Steps to Life

Prophecy Seminar

Session 21: Today's Prophetic Movement of Destiny

There are going to be some people that will escape all of the awful things that are going to happen upon the earth during the last days. In the twenty-first chapter of the gospel of Luke, Jesus is talking about the end of the world.

Luke 21:35 "For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."

Would you like to have that experience? Jesus said, "watch and pray" because at the end of the world the events that are going to happen will come like a trap, a snare, such as when animals walk through the forest and all of a sudden, bang, they are trapped. One moment everything is fine, the next moment they are trapped. Now Jesus said that is the way the end of the world is going to be. It is going to be just like it was in the days of Noah. People are going to be doing the regular things they have always done. They are not going to be aware of what is about to happen, then all of a sudden and there is going to be this trap. The apostle Paul says the same thing.

I Thessalonians 5:2 "For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape."

I always think of this verse of scripture whenever we have a great peace cry. I remember in December of 1989, the headlines of our national magazines were talking about how the wall of communism was now down, so we didn’t need an army. Remember that? That wasn’t very long ago. Do you know that in about six months the US was sending people over to the Middle East to get involved in that war. The Bible talks about this over and over again. It is prophesied in Micah 2, I Thessalonians 5, Isaiah 4 and many other places in the Bible. It says in the last days there is going to be a great international religious peace movement. When we first had a world court, we were going to try to achieve peace in Hague1899, but that world court did not stop WWI. Then the League of Nations was founded, and that was going to end all wars, but it didn’t stop WWII. After WWII the United Nations was founded, and we were going to have peace. Since WWII there hasn’t been a single day that a war was not occurring somewhere in the world. There have been more wars since we have had an international peace movement than ever before in history. This is one of the signs that we are living in the last days. These great, gigantic peace movements did not exist until the twentieth century. The Bible predicted this would happen in the last days. When they say "peace and safety," one of these days very soon, there is going to be an international world coalition of nations and religions. Men are going to say we have finally achieved peace and we are going to have a thousand years of peace. Right after that happens, they are going to walk right into Armageddon. In Luke 21 we read that Jesus said there are going to be some people who watch and pray always that they may be accounted worthy to escape all of these things.

Would you like to be one of these people who are accounted worthy to escape all of these things? There are many passages of scripture that we could look at to see who is going to be accounted worthy to escape all of these things. We will look at two to start, one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. In the second chapter of Joel are mentioned the people that are going to be delivered out of all the trouble that is coming on the world.

Joel 2:32 "And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls."

"Oh," somebody says, "I better get my plane ticket so I can get over to Jerusalem." Is that what this verse is talking about when it says Mount Zion? What does Mount Zion represent?

Isaiah 51:16 "And say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’ "

Oh, I want to tell you, friend, when Armageddon comes I want to be one of God’s people. Do you? Who is Zion? It is God’s people, and if you are one of God’s people, you are going to be delivered.

What is the remnant of anything? It is the last part. In Joel 2:32 it is talking of the remnant that is the last people that God is going to call. Do you want to be one of those that God has called when Armageddon comes? Well I want to tell you, friend, they are the only people that are going to be delivered. Those that are God’s people that He has put His seal on, the ones who have God’s mark. They are His chosen ones, His called ones. Let us look in the New Testament and see these same people described in Revelation.

Revelation 19:7 "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints."

There are some things that women can understand that men have difficulty understanding. Some men have difficulty understanding why a woman would pay a large amount of money and invest hours and hours of time to prepare a garment that she is going to wear only one time. This verse is talking about a real marriage. It is not a marriage of the flesh, but it is a marriage of the mystical body, or the bride of Christ. One of the reasons this is described this way is because, for most human beings, a marriage is about the happiest experience that they can imagine.

I remember many weddings that I attended with my parents when I was a small boy. I thought to myself, it must be embarrassing to get up there wearing all of those funny clothes, go through all this ceremony and kiss each other in front of 500 people. I remember at one wedding listening to one of the church members talking about the bride, who had been a teacher for the church school. Of course, all of the children, the church members and the bride’s friends were there. This lady said of the bride, "You know, ordinarily she is homely, but tonight she is just beautiful." If people are happy enough it improves their appearance. Have you ever noticed that?

