Deceptions and False Prophets

Greetings everyone, welcome to Sabbath Services. Quite a bit of news has come about here just yesterday, which is a very interesting thing indeed, and is a pivotal thing concerning not only individual lives, community lives, national lives, but also church lives individually, collectively, and organizationally!

That is lies! I can tell you without giving you any of the details that God destroyed Worldwide Church of God because of lies and infiltrators! They never learned the lesson of Rev. 2 & 3. We'll get there in just a little bit, but there are a couple of things that we need to cover.

First of all, let's come to John 8; this is fundamental in understanding:

• the Truth
• our approach to the Word of God in our lives
• our approach to the world
• those therein
• the politics thereof

Now I had a very good Caravan to Midnight this past Thursday night, and I started out by giving the definition of 'woke.' You know what 'woke' means? W-O-K-E—Wild Obsessions Kill Everything—I want you to think about that!

We also found out that Barack Hussein Obama was a dirty rotten liar, and all of his major cabinet officers were liars! Everything that they fabricated against Donald Trump was a lie, and they knew it, and they were told by the subordinates and the CIA and FBI that there was nothing against Trump.

Now then, a greater lie than that is the lies of Satan the devil concerning God as we find in religion:

• the fake Christianity of this world
• Catholicism
• Judaism
• Hinduism
• Muslimism
• and any other religion or practice or atheism or whatever you have

They're all founded on lies!

That's the important lesson we need to learn in our personal lives and in the Church. God has called us and revealed His Truth to us!

• What are we going to do with the Truth?
• The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth?

There are a lot of people there who say, 'Oh, we believe in You, Jesus.' Then you have that little patty-cake prayer by Franklin Graham and every deceiving Protestant minister! 'Say that sweet little prayer and you'll go to heaven and all your sins will be forgiven you.' Big fat lie by perverting the Truth! Because taking part of the Truth and applying it as the whole Truth is a lie!Do you understand that?

So, there were a lot of these Jews who believed in Him, so Jesus said He's going to test them.

John 8:31: "Therefore, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, 'IF….'" Every IF is a conditional statement that we have to choose!It gets down to:

• What will we choose?
• What will we believe?
• Will we really make it permanent in our lives?

or

• Is it just convenient to get out from underneath the trial and difficulty?

"…'IF you continue in My Word…'"

What's the first thing that Jesus said when Satan tempted Him? Satan said, 'Turn these rocks into bread.' Jesus said, 'Man—any man, woman or child—shall not live by bread alone,' that is by food! How? 'But by every Word of God!'

That's why it's important that we have the Word of God, and that's why the Faithful version is important, and I don't want anyone calling it 'Fred's translation,' or 'Fred's Bible,' because there were a lot of people, honest scholars, and those who believed the Word of God, which kept alive the original text that we needed to have!

Whatever we have done here God has led us to do it. It is to further what God wants! And if I'm involved in it, that's fine. If you're involved in it, that's fine. But this is the Word of God! And only God owns it!

So, when I pass from the scene, and a day will come when Jonathan will sit here and say, 'My dad has died.' How long that will be? I don't know! But I'm not going to waste a single minute of it.

"…'IF you continue in My Word, you are truly My disciples'" (v 31).

Now, IF you don't continue in Christ's Word, you're not His disciples in Truth!

• you may be by profession
• you may be by assumption

But IF you're not living by every Word of God, and you're keeping Sunday and Christmas all of the holidays, you are deceived!

Here's the key. IF you don't do v 31 100% with humility, repentance and coming to God, acknowledging that God is all things to everything and that we have these three things we need to do:

• believe God
• obey God
• love God

What did Jesus say about loving God?

By the way, we have the book: The Love of God Surpasses All Understanding right now at the printers. It'll be done the 23rd of July. And if you're on the mailing list, we'll get it to you automatically. If you're not on the mailing list, write us, call us, whatever you need to do. But you need that book so you can understand how wrong that the Protestants and the Catholics are!

You don't receive the love of God because His love is unconditional. Right here we're reading it that it is all conditional upon how you handle the Word of God. Is that not true? Yes!

They all want the unconditional love of God so they can live in their sin. Never happen! Here it is:

"…'IF you continue in My Word, you are truly My disciples. And you shall know the Truth…'" That's the key for everything: you be honest with yourself in your own mind, because that's where conversion starts!

What do you have to deal with? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? That's telling us that as individuals we have no way of knowing of the depths of sin that Satan can lead us into.

• Do we have that?
• Do we understand that?

Remember, Jesus said to live by every Word of God, and the Truth shall set you free!

