Times and Seasons, Part 2

By Pastor John J. Grosboll

This age of unbelief is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.  We do not have time to go into all prophecies that have been fulfilled, but God foresaw that the last days would be an age of unbelief.  People would not believe in the Bible.  He wrote about it in the Bible.  God knows everything, and in II Peter 3 He said that in the last days there would come a time when people would not believe in the great facts of creation and the flood.  It is exactly what we see in the modern world.   And not only that, it says in II Peter 3:4 that they would be saying, “All things continue as they were from the beginning of (the) creation.”  Do you understand the significance of that statement? 

I would like to tell you a quick story on that one.  It was Christmas time in 1979.  Our family was visiting my brother’s family.  He was pastoring in Pennsylvania at that time.  We went to Washington, D.C. to the Smithsonian Institute and there are many, many buildings in this large complex of museums.

I wanted to go through the geology building, so I decided to go through the entire geology building.  I knew that they were going to tell me that the world was millions of years old, so I was going to look through and find out what evidence they had to prove their theory, because according to the Bible, the world is only about six thousand years old. 

I went through the geology building and I was astonished.  They only had one piece of evidence to prove that the world was millions of years old.  Do you know what that one piece of evidence was?  That was the Uniformitarian Theory.  Do you know what the Uniformitarian Theory is?  That is, that all things continue as they were since the beginning of creation.  That is what it is.

For example, you may have many feet of sediment on the bottom of a lake.  You measure the amount of sediment being laid down every year and find out that it is perhaps a half a millimeter of sediment.  So you take the total thickness and divide by the amount laid down each year and conclude, according to the theory of uniformatarianism, how many million years it took to lay down all of the sediment at the bottom of the lake.  But what you have not taken into account is how fast the sediment was laid down a few thousand years ago when conditions were completely unlike the present.  For example, the Grand Canyon did not take millions of years to wash away.  Whether it was thirty minutes or thirty years does not matter.

In 1980, Mount Saint Helens blew up, and there was a mudslide.  I was just reading recently that the mud slid down the side of that mountain at 150 miles an hour.  It did not take millions of years for that to happen.  It all happened in one day.

What people think took millions of years, happened in a matter of days.  We have many, many books that have been written recently—not by Adventists, not all by Bible-believing Christians even—that have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the theory of evolution is false.  Proven it beyond a shadow of a doubt.  Books such as Creation’s Tiny Mystery, about the mystery of the rocks with radiometric halos, or radioactive halos.

Books like Exploding the Myth of Evolution, which was recently written by a scientist in England.  He brings up a very cogent point in this book.  He said, You know, when the people first settled America, we had sixty million buffalo around where I lived in the Central States.  We had some of them out here, too.  Sixty million!  Here is a question for you: A million years from now are they going to be able to find the remains of these sixty million buffalo?  Are the remains of these buffalo being formed now over a millions-of-years period like they teach?

No!  There are no remains of the sixty million buffalo, and there never will be, because when animals die under natural conditions, the weather plus the predators destroy all trace of those animals, and within a few years they are gone.  There is no place anywhere in the world today, no place in the world, where skeletal remains are developing of animals that have died.

The only way that can happen is if you have a catastrophe and it buries them all of a sudden.  That is why we find the mammoths with food still in their mouths.  They were killed suddenly by the flood.  They were not killed by an ice glacier over millions of years.  Oh, no, they were killed suddenly in a matter of seconds.  The food is still in their mouths.

Another book called Darwin on Trial, written by a very famous attorney in the United States.  It is a very, very interesting book.  Interestingly, by the way, Darwin does not pass the test.  This man is an attorney and he cross examines the Darwinian theories in the book.  Not one of the major theories could stand cross examination—not one!  This book, by the way, was not written from the standpoint of theology.  It is just written from the standpoint of an attorney saying, If we examine the theory, will it bear cross-examination in a court of law—and it will not.

So, we are living in an age of unbelief, the very thing that the Bible predicted, but there is more evidence today that the Bible is true, than there has ever been in the past.  Because there have been more prophecies fulfilled.  When you turn in the Bible to Isaiah 44, 46, the Lord lays down a challenge to all the religions of the world.  The God of heaven, who wrote the Bible through His prophets, lays down a challenge to all the religions of the world.  He says, Gather yourselves together and come and do this, and here is the Lord’s challenge—He says, Predict the future. 

The God of heaven says, I can do it.  I can predict things from ancient times that have not even yet happened.  He did it over and over again.  Just a few quick examples.  Did God predict, through Moses, to a group of people, You have pledged that you will be My people and that you will follow Me, but if you do not obey Me, not only will your headquarters, your city, be destroyed but also, I will scatter you all over the face of the earth?  Did the Lord tell that to the children of Israel?  Yes.  Do you know any nation in the world where the Jews are not scattered today?  It is an amazing thing, if you want to do a little traveling, you will find that you can go anywhere in the world and you will find Jews.  They are scattered all over the world.

