A-Price-Revelation Chapter 13 verse 12

The speaker discusses the symbolism in the book of Revelation, particularly the seven heads and ten horns representing seven Gentile kingdoms. They mention how these kingdoms ruled the known world in their time, including the Roman and Grecian empires. They also talk about the European Union and its potential role in a one-world government, as well as the possibility of a cashless society and the use of microchips. The speaker mentions the United Nations and the loss of sovereignty in the US, as well as the country's debt to the World Bank and the Federal Reserve's control over the currency. They argue that the country has already gone bankrupt. And just to give you a little bit of background, we had talked about the beast, beginning in verse 1, that John had saw rise up out of the sea. He had seven heads and ten horns, and he had seven crowns. Let me just read it to you. Seven heads, ten horns upon his horns were ten crowns, I'm sorry. I explained to you how the seven heads represented seven kingdoms. How many of y'all remember those kingdoms? Brother, we started yet? Are we? Okay. Okay, starting first with the Egyptian. Okay, let's go again. Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Medie-Persian. Okay, after the Medie-Persian, the Grecian. Let's do it together. The Grecian, and then the Roman, and then kingdom of Antichrist. Okay. And that's the seven kingdoms. That's the seven heads that it's talking about here. And these are all Gentile kingdoms. They're not Jewish kingdoms. If you wasn't a Jew, you were what? You were a Gentile. So from beginning to end, this would be all of the Gentile kingdoms that would ever rule on the earth from beginning to end, and that would rule the known world in their day. Everybody knows the Roman Empire ruled the known world in its day. The Grecian Empire did. The Babylonian, the Medie-Persian. All of these kingdoms ruled the known world in their day. Amen? And so this is what the first beast that he saw rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns and ten crowns upon his ten horns. But the ten horns represented ten kings, and therefore they had ten crowns upon their heads. And if we can this morning, let's try to hold the kids down just a little bit so that we're not letting them distract everybody else this morning and sort of draw everyone off track. Every little noise that the devil can generate is going to pull somebody's attention away from this. And revelation, folks, is something you've got to concentrate on. Amen? So let's try to concentrate this morning. So then we talked about the first beast, and we talked about how it was going to be the kingdom of Antichrist, and it was going to be a world dictator, and he was going to come to power. And this kingdom of people who have the spirit of Antichrist is going to usher in and raise to power this man who is going to be the world dictator, who is going to be the ruler over a one-world government, who himself is going to be the devil in the flesh of a man. Just like Jesus was God in the flesh of a man, now the devil is coming, and he's pictured in the prophets and in the prophecies as being the devil in the flesh of a man ruling the known world in these last days. And we know that the Euro government, the European Parliament, the United European Parliament, that they have united together to form that one-world government. They right now have 15 member nations that rule through the Euro government. And they also, back in January of 1999, established their own currency. And we know that the Bible in Revelation chapter 17 talks about how the woman is riding the beast, and the great harlot is riding the back of the beast that has the seven heads and the ten horns, and the ten crowns upon the ten horns. So we know that already exists in Revelation 17 where it talks about the woman riding the beast. Well, the Euro currency has the symbol on it of the woman riding the beast, has a picture of a woman riding the back of the beast. So we know that that in itself is a sign that this is the last days and that this is going to be the one-world government. Not only that, but we also know that the Bible talks about here in Revelation 13, as we may get to part of that today, that there is going to be a cashless system, that they are going to get completely away from cash, and so the Euro currency will cease to exist one day along with everybody else's currency around the world. Because Revelation 13 tells us that there is going to be a mark planted in the right hand or on the forehead, and without that mark, that you will not be able to buy, sell, exchange, or bargain in any kind of way. So we see by that that the Antichrist is going to come to power through the economic system. Amen? And that that mark or that microchip, and they do have a microchip today, and if you ever want to read about the testimony of the man who actually designed the microchip, it's on the Internet. He can give you his testimony about it. And he tells you that he, along with many others, had parts that they all did in developing that thing. But the microchip is used right now in dogs and cats. You know, the veterinarians use it. They inject it up under the skin. It's about half the size of a grain of rice. And that little microchip, you can take a magnetic wand and just run over the back of that cat or that dog's neck, and it displays on a computer screen the name of the owner of that dog or cat, their address, their phone number, the history of the shot records and all that kind of stuff, the vaccinations, the rabies shots, and all that for that animal. We also know that the federal government has done a pilot project where they also injected these microchips into the military forces, into a select group of them, and they could monitor them by satellite. Now, the trucking industry has been doing this for years because people would hijack these 18-wheelers and haul off just truckloads of merchandise. And so they found that they could plant these microchips on the vehicles and monitor it by satellite, and they knew where their truck was within 18 feet of that truck. They could spot it by satellite at any given time during the day or night for that matter. So that's been going on for years. That's now old technology. But the government is planning to use this, and not only is the Euro government planning it, but our government is planning it. Our government has been involved. And, you know, from the development end of it until the application of it, our government is going to be fully involved. In fact, they're fully involved right now with the European government. You go on the... type in European Union on your computer and just pull up the screen and then go to their main website. You get a big selection there. You'll see how full the page is going to be. But go to the main website, and when it pulls up, it's going to be a scary-looking thing, especially if you've studied the Bible. And then you can click on all kinds of information. But one of the things you can click on is you can click on the one that allows you to look at when President Clinton just went to Europe. It wasn't just to go over there and kick up his heels and cool his heels for a few days. This man was fully engaged into all kinds of commitments where he committed our