He came to release people from sin. We'll look at how that is accomplished. Then they said, 'Oh, we're Abraham's seed; we're the children of Abraham. Everything is good.'

You know, we have it today. 'We're Americans and we have the best Constitution in the world.' Well, if we have the best Constitution in the world, why do we have all the problems that we have? Because we claim God in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution and they have rejected Him!

Everything operates on Truth, and lies are all there to try and destroy it!

Verse 39: "They answered and said to Him, 'Our father is Abraham.' Jesus said to them, 'IF you were Abraham's children…'"

Are there some descendants of Abraham that are Abraham seed, but not his children? Try Ishmael. Try Esau.

"…'IF you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham'" (v 39).

What did Abraham do? And the stupid religionists today say there was no Law from Adam and Eve down to the giving of the Ten Commandments. Well, they don't even know the Bible, because:

Genesis 26:5—says that Isaac inherited the promises "'…because Abraham obeyed My voice…'"

Doesn't that sound like Matt. 4 and Luke 4? Yes!

"'…and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My Laws'" (v 5). They didn't do it!

John 8:40: "'But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has spoken the Truth to you, which I have heard from God; Abraham did not do this. You are doing the works of your father.' Then they said to Him, 'We have not been born of fornication….'" (vs 40-41).

Imagine that! So, they knew that Mary was pregnant by God the Father carrying Jesus in her womb when she married Joseph.

"'…We have one Father, and that is God.' Therefore, Jesus said to them…" (vs 41-42). Think about that! Isn't that what people say? Oh:

• we are good Baptists
• we are good Christians
• we are good Mormons
• we are good Catholics

• Do you obey the Word of God?
• Do you keep every Word of God?
• Do you know the Commandments of God?
• Do you know the Holy Days of God?
• Do you know which day is the most important day for anyone's relationship with God?
• Do you know what happened on that day?

You all claim it, but you know nothing about it. I'll tell you. That day is the Passover Day, the day on which Jesus Christ laid down His life for the sins of the world, and was beaten and scourged and died as God in the flesh so that we could have forgiveness of sin!

Verse 42: "Therefore, Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love Me, because I proceeded forth and came from God. For I have not come of Myself, but He sent Me.'"

That's important to always remember. For every elder, every minister, everywhere, the Word of God is the Word of God for us to preach the Truth, and for us also to live by that Truth, because lies are what killed Worldwide COG.

I'll tell you the most open manifestation of it was this. I was right there and heard Herbert Armstrong and Garner Ted Armstrong. That was in 1972. And Garner Ted Armstrong finally got caught with all of his adulterous philandering, and he admitted to 200 women.

Now, I feel sorry for his son, Mark, who's carrying on the work that he's doing in Texas, but unfortunately, that's the past that he has to live with. And Herbert Armstrong got up there in his special assembly, and it was in a gymnasium in 1972 before they had built the auditorium. He was up there and Ted was with him, and they stood back to back and said, 'all that you heard about these things are rumors and hearsay.'

And Herbert Armstrong looked down, glaring at all of the people out there and said, 'you're all a bunch of dumb sheep.'

I said to myself, God does not expect us to remain dumb sheep! I personally knew of two women at the college that he had affairs with. For them to get up there and lie and put down all of the brethren sowed the seeds of its destruction!

• What are we going to do as scattered?
• Are we going to be so stupid as to believe lies, which have come from other ministers of the Churches of God?
• What is it that we are to do?

Listen, we're at a critical point in the Church, in the nation, and in the world; we've got to know and understand!

So, we need to ask ourselves the question, because when we read about the Churches in Rev. 2 & 3: What's the problem? Lies, neglect, assuming that everything is right when it's not!

He said, "For I have not come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why don't you understand [believe] My speech?...." (vs 42-43).

Now there's some people out there, maybe any audience, and I'm thankful that we have live streaming. I'm thankful for all the digital things that we have, if we use them properly. But don't rely on it completely, because they can cut it off in a second!

Verse 43: "Why don't you understand My speech?.... [meaning it's impossible] …Because you cannot bear to hear My words."

• people don't like it if they're told they're sinners
• people don't like it if they think they're good people

Then they read about the heart is deceitful above all things, and they say, 'That doesn't apply to me. That's a lie.' So your heart is deceitful while you think you're proclaiming yourself to be true!

This is the battle; goes clear back to Gen. 3, and goes clear back to the rebellion of Lucifer and the angels.

Verse 44: "You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you desire to practice. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the Truth because there is no Truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he is speaking from his own self; for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I speak the Truth, you do not believe Me" (vs 44-45).

That happens to people when they hear the Truth and they don't want to believe it!

