Does the sea symbolize that? Rev. 17:15 tells us the waters, which the gray horse saw was nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples. What could be plainer? This sea was the result of the let down of the preaching of Bible truths and it became an apostasy and out of this wreck and ruin of the glorious pristine apostolic church came the first beast. Roman Catholicism will tell you today that, “We’re the Church of God.” They’re the backslidden church after false prophets came in like wolves and led away souls and light was dimmed and false doctrine became a part of the message of the church. They’re the church, the symbol of which is the first beast that arose out of the sea of apostasy.

Let’s put it plainer if possible. The apostatized church furnished the material for this first beast to incorporate and come into being. 1 John 2, “We know it is the last time for many antichrists are come. They went out from us.” What did? Antichrist religion---any and all of it. The thing that built up antichrist religion, was something that pulled away from the true people of God and started something themselves---a man ruled religion of the people, planned and practiced by man. So, that first beast rose up out of the same sea that the morning church went into.

The third part of the sea became blood. What does that mean? We have the sea, symbolizing people and we read that a third part of it became blood. How? Through losing the Spirit of God out of their lives, but yet keeping right on with a profession. As they kept on keeping the ordinances, they become guilty of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. That’s how a third part of these people became blood right here. And also, “the creatures that were in the sea and had life died.”

There’s one thing that follows an apostasy every time. The black horse was the symbol of the apostasy. What followed the black horse? The gray horse followed, a symbol of death and hell. And it’s happening again, today, even as it happened then. They lost the spirit of God. Is that what the church of Ephesus was charged with? They lost their first love. God commended her in many ways, but alas, she had left her first love. So it was in the morning church, those that were in the apostasy, even though they had lost the very essence of their experience, they kept on worshipping God in cold dead formality and it was that dead formality, the first beast rose out of.

GUILTY OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST

How did they become guilty of the blood of Christ? In 1st Corinthians, the 11th chapter, verse 28, Paul teaches us concerning communion. What did he say? “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. (29) For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” The man that does eat and drink unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The main doctrine of the Catholic Church (which sprung up out of the sea of the great apostasy) is the doctrine of trans-substantiation. But what is this doctrine? That you can take the bread and wine and it is transferred into the very body and blood of Christ, so you receive a very special blessing. Well, in teaching a false doctrine and not the truth of God’s Holy Word, they are unworthy every time they partake of it and make themselves guilty of the blood of Christ. The bread and wine doesn’t make you worthy. You have to be worthy before you partake of it. It’s just a symbol of eating the real bread. When you eat His Word---the Lord’s Supper is kept in remembrance of the real thing that’s going on inside. Why don’t people take communion every Sunday? Taking communion is in “remembrance”, and we don’t forget and have to be reminded every week. It’s a memorial to Christ and kept in remembrance of Him.

The actual Communion is found in the third chapter of the Revelation, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man will open the door I will come in to him and sup with Him.” This is the real supper---when Christ abides in us and we live our lives through the obedience of his instructions through the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the church, in partaking of the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, must remember that with this communion supper we keep also the ordinance of feet washing. Feet washing: through the generations, has gradually been left out. Even in the ministerial assemblies, the ministers of those who faithfully kept the ordinances once, now, keep the Lord’s Supper and omit feet washing. Meanwhile, Jesus instituted feet washing for a reason. Some seem to think it makes no difference and it doesn’t matter which comes first.

Jesus didn’t want to leave this to anyone, unworthy. Feet washing will test your worthiness. He instituted feet washing first. He washed Judas’ feet, but he gave him no bread. He was at the old Jewish Passover. In the 22nd chapter of Luke, we read, Jesus did not eat that last Passover. This was the time for it to be fulfilled. Luke 22, Jesus said: “With desire have I desired to keep this Passover. When he took the bread he broke it and said, “divide it among yourselves.” And when He took the cup, He blessed it and said: “Take ye, and drink of it, for I will not drink of the cup any more until (it be fulfilled in the kingdom) the kingdom of God shall come.”

The millennialists say the kingdom has not come. 1 Cor. 11:23, The Lord Jesus, the same night He was betrayed took bread: (24) And when he had given thanks… (25) After the same manner also He took the cup, when he had supped saying, ---so the kingdom was there. He arose and washed His disciples feet. How do we know feet washing, was first? After He sat down again He handed the sop to Judas, told him to do what he was going to do quickly. Judas took his departure, made his trip to get with those men who were seeking Christ’s life. And after Judas left, Christ took the bread, said, “this is my body, etc.” After He had finished giving the Lord’s Supper (Matthew 26:30) and when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives.

So, feet washing came before the instituting of the Lord’s Supper, for at the close of that they went out. But why did he do it before? It helps to thin out the unworthy people. People come with strife and envy in their hearts and partake of that bread if they’re not careful, but people that are not humble, don’t want to get down and wash one another’s feet. You must have a feet washing spirit to really wash feet. That’s why Jesus didn’t ask His disciples to wash His feet, and He didn’t ask them to wash one another’s feet. He only said, what I do now, ye shall know hereafter. After He had taken a pan and washed their feet, they still didn’t understand what He had done. Why? It takes the Spirit in our hearts and lives to give us an understanding as to what feet washing, really is.

