Covenant of Lies & Death #1

Fred R. Coulter—February 28, 2009

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Today we are going to cover the Covenant of Lies and Death. That not only includes physical death, but it can include spiritual death. We are right now in a situation in the world that we're far beyond the place of what this tells us. Nevertheless, it's still operative. What we have is this: in a percentage of good and evil in the world, and a percentage of truth and lies in the world, and a percentage of mixture of good and evil in the world, we are coming more and more to the point that there is more evil, and more people dedicated to evil and more people setting their minds to evil than ever before, and starting at a younger age than ever before. So here's what God says concerning His Word. Deuteronomy 30:10: "If you shall obey the voice of the LORD your God to keep His commandments…" And so I want everyone who has a Bible in your house, I want you to think about this. Have you read it? Do you understand it? Do you realize that is a message from God to you? You want to know what God would say to you, if you had a personal conversation with Him? It's in the Bible, and that's why Jesus came in the flesh, to let all men know what they are to do to please God. And there are two categories of pleasing God:

• The letter of the law, for any society or country or nation in the world.
• Those who are called and receive the Spirit of God after they have entered into the covenant of eternal life through baptism and they are to love God and serve Him and keep His commandments in the spirit of the law, with the full devotion of heart, mind and soul to God.

So as we read these, keep those two things in mind because it applies in both ways.

Verse 10: "If you shall obey the voice of the LORD your God… [Key thing, whatever God says. Let's stop here because there are too many atheists out there. There are too many people who don't believe in God. There are too many people who think that God has done away with the Old Testament. There are too many people who believe the anti-Christ doctrines which are just absolutely consuming Protestantism, to say nothing of Catholicism, that you don't understand what the Bible really says.] …to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul; For this commandment which I command you… [And we can apply this Old Testament and New Testament.] …is not hidden from you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say, 'Who shall go up to heaven for us, and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it?'.... [You don't need to hire NASA to send it to some far-off planet to find out where God is and bring it back to you.] …Neither is it beyond the sea… [Where you have to go to pagan heathen nations and say, 'Oh, how do these people worship their gods? Isn't that nice and lovely.'] …that you should say, 'Who shall over the sea for us to bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it?' But the word is very near you… [And that's why in the Bible I have a section, Why Are There So Many Bibles in The World? right in the first part. The reason is because with all the catastrophes that are coming on the world, God wants everyone to have a witness to them in His Word, in their language that they can read and understand. Just like anything else, if you have a Bible in your house and you don't read it, that's not God's fault, through whatever means God caused you to have it. It's your responsibility to read it.] …very near you, in your mouth and in your heart… [That means in a language that you can understand.] …so that you may do it" (vs 10-14).

Here is the key, this is the choice that God has set before every one: "Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil" (v 15). Every human being has that, the choice set before them. You are a free moral agent, you must choose. The information to choose good is there. The information to choose evil is there. 'Life and good and death and evil.' Since I have given the Covenant of Eternal Life and the True Riches of God #1 and #2, we are going to focus on what most people in this world are doing and they don't realize it, they are in a covenant of death.

Continuing, v 16: "In that I command you this day to love the LORD your God… [Because God wants to do you good.] …to walk in His ways... [And you can expand all of this through all the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament.] …and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments so that you may live and multiply. And the LORD your God shall bless you in the land where you go to possess it." How many times have you heard, 'Oh, we live in the greatest country on God's earth!' Did God bless us? Yes. What's happening today? More people are in covenant with death than they are with God. So we are getting, as a nation, what the majority of the people have in their lives, evil and sin multiplied hundreds of millions of times.

Verse 17 is a warning. I want you to think about this warning. "But if your heart turn away so that you will not hear… ['Oh, I don't want all those, you know, the Old Testament, the Bible. I don't believe in the Bible.' I can tell you why a lot of people don't believe in the Bible because most of the religions that they see, which are called Christian, are not Christian, and they don't follow the Bible. They use the Bible for their own pet little doctrines. That's why in the Bible in its original order we have, Fourteen Rules for Bible Study. We also have in there, How Did Jesus Fulfill the Law and the Prophets? We have in there why God gave us the Bible. All of those things are there, but if you will not hear, because there're some people who don't want to, but I can also say this, if you look at Catholicism, let's just take the example of the Jews. They reject Jesus, but they read the Old Testament and they look at the Catholic Church and say, 'That can't be originating from the God of the Old Testament with all of the idolatry and all of the paganism and all of that.' They are absolutely right. That is not of God and never has been from day one.