The problem with the Churches of God is that they haven't learned the lesson that is here in Deut. 12 & 13. Now, remember as we covered last week that Jesus is the One Who sows the good seed and the good seed is the Word of God. But the enemy came and planted the tares—Greek: 'zizas.'

Then the servants came out and said, 'Lord, look, You put in the good wheat, but where did all these tares come from? Do You want us to go out and take out the tares? And He said, 'No, That'll happen at the harvest, the resurrection! (Matt. 13).

• we always, always have to be on guard
• we always, always must:
• love God
• believe God
• obey God
• keep the Truth

Doesn't matter who you are or where you are. It matters: Do you love and believe God! IF you believe God, you will obey Him!

Deut. 12:28—we will see that this is at the heart and core of the problems with the seven churches that we find in Rev. 2 & 3.

Deuteronomy 12:28: "Be careful…"

• don't be slovenly
• don't put it off
• don't say it doesn't matter

"…to observe and obey ALL these words…." (v 28). It doesn't leave any out.

The key is that the only One Who can change the Law of God is God Himself!

When He removed the temple and removed the sacrifices that were at the temple and all the rituals that were there, and negated all of the traditions of the Jews—which negated:

• all the traditions of the coming Catholic Church
• all the traditions of the coming Protestant Church
• all the traditions of men

"…which I command you, so that it may go well with you…" (v 28). That's what God wants! What causes us problems?

• sin
• breaking physical laws
• breaking health laws

Don't those cause the problems? Yes!

"…so that it may go well with you…" Everyone wants it to go well with them. Why does it turn out so bad?

"…and with your children after you…" (v 28).

That's interesting. What we do, does it affect our children? Then our children's children? Then when you get down to the third generation of it, we have the perverted Sodom and Gomorrah generation that we have today. I'll have more to say about that next week, and it's going to be absolutely incredible!

And the judgment of God is going to come upon this people and upon this nation the way that He wants it. But He wants the Truth spoken first. But He must open a door to speak the Truth the way that it should. If there's any good that comes about, what happens here right now is only because God is going to provide it so we can have a time to preach, teach, learn, live and prepare for the Kingdom of God!

"…with your children forever WHEN… [notice, IF and WHEN] …you do that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God" (v 28)—not what is right in our own eyes!

What does it say about 'right'? There is a way that seems right to a man, but the ends thereof is death! Isn't that true for all of us—even though we're converted—because of the sin of Adam and Eve? You talk about believing a lie and affecting not just their children, but all of humanity from that time forth! For as 'by one man sin entered into the world,' and we have this sinful nature. This is why we need the Spirit of God and His Truth!

Verse 29: "When the LORD your God shall cut off the nations before you, where you go to possess them, and you take their place and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself…" (vs 29-30).

• What does that say?
• What did Jesus say three times in Matt. 24? Beware of false prophets!

That means take heed!

"…that you do not become ensnared…" (v 30). The way of Satan is always a trap, even though it seems good at the beginning! Ask any recovered drug addict; he can tell you.

"…by following them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not ask about their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods that I may also do likewise?'" (v 30).

That's precisely what Catholicism and Protestantism has done! All the other religions of the world have all of their own problems cut off from God, as well.

Verse 31: "You shall not do so to the LORD your God, for every abomination to the LORD, which He hates…"

Question for all Catholics and all Protestants who believe in Easter: How did you get so deceived:

• that you believe there was a Friday crucifixion?
• that you believe that Jesus rose Easter Sunday?

Easter is the name of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar! Everything about that and everything about Christmas and everything about the doctrines that you have are lies, which God hates! That's what He says.

All of you who have a communion that you take and reject the Passover and reject the Holy Days of God you are in worse spiritual trouble than you could ever imagine.

"…which He hates they have done to their gods; even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods" (v 31).

Next week I'm going to talk about abortion and it's going to be stomach turning and wretched! The judgment of God is coming upon this nation, and you can know that God is going to extract it!

Verse 32: "Whatsoever thing that I command you, be careful to do it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it."

What happens whenever the ways of human beings, under the inspiration of Satan, come into the Church? It can look good, because Satan's way is good and evil! There are two ways of good and evil.

• God's way
• Satan's way

God's way is to:

• love God
• keep His Commandments
• believe Him

Satan's way is to:

• despise the Laws of God
• hate God
• call evil good

The transparent good of the evil destroys everyone who partakes of it. IF you don't believe it:

• look at the world
• look at the religions
• look at the societies

Deut. 13 is important for us to know and realize, because we've had to endure those. What do we do when the evil ones get in power, like happened in Worldwide COG.

