Trembling at God's Word, Part 5b

Why is it God's people tremble at God's word? And we told you, number one, is because God's word reveals his identity.

We also told you that, number two, it radiates God's majesty. We told you, number three, that it reiterates God's authority, and number four, reflects God's purity.

Number five, the reason we tremble at God's word is because it resolves God's mystery. We go from the mystery of Christ and the mystery of the church to the mystery of change or the mystery of the rapture to now the mystery of lawlessness or the mystery of iniquity. Second Thessalonian chapter 1, excuse me, chapter 2, verse number 1.

Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. The day of the Lord is the tribulation, the great and terrible day of the Lord, the time of Jacob's trouble. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first.

And the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship. so that he takes his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now so that in his time he may be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness, there it is. The mystery of lawlessness is already what? At work. The mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth. The mystery of lawlessness. Now we know from John's epistle, First John, that lawlessness, that lawlessness is rampant in our day and age.

In 1 John chapter 2, verse number 18, children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrist have arisen. From this, we know that it is the last hour. John says, how do we know we're in the end times? How do we know we're at the last hour because of the many Antichrist that have arisen? We know that the Antichrist is going to be. to come. We know that the son of destruction is going to come. We know that the beast is going to come. We know that the lawless one is going to come.

But in the meantime, there are many that are without law. There are many antichrists. In fact, over in 1 John chapter 3, verse number 4, it says this, everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness and sin is lawlessness. And then he says over In chapter 4, verse number 3, these words, every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you have heard that is coming, and now it is already in the world. What's in the world? The spirit of Antichrist, the spirit of lawlessness.

It's already here. It's rampant. And yet, Antichrist, Big A, has not come. although there are many antichrists, little A, people that are against Christ, there's coming a day where the Big A Antichrist is going to come and he will be revealed He is the man of lawlessness But there is much lawlessness already taking place on the earth And Paul says, listen I don't want you to be caught unawares I don't want you to think that that end has already come It has not yet come because something has to happen first.

You must understand that the day of the Lord is not going to happen until the lawless one is revealed. Now, we don't know who the lawless one is. We don't know who the antichrist is going to be. That's why we talked about the mystery of change or the mystery of the rapture. Because, you see, at the time that Satan himself is cast out of heaven, finally, he's been cast out Morally, he has not been cast out geographically.

Notice, Revelation 12 says that he comes down to the earth. And the Bible says in Revelation 12, war to those who are on the earth.

Why? Because now Satan has come down to you. That's why the tribulation, the time of Jacob's trouble, is so bad, because Satan takes up his residence on earth. Satan's residence is not on earth now.

Satan's residence is in heaven now. He accuses the brethren day and night. But once he comes down to earth, all hell breaks loose on earth. That's why it's the time of Jacob's trouble. That's why it's as bad as it is. You see, outside the fact that you've got the wrath of God coming down upon man through the seven seals that are broken, the seven bowls that are poured, and the seven trumpets that are blown. But the bottom line is, the mystery of lawlessness centers around the sin and the many antichrist that are in the world today that don't believe that Jesus is God.

If you don't believe that Jesus is God coming to flesh, you are Antichrist. You are against Christ. You're not for Christ. And the one who was ultimately against Christ is the Antichrist himself, the beast. The man of apostasy who, what? who through many signs and wonders is able to deceive the world into believing that he himself is God. That, my friend, is the mystery of lawlessness. And Paul says, don't be afraid. Don't think that that time has come yet, because that hasn't. Because the lawless one has yet to be revealed.

And the ultimate revealing of that lawless one is when. It's in the middle of the tribulation, when he what? He desecrates a temple, Daniel 927, and sets himself up as God and demands the world worship him. Which leads me to this, the mystery of Babylon. Turn me to Revelation 17. Revelation chapter 17, the mystery of Babylon. You with me so far? I hope I haven't lost you. If I have, you can get those three tapes on Revelation 12, and you'll want to get the six tapes on Revelation 17 and 18. We're not here to dissect every portion.

that we're talking about tonight, we just help me understand that there's something about the Word of God that resolves the mystery of God, which causes man to tremble under its authority and to realize that God looks for the broken and contrite heart. Revelation chapter 17, verse number one, and one of the seven angels who had seven bowls came and spoke with me saying, come here, and I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth who may drunk with the wine of her immorality.

