COMMITTED to train men and women
to have minds for the Lord Jesus,
hearts for the truth, and
hands that are skilled to the task.
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"Holy Spirit" Tagged Sermons

LIVE NOT BY LIES

In September of this year, Rod Dreher published a book titled “Live not by Lies.”
“Identity politics are beginning to encroach on every aspect of life. Civil liberties are increasingly seen as a threat to “safety”. Progressives marginalize conservative, traditional Christians, and other dissenters. Technology and consumerism hasten the possibility of a corporate surveillance state. And the pandemic, having put millions out of work, leaves our country especially vulnerable to demagogic manipulation”. Rod Dreher
Here is the method of resistance he gleaned from those people who lived through totalitarianism:
• SEE: Acknowledge the reality of the situation.
• JUDGE: Assess reality in the light of what we as Christians know to be true.
• ACT: Take action to protect truth.
“Though lies may conceal everything, though lies may control everything, we should be obstinate about this one small point:
let them be in control but without any help from any of us…
It is the easiest thing for us to do and the most destructive for the lies. Because when people renounce lies, it cuts short their existence.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Even if, Solzhenitsyn continued, “we do not march into the squares and shout the truth out loud… let us refuse to say what we do not think…let us each make a choice: whether to remain consciously a servant of falsehood…or to shrug off the lies and become an honest man worthy of respect from one’s children and contemporaries.”
Such a person, Solzhenitsyn wrote:
•will not sign, write or print in any way a single phrase which in his opinion distorts the truth;
•will not utter such a phrase neither in private conversation nor in public, neither on his own behalf nor at the prompting of someone else, neither in the role of agitator, teacher, educator, nor as an actor;
•will not depict, foster or broadcast a single idea in which he can see a distortion of the truth, whether it be in painting, sculpture, photography, technical science or music;
•will not cite out of context, either orally or in writing, a single quotation to please someone, to feather his own nest, to achieve success in his work, if he does not completely share the idea which is quoted, or if it does not accurately reflect the matter at issue;
•will not allow himself to be compelled to attend demonstrations and meetings if they are contrary to his desire;
•will immediately walk out of a meeting, session, lecture, performance or film if he hears a speaker tell lies, or purvey ideological nonsense or shameless propaganda;
•will not subscribe to or buy a newspaper or magazine in which information is distorted and primary facts are concealed.
While these are not “all possible and necessary ways of avoiding lies,” wrote Solzhenitsyn, “whoever begins to cleanse himself will easily apply the cleansing pattern to other cases.” And then he warns,
“It will not be the same for everybody at first. Some will lose their jobs. But there are no loopholes… Either truth or falsehood: towards spiritual independence or towards spiritual servitude. If we are too frightened, then we should stop complaining that we are being suffocated. We are doing this to ourselves …”
Paul Craig Roberts, an American economist, and a professor of economics at several U.S. universities wrote in a recent article:
“The question each of us needs to ask ourselves, and one another, is why do we get so much misinformation about Covid from public health authorities, political authorities, and press prostitutes?
We get a lot of misinformation from health practitioners, because they get the bogus information from health authorities and from researchers ASSOCIATED WITH BIG PHARMA.
Take the issue of masks.
If the masks people are wearing protected against bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens, there would be no point in N95 and higher rated masks. Medical authorities know this, so why are people told, indeed forced, to wear ineffectual masks?
Public health authorities know that the Covid death rate is greatly exaggerated. In the USA, only 9,000 were due to Covid alone.
So why do public health authorities withhold this information from political authorities and the public, and why do reporters not ferret it out? The information exists. It just isn’t reported.
Covid is being used to serve many interests. Among them, Covid is being used to complete the universal Police State by digitizing money. Once electronic money takes the place of currency, checks, and coins, your financial privacy and your control over your money and wealth will disappear.
Are Americans capable of learning? How many lies do they have to be told before they begin to wonder?” Paul Craig Roberts

MOVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

I believe that the church in America as a whole is misunderstanding the importance of being witnesses of God’s faithfulness. We may be involved in evangelism, involved in church activities, involved in Bible studies, or involved in preaching and teaching. While all such activities are good in general, they are no prove that we are witnesses of God’s faithfulness.
We live in spiritual and physical dangerous times. This world is changing with lightning speed not to the better, but to the worse. Once again, the Lord “sees that wickedness of man is great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart is only evil all the day.” (Genesis 6:5)
So, how should we live as followers of Jesus Christ? Is there any hope? Can the church in America be turned around? Can the society in America be changed?
The answer to all these questions depends on THE WITNESSES OF GOD’S FAITHFULNESS AND THE RESPONSE OF THE PEOPLE.
God spoke to those who are witnesses of His faithfulness through His Word, that was written down by men MOVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. Everything you and I need to know that pertains to life and godliness is revealed in His word. Notice that we are hearing what God speaks to us because WE KNOW HIM. And because we know Him, we take His word for what it says. We can hear God speak to us through His word.
Warning: A witness hears God speak and as accepted a FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH:
God’s way is better than my way;
God’s truth is better than my truth;
God’s promises are better than my promises;
God’s word is better than my ideas.
We have plenty of examples in the Bible alone of witnesses whose confidence in God and His promises was unshakable.
These witnesses:
• Refused to be deceived by their 5 senses. Their confidence was not in what they could see, taste, touch, hear or smell.
• Refused to put any confidence in the latest news reports.
• Refused to give up when the promises of God did not come to pass immediately for they knew God is faithful.
Moved by the Holy Spirit, they believed that God is 100% trustworthy. His timing is always perfect. In other words; seeing is not believing. This is a lie from the enemy of our soul.
During Noah’s time nearly all people were drugged one the fumes of their egos. Wickedness has become the number one, all-consuming human addiction. So, Noah was listening to God. Noah also had an unshakable confidence in what he heard from God. Noah’s faith in God was uncontaminated. But such faith needs to be tested. And surely, Noah’s faith, Noah’s confidence in God’s Promises would soon be challenged. By whom? By God!
Noah’s acceptance of this mission proved one thing beyond a shadow of doubt. This man had an unshakable confidence in God.
This was not a weekend project, or something he worked on in his spare time or in the evenings. No one to hire, no power tools, no chainsaws, no sawmills, no cranes, no Menard’s or Lowe’s. It took 120 YEARS to build. He did not give up. What a witness of God’s faithfulness.
Are you fully convinced of the faithfulness of the promises of God for your life? Remember, the promises of God are just as faithful, just as powerful, just as reliable and just as true as they were in the days of Noah or the days of Peter. If you have heard him speak to you today and have an unshakable confidence in God you are a witness of God’s faithfulness, moved by the Holy Spirit to bring glory and honor to God alone.

Preparing for the MARRIAGE SUPPER

The great composer Frederick Handel composed on of the most famous piece based upon this verse. The Hallelujah Chorus: Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. And He shall reign forever and ever. While this chorus is a masterpiece, it cannot even be slightly compared with the chorus these heavenly beings are singing.
Why are they singing?
• They witness the final triumph of good over evil
• They witness the final triumph of Christ over Antichrist
• They witness the final triumph of God over Satan
• They witness the final triumph of the Holy Spirit over the spirit of evil.
We must understand that since the fall of Adam, the faithful angelic beings around the throne of God have anticipated that ultimate day when God would finally judge Satan and those who follow him in his rebellion against God Almighty.
In verse 2 of this chapter we read that God’s judgment are true and righteous. The great harlot, religious, political and commercial Babylon has been judged. All that Babylon typifies since the days of Nimrod, when he inaugurated a system that led men away from God. In other words, all the iniquities of past ages will be justified in this ultimate destruction when God will judge Babylon. According to verse 3, God’s judgment upon this religious, political and commercial Babylon will be complete. Satan will never be permitted to rebuild that system ever again. No wonder those in heaven were singing for joy.
For almost 2000 years Christians around the world prayed: “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. When the heavenly beings sing the Hallelujah chorus, they do so in great anticipation of the promised return of the King of the universe, Jesus Christ, to set up His glorious Kingdom on this earth.
Paul is using a wedding to picture the Lord’s relationship with His church.
In Biblical times, a marriage was the single greatest celebration. Their wedding preparations were even more elaborate and lasted much longer than in modern times.
Such wedding preparations consisted of 3 different stages:
First was the engagement. It consisted of an arrangement by both sets of parents contracting the marriage of their children. Such an engagement was legally binding and could only be broken by a divorce. This engagement did not just include those two children, but it included the union of two families. There were years of preparation for the time of marriage, as the boy prepared for his bride.
Second step was the so called PRESENTATION. Here both families would celebrate with the entire town for up to a full week. This presentation was always just prior the actual wedding ceremony. When the celebration came to an end, the groom and his best men would go to the bride’s house and take her and her bridesmaids to the ceremony.
Third step was the most anticipated and significant one. During this ceremony the bride and the bridegroom finally exchanged the wedding vows. After this ceremony the families and their friends would have one more final meal before the newly weds would depart.
We as Christians are His workmanship, he made us new, a new creation. What’s the purpose? FOR GOOD WORKS, WHICH GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND that we should walk in them. The purpose of every born again believer is to be available to the Lord for “good works”. We can be faithful or we can be unfaithful to walk in the things God prepared beforehand.
The Devil is a master deceiver and the father of lies. He tells those who are not yet in God’s kingdom, “WORK FOR SALVATION”. If they don’t listen to that lie, and eventually someone comes along to share the Good News with them and accept Jesus as their Savior, the Devil will change tactics: He will say: “Now that you are saved freely by grace, you don’t have to do anything.” That’s not Biblical. I think the Apostle Paul’s experience should teach all of us a vital lesson: Acts 9:1-16
We make ourselves ready by faithfully walking in the work God has prepared for us to do here on earth. Such work will be rewarded greatly by God Himself, and those rewards will reflect on our garments we will wear throughout the 1000 years here on earth as we rule and reign with him.
Are you ready?