• Are you going to believe the Truth?
• Are you going to love the Truth?
• Are you going to believe God?
• Are you going to stand for God?
• What if you lose every friend that you had?
• Can your friends save you?
• Can they substitute for Truth?

There are times, and as a matter of fact, many times we're all alone! The next time you're all alone stop and ask yourself:

• What am I?
• Who am I?
• Where am I going?
• I was a speck of dust one time
• Now what am I going to do?

• Can you exist and live without God?
• Can you make up your own rules and God must obey you?

False prophets!

Deuteronomy 13:1: "If a prophet rises among you, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder, which he foretold to you comes to pass…" (vs 1-2).

We have that coming Rev. 13, don't we? The beast that looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon had two horns! What does he do? He calls down fire from heaven!

Jesus said in Matt. 24, they will do great signs and wonders in order to deceive the elect! Now that was the problem as we will see when we get there in Rev. 2 & 3, because the ministers and elders and brethren didn't stand for the Truth.

Some of them did. I've got the reports of the Waldensians where they were slaughtered in the 1400s, 1500s and 1600s. They stood for Christ! Maybe doctrinally they didn't understand everything, but they stood for Christ! Read Rev. 17 that there are two categories of martyrs:

• the saints
• the martyrs of Jesus

So there are those who stood for the name of Jesus having doctrinally virtually nothing. They were slaughtered.

"…saying, 'Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them, you shall not hearken to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death…" (vs 2-5).

Now today we can't do that. That's why there are times that you have to choose. I have to choose: Do we believe God even though there's no one else around? Some people would say, 'Why would you do such a stupid thing?'

Then you stand for the Truth and get labeled as a dissident, rebellious, and are disfellowshipped. What is it? There it is right there!

Rev. 2 & 3 since we've talked about it. Let me ask you a couple of questions for all the Churches. And we used to think that these are historical things and it happened in a sequence that way. Well, that's somewhat true, but when you read that in all seven Churches, all of these conditions have existed down through time!

What are the most important statements to each Church; that is to each one of us individually?

You've heard the sing-song, starting with Martin Luther, that you're saved by faith and grace. That is true. But that doesn't eliminate the Commandments of God!

Revelation 2:2—you will find this with every one of the seven Churches: "I know your works…."

• What are our works?
• What do we do?
• How do we live?
• How do we think?

Now then, what's the next most important thing? Next most important one, which He says to all the Churches? By the way, He says seven times to the Churches: repent!

Verse 7: "The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches…."

What does that mean? If you have an ear to hear, that means you listen to obey! And that you don't listen to the false preachers who come around, or the false doctrines that come around.

The biggest mistake that Herbert Armstrong ever made was that he proclaimed himself the one and only apostle, God's apostle on earth. For 17 years, he lived in vanity and deceit, supposedly seeing world leaders. Deceived by Stanley R. Rader and Garner Ted Armstrong by Robert L. Kuhn. Why? Because they didn't listen to the message of the seven Churches!

Verse 7: "The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches…."

You ever have something come along that God's Spirit is literally knocking on the door of your mind? To do this? or to do that? or to do the other? and you avoid it! And you avoid it and you avoid it and you avoid it!

Then finally, a great tragedy comes along, and hopefully, when that comes along you'll pay attention.

I know this is a little heavy for a Sabbath Day, but there are some heavy things that are coming down.

• we need to understand what we need to do
• we need to understand what God expects from us
• we need to understand that:
• we've got to love God
• we've got to obey Him
• we've got to believe Him

in everything that we do!

Philippians 2:5: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."

How does that happen? You have to, with God's Spirit, let it be written in your heart and in your mind! That's what God wants from all of us. That's His goal!

Hebrews 10:15: "And the Holy Spirit also bears witness…"

Remember what it says? The one who has it here, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches!

Verse 15: "And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after He had previously said, '"This is the covenant that I will establish with them after those days," says the Lord…'" (vs 15-16).

Here's the covenant that we have right here. We have that covenant, the words of the covenant in the Passover ceremony booklet that we have and read it every Passover! {Booklet: The Christian Passover Ceremony}

"I will give My Laws into their hearts, and I will inscribe them in their minds…" (v 16).

• that's conversion
• that's what God wants

Verse 17: "And their sins and lawlessness I will not remember ever again."

(break@44:28)

Now let's continue on with Sabbath services, and let's understand that whenever there are things in the Church:

• that are not good
• that are lies
• that are half-truths
• that are false doctrines

IF they're not corrected, it's going to lead to troubles and difficulties!

