Chapter 26

WE MUST HAVE BOTH KEY AND CHAIN IF WE WOULD BIND THE DRAGON...

The Word of God tells us that this ministry has the key and “he opened the bottomless pit and there arose a great smoke out of the pit; as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.” We know that a key is a symbol of the Word of God.

Let’s remember that it takes a spirit to bind a spirit. 2 Thess. 2: Paul, speaking of the second coming of Jesus said: that day could not come except there be a falling away first. We told you that it takes a spirit to bind a spirit. In the 2nd chapter of 2nd Thess., Paul says there will come a falling away first; in the morning time, and then something else had to happen. The Man of Sin had to be revealed, the son of perdition. Who was he talking about? How can we know it’s the beast? And, who is he talking about? The Pope of Rome who has exalted himself to a position that belongs to Christ alone. Roman Catholics will tell you that God gave them that authority. The Word goes on and tells us that he opposes and exalteth himself above all that is called God, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. The Roman Catholic Church is animated by a spirit and people get under the spirit of it. They are then bound by it unless the spirit of God breaks that spirit. When we lose the Spirit of God and try to preach the truths, people will laugh and mock at us and the old Babylonians will rise up and push them down our throat. But we don’t have much trouble with them. Once in a while they complain and say we’re getting the best members they have, but we tell them we’re supposed to get these and we don’t want the others.

One of those ministers came to the evening service because they don’t have evening services at their church. It’s too hot for the preacher to preach and they don’t want to hear him preach anyway. Well, we preached plain that night about some things going on in Babylon. We’d seen him on the street smoking a big stogie and we had a message for such men. Well, he got out during the invitation, but we met him going up the hill. He said, “Good message! keep on, I’m right behind you.” When we lose the spirit we will back up on the message. The Spirit of God is still working and it will bind. There’s one thing only, that will break the power of false religion; and that’s the blessed Holy Spirit.

God loves the Catholic people as well as He loves us and most of these Catholics have never had the truth revealed to them. Start preaching The Revelation and let the Man of Sin be revealed. “And then shall that wicked be revealed.” When? When will he be revealed? “Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” He said that He would consume him with the sprit of His mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of His coming. The first, He did at His first advent and the second, He will in His second advent. Oh, do you think He will destroy that evil with the spirit of His mouth? Isaiah 11: The prophet was speaking of His first coming. What did He do in His first advent? The fourth verse says: “…with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity the meek of the earth, and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.” When? At His first advent. And Paul verily said the same thing: He would consume him with the spirit of His mouth.

There are Roman Catholics around here. We received a call tonight from a Roman Catholic man down at the jail, who has tried to kill himself and he wants us to come as soon as this service is over. We’re reaching them on every side. There’s just one thing that will slay that spirit. We’ve tried to get the truth to these people, but they just argued that they had been taught this from childhood. But one thing will destroy all this; when the Spirit of God gets in them, there will be no more trouble with Roman Catholicism or catechism, for the Spirit of God will consume the spirit of evil and slay it. So, we see we must have the key and the chain. We have before us a fallen star, a ministry with a form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof. The test today definitely proves that the same Word preached---opens the kingdom and the bottomless pit, but if the Word is void of the power of the Spirit, instead of putting something in the pit we’ll let something out. A ministry, who has backslidden---if they ever did have the Spirit, are still preaching the Word by their own understanding, so every time they preach, instead of putting error away, they loose more error. The devil’s not in some hole over here. All false religion is on some sandy and earthly foundation. When we preach the Word without the presence of the Spirit of God, we loose something. The Word preached with power, will put error in its place, but when it’s preached without the power of the Holy Spirit it, will loose more false doctrine.