Then you look at the Protestants and they're just reformed Catholics. 'Will not hear,' so I can't blame you for rejecting it and I can't blame some of the atheists, and you read what they write and most of it is attacks against the Roman Catholic Church, well deserved. However, I appeal to anyone who is an atheist, why don't you set aside your prejudice and why don't you set aside your hatred of the religions called Christian that you see, and why don't you just pick up the Bible and you start reading and studying it? Why don't you do just one thing that will help you understand it? For two months, keep the seventh-day Sabbath every week and study the Bible on the seventh-day Sabbath, and I guarantee you that at the end of two months, you're going to have a lot of your prejudice and your hatred toward the Bible reduced. If you keep at it, you will find God. God did not give a religion. Men have taken the Word of God and have overlaid it with so many traditions that you can't find God in religion.

"…will not hear, but shall be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them… [That's what we have today. 'Oh, everybody's religion is the same. We're all going to the same place.' True statement, death and destruction, because you're not in covenant with the true God. Now notice what God says. I want you to understand the severity and the ironclad force behind what God is giving here.] …I denounce to you this day that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days on the land where you pass over Jordan to go to possess it" (vs 17-18). And all you have to do is read the rest of the history of the house of Judah and the house of Israel and what did they do? Exactly as God warned them not to do and what happened to them? Exactly as God said. He sent them off by the sword; He sent them famine; He sent them pestilence; He scattered them into the earth.
"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you… [And anyone who has a Bible, this is set before you.] …that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, so that both you and your seed may live. That you may love the LORD your God, and may obey His voice, and may cleave to Him; for He is your life and the length of your days… [Only God gives life and only God gives breath and only God keeps us going, whether you're a sinner, whether you're a saint.] …for He is your life and the length of your days, so that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob—to give it to them" (vs 19-20). That's what we are living in today. That's why we are the most blessed nation in the earth.

The tipping point has arrived and we are going to become progressively the most cursed nation on earth. Let's look at this. Why is this happening? How did we get to this point? Let's cover some very basic things that we need to understand. Let's start with the basic and the simple. Number one, what is sin? Sin is not the transgression of a tradition of Judaism or Catholicism or Hinduism or Buddhism. 1-John 3, this tells us what sin is. Now the King James says, "Sin is the transgression of the law", which defines it quite well. But it's actually greater than that, as we will see. 1-John 3:4: "Everyone who practices sin…" 'What do you mean practice sin? I'm a good person. I go to church.' Even Neudow, the atheist, said, 'I'm religious.'

Now again I want to bring out the three most important principal things in a brief overview of the way of God versus the way of Christianity of the world. Three things:

1.            Seventh-day Sabbath (And don't be fooled by the modern calendars that come out which now put Sunday as the seventh day. That's a lying sleight-of-hand, so that stupid ignorant people will look at the calendar and say, 'Look, mommy, Sunday is the seventh day.' Never was, never has been. You can put it at the end of the week, but that doesn't change what God created.) That puts you in contact with God and how to find Him.
2.            The Passover. The Passover is fundamental and key and it should not be called, as we will give you the other names in just a minute. It is the Passover and that's what Jesus took and that puts you in a covenant relationship with God for eternal life.
3.            The Holy Days of God, tell you the plan of God and what He is doing. Since the world and the world's Christianity does not follow those, but rejects them with adamant hatred, they don't know the plan of God. They don't understand salvation and they are dying, because they are in a covenant of death and don't realize it.

The three things of orthodox Christendom which are juxtapositioned as the mirror image, but it is a counterfeit:

• Sunday-keeping. God never at any time, at anywhere, any place changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day and if you don't have our booklet, A Sabbath/Sunday Challenge You Have Never Read, you get it. Keeping Sunday cuts you off from God, although you may use portions of the Bible.
• Lord's Supper, Communion, Eucharist, called by those three names, puts you in covenant with death rather than life, because the only covenant of life comes through the Passover.
• The occult holidays of the world are an exact counterfeit of the Holy Days of God.

Now that's as fundamental as you can get. 1-John 3:4: "Everyone who practices sin…" So if you're not living according to the commandments of God, you are sinning, practicing it. If you go to church every day on Sunday, you are practicing sin. If keep all the holidays of this world, you are practicing sin. Every time you go to communion and take the Eucharist or the sacrifice of the mass, you are committing sin. And you take the Lord's Supper every Sunday, how come you take it in the morning on Sunday if it's the Lord's Supper? You are sinning. Come over to my house at nine o'clock at night and I'll feed you breakfast.

