But we still hope you'll turn in response cards with any questions or prayer requests
that you might have.
We did have a question somebody asked about, because we've talked several times about Napoleon
and he had a General Berthier who went in and captured the Pope and so forth in 1798.
And then the question was, well what about what happened, the French Revolution and all
that?
Is that in Revelation?
Because you've talked about France doing that type of stuff.
And unfortunately, this is our last evening session and we've got a meeting tomorrow,
but there's a whole bunch of things in Revelation that we're not able to get to in this short
series but I would throw out that in Revelation chapter 11 that it talks about an atheistic
power that overthrows some different nations and different things like that.
So if we had time to study that all the way through, I would suspect, I would proclaim
that that is that French Revolution where they got rid of the Bible, they cast out the
Bible, they actually took a prostitute and proclaimed that they were going to worship
her as the goddess of reason.
And it was the other extreme, because we've been talking about the dark ages when religion
was enforced in such a way and so then that other extreme is like we're going to cast
off religion totally and they even did away with the seven day week for a little while,
they tried at least and they went to a ten day week but that didn't work out for them
very well.
And so there's many, many things in Scripture in Revelation that we're not able to get to
and so I just want to mention as we did last night, if you'd like to do any more Bible
studies, please write that on the card, that's one of the boxes.
And then on Wednesday night, we're going to restart a study of the prophetic chapters
in the book of Daniel.
A few months ago down at the hub downtown by the United Grocery Outlet, we looked through
the first six chapters of Daniel, which are the narrative mostly, the story part, and
then we only met once or twice I think for the last half of the book, the last six chapters,
talk about or seven through twelve, talk about more of the prophecies and we're going to
begin that study again on Wednesday night and that starts at 6.30 and so that will be
here at this facility.
So if you're interested in that, please join us and that will be more of a round table
discussion, that's not going to be preaching so much, that will be reading the Bible together,
reading verses, talking, discussing, sharing views and different things like that.
So that's some things that are coming up and of course our final session is tomorrow morning
at 11 o'clock and I mentioned last night there's something that happens after that.
Every fourth week here at this church, those that go here, what is it?
An Asian lunch.
So if you want some delicious Filipino food, some delicious Asian food, come and join us
and just plan on staying a little bit longer for lunch and then tomorrow evening we're
not having a meeting but we're gathering at a fall festival that's going to begin with
the baptism so that's really, really awesome.
So if you would like to come to that, everyone is invited and welcome to come to that as
well.
But let's bow our heads for a word of prayer as we get started tonight.
Dear God, we thank you for weeks that we've been together now.
This is our eleventh gathering that we've been able to come together for a purpose,
for studying your word and Lord we've been able to explore, we've been able to be challenged,
we've been reminded of your love and your grace.
And God as we have our last evening meeting and one more tomorrow, just in all that we
do help us to keep our focus and our attention on you and what you have done for us.
In your name we pray, amen.
It was a day that Jonathan would never forget.
He was about five or six years old and his mother said, well let's go eat at our favorite
restaurant.
This was in New York City and so they made their way down to the corner of George Street
and Hamilton Avenue down to a little restaurant called Penn Supreme.
And it was only a few blocks away so they walked down but by the time they got down
there and ordered the food and got the food, it took a little bit longer than expected.
And so it was dark when they got done but it wasn't far from home and so mom said, well
let's just walk home, we'll walk fast, we'll make it home.
And as they were getting closer and closer to home it was only a couple blocks when suddenly
they heard footsteps and out of the darkness came some people knocked mother over.
One of them snatched her purse and before they knew it they had run off down the street
and mom was almost in tears and little Jonathan, six years old, was also almost in tears because
his mother's glasses had been knocked off and they'd been broken and they couldn't
find them in the darkness.
And so now he, this little boy, had to lead his mother who couldn't see very well, lead
her back through the darkness, lead her to home after having this horrific, tragic thing
that happened to them as she had been attacked, as she had lost her purse.
And when they got home they were able to tell dad, dad called the police, but it was dark,
they hadn't seen anybody.
So of course no one was ever apprehended.
And Jonathan, although he's an adult now, he says that he can still hear the sound of
those footsteps to this day.
If you've ever been attacked in some way it's a traumatic thing, whether it's a physical
attack or an emotional attack or a verbal attack.
Sometimes we feel helpless, we can feel vulnerable, and sometimes we need someone to rise up,
someone to defend us.
And so as we continue our study of Bible prophecy we're going to read a story tonight, read
a prophecy about a woman who's viciously attacked, not because of her money, but she's attacked
because of the truth that she has.
But thankfully she has someone to defend her.
So we're going to pick up the story in Revelation chapter 12.
Now we've looked at Revelation chapter 12 before, we looked at some of the earlier verses,
maybe the second or third gathering that we were here and we looked at Lucifer and there
was a war that took place in heaven and Lucifer was cast out as he had tried to convince these
other angels to follow after him.