country to the Euro government. You can find it. It's right there on the Internet. Pull it up, page by page by page by page. Every nation around the world is going to yield themselves to this one world government. The Bible says that it's going to become a worldwide government. And everything you hear today is global this, global that, global the other, global this. And NAFTA and the National Alliance for Free Trade Agreements and all these things that have been done to break down the barriers for trade so that they could establish a global economic system. And just the other day, you know, we've had our eyes on the United Nations for quite some time because, you see, the United Nations is the enforcement side of the European Union. I mean, they've got the military might. They go in and they can pull police actions in countries where there's revolutions. Incidentally, President Clinton signed over the sovereignty of our country to the United Nations when he signed over the use of our military forces and also signed a document saying that in the event that there was a revolution in this country, that the United Nations could use our troops to police our country. So whenever a nation sells out their military forces to a foreign power, folks, they've sold out the sovereignty of our nation. And so we've been sold out. But we've been sold out in some other ways. We've been sold out economically. Back in the early 1900s when America was producing its own currency up until around, I believe it was around 1917. And then America suddenly got a group of independent bankers and money brokers, got them together and formed what is now called the Oh, what is the word I'm looking for? Somebody tell me what I'm looking for here. Anyway, the ones who produce our currency. Y'all know who I'm talking about. I just had a Yeah, the one in Well, Well, Well, my mind just went blank. I'll think of it in just a minute, perhaps. But anyway, they began to The Federal Reserve, that's what I'm looking for. The Federal Reserve Bank. They are not a part of our federal government, folks. They're a group of independent bankers. And they are producing our currency for us and charging us a fee. Now, have you ever wondered how we went in debt? How we got in debt? We talk about we owe five trillion dollars. Who do we owe it to? Have you ever thought about that? Well, let me tell you who we owe it to. The majority of what we owe is to the World Bank. And the Federal Reserve is working in conjunction with the World Bank. So that they have allowed our country to go in debt to them So in going in debt to them meant that we were also going in debt to the World Bank in London. And so the country here has been sold out in debt. Some people say, well, our bank our federal government is about to go bankrupt. No, you're wrong. It's already bankrupt. It went bankrupt in 1935. Not everybody really understands that. But that's why we came off the gold standard and the silver standard. We surrendered everything that backs up our currency. We surrendered it to the Federal Reserve because from 1917 when they came in power when they were developed and incidentally they met right down here at Jekyll Island to get this thing all kicked off and get it started for the Federal Reserve. But from 1917 to 1929 is all it took all the time it took for the Federal Reserve to bankrupt America. And so economically we've been now dependent upon them and dependent upon the American people because in 1935 we surrendered our gold, we surrendered our silver, everything that backed up the currency to the Federal Reserve. Surrendered it to them because we owed it to them in debt. So we in America did not have the money to operate on for the next 12 months. So some interesting things began to happen. They began to realize that in America we had or the government had like an open bank account and they could draw all the money they wanted to out of it. Because what they had was the working man the men, women and children of America the working people who pay taxes. And so they implemented the Federal Income Tax so that they could reap from all of us all the money that they want to pay their debt to gather up enough to collect in revenue to operate for the next 12 months. And that's what they did. They actually borrowed that year they borrowed what they were going to spend the next 12 months from the Federal Reserve. And then they held the American people in hock for the payment to pay the Federal Reserve at the end of that 12 months. That's why now they're pushing us backwards to where they trying to get us back to where they started to where they wasn't supposed to spend any more than they take in. You understand what I'm saying? Because what they would take in in revenue and taxes was supposed to be equal to what they had borrowed that year to operate from the Federal Reserve. But the problem is they kept spending more than they were taking in. So every year they would raise taxes to compensate for the over-expense over expenditures. And so economically around the world it's not only America that's facing this problem but every nation in the world. And if America as big as America is facing this problem what about third world countries? They've already been there. They've already been in poverty. Somebody's already got control of them economically. So you can see how that the Antichrist the world dictator is going to come in and seize control of America and other nations around the world because they're going to operate through the One World Bank. And the One World Bank is sitting there pretty and fancy. They finance wars. They finance both sides of it. These two nations are fighting. They finance the war machinery for both sides. They go in there and blow each other up. The World Bank comes back in and finances repairing each one of these countries. So they're making money hand over hand and everybody around them is going in debt to them. So the One World Government who also operates the One World Bank the Rothschilds, the Bilderbergs and the Rockefellers actually are in control of the One World Government and the One World Bank and are manipulating governments and nations and they put presidents in power and they move this and put this in place and sometimes you think well my vote counted I finally got who I was wanting in office. You're wrong. The money is what put them in office. And the people that are behind the One World Government is the one that's pushing them in office. And we could go into that but I am way off my notes already. So let me let me get to Revelation 13 and let's begin at verse 11. And it says, And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon. Now you've already seen one beast in the first part of Revelation 13. Now you're seeing another beast. The first beast is the system of Antichrist. It's the Antichrist government. And out of it will be raised up a man who will be the devil himself in the flesh of a man ruling the known world in his day. But now suddenly a second beast has risen up. Now we've got to notice here that this other beast has emerged. Now we've got to ask the question who is the second beast? That's right. The second beast is the false prophet. Now, why are they calling him a false prophet? Because he's the church, the false church, the apostate church, the world's