I want to tell you, the marriage that is described here is more exciting than anything that anyone has experienced in this world. Everyone in the world is going to wish that they could take part in this marriage supper, but the only people who will get to take part in it are the ones that have made themselves ready. The bride has the right clothes on. Are you going to be a part of this group who are called the Lamb’s wife?

II Corinthians 11:2 "For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

Paul says that he is afraid that these people will not be ready for the marriage. Who is Paul talking to here?

II Corinthians 1:1 "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia."

Who is it that is the Lamb’s wife who is going to go in with Him to this special wedding ceremony? It is the church. There are going to be millions of people all over the world that will want to belong to the church then. They don’t now, but they will want to then, and it will be too late. There will be people who have been members of Satan’s church, they will have been a member of the church of Babylon, talked about in Revelation 17. They are going to say, "Oh, I wish I could go in," but they won’t be able to go in because they don’t have the wedding garment on.

Matthew 22:1 "And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: 2 ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son.’ "

Now, who is the king? God the Father. Who is the Son? Jesus, and He is going out to invite people to the wedding. You will notice that He has a hard time getting people to come to the wedding. Finally, we read in verse 10, His servants go out and gather all they can.

Matthew 22:10 "So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12 So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Notice in verse 12 that this guest is not an atheist, he is a Christian. He says to himself, "I am going to the wedding." So he goes. But in verse 13 we can find the result of not wearing a wedding garment. There will be millions of people that will want to come into the wedding feast and the King will say, "No, you can’t come. You do not have the wedding garment on." What does the wedding garment represent? It is the righteous acts of the saints. Let us be very sure that we know what we are talking about here. I find, sometimes, that when we use these great big words that people don’t know exactly what we are talking about. What is righteousness and what is unrighteousness? First, let us see what unrighteousness is.

I John 5:17 "All unrighteousness is sin."

That is simple isn’t it? Unrighteousness is sin. Well, what is sin?

I John 3:4 "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness."

So, all unrighteousness is sin, or transgressing God’s law. Now let us turn that around. If unrighteousness is sin, or transgressing God’s law, what is righteousness? It is keeping God’s law.

Romans 8:3 "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

What is the requirement of the law? It is righteousness. If you keep the law you are righteous, if you break the law you are unrighteous. That is what the Bible says. Revelation 19:8 says the Lamb’s wife, His bride, is arrayed in clean white linen. This clean white linen, or wedding garment, represents something? It is the righteous acts of the saints. What kind of acts are righteous-law-keeping acts or law-breaking acts? Law-keeping. The people that are ready to meet Jesus and are ready to go into the wedding, His bride, His church, will be a law-keeping people, or church.

A woman in Bible prophecy represents a church. There are a few texts from the book of Ephesians that will help us to understand how wonderful it is to be a part of this woman, or the body of Christ.

Ephesians 3:8 "To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all people see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ."

Let us stop there for a moment. Paul says that there is a mystery and this mystery has been hidden from ages, from eternity. It has been in the mind of God, but nobody understood it. The angels didn’t understand it and the people on other worlds didn’t understand it. By the way, there are intelligences living on other worlds. The Bible clearly says that in Revelation 12:12. It talks about the heavens and those that dwell in it. There are other intelligences living in other heavens. The Bible says so.

None of these intelligences or principalities or rulers in the heavenly places, none of the angels understood this mystery that was in the mind of God. That is what Paul says in verse 9. He says it has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 3:10 "To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church, to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places."

Here Paul talks about these intelligences and powers in heavenly places. They are looking down at this world, and from the church they are going to learn something. They are going to learn something about the mystery of God. Friend, have you ever thought that if you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, that Jesus plans to reveal something about God through you that the rest of the universe is looking to see. I will tell you briefly what it is. There are several mysteries. The main mystery is the redeeming love of Jesus, that Jesus can take a person who is a sinner and is defiled, and who is headed for eternal death, and not only forgive that person’s sins, but put His Holy Spirit in that person and transform him into something that is beautiful. That demonstrates and manifests the love of God to other people. Oh, friend, the reaching down of the hand of God clear to the bottom of the sin problem to save people and recreate them in the image of God is incomprehensible. God’s mercy, love and pity we will never fully comprehend. That love, mercy and pity are to be manifested and displayed to the whole universe, Paul says, through the church. Would you like to be part of the biggest mystery in the universe that everyone in the universe would like to learn more about? That is what the church is all about.

Ephesians 1:22 "And He put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."