If you keep the holidays of this world, you are practicing sin. 'Oh, but these are such good times!' Yes, Satan wants you happy in your deception. He wants you to have pleasure in sin. "…is also practicing lawlessness…" Now why is it translated that way? Because that's what the Greek means. Now what is lawlessness? Lawlessness is this, instead of choosing the way of God, you choose your own version of what you want to do and you add to the laws of God or you take away the laws of God for your own personal pleasure, for your own personal convenience, because you like this, and you don't like that and you like this, and you don't like that. So you're going to have the audacity and the stupidity and ignorance to tell God what you're going to do for Him. When the judgment comes around, it's going to be the other way around. God is going to find out 'what did you do with My Word?' And who was the first one to amend what God commanded? Cain. He brought a sacrifice that God did not command. What did He call it? Sin. Sin lies at the door. Where did he bring it? Right at the door of the Garden of Eden where there was an altar to bring offerings. But even if according to your own will that you bring an offering, you do it God's way. Lawlessness: "…for sin is lawlessness" (v 4).

Let's analyze that a little bit more. Let's take all the traditions of Judaism added to the Old Testament. That's lawlessness. All the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. Lawlessness. All the traditions of Protestantism and what they preach. Lawlessness. And as I had a discussion with a woman on the radio program when I was on with Gianni Hayes, 'Oh, Paul brought a greater gospel than Jesus did.' Lawlessness. 'We don't have to keep the commandments of God.' Lawlessness. The world is given over to lawlessness.

How did it get that way? Let's come to 1-John 5:17. Here again it is defined a little more. "All… [What does all mean? Each and every one.] …All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death…" That is a sin that you can repent of. But we're going to find out that those who are in a covenant of death, they fall into two categories:

• Those who are there and don't know it and can repent of it.
• Those who are there and know it and openly worship (as we will see) Satan the devil. They are going to have a very difficult time escaping the ultimate fate of the covenant of death, which is the lake of fire; which is not separation from God, it is eternal death. You no longer exist.

Verse 18: "We know that anyone who is begotten by God does not practice sin… [Now the King James slaughters this and in chapter three as well. That's one of the principal reasons why this version was translated.] …for the one who has been begotten by God… [That is has the Spirit of God in him.] …keeps himself by the power of God… [Because through the Holy Spirit of God and the laws of God and the Word of God, he knows how to conduct his life or she knows how to conduct her life.] …and the wicked one does not touch him." Now that's very profound. You think about this and we'll talk about the wicked one here in just a little bit. That's Satan the devil.

What did Jesus pray for the saints? He said, 'I pray not that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one', or the wicked one. What are we to pray every day? Matthew 6, 'Rescue us from the evil one.' We'll see why here in just a little bit. Verse 20: "And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, so that we may know Him Who is true." So you can know God.

Hold your place here. We'll come right back. Come over to 1-John 2. We're going to talk a lot about liars in covering what is the covenant of death. Remember, they're religious and remember they are sanctimonious. 1-John 2:3: "And by this standard we know that we know Him… [So if you want to know God, here it is.] …if we keep His commandments." 'Those are not the Ten Commandments; those are the commandments of Jesus. That's why we don't have to keep the Sabbath.' Oh, really? What day did Jesus keep? He kept the Sabbath. Did He keep it because He was a Jew? No, He kept it because He was the Creator of it. Notice, 'if we keep His commandments.'

Verse 4: "The one who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." So you can rest assured of this, very clearly, it does not matter how smooth talking, how sanctimonious that the person may be, how religious the person may be, how many sermons he has given, that his life looks to be very righteous, if he doesn't keep the commandments of God and teaches them, he is a liar. That's all part of the covenant of death.

Verse 5: "On the other hand, if anyone is keeping His Word… [Now that's vastly more expansive than commandments, right? His Word, whatever He said.] …truly in this one the love of God is being perfected. By this means we know that we are in Him." How are you to live your life? So this little epistle of 1-John contains an awful lot of powerful material, doesn't it? Yes, indeed. Verse 6: "Anyone who claims to dwell in Him is obligating himself also to walk even as He Himself walked." Question:

• Did Jesus worship the true God? Yes.
• Did He keep the Sabbath? Yes.
• Did He keep Passover? Yes.
• Did He keep the Holy Days? Yes.
• Did He love His neighbor as Himself? Yes.
• Did He love God with all His heart, mind, and soul and being? Yes.

How are you to walk? If you receive the Spirit of God and Christ is in you, that's how you are to walk. God made it simple. You can do it, because God gives you the Holy Spirit to be able to do it.