religious system. They're not going to have an ear to hear what God has to say. They're going to be getting their direction from man and man's tradition and ungodliness and wickedness. It's going to be a time when wickedness has got behind the pulpit and preached what people want to hear. It's going to be a time when the church has become cold and insensitive to a move of God. It's going to be a time when they've lost their ability to hear from God. So the false prophet is the apostate church in full manifestation. He's the world religious system. Notice that it's said that he had two horns like a lamb, but he spake as a dragon. In other words, he looked like the real thing. He looked like a lamb, but when he opened his mouth, he spake as a dragon. And that's the way the false religious system, folks, is today. It looks like the real thing, but when people open their mouths, they sound like the devil. Amen? They sound like the dragon himself. Now with a quick glance into Revelation 12 and 9, if you'll turn there right quick, Revelation 12 and 9, we can see that one of the devil's names that was mentioned there was dragon. It says, And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceived the whole world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. So when it's talking about the dragon, he looked like a lamb, but he spake as a dragon. We know that when the Scripture refers to the dragon, that he's talking about who? Satan, the devil, the old serpent himself. So we can see here then that the name dragon was given to the devil. Now verse 11 is trying to tell us that in these last days, that the devil is going to get into the church and he's going to be running things. Now when I speak here of the church, I'm not, of course, speaking of the real church. I'm speaking of the world's religious system. Remember, Jesus did not call us to a religious system. Amen? But He called us to a relationship. Now the true worshipers of God will still be faithful. They will be undefiled. But there is a religious system today at work that is already in place in most churches. This false religious system, this apostate Christianity is already in place in a lot of churches. This religious system will not hear God's voice. They will not obey His words. And they are bound to a form of man's tradition, the Word of God, null and void. This religious system has the form and it looks similar to the real thing, but it's not the real thing. It looks like a lamb, but it's not a lamb. It's a dragon. And in another sense, it's not a lamb, it's a goat. Listen to what Jesus said about what He's going to do at His coming when He returns in His glory. Matthew chapter 25, verse 31 through 34, and then also verse 41. He said, When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all the nations, and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep and the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. But then in verse 41 He said, Then He shall say also unto them that are on His left, Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Let's see, prepared for the devil and his angels, I'm sorry. Then He shall say also unto them on His left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. One thing I want you to notice is that hell and that lake of fire was not prepared for you. And it was not prepared for man. It was originally prepared for the devil and his angels. And God desires not that any man should perish and be cast into hell. So then shall He say also unto them on His left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. So we can see that a division will be made between those who truly have a relationship with the Savior and those who are just being religious. Now remember this, in the last days that Christ walked upon the earth, it was the religious system that nailed Him to the cross. I want you to think about it. And so it will be in these last days in the same manner. The religious system is going to come against the church, the real church, because the real church is the body of Christ made manifest in the earth. And so the religious system is again going to bring persecution against the real and true body of Christ. We, the church, are the body of Christ made manifest to the earth. The only way that the devil can get rid of Christ in the earth is to bring about a worldwide persecution of the true church in his attempt to annihilate it. But he's not been successful in the past and he will not be successful this time either because God has got a plan. Praise God, because the true church is going to remain faithful in spite of the persecution. Many will remain faithful even unto death. The church has shined the greatest and been the most glorious when it's under persecution. And not only that, but it spread even more when it was under persecution. Every time the devil tried to stamp it out, it only caused it to spread. It's like pouring gas and water or trying to put out a gas fire with water and you throw water on the fire and what happens? It just scatters. And that's the way it is with the church. Every time the devil persecutes the church or comes against the church, it just causes people to spread the gospel that much more. Amen? And causes us to grow even closer to God. That is the true church. Now, persecution and tribulation, if you're not looking with your eyes on the Lord and you get your eyes off of God and you begin to look at, oh, what the devil's doing to me and oh, my problem, oh, my this, then to you, it might not drive you to your knees and it might not drive you closer to God. It might drive you far from Him. But what's going to determine that is what is in the heart. Amen? Are you seeking the glory of God for your life? Or are you seeking to protect this flesh? Are you seeking to be obedient to God and to seek after Him and to do the things that pleases our Father? Or are you trying to protect this flesh? Jesus said that if you love Me, keep My commandments, both I and my Father will come and make our abode in your heart, in your life. He also said, take up your cross and follow Me. He wasn't going to a picnic. He was going to Calvary. He said, take up your cross and follow Me. So we know that there's going to be some persecution along the way. And Jesus said, if they did this to Me, what are they going to do to My followers? Amen? So getting back now to the false apostate religious system, they will worship the first beast, the Antichrist, and will deny the faith of Christ and will persecute the true worshipers of Christ as we will see in the verses to come. You see, the false religious system is going to be, or the false church, in these last days, one of your greatest enemies. And sometimes it's going to be hard to distinguish between them because they talk the talk. You know, they've got all the verbiage. They've got all of the resemblance of something godly. They look like a lamb. But when they open up their mouth, they speak like a dragon. And you're going to have to have some godly discernment. You're going to have to know the Lord to know the difference between what's of God and what's of the devil. You see, some folks don't know the difference now. Some folks don't know the difference now. They get saved and say, oh, I believe I'm going to go out and join a church. And they go out and just jump into a