The church is the body of Christ. The church is to become the bride of Christ and just as a husband and a wife are one physically, the church is to be one spiritually with the Lord.

I Corinthians 6:15 "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For ‘the two,’ He says, ‘shall become one flesh.’ "

Now you cannot mistake what Paul is talking about in verse 16. I want you to notice that he uses the very same verb in verse 16 where he says "joined to a harlot," as he uses in verse 17.

I Corinthians 6:17 "But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him."

Oh, friend, I told you that tonight I was going to tell you some of the most wonderful things I could ever tell you in any Prophecy Seminar. The most wonderful experience that any created human being could have is to be joined to the Lord and to become one spirit with Him. I tell you, friend, the tragedy of Christendom today is there are so many people who want to be called Christians but they don’t want to be joined to the Lord. They don’t want to be one spirit with Him. That is what it means to be part of the church. The church is Christ’s bride. What would you think, I speak now as a human being, about a man and a woman that would say, "Look, as we have studied, we can see that there are some tax advantages to being married so we are going to get married. We are going to go down to the justice of the peace and go through all the paperwork. Now we are not going to live together, not even one night, but we are going to go through the paperwork. As soon as we get done with the paperwork, she can go back to California and I am going to stay and live in Kansas." And so that is what they do. They go through the paperwork, and now on their IRS form they can fill out a joint return. They have never lived together, not even one night. Now, I want to ask you a question, Are they really married? You know, friend, there are Christians like that. They called themselves Christians, but they have never been joined to the Lord. Does God consider that they belong to Him?

We read in I Corinthians 6:17, "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him." That is the most wonderful experience that any human being can have, but what if I am not joined to the Lord?

Romans 8:9 "But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His."

If you have just gone through the paperwork, you may have your name on the church book somewhere, but you are not one spirit with Christ, and if you are not one spirit with Christ, you are not really His. You are not really going to be His bride, you are not really going to get to go to the marriage supper. He that is joined to the Lord, is one spirit with Him. Oh friend, I cannot resist it. I must give you an invitation. Do you want to say to the Lord tonight, "Lord Jesus I want to be joined to You. I don’t want to just make a profession, I want to be joined to You, I want to be one spirit with You." That is what Jesus wants to do for you. He wants to bring you to Himself and make you one spirit with Him. Friend, if you have never had this experience before, you don’t yet know how joyful Christianity is. This is one of the reasons that so many people think that it is a hard thing to join the Lord, to be a Christian. They think that it is uphill business to serve the Lord, because they have not been joined to Him. They are not united as one spirit with Him.

Have you ever heard a bride say, "Oh no! Now that I am married I can’t go out with that one, and that one, and that one, and that one, and that one." Oh, friend, when you are joined to the Lord, if you are one spirit with Him, you don’t want all of the things of this world. Because you have found the One that the Bible says is the fairest among ten thousand. He is called the Rose of Sharon. The one who is altogether lovely. Friend, He loves you, and He wants more than anything in this world to draw you to Himself. He wants you to be joined to Him so that you will be one spirit with Him. That is what He wants. Until you have that experience, you will never experience the ecstasy of Christianity.

Ephesians 5:25 "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church."

Oh, friend, have you had a part in this mystery? God wants to make you a part of this mystery. He wants to join you to Jesus so that you will become one spirit with Him. Now, in the book of Ephesians, I want you to notice something that we must look at when we study about the body of Christ. Have you noticed in this Prophecy Seminar that we have looked at beasts, and some have several heads? You remember the leopard had four heads, and then there was a beast that had seven heads. The church doesn’t have two heads, or four heads, or seven heads. How many heads does the church have?

Ephesians 1:22 "And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things in the church."

So the church just has one head. No one in Wichita is the head of the church. No one in Rome is the head of the church. No one in Washington, D.C., or Maryland is the head of the church. The church has how many heads? One. It is not a two-headed beast, a seven-headed beast or a four-headed beast it just has one, and Jesus is the head.

Having identified that the church has only one head, Jesus, let me ask another question. If there is only one head, how many bodies are there?

Ephesians 4:4 "There is one body, and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism."