Acts 20—we'll learn a lesson from the Apostle Paul. Now after all of the teaching and all of the preaching and all the writing, everything that he did, here is a tremendous part here in Acts 20 that tells us how these things come about, and they come about even when the Truth is known.

Remember this, if you ever watch these Sunday people, you can't watch them to learn anything, because they will quote a lot of Scripture. I watch them, I keep up on them, and unfortunately the one good preacher that they had was Charles Stanley. He was good, but he'd do the high hurdle over the Sabbath and the Holy Days.

So, even though he was as good as he was, he never led them to Christ in the way that they should be led to Christ, even though he was the most effective speaker of them all. The truth is, every liar wants to bring enough Truth to add credibility to what he's saying, so when he presents the lie, it looks like the Truth! Remember that.

There are some people who think they're going to go watch some of these Sunday-keepers and think they'll learn something! Well you may learn something, but then you're also going to hear all of their lies!

• Are you able to separate their lies from the Truth that they speak?
• Didn't Satan the devil quote Truth to Jesus? Yes, he quoted Scripture!

Acts 20—let's see what Paul said. He called for all the elders to come down to Miletus, because he was on his way to Jerusalem

Acts 20:18: "And when they had come to him, he said to them, 'You know how, from the first day I came to Asia, and all the time I was with you'" Now he was there three years with them.

Verse 19: "I served the Lord with all humility and with many tears and temptations, which came upon me through the plots of the Jews… [and all the pagans, as well] …and how I did not keep back anything that was profitable, but preached to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house" (vs 19-20)

Three years he would preaching every day and he had special meetings in the house of Tyrannus.

Verse 21: "Earnestly testifying, both to the Jews and the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, I am bound in the spirit, and am going to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall happen to me there; except that the Holy Spirit fully testifies in every city, saying that bonds and tribulations await me. But I myself do not take any of these things into account, nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to fully testify the Gospel of the Grace of God" (vs 21-24).

So, there's the Grace of God; that's one part of the Gospel; the other part is the Kingdom of God. Like Jesus said when He came into Galilee, 'Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.' It was right there in the person of Jesus. Well, today the Kingdom of God is right at hand, however long we live and do what God wants, keep His Commandments and love Him. Then when we come to the end, BANG, next thing we know it's going to be the Kingdom of God. Then he says this:

Verse 25: "And now behold, I know that you all, among whom I have gone about proclaiming the Kingdom of God, will see my face no more; wherefore, I testify to you on this day that I am pure from the blood of all, for I have not held back from preaching to you all the counsel of God" (vs 25-27).

Now this is what needs to be with everyone who is a teacher, an elder preacher, whatever. You must teach the Word of God! We covered that last week. Now notice again how this ties in with Deut. 12 & 13 that we read before.

Verse 28: "Take heed, therefore, to yourselves…" Every elder, every minister who is preaching and teaching, you must discipline yourself with the Word and Spirit of God!

As I covered previously, self-control led by the Holy Spirit. That's how you take heed! Every time someone comes up with an idea:

• What do you think of this?
• What do you think of that?
• the New Testament was written in Aramaic the first time

Wrong!

• we need sacred names

Wrong!

• You don't need sacred names

You need from the heart to love God and Jesus Christ!

Sacred names are going to do you no good. There are people who believe in you have to use the Hebrew names? No, you don't!

Zephaniah said that God's going to establish a pure language. He wrote that in Hebrew because Hebrew is not a pure language. But they come along and they act sanctimonious. 'Oh, you must use this name; you must use that name!' NO!

• IF you don't repent
• IF you don't believe God
• IF you don't obey Him
• IF you don't love Him

it doesn't matter pronouncing the names of God!

Do the Jews know how to pronounce all the Hebrew names? Yes, they do! If you want to know what they mean, I've got a whole series on it: The Names of God.

Verse 28: "Take heed, therefore, to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers…"—not rulers!

What does an overseer do? An overseer teaches the people and the brethren what to do so they can live their lives the way that God wants them to!

As Paul, he himself, said: 'You who think you're a teacher and preach the Word of God, I'm paraphrasing Rom. 2, you teach others. Do you not teach yourself?' (Rom 2).

• Is there any man anywhere, any place on the face of the earth that knows everything? No!
• Who's the only one that knows everything? God!

Take heed to yourselves!

"…made you overseers, to feed the Church of God…" (v 28). To feed them what?

• the Word of God
• the true knowledge of God

so that they can develop and grow in grace and knowledge and have the Spirit of God working in them!

That's what it's all about. That's why we have Sabbath every week. because we need the Sabbath every week! We can't be exposed to the whole world without any Sabbath. Look what happens to people when that occurs. They just drift off! You've seen it.