Let's come back to 1-John 5:19: "We know that we are of God… [If you don't know where God is, God gave a promise. 'Seek and you will find,' but you have to do it God's way and you have to read and study the Bible to find out. We have our website where we have many, many sermons, articles, and so forth. We have books that we send to you at no cost. You can write and get those.] …and that the whole world lies in the power of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, so that we may know Him Who is true; and we are in Him Who is true, and in His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God, and the eternal life…. [So he ends with this little short verse.] …Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (vs 19-20). So the next time you walk into your local cathedral and you see all of these idols around, just know for sure, God is not there. God is not in Rome. There is a god who is in Rome, but it's not the true God.

Let's continue on. Let's talk a little bit more about the commandments. I want to explain something here. Let's come to James 2:8 (pg 1127): "If you are truly keeping the Royal Law…" Now that includes an awful lot. Why is it called the Royal Law? Because God is God and King. He is Lawgiver. And another thing that James says a little later in chapter 4 which is this (so you need to think about this)—'if you judge the law, you are judging the lawgiver. And as a judge you are no longer a doer, but a law-breaker' (paraphrased a little bit). So you need to understand that. What man is going to walk up to God and say, 'God, you do this. I think this is a better way of doing it than what you have written in your Bible here.' You might try the book of Job on for size and see how that fits, because Job thought that God was unfair and that his righteousness was greater than God's. So the book of Job is there for a perpetual lesson to everyone who thinks that they are greater than God. It ain't ever going to happen. One day God is going to look you in the eyes, just like He did with Job, and say, Answer Me.

James 2:8: "If you are truly keeping the Royal Law according to the scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you are doing well. But if you have respect of persons, you are practicing sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors…. [Just exactly fits right in with the book of 1-John. And a lot of people use this as an excuse, because they read it] …For if anyone keeps the whole law, but sins in one aspect, he becomes guilty of all…. [So therefore, why even try to keep it, because all men are sinners. That's not the meaning of it. He wants to give you an example and I will also point out some things to you concerning it.] …For He Who said, 'You shall not commit adultery… [What law is he talking about? The Ten Commandments, right? Yes.] …also said, 'You shall not commit murder.' Now if you do not commit adultery, but you commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law" (vs 8-11).

Now let's take this another step further from this and see what else we can understand. Since we talk about the Sabbath a lot, let's take the Sabbath commandment, the seventh-day Sabbath, called Saturday today. If you reject that, you're also breaking the first commandment, because you're not honoring the true God. You're also breaking the second commandment of having no idols, and your idol becomes your own works in your own mind as to what you decide. That's the most virulent idol of all, not just necessarily just the things that men carve and bow down and worship. But nevertheless, you're breaking it. If you're religious and you go to church on Sunday, you're taking the Lord's name in vain, because He never commanded to go. So there you go. You break the fourth commandment, you break the first four all together. And then what happens? Sooner or later the other six fall in place and you start breaking those, right? Yes.

What is the result of sin? The wages of sin is death. So if you've made a covenant with death, which is a covenant of lawlessness, that's exactly what you're going to get. Now I'm not talking about how that all die in Adam. That's another proposition. I'm talking about eternal death.

How did the world get into this state? Let's look at a couple of things here so we understand what's going on. Come to Isaiah 25:7. This is what God has to do, which He will when Jesus returns, and that's another whole dynamic and powerful thing which is going to take place. When He sets everything correct, this is what He will have to do: "And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering which covers all people… [There's a covering, there's a blindness, spiritual blindness. Why is that? Because when anyone decides they're not going to love God, keep His commandments, obey His Word, you have an automatic penalty come upon you. A covering comes over your mind and your eyes. And this is what happens and has happened to the whole world. We'll see it in just a minute.] …and the veil that is woven over all nations. He will destroy death forever; and the LORD God will wipe away tears from all faces. And He shall take away from all the earth the rebuke of His people, for the LORD has spoken it" (vs 7-8).

So God is eventually going to solve it, but the thing that I want to mention and emphasize here is that there is a covering or a pall that is over the whole earth today, except those that God has called out of it. Where did that come from? Let's come back to Revelation 12:8 (pg 1236). Now this event is yet to happen and the whole world is going to witness this and it's going to be something. "There was war in heaven… [Neither was there a place for Satan and the demons anymore in heaven.] …And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan… [Now how many religions in the world have snakes as the principal thing of their religion? You can search it out. That's straight from the caldron of Satan himself, so much so that even some of the nations that have that, they eat snake meat and one of the delicacies that they have is, to go into a restaurant and select a live snake. And the waiter will take a knife and cut out the snake's heart and while it's still beating, they eat it.] …who is deceiving the whole world" (vs 8-9). Now what does that mean?