So, when Jesus comes, there is only going to be two real churches in the world. There is going to be the whole conglomerate, talked about in Revelation 17, that will belong to Babylon. We have more to say about that. Then there will be this bride of Christ who is clothed with the clean white linen which represents the "righteous acts of the saints," the law-abiding, or law-keeping acts of the saints. I want to tell you, friend, the Bible says that that is all there is going to be. You can look in Revelation 17, 18, and 19 and that is all there is going to be, those two groups. There aren’t going to be any other groups. The whole world is going to be in two classes. As I have studied, and we have studied in the Prophecy Seminar tonight over and over again, in the last days the devil is going to deceive the world. People all over the world are going to think that they are in God’s true church. They are going to come right up to the end and find out they are not in God’s church. Let us read that in Matthew 7. These are people that are going to come and say, "Lord, we are Christians, and we are here, we want to go into the wedding feast. We want to have a part in the wedding feast."

Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you: depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ "

Isn’t that going to be the most awful shock that a person can have? To think your whole life, "I am in the church. I am part of the bride of Christ," and come right up to the end and the Lord tells you you are not because you have been practicing lawlessness. You see, friend, the Bible presents this picture in every way you can present it in all the prophecies. Jesus warns us of this over and over again. As I have studied it, I have gotten down on my knees beside my bed more than once. I have said, "Lord, I don’t want a pretend religion. I don’t want to be deceived and think I belong to You and that I am part of the bride of Christ and come right up to the end and have You say, ‘No you are not.’ I don’t want that. If there is anything You need to change in my life, Lord, I am opening my heart, my mind, everything to You. I want to know the truth now so that I can change." Is that the way you feel about it?

As I have studied this subject from my Bible, I have learned some things about the true church that I have to share with you. The Bible, I have found, is very clear on who the church is, what it is, and how you become a member. First of all, let us turn to I Corinthians 12. If there is anyone here, and you have not done what the Lord says to do to become a part of the bride of Christ, here is what you have to do. If you want to be part of the marriage supper of the Lamb, if you want to be delivered from Armageddon, if you want to be joined to the Lord and be one spirit with Him, this is how it is done.

I Corinthians 12:13 "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free and have all been made to drink into one Spirit."

Notice, we are baptized by the Holy Spirit. Now, water baptism is a symbol of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul says we are baptized by the Spirit into one body. If you read the rest of the chapter, you can see what body he is talking about. He is talking about the church, the body of Christ. He says we are baptized by one Spirit into one body. You are not ready to become part of the body of Christ until you can be baptized by the Holy Spirit. If you follow the instructions in the Bible, when you are baptized by water, you are baptized by the Holy Spirit at the same time. That is what Peter taught at the day of Pentecost. That is how you become a member.

Let us look at a few definitions in the Bible of what the church is.

I Timothy 3:15 "But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."

Notice the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. If you look into the New Testament, every single time that the New Testament writers define what the church is, they define it in spiritual terms. That is very important to understand. A church is not just a bunch of bricks and mortar, or a building. The church is the mystical body of Christ, those people that are joined to the Lord, who are one spirit with Him. That is what the church is.

Have you ever thought that through? In the apostles’ day, in every generation in this world, there has been a present truth. The Bible talks about present truth.

II Peter 1:12 "For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth."

There is a present truth, and to be part of God’s church you must be established in present truth. Let us review that a little bit. In Noah’s time, was there a present truth? Yes there was. Now, what was present truth in Noah’s time is not the same today. In Noah’s time, present truth was that a flood was coming and if you wanted to be saved, you had to enter the ark. Was there a present truth in Jesus’ day? Oh, yes there was. Jesus told His disciples that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed (Luke 21; Matthew 24). The present truth then was that Jesus of Nazareth, this humble, meek, lowly man, was the son of God. That was present truth in Jesus time, and before you could become a member of the church in Jesus’ time, you had to acknowledge present truth. Present truth in Jesus’ time and the time of the apostles was that Jesus was the Messiah, He was the Son of God.

Acts 8:36 "As they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?’ 9 Then Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’ And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ "

There were people who were being killed for saying that Jesus was the Son of God. You had to believe present truth to become part of the church in the days of Jesus and the disciples.

In this Prophecy Seminar, we have been studying what Bible prophecy says. Do you know from the Bible what is present truth for today? Oh, friend, if you want to be part of the bride of Christ, if you want to be part of Christ’s church (the church is the pillar and ground of the truth), if you are going to be joined to Jesus as one spirit with Him, you have to know present truth, acknowledge it and believe it. You can’t be married to someone and have them living over there and you living over here. The Lord is going one way and you and I cannot be going some other way and be joined to Him. We have to acknowledge, believe in and follow present truth.

