Armageddon
Continues We have found as we have
studied into the Revelation that it is a
revelation of Jesus Christ, revealing Christ
throughout the Gospel Day. We have found how he
shows Himself strong, what His Grace and His
power can do for men and women in every trying
circumstance of life. We have found that the
woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under
her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her
head is the holy mother church of the morning
time, the church of The Living God. We found
that the man child which she brought forth was
the converts who were caught up to God and to
His throne. The man child was those converts who
were killed for true Christianity in the early
days of The Church.
We proved the great
red dragon not to be the devil himself, but an
agent through which the devil was working.
Namely, the Pagan Roman Empire with the seven
heads and the ten horns working against The
Church. Going deeper into the study, we read
where John, in the vision, saw war going on
between the dragon and his ministers, and Christ
and His ministers. The dragon was cast down into
the earth, or put down from that ecclesiastical
position, and proven by The Word of God to be
earthly, sensual, and devilish. There was NO God
in that religion whatsoever.
I want you
to understand who the dragon is wroth with: he
is wroth with the seed of the woman, the remnant
of her seed. Now this brings us up to our very
day and time: the remnant of her seed that keep
the commandments of God and have the testimony
of Jesus. Revelation 19:10 will tell you that
the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of
Prophecy. So who is the devil stirred up at? Who
is he against? Who is he making war with? Those
who keep the commandments of God and have the
Spirit of God.
The devil is not against
nominal religion. Understand THAT VERY CLEARLY.
He is against those who definitely live for God,
those who definitely keep His commandments,
those who definitely have the real Spirit of God
working in their lives. Friend, this conflict is
a SPIRITUAL conflict, as we taught you in the
beginning. Armageddon is a battle of true
Christianity against anti-Christianity. While
false teachers are talking about one antichrist
(to come in the future), the Bible says there
are MANY anti-Christ(s)! Who are they? ALL
sources of religion which are against the TRUE
Word of God are anti-Christ religions and
working against the true cause of
Christ.
The
Faithful Record There are two
verses in our Scripture lesson that we want to
consider. They do not portray a very beautiful
picture, but one that we can gain much from if
we will really open our hearts up to God. Let's
read Revelation 12, verses 6 and
14:
And the woman fled into the
wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of
God, that they should feed her there a thousand
two hundred and threescore days. And to the
woman were given two wings of a great eagle,
that she might fly into the wilderness, into her
place, where she is nourished for a time, and
times, and half a time, from the face of the
serpent.
The Word of God bears a
faithful record--it tells the WHOLE story. Many
people who study the Revelation just gloss right
ver this apostasy. All they talk about is that
God had a place prepared to keep The Church
through the 1260 years of dark ages, but right
before our eyes is a picture of the great
apostasy! When man writes his books, he is prone
to tell only the good parts, but the Word of God
is faithful to tell the WHOLE story.
Even
though God exalted Abraham to the place that he
could be called the "friend of God" and the
"father of the faithful", when he lied, the
Bible told off on him. We NEVER get so close
to God that He covers our wrongs! It was the
same with Moses. No one got as close and near to
the heart of God in the Old Testament as Moses,
but when his anger got stirred until he threw
down the tablets of stone and broke them, God
told it on him. The Word of God is THE faithful
record.
When Jonah got peeved and sat
under a gourd vine, the Word of God told on him.
It tells both sides of the story--the good and
the bad. The Apostle Peter weakened and denied
the Lord. Demas, a man once greatly used of
Christ, one of the leaders in The Church and
highly esteemed for his preaching, became
worldly minded. Having loved the world and the
things of it, he went to hell loving it. The
Bible tells all. The Revelation of Christ Jesus
is spoken of as a faithful and true witness: it
deals with the facts.