That is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy and people do not realize it.  What is happening in the modern world is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.  There is more evidence today that the Bible is true than at any previous time in world history.  And it has been proven over and over again to be true; it tells the truth about the future. 

Now let me ask you this question, If everything up to the present point proves the Bible true, do you think the Bible prophecies about the future that have not yet been fulfilled, will prove to be true, also?  Yes, they will.  The most important thing, as we are facing the swift coming future, is whether you are ready for it?  Are you ready for what is about to happen?  The Bible clearly reveals to us that the bulk of the world’s population will not be ready for what is about to happen.

Now the book, Keys of this Blood, written by Malachi Martin, talks about people whom he describes as minimalists, those who believe that just a small portion of the world’s population will be saved.  Malachi Martin was a Roman Catholic priest and they do not believe in the minimalist’s theory, and we do.  The reason we believe that only a few people will be ready when Jesus comes, and the great majority will not be ready, is because what the Bible predicts will happen in the last days. 

The Bible predicts the last days will be a time of great unbelief and most of the people in the world will not be ready.  If you have your Bible, let us read some texts.

Let us look, first of all, at Matthew 24:37–39.  “But as in the days of Noah were, [just like] so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as [it was] in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered [into] the ark, and [they] did not know until the flood came and took them all away, [like this it shall] so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”  Jesus said, it is going to be like it was in the days of Noah.

In the days of Noah was it the great block of the world’s population who was saved, or was it just a little tiny group?  It was just a little tiny group that was saved.  Was that because God was arbitrary and did not want to save the rest?  Oh, no.  The Lord had sent a message to everybody that the flood was coming, but they would not listen.  Jesus said that it is going to be like that again.  It is going to be like it was in the days of Noah.

Turn with me in your Bible to the book of Revelation.  We could read a number more texts in the gospels, but turn to Revelation 12:9.  It says, “[And he was cast out,] So the great dragon was cast out, [the ancient] that old serpent, [the one] called the Devil and Satan, [the one] who deceives the whole world.”  He deceives the whole inhabited world.  It seems too awful to be true, does it not?  But that is what the Bible says the devil is going to do in the last days.

Look at Revelation 13.  This is about the antichrist.  How many people are going to worship the antichrist?  Look at Revelation 13:3.  It says, “And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed.  And all the world marveled and followed the beast.”  The whole world marveled after the beast.  Look at verse 8.  And they “will worship him, [all those dwelling upon the earth] whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” 

Look over to chapter 16.  We could read Revelation 13:14, but we are not going to read all the verses.  Just look at Revelation 16:13, 14.  “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.  For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God almighty.”  So, the unclean spirits are going to gather the world together.  They are going to think that they are entering into a millenium of peace, and they are going to get together for the greatest war that there has ever been on earth.

Revelation 18:23.  “The light of a lamp [stand, or candle] shall not shine in you any more, and the voice of the bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you any more.  For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.”  All were deceived.  That includes the United States, by the way.  All nations by your sorceries.  This is talking again about the antichrist's power, about Babylon.  It says, “By your sorcery all the nations were deceived.”

We are living in that time.  You can see it all around you.  The earth is dark today, spiritually dark, because people do not know what God’s Word says.  It is one of the greatest tragedies of all time.  It is not like it was in the dark ages.  In the dark ages people could not get a copy of God’s Word, because they did not yet have the science or the technology of printing, and the Bible was so expensive that most people could not afford one even if they could get one.

But today everyone can afford a Bible.  Everybody can read it.  Yet the Bible says that all nations are going to be deceived by sorcery.  Sorcery, of course, is having contact with evil spirits.  That is what sorcery is by definition.  By the way, are the people who are deceived by sorcery going to be saved?  No, they are going to be lost.  You read in Revelation 22:15 that the people who practice sorcery, the sorcerers are all outside the city.  None of them are inside.

Sorcery is having contact with evil spirits.  Are people having contact with evil spirits today?  It is increasing at a phenomenal rate.  Let me mention one of the most popular spirits with whom people all over the world want to have contact, and they want to do whatever she tells them to do.  They call her, The Virgin Mary. 

Now, friend, let me tell you something very important for you to know about religion.  In Deuteronomy 4:2 or Revelation 22:18, 19, the Bible says that you are not to subtract one word of what God said.  But that is not all.  It says you are not to add one word to what God said.  You are neither to subtract one, neither are you to add one.  I want you to show me one word in the Word of God where it talks about praying or having discussions with the Virgin Mary.  Show me one word.  It is not there!