And finally God said, is enough, is enough, and Lucifer and these angels were cast down
to earth.
And it talks about a dragon, and it calls him in verse 9, that devil and Satan.
And we pick up the story now in verse 13, Revelation chapter 12 and verse 13.
Tomorrow morning we're actually going to look at the first part of this chapter because
it's going to use some of these same characters as well.
Revelation 12 and verse 13 it says, Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the
earth he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.
But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness
to her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence
of the serpent.
And so the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he
might cause her to be carried away by the flood.
But the earth helped the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood
which the woman, which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
And then verse 17 shifts just a little bit and it says the dragon was enraged with the
woman and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring.
Or some versions say the remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and have
the testimony of Jesus Christ.
And so in these verses we kind of see three different symbols here that we've talked about
some of them and maybe not some.
And so we've talked about a dragon, we've talked about a serpent, and both of those
it clearly says like I said in verse 9 that both of those are just different titles, different
names for that same evil being Lucifer or Satan and then there's a woman.
And throughout scripture a woman represents God's church or God's people.
God uses this symbol of a woman and if it's a pure woman then it's a time when God's
church is being faithful to him, is following him.
But sometimes, and we'll see this tomorrow morning, sometimes it's an unfaithful woman
or a harlot or a prostitute, a word like that and that would represent a time when the church,
when God's people are not acting like God's people and they're not following God.
But here we have a pure woman representing God's faithful people and they're being attacked
by this dragon, by this serpent and it says it's like a flood.
And we've seen just in the last couple of weeks what damage a flood can do.
If you've seen pictures and scenes from North Carolina where in the mountains of North Carolina
a hurricane went through and we may expect a hurricane on the coast of Florida or even
the coast of North Carolina but not in the mountains and you see how that rain, that
water swept through the valleys and the hollers and swept people away, cars away, farms away
and caused all kinds of damage.
And so this passage here where this dragon, this serpent is attacking God's people, it's
actually referring to two different time periods.
Verses 13 through 16, the first few verses that we read there, that is talking about
which we've mentioned before, those persecutions of the Middle Ages when church and state were
united during those 1260 years of that papal persecution.
And we've shown this graph and we've talked about this before and this was a time when
the Bible was not allowed, the Word of God or the sword of the Spirit was not able to
be read, people couldn't have it, you couldn't translate it, the light from the cross was
kept from people and this is referred to as the Dark Ages or the Middle Ages.
And that's from 538 to 1798, that time I just mentioned when the Pope was arrested when
he was taken away.
And this was the time that it says the woman was hiding, God's church was hiding in the
wilderness, a land area, a place with sparse population.
And if you look at history you can see that there were people that hid in the wilderness,
groups like the Waldensis who hid in the mountains of Italy and they hid up in the most remote
places that the soldiers couldn't come to or when they did come they were able to roll
rocks down upon them.
And then we mentioned last night that some came to an entirely sparsely populated area,
to a new world, to North America, people like the pilgrims fleeing from that religious persecution.
But then Revelation moves past this time of the Middle Ages in verse 17 because it seems
as if verse 17 is talking about not that same time period but another time period.
Let's read verse 17 again, it says the dragon was enraged, was angry with the woman, this
is from the King James version, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed.
So not only is the dragon making war with the woman but now making war with another
group with the remnant of her seed and it gives a description here.
Those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus.
So we've gone past that Middle Ages time, we've gone past that 1260 years and it says
that in the last days the dragon, Satan, is still angry, he's upset, he's wroth, a word
we don't use very much anymore.
And so we see that in the earlier part of this chapter there was war in heaven.
Was Lucifer able to win that war?
No he wasn't.
And so he couldn't win that war and so he turned his attention after he got cast to
this earth, he was not able to destroy Christ, he was not able to prevent Jesus from going
to the cross, he couldn't stop the plan of salvation from being carried out.
And so when Jesus resurrected and ascended back to heaven, guess what, the dragon, the
devil is still angry.
He can't reach Jesus anymore and so he turns his sight onto the woman, onto God's people
and all throughout the Middle Ages that persecution was there and yet God was able to be with
his people.
And even though many of them lost their lives, God was still with them.
But now it comes down to the end of time and the devil is angry, he's extra angry, he's
exceedingly angry, he's very, very upset, he's upset with God's people and it says
he goes to make war with the remnant of her seed.
And so this refers to a group of God's faithful people at the end time.
And we've been seeing last night and tonight that the Bible is describing an end time group
in a very specific way.
And we see here in verse 17, we're going to keep the commandments of God and the testimony
of Jesus.
And so there's going to be in the last days a special group of God's people, a movement
of believers who have come together from different backgrounds, from different faiths and they're
determined to stand up for Jesus and they're determined to serve him and to keep his commandments
and they want to come back to the Bible and they want to be faithful to his word.
And Revelation calls this a remnant movement.
And as we already mentioned, verse 17 talks about two characteristics.