Now when we begin
to study the apostasy and the terrible dangers
of it, I would like to be able to say that The
Church continued right on through in pristine
glory. Sure, I'd LIKE to say it, but I
can't. I would like to be able to tell you that
she continued in that high position, being the
light of the world, shaking worlds and casting
down evil, but that is not the story! No, my
friend, following some of the greatest works
that the church ever accomplished was a great
falling away, an apostasy, and a turning away
from God's Word.
I want to tell you, and
I want you to remember it, Just beyond every
victory you have, you will go through your
sorest temptation. You can avoid a lot of
trouble if you will just remember that warning.
Let me tell you, the devil will be working every
way possible to work an apostasy in your
individual life. Brothers and Sisters, the devil
does not take the victories you and I receive
sitting down any more than he did the great
victories of The Church! Beyond every mountain
is a valley. Every time the people of God got
high in their experience, the very next move was
a "valley" or "desert" experience, and the devil
brought many people down. It does NOT, however,
have to be that way! The Word of God comes to us
as a lesson, to point out the dangers and how
easily this can befall us UNLESS we learn by the
examples of the peoples of the past, and do
differently than they
did.
Darkness And
Famine The Apostle
Paul, through the discernment of the Holy Ghost,
knew there was a falling away coming. He knew
what was going to happen shortly after he died.
In Acts 20:28-30 he wrote to the elders, Take
heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the
flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made
you overseers, to feed the church of God, which
he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know
this, that after my departing shall grievous
wolves enter in among you, not sparing the
flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise,
speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples
after them.
God allowed Paul to know
this was about to happen to the body of
believers, The Church. This great falling away
did not happen merely for the sake of happening,
but God saw what the hearts of men would be
like. Amos 8:-12 reads,
And it shall come to pass
in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will
cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will
darken the earth in the clear day: And I will
turn your feasts into mourning, and all your
songs into lamentation; and I will bring up
sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon
every head; and I will make it as the mourning
of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter
day. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God,
that I will send a famine in the land, not a
famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of
hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall
wander from sea to sea, and from the north even
to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek
the word of the Lord, and shall not find
it.
Through His Holy Word, God
revealed that a day would come when He would
cause the sun to go down. He would cause the
light to cease to shine, and there would be a
great famine following it. What kind of famine?
A famine of hearing the Word of God. Someone
might ask, "When does it take place? Can you
pinpoint it?"
In Matthew 24:29, Jesus
said, Immediately after the tribulation of
those days shall the sun be darkened, and the
moon shall not give her light, and the stars
shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken... ("Tribulation of
those days" = AD 70, at the destruction of
literal Jerusalem and the temple. It is spoken
of as "The Great Tribulation" in the scriptures.
"Sun shall be darkened" = the sun that the woman
was clothed in.) Because of these things, there
will be darkness come over the earth. NOT
literal darkness, but SPIRITUAL
darkness!
Waht sun, moon, and stars will
cease to shine? "The Church" was the light of
the world. God prophesied this way because of
her attitude toward His Word; she did not want
it anymore. Now, just mark this down: we are
only the light of the world as we hear The Word
of God, obey it, and apply it to our lives. That
is the ONLY way it shines!
Whenever we
get the idea that the morning church had, "We
are not going to obey the dictates of God's
Word", the light is going to go out. That is why
such a condition of coldness, deadness,
formality, and darkness are in congregations of
"The Church" all over this world.
My
friends, it is well for us to study these
things. The tribulation was in AD 70 and from
then on, we can read in Peter's and Paul's
writing of that falling away coming. The
tribulation at Jerusalem took place in AD 70,
and directly following that, the sun began to be
darknened, a prophetic picture of a falling away
from Gospel Light by God's
people.
"...And
The Woman
Fled..." When things
begin to happen in The Church, any true minister
of the Gospel is going to begin to see it. Every
one of God's faithful ministers began to point
out this apostasy that was coming right in The
Church. The Apostle Paul instructed the
Thessalonians (in II Thessalonians 2:1-4),
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering
together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in
mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by
word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day
of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by
any means: for that day shall not come, except
there come a falling away first, and that man of
sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is
called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as
God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing
himself that he is God. ("Falling away
first" = falling away from The Truth; "Man of
sin" = the pope of Rome.)