He carried me away in the spirit into wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns, and the woman was clothed and purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and upon her forehead a name was written, what? A mystery? Babylon, the great, the mother of harlot's, end of the abominations of the earth. and I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

And when I saw her, I wondered greatly. And the angel said to me, why do you wonder? I shall tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. And of course he goes on and unfolds for us that mystery. Now, the mystery. mystery of the woman, the mystery of Babylon is very simple. And I'm going to give it to you in the time that we have left. And while I wish I could go through all of chapter 17, I know I can't do that in the next 15 to 20 minutes.

So I'm just going to briefly give you a sketch to help you understand this mystery because it's imperative that you get it, that you understand it. Because we are to be preachers of the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the bride, the mystery of the mystery of the bride, the mystery of the church, the mystery of the incarnation, the mystery of the faith, the mystery of godliness, the mystery of the rapture of the church, the mystery of lawlessness, and the mystery of the Babylonian harlot. That's our job.

We're supposed to preach these things. And so in Revelation chapter 17, he gives us the spiritual side of Babylon. And in Revelation 18, he gives us the material side of Babylon. Revelation 17 is the religious side and Revelation 18 is the military side is the economic side and both will end up becoming one. But Revelation 17 the spiritual side is ruled by the false prophet. Revelation 18, the military side, the economic side is ruled by the Antichrist or the Lawless One. You need to understand that.

and I'll tell you why in a moment. But he wants us to understand what he's going to do. Now we know, John knows, that Babylon is already destroyed. He knows because over in Revelation chapter 14, this is what the Lord said in verse number eight. And another angel, the second one followed saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great, and she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.

So in Revelation 14, John has already seen and heard that Babylon is destroyed. In Revelation chapter 16, it says this, verse 17, and the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying, It is done. And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peels of thunder, and there was a great earthquake such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth. So great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. And the great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and Babylon, the great, was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath.

So John has already seen and heard that Babylon is destroyed. In fact, over in Revelation chapter 19, it says this in verse number one, after these things I heard as it were a loud voice of great multitude in heaven saying, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God, because his judgment.

Judgments are true and righteous, for he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his bond servants on her. So God is going to destroy Babylon. What is Babylon? What is this woman? It's not a place. It's not a city. It is a system. It is a religious system. It is a final form of religion in the end times. This is satanic religion. This is the name of Satan's church. It is called Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.

Now, due the tribulation, there's not going to be a marquee over the church that says, Come to our church, Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots. It's not going to say that. That's not what the marquee is going to read. But that's how God sees it. You need to see it that way. You need to understand that. Because what God is going to do is destroy it. Do you know that the Bible is 30% prophecy about the end times? 30%. has no prophecy in it? Do you know the Book of Mormon has no prophecy in it?

You know the words of Confucius have nothing to do with any kind of prophecy? Do you know there isn't one system of religion that deals with in-time events except Christianity, the Bible? That's it. You know why those other systems don't speak of it? Because they are the systems that will be destroyed. They can't speak of it. Any system that is against Christ has, listen, its foundation in Babylon, the mother of Harlan. He says Babylon the Great, mega, this is a comprehensive system. This is a worldwide system.

I was reading the other day in World Magazine where all the different cardinals are waiting for the Pope to die, For when the popes die, they believe they have enacted a plan that will bring all the religions of the world together. Think about it. Think about it. If we want to know more about that, you need to get our tape on Revelation chapter 17 to understand the significance of this world religion. This world of religion is called a mother. A mother. Babylon, the great the mother of harlots. She is the mother of harlots.

That is, she has spawned all of false religion. Every bit of it. And at the end of the world, all the false religions come home to mama. Every one of them. To understand how they all come back, you got to understand how they all began. Genesis chapter 11 tells us when false religion began. Verse number one, now the whole earth used the same language and the same words, and it came about as a journey to east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

And they said to one another, come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they used brick for stone and they used tar for mortar. And they said, come, let's build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven and let us make for ourselves a name lest we be scattered abroad, over the face of the whole earth. Listen, understand this. Who was in charge of Babel? There was one man. We read about him in Genesis chapter 10, verse number eight. Now Cush became the father of Nimrod.

He became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord. Now listen.

Twice it says, a mighty hunter before the Lord. The exact translation is a mighty hunter against the Lord. You with me? Now listen to this. And the beginning of his what? Kingdom. It's the first mention of the word kingdom in the Bible.

