Chapter 20

THE SOUNDING OF THE THIRD TRUMPET…

Now we get down to verse 10 and 11, or the sounding of the third trumpet. Rev. 8, the 10th verse, “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

Now, I know what some of you are thinking, having been told what brethren of the past have told us, that the 8th chapter of the Revelation, belongs to the second coming of Christ. Now we’re going to preach, that the second Jesus appears, this earth is going to be burnt up, and the elements melt with fervent heat; yet you teach that people are going to come back here and an angel is going to stand with one foot on the land and one on the sea and say, “time will be no more”. Then, I’ve heard preachers say that when Jesus comes back and the people on the earth see Him, they’re going to be running for the rocks---No! The minute He comes, there won’t be any rocks. This is a symbolic book. Getting to the truth of the matter, they’re running to the rocks right now. He said He would send hunters to hunt them out of the rocks. Soon as they run to one, we’re hunting them, to get them out in the open where we can fire on them. Well, we need to get this thing straightened out. There’s been too much confusion. I pray that God will help us.

He said, “When the third angel sounded there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp.” Now, the first thing we must get straightened out, is the period of time in which the third angel sounded. We’ve proven by the scripture that we started back at Pentecost. The only place that Pentecost is recorded in the Revelation is: right in the first part of the 8th chapter. The apostasy broke in with the sounding of the second trumpet. The third trumpet brings us to Protestantism. We proved to you that the sounding of the trumpet was sounding out the Word of God, and there was no Gospel preached outwardly from 530 to 1530, approximately a thousand years. There was no Gospel sounded out, so there was no trumpet sounded through here.

The third one brings us right over here, when Wycliff, Warner and others began to sound out with the Word of God again. We trust you can follow that. Martin Luther, John Wycliff, and John Huss---there were many in there that sounded out ahead of Luther. The trumpet began to sound out again, in the open, but for an approximate period of time. There’s your thousand years. Every bit of truth that preachers are talking about, (will happen in a millennium) took place right there during that thousand years of dark ages. We want you to see, there was no trumpet sounded from here until the Gospel began to be preached during the early years of the Reformation. Now, when the third star or trumpet began to sound out, the Revelation tells us there fell a great star from heaven. I might say, that by this very word or thought we can prove that there was no trumpet sounded here. The Word of God was closed. Somebody said, “How do you know?” That’s why the period from approximately 530---1530 is called the Dark Ages. If there had been light, it would not have been dark. This definitely proves that those doctrines that came forth through there, (that have gripped the hearts of men, and still hold them in the power of it) yet today, are hearsay and have no Bible foundation.

THERE FELL A GREAT STAR…

Truth began to sound out around 1530, maybe a little before. This is known as the Lutheran age. The Revelation said, “there fell a great star from heaven, burning as though it were a lamp.” There’s our first symbol this afternoon, and I think you all know that, but some may not. What is a star in the Revelation? Revelation 1 and 20 says the seven stars are the seven angels or the Greek says the seven messengers or the seven pastors of the churches. Stars are symbols all through the Word of God, as messengers or ministers. Jude speaks about and uses stars as symbols of the ministry. We preached down to the 12th verse in Jude and showed you how the apostasy and the compromise was working among God’s people today, and how you can tell these false preachers. God has a mark on them. They’ve gone the way of Cain. Cain killed his brother because his brother’s smoke went up and his didn’t. Those fellows are still after you. They’ll tell a lie on you or back-bite you and kill your influence and the only thing that’s wrong with them is, (when you get right in the heart of it) that your smoke is going up and theirs isn’t.

He said they were spots in their feasts, but he later in the 13th verse, called them wandering stars. No wonder the people are in confusion, trying to follow those ministers, for they’re wandering stars. One day they’re here and the next day there. It has become so confusing in the church of God, that, men ask when somebody introduces you---“What standard does he hold?” Is there supposed to be more than one?

In the church, today, men call themselves liberal and others conservatives. We’re here, in defense of the Gospel. If you don’t think this is truth, rise to your feet and tell us what truth is. The Word says, men would come right into our midst and not spare the flock. That’s what’s dividing the flock. A man preaches a message in the tabernacle and eight preachers go out and divide the people over it. Jude said they’re wandering stars. One day you hear them preaching this and the next time you hear them preaching that. (The poor sheep don’t know what to do). They’re wandering stars.

We asked you, what broke the darkness, when men had not heard from God for 400 years. What was the first thing that appeared? A star appeared to the wise men and led them. What was the star for? It was no wandering star. They were told to keep their eyes on that star, and when it got right to Baby Jesus it stopped. That’s exactly what the ministry is for. That’s why they are likened to stars. Why? They’re to guide men and women to the Son of Righteousness. We’re facing a day when the world is darkened. Some are in as much darkness as the old world was for the 400 years. They’re not hearing from God. They’re hearing from the beast and the false prophet and all other kinds of dark things, and if the Son of Righteousness would arise unto them, all at once, it would knock them “stone blind”. God has some stars, to give them a little light. Paul said you people follow me as I follow Christ. Follow the star---follow the true ministry, the fixed and settled ministry and it will lead you to Christ, the Son of Righteousness. That’s what the ministry is for. I told you, you don’t have to go away and get a degree to know the truth. If you’re a real preacher, you’re just a beggar, telling others where you found bread.