Come back here to Revelation 20:1. There is a day coming when Satan is going to be removed, exactly as we read back there is Isaiah 25, that God is going to get rid of this covering. It's just like an invisible, woven net in which the whole world has been captured. "Then I saw an angel descending from heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a great chain in his hand. And he took hold of the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. Then he cast him into the abyss, and locked him up, and sealed the abyss over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer…" (vs 1-3). After the millennium he's going to be let loose for a short season. So if you don't have the book Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which?, you can write for it and that'll tell you why. So if he is deceiving the whole world, that means all nations, correct? If you put it together, put the Scriptures together, absolutely true.

Let's look at something else. Since God uses people, Satan uses people. Maybe you never thought of that. There are people who are in direct contact with Satan the devil, and who are rewarded very, very richly for their rebellion against God, and are given power and control and wealth and money. You have to search out who they are, because there are many, many, many. We can just label it this way: they are the world's elite, in every government, in every nation, in every society, and here's how they are up against it. A lot of people say, 'I wonder what happens when they come back to Washington, D.C.?' Something happens to them, because it's filled with corruptions and lies. And God is not leading Washington, D.C., because remember, wherever there is sin, God is nowhere to be found. Now they can open the beginning session every day with some minister giving an invocation duly read, some may give it from the heart, but unless those back in Washington, D.C. who are the elected officials, and as one television commentator says, 'You work for me. You don't tell me what to do. I tell you what to do,' and until they understand they are to work for the people and they are to do it in a righteous way, they are in the grips and in the hands of Satan the devil.

Now those who have the Spirit of God have a battle against that in the world because we 'live in the world, but we are not part of the world,' and God gives us His strength to overcome. Ephesians 6:10: "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the might of His strength. Put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Because we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and against powers, against the world rules of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual power of wickedness in high places…. [That describes every single government on earth and every government on earth has a varying proportion of good and evil. Most of them now, because of the economic situation that is transpiring, are given over to evil more than ever before.] …against the spiritual power of wickedness in high places" (vs 10-12). Satan the devil is there, not God, though we founded the nation on the Word of God (almost) and the Achilles heal was that those who were Protestants still retained Sunday. That's why we are here today where we are.

Let's continue on here. So Satan is deceiving the whole world, all nations and in all governments there is spiritual wickedness in high places. That's why we have so many lies. Why is it the politicians rarely really tell the truth? Now there may be one or two who would dare tell the truth. It's kind of like with the battle going on with the budget, 'Oh, there're no earmarks in this,' but the next bill out has nine thousand. Nothing like a little corruption to feather your own nest.

Let's come back here to John 8 and let's see how active Satan is.

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Let's continue on in John 8 and what we're going to find here is that not only does Satan like to exert his influence in governments, which then means governments, finances, education, politics, control, all of that; but also in the very heart of religion. Where did Satan first appear? In the Garden of Eden, that is to man. The Garden of Eden, right where God lived, where Adam and Eve lived. So he likes to get right in close to those who are in control, or to be able to take something and capture it and change it while proclaiming it is never changed. So here we have in John 8 Jesus confronting the people there, and we won't go through the whole thing, but He told them that as long as you are the servant of sin, you practice sin; you're the servant of sin. Here's what he says, and let's follow through on this, because this shows very many things indeed. John 8:31: "Therefore, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him… [We're also going to discover that this belief in Jesus was really not sincere, but it was very superficial. There are a lot of people, you ask them, 'What religion are you?' Oh, I'm Christian. 'Well, do you go to church?' No. They do nothing, but they said they're Christian. They're not. Never have been. So here we have the very same thing here, because Jesus says:] …'If you continue in My word… [Not only believe in Him, now you have to continue in His Word.] …you are truly My disciples.'"

So you have to ask yourself a question. If you say that you believe in Jesus, do you continue in His Word, live by His Word? Verse 32: "And you shall know the truth… [Now that's another study yourself. If you have your Bible on a BlackBerry or an iPOD, start looking up a little concordance search on the truth. All your law is truth, your commandments are truth; all your precepts are true from the beginning, etc. etc.] …and the truth shall set you free.'" Set you free from what? How do you get around the pall of lies and death that encompasses the whole world like an unseen net? By practicing the truth. So they didn't like what Jesus said to him.

Verse 33: "They answered Him, 'We are Abraham's seed… [We could say today, well, don't you know we're Americans?] …and have never been in bondage to anyone…. [You're soon going to be.] …What do You mean by saying, "You shall become free"? Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a servant of sin'" (vs 33-34). That's called slave. Now as a nation what are we doing, not only as a nation, but as people? All the sins in your life, you think of them, you know them. No one has to tell you what they are, because you really know. What about this nation with the sin of borrowing money? And spending money to try and hold off the gates of hell and instead, the abyss of hell is going to open and we will soon become like South Africa, without a doubt.