"…feed the Church of God, which He purchased with His own blood" (v 28).

Now that's something! Being an elder or minister means you have this sacred trust! Think about that. Whenever the elders—I don't care who they are, how important they think they are, or how long they have been, whatever they have been—IF you don't do what Paul is saying here with love and truth, THEN it's not going to work.

The reason Paul says it; v 29: "For I know this: that after my departure…"—because he knows he's going to die, he knows he's not coming back!

Now my departure is going to come. Everyone's praying for me that I live as long as I can. I also do the same thing, whatever God wants, that's it. But in the meantime, it says here :

"…that after my departure grievous wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock…" (v29).

Do we have that? Yes, we do! We have that today in some ministers and elders who think that they are so great that they can take the office of Christ to themselves and say they're the prophet of God: Gerald Flury. Now Gerald and your son Stephen, I've got a message for you:

You better read the Word of God, and you better repent, and you better quit ruling over the brethren as if you're the ultimate dictator on earth. Those things are satanic! You can preach all the Truth you want, but when you end up conducting things like that, it negates all the Truth that you have spoken.

Verse 30: "And from among your own selves men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves."

Rev. 2—Remember what Jesus said to Pergamos, because they were bringing in the philosophy of the Greeks. They were bringing in the practices of Greek religion. They were the ones then who were saying, ' you don't need to keep any of those Jewish days.' NO! The Sabbath belongs to God, and the Holy Days are God's Holy Days! They're not Jewish, and every Jew better learn this lesson: you're not the chosen people, as you claim!

You have been rejected by God for all these 2,000 years, because you rejected Jesus Christ! He says this:

Revelation 2:16: "Repent! For if you do not repent, I will come to you quickly, and will make war against them with the sword of My mouth."

• Does it not sound like what has happened to the Worldwide Church of God? Yes, indeed!
• Why? Because they inculcated all of the evil things that God does not want!

Verse 18: "And to the angel of the Church in Thyatira write: 'These things says the Son of God…'"

Now, we always have to remember who we're dealing with.

• it's not a religion
• it's not an organization

It's God the Father and Jesus Christ! As we started out in John 8!

"…He Who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass. I know your works, and love, and service, and faith, and your endurance, and your works…" (vs 18-19).

They worked hard. I've got here all of the slaughtering of the Waldensians because that's the age where that came through. John Guenther sent it to me, and I've got at home Fox's Book of Martyrs, two gigantic volumes. They stand tall and thick and double column and fine print. All the martyrs.

Now, we, in all the difficulties we have had, have experienced nothing like that. So, what do we need to do? Well, not like Thyatira! Let's read it:

Verse 20: "But I have a few things against you, because you allow the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants into committing fornication… [spiritual fornication; false religious practices] …and eating things sacrificed to idols." Now that's not animal sacrifices!

That is what is called the Lord's Supper or Communion, also called the Eucharist. That's what has come into the Church. The Seventh-Day Adventists are no exception. They take Communion the first Sabbath of every quarter. Where do you find that in the Bible?

The only thing you find in the Bible is the Passover, and none of them keep the Passover. And if they don't keep the Passover, they are in degrees worse as you go down the line. And Ellen G. White, though she spoke a lot of Truth, was a false prophetess.

And the Seventh-Day Adventists, if they're going to come to the Truth at the end, and we'll talk about them when we get to Laodicea because that's where they fit.

"…who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants… [that's the ministers] …into committing fornication and eating things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her fornication, but she did not repent" (vs 20-21).

Now, that was a literal thing and that happened during the time when the Greek New Testament was brought to England by Erasmus. Then the Protestants were budding out all over in Europe and there was a party within the Council of Trent. The Council of Trent lasted for decades, and you can read of that in Rome's Challenge to the Protestants We have it as Appendix N in the Bible so you go back and read that—also in booklet form, order at truthofGod.org.

That party within the Council of Trent were Catholics but they had the Bible and what they wanted to do is get rid of all of the traditions, get rid of all the practices that were not in the Bible and follow the Scripture alone.

Now not many people know that, but that was God's space at time at that time for them to repent. They came right up right up to repenting, right up to changing, but what changed that? Luther! Martin Luther! He was one of the first outspoken Protestants. He nailed his 95 theses on Halloween Day right on the door of the Cathedral where he lived

What happened? He didn't follow through! What did he do? He had a friend named Carlstadt. I've got his whole book, I read the whole thing and he admonished Martin Luther: You got to keep the Sabbath not Sunday! You got to keep the Sabbath not Sunday! You go against all the traditions of the Catholic but you still keep Sunday. The Bible says keep the Sabbath, but Martin Luther wouldn't listen.