church. And they don't have any discernment. They haven't read their Bible. They haven't read about Jesus. They don't have any godly discernment about what's of God and what's of the devil. And they get sucked into this religious system. And it pulls them in. It's like water going down a drain and you just get sucked into it. And before you know it, you're right back where you started because they've sucked the life right out of you. You need to pray. And I speak right now to Portia because Portia just got saved yesterday. But I'm going to tell you, she's got some discernment already. Amen? Because she already knows what's not of God. She knows some things because she's been around a religious system before. Most of us have. And we know there's something wrong with it. We just couldn't quite put our finger on it. But when we come into the light and we begin to read God's Word and He begins to give us an understanding of it, then we begin to realize, man, I've been sucked into that thing and I was getting religious and didn't even know it. And I was losing my relationship that I had with Jesus when I went to the altar and I gave my life to Him and it was a personal decision and I was sincere. But all of a sudden, the religiosity of our day and our hour has sucked the life right out of me. And now I'm becoming as dead as those that are around me. You see, God don't want you dead, honey. He wants you alive. So you've got to go where you can get fed spiritually. You've got to go where there's some life. And if there ain't life in that church, just get up and walk out. Amen? Just get up and walk out and say, Lord, show me where I need to go. Put me where I need to be so that I can get fed spiritually. Amen? It sure is hard to stay on my notes. But the false apostate religious system of the false church is going to worship the beast. They're going to worship the Antichrist. They're going to sell out, folks. Actually, they've already sold out. They're just waiting for Him to rise to power. Amen? And they'll go running to bow down to worship Him when He does. This false apostate religious system will not only worship the beast, the Antichrist, but they will deny the faith of Christ. And they'll persecute the true worshipers of Christ. As we'll see in these verses here. I want you to read with me in verse 12. Revelation 13, verse 12. And He exorcises the second beast that He's talking about. He exorcised all the power of the first beast before Him. And He calls it the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. Now, the verse said, He exorcises all the power of the first beast. Now, this word power has to do with authority. Amen? This word power speaks of authority. I mean, what it's referring to is His authority. So this word power has to do with authority. So what the verse is actually saying is, He exorcises all of the authority of the first beast. Now, this means that He will represent the first beast, the Antichrist, in authority. Now, we must again ask ourselves the question, where does the Antichrist get his authority? And so for the answer, let's look in the last part of verse 2. You'll go back to Revelation 13, the last part of verse 2 where it says, And the dragon, Satan, gave him his power. In other words, gave him his authority and his seat and great authority. So from this verse, we can see that the Antichrist himself is going to be exercising all the power of Satan. And going back to verse 12, we see that the second beast, the false prophet, is also going to be exercising the same power. They will be one actually in unity and in power. They will be one in spirit and they'll be one in purpose. Both of them are going to be the instruments in the hands of Satan himself. As there was a holy trinity, there's going to be an unholy trinity. There's going to be Satan, there's going to be the Antichrist and the false prophet. Just like there was God the Father, Jesus the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Amen? So there's a holy trinity. Here, it's showing us an unholy trinity. The false prophet will take over the spiritual responsibility of the people on the earth. He calls everyone to worship the first beast, the Antichrist. Look at verse 12 where he said, And he causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship, causes them to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. The false prophet, as we call him, will be responsible for many being put to death because they will not worship the Antichrist. Remember, we read earlier where the Scripture said he calls all, both great and small, to bow down and worship the beast whose names were not written in the Lamb's book of life. So if your name is written in the Lamb's book of life, and you're here during the time of the Antichrist, my friend, the Bible says that you are not going to give in. And you're not going to bow down and worship him. But there's going to be some who are religious, and in the world's religious system, they're every one going to bow down and worship him. Now, as I said, the false prophet, as we call him, will be responsible then for many being put to death because they will not worship the Antichrist. We will see this a little bit more clearly as we go into verses to come. But before we leave verse 12, before we leave verse 12, I want to address two more things that we need to see there. One, we have called this second beast the false prophet, mainly for identification purposes and to identify the fact that there will be a man in this position. But there's more at work here than just one man. This second beast represents a whole system at work, a whole system of religion of which the false prophet is raised up to be its head. Now, I want you to know that this system today is already in place and will gladly raise up the false prophet to be its head. It's a system of religion that no longer takes its commands from God. It's a system of religion that no longer concentrates on personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It's a system that just has the form and no power. It's a system of religion that simply lies in wait to deceive all who will turn in at its gates. Listen to what Jesus said about the religious system of His day because it is the same religious system today as it was then. Matthew 23 and verse 15. Jesus said, Woe unto you, you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you come past the sea and land to make one proselyter, one convert. And when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than you are yourself. And isn't that the way the world's religious system is? They'll go to the ends of the earth to make one convert. And when they bring him into that religious system, into that church, they make them twice the son of hell that they are themselves. Because they want him to conform to man's tradition and get his directions from man and not God. Jesus had a problem with the religious people of His day. I've got news for you. Christian Radio yesterday told everyone that the United Nations has now, you know, everybody knew that they were going to eventually do it. They didn't know exactly when. But they have now formed a league of religions. And they are coming together to establish universal order within the religious realms. And the purpose is to break down all these things that separate