BABYLON – The Plans within Plans within Plans

The name Nimrod means: “rebellious, revolt, indignation or disgraceful”.
The word Babel or Babylon means: “confusion”.
Mystery Babylon shrouded her plans within plans within plans, while this intentional shrouding is a well-thought-out methodical art to lead people astray. In Ephesians, chapter six, the Apostle Paul is telling us that the “wiles of the devil” are carefully planned and implemented secrets, spiritual traps, that one day will entrap the entire world. Satan used Nimrod, the son of Cush and the grandson of Noah, to develop a system of religious practices that would replace man’s walk with God in every aspect of life. His goal was to entrap the people of Babylon by making them absolute dependent upon those religious systems. What Nimrod did was implementing a system of control where people replace RELATIONSHIP WITH A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM. In Revelation 17 we see how God Almighty will destroy that religious system. The people who relied on that system to sustain them will be left to themselves.
We rejected the offer to restore the RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD ALMIGHTY AND exchanged it with a religious system. THAT’S MYSTERY BABYLON. All man-made religious find their origin in MYSTERY BABYLON. There are many of them, plans within plans within plans. Nimrod was a genius. He was able to provide everything the people had need of, including their religious freedom: all roads lead to God. God is always the same for ALL religions in the world. He is just called by a different name. Right now, his name is NIMROD.
Remember, Abram had to leave behind the Nimrod System he was dependent on for all his life.
Abram was rich in earthly goods, but he had no relationship with God Almighty nor did he know HOW TO WALK WITH GOD LIKE ADAM DID IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
Now El Shaddai was the one who would multiply Abraham abundantly,
El Shaddai was to restore life to Abraham and Sarah who were as good as dead where offspring was concerned. Through El Shaddai would they have future offsprings as the dust, stars and sand in numbers. By God’s grace, Abraham would escape the religious trap Nimrod set for everyone. Listen, God called Abraham out of Babylon to WALK WITH HIM, much the same way that the Holy Spirit calls us to salvation through the preaching of the gospel. We must leave the religious system behind and learned to WALK WITH GOD ALMIGHTY.
The Apostle Paul reminds us about this truth regarding our relationship with God Almighty, El Shaddai.
Paul was writing to believers in Christ, and when he did so, he was not merely referring to marriage. This is a cry of the Holy Spirit to our generation as well. We need to learn to walk with El Shaddai, walk with God Almighty, the only source of our strength, the only source of our health, the only source of our supplies. We are talking here about spiritual survival.
Satan has done a great job with his earthly disciples to make sure that we cannot see what his plans within plans within plans are. But the Holy Spirit knows and reveals those truths to God’s children so they stop walking within the system but walking with God and Him alone.