So, you can read the conclusion there in Rome's Challenge to the Protestants, because the Protestants say that was their original motto, 'sola scriptura,' which means the Bible and Bible alone! Yet, they kept Sunday What happened? The Catholic Church concluded this:

Because the Protestants don't go by the Scriptures alone, but believe Sunday, which is a tradition of the Roman Catholic Church and is NOT Biblical!

Therefore, we keep the Scriptures and tradition, and that was the final judgment of the Council of Trent. Those poor Catholics that wanted to go entirely with the Bible had to submit to the power of Rome and the pope. So it's true!

Verse 21: "And I gave her time to repent of her fornication, but she did not repent. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation… [[that's what happened to the Catholic Church and it's going to come out of it at the end] …unless they repent of their works again" (vs 21-22).

Verse 23 is a warning:

• for the Church
• for every member
• for every minister
• anyone who names the name of Christ

Verse 23: "And I will kill her children with death…"

• What does that mean?
• If you kill someone are they not dead?
• If you kill them with death does that not mean the second death?
• Isn't that the permanent end of life? Yes indeed!

Verse 23: "I will kill her children with death; and all the Churches…"—that is down through time, the other six that are listed here and all the Churches, that's an amazing statement there!

"…shall know that I am He… [notice what it is, notice it's an in particular individual thing] …Who searches the reins and hearts…" (v 23).

• What is our heart?
• What is our mind?
• What are the reins? The reins are that part of the whatever God put in our brain that He can know every thought that we have.

Let's see how that works. God knows, God understands.

Hebrews 4:12: "For the Word of God…"

• What's the name of Christ? The Word!
• What do we have written down here? All the words of God!

We have the Old Testament, we have the New Testament.

"…the Word of God is living…"—because it's spiritual!

It's just like the law of gravity, which God put here and it works all the time.

• Do you see it? No!
• Do you feel it? When you fall down you do, or something happens!
• Do we have to obey the law of gravity? Yes, we do!

Now if we want to overcome some of the law of gravity for a little bit of time, that can be done. They have this thing in circuses where they have fans blowing a lot of air and it will lift people up by the air and you're suspended in midair. That's an alternative to negate the pull of gravity, but as soon as you turn off the switch, you're right back to earth.

All of the Word of God is like that! Just like the law of gravity, it is there!

• you can't see it, but you can read it
• you can't hear it, but it speaks to your mind

God is the One Who does that!

I think of this every time I drive my car out of the garage and when I leave the house. I've got a little something here in my pocket, this little thumb bob and I can push it to set the alarm. So, when I leave the house, the alarm is on. I push this, little light flickers to tell me that it's sending a message to it. Well, I don't see the message going. But it goes to where the alarm is set and then it tells me if I'm setting the alarm-leave now. When I forget to turn it off when I get home, it goes off just like that.

Now I've got the other button here I push and it turns it off and I can open the door and go in. When I get in my car and I'm driving out, I drive out and I have a button right up on my sun-visor and I push it and the door closes. But I didn't see anything, but it worked! Now then, that's how the Word of God is:

• it is spiritual
• it is living
• it is active all of the time on everyone, everywhere

whether they know it or not!

Hebrews 4:12: "For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of both soul and spirit, and of both the joints and the marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Remember what Jesus said about that? Your heart is not right before God!

Verse 13: "And there is not a created thing…"

John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Verse 3: "All things came into being through Him, and not even one thing that was created came into being without Him." Nothing came into being that was created, that He did not bring into existence!

Hebrews 4:13: "And there is not a created thing that is not manifest in His sight…" Think about that!

That's why back there in Rev. 2[transcriber's correction], it tells us directly, individually!

"…but ALL things… [remember God is all things to everything] …are naked and laid bare before the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account" (v 13).

• that's what we're dealing with
• that's what the worldis dealing with

What did Jesus say about the end-times:

As it was in the days of Noah before the Flood, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.

• look at everything that is out there
• look at the things that we have to fight
• look at the things that are taking place politically, socially, individually in people's lives
• look at all the things that are happening

I'll have more to say about that next week, because there are some terrible, terrible, terrible things that people are doing, and God is going to hold all this nation accountable for the blood of the innocent!

Verse 14: "Having, therefore, a great High Priest, Who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, we should hold fast the confession of our faith. For we do not have a High Priest Who cannot empathize with our weaknesses, but One Who was tempted in all things according to the likeness of our own temptations; yet, He was without sin. Therefore, we should come with boldness to the Throne of Grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (vs 14-16).

