking in languages is what Joel, the prophet said
would occur in the last days, right? Remember that? That's
like the opening of Pentecost, right? And then we read Hebrews
chapter one, God, who in sundry times and in different manners
spoken to the prophets in the past, but in these last days,
he has spoken to us through his son. Right? Hebrews chapter 9
makes it clear. Christ came in the end of the
ages in order to bring about our salvation. But he will come
the second time without sin unto salvation. So you will find many
times in the scriptures where the last days are corresponding
to the closing out of the Old Testament era and the establishing
of the New Testament era. In other words, we have been
in the last days since Jesus showed up. Does that make some
sense? The last days that in the Old
Testament referred to the coming of Jesus and the end of the Old
Covenant Establishing a new covenant era, right? So you'll read in
Deuteronomy chapter 28 also and in the latter times they will
learn it quickly for in those days God will bring his judgments
and in always apocalyptic language is always designed to in a way
that it speaks to a universal cataclysm, but it's really simply
the end of an era. So you'll talk about, you'll
see in the Old Testament prophets, the moon turning to blood, the
sun not giving its light, and the stars falling from heaven.
That language is used in the book of Exodus, is used in Jeremiah,
is used in Isaiah, is used in Ezekiel. And when you look at
it contextually, it will talk about the end of nations. Egypt
will collapse as a nation because every one of those prominent
nations thought the world began and ended with them And so what
God would say is your world is gonna end there For you the Sun
will not shine for you. The moon will not give its life
for you. The stars will fall from heaven By the way We know
a whole lot more about the cosmos now and if you take it literally
we got problems and Is that right? You take it literally. We got
probably we got stars way bigger than one planet. So so you have
to understand these things in what is called the rich apocalyptic
language of the prophets. But we believe with Peter that
there is an ending coming for our world, too, in which he plainly
explains that the heavens will be set on fire. and fervent heat
will melt the elements thereof, and the universe will be burned
up, and God will reestablish a new heavens and a new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness." When you work through that language,
you can't force into that very detailed terminology symbolism
because it's too detailed. And by the way, we know empirically
that our world is falling apart. One of the things that scientists
are saying right now is that they know that based upon what
they're recognizing, these black holes, the empties holes, these
empty holes with what they call dark energy. I study all this
stuff, that the dark energy is a omen that this universe has
to give way. They can see that through the
dark energy, this universe has to collapse and give way to a
brand new universe. In fact, they anticipate a new
universe. Well, that's what God said. Isn't
that what he said? So God is pretty smart, isn't
he? We just got to read our Bibles. It's the church. It's not hard.
Oh, they could. I'll close it here. Whenever
you see cults rise up, the Davidian church in Texas, in Waco, Texas,
or the Mormons, or the Catholic church, I'll use those as two
massive ones because they're models. Here's how this goes. There's a lesson for you or any
set of, uh, megalomaniac messianic driven persons. Like my, my black
people got duped by Jamestown. My black people did. Let me,
let me just talk about that. Can I do that just briefly? Because
see, if you don't learn from the small antichrist, you're
going to get it when the big one comes. And so that's why John said in
1st John chapter 2 He says Antichrist is already here We know it because
many of them have come into the world and there have been many
Antichrists coming through since the days that Jesus went back
to glory you guys understand that and people are always duped
by Antichrist systems because you're always inclined to look
to a man and not Christ The biggest Antichrist system on the earth
with which we are all up and utterly comfortable with is the
Catholic Church. The papacy is a massive expression
of an antichrist system. Do you understand that? It's
a massive expression and it has worked its wonders in such a
degree that everybody's all right with it. It started a war when the brethren
Awoke to the truth of scripture and realized that there should
not be one central man Heading up the whole institution of the
church. Let alone being being called the papa To which you
bow your knee and kiss his ring as a vicar of Christ, so he has
taken on the messianic role of which belongs only to Jesus and
Yet because of deception we buy into a man-centered theology
Are you guys hearing me? and everywhere they pop up, the
Mormons do the same thing. They have a massive priesthood
system. Anybody here was a Mormon? Raise
your hand. Anybody here was a Mormon? Out of all these people, I'm
surprised, no Mormons. We got Catholics here, raise your hand.