Paul foresaw a
falling away from truth and he saw that the
light was going to begin to dim. This falling
away is symbolized in different scriptures in
different ways. The Church is spoken of in the
scriptures as "The Bride", or the "pure woman".
Revelation 12:6 tells us, And the woman fled
into the wilderness, where she hath a place
prepared of God, that they should feed her there
a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
(The Greek says that "the woman fled" means "the
woman apostasized".) Who feeds her there? The
nations that she was supposed to rule over with
a rod of iron.
What you feed The Church
is what makes her what she is. As long as God
had true ministers who were feeding her the
truth, she had grace, ability and understanding
to stand against every force of hell. False
preachers, however, began to get in among The
Church and to feed her. She was weakened until
she apostasized and fled from her position that
God had ordained for her to stand in. So, the
"pure woman", The Church, is symbolized as
fleeing. The Church here plays a position just
like some wives: when the battles of life get
too much, they say, "Well, I'm just going to
leave." That is what The Church did then--she
fled, or apostasized.
While there were
millions who stood true and were killed and
caught up to glory, there were countless
millions who recanted and backed off. When they
were brought right to the stake, about seven out
of eight recanted. They did not have what it
took to stand. We get a picture here of a great
part of The Church fleeing from the staunch of
battle. Oh, it's the same today. We have people
who like to come out to church in dress parade,
but just watch them flee when the battle
comes.
In Revelation 12:6, we have a
picture of countless numbers of people who fell
away, fled, and apostasized into the wilderness.
I want to tell you right now, into the
wilderness is a 100% different picture than
standing on Mount Zion. A wilderness throughout
the Word of God symbolizes a cold, dark place of
confusion.
The Church is also spoken of
as Mount Sion, according to Hebrews 12:22.
Revelation 8:8 shows us Mount Zion as a mountain
on fire, going into the sea; the same picture of
apostasy. What is the sea? Revelation 17:15
tells us, ...The waters which thou sawest,
where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and
multitudes, and nations, and tongues. What
happened? A church that was governed by God, led
by the Word of God, living by the Word of God,
and set on fire by the Holy Ghost, fell into the
hands of men and her fire went out. She lost her
glory and went into confusion.
Not only
is The Church likened to a bride and called
Mount Zion, but she is also called "the heavenly
Jerusalem". The eleventh chapter of Revelation
pictures the whole city, the New Jerusalem,
being trodden under the foot of man for 1,260
years. Four different places in the Bible point
out this apostasy under different symbols, but
all tell the same story. What was the picture?
Men took over what God had once controlled. How
did men take over? The message from God seemed
too straight and seemed to require too much. So
many, as they still do today, desired to come
down to a more "human level" (the humanistic
view).
The
Measuring Rod John was put
on the Isle of Patmos to die, but Jesus came to
him and said, "Thou must prophesy again
before many peoples, and nations, and tongues,
and kings." Revelation 10:11. Why did God
send John back? Because John was the only one
right at that time to depend on. When he went
back, he wrote First, Second, and Third John. If
you want some strong stuff to line up to,
measure your life with that!
In
Revelation 11:1, John said, And there was
given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel
stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of
God, and the altar, and them that worship
therein. ("Reed like unto a rod" = that's
the Word of God. The reed is a symbolic
expression of a measuring piece, and this reed
was like a rod. The rod always symbolizes the
Word of God. "Temple of God" = The
Church.)
Why was John instructed to
measure The Church? Because in the falling away,
The Word of God was beginning to close, and the
doctrines and commandments of men were being
taught until you could not even find The Church.
Everything was The Church, just like it is
today. So God told John to take the rod and
measure The Church so that people can see where
The Church starts and where it stops. There
needs to be lots of that kind of preaching
today. Brothers and Sisters, when you get right
down to measuring the true Church of God (Body
of Christ), she doesn't reach over the false
hills of Babylon (false religion).