By the way, when Jesus was on the cross, to whom did He commit the keeping of His mother?  Who was it?  It was the apostle John, and the apostle John was the youngest of the disciples.  Now we do not know the exact age of Mary, the mother of Jesus, at that time, but remember, she was the mother of Jesus and Jesus was 33 years old in His humanity.  He was 33 years old when He was crucified, so His mother at that time would have had to have been at least in her fifties.  Does that make sense?  She would have had to have been at least in her fifties.  And that was in 31 A. D.

Now, the gospel of John was written around 100 A. D.  Almost 70 years later.  Mary, if she had been alive, would have been one 120 years of age at that time.  Do you think that she was still alive?  No, people were not living to be 120 then, just like they are not living to be 120 years of age now.

I recently got a book called Buried Alive.  It is a study of some of the skeletons and remains of ancient people like the Neanderthal man and so forth.  It is written by a dentist, and he discusses longevity and he talks about the Bureau of Statistics in the United States.  The United States keeps track of our population.  We know how many people in our population live to be 90, how many 91, how many 92, how many 100, 101, and how many 102, and so forth.

Do you know how high the numbers at the U.S. Department of Statistics go to measure the age of our population before they die?  Do you know how high the numbers go?  They go up to 119.  Do you know why they do not go over 119?  Because we do not need any numbers over 119.  We all die before we get to be 120.  We just are not living over 120 in the United States today, so that is as high as our numbers go, 119.

People were not living that long back in the time of the apostles, either.  And so without question Mary was already dead before the gospel of John was written and before the book of Revelation was written.  And let me tell you something, if it were God’s intention for you to be praying to the Virgin Mary, or trying to talk to the Virgin Mary, there would be some instruction in His book.  But there is not any.

In fact, it is prohibited in the strongest possible language.  Study the book of Revelation and find out to whom God’s children pray.  They do not pray to any saints.  They pray to the Father, in Jesus’ name.  That is the way that Jesus taught them to pray in John 14, the gospel of John, written after Mary the mother of Jesus had already died.  In John 14 the disciples were taught to pray to the Father in Jesus’ name and that is the only person to whom they were given permission to pray.

You do not even address prayers to the Holy Spirit.  You do not address prayers to the Holy Spirit; you address your prayer to the Father, in Jesus’ name.  Study John 14 and John 16.  It is very, very clear.  It is also clear in the book of Revelation.  They are going to pray to and they are going to worship the Father and the Son and that is all!  But we are living in a time when people are praying to saints, they are praying to people who cannot hear, who cannot see, who cannot understand, and who cannot do anything for them, because they are lying asleep in the grave.

The world is under a deception.  All nations were deceived by your sorceries.  Can you imagine how awful it is going to be to wake up and realize that you have been deceived and while you thought you were going to go to heaven, you are not going to heaven at all?  Are there going to be some people who thought they were going to heaven but when Jesus actually comes they find out that they are not going to heaven at all?  The Bible says there will be.

Can you imagine anything more shocking, more awful than to think you are going to be saved, and you come right up to the end and you are not saved, and it is too late to be saved?  Let us read about it.  Turn in your Bible to Matthew 7.  This is the Sermon on the Mount.  You see, with all the awful things happening in the world and with the evidence that time is running out, it has become of paramount importance for you to know whether or not you are saved.

Look at Matthew 7.  Oh, this is so straight, but it is in the Bible, so we have to read whatever is in the Bible.  We cannot play games and just play religion.  We have to see what the Bible says.  Matthew 7:21–23.  “Not every one who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter [into] the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father [who is] in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name [or devils], and done many wonders in Your name [and in your name we have done many powerful works or miracles]?”

Notice the context.  What day is it?  Oh, it is the Day of Judgment.  It is the end of the world, and people are coming to the Lord and they are saying, Lord—you see, they are on the outside of the city.  The saints are on the inside, they are on the outside and they cannot believe that they are lost.  They have been Christians and so they start to have an argument with the Lord.

And they say, Lord, it is not possible that we could be lost because, Lord, we prophesied in your name.  We had the spiritual gift of prophecy, we had received the Holy Spirit and we had the gift of prophecy.  Not only that, but, Lord, we cast out demons in your name, so we know we had the Holy Spirit.  And not only that, but, Lord, we worked miracles in your name.

Now notice, why is it that they believe that they are saved?  Study it carefully.  The reason they believe that they are saved is because they are absolutely sure that they received the Holy Spirit.  And they say, Here are the three reasons that we know we had the Holy Spirit.  We were prophesying, we were casting out demons and we were working miracles in your name.  And we could not be doing those things, Lord, unless we had the Holy Spirit.