God’s bride, the wife of Christ, those that are joined to Him, who are one spirit with Him, will be proclaiming present truth. What is present truth today? We have been studying this in the seminar. Let us look at a few things that are present truth today.

Revelation 14:6 "Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people 7 saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.’ "

The everlasting gospel is still present truth today. And the gospel includes two parts. You cannot be saved with half of the gospel. In John 8:11, when the woman taken in adultery was brought to Jesus, you read that Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you." That is the first part of the gospel. A pardon. Your sins can be forgiven, however bad you have been.

Then Jesus said to her, "Go and sin no more." That is the second part of the gospel. Oh, friend, when you come to Jesus, not only do you receive a pardon for your past, for everything wrong that you have ever done, but He gives you His Holy Spirit and then you have the power to sin no more. If you have been beating your wife, you don’t have to beat her anymore. If you have had a problem with drugs, you don’t have to continue having that problem. Whatever your sin problem is, friend, when Jesus gives you a pardon, He says, "Go and sin no more." That is the gospel, the present truth, you are delivered from the guilt of sin in the past and from the power of sin right now. No church can be part of the bride of Christ that does not keep all of the gospel.

The hour of God’s judgment has come. That’s present truth today. The judgment of the dead began in 1844. We do not know when the judgment of the living begins or when the second will be except that we are now living in the last days and have been living during the hour of God’s judgment for over 150 years.

Revelation 14:8 "And another angel followed, saying, ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’ "

The third thing that is present truth today, is that Babylon is fallen. You can see very clearly that Babylon is a woman. It says she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. In the Old Testament, when God’s people forsook Him and started breaking the second commandment, God said, "You have committed adultery against Me." Babylon includes any and every church which teaches people to break God’s law. That is present truth, that Babylon is fallen.

Revelation 14:9 "Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name.’ "

This is the fourth present truth today. God’s true people, the bride of Christ today, those that are going to the wedding supper, those that are joined to Christ, will proclaim who and what the beast and the mark of the beast are. If we really love our fellow man, we will not let them go and receive the mark of the beast and endure the wrath of God without at least warning them of it. We live in such a sentimental age. People have forgotten what love is all about. People get confused between love and sentimentalism and you tell people about the mark of the beast and how to avoid getting it, and people say, preacher, that is pretty hard. Well, friend, if anybody loves you what else can they say. If we are not helping people find out how to avoid the mark of the beast, we don’t love them at all. Can we watch the whole world go down a path of deception and be taught to break God’s law and worship the beast, and receive the mark of the beast, and not say anything? Not if we love them we can’t. Not really. Any preacher that knows the truth of God’s Word and really loves someone will tell them how to avoid receiving the mark of the beast. It is the most fearful threatening in all of the Bible. God’s true people will call people to come out of Babylon.

Revelation 18:2–4"He cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! 3 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.’ 4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you received of her plagues."

This voice in verse 4 comes from heaven. I want to ask you, If I belong to the Lord, if I am part of the bride of Christ, if I am joined to the Lord, if I am one spirit with Him, will I be saying the same thing as heaven says? Yes I will. I will be calling people to come out of Babylon, lest you share or partake in her sin and also partake of her plagues. God’s true people, friend, will believe all of the truths in the Bible.

II Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, (that is teaching) for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." Why? 17 "That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Friend, if I am joined to Christ, I will preach the word of Christ. I will preach and believe in following all of the Bible. Notice that the last part of Revelation 14:7 says to worship Him who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the springs of water. Is that present truth today? God foresaw and predicted 2,000 years ago the uniformitarian theory and evolution in the last days.

II Peter 3:4 "Saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."

In this time, in the age of evolution, God sends to all the world a message to worship the Creator, the One who made the heavens and the earth. The last part of Revelation 14:7 is a quotation from the fourth commandment. God’s people in the last days will be teaching people to worship the Creator. They will be teaching people to keep all of the commandments, including the Sabbath commandment, or fourth commandment.

If all men had kept the Sabbath, the fourth commandment always there never would have been an atheist. When you remember the Sabbath day, you are remembering the creator, when you are worshipping Him and obeying Him He dwells in your heart and you know in your spirit not just that God exists but that you are His child: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us . . .the Spirit of God dwells in you. . .The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Romans 8:3-16

Another characteristic of God’s church, God’s bride, is it will be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is taught all the way through the New Testament. If we do not have that Spirit, we are not part of God’s church.

