 Human Government Is governmental control really the answer to our problems? Human government is not our answer because it's been proven over and over again that human governments fail. They fail the people and eventually turn against their own citizens. Human governments become the enemy of the people. We saw this happen as we read the history books of Russia in the Bolshevik revolution. The government actually turned against the people. It's happened many times over in southeast Asia. If you remember the story of Paul Pot in that area of the world. He turned against the very people that was that were the answer to lifting the country out of poverty into prosperity. He turned against that very class of people. Well here in the United States we say we're more modern. We're more sophisticated. We are more advanced in our education and in our relationship with one another. But everyone can see it. Many of you can see the government is turning against the people and it's called control.
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 The Self Revelation of God Today we have a very
important topic that actually runs from the very beginning of the
scriptures to the very end. From Genesis to Revelation and that topic is
the self-revelation of God. In all religions around the world, regardless of what they are, it seems
as though most religions are based upon man's quest for God. Man's searching after God either for his own satisfaction or either to find the meaning of life as we live it or as they live it or to find the meaning of the afterlife. Where does man go when he dies and to satisfy or to pacify an angry God that's what most religions are based upon. But Christianity is not man's quest for God, it's God's self-revelation to man. It's Gods idea. Its God's making it's God's plan its God's purpose it's not ours.
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 The Abomination of Desolation I would like to try to bring to our attention the truth that we find that God's Word concerning the abomination of desolation when it took place the reason why it took place and to whom it took place. There's been a lot of confusion as to what is the abomination of desolation that Jesus spoke of in Matthew chapter 24. Now in Matthew 24 we read this phrase in the context when Jesus was talking about the Jewish temple being destroyed. We must keep that in mind. If we do not keep in mind the timing in which Jesus made this statement and to whom it applied then we'll be we will be thoroughly confused.
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 Blasphemy Against the Holy Ghost And as our Lord taught the multitudes, he was confronted by people that did not like him. Now we must admit this. We cannot smooth it over. We cannot just whitewash this subject that is in the four gospels. The Jews hated Jesus. And there were the multitude of the people, the multitude of the Jews that heard him and then there was the group that followed him that were friendly to him, his disciples which included the men that later became apostles, and then the women that followed him. And then there was another group called the scribes, the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees, the doctors and the lawyers. And they were constantly contending with the Lord Jesus Christ.
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 Crown of Thorns We have often talked about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and the suffering that He went through, at the whipping post, taking those stripes for our healing, and His prayer in Gethsemane and sweating great drops of blood. His cruel mockings in His 6 trials that He had to endure, starting at about 9 o'clock that night, to 6 o'clock the next morning. Going through 3 religious trials and 3 civil trials. We often hear sermons and read stories about the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of our Lord, but what led up to this cruel death?
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 Noah was in his tent Ham the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father. Now what does that mean? What is the nakedness of the father? It is not limited to the fact that Ham saw his father with no clothes on, because the term, nakedness of thy father, includes something else. It has to include your father's wife. Now this phrase, the nakedness of thy father, is clearly explained in Leviticus chapter 18. And this clears it up, as to what Ham did. Chapter 18 of Leviticus, I'm going to read verse number 1 and then I'm going to skip down to verses 6 through 8.
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD. The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness.
Now also in Leviticus chapter 20 and verse number 11,
And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
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 Hell This idea that Jesus descended into hell and was there in hell for three days and three nights while His body was in the grave is something that has been around ever since the second century but is it really true? Now everyone of us has heard of the Apostles Creed and I want I want to read you part of the apostles creed
THE APOSTLES CREED
I believe in God the Father Almighty, make of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell; The third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
Now is there anything in that Creed that is unscriptural? Talks about His birth, His crucifixion, His death and that it said he descended into hell. Is that correct? That is a fable my friends that is a Jewish fable that has been around ever since the second century at least and I want to explain to you how this fable came about how this to belief crept in to the Christian faith. Now this is a very disturbing trend that is in Christianity today because it appears as though that when something is taught and then it kind of catches on and no one challenges it. No one seems to do the research to tell people but it's a ministers job to do the research and find out whether something is true.
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 Drama of the Lost Disciples How did Christianity reach America? Well your answer no doubt would be well it was brought over here by the pilgrims. The Gospel was brought later on by the puritans and then it was brought further by different people that came after them. Well where did they come from? As we well know the Pilgrims came from central England there were several little towns in central England where these pilgrims came from and a lot of them knew one another and they they decided that they must leave England because of the pressures of the government, so they went to Holland and spent approximately twenty years before they left and came to America. So let's go back just a little further, how did the gospel reach England? Well that's the subject that I want to introduce to you today and introduce to you this book entitled The Drama of the Lost Disciples.
It's a very
important subject as we peruse history and as we read the Bible they
will blend together as we see the program of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the founding of the church in Jerusalem, and how it
came west. Now the subject at hand is very important because unless we
know these things there's a lot of gaps in our knowledge and there will
be a lot of gaps in our Bible understanding unless we know what
happened actually during the Book of Acts and following the close of
the Book of Acts as we read it in our Bible.
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