Paul said in 1 Cor. 2:4, “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Now we repeat: Rev. 9:1. This ministry was given the key or the precious Word, but when they fell, they lost the Spirit; when they kept on preaching the Word they opened the bottomless pit. But why does it have to be opened? To let you and me out or we’d never get saved. When we were bound in sin, we speak of it as being the “miry clay” (no foundation whatsoever). Every step we took, it just put us in deeper. The Word of God preached, will open up that condition and show us that we’re of the earth, earthy; and the Word will also open up the kingdom and get us out of the miry pit of sin; and when truth is preached under the power of the unction of the Spirit of God, it will lift us out of there and put us into the Kingdom. The Word of God, preached without power, aids the added creeds and doctrines of man; causes men and women who are in this horrible pit to be content with Church joining and baptism and other deceptions foisted by false teachers upon those who don’t look out for their own soul enough to search the scriptures as we are told to do.

A BACKSLIDDEN MINISTRY RESPONSIBLE FOR LOOSING SATAN...

If it is preached with power, it will transform them. Romans 6:2, “And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” It will transform them and set them in the kingdom of God by the new birth. Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. The Psalmist says, concerning the bottomless pit, in the 40th Psalm: “I waited patiently on the Lord and He heard my cry. He brought me up out of the horrible pit.” No, we were not in a deep abyss, but we were in a horrible pit. We were surrounded by unbelief, sin, false doctrine etc. and none of these had a Bible foundation. We could not help ourselves out of this condition. We couldn’t go forward nor could we go up.

He heard my cry, said David; He brought me up out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay; set my feet on a rock and established my going and put a song in my mouth. That’s the song that was sung that could not be learned, because God puts it there in our soul. Another man cannot sing it, because God gave it to us. When using a song, or we sing a song written by some other writer, it’s not our song, for God gave it to him. We’re singing his song. Our own song just seems to “rollout”, because, it was put there by God himself.

It was necessary to be born of the Water, or the Word through hearing the Gospel. And when it was preached, it broke the lock on that pit condition we were in, and where the devil had us held down and thought he had us fast and we’d never get out. If we ever get saved, we ought to appreciate the Gospel. It gives us a chance to get out of the pit, if we want to. If the Gospel is preached with Holy Spirit fire, that lock is thrown on the prison floor, the door is swung wide open and Jesus said that we could come out if we want to. The enemy of our soul would fain make us think that we’re bound forever. But we can be free and come out of the pit if we want to. Jesus said He came to preach deliverance to the captives and to open up the prison houses and that’s the same thing this dragon spirit was in. Bondage is the place for devilish spirits, but God’s children are to go free. So, this preaching opened up the bottomless pit and where there was no chain (Spirit) to bind the old dragon who had been put down there, he began to climb out of there.

A backslidden ministry let the dragon loose, again. Fallen stars! They’re the ones to let him loose again. God sent the ministry. What did He send them for? He sent them out to bind. Bind what? To bind the whole work of Satan---in any way that he tries to work through the dragon, the beast, the false prophet or the apostate church, or any other way. We’ve proven that a backslidden ministry let him out, but what about the smoke that darkened it? Smoke is a symbol of glory. Let’s turn to Isaiah 6:1. In the year that King Ussiah died, I saw the Lord also, sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. With what was the temple filled? Verse 4. “And the house was filled with smoke.” Now turn to Rev. 15:8. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power: Now this was smoke that rose out of the bottomless pit---the smoke of a false glory. It was also the smoke of a great furnace. In this furnace, was where the dragon came and molded the images. This was to take the place of God’s glory or true glory.

Jesus gave four things necessary to bring unity. The first is to know God, the only true God. The second thing is to be kept in the Father’s name, and that is very needful today. The third is to be sanctified through the truth. Fourth, the glory that you have given me I have given them that they may be perfect in one. The smoke that came from the pit, and darkened the third part and did not let unity come to pass. It was a false glory. This false glory that darkened the sun and the air is what brought about the cloudy condition.

OUT OF THE SMOKE CAME THE LOCUSTS...