Verse
2 of Revelation 11 tells us, But the court
which is without the temple leave out, and
measure it not; for it is given unto the
Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread
under foot forty and two months. (or 1260
prophetic days). I want you to see something:
John was told to measure the temple and them
that worshipped therein. The great doctrines of
The Church are necessary for The Church to be
The Church. Brother, the devil wrecked the
Church of God reformation movement by making
them feel they didn't need to preach the
doctrines of The Church to be The Church. On the
contrary: nothing else makes The Church to be
The Church, separate and distinct, but the true
doctrines of The Church. Without the preaching
of the doctrines of The Church, the people lose
sight of it.
So John was instructed to
measure the temple, or The Church, to let the
people see how big The Church is, what she takes
in, where her walls reach. He was instructed to
measure the altar and them that worship therein.
What is "the altar"? My, if people could only
realize what the altar is! Then they could
forget about two cleansings and two altars.
CHRIST is THE ALTAR! How many altars do you
have? The altars in the Old Testament symbolized
Jesus Christ. He IS the ALTAR. How many Christs
do you have? The altars in the Old Testament
temple symbolized Christ. He is the altar. He is
the sacrifice. Everything about that old temple
was Him. So when we measure the altar, my
friends, we are reminding people that is only
THROUGH CHRIST that we receive a full atonement
for sin.
As we learned in a previous
message, the life is in the blood. At the same
time the quickening power of the Holy Ghost
regenerates and cleanses you with the blood,
there is life put in you whereby you can serve
The LIVING GOD. Brothers and Sisters, that is
the altar, but because it is NOT preached, we
have gone into greater darkness, I suppose, than
ever before existed. You can't get in the true
temple without coming by Christ in a full
commitment to Him. He cleanses you from all sin
and puts the power of His life within you. Then
you come into the temple. No man can operate the
altar. No man can get up an atonement for sin.
It is ONLY THROUGH JESUS
CHRIST.
Heart
Circumcision John was not
to measure the temple and the altar only--but
also them that worship therein. This merely
refers to the people who are in the temple, who
worship in The TRUE Church. I want to make a
statement, and the Bible will support me: there
is not an UNCIRCUMCISED Jew in the New Testament
temple, the Church of God (body of Christ). Some
teach that when you are born again, you come
into the temple, and later on you have to have
circumcision. No! There is nobody but New
Testament Jews in the temple. No one was
considered a Jew until he was circumcised, and
the circumcision of the New Testament is
circumcision of the heart. When does it happen?
When you come in repentance and God takes the
old heart out and puts a new one in. Thank God,
you become circumcised!
In those days,
none but the males could be listed in Israel
because none but the male could be circumcised.
In the New Testament, however, there is neither
male NOR female. Why? Because the woman needs
circumcision now; she needs her heart changed,
too.
So who is truly worshipping in the
Church of God (body of Christ)? In John's day,
the agnostics and others rose up and said, "This
is no longer necessary. That isn't necessary.
You do have to do that or this." So John was
instructed to measure them that worship therein,
not by men's ideas, but by the rod. Nowhere in
the Bible does it tell you to measure by any
preacher's book!
Paul said that he did
not come preaching with wisdom of words. Truth
is not found by wisdom of words. If it were, the
wisest men in the country would have the truth.
Truth comes by DIVINE revelation. You can
take words and prove anything. Plenty of people
get off track by studying words. If you EVER get
to the truth of the matter, you must get on your
knees, pour your heart out to God, and stay
there until God shows you what is
truth.
Spiritual Jews And
Gentiles For
he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither
is that circumcision, which is outward in the
flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly;
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is
not of men, but of God. As we read Romans
2:28, 29, remember John was instructed to
measure only the temple and those that
worshipped therein, not those who stood in the
outer court. In the old temple, it was into the
outer courts that the Jews came; the Gentiles
had no part. The priest went into the first room
and the high priest went into the holy of
holies, alone, once a year.