The ordinance of feet washing is given in which we show our love one for another. Jesus did not wash His own feet, or ask them to wash one another’s feet. Why? He was the only one present, who had a feet washing spirit at that meeting and fully understood the spiritual meaning of it. Neither did the Apostles wash His feet. But the feet of Jesus had been washed. Just a short while back there was a woman that Jesus had cast the devils out of. And while He was dining in the house of a sinner, she came and knelt down in front of Him and washed His feet with her tears, and dried them with her hair.

We talk about the Jews being guilty of the blood of Christ and if we do such things, we’re as guilty as they. “He that eateth and drinketh unworthily is guilty.” They will stand with the guilty crowd that put Christ on the cross, when they come down to the judgment day. It matters not who we are, if we’re unworthy at the Lord’s Supper and partake of it, we’re guilty also.

So, that’s how the sea became blood; and the creatures that were in the sea died. These were people that had been made new, but they died. Compromise and apostasy has a killing effect. If we stay in it, it will kill us too. Satan never told a bigger lie, than to tell people to stay in the apostasy and clean it up. The message has always been to God’s people, “Come out of her.”

A THIRD PART OF THE SHIPS WERE DESTROYED

We read on---“The third part of the ships were destroyed.” What were the ships? Ships are used to transfer merchandise; even so, here in this scripture, ships symbolize God’s ministers that bring God’s Gospel from afar. In Proverbs 31, we read: Who can find a virtuous woman. That is a text that many of us use in funeral sermons for some good woman that has passed away. But let’s study this: Solomon was talking about the church. He talked about the unclean woman and pointed out the harlot daughters down through the years. When he said, “Who can find a virtuous woman”, and described her, he was talking about the church. One of the highlights is: her candle goeth not out, by night. In the true Church is light---right down through the dark ages---that never went out.

She’s like the merchant’s ships. She brings her food from afar. Ministers, take heed what you feed her. Isaiah said: “If ye hunger, go ye to the waters.” Get down to the waters where the ships come in and you can buy without money and without price. The ships are symbols of the ministers of the Gospel, ships that transfer the merchandise of the Gospel from the mouth of God to the hearts of the people. In the beginning they too, were just poor lost sinners, who found bread for their souls and are commissioned to tell others where they found it; and where they too, can find a supply.

A third part of the ships were destroyed. That is, this awful apostasy that swept over the church destroyed a third part of the ministry. Isaiah 22:1: “Howl, ye ships of Tarshish, for it is laid waste, so that there is not house, no entering in.” Now, what was the ship of Tarshish? It was the ship that Jonah got on when he was running from the Lord. God tells people which way to go, but they don’t want to go that way. So a third part of the ships were destroyed. 2nd Peter 2:1-2: “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily---“shall bring in damnable heresies, denying the Lord that bought them and bring swift destruction upon themselves.”

First Timothy 1:18: “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophesies which went before thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare, holding faith, and a good conscience, which some, having put away concerning faith, have made ship wreck.” The ships were destroyed. First, let me say to the preachers and then to the laity. Keep your conscience tender. Keep your conscience clean. One of the quickest ways to make ship wreck is just to let you conscience become defiled. Not holding a clear conscience or a good conscience, having put it away concerning the faith---the one faith that Jude said to contend for. They, concerning the faith, have made ship wreck.

History has repeated itself. When we cease to get our food from afar, when we let false preachers creep in, we lose our foundation and go into the sea. That is where the mountain on fire went. If we take an object that’s on fire and throw it in the water, the fire is soon put out, for the water swallows it up. That’s where the fire went that was in the morning church. That’s exactly what is happening today, in too many cases. I say again, that what we feed the church makes her what she is. Results are determined by the message of the trumpet. Let’s remember what followed the first trumpet, and what followed the second trumpet.

These trumpets send out a clarion call to warn people today. If we start cutting off the hail and smother the fire out a little, we’ll see the gray horse riding in, and death and hell will follow. Jesus tells us in the Revelation “The Spirit and the Bride say ‘come’. Let him that is athirst come,” What did He say to us as ministers? Let them come and take the water of life freely. Then, He went on and put a curse on those who change the Word, or add to it, or take away from it. Why? If you add to it or take away from it, you cannot take it freely anymore. I have Bible for it. There is a casting down of the truth. Many are feeling the pressure of it.

Is your experience rising or going down? Can you look at a time in your experience when it was higher, richer, or more glorious than it is now? If that’s true, you are spiritually slipping. I’m not saying you’re backslidden, but I do say that you’re letting down and slipping. Your communion with God has been interrupted and it may be completely shut off unless you do something about it. God can see your heart condition. We must take a stand against these false systems and moves that the enemy is making to deceive and destroy God’s people.

Are you going on with a mere profession? If so, don’t do that! It’ll bring destruction on you. How is your conscience? Is it clear? Do you have a conscience void of offense toward God and man? Have you conducted yourself like a saint? Have you conducted yourself like a minister, a true minister? Paul said, “Take heed to yourself.” Why? If you live a little loose, you cannot preach a living Gospel. If you can’t be a good minister on the camp grounds as an example, there’s no need trying to be one in the pulpit.

THE SOUNDING OF THE 3RD TRUMPET

“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” Revelation 8:10-11 [ The End ]