God’s church will proclaim these present truths to all the world with a loud voice—Revelation 14:7. In other words God’s church in the last days will be a worldwide movement.

You can look down through the list of present truths for today and ask yourself some questions. What group of people is teaching these things? What group of people is teaching the world that the hour of God’s judgment is here and to worship the Creator by keeping the fourth commandment. Who is saying that Babylon is fallen and showing what that means? Who is warning people not to worship or receive the mark of the beast? You can figure it out just by all of these things, however, so that no one would ever make a mistake, God nails it down and says if you want to know who His people are in the last of the world, look for just two things.

Revelation 12:17 "And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

We studied this chapter before and saw that it is talking about a pure woman, God’s people, down through the ages. Now the dragon is Satan and the woman is the church. Is this a pure church or a harlot church? This is a pure church, clothed with light, clothed with the sun. And the dragon went to make war with the rest of her offspring. Some translations say with the remnant of her seed. What is the remnant, or the rest of her offspring? The rest, or remnant, is all that is left, or the last one. They keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 19:10 "Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

We learned that the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy.

There you have it. The Lord says if you want to find God’s people in the last days, they are going to have two distinguishing marks. If you find people that have these two marks, you will have found God’s people.

The dragon represents Satan, the woman represents the church, and the rest of her seed, the remnant of her seed, the rest of her offspring, are the ones that are left. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Here is the way Revelation 12:17 would read if you paraphrase it and put in what the symbols mean:

And the devil was enraged with the church, and he went to make war with the last church, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus of Christ, or the spirit of prophecy.

The last church will have two characteristics. They will keep the commandments of God. Can a church be keeping the commandments if they break one? No, they are not a commandment-keeping church, they are a commandment-breaking church. Remember, the Bible says if you keep the whole law but you offend in one point, you have broken the whole law (James 2:10), so the last church will have to be a sabbath-keeping church. They will have to keep the fourth commandment as well as all the rest of the commandments. They cannot be worshipping idols, or teaching against any of the commandments. That is one characteristic.

The second one is that the last church will have the spirit of prophecy. In our last meeting there was time enough to go over some of the tests of a true prophet. There are more tests of a prophet in the Bible than we were able to cover. Let me show you one more.

Numbers 12:6 "Then He said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision, I speak to him in a dream."

If a person is a prophet, that person has to have visions and dreams. Is that what the Bible says? That is what the Bible says. Now we are going to look very carefully at what the Bible says happens to a prophet when they are in vision, and this must happen to anyone that has the gift of prophecy. A vision is a supernatural event. Let us look at the book of Daniel, we have studied Daniel a little bit, but there is a text that we have not yet read.

Daniel 10:7 "And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision; but a great terror fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. . . . 17 For how can this servant of my lord talk with you, my lord? As for me, no strength remains in me now, nor is any breath left in me."

These verses describe what a prophet experiences when they are in vision. A prophet in vision does not breathe. I was at a meeting a couple of years ago and I was introduced to a person who was said to be a prophet. I said, "Let us check the tests. One of the tests is, if a person is a prophet of the Lord, they must have visions, and in those visions they must not breathe. If you don’t have that evidence, then you cannot trust that they are a prophet. Absolutely not.

Why would the fact that a person does not breathe be important in testing whether or not a person is a prophet? Have you ever tried to hold your breath? When I was a freshman in college, I was taking a swimming class. Our teacher wanted each one of us to see how long we could hold our breath. We had to swim under water and so forth. In the swimming pool you don’t cheat. You take the deepest breath you can and then duck your head under water and are timed. I held my breath for 1 minute and 50 seconds. There are people that are professional divers that can hold their breath for 3 1/2 minutes. Very few people can hold their breath for 3 minutes unless they practice and train themselves.