That's what he's saying back here in Rev. 2[transcriber's correction]. Let's go back here,  Let's read it. This is how we understand the Bible. One Scripture comes together with another Scripture and gives us a more full interpretation or understanding of it.

Revelation 2:23: "….and all the churches shall know that I am He Who searches the reins and hearts; and I will give to each of you according to your works.

Not according to your faith, because if you don't have faith, you don't have works that are pleasing to God! If you don't have faith, you have faith, faithless works!

Now, notice that this is quite a warning. This is something when we read it:

Verse 24: "But to you I say, and to the rest who are in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine…" of what he talked about above, things sacrifice to idols and so forth!

"…and who have not known the depths of Satan…" (v 24). How far can people get carried away?

Watch some of the ads. I saw one last night on the news. I couldn't believe it. An ad for homosexuals, men. A special medication that you can take for HIV, homosexual disease. And then it showed a whole group of men happily in a car going off someplace.

Now that's not yet the depth of Satan, but what they get out there and practice is the depth of Satan! And something happens to the minds of people when they get that way. They become absolutely virulent in what they believe and will not change a single thing.

We have that example in Gen. 19. The two angels came to take Lot and his family out, but even some of his sons and their wives, didn't believe. God was going to spare it if there were ten righteous people. There weren't even ten!

But what happened when the angels came? Well, it was night, and the men (of the city) came and they wanted to get the angels because 'here are fresh victims for us.' So, they started rioting at the door and the angels had to make them all blind so they wouldn't know what they were doing!

Well, you see, that's the way it is today. The homosexuals, male and female have taken over and run so much of this world, and the entertainment world is completely satanic! Absolutely satanic!

That means that those of us in this age, we better heed what it's telling us here: that we have to stay close to God and don't get involved in any of the things of Satan the devil! Remember this: they continue in it because there is a pleasure in sin for a season!

It's going to come upon them, it's already here in Washington state's male homosexual population: syphilis that is more virulent than anything there has ever been! And no medicine can counteract it because it's a two-headed syphilis.

The people will not learn the way of God, the politicians will not be honest, and they allow all of the satanic people to come in that know the depths of Satan. They bring that upon the population and we need to be thankful for all of those who are getting all of this sexualization of kindergartners. They want to indoctrinate them young to pervert them!

So, thankfully, there are some people pulling back on that and we're grateful for it. But where is it all going to go? We don't know! There it is the depths of Satan; that's something!

"…as they speak; I will not cast upon you any other burden, but hold fast what you have until I come" (vs 24-25),

Here's another important thing that is in all the churches:

Verse 26. "And to the one who overcomes and keeps My works unto the end, I will give authority over the nations."

• we have to overcome self
• we have to overcome the world
• we have to overcome sin in our lives
• we have to overcome everything that there is

That's what it is for the Churches. So you see, you can't take these seven Churches and divide them down into historical categories. There may be more of an emphasis at one time in history than another, but they all apply all of the time.

This was during the period of the Waldensians. I don't have time to read it. I got it here, maybe I'll pick it up next time. But what I want you to do, I want you to get the books:

• From the Speck of Dust to a Son of God: Why Were You Born?

Go through it and then order some others to pass out to different ones.

• Lord What Should I Do?

Living in the world that we're living in today, there is something that comes along,  that will maybe spark people into wanting to get out from underneath all of the sin that's everywhere.

But we have to stay close to God! We have to grow and overcome and understand the things that we need to understand, and not let anything come and take away our crown! That's what we'll read of next week when we get to it or the week after whenever I get to it.

These are important things for us to understand today and everything that's going on.

Scriptural References:

• John 8:31-32, 39
• Genesis 26:5
• John 8:40-45
• Deuteronomy 12:28-32
• Deuteronomy 13:1-5
• Revelation 2:2, 7
• Philippians 2:5
• Hebrews 10:15-17
• Acts 20:18-30
• Revelation 2:16, 18-23
• Hebrews 4:12-13
• John 1:1, 3
• Hebrews 4:13-16
• Revelation 2:23-26

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Matthew 4
• Luke 4
• Genesis 3
• Matthew 13
• Revelation 13
• Matthew 24
• Revelation 17
• Romans 2
• Revelation 3
• Genesis 19

Also referenced: {truthofGod.org}

Books:

• The Love of God Surpasses All Understanding
• From the Speck of Dust to a Son of God: Why Were You Born?
• Lord What Should I Do?

Transcript Book: Names of God

Booklets:

• The Christian Passover Ceremony
• Rome's Challenge to the Protestants

Book (secular): Foxe's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe

FRC:bo/po
Transcribed: 7/23/25

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