and make different religions or different Christian groups unique. And so it seems like on the surface a good thing that if the churches could all come together, man, we would have pie in the sky by and by. Amen? We would have the unity. We would have the peace. Nobody would be struggling. Nobody would be arguing. But how many of you know the thing that makes us unique today is that we don't conform. We don't conform to the world's religious system. And whenever there's a dead church over here, we're not supposed to go over there and become dead like them. But we're supposed to keep our eyes on the Lord and the Lord Himself is pretty radical. He doesn't conform to it either. Amen? And Jesus didn't conform His life to the way that the religious system of His day was doing. But in fact, they counted Him as a radical and as a nut. You know, they wouldn't listen to anything He said. In fact, they rejected everything He said and nailed Him to the cross and crucified Him and put Him to death. And God has given us His Word and given us His Gospel and given us His personal relationship that we have with Him. And anything that tries to bring a compromise into your life for that personal relationship that you've got with God is not of God. Amen? And there's a lot of those represented there within the religions that are meeting with the United Nations, some that have grown so cold, you ought to call the undertaker and haul them off. Because it's so dead spiritually, it's become an intellectual thing with them. And they're not moved by anything emotionally. They're not moved by God's auctioning of the Holy Spirit in their lives. And they're not quickened by the Spirit of God. They've become cold and dead and insensitive to God's voice. And they don't even have any idea what God is doing in the earth. But there are men and women that have stood behind puppets and just became religious and satisfied that some of them are doing it for money and some of it because of social influence and some because of this reason and that reason, but not for the right reason. They've become like hirelings that don't care about the sheep. They're insensitive to God and sensitive to the needs of the sheep or the people of God or God's flock. Hear what Jesus was saying. He was saying that there is a religious system that will search out the ends of the earth to make a convert, and when they make just one, they'll turn him in to twice the son of hell that they are themselves. Now, I like that kind of preaching. Jesus didn't beat around the bush, folks. He just told it like it was. You could like it or lump it. He just told it like it was. Some think that my preaching is a little bold. But I can tell you that Jesus was much more bolder than I am. And sometimes His words could cut right to the heart of matters. Amen? Let's look at Jesus' description as He describes the false religious system. You can read what is said in Matthew 23. In fact, if the matter is, I'm going to give you part of it. But you need to really sit down and read Matthew 23. You get a good idea about what Jesus... Remember, Jesus was God in the flesh of a man. So when Jesus spoke, it was God speaking. Now you're going to get God's perspective on what He thinks about the religious system. Listen to what is said. Matthew 23 and verse 3. He said, But don't you do after their words, for they say and do not. They're hypocrites. They want to tell you how to live, but they don't do it themselves. I don't know what makes this thing do that, but sometimes it does. Verse 4. Jesus said, They bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be born, and they lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. In other words, they put a lot of burden on people and put a lot of guilt on them, but they don't do anything to lift that burden. And then in verse 5, He said, All of their works, speaking of these religious hypocrites and Sadducees and Pharisees and scribes, He said, All of their works do they for to be seen of man. They want to be seen of man. They make broad their phylacteries, and then they enlarge the borders of their garments. Now their phylacteries, if you don't know what a phylactery was, it was a box that contained the laws of Moses. And they carried it around with them. They might have a strap on it and throw it across the shoulder. And so they made big phylacteries. You know, some of them trying to find their way in the church got this big phylactery box with all these laws of Moses in it. You can sort of compare that today with somebody who walks in the church with a Bible about that thick and a big cover on it, got it up under their arm for show. They don't know what's in it, but at least they got one, right? So you can compare that today with those who buy great big Bibles and fancy Bible covers, and it ain't a sin to have a fancy Bible cover, as long as you didn't buy it just to show it off. And then have all that and then never read the Bible. That's, you know, comparing that to the way they were back then. So nothing much has changed in that area, has it? He also said that they enlarged the border of their garments. This is probably compared to those today who go to church just to show off their new clothes. And these things, Jesus said, they do to be seen of men. Verse 6, He said, And they loved the uppermost rooms at the feast, and the chief seats in the synagogue. How many times have you seen in religious circles, I mean, you know, people just packed out up on a platform up there because they want that prominent position, and they want to, you know, just be right up front. The Lord said it's better for you to be asked to come up front than it is for you just to go up front. Amen? And so they loved the upper rooms at the feast, and they loved to show off and have the chief seats in the synagogues and the temples and so on. Ain't it amazing how God noticed that? It wasn't just Jesus noticing it. It was God and Jesus. And now God has given us a description of what He sees. Verse 7, and it says, And people love to be called rabbi or bishop. I'm not knocking anybody that is called bishop. I'm just saying, you know, you got a lot of bishops, but you only got a few who really know the Lord. Amen? And people love to be called reverend. Just call me brother or pastor. Verse 13, Jesus said, Hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. You shut it up. He said, for you neither go in yourselves, and neither suffer ye them to enter therein. In other words, you stand in the door of the kingdom of God, and you won't go on in and get you a personal relationship with God, and you stand there blocking the way for everybody else. And those that would come, you turn them away. Religious hypocrites. False religious system. Verse 14 of Matthew 23, Jesus said, Hypocrites, some bold preaching, ain't it? What have I got up here one morning and said, You hypocrites! Y'all be strangling me up on that tree out there. Hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore, you shall receive the greater damnation. Uh-oh. Verse 15, again he says, Hypocrites, for you can pass the sea and land, and we done read this one, to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more than the child of hell that you are yourselves. Now, verse 16, then he says, But woe unto you, you blind guides. You blind, you