And so we need to ask ourselves, how can we make sure that we're able to track this down,
that we're able to find this?
Because if Revelation is describing something in the last days where people are coming together
to serve Jesus, how can I recognize that movement?
Because we see that in the world today there's a lot of confusion.
There's a lot of confusion in the religious world and in the secular world.
And sometimes people, the devil wants to confuse us.
He wants to stir things up.
And the devil would love it if we all just throw up our hands and say, you know, forget
it.
It's too much, too many choices, too many decisions.
There's some studies that show there's about 300 official denominations in the United States.
And you can look up some other things and other numbers that people might throw out
is even up to 1200 different organizations, different denominations.
And that doesn't even take into account, you know, independent churches or non-denominational
churches.
And if we think about it, there's one Bible, one God of the Bible, one truth of the Bible.
How in the world are there 300, 1200, 500, whatever the number is?
How in the world are there that many?
And we can ask ourselves the question, are all 300 of them correct?
Well the obvious answer has to be no, because sometimes they have things that are diametrically
opposed.
And in our world today, it's really easy for people to say, oh, well, you have your truth.
That's good for you.
But I've got my truth and that's good for me.
So you do your thing and I'll do my thing.
But the Bible tells us that there is a truth.
There is something in the Word of God.
There is one standard of truth.
And so if every church is claiming to be following the truth, how can we figure it out?
We can't listen to what someone says.
We have to listen to what the Bible says.
But Revelation, as we've seen here, shows that there is a final remnant movement.
So what we're going to do today, we're going to look at some different places in Scripture.
And by the time we're done, we're going to have six different principles from the Word
of God, from Scripture, six different principles that can help us to navigate, help us on our
spiritual journey, help us to recognize what Jesus has in store for us.
And so sometimes people say, can you recommend a church?
They ask me that.
Well, if you ask a pastor that, you might get a little bit of a biased answer.
And I would expect if you ask any pastor that, that they're going to have a biased answer.
And if they said, well, you really shouldn't come to my church, that's going to be a red
flag right there, obviously.
So any pastor is going to say, you know, I've got a place for you.
And so we need to make sure that we're not listening to what man says, but we're listening
to what the Bible says.
So principle number one, let's go over to 1 Corinthians.
That's right in the heart of the New Testament.
You've got Acts, Romans, and then 1 Corinthians.
And we're going to go to chapter three.
1 Corinthians chapter three and verse 11.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 3, 11, for no other foundation can anyone lay than that
which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
This is perhaps the easiest one right here.
This first principle tells us that God's end time remnant movement has to be focused, has
to be founded with Jesus Christ and His teachings as the foundation.
If I want to be part of what Jesus is talking about in Revelation, then I've got to find
a group, I've got to find a church or a movement that's founded on Jesus Christ.
That Jesus is going to be the center of what they talk about, the center of their teachings.
They're not going to put a person in front of anything.
They're not going to put traditions of humans above the traditions of God.
They're not going to place the teachings of a prophet above the word of God.
They're not going to go with what the popular understanding might be, but they're going
to go by what the Bible says.
The teachings of Christ that we find in the word of God, that's principle number one.
So that's what we have to be looking for.
Now if you were to find something and share it with someone and they're like, oh, don't
worry about that.
That's not what we talk about here at this church.
You don't need to worry about that.
That's not part of our tradition here.
So just don't worry about that.
Or, oh yeah, I see that, but that's been done away with.
We need to be careful with that.
That could raise a red flag in our mind.
I heard a story of a lady who was going to a seminar similar to this, and the speaker
noticed that she never brought a Bible.
She never opened up the Bible that was maybe in the rack in front of her.
Even though they were encouraged to open up the verses, to read them for themselves.
One day as the speaker was having a conversation with the lady, he just mentioned that, hey,
I noticed you don't ever bring your Bible.
You can get a real blessing by reading something in your own Bible.
She said, well, pastor, I don't need my Bible.
He was a little bit taken aback by that.
So he inquired, well, why not?
And she said, well, if my preacher don't say it, it ain't truth.
That's exactly what she said.
If my preacher don't say it, it ain't the truth.
And wow, what a statement that is.
I'm sure her pastor was a wonderful person, as many pastors are, but if my church member
said, you know, I'm not going to bring my Bible anymore.
I'm just going to listen to what you say, and if you say it, that's all I need.
But that's not all we need.
We need to be personally in the Word of God.
Because if we're just listening to what somebody says, then it's very easy to just swallow
whatever is given to us, hook, line, and sinker, like a bass going after a lure there and getting
snatched out of the water.
We need to make sure that we're studying things and looking at things and seeing that it's
in the Bible.
Not just listening to what an individual says.
That's what a cult does, just listening to one person.
Because believe it or not, preachers, pastors, are fallible.
We make mistakes.
We're not perfect, believe it or not.
And so if any organization is more focused on what a religious leader says than what
the Bible says, then that's a warning sign right now.