And the beginning of his kingdom was what? Babel. Babel is the gate of God. Nimrod name needs to revolt or to rebel. You see, Nimrod revolted against something. What did he revolt against? He revolted against God. He rebelled against God. His kingdom was the gate of God. Come to me and I will show you God. That's false religion. It all began in Babel. Way back in Genesis chapter 10 and Genesis chapter 11. So all these people come together. He brings them all together. And what do they say? We got to do this lest we be scattered over the face of the earth.

And in Genesis of 9-1, God said what? Be fruitful and multiply and spread all over the earth. And they were not going to do it. They rebelled against God. They revolted against God. And really, God said that his blessing will come to the line of Shem, whose name, by the way, means name. The Messiah would come through the line of Shem, the name, the line of the name. And they didn't want to be a part of that name. They didn't want to come into the authority of that name. Instead, they wanted to make their own image.

They wanted to do things their way. What did they say? We want to make for ourselves a name. We don't like that name. We want our own name. So we're going to build a name for ourselves. What's that sound like? We don't want that king to rule over us. We have no king but Caesar. See that? we don't want to have anything to do with the God of the universe so God came down and God confused their languages and God scattered them all over the earth God scattered false religion all over the earth you know why so we can bring them all together one time and destroy all of their wickedness at once in Revelation 19.

God scattered them. Now God's going to bring them back together again. Hinduism, spiritualism, mysticism, Confuciism, Taoism, Sikhism, animism, Mormonism and Catholicism, all of them together. They all are together. Because they all deny the supreme aspect of what it means to be saved by grace alone through faith alone in god one world religion is coming the efforts in ecumenicalism today of bringing all the churches together of bringing all the religions together of bringing everybody together under one roof is just one more ploy of satan to bring everybody into one religion we want to rid ourselves of all dogma, all the distinctives that divide and move toward one great tolerant religion.

Antichrist will do that. Why is it so important? Why is it so significant? Because you see there's only one thing that's going to bring the world together during the tribulation. Only one thing. It's not going to be a war. Remember, in Revelation chapter 6, the seal that's broken is a man on a white horse. He brings peace The Antichrist brings peace to the world He has a bow But he has no arrows See the world is not going to become more And more Irreligious It's going to become more and more Religious You see Because the false prophet Who oversees that religious system Is going to get everybody to bow down and worship This beast Because that's what he wants He wants to be worshipped He wants to be honored.

And then look at Revelation chapter 17. It says, first number 14, these, that is the kings of the world, will wage war against the land and the land will overcome them because he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

And those who are with him are the called and chosen and faithful. He said to me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues and the ten horns which you saw and the beast. These will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. The military system under Antichrist is going to be tired of the false system under the religious false prophet and they will make the the harlot desolate and naked and all the kings of the earth will rally around the one king, the Antichrist, the false Messiah, and they will devour the false prophet.

Why will they do that? Verse 17, for God has put it in their hearts to execute his purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast and to the words of God should be fulfilled. This is the way God wants it to happen. So the Antichrist is now over religion and over military, and in Revelation chapter 13, the people bow down and they worship the beast. Who is like the beast? Who is like the beast, they say in Revelation 13. There's no one like him who can do signs and wonders and bring us all together.

That's what he will be like. But he will bring them into one system. That system will destroy them all because it's against God. See, Satan is a master deceiver. People miss that. And that's how all these people, how do you think, how do you think they're going to explain away the translation of the church from earth to glory? Who's going to do that? Who's going to convince the world that all these Christians are now gone? Who's going to convince them? And how was he going to convince him? And how was he going to get them to buy into his system that he is right and everybody else who left was wrong?

Only Satan can do that. And the way he can is because the restrainer, who is the Holy Spirit, will be removed. That doesn't mean he will leave the earth because the spirit's on the present. But he will withhold his restrained power in order for Satan to act as he wishes to act so God can do what God wants to do. Bring them all together and destroy them all. All to say this. You see, God says to this man, I will look to him who is broken and of a contrite heart and who trembles at my word.

The unbeliever says, that's not going to happen. The unbelieer says, all this weight of tribulation, then I'll give my life to Christ. I'll do it then. And then I'll know that the preacher was right. He's not trembling at God's word. But the believer, as Paul said, St. Corinthians 5, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. And God says, I want you to be a preacher of that mystery.

No secret things once concealed in the Old Testament, now revealed in the New Testament. I want you to tell people so they can hear the truth. And folks, the world needs to know the truth.