I quit a long time
ago trying to prove anything by any man, or by groups of
men. Just preach the Word and trust the Holy Spirit to
convince people that it is truth. Now I have found that
when He convinces them, thank God, they are convinced. Our
trust is in Him. We thank God for His wonderful goodness
and want to give Him the glory and praise for everything
He has done, and we take a most humble position before
Him, because we realize that if He would withdraw Himself
we would be done.
The enemy
has many saints 'in a stall.' Little by little, he has
taken away their freedom, but I thank God that just like
He sent an earthquake back there, and loosed Paul and
Silas -- through this seventh seal Gospel He is sending an
earthquake and is loosening God's people just as free as
He did old Paul and Silas.
There are
three earthquakes recorded in the book of Revelation and
they came just at the right time. There is one thing about
God, when He sets His clock or alarm, it always goes off
at the right time. Men may forget about it, but He does
not, and just at the time when the thing is needed, that
is when the trumpet sounds and the alarm goes off, and
God's people are led into freedom and safety. I said there
are three earthquakes recorded in the Revelation and no
doubt many have become confused on the thought of an
earthquake because of past thoughts about them. Men used
to think that an earthquake was something of a political
nature, but the Word of God would have us see that the
earthquakes in the Revelation are nothing more than a time
when the power of God shakes earthly things. Just analyze
it. When, my friend, the very earth is shaken... and the
only one that can shake the earth Is God, literally or
spiritually -- man can not shake her. He might draw up an
atom bomb, or an hydrogen bomb that will shake a certain
square of it, but brother, when it comes to shaking the
whole earth, It takes God to shake it.
In the
Revelation there are three of them, and is nothing more
than a time when the Spirit of God was turned loose or
poured out afresh and shook the very earth, if you please,
because of it. The first was recorded in the book of
Revelation, on the day of Pentecost. We got the first
earthquake when the power of God was poured out, thank
God, and the earth shook because of it. I Say, that every
symbol is answered in the Book. You go to the Phillipi
Jail, and you will see a literal earthquake there...and
there was no political up-heaval, but the power of God
shook the thing. The day of Pentecost was the first one,
the 11th chapter of Revelation, the second earthquake --
recorded after the two witnesses had laid dead in the
street there, for three hundred and fifty years. God let
the Spirit of life enter into them and they went up to Mt.
Zion and the Scripture said there was an earthquake
followed. There is the second one...and the last one is
recorded in the last part of the 11th chapter of
Revelation, dealing with the very day and age in which we
live, that which Paul calls the last shaking time. We want
to repeat it, God is shaking this thing. What for? To let
people see the foundations they have got...whether it is
sure or not, whether it is built on truth, whether you are
really ready to meet the judgment of God or whether you
are deceived about it. God does not, and will not, have
people, my friend, come up to the judgment deceived unless
they just want to be. If you desire a reprobate mind and
desire it long enough, God will just let you have it, but
you don't have to have it. God won't put it on people,
unless they desire it. We thank God for His wonderful
truths that He has given us, that fits the very day in
which we live.
We have
been-dealing with the seven parables that brings us up
through the Gospel day...from the day of Pentecost,
through the end of time. They coincide with the seven
letters and help to clarify one another. We are up to the
fourth parable, 13th chapter of Matthew, verse 33. We see
where the kingdom of Heaven was likened unto a mustard
seed, the least of all seeds. During the dark ages the
Word of God was the least of all seeds, but when it is
grown, it becomes the greatest among herbs and then a bit
of prophecy there, that it was to become a tree. The
kingdom was in an 'herb stage' through the dark ages...it
was covered up with earthly things, under the earth, but
it was to break forth and come out in it's visibility. It
said that the birds of the air would come and lodge in the
branches thereof. We proved by the Word of God that men
and women that are born again become -- not a bird in the
tree, but they become a branch upon the tree. The false
prophets are those, who with no experience sit around,
listen to what He said, they lodge, they are not part of
the family, they are lodgers. God's children are not
lodgers. They are part of the family, glory be to God,
which is made up both in heaven and in earth.
I showed
you that God had ordained to shake the tree. When you
shake the tree, the birds take off. You don't shake the
branches off, you just shake the birds away. We come on
over into that age, which would follow, bringing the
kingdom through this age of Protestantism where little by
little it began to come out above the earth in a little
more visible way. In the 33rd verse we read, (13th chapter
of Matthew) "Another parable spake He unto them, the
kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took,
and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was
leavened." Turn with us to the Revelation, and we
will go on to read our letter before we speak this
morning, because it will help to clarify. Revelation 2:18,
"And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write;
These things saith the Son of God, who hath His eyes like
unto a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass; I
know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and
thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more then
the first. Notwithstanding, I have a few things against
thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which
oalleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my
servants to commit fornication, and to eat things
sacrificed unto idols."
We just
read that portion of the letter. We will read the rest of
it shortly. We want to analyse this. Jesus said the
kingdom in this period of time -- He brought it clear up
to this period of time, He likened the kingdom unto
leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of
meal till the whole was leavened. Now, if it wasn't for
the letter, brother and sister, we would not know who the
woman was. If it wasn't for the letter, we would not know
what the meal was. If it was not for the letter, we
wouldn't know what the leaven was. You would just have to
guess at it. But when you take the letter with the
parable, the letter tells you that that woman is Jezebel.
It goes on to tell us what the leaven is. And what the
meal is, and showed us what kind of a work took place
there in protestantism,
Now,
leaven, in the Word of God -- and I do not want to speak
disrespectfully or hurt anyone, but in times past these
parables have not been taken by themselves and because of
it men would try to show that leavening was the work of
Christ upon the hearts of men. But I take a square and a
firm foundation and say that no where in the Word of God
is leaven used for anything but corruption. You go
searching the book and see if you can find anywhere...we
can go back to the type -- and God had His people eating
unleavened bread. Why? My friend, leaven, all the way
through, has been a type of corruption, This parable is
likened unto something. Now we want to see first, what it
is likened unto, the kingdom is not 'that,' but it is like
'that,' Here is the condition of the kingdom through this
age. Leaven, I want to repeat, is used in the Word of God
as a symbol of corruption. The woman, the Word of God
says, is Jezebel, a symbol of the false churches of
Protestantism. The three measures of meal, we will show
you, are portions of God's Word that Protestantism took up
through here. They would never take it all. All they ever
took was 'three measures' mainly, and to that, three
measures of meal are component parts of God's Word. Sure,
'a meal' is part of the bread, but it is not bread, The
meal is a component part of the bread, but it is not the
whole bread. Babylon did take truth. Luther,
justification! Wesley, holiness! And 'on up through.' They
did take truths, but brother, they put something with that
meal that crowded out the Word of God and just like Jesus
said, until the whole was leavened.
Now,
here is a picture of a woman -- the Word of God says, is
nothing more than a symbol of the false churches 'down
here.' Whenever we hear of a woman taking three measures
of meal and some yeast or leavening, we know somebody it
going into the bread business, because three measures of
meal is what a woman took in Jesus day, to bake bread.
Right away, when we begin to read that, we know that
somebody is going to bake themselves some bread. And why
are they going to bake themselves some bread? Because they
do not like the bread that God sends down from heaven.