can't see, he said. Verse 17, he says, You fools, that's some bold preaching. He said, you fools and blind. Verse 23, he said, Hypocrites, for you pay tithes and mint and anise and cumin, and you have omitted the weightier things, in other words, the things that are more important, concerning the matters of the law. You've omitted judgment and mercy and faith. You've left those things out. These ought you to have done and left the other undone. Verse 24, he comes at them again. He says, You blind guides, you strain at a gnat and you swallow a camel. Verse 25, he said, You hypocrites, for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Now that ought to hit some of these prosperity teachers right between the eyes. Amen? You're full of extortion and excess. Verse 27, Hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchres, in other words, white graves, and indeed appear beautiful on the outside, but within you are full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanliness. Verse 28, he said, Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Iniquity is sin. Verse 31, He said, you are the children of them which kill the prophets. Verse 33, He said, you serpents, can you imagine calling them snakes? He said, you serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? Verse 34, I sent unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them you shall kill and crucify, and some of them you scourge in your synagogues, and you persecute them from city to city. And then verse 37, he said, Thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not. Verse 38, He says, behold, your house is left unto you desolate. Do you know what that means? Desolate means that you are without God. So there is a house, there is a religious system that calls themselves the house of God. But God says you are left desolate because of your hypocrisy, because you yourself won't come into a personal relationship with Me. You just want to be religious. You just want to operate on man's tradition. You'd rather please man than to please God. The Lord said because of that, you are walking in a desolate condition. You are without God. You might as well write Ichabod over the door and say the glory of God has departed from here. This is the religious system that God saw through the eyes of His Son. And this is God's description as He spoke it through the mouth of His Son. This is what He saw and this is the thing that was so distasteful to God. And it has not changed. His view on it has not changed. The Bible says that God is the same today and forever. Amen? There's no shadow in God's turning. If it turned His stomach then, it's turning His stomach now. God is not pleased with what He sees in the religious world out here. It's sickening to Him. It's sickening to me. And it should be sickening to you. The religious system has done more to destroy people's lives than it has to save them and deliver them. And we've got to understand that God is still doing a work. Even in spite of all the religiosity of Jesus' day, Jesus was walking and talking and manifesting who God is in His day. And today, God is going to have His people on the scene who are going to preach His Word, who are going to heal the sick, who are going to cast out devils, who are going to set the prison captives free. God is going to have His people on the scene in spite of all the religiosity and all the hypocrisy and all of the shenanigans that's going on within the religious circles today. In spite of all those that are turned to extortion and those who have turned to heaping excesses on their own lives, those who are more interested in blessing themselves than they are blessing the body of Christ. God says in His Word, Jesus said to them, He said, your household is left desolate. It's left without God. You have done these things. You are pleased at doing these things. You have no desire to serve God. If you knew God, you would know me because God sent me. Remember, Jesus told them that. He said, the works that I do, I do what I see my Father doing. And the things that I say, I say what I hear my Father say. And if you would have known Him, you would know me. There's a false religious system out there today that's waiting to suck you in and to suck the life out of you, to destroy you and to destroy anything personal that you ever had with God. The book of Revelation describes it as the second beast that rises up in the last days. And folks, we're living in the last days. As we've went through many, many Scriptures and we've seen the fulfillment of many of the prophecies and the teachings in the book of Revelation that we've talked about, we are today witnessing the fulfillment of it. I mean, we are seeing the Jews return to the nation of Israel for the first time in nearly 2,000 years. We're seeing them establish that country as a nation for the first time in nearly 2,000 years. We're seeing the fulfillment of Bible prophecy right here, right now. And with all the negotiations that's going on over there right now, it's going to come down to this. They're going to fulfill the Scripture. When it's all said and done, they're going to fulfill the Scripture. You know what they're grappling over right now in the Middle East? You know what the Middle East peace talks are about? You know what they're grappling over? Jerusalem. And God said that it would be like a rock in your shoe. It would be a source of contention. In these last days, that Israel and Jerusalem and that area, the eyes of the world was going to be on them. And right now they've got the world's attention. Do you know why? Do you know why the Jews are wanting to hang on to Jerusalem? Because they want their capital. Do you know why the Arabs want it? Because they wanted their capital. What's so significant about Jerusalem? Because that's where the tabernacle, that's where the temple was built. The Bible tells us that the temple is going to be rebuilt in these last days. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem has got everything mapped out and planned out. And they say that from beginning to end, they can have the temple rebuilt within six months completely. Can you imagine how many people are going to turn out? Some are going to work for nothing just to get to do it. Because it's been in their eyes from the times of the prophets through all the exile that they went into exile and they were in dispersion around the world for thousands of years. And it's always been in their minds to come back and to rebuild the temple and have a place to worship God. And in their eyes to offer up sacrifices to God in the sense that the Jews have never recognized the coming Messiah, Jesus who has already came. But the Bible tells us that in the last days, in the days of Antichrist, that that temple is going to be rebuilt. You can read about it, I believe it's in Revelation chapter 11. And you can see the temple is rebuilt and John was given a read and told him to go and measure the temple. And one of the contentions now is the Jews are saying, well how can we rebuild the temple because the Dome of the Rock, which is one of the holy shrines of the Muslim faith, is sitting right in the outer courts. How are they going to be able to rebuild the temple and that's sitting right in the middle of the outer courts? Well, if you read Revelation