Let us think this through.  What is their problem?  Turn over the II Corinthians 11 and I will read to you, right out of the Bible, what their problem is.  It is the same problem that the Corinthian Church had.  II Corinthians 11:4, Paul says to the Corinthian Church, “For if he who comes [the one coming] preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different [another] spirit which you have not received, or a different (another) gospel which you have not accepted [been taught, you have not received]—You may well put up with it.”

Paul is talking to the Corinthian Church, and he says, I am afraid for you.  I am afraid that some preacher is going to come to you and he is going to preach to you a different Jesus than we preached to you, and you are going to accept it.  And you are going to receive a different spirit than you received when you were with us, and you will accept that.

And you will receive a different gospel than you received from us, and you will put up with it.  And all the time, why do these people receive a different Jesus?  Because they think it is the same Jesus.  And why do they receive a different spirit?  Because they think it is the Holy Spirit.  And why do they receive a different gospel?  Because they think it is the real gospel, but it is not.  It is a different spirit.

Who is this different spirit?  Turn over two verses to II Corinthians 11:13 and on.  “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.  And no wonder [marvel]! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.”

Paul says, that it is not a marvel that there are false teachers and false preachers among you.  He said the devil himself transforms himself into an angel of light.  You see, the devil does not come knocking on your door and say, I am the devil and I have come here to deceive you.  You would not be deceived by that, but we just read in Revelation 12:9 that the devil deceives the whole world.

How does the devil deceive the whole world?  Oh, because, they think they are receiving the Holy Spirit.  They think that they are learning the gospel.  They think that they are learning about Jesus, but it is the wrong Jesus, and it is the wrong spirit, and it is the wrong gospel, Paul says. 

Now let me ask you a question to think through in your mind.  If you go to church and somebody preaches to you about a different Jesus, would you recognize it?  Number two: If you go to church and the people in the church receive a different spirit, but they think it is the Holy Spirit, would you recognize it?  And if they receive a different gospel in the church where you go, would you recognize it?  Do you recognize, friends, that this is the reason that there is a revival and reformation movement, an independent church movement, not only in the Adventist Church, but also in almost every church?

In almost every denomination today there is a shaking going on and there are splits happening and the churches are splitting, and some people say, We are going here.  And somebody says, We will go there.  What is happening?  Because there is a different gospel being preached, a different spirit being received and a different Jesus being preached, and a few people recognize it and say, This is not the gospel that I want to hear.  This is not the Jesus that I believe in, and this is not the spirit that I want to receive.  And the rest of the people are sitting there taking it all in.

How can you know the difference between the Holy Spirit and the wrong spirit?  Oh, somebody says, if I receive the Holy Spirit, then I will be able to speak in tongues. Show me that in your Bible.  Show me in your Bible that everybody who receives the Holy Spirit speaks in tongues.  The Bible says just the opposite.  The Bible says, not everybody speaks in tongues.  It says it very clearly in I Corinthians 12.

How can you tell?  People today are receiving the spirit but many of the people who are receiving the spirit, are receiving the wrong spirit.  How can you tell?  Let us look at a few texts. 

You see, that is why you have to study your Bible, friends.  The Bible is a safeguard to keep you from receiving the wrong Jesus, the wrong gospel and the wrong spirit and not even knowing what is happening.  That is why you must study your Bible.  I hope you are in a personal Bible study program.  If you are not, I hope that you will decide today that you need to get on one starting today. 

Let us look at a few texts.  Look at John 16:13.  This is about the Holy Spirit.  “However, when He, [and when that one shall] the Spirit of truth is come, He [the Spirit of truth] will guide you into all truth.”  If it is the Holy Spirit by whom you are being led, if you are receiving the Holy Spirit, the Spirit is going to guide you into truth.

Now, what is truth?  Look in the Old Testament, in Isaiah.  This is such an interesting text.  Isaiah 8:19 and on.  “And when they say to you, seek those who are (seek after familiar spirits) mediums and wizards [seek after familiar spirits] who whisper and mutter [to those that peep], should not a people seek their God?  Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living.”  And then notice verse 20.  “To the law and to the testimony!  If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

If you look at the context, this is not talking primarily about human beings, even preachers.  It is talking about spirits, or people who are under the control of spirits, like prophets.  And it says, “To the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”  Why does it say there is no light in them?  Because, friends, there are only two kinds of spirits in the world.  Only two.