So principle one, God's end time remnant movement will be founded on Jesus Christ and His teachings.
Let's go to another one now.
Let's go to 1 Timothy.
So we're going to go from 1 Corinthians, go towards the back just a little bit, to 1 Timothy.
If you get to Hebrews, you've gone too far.
1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 15.
Notice what Paul writes here.
He's writing to a young minister, a young mentee of his named Timothy.
And the Bible says, but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to
conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.
And then it says the pillar and ground of truth.
So God's church, the house of God, the church of the living God, is called the pillar and
ground of truth.
And so God's remnant movement is going to be founded on biblical Bible truth.
Whether or not that's what's popular, whether or not that's what tradition says, whether
or not that's what the crowd, the majority, talk about.
It's interesting to talk to people and determine and ask them, well, why do you go to this
particular church?
And people have many different reasons.
Oh, it's a beautiful structure.
I love the stained glass window or the music or the organ or the praise band or my grandpappy's
buried in the cemetery out back.
But church is not a social event.
It's not a social club.
The main reason we should choose a church is the question we need to ask is, is it teaching
the truth that's found in the word of God?
Does it stand on the pillar and the ground of truth?
Because often in the world today, people sometimes are more interested in what's popular rather
than what is truthful.
We're interested in all these other things instead of focusing on the teaching of what
the Bible says.
But many times people come to a series like this and they've been immersed for several
weeks, several nights in a row.
They say, I've come because I've been learning what the Bible says.
I've been seeing truth that I hadn't realized before.
People are looking for spiritual content.
They want the meat of the word.
They're looking for the pillar and the ground of truth.
And so principle two, God's remnant movement will be founded on biblical truth.
So let's go on to number three now.
We're going to go to Matthew chapter seven.
So the first book of the New Testament, Matthew chapter seven is the final chapter of what
is known as the Sermon on the Mount.
And Jesus here is telling a parable, a story in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount.
And it's a little bit hard hitting.
It's one of the saddest verses in the Bible.
And for a preacher, for a pastor, it's especially challenging.
And you'll see why in just a second.
Matthew seven, verse 21.
You notice that these three chapters, five, six, and seven, are in my Bible at least practically
all in red because they're the words of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew seven, 21, the Bible says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the
kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast
out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?
And then here's the saddest part.
Then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.
And so this third principle is that God's end time remnant movement will obey and follow
the will of God, the will of the Father.
Apparently here Jesus is saying that there will be many when he comes who verbally claim
to know him.
Lord, Lord, haven't we done this?
Lord, Lord, I know you.
Lord, I'm a Christian.
Lord, I've been a follower of yours.
And Jesus is going to say, sorry, you didn't know me.
I didn't know you.
That's shocking.
What's the issue here?
It says they did not do the will of my Father in heaven.
How can we know what the will of the Father is?
Well, we can read about it.
We can see what the will is in God's word.
So apparently their profession of following Jesus was only in word.
It was only verbal.
It's one thing to say I'm a follower of Jesus, but it's quite another to actually follow
him.
It's one thing to be glad that Jesus is the Savior of your life, but we have to also recognize
Jesus as the Lord of our life.
He's got to be both of those things because we're not saved by doing what he asks.
We're not saved by obeying.
We're saved because of the blood of Jesus, because of the grace of Jesus.
But when I obey, it's not trying to earn anything.
It's just a response to what Jesus has done for us.
It's allowing the Holy Spirit in to transform us, to change our heart and our mind so that
we can be more like him.
Did you notice that part that might be challenging for a preacher or a speaker?
These folks say, did we not prophesy in your name?
And that could read, did we not preach in your name?
Did we not do good things?
We cast out demons.
We even did wonderful works.
And still Jesus says, I don't know you.
And so as a teacher, as a preacher, I need to make sure that the things I'm sharing are
according to the will of my Father in heaven.
Because I don't want anything that my words say to lead somebody else to follow a way
to not do the will of the Father, to practice lawlessness as it ends there.
And so Jesus makes it clear what we need to do.
And then it even says, we've done wonders, we've done miracles.
And so we need to be careful because we see in scripture, we've talked about it before
in a couple different places, that the spirits of demons, the devil can do wonders, can do
miracles.
And so just because there's something that seems incredible, something that seems like
a sign or a wonder, we need to make sure that what backs that up is the will of God.
Because the devil is happy if someone's following something that seems miraculous, if it's leading
them away from the word of truth.
And so whatever we're doing, we can see that we need to be following not miracles, not
wonders, not people with silver tongues that preach in such a good way, but we need to
be following the will of my Father in heaven.
God's end time remnant movement obeys the will of God.
And so before we go on to number four, I just want to mention a pattern that is sometimes
seen in scripture.
And we'll explore this in just a couple minutes here.
About scripture, we'll look at some examples.
God's people, God's faithful people, oftentimes were in the minority.
They were the smaller group.
Jesus said, broad is the road that leads to destruction, and narrow is the way that leads
to Jesus, that leads to truth.