So, when we begin to talk about a star that fell from heaven, we’re talking about a fallen ministry. All through here we will read about stars fallen from heaven (the false ministry). I hear them on the radio and that we’re getting into space and getting on the moon, and they go over to the 6th chapter of the Revelation and try to literalize those things and show where God said we were supposed to be on the moon, and I just laugh down inside; no disrespect intended---man is already trying to get on the moon, and we have it under our feet, that is, the moon found in the Revelation. Talk about stars falling and all these things, we’re here to tell you on the authority of God’s Word that when we talk about a falling star, we’re talking about a ministry, when it fell from heaven. God calls a minister, lifts him up into this heavenly position, this same heaven that is mentioned all through the Revelation---this heavenly position, this heavenly atmosphere, where we sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and never get off the earth. Paul said he was in a heavenly place. He said he got so far up there he didn’t know if he was in the body or not, but Jesus just put a thorn in his flesh, and he found out he was still in the body. He never got out. We’ve had those experiences and feeling so---where we thought we were out, but all it took was a messenger of Satan, to come around; we found out we were still in the body, just as human as we ever was, and so we all are. We can get rather glorious, and get in on the feast of holiness, but we’re still human.

Adam and Eve were holy, but fell through their humanity. How did they fall through their humanity? They put their wisdom up against the wisdom of God. God said, “Don’t touch it.” She tasted and said it tasted good. God didn’t say it wouldn’t taste good, but He said, “Don’t touch it.” But what are men doing today? The Bible makes it plain what God says to do, but people are defying and putting their wisdom before God’s.

There fell a great star from heaven, symbolizing a ministry. Oh, Paul talked of it as a high calling in Christ Jesus, but it fell from the heavenly position; it symbolizes a star falling from heaven. When it fell, it fell on the waters. What are the waters? Same as they are here---people. It fell burning as it were a lamp.

Chapter 21

FALSE DOCTRINES CAUSE DIVISION…

A very false doctrine that sectism uses today is not called darkness. She calls it light. Every false teaching they have, well it’s just the same. You know that’s the truth. John said many false prophets have gone out. We’ve heard many of them on the radio. As soon as they started we knew they were false: every one of them, burning as if he were a lamp. And it fell upon the rivers and upon the fountains of waters. Now what are they? This star falling from heaven, symbolizing the false ministry, but there were people who preached the truth there and sounded it out. But, it wasn’t long until men began to fall---religious leaders began to fall from the truth and began to go out and build their different sects and creeds and faiths and beliefs, until now, in Christian America, where there’s only One Lord, One faith, and One baptism, we have billboards all over the country saying, “Go To The Church of Your Choice.”

We’d better find out what God’s choice is, because He’s not coming back for ours. He’s coming back after His. Well, they have it right. It’s the church of their choice. We wouldn’t want to hurt a soul but we just chased one. Again, we don’t want to hurt anybody, but it’s a big one and “we” just want to choose. You take the Methodists, who call themselves Methodist, but they really are not Methodists. A brother and I were in Pennsylvania, holding a tent meeting one Sunday evening, when some people came in and we were preaching on the church (using the chart on the church) and I saw people were getting stirred---I didn’t know who they were---I was just preaching---when it was over I found out. One woman met me before I got out of the pulpit and said, “Listen here, how long has it been since you were down in Babylon?” I said, “Who are you?” “I’m a Methodist”, she replied. What’s a Methodist? “I don’t know, but I am one.” I said, “Sister, it won’t do me any good to talk to you, because you don’t even know what you are.” I went on to show her that the Methodist Church, is not the Methodist Church any more, it’s the people’s church.

The Methodists believed in justification, full consecration, holiness, and the old time revival meeting with shouts in the camp. Today, if you go down and join it, they’ll ask you if you want to be sprinkled, poured or immersed. These things fell into the hands of men---a poor weak ministry; afraid of their bread and butter.

A great star fell from heaven burning as it were a lamp and it fell upon the third part of the rivers and fountains of water and the name of the star was called wormwood. Now, what are these fountains and rivers that fell? Already we’ve taken the symbol about the waters. Revelation 17:5: lets us know that the waters were the people. Now, it gets a little closer than the people. It said it fell on the rivers and fountains and made them bitter. What are the fountains and rivers? (Let Mr. Webster talk, first. He said a fountain is a natural or an artificial spring of water, the head of a river. Now that’s what Webster says. Let’s see what the Bible says. John, the fourth chapter, mentions about Jesus talking with the woman at the well when He said, “If you had asked me I would have given you a drink”; (I might stop here, church) that’s our position now, as the body of Christ. Don’t you know, the world can’t get a drink of this, unless we give it to them? “If you had asked me I would have given you a drink of this.” If we’re not careful, as a church, we’ll be sitting in all our pride and say, there’s plenty here, get it if you want it. No, we have to give it to them. “If you had asked me, I would have given you a drink.” She said, “Are you greater than our father Jacob that gave us the well? This well is deep and you don’t have anything to draw with.” Jesus said, “I’m not talking about Jacob’s well. The well I’m talking about is deeper than Jacob’s and you have nothing to draw with.” Short of the Spirit of God, we have nothing worthwhile to draw out of this well.