Out of the smoke came the locusts upon the earth. What are these symbols of? These are symbols of false doctrines and the false ministry that came out of this condition. This condition had to start somewhere and many people cannot seem to see that the dragon really was loosed at 1530 because when he came out at this time, he didn’t come out as he went in---in the form of a dragon. Now, when he came out in 1530 he came out with another garb on. He went in there as a dragon, but we read in Revelation 11:7, “And when they shall have finished their testimony [these are the two witnesses (the Word and the Spirit) in the protestant era] the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, shall make war against them and shall overcome them, and kill them.” And the beast that came out here looked like a lamb.

Many who would have fought the dragon will countenance the innocent looking lamb, and Revelation 12:11 says that he looked like a lamb but spake as a dragon. Some say that he looked like a sheep and smelled like a goat. But how do we know the locusts, that came up out of the smoke of the pit are a false ministry? In the 7th verse, we’re told they had faces of men. Let’s turn to Nahum 3:15 “There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the canker worm: make thyself many as the canker worm, make thyself many as the locusts. (17) Thy crowned are as the locusts, and they captains as the great grass hoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold cay, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.” Thy crowned are as the locusts. Notice that these are men, but are likened unto locusts. Why? There are so many of them and they bring a blight. Perhaps some may think that such false religions cannot hurt them. The Bible says: “Thy crowned are as the locusts and thy captains are as grass hoppers which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun arises, they flee away. You don’t have to worry about Babylon’s merchants or men that peddle their goods, for they play around in the cold day that has no spiritual warmth or head, but when the sun of the true gospel arises, (who can stand the everlasting burning in Zion? They that have clean hands and a pure heart.) “When the sun arises they flee away.”

Out of the smoke came the locusts, or a false ministry carrying false doctrines. Someone may inquire, how do we know? What or who was this great flock of locusts supposed to hurt? It was to hurt only those men who have not the seal in their forehead. So, we know that this is a false ministry, with a false doctrine. People who have God’s seal, not on their foreheads, but in their foreheads, false doctrine cannot hurt them. In Revelation 7:14 and also the 2nd verse, “And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having this seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea.” Revelation 7:13, “And one of the Elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? (14) And I said unto him, sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, these are thy which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the lamb.” Is that seal in your forehead the Holy Ghost? You don’t get the Holy Ghost in your head. What is it to have your Father’s name sealed in your head? It’s to have the understanding that God’s people are all one, that the family of God is the Church of God, and God is our Father and we are truly His sons and daughters. That great understanding, in the very midst of all the teachings of men, is sealed in our foreheads, so that we are marked for eternity as a part of the one body.

Chapter 27

WHAT ARE THE LOCUSTS?

In such a cast, these false ministers and leaders with all their false teaching, cannot hurt us, with their different denominations and beliefs, and their many different names. There were some people who were not blighted even in the early days of false teaching, for they had the seal of God in their foreheads. They could only hurt those who had not the seal of God in their foreheads. “And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months; and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh; and in those days men shall seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them.”

Now, he said they would torment, just as a serpent would strike you. Deuteronomy 32:31: For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves, being judges. Those who stand on the sea of glass sing that song of deliverance, the song of Moses and the Lamb. Their rock is not as our rock, they themselves being judges. How can one chase a thousand or two put ten thousand to flight except their rock had “sold them out”? “Their vine is the vine of Sodom, and of the field of Gomorrah, their grapes are the grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.”

We’d better be sure we’re sealed with the Father’s name, or they will be able to strike us also. Jesus also said that they could not hurt us, if we had the Father’s name sealed in our foreheads. Paul says in Romans 3:13: “Their throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues have they used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips.” When they talk to you, it will have an effect on you, unless you are settled and have the Father’s name sealed in your forehead. There are two groups of them; people who had leaned toward false doctrine and people who had had a real experience. In the days of this false doctrine, while men are sitting under this false ministry, “men will seek death and not find it.” What kind of death will they seek? They will seek death of the “carnal nature” (living after the flesh). They’ll want to die out to God and they’ll not be able to, while “sitting under” the false doctrinal preaching of men. They will give just enough truth, to torment and make one miserable. That’s the kind of religion many people have today. They have just enough to torment them and make them miserable. They wish they’d never heard the Gospel. Having just enough to torment, make people wretched. They never reach a satisfied experience or deep peace in their souls.

