Chapter 18

THE GREAT APOSTASY OF THE EARLY CHURCH…

This mountain on fire went into the sea. It went into the hands of men or became governed by men, rather than led by the Spirit of God. Men planned the creeds and disciplines. Men chose what truth to give out and what to withhold. Men planned the way for souls to come in and become a member of God’s church. It fell into the sea---or into the hands of earthly men.

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

Chapter 19

OPENING THE SIXTH SEAL…

We’re studying a series of messages of Truth found in the 8th chapter of the Revelation with the teaching of the seventh seal, and we’d like to be able to review the thoughts we brought forth---certainly proving by the Word of God, we’re living in that period of time. God has broken the seventh and last seal and thereby given the instructions to the church in this last period of time, before Jesus comes again to take her to Glory. We thank God for His wonderful goodness. He displays love and concern for us and will not leave us in the midst of confusion that’s prevalent today. Thank God, He gives us divine direction straight from His eternal Word.

We’ve given reasons to prove that this is the truth, and we’re unable to review all those reasons, but one of the main reasons why we know this is God’s eternal truth, is because of the presence of God with the message. The message has its glory and it has revived the very spirit of God in our midst. We read here, in the 8th chapter of the Revelation, that when the Lamb broke the last seal, there was silence in Heaven about the space of half an hour. We’re not preaching on that today. We’ve reached the 10th and 11th verses or the sounding of the third trumpet.

If we find out what kind of noise was made under the 6th seal, then we’ll understand better what the silence was when He opened the 7th seal. If we go back under the sixth seal, we’ll find in the 14th chapter of the Revelation, a great noise throughout the chapter, and sounding out with loud voices, an angel, symbolizing the ministry in the sixth verse, crying in the midst of that heavenly atmosphere, with the everlasting Gospel, to preach to them that dwell upon the earth, saying, “Fear God and give glory unto Him.” Why? “For the hour of His judgment is come.” The time had come when God was going to put judgment upon false religion and He did just that.

The next part of the message was, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen”, and the third part was, “if any man worship the beast or his image, (get the number or mark of his name) the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture in the cup of his indignation, and he shall be torment with fire, and brimstone.” (Old time Holy Ghost preaching). Where? In the presence of the Lamb and the holy angels. Some people think that’s down in hell. No, the lamb or the holy angels are not going to be down there.

We need to wake up to some things. We say we don’t believe in a millennium, but we’re putting a lot of things out in the future that are just not going to come to pass---they’re coming to pass today. The beast and the image worshippers do suffer torment where the Word of God is preached in its holy fire. Now, when that preaching went on, it was something to see. The saints held up their hands when a man was preaching the truth and when he became zealous and began to preach the plain truth, many stood up with him. They didn’t say a thing, but just stood up to let everyone in the audience know they were backing that message of truth. They were not ashamed of the Gospel, because it was the power of God unto salvation. I have seen them get to their feet and shout and praise God. That was noise in heaven, but there has been a silence. Praise and shouting are absent.

Well, thank God, since he has opened the seventh seal, glory to God, things are beginning to sound out. After he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour, a period of time. We’re not preaching on that or I would deal with the time. Looking beyond that silence, John saw seven trumpets and seven angels, and the trumpets were given to the angels and they began to sound them, and when they began to sound them, the voices began to come back. The same truth, preached in the same way, will bring the same results, as it ever did. Thank God! It puts joy back in the hearts of God’s people. It will bring the old time shouting and rejoicing. It will cause ministry to “out-preach themselves”, again, and throw away their voices. It will even stir the old saints and take the stiffness out of them, so that they will praise God.

I thank God the silence is broken and the trumpets are sounding out. We proved it for you, from prophecy and Gospel. God is sounding a warning unto the people of God for one reason. So let us see what happens to the church in every period of time, when they took a certain attitude, towards God and His Word. The trumpet is giving the clarion call again, warning God’s people to awake and arise and come out of the slumber and deafness.

Thank God, the trumpets, Joel said, are an alarm---“Sound an alarm in my holy mountain”, or sound the trumpet in my mountain. What for? You know what the alarm clock is for---the alarm wakes you up to tell you it’s time to get up and go to work. Brother, we’ve had a silence long enough. The church has been asleep long enough and the silence has been broken. Oh, I know its bringing prostration on many people. But God woke me up several years ago and He told me, if I would stay awake, nobody would stay asleep around me. We’re here to declare unto you, that He sent us out to awaken the church. We’ve traveled from one end of the States to the other and out of them a little, and thank God, by the help of God, we’ve been waking people up.

As soon as you get the saints awakened, about the first charge people will put on you, is that their preacher can’t handle them anymore. You can handle them all right if they’re asleep and dead, but now that they’ve awakened, you can’t handle them. Why? The saints of God refuse to be handled in the hands of men. They’re going to serve God and walk by His Word no matter what men say. The sound of the trumpet is bringing the same results, that it brought in every other period of time.

The first trumpet sounded and there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and it swept away all the false refuges of that day. What God wants to do with His Word, is get all the false refuges of man away, and leave him standing open with no place to hide, then put the truth on him and tell him of the only refuge there is---Jesus Christ.

THE MORNING CHURCH...

The Church of that period went forth conquering and to conquer. That’s what the first seal said about her. What caused her to conquer? It was the way the trumpet sounded. We taught you back here, God took us back to Pentecost and showed us if the church does the work that God has called her to do, we’ll have to go back to Pentecost where the morning church started out and get on fire. There is where the fire fell and every work that God wants us to do from salvation to divine healing, it takes fire to do it. We cannot do the work that God called the church to do unless we have the fire of the Holy Ghost burning in our lives and in our midst.

Things went well in the morning church, but it said when the second angel sounded “a mountain as it were on fire.” I can prove to you it was Mt. Zion by the scripture. There he pictures the apostasy, going into the very sea. We proved that the sea by the Revelation 17:5, said the waters are kindred nations, tongues and people. What did the church do? We see it apostatized and fell into the hands of men. Jude said they crept in. Paul said they came in and divided the flock and worked havoc. That mountain went in the sea, a third part of the ships or the ministry, (we proved by the scriptures that ships were the ministry) were destroyed.

We also proved that the sea, which the mountain went into, was the sea that the first beast, Roman Catholicism, came up out of. When Roman Catholics tell you today they’re the church of God, well, they are the backslidden church of God. Roman Catholicism grew out of the apostasy. How do you know? 1 John, second chapter, John said, “It is the last time.” People are talking about millenniums and the time when the anti-Christ will come on the earth---we’ll go back where John goes to the Isle of Patmos; he wrote and said, “Don’t be deceived, children, we know it is the last time, for many antichrists have come.” Where did they come from, John? “They went out from us.” All you fellows out there, who are trying to prove that they came from here and from there, get your Bible. They came out of an apostasy. Every false religion on the face of the globe---any church you can join today, was the outgrowth of somebody backsliding from the truth, and leaving the narrow way and starting an organization.