"'…everyone who practices sin is a servant of sin. And the servant does not live in the house forever; but the Son lives forever. Therefore, if the Son shall set you free, you shall truly be free'" (vs 34-36). Free to what? Not live in sin. Free to

• love God,
• keep His commandments,
• keep His Word,
• receive God's Spirit.

Verse 37: "'I know that you are Abraham's seed; but you are seeking to kill Me, because My words do not enter into your minds.'" Why? Because there is a covering over the minds and eyes of people, all nations and all peoples. So if you took this Bible and you went into a Moslem nation, you would probably preach it for about five minutes before your head would be served up on a platter; especially if you said Allah is not the true God, never has been. Moslems make a great deal, well, they don't have the idolatry of the Roman Catholic Church. Oh? Maybe not as overtly as the Catholics do, but when you go to Mecca on your pilgrimage and you walk around the shrine, what's in that shrine? A huge black rock, that's your idol. So you're actually worse than the Catholics. You don't even have the skill to carve it into something decorative. Now if that offends you, take it up with God.
Now the words get even hotter. "'I speak the things that I have seen from My Father, and you do the things that you have seen from your father.' They answered and said to Him, 'Our father is Abraham.' Jesus said to them, 'If you were Abraham's children… [Notice the difference. You have up here seed and down here you have children. Because if you're the children of Abraham, you're also the children of God, because you're following God like Abraham followed God. That's why.] …you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a man who has spoken the truth to you, which I have heard from God; Abraham did not do this'" (vs 38-40).

He sure stirred up a hornet's nest there, right? See, because liars and cheats and Satan like to get into religious things, right? Yes, indeed. That's why the greatest instrument of perpetuating immorality and lies in the world begins in the so-called houses of worship, whether you're Catholic, Protestant, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist, or whatever. Now, He says here, v 41: "'You are doing the works of your father'…. [Who was their father then, if it wasn't Abraham? He's not talking physically, He's talking spiritually, because He acknowledged that they were of the seed of Abraham, but they were not the children of Abraham.] …Then they said to Him, 'We have not been born of fornication…. ['We know you.'] …We have one Father, and that is God.' Therefore, Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love Me, because I proceeded forth and came from God. For I have not come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why don't you understand My speech?.… [Just like today. I know there may be some who'll be offended at what they're hearing here, but nevertheless we have freedom of speech. Likewise, here.] …Why don't you understand My speech? Because you cannot bear to hear My words'" (vs 41-43)—that you are sinners, and liars, and followers of Satan the devil; and He was telling this right at the temple of God in Jerusalem.

Verse 44: "'You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you desire to practice…. [That can fit into many, many categories: religious, political, economic, etc.] …He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth because there is no truth in him…. [So what does he have to do? He has to steal some things from God's Word and make it appear that it's from God.] …Whenever he speaks a lie, he is speaking from his own self; for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me'" (vs 44-45). That's what it is in the world. We're going to see that in just a minute. We're going to see many Scriptures where they refuse to know God because of deceit.

"'Which one of you can convict Me of sin? But if I speak the truth, why don't you believe Me?.… [Because truth is truth.] …The one who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason you do not hear, because you are not of God'" (vs 46-47). Now I wonder how that applies to so many people in the world today who think they're religious, who think they know God, but they won't hear the words of God because they are following the counterfeit three: Sunday, Communion/Lord's Supper/Eucharist, and holidays. They have a covering of lies over their face. They have a, how shall we say, an attachment to their lies in their heart because if anyone challenges you or your lies, you get angry and mad because you believe those. Why don't you believe God? Why don't you believe the Word of God?

So what do they do? He says, 'You're not of God.' Instead of saying, 'We repent; we want to do what God wants; we're happy that God sent you.' No. Verse 48: "Then the Jews answered and said to Him… [What do they do? Same tactics Satan always uses, which is what? If you can't refute the message, you destroy the messenger by discrediting, by ridiculing, by making fun of; and eventually, if you can get a hold of them, kill them. That's what they did with Jesus, right? Yes.] …the Jews answered and said to Him, 'Are we not right in saying that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?'.… [What did Jesus tell His disciples? He said 'if they call the Lord Beelzebub, they're going to call you worse.' That's happened to everyone who is a true Christian.] …Jesus answered, 'I do not have a demon. But I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. Yet I do not seek My own glory; there is one Who seeks and judges. Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps My words, he shall not see death forever'" (vs 48-51). That's the true translation of it. The King James says, 'will never die.' Not true. We all die in Adam and we wait for the resurrection. Just in passing, if you believe that souls go to heaven and hell, you don't have a clue about what the Bible teaches.