BABYLON – The Symbol of Rebellion

The 7th and final bowl judgment is first mentioned here as a summary, the final judgment upon this earth before Jesus returns to set up His kingdom right here, head quartered in Jerusalem.
Before we get into the details of this text, I need to unpack for you a few details that pertain to this particular subject called “Babylon”
1. There are two distinct Babylon’s mentioned in Revelation. The first one is called “Mystery Babylon” and the description is found in the 17th chapter of Revelation. It deals with a spiritual entity. A counterfeit of the true spiritual worship.
2. The Second one is revealed in the next chapter, which is the 18th chapter of Revelation, and this one represents a Commercial Babylon, a counterfeit to the true riches found in Christ Jesus alone.
Notice the name written on the forehead of a WOMEN:
“Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.” It’s a mystery. It’s a hidden truth. The Bible is full of examples how God at the proper time reveals mysteries to His people. We call it progressive revelation. To the prophet Daniel, who by the way was living in Babylon when God sent His people into captivity because of rebellion against His law, God revealed many mysteries. Yet, God did not unpack every mystery to Daniel.
In other words, these words, these prophecies will be unsealed at some specific time, the time of the end, which always refers to the time when the Lord will judge the nations and set up His kingdom on this earth. Daniel did understand many things, but not all things. The Apostle John did understand many things, but the Lord did not unseal everything.
In other words, John saw everything, but he could not understand everything. Then an angel said to him: why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the women and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. John must have gotten excited to hear those words. The angel will explain everything to me. But not so; The angel simply says: I WILL TELL YOU THE MYSTERY OF THE WOMEN AND OF THE BEAST AND OF THE SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS. Again, the angel goes on to tell the mystery, but as you can see, the mystery deepens with every word the angel says. We will unpack those words next week. For now, let’s go all the way back in the Bible, where the word Babylon is mentioned and see if we can connect the dots.
How did it all start? In heaven it started with Lucifer aka Satan. The conspirator is Satan himself. Why is Satan doing this? What’s his purpose? What is his goal?
There is an earthly conspiracy underway. The goal is to enthrone the Antichrist, the “child of the devil” as God of the earth. The spiritual conspiracy is that Satan wishes to enthrone himself above God in heaven. Satan wants to be the supreme ruler in the heavenlies, while the imitator of Christ wants to be enthroned on the earth as the supreme ruler. This conspiracy is called “THE PLAN” by those who are following the new age movement. The secret societies refer to it as ‘THE MYSTERY’. And the Bible calls it: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.
Did you notice the phrase: AND THE BEGINNING OF HIS KINGDOM was Babel. A kingdom has a king, the first king on this earth was Nimrod.
The name Nimrod means: “rebellious, revolt, indignation or disgraceful”.
The word Babel or Babylon means: “confusion”.
In other words Nimrod (rebellion against God) is the founder of Babylon (confusion).
I want you to know that today, when we hear Babylon or the name of Nimrod, most people think that this man was of little intelligence, probably clumsy, and a red-neck at best. The only thing this man had going for him and his people is that he knew how to hunt game.
But that’s not the true picture. Nimrod was a mighty leader, the founder of the first great empire of post-flood civilization – the kingdom of Babylon.
In order to understand what is revealed in this 10th chapter of Genesis, we need to back up a little bit. The flood of Noah devastated the world Noah once lived in. After the waters receded, and Noah and his family left the Ark, God commanded the survivors to “Be fruitful and multiply, and FILL THE EARTH.” (Genesis 9:1) God repeated the same command in verse 7.How the reacted to this command is eye-opening. Nearly 200 years after the flood, the descendants of Noah began to multiply in great numbers. Noah’s close descendants became the patriarchs of a great number of families, who, eventually, had developed into nations. This disbursement would set the stage for the eventual Babylonian Empire, and the Babylonian Religion.
Noah’s grandson Cush was one of these early patriarchs; the one who became the leader of many. He decided not to follow God’s commandment to “fill the earth”, but instead, he wanted to bring all of the people together. It was Cush who started to unite everyone into one huge nation. With that, he started the unification movement and the center of it all was THE TOWER OF BABEL. We do not find much information about Cush or Nimrod or the Tower of Babel in the Bible. Genesis 10:8 simply states how it all began. However we can learn many details from other ancient texts that Cush and Nimrod would become legendary throughout the secular/religious world.