We find in the sounding of the sixth trumpet, there’s a place where one can die if seeking death. If they really want to die out, there is a place and men don’t have to seek it any longer. The enemy has too many deceived by false doctrine and feeling it won’t hurt them. They’re ready to lend an ear to almost anything. It’s best to be sure that one is settled, and has the understanding in their foreheads, and the seal of the Father’s name.

Paul believed in warning people. In 2 Timothy 2:16, “But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. (17) And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Himenaeus and Philetus. (18) Who concerning the truth have erred.” Now, regarding: “eat as doth a canker” or the center reference says, like gangrene; when gangrene sets in, that person is about done for, unless God steps in. And where does this come from? Their false words and false theories eat in and put poison in you, even as a serpent strikes.

The shapes of the locusts were like as to horses prepared unto battle. They were ready to go forth and fight for their false creeds. Their breastplates were of iron. A breastplate is what you protect yourself with. What is the protection of Babylon? Her creeds! She has creeds of iron! A breastplate of iron is a long way from the “breastplate of righteousness”. These creeds of iron are what they use to protect themselves with, when anyone tries to straighten them out. They won’t bend---they won’t break---they stand right by that creed. But when we get to the sixth trumpet, we will find a ministry that has breastplates of righteousness.

These locusts are as horses, prepared for battle. They have faces of men, letting us know that they are men. Turn to the Revelation 4:7. There we have four beasts symbolizing the four attributes of the church all the way through. Here the word is translated “living creature”, and there are four of them. The first was as a lion, symbolizing the morning church going forth conquering and to conquer and also devouring everything that was before it. The next was the face of an ox, showing the sacrifice that had to be made in order for the truth to live on. The third was the face of a man, showing the next period of time she was going to go through when she had to face human intelligence. The last was of a flying eagle, revealing the fleetness of God’s people flying back to Zion. You cannot get up there without eagle wings; these are all spiritual things!

If greater education could have done this work for us, the large denomination of the Methodist Church would have accomplished the thing long ago. They have among them more D. D.’s than the “church of God” will ever have, in the next hundred years. One of the first things the ministry needs, is to grow up and be men. When the plain unadorned truth is laid down, some will get up and walk out. Then, some say we’ll “run away” more people than we gather in. So, I just counted five of these kind of places and we have more people in this congregation than all five of them put together. The truth does produce results if it’s preached and practiced enough. And they produce the right kind of results. For we don’t run away honest hearts that want to know the truth.

Now, may God help us to see this! The third was the face or a man. And we’ve told you that they symbolize a false ministry and they’re thicker than the stars of heaven. I’m now speaking of the locusts. I’ve lost the statistics of how many ministers there are in the United States. If every one of them would preach the truth, the earth would soon be converted. I told you that the last was an eagle. We can’t get over there without eagle’s wings. When people hear the truth and can’t see it, they’re calm, for there’s nothing to fight about. We read that the sound of wings were as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions and they had stings in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months.

Revelation 11, we read of the 1260 years of the dark ages. Rev. 11:3, “And I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesy a thousand and threescore and sixty days, clothed in sack cloth. This was the 1260 years (prophetic or 42 months of the dark ages. Here in this scripture of today we have five months, multiplied by 30 days to a month, gives us a hundred and fifty years. Their real sting was in their tails. Most of the work of Protestantism started out as a good work. When it speaks of their tails, it speaks of their latter end. It’s just the same with the dragon’s tail---it symbolizes the latter end of his reign. But what about the sting in their tails? Down in the latter days of Protestantism is the worst. Multiply 30 by 5 and you get a hundred and fifty days or prophetic years of from 1730 to 1880. That was when D. S. Warner and others began to preach the One Body and to teach unity and a holy life and sent out the message, “Come out of Babylon.”