SWEET AND BITTER WATER...

We must give them to drink and the only thing they are getting now, the only thing the world is getting is our overflow and there are too many people just keeping their cup full---just going to church enough to satisfy them. Well, again, that’s not according to God’s plan. Take a drink of this water and it will be a well of water in you, springing up into everlasting life. This is the fountain. James said, “You fellows have cursing and praise coming out of your mouth and a fountain doesn’t send forth sweet and bitter water from the same fountain head.

Now I like that scripture, it went a little further in John the 4th chapter, and said she left her water pot. I get so sick of the saints yet carrying their water pots. You don’t need them when you have a spring, you don’t need water pots. You can just drink anytime. Oh, I hope you see what the fountains are. When it fell on the people, (false teachings) that sweet fountain that Christ had opened up in their hearts, began to turn into bitterness and bitterness began to get in their hearts. It fell on the fountain and the rivers. What are the rivers? You know what they are, the 7th chapter of John we read the 37th and 38th verses. Let’s turn back and read it. It says, “In the last days, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.” Why did He stand and say that?

When we begin to study Bible History and other historians bring forth the very custom of that day among the Jews, we find the last great day of the feast, the priest stood there with a golden vessel of water, brought from the pool of Siloam and poured it out before the Lord quoting the 12th chapter of Isaiah, the third verse saying, “Therefore with joy shall you draw water from the well of salvation.” Jesus walked up after the priest got through and said, “If any man thirst, come and drink.” I am the well; I will fulfill that scripture.

We go on and read the next verse, and it tells us that when we drink, out of our belly will flow rivers of living water. If you people are saved and sanctified (as you are) why is it so dry around your place? Springs flowing up and rivers flowing out---springs springing up, and rivers flowing out, springs coming up, and rivers flowing out. Now you know why we want to preach every day for two or three hours. Why? The truth and joy are here in our very hand.

God told us a long time ago, “Freely you have received, freely give.” The more we give it away, the more He gives. Those are the rivers and fountains; we need them again. If we go back to Ezekiel, we gain understanding about the river of life. Ezekiel, the 47th chapter, God took him around the temple and there in an old temple, taught him things. Round and round he went, and when he brought him up by the threshold and the door of the temple again, and Ezekiel was just walking by, because he had been by there many times, but he stopped and looked, and there was water running out, and just kept running out. God said, “I want to measure this thing for you---we’ll show you how big this thing is, that we have a hold of.” He measured a thousand, and it got up to his knees, measured another thousand, and it got up to his loins. I can’t preach on this, (you fill in your own thoughts) and measured another one, and he measured again, and it was water to swim in that couldn’t be passed over.

Ezekiel said, “I can’t make it, and he turned around and swam back to the other shore.” When he got back there, there were trees on it already. What are the trees? Isaiah, Jeremiah, Psalmist in the first Psalm, Jesus in the 7th chapter of Matthew and John in the 3rd chapter of Matthew, said the trees are the people. Those quick trees had sprung up, a symbol of children of God, getting new life from that river already. It went down through the desert, and out into the Dead Sea. Now, let’s go back and get it. What was he seeing a picture of? There never was water seen coming out under the threshold of the old temple. That was a vision of something. What was it? Christ, the true door to the Church.

It came out from the right side of the altar, the south side of the altar and the altar, he said, “Faced the east.” They, seeing Christ on Calvary’s cross, they hung him facing the east. When they pierced His right side out flowed blood and water, that’s when the water ran out and down and under the threshold. What is the threshold? The threshold is under the door. Who is the door? Christ is the door. Where did the Gospel go? It went right down through the desert country. John started in the desert and in the wilderness, turning the water loose and on out to the Dead Sea and on out and on out and wherever, as we read it, and wheresoever this water went, and whatever it touched, it gave life.

He turned the water loose. Let’s quit damning it up---turn it loose---take faith in it. Wheresoever the water went, and whatever it touched, had life. Could I show you the Church? There goes the river of life. It had a small beginning, flowing out of the Lamb. Someone said, I don’t think that’s where it began flowing. Go with me to the 22nd chapter of the Revelation, no one understands that, until you try to preach it. It makes your heart swell up---it makes your throat tight. I am here to tell you, there’s no reason for this dryness, if we will get people drinking, just get people drinking, there will be reverence break out. One said, Bro. Wilson, I’m a young preacher and I would like to have a place to preach. Well, I’ll give you a text: the 47th chapter of Ezekiel says the river went out through the desert country and into the Dead Sea, and when it hit the Dead Sea, everything that was in the Dead Sea came to life, when the water hit it.