Hebrews 1:14, talking about the angels, says, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will [shall be heirs of] inherit salvation.”  So the angels are all spirit beings, and God Himself is a spirit, Jesus said in John 4:23, 24.  The angels are spirits, but there are two kinds of angels.  There are the angels that you read about in II Peter 2 and Revelation 12:7–9, who rebelled.  They rebelled with Lucifer and they are called evil angels, or Satan’s angels, or evil spirits, or unclean spirits.

And then there are the angels of God, spirits sent to minister to those who will be heirs of salvation.  So, could a spirit be confused?  Now, see, I am just a human being.  I might be confused on some point of theology.  That is possible.  Not only is it possible, it is essentially certain.  No human being knows everything.  We will be surprised when we get to heaven to find how many things we were mixed up on.

So a human being might be confused on some point of theology, but would a spirit be confused?  No, God’s angels are not confused.  They know the truth and the devil’s angels are not confused either, and so if a spirit does not guide you to the law and the testimony, there is no light in that spirit.  There are people today, friends, in various churches, who say they are receiving the spirit, but the spirit they are receiving is not guiding them into truth.

What is wrong?  What is wrong is that they are receiving the wrong spirit.  If it is really the Holy Spirit that you are receiving, that spirit will guide you into truth.  That is what Jesus said.  Let us go back to Matthew 7.  These people had a spirit, all right, but it was the wrong spirit, and they did not know it.  They thought that it was the Holy Spirit, but it was the wrong spirit.  The spirit that they received gave them power to prophesy, cast out demons, and work miracles.

But the spirit did not guide them into all truth.  Let me read it again.  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter [into] the kingdom of  heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name [and in Your name done many powerful works]?  And then I will declare to them, I never [at any time did I know] you; depart from me, you who practice [work] lawlessness.”

The Greek word is anomian.  Nomos is the Greek word for law.  Anomian is lawlessness.  You who work lawlessness.  You, who break the law, Jesus said, I have never known you.  We are living in an age where people all over the world believe that they are receiving the spirit, but the spirit they are receiving is not leading them to keep God’s law.  There is something wrong.

Jesus put His finger right on the problem.  As it would be in the last days, He said, these people are going to come, these people who received the spirit, they cast out demons, they prophesied, they worked miracles and they are going to come to Me and they are going to say, Lord, you must have made a mistake.  We know that we are saved.  And He will say, Never at any time did I know you.

Can you imagine anything more shocking, any more bitter surprise, than to be thinking that you are religious, you are prophesying, you are working miracles, you are casting out demons, you have power, and then you find out, at the end, that you are lost?  You had the spirit, all right, but it was the wrong spirit.  The spirit you received did not lead you to obey.  It did not lead you into all truth.  It did not lead you to keep God’s law.

“Depart from Me, you who work lawlessness.”  Those are the words of Jesus, friends, those are not my words.  I read it to you out of the Bible, Matthew 7:23.  Oh, my friend, do not let anybody tell you that it is not important whether you keep God’s law or not.  Do not let anybody tell you, Well, the law was nailed to the cross.  It was this; it was that, it was something else.  You have the words of Jesus Himself and He is speaking here to the people in the last generation, and He says, They are going to come to Me, many of them are going to come to Me and they are going to say, Oh, You have made a mistake.  We are saved.  We know that we are saved.

And He will say, Oh, no, from lips that never make a mistake will come the answer, Never at any time did I know you.  Depart from Me, you who work lawlessness.”  Oh, friend; do not let it happen to you.  Do not let anybody deceive you.  This is what the Bible says.  This is what Jesus Christ Himself said in public.  This was a public speech that Jesus gave.  Many thousands listened to Him on this occasion.

He wanted to be sure that they knew the truth and He said that was what was going to happen.  Many people are going to come from the last generation, from our time.  They are going to come and they are going to say, Lord, we know that we are saved because we received the Holy Spirit.  And He says, No, no, never at any time did I know you.  Depart from Me, you who work lawlessness.

We are living in an age when people say, I cannot!  That is one of the devil’s deceptions.  I cannot keep God’s law.  God made a law that I cannot keep.  Did you know that the devil has been saying that for thousands of years?  That was one of the devil’s original accusations against God.   He said that God made a law that His creatures could not keep.  

So that nobody will be deceived, as Bible-believing Christians, we do not believe that anybody can keep the law today unless they have divine help, because we are what the Bible calls, fallen.  We have a fallen, sinful, human nature.  Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, did not have a fallen, sinful human nature and they could keep the law of God without any help.  They could.

We cannot keep the law of God without help, because we have a fallen, sinful human nature.  We have a natural propensity to do the wrong thing.  But God has a solution for that.  Did you know that is one of the main reasons why God has promised you and me the Holy Spirit?  So that we would have divine power to do what was right.  Let us just read that out of the Bible.