And so many times in scripture, God has always had a group of people that has been faithful
to him, but many times they were the smaller group.
They were in the minority.
And in the minority, many times they were not popular.
People didn't necessarily care for them, and many times they were actually persecuted.
And so here's some examples on the screen here.
You've got Noah.
What did he build?
Build an ark.
Maybe you've been up to Kentucky and you've seen that massive structure there with the
good Brussels sprouts, right?
We've talked about that before.
I don't know if they had that on the actual ark or not.
So Noah built this huge ark, and how many people ended up on the ark?
Eight people.
Only eight.
Were they in the minority?
Yes they were.
Was Noah popular while he was building and teaching and preaching?
Probably not real popular because only his family got on board.
Was he persecuted?
Well the Bible doesn't specifically say that he was persecuted, but it seems like likely
he was mocked a little bit because nobody listened to him, nobody followed after him.
And then we've got Abraham.
Abraham was called out of a city, called out of Ur to follow God.
Was he a minority?
Yeah it was just him and his family.
Was he popular with the world?
Not most of the time.
He went to different places.
They didn't always appreciate him.
They fought battles against him.
Was he persecuted?
Sometimes he was, not by everybody, but by some people.
And then you've got the Israelites.
They come down to Egypt and they live as slaves for a time.
And then finally God through Moses calls them out, calls them to the promised land.
Were they a minority?
Yes, they had grown significantly, but they were still the smaller group.
Were they popular?
They were not popular.
The Egyptians didn't appreciate them.
The other nations didn't appreciate them.
Were they persecuted?
Yes, they've been persecuted then and practically all through time their descendants have faced
different kinds of persecutions.
And then you've got the Christian church in the New Testament, in Acts, that came out
of that group of Israelites.
Were they in the minority?
In the book of Acts, certainly so.
There was just a handful of them and then they began to grow.
Were they popular?
No, they were arrested, they were beaten, they were imprisoned.
Were they persecuted?
Yes, they were beaten, they were imprisoned.
All those different things I just mentioned.
And then as the Christian faith went on and we've talked about how it kind of got distracted,
how it moved in a different direction, well then God called forth some reformers who began
to call the church back to follow the words of the Bible.
And time and time again they were the smaller group.
Time and time again they were not popular with the people around them, with the leaders.
Time and time again they were persecuted.
And then Revelation talks about a remnant in the last days.
Those who are going to stand for God no matter what.
Those who are going to keep God's commandments and want to draw other people back to His
Word.
Based on this pattern that we've seen, we could anticipate that they're not going to
be the big group.
We can anticipate that they're not necessarily going to be popular with everyone around them.
We can see that based on the pattern that there's a chance, in fact, this is the one
that we don't have to wonder because Revelation actually says for a fact that there's going
to be persecution of this group.
As we saw last night that when they stand for God that there's going to be life changes,
life and death changes that's going to come to them.
And so as we've seen in Revelation 12, 17 the dragon was wroth, was angry with the woman
and went to make war with the remnant of her seed.
Whenever God's faithful people stand up the devil notices it and the devil doesn't like
it and the devil sends people to try to push them away from God or drag them away from
God.
In all history there have been people who have stood up for truth, who have stood up
for the Bible, who have stood up for God.
And in Revelation that group is called the remnant.
In fact, 50 times in Scripture that phrase, that word remnant is talking about God's people
who are faithful in the face of others who are not following God.
And so what does this word mean?
Let's take just a second before we get on to our next principle.
What is a remnant?
So let me just share a little illustration.
Some of you may do some things like this, but my wife has recently started quilting.
So this, I'm not going to throw this down and step on it like I did last night, but
she's got a thing for strawberries.
She's made a couple of quilts that are strawberries.
So sometimes she goes to man's favorite store, not the Bass Pro Shop, but the fabric store,
that other store, whether it's Joann's or Hobby Lobby, one of those places that I don't
particularly like to go, but sometimes she'll ask me to go with her.
And so we'll go into the store and she'll be looking for some fabric.
So you can use a wide variety when you're making a strawberry.
So let's just use an example here that maybe she's got one for the red and it's red fabric
and it's got white polka dots and then it's got a diamond pattern inside the polka dots.
So what color is it?
Red.
What's the pattern on it?
Polka dot and then what's the design inside of that?
A diamond.
And so she goes and buys, I don't know, a couple yards of fabric to make quilts and
she comes home and she cuts them into cute little squares and sometimes they're squares,
sometimes they're diagonals, sometimes she uses it for the border to go all around or
the back of the quilt, which is a solid piece most often.
But she comes down towards the end and she recognizes that she doesn't have quite enough
of this particular fabric.
And so, okay, Greg, come with me.
We get back in the car, back to man's favorite store.
Nope, not Bass Pro.
Over to Joanne Fabrics and she goes and she needs to find this particular fabric.
So what color is it?
Red.
What's the pattern on it?