When Jesus
died on the cross, He washed us in His own blood
and made us kings and priests. Now WE are
allowed to go in. When He died on the cross, He
tore down that middle wall of partition between
the literal (physical) Jew and Gentile.
Spiritual Jews can enter right into the holiest
and live there, but in the outer court there are
millions of spiritual Gentiles. Who are those
Gentiles? To the Jews, they were uncircumcised
unbelievers who had no part in the covenant.
Today, the Gentiles symbolize unregenerate men
(and women) who have no part in the New
Covenant.
By the time the eleventh
chapter of Revelation was given, the standard
(the message) had been lowered and The Church
was loaded down with unregenerate Gentiles, many
more than the true. So when God told John to
measure, he was told to measure only the temple
itself. God has no measuring for the
unregenerate--they can't measure to the Word of
God. There is no need to try to put the Word on
unsaved people. Now get what I said there--I did
NOT say there is no need to preach The Word to
unsaved people--to offer the message of
salvation to unsaved people. I said, there is no
need to try to put the Word, as in measure, on
unsaved people.
Let's read again Romans
2:28,29, shall we? For he is not a Jew, which
is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew,
which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that
of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the
letter; whose praise is not of men, but of
God.
Do you get your revelation(s)
from God? Whom do you praise for the
understanding you have? Mean are afraid to stand
up and say that God told them to preach it this
way. My friends, the dangers of this thing that
I'm preaching are all about us
today.
Foes--Without And
Within The Prophet
Amos told us that whenever the light begins to
dim, when the sun and moon, and the stars begin
to fall, there would be a great famine
following. That great famine is pictured as the
Word of God being closed. It WAS closed until
the 16th century reformation when it began to be
opened a little.
Amos said it was not a
famine of meat or drink, but of hearing the Word
of God. That famine was brought about from
without and within The Church. The first way it
was brought about (without) was by the Pagan
Roman emperor right at that time. His platform
was to completely close out Christianity. His
platform was to seek out all copies of the Word
of God so that he could burn them. So, little by
little, The Word of God began disappearing.
Outwardly, the Pagan Roman empire was burning
and destroying the Word of God so no one could
read it.
That was helping to bring on the
famine without. Within were false teachers,
right within The Church, rising up and teaching
perversion. Jesus warned us that when iniquity
begins to abound in The Church, there will be
far more sinners in what is called The Church
than there are saints, and the sinners take
over. Over the country, where that which calls
itself the church, the majority rules and the
majority are sinners! If there are a few saints
there, what happens to them? They get trodden
underfoot. Brothers and Sisters, iniquity
abounded! Lawlessness and rebellion got into the
hearts of God's people.
Going back to
Revelation 11:1,2, only the circumcised Jews who
kept the Law could enter the court and only the
priests could enter the temple, but Thank God!
He made a way in for us! John was instructed to
not measure the court without the temple--it is
given to the Gentiles, symbolizing unbelievers.
Those are not to be reckoned as of the true
temple.
In the estimation of the Jews,
Gentiles were idolaters, outside of God's favor.
So this great group here that God told John to
not even measure symbolizes a body of
worshippers who are not the true children of
God. God does not even spend any time trying to
measure them.
In that outer enclosure
today, there are millions who have never come
through the veil and had definite connection
with Christ. They have never come by the altar,
Christ. They have joined churches, they have
gone to priests, they have listened to what
preachers said, but they will not measure to the
Word of God. Why? Because they refused to make a
total commitment to Jesus Christ.
In
those days, they took over the supposed work of
The Church, and this caused the true temple to
be cast down, trodden under the foot of man, out
of the picture. Through that period of time, The
TRUE Church was lost sight of, crushed down,
while men and devils ruled and reigned.
According to this Revelation, the only true
temple God had was in the individual hearts of
many people who were hidden away in the dens and
the caves. I know this is a very sad picture,
but it is a very true one.

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