Let's look at some other things. Let's come back here to Isaiah 28:14 (pg 522): "Therefore hear the Word of the LORD, you scornful men who rule this people in Jerusalem… [Sounds very close to John 8, doesn't it? Yes, indeed.] …Because you have said, 'We have made a covenant with death, and we have made an agreement with the grave; when the overwhelming rod shall pass through, it shall not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood" (vs 14-15). Pretty powerful words, knowingly rejecting God—Covenant of Death. We have 'made a covenant with death, we have made lies our refuge, we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.' That is the covenant of lies and death.

Come to Isaiah 29:9: "Be stunned and amazed! Blind your eyes and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink, For the LORD has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes; He has covered the prophets andyour rulers, and the seers" (vs 9-10). Because whenever you make a covenant with death and believe in lies, and you reject the truth, then as I mentioned, the penalty comes. Spiritually, you can't see. Spiritually, you cannot hear.

Verse 11: "And the vision of all has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which they give to one who is learned saying, 'Please read this,' and he says, 'I cannot, for it is sealed… [Who knows, who can understand it? 'But we have this good religion, which if you follow it‑‑'] …And the book is delivered to him who is not learned, saying, 'Please read this,' and he says, 'I am not learned… [But what did God say back there in Deuteronomy 30? It's in your mouth and in your heart. You can read it. It's not hard to understand. The reason it's hard to understand is because people don't want to obey it. Be willing to believe God and obey His Word, you'll understand it. You have to start with the basics and go from there.] …And the LORD said, 'Because this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips honor Me, but their worship of Me is made up of the traditions of men learned by rote, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandments of men'" (vs 11-13).

Isn't that what we have in every religion? Not in the true way of God, because you are in a covenant of eternal life with God and have the Spirit of God. But for those who don't, notice, we are seeing this happen right before our very eyes today. The Protestants are losing it, as I mentioned, because of the mega churches and because of their actions of throwing and casting aside the Word of God. The government is losing it and doesn't know what to do and doesn't understand how to do it, and they are all caught up in this blindness of power. So here's what God is going to do, v 14: "Therefore, behold I will proceed to do again a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise ones shall perish, and the wisdom of their intelligent ones shall vanish." That's what we have coming out of all the capitals of every nation of this world. No one knows what to do. No one recognizes that this is punishment from God to wake people up to repent, but they love their lies too much. And they've got to have their ways, so God gives it to them.

Verse 15: "Woe to those who go deep to hide their purpose from the LORD!... [And from the people.] …And their works are in the dark, and they say, 'Who sees us? And who knows us?'" One example. They just passed the most astounding bill, $845 billion, and no one read it. How's that for willing blindness? That's just in economics, to say nothing of religion.
Here's what happens because of that, v 16: "Surely, you have turned things upside down!... [Because when you get in this spirit and in this attitude, and you're living in lawlessness, and you're telling God what to do, and you won't admit any of your faults and mistakes, and you won't repent of those, you add penalty upon penalty upon penalty upon yourself., 'turning of things upside down.'] …Shall the potter be regarded as the potter's clay… [Are you going to say, 'The potter's no different than me'? While the potter's is what makes the clay and moulds it according to his way. So I would say to every atheist, read this verse. Where did you come from? Who made you, who gives you life, who gives you breath? Who provides the food for you that you may eat and exist? Who gives you a mind that you can make choices and even choose to reject God? God has.] …for shall the work say of him who made it, 'He did not make me?'… [We just evolved, from what? Mud, right?] …Or shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'He has no understanding?'" (v 16). 'I know more than God.' So we're going to see when Christ returns, He is going to have to undo the whole thing again.

Isaiah 30:8 (pg 524): "Now go, write it before them in a tablet, and note it in a book, so that it may be for the time to come forever and ever… [Meaning down through all generations, from the time that Isaiah wrote this to our day.] …That this is a rebellious people, lying children…. [Remember the covenant of lies and death?] …They are children who will not hear the law of the Lord; Who say to the seers, 'See not,' and to the prophets, 'Do not prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions'" (vs 8-10). Today that is called virtual reality. And how many people live in virtual reality? Pretending. And you have all the convenience of computers and you even have virtual-reality glasses. You can put those on and live in a separate world and just see it in your mind. Too many people live after that. That's called vanity and also as Solomon wrote, 'vexation of spirit, striving after wind.' And how many people live in that? It's amazing, absolutely amazing.

So if you think the Word of God is ancient and not applicable today, why do you see the very things that are said here, that we can look out and see that those things are taking place in the world? 'Speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, tell us nice stories; how good we are, how we can improve ourselves. Oh, we'll acknowledge God a little bit here and there, but you are the most important person in the world and you can handle your life.' So just go on the Sunday religious channel and watch all of them. Listen to them. Now there may be one or two here or there who is sincere and trying to bring people to the reality of some parts of God's Word. You'll see that's exactly what they're doing.