Polka dots.
What's the design inside?
A diamond.
So she looks where that was and she can't find it.
She goes to another section of, nope, it's not there with those reds.
And she asks the clerk, do you have any more of this?
And she says, well, maybe check one more place.
Maybe there just was a little bit left.
Maybe there's a bin over in the corner.
What's that bin called?
The remnant bin where the rolls of fabric, there's only a little bit left and so they
stick them in a bin and you can go and get the remnant bin because it's just a little
bit.
It's not enough to make a dress.
It's not enough to make a quilt.
But maybe it's enough to finish the project.
But if she goes and looks, she has to find the fabric that is what color?
It's red and it's got polka dots and it's got a design of a diamond in there.
And if she doesn't find that exact fabric, then it's not going to match.
And so in Revelation when it talks about a remnant, when it's describing God's end time
people, it's a group that's going to match with that early church which was faithful
to the Word of God.
It's going to have the same teachings, the same doctrines, the same truths using the
Bible as the rule of faith.
And that's why Revelation uses that word, calling it a remnant.
And so that's why the dragon was angry, was wroth with the woman and went to make war
with the remnant of her seed.
And then it gives that description there which keep the commandments of God and have the
testimony of Jesus.
And so that leads us to principle number four.
God's end time remnant, like the early church, like God's people throughout scripture, keep
the commandments of God.
And so we need to stop and make a point here because this is not the most popular point.
This is not the thing that most people want to hear.
But Revelation is telling us that if we want to find this remnant church that we've got
to find a group that keeps these commandments of God, that uplifts the commandments of God.
If you read through this scripture from Genesis to the Gospel of John, from John to the book
of Revelation, every single follower of God here is honoring God's commandments, is honoring
ten of them, is honoring the Sabbath.
It's fascinating that when you start talking about God's commandments that there's only
one that sometimes people say doesn't matter, it's done away with.
We see in Revelation 14 as we've read this, that first angel says with a loud voice, fear
God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who
made the heavens and the earth and the springs of water.
And we've seen how that is quoting from the fourth commandment.
And if you start talking about the commandments, this is the only one that people say, oh that
doesn't matter.
Nobody says, oh it's okay to steal, here take my money.
Nobody says, okay, no, no, you can commit adultery now, it's okay, that's done away
with, it's only this one.
And so it shouldn't surprise us that in the book of Revelation this group of people that
are serving God are going to keep his commandments even if it's not a popular thing.
But Revelation is clear that God is calling his people back to experience this beautiful
thing, a 24 hour time when we can turn our eyes upon Jesus.
We can turn our eyes upon him.
So that fourth principle, God's end time remnant will keep the commandments of God including
the seventh day Sabbath.
Let's go over to Matthew chapter 24.
We've been to Matthew 24 before.
This is the segment that talks about Jesus sharing the signs of the time.
So for principle number five, Matthew 24 and verse 14, one of the things that will happen
before Jesus comes in Matthew 24, 14, the Bible says, and this gospel of the kingdom
will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations and then the end will come.
Before Jesus comes, this gospel has to be taken to the world.
And so God's end time remnant will be part of a worldwide movement that wants to take
the stories of Jesus, the gospel of Jesus, the good news of Jesus to the world.
That's what the early church looked like in the book of Acts.
That's what their mission was to go to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the ends of the
world.
They wanted to spread the gospel everywhere to use their talents and their time and their
money and their energy to make sure that people heard about Jesus.
The book of Acts tells many stories about Paul and everywhere he went.
He left behind a church and they even had believers in the very palace of the Roman
emperor himself.
That was an impact that they were making that God's spirit was leading them.
And it says that they even turned the world upside down.
That's a phrase that we find in the book of Acts.
And so since the remnant is supposed to look like the original, then we've got to be looking
for a group that has this same mission that isn't just focused on one place or one spot,
but that is able to talk seriously about going to the world.
I think there's about 230 nations in the world and you and I can't go to all of those.
But can we help send people there to take the gospel to the people who some have never
even heard of the name of Jesus.
And that's why we saw in Revelation 14 that first angel says that the gospel is going
to go to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.
And so we could say, some have said that God's remnant is not about being a pew warmer.
You know what a pew warmer is?
It's about someone who comes to a place like this and sits in the pew and you keep it warm
and you listen and then you go home and your time is done.
And maybe you leave a little money behind.
But that's not what it's about.
If that's what your Christian experience is like, then you are in need of Jesus changing
your heart and mind and giving you a revival because we see here that this gospel of the
kingdom will be preached to all the world and then the end will come.
God wants to use each one of us to share his message, to share the joy and there's no greater
joy than knowing that God used you to impact somebody else.
And so let's move on now to number six here.
Now we're going to go to Revelation 14.
You may already be there.
We've gone to this chapter several times.
Even tonight we've already gone here a couple times.
But Revelation 14 contains some messages from angels and we're just going to remind ourselves
of what these are.