Romans 8:1 and on.  “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, . . . for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.  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 [and for sin]: He condemned sin in the flesh, [in order] 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.”

Then He goes on to show that those who are just in the flesh cannot keep the law of God.  But he says, You are not in the flesh, you are in the spirit.  You read the next verses there down to verse 14.  He talks about this over and over again.  Those who are unconverted, those who are in the flesh cannot keep the law of God because they have a selfish human nature.  The law of God demands that I love God with all my heart, soul and mind and my neighbor as myself.

But when you receive the Holy Spirit, you are born again.  That is what it means to be born again.  The Holy Spirit creates in you a new heart and a new spirit and enables you to do what before you could not do.  And so look how the apostle John explains it here in 1 John 5:18.  This is a description of the person who has been converted, the person who has been born again.  He says, “We know that whoever [every one who has been] is born of God does not sin; but he [the one] who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.”

Notice he said that the one who has been born out of God, the one who has been born again, does not sin.  Why?  Because he has been born from God and divine power is in him to enable him to obey.  Sin is the transgression of the law.  You see, that is the problem in Matthew 7, the people who think that they are saved and they are not.  Jesus said, You have been practicing lawlessness.  I cannot take you to heaven; you are an unloyal subject.  You would wreck everything.

I John 3:4 and onward.  “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.  And you know that He was manifested [in order that He might] to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.  Whoever abides in Him does not sin.  Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.  Little children, let no one deceive you.  He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.  He who sins is of the devil, for [because] the devil has sinned from the beginning.  For this purpose [reason] the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.  Whoever has been born [or begotten] of God does not sin, for [because] His seed remains in him; and he cannot [it is not possible for him to be sinning] sin, because he has been born [out] of God.  In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest.”

That is about as plain as you can say it, is it not?  Oh, friend of mine, have you been born again?  Have you been born of the Holy Spirit?  Have you received a new heart?  People today are deceived about what it means to be a Christian, because they receive the gospel according to antichrist and they think that being a Christian is you just go on and you do all these awful things.  You live like the devil, but you confess your sins every so often, as long as you keep your sins confessed, then you are a child of God.  What a delusion.

We just read it.  The one who lives in sin, is he a child of God or a child of the devil? Which is he?  He is a child of the devil.  As long as I am living in sin, I am manifesting to the whole universe that spiritually I am a child of the devil, whether I go to church every week or confess my sins or whatever I do, I am still a child of the devil.  That is what the Bible says.

You see, the gospel is not something that just enables you to go to confession every week.  The gospel is powerful.  Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God.  What do you mean it is the power of God.  It is the power of God to enable you to live a new life, a life that is in harmony with His law.

Do you know what the problem is in the last days?  Paul put his finger right on it.  In II Timothy 3:5 he talked about the problem that would be in the last days, and he said that the people in the last days would have a form of godliness, but they would deny the power of it.  And that is exactly what we see in the religious world all over the world.  People have a form of godliness.  They go to confession. They go to church.  They say that they are Christians, but they are living in sin.  The Bible says that they are children of the devil.

Are you really a child of God or not?  When Jesus comes, and you say, Lord, I want to be with You.  What is He going to say?  Is He going to say, Yes, you are My child, come?  Or is He going to say, No, I never knew you.  You have been practicing lawlessness.  You are not a child of mine.  You are a disloyal subject.  What is He going to say?

We are all going to the judgment bar of God soon, friends, and the most critical thing to understand is what is going to happen.  As a human being, we want to know from the prophecies what is going to happen.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to know what is going to happen.  That is what Bible prophecy is given for, so we can know what is going to happen.  But, friends, it is even more important to know what is going to happen to you? 

What is going to happen to you?  What is going to happen to me?  What we have begun studying is a very involved subject, and I am well aware of the fact that because people have never heard this before, when they first hear it, it is very easy for them to get discouraged.  Because they have been told by the devil for so long, You just go ahead and sin all your life and when Jesus comes, He will somehow just zap you and change you and you will go to heaven.

But that is not the way it works.  There is no place in the Bible that talks about that.  You cannot live like the devil and just keep going to confession every week and not be changed into a holy person and then get zapped right at the last minute.  There is not one text in the Bible to support that.  When Jesus comes, you are already going to be a righteous and holy person—if you are going to be saved.

You can read it in Revelation 22:11, 12.  This is so important.  Let him be unrighteous still, and the one who is filthy, let him be filthy still and the one who is righteous [or just] let him be righteous still, and the one who is holy, let him be holy still, and behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with Me to give every one as his works shall be.