Then they do this, they demand this: "Go out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us'" (v 11). Pretty powerful words. Isn't that what they do? I've often thought of this: what would happen if I one day came into a large Sunday-keeping church and gave a sermon something like this. I'm sure the deacons would be there within fifteen minutes to take me arm-in-arm to get out of here, and 'don't desecrate this unholy place of lies with the truth.' They wouldn't put it that way, but that would be reality. So if you think you have a nice warm fuzzy preacher who tells you nice, wonderful little stories, and you feel goody, goody, goody, goody when you leave church, have you repented? Have you changed your life? If not, v 12 is going to come upon you, just like the law of gravity, hold you in place, and if you break the law of gravity, you're going to trip and fall down. "Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, 'Because you have despised this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on them; Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall" (vs 12-13). And the breach is building.

Just economically as the punishment against this nation, our new president proposes to spend $7 trillion dollars of borrowed or printed money, which will destroy this nation and if you think that this economic downturn is tough on your today, wait. "…breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant" (v 13). Like a landslide.

You can probably watch this on National Geographic: they have ways of estimating when landslides are going to take place and they did this in Japan. They had so much rain that they knew that this hillside, quite steep, was going to slide, because they had all their sensors around it and everything. So they set up the cameras to watch it and record it. And I thought it was really quite stunning the way that they did it, but they knew where it was going to happen and what was going to take place. And sure enough, after it had become so saturated—I'd like to draw an analogy to this as we become so saturated with sin, so saturated with goods and services and our own ways and our own thoughts and our own religion and all of these things, suddenly it's going to be just like that slide off the mountain. It came roaring down and it moved the whole side of that mountain by about three hundred yards wide, and took everything down wholly. The trees were standing, some leaning forward as it came down, but it came down suddenly. That's exactly what's going to happen to the whole world, in an instant.

Verse 14: "And He shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is smashed in pieces." So God holds His anger, God holds His correction, waiting so that those who would repent would. But when the correction comes, and it's building, building, building, just like this high swelling wall ready to break in an instant. Have you ever taken a crowbar (that's a pretty heavy instrument) and gotten a clay pot, or you could do this with just a little clay pot where you may have a flower, and you plant it into the ground. Most of them now are made out of cardboard, but if you can get a clay pot, take a hammer and strike it. Irreparable, correct? Exactly what's going to happen here. Notice v 14: "He shall not spare… [Unless‑‑other Scriptures show that you are on God's side, repentant and believing and loving God. So just put in your margin there Psalm 91.] …He shall not spare, so that there shall not be found in the fragments a shard to take fire from the hearth… [You can't even scoop up coals with it.] …or to take water out of the pit."

Here's God's plea. When that happens, why does God do this? Does He love destruction? No, but He does it because He wants people to repent, and really understand that they're living in a covenant of lies and sin. So here's the message: "For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, 'In returning and rest you shall be saved; and in quietness and hope shall be your strength.' But you were not willing. And you said, 'No; for we will flee upon horses'…. [We'll get away from it.] …Therefore you shall flee. And you said, 'We will ride upon the swift;' therefore those who pursue you shall be swift. One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five you shall flee, until you are left as a pole upon the top of a mountain, and as a sign on a hill" (vs 15-17). That's what's going to happen unless there's repentance. God is giving us an opportunity to repent. But it's going to take a mighty powerful thing to humble those in the capitals of every nation of this world, that they will repent, and especially here in America and the people of modern-day Israel. They are haughty, they are stubborn, they are unwilling, and it's going to be just like it says here, 'like a wall suddenly breaking.' And it's going to happen and if you're not prepared spiritually and physically, you're going to be overwhelmed, and not know what to do. We'll continue in the next message.

Scriptural References:

• Deuteronomy 30:10-20
• 1-John 3:4
• 1-John 5:17-20
• 1-John 2:3-5
• James 2:8-11
• Isaiah 25:7-8
• Revelation 12:7-9
• Revelation 20:1-3
• Ephesians 6:10-12
• John 8:31-51
• Isaiah 28:14-15
• Isaiah 29:9-16
• Isaiah 30:8-17

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Matthew 6
• James 4
• Psalm 91

Also referenced:

Books:

• A Sabbath/Sunday Challenge You Have Never Read
• Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which?

Sermons:

• Covenant of Eternal Life
• The True Riches of God #1 & #2

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 6-12-09
Formatted: bo—6/15/09