And we've actually only looked at two of them so far but we're going to look at the third.
But Revelation 14.
I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach
to those who dwell on the earth to every nation, tribe, tongue and people saying with a loud
voice fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and worship
him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.
And so this first angel which we've talked about several times reminds us we're in this
judgment hour so Jesus is coming soon and it also is a reminder to worship God as our
creator and we have a memorial of that creation that seventh day Sabbath.
And so we can be reminded of two different key principles here.
God's end time people are going to be pointing people to Jesus coming again and then reminding
them to remember the Sabbath day to worship the creator of heaven and earth.
And that's why the devil hates the Sabbath because he doesn't want us to have have time
to spend with Jesus because if we spend time with Jesus then we just might be more ready
for when Jesus comes.
That whole day of the Sabbath is intimately connected with the return of Jesus and in
the book of Isaiah it actually tells us that the Sabbath is going to be kept in heaven
as well.
Well let's go on now to the second angel we haven't talked about this angel yet but let's
spend a little time here.
Revelation 14 and verse 8 notice what the Bible says another angel followed saying Babylon
is fallen is fallen that great city because she has made all nations drink of the wine
of the wrath of her fornication.
So we've got to pause here because there's a couple new principles that we haven't talked
about yet.
What is Babylon?
What does it mean for Babylon to be fallen and then how does it word it there makes all
nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
So as we put these pieces together based on what we've studied we're going to discover
that Babylon is this system of religious confusion because you remember the story after the flood
after Noah and the flood the people did not want to experience that again and so they
began to build a tower called the Tower of Babel or Babel because they thought you know
what if we keep on sinning if we keep on breaking God's law God may send another flood well
if he does we'll just go up to the top of this tower and we'll save ourselves by our
own actions by our own works and so God had to pronounce a little mini judgment on them
and confuse their language and so they were scattered throughout the earth and in that
same area that same region that's where the actual city of Babylon was built and through
scripture Babylon is portrayed as an enemy of God's people.
It was Babylon that came in in Daniel and destroyed Jerusalem.
It was Babylon that was the birthplace of many of these pagan practices that we talk
about and so in scripture when you see Babylon it's referencing this enemy of God's people
that is a persecuting power and then also a false system of religion that confuses people
this confusion that's what the word means and so when it says Babylon is fallen that
means that its false religious system of the world has fallen away from the truth of God.
It's not following the words of God and we need to make sure of organizations or churches
or whatever that may be falling away from biblical truth and we're going to see in
just a little bit that in Acts excuse me Revelation chapter 18 that God makes a call to bring
people back and so this second angel here is a warning warning people of the dangers
of this these false doctrines and false teachings which have taken the place of the word of
God and so then there's a third angel we've looked at this before verse 9 a third angel
followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone worships the beast in his image and
receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand he himself shall also drink of the wine
of the wrath of God which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation and
so this third angel warns people about following the Antichrist warns people against the about
the the mark of the beast and so forth and then finally verse 12 there's a there's a
promise there's a way to overcome this evil beast power here is the patience of the saints
here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus and so we see that
God's end time remnant movement is going to be warning people talking about these last
day messages talking about calling people to come back to God's commandments to keep
this faith of Jesus because the Bible says that those folks are keeping the commandments
because of their love of what Jesus has done for them not not in a legalistic way but in
a response to what Jesus has done for them we recognize that God has this entity this
group that want to keep his commandments because of their love for him that's a group that
I've personally want to be a part of and so this sixth principle shows us that God's
end time remnant movement will share will proclaim these three angels message of Revelation
14 we've talked about this just now Jesus is coming soon a call to worship Jesus is
our creator and remember his Sabbath day to uplift the Bible this warning of the second
angel to not drink the wine of confusion and then the third angel draws attention to the
prophecies of Antichrist and the mark of the beast so here's the six things that we've
discovered here from scripture that this group that is talked about in Revelation is going
to have a foundation based on the teachings of Jesus Christ as found in the Bible it'll
have a pillar it'll have a foundation of the pillar and ground of truth it will be those
that obey the will of God so that Jesus will not say I never knew you and we've seen that
it will will keep the commandments of God and it will be serious about taking this gospel
message to the whole world and as it does that it will share this message of the three
angels as they're organized to go to the entire world and so these are some principles that
we can look at that you can use in your spiritual walk in your spiritual journey and we can
each ask ourselves God guide me lead me help me to see these principles in scripture and
to show me which direction I need to go because the truth is if you take these six things
it's really quickly going to whittle down those 300 groups that we talked about or 800
groups or whatever it is because you're not going to have to study all 300 because you're
going to be able to quickly mark some out and it may not be the most popular group it
may not be the biggest group but are we willing to lead to follow where God is leading us
because as you follow these six principles it can make a difference in your life it's
made a difference in mine I studied this as a child I grew up hearing this and reading
this but there came a time when I had to make a decision is this really what I want to do