chapter 11, what they're going to do is they're going to rebuild the temple but not the outer courts. Because Revelation chapter 11 goes on to say to John, take the read and measure the temple and those who are therein and those who worship. He said, but as for the outer court, he said, leave it out. For it is given unto the Gentiles to trample under until the fullness of the Gentiles come. So we know that the temple is going to be rebuilt and the outer court is not going to be rebuilt until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, until God has brought the nations of the world together in one place and judged them in a place called Armageddon. And the last final battle, when the Lord Himself will come and they'll be destroyed from the blast of His mouth, the Bible said. When blood will flow as deep as the horse's bridle, like a river for 200 miles. That's a lot of blood. But can you imagine just hundreds and hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the valley of Armageddon, already surrounded Jerusalem, ready to make their advance against Jerusalem. And the Lord comes and He defends His people. It's prophesied by the prophets. And Jesus Himself spoke of it. The book of Revelation speaks of it. As Jesus revealed it to John and John revealed it to us. The Lord Himself is coming and from the blast of His mouth. Can you imagine? The Bible says that even He's coming on the clouds with His saints with Him. And if I looked up and I saw somebody coming on a white horse and with the host of heaven coming behind them, do you think I would throw my gun up there and go to shooting at them? I would somehow realize that if He can do that, I better lay down my weapon. Wouldn't you? But the Bible says that's not what's going to happen. It says they're going to be attacking Him as He comes. But just a blast of His mouth is going to wipe them out. That's the judgment of the nations. That will be followed with the judgment of the world and the judgment of all those who have rejected His Christ and who have rejected His Word and who have rejected the voice of the Spirit of God who now speaks from heaven to you and I. All those who reject the Lord and that sense are going to be judged then with the final outpouring of God's wrath on the earth. It's going to be a time of judgment and those are days that the Bible says that you and I, prior to that, are going to be caught up to be with the Lord forever and ever. You see, we're not going to be here for God to pour out His wrath. We'll be here when the Antichrist launches His wrath against the church and against everything that has anything to do with God. You see, the devil don't like you because God created you in His own image and every time the devil looks at you, he sees God and he can't stand it. So the devil's desire is to kill you, to destroy you, to do everything he can to bring harm to your life. And the only protection that we have is in Christ Jesus. As we walk in obedience to Him, as we walk in subjection to Him, then through faith we believe that God's umbrella of protection is around us. Amen? Now, I was watching a program on television. I don't even know the name of it, but anyway, it was about a man who experienced contact with an angel. He was out in the ocean. He was at the house that night, wasn't he? He was out in the ocean. He was on the back of this boat. And the guy who was driving the boat took off. And when he took off, this guy forgot to brace himself and he fell overboard. Well, the guy just kept driving that boat for an hour or so in the opposite direction, never knowing the guy had fell off. The waters were cold and they were murky waters. It was salt water. It was a shark-infested area. And here this man is out there. He knows that his body temperature is changing rapidly. And he's striving, he's struggling, doing everything he can to survive without, on the other hand, causing too much of a splash in motion because he didn't want to attract the attention of the sharks. And so he's out there in the water now and he's just paddling, just trying to, you know, just trying to stay afloat, trying to paddle also to keep his body warm, you know. But in spite of all that, you know, what do you call it? The hypothermia? What is it? Hypothermia began to set in. And it was all he could do was just to keep splashing in the water. And all of a sudden when he thought several, several times, this is it, I'm fixing to black out, I'm fixing to go, and he would do something to try to shake himself to keep himself alert. And finally when he'd feel himself going under, then he would snap back to and come back up, you know. And that went on for a long time. And finally the guy on the boat realized that he was missing and he turned around and went back in the exact same direction which he came. And he almost did not see the man because he was going under, you know, just probably his head just bobbing out of the water every now and then. He almost didn't see. But then when he did get up there and he got his boat stopped, I'm not sure that the man even saw him then. I don't think he really did, but he stopped in the location where he had been. And this man, he saw the boat, but he didn't have enough strength to get to the boat. And suddenly he just began to go under the water, just sink down under the water. Here's the boat. The guy didn't see him. And now the guy with all this set in on him, he was just sinking deeper and deeper. All of a sudden he said there was a big hand that grabbed him and got underneath him and pushed him up and then took him and brought him over to the side of the boat where the ladder was and pushed him up to the ladder. Now he didn't even have enough strength to climb up the ladder. He pulled at the ladder and he couldn't make it and he dropped back down. And all of a sudden his hand picked him up and pushed him up on the boat. Yeah, he heard a splash right side of him. And so he thought that surely he has jumped in and now it's him that's picking me up and it's him that's doing this and all that. And so after they got him straightened out, I think they had called maybe the Coast Guard or whoever they came and picked him up, got him in the hospital and all that. And afterward, after he began to get control of his mind and all this real good, he asked his friend or thanked him or something or another for jumping in and saving him. And he says, but I didn't. He said, I didn't do that. I didn't do that. He said, in fact, I was looking for you and couldn't find you. And he found him on the side of the boat, you know. But that angel of the Lord had picked him up and put him on the side of the boat. I want to say to you that God's hand is on your life. God has been with you when you never knew He was there. I mean, if we only knew how many times the devil come close to killing us and God protected us. Y'all have heard me tell the story before about how God delivered me off of the mountain over there in Germany. And I was coming down the mountain in a Jeep. We were playing war games. We had the German Army. We had the German Air Force. It was a full-blown war. And, you know, we had 3rd Armored Division. We had the tanks. We had artillery. And every time we had these war games, somebody got killed. It didn't mean to, but somebody got killed. And just that week, a