Notice; before Jesus comes your character will be fixed.  Now this has not yet happened. This is unfulfilled prophecy, it has not yet happened.  So if you are filthy or righteous today, you do not need to stay that way.  This decree has not yet gone forth.  You can decide to change.  You can decide to come to Jesus just the way you are, just like people came to Him when He was here.

Even if you are the most vile, degraded person, you can find deliverance in Christ.  That is what Jesus came for, to deliver the chief of sinners.  And there is, time after time, recorded in the Bible where He did it.  Mary Magdalene was one the chief of sinners.  He had to cast the devils out of her seven times.  You are going to see her someday—if you are saved.  She is going through the pearly gates.  She was one of the chief of sinners.

Paul was one of the chief of sinners.  In fact, he says that he was the chief of sinners.  Paul was a murderer.  By the way, he did not murder criminals; his specialty was murdering Christians.  He murdered holy people.  But the Lord saved him.  He had to repent and confess his sins, and turn around and quit doing it.

And friend, God can save you, because it says in Hebrews 7:25, concerning Jesus our great High Priest, that He is able to save perfectly anyone who comes to God through Him.  If you are the most vile, the most wretched, the most degraded, you can be saved.  But you are not going to be saved in those sins.  You are going to be saved from those sins.

You see, that is what people do not understand.  They think the way they have been taught that you can be saved in sin.  You cannot be saved in sin. There is not one text in the Bible that teaches that.  The Bible says, You shall call His name Jesus, [Jesu, Joshua in the Hebrew] because He will save His people from their sin. 

You see, I am from Kansas, but I am not in Kansas.  You cannot be from something and be in something at the same time.  If you are saved from your sin, you are not going to be living in sin any more.  Whatever your besetting sin was, Paul’s besetting sin was he was a professional killer.  But he quit. That is where repentance comes in, you are sorry and you stop doing that.  And Jesus wants to save you from your sin.  He wants to save me from my sins.

We have all sinned, the Bible says we have.  Romans 3:23.  But Jesus wants to save you from that.  He wants to put His spirit within you and enable you to live a new life, a life that is in harmony with His law.  Do you realize, as awful as this world is with all the cancer, the AIDS, the Alzheimer’s disease, and all the awful things that we have in this world, even in this world, if everybody would repent and allow Jesus to put His Holy Spirit within, this world would become transformed and become almost like heaven.

The Holy Spirit would cause people to live according to the law of God.  You would not have any more terror, because terror involves breaking the sixth commandment.  So you would not have any more of that.  You would not have any more marriages breaking up because the Ten Commandments forbid adultery, and the Ten Commandments forbid coveting your neighbor’s wife.  So that would all stop.

You would not have to worry whether your car or your house were locked because the Ten Commandments forbid people to steal.  You would not have to worry about being robbed every time you left your house.  You would not have to worry about somebody selling you something and then getting gypped, because the Ten Commandments forbid you to steal from your neighbor or take advantage of your neighbor.

You would not have to worry about disrespectful children, because the Ten Commandments command children to honor their parents.  This world would be transformed, even with all the diseases we have; it would become a wonderful place to live if people started to keep the law of God.  And the only people who are going to the next world are the people who learn to keep the law in this one.

Just put that down.  We just read it from the words of Jesus, Matthew 7:21–23.  And do not let the devil tell you that you cannot, because God says you can.  He says, I will help you!  If you want to do His will and commit your life to Him, He will help you to have a totally transformed experience of living.  So that every thought in your mind is pure and holy.  Every word out of your mouth is pure and holy, no irritation or anger.

Nothing untruthful, that is forbidden in the Ten Commandments, either.   God wants to transform your life.  You know, people want to go to heaven, but have you ever thought, Would heaven be ruined if I were taken there?  God is not going to take anybody to heaven who would ruin it this time.  It has already been ruined once; it is not going to be ruined again.  He has promised us that.

He says, Affliction will not rise up the second time.  That is why the awful things are being allowed to happen in this world that are being allowed to happen, so people can see the result of the devil’s rule.  What happens if you allow the devil to rule you?  Well, we are finding out, in this world, what happens when you allow the devil to rule you.  But if you are not interested in that, if you would like to be under the control of a different ruler, if you would like to be under the control of a different Master, Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  Matthew 11:28.

Rest from sin, rest from anxiety, rest from worry.  “Take My yoke [He said)] upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy [kind] and My burden is light.”  Matthew 11:29, 30.

Oh, friend, it is an easy yoke, it is a kind yoke, and the burden is light.  The devil is trying to make you think that if you keep God’s law, it will be some terrible bondage, but that is a lie.  If everybody kept God’s law, this world would be the most wonderful place to live that you could even imagine—even with all our sicknesses, it would be a wonderful place if everybody kept the law of God.