because if I want to follow this if I want to teach this I've got to examine this I've
got to check this out and so we can read a verse the dragon was wrought with the woman
and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and
have the testimony of Jesus and so as I read that it seemed like that there would be a
time there would be a movement of people coming from different directions from different backgrounds
from different places people that wanted to uplift the Bible and hold up the Bible including
the commandments of God and if that's what Revelation is talking about then I wanted
to be a part of that now I personally I love studying history and reading all kinds of
history and so as I read this I thought if that was prophesied then surely we can find
that it must have happened and we've talked about it that it did happen that there was
that 1260 year period as there was persecution as there was a group of people that God was
protecting his church is the woman hiding in the wilderness for that 1260 years and
then when that church and state came to an end exactly on time in 1798 Revelation said
that at that time period from verse 16 to verse 17 here in Revelation 12 that there
would be some sort of gathering some sort of movement of God's people who would start
to come together and realize truth and come back to the commandments of God and as I read
this as I studied this I saw that in the 1800s long before I was born that there were people
from different religious backgrounds from different religious faiths who came to study
the Bible and yes they came and formed a group but they were from lots of different places
and it was a time when there were Bible societies of lots of different denominations and so
now people the dark ages were over people could have a Bible in their own hand people
could have a Bible in their own home it wasn't chained to the church anymore and they said
let's study the Bible and so Methodists and Catholics and Baptists and Christian connection
and other people began to study the Bible and they began to say wow we're looking forward
to a near return of Jesus a second Advent and they became known as Adventists and then
as they continued to study the Bible some of them said well what about this seventh
day thing that had been forgotten for all these years and eventually as they came from
different places they formed a movement known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church that would
look forward to the second coming that would proclaim the Bible Sabbath that would share
its joy with others and guess when that happened right at that time period in the 1800s and
as I grew older I studied this out and said you know what if this is what the Bible says
then this is what I want to be a part of and those six principles have tied me have shown
me that this is a movement that I want to be a part of but let me make it clear that
if a church that I'm a part of suddenly decides you know what we're going to take some of
those traditions of men and put them above the Bible you know we're going to abandon
some of those things that were found in Scripture if that happens guess what I'm out if there's
another group that is following closer to Scripture please let me know because it's
not a denomination it's not a church that saves you I want to be part of a movement
that is following Scripture that is lifting up the commandments of God that is sharing
the gospel to all the world so I have to clarify here does that mean that other Christians
is that are they second tier or they let no no that would be an arrogant thing to say
God is saying that he's got people everywhere and he's calling people to follow him and
to serve him notice what Jesus says in John chapter 10 and verse 16 Jesus says other sheep
I have which are not of this fold them also must I bring and they will hear my voice and
there will be one flock and one shepherd we have an opportunity to listen to the voice
of Jesus Jesus is calling his people everywhere and he says there will be an end time movement
that is drawing people back to him and within this Seventh-day Adventist Church you'll
find people that grew up Catholic or Methodist or Baptist or atheist or Muslim or whatever
it might be but they've seen the light of truth and they want to follow Jesus and so
as we close tonight I want to turn to Revelation chapter 18 Revelation chapter 18 because there's
a an invitation that Jesus gives Revelation 18 starting in verse one the Bible says after
these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority and the
earth was illuminated with his glory and it goes on and says he cried mightily with a
loud voice saying Babylon the great is fallen is fallen then it goes on in verse three for
all nations have drunk the wine of the wrath of her fornication the kings of the earth
have committed fornication with her remember we talked about Babylon is this false religious
system for every truth God has Satan has some sort of counterfeit so this is describing
those counterfeit things that God has and then in verse four is the invitation I heard
another voice from heaven saying come out of her my people lest you share in her sins
and lest you receive her plagues I love that invitation come out my people God has people
everywhere and he's inviting them to come and to follow him to come and to come out
of false religious systems Jesus is calling us to come and to serve him and to come back
to truth and to follow him and so there's people from many different backgrounds that
are responding atheists are responding Muslims are responding Baptist Catholics Methodists
and Jesus says you are my people and I'm calling you out of this false system and I'm calling
you to choose to follow the truth and so we have an invitation some may be hearing this
for the first time some may have drifted away and forgotten some of these things but we
have seen through our nights together that Jesus has been uplifted that truth has been
uplifted and that's not because of me that's because of the Holy Spirit working through
his word Jesus said if you know the truth the truth will set you free so I just want
to leave you with that invitation that Jesus made come out of her my people I know that
you love Jesus I know that you love his word I know that you love his truth and we can
all ask the question of my willing to surrender my life to surrender my heart to Jesus let's
bow our heads for prayer dear God you are always enough for us help us to remember that
help us to surrender ourself to you each and every day and God when we want to uplift ourself
when we want to go in our own direction help us to be humble and to hear your call and
to hear your direction and to remember that you are enough for us be with us as we go
from this place be with us as we stand for you as we live for your truth in your name
we pray amen.