young man flipped one of those Jeeps. Those Jeeps used to be bad. If you turn them short, they'll flip with you. Because they turned too sharp and they would flip over with you. And so one had already flipped the Jeep and got killed. And here I was coming down the mountain in a Jeep. And it had this gravel rock. It's like pea gravel. And it had it all over the road, the mountain road. And in the wintertime, it sort of helps you with traction, you know, when the snow's on the mountain. But, folks, it was in the summertime and there wasn't no snow on the mountain. And it was like riding on BBs. And so as I'm coming down the mountain, it goes 180 degrees around the mountain. And there's no guardrail up around the mountain. There's nothing but a deep gorge. I mean a deep gorge off the side of the mountain. You could look down in that gorge. You could see little treetops. They looked like it wasn't no bigger than that. And I was coming down the mountain. I geared the Jeep down. And what I did, the back wheels grabbed and went skidding on them little BBs. And here I was going right over the edge of that mountain. I had my foot on my brake and my hand on the steering wheel like it was going to do a whole lot of good. And I was headed straight over the side of that mountain. I screamed out to God with everything that was in me. My whole life went by me in a flash. I screamed out to God and I didn't say, Lord, could you help me right now? I said, Lord God! With everything that was in me, I hollered out. It was much louder than that, I'm sure. But I'm sparing you the... Okay. But I'm going straight over the side of that mountain. And I know my life is over. That's it. It's all over. I have really done it this time. And I had no control whatsoever of that Jeep. It's going straight over the side of the mountain. And I'm coming right up to the edge of it and fixing to leave the mountain. And I just closed... I had my eyes closed, hands on the steering wheel, my foot still on the brake. I could hear the engine race. And all of a sudden, it was just perfect quietness. I mean, just absolutely quiet. And I'm waiting for that Jeep to hit the bottom of the gorge or to hit the side of the mountain. And folks, that's not a good feeling. Because you know the next thing you're going to feel, the next thing that's going to happen is going to be sudden and it's all going to be over. And I kept waiting. And I kept waiting. And I kept waiting. And then I began to reason in my mind, I ought to hit something by now. But it won't open my eyes yet. So I kept waiting. And I kept waiting. And directly I decided to open my eyes. And I was on the other side of the mountain, sitting dead in the middle of the road, in the same direction I had been headed. My life technically ended right there. And I've been on borrowed time ever since. I've been on God's time. So I know about the provision of God, God's providence. I know what God can do for me. And I could go on and cite other instances to you, probably not quite as grand as that one. I don't know how I got on the other side of the mountain. But I do know that one day when I get to heaven, God's going to play it all back for me. And I'm probably going to see those big angels as they reached out and grabbed that jeep and carried it around the mountain. You see, if I had went down in that gorge today, I wouldn't be here preaching the gospel. The devil knew, he knew from the very time that I was in my mother's womb, the devil knew something about God's plan for my life. There was something in me that the devil recognized even then because he tried to convince my mother through the doctors to abort me. Even back then. And then all through my life, now as I sit back and look, I can see the many times that the devil tried to set me up to kill me. And God rescued me. Some of you know what I'm talking about. Some of you have been there. Some of you the devil has tried to get you to kill yourself. Some of you the devil has tried to lead you to the place where he could kill you. But God has spared you. And God has moved in your behalf to provide for you the protection and to keep you. And in these last days, when the Antichrist kingdom begins to rise to power, when the Antichrist begins to rule, when the false prophet comes and he causes all, both great and small, to bond and free no matter who you are, no matter what your racial status is or your social status or your denominational level, it makes no difference. He's going to cause all, both great and small, to bond and free to bow down and worship the Antichrist and receive the mark of the beast. The Bible says he will be able to do that to everyone except those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And folks, that's you, I hope, and me. And we're going to resist the Antichrist, resist his mark on our right hand and forehead. And we're going to resist it because we know that if we receive that mark, we're eternally damned and have no chance of salvation. But we're going to resist it because our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Amen? We need to realize that during that time that God is the same God of providence that He is right now. If He will protect me on the side of that mountain, He will bring me to the place where I was destined to go. And He will not let any harm come to me until I reach that destination. As long as my eyes are on Him and my heart desires to be obedient to Him. We talked about the judgment of the Antichrist. We talked about the judgment of the nations and the judgment of all those who reject God. That there's coming a day when God's going to judge all them. But friends, God says first will be the judgment of His own household. Judgment begins first in the household of God. Amen? Now what does He mean by that? We're going to be here when the Antichrist comes to power. And that time of persecution is going to separate the sheep from the goats. Because when it's not popular to be called a Christian, many are going to fall away. When being called a Christian and saying that I'm a Christian means that I'm subjecting myself to persecution, I may be killed for it, I may be beheaded for it, I may be crucified. When saying that I'm a Christian puts me in that kind of situation, the question is, am I going to confess to be a Christian? And I'm telling you now, I'm settling that issue, have already settled it in my heart and in my life. I'm going all the way. I'm going to suffer, even if I have to suffer even unto death, I'm going to say, Yes, Lord, I'm staying with You. I am not going to turn my back on You. And if they did it to the master, what will they do to the servants? What Jesus said. Now, you say, well, if that's the case, why does anybody want to be a Christian? Because you don't want to suffer the other consequences of not being a Christian. You see, the devil can only kill your flesh. God can kill your spirit, your soul, and your body. And he can also cast you into an eternal flame of hell that burns continually and that flame never goes out and it's never quenched for an eternity. And an eternity is a long, long, long, long time. It's time without end. That's a bad thing to suffer forever and ever and ever and ever. Amen? So, I'll choose God's way any day rather than choose the alternative. Would you stand to your feet, please?