We got Catholics, bunch of Catholics, right? But the Mormons did the
same thing. They broke away from the Catholic
church, took the same model of the Catholic church, an inherent
system of racism too, where they made themselves the elite ones.
And every man is a priest and a prophet. And they kind of borrowed
a little bit from Islam, too, because, you know, you can have
families in heaven and every family gets to have its own planet
and just start the thing all over again. That's why they accept
the polygamy. That's all man centered. And
you wonder how that stuff works is because people fail to have
the kind of allegiance to Jesus that you should. And it works
that way in local congregations. where people get raised up so
high that everybody focuses in on the man or the woman and not
Christ. The only remedy to apostasy is
a radical, crystal-centric theology that forces us all to look to
Jesus and recognize the ethic that Jesus gave us And that's
this. Call no man your father on earth.
Because you all got one daddy. That's God. And call no man master
on earth. Because you all have one master.
And that's Jesus. And you are all brethren. Is
that what our master said in Matthew chapter 23? He laid it
out to make sure that the nucleus of the New Testament church didn't
get swallowed up by the anti-Christ system, at least in the days
of the apostles. They made it through the apostolic
era, calling each other brethren. Are you hearing me? But as soon
as the apostolic era moved into the patristic era, where now
religion started homogenizing with politics, We start lifting
our fathers up and they became almost authorities and Kings. So you had it both in the Catholic
church, as well as the Greek Orthodox church. Now you see
those two cats with those big hats, kicking it together again.
How many of y'all saw that? The Orthodox Greek Orthodox,
uh, the, the Papa in the Greek Orthodox church and the Papa
in the Catholic church. And he came to sign a treaty of peace, right? They did. This is amazing. The
scripture says, now when they shall say, peace, peace, sudden
destruction is coming. See, because neither one of those
systems or those men have repented from stealing God's glory. They
haven't repented. But see, if you read your Bible
carefully, the Spirit of God shows us the movement of antichrist
system into the Unitarian System the oneness system the global
agenda of a one-world government The scriptures are clear about
this read Revelation 16 through 19 They will all give their power
unto the beast and they're working together They're working together
to give their power to the beast and outwardly it looks amazing Let me how many you saw Scalia's
funeral did anybody see Scalia's funeral Only one or two day. No, y'all saw good. I'm glad
you did Because if you'd have watched Scalia's funeral, it
was Catholic at the highest order. And the ornate, visible stimuli,
and the mass that was taken, and all of the dignitaries, and
all of the priests, if you're not anchored to biblical truth,
you would swear that was of God. You would swear. And yet Scalia's
son, Paul, he preached his daddy's homily. And he was crafty in
telling you, you're saved by grace, plus your works, plus
your indulgences, plus the prayers to the saints, plus the prayers
of the saints, plus your purgatory. And after your purgatory, we
hope for your perfection. Did you hear what I just said?
I listened to the whole thing. I listened to the whole thing.
And I said, undiscerning ears would not get it. Undiscerning
ears would not get it. Let's close in prayer. Father,
thank you for this time. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for your spirit. Thank you for the humility of
heart for us to labor in your word. We know you're building
the tabernacle of David stone by stone, brick by brick, plank
by plank. in your own way, humble men and
women all around the world who have heard the gospel and been
called out of darkness into your marvelous light. You've also
warned us about the heady, high-minded, lofty facsimile of the devil
and his work to give us a massive, ornate temple of man by which
the masses of the world will be drawn into it in a desire
to seek peace. But we've discovered that peace
is found only in you. In me is peace. says the Lord
Jesus Christ in the world, you will have tribulation. So as
we go our way, we're asking for you to keep our hearts, guard
our hearts and guard our minds. Keep us reverently committed
to your word. Keep us ever desiring to know
you and give us the comfort to spend time and quiet in your
presence, to hear your voice, to discern your will, help us
to understand it's all right. It's all right to be in your
presence. Help us to learn how to like ourselves in Christ so
that we might enjoy our time with you. It's so precious. It's
so precious. It's so precious. And we pray
it in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you guys.