When I was a young man and I heard about the idea that in the last century there had been a woman by the name of Ellen White that was a prophet, I decided that I was not going to believe it until I investigated it. I don’t ask anyone else to believe it until they have had the opportunity to investigate, too. As I investigated, I found some very interesting things. Let me tell you just one quick story. In 1857 there was a meeting being held, like this prophecy seminar tonight. During that meeting Ellen White had a vision. It had been noised about the country among the Christians in those days that when she had a vision she didn’t breathe. There was a young man sitting in the audience who just didn’t believe it. When Ellen White went into vision, the man at the front asked if anyone there wanted to come and examine her. This unbelieving young man said, "Yes, I do." He decided that he was going to find out for himself, so this is what he did. He took one hand and pinched her nose shut and with the other hand he covered her mouth. Then everyone watched wouldn’t you? A couple of minutes went by. The color in her face stayed the same. At the end of four minutes her color was still the same. Six minutes went by. Now I know of a lady in Dallas, the wife of a Methodist pastor, who, a few years ago, was choked in her garage for about four or five minutes. The last I heard she is now in a nursing home with permanent brain damage. She can’t talk or walk or do anything. In just six minutes, if you are not dead, you are left a vegetable. Eight minutes went by and the young man was still holding Ellen White’s nose and mouth. Everyone was really watching now. Finally, after ten minutes went by and he realized that something supernatural that he could not explain was happening, he became frightened, jumped up and ran out. This was not the only time that Ellen White was tested to see if she was breathing during a vision.

When I investigated the Bible and the life of Ellen White, I found something interesting. I found that she passed every test that I could find in the Bible.

Another test of a true prophet is they will make predictions and those predictions will come true. Psychics make predictions, but their predictions only come true, a very small percentage of the time. That is not good enough for a true prophet.

They need to be 100% correct. The only time that the prediction of a true prophet does not come true is when judgments have been predicted and the people against whom they are predicted repent, or when promises have been given to the people of God and then they apostatize and thereby do not fulfill the conditions.

Friend, God has a people today. They are people that keep His commandments and have the spirit of prophecy, or the gift of prophecy among them. God is gathering out a people from every nation in the world. This message that I am presenting about prophecy, is being talked about not only in the United States but in Africa, in what use to be the Soviet Union, in China, South America, Australia, all over the world. God is preparing a people to be the wife, the Lamb’s wife, who are going to the wedding supper. They are going to be joined to the Lord. They are going to be one spirit with Him. And oh, friend, like I told you, one of the most wonderful experiences that you can have is to be joined with Jesus and to be one spirit with Him. This is more exciting than anything else that can happen to a human being. It is something that is going to last.

Friend, do you want to send a message to heaven? Do you want to say to the Lord, "Lord Jesus, I want to be joined to You. I want to be one spirit with You." Is that the message you want to send to heaven?

God narrows it down to just two simple tests, and yet those simple tests will guide you unerringly to the true church of the last days.

Those two tests are 1. God’s church in the last days will be a church that keeps the commandments of God—a Sabbath keeping church. and 2. God’s church in the last days will have the testimony of Jesus, the spirit of Prophecy in their midst.

Jesus said, "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd" (John 10:16). Some of you I am sure have been true sheep of the Lord for many, many years. Others of you have been following the Lord for only a very short time. Some have never followed the Lord before, but would like to now.

What is it that makes us one of Jesus’ sheep? He gives the answer in John 10:27, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me." Jesus says that His true sheep will hear His voice and there will be one fold. The real reason I am a Seventh-day Adventist is that through prayer and the study of God’s Word, I have heard His voice calling to me and I have followed. By His grace He has made me, a great sinner redeemed by the blood of Christ, a small part of His last great prophetic movement of destiny. And friends, I wouldn’t trade that privilege for all the gold of the world. I couldn’t close this session without simply saying that if any of you should hear that voice of the Shepherd calling you, too, that you also can have that same privilege which I enjoy.

Some of you may already be hearing God’s call for you to become a part of His last remnant people who keep His commandments and have the spirit of prophecy. Some of you might feel drawn to by the cords of truth, love, and conviction but don’t know enough yet to make such a commitment.

I am going to ask for a commitment for you to follow the Lord. You know, however much knowledge we may learn, if we don’t give our hearts to the Lord, it isn’t going to matter. However much prophecy we may discern, unless we follow the light of prophecy, it is not going to help us at all. And so tonight, all I want to ask is, Have you given your heart to the Lord? Have you given Him your life? Have you given Him yourself? Are you willing to follow wherever He may lead? Do you trust Him that much with your life?

One day Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats. To the sheep He will give eternal life (Matthew 25:46). Today we individually stand at the crossroads of eternity. Is it your desire to be one of Jesus’ sheep, who hears His voice and follows Him, to whom also He is going to give eternal life?

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Last Updated: 06/18/03