And the only people taken to the next world will be people who learned to keep the law of God in this one.  Jesus said, There are not any thieves up there, they are not going.  No liars up there.  Three times in the last two chapters of Revelation, three times it says, No liars are going.  No thieves, no liars, no covetous people.  Nobody up there will look at something you have and say, Well, I want it.  They will be glad for you to enjoy what you have.

There will be plenty for everybody.  God has enough for everybody.  Heaven is a good place.  As I have studied about it in the Bible, the more I studied about it, the more I realized I wanted to go.  But the only people who can go are the people who are ready to go.  And if we are going to be ready to go, we have to be born again of the Holy Spirit and sin has to be something in which we are no longer living.  We are not living that way anymore.

That is the gospel that the world today does not want to hear, because the modern world wants to live in sin and live like the devil and then get zapped and go to heaven at the end.  The Bible does not teach a gospel like that.  That is just not the way it works.

You see, you decide, by the life you live, where your eternal destiny is going to be.  Does the life you live earn for you salvation?  Oh, no, salvation is a free gift, but the life that you live proves whether or not you have received the Holy Spirit or whether you received a different kind of a spirit.  If you have really received the Holy Spirit, the result will be evident in the life that you live.  Your life will come into harmony with God’s law.

And that will prove to the whole universe that you have received the Holy Spirit because your life has been changed.  It is in harmony with the law of God.  Your thoughts, you are all aware, are you not; your guardian angel can read your thoughts.  You do not have to say anything.  Your guardian angel writes down your thoughts in the book.  Your thoughts become pure.

That is why it says in 2 Corinthians 10, “Bringing every thought into captivity to . . . Christ.”  Your thoughts, your words, and your actions come in harmony with God’s law. And when that happens, then God can look at you and say, That person belongs to Me. He or she is in harmony with the laws of My government and I am taking them home with Me.

God is coming soon with His Son Jesus and they are going to take His people out of this evil world.  Do you want to get out of this place?  This is an evil place.  Are you all convinced?  This world is an evil place, and God is going to take His people out of here.  But the only people that He is going to take out are people who have proven, by the life that they have lived, that they really are His.

They received the Holy Spirit.  And they are not going to be the people to whom Jesus says, No, I have never known you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness. They are not going to be those people.  Those people are staying right here.  But God is going to have a people.  Here is the way they are described in Revelation 14, God is going to have a people, and I want to be a part of His people

Let me read this to see if you want to be a part of His people.  This is the Third Angel’s Message, Revelation 14:12.  “Here is the patience of the saints; here are the ones who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”  I want to be a part of those people, do you?  God is going to have a people in the last days, and He says these people are saints.  The word saints is an English word that simply means holy person.  These people are holy people.

What is a holy person?  Well, the Bible says that God’s law is holy, so a holy person is someone whose life is in harmony with God’s law.  An unholy person is a person whose life is not in harmony with God’s law; it is simple is it not?  God is going to have some saints, some holy people, in the last days and He says, “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”  I want to be part of those people.  Do you?

In closing let me tell you a story.  This is a true story.  It is happening similarly today, but not exactly the same.  This was back in the Dark Ages when Christians were being burned at the stake for confessing the Christian faith.  They were taking out a man to burn him, they were going to chain him to a stake, set the faggots on fire and burn him to death.  He had been taken out to be burned to death.  And there was a monk following along, evidently this monk was in a rage, because he could not convince this man to change his ways. 

In those days, you did not have to be martyred, all you had to do was give up your faith in the Bible and accept the popular religion and then you could keep your life.  And so the monk said to this man who would not change his mind, “We are going to cut you off from the church militant.”

The man about to be martyred replied with a very short reply, “But not from the church triumphant!”

Oh friend, when the church triumphs, most of the people who think they are part of the church today will not even be part of the church when it triumphs.  They are part of the church militant, but they will not be part of the church when it triumphs. 

The martyr said, “You can cut me off from the church militant, you can burn me to death today, but you cannot cut me off from the church triumphant, because the Lord is coming and He is going to raise me back some day.”

The church is going to triumph soon.  Most of the people in it now will not be in it then.  Where will you be?  Will you be one of those whom John wrote about in Revelation 14:12?  Look at these people, he says, here they are.  These are the saints; these are the holy people.  These are the ones who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.  Will you be one of those?  Will I be one of those?

The choice, the decision is up to you and up to me.  Day-by-day, by the lives that we live, through the power of the Holy Spirit.  If you want to be part of that group and you want to cry out to the Lord and say, Lord, I want to be part of the saints in the last days, the people who keep the commandments and have the faith of Jesus.  If you want to be part of that group, I want to invite you to pray with me right now as we close.